In this newsletter…

• Blog: Discovering Netrunner, one of the greatest card games ever made.

• Content watch: Australian short films are maybe the funniest things I’ve seen on YouTube.

• What to play: Final Girl by Van Ryder Games.

Blog: Discovering Netrunner, one of the greatest card games ever made

No one who knows me would be surprised to learn that I struggle with hyper-fixation and frequently flip-flop between hobbies. Whether it’s buying sim racing equipment and only using it for a week, or picking up three cases of a new TCG that I’ll “totally get serious about this time,” I find it challenging to stick with a hobby consistently. My sister recently started calling me a “hobby guy,” and honestly, it’s pretty fitting.

I rarely return to a hobby once I’ve moved on, but Netrunner is an exception.

About a year ago, Teage Watson (guest author on The Opossum Papers) introduced me to Netrunner using the old Fantasy Flight Games (FFG) cards. Netrunner was a living card game (LCG) that FFG licensed from Wizards of the Coast. It’s set in a dystopian, cyberpunk future where hackers (“runners”) clash with mega-corporations.

I was immediately hooked. Netrunner nails its flavor, making you feel like you’re standing in the shoes of hackers taking down corporations. Or, you can play as a corporation, advancing secret agendas while protecting them until it’s time to make them public. This immersive storytelling is one of the reasons Netrunner is often regarded as one of the best card games ever made.

The Art of Social Deception in Gameplay

Beyond its strong theme, the game skillfully incorporates social deception. As the corporation, you’re on defense, protecting secrets from the runner’s offense. Deception is key, whether through advancing hidden agendas or setting traps that can corner the runner.

Usually, I’m not a fan of social deception games—no one’s good at them, and those who think they are can be insufferable. (See also: mob mentality.) Netrunner, though, is my one exception. The one-on-one deception allows layers of strategy, and over time, regular playgroups can develop a fun meta-game through shared histories.

I won’t go into all the rules here—there are better teachers than me, like this one:

I also love a good hero-centric game. Playing as either the corporation or the runner feels exciting and resonates with other games I enjoy, like Flesh and Blood and Star Wars Unlimited.

The Appeal of the LCG Model

The LCG model is another big appeal. For those unfamiliar, an LCG is like a booster box of a trading card game, but it comes with a full playset of every card in the set. This model is dramatically cheaper than TCGs because it removes the concept of rarity. While I love opening booster packs, the LCG model allows me to be “playset complete” and even maintain two sets (for when Abbie plays) without much extra cost.

Netrunner Lives on Through Null Signal Games and Getting Started

Today, Netrunner is maintained by a fan-led non-profit called Null Signal Games. In 2018, Wizards of the Coast declined to renew FFG’s license, so Null Signal took over, creating a game compatible with the original Netrunner. Null Signal designs new sets, manages their own ban list, and runs an organized play system, including a world championship. You can watch the 2024 world championship here:

You can pick up a starter set here for $45. This includes everything two players need to start, and the Null Signal site offers links to all their other products. That said, you don’t need to buy anything to play—proxies are legal in all tournaments, so you could print and play your way to a world championship if you wanted. I think that’s awesome, and it leaves no excuse not to give it a shot.

If you like the starter decks or want some ready-to-print options, here are the corp and runner decks I currently have sleeved up:

• Corporation - There is No Fast Advance at Worlds

  

• Runner - In My Lat Era

  

I’m not writing this as an ad for Null Signal Games or to convince anyone to spend money; I just want to share a game I’ve come to love. Maybe this seems like another chapter in my saga of hyper-fixations, but Netrunner has stuck with me in a way few games have. It’s just that good.

Content Watch - Fairbairn Films

These Australian fellas, Lachlan and Jaxon, are among the funniest people I’ve ever watched on YouTube. Not bad for being upside down the whole time.

These guys produce two to three minute videos on a variety of topics, typically pointing out the absurd things in life. They have videos about keeping up with TV shows, getting rid of your old phone, or when you have five minutes to create a power point presentation.

What’s better is that these guys have been making videos together since they were kids, so there’s seven years of hilarity to work through. It’s just light, good humor that we need more of today. Here’s just a sample:

What to Play - Final Girl

Final Girl by Van Ryder Games captures the classic horror movie trope of a lone survivor facing off against a slasher. As the "Final Girl," you aim to take down the killer before he gets to you, with the option to rescue other victims along the way.

This game shines for a few reasons, especially because it’s single-player—a huge perk if you’re often on your own due to work or travel. It also works well as a couple’s game, letting both players share control and make decisions together.

Another standout feature is its modular design. After buying the core set, each expansion adds a new Final Girl (with unique stats and abilities), a location, and a killer. You can mix and match these to keep the gameplay fresh. While you do need both the core set and an expansion to start, it’s well worth it for the replayability.

Conclusion

I hope you enjoyed this edition of the Opossum Papers. Again, there won’t be a published schedule or goals for this newsletter, but as I’m inspired, you’ll hear from me. I imagine more Netrunner content to come.

If you like my general vibe and want to hear more about card games, consider checking out the podcast I do with my friend Dan Norton. It’s called the Columbus Card Guys, and it’s available wherever podcasts are found.

In this newsletter…

• Blog: Post-match interaction with your opponent, win or lose.

• Content watch: a famous actress teaches a famous actor about D&D, plus some other things.

• What to play: Star Wars TTRPG by FFG

Blog: Post-match interaction with your opponent, win or lose

I'm writing this Opossum Paper as I sit consuming content on a big TCG weekend. The Pokémon World Championship is running through day two in its classic full spectacle, and Yu-Gi-Oh is on day one of its North American Championship Series. I've never really played Yu-Gi-Oh, so I have absolutely no idea what's going on. One guy just played 15 cards or so, tutored a bunch, and his opponent conceded. I think I'm going to download the app.

ANYWAYS, one of the things I've noticed out of watching high level play is how kind everyone has seemed. In victory or defeat, people have been gracious. This got me thinking broadly about TCG culture. Now, discussing TCG culture can (and should) take a whole book. So in lieu of writing a book, let's talk about sportsmanship in TCGs.

More specifically, let's talk about what to say after a match. Most of the time, you'll either win or lose (games hate draws now days). How you respond after each of these events say a lot about your character. That being said, I recognize competition creates a tense environment, and when it's suddenly over, it can be awkward.

I don't claim to have the only way to handle these situations, but I do have a pretty good system that has really cut down on awkward moments with more objectionable folks. The potential for awkward situations is a large part of my social anxiety, and so I've developed this “system” for what to say.

When you've lost

I think the post-match conversation is easiest when you've lost. So let's start there. It's easiest because you get to drive the conversation and set aside the biggest problem with TCG players: the ego. What goes wrong in most post-match conversations is the winning player running afoul (often inadvertently) of the losing player's ego.

So, when I lose, I act as I would like a loser to act. I strive to always do at least two things:

1. Say “good game” and “well played”;

2. Offer a handshake. Some people are weird about handshakes these days, but it's still an appropriate social norm, and it's polite. If they decline, it's fine; and

3. Compliment one particular play your opponent made.

From there, I let my opponent drive the conversation while I pack up my stuff. I've deescalated any tension from the match, been a gracious loser, and I pass the baton to my opponent to carry on the conversation. If they want to keep the conversation short and move on, that's perfect. If they want to discuss specific parts of the game, I do that too.

I struggle a lot more when I've won the game…

When you've won

Congratulations, you've won your match. Mission accomplished. Now, you have to deal with your opponent's ego. Remember, that's the biggest thing to play around when trying to avoid post-match awkwardness. If your opponent is even mildly competitive, their ego will be (at least temporarily) bruised. It's only natural to hate losing.

If I'm a chameleon when I lose, I'm even more of one when I win. If my opponent says, "Good game," I say, “Thanks. You too.” If my opponent offers a handshake, I take it. If my opponent wants to talk about key parts of the match, I chat about them as I pack up my stuff. Once I get packed, I find a good stopping point for any existing conversation and say, “Good luck the rest of the day.” Then, I'm out of there.

So why do I consider things to be harder when losing? People can be awful when they lose. Even though being frustrated is natural, some people never learned how to handle it properly. If you've played competitive cards at all, you know what I'm talking about. Your opponent can't shut up about how unlucky they were, how lucky you were, or if they were actually “trying” they would have beaten you.

I hate this. I know no one likes it, but I hate it. It really stresses me out. Let me clear: you don't owe anyone the time to sit there and let them be rude to you. I advocate for doing the following with people like this: call a judge and let them know you've been insulted. Most tournament procedures have policies in place that penalize this behavior. Second, get out of the situation as fast as possible. Don't get your opponent the time of day.

I know a lot of people don't like the confrontation of standing up for yourself or calling a judge, but calling this player out is a net positive for the community. It's also an opportunity to educate the offending player. While I doubt it, maybe your opponent didn't know their behavior was having a negative impact on others and needed to learn.

In Short

Again, I don't want to pretend that this “system” (if you can even call it that) for how to handle post-match interactions is the best way to handle these things. If you don't struggle with micro-interactions, this probably seems silly. After all, just talking to your opponent after engaging in a shared hobby together should be easy.

But if these micro-interactions stress you out as much as they do me, and want to minimize their interactions with their opponent, consider this system. Also, I do think the system is a good courtesy: when I lose, I get to lose graciously, and when I win, I get to respect however my opponent is feeling at that moment.

What do you think?

Content Watch - Things I’ve enjoyed this week

This new “content watch” segment will feature three, sometimes two or four, pieces of content I’ve consumed since the last Opossum Paper that I want to share. Sometimes it will be TCG oriented, but not always. It will typically be nerd adjacent, but always something I am interested in. I hope you like it too!

Deborah Ann Woll Teaches Jon Bernthal Dungeons and Dragons

I usually won’t be recommending videos this mainstream. Jon Bernthal doesn’t need the Opossum Papers to get his big break, after all. I chose this video because of how simply Deb Woll explains D&D and why we love it. She also gracefully integrates Jon into playing D&D without him even knowing it.

It’s a really good lesson in having an elevator pitch ready for the biggest parts of your life. Deb has clearly thought about how to take someone with zero background knowledge on D&D and get them familiar with it quickly. She instantly transports Jon to the her fantasy world, and then has a beautiful explanation of why the game means so much to her.

If you like this eight minute clip, you should check out the full interview. It’s fantastic.

The Three Best Decks in Star Wars Unlimited - Shadows of the Galaxy

I'm in full prep mode for Star Wars: Unlimited Planetary Qualifier Season.  You’ll know that because I'm watching meta guides and deck techs.  I don't typically enjoy this content, but I needed a GenCon tournament recap, and I really like this video.

KTOD does a survey of GenCon results, breaking down the top performers from that event.  He goes through each deck, its strengths and weaknesses, and its expected role in the meta going forward.  He also does a more typical meta-ranking list at the end, so if that's what you're after, it's there.

If you play Star Wars: Unlimited, this is a good video.  If you don't, but dabble in other TCGs, this is a great example of how the meta-analysis genre of videos could look.

The Elusive Shift: How Role-Playing Games Forged Their Identity

That's right!  Books can show up here!  Over the last two years, I've really tried to become a reader again.  It also probably explains why I've picked up my writing habit.  Reading is good for your brain, and you can tell stories and communicate ideas in a different way (and in my opinion, better) with writing.

The Elusive Shift seeks to analyze the shift in tabletop gaming from war gaming (replicating historic conflicts) to role playing (you're a wizard Harry!).  I'm about halfway through it right now, and I’m really enjoying it.  The author analyzes historic fan “zines”, and that alone is worth the price of admission.

Why did D&D become a role playing game and not a war game?  In other words, why don't we reenact the Spanish War and instead take the hobbits to Isengard?  There isn't a clear answer from what I understand, and that's really exciting.

Even if you're not a tabletop gamer, actual historic analysis of our space is really exciting to see.  I read a book last year on the evolution of ComicCon, and while I'm not a comic person, the analysis was really good.  Maybe I'll cover that book here next time!  My point is that analysis of subjects adjacent to your hobbies is worth your time.

What to Play

This section will be to discuss whatever I'm currently playing.  This could mean decks in TCGs (remember, Star Wars PQ season is upon us…), but it could also be board games, video games, or even mobile games…yes, I'm a sucker.

Right now, I’m enthralled with the Star Wars RPG system by Fantasy Flight Games…

My friend Teage (who has guest authored on this newsletter before) ran this intro box for us.  I haven't played a narrative system like this before, so I wasn't sure what to expect.

