Shallow Ground

I've been holding off on this one, but it's time. I named this after the Corrosion of Conformity song, just to give y'all a sense of how long ago I first started on this deck.

2 Talisman of Unity

3 Quirion Elves
3 Terravore
3 Werebear
3 Watchwolf
3 Soltari Champion
3 Mother of Runes
2 Titania, Protector of Argoth

2 Seal of Cleansing

3 Wild Might
4 Swords to Plowshares

8 Forest
1 Havenwood Battleground
4 Windswept Heath
2 Flagstones of Trokair
6 Plains
2 Horizon Canopy

4 Armageddon
2 Catastrophe

Why have I been resisting playing this deck? 

First, Magic has largely moved on. Armageddon was once a terrible spell to witness. Now, it barely registers. Mana has gotten a lot better since Armageddon's heyday, the game has sped up significantly and losing all your lands doesn't sting like it once did.. 

Second, Armageddon creates unfun game states. That's just a fact and it's why WorC hasn't printed a Standard legal version of this card in literal decades. 

But now; now I'm wondering if this should still exist--and if it does, should it just be combined with Xnoybis. 

More is Too Much

 This season of Marvel Snap has been a mess. 

First; every since the Golden Gauntlet 2 (which was entertaining as HELL to watch the finals of), there's been a mild Thanos/Arishem/Agamotto meta, where you throw ALL THE CARDS in your deck, which I haven't been able to beat even with cards like Cassandra Nova and Darkhawk.

When the tech cards no longer keep the meta in check, you have a problem.

What's created more outrage among the community though has been the tweaks to the High Voltage. 

Effectively; the mode does three things:

First, it adds random "charged" cards to your deck, making every deck an Arishem one.

Second, it offers a random "overdrive" ability which triggers if enough charged cards are played. Sometimes it's beneficial, as when you can earn double credits for a win, but it also includes "Cull all the weakest cards" or "transform all the charged cards" and you just have NO idea what you're going to get. 

And third, the visual effects of all these things-charged cards, the overdrive trigger-crates this visual mess that just makes the whole board difficult to track.

Making things worse by far are two other things-cards they didn't ban before the mode started, then had to fix 24 hours later (which, kudos here but a card like Gorgon should NEVER have been allowed).

However, the real chafing has been in the store; the communication about the funds players get, and the cost of the new cards. 

New cards that are kinda assy; Kid Omega and Cobra are baffling to me. On top of that, the price to get them is brutal. Players are supposed to get something like 500 "charge" points a day to help us afford these things but that wasn't communicated to the playerbase well at ALL. 

And these changes come to a game mode that people loved once upon a time! Now people are just frustrated and angry about all these things. 

Adding more to the mode didn't really help.

However, I want to say that: I get it. I'm a homebrewer, both of beer and Magic decks and I understand that people like to tinker with things! And this is a temporary thing as all things are in Marvel snap. 

But dang did this one not go well

Rethinking White

I found this breakdown on "fixing" the color White to be really interesting! 

For all of Magic's flaws, I appreciate that they are still trying to reinvent the wheel to make the game a better one.

Star Realms: Rise of Empire

My friend and I have completed the campaign for Star Reams: Rise of Empire, so I'd like to offer my thoughts. 

If you have played Star Realms, then you have a sense of how this game works. This cuts both ways, of course. because on the upside, the game is easy to learn. There are minor tweaks to how gameplay works, but that's all they are, minor.

Which is, of course, the downside as well. Rise of Empire doesn't do anything new with the game that isn't already being done. Adding three new shades of color isn't a gameplay twist, folks. It's just extra instruments.

Which is fine if the song is still good and if you like Star Realms, then the song is still good!

But one other drawback is that while the trade deck is shaped by your choices, the story the game is telling the players is a nothingburger. Sure, the winner of the last game gets to make some choices about what will modify the next one (will Vipers give you +1 gold or let you draw and then discard?) but that's the extent of the choices.

The story itself is on rails and the winner or loser of a game doesn't change where it all ends up. 

Now, I had fun with Rise of Empire but that's because I'm already part of the game's ecosystem. But I didn't come away impressed by it, and feel like they could have done something to expand on what the game played like, if they had wanted to. I certainly don't think this expansion will convince anyone who isn't interested in Star Realms to care about it. 

I definitely think that people shouldn't pop for the reusable version of the game; there is nothing to be gained, in my opinion, from the ability to re-use stickers and modify games every single time. Ugh. 

But if you like Star Realms, then yeah, Rise of Empire is a solid time. 

Late To The Party: Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth

 I have, at long last, finished Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth. It took me over 140 hours, and I wouldn't be surprised if I hit 150.

And I spent the last 20+  hours doing one thing: Fighting the final boss.

As a result, I have come away from a game that told a pretty interesting story, made some bold choices about what it wanted to do, and never left anything on the table, hating it.

After 130 hours in ANY game, I should be overleveled. I should be able to power through final bosses like a kid going through ice cream. 

But the final boss did several things that just ruined the entire experience. 

First; it was a multi-part boss that had no save points between them. You have to do all six stages of this boss in one roll and while there are checkpoints, so if you loose at stage five, you just start at stage five, but if you have to say, go to bed and try again tomorrow, you have to start the ENTIRE fight over again.

