All posts by Darren

Return to the Iron Throne

game night

Yesterday evening I got the chance to play A Game of Thrones: The Board game (Second Edition) again. The last time the game had been to the table was just over a year ago. And if my fading memory isn’t letting me down, my three opponents yesterday were also my opponents that time too.

This time I was the Starks, Liz was the Greyjoys, Dave was the Lannister’s while Justin was the Baratheons.

What was unusual for this play for me was I think this was the first time in a long time that I’ve played just the core game. With 4 players I usually play with the A Feast of Crows expansion. So it felt a bit weird starting off with so few resources and no objectives.

The draw back of playing this way with just the core game was if Liz and I spent all our time fighting over land in the North, then Dave and Justin would be free to run rampant in the South racing each other to get the 7 strongholds/castles. So early on Liz and I made a truce not to fight over the lands to the North, and came to a compromise splitting up of the lands. Thus we were able to turn our attentions towards the South.

I’m not going to apologise for this photo being the wrong way up. It was taken so that I could ask Liz her intentions without letting those of the South aware of potential troop movements.

Liz managed to attract the vengeful wrath of Justin when she invaded and captured one of his castles down on the southern tip of the kingdom. The next turn he committed to recapturing his lost castle. After that, when we failed to repel the wildlings, Liz was the one selected as the loser to get the worst of the punishments for failing by Justin (who held the Iron Throne).

I would have captured the Bartheons home stronghold a turn earlier than I did if Dave hadn’t played a card in our combat that meant he could remove a command token of mine. Which siding with Justin, removed the amassed forces I was going to invade with from that turn. But the next turn I did manage to invade and capture the Bartheons home stronghold. Thus inflicting on Justin the indignity of being the only player to lose their home stronghold. Even after this I still managed to avoid the wrath of his forces, which were still intent on extracting revenge on Liz.

This was a pretty close game really, towards the end I think anyone of us could have won the game. On what was going to be the penultimate turn if I had been able to grab one more stronghold/castle I would have been victorious. I was capturing two castles/strongholds that turn, but there was no way I could work it that I got that elusive third. That was my shot at seizing victory gone. I knew the next round I’d lose 2 castles/strongholds to the Lannisters and Baratheons. Luckily I knew I would be able as a final act of defiance steal from under the nose of Justin one of his unguarded castles as he took one from me.

The final turn of the game saw Justin lose 2 castles and gain 1. While Liz gained 2 castles, and could have gotten 3 if she had not rushed issuing her orders and getting a couple the wrong way round. However she did lose 1 castle to Dave in a surprise attack by him. I lost 2 castles and gained 1. Dave lost a castle to Liz, but gained 2.

In the end Dave marched his Lannister forces to victory and the Iron Throne. Trampling over Liz’s forces to do so meant that his victory might be short lived after they got home.

It was a fun evening with great company, and a great way to end the weekend.

GameAnglia 2018 and a rant about stuff

magic, MtG, rant, Uncategorized

Yesterday I had to miss the D&D crossover with MtG at my FLGS, and the chance to get one of those sweet lands. I’d like to say I missed the Keyforge Prerelease weekend also. But there was no such interest for the game at my FLGS. We will come back to this later in the post.

The reason I had to miss the one shot taster scenario of the up and coming Guildmasters of Ravnica was I got asked if I would take some students to a gaming conference at the University of Suffolk called GameAnglia.

Now GameAnglia isn’t a big event, say like Develop. But it’s aimed at education. There was a good range of speakers from industry doing workshops and talks. Plus an impressive range of indie/student developers showing off their creations. There was even a dexterity board game to try. Which I didn’t because well I’m not really into that genre. However my students tried it and enjoyed it.


One talk by the Media Molecule community manager and communications manager made me wonder just what life would be like if WotC hired professionals like these. There was a lot of good advice in their talk, especially about not talking about politics. I would imagine it would also go as far as not pushing a social agenda.

I don’t think anyone would disagree that whatever the community it should be welcoming and accepting irrespective of things like race,religion, gender etc etc. And that discrimination, hate, abuse, etc will not be tolerated.

However when the message that seems to be coming out of a company like WotC is that they “hate” 90% of their player base. And that they turn a blind eye to hate, and abuse if it comes from those that they agree with and it’s against those that they don’t like, then there has to be a problem somewhere at their end.

There is a sketch by the late great Bill Hicks about subliminal messages in music and the whole Judas Priest fans committing suicide court case from the late eighties, and a bit of that routine reminds me of WotC!

WARNING THIS QUOTE HAS SWEAR WORDS IN IT.

