Genesis: Battle of Champions

Genesis: Battle of Champions heads to Kickstarter for Metamorphosis set

/ Jerome / Leave a comment

Edge of Exile Entertainment (EOE) earlier this week revealed its plans to release its next set for Genesis: Battle of Champions. And that path is taking it back to Kickstarter, this time to hopefully launch its latest set by raising the CA$40,000 needed to get the set printed. The company first teased Metamorphosis last year. EOE’s first attempt to get the set printed through Kickstarter unfortunately came up short and the company took some time to regroup and plan its next move. Whereas last year’s failed campaign tried to raise funds without directly selling booster boxes, this time, the new set is the main attraction.

The Kickstarter campaign is expected to start on Friday, July 25th around 0800 ET. It will offer a number of pledge tiers, all of which will include at least one booster box of the new set. Backers will also get the new cards some six weeks before the set hits stores in early 2026. Let’s take a closer look at the campaign.

The first tier will allow you to buy a Booster Box with 24 packs for CA$95 (plus shipping), a healthy markdown over the $120 MSRP.

The next tier, the Starter Bundle, will include a booster box, a Kickstarter exclusive playmat (your choice of vertical or horizontal orientation) and the five mono-coloured starter decks released last year. It will cost CA$225.

The next tier is geared at local gaming stores who are signed up for the organized play program. It will offer a Booster case (6 booster boxes) for CA$450. Players looking for a booster case will be able to pick one up with the next tier for CA$510 (or CA$85 per box).

The last tier is known as the Mega Bundle. It consists of a case of Metamorphosis as well as a case of Origins, a case of Jaelara: Second Edition, a Kickstarter Exclusive playmat (in the orientation of your choice) and a surprise gift.

Needless to say, the Kickstarter campaign will have some stretch goals. They have so far teased a few of these, starting with one at CA$75,000 and running up to CA$345,022. Why that specific amount for that last tier? Because it is exactly CA$1 more than the first successful Genesis: Battle of Champions Kickstarter campaign back in 2022.

Metamorphosis promises a whole new set of cards along with some new mechanics. So far, we know that there will be a new Equipment card type which will attach itself to champions to give them new or improved capabilities as well as dual-sided transforming cards. With the launch now possibly only a few months away, I expect that we will soon find out more about the set as well.

Quick reminder, the Kickstarter campaign should start around 0800 ET on Friday, July 25th.

Genesis: Battle of Champions returns to Kickstarter

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A year after Genesis: Battle of Champions died and was resurrected, it looks like the game is making a slow and steady comeback. Edge of Exile Entertainment (EOE), the new owners, released a new expansion set late last year (Invasion) and are now getting the next one ready, hoping to get it out soon. They celebrated their 50th livestream episode a week ago and used the occasion to announce some “big news.” A new Kickstarter campaign is kicking off on July 8th.

This is not the first Kickstarter for Genesis, Battle of Champions. Back in 2022, the world was a different place. The game was still run by Haunted Castle Gaming; we were still dealing with the repercussions of COVID 19; interests rates were starting to climb to levels unseen in a while. The campaign closed with more than 600 backers (666 to be precise – read into that what you want) and nearly CA$350,000 raised.

Things promise to be different this time around. The new ownership wants to try something very different with this campaign. Unlike the previous one, this upcoming one will not offer booster boxes. Instead, it will focus on various exclusive backer rewards. As Jason Malott, EOE President, explained during the livestream, the idea is to offer products that will not cannibalize LGS sales but offer complimentary products for fans of the game.

The Kickstarter is expected to launch on July 8th, a bit later than Canada Day. A nice touch if it would have happened as Genesis is a Canadian-made game.

In terms of funding tiers, we will get exact information when the campaign goes live but up for grabs will be:

  • T-shirts featuring new art for Champions such as Erika and Oni
  • A Kickstarter exclusive playmat. The design is not finalized but it could be a map of Jaelara
  • Tokens featuring your backer or content creator name
  • Character cards based on your appearance either in Metamorphosis or Cataclysm
  • New Exert tokens from the same creator who made the commemorative Invasion Release Day ones
  • Kickstarter exclusive set of non-foil alternate art Champions appearing in Metamorphosis
  • Serialized set of alternate art of each Champion appearing in Metamorphosis
  • A very limited ultimate tier where you will get a chance to guest host on the Genesis BOC livestream

EOE hopes to raise at least $40,000 with the Kickstarter campaign. The funds will be used to accelerate plans, including getting Metamorphosis, the next set, to market faster (“hopefully before the cold weather,” according to Jason. Other plans for the funds include the launch of organized play and getting listed on TCGPlayer.

