Free Pizza: Visions of the Future

This was a LOT of fun. I hit my Free Pizza this month on the back of two decks, which I am enjoying quite a bit of. I hope you find some inspiration in these, because I've had a great time playing them.

While this says Auto-Air Walker, I just didn't change the name after messing around with it. 

This deck wants to use the destroy package to ideally trigger Air Walker into Morgan Le Fay. Moira X isn't necessary but IS a but of fun in this deck, potentially setting up multiple Morgan triggers. But even if Morgan isn't used, there's a nice destroy backup: The Thing First Steps and Lady Dethstroke can flip lanes, which can't be overlooked.

I didn't build this entirely from scratch; Uncle Ben is a character I added after seeing someone with a list online, for example. But it's been pretty neat to play with and it definitely pushed me up in the ranks. 

This next deck I'm really proud of: 

I started off using Viv Vision as a card in a move deck, and she was terrible. But once I shifted the deck to a Sebastian Shaw- boost deck it came alive. Frankie Raye Nova and Nakia are flex slots: Frankie is a fun card to pair with Sasquatch, and Nakia really could be something better. Red Guardian is probably a better choice but all in all; this is fun! 

Just Some Thoughts

 After being told that I am missing the point of the Spider-Man set, because while it seems half-baked to me: ‘what does half-baked feel like to casual players’ and I'm 'overestimating what people are looking for out of Magic. It's not like MtG is such a complicated game', I have a few thoughts.

First; a half baked set is one that gives players a poor play experience, especially when combined with the larger Magic ecosystem. If you get into Magic because Spider-Man is your favorite hero and you don’t feel like it represents things well (and I think the heroic cards in particular feel very samey), plus your play experience sucks, then how is that good for the game? Because I think any player is looking for a good time: it is precisely the reason Commander is popular as a format. 

Because Commander is not a great format, but it IS a great time with friends. It's easy to miss this but my experience has lead me to that conclusion: the presence of friends makes up for the shortcomings of Commander as a format. 

That aside: if someone plays the Spider-Man set and then gets trounced by someone playing the Final Fantasy set, how is that going to feel? 

Second; Magic is the most complicated game and that's just the fact. Nothing against other complicated games but saying that Magic isn't complicated is incredibly dismissive, especially when you're trying to teach new players the game. This shit is hard. 

Third; the new draft format that they are doing is probably being pitched as a way to sell those Spider-Man packs. That is: Hey, this is specifically for Spider-Man but it's also official so if you want to play it with other sets, that's fine. I used to think it was a way to cover up the weakness of having a set made of only 188 cards-and my understanding is that 88 of those were fast tracked

However, in the same thread where I was told that I was missing the point of the set, I saw game store employees talking up the new format, because you only need 4 players to get a draft to fire. That's really good for game stores, and reduces the burden on people who want to play at home.

And I have to admit; it is a LOT easier getting four people together than eight, something that is good for players and for stores where people play! But now I think there’s something else going on.

Conjecture: I think this is a way for WotC to float doing new sets every month. If they are releasing six sets for Standard this year and five of those have close to 300 cards per set, how difficult is it halve the size of each set and say “new sets every month! New draft format means you won’t ever get bored, and the format can’t ever get stale because it’s just 30 days for new cards!”

Now, on the one hand; formats like draft becoming more accessible is a really good thing. Drafts sell packs and packs keep the game going. 

On the other hand; There. Is. Too. Much. Goddamn. Product.

Nothing gets a chance to be explored, because we’re already on to the next set—and the next set is already being hyped before the current one is out! Where do we actually get a chance to play games instead of be on the hype train?

I dunno. I’m probably just overthinking it, because that is what I tend to do. But it wouldn’t shock me, because I feel like WotC-or more likely Hasbro-has taken the position of milking the customers for as much money as possible. 

Horror Revisited

I really dug this article on Kamigawa's evocation of the violence of war, in contrast to the high fantasy violence we are typically presented with. 

Kamigawa was a beloved set because of its incredible evocation of story, lore and art. I am reminded that Magic sets, as with movies, are comprised of many moving parts and a whole lot of people dedicate their time and effort to getting details right. Efforts that go all but unnoticed when they go right, they become so glaring when they are wrong.  

I'm glad they went back to the plane to get the gameplay right.

Late To The Party; Doom: The Dark Ages

 This was the moment when I knew Doom was jumping the shark:

Forgive the potato quality of the picture: the game wouldn't let me just take a pic of it. 

There's a lot of good in Doom: The Dark Ages. I found getting into the rhythm of the game to be easier than in Doom Eternal, and the jumping sections don't require you to do something precise or else die, which is good. 

Doomguy is a lumbering unit, every time he lands from a jump there's a "thoom" and ripple in the ground. It feels right. The combat sections even when they become a colorful wasteland of insanity are still engaging and, if you're putting some thought into your weapons and how they interact, feel good to fight through.

The map is well laid out too: Always offering enough detail to show you where to go, but not so much that you cannot figure out how to get there. They want you to find the hidden items, which feels good. 

There's also sections of the game where you play in a giant mech and these are...fine. They aren't complex, and you become a titan of destruction, wrecking buildings and giant demons with your metal fists. I can't say that they are incredibly fun but they do provide a nice break between other segments of the game and they feel correct.

That is; you are still Doomguy and you exist to fuck things up. 

The dragon, however...

As with everything in The Dark Ages, the dragon is metal. And by that, I mean the aesthetic and vibe. 

However, flying the dragon is not metal. I am not playing Doom to fly a dragon. I am playing Doom to take a chainsaw to demons. The dragon does metal things, like breathing fire down the neck of a giant demon, but the player doesn't do them.

And this is where we get into padding. The Doom reboot of 2016 was about as perfectly distilled as you could ask for. What did you do? You murdered every demon in the room until there weren't none. If you felt like it, cool; get some dollies. 

