War of the Spark Spoilers I like Part 1

magic, MtG

Yet another MtG post. I suppose it makes a change from the other posts.

As I pointed out yesterday there is a new set arriving at the start of May called War of the Spark.

For over a week now we have been getting daily spoilers via various approved MtG content creators (I’ll never be that for a number of reasons). Each day is meant to be spoilers revealing a bit more of the “epic” story the set will be telling.

For me that story side is less important, I’m more interested in the cards and mechanics the set will have. When I see these new cards my first reaction is “will this fit into one of my Commander decks?” It’s my main way to evaluate the cards. Although it may then change to “oh that will be good in my Simic or Golgari Standard deck”. It would have to be an amazing card to inspire me to want to build a new standard deck around it. Although sometimes a card (legendary creature) does inspire a Commander deck.

War of the Spark is bringing us 37 new Planeswalker cards. Depending on whether the Planeswalker is a Uncommon/Rare/Mythic depends on the number of abilities we get. The mythic looks just like a Planeswalker we usually get plus one other thing that I will come to in a minute that is common to them all. Uncommon Planeswalkers have just a negative ability. The rare ones have a plus and minus ability.

With this set Planeswalkers are also like enchantments. Yep you read that right. Each Planeswalker in this set has an on going ability/effect on top of their abilities.

The mechanics in this set are proliferate, amass and on a single Planeswalker affinity. Plus there is a new creature type Army. You want more details google them, or look at the cards below. They are explained on one or two of them.

I’m excited for the two main mechanics because they will give me new cards for my Commander decks. I haven’t started on upgrading the Atraxa pre-con (well apart from putting in a doubling season). So more proliferate cards is going to be really useful. It’s why a card like Evolution Sage excites me. It’s a landfall effect basically in all but name. Play a land and proliferate. That might give some insane combos.

I also really like the new Liliana for my Scarab God zombie deck. Can’t see myself ever using her for anything but her plus ability to chuck out zombie tokens. I also like the Eternal Skylord. The amass 2 is nice. A zombie army token is still a zombie on the board. But giving all my zombie tokens flying! That’s sick. That deck can have a lot of tokens out.

The thing about the proliferate mechanic is, I can see a new version of my Simic deck that uses it. Biogenic Ooze loves it. But so do a few other cards in the deck. Simic Ascendancy could make its way back in.

So these next three could see themselves in the Atraxa deck and also this new Simic deck.

Massacre Girl has everyone getting their nickers in a twist with excitement since being revealed. And I can see why. I like the cards a lot also. My Golgari Standard deck would be a nice home for it. Tomik I’d find a home for in my death and taxes Commander deck. Merfolk Skydiver I think is a great card for my Simic deck and also the Atraxa.

Grateful Apparition you will guess with proliferate on it becomes a card of interest for Atraxa. But I can see it also being a card in that white aggro deck. Banehound what a great one drop for my Golgari deck. Even for a Orzhov aggro deck I’ve been mulling over. Deathsprout removal and ramp for Golgari in one card. I’ll definitely be trying this out.

Ok the new Vivien isn’t as good as the the one currently in Standard. But her static ability of giving creatures flash is nice. Also the plus one is ok. But I could see all three cards going into my big green stompy deck. But Vivian’s Arkbow is definitely one for my Simic deck as well.

Ok that’s it for this post, keep an eye out for part 2. And yes that’s a threat.

Why do you hate them so?

magic, MtG, rant

Start of May sees the next set of MtG released called War of the Spark. Which means the last weekend of April is Prerelease weekend.

That last weekend of April is a busy weekend. We already know it’s Prerelease but in London MtG players are fighting for over priced accommodation with participants in the London Marathon, so they can attend the London MagicFest (more on that in a mo).

Plus two other collectible card games (Pokemon being one) also have releases/events planned that weekend for stores also.