Unlike a D20 system (like D&D) where the roll of a 20 sided dice dictates most of the results, these systems are a bit more involved.  In the FFG RPG, you roll various dice that have good things on some and bad things on others.  

On one hand, there are “successes” and “failures”.  If you have more successes than failures, congratulations.  You succeed at the thing you were trying to do.  On the other hand, you also have “advantages” and “disadvantages”.  If you have more disadvantages than advantages, bad things happen - even if you succeed at your primary objective.  If you have more advantages, good things happen in addition to your success or failure.

For example, let's say you're trying to hack into a computer to steal some files.  Maybe you succeed on your check but have some disadvantages.  The disadvantage could be represented as you not covering your traces.  Anyone inspecting the computer afterwards would know you hacked in.  If you had advantages, maybe you made it look like someone else did the hacking!

This allows the players and the DM to tell a really good story together beyond just “I hit the guy for 5 damage” and “okay you pass your skill check”.  I'm not a strong role player, so this system really pushed my boundaries as a player.

There are multiple versions of this system, with various core rule books.  They all interplay together, so I encourage you to just grab a beginner set, pick an unlucky sap to DM, and give it a go.

Conclusion

I hope you enjoyed this revamped edition of the Opossum Papers.  I'm not going to commit to a schedule or goals for the newsletter (though I do have those in mind).  I just don't want to set false expectations.  So you don't miss an edition, I encourage you to subscribe, for free.  You'll get these delivered right into your inbox.  There’s a little button right here!

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If you like my general vibe, please also consider checking out the podcast I do with friend Dan Norton.  It's called the Columbus Card Guys, and it's available on all major podcast platforms. You can also check it out right here:

• Season 0 (the first competitive play season) will culminate in the Galactic Championship. This tournament will be an open tournament.

• Planetary Qualfiers begin at the LGS level in October 2024. Winning a Planetary Qualifier grants you a day one bye at the Galactic Championship.

• From Season 1 forward, Galactic Championship's will require a certain number of “tournament points" to qualify. Planetary, Sector, and Regional Qualifiers will give these tournament points.

I'm so excited. I've been (and continue to be) nervous about whether FFG will give SWU long term support. This announcement, however, motivates me to press even harder ino this game. I've been playing more on Karabast than ever before and even joined a competitive testing team.

The frequent playing and team discussions has me thinking about the testing process and how to optimize it.

What is “testing"?

First, we should probably define terms. By “testing”, I mean playing the game methodically to improve your deck, skill, or prepare for a particular tournament. It's akin to “practice” for traditional sports. It stands opposed to just “playing games". There's a difference between cracking open a starter deck, playing a few games with friends, and putting the decks away until next time.

For example, you might test in order to try out a new card, or you might test to see how a particular sideboard strategy works against a popular deck.

Notably, testing cares about the process more than the results. When you play 10 - 15 test games with your team, it doesn't really matter if you won or lost. Whether a deck is good or bad is certainly a thing we care about (if your deck always loses, why are we playing it?), but the goal of the game isn't to exclusively to beat your testing partner - it's to figure out why your deck performed the way it did. This is is different than in a tournament, for example, where we just want to win and don't care about the “why".

So, how do you test?

Full disclosure: I don't actually know. I know that a lot of people are actually just “playing games" when they say “testing”, and I know a lot of people wouldn't actually like testing if they were actually tasked with doing it. I've also spent a lot of time thinking about the process, and I guess I’m considering this my forray into explaining my theories behind testing.

Full caveat: I know a lot of good, competitive card game players. From world champions and pro tour caliber of players, I've been lucky enought to develop friendships with great players. In all this time, I've never once asked how they test. It’s probably silly I haven't, but I consider that kind of information proprietary (as I'm sure they do), and never wanted to pressure them to ask their process. I say that to say: I expect them to laugh at some of my thoughts and ideas here. I'm probably missing the forest through the trees.

Goals - gotta have ‘em

To productively do anything in life, you need to have goals. Goals both with the people you do things with (that is to say, do your testing partners share similar goals), and goals within the individual activities themselves (this series of games we're about to play should have a stated goal).

Whenever goals aren't aligned, there are problems. A teammate wanting to only do well at local organized play has much different goals (and thereby ideas of what testing is) than a teammate wanting to win a National Championship. The expectations will be so far apart that it won't be productive.

Likewise, if Player A wants to work on a sideboard strategy against a meta deck, and Player B wants to try a couple of wonky cards out in an established deck, neither will leave the games feeling satisfied.

So to that end, when you organize your testing, you should be able to articulate two things:

1. Are the people I'm testing with likeminded? Are we all here for the same reason? Note: this goal is a lot more difficult to nail down than the next one. This goal gets into the nitty gritty of how frequently you'll test, where, and many other details that are hard to agree on.

2. When playing individual games, are we in agreement as to why we're playing these games?

The benefit of playing the same deck

Some teams (I'm going to use “team" to describe testing groups from now on) advocate for each team member playing the same deck at a tournament. I've gone back and forth on this issue in my mind, but lately, I agree.

Each teammate playing the same deck streamlines the testing process. Let's imagine a tourmament where we all agree to play The Team Deck. In the testing process, when everyone plays The Team Deck, everyone benefits from all games being played. Player A plays The Team Deck into Player B on a meta deck. Both Player A and Player B, as well as all other team members, benefit from that data.

But let's say Player B isn't on The Team Deck and is instead on another deck. Anytime they aren't playing their chosen deck, they are getting nothing out of the process. At least when testing against The Team Deck, they get the benefit of learning more about The Team Deck.

Here is AzulGG (Pokemon TCG content creator) describing this concept way better than I can:

Of course, a large part of the testing process is identifying The Team Deck, but once this is established, it's everyone's best interest to “bend the knee" and play the best deck. Those who deviate hurt their own productivity, as well as that of their teammates.

Takebacks, allow them

Earlier, I mentioned how the results of testing games don't really matter. I emphasized the process, not the result. A large part of this is allowing takebacks and making sure both players are learning the most they can. If you make a critical error, and your teammate wins the game only because of that mistake, I don't know how useful that data is. After all, an opponent at a major event likely isn't going to make the critical error.

Hoping your opponent makes bad decisions isn't a good way to succeed. If you discover your teammate took a suboptimal line in a testing game, go back and fix it. Yes, it may change the result of your individual game, but remember: that doesn't matter. What matters is being most ready for your major tournaments.

There is something to be said about learning from your mistakes. The player comitting the error, if forced to live with it, is less likely to commit that error again. I don't dispute this; I just don't find it helpful for the team testing process. If an individual player needs more reps to avoid commiting routine errors, they should get those in at locals or online - not in focused testing sessions.

Tracking data

Thanks to the modern marvel that is Discord, tracking data is easier than ever before. When testing “The Team Deck” (or trying to determine what The Team Deck is), tracking how matchups play out, noting variations on decklists, and discussing nuances with teammates is important.

If information isn't centralized and accessible, it becomes impossible to facilitate your goals. I'm a big proponent of data tracking in most aspects of life, but in trading cards, I'm aware that sample sizes are a problem. Even still, having a place to collaborate and further your goals is important. Ultiamtely, if the testing sessions don't live anywhere beyond the game itself, it probably wasn't useful.

For example, let's say you want to test The Team Deck into a new deck that has been making its rounds on Youtube. How does The Team Deck fair? If it's good, we should probably note a sideboard plan, why The Team Deck doesn't require any changes, and why we're not worried about the new deck.

If The Team Deck struggles into the new deck, we need to know why. Are there changes to the sideboard that could shore up the matchup? Is the matchup totally lost? Tracking games so that other teammates who weren't there to watch the game is important to let them further the conversation. It's another reason to all play the same deck - you can all further the team's conversation all the time.

Conclusion

I don't know if I said a lot here. I feel like it was a conscious stream of thought, and the only real controversial idea I had was “play the same deck as your teammates”, which isn't controversial at all.

I do hope it gives something to think about with respect to the testing process, what you do to improve at games, and how to make your teams' efforts more useful.

Also - if you liked this, check out the Trading Card Game Podcast I do with my good friend Dan Norton:

This is virtually all upside. I have access to excellent competitive playtesting groups, should I want to participate in them, and I feel like I have a local game store anywhere in world.

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Why I don't play local events

Despite my international community, I really struggle at participating in my own local game store.1 Don't get me wrong, my local game store is full of excellent folks who I'm extremely lucky to know. Teage, for example, is the patriarch of my local game store, and my life is immeasurably better for knowing him. You should go read Teage's Opossum Paper if you haven't already. It's a great example of my local game store's value.

If my LGS is so awesome, why do I struggle to participate in that community? Well, mostly because I'm terrible at scheduling things. I absolutely loathe doing anything after work, and I struggle to leave my house on the weekend. I don't mean this in the agoraphobic sense, but rather a struggle with time management.2 Whenever I do go to my LGS, I have a tremendous time. Relationships there are the good kind where, even if you don't see someone for a couple of months, you pick right back up where you left off.

I also struggle with anything short of competitive play. That is to say, recreational play annoys me. Now, I realize how egotistical that sounds, and I absolutely don't mean it that way. I'll be the first to tell anyone that I'm trash at card games and hardly a competitive tier player. My problem comes down to expectations. When a player plays in local play at an LGS, they have a variety of reasons for doing so. Some use it as an excuse to get out of the house and muck around, some use it is an opportunity to practice for a tournament, and others use it as a way to casually engage in a game they've picked up some pieces to.

The vast difference between these players and the way they engage with the game stresses me out. Even when handled with perfect empathy, a disagreement over expectations can be disasterous. The player looking to sling some cardboard just to get away for a bit really isn't looking to play with a person testing for a major event. What they want is diametrically opposed. When they play, one of them (or maybe both) will leave frustrated. Either the recreational player is frustrated at the “try-hardness” of the competitive player, or the competitive player feels like they didn't get in “good reps”.

Regulars at an LGS shoulder some responsibility in making sure a recreational player has a good time. After all, that's what building a good community is about. I'm just not the guy for that. I struggle to get past the expectation barrier. It stresses me out to manage what I want out of a game (to play it technically correct and hold everyone to the rules) with making sure my opponent is having a good time. I tend to lean more in favor of making sure my opponent is vibing, and sometimes that leads me to less of a good time.

The reason I like competitive play is because the expectation is all the same for everyone: playing technically correct is important, and winning is the goal of every game.

Again, my feelings on this are to my detriment. My inability to get out of the house during the week is purely a negative. My inability to hold two truths in my head at the same time is also, simply put, incorrect. It's possible to be competitively minded and also embrace what a recreational player’s goals are. I see lots of bright people do it all the time. World Championship competitors sit down and play with absolute novices and manage to make everyone happy. So again, I want to emphasize: this is a defect of mine.

Why you should

My defects aside, you should absolutely play in your local events. Local, in store play, is one of the best ways to make friends and get better at the game you like. I've never regularly attended an LGS without ingratiating myself to that community and making a couple of friends. These people become road buddies to tournaments, testing partners, and friends outside of the card shop. Take Teage, again. He was the first person I met when I went to my LGS for Flesh and Blood. He's now a person I ask for advice and talk to more about non-TCG things than actual cards.

As far as getting better, I have a great example from the Columbus Card Guys Discord (Dan and I rebranded our podcast) that happened just this past week. One of our regulars noted that they went undefeated for the first time at a local event after grinding out several 1-2s and 0-3s. It was a marked improvement and cause for celebration. The player commented that they “probably got lucky”. A few other members pointed out this nonsense. It's more likely, they remarked, the player got better at the game over time. Months of practice makes someone better. One of the best way to get months of practice, is your LGS.

LGS organized play is also genuinely the best way to regularly play the game you like. I'm addicted to high-stakes, competitive play, but that doesn't happen every day or every week. And even though Tabletop Simulator and other online clients are more accessible now than ever, nothing beats going to the LGS and playing a bunch of games against the other regulars. I've played a lot of card games over the years, and no matter what game I was currently focused on, the in-store organized play was the best way to get regular games in.

Engaging in organized play at the LGS also supports small business. This matters a little less to me than the other things on the list (not that it doesn't matter), but if this is a thing you think about in your decision making, it's a factor in favor of local community involvement.

Conclusion

I don't know what the point is really supposed to be. I'm kind of an elitist that's bad at managing my time, and I don't want you to be either of those things. I don't see enough of my friends that live 20 minutes away, and I don't want you to miss out on those relationships. I'm also terrible at the games I like, and I want you to be as good as you want to be.

Yeah you can “play the game, see the world”, but you can also see a pretty nice part of the world right around the corner.

