Opening All Doors

 Here's the new list for Ode To Locksmiths and I think this is where it stays for now.

It took a few games, but when I couldn't reliably find a crab in my opening hands, even with seven in the deck, it became time to up to an eighth. That feels pretty stupid but this deck really can't afford to mess around. 

The three Counterspells are basic, yes but I don't have any Pact of Negation. I think the Pact would be alright but I might be overvaluing it. 

Mentally, I see it being great on the turn that I am going off and winning the game. 

Practically, I see needing to use it on turn 3, being unable to, and losing. 

So Counterspell it is!

I know I've made An Ode To Locksmiths a more consistent deck. I don't think I've made it a winning deck. But I can execute a plan and on the best days I can do it by turn four. That's not bad! Call this deck a C+ on power. 

4 Hedron Crab
4 Ruin Crab

4 Manabond

4 Daze
3 Counterspell|
4 Brainstorm
2 Mana Leak

13 Island
2 Forest
4 Misty Rainforest
4 Temple of Mystery

2 Stock Up
3 Scouting Trek
3 Treasure Hunt
4 Serum Visions

Reality Fracture Pre-Release 0-3

At the two-headed giant format of Reality Fracture, Rebecca and I constructed RB and UG decks to play. The new format, which provides 4 less packs to make decks from, is...fine I guess? We were able to construct viable decks, which was good.

But our games fell into two camps and I don't know if it's because of the new restrictions, or because the set is kinda meh. 

As always, Red Castle Games put on a delightful event. 

Round 1 vs Ziegler/Tiffany (Sorry, I didn't catch your first names!)

Up against a UR and GB deck, we had a strong start, rapidly getting our opponents down to 9. We had a great sequence of play early on where I cast a Fulminous Forte with a Tomik out in an attempt to clear their board of x/2's. In response to the removal spell they cast, Rebecca had a Perfected Theory to make sure Tomik survived. We swung in hard and things looked good for a little bit.

However, after an Overwrite the Multiverse, they reset the board and we drew spells instead of creatures. They were able to mount a solid comeback and pull the game out.

They had MANY empower Jace spells and used them to help filter their cards and get back into the game. This was especially good with Vraska-and the sequence that broke the game open for them went: Play Vraska to destroy our best threat, and in response to the removal spell I cast on Vraska, they cast Ferocity of the Hunt. 

Great play on their part, and it sealed the game for them.

Rd 2 Mica & Jameson

Our opponents were running UW and GB decks. This game went to time; our opponents were using Flickering Hound and  Pia, Aether Ascetic to create value with Prepared cards and Way of the Wildspeaker. Even though our early game was solid, we couldn’t quite get them down past 12.

Once again, a lot of empower Jace cards helped them filter through their deck, creating very grindy gameplay.

Then it went to turns and nothing happened, though it didn't help that I drew three Swamps in a row.

Rd 3 Ryan & Kyle

We just got CRUSHED.

By turn 4 they had a Garruk, Veiled Buther in play, which effectively cleared our board with the -2, giving them a 4/4. Their cards played out on curve, with a Hapatra, the Desert Frost and Saheeli, Consul of Oversight joining the next turn followed by a Hapatra the Desert Fang! Rounds have 45 minutes to play. Our last game left us with 37 minutes on the clock. There wasn't any Jace empowerment, but it was unnecessary.

We left that one a little demoralized. 

I was hoping I was wrong about Reality Fracture in the set review and that the games would be fun or engaging. I certainly found Aeitherdrift to be better to play than I had thought, even if it wasn't the best set.

While Rebecca appreciated that in our first two games we got to do something and there was interaction between us and our opponents, I personally found it frustrating that we couldn't close out. Were there some lessons we learned? Could we have played better? Of course; there are always lessons and tighter gameplay to achieve. 

But learning those lessons wasn't fun for me. Our smart plays were not rewarded with wins, and I don't think we made any mistakes that were so bad that we should have lost...we just did, in games that were either very draggy, or incredibly busted.

Set Review: Reality Fracture

Link to set here, and mechanics article here. 

I have to say, the first two mechanics are possibly the most boring mechanics I have seen in years. Making a planeswalker token is something I dislike for multiple reasons, not the least of which being that planeswalkers have provided unfun experiences for me in limited formats. I can't get excited about the notion of getting to scry or draw a card off a token and I certainly cannot get excited about having to worry about a rechargeable battery my opponents get to use to keep them scrying/drawing.

Similarly, getting to create a mana token just doesn't get my brain sparking up ideas. Cool, we made a mana rock. Why is this rock tied to R/G? How does this rock advance the themes and ideas of the set? You get a rock. 

The last one, Prepare, is one I've enjoyed before and I appreciate the mirroring of this in the Hexhaven university. 

Unfortunately, I don't really have a lot of positive things to say about this set. I don't have much negative to say either; Reality Fracture occupies the unfortunate space of being "fine, I guess?"

