Simic Standard v4

Deck tech, magic, MtG, MtG Deck Building

Yesterday I said I would put up the deck list for the tweaked Simic deck from the weekends Standard Showdown.

And I’m a man of my word, and like to carry out my threats.

Didn’t do this following bit for the last version of the deck. Maybe because I forgot. But to help me sleep I try and convince myself I did it to keep the length of the post down.


The AMC has gone up from 2.89 to 3.11. I’m not sure how I feel about that.

I am happy with the mix of creatures and spells. It’s definitely a frustrate the other player until my pieces are in place type of deck.

With a bit more money the land base could be improved. But it’s Standard Showdown not a Pro-Tour or Grand Prix. So it’s slower than it could be.

Here is the moment you have been waiting for in this post. The latest iteration of my Simic deck.

Creatures:15

3 Hydroid Krasis
4 Incubation Druid
3 Frilled Mystic
2 Zegana, Utopian Speaker
3 Biogenic Ooze

Spells:23

4 Syncopate
3 Blink of an Eye
4 Essence Capture
2 Essence Scatter
3 Thought Collapse
3 Wilderness Reclamation
1 Vivien Reid
3 Nexus of Fate

Lands:22

2 Breeding Pool
5 Forest
2 Hinterland Harbor
7 Island
1 Memorial to Genius
4 Simic Guildgate
1 Woodland Stream

Sideboard:15

3 Steel Leaf Champion
1 Frilled Mystic
2 Carnage Tyrant
2 Negate
2 Repudiate // Replicate
2 Root Snare
3 Sagittars’ Volley

In response…

Game day, magic, MtG

I nearly missed this weeks Standard Showdown.

The morning had started as usual for a Saturday (I won’t bore you again with my morning routine). I was bathed, dressed, caffeinated and fed. All in good time. In fact if I had left at that point I’d have been early and had time to play a few games before battle commenced.

Instead I decided to go down a rabbit hole and start digging out Standard legal pirate cards (which is basically the Ixalan block) for building a pirate deck. A deck that John the owners daughter could play with, or use the cards to strengthen her own deck. I liked the idea of her pirate deck, it just needed to be more consistent. Too many one of’ s.

When I finally popped my head out of the rabbit hole, what I thought had been five to ten minutes of sorting through cards. Had actually been nearly an hour, and I know had less than an hour to get to my FLGS.

I grabbed a play mat, my card quiver with my standard decks and dice. Rushed out of the door and hit the road.

Despite the time pressure my drive over was relaxed and uneventful. Helped by not being a lunatic behind the wheel, sticking to speed limits, and listening to the latest Dice Pool podcast looking at the recently released Android Shadow of the Beanstalk source book for the Genesys RPG.

As I was making my way into the store I bumped into Paul. He was just making his way back from the coffee shop, coffee in hand. In side Paul accepted my invite to play our decks.

There wasn’t much rememberable about the game. My deck fired. Paul’s didn’t. We just finished playing as the first round match ups were announced.

Casual game with Paul I won.

The days field consisted of 8 players.

Round 1 Andrew (knights)

This round went the way I suspected. It was also a match up I was looking forward to.

Andrew is one of the better players at the store, and on a budget builds great decks. So pitching my deck and skills against him is always a great opportunity to test them.

The actual sideboard card I needed for going against Andrew’s deck was in the sideboard of my mono blue mill deck. Selective Snare, Sleep or River’s Rebuke would have been handy cards to have to buy me time.

But sadly they weren’t an option.

I was happy to take one game, and force a decider. I’m sure my “in response” when able to be played was annoying.

Result: Loss 2-1

Round 2 Nathan (green aggro)

Nathan is the son of one of the stores “elite” players. His dad wasn’t playing today (luckily).

The overall story of this match up was me saying “in response…” The annoying blue counter side of my deck really kicked in.

