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

Emrakul is my backup plan

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(Editor’s Note: I cast Black Lotus. I cast Elesh Norn.)

When’s the last time that you heard any of those previous statements in your game of Magic? If you are Mr. Joe Average Casual like me, then answer is “Never.” Until last night when I saw several Black Lotus plays and all three cards in at least one game. Intrigued? Let me explain.

The night started like any other. I watched Guardsmannbob, one of my favorite streamers until about 9:00 when he signed off for the night. There were no other enjoyable Hearthstone players, so I clicked on the only Magic stream that I currently follow. He, too, was in the process of signing off. As he did, though he mentioned the official Magic stream and something called the Vintage Super League.

With nothing else to watch because I was too lazy to move to the living room to watch Netflix, I followed his recommendation. Sure, I could have watched Netflix on my laptop, but I’m spoiled and only want to watch on the television. I know very little about Magic’s pro scene or the various formats, so I had no idea what to expect. Surprisingly, I recognized a couple of names of the players. That was the last recognizable thing on the stream. I saw decks that I never considered possible. They played cards and combos that existed only in my dreams until that point. Kai Budde, one of the names I knew got beat two in a row in very convincing fashion. The first match that I watched ended one game on turn 2 and the other on turn 3.

After that match, I got so excited that I went to Facebook to tell Chris about my discovery. He knew more about vintage than me. He asked about legality of cards and that sent me on a search. I learned that while there is a ban and restricted list, basically the whole of the history of Magic is available to the players to build a deck. That got me even more excited about the prospects of the stream. Suddenly, I started paying attention to the games instead of just having it on as background noise. Holy cow, did he just play a Black Lotus. What is that card in his hand? Emrakul? This is awesome.

Two players played a deck called Omnitell and the announcers kept talking about something called “Shops”. Shops did not interest me much, but I went on a search to find the Omnitell list and some strategy. I will most likely never be able to play the deck, but the blue control aspect spoke to me on a deep level. Then, I saw the full deck and it is right in my wheelhouse. The core deck has only one creature (the aforementioned Emrakul) and plenty of spells to make life miserable for the opponent.

I actually had a brainstorm while in the shower earlier (why is it always in the shower) that there might be a way that I’d get to play all of these cool vintage decks without having to drop tens of thousands of dollars on cardboard. I’m not entirely sure that it is exactly legal, but when has that ever stopped me? Because of the questionable legality, I’m not exactly going to advertise this method. However, I will verify that it worked and I put together an initial list that I found for the Omnitell deck. So far, I have only been able to test it against itself, but I hope to find some other decks to put together those lists and play around with them, too.

The stream had the added effect of renewing my interest in the game. I had been a bit lukewarm about magic since the release of Fate Reforged. I just wasn’t too impressed with a Fat Pack purchase that I made and put the cards away for a while. Watching this stream made me excited again about the prospects of Magic and I can’t wait to try some of the deck ideas that I’ve been considering. So, I say thanks to the Vintage Super League for my renewed interest and dedication to Magic and look forward to the next episode on Tuesday.

Digital Playground

Boredom of Draenor?

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(Editor’s Note: Do I really want to pay 15 bucks a month to play Pokemon?)

I have played World of Warcraft since just after the release of the Burning Crusade expansion. My journey began, as I suspect many did, with a free trial account. I started a Night elf druid for potential role playing possibilities. As I read the introduction paragraphs to each class and race, the druid’s connection to nature spoke to me. Having no previous connection to Warcraft, I chose Night Elf because I saw the races of the Horde as evil and I wanted to fight on the side of good. I’m not opposed to evil characters and I even admire many of them from books, TV shows, and movies. I just enjoy games more when I am the hero. I suspect that many others are like me because there are so few games that feature a villain or even an anti-hero as the main playable character. Fewer still become major successes.

I enjoyed WoW greatly and became immersed in the expansive story that felt so much larger than my character, a helpful community that mostly treated noobs like me with respect and a world that was just as massive as the storyline and really pretty in spite of the cartoonish graphics. I remember walking up to the gates of Ironforge for the first time and being awed by them. It was like the AD&D stories of my youth were coming to life on my computer screen. Keep in mind that I had not even experienced dungeons or raids yet. I just wandered the countryside with my PvP flag on (I know this because I unwittingly became bait to catch a stealthed rogue causing havoc in Astranaar) happily completing quests and reading lore to fill in the huge gaps from never having played any of the games.

The community was not a small consideration. There are several reasons that I have not played League of Legends. Gameplay, which I wasn’t sure about, certainly wasn’t one of them. I have since started to play Heroes of the Storm and I rather like the concept of those games. Primary among the reasons is that the only legendary part of the game is the toxicity of the community. I experienced this first hand. In three games (my entire LoL career), I played with exactly one helpful person out of twelve teammates. More than half of them (7 or 8) insulted, bickered, flexed internet muscle, and lamented that none of them were LoL pros because of all the noobs holding them back.

