A Dream: All the Cards easily acquired

[Sausageman]

I actually have some sympathy with the views expressed in this thread.  I have bought a core set and both spell tomes thus far, and really want to do a bookaround canines, yet I STILL only have 5 copies of the bloody Bitterwood Fox  

Personally, I think the ONLY way to fix this is for Arcane Wonders to sell singles.  Personally speaking, I don't want 6 copies of EVERY Level 1 spell, but there are some I do want.  The capacity to pick those individual ones up would be excellent - especially if I didn't have to pick up a 15 quid (sorry, I'm English ) tome to do so...

So, SeanDeCoy, what are the chances of getting Arcane Wonders selling singles?

[SeanDeCoy]

You know, it is a possibility, that we could sell singles. But I'll need to talk to my web team, sales team, and customer service department to make sure that if we did roll it out, it would go smooth, and that we'd be able to handle the orders in a timely manner. We'd also need to do some research with our retailers to make sure it wouldn't be perceived as not supporting them. Overall though, I'll ask my team to start looking into it and see what we can dig up.

[Sausageman]

I do understand that it's perhaps quite not as simple as 'yay, you now sell singles', but from a players point of view, it has a significant number of positives.
What I wouldn't want it to do is have a negative impact on your future sales or your reputation....

But likewise, I don't want to buy another spell tome for 1 Bitterwood Fox

[theduke850]

try this: http://www.twogsc.com/mw-bitterwood-fox.html

[Sausageman]

try this: http://www.twogsc.com/mw-bitterwood-fox.html

Sadly, as I'm in the UK, the minimum shipping charge is $30 dollars..... I don't think I want it that bad. Cheaper to buy another tome in fact

[theduke850]

yes, I can see that is a problem... would the shipping from AW be any different though if they start selling singles from the website?

[Sausageman]

yes, I can see that is a problem... would the shipping from AW be any different though if they start selling singles from the website?

I hope so! I've bought from American sellers before and they've been more reasonably priced. For $30 I could ship the base game....

[Koy]

I am not sure of what the best solution is for my play style.  I want to have a spellbook for each and every mage available, which means that even 6/4 copies aren't enough in some cases.  Though at this time I have 2 of all three current releases, I still can't make the decks the way I want which is somewhat frustrating considering just how many freaking cards are at my disposal.

I suppose singles are a way to go, but when I can buy a spell tome for $20 with no shipping charge and some website wants to charge me $12 for two Lash of Hellfires plus some crazy shipping charge to reach me in the frozen north... I come right back to "Well, I guess I can buy a few more spell tomes."

Personally, I love the idea of the mage specific spell tomes that was mentioned upthread by Sean but I can see the idea of having to get shelf space for those at my local game store not being exactly popular.  I mean, it would take up space that more Magic posters could be occupying.

It is likely that there will be more core spell tomes and maybe even a third core box set will be coming soon.  Maybe I'll wallpaper my game room with the extra arena boards...

[DarthDadaD20]

I bought two core sets so I could have plenty of copys for each spell, but it really isnt needed. I come from a CCG game that if you play a spell, you almost HAVE to have x4 in your deck...I now know you really dont want x4 of the same spell in your tome for mage wars, so I dont think its really a problem. You could also trade with friends or make a lone list like me and my friends will do with any kind of card game. I am happy overall by buying two core sets,(Even thou I really want the spell books from the core spell tomb, maybe they could sell those on there website with the other ones.) But regardless, I got both core sets for $80, I spend $80 in the blink of an eye for ANY other game....I am very thankful to Arcane workshop, after I lost my job I thought I would never get to play a game like this again,(there are others out there, but they dont scratch that itch you know?) So you are not going to hear any complaints out of me...Keep up the good work!

[Alexander West]

Hello, new to the game in the last few weeks.

Where it is true that you don't often want 4x or 6x of a card, sometimes you do.  For example, I have a beastmaster build that definitely wants 6x Falcon and 6x Fox.  The trouble is, Falcons come 2 to a core set and 1 to a spell tome.  That means I need to buy 3-6 products just to build the book that I want.

I know Game of Thrones LCG recently started selling sets that were complementary to the starter box, such that a player who had the starter and one of these had a playset of everything.  It would be great if Mage Wars did this.  I don't mind buying 2 things to get a playset from any given expansion, but I don't really want to have to buy more of that.  Being asked to buy 3 core set just to play a book I want to is a turn-off for me, and its a turn-off for others who don't want to pay CCG prices to play a LCG style game.

(In shops in the last week I've been teaching people how to play, and several were like, "Nah, that game costs too much." referring to the need to buy duplicates.)

Anyhow, I don't really care how the problem is solved (always sell full sets, always sell half sets, make an advanced core with a full playset, sell singles) but I do care that it is solved.  Access to cards is a huge issue in determining whether people get into this game or not, and I'd like it to be easier to get people into it.

[Sailor Vulcan]

I think you're forgetting that all of the sets are designed with playgroups in mind, not individuals. $80-120 is quite an expensive tournament entry cost for one person, but each set comes with two spellbook binders and two mages. I think the optimal number of people to share Mage Wars collection of 1 core set and 2 expansions is probably 2 or 3 people. That way you have some decent room to customize competitive spellbooks simultaneously, and you'll be getting your money's worth, unlike if you had the collection all to yourself.

$120 divided by two people is $60 and divided by three people is $40. If you get your sets on Amazon they often cost up to $20 less. It's completely affordable. The only reason that you're having problems is probably because there aren't enough players for everyone to share their collection. That's why I haven't bought any expansions yet.

$120 for 1 person is really expensive, but a Mage Wars collection is really meant to  be shared. I think that's why every expansion comes with two mages and two spellbooks, rather than just one.

Mage Wars IS a LCG, and it's completely affordable. In fact it's one of the most affordable games of its kind on the market as far as I know. You really have nothing to complain about except the fact that the game is only 1 year old and not well known.

Your financial barrier can be decreased by increasing the number of your friends who play Mage Wars with you, and that will likely get much easier as the game grows older.

Note: I think it would be really fun to get together with friends to build and test spellbooks. Spellbook building is half the fun of this game, but it is tedious and feedback is very beneficial to the process. Using a distribution model that makes tournament spellbook building a social activity just like the game itself (at least for players that aren't super-wealthy) I think is ingenious.

[Aylin]

Joining the unholy necromancy being conducted in this thread, the set I have is shared by myself, my fiancee, and a couple of my friends. We each have a couple of lists for the books we play, so it doesn't matter if we need to temporarily cannibalize a Warlock book to make a Fire Wizard.

[Alexander West]

Oh, yeah, my wife and I share a set, and definitely have a few friends who play out of our card pool.  I think sharing the game is nice.

However, it can still be frustrating to get 6x of a card AW doesn't anticipate you needing 6x of.  Even sharing cards, it feels wasteful to wind up getting 5+ of level 2+s, and 7+ of some level 1s in the process of trying to get the 6th copy of a level 1 you want/need. 

This isn't supposed to be a CCG, it's not supposed to be hard to get a playset of cards.  This is an LCG, it's supposed to be easy to find, and get the cards.  There's not supposed to be any trading, or collection hassles.  Just buy the game and play.

[Sailor Vulcan]

EDIT: Ignore what I originally wrote in this post; I miscalculated. If you just get 1 core set and 1 core tome 1, then you'll have 6 foxes, 3 falcons, 3 bobcats and 4 Darkfenne bats. That's sufficient level 1 animals for beastmaster  swarm.