0-2-1

Sigh.

I thought I made some good changes to the deck, cutting the Cloudsteel Kirin, two lands, and moving Sword of Fire & Ice to the sideboard for three copies of Path to Exile (with a fourth in the SB), and four copies of Patchwork Automaton. 

Patchwork was a card I was really excited about, because like Esper Sentinel, it would put a tax on my opponent's mana. A difficult to remove threat that scales? Sounds good, right?

The sideboard consisted of 3 Sword of Fire & Ice, 3 Red Elemental Blasts, 1 Path to Exile, 3 Wear/Tear, 3 Unlicensed Hearse, and 2 Price of Progress. I saw a lot of non-basics my last time out and thought that would be a good addition.

My matchups didn't work out very well, though.

Rd 1 vs Nathan on UW Standstill

Game 1: got locked out. Thanks Teferi, Time Raveler. (I hate this card).

G 2: Turn 3 with a 11/11 and him at 9, he conceded. This is what I was hoping for!

G 3: a slog. I couldn’t remove his Teferi, again, and he couldn’t eliminate my creatures. It eventually ended in a tie.

As he's scooping up his cards he says, "I think I had you, in the end."

What can I say to that? He didn't, so...my reply was "On a long enough timeline, everyone dies."

Rd 2 vs Tyler on UWR Counterbalance

G1: I kept up a good fight, but eventually succumbed to an ultimated Jace, the Mind Sculptor, despite fighting through a Teferi, Time Raveler.

G2: I started off with an Automaton, got it to 3, but my opponent's removal was eventually too much-there were Swords to Plowshares and Prismatic Endings all over the place- and I conceded once I had a hand of nothing but a land and no board presence. Thanks, Telferi, Time Raveler. (I hate this card).

G 3: William

No Show as you can see from the pic. Sigh. This is 'technically' a win but in this instance, being technically correct isn't the best kind of correct at all.

Game 4: Derek on Nic Fit

G 1: a Path to Exile saves me from taking 18 from two Greater Gargadons and he concedes.

G2: Collector Ouphe stalls me out and then it's twin Mayhem Devils to whittle my life total to zero.

G3: Nic Fit decks love Korvold, Fae-Cursed King. They especially love it when the opponent cannot find a Path to Exile.

What a drag. Winning 4 out of 17 games is rough. 

Some of this was matchup driven; if my opponent can produce plenty of mana, effects like Patchwork Automaton or Esper Sentinel really don't matter. I faced two control decks in this event and both of them were easily able to work around my cards. 

Some of this is a matter of consistency: Hold The Heathen Hammer High needs more Sigarda's Aid effects to consistently do what it wants to do. Puresteel Paladin helps, but I might've been on the right track with Magnetic Theft, too.

It would certainly be useful for the times when I've got a Colossus Hammer on the table but not enough mana to equip a creature. 

However, that consistency is part of the problem, too. Only twice, in all the games I played, was I able to actually do the thing this deck wants to do. 

If I can't et things to happen until turn 4, this aggro deck isn't aggro enough.

On the upside, this is a hell of a fun casual deck. So let's talk about that.

Hold The Heathen Hammer High

Let's just forgo the tease: 

1 Batterskull
1 Kaldra Compleat
3 Nettlecyst
1 Colossus Hammer
1 Shadowspear

3 Cloudsteel Kirin
4 Lizard Blades
3 Sram, Senior Edificer
4 Puresteel Paladin
1 Stoneforge Mystic
1 Goblin Engineer
4 Rabbit Battery
4 Esper Sentinel
1 Kor Outfitter
1 Halvar, God of Battle

4 Sigarda's Aid

7 Mountain
10 Plains
4 Rustvale Bridge
1 Den of the Bugbear
1 Cave of the Frost Dragon

Here's a wild bunch. It's already undergone some shifts (Magnetic Theft came out to add Halvar) and yes, it's clearly based on the Hammertime decks from Modern. But interaction between Sigarda's Aid and the new equipment creatures from Neon Dynasty is that now, I can play creatures with flash. 

So let's raise the Heathen Hammer High. 

The mana base is downscaled and as this was the first iteration of the deck, I was experimenting with a Goblin Engineer. The idea was that I could bring back equipment or even search for a creature if I was having trouble finding one. For a deck that was going into an event, I didn't want to risk that. 