“I’m fucking sick of it, I’m fucking sick of it! Sick of it, sick of it!! What are you sick of? The whole fucking thing…; Touring, making $40000 a night, …free drugs, free booze, stretched limos, penthouse suites, …groupies blowing me dawn to dusk. I’m in a rut and I want out. And then we have a little show’s coming up. I know, it sucks… …unless… Ian, Nijo, come in! Oh shit Nijo get in. Ian, come down! I’ve had an idea, let’s kill the fucking audience. Nijo, go get a soccer ball, Ian, come here… …we’re going to kill them, and then we can get back to our day jobs. We can sell shoes again.”

It’s just that at the moment WotC are putting out their version of subliminal messages in records, they are trying to price their player base out of the game! Well banning them, and telling them they are bad people for being the wrong gender isn’t working.

I don’t care what a persons political leanings are. As far as I’m concerned a dick is a dick whether they are on the far right or the far left. Both of those extremes use the same nasty toolset to silence and bully others. Both want to force their political views on others. While the rest of us just want to buy cardboard rectangles, play a game, and the only thing we care about is whether the other person we are playing with is a dick or not.

We shouldn’t be in this mess as a community. But we are, WotC have created a large part of it, they took sides, and started promoting/pushing an agenda.

Diversity is a good thing. It enriches everyone. You can have a product that appeals to a diverse audience without handling it the way that WotC have. Maybe WotC need to look at Plaid Hat Games and learn a lesson or two from them.

In the meantime my advice to WotC, stand back, reassess the situation, employ professionals with expertise in community management and marketing, become apolitical, rebuild and unite the community (well the online side, remember the online stuff is such a minute part of your player base). Simple!

I’m not sure I articulated the above very well, or made a coherent argument. But that was the thoughts, more or less that went through my head after that talk.

So you can see that attending an event like this can be very intellectually stimulating. In the minibus on the way back, there was definitely a buzz from my students. They had really enjoyed the conference, the talks and the demoes.

I did promise at the top of this post I’d talk about Keyforge. Or more specifically the Prerelease and lack of interest at my FLGS.

For me as a player when a game like Keyforge comes out I talk to the owner of my FLGS to assataine if there have been others at the store asking about the game, asking for it to be ordered in. It gives me an idea if there would be anyone to play with if I bought into the game. For Keyforge there was nothing. Apart from me making enquiries.

Now my FLGS is a small store in a small market town in the back of nowhere in the Fens. It’s not one of these stores in a big city like London or Cambridge. A game being popular in a big metropolis or having a community playing it there doesn’t mean the game is a success.

If a game hasn’t broken through to my FLGS it tells me that despite the initial flurry of hype (and there has been to some extent online from those that attended the Prerelease this weekend) that maybe this game doesn’t have legs.

A game for me is a success if it can break into these smaller stores where they are probably more likely to only carry games they know they can sell, and have demand for. These stores have more to lose, so if they invest in it then it means there is a market for it.

Now there may indeed be a “community” for Keyforge in the area. But they are not making themselves known to their FLGS and creating a location they can play and get easy access to OP kits. Having to travel long distances to attend events, or to play tells me the game isn’t popular.

Was that worth waiting for? Probably not. But there you have my continuing thoughts on Keyforge. And in the middle why WotC will never consider me a MtG content creator.

The Story So Far…

D&D, RPG

Thought I’d start talking about the D&D sessions that I’ve been taking part in. It also explains why I have posted more than usual about MtG. This post took a while to write.

Our group of noobs to D&D, returning after a long break players, and experienced D&D players has been meeting since the Summer. My notes have the date of the first session being 10th July. Because of this mix with the majority being in the new and returning camp, we have gone with the the adventure the Lost Mine of Phandelver from the D&D Starter Set as our first campaign but using our own characters not the supplied ones. Oh and yes it is D&D 5th Edition that we are using.

I’ve not been recording the D&D plays in the game plays tracking app I use. Which I may change. Luckily I have the dates noted in my notebook that I use. But I’m still unsure about whether I should be tracking the sessions within the app.

Our party of adventurers is made up of Grull a really tall brutish violent chap (William), Ace “thinks he’s stealthy” (Justin), a gnome paladin (Jacob), Sarmyar the elf (Jess), Nick Smith a clumsy druid (Nathanial) and Dram a halfling wizard (myself). Overseeing this motley crew, and acting as the voice of a higher power is our DM Edmund.

The Story So Far…

Our story started in the sprawling metropolis Neverwinter, where our rag tag group of adventurers first meet, and get hired to escort a wagon to Phandalin by a dwarf called Gundren. On the way we get jumped by some goblins in the woods. After successfully fending them off (read kill and forcibly interrogate a survivor) we head off into the woods along a trail that leads us to the hideout of the goblin attackers.

We end up killing a couple of goblin guards, before entering the hideout through what can best be described as a wolf kennel. Being the animal lovers that we were, the wolves were freed from captivity.

