Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! Along the way I turned 25 and I just have to tell everyone that birthdays around Thanksgiving are the best! I always get the type of pie I want and there is always people in town for a bigger birthday party. Which just so happens to mean more opportunities for presents! Haha...
It was a great birthday and I scored a nice Weber grill. It is one of the old school charcoal grills that Weber is famous for. Maybe I can get in a Weber commercial with it now?
Have a great gaming week.
Monday, November 27, 2006
Monday, November 20, 2006
Playing with my Token Control deck!
I had the chance this past weekend to get a couple games in for The Spoils TCG with my Token Control deck. You can read about it here. I don't have all the cards I need yet, but the deck is playing exactly the way I wanted it to.
The first game I played it against a Warlord/Gearsmith deck which just so happens to be made of my cards. I was teaching another player how to play and Warlord is an easy place to start. Fortunately the person I was teaching was a quick learner and a veteran of many other card games. He picked it up fast and was able to use some of the better parts of Warlord/Gearsmith deck to good effect.
I won the first game, but that was rather expected considering the Warlord/Gearsmith deck was really just thrown together. Still it was satisfying to see my deck performing the way I had expected. My opening hand was full of starting points for various strategies I have worked into the deck. The name of the deck is Token Control and that is exactly how I played the first game. Throwing down with Qutidian Assassinations and Sudden Osprey I was able to get a well built Red Raven through for some massive early game damage. After trading a few creatures I finally was able to punch through for the win.
The second game I decided that we should swap decks so he would have a decent deck to play with. Of course this meant I would have to play the unfinished Warlord/Gearsmith deck. While it isn't exactly like playing sealed or limited play it is still great practice to play with a non-optimized deck. I didn't get a great starting hand with the Warlord/Gearsmith deck, but I was able to stall a few rounds with a Jacque's Trap which stopped an early rush from a Red Raven.
Halfway through the game it was evident my opponent had learned enough about the game to start playing a good bit better. Then I came to realize just how frustrating my deck was to play against. I pulled off a great research combo with 700130x 3lf only to get sucked a Lugubrious Finger Trap. By this time he had been able to build up a very nice Red Raven with several tokens. A Very Big Hat of Invisibility pretty much meant I wasn't going to block it any time soon.
I was able to get some damage across and brought his influence down into the teens, but I was never really threatening to win. He was getting horrible luck with resources for the game. It wasn't until late game when he finally got a second Obsession in play which started opening doors. 90% of the games with my Rogue/Arcanist deck there are 2 Obsession in play on turn two.
He was able to hold onto the Red Raven long enough to finish me off and I was quite pleased to see a new player pick up my deck and be successful with it. Now I just hope to get some more cards and get some testing done against some tougher decks and opponents.
The first game I played it against a Warlord/Gearsmith deck which just so happens to be made of my cards. I was teaching another player how to play and Warlord is an easy place to start. Fortunately the person I was teaching was a quick learner and a veteran of many other card games. He picked it up fast and was able to use some of the better parts of Warlord/Gearsmith deck to good effect.
I won the first game, but that was rather expected considering the Warlord/Gearsmith deck was really just thrown together. Still it was satisfying to see my deck performing the way I had expected. My opening hand was full of starting points for various strategies I have worked into the deck. The name of the deck is Token Control and that is exactly how I played the first game. Throwing down with Qutidian Assassinations and Sudden Osprey I was able to get a well built Red Raven through for some massive early game damage. After trading a few creatures I finally was able to punch through for the win.
The second game I decided that we should swap decks so he would have a decent deck to play with. Of course this meant I would have to play the unfinished Warlord/Gearsmith deck. While it isn't exactly like playing sealed or limited play it is still great practice to play with a non-optimized deck. I didn't get a great starting hand with the Warlord/Gearsmith deck, but I was able to stall a few rounds with a Jacque's Trap which stopped an early rush from a Red Raven.
