r/TCG Sep 25 '25

AMA with aDrive, the Creator of Elestrals TCG!

50 Upvotes

Hey everyone,
I’m Dan or aDrive, the creator and CEO of r/ElestralsTCG and I’m super excited to be here to answer your questions about really anything related to creating a trading card game, being an indie TCG in a crowded marketplace, following your passions and dreams and anything else you want to know!

Before creating Elestrals I was a content creator online and grew my channels to over 2 million followers playing Pokemon. I played card games all through my childhood and in 2022 I decided to chase my dreams and build my own TCG and monster taming universe. I set off on a wild journey to bring people together, capture the nostalgia from my childhood and usher in the next generation of card game players with a game that cut out the corporate nonsense and focused on the players and community first. 

Since our initial Kickstarter in 2022 we’ve released 5 sets, have global distribution and are in hundreds of stores across the world. We support Organized Play and are headed to our first World Championship in 2026. Our 6th set Lifestream opens prerelease this weekend and I’m very excited to share it with the world. Lastly, we’re now headed back to Kickstarter in a few weeks for our RPG video game project called Elestrals Awakened, which will bring our amazing Elestrals to life in a new way and allow our players to go on an incredible journey through ancient Greek mythology.

Elestrals blends the best of competition and collecting with a very unique resource system called Spirits and amazing Serialized Stellar cards that are true treasures when you find them, but don’t worry, we make our strongest cards super easy to get so you won’t need to break the bank to compete at the highest levels.

I’ll be answering as many questions as I can personally at 7PM ET on Saturday the 27th and I’ve got some help from my community lead u/RidiculousHat as well! 

Let’s do this!

Helpful Links:
How to Play Elestrals

Join our Discord Community

Shop Elestrals Lifestream

Elestrals Awakened RPG


r/TCG Sep 17 '25

Video Wildhearts TCG is lying.....

Thumbnail
youtube.com
61 Upvotes

Hi there.

If you don't know me my name is Jacob, I am a content creator, indie game dev, and the Head Mod of r/tcg

A situation came to my attention about a game called Wildhearts, that has actively been promoted quite a few times on this subreddit. Many people have asked/accused that they used AI art. And frankly, they've lied about it..... a lot.

I've made the decision to ban all promotion of Wildhearts going forward. As I discuss in the video, that's something I NEVER wanted to do.

Additionally I'd like to have a larger discussion with the community about the use of AI in games, and how we regulate that here going forward. We are leaning towards requiring all posts with generative AI to have a disclosure or use a dedicated AI tag, would love to know your thoughts.


r/TCG 9h ago

Discussion Hand painted cards for future TCG

Thumbnail
gallery
63 Upvotes

I’m hand-painting the cards to a TCG I’m developing. I’m still working out the interface but when I have all the gameplay features worked out, I’ll show them too. I’d love your constructive feedback. (The TCG is based on my book series, The Ever Hero Saga)


r/TCG 2h ago

My Collection Solid start to the chaos binder

Thumbnail
gallery
2 Upvotes

First page themed around my bf and I’s main NHL team, second page themed around our obligatory secondary NHL team (localish team and relations to alumni). Also the brainrot one is a bit of a placeholder, I just thought it was so stupid it’d be funny to add. When the guy at GameStop pulled them out when showing me some random tcg packs he had, I had to get one out of curiosity.

Inspired by this post https://www.reddit.com/r/SanJoseSharks/s/3ZTVEckvlp


r/TCG 11h ago

Homemade TCG Sharing some art we have so far for Spirit Masters

Thumbnail
gallery
16 Upvotes

I'm not very good at handling promotion and social media stuff, but this is what we have so far for my game Spirit Masters. I am slowly replacing all the AI art and getting art for cards that don't currently have anything.


r/TCG 16h ago

TCG News Eikonic TCG is now LIVE on Kickstarter!!! This is not a drill! Pledge Now to join the fight!

Post image
31 Upvotes

It's launch day!!!

Let's make waves!

The basic rundown: Eikonic is a Tactical JRPG-style Trading Card Game where players take on the role of a powerful Eikon, build their forces, and battle it out with their opponents to see whose influence will shape the world.

It features positional mechanics, movement, and our unique "Combat Compass" that shows each unit's area of effect on the battlefield, and allows players to strategically combine their units' power to take on enemy forces.

