Collectible Card Game Page

If you're not familiar with collectible card games (commonly referred to as "CCG"s) specifically, there are many resources out there to explain them to you. Infoseek is my search engine of choice, particularly since they have "Quickseek", a search bar that can be added to your browser.

Magic: The Gathering™

I don't have as much M:TG information as other sites, as I have a relatively small collection. I started out by asking local store owner to construct a 'theme' deck for me. $30 and a couple weeks later, he provided me with a Green and White 'fairie tale' deck complete with Faeries, Unicorns, and Pegasi as creatures. (I suppose he thought I'd like a 'girly' deck). I archived it with the name "Faerie Tales Can Beat You" as a reference to the song lyric "Faerie tales can come true...". However, it was weak against many types of decks and in many melees, and I asked friends to retune it. The second version pits pegasi and Willow's faerie army against all comers. That was still weaker than I would have liked. Having learned that you must "focus focus focus" in order to build an effective theme deck, I finally settled on blue and green faeries, and designed the "Dirty Rotten Stinkin' Yellow Faeries" deck based on the quote from the movie "Wizards".

My second M:TG deck was constructed in time for Christmas '97, and it cost me about $80-$90. This is the first theme I directly chose, and it was specifically designed for friendly melee play. It was constructed by the same person as my faerie deck, and the theme is The Heavenly Hosts. It represents holy and angelic White creature combatants as well as the 'godlike' denial-powers of Blue. This deck was also tuned after playing and this version shines with the light of righteousness. Again, having learned the virtue of focus, I retuned this deck (with the help of the angelicly-themed Urza cards) to be an all-white deck of Angelic Smack-Down. The former denial capacity of blue has been taken up by appropriate white cards. This is probably my best overall deck at this time.

For my third deck, I would like to construct a Green and Red deck around Rabid Wombats, Green creatures with trample, and the direct-damage capabilities of Red. Something along the theme of a forest-fire of stampeding creatures...any suggestions???

When I don't play with the decks mentioned above, I use the pre-constructed decks sold by the WoTC™ online shop. These are decks with specific themes, specific rarity quotas, and cards that work well together. For about $9 each, you have a deck that has some real thought put into it. This is much cheaper than investing in the cards.

Future Planned decks:

April of '99 I started my son Benjamin (age: almost 7) playing Portal™, which is "Baby Magic". I'm trying to keep from having to buy alot of Portal boosters, so we'll prolly go the pre-constructed deck route with Ben to give him some variety. Once he understands the game well enough to want to build his own deck(s), he can jolly well learn the rules to real M:TG!

Jyhad™ or Vampire: The Eternal Struggle™

While I acknowledge the relative merits of both Magic and Rage, my true passion for collecting cards was born with playing a CCG based on the Vampire: The Masquerade™ roleplaying game. This card game started out as a limited edition game called Jyhad and then was (if you'll pardon the pun) re-vamped into Vampire: The Eternal Struggle™ (V:TES for short).

My card inventory was growing by leaps and bounds, and I owned several thousand cards, when the whole collection was stolen - Rage™, Jyhad™, Shadowfist™, the works. All that was left was a small box of Magic™ cards, and a long box of Deadlands™ cards that were in another room. Half a year later, my insurance company FINALLY came through with a check to replace the collection. I have been replacing those missing cards with sealed boxes month by month. Additionally, I bought a complete collection of about 8,000 Jyhad/VTES/DS/AH/Sabbat cards from an E-Bay auction.

I developed a bit of an odd habit when I was in the middle of collecting Jyhad. I only wanted to trade or purchase those with V:TES cardbacks. This has nothing to do with collectibility or value (Jyhad is more available than V:TES), for me it makes playing the game simpler as I can quickly tell what phase a particular card should be played. Now that I'm replacing my collection, I will be buying V:TES almost exclusively. Some types of cards are so difficult to find that I realize I have to buy Jyhad or get nothing at all (or, at least, not enough to make an effective deck). This includes Immortal Grapple and Taste of Vitae - without which Potence/combat just "doesn't work". At last count, I believe it was somewhere between 15 and 20 IG's were needed to make a rush combat deck.

