Grip.Cards
Est. 2023
By ✾ millenomi
About
GRIP.CARDS collects links to news about trading, collectible and expandable card games — both in print and digital — with a focus on news and information about game design and community interaction between card game players and game makers. It's a daily meditation by ✾ millenomi, updated as things are found. It also hosts community assets that help with some card game scenarios, and are free to use.
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May 9, 2023
Fantasy Flight Tries the Star Wars TCG Again with UnlimitedFrom polygon.com
Star Wars has to be the franchise with the most xCG adaptations so far. This is the second Star Wars expandable card game to come out of FFG, after one try with a LCG offering, Destiny, that found little in the way of fun or success.
Unlike previous FFG outings, this is a traditional collectible game, not a LCG. One hopes that it won’t, in fact, follow the trajectory of previous FFG efforts, which the article above does in fact recount and discuss with a lead designer in an embarrassing treadmill of past LCG mishandlings. Whether this will be a hit or just following trends remains to be seen; for example, and following Lorcana’s similar setup, this game is built for Commander-like multiplayer as well.
Storybook Brawl Closed May 1stFrom twitter.com
Sad end, but as it was owned by FTX and propped by some hype more than anything else, it was not unlikely.
May 7, 2023
Nathan Steuer wins Pro Tour March of the MachineFrom dotesports.com
Nathan Steuer’s rise to competitive tabletop Magic from the MTGO grind is perhaps the competitive xCG story of the year. That his first Pro Tour win came after his first Worlds title is incredible.
As a queer gal, two out nonbinary people in the Top 8 (Cain Rianhard, who placed 2nd, and Autumn Burchett) also warms my heart.
May 4, 2023
Pokémon TCG Live Replaces Online on June 5From gamerant.com
This is a bit of a MTGO/Magic Arena situation: the newer piece of software does not allow porting over much of the collection, implements a smaller amount of cards with no current plan to port over the previous one’s experience, and looks like a bringing in-house of the previous offering.
Looking at the Lorcana RulesFrom cohost.org
As part of a honestly baffling strategy of slowly letting content drip with no outlet in sight for it (Lorcana is not going to be available before summer’s end), Ravensburger has published the Lorcana rules, but rather than dissect them here, I will let this post speak for itself.
I will say: if their stated goal is to bring people that do not play card games into the genre, why is the game designed with the much less beginner-friendly bones of Magic very, very visible to the naked eye?