So what is usually a busy weekend for your FLGS on the MtG front, may just not be as busy as usual. Having a Prerelease clash with the MagicFest means the competitive players with dreams of becoming pro will be in London. Plus those that like to go to the big events. So attendance at the Prerelease could be down for the stores.

But WotC heard the complaints of the LGS and the UK stores can now sell the whole product range a week early to compensate them in some way. So Prerelease weekend players can pick up not only booster boxes, but bundles, deck builder kits, (if they are doing one) and Planeswalker decks and whatever else. But the more cynical out there might think this was not done to benefit the LGS in the UK, but to allow Channel Fireball and the other retailers at the London MagicFest to sell everything to those attending the event. Everyone at the MagicFest is basically lost business for the LGS. You can be sure those attending will be buying their War of the Spark product at the MagicFest instead of their LGS.

The LGS hate from WotC doesn’t stop there. In a shake up of the rewards program I can’t see it being anything but negative. But I’m open to be convinced otherwise.

At the moment Standard Showdown on Saturday at my FLGS sees 6 or 7 Showdown packs up for grabs. We get 8-10 players each week. Hey it’s a small store in the middle of nowhere, so that’s pretty good. But it means currently you stand a good chance of getting s Showdown pack. Under the new scheme, Standard Showdown is dead. The promos for FNM are dead. The FLGS will get a weekly allocation of these new promo packs to use as the prize support. Based on current attendances and the new stats that WotC are using, we the players lose out. The reality is the prize support has been drastically cut back. It means the “not standard Showdown” event that my FLGS would run on a Saturday would have less prizes, and a smaller chance to get a prize. I’d assume also that it’s the same for FNM.

What I think this means is that less prize support, and a decreased chance to get a prize will drive down attendance. Who wants to see the same top players week in, week out taking the spoils? Currently at least you stand a chance of getting something extra as a prize. Under the new system that’s gone.

If I was a conspiracy theory fan I’d be suspicious that WotC are trying to drive everyone to Arena. They are definitely trying to make paper MtG more like Arena. They have already tried best of one as a store format with some lucky LGS lab rats. The recent Mythic Invitational was basically a best of one format. No side boards players took two Standard decks and played those. Even WotC have admitted just about it wasn’t a great success as a format. The upcoming London MagicFest will see a new mulligan being tested called the London Mulligan. There is only one reason they want to try this, it’s probably easier to implement in Arena, and more Arena like. They are errata-ing physical cards so they can implement them easier in Arena.

There are other things WotC have done in the past few months that could be interrupted as attacks on the LGS, especially in the US. Such as selling direct via Amazon, no MSRP, special premium edition booster boxes only available direct from WotC/Hasbro and Channel Fireball at MagicFests.

I don’t know how I’m going to finish this rant. It started off with little intention going in the direction it did. It seems to me that the LGS is under attack from a company that should be supporting it more. The changes are presented as being positive and helping to grow the player base. But on closer examination they seem more like a company cutting back and trying to transition into a new future where they don’t have to worry about secondary markets, card quality, poor selling sets, etc.

Token Spam Monday

Commander, Game day, magic, MtG

I was able to get along to a Commander Monday at my FLGS The Hobbit Hole. One of the benefits of Easter holidays and working in education.

I took along 3 decks with me today. 3 decks that I hadn’t played for a long while.

In the first game I played my mono white angel deck that has Lyra Dawnbringer as it’s Commander.

I was mana screwed with the deck. Naturally with a lack of lands or ramp I was behind the curve of the others. Eventually I was able to get Reya Dawnbringer out, but she was bounced back to my hand before I could use her ability.

Eventually I did get Reya out, which allowed me to pull back Emeria Shepherd from my graveyard. I then cleverly played one of my elusive lands to trigger Emeria’s ability to put another angel on the battlefield.

But getting this combo off was the highlight of the game for me. It was also one of the last things I got to do before meeting my demise.

Game 2 saw my Trostani token spam deck hit the table.

This deck went silly at one point with soldier tokens. Seedborn Muse allowed me to fire off the Rhys the Redeemed 6 CMC ability during the other players turns.

