Epic: The Card Game Digital Kickstarter

So the Epic Digital Kickstarter starts today! I am very excited about this. Go here to back it!

This is a wonderful opportunity to be able to play this awesome game with a lot more people. They are offering quite a lot of options with this app:

App Features

• Unlimited Copies of all 120 Cards in the Base Set
• No Random Packs (Get a set for one low price and own every card!)
• Purchase Once, Unlocks On All Four Platforms
• Single Player Campaign Mode
• Tutorial 
• Online Asynchronous Play
• Online Real-time Play*
• Dark Draft
• Random 30 (Sealed)
• Constructed
• Beginner Decks (AKA Preconstructed Decks)  
• Deck Builder
• Friends List*
• Challenge Friends
• Play Against Random Epic Players Around the World
• Ranked Heads-up Games*
• Leagues*
• Tournaments*
• World Championship Qualifiers*
• Unlimited Copies of all 48 Cards in the Tyrants Expansion*
• Unlimited Copies of all 48 Cards in the Uprising Expansion*
• In-app Currency (Event Tickets)* 
• Cosmetic Upgrades (Alt-Art Cards, Avatars, Digital Playmats)*
• Campaign Upgrades (Additional Maps, Character Abilities, Etc.)*
• And More (The best ideas from you, our backers, will be added as app features!)*

The features with an asterisk are planned for the Beta, everything else is ready RIGHT NOW in the Alpha!

Here are some particular highlights for me:

1. Purchase once, unlocks for all platforms (PC, Android, iOS, MAC). That is awesome. I hate it when other games make you buy the game multiple times.

2. Single player Campaign mode - I always enjoy these. I'm not expecting much but when a game goes digital it really opens up the options you can do with a game. I really hope they eventually put a raid aspect or a co op format in the game. I would love to face off against a giant enemy with impossible odds.

3. Leagues and Tournaments - I love this addition. This will really spread the game out. It will be a lot easier to play in tournaments when you can do so in the comfort of your own home. I will love just setting up tournaments with friends, but a big league will be a lot of fun too. I also can't wait for the qualifiers that will be available via the digital app. Hopefully I won't need them because I will have already qualified somehow but it will be nice to have more opportunities.

4. Cosmetic Upgrades - It's always fun to bling your collection. I hope there are a lot of options.

5. This is not obvious from the App features but you can back this game for only $25 and get the entire game and all it's current expansions (also Alpha access!). The physical game is already a ridiculous deal but this is insane. Plus, since it's digital, you can unlimited copies! So no more proxy-ing! Yay!

I have already backed it, why haven't you?

Things I hope they add. I am sure I will come up with more once the Alpha gets started (Next Month!).

1. A wider deck building screen. I am sure this was just a rushed pic from the app, but I hope we will be able to pan out and get a view of our entire deck without having to scroll. I understand that on mobile devices that may be difficult, but it shouldn't be for a PC. While I'm talking about the deck builder, I really just hope that it's similar to the Epic Foundry deck builder. That is awesome. You can search for cards, you simply hover over a card to see the card, and it's very easy to use. Maybe even have a thing where you can upload decks from Epic Foundry to the app!

2. I already mentioned this, but in addition to the campaign I want specific challenges and achievements. I'd like some cosmetic stuff to have to be unlocked. I want stuff to work towards. This goes into helping one bling one's collection.

3. Easy to figure out ways of streaming and chat - This will be a very social game, and I currently am very inept when it comes to this stuff. I hope it's easy to figure out.

4. An offline way to play the game against yourself. I will sometimes want to test out decks against each other, and it can be easier if I just do it myself. I would love it if this was a feature.

As of this writing they are almost 50% funded, with a month left to go, so I have no worries that it will be funded. I can't wait to hear more about the various features and I can't wait to get my hands on it next month. Rest assured I will be talking about this a lot in the future. If you want to check out the game for a really low price go and back it, you won't regret it! You can go back it here!

Happy gaming!

Suggestions for Pit People

I love Pit People. It is great fun. I talked about the game at length here. In this article, I'm basically writing a letter to the developers that they shall read and definitely listen to, in regards to what I think will make Pit People even better.

First, let me again say how much I have been enjoying the game so far. If my 30+ hours and only ~20% completion is any indication, I have lots more to enjoy in the future. Allow me the chance to subtly suggest and not threaten the developers with ways that could improve their wonderful game.