Part of this might be expectations: Hexhaven seems like an amazing setting and I would've really enjoyed a set exploring that. Set up how powerful Hexhaven is for the coming battle and really see those politics and powers play out in advance of Jace's plans coming to close. 

Instead we just get glimpses into it, with a kind of timidity in design that makes Planar Chaos- a set that is 18 years old- seem innovative. 

Part of this might be because of the decision to not commit to the alternative universe, instead telling the big climatic story: how does a card like Return To The Light Realms really stand out in alt-universe White vs. White in the regular Magic universe? It it just because Liliana is casting the spell?

Solemn Simulacrum vs Simulacrum Shaper? THIS is supposed to demonstrate the contrast between realities? A Green ability stapled onto a Green creature instead of an artifact?

If the only thing that changes is the faces of the cast, how truly different can the Echoverse be? Apparently different enough that it must be stopped, but not so different that we might be concerned about the result.

I will say, there's a fun bit of contrast with the 'mirrored cards', like Proft Consulting Detective and Proft Sinister Mastermind. But I don't see the rhyme or reason to it. 

Ajani has a Red and White version-clearly these characters are meant to contrast each other enough that they are in opposing colors. They are meant to fight each other! Why doesn't Proft follow the same kind of contrast? The inconsistency bothers me, and it happens all through this part of the set. 

Is it interesting that Pia goes from an artifact oriented character to an enchantment one? Sure! But the colors that she's in don't emphasize that contrast; this is strictly a mechanical thing and those mechanics don't even have anything to do with each other. There's no other contrast. 

Also, Planar Chaos was meant to show spots where the colors would be 'shifted'- Wrath of God becomes Damnation, for example. That set allowed for certain things to be changed permanently, because those mechanics were seen as important to the color. In some cases mechanics that should have been there all along! People were excited to see cards like Damnation, Frozen Aether, or Mana Tithe. Sure, it didn't all take but at least it was different. 

But I don't see similar experimentation in Reality Fracture. White and Green doing +1 counters? Where have you seen that before? (Everywhere). And that they don't so anything interesting with those +1 counters feels like a huge oversight, especially since philosophy behind the Vigorbloom school in Hexhaven is "invasive healing". 

Invasive healing? That shit sounds like some body horror stuff! Instead...it's just +1 counters. 

The set feels extremely safe and in a game like Magic, safe is boring. 

This is the first set in awhile that I've found difficulty working up any enthusiasm over. It's probably fine and the gameplay is probably alright. But I don't feel excited about it. 

We'll see how I feel after the pre-release, which is this weekend. Hopefully I won't be validated! But the last time I felt this way was around Aetherdrift and that set...was not great. 

Be Careful What You're Asking For

The match I played against Noah clearly showed that in this deck, The Mindskinner is the glory of cool things. 

But then Noah said something odd to me: "Daze is the wrong countermagic for this deck."

In my head, it seemed so clear: T1: Island, crab, go. Then Daze whatever they played and I can replay the land for a counterspell AND 3 cards!

However, this deck is already operating on some Glory of Cool Things. Maybe I can't afford to think about the ideal turn 1, when my deck doesn't realistically win until turn 4 and that's if everything goes well. 

So: Mindskinner out, but maybe Daze, too?

Really, the call here is to make this deck as focused as it can be. It's a four card combo: I don't have the space to mess around. I need to be able to execute it consistently, or at least as consistently as possible. 

An Ode To Locksmiths

 It's mill deck time

4 Hedron Crab
3 Ruin Crab
3 The Mindskinner

4 Manabond

4 Daze
4 Brainstorm|
2 Mana Leak

13 Island
3 Forest
4 Misty Rainforest
4 Temple of Mystery

2 Stock Up
3 Scouting Trek
3 Treasure Hunt
4 Serum Visions

Named after the Type O Negative song, there's no rhyme or reason to that name. I just like Type O. 

The real trick: Have a crab out, have a Manabond out, play Scouting Trek and then Treasure Hunt. Go to end of turn, drop all the lands in your hand and mill your opponent out. 

Is it pie in the sky? You bet. But let's go.

We Do What We Do To Get By

 OK, I think I've got this deck where I want it. It can do some crazy things and the curve is pretty good. 

Is it going to be tier one? No, not without some mana reworks. But I'm not mad about this! I've build this deck into something that does stuff as opposed to just hoping.

4 Harmonic Prodigy
4 Ignoble Hierarch
2 Judith, the Scourge Diva
2 Flamekin Harbinger
4 Taurean Mauler
4 Wolf-Skull Shaman
4 Rage Forger
3 Vexing Shusher
3 Deathgreeter

4 Infernal Grasp

1 Overgrown Tomb
6 Mountain
1 Jund Panorama
4 Savage Lands
4 Swamp
3 Forest
4 Darigaaz's Caldera

3 Crippling Fear

I like this build quite a bit, as there is a great deal of redundancy and good mana fixing. Of everything, Deathgreeter is probably the most replaceable creature, but it's super cheap-not unlike this deck.