When you are basically doubling everything. It soon gets silly. By the time I was board wiped I had 108 tokens out. Sadly for the guy that did the board wipe he drew a card for each creature killed. Basically milling himself.

So yeah I didn’t win after that. But I did something pretty awesome and cool.

The third and final game was with my elf deck that got show down by a bloody angel that switched off activated abilities on creatures. So all of a sudden after that was played no tapping for mana, to add life, or buff up a creature. It was kinda funny really. I play the same angel in my angel deck, and had done so in the earlier game. Sadly it’s a great card against my elves.

So not a win in sight, but I had a blast. Did some cool stuff. Great company. What more could you want?

My prep for the taster D&D session

D&D, RPG, session planning

I think it’s obvious by now I’m all in on sharing knowledge or my ramblings that pass as knowledge. Particularly when it comes to my journey to become a DM/GM.

Long time sufferers of this blog know that plans are afoot for me to run a D&D session for noobs and folks that want to try a role playing game. I had some friends that wanted to try it, I wanted to try being a DM. A match made in heaven!

In previous posts I’ve talked about the dungeon I’ll be using for this taster session. Plus there have been one or two posts mentioning the minis and 3D models I’ve got in for it as well. Which should be a massive clue that I’ll be using miniatures and battle maps!

I’ve even jumped the gun and produced a campaign pitch document. Yeah I know very presumptuous of me.

Now it’s time to finally share with the world my notes for this first session. I finished them this morning and just had to share them with the world.

I have the DM screen, however you will notice in the prep notes I have produced a cheat sheet to compliment it, and hopefully be quicker than referring to the rule book. I’ve also pre-rolled initiative for the creatures to speed up combat.

Hopefully others will find these notes useful.

D&D Noob Oneshot

Naturally once the taster has been run, I’ll write up a post mortem. But first the continued slightly less complicated than Brexit negotiations for a date to play.

The loosing streak continues

Game day, magic, MtG

Technically I had two decks in yesterday’s Standard Showdown.

John’s daughter took part and played with my pirate deck that I had put together for her. I was playing with the mono blue mill deck this week.

As fate would have it my first round match was against Sophie and my pirate deck. I took the first game milling Sophie out. But that was because the cards hadn’t been kind to her, and I was given time to get pieces into play. Game 2 Sophie took, and game three was a total wipe out. In game 3 Sophie had a fast start, getting the cheap creatures out from turn one and hitting hard.

Round 2 was against John and his merfolk deck was too fast for my mill. It would also help if I hit the mill cards. The plan failed spectacularly in this game.

Round 3 was the battle for last place and the Standard Showdown pack between Michael and myself. Luckily for Michael his deck was too fast for mine. And I once again got my butt handed to me.

The one thing I took home from this Standard Showdown for my mono blue mill deck is that it’s too slow! Especially for our meta. Going to have to think about how to speed it up or frustrate long enough to win.

Naturally the guaranteed Showdown pack took the sting of last place away.

Casual Games

Michael: Loss 1-2

Kai-Far: Win 1-0

Standard Showdown Stats

Standard Showdown Participants: 8

Rounds: 3

Round 1: Sophie Loss 1-2

Round 2: John Loss 0-2

Round 3: Michael Loss 0-2

Record: 0-3

Final Position: Last

Prizes: 1 participation pack, a Standard Showdown pack – pulled a breeding pool shock land, real happy with that.

I think my pirate deck and Sophie came 6th.

3D Sarcophagus

D&D, RPG

Who knew DriveThruRPG was not only a great source of source books and modules for the various RPG systems out there, both official and fan made?

But it is also a source of 3D model files that can be used with 3D printers to print your own terrain etc to use in your games.

I stumbled upon this fact while I was looking to see if there were any sarcophagus available to purchase for use in this up coming noob session.

I was looking for the classic knight at rest design on the top of one, and a plain design. And if I was extremely lucky I wanted a knight statue as well. But an altar or plinth that a knight model could be placed on would also do.

