(This post is a follow up to my earlier BoardGameGeek post here)
Second in this series of updating old Attack Wing homebrew to bring it up to line with current rules are the ships of “All Good Things”.
This is an interesting one as much of what I originally intended has already been release (namely Assimilation Target Prime included a mirror universe Enterprise-D and the Pasteur has been released to retail).
That in mind what we have here are some sections to fill the blanks (many I imagine will one day be obsoleted by a “Galaxy Dreadnought” release).
First up is a Federation faction version of the USS Pasteur. The stats have been changed from my original version to match the mirror retail one, but the named ship and captain Crusher have new abilities.
The ACTUAL AGT Pasteur exists in retail form along with Captains Crusher and Worf and crew upgrades for Ogawa and Chilton, however it lacked crew cards for old Picard, Geordi and Data.
The AGT Enterprise-D exists well enough as the mirror Enterprise-D from the Assimilation Target Prime pack, however it could do with beefing up to Galaxy Dreadnought status. Both upgrades are split faction to play nice with the Federation version as well.
Lastly I also originally made an Admiral Riker. While there’s now a proper mirror one (which I really like by the way) I’ve updated my old one and made him an elite talent to match.
This was of course originally made long before the Q Continuum card pack and Admiral Q and I wanted to represent Q himself in some way. I opted for a talent upgrade which originally let you reroll anything. In the updates I’ve changed it to Q faction and upgraded its power a bit, it now just sets a dice however you like. It does not come in cheap however if your captain doesn’t satisfy Q’s definition of interesting.
Next time…probably either Timeless (Delta Flyers for everyone) or Star Trek 2009.
(This post is a follow up to my earlier BoardGameGeek post here)
Never content with just playing a game, especially a Star Trek one, I’ve taken to making up some additions to Attack Wing. My first batches went up in various themed posts on the boardgamegeek forums.
Since then however a number of the games rules and conventions have either changed (the addition of the mirror universe faction and what falls under that) or new features have been added (such as full rules for shuttles and fighters) as well as official versions of couple of the ships I made (USS Thunderchild, USS Lakota and USS Pasteur).
With all of that in mind I’ve decided to go back and bring my stuff up to standard where the new rules are concerned.
My first set of redesigns cover the Voyager finale “Endgame”.
The original rules predated the release of the shuttle Sakharov so I had my own shuttle rules. I had the range 2 limit but in place of docking and the capital ship rule I had some modifiers applying to range penalties and enemy secondary weapons to make them a little more survivable.
Also all of the cards were Federation and in keeping with the way the game has gone I’ve turned them into Mirror Universe (in fact MU will be getting a lot of the toys from these updates as they were primarily federation alternate timelines).
The USS Rhode Island
I decided to keep standard Nova Class stats and movement for the mirror version but to give the named Rhode Island an aggressive ability both to fit in with Mirror Universe faction and to represent soloing a pair of Neghvar class starships in a science ship.
Captain Kim provides a simple free scan action. A little unimaginative I know but it would make a perfectly reasonable science ship captain with an upgrade or two to trigger off it. His talent upgrade is suicide in the traditional head on attack wing joust but if you manage to get behind an opponents ships you could screw their entire attack for the round.
A new card type I introduced was the “refit” upgrade. These use no upgrade slots and cannot be disabled or discarded (functioning more like a flagship resource than an upgrade). They are not unique but only one can be assigned per ship. Each refit can only be applied to a specific class of ship, but a ship class may have more than one refit option.
The refits may grant upgrade slots, new abilities or improved stats.
The Nova Class refit can be used on either the prime or mirror Nova Class starships and bumps its attack and evasion up.
Shuttlecraft SC-4
Admiral Janeway’s shuttle also got moved into Mirror Universe. Some changes were made to the maneuvers to bring the ship closer into line with other shuttle classes.
The ships defensive ability also got a push to balance the loss of some of the bonuses shuttles got in my old rules.
Admiral Janeway uses advanced tactics to weaken an opponent. There’s also the, somewhat pricey, option to take Janeway’s Neurolytic Pathogen. It massively disrupts your enemies for several turns, but will cost you the captain/admiral it’s assigned to.
Miral Paris allows you to trade tech upgrades with your opponents…whether they like it or not lastly the chrono deflector allows you travel to a different part of the board at a time of your choosing.
That’s it for this time, next up is probably All Good Things.
With yet another spoiler season drawing to a close I wanted to talk a little about Battle for Zendikar. I don’t have the patience for a full blown list of every card (and there are plenty of regulars who would do a far better job of it than I) so I’ve decided to cover a few different categories.
The cards I most want to play with.
The cards I least want to play against.
The cards I most want to get hold of a set of quickly.
The format I play the most is draft but this will lean into the realms of constructed as well.
The cards I most want to play with.
First up I’m very much hoping that I manage, at least once, to pull of a Black/Green Eldrazi Scion sacrifice Deck in limited. There seems to be a reasonable number of options to do this without getting lucky with rares, although I want to start a draft with Brood Butcher.
Another limited deck I’d like to pull off is allies with a hint of lifegain. I’m a great fan of limited decks capable of ending the game on a silly amount of life (I’ve had some 3xKTK Abzan mirror matches ending on 50 or 60) and Lantern Scout strikes me as one capable of pulling that off. The allies deck itself seems pretty fun, but I’m not convinced it wont be the thing that’s fought over in draft (especially given its quite heavily in white and where I play whites often over drafted, although that’s probably just us).