1. More Stamper. Part of what made Battleblock Theater so entertaining was the constant narration of Stamper making fun of and yelling at you. It really made the game shine. All of the limited story we have had so far was amazing, but the rest of the game did not showcase Stamper nearly enough. I want to hear more from him in the Pit, for example, or around the map. Please add more.

2. More Story. The story is awesome so far, and you've said you will be adding more. I hope it's lots more, because I am really enjoying it thus far.

3. Better Descriptions - The game as is is not very beginner friendly. I had to play a lot before I figured out how the game works. There needs to be some more tips or ways of showing you how to do things. Something as simple as informing you that most of the gear and weapons are cosmetic, and that the only difference is the class of weapon and maybe an element or special ability attached to it. While we're at it, I wouldn't mind a more thorough and precise look at what the various weapons do add to your characters. They showcase a lot already, but I would like to be told that smaller swords hit twice, or that throwing axes give you a chance to riposte an enemy that attacks adjacent to you. Also it'd be nice to see exactly how far some of the ranged units can get.

4. Leveling - It is an odd thing right now it the Pit in PVP or PVE that a lower leveled team actually performs better than a higher one. Since a lower leveled team lvls up more in a match, it performs consistently better, despite the high lvled team having boosted stats. I like the lvling mechanic with the healing and everything, but my higher lvled team should be better, not worse. My suggestion is to make all characters level up the same no matter what level they are. The jump from level 1 to 2 should take the same experience as 90-91. That would make it even across the board and give higher leveled teams a slight boost.

5. Variety in the marketplace and customization - Perhaps I have not visited enough, but there seems to be limited variety in the marketplace. It's almost always just humans. I think I saw a Unicorn once, but it'd be nice if the other creatures got showcased in the marketplace.

6. Customization - Could we get some more customizable options when it comes to the nonhumans? The humans get tons of awesome stuff, and I love that, but a lot of the other races do not have nearly enough in my opinion. The hairy trolls only get different heads? Can we have different hair styles or maybe even different hair colors at least? Maybe different expressions? I love the little Kobolds, can we have more than just backpack changes? Little stuff like that. Also, we could use multiple skins of capturing nets. Pokeballs, minicages, beartraps, ghostbuster traps, whatever. They could just be different skins and function just the same. I'd just like more customs. Also steampunk items.

7. Equipping - This has to do with equipping your characters. Right now you have to load up a character, unequip all of their stuff, load up a different character, THEN give them the items. This is a little clunky. Can't a team have access to your entire inventory? You can only have 1 team active at once. If you only have 1 obsidian sword, then only 1 person on a team can have it, but allow us to equip it onto 1 person on each team so we can save some time.

8. More caravan item slots - Can we get some more slots for our caravans while we explore? You fight one time and your inventory is like 75% full. I don't want to have to keep going back to the base or risk losing treasure. It also would make items like the campfire and resurrection more useful, since right now you basically have to go back to town anyway after a battle.

9. Autoplay mode - I love that addition. Please don't change it. It is definitely not an advantage as if you play someone else, they should really be able to win.

10. Music - I would like the ability to change the music while on the big map. The western theme got very old. I liked the title music, I wouldn't mind hearing that more often in the game. It seems like you have a variety of songs available in the town, I hope we can expand that to other parts of the game as well.

Make a board game of Pit People - This game could translate into a board game so easy. Take a cue from the guys who make League of Legends and make a board game of Pit People. That would be awesome. Hex based combat works very well. You could have Lego-like figures to customize a team's look. Heck, you could act the devil and make booster packs with items in them. Dice based combat would probably be best. If you ever need some help developing it, I would be glad to help. I am heavily invested in the board game community and have a lot of experience in them.

