All posts by Darren

Dinosaur Smash Victims

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From time to time I’m pretty sure you’ve heard or even come up with your own “fantasy” list of who you would want to have at a dinner party, or some other group activity. Usually there is a condition of some sort put on the list like historical figures, or famous people etc.

To be honest I’ve not been a big fan of this sort of list, because I would chose my friends and family every time. Why wouldn’t you chose them every time over some celeb living or dead?

Having said that these are 3 people that are semi famous in a geek internet way that play MtG that I’d like to play a game of Commander with. Weirdly not all at the same time, but taking up like a guest slot in one of the games with my friends if some-one was unable to make it.


First up is Michelle Boyd. Michelle was one of the series one guests on Spellslingers (a Geek & Sundry YouTube show about MtG). I went with Michelle over the host of Spellslingers mainly because I thought she would be more fun to play against, and easier to read when she drew good cards. Watch the episode, unless she was hamming it up for the camera (which I think they do on that show in an attempt to make it more entertaining) look at her reaction to some of the cards when she draws them. To be fair like a cat is attracted to that strange person in the room, which 99% of the time is the person that does not like cats, I too am attracted to people that are the opposite of myself. So where Day9 and Michelle (for the camera anyway) come across as out going, entertaining people. I am far from that.
Next up Tom Vasel. Tom has said many times he likes MtG, and likes to specifically play Commander. I’ve spoken to Tom a handful of times now at the UKGE, and I’ve also seen how outgoing he is. The Tom you see on camera is the Tom you get in person. How he is that outgoing I don’t know. For me I find my normal social interactions tiring. You should see me in the evening at the end of the day, I’m shattered. I’m definitely not this outgoing, talks to strangers easily type of person.
Finally the last of the trio is Jamey Stegmeir. From his regular videos I know that Jamey plays his Magic digitally using the Magic Online app. So I’m not sure he has played Commander. But who wouldn’t want to play at least one game with possibly their favourite game designer. For sure he has designed my all time favourite game, Scythe.
So you may have spotted a trend here with the list, or how I perceive the public side of these individuals. But this list probably says more about me especially with the admission I’m not this naturally outgoing person. So is it odd that my favourite format of the game is the multiplayer social one?

Fathers Day Weekend Gaming

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Saturday saw me heading to my FLGS to pick up the Jace Spellbook, plus hopefully play some Commander.

While waiting for a chance to play Commander I threw together a first draft Angel Tribal deck. Which was then given a chance to be played.

My initial 7 cards was 5 lands and 2 costly spells. So I did a mulligan. 2 lands and Sensei’s divining top. A great turn 1 play. Then it went down hill and I was mana screwed for the rest of the game. Not much I could do but wait for impending doom as I watched the other 2 players do stuff, like play cards. Not a great first game with the angels. But this happens it Magic. I need more games with the deck before making adjustments. Although that won’t stop me from tinkering!

Before heading home I confirmed with John I’d be at the Dominaria store champs next weekend. So I need to build a standard deck if I’m not going to play my mono black aggro deck. Green stompy is calling me.

Father’s Day its hard to celebrate it when Nath and I are so far apart geographically. I don’t ask for or expect gifts and cards, for a young man at uni his time is better spent studying and having a life. A phone call and I’m happy.

My plans for the day? Chill, watch some Netflix. For me I’d been remarkably productive and creative for a weekend and had used Pixelmator on the iPad to make the following image.

I’d hit upon the idea of theming the Fenland Gamers logo for say a MtG Group, or maybe the new RPG group starting up. Plus we could theme our logo for the Facebook page for various major holidays or seasons.

Earlier in the day Jonathan had invited me to join him round his dads for some gaming in the afternoon.

First game to hit the table was Takenoko. A game we last played nearly 18 months ago. It’s an enjoyable game, with that cute factor of the little panda figure. I was beaten into last place by a single point, while Jonathan romped home for the win.

Our next game was the Small Detectives game. After the second turn I had seen one suspect, and been asked by Jonathan’s dad if I had seen 2 suspects. Which I hadn’t. I suspected I had been shown 2 suspects that Jonathan’s dad hadn’t seen, and deduced who the suspect was. The next 2 rounds I saw 2 weapons. I thought I had a 50/50 chance of getting a guess at the answer correct. So I went for it. I jumped to the police station and made my guess. I was wrong on both counts and out of the game. I had misread the suspects shown to me earlier. If I had been right, wow what a win that would have been. But alas, Jonathan also won this with me out of the picture.

