Monthly Archives: June 2019

Goatnapped!

Game day, magic, MtG

Yesterday was the hottest day of the year so far.

There was only one way to spend the day. Indoors playing MtG at my FLGS The Hobbit Hole’s Open House event.

The last couple of days I’ve been on a lucky streak. In the two new Planeswalker decks I bought I got a Leyline of Sanctity, in my Modern Horizons packs, a foil squirrel token, pain land and an Unbound Flourishing (recouped the cost of the packs back in that card alone), a new Karn in the War of the Spark boosters.

The Leyline is needed for my Standard deck, whilst the Unbound Flourishing is going straight into my big green stompy Commander deck.

Naturally I was wearing the coolest tee of the day at my FLGS. Yep I had the card Ferocious Pup made into a tee. I had hoped the white would have come out better. It looked distressed at best. But otherwise I was happy with the rest of it.

I went with the new Green Welcome deck. Which was fortunate because after loosing a game with it against Kar-Fai. I was able to trade the Aggressive Mammoth that is in the deck with Kar-Fai for the Reckless Air Strike he pulled from the booster in his Planeswalker deck. I wanted the card to go in my mono red goblins Commander deck that I was about to use.

Other new cards in the deck were the new Krenko, and Goatnap. The new Krenko was also being tested as the Commander.

Our four player Commander game was great fun. Naturally being goblins I was quick off the mark, and was basically the major threat. But after Elesh Norn hit the battlefield that was me scuppered. As was the Markov vampire deck. Until that card was removed it basically stopped me playing any goblins, or creating tokens. During that period of being locked down, Dean and his Atraxa super friends deck started to get really powerful with a few Planeswalkers out and firing off their abilities.

Luckily I got an Immortal Sun out, not early enough. But at the right moment to stop him ultimating them and winning the game. It then became in the interest of the other players to keep me alive and locking out those Planeswalkers.

Once Dean had been removed, ok killed. I didn’t last much longer despite firing off a board wipe.

But earlier in the game I did get to use Goatnap to steal Elesh Norn. That was pretty cool.

It was a fun Commander game. With the usual ebb and flow. We introduced a new player to the format. Got to play cool cards.

Afterwards I got to play test my not Standard deck (well not for another 2 weeks) with 2 copies of leylines in it, and a third Nissa. The decks I played against were not competitive enough for a Showdown. They were nowhere fast enough compared to say Dean’s Dino deck, or the red burn decks. So not really a test for the deck.

Naturally the FLGS sold out of all their Planeswalker decks. Mainly to existing players though. It’s that booster pack from Core Set 2020 in each Planeswalker deck. Early early access to the cards.

I had a really great day playing MtG. This was a fun Open House.

When I got home the model clippers had arrived. Which allowed me to do my least favourite part of the miniatures hobby. Cutting and gluing models together.

So I put the Viking warriors together, and not shown the Viking berserkers.

Everything was then primed ready for painting. Which I started today. But more about that in another post.

Wine and Cities

Fenland Gamers, game night

Last night at the Fenland Gamers temporary home for gaming we held a Friday evening gaming session.

Our main game of the evening was a long over due to the table favourite of both Jonathan and myself, Viticulture.

Checking with my game stats this hasn’t hit the table for 14 months. I like that the app I use allows me to check this sort of thing out (I have about 4 years worth of data now). However in situations like this you can’t help feeling guilty when you see just how long it is between plays of games you really like.

We played just the basic essentials version (without any Tuscany stuff other than that included in this edition already) plus the Moorland Visitors shuffled in. Although funny story Jonathan asked about that whilst we were playing and I had no idea. But Jonathan recognised one or two of the cards. So they must have been shuffled in!

Jonathan won with a no wine production strategy. Gaining that victory point each turn from the turn order track, and various visitor cards. I think he completed a single order. I finished a whole 4 points behind him, which an extra couple of actions would have been closed and forcing the tie breakers. I’m not sure the usual suspect really got the harvest/wine/order side of the game. He came in a far and distant last.

Such a great, great game.

Our second and last game of the evening was Citadels.

