New Phyrexia Prerelease

New Phyrexia cards are known for quite some time but I have to admit that I did not really care much. I knew the Japanese scanned cards well but not the rest which was released soon after. I did not know what SOM + NPH would bring.

I opened all the boosters and went quickly through them to see what I could play and I did not see cards like shatter, divine offering or anything else that destroys artifacts. At first I did not see any other removal but later I discovered Parasitic Implant and Grim Affliction. This had to do. Rares were well playable but nothing that was worth any money it seemed till I got to the very last card of the last booster in which I opened a foil Venser.

My deck had two indestructible creatures + Etched Champion that could get Protection from Colors. These creatures had to buy me enough time so I could get to Carnifex Demon or Steel Hellkite as those cards were the only real finishers I had. And if possible play the black 'destroy all creatures' card. Soul Eater and Suture Priest were helping me in staying alive and it worked more or less.

In my first round I played against Boros deck with equipments. The best card of the deck was batterskull and I had no way destroying it. The player always had a creature with several equipments on it and was attacking each turn for 11-12. I was blocking with Darksteel myr, later with Darkesteel Sentinel and then I even had Etched Champion for some other creates. He got Kemba who was creating little cats so I had to be blocking those, they actually dealt some serious damage. I was hoping my opponent wouldn't get a creature with infect or trample. He got the little Goblin that gets +2 for each equipment and has trample. Later he managed to play few creatures with infect. I (after having 13 lands in play out of 16) was rather angry and wanted something that would finally solve my problem and hopefully got Life's Finale. That card would take care of all creatures but one that would still kill me. I planned playing Parasitic Implant and block that a lot/a lot infect creature and hope to stay alive till the end of the round. My opponent ended with 167 life.

In the second round I played against a token deck. The deck had three Shrine of the Loyal Legions and it was capable of creating golems as well. My only hope was too play Life's Finale at the right time and manage to win somehow after that before my opponent creates more myrs. I also had the same mana flood problem as in the previous round. After I won the first game I checked the number of the lands and it was indeed 16...It should work. I managed to win the second game as well.

In the third round Lukas (with the best standing) was paired down and played against me. He did not want to lose against me and was rather upset about that. But well my deck was unable to deal with artifacts and Sword of War and Peace was too much for me to handle. Little 1/2 hover myr managed to kill me. In the second game I got a good draw and had to be as much aggro as possible to kill my opponent before he manages to get to his sword or other rare I couldn't handle. I won. In the third game I got rather interesting draw - I had cards that could deal with almost everything except the sword. I decided to keep the hand and see how it would fare. It fared fairly well till Precursor Golem showed up. In the meantime my opponent played Sword of Peace and War and again had the little annoying myr.

Fourth round I expected yet another annoying equipment - Batterskull (we knew the player had it). it was blue/red deck with flyers, equipments and burn. Among the equipments there was foil batterskull.
I won the first game as I easily got to 6 lands and had Steel Hellkite. In the second game I feared Spikeshot Elder in the combination of flyers I couldn't deal with. My best flyer that could do the damage race cost me 3 life and my opponent always bounced it back and made me lose yet another life. I also ran out of cards I could play because I ended up on 3 lands and couldn't draw any other. I needed something, I had Tezzeret's gambit on my hand but couldn't play it otherwise Spikeshot elder would kill me. I hoped that my opponent wouldn't draw his fourth mountain. In the end I managed to win.

WB something...

Alloy myr
Suture Priest
Parasitic Implant
Remember the Fallen
Grim Affliction
Blind Zealot
Blinding Souleater
Loxodon Convert
Darksteel Myr
Darksteel Sentinel
Blistergrub
Golden Urn
Glint Hawk
Origin Spellbomb
Arrest
Palladium Myr
Fume Spitter
Necrogen Scudder
Steel Hellkite
Carnifex Demon
Etched Champion
Tezzeret' Gambit
Phyrexian Metamorph
Life's Finale

Dominion - Deck Building Games

Dominion is the first game that started the deck building board game type.

"You are a monarch, like your parents before you, a ruler of a small pleasant kingdom of rivers and evergreens. Unlike your parents, however, you have hopes and dreams! You want a bigger and more pleasant kingdom, with more rivers and a wider variety of trees. You want a Dominion! In all directions lie fiefs, freeholds, and fiefdoms. All are small bits of land, controlled by petty lords and verging on anarchy. You will bring civilization to these people, uniting them under your banner.

"But wait! It must be something in the air; several other monarchs have had the exact same idea. You must race to get as much of the unclaimed land as possible, fending them off along the way. To do this you will hire minions, construct buildings, spruce up your castle, and fill the coffers of your treasury. Your parents wouldn't be proud, but your grandparents would be delighted."

