Today I'm going to take a detour from my main topics of
Magic and programming and wonder down the path of another trading card game.
I've become interested in
The Spoils and although it is relatively a new game
with only 4 sets, some of the rules are very similar to Magic: The Gathering
while others are subtle improvements.
When playing Magic I regularly have the following problem. I know which three cards/abilities I want to use
but then I have to look at my land to make sure that I don't accidentally use
up all of my red mana because I was going to Shock my opponent during combat. And the situation just gets worse when
playing 3, 4, or 5 color decks when you have lands that can produce multiple
colors. I'll call this the "land
tapping problem" and although I know it can be solved by taking a few
extra seconds to think about the situation, I still find it annoying.
Oddly enough the Spoils doesn't have this problem. In order to play a card you have to pay its
cost, like 2, and meet the card's threshold.
Threshold is basically the number of "basic resources", aka
land, that you have. Threshold isn't
used up and can be used to meet the requirement for multiple cards. So while a card's cost could be 2, the
threshold might be 6 Rage icons, which means that the card can't be played
until late in the game.
The card's cost can be paid by any resource, so this solves
the "land tapping problem". In
the Spoils, although any card can be played as a resource (aka land) only basic
resource cards have threshold icons on them.
I think Magic's biggest flaw is the requirement of land and while the
Spoils doesn't eliminate land, it reduces the need to stuff half your deck full
of lands thus causing mana flooding or late in the game when you draw a land
instead of a useful card. "Hey it's great to draw a mountain on my
15th turn while I'm neck and neck with my opponent but I would really like something
more useful."
(The VS/Marvel/DC trading card game didn’t have the "land
tapping problem" and only had generic costs like 3 but penalized you for
using random cards by only allowing characters with the same team affiliation
to group attack.)
Combat in the Spoils is similar to Magic's old combat
system.
Declare attackers
Let both players
play cards/abilities
Declare blockers
Let both players
play cards/abilities
Assign damage
Let both players
play cards/abilities
Deal damage
The Spoils adds it own spin on combat and every creature has
a speed. Higher speed creatures assign
(and deal) damage before lower speed creatures which makes combat much more
complicated. Instead of having 1/1
creatures, the Spoils has 1/1/1 creatures since creatures also have a speed. You may have multiple combat phases because a
player can attack with each of his creatures separately or together. Creatures in the Spoils also have the
annoying "summoning sickness" rule, which means that they can attack
on your next turn.
In Magic creatures have power/toughness and the Spoils renames
them strength and life but they are the same thing. The Spoils has 5 factions which are very
different in flavor than Magic's 5 colors but you have to be blind not to
notice the similarities. The Spoils also
has "faction cards" which are similar to Magic's avatar cards which affect
how many cards you draw, your starting life, etc...
I might try programming something like Forge for the
Spoils. It would be great to make it
official with the company that owns the Spoils and actually sell it. Programming for real money sounds like a very
enjoyable project. Not that I haven't
had a great time starting the Forge project and giving it away but I would
enjoy a change of pace. A Spoils
videogame with a good AI and decent graphics would be very fun indeed.
The world needs more trading card videogames. :+}
--mtgrares
p.s.
I said "decent graphics" because that is my
weakest skill. Programming the back-end,
non-graphical stuff is usually pretty easy and fun.
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