#either way this is me making up for not getting into the old TCG sets back in the day even though I've been a lifelong fan since I was 4 | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

thatdeadaquarius · 11 months

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I was playing Genius Invocation yesterday, but out of nowhere this idea came to me like tge whispers of an old god.

How would the characters react to knowing they are the creator's favorite card? (Mine are Beidou and Ningguang, but if you are confortable, I would like to know yours as well)

AHDAALLL I HAVENT PLAYED TGI CARD GAME ENOUGH!! SO FOR NOW I RLLY LOVE THE WAY CYNO AND KAEYA'S ART LOOKS (tho diluc does look shmall in his hehe)

Thank you for your patience!! Sorry this is SO FUCKING late :0 and if it’s bad! i havent rlly liked my writing the past couple pieces, so i stuck with some fun headcanons i thought of while kicking me feet and twirling my hair over this question hehehe

Sun: Gender Neutral Reader (they/them only)

Planet: General SAGAU/Isekai Stuff :)

Orbit: Headcanons

Stars: Beidou, Ningguang, Kaeya, Cyno

Comets & Meteors: Content Warnings: Cussing & Trigger Warnings: None Known.

☆

Beidou:

BIGGEST EGO BOOSTS OF HER LIFE LMAO

SHE WOULD LITERALLY SUBTLY FLEX EVERYTIME UR AROUND IM CRYINGGG

Every fucking port knows she’s a favored one, every goddamn pirate knows it atp, hell maybe even some abyss monsters at sea too-

(Kazuha’s happy for her, but also lowkey jealous)

literally got one of her cards framed and hung in her captain’s quarters, and insisted you sign it omfg-

Ningguang isnt surprised tbh, (she knows u like strong women lol)

Ningguang:

…she gives one of the most smug smirks of her entire fucking life.

All of Liyue is gushing for her, not that she isn’t also excited on the inside, she’s just more proud than anything on the outside/for appearances

Literally set up a whole date meeting that felt like it was about to turn into a goddamn wedding proposal

I’m talking giving handcarved furniture, household necessities but they’re in pretty colors that all match (like a gold tea kettle, gold throw blanket, etc.)

Full nine-yards different kinds of teas, cakes, and all accustomed to your taste

so if u dislike super sweet stuff there are more savory items, the teas can be more bitter, or if u love sweets, this woman is giving you a bakery basically every day for nearly 2 weeks, u dont have enough space in the cabinet for all these teas- help-

Kaeya:

so fucking smug on the outside, def brags about it in Angel’s Share and he’ll only just be tipsy he’s so fucking excited to talk abt it

whenever conversations end or get a lull, he just, “So anyway, our All-Powerful Guide, really likes my TCG card, maybe even above yours, Diluc…”

pls stop him he’s annoying Diluc, and slowly other patrons 😭 (there are bar rules posted on the wall, and Diluc adds one, not for the first time, specifically for Kaeya to stop talking about TCG while in the bar LMAO)

Now all Kaeya has to do is just pull out his card (cough he’s constantly got it in his pocket, the one he asked u to sign cough)

Rosaria just looks the other way like if she can’t see it it’s not real, Diluc will literally be in the middle of making a drink for one of them and just leave it halfdone and attend to somebody else, Venti’s eye twitches-

and the entire bar just groans too LMAOOO

(have a meme I made just for you <3 )

Cyno:

oh no.

Look what you’ve done, you’ve seduced the General Mahamatra!!

Take responsibility, play TCG with him every time you see him now lmao, the only reason all of Sumeru knows you like his card (which makes it all that more desirable to ppl who do play, and collectors)

is bc he talked to Tighnari about it for hourssss, and then it made it’s way down the grapevine, and if they didn’t find out that way, the other was just seeing the usually stern and formidable General Mahamatra nearly vibrate out of his headpiece when you come near him every time you visit

Cyno weirdly gains like, 20x the luck when ur either playing against him, or sitting watching him play someone else, he’s struggling to find partners tbh bc “you’re my lucky charm? Of course I’m winning more.”

When you initially told him about him being one of ur fav cards, he literally looked like there was a loading sign over his head… Then proceeded to nearly break your ribs hugging you so hard, and nearly take ur eye out with the ears on his headpiece lol

☆

Sorry if all my writings shit for these past 2 posts! Idk im just thinking its not so good rn and idk how to fix it-

anyway I’ve started playing Breath of the Wild over the past like 2-3 months I think, and it’s amazingggg

I may or may not be both getting gender envy and also a huge crush on Link help-

Safe Travels Wandering Lantern,

💀♒

♡the beloveds♡

An iced coffee? For me??

@karmawonders / @0rah-s / @randomnatics / @glxssynarvi / @nexylaza / @genshin-impacts-me / @wholesomey-artist / @thedevioussmirk / @the-dumber-scaramouche

#hello i bring more bad writing #kinda short this time #hope u dont mind #love u guys have a good weekend!!#thank you so much again for the ask and sorry again it was so late!!#genshin sagau #genshin isekai #sagau #genshin imagines #my asks #gender neutral reader #genshin impact sagau #genshin impact isekai #genshin fluff

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diyahatnight · 1 year

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Genshin men head cannons

Warnings : Small warning. Complete fluff and a little suggestive!

Pairings: Venti, Zhongli, Ayato, Childe, Cyno, Xiao, Diluc, and Itto as your boyfriend/ husband.

Any audience

Summary: These are just head cannons and and how I think they’d actually act if they were your boyfriend.

Notes: This is a modern au with phones and sending text messages. Please excuse my grammar mistakes <3

Venti would send you random pictures of stray cats while he’s casually strolling around Mondstat.

Before Venti preforms on his Lyre, he would send you videos of him playing that specific song so he can get your feedback.

Venti is constantly drunk so he sends you drunk texts very often. That’s when you know it’s time for you to go and walk him back home.

Zhongli likes to spoil you with the money he does not have. Before you wake up he’d go out and get you coffee and danishes for breakfast. But because he’s old and needs his beauty sleep you still wake up with him by your side with your sleep mask on, but food on your night stand.

Zhongli never has his wallet on him, so the one time he took you on a date and actually payed, the entire restaurant applauded like he just proposed.

Zhongli loves you enough to let you play with his long hair even though it’s not professional. What’s professional about letting your wife touch you anyway? (definitely loves you enough to put a ring on it!)

While Ayato is busy with work he’d send some guards to check on you while you’re out on a walk in Inazuma.

The way Ayato proposed was weird. He sent a guard to do it with an expensive ring and note reading “(imagine me down on one knee) will you marry me my love?” you said yes obviously but you didn’t understand why he couldn’t do it when he came home.

When Ayato is getting ready for work, you would see him in the bathroom with your headband on to keep his hair out his face while he is doing his skin routine.

Childe would send you photos of him pulling his shirt up to show his abs and his pants pulled down enough to see his hips and his re growing happy trail. Messages read “Is it orange down there too?” and he replies with “You should know by now;)”

Childe makes his Fatui co workers set up cute dates for the two of you. He either beats them up or gives them money.

Childe likes to be little spoon.

Cyno texts you to tell you what time he gets off and when he gets home y’all are sleeping together. You text and ask him “baby what do you mean by sleep together?” he replies with “Whatever you want it to mean, i do as you please.”

When Cyno first met your family he made a joke and your father absolutely loved him and his dad jokes.

Cyno didn’t confess to you before you two started dating. Candace had to force him by telling him that she will hide his tcg cards.

Xiao loves it when you touch him. Anywhere. Even though he knows his Karmic debt can harm mortals he knows you’re different so he doesn’t warn you as much.

Xiao doesn’t like when you do commissions on your own so he’ll ask Venti to watch over you for him if he can’t.

Xiao is new to love so he is trying his best. He’s just happy you are patient with him.

Diluc Likes it when you play in his hair and put it in a ponytail for him.

While Diluc is closing up the winery he sits you on one of the counters and makes you wait for him to finish cleaning up.

Once Kaeya switched Diluc’s grape juice with red wine. He kept asking for more without realizing, and he came home drunk. After taking a warm bath with him you two sat on the couch as you babied him.

Itto let’s you know how much he loves you by sending pictures of him beetle wrestling and saying “Fighting for my one and oni” it’s corny but cute.

Itto doesn’t wear shirts often so you tried to get him to wear a dress shirt and it nearly ripped off of him.

Because Itto stays shirtless he’s constantly cold and sick “My extremely large man baby.” is your name for him in your phone because he acts like he’s dying when he’s sick.

I hope you guys enjoyed! i’m probably gonna do genshin girls or genshin 4 star men! :)

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smash-64 · 5 months

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2023 Game of the Year Countdown #5 Pokemon Trading Card Game (and also the Pokemon Trading Card Game Neo! romhack by Cataclyptic that added Gen 2 Pokes) Nintendo GameBoy Color, 1998

This entry will include two games, but one is simply a romhack by a fan. However, that romhack is probably the best romhack I’ve ever played. First, the original.

Pokemon Trading Card Game came with the addition of GameBoy games to the Switch online subscription, and for many, it was their first experience with the TCG. My best friend and I taught ourselves to play back in the day, but we were poor kids with little allowance to spend on cards and never had any good decks. I used to read about really expensive decks filled with holographics and rares that won tournaments and always wished I could make one of my own. The pinnacle was always the Haymaker deck: a deck built around a few Pokemon with high HP and cheap attacks that could KO opponents before they could do anything about it.

The thing is, the Haymaker deck is so hilariously powerful, you can essentially stomp the CPU without even putting together a complete version of the deck. The best versions rely on Energy Removals and Super Energy Removals to hamstring opponents, and Gusts of Wind to force your opponent into switching to suit favorable matchups. I never pulled a single Super Energy Removal at all, and was lacking full sets of numerous Pokemon that were staples in the Haymaker deck, yet I was still able to absolutely blast the CPU. It was easy, but it was also fun.

However, the true experience came from the romhack created by Cataclyptic. The romhack creates a full set of new cards, removing most of the old ones from Base Set, Jungle, and Fossil. Instead, we get all the Johto Pokemon, as well as a few returning cards that have been balanced. I found the balanced cards to be wonderfully tailored to be good, but never TOO good. It was surprising to see that almost every card felt useful. Many were based on other cards, and I fell into a Meganium and Bellossom deck. There were two Meganiums, with one able to heal status conditions and the other able to shuffle energy cards among your Pokemon. Meanwhile, Bellossom was clearly based on the Do the Wave Wigglytuff of Jungle lore. However, this Bellossom felt more balanced since it was a stage 2 evolution, and the attack required grass energies, not colorless. As a result, it took longer to both fully evolve, and power up your Pokemon, since you couldn’t utilize the Double Colorless Energy.

I was also a fan of Jumpluff, as the entire evolutionary line only required a single grass energy for every attack. As a result, you had a whole line of Pokemon that felt true to their original design of being lightweight, quick Pokemon. I loved the attention to detail on this sort of thing.

Additionally, the cards themselves were created in the same GBC sprites that the original game had. Some look better than others, but I think almost all look better than their original counterparts. Clearly crafted with love by Cataclyptic.

Finally, before I get inundated with messages and comments telling me about the official TCG sequel that was only released in Japan, I did also try the fan translation of that game. However, I didn’t enjoy it much at all because they severely restricted so many things. Part of what was fun about the game to begin with was being able to get booster packs at a rate significantly above what my poor childhood self could afford. However, the very premise of Invasion of Team GR! is that they’ve taken all the Pokemon cards, making them very scarce. As a result, you can’t get cards nearly as easily. And with the extra sets added to the game, you can’t get the ones you want very easily, either.

Additionally, the entire strategy behind most of the Team Rocket cards is to disrupt play, and while that might be similar in one way to the Haymaker strategy I previously praised, the Pokemon themselves are all pretty weak. It feels like you’re just playing Trainer cards and nothing else. I’ve seen some strategies that make people discard most of their deck instead of KOing their Pokemon. It very much fits the MO of Team Rocket, but it just isn’t quite for me. However, if you like blue decks in Magic the Gathering, you might enjoy this one.

If you like the TCG or the original game, play Cataclyptic’s romhack! I’d buy a physical cart of it, if I could.

#game of the year #goty #countdown #pokemon #trading card game #gameboy color #nintendo

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addgg-taylor · 2 months

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MTG: The Unstable Ground We Stand On

The year was 2013. Gatecrash had just come out to mixed reception, but I didn't even know what Magic was. I was in high school, and my best friend (at the time) was on a vacation to Disney World. So, I went to sit with my second best friend, but couldn't find them. That's when I found an old friend of mine playing a card game with them, and that game was Magic. I learned about it, looked into it, played Duels of the Planeswalkers (remember when that was a thing?), and decided it was for me! Now, I could have gotten a starter deck, but I was laser focused on one thing: A box that said Core Set. This was the M14 Deckbuilder's Toolkit, and I got it because that's what all my friends started Magic with. Granted, that probably wasn't the smartest idea, but I'm the type to jump off the deep end; if I'm getting into a hobby, I may as well make sure I'm prepared for the long haul. The Deckbuilder's Toolkit had everything I needed, the start of a collection, and most importantly? Lands. It had lands. You didn't need to buy them from a game store for up to (or even exceeding) a dollar a pop. You didn't have to rely on people liquidating their collection to stock up. You could just buy a box and have land cards to build decks with, and I remember buying toolkits just for lands and boosters. Now, you can't do that. If you're just getting started, you either have to borrow them, switch them between decks, open them in packs, or buy them on the secondary market. (That last one is pretty ironic, because Wizards of the Coast has a rule against acknowledging the secondary market.) And, yet there's no reasonable, mainstream way to get land cards. Some game stores will let you keep them after an event, but I've only been to one store that did that. (Read: did. They don't anymore because people weren't saving enough for others.)