Our first game I was able to stabilise around five life, after taking a pounding from a Carnage Tyrant. Luckily a Biogenic Ooze came to my rescue along with a Hydroid Krasis. If my fading memory isn’t failing me I managed to get two out in this game at the same time. Double +1/+1 triggers at the start of my end step. The writing on the wall forced Nathan to reach the conclusion that his position was futile and concede the game.

Game two was similar, but luckily with Andrew playing Dean next to me I had the Judge next to me to clarify rules questions with. Nathan did try pulling a fast one at one point. Having played a Nullhide Ferox, whilst I was clarifying the hexproof and if it stood whilst casting. He moved to end of turn. With the ruling I could counter it, I insisted he was unable to move to end of turn, and the Nullhide Ferox was countered.

To be fair the Nullhide Ferox out wouldn’t at that point have caused me much of an issue. But it was the principle at stake.

Result: Win 2-0

Round 3 Paul (White/blue something)

Paul and his decks are a conundrum. I’d love to look at the deck lists. Paul is a great, friendly guy that is fun to play against. But his decks seem to be not ready for prime time!

Both of our games he mulligans down to five cards. Which means l’m starting with card advantage. Both games he amplified the advantage by going first.

It’s hard to counter stuff when your opponent isn’t playing cards! Either Paul wasn’t hitting lands to play cards in hand, or he wasn’t hitting anything but lands.

So without pressure I’m able to set up my own board state and counter the odd card when played.

I’d like to say that may be it was just two games of bad luck on the card draw, But a comment at the start of the round by John would imply that their match up was a similar affair.

As you know by my deck lists I’m not a deck builder savant. But there is something about Paul’s decks that isn’t quite right.

Result: Win 2-0

Apart from Round 3, I swapped out Nexus of Fate for two copies of Root Snare and a Frilled Mystic.

Final position: 4th with a 2-1 record

Afterwards whilst waiting for the final results to be announced Paul and I played a casual game again, this time using different decks. I played my mono blue mill deck against I think his pirate deck.

A couple of early Duress’s played by Paul denied me of a mill card and a counter spell. But with a couple of Persistent Petitioners, a Wall of Lost Thoughts, a couple of Vodalian Arcanist and a Muse Drake out I actually won the game with damage and not milling. Although I did do some milling. A couple of times Paul did hit me with my own Muse Drake with an annoying Hijack.

Casual game with Paul – Win

I didn’t take any Commander decks with me so had to borrow a deck from Andrew. The one I played was an Omnath elemental deck. I fell behind on the land drops, so there wasn’t much I could do. But on the other hand I also wasn’t a threat.

I did come across a nice card that would nicely into my big green stompy deck. But although it wouldn’t be thematic it would be nice in one or two other decks like the Horrors from the Deep, or even the elf deck.


Despite a slow start I did manage to hang in to be first loser.

Another great afternoon of MtG. I’ll put up new deck list with the tweaks tomorrow. Need to keep the length of this long post down.

Buildings in the mist

Fenland Gamers, game night

I have four Martin Wallace games in my collection. But only one of them hadn’t been played before.

Via Nebula had been on my radar a while before it finally joined my collection last year. An opportunity to get a second hand copy for a bargain price cropped up on the Facebook page I hang out on. I say hang out, more lurk waiting for bargains to appear.

Last night at the fortnightly Friday meet up of Fenland Gamers (hosted once again by the ever generous The Luxe Cinema) after nearly a year sitting on the shelf gathering dust, it finally had a moment in the spotlight.

As usual for us, this was a learning game. I had watched a rules video briefly during the afternoon, and scanned the rule book. So I felt I had a good grasp of the basic ideas and flow of the game. Specifics could be dealt with as we played.

Set up is a doddle. We used the basic side of the board as recommended for first plays.

The headline is we loved the game. Three of use playing the game for the first time, learnt the game and finished it in under an hour.

The rules really are simple and quick to learn. On your turn you get two actions to take from five available things you can do. Although one of those options takes two actions to do.

I really do like the combination of route building and pick up and deliver. You get some really difficult decisions to make. Because you might want to place a meadow tile to open up a path you need to get a resource back to your building site. But by doing so it also benefits your opponents. Possibly giving them a route they can use to get a resource they need back to their building site.