Other names to add:
Flibberdigiblets
Giblets
Niblet
Hammer Time
Caractacus
Oomph
Smack
Widget
Kerplatt
Cannon Fodder
Norman
Meatshield
Blood Donor
Yellow Bellied Sap Sucker
Fart Fig Newton
Poop Face
Weiner Schnitzel
Lord Stanley
Gustafus Gus
Piddilywinks
Fiddilywinks
Tiddlywinks
Fezziwig
Rumblebuffin
Rumplebuffin
Seymor Butts
Consumer
Confectionous
Cupcake War
General Tso
War on Drugs
Star Ward
I did it
Guilty as charged
Smelt it
Dealt it
Oldie Von Moldie
Cantankerous Shrew
Edgar Allen Poop
P. Ap Smear
Winkus
Dingus
Dingo
Babyface McGee
Sugaly Clube
Mulligan McMurphy
Shenanigans
Gutbarge
Curtsy
Rage Monster
L33t
Douchebag
Douchenozzle
Numbnuts
Buttmunch
Porkins
Sharkbait
Sharktank
A-Aron
L'Carpetron Dookmarriot
Hingle McCringleberry
Dillwad
Toby
Fudge
Lasquavius
Ozmataz Buttshank
Osh Gosh
Donkey Punch
Dillweed
Squidgie
Squeedgie
Orangello
Lemongello
Squints
Flitwick
Kenny

That's probably enough to choose from for now ;)

What do you think? Any ideas stand out? Any I'm missing? Let me know. I hope you enjoyed. Happy gaming!

Pit People Game Preview

Pit People is finally here...sort of. It's here as an early access game, which is kind of like a larger demo. It's a glorified beta test but much better. It's a chance for the developers to give people a semi-finished product, get some feedback, and hopefully continue to add and fix until the official release. I don't mind this, especially if the game is as polished and finished as Pit People.

Giant mutant green blooded bears reek havoc on the planet. Take that global warming.

Pit People is brought to us from The Behemoth, an awesome company that traces its roots back to the Flash animation of their first game Alien Hominid. I have played all of their games and have enjoyed them all. Behemoth started out with Alien Hominid which was a side scrolling shooter like Contra. They moved onto Castle Crashers which was an arcade game similar to the vein of the Simpsons or the X-Men arcade games. They then branched out to the world of platformers with Battleblock Theater, and now are jumping genres again into the turn based strategy game of Pit People. Behemoth is known for their cartooney-hand drawn look of their games, and South Park-ian humor. There are the obligatory poop jokes and other dark and satirical infantile humor. It's great fun.

It's the kind of game that doesn't take itself seriously, what with a giant 6-limbed space bear acting as a demigod over a time period mismash of technology and fantasy. There are few games that boast robots with cyclopian monsters, barbarians with pixies, and zombies with La-Z-Boy Gnomes. Say nothing of the inventory system that allows you to customize your characters with your generic swords, to bowling balls, to trophies, to machine guns, to yogurt cannons.

Balloon-floating-giraffe-riding-uzi-wielding guy? Sure

The game plays as a turn based strategy game similar to X-Com, except much simpler. You can move with all your various units on a hex-based map, and they all have different stats and abilities, but you only move them. They attack on their own, they use their abilities on their own, and you don't actually control anything other than movement. You can narrow down their targets by careful positioning, which definitely helps. I thought I would dislike this, but after many hours of playing I am perfectly fine with this. Each mission of X-Com could take 45 minutes with all the micromanaging. I loved that game, but it can be nice just to move 6 figures and have them do the rest and have a fight be done in 5 minutes. The game moves quickly and has that addicting element of "sure, just one more fight".

"Oops...butterfingers!" I hope nobody important was in there

You control a team of 6 slots. Some creatures take up multiple slots like the vast Troll Mother who spawns little furry trolls. Others give you 2 creatures-for-1-slot like the zombies or gnomes. There is a ton of customization and trial and error when it comes to your team composition. You can simply have a team that has 3 hulking Hairy Trolls that automatically heal themselves and do a ton of damage, or you can get precise and have some humans with tower shields to block incoming arrows, unicorns to shoot a barrage of exploding horns over top, and pixies for crowd control. Part of the strategy while fighting is that everything your characters do gives them experience. Gain enough experience and you level up, which fully heals you, and provides you with a slight increase to your base stats. So you are maneuvering your guys around and trying to position them in a way to level up just at the right time to increase your likelihood of success.

Mmmmmm...swag

The real fun comes with decking out your favorite team with swag. I love my zombies with diver helmets, my cyclops with candy cane swords, my humans with dastardly mustaches and exploding frog range weapons. There is a lot of treasure hunting and Pokemon gotta-catch-them-all addicting like gameplay that keeps you coming back for more. Your characters can be equipped with nets and if you can manage to kill off all your opponents except your target, you can capture them and add them to your collection. There are over a thousand items to collect, tons of creatures, and to top it all off, all the creatures have different names so if you really want a certain name, you will be doing some hunting.

