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The
Universal TCGs
Report Page 1
Page 2
(Battle Spirits and Magic: TG)
- Page 3
(Con and Cos-play
Images)
All interviews
are paraphrased and not exact quotes.
As always, to
view an image larger, just click on it.
Report Table of Contents
Click on a section to go there...
1.
Introduction
2.
Konami Booth
3.
Blue Dragon Interview
4.
Yu-Gi-Oh! Sneak Peeks and Images
5.
Upper Deck Entertainment Booth
6.
Marvel Superstars TCG Interview and Images
7.
World of Warcraft TCG Interview and Images
8.
World of Warcraft Miniatures Interview and Images
Introduction
Getalinks and jcrockett of
Universal TCGs had a chance to go down to GenCon Indy this year.
While we were there, we had a chance to demo some of the new
games coming out, talk with our game company contacts and
overall have a grand time. We've collected all the notes, images
and information we accumulated over the 3 days we were there and
combined them into this informative report packed with
interviews, sneak peeks and classified info we were able to
obtain. Read on, readers, read on...
Konami
(Blue Dragon and Yu-Gi-Oh!):
Our first day there, after taking care of registering for events
such as the sealed tournament for Battle Spirits, we found the
Konami booth and Don Williams, our media contact for Konami.
From left
to right: The Konami booth - Don Williams, Universal TCGs media
contact for Konami
He lead us to Jason Chai, Konami's
Brand Manager of Blue Dragon and Yu-Gi-Oh!. Jason had a few
minutes so he sat down with us and demoed Blue Dragon with
jcrockett and answered a few questions.
jcrockett
demoing Blue Dragon
with Brand Manager, Jason Chai
Blue Dragon Interview:
jcrockett:
So how would you build a
Blue Dragon deck?
Jason
Chai:
Typically, you would have
about 15 partners, 10-12 skill and command cards and around 6-14
Shadows to burn for exp.
jcrockett:
What is your gaming background?
Jason Chai:
I come from playing Yu-Gi-Oh! and
Magic: TG. Blue Dragon is easy to learn as it pulls from each of
these games. i.e. Exp = Mana and Set = Traps Really, Blue Dragon
is a game that would introduce players to gaming and walk them
into playing more of Yu-Gi-Oh!. Also, on a few side notes, did
you know the creator of Final Fantasy also created Blue Dragon?
Also, the artist that did the Dragonball Z cards from Score is
the artist who does the Blue Dragon cards.
jcrockett:
Wow, that's pretty cool. We at Universal TCGs always ask our
interviewees two final questions, ready?
Jason
Chai:
Shoot.
jcrockett:
What's your favorite ice cream flavor?
Jason
Chai:
Mint Chip.
jcrockett:
And finally, if you could tell the
gaming community one things, what would it be?
Jason
Chai:
Blue Dragon is a good game, give
it a shot.
After a little more
playing, jcrockett was defeated and the Brand Manager stood
victorious.
Then, Jonathan Albin, the Tournament Store Liaison, challenged
Getalinks to a game of Blue Dragon. The match lasted a while,
about 35 minutes, but in the end, Jonathan was victorious. So,
Konami: 2 - Universal TCGs: 0.
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Yu-Gi-Oh! Sneak Peeks and Images:
While we were at the Konami booth,
we were able to snap some pictures of some of the upcoming
product being released within the next couple months.
Two mats that are available and able to be won.
We also were able to finagle the
Konami staff to allow us to get into the glass display cases and
scan the cards contained therein.
 
These
cards aren't even released yet, so you could call these images
sneak peeks.
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Upper Deck Entertainment
(Marvel Superstars, World of Warcraft TCG and World of Warcraft
Miniatures):
Universal TCGs next strolled over
to the Upper Deck booth and sat down with Ben Seck (Marvel
Superstars), Dan Bojanowski (World of Warcraft TCG) and Margeaux
Suliven (World of Warcraft Minis). After giving us each a bottle
of water, the three escorted us back to a small room and we all
sat down.
--- Marvel Superstars Interview --->
Ben
Seck was first. He was very excited about telling us about
Marvel Superstars. The game revolves around Marvel universe
characters ranging from Iron to Doctor Doom. Here's how the
interview went down:
jcrockett:
So, Ben, tell us a bit more about the Marvel Superstars game.
Ben Seck:
Well Marvel Superstars is based around the live-action movies
Marvel has been putting out and ones coming out in the future.