We finished off the gaming session with The Mind. Let’s just say we didn’t get above level 5 and leave it at that.

But a great afternoon gaming. Thanks John for inviting me.

Remember I said I was waiting for Gavin’s wife to hate Outlive? Well thanks to Jonathan tagging me in on a Facebook post, I now have a second hand retail copy on its way. Gavin said the Kickstarter exclusives were available on the publishers website. So I had a look at what they were, and ordered them too. Luckily for the wallet the XL game board was sold out. We’ll look at what the Kickstarter exclusives are when they arrive.

Fenland Gamers Monthly Meetup June 2018

Fenland Gamers, game night

Time flies so fast when you are running out of it. Well that’s what it feels like being 50 now. It seems like only yesterday we were holding the last monthly meetup.
Last night once again we hit the heady heights of 7 members being able to attend. So once again we split up into 2 groups.

The first group decided to become the Scooby gang and investigate a haunted house by playing Betrayal at House on the Hill. Despite liking Betrayal I wanted to play Gavin’s game that I picked up for him from the UKGE, Outlive.

On the way back from the expo I had been listening to a recent Secret Cabal podcast where they had talked about Outlive, and how much they liked it. Naturally this got me interested in playing the game. So I was keen to give the game a try. Luckily Gavin was also interested in giving his latest addition to his collection a whirl to.

It would be fair to say that I liked Outlive. For starters I love the theme, the post apocalyptic setting isn’t an over used theme like say zombies. I think I have a handful of games with that setting, ok and one that combines it with zombies.

Does the theme come through? To some extent, you do feel that you are scrambling for scarce resources to survive. It’s not super thin and could be any theme, but it’s also not super heavy.

I like the use of leaders to give each player a unique feel and starting setup.

Once out of the box this game with all the components sprawls across the table. So you will need a bit of table space. The component quality is ok, lots of small bits of cardboard for the resources. I’d have preferred thicker player boards. I do like the meeples used to represent your workers who go out scavenging for your community. Having them stand up when used during the day phase and lie down to signify resting from the night phase. Brilliant mechanic that shows which has been used, it also thematic.

Being able to get “power ups” in the form of equipment, that needs to be repaired before you can get the benefit is cool. Plus if you have 2 pieces of equipment repaired and with matching symbols you get a bonus point at the end.

The radiation mechanic, which can kill you, forces you to either have survivors in your airlock to mitigate it during the night phase, or force you to reduce radiation by either visiting a specific location first, or get lucky scavenging in one of the city locations.

I like that each of your scavenger meeples has a number on the side to indicate the number of actions you can do with it at a location. These range between 3 and 5. These numbers are also used for hunting at specific locations, and to intimate other scavengers to get resources from your competition.

There is a lot to this game, and I’ve only scratched the surface. There is a whole resource management mechanic I’ve not talked about.

It’s a fun game, I’m hoping Gavin’s wife doesn’t like it so I can pick up a bargain. If not this will be in the collection at some point.

By some coincidence the Scooby gang finished almost the same time as us. So after packing away both games, it was near the time to head our separate ways.

A great evening. Looking forward to the next.

Is Goblin Chainwhirler Good Enough To Make My Mono Red Commander Deck?

magic, MtG

A couple of weekends back now (I think that’s right) was Pro Tour Dominaria. For me with a playset of Goblin Chainwhirler already in my possession from when I was cracking boosters, the news coming out of the event was good. 7 of the top 8 decks had him in. That’s seen his cost shoot up from around $5 to $7 something. Plus there is speculation that WotC may have to ban the card sooner than later from standard.

But the burning question of the day is, “is Goblin Chainwhirler good enough to make my mono red Commander deck?” Followed by “if so which card does it replace?”

Ok before I ramble on about Goblin Chainwhirler, here is a LINK for those that want to refresh their minds of what cards are in my mono red deck.

So Goblin Chainwhirler is a 3 CMC for a 3/3 that has first strike, and an etb that does 1 damage to each opponent, Planeswalker and creature they control.

