Tag Archives: April Showers 2023

On the Tabletop

MTGMOM Miscellany Edition: Cards I Love

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Introduction

In between an insane schedule mentioned several times before, I finished two set reviews. I even built some terrible decks for each of the Hearthstone classes a couple of weeks ago. Now, with MTGMOM Miscellany Edition, I finish the latest set and we put to rest the dreaded Phyrexians once and for all. Or, do we?

At least in the short term, WotC seems done with the Phyrexians. As recent television and movie projects show us, though, nobody ever truly dies in fantasy and science fiction. So, five to ten years down the road, new Praetors rise to take the mantle and spread the infection. But, for now, let’s lead the resistance.

MTGMOM Multicolored Honorable Mention (Dinos, Vampires, Giant Frogs and other Miscellany)

Borborygmos and Fblthp

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One of the first spoilers I saw was Thalia and the Gitrog Monster. I made the connection then that this last stand against the Phyrexians brought strange alliances between classic characters. That hooked me immediately and increased my interest in the set. What a fun lore and plot device. Then came Mavren and Ghalta. I just now saw Borgy and Fblthp when I went to look at the spoilers, but that just looks like a fun card. Hopefully I get a chance to play some of these at some point.

MTGMOM Multicolored Card I Love (Omnath Compleat)

As the story went along, Omnath became more powerful and mastered more colors of mana. After gaining white, I wondered how they might incorporate black mana. It makes perfect sense to have Sheoldred come in and corrupt the lifeforce and give it access to not only black, but Phyrexian mana, too. I definitely want to build an Omnath deck now.

MTGMOM Colorless Card I Love (New Sword!)

With surprisingly few colorless cards in the block, I picked the only decent one. If you play eternal formats or cubes, then you know the swords of from Magic history. They blessed us with another in this set and finally completed the cycle. I know people are down on current MTG sets, but I love that the designers continue to expand the lore and bring us new ways to enjoy the past while looking to the future.

The Verdict

Too many multicolored cards and too few colorless make this an imbalanced article. But, I consider it a success that, in spite of how busy I am I completed the latest set of Hearthstone and Magic the Gathering. I need to figure things out after recording the next episode of Ready Player One, but I promise an update over the weekend. Thanks for reading my MTGMOM Miscellany edition and I’ll see you again next week.

Spoilers courtesy of Mythic Spoiler. They’ve been my go to for spoilers for as long as I can remember.

On the Tabletop

MTGMOM Gruul Edition: Cards I Love

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Introduction

I wrote a couple of days ago in the Esper edition that I enjoyed playing those colors the most by far out of the color wheel. Not only can I find few reasons that I enjoy playing red, I actually hate playing against red even more. Mono red provides a quick way to either win or lose a game, so I see that deck more than any other on Magic the Gathering Arena. Therefore, at least half of MTGMOM Gruul edition might end up not being very much fun to ready.

I promise to try to keep my bias out of the article, though, and give you a good selection of red cards. Also, while red tilts me every time I see a basic mountain, I enjoy many green cards. So, even if I fail in delivering on the red cards, rest assured that the green cards will live up to our standards here at the page.

MTGMOM Red Honorable Mention (Dinos, Dragons, and Praetor in a Storm)

Etali, Primal Conqueror

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Look at that. I gave you five cards for the price of three in this section to make up for my admitted bias against red. Since red offends me so much, I decided to pick cards dedicated to people I love. I included Etali as a nod to Quinn, who said the other day, “I want to build a dinosaur deck again.” Every time I write one of these things, I need to include the latest dragon as a shout out to Chris. This one looks like an overcosted Goldspan, but it comes with convoke, so a tokens deck brings that down. I included Urabrask simply for the third chapter of the back. That is straight fire in a storm deck.

MTGMOM Red Card I Love (Chandra fixed my mana, gives me options, and goes pew pew)

Even though I gravitated to being a blue mage and worshiping Jace as my lord and savior, my “shameful” nerd admission for this article is that I always had a soft spot for Chandra. Her cards almost always sucked, but I found her character compelling. I like this card, though.

