Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Jammer Empire of Evil Sampler Deck

Foundation (13):

Suicide Squad x3

Just Another Consumer x5

Edge Warrior

Resistance Squad x4

 

Characters (12):

Cocktail Waiters

Tunnel King

Dump Scrounger x2

Andy Di x2

Potemkin's Brigade

BattleChimp Potemkin vPaP x2

The Wrath of Kong

Furious George

King Kung

 

Events (21):

Out of the Barrel x3

Back in Black x3

Close Call x2

Auspicious Thermite

Scrounging x4

Death-O-Rama x4

Who's the Monkey Now x2

Street Riot x2

 

States (4):

Thingshot

Explosive Motorcycle x2

Homemade Tank

 

Edge (1):

Payback Time

 

Sites (8):

Bomb Factory x2

Rebel Camp x2

Killing Ground x4

 

FSS (9):

Nightclub x2

Hot Spring

Whirlpool of Blood

Fox Pass

City Square

Disco

Coral Reef x2

 

Here's my deck to try out the Jammer cards from Empire of Evil.  Note that I did not get a copy of Jayne Insane or Johnny Amok, so both are missing.  With Out of the Barrel and Back in Black, I felt that event recycling to pump out lots of characters would be a strong strategy.  The BattleChimp vPaP is just the card to make it work.  Lots of the other cards are then used to maximize the damage they do.  Use the City Square and Fox Pass for defense, and it should play fairly well.



Monday, January 18, 2010

Play Results

So we had six people show up at my place for some casual play and as a warm up for Plattecon and the Wisconsin state championship.  We broke down to two three-player games.

Table 1 was Collin, Jeff, and Tim.  They played three games.  Tim won the first two with his Detonating Destroyer deck.  I think Collin might have won the third.  At one point he was playing a Dragon / Jammer gun deck.  I saw Jeff playing his Ascended Bounty deck one game, and an Architect deck in another game.  Obviously I don't have many details overall.

Table 2 was John, Willow, and me.  Game one, John played a Jammer coin flip deck; Willow played an Architect tank deck; and I played my Lotus Empire of Evil sampler deck posted previously.  Willow and I had good starts.  She got a Tank Commander and Commandant Barkhorn each with a Panzer X, and I had the Demon Emperor, his Evil Twin and Xin Ji Yang.  Fortunately, I got my Waterfall Sanctuary in play, and that slowed Willow down.  She had to drop the bomb to slow me down.  The Alabaster King, however, showed up in place of the Demon Emperor.  My next turn, a Hell Hound showed up to protect the King.  His Evil Twin then showed up.  Once Willow realized that the Hound protected both from another Bomb, she convinced John that the Hound had to die.  He obliged and smoked the Hound with "Do You Feel Luck, Punk".  Willow then dropped the Bomb.  The only survivor was Commnadant Barkhorn.  It looked like Willow as going for the win, but John stopped her with Safety Third.  I played my fourth FSS and waited.  I could have spent all my power on a hitter and gone for the win, but Willow had power and most likely an Imprison in hand.  Instead, I passed thinking my two Tortured Memories would be enough to win next turn.  John played Jayne Insane and attacked Willow.  She was forced to Imprison Jayne.  Willow attacked me for the win with Barkhorn.  I took control of him to end the attack and Willow's turn.  I then took control of him on my turn and played Jueding Shelun, which was enough to take a site to win.

Game 2, I played a Hand Empire of Evil sampler deck, Willow played a Dragon Is That All You Got deck, and John played a Dragon/Purist coin flip/gun deck.  There was lots of character build up in this game.  Willow had a very defendable position with a Maze of Stairs in the front row and a Kinoshita House in the back row.  I was not able to crack this egg, but John broke it down with his Wild Spirits and Zen Ritualists to move the sites around.  Willow made a push against John with her Big Bruiser and Good Ol' Boys backed up by Lin for healing.  John was able to stop them by recycling an Origami Handguns through his chain of interceptors.  The final and crowning moment was when the final defender was smoked, the Handguns went on the Big Bruiser to reduce is fighting to zero and fail the attack.  John then played some foundation and launched a longshot attack against me, which failed to take my site.  I then played my fourth site and attacked with Shung Dai a Butterfly Swords and Flying Windmill Kick to take John's site for the win.

At this point, Collin, Willow, and Tim left.  Jeff, John, and I played one more game.  John played Syndicate/Ascended ReAscended; Jeff played a Dragon gun deck; and I played a Jammer Empire of Evil sampler deck.  John got stuck with a Proving Ground as his only site and could have been shut out of the game because I had a Whirlpool of Blood.  I, however, needed his help to shut down Jeff, who had an early burn for power.  With Andy Di pumping my weenies, I was able to pull down Jeff.  My City Square with lots of non-FSS limited his ability to attack effectively.  Once I seized Jeff's Fox Pass, I had to tools to hold off attacks and build to a win.  One of the keys was Battlechimp to play Back in Black to bring back chump targets for Fox Pass to limit effective attacks.

