Primer: // Cyberpunk TCG // WEIRDCO
ooh fancy.
// SECTION UNDER CONSTRUCTION //
the basics:
WELCOME TO SEEDY WORLD OF TRADING CARDS!
Okay, it’s not all that bad. You’ve probably spent hundreds of hours tuning that chromed - out bod of yours, but now it’s time to train your mammal brain choom.
It’s really important that you’ve got the basic’s down — so you don’t get your head blown clean off trying to make heads or tails with how to best play your cards.
So let’s start there.
You’re going to need a few things so you don’t look like you’re fresh off the streets of Night City ✅:
tools of the trade:
Dice: 1x Each D4, D6, D8, D10, D12, D20
Deck Box: We’ll be making quite a few decks, so invest wisely.
Sleeves: Preferably both INNER and OUTER SLEEVES.
A Binder & Toploaders: To protect the merch. More on this below.
Tokens: Fire up the ol’ 3D Printer. FREE GIFT BELOW 💋
Notepad: For taking notes about the game-state. Nerd.
AND LASTLY CYBERPUNK TCG CARDS.
GOING TO ASSUME YOU’VE ALREADY FUNDED THE KICKSTARTER YOU LEGEND YOU. 👊
ON THE OFFCHANCE YOUR GONK BRAIN FORGOT TO BACK/FUND THE TCG:
CLICKY CLICKY THE PHOTO TO THE LEFT.
(TAPPY TAPPY? WHATEVS.)
i ain’t your mom.
WAIFU ALERT
🚨
WAIFU ALERT 🚨
SPECIAL LIMITED TIME EXCLUSIVE KICKSTARTER PROMO LUCY KUSHINADA - FRESH BEGINNINGS
Lucy Kushinada-
LEGEND
Fresh Beginnings
OVERCLOCKING
‘Got this feeling… you and I’d make a pretty great team.”
I never really recovered from Edgerunners, so it’s nice to know I’ll be able to carry around my trauma in a deck box from now on too.
WAIFU ALERT
💓
WAIFU ALERT 💓
SIGN UP FOR A KICKSTARTER ACCOUNT: EASY PEASY.
2. FOLLOW/LIKE WEIRD CO’S CYBERPUNK TCG KICKSTARTER CAMPAIGN.3. FIGHT OFF THOUSANDS OF BOTS AND SCALPER HEADS TRYING TO FIGHT YOUR FOR A CHANCE AT A SINGLE PRODUCT.
3. Get ready to play. Because The Kickstarter campaign is PRINT TO DEMAND! 💋
That means you should be able to order as much product ON March 17th at release via the backer form!
WeirdCo’s already figured out that limited release times/product is a BAD CALL for the START of this game, so they’ll be printing as many boxes to fill the initial demand as possible! Totally rad.
We love you for this WeirdCo.
Never Change.
investing into tcg:
NOVA! We’ve bagged some cards to build our decks with, and snagged all the things we need to protect & sleeve up the BLING.
ICONICS. NOVA RARES. FOILS!
DO YOU EVEN KNOW WHAT I’M TALKING ABOUT CHICAS Y CHICOS? WE’VE GOT TO DO EVERYTHING IN OUR POWER TO PROTECT THAT PREEM LOOT ONCE WE OPEN IT UP!🤤
Dice:
A standard set of Dice from your local Hobby Shop will suffice. You’ll also find a pletheora of Apps for Android or iPhone that simulate Dice rolls. I’m currently working on an app that will be able to track your Die Rolls and keep them “Slotted” on screen for players to see! It will be Cyberpunk themed, so you impress the Chooms when you’re playing at the table!
Cyberpunk TCG is played with 6x Die: a D4, D6, D8, D10, D12 & lastly a D20. You’ll need at least one set of these and they can generally be purchased together as a set. Your LOCAL CARD SHOP or LGS will also sell individual Die in case you ever lose one.
YOU CAN NEVER HAVE TOO MANY DIE.
You all know what bulk barn is? At home, I have literally 3 bulk barn bins of Die, because I was so frustrated with losing them handing them out and never having them returned.
Your dice are special in any card game. Whether it’s a saving throw, or a GIG ROLL, those dice WILL be part of a memory GOOD OR BAD. So I like Dice. Shiny die, metal die, plastic die, doesn’t matter; As long as you know where you left them! Dice storage can come any which way, but a DICE BAG is preferred. A pencil case, Dice Bag, chainmail bag even a pocket in your bag works! When I started out, I didn’t have a dice bag, so a friend brought over a bottle of Crown Royal and handed me the bag that the bottle was in. INSTANT DICE BAG. And PREEM FEELING TOO.