Back on topic though, long time players probably made note of the time I started Magic; I started with Magic 14, which came between the Return to Ravnica block... and the Theros block, widely regarded as one of the most heavily unbalanced and mechanically awkward blocks of its time. So, after that, people reasonably wanted a palette cleanser, and they had it. The Tarkir block was amazing despite being chronologically confusing, but in the storm of chaos, there was warmth. The Core Sets would always be there to serve as the foundational building blocks, and get this; they gave players a moment to see where the main characters were on their journeys. These weren't just foundational gameplay wise, but story wise, and gave WotC a moment to show everyone what's going on in the background. They also ensured that, between the sets with heavy mechanical ties or complexity, there was always solid ground to stand on. New players could seek out these Core Sets as a good starting ground, and experienced players found themselves in familiar territory with highly desired reprints. However, despite no reasonable player protesting against Core Sets, the vocalization of players wanting more of their favorite planes was taken in a way that was bad for everyone (in my opinion).

After Magic Origins, the game switched to a two set block system, and suddenly lost the Core Set. From a game design standpoint, this is doomsday. This is how TCGs die if they don't have a dedicated, permanent selection of cards, and yet Magic somehow survived to realize their mistake. In the background, however, they were still making a more gross mistake, trying to capitalize on Elder Dragon Highlander. Around the time I got into Magic, they'd begun making Commander decks, and at first these weren't too problematic. They were once a year drops that let players get into this entirely different casual format. While Standard was limited on card selection, and Modern and Legacy a coin flip simulator, Commander allowed players to throw their collection into the ring without regard for the hottest cards. The general consensus was that you could play what you wanted, whether you had a few Standard sets worth of cards or flocked to Modern, Legacy, and Vintage.

Fast forward to War of the Spark. Now, the two block system was dying. The war on blocks had begun, with Mark Rosewater practically blowing off anyone that critiqued the change with the same "this is what you wanted, right?" Players really wanted to see previous planes, but instead of Wizards trying to revisit them in earnest, they shifted into rapid fire mode. With only one set per plane now, they began spitting out half-baked revisits that barely touched upon older planes, and tore through new planes and major events without putting much thought into them. Stories would begin to go undercooked, and with every "you wouldn't want to be stuck on a plane you don't like" from MaRo, an interesting plane or event is left unexplored past the surface level. Additionally, to add more ammo to this machine gun of mistakes, they threw the Core Set in the trash. They tried to kill it off once and realized their mistake, but after Adventures in the Forgotten Realms it was dead for good. Looking at things now, this has all caused Magic to fall apart.

Magic is the worst it's ever been for any player that isn't wholly invested in and unwaveringly loyal to the game. The beginner has the worst footing in many years, with the Local Game Store forced to leverage all the responsibility for getting new players into the game. Players who want to learn can do so for free, but the first step into the door beyond learning is a brick wall. Starter Kits have finally made a resurgence, which is a step in the right direction. However, you likely wouldn't know they existed if you didn't look online, which is antithetical to the fact that you'll usually have to go to a game store in order to play in events anyway. Additionally, with MSRPs being stripped off many products, it's the most expensive (even relatively speaking) it's ever been to start playing. As for experienced players? The story is the hardest it's ever been to keep up with, thanks especially to the fact that an entire plane's story has to start and end in one set. Players should be able to get the gist simply by looking at the set, but instead, hastily written stories with declining storytelling aspects do most of the talking (and it's assumed you've read them). This problem is becoming painfully obvious now; basically everyone that's died recently has been brought back to some extent, making it apparent that the folks in charge of story direction are leaning on old planeswalkers instead of innovating with new ones. Mu Yangling and Jiang Yanggu, Basri Ket, Niko Aris, Calix, Kasmina, Davriel, Dack Fayden, and Wrenn have either been ignored or cut from the story. Meanwhile, every member of the original five planeswalkers has completed their story arc and suffered some major fate that should have ended their tale, and yet they've all come back; Ajani and Jace were compleated, Garruk was corrupted by the Chain Veil, Liliana was hunted down, and Chandra was forced to face her corrupted fling Nissa. All of them are now totally fine, with Jace set to appear in Outlaws of Thunder Junction.

That's just scratching the surface of problems plaguing veterans. From a gameplay perspective, Standard is the most complex it's ever been, thanks to a three-year cycle being introduced and a constant torrent of increasingly complex mechanics. From a financial perspective, products aren't just the most expensive they've ever been, but there's basically a new product every single month now. Unless you stick to a single format (which can still be wallet-busting in its own right), you're bombarded with new content. Experimentation is great, but with the constant output, Wizards is forced to compete with itself; this has led to the worst level of power creep in many years. (You could probably reprint the Mirrodin block into Standard at this rate and only have to ban Skullclamp.) Every format has been turned on its back by the creep, from evoke elementals plaguing every deck in Modern to companions haunting Legacy and Vintage; worst of all, however, has been the fact that Standard is incredibly difficult to innovate in because of just how many blatantly busted cards are being printed. Oko was the thunder in the distance, and a storm has been pelting the format at increasing intensity since. We've reached a point where many blatantly powerful cards are considered fine in the format, because Wizards would rather keep bombs like Sheoldred, the Apocalypse legal than go on a banning spree for every seriously problematic card.

The worst part about this is that we likely wouldn't have reached this point if we still had a Core Set every year. The intentionally dumbed-down power of Core Sets is part of what helped keep power creep in check, as they couldn't go too far if they wanted to make the cards relevant. The ability to reprint many cards back into Standard gave players a comfortable baseline, let new players enter the game more easily, and made it easier to acquire classic cards. The break in the story allowed us to get a better look at where planeswalkers were and what they were doing, or it let us step back to see their history. It let Wizards introduce new characters more freely, not having to worry about their immediate implications. And, most importantly. if it was still around, there'd be far less arguments for one set per plane.

#magic the gathering #mtg #tcg #vent #vent post #rant post #game design #game development

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cavalierious-whim · 4 months

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Strange as the Sky (HaiKaveh)

After Tighnari notes that he and Kaveh act like an old married couple, Alhaitham (kinda) considers (maybe) marriage.

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It isn’t apparent until Tighnari says something. “You fight like an old married couple,” he says as he leans over a steaming pan, tossing around red onions.

Alhaitham leans against the counter, holding a glass of wine that is mostly full because he’s still too awkward to decline it when offered. “I…”

No, that isn’t right, he thinks as his gaze slips to Kaveh who sits at the kitchen table with Cyno, agitated over their current TCG match. Kaveh is not his husband, he will never be his husband, and it isn’t that Alhaitham would want him as one, but—

It isn’t as though he wouldn’t want such a thing, either. Marriage… Alhaitham thinks it wouldn’t be so terrible. Practical, even. They get along. They share the bills, taxes, and—apparently—dubious taste in friendships. Such a union would be a logical step, no?

Tighnari’s gaze tilts towards him. “Alhaitham?”

Alhaitham is still awkward even with decades of practice under his belt. Socializing is a chore. He likes Tighnari well enough, but he is here for Kaveh’s benefit. He comes because he’s expected to, and to keep Kaveh in check. “It wasn’t a fight,” he finally says.

Tighnari gives him a dry look, eyebrows drawn to nearly his hairline. “He threatened to pour the pitcher of wine all over you.”

Alhaitham snorts. “Probably a better use of it.”

Tighnari can’t help the short chuckle he lets loose. He dumps a handful of spices into the pot and stirs. “My point stands. Still, thanks for bringing him out here. It’s nice to share dinner once in a while somewhere other than a bar.”

He agrees. They’re older now, and while Kaveh doesn’t imbibe nearly as much as they had in their youth, he still has his occasional outings. Time shared with friends is limited to, usually, a few drinks once in a blue moon—which, to Alhaitham, is worse. Taverns are loud, stink, and have terrible coffee. He’d rather—

“What’re you thinking about?” Tighnari’s question cuts through his thoughts.

Before Alhaitham can answer, Kaveh sweeps past him to pour himself a fresh glass of wine. “I’ll tell you what—that he wants to go home.”

Partially true, but that isn’t a secret from anyone there. “I am enjoying myself.” Alhaitham reaches out to catch Kaveh’s wrist. “Also, you should drink water.”

Kaveh huffs. “I’ll drink what I want—”

“After a glass of water.”

Alhaitham’s request is ignored entirely as Kaveh shoots him a smirk and pours that glass of wine. But, as soon as the pitcher is set down, Kaveh pulls another glass from the cabinet and fills it at the tap. “Not because you told me to,” he makes sure to explain. Then, with both glasses, he heads back to the table for a second round of TCG with Cyno.

“See?” says Tighnari as he turns up the flame on the stove. “Like an old married couple.”

“He’s always done what he’s wanted—and he should. Kaveh is his own man.”

Tighnari hums as he pours liquor into the pan and sets it alight. A flame flares up, licking his face, and he tosses the food around as he cooks off the alcohol. “This isn’t an I told you so, type of observation, Alhaitham. You get him.”

Alhaitham quirks an eyebrow. “And?”

“That’s all. You get him. There isn’t anymore to it than that.” Tighnari tosses in a batch of freshly cut mushrooms to whatever he’s pan-frying. As it simmers, he finally meets Alhaitham’s face. “Look, I’ve known the two of you for a long time. It’s nice that you… have each other? I don’t have to worry about the both of you.”

“You mean Kaveh.”

“No, I mean the both of you.”

Strange. Alhaitham is no fool. He knows that Cyno and Tighnari care, but he’s always assumed this to be conditional of Kaveh’s friendship. Alhaitham looks at Kaveh again, who’s on his feet shouting mild obscenities. Cyno hides a grin behind his palm, watching with amusement as Kaveh takes his loss gracelessly.

“Kaveh is special. That’s all. He isn’t like anyone else.”

Tighnari stares right through him and Alhaitham squirms slightly under that all-knowing glance. “You can say that again.” A quick toss of his pan. “Have you ever told him that?”

No. Never. Alhaitham doesn’t need to, though. Kaveh is the smartest man that he knows, and it isn’t because he harks about it constantly. Kaveh’s intelligence is loud and obvious, etched right into the buildings that he’s brought to life. And Alhaitham enjoys that, walking through Sumeru City and seeing his touch everywhere, especially when he knows just what Kaveh goes through to create them.

Still.

Like an old married couple.

It wouldn’t be the first time that Alhaitham has thought it wouldn’t be so bad—marrying Kaveh. Convenient. It would make sense, and it’s not as if anyone else would put up with him. Over a decade they’ve lived with each other, over a decade of Kaveh promising he’d move out only for him to just bring more furniture in, or buy appliances, or cook dinner for the two of them on the regular.

They are close—closer to each other than anyone would ever have the right to be.

“Do you love him?” asks Tighnari quietly.

Ahaitham stills. No. Yes? No. But, then again, what is love? Alhaitham cannot imagine his mornings without Kaveh’s grousing, or their nights without his burning the midnight oil until the lamps are nearly down and Alhaitham has to drape a blanket over his shoulders after falling asleep at his desk. So, perhaps that is a type of love, but it doesn’t quite concern Alhaitham.

“It doesn’t matter,” he finally replies, clinging to that glass of wine in his hand like it’s a lifeline. “What was it that you said? We just… are.”

That’s all they have to be. There isn’t a need to muck it up.

Tighnari’s face softens and he nods. “Well, I suppose that’s easier.”

“Why?” asks Alhaitham, his face tipping up.

“I don’t have to threaten to kick your ass if you hurt him.”

Alhaitham laughs, a rare and honest sound. “Kaveh would be the first in line, I assure you.”

Later, after dinner, when Tighnari and Cyno are cleaning the kitchen and refilling the oil lanterns, Kaveh slips outside. Alhaitham follows like a silent shadow, tracing his footsteps out onto the wooden slats of Gandharva Ville’s walkways.

“Dinner was good,” says Kaveh, conversationally, rubbing at his stomach. “It’s been a long time since we’ve had a proper meal.”

“Is that a complaint?” asks Alhaitham, leaning against a post.

“Me? Complain? Never.”

Alhaitham cracks a grin, hiding it behind his palm. Kaveh’s love language is complaining; it’s the only thing that he does, and it’s how he shows that he cares. A day where he doesn’t complain to Alhaitham about even the most minute things is an immediate red flag.

He’s relieved to see Kaveh in good spirits because lately he’s been so tired.

And, perhaps it’s age. They are busy working load after load and their responsibilities have grown over the years. There is little time for more than their daily tasks, a quick meal, and then passing out at the end of the night. Alhaitham thinks of Kaveh’s blueprints spread over his desk and the numerous mugs of coffee that litter it throughout the day.

“Hey, what’s with that look?”

Alhaitham didn’t realize he had a look. It’s the second time that he’s been asked that night but the weight of Kaveh’s stare is heavier than the one Tighnari tossed his way. The reason is simple: Kaveh is different. Special.