Anytime we have new players, we need teachers. Like anyone who has ever been to school can tell you, there are good teachers and there are terrible teachers. Good teachers can spur your interest in a subject that launches you into the career you’ll have the rest of your life. Terrible teachers can leave you disinterested, afraid, or even loathsome of their discipline. For example, I would love to learn to draw. My middle school art teacher, however, thought it was a good idea to tell me I was terrible at it and not try. Now in my 30s, I still hesitate to give it a go. I think there’s an empty sketchbook and a charcoal pencil somewhere in my office.

So it’s imperative, therefore, that when you sit down to teach a friend, partner, or stranger at your LGS a new game, you approach it in a healthy way that incentivizes their experience. If you’re anything like me, you worry whether you’re good at teaching games or not. So, rather than pretend to be an expert (who am I kidding, I love the attention), I’ve taken some advice from a friend who is.

Teage Watson is a FaB judge, tournament organizer, moonlights as an LGS employee, and is an stellar friend. He might be a top 5 all-time car trip partner. Teage is passionate about getting people off to a running start in whatever game, TCG or otherwise, he’s teaching. When Teage messaged me with a suggestion for a Opossum Paper on teaching TCGs, I was hooked.

What follows is Teage’s writeup to me. At his request, I’ve edited it a bit for length and clarity, but left the tone, essence, and “Teageness” wholly intact. Most of you don’t know what Teage sounds like, but I can hear his voice as I read it. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

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Teaching TCGs by Teage Watson

Before we get started, I think it is important to remember Tim Towtdi, the marginally clever motto/initialism adopted by Perl developers: “There is more than one way to do it.” The process of teaching a game has as much to do with the teacher as it does the game. Teaching styles of a casual player will vary quite a lot from a competitive player’s style. Those players’ goals are different. What each player values in a given game will often not align. The casual player is just trying to have a good time. The competitive player, however, is looking for optimal play, the best line, or the deck that will grab the top spot in a tournament. This difference of focus will creep in to teaching. This isn’t inherently bad, but it is important to keep in mind when teaching. I’m going to point out a few things to think about when you approach a new player wanting to (or begrudgingly agreeing to) try out your favorite game.

Teaching the Game vs. Teaching to Be Good at the Game

This comes down to the old “Crawl, Walk, Run.” At the beginning, most players will be overwhelmed by the rules, card symbols, timing windows, terminology, etc. They go from zero to understanding a whole new game system in a span of 20 minutes. Players with a TCG background may have a head start, but that is only an opportunity to truncate this initial process, not skip it entirely.

Don’t worry about having the player play optimally. If you handed the student a hyper-aggro deck, and they start defending instead of going “all gas, no brakes’, let them. Play the game. Teach the fundamental rules. After the game, talk about the deck. It’s okay if they didn’t understand the deck you gave them. It’s also okay if it’s not their preferred play style. It is largely irrelevant for the first game or two.

What we are teaching in those first two games are the rules. The mechanics of the game. The meta, playstyles of a given deck, and matchups all come later. If a player hates the resource system, turn structure, or pace of a game, then playing a deck optimally won’t matter. That first teaching game is to give the player a familiarity of the system’s bones.

Why are you, the teacher, here?

This is where a little tough love comes in. If you are here to crush your opponents, play that gotcha combo and snatch a win from your opponent, or play that deck that basically tells your opponent “nah bro, you don’t get to play”, then you need to move along. You shouldn’t be teaching games to anyone. “Stomping newbs” is not going to bring in new players. That is growing your ego, not your community.

Of course, this is not a “Let the Wookie win” scenario either. Your student already knows you are better at the game than them. That is not news to anyone. Teaching a game is walking that fine line between compassion and competition. Almost every time a new player wins a teaching game, the first thing they ask is, “You let me win that one, didn’t you?”

I recommend pulling your punches. In Flesh and Blood, this could be pitching your best card or blocking with your Pummel. In Lorcana or Star Wars Unlimited, you could lay down that power card for resources. You are not throwing the game. You’re giving your opponent a fighting chance. If the game’s demo decks are not completely balanced, or one is more straight forward, give the better one to the new player. You are not looking to win, you are looking to recruit. They are going to make bad plays and take suboptimal lines. Let them, but make a few questionable plays yourself.

Let’s Talk Deck Choice

Keep it Simple. (not gonna say the last part, that’s just hurtful). If your student likes the game, there will be plenty of time to branch out into deck of choice. The first game or two is just getting the basics. You have to eat your veggies before you can have ice cream (Jordan’s Note: This is simply a lie fed to us by big nutrition).

Find two decks that are as straight forward as can be, preferably with different playstyles. For Flesh and Blood players, I am talking a non-combo ninja and vanilla Bravo. These are game 1 and game 2 decks. Their goal is to teach the rules, timing windows, etc., all while showing off a little taste of the different playstyles the game offers.

To start, put the two decks down in front of this new player and tell them, “This deck does X, this other deck does Y. Which one sounds fun to you?” Let them pick, and you take the other. Show them some cards. Tell them how to read the cards. Play the game.

If they are really new to card games, play with open hands. Coach them through the first few turns. Then let them go. We are not hanging them out to dry. We are giving them agency. Say something like, “If you want me to help you with your turn, just ask, but I’ll stop giving you advice if you want to try it yourself.” Don’t be a helicopter parent. As you go, also explain your plays.

When game one is over, ask them if they want to give it another go. If they say yes, offer to switch decks, or ask if they would like to run it back with the same decks. Whichever option they choose, give them one or two pieces of advice. But only one or two! We are in the walk stage now. We still don’t want to overwhelm our new friend.

Then play again. If they are still ready to go after game three, switch decks again. Give one or two additional pieces of advice and go again. They now have a better understanding of what you are trying to do and what their deck should be trying to do.

Going forward

After these first few games, show them other decks. They have a rough understanding of the basics now, so they are ready to choose that wombo combo deck and start grinding if that is their thing. Spend a few minutes asking them about what other games they play, what video games they like, or what books they like to read. Get an idea for their play style and give suggestions of decks for them to look in to. Introduce them to your other community members that play deck archetypes you don’t.

If you’ve done this, you’ve given the new player a foundation to start from and opened the world of your favorite game to them.

Conclusion

(It’s back to me, Jordan, again). I hope you enjoyed Teage’s first byline. I did. I hope there’s more to come. Teage has taught more games than I’ve ever played, so when he talks, I listen. I hope you did too.

If you’ve read this far, I’d greatly appreciate it if you’d consider subscribing, for free, to this newsletter. The weekly newsletter will hopefully grow as I get feedback and experience, and I truly look forward to sharing it with everyone.

I’d also appreciate it if you check out the TCG podcast I co-host with my good friend Dan Norton (DJGigabyte). Quest for 20 started as a Lorcana podcast, but it’s morphed into a podcast for TCGs in general, and we will certainly be talking about all things SW:U as the game really takes off.

I recently finished the book Fantasy Expert by Ron Shandler. Shandler is a longtime fantasy baseball writer who helped pioneer the career of “fantasy expert”. Fantasy Expert is a history/memoir of fantasy baseball and the fantasy sports industry. In his book, Shandler talks about the deterioration of fantasy content over the years. Shandler notes declines in quality of authorship, as well as less novel things being said.

Shandler may very well be “old man yells who yells at cloud”, but his message hit me very close to home. I don’t want to be someone who simply regurgitates others. I don’t want to be another 10 minute Youtube video explaining to you what a prerelease is and why it’s an awesome way to start a game. It’s redundant and boring. What’s worse, those are its best qualities.

I failed in that last week. You, as a Opossum Papers reader, deserve better. When you get an email in your inbox from the Opossum Papers, you should expect something you can’t get elsewhere. Even if I hold the mainstream opinion on something, there should be some unique reason for you to hear about it from me. One of my early qualms with starting a newsletter was “who cares what I think anyway?” Well, a surprising number of fellow opossoms read this, and I believe I owe it you to be a cut above the rest.

While I might sometimes fail and give you fluff, please know that I’m making a conscious effort to avoid that. We’re going to live fast and eat trash just like true opossums.

Shut up and give us the topic

Alright, fair enough. Since the SWU prereleases will happen after I’m supposed to release this newsletter, reactions and thoughts will have to wait until next week - if they even merit remark.

This week, I want to briefly touch on community building, gatekeeping, and fostering newness. SWU is coming out, new communities will be formed, and it’s important to discuss what that looks like.

I’m not going to address how Star Wars fandom, like most nerd fandom, has long been dominated by men. I won’t go into how these fandoms have long been gatekept for “real fans”. I wouldn’t be saying anything new if I did (there’s that conscious effort coming in). After all, I’m a cishet white dude. I have literally nothing to add to the conversation. Games are by folks like me, for folks like me.

Where I think I can add some insight, however, is from actually interacting with new players. A lot of people will be coming into a TCG for the first time with this prerelease, and it’s important we focus on them. There’s a lot of ways to inadvertently gatekeep. So I just want to reflect on an example that hopefully leads you to make a conscious effort in being more inclusive to new gamers.

Fantasy Flight live stream

I was watching an official Fantasy Flight Games stream the other day, and one hosts was listing cards without saying what they do or pausing to mention the mechanics. The other host stopped and said something akin to, “Let’s say what the cards do for people that are new to the game.”

As a person that doesn’t have 100% of the card pool memorized for a yet-to-be-released game, I really appreciated that. Anyone involved in the scene, from content creators to established TCG vets, needs to be aware that the concept of remembering 252 individual cards will seem ludicrous to new TCG players.

Two of my best friends, Matt “Flake” DiMarco and Darick “Charm3r” Oswalt, along with esport legend Erik “DoA” Lonnquist, host an excellent SWU podcast called Ice Cave Radio. Their most recent episode includes a crack a pack segment cutely named “Emergency Pack!” This segment involves opening a pack, reading the cards in it, and discussing “pack 1 pick 1s”.1

Emergency Pack!, a lot like other crack a packs, fails to note the stats or abilities of cards being listed. As a TCG vet, but still unfamiliar with the totality of the card pool, it was hard to keep up. I ended up a little overwhelmed. That happened to me, a guy who has been doing this for far too long.

Rather than assuming everyone knows what the various cards do this early in the game’s lifecycle, it would be better to read the abilities when listing the cards. This way, new players learn the card pool while engaging with the content. An excellent example of this is found in the Limited Resources podcast. When the hosts do pack 1 pick 1, they quickly read each card’s ability. This way, listeners learn the card pool over time. As the set gets older, they read less of the abilities, as they’ve taught their listeners the card pool over time.

For what it’s worth, I know my friends at Ice Cave aren’t intending to be exclusive. They’ve also done a bang up job with the spoilers that came out over the game’s marketing period. If they haven’t deep dived into 100% of the cards, they’ve gotten close. They’re excited for a game that they’ve been looking forward to for a long time. Their podcast literally oozes wanting people to be involved. I only bring this example up as a way of being conscious about how we’re being inclusive to people jumping into the hobby.2

Back to FFG’s video

I was also off put by the FFG host referencing “people that are new to the game.” The game is less than zero days old. Literally everyone is new to the game. Perpetuating the idea that some people are experienced with the game, while others are new and therefore “behind”, is not the ideal start to building a community.

Of course, the FFG host meant “new” relative to people that had been following the news of the game’s development over the years. They meant “new” in the way that I am not. Like most earnest people’s actions, they didn’t mean to create barriers with this sentence fragment.

The comment is just an example of things that are said with good intentions but can have negative connotations. It’s just a thing established people need to be thinking about if they care about building a community. It’s our obligation if we care about creating a space that grows.

Conclusion - what does this mean for me?

If you’re an established TCG vet, be patient with the new folks you encounter at your prereleases. This goes both for SWU and every other game. You’ve probably got decades of assumptions and heuristics built up over the years. Lots of things probably appear obvious to you. And trust me, I get that it’s sometimes frustrating to have to slow down and explain yourself. But I promise it’s for the good of your game’s longevity. The more welcoming we are the better.

If you’re new to the space, come on in baby the water’s fine! Be patient as you’re new to an environment and a whole world. You’re also allowed to be new, challenge assumptions, and ask questions when things don’t make sense. If you’ve found any decent place to call your TCG home, people would love to accommodate you; you just have to ask.

If you’ve read this far, I’d greatly appreciate it if you’d consider subscribing, for free, to this newsletter. The weekly newsletter will hopefully grow as I get feedback and experience, and I truly look forward to sharing it with everyone.