Halfway through the game it was evident my opponent had learned enough about the game to start playing a good bit better. Then I came to realize just how frustrating my deck was to play against. I pulled off a great research combo with 700130x 3lf only to get sucked a Lugubrious Finger Trap. By this time he had been able to build up a very nice Red Raven with several tokens. A Very Big Hat of Invisibility pretty much meant I wasn't going to block it any time soon.
I was able to get some damage across and brought his influence down into the teens, but I was never really threatening to win. He was getting horrible luck with resources for the game. It wasn't until late game when he finally got a second Obsession in play which started opening doors. 90% of the games with my Rogue/Arcanist deck there are 2 Obsession in play on turn two.
He was able to hold onto the Red Raven long enough to finish me off and I was quite pleased to see a new player pick up my deck and be successful with it. Now I just hope to get some more cards and get some testing done against some tougher decks and opponents.
Thursday, November 16, 2006
My First Deck Build for The Spoils TCG : Token Control
Totals:
Card total - 80
Characters - 24
Tactics - 30
Items - 10
Resources - 16
Resources:
Obsession - 14
Deception - 2
Arcanist Items:
2x Knobby Stave
2x Napiform Protuberence
4x Very Big Hat of Invisibility
2x Lugubrious Finger Trap
Arcanist Tactics:
4x Voidal Replication
2x Forget
4x Remember
2x 12 Man Brunch of Doom
4x Quotidian Assassination
Arcanist Characters:
2x Sneaking Spitspider
4x Servile Centipede
4x Insidious Ecto-Manipulator
2x Quotidian Ejector
Rogue Tactics:
2x Rapine
2x Yoink!
2x Ambuscade
2x Forced Recruitment
4x Scrag
2x Warehouse Raid
Rogue Characters:
2x Sudden Osprey
2x Heist Planner
4x Red Raven
2x Card Counter
2x Hyperphagic Sarcophyle
How It Plays
The Deck is untested, but here is how I feel it will play. The beginning of the game is all about getting something out on the board. Early game the Rogue Characters play a bigger part because you start with two Deception in play. Heist Planner works well to clean out their deck and start their discard. Hyperphagic Sarcophyle is an even better play because every turn it can do damage without defenders it gains tokens which is important to this build. Qutidian Ejectors are also great in the early game if you are facing fast beat sticks.
The goal by the second turn is to have two Obsession played to meet the majority of your thresholds. With four resources in play the ideal situation to be in is to have a Hyperphagic Sarcophyle or Red Raven on the board. This way you can play an Insidious Ecto-Manipulator and start pumping tokens onto Hyperphagic Sarcophyle or Red Raven. Don't put all the tokens on one card if you can avoid it because a stacked card makes a prime target for destruction or bounce back to your hand.
By mid-game hopefully Knobby Stave will have made an appearance and you will be sitting with a Very Big Hat of Invisibility in your hand. Also you should have a character in play with a few tokens that you can attach the Very Big Hat of Invisibility to. Attack as a covert party and if your opponent manages to throw down a covert defense just pop out Qutidian Assassination to clear path.
Both the Stave and Hat play a big role with Rapine. Once the Stave is depleted simply leave it around to satisfy Rapine's destroy cost.
The rest of the deck is just a varied selection of cards that will help build tokens, allow you to bounce cards, or play a key role against certain situations. Card Counter has a coin flip which puts a token on Red Raven. Yoink! can be used to retrieve stolen or destroyed items.
This deck has a focus, but isn't too overly focused. I think it will fair well against a wide variety of decks. It has a finishing strategy with token built characters and covert items. It has a full line of recycling tactics and support creatures. The biggest concern is being low on resources each turn which is something I may need to work on as I play with it. Now just to get all the cards and get some games under my belt to test it!
----
This isn't a final build yet. I am still considering swapping 12 Man Brunch of Doom for Qutidian Misfire and including a couple Voidal Perversion for more tokens. I just haven't decided what to drop in place of them. Also Voidal Poisoning may be a key card to this deck if I find that my token characters get dumped a lot. If your token creature is about to be bounced or destroyed simply play Voidal Poisoning to dump the tokens for some great effects. Though I think Ambuscade can be more efficient than Voidal Poisoning and is why I have Ambuscade in the deck.
