New tabards from WoW TCG

Posted Jun 25th 2008 1:00PM by Michael Gray
Filed under: Items, Analysis / Opinion, News items, WoW TCG

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.

Gallery: New tabards from WoW TCG

Rocket Mount animation

Posted Feb 9th 2008 5:15PM by Adam Holisky
Filed under: Patches, News items, Mounts

Last day for the WoW Insider Art Card Contest!

Posted Sep 20th 2007 9:00AM by Mike Schramm
Filed under: Horde, Alliance, Fan stuff, WoW Insider Business, Contests, WoW TCG

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!

Winter's Veil CCG cards previewed

Posted Sep 4th 2007 8:44PM by Mike Schramm
Filed under: Items, Fan stuff, Odds and ends, Expansions

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.

The road to $100,000 continues in Indiana

Posted Aug 17th 2007 2:04PM by Dan O'Halloran
Filed under: Events, News items

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.

Two new TCG sets (and new loot card series) coming in November

Posted Aug 7th 2007 2:00PM by Mike Schramm
Filed under: Events, Blizzard, News items, Expansions

Saturday at BlizzCon, WoW Insider got a chance to sit down with a couple of folks from Upper Deck (including David Baumgartner, who worked on designing the original TCG, and also showed up at the BlizzCon WoW Insider meetup), and in between the turns of a short game, they hooked us up with info about a few upcoming releases for the WoW TCG.

You probably already know about the Fires of Outland set, coming on August 22nd (that's the one that has the Spectral Tiger Mount in it), but we were also told about the next set release, which will be called March of the Legion, and will drop in November. There will be new loot cards for that set (we've haven't been told what they are yet, but when we hear, so will you), as well as the introduction of "sub-factions" (I'm assuming this is factions like Scryers or the Mag'har), demonic allies, and new powers for Heroes. Also, each booster pack in this set will have 19 cards instead of the current 15, and 19 cards will be the standard from now on. More cards for the buck!

The other new set we heard about is a special holiday set, also in November-- Upper Deck is going to release a Feast of Winter's Veil collector's set, and it'll have stuff from the ingame holiday to use in the TCG, as well as 10 exclusive game cards (not sure what that means), and Pet mini-cards. As far as we were told, the collector's set won't have any loot cards in it, but if you're into the TCG (or know someone who is, as they're marketing it as a gift set), maybe it'll pique your interest.

At any rate, the thing we're most excited about, of course, is the new loot cards coming with March of the Legion, which hopefully we'll hear deets on soon. I still haven't quite been sold on actually buying these things-- the card game is fun, but all of my WoW spending money is going to playing the MMO at the moment. Still, if you're into it, a new set is always exciting to hear about.

Three new loot cards for the WoW TCG

Posted Jul 12th 2007 11:30AM by Mike Schramm
Filed under: Items, Blizzard, News items, Expansions, Mounts

We actually heard from Upper Deck last month that there would be new loot cards coming in the "Fires of Outland" booster release from the WoW collectible card game, but now PHD Games has announced exactly what they'll be. Strangely enough, PHD is a distributor, and there's no word on Upper Deck's site about this, so this may actually be an unapproved leak-- wonder if PHD might face consequences for apparently telling us all of this early.

At any rate, here's the random cards that will be showing up in Fires of Outland:

• Goblin Gumbo, which will make you "burp outlandish gas"
• A Fishing Chair, for relaxing while angling
• And the best one: A Spectral Tiger mount (!). MMO Champion has actual pics, which you can see above. Pretty!

Also, all the loot cards will now be foil cards (which is a first for the WoW TCG), and they'll have a different design as well. Fires of Outland, says PHD, is coming in late August.

Update: Commenter boulee points out there were foil cards in the Onyxia raid deck. Thanks!

Enter to win a signed WoW TCG playmat from WoW Insider

Posted Jul 3rd 2007 11:00AM by Mike Schramm
Filed under: WoW Insider Business, Blizzard, Contests

The other weekend, I went out to Schaumberg, IL to meet up with the guys from Upper Deck at the WoW TCG Darkmoon Faire. And not only did I walk away with a couple of interviews and a lot of pictures, they also hooked me up with these two rare playmats, which we're giving away to two lucky readers!

The one on top was given away to everyone who participated in the main tournament at the Darkmoon Faire events, and the one on the bottom features art by none other than Gabe of Penny Arcade. Oh, and you can't see it in the picture, but both mats are signed by none other than Mike Hummel, head of Upper Deck's R&D, and co-creator of the WoW TCG.

