Look back on 2016 card gaming

Welcome to 2017! I'm only a month or so late.

Last year ended up being rough on my time, and I gamed a lot less than I did the previous year (I flopped cards only 200 times last year, compared to 325 the previous year. Lots of factors contributed, which I've mentioned from time to time- I got married, had a lot of other family drama to deal with, worked on my Master's... all sorts of things. My Thursday gaming group, who I joined to play L5R has not touched the game, or any card games since AEG announced the sale, which effectively cut my gaming days in half.

However, I still love card gaming, and I am definitely excited to see what this year has in store.

So, let's look at what I did play last year:

.hack//enemy - 1 (new!)
24 TCG - 1 (new!)
7th Sea CCG - 1 (new!)
Adventure Time: Card Wars - 1 (new!)
Android: Netrunner - 71
Arkham Horror LCG - 5 (new!)
Ashes: Rise of the Phoenixborn - 2
City of Heroes CCG - 1
Doomtown: Reloaded - 6
Epic Card Game - 8
Force of Will - 2 (new!)
Game of Thrones 2nd Edition - 9
Hecatomb - 1 (new!)
Legend of the Five Rings - 6 (all arc)
Lord of the Rings LCG - 15
Magic: The Gathering - 45 (3 Standard, 38 Commander, 3 Pauper, 1 Draft Multiplayer)
Marvel VS 2PCG - 2
Pokemon - 3
Star Wars CCG - 1
Star Wars Destiny - 1 (new!)
Star Wars LCG - 6
Star Wars TCG - 1 (new!)
Warhammer 40K: Conquest - 9
WARS TCG - 1
Xena - 1 (new!)

I did manage to add a few new games to the ones I have tried, at least, so I can count that as a success for the year. In addition, no game was so terrible that I would not play it again (although I am only including Xena as a means to introduce my wife to card gaming. That will likely be a cut at some point).

Speaking of, I will repost from last year- here is the list of games I will not play again:

• Powercardz/Spawn Powercardz - I played this quite a bit as a kid. Its mechanics, I recognize now, were terrible. It is too simple, and not really much of a game.
• Hyborian Gates - Was this even a game? I think purchasing this really was just enjoying the great art (and awful cropping). The game itself (yes, I managed to figure out the rules) was just awful.
• Spellfire - I have not played this in a LOOOOONG time, but I have no positive memories of having done so. I believe some of my complaints were actually addressed, but this still was not enjoyable enough to bother trying again.
• Weis Schwarz (new addition to this list for 2016) - Cas and I gave this a shot this past year, but the game was extremely weak. The climax cards add an unpleasant level of variance to the game, and although part of the mechanics are meant to address the Runaway Leader syndrome, it does not do quite enough to make up the gap. If I manage to get enough pieces together to swing for the fence, and I hit a climax card, I am annoyed. If I do not... that's tough to recover from. It was far too simple for us, even without this.
• Gridiron Fantasy Football - The mechanics of this game were not particularly bad, but the game dragged unbearably, and at some point, I would rather just play something else.  

So far, 2017 has been off to a great start. I've already had the opportunity to try a new game (Myths at War, the English translation of Guerra de Mitos), which I absolutely love. Also, I have played a few games of Arkham Horror and Magic, and I expect I will get many chances during the year to sit down and play.

That, as ever, is the goal, of course. With several new games on the horizon (L5R LCG, Twilight of the Gods, the Traveler Card Game), and old games that I have cards, and am preparing to try (Wyvern, Rifts, Magi-Nation), this is going to be an exciting year for me and card gaming.