Epic Trading Card Game
Epic is a new trading card game from two Magic: The Gathering Hall-of-Famers, Robert Dougherty and Darwin Kastle. The game is a fast-paced struggle of spells, champions and dramatic events, usually culminating in a tragic and spectacular beatdown. Cards come in packs of 15 (14 common and 1 rare), but not in pre-constructed decks as has become custom. Games can be played with as little as two booster packs per player. Capturing the quick-pace of the original Magic: The Gathering while meeting the high expectations of today’s TCG market is a difficult task, but Epic may just have found a way.
Not surprisingly, Epic has a lot to live up to. With two well-known M:tG names at the helm and a swamped TCG market, Epic needs to be, for lack of a batter word, epic. In a strange and twisted way, Dougherty and Kastle have created a game that encompasses the good in all TCGs and leaves much of the bad out. In many TCGs, getting waxed by your opponent is disheartening and shows the disparity between those with too much money to spend and those who simply wish to play a fun game. Epic has found a few ways around that scenario.
First, the game is obviously and ridiculously broken. In the eyes of many experienced TCG players, the cards are nearly all overpowered. Every new pack brings another card that makes these players gasp and laugh at the new monster that will certainly kill everything it touches, or the spell to wipe the board clean. What makes M:tG and other card games balanced is casting cost. Powerful creature = high cost. Epic sees fit to do completely away with casting cost. What makes the game different from M:tG is Action Points. Long a staple of board games, Epic uses Action Points in places of any mana, land or whatever spell-casting component other games require. Each player gets one action point per turn (yours and your opponent’s) and each card costs either one point or is free. That’s it. You want that giant T-Rex to come out on the first turn? “No problem,” says Epic. “Play that sucker and hit your opponent for 12 damage right off the bat.” Oh yeah, this will be fun.
The second element making Epic fun is the simplicity of play. Decks can be made from as little as two booster packs. When teaching the game, I have taken my stack of cards from several boosters, shuffled them together and dealt 30 cards to each player. Boom! Instant deck. Constructed is certainly an option for the game as well and the resulting decks are just as ridiculous as you may imagine.
Turns are divided into several quick phases: Prepare, Pre-Build, Battle, Build and End. Prepare and End are easy and are standard in all TCGs. Right any cards that were used during the Prepare phase and complete any final actions during the End phase. Build (symbolized by a Hammer icon on the cards) is also fairly common. Cards played during this phase are usually your stronger creatures or champions. Pre-Build cards (symbolized by an Hourglass icon on the cards) may also be played during the Build phase, but are most useful during Pre-Build. Pre-Build cards essentially have no “summoning sickness” – they may be used in Battle the same turn in which they are cast. Battle is, of course, the way to defeat an opponent by reducing his Mojo (life points) to zero. Creatures fight each other and opponents, causing massive amounts of damage at a time.
Besides Pre-Build and Build cards, some cards contain an Arrow icon, marking them as Instants. These cards can be played at any time. As for casting cost of each card, there are two options: One Action Point or completely Free. Once a player has used his Action Point for the turn, he may not cast any spells requiring another point that turn.
Another departure from many TCGs is Epic’s “decking” rule. Traditionally, running out of cards in your deck means instant death. You couldn’t pull off a victory in time, so you lose. In Epic, not so much. If you can deck yourself, you win. A significant number of cards allow further drawing during turns and create a much faster-paced game.
I would be remiss if I didn’t mention Epic’s art design. If anything, this is the area where Epic falls flat. The art is uninspiring and at times amateurish. The text is nothing to write home about and much of the card design looks as if it were thrown together by a few guys with copies of a free 3D art program and a bootleg copy of Photoshop. Somehow, though, if this game had quality art and flavor text, I’d be less interested. The fact that the designers have spent little (hopefully) effort on beautiful cards means more time was spent in design. If nothing else, the art gives the game a campy and fun feel missing from most TCGs.
In the end, this is a game to play in between games of something else. In fact, that is exactly how it was designed. Like its spiritual grandfather M:tG was supposed to be, Epic is fast, fun and easy to get into. Collecting the entire set for those extremely powerful cards is nearly useless when commons are so overpowered. Even for casual play between friends, a few packs of Epic are worth the buy. If you can’t stand TCGs, just pick up a few packs and make a deck from those. It will certainly always have a chance to be truly Epic.