Trading/Collecting/Customizable Card Games!

[Nemoide]

(I don't know if a topic about TCGs belongs in General Gaming since it's not actually about video games... but whatevs!)

My girlfriend and I recently started playing a Japanese game called "Cardfight Vanguard" and have been enjoying it. It's pretty simple and fast paced, and we both really like the anime style art on the cards. There's a good range of clans, so you could be playing as crazy thunder-dragons while the other person can be playing as pop-idol mermaids.
Since the makers are trying to establish it in the US, we both got a bunch of promo merch. A DVD with some episodes of the terrible anime that explains the rules, some manga based on it, mini-posters from an expansion, and we both won an online giveaway for packs of cards.
We think it's a good game! Even though it's totally for kids!

It's been a long time since I played any other TCGs. When I was in college I bought the Call of Cthulhu game, but that was mostly for the art and I never played it. Also in college I had a friend who was really into Legend of the Five Rings and he gave me enough cards to play with a small group of folks. I played Magic: The Gathering when I was in middle school but I grew tired of it in high school.
Another friend of mine is working for a company that licensed a Japanese game called "Alteil" for online gaming. But I haven't looked into it too deeply.

Does anyone else like these kinds of card games?

[TEKTORO]

I like MTG, I never really had time to play too many other TCG. I stop playing Magic when not having time to go to play anymore, but there is a good selection of video games that have elements of a TCG that I tend to collect.

[BoneSnapDeez]

I liked Magic: The Gathering as a teen. I started off buying 4th Edition cards and then got into Fallen Empires, Homelands, Ice Age, Mirage, and Alliances. I stopped playing towards the end of high school because the game seemed to get a bit too over-saturated for my tastes: new sets were coming out faster than I could buy then. In college I kinda got back into it: I bought some Kamigawa and Ravnica decks, and my friends and I would play online with a program called Magic Workstation. Sometimes we'd take it seriously, but mostly we'd screw around - playing games where all the enemies were dogs or rats, trying to create decks out of nothing but lands, etc. We also played around with some card editing software (I remember making a Seinfeld deck). These days, I don't play Magic too often - only at a con every once and a while. I have about $600 worth of cards in the closet collecting dust.

One neat card game I discovered last June is called Tanto Cuore. You play as a "master of the house" with an army of cute Japanese anime maids. It's not a "collectible" game per se, as all the cards you need are in the base set. There is an expansion set though. It's a lot of fun, but I can't find anyone to play with.

[Mechblue]

I've played a handful of CCGs over the years. MTG in elementary school around bad moon/revised, briefly Pokemon CCG when it came out, followed by Legend of the Five Rings. Around 2002 the money grabbing nature of CCGs started to show its self which eventually drove me away from playing them.

I think its a bit more fun to buy up old dead CCGs, some of them are really great games that unfortunately suffered from a lack of budget to keep them going. Boxes of packs can cost very little depending on the series.

[Flake]

(I don't know if a topic about TCGs belongs in General Gaming since it's not actually about video games... but whatevs!)

Makes sense to me.

I have never really been a big TCG guy but I did dabble in Pokemon when that card game first came out. But then that game, like the video game series, got a little too diverse and wacky for my tastes. Most of the games that I think would interest me never last. I remember a Gundam game that I would have loved to have played but I cannot recall ever seeing a single person playing it.

[flojocabron]

I really wanted to play Magic the Gathering.

But I never really got the hang of it when I was a kid.

I still kinda dont get it now. I find cards at the fleamarket and then I give them or gift them to a friend.

One that I do like to collect but no longer play is Yugioh.

That has kind died too. I like the older cards and the newer stuff I dont understand.

I have gotten lucky in finding bags of cards for real cheap.

The thing about TCG games is that it needs strong marketing to stay alive.

There have been lots of failed card games in the past. Some only last a few years and then die out.

None have had too much staying power. Or the kids grow out of them.

[Erik_Twice]

I used to be pretty big into Magic: The Gathering but I quitted. My Extended deck finally rotated after several years of play and I never quite jumped into Legacy, leaving my new deck unfinished when my group quit. It's an amazing game, one of the best ever made, but it's more of a hobby on itself if you take it seriously.

And that's the only way I can take it now. After learning so much about the game, playing in tournaments and pondering about strategy, just getting a Cube (bunch of cards to draft from) and playing casually with my friends doesn't seem appealing to me anymore, it's all or nothing. A guy I know is telling me to come back and form a team with him and I'm temped but I think I would rather not at this time.


Talking about other games I just got my copy of Android: Netrunner and played it with a friend. It's a remake of the third card game Richard Garfield made after Magic and Vampire: The Eternal Struggle and it's nothing sort of amazing. Set in a cyberpunk world it pits an evil megacorporation trying to develop his evil agendas against a hacker trying to steal them. It's incredibly assimetric and an amazing hidden information game that constantly keeps you guessing. It's not even about bluffing, but about scouting, trying to find the right about of raw power and information which makes it completely unique.

It can be had in Amazon for 20$ and free shipping if you are American so I would look into it if it looks interesting. I give it a ten out of ten without a doubt which should be quite the praise!


I have also been thinking about trying Vampire TES and seeing if I can make 4 or 5 different casual decks to play with my friends. Looks like it would be fun but the actual design of the game seems to have gotten buried over many rules and overcomplicated expasions so I'll probably pass on it.

[fastbilly1]

I was big into Magic from Beta till Fallen Empire. Back then not every store carried Magic cards in my town so I had to get someone to drive me 30 minutes to go to a bookstore that had them in randomly. I had to call to make sure they had packs, put some on hold for me, then we would rush over there to get them. It was alot of fun back then. But as the game grew, so did the crazy rules and combos. And once 4th edition hit, I quit and sold all of my cards.

I swapped over to a couple lesser known games:
Wyvern - while a neat game with neat mechanics, died early - one artist did all the work so all the cards kinda looked the same.
Netrunner - which was awesome but died because the starter decks (which were all the same) were too balanced and boosters were not needed for casual play. It recently got reborn as a LCG as Android Netrunner
Middle Earth CCG - which was too complicated for me to understand properly in its heyday, and now that I get it, it is way too expensive... Id love to get three of each card, or atleast all the challenge decks. It is my favorite LOTR game, even more than War of the Ring. The artwork was done by several well known Tolkien artist. Needless to say, if anyone has any to sell, I am interested.
Decipher Star Wars - Not a great game, but it was Star Wars and really pretty, and I have five or six shoeboxes of cards from sets pre Jabbas Palace.
Pokemon - I played it with a Pokemon gym, which I ended up running in part. So I really enjoyed it. I also had a few friends traveling to and from Japan, so I got boxes of boosters early and sold them to others for a mark up... Lets just say Pokemon paid for my Warhammer addiction.
And a couple smaller ones like Jihad, Tomb Raider, and Sailor Moon.

[Blu]

Used to collect the Star Wars CCG, like FastBilly mentioned. One of my close friends used to collect the Dark Side Cards, and me the Light Side Cards. Specifically, I wanted all of the squadrons of fighters and their pilots for the rebels, and he the opposite.

[Nemoide]

I forgot I used to play the old Star Wars game too. It was pretty much the most popular thing at my school for a while, but I don't think anyone had a solid grasp of how it was supposed to be played - I remember the rules being kind of obnoxious.

Tanto Cuore

Man... I would play that.