Now...you  have to drive a mech and a dragon. And I'm not saying that they don't have moments, but they do take me out of the primary gameplay look and I'm not sure what the upside is for the dragon elements. 

Still, all in all I enjoyed the game and had a good time. 

Insiders

 With the new Spider-Man set coming out I could not be less excited. I'll pick through it to see if there's anything that sparks my interest but I have no intention of playing at the pre-release or buying packs. 

And the question came up from MaRo himself "is there anything that can happen with the Universes Beyond product where you accept it's had a positive effect on Magic as a whole?"

The answer to that is: I can hold two thoughts at once. 

The sales of Universes Beyond apparently demonstrate more people are getting into the game. I say "apparently" because I've never seen anyone cite numbers-either for or against. They certainly are selling. Hasbro posts profits and the signs point to Magic being an important brand. That is a net good, if you love the game. 

Which doesn't change the fact that the product is also predatory because it's priced higher than regular product, creates a second reserve list, where if people don't buy into product they don't want right now because of the theme (not the mechanics), then they run the risk of never being able to see that product again, and that the Universes Beyond sets have increased the flow of Magic cards to a deluge and that feels exhausting.

Nevertheless, I would still like a Universes Within set-something like the Time Spiral or Innistrad Remastered sets. Collected editions of UB sets but printed as Magic cards in-universe. This would go a long way towards mitigating the ire that players like me have towards these outsider sets, because it would show a willingness to bring the game back to the people who have invested so much into it, or just don't want Spider-Man in their Black Lotus. 

The idea.

It started as these things often do: someone else trying something interesting with Tifa Lockheart.

Now I am less thrilled with the three color manabase here; Steppe Lynx and Akoum Hellhound are relevant one drops but I think we all know that they don't get the job done. Maybe I'm just bad at committing to the idea but I really don't think those cards are good enough, so instead I went with this.

4 Tifa Lockhart
2 Voice of Victory
3 Grand Abolisher
3 Bristly Bill, Spine Sower
3 Knight of the Reliquary
2 Elvish Reclaimer

4 Crop Rotation
4 Swords to Plowshares
3 Royal Treatment
3 Berserk

6 Forest
1 Plains
4 Windswept Heath
4 Ghost Quarter
2 Temple Garden
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Sejiri Steppe
2 Flagstones of Trokair
1 Cabaretti Courtyard

3 Wrenn and Realmbreaker

4 Scale Up

This was my first take on the deck and I don't think it's bad! There's some powerful effects in there, but I kept finding that I wasn't getting as many landfall triggers as I would like when I goldfished it.

What, I kept thinking, is a way to get multiple lands into play? Then it hit me: Veteran Explorer. And there's already a shell for that card with Cabal Therapy! So: 

4 Tifa Lockhart
3 Bristly Bill, Spine Sower
2 Elvish Reclaimer
4 Veteran Explorer
3 Voice of Victory

4 Crop Rotation
4 Royal Treatment
3 Berserk
2 Swords to Plowshares
1 Infernal Grasp

7 Forest
4 Ghost Quarter
1 Bojuka Bog
2 Swamp
4 Verdant Catacombs
1 Godless Shrine
2 Plains
1 Underground Mortuary

4 Scale Up
4 Cabal Therapy

Now we're talking. I don't know if this is good, but it's a neat place to start. Yes, it's still a 3 color deck, but I think that Black offers me a lot more power than Red does, and as it turns out, I already had a G/B deck that I wasn't super thrilled with and could retire. 

So let's see where this goes!

Keeper of the Gate

I recently learned how to play Love Letter, which is a delightful little game. Thematically it is about trying to get a letter to the princess to woo her-and intercepting the letters of your rivals. 

Now, Love Letter has a LOT of reskins-basically different riffs on the same idea. While I was being taught the game, this subject came up and it was said, with no small amount of derision, 

"There's a dragon one, Batman themed one-"

I kinda shrugged it off. "I mean,dragons?"

"Sure, sure, but nobody needs a Batman themed Love Letter."

And this bothered me but I couldn't figure out why--and today I finally did.

If Batman gets someone playing a game, why is that a problem? If the goal is, say, to get a message to Batman to help him prevent the diabolical schemes of Bane, while diverting messages that would take Batman off the case...then how is that bad?

Especially since thematically, it is a game that involves no violence itself-it's all about cunning and wit. 

The derision was especially jarring coming from friends who actively seek inclusion. I think that was one of the reasons it threw me. We should have as many ways to get people to play as they might like! 

Nooooooooooooooooow.....I can hear people already starting to wonder about this in regards to my feelings about Universes Beyond sets. 

So I want to be clear about this: I am glad that sets that show off Warhammer 40k, Dr. Who, Spider-Man, Final Fantasy, etc. bring new people into Magic. I love this game-and sharing things you love is one of the best things you can do. 

The issue between Love Letter's reskins and Magic's sets is that Magic sets become integrated into the game. Love Letter allows you to pick the flavors of the game you want. If the Batman version of Love Letter bothers you, you can ignore it and your experience doesn't change.

Magic is a stew, and it doesn't matter if the flavors don't go together anymore, you're stuck with everything that's thrown in there. The stew can't be unsalted, can't be reflavored. You've concocted a permanent change, and now instead of being able to pick the jalepenos off my pizza, I just have to swallow it. 

Maybe that's part of the price to pay, to bring more people in. If that's the case then...well, in the spirit of being welcoming, I suppose it's worth paying. But I do wish that the issues that players like me have with this introduction of flavors we do not like, didn't seem so easy to dismiss. 

Because UB isn't about making a better game of Magic, it is about making a more profitable one. 

Sometimes that reality is a little hard to take.