A Blog designed for Casual Gamers by a casual gamer. It's my hope that someone out their will get a genuine interest in the information I post here and hopefully learn something from the readers.
Well, I’ve finally gotten off of Holiday mode and am now back in class and finally got a time table to post new content. It’s not set in stone as an ever constant because every semester my days of attending class shift, as too must my weekly time table, but I will announce the change ups as they come so it won’t come as a shock. Of course just because I’m now on a post-a-week regiment doesn’t mean I’ll only be posting once a week.I’ll get in other stuff as my schedule allows. This change comes into play as of this post.
Now for my musing. I’ve made it a quest to find a game that has the most of everything I’m seeking. Recently I tried to pop in on Aeria Games to see what was up for the hell of it only to find that my account was banned (they probably found this post I made about them and decided to be petty little shits and ban me for blaming them as I did). With Aeria no longer on the list I suddenly realized that it cut some things out of my pool of options to play. To expand it I’ve decided to give Nexon another chance if only so I could get something meaty to add.
I know I promised a few reviews on some games, but I decided against it since they bored me to tears in one way or another. I won’t touch on Mabinogi since that game frustrated me so much I couldn’t be bothered to write a review on it (ain’t that a kick?) because every time I thought about the game I got a killer migraine. So I’m seeking around for stuff that does interest me be it for good or bad reasons. At this time however I find myself growing weary with the whole MMO scene. Too much of the same and not anything which remotely sticks out. Stagnation is the word of the day and we need it to be gone in a heartbeat.
The more I try to find something to satisfy all my desires in a game the more disappointed I became. Perhaps it’s time to just give up on finding the next big thing and just park and wait for it to come to me. I watch sites such as MMOHut and MMOBomb looking for something to dig into. Here’s hoping 2012 gets more promising. Yeah, I liked Shadow Era but I hate how damn long they’re taking to finish set 1 and how they seemed to have abandoned Phantom Sprit Battle Academy since we were supposed to have testing during the SUMMER/FALL OF LAST YEAR and have heard nothing in relation to change of plans. They’re already printing physical copies of the Shadow Era cards AND WE DON’T EVEN HAVE A FINSHED SET YET! WHAT THE FUCK WULVEN STUDIOS!? Sorry about that I’m just so disappointed in them right now, and it’s going to take a bit for me to look at them in a better light and this is before the nerfs/buffs/reworks that took place which I’m not even going to touch on.
At the rate things are going I might as well settle with a little something until I find something with substance. I might just try to get further in Crystal Saga despite its non-existent character customization but seemly deep character customization. Oh well, back to my studies. Who knows, I might just try Urban Rivals one more time.
Ladies and Gentleman it turns out I didn’t have what it takes to be a major player after all. After finding out I barely qualified for fighting in the second round I had to fight an additional fight beforehand to see if I could even play in the real round two. Though I managed to win against Ed the Man (board handle Killtrend) backed by Gravebone but I lost to a Majiya deck in the next fight. Do I think Majiya is busted because of this? No, but I do believe my deck building and card choices leave a lot to be desired. Some people on the Shadow Era forum were interested in what I had used to make it as far as I did. Now, I’ll show them and you, readers. After I show this list I’ll break it down my analysis into three parts. The logic behind my choices, why it got me as far as it did and most importantly, why it failed.
The Logic: I wanted to try to burn out the opponent as quickly as possible while minimizing weaknesses from enemy Allies rushing down to make my life Hell. I chose Snow Sapphire to deal with Allies that have already entered play, while Voice of Winter would slap the brakes on anything which enters play (even if it means my Allies get frozen too). Brutails was a suggestion I took along with not inserting Fire Snake (I wish I hadn’t listen to that, but more on that later) on the grounds that Brutails had more HP and since I wasn’t going to be attacking mostly with units, it seemed like a good idea especially since once I got Voice of Winter in play my Allies couldn’t rush my opponent down immediately.
Futher reinforcing my paranoia would be Rain Delay. You know, rain out the battle, fling in a spell or two, or drop the small amount of allies or buy myself time to equip Voice of Winder or Snow Sapphire before my opponent pours his/her Allies down my throat. Shriek of Vengeance would be for those odd cases which might come up.