MTGMOM Green Honorable Mention (Atraxa Falls, Kavu Chomps, and Planeswalker Three Manas)

Atraxa's Fall

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I picked Atraxa’s Fall because it removes basically anything you can name. Yes, at sorcery speed (Spikes right now are angrily composing emails to our editor to complain about that), but I found it funny that it lists every card type in the explanation. Goes with our recent trend of including word creep in articles. The Kavu shows off one of the new keywords from the new set. When I saw the new Wrenn, I texted Chris, “They haven’t learned the lesson of three mana ‘Walkers?”

MTGMOM Green Card I Love (Wurmcoil Hydra)

I think I chose the original Polukranos in one of the articles I wrote way back when. I’m far too tired right now to look and verify. Maybe I take a look and update you in the miscellaneous article in a couple of days. Until then, glory in the face of what I texted to Chris as “Wurmcoil Hydra”. Norn went crazy with this one.

The Verdict

MTGMOM Gruul edition brought a surprising amount of cards I enjoyed. I still refuse to admit that either red or green (okay, maybe green) cards bring me any amount of joy. But, when forced to play these colors at the eternal MTG table in Hell, at least I can make some good choices.

Images courtesy of Mythic Spoiler. They’ve been my go to page for spoilers for as long as I can remember.

On the Tabletop

MTGMOM Esper Edition: Cards I Love

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Introduction

Mario in March went less spectacularly that I anticipated this year. I suppose that’s par for the course for us here at 2 Generations Gaming. We get a decent idea, some time to implement that idea, and then life gets busy again. I mean, I never intended for this page to be income, but I see other people doing it and sometimes wonder why it was never us. But, no time to feel sorry for ourselves. I keep this page alive for me and me alone. If someone else finds something they enjoy, great. Besides, a new Magic the Gathering set released. So, time to review MTGMOM Esper cards.

Those who follow the page know that white, blue, and black represent the part of the MTG color wheel where I almost exclusively reside. In all honesty (and why lie?), I prefer blue, play blue and black for utility and for fun (*cough* police *cough), and splash white for maximum fun (*cough* again police *cough*). So, every set, I start truly with cards I love.

White Honorable Mention (Eggs, Like Actual Eggs Not the Deck, Planeswalker Hate and a Wrath)

Attentive Skywarden

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This set introduces some cool new mechanics. Battles (more on those later in the week), backup (might make an appearance tomorrow), and incubate. Incubate mimics the Phyrexian invasion by putting tokens on the field that transform into Phyrexians on certain conditions. Playing MTGA gave me an irrational fear and hatred of Planeswalkers. Cut short helps me deal with that. And, you all know my love for a good wrath.

White Card I Love (Elesh Norn)

The Praetors get one last stand (spoiler alert) in this set and WotC took care of their Phyrexian momma. I texted Chris when I saw the card, “You think they’ll ever make an Elesh Norn that isn’t overpowered?” He replied, simply, “Nope.” It might take a while to get back into the part of the story where they can make another Norn card (again, spoiler alert), but I remain convinced that he’s right.

MTGMOM Blue Honorable Mention (Blue Doing Blue Things and a Knight?)

Transcendent Message

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I mentioned earlier that I mainly enjoy playing blue. I just get an unnatural enjoyment out of frustrating my opponents. I try to curb that impulse when playing against friends. But, on MTGA, all bets are off. So, I’m bringing a card that lets me counter spells and draw cards. Plus, a card that lets me draw my whole deck. Oh, and a knight for some reason. I can’t explain it. I just like the card. Maybe if I ever find myself drafting the set, I will try to bully everyone off knights.

MTGMOM Blue Card I Love (Going to Segovia)

I just learned of Segovia with this set. I needed to go back to the card to check the spelling. Naturally, when I learn something new in one of the games I enjoy, I end up doing some research on that subject. I learned that Segovia is a plane where everything is super small. That made sense, then, why the tyrant is the size of a grizzly bear. Also, you get to see Siege Battle cards in action. Very cool and fun.

MTGMOM Black Cards Honorable Mention (Card Draw, Mr. Take Yo Planeswalker, and Bring Me the Head of Elesh Norn!)

Breach the Multiverse

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Honestly, I just chose Mirrodin Avenged because (a) I liked that plane and hate the Phyrexians. Seeing Karn finally avenge his loss after all this time is awesome. Breach the Multiverse feels like a fun (police) card to play in a 4 player commander game. And, I don’t have enough creatures in my UB MTGA deck to take advantage of that card draw, but I’ve been meaning to put together a token sac deck.