World of Warcraft never felt like that. Sure, there were unhelpful (and downright rude) people in the game, but those willing to answer even the most basic question outnumbered them at least two to one. I vividly remember stumbling upon a hunter during my early days of adventuring. The poor soul was being ravaged by a wild beast and completely unable to defend himself. I did what any honorable hero would. I killed that dirty animal and saved his life…or so I thought. He whispered to me “What the hell?” before explaining that he was trying to tame it as a pet. I apologized and we both had a good laugh about it.

I have run the gamut of noob to semi-obsessed raider before settling on my usual role of filthy casual. My original character, the druid, is still active. He has gone through a name change, several server moves, and a brief consideration of a faction change to be able to play with a friend. Instead, I created a new character (a shaman) who has become a second main. That character is now in the guild that was started by Scott Johnson, the host of The Instance. My account was compromised once and all of my gear got sold or disenchanted. I know that it is often a joke, even among gamers, that WoW is for no-lifers, but I really have experienced so much in game that it sometimes feels like a second life.

After taking another break for a couple of months, the Warlords of Draenor hype got me. I heard about the game getting a graphics update on character models, getting to go back to Outland (sort of) to meet many of the legends of the game, and an overhaul on the game that some were calling WoW 2.0. Once classes let out for winter break, I came back to the game. I enjoyed it for about a month as I leveled to 100 and chased after a core hound mount that I honestly had no chance of obtaining. Ever since, though, I have been in one of my WoW funks and I generally only log into the game to immediately log back out This is the earliest into an expansion that I have felt this way.

I even said to my wife, “I might finally be done with World of Warcraft.” That is a loaded statement because you aren’t ever truly done. Another expansion will get me interested again and I might repeat the process, but what if it is just another month or so and then I’m putting it back on the shelf. I can’t keep justifying the cost for so little entertainment value. There’s nothing wrong with moving on. People and circumstances change and it might just be time. I’d be lying if it didn’t make me sad. I have a history with this game that goes back almost a decade. Even if it is “only a game”, that’s not an ending that you take lightly.

So, you could say that quite a bit is depending on Patch 6.1 of the game. The main problem is that I don’t actually know what I want from the game. In the past, I have fallen back on other pursuits. Most recently, I really started to enjoy pet battling. For some reason, not that has me excited and I haven’t collected a single pet from Draenor other than two crafted Engineering pets. I have also traditionally leveled alts to keep busy, but the story this time wasn’t interesting enough to do again and there aren’t enough dungeons to keep me entertained through another 10 levels.

So, let’s see if 6.1 has anything to entice someone like me to keep playing. Some “no news” is that flying isn’t still prohibited in Draenor. I, personally, don’t mind that flying has been disallowed and flying isn’t something that would make the game any more enjoyable for me. A new raid is being released to some fanfare, but I’m not even geared enough for the current tier of raid content. No, not even LFR. Maybe if I stick around, I will get around to it at the end of the expansion like I did in Pandaria. Raiding just isn’t my thing anymore.

Initially in the expansion, I kept busy with garrisons, but I’ve maxed all that I wanted there. Is there anything new for garrisons on the horizon? Actually, yes. First, and maybe not overwhelming, is customizable music in your garrison. I may not be an obsessive raider anymore, but I do like collecting things in the game and this gives me one more thing to collect. It probably won’t be my first priority, but I will get around to doing it eventually. Actually, now that I read that, I realize that I haven’t even opened my pet building in the garrison.

I once dreamed of being Azeroth’s greatest Pokemon (er, battle pet) trainer. Maybe it is time to put on the old Safari Hat and tackle the tiny beasts of Draenor, especially those bastards that have infiltrated my garrison. After that, I think that I will level my skinning toon to make some gear that might get my shaman closer to LFR ready. So, there are some things that I can do in game. None of them are directly related to the new patch.

This is the first patch of Warlords, so you can’t expect the best content. Still, it is quite underwhelming. The only “new” stuff is for raiders with a few added features for the filthy casual collectors like me. If you left the game before Warlords released, come back to experience some cool new stuff. If Warlords wasn’t quite what you hoped, patch 6.1 doesn’t add enough new to make it worth returning. Maybe the next patch will have more. Otherwise, I might drop out for a break the earliest into an expansion since Cataclysm.

On the Tabletop

Lightning Bolt! Lightning Bolt!

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(Editor’s Note: ‘NERDS!)

I haven’t written about Dungeons and Dragons yet for a couple of reasons that are closely related. ‘Mainly, because Chris doesn’t play, we haven’t made it a part of our monthly game nights. ‘More generally, I haven’t played D&D since AD&D 2nd edition and haven’t even though about the game since moving about a decade ago and putting all those books up in the attic. ‘For some reason, during the summer, I got interested in the state of the game again. ‘ ‘I ‘went in search of the new editions, tried to find some free and relatively quick adventures, and tested out the game.