Card total - 80
Characters - 24
Tactics - 30
Items - 10
Resources - 16
Resources:
Obsession - 14
Deception - 2
Arcanist Items:
2x Knobby Stave
2x Napiform Protuberence
4x Very Big Hat of Invisibility
2x Lugubrious Finger Trap
Arcanist Tactics:
4x Voidal Replication
2x Forget
4x Remember
2x 12 Man Brunch of Doom
4x Quotidian Assassination
Arcanist Characters:
2x Sneaking Spitspider
4x Servile Centipede
4x Insidious Ecto-Manipulator
2x Quotidian Ejector
Rogue Tactics:
2x Rapine
2x Yoink!
2x Ambuscade
2x Forced Recruitment
4x Scrag
2x Warehouse Raid
Rogue Characters:
2x Sudden Osprey
2x Heist Planner
4x Red Raven
2x Card Counter
2x Hyperphagic Sarcophyle
How It Plays
The Deck is untested, but here is how I feel it will play. The beginning of the game is all about getting something out on the board. Early game the Rogue Characters play a bigger part because you start with two Deception in play. Heist Planner works well to clean out their deck and start their discard. Hyperphagic Sarcophyle is an even better play because every turn it can do damage without defenders it gains tokens which is important to this build. Qutidian Ejectors are also great in the early game if you are facing fast beat sticks.
The goal by the second turn is to have two Obsession played to meet the majority of your thresholds. With four resources in play the ideal situation to be in is to have a Hyperphagic Sarcophyle or Red Raven on the board. This way you can play an Insidious Ecto-Manipulator and start pumping tokens onto Hyperphagic Sarcophyle or Red Raven. Don't put all the tokens on one card if you can avoid it because a stacked card makes a prime target for destruction or bounce back to your hand.
By mid-game hopefully Knobby Stave will have made an appearance and you will be sitting with a Very Big Hat of Invisibility in your hand. Also you should have a character in play with a few tokens that you can attach the Very Big Hat of Invisibility to. Attack as a covert party and if your opponent manages to throw down a covert defense just pop out Qutidian Assassination to clear path.
Both the Stave and Hat play a big role with Rapine. Once the Stave is depleted simply leave it around to satisfy Rapine's destroy cost.
The rest of the deck is just a varied selection of cards that will help build tokens, allow you to bounce cards, or play a key role against certain situations. Card Counter has a coin flip which puts a token on Red Raven. Yoink! can be used to retrieve stolen or destroyed items.
This deck has a focus, but isn't too overly focused. I think it will fair well against a wide variety of decks. It has a finishing strategy with token built characters and covert items. It has a full line of recycling tactics and support creatures. The biggest concern is being low on resources each turn which is something I may need to work on as I play with it. Now just to get all the cards and get some games under my belt to test it!
----
This isn't a final build yet. I am still considering swapping 12 Man Brunch of Doom for Qutidian Misfire and including a couple Voidal Perversion for more tokens. I just haven't decided what to drop in place of them. Also Voidal Poisoning may be a key card to this deck if I find that my token characters get dumped a lot. If your token creature is about to be bounced or destroyed simply play Voidal Poisoning to dump the tokens for some great effects. Though I think Ambuscade can be more efficient than Voidal Poisoning and is why I have Ambuscade in the deck.
Wednesday, November 15, 2006
Say Uncle!
My sister-in-law is in the hospital preparing to give birth to her first child which will be my first nephew. It has been quite a journey and I am looking forward to being Uncle Heartless. Now I just need to determine the proper games to distribute as gifts at the proper ages to produce a top-notch gamer by age 13.
Monday, November 13, 2006
The Spoils TCG Pre-Release Tournament 11/12
The Spoils
The Spoils is a trading card game developed by Tenacious Games Inc. that is being dubbed as a Tournament Card Game (TCG). The development team is a veritable who's who of the card gaming scene. With names like Jon Finkel, of Magic: The Gathering fame, this card game has been built from the bottom up with competitive play as the core.
