At the Magic Pre-release

I spent yesterday afternoon playing Magic at a local’s store’s pre-release event for the new Dark Ascension set. The set continues the gothic horror theme of the previous set, and while I’m not particularly interested in Vampires or Zombies, I do like the Werewolf cards that have been added in these two sets. This was my first time playing Magic with someone other than Mike since the last time I attended Origins in 2006. The summary of the day is that I had a great time and learned quite a bit but failed to win a game.

Primarily I had a good time because I had reasonable people to play with. All of my opponents were polite and showed very good sportsmanship, and the judge was competent and professional and seemed fair. If I were guaranteed to play the same opponents I’d go back again in a minute.

I think I had a decent set of cards, though I’m sure I didn’t make the best use of them. I drew one really nice White-Blue mythic rare, Geist of Saint Traft, but I didn’t like my Blue enough to feel it was worth playing. I went with a Red-Black aggressive mix. As I said I never won a game but I didn’t feel like I was blatantly overmatched in any particular set. As I went, I saw two things: first, I made lots of mistakes in my play, and second, my deck could definitely have been better constructed. My opponents seemed to have more removal than I did: my second opponent explicitly pointed this out to me, and I did a little better in a subsequent game because I corrected this. Seeing what others were playing also helped me reconsider what I was willing to play. After my second match I went with a splash of white because my red had almost no removal, and I also put in a card, Wrack with Madness, that I had originally dismissed. I tried to build on a Vampire theme but I really don’t think I had enough vampires (6) to make it work, and while trying I included Vampires that weren’t very good (Falkenrath Torturer, for example). Here are a couple of breakdowns of the deck:

16 creatures: 8 black, 5 red, 2 white (including lingering souls), 1 artifact

17 land: 7 swamp, 6 mountains, 3 plains, 1 Haunted Fengraf

7 other spells:

•     Red Fires of Undeath,Wrack with Madness
•     Black Bump in the Night, Tragic Slip, Undying Evil
•     White Burden of Guilt
•     Artifact Blazing Torch

The average CMC was 2.9, with the following curve:

1. 5
2. 4
3. 7
4. 3
5. 3
6. 1

Now that I look, the curve seems a bit high to me, but I really didn’t analyze it formally during the half-hour deck building session. Probably one or two of the four 5-6 drops should have been replaced by a 4.

Overall I really enjoyed the experience of buying cards for the new set and getting to play with them right away in the Sealed deck environment. I would definitely like to try this again when the next set comes out.

Knights and Dragons!

Lunchtime Magic this week featured my Knight deck against Mike’s Dragonstorm deck. I won 2 of 3 games, and here’s what happened.

Game 1: This was one of those games that makes you wonder why you bother playing Magic. I drew tons of land and he didn’t draw enough. He torched the Student of Warfare that was the only creature in my opening hand, but then didn’t have anything else he could do. Eventually I drew another Student of Warfare and a Knight Exemplar and was able to bring him down.

Game 2: Excellent start for the Knights, with a Leonin Skyhunter and two Knight Exemplars. Once again he failed to have enough land to do much.

Game 3: I had an Aether Vial in my opening hand and led with it. In the first 3 turns I put out a Student, a Skyhunter, and a Knight of the White Orchid. After my attack (turn 4?) Mike still didn’t have any creatures out and said, “Well, I have to do it this turn or you’re going to win.” So he played Dark Ritual and Seething Song and some other spell and Dragonstormed for 4 hasty dragons and 20 points of damage.

Afterward, Mike commented that he didn’t think the Aether Vial did me any good. After analysis, I have to disagree. Here’s roughly what happened in the game with the Vial:

Turn 1: Plains, Vial.
Turn 2: Second plains, Vial gets one counter, play Skyhunter. End of his turn, tap vial for Student.
Turn 3: No third land drop. Vial gets second counter, level up Student, attack for 5. End of his turn, tap vial for Knight of White Orchid who brings a land with him.
Turn 4: Attack for 7 more, 12 total.

If you assume I drew a land in place of the vial, then those same four turns would go like this:

Turn 1: Plains, Student.
Turn 2: Second plains, level up Student, swing for 3. (Alternately, play Skyhunter, attack with Student for 1).
Turn 3: Third land, play Skyhunter, attack for 3 more (6 total). (Or, level up Student, attack for 5, same total).
Turn 4: Play Knight of White Orchid, attack for 5 more (11 total). Questionable whether or not I get a land off the Knight.

The value of the Vial is that I got to use the Knight a full turn earlier than otherwise, leading to an extra damage. I also got to play him after Mike had played the third land. I think that if the game had gone on longer, the Vial would definitely have been a plus.