You are never too old for this humor

 The game currently has a short campaign with promises of more to come. It only spans a few missions, but is hilariously narrated by Will Stamper, veteran of the Behemoth games, and makes it all worth while. I hope they add a lot more narration from him because he is so funny. Everything he says is comedic gold. There are tons of side quests one can do as well, not to mention the promise of treasure hunting. The side quests are pretty varied and are not all simply kill everything on the screen. There was one mission where I had to battle on a chess board and had to carefully maneuver around the board to miss the paths of the opposing units, as they would automatically kill you if they moved into your space. On another mission I had to rescue a cupcake (the game's healing unit), from being eaten at a wedding by the guests. On yet another quest I had to try and take out a band leader before he recruited all the people in the town with their hypnotic music. Some of the missions are very quick and simple, some pit you against much larger armies and you really have to dig down deep in your strategy purse to find a way to win.

Hex based maps, this should be made into a board game

When you are not battling you will find your team carousing around in a caravan on a giant map. Fog of War prevents you from seeing everything so there is a bit of exploration needed. We have been told that we are seeing only a fraction of the final world map, and there is already a lot of room to run around in. There are little nooks and crannies to find special items and quests, and the world is populated with lots of monsters. You can try and find that one missing creature in your collection and run right into them, starting a battle. Or, if you are trying to get to a quest marker and want to avoid combat, you can use the cannons on your caravan to stun an enemy on the map and pass unhindered.

Lots of experience and no death. Impressive

You can showcase your special loot and crazy-named creatures in the pit arena in town if you have exhausted the quests (unlikely) and storyline. You can "pit" your custom teams against the AI in the unfair challenge, which lasts 3 stages of increasing difficulty and unfair odds, and if you manage to make it to the end, you are rewarded with tons of loot, not to mention pit points, which go towards a total and is compared with 100 other random people that play the game. It is a daily little fun mechanic to keep you playing. You compete and depending on how many points you get and what rank you are, you are rewarded with loot at the end of the day. Sometimes you even get special pit loot which is gold chrome plated and looks very snazy. You can also attempt to play other players in PVP as well. I haven't done as much of this but there is a lot of strategy and metagaming. You really get to test your skills against another player, and this will keep the game going a long time after you get bored with other stuff. I hope they expand it.

In town you can also go to the marketplace to specifically buy certain items that show up each day, and even certain characters with maybe a name you really like. There is an option to play different music in town, as well as an insane mode that makes the unfair matches even more ludicrous. You can buy nets for capturing, campfires to heal your party when your out in the wild, and grab quests off the bounty board, and of course customize and play with your team.

Mama Troll doesn't like it when you stab her babies

Pit People is a very odd game that manages to combine silly humor, tactical but quick gameplay, and addicting customization that I am sure will keep me coming back for more. I have played the game preview for over 30 hours and according to my completion statistic I am only slightly over 15% complete. If Behemoth continues to add more content and can round out the campaign aspect, this could be a serious bargain of a game considering the extremely low price tag of $15. Go try it out now!

In my next article I will be posting what improvements I would like to see in Pit People, and some of my suggestions on how to make it better. Until then, keep up the good job Behemoth and thank you all for reading. Happy gaming!

Epic Dark Draft Decisions (12)

For the new readers, here is what I'm doing:

I use a random card generator to generate a hand of 5 cards from a complete singleton set of Epic, which includes the Core, the Tyrants, and new Uprising sets. I will then analyze the hand and decide what I would tend to pick if I were to draw that hand in the Dark Draft format of play. I will decide which card to pick if I got that pack, as well as which 2 cards I'd pick if I got the remaining 4. For the sake of consistency, I will assume this is the first pack I open.

For your information and as a reminder, here are the Dark Draft rules from the official website:

Dark Draft (2 players)

• Shuffle a stack of at least 120 cards. Deal 5 to each player.
• Each player takes 1 card out of their hand of five cards and drafts it, then passes the other 4 to the other (at the same time).
• Each player takes 2 cards out of their new hand of four cards and drafts them, then discards the remaining two cards into a shared face-down discard pile.

