5 Easy, Fun & Cheap card games!

If you’re anything like me then poverty & gaming are both major aspects of your life.  I have combed through a vast amount of card games to make up this list of 5 awesome card games that won’t break the bank (and you have probably never heard of).

Coloretto

5.) Coloretto

Like a Chameleon, a player may change his color many times during the game.  However, players who change colors too often will not do well and may even earn minus points for doing so.  This means, that a player must wait for the proper time and place to make the change, but do it before his opponents do.

Depending on where you pick up the game you can usually get it for under $10.

Also, check out the Coloretto review over at BoardGameGeek.

Contents: 90 cards, 1 rule booklet

Age: 8+

Time to Play: 30

Players: 2 to 5

Family Business 2008 Edition

 

4.) Family Business (2008 Edition)

Be the boss in this fast-paced card game of survival on the mean streets.  Family Business pits mobsters against each other-all working to make sure theirs is the last family standing!

Your gang members get placed on the Hit List. Can your “Family Influence” save them? Will they “Take it on the lam,” seek “Police Protection,” or perhaps up the ante with a “”Double Contract”?

Family Business is fast, furious, and fun! Your goal is survival! What’s in the cards for your gang?

The AP actually has a nice description / review of most of the games attributes for Family Business.

Family Business can be picked up for around $9.75.

Contents: 56 action cards, 54 mobster cards, R.I.P. card tray, simple rule book

Age: 5+

Bell Bottomed Badasses

 

3.) Bell-Bottomed Badasses on the Mean Streets of Funk

The back of the box on Bell-Bottomed Badasses comes in basically has zero information at all except to say “Who’s the Private Dick that’s a sex machine to all the chicks? Who is the man who would risk his neck for his brother man? Copyrights won’t let us say, but he may be in…” I’m guessing they are referring to Shaft but in my mind I pictured Samuel L. Jackson.

The ’70s are back and we got ‘em! Can you dig it? From gritty cop flicks to blaxploitation movies, we present 120 all new funky cards for your B-Movie pleasure.

Players are making a B-Movie by playing Characters, Props, and Locations in their movie and sending Creatures to attack the other players’ movies in order to kill off their Characters. SFX cards can modify attacks and do other wacky stuff. When Roll the Credits is played, the player with the most points wins!

Compatible with all other B-Movie games from Z-Man Games.

You can pick up this game in various places for around $12.

Additionally, you can find a solid review of BBB over at RPG.net.

Contents: 120 card stand-alone game

Players: 2 to 6

Time to Play: 20 to 40 minutes

Age: 13+

Corsari

 

2.) Corsari

Each player is a pirate captain, trying to find a complete crew in port.  The first captain to set sail will have an advantage, of course, but will not win unless he has the best crew.

Corsari is currently the cheapest but one of the best games on this usually selling for under $9.

It was fairly difficult to find a Corsari review but I hunted down a forum post over at BGG that did a fine job and getting in the key points.

Contents: 110 cards, rule booklet

Players: 2 to 4

Age: 8+

Time to Play: 30 min.

Tichu

 

1.) Tichu

Over 642 million Chinese play Tichu nearly every day! The goal of the game is very simple: just get rid of your cards.

Tichu is primarily a partnership game for four.  The game comes with two complete decks of cards, so players may alternate playing decks when playing with four or play with larger groups.

The groups, however, should not exceed 10 players.

It would be safe to say that Tichu is the most popular game on this list with the huge Chinese following it enjoys & at under $10 you can’t go wrong.

(Even though all of the info. on the Chinese player base and the games origins are a lie)

You can find a good Tichu review on the Amazon page for the game written by a fan (its currently the first review).

Contents: 112 playing cards, 2 complete decks, 1 rule booklet

Players: 3 to 10

Time to Play: 30 to 90

Age: 10+

Thanks for reading and feel free to comment with any other your favorite but cheap card games. Additionally, you can take a look at other card games on our retail page.

Dragonball – Clash of Sagas’ Pictures & Information

DragonBall Clash of Sagas'

Clash of Sagas’ is the fifth release for the Dragon Ball CCG and introduces over 100 brand new cards with all new artwork never released in the United States.

This set has been completely redesigned from previous sets so it will be an interesting mix of retro cards.

Additionally, I have a complete set of pictures for you take look through…Awesome, right?

DragonBall Clash of Sagas’

Oh yeah, take a look at the Clash of Sagas’ singles (opens in a new window) on our main site.

Pokemon Arceus TCG – Pictures & Information

Hello All,

Today I have a gallery of all of the Pokemon Arceus pictures! In this set there are 100 cards in total.

Additionally,  according to Go-Pokemon.com here are the features of the new Pokémon Trading Card Game: Platinum—Arceus:

• Introducing new Pokémon Arceus!
• Collect multiple Energy types of Arceus cards
• Discover new Pokémon LV.X cards, including 3 Arceus LV.X!
• More than 100 different cards

You can also check out the Pokemon Arceus singles (opens in a new window) section of our retail site to tie the pictures with the names.  I am just too lazy to do it here.