After feeling good about our humane deed of the day, we ended up in a cave room with surprise surprise goblins in. During the combat our Druid managed to knock Dram unconscious while trying to kick a dead corpse! Yeah I know what you are thinking why the heck would he do that? We still don’t know to this day. To ease his guilt the Druid gave Dram 5 gold coins. Which mysteriously disappeared, sorry correction, let’s use the correct terminology here, a thievin’ git stole while we rested up after the battle. However I’m rushing ahead of myself here. Having defeated the goblins, looted their bodies, we had found and freed Gundren’s hired muscle Sildar.

With Sildar providing extra muscle we work our way through the caves taking by surprise (I think) 3 goblins. We then surprisingly for us also launch a second surprise attack on the goblin leader Klarg the bugbear, his pet wolf and a couple of goblins. It was in this battle that Dram used his magic missile for the first time. Somehow no matter which way I read that it doesn’t stop sounding filthy to me.

After the now usual looting of anything that can’t fend off the probing hands of our band of adventurers, we made our way to Phandalin. Before we could get out of the woods those ungrateful wolves attacked us, forcing us to forget that we were founding members of the Forgotten Realms PETA.

Naturally after all this fighting we were cream crackered, and needed a rest. During our sleep I don’t know what we had all been eating and drinking, but we all woke up somehow feeling different, more powerful.

In Phandalin we made for the tavern, rested some more. Went and did some wheeling and dealing (got a cool silver dagger, and fancy spellbook), collected monies owed to us. Listened to local gossip. It’s here we found out about some local ruffians called the Redbrands, and their leader Glasstaff. That an Iarno Albert has gone missing and something about a wizard. Dram was very curious about the wizard, any chance to learn new spells. New spells that could go in his new and expensive spell book that he’s just bought.

On our way to investigate a local manor we bumped into a group of the Redbrands outside a tavern. Naturally diplomacy failed, oh wait we didn’t try. So we ended up fighting them. It was here that we found out our Druid could transform into a wolf!

We ended up in tunnels and rooms under an abandoned manor. It was here that Ace proved he was a master of disguise by putting on a red sash. Which turned out to be a brilliant idea. Mainly because these skeletons we bumped into ignored him and attacked the rest of us without a red sash on! It was here that Dram demonstrated what a great spell Thunder Wave was. It also might have attracted the attention of any hostiles in the area because it is not a silent spell, the clues in it’s name. But Dram did manage to do some grave robbing and find a rather neat platinum ring in a coffin.

Ace and Grull afterwards freed some prisoners of the Redbrands. After a bit more stumbling around we did combat with this one eyed creature that had been corrupted by magic. Sadly there wasn’t anything for Dram to add to his collection of magical knowledge. With no time to recover from the encounter, we ended up fighting some more Redbrands that had 3 bugbears gate crash the end of the party!

After the mega battle, those bugbears were not easy to defeat, Grull made a new friend. This new friend was a goblin! We blocked ourselves in a room that looked like living quarters for the Redbrands, and got a much needed rest.

Fully rested we continued exploring the underground complex. Which lead us to what looked like a wizards laboratory. Searching the room Dram found 3 small vials. In a connecting room that could only be described as a bedroom was a journal that looked like it was written in dwarfish. ‘Who reads or even more important writes in dwarfish these days?” thought Dram.

We made our way back round to the chamber we fought that one eyed creature in, where the others managed to capture the mysterious wizard. Who while captive gave me 2 scrolls, and I think Ace gave me his glass staff. It was Glasstaff the wizard! Guess we know how he got that name. Sadly my comrades failed to tie Glasstaff’s feet, so he managed to escape, casting some sort of invisibility spell.

With that little embarrassing failure casting what other wise was a successful mini adventure, we made our way back into town.

At the inn Dram rented a room for 100 days so Dram had a safe place to use as a base for his magical research. Oh and not have to carry loads of heavy stuff like the journal and spell books.

Our stay in town was spent replenishing stuff, Dram selling these ruby earrings he’d found, and getting a diamond to use with a spell (the ring came in handy offsetting that cost). Grull and Ace committed everyone to going off and killing some orcs. Apparently we would be getting into the property renovation business if successful!

Dram had found some time to study the vials, scrolls and staff while the others drank and were merry! Dram had lucked out. The Glasstaff was a staff of defence/protection, that would be handy. But the scrolls were supper useful. One was a charm person spell (that he copied straight into his spellbook) and a fireball spell (sadly a tad too powerful to go in his book).

It was time to head off on this mission we’d been committed to.

After a couple days walking our party reached Wyvern Tor, home of the orcs we had been hired to get rid of. It would have been sooner if we’d not been led off course a little by Ace.

There was an orc guard outside the orc camp. The big folks tried being sneaky and take the guard out quietly. Which they did, kinda. A badly burnt orc (don’t ask) ran off into the cavern, Ace blindly ran in after him.

And that’s where we join the action.

Last Weeks Session…

“Ace came running out of that cavern pretty quick, I wonder what he saw?”, Dram poked his head round the corner and looked in. “That’s interesting” was Dram’s response to seeing 6 orcs and a blooming big ogre inside the cavern. “It looks like it would like a chromatic orb”.

