Reign of Fire: Smoke Screen

Smoke Screen works a lot like Invisibility did for priests. For the cost of 2, which is INSTANT, you can play this and have your hero be elusive and untargetable. In a raid like Ulduar, where Auriaya casts sentinel blast (can't get rid of sentinel blast) This card can be useful in saving your ass. If a normal raid deck boss is about to shovel a whole heap of damage your way, you can chain the action, which will back the damage dealing up and let the boss choose a new target. At least it won't be you. I would side deck this card for sure, at the minimum.

Reign of Fire: Legacy of Lordaeron

Legacy of Lordaeron is an expensive, dual ability for DK's and Paladins that allows you to an ally from your grave (at the average cost of 3.5 resources) and an opposing ally in an opposing graveyard. I don't know the implications of it for the PVP scene, but it like the previous DK card I reviewed, it violates the rules of my automated decks and I believe the Molten Core raid. I don't have enough knowledge of the PVP scene, so I am not keen on if this card will be worth it or not. As a raider- I will pass.

Courage the Cowardly Dog Episode 3: Courage Meets Big Foot

Rating For Courage Meets Big Foot: 87% (AMUSING)

This short had some whacky ideas, but it wasn't outrageous for long. Still, it's funny seeing Courage imaging Muriel being punted like a football by a big foot. I said "WHAT"? xD.

Reign of Fire: Savage Combat

Let's get straight to the point- this is one of the most OP rogue cards I have ever seen. It's a combat talent, but it's cost 2 and wrecks house. If you manage to hit a hero for combat damage, you deal it as melee damage also to each opposing ally. Talk about a DPS booster. Likely you are going to get 1-3 damage per target out of this card, and unfortunately it isn't an instant. Good GOD would that be OP. I like this card- and can see it acquiring a hefty monetary cost. I would include it if you are looking to beef up your equipment rogue.

Reign of Fire: Howling Blast

Howling blast is an interesting Frost ability that allows you to pop it down early to mid game in order to make your opponents pay more for an ally on the chain to come into play. For raiding though- I don't see this card as being particularly useful, especially against my automated raid decks- this card is trying to affect the functionality of another player when the automated raid deck behaves on a different set of rules. I like the card- but would only play it in a PVP deck.

Courage the Cowardly Dog Episode 2: Dr. Le Quack, Amnesia Specialist

 Rating for  Dr. Le Quack, Amnesia Specialist: 90% (EXCELLENT)

This short I got a good laugh out of. Eustace was working on the house and a board fell- hitting Muriel in the head. She forgot who she was. A specialist was called in, but the specialist "isn't" a doctor. The french accent was funny as hell, this episode was funny as hell, and it isn't the last we have seen of "Le Quack".

Reign of Fire: Mass Teleport

Mass Teleport is a nice "oh shit-skees" card when the boss aims for a board wipe or you are about to lose a bunch of allies. This card removes them from the game, then the ongoing sets in. It would really suck if this card was destroyed then and there, but you can chain that effect, even in a automated raid of mine and put all those allies back into play under your control. This has the added benefit of healing them, because the allies did not leave play with damage on them. I can see this card fetching quite a price at the tournament level. Definitely play it if it drops as loot or you can find a few copies.

Reign of Fire: Gravebound

Reign of Fire is the newest World of Warcraft booster set that just came out- and I am about... let's see... 7 or 8 booster sets behind. I had to stop playing at Worldbreaker due to moving out of college. Never thought I'd play again honestly- but I'm moving back home and buddies still want to play the game.

Starting off with Death Knight abilities, Gravebound has: "Attach to target ally you control. Ongoing: Attached ally has Assault 3. When attached ally is destroyed, put a 3 [Melee] / 3 [Health] Ghoul ally token into play." This is nice- it costs as much as Vanessa Fairgraves did from the DK starter set and gives a target ally assault 3. I don't know if I'd run this card in a revamped DK deck for raiding, but it seems like a nice card if you are building a deck focused on big bombs or a ghoul factory.

Real Grade Zaku II Work In Progress 04

There are a couple of things of note to discuss. In the last paint session I dropped the right shoulder shield and it messed up the primer work- so I sanded the affected area and re-primered it tonight, along with the connection plate for the torso and the beads for the head unit.

I've abandoned the leg unit beads because I dropped them all over the floor and I don't have the patience for it. I can get away with the excuse of "those are modular connection points for the future aerial pack". Or something like that. Only die hard Zaku zealots would be fuming at me. Ah well. My project.

Everything is looking good. I need to seal the bottom color down but I want to do it when the kit is one entire enchilada- which means I have to finish painting the primered parts later and then paint the stock of the rifle. I was holding onto it during the painting process- so all it is is primer.

I'd like the project done by the end of the week. I switched to Elmer's contact cement for the guillie suit and we'll see if that works. If not I will try Elmer's white glue. I have a feeling that guillie suit, regardless of what is attached or not may cause a mess on my shelf- and since I don't move my kits around much anyways so long as someone doesn't bump into it I think it will be ok. Vacuum can fix any falling debris. It should look awesome when it is done. Contemplating stealing Zaku sniper's rifle.

Courage the Cowardly Dog Episode 2: The Shadow of Courage

 Rating for The Shadow of Courage: 80% (GOOD)

Amusing short. A shadow escapes the body of a cruel old rich guy and haunts the local town of Nowhere. The horror of the shadow turns into comedic relief as Courage searches for a way to get it out of the house.

Courage the Cowardly Dog Episode 1: Cajun Granny Stew

 Rating for Night At the Katz Hotel: 85% (AMUSING)

I enjoyed this short. To win some kind of cooking contest (very popular in the Cajun south United States) a fox needs a sweet granny to finish his recipe. When he finds Muriel and Courage on a park bench- a mix of hillarity and slapstick horror ensues- though this episode is light on the horror but big on the "impending doom" factor. Definitely a fun watch.

