Shadows Over Innistrad Standard: Jund (Video)

Hey Everyone! Josh here after a very long absence with a new video series. Today, we will be playing SOI Standard with a a Jund deck I have been playing for the last two or so weeks. I'm really excited to share this deck with all of you, so let's dive in to the list and then we'll get into a few games to see it in action!

Jund:
2x Fiery Impulse
2x Transgress the Mind
3x Ultimate Price
2x Den Protector
3x Painful Truths
1x Infinite Obliteration
3x Ruinous Path
2x Radiant Flames
2x Nissa, Vastwood Seer
3x Kolaghan's Command
2x Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
1x Languish
2x Arlinn Kord
4x Goblin Dark-Dwellers
1x Chandra, Flamecaller
3x Cinder Glade
2x Evolving Wilds
4x Foreboding Ruins
3x Forest
4x Hissing Quagmire
3x Mountain
4x Smoldering Marsh
4x Swamp

Sideboard:
3x Duress
1x Transgress the Mind
2x Grasp of Darkness
1x Pick the Brain
1x To the Slaughter
1x Virulent Plague
2x Infinite Obliteration
1x Crumble to Dust
1x Clip Wings
1x Naturalize
1x Seasons Past

I'll discuss a lot of the card choices in this first video, which is  a deck tech for this list. Then, we'll play 3 matches of standard. Luckily, we got to play against 3 vastly different decks to give us a good idea of how this deck operates against Aggro, Midrange, and Control.

Round 1

Round 2

Round 3

Thank you all for watching, I'll try not to make it nearly a year before I post a video series again :) 

Happy Battles,

Feel the Bern,

Josh

All Aboard the Hype Longboat

I recently got a chance to play Blood Rage, the most hyped board game since the vikings invaded Europe.  Which was their version of a board game.  Hype often does as much to tarnish a game as it does to promote it.  I was concerned about that factor when the lid came off.  Well the hype is real and Blood Rage absolutely lives up to it's reputation.

Blood Rage's theme is right up my alley.  Vikings engaging in glorious battle to see who can pillage the most loot and send the most worthy warriors to Valhalla.  Oh and Ragnarok is here.  So there's the whole fire from the sky, end of the world thing going on.  Your job is to get the most glory before Ragnarok is over with.

This game is stunning to look at.  The quantity and quality of minis is excellent, which is to be expected being produced by Cool Mini Or Not.  But they raised the bar on this one.  Each mini has beautiful sculpting and detail from the lowly warriors to the sea serpent.  The art for the cards, board and player tiles are equally well done and ensure that this is always going to look great on your gaming table.

I was very pleasantly surprised at how easy Blood Rage was to learn.  We sat through about ten minutes of explanation before getting started and there were only a few clarifying questions as gameplay progressed.  The play flowed smoothly with little room for confusion or exploitation of rule loopholes.

Seriously large amount of anger issues in this picture.

I tend to be a bit of a chaotic player and spent a lot of my limited rage early to recruit a sea serpent to my cause.  Much to the chagrin of my friend who was desperately trying to manage two adjacent spots on the board.  My serpent hanging out on the coast affected both.  I did a terrible job of managing my rage, which is the main resource used to fuel the game.  I was typically undermanned in skirmishes which isn't all bad.  Warriors who go to Valhalla before Ragnarok are worth points and one turn I managed to complete a quest involving dead guys which helped me a little.  

Overall the game is easy to learn and plays quickly and easily.  I never found myself drifting off because I was waiting too long to take a turn.  The game pieces are sturdy and attractive and work very well for their intended purpose.  Each clan has a set of colored disks that snap on to the bottom of their base for easy identification.  These sets include two larger disks for the monsterous creatures you can recruit.  Not only do these bases snap on and stay on, they snap off very easily and with no damage to the minis.  I was very impressed with the craftsmanship.

I think you can tell that I like the game and you would be right.  This gets two thumbs way up and quickly catapulted to the top of my want list.  Considering the amount and quality of minis included in the box a price tag of $79.99 is really quite reasonable.  Remember to support your Friendly Local Game Store.  Amazon might save you a few bucks but you can't go play games in their warehouse.  Keep your eye on this one.  It's going to be a classic.

Ghost Hunting by Lantern-light

We have a camping tradition.  Every trip we try to find a game to play after dark by the light of a couple camping lanterns.  Some games work really well for this.  Betrayal at the House on the Hill makes for an excellent, spooky hour of woodsy gaming.  Typically anything in the horror genre works in the near total blackness of a camp in the woods.  Of course it helps when you have a quality game that has the right theme.  This is the case with Mysterium.

Mysterium, from Asmodee, surprised me.  I had heard good things about it, but had never really had the chance to get a detailed review.  So when it got laid out between our lamps I was excited to see what people saw that made them tell me it was good.  It is a little hard to put into words to be honest.  IT holds the usual hallmarks of a good game.  It's easy to learn, plays pretty quickly, and leaves you wanting another play through.  This really made me want another play through.  I think we played six games.  Usually a good game gets two or three before we decide to leave the table for the lazy warmth of our campfire.  Mysterium found me scrambling to revive the fire two or three times because I was so engrossed.

