Almost every young boy has, or wants to have, a great collection of hockey, baseball, soccer, or basketball cards. For decades, there have been card collections built around dozens of different sports, appealing to children around the world. The latest trend in collections has spread out into online games and television shows, giving children the opportunity to collect, trade, and play worldwide!Of course for many boys these collectible cards follow them right into their adulthood.Card collecting usually starts out as a passing trend that most boys take part in, but for some, it turns into something much more – a passion. In fact, many men will keep their card collection through their entire life and add to it as the years go by. You may even know a few men that collect cards, stamps, coins and other such initial childhood collections.Did you know that collectible card games actually started out as trading card games? By using popular children’s anime TV shows, the card games became an instant winner with children. Numerous anime card games have hit the markets and have experienced stunning success!The Open-handed Rules for Collectible Card GamesDissimilar of typical games, the rules to these card games are completely open to what the child sees, and of course, the availability of the different cards. They may collect cards based upon what part of the game they feel is important to them. Everything from the description of the card, to what is written or pictured on the card, can make it desirable. This makes every game “deck” unique as each player, both young and old, seek out the exact content they wish.Toy stores often capitalize on these trends, creating tournaments and trading sessions where both children and adults can use their cards to battle opponents. The challenge of winning a tournament is appealing to teenagers and adults, as the winner usually gets a choice selection from the losers’ deck. Trading sessions are especially popular with younger children, where there is no risk of losing their precious collection to a more experienced older player. They can simply watch, learn, and trade with like-minded deck holders their age.Adults find that giving up their card collection is not easy! Holders of rare cards relish in the increasing value over time, but most adults just plain and simply do not want to let go of childhood memories. These collections can take on a strong emotional meaning, even becoming just as important as their baby pictures. There is nothing wrong with adults cherishing their card collection. By adding to it over time, it could potentially be both a valuable and memorable gift to pass on to your own child or grandchild – a gift that they too can enjoy for a lifetime.
Dominion Intrigue – A New Card Game
If you’ve never heard of Dominion before then allow me to tell you about this great and fun card game. Dominion is a card game that was introduced in the year of 2008. The game was published by Rio Grande Games at Spiel. The game is mostly a designer card game that was created by Donald X. Vaccarino. Since it’s creation the game has become one of the most popular card games on the market. In fact at the writing of this article it’s actually one of the top ten games. The game has also won numerous awards. The game has won the Spiel des Jahres and Deutscher Spiele Preis award. It’s also one of five winning games at the American Mensa’s 2009 Mindgame competition.Since the games creation, it has come out with numerous expansion packs. One in particular is known as Dominion Intrigue. It’s actually one of the more popular expansion packs available. The best part about this particular expansion is that it can be used as a standalone game, which means that you won’t need to buy the original game to play. As for the actual gameplay, allow us to give you some background into this wonderful expansion pack.Most of the expansions have a theme. The theme of Dominion Intrigue is cards that give players the ability to choose among possible effects, which means that when your opponents play action cards you’ll be able to react to it. Here are some of the possible cards available in the expansion.Victory Cards: Unfortunately these cards don’t actually have any use in the gameplay. However they are actually the most important cards in the game. What happens is that at the end of the game players will count up the amount of victory cards in their deck. Whoever has the most amount of victory cards is declared the winner.Curse Cards: These cards are the exact opposite of victory cards. However, they are similar in some regards. What we mean by that is that they actually can’t be used in the gameplay. At the end of the game curse cards count against your score. Reducing the amount of victory cards that you have.Treasure Cards: Treasure cards are highly important in gameplay. They are used during gameplay in the buy phase of a players turn. Treasure cards will generate coins and even sometimes other effects.Action Cards: These cards are used during the action phase. They give the players the ability to create effects. For example, you could use a card that would negatively effect your opponent. Action cards have two different types. The first type is attack that allows you to harm your opponents. The second is duration that allows you to effect players future turns.Reaction Cards: These cards are used to react to players action cards. If someone plays an effect card you could potentially counter it with these cards.The game then ends under two different conditions. When the highest value victory card has been exhausted or when three of the other stacks have been depleted. Players then count up their victory cards to decide the winner.