Grip.Cards

Neon Genesis Evangelion: The Card Game

From evangelion.fandom.com

This has been a week for me to go over historical material I’ve accumulated, and I was reminded of the sheer guts of the Neon Genesis Evangelion Carddass card game. Instead of playing permanents, you start the game with characters and Evangelions already ‘in Neo-Tokyo 3’ (in play), set up with predetermined graph adjacencies, and the main way players change what is happening is by having them ‘speak lines’ that have one character hurt or comfort those they can reach — which can have real consequences, because a hurt (downed) character cannot pilot their Evangelion when the Angels, a neutral third faction that can win the game on its own, attack everyone. Players thus more properly embody the dark cabals that, in the anime, scheme to have their version of Instrumentality resolve.

The game comes complete with a final coda in which characters can speak lines while the player who reached their objectives attempts apotheosis, with a well-placed last hurtful line possibly breaking their resolve and ending their plans; this matches mechanically the confounding but powerful ending of episodes 25 and 26 of the TV series. (When someone wins, the manual does in fact rule that all other players should clap their hands and take turns telling them ‘Congratulations!’)

I would so, so much love more games that remove themselves from the Magic lineage as much as this one dared to do.

Kick On TCG

From tabletopia.com

I have been idly looking at tiny corners of the Internet to figure out how to learn about Stuff Happening, and this is one of the things I idly learned today while browsing Twitch — I knew that South America had a local on-and-off TCG scene, and this is one of the pings from there, as well as, of course, out-of-print continent juggernaut Mitos y Leyendas.

Null Signal: Recruiting Producer & Project Manager

From nullsignal.games

Null Signal has been looking to fill positions also for social media managers, translators, and on the visual team.

Phyrexian Phylology in Phylly

From youtube.com

Phyrexian is a complete conlang built by Wizards employees for their game’s longest-standing antagonist, the viral Phyrexian civilization. I love how deep the worldbuilding goes here, including how it would be spoken by the many factions of modern Phyrexia and the language drift through the millennia.

Pro Tour Phyrexia Coverage

From twitch.tv

Coverage starts today. Whatever you think of the game, Pro Tour-level competition is still one of the biggest events in all of expandable card gaming, hands down.

Magic TV on TCGPlayer

From youtube.com

Interesting that new content is being moved into the TCGPlayer umbrella, especially with longtime CFB host and former exec LSV.

Rare Slot #19: How The Industry Changed Recently

From youtube.com

I’ve been sitting on this episode from The Booster Pack Network, and its statements that the industry is contracting and that more willing distributors are popping up for indie TCGs… but the new arrangement pushes more risk on the publishers. Left me wondering if I picked perhaps a messy time to start this blog.

Final Fantasy TCG Interactive Tutorial

From fftcg.square-enix-games.com

I noticed that there is a significant contingent for the Final Fantasy TCG, and I had no sources for it. The subreddit happened to link to the interactive tutorial (which shows that FFTCG is very firmly a descendant of the Bushiroad aesthetic).

Shivam & Wheeler Love Magic

From sites.libsyn.com

Speaking of Ben Wheeler, one of the things that I love from MtG is the absolute avalanche of people building community and niches on platforms, and “two people just gush about the things they love about Magic for hours” is, for me, an absolute treat.

Is This Your Card?: Cardfight!! Vanguard Dear Days

From youtube.com

I was today years old when I learned that CLAMP did the character design for the Cardfight!! Vanguard visual novel-Magic Arena hybrid.

Unlike Magic Arena, Cardfight!! Vanguard Dear Days is $70 on Steam to own at all, plus $65 DLC for season pass access or $10 unlocks for rare card subsets (though this content is deterministic and not random boosters). There is no free-to-play path.

Lorcana: Magic Mirror is the first item card for Disney’s Magic: The Gathering competitor

From polygon.com

You know precisely where to place a game’s lineage when you spot a tap symbol on a card.

TrekCC February 2023 Project Status

From trekcc.org

One of the things I’m tracking for this linkblog and for myself are community stewardships, where fans take over and continue building games that are abandoned by their owners. Null Signal (Netrunner’s) is the most prominent, but the Star Trek Continuing Committee has been at it for more than ten years as well, and I’ve eyed a number of minor ones — BattleTech TCG, Star Trek TCG, and more — that I have loved seeing still alive.

Pro Tour Phyrexia Viewers Guide

From magic.gg

With the return of in-person Pro Tours, WotC has made them destination events, subsuming MagicFests into new “MagicCons” that are always orbiting a major competitive event (Pro Tour or Worlds).

It should be underlined that at the same time as WotC spins up in-person events again, this con also has lower chances of remote participation than the previous one — while competitive coverage and YouTube-destined panels remain, there is no accompanying Secret Lair this time. The business need for in-person presence has at this point meant basically giving up on COVID prevention.