I'm out of town for the next week, so let's see if I can get a new post up in seven days!

Worked All Week Long

So there have been a few developments. 

First, I have discovered that Jetmir's Garden does not, in fact, produce Black mana. Sooooo that's kind of embarrassing. However, it did make the decision to cut that land much easier! 

Infernal Grasp has come in as the spot removal of choice, and I was leaving Dark Banishing in as my extra copies of removal until last night when I was just being overwhelmed by tiny-but-growing creatures, all of whom were Black. 

I've had Crippling Fear in my sideboard: but why? This does what I want it to do with no drawbacks to my deck! There isn't a plague of shaman decks running around Magic and there never has been. 

Similarly, Hit/Run should come out. Before the deck's tune up giving all my creatures +1 on attack or making my opponent sacrifice a permanent was useful. But now it's just an expensive card that is fighting for space against having a fourth copy of Harmonic Prodigy, a card that has been an absolute banger, or maybe even some card draw. 

There's No One That Can Stop Her

Out: Ashling the Pilgrim, Dark Banishing, Fulminator Mage, and Sapling of Colfenor

In: 4 Ignoble Hierarch, 3 Harmonic Prodigy, 2 Judith, the Scourge Diva.

On the block: Titania's Boon.

Cut Boon, added Banishings, 

Cutting Caludron Haze (it's win more) and adding removal, in this case Bogslither's Embrace.

It took all of one match against Noah to find the problems: it's the lands.

With 8 lands that enter tapped and 4 that bounce a land when they come into play, that is a debilitating blow to the pace of this deck. For a deck that generally tops out at the 3 spot, I need to re-evaluate how many lands I have that stunt my mana. 

The other issue was the removal: Bogslither's Embrace is a Christmasland card. I just assumed that I'd have have plenty of creatures with +1 counters on them to negate the Embrace's drawback.

I do not. 

So a little more work to do here. 

But I'm glad I swung big on those first changes: seeing that Ignoble Hierarch was a Shaman is a HUGE boost for this deck.

Thrash Unreal

I took  this from an Against Me! song. And what we have here is a shamans deck.

2 Sapling of Colfenor
3 Ashling the Pilgrim
2 Flamekin Harbinger
4 Taurean Mauler
4 Wolf-Skull Shaman
4 Rage Forger
2 Fulminator Mage
2 Vexing Shusher
3 Deathgreeter

4 Hit // Run
3 Cauldron Haze
2 Dark Banishing

6 Mountain
1 Jund Panorama
4 Savage Lands
2 Swamp
2 Forest
4 Darigaaz's Caldera
4 Jetmir's Garden

2 Titania's Boon

Let's put some +1/+1 counters on things and swing, right? Make extra wolves, and see what can be done!

Well. Quite a lot, really. So let's have at it.

The Zeta Set

This is pretty dang cool. 

I can't afford it, apparently you can't draft it and sealed would be bullshit. 

That is; no, I won't buy it, nobody should and this product is a distortion of what Magic needs to be about: form (the art) follows function (the game). 

But it's still a pretty cool art project.

Break

Just going to take a couple weeks break: I'm feeling kinda burnt out, so a short vacation will be nice. 

See y'all back in a couple!

Sandstorm Complete

So let's catch up since I failed to update the readers on Sandstorm!

4 Shuko

4 Heartfire Hero
3 Manifold Mouse
3 Stirring Hopesinger
3 Valley Questcaller
3 Emberheart Challenger
3 Flowerfoot Swordmaster
3 Seedglaive Mentor

4 Erode
4 Monstrous Rage
1 Loran's Escape
3 Legion Leadership
2 Shelter

2 Glittering Massif
7 Plains
7 Mountain
4 Elegant Parlor

There've been two real changes: first, Stirring Hopesinger. An evasive creature that can gain life and give me a boost every time I cast a non-creature spell? This seems pretty good. The card draws a lot of attention when I play it, so clearly I'm doing something right. 

The other change has been to remove Restless Bivouac for Glittering Massif. My reasoning here is that if Massif shows up in the first two turns, great I can use the color fixing. 

If it shows up anytime after I have 3 or more lands, I can cycle it away for another card. 

The spell suite might be a bit more challenging. I've been looking at Adventures, Omens and Prepared spells in hopes of finding something that might add to the spell count while keeping a threat base high but very little fits. Because I would like something that either offers me some removal redundancy. Erode has been a solid card and it wouldn't suck having another. It's possible I should look at replacing a card like Shelter for something more aggressive but I'm not sure at the moment. 

Still; it's a solid deck and for now it's doing well!

