Some times things just don’t go to plan. Family commitments got in the way of one armory, we then forgot something meaning we couldn’t make another armory and finally another armory wasn’t on due to the public holiday.
Will I even know what to do when we get to an armory? With Road To Nationals coming up we are seriously lacking in play time. I’m not that fussed about the Road To Nationals side of things though as I play for the community not so much the competitive side of things. However it would be nice to do well and pick-up a cool prize…
It does mean that we are in for another rambling post rather than the structured News, Emptying The Wallet, Game Recap, Cardboard and Meta Matters. We will still have What’s Coming Up?
The Perfect Deck
Over on Reddit there was a post “Sage Decks / Unique Cards“ where the poster said that they hoped there weren’t unique cards in the new SAGE precon decks. They thought LSS would be being greedy if they included unique cards as it would be making existing players buy the decks just for those cards.
First up I think that we will see unique cards in the SAGE precon decks. It gives existing players a reason to buy the decks and LSS is a business trying to sell things. Also I don’t think it’s a bad thing to have cards introduced this way. If they are really important cards they’ll get a reprint in time.
The problem as I see it is that people want the “perfect deck'“ and don’t want to try and work with the cards they have. This is where I think things have changed massively from when I used to play Magic 30 years ago.
Back then there wasn’t a single card market (at least where I lived in the UK). So you had to trade for cards and find alternatives to the “perfect” card to play with until you could trade for what you wanted.
Now-a-days it seams that people don’t want to have that growth with their deck/card collection. The answer is to buy the cards that you want rather than trying out other cards until you get what you “need“.
If I was running the “perfect” or fully tuned Pleiades deck I would probably be running 3 Enlightened Strike and 3 Command and Conquer. In reality I have no EStrike cards and just the 1 CnC that I luckily pulled from a History Pack.
Limited Formats
I’m starting to understand why people like limited formats such as booster draft. Sure it’s a more expensive way to play as you’re having to buy packs every time you play a draft. However people are having to come up with solutions to not having the “perfect” cards for a deck.
Seeing cards played that wouldn’t be in Constructed as they aren’t seen as being the strongest option, I can see being refreshing and interesting. Trying to figure out how to get cards to play together that aren’t the prescribed combo and seeing what other players come up with I’m sure is surprising. Sure it will be in both a good and a bad way but at least it’s different.
Where I am, the only time that limited formats are played is for pre-release and the 2 weeks following a release. So it’s something that I have very limited experience of with 1 Crack, Shuffle, Play Skirmish and Super Slam Pre-release being the only events I’ve done so far. It’s increasingly becoming something that I’m looking forward to playing more of.
Ideas Bouncing Around In There
A couple of things that are bouncing around in my head are:
* The Largest UPF Game Ever Played
* Werewolf Hero
The Largest UPF Game Ever Played
UPF is designed to be played with 4 people but I’ve seen tables of 5 also play this game. So the question is how many people could you fit in 1 table?
If you did this I think that you would have to have more than 1 turn going round the table at the same time. This would mean that you’d need to have a strict time limit or fixed time duration for a turn.
When the turns met each other once players are eliminated how do you cope with that? I think that you would have to get rid of one of the turns so I need to figure out the mechanics of that.
Werewolf Hero
I’ve been catching up on my FAB lore and have read/listened to every story from 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022. I’m working my way through 2023 at the moment.
From what I’ve learned so far I think that a Shadow Brute from Demonastery would be the best fit for a Werewolf Hero. Initially I had thought a Brute from the Savage Lands but I’ve changed my mind the more I learn.
At the moment I’m thinking the hero ability would be something along the lines of:
Human
* Attack and defence of cards you control are halved, rounded up.
Note this is not just the base but the total.
* At the beginning of your turn put a Moon counter on Human
* At the beginning of your end phase, if there are 3 Moon counters on this transform into a Werewolf
Werewolf
* Attack and defence of cards you control are doubled
* At the beginning of your end phase, transform back to Human
The challenge would be surviving to the 4th turn and being able to setup a combo to make the most of the double attack.
I’d be interested to hear your thoughts on my Werewolf hero idea.
What’s Coming Up?
Hopefully getting to some armories :)
Also I sent out a questionnaire asking people what their favourite card is and why. I’ll be having a look at the responses and seeing if there’s a link between hero played and favourite card.
