I bought my daughter's 'Future Horde' onesie from J!nx long before she was even conceived. I knew when I got my 'For the Horde' shirt that I wanted myself to have a matching outfit with my baby. I love World of Warcraft merchandise... I guess I'm just a real fanboy that way. I have some of the action figures, and I'm looking at getting Vindicator Marrad as soon as I set aside some RL Gold.
So here's something to chew on this morning: what World of Warcraft merchandise or spin-offs do you like so far? There's the Frostmourne replica, of course. And we've given away cool stuff from Manaprincess, too. The Bronze Kettle / WoW Insider's Shelbi Roach makes those awesome, awesome, awesome chibi items like stickers and keychains. What World of Warcraft-related stuff do you have? Do you make any of your own?
If you remember way back to the end of June, we told you about the new tabards available for purchase using your UDE points from the WoW Trading Card Game. At the time, Upper Deck said the new tabards would be included with patch 2.4.3. Well, 2.4.3 is here, but the tabards are sadly not.
According to UDE_Patrick, the plan for releasing the tabards is now a little different. The first tabard will be available on August 1st, and each additional tabard will be added one at a time over "several months." He doesn't really specify why this change has been made, or even which tabard will be first.
Some of us will obviously be disapponted (like tipster Donna, who already has ample points to pick up one for her, and one for her boyfriend). Some of us will have a little more time to pick up more points in before the release, and maybe score some of the cool loot cards from the new set.
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.
Last week we told you about the new loot Upper Deck was launching a new expansion to WoW TCG. We even showed you pictures of what the cool new stuff will like for Patch 2.4.3. Well, now you can see these juicy tidbits in action with our movie of them.
You'll see us testing The Path of Illidan, trailing green felfire from our footsteps while running, jumping and even dancing. We've also got video of a few cross-faction D.I.S.C.O. parties gettin' down and funky, with the music and sparkly lights. It was dance fever!
Then it was time to try out the Ethereal Soul-trader. He announces himself as if your life is finally complete and follows you around very dutifully. Enjoy the movie - Adam, Zach, and I sure enjoyed making it for you!
I'll be honest. I've been rather bored with World of Warcraft lately. As great a patch as 2.4 was, there was little in it for me except for a bit of money-making on the Isle of Quel'danas. Magister's Terrace, or Mr.T, as Mike fondly calls it, was fun and the quasi-Arena match is a cheap thrill, but you can only do so much of it. Specially when Kael'thas refuses to cooperate and drop his prancing white chicken. As cool as "of the Shattered Sun" title is, the ease by which players reach exalted with the Shattered Sun Offensive and the rapid Gold flow of doing the daily quests made it immensely unappealing. With every other character running around with the title, it's just not as enticing anymore.
Even PvP, my favorite thing to do in-game, has become a bit stale. Grinding this last week of Season 3 in the pursuit of personal goals has been tiring and nerve-wracking. I no longer have as much time to run around in the Battlegrounds, but neither do I have much of a desire to. I log in to do my daily Battleground quest, maybe the Spirits of Auchindoun if I luck out on the time, and play some Arena matches with my team. Otherwise, the crash of my raiding guild, the quitting of my friends, and the long wait for Season 4 took quite a toll on my enthusiasm for the game.
The new and improved Blizzard store opened recently, and it's definitely worth a look. It has a very clean layout, making finding what you want pretty simple. They carry everything from the Blizzard games to the Warcraft action figures to WoW game time. Their apparel selection isn't very large due to that primarily being handled by Jinx, but the store is still worthwhile.
Plus, registering for the Blizzard store comes with another perk. You can register for the Beta Test lottery, which is a chance at being chosen for upcoming beta phases of various games. Wrath? Starcraft II perhaps? All of the above? Who knows! I've been considering getting into the WoW TCG, so if I get a shot at a beta test out of it, too... hey, why not?
Edit: The Blizzard EU store is not yet live, but I imagine it will be soon. Sorry, Europe!
You guys already know how I feel about Paladins, but if all Pallys looked this badass, I might have to change my opinion. This is Graccus, the anti-hero Paladin featured in the latest TCG wallpaper released officially by Blizzard.
See, most Paladins are just shiny golden boys, wandering around the land trying to do good and "win for the Light" or whatever. But this Graccus guy looks like he's seen a lot of dark in his day, and he's spent way too long slaying undead rather than prancing around on his little Pally pony. This guy doesn't bubble, he breaks out the Righteous Fury. This is the kind of Paladin I might really like -- he's not holier-than-thou, he's just a holy warrior willing to get his hands dirty.
Blizzard has released a new wallpaper featuring exquisite artwork from the "Mias the Putrid" card from the WoWTCG. The work is just as fantastic as it was with previous TCG-themed work -- maybe even better. Well, nothing is gonna beat the Stefen Colbear thing, but still. It's fabulous.
I say it's "putrid, but in a sexy way" with tongue in cheek, of course. This evil Mias lady is half-naked. She's in chain-slave-bondage. Oh, and ... I'm not one of those guys who has all the cup sizes memorized, but I'm pretty sure that proportionally this is on the higher end. No, I'm not gushing; I actually have a point! WoW Insider has talked about sexism in WoW before, but usually we've focused on the actions and words of some male players, and not so much on things like the art style of the game or the TCG. I'm not making a judgment here; I'm just pondering.