The same goes for exploiting resources. It’s these decisions that make the game more tactical and have more depth than first impressions give with such simple rules.

It’s nice that the points scored by completing contracts and exploiting resources is hidden. It’s nice having that bit of mystery.

There is a lot of replay ability in the game. The random position of resources during set up, the random private contracts, and deck of open contracts. No two games will be the same.

Via Nebula is a fun game that will definitely be coming to the table again. Despite Jonathan wining the game.

We finished off the evening with a couple of games of Batman Love Letter. The honours were split between The Usual Suspect and myself.

It’s getting a bit cliched but we had a great evening gaming, at a fantastic host The Luxe Cinema.

Jellyfish Hydra – playing with nature gone mad

Deck tech, magic, MtG, MtG Deck Building


Well it’s that time again where I cover another card in the Standard format that I like.

I’ve used this card myself. I got really lucky that I bought my copies at the right moment. Within a week of me buying my copies, the price shot up. I was feeling smug at the time. But also kicking myself for not getting at least a fourth, if not more copies. But then those extra copies I’d never have got round to selling, and I’m not into this whole MtG finance speculation thing. I have strong opinions about that side of things. In short I hate it.


The card I was lucky enough to get at a bargain price was Hydroid Krasis.

Whoever thought of crossing a jellyfish with a Hydra was a genetic genius. A person playing with nature and creating something beautifully monstrous.

This card is finding it’s way into many decks not just Simic ones. Many are splashing green just to play it.

For 2 CMC plus X this card is very flexible.

It’s the X that allows for the pumping of mana into it. The bigger the X the bigger benefits.

Because of this the first ability is so powerful especially mid to late game. Even if the card is countered, you still get the first ability because it’s a cast trigger not an etb.

Cast the card for a total of 10 mana, that means X is 8. That’s 4 life back, and 4 cards in hand. Refilling your hand at that stage of the game is really useful.

After that if the Krasis is allowed to enter the battlefield, having flying and trample makes it a great blocker and attacker. Especially if that X is high. Going back to the example above, having an 8/8 flyer with trample is more or less game over.

But at a push this can come out early in the game to use as a chump blocker to stop some of those pesky 1/1 fliers that are currently in the format.

With my Simic deck, the above mid/late game scenario is not unrealistic. But I have cast it for 4 CMC as well to get that flying blocker.

The Start Of My Android Handout

android, genesys, netrunner, RPG


Being a wannabe noob GM as I’ve said in a previous post Matthew Colville has a lot of good advice.

One such nugget is the campaign handout. A short document for the players telling them about the world they will be adventuring in, and helping them decide what characters to create.

So I’ve made a stab at writing one for the Genesys Android campaign I want to run.

It needs a brief paragraph talking about how mega companies really run everything. Plus it also needs a brief description for each character type.

But here is what I’ve written so far (stuff in italics FFG words not mine).


It is the future. The world changed. People did not.

“In the not so-distant future, humanity has spread across the solar system, unlocked the frontiers of cyberspace, and created millions of intelligent androids in its own image. At the heart of this progress stands a ladder leading to the riches of the stars—the massive space elevator called the Beanstalk. And at its base sprawls the biggest, meanest, and most exciting city on Earth: New Angeles.”

12 hours ago your life turned upside down. 12 hours ago a tsunami hit “parts of six districts and caused massive damage to New Angeles’ coastal infrastructure.” Early estimates put the loss of life in the tens of thousands. It is thought at least a thousand androids also died rushing into the wall of water trying to save human lives.

NBN vidcasts are wall to wall floating bodies, and human suffering in the wake of the tsunami.

Somehow you survived the brutal force of nature as it lay waste to the feeble man made structures in its way. Battered and bruised, you have ended up at one of the many emergency relief centres. All you have left in the world are the possessions you managed to grab as the water crashed into your home. You are one of the lucky ones.

You are first level citizens of New Angeles. You do not know each other. But you are all in the same emergency relief centre.

