Friday, November 30, 2018

I Know I Said I Was Gone

However, this theory article by Adrian Sullivan is just too good not to pass along.

I Won't Call On The Angels

This is it; the final form.

I took on a variety of decks, across multiplayer and 1v1 and I like where this went. My final change: remove Izoni, Thousand Eyed (I was giving just one last shot!) for a fourth Creekwood Liege. Because the Liege is amazing.

If I was going to make one last tweak, it mighit be to cut a Golgari Guildmage for another Status // Statue or Assassin's Trophy. I don't think I'd add another Driven // Despair: that card is a 'silver bullet' effect that is there to draw cards in a stalemate or power through damage. I've liked it when I've cast it, but I don't need to cast it often.

Similarly, I don't think I'd add another Hapatra; she draws attention immediately but I don't have quite enough ways to ensure I'll get to use her abilities as I would like. Here's the final list:
3 Llanowar Dead
3 Ebony Treefolk
4 Woodlurker Mimic
4 Creakwood Liege
4 Golgari Guildmage
2 Spiritmonger
1 Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons

3 Putrefy
3 Golgari Charm
3 Assassin's Trophy
2 Status // Statue

9 Forest
4 Twilight Mire
7 Swamp
3 Hissing Quagmire

3 Vraska the Unseen
1 Vraska, Relic Seeker

1 Driven // Despair
Finally, this is the last post for two weeks. I know, two weeks! But I'm on the road so I won't have time to play anything. Back to swinging for twenty on Dec 18th-previews for Ravnica Alliance will be in the air by then, I'm sure!

If not...maybe Transformers Wave 2?

Tuesday, November 27, 2018

Transformers Wave 1

The Transformers TCG is about two months old at this point and this past Thanksgiving holiday, I spent a bunch of time with it. I played a bunch of two person, two pack sealed games (my friend bought a box and we went through the whole thing), as well as a series of games made out of decks I had constructed and he built from the box we had opened. Here's my impressions.

transformers TCG game
First: it's pretty easy to teach. They were going for people 8 and up and I think they did a good job of keeping the rule set at that level.

Second: it's a whole lot deeper than it looks. There are meaningful decisions to make that provide a lot of depth to the game! Most robot modes do something, either adding an ability or increasing or decreasing attack or defensive values and choosing the correct mode can be a highly strategic moment.

Third: my character cards are bending, just a bit. I get having the bot mode of the characters be shiny is a very cool thing but damnit WotC there is no excuse for this. They've been doing foil cards for nearly twenty years and should have worked this problem out a long time ago. My cards should not be bending slightly after no use and merely hours out of the box-something I noted specifically with my Metroplex deck but with a few others, too.

The positive side to this is that once in sleeves and after a little compression, the cards seemed to flatten out. And since character cards aren't shuffled or otherwise handled roughly, I'm willing to be a little more lenient here.

Fourth: they still haven't figured out not to do 'feel bad' mechanics right. This is a weird moment, I know, because it's something I critique Magic for often: being afraid to give players mechanics that might feel bad initially but can be really powerful if used cleverly. Yet this same company is giving me cards that feel bad to use and not enough tools to really get around those bad feelings. There aren't a lot of cards that do this and there are workarounds if you're looking for them but it's all quite narrow and I'm unclear if it's worth trying to make something work. The initial tests feel shaky, not exciting.

Fifth: on the other hand, it feels like there is just the right amount of variance at the moment. Perhaps this is because it's still a new game, but there's a "wild west" vibe that has me still feeling lucky when I pull off a tough win, but also punished for poor planning. Which is great, because I've been able to recognize where my strategic errors were and change my play accordingly. Seeing rewards when you play well is always a positive.

Sixth: there's a lot of room to grow. I believe there's a bunch of space to work with in this game, between the choice of which characters you want to fight with to how the deck you build will manifest those choices and all the decision trees that will develop from those initial pics. The Transforming mechanic itself offers a ton of flexibility which should keep the game fresher than many of its counterparts and the combat strategies have enough tension between

My final verdict is a positive one! I had a great deal of fun playing and I hope to find more players and continue exploring this game. Bring on Wave 2!

Tuesday, November 20, 2018

What If I Had To Scold You

King of the Rotten is performing pretty well: I like it and I like where it's going.

But the last two slots are still in question.

After a few multiplayer games, Matt and Caitlin broke the deck down again. Izoni was still a big questionmark and Caitlin was scornful towards the card. "It's just so small," she said. The three of us talked about the problem with Deadbridge Chant, something Matt quickly agreed with my assessment of.

She went quiet, thumbing through her phone while Matt thumbed through the deck and pulled out Izoni, a Putrify and a Status/Statue.

"I think you've got so much removal you could probably take these out and add in some more 'low to the ground' threats," he said.

OK. So now what? I still want to have some frightening cards-things my opponent doesn't want to see and I have room on the curve for something big! There just isn't anything there for me.

"What about Hapatra?" Caitlin asks.

I am struck dumb for a moment, as she reads off the card's abilities. I was so focused on finding a high end answer to the solution I never even looked at the low end!

But Haptra, Vizier of Poisons has a synergistic ability with the Mimics, is G/B and is cheap! So I'm running her and a copy of Driven/Despair as a catch all, 'win now' card, since the abilities aren't irrelevant.

So, one more round of testing-and this week I'm headed up to Seattle to visit with my friend Jason and play a bunch of Magic, the new Transformers game and...I don't know what else. But the next post will go up on the 27th!