Subscribe now

I’d also appreciate it if you check out the TCG podcast I co-host with my good friend Dan Norton (DJGigabyte). Quest for 20 started as a Lorcana podcast, but it’s morphed into a podcast for TCGs in general, and we will certainly be talking about all things SW:U as the game really takes off.

Real quick - what are prereleases?

I learned with Lorcana that when a big intellectual property gets a card game, a lot of first time card players jump in, excited to battle with their favorite characters. To that end, I understand a lot of people who stumble on this newsletter may not know what a “prerelease” even is!

I’m a big fan of the maxim, “If you want to learn Plato, don’t read about Plato. Read Plato.” So, let’s hear from the FFG themselves on what a prerelease is:

Just as it sounds, the Prerelease phase occurs just before the release of a new set of Star Wars: Unlimited. This phase consists of “prerelease events,” which take place the week before the new set’s official release date. Each of these events involves a sealed tournament, and they allow players to get ahold of cards from the new set early.

When you go to a prerelease event, you’ll pay some amount of money (about $30) in exchange for a prerelease “kit”. This kit comes with 6 packs for you to play sealed matches with, a quickstart rules guide, new Luke/Vader promos, and tokens. You’ll get additional packs just for competing in the sealed tournament, as well as additionals packs for each win you rack up.

The coolest thing in the box is a little sheet on “how to build a prerelease deck”. Here’s a screenshot of the sheet’s front side.

The picture comes from this FFG video. I don’t have a screen grab of the second side, unfortunately. It purports to give some deckbuilding ratio tips, how to choose a leader, etc. Lots of people are going to play in this event without doing any research on the game or its rules, so having these cheat sheets handy is excellent.

How does SW:U prerelease stack up?

The biggest reason I wanted to write this week was to “review” the prerelease kits before playing with them and compare them to other TCGs prerelease kits. A Lorcana comparison isn’t fair because it’s really kicking someone while they’re down. Okay, okay I’ll stop (again, press “x” to doubt).

Then I realized that, after Flesh and Blood, I don’t really have a bead on games’ prereleases anymore. I know that Magic does them, but Magic is a shell of its former self. Alpha Clash does them, but I haven’t had a chance to go to an Alpha Clash prerelease yet (on my to do list), and I genuinely have never met anyone that actually plays One Piece. I’m basically out of touch.

So, how do you pre-judge a prerelease kit without anything to compare it to? On its own merits, I suppose.

To this end, I love the SW:U prerelease model. I’m a big fan of giving someone a kit that has everything they need in it. It’s beginner friendly, which is the perfect tone and tenor of a prerelease. A person, with no experience in TCGs, can pay their $30 and have a physical product in their hand that feels designed for the experience.

Prereleases that are just sealed tournaments have little flair to them. You pay your money, and a person hands you six packs. It really feels like a normal pack buying transaction. With the kit model SW:U is adopting, you have a product that feels unique to the event. It adds a bit more magic to the experience.

I also like that SW:U dropped its comprehensive rules just ahead of the prerelease. Being able to adjudicated those rare times where the game is ambiguous is important. It’s even more important when people are paying money to play in a sanctioned tournaments. To that end, good on FFG for getting these out early. Even if the rules need amended at some point (they will), it’s better to have them now.

In a future Opossum Paper, I’ll be walking through the comprehensive rules and point out the big hits. I think it’s important for tournament players to actually read the rules documents, but I also realize it’s one of the more mind numbing experiences out there.

Conclusion

This one sort of got away from me. I really wanted to write about starting new communities and use the prerelease as a back drop, but I got excited by the kits and wanted to tell folks how cool I think they look.

Next time I’ll probably recap my prerelease experience (does the hype match the juice), get into my community building thoughts, bash gatekeeping, and make fun of people that call other players “new” to a game that hasn’t came out yet.

For now though, I’m excited about prerelease and going to be spending time looking at videos where people theorycraft the best decks!

I’d also appreciate it if you check out my Lorcana podcast, which I co-host with my good friend Dan Norton (DJGigabyte). Quest for 20 started as a Lorcana podcast, but it’s really just a TCG podcast now, and we will certainly be talking about all things SW:U as the game really takes off.

Star Wars Unlimited is worthy of boarding the hype train all on its own, independent of its relationship to other titles. Not only is it literally Star Wars, Fantasy Flight Games (“FFG”) has a track record of making good games. Sure, sure, they abandon those games not too long after making them, but boy howdy are the games themselves good.

I’ve had quite a few conversations with trading card friends the past few months about SW:U, FFG’s relationship with its community, and whether this game has legs. I want to communicate my thesis upfront: I’m worried about the longevity of SW:U, but I’m willing to ride the boat so long as it lasts.

What is “longevity”?

One of my annoyances in gaming these days is pre-emptively calling a game “dead”. It seems that if a game doesn’t last five or ten years, it doesn’t garnish respect as a game worthy of attention. This thinking is a mistake.

Not every game can be World of Warcraft. WoW is 20 years old. Magic: The Gathering is over 30. Brands like Pokemon and Yugioh, and others not too far off their heels like League of Legends, are also relatively ancient. These games should be seen as spectacular anamolies, not the rule. Judging any game by how it compares with the lifespan of Magic, Pokemon, or the like is at best disingenous.

So, what do I mean when I say that I worry about SW:U’s “longevity”? It comes down to me wanting to feel like my purchases matter and that my investment was rewarded. I don’t mean “investment” in the “stonks go up” sense. I just mean that, for everything out there competing for my economic vote, is SW:U the most worty of it? Will I look back a year from now thinking, “This game was cool, but I sure wish I hadn’t bought all these cards and just drafted a couple times instead.”

I had those same concerns with Flesh and Blood. When my friends first introduced me to the game, I was genuinely nervous about starting another TCG. Now, almost four years removed from when I first tried the game, I’m thrilled at my Flesh and Blood collection. The game could close its doors tomorrow, never to hold an event again, and I would be happy with what I have and the purchases that I made. That’s what I want for SW:U.

Anyone that has been in the TCG scene for long knows that a game can be good, but it can die in an instant. Argent Saga, for example, was a game I really enjoyed. Despite being a great game, it died quickly. I had fun while I played, but I sure wish I didn’t have all these cards laying around. That’s what I don’t want for SW:U.

For what it’s worth, if Lorcana closed its doors today, I would still look fondly on my collection. The look on my wife’s face when we opened the enchanted Elsa is worth every dollar, and her surprise when it came back with a 10 grade was priceless. That card will sit on my fireplace mantel until I die, and it was worth every booster pack - even if I never play the game again.

FFG and the curse of brevity

It’s a commonly accepted meme that FFG makes good games but doesn’t long support them. My first forray into FFG’s world was through the Legends of the Five Rings LCG (“L5R”). That game was incredible. I enjoyed the worldbuilding in that game, and the stronghold mechanic/win condition was something I hadn’t really experienced before.

FFG’s organized play for that game was also great. They incentivized being loyal to your faction (that is, playing the faction you liked best) regardless of how competitive that faction was in the meta. There were prizes for first place in your clan. If you loved playing Dragon, but Dragon was off meta, you could still get prizes for being first Dragon.

I appreciated FFG not wanting to make L5R tournaments “money” tournaments, and I really appreciate their dediction to the LCG model. It made the game affordable by allowing both my wife and I to maintain complete playsets without breaking the bank. There was lots of developer interaction, erratas, and product releases that felt like the game was going to be a flagship of their brand.

Until FFG stopped its support. Then, all the Kotei championships, promo cards, and clan loyalty felt like they meant nothing. It was unceremonious, and I felt like L5R was cast aside for the more profitable Keyforge.

This is also really without getting into what they did to Star Wars: Destiny. I wasn’t around that community at all, so I’ll defer to better sources than myself. I only mention it to say that the gaming community’s hesitancy towards FFG is both longstanding and reasonable.

“You must unlearn what you have learned” - Yoda

If you’ve made it this long, you’re probably wondering why I’m willing to “ride this boat as long as it lasts.” After all, I have my biases towards FFG, and I’ve made clear that I don’t want to waste money on a game that won’t satisfy me. So why give SW:U/FFG a chance?

Maybe it’s foolish. A classic “fool me once, shame on you, but fool me twice” scenario. Maybe it’s falling victim to capitalism taking advantage of my boyhood infatuation with Star Wars, and the “machine” capitalizing on my consumeristic/gambling oriented brain.

Those aren’t the reasons. At least, not as I understand them. At Gencon 2023, my wife and I scheduled an hour long demo of the game. We almost didn’t because I had sworn off FFG as a company. I’m really glad we went through with our demo. The game was incredible. We had an excellent teacher, which helped a lot. Funny enough, she was actually a middle school teacher as her day job, and she was just there helping her husband, who I think was working in exchange for a free Gencon badge. Her teaching skills definitely shined through in the demo. Probably the best demo we played at Gencon. Anyway, I digress.

Our first introduction to the game was “Do you want to play as Luke or Darth Vader?” How cool is that? Darth Vader pairs off against Luke? This isn’t just Abbie and I throwing cards around. This is Luke Skywalker leading troops into battle against Darth Vader. Abbie and I argued briefly over who would play who, and I was stuck with Vader. We had plenty of time for our game, and actually got in three or four total games inside the hour we booked. It was awesome. We got some pretty sick promos too.

FFG’s website for SW:U also feels like it takes itself seriously. The amount of information available on oragnized play is refreshing. The event locator actually works. The website as whole feels like it was designed to be a hub for the game, not just a promotional afterthought. Lorcana’s “organized play” system isn’t half as thought out as SW:U’s, and Lorcana’s system is allegedly launching this year.

I haven’t even mentioned the game mechanics yet. They’re the best part. The two lane combat system (ground troops and space troops), guaranteed resource system, and back-and-forth action system make this truly a fun, deep, and strategic card game. If you’re unfamiliar with how to play the game, check out this “how to play” video.

Conclusion

So for all the hesitancies I have towards FFG, I’m willing to give them a chance. They built a very fun game, presented it well, and have outlined a structure for the game’s success.

Yes, they’ve done this before, and I’m totally willing to get hurt again. For that reason, FFG doesn’t get many, if any re-dos or do-overs, but they do get this one chance from me. I’m excited to see how it plays out.

If you’ve read this far, I’d greatly appreciate it if you’d consider subscribing, for free, to this newsletter. The weekly newsletter will hopefully grow as I get feedback and experience, and I truly look forward to sharing it with everyone.

Subscribe now

I’d also appreciate it if you check out my Lorcana podcast which I co-host with my good friend Dan Norton (DJGigabyte). Quest for 20 started as a Lorcana podcast, but it’s really just a TCG podcast now, and we will certainly be talking about all things SW:U as the game really takes off.

Funny enough, the title of this post was a real question asked about Flesh and Blood at one point. Was FAB a real game, or was it just a collector’s pump and dump that was dead on arrival? Lorcana has had an equally tumultuous beginning, with short supply at the LGS level, and big box stores being incompetent in protecting average consumers from scalpers.

Just today, Lorcana alerted the world that there is a Chapter 1 restock on the horizon. Your LGS will get more product in October, and there will be a full reprint in Q1 of 2024. So of course, market speculation is already rampant about the long term implications of these reprints for the game. Just avoid /r/Lorcana. ‘Tis a silly place.

All of this going on, I want to actually just want to talk about Lorcana the game today. My good friend Flake, who used to co-host a Lorcana podcast called Podcana (check episode 11…I was on that one!), rightfully bemoaned that any chatter about Lorcana was about the money side and that any game play discussion was heavily doused in financial implications and speculation. I wholeheartedly agree. I’ll say that game play discussion has picked up since launch, but there is still very little tournament preparation discussion compared to market speculation.

Whether the game is actually good, or just a cheap knock off of something else, is hotly debated. So…what are my thoughts on it? (I realize literally no one is asking this)

Lorcana is a good game

Hot take alert, apparently. I’ve played quite a few games of Lorcana since launch, and I’m actively enjoying it. On one hand, it plays a lot like Pokemon in that I take my turn and you take your turn. There’s nothing I do on your turn.

BUT! I do get to interact with you. I sequence my turns, play my creatures, and set my board up in such a manner that directly impacts how you take your turn, play your creatures, and set up your board.

There are a variety of decks across the spectrum, including hyper aggro, hyper control, and everything in between. Now, I’m going to chat a bit about the decks I’ve been playing. I’m assuming for this article you know how to play, or are at least vaguely aware of Lorcana’s general idea. This isn’t a meta post so much as it is a “look at the options” post.