Why it worked in the qualifying round: The competition I faced was fairly to very Ally dependent to gain board control which played right into Voice of Winter and Snow Sapphire nicely. With those in play, and combining them with Majiya’s draw power, I had a fairly easy climb since it seemed like I read the response of the Metagame correctly. HOWEVER…
Why it failed when it was time for the main event: …the one thing my deck couldn’t cope with well was a mirror match. In the qualifying round I was beaten 2-0 by another Majiya deck. While I had addressed one issue, it turned out that it couldn’t fight another Majiya deck well. They were more concerned about just getting their damage off ASAP while I tried to deal the damage while slowing the opponent’s progression through my Life.
What kind of person doesn’t build their deck to take a mirror match into account? Apparently me. What made things worse (besides losing once to someone running a LOGAN deck in the qualifier) is that when it came to that matchup the deck could not pull off both tactics at once VS. Majiya. I found myself loaded up with 5 and 6 cost cards and more situations than I care to remember when I had to place Supernova into the Resource area.
Overall, I feel I just got flat out lucky. Had I faced more than one Majiya in the qualifying round I would have been stopped dead cold. My success in making it passed the one extra game I had to play was attributed mainly due to the way the game seems to give an advantage to the first player, but that’s another time.
This deck will vanish into obscurity outside of this post. I just made it to the second round, I didn’t come in second or win so it probably won’t be made high profile. I so wanted to win. Use the money to get a better router, the rest to my mom, and get my sister that iPad (if I made it to worlds). I could have been Champ…but I’m a chump. Maybe next time…maybe next time.
This is it. The day where I break down a card that has just as many haters as she does admirers. Controversy surrounds her to this day. They want her nerfed to Hell and back. Could the reason be that she’s broken, or simply because she’s powerful AND lacks a penis (well, she’s a Mage, so she could probably grow one for…purposes)? Now, let’s show the lady for those at home not in the know.
Behold, the Hero who is occupying 5 out of 10 spots in the finals. I am one of those. She’s been given the nickname “Maj the Vag” by her detractors, such is the plight of any woman who is beautiful, smart AND powerful. Her ability is a simple one, drawing a card for 2 Shadow Energy. This simple ability has made a lot of people cry foul. While the drawing itself is not in of itself an issue for players who don’t like her it’s what she can draw into that freaks people out. Combining her ability with that of Research and she can draw 2 cards every other turn.
While some might go “two cards, big deal” we must also take into account that this gives more viability to another tactic a good deal of people hate because unlike Allies you can’t just swing at it to render it a non-issue. Burn. Currently, there is no armor in the game you can slap onto your Hero to reduce the damage of effects. You can rain down Fireball, after Fireball after Fireball. Following up with the likes of Lightning Strike and polish it off with a Supernova or two and you got yourself a nice recipe for Rage Cake.
Because of the fact that she draws cards and can burn, you got a bunch of people saying she’s over powered. I honestly don’t think so. Sure, you can burn away the opponent but only a fool wouldn’t pack in Allies in such a deck (besides, we need more burn cards before you could think to go PURE burn and win). Supernova puts her over the top but you can defuse this by wearing down her Life to the point where it will hurt the opponent more than help them since it hurts both players. But it’s not seen that way since players seem to hate ANYTHING that cannot be dealt with in the conventional way.
She has also earned the name “Noob Tube” since it seems to them that even a rookie can beat an experienced player with it. If that held ANY truth to it I would not have lost my first two matches using her, so there is a bit of a learning curb. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I don’t want to flip through a large manual to know how to use something (in a GAME of all things) properly. Makes it highly unattractive and elitist which I hate. So what if you get beat by a new player with Maj? Doesn’t mean she’s busted. For all you know that person might have been experienced in other games like this before hand so it probably became second nature, or perhaps your deck just wasn’t built to take her head on…oh, wait, you’re perfect and elite so there must be something horribly wrong with the card, right? It can’t be that you just flat out suck, right? You want horribly broken gameplay, senseless nerf and buffs which create a great divide and uber elites getting the better of people and no one willing to address the REAL problems of the game? Go play Alteil. I got away from it for that very reason, but I’ll tear that apart another time.