I did some testing with this deck though and we'll talk about how it did next week!

1-3

So here's the "tournament version" of a deck I thought up.

1 Batterskull
1 Kaldra Compleat
3 Nettlecyst
2 Colossus Hammer
1 Shadowspear
2 Sword of Fire and Ice

3 Cloudsteel Kirin
3 Lizard Blades
3 Sram, Senior Edificer
4 Puresteel Paladin
1 Stoneforge Mystic
3 Rabbit Battery
4 Esper Sentinel
1 Halvar, God of Battle
1 Lion Sash

4 Sigarda's Aid

3 Mountain
6 Plains
4 Rustvale Bridge
4 Plateau
4 Arid Mesa
2 Sacred Fountry

Sideboard

1 Sword of the Realms (here so I wouldn't have to flip my Halvar every time I wanted to play it(

2 Sword of Fire and Ice
3 Unlicensed Hearse
4 Path to Exile
3 Red Elemental Blast
3 Wear // Tear

The sideboard thinking went like this: Path to Exile for sudden big creatures, Unlicensed Hearse for graveyard stuff, Sword of Fire & Ice for the Delver match, Red Elemental Blast for blue nonsense, and Wear/Tear because artifacts are a thing.

And here's how the rounds went:

Match 1 vs David, Dark Depth Lands

1. I was doing OK until the he cast Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger twice in one turrn by generating 20 mana and using Karakas. 

2 Force of Vigor blew me out early and I couldn't recover. 

Match 2 vs Mike, Fireflux Squad mono R

1 Fury took out my creatures and I died to overwhelming Fireflux Squads.

2 I drew 6 land and 3 creatures: It did not work out.

Match 3 vs Kade on Yorion Stoneblade

1 Won-despite blocks with True-Name Nemesis because he couldn't draw into another creature.

2 Lost when he got True-Name and Jitte active. Can't get a creature to stick when that happens.

3 Won on Kirin attacks while Kade got a Tefri out but not much else.

Rd 4 Thomas on Omnath landfall

1 Lost because I couldn’t remove Omnath, Locus of Creation.

2 Also lost because I couldn’t remove Omnath and had double Force of Vigor cast at my permanents.

So, what did I learn?

First, I need to run four Colossus Hammer. I should be giving myself the most opportunities to have a turn one play, with a turn two Sigarda's Aid and Hammer, attack for 11 event. 

Second, I have trouble closing games. This adds to point one, where if I had been able to do more damage early, perhaps that would've changed the outcomes.

My final opponent, Thomas, thought my deck idea was neat and took a look at it. He suggested running fewer lands-down to 20-and that Cloudsteel Kirin was probably not strong enough for a turn three play. 

He's probably right about the Kirin; while flying is a relevant thing, it really needs to come with some more pressure. Cutting down to 20 lands though feels far too risky. 

Third, I need a way to deal with Force of Vigor. The card was rough on this deck and might be enough splash damage that the deck isn't a good one to run. I got hammered twice by it and couldn't find ways to get back into the game. 

I think it's worth taking the deck for another spin, honestly. But I think it needs some tune ups if I want to play in an event and improve on the record. 

However, I'll start by talking about the casual version of this, on Thursday.

Anxiety & Accountability

 This deck is stressing me out.

I know I said I wanted to get out more; taking one of my decks and sleeving it up with opaque sleeves is the proof that I'm going to do this.

I hated every minute of that. It made me so anxious to make this deck. I know it isn't proven, I know it's a weird thing that I hope I like. Goldfishing has been fun, and I know I'm not going to win anything. 

I just want to play. 

But. I also want to try and make some connections. See if people will be friendly. I've been talking about expanding the Magic circle since 2020 and this is the first chance I'm taking to make that happen. 

It feels awful. It feels like being the last kid picked for a team, forever. It feels like I'm going to be an isolated loser, surrounded by people who are taking their Magic Quite Seriously. 

I want to play my game well, but I don't want to get wrapped around the axel about winning and has nothing to do with my actual goal: maybe making new friends. I'm also just nervous because I am bad in competitive environments. I don't exactly know why but it seems to be true. I go from an average player to a terrible one. 

The point is: there is a lot wrapped up in just trying to make this deck. 

So, I'm posting this as a way to make sure that I go out on Friday and try. Even if I feel bad. I can talk about the deck next week.

