Well apart from the fact that the postman was delivering at 7am this morning. We don’t get that any other time of the year. But the early copy of Mint Deliveries arrived!
Also my main order from CardKingdom also turned up. So now I have to put together the main spine of my Death and Taxes deck.
Spent the afternoon playing Magic with the newest member of Fenland Gamers at the local Wetherspoons. It originally was meant to be The White Lion, but there was a slight flaw in the plan. It was shut! But we played our own decks, then put a couple of battle decks against each other. After a few games, I was asked for some deck advice. So I passed on what little advice I was capable of. I’m not nowhere near close to being an expert. So I’m not sure how good my advice was. But as far as I could see, the mana curve needed fixing in all three decks I looked at. There needed to be play sets for some of the cards so that there was some consistency to the card draws. Also one or two of the decks needed a win condition, or to focus on achieving the win condition. I did apologise that they would have to go away and do some research into cards and possibly buy some. I did point out one tip of if a card was too expensive that there should be a cheaper more costly to play/weaker version that could be affordable.
I particularly like the decks that Strictly Better MtG comes up with. I want to build some of his pauper decks to play with, they look good fun.
I know I’m very late to the party but I have been trying Hearthstone on my iPad. I was going to wait until the new MtG app was launched. But WotC scared me off ever investing in their digital products when they correctly banned a Youtuber for harassment. What I didn’t like was the confiscation of the digital stuff he’d purchased without refunding his money for the cards/tickets he’d bought. I don’t like the fact they can take away something you have paid for, and from what I have seen by a tech lawyer covering this aspect on his YouTube channel something they are on very dodgy ground legally, because even by their own terms of service, contracts the cards and tickets are owned by the player when they purchase them. So I’m very scared by this action of theirs. How can I invest time and money into their digital products, knowing that they can seize them whenever they like, especially if they don’t like something I write online?
There are a lot of other issues associated with this “magicgate” as it has become known. I’m also very concerned that at the moment I’m only seeing WotC banning people who seem to have a differing political view to theirs. I’m not seeing them ban those that share a similar outlook on life to them politically. Despite them using the same tactics, language as those that they have banned for harassment. And that’s worrying. There is not a single way I can be considered right leaning. I am very much a left leaning person on the political spectrum. However I expect to see WotC be blind to political views of people and apply their terms of service blindly. Harassment is harassment no matter who is doing it, and to whom. It should not be tolerated whatsoever. And I expect WotC to be even handed and ban anyone who commits any harassment no matter who they are. So I’m waiting to see WotC prove that they are indeed against harassment, and not just using this as a smoke screen to even scores with people that have voiced opinions they disagree with.
If I’m really lucky UPS will make their delivery before midday tomorrow, with enough time to throw the cards together to make my take on the Death and Taxes deck.
Yesterday Jonathan messaged me about going to the first Tabletop Gaming Live expo/show next September. I’d thought about it when the show was first announced a couple of moths or so back. And had been put off really by the fact it was in London. I was convinced accommodation would be expensive and hard to get, after all its London. I’d even thought of investigating the cost of air bnb. But still it’s in London! I hate London. I always have. So I try and keep my visits to the place to a minimum.
Before our lunch yesterday Dale and I did some “team building” or as it may have appeared to anyone looking in, playing Magic the Gathering. We started off with playing a couple of games using the Mind vs Might duel decks. I like duel decks, for us casual players they are great. However sadly Wotc don’t seem to like them, and have decided that with the new one coming out next April, that it will be the last of that product range. They are instead bringing out Challenger decks (a name some have linked with the tragic shuttle disaster) aimed more at players needing a “competitive” deck for playing at Friday Night Magic. I’m guessing that the Wotc logic goes if you are a casual player that just wants to grab a couple of decks to play a game of Magic with a friend with you can grab the Planeswalker decks and use them. I suppose you could grab the Challenger decks, but two of those will set you back $60 ($30 each). Not exactly a casual priced solution. My recommendation that is actually cheaper, and fun, is get two battledecks from CardKingdom, or build the $5 pauper decks that Strickly Better MTG built to play with (something I plan on doing).
Yesterday Justin and I had an initial look at Gloomhaven. After punching out all of the cardboard, we went through the first scenario to learn the game. Justin died turn two of the scenario which with the clock running out for the day, was a convenient point to call it a day. I think we achieved the main aim of the session to get familiar with the basic rules. We now need to find some fool hardy adventurers who are able to commit to a regular gaming session. Which we will probably do early in the new year.
Today was the last day of college for our students. So for those that were due in I ran a Magic the Gathering tournament. I put up four Ixalan boosters as prize support for the top three, then a couple of land packs from bundles as prizes for like the saltiest player, or the friendliest player.
