All posts by Noob of All Trades

Shawn Lucas is the self identified "Noob of All Trades". He is married and the father of three boys, two of whom help with their own podcast every couple of months. Raised on Atari, Nintendo, and Sega, he enjoys all games and will play all of them to the best of his ability, which is often average at best. Currently, he is most interested in Magic, Heroclix, and other games that he can play with Chris and his sons.
Digital Playground

March of the Lich King Neutral Cards I Love

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Introduction

I got semi-back into the habit of writing on a weekly basis yesterday with my short love poem about Hearthstone. I questioned if I would follow up with my (in the recent past of about a year ago) with my individual reviews of cards for the new set that released this week. Initially, I thought I might just write one review on Friday of the whole set. Then, today, in between working through the Death Knight prologue, I opened my packs from the bundle I bought. After that came the idea to write an article about Lich King neutral cards.

As I opened the pack, I said to myself, out loud, “Oh, wow!” “Cool!” “Nice!” I said them all more than once and must have said them enough that my brain got the idea to start the “Cards I Love” series again for Hearthstone. I guess I lost track of the number of heroes in the game because I only wanted to do Lich King neutrals in this article. But, stay tuned for a special surprise or two at the end.

Lich King Neutrals: Honorable Mention

ell Taunt, Lifesteal, and Manathirst, oh my!

Sanctum Spellbender brings an often requested mechanic to the game. Technically, it already exists, but the other Spellbender is a secret. This one explicitly defines the mechanic and gets us one step closer to a keyword or evergreen mechanic. Maybe next set. I like the San’layn because it made me look up lore. Any card that leads me to a lore rabbit hole is a good card by my book. The third card, as usual, highlights a new evergreen. Manathirst adds functionality to a card if you have that much mana in your pool.

Cards I Love: Lich King Neutrals

You all know how much I love my janky cards that have the potential to break the game. While this one doesn’t quite have that potential, it is one heck of a combo card and I feel like I’m going to have a ton of fun playing this one. Plus, I opened it in one of my packs.

Special Surprise: Demon Hunter Honorable Mention

Minions? We don’t need no stinking minions!

After opening my packs this morning, I downloaded a deck list to finish the special quest for the set release. Coincidentally, it matched one of my daily quests to play as Demon Hunter. They seem to be pushing minionless as an archetype in Demon Hunter. I played both of these cards multiple times in my two games and they both have crazy utility.

Special Surprise: Demon Hunter Card I Love

This one came with the deck list I played earlier. It takes the only three minions in the deck (very good minions) and turns them into spells, thereby unlocking the minionless strategy for the deck. In addition, you get a Fiery Win Axe+. Good deal.

Special Surprise: Death Knight Honorable Mention

Rise, my legion, and serve your king!

The Death Knight class comes with some new and interesting mechanics. One of them comes in the form of corpses. You collect them either by having minions die or through other means. As these cards show, you use them to unlock spells and sometimes minions. I only used these cards in the prologue, so I can’t speak to their actual functionality.

Special Surprise: Death Knight Card I Love

Seemingly an underwhelming card and you’re not wrong. It does have my favorite mechanic, discover, and it teases the concept of corpses and runes. So, while not a “good card”, it unlocks the potential for a ton of fun.

The Verdict

As I looked through the Lich King neutrals, I felt less “Wow!” than I did when opening the packs. But, those cards (and the others here, plus still others coming this weekend) got me to download a deck list and play a couple of games. I enjoyed playing actual Hearthstone more than in recent memory and who knows? Maybe the Lich King will get me to play Hearthstone more just like he did World of Warcraft all those years ago.

Disclaimer: All images taken from this page.

Digital Playground

Hearthstone is a Gift

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Introduction

Regular readers of the page might wonder about that title. Seeing as how most of my articles (except for a recent slate of complimentary reviews), I wrote about a hate/hate relationship with the game, you might wonder how I arrived at “Hearthstone is a gift”. Like most of my changes of heart, it came in stages over a period of time. I kept coming back to finish daily quests. They kept me around by introducing a new game mode. Now, I stay because I genuinely enjoy the game.