The chromatic orb seemed to have upset the ogre, who rushed up just short of Dram and roared in his face. One of the orcs ran up and joined him, swinging and missing Dram. Dram moved back and cast a witch bolt at the ogre. It hit, but sadly the ogre lunged forward and knocked Dram to the floor, and out of the ensuing battle.

Dram woke up with the ogre dead at his side, and a bloodied mouthed wolf standing over the corpse. ‘Bloody typical”, thought Dram, “I do all the hard work, and someone else comes along to get the glory”.

Dram rejoined the action by casting a witch bolt at an orc. That once again one of the big people finished off.

That gnome paladin did an impressive single blow kill on an orc before succumbing to a blow himself. Whatever happened to the gnome while he was out Dram had no idea. But whatever it was it had driven him over the edge. After the last orc was dispatched he went round cutting ears off the corpses as trophies.

Ace went looting and found some more vials. Throwing caution to the wind, he swigged one of them. It turned out he has the most flowery breathe of us all now, he’d just drank perfume!

Our journey back to Phandalin was pretty uneventful. Apart from Sarmyar and Nick abandoning their watch and coming back with a panther they’d found trapped.

Back at Phandalin Dram retired to his room to grab a couple hours of resting in comfort.

The next day our party collected its reward for killing the orcs. Apparently that dark gnome wasn’t as dark as Dram had thought. It appears that a necklace of dead orc ears is good proof that the job had been completed successfully. Who knew? Well apart from this gnome?

As a group we visit this sister for information, between her and Sarmyar we find out that the dwarven journal Dram had talked about a lost mine and a mighty magical weapon. Three of the party paid the sister to make some healing potions for them.

Our adventurers were left about to set off in search of some banshee to get the banshees help for the sister.

FOOTNOTE: By the time I finished writing this post I had decided to record the D&D sessions. Just thought I’d mention it, you know in case anyone was remotely interested.

Trostani Token Spam Commander Deck V2

Commander, Deck tech, magic, MtG, MtG Deck Building


Sorry Jonathan yet another MtG post. I had something else lined up but I was tweaking this deck yesterday and discussing a similar deck a friend had created on Messenger. They had gone with Emmara, Soul of the Accord as their commander. There was some crossover with cards used, which you’d expect.


But naturally the friend had cards that allowed them to untap/tap outside of the normal steps of a turn. Which is what you want to be doing with their commander.

My friend wasn’t happy with the way the deck performed against a Niv-Mizzet deck another friend was playing. That draw card, 1 damage was keeping the token spamming under control, along with the usual blue control stuff. Sometimes there are just bad match ups, it’s the nature of the game.

So we were talking, I pointed them in the direction of my deck list, and edhrec for ideas. Which brings me to this post. I thought I better share my current untested updated deck list with the tweaks I’ve made.

It’d be interesting to see my deck against this Niv-Mizzet deck. I think I’m generating tokens at a faster rate, and buffing them up quicker so it may fair better. Especially if I could politic the other players to pick on Niv-Mizzet.

So in this new version we now have the new combo I discussed in a previous post (Island Sanctuary and Sandwurm Convergence). There are a couple of cards that make use of the populate keyword (Growing Ranks and Sundering Growth). Which copies a token. A little bit more removal (Sundering Growth and Hour of Reckoning), followed by some protection with Privileged Position. Tolsimir Wolfblood gives an extra anthem/lord effect, and along with Oketra the True and Sandwurm Convergence more token generating.

Here is the updated deck stats for this second version of the deck.


There is an expensive to cast sorcery I’d like to squeeze in somehow, it’s basically a board wipe (potentially), especially against other token spam decks. That card is Ezuri’s Predation.


I’m thinking maybe History of Benalia as the card to make way for it. Might try the deck with and without.

Here is the updated deck list (new additions in bold).

Creatures:24

1 Haazda Marshal
1 Rhys the Redeemed
1 Conclave Guildmage
1 Emmara, Soul of the Accord
1 Shanna, Sisay’s Legacy
1 District Guide
1 Eldrazi Displacer
1 Flickerwisp
1 Ledev Champion
1 Mentor of the Meek
1 Rhonas the Indomitable
1 Conclave Cavalier
1 Felidar Guardian
1 Leonin Warleader
1 Oketra the True
1 Sumala Woodshaper
1 Trostani, Selesnya’s Voice
1 Vizier of the Menagerie
1 Seedborn Muse
1 Trostani Discordant
1 Tolsimir Wolfblood
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
1 Silent Sentinel
1 Trostani’s Summoner