For my deck the reason this would be added is that etb. It’s a way to clear the board of 1/1 tokens. A second more expensive Blazing Volley. Ok not quiet because after playing I also have a 3/3 creature on the battlefield, but it achieves the same. It’s also been compared in podcasts I’v listened to, to Rampaging Ferocidon. Which is currently banned in Standard. I don’t see this as powerful as Ferocidon that had menace, stopped life gain, and every time a creature entered the battlefield the owner lost a life. Same CMC. However Ferocidon could be discounted, because it cost 2 any mana, and 1 mountain. Compared to Chainwhirler needing 3 mountains.

I think I do currently have a slot for this in the deck. I like Narnam Cobra, a 2 CMC 2/1 colourless artifact creature. But Chainwhirler is the ideal replacement for it. So that was a lot easier than I thought it would be.

My harder decisions I think will be how to fit the following 2 cards into the Scarab God deck and the mono red respectively.

But I’ll talk more about these in a future why did I buy these post. So letting you off the hook there.

Sunday Commanderin

Commander, Game day, magic, MtG

Sunday saw some 40k players taking part in a tournament over at Chatteris.

Luckily there was enough space for not only these miniature gamers but also other gaming like MtG and board games. So an invite was issued for others to come and make use of it.

My FLGS The Hobbit Hole was holding a MtG Standard Showdown, some of us had turned up to play Commander, other general board gaming.

With a failed attempt (once again) to organise a Commander session the previous day to play the new Anthology. I had decided to use the opportunity to play on Sunday to pick up my 2 copies.

When I arrived there was already a Commander game running using a couple of the new reprinted decks. The Atraxa deck being played had a Doubling Season added to it. So while that was going on I picked up my order and opened one up. I then immediately started sleeving the Atraxa deck. This is a deck I really wanted to play. For me it was almost at a mythic/legendary status because of its high cost to buy since coming out in 2016.

In the game currently running, the Atraxa deck was doing it’s thing. However I wish I was paying attention to what the other deck was from the Anthology being played was, because that was the one that ended up victorious.

I really like the presentation of the Anthology set. The only drawback I can think off is instead of the little included leaflet that is more flavour text for the deck than helpful, is a little bit about the tactics, how to play the deck for newer players. A “it would be nice to have” for these anthologies (this includes both sets) is the giant version of the Commander cards that come with the Commander decks when they were sold separately (I’m assuming that the older decks had these).

While the Standard Showdown was going on, 3 of us played Commander. I played my Dinosaur Tribal deck that now had Helm of the Host in it. Sam, John’s daughter played my Atraxa deck, and our third player was playing a Meren deck and all that graveyard shenanigans.

Sadly for the Meren player they were not really allowed to get the graveyard shenanigans going. I was forced by them to do an earlier than planned exiling of graveyards when they went to destroy my Silent Gravestone. But after that the Atraxa deck was exiling cards at will with one of their cards where they spend a swamp to exile a card from a graveyard, and if it’s a creature get a +1/+1 counter. Both our graveyards were hit that way.

I was starting to get a commanding board state, Rampaging Fericidon, and Gishath were out amongst others. Then bam, board wipe. But I was able to rebuild. Bought out my Commander, then Etali came out. I drew into Helm of the Hosts, and after my thinking, equipped Etali with it. Which with a kindred charge played, meant for one turn I was attacking with 3 Etali. Yes just think about that. That turn I killed the Meren player. Next turn Atraxa went down.

My deck had clicked. The Atraxa deck looks a lot of fun and I can’t wait to play it, both the standard unchanged deck, and a modified one. Yes I’m going to do the $20 budget upgrade from mtggoldfish as my starting point.

Sadly I wasn’t able to stick around for a second game of Commander, I made a poor judgement call earlier in the day. If I’d picked up the cat litter on my way out of town I’d have been able to play on. Sadly I didn’t think of that at the time, or I did and was too lazy. But the end result was I needed to hit the pet shop before it shut.

A big thanks to the 40K players for opening up the event to none players to use as well. Had a great afternoon.

Star Realms: Shock and awe – another nearly perfect game aka how I passed luck off as skill

star realms

As you may have guessed after the previous game I followed it up with an even better game. This hardly ever happens, usually I manage to grab defeat from victory. But as this Facebook message from Scott shows after one turn, the cards aligned for me.

So here is this miracle game…

You can follow Scott on his YouTube channel Scott Plays here.