Vibro-Sword

After some time revamping more, this is the list I settled on.

1 Deep Forest Hermit  

1 Emeritus of Woe

2 Eldrazi Repurposer
1 Grim Haruspex
1 Massacre Girl
1 Murderous Rider // Swift End
3 Ohran Viper
4 Misery's Shadow
1 Springheart Nantuko
1 Vein Ripper
3 Sakura-Tribe Elder
3 Fume Spitter

4 Fecundity
3 Mortuary

6 Swamp
2 Volrath's Stronghold
4 Llanowar Wastes
7 Forest
4 Blooming Marsh

4 Final Vengeance
4 Malevolent Rumble

Sideboard
SB: 2 Fulminator Mage
SB: 1 Murderous Rider // Swift End

It pained me to cut a Mortuary but the chance to utilize Emeritus of Woe in order to get some of the silver bullets in the deck seemed strong. I'm also experimenting on a few things: Ohran Viper over Wall of Blossoms to increase the creature control element. If my opponent isn't attacking me because of the Viper, that's more time. If my opponent isn't doing anything else, I can draw cards. 

How will it do? I'm not sure. But I like the configuration.

Tiny Arms

 I like Grimlock, but I got a lesson in it's limitations recently.

I was playing Matt who was playing my Sandstorm deck-which I am just now realizing I never followed up on!

So I'll get that posted soon. But Matt couldn't get the deck going, which meant I had time to both set up my deck and take out his smaller creatures. I chalk a little of that up to him being a new pilot 

However, later that day, I was playing against a B/W Bats deck that just had my number. Cheap creatures with evasion, scaling power and lifegain meant that by the time I could get my deck set up, the game was over. 

The closest I got was when I landed a Vein Ripper and even that wasn't enough.

Now there's a couple lessons: one is that Grimlock is going to be taken down by fast decks, and I should be looking at board resets. My deck should be more resilient to resets than my opponent's. 

But also: this deck, as neat as it is, can't be all things. And that's OK. Take the wins where you can. 

2027 Hype

Nauctis trailer.

Titanbreach trailer.

Zhalfir trailer.

Of these, the one I'm most excited for is Titanbreach. Pacific Rim set? Yes please.

The most interesting one is Zhalfir of course: Wakanda mythos writ large? Alright let's see what you got! It doesn't hurt that it's a riff off of Lorwyn/Shadowmoor and Lorwyn Eclipsed, a modern set I loved, with Shadowmoor, a set I'm very fond of. 

Plus, I always enjoy it when Magic goes to a place that doesn't get a lot of exposure. It's an opportunity for a window to be opened in my world that wasn't there before.

Which is probably why I feel that Nauctis has something to prove. Atlantis was never a thing. I know, it's a high fantasy staple and truthfully, I'm shocked Magic hasn't done it. But it's such an old trope that I don't feel much excitement about it. 

The trailer said that it's the first Magic set-maybe ever?-without flying as a mechanic, which is great, I love that.

It also says that there's a mechanic to replace that aaaaaannnnnd that raises some eyebrows. Because previous attempts at making creatures "unblockable except by X" (shadow, horsemanship) have had some very bad impacts on the game, especially in limited.

Sill, I'm glad to see these sets coming next year and I hope y'all are too.

Always Here

 So, been getting into the Arkham Horror LCG and it's been neat! As is so often the case with me, I've been doing dives into reviews of expansions, how to build decks, all that neat stuff.

Then I found this review and it just stuck in my craw.

"Woke" is such a terrible criticism here, even without having played that expansion.

Black people existed in the 1930s. Queer people existed in the 1930s. That may have been to Lovecraft's dismay but we shouldn't be taking his bullshit into the future, and it certainly doesn't change the truth.

So complaining that showing the existence of people in a game where you play as a person is...trash. 

Big Business is not your friend

Well, Sony have announced the elimination of physical media for games. 

And it's a bad, dumb idea. 

There are a lot of takes out there right now as to why it is and some of them carry more weight than others. Your mileage may vary, as always. 

However there is one thing that I feel becomes undeniable: once Sony controls their own marketplace, they have a monopoly. 

And that is bad for everyone. 

For me, personally, I hate that we are going back to 'company store' days. You don't own what you own; you rent it all from the company. We already know that businesses consider digital content to be something they can take from you.

I like to own the things I buy-that is why I buy them.

And it means I'm going to have to reconsider my gaming habits for the future. That also kinda sucks. I liked it when things were easy. 

And that's it for a week! I'm going on vacation and going to play some Warhammer Conquest!

Tiny Holiday

 Sorry everyone! Just need some time to get caught up. 

Just Different

I'm struggling with Grimlock a bit because, sigh of the search engines. 

See, if you search for Mortuary at Moxfield, you get this. Because now, there are three cards with the word Mortuary in it, and one of them is super useful.

