Hello all. I'm a current player of M:tG and former player of Yu-Gi-Oh, and I happened to notice this game existed about a week ago. I looked up some info, saw the demo video, and I'm interested in picking this up for myself and my girlfriend. We both love Kingdom Hearts and I just love TCGs (who can resist the feel of fresh, square cardboard with printed images on them?). But before I invest in the game, I have a few questions...

1) In tournament play, how many different decks are viable? As in, how many different 'top decks' are there? I do like to attend tournaments (though I'm not sure Louisiana is a hotbed for KH tourneys) and I like to feel that what I bring to the table at least has a solid chance of winning instead of being trampled by the one or two dominating decks of the format.

2) I'm aware that this game is translated from the Japanese one. How is that one doing commercially? And how is FFG's translation doing? I've been burned once by supporting a card game that didn't keep going, and while this seems healthy what with the fourth set being released it's good to know that it'll keep going for a while.

3) Still on the subject of translations, how faithful to the originals are the cards? Any significant edits?

4) I've had bad experiences with overseas companies making terrible judgments on their games (see: Yu-Gi-Oh) and the localization company applying them even worse (see: YGO again). Something tells me FFG probably get it right, but it'd be nice to have confirmation that the rules aren't all over the place.

And that's about it. They may sound like damning questions, but in the end I'll probably pick this up to try it anyhow. After all, it'll be fun just to own some official KH cards. And if it's good enough I have a few friends who would be interested...

1.) To answer this question, you would of course have to look at the metagame and right now it seems to be a bit more diverse than MTG’s standard metagame (and not nearly as ridiculous as the extended metagame, where either you play the elf combo deck or you have answers to it) Control, Aggro WR JoaT and dark builds seem to be the shape of the meta, though I couldn’t give a percentage like we could with magic’s established metagame. This game surely has a lot of obvious strategies that any seasoned TCG player will pick up on and many new surprises that will be sure to keep you interested.

2.) The Japanese version of this game died before this one started to be translated but this just seems to be doing better and better, I know FFG has plans for this games health (can’t say what but there I’m sure plans are being made). It’s only in the company’s best interest to keep to game alive for the release of the new KH games and new US exclusive cards is again, only in their best interest. I see this game having a healthy future once Organized Play is better under wraps and metagame takes more shape. You certainly won’t be burned here for liking dead games, there are a good number of us who love dead games and wish they were still around (I know I do)

3.) It’s faithful to the original cards, but some were changed in order to fix their utter brokenness (Hundred Acre Wood, Neverland level 1).

4.) FFG does a good job with localizing the game, though some rulings are shaky and a new rulebook would be nice, they try to keep things consistent and faithful to the original game.

It’s nice to see new faces, and ones who have serious questions about the game. I hope to see you posting here often and go the big tournaments

I think the board ate your reply... O.o

Garonvach said:

1) In this game, there is only one deck. No side decks like yugioh or anything. But there are 3 main types of decks you may use. Aggro is basically when you want to kill your opponent's HP down to 0. WR (World Racer) is when you are trying to get to 13 Worlds first. JoAT (Jack of All Trades) is a mixture of the two. You can win either way.

2) FFG has made a few changes here and there to some cards, but it seems they have successfully made the cards more appropriate. The distribution of card power is also excellent meaning an SRU (Super Rare Unique) isn't necessarily better than a Common. So if someone isn't lucky and pulls no SRUs, they may still have pretty good cards!

3) The edits, though very little, have made cards for the better.

4) Rules are stable. With new cards, new rules are set out to fix anything. And even with new rules, they aren't crazy.

5) This game is fun and you should try it out!

Wow, that's weird. I have never seen that happen before

1.) This game isn't quite as diverse at the magic metagame but there are certainly deck archetypes that seem to excel over others, any seasoned veteran of TCG's can quickly pick up on this game, but, there are aspects to this game that keep you interested and seperate this game from others.

2.) This game was brought over seas after the death of its Japanese counterpart but like it's been stated before, FFG has kept pretty faithful to the original game. (this answers 3)

4.) again, FFG is good about the localization of the game.

I would reccommend playing it, I used to and being a noob at TCGs, I had lots of fun. The only problem about this game, is that it isn't the most common out of the group...here in New Jersey, I only know of 2 places that sell them (both over 30 minutes away), and I only know one person who plays it by me (Card_Breaker, also 30 minutes away)

Thanks for the replies, all!

I'm a little concerned that the original Japanese version has died, but it's very interesting that FFG brought it over postmortem. This either indicates to me that they felt it would pick up in Japan or they are interested in expanding the game beyond its Japanese sets, license issues notwithstanding. Business sense just tells me that there's no other reason they'd pick up a 'dead' TCG...