Second; It introduces a brand new character with new mechanics. You know when you shouldn't introduce a new thing? At the very end of the game. 

Third; it has an autodeath sequence, and autodeath sequences are BULLSHIT.  Third-point-five: it does a piss poor job of telling players how to avoid that sequence. Why? Because it introduces a new thing in the LAST BATTLE. 

Here's how that works; in battles, you have the life bar of an enemy, and a pressure bar that goes up the more attacks you made on that enemy. The more appropriate the attack, the further the pressure bar goes up: if you can max it, the enemy goes into a staggered state, where they can't do anything and you can just whale on 'em. 

The pressure bar is orange-except for in the last battle, when it is blue, and it is ONLY blue in the timer sequence before the autodeath move. 

Now, I hate the "pressure/stagger" element of fights anyway. But at least there would be some tactics involved with fighting enemies-or at least it would be if it was worth keeping all 230 enemies in your brain was worth it. 

However to change how that works in the last battle? WHAT IS ANYONE THINKING?

So when it was all over, instead of any sense of accomplishment, or vindication, I just felt exhausted and tired. Fuck this game, was my response. 

A few days later, I've softened my reaction but it's still soured. They failed to stick the landing, and I ended up feeling bad about the whole thing. 

It Never Lasts For Long

The card draw didn't quite do what I was hoping. Perhaps if Thrilling Discovery was an instant, I'd find it more usable? Rebecca's comment was, "I just don't feel like I'm doing something powerful, I feel like I'm discarding powerful things to get more cards."

So this is what I settled on.

4 Balefire Liege
2 Hearthfire Hobgoblin
3 Skyknight Legionnaire
3 Aurelia, Exemplar of Justice
4 Swiftblade Vindicator
3 General Ferrous Rokiric
4 Figure of Destiny
2 Boros Recruit

3 Legion's Initiative

4 Lightning Helix
2 Lightning Bolt
1 Legion Leadership
3 Path to Exile

7 Plains
7 Mountain
4 Sunbillow Verge
2 Eiganjo, Seat of the Empire
1 Castle Embereth
1 Needle Spires

// 4 Sideboard

SB: 4 Cursed Totem

The Sideboard is incomplete: Rest In Peace seems like a gimmie, Wear/Tear and Red Elemental Blast likely too.

I ended up cutting the Boros Swiftblades, because I wanted to keep the deck as low to the ground as possible and make room for more Legion's Initiative. The boost in Swiftblade's toughness wasn't the answer I was looking for.

Anyway, I like where this deck has ended up and we're on to the next one!

Marvel Snap: Masters of the Arcane

The new cards this month!

Merlin, the card for the month feels like a fun boost for the small decks archetype. I think it's going to provide a lot of interesting versatility while ALSO having the problem that randomizer cards have. Some moderate variance for fun times. 

Morgan Le Fay-does this card have a home? It's an interesting twist on Ghost Rider, but because she returns cards to hand, how much help is that? She's interesting, to be sure! At the very least, she could remove the drawback of having Corvus Glave discard Hela.

Jennifer Kale is fine. You play her anytime before T5 and you get a boost; I think this is a solid card that you'll be happy to see more often than not. Not sure that she's a Series 4 card though. 

Nicolas Scratch is a card I didn't understand until I saw it in action. The bonus happens whenever you play a "spell" like Merlin's Incantations or Agamotto's Ancient Arcana (or the upcoming effects from Clea & Dormammu). But because the card says "skill" I had no idea what that meant. Seems like there's going to need to be some wording cleanup. 

The Ancient One is absolutely cracked. Get it; the ability to duplicate ongoing abilities from Blue Marvel to Goliath is too strong to ignore. 

Nightmare has been the hype card of this season; everyone is expecting it to do insane things with Sauron decks. I don't think that's going to be true; I think the RNG is too  high for this to be consistently good. When it hits, it'll be a lot of fun but what I think Nightmare is mostly going to do is make players think extra hard about how to play their cards. 

Clea provides an interesting tool-I like the 'boost' decks that use Forge, Nakia, etc but now there's a little affliction added in. I don't think she's great but she's not bad. 

As for Dormammu, this one will likely spawn a new deck, some kind of destroy offshoot. Worth getting just for that: new archetypes always find interesting ways to evolve the game.

As for the game mode rewards (and yay, High Voltage is coming back) 

Cobra seems like a very niche card. How often will it be useful? It's not like Victoria Hand/SHIELD decks are running wild. Seems like a solution in search of a problem. The stat line isn't anything to write home about either. 

And Kid Omega's ability seems odd-do we need another take on Venom? But free cards are free!

Free Pizza: New Mutants Season

 I feel like this one came a little later in the season but, I still hit free pizza! 

While typically I am not a fan of Arishem decks because they are too chaotic, chaos seemed to fit very well in a meta full of Thanos decks. Color me surprised! That's emphasized all the more by the use of Loki. Having to suddenly play someone else's deck means knowing what the metagame is like and how decks basically function. 

I believe I saw a version of this on Snap Judgements and I wanted to play something that wasn't Thanos, a deck I just never seem to be comfortable with. Remarkably, this deck did the work! It needed me to play very smart; Arishem can throw a lot of different cards at you. Knowing what cards do and how they work is really important. 

