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Welcome! This is a full text-based (for now) dream card game based on the games and books of the popular Halo series, using basic rules from Decipher's popular Lord of the Rings TCG. Halo: TCG currently consists of a total of 8 in-progress sets, full of new cardtypes, new keywords, and all-new cards. It includes all major characters and plotlines from the Halo universe, including both games, the novels, and other "canon" material such as the ilovebees alternate reality game.
We're happy you found us, and hope you enjoy your time here. Check back (mostly) every Tuesday and Thursday for card updates, as well as random "bonus" postings some weeks on other days. Thanks for stopping by!
Latest Update
Thursday Trio #37
"The storm will strike the facility!"
As I mentioned in Tuesday's posting, I'm switching gears for a short bit. (I do that a lot, don't I?) For a little while, at least, we'll be introducing weather cards to Halo TCG. Old-school LOTR TCG veterans will remember a number of powerful weather cards from the early sets before Decipher seemed to abandon the idea. I think that's a shame. Weather conditions and events (in Halo TCG, at least) might be assigned to certain cultures, but they are, by nature, chaotic. They might have powerful effects on the company and other FP characters, but they're also likely to blow up in your face if you're not careful. They're a powerful force, but you can never fully control them.
I figured it'd be best to start with the most notable storm in the Halo storyline: the massive one above Basis that moves in on the Heretic station while the Arbiter attempts his first mission there. We've got two actual weather cards and then a card that can help the FP player make the Shadow player pay a bit for using them. We'll have more weather-related cards next week (and hopefully big news on the upcoming website), but for now, enjoy these cards!
<2> Atmospheric Storm [Heretic]
Condition • Support Area
Weather. To play, spot a [Heretic] card.
When you play this condition, add 2 [Heretic] tokens here.
At the start of each turn, damage each ship with armor less than 5. That ship’s owner may discard a card from hand to prevent this.
At the start of the regroup phase, if you cannot spot a token here, damage every ship and wound each character not stacked on another card. Discard this condition.
At the end of each turn, remove a token here.
Kind of complicated, isn't it? Let's break it down:
You spot your [Heretic] card to play this in your support area, and immediately put 2 [Heretic] tokens on it. Easy enough so far, right?
At the start of each turn (while this is already on the table, of course), EVERY ship with relatively low armor (less than 5) gets damaged, unless that ship's owner discards a card from hand instead. Obviously, you don't want to have a whole lot of weak (or already damaged) ships of your own, because if they have armor of 4 or less this hurts them. But this is an excellent way of hurting the FP player if he has a bunch of, say, transports helping the company. More than likely, their armor will be low enough to trigger the effects of this card.
Now things get a little trickier. At the end of each turn, you must remove a token from this card. That means that unless you add more tokens along the way, there's more text that will be triggered three turns after you play this. Assuming the FP player hasn't done anything about it, that means that you've triggered the first text twice already and damaged all their weaker ships twice. Now you finish them off with a bang.
Once you reach a regroup phase and don't have any tokens left on this card, EVERY ship gets damaged. That might seem like a drawback to you, since your ships will have been avoiding damage all this time if you were smart enough to have high-armored ones. But it doesn't stop there. You ALSO wound every character not stacked on another card. As this is the regroup phase, that can help you a lot more than it hurts, since most minions that are left won't linger much longer anyway...unless the FP player decides to move again. And that's kinda unlikely since all of THEIR characters will be wounded, too. Like I said, it probably hurts them a lot more than it hurts you.
And since this uses tokens, you can potentially manipulate this card to your liking. Remove tokens faster, or add more tokens to make this card last longer. Whatever suits your fancy. More on this at a later time.
<1> Violent Maelstrom [Heretic]
Event • Regroup
Weather.
Damage a fighter or vehicle twice or a transport once.
If you can spot another [Heretic] weather card, you may remove (2) or a threat to return this card to your hand.
“‘Leader, the storm is about to hit! We cannot maintain our position!’”
Obviously works well with Atmospheric Storm, since you can use this to soften up any stronger fighters and transports for more damage at the of the turn, thanks to Atmospheric Storm's main text. And of course, spotting another weather card like that allows you to potentially return this to your hand and do it all over again. A few applications of this mixed with Atmospheric Storm will down those annoying Pelicans in no time, and more cheaply than getting and staffing a bunch of ships of your own to destroy them.
(1) Element Of Surprise [Covenant]
Event • Maneuver
Spot a weather card to choose a Shadow culture (except [Flood]). Add X threats to prevent X minions of that culture from being assigned to skirmishes by Shadow players.
“‘The storm has masked our approach, and has their local battlenet in disarray.’”
Pretty self-explanatory. This makes those nasty weather cards a little more palpable for the poor FP player, and hopefully a little less likely to ever hit the table in the first place. Can't help you with non-maneuver weather events like Violent Maelstrom, though. No avoiding the weather entirely!