My internet travels dug up a photo of the dragonlock models and system. It had a sarcophagus that looked plain enough for what I wanted, and a suitable plain altar. These looked perfect for what I wanted. The link took me to the DriveThruRPG page.

Ok the models were not free. That’s ok. People deserve to be paid for their hard work. Plus the price was very reasonable considering the number of 3D models you got. An added bonus was the coffin for me. They would be handy.

Whilst on the same site I was shown another sarcophagus design. This one was by a different designer but was perfect. It had that knight/figure laying at rest pose I wanted. An added bonus with the design was the lid flips to give you a plain design with candles on it.


At the moment I’m in the process of finding some-one to print 4 of the plain sarcophagus, one plain altar and the fancy sarcophagus for me. I’ve been given one quote that took me aback a little. But after the initial shock worked out about £5 a model which seemed more reasonable.

The funny thing is the players may never see these in the session!

PS DriveThruRPG is an expensive addiction

Revisiting the one-sheet

RPG

In a previous post I started a one-sheet (My previous post) for the Genesys Android setting. But since then the Judge Dredd RPG has come out and it has the following advice about doing a one-sheet:

‘THE ONE-SHEET

You should design a single-page summary of your setting for your players. Your “one-sheet” should provide short, pertinent details which are enough to convey the premise and any rules or materials in use. An eye-catching name and piece of art can round this off very quickly.

The one-sheet engages your players and provides them with enough, but not too much, information to start with. Try to include information on key setting information: where and when, technology (especially travel, transporters, communication, weaponry, robots), aliens and/or psionics. You should keep it to a single side of paper, and ensure that you have a copy for each player.

For a game set in Mega-City One the one-sheet should incorporate the information that the Player Characters would know. The date and timeline at that point should be set out, so the players will have some idea where they will be situated in the comic’s forty-year history.

For Judges information about local perps, colourful characters and crime blackspots would be necessary...”

It also goes on to talk about perps and citizens and suggest the info they might need.

While working on the prep for the D&D noob one shot based on the dungeon created by Matthew Colville (phew managed to work a mention of him into the post) I kept thinking I’d like something similar for other RPG’s like the Judge Dredd one.

I know there is the quick start adventure that is free, and is a good place to dip your toes into the world of being a Judge for free.

But I want something that can be used as a taster for noobs and also be used as the start of a campaign too. Assuming that the group will be playing as judges.

So after a lot of thinking, trying to get things straight in my head as to how things will work, and using the Full Eagle Day module from the Judge Dredd d20 system as inspiration I think I have something that will work. Although there is still some work to be done on it.

However I now have a one-sheet that sets up the noob one-shot. I will need to create some Judge characters that players can use if they don’t want to create their own.

The actual one-shot needs developing now. I have an idea what it will involve. After being allocated an examining judge, the rookies will be on patrol when they notice a vehicle driving erratically, swerving between cars. The judges will give pursuit. The driver will explain how his family is being held hostage by an ape gang. The judges then proceed to where the family is being held, and rescue the hostages.

That’s what I have so far. It’s working on the 4 or 5 encounters guidance. The chase is one, the capture and sentencing another (or does that still count as one). Then the rescue will be 3 more.

Here is the first draft of the one-shot I came up for playing judges.


Let me know what you think, how it can be improved in the comments below.

War of the Spark Trailer – Reaction!

magic, MtG

I know that corporations and celebs these days don’t like critique. Skins seem to be a lot thinner. Any critique gets dismissed as trolling, and they set their fan base on to those comments that they don’t like. It’s a form of bullying. Say something I don’t like and I’ll unleash my fan base on you.

With that in mind let’s upset WotC and the millions and millions of fans that have watched the trailer for the next MtG set War of the Spark that was released at the weekend.

Before I have my say go have a watch of the trailer.