But I got there, and that's always nice. 

Funny Things You Learn

One neat thing happened while I was reviewing Let's Take A Trip Together; I gave Rebecca Burn to Shine to play.

She asked for a copy of it, and started to tweak it for herself.  So when we played the decks against each other, I got to see how powerful Legion's Initiative could be. If the sequence is: T1: creature, T2, Legion, swing for 1, T3, Initative and attack for 6 or 7, this seems pretty good.

Another thing that I've been addressing is some card draw: in other games I've felt very on the edge, and reloading my hand seems important. So to that end I'm trying out Thrilling Discovery. 

The testing as been very positive, I have to admit. Burn To Shine has a nice curve, where there are some reasonable plays early, some stronger plays later. But it has been the addition of General Ferrous that has pushed this deck forward, without question. Having a difficult to answer threat early that generates a LOT of value means that a rough start can be smoothed out. That's a big deal.

Dream Away My Tears

 Let's update the list first, shall we?

4 Balefire Liege
3 Hearthfire Hobgoblin
2 Boros Swiftblade
3 Skyknight Legionnaire
3 Aurelia, Exemplar of Justice
4 Boros Recruit
4 Swiftblade Vindicator
3 General Ferrous Rokiric 

3 Squee's Embrace
2 Ossification 

4 Lightning Helix
2 Lightning Bolt 

8 Plains
7 Mountain
4 Needle Spires
4 Sunbillow Verge

SB:
4 Cursed Totem

Now is this the bestest list? Probably not. But it does do a few important things.

Moves Cursed Totem to the sideboard. There probably isn't a place for that in the metagame anymore but we'll keep it there. Burn To Shine is never going be an A+ deck. 

Adds a little more removal in the form of Ossification. And with General Ferrous in there, I've now got a T3 play that has the potential to really put pressure on my opponent. 

Fuck This

I get that Universes Beyond is there to exploit other IPs. 

But the advertisement inside of my game inside of my game is something I vehemently dislike. It isn't funny. It's just a crass grab for money. 

Burn To Shine

 Taken from the delightful Ben Harper song, I started off with this R/W Liege deck:

4 Cursed Totem

4 Balefire Liege
3 Hearthfire Hobgoblin
2 Boros Swiftblade
3 Skyknight Legionnaire
3 Aurelia, Exemplar of Justice
4 Boros Recruit
4 Swiftblade Vindicator

4 Squee's Embrace

4 Lightning Helix
3 Chance for Glory

4 Scabland
7 Plains
7 Mountain
4 Needle Spires

Years ago, this started off as a Cursed Totem deck, if you can believe that. Inspired by a writer at Starcity Games, who used the Totem to remove the drawbacks to cards like Glittering Lion and Flailing Manticore, while also serving as a way to pre-emptively deal with other problem cards at the time (notably the Rebels deck) this deck was an easy one to morph into a Balefire Liege deck. The tech was SO old, why not make it a fun aggro deck? 

But here it languished until a card I've had for years but had forgotten about was brought to my attention via a Thraben U video: General Ferrous Rokiric. 

Let's get going. 

The Retired: Gigantor

Ah, I so wanted this deck to be a thing!

3 Kilnmouth Dragon

1 Ryusei, the Falling Star

3 Fierce Empath

1 Bladewing the Risen

1 Steel Hellkite

1 Harbinger of the Hunt

1 Destructor Dragon

1 Atarka, World Render

1 Swift Warkite

3 Thunderbreak Regent

1 Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund

1 Thundermaw Hellkite

4 Fertile Ground

3 Naturalize

6 Mountain

3 Jund Panorama

6 Forest

3 Swamp

1 Crucible of the Spirit Dragon

2 Jungle Hollow

2 Bloodfell Caves

1 Grand Coliseum

3 Rampant Growth

3 Painful Truths

3 Crux of Fate

2 Radiant Flames

So, what's wrong here? Well, the big concept was to make a massive Kilnmouth Dragon and that right there is a problem. Because it's a Glory of Cool Things card: you could have a 14 power dragon, right?

Then why aren't you just attacking with it? Why tap it to do 9 damage to something?

Which is a bit of the issue with the entire deck; all these big creatures and they don't just revolutionize the board when they enter. Which, if you're paying six mana for something, ought to do that.  

And that's really the issue here: when this  deck gets to 6+ mana, it doesn't play cards that brick the opponent's board. 

So I'm using all the cool stuff here and putting into the Ur-Dragon deck. It needs to be updated anyway, what with all the cool new Dragonstorm stuff. 

Late To The Party: Evil West

 I finished up Evil West recently, having had it recommended back last year via the Jimquisition channel. 

I have to say: I dig it! There was a comment that Evil West was a bit of a throwback to the PS2 era and I can see it: the graphics are solid but not overly detailed, the gameplay is medium on it's depth, the locations are reasonably bite sized, and the enemy AI strategy seems to be: fuck it throw a lot of dudes at you. 

But the thing is? I enjoyed it anyway! A reasonably sized game executed reasonably well for a reasonable price. Call it a AA game if you like, but I found Evil West to be pulpy fiction and fun.

