Myth Confirmed.

With the huge RoboCop events and quests behind us, it’s time to wind down, relax, and talk about some nice, small changes. Kick off your shoes and read on.

JUST KIDDING, we’ve got a new tier with a killer look, more stuff in the BattlePass, new interactive packs, revamps of a classic game mode, and then some small changes after that. Put your shoes back on!

The Mind Behind the Myth

We release new cards all the time – new Superstars, new themes, designs, new packs, and… new tiers. We release so many cards that we understand if you get caught up in the fanfare and forget to pay close attention to all of them; we do too. With so many poses and stats and pectorals and moves, it can be easy to look past some of the truly incredible design work that goes into making these cards so dang thrilling.

So we thought to ourselves;

Who would know more about making awesome and killer cards than our own card design team?

And so, we walked across the hall to the art and design offices. Seeing all of the design team working diligently in their offices, we started making a ton of noise. Like, really disrupting things. One guy tore a fire extinguisher off the wall.

Eventually, one of our lead card designers emerged with a baseball bat, certain that someone had left the front door open and let in a bear or some boars or something. We defused the situation and utilized the moment of confusion to sit down with that artist and ask him about some of the finer details and motivations behind putting together some of these amazing card designs.

We’ll be obscuring his name for his sake, but here’s what he had to say:

Hey, [REDACTED]. We’ve gotta get you back designing new things, so we won’t keep you long.

Q: What was your inspiration behind this series of cards?

A: We have really been trying to think outside of the box with a lot of the recent tiers. Every new tier we try to do something different or maybe twist an old concept into something interesting. For this tier, I tapped into my deep and personal love of comic books as a starting point. I wanted every card to look like an old horror comic from the 1950s-1970s because they’re so full of style and personality. When we make new tiers we try to find ways that we can put these huge Superstars in a new world, so to speak, that will showcase them in an iconic and memorable way.

For this tier, I wanted to pick out creatures that would fit right at home in an old Vault of Horror comic but also weren’t the typical monsters you’ve seen dozens of times. Up here in the Pacific Northwest, where we have such mysterious folklore, it just seemed like a perfect fit to mix old horror comics with cryptids. And WWE.

Q: How much goes into the design of a tier for WWESC cards?

A: A lot of work! First, we start by collecting reference images to sell our idea to the rest of the card team. We then get feedback from each other and see what people are responding to. This is typically done by showing a sheet of reference images that we call a “mood board” to present our general ideas. The hope is that we can curate reference images in a way that will inspire the team to take the idea and run with it. Once we do that, the original artist starts making a rough concept– or comp– of what the first card should look like. This usually ends up being the base card of the tier, but not always. After we create the comp, we have another feedback meeting to sand off the edges. We then start designing the card with assets created in 2D or 3D depending on what the design is. Then, a final review of the card happens and if all goes well, the design is finished!  It then gets put into the game, additional assets are created so it fits in, and the card is handed over to the FX team.

Q: This new tier’s design is stunning– can you tell us a bit more about how you made it look like this?

A: All of the artists on the team have a variety of strengths. I consider 3D modeling/sculpting to be my greatest strength, so a lot of my designs tend to lean heavily on sculpted characters or environments. I like to really push that concept and make it feel like a new environment for the WWE Superstar to exist in. I am a decent traditional penciler, but nowhere near the caliber of artist as Bernie Wrightson, who was my main reference point when trying to create the look and feel of this tier. So I thought it would be a good idea to model all of the characters as I normally would and then use some clever layer effects to create that heavily contrasted look that Wrightson was so famous for. After I had that as a basis, I would draw over the top of it– I do all of the cross-hatching and detailing by hand. So they are a mixture of 2D and 3D, plus all of the graphic design needed to make them look like old comics.

Q: What are some of your other favorite tiers or designs that you’ve worked on?

A: Oh that is a very hard question! I’ve done a lot of cards. I really try to design cards that I think WWE fans will like because I’m such a fan myself blended with my own personal interests. So if I had to pick a top 3 those would be Biomechanical, Nightmare, and Arcane. You can probably see a bit of a theme there. What can I say? I like monsters! Kane and The Undertaker are my favorite Superstars. They have such a monstrous presence and I guess I bring that to my designs a bit whenever it makes sense to do so.

Q: It was so great hearing from you– anything else to say to the legions of WWESC Players?

A: This is the only opportunity that I have ever had a platform to do this, so I will just say from the bottom of my heart, THANK YOU! We do see the comments that you make on social media and everywhere else and we appreciate them all. Your passion for WWE, and for our game shows with every post and that is ultimately why we make games.

Myth tier is out now, so get after it, then jump on socials and show off.

More Prizes, More Cards

If you’re a fan of the BattlePass, then you’re well used to working your way through 25 prize tiers to unlock a powerful card at the end of the line. Previously, if you wanted to pursue Pro’ing that card, you’d have to find a second copy in packs, or the store/SuperStore.

Good news, BattlePass enthusiasts– we’re adding a new option to your repertoire. Introducing the Gold BattlePass. The Gold BattlePass adds an additional 25 tiers of prizes to your BattlePass, totaling at a mighty 50, including two copies of that month’s Big Card. If you’re thinking:

That’s way too many rewards, how will I get enough BP for all of those rewards??

Don’t worry– grabbing the Gold BattlePass doubles the BP you accrue, as well as doubles whatever BP you’ve already got.

And now you’re thinking:

Hang on– aren’t these daily prize tiers? I’m pretty sure there are only like 30 days in a month!

You really thought of everything, didn’t you? While we did– in fact– try to slow the rotation of the earth in order to make each month roughly 50 days long (scientists said it was “impossible” and “an apocalyptically dangerous idea”), we decided instead just to remove the daily limits on both versions of the BattlePass.

Of course, if you’d like to stick with the current BattlePass, we’re here to support ya. The Premium BattlePass will now be called the Silver BattlePass, and the removal of the daily requirements applies to that one, too. We’ll continually be updating and adding to both passes to make them as useful and valuable as possible.

Team Stomping Grounds DELUXE

Let’s talk Team Stomping Grounds. While there’s nothing quite like teaming up with 9 other SuperCard players to launch a coordinated attack on your opponents, we thought up a few ways to make it even better.

TSG has traditionally been a race-to-the-finish style game mode in which you and your team try to win matches to add points into one of three bars. Fill up the bars and take the W. Simple enough. The thing is, we realize that it can be difficult to get the whole squad together, strategized, and playing at the same time. As a result, we noticed that some teams would steamroll others based on factors that the players on a team couldn’t control. So, we flipped things around a bit.

Now, instead of a race, think of Team Stomping Grounds as a King-of-the-Hill style mode. Remember the three bars? There are 5 now. Instead of playing to fill a bar before your opponents, you and your squad will now fight to control each of the 5 bars individually. Whichever team has a majority of bars owned at the end of the timer takes the W. Additionally, instead of adding more rounds to your opponent’s requirements, players will now have the option to blind members of the opposing team. Got a particular player giving you trouble? Blind ‘em, obscuring one of their own cards from view for the duration of the debuff.

You’ll find more tweaks and improvements as you jump into the new and improved TSG, but we find that this adjustment allows for more depth of strategy, fairer games, and less potential for steamrolling.

The Rest

On the topic of making cool game modes cooler, we’re revamping the look of WILD to make things a little more clear and more exciting. We’ll have more to show on that very soon.

Finally,  there’ll be a handful of smaller things to make your life a little easier; giving new players some more draft picks, introducing a card that allows you to pro any card in your deck, and more that you’ll see popping up in-game over the next month. Have fun, we’ll see ya next time.

– WWE SuperCard