Now I won this. But an interesting question happened at the end. I triggered the end of the game with 7 buildings. However on the final turn of the round Jonathan was the warlord and destroyed one of my buildings. It wasn’t clear whether Jonathan destroying my building stopped the end of the game or we finished and scored.

I ruled the game ended, because it had been triggered on my turn. And there wasn’t anything that said otherwise. And that Jonathan was only denying me points in the end scoring.

A great evening gaming, with classics hitting the table, one long overdue. And thanks to Jonathan for the photos above.

Games Played: Viticulture, Citadels

Serious Poulp News

news

With the conclusion of the second Kickstarter for The 7th Continent (2nd Edition of the base game and a new expansion What Goes Up, Must Come Down) Serious Poulp yesterday sent some rather exciting news to fans of the game.

Let’s start with the game they are famous for. The one you can only get from Kickstarter campaigns because the game is too costly to produce for mainstream distribution, The 7th Continent.

Firstly from mid-July extra production copies of the game will be on sale from their website. “These “Collector” base boxes, expansions and game accessories will be available for sale whilst stocks last, which will vary for each geographical area. These same geographical areas may also influence when products become available.” So a chance for those that missed the Kickstarter or missed bits for whatever reason have a chance to correct that.

Next it appears that Serious Poulp have heard those contacting them about those on the internet via sites like eBay taking advantage of the games exclusivity. Or that people missed the Kickstarter’s for whatever reason and would love to be able to buy the game but can’t.

So Serious Poulp have come up with a solution that will allow them to print the game and make it cost effective to put out through regular channels. Yes that means buy it from your FLGS. Below is the image they produced showing the difference between the Kickstarter Edition aka Collector Edition and this new Classic Edition.

Some of the expansions naturally will also available and this is what they said about that.

“Parallel to this release, three expansions will also be available: “The Icy Maze”, “The Forbidden Sanctuary” and a mini expansion that will contain the introductory “The Crystal Song” curse as well as the new games modes from the “What Goes Up, Must Come Down.” Collector box. 

It goes without saying that the Kickstarter exclusive expansion “Swamp of Madness” will not be reprinted.”

So when can you get your hands on this Classic Edition? Sometime in Q4 is the plan.

That’s pretty big news. And a reasonable compromise. Hopefully fans that don’t have the game will be happy with that. But I can imagine some complaining it’s not everything. You can’t please everyone all the time.

But what of the future plans of the company? What’s next? How do Serious Poulp follow up The 7th Continent? The expansion What Goes Up, Must Come Down was their encore after all.

Well they have this awesome game engine now called Choose Your Own Path. So the natural thing to do is use it again. And that’s what Serious Poulp are doing. Their next project using the system is called The 7th Citadel.

From the email this is all the information that has been shared so far.

“The 7th Citadel will take place in a new unique “Dark Fantasy” world whose gameplay will be significantly enhanced compared to that of The 7th Continent. 

The game will be coming to Kickstarter in 2020 to allow us to continue its development and prepare a campaign that we hope will be just as exciting as those of The 7th Continent!

We’ll be back this autumn to tell you more about the game’s world and mechanics!”

This is pretty awesome news. The new theme appeals to me. I’m a fantasy fan in all it’s forms. And it will be interesting to see what enhancements they have made to the engine and game play.

As you can see that’s an exciting way to conclude a kickstarter and get fans excited about future projects. What do you think of this news?

Update on planning session 1 #8 Boat Tiles

D&D, RPG, session planning

SPOILER ALERT TO MY ADVENTURERS! The following post contains spoilers for the up and coming campaign. You may want to avoid this post and join me in a future one.

Last night I picked up the tiles that will allow me to recreate the decks of boats.

Once I was home I immediately primed the well ready for painting in the near future. I need to research painting stone walls first. Which I’ve started to do.

Naturally this morning I quickly knocked up a couple of boat layouts that I will use in the opening sessions.

The first to be put together is a small row boat (bottom boat in the photo above). Which scale wise is 10ft wide by 25ft long! So slightly bigger than a regular row boat!Assuming each square is 5ft. But I suppose I could say that the squares are 2ft.

The next boat to be put together was a version of the keelboat. I use the door to imply a wall at the end of the boat where the cabin is. The beds are a little on the large side. 10ft in length, nice roomy beds! But I’m really happy with the way it works.

