Category Archives: MtG

Three Horse Race?

magic, MtG, news

I would loved to have been in the WotC offices Monday when the news dropped of a new entrant into the digital CCG arena.

All of a sudden what they thought was a two horse race between themselves with MtG:Arena and the 800lb gorilla Hearthstone by Blizzard, looks like becoming a three horse race with the addition of Riot Games and Legend of Runeterra.

I suspect WotC were hoping in the current climate that they would be picking up a shed load of new players as those disenfranchised with Blizzard and Hearthstone look for a viable alternative.

Although I would imagine that the number of engaged players would drop drastically once the new arrivals realised they can only play on their PC, and not on their mobile device of choice. Although to be fair to WotC, Mac owners will be getting Arena hopefully sometime before the New Year.

However that was before the sign up for early access to new kid on the block Legends of Runeterra (LoR) was opened up on Monday. Like Arena LoR is only available on PC. However the button is already on the website for the Apple App Store. Which would imply that they plan to release LoR sooner than later on mobile.

The scary thing for WotC with Riot Games entering the fray is that Riot Games know this arena. All those years of experience developing the online behemoth that is League of Legends. All the experience that this has got them in the e-sport arena. The customer base they have to market to. A customer base that trusts them, and is highly engaged with them, and is more at easy using a digital product.

WotC are not generous with their in game economy in Arena. It stinks, and is the major reason why I won’t play the game. Close second is it’s not on iOS/iPadOS.

If Riot Games get the game play correct, and they get the in game economy correct, then they will have a hit on their hands. As soon as I get my invite to play (yes I did sign up for early access) and had sometime with the game I’ll post my thoughts.

In the meantime it will be interesting to see just how WotC and Blizzard react to the new guy on the block.

Once Upon… A Five Room Dungeon Adventure

D&D, magic, MtG, RPG

One of the things I love about the Throne of Eldraine set for MtG is the theme, and it’s take on fairy tales. It really is a fantastic mash up of fairy tales, Arthurian legend and the MtG universe. Did I say how gorgeous the art is?

It’s very inspiring. Especially the twisted take on fairy tales. And I love anything that inspires ideas for adventures for my campaign or even a one shot.

I’ve been meaning to create a one page dungeon (although this years competition has ended, and next years is along way off). I want to create a few and share them on here. After all practice makes perfect. I also want to combine the one page dungeon with the 5 Room Dungeon. It seems a natural fit.

The three cards that I’m using for inspiration for this adventure are Gingerbrute, Flaxen Intruder and Trapped in the tower.

Although there are some great cards to inspire objects to populate the adventure with also.

I’ve also been reading The Curse of Strahd campaign book recently and think that this twisted fairy tale idea would fit in nicely with the Barovia setting.

So based on my initial inspiration, A Goldilocks and the 3 bug bears comes to mind, as does rescuing a princess/maiden (could be a prince or some other being) from a tower that is guarded by those 3 bug bears. With the gingerbrute being the main bad guy. I also like the idea of using something like the corridor monitor as a roaming guardian in the tower.

With that brainstorming I have three locations, a cottage, a tower and the space between them. The tower can break down to another 2 locations, the stairs and the room at the top. Finally that room at the top can be split into 2. Which by my count gives me five locations.

The tower itself is surrounded by a wall of thorns. That is only broken by the cottage. So to get to the tower you have to pass through the cottage.

This poor attempt at a map is how I envision the layout.

Tarokka cards are used in Curse of Strahd “to randomly determine key aspects of the adventure.” I’d like them also to be used in this adventure. But at the moment I just can’t get that to work.

Sadly after writing the 5 Room Dungeon in Scribe, and then transferring the words into GoodNotes. I just couldn’t make it fit without cutting a lot of text. I suppose I could do that. But for the time being I’m going to put out the initial version of this as a 5 Room Adventure. When I get time I’ll try to fit it onto a single page.

The adventure is aimed at a tier 1 party. Apart from one instance I try and avoid giving quantities for monsters. I like to give a bit of wiggle room, and allow for the DM to adjust on the fly based on how the party are doing.

You can get the draft pdf of the adventure by downloading that link. I’d love some feedback. I’ve not tested the adventure. So if you get a chance to try it I’d love to hear how you got on.

UPDATE: Once Upon v2 – updated with feedback from Scott and Jacob.

Once upon v3 – updated with feedback from Duncan.

Tapestry and Fairy Tales

Game day, game night, magic, MtG

I’ve not posted for a day or two. Which some will agree is a blessing. Whilst others will be pining for my poorly written words. I won’t claim they are words of wisdom or deep insight.

