[TCG] Transition to a free-for-all TCG Blog!

Hello everyone,

It had been a while since I last wrote on this blog. I had started this blog as a Cardfight! Vanguard (CFV) blog, but soon after I started to lose interest in the game. And thus, I had brought it upon myself to try out many other games out there just to pass time before recently coming back to CFV.

But boy, oh boy, had I had a good time trying out all these other games. As such, I had decided to return to the blog to put my thoughts about the games that I had played into writing, both for my own reference later if I ever think of investing further into any one of these games, and for others to read to learn more about these games. 

Note: The following are not ranked in any order. Okay, maybe I do write them in the order of which game I enjoy more, but this is in no way a comparative list. I am not saying that the games I put higher or lower in the list is better or worse than the others.

1. Battle Spirits

Battle Spirits. Ah, how else can I start talking about this game other than talking about the anime. Boasting the best *VISUAL* among the card game genre anime, I must say that Battle Spirits nailed its marketing pitch (and is one of the reasons I picked up the game in the first place.)

I mean seriously, check out those visuals. 

"Well, what about the actual card game?" I hear ye ask. In a nutshell, Battle Spirits is an extensive resource management game. You use the cores (the small blue jewel things you will see on the board) to not only summon your Spirits (the game's version of Monsters, Creatures, Units, etc) and cast spells, etc but also to power up those Spirits and give extra effects to those Spirits . Knowing when to summon more Spirits or to 'level up' an existing Spirit could make a difference between a win and a loss in this game.

The card art itself is quite amazing. Too bad the Burning Soul series just ended, meaning less Sengoku-themed cards (which is my favourite by far) for the time being. Small loss, but eh. New season = New cards.  

Battle Spirits also features a robust, but limited, interaction system between players. The core Flash Timing and Burst mechanics of the game give players the ability to respond and/or set up traps in order to counter the opponent's moves. There are very few viable cards which could nullify or negate the opponent's cards and effects, which ties in with the fact that the Flash and Burst mechanic forgoes the chaining mechanics commonly found in other card games, instead letting each card played to be resolved completely before the next card is played.

Sadly the game is only available in Japanese since the English version of the game had been cancelled a long time ago. The Japanese version of the game had recently been re-introduced in Malaysia which makes the game greatly accessible for those who are interested in the game.


2. Force of Will

Okay, where should I start with this magnificent beast? If I were to give an overly simplified description of the game, it would be Magic: The Gathering (MTG, which, in retrospect, I probably should have covered first) without the Land/Mana issue and with anime artwork. Speaking of anime, the card game does not have an anime, which is a shame since the fluff/lore of the cards are quite interesting.

Okay, onto the game itself. The game takes a lot of inspiration from many other card games, but manages to put all of those moving parts together to create quite a unique experience for players. The game does feature some unique mechanics that gives it its distinct identity, but it is hard not to compare such a young game to its predecessors.

The artwork on the cards are absolutely amazing, especially in higher rarities and on foiled versions of the rare cards. Speaking of rarities and foils, the game is also very lenient when it comes to rarities, having THREE different prints of the rarest cards (the SR rarity) in the set namely; a non-foiled version, a foiled version and a full-art foiled version. This makes the prices of the harder to get cards barring the full-art version, quite low, making decks very easy to build and is easy on the wallet for budget players (like me).

Other than that weird font (subjective) that they used for the card names, I really like the overall look and feel of Force of Will cards.

The game also uses a block rotation system a la MTG and Pokemon. This ensures that power creep have a harder time ruining the game, but at the same time making it quite expensive to keep up with the competitive scene in the long run. This system also ensures that popular or staple cards would have a higher chance of being reprinted, which is a plus

While the game is still in its infancy, the company that supports it had been very active in supporting its playerbase and is growing very rapidly in presence. I, personally, hope that the game will grow (especially here in Malaysia, and also everywhere else) since among all the games that will be on this list, this is the one game that I feel would have the most potential to become something greater, and maybe even challenge the throne of MTG as the most competitive card game in the world.

This game is available in English, which makes it a lot easier to play for those who could not read Japanese (or those who do could not be bothered to remember the effects of every single card in the game).



3. Yu-Gi-Oh! 

Yes, the great-grandfather of Japanese TCGs. The Arc-V era had been amazing for the game, with Konami creating an environment where many different decks are viable in the competitive format, making most themed cards easier to obtain for more casual players like myself. The deck staples are still very much prohibitively expensive, however.

The recent introduction of Pendulum Summoning had really changed the landscape of the game, making the game vastly different from when I left it back when Vanguard was first released. Unlike when Xyz was introduced, however, Konami did not completely forgo support for decks that does not use Pendulum Summoning. In fact, Konami had released just as much support for Fusion, Xyz and Synchro Summoning decks throughout the Arc-V era as Pendulum Summoning decks as well as creating many more non-Pendulum archetype decks.

I don't believe that Yu-Gi-Oh! needs much explanation since its one of the oldest and best known Trading Card Games in the world other than MTG and *MAYBE* Pokemon TCG. Anyhow, I'm happy to return to this game.



4. WIXOSS

Ah, WIXOSS, the most hipster TCG (in my opinion) available right now. It's another all-Japanese card game, as expected. It does have an anime (most current series during the time of writing: Lostrage incited WIXOSS) but even the anime is hipster as hell. Instead of focusing on the fun of playing the game, it has a very dark and brooding tone. [SPOILER ALERT] Basically its play the game or die, and git good or die. Add in a possibility of the characters on the card possessing you if you lose enough and you can see how this is the polar opposite of Cardfight Vanguard. [SPOILER END]

The animation quality is okay, I guess. I'm enjoying it so far, so there's that. Do give it a try if you like all this emo stuff.

The game itself is also quite unique, being an interesting blend of many elements seen in other card games while at the same time introducing many refreshing new mechanics. The only complaint I have about the game would be the length of some games with a single game possibly taking around 30 minutes to almost an hour due to the very defensive-favoring gameplay.

I have to say one thing, however; all the cards in this game are females. Take that as you may, but that's the whole point of the game. (But somehow they are marketing this game to girls, apparently? I'm sorry Japan, but how?)

WIXOSS's card design however, is not one of my favourites. 

The game is easily available in Malaysia, with many stores carrying as a secondary (or maybe even tertiary or beyond) game. Single cards are hard to come by, but there is a good community that makes it easy to get into the game.

I guess that should be all I want to say about the games that I currently am following. As a side note, I have already returned to playing Cardfight Vanguard, and the upcoming post that I am working on will be a Cardfight Vanguard post. However, I believe that I will also be writing about the games that I had listed above from time to time, so do look out for that!

Yes, I had retired any previous writings and is starting anew. I'll probably keep the style of the previous posts, so I hope all of you will enjoy that! Until then, have a great day!

Signing off,

ドラエン TCG.