Naturally I will use the inter locking clips to put these together before hand. It will make using them a lot easier.

I will need to get more tiles when I move away from single deck boats like long ships, row boats and keelboats. But that’s way down the line (for now).

One thing I would like to find are some small model boats of the ones mentioned above, plus say pirate ships that can go on a battle map to show at a larger scale the positions of boats in relation to each other. Kind of like a sea version of x-wing.

While picking up the tiles the news about our regular gaming haunt for the club and it’s ongoing refit wasn’t good. It looks like the seated area will not be completed until after the summer. Which means we will have to look at a plan b for a place to play. Which we have now. So I’ve put it back into the hands of the players to work out a date and time for our first session. I hate the whole guessing game of trying to find a date and time that works for everyone. It’s a real headache. So I’ve put the onus on them to work it out and come back to me. I’m usually free most of the time. I have no life.

On the planning front I now also have some hooks for session 2. I’ve come up with four, one I hope is sign posted enough that if they go for it will result in a tpk most likely. But you’d expect that if they took on a red dragon! One of the hooks even ties in with a couple of the players back stories. I’m feeling proud of that one.

But it does mean I can’t really plan session 3 until I know which hook the players want to follow. So once session 2 has finished I have a bit of work ahead of me before session 3 starts.

In the meantime I have a lot of brown paint to slap on some tiles.

Core Set 2020 Open House This Weekend

magic, MtG

It’s that time of year once again when WotC try and tempt new and returning players to the game with the promise of free MtG decks, and promo cards.

Ok the promo card part has changed. They have gone and are now replaced with the new Promo Packs. I can’t see anyone getting a whole Promo Pack for attending a Welcome event. We are more likely going to see one or two of these opened up and the cards inside given out individually as a promo for attending.

Apparently this is better!

I do believe that your FLGS will also be able to sell the 5 new Planeswalker decks this weekend as well. Which makes sense for new players, who have just learnt to play and want to buy a deck. They are fine for casual play. But I wouldn’t use one in FNM or Not Standard Showdown. The deck wouldn’t be competitive enough. I’d be looking at the new Challenger decks for that.

Anyway I know my FLGS The Hobbit Hole will be holding their Core Set 2020 Open House this Saturday. Also at mid day they will be holding a Not Standard Showdown event as well.

Core Set 2020 Spoilers I Like

magic, MtG

So here it is the post you have all been dreading.

I should give some sort of disclaimer for this post. It’s not as if I know what I’m talking about. As the title of this post says, these are cards I like, and in one or two cases may be a little unsure about. They are definitely cards I can see going into my decks, or building decks around.

I’m starting off with the card that I just love the art on. I think everyone is talking about the card just on the art alone. Ferocious Pup. Beautiful, beautiful art. Great flavour text. 0/1 isn’t amazing. But with a card later on it gets a buff, plus you get a 2/2 wolf token (which would also get that boost). If this cards art is not on a playmat then all those companies that sell official MtG playmats are fools. I want this as a playmat.

It seems the poster child for Core Set 2020 is Chandra. I like Chandra. So I’m down with that. But we are getting 3 Chandra Planeswalkers in this this set. There is a strong elemental tribal theme to this set. Or that’s the impression I am getting. Which might be something I explore for Showdown.


There are one or two cards in Core Set that are linked with Chandra. I like the Regulator. Doubling Awakening Inferno’s +2 ability seems broken. Two of them emblems a turn. Ouch! I like the Embercat, a 2/2 for 2. Pretty standard, but having it give mana that can get a Chandra or Elemental out early is nice. Scheming Symmetry, I like this card a lot. It’s obviously aimed at Commander players. The politics this will enable at the table. This may just find a home in all my decks that have black in them.

Thought Distortion, the card that every blue and red deck will come to fear. All those counter spells, card draws, lightning bolts etc sitting in the graveyard. All those cards that allow you to play them again from the graveyard, gone. I like this. Flame Sweep is a card that screams adding to my dragon tribal deck. It’s a token spam board wipe basically. Unless they have been buffed. The flavour text is great too. I imagine that quote wouldn’t have been out of place in A Game of Thrones. Dragon Mage I like for my dragon commander deck also. Not cheap, 7 CMC for a 5/5 flyer. But I think it could be irritating as heck with people having to discard and draw all the time. It shouldn’t be hard to the damage through.