Get creative with it. Make it unique, MAKE IT FUN! I’ve used VHS Cases as Dice/Deck Storage before. Let your imagination go wild!
But until then, make use with what you have available to you. Chessex Dice are popular and are usually tested for balance. If you have a larger budget, how about springing for a custom set of die from Etsy? The community is so talented, and we’ll have some products/brands to share that we enjoy in the shop too!
Deck Box: Don’t Cheap Out
This sections seems massive, but this is the least you need to know about what’s on the market. Something tough and rigid, and not flimsy’s best. Ultimate Guard, Gamegenic, Ultra PRO, Vault X, and BCW are going to be your best companies to choose from and they all have different products with varying price ranges. I’ll add a graphic at the end for you gonks who dont read. And links. Geez.
DECKBOXES COME IN A VARIETY OF QUALITIES/TYPES/SIZES:
Acrylic Cases: Affordable, but cheap and scratches easily. Can be transparent or colored. Not a lot of customization options. Stickers tho. ✅
Hard Plastic: Durable, cost-effective. Middle of the pack option. A good sturdy box. (e.g., Ultimate Guard Boulder, Ultra PRO Satin Cube).
Leatherette/Premium: Stylized, often with magnetic closures. Printed or Colored Box (e.g., Ultra PRO Alcove, Ultimate Guard Sidewinder).
Large Capacity/Modular: Designed to hold multiple decks, dice, or accessories (e.g., Gamegenic Dungeon, Ultimate Guard Arkhive). Usually doesn’t have prints/solid color.
PRICE RANGE AND RECCOMENDATIONS:
$0 - $10: Gamegenic wins here with their GameGenic Deck Holder 80+ count deck box @$2.95, however GameGenic has grown to become on of the best budget and quality brands available, offering a range of products with different textures, skins, thicknesses and sizes. Ultrapro has some thicker Acrylic Cases for about $10.00 but if you’re just starting off and not sure which you’d like, head over to your local LGS and ask them about budget brands. At every LGS, I’ll find a variety of these and often I’ll just pick one up for the night, especially if I’m just drafting.
$11 - $30: It’s NOT who you think. At this price range, EVERY Accessories brand has a quality product, but our vote goes to
Jaffzora for their $15.00 Magnetic Card Display Case. ULTIMATE GUARD still has the best product in this price-range with the starter Xeno-Skin line of Deck Boxes for around $20-30 and are textured for better griped, have super strong magnets that holds the top down. Ultrapro makes a similar product with their SIDEWINDER, and they can come with some AMAZING graphic artwork sublimated onto their deckboxes. SO JAFFORZA & ULTRAPRO Wins here.
In the $25-30 range, Gamegenic offers their Sidekick and Sidekick XL line that I’m a fan of too (Just Not The Price).
$31 - $50: OKAY. The big guns are out with this one. We are looking at Magnetic Long Boxes here, and premium quality (But Still Entry) deckboxes and storage options. I feel like this is where I want to be when I’m looking at longterm storage. Longer storage that can usually hold multiple decks can be found in this price range. Big fan of the Gamegenic Squire X Plus at $29.00 and you can often find it cheaper on Amazon too! Ultimate Guard makes Xeno Skin Longboxes and are my every day's personally.
To be fair, all companies tend to offer longboxes at this price range, and it’s mostly about how STRONG those magnets are. Drop tests are real, although I don’t recommend you go out to your Local Game Shop and start testing gravity. Check out some reviews about your favorite brand, but I prefer those Ultimate Guard Longboxes & Deckholders.
At this price-range, you’re looking at more Premium quality deckboxes, hell even 3D Printed Custom ones!
Would you all like that? Maybe there’s something already available in the shop for you to check out, who knows? Maybe it’s FREE too IDK.
But regardless, if you’re spending this much money on your cardboard, you’re saving yourself the grief of not protecting your cards earlier with nicer product.
Custom 3D Printed Deckboxes FELL like you’re pulling out Premium Chrome, and slapping it on the table. Often, hobby shops will have a few printers around these days, but often using the WRONG material makes the rigidity of the deckbox suffer. Getting those layers nice and smooth takes times a patience. Getting tolerances just right can be tricky, so I wouldn’t break out the credit card JUST yet, do some research or better yet, go find out who your nearest 3D printer and start asking questions.