The Two Standard Decks I Played At The Weekend

Deck tech, magic, MtG, MtG Deck Building

So what was missing from yesterday’s brief and subpar write up from the Ravnica Allegiance Standard Showdown season start?

Yep my subpar deck lists for the two decks that I played.

Before I present the deck lists here is my get out of jail disclaimer about these decks.

“I’m not claiming these are the best decks in the world, they certainly are not top competitive decks. They are hopefully fun, affordable (subjective I know) decks. I don’t try and keep to a target price point. I try and use as many cards in my collection as possible to keep my costs down. I’m certainly not a master deck builder claiming this deck will win tournaments, if it is fun to play and does it thing then I’ll be happy.“

And based on the weekends performances these decks are definitely not competitive.

So here for your derision is the deck played in the Standard Showdown…

Simic Standard V3

Creatures:15

4 Llanowar Elves
3 Hydroid Krasis
2 Incubation Druid
3 Frilled Mystic
3 Biogenic Ooze

Spells:23

4 Syncopate
3 Blink of an Eye
4 Essence Capture
2 Essence Scatter
3 Thought Collapse
3 Wilderness Reclamation
1 Vivien Reid
3 Nexus of Fate

Lands:22

2 Breeding Pool
5 Forest
2 Hinterland Harbor
7 Island
1 Memorial to Genius
4 Simic Guildgate
1 Woodland Stream

Sideboard:15

3 Steel Leaf Champion
1 Frilled Mystic
2 Zegana, Utopian Speaker
2 Carnage Tyrant
2 Negate
2 Root Snare
3 Sagittars’ Volley

And now for the my casual deck for the day…

Mono Blue Mill V2

Creatures:19

6 Persistent Petitioners
3 Vodalian Arcanist
4 Wall of Lost Thoughts
3 Homarid Explorer
3 Muse Drake

Spells:22

3 Opt
3 Blink of an Eye
3 Drowned Secrets
3 Psychic Corrosion
3 Secrets of the Golden City
3 Thought Collapse
2 Unwind
2 Kumena’s Awakening

Lands:19

17 Island
2 Memorial to Genius

Sideboard:15

1 Fleet Swallower
1 Windreader Sphinx
2 Selective Snare
4 Syncopate
2 Sleep
2 Patient Rebuilding
2 Weight of Memory
1 River’s Rebuke

Need for speed

Game day, magic, MtG


It’s Standard Showdown season once more. Naturally I went along to the first one at my FLGS The Hobbit Hole.

When I arrived at the store a X-Wing “mini” competition had started. The game still looks lovely when out on the table. Shame I was never able to get the game to the table and sold out of it. Well exchanged my collection for a couple of games I wanted. But I still miss the models, they are stunning. I don’t miss buying models just for the cards.

John and I tried to have a friendly game to test our decks, but with having to serve customers it was frequently interrupted. In the end John conceded with a dominant board state on my side ready to swing in.

This Standard Showdown was a pretty well attended one for a Saturday, with 10 entrants.

Round 1 – John (merfolk)

Sadly I was unable to continue the success of our earlier test game into the tournament.

I won the first game. But it was down hill from there. The second game saw me desperately play 3 Nexus of Fates to try and draw into an answer and snatch the win. But it was to no avail and just delayed the inevitable. Our third and final game was better for me. However John still managed to get into a superior position and get the win.

But close, fun games. I like those sort of games.

Result: Loss 1-2

Round 2 – Kar-Fai

Our first game must have been frustrating for Kar-Fai. He had me down to 2 life, before I stabilised and snatched the win from him.

You would have thought having won the first game so dramatically I would have remembered I had won it. But by the time I won the second game it had totally escaped me that I had won. The draw backs of old age.

Result: Win 2-0

Round 3 – Sophie (pirates)

Sophie had built her deck the day before. It still needed work. But the idea was good, and it has promise. Being more consistent and having more than one copy of cards would be the first improvement to make.