Three contenders for my mono white angel deck.

Ok here is the deadline for the set, Leylines are back! This will hopefully push the price down. My Standard deck would love a playset of Leyline of Sanctity in it. Actually with the new London Mulligan rule kicking in with this set, might be able to get away with less. But shutting down burn decks, YES! Add Leyline of Anticipation to the deck for the flash ability to everything. It’s going to be so interesting to see how these impact the meta.

Bishop of Wings, I like for my angel deck. Not an angel granted. But it gives me a benefit for playing angels.

More recruits for my mono red goblin deck. Destructive Digger and Treasure Nabber out at the same time, I’m calling shenanigans. I just love the idea of sacrificing an opponents artifact to help pay for drawing a card. I can imagine their face as it’s done. It also means that threat unless they can stop the combo will slow them down. Reckless Air Strike has a goblin on it, so it qualifies for the deck just like Goatnap did from Modern Horizons. Goblin Bird-Grabber love the art with the goblin hanging on for dear life on the leg of some giant flying creature.

There are a handful of dinosaurs in Core Set 2020. Thrashing Brontodon is reprinted (and not included here). But these new ones I like. Amazing art on Rotting Regisaaur, and a 3CMC for a 7/6 – wot?!!!!! That’s broken. Or is it? It does mean at the start of your upkeep you have to discard a card. Is that a big enough draw back to stop this? I’m not sure. And once again the flavour text. Marauding Raptor is another I like the flavour text on. It’s also the first part of an infinite loop! Team this up with Polyraptor (that is strangely out of stock in a lot of places at the mo) and you go infinite forcing a draw. Unless you can break out of the loop at instant speed. If you have that then things get very silly indeed. It’s definitely going in my dino tribal deck. It reduces the cost of dinos for starters! Be prepared if you are a MtG Arena player seeing one of the two cards in this combo banned. Shifting Ceratops is greens answer to blue control. Is it better than the out going Carnage Tyrant? Close call I think.

Ancestral Blade is going into my token spam deck. Gives me a token and buffs it. That middle green card below, yeah the 8/7 for 6 CMC is Gargos, Vicious Warden. The translation of the card text says it’s a Legendary Creature – Hydra, with Vigilance, and Hydra spells you cast cost 4 less. Whenever a creature you control becomes the target of a spell, Gargos, Vicious Warden fights up to one target creature you don’t control. Obviously this card is going in my big green stompy deck. That has one or two hydras in it. Villis is a demon that would fit nicely in a demon deck or the Kaalia of the Vast Commander deck that I have.

Lotus Field will be a Commander staple. It also fits in nicely with Lord Windgrace decks, Muldrotha and cards that allow you to play lands from the graveyard. The middle card is Icon of Ancestry. It’s a tribal card, because you chose a creature type when it enters the battlefield. It gives creatures of that type +1/+1. Then for 3 mana you can tap it, look at the top 3 cards, reveal a creature of the type chosen and put it in your hand. The remaining cards go on the bottom of the library. I think this is a nice tribal card that gives that buff, and allows you to find a creature card. Steel Overseer is going to go into my planned artifact deck.

Especially when it gets combined with Manifold Key. Nightpack Ambusher I like, and it turns that cute little pup into a 1/2. Plus if you don’t cast a spell you get a 2/2 wolf token. Woodland Champion is going into my token spam deck, plus my elf deck. This has the potential to get huge in those decks.

Raise the alarm is also another candidate for the token spam deck. Vampire of the Dire Moon I like for an aggro deck that splashes black. Which I have been known to build. I’ve only included one as an example but scry lands are back.

I can see this Sorin Planeswalker doing very nicely in the Edgar Markov commander deck. Yarok is a nice card for a deck I plan to build that abuses ETB effects. Mu Yanling, hello super friends. Her ultimate is insane. It’s nice her +2 takes care of a flyer so you can block it with a none flying creature.

I like Season of Growth. Not sure how playable it is though. Legion’s End that is just mass token removal for 2 CMC. Dungeon Geists I love it’s ability to lock down a creature.