I Still Don’t Get It

Blizzard knows how to keep their players on a treadmill. At the height of my World of Warcraft playing, I logged in on a daily basis simply to complete a series of quests. As the days went on, the number of those quests grew exponentially, but they only gave credit for a limited amount. 25, maybe? I don’t remember. You know what else I don’t remember? Why I even finished these quests and what virtual rewards they granted. At least with Hearthstone, they tie the quests into their “Battle Pass”. This gives cards, packs, and cosmetic rewards. The collector in me shudders with glee every time I unlock a new tier. Plus, I can complete the quests in Battlegrounds.

Yes, You Mentioned a New Game Mode

I can’t explain the appeal of Battleground. You use gold to buy and sell minions. If you collect three, they become golden. You can use that golden minion to discover another new minion. These minions run into each other until one or both boards are empty and then you do damage to your opponent. It all sounds so ridiculous. And, yet, I play the mode on a daily basis. I even log in and play Battlegrounds when I have no quest to complete. Hell, a couple of years ago, I watched streams of the game.

What, even, is this?

The Verdict

I still swear profusely when playing the traditional mode of Hearthstone. I still wonder how and why my opponents luck seems so perfect in nearly every single game. But, honestly, it’s that way with all of these CCGs. MTGA, Eternal, and Hearthstone cause me emotional damage on a scale incalculable. However, I play every single one of those games on a daily basis and I don’t see that changing anytime soon. Keep giving me skins, packs, and card sleeves and I’ll keep playing your stupid game. Because, truly, Hearthstone is a gift.

Uncategorized

Thankful for Nintendo and D&D Club

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Introduction

As you can see, I themed the page for the Christmas holiday season. Right now, I plan to use this for December and January, but I might change my mind when Christmas is over as this is a very December focused theme right now. Eventually, I want to have a rotating theme for each month, so what better month to start with than January? Okay, with all of that being said, I also wanted to write one last thankful post for Nintendo and D&D Club.

I gave my notice the week of Thanksgiving at my current job. I start my new job next week. So, this is my last week in charge of the two clubs. Now is as good a time to look back, think about the positives from the clubs, and express thanks for the opportunities they provided. If this entry becomes too personal, I apologize. It’s been about a month since I wrote in any of my journals.

Thankful for Nintendo Club

This year, I started with several stipend positions already.. I continued running Dungeons and Dragons club for the high school and picked up the middle school club, too. I became a LINK leader. LINK is a nationwide club for high school seniors to essentially “adopt” high school freshmen and help them in the transition from middle school to high school. Later, I became STEM team leader (mostly by default) and was supposed to run an eSports team. That never materialized due to time constraints.

The point of all that is wrapped in the first sentence of the paragraph. I already picked up more than my share of extra work. So, when one of the students came to me with the question, “Mr. Lucas, will you do Nintendo Club?”, I went to the school activities director and asked, “Does nobody else work here?” Then, of course, because I’ve only recently started to consider my own physical and mental health above that of others, I said, “Yes.”

Like most extracurricular clubs, this one started out chaotic. Eventually, we settled into a regular group and set some boundaries for everyone to follow. Two groups asked to use my projector in the room, which then became strictly a Smash Bros. station. I enjoy the interaction between all of the students, even when they require intervention because start to get out of hand. Tough they asked me once or twice to play Smash Bros., I never played any of the games with the kids. I gave them my standard answer of, “I’m trash at that game.”

Given more time at the job, I planned several improvements to both my classes and the clubs. One thing I wanted was to purchase large screen monitors for the students to use in the club. Alas, an abrupt end always brings some measure of regret.

Thankful for D&D Club

I took over the high school D&D club two years ago in the aftermath of Covid. The faithful group of 4-6 met on a weekly basis with others popping in every now and then. I always laughed during their sessions, which became ever more absurd as time went on. It reminded me of the times in high school when my friends and I gathered in my friend Kenny’s or Damian’s basement and played ourselves.

The group grew after the immediate dangers of Covid faded. Last year, they increased to a regular group of about 8 with as many as twelve dropping in some weeks. Then, I took over for the middle school club and things exploded. I can’t take all of the credit for it. Stranger Things definitely increased interest in the game.

