CCG for total n00b



  • I'm looking for some CCG I can play casually with my 6 yo son. Of course the first one to come up was Magic! but after reading for a while I thought it might be too complex. I went to a store today and they had several others (star wars, game of thrones, warhammer) and one which I think my kid would like is called Vs. System 2PCG which seems to be about Marvel superheroes and not that complicated, but it's also more expensive than the other ones.

    So, any suggestions?


  • FoxDev

    @Eldelshell said:

    So, any suggestions?

    The Yugioh card game is interesting, and manages to be reasonably complex strategy wise without having too many rules.

    Pokemon has a CCG as well, that's rather simplistic but also a bit on the expensive side because pokemon

    My Little Pony has one too for inexplicable rasins, never played it though


  • Trolleybus Mechanic

    Pokemon is pretty much the go-to CCG for yungin's. Color matching, count-by 5s and 10s, basic procedures, and risk vs. reward exposure.

    If it's too basic, dive right into Magic. There's plenty of "basic" or "starter" sets that don't have all the complex-rules cards. There's enough deck-building resources online that I'm sure people have "intro" decks pre-built.

    Both are from Wizards of the Coast, who are sinister geniuses at introductory products to get people into the game. It's how they've been around for 20+ years.



  • Pokemon? Duel Masters? I remember those being rather popular in my school back in the days, and while I haven't played either, they seemed simple.

    Then again, Magic isn't that hard either, if you pick the cards that don't screw with the gameplay too much. A lot of complexity is in the cards themselves - pick easy, simple decks (which has an added benefit of not sucking your wallet dry) and you'll have a rather simple game. You can scale the game up once the kid learns the basics.


  • Discourse touched me in a no-no place

    @accalia said:

    Pokemon has a CCG as well

    I think Pokemon is a good suggestion for a 6 year old. It's simple, but fun. I've played it with a bunch of 20+ year olds and we all had a blast with it. We're all Magic players, but have tried loads of CCGs, and I remember Pokemon being particularly fun.

    Yugioh is also good fun. It's a bit more advanced than Pokemon, but not by much.




  • Java Dev

    I played the pokemon CCG a bit back in the day (though I think I was a bit older than that). If they're watching the TV show, they may already be familiar with (some of) the monsters and attacks, which probably helps in getting started.



  • Well good thing it's not written by a condescending dick.

    When I was a kid we played Go Fish and War.



  • For the sake of your son's piggy bank (and your wallet), you should avoid "real" CCGs and use a card game with fixed "sets" instead (Netrunner and Game of Thrones are such games, but I don't know if there's any such game that fits the criterion "can be played with my 6yo").




  • :belt_onion:

    Personally, I don't fine M:tG to be too complex - it's fairly simple once you get the keywords and stuff down, and unless you play something like Banding you'll be fine.



  • @Maciejasjmj said:

    Then again, Magic isn't that hard either

    There are three ways to start someone on Magic.

    8973459028347209347609. If they've played Hearthstone, just give them a red/green deck and play them.
    982347590238475092347840263. If they haven't played the genre at all, Magic Duels is a free app, and will teach them very effectively.
    2938752093467923476026920. Even if they've never played Hearthstone, go to 8973459028347209347609. Red/green is dirt simple, and if you have any skill at all in explaining things, they'll know what they're doing by the time they've half beaten you.

    The main thing about the game is that it is incredibly simple, but there are a lot of cards, and there is a card that breaks every rule. But if you buy just the latest set, you don't have to worry about most of that. Each set only includes a very small subset of the things cards can do. It's only if you're going to be playing kitchen table against a munchkin (this happens at work for me), or legacy that you'll run into insanity.



  • Design your own :-) lots of fun to do and a learning experience!



  • @Medinoc said:

    use a card game with fixed "sets" instead

    Dominion!



  • Not a collectible card game.


  • :belt_onion:

    I've found my deck is pretty simple to play too. Just make more things, gain more life, and win the game....


  • FoxDev

    uhhh........



  • Deck building is probably something you want to avoid with a 6 year old. Most of the planning/cards that are good early vs late/and so on seems like a bit much. Or at least for many of the 6 year olds I've met, if you've been playing more complex board games and such with them already then they might be able to handle it.


  • :belt_onion:

    ENOREPRO.

    I just made it not private


  • FoxDev

    @sloosecannon said:

    I've found my deck is pretty simple to play too. Just make more things, gain more life, and win the game....

    hmm.... interesting white build that.....

    legacy format too,

    /me makes a note of the build to try

    of course the way i play MTG with friends is bacisally. print the cards you want, don't waste time searching for them in deck packs.

    of course we do keep it tournament legal rules so you do have to make sure your decks are up to date.



  • @Eldelshell said:

    I'm looking for some CCG I can play casually with my 6 yo son.

    If you want casually more than CCG then something like Fluxx may be a better choice for kids. It can help get them used to the idea of more rules, and how rules can be combined to help you out (a basic skill for a lot of more complex games). Plus there are a bunch of different versions so you may find something that helps hold attention (though most games are shortish so shouldn't be that big an issue).



  • Yeah, so, three Elspeths...

    Everything about this deck is difficult to a noob. Planeswalkers are weird, and this deck isn't even cheap. You've gotta just go straight, pure red/green. You need growth and heavy creatures from green, and quick early actions from red.



  • Honestly, if you decide on magic, get some duel decks. They're prebalanced against each other.


  • :belt_onion:

    Well I never said it was cheap... it's very not cheap 😄

    Aside from the walkers, it's pretty easy to play though. No real strategy required.

