I have just updated my ratings for cards to include the Tyrants Wild cards. The updated post can be found here. I will be updating the rest of the factions in the coming weeks. In general, the Tyrants cards seem very strong.
Month: April 2016
Legion Supplies Epic Contest
Legion Supplies is going to be producing supplies for Epic including collection boxes, deck boxes, and sleeves. They are currently hosting a Facebook contest to give away some of these supplies for free. https://www.facebook.com/LegionSupplies/
Constructed Epic: Efficient Evil
Foreword
I started designing this as a demon deck, but I shifted to trying to make it as efficient as possible. What I mean is that I attempted to create a deck where I would spend as little time just drawing as possible. I want my plays on my turn to get me far ahead, and I want my plays on my opponent’s turn to also get me ahead, just not by as much. The challenge was doing this in Evil with minimal card draw. Well, we’ll see if I succeeded.
First Shot Deck List
Evil (48)
Slow (24)
2x Angel of Death
1x Drinker of Blood
3x Infernal Gatekeeper
3x Murderous Necromancer
3x Necromancer Lord
3x Raxxa, Demon Tyrant
3x Reaper
3x Succubus
3x The Gudgeon
0x Trihorror
Fast (16)
1x Demon Breach
2x Drain Essence
3x Final Task
3x Medusa
3x Necrovirus
1x Raxxa’s Displeasure
3x Zealous Necromancer
0-Cost (8)
3x Plentiful Dead
3x Spawning Demon
2x Wither
Good (6)
Slow (0)
Fast (4)
1x Inheritance of the Meek
3x Resurrection
0-Cost (2)
2x Brave Squire
Sage (3)
Slow (0)
Fast (3)
3x Erase
0-Cost (0)
Wild (3)
Slow (0)
Fast (3)
3x Surprise Attack
0-Cost (0)
First Shot Explanation
The slow cards in this deck do something powerful initially and must be removed. Aside from Drinker of Blood, none of these champions suffer terribly from bounce.
The fast cards in this deck were picked because they (almost) all provide incredibly strong effects on my opponent’s turn. Ideally, I can use the powerful effects each turn to grind down my opponent quickly. Essentially, I do not want to let up the pressure to spend my turn drawing 2 cards.
I am attempting to make this work due to 2 factors. I am including The Gudgeons, Succubi, Zealous Necromancers, Erases, and to a lesser extent Resurrections, Final Tasks, and Necromancer Lords to draw cards. Demon Breach and Plentiful Dead can both be returned to hand as well.
In addition, I have limited the number of 0-cost cards in this deck to 10. Since I have fewer 0-cost cards, I do not need to draw as many cards to be able to continually play 1-cost cards. In other words, I am less likely to be in a situation where I unload all of my 0-cost cards and run myself out of fuel. The 0-costs I included are either big threats, continuous threats, combo/defense, or efficiency enablers.
Spawning Demon can create an army of demons while I play my Evil 1-cost cards normally, and it can start on my opponent’s turn.
Plentiful Dead is a constant stream of zombie tokens. Wither can work with my deck or prevent the damage from a Secret Legion on my turn into Insurgency combo. (Wither wouldn’t kill those tokens with Insurgency, but it would remove their offense for the turn.)
Brave Squire is included for 2 situations, in addition to it being a combat trick. Final Task + Brave Squire is the first. Zealous Necromancer + Brave Squire is the second.
I am really curious to see how this deck works out. My greatest fear is discard, but Human tokens could be an issue too. The nice thing is that Zealous Necromancer does turn those broken human tokens into zombies.
This deck was incredibly difficult to pare down initially. I wanted more of a few cards because they are so powerful, but I cut them because they are either situational or 1 effective use is all that is needed in a game. I also had to cut Trihorror even though it works well with Necromancer Lord, Final Task, Resurrection, and Reaper as well as the demon specific cards. Trihorror just doesn’t seem reliable enough. I did not include Dark Assassin because it breaks a champion, but then it is too easy to remove. Necromancer Lord gives a permanent champion and The Gudgeon draws 2, so neither of them need to stay around to get excellent value.
Let me know what you think in the comments below. I am especially curious to hear how many 0-cost cards other people include in decks and why. Is 20 the goal every time, do you have a formula you like, or is it more about selecting the best cards regardless of 1-cost to 0-cost (as long as it is legal)?
Dixit Review
Foreword
Dixit is a simple, attractive, party game for 3 to 6 players.
How to Play
Each player starts with 6 cards with pictures on them. The current player selects 1 card from their hand. They place it face down and say either a word or phrase, or they make a sound to describe it. Every other player then picks a card from their hand, that they think fits that description, and places it face-down. Once this has happened, the current player shuffles the cards, lays them out on the table face-up, and each other player guesses which card the current player played. The guessing is done by playing a tile face-down with the number of the picture you think it is. All of the tiles are revealed at once.
Scoring is based on the premise that you want your definition to be obscure, but not too obscure.
- If every other player guesses the current player’s card, everyone but the current player gets 2 points.
- If no player guess the current player’s card, everyone but the current player gets 2 points.
- If at least one player guesses the current player’s card and at least one player guesses incorrectly, the current player gets 3 points and each player who guessed correctly gets 3 points too.
- Finally, if you are not the current player, you get 1 additional point for every person who guessed your card that round.
After this is resolved, everyone draws a card and the next player becomes the current player.
Example
Anne places a card face down and says “alone.” Each other player places a card face down as well. After shuffling the cards and placing them face up, Bob, Carol, David, Edna, and Frank make their guesses.
Anne had played the number 3 card.
Bob played the number 1 card and guessed 3.
Carol played the number 2 card and guessed 4.
David played the number 4 card and guessed 5.
Edna played the number 5 card and guessed 3.
Frank played the number 6 card and guessed 4.
Anne gets 3 points because Bob and Edna guessed correctly and Carol, David, and Frank guessed incorrectly.
Bob gets 3 points because he guessed correctly, but no one guessed his card.
Edna gets 4 points because she guessed correctly (3), and David guessed her card (1).
David gets 2 points because Carol and Frank both guessed his card (1 each).
Carol and Frank get 0 points because neither player guessed correctly, and no one voted for their cards.
Conclusion
I enjoy this game, but about 1/4 of the people I have played it with do not, and they really do not. I, personally, love thinking up interesting and obscure ways to describe the cards. Trying to connect the interesting cards to something only 1 or 2 people would get is fun for me. I don’t think I have ever won though because I go too obscure, but still, I like it.
The people that I play with that do not like Dixit dislike coming up with those words/phrases/etc. Generally, they do not mind thinking which card they want to use to match someone else’s word/phrase, but they are, to an extent, self-conscious about coming up with a “good” one on their turn.
One problem I do have with the base game is that it can get repetitive. The cards are pretty cool looking, there are a good number of them, and you can describe them in a myriad of ways, but seeing the same ones over and over again can get stale. Luckily, there are expansions which add a lot of new cards. I do not have any of these expansions though, so I can’t actually recommend them, yet.
Overall, this is another one of my games I like to break out with “non-gamers,” but I haven’t had as much success with it as I would like. I do recommend it, but it very much isn’t for everyone.