The game starts with choosing 10 Kingdom cards that create a pool of cards from which players can buy cards. Each player starts with 10 cards consisting of treasure cards and victory points. In each turn a player can by default take an action (play a card) and buy a card. Each player starts with 5 cards in his hand.

There are five different card types:

Treasure cards that generate coin
Action cards that have a certain effect (can give you additional gold, let you draw a card etc)
Victory Points cards that give you Victory Points
Curse cards that count as negative Victory Points
Reaction cards, that are used in response to an attack for example

As the time goes by each player builds a deck by buying new cards. When 3 stacks of cards are emptied or the Province stack (Victory Point card) is emptied the game ends and each player counts the number of Victory Points they have. As you can see this card game has usually two phases. In the first one players buy cards they want to create their decks and then in the second part they try to buy as much Victory Points cards as they can.

I personally like the game but from playing the first game I noticed that there can be a big difference between new and experienced players. I personally am good in this kind of games and it was very easy for me to figure the cards out and build a deck so I could be buying a lot and get through the most cards. More casual players can be overwhelmed by more serious players and might not enjoy the game as much. This probably means that the game is not that balanced as it should be. Anyway there are many expansions to the game so that adds a lot to the variety (which is great even with the base set).

The game itself is not too interactive. There are cards that work as an attack (do something bad to other players. Attacks can be negated by some cards but they don't need to be in the pool at all for example). In general each player comes up with a strategy for their deck and goes with it. At the end of the game you see whose strategy was the best. Of course the fact that players shuffle their decks each time they don't have cards to draw adds a certain random factor.

The game is easy to learn and you can set it up relatively easily (actually it takes more time to put everything in the box).

Nightfall - Deck Building Game

Nightfall is made by Alderac Entertaiment Group and is designed by David Gregg. It is a deck building game but is slightly different in terms of achieving a victory in the game.

The sun has retreated from the earth. It has been a little over a week since the last hint of light shone over the horizon, and the chaos has begun. People fear for their existence, while scientists struggle to explain the phenomenon.

Until they came.

The creatures of nightmare — vampires, werewolves, and ghouls — have begun to appear throughout the world, and they show no sign of hesitation in claiming the dark world as their own!
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The game itself is face paced and the system is relatively easy to grasp. It takes some time to set the game up and draft the pool though.

Before the game even begins there is a draft to determine the pool of cards from which you can buy cards during the game. Each player actually has its own pool (personal archive) of two cards and then there is one common pool.

The whole game is about a chain mechanic. Each card has a main color and two linking colors. After a player plays a card they can link a different card that has a main color matching one of the linking colors of the first card. After the player starting the chain finishes their own chain each other player in clockwise order has the opportunity to add his own cards to the chain. When each player adds a card or passes the chain is resolved in reverse order (in other words: first in, last out).

In the game there are characters and cards with instant effects that are discarded after they resolve. The characters stay in play until the beginning of your turn when they attack and are discarded after the attack.

The instant cards and characters deal damage in form wounds. Wound is a card in Nightfall. When a player gets a wound they takes a Wound card and put it into their deck. The wound cards can be discarded from your hand to draw two cards each time when you draw your next hand. This means that the player having more wounds can go through the deck faster than the other players which gives them the possibility to create longer chains and have a bigger impact on the game.

The player with the least wounds wins the game.

Personally I find both the Chain mechanic and Wound cards' mechanic a nice change from other games. The game overall though feels a bit unfinished. It lacks something that I can't really describe well. During our games we also had some politics game when deciding who to attack which often resulted in conflicts.

Ascension: Chronicle of the Godslayer - Deck Building Game

Ascension is a game produced by Gary Games (and also designed by several Magic: The Gathering Pro Players) and is another game of a rather new game type - deck building games. The first deck building game that we could play was Dominion which was published 3 years ago. Since then a wide range of deckbuilding games was created. Ascension is one of them and became quickly popular.

The game takes place in Vigil, a world that has been protected for millennia by the Great Seal, keeping the realm free from divine influences. It was put in place after an ancient war with a corrupt god, Samael the Fallen, when it was decided that none of the gods should be able to interfere. But now, the Seal is failing, and nightmarish Monsters that had been forgotten are breaking through. Your job, as a hero of Vigil, is to take your small, ragtag band of Apprentices and Militia, and gather an army powerful enough to lead you to your destiny as the Godslayer, and in doing so, slay Samael once and for all.

