All posts by Darren

So long and thanks for all the fish

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As final days at a place goes this was a pretty good one, if not on the expensive side.

I’d ordered a cake for the staff room, along with 24 cup cakes for my level 3 students that were in today.

After the cup cakes had been wolfed down, my Dragon Tribal deck swooped from the sky reigning fire on the other players. It helped that 2 of my opponents were mana screwed, they were just not getting any.

Between the fiery destruction in Commander and lunch there was time to do a quick run to my FLGS The Hobbit Hole to pick up a bundle for Dominaria and another Prerelease kit. I’ll go over the pulls in another post.

Lunchtime a massive abuse of the Two for One Tuesday deal at the local Dominos meant there was pizza in the staff room and for my students. The pizza for my students didn’t last long at all. A plague of locusts take longer to strip a field of crops, and that’s fast.

I suppose I was feeling a little extra generous with it being my 50th yesterday and all. In a way this was a kind of me celebrating yesterday but doing it today, along side saying farewell.

My year 1 Level 3 students got me a play mat that some of them had signed. Which is pretty cool, and a nice thing to remember them by. Going to miss them, they were a great bunch on the whole.

Although I’m leaving these students, I hope I made the last day an enjoyable one for them. They have a lot of work ahead of them to complete the year. But I know they will do it.

For now I’m going to rest on my laurels for the evening. Tomorrow is a new start for me, and the work starts all over again.

50 Years on this Earth

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Considering how annoying I can be I’m surprised I’ve made it to this age. Sadly I’ve not aged as well as Kylie who is the same age.

I’m not a big one on celebrations. It’s been a normal day. I sent a pizza to Nath down in Portsmouth so that he can have a mini celebration on me. And that is about the extent of my celebrations.

Tomorrow is another big day, it’s my last day at my current employer before moving onto a new employer nearer to home.

What would you buy? A Star Realms Question

star realms

Scott does this sort of post on the Star Realms Facebook from time to time. So I thought I’d copy him.

In the discard and draw piles you have the usual scouts and vipers, plus a Cutter and Mech World.

So what would you buy?

I went for the Embassy Yacht, and hit Scott for 6 damage. Was that the right thing to do this early on in the game?

Scott Schools me in Star Realms

star realms

In an ever escalating war of friendly banter I just put up the last 2 games of Star Realms Scott and I played. Sadly the Star Realms app didn’t have the game available that started this off from the start of the week. So no seeing me get my butt handed to me by Scott. But don’t worry I’m sure there will be an opportunity for me to put one of those games up soon enough. After all our stats against each other show that Scott is the better player.

You can visit Scott on his YouTube channel Scott Plays HERE.

A couple of late April 2018 Netflix recommendations

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Here is another infrequent post of recommendations of stuff to watch on Netflix. Two new series have recently hit it that I am currently really enjoying.

The first I had dismissed when I read a description of it when first aired on the SyFy channel. But when I saw the teaser trailer on Netflix it appeared a lot more appealing.

Happy is a based on a graphic novel by Grant Morrison. The opening scene violently visceral and surreal sets the tone for whole series.

And I love it. A combination of live action and animation. It has some dark themes, it’s violent, it’s funny, the performances are fantastic. I’m a big fan of this show. I’ll be getting the graphic novel now to read for sure.

Friday evenings as a kid/teenager were along with Saturday mornings some of my favourite tv. 6pm Fridays if I remember correctly I’d be spoiled with classics of the time like The Water Margins and Monkey. Although I seem to remember them running for longer than they actually did apparently. I’ve looked at dvds of the complete series for both and there are far far fewer episodes than I remember.

Monkey had a light hearted approach to its material. But it was fun. Now Netflix has produced an updated version of the series. It’s struck an interesting route for an update. A lot these days go for the dark gritty reimagining. But this one has not gone that route, but it hasn’t also gone for copying the original either, they have hit a nice mid point. I actually like the route they have gone, and the choices they have made. I particularly like the actor who plays monkey and his portrayal. Casting Sandy as a female character an interesting choice, that works. The rest of the main casting choices and their performances are solid.

International Tabletop Day 2018

Fenland Gamers, Game day


It’s the weekend before I turn 50. And for the last couple of years it’s fallen that close to my birthday, so I treat it like part of my birthday celebrations. This year I also get to see the latest Avengers movie too (which I haven’t at the time of writing, but I’ve still got time to do so).

We started off our International Tabletop Day gaming session with the deluxified version of The Flow of History that I’d backed on a Kickstarter last year.

How to describe the game, it’s a civilisation style card game with that’s bit of an engine builder with a kind of auction mechanic.

