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Hi there, WoW fans! While the release of the 10th WoW TCG set, Scourgewar, may still be a few months a way, I'm sure many of you are already hungry for some juicy tidbits about the exciting cards coming up in this landmark set. So, being the kindhearted soul that I am, I figured I'd whet your appetites with a handful of said juicy tidbits.
Now, my first instinct was to simply drop a few clues about cards in the set, and let you try to decipher the awesomeness that awaits you down the road. That sounded kind of boring, though. It’s been done. Maybe I could make things more interesting. . .
What if we make a little game of this? Here’s the idea: I will list below 10 clues about our upcoming 10th set. Of those 10, only half will refer to cards that are actually in Scourgewar. The rest are simply red herrings. Will you be able to determine which five are the real deal? Sounds fun, right? Well, here we go!
Here are your clues. In Scourgewar, you will find:
- A cycle of ability cards that can be played for free.
- A card whose text contains the phrase "you may point and make a Zombie noise."
- A card whose text contains the phrase "destroy target hero."
- An equipment that grants a keyword that has only appeared on one other card.
- A 1-cost Mage ability that deals 50 damage.
- A card whose text contains the phrase "if you speak in a non-scary voice"
- A card that mirrors one of the Blood of Gladiators preview cards.
- Three siblings that are a reference to three other siblings from the game's past.
- A Sword that can bring an opponent from full health to death in one swing.
- A bigger, badder relative of a very famous Mage from Through the Dark Portal.
So there you have it, folks! Which clues do you think are legitimate glimpses into the future? Speculate away!
-Matt
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With Fields of Honor now out and about for a few weeks, I thought it would be a good time to let you guys in on some of our internal favorites from the set. Off we go…
Burgle
“The art, the text box, the name – the complete package!” – Andrew “Package” Wolf
Sgt. Pugg
“Come on, it’s Pugg! Plus, he really hates 1 health Protectors.” – Drew “The Last” Walker
Jin’rohk, The Great Apocalypse
“It’s a big striking weapon that doesn't deal much damage and has a strike cost yet has a "not always on" textbox that compensates for its terrible numbers.” – Jeff “Double Negative” Liu
Undercity
“Simple and flavorful, both figuratively (since it’s derived from Cannibalize) and literally (because you’re eating things).” – Patrick Sullivan, Cannibal
Concentration Aura
“It’s the kind of card that makes you scratch your chin and say “What awesome things can I do with this?” The uninterruptable part is just gravy.” – Matt “Itchy Chin” Dunn
Dundee
“I would have to do my patriotic duty and nominate Dundee. Not only is he Australian, but he’s also a 4/4 for 3 with a ridiculous power.” – Paul Ross, Australian
Hatchet Totem
“Such a funny card, but good in the right deck. But sometimes you get your hatchet stolen, and you just sort of stare at your totem, trying to figure out how to kill it.” – Ben “Hatchet Job” Cichoski
Hope Ender
"I love weapons that you have to do some extra work to be pretty kewl." - Antonino "Spelling Ender" De Rosa
Gnomeregan
"I like all the home cities but this one is the funnest. (At least the funnest to read.)" - Danny "English Major (and Adult Male) Who Uses Funnest Twice In a Row" Mandel
Vanndar Stormpike and Drek'thar
"My 2 favorite cards from Fields are the 14 drops." - Ken "I Never Once Knew a Name of a Card in the Game" Ho
Well, there you have it. We would love to know some of your favorites (maybe besides the obvious; Hesriana, Dimzer, Adam Eternum, etc). There is so much depth in this set, let’s see some love!
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As predicted briefly on the forums, playtesting Arena Grand Melee was challenging at times for us. The following is a list of some of the reasons why. Enjoy!
Up first is the card that was never a positive flip for us.
If only we could develop at GenCon.
And to answer a question on the forums, yep, if you are working at a store, you draw 2, then discard your hand. Sorry.
The next 3 cards are tough for us for very similar reasons.
