Wizard Matters

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So I’m playing a halfling wizard in the D&D campaign/scenario we started last week. I wasn’t sure I’d get a mini to represent my character. But the internet has not disappointed. Even better I was able to get them in the UK. So no importing and excessive postage fees.

In fact there were male and female halfling wizards. So I went with 3 of the minis that were wizards, and a cool looking halfling dressed for winter.

I suppose over the Summer I should attempt to paint them. My north of the border version of me will for sure be nagging, correction encouraging me to paint them. I fancy Gandalf grey for the hat and cloak.


Earlier in the year, might have even been before Christmas I got the source book for the FFG Genesys RPG. It’s a generic system that seems to focus on narrative and story telling. This version of the system is an updated rule set based on the FFG Star Wars system and an earlier Warhammer RPG I believe.

Within the core book there are suggestions for world settings such as Android, Tannhauser, Terrinoth, Twilight Imperium, plus one or two others. The Terrinoth source book is the first to hit the market place (I have a copy on the way) and is their fantasy setting. Which makes sense. It shouldn’t be hard to get hold of Descent figures to use with the game. But then again generic D&D figures should be usable also. Although I can see using Descent board tiles to make the dungeon maps as a good idea.

I’d love to play a cyberpunk style game, and the Android universe would be that ideal setting. I love that world from my time playing Netrunner. I have what effectively is the the world source book in The Worlds of Android book I have. But there is no hurry to play in this universe, so I don’t need to put time in fleshing it out, knowing that the next FFG source book is for Android. I’m not reinventing the wheel.

But listening to a Genesys specific podcast recently I got thinking obviously I’d love to play the odd Star Wars campaign (along side the classic RPG). But there are other worlds I’d love to explore. Such as Elfquest, I’d love to turn the old RPG into this new system. I was, and still am a big fan of the comic books. They were a fresh take on elves. I also loved the relationship between the wolf riders and their wolfs. That’s me and my mutts, and a bit of the influence for calling us the Wolfpack.

I think there was also a Judge Dredd RPG back in the day (did I just type that?), would love to have an updated RPG in Mega City one playing a Judge. Plus with there having been a miniatures game out for Dredd, getting minis shouldn’t be too hard either. I love Judge Dredd, and have done so since I first read the strip back in the 80’s. The Cursed Earth and The Day the Law Died, two epic story lines that I still fondly remember today.

I’ll briefly mention once more the Planes shift material and the art books for MtG as potential worlds to explore in Genesys.

A zombie apocalypse based game might also be cool. I’m sure there must be systems out there already. But it shouldn’t be too hard to create something, especially using the Zombicide figures, and maybe tiles.

I think it’d also be interesting to do a modern day conspiracy theory, big brother , cyberpunk setting. Think the likes of the tv series Condor, the film Enemy of the State, Hackers, Black Hat, War Games, the fourth Die Hard movie, and the book Little Brother by Cory Doctorow. Snowdon, Wikileaks, Stuxnet, cctv, mass surveillance, the establishment, the 1%, vote rigging, Homeland, rendition, water boarding, Anonymous, you get the idea.

I’m stoked for the alt history Tannhauser which I hope they do release a source book for. But there is one other alt history setting I adore, and happens to be the setting for my current all time favourite game Scythe. That alt 1920’s Eastern Europe with the mechs. Just love it, the art by Jakub Rozalski is soooo amazing. If I was going this route I’d need to get the art book for Scythe. Actually it’s shocking, neh borderline criminal that I don’t already own it.

As you can see the Genesys system before you even play it has you bouncing ideas around.

Mum Update

Monday they kept mum in for another day after she starting being sick again. Apparently mum wanted to be on the floor while vomiting. Naturally the nurses wanted mum back in her bed. I’m not sure whose will was the stronger. I just know mum can be a stubborn bugger when she wants to be. Something I’m sure she has inherited.

Which means Nan, the dogs and I have to survive another day by ourselves. I will say that my washing up skills are still second to none.

Unexpected Gaming Chats

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It’s funny where you end up talking about board gaming sometimes.

Yesterday after a night of forcing matter of differing types out of both ends of the body, and severe stomach pain, Mum ended up being taken into hospital for further investigation and some magic pills/injections to take away the pain and stop the sickness.