What Can't Be Bought

This thoughtful video from Rhystic Studies got me thinking. 

I know that the Magic cards I own have value but my feeling about that value is "so what?", at least from a fiscal perspective. I don't get Magic cards because I can make money off them.

As an aside: I'm going to leave the subject of how expensive (too expensive) Magic cards out of this one. 

Because I've recently dropped about $800 on Warhammer Conquest cards to complete the official set! Which is very cool and lets that part of my brain which says I needed to get all the things shut the hell up. (Special thanks to the friends who helped me find these packs!)

It also allows me to focus on the rest of the game; building decks and playing them. I'm up to five decks! {As another aside: I think it's pretty clear to anyone who reads this blog that I have a problem...} 

Similarly with Magic: I acquire these cards for the purpose of engaging in a game. I buy the cheapest sleeves I can because I want my cards to last for as long as possible-I've been playing since Ice Age, when sleeves weren't a thing and I've seen what some wear and tear can do to a card. 

But I don't care about the sleeves. I care about taking care of the pieces so that I can keep playing the game! Hell, my decks are becoming more problematic because of the cheap clear sleeves and WotC's insistence on printing double-faced cards. 

(Another aside: I do have opaque sleeves for the times when I go to official events or play with strangers, which...I hope will be soon! But I don't want to have to spend 8+ bucks on sleeves for every deck. That would be expensive!)

So when the Rhystic Studies video asks about cards that people value and gets all kinds of stories in return, that makes sense to me. All of these cards are just cardboard with pretty art on it. It isn't until we imbue them with stories that they really take on any life of their own. That they even can take on some life at all!

The ownership of what might be hundreds of thousands of cards by now, for isn't about owning them, so much as it is about having access to a library that allows me to execute on demand whatever very weird idea that I'm hoping to do, without having to go through the additional step of finding the best deal on cards. Which I will do, because my brain won't let me not.  

Case in point, the Rize of the Fenix deck that I still love to play. I kicked that idea in my head around for years before building it, and then BAM, I had everything I need to take Rize on the road against friends. 

Who all thought it was a cool deck! And we had fun games that were interesting to play. I can't imagine selling the deck or even deconstructing it, because it's got memories now. That's where I want to keep my value. 

Resources For Strategic Purposes

One of the reasons that my Red Castle Games buddy likes Conquest so much is because to him, it's one of the few card games to allow for strategy, not just tactics. Magic is too limited for him: your turn is all about what you can do and the ability to make a plan and execute it over the course of a game is not well supported.

When trying to make an aggressive Tyranids deck last weekend, I stumbled on an idea that helps put this into perspective. 

In any given game of Conquest, you are guaranteed to have 18 or 19 resources to spend (depending on your Warlord) and see 12 or 13 cards (ibid) over the course of time. There will likely be more, as games are rarely decided by the third turn but rarely is not always. 

So really, decks need to be built with that baseline of understanding but also, they can be built this way. The guarantee of resources matters because only reliability lets you do this. 

In any given game of Magic, I have no way to predict what my resources will be. This is why concepts like card draw, color fixing and resource buildup (either through permanents in play or mana generated) become so important. Players must spend some amount of time dedicating their deck to building up to what they want to do. 

In Conquest, I have six or seven cards and six or seven resources to start with. I'm also guaranteed two cards per turn, and four resources to spend. 

Of course, Conquest isn't the first game to do something like that: Hearthstone received a certain amount of praise when it came out because of this reasoning. You knew that you were getting a set number of resources and how they would grow each turn. That took certain pressures off deckbuilding. I'm sure there are more, but Hearthstone was just my first exposure to it and understandably so given the game's high profile.

Circling back, the rest of Conquest then plays out as a tension between the acquisition of resources and your ability to maximize playing those resources out. This tension is skewed on multiple axises: the Warlord's starting resource count, the Command portion of the game, where players attempt to draw power from the available planets in cards or resources or both, and finally the Battle phase of the game where the victor of a fight at a planet gets a special ability for winning. 

What that means is that players now have to make a plan. There's your starting point: the Warlord and deck construction, including your plan for victory. Then the middle where you have to decide, based on your opening hand, what it is you need. You know you're getting two more cards and four more resources at the start of the next turn: what can you do now, and what will you need later? Finally there's the advantages you're able to eek out of victory at a planet. Does the advantage of victory at a planet outweigh the resources you're able to get in the midgame? 