I went with 3.5 to make my characters and for the rule books. ‘4th editions seemed a like it simplified things a little too much for me and the 3.5 character sheets looked like what I remember as D&D. ‘I rolled a party of five (not the old TV show, but a half-elf fighter, eladrin ranger, human rogue, elven wizard, and a dwarven cleric), wrote some brief personalities and histories for them (just enough to get started), downloaded an adventure, and got to it.

As you may imagine, playing D&D solo was not nearly as much fun as getting together with some friends. ‘I started to wish that I had Wednesday nights off to be able to go to the Encounters nights at the local-ish game store. ‘I tried to think of ways that I could get some of the old crew together (maybe via Skype) to play some games. ‘Nothing came of either of those plans, but my brainstorming led to Roll20 and Meetup. ‘Roll20 is an online community that allows you to play roleplaying games with others. ‘Meetup is more general, but I joined a group of comic fans, gamers, and sci-fi enthusiasts. ‘These ventures haven’t led to anything yet, either, but I will hopefully have the time to dedicate to figuring out how to use either or both of them to my benefit.

One unexpected positive to come out of my resurgence of interest in the game is that I have rediscovered my Dragonlance books. ‘As of writing this article, I have only found the Annotated Chronicles from my collection, but they should be enough to get me started. ‘(Editor’s Note: ‘I have since visited a local used bookstore and picked up 3 more books for my birthday.) ‘I have plan to revisit Dragonlance in an article that I will post tomorrow on the main page, so that will be another hopefully entertaining and interesting trip back to the roots of my nerdiness. ‘For now, though, back to the topic.

A reason for this article is that the 5th edition of the game was released last year. ‘(Mostly self-promoted) hype on my Facebook feed proclaim the update as the perfect time to get back into the game. ‘Let’s inspect to see if it actually is, or we should take the advice of Public Enemy on this one. ‘First impression is that it is D&D. ‘I don’t see much difference in the core elements of the game. ‘All of the races, classes, attributes, spells, and saving throws are still there. ‘This is a good thing since the core of the game has always been strong and the basis of many copycats and clones. ‘To be honest, at first glance, I don’t see any reason to choose this over the others, but maybe I will find something to distinguish it as I take a closer look.

So, let’s start by making a character. ‘My go to first character has always been an elf (or usually a half-elf) magic-user of some sort. ‘I think to change it up, I’ll choose a druid this time. ‘the race and class combination could make for an interesting back story for the character. ‘Given up for adoption by an elven mother to a group of druids because the human father died (killed in war?), left (intentionally? ‘driven away?), he now looks over a spring used by local villagers. ‘Whatever, the beauty of the game is that I can fill in the details later.

More importantly, I posted something on my Facebook about the new edition and how I wanted to find a group again. ‘Because most of us work during the week, it would have to be a weekend group. ‘All of the local stores only run them during the week. ‘However, a friend mentioned that he has been looking for a group, too. ‘We got our families together for dinner the other day and I mentioned Roll20 to him. ‘We both explored the site more and decided that it more that does what we want. ‘He sent out some invites and I sent out a couple to old friends about joining. ‘So far, we have 5 or 6 that are willing to play, so we definitely have the makings of a group.

I probably won’t use my earlier character for that group. ‘I might incorporate him into a series of short stories that I can share on the web page. ‘I was going to do something like that when I first got back into the game and couldn’t find others to play. ‘As I am currently writing him, the druid seems like he would work better in stories than a campaign. ‘Since he is a loner and with little desire to change that status, it might take too long for him to enter civilization and find companions. ‘Admittedly, you can always accelerate time in these games, but I’d rather roll a different character for the campaign. ‘(Editor’s Note: ‘I am falling on the proverbial sword for the group and rolling a dwarven cleric again.)

Well, it appears that the new edition of D&D is not just all hype. ‘It has inspired me to write a little bit. ‘It got me together with new and old friends to plan a campaign. ‘It’s gotten me excited about the prospects of playing the game again. ‘If you’re like me and you used to play D&D, but haven’t looked at it in a while, I would definitely check out the 5th edition. ‘Admittedly, I have not tried any of the other rules for any extended period, but if they are as intuitive as the character creation, then we are going to have some fun with this and you probably will, too.

One final note. ‘As far as I know, we are up to 6 for our Roll20 campaign. ‘If you take a look at some of the materials from 5th edition and like what you see, give a thought to joining us. ‘We can always use more players for greater flexibility. ‘We are mostly born again noobs, but if that sounds like your speed, send an email or leave a comment.

Digital Playground

Does Hearthstone still suck?

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(Editor’s Note: In keeping with 2 Guys Gaming’s attempt at catching up from our insane holiday schedule, I am going to offer a cursory review of the new Hearthstone expansion Goblins vs. Gnomes.)

TLDR: No.

