r/hellbreaktcg

On today's topic : the design of the Classic monster. Several classic monsters got multiple designs/actor through remake or re adaptation. Do you think it's something we will get to see in this game ?

If we get Frankenstein's creature, will we only see the Karloff's version, or can we imagine having the Guillermo del toro version one day ? Same question for the mummy, if we get it, will it only be in the Karloff's version, or will we have the 1999's version ?

Is it something you would love/like to see in the tcg, or you prefer to keep it classic ?

Hey everyone ! today I wanted to talk about something that really matter to me when we talk about deck building : the balance between theme/flavor and metagame/mechanics.

the same can be true with SWU, MTG or others like Lorcana, or gundam tcg. When it comes to theme and the flavor of a all IP, sometimes it feels off to play some cards with others just because of what they represent. A classic meme in Magic is now to talk about how you can use The TARDIS with spiderman to knock off some space marines etc... and it's true, it feels like, not right.

I care a lot about the theme of my decks, and I feel like it would be off to play Jaws card or any other franchise cards not related to dracula in a deck all about him for example. Maybe I would miss a lot of great cards doing so, synergies would not be that great, or could be optimized but I prefer keeping the flavor when playing a game all about it.

However, Hellbreak is a Top-down tcg, which means that the theme is what come first and they create the mechanic around that flavor. which in fact means that they will mainly create IP to work with itself but maybe or surely not with the other (exception with some usual staple that there is in every tcg).

What do you think of this ? Do you usually play for theme, or for mechanics and you wouldn't care playing jaws with some dracula and frankenstein's bride cards ?

also do you think that it would shut down creativity if Hellbreak is always tuned so that IP are working only with themselves and not that much with others

On today's topic that I wanted to explore with y'all, my concerns and curiosity about the Hellbreak possible IP monsters that we will surely encounters and the minion cards.

It is not a "problem" on its own, but stalkers are solo killers, the hunt on their own and I can't wonder of minion cards for a theme around Jason, Micheal, ghost face or Samara. Freddy could use nightmare creation as minion cards indeed.

Some are more tricky : let's say "Vecna" from Stranger Things, tons of minion possibilities (demogorgon, demodog, mind flayer, mind controlled minions). But if the monster is the demogorgon, the minions list is really low, because it is the minion in fact.

so will there be "invented" minions that are not from the IP, will we get not really killer-related minion, or will there be more Item - event focused killers ?

what are your thoughts on this ? Could Jason be with minions card in your deck ?

Hellbreak is all about monsters, but will we get to see much different, non "horror" franchise monsters in this TCG ? Not the classic one from universal ?

if you know a little about Dr who for example, you are familiar with the weeping angels, horrifying creatures that will, for sure, be a perfect suit for hellbreak with the Lurking/unleashed mechanic. (if you don't know about this monster, go watch the "blink" episode of Dr who, if you love horror, you will love it.

What about the T rex ? an iconic deadly monster that is also a continuation of Jaws, on land. Will we get to have a Jurassic park card, as it is getting its own tcg right now and we saw it in some crossover with MTG ?

Godzilla, the iconic monster, the kaiju that destroys japan with his horrific appearance as "Shin Godzilla" would be crazy good

Is there any none "horror" franchise with a really cool monster you would want to get in hellbreak ?

hey everyone ! Today I wanted to talk a little about the art of Hellbreak, the choices of how cards are represented in their art. Through some of devoted player, we got the demo deck list and reveal so we can have a glimpse at what we are suppose to get in this game.

tldr : A great artistic direction to me, with really cool classic movie poster like painted realism. awesome use of colorful palet with contrast and meaningful bright/dark spot for horrifying result. Though some letdown art that are not that stunning and miss the point.