Which meant I was left holding the fort, and having to clean up the aftermath. Lets just say if there was a list of things not to put on a bucket list, I hit three of them recently. One of them happened a couple of weeks ago, and the other two were yesterday morning. I swore the messy one was something my brother was down for doing.

After feeding the dogs, cleaning up after the dogs (second time I’d done a similar job that morning), feeding Nan, I headed off to be with Mum at the hospital.

When I got to Mum she was on the happy pill and the pain was a far and distant memory.

To while away some of the time I had taken the player guide from the bundle to look at. It was this booklet that was to start a couple of interesting discussions about gaming.

The first was at the hospitals Costa while I was being served. I had just ordered a blueberry muffin and a cortado (it’s my favourite drink they do) when the assistant serving me noticed the players guide, and mentioned there was a new set out soon. To which I replied this weekend, and the Prerelease was last weekend. He was a MtG player too, and we chatted about cards, and Prerelease events.

As I was returning to Mum they were just wheeling her away for an x-ray. So I went with her.


Apparently this wasn’t her x-ray. But while waiting around the x-ray department the male nurse asked me about my players guide. He thought it was something to do with actual magic. So I handed over the players guide and explained it was for a collectible card game, and told me all about the new cards. We then got onto boardgames. He remembers really enjoying Escape from Colditz. I told him about the anniversary reprint, and the slightly updated rules. He seemed quite interested in this. I wouldn’t be surprised he ordered a copy. He’d also played Risk (I told him about Risk Legacy, and explained what a legacy game was). The last game he bought was Star Wars Monopoly. I can kinda understand it, it’s got Star Wars on it.

After the x-ray, and seeing Mum back to her room. It was time for me to head home and look after Nan, and save her from the dogs. Don’t worry Mum wasn’t alone for long. My step-sister and her husband spent all afternoon with her, keeping everyone updated on events or lack of a doctor seeing Mum. That was way beyond the call of duty and I’m very grateful for them doing so. It allowed me to be in two places at once so to speak. Mum was going to be kept in overnight for observation. Even then she had company for the evening. Which was handy because I was able to text through what tablets she was taking, and have a quick chat to reassure her we were doing ok this end.

Even if they don’t find anything and send her home later today (at the time of writing no idea what is happening) I hope Mum has been able to rest and enjoy a break.

Core Set 2019 Magic League Alert

magic, Magic League, MtG

This coming Saturday sees the start of Core Set 2019 Magic League at my FLGS The Hobbit Hole. To be fair it’s Magic League at every LGS and FLGS.

For those wondering what Magic League is (apart from an excuse for WotC and the FLGS to get you to buy booster packs) it’s a fun league format aimed at allowing new and returning players to play with experienced players, without having to worry about the experienced players having a much larger card collection.

Basically you buy 3 booster packs from the current set (usually) and build a 30 card deck from the cards you open up from those boosters. You also get when you sign up for the league a collection box (that you need to make – ie fold together, to store your cards in) and a score card to record your game results on.

Then over a period of 4 weeks you play games of MtG using the deck you have just constructed against other players in the league.

But what if my deck is no good? Well during the league period, you have a sideboard of the cards that you got in your initial 3 booster packs, however each week you are allowed to buy another booster pack to help strengthen your deck. Or after every 3 losses you are also allowed to buy a booster pack (see why I said it’s an excuse to sell booster packs?) to once again strengthen your deck.

At the end of the 4 weeks if you have played 10 or more games in the league you get a promo card as your reward.

This time it’s the rather spiffy land Reliquary Tower with alt art.

I actually like this format, it’s my preferred in store way to play MtG. The Prerelease is similar in some respects because it’s building a deck from your Prerelease packs and then playing.

See you at the league.

Anyone seen a Nico Bolas?

magic, MtG

Yesterday I took a quick journey to pick up from my purveyor of fine cardboard products my order of products that became available this weekend.

When I got there, there was an 8 person draft in full swing. After exchanging some pleasantries and other social interactions with the owner of the establishment, and a social participant of said event (who had already built their deck) I departed and headed off home. Not before stopping off at the local Aldi to pick up the milk I had been sent out for.

Although there was only 8 at this Saturday daytime draft event (and they are much more serious than the fun loving pre-release crowd, look at those sourpuss faces concentrating). Rumour on the street was that the FNM draft was rather well attended.