When it comes to the properly big stuff…I haven’t actually played in an environment where this kind of thing was particularly viable (I came back to the game around New Phyrexia). From what I head Rise of the Eldrazi was a hell of a format but with the reduced number of Scions vs Spawn and the fact that they’re more combat relevant I don’t know if it will actually be viable to try and cast a ten-drop in limited. That doesn’t mean though that I won’t be giving it a go. I’m rather hoping to get a desolation twin or Ulamog win in somewhere along the line. Here’s hoping for something even bigger and sillier in OGW.
The cards I least want to play against.
There are certain kinds of cards that rub me up the wrong way in draft games. Usually they’ll be things that very rapidly turn a game into something extremely one sided. Sometimes these are overpowered cards, or hard to interact with “if this happens you’re done” cards (recently Sagu Mauler springs to mind). “Bad” cards are just as likely to appear here because magical Christmas land doesn’t look so good from the outside.
First mention goes to a pair of cards which, while not inherently unfair are going to reduce a lot of draft games which could otherwise have been turned around into one sided smash fests. While both of these abilities require the player using them to at least have a board position and preferably a stream of allies but when they DO work it wont be a feel good moment for the player on the defense.
Swarm Surge gives me the same feeling of a game rapidly turning into crap. Given the amount of devoid, colourless and scions around I can see it not being that unreasonable to be utterly blown out by this from a fairly stable board. Although I do want to give this one a try, especially if I can get a scion heavy deck.
The cards I will want to get hold of quickly
With every new set that comes out I always prioritize the same 2 things, before anything fun like planeswalkers and bomby creatures. Lands and removal.
These…whatever the final decision on their name turns out to be…slow-ish fetchable duals…They’re far from exciting (a major theme of this section) but they’re what we have and if we want to play standard we’re playing them. And I doubt an extra fetchable dual will hurt in commander or a lower power cube like mine (once i add fetches of course).
As for man-lands I have a particular liking for the black/white one, especially given I’ll be needing a replacement for Temple of Silence in the warrior tribal deck. Oh yeah and whatever the horrendous Abzan deck of the format is I’m sure it’ll slot straight in.
Then there’s removal, since RTR came out I’ve always focused on getting the better rare removal. Mizzium Mortars, Abrupt Decay, Dreadbore, Hero’s Downfall and similar cards are almost certainly going to get used at some point and most pull their weight through standard and on into commander and cube beyond that.
“Not quite Hero’s Downfall” is by no means bad. I played Dreadbore plenty, especially in my late beloved Mardu Vampires deck and this has a nice little potential upside to it.
“That exact thing there can sod right off” will probably slot into every commander deck I make on the general principle that it will fill in whatever removal void the colour combination lacks. My mono-black demon tribal Ob Nixilis deck immediately springs to mind.
Speaking of Ob Nixilis, it’s Ob Nixilis. This new one doesn’t exactly break new ground, but…well it’s just a huge heaping pile of value on a card. Basically new Ob Nixilis is the card you would design if you wanted to explain the textbook examples of a solid planeswalker. At the absolute minimum he’s card parity, killing a creature or drawing a card to replace itself and if left unchecked will absolutely dominate the game. He isn’t too expensive, he has enough loyalty to survive a lot of pounding and his ultimate will win the game in short order.
Of course there’s a place for creatures too and I’ve taken a liking to Undergrowth Champion, particularly along with Avatar of the Resolute. I’m thinking of attempting to build up either GW +1+1 counters or going into Abzan for Abzan Ascendancy…yes and Siege Rhino. Alternatively you could go all in on mono-green with hardened scales, Managorger Hydra…maybe Den Protector.
There’s a bonus mention here for “All the Eldrazi” as all this colourless goodness is making me crave a 5 colour Eldrazi ramp EDH deck complete with all the Eldrazi legends (because sometimes casual is fun) and Progenitus as commander. All silly, all the time.
Filling this sets desirable uncommon slot is Sylvan Scrying. Not a lot to say but I’ll definitely want to pick up a few.
Also in the desirable uncommon slot is Stasis Snare. While it’s not as universal as O Ring, “exile target creature” is still pretty good. Especially as a sideboard vs anyone unlikely to be able to easily get rid of it.
Scatter to the Winds is another “unexciting but playable” entry. This time “cancel with slight upside” makes a 3/3 in the late game. That’s by no means bad. I was quite happy with Dissolve and Dissipate and they were both fairly slight upsides. I’d happily play a couple of these in a deck that wants them.
And Finally…
Today’s honorable mention, the Battle for Zendikar special award for the card I will most come to resent opening in packs…
It’s a straight up tie…I couldn’t make my mind up between hard to cast, limited targeting mind control and a derpy limited effect enchantment.
Granted I might be horribly undervaluing these but…I don’t THINK so.
I’m a little warmer to the other converge cards. Lose 3 and draw 3 is by no means bad and an adjustable Pyroclasm could be cool.
My rampant speculation for the next set is “Red will be pushed”. Every other colour seems to be getting nicer toys in this one so I’m going to go for a playable Chandra and a couple decent burn spells at the lower end (perhaps not a 1R for 3 burn but something to serve as constructed burn filler).
A few months ago a couple of friends expressed an interest in learning to play and I started thinking about what I had which would be suited to teaching a new player (or for a first few paper games for someone who had only played duels).
All I really had at the time that was playable were my commander decks, which aren’t really the best introduction and the cube which…well I’m sure you can see where I’m going with this.
I did have some modern and standard decks but nothing which is on any kind of similar power level or which is intact from one week to the next (I sacrificed many decks to build the cube).
There are the wizards starter decks (see here, theyre little 30 card dealies made of recent commons and uncommons) but I didn’t want to go and get these online, nor do I particularly like the decks themselves. I would much rather, if teaching someone to play, give them something with a higher power level, some more appealing cards and a full 60 card deck.
