The Story Behind the Cards: Life TCG

Trading card games are often produced to promote or capitalize on a popular intellectual property, such as an anime or video game. Others are created to raise awareness of a specific campaign or ongoing issue happening in the world. One of these TCGs is the Life TCG — a trading card game dedicated to raising awareness about the status and conservation of many mammal and aquatic animal species around the world.

About the Life TCG

There are millions of documented species on Earth, including insects, fish, birds, mammals, plants, and more. Out of those millions, only a few thousand of them are classified as mammals. What’s more, only 4% of those animals are classified as wild animals — and many are endangered. The Life TCG was created to raise awareness of this imbalance through a tangible card game.

To reflect the imbalance, the Life TCG doesn’t assign traditional rarities to their cards. Instead, each 1st edition holographic card has a set print number that is directly linked to an animal’s estimated population. For example, there are only an estimated 10,000 red pandas left in the wild (as of 2023, when the card was released). Because of this, the Life TCG only printed 10,000 Red Panda cards. Additionally, the Life TCG has vowed to not reprint or produce more 1st edition holographic cards after the initial print run, so there will only ever be 10,000 copies of Red Panda in circulation.

Additionally, the Life TCG has produced several 1/1 cards based on continents. These cards are full art holographic cards based on the seven major continents on Earth — South America, North America, Africa, Europe, Oceania, Asia, and Antarctica — and one 1/1 card based on Earth itself. The 1/1 print run reinforces the idea that there is only one planet, driving home the importance of the land’s conservation.

To further promote its mission and dedication to wildlife preservation, the creators of the Life TCG have partnered with the World Wildlife Fund, a charity dedicated to using proven science to reduce threats to animals and wildlife. The foundation works to conserve and restore biodiversity and ensure sustainable use of natural resources to support healthy living.

Since its release in 2023, the Life TCG has released two major sets — Mammals and Birds. CGC has certified more than 190 cards across all sets, including promotional cards, according to the CGC Cards Population Report.

How to Play

The Life TCG doesn’t have a health point or combat-like playstyle. Instead, each animal has four stats: Weight, Speed, Lifespan, and Population. It’s a simple game of “best stats win,” — when two animals are pitted against each other in play, the one who has the highest stats overall wins. As players pit animals against each other, the winner keeps their cards, while the loser must discard their spent cards. Whoever still has cards left in their hand by the end of the game wins.

Interestingly, the Life TCG offers extra rules for those who want a challenge. For example, players can compete based on card rarity — if they play the same animal, the one with the higher card rarity (such as a 1st Edition Holographic version of the card) wins. Also, if someone plays the Earth card, it is an automatic win for that player.

To learn more about the Life TCG and how to get started playing, go here to visit their website. The official website also has a full list of cards and products available for interested collectors. Then, when you're finished playing — or building your Life TCG collection — consider sending your cards to CGC for expert authentication, grading, and encapsulation. Go here to learn how to submit.

About CGC

Since revolutionizing comic book grading in 2000, CGC has grown to include certification services for a vast variety of pop culture collectibles. These divisions include CGC Cards, CGC Video Games, and CGC Home Video. CGC Cards provides expert card grading for sports cards, TCGs, and non-sports cards. CGC Video Games is dedicated to video game grading for the most popular consoles, including Nintendo, Sega, Atari, PlayStation, and more. CGC Home Video provides expert VHS grading in addition to other types of videocassettes, DVD, Blu-ray, and more. CGC also offers seamless solutions for autograph collectors with CGC Signature Series and JSA Authentic Autograph services.

CGC is part of the Certified Collectibles Group, a global provider of expert and impartial authentication and grading services for collectibles. Since 1987, the Certified Collectibles Group companies have certified more than 110 million collectibles, including coins, banknotes, comic books, cards, autographs, and stamps.