Both players now have drafted three cards. Repeat nine times to get to a 30-card deck, shuffle and play.

This is a fun, fast, and skill-testing draft format for two players. Many of our competitive events use this format in the playoff rounds. This format is used in our World Championship. Source: http://www.epiccardgame.com/formats-draft/

This time was slightly different. My randomizer actually came up with 3 Evil 0-cost cards. I decided to add 2 others just because I think the debate between the 0-costers to be very interesting.

 

 

Consume - In my opinion, this is a better Unquenchable Thirst. I don't like getting rid of my own discard pile, and even though it has a higher ceiling, I usually find that 3 damage is usually all I need anyway. There are always so many ~3 health targets in any Epic game that it is almost always useful, and 3 health is a nice little bonus.

Guilt Demon - This is one of my favorite cards. I have spoken about this in the past. I love just Blitzing this to get rid of pesky cards in my opponent's discard pile like Soul Hunter or Psionic Assault. I love it when I can draw out my opponent's gold as well, and if not, 3 damage can really start to add up. Plus, in a pinch this "little guy" (I mean look at that art!), can be Ambushed in to stop a big flier.

Raxxa's Curse - This is another one of my favorite cards. I am wondering if Evil is my favorite faction. I can always use this card in any deck that I build. I am never sad if I draft this. As a 0-cost remover there is nothing better. Getting rid of a Muse and getting a demon token is awesome. Sometimes that is enough to draw out my opponent's gold on my turn as they don't like taking the considerable 4 damage. There are always 0-cost cards to get rid of, so this can always be used. Plus, it can serve as a draw 2 which is also always needed in a game of Epic.

Heinous Feast - Our good friend Tom Sorenson has phoned in as I am typing this to draft this card without further notice. I couldn't be angry at him for doing so either, as this card is very useful. Discard Pile Banish is one of the most powerful and game changing things one can do in Epic. It removes powerful recurring cards like the above mentioned Soul Hunter and Psionic Assault (plus many, many others), it slows down opposing decks as they no longer have fuel for Recycle triggers, and it prevents the alternate win condition for your opponent in drawing all of their cards (actually plausible in a 30 card deck). Heinous Feast also gives a little bit of health and functions as a draw 2 as well. I personally like using this to get rid of an opponent's discard pile and then play Zombie Apocalypse to prevent my opponent from getting more zombies than I.

Corpse Taker - I love having this little guy in Limited. Frequently, an opposing deck will have trouble with one particular champion, whether that is Juggernaut with its Unbreakable, Steel Golem with its Blitzing Untargetable-ness, Gold Dragon with its Airborne, or whatever it is. Once/if they finally find a way to deal with your amazing champion, play Corpse Taker and grab it from your discard pile and play it again and watch your opponent start to cry. My favorite play is to grab my Sea Titan, that my opponent has struggled with dealing with all game, back from the discard pile, and then using its ability to bounce the Corpse Taker back to my hand, ensuring I can do the same thing all over again. *rubs hands maliciously while cackling*

The only thing that saddens me about this pack is that I can only choose 1 of these cards for myself, while my opponent gets 2. I wouldn't even care if they got to pick first, I think whomever gets more of these cards is better off. That being said, if this was the first pack I opened, I think I might have to go with Raxxa's Curse. I really like all of these cards, but I really value drawing 2 cards at times so that helps eliminate some options. Plus, I personally value playing Raxxa's Curse over Heinous Feast. I can always play Raxxa's Curse, I don't always get the full benefit of Heinous Feast. I know how powerful discard pile banishing is, but I actually have never seen it happen to me. For whatever reason I usually win or lose before that can happen. Plus, I think Uprising gave us some more discard pile banishers (like Grave Demon), so I feel fairly confident that I could see some more if I really want some.

If I was lucky to get this pack after my opponent. I would probably grab Heinous Feast and Consume, although it's possible that I would get Guilt Demon depending on the day, lol. As I said all of the cards are very decent.

I am sure people disagree with me. I would love to hear why. Leave a comment and happy gaming!

My Epic Wishlist

I have looked at our past, and tried to get a glimpse of our future by looking at the old Epic TCG. Now I just want to touch upon some other ideas out there that I wouldn't mind seeing implemented into my favorite game.