The controls were tight, and I was able to figure out different combos that fit a playstyle I enjoy. There were neat little rewards (just cosmetics) for collecting pieces of lore, there were just enough enemy varieties that I had to remember to change up my strategies when they showed up in different combinations. 

It wasn't perfect by any means; there were points of frustration that felt like I was being punished for not being perfect, and occasionally it felt like the controls were not as crisp as I would have liked. 

But all in all, a solid game!

Nervous Wrecks Going Down

I think I've come to the final list.

Playing Let's Take A Trip Together against Noah's goblins deck, one thing has become clear:

It's about a turn slow. 

This is a fun deck to play and there's a lot of outs to problems! Lifegain from Knights and Thrags, global resets leaving me a 3/3 beast, and I've even figured out Astral Slide flickers a creature when you cycle it!

It's still a turn slow; the plays on turns one and two don't suck (if I can get them) but the whole deck needs to stop for a turn to get the Astral Drift/Slide out. That's a problem if I don't have good follow up plays.

Now: between Wrath of God and Thragtusk, I can absolutely have those great follow up plays! 

As much as it pains me, I will probably have to remove Titanic Bulvox for something that I can play sooner; Fanatic of Rhonas or Tender Wildguide seem like reasonable choices. 

In addition: Titanoth Rex was a card I just didn't care about: I'm not here to give my creatures trample. ETB triggers and if I get behind, Wrath 'em. For that reason, Fanatic of Rhonas is probably the better choice. 

What I need is mana to do things with-so to that end, I'm swapping the Rex for Timeless Dragon. 

Edit:I don't have a Timeless Dragon available, but I do have a Pale Recluse. It'll do! Here's the final listing.

2 Tilling Treefolk
4 Flourishing Fox
2 Eternal Witness
4 Knight of Autumn
4 Charming Prince
3 Thragtusk
1 Splendor Mare
1 Greater Sandwurm
3 Fanatic of Rhonas
1 Pale Recluse

1 Astral Slide
4 Astral Drift

2 Secluded Steppe
2 Tranquil Thicket
1 Grasslands
4 Plains
6 Forest
4 Scattered Groves
4 Overgrown Farmland

4 Edge of Autumn
2 Wrath of God
1 Akroma's Vengeance

With the Glistening Edges

Research begins: 

If nothing else, I need to let go of what this deck was and look at what people are doing with it now. So much has changed in the Magic landscape since the original Astral Slide decks were a thing that it's only sensible to see how it's advanced.

And they are doing something completely different. 

Why try to sneak a big creature into play when you can abuse enter the battlefield triggers? 

So here's what I ended up building out of the cards I had available. 

2 Tilling Treefolk
2 Titanic Bulvox
4 Flourishing Fox
2 Eternal Witness
4 Knight of Autumn
1 Charming Prince
3 Thragtusk
2 Splendor Mare
2 Titanoth Rex
1 Greater Sandwurm
1 Valiant Rescuer

1 Astral Slide
4 Astral Drift

2 Secluded Steppe
3 Tranquil Thicket
1 Grasslands
4 Plains
6 Forest
4 Scattered Groves
4 Overgrown Farmland

4 Edge of Autumn
2 Wrath of God
1 Akroma's Vengeance

And whoa. What an improvement! The deck actually did things!

I'm still having a little trouble; if I draw the payoff cards but no cycling then obviously that's an issue. But at least I'm getting to play the game in a way that executes the plan. 

Cold Black Space

 What. A. Disaster.

Fuz was playing a Big Eldrazi deck (are there small Eldrazi decks?) and Trip just did nothing. Nothing at all. 

In a different game, I had the same problem: nothing meaningful to do and very frustrating turns.  

Part of the issue might be that Let's Take A Trip Together doesn't do anything until turn four. Despite running Flourishing Fox, the deck doesn't do anything for too long. It needs to be sped up by a turn or it needs to be able to nuke the board so I have enough time to do what I need to.

Considering Astral Drift and Slide both exile creatures until end of turn, there are ways to avoid mass removal, if I can get to that point. 

But I really have to rethink this deck if I want to keep it. 

Into The Irresistible Orbit

 The first new take on the deck:

2 Tilling Treefolk
2 Disciple of Grace
2 Titanic Bulvox
2 Bloated Toad
1 Darkwatch Elves
2 Peacekeeper
1 Disciple of Law
1 Krosan Colossus
4 Flourishing Fox
2 Eternal Witness
4 Knight of Autumn
2 Aurelia's Vindicator
1 Pale Recluse

2 Astral Slide
4 Astral Drift

2 Secluded Steppe
3 Tranquil Thicket
1 Grasslands
4 Plains
6 Forest
4 Scattered Groves
4 Overgrown Farmland

4 Edge of Autumn

What changed: More copies of the Astral effect, some good ETB creatures with Eternal Witness and and Knight of Autumn, and a few more lands, just at a glance. 

It isn't huge, but I hope that it gives the deck a little more consistency and a little bit of power. 

Go The Scenic Route

The first game with Let's Take A Trip Together went the way I suspected it would. I can't be too hard on the deck though: it hasn't been meaningfully updated since Onslaught (so, never) and my metagame has shifted significantly. 

This means that Aura Shards, Phantom Centaur, and Phantom Flock can be removed immediately. Aura Shards is fine in the sideboard but I need to make room for threats. 

