World of Warcraft TCG: Heroes of Azeroth (Upper Deck Entertainment)
I'm extremely grateful to Anastasia Goodwin who provided the initial information that enabled me to research this set. I would add that this section differs from the other trading card pages in that most of the artwork did mot appear in printed form.
World of Warcraft is an MMORGP created by Blizzard Entertainment in 2006. This trading card game (TCG) from Upper Deck Entertainment was produced from October 2006 as an extension of the online game. It was designed to be used as both a stand-alone card game and also as an adjunct to the MMORPG. Cards were available in starter packs, containing a rule book with 65 cards, and in booster packs of 15 cards. The complete set comprised 361 cards split between ten categories and, as is usual, not all cards were equally common, there being varying degrees of rarity. This was the first of 22 different titles issued up to July 2013 after which Blizzard Entertainment withdrew their licence.
The artwork shown here has not, so far, been reproduced in any of Boris' and Julie's joint publications, my original source being their website at borisjulie.com where the eight paintings all appeared simultaneously in 2012. Only three paintings were used on actual game cards but, in addition, the website maintained a Media section showing other artwork together with some of the card artwork too. It was here that Granite appeared - unfortunately the image files utilise a common name with a three digit identifier so it is not possible to discern the actual title used. Of the remaining four artworks, their usage, if any, is not known but it is clear they depict scenes from the World of Warcraft universe. It is possible that they were superceded media gallery items but this is pure conjecture on my part.
The table below shows:
- The three card images in numerical order
- The two current images from the media gallery. The number is the image identifier
- The four, apparently unused, paintings in alphabetic order.
| Cards | ||
#060 Winter's Grasp |
#069 Holy Light (JB) |
#175 Anika Berlyn (JB) |
| Media gallery | ||
#017 (Granite) |
#058 Anika Berlyn (JB) |
|
| Unused(?) | ||
(Bandit) |
(Red Warrior) |
(Snow Battle) (JB) |
(Violent Toys) (JB) |
||