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The Definitive CCG List
Kevin Felker
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Most have gone the way of the Dodo (Netrunner, On the Edge, Heresy), a few have stood the test of time (M:TG, L5R), and you've sworn off CCGs cause they're "money pits." Well lately I've been buying up OOP CCG starter boxes for the cost of an Inprint CCG's starter. Now that ain't so bad, is it?

Regardless, here they are since not all titles include CCG in the name.

Please add those I left off.
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The items in this GeekList are ordered by average rating
Posted Mon Jul 12, 2004 9:42 pm
1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5  Next »  [11] | 
1. Board Game: Saint Seiya Cardgame Collection [Average Rating:10.00 Unranked]
Bugnot Eddy
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Another Saint Seiya based CCG (after Knights Of The Zodiac) in Japanese this time...
2. Board Game: Queen's Blade: The Duel [Average Rating:10.00 Unranked]
Michael Cox
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Based on Queen's Blade.
3. Board Game: Aquarian Age [Average Rating:9.00 Unranked]
David Spitzley
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060708
4. Board Game: Dimension 0 [Average Rating:8.67 Unranked]
David Spitzley
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060708
Another from the horde of Japanese CCGs.
5. Board Game: Crystalicum: Kryształowa Gra Karciana [Average Rating:8.65 Unranked]
Piotr Konieczny
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08
CrystalicuM is a Polish CCG set in a 'fantasy/space opera/steampunk' universe (think Spelljammer) and with anime/manga like art.
6. Board Game: Veto! CCG [Average Rating:8.25 Unranked]
Piotr Konieczny
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08
One of Polish CCGs. This one is set in 17th century Poland, with players representing warring factions, each trying to get their king elected to the throne.
7. Board Game: Huntik: Secrets and Seekers Trading Card Game [Average Rating:7.62 Unranked]
Stefano Castelli
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050708
Latest CCG from Upper Deck (as of 2009).

Based on a TV show.

- Asymetric victory conditions
- Mission-based gameplay
- Rules for solo-playing

Actually, a nice CCG.
8. Board Game: Netrunner [Average Rating:7.52 Overall Rank:153]
Kevin Felker
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Netrunner (1996), Dead (with only one expansion).

Still Expensive.
1
Kevin Felker
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Apparently this one went OOP because it "plays so well out of the starters."
Pelle N
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This game is my all time favorite. Saying that it is lacking theme?? HuH? :surprise: Few game make use of good game mechanics in a way that feels so right for the theme, IMHO of course.

Me and my brother together own a about two display boxes of cards and usually play by building one deck each, playing them against each other, fixing the loosing deck a bit. Then play some more and alternate who plays what deck until we grow tired of those decks, then we start over building new deck. Since we pool our cards the player building the corp deck has as many cards to pick from as the runner, this way we really get to see how greatly balanced this game is.

If you get a chance to try this game you should take it!
John Ward
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060708
This game seems to hit a nerve with young high school computer geeks. The same guys who love to program RoboRally to push each other down pits seem to love the punching actions and cool-esque quotes. "I've got too much blood in my caffeine system."

I have trouble keeping it in the game club because every couple years there's a kid who loves it so much I give him our stash when he goes off to college.
Tony Corson
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This game was another of the best CCGs out there. I loved it!
Tony Corson
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This game was another of the best CCGs out there. I loved it!
9. Board Game: Allegiance: War of Factions [Average Rating:7.46 Unranked]
Kevin Felker
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Allegiance: War of Factions (2004)

Apparently plays exceptional multiplayer
Troy Davidson
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0708
This is a great game. The game is good with two players, but shines in multiplayer. The offical tournaments are multiplayer.

Well worth a look.
James Grierson
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I love the game and cannot even begin to explain the amount of interaction and chaos that occurs in a multiplayer game. The best part is the company does not focus on it being a collectible game. If you want to just go buy one starter, you can play with your friends. If you purchase 2 starters or one starter and a few boosters you are ready to compete.

