Rebirth

 I've been playing plenty of Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth and I'm fairly torn about it. 

The game is clearly reaching for the stars; it's weird and the main characters are well drawn. The storyline feels both true to the original and wildly outrageous. 

But I hate the combat system. It feels so repetitive! And why, why, WHY are the mechanics all kept behind the obtuse menus and...hell why does it feel so complicated?

There so many different combat effects it might as well be a fighting game, and it's all layered under menus that leave me doing something I hate: not playing a game, but instead reading about it. 

Why do I even have to worry about aerial combat???

And none of my teammates seem to build ATB: I have to actively control them to get that to happen. 

This all feels like systems that are impediments to play, instead of flavor enhancers. 

Going to be taking the rest of the year off to play games & catch up. See y'all in 2025!

If I Had My Little Way

So...look at this absurdity. 

That's 23 human tokens and eight Kaito tokens. What this tells me is that Peaches has a tempo issue, and I need to make sure I'm getting ahead of it. 

While it is true that four Soul Wardens in play will make for something very dumb, when I am attacking for 30 a turn and losing, something is still wrong. 

Basically: I need a way to establish tempo or take it from my opponent. Establishing tempo should be easy enough, because I think the curve is solid so I shouldn't have a lot of difficulties. But if for some reason I can't or don't, say because the game is just random or I come up against a aggressive deck then I need a way to make sure can climb back into the game. 

Which means taking a look at what kind of resources I have early on.

Currently, I'm thinking of cutting my copies of Prosperous Thief and Thousand-Faced Shadow but this leaves me with a very particular problem: I need two more cards and there isn't an obvious fit. Because with two slots, those cards need to be useful in nearly any situation I draw them in-let's say from turn three on. I can't be sad that I've got a card in hand that there aren't may duplicates of. 

The Long Goodbye makes a strong case for running four copies of (I currently have 3) but now I have one slot left!

I think that I've got the right amount of planes walkers (3) and creatures (24) so I really am in need of something to help me with tempo. Chain of Vapor effects come to mind but I'm feeling a little stymied!

And that's it for this week! I'm on vacation, and will have another post next week folks. Cheers!

In A Factory Downtown

So, after a major overhaul of the deck, Peaches definitely had some trouble. I played this against a MUD deck with Metalworkers but found myself really throttled by Lodestone Golem. In both games Noah was able to resolve one fairly early and that just made the rest of the game cost too much for me. 

At the same time, the fact that I was being pinned down by one card suggests to me that it may be possible that there's something to this deck. Or at least I'm doing something right, because most decks won't be running Lodestone Golem.

So I dialed it up again, this time in a three player game. The mana issues weren't prevalent and the deck functioned very smoothly! I even won out, being able to utilize the ninja abilities, coupled especially with the ability to replay my cheapest evasive creature, Will-o-the-Wisp. It was especially good when I could hold up regeneration mana. 

I'm on to something, which is great! 

Movin' To The Country

The first run out with Peaches went about the way I expected: the game was interesting but with a few mistakes and cards that felt weak. 

Yes, Standstill + Ninjutsu is a great combo but I found myself without much to do afterwards. In addition the mana base felt a little off, so I'll be taking a look at that as well. 

Now, the good news is: there's a whooooole lot of new cards to help up the power level and lean into the theme. From a new Planeswalker to a full decade's worth of cards that have activated abilities, including lands that could operate under a Standstill. 

After some research at Moxfield, I ended up cutting Cavern Harpy, Dauthi Horror, Escape Artist, Okiba Gang Shinobi, Thalakos Sentry, Into the Roil, and Throat Slitter.

In went Kaito, Bane of Nightmares, 4 Silent Wallcreeper, 1 Fallen Shinobi, 1 Ingenious Infiltrator, 3 Biting Palm Ninja, 1 Thousand-faced Shadow and 3 Long Goodbye.

After a look at the deck via Deckstats, I noticed Peaches was 40% lands, so I trimmed an Island for a Creeping Tar Pit and a Swamp for a Prosperous Thief,

That's a lotta lotta. But I said I wanted to update the deck, so let's commit!

Peaches

"Movin' to the country...."

3 Ronin Warclub

4 Will-o'-the-Wisp
3 Throat Slitter
1 Higure, the Still Wind
2 Ink-Eyes, Servant of Oni
3 Mistblade Shinobi
2 Okiba-Gang Shinobi
4 Escape Artist
3 Cavern Harpy
1 Thalakos Sentry
3 Dauthi Horror

4 Standstill

3 Into the Roil

4 Polluted Delta
8 Swamp
8 Island
4 Choked Estuary

As a result of me tweaking Weapon of Choice, I had to snag some Cavern Harpies from this deck--so why not give it an entire facelift!

Note to future me; first change -2 Cavern Harpy +2 Silver-Fur Master

The Retired: Revenge of the Slith

OK, I just need to admit that I did this one for the name. Can you blame me though? 

4 Kami of False Hope

4 Slith Firewalker

4 Slith Ascendant

3 Kor Sanctifiers

3 Firemane Avenger

2 Guardian Seraph

1 Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs

2 Precinct Captain

2 Odric, Master Tactician

2 Bedlam

4 Intimidation Bolt

3 Brimstone Volley

2 Order // Chaos

8 Mountain

8 Plains

3 Wind-Scarred Crag

4 Furycalm Snarl

Obviously, the big problem here is that the central concept-Make your creatures unblockable and huge-is simply worse than: play good creatures and stomp over theirs. Bedlam is a really neat card that costs too much. 

And there's so much that can be done with these other cards-from the lands to Guardian Seraph, that I'll let this one pass. 

Press Pause

I played a few games against Fuz on Monday and...boy did Weapon of Choice just eat dirt. And it did so in the worst sort of way: the kind that didn't teach me anything about why it didn't work. Did I draw too many lands again? Yes. Did I get some draw spells to fix this? Also yes. 

So; now what? 

Because I'm not having any fun with this deck. It's not the losing, it's the frustration at not seeing what is wrong. This really sucks, because I have loved this deck for so long. However, when you're butting your head against a wall, it's time to stop. 

I can find a wall I can climb instead. 

So let's keep the deck in rotation but find something else to play for a moment. 

In the meantime, I'm going on vacation for the holiday so this is the last post until next week. Have a happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Remnant 2: Prism Edition

The final DLC for Remnant 2  (The Dark Horizon) came out and boy, is it good.

Not flawless, but damn good.

The good: An excellent, huge final level to explore. Boss Rush mode is a great bite-sized way to play. 

The bad: Prisms. 