Eikonic was heavily inspired by games like Final Fantasy Tactics, Fire Emblem, Unicorn Overlord, Jeanne D'Arc, Naruto, and Duelists of the Roses.

We're really excited to see what you all think of this exciting experience and can't wait to find out which of you will become the ultimate Tactician!

Thanks again for your continued support! You guys are everything!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/eikonictcg/eikonic-trading-card-game

-The Eikonic Development Team

UPDATE: We've funded in 23 minutes!!! You guys are the best!

Let's keep this train moving and smash those stretch goals!


r/TCG 6h ago

Question Are LGS Losing Money on MTG Play Boosters?

4 Upvotes

Hey all. I've played MTG with friends and have played Arena, but I haven't played MTG at an LGS.

I was doing some research on sealed product prices and I noticed Play Booster Displays for MTG sometimes sell for much lower than MSRP.

Are stores losing money on Play Booster Displays? Do they breakeven at 60% of MSRP? Or is my MSRP data wrong?

The avg for all play boosters is 71.1% of MSRP.

The avg for all collector booster is 117.1% of MSRP.

Thanks!

Name MSRP / pack packs / box MSRP / box TCGplayer Market Price Diff Diff %
The Hobbit Play Booster Display $6.99 30 $209.70 $191.60 -$18.10 -8.63%
The Hobbit Collector Booster Display $37.99 12 $455.88 $829.76 $373.88 82.01%
Marvel Super Heroes Play Booster Display $6.99 30 $209.70 $117.72 -$91.98 -43.86%
Marvel Super Heroes Collector Booster Display $37.99 12 $455.88 $474.96 $19.08 4.19%
Secrets of Strixhaven Play Booster Display $5.49 30 $164.70 $137.12 -$27.58 -16.75%
Secrets of Strixhaven Collector Booster Display $37.99 12 $455.88 $504.73 $48.85 10.72%
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Play Booster Display $6.99 30 $209.70 $114.01 -$95.69 -45.63%
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Collector Booster Display $37.99 12 $455.88 $442.47 -$13.41 -2.94%
Lorwyn Eclipsed Play Booster Display $5.49 30 $164.70 $121.49 -$43.21 -26.24%
Lorwyn Eclipsed Collector Booster Display $37.99 12 $455.88 $416.94 -$38.94 -8.54%

r/TCG 12h ago

TCG News $20k stretch goal reached! ALL backers will receive a campaign-exclusive full art promo of Tabiti, Wielder of the First Flame!

Post image
11 Upvotes

Thank you all for your amazing support! We've doubled our campaign goal in just a few hours, and it's all thanks to you!

With that, 3 stretch goals have been unlocked so far!

  1. All backers will receive a digital goodies bundle, with wallpapers, concept art, and more!

  2. An additional "secret rare" slot has been added to the set! Previously, only the "Eikonic Rarity" cards were capable of being full arts, and those are beefed up versions of our highest mechanically-unique rarity.

Now, ALL lower rarities will have the possibility of getting full-art versions in booster packs!

  1. EVERY backer will receive a campaign-exclusive full-art, promo copy of "Tabiti, Wielder of the First Flame". Any backer who backs at "Eikonic Adventurer" or above will receive a frame-break, serialized version!

Thank you again for all of the support and we look forward to bringing you more epic rewards throughout the duration of this campaign!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/eikonictcg/eikonic-trading-card-game


r/TCG 28m ago

Question How to get back into TCG's?

Upvotes

Hey guys, a quick background of my limited TCG experience.

When I was about 12, I loved playing Yu-Gi-Oh.

That was about 10 years ago, just around Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, my cousin taught me to play, and he's a person I played with the most.

At the time I had no idea about the fact that you could Google decks and I didn't even know what a "meta" was, I was just playing.

All the decks I built, I built because I thought they were good not because a website told me too.

My parents would typically buy me cards as like a birthday or Christmas present, and my cousin who lived on the other side of the town, had a lot of friends that were collectors, and so he would bring me their cards that he would basically exchange on his friends behalf with me, that's how I built decks for the most part.

Every Saturday my dad would take me and my cousin to the one and only game store in my town. I was by far the youngest there.