I have said that I would like some of the abilities from the old Epic TCG. I would like the Range Keyword as it is basically first strike and I think that would be a fun and simple addition to the game. I would also like the discard ability found on some of those cards where you discard a card from a certain alignment and get to do something, like the Ancient Red Dragon's ability to tap him discard a Wild card to deal 5 damage to a target champion or player. I would also kind of like the Demoralize ability from the TCG. The Queen of the Underworld has this ability and although I don't want to add tokens into the game, I think changing a target champion to an 0/1 for a turn would be a decent ability.

 

 


We do have cards that play from the discard pile, and some like Smash and Burn that even allow you to have a special ability from the discard pile. I want more of those, but I'd also like some to be modifiers from the discard pile. Epic TCG had the Spawning Queen, and while she was in your discard pile your insect tokens would get +1/1. I think a zombie themed undead queen would be pretty cool to have.

Here are some other ideas I'd like to explore:

I would like each faction to have a champion that taps itself in order to give a target champion an ability. There could be a variety of options and each faction could have a different one. They could be new abilities or simply give a keyword for a turn. For example, you could have a Wild champion that taps to give a target champion Breakthrough until the end of the turn. Maybe a Good champion that taps to give a champion Airborne or Righteous. Stuff like that.

Speaking of Breakthrough, I'd an ability that's basically the reverse of Breakthrough. Call it Counter or Riposte:

Counter/Reposte - When dealing damage, take the total offense of champions with Counter/Riposte in the defense, subtract the total defense of all attacking champions, you may assign the remainder to the attacking player.

This could be a really fun ability that will introduce more mind games into Epic. Should I attack with that Dark Knight, knowing that my opponent may have a high attack Counter/Riposte unit with Ambush in hand?

I also would like an ability that functions similarly to what Magic does with its banish. I want Epic to have something that removes cards from the game. Maybe you could only remove them from the discard pile to prevent it from being too overpowered. Not only would this be able to remove very pesky cards like Soul Hunter or Ancient Chant, but it could give "decking" decks a viable chance at winning. Maybe you keep removing all your cards from play and you draw your last card and you win. Could be fun. It would make for an easier way of reaching that win condition, and I doubt it would be too overpowered since there is so much discard pile hate in the game already.

I, and my friend Josiah, have talked about this one before, but I'd like an ability on a champion that while it's in play, players cannot heal. Josiah made up a card that does this in his Lord of the Decay. This would be another easy addition to the game, but it would make for a lot of good plays as a result. It's a simple partial solution to Kark decks, for example. :)

I also would like a swarm ability. I can't remember who suggested this, and I thought they linked it to the old Epic TCG, but I never found something with that ability. It would be an ability where you could tap to add it's strength/defense to a target champion. This could allow for some good buffing to units that manage to get through after an opponent plays Ceasefire, or to punish players that spend their gold too quickly or allow a champion through. I like it thematically as well: These little guys adding their power in a rallying call to help their champion.

I want some kind of Epic Raid or something. It could be controlled via AI or maybe another player. But I want to face off against a giant boss and work together with teammates in order to overcome them. Something like what the World of Warcraft TCG did back in the day? Or hopefully what Hero Realms will do in the future ;)

In addition to some of these (genius) ideas, there are couple of other things I would like to see for Epic:

More Minotaurs. I know we have the Bellowing Minotaur but I want a named character, or a zombie token of a Minotaur. I know this argument is like beating a dead Minotaur, but I can't help myself.

In that same light I want some more token art. I was very sad to not get any new art in Uprising. I know they haven't officially given non-kickstarter people the alt art yet (they should), but I'd like to see even more.

More Dragons, Angels, Dinosaurs, and Demons. I know we continue to see more of these in every set, but keep them coming!

I want ratmen. I believe there are some sneaking about in the Lying in Wait card, but I'd like to see them fleshed out some more.

Some kind of goblins or maybe the orcs from Hero Realms. I need some green gobo goodness in Epic. Nothing is funnier than sending off goblins to die in horrible ways.

I want some giant spiders in Epic. Arachnarok could be a name used. I need some webby Shelob shenanigans in Epic.

We need werewolves. Andrew Kapish made this beautiful and wonderful card and it makes me want them more. We have the card, Rage, which has a werewolf on it, make it happen captain!