For those who haven't played; Remnant 2 used to give you three slots for "shards" that you could use to give a small boost to your stats. The shards had an in-game currency you could use to level them up, so the bonus would get bigger. There were a ton of different shards to use so you could adapt them to whatever build or playstyle you enjoyed. 

The prisms are a drag. 

Prisms are a new item you can slot that give characters preset bonuses, which you can change by adding in the previous use of shards. Every time you level up the prism, you get a set of mixed new shards from what you already own to choose from. Then you can pick one and keep going, until you have 5 slots full.

I think that's how it works.

Which is the first problem: I don't understand how it works and they don't tell you. Are there videos online to explain them? Yes. But why do I need those now? Why should I need them?

The second problem: It's randomized. So I could be doing all this work to tilt the prism towards a build I enjoy and not get the shards I want. Which means I have to restart the whole thing over. But apparently when you make choices, you lose the shards forever, merged into the new one?

I think that's how it works. Please see the first problem.

I've seen enough videos to know that you can tilt the odds in your favor but this is just more bookkeeping.

The third problem: The benefits aren't measurable for the work you put in. I am playing this game to have fun: is stat keeping fun? Is getting a +5% bonus to critical hit fun? What if I spend time to grind things out and make it 10? 15%? Do I get to have fun then? What about all the time I spent before I finally got 15% bonus? Is that fun? 

What if I don't get the Critical Hit stat, and instead have to start over because I got Skill Bonus? Is disappointment fun? 

So it's a lot of time into an opaque system to give me outcomes I cannot control for benefits that are unnecessary to my enjoyment.

Because what I want to note is that all of this stuff? This isn't playing the game or even part of the primary gameplay loop! It's just busywork.  

Which is a bummer of an ending to what has been one of the best games of 2024. 

Reconsidering

 This video from Rhystic Studies goes into the house of Duskmourn and the inspirations involved in the creation of the plane.

Now, I said a LOT about my perspective on the existence of Baseball Bat in Duskmourn and I stand by it all. It still feels lazy. 

I really like the video: I like the added context that is provided for this plane! I wish that it had been communicated better to the players. I also appreciated the reminder that for a great many Magic players, the 1980's is shrouded in myth-a time they have no memory of, as I do. For them, the appearance of a rotary phone is as odd as a cigarette holders are to me; symbols of eras gone before I was born. 

Context matters: items can become strange quickly and the next thing you know the world is unfamiliar. Maybe even a baseball bat takes on strange significance. 

Dancing Around

 My friend Fuz ended up talking to me about this post, saying (effectively) 'I think we are past the point of (Universes Beyond) making Magic just a skin to put other IP in. It's done.'

Not long after that I came across The Professor's take on the Universes Beyond announcement. He specifically references a Rhystic Studies post to help explain how he's feeling.

I'll even include links to other essays the Prof talks about: The Twitter thread by Gavin Bull, and the essay by Gareth Edwards, for your reference. 

Because with the support of the essays I can se what Rhystic Studies and The Professor want to but can't say because they don't want to get demonitized and/or want to maintain good relationships with the people who work at WotC.  

I don't judge them for that, but I don't have that problem.

They are trying to speak out against the enshittification of Magic. 

How do I know for certain that Magic is being enshittified? It isn't because I think WotC doesn't have talented people who care about the game. The opposite is true-but it is very difficult to get someone to believe something when their paycheck relies on the opposite. 

No. I am confident the game is being enshittified because the parent company of Hasbro has been losing money except for Magic. 

Hasbro doesn't know how to make or run games. They (seemingly) have ONE arm of the company that does, and they are milking it for all it's worth. They don't care about players. They don't care about what games mean to people. 

They care about money. And when what you care about is money, everything else gets burned to the ground for money. 

I still love Magic and I will probably always love playing Magic. But Magic has meaning and I am not OK with that becoming watered down into nothing. Like all art, it isn't just the object any more. 

It's something bigger, and it's a goddamn shame to see that being pissed away for mammon. 

Now Peasant Kenobi has a different perspective on this and while I appreciate his optimism and agree that Magic from a story perspective has always been an amalgam and pastiche of other work. But I feel like he's got some rose colored glasses on. Yes, Magic will change and yes, some people won't like that while others will and no, Magic isn't going to die.

Until it does, because that's how enshittification works (if you did the reading). Nevertheless, I feel the perspective is worth considering. 

What's Old Is New

Foundations is...a Core set. 

When Magic was starting, Core sets were the sets they'd release in the Summer and they held reprints, allowing new players to catch up on cards from sets they'd missed, giving WotC a chance to keep a steady supply of Giant Spiders in the format. 

They always sold like crap. 

As the game evolved, WotC used core sets to add in new art-so they wouldn't have to pay the extremely high royalties to older artists-and as a way to add older cards to the format that could help control the environment. Think: a place to add in sideboard cards that could act as safety valves in case they made, say, a set with impossibly powerful artifacts, well the core set could have 'destroy all artifact' cards to help keep things in check*.

*I never saw evidence of this--that's just what WotC said they were doing.

Then I believe in 2010, they started putting new cards in the core sets: hey, something for the older players too! 

They still sold like crap. Even though many cards were amazing, it just wasn't enough: the core sets rarely got the kind of attention others got, and the player base felt it. So they were discontinued. But: WotC still has a problem. How do we create an on ramp for new players?

Foundations seems to be their latest stab at that. And don't get me wrong, it looks like a proper Magic set-well done and with a Jumpstart supplemental set? I've always liked Jumpstart formats, and this one also looks like a banger. 

I'm just here to tell you that this isn't new. If Foundations sets are where they put more Magic product (as opposed to Universes Beyond stuff) then cool! Happy to see that. 

Because I don't think there's anything wrong with a core set. I wish they'd used those sets to reprint valuable, necessary game pieces (I'm almost exclusively thinking of lands here. Manabases should be cheap.). I am glad to see that they're using them to fill out the lore with characters and places from Magic's many worlds. I don't even object to the Fishing Pole card! Sure, it's bland but it's Magic bland.

Heck, it even might have a few cards bad enough to add to my Garbage cube! Looking at you, Chandra.

Inevitable

Well, the 2025 lineup for Magic was released and...boy is it a lot of shit I don't care about. 

First; there are only three Magic sets. The rest are Universes Beyond sets. Universes Beyond was always something I was happy to let other people enjoy but they weren't for me. Aside from the occasional remarkably powerful cards (you know what I'm talking about) I felt happy to ignore them.

Well, starting April next year, all Universes Beyond sets will be Standard legal so...that is six sets a year that they are hoping we'll hook into. SIX. 