I have talked on the podcast and written here on the website about Blizzard’s digital CCG Hearthstone. Most of the discussion has been mixed and bordered on negative. When the game first came out, I endorsed it to Chris and a few other friends because it was an online card game and initially, it is a fun game. However, like many Blizzard games, sometimes it became more about the treadmill of trying to do daily quests. These games came against increasingly stronger decks built by people who most likely spent a lot of money building their collection. The game just wasn’t fun anymore and I uninstalled the game for about a couple of weeks before the announcement of the first “adventure”.

The concept of an adventure is an interesting concept that is completely unique to the digital card game genre. There’s no way that a table top card game could do what Hearthstone did with Naxxramas. As an added bonus, Blizzard implemented it well and the new cards changed the way that the game was being played with only a handful of new cards. Because of the limited card pool, that change felt brief and temporary and honestly not that much of a change. Hunters and warlocks ran wild and now they has seemingly more tools to dominate. The game returned to the simplistic feel of being a card game version of rock paper scissors and I stopped playing it again after only a month. Honestly, I just didn’t find the game all that fun.

For me, the lifeblood of any card game is the expansions. They bring new cards, new decks, new mechanics, and the promise that the game will provide fun and enjoyment for that much longer. It isn’t surprising then that I started to pay attention again after the announcement of the first full expansion set for the game, Goblins v. Gnomes. The first cards out from the set focused mainly around random effects, making it seem like Blizzard was sticking to their guns on the subject of “RNG as skill”. However, they quickly assured people that was not the case and they only used those cards as the teaser because of the fun effects that would get people talking about the game.

The expansion is focused heavily around random effects that used to bother me. Chris tried to jury rig a physical version of the game because he was less into the digital content of the game, but the effects of the cards is too wonky to play physically. Blizzard actually mentioned this in one of their interviews. They prefer the way Hearthstone is designed because it makes it different from its non-digital contemporaries and therefore it can stand out in a genre that has seen competitor after competitor fall to the might of Magic: the Gathering. However, as I play the game more and start to figure out some of the strategy, I realize that RNG can be annoying when you are counting on RNG to win you a game. It becomes less annoying (and not even RNG) when you use it to your advantage by eliminating the RNG as much as you can. An example is Flame Cannon. If you hold on to that card until there are 5 minions on the board, some of them with 5 health, and you don’t have any choice, you’re going to have a bad day. If, however, you use it on a single minion board and have a follow up in case of more health, then the card is very strong as removal.

So, an expansion that likes to tout the fact that “most of the things fail…or explode” and should have annoyed me to no end has actually had the opposite effect. The relatively few cards released during Naxxramas were enough to shake up the game in a way that some decks that were very strong are no longer being played while some new strategies have emerged. GvG has brought even more new strategies to Hearthstone, chief among them one that I have enjoyed since putting together my zombie deck a couple of years ago. That’s right, mill decks are now a thing (and somewhat viable) in Hearthstone. The game is fun again and I’m actually venturing back into the Arena thanks to the free run that Blizzard gave away at the release. “The first one’s free, Kid.”

That’s not to say that everything is roses. Warlocks and Hunters still rule in constructed and Mages, and now Paladins, still seem very overpowered in Arena. You will get sick of seeing the same decks over and over again. I know that I do. But use it to your advantage. Once you know a deck, you know it and can plan accordingly.

I still would not recommend the game to new “free to players” necessarily because it is very difficult to catch up without paying real money. If you can stand grinding a bit, though, you can get all of the basic cards and there are some good strategy guides for all basic decks. You may not win more than 20-25% of your games, but that will still be enough to finish your daily quests in a somewhat timely fashion. Use the gold to play the Arena (and most likely get destroyed, but again there are good guides to get started), get your pack (and hopefully some gold return), and start building your collection to take on your foes. If you have no qualms about putting aside some of your gaming budget to buy cards or Arena runs in the game, then I would definitely recommend getting in now. The game can be a ton of fun and it seems like Blizzard is really starting to figure out what they want to do and how to do it.

Pros: Makes the game fun with the effects and new cards. Adds some variety to the number of decks that are viable (even if they aren’t being played).

Cons: Warlock and Hunter just synergize so well with their hero power and class cards that they continue to dominate the games that you will play.

The Last Words: I can say that Hearthstone is definitely finally worth recommending that people check out. It can be a grind for players not looking to spend any money, but if you’re willing to put in that grind, it will pay off in the end.

On the Tabletop

Tempting Fate

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(Editor’s Note: Stay tuned for a more in depth look at the set in next month’s episode of the podcast. For now, I just wanted to catch up after a busy holiday season and give a first impression of Fate Reforged.)