I have one additional comment on that last game. I like Dragons as much as the next guy, and I have the utmost respect for Mike as an opponent, but I think the storm mechanic is busted. It completely reversed the game from “This is completely one sided in my favor” to “Wait, I just lost.” That seems a little too random for me.

We still had time after those 3 games, so we started a game with my Mirari’s Wake deck vs. his Cleric deck. I got off to a fast start with a Savannah and a pair of Loam Lions and knocked him down to about 6 life, but then he got out a Battletide Alchemist, which, in combination with the 4 other Clerics he had out, completely stalled the game. We had to leave before the game was decided, but the only way I was going to win was with removal, and I saw no evidence of that arriving.

How to lose at 7 Wonders

On Friday at the Workplace Game Lunch, I got to play 7 Wonders with the Leaders expansion. I did miserably, coming in 7th out of 7 by a good 10 points. How did I do it, you ask? Normally I don’t like to share my secrets but just for you, dear reader, here is how to do badly at 7 Wonders…

1) Pick your cards from the new expansion without bothering to read what the symbols mean.

2) Don’t look at your neighbors before deciding whether to play a military card that won’t catch you up with where they are now.

3) Don’t pay attention to the cost of your card until it’s time to flip it over.

4) Try to play a card that uses a resource from your neighbors that they don’t actually produce.

Yeah, okay, really I have no excuses — I don’t know what the heck was wrong with me. Pretty much this is the way to lose at any game, that is, don’t pay attention to what you’re doing.

Just as a side note I’ll point out that even ignoring my bad play, I was really not terribly impressed with the expansion. If you want another draft round in 7 Wonders I can see it being great. For me, one of the things I value is that the game is fast and I’m not sure adding complexity is worthwhile. Having said that, I’d be happy to try it again, and maybe this time I’d have my head in the game more…

Knights vs…Mirari’s Wake?

At lunchtime Magic this week, Mike forgot to bring decks. I had brought two, so we decided to play them against each other. I was happy that they split, 1-1. Here’s what happened.

In game 1, I mulliganed to 6 and had Student of Warfare on turn 1 and 3 points of damage for him on turn 2. He had trouble getting anything but land, but then finally got enough to cast first Mirari’s Wake, then one the next turn Wrath of God followed by 3 Llanowar Sentinels. By that time, though, I had knocked him down to 3 life. Since I suspected a board sweeper I had opted to cast Sword of War and Peace rather than Mirran Crusader for a fourth critter, so I was able to cast the crusader on my next turn. He didn’t have anything to stop me from getting in with the equipped Crusader, though he was able to do Decree of Justice for a lot on the turn before he died.

In game 2, he played first and was at five mana by turn 3. He followed with Mirari’s wake on his next turn, and four Llanowar Sentinels on the turn after that. I had two early Students of Warfare and a Leonin Skyhunter. I tried to equip the Skyhunter with Sword of Fire and Ice, but he had the Naturalize to get rid of it. At that point I didn’t have the cards to race him and he just sort of shredded my blockers for the win.

Overall I was happy with the way both decks performed. I got to play with cool new cards and each deck had a game where it seemed to be firing on all cylinders. I’m not sure I’ve ever gotten to five mana as fast as Mike did in game 2: he said it’s a knack he has for decks with elves…

The Year in Music 2011

In contrast with 2010, when I don’t think I bought a single rock or pop album, I found 2011 to be a very good year for music, and I actually bought a few new releases. Here’s a roughly chronological list of what I bought last year.

Walkenhorst and Porter, No Abandon: this 2009 release features the lead singer from one of my favorite bands, the Rainmakers. It’s a quiet, country-ish album. My favorite tracks are I hope you’re laughing and Jimmy Lee.

Springsteen, Darkness on the Edge of Town: I wanted to like this album more than I actually did. My absolute favorite track is Racing in the Street, and Badlands and the title track are quite good.

The Cars, Move Like This: You could have knocked me over with a feather when I saw this on iTunes. I think I hesitated about 3 tenths of a second before buying it. This is a solid Cars album: even though it’s clearly not nearly as good as their debut album or Heartbeat City, it’s the best Cars album since 1984, and I for one am very glad that they decided to enter the studio again. Sad Song is my most-listened-to song purchased this year.