Older Updates
Twosday #37
Heretics vs. The Flood
Don't get too excited. I'm not about to introduce [Heretic] companions with Flood-fighting powers (thougha handful of [Heretic] companions are an idea I've toyed with). Nor am I going to introduce [Heretic] cards that are useful to the FP player against the Flood, or vice-versa. Rather, these are cards inspired by the Heretics battling the Flood in Halo 2, but in this case, the races really work together.
These also might be the last threat-related cards I do for a little while. I've had a few thoughts for a few cards that follow a very new (or old, for the long-time LOTR TCG veterans) concept as I worked on the Heretics again, and I think I'll go off on a tangent about those starting Thursday.
But for now, enjoy these cards!
<1> That Stench [Flood]
Event • Maneuver
Spot a [Flood] minion and a Grunt or Elite to add a threat.
“‘I’ve smelled it before....’”
If you've paid close attention to the cardlists, you'll notice that this card already exists. Well, sort of. See, I created a card with this same title and lore a long time ago, but it had entirely different text. I gave that text to this new card instead:
<2>•The Flood Is Upon Us [Flood]
Condition • Support Area
Each time the Free Peoples player assigns a [Covenant] companion to skirmish a [Flood] minion, you may remove (1) to add a threat.
“‘By the Rings? What is that?’”
So, the old That Stench (and now The Flood Is Upon Us) was one of the few good threat-adders before I refocused on threat-adding cards recently. But as I studied the dialogue of those scenes, I decided I liked the title and lore of The Flood Is Upon Us better than That Stench. So, that freed up the title and lore of That Stench for a whole new card...which gets us back to the present.
The new That Stench is perhaps an even better card than the old version, which is the new The Flood Is Upon Us. (Have I made your head explode yet?) Whereas the old is a condition that's relatively easy to avoid unless the company is heavy on [Covenant] companions (thus making it useless against your more typical [UNSC] company, and also [Sentinel] and [Human]), the new is an event that you can splash into many more strategies. It still works like a charm against [Covenant]-loaded companies, since they're almost certainly have at least ONE Elite or Grunt among them, and it also works if you throw down a Grunt or Elite minion from any culture on YOUR side. [Heretic], [Covenant], doesn't matter.
Go for [Heretic], though, and you can double the fun with this card:
<1> Missing Brothers [Heretic]
Event • Maneuver
Spot a [Heretic] minion and a [Flood] or [Sentinel] minion to add a threat.
“‘Given what we have learned, I fear they are lost.’”
This card's pretty useful all on its own. With minions of mixed races, this is one you can easily splash in. A deck revolving around Sided With Heretics makes [Heretic]/[Sentinel] a good combo anyway, so this beefs up such a pairing. And combined with the new That Stench, having your [Flood] and [Heretic] minions work together means lots and lots of threats to work with. Mwaha.
Happy Birthday, Menace!
18 today, eh? Congrats. It's all downhill from there. 
Nah, just kiddin'. Happy birthday, man!
Good News...and some Bad News
More good than bad, though!
First, the bad news: no Twosday or Thursday Trio this week. I simply don't have the mindpower right now. I can't get the creative juices flowing enough to make the cards. Might have something to do with the headache I've had for the last three days....
Anyways, on to the good news. (And no, it has nothing to do with my insurance.) The website is coming along, finally, after a couple weeks of waiting for answers from the Invision folks. See, to move the Halo TCG stuff to a new forum, I need this forum's database. That way we don't lose all the threads that have already been created here. If it works as planned, you copy the database from this forum to the new one, and then just delete all the non-Halo TCG stuff at the new one, and it's good to go. Well I think we've finally come to an agreement about how to do that. It'll cost me a little money, but I think it's worth it. Frodo and I wanna get this game out to all the Halo fans out there, and our own website and forums is the best way to do that, methinks.
So, I need to check with an old buddy of mine that's helping with the move, make sure it's all good to go, and then it's just a matter of Invision copying the database and sending it to us. Probably another week or two off, but it's definately moving forward now.
The OTHER good news is that I'm not going to leave you completely without cards this week. (Even though the last few updates haven't gotten reviewed yet.... *cough, cough* ) Here's a few new Brute minions for ya. They need a little help, since aside from Tartarus, we've only made 10 Brute minions to date. Enjoy!
<4>•Avernus, Brute Lieutenant [Covenant]
Minion • Brute
Strength: 8
Vitality: 3
Site: 5
Damage +1. Fierce.
While skirmishing a wounded companion, Avernus is strength +1.
“‘A day’s rations says I do this in one cut.’”
The name is inspired from the same source as Tartarus: Greek mythology dealing with the underworld. Seemed to fit. 