That is just too goddamn much for me. Magic is my hobby, not my personality and it already takes up a huge chunk of my brain. 

I get the reasoning; UB sets bring in a bunch of new players-and then the only sixty-card formats they can play with their shiny new cards is Modern, where they will be buttstomped by players who have been playing Modern for years. 

Standard is more newbie-friendly. More players buying those cards for that format may help de-centralize the Commander format which...has gotten far too much weight. In my opinion.

I get the reasoning: WotC has literal decades of designing cards for the lower power environment that in Standard, and making cards for Modern power levels and getting people to care about those is far more challenging. 

But I also don't like what this does to the game. 

From a story perspective; All of the work done to build up a distinct world--like the worlds being borrowed for UB--gets diminished. But it isn't just the story, the IP at large gets watered down. At what point does Magic cease to be a distinct game and become just a rulebook that you can fold anything you want into? Monopoly skins as Magic product.

How is that special? 

From a consumer perspective; For me this is just such a naked money grab that it is difficult for me to believe that people with the game's best interest at heart is there.     

Which dampens my enthusiasm for all of the product. And OK, I'm not the audience for some of that product but I am in the audience for most of it! Or I was. 

Now...well, I guess I'm the audience for about half. 

You Can Check It Out

 A whole lot of cards have been through the gambit. Screaming Nemesis, Graveyard Trespasser, Tainted Adversary, and Phlage, Titan of Fire's Fury were among the many cards I swapped in. 

A lot of these have felt suboptimal or just not quite doing what I hoped. Others were clearly awesome, or should definitely find a way into the sideboard, like Graveyard Trespasser. 

But one problem I stumbled into often was that I would need to reuse my cards. Scrapshooter has done some excellent work-but I find that I need to use the ability a second time. Running Cavern Harpy is fine but the restriction of only getting a Black or Blue creature was limiting. 

Stonecloaker has been my current solution to this (and was also why I was testing Phlage, Titan of Fire's Fury).

I still need to do some work but I thought this might be a good time to check into the manabase, running it through the Deckstats algo. That's when I discovered I had another problem: The online version I've been running has Abrupt Decay, but the paper one does not. That's a pretty massive deal, since Decay solves so many problems that Aluren opens the door to. 

So now I have to look a little deeper, and that's before I look at the manabase!

Going to be an interesting one--if I can get the game reps in.

Don't Provoke

Here was the first draft:

 4 Birds of Paradise
2 Sylvan Caryatid
1 Scrapshooter
1 Intrepid Adversary
1 Primal Adversary
1 Spectral Adversary
1 Prowling Serpopard
2 Shakedown Heavy
1 Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath\
2 Cavern Harpy
1 Aether Channeler
1 Leovold, Emissary of Trest
1 Imperial Recruiter
1 Niambi, Esteemed Speaker|
1 Satoru, the Infiltrator
1 Garruk's Harbinger

1 Sterling Grove
4 Aluren

4 Eladamri's Call
3 Abrupt Decay

4 City of Brass
1 Windswept Heath
2 Wooded Foothills
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Bayou
3 Savannah
3 Reflecting Pool
3 Thran Quarry
4 Gemstone Mine

4 Ponder

My first impressions; Primal Adversary isn't right here, in a deck where the mana is already fungible. I am not sure about the Sylvan Caryatids; I like that they are hexproof but I don't like the defender quality. Nightshade Dryad is on deck. Imperial Recruiter is coming out for Endurance. 

I know I just said I didn't like one-shot combo decks, but I feel like there's enough range that having an out isn't a bad thing. A way to "just win" does matter, especially since I'm playing a slower version of the deck. So some adjustments still to be made.

AC/DC

 High Voltage is the newest format in Marvel Snap and this one is great. 

If you haven't heard about it yet, here's an overview in written form but the quick and dirty is; 

Games are only three rounds, and you get increasing amounts of energy each round.

Now, there were some red flags for me before I started playing High Voltage; a new card was part of the winnings and there was a new currency (volts) to earn. I was worried that this would turn into a massive grind, the way Deadpool's Diner did. 

I am very pleased to let you know that High Voltage is a TON of fun (again).

The games are very fast. Losing doesn't incur a penalty; you get volts if you win, and you get volts if you fulfill bounties. That's it-losing doesn't mean you lose volts. Playing at a steady rate will eventually rank you up to the rewards. There's zero drawback to play that I can tell and because the games are risk free, here's a great chance for players to just mess around. 

On top of that, if you lose, you just bounce to the next one. Lingering isn't the point.

So maybe y'all can stop with that Odin/Mystique/Gambit/Wong nonsense. 

Wargaming

This is an absolutely fascinating video that a friend sent me on the games that governments are using to iterate on warfare. 

I can't say it's the most soothing video. But it is engaging and thought provoking. 

I think it's particularly important to talk about now, while the influence of gamers can be felt, while boardgames are possibly their most popular state ever in the popular culture. As with any media, being aware of how we might be manipulated helps us determine the messages that we are being sent-and the appropriateness of them. Who is behind these ideas? Deciding how serious gaming can be used-as the tool that it has clearly become-feels important.

At the very least, we should give these ideas some attention.

Free Pizza:: Venom Season

 

Sometimes, you gotta play dirty.

Hela is certainly making a run for 'best deck in the format' right now so to hell with it, let's play. 

Why? Because I couldn't find anything interesting or fun to do. That's a drag but when that's a drag, fuck it, let's just win.

My little note of cleverness was to sub out Moon Knight (which was getting me more often than it should) with Sword Master and add in Spider-Woman as a target specifically for it. I'm sure someone else did that--or maybe I read someone else doing it. Either way; the deck carried me well from low 80's into the 90th rank.

Now I'm fucking around and the meta seems very screwy but not in a fun way. We'll see what we see in the coming weeks. 

Break it down

I cut nearly 1/3 of this deck-19 cards- right off the bat. 

Because this was a Cataclysm deck, at the end of the day. But times have changed a LOT. What good are Battlemages or Volvers when you can cast Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath?

Cataclysm means I need to be able to wreck someone after I cast that, but creature spells have become so cheap and so powerful Cataclysm doesn't have the impact it did in Weapon of Choice.

Options: Trostani, Three Whispers, Shakedown Heavy, Prowling Serpopard, the Adversary cycle from Midnight Hunt, Anafenza the Foremost, Garruk's Harbinger, Scrapshooter, and Laughing Jasper Flint. 

And these are all really interesting cards, but I have to admit that I'm definitely mired in the stylings of a very old deck. 