Pokemon Arceus – The newest Expansion

The newest Pokemon trading card game dubbed Arceus releases on November 4th, 2009. The new set goes back to the ancient age of the Pokemon universe and allows you to harness new powers such as lightening, grass & fire.

Pre-release events will start soon as well.  According to the official Pokemon TCG website “Get a first look at the new expansion when you attend a prerelease tournament near you. Plus, receive cool prizes including an exclusive Raichu prerelease promo card just for participating!”

For more information on the pre-release tournaments in North America you can take a look at the dates, times & locations available at go-pokemon.com

Additionally, you can check out our Arceus singles.

YuGiOh: Warriors’ Strike Starter Deck

The Warriors’ Strike Structure Deck (Starter Deck) released today and I am totally prepared to show you some pictures and information.

Warriors’ Strike Structure Deck contains 37 common cards, 2 super rare cards, 1 ultra rare cards, 1 rulebook, 1 deluxe game mat & 1 dueling guide.

Additionally, I have some pictures of the starter deck to share with you in gallery form, check them out:

We have the Warriors’ Strike Structure Decks (opens in a new window) available.

Zendikar (Update)

Hello Internet,

I just wanted to let you know that I have updated the Zendikar picture gallery to contain all of the  cards for the new set including lands not accounted for amongst the 249 set cards.

Feel free to link to the gallery from your own site since the images have been swiped from WoTC.

Take a look at the Zendikar Images!

World of Warcraft – Scourgewar Loot Card Preview

The new WoW TCG set entitled Scourgewar is currently set to release on November 24th. In this amazing now release you will be treated to even more loot cards! oh boy!

The first loot card to mention is called Tiny which will allow Horde players to ride on a miniature raptor with speed equal to unmounted speed.  The alliance players will get a pony with the same movement speed.  Each loot code will give you 50 uses of these tiny mounts. Tiny is a super-common so you could potentially get 2 to 4 per box.

The next loot card is called Tuskarr Kite which gives you exactly that, a Tuskaar Kite which works similar to the Onyxia kite.  This loot card is uncommon which means you might get 2 to 4 per case.

The rare loot card in the Scourgewar set is called Spectral Kitten which is a pet companion to the Spectral Tiger.  It will follow you around and make spooky Meow sounds which clicked on.  Based on the card art it certainly does look creep and awesome! I wouldn’t expect to get more than 1 per case of this evil little creature.

You can view all of the information and images on the official Upper Deck news release, here.

Naruto CCG “Unbound Power” Collectible Tins

The Naruto CCG is putting out some awesome new collectible tins dubbed Unbound Power.  There are 3 different collectible tins featuring Naruto Uzumaki, Kakashi Hatake & Sasuke Uchiha. The new tins are scheduled to release on Sept. 25th 2009.

Each tin contains:

• 2 booster packs of Series 13 “Fateful Reunion“
• 2 booster packs of Series 14 “Emerging Alliance“
• Additionally, each tin comes with an alternate designed Super Rare card from previous sets

I also have pictures of the tins from the original article on Bandai’s website:

Planechase: Pictures of the Deck Pack & Information

Planechase releases on Sept. 4th!  According to the back of the box it is a:

groundbreaking new way to experience planeswalking. Through this innovative new kind of card, two or more players can battle each other across a variety of diverse worlds, each with its own unique effect on the game. These thrilling new conditions add a whole new layer of chaos, meaning the only thing you can count on is unpredictability.

Basically, your all-new Planes cards have special abilities that modify the game & each of the 4 deck packs come with 10 different planes cards. If you play with multiple people with multiple Planechase decks the game will be extra wild.

If you’ve played MTGO anytime recently many of the newly created casual games are in the Planeswalker format.

Planechase is partitioned into 4 theme decks; Elemental Thunder, Metallic Dreams, Strike Force & Zombie Empire.  I personally like Zombie Empire the best but that is solely because I’m a fan of black.

Each plane deck pack comes with the following:

• 10 all-new plane cards
• a ready to play 60 card deck (all black bordered)
• a six sided planar die
• and a learn to play strategy guide

Deck lists for all of the new Planechase deck packs can be found on Wizard’s product information page for the game, here (opens in a new window).

Additionally, each deck will be composed of 8 cards culminated various sets throughout Magic’s storied history.

Since I work in the industry all of the awesome new Magic the Gathering products end up on my desk, so I take pictures of them. Here are various out of focus pictures for you to hate:

You can buy all of the Planechase (opens in a new window) decks on our retail site

From the Vault: Exiled Pictures

The new From the Vault: Exiled box set came across my desk today and it looks awesome! I have some pictures of the box set for you to feast your eyes upon.

Also, I would like to mention if you already have a From the Vault: Exiled (opens in a new window) box set we will buy it from you for $105, simply e-mail our buyer via (shockingly) buyer@trollandtoad.com.

I created a few images of each side of the box except for the 3 that didn’t have anything of interest.

Now, for the good stuff; the pictures!