Once home having completed my mission and side quest, I set up and recorded some videos of me opening stuff. Yes you read that right there are more videos coming of me saying very little, and what I do say being boring as shite.

One thing I didn’t video was this, the 30th anniversary edition of the Star Wars RPG. This has finally arrived on the shelves of your FLGS. It was due last September time, so just a tad late.


I know FFG have their own Star Wars RPG series, but this is the original. I don’t remember playing it, I was more MERPs, Paranoia and a little D&D at Poly. But this is something we can look at for our new RPG group at Fenland Gamers at some point. We had our first game of that last Wednesday. I’m playing a halfling wizard (and I’ve found a miniature online of this combo,which just so happens to be on its way) called Dram. I’ve still to come up with a back story, and once I get my character sheet back I’ll introduce you to him. Just realised I’m going to have to paint my figure! A summer hols project.

This also arrived yesterday. These art books are pretty cool, especially if you are a MtG fan. They also along with plane shift rules allow you to run a D&D 5e campaign on the covered planes. So a great way to combine RPG and MtG (possibly – I’ve not tried them yet). Sadly the Dominaria Plane Shift hasn’t been released yet.

I have to admit I’d like to try this D&D and MtG mashup at least once. But I think I’d be more tempted to try and take this over to the FFG Genesys system. Although once again I’ve not played anything with this system yet. From my reading of the core rules I think it might be better suited. But the nice thing is these Plane Shift rules are free from WotC.

I’m ending this post with evidence that Nico Bolas is indeed the most powerful Planeswalker there is, with him sitting in front of the defeated Nicol Bolas.

Toe to toe in Star Realms

star realms

Yesterday as part of his great series of YouTube videos on his favourite game mechanics, my favourite game designer Jamey Stegmaier did a video on Star Realms. Which I’ve embedded below for your viewing delight.

There is so much I enjoy about Star Realms. It’s definitely a game that gives you moments to remember, “that time I came back from 1 authority when Freddy had over 60, and won” or “that perfect game against Scott” (recent video evidence was put up to support this) or “that time I did over 50 damage”. You get the idea.

Mechanics wise not mentioned by Jamey I love the gambit, hero and event cards. With the right combo of cards between gambits and events as the first player it’s possible to have an insane first turn buying an 8 cost card in the trade row. The gambits give you that feeling of uniqueness almost, a special ability/bonus you can use during your turn at any point in the game. But events, they appear in the trade row, and when they do have to be resolved right away. I love the randomness they give. They can swing a turn from average to amazing, change the game, the impact they have is awesome. Hero cards are like gambit cards really, except you have to buy them from the trade row. That’s over simplified them. But Heroes and Gambits add a dimension of decision making that is very nice, when to play the card.

Here is a video I’ve just put up of a game that finished last night between Scott (of Scott Plays) and myself that I think shows how enjoyable the game is. It really was a fun game. We were trading blows like giants standing toe to toe taking it in turns to hit each other.

One word of warning Jamey 30 plus authority is not safe in this game. It’s very easy to hit an opponent for 30 or more damage in a turn. I’ve definitely hit with damage in the forties. Possibly, my memory is failing me here I’ve hit in the low fifties too. I’ve been on the receiving end of these massive hits too.

I’d be interested in seeing what Jamey thinks of Epic, and Hero Realms.

Upgraded Wizards 2017 Commander Deck

Deck tech, magic, MtG, MtG Deck Building

“phew! 3 days of boring videos over” I hear you say. Sadly for you I’m following those videos up with some extra boring posts. Welcome to the first of those cures for insomnia.
I do like playing this deck, the majority of it’s current state is based on the $20 Budget Upgrade for the Arcane Wizardry 2017 Commander deck on the MTGGoldfish web site. You may have noticed from one or two other decks I’ve used them as the starting point for taking a precon and making it my own more than once. The nice thing about this site and the articles is that these are budget upgrades that the majority of people can afford.

I would not let a new player use this deck as their first deck to pilot. There needs to be a lot of attention paid to what is going on. And there is also a fair bit of decision making to make also on your turn. And it’s these two things that make this deck fun for me to play with.

The Commander I went for with the 2017 precon was Kess, Dissident Mage. I liked the plan of attack for Kess over the one for Inalla. I went spell-slinger over wizards. Hey we are wizards we should be slinging spells. It’s thematic.


