The Spoils: A Brief Introduction

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.