“I’m just thinking.”

“Oh? What a rare thing.”

“Kaveh.”

“Don’t strain a muscle—”

“Kaveh.”

Kaveh frowns. “You’re acting strange.”

Alhaitham is not. Alhaitham really is just thinking, but Kaveh knows him better than he knows himself. He reaches out and clasps his fingers around Alhaitham’s wrist. “Are you okay?” asks Kaveh, quieter, searching, concerned.

“Tighnari was talking about us.” Kaveh’s expression goes cat-eyed with curiosity, waiting for Alhaitham to further expand upon the thought. “Teased us about acting like an old married couple.”

Kaveh scoffs and lets go of his wrist. “He would say that, wouldn’t he?” A pause as he gives Alhaitham a side-along glance and a nudge to the ribs with his elbow. “Would you want that?”

“To marry you?”

A short laugh falls from Kaveh’s lips. “No.” Alhaitham is almost offended by his sharp tone. “I just meant marriage in general.” Another stretch of silence between them until Kaveh nudges Alhaitham’s ribs again. “But, if it were me? Just for curiosity’s sake.”

“The idea of marriage is not palatable with anyone other than you,” replies Alhaitham honestly. He owes Kaveh that, at least.

Kaveh’s face tilts towards him. “That was surprisingly…profound.”

“You would know if I lied. And, there is no reason to. Kaveh, you know that you are… special to me.”

“Hm, yes. Dreadful thing, isn’t it?”

Alhaitham snorts softly. Kaveh’s tone is gentle, affectionate even. There is a reason that he tolerates Alhaitham, and has continued to do so even after all these years. “Would you say yes? If I were to ask?” It is curiosity that piques him. Nothing would or will change, regardless of Kaveh’s answer.

Kaveh rubs his face. “I… wouldn’t say no. But, it would heavily depend on the taxes we would save.” An expected response from Kaveh, steeped so deeply in sarcasm that it may as well be tea. “But, I suppose that’s the dream of many, hm? Having a partner?”

“Is that what we are? Partners?” Alhaitham’s question comes easily.

And Kaveh’s answer does too. “Well, it’s not as though anyone else will put up with me.”

Surprisingly simple. Perhaps Tighnari was right. Alhaitham leans against that pole under the cloudless, starry night and thinks as he often does that these moments shared with Kaveh come effortlessly. It is not the same with others.

But Alhaitham knows he wouldn’t want it to be. This is where he’d rather be, and Kaveh is the only one he’d share them with. Kaveh is quiet. Alhaitham is quiet. It suits them. Another nudge against Alhaitham’s ribs when Tighnari calls them back inside.

They linger there instead and it is nice.

#Cavalierious Fanfic #genshin impact #genshin impact fanfiction #genshin fanfic #genshin #haikaveh #haikavetham #alhaitham/haikaveh

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never-sated · 3 years

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Top Ten Board Games Played in 2020

While basically everything else was down for me this year, board game plays were up. My wife and I got 97 unique games to the table, including 76 that were new to us. Picking ten was really tough as we played a lot of games we really loved this year. My only criteria for this list was that the games be new to us. A few do happen to be 2020 releases but that wasn’t a requirement.

Legacy of Dragonholt

Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective: The Thames Murders & Other Cases

Arkham Horror: The Card Game

Cthulhu: Death May Die

Escape the Dark Sector

The Isle of Cats

Calico

Call to Adventure

Tiny Footprint

Gizmos

As usual, my top ten skews towards cooperative games because that’s just what I tend to enjoy most. I’m not a big fan of conflict in real life and the same holds true for board games. My wife and I work really well as a team and always have a lot of fun puzzling things out together. 2020 was the year that we discovered how much we enjoy narrative driven adventure deduction games. Legacy of Dragonholt’s setting and more self-directed narrative was always going to edge it out over Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective for me, but I have really enjoyed the cases so far and am looking forward to playing more.

2020 was also the year I discovered how much I enjoy the Cthulhu mythos, in spite of Lovecraft and my general dislike of horror. We’re really going to embark on our Arkham Horror: TCG adventure in 2021 but we played enough i 2020 for me to know just how thematic it is. Some of our most fun gaming experiences happened in Cthulhu: Death May Die, a game I sorely regret overlooking on Kickstarter. We have so much fun every single time we get that game out, and we’ve even got a great inside joke now because of one crazy game we had.

Escape the Dark Castle is one of our favorite games of all time. Escape the Dark Sector is a setting my wife prefers, while I appreciate the added gameplay elements like two phase combat and ammo. It’s such a simple game to play but it never gets old for us. I can only imagine that the expansion content will improve it just like the expansion content did for Escape the Dark Castle.

My only regret about The Isle of Cats is that it took us so long to get it to the table. Oh, and that I didn’t back it on Kickstarter either. This is a phenomenal game, with a theme we both absolutely adore. The art is fantastic. The card draft always offers interesting choices, both for your current turn and for long term strategy. And the tile placement puzzle is just icing on the cake.

In terms of pure abstracts, nothing beats Calico for me this year. And that, in the year I rediscovered my love of chess. I get so much joy playing this game. It’s so charming and so simple, but every choice makes every other choice just that little bit tighter and more significant. It’s only because of the added depth the card draft in Isle of Cats offers that Calico is six instead of five.

I cannot believe Call to Adventure fell all the way to eight considering what a fantastic time I had with it. This is technically a game with a winner where you want to do the best but I enjoyed crafting my character so much that I often picked slightly less (or significantly less) beneficial cards because they fit the story I was developing better. There is no better character crafting game on the market and the expansions only give it more depth..

Tiny Footprint was probably the surprise of the year for us. Barely a blip on Kickstarter, there aren’t many copies of this game in circulation. But it addresses climate change, a topic eternally relevant to me and allows us to work together to bring down our carbon footprint. It’s a thoughtful game that really requires cooperation to even come close to success.

Gizmos rounds out my top ten and edged in ahead of several other fantastic games. The tactile nature of this game does help put it ahead, but the chaining options in this game are what really make it. You can build such incredible combos and it’s so fun to watch them come together.

#Top Ten Board Games #Top Ten 2020

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wavering-eyes · 4 years

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The Three Goals of the F&L List

The TCG got a banlist a couple of weeks ago which went into effect on the 14th. I haven’t posted about it (or any banlist in the past year+...) because I feel it’s the kind of discussion I don’t have much to add to anymore. You can go anywhere and get a banlist analysis because the intent of the banlist is pretty clear to anyone who’s extensively interacted with the metagame. It’s for this reason I think the banlist is sort of self-explanatory, at least when it’s doing its’ job, and as a result, I have little desire to see Konami try to explain it themselves (also because their previous attempts didn’t satisfy anyone). I had pretty much the same feelings with this one.

With that said, there’s still an obvious demand for banlist analysis out there, so I figure it might be helpful to elaborate on my perspective in hopes it saves you, the reader, some time in trying to decode future banlists when they come around. To this end, I have isolated three primary factors that influence which cards end up on the banlist.

First off, as you probably know, the banlist is a tool used to balance the metagame. If a card or deck starts dominating the game at a high level to the point where other decks become unviable or warp around it, that deck will usually be addressed in some major form in the following list. Until recently, SPYRAL had four different cards (Drone, Quik-Fix, Master Plan, and Resort) on the banlist for this reason; the deck is simply too strong at combo-ing off with any more copies of these cards.

Second, the banlist is also used to ensure the game is enjoyable to play irrespective of game balance. The “fun” associated with the game is a really complex topic, but generally, this is meant to explain when cards are hit due to negative experiences with their mechanics. Yata-garasu is a solid example of this. I can personally guarantee you that Yata-garasu could be unbanned next list and see zero competitive success. The reward of denying your opponent a draw is simply too low for it to be worth finding a way to Normal Summon a 200 ATK bird and then hit your opponent with it, given that this absolutely requires you to either go second and break a board, or slow down the game going first without shutting your opponent out entirely. Any combo deck seriously capable of doing this would be infinitely better off going for an FTK or OTK, and any control deck capable of this would be better off just winning traditionally. And yet Yata-garasu remains banned, because at more casual levels of play, this card is about as fun as a root canal. If you’re looking at the banlist and spot a card that doesn’t seem to fit into any particular archetype and doesn’t seem too strong, this is probably the reason why that card is there.

Furthermore, this is also why occasional banlists will come out and indiscriminately nuke every deck relevant to the metagame: players tend to enjoy the game less when the metagame is stale, even if it’s balanced. January 2020 is the most recent example of this: the top four decks at the 2019 WCQ were unquestionably Danger! Thunder, Sky Striker, Salamangreat, and Orcust. These decks had very solid matchup spreads against each other and represented a wide variety of playstyles. Most TCG formats would kill to be this diverse. Nonetheless, once January rolled around, the banlist hit key cards in all of them, because people had grown tired of seeing the same few decks everywhere, and the only one that really managed to survive was Salamangreat.

Third, on a more cynical note: the banlist is also a tool meant to sell a product. If you’re looking at the banlist and can’t discern that a certain card was hit as the result of one of the prior two reasons, it is probably because of this. While there’s something to be said about the play experiences and power levels of Called by the Grave and Red Reboot, I’m going to keep it real with you: I am firmly of the belief that these cards were hit to sell Triple Tactics Talent and Evenly Matched, respectively. Why’s that?

Red Reboot was limited in January 2020 in a format where the premier backrow deck was virtually all spells. A few tiers below the main four of that format were True Draco, which lost Demise and Diagram at the same time, and promptly dropped off the face of the earth; Altergeist with 1 Multifaker, still played only by Doug Zeeff; Guru Control, which was never that good, and had handtraps as backup in the case of Red Reboot anyways; and Traptrix, which saw fringe play at best. Red Reboot obviously saw no play in this format, but Evenly Matched did. So what’s the difference? Why is the less relevant of these cards Limited while the more popular, and arguably powerful one, isn’t?

Yes, Evenly takes your battle phase, and yes, it’s not a Counter Trap so it can still be negated without Solemn Judgment, but once again, let me be real with you: Red Reboot was a Super Rare worth like a dollar on release, and Evenly Matched was reprinted in a premium set three months later, rebounding to around $20 at the time of writing. Money is the motivator here.

Same with Called. Called was a $5 common for the longest time. Handtrap design literally shifted around it (Infinite Impermanence, Nibiru, the Primal Being, and Fantastical Dragon Phantazmay all don’t interact with the card), and as a result, it hadn’t seen much play at all in the previous few months, as the combo decks still remaining shifted towards playing as many extenders as possible, or putting out a negate in under 5 summons. Called was already made irrelevant by the decks that would normally want to play it becoming so powerful that they no longer have to rely on drawing it at all, so why was it hit again?

Triple Tactics Talent goes for nearly $100 a copy right now, that’s why. Why play the card that just counters some hand traps instead of the better going-second card that activates a card from the banlist if your opponent tries to interact with you at all? Called wasn’t much better if you didn’t have to use it, anyways. It’s a bit of a wonder why Konami felt they needed to limit a bad card in order to sell a good one, but let’s consider a few things about the format and world right now:

In-person events have been canceled since March.

The format has become incredibly expensive to play in since then. A 9-card side deck containing a set each of Forbidden Droplet, Lightning Storm, and Infinite Impermanence will cost you like, >$700.

Events since then have mostly been held in simulators.

You do not need to buy cards to play simulators.

You need cards to enter Remote Duel tournaments, but Remote Duels are a total joke and Konami knows it.

Once events reopen, people will probably be searching for budget versions of expensive staples. Called fits that perfectly.

Finally, I’d like to mention that this is also meant to explain why Konami is less willing to hit new cards as opposed to old ones. It is generally not a great look for your company to sell people cards only to tell them they’re not allowed to play those cards. If the time between release and banning is short enough, it raises questions as to why the card was printed in the first place.

So, to recap, consider cards on the banlist with the following questions in the following order:

Did, or would, this card contribute to an unbalanced metagame?

Is this card enjoyable to play against?

Is there a really expensive card that fills the same role as this one?

And if you answer “no” to all three, Konami might just be off their shits. Cannahawk was Limited for like 5 years, after all.

Thanks for reading. After one round of editing, this seems ready for release, but it’s possible there’s something I wanted to express but forgot to. If that happens, or if I come up with an example that demonstrates a possible fourth major factor, I’ll make a followup post.

#yugioh #yu-gi-oh #yugioh tcg

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neni-has-ascended · 6 years

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Wait, what, “Lostorage conflated WIXOSS” is actually shaping up to be... good?????

WIXOSS is and remains a weird thing for me.

I mean, the card game is amazing, probably my favorite TCG out there, it’s easy to learn and makes for quick, fast-paced card game action, so it’s no surprise I like that.

The Anime on the other hand just has left me mystified for years now.

I started watching it back in Spring 2014, when the first series, “selector infected WIXOSS” aired and I was in Japan with a TV in my student dorm room and nothing better to do at night but watch Anime. In the flood of brainless rom-com moe-shows back then, WIXOSS actually seemed like such a huge breath of fresh air. Sure, the “inspiration” the show took from juggernaut Puella Magi Madoka Magica was readily apparent, but it looked like it was putting its own spin on things, the way the show built its atmosphere bit by bit was breathtaking and I liked the character designs and characterization of the protagonist a lot, so I ended up drawn in.

