I'm obviously not Jeff Donais, but I'd suggest not to despair: WoW, as I already said, is developped by the same people who gave us Squadron Supreme in VS System: a deck with almost no rares that kept shining in constructed for quite a while :)
Anyway, the game really looks very draftable, so you can have as much as fun without having to spend huge amounts of money. And after several drafts you've probably got enough cards for a decent deck or cards you won't use but can trade for something else.

Because the hero cards are double-sided, we printed them on their own form, so they are dropped into packs completely independently of the rest of the cards.

In reference to:  I'm a bit concerned about the line about a hero counting as an uncommon... can you please confirm that heroes are NOT on the same print run as the other uncommons (that you can't calculate the other uncommons based on what hero is the pack). Its probably just me thinking evil things... but people can do far more in drafts with far less information.

1103381:

Because the hero cards are double-sided, we printed them on their own form, so they are dropped into packs completely independently of the rest of the cards.

In reference to:  I'm a bit concerned about the line about a hero counting as an uncommon... can you please confirm that heroes are NOT on the same print run as the other uncommons (that you can't calculate the other uncommons based on what hero is the pack). Its probably just me thinking evil things... but people can do far more in drafts with far less information.

Well, thanks for answering that question. ;)

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-Joneleth

Daiden Quezul
70 Paladin, Burning Blade

1119529:

110 rares ---> 110 booster to get a specific one
twice as hard for epic ----> 220 booster to get a specific epic
22 epics / 220 = 1/10 (so ~ one epic in every 10th booster)

Actually, it would take more than 110 boosters to get those 110 Rares. Why? Because 1 in 10 of those boosters would have an epic instead, by your math. So, 121 boosters to get all 110 rares.

But, that's in a vacuum where there's only 1 of each rare out there. To get a specific one, you'd have to throw in all the doubles that would happen in 121 boosters to the mix, and then add in the 1 in 10 chance for those doubles being epics instead, and then there's the chance of getting a third of each other rare in all of that.

In other words, you may NEVER actually get that one rare you want.

The TCG Singles market will be VERY happy about World of Warcraft TCG. ;)

Borrowing some of the calculations from above.
Assuming no repeats in your packs
To get a playset of commons requires: (114 * 4)/10 = 45.6 packs (1.9 boxes)
To get a playset of uncommons requires: (99 * 4)/3 =  132 packs (5.5 boxes)

Rares needs to take into account of epics as there is no gurantee of a rare in a pack as it could be an epic.
110 rares ---> 110 booster to get a specific one
twice as hard for epic ----> 220 booster to get a specific epic
22 epics / 220 = 1/10 (so ~ one epic in every 10th booster)
So in 110 packs on average there is 99 rares and 11 epics
So you'll need roughly 122 packs to get 110 rares and 12 epics

To get a playset of rares requires: (122 * 4) =  488 packs (20.3 boxes)
To get a playset of epics requires: (220 * 4) =  880 packs (36.6 boxes)


So to sum up for a playset of WoW:
Commons = 45.6 packs (1.9 boxes)
Uncommons = 132 packs (5.5 boxes)
Rares = 488 packs (20.3 boxes)
Epics = 880 packs (36.6 boxes)

Compare with VS for a playset of a set:
Commons = (110 * 4)/11 = 40 packs (1.6 boxes)
Uncommons = (55 * 4)/3 = 73.3 packs (3 boxes)
Rares = (55 * 4)/1 = 220 packs (9.16 boxes)

It would seem with this kind of rarity structure for WoW it would be more than twice as expensive to get into compare with VS and this is if all the epics were ignored.
If you take into account the epics as well it is 4 times as expensive!!

Relying on the singles market is not an answer to this problem as the rarities will drive those prices up proportionally because of limited supply.

It would be very interesting to see how the market reacts to this type of rarity distribution.

Two things to keep in mind:

First, most people don't get into a game buy buying 4 copies of every single card... yeah, you'd need an awful lot of cards to get that far into it.  But with 1 starter per player, (or, with the free downloadable demo decks) you can try it out and see if you enjoy the game.

Second is, Vs. System is an established game with an existing initial set plus expansions, 4 sets per year, and with more cards coming out every 3 months.  Warcarft is expected to have 3 sets per year, and this initial set is probably going to be the biggest one - we want to make sure you have enough cards to play with, and to show off the depth of game play. 

You have a lot of room to explore!  Have fun with it.

I've been monitoring this forum with interest, I've been trying to work out what I need to buy to get a set of the initial release, HoA.

I've been a collector of cards for many years and this is one set that's excited me but the more I read the more deflated I'm getting.

It appears that this game for a colloctor is just going to be a massive money sink, I'll have to spend obscene amounts of money to try and complete a set and probably never achieve my goal. The break down of rares, epics and legendarys is just crazy and for this reason I think I will not even start to collect.

To complete a set of cards should be achievable and not cost $1000's, I feel sorry for the people who are getting caught up in the excitement of this release and not stepping back and seeing what they maybe getting involved in.

Read carefully, work out what you will need to buy to achieve your requirements and make sure it's acceptable to you before you even purchase your first packet, don't just jump on the band wagon blindlessly because of the success of WoW.

For a collector, only wanting one of each who doesn't want to play, it's an expensive problem, I agree.

But for a casual player it's no big deal. Because this is one of the only card games I have seen so far, where powerful cards are evenly created among common/uncommon/rare/epic. In fact I am sure you can build powerful decks without any epic at all (maybe even without rares). So player with less money can win, too. That's rare in the CCG world and I love it! ; )

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Ok, I thought I'd put this in here since it sort of regards set size. It's more in regards to component sizes (i.e. how many abilities, how many weapons, ect.)

Here's the set list in numbers. If it says nothing, then we (players) don't know for certain what they are. Though some of them, it may seem obvious what it is, you still never know. The list is just to show what we do know, then speculate.

1-16 Heroes
17
18-31 Druid Abilities (14)
32-37
38-40 Hunter Abilities (2)
41-51
52-59 Mage Abilities (8)
60-72
73 Paladin Abilities (1)
74-79
80-89 Priest Abilities (10)
90-96
97-105 Rogue Abilities (9)
106-109 Shaman Abilities (4)
110-119
120-129 Warlock Abilities (10)
130-134
135-141 Warrior Abilities (7)
142-168
169 Abilities (1)
170-174
175-221 Alliance Allies (47)
222-231
232-275 Horde Allies (44)
276-277
278-279 Neutral Allies (2)
280-282
283-303 Armor (21)
304-308
309 Item (1)
310
311-336 Weapons (26)
337-340
341-361 Quests (21)

At first, I figured it come to 15 Abilities for each class, but either I screwed up the math, or something, but it didn't come out even. I'm thinking probably 50 Allies for each Faction, maybe 20-25 for Neutral.

Feel free to speculate, and correct any of my math if it is wrong =)

p.s. The (#) show the minimum based on which have been revealed. Let me know if I missed something.

p.p.s It's interesting to note, Pets are, for listing purposes, included with their respective class' abilities (i.e. Fury is listed under Hunter Abilities, not Neutral Allies).

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Kingdom of Karr, Part 1-2 (weekly story + Stormwind Test Video)