And, now, this is one of only two sets I can’t afford to buy because it is a collector’s item. Oh well, I found the PDF online.

At any given time this year, there can be as many as five different groups running an adventure. I stepped in a couple of times to run a group for Curse of Strahd and then again this past week started a Dungeon of the Mad Mage adventure for a couple of kids who couldn’t find their way into one of the other groups.

The Verdict

While they took free time away, I am absolutely thankful for Nintendo and D&D club. Nintendo brought me joy and got me looking for my copy of Hades (I can’t find it and will end up ordering it again, I’m sure) and bringing home a Switch for the family to play. Dungeons and Dragons brought me fun and joy in the form of a game that I enjoyed as a kid. I will miss them both, but maybe I can get involved at my new school.

Uncategorized

Thankful for Thanksgiving 2022

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Introduction

Fear not, faithful reader. This week neither represents a rapid and sudden disinterest in the page nor one of our patented extended absences. I simply had no time this week to post the updates I wanted to post. In the past, I have used my time more wisely by scheduling updates in advance. Not even that happened recently. In a year that I thought we might begin to at least approach some sense of normalcy after Covid, it brought anything but that normalcy. And so, right now, I’m thankful for Thanksgiving 2022 coming up next week.

So Freaking Busy (C’Mon Thanksgiving 2022 Break)

I thought Monday might be a more relaxed day because of no after school meetings. I don’t remember why, but it ended up being just as busy as every other day and I made chicken patties for dinner instead of what I planned. I just remembered that Quinn was supposed to have swim that day, but he didn’t. That’s how crazy things are right now. I went to grab pellets and in the short walk to the back room where we store them, I completely forgot where I was going and why. I went into the pantry completely confused.

I think I came home on Monday and took a long nap because I’ve been feeling under the weather for the last week or so. Staff meeting Tuesday and still feeling sick. Then Nintendo club and Christine and I went for a wine tasting date on Wednesday after she attended Quinn’s parent-teacher conference. Dungeons and Dragons went a little bit over yesterday.

Wouldn’t Trade It For Anything

I rushed home to bring Aiden to try out for a travel soccer team. He took last year off after the chaos of switching schools and Covid. Then, he told us at the beginning of this year that he wanted to play again. We supported him, of course, because he always enjoyed the sport. He only played JV this year as a sophomore and swinger in a couple of games. However, it gave him enough joy and confidence (along with a conversation with a favorite teacher) to inspire him to try to get better and go to college to play, too.

Eventually, he started talking about professional soccer as a career path. Now for the cliche…being a parent is quite difficult sometimes. We tried, as all parents do, to support his dream while still trying to temper expectations. Based on his reactions, we felt (as I’m sure many parents do) that we failed miserably in both departments.

I know all too well the realities of shattered high school dreams. I legitimately thought that I would make a living writing and eventually become the “next Stephen King.”

But, we gave him this opportunity to work on his skills and face some tougher competition with this travel team. He played soccer, on a freezing night, for an hour and half. Well, he actually only ended up playing for maybe a half an hour. As he said when we pulled in, “There are a lot of people here.” From what he told me, he did okay and got to talk to one of the coaches. If he doesn’t make it this year, he’s actually in the youngest group of his league, so there’s two more years to practice and try again.

The Verdict

Linking that old article up above to improve my “SEO Score” reminded me of some of the other traditions that we wrote on the page in the past. Even though nobody reads this, I like having it around. It represents anther type of journal in addition to the other two that I keep. Thanks for anyone who does stop to read and probably more than any other recent year, I’m absolutely thankful for Thanksgiving 2022.

On the Tabletop

Thankful for Pokemon Cube Redux

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Introduction

I meant to write and post this article on Thursday. Regular readers of the page know that is one of the warning signs that I might be falling off on regular updates of the page. I promise you that’s not the case this time. I am cram studying for a placement test for a Master’s degree program in computer science. But, I took a break this morning to update the page with my thoughts about the Pokemon Cube Redux.