Ok something I keep forgetting in this type of post, here is the mana curve for the deck as done by the Decked app.

As an exercise I got the app to also price the deck up based on the CardKingdom prices at the time of writing, and it weighed in at a few cents shy $132. Sensei’s Divining Top and The Immortal Sun account for roughly $38 of this price. Which happen to be two of the cards I swapped in. That’s not bad if you are buying the singles. But I’m sure the original precon can be picked up for around the original price, so it should be possible to put this together for half that if you stick to the original posts budget upgrade list.

Here is the all important deck list:

Creatures:15

1 Young Pyromancer
1 Izzet Chemister
1 Sea Gate Oracle
1 Shadowmage Infiltrator
1 Archaeomancer
1 Kess, Dissident Mage (Commander)
1 Talrand, Sky Summoner
1 Bloodline Necromancer
1 Body Double
1 Izzet Chronarch
1 Magus of the Future
1 Mercurial Chemister
1 Prognostic Sphinx
1 Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir
1 Arcanis the Omnipotent

Spells:47

1 By Force
1 Dark Ritual
1 Faithless Looting
1 Sensei’s Divining Top
1 Sol Ring
1 Spell Pierce
1 Cabal Ritual
1 Comet Storm
1 Dimir Signet
1 Fellwar Stone
1 Go for the Throat
1 Helm of Awakening
1 Increasing Vengeance
1 Into the Roil
1 Izzet Signet
1 Rakdos Charm
1 Rakdos Signet
1 Reality Shift
1 Reverberate
1 Terminate
1 Burning Vengeance
1 Commander’s Sphere
1 Crosis’s Charm
1 Darksteel Ingot
1 Frantic Search
1 Sage’s Dousing
1 To the Slaughter
1 Unstable Obelisk
1 Worn Powerstone
1 Diabolic Tutor
1 Insidious Will
1 Jace’s Sanctum
1 Memory Plunder
1 Primal Amulet
1 Syphon Mind
1 Dark Petition
1 Increasing Ambition
1 Mana Geyser
1 Metallurgic Summonings
1 Silumgar’s Command
1 Mind’s Desire
1 Opportunity
1 Spelltwine
1 The Immortal Sun
1 Kindred Dominance
1 Necromantic Selection
1 Decree of Pain

Lands:38

1 Arcane Lighthouse
1 Command Tower
1 Crumbling Necropolis
1 Dimir Aqueduct
1 Dismal Backwater
1 Evolving Wilds
1 Grixis Panorama
10 Island
1 Izzet Boilerworks
1 Jwar Isle Refuge
4 Mountain
1 Mystifying Maze
1 Rakdos Carnarium
1 Scavenger Grounds
6 Swamp
1 Swiftwater Cliffs
1 Temple of the False God
1 Terramorphic Expanse
1 Vivid Crag
1 Vivid Creek
1 Vivid Marsh

Now this post isn’t the end of me talking about this deck. The next post will be looking at whether I have new cards that should be in this deck, and if so what do they replace?

Core set 2019 Cracking packs from a booster box

magic, MtG

We have reached the final video in this little mini series.

That’s it for the week on the video front. There will be another at some point over the next weekend. Well maybe. I need to sort out the filming so I am not filming with the curtains closed and getting that awful red tint to everything. Another factor to take into account will be can I be bothered at the weekend to set up everything to film me opening a Core set 2019 Bundle? Plus I need to decide if this is worth doing. Is this of interest to people. Mind you considering how many people read this blog, and the number of views these videos have been getting, the ratio isn’t bad I suppose. Luckily I’m doing neither for fame, fortune and all those other reasons. We’ll see how bored I am, how hot it is, and any other factors that may influence my decision.

That last panel may or may not be me when I am doing these videos.

Core set 2019 Prerelease Event

Game day, magic, MtG

This weekend is Core 19 Prerelease weekend. That magical time for Magic players where they get to play with the cards from the newest set a week early. And thanks once more to the benevolence of our overlords WotC, store owners were also allowed to sell to eager players like myself a whole week early booster boxes (with while supplies lasted the second, more controversial buy-a-box promo).

I think WotC must had arranged this Prerelease weekend specifically for me. That, or it’s just pure coincidence that it coincides with The Rose Fair. An annual event in my home town, that sees lorries driving really slowly round the town with their trailers poorly decorated around a theme, and occupied with people that have even less of a life than myself. I think the technical term for these is floats. It’s such a massive inconvenience, but it brings in trade to the town I suppose.

