WARGAMER

Mega Attack Rares have been part of the Pokémon TCG for just over a year now. This, somewhat divisive, art treatment is exclusive to mega evolved Pokémon. A Mega Hyper Rare card has the name of its most powerful attack written out in bold font in the background of its art. English Mega Hyper Rares feature Japanese text, while Japanese Mega Hyper Rares have English text scrawled behind them. We've not recieved any new Mega Hyper Rare cards since they debuted in Ascended Heroes earlier this year.

Dungeons and Dragons is a titan of the tabletop scene, and is practically synonymous with the genre for casuals. When you say TTRPG, most people will likely stray towards Netflix's Stranger Things as a point of reference. So it's only fitting that Netflix would eventually foray into the oft-forgotten realm (I'm not apologizing for that pun) of DnD adaptations. And their latest project is taking a very ambitious swing.

The MTG Zeta Secret Lair dropped earlier this week. The release definitely did not go smoothly, with even Wizards of the Coast describing it as a "disaster". Yet, despite the fact that many players won't be able to get their hands on Zeta cards, the Secret Lair is still going to be incredibly impactful. Many Zeta cards were downshifted to the common rarity, meaning that MTG's Pauper format (where only common cards are legal) has just received a massive influx of new tools to experiment with.

It boggles the mind to think that, once upon a time, our planet was home to immense megafauna. There is a wonder to the prehistoric era - a wonder that survival board game Jurassic Crisis is attempting to channel through its ongoing crowdfunding campaign. However, in a welcome twist on the dinosaur survival game formula, Jurassic Crisis has a curious supernatural element to its premise that intrigues me.

In the depths of a sprawling hive city, gangs of criminals clash in what amounts to Warhammer 40k's gritty little sibling: Necromunda. Games Workshop recently released a new edition of the grungy skirmish game that puts the brutal Goliath and cunning Escher gangs front and center.

Some Pokémon are so marketable iconic that giving them one mega form just isn't enough. Pokémon Legends Z-A provided new "Z" mega transformations for both Lucario and Garchomp, despite the fact that they were both already capable of mega evolving. A trading card for Lucario's new mega form (Mega Lucario Z) has just been previewed and it's due to release in a currently unannounced future set.

Magic: the Gathering contains a lot of... distinct creature type combinations. There's a shark octopus ninja (Shark Shredder, Killer Clone), a bird assassin (Aven Heartstabber), and even a snake elf detective (Lonis, Genetics Expert). Well, when Reality Fracture comes out, we'll have a new unusual creature in town: an ogre crab wizard. We've not yet seen the card that depicts this crustaceous spellcaster, although, with Reality Fracture previews kicking off on Tuesday, it won't be long now.

Tabletop RPGs have tons of, as the kids say, "aura." Settings such as World of Darkness arguably rose to prominence on the strength of their first impressions. Urban fantasy is especially striking, a mirror to our reality with a dash of the fantastic. It's easier to tag something as cool when we see folks in a familiar setting do the hypest stuff. Especially when they do it in the most stylish anime fashion possible.

Well-established Warhammer YouTube channel MiniWarGaming faces two huge challenges. First, the fulfilment of the Ravaged Star Gamefound campaign. In 2023, backers paid a total of $1.6 million to fund a new miniature wargame, and they're still waiting for their product to be delivered. This kind of delay always creates discontent, but the community fell into outright panic when news emerged of the second problem for MiniWarGaming - the business needs to make big cuts to stay afloat.

Dungeons and Dragons is often thought of as a rival to every other tabletop RPG in existence, so much so it's easy to forget it inspired half of those competitors. Daggerheart and Pathfinder are among the most notable of those rivals, each directly tied to creators who adore the classic game. One of the most underrated benefits of this connection is the surprising ease with which supplements for one game work for another. And this upcoming pirate campaign is a perfect example.