On top of making a game that rewards skill while minimizing luck during play the team at Tenacious Games have literally put their money where their mouth is. For competitive play they have developed The Spoils Tournament Experience (STE) where they will be doling out over a million dollars worth of prize money. Not only does that show confidence in their product, but it shows a true understanding of where they plan to take The Spoils as a game.
Casual Gamers?
With all this talk about tournaments and pro-level gaming won't the casual card gamers be pushed out? I have never gotten heavily involved in any card gaming tournament scene, but I have played Magic the Gathering for several years and I’ve dabbled in various other card games along the way. I was able to pick up The Spoils for the first time and within a few games I knew enough to know where I was making mistakes instead of cursing bad luck.
The Spoils plays in such a way that you learn as you go. Every single turn and every single card played brings you one step closer to grasping the possibilities that lie within The Spoils TCG. Immediately upon picking up your first set of cards it is more than evident that the game is filled with many complex combinations.
Fortunately The Spoils has learned from the past of other games like Magic and have improved upon them. There are several common keywords that are clearly defined. The structure of each turn is well documented and well thought out. Throw in a glorious mulligan rule, two starting resources, and you have a quality game on your hands that begins play on the first turn.
A lot of talk around The Spoils has been how it is just another Magic with a few tweaked rules to prevent abuse. What I've discovered is a game that is far more organized and far more rewarding than other major card games. Many luck aspects have been removed and you often find yourself actually playing the deck you built instead of the cards you were dealt.
The Spoils is a refreshing change of pace. What seemed like a Magic clone beforehand has become an entirely new beast to conquer. The cards have a more adult and nerdy theme which suits my interests. On top of that the flavor text is just plain funny… any game that has a card proclaiming “I’d hit that” is a winner in my book.
Pre-Release Tournament 11/12/06
I was fortunate enough to attend a pre-release tournament at my local gaming store, Reality Check Games, this past Sunday. The store owner asked if I could spin up a little event wrap up so here it is.
The tournament started with 10 players in a Swiss format. The initial deck building period was set to 30 minutes which seemed wholly inadequate considering most of the players had no idea what they were doing. Those are the rules though and everyone struggled equally to grasp the deck building concepts. Some players spent more time reading the rules while others spent more time reading cards.
Time rounds began at 40 minutes per round which was extended to 60 minutes due to the fact that we were all struggling to get games moving at a reasonable speed. Once players started clicking with the rules the games started going faster which is a testament to the “learn as you play” flow of the game.
While I don’t have a break down of the rounds I will post the end results.
The top two players, Chris C and Teresa, were both seasoned Magic players along with the fourth place finisher, Josh. Thomas is a young gun and is the current shop “man to beat” in the World of Warcraft TCG.
Most of the other players also had various gaming experience with card games. Finishing in fifth I have several years of casual Magic game play under my belt. David and Dan cleaning up in 6th and 7th both have varied backgrounds in several games from tabletop miniatures, pen’n’paper RPGs, and other card games.
It was apparent that the more experienced card gamers had the better tactics in winning the games. I don’t want to say better decks because every game I played or watched it was easy to identify where the mistakes were made. Often times a mistake or two resulted in a loss. Unfortunately for me that meant a few too many losses.
Everyone made mistakes. Even the top finishers had their fair share, but with years of card gaming under their belt they knew how to recover and play well enough to overcome to take home a win. And that is the point I want to make. The Spoils is a game that rewards the thinkers and the strategists in all of us. While there is sure to be great deck builds in the future I doubt many of them will make it far without a smart and canny player playing them.
Overall the tournament was fun, well played, and hosted in a great venue. I look forward to plenty of The Spoils in the future. Until then…. wanna touch it?
The Spoils is a trading card game developed by Tenacious Games Inc. that is being dubbed as a Tournament Card Game (TCG). The development team is a veritable who's who of the card gaming scene. With names like Jon Finkel, of Magic: The Gathering fame, this card game has been built from the bottom up with competitive play as the core.
