Quite often, I’m rather surprised when I’m reading over the feedback for my weekly columns (at the moment, there’s only one of them, but I’m hopeful that at least one of the WoW TCG columns will also make a comeback once some things are sorted out in the near future). Some of the comments to last week’s article, How the Synchro Monsters revolutionized the game, left me a little confused to be honest.

For starters, I don’t quite get why people make a big deal of the headline. Granted, “How the Synchro Monsters revolutionized the game” might not be the most fitting title, however,

• “How 10 hyped revolutionary game concepts that came before the Synchro Monsters all failed” or
• “Hyped Yu-Gi-Oh! game mechanics and how they did not change the game” or
• “The Synchro Monsters were the first revolutionary game concept that actually lead to a revolution”

… or some other possible choices for the title were all

a) too long and
b) boring.

I understand that a reader might not be all that interested in the fact that no one’s reading a cool article because it’s title sucks, but I do. If this means I need to make use of some tabloid tactics and use titles that will make you want to click, I feel too bad about it. I hope you can live with it as well; please understand that this is one of the reasons why the weekly columns are as successful as they are!

Some of you said that I did not try to go into too much detail. That’s also true as I don’t see the point in explaining in another 1000 words how the Fusion Monsters were – if you took advantage of effects like Metamorphosis or Magical Scientist (“DJ”) – more or less playable for some time. The article was about “revolutionary game concepts” that worked out the way they were supposed to be. Fusion Monsters were never introduced so some Level 1 monster could Special Summon them from your Extra Deck by paying Life Points. They would have been called “DJ’s little friends” if that were the case…

Every single article is a compromise. I need to balance it’s length, depth, detail and find a fitting bottom line. I don’t want to write a novel every other week and throw 4000 words at you (besides, I don’t get paid for that). I don’t want to tackle subjects that will only make sense to 3% of the community (at least not all the time) and I don’t want to go into too much details when I’m mentioning something “along the way” (like the playability of the Fusion Monsters) when the article’s actually about something entirely different – readers would only lose track of what the article’s really about. I don’t want to give you the impression that everything’s been said and done after you’re through with one of my articles – I want you to think about the topic, make up your mind and come up with some cool ideas. If you learned something, enjoyed reading the article and actually want to contribute to the topic by posting something in the feedback thread, I did a good job. Which is one of the reasons why I’m not always posting in the feedback thread…

Alright, you got me there. If I don’t post in the feedback thread, chances are good I was simply too busy / lazy or did not feel like it. Last but not least, please keep in mind to support the respective websites and me when you’re browsing our sites. There’s a reason why we got some banners from our sponsors on the page.

As a new player to the World of Warcraft TCG, you will often find yourself in a situation where you’re making a greenhorn mistake that is totally avoidable. In many cases, these mistakes will cost you the game, leading to lots of frustration.

I came up with a complete article listing many of these mistakes. It will definitely help you to get started to become a more successful player, so go check it out: Der Versammlungsstein – Greenhorn Mistakes.

The Chain is such a complex element, I had to follow up the first article and give some more detailed information. This article shows exactly what happens when several links are added to the chain and what you should avoid when it comes to responding to other effects.

I spelled out some of the mistakes you can make to further emphasize the importance of chaining in the right moment. In a nutshell: This article should be able to help you a lot taking your game to the next level: Der Versammlungsstein – The Chain, Part 2.

Sorry, this news comes a little late as the article’s been published a while ago. Same goes for the following news and I hope you don’t mind (too much).

The chain is simply the most important element in the World of Warcraft TCG. Pretty much everything happening during a game – whether you’re placing a resource, play an ability or declare an attack – will be resolved using the chain. So it should come as no surprise to you that understanding the chain is key to being successful.

This article should help you to master this important element: Der Versammlungsstein – The Chain and Priority.

If you’re new to the World of Warcraft TCG, you might get easily confused when experienced players keep on talking about “their stores” all the times on message boards. What can you expect from these stores and where can you find them? Two important questions that will be answered in this week’s article.

Der Versammlungsstein – Where can I play?.

Every player that’s new to a game has one major obstacle to overcome: He needs to be able to rate cards. In the best case, he can do so instantly. Otherwise, his chances of getting screwed over a trade aren’t too bad.