The thing is, as the first series continued, the Anime quickly revealed its weak points: Promising plot points went into the most boring and predictable directions, interesting character arcs weren’t given the time they needed to flourish and, most damningly, the plot got so tied up in its own complexities, by the end of the second series it felt like pretty much nothing had been resolved, half of the stories started were left untold and the answers we were given only raised more questions. The ending to the second series, “selector spread WIXOSS” was (in my humble opinion) such a confusing mess, it gave even the entirety of Mekakucity Actors a run for its money. I’m not saying I didn’t understand what happened, I’m just saying it felt like none of this stuff was set up appropriately to feel like any sort of well-deserved pay-off, and the pay-off I *did* want to see, just... didn’t... become... existent...?

But regardless, I remained a fan. Because if WIXOSS’ talent at building atmosphere is a drug, I probably really need a serious intervention and a couple of months of “WIXOSS Anonymous” counselling.

The third series, “Lostorage incited WIXOSS” started off to a “meh” start, with Character Designs that I didn’t feel had the same charm as those of the first two series and a whole new cast of characters I didn’t feel any sort of connection to. However, the series rather quickly won me over with a few things that “selector” didn’t provide me with for a criminally long time: An actual, progressing plot with a clear structure and goal point, a focused way of laying out Character Drama, that actually allowed me to get invested in the individual characters’ arcs and, finally, an ending that didn’t feel like it came out of friggin’ nowhere! It felt like the franchise was finally taking a few steps into the right direction... But still, I didn’t hold my breath. There were still so many dangling plot threads, tons of unanswered questions that felt more worth exploring than anything presented on screen and a yawning sense of emptiness inside me after the last episode’s credits rolled. It was better, yes, but still far from great.

So I didn’t have any expectations for what was to come next. Like, none. All of “infected”, “spread” and “incited”’s dangling plot points, I just expected the franchise to leave them hanging all about like the annoying loose threads they are and not elaborate on them whatsoever, just moving on like nothing happened, no explanations, nothing. I expected this franchise to start a new story entirely the following series, with new characters, new rules and little to no relevant references to the previous shows, like what “incited” did.

And now, “Lostorage conflated WIXOSS” is happening.

The main character of which is Kiyoi Mizushima. A character who’s been doing stuff in the background of the franchise since its inception, and who had her own storyline going on in the Manga, but whose presence never really amounted to much in the Anime. And now she’s... the main character.

...What??

My astonishment just continued over the course of the first two episodes. Not only are they bringing back old characters left and right, not introducing too many newcomers at all, they’re actually going back and addressing the gaping plot holes left open by spread and incited! I couldn’t believe my eyes! Kiyoi Mizushima, a character who’s been there since the very beginning, is going around, trying to tie up all those lose ends that have been annoying the living daylight out of me for as long as the franchise has existed, and she’s doing it with such conviction! What is going on!! It almost seems... almost feels... like the Anime franchise was building up to this all along?? WHAT?

We’re only on Episode 2, so it’s hard to tell, but so far, Lostorage conflated WIXOSS is off to the strongest starts of any of the WIXOSS series. It wastes no time, giving important information not only in exposition, but in visuals and music, making excellent use of the atmosphere-building the series is so great at and getting me back into the mood for WIXOSS right away. The characters have so much passion behind their actions, even while they’re just discussing plans, it feels like a lot more’s already happened than really did. The Opening Sequence is spot-on as always, with an amazing song and great visuals. The characters from “infected” and “spread” have visibly aged, giving a sense of actual passage of time to what is happening, which somehow actually adds to the urgency of it all.

Don’t get me wrong. I don’t recommend Lostorage conflated WIXOSS to a newcomer to the franchise. Not all all. The series starts out like a sequel should, cutting all the introductions and getting straight back into the plot, so there’s no way you’ll not be utterly lost unless you’ve seen at least either “infected/spread” or “incited”. You need the first three series to get into this one. On the other hand, I wouldn’t seriously recommend the first three series to most people, thanks to the aforementioned issues they have. But at the same time, I feel like I’ll really, REALLY want to recommend “conflated”... UNGH! This show is putting me into a such a paradox situation!

Again, it’s only just 2 Episodes so far. We’ll see if the show actually does end up wrapping everything up that’s been screaming to be wrapped up for years now. But so far, I’m hooked. This is one of the Anime I’m gonna be following religiously this season. Definitely.

#Neni Talks #WIXOSS #selector WIXOSS #Lostorage WIXOSS #lostorage #selector

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mantis-lizbian · 6 years

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long rant about card games below the cut

so, one of my biggest pasttimes growing up was CCGs. i honestly can’t remember whether i got into the Pokemon card game or video games first, either way i was in kindergarten at the oldest. then when Yu-Gi-Oh! came out, i was into that for about a year (just the card game tho, never watched the show) before going back to Pokemon (the problem primarily being that back in 2002, there was basically no strategy once you understood the basic principles; half the cards that existed were literally useless because monsters with at least 1000 ATK were common enough that any playground deck would always have better options than Firegrass or Kurama, and half of any deck that had a ghost of chance in even local competitions were the same cards as were in every other deck at the competition, even though there were no land/energy resource cards; and don't even get me started on fusions and rituals...). and then there was a brief stint (well, i say brief, but it lasted longer than Yu-Gi-Oh! did for me) when i collected Pirates of the Spanish Main. i could at least get my family to play, so this actually grew to be a pretty sizeable collection for me (at least, proportional to the game's full sets, compared to others i played). even though the game as written is easy to cheese just by having more ships of any quality than your opponent, we came up with a variety of alternate playstyles that allowed for more interesting matches. i'd also stumbled across some cards from the Digimon and DBZ card games, but i honestly have no recollection how, and i was the only person i knew who had any, so they just kinda sat in my room for me to look at...

then i found MtG, but rarely had anyone to play with and couldn't afford to get more than a couple boosters a year, so the bulk of my collection was pre-Modern commons. still, even among those, MtG offered strategic depth to rival any other card game i'd played up to that point. i built and rebuilt all sorts of decks, experimenting with different styles and strategies. with the help of a program called Lackey, i even started essentially theorycrafting decks (including what remains to this day to be my favourite: the Suicide Squad deck, a Kamigawa block deck built around getting as many Zubera on the field as possible and playing Devouring Greed). but none were even remotely competitive against much simpler strategies...

and then there was Hearthstone, and for a full year, i was playing it daily. but then it introduced its Standard format, and once again my vigorous but casual enjoyment of the game was left in the dust. which... i get why they needed to introduce it. but i still miss the days when it seemed like it would be potentially possible for me to get a complete collection... honestly, it was removing the ability to purchase older adventures (though i had already bought them all at the time) and sets that killed it for me more than the format changes. shortly after, i also found Eternal, which i enjoyed but... still felt was a bit limiting... the other thing is that i've never really been satisfied with the rarity system since it's borderline meaningless to deckbuilding. a rare card is - in general theory, and usually in practice - borderline broken compared to a common one. this is, ostensibly, why it's rare. but given that it's entirely possible to buy rare cards directly - or even just buy enough packs that you're statistically likely to get the rare card you're looking for - there's nothing mechanical stopping a player from just filling their deck with all the rarest and best cards, completely locking out players who simply can't afford to spend as much from any sort of competitive play. it seems to me that the rarity system implies that a deck is expected to have rare cards in proportions roughly corresponding to the frequency they show up in packs. presumably, this is the appeal of sealed and draft formats. but for someone like me who most enjoys coming up with oddball strategies, draft formats don't allow for that sort of freedom.

then i got hit by a wave of nostalgia. lacking any of my old collections, not to mention people to play them with, i dug out the old Pokemon TCG game for GameBoy Colour. then curious, because i hadn't really gotten into it the first time around, i looked around for some Yu-Gi-Oh! video games to see if there actually was more depth to it than i remembered (since i was only an elementary schooler at the time, so i could easily have missed something). while it seems i was, indeed, correct in my assessment the first time around, i came across a game called Yu-Gi-Oh! Dark Duel Stories (to any pedants, this is the US/EU title of Tri-Holy God Advent, not the original DDS). now, while the game has a lot of problems like an atrocious UI and unclear rules/actions (it took me four whole duels of wondering what effect Hane-Hane had that was allowing it to kill all my best monsters before i learned of the type system), one thing that i do really like is its progression system.

so in most digital card games (including digitized version of card games like Duels of the Planeswalkers), the only real way there is to increase difficulty is for opponents to have decks with better cards. but if you have randomized card packs, and allow players to freely build their decks, this could lead to players getting a lucky pack or two and allowing them to steamroll through several opponents with ease. this is especially true of later Yu-Gi-Oh! games, especially if you import your real world collection like i did (as best as i could remember it being...) and are therefore able to make real world competitive decks to mercilessly crush the first five opponents without even having to vary your strategy in the slightest (probably the next five as well, but i haven't tried it yet). in DDS, however, each card has a value, and you have a duelist rank that determines the highest value card you can include in your deck, as well as what the total point value of your deck can be. while it's low, if you use a particularly powerful card, you might have to accompany it with a number of weaker ones in order to stay under the deck's value cap. or you might not even be able to include it at all yet. ...which i can acknowledge has some potential problems since you don't want a player to end up with too many cards that they can't use, and you definitely don't want those cards to be too far beyond their current level. a few that are a few levels away can add some excitement to leveling up since you're closer and closer to being able to use it, but in principle i think this is pretty ingenious.

since your duelist level goes up every single match, your freedom in building decks also increases. so in combination with getting new cards, after every single match, win or lose, you're able to retool your deck in ways you couldn't before the match. this makes it so that A) you are always progressing (which i consider important in any game where a streak of bad luck can cause you to lose without it really being your fault), B) until you reach max level (or near enough), you will always have reason to adjust your playstyle, and C) even "weak" cards are potentially useful since they can fill out your deck to allow you to use a much more powerful card. like, honestly, when was the last time anyone chose to put Wisp in their Hearthstone deck? or even Magma Rager? seriously, these cards are the Firegrass and Kurama of Hearthstone. the combination of these three encourages exploration, experimentation, and an evolving playstyle. and you could even include options in PvP play for setting the deck value.

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flamecladconqueror-blog · 7 years

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TCGs - My return to them, and why they made me appreciate sports

I’m not really a sports person. I don’t like being physically active at all, and even getting out of bed is a dreadful activity that I’d rather just forget about and never do again. As a result of that, I’ve never really paid any attention to sports throughout my life. You don’t think about things you dislike that often, and eventually learn to ignore them completely.

But games, that’s something I love. Among all those different types of games out there, Trading Card Games (or TCGs) are easily among my favourites. I’m a sucker for shiny things and cool artwork, so naturally, as a child most of my spending money went towards booster packs of various TCGs. The one I poured most of my money into was, like for many others, the game of Yu-Gi-Oh! which I had been playing since its release here in [redacted country of origin and current residence].

Unfortunately I grew up with a mother who didn’t understand why her children enjoy playing with coloured cardboard - or anything at all really, she was and continues to be no fun - and who viewed our hobby as a waste of both money and space (those cards have to be stored somewhere). And as is usual for children of any age, there came a time when we looked at other things to pursue as hobbies, and our cards saw less and less use, until we stopped playing with them altogether and were told to dispose of them. Not sell them or anything, just throw them in the trash. It’s just a bunch of cards, right? Sometimes I still get a bit emotional over that moment, but it’s in the past now, and it’s time to move on.

And move on I did! Over the course of several years my attention wandered from genre to genre of games, taking a dive into the wonderful but expensive world of wargaming, until settling for video games. I still enjoy video games, but part of me always wanted to get back to TCGs, and when I saw an episode of Yu-Gi-Oh! on TV 3 years ago, I decided to get back into that game.

It started with a simple structure deck - a pre constructed deck of cards that often (read: always) revolve around a common theme, mostly an archetype of cards that directly support each other. While that deck was nice, it wasn’t quite what I was looking for. It didn’t feel like it did back then, when I was younger. I wanted that feeling of excitement I got when I opened a pack of cards and pulled something amazing.

So I made the only reasonable decision one could make when all he has is 30€. I spent all of it on packs of the newly released set Duelist Alliance.

You see, in 2014 a new era of Yu-Gi-Oh! started, introducing a new mechanic, accompanied by a new series (which I loved, but that’s a topic for another day). I figured if I really wanted to get back into the game, I might as well start with something brand new. I had my eyes on several archetypes that debuted in this set. Superheavy Samurai looked fun and were used by cool character in the anime, Tellarknights had a really neat playstyle of swarming the field to make big guys, and Yang Zing were a completely new type of monsters (Wyrm-type) that was bound to get better with future generic support.

So I pulled a card that looked like this. It was...a sports dude. In my TCG. A card promoting something I hated, in something I loved. I wasn’t very happy with it at first, but little did I know that this card was the beginning of a new flame of passion burning up within my heart.

You see, this card was part of a new archetype that made its debut in the TCG (for those unaware, the Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG is called Official Card Game, or OCG, in Asian regions, and some cards are exclusive to each of those regions for a time until they get ported over). There was no info about how these cards performed in Japan, because they did not exist there. People in the west shrugged them off as being gimmicky and strictly inferior to the other TCG exclusive archetype of the set, Burning Abyss (spoilers: they were right), but that flipped my little hipster switch. I just had to make this work, somehow.