In a later post I’ll go more into the concerns I have with Lorcana, the organized play system, and some exciting plans I have for the game. Oh! I’ve also been playing part in person at league and online via Pixelborn, a free, fan made project for playing the game. It’s a great way to try it out for free, and, if you like it, get a lot of games in.

At any rate, I’ve been playing these:

Amethyst/Ruby Control

I’ve been playing Steadfast‘s list, and it’s a pretty strong control list. It struggles from having a lack of inkable cards at times, but such is the price you pay for strong effects. This particular list plays Dr. Faciliers, which helps a bit in this area, while giving you more game against hyper aggro.

Speaking of hyper aggro…

Lemon-Lime Aggro

This deck go brrr. It’s the defacto aggro deck of the format. I highly recommend this list for your local league nights, as it is really fast and gets you your 10 points one way or another quickly. (I’ll discuss league organized play in another post, but just know for now that you get two points for a match win, one for a loss, in a best two-out-of-three format, and you can get ten points maximum per week).

I mulligan pretty aggressively with this deck, keeping Lilo (1 mana that quests for two is great), and Cheshire Cat (a two quester that kills whatever kills it). I played against this at weekly league, and the guy destroyed me with it. Cheshire Cat is so fun to play with and against, which makes it great on its own.

A Whole New Mill

You want silly mill decks? Well, this one actually has legs. You use A Whole New World to make both you and your opponent discard your hands and draw 7. Then, you use Do It Again! to pick it back up and…well…do it again!

This deck is slow and clunky, but it’s very good against the Amethyst/Ruby control list that is dominating the meta. If they draw extra cards at any point, you’ll mill them out. You play 64/65 cards just to give yourself some wiggle room and not accidentally deck yourself out first.

Conclusion

I actively enjoy Lorcana, the decisions game play presents, and the variety of decks available with just set 1. I’m going to be writing about it, chatting about it, thinking about it, and yes, playing it a lot in the coming months.

I hope you give it a shot.

If you’ve read this far, I’d greatly appreciate it if you’d consider subscribing, for free, to this newsletter. The weekly newsletter will hopefully grow as I get feedback and experience, and I truly look forward to sharing it with everyone.

Next time: probably Lorcana

What follows below is a breakdown of the weekend from my seat. I didn’t take notes on each draft or game (lesson learned for the next one of these), but I just wanted to share how fun that weekend was.

Friday, Chane, 2-1

On the Friday of prereleases, I did a draft where I ended up on Chane. I played Chane very briefly during his hay-day in classic constructed, and the general runeblade game plan appeals to me a good bit. Playing out of your banish zone is also the juice.

My deck was pretty good, and I think a lot of players (myself included) were knocking the rust off of not having played Monarch in so long. I got several Seeds of Agony (reds and yellows) passed to me late, and several generic equipment went around the table.

Our pod resulted in a 3-2-2-1 split, with Levia getting an extra player, and Boltyn rolling solo. Matt “Flake” DiMarco was kind enough to share his draft strategy with me ahead of time that I think helped a lot. Because of Monarch’s pack distribution, it’s very easy to stay open, identify what the players to your right have taken in pack 1, and grab the open lane. It’s also easy to pivot late pack 1, and even early pack 2, if you need to. When I was passed a red Seeds of Agony pick four of five, I knew I was on the right track. Because of the signals I was giving, pack 2 was also a breeze. All in all, my deck ended up a 4 out of 5.

The one thing Flake told me going in was that, if there was only one person on a hero, that person was basically a lock to win the pod. That prediction held true, as our store’s resident Boltyn player was the sole Boltyn drafter. The Boltyn deck was a true 5/5, and the 3-0 sweep he took of that pod was not surprising.

I went 2-1 with my good Chane deck, losing to a Levia round 1. My Levia opponent played well, and I’m a little frustrated because I think I played poorly. I could have made it a better game if I blocked more appropriately and set up for a better midrange game. Instead, I tried to match my opponent’s damage output, and that was just a fool’s errand.

All in all, very fun draft at my local store Beyond the Board.

Sunday Pod 1, Chane, 0-1 drop

On Sunday, The Realm Games was running fire on demand Monarch pods as their prerelease. Due to the number of players, it made sense to drop from the pod if you lost a game. So, after forcing Chane and having a borderline unplayable deck (read: one Cracked Bauble), I got absolutely decimated and dropped to join the next draft.

Sunday Pod 2, Boltyn, 2-1

Well, the prediction of “be the only hero and you’ll win”, applies only to good players. I was the sole Boltyn in this pod, and while my deck was good, I couldn’t take home the 3-0. I played a tight and close round 1 against Aidan from Three Floating, a fun game against Keith from The Realm in round 2, and a close but clear game against Ryan in round 3.

Losing against Prism (as Boltyn) was a little disappointing, but I got 12 packs for my troubles, as my opponent and I agreed to split the win-a-box before we played the finals match.

Conclusion

I don’t play a lot of FAB anymore. If you’re a regular reader of this newsletter, you might think it’s a variety blog more than a Flesh and Blood one (okay, it probably is). But I had a lot of fun playing in the Dusk to Dawn preleases, and anytime you get to spend playing FAB with friends is a good time.

If you’ve read this far, I’d greatly appreciate it if you’d consider subscribing, for free, to this newsletter. The weekly newsletter will hopefully grow as I get feedback and experience, and I truly look forward to sharing it with everyone.

Next week: Pokemon (???) or Battle Hardened Columbus recap.

So, with that being said, I introduce you to 5 Things I Like (or Don’t) About Dusk to Dawn!

The Artwork is Amazing

FAB has always held itself out as “adult” game.  Not like adult, you little weirdo, but geared towards an adult audience.  The art in this set is as equally haunting as it is beautiful.  I don’t have a lot to say about it, but it’s pretty (I genuinely don’t know how to talk about art.  Maybe that’s something I should add to my reading list?). 

Let’s just look at a couple of my favorites:

DTD having no limited functionality is bad.

Monarch was a great set.  This set is an expansion of Monarch and does a lot of cool things.  Why can’t Dusk to Dawn be drafted alongside Monarch?  I’m thinking 2 packs of Monarch, 1 pack of Dusk to Dawn.  Old Magic sets used to have block draft, and Dusk to Dawn is an amazing opportunity to introduce block formatting into the game.  It doesn’t support every class, so why it wasn’t designed to support Monarch in limited, I’ll never know.

You could even get creative (and I know some local stores will) where you draft three Monarch, then open a Dusk to Dawn pack or two to add to your pool.  Maybe you could do some number of packs of Monarch and some number of packs of Dusk to Dawn for sealed.  There’s so much opportunity here.  Knowing that LSS passed by the opportunity to make this a unique thing that paves new ground is frustrating.

I know we’re getting two more draftable sets this year, so I’ll chill a bit on how much this upsets me, but it would have been real cool for this to be a special Battle Hardened or Calling format.

DTD Doesn’t Support Every Class

I thought with supplemental sets we were sacrificing draftability for universal character support.  I know we currently don’t have a light illusionist or a shadow runeblade knocking about, but underrepresented heroes rely on these supplemental sets to have any inkling of playability.  This complaint is really just a continuation of the last one, but if we’re going to restrict class support in supplemental sets, why can’t they be draftable?

My hope is that if we can’t ditch supplemental sets all together, we can at least return to a place where every hero gets a nibble of support, or at least each class.

I’m really excited for the prerelease

All my complaining aside, I’m excited about Monarch drafts.  The last time Monarch was a draftable set, FAB was a small indie game that hardly anyone could get product for.  I started in Tales of Aria, for example, so Monarch draft exists in my mind as only a side event and post-main event with your friends type of format.

Getting to draft it at a prerelease will operate as nostalgia for the earlier adopters of FAB, and it will give newer players a gateway to past draft formats.  One of the prereleases I’m going to is doing Monarch 1^st Edition drafts, so that’s an even nicer treat.  Can you imagine open cold foil footsteps at your prerelease?  What a time to be alive that would be.

Vynnset and “Runechants Matter” Cards are excellent game design

I’m a runeblade player at heart.  No matter what happens with my Flesh and Blood collection, I’ll keep all my runeblade cards.  Something about the art, and the theme, speaks to me.  This sword wielding master of the dark arts thing is a powerful vibe.

So I’m definitely excited to Vynnset for a spin.  I don’t think it will be better than Viserai at the outset, but who cares?  Oblivion is such an awesome card that probably won’t be that hard to activate.  Remember: you can respond to your own Runechant triggers, so if you have more than six (the dream), you cast this instant before the sixth one resolves, making your Nasreth token.

Vynnset’s blood debt interaction is obvious, but seeing the Rune Gate mechanic really makes it sing.  Rune Gate + Vynnset is so good, it makes me sadder than anything we won’t get to play with these cards in limited.

Conclusion

This article has somehow gotten to 800+ words without actually saying anything at all (they call that the Opossum Pack special).  All in all, I’m excited for Dusk to Dawn, if only because it marks a special time in FAB’s life.  Sets have history now, and people have nostalgia for the game’s earlier days.  The game isn’t that old compared to the big three, but compared to the TCG market as a whole, FAB is an old bear cat that is in better shape than ever.

If you’ve read this far, I’d greatly appreciate it if you’d consider subscribing, for free, to this newsletter. The weekly newsletter will hopefully grow as I get feedback and experience, and I truly look forward to sharing it with everyone.

Next week: who can be sure

Alpha Clash – The Origin Story

Alpha Clash is a hero centric game where you control a Contender that represents you on the battlefield.  Each Contender has different abilities and play styles, and they even get stronger as you lose life! 

Each turn, you can banish a card from your hand upside down to permanently turn it into a resource.  Then, you use the resources to pay the cards’ costs.  To use Magic terms: any card can become a land.  Each card has a different color, and then, as you might guess, generates that color of resource when utilized.

Unlike other games, there are no class or deck building restrictions.  You’re only limited by the color of the cards you want to cast.  Your deck can include: accessories – permanents that sit on the battlefield and provide an ongoing advantage; clash cards – creatures that stick around on the battlefield and fight against the opposing contender; clash buff cards – cards that provide a hefty bonus to your creatures in combat, all while drawing a card; locations – cards that impact the whole battlefield, not just your team; and plenty of other cards to interact with your opponent.

Biases

Like I mentioned last time, it’s important to me that I share my biases so you know where I’m coming from.  I’m going to tell you in this review that Alpha Clash is amazing, and it’s important you know the presuppositions I have coming into this one.

I’ll say at the outset, I’m not a big superhero guy.  The art in this game does nothing for me, and I imagine the lore won’t either.  I generally liked the first phase of the Marvel movies, and I like a good graphic novel occasionally, but I think I just have superhero fatigue after all that has come out over the past decade.  The art is well done, and the cards are aesthetically pleasing.  I’m just not jumping for joy at getting to play a superhero.

I also must admit I’m enamored at how awesome the guys who make this game are.  While at Origins this past weekend, I had the opportunity to have dinner with Ridge, the CEO and co-creator, and Brady, one of the designers and testers.  Those guys were phenomenally kind, very passionate about their game, and have some clear goals about what they want to accomplish.  They hooked Abbie and I up with a Kickstarter box, along with a Clash Kit (basically a two-player starter pack).  Before even demoing the game, I arranged to purchase three boxes at release.

Things I like

I like games that take solid ideas and manipulate them to make them more enjoyable.  Here, Alpha Clash implemented a free action economy system that I’ve grown quite found of.  You attack, play cards, and take other game actions in any order you choose.  You can attack with one card, play another, then attack with a different card.  There’s very little required structure to your main action phase.  As long as you have the resources available, you can do things.

I also really enjoy Alpha Clash’s resource system.  I’m unashamedly a big fan of Magic’s land system (I feel the boos reigning down upon me).  I like the deck building consideration that comes with deciding what type of resources to include and then maximizing the efficiency of those cards.

Alpha Clash expands on that system by letting every card potentially be a resource card, allowing you to decide how and when to get value out of the card.  Maybe it’s turn 2, so you permanently make your 9-drop creature a land.  Yes, you’re sacrificing the very late game, but you need to play spells now, so turning that 9-drop into a resource is better than not curving out.  Likewise, drawing a 1-drop creature on turn 9 feels terrible.  Thanks to Alpha Clash, that 1-drop is now a land for you to case that 9-drop you’ve been holding on to.

I recognize Magic’s land system is antiquated; uncertain resource generation does not feel good, no matter who you are. That’s why I love Alpha Clash’s system. Since you draw a card every turn, and every card can be a resource, you’ll always be able to play a resource if you choose. That’s awesome.

