Posts with tag WowTcg

As one of the featured races in the upcoming WoW TCG Timewalkers block, the tauren received the powerful Tribe keyword, which lets them activate each others' powers when they come into play. But they can't protect the timeways alone -- they need a chieftain to lead the charge and protect them. Enter Baine, Son of Cairne, the epic tauren ally in the upcoming War of the Ancients set that Cryptozoic sent us to preview.

Baine comes packing the powerful War Stomp keyword, knocking out a hero or ally when he swings, and further damaging them when they exhaust. His high health pool and Protector keyword will let him protect your weaker allies to keep their Tribe powers rolling in the late game.

We previewed the ultra-rare extended art version of the Malorne the White Stag master hero card last week, and Cryptozoic has begun their own official previews of War of the Ancients, which features playable lore characters as heroes for the first time in a standard WoW TCG set. Play as Malfurion, Queen Azshara, Broxigar the Red, and more heroes from every era of Warcraft history as you protect the timeways of the Caverns of Time with the Timewalkers faction.

Timewalkers: War of the Ancients releases October 2nd.

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WoW Archivist explores the secrets of World of Warcraft's past. What did the game look like years ago? Who is etched into WoW's history? What secrets does the game still hold?

In Mists of Pandaria, our companion pets will be more than just vanity items. We'll be able to tame them, train them, and pit them against each other in Azeroth's most adorable blood sport since School of Hard Knocks.

Pet battles are brand new, but the history of companion pets stretches all the way back to the game's earliest days. These faithful sidekicks have been tagging along with us from our first characters in 2004 to the final confrontation with Deathwing. They're more than just a fluffy diversion, however. Believe it or not, some pets have actually made the real world a better place, and some have irrevocably changed WoW as we know it.

The thrill of taking down Deathwing might be winding down in the MMO, but in the WoW TCG, those cylinders are just starting to fire. The Battle of the Aspects Raid Deck lets you and your friends use your decks of choice to take down the Destroyer's automated boss deck. Unlike previous raid decks, this one gives you options to adjust the difficulty. If you're running basic decks or you're a more casual player, the base experience will work just fine, but if you're a high-level player, you can ratchet up the difficulty with up to four Tentacle cards that give Deathwing new abilities.

The raid deck is augmented with one Treasure Pack booster with random cards from the 75-card Treasure set, including weapons, allies, and abilities (and a chance at Loot cards, too, since that's the question on your mind). Treasure Pack boosters are also available separately.

Battle of the Aspects is available in stores now.

P.S.: If you're wondering who wrote the brilliant flavor text on these cards, it was me. I did.

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Every week, WoW Insider brings you Gold Capped, in which Fox Van Allen and Basil "Euripides" Berntsen aim to show you how to make money on the auction house. Feed Fox's ego by emailing him or tweeting him at @foxvanallen.

Do you remember the moment you hit 1 gold for the first time? I do. I was killing mobs in Ashenvale, vendoring Light Feathers and other various trash drops. It was an epic moment. That first piece of gold felt like so much money.

It wasn't a lot of money, of course -- it just felt like it. But still, it was worth a heck of a lot more than one piece of gold is worth today. The reason: Azeroth suffers from a constant state of hyperinflation. The purchasing power of 1g is always falling, and it's falling quickly.

Thankfully, though, you don't have to stand by and be a victim.

I've always been a huge fan of game art in all its forms -- the walls of my house are literally covered in framed game posters, instruction booklets, and fan art. That, in part, is why I was so glad to see Blizzard update its Trading Card Game art gallery today with 10 new pieces of art.

Whether you play the card game or not, the (now) 40-piece WoW TCG gallery is definitely worth taking a look at. This update includes Booty Bay denizen Landro Longshot, a gnome impaling an orc, and (ever a fan favorite) scantily clad women holding weapons.