Justin Robben
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Another rare winner in the glutted field of CCG
I have played 85% of the CCGs out there, this one shines when playing 3 or more.
A real treat in a difficult genre.
The website is also top-notch, so support, forums, cardlists, etc are all available at your fingertips, er, mousepointers...
Steve Zamborsky
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I can't wait to give this a try...thumbsup:D
jeff hallett
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I've never played a CCG before and I heard great things about this one. But I found the print on the cards to be significantly smaller, fainter and harder to read than other games, so much so that I had to take a pass. I bought into AGOT and MtG, which I have no problem reading. If the publisher of Allegieance reprints in more legible type, I'll grab it up in an instant.
Stan Mamula
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After playing M:tG for years and sinking gobs of time/money into it, I vowed to never play a CCG again.

Until now.

This is a really good multiplayer game. I love the shared resource and diplomatic/political aspects of this one.

With only 220 cards available to date (first expansion due soon), only 2 copies of a card per deck permitted, and rarity more based on artwork than utility/power, this game is not very expensive either.

10. Board Game: Conan Collectible Card Game [Average Rating:7.36 Overall Rank:2203]
Jason Robinette
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050608
Sorry for the duplicate entry.

Coming to stores in the next few weeks, features a combat mechanic that allows Conan to face multiple opponents simultaneously.
2
Jason Robinette
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050608
Ok... who here has tried this one besides me? :)

Come on, I know you're out there!

J
Chris Heffernan
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This is an excellent game. It can get a little unweildy (you need a lot of table space to play), and the rulebook leaves a lot to be desired (this is fixed with the downloadable rulebook and FAQs), but it's a lot of fun. I usually use my Malak voice when we play.
Gene Vogel
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05
Great game - can't wait for the 1st expansion!!
11. Board Game: The Spoils [Average Rating:7.30 Overall Rank:1287]
Kevin Guilfoyle
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The First Edition is now available. This CCG looks promising.
7
Michael Kraack
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The first expansion is also out, though it is really just the remainder of the first edition (it's First Edition Part 2).

And the game is really good.
Ryan Bushard
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This is a great game. Anyone can pick it up with less than 4 pages of rules. The Spoils has something for casual and hard-core gamers alike offering local in store events along with larger money events at premier cons around the nation. Anyone intrested in getting into the TCG/CCG world will find The Spoils a great game both to learn and to play. With the game being a little less than a year old it is easy to get into without needing to give up your first born for decent cards. Anyone intrested in playing should pick up a starter deck or two at your local gaming store that carries The Spoils, and if your local gaming store doesn't carry the spoils encourage them to buy a little product to test the waters. After a few people get playing the game will take off in your area. I have played numerous TCG's competitivly including Pokemon, Yu-Gi-Oh(ughh...), M:tG and some casually including Magi Nation and Vs. and I can honestly say this surpasses what I thought was possible from a TCG.
Jason Sadler
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070809
This is dead as of 08 due to financial troubles at Tenacious Games.
Kevin Guilfoyle
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Revived by Arcane Tinmen.
12. Board Game: Magic: The Gathering CCG [Average Rating:7.29 Overall Rank:131]
Kevin Felker
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M:TG (1993), Alive.
3
Pierre-Luc Thiffault
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Got two decks. I stopped playing.
Peter Engstrƶm
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When I heard that all you needed to do, was to buy ONE card for around $1000, and then you'll win all games there after, that's when I realized that it's an unbalanced game. Nope, don't like it. Even PokƩmon TCG is way better.:yuk:
Gregory Stephen McCallum
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0809
Great game.

I have been playing off and on since 1994. I have switched to playing online, which I love. No more game shops/binders/moving cards between decks.

