Mr. Destructoid has been in plenty of videogames, but never a card game. That changes with upcoming downloadable trading card game Z. He joins Tex Murphy and Jessica Nigiri (Pikachu girl, Lollipop Chainsaw) as some of the guest cards that will appear in the game, and you'll want to be a Kickstarter backer to make sure you get all of the guest cards.

Mr. Destructoid needs some card art, though. Creators Downward Viral are holding a contest where fans can send in their imagined version of our beloved mascot for his cards (one survivor picture, one zombie picture). Two winners will be chosen on Monday, June 25, and will be awarded a Z. Kickstarter grab bag worth over $1,000 in goodies.

Z. is a zombies-vs-survivors downloadable TCG that they describe as a cross between Magic: The Gathering and The Walking Dead. Sounds good, right? There's single player, cooperative and versus modes, including live-action episodic story content produced by the team behind the Left 4 Dead short film. 

Find more details on the physical and digital versions after the jump.

I'd love to see one of you creating the Mr. Destructoid card art!

The Digital Version

What's that? You hate reading 100-page rulebooks? You hate shuffling cards every 10 seconds? You hate sorting through all of your cards trying to create the "best" deck possible? This is the version for you -- just start playing!

• Cross-platform play for iOS, PC, Android, Mac, Facebook, and Linux
• Single-player episodic story mode w/ live-action cutscenes!*
• Single or cooperative "RPG" mode with random loot, XP, and more!
• Turn-based multiplayer duels -- take your turn whenever you want!
• Auto-sort your library: instantly create custom decks to fit your playstyle!
• Intelligent matchmaking -- play against people with the same power decks
• Killstreaks, traps, and equipment sets bring elements of your favorite games to the trading card genre
• Unlock new cards naturally through gameplay!

Recommended Tier: The Ultimate All-Digital Bundle

*Live-action cinematics are produced by the same team behind the Left 4 Dead short film:

The Physical Version

For the old-school tabletop gamer, we haven't left you out! The Kickstarter-exclusivephysical edition of Z. contains the following:

• A signed and numbered Deluxe Boxed Set
• Six different themed decks (three zombie, three survivor)
• Over 350+ cards! 
• All physical editions are made equal, no booster packs or random distribution

Recommended Tier: Rare Collector

Legacy Comments (will be imported soon)

Adrian Smith

aw man I can't wait for this to come out. I'd help but with the summer sales coming up I need to save my cash.

Meryc

If I could draw I would help out with this! I hope it can reach the funding goal!

Occams electric toothbrush

Not really my cup of tea but this sounds like it could be quite the popular thing if its done right.

Nobunaga Oda

Damn my windows phone!

32BitSin

Seriously, Destructoid should be posting more news about the awesome kickstarter projects like The Dead Linger and many other great games the indies are trying to make but need funding. I don't see where card games fit here, but I guess if they're cross promoting for you, why the hell not.

DV Bastian

Hey everyone, I'm the creative dev on Z. (and a former Dtoid staffer).

We'll be choosing two winners with the best submissions (one zombie, one survivor) and giving them both a Deluxe Boxed Edition of Z. with over 350 cards.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/downwardviral/z-2/posts/251709

If you have ANY questions about the game, don't hesitate to ask. And if you like what you see, we greatly appreciate any pimpage you can do to your friends or extremely rich parents.

SteamPunk Jin

I thought this was a real game already :(
Sadly I won't kickstart. But good luck guys it looks promising!

PhilKenSebben

I immediately thought of the old rts when I saw Z. I'll check this out though.

Todd Evf

@Nobunaga Oda
I feel the pain myself. The last night when this leaked on their kickstarter, I was even more excited about Z.

I would like this to be on WP as well. Hell, Linux support was originally not going to be there at launch. But demand proved otherwise. So we may have some hope after all.

Plus at yesterday's WP Summit, Microsoft did say it will be easier for developers to port to WP.

Mr Andy Dixon

Awesome!

@Phil

Yep, me too.

Baines

Killstreaks are now infecting card games?

Arttemis

Neat! I could totally be down to play this on my Android phone!

PrinceHeir

you activated my trap card!!!!

Clowbog Beborp

Hey, zombies.

That's new and refreshing.

Sean Carey

@32BitSin - "I don't see where card games fit here"

I dunno, man. I think there are a lot of parallels between good board/card game design and good video game design. Plenty of developers prototype an idea/mechanic with a paper version before any code is written.

On the forums, Darren Nakamura has been running a board game on a regular basis that draws plenty of players. Seems like a relevant topic to me.

Todd Evf

Z. is meant to be a computer/mobile game taking a lot of notes from CCGs, which explains how it "fits here". Having a physical card-based version of the game is a pretty awesome extra, as are the special guest cards.

Mr Andy Dixon

Holy shit. Sean Carey sighting on the front page.

Raby

Grats for Dtoid, unfortunatly this does not look very promising as far as the game goes

McFlyGold

It says that I can put a link to my entry here in the comments so.... here's my Survivor Mr. Destructoid entry! http://flic.kr/p/cjzv7N

McFlyGold

It says that I can put a link to my entry here in the comments so.... here's my Survivor Mr. Destructoid entry! http://flic.kr/p/cjzv7N

McFlyGold

I don't know why that posted twice. :( If someone wants to delete the second post, that's fine. Also, any feedback would be appreciated. Thanks! :)

Arradale

o_o Odd, was quite sure I posted this, guess my pc was being silly. Survivor Mr. Destructoid: http://i.imgur.com/9KLwI.jpg complete with battered helm and corgi stick/cane to smack the daylights out of zombies =D

DV Bastian

Arradale and McFlyGold, you are the only two entrants, so you're also the two winners. Kind of sad, but kind of awesome too. :)

Email us at z@downwardviral.com to claim your prize. And thanks for the art! I'll post it in an update this week.