MotM Pre-Release 2-1

I participated in the MotM pre-release at Red Castle Games last Saturday. Here's the deck:

7 Forest 

8 Plains

Invasion of Moag 

Halo Hopper
Flywheel Racer

Storm the Seedcore
Arachnoid Adaptation
Yedora, Grave Gardener
Renata, Called to the Hunt
Wildwood Escort
Gnottvold Hermit
Timberland Ancient
Atraxa's Fall
Overgrown Pest
Chomping Kavu

Progenitor Exarch
Angelic Intervention
Attentive Skywarden
Elspeeth's Smite
Zhalfirin Lancer
Cut Short
Realmbreaker's Grasp
Alabaster Host Sanctifier
Knight-Errant of Eos
Seraph of New Capenna
Invasion of Dominaria
Tarkir Duneshasper

Rd 1 vs Sin
Game 1: my turn one Duneshaper meant I could put some pressure on early, and transform it later to keep that pressure on. His deck didn't produce anything until turn 3 but by then I had the edge.

Game 2: Realmbreaker's Grasp locked down his biggest creature while Knight-Errant of Eos got the job done.

Rd 2 vs Matley
Game 1: He just overran me. 

Game 2: A very grindy match with both of us able to play Progenitor Exarchs for a couple creatures. I was able to outlast him, basically. 

Game 3: Another grindy match that went to time, but I had Seraph and Skywarden, and they were able to get in while the ground game was locked down.

Rd 3 vs Dezzy
Game 1: A Timberland Ancient with a Kitesail equipped to it ended the game in short order in her favor.

Game 2: As with my last round, this was another super grindy match that I was able to win with a well timed Storm the Seedcore. 

Game 3: We were pretty evenly matched and because this was the last round, they didn't call time when they should have. I mistakenly used my Atrax's Fall (an outstanding removal card for this format) on her Blighted Burgeoning instead of waiting for a better target. This let her build a bigger board state and, with us seven minutes over time and me holding two Plains and a Forest, I conceded. 

Some takeaways from the event:

Battles are, as expected, only as good as their front side. I'm not saying they are irrelevant, but getting them to flip generally felt like 'win more' and not 'turn a corner'. 

It seemed like the matches were designed to go long, so one always had to keep an eye out for any small advantage. 

Good stuff. 

Finally: I have finally caught the plague. I'm out for the next week. Cheers!

March of the Machines-Set Review

The new set is up, and here! Let's talk about it.

First: New card type! I think that Battles are a cool thing but I'm not sure it actually encourages interaction-at least so far and certainly not in duels. 

In the case of Planeswalkers, players are forced to manage them in some way because their suite of abilities, if not managed, will take over a game. The Battles don't have that kind of power at this point. 

Second, the hidden cost to get the full benefit of the card is very real: the lowest count on Battles is three the highest seven, so now instead of reducing your opponent's life total by that amount, you've effectively given them a free wall. Are the ETB benefits of any of these Battles strong enough to make them worth it on their own? I'm not sure. 

In multiplayer, though these cards might have a real chance to shine and change the politics of the table. That IS cool and I look forward to what that will mean. 

The only other new mechanic is Backup and I have to say: I really like this. The effect it offers provides interesting strategic options which is always a plus. 

Incubate isn't exactly new but what I will say about it is that it's a mana sink, so it's probably well suited to the Limited environment. 

White
Sunfall might be the big removal spell White could use. Costing one less than Phyrexian Rebirth is a thing, and having a creature after it's over is a great way to close the game out. 

The Phyrexians seem slow in this set, largely the result of the Incubate mechanic I suppose. WotC has been creating very good limited environments lately though, so I suppose it's worth seeing things in action. I do like the Phyrexian tribal support overall-Norn's Inquisitor and Phyrexian Censor look like important keys for an actual tribal deck. But I'm not jazzed about what's here-it's not bad, it isn't exciting. 

Blue
Corruption of Towashi is what I was thinking of when I said the Phyrexians were slow. Paying five mana to create a token that one has to pay two more mana into so that a 4/4 creature and a card can be drawn seems like a Bad Deal. Seven mana for a 4/4 and a card? This is a strategy that seems like it needs a lot to go right. 

Zhalfirin Shapecraft seem like one of the more interesting Blue "gotcha!" spells to appear in a bit. Making anything that's a 3/2 or less better for only two mana really has some potential.

