It started innocently enough with some free cards. Cast-offs from the other kids on the bus. Then my 7 year old asked if he could join the club after school. Mrs. Sandwyrm, not really knowing what a CCG is, signs him up before I can warn her off. Too late! She paid the fee and says we're now committed. The handout from the school then comes home, revealing that he has to bring his own cards. Next thing you know, we're at Target looking for a couple of starter sets.
It has us. There's no turning back now.
As we play our first game, I'm amazed at how quick it is to pick up. Yet there is actual depth too. I also start seeing all the hooks that are buried in the starter decks. If we just had more energy cards... If I had one more of this guy...
I have flashbacks to my MTG days. But this... Much as I hate to admit it, this is a better game.
I know we'll be back at the store once he starts losing cards to his opponents. As he gets better, I probably will too. This is some finely polished card crack here. :)
How much does he like it? "It's just a little bit better than X-Wing." Which is saying a lot.
By the end of the game he's rawr-ing and trash-talking like the best of them. His dragon-monster is knocking all of mine out of the game with one blow each.
I manage to fend him off, but my deck runs out first. "Rawrr!!! I'm the Pokemon Master!"
What have I done? And... How can I get Farmpunk's kids hooked?
At least it's not Yu-gi-oh.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of X-Wing, did you see the post on FF's website about Wave 4? TIE Defenders, E-Wings, Z-95s and TIE Phantoms. That, plus the Corvette and Transport. Want so bad.
I've been praying for them to release the Tie Defender ever since I heard about the game. It was my favorite ship in the old Tie Fighter computer game. Everything else is just gravy.
DeleteGotta buy them all, of course, in multiples. Maybe Pokemon isn't so bad after all? :)
Should probably start doing some X-Wing posts.
It's times like this that I'm glad my son gave all his starter pack cards away.
ReplyDeleteyeah yu-gi-oh is much worse. buy the biggest card, and slap the biggest upgrades on it ->win
ReplyDeleteI tried playing a flash version of yu-gi-oh, and it pained me. it was even the official port of the game.
the girls will get into Poke in time. If I introduce it, C will want to beat Daddy at it, and get interested. B will just want to collect all the cutest stuff. just to collect it.
Heck, C wants to play X-wing again to try and beat me. My 6yr old is calling me out for challenges!
I saw the wave4 stuff. I drooled. that cruiser....
and fielding a rebel swarm might be fun.
I'm betting the Imperial Gunboat (from the computer game) will be released in Wave 5. To help deal with the big rebel ships. Can't wait!
Deletehttp://cdn.leganerd.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/XG1-StarWing-Assault-Gunboat1.jpg
One of my daughter's get her started looking at Pokemon cards when she was about 5. So she wanted some to collect but not play the game. I sort of forced her to learn the actual game but it does involve a lot of reading.
ReplyDeleteWe got the 2 player trainer set but I think in general you are just better off getting 2 constructed decks with different colors. Like all the CCG it is all about how good your cards are so once your son starts to run into people with significant collections (like 4 of the same EX-pokemon) he will see the advantages of X-wing. My daughter has a couple of cards in her deck that just cause me tons of issues due to what I have in my deck.
You really need a trading community as getting cards in boosters is a total pain but at least the cards have a code symbol on them to tell how rare they are. She had some luck maybe a year ago getting some good cards in a package but since then not really anything good. Ofcourse that was maybe 8 booster equivalents over a whole year so not like we were picking up whole boxes of boosters.
Hopefully the school club he's joining will provide that trading environment, and go easy on him for a bit (no prize cards). We'll see. I've been impressed though with their other after-school programs.
DeletePoko-Newbie question:
DeleteAre energy cards 'spent' and discarded when you attack, or do they stay attached? We played the former last night, and the game seemed to drag a bit. After looking at the rules again though, I'm thinking its actually the latter. Which would make the game go a lot faster.
Energy cards are only discarded if the attack specifically calls for it which is pretty rare. You also discard them to retreat to the bench the active pokemon and bring up a different one if one is near defeat but remember that there are plenty of cards which can attack benched pokemon.
DeleteCool. Thanks!
DeleteMe and my boy UberDave went through this for two years. I taught him how to play, and actually liked it, but he liked to play it his own way. Over a 2 year period he easily acquired 3k-5k cards. he even collected ones that were long past useable, but he had to "catch em' all." After last summer, I FINALLY noticed that his younger brother UberEwan liked it, so UberDave sold off all of his cards, and kept about 500 which were his best cards. Now all the kids are in 4th and 5th grade and playing MTG and.....some play ugggh.......Yugioh...... I REFUSE to let him play that game, Its like the type of people who play that game have a strain of The Dumbass Herpes. The one card game I stopped playing specifically because of the clientele.
ReplyDeleteI don't know anything about it, so I'll poke the tigger... What's wrong with Yugioh?
Deletehere's yu-gi-oh BAM! it's the 'official' flash version of it.
Deletehttp://www.kongregate.com/games/konamikg/yugioh-bam
stick with Pokemon
Wyrmy: go into ANY and I mean ANY game store, and ask the owner of the store owners what they think of yugioh players. They are the equivalent of the worst stereotype of the worst gamer who lives with their mom, EVER. And have a surprisingly high pedophile:player ratio.
DeleteNot registering to try that crap out.
DeleteAnd... Eww!
uberdark: I don't have a negative opinion of Yugioh players. I DO have a less than positive attitude about the crowd that tends to come with Yugioh as a market/group. I'm MUCH more worried about theft than any bogyeman pedophile threat.
DeleteLoquacious: In 2006 there were a group of guys who started going to games throughout central Indiana. These three guys were pedophiles. None had been busted yet, but they got together online, started playing and one "fell in love" as his later defense in court, and ran away with a then 14 year old girl. He was 28-30 I believe. The other two were caught a few months later after they had been taking pictures of players at events. Kids at these events....... it just floored me. After that, I was done. Good news is the three guys got sentenced to 10-20 years among them and have gotten to enjoy the last 7 years of butt whoopings, and butt darts.
Deleteman, didn't know that game was still around. I played when it first came out, but everyone else was playing MTG, so I jumped ship, as I only had my younger sister to play it with. Then my grandmother sold my entire collection for $4 at a garage sale, including my multiple rare $15 cards. Kinda killed it for me there. I think I might have like 4 of my favorites held back somewhere. Shrug. It was pretty fun, glad to hear you're kid is enjoying it.
ReplyDeleteMy son and daughter both play this. My daughter is Pokemon mad and loves to have the Pokemon she likes best in her deck. My son crafts beatstick optimized lists with whatever will crush the opposition most effectively.
ReplyDeleteMy daughter has WAAAAYYY more fun with the game.
The club at school should NEVER allow cards to be exchanged or bet for games. In other words, he shouldn't lose any card because he is playing. In my area it got so bad that all CCG cards got banned because they were causing so much trouble. Some kids would exchange a 15$ card (or more) for a $1 card (or less), it got the parents really mad and the school had to ban them.
ReplyDeleteHey now - yours is an opinion I can trust: is X-Wing as good as people say?
ReplyDelete(Although thank God my girls are too young as yet to get into anything...)
Drax: so fun. so easy to learn. Has a lot of depth and tons of build options. Pre-assembled, pre-painted minis. Not horribly expensive. A company committed to making the game viable with prize supported tournaments. You can hardly go wrong.
DeleteYes. Yes it is.
DeleteThe only complaint I have about it is that it gets a bit counter and template heavy. But the joy of playing a game that's had some actual thought put into it lets me get past that easily.
Thanks so much for you thoughts, guys: yours are opinions that I'be really come to value!
ReplyDelete