Well that entirely depends on what stage of the game you're in! In the early game obviously resources over planets are important, but your hand may dictate which one you need and the planets may not offer anything. But by the midgame ensuring that your opponent doesn't get certain resources, or doesn't get victory points matters a lot more-were you able to build up enough? The fun has begun!

But all of this is possible because you know what you have to work with for a starting deck. It's just about using those tools the best way you can. 

Here's my sample Tyranid's decklist. It is very untested but I'm looking forward to giving it a go!

The Gene Machine

"Subject: Ω-X62113"  (What Lurks Below)
Blazing Zoanthrope  (The Great Devourer)
Army (30)
3  Ripper Swarm  (The Great Devourer)
3  Genestealer Prowler  (Deadly Salvage)
3  Genestealer Harvesters  (The Final Gambit)
3  Scything Hormagaunts  (The Great Devourer)
3  Virulent Spore Sacs  (The Great Devourer)
3  Genestealer Brood  (Wrath of the Crusaders)
4  Invasive Genestealers  (What Lurks Below)
2  Striking Ravener  (Decree of Ruin)
3  Ymgarl Genestealer  (The Great Devourer)
3  Shrieking Harpy  (The Great Devourer)
1 Toxic Venomthrope (TGD)

Attachment (9)
2  Defense Battery  (Legions of Death)
3  Noxious Fleshborer  (The Great Devourer)
3  Ymgarl Factor  (The Final Gambit)
1  Lethal Toxin Sacs  (What Lurks Below)

Event (2)
2  Gene Implantation  (What Lurks Below)
1 Spore Burst (Great Devourer)

Support (7)
3  Nesting Chamber  (The Final Gambit)
1  Sacaellum Infestors  (The Great Devourer)
1  Ruined Passages  (What Lurks Below)
2 Synaptic Link

The Game Is Dead, Long Live The Players

A pal at the (generally) awesome Red Castle Games got me into Warhammer 40k Conquest and I got hooked pretty quick. Upside: the game is cool! It's got strategy and variety!

Downside: the game is dead. 

This raises complicated feelings for me, because part of the reason I play games is to connect to other people. Dead games have trouble getting new players. But there are a small group of players right now; maybe that's enough. After the last two years of not being able to meet other people to play games with, enough would be a nice start. 

Similarly, the Transformers TCG is a game that I don't get to play anymore, yet I still have all the pieces. The game is fun...but the players have scattered to the wind. I know, I know, there are fan sets being made and that's true for Warhammer, too. There are two differences between these situations though:

First, there are multiple fan sets for Transformers, which means there are some issues with the vision for the game-some groups are more into competitive experiences and orient their designs that way, others veer the other direction and that means that these sets aren't necessarily going to play well together. Sure, you should be able to mash them in the same game, but I've had experiences where people say they don't want to play with this or that set. 

This is where a formal leadership group would be useful. Games like these are so complicated that having a structure to hang everything off of is important and I don't have the brainspace to keep track of what people want to play with.

With only one group making sets for Warhammer: Conquest, there is one vision for the game. Someone might not like it and choose not to play with those cards, but at least there aren't competing values fighting for attention. 

The second part involves actually getting to play the game. The pandemic wrecked the Transformer playerbase, since I didn't have the ability to meet people to play and it wasn't big enough to have the kind of momentum a game like Magic has. While I was able to play some remote games, those were a pain to set up. Don't get me wrong: I enjoyed getting to play but having to get a multiple camera setup and lighting and layout done is a drag. 

With Conquest, there's a small group of people who are into the game already; this will be my third week of gaming (and my third game, the first where I made decks myself) and we can get together. Yes, it is still being done in the shadow of the pandemic, but it can be done.

There's something else going on though, for me. Part of it is born out of the isolation of the pandemic, I suppose but there's an interesting question to be asked; what do you do when you like something nobody else likes? 

This isn't the first time I've thought about this: as a kid I loved dinosaurs. This love was about 10 years before everyone else loved dinosaurs. As an adolescent, I loved heavy metal-not glam metal, which was popular. Yeah, I liked Metallica before it was cool.