Courage the Cowardly Dog is available on Netflix.

Courage the Cowardly Dog Episode 1: A Night at the Katz Hotel

 Rating for Night At the Katz Hotel: 75% (OK)

You know I didn't think this was the first episode- but it is. Courage, Eustace and Muriel spend the night at the Katz Hotel for or during their vacation- but find out it isn't the best place to stay. I suppose this adds to the mythos that small motels off the side of the road can hold.... interesting- or downright dangerous- secrets. Courage will find out why "no one checks out of the Katz motel". The cat is obviously a throwback to John Dilworth's debut short "Dirty Birdy". Courage the Cowardly Dog is available on Netflix.

Courage the Cowardly Dog Episode 0: The Chicken From Outer Space

Back in the mid 1990s, which a lot of kids today have never even heard about, Cartoon Network was the shiz. They began a cartoon cartoon series of various shows that would eventually spawn greats such as Family Guy (albeit on another network) and Courage the Cowardly Dog. Billy and Mandy also came from this spawn, but I never really watched that show.

Courage the Cowardly dog got its start in a pilot episode titled "The Chicken From Outer Space" and featured an invading chicken with just enough horror and comedy blended to produce an odd, mixed feeling when watching the show- and the network liked it. Despite being a short and not having much voice acting, the clip is memorable for being amusing and introducing us to the purple dog.

Core Mage: Building With a New Era of Cards

It's been a while since I've played the WOW TCG. In fact, I missed 7 booster sets during my leave. I never thought I would play the game again, but I am glad that the possibility is open once I move. Call it... a once a month card game kind of thing. I played a Druid and a Mage in the online game, so naturally I need a PVP deck. When discussing PVP with the world of warcraft trading card game, you have a few deckbuilding rules to follow, and then the format.

Formats
Constructed
Sealed Draft
Booster Draft

For a pvp deck I'll pick constructed in this case. The other two involve building from booster packs. I want a deck ready to go.

Deckbuilding
Core
Contemporary
Old World
Block
Classic

Classic allows you to take any card from any set in the game and put it into your deck. For newer players it is difficult to acquire a lot of the old world cards without absorbing big collections. We typically raid in classic- any card not banned is allowed (and I keep ban lists short).

Contemporary is after the scarring of Azeroth. This features every set from Worldbreaker to the current set. It was built with the idea of bridging a gap between the old world and new cards. Some tournaments may play contemporary.

Old World is a custom deck building rule of mine. It isn't official. In Old world, you build decks with every set from Heroes of Azeroth to Icecrown. The name implies everything- these are older cards from a time long passed.

Block is a format of play where only the current block is legal. Right now that is block 7, which includes Reigns of Fire, Betrayal of the Guardian and War of the Ancients. This is often for tournament play- and when a new block comes out- you only have one set to work with.

The Core format, most often used at the tournament level makes the latest 2 blocks legal. When a new block is released, an old block is shifted out of core. Right now blocks 6 and 7 would be legal for core, and when block 8 is released, block 6 becomes illegal for core. When a new block is shifted out of core, only the sets in the block before it and the new block/set is legal.

This deck will be core legal; constructed. So it is core constructed.

______

2 touch of brilliance
1 alethia brightsong
2 Ian lanstrick
2 amulet of spell shield
2 boundless magic
1 hexamorph
3 overload
2 orgrimmar killblade
1 razor hill spiritseer
3 char
2 polymorph: pig
2 baxtan, herald of the flame
2 klandark
2 moro wildmesa
3 staff of silence
3 arcane unraveling
2 tristani the sunblade
2 veliana felblood
2 arcane breach
1 hagtrix the mindsifter
1 roza the star-mother
1 vazu'jin
1 gravelord adams
1 nox the lifedrainer
1 orgrim doomhammer
1 drazul the molten
1 escape from durnholde
2 If You're Not Against Us. . .
1 legacy of the damned
2 reoccupation
2 terror of the tides
2 the black morass
2 the fall of lordaeron
2 the path to the dragon soul

______

When deck building lately I have utilized a new way of building. I used to build by including "x amount of abilities" or "y amount of allies", but that isn't always the most effective way of building. In my new method, the cost of the card is examined for its usefulness. I usually start with abilities and equipment checked off in the database selector, and then I go through each cost and see what cards would benefit my deck. The closer the average cost to 3 is, the more likely I can do something each turn. Doing nothing on a turn, whether raiding or otherwise- is bad for board advantage.

Cost 1 cards
Touch of Brilliance is a nice card; the only problem is is that it needs to be attached to a friendly ally to do any good. Then I filtered down my choices to amulet of spell shield (which I would be an idiot not to run this card) and alethia brightsong and Ian lanstrick. From there it was a question of "if I have to put 7 cost 1 cards in my deck, how many of each of the cards here do I pick?".

Cost 2 cards
For Mages, cost 2 is a little more involved. I found 3 abilities of particular use and 3 allies. I found more than that obviously- but I screened down my choices. Boundless Magic allows me to fish for a particular card if I happen to get boundless magic in my starting hand. Hexamorph was included for the card draw, but it's primary effect is still nice for ally control. Overload was included on purpose to interrupt higher cost allies. That is what mages do- after rogues they are one of the biggest pain in the ass classes in the game. Amara Kells gives me some DPS- but I wanted some versatility by including an orgrimmar killblade and a razor hill spiritseer, utilizing the bloodrush mechanic.


Cost 3 cards
I was curious as to why Char wasn't a fire talent. Regardless, it's a nice DOT that gives the opponent one more thing to worry about. Polymorph: pig was included in my deck to add some ally control and versatility in dealing with bombs. Baxtan, herald of the flame was included for the empower mage mechanic. Klandark was included for the bloodrush ability, and Moro Wildmesa was thrown in because... it's good. Staff of Silence works as a defacto slow and becomes a major pain in the ass. I like that card, so I included 3 of it.

