I can hear fans of the game wailing and gnashing their
teeth, but it’s a simple brutal truth.
Few things are as financially crippling as a MTG habit.
Addicts spend their time in a daze, waiting for payday to buy another booster
just to get that “Blue Eyes White Dragon*” they've been craving to complete
their super deck of doom. The rush of opening a pack, the lament at seeing a
pile of cards you already have and a crappy rare no one wants to trade.
 |
| How many cards you will discard to get that one rare you need. |
Magic the Gathering has one big thing going for it.
The game is actually pretty freaking brilliant.
 |
| Oh wow.... this fits so well it makes me lament my wasted youth playing this game even more |
Satan’s own finance model aside, the game-play has that
brilliant combination of easy-to-learn and impossible-to-master. There are
multiple paths to victory, millions and millions of card combinations, and a
seemingly endless variety of tricks, strategies and card interplay to explore.
The game is a master piece.
Satan’s own hand is on it, that much is self-evident.
I was once an addict like you, spending my hard earned
(well, that’s a stretch, but it was money I could have used on other things) on
Vampire the Eternal FREAKING struggle cards. I spend a fortune on that game and
do I play it anymore?
No!
NO ONE PLAYS IT ANYMORE!
But there is another option, A way to get your card game fix
without shelling out half a house deposit on cards that won’t be useable in a
few sets time (MTG tournament rules exclude the older cards… makes business
sense after all….. IF YOU’RE SATAN).
Living card games
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Fantasy flight game developed a new business model for card
games a while back, and I think whoever game up with it deserves a nice yacht
or something similar…. an aircraft carrier to cruise the Caribbean perhaps?
The living card game is different to the collectible card
game. It was clearly developed by someone who had sunk a lot of cash into MTG
and was left feeling cheated, dirty and crying in a shower.
The fundamental difference between the two models is you
know exactly what cards you are getting in a booster pack, and you only need to
buy one of each booster to get all the copies of a card you will need (unless
you’re crazy).
The starter boxes come with enough cards to make some decks,
and each booster so far comes with 3 copies of the 20 cards in that set.
That’s it.
No digging through boosters to get that rare you want. You
buy the booster and get 3 copies of everything. BOOM! Just like that.
You still get the fun of unboxing the cards, reading what
they do and figuring out how to use them.
Each game also has a drip feed release schedule, one booster
a month, at about $20 NZ a pop.
Now if you get into one of these games, you can still sink a
lot of money, but it will be over time and eventually, once you catch up to
releases it will be $20 a month. That’s less of a crack habit and more of an
occasional joint at party’s type habit.
What LCG’s are there?
Fantasy Flight games have six on the market right now, and
they are targeting some pretty strong fandoms. I own two of them, Netrunner and
Star Wars and they are both excellent games.
Netrunner is a cyberpunk hacker vs. an evil mega-corporation
in an asymmetric game of bluffing and deduction. Netrunner is currently the 5th
highest ranked game on Boardgamegeek, if your serious about card games, it’s a must
try. Also, one of the corporations is Weyland…. Of Alien fame.
Star Wars is another asymmetric card game, with a predictable
rebel vs. Empire theme. The gameplay however is wonderful, and it is the first
card game I have come across that does not have “bad cards”. I’ll review the
game another time, but it’s a hell of a lot of fun and I rate it highly.
Also on the list are Call of Cthulhu, Warhammer Invasion
(for all those GW fanbois), Lord of the rings and A GAME OF THRONES.
Yep, FFG got Cyberpunk, Warhammer, Cthulhu, Star Wars, LOTR
and AGOT. That’s targeting a lot of geek fandoms, and I’d be surprised if
anyone reading this isn't a fan of one of those.
So, go online, look up the rules for the LCG and buy a
starter box. You’ll save roughly bazillion dollars by flogging you magic cards
off online and picking up an LCG instead.
* Yes, I know that’s a Yu_gi_oh reference.
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