Which is a good joke, but also: it was isolating, once upon a time. I remember the days when they weren't the biggest metal band on the planet. 

I liked to read and as a boy, that was a bit different. These days I like Magic-but I liked Magic before it was cool, too! Yet I still struggle to find people to connect with over that.

Now I like these other things that a small group of people like and I'm having to find that group. This is something I'm bad at. What is worse is that it leaves me feeling more isolated, instead of less. 

I don't exactly know what to do about that, beyond giving a go to finding those people. 

Which, I suppose means that I really need to start playing Magic with some more people. 

But one thing at a time. Here's my first Conquest deck!

Broderick Worr  (Decree of Ruin)

Army (31)

1  Penal Legionnaire  (Core Set)
3  Sacaellum Shrine Guard  (Boundless Hate)
2  Tallarn Raiders  (Zogwort's Curse)
2  Void Pirate  (Core Set)
4  Anxious Infantry Platoon  (Decree of Ruin)
1  Elysian Assault Team  (Core Set)
3  Evil Sunz Warbiker  (The Threat Beyond)
3  Goff Brawlers  (Legions of Death)
3  Iron Guard Recruits  (The Scourge)
1  Rokkitboy  (Core Set)
3  Snakebite Thug  (The Threat Beyond)
1  Stalwart Ogryn  (Core Set)
1  Captain Markis  (Core Set)
3  Interrogator Acolyte  (The Howl of Blackmane)

Attachment (3)

1  Commissarial Bolt Pistol  (Decree of Ruin)
2  M35 Galaxy Lasgun  (What Lurks Below)

 Event (13)

2  Bolster the Defense  (The Final Gambit)
2  Summary Execution  (Decree of Ruin)
3  Inspirational Fervor  (Deadly Salvage)
3  Outflank'em  (What Lurks Below)
1  Preemptive Barrage  (Core Set)
1  Snotling Attack  (Core Set)
1  Squig Bombin'  (Core Set)

Support (3)

2  Troop Transport  (Boundless Hate)
1  Forward Barracks  (Decree of Ruin)

This deck is a thematic one: Worr seems like a dick, so the only soldiers who will come to fight for him are the ones that have to, conscripts like Iron Guard Recruits, or the Orks, who don't care who they get to smoosh so long as fighting gets done. 

Captain Markis is there as the one competent leader who people like (there is always one) and the then I took inspiration from some of the decks I found at Traxis Sector.

Playtester

One thing that I've been doing for the past year and some has finally been announced!

Introducing, to those of you who haven't heard about it, Disney Sorcerer's Arena: Epic Alliances. 

Full disclosure: I know the designer of this game-he's a friend who's I met via Magic and I'm super proud of the work he's done here.

I was a playtester on this game, and am happy to say that I helped because I think this is a pretty solid game. I'd put it on the medium-complexity side, but it's got a great on-ramp to learning it. So even if you're just excited about seeing Disney characters duke it out, there's a way for you to step into this game and learn it at a pace that you like. 

It's coming out soon, and I'm looking forward to owning my own copy and showing it off to people, because this one has a lot going for it.

Plus, it's been a fascinating window into how games get made. For non-disclosure reasons, I won't be getting into that. The team at the OP will talk about it when the opportunity presents itself, I'm sure. I will say that it has been an absolute treat to see the DSA:EA evolve over time and become a better, more refined, and more fun game. 

New Capenna Commander: Hot Take

If you want the proper overview, The Professor has you covered. I'm here to give you the quick hit. 

The bad: They cost me $60 each. 

Six. Zero.

What the actual fuck? I remember when these decks cost $25 and just last year when I bought them, they cost around $35 each. 

I don't like to talk shit about my local game store but this pricing is a Very Bad Look. I'll be shopping around in the future, because this exists. 

And even with that, $45 is still pretty spendy. But paying an extra $15 is...well that's my bad but I still feel like that wasn't OK. 

The good:

The packaging used to have a lot more plastic to it. Now, the only plastic things in here are the wrapping for the deck, and the hub that holds the life spanner together. I've been one of many asking for more environmentally friendly packaging and I'm really glad to see WotC deliver on it. 

The other thing I've noticed is that the mana base is getting some upgrades. The mana producing lands are better, and anything that helps bring down the cost of a part of the game that is required to play, is good. 

So I'm glad to see those improvements.