I think this would be the most played game on the geek, by and far, if people would log all their plays (I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one that plays more than 10 games of MTG each week and doesn't take the time to log them on BGG).
james burns
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A money pit game. nuff said.
Get Funkadelic
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A boring two player game that you have to 'invest' in to be able to play the game you want to play. Just dreadful. Grandfather of all the other money pit games (card, figure, and otherwise) to follow. That is hardly a fantastic legacy to leave.
Edited Thu Jan 8, 2009 2:28 am
13. Board Game: Shin Sangoku Musou 4 Trading Card Game [Average Rating:7.25 Unranked]
David Spitzley
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060708
Yet another Japanese CCG, this time based on a PS2 game. Nice card art, though.
William McDuff
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Better known as Dynasty Warriors 4 in English speaking countries, for the curious.
14. Board Game: Deadlands: Doomtown [Average Rating:7.21 Overall Rank:543]
Kevin Felker
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Deadlands: Doomtown (1998), Dead. Huge Card Base.

Not Dirt cheap, Active buying on ebay.
Randall Peek
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One of the best. Currently trying to add to my collection, and especially looking for the fixed 'Do Unto Others' final expansion. I just bought a box of 'Ashes to Ashes' starters for under ten bucks.
J.T. Kauffman
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One of my personal favorites. The pacing is great, and the combat mechanics really make you think about what you put into your decks. Got into this far after it ended, though, so I never got to play on a regular basis. Perhaps I'll have to talk Coach Z into a game sometime (now that we're in the same state)...
Robert Taylor-Smith
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08
The best CCG ever made. Great story, great gameplay, by far the best multiplayer ccg.

One can only hope that someday the ccg will revive, heck Shadowfist came back....:)
Nathan Bredfeldt
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Lost my whole collection somewhere. They were all in my "Do Unto Others" boxes (I think that was the last set)
Jason Pott
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THE GREATEST CCG EVER!!!

With a combat system based on poker hands, what's not to love!!! I have thousands of DL: DT cards, starters, etc., & I'm trying to convince by board gaming group to give it a try since it does really well with multiple players. They are all poker players so it shouldn't be this hard to convince them.

The only problem I had with the game was the introduction of new card types in later expansions. With a 52 card limit deck building rule, this played hell on your ability to craft a good deck that you found yourself ignoring the new cards.
15. Board Game: Call of Cthulhu CCG [Average Rating:7.21 Overall Rank:479]
Kevin Felker
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Call of Cthulhu CCG (2004)
2
Kip Soteres
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My personal favorite. Hope it keeps up momentum. I love the theme and the mechanics are elegant.
Andrea Pantaloni
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That's the second favorite for me :) (the first one is A Game Of Thrones)
Steve Zamborsky
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One of the best CCGs out on the market now. If you like the theme, you should definitely check it out. Even if you don't like the theme, but are curious about CCGs...find yourself a Premium starter (less than the cost of a Kosmos 2-player game nowadays) and play it; I don't think you'll be disappointed. It reminds me somewhat of what a CCG would be like if Knizia did one (and that's a big compliment to Eric Lang, the game's designer).
Oliver Rassenhoevel
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this on looks better than the old one (MYTHOS), but the older game mechanics were much better. The graphics are great and you can play a really, really bad guy - OK! But I think, MYTHOS was the better game with ugly graphics...
D Hansey
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This game doesn't even come close to Mythos, IMHO anyway. Plus, Mythos is far better when played with 3 or more people.
16. Board Game: Legend of the Burning Sands [Average Rating:7.20 Overall Rank:1466]
Todd Wood
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04
this was a brilliant game destroyed by idiotic maketing plans. The very best CCG I have ever played and I have played nearly every game on this list
1
Steve Zamborsky
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I totally agree with you; this was indeed ruined by the "Rolling Thunder" (Blunder?) release schedule. Too bad; this trading card game is fantastic, both in gameplay and theme (I've yet to see another "Arabian Nights" type of TCG out there.
Andreas Josefsson
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060708
TEH BESTEST COLLECTABLE TRADING GMAE EVVARR!!!
IT ROXXORZ DA SOXXORZ OF ALL OTHER GIRLIE GAMES!!!

:blush:

I apologize. I readily admit though that I'm a drooling fan of this truly great CCG and that I everyday burn incense at the altar of the patron saint of all CCG:s asking her to bring down God's wrath on the people responsible for this game's demise.