Overall, I feel that she is not the standard of how broken cards are judge, but how ALL Heroes should be. She wasn’t the first female who was under consideration. Before I found this game it was the card I covered first this week, Eldawen Frostmire used to rock from what I heard and now we get this sad excuse of an effect. And wonder of wonders, she doesn’t have a penis. The developers might be thinking “SHE’S STRONG AND NOT A MAN! MUST BE NERFED TO PROTECT MANLYNESS!!” Sandra Trueblade used to kill a resource when she entered play…now, she can only kill a resource if the opponent has more than you…and you know what? Yep, lacks a penis. Rather than making others better, people seem to side on making the game retarded. Want me to play Heroes like Boris Skullcrusher, Zhanna Mist (though not having a penis, she might not get better), Victor Heartstrike and Banebow? MAKE THEM NOT SUCK, DON’T CRIPPLE MORE HEROES! PUMP MORE CARDS INTO THE GAME! But what do I know, I only want the game to grow and for the players and developers to stop being scared of anything that has a vagina.
Will I have what it takes to win and go to the big show? Tomorrow, we’ll find out. As for those who still hate Majiya and can’t see the issue lies with the rest of the cards and also in the tournament, I can only wish that Maj takes you out, HARD! But seriously, good luck to everyone playing tomorrow. Now excuse me, I’m going to les out with Maj and make babies with her.
Undeads are awesome. Mages are awesome. So by that logic an undead Mage is mind-blowingly awesome. Behold, the forth Hero making his way to the second round of the tournament this Saturday.
Gravebone, or rather GraveBONED if you face a solid build. We have two such builds moving onto the Finals (sadly their names escape me at this time). I haven’t had a chance to face them then, but I hope I get to fight at least one of them before all is said and done.
He has this killer ability where he can bring back Allies from your Graveyard to your hand for the cost of 2 Shadow Energy. This is a big deal though it’s handled by it being limited to the topmost Ally in there so a bright opponent can kill your Plasma Behemoth first and your Fire Snake second forcing you to take the snake when you really want the Plasma Behemoth.
Belladonna makes SWEET LOVE to Gravebone. Bring a Ally back from the dead and draw a card? Yes, please! Things can really get awesome once you start thinking with PORTALS! Well, Portal to be exact. With Belldonna handing you more cards and Portal allowing those Allies to attack right away and all the other Mage goodies like Fireball and of course the devastating Supernova, Gravebone can create quite a bit of pressure if you can be a threat on both those fronts.
Overall, I think Gravebone is awesome. Shame more of him didn’t make it to the big show, but what can I say? I look forward to seeing them in action and possibly facing one before it’s all over. I might get my wish and regret it though. Tomorrow, I cover the Hero I will be using that is draped in controversy.
Disclaimer:I’m just having fun here. I know not all Religious institutions are bad, this is just to spice things up so don’t send me hate mail, thanks.
Ah, Priests. Divine messengers selected by the divine to carry their message by way of mortal mouths. They’re also famous for telling us what we can’t do because it’s too fun. Like no sex before marriage, no drinking, no eating for a certain amount of days because for some reason God wants us to starve to death for some spiritual reason. They seem to be judgmental as to what we can and can’t do and if they had their way, life would be BORING and we’d be tool they’d bleed dry for money because for some reason an ALL KNOWING BEING WHO CREATED THE UNIVERSE NEEDS MONEY!
Speaking of denial…
Meet Jericho Spellbane. He is a Priests of extremes as seen by his effect for removing all attached effects off of one character. This can be anyone, even the Heroes so it has its uses as either a help or hindrance. Mind Control got your Ally that Elementalis took from you to save for a snack for later? Not having that because you see, only Religious institutions have the right to manipulate us and make us feel bad for enjoying stuff they themselves don’t like…like Soccer Mom’s, and Media Watchdogs. Finally got Dual Wield working on your warrior? Opps, can’t use that! Remember, the Earth is to belong to the meek, and meek you shall stay.
Maybe you’re a fan of Poison Gas and or Engulfing Flames because you got a sadistic personality and roll like that. Slowly yet surely you see them die- OH, WAIT he can heal himself up proper due to his powers. While it does seem devastating, Jericho is HORRIBLY overspecialized to be of any significant threat in my opinion which makes the fact that Benumb (congrats) placed as high as he did in the qualifier rounds nothing short of astounding. Either he has one Hell of a deck or got some matchups he could exploit easily. Jericho’s ability is either broken or useless and that is determined by what the opponent is playing. Support such as Plague, Holy Shield and Resurrection could make all the difference in the world when not paired up against something that doesn’t depend on buffs/status effects to get things going.