This is a bummer because hey, that is one of the key cards and I was hoping that by searching for a key card I would vastly narrow the focus of my search. Now? Not so much.

Fortunately, there is Fecundity and that search provided me with the 'duh' moment for this deck: creature tokens. 

Again, back when I first built the deck the volume of tokens at large, much less creature tokens, just wasn't that high. But it's a new day! Cards like Malevolent Rumble and Eldrazi Repurposer exist. 

In addition, the rule with cards like Fecundity is that you need to find ways to break the parity to your advantage. Enter Dauthi Voidwalker.

So with some creature updates, it's time to take this deck for a spin.

Grimlock

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Life From The Low

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

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

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

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

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

I'll Be A Massive Conquistador

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

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

3 Thopter Foundry

3 Sword of the Meek

3 Glass Casket

3 Cryogen Relic

4 Etherium Sculptor

3 Disciple of the Vault

3 Tribute Mage

1 Winter, Cursed Rider

1 Confounding Riddle

4 Thirst for Knowledge

4 Mana Leak

7 Island

4 Seat of the Synod

1 Vault of Whispers

1 Ancient Den

1 Plains

2 Arcane Sanctum

4 Esper Panorama

1 Swamp

2 Dromar's Cavern

2 Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas

3 Withering Curse

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

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

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

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

3 Thopter Foundry
3 Sword of the Meek
4 Sapphire Medallion

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

3 Oblivion Ring
2 Engineered Plague

1 Spinal Embrace
4 Thirst for Knowledge

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

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

Where's the Time Sieve, my dude?

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

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

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

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

Sigh

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

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

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

Good luck to the unionizers. Fuck Hasbro. 

Late To The Party: Darksiders: Genesis

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

And that is deeply unsatisfying. 

Sandstorm

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

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

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

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

Mice

 I need a name for this deck, but right now it's got it where it counts, kid.

4 Shuko

4 Heartfire Hero
3 Manifold Mouse
3 Valley Questcaller
3 Emberheart Challenger
2 Mabel, Heir to Cragflame
3 Flowerfoot Swordmaster
3 Seedglaive Mentor
1 Feather, the Redeemed

4 Monstrous Rage
4 Unwanted Remake
2 Loran's Escape|
3 Legion Leadership
2 Shelter

7 Plains
7 Mountain
4 Elegant Parlor
2 Restless Bivouac

Obviously this started as a riff on the mice deck in Standard-hey, why not build on a proven idea? Without the limits of Standard, Shuko becomes available and the deck can get sick very, very quickly. 

With 20 lands, the deck is running very lean, and I'm absolutely hoping that Elegant Parlor along with Shelter and Loran's Escape can help smooth my draws out, while not slowing me down, despite Restless Bivouac and Parlor entering tapped.

Free Pizza: Daredevil-Crimson Twilight season

 Hit my free pizza pretty early! 

went a little rogue and built a Wolverine Horseman of War deck instead of capitalizing on the new Daredevil season. Storm Horseman of Famine was both surprisingly good and frustrating, as the +2 could be immense, but the setback was no joke. That card really needs to be in a Hi Evo style deck.

Living the dream was having Mother Askani split Wolverine of course, and adding something like 35 points to the board. And while this deck did the lion's share of work getting me to 90, I also had a nice little backup deck. 

This deck has one severe weakness: it needs priority. If you get and keep priority by turn 3, you can do very silly things. Frequently, Wilson Fisk comes down on turn 3 and that can lock in Askani'son or Iron Patriot, and from there cards like Viv, Rocket and Groot and Alioth come in incredibly useful. 

Production Issues

 So far as I can tell, these are legit Magic cards.

Yet it is very clear that the cards on the right are darker than the ones on the right. 

Look, WotC: this kind of shit seemed like it never happened for years and years. Now it seems to pop up every set. Maybe this has always been a problem and it's just social media raising awareness but I'm not ever inclined to give a large corporation the benefit of the doubt when it comes to cutting corners. 

Need To Be Fast All The Time

 I think I like where this is at. 

I had to learn some hard lessons with this deck, and I'm keeping it in rotation for a little longer, because it's excellent practice. 

Seriously, if you ever want to practice how to utilize instants optimally, this kind of deck is worth playing. It's starting to change the way I pay attention to Magic and that's definitely a good thing.

Plus, I want to practice with Skycoach Conductor, since I think that will add just enough value to nudge the deck forward. Kutzil's Flanker; you're going to the sideboard!

One other thing this deck will help with is not tilting out. I recently scrapped a game against Noah when he landed a Voice of Victory and I hadn't noticed. 

I immediately scooped, but looking back at the game, I should have utilized my tools to remove the VoV and then get back into playing my game. Because I wasn't paying attention, I felt bad and did the scoop of shame. Scooping wasn't the problem; not taking a breath to see if that was the correct thing to do, was.

Anyway, here's the decklist!