I have been keeping an eye on spoilers as they’ve been revealed and Chris and I have kept alive our unofficial tradition of sending cards to one another. Chris is excited that dragons are back (not in a big way, the last set is called Dragons of Tarkir or something like that, so they’ll hopefully blow the doors off with that one) and, as usual, I’m intrigued by some of the mechanics that are being used in the set. One of the first spoilers to be leaked was Ugin and, as happens in this day and age, many thought it was a fake. Some saw a dragon and leaped to the conclusion that, if it was real, it would be from the third set and others just dismissed it outright. It is real and pretty amazing. However, I know that I won’t play that card. If I do pull one, it will most likely be one that I sell similar to the foil fetches and Planeswalkers from the previous set of cards. I’m also pretty sure that I won’t ever play against it, either, so that’s all that I’ll say about it. Better to focus on the cards that will see play in our eternal struggle of two.

In keeping with the multicolored theme, hybrid mana is back. I only see it in casting cost of abilities instead of as a way to cast spells and creatures. Maybe in the next set they will have hybrid mana creatures and spells like they did in the earlier multicolored sets. The Return to Ravnica block had a huge number of multicolored cards and especially more hybrid mana cards than I could imagine. I suppose that it keeps with the theme of that block. While Khans is three colored clans, the focus seems to be more on making those colors interact with one another in unique ways instead of attempting to fuse them together into a whole new strategy. Therefore, I can understand the decision to not have hybrid mana casting costs for creatures and spells. Thanks for joining me as I talked myself through that one.

As I mentioned above, Chris is excited that some dragons are in this set. He’s infamous for his dragon deck that once got me to utter, “That is bullshit” in response to him playing it once. This is noteworthy because our games are generally friendly and there isn’t much in the way of grumble unless one of us is having particularly bad luck with the mana screw or something. I made the observation that it looks like they seem to be trying to make dragons similar to slivers. There are a new class of legendary multicolored dragons that all have an ability that affects the board in some way. Instead of triggering on play, though, the new dragon abilities all trigger when a dragon attacks. That adds an interesting wrinkle to EDH. The other dragons also have similar abilities, but they are more localized to one creature in most cases. Again, this seems like a bit of a teaser for the last set where they will most likely unleash the dragons in a big way. Maybe it will even inspire me to make a dragon deck.

Being the type of player that I am, the mechanic that has me most excited is manifest. I am enamored with Morph and even though I haven’t quite figured it out, I am determined to make a morph deck that works consistently enough to frustrate the opponent as my decks often are designed to do. I mentioned in the missing Episode 2 of the podcast that I hoped that they would either have more morph creatures or at least more mechanics that work with morph. While manifest isn’t that, it does share some DNA with morph and makes me even more excited that a face down deck will work in some shape. I’m going to get to trying to build my Temur morph/manifest deck as soon as possible.

Overall, this set seems like the calm before the storm. The last set in the block is a big one like Khans and it is named for the other big players on the plane, the dragons, so I think we’ll see some really huge things out of that set. Fate Reforged isn’t a great set but there are definitely some cool cards and I can’t wait to pick up my box in a few weeks.

On the Tabletop

RIP WoW: TCG

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(Editor’s Note: This is the same editor’s note as on the main page. I had been working 3 jobs and had precious little time to devote to the pages. However, two of those jobs are on winter break, so I have more time and will be updating the pages on a more regular basis.)

(2nd Editor’s Note: Playing a few rounds of this game has only increased my anger that Blizzard killed it in favor of Hearthstone. I understand the decision, but it still makes me mad.)

After fits, non-starts, and a fried hard drive (2 actually) that took episode 2 of the podcast, Christ and I got together for a couple of game nights. We didn’t record, but we are going to this weekend, so be on the lookout for the triumphant return when we push the reset button on the show. As part of these game nights, in addition to the usual games of Magic and Gears, we played some WoW: TCG. This isn’t our first experience with the game, but it was our first attempts at deck building and strategy. Overall the games were a success and both of us mentioned that they inspired us to find more cards and build new decks or solidify the ones that we already have. For me, at least, the games were more fun than the recent Magic games.

The first reason is the “new”ness of the game. I am always really excited when I discover or rediscover something and it has that feeling of being new. Since we had not played WoW very much, it was a brand new game whild Magic is the old and faithful game, always there for us. Sure, Khans made it new and exciting for a couple of months, but it’s time for a new expansion again. Also, because Chris had more time to tweak his decks, the Magic battles were not very competitive this round. WoW was much more balanced between us. I don’t care if I win or lose, but I do want the games to be interesting or entertaining.

Secondly, WoW has some definite advantages over Magic. There is no mana and therefore no mana screw unless it somehow works to your advantage. Let me explain. You build resources to cast creatures and spells. The more powerful resources are quests because they allow you to draw cards and perform other actions. However, any card can be played face down as a resource. Doing so removes it from the game for its intended purpose, so you can trade a less powerful creature or spell in order to cast a more powerful one or vice versa. All of this adds to the strategy and complexity of the games. I generally try to build my decks so that I don’t have to use cards other than quests as resources, but it is nice to know that the option is there.

Chris and I toyed around with some kitchen table rules to make Magic more like WoW and to remove (or at least reduce) mana screw and make our decks play more like the way we intended. Chris posted the article last year and you can find it on the page here. I was trying to think of other ways to counter mana screw, but honestly it has gotten to the point where it isn’t that big of a deal in the games that we play. Still, it might be nice to have options for people learning the game, so I’ll keep brainstorming.

