You may have heard of this little game called World of Warcraft. You may have even played it a bit here and there, perhaps since its inception. Maybe you look at your /played time and realize you have played more hours in the WoW MMO than you have accumulated while working seasonal jobs. Every player has his or her own motivations to play the MMO. Long-time players feel they have a duty to serve in the MMO, be it griefing Alliance players, working on “the Insane” title, pushing for server or world progression in raid content, or proudly spamming to guild that “It's Over Nine Thousand!” – achievement points earned, of course.

Everyone crosses over to the World of Warcraft Trading Card Game a bit differently. Sure, some people have played other card games and decided to get into the WoW TCG, but not everyone has experience backing them to ease the transition. For WoW MMO players, many first learn of the WoW TCG by whispering another player where he or she got a certain in-game item, which leads to them having to Google “TCG loot” to decipher the reply. Other players may see the boosters in retail stores and hobby shops, but feel too intimidated to do anything other than collect cards with amazing artwork and hope to crack a loot card. A little research online will bring up several different sets of cards, causing confusion as to what are “good” and “bad” sets to collect.

Getting started can be confusing if you don't know where to begin, but there are simple ways to start playing the TCG. You will have to do a bit of reading and research, naturally, but let me tell you the good news up front: it takes very little time and money to get started.

This is not a game which blocks off content at a rapid pace. Even if you decide to step outside of casual play, you will be able to keep up with new sets without stressing out your bank account. Even rare cards are affordable in comparison to the majority of other TCGs out there, so buying a few cards you need will not condemn you to a life of instant ramen. (Hey, I know the stuff is delicious, but some of us like more variety in our diets than “chicken” or “beef.”)

Cryptozoic has brilliantly made it easy to jump right into the TCG with no previous experience by producing Class Starter Decks for every class in your choice of faction: Horde or Alliance. Each starter is a sixty-card playable deck with both Alliance and Horde heroes included, plus you get a few bonus cards from the Archives expansion which can sometimes give you something cool that you can use in your Class Starter Deck.

Most importantly, all Class Starter Decks come with a condensed version of the rules, making it easy to jump right into your first game. You can find the Class Starter Decks at online retailers as well as many comic and hobby shops. If you are fortunate to be in a town close to an event at which Cryptozoic is an exhibitor, like BlizzCon, PAX, or Gen Con, you can hit them up and purchase decks at discount prices. They always have trades-how specials going on and sometimes offer ways to get rare loot cards when you purchase your decks. Be sure to check their event schedule to see when they are coming to a venue close to you, and make sure that you take advantage of their special offers.

Choosing the right Class Starter Deck is not an arduous task. Some of you will be limited to what your local shop has in stock. Keep in mind that you can always get a class starter of another faction and use the second hero to play with initially, then later swap in allies from your favorite faction to give your deck proper flavor. If you are just playing casually, your friends shouldn't grief you too much about this. Otherwise, use your experience as a WoW MMO player to help you decide which classes you are interested in playing in the WoW TCG. Many of the class mechanics will be recognizable once you start playing the TCG, so having even moderate knowledge of class abilities will help you in choosing which Class Starter Deck to try out.

Until you get a feel for how you want to build your decks in the WoW TCG, start by choosing your favorite class – or classes – from the MMO. One thing to remember is that many of the Class Starter Decks are balanced to give you a little bit of everything that class can do. For example, your Mage deck will feature abilities from all schools of magic and some crowd-control abilities, like [Polymorph]. Do not feel limited to what you see in the Class Starter Deck: You can build any class to do what you enjoy doing in the MMO, whether it's tanking, dealing damage, or healing. This just takes some experience and research.

You will need someone to play with. This is not a requirement if you are just starting out (you can always play against yourself with two class starters), but player interaction is a big part of the WoW TCG. Try to recruit your friends, co-workers, and people at local hobby shops to play against you. If you choose to purchase multiple Class Starter Decks, you can always let your friends use them and pass around different classes until you all get an idea of which class you prefer to play.

