I'm a new player. I play WoW, and I got interested in the card game by reading about the loot cards. I didn't buy TCG stuff because I thought I'd get loot cards. I don't really expect anything. I just bought the cards because they seem interesting.

Now, I basically bought a box or so of each expansion, plus one of each starter deck and one of each special release. The only thing I didn't buy is the raids (should I?) I'm going to be swimming in piles of cards, and have little idea how to organize them or what to do with them once I've opened them all.

What would you suggest I do to organize my cards as a new player with no direction? Are the older cards mostly completely obsolete? Is it possible to have more than a casual deck from buying packs of cards, or should I plan on eBaying multiples of rare cards? Furthermore, is there a place I can go online to meet local players who can help me out in person and show me how to play? Maybe here?

A box of each set will give you a head start on your collection, but will probably bring you up short on building competitive decks without ebaying quite a lot of stuff, or some pretty hardcore /2 Trade skills.

The older sets aren't entirely obsolete but the newer sets certainly have more cards that are played competitively.

To get into the game I think you should target getting to a 'Scourgewar' sneak preview event near you - the TCG's first visit to Northrend - and use that as your launchpad.  That's an ideal place to network with local players and make contacts (it's the weekend 21st-22nd November I think).  

It's also worth mentioning that a lot of people playtest online using a program called Magic Workstation.  Other people are best qualified to help you out in setting that up, but it exists.

As to how to find players/stores nearby.. first step... where are you???

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Thank you. I live around the middle of New Jersey, USA. I think there is a store in a mall near me that does some events.

Presumably I will have enough cards that I will be able to build many different decks. Do I just pick a couple of the newer heroes and do the best I can with them? Should I focus more on building one really great deck first before I build others?

I don't where you live in New Jersey, but there is a great store for WoW located in Denville NJ right off Route 10 Westbound.  Dark Tower Games.  There are usually drafts on Wednesday nights, and you can pretty much chat with any of the guys about WoW.  I haven't been there in while, but I am hoping that will start changing soon now that busy season is done for me at work.

well.. I can't help you out in most things, new player myself (new to the whole tcg in general)
but I can give you a tip on organizing your cards! lol, its simple really. UDE has organized it for you, you just have to put them in order! with each seperate expansion you will see numbers on the bottom like 241/336. so buy a big binder and pages of plastic sleaves thingy to put them in to keep them safe and orderly..
there is an order to them once you have them numbered order
I believe it goes
Heros- Abilities- Alliance Allys- Horde Allies- Equpiment-Quest

its easier to pick and choose what you want to go into a deck when you have it sorted...
and use dividers to seperate out each expansion if you put them in the same binder..

hope that helped a little.. if not.. just smile and nod!

1445017:

I don't where you live in New Jersey, but there is a great store for WoW located in Denville NJ right off Route 10 Westbound.  Dark Tower Games.  There are usually drafts on Wednesday nights, and you can pretty much chat with any of the guys about WoW.  I haven't been there in while, but I am hoping that will start changing soon now that busy season is done for me at work.

I'm basically right where that little dent is in NJ, at the tip of it. Denville is probably an hour away from me. Unfortunately, I can't really go anywhere on weekdays because I work until 7PM. I hope I can find a place that has weekend events and then go on weekends when the fiance is visiting her parents and whatnot. (she goes every other weekend) Thanks for the tip. :-)

2965579:

well.. I can't help you out in most things, new player myself (new to the whole tcg in general)
but I can give you a tip on organizing your cards! lol, its simple really. UDE has organized it for you, you just have to put them in order! with each seperate expansion you will see numbers on the bottom like 241/336. so buy a big binder and pages of plastic sleaves thingy to put them in to keep them safe and orderly..
there is an order to them once you have them numbered order
I believe it goes
Heros- Abilities- Alliance Allys- Horde Allies- Equpiment-Quest

its easier to pick and choose what you want to go into a deck when you have it sorted...
and use dividers to seperate out each expansion if you put them in the same binder..

hope that helped a little.. if not.. just smile and nod!

Good idea, thanks! I did buy a couple cheap WoW card binders, but they claim to only have 14 pages each so I might be lacking a bit with those. I thought they were cool cause it says they have slots to fit larger hero cards that I was thinking other binders might not have. I'll probably need to buy more pages. I don't expect any of my stuff to arrive here until Saturday at the earliest.

Welcome to the TCG!

As Dave stated above, the Scourgewar Sneak Peek would be a good place to start for getting into the game, as well as getting to know the local tcg players. It's $30 and on 11/22 at All Things Fun!, 185 C Route 73 North, West Berlin, New Jersey 08091.

2358297:

Welcome to the TCG!

As Dave stated above, the Scourgewar Sneak Peek would be a good place to start for getting into the game, as well as getting to know the local tcg players. It's $30 and on 11/22 at All Things Fun!, 185 C Route 73 North, West Berlin, New Jersey 08091.

I might be able to attend this, although the cost seems high to attend. Am I to understand that you show up with nothing and play against people with new Scourgewar decks that they give to you? That could be pretty cool.

3086583:

I'm a new player. I play WoW, and I got interested in the card game by reading about the loot cards. I didn't buy TCG stuff because I thought I'd get loot cards. I don't really expect anything. I just bought the cards because they seem interesting.

Now, I basically bought a box or so of each expansion, plus one of each starter deck and one of each special release. The only thing I didn't buy is the raids (should I?) I'm going to be swimming in piles of cards, and have little idea how to organize them or what to do with them once I've opened them all.

What would you suggest I do to organize my cards as a new player with no direction? Are the older cards mostly completely obsolete? Is it possible to have more than a casual deck from buying packs of cards, or should I plan on eBaying multiples of rare cards? Furthermore, is there a place I can go online to meet local players who can help me out in person and show me how to play? Maybe here?

