Well the first day of Con on The Cob is done.
I am quite surprised at how cool this game convention is. It packs a lot of surprises.
Everyone is jovial and willing to talk.
I hope to satr bringing you interviews tomorrow from the con.
The Silence of the Lambs (Image via RottenTomatoes.com)
Wow, I just saw this article written by Joelcool7 at gamrConnect. Basically, the article states Hollywood is going after board game licenses for movies. One of the games he mentions is Magic the Gathering. I didn’t like that fact that Joel lumped MtG into the board game genre, but he didn’t really speak about MtG either. He just mentioned that there is a possible movie out there.
Joel’s article talks about how board games lack plot. Well, That is actually a good thing. A good story isn’t about plot alone. In fact, a good story is really told by the characters. If a writer doesn’t develop the characters the plot will fail. Stories are far more about a balance between plot and character with character carrying the weight.
Lets look at a couple of movies and see if I can get my point across. The Expendables was an intense action packed movie with a lot of characters. Who were played by some really big names (Jet Li, Sylvester Stallone, Mickey O Rourke, Dolph Lundgren, and Jason Statham). I liked it. It would have been a lot better if it was 45 minutes longer and all the characters had a chance to develop. Better yet, start with 3 characters and introduce the rest in a sequel. In the Expendables the plot was there but there was just not enough time to develop the characters.
The Silence of the Lambs is probably the best plot verse character success I can think of. The characters DR. Lecter and Clarice played by Anthony Hopkins and Jodie Foster have plenty of time to develop. As a watcher you really get to know them and you want to feel what at least one of them feels. Understanding a characters feeling in a story gives the viewer a more enjoyable experience.
In the world of Magic the Gathering the characters already have so much detail it’s a no brainer to turn this IP into a movie. The only question is with so much story development already done, where would you start the movie? I would love to see the Brothers War saga turned into a movie or three. It would be far more realistic for WotC and oh we will say Paramount (first to pop in my mind) to start with some of the more recent planeswalkers. The Shards block storyline would make a good storyline. Who would play Nicol Bolas?
I am pretty excited about this. And it is not all speculation as this article from MTV’s Movie Blog seems to indicate.
It looks like we are in for some really cool promos at the theaters in the future.
Image via Wikipedia
My Local Game Store just informed me that Necrons are on the way. He said GW was going to make the announcement around the 22nd of October (no surprise there). I hope that they go with preorders right from that date instead of making us wait until the 5th of November like they always do.
So come back soon so we can give you an idea of the bits break down. Yes, that is right I said bits. And if half the rumors are true this is going to be a great release for bits.
Image via Wikipedia
Welcome to the Heavy Gear Universe
Whether you are an experienced gamer or you are looking to get started, Heavy Gear is a war-gamer’s dream. It’s set in a universe where the best of the best do battle in big stompy robots. Dream Pod 9 has put together a fantastic collection of miniatures representing all aspects of combined arms warfare centered on “Gears”. Gears are 15-18 foot tall robots. They are armored and agile carrying tank-like firepower including rockets, auto cannons, lasers and even rail guns. They are capable of inflicting major damage at range while performing martial arts style hand to hand combat.
The setting combines tabletop miniatures with RPG style background. The story takes place on the planet Terra Nova, one of several Earth colony planets. Terra Nova’s poles are temperate but separated by a wide equatorial desert called the Badlands. The North and South wage war across the Badlands while the inhabitants of the Badlands fight for survival and to hold on to their small pieces of inhospitable terrain.
To complicate things further, the forces of Earth have re-appeared to reclaim their colony. The CEF (Colonial Expeditionary Force) is Earth’s strong arm bent on reclamation of the colony planet and all of their resources. There might consists of hover tanks and genetically engineers soldiers called GRELs. After an earlier, failed attempt on Terra Nova, the CEF has set their collective mind and come back with a vengeance.
The combat system for Heavy Gear, which we will discuss in much more detail later, is simple and easy to learn. It is based on opposed rolls (2d6) with simple modifiers. Damage is determined by margin of success and weapon based multipliers. It is an elegant system where every attack counts. Even the lightest attack has the ability to be lethal, giving the exciting feel of real combat.