The game will be released in February of 2010. Like other TCGs,
you can play with more than 2 players.
jcrockett:
So, how do you build a deck and play?
Ben Seck:
Well, first you have to pick a leader for the deck. i.e. Iron
Man, someone from the Fantastic Four, the X-Men, those people.
Of course, you can also be a villain. Magneto, Doctor Doom, and
others. Then you can build your deck around that leader. We've
got a crazy line up like the Avengers, a whole slew of villains
and even Marvel Knights.
The front and back
of the demo card given out at the UDE booth for Marvel
Superstars.
jcrockett:
So, how do you win the game?
Ben Seck:
Each player starts off with 50 points and have to take your
opponent down to 0.
Getalinks:
Ok, I got all into the prior game Marvel Ultimate Battles. It
was a good game and there was never another set after the first
one. Is this going to be another game like that or will there be
a future planned for this one?
Ben Seck:
No, there already is plans for expansions and things to continue
this game. We plan on releasing 3 expansions for the game per
year. Upcoming expansions will and could have images from movies
not yet released. We're also trying to set up things to happen
whenever a new movie comes out.
jcrockett:
As in when the Yu-Gi-Oh! movie came out there was a pack given
out at the theatre.
Ben Seck:
Exactly. We noticed that even though Marvel has a huge fan base,
there is still the aspect it's only comic book readers and
people like that. With Superstars, we're also connecting with
movies which appeal to a wider audience. That way we get the
best of both worlds: comics and movies.
Getalinks:
So, let's get back to the future of the game. Sorry, Ultimate
Battles ending really irked me.
Ben Seck:
lol, ok, so what we already have lined up for Superstars is
Organized Play, tournaments and a solid marketing strategy.
Getalinks:
On a scale of 1-10, 1 being Ultimate Battles and 10 being VS,
where would you say this game will be in terms of difficulty
learning.
Ben Seck: I don't
like that Ultimate Battles is leveled as the 1, but if you want
to look at it that way, I'd say this game would be a 3-4. The
complexity going forward will be great. We don't want this game
to get to the point like other games get where at first the are
easy to pick up but later on get lost with confusing additional
rules. VS, for instance, players started off with no problem,
but later on they started to get confused. Players picking up
the game were lost. We want new players to be able to get
onboard at any time during the game's life.
jcrockett: Alright,
finally what would your favorite ice cream be?
Ben Seck: Ice cream?
Ummm... Vanilla Macadamia
jcrockett:
And if you could tell the gaming community one thing, what would
it be?
Be Seck:
Games are for everybody! Now, if you're interested I can get you
hooked up with a demo of the game.
Getalinks:
I'm good with that. I'd love to see how it actually plays and
looks.
Getalinks'
thoughts after playing demo:
*
The game
is easy to learn and quick to get right onto battle. Right from
turn one your in it.
*
The cards
are designed to be held lengthwise. This leads to some
interesting awkwardness at first. Being so used to playing TCGs,
holding the cards sideways lead to some difficulty in holding
them so you could read them all at the same time. The easiest
way I saw was to cascade them downwards which was hard to hold.
*
The images
are outstanding. Since the cards are sideways, you can feel like
you are really in the movie. Like Ben Seck mentions, it's almost
HD cards.
*
I didn't
play too in depth, but from what I did play (I was Iron Man and
my opponent was Wolverine) it seems like the decks can get very
off balanced compared to each other. But, then again, I was only
playing a demo deck.
*
You can
have multiple copies of a character out, even your leader. My
opponent was Wolverine and he had two other Wolverine cards on
the field. I was a bit lost there since you can only damage your
opponents points by attacking their leader.
*
I asked
about Spider-man, but Ben Seck informed me that Spidey isn't
under the umbrella contract of Marvel, but they are working on
getting him into the game. That means no Spidey in the first
set. But, I was informed that there might be card images based
on the upcoming Captain America movie already.
*
All in
all, I would give the game a go when it comes out. It has a lot
of potential and I look forward to actually building my own
deck.
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Next up was Dan Bojanowski, the
rep for the World of Warcraft TCG.
--- World of Warcraft TCG Interview ---
Getalinks:
So, Dan, what's new on the horizon for the World of Warcraft?
Dan B.:
Well, we actually have a lot in the mix right now. First off we
have the fifth raid deck being released, Naxx. As you know, the
four prior ones were Onyxia's Lair, Molten Core, Mag's Lair and
the Black Temple. Well, if you know anything about the online
game, there will be all the quarters with the boss of each in
the deck.
jcrockett:
All the bosses?