Weird Al Yankovic, Alpocalypse. Another return by an old favorite, and one of my two pre-orders this year. I liked Craigslist a lot, and I found Skipper Dan and the inevitable Polka tune funny. My kids and I enjoyed Ringtone, Party in the CIA, Perform this way, and Stop forwarding that crap to me. I have to say that I didn’t recognize any of the official parody songs on this one: my wife pointed out to me later that I’d heard one piece of the Polka song in a YouTube video she showed me once, but I couldn’t have picked it out of a line-up.

Sara Bareilles, Kaleidoscope Heart: I passed over this last year when it came out but my Devoted Wife bought the album for me and I’m very glad she did. On this album, Sara Bareilles seems to be in the same style as Aimee Mann and Sarah McLachlan, and I think this may be the best album I’ve heard from a female lead vocalist since Aimee Mann’s last release. A very enjoyable listen all the way through.

The Alan Parsons Project, I Robot: I have only sampled the Project’s greatest hits, but I decided to give this one a try after reading in an iTunes review that it was a ‘must-buy for fans of 70′s prog rock.’ Yep, I’m afraid that’s me. I was very glad to have picked this one up. I don’t think its theme comes together as well as a typical Pink Floyd album, but it’s solid, thoughtful music throughout.

The Eagles, Long Road out of Eden: I stayed away from this one when it came out in 2007 because I wasn’t sure I really wanted the political commentary, but I succumbed finally and overall I feel good about doing so. About half of it, including tracks like How Long and What do I do with my heart, could stand up there with their best albums and do just fine. Seriously, Henley and Frey still sound great singing together, Schmitt has a great voice, and Joe Walsh’s two songs are a lot of fun. As for the rest, well, I do find myself wishing they’d made a single album rather than a double.

The Rainmakers, 25 on: Another knock-me-over with a feather moment. These guys used to play a concert on the last weekend before classes started when I was at Kansas State, and I figured they were done for since they last released an album in 1997. I think this is their best album since 1989′s The Good News and the Bad News. They’re more country than they used to be but I find I can live with that. Given Time, Go Down Swinging, and Missouri Girl are three good songs from the album. Kansas City Times makes me laugh out loud. Not for everyone, but if you’ve ever heard of and liked these guys before, you have to get this one.

Coldplay, Mylo Xyloto: My other pre-order this year. A very impressive album all the way through. Three of the songs — Every Teardrop, Paradise, and Hurts Like Heaven — appear in my type 20 songs for the year despite being the last album purchased on this list.

Overall I’m quite happy to have purchased 9 decent new albums within the same year, and I’ll be surprised if I can repeat the experience in 2012. I’ve heard that Aimee Mann is working on another album, and am looking forward to seeing that along with whatever else the year brings.

Game Report for 2011

I tried to be diligent about recording the games I played last year using boardgamegeek’s stats functions. Here’s a breakdown of my gaming for 2011.

Most played games: Okay, no surprise here: Magic is my most played game with 55 plays. This is similar to the number of plays that I recorded for it last year as well. In second place, I recorded 38 plays of Dominion, including 11 plays of its various expansions. (If I set up a game specifically to use a new expansion, say Hinterlands, I record that as a play of the expansion: otherwise, I record it as a play of the base game. Yes, it’s probably too nuanced to really bother with.) Last year, the number was 26 for Dominion, and I think the greater number this year is due to the availability of isotropic.net. Or, it could be that I just wasn’t as good at recording plays in 2010.

Other games I played more than twice this year included

• Race for the Galaxy (8 plays)
• Forbidden Island (7)
• 7 Wonders (6)
• Settlers of Catan (5)
• The Secret Door (4)
• Cosmic Encounter (3)
• Star Fleet Battle Force (3)

The only new game (new to me, anyway) that is on this list is 7 Wonders: all the rest are games that I previously owned.

New games: Ignoring new Magic decks and new Dominion expansions, I played only five new games this year: 7 Wonders, Survive!/Escape from Atlantis, Thunderstone, Quarriors, and S’quarrels. Only two of these (7 Wonders and Thunderstone) are games that I own, and only the first two received more than one play. I played 7 Wonders 6 times in a two month period, which is an indicator of the regard that I have for it. I was given a copy of the Lord of the Rings card game, but I’ll have to get to it in 2012.

Occasional visitors: I played several games I own only once or twice, including Federation Commander, Gosu, Catan: Cities and Knights, Munchkin, Niagara, Thebes, and Carcassonne: Hunters and Gatherers.

Thinking about it, the one aspect of my gaming life that isn’t captured by these stats is computer board gaming. The Dominion stats include games on isotropic.net, and the Race for the Galaxy plays include on-line games with Kiddo #1, but I haven’t been recording computer games that I play against the AI. I’ve played many, many games of Puerto Rico on the iPad, and look forward to more games of both it and Titan on the iPad in the coming year. I also bought Tigris and Euphrates but have yet to sit down and learn it.