I couldn’t make it work. Not with the first wave of support. With a total of 3 cards (2 Level 5 monsters and a Field Spell), there was no way you could build a proper deck around these sportsmen. But they were gonna get new toys to play with in sets to come, so I anxiously awaited the release of the U.A. cards. In the meantime, I also got two old schoolmates back into the game with me.

To skip all the boring stuff, more U.A. cards came, I built a proper U.A. deck, it wasn’t amazing but man did I love it. And here’s why:

It’s a masterpiece of thematic/mechanic consistency. For the sake of keeping this short (he said as he looked over the wall of text he just wrote), I won’t go into detail here, so let’s just look at three cards. We’ll start with the card above, the star of the deck, U.A. Mighty Slugger.

Those of you familiar with the world of sports will quickly realize that this guy plays baseball. What’s a good thing to happen in baseball? A homerun. Why is it good? Because the opposing team can’t do anything about it, you just score. Mighty Slugger is a homerun, preventing your opponent from responding to his attack with cards or effects, until the attack is completely resolved. Not even the effects of monsters he destroys in battle will activate upon entering the graveyard. Mighty Slugger is the baseball concept of a homerun in card form.

The next card on our list is U.A. Midfielder. He’s the other star of the show, being the only monster in the archetype that can be Normal Summoned without tributing a monster. He plays football (or soccer), and the midfielder in that sport is an important part of the team, tying offense and defense together. That’s just what this card does, too! He allows you to tag out other U.A. monsters during either player’s turn, giving you a massive boost in flexibility. I should probably also note at this point that, yes, every single monster in the archetype has the ability to tag out - to return a different U.A. monster from your field to your hand, to summon the new monster. It allows you to attack the opponent with your offense, and then tag out for your defense to guard against whatever your opponent throws at you. Midfielder here let’s you tag out even during the opponent’s turn, which can be quite a surprise.

But what would a sports team be without a stadium of their own? U.A. Stadium is the archetype’s Field Spell, and it’s the concept of home field advantage. If your team plays in their stadium, on their home turf, where they belong, they have the fans on their side. They cheer for them, giving the team a morale boost, that comes in the form of 500 ATK points when a U.A. monster is Special Summoned (think of it as subbing in a new player for one who got hurt, for example). And when the team enters the stadium (in this game, when you Normal Summon a U.A. monster), there won’t just be one of them coming in, there’s gonna be the whole team, so go ahead and search another U.A. monster of your choice.

The entirety of this archetype consists of cards that perfectly combine both the theme of sports and the mechanics of the game to create something that feels just right. Playing this deck will have you thinking you’re the manager of your very own sports team, and I honestly haven’t played any deck in any other game that I’ve enjoyed nearly as much! Well, now that the F.A. archetype is a thing, that might change...car racing? That’s another thing I dislike. But the cards look great.

This archetype depicting a theme I don’t care about at all rekindled my love for TCGs, and has brought me many hours of joy. Since building this deck I’ve played several other card games, and am glad to have done so. TCGs are a fun way to socialize with people who share your passion, and there’s gotta be one out there that you can enjoy.

#yugioh #tcg #way too long

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vriess · 5 years

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In early April, there was the first “Mega Sale” of the season at the local fairgrounds. I usually go a few times a year, typically ending up at the booth with old trading cards and spending far too much on things like packs of Dinosaurs Attack! that I plan to write about but keep putting off.

This time I am only about a month late and finally getting to tell you all about the majestic wonders of a medium-sized town’s “Mega Sale”

Here we go!

This is new…and frightening. On the outside of the building is this sign, featuring Rummage Vintage/Collectibles and….Direct Sale Companies. For those who don’t know, Direct Sale Companies are a fancy way of legitimizing Multi Level Marketing (MLMs) programs, also frequently known as Pyramid Schemes. You have heard of Amway, Avon and similar, but there are many many more out there and they all have the same method. Get you to buy in to more than just the products but get you to sell the products yourselves, as the person who recruited you gets more money the more you sell, and then you get to recruit people so you get more money, etc.

MLMs have been prevalent in the past at these but this was a new level.

They were everywhere. These are just the tables that didn’t mind me taking a picture of their tables. The others were very adamant that no photos were taken because they are used to spread “propaganda” or “smear their company’s names”. I get some people enjoy these products, and that is fine, but this is insanity. 3/4 of the tables were MLMs, every one of them promising free stuff if you do a free in-home demo/party/makeover/tasting with your best friends. This made hunting for rad treasures a bit harder.

In fact as I looked at my wider shot photos of the building, they are almost indistinguishable from the photos posted above.

I found a really neat pen table full of fountain pens and old inkwells. Plus these awesome Garfield Pens! I didn’t grab any but my wife did, she got some shark fountain pens because sharks are awesome.

I found this incredible WWF PowerPenz Cyclone Pen that has discs you can use to battle with other pen havers? But it called me a Bozo, so I had to have it. for $3, who would be able to resist? Other pens in the WWF line include such legends as Kane, HHH and Val Venis. Yep. The Big Valbowski can battle the Undertaker when you are in study hall!

One thing I love but never understand about these sales are the junk dealers. Tons of rusted tools from a time long gone and random bits and pieces that are covered in dust older than I am. I am sure there are people that buy this stuff but every time this vendor is at the sale, nothing ever seems to change. How could this be worth lugging around, paying for the space and then packing up at the end of the day? Remember this is a one-day affair here, so these tables and bins have to be packed up after the seven hour show. At least I know if I need a funnel or a hoe I know where to go.

The usual vendor where I get my retro trading cards wasn’t there, much to my chagrin. We were making our last once-overs and I noticed the side room was open…and like a personal heaven, this is what I saw:

This vendor occasionally shows up with a corner setup, but this time he got the side room all to himself and his action figures and retro toys.

Classic comics, book and record sets, LEGO toys and so much more. This was an incredible spread.

I never was really into GI Joe but I always loved the breadth of the playsets and vehicle lines. The Star Wars figures and WWE figures were neat but they weren’t my target. I always am looking for the usual. ALF, Ghostbusters (Real or Filmation only), Gremlins, POGs and My Pet Monster stuff. Well those and anything funeral or hearse related for my son. He’s a weird kiddo.

Those WCW Nitro TCG cards were calling my name but I don’t really need more TCG cards cluttering up the house. I needed other clutter and finally came across a few clutter-worthy gems.

Wolfman from the Monsters line and two fright feature Ghostbusters (egon with the requisite broken tie) but with accessories! Winston came with his appropriate ghost, but egon for some reason came with the Ecto-1 ghost. Either way, a great deal for $8 total for all 3.

The same vendor also had a really neat Real Ghostbusters retractable vinyl sun shade that had to come home with me.

These were HUGE in the 80’s along with foldable sun visors for your windshield. You could get them for pretty much any popular property out there including ALF and the Simpsons. This was only $6 and I was very happy to have it, even though it didn’t come with suction cups to put in my car immediately. Apparently they are pretty easily found on eBay for very fair prices, but the thrill of discovery is what made this one worth it.

We went to leave the show and my wife’s eye was caught by some necklaces with neat clasps on a table, and I was taking a few more shots for this article, when I saw a Ghostbusters something in my phone’s camera that I would have completely missed otherwise…

Why yes, that is a $5 price tag on that Stay Puft toy. Even in the neglected condition, it was more than a steal! A bit of cleaning and it will look good as new!

This was a surprisingly successful event for me, and my wife even found a set of red depression glass cups for $6.

Hopefully there are less MLMs at the next sale, and more random 20+ year old packs of cards to open!

Thanks for joining me on this adventure through the MEGA SALE!!

{Blog Post} Mega Rummage Madness In early April, there was the first "Mega Sale" of the season at the local fairgrounds. I usually go a few times a year, typically ending up at the booth with old trading cards and spending far too much on things like packs of Dinosaurs Attack!

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oblivianclassic · 7 years

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Card Ramble: Android: Netrunner

Android: Netrunner, produced by Fantasy Flight Games

Author’s plug: if you live in the Greater Toronto Area and want to get in touch with local Netrunner players, you can find us on the Torsaug City Grid facebook group. Netrunner players are a friendly bunch, so don’t be shy! If you let us know you’re a new player ahead of time, someone is guaranteed to bring along a couple of starter decks.

Author’s note: Well, this article is now going up three months or so after I had intended it to. Chalk it up to life getting in the way of actually playing the game I’m writing about.

I’ve become a little obsessed with Android: Netrunner. This is unusual for a number of reasons, not least of which are the facts that I’ve recently moved myself across the country to a place where I have no friends and don’t know the lay of the land. Also unusual is the fact that A:NR is a card game. With physical cards. That you have to buy and shuffle. Manually. With your hands.

Barbaric, I know.

I’m an inveterate inhabitant of the virtual world. A childhood spent convinced that the world was beneath me was followed by an adolescence catching up with social conventions and learning how to actually make friends. The net result is that I had never managed to actually get involved in any IRL gaming until very recently. Perhaps it is all for the best, since I didn’t end up with a Magic: The Gathering addition, even though I did briefly try to acquire one. Nowadays I’m not sure if Magic is the right game for me, though I can appreciate the genius of its design. Netrunner, on the other hand, has got me by the brainstem and refuses to let me jack out. I’ve taken to recommending Android: Netrunner to pretty much anyone on the off chance that they might like it. In fact, if you have a tendency of disliking Trading Card Games and their ilk (for example, say, Hearthstone) I’ll recommend this game to you even more.

This is because Android: Netrunner is guaranteed to be like nothing you’ve ever played. The main (and most obvious) reason I say this is because A:NR is completely asymmetrical. Each of the two players plays using a completely different set of cards and rules. You’d think that this would make A:NR into a solitaire game with only occasional interaction between players, yet I’ve seen few games outside of Poker or Bridge in which each player needs to pay so much attention to what their opponent is doing. Android:Netrunner is a game of skill and getting into the other guy’s head as much as it is a game of having the better deck, and I think it’s down to the fact that it’s a game not about hitting the other person with numbers but instead about either trying to steal the other person’s stuff, or trying to keep the other guy from stealing your stuff. More on that in a few paragraphs.

Magic has a certain, well, magic to its design. It’s approachable and easy to learn, with a fairly low number of options to consider on any given turn. Of course, once you buy a few booster packs the real depth of the game becomes apparent and opens into a bottomless pit, which is why a lot of game stores rely on sales of MtG booster packs and cards to pay the bills. The majority of that depth is in the construction of a deck, which is why acquiring good cards is such an important part of the game. A good deck plays itself, as they say, and a game of Magic can be won or lost from the first few moves. A game of Magic can even be won before the match starts, if the decks are particularly mismatched. Android: Netrunner is a bit trickier to learn than Magic, since mastering the turn-by-turn play of the game is just as important as the construction of a good deck. Nearly every turn is a calculated gamble, a balancing of the known facts and the possibilities, trying to get the person sitting across from you to slip up and tip their hand just one turn earlier or later than they should. Even towards the closing turns a game can be tipped one way or the other, and victory is rarely certain even on the turn when you win.

What’s interesting about A:NR’s design history is the fact that it was designed by none other than Richard Garfield, the designer of possibly the most-imitated TCG design in the world: Magic: The Gathering. Back in the 90’s, after creating the utter genius that was MtG, Mr. Garfield wanted to try designing something that would integrate the kind of information control and bluffing that was such an integral part of poker into a TCG. As he wrote, hidden information means that calculation and optimization can only take you so far before you have to start figuring out what the other person is up to. Your calculation might be flawed because the other person could be misleading you. Being able to read the other player’s loadout and setup would be just as important as a well-constructed deck, and even a bad situation could be turned around with some smart play and bluffing. Netrunner was the result, and was released as a TCG, like Magic, in 1996 and proceeded to get buried under the pile of other TCGs which were trying to copy Magic’s success. It got some cult recognition, people would occasionally say things like “oh, yeah, Netrunner was great, a pity they stopped printing it”, but it ultimately drowned. Today’s article is only possible thanks to Fantasy Flight Games, who bought the rights to Netrunner’s design in 2012, reprinting it with a few rule changes and integrating it into their own Android universe as Android: Netrunner.

I want to take a moment now to appreciate just how cyberpunk a name like Android: Netrunner is. I’m not sure how much more cyberpunk you can get. Say “Android: Netrunner”, and you might think of things like trench coats, cool shades, punk culture, cybernetics, mega-corporations, neural implants, urban sprawl, clones, the ethical dilemmas brought on by the fusion of man and circuitry and rampant capitalism.

So, perhaps in this shiny dystopian future you’d prefer the safety and security up on top of the pile. One of the two players in a game of Android: Netrunner is the Corporation, or Corp. This is your quintessential megacorporation, organizations with control over vast flows of information and the economies of nations at their beck and call. On their turn, the Corp player spends action points, called clicks, to place servers. These face-down cards represent mass marketing campaigns and resource processing operations, traps to punish an unwary intruder, or agenda cards representing the Corp’s plans. Private militaries and corporate takeovers. Psychic clones and putting your logo on the moon. Agenda cards are what win the game. The Corp devotes resources--credits and clicks--to place advancement tokens on their agenda cards. With enough advancement tokens the agenda card can be removed from the table, giving the corp points. If the corp reaches seven points, they win.