Yes, I know there are combo finishers in certain versions of Aluren; Acererak the Archlich is a one card finisher and using Cavern Harpy + Parasitic Strix can do it too. But I never really liked those. 

The latter because it represents an easy way out. I'm not saying I shouldn't have the combo in there as one-ofs. Sometimes you just need to win. But I don't like it, because it doesn't feel like any real setup was done, no work. Aluren is out: Do you have the combo? Then the game is over. 

I realize it's ego, but winning that way doesn't feel worthy of my efforts. 

Acererak is even worse: I hate what dungeons did to Magic and don't like this method either. 

So why even run the deck at all, right? 

Because fuck it, that's why. 

Fortunately, there are some good choices for me that I hadn't thought of--and I found those by doing some research at Moxfield.

Nah.

The Kickstarter for a new game from Wise Wizard has gone up and the base concept seems neat. I like the notion of laying tiles, and building a deck from them...then I got to the art section and noped right out.

Because it doesn't matter that they are trying to justify AI "used as an artist tool, NOT an artist replacement". By default, what AI does right now is plagiarism. Any work made with AI is scraping the work made by actual people and spitting it out without crediting them. 

And hey, I've seen some neat stuff that people have done using AI prompts. But they weren't making money from it, nor were they trying to pass it off as their own. That isn't what WW is doing here. It's even worse-it's plagiarizing other artists and THEN running it through their artist to make the claim that they are paying an artist!

So no.

It Was Only A Matter Of Time

Anyone who has a sense of the history of things would tell you that Commander being a format that was shepherded by the community was never going to last. At the very least, Hasbro was never going to allow the most popular format to be managed by people who (ostensibly) had the players' best interests at the foremost, instead of the company's. Sooner or later, the corporation was going to take it away from the players.

And now it is done. It happened for the most epically shitty reasons I can think of-the "community" freaking out to the point of sending threats to the Rules Committee. That was never OK, it isn't OK and I don't want people who react like that to be part of my game. 

I also think this bodes ill for the format at large. WotC had a shield from their design mistakes by having the community police the format, and the existence of the Rules Committee meant that the community had a real voice in how that format played out. That's all gone now and I don't think things are going to be the same.

It'll start off slow, of course. These things always do. But eventually Commander will change in ways that are going to surprise the community and I don't think it'll be in a good way. However, if it means that the people making decisions are shielded from the absolute bullshit of community members who think death threats are a good thing regarding a card game then fine. 

Y'all made your bed. Sleep in it.

Weapon Of Choice

This is one of my favorites:

3 Sword of Light and Shadow
4 Birds of Paradise
2 Necravolver
3 Rakavolver
3 Shivan Emissary
1 Sunscape Battlemage
3 Thunderscape Battlemage
3 Thornscape Battlemage
2 Sylvan Caryatid

1 Sterling Grove
4 Aluren

4 Eladamri's Call

4 City of Brass
1 Windswept Heath
2 Wooded Foothills
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Bayou
3 Savannah
3 Reflecting Pool
4 Thran Quarry
4 Gemstone Mine

4 Cataclysm

While I named this after the Fatboy Slim song I also named it after the toolbox effect that we were going for when we built this deck.

That's right! So let me set the stage: it is Summer, 2001 and I am living alone in a small apartment on 50th. 

That fact alone is almost mythological to today's people. Sigh.

ANYWAY: Jason calls me and asks a simple question: Can you pay Kicker costs under an Aluren?

No, I tell him. Of course you can't! That's an extra cost and you're not paying for that.

Are you sure? Because the card says...

And we go round and round on this for about ten minutes before I have a small revelation:

You should help your friend, because you're kinda being a dick right now. 

So at a break in the argument I tell him: Let's find out if it works, first. Because if it does, there's a whole host of possibilities. 

(If you clicked that link then I want you to pretend that half those cards don't exist yet.)

And, as it turns out I am wrong, Jason is right and you absolutely can pay additional costs while under an Aluren.

Well. THAT is a thing, ennit?

So, in addition to this being one of the oldest decks I have ever made, Aluren also became the keystone of another deck by itself! One that has evolved using cards from the D&D set, to enter the dungeon and combo the opponent out.

That isn't what I want to do. However, what is clear is that there have been a bunch of cards printed and this deck deserves an upgrade! So let's go.

Set Review: Duskmourn: House of Horror

The easy link for review. Official link because official. A link to the mechanics of the set for anyone needing a refresher. 

Sigh...look the first thing we need to talk about is Baseball Bat. More than any other card, I feel like this one symbolizes what's wrong with the set. 

Duskmourn doesn't have a consistent feel, and that is a problem. While I understand that the notion is to pull from 80's horror and haunted house films, and that the underlying premise for the set is one where the plane opens doors to other dimensions to lure unsuspecting entities in the feeling of this set is, in my opinion, not only inconsistent but at odds with Magic at large. 

As a game evoking fantasy realms, I am actually perfectly fine with the art deco and noir stylings of New Capenna, and I thought the reimagining of Kamigawa into Neon Destiny was inspired, the steampunk leaning Kaladesh set didn't give me any pause at all. Magic is a very big game, and reimagining things is what keeps it vital thirty years on. 

Unfortunately, Duskmourn feels like it took some shortcuts. Because a baseball bat is a very specific, very iconic thing. It represents a game born in America, utterly disconnected from any fantasy realm at all. It shouldn't exist in Magic, because Earth is not a place in the game. There are no wizards here, no ogres to fight, no rat ninjas to speak of. 

And there is, quite simply, no way for me to get away from the fact that now the fantasy realms of Magic have been diminished by the real world. 

It feels lazy, which is possibly the worst things about it. That item could have been reimagined as any number of things, with flavor text to help illustrate it's importance. An item used by survivors to help them navigate the mansion--think of the Lobo from World War Z (the book). It could have been cool. 

Instead a baseball bat has made Duskmourn, and even Magic itself more mundane. And it comes alongside cards like Chainsaw-which doesn't appear to have been transformed by the multiverse at all- and Fear of Abduction and Unidentified Hovership which pull from the Gray Aliens trope of the X-Files (among other sci-fi references).

I want to be clear: I am not objecting to a card like Break Down The Door; or Bear Trap (bears have long been in the Magic universe), clowns, dolls, or even Saw, as blades of all sorts are part of every universe I can think of-fantasy or otherwise. 

I am disappointed in what feels like a lack of creativity in the name of fan service, or worse, playing it safe so that the audience 'gets it'. 

Whew. That was a lot, wasn't it!

So let me talk about what I like.

I particularly like the enchantment creatures as nightmares but the enchantment creatures as a whole are cool. This feels like SUCH a flavor win, from the ethereal eeriness of the nightmares to the Enduring cycle. Well done there. 

