Magic: the Gathering Strategy Board Game

[Colorcrayons]

The points cost for 9 of the 12 green spell cards are shown. Totaling 165 visible points. I am guessing the final three cards total anywhere from 35-85 points making the spread 200-250 points for a spell deck.



Are we taking bets that there will be spell deck building rules? I wasn't sure at first, but Spiel and Toy fair pics both show what I assume are points costs on the cards. Makes sense since the strategy of MTG CCG arises from the deckbuilding.
I am guessing the spell deck building points are separate from the armybuilding points.
E.G. It's not just a 400 point game, but a 400/250 point game.

[nate the dawg]

Originally Posted by Colorcrayons

The points cost for 9 of the 12 green spell cards are shown. Totaling 165 visible points. I am guessing the final three cards total anywhere from 35-85 points making the spread 200-250 points for a spell deck.



Are we taking bets that there will be spell deck building rules? I wasn't sure at first, but Spiel and Toy fair pics both show what I assume are points costs on the cards. Makes sense since the strategy of MTG CCG arises from the deckbuilding.
I am guessing the spell deck building points are separate from the armybuilding points.
E.G. It's not just a 400 point game, but a 400/250 point game.

Nice catch! I hadn't noticed those tiny, fuzzy points listed at the bottoms of the cards.

Allowing for separate points with which to build deck and army is a cool concept, but can you imagine the balancing act that would be required if those points were part of a single total?

I could see that as a way to allow players to include some extra really powerful spells, but at the expense of their army.

[Yodaking]

Since it looks like the Planeswalker starts out on the game alone and then summons squads and heroes to fight/protect him (just like in the magic card game), I would bet the summoning cards are part of your deck and each have a cost. You then build a ~500 point deck of cards, some of which are summoning spells while others are different types of magic spells. How many points you want to invest in each is up to you, just like in the card game.

[Colorcrayons]

Originally Posted by nate the dawg

Allowing for separate points with which to build deck and army is a cool concept, but can you imagine the balancing act that would be required if those points were part of a single total?

I could see that as a way to allow players to include some extra really powerful spells, but at the expense of their army.

Maybe it is. Who knows for sure?
All I know is that the info we have shows each army build very very close to 400 points for each planeswalker.
This is the first time I have seen enough points on a single color of cards to get a rough guesstimate of how much a spell deck might reasonably be pointed as. So if your assumption is true, then army builds are 600+ points straight out of the box for a single planeswalker, 2 squads and 12 cards.
I'd rather have it as a single conjoined point spread as you mentioned, since you would have more freedom in how you play the game.
Dont want a lot of models and would prefer to be light and chuck a lot of spells? Go spell deck heavy.
Hate spells and want to just play normal heroscape? Fill your points up with squads. etc.

However, unless they made some drastic changes to the spell deck for each planeswalker since Essen Spiel, I don't think squads are a part of the spell deck. There are full spell lists for each planeswalker out there, and none of them mention summoning squads. So summoning happens somewhere else I beleive.
It makes one wonder how the normal heroscape turn order has been affected (if at all) in order to facilitate card play and squad summoning.

[GaryLASQ]

Originally Posted by nate the dawg

Nice catch! I hadn't noticed those tiny, fuzzy points listed at the bottoms of the cards.

In my post on page 39, I mention the number on the bottom of spell cards for the cards where numbers are visible. I've never played MTG, so had no idea what they might represent.

[Colorcrayons]

Normal card building rules in M:tG are pretty inclusive. You just have to have a minimum of 60 cards in the deck, and no more than 4 copies of any one specific card. No points are used. The points cost of cards in Arena of the Planeswalkers (Horrible product name. Can we just start calling it Planeswalker Arena for short?) seems to be something to help stitch the assumed deck building rules onto heroscapes game engine.

Which as a lover of both games, I beleive this to be intuitive. Knowledge of M:tG game play seems to be unnecessary in order to grok the much more accessible heroscape design.

[Hogg]

Originally Posted by Colorcrayons

Normal card building rules in M:tG are pretty inclusive. You just have to have a minimum of 60 cards in the deck, and no more than 4 copies of any one specific card.

Did they change it? I haven't played in a long time but the minimum deck was 45 cards and the 4 of a kind rule was only for tournaments, fun games allowed as many copies as you wanted. Otherwise Plauge Rats would be pretty useless capping out at 4/4.

Want to see comething crazy, try a deck with nothing but Swamps, Dark Rituals, and Plauge Rats. Maybe a Sol Ring or other quick mana booster too.

[Colorcrayons]

The deckbuilding rules were changed a couple years after the alpha set. About 20 years ago, now.
No more 20 lightning bolt decks.

[Tornado]

I was just going to say lightning bolt deck.

[Heroscaper Guy]

Originally Posted by Hogg

Did they change it? I haven't played in a long time but the minimum deck was 45 cards and the 4 of a kind rule was only for tournaments, fun games allowed as many copies as you wanted. Otherwise Plauge Rats would be pretty useless capping out at 4/4.

Want to see comething crazy, try a deck with nothing but Swamps, Dark Rituals, and Plauge Rats. Maybe a Sol Ring or other quick mana booster too.

4 of a kind of cards, 1 of a legendary creature on the field at a time, 60 card minimum (Unless you're playing Tiny Leaders or Commander where it's 50 or 100 specifically), 20 life (again unless you're playing variants where it's 25). Depending on what tourney format (Modern, Legacy, Standard, etc.), certain cards could be restricted or out right banned. That's all the rules I can think of.

[Colorcrayons]

Originally Posted by Xorlof

It's coming...

According to Tom, they don't have a cost, and IIRC they are a 1-time use.

Sooooo..... ummm.... it's been a few months. Any sign of this anywhere, #Xorlof?

[Smithy Winfred]

http://www.ign.com/articles/2015/02/...-title-box-art

Sounds like late this summer