The reaction by fans was mental to this. Apparently people had tears, goose bumps, orgasms (ok I’m making that bit up but I bet some-one has claimed it), felt emotionally drained and many other over reactions.

Me, being a cynical old person who is hard to please simple said “meh”.

I have to give WotC credit where credit is due. Compared to the usual trailer/teaser they put out. WotC have really pushed the boat out on this one. And they should be applauded for that.

I’m not a fan of cover versions of songs. Very rarely do they work for me. I can name a couple of covers that improve on the original. As I write this post the only one that really springs to mind is the man in black himself Johnny Cash with the Nine Inch Nails cover Hurt.

A lot of the time a cover manages to remove the heart and soul of the song, add nothing, and make me rage. Sheryl Crows cover of Sweet Child ‘O Mine is one such example. As are some of the blue grass covers of the same song.

Which brings me to the cover of Linkin Parks In the End used in this trailer. OMG it’s awful. The saving grace part of the cover for me is that the singer seems to have some depth to their voice, and imparts some feeling. But I’m not a fan of the slowing the pace of the song down.

It’s obvious the director of this trailer thought it added an emotional depth. But in reality it doesn’t and is trying to use a lazy trope to try and manipulate an emotional reaction. Which to be fair, from the reaction of the majority it worked.

For me the animation and this is a problem with the majority of animation these days is that character animation doesn’t look natural, particularly Liliana. It’s something about modern techniques using 3D models that they are not able to capture facial emotions properly, and the stilted movement, I’ve been watching the new Ultraman cartoon on Netflix and it has the same issues. The rendering and the realistic look of this trailer. Can’t fault it. Looks pretty. But somewhere down the line this form of animation whilst looking amazing lost something.

The structure of the trailer story wise. Another over used cliche. Start at the end, rewind a bit and play through at normal speed. It begs the question what came first the song cover or the story structure. Which was made to fit the other? Would it have had more impact with a shock ending instead of giving it away at the start?

Overall I felt that this trailer was nothing more than a glorified video game cut scene. It wouldn’t look out of place in a video game. All credit to WotC they have upped their game. But…

What did you think?

Ghostwise Halflings

D&D, RPG

I was listening to a new (to me) D&D podcast (I’m in the process of trying some new ones by selecting sample episodes to see if I like them) and this particular episode was talking about halflings.

It was the reason I’d chosen it really considering I like playing halflings. And currently play a halfling wizard.

During the episode I couldn’t believe my ears when they mentioned a subrace of halflings called ghostwise. I really couldn’t believe them when the presenters said these halflings were telepathic! Wait, what?

So naturally I wanted to know more.

After a brief internet search I found out that the information I needed was in the Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide.

In the side box that talks about the ghostwise it gives the following background for them. (This is quoted from the book itself)

“Ghostwise halflings trace their ancestry back to a war among halfling tribes that sent their ancestors into flight from Luiren. Ghostwise halflings are the rarest of the hin, found only in the Chondalwood and a few other isolated forests, clustered in tight-knit clans.

Many ghostwise clans select a natural landmark as the center of their territory, and members carry a piece of that landmark with them at all times. Clan warriors known as nightgliders bond with and ride giant owls as mounts.”

A halfling that rides on giant owls! OMG, that is soooo cool.

If your DM allows you play a ghostwise halfling, in addition to the other racial traits you get the following additional ones.

“Ability Score Increase. Your Wisdom score increases by l .

Silent Speech. You can speak telepathically to any creature within 30 feet of you. The creature understands you only if the two of you share a language.You can speak tele- pathically in this way to one creature at a time.”

Why isn’t this in the Player Handbook? I’d most definitely have been a ghostwise halfling if I’d known that was an option. Dram the telepathic wizard!

It would be great if all the halfling information was collected into one place. Between the Players Guide, Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide and Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes there is a lot of great background information about them. I imagine that all the races are in a similar situation.

From hero to zero

Game day, magic, MtG

Friday evening saw another gaming session with two of my favourite people to game with, Jonathan and Diego.