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World of Warcraft: Cataclysm has destroyed Azeroth as we know it; nothing is the same! In WoW Insider's Guide to Cataclysm, you can find out everything you need to know about WoW's third expansion, from leveling up a new goblin or worgen to breaking news and strategies on endgame play.

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The release of War of the Elements, the latest addition to the WoW TCG lineup, is just over the horizon. In preparation for its release, WoWTCGLoot.com has begun its presale contest -- for every piece of War of the Elements loot purchased, you are given a chance to win additional loot, as outlined in its contest rules.

In addition to that, WoWTCGLoot.com has given us some sweet loot to give away ourselves. Today, we have loot codes for one D.I.S.C.O. and one Goblin Weather Machine.

• For a chance to win the D.I.S.C.O., simply leave a comment on this post. At 11:59 p.m. EDT on March 31, we will disable comments on this post and choose a random winner.
• For a chance to win the Goblin Weather Machine, follow @WoWInsider on Twitter and send us a tweet telling us why you think you deserve it, in 140 characters or less! We will choose a winner tonight, March 29, at 11:59 p.m. EDT, and select a random winner.

You may only enter each contest once; additional entries may render you ineligible to receive either piece of loot.

If you don't win either of these pieces of loot, don't worry! We have more on the way in the coming days (and weeks).

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Rumors have been swirling around the Internet this weekend, reporting that the WoW Trading Card Game was ending this year after the release of the upcoming Scourgewar expansion set due to mishandling of marketing by the Upper Deck team. The rumor apparently started at Rawrcast, where it was attributed to a "reliable source".

Apparently not that reliable! Catching wind of the rumor, Upper Deck responded through its Senior Director, Scott Gaeta, saying that not only was the TCG not "over," but that it was steaming along right on schedule. Said Gaeta:

"Plans for future sets have been moving along as normal and we even announced a good chunk of the 2010 product schedule a week ago. Just recently the Upper Deck team was at Blizzard to discuss plans for 2011 and just today we were at Blizzard to get a sneak peak of Icecrown Citadel, to help in the development of the 2010 Raid Deck and Treasure Packs. We have lots of great plans for 2010 and beyond and look forward to another great year for the WOW TCG. Thanks for your enthusiasm and support! "

Good enough for me. Interneterati who heard the rumor attributed the TCG's purported demise to a myriad of culprits, including Blizzard's new microtransactional Pet Store, Activision grand poobah and laser-precise IP exploiter Bobby Kotick, or even the iron tabletop gaming fist of Magic: The Gathering. Of course, none of those ended up being the case.

Me, I'm glad to see that the TCG isn't going away, but let's start seeing some of those cool vanity loot card items attainable through other means, yeah? And the rocket mount an Engineering item.

Good morning, WoW Insider! It's maintenance day, and you know what that means: WoW Insider has shinies for you. Yes, courtesy of WoWTCGLoot.com, we have another batch of loot codes to give away to you guys today. Be warned: These codes are region locked, so they're only valid in North America. Sorry, rest of the world. We'll do what we can for you guys another time.

What loot cards do we have today? Well, thanks for asking! We have...

Upper Deck has officially released the latest expansion in the WoW Trading Card Game -- the Blood of Gladiators is the game's eighth expansion set (can you believe this game has been around for three years already?), and features new PvP action, including a new Duel Faction Ally card and a new Arena setting in the Gurubashi Arena. There are three new characters in the game as well, coming straight from the pages of the World of Warcraft comic, with art by none other than Jim Lee. And of course it's got the loot cards we talked about earlier, including the Foam Swords rack and the Sandbox Tiger. Can't wait to see those in the game.

Booster packs from the set run about $4 in most places, though demand for the game can actually drive the prices up at retail if store owners feel they're running out too fast. Seems like, at this point, the WoW TCG has its fans, and the online game does as well, and sometimes the two are not the same people. Anyone been waiting for this release, or, eight times in, is yet another expansion set actually business as usual in the collectible card game?