In both instances, Alpha Clash took something we’ve seen before and made it better (the free action economy is a large part of Flesh and Blood, and the resource system is integral to Magic).  These design choices led to several interesting decision points throughout the games, along with never feeling like there is a dead draw in your deck.

And…just to defend myself a little bit: I prefer a land system like Alpha Clash over Flesh and Blood’s resource system in large part due to how pitch stacking works.  Pitch stacking introduces a different skill into the game, which is great, but I think games tend to drag on a bit too long because of it. It also encourages strategies like fatigue Oldhim that would otherwise be harder without effective pitch stacking.

Things That Could be Better

There are a lot of things that impact the board in a game of Alpha Clash.  It’s a lot like Flesh and Blood in that regard.  Just like the hero and equipment give an enormous amount of context to a FaB game, the Contender has enormous influence on the outcome

In the demo games I played, the Contenders and the location cards (these provide universal effects to the battlefield) were on opposite sides of the table, and it was hard to see the abilities of your opponent’s Contender.  I lost a couple of units to “on board tricks” that I just didn’t see because they were outside my field of vision.

Despite my grumbling about this, players will get more comfortable with all the effects going on over time.  I took a long time to remember my opponent’s equipment could affect my plays in Flesh and Blood too.  Now it’s a non-issue. Once we get more familiar with Alpha Clash’s different cards and their primary interactions, I’ll probably laugh at myself for making this complaint.

My final “gripe” is also board aesthetic related. Since every card can be a resource, you’ll banish cards from your hand upside down into your resource zone to signify those cards are now resources. I’m worried that the board will be confusing between what cards are resources and what cards are active. When you tap a resource, you turn it horizontal like you do in most games. When you tap a clash character, you also turn it horizontal. I could see a world where the board gets muddied in really grindy games. I’m not sure whether this complaint is founded, but is a thing I’ve heard mentioned and caused me to wonder the same thing.

Conclusion

I’m rate this game an 8.5 or 9 out of 10.  Like I mentioned, I want this one to succeed because I believe in the people behind it, and I had a lot of fun playing it right out of the box.  Those two things combined make me really excited for it, and I really just want to get a bunch of games in.

If you’re looking for Learn to Play videos or actual game play, Team Covenant has a series of game play on their channel right now about this game.

If you’ve read this far, I’d greatly appreciate it if you’d consider subscribing, for free, to this newsletter. The weekly newsletter will hopefully grow as I get feedback and experience, and I truly look forward to sharing it with everyone.

Next week: FaB prerelease season

You should also know that I’m probably not going to be focusing exclusively on Flesh and Blood going forward. Before you click away, you should know that it’s because there is so much great stuff happening in this industry. There is simply too much juice to ignore. Games like FaB are having iconic set releases and rules changes (something I promise to react to once we’ve seen enough to how it feels in practice), Magic is back on the map, and new games are peaking over the horizon.

So with that in mind, over the next few weeks, I want to share with you some new games I’ve been playing. In addition to sharing the good and bad of these games, I’ll share any biases I have so that you can interpret my conclusions in their appropriate context.

This week, and probably other weeks to come, we’ll be discussing the Grand Archive TCG.

Grand Archive – The Overview

The Grand Archive TCG describes itself as “[a]n anime TCG with western game design.” I’ll say right at the front: I’m not an anime guy. I don’t mean that disparagingly or anything; I just don’t typically enjoy the art style or some of the common tropes. I’ve watched a couple seasons of a couple of shows (Hunter x Hunter and Sword Art Online), but never really engaged with the medium. So any review I give of this game will come within the context of the art basically doing nothing for me.

GA TCG is a champion centered game where you level up your champion over the course of the game. Just like FaB, there are several classes to choose from, each with a unique play style. The warrior wants to bash things with her swords, the mage wants to light you on fire, and the assassin wants to cheat things sneakily into play. There are more classes, but these are a sampler of things you’ll appreciate if you’re one of my regualar FaB readers.

Just like most TCGs, you have a main deck that consists of creatures, spells, and other actions. The one twist this game has is its unique resource system. When you go to pay the cost of a card, indicated in yellow in the top right corner, you temporarily banish that number of cards from your hand, face down, into your “Memory Zone”. You’ll get (most) of these cards back later.

Then, you have a second deck, called a “Material Deck” that consists of cards you can access once at the beginning your turn. These cards are often weapons and items that let you attack, gain some incremental value, or otherwise interact with your opponent. Think equipment in Flesh and Blood. To cast these Material Deck cards, you’ll permanently banish cards equal to the blue cost in your Memory Zone, at random. So for example, in the photos below, both Grand Crusader’s Ring and Fire Resonance Bauble cost nothing to play (i.e. don’t require permanently banishing cards), but Prismatic Edge requires permanently banishing two cards at random!

After permanently banishing these cards, you’ll pick up what cards are left in your Memory Zone and continue with your turn.

I really enjoyed this aspect of GA TCG. Planning your turn ahead, such that you’re only putting into your Memory Zone what you’re comfortable losing, was a pretty rewarding process. It takes some brain power to plan your turns, and deciding how to maximize hand economy is interesting.

You win once your opponent receives a number of damage counters equal to their champion’s life total. Notably, champions have access to a bigger life pool when they level up (you start with 15), but for the most part, damage counters remain on the champion even after leveling. For example, if I put 5 damage on your Fire Spirit, and you level it up into Level 1 Silvie, your total life pool increases, but you still have 5 damage counters. Just for reference, life is in the bottom right corner of the champion cards next to the little Zelda heart icon.

What I Don’t Love

One of my biggest gripes about the game is that it is so inaccessible right now. I live in a major metropolitan area with several (maybe more than 10? I’ve never actually counted) hobby stores within a 20 minute drive. None of them carry this game, and most of them haven’t heard about it.

The closest store carrying the game is an hour and a half away, and they’ve been sold out for a little while. The closest store with product and tournaments is 2 hours away.

Part of this is that Weebs of the Shore (you either groaned or giggled) is a victim of their own success. FaB fans can relate to that when considering LSS’s growing pains. GA TCG’s Kickstarter was wildly successful. There simply wasn’t enough resources to meet demand.

“I can’t play as much as I want” is one of those complaints that’s really a compliment. It’s akin to “Sometimes I work too hard” when asked about your biggest weakness. I have some actual gripes as a person who taught the game to themselves along with other friends also learning.

The requirements to play a card are a little confusing. Take a look at the card below, Devastating Blow. It’s a Fire (top right corner) Attack – Guardian/Warrior Sword (middle text bar) with a “Class Bonus” (main text box). This card, believe it or not, does not require you to be a Guardian or Warrior, nor have a sword. It only requires you to have Fire in your lineage. (I don’t want to get too much into it here, but your Lineage is a compendium of your champion’s history as you level them up. Everyone starts as an elemental spirit and then levels up into a class.)

Several times throughout learning the game, we asked, “Can I play this card in my deck?” Most of the time, the answer was yes, but it took us a little bit to figure out why. For Devastating Blow, it functions as an attack for 3, and you can do that so long as you have Fire lineage. You get the text box, i.e. the Class Bonus, if your hero shares a class with the card itself. Here, that’s Guardian or Warrior. Some cards will have some text locked behind Class Bonus but not others. There can be a lot going on.

This confusion point, of course, isn’t defeating. After all, part of this came from assumptions we made about the game. FaB has class restrictions, so we imparted them onto this game without fully reading the rules. Now, I think our mistake was reasonable. After all, most games have class restrictions on gear type, skills, or other customizable components.

That being said, knowing that deck building is wide open, and that you’re less restricted than you expect, is a silver lining of this misunderstanding.

I have other nitpick things about this game (like the rules just changed in a massive way, and the start of game procedure just feels clunky), but by and large, they’re doing things well. Let’s talk about some of those.

Things I Love

There is extreme deck diversity in this game. Here’s a link to a tournament reports website. You’ll notice that Lorraine is kind of cleaning up right now, but even then, there are 3+ ways to build each champions. So even if Wind Lorraine is top dog, there are other strong heroes and multiple ways to build them. Almost everything feels playable at top tables (RIP Silvie).

I also like how GA TCG is approaching their banning process. While I hinted that I lament a rule change they just made, I really appreciate their banned and restricted policy. They’ve introduced a tiered system to track how problematic some cards are and how close they might be to being banned.

• Category 3 cards are those that are banned or restricted. There are currently no cards banned or restricted.

• Category 2 cards are those that are “very problematic” and may get banned in the future.

• Category 1 cards are those they “don’t consider problematic in the current environment, but are unhealthy for future balance and game design space.”

My biggest gripe with bans and restrictions is that they invalidate player purchases. Spending $70 on a play-set of a card, only for it to get banned out from underneath you, feels very bad. With this system, you have a bit more information on whether you want to invest heavily in a card that the designers consider very problematic. Now, if you drop $70 on a play-set and it gets banned, you had agency in that decision.

I also love the actual game play itself. The Memory Zone mechanic, like I mentioned, induces a lot of decision making and planning. The cards themselves look unremarkable based on their stat lines, but leveraging the most out of those cards, and setting up combos/efficient interactions is satisfying. I’ve played only a handful of games casually, but I’ve never walked away feeling like I’ve wasted my time.

The Conclusion

I’m going to rate this game a 7.5 out of 10, with the option for it to go much higher. I’ve opened a lot of product for the game already (TCG Player has a lot of product available), and it’s definitely a fun open. I’m sure once I get some tournaments under my belt, I’ll be even more excited to play than I was today. Just for fun, here’s a screen shot of a game I played with Flake not to long ago on TTS.

If you’re looking for an actual Learn to Play video, or want to see some game play, check out the videos below.

If you’ve read this far, I’d greatly appreciate it if you’d consider subscribing, for free, to this newsletter. The weekly newsletter will hopefully grow as I get feedback and experience, and I truly look forward to sharing it with everyone.

Next week: pickles (transcribing audio is hard), Alpha Clash TCG review, or something else.

Also: people asked me to set up a Patreon…probably not, but I appreciate it Just tell your friends.

I have repeatedly promised to bring you an interview with Elaine Hamontree from the Pitch Perfect Podcast and the RainbowxPitch League.  I still promise you’ll get to read it someday soon, but LSS dropped some news about organized play for the rest of the year, and I wanted to talk about it while it was actually news.

The announcement, which you can read here, announced two Callings later in 2023.  First, Calling: Taipei is coming in September, and Calling: Dallas-Fort Worth is coming in October.

First, let me say, I’m very excited for the APAC region to get another Calling.  Those players are FAB crazy, and it’s very easy to be a biased westerner and think that every Calling should be somewhere in Midwest America.

Now…as a biased Midwestern American, I am thrilled to see another North American Calling announced this year.  I’m quite pleased with how early the announcement has come.  Since my days on Flesh and Pod, I’ve lamented how LSS’s slow delivery of news impacts players’ ability to travel.  I’ve argued it would be ideal to have at least 3 months advance notice of any tournaments that may inspire players to travel.  Those tournaments for me are Callings, National Championships, and the World Championship.

Here, we’re learning about Calling: Dallas-Forth Worth about four months ahead of time, which is great.  A person could reasonably get time off work and budget for the event all without feeling rushed.  Any time less than what we have here could preclude people from coming simply due to scheduling demands.  I’m a busy guy who doesn’t have kids and has a flexible work schedule.  If it’s tough for me to get to events announced last minute, I imagine it’s near impossible for people with actual responsibilities.

The more serious the event, the more time players should have to plan it.  For example, it’s June 13^th and we still don’t know where the World Championship will be.  Worlds is a major event that requires extensive amounts of testing and time off to focus on the tournament.  It’s frustrating to know that logistics are hampering proper planning.  If Worlds isn’t in December, we’re already afield of the appropriate time to notify players about the game’s most prestigious tournament.

Now, I know it’s not easy to plan international tournaments like LSS must.  After all, New Zealand might be the worst time zone from which to conduct American business.  This, however, is all the grace I’m willing to extend.  LSS has chosen to enter the international business arena and cater primarily to an international audience.  As a result, LSS is subject to the frustrations of those it seeks to entertain and profit from.

This blog is intended to ultimately be positive: LSS has struggled with giving ample notice in the past.  For the Calling: Taipei, they’ve given adequate notice, and for the Calling: Dallas-Fort Worth, they’ve given excellent notice, considering the event.  I hope to see LSS continue that trend and soon announce the World Championship.

