Late To The Party: Clair Obscur-Expedition 33

I finished Clair Obscur recently-not long after it was announced as a game of the year. Pretty nice timing, for once!

Is it the game of the year? Not sure about that. It's quite good though. 

First, and most importantly, there is a great gameplay loop. Giving players something to stay engaged during turn-based combat seems like such a gimme idea I cannot believe I haven't seen it before. You can't just ignore what the enemy does, you have a chance to impact what happens! The rewards for dodging or parrying are immense and feel very good. 

Next; the game is realistic in it's gameplay scope. That is: I don't have to invest 100+ hours if I don't want to. I actually completed the game in a reasonable amount of time! Are there more quests to do? Yes, but I don't feel as though I missed something important by opting out of them. I could just play them-get this- for fun. 

There are some drawbacks though. For example: You can get lost. The dungeons aren't huge, but they do have an unfortunate lack of markers to help players find their way. It's not just knowing where the main path is-although the game doesn't tell you, it's the one lit by lamps-it's knowing which of the side paths you have taken without having going down it again, or knowing that you are headed back to the entrance instead of the exit. 

The next criticism I have is that the story mostly holds, but there are two points that don't make sense. Unfortunately they are spoiler related so I will try to keep it as vague as I can but: there are two points where specific characters are unaffected by the machinations of the boss and the game doesn't tell you why they are immune. 

Which is a pretty big deal. Especially since if they had explained it, then you'd have a pretty tight story all in all, in my opinion.

Finally, Clair Obscur doesn't do a great job informing you how it's systems work. I was about 2/3 of the way through the game when I realized I had to assign Luminos points, they didn't just get automatically allocated. Now, I may have been told this early on-before I even had Luminos points to assign-but the game didn't make a point of it when I DID have points to assign and so I didn't go through the act of assigning points. 

Well, in games you learn by doing. That's a pretty big oversight and one that allowed me to actually play the game better, once I implemented it.

That said, this game felt like a breath of fresh air, after playing Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth. It is very enjoyable and worth your time.

You Can't Control Me

Stingerback Terror is a challenge. They can do a lot of damage, but they rely on me casting stuff.  Still, I don't think I remove them: they don't need a ton of time to do their work. 

The indestructible creatures though have been champs. Thrun in particular as a late game uncounterable threat is VERY good but even Bark-Knuckle Boxer has been creating a little problem.

I'm pretty happy with where this one ended up. 

4 Talisman of Impulse

4 Rukh Egg

4 Brindle Shoat

3 Fanatic of Rhonas

2 Incubation Druid

3 Stingerback Terror

2 Bark-Knuckle Boxer

2 Thrun, Breaker of Silence

4 Stomping Ground

2 Mountain Valley

6 Mountain

6 Forest

1 Gruul Turf

4 Cragcrown Pathway

3 Jaya, Fiery Negotiator

3 Obliterate

3 Jokulhaups

2 Harmonize

2 Explore

Back Off Baby

It struck me; what if more of my creatures were indestructible? 

I love Elephant Guide, but it is an aura and those are weak cards, especially in the era the Guide comes from. So maybe those get replaced.

2 Bark-Knuckle Boxer

2 Thrun, Breaker of Silence

The initial runs were positive, though those were mostly goldfishes. Still, good sign is good. It made me wonder about killing my darlings. 

I really love Predator Ooze, but it has always been awkward in this deck. Triple Green is a difficult ask for a two color deck without a lot of mana fixing. 

And I lose games where I do not draw or successfully cast an Obliterate. So let's go further. Elephant Guide is a good card, and on brand for what this deck wants to do, but it's dead in hand if I don't have a creature. 

What about this:

4 Talisman of Impulse

4 Rukh Egg

4 Brindle Shoat

3 Fanatic of Rhonas

2 Incubation Druid

3 Stingerback Terror

2 Bark-Knuckle Boxer

2 Thrun, Breaker of Silence

4 Stomping Ground

2 Mountain Valley

6 Mountain

6 Forest

1 Gruul Turf

4 Cragcrown Pathway

3 Jaya, Fiery Negotiator

3 Obliterate

3 Jokulhaups

2 Harmonize

2 Explore

Pixleated

After some tweaking, this is what I landed on:

4 Rukh Egg

4 Predator Ooze

4 Brindle Shoat

3 Fanatic of Rhonas

2 Incubation Druid

3 Stingerback Terror

4 Elephant Guide

4 Stomping Ground

2 Mountain Valley

6 Mountain

6 Forest

1 Gruul Turf

4 Cragcrown Pathway

3 Jaya, Fiery Negotiator

3 Obliterate

3 Jokulhaups

At first I tried adding in some cheap removal, like Incinerate and realized that it just didn't matter. I also wanted to find ways to win after nuking the board, hence Stingerback Terror. I also had more Incubation Druids than Fanatic of Rhonas, and flipped that when I realized the Fanatic could fend off more creatures in the early game and return in the late game. 

It's a good place to end up at; mana ramp with a bit of recursion, something to cast after I've destroyed the entire board, and something to help stall the game out if I don't have access to a reset. 

Jaya is doing what I hoped: creating board stalls until I can cast one of my resets. The Fanatic is a great way to ramp my mana. 

Still, I'm finding myself out muscled by other control decks and not quite fast enough to hold off ago decks. So something is still amiss. 

Marvel Snap: Dragon Season-High Voltage

I was hating this version of High Voltage. It seemed TOO high variance, but I believe I have found a cure:

The odd thing is, I haven't changed this deck much in a year. I think Armor is now Mad Thinker but aside from that, this is what made High Voltage bearable for me.

I also got my Free Pizza, grinding it out with a High Evolutionary deck. Nothing special there: I was mostly trying to stay ahead of any Shou-Lao The Undying decks. Once I did that, I crashed hard on ranking, messing around trying to do dailies. 

I know, I know: I should've been in Conquest mode but eh. It's just a game!

Your Head Asplode

 Another deck I've been putting off for awhile because of the reset. Because Your Head Asplode, baby. 

4 Talisman of Impulse
4 Rukh Egg
2 Seedguide Ash
1 Greater Gargadon
4 Viridian Joiner
4 Predator Ooze
4 Brindle Shoat

4 Elephant Guide

4 Rootgrapple

4 Stomping Ground
2 Mountain Valley
6 Mountain
6 Forest
1 Gruul Turf
4 Cragcrown Pathway

3 Obliterate
3 Jokulhaups

Obviously, there's a LOT that can be done now. Hell, Thraben U has a whole thing about using Jokulhaups and winning games, so even if it is just for fun (and it is) I should be able to improve this deck considerably. 

Lorwyn Eclipsed Prerelease 1-2

A slightly auspicious start to our Two-Headed Giant experience, as I got a paper cut while I was opening my box! Fortunately for me, Rebecca had a narwhal band-aid for me, so no blood hit the floor. 

I built a RW deck using blight counters and heavy on removal-I had a ton of spells to remove or incapacitate creatures. 

We also opened 3 copies of Maralen, Fae Ascendant so why not try an elves and faeries deck with lots of flash creatures? Rebecca took that one. 

Round 1 vs. Brian and Brian

They were running UW merfolk & RG elementals. And I'm pleased to say that our decks did things in the early game...but Brian (no, the other one) cast 3 Run Away Together  on consecutive turns. That's right; every turn we cast creatures, they got bounced. 

That took our creatures out of the action long enough for them to build tempo & use the Champion of the Path to take us out. I drew one removal spell that game, and I was reluctant for Rebecca to run out a flash blocker. Lesson definitely learned: flash creatures can sub as removal. 

Round 2 vs. Steven & Eli

They had a cheap UW fliers deck with a BR goblins that worked together well to overwhelm us. We had some removal, and the Lasting Tarfire I cast did some WORK but we couldn’t get enough creatures onto the board to hold off the creatures coming at us. Lasting Tarfire did all our damage, while at one point, they swung for NINE in the air. 

Round 3 Jacob & Harold

Jacob had a BG elves deck, and Harold a UWR Elementals deck.

Unfortunately for them, after a Keep Out on Jacob’s Shimmerwilds Growth, he had to spend time getting his colors fixed, slowing him down considerably. Harold had some Summit Sentinels, but apparently drew dead when he blocked with them, while Rebecca sent fliers over to swiftly end the game.

Despite the record, we both came away from the prerelease with very positive impressions of the set! I am looking forward to playing this set and seeing what decks it has to offer. 

Thanks as always to Red Castle Games for a well run event.