In addition to the rich storyline, great miniatures, fantastically attractive and well formatted rulebooks, one of the biggest appeals offered by Heavy Gear is the relatively low buy in. A two player starter containing the core rulebook, field guide, dice, a tape measure and 6 gears weighs in at $67. The starter contains everything needed to play Heavy Gear while leaving endless options to expand the game to fit your wants and needs. An out-of-the-box video review of the starter will follow shortly in addition to book reviews, background articles and battle reports.
Keep an eye out for the first battle report where I will be teaching my16 year old son to play and will be sure to include his thoughts on learning the game as well as the diversity of the system.
Moving on in our discussion about how Innistrad effects the standard environment we come to RUG. I know I said we would go somewhere else first. but we made a wrong turn. What is RUG anyway? For those of you that don’t know it is an acronym for Red/Blue?Green. Most of the RUG decks are control driven, but they are not your traditional type of control. At least I don’t believe so.
RUG doesn’t have the named history like some of the other archetypes do. Take Fish for example it was an archetype before it was named. That doesn’t mean the roots of Rug do not run deep. I remember building Blue/Green decks when Prodigal Sorcerer still thrived, and Gaea’s Liege deprived your opponent of everything except Islands. It wasn’t long before you saw Channel, Fireball, and Mana Drain enter the deck. Yeah, that was a while ago. Somewhere around the time of Conflux (I believe) RUG got its official name. Why, I don’t know. But the name has lasted ever since.
First I am sorry for not posting this yesterday, real life got in the way. Second, I was going to start with more black cards, but I really have not had a chance to look it over yet.
Why does red burn Innistrad? Lets take a step back a moment and look at what I am saying. Red Deck wins is hardly using any Red cards from Innistrad. David Doberne took 1st at the Star City open in Indianapolis. Here is the link to his deck. In the whole deck there are only three named cards from Innistraad, Brimstone Volley, Stormskirk Noble, and Traitorous Blood. The deck I was going to post differed like this instead of Brimstone Volley I was going to run Goblin Grenade, and instead of goblin Arsonist I was going to run Reckless Waif.
After looking at his deck I can’t believe I overlooked Brimstone volley. Duh! 5 damage, an instantand it was one of my favorite picks 2 weeks ago. The really funny part is I just used a whole bunch of creatures that had good card quality, like Spikeshote Elder, Chandra’s Phoenix, and Grim Lavamancer. I didn’t even see how good it was until I started writing this article today.
Brimstone Volley is so easy to cause its 5 damage (Grim lavamncer or spikeshot)
With Chandra’s Phoenix you can almost always guarantee having a creature in play. Too bad the phoenix doesn’t have Flash.
Stormskirk is just darned good right now. I mean you have to play him; the anti human energizer vampire just doesn’t stop growing.
Enough about the deck. Why isn’t Red Innistrad seeing more play, when it has some pretty good cards?The truth is Red deck wins didn’t really lose that many cards. It still has a lot to offer us like Devils Play, and Ancient Grudge. I am sure the will turn up in a control deck somewhere. It wouldn’t be surprising if Curse of the Stalked Prey and Curse of the Pierced Heart make it into a goblin deck that does fairly well. HMM I think I will build that for my second son.
Next Time I hope to look at Green and blue. More Specifically R/G aggro. With any luck we might even get to talk about R/U/G.
While the lawsuit has been going on for awhile now it appears there is some new news. If you have not been to Dakka Dakka and to Bell of Lost Souls (BoLS) to read about it I suggest you go here and here. I am going to recap a little bit of what is being said, but I am only going to recap the main portion of the posts. I encourage you to visit the links and read them for yourself.
In a nutshell, Games Workshop filed suit against Chapterhouse because they (GW) claim Chapterhouse has infringed on the intellectual property of Games Workshop. Chapterhouse motioned for a dismissal saying that GW must cite where the infringement is. So far it seems GW has not defined the areas of infringement.
The post on BoLS by BarCode states that GW has taken the following actions in response to the lawsuit.
