Spellfire cards

Posts: 840 · Posted: Fri Oct 10, 2003 2:55 pm

Here is an auction with Spellfire 4thEdition Cards, currently 200$+

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3147956427&category =44113

Does anybody possess knowledge on the value of spellfire cards in general and wants to share with us? These cards are pretty expensive. Are these guys overspending or is it the regular price?

Posts: 1193 · Posted: Sat Oct 11, 2003 9:57 pm

AFAIK, Spellfire is worthless, but perhaps things have changed. Exclamation

Most of the artwork is recycled from existing TSR products, TSR published books with the pics of all the cards, and the gameplay was limited and hackneyed. $200+ for these cards is beyond me. Perhaps a bridge in Brooklyn would interest the bidders. Wink

Posts: 1 · Posted: Wed Mar 17, 2004 7:37 pm

dathon wrote:

AFAIK, Spellfire is worthless, but perhaps things have changed. Exclamation

Most of the artwork is recycled from existing TSR products, TSR published books with the pics of all the cards, and the gameplay was limited and hackneyed. $200+ for these cards is beyond me. Perhaps a bridge in Brooklyn would interest the bidders. Wink

Hello,
I am new here so be nice.

Now, I am an avid collector of Spellfire and I must disagree with the statement "Spellfire is worthless." I bought several thousand cards on ebay (where else?), pulled out the cards I wanted and then resold the remaining. Now, here's the important part. I made a tidy profit! There are several peopel doing so right now. I reccommend doing more research than just asking here. I can reccommened several sites to search. Spellfire is doing very nicely, both as a game and as a collectable.

Posts: 1378 · Posted: Wed Mar 17, 2004 9:20 pm

Spellfire...are you kidding me.

Recycled art + Horrendous game play (and that is conservative) + Devoid of anything related to D&D = Spellfire

Spellfire = dogsh*t

I guess everyone tossed them in the garbage a few years back and now they are hard to come by. Because it certainly can't be due to any other reason.

All I can wonder is ... a brand like D&D .... a plethora of available artists ... convertable game genre ... and we get Spellfire. It just boggles the mind... Shocked

Posts: 5 · Posted: Thu Mar 18, 2004 8:07 am

@ bbarsh...
i play this game since 96/97 and it has been fun til now.

since i dislike playing with things dogs have already eaten (you stated: "Spellfire= dogsh*t") i don't think that you are correct.

Have you played Spellfire more than once???

Do you really care about what type of art TSR has used to create the cards?

Game play is as bad as that of several other CCG's...

there are still player's all over the world collecting, playing and discussing Spellfire.

The fact that WotC has shelved Spellfire has not put an end to the game.
If you like visit the official site www.spellfire.net and give it a second glance.

Moddi
Visit the Spellfire community at:
www.moddi.com/php/nuke/html/index.php

Posts: 1378 · Posted: Thu Mar 18, 2004 9:31 am

Hey, I think its great that you play.

I was simply putting Spellfire in a context compared to other successful CCGs. It was a total failure. Now that failure was made even more blatant when you consider who published this game.

When I heard TSR was coming out with a CCG, I was as excited as the next guy. The possibilities were awesome. Then it came out. Shocked

Remember, we have to compare all CCGs to MtG. Whether you like it or not, that is the bar against which all other CCGs are compared.

So what did we get? Rushed and bland rules of play, rehashed art that in many cases was old, tired and rehashed more than once before, and zero collectibility. TSR had an extremely large following and brand recoginition. A cool CCG that fired the imaginations (i.e. new art) and generated spirited debate would have been awesome. Spellfire met none of that criteria. Noboday was talking about this game (at least not in a positive sense).

Yeah, its great that people play that game. Very Happy

I am not commenting on that. There are tons of games that have niche followings; that does not insult or insinuate anything about the people who play it. But a dog is a dog is a dog.

So drive on, and keep Spellfiring. Very Happy

(By the way, my group plays Escape from New York at every Gen Con. We have got to be the only people who play that game in the country. Another TSR dog.)

Posts: 5 · Posted: Thu Mar 18, 2004 4:25 pm

why compare CCG with that M...c game (sorry, i hate it, so i will not spell it).

You are correct that the rules are sometimes "weird" or have their grey areas, but given the fact that Spellfire is no longer continued by their original creators no one is here to mend what is broken. WotC simply shevled it without a second thought. Some things should have been corrected, but weren't...