A small world glitch: the mechanic 'Stun' does not appear in Kamigawa or Neon Dynasty to having that be the Battle's ability feels weird. Stun was a mechanic from Dominaria...so what gives?

Black
I'll start with another world glitch: why does every other creature infected with the Phyrexian oil end up understanding a greater compleatness, and Ayara, Widow of the Realm is somehow unaffected? 

After that, there's some great art here: Mirrodin Avenged, Ichor Shade, Breach the Multiverse...just very cool stuff. However, the cards themselves aren't shaking things up for me. Nothing here seems bad, right? (Except for Scorn-Blade Berzerker but...) Nothing seems great, either. 

Still, Scorn-Blade can go in my garbage cube, and it's been awhile since I've had an addition!

Red
Well I was bummed that Etali got compleated! I love that dinosaur! Also, there are dinosaurs again!

Invasion of Karus might be the a playable Battle-the ETB effect is pretty good, the mana cost is within tolerance and the follow up isn't bad. I'm not sure if the flip effect is worth the squeeze but it's worth consideration. 

Bloodfeather Phoenix might fit into my Phoenix deck and that one is right on the edge of maybe tier 1.75 playability! So I'm interested in that. 

I do wonder when Red will have a critical mass of 'play from exile' cards to make it a force to be reckoned with on Blue's level. It's already starting to happen since there's a Red storm deck utilizing Galvanic Relay. I don't believe Wrenn's Resolve is the critical mass card to do that but you know it's coming.

Green
There are more dinosaurs! 

Looks like Green is getting the 'holy shit' Planeswalker this time. Wrenn & Worldbreaker can arrive turn 2. I'm sure that won't cause any problems whatsoever. 

It took this long but I've noticed a small milling theme in this set. Nothing too obvious but I've read that the next Ixalan set is supposed to take place underground-a "Journey to the Center of the Earth" vibe and I am hoping that mechanically, this is a link to that. 

Multicolor
The partnership cards are big and dumb. That is a compliment, of course; we should have big and dumb in the multicolor portion of the set where it's clear that the Phyrexians are going to get their asses kicked. Most of the cards are signaling Commander, but Errant and Giada and Baral and Kari Zev have some potential in other formats! They're cheap enough, have some evasion and generate value that can rapidly become overwhelming. 

After that, Marshal of Zhalfir could be a fun lord or a new Knights deck. There's already a White Knights deck (ha!)-splashing Blue has a lot of benefits. Add that with Invasion of New Phyrexia and you could really close a game out. 

Artifact
Whoa! For a set called "March of the Machines" this deck has fewer artifact cards than they've done in a long, long time. I'm glad the Sword cycle is done but there isn't much to talk about here. I suppose things might've looked different if the Phyrexians were going to be winners, but since their plane is getting winked out of existence...

The lands are all commons, and...that's it!

Overall impressions
Well, for something that was hyped as 'changing Magic forever' March is underwhelming. A new card type is cool, but I am wholly unconvinced regarding its power level. Is there a lot of potential in Battle cards? Of course. 

But look at how long it look WotC to make enchantments truly interesting, with the advent of Sagas-or on the other hand, how long it took for them to produce broken Planeswalkers (Jace the Mind Sculptor) or equipment. Umazawa's Jitte.

Fashionably Late to the Party: Resident Evil 4 Remake

Well, the RE4 remake has arrived aaaaaaand....I was kinda right. 

I'm about halfway through the game right now-hip deep in the castle-and there is a lot that has been done right! The primary gameplay loop is in tact: shoot enemies, get loot from downed enemies. They've kept plenty of the good aspects of the initial game; the suitcase management, a light crafting system, treasure hunting and, Very Importantly, you get to save the dog. They've also improved on things: you can change game prompts from being a 'repeat press' to 'press and hold' which I vastly prefer. The pacing is tighter: you are very much in a: You go forward, mode, a la the best elements of Doom. Doubling back isn't something that is necessary, and when you do have to revisit an area, the trip is brief.

Unfortunately, there's a few drawbacks as well.

First: Jesus christ this game is fucking dark! Why do I need to turn the brightness up so high just so I don't run into walls? I get it, the game is an action/survival horror and takes place at night but c'mon. I have this problem all the time and I don't know why. It's only videogames that do this.

Second: Jesus christ this game is dark! And by this I mean that it has taken a more serious tone. They didn't go full throttle serious but...like I can hear Leon pant now, and he rolls his shoulder like he's in pain. He's just a normal dude, right?