I think the choice to have Manifest expand to the top two cards of your library is a great one, offering players interesting decisions to make. 

I dig on the Rooms: once again Wizards is finding new and interesting things to do with the Enchantment type and I'm all for it. The rooms feel like they are evoking games like Betrayal in the House on the Hill which is a very cool nod.

When Duskmourn leans into the haunted house stuff, I dig the art and concepts there. Meathook Massacre II, Midnight Mayhem, The Rollercrusher Ride--these cards suggest to me an infinite space of unsettlement, where you just never know how large or small it is going to be. I'm reminded of the mansion in the first Resident Evil from 1996, where it somehow contained a frankly bizarre number of horrors-which was the point. 

And at the end of it all, I'm interested in how the set plays. Do I wish the artistic direction had been more creative? I absolutely do.

Do I think the mechanics work? I do, and I am looking forward to messing around with it!

Edit: I'm out of town soon, so the next post will be on Thursday the 26th!

Gloomhaven: First Loss

We took one on the chin. 

In our first scenario loss, we struggled through the first room, which required us to not only kill respawning Black Sludges but also waste precious time taking out 'generators' that couldn't harm us, but we couldn't proceed further until they were gone. 

There was a little bit of bad luck, too so by the time I burst into the second room I was promptly kicked in the face by the enemies and downed. 

Kim didn't think she could manage it with the resources she had left so we set it aside for another day. 

That other day came and we were successful! We got a little unlucky with the Black Sludge cards-that monster regenerates and is very difficult to kill. But we also knew to make better choices with our resources and leave behind certain treasure to keep pushing forward. 

We talked about the experience later, because I wanted to know how she felt after the first real loss of the game. I'm paraphrasing because we had a conversation and I didn't take notes.

But: what it came down to was that Kim felt there was some bad luck involved. We still got to make choices and we're still learning how to make the most of the options given. 

Plus, because we were in it together, and because neither of us was giving the moment a ton of weight, the impact of the loss didn't hit as hard. Gloomhaven is still a game and our attitude about having fun still held reign over how we chose to engage with it. 

And I want to talk about that for a second. Because that attitude has been really important! 

We live in an era where games are probably more culturally relevant than ever, but also have some massive barriers to entry. For those of us already in the hobby, it's important to take a healthy attitude towards gaming so that people don't get alienated or discouraged. 

Taking things too seriously would've made Kim miserable: there would have been no room to experiment or fail--no room to play and that kinda defeats the purpose. 

Free Pizza-Spider Season

This is probably the fastest I've hit Free Pizza in Marvel Snap. I won't say it was easy, but the idea was remarkably effective.

The deck idea from Reddit user wu11 and is showcased here. I wasn't seeing enough Arishem decks to keep Cassandra Nova in there; Rogue and Killmonger both did stints in the deck before I settled on Killmonger being more useful.

The use of Symbiote Spider-Man into Black Panther then Zola was the real win condition, but if Negative hit, a flipped Iron Man that got Zola'd backed up by Mystique, with a Knull to offer some extra power? The possibility for extra lines to win was extremely flexible and made for a deck that offered me a lot of opportunities. 

I've gone back to a Cassandra Nova/Darkhawk deck, as apparently my meta has now flipped TO Arishem decks and suddenly messing with them is Very Important. 

Still, I enjoyed this take on Mr Negative, the excellent use of Symbiote and getting to chill for the rest of the season. 

Free Pizza-Young Avengers Season

 This season was a bear. I felt like I just couldn't find a good deck or a rhythm with the ones I knew well. The meta game felt all over the place, and sometimes I just had RNGesus tell me to get screwed. 

I did have some very memorable moments, like this:

Full kudos to my opponent there. I love it. Plus I continued robbing Tribunal players of cubes with a turn six Enchantress. 

But damn, do my decks always seem to need Enchantress. 

I did earn my free pizza though on the last weekend and I did it after the Attuma tweak. Something about that deck hummed. 

Is this good? Will I keep it?? No idea. This deck doesn't have a name yet and this would be my third destroy deck. I'd almost rather incorporate something into a deck I already have--but I had a bounty on getting wins with Armor and Attuma in the same deck. 

I got that bounty and suddenly found myself hitting rank 90 after languishing in the 80s most of the season. 

Destroy is still a pretty good deck and Killmonger has become pretty important against the Marvel Boy decks. 

Which is a little bit of a shame: I think the Marvel Boy decks are pretty neat! But they seemed to lead to a metagame that I couldn't get my head around. I had a lot of fun with Ultron decks though-they did a bunch of work for me...until they didn't. 

Similarly, I had some success with a deck using Cassandra Nova and Ajax or Darkhawk: for a hot minute my meta seemed to shift to all Arishem all the time. 

You can mess a Arishem player UP with a Cassandra Nova played on turn 3. 

But I made it, and I'm glad I did. Whew!

The Retired: Intolerance

This one gets filed under; Neat idea, but the game has passed it by.

4 Humble Budoka
2 Blurred Mongoose
4 Jolrael's Centaur
4 Nimble Mongoose
4 Pincher Beetles
3 Elvish Lookout
1 Kodama of the North Tree
3 Hawkeater Moth

3 Wrap in Vigor

2 Oran-Rief, the Vastwood
19 Forest
2 Slippery Karst

4 Overrun
2 Titania's Boon
1 Overwhelming Stampede

2 Doubling Chant

I really like the concept here; play creatures that cannot be targeted by removal, creating dead cards in your opponent's hand. The fact that I can't target them either isn't a problem and cards like Wrath of God are just passe now. But if they are running (most) Wrath effects, Wrap in Vigor solves that problem! 

Unfortunately for me-but really better for the game-the Shroud ability has been replaced by Hexproof. And sure, there are green creatures to make that deck with there isn't anything particularly powerful happening if I do that. And if I'm going to play around with an off-beat concept, I'd at least like there to be some powerful interactions. 

So it's time to let it go.

Reuse Repurpose

 I got to play two games with Scavenger against Noah; one with Grist, and one with Tyvar, Jubilant Brawler. 

I feel like Tyvar is pretty easy to justify: the ability to use tokens for mana immediately isn't bad, the ability to return a creature from the graveyard is pretty nice too. The +1 isn't amazing but it is still useful!

The first matchup was with Grist in the deck against Goblins and I was able to utilize Night Incarnate to stay in those games. Mana adjustments have been positive-I was even able to play through a couple Wastelands, which felt good. 

Unfortunately, Scavenger still fell short. Noah agreed the games were interesting matches but he was still able to present lethal. 