I’m not sure what the next year holds for gaming. Perhaps I’ll actually use the iPad to play against humans next year. Kiddo #1 and I now both own Ticket to Ride for the iPad, and I think we’ll probably play some games during 2012. And while I don’t know specifically of any paper games that I’m awaiting in 2012, I am hoping to see iPad versions of both Dominion and Race for the Galaxy next year. I plan to use the stats above to either help suggest games that should see play with the kids, or to suggest games that haven’t been played in a while that I might consider selling.

My thanks to the few of you who will read this post. While this blog is largely my own record-keeping, I hope that it is occasionally useful or entertaining to others. I wish you good gaming in 2012 and beyond.

Magic Afternoon

After over two years of lunchtime Magic, Mike and I finally got together outside of work to play for the first time back in November. Somehow, this post never actually got published, so I’m publishing it now. In summary, it was a great time. We started with his cleric deck against my golem deck, in the matchup of two decks we both think of as needing improvement. He took 2 out of 3 games from me. In both of his wins, he had a Soul Warden to accumulate life, Necropotence or Yawgmoth’s Bargain to let him draw cards, and a Battletide Alchemist so that I effectively couldn’t do any damage to him. My deck’s best time was when it had the Master Transmuter bouncing artifacts back and forth so that Glassdust Hulk could be unblockable.

Following this we spent some time taking apart both decks. In the Cleric deck, we tried to weed out some of the one-ofs in the deck to concentrate on the mechanics that seemed to be giving him success, which I outlined above. For the golem deck, it really seems like I have two decks, a Master Transmuter deck and a Golem/Glassdust Hulk deck. Now I have to decide if I want to spend money upgrading either or both of them.

The second match featured Elves versus Slivers. This was a new build of Mike’s Elf deck, Red-Green with Bloodbraid Elf. I have no idea how any of my decks are ever going to keep up with that monster — it is very fast, and much more focused than previous versions. It gets out a lot of elves quickly and then has enough mana to do whatever it wants, including just burning you to death with Devil’s Play. The one game that I won, I had Crystalline Sliver to give the Slivers shroud and enough Muscle/Sinew slivers to make them really big, plus the Flying Sliver for the win.

In the final game, I played my Valakut Ramp deck against his Black-Green Spike deck. The ramp deck did really well, pulling a pair of Plated Geopedes and enough land-drawing cards to pump them 2 or 3 times every turn. Finally I got enough mountains to activate Valakut and that put me over the top.

Playing Magic for four hours sounds like a lot, but actually we didn’t get in that many games. Deck take-aparts are something we’ve always talked about, and it was good to finally get one in. Overall, we both had a great time, and though I don’t expect we’ll do this very often I hope we get the chance to do it again.

Well,that could have gone better

Last Monday Mike and I played Magic on-line using Magic Workstation. Mike had a white/green/red persist deck with Heartmender to make his critters healthy again and Blasting station to do damage to me on a consistent basis. I had a new blue-white build of a deck with Glassdust Hulk and basically, I couldn’t get it to do anything right. In the first game I drew all white cards and no white mana, and in the second game I drew land for like 4 turns in a row. So I learned nothing about the deck except that statistics are a harsh mistress. Here’s hoping for better luck next week.

Seven more wonders

Last Friday at Corporate Game lunch we got in another game of 7 wonders. This time, we had a full round of seven players. It was still very much a beginner’s game: most of us had only played one other time, at last month’s game lunch, and there were two new people who hadn’t been there. I squeeked out a one-point win as Egypt with a combo of military, blue victory point cards, and finishing my wonder, but I’m pretty sure that it would have been much harder had we all been more experienced. I think the hardest part about the game is that you can’t really tell how you’re doing relative to the pack until the third round comes along. However, it’s still a very fun game, fast and flavorful. Looking forward to trying to get some games in with the family over Christmas.

First time playing 7 Wonders

Friday at Corporate Game Lunch we played 7 Wonders. There were 5 of us, and four of us were playing for the first time. I was very impressed. There’s a lot to like about the game. I like the “locality” feel created by having to keep up with your neighbors, and being mostly able to ignore the folks across the board. I like the categories of victory conditions. Three of us were within 4 points of each other, and we all had different categories on which we relied for the bulk of our point totals, with one using science, one using guilds, and one using military. I like the speed of play and the card draft mechanic. I hope I can get my Devoted Wife and Kiddo 2 interested: we’ll see.