Cost 4 cards
Slim pickings around Cost 4. I included another interrupt- arcane unraveling. Then I included Tristani the Sunblade for her effect and sexy card art. For additional versatility burst DPS I included 2 of Veliana felblood.

Cost 5 cards
Arcane Breach works a lot like Mystic Denial used to, except here you get to draw a card instead of an additional interrupt. I liked it- so I included 2 of it. Then for flexibility, I included 1 hagtrix the mindsifter, 1 roza the star-mother and 1 vazu'jin.

Cost 6 cards
Although the idea of a death knight operating in a mage deck is a little... odd.... Gravelord Adams is the s***. He's in as a good bomb card.

Cost 7 cards
Nox the Lifedrainer will work out just fine if you are laying damage on the opponent.

Cost 8
Orgrim Doomhammer is this deck's big bomb. Just read the card and you'll understand why I picked him.

This deck runs for about $17 before shipping- and doesn't include the entire list. Not bad for a core PVP deck. I might actually buy it.

Real Grade Zaku II Work In Progress 03

So I kinda broke the connection tubes from the backpack to the core. Sh***y, brittle plastic. So I noticed a spring connects the two points from the leg connections and figured I could do the same for these two. Then I thought "ok, if I am going to replace this stuff I'll need a maleable yet firm material that will fit through the beads and into the holes".

16 gauge wire. Fixed the problem. Everything should be primered by later tonight. I figured my day couldn't get any worse. Then my airbrush fell with the needle unguarded and now I have a bent fucking needle. That's a $10 maintenance fee. I won't be able to work on the project until I replace the needle. Count on that to take one or two weeks. My only hobby that remotely brings my blood to a simmer and now I can't paint s***. A fine day this has been.

Real Grade Zaku II Work In Progress 02

Hell- I was bored this afternoon after assembling a pool pump for my family and I went down into the shop and checked the real grade Zaku II. It was in pieces and I couldn't find the manual- so I brought my mom's laptop down into the shop, used dalong.net's scans (thanks for the translations on colors, too!) and re-assembled the kit. I have a new strategy for painting.

There are a couple of basic colors I will be using. Primer Gray, Panzer Gray and a mix of colors for the camou that I will determine on site at the hobby store tomorrow. Instead of masking the joints and doing the camou, I am going to paint like this.

The entire kit will be primered as one enchilada. Then I will paint the underlying coat for the camou everywhere. Then I will do a good job and clear coat the underlying work. Then I am going to use non-hardening clay to mask the underlying work and pray (to the paint gods) that the clay doesn't bring the paint up.

I've also heard of people using cotton balls to do camou, but my problem is that this real grade is too small and using cotton balls would be difficult- so I will try the clay method. If the clay doesn't work, I'll see if I have some liquid mask lying around somewhere- but good god if I don't put that on right it will be a pain in the ass to clean up.

I will then paint the second color and let it dry. At that point I can either clear coat over that paint, or take the clay up and then clear coat over everything. I may do the latter just to be consistent. Then I will paint the gun camou too. To make it look consistent I would want to paint the gun along with the kit. HOWEVER, in reality they probably would have painted it separately. So what I will do is camou the rifle separately in the same camou pattern. It will look like it belongs, but it won't.... how can I say this... it won't look like they camou'd the entire robot including the gun in one pass.

The kit looks... bigger than I remembered. I could have swore it was 1-2 inches shorter. Regardless- it looks really good; the detail is fantastic- and quite honestly I'm thinking about a Yonem Kirks/RG Zaku II kit bash in the future.

The lease on our potential apartment doesn't begin until September 1st, so I figure I have some time to get this RG in, and possibly. POSSIBLY- Sandrock.

Skyrim: Dragonborn Review

I've finally finished the Dragonborn DLC for Skyrim. Bethesda released it as the final DLC pack for Skyrim- citing they needed to work on the new Elder Scrolls MMO as to why they were ditching Skyrim. It left me very disappointed because I love the Skyrim world
and the adventures within. After all- Skyrim dethroned "Zelda: Majora's Mask" to be my third best game of all time.

The DLC has you journey to Solstheim- an island off the coast of Skyrim but also off the coast of Morrowind. It's a weird in-between- clearly you can see an erupting volcano, but there are still Nord influences across the island. The very first dragonborn, Miraak is attempting to return to Skyrim through mysterious means. I don't want to divulge his backstory, but he has corrupted the island of Solstheim in his bid to return to Tamriel.

I was a bit... disappointed with the DLC. Not because it was bad, but because it had so many expectations to live up to, and my perceptions of what the DLC was. When I got what the DLC actually was- I enjoyed it, but it didn't.... blow my mind so to speak. Well, the final boss fight did. I guess I can give the game some credit there. The story is solid and will give you around 8 to 9 hours of content. There are some new voice actors- which is a welcome change to the game.

The ruins and dungeons you explore are well done. If you've delved into Skyrim for as long as I have now, they shouldn't take you too long to figure out. There are new weapons and armor to be found, but honestly I didn't use anything new- my legendary crossbow, ebony armor set modified to the legendary status and a legendary ebony axe was all I needed. Solstheim felt a lot like Skyrim, but it felt a lot like Morrowind too- and since I haven't played the third Elder Scrolls game, it was nice to see a bit of differentiation in the landscape. Don't get me wrong I love the land of Skyrim- but it's nice to see a change once in a while after you've gained 300 plus hours of playing this game.

Like its predecessor Dawnguard, there were a few bugs I noticed in this game. There was the occasional clipping issues with some of the terrain, but the big beef came when I could sell items to vendors in Raven Rock but receive no gold. I reset the game and that didn't fix it- so I went to another town and sold the stuff without any problems. There was also an odd forward movement bug that kept me walking forward, and in a separate instance to the right- and I couldn't stop walking. I'm not sure what that was about but a reset of the game fixed the problem. In addition, at once point I had difficulty equipping items. I clicked on them in the inventory menu but they wouldn't equip or unequip. A reset of the game fixed the problem.