This was an easy match up for me. My deck walked all over it because of the reasons given above.

A bit more work and this deck will cause me problems.

Result: Win 2-0

Round 4 – Dean (dinosaurs)

My deck just didn’t fire in this match up. In some ways I need to be faster. But not sure exactly how. But my deck does struggle against fast aggro like decks. Something I need to look into. Fast aggro does seem to be a strong force in our meta.

Result: Loss 0-2

Afterwards Dean and I played a friendly game. This time I did much much better. But his Vivien Reid ultimate kicking in was the inevitable end for me. Trying to pump out oozes to delay things until I could hit a Krasis was futile.

Friendly Loss

After getting beat again by Dean but at least putting up more of a challenge, I played my mono blue mill deck against Kar-Fai in another friendly game. Which I lost. I hit none of my walls. So was at the mercy of Kar-Fai’s deck.

Friendly Loss

Final position: 7th with a 2-2 record

I only got a participation pack this time. Too many entrants to also get a Showdown pack. But I pulled a Repudiate//Replicate. That’s a sweet card for my deck. A strong card for going into the sideboard.

But another great afternoon playing MtG.

All Hail King Grull

D&D, game night, RPG


I don’t know when or how Matthew Colville first popped into the stuff Youtube recommends to me. I do remember that it was his reaction/explanation video for some key twist/event in the climax of Critical Roll season one.

A brief aside I’m not a fan of Critical Roll. I think it presents an unrealistic view and expectations of the majority of RPG sessions. Not every group is made up of voice actors, and all that over theatrical stuff.

Back to Matthew Colville. On his channel he has a series of videos giving advice to DMs both new and old. Which I’ve been dipping into, watching episodes that catch my interest.

I think it’s the opening video in the series where he creates a starting adventure off the top of his head. It’s impressive and demonstrates his decades of experience. It also looks like a nice little dungeon to use at the start of a campaign with new players. And from what I can tell has been run by a lot of folks.

However from all the videos I have watched so far, and enjoyed I decided to share the following one. It’s about sandbox campaigns. Colville has done another discussing on rails vs sandbox. I fall on the side of sandboxes. Hence why I’m sharing the video. But there are also a few links to adventures that he uses to seed his sandbox world. So it’s an amazing resource for those looking into running their own sandbox campaign. I’m a particularly new fan/convert to the Dungeon Delve and Book of Challenges. They look fantastic resources for a GM.

Sadly for an Android campaign doing something similar using existing published adventures isn’t going to happen. At best there will be that GenCon/Pax Unplugged two parter. So to do something similar would require a lot more work.

A Judge Dredd sandbox campaign on the other hand using suitable existing adventures as Colville has for D&D is do able. Before this latest Judge Dredd system using the WOIN came out, there were three other systems with their own supplements and adventures. So more material to work with.

So after that it’s about time we find out what Dram has been up to.

Gundren the dwarf was lying on the floor of the room in pretty bad shape.

“The dwarf needs healing!” shouted Dram.

But his words fell on deaf ears.

Dram tried once more to get the dwarf the help he desperately needed. But the other members of the party were wrapped up in their own petty little interests to listen or help.

Disgusted with the others Dram wandered off back to the hall where he had roasted the group of goblins. Leaving the dwarf to an uncertain future. He wasn’t happy about it. Dram had done all he could to help the dwarf. But healing wasn’t in his skill set. He had no potions or spells. He was a wizard not a Druid.

On his way to the hall Dram witnesses Ace lock Nick in a small room. “That was more important than helping the dwarf?” muttered Dram to no-one in particularly and shaking his head.

In the hall at the far end the charred remains of goblins littered the floor near to the blockage that Dram and Grull had created. But despite that burnt smell of goblin flesh wafting round the room, his nose hadn’t let him down. In the opposite corner to the bodies near to where he had entered the hall was a large pot of stew cooking.

Dram grabbed a spoon, dipped it in the pot. Tentatively Dram tasted the contents. It wasn’t the best stew he’d tasted, but it was not the worst either. It was edible whatever the mystery meat used was. He tucked in. Maybe a full stomach will easy his disgust at his companions.

