Booster sets are on FIRE!

May is looking to be big for trading card games. In fact, most of the ones which are at the Card House that we all know and love are getting brand new sets!

Before I go into any larger details, I'd also like to take a moment to plug the Pokemon tournament happening tomorrow (Sunday 20th April). I'm a little disappointed that a couple of recent events couldn't be played due to a lack of players, and I'd like to try and encourage more people to show up. I've said it before, but if you're worried about not getting a big enough crowd then you should come anyway because just by showing up you'll contribute to the numbers. "I don't want to go, there won't be anyone there..." is a dangerous attitude to have mostly because I may have a Sylveon visit your house in the middle of the night and drag you here*.

Now back onto the pre releases. First off I'm gonna talk about my personal favourite, Pokemon! Sunday 4th May sees the XY set get its second booster set, Flashfire. This set gives the last of the Kanto starters its mega evolved forms, and by that I of course mean Charizard.

ERMAGERD CHERZERD A firm favourite and one of the most recognisable pokemon ever, Charizard storms forward with his own character slot in the soon to come fourth installment in the Super Smash Bros series not only an EX card, but mega evolutions of both its X and Y forms! On top of that we'll also see the addition of Kangaskhan-EX and M Kangaskhan-EX into TCG form, and for those of you who might be competitive battlers in the X and Y video games don't worry. M Kangaskhan-EX is not nearly as broken as its video game counterpart.

Now if you can't quite handle the fact that Pokemon Catcher has required a coin flip for approximately six months now, it would seem that the card designers have decided to meet you half way by giving you Lysandre. It has the original effect of Pokemon Catcher, but in a supporter form so that you can't search for it with Skyla and use it in the same turn. The card I'm most looking forward to? Florges. For one energy, Florges will either search out any three cards in your deck or hit every one of your opponents pokemon for 20 damage. I may have to restructure my fairy deck a bit to fit them in though, but it would certainly be a welcome addition.

Saturday 10th May sees Yu-Gi-Oh! get further reinforced with the pre release of Primal Origin, the final booster set in the Zexal series. Primal Origin introduces only a single new archetype into the game, known as Artifacts. Their monsters are generally level/rank 5, and the main deck monsters can be set in the spell/trap zones where if they're destroyed, they're instantly special summoned.

Quiet down Evilswarm Ophion and let me finish. I'm sure anyone who wants to play them will sorely wish for Heavy Storm to be unbanned, but I'm sure you'll make do with Malevolent Catastrophe. The rest of the set focuses on adding to existing archetypes, including fan favourites like Dark World and Gladiator Beasts. What I'm most excited for is that it gives the Photon/Galaxy archetypes several very new and powerful weapons. Number 101 giving you grief because you special summoned Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon? Let me just Photon Stream of Destruction that away. Opponent activating some nasty spells and traps? Tachyon Transmigration will take care of pesky cards like Solemn Warning and Dark Hole. Not to mention one I'm keen to try out... empty field and I just drew Rank-Up-Magic The Seventh One? Watch me pull a 4500 attack monster with a field negating effect out of nowhere courtesy of the arrival of Number C107: Neo Galaxy-Eyes Tachyon Dragon!

Before either of those hit though, planeswalkers will be happy to know that on the 26th and 27th of April you guys will be getting four pre release events for the latest addition to the Theros block, Journey into Nyx. Now I don't play a lot of Magic except for commander format, but I do have a cat deck for that and when I first saw that Ajani was getting a new card I was pretty excited... until I noticed they ruined it with the addition of a horrible little tree picture. Everyone knows green is for noobs! I won't say too much about Nyx because I haven't really been following it, maybe Chad or Aaron will pop in at some point to give their thoughts on the set.

Oh no, it's a pony! Now your day is ruined!

That aside, get used to it since the My Little Pony CCG is here and will hopefully be here for a while. If you really can't stand the sight of diminutive technicolour equines feel free to skip ahead, but I do play the game myself and I am going to talk about the second set which will also be released sometime in May, named Canterlot Nights.

What does one do in the MLP CCG? Well, instead of having creatures battle against one another in deadly combat (I can hear the cries of disappointment from some of you), instead all manner of ponies and other critters use their power to solve problems and score points. The objective is to be the first one to reach 15 points. Each player gains a specific number of action points each turn, determined by the person who has the highest current score, and these action points are used to play friends, resources, events and even a troublemaker or two to get in the way of your opponents efforts to score points. You will always have at least one character on the field which is known as your Mane Character (yes, that is how it's spelled), which will usually determine what kind of deck you're playing as there are six different colours and you'll need at least two different ones to score at a problem (normally some power of a specific colour and some of any other colour). It's not a particularly hard game to pick up, and if you're interested in learning how to play Kev has the current starter decks in and I'd be happy to show you how to use them. I'm afraid if you want to play with Fluttershy or Pinkie Pie as your Mane Character though you'll need to try and pick up a two player starter set elsewhere (similar to the duel decks for Magic). Otherwise you can grab a Twilight Sparkle/Applejack or a Rainbow Dash/Rarity deck which has all the necessary cards and a rulebook in it to play.

Whew, that was a long post. I'm getting tired just reading it! If you managed to read all the way down to here I'm kinda impressed that you stuck with my waffling on for so long. If you're curious as to any happenings with Cardfight!! Vanguard, go and pester Aaron about it. He knows way more than I do, and actually plays the game more than once in a blue moon (or the pink one we had recently, apparently) unlike me. If you really want to play against me though I normally have my fanservice Angel Feather deck with me. In fact, the only card game that I don't have a deck for that was sold at the Card House in recent times is World of Warcraft (although I do have a rather nice Leeroy Jenkins card in my folder).

I hope you're having a great Easter, and that you're not riding your bike indoors because that isn't the time to use that!

The Pokemon Professor/Number Hunter/Crazy Cat Guy/Pegasus Pony, Troy

*Whether you think that means the Card House or my house is entirely up to you. I'm sure bondage equipment can be found at either place if you know where to look.