The dragon flying mechanic near the end of the game was... lackluster to be polite about it. I thought it was neat, but I never tried using it outside of Solstheim and I wonder if that is even possible. I was looking forward to controlling a dragon in flight- but it's all automatic, and that greatly disappointed me. If I can cheat and walk through midair and change my speed to the flash's speed, they can make a mod where I can properly control a dragon and fly it through Skyrim.

As for the value of this game- you will want to pick it up if you love Skyrim. I picked it up during a Steam sale for $13.19, so that comes out to about $1.65 an hour. For my standards that is disappointing- it should be around $1 an hour- so I figure for the content we got the DLC should have been cheaper. Again- that's my stringent standard when it comes to value in a video game. I've spent around $90 on Skyrim and all of it's DLC, which by the way is now available for $40 in the legendary edition, and got about 330 hours out of the game. That is a value of 27 cents per hour. THAT is fantastic. For that reason alone I recommend buying the legendary edition.

This is solid "B" material. Not a "B-movie", but definitely "B" material. It was good- but had so many high expectations to live up to. I'll give Skyrim Dragonborn a [90/100]. If ths game were unique from Skyrim then it would score pretty high on my list- but since it is a DLC, a remake of something on the list or a compilation it won't be placed. Worth picking up? in the legendary edition definitely. As separate DLC? don't pay more than the $13.19 I paid- unless you realllllllly need this DLC.

Playing Toss About Correctly

For years I played Magtheridon's Lair with our raid group in college, and we all abhorred a card called Toss About. How we would play it is that each person would roll, and if one person rolled odd every raiding hero took one damage and they rolled again until everyone rolled even. That is not how this card works. Some parts of Magtheridon's Lair, such as the lair card and toss about are poorly worded.

 In the errata, World of Warcraft Extended Raiding Rules, last updated in September 2008, it explains cards in Magtheridon's Lair. It has this to say about Toss About.

"Toss About, 2, Ability Play only if one or more Bloods are in play. Each raiding player rolls a die. If one or more players roll odd, Magtheridon deals 1 melee damage to each of those players' heroes, and then all raiding players roll again. Raiding players roll repeatedly until all of them roll even at the same time. Once players start rolling, nobody gets priority until all players roll even, and so each player must keep rolling, even if his or her hero accumulates fatal damage."

So let's read this one more time, and dissect it piece by piece; step by step.

1) The boss plays "Toss About" and it enters the chain. If no one responds to it, it leaves the chain and the text on the card activates as it hits the boss graveyard.

 2) Every raiding player will roll a die. If someone rolls an odd number from a 6 sided die, Magtheridon (the source, not toss about) deals 1 melee damage to the raiding hero who rolled an odd number. We mistakenly took it that if any one person rolled odd, everyone took a damage. But, unclearly here, it states that the source [Magtheridon] deals 1 melee damage to "each of those player's heroes" with the word "those" denoting those who rolled an odd number. If a player rolled even their hero takes no damage. If someone rolled odd, they all roll again. The card says "they roll again" and is unclear what happens next. This poorly worded card is explained further in errata.

3) Rolling the die does not use the chain. In order to do something to mitigate the damage or interrupt the card, it must be done when Toss About is played. Cards like [Atonement] can prevent the damage, in which case as a boss I would skip the rolling and continue my turn.

Ulduar Project Part 4: Prototype Template For Cards

This is still a prototype template for the cards for the Ulduar raid. I like the way they've come out, thanks to Microsoft Powerpoint.

Ulduar Project Part 3: XT-002 Deconstructor Alpha 2.0

I'll be working on XT today. Currently he is in Alpha, which means I have not tested him in a real raid scenario. His abilities have been refined and restructured. Originally this boss had no focus and just dealt damage. Because XT is at the final part of one of the boss sections, I want him to hit like a truck and punish raiders unless they play with strategy. This helps to authenticate the fight as a gear check. Up to turn 3, XT is pretty solid. Here are XT's tables: There's enough information in the table to deduce what will occur during the fight. Each turn, the boss automatically triggers the power, and each turn a light bomb token will enter play. A "turn" denotes each boss player's turn.

Onyxia's Lair Raid Deck World of Warcraft Trading Card Game Part 4

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: A Historic Week for the State of Illinois and the Right to Bear Arms

Onyxia's Lair Raid Deck World of Warcraft Trading Card Game Part 3

Ulduar Project Part 2: Razorscale

When Ignis derps, his minions die when the boss dies. The next boss player's turn, Razorscale enters the fray. This fight was designed to rough the raiders up for XT, and if novice mistakes are made Razorscale will kill the raiders. The fight mechanics to this boss in the video game seem simple, but a few inherent rules must exist to make this work.


"Razorscale has "When Razorscale is dealt harpoon damage (not by the following roll of a die) put a harpoon token on Razorscale.  At the start of the boss player's turn, roll a die. If it rolls 4 or 6, Razorscale is brought down from an automatic harpoon blast and can be dealt damage by means other than a harpoon. When the boss player's turn begins again, Razorscale ascends and becomes invulnerable to damage not from harpoons. When Razorscale has 6 harpoon tokens, transition immediately to phase 2.""



In the raid you had to get the harpoons repaired and use them to bring Razorscale down to damage it. Here, at the start of each boss player's turn a harpoon appears. It takes 6 harpoon strikes to bring Razorscale down. It will cost 5 resources to use a harpoon. Because in the online game you could actually chain her down to earth before phase 2, I introduced a mechanic so that there is a 33% chance a spear and chain from somewhere unexplained will pull it down. You can then damage it in phase 1. It is theoretically possible, however unlikely that Razorscale can be killed before the transition into phase 2.