That in mind I set out to make a set of decks for new players (and for the odd casual game where someone wants to test a deck, not modern level stuff just casual/standard level decks).
I settled on one deck in each colour, using a small number of rares and some favourite commons/uncommons that I don’t often get to use.
I also wanted some of the traditional archetypes such as green being big dumb creatures, and black being big on removal.
The original decks were including cards up to Khans block but I wanted to upgrade to some origins cards so here are the new versions.
[d title="New Player Training Deck - White - 10/09/2015"]
Creatures
4 Elite Vanguard2 Doomed Traveler2 Gideon's Lawkeeper2 Consul's Lieutenant2 Alabaster Mage2 Precinct Captain2 War Priest of Thune 2 Attended Knight
2 Fiend Hunter 2 Gideon's Avenger2 Mausoleum Guard2 War Oracle2 Serra AngelSpells
2 Midnight Haunting
Enchantments2 Pacifism2 Honor of the Pure
Artifacts2 BonesplitterLand
24 Plains
[/d]
The white deck has a pretty clear theme of making tokens then buffing the whole team, so pretty traditional white weenie. There’s some “temporary removal” and [mtg_card]Serra Angel[/mtg_card] as an iconic white card (and just because its cool). This is also the only deck to have any equipment, and it’s as simple an equipment as you can really get.
Blue is, as you would likely guess, the spell heavy tempo deck. Theres some prowess added from Khans and Origins along with a big pile of evasion.
Also this deck wants to draw a LOT of cards. Physically the creatures are a little weaker than the other decks but if you can stall out the game you should be able to drown your opponents in cards.
[d title="New Player Training Deck - Black - 10/09/2015"]
Creature
2 Typhoid Rats
2 Malakir Cullblade
2 Hand of Silumgar
2 Child of Night
2 Onyx Mage
2 Blood Scrivener
2 Markov Patrician
2 Nantuko Husk
2 Soulcage Fiend
2 Undead Executioner
2 Rakshasa Gravecaller
2 Bloodgift Demon
Spells
2 Sign in Blood
2 Doom Blade
2 Murder
2 Tribute to Hunger
2 Gild
Enchantments
2 Shadows of the Past
Land
24 Swamp
[/d]
I’ve opted for a sacrifice/death trigger theme for black with an alternate win con of Shadows of the Past (or just an incredibly hench [mtg_card]Nantuko Husk[/mtg_card]).
[d title="New Player Training Deck - Red - 10/09/2015"]
Creatures
2 Forge Devil
2 Lightning Berserker
4 Ashmouth Hound
2 Stormblood Berserker
2 Abbot of Keral Keep
2 Crimson Mage
2 Scab Clan Berserker
2 Acolyte of the Inferno
2 Goblin Heelcutter
2 Scourge of Geier Reach
2 Zealous Conscripts
Spells
2 Fiery Impulse
2 Tormenting Voice
4 Searing Spear
2 Pyrotechnics
Enchantment
2 Madcap Skills
Land
24 Mountain
[/d]
Red has a lot of creatures which are either hard to block or which punish blocking plus a good assortment of burn. Burn goes without saying. I’ve also allowed a little bit of dash into this one as its a fairly straightforward mechanic (the previous version actually had archwing dragon).
[d title="New Player Training Deck - Green - 10/09/2015"]
Creature (26)
4 Llanowar Elves
2 Darkthicket Wolf
2 Jade Mage
2 Alpine Grizzly
2 Netcaster Spider
2 Briarpack Alpha
2 Somberwald Alpha
2 Giant Spider
2 Thragtusk
2 Woodborn Behemoth
2 Arbor Colossus
2 Garruk's Horde
Spells
2 Titanic Growth
2 Tread Upon
2 Prey Upon
2 Cultivate
Enchantment
2 Triumph of Ferocity
Land (24)
24 Forest
[/d]
Green is exactly what you would expect, ramp, big creatures some things that play off having the biggest baddest creature on the field.
I’ve played a fair few games with people who only have casual decks with these and they’ve worked pretty well for that. They’ve also been a success when taking people through their first couple of games.
The match ups weren’t perfect in the previous versions, for example green tended to die to the flyer heavy decks a little too often. These current versions contain some tweaks which I’m hoping will rebalance them slightly.
Sometimes a draft just comes together and you get a fantastic polished machine of a deck, something that almost feels like constructed-lite. I was lucky enough to have one of those last Friday. For context this was a 6 man draft and in the end Blue seemed pretty open even with me hogging all the good red (Blue is traditionally rather under drafted in my group, at least in this set).
The draft opened with a Scab-Clan Berserker, and I followed that by sticking to red as my main colour throughout pack 1. In general I try and stick to 1 main colour in pack 1 just to stay open for later in the draft and that worked pretty well here as I pretty effectively staked out red and had my choice (mostly in pack 2 where i picked up Skysnare Spider, Undercity Troll and Valeron Wardens) of pretty much anything as support.
In fact for the entire draft red stayed wide open so I was able to pick up multiples of some of the better cards. In fact its only Undercity Troll that really convinced me to not try mono red.
Also as a fun little bonus I picked up a Hangarback Walker as my rare in pack 3, although he didn’t come out that much except as win-more in a couple of games. The walker was only hugely relevant in one odd game where I started with it and removal and pretty much had to play defensively for a long time (in that situation the Walker is an all star, constantly threatening to get beyond the reach of combat).
Round one was vs BG Elves and opened with a truly ridiculous start of T2 Undercity Troll, T3 Valeron Wardens, T4 Firefiend Elemental. By the end of the game I had a full board on top of about 6 cards in hand from a stream of renown triggers. It was a sort of magical christmas land moment.