EOE also shared their Plan B should the Kickstarter fail. This includes delaying the release of Metamorphosis and organized play, possibly into next year. They also have alternative fundraising plans. Here’s hoping that they will not be needed.

I’ll update this post once the Kickstarter is live with more information on the different tiers.

Update:

A few new details:

  • The Kickstarter is expected to kick off on July 8th
  • Special discounts will be offered for the first 24 hours
  • If the campaign goal of $40,000 is reached, Metamorphosis will immediately go to the printers
  • Stretch goals for $45,000, $50,000 (including an enhanced Organized Play program), $60,000 (with OP promo packs), $70,000 (special commemorative exert tokens) and $150,000 (to get onboarded on TCGPlayer.com)

Update #2 (July 8th, 2024):

The Kickstarter campaign is live! It looks like a good start with the campaign almost 20% backed already!

Genesis: Battle of Champions Metamorphosis Preview

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The hype train got started earlier this week for the next Genesis: Battle of Champions set with the reveal of a new Champion. And Edge of Exile (EoE), the game’s new owners, certainly kicked the latest preview season with a bang: A new champion, a new mechanic and a new type of card.

Issac, Jaelarian Smith, is the first Champion to be designed under the auspices of the new company. The design team had been thinking of dual-sided cards for some time but the previous ownership apparently did not support the idea. The new leadership was more open to the idea (maybe because they were familiar with dual-faced cards from another famous TCG?) and Metamorphosis, the upcoming set, felt like the right time to introduce them.

While the card template introduced with Invasion no longer lists the card creator, this specific card was credited during the livestream to Will K, a member of the design team and a contributor to earlier sets.

It looks like Issac transforms into a werewolf not when a full moon is high in the sky but when he gets hurt enough. And speaking of werewolves, EoE promise a fresh take on what they are all about. Traditional tropes such as having to get bit and transforming when a full moon is out or centuries long feuds with vampires may not feature in their background. They could instead be allied to “someone you would not expect,” according to Jason Malott, President at Edge of Exile Entertainment Inc., who promises a fresh take on these fan-favourite lycanthropes. They may even be good guys! All will be revealed in upcoming chapters of the lore.

A bit more about Metamorphosis, including a map of Jaelara, was revealed in the trailer that introduced Issac. Check it out below:

A precise release date for Metamorphosis is not available yet but look for it this coming summer! As for what other dual-sided cards (wererabbits perhaps?) will be on the set, we’ll have to wait for additional previews!

Genesis: Battle of Champions Invasion launches December 2nd

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Last I posted about Genesis: Battle of Champions, the game had some very new owners and big but unspecified plans for the future. A few things have changed since then.

The boys and I finally did our annual pilgrimage “North of Exile”, heading up to Midland on the Saturday of the Labour Day weekend to play some Genesis at one of my favourite LGS. It was good to get reacquainted with the game but I will admit that I spent more time chatting than playing. Fortunately, the boys managed to get more than a few games in and even built some decks with the cards we had brought with us and with guidance from a few of the new friends we made that night. I did manage to squeeze in a few games, relearning much about the game.

The most interesting aspect of the game is the fact that it adds a spatial component (I may have said this once or twice before). The Champions and their Summons move around in the Arena (a 5 by 6 grid) and have an awareness, essentially the spaces they can see and attack. Take a look at the two Champions below. Harlequin can only inflict damage to a target in the square in front of her (designated by the red dot in the small grid near the middle of the card). Yuvan, on the other hand, has an awareness that spans not only the square in front of him but also the two on his sides. He does not have to be facing his target to inflict an attack; Harlequin does. As a result, she will likely have a different strategy to try to beat Yuvan.

As you can imagine, this adds another layer of strategy to the game. And it made for a fun evening!

Since then, the Edge of Exile team has been busy teasing the upcoming set called Invasion. They have previewed new Champions, new cards, reprints and the packaging for the next set. They also announced five new Starter sets, one for each colour.

They’re also busy rebuilding the community and the game’s presence in game stores. It’s great to see them announce a new store or two almost every week on their podcast.

Finally this week, they announced the release date for Invasion. Mark your calendars: Invasion will hit stores on December 2nd. Best of all for the boys and I, it sounds like we will be able to get a fix of Genesis without having to head “north of exile” each time (although we still plan on doing that as well).