    @Magus said:

    Honestly, if you decide on magic, get some duel decks. They're prebalanced against each other.

    QFT. Plus they're usually better than the precons. And usually come with at least one good card (my white deck was originally based off of the Elspeth duel deck...)


  • :belt_onion:

    @accalia said:

    @sloosecannon said:
    I've found my deck is pretty simple to play too. Just make more things, gain more life, and win the game....

    hmm.... interesting white build that.....

    legacy format too,

    /me makes a note of the build to try

    of course the way i play MTG with friends is bacisally. print the cards you want, don't waste time searching for them in deck packs.

    of course we do keep it tournament legal rules so you do have to make sure your decks are up to date.

    Yeah, my deck took a while to build (I do have all those cards). And it took a very long time to get working well. I used to be that n00b who ran >70 cards........ In a non-force of will deck...



  • About Yugioh and Pokemon... meh, neither I nor my kid like the TV series, so that's a blocker, but I'll look at Pokemon.

    @Medinoc said:

    For the sake of your son's piggy bank (and your wallet), you should avoid "real" CCGs and use a card game with fixed "sets" instead

    I believe the one I mentioned (Vs. System 2PCG) is like that.

    @Magus said:

    If they haven't played the genre at all, Magic Duels is a free app, and will teach them very effectively.

    I downloaded the Magic! 2015 app for Android and at step 3 or 4 of the tutorial I was all lost.

    @NTW said:

    Design your own 😄 lots of fun to do and a learning experience!

    Hmmm... a Fallout based one would be cool.

    @sloosecannon said:

    I've found my deck is pretty simple to play too. Just make more things, gain more life, and win the game

    Damn, that's a lot of pennies.

    @locallunatic said:

    Deck building is probably something you want to avoid with a 6 year old.

    And with a close-to-40 years old.

    @locallunatic said:

    If you want casually more than CCG then something like Fluxx may be a better choice for kids.

    Nice one, I'll give it a look, although it seems bland (no story and stuff).

    @Magus said:

    Honestly, if you decide on magic, get some duel decks. They're prebalanced against each other.

    Yeah, that was my primary choice. But then you have the packs with the X vs Y or Z vs H stuff and I gave up. Any suggestion on one of those packs at Amazon that I could get?



  • @Eldelshell said:

    I downloaded the Magic! 2015 app for Android and at step 3 or 4 of the tutorial I was all lost.

    Throw that exclamation point away, you don't need it. 2015 was horrible, and has some of the worst UI in the universe. Magic Duels is the one you want.

    @Eldelshell said:

    Yeah, that was my primary choice. But then you have the packs with the X vs Y or Z vs H stuff and I gave up. Any suggestion on one of those packs at Amazon that I could get?

    The latest Zendikar vs Eldrazi is pretty good, and not horribly complex. It uses some rules that you don't see much of, but they aren't complicated. And there were some good Theros ones iirc.



  • @Eldelshell said:

    @locallunatic said:
    Deck building is probably something you want to avoid with a 6 year old.

    And with a close-to-40 years old.

    The game doesn't involved collecting cards and making a deck of them before play, rather each turn you can buy a card to add into your deck. Some cards are really good to get early on during play and others are very powerful but only likely to be afforded near the end of play and so on. Long term strategy is not something 6 year olds are good at (though you should hopefully be better able to deal with).

    Thus I'd not recommend Dominion for what you were looking for.

    @Eldelshell said:

    @locallunatic said:
    If you want casually more than CCG then something like Fluxx may be a better choice for kids.

    Nice one, I'll give it a look, although it seems bland (no story and stuff).

    You are correct on the no story, though the themed versions are tied together better. The big thing with it is that there is enough randomness that lack of strategy isn't a big hindrance, but it can still teach tactics and rules interaction (much of the game involves changing rules and the end goal) which is useful for eventually leading to more interesting and involved games.

    It is quick and easy (starts with the rule "draw one card, play one card" no win condition) if you are distracted which is the only way to play it with just adults (beverages should also be involved if just adults). But it does work for teaching kids and can hold attention due to the constant changes.



  • VS 2PCG is indeed like that. And despite the price of the base box, it's the cheapest there is if you want a full set (as in, as many copies of each card as you can include in a deck), since you need only 1 box to get it (the others need 2 or 3 boxes for that). However, the cards and tokens are of very poor quality; you'll need to sleeve the cards right away if you want them to stay in good shape (which doesn't sound promising with a 6-year-old). With the others (possibly VS as well, I don't know), you can skip deckbuilding at the start, since the boxes have enough cards to make at least 2 decks and lists are included. You could go with Star Wars (deckbuilding is simpler than the others, too, once you want to go into it).

    By the way, I've tried out My Little Pony CCG and it's designed well (though the youngest players I've met are 15). If your son likes the theme, you could go with that (there are starter decks if you don't want to go into deckbuilding).



  • @blakeyrat said:

    When I was a kid we played Go Fish and War

    I know you played Uno.



  • Well, at the end I've got the LCG of Star Wars. Hope the kids like it. Thanks everyone for the help



  • Have fun.



  • If digital is an option, there's always Hearthstone, which has a desktop version and mobile/tablet version. You can start for free and get new cards for free. It's a long journey if you go free to play, but it's a good way to get matches anywhere within a few seconds, play for 5-15 minutes, and be on with your day (or play another match.) It's a lot quicker to set up and take down than traditional CCGs, and a lot more wallet friendly. You can also play against bots if humans are too tough to learn with.


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