Anyway these are just some of the ideas that have been cooking in my noggin for a while now. What do you think? What would you like to see added? Let me know. Thanks for reading, and happy gaming in the new year!

Epic: A Look at Our Future

This is the 2nd part of looking at the old Epic TCG and looking at what might be in store for us who are fines of Epic: The Card Game. If you missed the first part here it is: Epic: A Look at the Past

It was also brought to my attention that somebody had already done something similar to what I am doing. Thanks to Andrew Kapish for better written article(s) IMO, and ones that go into far more detail than I've gone into. I will still finish this article but consider it a more reserved look into the Epic TCG than Andrew's. Here are the links to his articles which are totally worth a read though!

Part 1
Part 2

So this time I'm going to look at some Epic TCG cards and see what kinds of keywords we could possibly see in the future of our game. We know that the majority of Epic stuff from now on are supposed to be new stuff, but as we saw in the last article, there are plenty of things that were grabbed from the old TCG, so who knows? It's always fun to speculate either way.

Ancient Red Dragon - This doesn't have to do with a keyword as much as it's an ability that I would really like to see in Epic. Tapping and discarding a Wild card in order to use an ability is pretty cool. Epic so far has simply had abilities that tap, or abilities that cost gold or life, but we haven't had too many things that have a discard as a cost. Frantic Digging is one that comes to mind (amazing card), but we don't have anything that's a recurring ability with discard as a cost. I think there could be some very interesting interactions spawning from this. Andrew used a very good example of an interaction (Great minds think alike I guess, lol). Also note that Ancient Red Dragon has the keyword Deadly, which is the same ability that Thrasher Demon has.

1. Expend Ancient Red Dragon
2. Discard Smash and Burn
3. Deal 5 Deadly damage
4. Play Brachiosaurus
5. Banish Smash and Burn
6. Deal 6 damage to a target champion
7. Play Flame Strike
8. Deal 8 damage to a target

Timewalker - This one has an ability called Unveil. According to the Epic TCG rulebook:

Veiled - A champion with veiled may be played face down (so your opponent can’t see what it is) during the Build Step for the cost of 1 . You may unveil it (turn it face up) at any time you have priority. It must be unveiled after blockers are declared if it attacks or blocks. It also must be unveiled as it is targeted, would take damage, be broken, banished, leave play, or if a card or ability would check anything about it (like alignment, origin, offense, etc). If it is targeted while on the line, it is turned face up and will resolve face up. This is not considered unveiling and will not trigger any 46 47 when or as unveiled triggers. While veiled, a champion is considered to have no alignment or origin

Unveiled - A face down champion in play being turned face up is called unveiling. Many champions with veiled have an ability that triggers when or as they are unveiled.

This is a very interesting ability and one that would create a lot of fun interactions in the game, but one that I think would bog down the game and make it a little more complicated than it needs to be. It's a fun ability, but I don't mind it not crossing over.

Mithril Armor - This card brings us 2 differences between the old and the new: One is that this is an Object. Objects are kind of like Conditions in the LotR CCG, Effects in the Star Wars CCG, Artifacts/Enchantments in Magic: The Gathering. They are played and just stick around until used or discarded. Mithril Armor also introduces us to the Damage Ward keyword. According to the Epic TCG rulebook:

Damage Ward Reduce each instance of damage “Number” dealt by that number. Example: A champion with damage ward 5 is targeted by an event that does 7 damage to target champion. It will only take 2 damage. Example: A champion with damage ward 5 blocks an attacking group consisting of a champion with range and +3 , a champion with +5 and a champion with +4 . It will take 7 damage (5 + 3 + 4 - 5 = 7). Note: The 3 range damage and 2 damage of the blockers choice are prevented.

So we have a ridiculous in Mithril Armor. For one it replaces itself when played which is always nice. It's an Object so if it was added to Epic it would be impervious to all removal as we haven't seen Objects yet. Plus, it gives you Damage Ward 5, which allows you to ignore 5 damage from any source. If this plays out like I think it does, this would be way too OP. I am sure that if Objects would find their way into Epic that we'd have ways to get rid of them, but this is way too powerful. I think it could be added if it was a one time use. I think it would be very decent that way and an interesting addition to Epic. Champions with Damage Ward would also be a very cool addition.