Later that evening, I swapped the Voracious Larva for Tyvar and found the abilities to be just as useful as I had hoped! I think I ended up playing Goblins again and I still lost but also the plan of the deck didn't come together either; I didn't see any of my engine pieces. 

3 Desecrated Tomb
4 Witch's Oven

3 Urborg Elf
4 Hapless Researcher
1 Guile
1 Dread
4 Cauldron Familiar
3 Reassembling Skeleton
3 Malcolm, Alluring Scoundrel
3 Night Incarnate
2 Rootwater Diver
3 Tyvar, Jubilant Brawler

4 Insidious Roots

5 Swamp
1 Salt Marsh
4 Island
5 Forest
3 Jwar Isle Refuge
4 Zagoth Triome

So for now, this is the list. I would like a little more card draw, so it might be worth looking for a Hapless Researcher replacement. However, since this deck has put up a good battle against a solid Goblins deck, I feel like it is in a good place! They don't all have to be A tier decks. 

Still The Best

I know that Legacy and Modern are a bit of a trainwreck right now, but Thraben U reminds us that Magic can still be a great game.

Treasure

I had games against Matt on Doomsday and Noah on Goblins. 

I lost both of them: Doomsday was just too fast for me and Scavenger just has zero interactions with that deck. That's what a sideboard would be for.

Against Goblins though I split the games! That's very promising for a deck that I'm just fucking around with. I might've even taken game 1 if I'd gotten to four mana in time to cast Night Incarnate (I was a turn shy). 

The first thing that became clear: Splinterfright, as much as I like it, shouldn't be here. The second: I should run this through Deckstats and check the mana. 

Turns out I'm shy on Swamps, so I trimmed an Island and a Forest for two more.

As for Splinterfright, well....OK I'll just admit I got diverted by the Glory of Cool Things and added in a Grist, Voracious Larva. But hey, maybe it'll be great!

Sifting Through

My first run against Fuz showed me where I was holding on to ideas that were just not helping. Cutting the 'engine' of the deck-Basalt Monolith and Mesmeric Orb- was clearly mandatory.

So after some consultation with him, this was what I came up with:

4 Desecrated Tomb
4 Witch's Oven

3 Urborg Elf
4 Hapless Researcher
1 Guile
1 Dread
4 Cauldron Familiar
2 Reassembling Skeleton
3 Malcolm, Alluring Scoundrel
3 Night Incarnate
2 Rootwater Diver
3 Splinterfright

4 Insidious Roots

3 Swamp
1 Salt Marsh
5 Island
6 Forest
3 Jwar Isle Refuge
4 Zagoth Triome

I like Malcolm as a way to sift through my library; I'm not sure if it's good but at least it is interesting. And 2 damage in the air per turn is a clock, even if it isn't the fastest one.

More relevant is the Witch's Oven/Cauldron Familiar combo. Now that the Orb/Monolith is out, Scavenger still needs an engine for the deck to help it get wins. This is a great place to start and it's pretty cheap to get going. Plus, it means that Rootwater Diver still holds relevance! 

Scavenger II

(This should've gone up yesterday! Sorry)

I know I did this deck once before but! Insidious Roots wasn't a card then. 

4 Basalt Monolith
3 Mesmeric Orb
4 Desecrated Tomb

3 Urborg Elf
3 Splinterfright
4 Hapless Researcher
1 Guile
1 Dread
1 Den Protector
2 Rootwater Diver
1 Reassembling Skeleton
4 Nightveil Sprite
1 Sakura-Tribe Elder

3 Catalog
3 Price of Fame

3 Swamp
1 Salt Marsh
5 Island
6 Forest
3 Jwar Isle Refuge
4 Zagoth Triome

This was the original. Let's mix it up. Not a lot-but with copies of both Desecrated Tomb and Insidious Roots, I have the opportunity to play into the theme better, without having to add a lot of extra card draw. 

Free Pizza: Deadpool Season

The last day of the season, but I did it. Despite the drag of the game and Deadpool's Diner being a real slog, I earned my free pizza. (Well, so to speak).

I did with a bit of a metagame call: Darkhawk is a decent counter to Arishem decks and those are currently still the rage. Once I got a Cassandra Nova, I figured I might as well use it!

However, prior to having a Cassandra I was using Absorbing Man so if you don't have one, that's a super useful card in this deck and a good replacement. 

I can't say this is the most original idea (the deck name is a reference to the Devil Dino & Darkhawk decks that were popular a year ago), but it did get the job done!

 

Upsides

 

I got a Cassandra Nova in the Diner. Let us never speak of it again.

Except...

Except for one thing. I got my Cassandra because someone deliberately lost a game to me--giving me 3,000,000 Bubs. 

See, turns out that some of the community on Reddit decided that this game mode was some nonsense and began donating to other players. Which is awesome! Posts were made, threads created where people were giving their usernames and an established signal for how to let someone know you were donating was set up. 

I wanted to be a part of that, so I promptly started going in to lose games in order to give other players a leg up. 

Which is pretty awesome. 

One small apology to user Brody though--I messed up trying to give you Bubs and inadvertently won the game. I'm so so sorry! I gave them away to the next user, I promise!

Bloomburrow Pre-Release (1-2)

Once again, I was at the Two-Headed Giant pre-release at Red Castle Games, my partner was the awesome Rebecca and...here's how it went!

First match vs Eugene & Kevin (loss)

This one was a tough one—Rebecca drew 4 lands in a row, after mulliganing down to five cards. While I had an interesting start of two Mistbreath Elders, I couldn’t follow up with anything important. The tempo set us back, unfortunately. They had a Mable, a Heartfire Hero, and then followed it up with a slow building rat deck.

Round two; I’m sorry, I didn’t get your names! (won)

There was a nice back and forth; one opponent had a rat/otter deck the other had GW rabbits and while we kept them at bay, we were on the back foot for most of the game. I could deal with Burrowguard Mentor the first time, but it came back via a Dewdrop Cure. With Valley Floodcaller they really kept the pressure on. The UB deck they had was stacked, and at one point I counted four rares on the table just from them! 

At the last moment I was able to.cast a Dragonhawk, exiling 3 cards, give it haste with Raccoon Rallier and exile 3 more; this meant that no matter what, I was dealing 24 damage to my opponents (12 each) and that was exactly enough. That ending is very silly. But a win is a win!