Ascension: Chronicle of the Godslayer has a very simple rules and can be setup really fast. It is a game for 1-4 players. Each player gets a starting deck containing ten cards. There is a central row which contains a pool of cards from which you either buy cards or defeat monsters. After a card is bought or destroyed a new card fills the vacant slot. To buy a card you need a certain amount of Runes. To defeat a monster you need Power. Your starting deck contains 8 Apprentices (Runes) and 2 Militia (Power). You start the game with five cards which means that you have three different starting hands.

On your turn you can buy anything as long as you have runes and what to buy and you can also be defeating monsters as as long as you have Power and monsters to defeat. At the end of each turn you discard the remaining cards you did not use and draw new 5 cards.

In the center row there are three types of cards - Heroes, Constructs and Monsters. Heroes are played and have a one time effect. At the end of turn the cards are put into a discard pile. Constructs unlike heroes stay in play after they are played (until they are discarded by an effect). Monsters can be defeated and they give you a reward in the form of Honor Points and sometimes have also an ability.

Each player also has access to three different cards at all times - Mystic, Heavy Infantry and Cultist. The first two are unaligned Hero type cards that give you 2 Runes (Mystic) or 2 Power (Infantry). Cultist is a monster that can be defeated if you have at least two power (you gain one Honor when you defeat him).

The game ends when a certain pool (depends on the number of players) of Honor points is depleted.

When the game ends each player counts the number of honor points they have (cards in your deck have them, see a number in a star on the bottom left corner of the card, and you also gain them by defeating monsters). The player who gets the most honor points wins the game.

There are four different factions in the game.

The Enlightened that can usually draw cards and kill a monster with a strength X. (They prize knowledge above all else and want to achieve the enlightenment)

The Mechana are engineers that create machines of immense power. Mechana cards allow you to draw cards or kill monsters based on the number of mechanas you control. They also reduce the costs of other constructs and have the best cost to honor points ratio (easily 1:1).

The Void are warriors that worship Death. Void cards give you Power and card draw (allowing you to banish/remove from the game cards from your hand or discard pile).

The Lifebound...um. Well Lifebound cards have a variety of effects that don't seem to do anything together. They usually give you runes and Honor and accelerate the game, thus are a good in combination with strategies using primarily Power to beat monsters.

Verdict

Ascension the game is a very fast paced game that can be brought anywhere and set up very fast. Explaining the game doesn't take long and it is a game very easy to teach. The game is though very complex and takes time to master. The game is best suited for 2 players from my point of view and has a team variant where players can buy each other a card by paying one more rune for the card (the players of one team do not sit next to each other) which is actually a better way to enjoy the game in 4 players. The game is slightly unbalanced with Power strategies being favored but otherwise allows to explore all kind of decks and strategies. It has a good balance between skill and variance which makes the game more enjoyable to players of all levels while this game can be competitively played 1-on-1.

If you are tempted to try a deckbuilding game I'd recommend this one, because it seems to be the best one out there.

L5R Celestial Tournament

Test of my deck in heavy military and heavy movement field. (decklist is few posts back)
I played Last Step Castle and since the morning I felt that my final standing wouldn't be good. I felt like crap (I don't want to complain anymore on my blog, but this time I really felt horrible...) and couldn't concentrate. The games were good though and if my brain would be working more I could try my best and see what the deck can do with
something it can't really handle that well. Anyway I made few changes to the deck. I played Meisetsu instead of Nakai and War of Dark Fire so I would start more often with 9 honor in the second turn. After the tournament though I'm not really convinced about the card. The first day I managed to have games in which I haven't seen a magistrate for three turns even after Border Keeps and then I did not see the little guy that often. In most games it was still Bokusui that I played on T1. So well I'm not convinced about this card. But I have to say that the force is good (it actually works) but it lacks the keywords I need.

In fate I played Patrolling the Roads as this is NOT a political action and it can actually gain me some honor. This card actually proved to work quite ok. I also did not really want to play much of steel on steel and restoring order as many people play many don't die cards. But bowing does not really work against a lot of movement played here.

There were other cards in consideration but I end up with something that would require Reinforce the Gates in the deck => thus it would end up being a completely different deck than the one I play now.

Thank to TO for the tournament and thanks to all those who survived playing against me.
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RND 1
Scorpion Military

I got a good draw and my opponent was too slow. He hadn't Jutsushi nor Kazunori early and for a long time he was without a Shugenja so couldn't play Kami's Whisper nor Whispers of the Forgotten. Still he was capable to slow me down quite a lot. He managed to play Whispers of the Forgotten twice later to let me lose 3 Honor twice and managed to dishonor almost all of my personalities. In the end I still had a lot of ways how to gain honor and managed to win via Honor Victory.