Anyway Friday evening saw me meeting up with Gavin to take delivery of my copy of the latest game from Stonemaier Games, Tapestry. The game isn’t officially out until the start of November. But thanks to the pre-order window at the start of September keen fans of Stonemaier Games could get their mitts on the game early direct from the company. Sadly a slow boat (or something that delayed the arrival of the shipment) meant that the UK/EU pre-orders were being sent out a couple of weeks after the US.

Each copy of Tapestry in the first printing is uniquely numbered. There is no control over which number you get, it’s completely random. But it’s a nice touch to make the first print a little special. Otherwise there will be no difference between the first printing and subsequent ones.

Well that’s a lie. One of the space exploration tiles in this first printing has a missing icon on it. Which will be corrected in later printings. Stonemaier Games aren’t fixing this. I don’t blame them, a single tile, that rarely will come out. Not worth the expense. Plus if it bothers me that much (which it doesn’t) I can buy a third party sticker off itsy for about £2.30 plus postage to fix it.

We played a 2 player game, that took about an hour of actual game play. Which wasn’t bad considering it was a first play. Sadly Gavin won our game. There are angels weeping over that victory.

I’m going to give my thoughts about the game after I’ve played it with a higher player count. But suffice to say I’m looking forward to a 3 (possibly 4) player game later today.

It’s also the Throne of Eldraine pre-release weekend.

And yesterday I attended the 11am pre-release at my FLGS.

I went 3 colours (green, black and blue) for my 40 card deck. I didn’t have any problem getting my lands to play stuff. It helped I could fix any shortfall with Rosethorn Acolyte (a green 3CMC 2/3 elf druid) that can tap for any colour mana, Spinning Wheel (a 3CMC artifact) that also tapped for any colour mana, and the adventure on Beanstalk Giant (a green 6CMC Giant, or 3CMC adventure sorcery) allowed me to search for a basic land and put it on the battle field.

I started off in the first round really well, winning the first game. But despite my best efforts I lost the next 2 games.

Round 2 saw me lose both games. Although they were not walk overs, both games were a back and forward. With the edge going to my opponent.

But that was the story of the first two rounds really. Close games. Just not able to get to my solutions in time. And I did have the solutions.

Round 3 was a lot easier. I was against a young lad who wasn’t vastly experienced. Was there a little bit of guilt crushing his dreams? Nah. A win is a win. Got to take them when you can.

The final round was a a real back and forward. I lost the first game, narrowly. If I had been able to do one more point of damage I would have stolen the win. Having been on the back foot for the majority of the game. The second game I won. But both games were not short games. We started our third and final game with 5 minutes left on the clock for the round. Naturally it went to time, and at the end of the 5 turns, no winner. So I think rightly ended as a draw.

Throne of Eldraine Pre-Release Stats

Participants: 22

Rounds: 4

Round 1: Nathanael Loss 1-2

Round 2: Simon Loss 0-2

Round 3: Unknown Win 2-0

Round 4: Jonathan Draw 1-1

Record: 1-2-1 (WLD)

Final Position: 15th

Prizes: 2 participation packs

Throne of Eldraine is a beautiful set. The art of gorgeous, nay stunning. The theme just oozes from every card. You can’t help but be delighted when you hold the cards in your hand. Really like the adventure mechanic.

From my experience of the pre-release as a sealed format from the decks I played against, it’s not a fast format. Our decks were slowish, getting pieces into position, waiting for that chunk in the other players defences. It will be interesting to see if this is true for draft or other sealed events.

But as always, had a great time.

The Fenland Gamers EDH/Commander Social Contract

Fenland Gamers, Game day, magic, MtG

Yesterday afternoon I spent a pleasant afternoon playing EDH/Commander with a couple of newish club members at our wonderful hosts The Luxe.

This is the second such session that we’ve held now. The plan is to have these monthly, with the next one for October already organised.

These sessions are promoted as casual games, and not competitive.

By casual I mean decks that are a power level no more than a 6 or 7. And to be honest a 7 might be pushing it. To help those planning to come along and play I share the following Commandzone YouTube video.

Which can be summed up with the following image for those that don’t want to spend time watching the video.

The WotC pre-cons each year usually fall in the 4/5 power level range.

I also add the following advice to prospective players wanting to come along and play.

“no mass land destruction and going infinite in a deck is also a no no for casual. It’s not fun.”

I think at the next meet up we need to discuss a cap on the number of extra turns or combat phases a player can do in a row. Trying to tread that narrow path of allowing them, and keeping the game fun for everyone. I think a group consensus needs to be arrived at. My current thinking is 2. But others may have differing opinions.