The actual sequel here is simply this article. I never actually finished the cube that I started a couple of years ago. What can I say? I searched for the cards on the list and started to put together a cart on eBay. And, I discovered that it’s not just Magic the Gathering cards. People pay quite a bit for these little rectangles of cardboard.

“Planning” the Cube

“Planning” the cube actually went very quickly. I searched “Pokemon Cube” and one of the links lead me to a Google sheet that I then looked through with our cards to see which ones we already owned. Perhaps surprisingly (and perhaps not), our collection included a good amount of the cards. Even so, I still needed to purchase three quarters of the cards to finish out the cube.

A bit on the nose that a nerd like me used a spreadsheet to build my cube. But, it’s incredibly detailed and well organized.

But, as I said above. Collectors know what they have in this day and age of the internet. They charge a lot even for Pokemon cards. So, my inspiration and drive to finish the cube waned and eventually died. What brought back the spark? I’m glad you asked.

Chris got married a few weeks ago. I even shouted out the website during my best man speech. Don’t worry. I promise it was sincere and not tacky. Anyway, in the months leading to the wedding, we put together a couple of text chains for the groomsmen. One of the guys in the chain actually has a history here on the page as part of a night out where Chris and I went over to his play to play some MTG. He talked about ordering a bunch of proxies for his own cube (possibly inspired by my talk of a Pokemon cube) and then I felt like a huge idiot. Circle of life and all that.

Building the Cube

Even ordering the proxies (which admittedly are of good quality) from the web page that he mentioned would be somewhat cost prohibitive for me. And so I went back to Google and searched a for a page that offered even lower cost, or free, proxies. I found Limitless and started typing cards into the search bar. I made it about two-thirds of the way through the list of cards before I needed to take a break.

From now, I need to finish the list, print out the cards (this will be tricky since we no longer own a printer again) maybe at Staples or one of the University libraries. I don’t want to misuse the resources at work for this project, obviously. Once I print everything out, I want to do a test run with the boys.

The Verdict

The only thing I worry about in this Pokemon Cube Redux is that I’ve chosen grey scale cards to save time and money. Just looking at them on the screen, some of the cards look like they might be difficult to read in that format. That’s not a deal breaker, but it is something to consider. Ultimately, though, come back in December or January for my report on our experience with the cube.

Digital Playground

Thankful for Multiplayer Mario Games

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Prologue

On my other page (currently defunct with no ETA on a return), I structure my posts like stories with a prologue, a story, and an end. As I drove to work this morning, I got the inspiration to do a similar thing with this post. Originally, I only wrote Mario Kart on my schedule, but then expanded it to include other multiplayer Mario Games like Mario Party. Let’s begin.

Once upon a time, a young man of 12 or 13 sat in an uncomfortable bench in front of a video game. The marquee read “Vs. Super Mario Bros” and featured a man clad from head to toe in red. Our intrepid young hero placed a quarter into the coin slot and the game began. As I remember, I only lasted to the first Goomba before dying. Okay, another quarter and then another and I’m going to be honest. I doubt that I even cleared the first level of that game after five dollars.

Leveling Up

We went without the new hotness video game system for quite a while. My parents never saw a reason to upgrade from our old Atari systems. Eventually, they relented and bought us a Nintendo Entertainment System for Christmas. Finally, I owned a copy of the game. No more quarters. I used this newfound power to finally beat that first level and, in due time, the entire game.

If I’m being honest, it wasn’t until we owned a Super Nintendo (that I purchased for myself and my brothers) that I beat the game. If my parents noticed little difference between Atari and Nintendo, then putting a Super in front of that Nintendo did little to persuade them to upgrade. That notwithstanding, my brothers and I playing together finally defeated the evil of Bowser.

And, y’all, we are always pissed every single time this happens, even today.

A Reason to be Thankful

Unfortunately, as you all know, our victory was short lived and Bowser returned again and again. I often say that all Nintendo has to do is release a new Mario, Zelda, and Metroid game on their console for me to buy it. I thought having kids might give me a built in play group for the various games that I play. While that proved mostly untrue for things like Magic the Gathering and Dungeons and Dragons, they all quickly became Nintenerds.