Overall, he has potential to be a beast, but he’s far too dependent on specific match ups for my liking. I honestly see Benumb’s Jericho deck being knocked out in the first round, but who knows? Divine intervention might make me a believer. Again, only time will tell how this plays out. Three more days till we witness a possible miracle.
Sorry for being so short, but its too hot to stretch this out.
The Elementals. They got some pretty interesting cards. I say this because I’m reviewing one of them for day two of the U.S. Nationals Week.
AH, Elementalis. All the world is but a buffet to you. I can only imagine how many living beings you gorged yourself on while under the pilot of Harry Mckenzy (major ups for placing with him). I would have used you myself (much as I love tanking) but I didn’t after the possibility of Plague showing up to slow my progress further (but more on the one Priest who did make it tomorrow). Then again victory belongs to the bold and Harry is indeed that. Let’s break it down, and be quick about it I want to end this while it’s still full.
Elementalis has a respectable 28 hit points which ain’t too shabby if you ask me. For the cost of 2 Shadow Energy it can make any Ally under your control into a 5 Life restoring treat. Got a Spark to spare? Throw it to it! Fire Snake becoming useless? Slather it in gravy and send it along. Plasma Behemoth about to die on your opponent’s next turn? Attack first, CHOW DOWN LATER!
What makes this all the better (though not for long if the Nerfs takes the fun out of it) is that you can access Mind Control to snatch up a foes Ally, beat them with it then eat it. Fun for you but Hell for your opponent who will then cry “OP!” (over powered for those not in the know) to the developers till the cows come home. If you really want to piss your opponent off-, um, I mean make things more fun by equipping it with the Armor of Ages (named so because it takes FOREVER to break, but that’s for another time). Recovering so much health in one go AND be harder to kill!? SIGN ME UP!
But wait, there’s more! Sure, you can just use the Armor, Mind Control and call it a day, but why not just take it one step further…? How can you possibly draw out the opponent’s suffering longer? Toss in 2 copies of Eternal Renewal! Between replenishing your deck, stalling like crazy, snatching your opponent’s succulent (I can taste that Jasmine Rosecult rump roast now) Allies and restoring your health every other turn the opponent will either fight on valiantly to the point of frustrating, break down in tears from the futility of it all or pull off an epic miracle move which will make you shout to the heavens “WHHHHHHHYYYYYY!!!!!?” Oh, and chuck in a few copies of Energy Discharge to further add salt to the wounds.
There’s one other Ally I feel that would go well with Elementalis, but I think that one would work best with another Hero I will be reviewing later this week. Elementalis has a weakness in the form of being dependent on Fatties (cards that cost 5 Resources or more) to really bring the pain. Resource denial cards such as Plague will really grind you to a halt. Elementalis is beefy, has access to powerful toys and can really make its foes suffer, but all someone needs to do is rush it down and it’s over. Did he get lucky? Will Harry ride Elementails to the top or will a much faster Hero prove to be his undoing? We'll find out on Saturday if Harry has what it takes to bring the pain and dominate the tournament. All I’m saying is if he got that slow thing to the top 8 I sure as Hell don’t want to face him.
Allies! The other white meat.
Allies! It’s what’s for dinner.
Allies! Sweeter than candy.
Allies! Part of a nutritious breakfast.
This message was made possible by the Elementals for World Domination Society. Please don’t eat me!
I had tested other online card games before this one. On November I got into this game called Alteil. For me the game was a horrible fit. Unable to trade, too much money for too few cards, the Return mechanic rendering a good deal of ploys powerless, and the final nail in the coffin, “nerfs” and “buffs” that did more harm than good. This was the perfect storm of bad and I wondered “why did I even bother with that “game”?
It was also there in that game that I heard of this one called Shadow Era. Some people panned the game as being a Magic: The Gathering knockoff mixed with World of Warcraft card game. In my mind’s eye there’s nothing wrong with that as long as they bring something new to the table. If not for the panning it received I wouldn’t even know this game was around. After my horrible, HORRIBLE experiences with Alteil I needed an alternative (besides Urban Rivals). So enough of my bitching about one game and get to the review of the other product.