Naturally there is the unwritten rules such as “don’t be a dick”, and buying refreshments from our hosts and not bringing your own stuff. In fact they are written down now I think about it on the top of the Fenland Gamers Facebook page.

This is basically our social contract for our sessions. Which hopefully means that those attending will have a fun experience.

For me EDH/Commander is my favourite MtG format. I like the social side. Which combines with the political element. The cutting deals, fluid alliances, back stabbing/turning heal! Yes sometimes there is the element of betrayal. Sometimes being good at this part of the game gets you the win, despite having the weakest deck at the table.

There is also an ebb and flow to an EDH/Commander game that I like. One moment a player will be in the ascendancy, becoming the major threat. Deals and alliances are made between the others to control that threat. Once dealt with some-one else usually fills that power vacuum left behind.

I also love that in this format you get to play with cards that formats like Standard or Modern are unplayable. I like tribal decks, or themed ones. My big green stompy, horrors from the deep, and Scarab God zombie decks show this. There are creatures and spells in those decks that just never would see the light of day in other formats.

I’m happy if I get to do something cool during a game. If I win that’s an extra bonus. I didn’t win once yesterday. But I was doing cool stuff. Or I thought it was cool. So I was having a good time. And it can be pretty cool watching others do cool stuff.

For me when competitive EDH/Commander decks are used then we start to lose the elements of the game I get enjoyment from. I appreciate that others may like that side. But the cost of decks goes through the roof, and the game becomes less about having fun, and more about the win at any cost.

There is a reason the format became popular. I believe it is because of the casual nature of the format. Which is captured so well in the official philosophy document.

“Each game is a journey the players share, relying on a social contract in which each player is considerate of the experiences of everyone involved–this promotes player interaction, inter-game variance, a variety of play styles, and a positive communal atmosphere. At the end of an ideal Commander game, someone will have won, but all participants will have had the opportunity to express themselves through their deck building and game play.”

I’m hoping that our groups social contract reflects the formats philosophy, and enables everyone to have fun.

Throne of Eldraine Trailer Released

magic, MtG, news

Yesterday WotC made some MtG announcements.

First up the official trailer for Throne of Eldraine was released.

I really like this trailer. It continues the high production values started with the War of the Spark trailer/teaser.

I didn’t like that War of the Spark trailer. It looked amazing. But the animation, particularly of the people in it just didn’t look natural. Plus the facial expressions, especially Liliana just didn’t convey any emotion. Plus there was a story of such but not a great one. It didn’t sell the set for me.

Now this new trailer fixes all the issues I had and mentioned above with the previous trailer.

For me this trailer almost gets up to the level of the Pixar shorts. I know some will hark to Shrek for the feel of this. But I love the fact there is a story being told, with some sort of battle going on in the background.

The animation of the gingerbread couple, and the emotion on the iced faces is really good. The human animation has improved as well.

I think the trailer sells the fairy tale element of Throne of Eldraine really well. However the Arthurian legend side doesn’t really come across.

Ok here is that new trailer…

This was followed up with the announcement of the sets that are coming out in 2020.

At the start of 2020 we return to Theros and it’s underworld. Q2 sees an all new plane, Ikoria. Which is a monster world, where we get to play monsters and make monsters apparently. Coreset 2021 is Teferi themed. And the year closes with a return visit to Zendikar and it’s original adventure world.

There was also a look at the new Brawl decks Commanders that are coming out for Throne of Eldraine. Which didn’t inspire me. They also said Brawl is coming to Arena (still dead to me) and marks playing Arena can play Brawl now.

What did you think of the announcements?

Throne of Eldraine Spoiler Plan

magic, MtG

It’s spoiler season once more in the world of MtG.

I’m going to try something different this time. Instead of waiting until the end and sharing with you in a long and boring post the cards that caught my eye, I’m going to share on social media via Instagram the cards that I like the look of as they get spoilt.

All I will say the cards are looking super thematic and the art is superb.

Silly Large Atraxa

Commander, magic, MtG

Yesterday was Commander Christmas.

I picked up my new Commander decks from my FLGS and got some games in as well.

The first couple of games were with the Faceless Menace deck, with a handful of cards swapped out. The graveyard hate really does slow down those madness decks.

One player particularly was getting through their deck fast (I hadn’t realised the madness deck was capable of that), hunting for solutions. Which meant they had many more cards in their graveyard than the rest of us. So although it seemed like targeting it wasn’t, just the obvious choice when it came to deciding which graveyard to exile when I was able to exile a graveyard.

