World of Warcraft TCG: Getting to know the cards

Whether you enjoy participating in the Battlegrounds, go on raids with friends, or engage in casual PvP, you cannot deny that Blizzard's World of Warcraft is a fun diversion from one's everyday routine. Regardless, we at QJ.NET are pretty sure that even the most hardcore gamer has to step away from their computer once in a while.

What if we told you that there is a way to enjoy World of Warcraft without having to be in front of a computer? Yes, we're talking about Upper Deck's World of Warcraft Trading Card Game (WoW TCG).

The WoW TCG shares many similarities to the online game. For one, you get to pick a hero to represent yourself in the world of Azeroth and just like the online game you have a myriad of options available to you.

It's up to you whether you want to join the Battlegrounds, face a bad-ass raid boss, or go head-to-head against other characters. Interested yet?

If you're still reading, then you're probably want to find out a bit more about this card game. If you're completely new to this, we recommend going over this informative article from Jason Grabher-Meyer on the Upper Deck Entertainment website which explains what TCGs are. If you have a little experience with other card games feel free to skip that and read on.

This article will discuss the objective of the game as well as different cards you can expect to encounter. The second article will discuss the basic mechanics of the game and how to play with the cards that were discussed in this article.

Object of the game:

There are two ways to win a normal match in the World of Warcraft Trading Card Game. The most common method is to drop the life of the opponent's hero to zero. While this may seem simple, don't expect your foes to simply lie down and give you the win.

You can also claim victory when your opponent runs out of cards in his or her deck and can no longer draw another card. This can be accomplished in various ways, though that's a story for another time.

Much like the online game, winning over a raid boss is a little bit more complicated. While reducing their life to zero is always a viable option to winning matches against these beasts, some bosses have special rules which prevent them from running out of cards in their decks.

Now that you know what you have to do to win a game, why don't we take a look at the different cards that you will be encountering while playing.

Factions and Heroes:

Like the World of Warcraft MMORPG, your chosen avatar or hero will either join up with the Alliance or the Horde. While this may not seem like an important choice now, this will dictate what race your hero will have, what quests he or she can undertake, as well as what allies you can call upon during a game.

The Alliance is currently made up of Humans, Dwarves, Night Elves, Draenei, and Gnomes. Those who would side with the Horde can chose to be either an Orc, Troll, Tauren, Undead, or Blood Elf.







Each hero has a specific class which dictates the character's skills and abilities. Every class has its own strengths and weaknesses that players will have to contend with every time they play the game. Here's a quick look at the nine different classes that are available in the game:

Druid: This class harnesses the power of Nature to defeat their foes or bolster their allies. In addition, Druids have the ability to change into different animals.


Hunter: These sharpshooters excel at taking out their foes from a distance and ensnaring would be foes in a variety of traps. Hunters can also call upon their pet to help in taking out their opponents.

Mage: These masters of magic have a variety of spells to either disable their foes or just flat-out destroy them. While this class has the lowest starting health among all the classes, it's the only one with an answer to pretty much every thing other classes may throw its way.

Paladin: These stalwart followers of the light can wear armor, wield a variety of weapons, and have a solid array of healing spells. Paladins are normally seen as a defensive class but any player who's played as one in the TCG knows that they have a wide variety of ways to bring the pain.

Priest: If you thought the Paladin was a good healer, then you'll be amazed with the Priest. With their potent healing spells, this class can theoretically outlast almost any class. While often thought of as bastions of holiness, some other priests use the powers of darkness to melt the faces off of their foes.

Rogue: Ahh, thinking of going sneaky eh? The Rogue is a deadly assassin who can deal massive amounts of damage and have access to a number of tricks that are sure to confuse their foes. If you enjoy striking at your enemy and then fading away into darkness, then this is the class for you.

Shaman: Masters of the elements, Shamans call upon Earth, Storm, and Fire to smite down their enemies. Drawing upon the elements can be a tiring task though, so they also use Totems to further augment their already formidable set of skills.

