It’s been really busy over the last couple of weeks so I have some catching up to do. Last time we talked, my daughter and I had been to the Auckland Card Market and bought a box of Welcome to Rathe. The intention was to do a box opening video, things got busy so we did a quick opening. We didn’t get anything interesting so decided not to bother posting it. I won’t be buying old boxes for opening in the future.
Since last time we have been to 5 armories (4 different ones) and a FAB Christmas party. For the full story on the Christmas Party check out my Armory Guide Special - Digital Natives Academy Christmas Party post. This is my first post for paid subscribers. I know I don’t have any paid subscribers yet but “if you build it they will come.“
On the news front, LSS talked about playing formats, banded some cards and made a cosplay update. Also Kano LLed in CC. I guess we can just say LLed now as there is no LL in Blitz anymore.
For cardboard we traded for some cards and also pulled some nice ones.
News
LSS said that they would talk about all the formats of Flesh and Blood and their future. It’s good to get this insight and I think much needed. I did my own post looking at all the formats recently. The difference being that I talked about all the formats, where as LSS showed that they don’t care about their multi player format, Ultimate Pit Fight. That’s right UPF wasn’t even mentioned, neither was Shapeshifter but that’s less surprising. They released Smash Palace this year but still seam to have forgotten that multiplayer exists.
On the other formats there was the announcement that Blitz and LL will get annual outings of some sort. That CC is the main format and that they are putting a lot of effort into SAGE. Sealed formats will be back after Compendium Of Rathe.
I really think that they don’t understand what LL should be. They tried to make it a mass participation format and failed. So they have put it on the back burner for now. They said that at Worlds the top players really did it justice and seam perplexed that people weren’t turning up to play it at LGSs. The obvious answer is that LL is an elite experienced player format, so why not keep it as that?
LSS banded some cards to deliberately shakeup the meta. Cindra, Gravy, Florian and Verdance all took hits. Also they preemptively hit Arakni, Marionette as well with the other Araknis getting caught in the cross fire. They did say that cards will likely make a return and this was a shake up of a good meta, rather than fixing imbalances.
Kano LLed which was expected and those of us that get mixed up between Kano and Kayo had to read it a couple of times to make sure we knew what was going on.
Finally there were changes to the Cosplay competitions to be honest though I don’t understand the changes and I’m not prepared to spend the time to figure it out.
Emptying The Wallet
Armory Deck: Arakni came out on the 12th of December so I had to get that ($59.90). Yes I know that my Armory Deck League hasn’t really got going but I do have the decks… Just need to get my daughter to play the games with me and write up the posts…
As we picked up some nice equipment cards I bought 3 Ultra Pro Mini Snap cases ($2x3) to keep them in good condition. More on those cards in the Cardboard section….
For events we have Gateway Games armory ($6x2), Card Merchant Hamilton armory twice ($15x4), Gaming DNA armory ($15x2), DNA armory (free) and DNA Christmas Party ($20entry+$20secret Santa x2). For a total of $182 for events and a $247.90 for the fortnight. I’m glad I started this free game to spend time with my daughter…
Armory
Let’s be honest with 5 armories and Christmas party these are a bit hazy. I do have notes somewhere but in the interest of getting this published before it becomes a monthly update...
Using the info I have from GEM, the first armory was Card Merchant Hamilton back on the 9th of December. Draw, Win, Draw was my record that evening playing CC. I didn’t lose!!! But the draws also mean I didn’t rank that highly. From memory Braiden ranked above me with a Loss, Win, Draw which I think is really unfair… I did drop a 23 hit attack on a new player which probably wasn’t the nicest intro to the game…
At DNA (Digital Natives Academy) armory on Friday night we played UPF. Somehow I got into the final. I didn’t win my table (my daughter won and made it to the final) but I think as I was the visiting they let my daughter and I play 2 games. I came second in the final and got Gem Pack 1, 2 & 3. GEM doesn’t handle UPF well, it registered me as having a double loss and a loss (look above for the lack of love from LSS for UPF).
On to the Christmas party on Saturday and I got knocked out in round 1 but my daughter made it into the final (after a game that lasted more than an hour). Check out my Armory Guide Special for all the details. It was great fun playing UPF but you don’t get as many games in as 1v1.
Back to Card Merchant Hamilton on Tuesday night and I racked up a Loss, Draw and a bye. So kind of got a win in there. That event btw is still active on GEM…
Thursday night was Gaming DNA also in Hamilton where I racked up a Win, Loss and Loss. This was the first time I’d played Hunter and I dropped a 24 hit attack in turn 2. She did ask how often this was going to happen. That’s my biggest hit yet and I couldn’t repeat it but I did manage to get the win.
Finally it was to Gateway Games the following night where I racked up a Loss, Loss, Bye and Win. The win was against a new player. Anton does play Magic so knows TCGs but is new to FAB. Let’s be honest even though he was playing a borrowed tuned Ira deck, it is one that I should win.
Overall there were a lot of close games that I lost. I feel that I’m moving forward again after a week where it felt I was playing worse not better the more I played. There have been some changes to my Pleiades deck and there is still some more tweaking to do but I’m happier with how it’s playing.
Cardboard
There are some bits that you just can’t skip over. As you’ll see in the video above I pulled a CF Kunai of Retribution. Unfortunately it was the GEM002-CF version not GEM003-CF version so it wasn’t worth $40. Still Jesse did need it for his folder so we traded it to him.
The Rampart Of The Ram’s Head has not been traded and is safely in a mini snap and seeing use in my Pleiades deck.
My daughter has decided to play Slippy as her second deck. When the opportunity to trade for a Blood Splattered Vest and Flick Knives came up at the Christmas party I took it. You can probably guess that this is where the other 2 mini snaps went. It did mean giving up my CF Cerebellum Processor and extended art cards from my Pleiades deck. He was looking to bling up his wife’s new Pleiades deck.
Also we got picked up a Go Bananas, Squizzy & Floof, Christmas Cracked Bauble and a sealed The Hunted pre-release pack which has foil tokens in it.
I can’t remember there being anything of significance coming from the decks we got for armory entries.
Meta Matters
At the top end there’s been a shake up in the meta. Kano has been banned in CC and the card bans have seen Kassi rising up the rankings.
At armory level though there’s not really been any change. The only time I remember seeing Kano was in UPF where he went on to win the whole thing.
As far as the bans changing things for Cindra, Gravy, Florian and Verdance? Well those players are still playing those heroes.
I’ll aim to get back into more detail around the local meta after Christmas.
What’s Coming Up?
No armories for a week! Yup Christmas has got in the way and the only armory that we could have made we were too knackered for.
Hopefully with the Christmas break in my 2 part-time jobs, I’ll have time to catchup with an armory guide or 2.
Finally what did you get for Christmas? Anything better than a pair of socks?
