WWE Super Card: Is it a Ring Out?

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Recently the WWE in conjunction with 2K Sports released a mobile Collectible Card Game on both IOS and Android platforms called WWE Super Card. Super Card, which is free to play offering micro transactions, requires an active internet connection, and pits a deck of WWE Superstars of your choosing against an AI controlled deck of another user. The mobile game has already garnered over 1.5 million downloads. Click below for my review.

Before I explain the mechanics of the game I want you to know this; The cards themselves wrestle. That right. The cards actually strut down to the ring, pyrotechnics firing off in the background, and perform moves on each other. If I can say one thing about both WWE Super Card as well as the WWE in general, the performance and presentation is both ridiculous and impressive at times.
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Booting up the game for the first time you are presented with a handful of free cards right off the bat and instructed to create a deck. Your deck consists of seven cards; four Superstars, one WWE Diva, and two support cards. Each Superstar and Diva has four individual stats; Power, Toughness, Speed, and Charisma. Pending rarity, some Superstar cards have a special ability that augments one or more of these stats. Support abilities focus around altering these stats, whether it is boosting your Superstars stats, or lowering your opponents.
Gameplay wise, Super Card has two modes – Exhibition Match and King of the Ring, with the former being the meat and potatoes of the game. With Exhibition, you pit your deck of 7 cards against an opponents deck which is AI controlled. Before the match you are given a choice of four opponents to fight, being shown their name, rarity level of deck, and their win loss record.
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After choosing an opponent you are randomly presented with one of three match types; Solo Match, Tag Team Match, Diva’s Match. These are fairly self explanatory, however I’d like to point out that your single Diva card can ONLY participate in the Diva’s match.
Singles matches pits one Superstar of your choice from your deck against a individual card of your opponents, while tag team faces off two of your Superstars against two of theirs.The matches themselves consist of facing off choosing one or two of your cards statistics and comparing it against your opponent’s, chosen at random. Whoever has the higher stat wins, pretty simple.
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For example, the fight I was just in compared my Strength and Charisma against my opponent’s card’s. I used my Super Rare ability card Second Wind to add +9 to all stats, which gave me a complete advantage over my competition. While your deck can contain two ability cards, you may only use one per match. That means your other fights will have to do without, which causes some strategy to be needed trying to guess where your cards weaknesses might be. Each Superstar and Diva who have a special ability may randomly activate it before the match starts. If you somehow trigger this yourself I’ve not figured out how.
A minor addition to the strategy occurs during Tag Team Matches inclusion of a card’s Alignment. Each card has a diamond on it, colored either Blue or Yellow. The diamond is further differentiated by being colored in one half and empty int he other; left and right for blue, up and down for yellow. If the tag team matches color and each has a different side, the team gets a bonus to all stats. If they match colors but do not fill the diamond nothing changes. If the cards have opposite colors (opposite alignment) each Superstar gets a penalty to all stats. This adds a minor layer to strategy.
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The Exhibition Match’s winner is determined best Two out of Three. Tediously enough the game forces you to complete all three rounds even if you win the first two, and can even go to a fourth round if each player has won one round and the third is tied when the cards have equal stats.
Once a winner is decided prizes are doled out, which means you pick two cards at random from a pile if you win and one if you lose. Possibility’s include Support cards, Superstars and Divas, Energy cards and Ability Boosts used in the King of the Ring game. The pile resets with new cards if you find a rare or higher, or an Ability Boost card.
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Choosing these random cards will result in duplicates and a number of useless cards you dont need, whether its for Superstars you don’t care for (The Miz) or common and uncommon cards you wont need in your deck. Luckily, these cards do have a use, being sacrificed to Superstars you do use in order to raise their level, which in turn increases their stats. If you happen upon a duplicate card you may, one time only, combine that card with its twin to create a Pro version of the card. This increases the original cards stats, resets and increases its level cap allowing you to feed it more cards to increase its level further, as well as giving the card itself a nice shiny foil effect and slapping a Pro labeled star on it.
Cards have a rarity that ranges from Common to Epic and Legendary ++. You get higher tiered cards based on what tier you currently are in. Your tier is based on the power of the cards currently in your deck. For example, I am considered in the middle of the Super Rare tier currently, yet my deck consists of four rare Superstars, one uncommon Pro Superstar, one rare ability, and one super rare ability.
Finally, the second gameplay style of Super Card is the King of the Ring. This anomalous feature I liken to Farmville style cool down timers. Basically, the game pits you and fifteen other players against each other in a King of the Ring style bracket tournament. Roughly 40+ matches are played every hour, and after each match your Superstars energy goes down, decreasing their stats.
Yes, dear reader, this means that this King of the Ring takes place over two days, meaning Super Card wants to to log in, play an energy card on your ailing fighters, or swap them out for a Superstar in your side bar. The actual matches are AI determined and you don’t even get to watch. The most disappointing fact of this is the prize pool even if you win is pretty lame. During the one tournament I participated in the grand prize was a matching pair or rares and some uncommon abilities. Guess who came in second place. This guy. Not cool.
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With all of that said, would I recommend you pick this up? Yes; It is free to play and a hilariously addictive way to kill time while watching TV or waiting in line, etc. Super Card doesn’t require much concentration, but the payoff can be fairly rewarding when you finally get that Wrestler you’ve been wanting for your deck. While it does have micro transactions which range from twenty five cents for another shot at picking a card from the prize pool, up to five dollars for a “pack” of random cards, I feel like they give you enough cards to keep forward momentum going. I don’t see myself spending any money on this game, but my current win/loss rating is 195 Wins and 20 losses, I have a feeling I’ll need to break at least that 200 mark. Maybe even try and win one of those King of the Rings..

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