Cards from the current set that we are testing don't gain flavor text until the end of development.
Ditto reminder text.
100% of our playtest cards are sleeved (except sometimes our heroes).
The next couple of cards deal with the definition of 'owns'.
It sure is easy to rip up playtest cards, both physically and emotionally.
We aren't ever at a loss for packs here. Thanks Upper Deck!
This card is fun when everyone is trying to call the same person in the room and that person knows what's going on. But when you call someone in a different department and they play along, and then wander over asking what in tarnation is going on, it's especially hilarious.
This card can certainly skew some playtesting of 'real' cards.
I hope you enjoy playing AGM as much as we enjoyed making it.
What is your funniest AGM moment?
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Today...we celebrate...our continued AGM spoiler day:
Treats only pls!
Maybe Mr. T hacked the game...
Is that a Protector Deck?!
If your name is Paul Ross, then nothing is sweeter than the efficiency of a Tatulla.
Enjoy!
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I know, I know, you didn't think it was actually possible to have this much preview action going on. Big Ben is off in Florida for a wedding, so he asked (aka ordered under penalty of death) me to fill in with some previews in his absence.
Good ole rock!
Now everyone can pretend to be the most popular class in the TCG...Hunter (or Warlock)!
If you are slick, then maybe cheaters do win.
There's no trucks in World of Warcraft...
See you tomorrow for more sweet, sweet AGM action!
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Enjoy today's installment!
I knew it would pay off to have awful gear one of these days!
Have those headphones ready.
A fresh perspective is always nice, don't you think?
If you stand on one leg, you get an extra turn.
Hope you enjoyed this group! See you May 19th!
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We thought you guys might like to know more about what you're getting yourselves into with AGM! Enjoy!
No fair asking your mom. She always thinks you're a winner.
L2P.
Can I borrow that for just one second?
Proving the old adage: "You just never know when a raid is gonna break out."
Stay tuned for more AGM fun and check it out for yourself on May 19th!
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So there have been some questions and speculations about exactly how the new Arena Grand Melee cards will work. Well, wonder no more, as I present the rules for Arena Grand Melee (only slightly redacted).
Make sense? Basically, during each player's turn, after he draws a card, he flips over the top card of the AGM deck before doing anything else in his turn. That card will either be an ongoing effect, which destroys any other previous ongoing AGM effect in play, or it will be a one-time effect, which will resolve before a player continues his turn. That's it!
We have already shown you a few examples of what the Arena can do, but here are a couple more to whet your appetite:
No need to dress up for the Arena, it's more of a casual environment, after all.
Brings the idea of family game night to a whole new level!
What's
that? You want to know what's up with the new heroes and Preparation
cards? Well, you'll have to check back next week for that. Sorry, I
can't reveal all the secrets quite yet. Stay tuned, and look for Arena
Grand Melee to hit store shelves May 19th.
- The Wolf
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Hello faithful blogophiles! It’s Arena Grand Melee time! This product (street date May 19th) comes with 2 copies of nine tournament-legal abilities, one hero and a sixty-card deck that introduces a whole new casual way to play the World of Warcraft TCG. If you buy both the Horde and Alliance decks, you’ll have 4 copies of each ability, one of each hero and all 120 Arena Grand Melee cards.
Today we are going to give you a quick preview of a handful of cards in the Arena Grand Melee decks.
I don’t want to give everything away, (what fun would that be?) but this new format plays best with 3 or more players and there are two different types of cards in the deck. To learn more about how to play, stay tuned to this blog and preview articles on the main page.
Here are a couple of the one-shot cards.
First, we have Ravages of War, at its best during the top 8 at Worlds. “Hey, all you fellers take 5!”
Next up, On Even Ground, a second example of the Arena’s impartiality. With all 10 classes (and races).
You might wonder about the second card type. Well, not surprisingly, these cards stick around. Here are a couple of the Ongoing cards.