Game 2 wasn’t so outright ridiculous but still progressed similarly. I did over extend a little but decided the odds of the one card that could stop me, Eyeblight Massacre (which admittedly my opponent had in his deck), actually appearing was limited enough and the risk did pay off.
Round 2 was a UB control build. In games 1 and 3 he just didn’t have the blockers to survive the relentless onslaught of dudes. Game 2 my opponent got pretty much all removal until a [mtg_card]Possessed Skaab[/mtg_card] to return MORE REMOVAL while I got badly flooded out (it happens to us all from time to time) and couldn’t maintain any kind of relevant board presence.
Round 3 was a tempo-ey UW flyers deck. Again the early rush proved too much except for one bizarre game where I opened on [mtg_card]Hangarback Walker[/mtg_card] + a guy and my opponent removed the guy and put [mtg_card]Grasp of the Hieromancer[/mtg_card] on a creature putting me in a strange defensive position of having to bluff the boardstate into allowing me to appear to need to chump with the walker then pump him to get large enough to trade. That series of things drained enough of my opponents toys though that I was able to rebuild afterwords with an assortment of Thopter makers.
Sadly over the entire course of the night I never saw [mtg_card]Skysnare Spider[/mtg_card] or [mtg_card]Ravaging Blaze[/mtg_card].
As a thought experiment I’ve put together what is probably the best mono-red deck you could get from this pool.
The question to me is do you run [mtg_card]Goblin Glory Chaser[/mtg_card] or [mtg_card]Throwing Knife[/mtg_card]…Im genuinely not sure…probably the Knife.
NOTES FROM A WEEK LATER:
This Friday just gone I managed to end up with an extremely similar deck, albeit slightly slower. I don’t have the full list to hand but this time I had 3 [mtg_card]Lightning Javelin[/mtg_card], 1 [mtg_card]Exquisite Firecraft[/mtg_card] and 3 [mtg_card]Fiery Impulse[/mtg_card]…yeah…quite happy with that. Creature wise I lost the thopter makers and Hangarback, getting double [mtg_card]Zendikar Incarnate[/mtg_card], another [mtg_card]Undercity Troll[/mtg_card] and a couple of [mtg_card]Yeva’s Forcemage[/mtg_card].
I didn’t manage 3-0 this time, instead i won the first two rounds then lost to a bizarre [mtg_card]Angels Tomb[/mtg_card]+[mtg_card]War Horn[/mtg_card]+[mtg_card]Flameshadow Conjuring[/mtg_card]+wide assortment of 1 drop creatures deck. I didn’t see THAT coming I can say that much.
In my last post I shared my “fun casual” deck list for GP London. I was expecting to play a few rounds, get my arse handed to me and progress to side events. In the end that’s not quite how it went.
As a reminder here is the deck list:
[d title="BW Warriors - August 2015"]
Creatures
2 Brutal Hordechief
2 Arashin Foremost
2 Mardu Strike Leader
4 Chief of the Edge 4 Seeker of the Way
2 Battle Brawler
2 Blood-Chin Rager
4 Bloodsoaked Champion 4 Mardu Woe-Reaper
Removal4 Hero's Downfall 2 Ultimate Price
Utility
2 Secure the Wastes
4 Valorous Stance
Land4 Temple of Silence 4 Caves of Koilos
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth7 Plains
6 Swamp
Sideboard
1 Ajani Steadfast
2 Sorin, Solemn Visitor2 Brimaz, King of Oreskos
2 Blood-Chin Fanatic2 Mardu Strike Leader
2 Banishing Light
4 Thoughtseize
[/d]
Oh yeah, I lost every dice roll so just assume I’m always going second in the first game.
General Impressions
I have to say well done to SCG, the entire day was run as smooth as anything. The morning of the event I got an email confirming everything and giving me my seat number for the player’s meeting, which was kept pleasantly brief (with an improvement to the god-awful PA of the previous GP London) and (seriously this made the day so much better) gave out a web address where you could enter your name and get your pairings for the current round. I cannot stress enough how much more pleasant this was than the pairings sheet scrums I’ve seen in all my other large events.
There were no inexplicable delays between rounds (there was one fairly long one but we decided it was probably a GW Devotion mirror as there was a crowd around an ongoing game).
Also there was what seemed to be too much space booked for the main event so there was a lot of space to spread out in so there were plenty of tables for casual play and space to get away from the crowds (which were nicely spread out). Having spent the day hardly seeing anyone overly serious or in a bad mood I really do think that the extra space, more elbow room at tables, online pairings etc really contributed to the general good mood.
Within a few minutes from the start of the players meeting pairings appeared online and everyone was able to meander off to their games without any undue kerfuffle.
Round 1 – Esper Control
My first round was against an opponent playing a home-brew Esper control deck.
In the first game he started with [mtg_card]Harbinger of the Tides[/mtg_card] backed up by [mtg_card]Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy[/mtg_card] and assorted removal. Harbinger at least slowed me down but Jace did almost nothing after flipping (eventually dying to a [mtg_card]Hero’s Downfall[/mtg_card] I had no other targets for. He was able to play a [mtg_card]Dragonlord Ojutai[/mtg_card] but it was too late for it to do anything on the defensive but die to first strike damage so he swung to get the mini-[mtg_card]impulse[/mtg_card]. I was never able to get a massive game winning swing due to removal and bounce so I just had to grind the game out with [mtg_card]Battle Brawler[/mtg_card], [mtg_card]Seeker of the Way[/mtg_card] and a [mtg_card]Chief of the Edge[/mtg_card].