2 Skycoach Conductor // All Aboard

4 Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student

3 Sigrid, God-Favored

4 Brineborn Cutthroat

2 Merfolk Trickster

3 Errant and Giada

2 Snapcaster Mage

4 Fire Nation Occupation

3 Opt

4 Counterspell

2 Path to Exile

4 Brainstorm

4 Tundra

7 Island

4 Plains

1 Swamp

2 Contaminated Aquifer

1 Sunlit Marsh

4 Meticulous Archive

SB: 2 Kutzil's Flanker

Going Too Slow

Let's talk about Force of Virtue.

This was a card I subbed in for a bit, thinking it would be a great fit for the deck. My creatures are small, the Flash quality of Force of Virtue meant I could play it off the top of my library if Giada was out, or play it for free boosting all my other creatures. 

But what this card actually represents is "win more". 

I get caught on this all the time. Why win when you can SUPERWIN? The Glory of Cool Things biting me in the ass. 

But...no. I don't need to do that. Just win. That's enough. I have Snapcaster Mage, a card that is practically waving a giant sign telling me to add it to the deck and I was just blowing past it because I was looking at white cards.

Cynicism

Hey, they announced a 2-Headed Giant event for the Avengers Academy set coming out! That's pretty cool I think it's rad that 2HG is getting some time in the spotlight, I think it's a great way to play Magic. Let's see who the theme deck characters are....

Lessee...Best Known Comic Guy, Best Known Movie Guy, Best Known TV Guy, They Can't All Be Men, and They Can't All Be White. 

What an interesting lineup of choices!*

*My point is not that there shouldn't be women or non-white characters heading the decks. There should-the game should appeal to a broad group. My point is that you have the most cliched picks possible with art that couldn't be more boring if it came with bong hits. It's just too bad that there aren't any real choices when it comes to Avengers you can pick!

Should've Been Faster

OK, back at it.

I was lucky to make some tweaks right away! I had Meticulous Archive and added that to the deck promptly. Then put it to the test against Rebecca playing a RW mice deck (going to write about that soon!) 

First lesson: I need Brainstorm. Tamiyo is a powerful effect, but the investment to get her to flip is really only helpful if she can do it cheaply. This deck isn't built like that and it needs to be. 

Second: Merfolk Trickster can be used after attackers are declared to make creatures with flying or first strike lose that ability. I learned it the hard way but it is useful!

Third: Fire Nation Occupation is very strong and one of the deck's win conditions. Brineborn Cutthroat is solid, but I haven't seen it pop off like I would hope-yet. What I'm concerned about is having enough threats to win the game. 

Fourth: I do not have Aven Interrupter available right now. What is up with that?? But I do have Errant and Giada and this might be perfect!

Union

Hey, WotC employees got a union now!

Sure, it's for the Arena devs but still. Good for them.

Secrets of Strixhaven Set Review

The mechanics. The set. Let's go.

I think this set is a very cool one. Why bury the lede? Prepare is a great twist on the Adventure mechanic that fits in really well with a Strixhaven set. Repartee is probably the coolest BW mechanic since Extort, and possibly just as powerful. Increment does something really fun with the UG school, cementing it as the 'big mana' style of play colors. And the others, Flashback, Infusion and Opus all feel like they fit their respective takes on the color pairs (RW, BG, and UR respectively).

The introduction of the Avatars as the next Eldrazi style big bads is great, as it presents a nice mechanical counterpoint to the Eldrazi, caring a lot about color. 

 This set has me excited to play with it! 

Part of this is the mechanical overlap I'm seeing that reminds me of another set I really liked: Dragonstorm.

For example: Opus wants you to play spells, but if the spells cost 5 or more, you get an extra bonus. However, if you're slipping in a few Increment cards that also get bigger if you spend more mana, well isn't that just frosting? Or, if you have a deck using Flashback, isn't that pretty cool for some cards with a Repartee ability? 

I feel like WotC has been doing a very good job of presenting 3 color sets without making them 3 color sets, and it's definitely making for a more dynamic game. 

Let's talk colors. 

White
Interestingly, the White Emeritus is probably the weakest of the bunch. It probably doesn't matter much because there's some really good removal in this color and Stirring Hopesinger looks like an incredibly powerful effect. 

However, I should note that the Emeritus of Truce can also represent a swing in the boardstate if you're behind. That's not nothin'. 

In the meantime, there's cool things for Blink style decks, and possibly the strongest Lesson with Restoration Seminar? 

Blue
The hype machine that is the Emeritus of Ideation has got to be a thing, right? Five mana for that suite of abilities and the ability to Ancestral Recall? 

I know it's a terrible idea but I want to be the guy who makes the deck with Echocasting Symposium and Phage. Still, someone should live that dream!

I have a feeling that Encouraging Aviator will be a rockstar in limited. If I am reading it right, you should be able to attack with it, have it become prepared and in response to your declaration of attackers, cast Jump to give another creature you control flying. That's pretty strong.