There's good news though: people have been messing with Astral Slide and Astral Drift, which means I already have some neat ideas about where to take this deck!

Cards like Flourishing Fox offer a scaling threat, Eternal Witness is such an obvious card I can't believe I wasn't running it already, Knight of Autumn slots extremely well in, and look at these Disguise creatures that might be worth considering.

This means that there's cards from Ikora-a sadly underrated set-and Murders at Markov Manor-a kinda sad set- to explore and that's exciting to me, too!

Sick Day

 Sorry folks; not quite feeling up to snuff today. Catch you in a couple. 

Free Pizza: What If...?

I managed to get my free pizza pretty early in the What If...? season, and while I got to the finish line on an old reliable, the workhorse for me was a metagame call.

Here's a Cassandra Nova & Darkhawk deck. I know people like to try the "hawks and rocks" deck combing Darkhawk and Devil Dinosaur, but I always found those two cards to be pulling in different directions. One or the other, not both. Even when that deck was the hotness, I felt it was a poor choice and filled with bad design. 

However, with Thanos being everywhere (a deck that runs an additional 6 cards) and Arishem always being present in a meta where people just don't know what they're going to do, I felt it was time to hit 'em where they live. 

I love hitting 'em where they live. 

Let's Take A Trip Together

Taken from the groovy Morphine song, this deck is based off the OLD Astral Slide decks

    

2 Venerable Monk
4 Tilling Treefolk
4 Phantom Centaur
2 Phantom Flock
2 Disciple of Grace
3 Titanic Bulvox
2 Bloated Toad

1 Darkwatch Elves
2 Peacekeeper
1 Disciple of Law
1 Krosan Colossus
1 Pale Recluse

3 Aura Shards
4 Astral Slide

2 Drifting Meadow
3 Slippery Karst
4 Secluded Steppe
2 Tranquil Thicket
1 Grasslands
2 Plains
2 Forest
4 Scattered Groves
4 Overgrown Farmland

4 Edge of Autumn

So what is the plan here? Get out an Astral Slide, then use cycling cards to turn cards like Titanic Bulvox from morph creatures into beaters, or reset the counters on Phantom Centaur, gain life via Venerable Monk, or just lock out my opponent's combat step with Peacekeeper, while still being able to attack myself. 

Astral Drift was printed back in Modern Horizons 1 so I think it's high time to give this deck an update. 

50 Cards

I really enjoyed this video from Rhystic Studies, and it made me think about those cards which have had a big impact on me in the game.

So here's five:

Alruen-a conversation around this card was instrumental to having me think about the game differently, when a friend asked me how it would work. I became more about 'what do you want to do' than 'that can't be done'. 

The Lieges. I love the elegance of these designs. I can't say they're overly powerful, but I built decks for each one and they get better as they age and new cards come out that get boosted by the Liege.

Anje's Ravager-The R/B Madness deck I have is and may always be one of my favorites. I enjoy the synergies and am always looking for the stealth pieces that help it get juuust a little better-like Tersa Lightshatter. The Ravager is a key piece to it, as well as being a neat way to enable the deck. 

Zephyr Falcon- This card helped inspire the first or second deck I ever built, a White/Blue fliers deck. While this is a thing most new players do when they find a powerful theme, I was (and am) no different! I still have the deck, updated and occasionally doing great things. 

Recurring Nightmare-another card that I still have in a deck, one that is probably too dang slow for Magic now. Still, it embodies Black in such a fantastic way that I can't let myself let go of it. 

Tarkir-Dragonstorm Pre-Release 1-2

Starting off with a thank you to Red Castle Games; a great event as always. 

Rebecca and I picked Abzan (GWB) and Mardu (BRW) as our respective decks and both of us planned well, I thought, making sure we were higher-end of the land count, at 17. I admit there was a little disappointment in my packs, as the rare for my Mardu pack was Marang River Regent, and the rares in two other packs were Mistrise Village and Cori Mountain Monastery. 

But Rebecca had a solid suite of removal, and I had a Stormscale Scion to build around so here we go!

Rd 1 vs Vin & Riley

They were playing Jeskai and Sultai, and while we had a fairly good start, including a Scavenger Regent, Vin had removal spell after removal spell. Eventually we started topdecking lands, and Riley was able to surmount a sizable board presence that we couldn’t get over.

I think I made a critical error, waiting on my own spells to use the Stormscale Scion, and it was only after the match that we realized that I could’ve done it after any of our combat steps when they used removal spells.

Next time!

Round 2 vs Fry and John

They were playing Mardu and Jeskai decks but Fry found himself mana starved, and we pushed on that while John made tokens. While they got us down to 19, we had a massive turn where Rebecca cast a Worthy Cost, then a Kin-Tree Severance, that I followed up with the Stormscale Scion. With three 7/7 dragons, the pressure was just too much and they conceded shortly after.

Round 3 Liz & John

Our opponents were playing Jeskai and Sultai decks that were VERY strong. Rebecca had a great start, playing out her hand on curve, including a Delta Bloodflies, Trade Route Envoy, and Riling Dawnbreaker.  