My deck-building lists include my various (admittedly novice) attempts at deck-building. Keep in mind that the old decks were designed for one-on-one duels...I didn't know enough local players to get into the big multi-player strategy sessions (though, I'm trying to change that). However, I'm now a regular member of the NYC V:TES league. I won the second-to-last tournament we had, and placed second in the last (as of Sept 99), so, obviously I'm doing something right. Maybe it's the low-cut, snug little tops - or, maybe I'm just stealing better decks off the Web!

I'm working on functional Tzimisce and Lasombra decks. The Tzimisce deck is an Animalism/Vicissitude Rush deck. Since the deck is a little weak at getting into combat, I might shift it around into a bit of an intercept deck (leaving in a few rush cards). I would show it to you, but, Deja-News managed to 'lose' it!

Next a select list of Jyhad/V:TES pages I prefer.

Rage™

I started playing Rage™ in the hopes of convincing another local collector to try out Jyhad/V:TES, my own personal CCG obsession ("You play my game, I'll play yours"). I ended up enjoying this game based on its own merits. While it's a whole different style than the WoTC™ games, it can be fun to play. This card game is based on the White Wolf roleplaying game Werewolf: The Apocalypse™. I have one deck I built myself archived so far, an Ahroun combat-based pack centered around the Silver Pack member Rheya Wrath-of-Heaven called Rheya's Threesome.

Unfortunately, Rage™ was bought out and eventually swallowed up in the TSR/WoTC/FRPG series of mergers/buyouts. It has redesigned and marketed by FRPG as an episodic game (like Doomtown™). The first set of episodes are called "Snake Eyes"™.

To say that the old cards and the new cards work together is not a complete lie. However, the new mechanics of the game mean that the old cards are not powered properly, and what used to be a fun "free-for-all" became a L5R™-clone. Needless to say, with the "new" Rage™ on the shelves, and the "old" Rage™ gathering dust and occasionally generating auctions on Ebay, there's not much in the way of web support for the old game.

If you know of any sites dedicated to the "old" Rage™, PLEASE let me know.

Shadowfist™

Another game I particularly enjoy is Shadowfist™ - based on the Feng Shui™ roleplaying game. I've never participated in a Feng Shui™ session, but, I LOVE the card game. I have to replace my Shadowfist" inventory (I have 2 or 3 boxes in transit from auctions already), but, I didn't really own all that many cards to start with. The basic premise of the game is you're the director of cheesy Hong Kong action movies - that's right, complete with the background extras who keep dying over and over, pretty girls kidnapped by cults, and creepy creatures summoned from beyond.

I don't have card lists for the decks I played, but, I had an Lotus Eaters deck that revolved around Shadowy Horrors and Abysmal Spirits cruising in technological toys like Speedboats, Sports Cars, and Attack Helicopters, called "In a Sports Car, Even an Abysmal Spirit Can Pick Up Chicks " (long title, but, it made the theme), a Dragon deck called "Girls with Guns" which was...female Dragons (or group pictures with females in them) toting a variety of weapons, and a deck with those Green Chi monk guys (whose names I can never remember) that was a basic not-quite-balanced deck still under evaluation.

As I replace my cards, I will try to rebuild these decks, as well as possibly build more (depends on how many cards I buy :) ).

Doomtown™

Doomtown™ is the Weird West shoot-em-up game based on the popular Deadlands™ roleplaying game (are you starting to see a theme here of CCG's based on RPG's?). What more can I say about it than I love it?

So far, I'm only playing with the pre-constructed outfits sold as starter decks. If I ever become creative enough to build my own decks, I'll be sure to list them.

One complaint about Doomtown™ - you spend too much time drawing cards. I wish the designers had playtested it better before selling it. All those "hands" of poker get tiresome after a while when you're trying to advance a game!

Long Island Gaming

Long Island is right outside NYC (in fact, we actually contain two of the burroughs within Long Island geography). That means we have a literal gaming Mecca within our back yard. One group to take advantage of that is: Long Island Area Gamers. Email mjg@io.com if you are a local gamer looking to find a new group or expand an existing group. All types of roleplaying and card gaming are supported.

Card Auctions and Sellers

One way to find the cards you want to play with is online auctions. I prefer these few sources: For a fixed price, online stores are another way to go:

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Updated: Friday, November 19, 1999 10:29:49 AM rl-minder-ignore$-->

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Updated: Friday, November 19, 1999 10:29:49 AM