Sing it with me: Crap! I did it again o/~

"You got me into
A brand new card game.
Well darn it, darn it"

Yup... and it's a game I wouldn't think I would like.

The game is called 'Anachronism', and it's a game of gladitorial battle in an arena with cards as your miniatures.

The cool thing about this game is that it's collectible, but not: Every card is Rare. Or common... depending on how you look at it. So there is no rare card beats your common card. In fact, they come in set packs so you are guaranteed the same 5 cards in specific packs. So if you like how I played with 'Spartacus' then you can go buy the Sparticus pack and get the same exact cards.

Each set is set up in a clear booster pack with a hero at the front... so you know which hero you're getting right off the bat. An each hero comes with the same 5 cards every time... and they are VERY playable right out of the packs too.

So, to start the game, you can buy one pack (~$6.99) and stop there, or many and mix/match. And with ONLY 5 cards making up a deck, you can swap out cards quickly or create a new deck in minutes. VERY COOL!

And each one is based off of a real or imaginary hero from time (the game is sponsored by the flippin' History Channel!!!

The thing that surprised me was the ability to not only play right away, but that no deck is a 'killer' deck. And with games (literally) taking 5 minutes to play, you can really get some good games in and not fret about your loss (most of the time).

So last night I went to learn the game and just enjoy myself fully intending not to like the game. I have played card games before (Magic the Gathering, Legend of the Five Rings, Pokemon, Dragonball Z... the list goes on and on). I was a card monkey. Then I came across the fact that every three months new cards would come out, the games ALL became "He who has the most money to buy the best cards wins"... and so I stopped cold turkey.

So I sit down and see that there's a playmat that one plays this game upon. The heroes move around the arena to fight each other. But they can only hit the opponent when they're in certain positions... like a miniatures game.

The card are really spectacular with one artist creating the art for a specific hero pack. And their 'foil-y goodness' really makes the cards pop out.

Two games into it I was enjoying it... but not completely. I watched two more games before I REALLY started to see how combinations worked, and by the time I had gotten second place in the tournament that was run last night (that took 30 minutes to run for 5 rounds... so fast!!!) I was hooked. I must say that I enjoyed the make-your-own game better than the out-of-the-pack game. I noticed also that the players are not really cut-throat with this game as I have viewed with other games... but I think that's just the crowd at the Haven.

Thanks to Forrest for teaching me the game and buying me my first hero/pack: 'Lu Bu' from the novel/historical record 'Romance of the Three Kingdoms'. Thank you so much, my friend.

* Wikipedia Page for Anachronism Here
* Informative blog here