1:0

RND 2
Lion CC Big Weapons

Next I played against Raemon party with big attachments. My draw was good, my opponent was unlucky with his dynasty and the cards he needed he send to the bottom of his Fate deck when I challenged him to a duel. I managed to focus two Hamstrungs but I still knew that this won't be enough if I get hit by Only Actions Speak. When I tried playing Peaceful Discourse I was eventually hit by OAS and that left me at 39 Honor. Then I could just watch the Lion take my provinces down. The deck fares well against my deck even though it probably is not fun to play against it. The game was weird in more aspects but ended as I expected, I lost.
Nice game.

1:1

RND 3
FoBS Ninja
My opponent tried to buy personalities, make big units and destroy provinces early. That worked for me as I could easily kill them with duels.

2:1

RND 4
Scorpion Dishonor
Honestly I have no idea how to play against this and I have to say that I wasn't in any state for playing any game that requires thinking. I got a good draw and good dynasty. My opponent wasn't lucky with his personalities at all as he got the needed ones late in the game. I got Bokuko in play which gives Revenge tokens but I forgot about that. Everyone got dishonored and some died. I managed to get over 40 twice but it wasn't enough as I lost a lot of honor in my opponent's to Unfortunate Incidents + SHadowed Words. I could have probably won if I would know what to do. My magistrates still have force to be able to break down provinces. Good experience.

2:2

RND 5
Dragon Kensai
My opponent got one holding so the game had a really bad start for him and he needed gold to be able to do something against me. He played some high Chi Kensais but I still could manage that. In the end we decided to go into a battle because he wanted to challenge to a duel my personalities^^. It was funny. First challenged died. Then I killed Satsu with Ultimate Sacrifice and then the rest of my personalities died. My province strength was 18 though and his total force after Slow Death twice in a duel was also 18. It was a funny game, but well nothing interesting happened and I did not learn anything new.

3:2

RND 6
Unicorn Uniques
Moto Chen, followed by Tamago, no more to say. Too many movement from my opponent's part and I couldn't control all that. I made two mistakes, but still even without doing them I would lose after I saw my opponent's hand. Another nice game.

My only chance against Chen was Patrolling the Roads but my opponent played Justly Earned Victory on it. I was able to bow two personalities each turn, but Chen with Heavenly Lance of the Unicorn just spoiled that. The first turn when I could use it I should HAVE done that. But still I would end up with a province down anyway..,..Still I will keep the card in the deck, it proved to be working quite well. Wish there would be more dishonor available to dragon magistrate/courtier. Actually if I would manage to dishonor Tamago I would have a chance to do something as he can be hit by political actions unlike Chen. But well redirection works well unfortunately for me. ^_~

3:3

Final standing....hm...well right in the middle. I should have played some silly aggro deck. At least the games would be quick. I got a Wyrmbone Katana though^_^. Nice card.
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The deck that follows is the one I played in Budapest.

On day one I played the version that follows (my deck was more against military I did not expect all honor/dishonor field). On day two I made few changes (so it would be better against honor decks). I took out Hojatsu, 1x Nakai, 2x Bokuko and put in 2x Kitsuki Suiha, 1x Kitsuki Yodo and War of Dark Fire. I also put in twice Deeds and Words.

In fate I added Peaceful Discourse (took out 1x Claw and Shell) and exchanged Forewarning with Subversive Influence.

Last Step Castle Honor

Last Step Castle
1x Border Keep
1x Bamboo Harvesters

Dynasty: 40
1x Traveling Peddler
3x Gold Mine
3x My Father's Shrine
1x Shrine to Hotei
2x Public Records
2x Counting House
1x Debt Collector
1x Kitsune Den

1x Hanayashiki
1x Winter's Embrace
1x Naoharu's Gift
1x Well-defended border

3x Kitsuki Taiko
1x Kitsuki Taiko XP
2x Kitsuki Bokuko
1x Kitsuki Hanbei
1x Togashi Satsu
2x Kitsuki Yodo
2x Mirumoto Haru
3x Kitsuki Nakai
2x Mirumoto Bokusui
2x Mirumoto Meisetsu
2x Kitsuki Yukari
1x Otomo Seimi
1x Daigotsu Oki

Fate: 40
3x Hamstrung
2x Steel on Steel
3x Impromptu Duel
3x Imperial Adjudication
3x Writ of Reprimand
3x Outer Walls
1x Forewarning
2x Subversive Influence
2x Restoring Order
2x Distractions in Court
1x Relentless Conviction
1x Ultimate Sacrifice
3x Wall of Honor
1x Ring of Fire
2x Peaceful Discourse
3x Patrolling the Roads
2x Claw and Shell
2x Snow-Swept Summit