I think Skycoach Conductor might have a place in my new Flash deck, and I really want to see how the Increment creatures go in my 1000 Shards deck. Future me actions. 

I think I like how Orysa Tide Choreographer can help dig players out of stalemates but I'm not sure it's good enough. Neat concept though.

Black
I feel like this color is the most consistently powerful in the set. It isn't incredibly flashy, but it feels very reliable. 

Even Ral Zarek, the planeswalker doesn't seem over the top. That's a good thing! (Also quite a character shift!)

It also seems like it has the most creatures that can re-prepare themselves, and that's interesting. And every Black creature with Lifelink just got a boost in their stock. 

Red
They are really trying to reward the '3 spells in a turn' deck happen, aren't they? Emeritus of Conflict seems like a fairly good reward. Add in Blue flying creatures and card draw for a little bonus and you can go a long way on very little mana. 

I'm very glad to see a card like Maelstrom Artisan. Land destruction isn't a popular strategy but non-basic land destruction should've been a dial WotC turned often. Keeping greedy manabases in check is a good thing. 

But aside from that card, like Black I feel like this color is reasonably consistent. I don't think they're doing anything new in Red, however developing its reach in the Instant and Sorcery area of the game is good. I also believe there's a nice balance between the creatures you want to run for payoffs, like Thunderdrum Soloist, and the spells you cast.

Green

While Green has a very strong Lesson-giving your creatures a permanent +2 every turn should end games rapidly-I feel like this color might be the underpowered one in this set. There's a lot of land searching, but having a bunch of mana for the Quandrix school is reliant on payoff cards and I don't see much in the way of big haymakers. Generating mana to cast spells to grow creatures means having spells to cast. Similarly, I count 3.5 ways to gain life in the color while I could 6.5 ways (I count pest tokens as a half) in Black. So how effective is it to build into Witherbloom?

I'm not saying that Green is bad; just that it seems like a great support color and not a main reason to go in a particular direction. 

Multi

This is where one would expect the set to shine, and it does. This is where I'm finding the support for going into GB-really a lot of glue for any color combination. I see this especially at uncommon, where a lot of these cards will be relevant in draft, however I'm excited for all of my enemy-paired Liege decks which should get some dynamite creatures to add!

Art/Colorless

The artifacts all fall in the 'workhorse' class for me; small effects you add to your deck to help smooth things out where your colors might be lacking. Nothing seems particularly bad nor exciting. 

The colorless creatures are, to me, all about teasing a future set. Yes, they're supposed to also be payoffs for a 4 or 5 color deck in sealed/draft, excepting The Dawning Archaic, which has some weird combo potential I'm only vaguely aware of right now. But what I really see them doing is taking another big bad slot as the Eldrazi did, as I mentioned before. 

So it's too bad that they aren't very exciting. I don't think they are awful, and they are clearly designed for Commander but...they also aren't very threatening and require a lot of setup for their rewards. 

Lands

I'm always happy to see dual lands of any sort get reprinted, and the new common lands function well for their ability. I think that Skycoach Waypoint is overcosted for what it does though: four (3 + tapping the land) to prepare an unprepared creature is taxing and honestly I think that if the cost had been reduced by one, you'd generate more excitement. 

Petrified Waypoint is obviously a niche card meant to help solve a problem I don't know we have, and Great Hall of the Biblioplex is unexciting as well. 

Still! I'm looking forward to getting my hands on this set. I think there's cool things to do, the limited gameplay looks interesting and there's already some cards I want to utilize in decks I already have. Really happy with this one!

260%

 I did not realize how many more Magic cards we were getting but the Professor lays it all out. 

It is...well it is just unhealthy for the game for us to get this many cards. I feel like we've been getting really lucky with sets lately, insofar as the cards seem interesting.

But I've also noticed physical mistakes-miscuts and the like.

And, as the Professor notes; the redundancy is going up, with cards doing nearly the same thing, set after set. 

That is inevitably going to make gameplay stale. It's going to burn players out. 

Sigh. I do not like late stage capitalism. 

Fast All The Time

So....I don't care about Merfolk.

What about this? 

4 Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student
2 Kutzil's Flanker
3 Sigrid, God-Favored
4 Brineborn Cutthroat
2 Aven Interrupter
2 Merfolk Trickster

4 Fire Nation Occupation

4 Opt
4 Counterspell
4 Path to Exile
4 Consider

4 Tundra
9 Island
6 Plains
1 Swamp
2 Contaminated Aquifer
1 Sunlit Marsh

Flash decks can be a thing and I have seen some neat ones. They're usually UB but I'm wondering if WU with a little Black can work. 

Fire Nation Occupation is one of the obvious rewards but my real goal was to implement a deck that did nearly everything on my opponent's turn. It's a little underpowered: Brainstorm, Meticulous Archive, and Flooded Strand would probably all help. 