Spells:43

1 Authority of the Consuls
1 Cloudshift
1 Flower // Flourish
1 Legion’s Landing
1 Sol Ring
1 Dawn of Hope
1 Dowsing Dagger
1 Island Sanctuary
1 Martial Coup
1 Momentary Blink
1 Quest for Renewal
1 Saproling Migration
1 Sundering Growth
1 Acrobatic Maneuver
1 Chromatic Lantern
1 Commander’s Sphere
1 History of Benalia
1 Idyllic Tutor
1 March of the Multitudes
1 Selesnya Locket
1 Spear of Heliod
1 Sprouting Renewal
1 Teferi’s Protection
1 Anointed Procession
1 Circuitous Route
1 Growing Ranks
1 Panharmonicon
1 Parallel Lives
1 Second Harvest
1 Settle the Wreckage
1 Wrath of God
1 Conjurer’s Closet
1 Divine Visitation
1 Doubling Season
1 Fumigate
1 Primal Vigor
1 Privileged Position
1 Vivien Reid
1 Hour of Revelation
1 The Immortal Sun
1 Approach of the Second Sun
1 Hour of Reckoning
1 Sandwurm Convergence

Lands:33

1 Blossoming Sands
1 Bountiful Promenade
1 Darksteel Citadel
1 Desert of the True
1 Drifting Meadow
1 Field of Ruin
7 Forest
1 Foundry of the Consuls
1 Krosan Verge
8 Plains
1 Secluded Steppe
1 Selesnya Guildgate (a)
1 Selesnya Sanctuary
1 Shefet Dunes
1 Survivors’ Encampment
1 Temple Garden
1 Terramorphic Expanse
1 Tranquil Expanse
1 Vivid Meadow
1 Warped Landscape

Find a buyer for your kidney now…

magic, MtG, news

Yesterday WotC in their live stream on Twitch (and later put up on YouTube) made an announcement that sent fanboys (like myself I’m a fanboy for sure) in an uproar, well after they recovered from the initial shock.

Let’s take a step back a little before tackling the announcement, it is related, honest.

Not long ago, and not long after Guilds of Ravnica came out WotC released what at the time would be their most expensive MtG product to date Guilds of Ravnica Mythic Edition. This was a booster box of Guilds of Ravnica boosters, but instead of 36 packs you got 24. You also got 8 masterpiece boosters, which contained 1 of 8 foil masterpieces (this time full art Planeswalkers) in them along with the other cards. You were able to pick up all this “goodness” for $250.

This special edition was only available from the Hasbro website (later as a pick up from Grand Prix’s organised by Channel Fireball) and for those living in the US. Now the Hasbro is known for being a bit flaky, and not able to handle more than 1 customer on it at a time. To say there were issues with ordering would be an understatement.

Fast forward a couple of weeks or more to this Friday/weekend, and all of a sudden as a “gift” to compensate those disappointed, and with hurt feelings in the US from the debacle that was ordering this exclusive premium product, Ultimate Box Topper boosters started to drop through letterboxes. Naturally photos of these foil full art masterpieces started to hit social media, and buzz started to build up, questions forming. WotC promised all would be revealed on Monday.
See I told you we’d get back to the point of this post. And the amazing thing is I wasn’t too bitter and twisted, or sarcastic. Oh now I realise why WotC don’t think I’m a MtG content creator. Plus I’m not the correct demographic that they want to push. They already have the bald, overweight, bearded slot filled (although my beard is way way better).

Anyway back to the announcement.

So yesterday all was revealed. Well the 40 masterpieces and their regular versions (which I think over the weekend we had seen the majority of from various postings) anyway. WotC also shared how you can get these beautiful looking cards.

Come 7th December they will be releasing Ultimate Masters, which is possibly the last Masters set for a while (they used the politician weasel words “foreseeable future“ which is their get out clause, small print).

Inside each Ultimate Masters booster box (24 boosters) will be an Ultimate Box Topper (a single masterpiece card) all for the bargain price of $336. Can you guess what caused the fanboys to be shocked? That works out to be about $14 a booster. So here in the UK we will be looking at a booster box coming in around the £300+ mark. This is their most expensive MtG product to date by a large margin.

These booster boxes will only be available from your FLGS/LGS, however in the US there will be blister packs consisting of 3 booster packs from the likes of Walmart for $35. A little cheaper option of buying packs for the chosen US citizens (damn the rest of us for not living there, we deserve being mistreated and ignored by WotC), but you don’t get the Box Topper!

Apparently the preview season of the rest of the 254 card set will be over the 2 days before Thanksgiving. Which meant nothing to everyone outside of the US. The chat asked when that was, but it took awhile for some-one on the chat to give a date, the presenters kept on repeating the information that meant diddly squat to non-US folks. This is getting to be really annoying with WotC with their US centric stuff. It’s as if the rest of the world doesn’t exist, and we should be grateful for the scraps they deem we are allowed. Anyway the days with the previews are around the 19th November. Expect more fanboy outrage at that time. When we see the rest of the set, it will tell us just how special this last (for the “foreseeable future“ ) Master set hurrah is. And also give an idea about how this expensive draft experience might be.

