EXP Podcast #506: Playing Our Cards Right

Setting cards on fire isn't tournament legal.

There's never been a better time for people that love cards but lack table space.  With the release of Artifact, Valve is wading into the collectible card game market and retrofitting some of the traditional economic models onto their own marketplace.  This week we do a survey of the landscape and weigh the pros and cons of converting our retirement funds into rare foil cards.

- Here's the show's stand-alone feed
- Listen to the podcast in your browser by clicking here, right-click and select "save as link" to download the show in MP3 format, or click play below.

Show Notes:

- Runtime: 31m 22s
- Music by Brad Sucks

Losing to Win in Netrunner

Stirling coming out of retirement.

This unassuming old man here on the right, Iain Stirling, is amazing because he upends some Netrunner norms.

This week on PopMatters, I'm back to the subject of the Netrunner LCG. This post does not go in depth into the basic mechanics of the game, which I do better when I last spoke about asymmetrical play here. I recommend you give that a read to understand one of the reasons this game is so special. For yet another reason, you can also check out my previous article on the politics of Netrunner. This most recent expansion set adds some really interesting political flavors to the game as well.

While this post is mostly on Stirling and the way he lends himself to a particularly exhilarating style of play, I should say that Honor & Profit, the latest deluxe set of cards, intelligently shifts the meta around in a variety of ways. Guard, for example, directly responds to some of the early game assault Criminal factions consistently dish out. Tennin Institute supports a slower and more drawn out game than what populated the meta, bolstered by cards like Diversified Portfolio and The Future Perfect (holy crap, this card).

Runners saw their own answers to the dominant "fast-advance" strategy with tools like Legwork and Donut Taganes. Interestingly, some old cards that were scoffed at upon release are now actually played and well regarded. The dedicated central breakers open up the playing field for crazy tricks with Notoriety and Quest Completed. It's always been a fun time to be a Netrunner playful, but I don't think the game design has ever been this playful.

Hearthstone and Accessibility

Garrosh from Hearthstone

This week on PopMatters, I root about in modern card games and Hearthstone in particular.

See, I remember the day I decided to give up my futile efforts to stay abreast with Magic the Gathering. I owned a lot of cards, played nearly every day for many years, and even went to local tournaments. I was a Magic aficionado for a time, although never a very good one. Even so, I did my best to pay attention to the new releases and prepare myself accordingly. But, as many of you know from first hand experience, keeping up with Magic is basically impossible.

The day I decided to give up was the day I decided to invest in a really fun deck. I pooled some money together and bought some high-end cards online, all the copies I was missing and dual-lands that would really tie my deck together. I made it myself, and I was proud of it. It was my last, final hoorah into Magic for many, many, years. I had a blast, but card games just fell out a favor.

But with the resurgence of designer board games, card games are back in a big way. From Legendary to Android Netrunner, it has never been a better time to play card games again. The genre, if you can call it that, has largely abandoned some of the more tedious costs, streamlined the play experience, and borrowed heavily from Eurogames. Even Magic has caught up with the digital versions of the game, which still offer some immediately satisfying experiences without suckering you into a pay-for-random-cards business model.

The release (aka "open beta") of Hearthstone is a significant moment. The game is played and discussed by people who, in other circumstances, would never touch a CCG. My perhaps overly optimistic hope is that, after a little taste into what tabletop card games can offer, they come back for more.