Promoting a group sharing dynamic will help you later on as you will be able to trade your rares among your group instead of having to buy them, and your friends can hold onto cards you are looking for if they happen to crack them from boosters. As you play, focus on learning the basic mechanics of the WoW TCG, and be sure to use a comprehensive guide online or ask experienced players if you get confused about how a card is played.

By playing with the Class Starter Decks, you can begin to see what you will prefer to do with your class. Building on the Mage example, you may prefer crippling and manipulating your opponent. You can use some of your favorite abilities from the starter to create a Mage Control deck, and buy cards to load it with key abilities like [Slow], [Blizzard], and [Fizzle]. You can elect to change your hero to one whose flip ability will provide additional control, such as [Loraala the Frigid] or [Velindra Sepulchre].

The key to building a great casual deck is to build on a gimmick you like, so don't be afraid to try things that may seem a little strange. Just read the cards to see what they do and try to find cards that can trigger them or work together to create a unified effect on the board. You can even find databases and articles, like the ones on Daily Metagame, that give you full decklists to examine and teach you about how the decks are played. Just like the MMO, the more you study and practice the WoW TCG, the better you will become.

Feel free to purchase boosters at your leisure. You can use your online research to see which sets have more cards that you want, but you can typically work with what you crack open. Sometimes you can find uncommon cards in your collection that do something similar to an epic card, so you can use those until you can afford to purchase the epic play-set of four cards that you want or need. If you want to be creative for your casual games, print off the cards you want to use from a database, cut them out, put them in card sleeves over the faces of regular cards, and shuffle them into your deck. You can even use sticky notes or plain paper and write necessary information on them to tell you which card it is and what it does. The use of these proxies is a good way to figure out which cards to buy for your deck with play-tested certainty.

At this point, being aware of some basic deck-building skills is essential. There are additional rules with which you should be familiar as you gain additional experience, but these are good essentials to learn at first for your casual games. First is the obvious: You can not mix Alliance and Horde in the same deck; likewise, you cannot mix reputations. Just like how Scryer and Aldor have their disagreements in the MMO, they will not sort out their differences to play nicely together in your deck.

Secondly, every deck has a minimum of sixty cards. You can go over this amount, but you will reduce your chances of drawing cards you are hoping for if you have too many cards in your deck. Stick to the strongest cards you have that do what you want them to do, and try to balance out ally cost so you have a few high, medium, and low-cost ones. This will create a balanced deck for you to play-test and figure out if you need more damage, less low-cost protectors, or anything else that seems to create weakness in your deck.

Next, you can only put a maximum of four of each card into your deck unless it is described as “unlimited.” Even if a card is “unique,” you can have four in your deck, but you may only have one in play at a time. This does not mean that you need to have four in your deck, but if you have a favored ability or piece of equipment that your deck is built around, be sure to have four in there to raise your chances of drawing it.

A common misconception is that you need a minimum of certain card types in every deck. Aside from the hero requirement – which does not count toward your sixty cards – you are free to use whatever balance of abilities, allies, equipment, and resources you want. Ten or so quests and/or locations is a good starting point when building your deck, but you may find you need more depending on how your deck plays. Because the TCG relies on draw chances and you and your opponent's decisions, you may need to play with the same deck multiple times to make sure that the balance is truly off and it is not unlucky draws that are messing with your mojo.

Another confusing point is when an ability is from a certain tree, like Fire or Arcane. Your hero does not need to be that spec to use the ability. The exception to this is the text “(Spec) Hero Required:” Your hero needs to be this spec in order to use the card into your deck.

Remember, getting started is the hardest part. Once you have a direction in mind, it will be easy to broaden your knowledge and improve your technique. Don't be discouraged if top-decks are unfavorable. Just keep trying and learn from your mistakes. Spend time with your friends and gain some new ones by playing the TCG, and you will eventually find gameplay as smooth as facerolling your rotation in the MMO.

-Cynthia Hall

Cynthia Hall is a product specialist for Apotheosis Agency who works closely with Cryptozoic to demo and promote the World of Warcraft Trading Card Game. She delights in long prowls on the beach with her Spectral Tiger, Spectral Kitten, and Spectral Boyfri – erm, her boyfriend. When not hard at work keeping the WoW TCG classy, she produces wearable armor set replicas for fun and profit.