If you’ve read this far, I’d greatly appreciate it if you’d consider subscribing, for free, to this newsletter. The weekly newsletter will hopefully grow as I get feedback and experience, and I truly look forward to sharing it with everyone.

Next week: pickles, GA TCG review, or Briar at 998.

What are serialized cards?

For those unfamiliar with serialization, it’s a technique used to promote uniqueness and create value in card products.  There are “x” amount of cards of that art style available, and you’ll receive “y” number in that series. In Dusk to Dawn’s case, the serialization will likely be out of 10, but each card will be unique, practically making them 1/1s!

To see some examples, see first the Kody Clemens card below. The top right corner shows the serialization. This particular Kody Clemens is part of a series of 99 cards with the same art/framing style, and we’re looking at number 80 in that series. The Argent Saga card adjacent to it (RIP) is part of a series of 1,000, and this is number 538. You can find those numbers on the left side. As you might guess, the lower the number of cards in the series (the denominator in the fraction), the rarer those styles are (e.g. there are 1,000 of the Argent Saga card pictured and only 99 of the Kody card).

Serialized cards are used heavily in the sports card industry to combat the history of the “junk wax” era, where cards were printed in such a large volume that they became worthless. So, as you can imagine, there’s a good bit of card trading history wrapped up in serial cards. Regardless of your perspective on whether serialization is good or bad for card games and markets (and there is reasonable debate to be had), whenever there’s history involved, there’s people passionately wrapped up in the discussion.

For Dusk to Dawn, we all have access to Chane, Bound by Shadow and Prism, Sculptor of Arclight tokens because of Monarch.  They’re not rare and not worth any money. However, when you open one of these unique hand drawn sketches, you will own the only one in the world.  This dramatically increases (of course) the value of your Chane, Bound by Shadow, despite it being functionally the same.

Dusk to Dawn serial cards are not exempt from critics of the card industry’s history. Lots of people have weighed in as to whether this is “good for the game”, “bad for collectors”, or “bad for the average Joe”.  I should say now: when I make claims that “people say ‘x’”, I typically like to cite my sources.  I usually would link to Twitter threads, Reddit posts, or other determinable sources to prove that I’m not just making up things to argue against.  Right now, however, I’m in the middle of a “tech cleanse” where I’m basically using no social media.  It’s wonderful (seriously, ditch Twitter), but it makes researching public perception on topics hard.  I’m basing the opinions discussed in this post on conversations with trusted friends who are well tuned in to the conversations happening in our community.

Who cares?

My position towards these cards, and what I hope yours is, is one of indifference.  10 cards, out of all those distributed for Dusk to Dawn, won’t even make a small impact in anything relevant to you, me, or any other reader of this blog.  10 is such a small number that (a) we may never know of any of these that are opened; (b) even if we do find out about the opened ones, we can’t afford them anyway; and (c) because the serialized cards are tokens that we have affordable access to, there’s no game play concerns.

You know how everyone from the 90s has a story about owning a foil Charizard?  We put the card in bicycle spokes, traded it for pudding at lunch, or our moms threw it away.  They just weren’t special.  I imagine one, if not several, of Dusk to Dawn’s serialized cards will be lost in similar fashion.  Some child is going to buy a booster pack from the local game store, open it up, play with the contents for a little bit, and then throw them away or stuff them in a box with other seemingly insignificant items.  It’s much akin to opening the golden ticket in your Wonka Bar and thinking it was just a strange wrapping.

Likewise, even if you did hear about someone that opened a serial card (or were lucky enough to see it at an event you attend!), it’s unlikely you’re in a position that you’ll be able to afford it anyway.  The eventual cost of the cards, an issue cited by critics, is irrelevant. In conversations with several high-end collectors, retailers, and tournament vendors, none of them think these cards will be in their price range.  Ten 1/1s is so unfathomably rare that, even if they’re uglier than we think they will be (they won’t be ugly), they’ll command such an impressive price on rarity alone that no one will be able to compete.  Of course, the market will adjust to find a price a buyer will actually pay, but even then, it will be well north of any gold foil or cold foil alpha card we’ve seen to date.

Reasonable minds can differ

There is, I should mention, a reasonable argument as to why this is bad for Flesh and Blood.  It’s reasonable to think that even collector cards should ultimately be accessible.  With enough trading and market savvy, anyone should be able to work up to anything.  I don’t subscribe to this theory myself, but it’s at least reasonable.  Having sharks worth stacks of money come into your trading card game community creates a feeling of danger and inaccessibility.  It feels less like a game and more like a stock exchange trading floor.  Whether that feeling relates to anything tangible is irrelevant; the feeling itself is unwelcome.

I reject this theory not because I don’t care about people’s fear of sharks in the water or the bygone era of when games could just be games.  I reject the theory because of where we already are as a community.  Flesh and Blood cards are already worth thousands of dollars.  A cold foil Heart of Fyendale, for example, is worth somewhere around $14,000!  There are already sharks trying to rip off unsuspecting players and make a quick buck.  The sharks come in the form of trusted YouTube and Reddit investors, vendors at tournaments, and even players/owners at your local game store.

Even with obtainable cards, there are already price points that push out gamers.  The cheapest Fyendal’s Spring Tunic, the staplest staple that ever stapled, is $200.  These cards are much more “necessary” to compete and have a larger impact on performance than any 10 serialized tokens can have.  The reality is that Flesh and Blood is already a luxury hobby with tradable assets.  That’s central to the game, not going anywhere, and the inaccessibility is not further exasperated by printing variant arts of a card to which everyone has access.

Conclusion

Maybe LSS should take a step back and consider where it’s most important to levy its resources and that investing in serialized artist proofs is not.  But not only is it very unlikely you ever see or hear of one of these cards being opened, even if you do, you’ll be so priced out (and so will I), that the cost is irrelevant.

Ultimately, indifference is the correct mindset for these cards.  If you do open one, that’s pretty awesome.  If you don’t, you’ll barely even remember they exist.

If you’ve read this far, I’d greatly appreciate it if you’d consider subscribing, for free, to this newsletter. The weekly newsletter will hopefully grow as I get feedback and experience, and I truly look forward to sharing it with everyone.

Next week: probably pickles for real –or– Briar at 998.

So let’s start with the basics.

What is a cube?

At its core, a cube is a repeatable draft experience that you get to build. Just like James White built Welcome to Rathe’s draft format, you can build your own cube’s draft format. If you do it right, your cube could be a better format than Welcome to Rathe!

Just to further clarify: you’re basically choosing/creating every card that goes in the set and will be drafted. You’ll then make three 15 card “booster packs” for each player, draft like you normally would, play your games, and then put the cube cards back in the box to be used another day!

Designing your own cube can sound a bit overwhelming. After all, you or I likely aren’t going to create an experience as amazing as Welcome to Rathe, so why bother? Even though you’re (probably) not an accomplished game designer and (likely) not going to go on to create an international sensation, you can still create a draft format that you and your friends will find fun. Your cube will get to support whatever game play you want to incentivize, with whatever heroes/cards you want to be playing with.

Types of cubes

Because you get to build your cube however you want, there are no “rules” with respect to how to go about it. At a bare minimum, you need to make sure that everyone has access to enough cards to create a 30-card limited deck.

From there, everything else is just gravy. Just know that if there’s a draft format you want to create, you can do it. Want to create a wacky format where there are no class restrictions? Great! Want to make it so that every class has to use Talishar, The Lost Prince as a weapon? Sounds strange, but I’m not your dad. Want to use every third card, based on collector number, from each set? I don’t know why, but I’ll try it.

First, I’ll lay out a couple of common cube types below to help get you started. Literally just starting is the hardest part. From there, you’ll see the juice.

One quick “word to the wise”: don’t get discouraged from building these cubes if you don’t own all the cards. You can either proxy them (remember: your cube, your rules) or you can simply upgrade your cube as you upgrade your collection. I’ve said this a lot, but I’ll keep saying it: don’t get bogged down in what you can’t do.

Powered Cubes, AKA “Good Stuff”

The first type of cube that comes to mind are Powered Cubes. These cards feature the most powerful cards in the game and focus on creating the strongest decks possible. You’ll jam cards like Eye of Ophidia, Fyendal Spring Tunic, and Crown of Seeds into your cube.

Decks can tend to lean less towards synergy and more towards just collections of good cards. For what it’s worth, this is what my cube is. I’m not much of a synergy guy myself and just want to play with the coolest cards there are.

Theme Cubes, AKA “Pick a Lane”

Theme cubes are great for when you want to build around a core idea or really push players to focus on a particular aspect of the game. For example, maybe you really like the ying/yang of the way lightning cards interact with ice cards. You can build an elemental cube that supports the elemental heroes, has elemental cards, and really leans on those mechanics.

Perhaps you really like the warrior class. You could build a warrior cube where you can play as any of the five warrior heroes. Your cube would be chock full of warrior cards, different weapons, and ways to build or bust each warrior.

These are just two ideas that came off the top of my head while I was outlining this post. Any other theme you want to build on is fair game, so long as there’s enough cards to support it. Though, even if there aren’t enough cards to support it, you could always increase the amount of copies that you have available to draft!

Set Cubes, AKA “I Really Liked WTR”

Set cubes, like their name implies, are time-capsules of a real Flesh and Blood set. My favorite draft format of all time, for example, is Welcome to Rathe. I could design a cube with only Welcome to Rathe heroes and cards, attempting to create a “draft format in a can.” This way, when I want to draft Welcome to Rathe, I can dust off my cube and not have to worry about buying a box.

The benefit of a set cube is that, in addition to preserving a format you enjoyed, they’re relatively inexpensive to make. Most commons and rares in Flesh and Blood are pennies/dollars, so you’ll only need a few of the bigger pieces to round out a replication of your favorite draft format. How many Sink Below are optimal in an 8-person Welcome to Rathe draft? I’m not sure, but if you build this set cube, you get to decide! Is it fun to give a player access to busted Majestics like Enlightened Strike? Maybe! It may be better to have less bombs in a set cube, or it could be more fun to have enough in there that everyone gets a crack at “the juice”.

Twobert, AKA “The You’ve Got a Friend in Me”

Twobert is a two-person cube experience. It’s designed for you and a buddy to be able to quickly build decks and battle it out. I truthfully don’t have a lot of experience with twoberts in Flesh and Blood, but you could two person draft your twobert and be off to the races.

You could make a twobert along with any cube theme we’ve discussed so far. The primary reason behind a twobert is just to make an environment where you don’t need six to eight people to play, you just need a friend.

Building your first cube

Okay, so we’ve talked about what a cube is and we’ve talked about what types of cubes there are, but how do you actually build one? Like, what are some action steps a person can take to go from not owning a cube to owning one? Here’s some steps to get you started:

Decide how big the cube will be

8 players drafting 3, 15 card packs equals 360 cards. This is the number I recommend to begin with. With 360 cards, you’ll guarantee that every card will be seen and drafted each time. This enables you to allow for combos and people planning their draft.

For example, let’s imagine your cube supports Dorinthea and everyone that plays Dorinthea has access to Dawnblade as a token. To spice it up, you include Merciless Battleaxe or Hatchet of Body/Mind to be drafted. You can then add cards like Cleave, Felling Swing, or Spill Blood to really enhance a Dorinthea axe build.

With a bigger cube, not every card will be in each draft. So that could mean someone could draft Spill Blood and doesn’t ever see an axe to draft. Now this is okay if you want it to be, but I’m pointing it out as something to keep in mind. It’s much harder to synergize with a bigger card pool.

Decide what theme you want to build around

After we’ve decided how many cards we need, we can decide what cards to use. My cube is below if you’re looking for a starter. It has been tested pretty thoroughly and is in a good place by my friends’ accounts.

This part is probably the most overwhelming, but just get started. Open a spreadsheet, open Fabrary, and just start making a charter of the cards you want in your cube. If you’re making the warrior cube, for example, list every warrior card, their equipment, and generics that generally show up in warrior decks. That’ll get you most of the way there, and then you can cut and add as you see fit.

If you want a spreadsheet template, see my cube link below. I stole this format from Tommy at Fresh and Buds.

Get the supplies

This part is the biggest hassle out of everything, in my opinion. You’ve got to get your whole cube list together, in one spot, and in a way that people can draft it. Your cube is likely to be a long-term thing, so put all the cards in the same sleeves to make redraftability easier and to decrease card damage. It will help with shuffling your cube, making packs, and decreasing the time between drafting and actually playing. I use these.