In the second game I opened with [mtg_card]Chief of the Edge[/mtg_card] into [mtg_card]Arashin Foremost[/mtg_card] (all star of the entire day for me) into [mtg_card]Sorin, Solemn Visitor[/mtg_card] and my opponent wasn’t able to make a defence quickly enough.
Standing: 1-0
Round 2 – GW Hardened Scales
My second opponent was playing a GW Hardened Scales build. In the first game I didn’t really see much of this beyond a[mtg_card]Servant of the Scale[/mtg_card] and a [mtg_card]Den Protector[/mtg_card] as he got stuck on 2 mana for most of the game.
In the second game he went off pretty fast with a very early pair of [mtg_card]Hardened Scales[/mtg_card] followed by a [mtg_card]Managorger Hydra[/mtg_card], a [mtg_card]Dromoka’s Command[/mtg_card] and some things which didn’t really stick in my mind due to the 14/14 [mtg_card]Managorger Hydra[/mtg_card]. Luckily I had a [mtg_card]Valorous Stance[/mtg_card] in hand after taking a hit down to 6 life. At that point he had burned through enough of his cards that I was able to beat him down.
Standing: 2-0
Round 3 – Bant Heroic
By this point I was in a state of disbelief that I was doing this well (as I said I was expecting 3 rounds, drop, side events). Next up was Bant Heroic.
I lost the dice roll, as was the style at the time, and he opened up with favored hoplite, quickly buffing it up with a Dromoka’s Command and swinging for 3 then 4 a turn. I had an early [mtg_card]Seeker of the Way[/mtg_card] and removal to get each of his other creatures out of the way (leaving me gaining life to offset the hoplite and being able to keep hitting), eventually winning with a [mtg_card]Chief of the Edge[/mtg_card] and a bunch of EOT [mtg_card]Secure the Wastes[/mtg_card] tokens.
Game 2, on the draw I took a risky hand of a single [mtg_card]Temple of Silence[/mtg_card] and no other land with an aggressive 2 mana hand. It paid off with me drawing a basic off of the scry while my opponent mulliganed to 4 without seeing a land. What followed was basically a massacre.
Standing: 3-0
Round 4 – GR Ramp
It is at this point that things started to go downhill. This game in particular was pretty much the worst match up I can imagine.
Abzan I knew would be bad but I had some ways around that ([mtg_card]Blood-Chin Rager[/mtg_card] to get the team around single large creatures, a big [mtg_card]Secure the Wastes[/mtg_card] at EOT to swarm around defenders etc) but I hadn’t thought about some of the cards here.
In the first game I didn’t see a huge amount of his deck beyond ramp creatures and a pair of [mtg_card]Whisperwood Elementals[/mtg_card]. The quick production of lots of moderately sized guys pretty much put a wall up in front of my guys and I was beaten fairly easily.
Game two went in my favour due to mana screw on my opponents part (the great thing about aggro decks is being able to walk over any misstep from an opponent, even in a bad match).
Sadly in game three he got pretty much the ideal setup, ramp into [mtg_card]Whisperwood Elemental[/mtg_card], [mtg_card]Dragonlord Atarka[/mtg_card] to clear my board and then [mtg_card]Genesis Hydra[/mtg_card] into [mtg_card]Polukranos, World Eater[/mtg_card]. Yeah, suffice it to say I lost that game hard.
Standing: 3-1
Round 5 – Abzan
It’s at this point in the day that i wrote “[mtg_card]Hangarback Walker[/mtg_card] Everywhere” in my notebook. Every direction I looked I could see them. Even the heroic deck had them. Anyway…
This was the Abzan match-up I was actually ready for. In game 1 my opponent started with [mtg_card]Fleecemane Lion[/mtg_card] followed by [mtg_card]Anafenza the Foremost[/mtg_card]. It amounted to little though because I got a couple of guys (I want to say a [mtg_card]Seeker of the Way[/mtg_card] and a [mtg_card]Chief of the Edge[/mtg_card] but that might be wrong) along with a pair of [mtg_card]Arashin Foremost[/mtg_card].
Game two was relatively easy too, going from [mtg_card]Seeker of the Way[/mtg_card] into [mtg_card]Chief of the Edge[/mtg_card] into [mtg_card]Sorin, Solemn Visitor[/mtg_card] pausing along the way to remove a series of big creatures to get the lifelink triggers.
Standing: 4-1
Round 6 – Abzan 2, this time its personal.
For my second Abzan match of the day I started by rapidly losing to a series of [mtg_card]Siege Rhino[/mtg_card]. I think I had to accept that would happen at least once.
Game 2 I made a pretty good opening and was a turn away from a massive game winning swing. Then [mtg_card]Drown in Sorrow[/mtg_card] happened. Sadface. I managed to rebuild a board presence to try again and was hit by [mtg_card]Languish[/mtg_card].
A double boardwipe followed up by big creatures is pretty much death to an aggro deck and I was rapidly killed, unable to build back up again.
Standing: 4-2
Round 7 – WRb Aggro/Burn
Game 1 opened with us both playing [mtg_card]Seeker of the Way[/mtg_card]. I lost mine to removal but followed up with a [mtg_card]Battle Brawler[/mtg_card] into [mtg_card]Arashin Foremost[/mtg_card] and was able to just pound my way through the opposing tokens and [mtg_card]Goblin Rabblemaster[/mtg_card].
Game 2 I lost most of my guys to a succession of burn spells and died to a pair of Rabblemasters (that adds up seriously quick…gotta get me some for modern goblins).
I had some hopes for the final game but while I made some good early progress I lost it to my opponent playing a [mtg_card]Soulfire Grand Master[/mtg_card] then wiping the board with [mtg_card]Anger of the Gods[/mtg_card] and then out come the Rabblemasters.