“There is Nothing I Would Not Do!” is up first. As you might imagine, David Carmichael Humpherys is often the Enemy of Fun in our office.
Silence is Golden (well, whispering is). This is one of my favorite cards in the set.
I hope you enjoyed this brief glimpse into the Arena as much as we enjoyed designing and testing it. I think you are really going to enjoy this format. Just remember to bring candy, a cell phone, relatives and lots of clothes!
As we approach the street date of May 19th, stay tuned for more updates and previews about all the exciting cards in Arena Grand Melee!
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Welcome back! Hopefully
by now you have had a chance to come up with your answers for the mystery
cards from Blood of Gladiators. I’ll have to admit that there
were some pretty good guesses out there. Some were
easier than others, to be certain, but I wanted to demonstrate some of the different
ways in which cards get designed and developed.
So without further ado, here are the answers, with some explanation as
to how then ended up where they are today.
And hopefully, next time you crack open a booster and see one of these
goodies, you’ll stop and think “What if this card did what it used to do. How different might things have been…”
1 – When you strike with CARDNAME, put two abilities from
your graveyard into your hand.
Twinblade of the Phoenix
Sometimes cards, especially weapons and armor, are designed
based on their names. Twinblade is a
perfect example of this, which we like to call top-down design. The designers thought “Hmm… what should a
Twinblade of the Phoenix
do?” And thus, the idea of returning two
abilities was formed. We were not happy
with how the original card played, with too many cards being returned over and
over, and the end result focused more on the Phoenix aspect of the card. The end result being one of the more popular
weapons printed in some time. MMO
players may know that this isn’t the only Phoenix-named gear in the game, so
will we be seeing more stuff you can regrow?
Only time will tell.
2 – Destroy target ability, ally, equipment or
resource. That card’s controller reveals
cards from the top of his deck until he reveals a card of the same type. He puts that card into play under his control
and shuffles the rest into his deck.
Utopia
This card had issues in that people were using it to ‘cheat’
an expensive ally or equipment into play, by destroying a token to tutor up
something like Doomwalker or Ivus. So it
was back to the drawing board. It was
changed to only hit opposing cards, but it shared too much space with
Reforestation, so was eventually redesigned to be Druid’s board sweeper.
3 – Destroy CARDNAME.
Draw a card for each damage your hero has dealt to target hero or ally
this turn.
The Taste of Arcana
This was always supposed to be Mage’s piece of the ‘scaler’
cycle (The Sowing of Seeds, The Rewards of Faith, etc…), but it was always the
oddball in that it didn’t actually deal any damage. Thus the redesign, and the endless quips here
in R&D of “How’s it taste?!?” every time you countered something with this
card. Tasty, indeed!
4 – Activate >>> Put the bottom card of your deck
on top of your deck. NO PEEKING!
“Cracklehands” Spigotgulp
WHAT?!? OK, admittedly, this card doesn’t look anything like it does
now. I just wanted to show how sometimes
the designers like to try out some quirky ideas just to see how they fly. It was concluded that you would almost never
want to activate this ability on an ally, and was redesigned to become part of
the Spigotgulp family.
5 – Activate >>> CARDNAME deals 1 nature damage to
target hero or ally.
Bolton
Can you see how this card ended up as Bolton? Often, damage-dealing activate powers on
allies tends to looks very similar to Long-Range. In order to differentiate this pet from
Angrida, but still represent it’s lightning breath, as well as make it more
thematic for Hunters, the activate power was shifted into Long-Range. As an aside, there was an interesting
development path this card took that I’d love to reveal, but I think I’m gonna
have to save that story for another day, as it might just show up some time
down the road, and I’d hate to ruin the surprise.
6 – Attach to target hero or ally. Ongoing: At the start of your turn, choose a
keyword. Attached character has the
chosen keyword until the end of your opponent’s next turn.
Center
of Attention
As cool as this initial concept was, it had a load of issues. Berserking
hero? Elusive Long-Range hero? All of these, plus many others led to the
redesign, plus the creation of a whole new keyword! Although I did like the idea someone had for
a Thrown hero.
