Blood Wars CCG

Blood Wars CCG is TSR's Planescape-era spinoff CCG, set during the eternal war between demons and devils across the Lower Planes, and it is a comparative rarity: an official AD&D-universe CCG released in the Magic era by TSR itself.

The game

Released in 1995 by TSR and designed by a team including Skip Williams and Rob Heinsoo, Blood Wars CCG is a two-player duel where each player takes the role of a Planar commander marshalling tanar'ri (demons) or baatezu (devils) forces into combat. It uses a distinctive Alignment-based mechanic where card combinations shift the battle's moral gradient, triggering conditional abilities.

The context

TSR at the time had the AD&D 2nd Edition Planescape campaign setting at the height of its cult popularity, and the CCG was designed as a companion product that could shelf alongside the Planescape boxed sets. Art used the Tony DiTerlizzi Planescape house style for some cards and darker illustration for others, which gives the line a visually split identity.

The collector angle

The main set, the Demons & Devils expansion, and the Rebels & Reinforcements expansion complete the English print. TSR's near-bankruptcy and subsequent 1997 sale to Wizards of the Coast killed further expansion. The Tony DiTerlizzi-illustrated rares are the serious chase because they cross over with Planescape RPG collectors, who will pay for DiTerlizzi art without caring about the CCG gameplay. The Pale Nightmare and Ice Devil rares are the trophy pulls. Sealed TSR boxes are increasingly rare as aging collector stock is broken up.