See, when I saw this new image, I thought of a conversation I had with a friend of mine a couple weeks ago. She long since quit WoW, but she said that as a female gamer it's always a little frustrating when many of the female characters are half-naked elf-slaves with huge breasts. What a standard! But then, doesn't WoW's art style exaggerate the male characters' muscles and such, too? Ah, well. It's food for thought. Type up your two cents if you want. Or just download the wallpaper.
As you may recall, Upper Deck recently announced the March of the Legion tour, a series of tournaments against their own legionnaires for fabulous prizes. They've updated the tour page today with information on the first leg of the tour, including the identities of the legionnaires and the places they'll be visiting, including Northern California, Wisconsin, Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, Philadelphia, Florida, Michigan, and Ontario (Canada). The events last through June, so there's sure to be more locations and dates added later.
The legionnaires are no slouches, though. We're talking lead developers and high class judges for the TCG here, so it sounds like you'll have your work cut out for you if you want to win yourself a Varimathras extended art card and a Leeroy Jenkins T-shirt by defeating them. Of course, as mentioned, just showing up gets you that Weeble extended art card, and it sounds like the event should be fun. Let us know how it goes if you show up to one!
Penny Arcade, those funny WoW comic guys, are giving away a metric ton of loot, via a contest, that they've gotten for the WoW Trading Card Game. Things that they're giving away include "four boxes of boosters, tournament playmats, a Winterveil collector's box, deckboxes, sleeves, two binders, three raid decks, three starter decks, and one of these awesome dice chest things." That's a ton of stuff to be handing out. But it gets better.
Three lucky winners will be quite happy. What's the contest they're holding? From the site: "you must write a short story, set in World of Warcraft, and this story must be precisely ten words long." It's so simple and so easy you just have to chuckle. Head on over to their site for more information on how to enter the contest.
Of course, you'll have to go up against a certain WoW Insider writer on this one, since I've already submitted my story: "A casual paladin casually walks up and one shots Illidan."
He's a man of myth, legend, and internet memes -- a Paladin crusader for Truthiness, justice, and the Alliance way. His name is Stefen Colbear, and he's putting the Horde on notice. That's how it would have been anyway, but sadly, this hero never came to be. Upper Deck hired artist Todd Lockwood to produce the above image for a special WoW TCG card inspired by The Colbert Report's Stephen Colbert -- a known video-gaming and role-playing enthusiast. Lockwood's finished product depicts a microphone-sword wielding Human Paladin named Stefen Colbear, who exudes the very essence of Truthiness.
Unfortunately, Colbert's agent nipped the idea in the bud. According to Lockwood, he didn't even show the artwork to his client. Blizzard and Upper Deck presumably had hoped Colbert would feature the card on his show, giving them mega-publicity. An unknown individual leaked the image onto the net a few weeks ago, and WoW and Colbert fans excitedly spread it around in both card and wallpaper forms.
Even though Colbear never saw the light of day, his legend nevertheless strikes fear in the hearts of those who would threaten the Colbear Nation. So watch out Kael'Thas, watch out Archimonde! But most of all: watch out, bears.
I for one always enjoy looking at the new artwork Blizzard posts. Professionally done, and always a twist to it. Today there's a new piece of TCG artwork on the European site. Featuring a "hot warlock [who] is hot" (as WoW Insider's Mike Schramm put it), she's got a nasty arrow sticking out of her.
The first Darkmoon Faire event of the year is set to kick off this weekend (and indeed, has probably already started) in Orlando, Florida. If you're around down there and have any interest in the TCG at all, it's a lot of fun -- they're going to have lots of beginner and advanced tournaments, of course, and an ingame leveling contest on an event server, as well as tips on how to build the best deck and do some card crafting. I went to the Chicago event a little while ago, and I can confirm it's a fun way to spend a weekend afternoon. As always, if you go, take pictures and drop us a note when you get back.
In other TCG news, reader Dave (thanks!) sent us a note about what looks to be a brand new booster set, called The Hunt for Illidan. The set was announced quite a while ago, but with a release date of July 2008, retailers are just now ordering the cards. And there will be new loot cards in the new set, so we'll keep an eye out to see what else Blizzard has up their sleeve for new TCG rewards.
Glenn Rane is the other artist sitting next to Samwise (who you may also recognize as the frontman for L70ETC), and also in attendance were Tom Bava, Randy Gallegos, Terese Nielsen and Justin Sweet, along with Ben Thompson, who we're told was a big part of putting the book together. I suppose it's too much to ask for Blizzard to leave sunny Southern California sometime to do these signings and meet some of us who aren't lucky enough to live there? It is? Oh well -- at least it keeps them close to their real work.
Yup, be a reporter for Upper Deck's TCG site, and you could win a Spectral Tiger card of your own. All they're asking is that you go to one of their events next week, bring a camera and a notepad, and the best stories from the event will win prizes, either a Spectral Tiger card or a box of March of the Legion.
Pretty cheap way to get someone writing for you, but then again our overlords here at WoW Insider pay us in Savory Deviate Delight and Conjured Glacier Water. So count your blessings, I guess.
I bought my daughter's 'Future Horde' onesie from J!nx long before she was even conceived. I knew when I got my 'For the Horde' shirt that I wanted myself to have a matching outfit with my baby. I love World of Warcraft merchandise... I guess I'm just a real fanboy that way. I have some of the action figures, and I'm looking at getting Vindicator Marrad as soon as I set aside some RL Gold.
If you remember way back to the end of June, we told you about the 
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