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Empire of Evil Lotus Trial Deck

So we are going to get together to play some games finally with the Empire of Evil cards.  Here is my first deck.  It is pretty much a sampler of the new Lotus cards that I drew.  I'm missing the promo cards for now.  Once I get some play time with it, I'll tune it up.

Foundation

Imperial Sycophants x3
Prefect’s Guard x3
Sinister Priest x5
Eunuch Underling x2

Characters
Unholy Legionnaires x3
Eater of Fortune
Hell Hound
Evil Twin x2
Demon Emperor
Xin Ji Yang
Jueding Shelun
Xin Kai Sheng
Seven Evils
The Alabaster King

Events
Drowning in Blood
The Withering of Souls
The Becoming
Larcenous Mist x2
Flying Sleeves
Die!!!! x2
Underworld Coronation
Tortured Memories x4
Pocket Demon x2
Inauspicious Return

States
Under the Knife x3
Withering Touch
Abysmal Behemoth

Sites
Alchemist’s Lair

FSS
The Alabaster Palace
Martyr’s Tomb
Mirrored Lake
Mobius Garden
Ancient Stone Arch
City Park
Hydroponic Garden
Nine Dragon Temple
Disco
Gambling House
Golden Mile
Petroglyphs
Waterfall Sanctuary
Temple of the Monkey King

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Why do we have boosters?

Since most sales of Shadowfist are at the box level, why do we bother with the booster packs anymore.  Wouldn't it be more cost effective to buy a megabooster/box with 24 random rares, 72 uncommons, and 144 common cards?  This should cut down on packaging, artwork, and overall cost of the product. 

In fact, given the current sorting scheme being used with cards having basicly the same commonality within a box (dependent on where in the alphabet your box falls), the randomness comes completely from which box you draw and which part of the alphabet is missing.  Either the point of the randomness is to make it hard to track down certain cards and thus require more purchases to get a complete set or there is no point other than repeating history.  If the later is the case, we should just change to buying complete card sets.  Then you can trade with others to get more or less of the cards you want rather than rely on luck.

If you are running a draft event, just open your megabooster and randomly build pods to simulate 10 card boosters.  The cards would just have to be divided into the three commonalities within the megabooster so they could be shuffled without looking at them.

I think we are too stuck in the this is the way it has always been done, and this is the way Magic does it.  We really need to review the sales model for this game to thrive. 

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Empire of Evil Collation

Here is the list of cards by booster pack that I got from my box of Empire of Evil:

Pack 1

Willow Warriors
Street Racers
Difficulty at the End of Things
Fingertip Razors
Street Doc
Desperate Measures
Superior Tactics
Tattooed Man
Tentacles of the Squid
The Alabaster King

Pack 2
Cocktail Waiter
Unholy Legionnaires
CDCA Spies
Suicide Squad
Data Mining
Bending Chi
Thingshot
Uncertainty Spirit
Weeping Willows
The Alabaster Palace

Pack 3
Ancient Stone Arch
Arcanowave Feedback
Back in Black
Bamboo Forest
Combat Engineer
Bandolier of Throwing Knives
Wriggling Skin Suit
36-Legged Horror!
Abomination Serum
Alexandre Chen

Pack 4
Blue Meditation
Brave Villagers
Bending Chi
CDCA Spies
Cocktail Waiters
Compromised Security
Abysmal Behemoth
Andy Di
Auspicious Thermite
Baron Volund

Pack 5
Consuming Darkness
Data Mining
Desperate Measures
Diffuculty at the End of Things
Echo Spirit
Fingertip Razors
Awesome Presence
The Blood of Heroes
Blue Master
The Shangshu Mansion

Pack 6
Escalation
Fire Engineers
The Great Wall
Prefect's Guard
Imperial Sycophants
Mirrored Lake
Bonebow Army
Mars Program Executive
Delaying Tactics
The Becoming

Pack 7
Mountain Monastery
NeoBuro Field Medic
Netherworld Librarian
Nomad Army
Origami Handguns
Out of the Barrel
Drowning in Blood
Dr. Hans Wulfjaeger
Embrace of the Snake
Damon Winter

Pack 8
The Price of Progress
Red Tape Assault
Spartan Warriors
Stoic Wanderer
Stolen Thunder
Street Doc
Endless Corridor
Explosive Motorcycle
Fire Falx
Dao Biotech Headquarters

Pack 9
Street Racers
Tunnel King
Suicide Squad
Under the Knife
Unholy Legionnaires
Vitality Shunt
Hell Hound
Heroic Converts
Hunger of the Jackal
Darkness Golem