Art... i do believe TSR's mistake was to rush out with their game after MtG had been out. I think they took the huge bunch of art they had for the first editions simply because they needed to be competitive with WotC.

Take radio commercials f.i. ... i always frown when i hear one that is from the last year.

If you look at later cards (esp. 4th Ed.) you'll see that the art changed.
I for my part, never complained about the general art they used except the Runes & Ruins booster and Nightstalkers.

But as you said "a dog is a dog..."

and yes, i will keep on Spellfiring... Wink

and you... keep on Escaping from the Big Apple... Very Happy

Posts: 1378 · Posted: Thu Mar 18, 2004 5:06 pm

I keep trying but that damn Duke kicks my ass every time...where's my gun!!!

Ah, back to the topic.

Like I said, I really wanted Spellfire to be great. It did not deliver.

I think the art was a big part of it. Part of opening booster packs of any CCG is seeing the new cards ... now we open Spellfire and we get the same old stuff we have seen shoved down our throats for years. Who in the hell thought that would be a good idea?

Yeah, I know the game was rushed. MtG was killing everyone. Gaming dollars were being sucked into that black hole and many game companies were suffering.

As much as I hate what MtG did the gaming scene, it really is a great game. It is simple, relatively quick and fun. Of course we always played for ante so our decks were not those super, rare-loaded monstrociites you see nowadays. We took pride in deck building - multi color, no rares, themed, etc. We tried everything. Again, you can't do that with Spellfire. Another short-sighted facet the designers missed.

Again, I lament the fact that Spellfire failed. What a cool link to the game we all love.

Posts: 408 · Posted: Thu Mar 18, 2004 5:25 pm

>>As much as I hate what MtG did the gaming scene, it really is a great game. It is simple

I agree with everything except for that bit. When I played M:tG competitively (1993-1999), I used to actually turn a small "profit" as a quasi-consultant on timing issues! (I would only accept payment in quality rares, 3 = one afternoon of detailed play examples in progress.) I agree it's a great game, except for the collectible overdrive (sets cycle too quickly) and The Perpetually Dreaded Timing Rules. I willfully purged 90% of that information from my brain, the rest is stuck and out of date and will probably never go away.
Shocked

Posts: 1378 · Posted: Thu Mar 18, 2004 6:02 pm

I have to admit, I have not played in at least four or five years. Yeah, the timing stuff got a bit crazy, indeed.

I'm actually in process of purging my collection. Since I played in the revised/4th edition era, I have some good stuff. The last stuff I remember buying was Visions; just a couple boosters for some reason. That damn game was addicting!

Posts: 5 · Posted: Fri Mar 19, 2004 1:57 am

bbarsh wrote:

We took pride in deck building - multi color, no rares, themed, etc. We tried everything. Again, you can't do that with Spellfire. Another short-sighted facet the designers missed.

bbarsh...
of course you can do this in Spellfire also! There are many cards to choose from.

bbarsh wrote:

That damn game was addicting!

Spellfire falls also in this category. Once you really start - you cannot stop.

Do you know that there is an "online" possibility to play Spellfire!?
It's called Crossfire. you'll find it at http://crossfire.spellfire.net

there you don't have to trouble yourself with "recycled art".

Moddi
www.moddi.com/php/nuke/html/index.php

Posts: 1378 · Posted: Fri Mar 19, 2004 10:01 am

I'm sorry. Spellfire couldn't hold MtGs jock. Again, this is no reflection on those who play. I am talking about the product, and that is it.

I did a little check last night and ran a search for Spellfire. Got about 80 listings on ebay. MtG has about 35,000! The proof is in the pudding as they say. Spellfire never had the collector craze or the options for deck building designed into MtG. And remember, I anm no MtG slappy. Haven't played in at least five years, or with any regularity in about 8 years.

Simply, the looks on people's faces when that game was released said it all..."What the hell???!!!"

I was at Gen Con when it first came out and went to the demo. It was packed on Thursday (first day of con). By Friday it was practically deserted. News spread pretty damn quick. TSR resorted to giving starter decks away to get people top try the game. Still didn't work. Meanwhile, people were lined up 100s deep to get the newest MtG release. That said it all.

