So yeah I heard it was out, checked a local hobby store and since I wanted to be able to field a few diff decks I went with 1 full booster box (24) + 1 starter. With that I had between 9 and 14 class card, which allow you to make a 60 deck with a class theme but barely. So basically not enough to do a real deck with actual choices. I went in and bought another box. With that I had between 15-20 class habilities and it was a bit better but still kinda hard to do a good deck witout trading it seem. Honestly without going for 4-5 box of booster if you want a decent and choices for a particular class you have to trade. If today I could trade all my rares/uncommon from say 3-4 classes and get a few holes in the classes I want to play I guess it could start to feel ok.

So even with 50 rare I guess my decks are still pretty basics, still not sure what kind of ratio of cards to use either. I haven't made a super fast deck yet (assuming I am even able) but with medium pace decks equipement on melee character is really brutal. One of the epic I have are the stronghold gauntlets that give +1 to weapon and make it so weapons can't be targetted. So to destroythe weapons you need 2 cards. So while you are struggling to get those 2 cards all your allies are getting destroyed and he is healing his hero at the rate of like 4-5 per turn with the drain life weapon. On the other hand having a deck where you rely to having a weapon on the table just suck when you don't. Maybe once you have stuff like 4 cleaves, 4 MS, etc, you can make a weapon warrior deck with low amount of ally where you use your hero to destroy everything with weapons and where you eventually 2-3 shots the oponent hero with MS + Heroic strike combos. Not sure.

My 2nd epic is the dwarf king. I mean if you don't have a vanquish in your hand or the next 2 cards you are fucked unless the game is terribly in your favor. A druid deck could get him out with 7 ressources using the card that reduce cost too.

What kinda suck too is that alot of cards that seem to be very important to certain type of decks are rare, meaning you can't do that deck without uber luck on some rares, tons of boosters or trading. Just try to do a feral deck for example, all the cards that make feral actually usefull seem to be rare. The last game I played was the Wars CCG based on the star wars rule set in a different universe and I really liked how they went away from that. All the main cards were common/uncommon. Rare were mostly the special characters and other stuff but not stuff you usually have to rely on to built the basic deck. Magic had those issues too I guess. For example say I want to do a shadow priest deck, well shadowform is a rare, so forget using that combo.

Alot of rambling, seem like a cool game overall though, even if the theme decks are much harder to make it seem then what I would have liked.

Elendril,

Since recently My account was hacked and transfered off of my account, my vague intrest in this game is becoming more so every day. I used to play SWCCG (star wars) when I was in Middle School. I am wondering if this game is friendly to those who have not had TCG experiance for a few years. Also, we know we can't play alone what is the best way to network with people to find games/matches and what not in a Local area? I'm not sure how many tempe arizona people are intrested in TCGS. Last question is, these cards are found at any game shop I.E mall stores, or is it better advised to go to hobby shops that are privately owned. I've never played M:TG though I hope that won't affect my ability to play.

It was the same for me, but just stop by your local card shop and you will probably be able to find someone to play with, and set up a playgroup on a non-raid night. :)

there's such a thing as a non-raid night :O

I don't have to raid for 4 weeks whilst i level to 60 *flexes* Guild rerolling Horde for TBC is fantastic. Once the shaman is 70, goingot start the BE warlock i've always wanted.

I managed to get my hands on the warlok starter deck on ebay: £15 for the entire contents minus 2 supersized cards, so i'm not bothered. Going to fiddle with some control decks, get my hands on some more Are We There Yeti's , and then hit the tournement circuit

First the plug...
Ogre trinket wont cost you $2100.
Less than $200 care of premiertcgs.com :)

Not that I've goddamn thousands of these cards littering my house right now...
Never mind rent, I'm using them to pay my mortgage.

As much as I would of course be bound to say it, if you're after a single class only you're far better to buy an initial block of cards then trade/buy singles to round yourself off. Trying to build up a single class from random packs is at 1/8th efficiency at best (yes, I know there's 9 classes but the general gear balances one out roughly).

It's a fairly fun game and I must say I really like the way it ties into the MMO. Does so much better than previous MMO -> TCG conversions.

Must say I've been a bit dissappointed at a lot of the bad vibes I've heard. It's a decent card game. You pay for the card game first. The fluff for the MMO is just an added bonus. If you don't like the game - don't by it. If you just want the fluff - that's what Ebay and stores like my mate's one are for...

As a gamer, I think the whole issue with the 'loot' cards is way overblown. I cracked a legendary card, and I'm sure as heck not going to scratch it off for another tabard I won't wear.

My primary concern is the game itself, and my hope it will have a solid competitive following.

for those interested in the raid decks - the full list of the onyxia deck is available in the most recent issue of inquest...

With the situation on the forums the other day I cant help but wonder if Inquest maybe printed that onyxia deck article earlier than you guys expected.

I saw the loot rewards off the Onyxia Deck.

Suffice to say most competetive decks will use some of the drops... which means more of the have and have not differential.

i will neither confirm nor deny :-P

I'm in the "dropped MtG for WoW" boat with some of the others in the thread. It's odd, but I am actually more likely to get back into MtG now after some of this so I don't feel bad about the boxes of cards I convinced my wife to let me get...

Good on you Elendril for your work on this, I followed your writings on SCG before they went all premium :P

Find someone who's not playing Warlock and trade with them.
Or hook up ebay or card sellers, I know we sell play sets of the commons and/or uncommons for the price of a few boosters. That should sort you out with enough basic cards for you chosen class.

Definately seems targetted buying is the name of teh game with WoW rather than random boosters.

aye, i'm already looking on ebay for the Valthak/Skorn/Infernal cards i need. Although i wouldn't recommend targeted buying until you've had a score of games and know what your deck needs to be competitive.

I just want to start playing on the tournament ladder, but as a student without a car it's going to be tricky ^^

Kibler this is Dubsky.

Good work, man. We're all pretty excited about the game around here, and we really think you hit it outta the park with this. We're hoping to get a larger following around here, but M:tG's Time Spiral set has brought old schooler's out of the woodwork to enjoy that game again.

Once you guys release more product and the price goes down to at least suggested retail, I imagine more people will be willing to draft and what not. For now, though, all we can do is trade amongst ourselves and hope the scene blows up.

Again, nice work. Hope to see you in ATL again sometime.

this is actually intentional. the starter decks are intended to be primarily a way for new players to learn the game, so we included a handful of class specific cards and mostly faction specific/generic cards that players could use in almost any deck they decided to make. we didn't want people to open a starter for a class other than the one they most wanted to play and feel like the majority of their cards were useless to them.

I really liked this. I got a Warrax and a Shaman starter, and turned it into a weapon based horde warrior deck, and I could have probably turned it into an alliance warlock deck too.