Pack 10
Underworld Contacts
Equal Opportunity Butt Kicking!
Willow Warriors
Wisdon of the Owl
The Withering of Souls
Withering Touch
Martyr's Tomb
Synchronic Beam Emitter
Meditative Flight
Gnarled Annihilator

Pack 11
Out of the Barrel
Mirrored Lake
Origami Handguns
The Withering of Souls
Back in Black
Whelps
Paradox Archives
Potemin's Brigade
Preserving Chi
Hiroshi Kata

Pack 12
Whelps
Zen Ritualist
Echo Spirit
Spartan Warriors
Stoic Wanderer
Imperial Sycophants
Mountain Hermit
Mountain Sanctuary
Overzeolous Assassins
Hanging Gardens

Pack 13

Echo Spirit
Escalation
Fingertip Razors
Fire Engineers
The Great Wall
Prefect's Guard
Abysmal Behemoth
Alpine Squad
Andi Di
Commandant Barkhorn

Pack 14
Imperial Sycophants
Mirrored Lake
Mountain Monastery
NeoBuro Field Medic
Netherworld Librarian
Origami Handguns
Auspicious Thermite
Awesome Presence
The Blood of Heroes
The Petrified Man

Pack 15
Nomad Army
Out of the Barrel
The Price of Progress
Red Tape Assault
Spartan Warriors
Stoic Wanderer
Blue Master
Bonebow Army
Mars Program Executive
Platinum Upgrade

Pack 16
Stolen Thunder
Street Doc
Street Racers
Suicide Squad
Tunnel King
Under the Knife
Delaying Tactics
Dr. Hans Wulfjaeger
Drowning in Blood
Shihong

Pack 17
Unholy Legionnaires
Vitality Shunt
Underworld Contacts
Equal Opportunity Butt Kicking!
Willow Warriors
Wisdon of the Owl
Embrace of the Snake
Endless Corridor
Explosive Motorcycle
The She-Wolf

Pack 18
The Withering of Souls
Whelps
Withering Touch
Zen Ritualist
Echo Spirit
Spartan Warriors
Fire Falx
Hell Hound
Heroic Converts
The Spirit of Kongxiangsi

Pack 19
Stoic Wanderer
Imperial Sycophants
Out of the Barrel
Mirrored Lake
Origami Handguns
Back in Black
Hunger of the Jackal
Martyr's Tomb
Synchronic Beam Emitter
Underworld Coronation

Pack 20
The Withering of Souls
Whelps
Vitality Shunt
Ancient Stone Arch
Zen Ritualist
The Price of Progress
Meditative Flight
Mountain Hermit
Mountain Sanctuary
The Wireless

Pack 21
The Great Wall
Mountain Monastery
Consuming Darkness
Under the Knife
Blue Meditation
Tunnel King
Overzealous Assassins
Paradox Archives
Potemkin's Brigade
The Wrath of Kong

Pack 22
Compromised Security
Red Tape Assault
Nomad Army
Escalation
Brave Villagers
Bandolier of Throwing Knives
Preserving Chi
Probability Shift
Resistance in Numbers
Xin Ji Yang

Pack 23
Prefect's Guard
Withering Touch
Arcanowave Feedback
Stolen Thunder
Equal Opportunity Butt Kicking!
Netherworld Librarian
Secret Warrior Training Base
Shadow Seductress
Skin and Darkness Hunter
Yuan Chonguan

Pack 24
Combat Engineer
NeoBuro Field Medic
Underworld Contacts
Wisdom of the Owl
Fire Engineers
Bamboo Forest
Smoke and Mirrors
Spy Network
Strength of the Land
Akamatsu Mitsusuke

So first impressions: Good distribution of commons (2-4 each), uncommons (1-2 each) and no duplicate rares.  This seems all good.  This is great if everyone is buying by the box.  The problem is in the details.  The cards are with some deviations in alphabetical order.  If display boxes are opened for purchase or draft events, the card selection can be predicted with some accuracy.  If there is a specific rare that you want, buy the top booster in the box.  Open it up and look at the rare.  Count down the necessary number of boosters and buy the rare you want (or common or uncommon).  With drafting, you will have an idea of the other cards that will be available for draft for yourself and your opponents. 

This shouldn't be too big of a problem since almost all sales will be via Z-man or Potomac Distribution by the box.  Draft events are mostly for fun without significant prizes available, so the advantage someone gets from knowledge of the card pool really will not make much difference in the long run.  And with some forethought, draft organizers should randomize the boosters from a box before handing out packs.

Thursday, November 5, 2009

Echo Distortion

Echo Distortion
Event
Cost: 1 [Pur]
Provides: [Pur]
Copy a Site's rules text to target Site until the end of the turn.