However, they played and Elspeth Storm Slayer (which we used a LOT of resources to get off the table-but it had to be done), Fangkeeper's Familiar, a Flamehold Grappler followed up by a Riverwheel Sweep, locking down our two best creatures and leading to a Magmatic Hellkite, Kotis, the Fangkeeper, and Dalkovan Encampment. We just couldn’t find the answers to those questions. It was too much to keep up with.

That said; we made them work for it! We just couldn't find removal of our own to keep up with their resources. 

All in all though we felt we had opportunities in each game to do things and felt like our decks played fairly well! We both are looking forward to playing more sealed and seeing what the set can do for us, so I feel like this is one is a win. 

Tarkir: Dragonstorm - Set Review

Alright: we've got the official spoiler list here,  what I feel is a readable list here, and the mechanics article, in case you haven't seen that.  

No sense in burying the lede here; so far I'm a fan of Dragonstorm! I think there's some neat cards, I really like how the mechanics create identity and distinction for the clans of Tarkir, and I think the execution of the shard aspect of the set is handled well. 

There's a couple silly cards but maybe they aren't as bad as I think? Let's talk.

White
One important note is that while Clarion Conqueror is a damn good body at the price, it shuts down everything, including your stuff. Important to keep that in mind during pre-release weekend. But I haven't seen an ability like that in awhile, so I'm glad it's there. 

The Devotees-we'll start with Mardu since it's first-are a VERY smart way to help fix colors in this set. I feel like these are smart design choices that will help people enjoy Dragonstorm and I was very glad to see each one. 

The Flurry ability reminds me that this set looks to be fairly mana hungry-at least in Limited. I'm already wondering if 17 mana sources is correct. But in constructed, I just want to start looking for any spell I can play without paying mana to try and maximize cards like Sage of the Skies as early as possible. That could easily come out turn one with a Lotus Petal, City of Traitors start, and having two of those that early? YIKES.

United Battlefront seems weird and is probably bad, but I want to mess around with it anyway. 

Blue
The Renew ability on Agent of Kotis just reinforces what I was saying about Flurry: having enough mana in your games is probably going to be a big deal. Assuming there's a payoff, anyway. But getting to four mana and then deciding that you want to spend it putting +1 counters on a creature isn't a bad decision, just one that you don't want to blow your tempo on too much.

Similarly, a card like Bewildering Blizzard feels like it could be backbreaking--but you still have to get to six mana to play it.

Did Winternight Stories need to be a rare? I feel like we've gotten other effects like this at uncommon and they've been fine. What's the upgrade here? It doesn't seem THAT much better.  

Black
Avenger of the Fallen looks bonkers. That is all.

I also really like the design and feel of Hundred-Battle Veteran. 

There's a new legendary enchantment, which is wild! I haven't seen one of those (The Sibsig Ceremony) in a long time. 

Red
Channeled Dragonfire is making me rethink whether or not Harmonize is a good ability. Seven mana to flashback two damage is bad and it doesn't matter how you slice it. Reducing the cost to reasonable by tapping a five power creature? How is THAT good? Firebolt came out in Odyssey and it was fine but nobody was going to mistake it for a format defining card. 

It may be that Harmonize has a similar issue that Vehicles in Aetherdrift had. But we shall see. 

Dracogensis is a stupid card and I hate it. It isn't interesting, it allows for very stupid things to happen, and practically screams "Glory of Cool Things". It's particularly insufferable for Commander, the format it's obviously for. 

Green
I'm very happy to see a Craterhoof reprint; the card is too expensive and a lot of fun. 

Is Dragon Sniper one of the best one drops ever? Certainly one of the best defensive ones and I bet will be an all star in the Limited format due to all the flying creatures. 

Multicolor
Here's where the money is, right? Auroral Procession feels like a color pie shift: I would expect this as a G/B card, not G/U. Perhaps this is allowed because of the philosophy of the color wedge in this set? 

I think all of the Sieges are flavorful and interesting, really like those choices. 

Call the Spirit Dragon; this card is stupid and I hate it. It even says "win the game" on it, but then it makes you jump through  hoops in order to do so. This actually makes it worse, since making all your Dragons indestructible should already win you the game. Another card that is particularly insufferable for Commander, the format it's obviously for. It's unfun, and scuttles interaction. 

Digging a little further; there's a lot of very cool things that start around the five mana slot. Again, making me think that the Limited environment might reward players who plan for a late game and have the mana for it. 

Artifact/Land
Ugin on its face reminds me of Sire of Seven Deaths; if you can cast that, you win. And on one hand: OK, big mana spells should do big things! But on the other, if you've ever played against a Sire of Seven Deaths you know how unfun that is. Crushing to any gamestate it enters into, it flips the game around in ways that don't allow it to be unflipped. 

I'm not a huge fan of these designs, but Ugin might be slower and more interactive. We shall see.

The rest of the artifacts are solid: good role players to help us do cool things in the format. I'm not upset about any of it: Mox Jasper will be broken as soon as someone can utilize a (changeling) Shapeshifter with it, but...I'm actually OK with this. It's conditional and most shapeshifters don't have other abilities that keep players from interacting. 

The common and uncommon lands are known quantities, good mana fixers. No notes. 

The rare cycle of lands, these are cool! They are mostly great mana fixers I think: the abilities on them are neat but not broken by any means. Still; don't sleep on them, they have great utility. 