Invasion will come with 130 cards. There will be 50 Common cards, 47 Uncommon cards and 33 Rare cards. It will also include 7 new Champions. There will also be 8 Subconscious cards.

It’s good to have an alternative TCG to Magic in the house. It’s a welcome break every once in a while.

Genesis: Battle of Champions gets a second life!

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Haunted Castle Gaming closed its doors with little warning back on April 3rd (or 4th, not exactly sure). That meant the end for a Canadian TCG called Genesis: Battle of Champions. Since then, various parties, including former employees, players, store owners and others have mourned its passing and talked about ways to keep the game going.

I’ve tried to keep up with developments, curious to see if there was a chance that the game might be saved. One thing that quickly became apparent is that my impression of the game’s creator is not universally shared. This is not a big surprise to me. Not only do relationships get strained when things don’t go according to plan but my impressions are based on a few short interactions rather than deeper relationships that others would have had. Suffice it to say that I don’t know any of the people involved and the details behind the fall of the company well enough to weigh in on any of this with any authority. My interest remains solely ins seeing what will happen to the game.

Earlier in the week, I caught a YouTube stream promising some news about the future of Genesis. While I missed the livestream, I was able to catch the video later. It revealed that a few former Genesis designers were hard at work on a new game called Convergence. The idea appears to be to make this new game backwards compatible with Genesis cards. It would use the elements of the game that are not covered by intellectual property and supplement new ones where needed. What’s that saying: Putting lipstick on a pig but it might be enough for them to avoid treading on any intellectual property (Not sure how I feel about this practice but that’s neither here or there).

During the stream, I learned that the game’s website no longer featured the message about Haunted Castle Gaming closing. Instead, it promises that Invasion (the set that should have been released sometime this year) is indeed coming. Things got more interesting when the website title changed during the livestream, suggesting that whoever was running the site now was on the stream. It certainly energized the stream! But it revealed little more about the game’s future. I did wonder if a particular Canadian game designer on the stream might be that person but that was pure conjecture.

Yesterday, my leisurely Sunday afternoon was interrupted by my phone chirping that I there was a new YouTube video calling for my attention. The title immediately caught my attention: “The future of Genesis: Battle of Champions revealed! New owners, ask them ALMOST anything!”

The long and short of it is that Genesis has some new owners. It turns out that my little conjecture was not far from the mark. But with an interesting wrinkle. While final legal details are still being sorted out, it looks like Jason Malott, he who introduced this family to Genesis and runs North of Exile, is one of the three owners along with Canadian game designer Jeffrey Pacitto.

In response to some cards from the forthcoming Invasion set being posted on Discord, the two revealed themselves to be the new owners. The two had originally planned to reveal all a few weeks later but the leak forced their hand. Few details were revealed but more information is promised in the coming weeks. I’ll definitely be watching to see how this story evolves from here.

Genesis: Battle of Champions - Rayne on the board

I’m pretty excited that Genesis has found new owners and that a truly Canadian TCG will remain so in its next incarnation. If nothing else, I have one more reason to go North with the boys. Hopefully we’ll be able to play some Magic and get deeper into Genesis next time we’re in Midland.

A week of endings: Goodbye Genesis: Battle of Champions and Atomic Age

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Word of warning: This post is about some unfortunate news.

First up came the news on Monday that Haunted Castle Gaming was stopping operations. It was the company behind Genesis: Battle of Champions, a Canadian TCG I’ve mentioned before. Perhaps the most surprising is the timing as the game seemed to finally really be catching on, with a number of LGS’s getting behind the game with the latest being none other than Face to Face Games, my own local haunt (they had just started selling cards online).

I have no doubt that launching a new TCG is a daunting endeavour at the best of time. The fact that Haunted Castle Gaming wrestled against a pandemic on top of everything else (like many others) certainly did not help. Anyone who’s met Assad Quraishi, not only the CEO of Haunted Castle Gaming Inc but more importantly the Genesis: Battle of Champions’ creator, knows that he poured his soul into this game. And did so with an energy and a dedication to the game’s fans that was nothing short of inspiring.

We discovered Genesis during the early days of the pandemic (Thanks, Jason over at North of Exile). The boys and I played at home a few times, learning the rules much as we went along much as we did years back with Magic.

Genesis: Battle of Champions - Rayne on the board

And much like Magic, we realized that the only way to really and truly learn would be to play against others. Rulebooks, especially in their first iterations, can only go so far. Without the community and with Magic still a larger part of our lives, that early interest waned. I met Assad a few times, each interaction reaffirming that he wanted to build a game that was first and foremost for players. I was always surprised at how far he would go to make sure that players had nothing but the best experience. How often does a game designer make personal deliveries to your door (it does help that we live in the same city)?