The only con against WoW is that it is no longer supported by Blizzard, as I mentioned above. Therefore, the shelf life of the game is very limited, especially if we don’t get out there and buy more cards before they are not on the market any more. Chris has picked up some cards, but I don’t feel compelled to do so because I’d rather spend my money on the new Magic expansions coming out and expand into other formats in a game that is still alive and growing.

WoW: TCG was (and still is for a limited time) a great game that got put to the side in favor of the push to digital content. The most unfortunate part is that as I did research into the game, it felt like it got killed right as it was starting to reach its potential. I don’t hate Hearthstone as much as I used to, but every time I see a card that uses art from the WoW: TCG (like the Leeroy card above) it gives me a twinge of anger and sadness that both games can’t coexist and that digital content wins out again. If you get a chance to pick up some of the starter decks for relatively cheap (which shouldn’t be a problem for the near future) you should definitely check out the game. You could also get a lot of 2000 cards for fairly cheap, but those are more random and if you are going to do that, maybe get both the starter decks and the random cards to swap them out for stronger decks. If you are looking for a slight change from Magic, WoW: TCG is absolutely a strong contender and I, for one, will miss it greatly and wish that I had paid more attention when it was around.

As a post script (postmortem?) to the game, Chris and I were first talking after the announcement that the game had been cancelled and I tried to come up with some ideas to extend the life of games that have been taken off of the market. The one idea that I thought would be easy to modify is to give people the chance to make their own cards for the game. There are already web pages that let you make Magic and Hearthstone cards. It wouldn’t be that difficult to make one that does the same for WoW cards, both heroes and the other cards. I don’t know how much support there is for such an idea, but it is definitely something that I’d like to see implemented and not just for WoW.

Do you love WoW: TCG? Is there another defunct TCG or other table top game that you would recommend as an alternative when Magic becomes stale again? Let me know in the comments. Thanks, as always, for reading!

On the Tabletop

Gotta Draft ’em All

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(Author’s Note: Apologies for the weeks of no communication. I’m still trying to figure out a writing schedule with my new job. Hopefully, things return to normal soon.)

Liam’s birthday–number 10, which is considered a big one–was this past weekend. He wanted to have a sleepover with a Pokemon theme. That gave me an idea. Pick up some booster packs and let them have a draft tournament. I’ve never done a draft for any of the games other than Magic Online, but that ended in disaster. We want to put together some Youtube videos for the web page that show how to conduct a Magic draft with us and the boys, so this was good practice.

What you need

  • Some players – Generally, each group should have at least four and no more than 8 players. We decided to keep the group small for this first time. Only Liam and three of his friends played in the tournament.
  • Some packs of cards – The suggested number of packs per player is six. Since it felt gauche to require admission to a birthday party, we had to come up with at least 24 packs. At three to four dollars per pack, that can get expensive. We lucked into an open box of packs for relatively cheap. If we want, we have 12 extra packs for prizes.
  • Schedule – Depending on the size of your group and the time available, you could go with a round robin. Since we only have four, that’s how we organized it. Whether you have a round robin or not, you can use this link to help put together and print your schedule.
  • Non essentials – Snacks, prizes, some other games for in between rounds. We gave the snack funny Pokemon themed names like Charizard fireballs for cheese balls, Charmander chips for potato chips, and Squirtles’s Squirt for the juice boxes. The boys all got a kick out of the names. We didn’t end up having games in between rounds because they went quickly, but we did have a game for them to play when they woke up after the sleepover. We hid plastic golf balls painted to look like Pokeballs around the yard and they had to find them like an Easter egg hunt. That was a huge hit, too.

Okay, we’ve got it all. What now?

There are a few ways to do the draft. I was going to have them each open one pack, pick a card, and then pass the pack on to the next person. Repeat this process until all cards are picked from those packs. Then, do the same with the remaining packs. The boys thought that this was too confusing, so I allowed them to draft like we do at the prerelease tournaments we’ve attended. They took 9 packs each and built their decks from the cards that they got in those packs. I tried to convince them to do 40 card decks, but they insisted on 60 card decks. I tried to get them to play best of 3, but they only played one game rounds. My ideas got shot down left and right. Everything worked out well for them, so they knew what they were doing. I just got out of the way and let them do their thing.

They took turns and played each other in a round robin tournament. As I mentioned above, we didn’t need any entertainment for in between rounds since the rounds went quickly and the two that finished early just watched the game that was still in progress. We also had no need for prizes since the boys were so excited about their new cards. Liam came out the winner and there weren’t any major bouts of poor sportsmanship during the whole tournament.

Overall, this one went well and they were able to figure things out with minimal (actually, no) intervention. Now that I’ve done it once, it will go easier and more smoothly when we sit down to put together the instructional videos. Have you ever participated in a Pokemon draft tournament? Do you have any ideas to make it slightly more organized (other than the participants not being 10)? Let me know in the comments.