The best analogy I have been able to come up with is that Mysterium is a marriage of Clue and Dixit.  IF you haven't played one or both that won't make much sense.  One player is a ghost who was murdered.  The other players are psychics who have been contacted by the ghost to help solve their murder.  The ghost can only communicate through abstract images and faint knocks.  Our ghost only has access to a limited number of images.  The psychics have to try to interpret the images given to them to identify a person, room, and weapon.  Once all the psychics have their set of clues identified everyone votes on who they think the culprit was based on another series of visual clues from the ghost.

Player pawns.  These look even better in person.

Our spooky setup

The game is tremendously mentally engaging.  As a psychic you must compare an image to a field of people in the first round, rooms in the second, and finally what weapon was used.  Psychics can converse among each other and assist each other in interpreting their image.  You get seven turns to discern everyone's three clues.   The game is pretty co-operative and I had a couple instances where I was either thinking the wrong thing and others helped steered me right.  I had just as many times where everyone thought I should guess one one and I took a gut-feeling flier and was right.  It's a neat feeling to get it right regardless how you get to your decision.  There's a little click in your brain and you feel confident and smart.

I played one game as the ghost.  Being the ghost is very difficult; far more difficult than being a psychic.  You get seven cards to use for your clues.  They are frustratingly abstract most of the time.  But it's what I always call a good kind of frustration.  It makes you want to do it again because it feels like next time you will do better.  Like so many video games I played as a kid it made me feel like I knew I was good enough to do this rather than I'm not good enough so I'll quit.

We played six games over the weekend.  We won zero of them.  But again, we felt like we were good enough to get one right and wanted to play more.  That, to me, is the mark of a great game.  I'm ready for my next game.

International Tabletop Day 2016

Saturday, April 30.  International Tabletop Day.  I am entrenched in my usual weekend location, Phoenix Fire Games in Meridian Idaho.  The store is well stocked with games ranging from old and grizzled to pre-kickstarter beta tests and there are events running from open to close.  Since I happen to be here I thought I would share my experiences with you.

Game 1: Pass-A-Fist

Pass-A-Fist is a casual, party style card game that is still in development and slated to hit Kickstarter in February.  Created locally by guys I really enjoyed chatting with, Russ and Mingo, have the same wry sense of humor I do and they did a great job of infusing their game with it.  The version I played was still in beta mode and didn't have the final art; though,  to be honest, I enjoyed the game enough that I didn't really notice.  I ended up getting knocked out while being a human shield for my boss.  Gotta kiss up somehow right?  To show his gratitude he was quickly K.O.ed by a paper cut.  I really liked the simple and solid core gameplay.  I was reminded somewhat of Superfight but I would much rather play Pass-A-Fist.  It's got a much lighter, enjoyable, argument free feel to it.  I will be watching the kickstarter on this one.

Game 2: Onitama

I always have trouble drawing comparisons with abstract games like Onitama.  It always seems to default to chess.  Well.  Onitama is a little like chess.  Each player has 5 pawns, one is the big-daddy pawn and moving into an opposing pawn's square captures that pawn.  Don't write it off immediately if you aren't a chess player.  Rather than each pawn having a move there is a deck of cards with move templates printed on them.  Each player gets two at the start of the game and then a fifth is dealt out.  Once a player uses a move on his card he passes it to his opponent and takes whichever one is in the middle.  It's a nice looking, quick, thoughtful game.  I liked scanning the board for potential moves and danger zones, but I don't seem to be very good at it.  I got wrecked. Twice.  The box gets a big thumbs up for managing it's space extremely well, unlike some other games out there.  I'm looking at you Splendor.  If you enjoy games like Mod-X or Abalone (sigh, or chess) you will want to give Onitama a look.

Game 3: Snow Tails

I'm going to get fired for this, but I don't like this game.  I'm not a fan of racing for the most part and unless it has some wacky theme like Hot Rod Creeps or Camel Up I get bored easily.  To me it's math the game.  As the movement rules were explained to me my brain started wandering when it recognized an algebra problem and ran for cover.  If you've played Formula D you've played Snow Tails.  Same game but this is doggie drag racing.  But it does have dogs in it.  I probably would have enjoyed the game more if the rules had been a little more clear.  We struggled with what moves along the track were legal and which were abusive.  I also think it would have been more fun if we had been a little more reckless.  Corners have speeds assigned to them and if you take the corner at a higher than printed speed you take damage.  Both of us were playing pretty safe.  We were also playing with only two players on a track that had no obstacles aside from the walls.  I think more things and players to have to dodge, or crash into,  would increase the entertainment factor.

Once again International Tabletop Day in the Treasure Valley was a fun, sucessful day that saw people unplugging from their electronics to sit in the presence of others and have some fun.  Everyone I talked to was enjoying themselves and the energy in the store was overwhelmingly positive.  If you missed it this year keep your eye out for next year to get in on all the opportunities it offers to enjoy yourself.