This being a cyberpunk world, all of these agendas and assets are accessible through the ‘net. To defend their servers from intrusion, Corporations deploy Intrusion Countermeasures, or Ice. These are nasty bits of software, standing guard against cyberspace intruders. The corp player spends clicks and credits to place Ice cards horizontally in layers in front of their servers. As the game progresses, the Corp uses more and more table space as they set up servers and reinforce their defences. A visual counterpoint to the Corp’s increasing power and influence.

Of course, you may not want to be a mere gear in the vast corporate machine. Maybe you want to show The Man what’s coming. Sitting across from the Corp is the titular Runner, a hacker/cracker who is the reason why the Corp needs all that Ice in the first place. The Runner plays with an entirely different deck, with cards representing their skills and resources instead of agendas and assets. Instead of building an array of servers and defenses, the Runner spends clicks and credits to build their rig, a set of cards which represents the runner’s programs, hardware and other resources such as underworld contacts, jobs, and contracts. Some Runners use the best software and hardware they can build. Some use favors called in to supply them with tools. Some call on blackmailed employees to get them into the system. And, of course, it wouldn’t be cyberpunk without the quintessential Punks with a capital P, taking it to the fat cats armed with the profits from a day job and all the brainpower a nap and an energy drink (Diesel: It gives you flames!) can give them, then running at the Corp using a computer jacked directly into their stimmed-up nervous system.

Once everything is ready or a weakness has been spotted, the Runner hacks into the Corp’s servers. This is called a run, and is quite probably why the game is called Netrunner. In game terms, the Runner chooses a server to run on, then encounters each piece of Ice on that server from the outside in. No matter the archetype, the most important parts of any Runner’s rig are icebreaker programs which allow them to spend resources to avoid the effects of any Ice they encounter while running. Some Ice may simply block access, bouncing the Runner out of the server, but some goes further: destroying software or even zapping the unfortunate intruder’s brain. Some Ice traces the intruder and then simply tags the Runner’s location in meatspace (good old non-virtual real life), which sounds like the softer option. That is, until you realize that the corporation may simply prefer to do things a bit more old-school by contracting some private security to search the runner’s home and make all their contacts disappear. In fact, better to just level the city block (and call it “urban redevelopment”), then freeze all their bank accounts.

Once the Runner gets through the Ice, they get to access the server’s contents. If the server contains an asset, they can spend credits to trash the card, forcing the Corp to discard a resource. If the server contains an agenda card, the Runner gets to steal it and takes the points. No mucking around with advancement tokens or anything like that; if the Runner grabs the agenda, they get the points. Like the Corp, if the Runner reaches seven agenda points they win.

The Corp wins by scoring seven points, and the Runner wins by stealing seven points. Simple, right? Not quite. This is where things get interesting. You see, everything that the Corp plays on the table is initially face-down, which includes their Ice defenses. The Corp doesn’t actually have to pay to rez, or activate, the Ice on a server until it is actually being approached by the Runner. That Ice could be a painful Neural Katana or lethal Archer, or it could just be a harmless Wall of Static. The server’s contents, too, are often a mystery. That face-down card could be a valuable 3-point agenda, or it could be a pad marketing campaign or even a trap that’s been advanced to make it look like an agenda.

The Corp’s ability to hide the true nature of their setup makes every run a calculated gamble, and changes the game from one of simple calculation, i.e. “do I have the right numbers and cards to break through their defenses” to one of information control and bluffing. The Runner doesn’t know what they’re actually running on until they’re already there and facing the consequences. On top of that, the Runner must spend credits to use their icebreakers and get through the Corp’s defenses. On the other side of the table, the Corp can see the Runner’s rig and knows what they’re capable of. One bad run might set the Runner back far enough that the Corp can then score their agendas off the table, safe in the knowledge that it will be a few turns before the Runner can successfully run again.

A bad run might even outright kill the Runner. One of my favorite bits of design in Android: Netrunner is the fact that the Runner’s hand of cards is also their health bar. Ice that deals net damage and hitmen who deal meat damage force the Runner to discard cards. Some Ice even deals permanent brain damage, reducing the Runner’s maximum hand size. If the Runner is forced to discard from an empty hand, they’re flatlined and the Corp wins. The Corp, then, wants to make the Runner overstep their bounds, spend their credits and cards getting into the wrong server at the wrong time, and maybe just end the game right then and there.

On the other hand, rezzing Ice to make it actually do anything takes credits. More powerful Ice takes more credits, and the Runner knows this. A common Runner tactic is to make a run on one server, fooling the Corp into spending their money, and then running again on the real target now that the Corp can’t afford to rez the big guns. In addition, now that the Ice has been revealed the Runner can see exactly what they need to prepare for next time they run. It’s for these reasons that Corp players will sometimes choose not to rez Ice when the Runner is encountering it, preferring to save the money for other things and keeping their defenses secret until it will hurt the Runner the most.

Then again, this might not be enough. In a stroke of design genius, the Corp’s hand, draw pile, and discard pile are also servers that the Runner can decide to run on. These are known in Netrunner parlance as the central servers: HQ, RnD, and Archives. To put it another way: while the Runner has to worry about faceplanting into defenses or traps they weren’t expecting, the Corp has to worry about the Runner looking through the contents of their hand and deck. If they happen to access agenda cards while doing so, these are stolen and scored by the Runner. By running the corp’s HQ and R&D early on, before the Corp gets a chance to set up their heavier defenses, the Runner can get a view of what’s to come and get an early agenda point lead.

Even later on, it’s important for the Corp to defend these three central servers. If too many turns go by without agendas drawn, the Runner will grab them out of RnD (draw pile). If the Corp is keeping them in their HQ (hand), this leaves them with fewer options and creates a massive point of vulnerability. With four clicks every turn, a Runner can potentially steal four agendas with four runs on an HQ full of agendas. If the corp is forced to ditch some of these agendas into their Archives (discard pile) to create some room and give themselves options, this creates yet another point of access that they must dedicate resources to protecting. This can lead to the strange situation where the Runner wins the game by finding all of the corp’s nefarious plans just lying around in the trash bin.

It’s also important to note that a lot of Ice doesn’t actually block access to its server but simply inflicts effects, such as damage, on the runner while still letting them pass through. This means that an intimidating stack of Ice may gut the Runner’s rig and leave them brain-damaged and broke with private security kicking down the door, but if none of the Ice technically ended the run then they’re still alive and accessing the server’s contents. It might be worth blowing everything on a last Hail Mary run if victory or defeat is close enough. The Runner can’t afford to wait too long to run, since the Corp will have already advanced agendas while the Runner was setting up, but Running unprepared has plenty of its own risks as well. This makes the ability to scout out and evaluate your opponent’s strategy just as important as a good running setup, since you definitely don’t want to blow everything you have just to access a decoy server.

Unlike the original Netrunner, Android: Netrunner introduced the concept of factions. A:NR’s factions are similar to the heroes of Hearthstone: a deck is built around a single Identity card, or ID, which determines the minimum number of cards in the deck, available influence points for including out-of-faction cards, and provides some sort of bonus or rule change. These can range from providing simple discounts when playing certain cards all the way to tying the player’s hand size to the number of credits in their bank. Runner ID’s represent individual hackers and belong to one of three runner factions, while corp ID’s represent divisions or branches of one of the four corporate factions.

Each faction is a different flavor of cyberpunk. On the Runner side, the Anarchs are classic punks who play fast and loose and can flat out destroy the Corp’s stuff, whereas Criminals prefer to accumulate money, develop a network of contacts and favors, and pull off the perfect heist by flat out avoiding security measures. Shapers are the geniuses, savants and artists who run because they can, building big, specialized rigs with exactly the right tool for the right job. On the Corp side, Haas-Bioroid are the manufacturers of self-aware robotic labor; making their clicks efficient, plugging artificial brains directly into the ‘net as their Ice, and dealing permanent brain damage to Runners. On the other hand, Jinteki prefers to use clone labor, and positively welcomes people into their servers. Just remember: Japan has rather lenient laws when it comes to net implant feedback and- oh, dear, that Fetal AI doesn’t like being poked. Gomenasai! Weyland (who’s this Yutani person anyways?) is an old-school megacorporation and enjoys lots of money, throwing money at problems, hitmen, and a complete lack of subtlety. NBN are the new media, and they’re watching you so they can give you exactly the content you need. They’re masters of keeping the Runner tagged and exploiting that fact to accelerate their game while keeping the Runner bogged down.

Since every ID and faction has an associated playstyle, simply seeing your opponent’s ID gives you an idea of what to expect from them. An ID’s influence limit helps change that up. Every faction-specific card is worth a certain number of influence points, and a deck can include out-of-faction cards so long as the total influence cost doesn’t exceed the ID card’s maximum. The big question when building a deck is “how do I use my influence?” Some cards are considered to be universally useful, such as the Shapers’ Clone Chip that allows the Runner to install programs from their discard pile, or the NBN executive Jackson Howard (aka Action Jackson, our lord and savior) who increases Corp card draw and rescues lost agendas from the Archives. A more savvy player will seek to combine the strengths of multiple factions. Possibly the best-known combo is the Weyland-NBN “tag-n-bag”, which uses NBN cards to tag the runner, something Weyland lacks, which then enables the use of Weyland’s pyrotechnic methods of retaliation/urban restructuring normally unavailable to NBN. The core set itself comes out of the box with enough cards to make at least one deck for each runner and corp faction, and there’s more than enough combo potential between factions to make for a good few hours of deck building.

As a side note, it’s important to mention that Android: Netrunner is being distributed using Fantasy Flight’s Living Card Game (LCG) system. What this means is that cards are released in fixed, non-random packs, as opposed to randomized booster packs and decks. There are pros and cons to either system. A:NR has no secondary card market, the ongoing cost of maintaining a competitive card collection is fairly low, and finding a desirable card is a simple matter of buying the corresponding pack. However, it’s important to remember that this means there’s also no secondary card market, and the up-front cost of building one’s initial collection is intimidatingly high. The first two “cycles” of expansion packs are going to rotate out of the tournament card pool this year, but this still leaves a new player facing the prospect of buying at least one, probably two core sets, four deluxe expansion boxes, and 5 or 6 cycles of 6 expansion packs each if they want every single tournament-legal card. This is only important if you want a full collection, though. The core set is a self-contained experience and more than enough to play with a friend. If you’re looking to play with others, chances are that a few questions asked on Reddit or at a local play group will give you suggestions for deck building on a budget. I personally recommend starting with the Creation and Control big-box expansion, and the Blood Money data pack from the recent Flashpoint cycle is full of solid all-round cards. (Paperclip is love. Paperclip is life.)

I’d like to close this unhealthily long ramble by quickly pointing out that Android: Netrunner has some fantastic art direction. Oh, the style is consistent and characterful, the artists are well chosen and the cyberspace art is mind-boggling, but that’s not the best part. The best part is that the card art features very little of what I’d refer to as unnecessary fanservice or “ye gods people STILL think sex sells?!” Not only do we have 14 out of 36 Runner ID’s who are female, and who kick ass in reasonable outfits (Khan is amazing, can we just have a Khan appreciation moment here? Actually, let’s just appreciate all of Matt Zeilinger’s work.), we also have Quetzal, who is doing their own non-binary gene-modded thing. It’s refreshing to play a beautifully illustrated game of any kind where the female characters don’t look like strippers by default. On top of that, there’s some great POC representation, what with an array of races and nationalities across the board and an entire card cycle which takes place across cyberpunk India. It’s great stuff all round, and a sign of hope that game culture can be turned into something more accepting and diverse.

Also, yeah, the cyberspace art is kind of insane.

I’ll admit, at the end of all this obsessive nerdlove, that Android: Netrunner can be difficult to get into. It’s got its own vocabulary and an array of mechanics found nowhere else in the gaming world. I wrote all of the above without going into the details about the rules, and that’s because it’s so very easy to get buried in minutiae. Like Chess, A:NR has a lot of moving parts. Familiarizing yourself with how all the pieces move is just the beginning, because then comes the process of learning when to do what move, and why. On top of this, new pieces are released on a regular basis. This constantly gives everyone new options to learn, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. This is a game like no other that offers nearly unparallelled variety of play and consistently tense and engaging matches. Even with an outmatched deck I’m able to surprise my opponent and keep them on their toes.

But if you like cyberpunk and really engrossing card games, the only advice I can give you is this: grab a friend, split the cost of a core set, get some cool sunglasses, and put on your favorite cyberpunk soundtrack (I recommend the Neotokyo soundtrack, by Ed Harrison or the Frozen Synapse soundtrack, by nervous_testpilot). Array your defenses, pool your funds, and hide the fact you’ve drawn a hand full of agendas. Balance the odds, build your rig, and make one more run.

Tune in next time when Taihus writes something shorter (thank goodness).

-Taihus “tl;dr I like Netrunner a lot and so should you” @raincoastgamer

Android: Netrunner at Fantasy Flight Games

Design Lessons from Poker - Richard Garfield -- ETC Press (a great little article if you’re interested in strategy game design)

#Video Games #Gaming #Card Games #Android Netrunner #Android #Netrunner #Hearthstone #Magic the Gathering #The Oblivian Studios #Oblivian Studios #Oblivian #Raincoastgamer #A Rain-Coast Gamer's Ramblings #Taihus #Review #Reviews

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invincibleparm · 7 years

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Oh The Conspiracy!