Tabards have been a fairly frequent subject lately. There are the summer-themed tabards you get from the Shards of Ahune, which are a part of the Midsummer festivities. And, of course, there was the "glitch" that may have revealed a Legendary tabard. The World of Warcraft trading card game is getting in on the action by letting you purchase tabards with your UDE points.

The ability to purchase these tabards will be included with patch 2.4.3, according to the Upper Deck. Each of the six tabards are all variations on the same skin or pattern, with the only real difference being a change to the color pallette. This is the Tabard of the Void on the right. They don't say exactly how many UDE points each will cost yet, and ask us to stay tuned for details.

If you don't know, you get UDE (Upper Deck Entertainment) points by purchasing UDE products. I know, that's a stretch. Eeach WoW TCG pack you buy has a card with points on it. So far, you get a 100 point card with each booster pack. We'll let you know if and when we hear more about how many packs you have to buy to get a tabard.

We covered the Rocket Mount announcement a earlier last month. However with the 2.4 patch notes released last night, and the test client now downloadable, we've been able to do some digging around. The mpq files have been kind to us and have given us this great animation of my warrior ridding the newest addition to the loot available from the World of Warcraft Trading Card Game, the Rocket Mount.

I'm sure everyone will want one of these. My guess is that it'll be even more in demand than the Spectral Tiger Mount. After all, who just can't resist going "yeehaw!" when you see this?

Don't forget: today is your absolute last chance to submit your artwork for our huge Art Card contest-- we're giving away two very exclusive Upper Deck WoW TCG Art Card sets to two different artist. Just send us a JPEG of your Horde or Alliance fan art to wowinsidercontests@gmail.com, and the best Horde art wins the Horde set, and the best Alliance artist wins the Alliance set.

Each set has 35 8x10 art cards (including art by all your favorite Blizzard artists), a special playable foil card, and a card redeemable for 1000 UDE points (which you can use to buy ingame items like the Ogre suit!). These sets are super exclusive, and all you have to do to win one is send us your best original WoW fan art. If your art is chosen as our Horde or Alliance winner, the Art Card set is yours.

But act fast-- today is the last day. Email us a JPEG at wowinsidercontests@gmail.com to enter, and please include your name, age, mailing address, and email address-- that'll make things easier later when we mail out the winners. Official rules are right here. Good luck! Get that art in quick!

A little while back, we heard from Upper Deck that there would be a new set of holiday cards coming out for the Feast of Winter Veil ingame holiday, and now reader Dave C has spotted a preview for the cards in the aptly named Previews magazine. If I recall correctly from my comic collecting days, Previews is a magazine for retailers published by a distributor so they can know what's coming in the next few months and how many of each product to order.

At any rate, what's important is that they have a short preview of the upcoming holiday set, and while specifics are still unclear, we're told that each set will have ten exclusive game cards, two Pet mini-cards, three booster packs, and a special "Feast of Winter's Veil" box in it. Unfortunately for the MMO players, none of these cards will be ingame loot cards, but as we said when we first heard about this set, it might be a nice gift for someone who plays the card game itself.

Dave also says the Previews issue has a three page preview of the WoW comic book, and obviously WoW shows up on the cover as well. So expect a lot of WoW-related goodies hitting your local comic book store this holiday season.

When I was but a wee lad of five, my grandmother taught me how to play poker. What can I say, she knew how to have fun. As I grew up, my love for card games extended to board games and video games. Then came trading card games which took up a good deal of my teen years and I played for the enjoyment of competition. Others apparently play to win enough cold hard cash to buy an BMW M6 Convertible.

The US Nationals of the World of Warcraft Trading Card Game tournament is this weekend at Gen Con Indy in Indiana. The first and second place winner of the national tournament will get flown to San Diego, California over Thanksgiving weekend to compete in the World Championship tournament and get their shot at the $100,000 grand prize.

Upper Deck, the makers of the card game, will be covering the three day national tournament live on their site. There are elimination rounds through Sunday when the final winners will be crowned. Now, if we can just get paid to play WoW itself.