I don’t know about you but not all of those are bad things. OK, I am bummed out by the fact that Nids and Eldar are on hold. But the truth is GW made that choice not Chapterhouse. Do I agree with it? That is both a yes and a no. Which I will cover in more detail in a minute (it is all opinion).
Last week I provided an overview of depression. This week I shall take a look at its connection with gaming. I’ve been gaming for fourteen years, and have had the opportunity to meet a lot of wonderful people – folks that I gladly call “friend.” And there is one thing that I have noticed about the gamer population compared to the general population. I believe that the rate of depression in gamers is higher than that of the general population.
Why is that? Are depressed people drawn to gaming? Or does gaming make one more depressed? Or is it simply a coincidence, or faulty observation on my part?
We can eliminate that last question based on the proven fact that I am always right. (Which, by the way, is another source of my depression. It is an incredible burden to be right all the time 😀 .)
The second question seems counter-intuitive: How can something “fun,” like playing games, make you feel depressed? Sure, many of the games we play are competitive, and no one likes to lose; losing can put one in quite a funk. But at the same time we recognize that “it’s just a game,” so the prospect and experience of losing are not that emotionally traumatic. Furthermore, many games, especially RPG’s are cooperative, allowing everybody to “win.”
Therefore I’m brought back to the first question: Are depressed people drawn to gaming? I think that there is some solid evidence to indicate this probability.
First, depression makes it difficult to socialize with other people, but gaming provides a “bridge” to social interaction. It’s easier to address another person through the medium of a game, with its rules and structure, compared to trying to strike up a conversation with someone at “regular” party.
Second, it gives the depressed person something to do. Lack of activity and motivation are the most difficult parts of depression to deal with. Gaming, at the very least, is an activity to focus on and participate in. Thus gaming is the vehicle by which one can combat that lack of motivation and activity.
I’m sure there are other reasons (which a qualified sociologist or psychologist could explain) why gamers seem to have a higher rate of depression than the general population, but these two stand out strongest to me. Continue reading »
Two days ago, I wrote about White and how it received some really great new creatures giving White Weenie a fighting chance again. Today, I am going to focus on Liliana of the Veil. She is pretty amazing. Being the other 3 drop planeswalker in the game I expect to see some great things from her. I was hoping that her +1 ability that forces each player to discard a card would be able to take advantage of Flashback. It seems that the best card to do that with is Unburial Rites. Which is not the best idea. It could work, but it would be difficult to make a good combo with the two in T2. Here ability to target player sacrifice a creature does have some promise though. The combination of hand control and and board control is an excellent representation of black and a better combination. Her last ability “-6: Separate all permanents target player controls into two piles. That player sacrifices all permanents in the pile of his or her choice.” is going to be used. It kind of reminds me of Fact or Fiction, but only because the player has to chose his pain.
Liliana is pretty wicked good. There is already a really good BUW control deck built around her and there will be more. here is a link to that deck list WUB. Since that is a really great deck I will focus on a simpler deck for a thirteen year old player.
4 Distress
4 Despise
24 Swamps
My sideboard is yet to be determined
Now that I have built this deck I am thinking it might have too much hand disruption. What about you? Do you think it has too much? Here is what I like about this experiment. It has good creatures for a themed deck. It has a descent amount of control. Right from the start. There are just enough mechanics like , discarding, planeswalkers and Grave titan triggers to make this deck a good teaching deck. Wouldn’t be great if on the first turn you cast despise and surgical extraction? While it won’t win a PTQ it is a great deck for my son to have fun with at FNM.
Black has a lot more cards to offer from Innistraad. We will look at them tomorrow, along with some red cards. I am hoping to design a new version of Red Deck wins this week. Any ideas as to what I should play?
Hey again, welcome to Revising Standard. In this set of articles we will always discuss the impact of the most recent set. The goal is to make this a living document that changes as the format matures. I will attempt to update each article by using the comments section of the blog.
The first installment of Revising Standard will discuss some of the impact Innistrad has on Magic the Gatherings standard or T2 format. More specifically we will start discussing how white is being influenced or becoming an influence.
White has long since been known for its one and two drop creatures. It also has a history of having one or two good reset buttons at any given time. White is often splashed or used as a support color. In fact blue and white have become a tradition among the deck archetypes of our day.