I don’t know all the details behind this sudden end but I do know that I wish I had taken part in a few tournaments, gotten more involved in the game and gotten to know Assad better. It would not have changed any of this but it would have been a few more memories of this game. Fortunately, the boys and I still have all our cards, including some very cool promos. It’s time to dust them off and play a few rounds to celebrate what Assad and Haunted Castle Gaming accomplished.

The Genesis community has expressed interest in keeping the game going and I know that North of Exile is still planning to hold its Wednesday night Genesis games – I’ll need figure out how to get up there to play sometime soon.

And then later in the week came the news that Atomic Age, a small comic book store not far from my house is closing. Along with the weekly posting of new comics was this little blurb on Facebook:

Last new comic week for us.

Thanks to all who have come in over the years.

Atomic Age was a local store that the boys and I would drop into every once in a while over the years. More importantly, it was the place where we went for Magic events when we first got into the game (aside from the very first pre-release that Christian and I attended). It was a tiny place (that also did pet grooming!) and the events were more for a group of friends getting together than formal ones, Gene and Alan welcomed us and most importantly for me, Christian and Noah never felt uncomfortable there. It was where Christian won his very first event! By the time the group sadly folded, the boys (and I) were ready to play at larger venues.

We returned to Atomic Age every so often after that but when they stopped carrying new Magic sets, the visits got rarer as the boys never got into serious comic collecting (likely to their mother’s relief as I have enough boxes for all of us). We’ll definitely need to swing by to say goodbye.

The lesson here is the same as it always is: Take advantage of the opportunities to play new games and meet new players. Something I need to take to heart more.

Thank you Assad, Alan & Gene. The boys and I will have the cards and the memories for a long time!

Genesis: Battle of Champions – Origins on Kickstarter

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A small detour today. In the early months of COVID-19, the boys and I discovered a new TCG called Genesis: Battle of Champions. One of our favourite LGS had been hyping it up and we ended up picking up a starter set to try something new in between games of Magic.

A few things appealed to us. Unlike Magic, the game involves a tactical element where the creatures, in this case Champions and their Summons, move around a 5 by 6 grid arena. This adds new gameplay dimensions like movement and reach. That powerful creature of yours could be undone by a smaller one because it is able to attack from further out and evade your attacks.

Another difference is that you start with all of your resources at your disposal. If you have that expensive spell in hand, you don’t have to wait for a later turn to cast it (although there could be reasons to hold on to it). Unlike Magic where your resources typically grow over time, in Genesis, they drop as you cast spells and they don’t regenerate. Managing this finite resource introduces another wrinkle into your strategy.

Your decks, better known as your Timelines, are built differently than in Magic. Each deck is made up of exactly 50 cards which must share the same affiliations (colours) as your Champion. Each card has a Chi value, essentially a power ranking, and your deck cannot go over 250 Chi. While there is no limit to the number of copies of a single card you can have, the Chi will force you to balance out your deck. Go with a few very powerful cards and you’ll have to add more less powerful ones to make sure you keep to the 50 card and Chi maximum rules.

Another plus for me is that Genesis is a Canadian game. It is designed by the Canadians behind Haunted Castle Gaming (including founder Assad Quraishi who happens to be an all-around great guy) and is printed and packaged in Canada. What’s there not to like?

Unfortunately, with COVID-19, we found ourselves unable to really get to play the game (in person for the most part) and we only played a few games here and there. Jump forward to late 2021. COVID is still around but enough normalcy is returning that in-store events are running again and the opportunities to get together with other players to better learn the game are starting to open up.

In the meantime, Haunted Castle continued to promote its game to an ever-growing network of LGS. As it stands today, it can now be found in over 80 stores across the world. Today, they also launched their newest set on Kickstarter. Not only did Genesis: Battle of Champions – Origins fully fund within 30 seconds, it blew the doors off nearly every stretch goal set out and has exceeded all except one and it won’t be long before that one falls as well. (Full disclosure: Yes, I am a backer but not part of that initial 30 second wave!)

Best of all, the new set is effectively a relaunch of the game with new champions, new mechanics and even a new affiliation. It is the perfect jumping point into the game or for us, the perfect time to jump back in! So don’t be surprised if you see us take some breaks from Magic to play some Genesis.