To enter, just leave a comment (one comment and only one comment) on this post right here. As usual, the contest is only open to US residents age 13 and up (rest of the official rules here). Tomorrow morning at 11am EST, I'll close the comments and we'll choose two at random to each receive one playmat each. Good luck, comment away!

Update: Contest over, comments closed. Thanks for entering everyone-- check your email to see if you won.

WoW TCG: Interview with Mike Hummel, Senior Game Designer

Posted Jun 18th 2007 1:15PM by Mike Schramm
Filed under: Fan stuff, WoW Insider Business, News items, Features, Interviews

Mike Hummel has been playing collectible card games since the beginning. As leader of the R&D team at Upper Deck, he created the Marvel/DC VS system, as well as worked on Yu-gi-oh, one of the most successful CCGs of all time. And he's one of three main designers behind the World of Warcraft card game. So when I asked for a demo game, and he sat down to play across from me, I was suitably intimidated.

It didn't help that I had never actually played the game before. But Hummel knows card strategy in and out (he should know this card game-- he made it), and so I followed his instructions as I laid down my first quest cards and resources. I took his advice in choosing my first allies and playing my abilities. I was given a Warlock deck to start with, and it became a classic PvP duel when his Druid dropped into Cat Form and started ripping me apart.

Continue reading WoW TCG: Interview with Mike Hummel, Senior Game Designer

Breakfast Topic: The trading card game

Posted Jun 18th 2007 8:01AM by Mike Schramm
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Odds and ends, Blizzard, Breakfast topics

No, this isn't an announcement of a new TCG about our Breakfast Topics (but wouldn't that be fun? I see your flamebait, and raise you an intelligent comment!!). But I would like to get all your thoughts on the collectible card game based on World of Warcraft.

Personally, I haven't really gotten that much into it, but since the Darkmoon Faire was in Chicago this past weekend, I went out there and obtained some photos and an interview or two for those interested to peruse. I learned to play the game and got to go one-on-one with one of the creators (his interview will be up today), and I have to say that the game itself is pretty fun-- lots of strategy, and plenty of inside jokes about our own little world of Azeroth.

I don't see it taking over my life, however, mostly because I don't have anyone around to play with-- even my boardgaming and roleplaying friends haven't picked it up yet, and probably won't any time soon. But I can definitely see the draw, not only of learning all the strategies of different decks, but actually collecting the cards that make them up.

So is it your thing or not? And why? If not, have you tried it and not liked it or just not tried it at all?

WoW TCG: At the Darkmoon Faire Chicago

Posted Jun 17th 2007 7:14PM by Mike Schramm
Filed under: WoW Insider Business, WoW Social Conventions, Blizzard, News items, Contests, Galleries

I spent last Friday evening at Upper Deck's Darkmoon Faire event in Chicago, IL (actually Schaumberg, as our readers have pointed out). And once there, I learned all about the WoW trading card game. I got to meet both Ben Drago, who organizes these events for Upper Deck, and Mike Hummel, who developed and created the game with the rest of his team.

I also saw lots of people playing the game-- there were beginner and advance tournaments running all weekend-- as well as a special section Blizzard had set up with Upper Deck to allow visitors to play on a special LAN server, where they ran scavenger hunts and PvP events ingame. Tons of people brought tons of cards, and everyone got to throw down and try to outlast their opponent's heroes more than once over the weekend. A gallery of pictures from the Faire is below-- thanks to Upper Deck for putting on the event in Schaumberg, and we can't wait to see you guys again at Blizzcon.

Gallery: Darkmoon Faire Chicago

WoW TCG: Interview with Ben Drago, Manager of Organized Play

Posted Jun 17th 2007 6:00PM by Mike Schramm
Filed under: WoW Insider Business, Blizzard, Features, Interviews

When I came upon Ben Drago at the Darkmoon Faire in Chicago, he was yelling like Ragnaros. He was facing off against three WoW TCG players-- one was playing a Paladin, the second a Mage, and the last a Hunter. It was a Molten Core raiding event, and Drago was more than giving the guys a run for their money. The Paladin dropped quick (the player complained that Drago's Shazzrah "wouldn't let me heal!"), and while the mage and hunter held their own for a while, Drago eventually crushed them all with Rag's firey might.