Turn 1: Devouring Flame
We start this dish with 7 fire damage to a random raiding hero. Blood Elfs with Silvermoon City out: better pick fire resistance for this fight. Unless specified otherwise, abilities activated by the boss can be chained. Things go easy during the buildup phase as damage from Ignis should have been healed by now.


Turn 2: Fireball
On turn 2 razorscale will fling a 5 dmg fireball at a random raiding hero along with a nasty DOT token. This DOT token can be taken care of like a normal ability. It should be dealt with or healed off because of a modifier in phase 2 making it worse. The DOT deals 4 fire dmg per boss turn.


Turn 3: Add Spawn
Lovely! adds. Dark Runic Warriors enter play with a destroy random ally as a power. This will help out the boss to clean house- as the field is going to get busy by this point. If the raiders were quick to get Razorscale down she will enter phase 2 and become damageable from the ground.


Turn 4: Flame Breath
Razorscale won't play nice anymore. Every raiding character will be dealt 3 fire dmg. Then, a random raiding ability, ally or equipment goes bye-bye. If everybody derps and gets to turn 5... come on people....

Turn 5: Add Spawn
A repeat of turn 3 for turn 5 and each following turn. Have fun with that.

Phase 2


We need to discuss a few inherent qualities before we begin. These items of analysis merely spawn adds at the beginning of the fight.

"When Razorscale enters phase 2, put two [2/3] Protectors into play with "When this ally defends, destroy target random ally", and a [3/4] attacker with "When this ally attacks, destroy 2 random abilities or equipment"."

Turn 1- Fuse Armor
Razorscale gets a NASTY damage buff. If it would deal fire damage, +3 is dealt instead. Hope you took care of that DOT.

Turn 2- Wing Buffet
Here is an annoying power for the raiders. Opposing raiding exhausted cards cannot ready during their next owner's turn. I hope you hung onto something solid and didn't get knocked off the Storm Peaks.

Turn 3- Hardened Armor
If Razorscale would be dealt damage, prevent 2 of it. Per packet.

Turn 4- Devouring Flame
Razorscale deals 7 fire damage to all raiding heroes. Destroy opposing target random random ability, ally or equipment. Now we aren't playing nice. Better kill the dragon before we derp. The random pop of an ability, ally or equipment helps create a sense of urgency if it isn't already there.

Turn 5- Add lockdown
Hey that's ok. If you want to take your time, let these adds lock down your field.

Put two [2/3] Protectors into play with "When this ally defends, destroy target random ally", and a [3/4] attacker with "When this ally attacks, destroy 2 random abilities or equipment".
If you have a competent healer and everyone deals a respectable amount of DPS, Razorscale is do-able. I have tested it in simulation and I like where it is at. For lazy peon decks, they defeated Razorscale with on average 66% of their health remaining. XT is NOT going to be fun. Or will it? It's still in alpha.

Ulduar Project Part 1: Ignis the Furnace Master

Ulduar has certainly been a challenge. In wanting to design a homebrew raid, I picked Ulduar because of its length, it's peculiar aspects and because it was frequently requested to Cryptozoic and Upper Deck Entertainment. So I'm doing it.

Introduction
Replicating the exact fight from the MMO will be a bit difficult; as it involves kiting adds into a falling lava stream and then chilling them to weaken the boss. I wanted a straight up tank and spank for Ignis, but he will spawn adds around Turn 4. Ignis has 4ATK and 14 health. Before I divulge too much, let's start with how the experience goes each turn:

Turn 1
The players go first. When it is the bosses first turn, he activates Scorch. This will hit all raiding characters for one fire damage, taking care of any 1 drops with 1 health. Because this deck is automated, the boss will then attack a random raiding hero.

Turn 2
Flame Jets kicks in, if any raiding character is exhausted, Ignis deals 4 fire damage to it. If damage was dealt to a player's character that way, he cannot play abilities his next turn. This was to replicate being smacked into the air.

Turn 3
Turn 3 gets interesting. This turn the slag pot is introduced- and someone gets dunked in it for 10 fire damage (random raiding hero). If they survive, which they should- they gain a power that lets them pay two less to play cards until Ignis is destroyed.



Turn 4
Turn 4 is where constructs come in. They have protector and ferocity. They won't attack because automated protectors will remain ready. They have 4 ATK and 4 HEALTH, and they must be dealt with or turn 5's power will keep triggering.




Turn 5+
Strength of the Creator will give Ignis Assault 7 (in addition to his ATTACK VALUE) if more than 0 constructs are in play. This power will continue to stack until raiders defeat Ignis.



Unless you are really dumb about playing this raid, raiders should be able to kill Ignis. He will hurt you though if you don't begin taking care of him soon. When he dies, Razorscale comes into play on the boss player's next turn. Razorscale's events then trigger, and that will be our next fight. I have Ignis where I want him, and I'm happy with him.

Onyxia's Lair Raid Deck World of Warcraft Trading Card Game Part 2

1/100 Wing Zero Custom Retrospective

This wasn't posted to my blog why? ._.

Shouldn't You Have Had a Kit or Two Done By Now?

I know I know... at my pace I should have had at least one or two Real Grade kits done by now. I've hit a kind of hiatus ever since I began getting ready to move. That process is foggier than hell- I can't see very far into the future because of the unpredictability of the situation. One day you're excited at a new opportunity, then disappointed the next day when a deal falls through.

I last worked on the RG Zaku II about 45 days ago. At the moment the frame sits primered in the shop, and after trying to mask the joints I noticed that the paint came right up. My solution will be to paint the joints along with the armor. Because the kit is smaller in scale I can get away with carefully painting the joints with a brush.

I'm going to need a few things though to get started again- primarily new tape and two colors- a jungle green and a swampy tan. I'll see what I have in the stockpile of colors and make a purchase from there.

With the fight to get our gun rights restored in Illinois over for now, I don't have to monitor the situation and distribute information out anymore, freeing up time to do other things. I'd like to get back into model building, but with "builder's block' because of this move it's been difficult to get motivated.