After eating his fill of stew. Dram decided he better share the rest with the others.

On his way back to the others in the hall way there was an owl bear! It was a fleeting glimpse of this beautiful creature before it disappeared behind a curtain.

He had just seen an owl bear! He was surely one of the luckiest halflings ever.

Once the initial shock had worn off. dram shouted “I saw an owl bear!!!!”

The gnome and Sarmyar joined Dram in the hall way. The gnome wanted to get some food but was too scared to go by himself. But Dram wanted to see the owl bear again, so he went behind the curtain moments before that the owl bear had disappeared behind. The other two joined him.

The room they entered was empty. No sign of the owl bear. However in the outer wall was a gap leading to the outside. Dram reasoned it must have escaped the keep that way.

Back in the room where the wounded dwarf had been left, Dram was pleasantly surprised to see the dwarf back on his feet and looking a bit healthier than he had been.

Everyone was now back in the room with them. Including an unconscious Nick.

After short rest, a battered Nick was back on his feet.

A brief discussion was held on what to do next. Did the group rest so they were in better shape for the journey back to Phandaline, or did they set off immediately and risk the open road? Resting first won out. But Sarmyar decided to head off on her own.

The party returned back to the hall to eat and rest.

Early evening bought a surprise. As the sun set a war-band returned from it’s patrol.

As the war-band approached the keep, Grull came up with a cunning plan of negotiating with the war-band. It was risky, but it just might work.

Back in the room where the bugbear had been, and the dwarf had been found, Grull wearing the crown of the bugbear, sat on the throne. Declaring himself the king of the keep. On one side of the throne stood the gnome, hidden in the corner of the room was Ace. Nick was hiding in the side room. And Dram was on the other side of Grull ready to cast a spell.

Three hobgoblins and a couple of wolves entered the keep and blocked the doorway to the room.

Grull and the leader of the war-band parley. Apparently the previous occupants were not that popular with the war-band, and there was very little loyalty towards them. An agreement is arrived at despite the clumsiness of Ace dropping a hobgoblin head on the floor.

The war-band would get the keep, and the crown. And the party would leave without any trouble. Everyone was a winner.

The journey back to Phandaline was uneventful. They met up again with Sarmyar just outside of town.

In Phandaline Dram went back to his room at the inn, and ordered food and drink delivered to his room. Whilst in his room he sat at his table, opened up his spell book and started writing down some new spells.

He was feeling more powerful…

Early Inspiration from Shadow of the Beanstalk

genesys, netrunner, RPG

With the Android Shadow of the Beanstalk source book for the Genesys system dropping though people’s letterboxes in the UK (they landed on the door mat in the US a couple of weeks ago, and the pdf can be downloaded from the 5th March, no hint at the moment when the taster scenario will be released). I thought I’d write some initial thoughts from my twenty minute bath time soak this morning, where Shadow of the Beanstalk was my reading material.

I’ve only really looked at the GM section of the book which looks at creating an immersive world for the players and building adventures in the Android universe.

There is some great advice for GM’s in this section, especially for wannabe noob GM’s like me.

I particularly like the advice on creating a living world. Which bits of can be applied to other genres. They also map across to some of the stuff O’Neal talks about in his book The DC Comics Guide to Writing Comics. Particularly about the npc’s lives not being a static thing.

It’s also this advice that can be used to seed future adventures, and also add colour and depth to the world.

Also part of the GM section is the adventure builder that uses a Three Act structure. Hmmm I wonder where we have come across that? They split it into Hooks (7 provided), Escalations (5 provided) and Climaxes (5 provided). And like an ala carte menu, you chose one from section A, one from section B, and one from section C and you have an adventure.

My planning…

For my own planned campaign I think I have now settled on a setting and a reason for the players to come together.