I organize my cards likes this, I take all heroes of a certain class and I put them onto a page or all in a row in a box. Following the heroes I place all of the ability cards I own with their symbol on it there after. Rinse wash and repeat with my whole collection. I sort everything else by allies, equipment, generic abilities and locations/quests. I use this method because when building a deck I never liked the idea of having all of the cards sorted by set and all over the place, if I wanted to make a warrior, I simply went to my warrior section of cards and viewed that I had.

Also, my most impressive deck (or at least the one with the best win/loss ratio) was a throw together that I built with cards I had. I was quite surprised because I had decks in my arsenal that I had ordered 4x playsets of rares and so forth and this one did better. It all comes down to your play style and what you get lucky with. My suggest is work on a deck with what you have, attempt to trade to fill in the gaps, and if your still not happy with the results consider ordering what your feel you need to finish the deck off.

Hope that helps. :)

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Dark Tower does run events some times on weekends.  You would have  to check with the store. (I think they have a webpage you can check) And if my geography hasn't failed me, you are probably right around Edison/Woodbridge area.  It's about a 40 minute drive from there to Dark Tower (depending on traffic).  I used to live by that area, and I don't remember any stores close by, though that may have changed in 5 years since I lived there.

3086583:

2358297:

Welcome to the TCG!

As Dave stated above, the Scourgewar Sneak Peek would be a good place to start for getting into the game, as well as getting to know the local tcg players. It's $30 and on 11/22 at All Things Fun!, 185 C Route 73 North, West Berlin, New Jersey 08091.

I might be able to attend this, although the cost seems high to attend. Am I to understand that you show up with nothing and play against people with new Scourgewar decks that they give to you? That could be pretty cool.

Yeah that's right.  And it's the first time anybody will have seen any of the Scourgewar cards as well.

Sneak previews are good because they tend to bring out the friendliest and most cheerful crowds for any tournaments, and for a beginner you're not playing with cards that everybody else has been playing with for years so the playing field is a bit more level - it's new to everyone!

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You are now Neutral with Girlfriend.

With that many cards you can definitely make quite a few decent decks.  You may even be able to make 2-3 semi-competitive decks.  To make a really competitive deck you'll need to do some buying/trading.  If you want to be competitive, I recommend scouring these forums to find out what's good and what playstyle you prefer and then focus on making a tier 1 version of that deck.  Here's a brief list of some of the tier 1 or 1.5 stuff:

Black Ice - Alliance Mage hero from Hunt for Illidan.  Uses interupts to control tempo and Water Elemental and Myriam Starcaller to win the game.  Fairly ally focused.  Long considered the best deck in constructed.  I think it's starting to be overshadowed though.

Kil'zin of the Bloodscalp - Horde Traitor Shaman from Servants of the Betrayer.  This is a rush deck.  Plays low costed daggers such as Whispering Blade of Slaying and Retainer's Blade for quick damage and a good effect (on Retainer's Blade).  Also runs a fair amount of burn and several cheap allies that pack a punch (Bloodsoul, Offender Gora, Sha'kar).  It has a good number of answers to other decks for a rush deck.

Witch Doctor Koo'zar (may not be tier 1) - Troll Priest from Drums of War.  Balls to the wall rush.  Tries to swarm the field as fast as possible.  Can win very early but most decks have good answers to it if it can't pull the win out fast enough.  Shadowfiend is the stand out card in the deck.

Varanis - Promo Blood Elf Mage.  Focuses on playing Slow, whcih only allows your opponent to play one card per turn, and then controls game with interupts.  Gets the kill with Belt of Blasting.

Vorna the Wretched - Traitor Blood Elf Mage from Servants of the Betrayer.  Plays a lot of tempo and control cards to stall the game until she can play Illidan Stormrage master hero.  Several other decks are made using this win condition (Illidan) as well.

Mythen of the Fang - Alliance Traitor Druid from Servants of the Betrayer.  Plays lots of small untargetable allies to rush the field.  Also plays a fair amount of ally control (Moonfire, Wastewalker Helm combo) and Form of the Serpent.

Lionar the Bloodcursed - Horde Traitor Warrior from Servants of the Betrayer.  Another rush deck.  Runs all Orc allies to take advantage of Orgrimmar.  Stand outs are Kazamon Steelskin and Reghar Earthfury.  Allies are larger than other rush builds, but the deck is somewhat slower than Kil'zin or Koo'zar.

There are undoubtedly several more, but this is what I could come up with off the top of my head.  If any of those sound interesting, let me know and I can hook you up with more details on what they use.  Good luck!  ^__^

PS - Scourgewar sneak peek is a great way to start.  Everyone gets roughly 6 packs and has to make a deck.  More casual atmosphere and you'll be playing on an even field.

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Click for trades!!! ^___^

http://entertainment.upperdeck.com/WOW/COMMUNITY/forums/thread/1800930.aspx

2383840:

Yeah that's right.  And it's the first time anybody will have seen any of the Scourgewar cards as well.

Sneak previews are good because they tend to bring out the friendliest and most cheerful crowds for any tournaments, and for a beginner you're not playing with cards that everybody else has been playing with for years so the playing field is a bit more level - it's new to everyone!

It does sound like fun for a beginner to not have to worry about if I built a great deck or not. How popular is this game, really? How many people would be at such an event?

It all depends on the area.  There could probably be as many as 20 people where I play for such an event today, but a year ago I don't even think there'd be enough to hold that kind of event.  All depends on the fluctuating popularity where you live.

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Click for trades!!! ^___^

http://entertainment.upperdeck.com/WOW/COMMUNITY/forums/thread/1800930.aspx