It also helps that when playing a morph deck that you draw morph cards. Which I was having a hard time getting. Despite not touching that side!

But still I enjoyed playing the deck. It has potential.

Our third and final game saw me testing my modified Atraxa precon.

I took an early lead that saw me becoming a major threat.

After casting Atraxa using Opal Palace to get a +1/+1 counter on her when she enters the battlefield. Doubling Season and Corpsejack Menace kick in.

You play Vorel of the Hull Clade. Then end turn. Proliferate. Which puts 4 more counters on Atraxa.

Next turn, you activate Vorel. Which after the other triggers becomes an extra +32/+32 counters going on Atraxa.

At this point Atraxa is a 44/44 with flying, vigilance, lifelink, and deathtouch.

If a player who had been shown mercy hadn’t killed Atraxa on their turn (the ungrateful so and so) then Atraxa was going to start getting into silly numbers. It’s a shame I couldn’t protect Atraxa by say making her also indestructible. One shot kills are cool.

But after Atraxa getting killed, a board wipe taking out the rest of those nice cards, I was not able to reestablish a boardstate to get a win.

I didn’t win a single Commander game during the afternoon. But cool stuff happened. It was fun seeing other decks going off. A most enjoyable afternoon.

My planned instant upgrades for Faceless Menace

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

It’s Commander Christmas tomorrow. Yep the Commander 2019 pre-con decks hit your FLGS. We finally get our hands on the decks.

Commander content creators like The Command Zone and MtG Goldfish have already put up posts/videos on budget upgrades that can be done to these decks.

I’ve decided to share my planned upgrades but using cards from the current Standard legal sets. There have been some great cards that I think warrant the label of being a Commander staple. Naturally if you have the likes of Cyclonic Rift, Rhystic Studies, and Sensei’s Divining Top put them in. I will be. But for this post they fall outside the selection criteria for talking about.

Out of the four decks the one so far that I’m most excited to play in it’s straight out of the box form, and also upgrade is Faceless Menace and the morph mechanic.

I will say this does not mean I’m not excited to play the other decks. It’s just Faceless Menace appeals to me the most.

For any post like this bare in mind the cards are subjective, selected based on my local meta (your local meta will most definitively be different), what I have in my collection and can afford (which is also very very subjective).

So let’s look at the cards I plan to upgrade the deck with from the current Standard legal sets.

When this years decks were being spoilt with their graveyard shenanigans such as flashback and that madness mechanic I kept thinking where is the graveyard hate? I like graveyard hate. These three cards do a pretty awesome job of shutting down that shenanigans. Plus the nice thing about Grafdigger’s Cage is that it stops also those decks/cards that allow/treat the library as an extension of the hand, with casting the top card of your library.

Flash is a great mechanic. Being able to flash out those 2/2 morph creatures each player’s turn for free with the Commanders ability is amazing value. The Leyline and Vivien give me that ability. Lotus Field is a nice land.

I like tutors. Scheming Symmetry is a great Commander card especially if you can cast it as if it has flash.

I love Immortal Sun, plus it doesn’t switch off the 2 Planeswalkers I’ve included here. They were included for their ongoing abilities. If I get to use the activated loyalty abilities that’s a bonus. It’s extra card draw, spells get cheaper, and a buff to creatures. Amazing value. Plus with Ugin it means casting a morph card is free.

Well you already know why this Ugin is here. It’s that discount. The other stuff is just gravy. I like Bag of Holding. That maybe an unpopular opinion. But I like that I can dump cards into it to use later in the game.

If you are going to be able to play cards as if they have flash, then you need the mana. I loved playing Wilderness Reclamation in Standard in my Simic deck. And I love it in Commander.

So they are the Standard cards I am going to upgrade the deck with. The bigger question is what goes? I know the alternative commanders are first for the chopping block. But after that I’ll decide once I have the cards in front of me.

What do you think? Did I miss any?

Official MtG Companion App Released

magic, MtG, news

Yesterday WotC released on Android (get real I’m an Apple fanboy, I’m not going to share an Android link) and iOS their official MtG Companion app.

So why should you be bothered about this?

Well over time this I believe is the app that WotC want you to have as your go to app for paper MtG. I’ve seen talk of eventually at store and Magicfests that you will be able to submit match results, see pairings, and standings for tournaments. Which will be pretty cool.

But before we get to that stuff and any other ideas they have planned we get this open beta that is aimed at the kitchen table players at home.

Wisely I think WotC are keeping it simple, by giving players a way to run events/tournaments at home amongst a group of friends.