What was funny about the live stream was the end of the stream when they opened up a booster box of Ultimate Masters, and opened up the Ultimate Box Topper. The card was warped inside the pack! Talk about an own goal. WotC have been taking a lot of crap over recent years over card quality, and done very little about it, even failing to acknowledge it (well until a couple of articles a few months ago). They are charging a very high premium for this product, and they can’t get the card quality right?

I know I won’t be buying a booster box of this. I didn’t Iconic Masters, or 25th Anniversary Masters. I think I bought a booster or two maximum of each. And I may buy a booster from this set. But in reality I’m hoping that these reprints will drop the price of the handful of cards I’m interested in. I will then do as I did with the other sets, target buy the cards I’m interested in. It’s cheaper and I get the cards I want.

I think this set will sell well, people will be hoping to get the sweet expensive masterpieces (not great odds by the way). This short, shock and awe marketing campaign of WotC may just work in their favour. It was for once a great bit of marketing with the compensation (give them free money) Ultimate Box Toppers being sent out, generate buzz and goodwill? Win win. This short time between announcement and delivery is not giving the angry mobs too much time to swell their ranks and put people off, or those that pre-ordered time to change their minds.

You will notice I’m not complaining about the price. For me it’s expensive, for a lot of people it will be also. That’s fine. It’s the opportunity to buy if I had the money, is what I’m about. That’s why the Mythic Edition (and its compensation) along with the SDCC Planeswalkers niggled me to say the least. That US only pisses me off big time. But that is a rant for another day, because WotC are not the only ones guilty of this.

You can read the full WotC announcement with masterpiece card pictures HERE.

UPDATE: £320 is the pre-order price at my FLGS for this.

Etrata – not all new art is an improvement

magic, MtG

Last week I wrote about how my ninja deck I’m brewing was also going to have assassins, they kinda fitted together thematically.

One of the cards definitely being used was Etrata, the Silencer from Guilds of Ravnica. With the release of the Guild Packs on Friday the card got reprinted with new art.


I hate the new art, it doesn’t say assassin to me, it says dinner party. Don’t get me wrong, the art is nice. Just not as good as the original, nor evocative. For me the original art oozes vampire, assassin, creature of the night. I look at the picture and think I don’t want to meddle with them, I sure hope they aren’t after me. The new art just says to me they are waiting to be seated at a table at a restaurant.

I really don’t know what WotC thought they were doing. If I was going to commission another piece of art for this card, the brief would not allow what we have been given. I’d want it to be more visceral, showing Etrata in action maybe. Although there have been a couple of cards in the set that show similar already such as Never Happened.

I just don’t get how the new art is assassin. Sorry guys at WotC think you failed this time with the art.

Ravnica Weekend – Next Weekend

D&D, magic, MtG, news

Next weekend is Ravnica Weekend at my FLGS The Hobbit Hole, and many others.

But what does this mean?

Well just over a week later, around the 20th November WotC are releasing their MtG and D&D crossover product Guildmaster’s Guide to Ravnica. So on Ravnica Weekend my FLGS is running a preview adventure from Guildmaster’s Guide to Ravnica.

Plus along side this D&D/MtG taster/preview stores can run “four-pack Booster Drafts with Guilds of Ravnica and award participants with a Ravnica foil basic land. They can also host casual Guild Kit battles with the Ravnica Guild Kits.” My FLGS is holding just the draft after the D&D/MtG taster/preview. There is also the potential for a Standard Showdown happening for those that don’t want to take part in the D&D stuff. But that’s not guaranteed. Sadly no Guild Kit battles at my FLGS, but that’s because they sold out of the stock they got in.

I’m hoping this animated GIF by WotC works. It should show the promo foil basic lands you get for taking part in the booster draft.

There are also 10 Guild prints to be used to support the drafting.


WotC through their WPN program are tracking by the looks of it the participation for both types of event for the weekend. Which I can see why. They want to know how successful this new format is, and if it’s worth doing again. It’s nice to see them try different things.

So you can see it’s a very busy weekend for MtG, more so than normal.

A big thank you to Jamey Stegmaier,

charity, news

So the Stonemaier Games charity auction happened. Up for grabs by the winning bids (there were 10 lots) were the amazing looking, 4 sets of Scythe metal mechs signed by designer Jamey Stegmaier.


This blog was one of the content creators chosen to be promoted by Jamey and to nominate a charity to raise funds for.

The charity I chose was Sane.

I’d like to use this post to thank Jamey for doing this, and allowing me the opportunity to raise funds for something so personal.

If you read the blurb I wrote for the auction you will see how personal it is. This September just passed was the 30th Anniversary of my Dad committing suicide. To be able to raise money in his honour thanks to a very generous donor on bgg, Jamey and Fullfillrite is amazing. The fact I can also pay tribute to my brave friends and family who battle daily with depression and anxiety also is unbelievable.