7 – Ongoing: At the start of your turn, your hero deals 1
nature damage to target hero or ally and heals 1 damage from himself for each
totem you control.
Tidal Mastery
This was probably one of the easier ones to guess. In the process of developing it, it was
decided to create one big effect instead of the less significant one initially
submitted. The thinking being that if
you can truly master all four elements, you should be able to generate a truly
impressive effect. There was a time when
this card simply created an alternate win condition instead of generating a
massive packet of damage, but it was eventually decided to create more of a
broad appeal for this card.
8 – When CARDNAME enters play, your hero deals 3 ranged
damage to target hero or ally.
Fists of Mukoa
Yes, this text looks like it belongs on Cuffs of
Devestation. Sometimes, we like an idea,
but feel that it isn’t right for the classes that have access to a particular
piece of gear, or we need to fill a hole somewhere else in the set. Cuffs used to generate a very different
effect that no one was really pleased with, so we felt that shifting the Fists
text over to Cuffs and creating a different effect that let your hero deal some
damage via a piece of armor was the best solution. Plus, the final version of Fists of Mukoa has
a much more Shaman-y and Hunter-y feel to it that everyone was happy with.
9 – When you strike with CARDNAME, you may shuffle your deck
and reveal the top card. Until the start
of your next turn, as long as that card remains on the top of your deck, you
may play it with out paying its resource cost.
Seth’s Graphite Fishing Pole
While cool, in that it gave you a free card, the Fishing
Pole always felt kinda awkward and a bit out of flavor, thus the redesign. Why did hitting someone with a fishing pole
let you play a card out of your deck for free?
So we changed the text to simple ‘fish’ a card out of your deck. And yes, you can still hit someone with it if
you really want to, but I’m not sure why.
Although I’d love to hear if anyone has.
10 – This space intentionally left blank.
Gorehowl
Sometimes, the simplest designs are the best, and it doesn’t
get much simpler than this. The textbox
was there for the longest time just to remind everyone that we wanted a nice,
clean, simple design for the axe of Grom Hellscream.
11 – When CARDNAME enters play, he deals 2 frost damage to
target hero or ally. A character dealt
damage in this way can’t attack or protect this turn.
Rehgar Earthfury
For a while, Rehgar was an Instant Ally, representing his
Frost Shock that he used on Lo’Gosh. And
for a while, it was debated whether or not he should actually be an Arena Ally,
since he doesn’t actually fight in the Arena.
It was eventually decided that as the leader of an Arena team, he should
be able to conscript other allies onto his Arena team, thereby creating his
attack trigger. And as a leader, he’s
got to buff his team, creating the Rehgar we know and love today.
12 – Target ally has +2 ATK this turn. Target ally has -2 health this turn.
Phase Hound
This is another tricky one.
Obviously, this is nothing like what Phase Hound ended up as, but it
does demonstrate how designers have to find ways to create dual-class
cards. The original thinking was to find
some overlap between Hunters and Warlocks, thus the ATK boost and Health
decrease, giving a little flavor of each class.
Ultimately, it was decided that a Health decrease was too out of flavor
for Hunter, so a Pet that the two classes could share was created instead.
13 – When a hero or ally in your party prevents damage,
CARDNAME deals 1 shadow damage to target hero.
Kazamon Steelskin
The Lord of Hardiness originally just buffed all of your
other allies with Hardiness, making them strike back when their Hardiness
triggered. No one was really in love
with that power, and it never felt as impressive as other Racial keyword
champions. As a result, it was decided
to see how many instances we could reasonably put in a text box, and came up
with 20 as a nice round number. We like
to infuse a little humor into the game every now and then, and Kazamon is just
one of the more recent examples of a card that is the perfect fusion of
powerful and fun! As an interesting side
note, Jeff Liu once killed a Kazamon in playtesting by actually dealing 22
damage to him in one hit by swinging with an Earthrend Weapon.