Thursday, November 15, 2018

Informal Poll

Someone has decided to gauge what people's favorite Magic expansion is from the past 10 years and I thought that would be neat to share. Interestingly, core sets are included but I suppose that makes sense, since the core sets include new-and sometimes environment shaping-cards in them now.

Thursday, November 8, 2018

Five Simple Ways To Improve

Most of the stuff in this article by Craig Wescoe is old hat to me: playing the land at the last possible reasonable moment, thinking ahead about how the game will develop, etc.

But I had not thought much about the last point: putting the opponent in your shoes. I frequently think about what I'd do if I were them, but I rarely take the extra step to think about what information I'm providing to direct that line of thought.

This isn't to encourage some kind of mind game, in my opinion, it's to see the board from different perspectives and play a tighter game, which is what it's all about. Mind games with your opponent are, in my opinion, a waste of energy that I'd rather spend on playing a better game, personally.

Lastly: I'm headed out of town for a wedding this weekend, so I won't be able to get a new post up until Nov 15th. Have a safe weekend, everyone!


Tuesday, November 6, 2018

Would You Be My Queen

Vs Dinos
I don't like Izoni. I said so back in my set overview and that really hasn't changed, but for those of you who don't want to wade through the entire review:
I hate everything about Izoni, Thousand Eyed. A 6 casting cost creature has WAY better base stats on average in the modern age, the ability is an "okayest ability" so the reward is...? This is a card designed for Commander and it will totally suck to play against. While also being entirely useless in any. other. format.

I hate it.
So, there's that.

Everyone else isn't me though, so I watched the Izoni commander video because I was hoping for some inspiration for this deck, because of the color base. The final two slots are Golgari Findbroker but the impact of those cards are just not very strong and I'm still hoping for something really scary. The impact at three mana wasn't as useful as I had hoped; let's look for something else.

I've started testing Izoni and Journey to Eternity as one-ofs. The Izoni is really only helpful in the late game so I don't want to run too many copies, and Journey I just wanted to see if it was worth something.

King vs Battle of Wits deck
But Journey doesn't work in this deck. Because what you really want from Journey to Eternity is Atzal, Cave of Eternity so you can get your creatures back. Unfortunately, the most common form of removal in Legacy exiles creatures or tucks them on the bottom of your library and which Journey is a dead card to.

So if I want to use Journey to Eternity, I really want to have a way to kill my own creatures. Relying on your opponents to do something is a bad time.

Since I don't have that, another card should fill the void.

It was after a few matches that Matt suggested Deadbridge Chant and I both really like the idea and am very reluctant to go there.

I like the idea because Deadbridge just does what it does-mill ten, then start getting cards from your graveyard back. Reusing Assassin's Trophy seems like a good idea, right? Putting creatures into play seems good and since I'm not running fetchlands, the ratio of lands in my graveyard vs useful cards should mean positive things most of the time.

However: there's a guideline about cards from Zvi Moshowitz that says that if it costs more than 4 and doesn't produce an immediate impact on the board, then it isn't worth it. Izoni, Thousand Eyed comes down late and can create insect tokens, bringing an army with her to do something with.

Deadbridge Chant isn't good until the next turn and even then the possibility that it returns a card I don't need is non-zero. So if I'm in trouble, the Chant is bad. If I am on the edge, the Chant might be good or it just as likely will give my opponent the turn they need to put the screws to me.

Which means the only time I'd be happy to cast Deadbridge Chant is if the board state is and can remain neutral for at least a turn, or is already positive for me.

I don't like those scenarios. I think I'll just test two Izoni so I can see what's up.

Thursday, November 1, 2018

Stealing Filth From Those Forgotten

King of the Rotten vs Dragons
After a few matches with the original list, I rapidly came to a conclusion: Let's play all the removal!

At least, that seemed to be the theme that came up when I was replacing cards. Assassin's Trophy and Status/Statue were easy picks to replace land destruction cards. I've already got four Putrefy maindeck and Golgari Charm can be handy, killing off X/1s with ease, now that I'm effectively not running any of those.*

*Woodland Mimic will trigger and become a 4/5 before the Charm's -1/-1 effect happens.

Getting my ass handed to me by Jason's dragon deck was definitely a wake up call: my deck was so much lower to the ground and had land destruction but it didn't matter at all.

King vs Faeries
So: Let's play all the removal.

This  decision lead to some really strong outings: flexible removal is not to be sniffed at! The most memorable sequence was when I pulled out a Golgari Charm against Noah's Faerie deck.

Turns out, giving a bunch of x/1 creatures -1/-1 is bad for them. I've now proven it with science.

I did lose the match-but this was more due to variance than anything else: I needed some removal spells, I got lands and creatures.

Which happens. Losses like this, though, can be about feel-and I felt like I was in the game, I just needed a couple cards to go my way.

With Slitherhead and Gleancrawler coming out, I had another vacancy and I decided I'd go big: three Vraska the Unseen. I even had a slot left over for Vraska, Relic Seeker so that took the last slot.

Vraska is an amazing catchall, though at its best, I don't have to pay five mana in order to destroy a permanent: the plus options on her are not amazing but the gravity that Planeswalkers have on any game is strong enough that nobody has been happy about seeing her except me.

I'm still unsatisfied with my final two spaces. Currently, I'm going to run Golgari Findbroker-which wins my award for 'most awkward name mashup in Guilds'. Apparently, 'Salvager' isn't fantasy enough? Resuscitator too obscure?

I just don't really like paying 4 mana for a 3/4. The ability isn't irrelevant but I can't say that I'm excited about it either. We shall see.