There are a couple of problematic cards and one or two factions that make one or two strategies a little too effective. But all this could have been easily sorted out with in the next expansion or two.

Apart from that: the artwork, the theme, the background story, the multiple victory conditions, the mechanics - it is all so good. I'll have to quit now or I'll start crying. :cry:
Robert Taylor-Smith
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I don't blame the rolling thunder marketing scheme for this games collapse. Rolling thunder didn't really hurt Doomtown. What killed this game was 1) only three factions to start with, one of which was far more powerful and 2) use of only one deck which made unbalanced starts common with a bad start hand equalling a lost game.

The final fourth set with the multitude of factions complete with a host of broken cards was almost impossible to get.

I understand that WOTC destroyed all remaining stock after only 6 months from releasing the final set. Hence LOTBS is hard to get.
Paul van der Gun
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Best CCG ever (or at least close).
The game was brilliant, not in the least because of the dark, forbidding atmosphere that is around it.
If anyone has some cards from the Awakening expansion, please let me know! I only need 4 cards to complete my set.
Don Eisele
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I'm not sure if you've seen this from the AEG boards, but
this yahoogroups was started:

http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/LBS_Resurrection

There is a visual spoiler of all cards started:

http://imperialblock.com/visualspoiler

(then choose LBS)

If anyone has awakenings cards, we need awakenings scans. (I personally had a complete set of everything before awakenings, so scans of those are complete).

Contact me or join the yahoogroups list if you want to contribute.
17. Board Game: Shadowfist [Average Rating:7.18 Overall Rank:694]
Kevin Felker
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Shadowfist (1995), Alive (corrected 7/1/04).

Can be found for relatively low prices.

Active buying on ebay.
Jonathan
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Alive and well! Z-Man games now puts it out.
Geoff Conn
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Awesome game. Incredibly balanced, best pre-con starters ever, and lots of fun. Also a focus on comeback cards and no eliminated players adds to the fun factor.
Nathan Baumbach
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Shadowfist is one of those CCG's where I can have fun, get in character and just roll with it. Very nicely done, has a lot of interesting mechanics and strategies. Only not enough people play it to be something I get incredibly tied up in.
David Matchen
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0508
I have a substantial Shadowfist collection dating between 1996 and 2002 (when I bought a box of Netherworld II boosters while visiting London). I got into it around the time I was discovering the golden age of Hong Kong action cinema. I even subscribe to the Shadowfist trading list, though I haven't brokered any trades lately. This game was extremely fun and playable, not to mention hilarious (my Jammers decks were played mostly for laughs). The Battlechimp Potemkin remains one of my favorites from the original Netherworld. But little was more satisfying than building up enough resources to throw down Fong Sai Yuk on some unsuspecting opponent and hear him emit a satisfying "Damn!"

Shadowfist was, and remains, a blast to play.
Mike Mitter
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Its an alright game, one of the better ones but just a tad too complicated.. :P
18. Board Game: Perry Rhodan Sammelkartenspiel [Average Rating:7.17 Unranked]
Bernd Altmann
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0809
Very complex and long (up to 5 hours) German CCG in the Perry Rhodan universe (weekly issues since 1961 and running...)
Mike Mitter
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Never played the game but just wanted to add that Perry Rhodan is very much like Buck Rogers.
Jakob Schneider
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FuzzX wrote:
Never played the game but just wanted to add that Perry Rhodan is very much like Buck Rogers.