MTGMOM Card I Hate (Glistening Deluge)

I went with a different strategy when picking this card. Hey, when they expect you to zig, you gotta zag! Anyway, when reading the text on these cards (and I think I talked about card text creep last time), I saw this card and it made me pause as a mathematician and minor league logic troll. The phrase “…green and/or white…” includes one too many words. Logically, if a card is green and white, then it is green or white. I remember reading once that Magic the Gathering partially works because the cards logically make sense. This card does, but that extra word just bothers me.

The Verdict

MTGMOM Esper cards in this article feel a little underwhelming when compared with the last set. That’s not to say there aren’t good or powerful cards. I just chose to eschew them in favor of my pet projects and trolling. Hey, when you start your own web page, you can do the same. Heck, you can share the MTGMOM Esper cards you love in the comments.

Card images taken from Mythic Spoiler. Go there for all your spoiler needs. I’m not looking for a deal with them or anything, I just like their set up the best of all the pages.

Digital Playground

Hearthstone Festival Part 4: Great, Good, Decent

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Introduction

We made it to the end of Hearthstone Festival of Legends! In Hearthstone Festival part 4, I cover Warlock and Warrior. What about neutrals, you ask? Well, first, I rarely ever run neutrals. Look at my decks over this series and ask me that question again. I think in one or two of them, I used only class cards. Who knows? Maybe I write a bonus article talking about the neutrals at some point. I need a break, so on to Magic the Gathering starting tomorrow.

Narrator: He will never write any such article.

My history with Warlock starts and ends with control. I loved playing during the Handlock days and remember inviting Chris to watch me end the career of several players back when we were able to get together on a monthly basis. I reluctantly played Implock a couple of times recently to finish a quest, but I’m a control player. Same with Warrior. I have a wild Krontrol deck that I play and built a standard a set or two ago that I revisit every now and then. With that in mind, let’s look at some cards.

Warlock

demonicgd
despairgd

Decent: Not knowing enough about demons in Standard right now, all I think of when I see these cards is some ridiculous combo involving them that either ends with a full board or in wild, a full board and your hero gaining immunity.

ringr
soloistgr
sinsgr

This is a mish mash hodge podge of cards that makes almost no sense. But, that’s what we like around here, so they get tossed into the good bucket. Likely, never to be heard from again. Hey, you don’t come here for meta. You come here for the inconsistency of the memery.

Crazed Conductor

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Great: I think they started this trend with the last expansion of taking fatigue damage without actually exhausting your deck. I like the idea of bending mechanics in new ways, so of course I chose to build around that. Now, time to see if I’m right about there being more cards to support this terrible build

Warrior

dec1
dec2a

Decent: A card that increases the amount of armor that you gain plus a card that benefits from that armor gained? Hey, we got a combo over here! Combo right here! There’s a combo here. See, nobody cares.

Reference for those who need it.
riff3
riff1
riff2

Good: (a) I have no idea what these cards mean when they say play your last riff. (b) I refuse to look up what these cares mean when they say play your last riff. (c) They might be great cards, but because there are three, I put them in the good section.

Blackrock 'n' Roll

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Great: Menagerie build in Battlegrounds remains my favorite to this day. Looking at the statistics from the webpage, others copied me because it always ranks as the top build for nearly every hero. Now, they took that and brought it into standard with these cards. Shove every stupid minion type into your deck. ????? Profit?

The Verdict

I take no credit or blame for that warrior deck. This series is over with Hearthstone Festival part 4 and I’m officially done with these cards. It might actually be a decent deck. It probably just sucks. I return tomorrow with a review of March of the Machine and I don’t entirely know the format yet, so I will either think about that tonight or just repeat the format from the last set. Come back tomorrow to see!

Note: I used Hearthstone Top Deck builder for the decks. I know it isn’t the best, but it works and I like it aesthetically for the screenshot of each deck.