Without the Prerelease I’d have been stuck at home, having to suffer The Rose Fair and hot weather. Instead I got to leave early so I wasn’t trapped in my idea of hell, and make my way to my FLGS ready to play some Magic.

Naturally I was early, so the FLGS wasn’t open. While waiting for it to open some of my ex-students turned up. They too were there for the Prerelease and hopefully get a game of Commander in.

While waiting for the Prerelease to start, I cracked open one of my booster boxes. As did one or two of my ex-students who had also bought a booster box. I won’t bore you here with what I pulled but there will be a short YouTube video up in the next couple of days with the highlights. But I will say this was super fun, cracking packs, seeing what others had got. I liked the social aspect of it.

It was time to open our Prerelease kits and start building a deck. I got a blue life countdown die, my promo wasn’t great. I did get a second crucible of worlds, but more importantly for this sort of event I got cards I could build a deck with. Or I thought I had. I went black/red with a little bit of graveyard shenanigans. Found out a bit later that there was a foil Nicol Bolas pulled. Sweet.

My first game was against a returning player to Magic Lauren. Her deck was good, which her final position of second, and zero losses proved. Losing 1-2 to her was not bad. I know one or two (which included an ex-student) got wiped out 2-0. So winning a game was an achievement. I was happy because I got to play crucible of worlds, played some lands from my graveyard, pulled some creatures back from the graveyard (well until Lauren kindly exiled my graveyard). It was doing its thing.

My next game was against Grant. I’d played against Grant at a previous Prerelease. I won that match up. History was not to repeat itself. This time Grant won 1-2.
I have to say I really enjoy playing against Grant. There is friendly banter, a laugh and joke. Actually it was the same with Lauren as well. Sometimes there are people you don’t like playing against because they are not fun. They take it way too serious, or lack that social interaction skill (who knew Magic players with poor social skills?) But Grant and Lauren I’d gladly play against any day.

Lauren even joined in the banter against an ex-student, and totally crushed him in their game.

My third match was against Charlie, who I beat 2-1. Our first game I won due to a massive misplay by Charlie that gave me the win. He then redeemed himself by taking the next game. I was able to take the tie breaker in a closely fought third game.

Throughout the day between rounds, it was “how’d you do?”, or checking out how others were doing if they were still playing. And being the supportive friends encouraging their opponent to smash them.

Before the final round an ex-student and I pitched our Prerelease decks against each other seeing as we hadn’t been drawn against each other. That ended in a win each.

I didn’t get a fourth round game because some players had left without saying anything to the organisers to go watch I’m assuming the England match. So the person I was matched up with was awol for possibly the reason I’d given. Which meant I had a buy. I’ll take a win anyway I can.

That meant I finished 12th out of 26. Which is respectable. But more importantly I finished above my ex-students.

After opening our 2 participation packs, we sat down for a game of Commander.

Charlie hadn’t played with us before, so wasn’t aware of our social contract. The social contract we came up with, and is one used also with the Fenland Gamers MtG group is in Commander, no mass land destruction, no going infinite. These two things are not fun. It’s why I have 2 versions of my mono red deck. The mass land destruction version doesn’t get played. Only time it has was when my ex-students allowed my to test playing the deck while I was building it. My mono red can do multiple combat phases, at most a couple, it can’t do them infinitely. I’ve deliberately not even looked into going infinite.

Charlie had a couple of cards that destroyed all permanents. He had to fire one of them off to stop another player. It was basically a game restart. It wasn’t fun, and basically handed the game to the player who Charlie was trying to stop. But up until that point my big green stompy had been doing its thing. Building up a threat, being annoying.

Game 2 was a rushed affair really. Which saw me lose the game in a game of rock, paper, scissors that we used to decide the winner between the final 2 of us left in the game.

Thanks to John the owner of my FLGS The Hobbit Hole you get the chance (some may even call it lucky) to see me in action as third Magic player at the back!

It really was a great Prerelease. Everyone was having fun, lots of smiles on people’s faces as they played. I played Magic with some fun people. It was really cool meeting up with my ex-students, and getting to the chance to play some Magic with some of them. Yeah this was probably my best Prerelease to-date. An amazing day.