So there you have it.
Just a little insight into how some cards end up seeing print. Sometimes, initial designs are pretty much
right on, and other times we have to scrap ideas completely and go back to the
drawing board a few times until we hit upon the right fit. It is always interesting to look back and see
where we came from to get to where we are today. And you never know, just because an idea
didn’t quite work out before doesn’t mean that it won’t pop up again some time
down the road. I hope you enjoyed this
peek inside the development of Blood of Gladiators. Let me know if this is something you’d like
to see again for future sets by emailing
andrew_wolf@upperdeck.com. As always, thanks for reading!
- Andrew Wolf
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Welcome blogophiles! It has been a while since I talked about the actual process of
designing
and developing individual cards for the WoW TCG. In these past few months I have learned quite
a bit about how a card eventually comes to be.
Sometimes, a design is right on and there is very little tweaking
required. Just slap some art on that bad
boy, and send him to the printer. On the
other hand, some cards have to go back to the drawing board many times, for any
number of reasons. Sometimes a design is
just too narrow to ever see any play.
Sometimes a card looks too similar to an existing card, making one look
really poor in comparison to the other.
And sometimes, a card just doesn’t work within the constraints of the
rules!
This week, I thought we’d have some fun looking at how some
cards mutate and evolve to reach their final form that eventually sees
print. I reviewed the card history for
an assortment of interesting designs from Blood of Gladiators. Below, I am going to list the text boxes for
these cards, some which changed significantly before seeing print, and others
which were pretty close to right on from the get go. See if you can guess what each of these card
designs from Blood of Gladiators ended up as, and I will reveal the actual
answers at the end of the week. Keep in
mind that some of these card texts might not have even ended up on the same
card type as initially intended. Have
fun!
1 – When you strike with CARDNAME, put two abilities from
your graveyard into your hand.
2 – Destroy target ability, ally, equipment or
resource. That card’s controller reveals
cards from the top of his deck until he reveals a card of the same type. He puts that card into play under his control
and shuffles the rest into his deck.
3 – Destroy CARDNAME.
Draw a card for each damage your hero has dealt to target hero or ally
this turn.
4 – Activate >>> Put the bottom card of your deck
on top of your deck. NO PEEKING!
5 – Activate >>> CARDNAME deals 1 nature damage to
target hero or ally.
6 – Attach to target hero or ally. Ongoing: At the start of your turn, choose a
keyword. Attached character has the
chosen keyword until the end of your opponent’s next turn.
7 – Ongoing: At the start of your turn, your hero deals 1
nature damage to target heor or ally and heals 1 damage from himself for each
totem you control.
8 – When CARDNAME enters play, your hero deals 3 ranged
damage to target hero or ally.
9 – When you strike with CARDNAME, you may shuffle your deck
and reveal the top card. Until the start
of your next turn, as long as that card remains on the top of your deck, you
may play it with out paying its resource cost.
10 – This space intentionally left blank.
11 – When CARDNAME enters play, he deals 2 frost damage to
target hero or ally. A character dealt
damage in this way can’t attack or protect this turn.
12 – Target ally has +2 ATK this turn. Target ally has -2 health this turn.
13 – When a hero or ally in your party prevents damage,
CARDNAME deals 1 shadow damage to target hero.
Good luck! I look forward to seeing your guesses, and will post what these designs eventually ended up as and how they got there later this week!
- Andrew Wolf
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With the recent release of the latest expansion to the WoW
TCG, Blood of Gladiators, I decided the time is right for another informal poll
to see what everyone’s favorite card from the new set is. While some chose their favorite based purely on
power level, others also factored in humor factor in making their decision (Hardy,
har, har… anyone?). So without further
ado, here are UDE’s Blood of Gladiators favorites:
Andrew ‘The Wolf” Wolf
Merciless Gladiator’s Crossbow of the Phoenix – I know, what a surprise. Another Hunter card. What can I say, I like my pets.