Onyxia's Lair Raid Deck World of Warcraft Trading Card Game Part 1

Icecrown Citadel Raid Deck World of Warcraft Trading Card Game Part 7

Reign of Fire: Snare from Beyond

Snare from Beyond is a nice control ability for druids that is capable of coming into play from warp. In a raid situation you can apply this to a minion or boss ally (that is a legal target, which means it's ready and targetable) and exhaust it, but keep it exhausted. This will stop it from attacking players. If you are in an automated raid like Ulduar or are facing a boss ally or minion with 5+ ATK, popping this on an enemy al
ly (or having the luck of porting it) can stop a lot of damage coming at the raid party. It can also function to stop abilities from exhausting or equipment from exhausting- something very useful for druids in PVP. Consider it for PVP if you need a little more control.

Icecrown Citadel Raid Deck World of Warcraft Trading Card Game Part 6

WOW TCG Loot

Raiding can be a lot of fun in the world of warcraft trading card game. If you want to review the condensed rules for raiding, head here. Back when I was in college, after the raid we would roll for loot, assuming we took more than an hour and change. After all, even if you fail after all that effort, having a loot roll for your efforts is rewarding, is it not?

I instituted a loot roll to keep people interested in the game. I had them hooked raiding anyways, but I wanted to add that little spark of something different. When I plopped 2-3 packs on the table (we only opened one) and said "this is the loot after the raid", I had people with ants in their pants that wanted to crack those packs.


Basic Rules
1) Raiders can opt in (including the boss player) to roll for loot. They can also opt out. The cost of the loot should be split up between however many raiders their are. Round payment due to something that's a manageable number. So if you bought a booster for $3.99, have everyone chip in a dollar. You can order them online for cheaper though if you buy a box. So if you want to distribute 1 pack per raid, and there are four people, and the pack cost $2, everyone chips in 50 cents.


Footnote- Ordering Cards
You can order cards (if you have the funds) from places like CoolstuffInc. I have done business with them in the past and they are trustworthy. Some people might make the mistake that they "have" to buy treasure packs that came out with certain raids. You don't have to- you can use any booster pack as loot from any set. I see they have Betrayal of the Guardian booster boxes available for $59.99 US. You get 36 packs out of that deal. Count on around $5-$10 shipping and the price of the box is $69.99 for 36 packs. That's $1.94 a pack. For the sake of being easy, $2 a pack.

Method 1: Establishing How to Roll
Typically, in the online game each person would roll a die to see who got the highest value. If they got the highest value, they would win the piece of gear. Hence, "rolling" for loot. You can do it that way. In my system, I allow each person to pick a class to have 'dibs" on. If something shows up for that class, or an ally is that class they may need on that card. By needing on a card, their roll is moved up a tier from the "greed" rolls. To recap:

"Need rolls" take priority. A person can only select one class to need on and can only need on one card per pack.

"Greed rolls" are standard rolls that everyone can take.

You may opt not to roll on a card.


Method 2: Distribution
You can also shuffle the booster, remove the crafting card and distribute the cards that way. Say I had five raiders, but only 16 cards. Take the amount of cards and divide by the number of people that would have rolled for it. 16/5 is 3 cards. Any cards left over are rolled on with the rules from Method 1.


Rolling for loot keeps people coming back. I recommend a D20 for the job. Follow one of the two above methods and it will keep people coming back for more raiding. If a player is new and they just got a starter deck, have them buy a 400-600 card count pizza box (they are white) to keep their loot spoils in. Soon their collection will begin to grow! this is a great way for people to modify their decks without breaking the bank and buying boxes upon boxes of cards. I know I can't afford that. I've got other things I want to buy, like model kits, games, food, car insurance... etc.


Have fun!

Icecrown Citadel Raid Deck World of Warcraft Trading Card Game Part 5

Icecrown Citadel Raid Deck World of Warcraft Trading Card Game Part 4

Icecrown Citadel Raid Deck World of Warcraft Trading Card Game Part 3

Icecrown Citadel Raid Deck World of Warcraft Trading Card Game Part 2

Icecrown Citadel Raid Deck World of Warcraft Trading Card Game Part 1

Raiding Rules

The WOW TCG is a fun game- and during college I would play it with friends. The old school raid rules have not been updated since Fall of 2008, which would make it about 5 years since that date. There are general rules to follow with raiding- and I aim to highlight them here.

Condensed Soup Version:

1) Before the raid begins, a raid boss is selected to pilot the raid (when required) and a raid leader is chosen.

2) Deckbuilding rules that apply in the normal game apply here. 60 card minimum; four copies of each card unless it's unique.

3) The final boss MUST be destroyed by fatal damage.

4) A boss player's maximum hand size is 10 cards unless specified otherwise.

5) Powers, modifiers or abilities cannot flip a boss over unless it is the bosses own power.

6) A boss cannot be supressed or it's powers taken away.

7) Cards cannot be added or removed from the boss resource row by raiding players or their cards.

8) The boss can never deck out. The graveyard for a particular deck is shuffled and play resumes, all without using the chain.

9) The boss cannot have cards removed from any deck and cannot be milled.

Onyxia Condensed Soup

1) Event cards preceed a boss start phase and cannot be interrupted or interacted with.

2) You may chain an event card.

3) The boss may mulligan his opening hand of 7 cards.

4) The boss player begins the game with his turn.

Molten Core Condensed Soup

1) The raid leader chooses to play either full clear mode, or short mode. The boss begins the game with his turn.

2) To begin short mode, the boss player shuffles the rune cards and picks three random ones. They cannot be revealed to raiders. After those three bosses are destroyed, the raid proceeds to Majordomo Executus, then to Ragnaros. Full clear mode is playing every boss.

3) The boss player cannot mulligan his opening hand for either the main ability deck or the Ragnaros ability deck.

4) The game always begins with Lucifron in play. He does not have a rune card, but does come with minions.