Dan B.:
Yep. The deck will be 120 cards with treasure cards. Inside the
Raid deck there is a Treasure Pack with a 1:5 chance you'll pull
a loot card.
jcrockett:
How much is the raid deck going
for?
Dan B.: It's going to
run around $29.99. We heard a lot of players weren't happy they
couldn't get different treasure for raid decks without buying
the whole raid deck again.
jcrockett:
Yeah, $30 to shell out each time
you want new treasure is a bit much.
We were able
to "acquire" this image of Dan's laptop. Notice the word in the
center of the orange bar at the bottom. We're so evil.
Dan B.:
Exactly, so this time around we're also selling separate
treasure packs that run $9.99 each. These packs have 15
RANDOMIZED cards in them also with a 1:10 chance of pulling a
loot card. Oh, we're looking at a release date of Nov/Dec 2009
for that.
jcrockett:
That's awesome. So, aside from the raid deck is there
anything else in the works.
Dan B.:
Oh, of course. We have
the Scourge War coming out in mid November. That's the first set
that's in the Wrath of the Lich block.
jcrockett:
Can you let us in on some
of the stuff in the set?
Dan B.:
Sure. In Scourge War we're introducing new mounts and a new
master hero.
jcrockett:
Who is going to be...
Dan B.: KT.
jcrockett:
Huh? KT?
Dan B.:
Yep. Oh, we also are going to be releasing class decks in early
2010. These are something we're really excited about. They are
going to be 60 card class specific decks. So if you want to run
a Paladin deck, you can just go into the store and pick up a
Paladin specific deck with the necessary cards for it in there.
These will be running around $9.99 and are sold completely
playable, legal and tournament ready.
Getalinks:
Nice, those will definitely get players who pulled away from the
game due to certain cards being too hard to get for their
specific deck. I was building a Paladin deck, but the size of
the sets and money being tight made it too hard to keep up.
Dan B.: Well,
this will definitely be able to get you back in. Oh, did I
mention in each of the class decks there's a 1:10 chance to pull
a loot card.
Getalinks:
Which ones?
Dan B. smiling:
Any of them. There's your chance to pull a Spectral Tiger. The
loot in the class decks are loot cards from any of the sets.
Getalinks:
Wow. Ok, so final two questions.
Dan B.: Ok.
jcrockett:
Favorite ice cream...
Dan B.:
I actually don't have one, but I love turtle sundaes.
Getalinks:
And if you could tell the gaming community one thing, what would
it be?
Dan B.:
Play Nice.
These are
cards that jcrockett got for playing the World of Warcraft Minis
demo
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Finally, we were able to speak
with the beautiful Margeaux Sullivan, the rep for the World of
Warcraft miniatures game.
--- World of Warcraft Miniatures Interview ---
Getalinks:
So, Margeaux, what can you tell us
about the World of Warcraft Minis?
Margeaux:
Well, what do you know about them?
Getalinks:
Not too much. We deal mainly with the TCG aspect of the game,
but we are very interested in learning about the minis.
Margeaux: Great, well
the game is played on a board with dice and of course miniatures
and you play for honor.
jcrockett:
Ok. What else?
Margeaux: You have
character cards that match the minis you are using. You place
your minis on the board and the board has "terrain", high ground
and cover. These are to make game play more realistic and
involves line of sight and that sort of thing. The easiest way
for me to explain it is for you to take a demo.
Getalinks:
jcrockett would be all about that.
Margeaux: Oh, I also
want to add that we re up to the the Lich King set and the
Illiadan set is in the works. A starter set runs around $24.99
and you get two Horde and two Alliance. After that, you can go
out and get a booster pack that contains 1 rare, 2 common and
either another common or an epic. Now, let's get you on a demo.
jcrockett:
Before we do, you're two questions.
Margeaux: Ice
cream would be Chocolate Chip Coconut and my statement would be:
Play fair!
jcrockett's
thoughts after playing demo:
*
I thought it really intersting how the roll of a dice can affect
the game. I had a warrior smack a warrior for only 2 damage.
*
The game takes a while to play, but it was fun.
Some images
of the World of Warcraft miniatures packs
Some rare
World of Warcraft miniatures
Some rare
World of Warcraft miniatures
The World of
Warcraft GenCon 2009 exclusive Fleet Master Seahorn Miniature
Some of the
product at the Upper Deck Entertainment booth.
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Page 2
(Battle Spirits
and Magic: TG)
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