Grimlock

A long time ago, I saw a relationship between Fecundity and Mortuary. At least I think I did. It might've been a combo pointed out in a print magazine, just to give readers a sense of how long ago we are talking. However, G/B is one of my favorite combos and letting that pass by was not going to happen.

3 Wall of Blossoms
2 Bottle Gnomes
3 Sakura-Tribe Elder
2 Quagmire Druid
3 Sadistic Hypnotist
3 Fume Spitter
2 Blastoderm
2 Woodripper
3 Bone Shredder
4 Skullmulcher
2 Vulturous Zombie
4 Fecundity
4 Mortuary
6 Swamp
2 Volrath's Stronghold
4 Llanowar Wastes
7 Forest
4 Blooming Marsh

Now, there are probably some obvious issues here. The first is that the creature selection is ancient, and inconsistent on top of that. That is a space with easy improvement. 

However, the elephant in the room is this; I have a two card combo that 1) Doesn't win the game and 2) doesn't do anything to the board when it arrives. That is a problem--sort of.

I'm not going to lie to ya: I like this combo enough that I'm keeping the deck. It's too much fun as a concept for me to get rid of. This means that I'm already accepting that it isn't going to be a A tier deck. B if I'm lucky. 

But maybe I can get it to a good B+. Heck, creatures are good enough now that A- might even be possible. 

And of course this is named after the leader of the Dinobots.

Life From The Low

Recently I got a game in against my buddy Jeff, who was playing a B/W ninja deck built heavily off the TMNT set. We weren't able to finish it (the pub was closing) but in the middle of a game I stopped and asked him to rewind his turn.

Jeff is pretty new to Magic and he wasn't using the Sneak (Ninjitsu) abilities of his cards at all. So I walked him through a turn where he did that, and although I could've punished him for it, I didn't. It isn't worth bringing the hammer down on new players in a non-tournament setting. I'd much rather see him be excited about the thing he built!

Now, I got pretty low on life before the game ended but I think I could've pulled it out, as I was just a turn away from being able to start to generate blockers and life. Once that happens, all I need is enough time to wipe the board with a Withering Curse. 

While I didn't get that chance I liked the performance of the deck. It felt like I could dig my way out of the situation. 

I'm headed on vacation so next post will be next Thursday! 

I'll Be A Massive Conquistador

 After a massive overhaul, I took Millionaire out for a spin. 

Not bad! The deck actually did more of what I was trying to do. Goes to show that by focusing on the theme, progress can be made. 

3 Thopter Foundry

3 Sword of the Meek

3 Glass Casket

3 Cryogen Relic

4 Etherium Sculptor

3 Disciple of the Vault

3 Tribute Mage

1 Winter, Cursed Rider

1 Confounding Riddle

4 Thirst for Knowledge

4 Mana Leak

7 Island

4 Seat of the Synod

1 Vault of Whispers

1 Ancient Den

1 Plains

2 Arcane Sanctum

4 Esper Panorama

1 Swamp

2 Dromar's Cavern

2 Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas

3 Withering Curse

But I was noticing a bit of a problem, especially when I compared this to similar decks on Moxfield: I do not have interaction. Either I assemble the combo or I don't, and I don't have much protection for it. 

So I thought I would swap out Mephitic Drought for Withering Curse. I have eight ways to draw cards, between X and Y, and now I have seven cards to help with interactions. .

You Think I Ain't Worth A Dollar But I Feel Like A Millionaire

Woof. This is a great song for a mess of a deck. 

3 Thopter Foundry
3 Sword of the Meek
4 Sapphire Medallion

1 Sphinx of the Steel Wind
2 Magister Sphinx
3 Sharding Sphinx
4 Stormscape Familiar
4 Etherium Sculptor
1 Sharuum the Hegemon
1 Sphinx Sovereign

3 Oblivion Ring
2 Engineered Plague

1 Spinal Embrace
4 Thirst for Knowledge

6 Island
4 Seat of the Synod
2 Vault of Whispers
2 Ancient Den
1 Plains
2 Arcane Sanctum
4 Esper Panorama
1 Swamp
2 Dromar's Cavern

So, the original deck idea came from one that was using Time Sieve in order to take multiple, if not infinite turns. 

Where's the Time Sieve, my dude?

But OK fine: I don't have Time Sieve. Budget combo with Sword of the Meek and Thopter Foundry isn't a terrible idea. 

Why is there all this other stuff? I get the idea: I was thinking that four copies of Sapphire Medallion would make it easy to ramp into cards like Sharuum. 

But even if they are, what is Sharuum getting back for me? 

So, there's a bunch of work to do here. 

Sigh

So, Hasbro is anti-union and it should be no surprise that their response to the folks creating a union for their work on Arena has been...less than cooperative. 

But to insist that people use their deadnames in order to vote on unionization is some bullshit.

This is your reminder that big corporations are not your friends. They aren't here to serve you, they are here to take as much money from you as possible. All of the money, if they can. 

Good luck to the unionizers. Fuck Hasbro. 

Late To The Party: Darksiders: Genesis

 I wanted to like Darksiders: Genesis a lot more than I did, but the game didn't come together as well as I think it needed to. 

The upsides to Genesis are many! There's co-op play, including couch co-op. The characters of Strife and War both play very differently, offering a nice variety. The story, while pretty standard, is carried well by the skill of the voice actors, who are charming and having fun. And the combat felt pretty engaging! It got a little same-y near the end, when it just became obvious what the best thing for Strife to do was, and as a single-player using him and then War as my backup was the clear path. But it was still good!

Unfortunately, there are a few decisions regarding the game that end up hurting it quite a bit. 

First, it's the implementation of puzzles with a isometric perspective. Jumping puzzles where the camera hides or obscures what you're doing are just bad.  I honestly thought we'd left that shit behind two decades ago. Isometric angles on the field of play work great for a game like X-COM where you can easily turn the camera to see what you need to, or Diablo or Hades where the on-field action is important. 

It's terrible when the camera is fixed and you cannot be sure of the distances you need to clear, or worse when they put the puzzle BEHIND the camera angle. You get a peek at it but no more. It caused me a lot of frustration and the best I can say about it is: it wasn't always mandatory to complete a puzzle to get past a section. 

That was the largest issue with Genesis and while it wasn't a dealbreaker for me, I can see it being one for others. 

The other problem with the game, however, was that it just ends. I spent 16 chapters being told about Lucifer's big plan, and how we had to stop it. I spent time in the arena practicing skills (which was a lot of fun!) and getting ready for the missions. 

And then when I go to confront Lucifer, the games just goes "Welp, Lucifer is getting away with it! LATER BOYS!" and that's it. 

And that is deeply unsatisfying. 

Sandstorm

Well, now we have a name for the deck! As an added bonus, it's also the name for a Transformer so I'm kinda double-dipping. 

In addition, despite the last decklist working really well, Secrets of Strixhaven gave us a card that I am testing, because I think it's very powerful: Stirring Hopesinger. This is in addition to the new removal spell upgrade, Erode, which is definitely better than Unwanted Remake. 

However that's not all! Hopesinger is a bird, and that means it gets a boost from Valley Questcaller.

Sadly, this means that something has to go, and Mabel is my cut. She's very good-and she creates an additional mana tax with Cragflame. In a deck with so few mana sources, having a flier that could boost the team just seemed better.