Weiss Schwarz cometh

Written by Ross Locksley on 20 Jul 2016

We've covered Bushiroad's Cardfght Vanguard a number of times on UKA, but while Weiss Schwarz has been around almost as long, it's taken much longer to mature and gather new decks. Part of this may be due to licensing issues with the decks, something a creator-owned IP like Vanguard doesn't need to worry about, but over the last year we've seen an increasing number of new and interesting WS starter packs released to the point where it simply can't be ignored any more - Weiss Schwarz is now here in force, and it's time we had a proper look at it!

A card game based on anime you say?

Indeed yes, like the classic Ani-Mayhem game of yesteryear, Weiss Shwarz brings customisable card game (CCG) mechanics to your favourite series, and uses fan-favourite characters to represent some classic card game tropes.

To date, series such as Bakemonogatari, Log Horizon, Madoka, Attack on Titan, Haruhi, Fate Stay Night and many others have been co-opted for deck building shenanigans, and thanks to a recent get-together of UKA folks (and a lot of help from Rob, aka Random88 on our forums) a group of us dived in for a few games.

So how much like Vanguard is it?

Insomuch as this is a game involving 2 players and cards that have to attack each other, it's a similar experience. However, WS is the faster game and lacks the riding mechanic (placing cards on top of other cards) which is Vanguard's unique selling point.

What this does is to simplify the game somewhat - the idea is to deal damage to the other player. THere are 3 levels of damage, and once you hit level 4, you lose. However, as your damage level goes up, you can call more powerful cards of the same level, so the game revolves around strategic parrying as you try not to make your opponent too powerful, while at the same time trying to control the damage taken to allow you to call your more powerful cards.

So how long does it last?

On average, we found a decent Weiss Schwarz game took about 10-15 minutes to play out, which was long enough to get involved but not long enough to drag. Far better to play multiple short matches than one long game in our opinion, and everyone improved, our use of cards and play styles adapted. All in, everyone enjoyed the game, and when packs were offered to players, none were turned down ;)

What about expansion?

Oh, there's no shortage of that here! There are expansion packs for every series, and what struck me, when presented with an entire pack of Nekomonogatari expansion cards, was how rare the rare cards truly were! With only around 25 truly rare cards in the entire box, it was surprising to see just how hard it was to get the stand-out cards. Of course, having plenty of rare cards defeats the object somewhat, but it made me realise that there will be quite a lot of scope for trades between friends and especially money to be made by card dealers... When you get a rare card in this game, treat it with respect!