I’m going to set the campaign in the aftermath of the New Angeles Tsunami as detailed in the novella Monster Slayer by Daniel Lovat Clark. And hopefully explore the impact of such an event. Naturally there will be power vacuums and gang warfare going on as rival gangs try to exploit this opportunity to gain more power. At the corporate level there will also be fallout, as the other rival corporations take this opportunity to hit Weyland and GRNDL who were behind the tsunami. Much of this will play out in the newsfeeds during the adventures. However who knows they may get sucked into some of the power plays also.

Naturally the players will be survivors of this disaster and getting aid at an emergency relief camp. The starting equipment they have is all they were able to grab when the tsunami hit.

So what other stories will be running in the newsfeeds during ongoing adventures? The events of the novella Monitor by Leigh Alexander seem ideal material to play out in the background. Although the theme may not be explored.

Although Exodus by Lisa Farrell, will see parts play out in the feeds. I do want to explore the themes of this. Android/Clone rights are analogous to the battle for black rights, slavery and the underground railway (I’m sure the inspiration for Exodus or an influence at the least). I like that Android gives an opportunity to look at this difficult and emotive subject. So we will see protests and riots reported on the news. And players will get caught up in some of these as well I’m sure. I like the idea of having the players involved in the Android version of the underground railway.

Although the players won’t get involved the events detailed in the Mumbad cycle also make great material for background colour that highlight the Android/Clone rights.

The Flashpoint Cycle also is something I’d like to explore and have the players involved with. It’s something that can play out in newsfeeds and seed adventures for players as they get involved in the fallout from those infamous 23 seconds.

I’m going to avoid any cycles or events that are off planet for the time being. So I won’t have them in the newsfeeds for the players until I want to move the party off Earth. I need more information about the Kitara Cycle which is on Earth. Maybe the events could be mentioned. From an initial look they could tie in with the fallout of Exodus, and have the players getting revenge on Weyland.

So that’s my thoughts on direction, themes etc at the moment. What the first adventure will be I don’t know. I still would like to see what the two part taster scenario FFG was. It may be suitable as the starting point. Or something that can be used during the campaign. My early leanings are that I have the players do an intro one shot, maybe a rescue mission, then into the FFG scenario (if suitable).

War of the Spark Weekend has no D&D

D&D, magic, MtG, RPG

As far as my FLGS is concerned the D&D side of the two Ravnica weekends were a success.

WotC had provided two scenarios for stores to use

  • Krenko’ s Way
  • A zib for your thoughts

Ok Krenko’s Way was from the at the time just released, or about to be released Guildmaster’s Guide to Ravnica source book. But had some pre-made characters with it.

A zib for your thoughts was a brand new adventure that picks up after Krenko’s Way. It can be used with the characters from the first adventure or with supplied characters (I didn’t manage to get a copy of these, they are not included in the scenario pdf).

Apparently the weekend equivalent to the two Ravnica Weekends for War of the Spark will not have a D&D crossover scenario. But it will have something new and exciting instead.

I’m interested to see what this new and exciting is. But also disappointed that WotC didn’t use a three adventure story arc. And continue it to it’s conclusion as an option along side whatever else they have planned.

They provide enough ideas for a further scenario to use at the end of the second scenario.

“If you’re continuing a campaign set on Ravnica, this adventure sows numerous seeds to use as a part of your campaign. If you’d like, you can review the list of questions below to help inspire future adventures:

• Who was Vezska’s client? What do they intend to do with the information they sought?

• Who is in possession of the vial at the end of the adventure?

• What is the identity of the Dimir operative that sent retrieval teams to obtain the vial?

• Didthepartywithholdanyadditionalinformation they learned?

• What do the etchings mean on the door that Delrim discovered?

• Are there any NPCs that could become future con- tacts for one or more characters?”

I know my FLGS would have liked another scenario. There are plenty of ideas above to create their own. Or they can use the advice contained in the excellent chapter 6 (if I recall correctly) of Guildmaster’s Guide to Ravnica for rolling your own adventures. Or find a third party one online. So they have options.

Maybe we will see the D&D stuff return when WotC move to their next plane, and I’m sure print their next source book for it.