Well, as this is my most passionate pet peeve, every time the reserve list comes up in the mainstream, it sparks conversation. Will they keep it? Will they finally Old Yeller this promise in the back yard and move forward? As I've written many time on the subject, I've had time to think about it. Is getting rid of the Reserve List a good idea? Recently what started this debate was a change.org petition that showed up on my Facebook feed. It simply stated that the RL is outdated and for a past era and it is not being fair to the MTG community to deprive players interested in other formats that are cost-prohibitive. I've ranted about it. I've explained it. I've had impassioned speeches at tournaments. Now, I break down what I think are the secret reasons the RL still stands. Let's recap the problem: wizards printed a reprint called Chronicles that put everyone on high priority alert about the value of their investment. Chronicles reprinted staples and drove the prices of those cards down, along with cards not even reprinted. This was a dark time for MTG and its community. Would Magic survive? Of course the answer was yes. The 'Promise' came into being. Wizards stated, to keep collectors happy, the ones that supported the game in the beginning (by buying the majority of the small product launches up I might add), that they would not print a certain amount of cards. They added and added to that list until we have the finalized list we have today. Make no mistake on the first count, Wizards didn't do this solely for the community and if you think that, best you think again. Wizards is a company and needed to put a wet blanket on the dumpster fire that was Chronicles to stay a company. The jury is out whether Chronicles would have been the end of the line, with such stelllar sets like Homelands, Fallen Empires also on the shelves. This was not a good time period for Wizards and it is easy to blame Chronicles for all the woes. The RL was a way to stem the tide until they could fix the myriad of problems with their card game. So it's not really a matter of rewarding their long-time fans, because never again would they do that. It was a odd exception that no other company would ever make. Did Garfield and Gang realize how format warping those cards were? Sure. Did they think the RL was a simple way to eliminate those cards that could cause problems? Perhaps, but they started making T 1 and 2 to separate them. They had their own formats and the two shall never meet. People could keep playing a warped meta and being completely happy. As the sets continued to rotate, what is now vintage could have still been supported and supplemental material of those cards could still be printed. So, the RL was a knee-jerk reaction at a time the company was new. They made a hasty promise that I think they might have come to regret. More on that later. So, the RL was to instil trust in collectors that their collections would retain value. Since wizards doesn't meddle in the secondary market, how could they promise that? A company cannot guarantee the value of its products. This is the first mistake of WoTC and the RL. IF THE COMPANY FOLDED FIVE YEARS FROM NOW AND NO ONE PLAYED IT, HOW DO COLLECTORS GET THEIR VALUE? Simply, they wouldn't. That is like saying Wizards would pay collectors for the loss on investment. Buying a pack of magic cards is not buying stock in the company in a legal way. Intangible stock, yes, as in you are supporting them, but you are not becoming a shareholder. So the promise is a flimsy pretext to stave off going under. Also, where is the value line of a collectors investment? They never set a minimum or a maximum on value. It can be argued that anything above the price a printing the card is a win, or over the price of a pack. Winning! Instead we have a handful of cards over 10000 and rising. Another reason it's a knee-jerk, panicked reaction is they didn't think to enter into a time frame. Again, promising their cards will always retain value is not looking at life. Millions of things could happen to upend Magic as we know it and where are those collectors then? This is, what I think is the secret; Wizards is letting the bubble burst before they do anything. See, wizards said they wouldn't reprint the cards to damage the collectors market, but what if they understood that every bubble crashes? There are interesting parallels between MTG and the 2008 housing crisis: Banks weren't making nearly enough money, so they started giving loans to people that didn't qualify. Everyone wants a home, right? So they started giving loans to people with unverified income, making minimum wage, and offering teaser rates for the first six months to a year of no interest. Then, the higher interest rates, ones people couldn't afford kicked in. For the banks, this is actually a good deal because of two factors. 1. The people can't pay, the bank gets the house back to sell again 2. The banks and investment firms started selling bets on whether the housing market was going to crash or not, based on the fact that housing was always a solid investment. Much like the way that people in collecting Magic believe it is a solid investment. So soon the default rate was 30% in mid 2007. House prices were skyrocketing because so many people were buying them that money was being made hand over fist. Like people selling magic cards. The success of the RL and the continuing value of the cards and non-reserve list cards went up based on the solid evidence that the value only goes up, much like the housing market. Some cards like Elesh Norn were 60$ for no reason. She wasn't a staple, but because she was a mythic one-off printing, she had value. So now the housing crisis hits, only no one knew it was coming but a select few. No one knew that it was happening until it was almost over. I believe we are in the crash right now for Magic. Prices are coming down for a variety of factors, but the RL stays strong. Except, the RL secondary market is a house of cards waiting for a strong breeze. Why? Because who is buying? I'll tell you who; other collectors, MTG shops, and the occasional player that happens to have money to sink into their dream deck and can justify the money, which isn't a lot. So you have houses that no one can afford because the prices have spiked with all the buying, and you have magic cards priced out of reach. The average person cannot afford either house or high-end magic cards. So is a Underground Sea really valued at the retail list price if it doesn't sell? No. Because it sits there and takes shelf. The bubble has burst because there isn't a buyers market anymore because the market is in space now. The prices are inflated and people haven't clued in to the end. Sure, one person might buy that beta Mox Sapphire for 5000$, it only takes one, right? But how long do you wait to sell it? A year comparison on eBay and TCG shows that sellers are now dropping those prices because something is better than waiting years. How do you sell something so luxury in a stale market? Now here comes the conspiracy; wizards wants it to happen. The RL is something Wizards has spoken out against and something they would really love to get rid of, but holds on to their promise. If the collectors and secondary market sellers tank their own market by pricing themselves out of said market and crashing it into oblivion, then wizards aren't the bad guys. Instead, they can turn around and shrug and say "we let you run the boat, you are the ones that ran it into the shore". They would keep their promise and then, once the market is rumble, press onwards with the abolition of the RL and print money. They know it, you know it. Collectors and secondary market sellers got too greedy and pushed prices too far and now they are seeing the damage. Do I think a alpha black lotus deserves a 40,000$ price tag? Yes. Due to rarity and condition, I sure do. Do I believe a dual land like a tundra should be 330$? No. It's land. Nothing in a game where land is the basis of the operation of the deck should be out of range. And before you argue that there is plenty of lands and that people can make due with alternatives, I'm saying people shouldn't have to. You want to play legacy but only have shocks in a fast format? No, you are statistically giving your opponent the game Just don't play those formats? How is that fair? It's not, and it is elitism at its finest.holding a high price for entry is a privilege game and allows the haves to be able to keep challengers away from their formats and better their odds. Magic should never be a pay to win game anymore than cracking pack already makes it. No one should not be allowed to play this game in the format they choose. It also, in magic circles, brings a prestige that is bought with money. Oh yeah, I foiled my deck and it's worth money. Players don't talk about how good their decks are, just how expensive. I've done it many times and I've seen thousands do it. It's like wearing a Rolex and keep bringing up reasons to bring it up or look at the time so people notice it. But what if the bubble is t all the way burst? The prices on a bunch of stuff has gone down, but there still exists a imbalance. That is where China becomes involved. So, in June of 2016, Wizards put out an articles about counterfeits and preened for a few months about going after counterfeiters. After the initial fear disappeared, Wizards stopped. How do you know they stopped? Because they don't talk about it. Proxies are running wild and WoTC remains super silent. Why? What follows will be a extremely unpopular opinion but bear with me. They want the counterfeits to devalue the market further. I'm not saying they are having tea with counterfeiters and discussing all the things that need to happen, I am saying they are allowing it to happen because it suites their purposes. The further degrading of the secondary market is key to allowing wizards the freedom to print every card again, make more money, and further counterfeit proof their future product. If counterfeits keep getting better, no one needs to buy the real thing. At the local GP that just ran, I saw them there, playing in decks. Some were good, some were bad. But playing in events, they were there. So the average player doesn't need to save up for a Black Lotus, they buy a proxy for 3$. Each proxy that hits the markets is one less card bought off the secondary market. Less cards sold means lowering prices. I have heard a lot of people say that when the fakes are indistinguishable from real, they will buy them. And I'm not saying that wizards condones it, but again, it would work out in their favour. The secondary market monster they created in the 90s would slowly die a painful death. I'm not saying that people won't buy super expensive cards, but there is no longer demand. I am also not advocating buying these proxy cards, I'm just pointing out that their existence plays a role in the next couple of years. The key here is the end of the RL. Do you think Hasbro, WoTC parent company, wants to cling to a 26 year old promise? No, they have no horse in that particular race. They want to make money and Magic makes them money.Magic can make them even more money and you better believe that is what they want. So, cut the RL. Don't vomit print every card, but make every card a viable target for reprinting. Do it slowly, allow people who have had up to 26 years sitting on their hoard to make some money and bring stability back to the secondary market. Because like it or not, you are controlling part of the secondary market even if you are not open about it. Modern Masters, Eternal Masters, even conspiracy and commander, all have reprints that affect the secondary market. Jace has dropped almost 50%, where is you promise of value in him for a collector? Testing the waters with reprints has been a smart way to go about eliminating the reserve list, to prove that market pricing can still reap a profit, albeit a smaller one. SCG, CF, TCG etc, will still make money off cards and still stay in business. No no reprint policies have hurt modern and standard, why do you think it would effect vintage and legacy? New boarder, different art, it will effect the prices but not as much as you think. Old art, rarity, and hubris will keep old RL cards valuable after a reprint, just not as valuable. #endthereservelist

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hiriajuu-suffering · 3 years

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I’ve Given Up

I’ve given up on the idea maybe one day I’ll find happiness. My entire life is a series of signposts that indicated to me I’m paying for sins I didn’t commit to in this life.

I sought the normative life early on. I was told being smart, being a unique and critical thinker is an asset to one’s personhood. Instead, it got me ostracized from my religious community and prevented me from fulfilling the social goals to help me fit in. I was the centralizing force of my social circle in elementary school, and then all my friends drifted away in a matter of 3 years as I was further dissociated from suburban life. I wasn’t even invited to my childhood best friend’s wedding. Then again, how should one expect a group of 12 and 13 year olds in 2004 to empathize with a depressed friend that seemingly had a great life on the surface? I miss how pure and unfiltered those relationships were. In adulthood, it’s all about functional utility...and it’s sad.

I tried to fill the voids in my need for belonging with competitive success, but I always fell inches short of the goals I set for myself. I wanted to be section leader my last year of middle school, I never came into my own. I wanted to feel as if I could make a place for myself in high school, instead, I was shoved into a corner and almost bullied out by my teammates. I wanted to belong at my new school, my new teammates resented me for my competence. I started to see the contempt for my identity. I doubt WE even still stalks this blog, but he has no idea how much he ruined my life. I set my sights at breaking at state, when I failed to do that, no one had a problem abandoning me completely...and he had the nerve to say he was doing it for my own good. I committed more to the team than I ever had in my life, and he deluded himself into thinking tearing me away from that would be good for me instead of destroy me thoroughly. I buried myself in TCGs as my only choice, and I couldn’t place high enough to gain notoriety in that community either in spite of so many tops.

I took chances on people thinking they wouldn’t have contempt for me naturally, but I had no idea the identity I had no control over was so repugnant to people. Being told I could never have the right look to be successful in music stung, but I never knew how real those words were until I started seeing adulthood through. I can’t even count the amount of times people accused me of being a pedophile as a teenager because hearsay whisper and crushes from girls I unrequited totally. Then, for all the wisdom I had in adhering to those arbitrary age distinctions, the same girls would never grant me a basic level of trust to make something happen the right way. Why is me being romantically happy so offensive to people when I show more restraint than anyone expects of any other desi, Muslim, or man? It can’t be straight prejudice because I know others of my exact ilk found happiness. Am I just that personally repulsive that everyone has to see me drown to not break their reality? I changed my tag to Hiriajuu Suffering because I’m constantly between intersections that I can’t ever seem to garner empathy from.

Even when I was finally truly on my own, I went back to a team that otherized me for things about myself I couldn’t control. SS was the only person, at first, who saw me as worth anything. Then LA, TM, CG, CI, and EK eventually saw it, too. But LL, ML, MH, BW, R, NC, JB, I could just feel their contempt. If it wasn’t for MA, I would’ve resented my Bobcat family as much as my Ranger and Tiger families. I can’t thank WK enough for eventually putting faith in me, because I know JH never did. I never felt the need to be a leader there like I did in high school because I lost faith in my abilities to lead, my scars on that team scared people away from rooting for me. I didn’t realize how hopeless I already was because I still had competition to bury myself into. The day I had to leave San Marcos, the day I walked on stage for graduation, I couldn’t maintain a genuine a smile, because it represented the death of my ability to pursue the unknown.

I adopted myself into a community on life support and held it together and it resulted in my own social death. I did everything I could my family asked of me for two and half years, at the delay of my own personal goals in life and I’m still spit on and abused by them as a fully grown person. I tried so hard to chase something to quench my thirst for adventure, depending on my competitive integrity to get me there, but I always fell short. I always failed. I never gained a single soul’s respect from trying to make a real point. The only thing that held me together was the prospect I might still have the ability to create my own family to rectify the wrongs done to me with my offspring, but even my path to do so evaporated during the pandemic.