$51+: OH BABY. We’re not looking at Longboxes anymore NO NO NO. We’ve got CASES. The Ultimate Guard Flip N Tray Xeno Cases fits 160+ Cards, Your Dice, Your Sideboard, Your Token, A SNACK? No not a snack. WAIT MAYBE. YES. Had to test it.
POINT is, we’re looking at all-in-one storage, and when you move away from the Big 5 here, you’ll find a variety of cases at budget prices. For Cyberpunk TCG, I would reccomend those heavy duty Commander Display Cases or the 400+ Count Commander Deck Boxes by Kabinka. Who’s Kabinka you ask? Well, I didn’t know either, BUT WE BOUGHT THEIR CASES because they were reasonably priced with positive reviews from people online. People: Get them while they’re cheap and available because those cases are PREEM.
$100+: WHY WOULD WE EVEN WANT THIS? I mean, why wouldn’t you? Premiere quality, best of the BEST Deckboxes generally go for $100+ right? Nope. This Section is mostly for you LUX Corpos who can spring any amount of Eddies. The world is your oyster. GOLD DECK BOXES? Okay maybe not, but larger storage displays and cases for your home can easily hit this price when you tally it all together. Frankly, I found nothing NOTABLE in the 100+ Range, but I wouldn’t be surprised if CD Projekt & WeirdCo has some insanely cool (and expensive) deckboxes floating around, remember the RTX 2080ti?
I ‘member. Maybe…a deckbox shaped like a GPU?... Or RAM.
I need RAM.
SECTION HERE NEEDS TO BE COMPLETED. I’M WORKING ATM. PLEASE FINISH THIS - MOUTH.
Sleeves: Preferably both INNER and OUTER SLEEVES.
A Binder & Toploaders: To protect the merch. More on this below.
Tokens: Fire up the ol’ 3D Printer. FREE GIFT BELOW 💋
Notepad: For taking notes about the game-state. Nerd
We’ll update/add to this section as more is known/released about the TCG game.
Anatomy of A Card:
Cyberpunk TCG has it’s own mechanics and keywords to understand. It’s fairly stripped down if you come from other TCG’s don’t be FOOLED.
Cyberpunk TCG has a layer of complexity built into core systems like RAM and Tags, and knowing how to evaluate a hard Early, Mid, and Late Game is key to winning your Gigs.
You start off deck building by choosing 3 Cards with the LEGEND tag to act as your deck leaders. Your LEGEND’S Color and RAM Capacity will determine which card you can slot into your deck. We’ll get into that more below, but the Color identity and RAM Costs are restrictions that are imposed on Edgerunners looking to build different decks. Because you start the game with 3 LEGENDS in your Eddie zone, choosing synergistic cards and LEGENDS can can assist your strategy is KEY.
Cost:
Top left of your card is THE COST of the card you’re looking to play. You must have enough Eddies (Akin to Mana, Ink, Energy) to play the card in question. The cost is the same as MTG or Lorcana with both CMC and Cost respectively being interchangeable here. Spend an equal number of Eddies to the number in the top left corner to play a card.
Sell Tag:
The Sell Tag shows up below your cost and let you know whether or not you can use the card as a resource. It’s a mechanic that I love, and it carries over very well from games like Lorcana, where a card can be used as Eddies!
Tags:
Tags designates the affiliation that card particular has with a faction or group. There are various factions/organization in the Cyberpunk Universe, and Tags are used to check certain modifier conditions in the game. (Whatever faction Gary is in, I want in. I’ll drink the juice.)
Type:
Type is straight forward. They let you know the type of card being played. Typing’s in Cyberpunk TCG are Legend, Unit, Program & Gear. At the moment these are the only card types that exist, but I can see them adding a few more ;) Daemons for instance.
RAM:
This determines which cards you can play in your deck. Cards will have a RAM Total/Cost and ALL CARDS in your deck must BE EQUAL OR GREATER THAN THAN THE RAM TOTAL OF YOUR LEGENDS.
It’s actually a lot simpiler than it seems. In addition to noting which Colors are used by your LEGENDS, you’ll be noting the RAM Capacities. Multiple Legends with the same color identity ADD to your deck’s RAM capacity and allow higher costed cards to be played.