On the Tabletop

Graveyard Shift

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(Note: I am continuing the Entertainment Compendiums week-ish long Halloween celebration with a themed deck list. I’ve already posted my zombie deck, so here is my first attempt at graveyard/deck manipulation in the form of Sultai.)

Spells (16)

Bitter Revelation (2)
Diabolic Tutor (2)
Dutiful Return (2)
Reclaim (3)
Strength from the Fallen (2)
Taigam’s Scheming (3)
Wreath of Geists (2)

Creatures (26)

Abomination of Gudul (2)
Bant Sojurners (3)
Dreg Mangler (2)
Drudge Beetle (2)
Embodiement of Spring (3)
Kheru Dreadmaw (2)
Nemesis of Mortals (4)
Sanctum Plowbeast (2)
Shambling Attendants (2)
Sluiceway Scorpion (1)
Sultai Scavenger (2)
Thrashing Mossdog (1)

Land (23)

Dismal Backwater (4)
Evolving Wilds (4)
Forest (2)
Island (2)
Opulent Palace (2)
Plains (2)
Svogthos, the Restless Tomb (2)
Swamp (2)
Thornwood Falls (3)

The deck is a bit beefier than the standard 60 cards. That’s only because I didn’t want to cut it down to 60. Also, the Evolving Wilds are sort of like a bonus. They are there both as ghetto fetch lands and also as a way to power the “delve” cards without exiling creatures. I ultimately don’t care that much about creatures except for the Nemesis and tried to grab some with deathtouch so that their trades will clear minions from the board. Nemesis can be such a tough card to remove and there are four just in case it does eat some removal.

The Bant cards came as luck would have it from a flea market purchase and I thought to drop them in there as blockers and also to cycle the deck/hit the graveyard as Nemesis food. So far I have only goldfished with the deck, but it has played well in this latest iteration. Have fun working the graveyard shift!

On the Tabletop

Noob’s Guide to Khans of Tarkir

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(Note: I also want to make this into a Youtube series, but I wanted to test it out here first. Be on the lookout for that.)

What is Khans of Tarkir?

Khans of Tarkir (further referred to only as “Khans”) is the latest expansion set for the trading card game Magic: the Gathering. It was released to much fanfare on the weekend of September 26, 2014.

What is the big deal about Khans?

I will discuss three aspects of Khans, in the following order; Morph, fetch lands, and wedges.

“Morph” is a mechanic that allows you to cast a creature as a “morph” 2/2 creature for 3 colorless mana. Some morph creatures have an effect when they are turned face up. The colorless mana cost allows you to cast the creature even if you haven’t been able to draw the required mana combination. It also adds intrigue and strategy to the game as your opponent tries to determine the nature of the card while it is morphed. However, the creature, while morphed, is only a 2/2 and therefore very easy to remove.

The other two, fetch lands and wedges, are features that have been asked for by the Magic playing community. Players asked for fetches back because they are integral to certain strategies in the game. Wizards of the Coast reprinted them from the Alara block. This made the players understandably happy because another reason for the request of fetch lands was that the originals are very expensive for two reasons. First, they are rare. Second, the word is that foreign speculators and manipulators bought up many of the original fetch lands to inflate the price.

Wedges are a three color strategy to building decks. The Alara block also centered around three color decks. The difference between the themes of the two sets is that during Alara, the three colors were one main color and its two allied colors and during Khans, the three colors are two allied colors and their naturally opposed color. You can see my soon to be posted “Noob’s Guide to Magic: The Gathering Mana Wheel” and the gif below to get an idea of what I mean.

wedge

 

Story/Lore

The stories are one of my favorite developments of gaming. Instead of simply running from one end of the screen only to find that “your princess is another castle”, you are often now treated to a movie quality story. Magic has a one of those constantly evolving stories that continues into Khans. Tarkir is a plane that has seen all of the dragons hunted to extinction and 5 clans now war over territory and resources. These five clans are the story behind the wedges.

The Clans – These are summarized from the lore book in the Khans of Tarkir Fat Pack.

Abzan (Colors: White/Black/Green): They use the endurance of the dragon through their ability Outlast, which allows you to use mana and tapp the creature to add a +1/+1 counter on to that creature.

Jeskai (Colors: Blue/Red/White): The cunning of the dragon is evident in their ability Prowess, which allows a creature to gain +1/+1 until the end of the turn when a noncreature spell is cast.

Sultai (Colors: Black/Green/Blue): The Sultai are as ruthless as the dragon with their ability Delve, which trades cards in your graveyard as colorless mana to reduce the casting cost of powerful spells.

Mardu (Colors: Red/White/Black): The Mardu bring the speed of the dragon to the battlefield and use that speed to trigger their Raid ability. This ability allows different effects on the battlefield after having attacked.