Ben “Big Ben” Cichoski
Vol’jin – If you’ve been paying attention, he spoiled
Vol’jin’s Blood of Gladiators appearance in a blog a while ago. Attack for one
million!
Ben “TBS” Seck
Echo Totem – TBS loves to find those narrow cards with such
big potential upsides. Now he just needs
a good win condition…
Ken “Kentho” Ho
Foam Sword Rack – But, this card doesn’t do anything, you
say. Ken begs to differ. Inspiring Presence, anyone? Plus, it’s shiny, looty goodness.
Drew “D-Time” Walker
Kazamon Steelskin – Hardiness lord, obv! It took us months to get Drew to build a
non-Orc deck once Kazamon was in the rotation.
Plus, he’s always good for a laugh.
Dave “The Hump” Humpherys
Tempest of Chaos – Nothing like the build-up towards
inevitably. You’d think someone as
methodical as The Hump would shy away from random effects, but you’d be wrong.
Paul “Mailman” Ross
Utopia – Especially when combined with Bloodsea Brigand’s
Vest. There’s no such thing as too many
resources where Paul’s concerned. How
else are you gonna get Illidan into play ASAP?
Jeff Liu
Mogor and Mogor's Anointing Club – I know, everyone is just
supposed to pick one, but as a pair, the two are so thematic and fun to play. Plus, they go so well together, so we gave him
two, just this one time. One for each
head.
Aaron “Lewdawg” Lewis
Starshot – Nice, clean, simple and powerful. The direct approach is always best.
Patrick “The Commissioner” Sullivan
Uncatalogued Species – The perfect quest for every racial
deck!
Matt Hyra
Mikael the Blunt – This mini-Razak is already making a
splash in tournament play and is sure to be a powerhouse for years to
come. Plus, he insults your opponent for
you!
John Fiorillo
Canissa the Shadow – Always lurking in the shadows, this
Blood Elf can really wreak havoc on an unsuspecting opponent’s best laid plans.
Mike Girard
Lo’Gosh - Captain of the Arena team, with Jim Lee art,
strong game play, and a whole new template…all these things combined make the
amnesiac king Mike G’s pick.
Alex Charsky
Miranda McMiserson – Because she is named after his
girlfriend. Aww…
So there you go, our favorite cards from Blood of
Gladiators. How about you? What’s your top pick from the set? Comment below to let us know!
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College basketball fans aren’t the only ones who get excited
about March Madness. We in R&D
decided to get into the spirit of the brackets this week with our own Elite
Eight draft challenge. As part of our development
process, of course, we draft with the cards we are currently developing, and
this week, we continued to put set 10 through its drafting paces. We are fortunate enough to have software that
not only keeps track of every card we have ever made and are still working on,
but also can simulate an 8-man booster draft!
Isn’t technology great?!
Normally, when we draft, everyone plays everyone else with
their draft deck to get a feel for the set and how it drafts. We try and figure out where the holes for
limited play are and how to fill those gaps.
Occasionally, we even declare one drafter Myrmidon, if he is able to
beat everyone else in the draft with his deck.
And sometimes, one unfortunate soul is named Reverse-Myrmidon (or
Reversidon, for short) when they manage the embarrassing feat of losing to
everyone else in the draft. But this
time we decided to do something a little different in honor of March
Madness! We named Pat Sullivan our very
own WoW TCG Draft Tournament Commissioner, and had him create an Elite Eight
bracket to determine the 2009 WoW TCG Set 10 Draft Champion! I know, a rather prestigious title, to be
sure.
So here’s how the quarterfinal matchups broke down:
Ken ‘Kenho’ Ho (Alliance
Shaman)
Vs.
Paul ‘The Mailman’ Ross (Horde Druid)
Jeff ‘Third Most Common Name in China’
Liu (Alliance
Hunter)
Vs.
Aaron ‘Lewdawg’ Lewis (Alliance
Mage)
Andrew ‘The Wolf’ Wolf (Horde Warlock)
Vs.