There are apps and websites already out there, and have been for years that allow you to run tournaments. Such as Tourney on iOS or Challonge that is web based. Naturally being more established applications they offer more functionality, most of which is relevant to MtG players. They also have their advantages and disadvantages.

So at the moment you can create a home tournament for between 2 and 16 players. Which can be constructed, sealed or draft. With rounds that are either best of 1 (yeah WotC still hold out that this will take off, but what you do in the privacy of your own home is up to you, freaks) or best of 3.

Nitpicking but I dislike the splash screen art. The screens have an awful lot of dead space. A great example of this is the leaderboard. It looks like the name and position has had an argument with the win/loss/draw stats.

On the other hand I do like the pairings screen and how easy it is to update results.

But this is cosmetic stuff really. Easily fixed.

Functionality I’d love to see is being able to select between round robin and swiss for generating the pairings. I’d love to have the save functionality expanded from just groups, but the results of the tournaments for that group.

For me this companion app truly warrants the beta tag. Unlike Arena.

As the start of a conversation during the beta phase of this apps development, it’s a pretty good start.

You will need TestFlight installed to get this on iOS during this open beta period.

Oh and here is the original post on the WotC website announcing the app.

Commander 2019 Spoilers I Like Part 2

magic, MtG

Welcome back to Darren talks more total bollux about MtG. Especially about cards from the Commander 2019 spoiler season that’s just finished.

So let’s get down to business.

These first 2 cards are definitely candidates for big green stompy. Momentous Fall looks an interesting card to play to get card draw and a little life gain. Especially when you know that your creature is going to die.

Giant Adephage ticks the box of being big and green. But that damage ability. If left unchecked this is going to get out of control exponentially. Dragonmaster Outcast is so going in my dragon tribal deck.


Board wipes are always good. Despite it’s cost Phyrexian Rebirth is nice because after the board is wiped clear you are left with potentially a really big body on the battlefield.

Desolation Twins is a reprint that will go nicely into a colourless deck along side some of the other colourless big hitters like Emrakul and Ulamog. I’m not sure how that deck will work, but with this card and others a target instantly goes on your back at the table.

Geth, Lord Of The Vault is just a nice zombie to try in the Scarab God Deck. I really like the activated ability. Steal an artifact/creature from their graveyard and mill the player. Nice.

Magus of the Balance I like because it’s activated ability is a nice leveller. All of a sudden everyone is on even grounds with the weakest player on the table.

Song of the Worldsoul I like for my mono white angel deck. Not sure it would really work in the token spam. It might. I may give it a try.

Tectonic Hellion, I like this in my mono red aggro deck and the gloves off land hate version of it.

Voice of Many might find a home in the elf deck. The way that deck plays, every player at the table will have less creatures than me.

Roc Egg all I’m going to say is look at my words below about the defender/wall idea. This would be a great include.

Another great include for mono red Magmaquake. Board wipe leaving flyers alone. Could work in my favour as long as the other players don’t have flyers. But an ideal include for the dragon deck.

Arla Palani, Nest Tender, I do like the idea of building around this card. Being able to cheat out creature cards for free that’s nice. It even leaves you in a good place after a board wipe. Have some large say colourless creatures like the twins above in the deck. Hmm a deck idea is starting to formulate.

Rolling Temblor another potential board wipe for red. But more a card for keeping those pesky token decks under control.

The thing I like about Purify the Grave is cheap graveyard hate for white.

Cliffside Rescuer is an interesting card. I’m just having second thoughts about it as I look at it writing this post. I like the protection bit, but for the current turn only makes me think meh!

What does a goblin deck need? Ramp. Dockside Extortionist gives that with it’s etb.

Back in Core Set 2019 we got new versions of the Elder Dragons. You know the ED in EDH (the original and still name for Commander). One of those Elder Dragons, Arcades, the Strategist loves cards that have the keyword defender, which a lot of walls have. Wall of Stolen Identity although missing the defender keyword is definitely a card I’d like to include in an Arcades defender/wall commander deck.

Sadly that Arcades deck idea could not have Pramikon, Sky Rampart in it thanks to that splash of Redon it’s casting cost. But I think this is a fun Commander card either as a Commander or one of the 99. I do like cards that changes the game, or causes interactions that enhance the political side of the game.

Green needs more ramp cards! Tempt with Discovery allows that with a little quandary thrown in for your opponents. They may need that land, but at the cost of giving you another? A hard choice for them.

Apex Altisaur a candidate for the dinosaur tribal deck and also the big green stompy deck. It’s big and green, it’s etb is removal, that can be a board wipe with that enrage trigger!

Ok that’s the wrap for the spoilers I like from the Commander 2019 spoilers. What ones caught your eye?