I took what life dealt me and cultivated their love of video games. We almost burned down our hose playing Mario Kart. And, so, began our enjoyment of multiplayer Mario games. Okay, time to come clean. I admit to taking some creative license with this article. I don’t remember my parents’ exact attitudes towards video games. I remember my father played Atari with us and even watched when we played Nintendo. Also, Christine and I hosted a few Mario Party get togethers with friends and roommates over the years.

Epilogue

With all of that being said, we found great joy in the most recent Mario Kart on Switch last year during Christmas. We may or may not have made some inappropriate comments during those play sessions. But, it was all in good fun and we’ve been meaning to do it again. Perhaps over Christmas break during this year. An annual tradition?

Who knows? It might happen earlier. Liam bought Mario Party a couple of weeks ago and he and Quinn played a round. He asked me to bring home some joycons from our school’s Nintendo club so we could play as a family. I told him I would over Veteran’s day this weekend and then again over Thanksgiving break. Here’s to hoping that it leads to some Mario Kart, too.

Digital Playground

Thankful for 1 Screen Platformer

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Introduction

For the last few weeks, I dedicated Thursday to my Dungeons and Dragons club play through of Curse of Strahd. As you can read if you follow the link, one of the reasons I am not doing so is because my group is slowly falling apart. Last week, I stopped the game early and this week I threw out two of my group from the club before we got a chance to play. Also, Spooktober is over, so time to focus on other games I enjoy. Today, I write about how I’m thankful for 1 Screen Platformer.

I wish I remembered how I became aware of the game. Being that it is on Steam, I either purchased it during a Steam sale or it came as part of a Humble Bundle. A quick search of my Humble Bundle history shows no evidence of the game, so apparently, I bought it as part of a Steam sale.

Why I am Thankful for 1 Screen Platformer

In any case, I played the game obsessively for a month or so last year. Every now and then (like earlier this week), when I load up my Windows partition I give the game another shot. I never regret the decision. The game’s title tells you all you need to know. Instead of moving from one screen to another to advance in the level, the camera follows your character as it pans left/right/up/down to capture the game play. But the catch is that the game fits on one screen. I’ll let the trailer give a better explanation than I ever can.

The Verdict

See what I mean? Tight controls, challenging levels, varied characters and achievements for each of them come together to make (possibly surprising) for hours of entertainment. Even if you get bored after a few plays, I guarantee that you’ll be back for more. What do you have to lose? The game only costs 2.99 and there’s a “prologue” level for free to give you a better idea of the game play and if it’s something you’d enjoy.

Snap *censored* Pop Culture

Coco: A Dia de Los Muertos Tradition

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Introduction

Ever since the first time I saw Coco, I loved the movie. The story and music both brought me great joy. So, it was only a matter of time until my family and I decided to make it a cheesy family tradition to watch it on the day after Halloween.

The Tradition

Like Frozen before it (and yes, I understand that it is not technically a Christmas move), the tradition started innocently enough. Two years ago, I suggested the movie for a pick me up during a particularly long and difficult Covid year. November 1st was a Sunday, so we all faced some bastardization of remote and hybrid learning.

Then, we watched it again last year. Because nothing actually happens unless social media knows about it, I posted something on Instagram about it. Several people reached out to say what a great tradition we started and that cemented it for years to come.

At the end of last year, I bought a record player for myself. Liam found out about it and thought it was a Christmas present for him. So, I repurposed it into a family gift and bought him Abbey Road in tandem. Earlier in the month, I saw that Wal*Mart had the Coco soundtrack LP. So, I picked it up.

Epilogue

As soon as Christine saw the record, she said, “I knew it.” I listened to the thing three times in the first day. Ever since, I looked forward to this day to be able to watch the movie again. Thanks for taking a walk down memory lane for me. Come back later in the week for our opening celebration of “Thankful for Gaming”.

On the Tabletop

Curse of Strahd: Finale?

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Introduction

At the beginning of the month, I realized that I needed to play the role as DM in our humble school Dungeons and Dragons club. Thanks to Stranger Things, the game blew up this year and everyone wants to play. In a flash of inspiration (or dorkiness…or both), I decided to pick up a Halloween related adventure to lead a group through. This is the last week in October, so I expected to go out with a bang with our Curse of Strahd finale.

