Redakai: Conquer the Kairu

Want to get in on a new, fast-paced and 3D card game that's easy to learn, but challenging to master? Then look no further than Redakai!

It's a new card game (created by the same guys who gave us Ascension: Chronicle of the Godslayer) that involves harnessing the energy of Kairu to make amazing attacks with tremendously powerful monster transformations. Much like Yugioh and Pokemon before it, Redakai can also be watched on your local Cartoon Network channel in an animated series. 

As we've gotten many questions about the cards and how to read them, I thought it would be helpful to give a run-down of how to decipher the various card types.

In Redakai, there are 3 main card types; Character, Monster and Attacks, shown below in order.

Character Cards: Has the name and version of the character in the bronze section at the top. The 3 gold bars are your character's Damage Zones. Think of these as your "Health" bars. There are also 3 different zones on the left side of the card, which will be red, green, blue or blank. These Defense Zones determines the type of damage your character can take. Along the bottom of each card is your character's Special Ability. The ability can only be used if not covered by another card's ability.

Each player starts the game as a Character, with the same amount of energy (Kairu).

Monster Cards: These have most of the same information as Character Cards, including Name, Version, Defense, Special Ability and Health bars. The one core difference is that the amount of Kairu required to summon the monster is shown in the upper left corner. Also, some Monsters, like the one on the right, have the power to give Health bars back. These will go over your Character Card when summoned, and give you a different Special Ability. Don't worry about the other 3 symbols in the Special Ability bar, they aren't needed for gameplay.

Attack Cards: While they do contain some of the same information found on Monsters and Characters, the Attack Cards have very important differences in gameplay. The upper left corner still has the amount of Kairu needed for play, but the name has the attack's Color rather than Version. The attack may have a Special Ability like Characters or Monsters, but it will also have the Attack Power. When using this, simply compare the Attack Power of the Attack Card with the corresponding Defense Zone of the Character Card. If the Damage Zone number is blank or lower, it automatically hits. Also, if the artwork of the Attack Card covers up the Defense Zone or Special Ability, like in the middle Attack Card shown, that section is now considered blank.

And there you have it; your comprehensive guide to the 3 cards of Redakai!

Stasi "Dengirl" King 

Grand Prix Trial Baltimore 1/21/12

Today we ran our Grand Prix Trial (GPT) for Baltimore.  We ended up with a pretty good turnout even with the snow falling all morning and keeping many players at home.  So we got 10 players, which ends up being 4 rounds with a cut to 4.  Here is the standings going into the Top 4:

1. Paul Lake
2. Casey Madrick
3. Doug Kimball
4. Jonah Acosta
5. David Haass
6. Carl Naumann
7. Alex Sherman
8. Nick Langella
9. Dave Oppenheimer
10. Evan Odden

In an effort to help more players with deck construction and play, I've decided to publish the top 4 deck lists here on our Blog.  I've listed them:

Doug Kimball
5x Swamp
7x Forest
1x Mountain
2x Kesig Wolf Run
4x Inkmoth Nexus
1x Dragonskull Summit
1x Rootbound Crag
1x Glissa the Traitor
1x Olivia Voldaren
4x Solemn Simulacrum
1x Acidic Slime
4x Primeval Titan
4x Grave Titan
2x Geth's Verdict
3x Doom Blade
2x Green Sun's Zenith
2x Black Sun's Zenith
2x Ancient Grudge
1x Ratchet Bomb
4x Sphere of the Suns
4x Rampant Growth
Sideboard:
1x Go For The Throat
2x Ancient Grudge
1x Ratchet Bomb
2x Garruk, Primal Hunter
3x Curse of Death's Hold
2x Batterskull
3x Nihil Speelbomb
1x Black Sun's Zenith