Digital Playground

Hearthstone Festival Part 3: Great, Good Decent

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Introduction

I admit that the last article wrote much easier than the previous article. Hopefully, this one follows suit. Next week, I scheduled the new MTG set review, so more easy pickings to keep ramping into our summer schedule. Though, admittedly, the end of June and beginning of July bring the Germany trip, so not much in the way of updates for about a month there. But, that’s a couple of months off. Maybe I’ll figure out a way to schedule updates for that time. Right now, I need to discuss Hearthstone Festival part 3; priest, rogue, and shaman.

I play a lot of priest and shaman in wild. Usually, I play Galakrond priest (yes, still) and Highlander Shaman. For a while there, rogue was public enemy number one again. I saw some of those decks, but mostly I just autoconcede when faced with something like that. I have no interest in climbing the ranks. I simply want to finish quests and get as many collectibles as possible in the game.

Priest

love
syncronize

Decent: The legendary spell might just be great and find its way into numerous standard and wild decks. Saving two mana is a big deal. However, as I’ve hopefully expressed over the years, I am not about great decks. I’m about jank and just plain bad decks. So, you want to min/max? There are plenty of other web pages for that. Here, I’m all about “Love Everlasting” into Power Chord: Synchronize.

pop
distort
fight

Good: Definite removal vibe in these cards. When I play priest, usually I play for removal. So, more likely than not, all of these cards will be included into my next priest Wild deck. I especially like the idea of the fight card. Not only is it removal, but it gives card advantage, too. The budget dismember seems fun, too.

Heartbreaker Hedanis

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Great: These cards pushed for heal and overheal, which makes sense. They introduced the mechanic in this set and added it to some of the cards from the new “core set” available to Standard players. Overall, these cards underwhelm me more than any of the other cards in the set. I often say that I don’t care about good decks, just fun decks. But, this one feels like neither. Who knows? Maybe it will surprise me.

Rogue

Mixtape
hip-hop

Decent: Remember, just a paragraph ago, when I said how underwhelmed I was by those priest cards and deck? Well, apparently, that’s going to be a theme in this article. Because these cards stink on ice. Sure, deal damage and buff your weapon has utility. But, how many times do I have to say it? We aren’t looking for utility here. We want jank!

mc
bounce
return

Good: Rogue bounce card annoy the hell out of me. These ones seem less annoying, other than maybe the one that makes them all cost 1. I’m sure somebody somewhere already came up with a way to exploit that card along with all of the other mana reducers available to rogue. But, I have no interest in that, so into the good bucket it goes.

Beatboxer

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Great: Ever since the beginning of Hearthstone, Combo defined rogue cards. Hell, one of those cards launched the career of one of the most famous streamers of all time. At the very least, it gave him a clever name to call himself. So, why not try to piggy back off that success and jam all of the new combo cards into a deck?

Shaman

chill
chord

Decent: As with most of the cards in this set, these are decent but not great. Both are costed okay with upside depending on the finale or overloaded clause. But, they just don’t “WOW” me, you know what I mean? And, so, I deem them decent.

brass
house
melo

Good; This is the part in the review where I start to feel like I repeat myself. Because after just repeating myself above, I’m going to repeat myself about repeating myself. Or, I can just wrap this thing up, walk away for a little bit, and come back to it tomorrow.

Flowrider

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Great: Like rogue, Blizzard focused on an oldie but a goodie…hey, wait a minute. Was this music themed expansion just a long con by Blizzard to get people to say that phrase? If so, well played. In any case, they focused on an oldie but goodie Shaman keyword. Quite possibly the most maligned and misunderstood evergreen of the entire game; overload.

The Verdict

Hearthstone Festival Part 3 contains possibly the most underwhelming collection of cards so far. None of these cards made me interested in playing the game other than maybe “Jive, Insect.” And I just like that one for the stupid fun potentially involved. Other than that, I’d rather just forget that Hearthstone Festival Part 3 never happened.

Decks created with Hearthstone Top Decks. I know it isn’t the best builder, but it works and I like the screen shots for aesthetic reasons.

Digital Playground

Hearthstone Festival Part 2: Great, Good, Decent

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Introduction

Usually during vacation, I find a second (or third, or hundredth, or whatever) wind and write furiously that lasts me a few months before I run into another block. However, I struggled yesterday and last night to write that article. Hopefully I can write my way through it and at least provide decent content over the next month and a half until school ends and figure it out over the summer. Right now, I need to concentrate on Hearthstone Festival Part 2.