There's a lot of little touches like that making the game less wacky and as I noted, I believe that's to RE4's detriment. It's not enough to ruin the game but it is what makes this a remake, instead of a straight up improvement.

Third: your knife breaks. I don't care why, breakable weapons suck. This mechanic even sucks in Bloodborne, and I love that game.

Fourth: The RE6 problem. My biggest issue with Resident Evil 6 was that I spent more time punching, suplexing, or otherwise meleeing zombies in the face instead of shooting them. With my gun(s). Which I have a lot of. 

I do not care to play Zombiepucher the game, I want to play Resident Evil and in the original RE4, there was enough ammo that I didn't have a need to melee an enemy often.

Now, it's practically mandatory: the ammo drops aren't frequent enough to just keep shooting, and the enemies are quite tough, compelling me to get up close and, siiiiiiiiiiiiigh, punch a dude in the face. This takes me out of the flow of the game-instead of tracking my shots, I now have to look for a melee indicator, race up to an enemy in what I hope is in time, and then watch a cutscene of me kicking or worse, suplexing an enemy. Why are suplexes worse? Because they are disorienting and I don't always know where I am in space-in relationship to the enemies- when I recover from such a move. 

But how is this fun in relationship to the rest of the game? I'm genuinely curious why this mechanic is so fundamental. Shooting enemies in the leg to stagger them and then punching them is the kill-why can't I just plug someone center mass three times and be done? 

Headshots are discouraged, so what's left? 

What's left is sayin' fuck it and doing headshots anyway. If they mutate, well that's what shotguns are for. Don't overthink it, my dude.

Still, they game rewards you for doing the opposite (in close punching) of what you want to do (distance gunfights) and that's a problem. Is it enough to capsize the game? No. The RE4 remake does a great job building on the bones of the original and making it a hell of a ride. Does it equal the original? 

Yeah, I think it might.  

Late to the Party: God of War: Ragnarok

God of War: Ragnarok (hereafter Ragnarok) is too much game for its story. 

I finished Ragnarok's story while sick at home-too much energy to watch TV, not enough energy to go toil at the day job-and when the credits rolled, I walked Kratos down a path, through a set of doors and out onto a vista of Midgard. 

Where the game helpfully informed me that I had anywhere from 1/3 to 1/4 of the game yet to play! Good lord. Can you imagine saying you're done with something and there still being that much left to do?

I feel like this is a way to drill into the core problem of Ragnarok. Because it's just so stuffed with things! Quests! Checklists! (Have YOU kicked enough dark elves to get gold?) Systems!

It got exhausting for me. Keeping up with every weapon-which has a pommel of some kind, and which one might give me a percentage increase and decrease in various stats, every shield, which also had attachments, every piece of armor-one for your arms, chest and waist- and an enchantment belt that can have up to 10 different enhancements slotted in. 

I want to punch Thor in the face. Why does it need this much stuff??? 

So I never quite got the hang of combat: again, a place where there were so many different moves and powers with cooldowns to use-I was two-thirds the way through when I discovered that there was an extra move I hadn't been utilizing, that also had a cooldown-but extra move!

Nothing seemed to flow into one another-one move set leading to another, so that a deliberate choice of moves would flow into another, and another which lead to me feeling like I was doing great. And I am not saying that system isn't there, just that I never found it!  

Instead, I was brute forcing my way through things, one eye on my cooldowns, swapping weapons as quickly as I could to use the next power and stall until I could get my next powerup going. It wasn't as though the weapons flowed into one another though-at least, not in a way I could put together. Again: all these systems creating confusion rather than coherency. 

So why did I keep at it?

The story is quite good. 

And the thing is: I would've played this game if it just had the last God of War's system (I even beat all the Valkyries in the last game, because I was having so much fun) and just the one added weapon (the new weapon is a story acquisition so I don't begrudge it). I liked these characters and I wanted to see what happened. They didn't need to add in so much buuuuuut I think they didn't feel they could charge $60 for a new game if they didn't.

The game itself is polished enough that I didn't hate playing it but it DID feel overwhelming-an inverse relationship to its rather straightforward narrative. 

I just wish the gameplay loop was as hooky. 

Out Sick

 Sorry, I know I just took a week but it's looking like I'll need another. On the upside; been playing some video games and have some opinions about those! But, for later.