Casey Madrick
4x Delver of Secrets
4x Snapcaster Mage
3x Giest of Saint Traft
3x Invisible Stalker
2x Merfolk Looter
2x Runechanters Pike
1x Sword of War and Peace
1x Sword of Feast and Famine
4x Ponder
4x Mana Leak
3x Vapor Snag
3x Gitaxian Probe
2x Gut Shot
2x Midnight Haunting
1x Plains
9x Island
4x Glacial Fortress
4x Seachrome Coast
3x Moorland Haunt
Sideboard
3x Dissipate
2x Oblivion Ring
2x Flashfreeze
1x Vapor Snag
2x Mental Misstep
1x Phyrexian Metamorph
2x Celestial Purge
1x Negate
1x Dismember

Jonah Acosta
UW Delver
4x Glacial Fortress
9x Island
3x Moorland Haunt
1x Plains
4x Seachrome Coast
4x Delver of Secrets
4x Giest of Saint Traft
3x Invisible Stalker
4x Snapcaster Mage
4x Gitaxian Probe
3x Gut Shot
4x Mana Leak
1x Oblivion Ring
4x Ponder
2x Runechanters Pike
2x Sword of War and Peace
4x Vapor Snag
Sideboard
2x Dismember
3x Dissipate
2x Divine Offering
1x Mental Misstep
1x Oblivion Ring
2x Phantasmal Image
3x Timely Reinforcements

Paul Lake
U/W Delver
4x Delver of Secrets
4x Snapcaster Mage
3x Giest of Saint Traft
3x Invisible Stalker
2x Merfolk Looter
2x Runechanters Pike
2x Sword of War and Peace
4x Ponder
4x Mana Leak
3x Vapor Snag
3x Gitaxian Probe
3x Gut Shot
2x Midnight Haunting
9x Island
4x Glacial Fortress
4x Seachrome Coast
4x Moorland Haunt
Sideboard
2x Divine Offering
2x Dissipate
1x Negate
1x Phantasmal Image
2x Oblivion Ring
1x Vapor Snag
1x Mental Misstep
2x Timely Reinforcements
1x Ratchet Bomb
1x Celestial Purge
1x Marrow Shards

Heading into the first Round of Top 4, we saw Paul Lake vs Jonah Acosta and Casey Madrick vs Doug Kimball.  They all played well, and with no time limit still finished in about 50 minutes.  Paul Lake and Casey Madrick moved on to final 2 players after winning the first round.  Paul Lake and Casey Madrick then sat down to play the final round of the GPT Baltimore, the winning of this event would then recieve a 3 round bye at the Grand Prix in Baltimore.

In the last round, Paul Lake emerged victorious and won the 3 round bye for Baltimore!  We are excited to see Paul head down to Baltimore and we are hoping he does well! 

There is another GPT for Baltimore tomorrow at our sister store in Fair Lawn NJ, The Gamer's Gambit.

Sean "Striderlotr" Banks

Making Sense of Marvel

I grew up as a "Marvel Zombie". I always thought their characters and stories were superior to The Boy Scout (Superman) and his friends. The Avengers were cool, I thought. The X-men by Claremont were the best-sellers for -decades-, and everything else was big and fun and flashy and all that. Marvel rocked. DC = zzzzz.

But the last couple years have not been kind to Stan Lee's wunderkinds. Event fatigue, the $4 price point, Marvel editorial's reluctance to care much about continuity (the hallmark of great Marvel comics) and the feeling that not every comic matter... all these factors led to people walking away from Marvel comics.

To be blunt, I question whether the last couple years worth of Marvel comics have held up, quality-wise. It feels to me that Marvel's last great story was Civil War. I think most of you will agree that CW was a great mini-series, but the follow-ups have not been nearly as strong. Secret Invasion was too long (and felt like a series of boring fights in The Savage Land), Dark Reign was, well, Dark and Siege was.. honestly, I don't even remember what happened in it. The Spider-Man One Last Day story is still loathed by many readers (not all good press is bad press, Marvel) and then there's Fear Itself which just wrapped up.

I promoted Fear Itself pretty heavily in the months leading up to it's launch. I did a 1-on-1 phone interview with Matt Fraction about the series, put up signs, mentioned it to customers, and when the book shipped I was... underwhelemed. It was good, mind you, but it wasn't GREAT.

