WoW TCG Now Played Here

About a week ago I conned a few of the guys at the office into trying out the new World of Warcraft Trading Card Game (new compared to most other TCG on the block). I say "conned" because, having played Magic: The Gathering all throughout high school, I knew exactly what the risks of taking up a TCG are. The difference is that I am no longer on a high school student's salary, and can actually afford to play these games (well, one of them, anyway) to the depth that I please.

In any case, I found Upper Deck's online demo to be intriguing enough to give the actual game a shot, so we acquired a few starter decks and tried things out. It turns out that the game is a lot of fun, and offers a pretty good amount of variety thanks due to the game's class structure: decks are themed after a hero that represents one of the WoW MMO's nine classes, and can only contain cards that are compatible with that hero. Each class's specific cards help ensure that each class has a different flavor than the others.

The only problem we're having is building a deck around our class of choice. When you have nine classes to represent, it becomes that much more difficult to get the right cards for your class, and you end up having to buy/trade quite a bit. It's not impossible to play without said cards, but it is certainly frustrating to open an entire box (twenty-four packs/360 cards) of boosters and only see half a dozen cards specific to your hero.