Ben ‘TBS’ Seck (Horde Warlock)
Dave ‘The Hump’ Humphreys (Alliance Hunter)
Vs.
Ben ‘Big Ben’ Cichoski (Horde Warrior)
Four Horde drafters and four Alliance drafters. Looks like it’s shaping up to be an
interesting tourney. Two Hunters and two
Warlocks! Which faction and class will
end up on top? Round one action saw tournament
favorites moving on to the semifinals, as Ken Ho was able to best Paul Ross and
Jeff Liu managed to beat Aaron Lewis. On
the other side of the bracket, Andrew Wolf was barely able to squeak past Ben
Seck in a nail-biter of a mirror match, and Dave Humpherys dispatched Ben
Cichoski. Looks like there would be no
Cinderella’s at this dance. And the Alliance sent three decks
into the next round, including two Hunters.
Hmm, maybe we made Hunter too good…
So the semifinals had shaped up like this:
Ken Ho (Alliance
Shaman)
Vs.
Jeff Liu (Alliance
Hunter)
Andrew Wolf (Horde Warlock)
Vs.
Dave Humphreys (Alliance
Hunter)
In semifinal action, Ken Ho continued his strong tournament
showing, sweeping past Jeff Liu, with Feral Spirit leading the charge. But there was an upset brewing on the other
side of the bracket, as The Hump was able to take down preseason favorite The
Wolf, winning two out of three games, all hard-fought victories by the most
narrow of margins, thanks to the power of his Trophy Gatherer. So it was Ken’s Alliance Shaman vs. The
Hump’s Alliance Hunter for the title and all the marbles. Sorry, Horde lovers, maybe next year will be
your year.
Who would end up on top, and take home the title of 2009 WoW
TCG Set 10 Draft Champion? After two
grueling and hard-fought rounds, an epic battle for the ultimate title and
bragging rights failed to disappoint.
Although he put up a valiant effort, eventually Ken Ho went down in
defeat, beaten by Dave Humpherys’ Alliance Hunter, proving once and for all
(or, at least, until next year) that The Hump truly is the Draft Champion, and likely
deserving of a future spot in a Wow TCG Hall of Fame. So, until next year, there you have it, sports
fans. And good luck to you all with your
brackets!
Andrew 'The Wolf' Wolf
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Hopefully by now everyone out there has had a chance to
check out Blood of Gladiators. I thought
I would spend a little time sharing my thoughts about the latest and greatest
set for the World of Warcraft TCG. When I first
started working at Upper Deck, Blood of Gladiators was at the very end of its development cycle,
so I didn’t have too much input regarding the development of the set, but I have
had plenty of opportunity to play with the cards these past few months. So I thought it would be fun to highlight a
few of what I think are some of the cooler themes scattered throughout the set
that may have been overlooked at first glance.
One of the first decks I built in my first week here was a
Treant token deck. You may have noticed
that there is a theme going on with the Druids in Blood of Gladiators. They love their Treants! And really, who doesn’t love flooding the
field of battle with an arboreal army?!?
Friends in High Places, The Sowing of Seeds and Reforestation are all
great for building up your token count, and Nature’s Reach is a great way to rally
the troops. Of course, Forces of Nature
is still a great way to supplement your army.
And don’t forget those Yetis, they’ll do in a pinch if you find yourself
short on trees to summon. Or how about
some peasants? Barov Peasant Caller and
the brothers Barov also pile on the token action! Give the Treant deck a try, I think you’ll
find it a blast to play. As long as no
one comes packing “Cookie” McWeaksauce, of course.