And maybe my expectations are high (tell me if they are), but if you or I are spending $4 on a comic, it better be GREAT. Money doesn't go as far as it used to, and every dollar counts. It's a different world, and comics are not a necessity. Gas, food and rent are. So, if I'm going to recommend a comic to someone, and it's $4, it'd better be worth every cent. I'm not certain that Fear Itself was worth the money. I hate saying that 'cause I love a lot of Fraction's (Hello, Casanova!) other works, but FI just didn't do it for me.

Now don't get me wrong, there's been other good stories since Civil War. The Annihilation stories were top-notch, World War Hulk and Planet Hulk were superb, and the long-form Death of Captain America story that Brubaker wrote in the Captain America book was fantastic.

But most of Marvel's recent output comes off as "ehh-" worthy. The only exception would be Uncanny X-force. While the recent Hulk and X-men relaunches have done very well, The Dark Angel Saga is, in my mind, the best story Marvel's published in years. The Avengers titles feel like a re-tread. Norman Osborn, again? Really? Seriously, let's give that guy a break already.

Before the holidays, Marvel cancelled a number of new mini-series, and also announced that they'd be double-shipping a lot of their best books in the spring. This is clearly a cash grab, leading to increased revenue, but it also has the potential to push people away from their comics. I have a number of customers who only come in once or twice a month to grab books off the wall. Imagine coming in, having $8-10 to spend on your favorite 3 titles, only to find that there's been 2-3 issues of each published while you were gone. $10? Try $20, easily. That's not fair to the consumer, but Marvel doesn't seem to care. That may sound harsh, but it's true.

So, where does Marvel go from here? Well, you're going to see a lot of your favorite books being double- and triple-published over the next year. Another Avengers book is on the way, in addition to the next Marvel event, Avengers v. X-Men. I think you're going to less mini-series being published, and that's something that's way over-due. Not because the books are bad, but because Marvel has been flooding the market.

In a way, I think Marvel owes DC. If it wasn't for the influx of new customers that The New 52 has created, I think Marvel's numbers would be even lower.

As always, you the customer, will vote with your dollar. Right now, your dollars are going to DC, not Marvel and your feedback to me supports that. In the end, Marvel's going to have to make some changes or face the new reality that DC is the #1 publisher in the Direct Market. Maybe that will make Marvel change.

'Nuff said.

S.

The Dominance of DC

Four months after The New 52 crashed into comic stores, I'm still feeling the shock waves from DC's mega-successful re-launch. We did extraordinarily well in September and I don't foresee any time in the future when DC doesn't outsell Marvel in our store. I don't have access to 20+ years of sales data, but I feel pretty confident in saying that that has NEVER happened in the history of the Den. Not like this, not on this scale. The New 52 created new customers, and brought old customers back to the store. The New 52 was and is a success.

In addition to showing the power of targeted tv ads, The New 52 did a great job of re-invigorating their most popular characters. Neither Wonder Woman nor Superman & Action Comics were selling well, pre-launch. Post-launch, Wonder Woman and Action Comics are very strong sellers, Superman a little less so. I think that book will pick up when Dan "I Killed Superman" Jurgens returns to the book in a couple issues. In addition, the Bat books are selling strong. After Justice League, Batman by Scott Snyder is our best seller by a country mile. Snyder's pre-New 52 run on Detective was AWESOME (check out the hardcover of The Black Mirror that just came out) so this isn't a surprise. In terms of returning their main heroes to critical and commercial acclaim, DC succeeded.

The surprise break-out hits have been the Animal Man, Swamp Thing, Demon Knights and (to my surprise) Deathstroke. They're well-written, well-drawn and have a lot of buzz behind them. If they had been launched by themselves at any point within the last 5 years, I don't think they would've lasted long.