Naturally one or two people that saw a post a few months back on a gaming Facebook forum, and close friends and family now will be crying bullshit, and my blurb also hints at it also. It’s true what I wrote above. That is the reason why I chose Sane. But and I find this part hard, because I’m not as open about this as my brave friends are. I find the really personal stuff hard to talk about. And there is still that stigma about mental health no matter what media campaigns are run. This is a “metoo”. I’m not going to go into specifics or my history, but suffice to say I am more than familiar with the struggles that my brave friends and family are going through that have depression/anxiety.

Words really can’t do justice to how I feel about Jamey having given me this opportunity to do something positive in Dad’s memory and for my friends and family. I’m overwhelmed by the generosity of the winning bid, the person who made it is incredible. A big thank you doesn’t seem adequate. But thank you.

Normal flippant, irrelevant, and boring MtG and gaming posts will resume tomorrow.

Potential Fun Combo For My Token Spamming

Deck tech, magic, MtG, MtG Deck Building

The Magic Historian (a YouTuber) did a change to his usual style of video about MtG and started a “community/crowd sourced” deck building project around a deck idea he had. There were a couple of rules about building the deck but that’s unimportant.

What is important is the card he said that had to be used (Island Sanctuary), the card he used to play with it back in the day (Mystic Decree) and the card he suggested people might consider (Sandwurm Convergence).

Apart from Mystic Decree (wrong colour) the other 2 cards are Selesnya colours (white and green), and would fit in nicely into my Trostani token spam deck.

I have a similar package in my Horrors from the Deep deck with Archetype of Imagination and Stormtide Leviathan.


I could see Mystic Decree being a sweet addition to that deck.

What I like about the combo of Sandwurm Convergence and Island Sanctuary is it fits in with the token spam strategy and gives me that bit of protection, breathing space to find maybe a solution to a problem on the board, develop my game plan.

It really was fortuitous coming across that video yesterday. The timing couldn’t have been better. There will be a version 2 of the Trostani deck, there are some cards in the Selesnya Guild deck that would be at home in the deck too. So there will be some reviewing going on, cards having to justify their place in the deck. But that’s also true for the Horrors of the Deep deck too. I have a handful of cards that are shouting for a place in the deck.

Winner, winner, chicken dinner II

Game day, magic, MtG

After a weeks break I returned to my FLGS The Hobbit Hole to take part in my second ever Standard Showdown.

In between events Magic Madhouse and the Royal Mail had let me down by losing my order of a playset of Find//Finality. Everything else I ordered on the same day and after has turned up no problem. But this, a card actually important to my deck and needed, not a sign of them.

To add to my deck problems I was due to pick up a second Vivien Reid Planeswalker. But there was no one home when I called. So I was going to have to cobble together my sideboard.

Luck really was not on my side because there were no copies of Find//Finality in the store folders.

While waiting for the Standard Showdown to start, John the store owner and I took part in that age old tradition of swapping money for goods. In this case I picked up my pre-order of one each of the new Guild decks, 6 booster packs (3 Guilds of Ravnica, 1 Dominaria, 1 Shadows Over Innistrad and 1 Hour of Devestation), and I got the stores last Guild deck (Golgari). I used the really beautiful basic lands from the Golgari guild deck to replace the ones in my deck.


Todays Standard Showdown had 8 players taking part. Which meant that there would be 3 rounds of MtG.

The pairings for the first round were announced…

Round 1

The gods of pseudo random selection gave me a repeat of my opening round of my first Standard Showdown. Would history repeat itself? Would Michael once again defeat me?

Sadly for Michael my deck hit its stride and worked as intended. I hit my land drops, I used my removal to control the board state.Vivien Reid even made it out and I got to use her a couple of times.

Michael’s deck was a mono white life gain deck. That if I didn’t have as much removal as I did would have been a serious problem for me. So despite him gaining life, which was annoying, I was still able to swing in and do more damage than he was able to gain life.

I even managed to get Carnage Tyrant and Ghalta out in the games.

Final Score: Win 2-0

Round 2

This round gave me a match up that was a first for me. This was the first time I’d been opposite Ben in a tournament. Ben was playing Izzet (Blue/Red). I’d seen his deck in action against John’s Golgari deck in the previous Standard Showdown I’d attended. Then it had totally destroyed John’s deck.

Our first game was close, but in the end there wasn’t much he could do against a Carnage Tyrant and it’s mates. I think in that game I took 12 damage from Risk Factor. I wasn’t going to let Ben get that card draw and the advantage it would give him.

Our second game after some sideboarding by Ben, I think I put in an extra Ghalta and the Silent Gravestone, was a lot more comfortable a win for me.

