Happy Birthday Host WCG! A Retrospective of the Host 1st Anniversary Draft Event!
The best kept secret in collectible card gaming has gone through quite a milestone! Host WCG turned one on September 1st, and I had the unique pleasure of going out to Reroll Board Game Café out in Leicester to play in their Draft event to celebrate this important moment in the game's history.
I was welcomed by the music of my adolescence in this multi floor board game café. The creators of Host, Jamie and Claire were on hand to help all 11 players how the unique Draft format works, and put out their incredibly generous and delightful prizes out for all to see as the day began.
Drafting Host is a very unique way to play this card game. As we know and love about Host, each physical release brings players complete playsets of each new card in that particular expansion. In this game, players have direct access to all the cards they should ever need to build every deck in Host. No singles haggling and no card price spikes.
Each Draft pack features a new version of Rosella the Wandering Painter with a higher hand size and health stat. She also has a new Host ability which lets you add any Resource type for one Action, which is essential for helping the Draft function. The remaining 24 cards in the pack are hand picked cards by Claire, some from the upcoming new expansions Wraiths of Wrath and Spirits of Serenity. Just like with any Draft, you take one card, then pass the rest along. With cards from all four factions, your new version of Rosella makes it possible to play all the cards you want. There were additional rules for if there were no cards in deck to keep play going for this smaller card count format.
After a day of intense battling, the event made a cut to top four players to fight for those unique playmats. We had players of all skill levels, some there since the beginning and some new at that event. Draft is there as a reasonable equaliser. Despite my coverage of the game since it's official release, I did absolutely shockingly, coming dead last in the entire field. The wonderful coordinators of the event made sure that such a dire record was not to be held in vain, and I am now forever reminded that I truly bottled it!
The prizes, the quality of how the event was organised, the spirit of gameplay in the room, and the strength of Host as a product of strong game design is what made the entire day truly sing. I cannot stress enough that Host WCG is truly the best kept secret in collectible card gaming, and it's set to continue to stay strong going into its next year and beyond!
Keep your eyes to Fantastic Universes for all the more news and opinions about the growth of Host.
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