All in all, I like this set and I'm eager to try it out! Will the Omens be as interesting as they appear? Does this set need good mana planning in Limited? How important will Reach be? 

I'm interested in finding out. Let's go!

Free Pizza: Prehistoric Avengers

 With some challenges this season, I took advantage of a Khonshu meta and got my Free Pizza with this

Why this? Because I can use Mystique to copy Cosmo and shutter the on reveal actions of the discard decks. Blanking two lanes is pretty strong. 

I also used an affliction deck to climb most of the way there and here's what that looked like:

This list isn't ideal but there's potential there to develop. 

What I've found challenging is where to place cards-Laufey, USAgent and Man-Thing all have the potential to dominate their lanes when combined with cards like Diamondback or Spider-Woman but they don't all play nice together. 

Which I suppose is thematically appropriate! But it makes for some pretty wild swings in gameplay. 

Blast Off

 I think I may have to retire this one.

I was playing a game against Fuz and butting up against the tension in the deck. Namely; I need ways to keep both the board and opponent's hand size clear. That's a lot to ask for. 

Sure, cards like Oppression fit in well but Magic is just so fast that now I need ways to clear the board before Oppression and Noetic Scales come online. I will lose the game if I haven't advanced a plan before then, because everyone else has things to do on turns 1-3. 

4 Anvil of Bogardan
3 Necrogen Spellbomb
4 Noetic Scales

4 Guiltfeeder
2 Master of Cruelties

4 Oppression
3 Seal of Fire

4 Geth's Verdict

4 Tainted Peak
4 Mountain
14 Swamp
2 Rocky Tar Pit

2 Demonfire
2 Persist
2 Black Sun's Zenith
2 Glimpse the Impossible

So how to adjust this? Well, Fuz suggested that I just blow up the removal effects but I'm wondering if the discard is the real problem. 

Oppression might be better as a straight up discard spell, like Hymn to Tourach or if I'm getting really weird, Brink of Madness could be wild. (Note to self, do not do that). But even Cerebral Confiscation or better, Mind Drain, could do a better job at keeping my opponent's hand restricted and making Noetic Scales better. 

So I'm not abandoning this one, because I still think there's some there, there. And it's interesting! But I don't think it can get beyond a B- power deck. For now, I'm going to leave it. 

Disco Candybar

 A friend of mine is detailing the work he's doing on a boardgame here. 

If you ever wanted a peek behind the curtain to see how games get made, you might find this interesting! Sean is a veteran designer and has worked on a lot of different things. 

Full disclosure; Sean's a friend and I've even been part of playtest groups for games he's designed or been a part of designing. 

Vortex

So; let's get a little weird. Because after a few more games, I still didn't feel as though I had enough control. It's important to get to four mana for Noetic Scales but I also need ways to stall until I can get a Scales.

I also need ways to dig for cards so: I'm trying on two copies of Commune With Lava, a Master of Cruelties, and two copies of Black Sun's Zenith. 

Commune can help me dig into my deck and it gives me a full turn to play the cards, so if I need to tap out, that isn't a problem. Black Sun's Zenith isn't a card that destroys creatures but it should slow them down. -1 to everything in play is great if my only creature is a Guiltfeeder or Master of Cruelties. 

I feel as though I'm on the verge of something but I can't quite get there. It may be that I'm barking up the wrong tree entirely. 

Brawl

After the changes made, things feel better. Not great, but better. 

I lost two matches because in one case I couldn't find my removal and in the second, the rules pulled a gotcha on me.

Noetic Scales is good, y'all. I managed a near one-sided Wrath of God-leaving behind a lonely Springheart Nantuko that had been bestowed on another creature. At three life, I was easily dispatched. Of note: I drew one removal spell in the meantime, a Dead/Gone. Four Geth's Verdicts added but all went hiding in that game.

In my second matchup, I realized the Glory of Cool Things element that was plaguing the deck: Gibbering Descent. I'm trying to madness this card out without any real madness enabler cards. Sure: Anvil of Bogardan helps but that's one card. Then I pay four mana to put the Descent into play and do what exactly? Get one point of damage in per turn? 

Yikes. 

I thought about The Long Reach of Night and that may work better. Bandit's Talent was also something I thought about but I feel like the payoff might not be very consistent. I want to bounce cards to my opponent's hand AND I want to make them discard. These things aren't humming along together. 

Master of Cruelties is still worth considering though, so maybe a one of-fun of, along with two Long Reach? 

Let's find out.

Onslaught

I played one game with Bruticus against Noah, who was doing a MUD (big mana artifacts, do bad stuff) thing. The game went much like one might expect and the obvious problems where there; Older cards that have cheaper reprints now, like Megrim, were not as efficient, and not nearly enough removal to keep the early rush of creatures off my back.

Noetic Scales can do a lot, but since it doesn't come down until turn four I need to invest in early game removal. 

After a lot of thinking I began to wonder: what if Megrim is the stumbling block? The obvious replacement is Liliana's Caress but what if I don't need that card at all?

I thought about Master of Cruelties and I may try it anyway? But one copy of Gibbering Descent, Keldon Megaliths and the Megrims are coming out for removal. Geth's Verdict seems like a fine addition.

Bruticus

 Are you ready for a weird one? This one, named after the most brutal Combaticon, is coming from the wayback machine, as you can see by the card choices.

