Coming this spring from Cryptozoic Entertainment, World of Warcraft: Clash of Champions is 423 cards worth of tabletop raiding fun for two to four players in one sexy $45 box.
The deck building game has saved my wallet. See, I love card games, and I love the colorful artwork and unique rules of trading card games like Magic: The Gathering or Cryptozoic's own World of Warcraft trading card game, but when I start buying card boosters I start getting obsessive, fretting constantly over not having a complete set of every expansion pack that comes out.
Deck building games give me the unique rules and colorful art I crave, while sticking to a set number of cards, usually included in the box. I've been playing an awful lot of Bandai's Resident Evil deck building game lately, and <em>Ascension: Chronicle of the Godslayer is on my Christmas list.
World of Warcraft: Clash of Champions aims to give players that same sort of self-contained experience. Between two and four players choose one of six special hero cards — Thrall, Jaina, King Varian, Garrosh, Sylvanas, and King Magni — and take on iconic World of Warcraft bosses like Onyxia, Ragnaros, and possible (not) Hogger. As enemies are defeated the characters level up, gaining special powers, earning loot, and basically having a good time not staring at a screen for hours.
"Over the past few years, deck-building games have emerged as an exciting new area of game design and have exploded in popularity," said Cory Jones, President of Cryptozoic. "We're pleased to be working with the rich lore of Blizzard's Warcraft universe to explore the deck-building genre and put our own spin on its mechanics."
I'm looking forward to a quick and dirty World of Warcraft card-based experience that doesn't require the full attention of my wallet.
World of Warcraft Clash of Champions [Product Page]