Not all of the New 52 are successes, though. Captain Atom, Mister Terrific, Men at War and a couple others are struggling. I don't know that having Blackhawks and Men at War was really necessary. Two war-themed books was overkill in a market that hasn't successfully sold war-based comics in decades (outside of GI Joe). I'm not entirely certain that all of The New 52 will make it past the 9 issue mark. I'm hoping they've got some new books being prepared. A lot of Stephanie Brown fans really want her back as Batgirl, so I've got my fingers crossed for that.

Some of the books have gotten better, too. I wasn't enthralled with New Guardians #1, but the 2nd, 3rd and 4th issues were MUCH better. Stormwatch #2 & #3 were an improvement, as was Resurrection Man. That said, I still think an extra month preparing for The New 52 would've given some of the creators a bit more time to put everything together.

When I reviewed all of The New 52 in September, one of my conclusions was that the books were very, very dark. They still are, and I' still wish they'd gone with a bit more variety. I think letting some of the books find their own voice instead of being editorially driven, would've been a good idea. But  they didn't ask me, the fools. :)

The other black mark I'm giving to DC is regarding pre-New 52 continuity. It's becoming more and more obvious that they have NO idea which stories from the last 50 years still count. A Facebook update on Dan Didio's page in October made the oblique comment that none of the Crises ever happened. Um, really? Going down that road already? I mean, I'm assuming Bane broke Batman's back, I'm hoping No Man's Land actually happened, and I'm praying that Gotham Central still counts for something. And if I find out that Starman by James Robinson didn't take place, I'm going to lose my mind.

On a smaller scale, DC isn't quite sure what to do with some of their other characters. I read an interview with JH Williams on Comic Book Resources, and found that DC doesn't know what they're doing with Renee Montoya, aka The Question. Given her popularity and prominence as one of the few lesbian super-heroes, you'd think that DC would know if her back-story still holds in The New 52. Apparently, noone's figured it out yet. That's pretty disappointing, if only because I could sell boatloads of a new Question series - especially if they got Greg Rucka to come back and write it.

So, continuity issues are a problem. The tone is still a little much for me. But I'm very impressed that all the trains are running on time. All of the New 52 have come out on time, except for Justice League #5, which is due to Jim Lee's wife having a baby over the holidays.

I'm not surprised that there's already been some creative changes. Ron Marz is off Voodoo, Gail Simone left Fury of Firestorm, George Perez is moving off of Superman, Ann Nocenti is taking over Green Arrow. and now it's been announced that Jim Lee won't be on Justice League #7 and #8. That's really disappointing. I mean, I'm happy Gene Ha is drawing #7, he's no slouch. But I honestly figured we'd get 9-12 issues from Jim Lee om Justice League. He may end up doing #9, but how many more will he get done after that? That's adowner

And yes, Voodoo is still my guilty pleasure. I'm still seething a bit at seeing my precious Wildstorm characters have their histories wiped away, but Voodoo is entertaining, so I'll live.

All in all, I think the New 52 has done a good job. There's a number of things they could've gone differently, but September was a success and created new customers. I can't complain about that.

As for the cancellation of Static Shock, Hawk & Dove, Blackhawks, Men at War, Mister Terrific & O.M.A.C... I'm disappointed, but not surprised. I think putting two war-themed books with the initial launch was a mistake. Mister Terrific was a good idea, but the first issue failed to execute properly. Hawk & Dove proved that Rob Liefeld still has fans, but not enough for an ongoing series to succeed. Losing Static Shock is a tremendous disappointment.

The replacements look stronger. An ongoing Earth 2 book by James Robinson harkens to his epic JSA 50's tale, The Golden Age. That, plus the Batman Inc series and World's Finest will more than make up for the loss of sales of the 6 cancelled books. As for Dial H, The Ravagers and G.I. Combat, I'm not sure how they're going to do. Another war book? Ehh... We'll see.

--

So what about Marvel? How did the Hulk and X-men re-launches do? How did Fear Itself end up? What's going on with X-Sanction, Avengers v. X-men & the Return of the Phoenix? Is the House of Ideas still cranking out greatness?

One word answer: Uhmmm... uhhh..

Okay, that was two.

To be continued tomorrow.

Be good.

Scott.