On top of making a game that rewards skill while minimizing luck during play the team at Tenacious Games have literally put their money where their mouth is. For competitive play they have developed The Spoils Tournament Experience (STE) where they will be doling out over a million dollars worth of prize money. Not only does that show confidence in their product, but it shows a true understanding of where they plan to take The Spoils as a game.
Casual Gamers?
With all this talk about tournaments and pro-level gaming won't the casual card gamers be pushed out? I have never gotten heavily involved in any card gaming tournament scene, but I have played Magic the Gathering for several years and I’ve dabbled in various other card games along the way. I was able to pick up The Spoils for the first time and within a few games I knew enough to know where I was making mistakes instead of cursing bad luck.
The Spoils plays in such a way that you learn as you go. Every single turn and every single card played brings you one step closer to grasping the possibilities that lie within The Spoils TCG. Immediately upon picking up your first set of cards it is more than evident that the game is filled with many complex combinations.
Fortunately The Spoils has learned from the past of other games like Magic and have improved upon them. There are several common keywords that are clearly defined. The structure of each turn is well documented and well thought out. Throw in a glorious mulligan rule, two starting resources, and you have a quality game on your hands that begins play on the first turn.
A lot of talk around The Spoils has been how it is just another Magic with a few tweaked rules to prevent abuse. What I've discovered is a game that is far more organized and far more rewarding than other major card games. Many luck aspects have been removed and you often find yourself actually playing the deck you built instead of the cards you were dealt.
The Spoils is a refreshing change of pace. What seemed like a Magic clone beforehand has become an entirely new beast to conquer. The cards have a more adult and nerdy theme which suits my interests. On top of that the flavor text is just plain funny… any game that has a card proclaiming “I’d hit that” is a winner in my book.
Pre-Release Tournament 11/12/06
I was fortunate enough to attend a pre-release tournament at my local gaming store, Reality Check Games, this past Sunday. The store owner asked if I could spin up a little event wrap up so here it is.
The tournament started with 10 players in a Swiss format. The initial deck building period was set to 30 minutes which seemed wholly inadequate considering most of the players had no idea what they were doing. Those are the rules though and everyone struggled equally to grasp the deck building concepts. Some players spent more time reading the rules while others spent more time reading cards.
Time rounds began at 40 minutes per round which was extended to 60 minutes due to the fact that we were all struggling to get games moving at a reasonable speed. Once players started clicking with the rules the games started going faster which is a testament to the “learn as you play” flow of the game.
While I don’t have a break down of the rounds I will post the end results.
1. Chris C.Prizes were given out for the top 8 spots and a consolation prize was given out for 10th; so 9th place was truly the only loser. Even then all 10 players walked away with the cards they played with and an invigorated interest in the game.
2. Teresa
3. Thomas
4. Josh
5. Matt (aka me)
6. David
7. Dan
8. Meagan
9. Buda
10. Scott
The top two players, Chris C and Teresa, were both seasoned Magic players along with the fourth place finisher, Josh. Thomas is a young gun and is the current shop “man to beat” in the World of Warcraft TCG.
Most of the other players also had various gaming experience with card games. Finishing in fifth I have several years of casual Magic game play under my belt. David and Dan cleaning up in 6th and 7th both have varied backgrounds in several games from tabletop miniatures, pen’n’paper RPGs, and other card games.
It was apparent that the more experienced card gamers had the better tactics in winning the games. I don’t want to say better decks because every game I played or watched it was easy to identify where the mistakes were made. Often times a mistake or two resulted in a loss. Unfortunately for me that meant a few too many losses.
Everyone made mistakes. Even the top finishers had their fair share, but with years of card gaming under their belt they knew how to recover and play well enough to overcome to take home a win. And that is the point I want to make. The Spoils is a game that rewards the thinkers and the strategists in all of us. While there is sure to be great deck builds in the future I doubt many of them will make it far without a smart and canny player playing them.
Overall the tournament was fun, well played, and hosted in a great venue. I look forward to plenty of The Spoils in the future. Until then…. wanna touch it?
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