Here is my list of ideas for using or abusing Echo Distortion:

Copy City Hospital on to a Proving Ground. Play a 2 cost character. Attack and get smoked. Unturn the Proving Ground and repeat. Good in faction characters for this would be Children of the Sharp Knives, The Voice of the Unnameable, Christine Winter, and Morphic Spirit if you multifaction. Add some card drawing such as The Forest of Fallen Banners and you can go to town.

Copy your own Nine Dragon Temple on to itself to get 6 power when you lose it.

Copy a Battleground site on to another site you are going to seize to get power, or copy it onto itself to get lots of power. Or copy the City Hospital onto a Bandit Hideout along with the Proving Ground so you can get 1 Power with each attack.

Copy a Nexus Tower to turn a non-winning attack into a winner. Unfortunately Echo Distortion is not a [Mag] event.

If you are playing with Whispers in the Dark (which there is no reason not to be), copy an Arctic Fortress to any other site to foil an attack. There are a lot of defensive sites that can foil an attack or just prevent a site from being taken: Big Red Barn, Maze of Stairs, Diamond Beach, Ancestral Tomb, etc.

Copying a Temple of the Angry Spirits can ruin anyone's day.

Here's another janktastic combo: Family Restaurant, Scrappy Kid, ID Chop Shop and Echo Distortion. Slightly easier would be replacing the Kid and Chop Shop with Ninja Six.

A Mountain Fortress with some damage on it can make for a beefy wall of defenders if you copy City Hospital on it.

Copy your Festival Circle or other non-healing site on to an opponent's site in response to a healing effect.

Copy Turtle Island or Auspicious Termites to a site to prevent a burn.

Copy a Kinoshita House of Pancakes on to another Unique site to force an auction. Be careful if you are playing the KHoP with Misery. You might force an auction with yourself.

Critical Shift Purist Cards

So now I'm working on a Purist deck as the next in my playlist. I have Purist cards available from Dark Future, SSG, and now I'm adding Critical Shift.

Let's take a closer look at the Purist Cards from Critical Shift and see if anything comes to mind.

True Believer and Symphonic Disciples are good foundation which I need. Up to now, I've only had Purist Initiate, Purist Aspirant, and Arcane Scientist available. Since the only out of faction Purist cards in my card set are the Architect Purist and Rhys Engel, the Purist Initiate basically has no text. So it will be nice to have a 1 cost magic provider that does something, even if it's not much. The Symphonic Disciple will usually be better than the Aspirant. In my metagame, the Aspirant is not usually around when his ability would be useful.

Christine Winter is a 2 for 3 which is OK, and when she is smoked can be returned for the sacrifice of a 1 cost character. Again this is OK. If I mix Lotus for stealing other characters it can be better. I, however, don't want to build a deck around a 3 Fighting character.

The Blind is 3 cost for usually at least 5 Fighting and sometimes much more. Since the Art of War is common in my metagame, it could be 7-8 Fighting fairly often. Not bad, but not exciting.

Keeper of the Echos is another variable Fighting card. It can be really good, but to do so, you have to toss two hitters from your hand. Without the ability to recycle smoked hitters, this could be a major liability in a deck. If you aren't discarding big cards, you will only see fighting 4-6 which is OK, but kind of bland.

Probability Soldiers look like they can be fun to abuse. See how many times you can get one to unturn. My first thought was Occult Kung Fu to copy their ability on to a hitter. Add LaGrange Four and unturn the hitter to see how many additional attacks you get. I'll have to keep this in mind for a possibility.

Impossible Men look like a good control card. If it could get Superleap somehow, it would be very strong. Someone already pointed out the Tracer Implant combo, which is strong. The only real problem, it that at 4 for 6, I really like Mutator. And I don't see where the Impossible Men replace them.

The Gray looks like a strong character. A 5 for 7 is a little below the curve, but it will probably be a 4 for 7 or better because someone is going to pay to cancel his ability. I just don't see his as often hitting the board and being a threat to go for the win. Good, but not great.

Mystical Cosine is a card for various tricks - Twisted Horror, Netherworld Vet, Violet Meditation - but I don't have most of these cards in my card set. I'll shelve this card for now.

Temporal Anomaly could be good. I don't have any edges in my play set that look like naturals for recycling, but getting to play an opponent's Shield of Pure Soul for 1 power after my Symphonic Disciples get rid of it could be worth it. A high opportunity cost though.

Delay the Inevitable seems like a good card to either go for the win or stop a winning attack, but since it is only a delay, I don't have a strong feeling for it.

Echo Distortion looks like an expensive version of Chi Syphon. For the same cost, you copy a site for only one turn. But as I think about it, it has two huge advantages. One, it is an event so is much more flexible for a surprise factor. Two, the original text of the site remains. So copying a Feng Shui Site with a good ability when it turns on to a City Hospital which can unturn itself can be very good. This is the angle I'm going to work on.