Round 3; I also did not get their names, sorry. (loss)

It went pretty evenly, though Bandit's Talent did a LOT of work both forcing cards from our hand and doing damage. The critical play was a Scales of Shale to protect Driftgloom Coyote from my Agate Assault, preventing returning Kingfisher to us. I foolishly walked into attacking after that, instead of just letting Rebecca's fliers get damage in. They gained five life to the five damage and Bandit's Talent did another 4 damage to us on upkeep to seal it.

Sigh. I totally blew that one—but we had a good time! We both felt the games were good, and that we had opportunities, even in the games where RNG didn't help us.

Here's what we built:

Deck 1 (RG)
Playful Shove
Wildfire Howl
Agate Assault

Pawpatch Formation
Conduct Electricity

Flamecache Grecko
Mistbreth Elder (2, one later cut for the Wildfire Howl)
Byway Barterer
Brambleguard Captain
Wandertale Mentor
Rust-Shield Ramppager
Dragonhawk, Fate's Tempest
Tender Wildguide (2)
Brambleguard Veteran
Raccoon Rallier
Quaketusk Boar
Treeguard Duo
Treetop Sentries
Sunspine Lynx
Alania's Pathmaker
Junkeblade Bruiser
Roughshod Duo
Bark-Knuckle Boxer

Deck 2 (UB)
Patchwork Banner
Sword of Fire & Ice

Savor (2)
Early Winter
Feed the Cycle

Kitnap

Starlit Soothsayer
Tidecaller Mentor
Knightfisher
Agate-Blade Assassin
Daggerfin Duo
Persistent Marshstalker
Vren, the Relentless
Glidedive Duo
Mind Drill Assailant
Bonebind Orator
Starscape Cleric
Thought Shucker
Moonrise Cleric
Nightwhorl Hermit
Seedpod Squire
Waterspout Warden
Moonstone Harbinger

Hidden Grotto
Uncharted Haven (2)

Hey, Bubs

Deadpool's Diner as a gameplay mode has been released for Marvel Snap.

I have found myself not enjoying it much at all. There's multiple issues here for me, so I'm going to outline them.

First; It's predatory. Studies have shown that the more "currencies" you put between the real dollar amount and acquisition, the more people are likely to spend. Because the "currencies" aren't 1=1 versions of money. 

Well, the Diner introduces Bubs as a currency that you can earn ONLY in the diner and that you MUST use if you want to play...unless you want to pay some gold. How do you get gold? Funny you should ask! You get THAT by playing the regular game or by paying actual money. Playing the game gives you gold at an incredibly slow rate so hey, you want to get in on the Diner action right? 

And you just lost 20k Bubs and are broke?? They won't refill for hours so you can't keep playing the Diner? 

Well I'm sure you DO have $99 for 8,000 gold which will then get you 945,000 Bubs! How does math work?

Second, the Diner forces you to bet, automatically raising the stakes on turns 4 and 5. I've already seen comments online about how this feels like gambling and the issues it raises for people who just want to play a 3 minute game and maybe get their daily goals met. 

As a subset of this, if you want to get to the fifteen million Bubs you need to complete the sequence, you have to start betting at higher and higher and higher stakes. That's a must; there's no way to get there without it. 

Third, it uses the worst FOMO to encourage play: a new card is available. Yes, it'll become part of the shop in August but you could just earn it now, right? F2P players pretty much have to grind this out if they want the card.

And this is coming at the worst possible time because Arishem decks have taken over the meta and are not that fun to play against. Which matters because:

Fourth, holy shit this is grindy as hell. Because of the way the Diner is set up, players are encouraged to play their best decks at all time to maximize everything. Experimentation is cast aside for pure competition. 

But part of the joy of Marvel Snap is making up weird shit and playing it in the Conquest modes where your rank isn't impacted, or just changing decks up when you realize that what you have isn't facing the meta well. Yes you can change in the Diner too but the impact feels bigger. If you aren't playing the best deck, it feels like you're playing it wrong.

Fifth, they did a terrible job of explaining how things worked. And given the FOMO and betting aspects of the Diner, I'm thinking they did that on purpose. That feels incredibly shitty. 

Now, there is one thing they did right: once you hit a certain level of Bubs, you can't go below it. Every time you hit that rung on the ladder, you don't fall further, even if you lose. You just have to stop playing until your Bubs refill. 

But the downsides have been such that it's done something even worse for me. 

It's made the game unfun to play. At least for now. 

Bloomburrow Set Review

The readable link and the messy one. 

So, in the interest of not burying the lede, I think Bloomburrow is one of the most exciting sets I've seen in awhile. I can't wait to get my hands on it: I think the art direction is wonderful and the mechanics are exhibited in compelling ways. It looks like a lot of fun with cool choices to be made so let's get into it!

Mechanics. I like the ease of Offspring. It's very clear what it does and the uses are pretty obvious. Like most kicker-style mechanics, there is always that tension; should you go for the early boost, or can you wait to get something better? In this case, the something better is tangible and less vulnerable to basic  removal so that consideration becomes more complex!

Gifts are another great mechanic. It's been awhile since WotC has done a 'drawback' mechanic but I really appreciate the execution on this one. Again; what choice are you willing to make to advance your gamestate? What risks are worth it? 

Good stuff.

Forage is the one I'm most so-so about. Because it's reliant on other resources (having a food or having enough cards in the graveyard to use), the reliability of the mechanic isn't there so now we're talking about straight up power. And the power level isn't that high--but that doesn't mean this is bad, either. 

Valiant is Heroic redux. I'm not upset about that but I wish they'd made it so the trigger could happen whenever your opponent's targeted the creature, too. It's also limited to the first time you target the creature; we'll see if they boosted the power level appropriately.  

Expend is the most awkward mechanic to explain I think. Also, it's the most fiddly as you have to keep track of exactly how much mana you've spent. That part isn't fun but it does reward you for doing what you want to do in Magic: cast spells. So I'm not too down on it.

I also like that they've brought back Class enchantments. These are such elegant ways to show progress and I feel like even new players can get them easily.

White
I can't say there are any card standouts here but at the same time, everything seems useful. I do enjoy the tie to Black with things that are triggering on life gain or loss. Also, I dig the artwork on Crumb And Get It. It isn't going to be easy to really stand out in Bloomburrow--this set is packed with great art and I bet a lot of people are going to have multiple favorites. 

Blue
Dour Port-Mage is weird in a good way. I like the synergies that it can represent and the way it can push a tempo-oriented deck. I also appreciate the support for the card there. The use of the Threshold mechanic is a bit odd but I think will work OK for Limited matches. 

Black
Fell might be my favorite artwork in the set. But there are also Bat Warlocks and I mean...bat warlocks, people. The use of color throughout Black reminds me a little of Wilds of Eldraine and I like that. There's a smattering of Threshold cards but I'm not sure that's the U/B theme for this set, especially since it's so clearly about creature types. But as with White: not a lot different but all of it useful.