I tried so much to be the person I needed to help me when I was a teenager, as an educator, and my existence was so detested I wasn’t allowed to be that. I took a gamble on the very campus that destroyed what little reputation I could catapult myself into a role for myself, and they found a way to use the same overdrawn interpretations on the abhorrence of my identity to sever me again, so I went to a place I thought I would be valued. Instead of being valued, I was overworked and overstressed to the point I couldn’t meet my bear minimum though I did more than no person should be asked of in that position. I tried so hard to be that person, no one would let me be that. I put every ounce of capability I had in the job itself and no one cut me slack for the world going to hell and stopping me from holding onto that little space I made for myself. I’m loyal to the students and teachers at my last school, but the administration didn’t want me around...I didn’t represent the puppet they wanted because bad timing gets no sympathy, no leeway.

The pandemic practically made me lose every little thing I had built being forced to be back “home” and I just wanted to escape, but the places I wanted to go to didn’t see me as worthy. My heart just kept sinking when one rejection letter came in after another, knowing it’s another door that closed to appease my sense of adventure. I’m stuck with a life I’ll be unable to enjoy in this mentally abusive household for the sake of a few numbers in my bank account for any foreseeable future. No one sees any potential I have left, so why should I? I’ll go to graduate school in hopes I can numb myself to where I won’t wake up one day wanting to kill myself again. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying my new school represents hopelessness because I’m glad the one institution is able to believe in me in some capacity, but I’m not in an environment where I can thrive. Where I’m even allowed to be human. I’m actually heading to the campus shortly to try to at least believe in class in August. I’m not confident this next two years should give me the future I should have, but I know it would force me to be overqualified for what I tried to be the past few years, making the prejudice against me less justifiable if I can find a place to exist.

I’ve given up on the idea of ever having a sense of belonging, ever feeling I’ll have a space to call home, ever knowing what it means to be at peace. No woman will ever see me as a worthy partner, no labor entity will ever give me faith, no society will see me as a member of value, I am destined to be an emissary of suffering and bear the burdens of being so fucking ugly no one will ever treat as human enough to be worthy of tolerance. My soul’s already saved, but this vessel isn’t treated as worthy of a place of humanity. I’m just waiting for the embrace of death, waiting for my suffering to end, hopefully making my ripples minimal enough to where I don’t leave anyone with the grief my grandfather left me with. I always thought the opposite would be true of my life, I would make a real impact on the world and be valued for something. But I can say with relative certainty it won’t happen for me, I’m doomed to the mundanity that hardly makes my life worth living, especially since my realism says definitely I will never be worthy of love to anyone. If I was born asexual, born without moral inclination or the need to improve the existence I live through, I wouldn’t loathe life as much as I do now. Maybe that’s why no one treats me humanly, because I hardly am. I wish I could forget my ethics, my heart. But something above my lowly position keeps me from doing so, so I continue to feel this steeping pain.

I hate life. The only reason I’m still trying to live is I’m angry at life and want to try to spite it, but it will always get the best of me and I can’t see myself winning anymore. If I’m able to make a place for myself I can perish smoothly, that will be an accomplishment on its own because that’s how low the bar is right now. I’m going to miss deluding myself into thinking I had anything to look forward to.

#personal

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entergamingxp · 4 years

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King of Cards Review — Long Live the King!

December 17, 2019 2:30 PM EST

Yacht Club Games proves that their final Shovel Knight expansion, King of Cards, is no fool’s gold by making their best game to date.

It is no real secret that I love Shovel Knight. I’ve bought five copies just for myself and three more as gifts. I’ve got each soundtrack on vinyl, I’ve bought magazines with special interviews with studio, Yacht Club Games. Heck, I even did my own interview with some of the developers back in 2017 and covered the game for DualShockers at PAX East 2019.

Something that has been a secret was how I was not too hot on King Knight winning one of the Kickstarter backer polls to become one of the playable campaigns. Frankly, he seemed like the most boring choice when compared to the other knights in the Order of No Quarter. I have always had a hesitation to the decadent dandy having his own campaign, despite having the utmost faith in the overachievers that make up Yacht Club Games.

That hesitation has been replaced with enthusiasm. Shovel Knight: King of Cards is the best game in Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove. The character of King Knight soars in his jaunty tale alongside my favorite 8-bit knight gameplay to date. King of Cards is more of a sequel to the 2014 indie delight than some simple stretch goal checkbox. Yacht Club Games has outdone themselves in every single way for the grand finale.

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“King of Cards is the best game in Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove.”

Set as another prequel in the Shovel Knight video game universe, King Knight is on a quest to defeat the Joustus Judges, three regal representatives of an increasingly popular card game that is sweeping all the lands. The winner will be showered in riches and could even become a king of their own. It is a simple and silly premise that aptly fits the persona of King Knight. Yacht Club Games’ pun-packed writing shines as you explore three worlds in search of treasure and glory.

The meat of the story comes from its colorful cast of characters. Traveling across the world maps lands King Knight on board of an airship that steadily fills up with tons of characters; both old and new. King Knight’s interactions with the cast, especially those with his mother, are a comedic delight. The plot is a foil to 2017’s Shovel Knight: Specter of Torment and its dark, tragic backstory. I frequently chuckled throughout the King of Cards plot as King Knight did a quest all his own way. There are plenty of delightful references throughout the game for fans that made me smile, too.

Unlike Specter of Torment, King of Cards brings back an overworld map. This is not some cut and paste with a map like that in Shovel Knight: Shovel of Hope or Shovel Knight: Plague of Shadows. This time around, Yacht Club Games took inspiration from Super Mario World. Instead of one map that reveals more of itself the more you play, there are three entire maps: Two of which are brand new two the series. Each world map is slammed with alternate paths that can only be unlocked by finding hidden alternate routes within the levels themselves. Red paths indicate that an alternate route can be found within the level. Never mandatory to advance, these hidden paths encourage you to replay levels and fully explore each dense world map. Replaying a level is equally enticing due to them being so much shorter than the previous games’ levels.

Almost every level in King of Cards contains only one checkpoint. These levels are snappy with a tight focus. Death never feels like a major setback, even if you shatter the checkpoint for the loot inside. While not as quick as respawning in platformers like Celeste or Super Meat Boy, King of Cards benefits from having the entire level be shorter. I found myself far more willing to stick with a tough challenge or to hop right back in a level to find all three Merit Medals or to hunt down a secret red path.

This short design also is far more adaptable to the numerous platforms that the game is available on. Out of the nine platforms King of Cards is available on, three of them can be played portably (3DS, Vita, and Switch). It is far more convenient to pop in and play one level or two than it has ever been for Shovel Knight. It also does not hamper the home console and PC platforms, giving players a sense of great accomplishment to complete and explore a bunch of levels in a single sitting.

“I truly love playing Joustus.”

The traditional start-to-finish levels are not the only level types packed into King of Cards. Items (dubbed heirlooms in the Shovel Knight universe) get their own short levels. They force you to use the item to complete them with an endless supply of vigor, the game’s version of mana or magic. I prefer this design rather than buying items from chests or at the hub world. It taught me practical use cases for each item I picked up. Each of these item levels also ends with a character joining your motley crew aboard the airship. I love meeting the wider cast this way. I learn about each character while accomplishing something I was setting out to do.

These heirloom levels alongside the traditional levels give players an active choice in how they want to spend their time. It keeps the game fresh over long periods of play, while giving the portable crowd a quick hit of gameplay before they have to put their console down. There is one more level type that gives folks a choice in how they want to spend their time. Actually, it’s quite more than a level type. It’s a whole other game, entirely optional, but a surprising delight worth every player’s time: Joustus.

Joustus is a grid-based, board possession focused card game. The cards have arrows that indicate which way they push other cards. Your goal is to have your card placed on the most green gem tiles by the time all the main squares have been occupied. The closest game I could relate it to is those sliding block puzzles that when arranged correctly make a picture. Joustus is more a positional puzzle than an attack/defense card game.

Each players’ deck can only have 16 cards and three are revealed to both you and the CPU at all times. This limited deck keeps Joustus from feeling overwhelming like Gwent or Pokémon TCG. The board can have a center of 2×2, 3×3, and plenty of other combinations. There is a border of “graveyard” squares where cards get pushed out to and can no longer be manipulated by players, unless a card with a special perk is used. The loser has to forfeit a card of the winner’s choosing from any card out on the board. If you happen to lose a card you wish you hadn’t, the salesman, Chester, can sell you back any card you lost, which is a nice option for completionists. Chester will also sell you cheat cards that can make the games easier, something that seems perfectly in character with King Knight. I did not use a cheat card, in part because I wanted to challenge myself, but also because there is an achievement for not using them.

I truly love playing Joustus. It triggers that puzzle solving part of my brain without having to memorize too many rules and abilities for cards with attacks and whatnot. It is simple in just the right ways, while allowing for mentally engaging rounds against the CPU. I wish there was some way to play Joustus against another person, but the Joustus houses and numerous characters on the airship offer plenty of opportunities to deck it out against foes.

“King Knight’s moves feel like an evolution of Shovel Knight’s slash and down thrust.”

As for the knight in shining armor himself, King Knight’s move set is platforming design gold. He has two main abilities that are intricately intertwined. Pressing attack will trigger a shoulder bash that dashes King Knight a set distance to either the left or the right. When King Knight makes contact with an enemy or a wall, he triggers his second move; bouncing into the air like a spinning top. This spin has the same bouncy properties of Shovel Knight’s down thrust letting players hop all around the screen. If you manage to spin off the top of an enemy or object, the shoulder bash recharges allowing you to keep the chain going.

What I love about this move pairing is the versatility of it. They work wonderfully against baddies while providing both horizontal and vertical platforming movement. If you fall into a pit and should bash into the wall, you can pop back up with the spin. Bouncing around feels incredibly precise, especially on the 8Bitdo SNES-inspired controller I was playing with. King Knight’s moves feel like an evolution of Shovel Knight’s slash and down thrust. This evolution has turned the gilded goof into my favorite knight to use.

Back with the original release of Shovel Knight back in 2014, Yacht Club Games established themselves as pixel wizards with their 8-bit vistas and iconic characters. Shovel Knight has always been a looker. King of Cards is pixelated eye candy, no matter what type of screen you are playing on. The visual design of each level is engaging. They are all connected, too. You can see a clear geographical story that is told through the visual design. You can clearly tell where one level leads into the next and where on the overworld map the level is located. It is a subtle touch that ties each level and the world-at-large together.

Yacht Club Games also got to stretch their art team to new lengths. With the inclusion of two brand new worlds, we get to see places never-before-seen in the Shovel Knight kingdom. It’s refreshing and exciting to experience, especially as a long time fan of the series.

The graphical achievement rings even louder when considering all the types of screens that King of Cards can be played on. Nine different platforms had to have become a daunting visual task. Consider the franchise’s origins on the Wii U and 3DS. The stereoscopic 3D is killer for King of Cards! It is a shame to think fewer people will get to see this effect in action the further away from the 3DS the market gets, but the 3D shines. The multiple planes bring new life to the NES aesthetic. On my New 3DS XL’s larger screen, I got a diorama feel from the 3D on full blast. It also helps separate the action by literally placing it front and center, which is a nice perk.

What about the Wii U? I mention the Wii U selfishly, because of one particular picture setting the system has—component video. You know, those green, blue, and red video cables? Because I am a mad man and my wife lets me keep a 24-inch CRT in the living room of our apartment, I decided to try playing Shovel Knight on a screen from the era that inspired it. The results filled me with a warm, fuzzy feeling of imagining a world where Shovel Knight did launch on the NES. King of Cards simply looks fantastic; no matter what screen you play it on.

“King of Cards is the crowning achievement in the long and rich history of Shovel Knight.”

Perfectly paired with the 8-bit art is composer Jake Kaufman’s chiptune soundtrack. Three expansions in, I was excited to see just how Jake would mix up his iconic Shovel Knight themes once again. Previous games expanded and built upon the themes, giving them a new edge to strike out with against your ears. For King of Cards, the themes you know and love are almost all the same. For the grand Shovel Knight finale, Jake opted to make brand new music for all the new content in King of Cards.

There are tons of new songs just for Joustus. They perfectly blend into the scene of the card game and may cause you to bob your head along while dealing out the cards. All-new themes were also made for new level themes like Troupple Pond. One classic that received a new spin was Pridemoor Keep, King Knight’s stage in the previous games. It has inspired the world map theme for the whole land of Pridemoor. Jake’s soundtrack is an exuberant delight that is a wonderful finale for Treasure Trove as a whole.

King of Cards has reinforced that age-old saying of not judging a shiny knight by his armor, even a Joustus Judge. Years of development, five total games, and countless hours of work shine through every pixel. Yacht Club Games has taken what could have been a palette swap far beyond what anyone imagined. King of Cards may be a narrative prequel to Shovel Knight, but it is truly a sequel in every way. Yacht Club Games has raised the bar for what Kickstarter stretch goals mean to their communities and the video game industry at large. King of Cards is the crowning achievement in the long and rich history of Shovel Knight. The decadent dandy proves to have more beneath that gold exterior than I ever thought could be possible. I haven’t been this happy to be proven wrong in a long time.

December 17, 2019 2:30 PM EST

from EnterGamingXP https://entergamingxp.com/2019/12/king-of-cards-review-long-live-the-king/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=king-of-cards-review-long-live-the-king

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