Standing: 4-3-Drop
The End
4-3-Drop may not seem like a huge deal but I was seriously happy to get that far, especially with a casual deck and no practice (beyond my weekly draft and the odd bit of casual).
I will say that aggro decks provide one serious benefit that the midrange and control player’s don’t get to experience. Every round was done in 20-30 minutes, leaving me plenty of time to chat to my opponents (seriously I had a really nice run of opponents, really made the day go smoother). A solid day of Magic is a very different experience to alternating Magic and a nice stroll in the sun/Lunch/bit of shopping.
And as a souvenir I was just able to catch Karl Kopinski before he finished and get a [mtg_card]Battle Brawler[/mtg_card] and [mtg_card]Blood-Chin Rager[/mtg_card] from my deck signed.
At this point in my magic playing career I’ve come to the conclusion that my skill level is inversely proportional to the number of players attending the event in which I am competing. I’ve gone from winning and placing well in local leagues and tournaments to mediocre placements in large pre-releases to a pretty consistent 1-4/0-5 then drop in large events.
Part of it is a don’t play a great deal online and only have limited testing opportunities. Another part came down to odd match ups and completely consistently getting awful match ups (5 straight rounds vs merfolk in modern when playing as BG infect was a particularly bad one). Plus I think there may be an element of I just don’t play as well in that kind of environment.
In the last GP I went to (the sealed GP london for … I think it was gatecrash) I crashed out after an abysmal series of rounds (bad pool, plus I was worse at building sealed back then than I am now). Despite all of that I want to go anyway for another GP [mtg_card]Griselbrand[/mtg_card], to get the mat (I like Chandra and it’ll go nicely with my M14 game day mat) and for some general fun, after all if I do terribly I can just wander off to side events and buy stuff.
Given it’s been a fair old while since I’ve played standard or had any idea of the meta game (beyond knowing [mtg_card]Siege Rhino[/mtg_card] and [mtg_card]Tasigur, the Golden Fang[/mtg_card] are big deals) I doubt that I’m going to have any particular success with a very meta-gamey type arrangement so I may as well go for a fun option.
I had two major options in mind, the first being a pretty simple abzan midrange build. It was a traditional assortment of [mtg_card]Courser of Kruphix[/mtg_card], [mtg_card]Siege Rhino[/mtg_card], [mtg_card]Elspeth, Sun’s Champion[/mtg_card] along with removal and some guys to fill out the list.
I eventually ruled this out on the basis that it’s never been a deck type I’ve been that great at playing and given how common the big chunky midrange deck type is at the moment everyone will be well set up to deal with it.
My other option (and pretty much the only thing I have all the cards to build the deck in a half decent way) is warriors. I’ve had a few versions of this as we go from set to set. The original was a super budget build with [mtg_card]Raiders’ Spoils[/mtg_card], [mtg_card]Spear of Heliod[/mtg_card] 4 of both chiefs and an assortment of budget creatures.
With fate reforged I bought in [mtg_card]Brutal Hordechief[/mtg_card], [mtg_card]Mardu Strike Leader[/mtg_card] and the fantastically flexible [mtg_card]Valorous Stance[/mtg_card]. I also experimented with [mtg_card]Merciless Executioner[/mtg_card] but he rapidly got downgraded from main to sideboard to “in the box of cards again”. I like the card, he just doesn’t fit with what you’re trying to do in this deck.
With dragons the option to add this blocks “Three mana double white two two double strike with upside” dude came up. He isn’t [mtg_card]Silverblade Paladin[/mtg_card] but in this deck he’s better.
[d title="BW Warriors - August 2015"]
Creatures
2 Brutal Hordechief
2 Arashin Foremost
2 Mardu Strike Leader
4 Chief of the Edge 4 Seeker of the Way
2 Battle Brawler
2 Blood-Chin Rager
4 Bloodsoaked Champion 4 Mardu Woe-Reaper
Removal4 Hero's Downfall 2 Ultimate Price
Utility
2 Secure the Wastes
4 Valorous Stance
Land4 Temple of Silence 4 Caves of Koilos
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth7 Plains
6 Swamp
Sideboard
1 Ajani Steadfast
2 Sorin, Solemn Visitor2 Brimaz, King of Oreskos
2 Blood-Chin Fanatic2 Mardu Strike Leader
2 Banishing Light
4 Thoughtseize
[/d]
With this version, pre sideboard at least, I’m going for a lower curve than I usually would with only [mtg_card]Brutal Hordechief[/mtg_card] at 4.
I was sad to drop [mtg_card]Chief of the Scale[/mtg_card] but this deck is very much trying to be aggressive and I think in the end that Rager and Brawler are better (the mass menace in particular could swing a few games).
[mtg_card]Seeker of the Way[/mtg_card] should be an asset against more aggressive opponents, especially considering the large amount of instant speed removal. “Shoot guy A, my seeker now survives and kills blocker B” isn’t an implausible scenario.
As mentioned, for removal I’ve gone for all instant speed and as much versatility as I can. [mtg_card]Hero’s Downfall[/mtg_card], for me at least, is an auto include in any black deck. The option to kill an opposing Sorin or Ajani (or just big dumb blocker) is too useful to turn up. Ultimate price is just for additional cheap removal. [mtg_card]Valorous Stance[/mtg_card] is replacing a full set of [mtg_card]God’s Willing[/mtg_card] that I ran in the previous version of the deck. I can see missing the option to just make a guy semi unblockable but the option for yet more removal is too good, especially vs the aforementioned rhinos.