We started off with a game of Via Nebula. I think from the number of times it has hit the table since I finally got to play it shows how much Jonathan and I like the game.

I think Jonathan has looked into getting a copy also. Well based on the fact he has looked at the cost of getting it, and made the statement that it must be out of print or “between printings”. That fact is how he was explaining it’s current high price. It’s a reasonable conclusion I think to arrive at, both for Jonathan and for me. I’d probably argue that the game is out of print, and unlikely to see a reprint.

It’s the cycle of things in the boardgame world. Very few games make it to become every greens (always in print and selling). A few more may make it too more than one printing. But the vast majority will only see that initial first printing. Never to see life again. In a very rare case a game years down the line may get a second or third edition, or a reskin/new theme. Plus for reasons such as a company losing a licence the game may never be reprinted even if they wanted to.

For the reasons above it’s why if I’m interested in a game I try and get a copy when it comes out. There is no guarantee that say a year later when you finally decide to get the game you will be able to. Or if you are, you will not be paying some inflated price. I believe (and I can’t remember the sources, might be The Dice Tower) that a game print run can be between 10,000 and 20,000 copies. It’s not a lot really considering.

Via Nebula is a very good game. By a hot game designer. So the odds of it seeing another printing may be higher than normal. But it’s not a guarantee. And I don’t remember there being a massive buzz for the game at the time.

So as you can guess I’m feeling smug I picked it up second hand last year for less than retail. I got lucky. Glad it finally got to the table, and now enjoying it.

In our game it looked like we had all scored the same. However in review Jonathan had forgotten to claim the card for ending the game. That gave him the 2 points to claim victory. Diego and I drew first loser.

Our second and final game of the evening was surprise, surprise Wingspan.

My bonus card needed me to have 8 or more cards in hand to score 7 points. So I needed a card draw engine for that. Which is what I went for. But along the way I got top spot on the two early end of round scoring, and shared a third.

But despite that if the barn owl had been a bit luckier on it’s hunting I may have won. Out of a possible 5 tries it succeeded on only 2 of them.

So once again for the evening I was beaten by Jonathan by 2 points. A clean sweep of victories for him for the evening. My only consolation was I was first loser this time.

But another fantastic evening gaming, with great hosts The Luxe Cinema. The staff there are amazing and so welcoming.

Saturday was once again Standard Showdown.

This week I was trying out the new version of the Simic deck that focuses on ramp and being aggressive.

I tested the deck with John, and against an Andy Hall deck. It was mixed results and inconclusive.

First round was against John. And that went the same way as our test game earlier. I stomped all over his Golgari deck. Which had been a surprise because our test game had been against his merfolk deck. And that was what I was expecting to be facing. Still that little surprise didn’t change the result.

Round two I was up against Andy Church. I know that the result was I lost 2-0 but it doesn’t reflect that these were two close games. Which would be the story for the rest of the afternoon.

My final game against Alex could have been a win. But I did a massive miss play in the final game that would have slowed him down and stopped that white elder dinosaur coming out for a couple of turns.

But if you are not finishing top 3, then coming last is the next best option. Why? Last place gets you a guaranteed Standard Showdown pack. Other wise outside of those places it’s all down to the luck of the die if you get one of the remaining packs (depending on number of entries of course).

So I wasn’t unhappy being last. It mean that guaranteed extra pack. And boy was the one I had worth having. See below for the highlights from it.

But a fun afternoon of MtG as always.

Casual Games

John: Win 2-0

Andy Hall: Loss 0-2

Standard Showdown Stats

Standard Showdown Participants: 9

Rounds: 4

Round 1: John Win 2-0

Round 2: Andrew Church Loss 2-0

Round 3: Nathan Hall (burn deck) Loss 2-0

Round 4: Alex Loss 2-1

Record: 1-3

Final Position: Last

Prizes: 1 participation pack, a Standard Showdown pack (Vraska Planeswalker, Hinterland Harbour, foil Forest).