The auction like mechanic is used to purchase cards to go in your civilisation (read engine). On your go you get to take one of about 4 actions. One of which is to put a bid on a card that has not been bid on yet in the market place. You can only have one bid active at a time. If on your next turn your bid hasn’t been sniped, then you are able to claim/complete that bid. You don’t have to, you can leave the bid there and do one of the other 3 actions available. One of them is sniping another players bid. That’s basically where if you have the resources you can match another players bid and take the card for yourself. The draw back is that player you are sniping the card from gets the money back plus half of the supply of resources rounded down. Which could be giving them lots of resources to snipe back with, or secure a card with so no one else can get it. It’s a rather nifty mechanic that can be quiet tactical, because you could put a bid in hoping to be sniped because you know another player needs the card.

There is some combat but it’s a very easy system to follow, quick, and doesn’t slow down game play at all. Plus it takes away the “so and so is just targeting me” because it relies on players building up defences and trying not to be the weakest. Being the weakest is the main criteria for selecting who to target in a combat, unless there is a draw for that honour. Then the attacking player gets to decide.

There is a hint of variable powers with the initial government card you get during setup. It kind of directs the direction you will take your civilisation. Mine had the military/combat symbol so that hinted I should be utilising this in the cards I selected.

I love the quality of the components of this deluxified version that TMG produced, especially the lovely metal resource coins. Metal coins are always cool.

I really liked the game, definitely a good decision to back this. Can’t wait to play again. Oh yeah, Jeff won this one with Diego and myself tying for first loser.

Our second and final game of the day was Anno 1701: Das Brettspiel. This is a German language only game I believe, which is a shame as I really like the game.

If you like Catan I don’t see how you wouldn’t like this game. It shares a lot of similar mechanics of Catan with some extras. Extras like unique player boards that you will develop, and depending on dice rolls get resources from. Plus you also have an exploration element where you are trying to explore islands to get bonuses and possibly extra resource opportunities. Then you have a too and fro for victory points on 4 tracks represent fire power, trading, happy populace and one other. Basically the leader on each track gets to claim a victory point, lose the lead and that point goes to the new leader instead. So until a player gets to the max position on the track that victory point isn’t safe.

Yeah a fun take on the Catan style of games. I might even have to track down a copy and print out the translated rules. It’s fairly language independent, with minimal text on game components.

It’s these extras that I really like. I enjoy Catan, but this for me is a better experience for a gamer. History will show that Diego managed to snatch victory away from Jeff, scoring a massive 3 victory points in his final turn. Well if he hadn’t Jeff would have won.

A great afternoon gaming, and some great first plays. How do you top that? Visit the local pet store to get some stuff for my mums cats litter tray. How life in the fast lane.

Why I currently won’t touch MtG Arena

magic, MtG

Magic the Gathering Arena is many will know is the new/latest digital version of MtG. This version is being given a “modern” Hearthstone look and feel.

This should tick all my boxes so why am I not getting all excited about it?

Well at the moment it’s only PC during its beta stage. Being a Mac and iOS person it means I can take part in the beta program. My main casual gaming platform is iOS. So until it’s out on that I’m not interested.

But there are some recent announcements that are coming out that mean even if Arena came out on iOS tomorrow I wouldn’t touch it with a barge pole.

Firstly the redemption codes. They are currently testing them down under. In the Dominaria boosters there, they get a redemption code in each one. This code when redeemed in game gives you a booster pack or in game gold and a card. Apparently the split is 10% of the time you will get a booster pack, 90% that card gold combo. Plus I believe there will be a limit of 10 redemption codes per account. This news has put me off this feature straight off. If I buy a booster box I want to be able to use all 36 codes, not be screwed over. Plus that probability of getting a booster pack when redeemed sucks. I’d want a higher percentage of having a booster than the 10%. A fifty fifty split would be more something I’d be attracted to.

The price of boosters, drafting, etc in hard cash. Although this actually doesn’t get announced until tomorrow based on how WotC have behaved so far things are not looking good for this (see above for starters). If this is above $2 a booster, and approximately $6 for a 3 booster draft then WotC might as well forget about releasing Arena. Yes the gaming part of Hasbro was down financially in Q1 apparently. But that doesn’t mean WotC should be nickel and dimming the public. It means they should get their house in order first, stop attacking their player base because they express opinions they disagree with, improve the quality of products that they release (Iconic Masters, Masters 25, Explorers of Ixalan, the list goes on) and the card stock issue. Then maybe they might turn things round without picking the publics pockets.