Another bonus of the all instant speed removal is the possibility of holding up removal and, should it not be needed, dumping all my mana into secure the wastes at opponents EOT. even if its only for 3 the tokens still play pretty nicely with [mtg_card]Chief of the Edge[/mtg_card], [mtg_card]Brutal Hordechief[/mtg_card] etc (and Sorin post board)
The sideboard is still a work in progress but it gives me some options to take the deck a couple of ways.
[mtg_card]Blood-Chin Fanatic[/mtg_card] is an experimental option to use against midrange decks as an alternate way to get the last few points of damage through once they stabilise. The off-tribe [mtg_card]Brimaz, King of Oreskos[/mtg_card] is here as an anti aggro option, but also strikes me as possibly useful vs control brought in along with the extra [mtg_card]Mardu Strike Leader[/mtg_card]s.
[mtg_card]Banishing Light[/mtg_card] and [mtg_card]Thoughtseize[/mtg_card] are generic catch all options. [mtg_card]Sorin, Solemn Visitor[/mtg_card] is a more fun option which I imagine I’ll bring in in any matchup where I don’t see him immediately dying without providing much value.
Finally as is traditional my 15th sideboard card is just a random throw in for fun (call me OCD but I hate 1 and 3 ofs), although [mtg_card]Ajani Steadfast[/mtg_card] could come in handy against creature heavy decks to keep a guy that would otherwise die alive in combat every go.
All this being said everything above is wild conjecture so I’m looking forward to actually…you know…playing the damn thing.
What do you reckon the odds are on a traditional 0-4, drop, shop for cube foils result?
My break in the town turned out to be less relaxing than I originally intended. Had a fight with this guy. He was a pretty good sport about the whole thing.
I won.
Then the Jarl asked me to investigate a burnt out house. That strikes me more as a job for the local fire department but I won’t complain. You would think that ONE of the townsfolk would have noticed the creepy ghost girl occupying the place. She challenged me to play hide and seek to tell me who torched the place. Given the fact she was already dead and that my usual persuasive techniques (smashy smashy) would be largely ineffective I complied. Then a vampire attacked me.
It turns out there was some kind of vampire love triangle thing going on. I wasn’t really paying attention. The gist of it was there was a “master vampire” in a cave just outside the town. I was not entirely sure at the time whether this was literal or a BDSM dungeon type thing.
It turned out to be literal vampires so the town and I “Torch and Pitchforked” our way over to the vampires lair and slaughtered them all. I caught a nasty case of turning into a vampire but I had a thing for that.
Work done I set off back on the road to Whiterun. Then a dragon happened.
The problem in the end didn’t turn out to be keeping them on the ground as I expected but getting close enough to hit them while they try and breath blast you to death. Full frontal charge followed by repeated face smashings do seem to be the way to go.
I did die a couple of times in the process. I found that any time I tried to be clever and flank it I would lose a ton of health then it would take off again.
Luckily on the final attempt he was kind enough to stay on the ground, and I got a free recharge from leveling up mid fight.
Now back to the road. I’m sure things can’t get worse from here.
Oh, it’s snowing, delightful.
And bandits. Great. Are there not policemen or soldiers or something around here. Like some guys on horses with armour and weapons. I don’t think its asking a lot, I mean what do you pay your taxes for in a place like this. It’s not like they’ve invented proper sewage or rubbish collection yet.
Oh and vampires. That’s it, I’m talking to the Jarl.
Ahh, finally I’m back. I’m gonna sell my stuff and get started on an actual proper quest. First though I’m going to go and have words about some things.
Well that was the plan, I was going to dramatically march in and “have words” with the Jarl. As it turns out though someone happened to appear out of nowhere just when I was getting my angry on (literally, she wasn’t in the room when I walked in, maybe she finally caught up to me because I’d not been fast travelling).
Good Lord Lydia where the hell have you been?
“Right behind me….but…for…fucking hell Lydia I got the crap beaten out of me by a necromancer, I nearly turned into a vampire twice and A BEAR ATE MY FUCKING HORSE!!”
*sigh* “I am sworn to carry your burdens”
“You know what Lydia I am not in the mood for your shit, just carry this dragon bone for me”
OK, fine, let’s just set off now and deal with some shit. It’s time to go and see the Greybeards and the walks going to take a while.
More bandits. I think I might be going seriously the wrong way. Well at least this time I have some backup.
And they had some nice armour in their chest. Not sure why they weren’t using it really. Not sure about the colour though. Kind of clashes with the green. It will have to do for now though.
The remainder of the Journey to Ivarstead was largely uneventful.
Now just to stop in the town for the night before we head on up the mountain, that’s bound to be a lengthy and tiring trek full of trip hazards.
You know what…You could just ask, you don’t need to go all out on the hints. I’ve got an axe as big as you, it’s probably a safe bet I would be interested in new and interesting things to hit with it.
You could probably convert that into like 10 flats (sorry “luxury apartments”), maybe add a second floor, really maximise rental income, you know?
Eurgh, I feel dirty now.
Yeah, actually, you go first Lydia. Make up for the horse. Wait what’s that noise.
Wow, how’s that for a shit welcome. I come all the way out to this place and a ghost tells me to fuck off. Charming.
Dude’s got a nice office though, classy you know. Ambient. Just need to randomly pull some levers until I can follow that translucent dickhead and…There we go.
Surprisingly solid for a ghost. Oh its just an old weirdo with a special potion that makes him look like a ghost that he uses to terrorise the townsfolk. And he would have gotten away with it all if it wasn’t for this meddling orc.
Oh, it’s not your fault…I think it’s probably all the meat and beer fumes making you unusually susceptible to poorly implemented shenanigans.
What’s that, a gift you say?
