It sounds like I might have to pick up the Black Temple raid deck for some cool cards like Illidan. Of course, I guess I could just buy what I want individually, but for the fun of it I want to actually buy a set before I go eBaying for extras

By the way, THANKS for the detailed info, Fett. I will post more about it when I see which heroes I end up with and whatnot.

Odds are you'll get every hero I mentioned except Varanis since he's a promo only available in the Burning Crusade MMO expansion.  Even if you don't pull a certain hero, they're roughly 10 cents each at most websites (Varanis is $20ish though since he's a promo...).

I would consider what deck you want to make before buying the Black Temple raid.  The deck is usually $25+, but the singles are fairly cheap.  Most of the cards in it are $1.50 or less.  Illidan is roughly $4 each.  Illidan is a "Master Hero."  What this means is that when you play him, you remove your starting hero and replace it with Illidan.  Illidan has 5 attack and 35 health (for perspective, heroes never start with attack and at most have 31 health if you're a Tauren Warrior and as low as 25 health for Mage).  Illidan costs 11 to put into play though, so you usually have to stall some to get him out.  Once he's out, you also get to put a Traitor ally into play at the start of each of your turns.  The popular choices are Prince Kael'thelas, who steals opponent's ready resources, and Lady Vashj, who produces ally tokens.  Both of those are Epics from Servants of the Betrayer.  The jist of an Illidan deck is that it stalls until turn 11 and then plays Illidan who beats face for 5 a turn and puts out Vashj/Kael'thelas.  Jonas the Red is another tier 1 deck that does this.  He's a traitor undead rogue who uses Cannibalize to heal and Overkill to wreck your opponent until he can put out Illidan.  He also runs a fair number of selective discard effects.

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Thanks for the awesome info. I feel like I have a much better grasp on what's going on already.

It sounds like if someone play Illidan it's nearly impossible to win. I wonder if anyone's won in a tourny before against someone who got to play him.

I kind of feel like it'd be more fun to not have to stall to have a good shot at winning, though. The rush style sounds fun. Hmm...

3086583:

Thanks for the awesome info. I feel like I have a much better grasp on what's going on already.

It sounds like if someone play Illidan it's nearly impossible to win. I wonder if anyone's won in a tourny before against someone who got to play him.

I kind of feel like it'd be more fun to not have to stall to have a good shot at winning, though. The rush style sounds fun. Hmm...

It's possible to beat Illidan - tough, but possible.  One of my favourite decks is "Jonas The Red" a traitor Rogue deck that tries to stall out and become Illidan.  From there you bring in Kael'Thas and Lady Vashj and your opponent is toast 90% of the time - it depends how close they got to killing you before you turned into Illidan.

The ULTIMATE finisher is to use Illidan to go and get Lady Katrana Prestor.  Then you turn into Onyxia.  That's right.  Onyxia.  Get rid of your deck and start an Onyxia raid - your opponent now has to SOLO the Onyxia raid!  Even then, it's possible but really really REALLY hard. 

There are some epic games to be had...


The Northrend packs will bring us two new Master Hero cards.  We know the first is Kel'Thuzad, and we know that the second one is going to be a good guy but not who (somebody suggest Alexstraza, which sounds plausible).  Master Heroes are ossum.

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3086583:

Thanks for the awesome info. I feel like I have a much better grasp on what's going on already.

It sounds like if someone play Illidan it's nearly impossible to win. I wonder if anyone's won in a tourny before against someone who got to play him.

I kind of feel like it'd be more fun to not have to stall to have a good shot at winning, though. The rush style sounds fun. Hmm...

It's possible to beat Illidan - tough, but possible.  One of my favourite decks is "Jonas The Red" a traitor Rogue deck that tries to stall out and become Illidan.  From there you bring in Kael'Thas and Lady Vashj and your opponent is toast 90% of the time - it depends how close they got to killing you before you turned into Illidan.

The ULTIMATE finisher is to use Illidan to go and get Lady Katrana Prestor.  Then you turn into Onyxia.  That's right.  Onyxia.  Get rid of your deck and start an Onyxia raid - your opponent now has to SOLO the Onyxia raid!  Even then, it's possible but really really REALLY hard. 

There are some epic games to be had...


The Northrend packs will bring us two new Master Hero cards.  We know the first is Kel'Thuzad, and we know that the second one is going to be a good guy but not who (somebody suggest Alexstraza, which sounds plausible).  Master Heroes are ossum.

Whoa, you can play those raid cards like that? That's kind of awesome. I thought they were mostly just a different way to play.