3 Anvil of Bogardan
4 Necrogen Spellbomb
4 Noetic Scales

4 Guiltfeeder

4 Gibbering Descent
4 Oppression
3 Seal of Fire
3 Megrim

4 Dead // Gone
3 Skeletal Scrying

1 Keldon Megaliths
4 Tainted Peak
4 Mountain
12 Swamp
2 Rocky Tar Pit

1 Demonfire

Obviously, there are some very old cards here! But for people who don't see how the deck works, the idea is to use Noetic Scales to keep creatures off the table, and Guiltfeeder to freely attack and do outsized levels of damage.

Oppression is there to help keep cards out of my opponent's hand, and then there's some removal to take care of the early creatures, and Skeletal Scrying to draw me cards and help me find what I need. 

Gibbering Descent is probably the glory of cool things, but we shall see!

Sanctum Showdown

We got a new game mode for Marvel Snap: Sanctum Showdown. After putting in just under a week into it and getting what I wanted, here's my takeaway.

It's fine. 

The new take on the game is an interesting one, where locations matter for points and the game doesn't end on turn 6-but rather the first player to 16 points. 

It's also a bit grindy, as you need a "scroll" to enter and while if you win you keep your scroll, if you lose there goes your scroll. And with scrolls being handed out at what feels like a paltry 2 per 8 hours losing feels like a pretty big punishment.

That said, if you remember to play for points, it doesn't seem to be too restrictive. And since you take points with you, win OR lose, players want to exploit the system for points. 

So the gameplay mode does change things up in interesting ways. And I firmly believe that if you play it smartly and with some consistency, you'll get the three new cards, no problem.

But the grind IS a thing and the gameplay doesn't change things up quite enough; the best deck to be running was quickly discovered (Bully move, then Guardians) and a meta that is solved is rarely a good one. 

To the devs' credit; they nerfed things so Bully move couldn't wreck the day and Guardians has counterplay.

Which is why I run this: 

It's been a fun deck to play, with some surprising wins! It can struggle when locations add cards, like Central Park, but all in all I am having a good time with it.

Free Pizza: Brave New World

 I finally got over the hill with my Black Knight deck but the deck that got me into the neck of the woods was a Namora one!

I had the idea awhile ago; Agony & Hulkbuster to suit up a character and then use the Wong/Namora/Odin combo to really blow things up. However I didn't have a Namora at the time-but Rebecca did and took on the challenge of making the deck a thing. That means I have her testing to thank for this build. She was the one who came up with Sebastian Shaw, which was such an obviously good idea I almost smacked myself for not coming up with it. 

It's definitely a bit of a meme--I've even titled it "The Meme Is Alive" since this pic-- but it's been fun to play! Captain Marvel is probably the weakest link in the deck, which is strange to say but I just never want to play that card. Rescue might be a better option, since once the Ironheart goes down, I usually want to play multiple cards in the same lane. 

Colossus became important because it was too easy for an opponent to Shang-Chi a lane but otherwise it's been a pretty fun lark! 

On Balance

Not much to add here: There's an article at BoardGameGeek.com from Richard Garfield on game balance. As someone who has been a part of how a game gets made, and experiences the result of games that are perpetually tweaked, from Magic to Remnant 2 to Marvel Snap, I found this to be quite informative!

So, How'd It Turn Out?

The pauper Commander event last last Sunday and I decided to go with Hallar in both games.

And...they did not go well!

One issue that I had was a misunderstanding of how Commander damage worked; namely, Hallar's trigger would NOT count as commander damage. So, that kinda sucked-but that one is on me. 

The other is that I underestimated the value engines people would be running; in both games there was a LOT of splash damage or heavily synergistic combos that did not leave a lot of room for me to develop my board. A little lifegain would have gone a long way, I think. But also some more out-of-the-box thinking in the way of disruption could've been good. What, I'm not sure. Because:

I also didn't do enough research, as it turns out. After the event, Rebecca pointed out to me that Moxfield has a Pauper Commander field and I could've used that to get ideas and hone the build. 

Because what I experienced were games where I just played "draw, go" and didn't get to do much of anything. I waited on creatures-maybe longer than I should have-in order to get kicker costs paid, and I kept drawing pump spells-which are nice but only really work if I'm attacking. 

And it wasn't until garbage time in the last game that I had more than two creatures on the table-an event that was fixed by someone's Crypt Rats. (I'm not upset by that-it was a good play).

However, I spent my time really not doing anything in the games and that just feels bad.

Finally, I think I just did not plan for flying creatures well enough. As with many limited formats, flying seems to be a HUGE ability here. In my first game, I was KO'd by an aura'd up 16/16 flying creature. How am I going to remove that at the common level? 

(Hint; Tranquil Path would've been awesome! But I didn't draw it.)

On the other hand: everyone else had a great time! And from what I heard/saw, the games were interesting and engaging. So I think it's just back to the drawing board for me, not: I hate this idea.

And maybe use a little time to do some research for Aryel, before that one gets taken for a ride. 

On the other hand: of the seven decks at the table, five had black. What I hope that means is that we are just trying to find out what works, with plenty of room to explore, and not that the best colors are rooted in black. The latter means that the metagame is already skewed and not as interesting.