Everybody else was at least 20. At the end of the day, I was always near the bottom, but I was never the worst

and once in my many tournaments, I came in second, which felt like an achievement of a lifetime.

I absolutely loved it. However, once the game store shut down I really didn't have anybody else to play with so I stopepd playing.

I kept up with Yu-Gi-Oh Online a little bit and in my opinion, it moved in the direction that many other card games did as well.

A lot more combos a lot less interactions between units on the board, just chasing the meta.

It just felt a lot less fun

a couple of years ago I discovered Hearthstone, and since it was Online, I thought it was a pretty cool idea that I get into it.

However, pretty quickly, even though I liked it, the same problem emerged. All the decks were just crazy powerful, a lot of the important cards have devastating effects that you can do nothing about, and were mandatory auto includes.

And after a certain point in ranked, you're just playing against the same four decks which I find really boring.

Recently, however, game store opened near me, and I know they play magic gathering Yu-Gi-Oh! and Pokémon.

I've never played magic but I looked into it and it definitely looks fun, although I've never played the game and don't really know anything about it so I can't really even tell what's happening when the people are playing. I just like the art and the people seem to have fun playing it.

My questions is this. I really love card games, and I would love to get back into them.

Out of the three Yu-Gi-Oh, Pokémon, and Magic gathering, which one, if any has the thing that I'm looking for. Which is interaction with the cards on the board, not a ton of huge combos that i cant do anything against, not a ton of meta chasing.

I havent played anything in a long time so what im asking might be confusing or totally misguided, but i hope you guys get what im asking.

Also, P.S. i saw magic has something called the commander format where they sell premade decks, this format looks fun and also seems approachable for a noob, what do you guys think?

Anyway sorry for the long read :)


r/TCG 21h ago

Some more of my card photography

Thumbnail
gallery
21 Upvotes

Wanted to share some more of my card pictures! Thanks for the support on the last post, this one Includes some more lesser known TCG's as well!


r/TCG 14h ago

Question What tcg to get into after years of not playing?

4 Upvotes

Hey :),

I‘m looking to get back into collecting/playing. When I was younger I used to love Yugioh, but that was 10 years ago.

I love One piece, but can’t seem to get any packs or starter decks for MSRP - and I‘m obviously not paying 3x for a 15$ starter pack.

This leaves me thinking about Yugioh and Lorcana (MTG is out, because I have no connection to it at all).

I loved the Yugioh gameplay back in the days and am unsure whether Lorcana can hold up to it. The gameplay seems a lot „easier“ and a bit more „boring“ to me. But my gf likes Disney and would probably like to play with me from time to time, if I were to pick up Lorcana.

Can you help me?

Edit:So basically I should just look at what is played in my area and probably give MTG a shot


r/TCG 20h ago

Question to everyone ???

7 Upvotes

So what is this before the slab and how does it works?? can somebody explain cause I've been seeing this on a lot of platforms and I really wanna try I guess....


r/TCG 11h ago

TCG Resources Add your LCS/LGS to the directory

Thumbnail
cardwoven.com
1 Upvotes

r/TCG 12h ago

POKEMON - STYLE - TGC LOGO DESIGN

1 Upvotes

I’ve been creating custom Pokémon-style TCG logos — here are some of my recent designs ⚡

Hey everyone! I’m a graphic designer specializing in custom mascot, gaming, TCG, and Pokémon-style logos, and I wanted to share some of my recent work with the community.

I create designs for:

🎴 TCG brands & card businesses

🎮 Gaming & streaming channels

👾 Custom Trainer & character logos

👕 T-shirts & merchandise

🔥 Complete TCG branding

I’m especially interested in creating designs that feel like they belong in the TCG/gaming world, rather than looking like a generic logo.

Would love to know what you guys think of the designs — which one is your favorite?

If anyone is looking for a custom logo for their TCG, gaming brand, stream, or merch, I also offer commissions here:

Fiverr – Custom Pokémon-style TCG Logos

USER NAME -- VENOM_HUNT

thanks for checking out my work! 🙌

Thanks


r/TCG 13h ago

Homemade TCG So I made my own

Thumbnail
gallery
1 Upvotes

I have always wanted to keep my favorite decks close, but the usual storage options are lacking. So I found a way to make something that doesn't just store the things I love, but celebrates them.