Hunting Spider - This card gives us the Hunting keyword:

Hunter A champion with hunter may attack as normal or attack a champion another player controls (this doesn’t target). In order for a group to attack a champion, all the champions in the attacking group must have hunter. If the champion being hunted is prepared, flip it as the attack is declared. The controller of the hunted champion is considered the defender, and any breakthrough damage is applied to him. He may have other champion(s) block the attack as normal. If he does, the hunted champion is not involved in the 42 43 combat (but it is still flipped if it was prepared). An effect that prevents a player from being attacked will not prevent his champions from being attacked by hunters. A Hunter may only attack a champion that it could block. For example, a hunter without airborne or range can’t attack an airborne champion.

This ability is way too complicated as written. I like it in theory as it allows champions to specifically target opposing champions instead of a player, and I think that could be useful in Epic, but the wording would have to be changed. I doubt this would be added but I would be fine if it was.

The Archer - This generic card gives probably my favorite Epic TCG keyword, Range.

Range May block airborne attackers and deals damage first.

Range is so simple a concept, and yet it would be a huge and fun addition to Epic. I think it's simplicity runs well with how easy Epic is to grasp, and it would provide a different style of play that may crush chump blockers, which is always fun. Think of this like First Strike in Magic. I could and would like to see this keyword added to Epic.

Anyway that's it for this article, I hope you enjoyed it. Maybe we'll see some of these abilities someday? Until next time, happy gaming!

Epic: A Look at the Past

There are those of us that have grown to love Epic The Card Game over the past 2 years. There are sadly many people who haven't heard of the game or played it yet. And then there are people who have known and played it since 2009. Well... kind of. Not everyone knows this, but the Epic game we know and love actually has its roots in a game with an uncannily similar name of Epic TCG. Sporting a very familiar designer credit by the name of Robert Dougherty, the game attempted its breakout several years before its most recent iteration. I, myself, had not known of that game. I don't know how it went under my radar, as I am a huge card game fan and have played a wide variety of card games from Magic to Star Wars, to Lord of the Rings, to Redemption.

Nonetheless, as I started to enjoy Epic more and more, I had heard about its roots and decided that maybe some other people would be interested in seeing where some of their favorite cards came from. This isn't a really in-depth analysis of the game, but rather picking and choosing some cards that will be very familiar looking, and seeing how the older game has been brought into the new. After this I plan on looking at some of the cards that could be in our future.

So let's look at some of our ancestry:

 

T-Rex - Ah, one of the most iconic champions in the game. The older version was far better. Where now you must show 2 Wild cards from hand to draw 2 cards, before you could show UP to 3 Wild cards to draw the same amount shown! Very flexible, far too powerful.

 

Blue Dragon - Now this one has a slight change in it. Now, dealing damage is triggered only when it is played, or when you play another 1-cost Sage card. Back then, you got to do this any time a player drew a card! Talk about OP. I can see why they changed this.

 

Drain Essence - One of my favorite cards right now was considerably different at one point. They may look very similar, and the old one might even look a tad underpowered, but the target difference is very significant. Being able to hit an opponent for direct damage AND heal yourself is a big deal. Right now you can only hit a champion, although you deal and gain 9. I think this was a wise choice by the designers.

 

Second Wind - This one got the correct nerf. You used to be able to automatically get a card and gain 5 health. Now, you still get the 5 health, but you have to Recycle in order to draw a card. This is a very reasonable change.

I just showed you 4 cards from the set, but if you look at some of the other cards, you will see a ton of familiar faces. There are many cards that are directly lifted from the old game into the new. I think it's a testament to the designer that so many cards have stayed the same. A later article will be looking at some cards that have NOT made it into Epic yet, but considering how much has already come over, perhaps we can make some predictions?

Honestly, look through the card list sometime. There are so many cards that are very similar, if not exact, to the current edition. Thankfully, most of the art did not transfer over. Here is a link to Coolstuffinc that has some pictures of the cards: http://www.coolstuffinc.com/page/1051?&resultsperpage=25&page=1

Here are just some cards from Epic TCG that are exactly the same to versions in Epic The Card Game

Ambush = Surprise Attack
Army of the Apocalypse
Avenging Angel
Banished
Inner Peace
Lightning Storm
Plentiful Dead
Psionic Assault
Tricerotops

Stay tuned next time as I look at some of the old cards and see how our Epic might look like in the future! Thanks for reading and happy gaming!