He handed out a few booster packs as prizes anyway, and then sat down to talk with me about the WoW TCG that he promotes all over the country and the world, what player reaction has been like, and Upper Deck's event plans for Blizzcon and beyond.

Continue reading WoW TCG: Interview with Ben Drago, Manager of Organized Play

Around Azeroth: The elusive turtle mount

Posted Dec 8th 2006 10:00AM by Elizabeth Harper
Filed under: Features, Screenshots, Mounts

Reader Steve sends in this lovely shot of the rare turtle mount, which you too may be able to find if you buy enough packs of WoW TCG cards. It's slightly Photoshoped to give it that proper photorealistic effect. Not half bad, if I do say so myself.

Do you have a unique shot of Azeroth that you'd like to show off to the rest of the world? Tell us about it by e-mailing aroundazeroth@gmail.com! You can attach a picture file or send us a link to one -- and don't worry about formatting, we'll take care of that part.

WoW TCG: Prizes, fabulous prizes!

Posted Nov 1st 2006 12:15PM by Elizabeth Harper
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Odds and ends

As you may have heard, there are two ways to receive in-game rewards from World of Warcraft's trading card game: special "loot" cards giving specific prizes and by collecting UDE points, which come with each pack of cards. You get 100 points per booster pack (which gives 200 points per starter deck, as it contains two boosters) via codes you enter on Upper Deck's website. And there are some fun rewards here, too! Beyond special wallpapers with unique artwork, there's a funky blue tabard, a trinket that sets off a unique fireworks display, and a trinket that turns you into an Ogre. The problem, however, is cost. The tabard costs 2,000 points, the fireworks trinket costs 10,000 points, and the Ogre trinket 25,000 points. So 20 booster packs, 100 booster packs, and 250 booster packs, respectively. Paying about $4.50 per booster, that's $90 for the tabard, $450 for the fireworks trinket, and $1,125 for the Ogre trinket. Yikes -- that's a heck of a financial investment for a pretty bauble.

From MMO to TCG

Posted Oct 3rd 2006 12:30PM by Elizabeth Harper
Filed under: Odds and ends

The TCG launch date is not far off -- you should plan on hitting up your local gaming store on October 25th if you want to pick up your cards immediately -- and with all previews thus far suggesting that playing is a blast, I'm certainly going to be there. But for those of us who haven't had a chance to play yet, the question is how, exactly, a card game could replicate the fun gameplay experience of the online game. Well, in search of that answer, the Escapist interviews Brian Kibler and Danny Mandell, lead developer and lead designer of the TCG.

[Thanks, Dan]

WOW Insider Features

Featured Stories

Upcoming events

RESOURCES

• About
• Directory
• Send us news tips
• Contact Us
• Advertise
• Corrections?
• Problems?

Blizzard Events

BlizzCon (228)

Worldwide Invitational (117)

Class Columns

(Death Knight) Lichborne (6)

(Druid) Shifting Perspectives (52)

(Hunter) Big Red Kitty (49)

(Hunter) Scattered Shots (29)

(Mage) Arcane Brilliance (52)

(Paladin) The Light and How to Swing It (57)

(Priest) Spiritual Guidance (33)

(Rogue) Encrypted Text (38)

(Shaman) Totem Talk (60)

(Warlock) Blood Pact (34)

(Warrior) The Care and Feeding of Warriors (64)

Gameplay

(Arena PvP) Blood Sport (30)

(BG PvP) The Art of War(craft) (31)

(Casual) WoW, Casually (23)

(Guild Leadership) Officers' Quarters (71)

(Professions) Insider Trader (71)

(Raid Healing) Raid Rx (20)

(Raiding) Raiding 101 (2)

(Raiding) Ready Check (32)

(Roleplaying) All the World's a Stage (51)

Hybrid Theory (25)

New Players' Guide (4)

Tank Talk (9)

AddOns and UI

AddOn Spotlight (96)

Macro Anatomy (15)

Reader UI of the Week (28)

Reader WoWspace of the week (31)

The Creamy GUI Center (19)

Lore and Stories

Around Azeroth (584)

Ask A Lore Nerd (16)

Barrens Chat (18)

Know your Lore (66)

Tales from the Lion's Pride Inn (14)

WoW Moviewatch (577)

Features

15 Minutes of Fame (32)

About the Bloggers (29)

Ask WoW Insider (67)

Azeroth Security Advisor (4)

Breakfast topics (784)

Build Shop (37)

Forum Post of the Day (53)