Final Score: Win 2-0

Round 3

The final round was between Kar-Fai and myself for what was being billed by Kar-Fai the battle for top spot. Kar-Fai had been tracking wins/losses by folks, and his calculations had given him the conclusion he had reached. Me I was just shocked I’d won 2 games.

Our first game was trading blows, my Golgari hitting his I think mono red. I don’t remember a second colour. But once again I was able to control the board. I even was able to stop his Flame of Keld saga hitting it’s 3rd level with an Assassin’s Trophy.

The second game was a different story. I had to mulligan down to 5 cards to get a land! So I was already starting at a disadvantage. I did well to hang on in really for as long as I did. I was using a lot of removal to do that. Even using a Vraska’s Contempt to remove Kar-Fai’s Rekindling Phoenix. I was maybe 2 turns from being able to stand a chance of turning the game around when I lost.

The third and final game. The decider. This time Kar-Fai had to mulligan down to 5 cards. It’s not nice having to do that. I know I had to do it in the previous game. So I was feeling a little bit confident, and for the first time in the match up going first.

I think a combination of the card disadvantage, not removing my Llanowar Elf (although to be fair it would have slowed me down by a turn or two, because I had a second in hand) were too much of an advantage to over come. Not removing the Llanowar Elf meant my Steel Leaf Champion was out and doing damage. From there it was downhill for Kar-Fai. I was controlling the board, hitting him for 5 with Steel Leaf. His Flame of Keld saga went fully told, and had very little impact on the game because he had an empty battlefield, and only doubled an etb trigger so I took 4 damage that turn instead of 2.

I’d won! I’d gone 3 rounds undefeated. Wow! I was totally gobsmacked.

Final Score: Win 2-1

The WotC software did its calculations and I indeed had won this Standard Showdown. At last I’ve won when it matters! So that’s a Standard Showdown and a Prerelease I’ve won.

Winning meant I got 1 Standard Showdown pack, and 3 booster packs (1 participation pack, 2 for winning). As you can see a shiny Niv-Mizzet, and shiny swamp were in my Standard Showdown pack. I’m happy with that.


From a pure monetary value point of view I think these Standard Showdowns are good value for the entry fee of £5. Today there were 6 Standard Showdown booster packs up for grabs. So taking John out of the equation, only 1 unlucky person didn’t get one. But everyone got a participation booster. Plus 3 rounds of friendly competitive MtG. Naturally I ended up well into the black this week. But I did last time thanks to pulling an Assassin’s Trophy in my participation pack.

My playmat for the day was a recent acquisition from eBay that was a steal (With postage just under £8.)


Afterwards we played a 5 player game of Commander. I played with the Trostani token spam deck. I didn’t get any of the cards to double the tokens created. But I did flicker Trostani out a few times, and stumbled upon another tactic of the deck!

I’d put Ledev Champion in for his token generating abilities, a mana sink basically. I hadn’t really thought much of his other ability. Well until this game that is. There was that “if you gain life you lose it instead” bs enchantment out, I was accruing 1/1 soldier tokens with lifelink thanks to the flickering. But not really in my interest to attack because they were 2/2 with the +1/+1 ability of Trostani boosting them. But I could tap them to pump up Ledev Champion and swing in with a single big creature, maybe do lethal. I’ll have to look into giving him trample or making him unblockable.

I didn’t win the game of Commander. But the deck was working as planned, and I found another win condition for it. And I had fun.

What a great afternoon of MtG.

So for the one or two out there remotely interested in the tweaks I’ve made to the deck for this week, here I present my deck list for this second Standard Showdown.

The big change was putting Ritual of Soot in the main 60. Space for them was made by moving Mastermind’s Acquisition to the sideboard. I’ve also found space in the main 60 for Vivien Reid to start.

In the deck list below I’ve put the cards in bold that will get replaced once I get copies of Find//Finality. I’m going to have to think long and hard how the second copy of Vivien Reid fits in.

Creatures:26

4 Llanowar Elves
2 Skittering Heartstopper
4 Vicious Conquistador
3 Dire Fleet Poisoner
4 Steel Leaf Champion
2 Thrashing Brontodon
1 Nullhide Ferox
3 Ravenous Chupacabra
2 Carnage Tyrant
1 Ghalta, Primal Hunger

Spells:13

4 Assassin’s Trophy
2 Never Happened
2 Ritual of Soot
4 Vraska’s Contempt
1 Vivien Reid

Lands:21

6 Forest
1 Foul Orchard
4 Golgari Guildgate (a)
1 Overgrown Tomb
7 Swamp
2 Woodland Cemetery

Sideboard:15

2 Skittering Heartstopper
1 Dire Fleet Poisoner
2 Kitesail Freebooter
2 Thrashing Brontodon
1 Demon of Catastrophes
1 Doom Whisperer
1 Ghalta, Primal Hunger
1 Silent Gravestone
1 Status // Statue
2 Mastermind’s Acquisition
1 Vraska, Golgari Queen