The next three classes I need to cover in this article are Hunter, Mage, and Paladin. Historically, I hate Hunter. Both playing and playing against the class. However, I built a jank (because of course) deck that uses both Yoggs and the shattered C’thun card that I like to play for quests. Mage is probably my most played class (maybe Priest) and the only deck I have that could even be considered meta. Finally, Paladin just sort of exists and I play it as a last resort. So, this might be the least fun article to write for this series. Can you stand the excitement?!

Hunter

monkeys
bananas

Decent: Fun as a barrel of monkeys? I’ve got a lovely bunch of bananas? Honestly, I have nothing else to say about these cards. They…do…things…maybe things that some players find useful an consider interesting. None of that applies to me. So, let’s just move on, shall we?

jammer
harmony
naga

Good: These cards also do things. The Arrow Smith and Jammer do things together. I’m sure some degenerate out there already figured out how to abuse the Arrow Smith for a one turn combo kill with the Jammer as additional BM. The soloist is just a solid early minion with upside. Not even I can find anything bad about that.

Big Dreams

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Great: In the last review article (*cough* last year *cough*), Blizzard threw us an easy one with Beast Druid. This time around, they give us a similar soft ball with Beast Hunter. I suppose you might be able to put something together with the “good” cards and Naga supports. Stay tuned. I might just do a follow up article with an alternate deck for each class.

Beast-ravaganza Hunter

Mage

synthesize
keyboard

Decent: Elemental Mage is a tried and true Wild archetype and every now and then they try to make it viable in standard, too. Not knowing all of the cards or potential strategies, I decided against trying to make it work here. Initially, I thought about it, but the heart of the cards pushed me in another direction.

tech
lightshow
soloist

Good: Independently, I like all of these cards. Even in the right deck, they work pretty well together. But, I’m not really trying to win games with the deck I put together. I just want to have fun and actually go infinite with either of my “star” spells. So, I’ll stick these cards here and call it a day.

Lightshow

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Great: As soon as I saw “Infinitize”, I knew they wanted me to attempt to do just that. Then, I saw Manastorm as a card and didn’t even care what the effect was. That card synergizes, lore wise, with a card called “Infinitize the Maxitude”, so in it went. Then I found two other spells that are just dumb and, hey, I can’t pass up a dumb and fun deck.

Dumb Spell Mage

Paladin

maul
down

Decent: These cards do what Paladin does. They summon small dudes and then buffs them. Honestly, that’s the most annoying archetype for me to play against. But, if that’s your bag, you do you.

dancer
disco
funk

Good: I could have included the murloc in my deck, but I wanted the divine shield for my face instead of the buff on the minions. I like the idea of the harmonic/dissonant cards. But, so far none of them impressed me thus far. Lead dancer teases potential with buffs, but again, that’s not what I want to do with Paladin.

Annoy-o-Troupe

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Great: Divine shield. This minion gets a divine shield. That minion gets a divine shield. Those minions lose divine shield and I get a 5/5. I get divine shield! We all get divine shield! Wait, is Blood Knight Standard legal? Time to build my deck. (Note: Blood Knight is not Standard legal.)

The Verdict

Hearthstone Festival Part 2 gives fun cards that make two of the classes I hate playing more fun for me. It also gives me some fun cards to play for my most entertaining class. Two more parts to go. Hope to be finished by Saturday. I want to record Ready Player One episode 2 tomorrow, so hopefully I get both done. For now, that’s it on Hearthstone Festival part 2 and return hopefully for part 3 tomorrow.

Decks built in Hearthstone Top Decks. Not the greatest deck builder, but I like the aesthetics of the screensot.

Digital Playground

Hearthstone Festival Part 1: Great, Good, Decent

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Introduction

We last wrote about Hearthstone in the traditional sense of the game during the Barrens expansion. Since then, I meant to write reviews of the Sunken City expansion, but things got busy. And, so, we join Hearthstone nearly a year later with the release of Festival of Legends. Hearthstone Festival Part 1 brings cards from 3 classes; Death Knight, Demon Hunter, and Druid.