Temur (Green/Blue/Red): The strength of the dragon is the the cornerstone of their ability Ferocious. Similar to the Mardu, Temur can trigger different abilities if they have a large creature on the field.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this Noob’s Guide to Khans of Tarkir. I will try to record and upload it to Youtube. Also, be ready for more Noob’s Guides coming soon!

Digital Playground

He is the one who sacks

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(Note: Due to the missed deadline last week, I am switching my normal schedule of “On the Tabletop” on Tuesday and “Digital Playground on Thursday. Today, I will Break Madden in the digital playground and Thursday I will pit DC vs. Marvel Heroclix on the tabletop. This change is also necessitated by the fact that I will not own the Heroclix until tomorrow.)

As with most information over the last four years, I learned about Breaking Madden from a podcast. It was either a slow news cycle or they were trying to lighten things because of the heavy news out of the NFL. Either way, Slate’s sports podcast Hang Up and Listen did a segment on the series a couple of weeks ago. If they were trying to add more fun and humor to a suddenly morbid sports world, then they succeeded. I laughed through the entire segment, went to visit the page, and mentioned it to Chris during our nightly Facebook conversation.

Always on the lookout for new and fresh entertainment options since jettisoning cable, I still wasn’t sure that Breaking Madden would become regular viewing for me. Last year’s Super Bowl was an absolute abortion from the first snap, but do you wonder how bad it could have gotten if the Seahawks were 7 foot tall, 400 pound behemoths against 5 foot, 160 pound stick men Denver Broncos? Of course you do and so do I, but is that really enough to sustain over the long run? The Seahawks will destroy the Broncos even more, probably to the point where the game can no longer tally the score because the name of the series is Breaking Madden after all.

Aside from a title that pays homage to my favorite television show and the promise of an even bigger butt whipping in the Super Bowl, Breaking Madden did not seem to offer enough to warrant more than the few laughs elicited by the podcast segment. Then came the piece de resistance, the coup de grace, the “insert inappropriate French saying that clearly doesn’t mean what I think it means” of the segment. This Super Bowl of epic proportions broke Madden to such a degree that I need to keep watching now to see if it can ever be topped. Before I discuss that, though, and you go to the page to see it (and you will because nothing I say to describe it will do it any justice. You have to see it to fully experience the joyrror – a term that I just coined to describe both joy and terror), I will give you some background on the games and my experience breaking them.

In case you don’t already know, Madden is the increasingly realistic NFL game from EA Sports. Thy have also made a NASCAR, NBA, NHL, MLB, and golf game. Their slogan is, “If it’s in the game, it’s in the game.” Even with the focus on realism, it is still a computer program and subject to bugs and glitches. As the years have passed, the glitches have become less game breaking and more graphical or situational, but part of the fun of video games is finding the weird exploits and glitches.

I remember a football game, probably on the Atari 2600, that allowed you run through your own end zone to circle back onto the opposing end zone for an easy touchdown. Playing Monday Night Football on my Commodore 64, I discovered a similar issue where during kick returns, you could run your player 10 or 20 yards behind where he caught the ball and then rush to and up the sidelines for a touchdown every single time. If you ever played Mutant League Football, you know that you could win every game without scoring a point by tackling the opposing quarterbacks until they exploded and the other team had to forfeit. Madden, and EA’s other sports titles, have heralded a new age in realism in computer sports games. As a result, it became more of a challenge to find those oddities like Bo Jackson being able to run twice as fast as every other player in the game. More often than not, you have to manufacture those results through manipulation of the settings in the game.

I don’t have much experience in that aspect. Sure, as the Noob of All Trades, I play against the game on Rookie level and turn the more boring penalties down to make the games as easy and quick as possible. As a result, most of the glitches that I’ve witnessed in the game revolve around a polygon arm or leg reflected across the wrong axis or a ball being magically attracted to a receiver’s hand due to a faulty collision system. I haven’t figured out how to replicate the strange happenings of Monday Night Football or the Atari game that allowed you to wrap the whole screen. I’ve certainly never been a part of the bizarre behavior in Breaking Madden.

I said that I would never be able to describe it to give you the appropriate level of joyrror. The guys on Hang Up and Listen used the word totem, an offering by the game to the player that it had been well and truly broken. Earlier I described the game as an abortion. I worried about using that word for obvious reasons, but it is the only appropriate word given the outcome. During the game, an abortion appeared at midfield. It looked like the game birthed a half Seahawk/half Bronco fetus like figure at the 50-yard line. The thing is an absolute abomination and it stalks my nightmares to this day. My curiosity proved too strong. So may yours. You have been warned.

Life has gotten in the way and I have to catch up on the latest episodes to see what comes next. Breaking Madden has definitely found a place into my schedule as regular viewing. I recommend that you check it out, too, just avoid last year’s Super Bowl. In addition to the monstrosity at midfield, the page should be investigated by Amnesty International for crimes against humanity for what the virtual Seahawks did even though they are computer models.