One of the demo deck uses Dracula and I'll start with my impression of its art and explain what I think is the main idea of Hellbrak artistic direction. (Disclaimer first : I'm not a specialist, just a player who enjoys art on cards !) Dracula's art, both in lurking and unleashed mode gives that painted and realistic vibes that tries to reconnect with the movie poster from the Universal classic era (as shown in slide 2 and 3).

What is stunning about this art is its saturation, you can even distinguish some red on dracula's hand and white vest. As the movie poster's, the art is still really colorful even for a horror tcg which could be really dark with really low saturated color palet. but that's not the case, even on drain life (slide 4) and Barracuda (5), the cards are both, even in dark situation, the color remains really vibrants and contrasted, making the scene readable and more intense so to say.

though the contrast is not just for color, it is also a major point of the art : in dracula and jaws demo deck, there is a real use of the light/dark spot. In many dracula's deck cards, we catch this "bright spot" that draws our attention : the carriage's light (6), the cat's eyes (7), the swarm of rats (8). This play of light and dark in dracula's is narrowed on simple spot of light so we can barely see what we are facing, but that's enough to understand the danger and the horror of it (the eyes of the predator cat, the eyes of the multitude of rats...) even Dracula is in a bright spot se we can really see him unleashed.

Jaws' cards use a different way of bright/dark spot which is almost exclusively the idea of calm vs dangerous place. Dark spot which the shark is in is the dangerous area and the bright spot is the safe area. Jaws (10) unleashed side shows the dark spot as a really sharp and dark area of the overall composition, in contrast of the bright and peaceful sea horizon. even on a panic of our hands (11) the sunshine comes from the left side of the card so the beach side (safe place, where jaws is not) and the shadow side on the characters running away is placed on the right, the sea, the danger.

I think that all this details are fabulous : use the classic movie poster painting realism to capture the old era vibes, a greay use of contrast and of light/dark to get a better horrifying and dangerous situation.

On a side note, there are few miss spot, as on the jaws from booster set, which art seems a bit... off. The deep sea looks empty, but not the scary way, just plain blue, no variation, no contrast, no details of the different hue.

On my yesterday post about what monster(s) does anyone want to see in the game, I mentionned that I wanted the Death Angel (A quiet Place) to be flavorful. That's why I'm here to talk about flavorful mechanic in Hellbreak tcg today.

The Demo Jaws is rather simple, just dealing damage to a minion, basically could be any card in the game, but it has to be simple because starter deck, you are suppose to learn the game with it.

Then we got the reveal of the booster set Jaws, which is really flavorful to me : interacting with damaged minions reflect the idea of a bloodied person, which the shark can track down, to hunt and devour mercilessly. The lurking side reacting to jumpscare could also refer to it coming out of nowhere and biting you. So on a flavor/mechanic quality, Jaws use jumpscare to bite you (indirect damage) and then exhaust or devour you by hunting your bloodied body. total flavor win to me.

Now what's about the other ?

the death angel : I hope it will have a mechanic all about creature entering or scheming locations. Making sounds will trigger it and make it react in one way or another. I think it could act as a control or punisher mechanic where you are more reacting to the other player action, since that's what death angel manly does, reacting to sounds.

Dracula : He could be all about blood and malice ressources, collecting blood and malice to make other vampires to join him and flooding the locations with all his minions. (not really a lot aware of original dracula's movies so not sure if it's flavorful)

and you what mechanic do you think dracula, frankenstein's bride, Jason, Micheal myers and the others' as flavorful as possible ?

The mummy is just a classic monster I love ! I hope we get the classic and the "imothep" (1999) depiction of it. (could have it in mummy form and flip side is the regenerated form)

Chucky is such an Iconic slasher, I'd love to play it and collect cards

Not sure we will get it soon but it is such a huge IP : Alien ! My favorite horror IP I need it

So we're obv getting Bride of Frankenstein, Jaws, and Dracula. But what's the fourth? I'm thinking maybe a Death Angel (from Quiet Place), except AFAIK that's a Paramount property, not Universal Studios'.

Any ideas ?