What’s everyone’s thoughts on the sudden release of tcgs in the last two to three years?
For a long time it was mostly Magic, Pokémon and Yugioh.
Now dragonball and digimon have been revived. There is weiss, metazoo and now Disney. Flesh and blood as well and marvel has a tcg now as well.
Is everyone trying to get in on the tcg hype that was there in 2020? Are many of these here to stay?
I think it’s tough recreate the magic that the big three had due to foundation and nostalgia
It’s hard to recreate over 20 years of existing and being relevant today. I think there were other games trying to capitalize on the boom, but I’m sure there were people getting interested again for the nostalgia.
I completely agree. The big thing is the 20 plus years of history from the big three
I honestly don’t think this is anything new. I’ve been in and around the TCG space since 1999 and I’ve seen many, MANY games come and go. Some were better than others…
NeoPets
VS System
The Spoils
Shaman King
Inuyasha
Original Digimon
Duel Masters
WoW
Dragonball Z
Naruto
Star Wars
Just to name a few that I played and/or “collected” (some I just bought a few starters and packs for - nothing too crazy). The point is there were big names in some of those and I thought a handful had serious staying power only to be surprised a few years later.
We just won’t know how things play out until they do… I know that sounds simple, but it’s kinda the only truth we’ll have. I’ve watched friends and other competitive players go super hard into some of games above. Their collections are worth fractions of what they used to be. Just be careful with how you approach new games. You never know how long they’re going to last and once they die, the only cards worth much of anything will be the rarest stuff, but likely at huge discounts. All the 3-ofs and 4-ofs rares you needed for decks to function won’t be worth anything.
At one point VS System was pulling a lot of players from Magic and Yugioh due to its competitive scene, unique gameplay, and Marvel/DC theme. They had whole cruises booked to host tournaments and stuff. There alt arts and full arts are still gorgeous. It was the sh*t for a while, then slowly died off.
WoW was huge for a period of time too. They had these crazy rare loot cards with scratch off codes you could use in-game for rewards (Spectral Tiger comes to mind). A friend of mine pulled a Saltwater Snapjaw (think that’s what it was called) with a loot scratch off and sold it for a lot back then. Gameplay was pretty awesome and there was a thriving tournament scene. Was a super cool game. Then suddenly dropped off hard.
The Spoils was talked up by lots of Magic pros as one of the greatest games ever made from a mechanics perspective, but it just never seemed to take off.
I could go on and on, but you get the point. Lorcana looks promising, the art is pretty good, the characters are great, they have foils/alt arts/etc. Only time will tell how well it’s going to work, but I’d be cautious about throwing too much money at it.
Love this! I agree with a lot of what you wrote
In my view, they’re pretty much all trying to capitalize on the surge and interest of TCGs the past while. I don’t know if many of them will survive long-term. They don’t have the nostalgia or long-running recognition of the big 3 for both players & collectors. Things like Weiss might be different because of all the waifu stuff and also because there’s a lot of interest in the anime itself and certain characters that goes beyond the TCG aspect. Dragonball also is very popular and goes back many decades, so it might survive as well for that reason due to it being so recognized and popular.
Anything brand new (i.e. Metazoo and similar) that tried to entirely cash in on the hype or strictly came out as an “investment” from the get-go I personally don’t see them surviving long-term. To me they are no different than the 1000s of altcoins in cryptos that have all gone to zero over the years, or NFTs of some random paint splatter.
I know others have posted on here about the parallels of this market to the early-mid 90s “junk wax” era and so it’s definitely possible we’re in a similar point in time many years later. Interestingly during the Covid cycle there was also a massive surge in certain junk wax era cards/products and almost of it has all largely collapsed since then because it made literally no sense for it to blow up in value due to the massive supply. The fundamentals for a lot of this stuff was just not there, people were just throwing money at anything that seemed “undervalued” relative to other collectibles/TCGs and they clearly did not understand the true fundamentals of all these things.
Haven’t heard as much from metazoo lately? How has it been going
Lol was wondering the same thing a few days ago
An enormous number of publicly funded (i.e., kickstarter) and privately funded TCGs/CCGs propped up in the past five years, drawing parallels to the 1990s boom.
This is an incomplete list, but take a look at how many card games have survived (i.e., are still in print). And of those that are “in print,” ask yourself how many you are familiar with. The number of failed card games is striking, so please use caution before putting tons of money into something new.
Right? That’s why I asked because I feel like in the last three years or so so many have been popping up
Definitely people trying to capitalize on the collecting hype that came out of the COVID pandemic. Many will start strong, most will fail within three years. If they can survive beyond 3-5 years (or ~10+ expansions from the base set), they have a real chance.
Yeah I remember buying a ton of random games back in the early 00s that were riding the coattails of the big three.
Looking at the situation now I feel things are pretty much the same.
When it comes to collecting overall I think this sort of spurt is super fun. It’ll be nice for Disney adults to have 2025 Lorcana packs to buy on eBay 15 years from now, just like I am happy to still be buying Duel Masters or Fullmetal Alchemist sealed packs today.
But without tc”G” support I don’t know how these games make it long term. Card shops are on razor thin margins and events are harder and harder to hold, leaving less room for these new TCGs find airtime. You can find Friday Night Magic in any city in the world but idk where I’d go play Metazoo… Apparently you need more than 1 booster box to draft an 8-person Lorcana pod. Hilarious rookie mistake from Disney there.
I’ve considered picking up other games but the question of “why pick this up when I can play Magic, which is incredibly well supported” is always looming.
The real question to ask is: is the playerbase for physical TCGs increasing, stagnant or decreasing?
Magic existed before the Internet. Even Pokemon came out before it was widespread. You had to use a cable to trade.
These days, anything and everything that is entertainment competes against each other. It would be logical that if TCGs are all cannibalizing each other’s playerbase, that most or even all of them will not survive whilst the established ones are around - and if there isn’t any other brand support or recognition, it’s hard to grow and compete. Even those with the latter struggle and die.
Plus Pokemon’s success/sales is driven by collectors moreso than players.
I think the only way to compete is if someone designed a digital game first that can acquire a playerbase and following worldwide. Then somewhere along the line, they could potentially tie it in with physical card releases - but that balance would be extremely difficult.
Saw the Disney one (Weiss), pass for me as the artworks are really meh. 
I do like and enjoy old Mickey Mouse cartoons like Steamboat Willie, Band Concert Mickey, etc, but the artworks of their TCG look like their artists copy and paste the images from google 
and then print the card in limited mintage and expect me to pay for it.
Not going to happen! Unless they create some cards with S-tier level artworks like Rayquaza 
, Moonbreon, etc. They don’t seem to understand TCG at all.
Boring artworks:
I might pick up some Shadowverse cards eventually cause all their card art from Rage of Bahamut.
Just saw the Disney one (Lorcana), a wordplay on Arcana?
Wow, already they stonk so much within one week of release, even more than Pokemon cards!!
PSA 10 Elsa for $7,000?! 
PS: Still not liking the artworks. Very mediocre, unimpressive and forgettable.
It’s hyped beyond belief, man. Gameplay is fine and the art is okay-ish (kinda agree on forgettable). Will be cool to see where prices settle, but who knows how long that’ll take.
Yup, that’s one quintessential example of a hyped card if anyone’s asking! 
Steamboat Willy sends his regards
7k for a Disney card? Geez 