Grip.Cards

Flesh and Blood Outsiders Release

From fabtcg.com

Pre-releases ongoing now through Monday. The set was designed for draft and includes overlapping strategies between heroes and ‘hybrid’ (multiclass) cards, including some very cool card layout variants.

Lorcana Release Dates & Pricing

From gamesradar.com

The big Disney move into CCGs is set to drop quarterly — ‘Set 1’ drops in mid-August as the Fall release, and ‘set 2’ in November for the Winter one.

There is an interesting large LGS exclusivity window before it hits brick-and-mortar — likely to entice distribution into entrenched player hotspots first. Also interesting: there are oversized cards in the gift sets, which may hint at some sort of pregame character setup in the vein of a MtG commander or of Transformers TCG.

(Back from a short hiatus)

While the exercise of sitting with what’s happening in TCGs is something I do every day, I do have my highs and lows with it. After recently washing out of the latest VML season, I took a short hiatus to focus on work and on figuring out what my relationship needs to be with MtG and paper play going forward.

This is going to be normal — this is a deep interest that I may get burned on to, and burned by, but I always return to. Even when I do not have as much passion in what is happening around me, I work on the technical side of the website and still collect news.

Posted below this are a number of pieces of news from the past two weeks that still feel important to highlight today. Expect some catch-up even in the next few days.

March of the Machines story begins

From magic.wizards.com

When MtG-the-game pulls me out with its apparent need to require all my waking hours in dedication to understand it, it brings me back in with lore. I’m built that way, unfortunately.

Alpha Black Lotus sold for $540,000

From polygon.com

Cardboard continues to be absolutely mystifying to me with regards to its value.

Now that MtG has announced that Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-Earth will contain exactly one booster-fun The One Ring, I wonder what price that card will fetch.

Pokémon packs cost more, more generous drop percentages

From kotaku.com

Looks like another possible cascade of increased costs across the board.

Announcing the 2023 National Championships - Null Signal Games

From nullsignal.games

Netrunner keeps going. I deeply appreciate that in addition to the in-person events, NSG has announced also a series of online events on their DIscord server, accessible to multiple timezones.

Polygon plays Battle Spirits Saga with ProZD

From polygon.com

Battle Spirits Saga has done a somewhat high-profile blitz to publicize general release at the end of the month, followed by a tournament with some serious money on the line (though, how the meta will even be there at that point in the release cycle is deeply beyond me).

The fact the tournament is going to be in Las Vegas — the beating heart of MtG’s in-person cycle — has not escaped me.

This was my first brush with actual gameplay, and while it is interesting — cards wax and wane in power depending on your resource usage! — it looked to me like a bit of a nightmare to keep track of the shifting board state, since basically all cards can potentially change in relevance and meaning any time another card is played.

learning all the steps in a card game — ProZD

From youtu.be

Also sponsored by Battle Spirits Saga.

“This guy looks like he could go in the cow game!”

The Pokémon Trading Card Game Classic

From tcg.pokemon.com

On the theme of super-boutique products — this one is so incredibly niche it hurts: it’s a full, premium, “casino-like” experience with a carrying case that doubles as a playmat, stackable damage counters, a roulette coin flipper, and ‘old border’ cards, both reproductions of the original Base Set’s and newer cards rendered in the original border, with updated mechanics.

(This, of course, calls to mind the similar old-border treatments used for nostalgic effect by MtG in BRO, Time Spiral Remastered, and more specifically the old-border Secret Lair planeswalkers.)

The cards are not going to be legal for tournament play — this is very much a ‘premium board game’ situation.

The Star Wars CCG Players’ Committee

From starwarsccg.org

… as does the flagship, earlier Decipher Star Wars CCG and its spinoff Young Jedi.

The Star Wars TCG Independent Development Committee

From swtcgidc.wordpress.com

Speaking of Star Wars card games, the WotC Star Wars TCG has a community stewardship…

Star Wars: The Deckbuilding Game

From twitter.com

There are more Star Wars card games on this Earth than anyone would want to play in a lifetime.

Sorcery Alpha Precon Unboxing on Twitch

From twitch.tv

I’ve been intrigued by this CCG, whose whole theme is ‘remember early card game design?’. We’ll see how well it does, but there’s a lot of craftsmanship at work that I am happy to see for a botique product.