Oooo, a shiny thing. I know what these do (interesting aside it took me a disturbingly long time to work out that you could rotate items in the inventory the first time I played, made these dungeons a lot more hassle).
These things strike me as very over engineered for a huge stone door. In fact how long have these things even been here. I mean how does it even work, it’s like the tomb at the start of raiders of the lost arc, none of that shit should be working.
Hmm, this could be dangerous. Lydia take point.
Hey Mr Skeltal, you’re back!
Hmm, skeletons. I can handle skeletons. And zombies. Rather a lot of skeletons and zombies.
Giant pools of oil like this make me miss bows. Tried to unrelenting force the lamps down but, of course, they flew off and missed. Need to find a way to heave half a brick at them.
For a draugr overlord he didnt take too much killing. Still, theres a wall of shoutiness. Worth the effort to get that.
Oh, “Kyne’s Peace”. Great, if I anger a mudcrab thatll really help more than FusRoDa ing the snippy little sod over the horizon. *sigh*
Now all that’s left to do here is rest up once more at the inn and set off up the…wait…oh my god what the hell happened to you?!
I mean that broom literally went straight through you…did you trip and fall onto it? Is…is no one else horrified by this. No? OK then, everyone seems fine with it. Maybe they’re waiting for shock to set in or for that flute to fill up with blood before they do anything.
Maybe…maybe she hasn’t noticed and no one wants to alarm her in case she causes a scene. I think I shall just back slowly away.
It is picturesque as fuck up here.
This is a really pretty game. It’s easy to forget it came out in 2011.
Dammit Lydia, you don’t shoot a guy in the dick! I realise I killed him with an axe anyway but it’s the principle of the thing.
Nice place they’ve got up here. Commutes a pisser but the views are pretty nice. I suppose if you walk up and down this mountain every day you can at least skip leg day due to your huge over developed leg muscles. Probably good for kicking in any doors that refuse to do your bidding as well.
Hmm, typical courier just dump your shit anywhere,
Hmm….This doesn’t feel right to me. It’s like there’s something missing. Wait, I know just the thing.
There…That’s better. Class the place up a bit.
The personal touch really makes a difference, doesn’t it?
I continued my quest for adventure by riding to the far north west.
The first town I stumbled on was Solitude, in which some random peasant was complaining about oddities in a cave. Prevailing opinion was that he was probably mental but I thought id have a look.
Most impolitely the proprieters of Wolfskull Cave had left some Skeletons loitering outside. That’s practically fly-tipping, theres a reason you don’t just dump gran in the woods. Yeah she’s not causing any trouble now but a few weeks from now and some time with the crows and the daft old biddy could constitute a major public health hazard.
Oh Noes!! Its Mr Skeltal.Doot Doot motherfucker. Fat lot of good all that calcium did for you….I’m keeping this.
There’s still no sign of Lydia. I really should look for her. She had all my dragon bone. Probably sold it all for skooma money and passed out on a heap of kitty-people. So I guess I’ll be going in on my own.
You call that a welcoming party, hah. Smashy smashy. Maybe the next thing they throw at me will be a tad more impressive.
Or not as the case may be. For a traditionally high intelligence class this guy doesn’t strike me as the top of the class. No worries though, repeated axe blows to the face will solve most problems in a “whole new heap of problems” kind of way.
Then all of a sudden the cavalry comes running. With backup. Like the entire population of the cave. Now I remember why I used to kill the enemies one at a time from a great distance.
His buddies drop easily enough but this guy just refuses to drop dead. You’d think repeated axe blows would do a bit more damage. Nevermind, im running out of potions and this guy just wont drop. That means one thing: RETREAT.
That was highly embarrassing, but even Orcs don’t have a death wish. Well not for the most part anyway. It would appear though that I’m not quite ready to take on the world single handed. Perhaps the best plan is to ride back to Whiterun, clear a little of the main story and upgrade Unrelenting Force a little. Maybe buy a house to store my stuff and track Lydia down.
What’s this then? Poor murdered travellers? That’s more my level. I shall investigate and avenge their deaths.
Lord it get’s even worse…wait…what’s this?
NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE. Abandon righteous crusade. Run away.
So…yeah. Back to the road. My it’s a long way to whiterun. No wonder I usually use fast travel. But that’s the point, I don’t want to miss all the fun on the road. Like this, look, its some guys…standing by some barely dressed corpses.
That’s…something. Lets say hi.
On second thought I don’t think soldiers usually stand by the road demanding money from passers by.
Yes, I think you might be right on that.
Now, lets get back to business. Now…where the hell is my horse. Oh…
Oh, for god’s sake where did you come from.
Yep…He definitely killed my horse. Look’s like it’s RAGE TIME.
Just because you’re a huge hairy creature doesnt mean reapeatedly being smashed in the face with a two handed battleaxe won’t kill you. In fact it will, quite nicely.
Still, feeling a tad angry still, especially given now I have to walk all the sodding way to Whiterun. I do still feel a little rampagey. Gonna need to kill some more thing’s. Not hugely specific on what.
Yes, that. That’ll do nicely. Whatever happens to be in there.
Killed these guys.
And this one. So much for magical wards.
“Oh I do declare”
This one just got the vapors and fainted.
Killed this guy so hard he exploded.
This one didn’t explode. Just fell over dead.
I DO like these guys taste in interior decoration. I’ll give them that one.
Doesn’t mean that any of them will be saved from my post horse rage party.
Ahhhh….That’s much better. Now what was I doing…Oh yeah, walking to Whiterun. Back to the road it is.
Lordy there’s a lot of road. Should stop somewhere. That’ll be nice.
This place doesn’t look too bad. They’ve probably got some problems with damp but I imagine that won’t be a problem if I only stay ONE night.