Speaking of things getting busy, I’m sure that I will repeat this several times this week during the various projects I need to update. I already discussed it in the finale episode of the podcast. Now, I write about it here. My days over the last few weeks go like this; I wake up, I go to work, I pick up Quinn, take him to play, watch play, come home, maybe work out, cook dinner, take Aiden to soccer, come back home, play around on the computer or watch TV for a half hour or so, rinse and repeat. So, things have been busy.

A Note Before The Review

Having last reviewed Hearthstone cards about a year ago, I went to look at that article. It surprised me how in depth I made the review. I split the cards into the decent, good, and great categories. Then, I built a deck around the great cards. Quite the undertaking, to be sure. But, a good idea is a good idea. Plus, I’m on vacation now, so I have a bit of time over the rest of the week to make it happen.

Death Knight

pit
gorwl

Decent: Both of these cards are pretty good, but situational. Immediately, I think of something like Sylvanas for either or both of them as an absolute eff you to opponents playing big minions. As I look now, I think we can have fun with Saurfang or Cage Head (more on him in a bit) shenanigans.

cage
cultist
metal

Good: Hardcore Cultist is a fun little card. If you pull off the finale (spend your last mana on the card), you get consecration on a stick for one less mana. Harmonic Metal becomes Dissonant Metal every other turn where the numbers swap, which is a cool little effect. Cage Head works very well with the other cards mentioned in the decent category, so maybe I’ll make an extra deck with some deathrattle effects.

Great: As I look at these cards, I think I might have tried to combine two strategies. One involves manipulating health to advance cards and the other uses corpses in a similar manner. In my limited experience playing Death Knight, corpses are plentiful and can be worked into any strategy as a secondary win condition. We all know that whatever I build won’t win you any tournaments. But, hopefully it plays fun and brings joy.

Health/Corpse Manipulation Death Knight

Demon Hunter

security
chaos

Decent: As expected, the finale cards have decent upside. Taste of Chaos is no different. You know I like a discover card, too. Unfortunately, I don’t play enough Demon Hunter to even consider any kind of control strategy, which is where that fits. 2 mana for 2 1/1 dudes and the opportunity for a third with outcast just doesn’t do it for me.

rush
darkraven
snakebite

Good: These cards push you in a definite rush direction. Even while writing this, I considered that direction. After all, I more or less admitted in the last section that I have no idea how to build control Demon Hunter. I know it’s possible. I played a minionless control Demon Hunter through last expansion. I just can’t build it myself. So, why not the rush minions? I don’t know. Too obvious, I guess.

Glaivetar

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Great: After all that crap I talked about not being able to build a control Demon Hunter deck, it sure looks like I picked cards that lend themselves to control. I think my thought process for this article is trying to build around the legendary spell for each class. In this one, I saw a weapon control deck with some lifesteal thrown in. That’s the one thing i always wished for as a rogue when I started playing Hearthstone.

Demon Hunter Weapon Control?

Druid

no images were found

Decent: Well, the druid cards broke the streak of building around the legendary spell. I tried, but there’s just no synergy between the card and anything else that I might want to do with my deck. It’s a fun card with some utility, but just not what I want. Same with Peaceful Piper. A decent card with pretty good utility. So, they both fit in this section.

drum
flower
tambourine

Good: These three cards work very well together. They do what big druid wants to do and make big dumb creatures to wallop your opponent. I think they might find a place in a Prince Highlander Druid deck if that’s even a thing. If not, I might just make it a thing. I know I say these things and then I never follow through. But, let me make a note of it now. Big dumb druid deck and whatever I said for Death Knight earlier. Ha!

Zok Fogsnout

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Great: All of these cards either improve attack or armor or take advantage of that improved attack and armor. That led to an obvious deck idea similar to the Demon Hunter above. You can either use your attack and armor as removal and play more control or just try to race the opponent. Not knowing what the current meta is, I’m not sure which is more likely.

Druid Attack/Armor Manipulation Deck

The Verdict

Hearthstone Festival Part 1 gives us Death Knight (first time we reviewed the class), Demon Hunter, and Druid cards. Overall, the decks seem fun and decent. The druid deck is a bit of a mess, so I definitely want to revisit the class with another deck, probably in wild. After I finish the series, I will consider coming back to any other ideas that I have. Well, i’ts late, but I powered through to finish the Hearthstone Festival Part 1. Here’s hoping the rest of the series goes quicker and more smoothy.