Pulse of Murasa I like, life gain and get a card back from the graveyard. Kaalia, Zenith Seeker is going to allow you to get that perfect card to use with Kaalia of the Vast. I want to like Golos but I’m not sure.

Rule of Law obviously a candidate for my Death and Taxes deck. Voracious Hydra naturally Big Green Stompy. But this with something like doubling season out could be insanely big. Veil of Summer I think could be a powerful card in the right circumstances.

And that folks is all he wrote about the spoilers for Core Set 2020. What cards did you like from the spoilers?

Update on planning session 1 #7

D&D, RPG, session planning

SPOILER ALERT TO MY ADVENTURERS! The following post contains spoilers for the up and coming campaign. You may want to avoid this post and join me in a future one.

Spent the morning researching Mintarn for the campaign. As you can see from the scribbled on map below my party will be ending up on a couple of the islands that make up a nine island archipelago that Mintarn is also part of.

Initial thoughts had been free the adventures had somehow got a “lift” from the fisherman they would be taken to Kythyss. Where they would take part in the big festival etc.

But after some pondering and looking at the map. It seemed more logical that the fisherman would want rid of the adventurers as quick as possible, and they would more likely also to be heading for Mintarn anyway.

So the fisherman are going to be dropping the party off at the smaller of the two settlements on Mintarn, Queen’s Cove.

There is a great Dungeon magazine supplement I found that although not Forgotten Realms specific, had a section in it that allows you to set it in the realm. As luck would have it the guidance given puts it straight on Mintarn. That’s where I got the info about the two settlements on the island. And that there is a single road connecting the two. Also the island is covered in trees. Picking up the town map for Mintarn should be easy as the above supplement mentions that the map used for the adventure in Dungeon 131 is for a town called Alhaster and is used for the city map for Mintarn. I’ve just to come up with a small basic town map for Queen’s Cove. And that is going to be much quicker and easier than doing Mintarn itself.

Over on the Forgotten Realms wiki for Mintarn there is a nice legend that can be used whilst the adventurers are on Mintarn.

So I’m going to use that as an adventure hook, along with planting ones for the 3 other islands in the archipelago. I’m not sure what those hooks are at the moment. There will be a fifth hook as well. That hook will be for the island Skadaurak, and it’s occupant Hoondarrh the red dragon. Although that hook will be very well sign posted that taking on Hoondarrh is way beyond them at the moment.

As you can see I’ve also given Vraska and her pirates an island base now. Although it’s a while before the adventurers will meet her.

I look at the map for that area of the Forgotten Realms which is basically the Moonshae Isles, and there is sooo much to do, explore etc. That’s not taking into account any of my ideas.

A good source of background info and ideas is the Adventurers League Rising Shadows : Moonshae Isles Regional Guide. There are also 3 adventures that go along with this that you can also buy.

With all those islands there are plenty of homes for my ideas. Such as a Jurassic Park/Ixalan inspired island, lost/forgotten tribes/races, Greek myth inspired. Plus under sea adventures on top of that.

I’m hoping that overtime we will get to scratch more than just the surface of the possibilities this part of the Forgotten Realms offers. It’s such a rich part of the world to explore.

As the above new comic book series by IDW Comics A Darkened Wish will show. The bottom half of the cover is how I imagine our party to be at the start of their adventure. Except that jetty is in Saltmarsh, and they are about to get onto a keelboat and head off into the unknown.

Not Standard Showdown!

Game day, magic, MtG

Yeah I know I’ve not posted for a couple of days. I hope you enjoyed the rest from my poorly written ramblings.

Having missed playing last weekend for whatever life reasons, I was back with a vengeance this week.

My plan was to play in Standard Showdown and try out my modifications to the super friends deck. Modifications I had made earlier in the morning, literally straight after I woke up. I was keen to see if they worked.

Ok what I was going to be playing in wasn’t exactly Standard Showdown. It was Not Standard Showdown, but like it. There were no Standard Showdown packs up for grabs they had all gone. Standard Showdown doesn’t exist anymore. A mistake by WotC in my opinion. But we will see.

But this wasn’t the only MtG event going on today at my FLGS. Starting off before Not Standard Showdown was a MtG European Modern Series Qualifier (Constructed).