I think I’ve already documented how much I like playing
Hunters, so, of course another of the first decks I built was a Hunter
deck. I really found that there are some
exciting new pets and gear offered in Blood of Gladiators. While Marksmanship heroes get a new talent, I
think Beast Mastery heroes are the real winners. Merciless Gladiator’s Pursuit means that your
Hunter never has to enter battle alone, and it really pairs nicely with the Merciless
Gladiator's Crossbow of the Phoenix,
insuring that you’ve always got a pet to power up your bow. It’s a really cool and unique new weapon, and
it’s not that hard to be firing it off for some pretty impressive numbers. That’s all part of the fun, seeing how big
you can get this bow’s ATK to be.
Fortunately, the new pets are equally impressive, too. You don’t get an ally much more efficient
than Phase Hound, and with Stealth to boot, even the mighty Weldon Barov is no
more than a mere nuisance. And little Bolton may not look like much, but give this little Wind Serpent
a spin, I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised.
When has Long-range come at such a discounted cost before now?
Finally, I wanted to talk a little about Limited play with
Blood of Gladiators. I really think the
Arena attribute greatly changes things.
Locations like The Circle of Blood and Gurubashi Arena really help Arena
strategies shine, by providing a near-endless supply of Gladiators for the
Arena. At first it can be easy to
overlook the Arena attribute, but I think you will find that it can really
create some impressive forces when paired with any number of the
Gladiators. I drafted an Arena deck
recently that won on the back of The Circle of Blood powering out an army of Arena
allies trained by Gladiator Loraala. Who
needs Myriam Starcaller any more!?! And
with Gurubashi Arena, when paired up with the right Gladiator, any ally can be
elusive, or a protector, or have ferocity, or … the possibilities are near endless!
So as you can see, I’m really excited about the release of
Blood of Gladiators. And I’ve barely
covered just a few of the many cool new things the set has to offer. As the first set to be released since I
started working at Upper Deck, it is great to see the cards I’ve been playing
with for a few months now finally in the hands of the players. While we in R&D have our ideas about what
we think are the highlights of the set, it is always fun and exciting to see
how the players respond to the new cards.
What’s your favorite new card from Blood of Gladiators? What kinds of new deck are you most excited
about building?
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…just wouldn’t be as fun. If I said design “isn’t all fun and games” I would be lying to you. Lead designing a trading card game set is one of the most enjoyable experiences as a Game Designer in this industry. You are able to put a vision down to paper and see that vision play out on the game table in front of you. You are also able to have some more fun during the Design/Development process. Let me give an example.
Each set does not start out with final names and flavor. Those are usually added after the art is done and the gameplay has been relatively locked down (the exception is the unique characters, equipment, and abilities from the MMO). This affords the lead design the freedom to make little jokes and come up with some goofy playtest names. I’m going to let you in on a little secret, I have a goofy sense of humor.
Hardiness is the Orc racial keyword for Blood of Gladiators that further expands on the block theme of an ally racial keyword for each race. We had to have a unique identifier for each of the common/uncommon Hardiness allies. This was needed because during development discussions and file reviews, everyone needed a way to speak about these cards and not have confusion as to which specific card was being talked about. So card names like Hardiness Orc #1 don’t really work to solve this dilemma.
Yep, you guessed it. The Hardiness suite of allies were all named after “famous” people with the last name Hardy. Here is another example of one of the “Hardy Boys”.
This ally changed pretty drastically during development. His direction had to change to fill a development gap that was created by moving other allies around. He has better staying power now, as long as you have another ally in your party that you don’t particularly care about. The more you play with Hardiness, the more you will see how hard it is to get these guys off the board with straight damage.
“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.” – John Quincy Adams
The Draenei ally’s playtest names came from the idea that their keyword lent itself to have other heroes/allies in their party look up to them. These Draenei inspired them to do more damage and gave them the confidence to overcome all obstacles… Ok, you can stop laughing now. :)
All of the Inspiring Presence Draenei allies are inspiration historical figures of the United States.
The Blood Elves also had a similar naming scheme, but that keyword changed a couple times until it settled on Arcane Torrent. The old naming scheme doesn’t make much sense with Arcane Torrent.
So there you have it. It might just what you thought it was in R&D…all fun and games!
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