A Rare Friday Night Gaming

FEG@WL, Fenland Gamers, game night

Wednesday was a bit emotional again because Striders ashes were ready for picking up. Once Nath can get up for a visit we will put his ashes where Bud and Barney are buried. Hopefully this will happen over the Summer.

After a post on the Fenland Gamers Facebook page to gauge interest Jonathan setup a Friday evening gaming session to play some of the games that folks purchased at the very recent UKGE.

For this session I didn’t take any games with me. Forgetting I’d bought a couple at the expo other then The Lost Expedition. But I knew that Jonathan had bought some, and looking forward to trying My Village (bargain of the expo). However that wasn’t on the cards this evening.

Our first game of the evening was Small Detectives, a game Jonathan bought to play with his eldest daughter who is a big Cluedo fan.

I was pleasantly surprised by this game, and that was not influenced by the fact I won. It’s a fun, deduction game. Super light, but that benefits the game because it plays quickly. Your movement around the board is determined by a card from your hand that you play. Which ever tile you end up on, as long as you are the only player on that tile, you get to investigate it. Which means you look at it secretly. However this means you can block others from looking at a tile, by ending up on the same tile. You also have to remember that the card you play will be passed on to the person next to you. So a nice little choice to make there when playing a card.

Yeah a nice little game that delivers that Cluedo experience.

Our second game of the evening was Finca. I liked this the first time I played the game, and this second play was no different. History books and my bgg logged plays will show I was first loser this time.

Our final game of the evening was Azul. Jonathan and I have now both played this at 2, 3 and 4 player counts. We both really like the game as a 2 player game, and is probably our preferred player count for the game. But it’s still an enjoyable game at the higher player counts also. History will also note I won this game.

It was a great evening gaming. But records will show that only one of the games played was purchased at the expo.

Netrunner Apocalypse

netrunner, news

Sad news for Netrunner players. FFG announced today that from 22nd October 2018 they will no longer be selling any Netrunner related products. So that’s the game itself, card sleeves, mats etc. It would appear that WotC have decided to not renew the licence with FFG.

I know it’s been over a year since I last played the game. But it still holds a fond place in my heart. It is a really nice game. According to friends who still played it, it was also in a good place game play/meta wise. Especially after the second edition core set.

Some of my favourite art in any game is in Netrunner, for example the card Day Job. The cards were super thematic, especially some of the flavour text. And I love the Android universe that it had been set in.

It’s a shame to see the game come to an end. The Netrunner podcasts, Facebook groups and reddit will be in uproar at the news, and shell shocked.

Read the full release here.

Revisiting my first built Commander deck

Deck tech, magic, MtG, MtG Deck Building


I finally got round to revisiting my first ever Commander deck that I built (which was only last year). I never posted that deck list, I just never got round to it.

The deck was a bit unfocused. I described it as having a plan a, plan b, plan c, and if none of them worked a plan d. The deck could make zombies, or play them. But it also had the ability to punish other players for playing the game. So they could lose life for drawing a card, or lose life for discarding one (which I could then force them to do).

I had fun playing the deck. But I just felt it needed a bit of direction.


I decided to stay with the Scarab God as my Commander, and be a bit more focused in the deck to utilising his ability.

So I’m doubling down on zombies. My creatures are zombies, or if they are not I can make them zombies! There are spells in to generate zombie tokens (lots of them). Naturally there are the classic black cards for tutoring and board wipes.

I think I’ve played the deck 3 or 4 times, and it did it’s thing, or tried to. So I’m pretty happy that it is now going in the right direction.