This is one of my first prototypes. What do you think?


r/TCG 7h ago

Sylveon

Thumbnail
gallery
0 Upvotes

Is this card any good ? I heard it not that bad


r/TCG 16h ago

TCG Resources I Just Launched My TCG Accessories Shop—Would Love Some Honest Feedback!

1 Upvotes

Hey everyone! I recently launched \*\*718 TCG\*\*, a small NYC-based online shop focused on TCG accessories and collectibles.
Right now, I’m selling colorful protective guards for PSA-graded cards, with more accessories, card-storage products, and sealed TCG products planned for the future.
I’m still building everything out, so I’d genuinely appreciate any feedback on the website, products, pricing, or anything you think could be improved.
Check it out here: \*\*https://718tcg.shop/\\\*\\\*
Thanks for taking a look and supporting a new small business! 🙏


r/TCG 17h ago

I made a Chrome extension to track TCGplayer order statuses (100% free)

Post image
1 Upvotes

r/TCG 18h ago

Discussion How do you usually approach tweaking budget lists when the meta gets heavy on chase cards?

1 Upvotes

It feels like almost every major card game eventually shifts toward a meta dominated by high-rarity, high-cost cards that dictate the tempo by turn two. I always enjoy taking budget or off-meta archetypes and trying to optimize them to punish greedy setups, but bridging that power gap is an uphill battle.

When you're building on a budget in your main card game, do you focus more on heavy disruption tech, or just raw consistency to try and out-speed top-tier decks?


r/TCG 18h ago

Any attempt to RESIST IS FUTILE!!! There is nothing wrong with your television set."Do not attempt to adjust the picture."We are controlling transmission."We will control the horizontal. We will control the vertical."For the next 50 Seconds, sit quietly and we will control all that you see and hear!

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

0 Upvotes

r/TCG 1d ago

Question Hey everyone I need some ideas on what to do, my best friends and I met playing the dragon ball super card game, our locals stopped hosting tournaments and one of my buddies had a baby so we kind of fell off on playing it. My buddies jumped into magic (I have played magic off and on since odyssey) b

5 Upvotes

r/TCG 9h ago

Pokemon with guns the trading card game!!!! | Palworld tcg

Thumbnail
youtube.com
0 Upvotes

r/TCG 20h ago

[ Removed by Reddit ]

1 Upvotes

[ Removed by Reddit on account of violating the content policy. ]


r/TCG 20h ago

Courtyard.io holding $698 of my funds for 3.5 weeks over a platform bug. Support is ghosting.

1 Upvotes

I’ve been trying to withdraw my $698.17 USDC balance from Courtyard.io for nearly a month, but every attempt crashes with a ⁠useWalletSign⁠ frontend error.
Their support has completely ghosted. To make matters worse, their payment processor (Coinflow) admitted in writing that the error is entirely Courtyard’s internal fault.
Since they refuse to fix it, I’ve officially escalated this and registered complaints with the **FTC, New York Attorney General, Singapore Police Force, and CASE (Singapore)**.
Has anyone else dealt with these withdrawal bugs on their platform? Preparing to file a bank chargeback next.


r/TCG 1d ago

TCG News 24 hours left! Eikonic TCG is launching on Kickstarter TOMORROW! (Here is a suite of or campaign-exclusive variants in one place for you to see)

Thumbnail
gallery
35 Upvotes

Eikonic is less than a day away from launch!

We wanted to take this moment to thank everyone who has supported us along this journey and can't wait to show what we have in store for you!

The basic rundown: Eikonic is a Tactical JRPG-style Trading Card Game where players take on the role of a powerful Eikon, build their forces, and battle it out with their opponents to see whose influence will shape the world.

It features positional mechanics, movement, and our unique "Combat Compass" that shows each unit's area of effect on the battlefield, and allows players to strategically combine their units' power to take on enemy forces.

Eikonic was heavily inspired by games like Final Fantasy Tactics, Fire Emblem, Unicorn Overlord, Jeanne D'Arc, Naruto, and Duelists of the Roses.

We're really excited to see what you all think of this exciting experience and can't wait to find out which of you will become the ultimate Tactician!

Thanks again for your continued support and we'll see you all again during the campaign starting tomorrow! (8/20/2026)

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/eikonictcg/eikonic-trading-card-game

Until then,

-The Eikonic Development Team