Bullshit.
Edited Wed Jun 10, 2009 5:26 pm
19. Board Game: A Game of Thrones CCG [Average Rating:7.12 Overall Rank:552]
Kevin Felker
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AGOT (2002), Alive (and for some time to come with 3 more books to release).
Justin Robben
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One of my top 3 choices ever.
I have played TOO MANY CCG's and therefore, am entitled an opinion on them.
This one, along with Doomtown and very few others, deserve to be played.
Nice start!
Nicholas Jost
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I tried it but got frustrated with the "cards of the same name" mechanic which I found *very* confusing.
Jaret Morgan
07
This is one of my top games ever. I love the books and the card game captures the flavor perfectly. Also probably the best multiplayer CCG.
Joshua Kenney
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Still my favorite, although I haven't played in a tourney in a while. I remember being absolutely blown away by the tough choices in the game, from what to put out on any given turn, to who to kill when a battle doesn't go your way.
Max Wax
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Fantastic game in every aspect. One of my top favorites!
20. Board Game: Middle-Earth CCG [Average Rating:7.11 Overall Rank:352]
Kevin Felker
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Middle-earth (1995), Dead (but what a hefty set of cards it left behind)

Can be found at Moderate prices, not cheap to be sure.

Active buying on ebay.
Luca Iennaco
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My old favourite.
Justin Robben
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Another great one, too bad they added tooo much complexity as time and expansions went on.
I will NEVER sell/trade my large set of this game as one day, I look foward to teaching my son :D
TJ Tumlin
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Can buy from www.treebeard.com, very nice prices, bought from him and pleasant to deal with. He also sells on eBay. Can get in the game quick. I bought cards from him and off of eBay (got into a lot of different CCGs recently).

Hit or miss on eBay but can get some good deals if you wait, watch, and research. Most boxes of stuff are 300-500 cards and cost $15, so bid appropiately when someone says 1000 cards... be sure of what you're getting, a collection or did he just buy a couple of boxes of the same stuff.
Ender Wiggins
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I would echo the positive comments about www.treebeard.com - good prices, very friendly/helpful, excellent selection. I bought some Challenge Decks and was very pleased.
Paul Weston
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I remember first learning the rules to this game (was in 7th grade) was like rocket science 0_0. Very good game that I highly recomend. You can play as on of 5 wizards (and there "corrupted versions), one of the 9 Ring Wraiths, and later on a balrog I believe making for a total of 20 playable "heroes (?)". I also believe it was the first game to use a card to represent the player. I also think you can play as sauron as well, The biggest rares where "The One Ring (seeing that it was a win condition)" and "The Lidless Eye (let you play as Sauron)".
21. Board Game: Legend of the Five Rings [Average Rating:7.07 Overall Rank:481]
Kevin Felker
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L5R, Alive.

Had a change of card backs.

Active buying on ebay.

Andrew Hung
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0508
One of the Best Multi-players CCG. The oriental flavor of this game really appeals to me plus the game mechanic is very good. One thing I like is that you are restricted to having One of each LEGENDARY item. Story arc was determined by the result of national tournament! No real broken card combo, another key to a good CCG. Now part of WoTC line of products, probably why it's still around.

My favorite deck when I was playing(Emerald edition) was the Shadowland. Very annoying to my friend's Crane deck since I totally ignored Honor and can play all sort of action cards.

Jeremy Hanson
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I love this game a lot. It is the only game that is on par with what a CCG should be, aside from MTG. My only problem with it, was the length of time required to play a game. It parallels with Warhammer when you look at the time it takes to finish one game. Other than that, this game is unique, fresh, and combines elements of strategy with storyline to enhance the overall experience.
Douglas Bushong
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0708
I never played the game, but I had a friend that played who was also into rap music. As a gift I used photoshop,sticker paper, and a bunch of commons to make him a set of customized cards for the "Wu Tang Clan." They included Rae Kwan, Rza, Gza, ODB, etc. He loved it.

That's about all of the interaction that I had with the game. I tried to get into it, but my attempt was half hearted and the game was too complex at a time when I was getting out of gaming. If this had been around at my peak of gaming, I probably would have loved it, though.
Mike Mitter
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Bought a whole box of starters on a reccomendation. Friend and I played it once. It took 2 hours to make it through the tutorial. WAY too complicated.
james burns
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0809
Multiplayers?

Of all the games I have seen played of it they were all Dueling 1 vs 1. Even at all the tourneys were all 1 on 1.
22. Board Game: EVE: The Second Genesis CCG [Average Rating:7.04 Overall Rank:2106]
Jonas Bang
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08