5) The minion deck serves as the bosses resources. When a boss is defeated, these resources come up and into play as minions.

6) You can chain a boss change, but not interrupt the process unless otherwise specified.

7) You can chain minions entering play unless otherwise specified.

8) When changing to Ragnaros, the main ability deck is removed and the Ragnaros ability deck is introduced, shuffled and 7 cards are drawn.

9) When switching to Ragnaros, all minion cards leave play in the bosses control.

10) You may not chain any part of Ragnaros' coming onto the board, including minions coming into play or changing decks.

11) Minions and ally tokens cannot be removed from the game. They must take fatal damage.

12) If a boss is destroyed, a new one does not come out until the next boss player's turn.

Magtheridon's Lair Condensed Soup

1.) The game begins with five channelers and a chained Magtheridon in play. The boss player begins the game.

2.) The boss player may mulligan.

3.)  During the bosses ready step, a blood is played face down in the resource row. If Magtheridon is unleashed, a blood is played face up in the resource row, and does not count as a resource.

4.) The boss player draws two cards if Magtheridon is unleashed.

5.) The draw step cannot be chained. Neither can the unleashing of Magtheridon.

6.) Gaining a blood or the boss placing a resource cannot be chained.

7.) Summoning Sickness will not prevent any ally from exhausting a cube. If that character readies at any time, the cube detaches. 

8.) Magtheridon's Lair enters play when Magtheridon is Unleashed on the cooldown side.

9.) Raiders cannot touch Magtheridon's Lair in any way. It cannot be chained.

10.) The lair card is flipped at the end of the boss player's turn.

11.) Exhausting to take a cube adds an event to the chain.

12.) If Toss About is played- no one gets priority until all raiders roll even, including if a raider takes fatal damage.

13.) Magtheridon gains a blood when he is unleashed.

Black Temple Condensed Soup

1.) The player to the left of the boss begins the game after the boss is in play.

2.) The boss may mulligan his opening hand. 

3) Event cards use the chain. They cannot be interrupted.

4) All Betrayer events are ongoing.

5) When a boss is destroyed, all face up events are discarded.

6) Face up events do not count as resources.

7) Putting face down resources into play face up as minions uses the chain.

8) When the betrayer enters play, the boss hand is discarded and 7 new cards are drawn. This does not use the chain. These cards cannot be mulliganed.

9) If a minion would otherwise leave play during a raid, it's considered "destroyed" instead.

10) The bosses threat level limits how many resources can be played by the raiders.

Jaina Deck

Sexy Jaina has a much better deck than her horde counterpart, Sylvanas. Her modifier is Brilliance Aura: If Jaina would deal damage with an ability, she deals that much +1 instead. On your turn, pay 8: Flip Jaina. So if Jaina is throwing damage whichever way, if it involves one packet, add an additional point of damage to that packet. Nice. On the flipside (heh), it extends to +2 instead and allows you to teleport two allies from your deck into play.

Allies
There are two one drops available here: Bronwyn Lightborn and Lady Bancroft. Bronwyn has frost resistance which is nice, which means she can be hit with frostmourne and not take damage. Bancroft cannot take any damage from the Lich King boss card. For two drops you have three different cards: Tani Bixtix, Elder Achillia and Hulstom, Servant of the Light. For a 2 drop, it's nice that Tani can dish out 1 nature damage to a target scourge, AND come with 3/2 stats. Elder should boost your non-combat damage by +1 and work in tandem with Tani. Hulstom will laugh at shadow damage and provide Mend +1 services with a 3/2 package. All in all not bad.

Not much of a choice in cost 3 drops- You'll get a 3/3 protector in Petreus Roffe. For 4 drops you'll get the very nice Wynnd the Spry which punishes the raid boss for using his resources. Olaf Steelbreaker is a nice 4/6 protector I would throw out mid to late game against the bigger scourge allies.  Finally, you have one six drop in Madrea Blintbrew, who allows you to look at your opponents hand and choose an ability or equipment and discard it. Always pick an ability- if you pick the Helm or Frostmourne it will Death Rattle its way back.  For allies- it's better than Sylvanas' deck, but again I feel the deck is lacking in this department.


Abilities
Some people like Scorch- I don't. But with Jaina's modifier you are getting 2 dmg for free. That can be nice especially when you need to finish off an ally. Sear is also very nice against the staple scourge allies that have already been damaged. Fire Blast will give you some versatility, chucking 3 fire damage someone's way. Frostbolt- and that's instant by the way, flings 4 damage at the Boss (or his allies) and the afflicted can't attack that turn. You can use that in later turns if the Lich King has gotten too big or if one of the bigger allies is out.  Fireball is nice for the cost- you are flinging 5 points of damage at something and tick 2 damage per your turn. With Elder Achillia out it could be more. Frost Nova is another good way of slowing the Lich King down by turn 4. Finally, Whiteout is a nice debuff that forces the Lich King to pay extra resources to attack. Expect him to try and get rid of this card pronto- or to interrupt it.


Equipment
Jaina has one weapon- The Staff of Antonidas. It reads Courage of Antonidas: On your turn exhaust Jaina: Reveal the top card of your deck. This turn you may put it into your hand, play it for free, or if it is a request, place it as an additional resource. This is a very powerful card that could pop out a big ally or put a quick ability into your hand. Expect the boss player to do something about it rather quickly.

ICC Strategy Part 4: The Sylvanas Deck

Sylvanas is my friends' favorite character from the World of Warcraft series. Let's take a look at this staple deck provided with the Icecrown Citadel Raid.


Dark Lady Sylvanas Windrunner
Undead Ranger (Hunter Class)
35 Health 0 ATK
Song of Sylvanas: Sylvanas and allies in her party have Assault 1.
On your turn, pay 7: Flip Sylvanas.
FLIP: Shriek of the Highborne: When Sylvanas flips to this side, she deals 7 shadow damage to target scourge hero or ally. Empowered Song of Sylvanas: Sylvanas and allies in her party have Assault 2.

