All posts by Darren

Some thoughts on GoR Spoilers So Far

magic, MtG

How have you enjoyed a week without Magic posts? Sadly that all ends with this post.

The spoiler season has just started for the next MtG set to hit us at the start of October, Guilds of Ravnica (GoR).

For me like the other times when I see these spoilers I’m looking at the cards for whether they will go in an existing deck (Which cards they replace is a whole different problem), or do they inspire brewing a new deck?


This wurm is apparently according to others with far superior knowledge on this sort of thing, the biggest creature WotC have printed in the history of MtG. I think it’s obvious why I like the new buy a box promo. I happen to have a big green stompy Commander deck. Which plays big green stompy creatures. This looks exactly like a big green stompy creatures to me.

There are some interesting mechanics in GoR that also fit in very nicely with one or two of my decks.

  • Jump-start – which allows a card to be cast from the graveyard by paying the cards casting costs and discarding a card. The card is then exiled. – I think this mechanic will fit nicely with my Kess spell casting deck.
  • Surveil – look at the top of your deck, leave the card there or put it into your graveyard. Yeah this mechanic will be so sweat in my Muldrotha deck. It wants cards in the graveyard.
  • Mentor – when creature attacks put a +1/+1 counter on a target attacking creature with a weaker strength. – this potentially will fit with the Atraxa deck and proliferate mechanic, doubling season would also be nice with it.

Hopefully there will be some great cards with these mechanics that just have to go in my decks. But there are hints that graveyard shenanigans will be a thing in GoR, which means hopefully lots of toys to go in my Muldrotha deck.

Talking of toys these bad boys are back…

Yep shock lands. I’m hoping fetch lands will be reprinted soon. But these will hold me over until then. I don’t care about Standard, I want these Commander staples dropping in price. That means reprints. This is a good start.

Dual cards are also back, along with dual mana. I can see this particular one going in to a deck. This might go in the dino, or dragon deck. Like these because it’s a two for one. You just need a good combo to choose between to justify using the card.

These next 3 cards are strong Muldrotha contenders, whilst Sinister Sabotage could go into Kess and the horrors from the deep.


I do have a bit of confusion with Sinister Sabotage though. A few MtG content creatures are saying this card is better than Disallow that it will obviously replace in standard. Ok Disallow doesn’t have the Surveil mechanic, but Disallow counters activated abilities. Which in this age of Planeswalkers would be of more use. Being able to stop a Teferi ultimating seems more useful to me. But hey I’m a relative noob what do I know?

Talking of Planeswalkers, this guy looks like a good fit for my Kess deck.


I love the atmospheric art on this next card, but I can also once again see it as potential Muldrotha material.


I have been toying with the idea of a goblin tribal deck, so this next spoilt card looks like I should be considering adding it.

So thats my picks from the current crop of spoilers. What cards have caught your interest?

Day 3 progress on Wave 3

miniatures painting

Well that’s embarrassing yesterdays post failed to publish, so it’s just gone up on the blog.
It’s now 3 nights in a row.

It was the turn of the jacket and skin to get washes this evening.

I do like the skin wash and the way it transforms the skin of the zombies.

Tomorrow we get bloody!

P.S. This arrived today, looking to getting it to the table at the monthly meetup next Wednesday.

Base coat complete

miniatures painting

Painting for a second night in a row!

Skin (zombie skin colour), and the jacket (faded suit I think they call it), along with the mouldy clothing looking like a piece of blouse were applied as base coats today.

I also applied a blue wash to the skirt to try and start adding some tone to the it. Because the paint is still wet the zombies look darker than they will be once dry. I’m hoping that in the morning I’ll start to see that solid slab of colour show some depth.

Tomorrow will see more washes applied to continue the process of bringing life to these zombies.

Gentlemen prefer blonde zombies

miniatures painting

I really don’t know who I am. Doing a little bit of painting in the evening!

After tea I thought I’d just do the base coat on the skirt (light denim – basically a light shade of blue) and the hair (babe blonde – or yellow!) An episode of Supernatural later and I’d done the goal for the evening.

What next, the top clothing tomorrow evening?

Help my body is in a pod, this isn’t me.

I guess this means Wave 3 has officially been started.

Zombicide Zombies Wave 2 Started

miniatures painting

Have I just spent Sunday morning painting miniatures? OMG who am I?

This rather active morning started off with prepping wave 3 by applying the primer to them.

It was then back inside to start applying the base paint to what I am now calling wave 2. These are a little bit more “complicated” than wave 1. Mainly in details like they have ties, and the leg is showing.

I’m still amazed after applying the flesh wash to the flesh areas what a difference it makes. As for how the wasted jeans blue and the primer colour working together, I really like the look after just one coat. It’s like instant highlights!

There is still a couple of washes to apply to the relevant areas, along with putting blood in the wounds. I’ve been thinking about the minis in my favourite game of all time Scythe. I know some folks have painted them fully, but I think they might work with just a wash similar to the minions in Mechs vs Minions.

Although I started watching this yesterday, whilst painting this morning I had the brand new series starring that guy from the US The Office in Jack Ryan on.


I’m enjoying it a lot. Is it better than the recent tv series Condor? I give the edge to Condor. But both are really good if you like that whole spy thriller thing. This version of Jack Ryan is certainly miles better than the cinematic Chris Pine version that came out a couple years or more back.