Best laid plans and all that. The sixth grade and, my entire play group, went on a field trip to the Museum of Science in Boston. They told me the day before that the trip would end around 3:30, which is when the group usually started to get antsy and disbanded for the afternoon. So, imagine my surprise when I heard a knock on the door at about 3:15.

Sometimes Teaching is About Cutting Your Losses

Initially excited to be able to lead the group again, that quickly changed. They took almost 20 minutes to settle down. One would say, “Let’s get started.” to the others, then jump up and another would repeat the process. So, I should have known that things might not go well.

When we finally sat down to play, things initially went okay and my fears started to subside. Then, one of the players tried “massaging” a die roll here and there. I called him out on it once during a “hit roll”. Towards the end of the session, I let one go. It was only an initiative roll. It felt like the right thing to do, but it clearly wasn’t.

Other than this week, things went well. I’m probably just overthinking things.

Another player got angry about it and refused to roll for his turn during combat. When we finally convinced him to do so, he rolled a hit and then intentionally knocked the die over to a miss. I threw my hands up and said, “Sorry, guys, I can’t do this today.” They started some in fighting and I laid my cards on the table. “No, it’s all of us. This just isn’t working right now. We’ll try again next week.”

Epilogue

If this ends up being the Curse of Strahd finale, it ends not with a bang but a whimper. I knew from the beginning that things might go sideways and they ended up doing just that. The fear that I ruined D&D for my family by not being a great Dungeon Master the one time that we tried to play is now rising with these guys. They asked the last couple of weeks to play more on Friday and now I leave them with this bad taste for week. Maybe I’m overthinking things. Even so, I think I might try to find another adventure to run for next week. One of them said that they wanted to fight dragons.

Snap *censored* Pop Culture

Hellraiser 2022: Great, Good, Decent

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Introduction

In my last review, I mentioned that I only consider Halloween and Scream to be worthy horror franchises. Two things as a follow up. First, I looked at Hellraiser 2022 several times in the queue before finally firing it up to watch it. When Christine found out that’s what I was watching she said, “I don’t remember if I ever saw Hellraiser.” I have to admit that I’m not entirely sure myself. I might have watched it. Maybe I just absorbed the basic plot points from years of seeing clips on television and the internet.

Second, Christine finally admitted that she hated the new Halloween. Okay, that’s not entirely correct. She said it took her a week, but she decided that she didn’t like it. After a week myself, the thing that bothers me most is that Michael went from an unstoppable murder machine at the end of Kills to a murder hobo living in a sewer pipe without proper explanation. Otherwise, I’m okay with what I said last week.

The Decent: A Good Start

As an introduction to the Hellraiser universe, this movie fills that role nicely. I know that Hellraiser generally has a different vibe from other horror movies. It plays up the sadism much more than this movie does. However, we live in a different time now and I don’t think that many people are as enamored with watching sexual abuse play out on screen as maybe they were in the past. Sure, call me a melting snowflake who is woke (more on that in a bit), but I’m okay with the implication of the act without witnessing it firsthand. Besides, isn’t that supposed to make it scarier?

The Good: It’s Not Hellraiser from the Early 2000s

Again, having not watched the original Hellraiser (at least that I can remember), I never knew what I missed from the series. Like any of these franchises, though, it suffered some lean times towards the end of the initial popularity that got even leaner as they milked the cash cow for all it’s worth. So, I consider myself lucky that I came into the series during the trip back up to prominence.

The Great: Try Something New

Like Halloween Ends, this movie went in a different direction. Other than tone down the ultraviolence, a woman plays Pinhead in this iteration. Again, I’m sure some basement dwelling cave troll immediately went to some message board to scream about how Hellraiser is somehow now woke, but as usual I don’t see a problem here. I thought she brought a cool energy to the role and hope they do make more movies.

The Verdict

If they make another one, as tends to happen with these things, they will probably push the envelope a bit more. Perhaps, then we can see what people’s appetite is for the horrific “pleasures” normally dished out by the Cenobites. Until then, let them wallow in their misery. I, for one, enjoyed Hellraiser 2022.