ALL CARDS SLOTED INTO YOUR DECK MUST HAVE THE SAME COLOR IDENTITY AS YOUR LEADER, AND THEIR RAM COST MUST BE EQUAL OR LESS THAN THE TOTAL RAM IDENTITY PRESENT ON YOUR LEGENDS.
All cards have a RAM cost, and if that number is GREATER than your Legend’s RAM capacity, they can’t be played. Simple choom.
Seems complicated at first, but it’s really simple addition and subtraction. You’ll quickly understand how unique and fun this type of restriction is! Although it’s meant to be a deck restrictive measure, it actually spurs so many creative and unique deck ideas. I can’t wait to see all the full card gallery! Decks are not Color Restricted, but more Color focused decks that can run higher costed cards will be in their own category of play, so try everything when combining your legends! Even go all in on one color and show us you’re a Netrunner and not just and Edgerunner.
Color Identity:
Something that the Official HOW TO PLAY sort of glosses over. At the moment, we only know of a handful of colors, but as of the Alpha we have
RED, GREEN, BLUE, and YELLOW. I think we’ll likely have more but perhaps a fixed number of Colors.
My instincts tell me that it’s possible they’ll use the Chakra Colors (Just as a nod to Misty’s Esoterica).
In Magic: The Gathering split their Color Identities into WUBRG (White, Blue, Black, Red, Green) as well as Colorless (Grey?) spells. Each color shares a design philosophy that is deeply woven into the design and determine the abilities of a card. Each color has it’s own mechanics and abilities that aren’t found in other colors, and often combining these colors make unique combinations of effects that would never be found in a singular color identity alone. MTG decks have ZERO color restrictions/RAM like restrictions when deckbuilding.
In Lorcana, we have AAERSS - Amber, Amethyst, Emerald, Ruby, Sapphire, Steel. Each Ink identity (Why did they name the Ink colors after precious stones?) also has an intricate design philosophy. In Lorcana however, you ARE restricted to a 2 Color Identity system and can only choose cards from among 2 colors of your deck’s identity.
So why even mention those other games?
Because at the surface level, the color identity of the game is doesn’t have a defined identity. But without a doubt, WEIRDCO and CD PROJEKT RED will make sure to draw some DEEP and COMPLEX indentity into the color pie of Cyberpunk 2077.
We don’t have Colorless Cards like MTG, but we DO have Color Identity, and color seems to lend itself to favor certain Tags, but it isn't readily clear how color identity will play into the Philosophy of the game longterm. We just don’t have enough. I have a longer form video that I’m working on for the channel, that touches upon what I THINK the color indentity in the game will be based on the use of COLOR in Cyberpunk 2077.
Well as a TCG mechanic, the RAM COST and Color Identity system EXTREMELY PLEASES ME in Cyberpunk TCG like no other game has.
And I think this will encourage deckbuilding in a way, I’ve frankly wanted for as long as I’ve been playing. With this system, every card that isn’t Vanilla (no abilities) will always have a place in the game, whether it be now or down the road from that particular card’s release date. Utility changes as more Legends with different restrictions and Colors are revealed, allowing for a larger pool of decks to exist.
And so Color Identity matters. Which Legends you play matters. How many Legends focused on one color matters. Yesterday’s card’s matter when tomorrow’s Legend show up. A card’s RAM COST matters.
Card Name:
If you don’t know, we’ll be receiving multiple variations of Cards/Characters from the RED and Cyberpunk & Edgerunners. Color identity can shift a character’s abilities, name, and can represent characters upon different lifepaths. I hope there is an opportunity to do a sort of “What IF” set, where for instance, Characters are represented by choices we may not have been able to do in Cyberpunk 2077 or in the Table Top RPG.
Names appear in two locations: Top Center of the Artwork on Legends & Bottom-left corner of the art box above the card’s TAG line. Some cards like Jackie Welles have multiple card variations, both Legend and Non-Legend.
Ex. Jackie Welles - Ride or Die Choom \\ vs // Jackie Welles - Pour One Out For Me 😭
Power:
The Bigger The Number. The Better The Person.
Combat engagements work when a Unit/Legend goes on the offensive during the Attack Phase. You can choose to attack a Spent Unit you opponent has, or to direct your attack to your rival. A successful attack happens when your Unit/Legend, after modifiers, has the larger number in combat.