Warlock: Wielding demonic energies long shunned by many, these misunderstood individuals can damage or disable their opponents using a variety of curses. In addition, it is not beyond some of these warlocks to summon demons from the nether to wreck havoc among those who would oppose them.

Warrior: These powerful fighters like to get "up-close and personal" with their foes. Warriors can use a wide array of weapons, armor, and shields in combat and sometimes they just might use the latter two (yes, armor and shields) to slaughter their oppenents.

As you would probably surmise, each of these classes have specific abilities only they can use. The game is pretty faithful to the MMORPG in the sense that you won't find Warriors hiding in the shadows like a Rogue or a Warlock suddenly healing all of his friends.

Heroes also have certain traits listed on the card. These traits grant the hero access to certain cards called talents. Each talent will specifically indicate that a certain trait is required to be able to play it. These cards are pretty powerful, so you might want to consider the traits of a hero before you decide on who will represent you in the game.

Finally, heroes also have a flip power. These range from the mundane such as dealing damage or drawing more cards to the more unique such as increasing your resource count or making your opponent discard cards. This flip power can only be used once per turn and, as the name suggests, requires players to flip their hero's card over.

Once this is done, there is no way that the hero can use that flip power during the match unless an effect flips the card right-side up again. You might want to know that such an effect doesn't exist as of this article's writing so you might want to be sure that you use the ability when you really need it.

Now that you have an idea, of the different classes and heroes, let's move on to the different card types you will be encountering when you play the game.

Card Types (Stuff to whack your opponents with):

Abilities:

In the MMORPG, each class has different skills and abilities (like charbroiling delight Blistering Fire) that they can use. In the TCG, there are also Ability cards.

Most of these are one-shot deals. This means that after you use it, it gets discarded. However, there are certain abilities with the word Ongoing attached to them. These abilities stay in the game after they are played and continue to provide their effects until something destroys them.

Allies:

We at QJ.NET feel that Azeroth can be a lonely and scary place. Thankfully, you've got friends in the form of Allies (like Leeroy Jenkins over there). With enough resources you can recruit these Allies to help you out.

These individuals will only join forces with heroes who follow the same faction as they do. Like heroes they have health and will die if it ever gets reduced to zero. Some of these Allies also have certain abilities which can affect the game in different ways.

Allies have a printed attack value on the lower left corner of the card as opposed to heroes which have a default of zero. This means that they can actually beat down on your opponent and other opposing allies without the need for equipment or attack boosting abilities.

Here's a quick look at the anatomy of the Ally cards as taken from the World of Warcraft TCG Manual:






Quests:

Like the online game, your hero can also undertake quests. These quests are represented by certain cards and have various effects which can help you win a match.

The most common effect these quests have is the ability to net you more cards. While this may not mean much at this point, trust us when we say this is a very crucial element to winning games.

As for other effects quests have, they range from putting allies into your employ to beefing up your forces for a massive attack. Needless to say, no competitive deck (or fun deck for that matter) can run effectively without these cards.

Equipment:

Last, but not the least, are equipment cards. Unlike the other cards, these are items that your hero can actually use. Equipment cards include weapons, armor, shields, trinkets, and even rings.

Like the online game, certain equipment is limited to select classes. This is understandable since you don't expect a Priest to go all Conan with a double-headed sword or a Warrior to put on a cloth robe and start casting giant fireballs.

Now you know, and knowing is half the battle:

Some will probably be wondering why we decided to discuss the cards first before the gameplay itself. Well, it is impossible to understand how to play without knowing what the different cards are. Now that you have a general idea of the types of cards in the game, we can now move into actually playing the game.

If it seems a bit complicated at first, don't worry. After a couple of games, you'll be card-flopping with the best of them in no time. So check back here for part two on this World of Warcraft TCG primer.

Originally posted on April 02, 2008 at 08:37 PM.
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