Again, my whole point is that as a product, Spellfire missed the mark - severely. The largest RPG game company on the planet blew it. They put out a rushed product, sloppily constructed, and missed most of what CCG players desire. So there are people who still play. That's great. At least you can probably get any card you want for pennies. I think that is cool; MtG players certainly can't say that.

What really surprises me, though, is the lack of a follow up game. So Spellfire flopped. Why not try again. It has been years and D&D is still very popular. A CCG based on D&D (one that followed the precepts of most popular CCGs) would surely be successful. Of course, it also never a good idea to compete against yourself. Very Happy

Posts: 297 · Posted: Fri Mar 19, 2004 12:17 pm

You know what would get me 'back into Magic'? A Forgotten Realms Expansion for M:TG, or Greyhawk... Pull artifacts from the treasures of those realms... creatures from 'monsters', 'legends' from characters...

I mean... how cool would it be to tap 'WaterDeep','Silver Marches" and "ShadowDale" and 'Summon Elminster' then pump him up with a Vorpal Blade and a Girdle of Giant Strength and turn him loose on your opponents Saproling horde! I would play a game like that.

I haven't understood why they haven't done that. It's actually a fun cross over and may get D&Ders to try/re-try magic and MTG players to get familiar with the D&D universe.

Bah! I must continue working on my plans to dominate the earth so these circumstances can be changed!

Posts: 4716 · Posted: Fri Mar 19, 2004 1:12 pm

I play Magic all the time. The last 2 sets include Equipment, which are baically artifacts you attach to creatures. Names like Banshee's Blade, Sword of Kaldra, etc. I had dropped off for quite a while until this mechanic came back into the game. I am convinced that WoTC had just that in mind, a semi-crossing between Magic and D&D.

Posts: 5 · Posted: Fri Mar 19, 2004 3:42 pm

there had been the chance to make Spellfire better and thus develop a better CCG than MtG...
But as we know WotC simply killed it to get rid of it once and for all.
Why put your efforts into 2 games when you have one that dominates the market.

btw... 2 products of the same company can successfully compete against themselves. It's only a matter of marketing. Smile

bbarsh... you made a search run for ebay auctions on Spellfire and MtG.
given the fact that Spellfire is no longer supported for about 4 years the results cannot reflect the reality as it had been way back in 1999/2000.

Posts: 1378 · Posted: Fri Mar 19, 2004 5:54 pm

Name one. Nobody competes against themselves and survives. Overhead alone would be a killer. TSR did just that when they produced more than a dozen campaign worlds.

Fair point about Spellfire being discontinued vs. MtG that is ongoing. But I suspect that four or five years after MtG dies, there will be more than 80 items on ebay.

Hell I did a search for soap dishes and came up with about 140! Anyway, this thread is probably about flushed out.

Again, more power to you for playing a game you love. Keep it going. That was never my topic anyway. My singular point is the fact that Spellfire was a catastrophic failure in more than one way. And that has no bearing on who plays or who doesn't.

Maybe I'll catch you a Gen Con. You and your buds can pull up table next to me mine. You play Spellfire, we'll pull out the Escape from New York, and we will gather a crowd of confused onlookers. Shocked

Posts: 5 · Posted: Sat Mar 20, 2004 3:20 am

I could name some local unknown NON-CCG products here in Austria/Europe. hmmm...

i would love to come to GenCon but since i'm from Europe it'll be mot very likely that i will show up.

send me a photo of your table at GenCon so i can take part.... *grin*

take care

Posts: 1378 · Posted: Sat Mar 20, 2004 9:38 am

done

Posts: 4716 · Posted: Thu Mar 25, 2004 11:47 am

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3184055586&category =44113

I had remembered seeing Spellfire cards go for an insane amount last year.

Posts: 20 · Posted: Sun Apr 04, 2004 3:46 pm

This topic has been beat to death, true. But my two cents worth:

Cent 1) One of the most notable flaws of this game when it was reviewed by InQuest was the lack of any "comeback" ability; that is, once you started losing, there was very little you could do about it. Other CCGs have ways you can pull a victory from the Jaws of Defeat. Not so Spellfire.

Cent 2) I recall that TSR created eleven (11) expansions for this game before they finally shut it down. That's a lot of support for a dog. I would say this reflects the fools in charge of TSR in those days, more than it is a comment on the viability of the game.

BTW, I can get Spellfire Boosters cheap. Who wants them?

Centurion