Red
Festival of Embers looks like a strange one. The cost probably puts it in the Commander realm but the ability is quite good. Flamecache Gecko has a little bit of Burning-Tree Emissary energy and that card is certainly better than it has any right to be. 

Green
Possibly the weakest of the colors this time around-although that isn't saying much. I consider the power level here to be pretty even amongst the colors, and while nothing is leaping out at me, there isn't anything that sucks either. Possibly most damning is that the artwork all seems to come from the same 5 color palate and it makes things look very samey. That's unfortunate, since the art is so good! But perhaps it will stand out better when mixed with the other colors, instead of when I look at all the Green cards at once. 

Multi
I love that there's a Mentor cycle, because I get to add to my Liege decks. I also would've preferred it if Mabel, Heir to Cragflame let you search for an actual card, instead of generating a token, but that's mostly because I would've liked to see art for it. Other than that, this area feels like a good spot for shoring up the themes of the other cards in the set. 

Artifacts/Lands
Again; good stuff-nothing too overpowering but with excellent synergies for players to look for and exploit. 

So all in all, I feel like Bloomburrow may be a home run of a set! Looks like a solid power level, great art, fun interactions within the set and a lot of cool things to do. I have high hopes for this set and can't wait to get it in my hands.

The Retired: Weapons of Mass Distortion

Once upon a time, I named a deck after a Crystal Method song and tried to use Defense of the Heart. 

Weapons of Mass Distortion

2 Darksteel Ingot

4 Utopia Tree
3 Varchild's War-Riders
1 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
3 Viridian Zealot
1 Tornado Elemental
1 Bringer of the Blue Dawn
1 Bringer of the Red Dawn
1 Duplicant
1 Akroma, Angel of Fury
1 Avatar of Fury
1 Avatar of Might
1 Woodfall Primus
1 Bogardan Hellkite
2 Fire Ants
1 Suture Priest

4 Defense of the Heart

4 Lat-Nam's Legacy
4 Simoon

4 Forbidden Orchard
8 Forest
2 Island
5 Mountain
4 Dreamroot Cascade

As ideas go, this isn't too bad-use Forbidden Orchard to force the conditions that Defense of the Heart requires onto my opponent. Then dial up whatever cool monsters I want/need and win. Use Simoon and Fire Ants to keep the token army from getting out of control-or don't and use Suture Priest to punish them.

There are a few problems though. First, the monster selection is bad. Sure, Avatar of Might seemed rad once, but creatures have come a looooooooooong way. 

Second: the mana is all over the place. 

Third, there's no way to ensure that I'm going to get the Defense of the Heart. Lat-Lam's Legacy is a card I love and I think it's underutilized but that isn't enough to make the deck consistent. 

However, there's another reason why I'm taking this apart and it's got a little bit to do with this. (The bones of this deck went into Blackened Disease!)

The Retired: Hope Is A Passenger

Sadly this never really did what I hoped. I reworked this deck years ago and then never picked it up again.

4 Well of Lost Dreams
4 Sunbeam Spellbomb
2 Behemoth Sledge

3 Ageless Entity
3 Kavu Titan
4 Quirion Elves
2 Devout Witness
4 Essence Warden
2 Dragonlord Dromoka
2 Sunscorch Regent

2 Armadillo Cloak

2 Blessed Alliance

8 Forest
2 Selesnya Sanctuary
9 Plains
2 Temple of Plenty
1 Blossoming Sands
1 Graypelt Refuge

2 Solar Tide
1 Fumigate

After all that, it's just not engaging. Forgot my own rule: you cannot just gain life-all that does is extend the time it takes to lose. That lifegain has to mean something in the larger context of the game.

Now, the upside is that there are some good cards to mine from this deck to put to use elsewhere, and I have whittled down one more deck I do not need. But it is a bummer that I couldn't get this theme to feel more fun. 

There might be an idea worth revisiting here when Bloomburrow comes out; there are multiple Black and White cards that trigger off life gain and life loss. But for now, let's bin it.

Ashy Illness

So, first I fixed the mana. Did I cut Blue? 

.....no. Look, I'm not entirely sure why Lat-Nam's Legacy doesn't have a bigger presence but the ability to recycle cards in my hand that are redundant (because they are on the board) for answers I may need is a big deal. 

Then, I added in Hunted Bonebrute, a card Fuz stumbled on while we were brainstorming. I like this card quite a bit here, and it makes for a good substitute for Exsanguinator Calvary.

These have been pretty amazing changes: the playability of Blackened Disease has become so much better. I am kicking myself a little for not looking at the mana sooner. At the same time, the deck has been a little challenging to test, because a couple people I play with have leaned into some token decks. 

Well, it's pretty dickish to play a deck that deliberately fucks over tokens, right? I don't get a proper experience with how the deck plays and their time is miserable. So I've had to be judicious about when I got to play the deck.

Still, things have been solid and fun to play. I really need to remember that the foundation of every deck is mana, and getting that right is critical to seeing if the idea actually works. 

Also, and I'm not saying this is right, but Maha is a pretty spicy card for this deck...

Infectious Darkness

I don't know about you but I can't understand the lyrics for Blackened Disease, so I'm just going to find synonyms. 

Now I've been on a very big R/B kick, it's pretty clear. Probably going back nearly a year, when I wanted to do the Orcish Bowmasters/Burning Inquiry combo. I still love that deck, even though it doesn't quite come together as well as I would like. Still, that color combo has been the thing for me if anyone is wondering why I'm into this meme of a deck.

It is fun, I can't deny it. But it's definitely using some of the spaces needed to make the deck work like Illness in the Ranks, for cards that would be better in the game overall. There just aren't a ton of token decks to worry about, right?

And then there's the addition of Blue. Should it be there at all? 

The first test went...badly. Fuz was playing a GW deck and it just chewed through this deck. But he liked the engine of this deck so was happy to give me some suggestions. Many of those I'll be incorporating as soon as I can. Then we looked at the deck, big picture style.

One of the first problems I noticed was the manabase. This deck is a heavy Black one, and cards like Hero's Downfall need BB to get going. Well only 50% of the deck produces Black mana, in a deck that has 72% black cards!

There's a couple ways to take pressure off-running Go for the Throat was a suggestion. There was also the notion of removing Blue entirely and I really don't want to get rid of Lat-Nam's Legacy buuuuut there's a strong argument for that. 

First thing's first though: I need to fix the manabase so it properly reflects the colors it needs.