Already, Sylvanas has some nice modifiers always on the board. All allies in her party will have assault 1 on her front side. Let's look at the composition of the deck:

Cards: 61
Allies: 31 (51%)
Abilities: 12 (20%)
Equipment 1 (1%)
Quests: 17 (28%)


Allies
Sylvanas' deck is ally intensive- this is so that the deck synergizes better with Song of Sylvanas. Looking at your 1 drop allies, Lifemender Dorn offers little healing potential. However, Kuz'vun is a 1 drop long-range ally, meaning that he can take pot shots at opposing allies and not get hit back. That's nice. Firewarden Wyland Kaslinth is your standard 1 drop Assault 1 ally. For drop 2 allies you have Turennius Scatheblade, a nice 3/2 protector. Zugna, Windseer Apprentice is also nice- you get a double attack with her each turn and she has Assault 1 and bonuses from Sylvanas' modifier.

Dropping Vesh'ral on turn 3 is nice- he can attack immediately and has 3 ATK. Johnny Rotten has shadow resistance and deals 3 to an exhausted hero or ally. That is very nice for a 3 drop- but there are only two Johny Rotten in the deck. Your biggest hitter is Claemora Amberglare at cost 4. She is a 2/4 ally and grants a target hero or ally Assault 2 when she enters play.

This deck is offensive and is focused on pumping allies out onto the field. The allies in this deck are nothing too special; lacking any resistances or board changing qualities. It's simple to run allies in this deck: get them out and attack.


Abilities
The designers of this raid decided to go easy on abilities for Sylvanas. She only has 12. Turn the Blade is nice, and will become very annoying if attached to Frostmourne. There are two in the deck, which means you can lower the ATK of Frostmourne -6. It only costs 1 too. Next we have Arcane Shot, a Hunter staple. It allows you to ping an ally or hero for 1 damage, but the real benefit is drawing  a card. For it's time, Arcane Shot is a pretty nice give and take for 2 resources. When we move up to Steady shot, it deals a constant 1 dmg to target hero or ally. Over 10 turns that has the potential to deal 7dmg, and I'm really not a fan of the card. If you stack it, that's 28dmg total over 7 turns if you can manage to keep Steady Shot in play. I wouldn't count on it.

Finally we have the big ability- Multi-shot. You can pick three heroes/allies and deal 2 damage to each of them. You are paying 5 to deal 6 damage across the board; and you can't pick the same target again. I'm not a big fan of the abilities in this deck, and I would rate them as poor.


Equipment
There is only one equipment card. Deathwhisper is awesome. It's long range, meaning that stuff can't hit Sylvanas back, and has Heartstrike: If Sylvanas would deal damage to a damaged scourge with this weapon, she deals double that much instead. So for a cost of 5 to put down, 0 to swing and 6 dmg, this card will be a major pain in the ass to the boss player. With no interrupts of her own, if you use this card too much expect the boss to get rid of it.


Final Thoughts
I don't like this deck. If you play with it though- focus on getting Deathwhisper out and keep pumping those allies. Get your draw power from your quests. Hit the Lich King when you can, but sometimes you will need to make a calculated move in order to get rid of some allies.

ICC Strategy for the Raid Boss Part 3: Lich King Abilities

For raw data, here is the pool of available abilities the Lich King raid deck can use.

Necrotic Plague is a dot that is most useful later in the game if you've sent a lot of allies to their graves. It will be most effective at dealing damage to the hero with as many allies in the graveyard as possible. The rules state you can examine the graveyard of any player at anytime- so examine those graveyards periodically and start dealing damage to people this way. If you play this card right, you are getting a lot of reward for a cost of 1.

Infest is primarily a card for popping allies with 3 health or less, which is a large pool of them. I can't see any point in playing this card on one of your own allies. If there is an extremely annoying ally putting out a lot of power on the board, Infest it and make the owner discard a card in the process. Always a bonus for a cost of 1. Quake is one of two of the Lich King's instant abilities. If one of the raiders is about to zerg you with allies, or you want to stop a large weapons swing, play Quake to exhaust all opposing cards. I don't see much of an advantage to using this card during your turn.

Pain and Suffering... boy have I had a lot of that during my life. Anywhoo- and I should enter this as errata to my chart- this is another instant ability. This card is mean- and expect it to be targeted by the raiders quickly. This is a debuff to attacking allies. If you wish, you can destroy the card to fling 4 shadow damage at each opposing hero. So with a max of three raiders, you are dishing out 12 damage total across the board for a cost of 2. There are only two of these cards, so I would refrain from flinging the damage and keep the allies locked down with the debuff. Expect the raiders to try and deal with this card as a priority.

Soul Reaper is the Lich King's interrupt card. Save this for huge plays, because you only get three of them. The bigger the cost of the card you interrupted, the more resources you just stymied from the raiders- and healed yourself for. This is the Lich King's only, one and only way to heal himself that I know of. Use sparingly. Defile is my favorite card out of the raid. Raiders discard a card, turn over a face up resource and destroy an ability AND equipment. This is a sweeping board changer that helps "push the fridge off the cliff" so to speak when you need an advantage. Chances are good this card will be interrupted.

Raging Spirit is your ally hijack card. Use this card on powerful board changers or allies with big stats. The ongoing trait will give your new scourge ally assault 2 (+2 ATK when attacking). Finally we come to Remorseless Winter. Play this card only when you want to severely lock everyone down, as this card is prime for interrupts. For the cost of 3, you are dishing out a whopping 20 damage. Adding up the hero's totals, that's around 20% of the raider's collective health pool. Let them think that it doesn't seem like much- but it will become a major hassle if that card is played. Count on it to be interrupted. If you want to bait the interrupter, try playing those cards above with the least cost and get them by dropping Remorseless Winter OR one of the big ally cards from the previous article.