They mostly are, Lady Katrana Prestor is a special case.  Shes a bit like Optimus Prime - there's more to her than meets the eye.

Transformers: Dragons In Disguise!

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I will probably go to the Scourgewar event in Brooklyn on the 21st if I do go, although I suppose I could go to BOTH.

My cards came. 30th pack I opened today was a Fields of Honor pack containing El Pollo Grande loot card. I officially love the WoW TCG.

Awesome!  Congrats!  ^__^

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I've opened them all. I have more cards than I have any idea what to do with. How many cards should be in a deck? What's a good ratio of card types?

Also, I got a UDE "Primal Fire" point card with nothing printed on it. I wonder if I should mail it in to them. It's not a huge deal, but still.

EDIT: And another blank point card... hmmm

Not sure what's up with the blank point cards.  Does the Primal Fire have the pic on it?

You typically want a deck to be 60 cards (minimum deck size) with a 10 card side deck.  I usually run 12-14 quests and 3-4 locations (usually 3-4 copies of the same location).  The number of allies, abilities, and equipment used in a deck varies greatly depending on the kind of deck you're making.  Look at the cards you pulled and see what looks neat to you and then make a deck.  From there we can help you optimize it.

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Welcome to the game.


It depends on what you want to do with your collection. Did you plan on playing competitively, or just casually? I play the game casually with occasional locally run tournaments (non-official, just for fun tournaments).


As a new player looking to organize cards, I would advise taking a visit to your local card or comic shop. There are these white corrugated card boxes that would be great for you. If you just want to cram everything in there, and you have gotten a box per set..... you will want one of the larger 5 slotted boxes. I call them "pizza boxes".


I like putting my rarer cards in a binder. It helps to keep them from getting damaged. If you don't care about the condition of the cards, or its not a priority, go ahead and throw them in the box.


I have a system where I sort by block. I have a smaller box for Block 3, a large box for block 2, and now since block 4 is coming out, I am using block 1's box for the new block; so I mixed block 1 with block 2. Eventually, block 3 will join the rest in the big box.


Older cards aren't necessarily obsolete- some of them still rock in certain decks. Most are not worth playing due to the high cost of what they do. In recent sets, similar cards will do the same thing but cheaper, we can call that power creep.


To learn how to play, I recommend playing the tutorial and then experiment with deck building. Deck building is trial and error. I have been building decks for years now and I still make decks which don't work out. That's fine- it means you learn which decks do not work, and which do. Watching, and playing games may open up combo possibilities to you. For example, I was piloting a boss in a raid, and a death knight player found some combos and continually kept resurrecting ghouls. This gave me an idea to build an Unholy deck in the future.


Raids are a lot of fun, and it is something unique to this card game. 3-6 players gather together to defeat the boss player, who pilots a dungeon/lair. Raids contain treasure cards which can be used in the normal game. I suppose some of them are good for decks, but they are helpful for decks built for raiding. Alas, you will hear varying opinions.


I buy from www.tcgplayer.com, they have a store there and I have dealt with them, they ship exactly what I wanted within a pretty good time frame. PM me if you have any specific questions. Again, welcome!


edit- that el pollo grande is worth some money on ebay!

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Not sure what's up with the blank point cards.  Does the Primal Fire have the pic on it?

You typically want a deck to be 60 cards (minimum deck size) with a 10 card side deck.  I usually run 12-14 quests and 3-4 locations (usually 3-4 copies of the same location).  The number of allies, abilities, and equipment used in a deck varies greatly depending on the kind of deck you're making.  Look at the cards you pulled and see what looks neat to you and then make a deck.  From there we can help you optimize it.

Yeah, they are normal point cards with no points. Maybe I'll send those in when I get some crafting cards or whatever and just make a note of it, and if they're nice they'll give me some replacement codes.

Thanks for continuing to help me outs. I plan on playing with a buddy tonight who's also never played. I'm going to assemble 3 or 4 decks and we'll mess around with them. I did buy 2 of those WoW binders with the special foil cards in them, but they don't hold a whole ton of cards, maybe 90 cards tops. I was going to put extras in those and use the starter deck boxes to keep my assembled decks.

I guess one of the good things about this game is there are no right answers sometimes. if it were so simple that you could just tell me what to do to make a good deck without much work, it wouldn't be a worthwhile game, huh?

Seems like some of my UDE codes were already entered by other people, too. Sad.

3086583:

Seems like some of my UDE codes were already entered by other people, too. Sad.

I've had that happen as well. I'm not sure what the deal is but every once in a while one of my codes isn't valid, even though I know i typed it in properly.

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