Heck I might even apply the remaining washes this afternoon!

Hold them for 7 days, is that too much to ask?

Fenland Gamers, game night, miniatures painting

It just so happened that the fortnightly gaming session for Fenland Gamers fell on the very last day of the month. That’s about the only interesting thing I can say about the day really.

Earlier in the day I’d bought some PVA glue, and a cheap 20p brush to apply it with. Just before I was due to go out the door to the club night I decided I’d try doing the base of one of the painted walkers. I was quiet impressed with the results. So much so I had to do the remaining 5 before leaving.

It’s amazing how a little thing like this transforms the mini. I know there are errors in the painting of these figures, which are glaring when viewed up close. But when not looking at them really close, I’m beginning to really like how these now look.

I arrived a little early at our hosts for the evening The Luxe Cinema to get set up ready for everyone else. But the fantastic staff had already got my folding table out and put up. Not only that they had cleaned the surface too! The staff really are amazing at The Luxe.

While Justin and Edmund co-led a game of Vast: The Crystal Caverns, Jeff, Jonathan and I sat down to play Jeff’s birthday present 7 Days of Westerplatte.

7 Days of Westerplatte is a co-op game where the 3 of us played the polish trying to hold off the German invaders in basically what was I believe the start of WWII.

Jeff gave us the choice of wimpy easy mode or tough as nails hard mode. Naturally we decided to show how insanely stupid we were by choosing the tough as nails mode. Hey if we are going to fail, let’s do it spectacularly against overwhelming odds.

I can see where Jeff gets his tower defence like comparison from. Jonathan and I both really enjoyed the game.

Naturally the first 3 days seemed relatively easy, we were handling the invaders, and it would seem that the game is designed to lure you into that false sense of security before hitting you hard and fast.

This was so quick to teach, and get playing. There are some fantastic decisions to make as a team. Sometimes real tough ones.

We only just made it to the seventh day before we were worn down by the Germans and our positions over run. This may have jumped into first spot as my favourite co-op game.

Our second game was the latest addition to the Ticket to Ride family, Ticket to Ride New York. Jonathan had said it’s quick to play, and it is. It was ok, it gave you that quick fix of Ticket to Ride if that is what you are looking for. I suppose it might fill that filler game spot. But the game didn’t wow me. Jeff won the game.

We finished off our evening of gaming with a couple of games of the best version of Love Letter, Love Letter: Batman. The honours were split between John and myself.

Once again a great evening gaming, at a great location. The Luxe really are fantastic hosts.

Star Realms Frontiers KS arrives

new arrivals, star realms

At some point this weekend I have a job ahead of me that needs doing. Not house work, something more important.

Finally the mega slow UK fulfilment side of GamesQuest got their act together and sent me my Star Realms Frontiers Kickstarter stuff.


I doubled down on everything because Nathan has a copy too. He loves the game, so I always order double.

There is another Kickstarter somewhere between here and the US. But this one will keep me busy checking it’s all there while I wait.

Nottingham

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Some how in my first half century on this planet I’ve never been to Nottingham. I have to say I was pretty impressed with the city centre from the little of it that I got to see. I think I nearly liked it more than Guildford or Peterborough. But then again there are not many cities for me to compare it with. I’m not a big city type of person.

I had some spare time before my appointment that had bought me to Nottingham, so while drinking a cortado in Costa I googled “board game shop Nottingham”. One of the top results was a Warhammer shop (I’m assuming these are rebranded Games Workshop establishments) real close to where I was consuming hot milky coffee.

So while taking the unintended long winded route to the place (I literally just had to cross the road) I saw a familiar name from The Dice Tower coverage of their trips to the UK for the UKGE, the Ludorati board game cafe. Which was by luck round the corner from the Warhammer shop.

Although not teaming with customers the Warhammer shop did have a couple of young lads sitting painting miniatures. It was nice to see. I bought this new collectable magazine published by Games Workshop and only available from their stores. For the £1.99 it was worth getting for the paints alone, it also had a brush and 3 models to build and paint. The magazine was a bit disappointing on the how to front considering this is aimed at beginners. If it had been better I may have got future copies, but there isn’t enough in the magazine to justify buying it. If you like or are interested in the lore, and playing Conquest then this might be worth looking at. But these collectible magazines are a scam, and in the long run over priced for what they are.

While handing over paper tokens, I also exchanged them for coloured stuff that’s meant to be grass! to cover the bases of my figures with.


Sadly there wasn’t enough time for me to visit the Forbidden Planet opposite from the Warhammer shop. My wallet and bank account breathed a big sigh of relief.

But I did get to look quickly inside the Ludorati gaming cafe. It also wasn’t overly busy. It looked like a good selection of games to chose from if you were there to game, and lots of play space. But I thought they might have a bigger selection of games to browse and buy. It was a bit disappointing on that side. But I was able to buy a recent issue of Tabletop that I was interested in getting. Who would pay £5.50 for that “free” gift I don’t know? I certainly wouldn’t.

Next time I need to plan things better, because I think Nottingham is the stamping ground of an ol’ college friend from many many moons back. It would be good to touch base with him again after all these years.