Middle Earth CCG/dead CCGs

Got in another few games yesterday. The game is still interesting. The two most recent matches I was a minion ( evil ) player. In the first match I misunderstood how to best play the deck ( another pre constructed Challenge deck ) and while my dragons scorched a bunch of Dwarves, my opponent was able to lug back enough items to beat me. Between the two of us we've each got a fair number of cards now, I think I may venture into building a deck which I normally loathe but this system doesn't give me that same sense of dread. Pity its no longer supported. I think the time to strike would have been around the same time FFG launched the LotR LCG. This is a VERY different play experience, not just the fact that it's PvP as opposed to co-op.

Shellhead wrote: Three most common sentences uttered in game shops in the '90s:

1. "Want to play a game of __________ ?" (CCG de jour)

2. "I can't afford to get into another CCG."

3. "What time is it?" (Serious CCG players couldn't afford a watch because they spent that money on more booster packs. This problem went away once everybody had a cell phone with a clock function.)[/quote

Back in the early days of Magic and the infancy of the internet, the only way to find out about new stuff was to trudge down to the FLGS. I was living in Boston at the time and every few weeks would go to the Compleat Strategist ( sadly RIP in Boston as of about 3 years ago ) . The front window was where all the CCGs were stacked - and I mean STACKED because it seemed every time I was there there would be a new CCG coming out that was to be the next Magic. Any sci fi/fantasy TV show or movie franchise likely had a CCG during this area. It got to the point of being comical. The store manager would laugh when I would ask him what just came out. Over time, the window area became a sort of shrine to failure . There would be dozens of half to three quarters empty booster boxes with some dusty booster packs lying in there waiting for some sucker to buy them. The only CCG I bit on was the Star Trek one and only a handful of boosters IIRC. Don't remember much about it.

I do sort of miss the thrill of finding new releases by having to find them on a shelf.

One of the last games I played before COVID hit was Warhammer: Invasion. It was pretty cool, had some great artwork on the cards if I recall. Hope to get back to it one day.

^that one is a pretty good game from a casual perspective, I played it for a bit.

Yes that was a decent game.