Too many plans Zombie Focused

Creatures:24

1 Proven Combatant

1 Dire Fleet Hoarder

1 Doomed Dissenter

1 Khenra Eternal

1 Miasmic Mummy

1 Tattered Mummy

1 Burnished Hart

1 Desiccated Naga

1 Eternal of Harsh Truths

1 Liliana’s Specter

1 Liliana, Heretical Healer

1 Lord of the Accursed

1 Moaning Wall

1 Plague Belcher

1 Bloodhunter Bat

1 Carrion Screecher

1 Fate Unraveler

1 Gavony Unhallowed

1 Gonti, Lord of Luxury

1 Liliana’s Reaver

1 Liliana’s Shade

1 Vizier of Many Faces

1 The Scarab God

1 Fleet Swallower

Creatures:22

1 Proven Combatant

1 Doomed Dissenter

1 Khenra Eternal

1 Miasmic Mummy

1 Tattered Mummy

1 Desiccated Naga

1 Eternal of Harsh Truths

1 Liliana, Heretical Healer

1 Lord of the Accursed

1 Moaning Wall

1 Plague Belcher

1 Carrion Screecher

1 Gavony Unhallowed

1 Josu Vess, Lich Knight

1 Liliana’s Reaver

1 Vizier of Many Faces

1 Archfiend of Depravity

1 The Scarab God

1 Archetype of Imagination

1 Soul of New Phyrexia

1 Overseer of the Damned

1 Distended Mindbender

Spells:36

1 Dark Salvation

1 Liliana’s Indignation

1 Sentinel Totem

1 Sol Ring

1 Traveler’s Amulet

1 Consign // Oblivion

1 Crook of Condemnation

1 Essence Scatter

1 Liliana’s Caress

1 Throne of the God-Pharaoh

1 Torment of Hailfire

1 Arcane Adaptation

1 Bontu’s Monument

1 Depths of Desire

1 Heartless Pillage

1 Liliana, the Last Hope

1 Never // Return

1 Oath of Liliana

1 Commit // Memory

1 Damnation

1 Diabolic Tutor

1 Liliana of the Dark Realms

1 Mastermind’s Acquisition

1 Raiders’ Wake

1 Contract Killing

1 Dark Petition

1 Increasing Ambition

1 Liliana Vess

1 Liliana’s Mastery

1 Liliana, Death’s Majesty

1 Painful Quandary

1 Revel in Riches

1 Spell Swindle

1 Deadly Tempest

1 Liliana’s Influence

1 Liliana, Death Wielder

Spells:39

1 Dark Salvation

1 Raise Dead

1 Sol Ring

1 Crook of Condemnation

1 Damping Sphere

1 Lightning Greaves

1 Torment of Hailfire

1 Trespasser’s Curse

1 Arcane Adaptation

1 Fortuitous Find

1 Golden Demise

1 Gruesome Fate

1 Infest

1 Liliana, the Last Hope

1 Never // Return

1 Recover

1 Soul Salvage

1 Sudden Spoiling

1 Wander in Death

1 Damnation

1 Dark Bargain

1 Diabolic Tutor

1 Endless Ranks of the Dead

1 Icy Manipulator

1 Mastermind’s Acquisition

1 Settle the Score

1 Torment of Scarabs

1 Dark Petition

1 Final Parting

1 From Under the Floorboards

1 Increasing Ambition

1 Liliana’s Mastery

1 Liliana, Death’s Majesty

1 The Eldest Reborn

1 Vanquisher’s Banner

1 Deadly Tempest

1 Stir the Sands

1 The Immortal Sun

1 Army of the Damned

Lands:40

1 Barren Moor

1 Blighted Cataract

1 Cascading Cataracts

1 Command Tower

1 Cradle of the Accursed

1 Crumbling Vestige

1 Desert of the Glorified

1 Desert of the Mindful

1 Dismal Backwater

1 Dunes of the Dead

1 Evolving Wilds

1 Fetid Pools

1 Ipnu Rivulet

4 Island

1 Mortuary Mire

1 Nephalia Academy

1 Reliquary Tower

1 Rogue’s Passage

1 Skyline Cascade

1 Submerged Boneyard

1 Sunscorched Desert

13 Swamp

1 Temple of the False God

1 Terramorphic Expanse

1 Vivid Marsh

Lands:39

1 Barren Moor

1 Blighted Cataract

1 Cascading Cataracts

1 Command Tower

1 Cradle of the Accursed

1 Crumbling Vestige

1 Desert of the Glorified

1 Desert of the Mindful

1 Dismal Backwater

1 Dunes of the Dead

1 Evolving Wilds

1 Fetid Pools

1 Ipnu Rivulet

4 Island

1 Mortuary Mire

1 Nephalia Academy

1 Reliquary Tower

1 Rogue’s Passage

1 Skyline Cascade

1 Submerged Boneyard

1 Sunscorched Desert

12 Swamp

1 Temple of the False God

1 Terramorphic Expanse

1 Vivid Marsh

That’s my Scarab God Zombie Deck. What cards would you replace?