I’m sure as we get closer to the release date to the general public release other developments will show that WotC are listening to the public and have ignored them. WotC need to listen, and change things big time else they can forget about attracting Hearthstone players to Arena, but also forget about moving over MtG players digitally and physically to Arena also.

My Dominaria Highlights

magic, MtG

Ok slowly opening the second booster box didn’t last long. All the boosters inside mysteriously burst open yesterday. I wish I knew how it happened.

I have surprised myself and actually got the first booster boxes contents scanned into the Decked app along with the foils and legendary creatures from the second.

With all this new injection of cards I have that ongoing problem of are the new cards good enough to go into the relevant deck? And if so which ones do they replace? That second question will be answered another day. At the moment I’m looking at the cards through the lens of would this card be good in one of my Commander decks. One or two cards have sparked ideas for brawl decks. Others have given me an idea for standard/modern decks (but not sure I’ll act on those for the time being).


I’m very happy with my pulls, I got 95% (a rough estimate) of the cards I was after either as singles or multiple copies. Plus one or two pleasant surprises that I wasn’t aware of mainly due to me not bothering much with the majority of spoilers.

Not sure if I’ll play Arcane Flight but I do like the art on the card. I’m not surprised it’s one of the ultra pro playmats for this set. I find the art whimsical with the expression on the cats face.

So what were the highlights of my pulls?

I’m glad I’m not playing Tron lands at the moment, Damping Sphere shuts them down. Which would slow my Angel deck down completely. I’m thinking this might find a home in my planned Death and Taxes Commander deck. Final Parting was a nice surprise and definitely is a nice tutor for a Commander deck, get the card you want and set up some graveyard shenanigans.


Gaea’s Blessing was on my list, with mill a thing with my students meta both in their modern decks and Commander this is a nice addition to fight against it. Gilded Lotus is it good enough for modern and standard? I think the 5 CMC is a bit expensive. But Brawl/Commander I’m liking the look of it. Grand Warlord Radha was a pleasant surprise, maybe not good enough to be the new commander of my Elf Tribal deck, but as a Brawl Commander?

Hallar, the Firefletcher was another surprise, definitely a Brawl Commander. Kicker isn’t a thing in my Elf Tribal deck so it wouldn’t break into that. Jhoira, Weatherlight Captain was on my list so happy to get her. As was Karn, Scion of Urza.

I really want the promo for Llanowar Elves. But if I’m building a standard deck I think I’d be going green with that Llanowar Elves/ Steel Leaf Champion combo. I’m not sure the other elves are strong enough to go full elf tribal both in Brawl or standard. Lyra Dawnbringer was high on my list and straight into my list of angel includes for my in progress Angel Commander deck. Marwyn, the Nurterer was in a Planeswalker deck and a nice surprise. I’d like to try and fit it into my Elf tribal deck.

Mishra’s Self Replicator is screaming out to be abused in some infinite loop way. Mox Amber not sure I’d ever use it, but it does seem to be expensive at the moment. Muldrotha, the Gravetide was a nice surprise and will be interesting to build decks around. Graveyard shenanigans is always frustrating to play against, and this could be a way to cheat out some expensive cards. Remember Final Parting?

More graveyard shenanigans with another pleasant discovery Primeval’s Glorious Rebirth. I think having some graveyard hate in decks will be a necessity, luckily there is some out there. A rat deck of some kind is back on the books, ’nuff said. I was just thinking white needs some more cards like Seal Away.

There were 2 angels I wanted from this set and I got both. Shalai, Voice of Plenty has made the team for my planned Angel Commander deck. Blue has some really nice big monsters of the deep. They may not be that playable in most formats. But hey that OMG moment when an another player sees them hit the battlefield, worth it. Slimefoot was on my hit list. I had it in my mind to do a saproling/fungus tribal deck of some kind, and this is the commander I wanted for it.

I don’t know what I was expecting from the sagas. But Song of Freyalise with a lot of creatures out, say like elves or saprolings this could be insane. I bet Squee, the Immortal will end up being a very very annoying card. Wish I’d got more Steel Leaf Champions than I did.

These next 3 were unexpected and have potential I think.

Oh look another board wipe for white with Urza’s Ruinous Blast, just what they needed. Ok probably not that great with this big influx of legendary cards in standard and Brawl. But other formats it might be more impactful. Token decks won’t like it for sure. Oh look a dragon for my dragon tribal deck. And with the Ur-Dragon as the commander a turn 3 drop! I can see Warcry Phoenix maybe making it into a Brawl deck. But as a 4 CMC 2/2 it looks a bit weak against Glorybringer and Rekindling Phoenix.

Here are the 3 that got away!


So that’s my haul or my highlights from the Prerelease weekend.