Avernus is unique among most Brutes in that he starts with both damage +1 (which almost every Brute has) AND fierce (which almost every Brute except Tartarus gets only conditionally, like when they're exhausted). That alone makes him useful. But if he manages to win a skirmish (and thereby wound a companion in that skirmish), he gets stronger in the ensuing fierce skirmish with his gametext. Obviously, Avernus is a good old beatstick. Of course, I guess you could say that about most Brutes....
<3> Jiralhanae Hunter [Covenant]
Minion • Brute
Strength: 7
Vitality: 3
Site: 5
Damage +1.
While at a forest, mountain, or underground site, this minion gains ambush (1).
While at a battleground, this minion is fierce.
“‘I've stalked invertebrates with more courage!’”
Here we have the conditional fierce text again, though with as many battlegrounds as Halo TCG has, it's likely to be on more than it's off.
The ambush text is something I've recently been tinkering with more, after all but ignoring it in earlier minions. I've been using it for certain Jackals, stealthy Elites, and a few others. I figured that the "master hunter" Brute race fit too, and the sites that trigger it in this case made sense. To me, at least. 
<4> Brute Stalker [Covenant]
Minion • Brute
Strength: 7
Vitality: 3
Site: 5
Damage +1. Ambush (1).
While exhausted, this minion is fierce.
At the start of each skirmish and fierce skirmish phase, if the Hero and this minion are not assigned to a skirmish, you may remove (2) or a threat to assign this minion to the Hero.
“‘A true hunter shows his flesh, Demon!’”
The ultimate hunter, you could say. Not only does he come with ambush by default, but he can also skip the rest of the company and head straight for your real target: the Hero. Granted, with "only" 7 strength he's not going to put a lot of fear into the prepared Spartan Hero, or the Arbiter, or even an armed Johnson Hero. But give him a Brute Shot, maybe throw down a couple Brute strength boosters, and even the Chief himself will be running for cover. And this minion's not even unique!
Thursday Trio #36
Blarg. Crazy, crazy week thus far. But tonight, I'm going to a ballgame: Washington Nationals vs. Baltimore Orioles. Hopefully I can relax before I dive into another week.
Anyways, I wasn't able to get the Trio up yesterday, but hey, better late than never. And believe me, if I didn't get them up today, it probably WOULD be never. I'd hate to drag a Trio into the following week.
I confess, these aren't my favorite cards I've ever done. I've been reaching a bit with some of these threat cards, and I REALLY had to dig for the [Human] culture. But I knuckled down and did it, and the end results, while not spectacular, are at least serviceable. They do the job. Hope you can enjoy them!
<2>•A Colorful History [Human]
Condition • Support Area
Tale.
Each time a [Human] minion is about to be killed or a ship staffed by [Human] minions is about to be destroyed, you may remove that minion or ship from the game instead to add a threat.
Discard this condition if you cannot spot another [Human] card.
“‘...rebel insurrection in 2494, beaten down by the UNSC two years later at the cost of four destroyers. I don’t believe the Office of Naval Intelligence ever found their base in the asteroid field.’”
Kinda complicated, huh? Well, that's necessary, unfortunately. With the potential for [Human] minions to be flying non-[Human] ships around (and other cultures, especially [UNSC], to be flying [Human] ships around), NOT having text like this could lead to even MORE confusion. Hopefully you can understand what it's saying.
This is a relatively easy way to add threats if you've got a [Human]-focused Shadow deck. They've got a lot of cheap, easily-replaced minions and ships, so removing one from the game (eliminating the possibility of ever getting it back from the discard pile) hurts you less than some other cultures. This one can really pack on the threats after a little while.
<2>•Dangerous Sector of Space [Human]
Condition • Support Area
At the start of each maneuver phase, if you can spot more ships staffed by [Human] minions than Free Peoples ships, you may add a threat for each ship staffed by [Human] minions.
Discard this condition if you cannot spot a Free Peoples ship.
“‘And since there have been organized raids and scattered pirate activity nearby, one might conclude—as ONI clearly has—that the remnants of the original rebel faction are still active.’”
Wow, even more complicated here. Again, sadly, I had to do it this way. But the card itself can be VERY useful...if you have enough ships, of course. This condition really benefits you for the [Human] culture's lack of many big ships and abundance of little cheap ones. But it requires you to leave at least one Free Peoples ship intact.
<2>•Pirate Raids [Human]
Condition • Support Area
If you cannot spot a Free Peoples capital ship, each Free Peoples ship is weapons -1.
Maneuver: Discard this condition to make each ship staffed by rebel minions weapons +1 (+2 if engaging a transport or shuttle).
“‘Just in case someone takes undue interest in a lone, unescorted, diplomatic shuttle?’”
Not much to say here. Catch the Free Peoples player without a capital ship, reap the benefits. If they DO get a capital ship out, you can still turn this into a somewhat-expensive maneuver event. Either way, your rebel ships get some more punch...at least for a while.
Hopefully I'll have some more interesting cards--and ranting--next week. I feel so blah today.
Anyways, have a good weekend!
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