Interface: The game can be either downloaded onto your computer, web browser, iPhone, Android or tablet. Yeah, this game really gets around. Please, keep the obvious tasteless jokes to yourselves. I don’t own any of those portable devices so my focus will be on the computer downloadable and browser versions.
There is little difference between the two. One critical difference was in the load time between the two. When you log on from the browser, depending on your connection could take a bit to fully load and until it fully loads you’ll spend time gawking at the World Map where you can face NPC’s (non-playable characters for those not in the know). The downloadable version has a direct link to the server so no wait time, but things are rather HUGE in that one. The card close ups the buttons are big. On the plus side those with eye issues will be able to play easily.
When you play the game for the first time, it talks you through how to play the game so that’s always a plus. Well with that said onto the gameplay.
Gameplay: As I mentioned briefly this game seems to be the answer to the question “If Magic: The Gathering and World of Warcraft TCG’s had a baby, what would it look like?” Again, nothing wrong with a little mimicry after all, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. The game starts you off with a few choices in Heroes. By picking one of them you will also get a deck of 30 cards.
Heroes have Life (indicated by the droplet of blood in the lower right hand corner) and Shadow Energy (indicated by the purplish orb in the bottom right hand corner once you start playing), an Effect and Type (indicated by a box in the upper right hand corner of the card). So far the only way to win the game is to beat the opponent’s Hero to 0. As this game becomes more developed that we get alternate win conditions.
The next type of card you will want to familiar yourself with is the Allies. Unlike Heroes, they hold no Shadow Energy and are able to attack without weapons.
These would be Abilities. As the name would suggest, they grant the people they are cast positive or negative effects on their target(s). Items also count as these. It helps not to think too hard about it.
Weapons are another card of interest. Give them to your hero and they’ll be able to attack. On the left hand side is how much damage the card can inflect. I’ll talk about what the anvil is for in a moment since it’s also shared by…
Armor. Armor reduces the damage one takes from straight up attacks. As of now, no armor reduces the damage you take from effects. The lower right hand side shows how much the damage is reduced to its wearer.
Now that I’ve done a brief intro on all the card types, time to touch on the objects I passed over. Did you remember those numbers encased in a circle in the upper left hand corner of all the cards, except the Hero? That is the resource cost. To obtain resources you place a card from your hand into the resource area (otherwise known as Sacrificing) as the first action of your turn.
The Anvil is found on (most) Armor and Weapons. This represents the durability of the card. As the weapon swings and the armor absorbs combat damage their durability goes down by one. The moment it hits 0 they go right to the Graveyard. You can only have one of each attached to your Hero and by attaching a new one the old one goes to the Graveyard.
With all of that cleared up, onto a brief what to know about deck building. Since unlike Magic: the Gathering where lands control what could go into your deck shadow Era had to use a restrictive method since any card could be used as a Resource which in theory could allow you to use any card in your deck. The linchpin here is your Hero. Outside of Neutral stuff you can only include stuff that relates to the class and or faction. The games balance would be so out of whack otherwise. Before I go on I should let you know that the restriction only applies to deck building so if you somehow snatch a card from your opponent that doesn’t correspond to your Hero’s class of allegiance you can use it anyway.
Features: Unlike a certain other “game” I used to play religiously you’re able to purchase individual cards. Yep, single cards. So unlike that other “game” that if the packs screw you over you’re pretty much crap out of luck and that’s that you got an alternative way to nab those few cards you’re missing. The merchant system acts like a real life market. Cards will sell out and restock. The cards you sell (yes, you can see those extras you’ll bound to end up with) will end up in the market.
To buy cards you use two kinds of currency. Either Gold, which is obtained from winning fights and selling cards or by buying Shadow Crystals which can also be obtained by leveling up. Shadow Crystals are the only way to buy decks and booster packs. You can buy a booster and deck for 100 shadow Crystals (roughly $1) each. So unlike that other “game” it’s quite affordable. Your poor wallet/credit card/bank account will thank you.
Speaking of bells and whistles the game also has a test server which can be located here. Unlike another kind of game I used to play regularly the PLAYERS are allowed to test out features and cards before they are released onto the main server and there input is placed into consideration, not just the elites.
Before I go on, the staff plans on releasing new sets every six to eight months to start, though with any luck we might see four sets a year once they get a nice grove down.