So while waiting for my event to start I got to watch a game or two of the Modern tournament. Wow talk about fast. I was just watching and I was shell shocked when I witnessed Rob Win on turn 5 (his third turn). That’s blindingly fast. His second turn with a couple of mana was insane. How it felt to be on the receiving end I have no idea.

We had 12 players turn up for Not Standard Showdown. It was going to be cozy in the store today.

Sadly for this tournament I went mono red burn/aggro after being goaded into it by Kar-Fai after he said I never played mono red. So I went with it to surprise him!

Round 1 against Kerry both the games played saw my deck just run out of steam, and not able to get over the finish line, or deal with her drakes that just got bigger and bigger.

Round 2 was against Simon, Kerry’s partner. I did better in this match up. Game 1 saw me get kicked by Nico Bolas. My Rekindling Phoenix proved too hot to handle and got me back on level pegging. With the decider going against me.

Round 3 saw Kar-Fai and I fighting it out for the start of the battle for last place. His life gain token deck was a good match up with me. Apart from the hiccup of game 2, where I needed one more land to be able to do lethal with a banefire, and this allowed Kar-Fai a window to grab the win. I was more than able to control the game, and with the likes of Chainwhirler keep Kar-Fai from massing lots of tokens.

The final round saw me up against John. Who was back with Golgari, and an insect token spam. The game he won saw him getting 9 insect tokens out. The one time in our match up when I didn’t hit one of my cards that would have wiped them out. But otherwise the other two games went to plan.

Afterwards Kar-Fai and I played some casual games allowing me to test the superfriends deck out.

Had a great afternoon playing MtG. I think it’s Open House next weekend.

Ok here are just the raw stats for the afternoon.

Casual Game

Kar-fai : Loss 1-2

Not Standard Showdown Stats

Participants: 12

Rounds: 4

Round 1: Kerry Loss 0-2

Round 2: Simon Loss 1-2

Round 3: Kar-Fai Win 2-1

Round 4: John Win 2-1

Record: 2-2

Final Position: 7th

Prizes: 1 participation pack. Plus an old promo card.

Spoiler Season has started

magic, MtG

If you are into MtG then you can’t have failed to notice since yesterday cards have been appearing from the soon to be released Core set 2020.

Last week there were the 3 Chandra plainswalker cards spoilt. But this week is full blown spoiler season for the set.

It’s only a week long this time, so I’ll do my post with cards that I like the look of at the end of it.

A heads up there are some sweet sweet cards being reprinted. I can’t wait to talk about the ones that caught my eye.

I have target bought some cards from Modern Horizons. Mostly ninjas and some mono red goblins (the black goblins are no use to me). It’s the cheapest option. I haven’t gone after any of those full art snow covered lands. They are expense.

Trying out the level with tiles

D&D, RPG

SPOILER ALERT TO MY ADVENTURERS! The following post contains spoilers for the up and coming campaign. You may want to avoid this post and join me in a future one.

Decided yesterday to build the first level of my dungeon to see how it looks. Or could look.

Level 2 is a bit more complicated.

The plan is not to have the the whole level out on the table. But only show the relevant bit (read as little as possible).

You will notice I’m not using pieces with walls. I’m implying they are there, and the mind will do the rest!

Doing it this way avoids one of the criticisms of 3D tiles that the players view of the room gets obstructed and they can’t see what’s going on. It’s also cheaper for me.

I keep saying this, but I can’t wait to see the players reaction when they see all this on the table.

In the meantime I have some boat tiles being printed. My friend sent me a photo of the stuff in progress.

I’ve got enough ordered to make a long boat or keelboat plus row boat. The photo below off the thingiverse page shows the sort of thing that can be done with them.

The draw back of this method over say battle maps is that the benches for rowing aren’t present/shown. But that’s something I can live with, given the flexibility of the system.

Next on the to do list, brown primer and oak brown paint, and a wash. Not sure what wash to use. I have a brown, or do I use a light or medium tone?

Can’t remember where I got this next photo from, it’s somewhere off the Internet. But this is the sort of thing I want to be able to achieve eventually.

I’m not sure where they got some of the tiles (the straight triangle ends) but I’ll get there.