@Roxas_Lawliet:
Thanks for the meta rundown. I imagined that it wouldn't be terribly diverse, what with there not being as many sets and all, but if it's diverse at all that's a good sign. If you don't mind me picking at you further, what works in this game? I saw for instance a friend (I think it was "The King") who lets you tutor just by putting him into play? That seemed really awesome to me, coming from the games I do, but I know that may not be great in this particular game. Or if you have a topic full of links or whatnot, I'll look at that too.

Or maybe I'll just buy the damned thing and see how it works! I have a friend who I can play with and he'd be delighted to try things out in this game.

@Card_Breaker:
The lack of a sideboard is disturbing, if only because it means maindeck slots have to be taken up by metagame preparation. I'm one of those sticklers who like to keep the deck to its minimum size no matter what, and so I'm always agonizing over card slot choices =P

Also, thanks for the report on the localization. I'm glad to see that we're not seeing widespread art edits or what-not (such as changing breasts and editing out anything remotely religious), and I'm also relieved that FFG have their ducks in a row when it concerns rulings.

@TheChampIsHere:
Yeah, I know about the 'most common' thing... believe it or not, it's hard enough finding Magic: the Gathering players around here. I can only imagine what a niche game of a niche hobby means for finding others...

@all o' ya:
What do you all plan to do after the last set is released stateside, assuming FFG doesn't extend the license? I've seen some pretty weird fanbases over the years, and if I can see that perhaps you all (and maybe eventually myself) are some of those wacky eccentrics who keep with a game even after its gone, I might put some more bucks into this aside from the starter and a booster box.

Thanks again for the kind replies!

Oh, and The King lets you search for any card and place it into your hand. It is definitely a staple. You can search for ANYTHING!

I play (very little...I mean VERY little), but I came into this a diehard Kingdom Hearts fan. Some may call it blind love, but I will admit, that if this game were not Kingdom Hearts, I would not have anything to do with it. So, if they don't continue it or expand on it...I'll be content with just collecting the cards. Even better, hopefully, many people will give away there cards...that where I come in.

Garonvach said:

Well, hopefully by the time happens KH3/ BBS/ 365/2 will be out and they may make more cards. If not well we ride the wave till the end and remember the good times.

Card_Breaker said:

So he IS as good as I thought. I might have been a little unclear of what I thought he did, though-- I kind of slipped into Magic jargon! A 'tutor' card is one that lets you search your deck for a card and put it in your hand. So you confirmed his effect =)

Garonvach said:

Ya it seemed weird to me at first too but so far it's doing well and one can only imagine it doing better with the release of more games soon to come.

Well look if you look at the magic metagame, especially extended, you see like 3-6 decks doing exceptionally well, it's the nature of a card game I think. Again strategy is sort of obvious in this game (though this is speaking from an ex competitive magic player) but there are certainly things you will need to put up on as you play the game. Most people seem to think that there are 3 major archetypes (based solely on win condition) which just not the case. Though win condition is a part of it, we all know that there are many ways to get the same goal. There is a good amount of control in this game (owl, Phil, Sea Neon etc.) that cripple your opponent from playing cards and you slide your way to victory. There are more fast paced decks which try to (as quickly as possible) get their wins and simply move on and obviously many variants to that and there's a lot more to it but simply put, this game is very tempo based, and who can keep the tempo the longest tends to win games the most often (from my experience). Ya the King is basically a searchable and free demonic tutor (ya, I know, but it works in this game). Ya the king is obviously good and arguably broken. Again, any seasoned TCG player will pick up quickly on what is good and what is bad by just playing games.

I do a vlog where I talk about the game so you can check out that topic in the gummi garage and be sure to look at decks and get an idea of what decks can be made and get a feel for the game. Then play and see what you like best, I personally like everything so I guess I'm good at giving deck advice, at least that's what people tell me. Definitely play some games first though so you know how the basic elements of the game work, and become fimiliar with the cards. Universal TCG's has a full database of the first 2 sets so you can check those out there. Also, a good friend of mine does their Card of the Week for this game and he knows what he is talking about so be sure to check those out as well.

After this game, I'll probably just play other games and continue to play this one. I like this game a lot and it's brought good fortune into my life so I won't simply leave that if FFG can not make new cards. I'm sure I could find someone to play if I wanted to . Try CCG armoury, they sell the game pretty cheap, so your 200 dollar budget can get you all you need to get started, I've spent about 300 dollars I think and I have every card in the game (though, FFG did give me a bunch of them for free).

If you have questions about the game you can email me or contact me on AIM anytime.

How did you get a bunch of them for free? Also, don't you have videos on Youtube and stuff of you opening the packs?

TheChampIsHere said:

I do a have video of me opening stuff on youtube. I worked for them and I won Standard at Gen Con.

OK, just curious...

I can launch you into the game quite quickly - I have up to three non-foil sets of both set 1 and set 2 cards. more then enough to get the basic jist of the game and still create some rather decent decks. Simply reply here or better email me at (plmrelm @ yahoo . com) to set up a transaction.