Gamers on the Street (25)

Guildwatch (89)

He Said She Said (5)

Illusionary Tactics (3)

It came from the Blog (29)

Phat Loot Phriday (100)

The Colosseum (5)

Two Bosses Enter (61)

Well Fed Buff (30)

World of WarCrafts (33)

WoW Crossword (9)

WoW Insider Show (85)

WoW Rookie (42)

[1.Local] (20)

Classes

Death Knight (176)

Druid (363)

Hunter (360)

Mage (212)

Paladin (354)

Priest (291)

Rogue (205)

Shaman (323)

Warlock (219)

Warrior (261)

News

Account Security (35)

AddOns (277)

Analysis / Opinion (3707)

Blizzard (1859)

Bugs (228)

Burning Crusade (395)

Contests (266)

Economy (202)

Events (501)

Expansions (862)

Fan stuff (1041)

Features (726)

Forums (334)

Guilds (531)

Hardware (54)

Humor (903)

Interviews (189)

Lore (365)

Mounts (164)

News items (1788)

NPCs (244)

Odds and ends (1830)

Patches (1216)

Podcasting (89)

Ranking (56)

Realm News (317)

Realm Status (260)

RP (189)

Rumors (75)

Virtual selves (754)

WoW Insider Business (332)

WoW Social Conventions (178)

WoW TCG (64)

Wrath of the Lich King (906)

Strategy

Achievements (33)

Alts (136)

Arena (305)

Battlegrounds (186)

Bosses (395)

Buffs (154)

Cheats (80)

Classes (382)

Enchants (41)

Factions (186)

Guides (440)

How-tos (442)

Instances (745)

Items (965)

Leveling (361)

Making money (220)

PvP (848)

Quests (408)

Raiding (847)

Talents (216)

Tips (628)

Tricks (239)

Walkthroughs (97)

Media

Comics (102)

Fan art (61)

Galleries (272)

Machinima (665)

Podcasts (55)

Polls (76)

Screenshots (743)

Races

Alliance (130)

Draenei (71)

Dwarves (25)

Gnomes (53)

Human (27)

Night Elves (57)

Horde (140)

Blood Elves (76)

Orcs (37)

Tauren (60)

Trolls (30)

Undead (33)

Professions

Alchemy (95)

Blacksmithing (75)

Cooking (84)

Enchanting (90)

Engineering (125)

First Aid (20)

Fishing (67)

Herbalism (58)

Inscription (43)

Jewelcrafting (101)

Leatherworking (76)

Mining (55)

Skinning (35)

Tailoring (82)

Retired

Pimp My Profile (1)

(Engineering) Hoof and Horn Research and Development (17)

Azeroth Interrupted (24)

Back In The Day (3)

World Wide WoW (8)

/silly (14)

RSS NEWSFEEDS

• Subscribe
• Feeds by category

Featured Galleries

 

Most Commented On (30 days)

• WoW Insider and WoW TCG Loot give away a Tabard of Flame (1832)
• Caption This! (522)
• Caption This! (516)
• Breaking: BlizzCon tickets on sale... kind of (217)
• Raid buffs overhauled for 3.0.2 (160)
• Wrath cinematic trailer unveiled (143)
• Forum post of the day: Broken records incoming (125)
• How Blizzard mishandled the BlizzCon ticket situation (123)
• Forum post of the day: Where's my big brother (120)
• Wrath sound files point to world event (119)

Recent Comments

• Mimzy on The Colosseum: Erratic of Thunderlord
• Merl on Arcane Brilliance: Patch 3.0.2 and you
• Kassu on New racial abilities for Wrath
• obarthelemy on BigRedKitty: Core Hound
• Zhiva on Arcane Brilliance: Patch 3.0.2 and you
• Gurluas on New racial abilities for Wrath
• Merlot on Ask a Beta Tester: More about inscription
• dAnixx on BigRedKitty: Core Hound
• Zerounit on Penguin noncombat pets appear in the beta
• Damma on Ask a Beta Tester: More about inscription

More game info on GameDaily: GameDaily Biz, Fast & Free Game Downloads, Video Game Trailers, Video Game Cheats, Video Game Reviews, Video Game Screenshots,

All contents copyright © 2003-2008, Weblogs, Inc. All rights reserved

WOW Insider is a member of the Weblogs, Inc. Network. Privacy Policy, Terms of Service, Notify AOL

• WOW Insider
• Web