In this week’s Versammlungsstein, I’m tackling this question and give some good advice on how to rate cards: Der Versammlungsstein – How to rate cards?.

First things first: Merry Christmas to everyone!

It’s been quite a year – yeah, this might sound a little weird as there’s still another week to go, but I want to get this blog post done now as it’s highly unlikely that I’ll find the time next week. The most obvious new development (looking at things from the perspective of the webmaster of this page) is that I got my own homepage. Yay! It’s been a project I wanted to start quite a while ago and I’m glad I eventually did in April. While I haven’t really taken (I want to avoid the term “found”) the time to keep this blog as up to date as I wanted it to be, I hope it was still able to entertain you from time to time and give you some updates about what’s happening in my life.

Speaking of which… back in April, when this whole thing went online, I was still employed by Upper Deck. After more than 4 years, this relationship came to an end in June and I had to look for a new job. It’s been the first time I had to look for a job and I want to thank all the great people who helped me writing applications, making connections, etc. Without all your help, this would not only have been infinitely harder, I think I would have also been a lot less successful.

Eventually, I was hired by Station54, a Berlin based company doing Community Management; mainly for Electronic Arts. At first, this had been an amazing job, but it eventually came to a close at the end of October (I blogged about this: 4 Months with BattleForge). Well, I learned a lot regardless and my CV looked a little better as I could then claim I had been working as an Event Manager, Community Manager, Translator, Author, Customer Service Rep and some more stuff. Seems like life turned into a hunt for fancy job titles…

In the past 2 months, I was looking for a job again and I’m glad that I can now tell you that I’ve found an awesome new opportunity! Starting January the 4th, I’ll be doing Online Marketing for smava. It’s the market leader in a pretty new field; it allows you to get a credit financed by other people rather than by a bank (in case you’re interested, you should check out the homepage: smava.de). As this is quite new for me as well, the employment is only of limited duration. However, if I do good, I can turn this into something permanent, so wish me luck (any tips are welcome!). I have to say this is quite an amazing Christmas present.

Fortunately, life’s not all about work. I’m more than happy that I spent the whole year with the same girl and I couldn’t be asking for more. In case you weren’t lucky enough to meet Wincy so far, stop by whenever you’re in Berlin and I’ll be glad to introduce her to you.

What else? Well, I not only kept up my work for the Card Master and the Kartefakt, I’m recently writing for an English magazine, the Yu-Gi-Oh! World, too! On top of that, I’m still writing weekly columns. While my Yu-Gi-Oh! column Unter den Hut geschaut ended (thanks to Upper Deck’s loss of the Yu-Gi-Oh! licence), I started a new World of Warcraft TCG column on Warcraft-TCG.de: Suppe für den soul. I also stepped in for another author and continued the column for players new to the WoW TCG: Der Versammlungsstein. So even when I was without a “real” job, I was rather busy.

All in all, it has been quite a year. I’m glad I was able to make new friends, spend so much time with my existing friends, have a blast playing the WoW TCG and that things turned out the way they did. I’m more than certain that 2010 will be even more exciting!

I’ll celebrate the turn of the years in Leipzig with my best friends and I hope you’ll also have a blast partying into the new year!

Understanding the course of events when it comes to combat will help you gaining an edge over your opponent. You need to know when you can strike with a weapon, when it’s possible to protect and so on. This week’s article does exactly that and – if you don’t mind me saying so – in quite an unique way. I put together some drawings to help you picture everything! Excited yet? I hope so; come on, check out this article!

Der Versammlungsstein – How combat works.

Card rarities are a way more complex topic than you might imagine. I’m trying to explain some of the decisions that are ultimately responsible for a card’s rarity in this week’s column for the newer players out there.

Der Versammlungsstein – Rarities.

This week, I’m explaining how to “trade” allies. That is, you lose a guy, I lose a guy, they trade. That sounds rather simple, however, things can quickly get more complex when there are more guys on the field and you would like to keep yours.

Once you’ve understood this article, you should be able to gain a deeper insight into field advantage and can start to win your first games!

Der Versammlungsstein – Trades.