Still, a Tamiyo is apparently incredibly powerful, Brineborn Cutthroat is a scaling threat, I highly doubt anyone is goign to see Merfolk Trickster coming so let's see what can be done!

The deck's name is taken from a great track by Nylitia. 

How Long Does A Joke Last

 It's a legitimate question. 

Marvel Snap introduced "Arena Grande", a limited time game mode inspired by Deadpool's comic antics. With "wacky" pre-made decks to play, it became clear rapidly that the destroy deck (the one highlighting Deadpool) was the best deck to play. 

Ha-ha. You think you have options but it's really just Deadpool doin' Deadpool stuff.

Very droll, yes? 

But it isn't fun.

So I said so on Reddit. And was soundly rebuked for my take because I was "complaining about a gag game mode".  

Yes. A gag game mode they expect people to play for two days, with a reward track, in an environment that is deliberately skewed and unfun.

So: I don't care if it's supposed to just be a joke. The joke goes too long.

I don't care if it's free. Free means that it doesn't eat my time.

I don't care if it's easy. Easy doesn't equal good. 

I don't care that other people don't like my take. 

I care that they fucked up the one thing this game is supposed to do before all other things: Be fun. 

Jokes only last until the punchline. No punchline lasts 48 hours. 

Late To The Party: Psychonauts 2

Sure, I'm 5 years behind but the game was free...

Is Pyschonauts 2 good? Yes.

Is it worth your time? No.

Because there are two things that make Psychonauts feel very out of date: first is the story, which is far more haphazard than it should be. Raz, the main character, is mocked and beat up by his classmates who, mysteriously, all show up to bail him out in the final scene. 

There's no setup for that; Raz's interactions are almost entirely with the adults who have created a mess. That story is pretty solid! There's an interesting progression of showing how well meaning adults have their plans go bad and how that inevitably impacts the future-and how trying to bury that history always leads to someone trying to exploit it.

However, the game is just too damn long. EVERY single level is going to require three things; three librarians, three seeds, three whatevers. The repetition gets pretty dull, and there's no reason for things to go this long. The player isn't rewarded with extra story content, and Raz doesn't get notably stronger. Once he has all his abilities I didn't feel like I was able to use them in new ways to do odd things, nor become a powerhouse that made the game easy. 

It was fine. Really! I enjoyed much of my time with Psychonauts 2. 

But it wore out its welcome and I don't ever want to pick it up again. 

The Diversion

It started, as these things often do: hey that's neat!

And it turned into a project.

Because as it turns out, people have made actual versions of this format in paper. Some of them going all out, with a cabinet that has every card, but others with a more manageable idea. 

Which is what I did! The results of which turned into a 17 page document. My guideposts for my Momir Vig Basic format? For mana values 1-6, I kept the format Pioneer legal, after that in order to fill things out I needed to make things Legacy legal. But who doesn't want to see a Bringer at 9 mana??? Energy, pirates, and minotaurs, cards with activated abilities, with the occasional 'does nothing' card. I mostly avoided cards that added mana or drew cards and I included a little recursion-the online format creates tokens but here I wanted the occasional Gravedigger to be useful.

And that got all messed up when I saw this video and was informed that unless players were willing to skip activations of Momir, anything above the 7 mana value slot would be out of reach!

Still, I'm going to get this sleeved up soon and see what happens. I'm psyched for this one!

Swim With The Fishes

 Last year I started working on the merfolk deck I had, only to realize that there would probably be some cool new merfolk released in Lorwyn Eclipsed. That suggested I should table Piranacon until that set came out and then see what I could do with iit.

Now that Lorwyn Eclipsed is out....the merfolk are a whole lot of meh. 

I've tried some different configurations of the deck and the big problem is none of them feel good. I'm just goldfishing and the deck doesn't do anything. 

And it has me wondering if there's something I can do to change that.

2 Lord of Atlantis
3 Tidal Courier
2 Galina's Knight
3 Merrow Reejerey
1 True-Name Nemesis
2 Svyelun of Sea and Sky
3 Sygg, Wanderwine Wisdom
3 Deepchannel Duelist
1 Deepway Navigator

4 Plumes of Peace

4 Counterspell
2 Emergency Eject
2 Opt
3 Shelter

3 Plains
3 Wanderwine Hub
4 Tundra
13 Island

2 Sygg's Command

I'm considering just retiring the idea. In part because as a person who's been playing this game for thirty years, I feel like I should have a merfolk deck instead of enjoying the play patterns. 

Which is a pretty silly way to go about it, isn't it? 

Maybe this would be an excellent deck to translate into Commander: I could make it WUG and have access to a lot more shenanigans without having to feel 'serious'. 

The cards I'm thinking of for that commander would be Brenard, Amareth or Morska.