Last Thoughts Before We Dive Back Into Content Creation (Did you read all of this?) :
Cyberpunk 2077 is quickly shaping up in my mind as 2027 TCG of the year, and quickly inticing me to putting a new bookshelf in the library. The collector in me is excited or all the different Foil and Alt Art variants, at competing at tournaments and engaging with the greater community collectively. I’ve always enjoyed Cyberpunk 2077 mostly alone and online with like-minded people, but now I can go into the LGS and be the definitive expert on the subject matter.
1. While I fully expect there to be a rotating format like standard, I also can see a non-rotating Eternal Format (Voting right now to call it ETERNAL LEGENDS or like AFTERLIFE) where new players and old players from any point of the game’s release can see value in both their new and old cards.
2. I’m a BIG fan of the LEGEND system.
I’ve played COMMANDER in MTG for about 15+ and love being able to re-explore my library (and it’s literally a library now) of spells with newer Legendary creatures. Combining newly released cards with your vintage/older cards really shake up the format of commander. I’ve got over 40 Decks built that I constantly upgrade at home base, each with 100 cards in them. Safe to say I’ll be doing the same with The Cyberpunk TCG
I would love to see a sideboard with multiple different Legends and Cards you can play to swap out for in between games. Being able to swap out legends and spells makes for great gameplay.
3. I had a concern about LGS competitions/tournaments though.
Small thought: We must assume that the players we are opposite the table from, has integrity enough to deck build honestly and not lie about the RAM costs of their cards slotted in their Deck. Assuming a game is played quickly, we may never see an opponent’s Legend roster.
In a game of Cyberpunk all Legends start at the beginning of the game FACE DOWN; So there isn’t really a way to know whether or not your opponent is being honest about the Color/Ram identity of their deck. Some 3rd party almost has to enter to mediate this, and at tournaments repeat deck checks may have to be considered.
Although I haven’t played with enough people or a diverse enough card pool, I hope an Official Comprehensive Rules Guide can remedy how we can assert the accuracy of these deck lists, while not compromising integrity of Hidden Information within the game. Generally people are honest, but at minor/local tournaments I can foresee this being an issue.
Perhaps if we just allowed the opponent to know The Color and RAM Capacities of our decks, that may keep the game more honest.
Yeah that’ll do it.
Unless there’s something in the HOW TO PLAY that I’ve missed, this hasn’t been addressed.
4. Cyberpunk TCG blends some of the best mechanics from different card games, and re-interprets and imagines them in a unique way. Being able to use your cards as either Eddies or a Unit adds such a nice level of strategy, especially when you’ve only got a maximum of 3 of that card. Starting off with Legends and Color/Ram restrictions reminds me of a refined version/scalable version of Commander. Oh man, I’m going to have to build a singleton deck to play down the road aren’t I?
5. Cyberpunk can deal with mature & important themes as part of it’s narrative presentation. It uses DECADES worth of source material to draw inspiration from and even more is actively being written the world by CD PROJEKT RED.
Many other card games try to find this happy medium between all-ages friendly and politically appropriateness, and I hope we can SORT of throw that out the window in pursuit of storytelling. A fantasy story set in a technologically rich, but resource lacking future dystopia is sort of what THIS old fart wants to engage with. Real topics with consequences.
The Cyberpunk Franchise and to an extent, the Cyberpunk movement, has been mantled by the community not just for it’s aesthetics and New-Retrofuturistic vision for the future, but for the quality of the conversation being held just beneath the surface level. And when you start digging, it really expands into a life altering event.
It leaves room for fantasy yes, but plenty of space for a mature conversation about the dangers of technology, large corporate monopoly, street level control, and drug abuse. And just when you’ve cracked the code about the dialogue being presented, it’s takes a MUCH deeper look into Spirituality, the progress of Religious belief, What Is Consciousness & What it means to be alive; Free will, and breaking out of cycles through choice and intention, caring for the common man when given the worst circumstances.
It wrestles with a society that over-indulges and seeks instant gratification as almost a basic human right.
Cyberpunk is life today: but if the choices we made lead us to the bad ending. So it’s nice to reflect, finally sit down with some friends I haven’t met, and just: Reflect.
The tone of this Primer’s slowly turned into my real thoughts about the franchise, so I’ll wrap this up and write that blog/script another day. I come from a world of Videogames, Philosophy, Puzzle Solving & Code Breaking and I can’t wait to integrate the Cyberpunk world into my TCG world too. Cyberpunk is all of that and more. I hope you all see it the same way I do one day.
COUGH COUGH