You also need to get the tokens together. My cube, for example, supports three heroes. I need at least enough copies of each hero for people to play with, copies of each token my cube generates, and whatever other weapons or items I’m providing as a token rarity. Remember: a cube is a self contained draft environment. Everything you need to draft the cube should be all in one place.

Finally, proxy whatever cards you’re missing, and figure out how you’re going to store everything. I use a fancy box with magnets that help it stay shut, but a generic cardboard box will work just fine. You’ll probably also want to grab a handful of Cracked Baubles in case drafts go off the rails.

Test your cube!

Now that you’ve got this thing on paper, it’s time to take it for a spin. Your first draft may be rough. Mine was. I included specializations of heroes that the cube didn’t support, and I didn’t intend to be breaking the rules in that way!

Ask your players what cards worked well, what felt underwhelming, and what ideas they have. This process should be fun, a little aggravating, and very rewarding. Shaping my cube was a blast, and after the initial kinks, it’s an experience I’m proud of that my friends continually ask about.

My cube

Here’s a link to my cube. My cube is “powered” and supports Dorinthea, Bravo, and Viserai. You get your hero and their signature weapon at token rarity.

You’ll notice that, in addition to a list of what cards are included, I also included some of the special rules associated with my cube:

• Every player has access to Helio’s Mitre at token rarity (they get the head equipment for free if they want to use it).

• After each pack, a face-up draft of the equipment takes place (non-weapon equipment isn’t in the traditional draft). All the equipment is laid out on the table in front of everyone. In a randomly determined order, players take turns selecting equipment. Players select two pieces of equipment after each pack, for a total of 6 equipment per player.

• The draft pool contains a Cintari Saber and a Hatchet of Body. If you draft one, you get the other for free as a token.

My cube also has one card of each color strip, when available. I’m constantly adding and removing different cards from the various classes. For now, I’ve stuck with the theory that if a card has access to a rainbow, I want to include the rainbow.

Conclusion

Build a cube. Or at least get a couple of friends together and talk about what type of cube you would all like to draft. It’s worth your time, and in my opinion, the pinnacle of Flesh and Blood limited.

If you’ve read this far, I’d greatly appreciate it if you’d consider subscribing, for free, to this newsletter. The weekly newsletter will hopefully grow as I get feedback and experience, and I truly look forward to sharing it with everyone.

Next week: probably pickles.

The reason I’m doing this is because I believe in what I’m hocking. Now, I know virtually every person who engages in advertising will tell you, “I only advertise products I believe in.” I really don’t know if that is true or not, but I typically choose to take them at their word. I’m sure the money doesn’t hurt either, though. So, when I tell you that I’m doing this because I really believe in The Realm Games, their tournament series, and the people behind it, I really mean it. You can choose not to believe me, but I’m not getting paid to do this, so hopefully that increases my credibility a bit.

What we’re actually talking about

Okay, so I’ve written 120 words and said absolutely nothing. What are we talking about this week? What is The Realm Games? Is it a sandwich?

No, it’s not a sandwich. What a silly question. The Realm Games is a local game store located in Mansfield, Ohio (you haven’t heard of Mansfield, don’t pretend). In addition to their top-flight brick and mortar store, they also run an online storefront. The owners of this enterprise, Jacob and Keith Bartram, are also world class human beings and friends. Seriously. I don’t have brothers, but I look up to these guys as brothers.

The real juice behind the shop, however, is The Realm Games Invitational Series. Throughout 2023, they are running $1ks, $2ks, and $5ks throughout the country (yes, you read that right, the country) to qualify you for the $20k invitational at the end of the year. Local stores are even able to purchase their own qualifier kits to hold qualifiers at their stores.

The circuit allows players to earn points towards qualification or by doing well enough in an event to win an invitation outright. If this sounds too good to be true, or you think it can’t possibly be that there’s an independent store out here running big dollar tournaments like crazy people, I can prove you wrong. As of the date of writing, the first quarter of 2023’s event (commonly called a “Brawl”) already took place, and the 2nd quarter’s $2k event is taking place this weekend.

Due to collaboration with LSS, these events also typically involve a Battle Hardened. Sometimes the Brawl is the Battle Hardened. Other times, like this weekend, the Battle Hardened is a mere side event to the $2k Brawl.

So to answer the question of, “What are we actually talking about?”, we’re talking about awesomeness. We’re talking about a store that loves Flesh and Blood and investing again and again in the community. The Realm likes competitive gaming, and they like entertaining. That’s why the folks at The Realm do what they do – to entertain you and make you walking away thinking, “That was a great time.”

The Pittsburgh Brawl

So, let’s preview this actual weekend coming up. Event previews will hopefully become a regular thing on this channel (albeit, hopefully, with a little less romanticizing about the organizer and a little more strategy discussion). Sometimes we’ll talk meta, sometimes we’ll talk the location of the event itself, and most of the time, we’ll talk about how I’ll be engaging with the tournament. As I’ve mentioned before, I’m in a weird boat with this game, so I want to kind of reflect what tournaments look like for an ex-grinder who just comes around to hang out with his friends.

I won’t reproduce everything on The Realm’s website or LSS’s page about the weekend. Those pages are great sources for the nuts and bolts on the tournament itself. There you’ll find venue details, cost, deck registration guidelines, etc. This time, I hope to tell you more about what you should be looking to do at The Brawl that isn’t playing all that silly Flesh and Blood.

Just to provide you the quick hits of the major events though:

• Saturday, May 27th, 9:00 am: Classic Constructed Brawl. Top 8 will be played on Day 2. $2,000 prize pool.

• Saturday, 6:30 pm: Super Armory. Full month’s armory kit prize pool.

• Sunday, May 28th: Sealed Battle Hardened. $2,000 prize pool (not bad for a side event).

If you’re an absolute monster and still want to get in your reps with Oldhim before he goes bye-bye, now is a good opportunity. Anyway, that’s enough chatter about Flesh and Blood. Let’s get into the real juice.

The Speakeasy

If you haven’t been to a Brawl before, buckle up. The Realm hosts an after party following day one of the festivities. Typically these include opportunities to jam drafts with other tournament attendees, dine and drink, and enjoy the company of the people you’re there with (my favorite part).

This time, your Speakeasy ticket gets you access to an all-you-can-eat buffet and unlimited access to digital golfing simulators. Go check the place out here. The price tag of $75 might look steep, but if you can swing it, it’s absolutely worth the time. If you want, I’m down to gamble on simulator games of golf.

Having food and entertainment settled for one of your nights, and having a crowd of people you have something in common with , is well worth it. There’s also a cash bar if that’s more your speed (it is mine!).

My fondest memories from Flesh and Blood come not from a tournament or a game play experience, but from a Brawl Speakeasy party. Please make this a cornerstone of your trip, and come say hi when we’re there!

The side events and “side events”

Any Realm Games event, in addition to the great after party, also features compelling side events. Indeed, these events aren’t tailored to your competitive grinder. There will be on-demand drafts fired throughout the weekend, and in addition to the Super Armory, there will be a Blitz event where the two finalists receive a ticket to the Speakeasy.

Not bad for mucking about with blitz.

So I say this to everyone: a Brawl is a great first big event. There’s truly something for everyone, and even the competitive main events are accessible and designed with everyone in mind. Come do a draft, win a ticket to the Speakeasy playing blitz, or you could…cube…

If you know me at all, you’ll know that I’m big on cube. If you don’t know what cube is, you’re in for a treat. I’ll write an article about cube at some point, but for now: a cube is a large collection of cards used for drafting. It’s similar to drafting with booster packs, but instead of booster packs, you use “packs” that you create from your cube. It let’s you have a repeatable draft format that is specifically tailored to whatever draft experience you want to cultivate.

It’s not as confusing as I just made it sound.

But anyway, I’ll be bringing my cube to Pittsburgh, and looking to draft it at least a few times.

Conclusion

This weekend is the Brawl in Pittsburgh. If you have the means to go, and you weren’t planning on it, I think you’re making a mistake. It’s Memorial Day weekend; hop in the car, come bop some heads with Oldhim, have a whack in the golf simulator at the after party, and enjoy the great community cultivated by Jacob and Keith.

As for me, I’ll be in attendance barring any disasters. On Saturday, I’ll be at the side events table drafting my cube and try to convince people to drop from the main event and do side events with me.

On Sunday, I’ll be playing the sealed Battle Hardened and donating money to the prize pool. Afterwards, you guessed it, I’ll be cubing and trying to convince people to drop and hang out with me.

Finally, please take pictures with your friends when you’re there. One day they won’t be here anymore, and I want you to have something to look back at remember them by.

I hope I see you there.

f you’ve read this far, I’d greatly appreciate if you’d consider subscribing, for free, to this newsletter. The weekly newsletter will hopefully grow as I get feedback and experience, and I truly look forward to sharing it with everyone.

Next week: an interview –or– what will an Oldhim-less world look like?

Once release hit, him and some other excellent players shacked up for a weekend and drafted the set an unfathomable amount of times. They called it a “Draft Boot Camp.”

What is a draft boot camp?

As you might have guessed, a draft boot camp is a time where you get in a high volume of quality drafts of the current set with similarly minded people. Most of the time, these boot camps occur right when a draft set releases (like Outsiders, for example). However, you can also “boot camp” before any event you want to prepare for, whether it be the Pro Tour, Road to Nationals, or the Battle Hardened in Pittsburgh.

The key here is to get a lot of exposure to the relevant format, in a manner that is worth your time.

Guidelines for running your own draft boot camp

So you might like the idea of grabbing your friends, setting up shop in someone’s basement in preparation for the upcoming Road to Nationals seasons.

Is it as simple as getting 8 people in a room together and drafting until you run out of booster packs? Well…it can be. Keep in mind the elements of our draft boot camp definition:

1. High volume of…

2. Quality drafts…

3. Of the current set…

4. With similarly minded people.

Let’s talk about each of these elements individually.

High volume of

You could, of course, go to your friend’s house, bring a box, and draft once. You would probably have fun, learn something, and come away satisfied. After all, the community is the best part of Flesh and Blood. The card game is really just the excuse we use to get together. But a pop-in Saturday draft wouldn’t really help us advance our purposes or goals. We’re looking to get a lot of drafts in to maximize our learning, gain an edge in the format, and prepare us for the upcoming tournament.

You might be able to get in one draft a night three nights a week, but what if we could do five drafts in on a Saturday the week before the tournament, in addition to our usual draft nights? We would multiply our learning and edge by a large amount, just by the sheer volume alone.

Quality drafts

The purpose of these drafts is to simulate competitive environments. When you’re drafting at Armory, and you’re tasked with drafting either a solid rare that plays a key role in your deck vs. a $30 Majestic that you can’t play, you’ll be hard pressed to not take the majestic.

This is, of course, bad practice. In Day 2 of a Calling or when you’re at the Pro Tour, it’s advisable to take the card that makes your deck better. The return on investment of a solid role playing card goes up, and if your goals are to win the tournament or place well, the value of the $30 Majestic plummets. No one blames you for taking the $30 Majestic (or a $15,000 Mythic), but you do have to be aware that when you make these decisions, you’re making your deck, and thereby your chances to win the tournament, worse.

It’s for these reasons that your draft boot camp should disincentivize “money” drafting, e.g. simply drafting the most valuable card in a pack. There are several ways to do this, but here are two of the most common:

1. Each person supplies their own three packs. At the end of the draft, going in order of best record to worst, draft each desirable card that was opened. This incentivizes solid play and rewards those who are playing the best Flesh and Blood in each draft.

2. Have one person supply the box for each draft. This way, whoever provided the box keeps all the cards drafted and there is no incentive at all to money draft.

Having one person supply the box for each draft is most common, but I enjoy the stakes attached to drafting based on performance. There is an argument that the point of testing isn’t to win but to instead improve, and the inclusion of results oriented rewards undermines collective improvement. It also disincentivizes discussing lines and interacting with your testing partner in a collaborative way.

But I say let’s roll them bones. (Just kidding, do the one person supply the box thing)

Of the current set

At this point, I can’t imagine you’ll schedule a draft boot camp for Welcome to Rathe, or god forbid Uprising, but it should be stated that the purpose of your boot camp should be narrowed in on a goal of getting better at the draft format in front of you.

Draft in Flesh and Blood, like most games that have a draft component, varies so much from set to set. To be sure, many core principles transfer from set to set, but the reason draft is so appealing is that it’s a fresh, undiscovered landscape each time a set is released.

You probably won’t benefit too much from a Tales of Aria boot camp at this point, if only because there aren’t any competitive tournaments using it as a format (that being said, if you and your buddies are going to boot camp ToA, let me know…I’m in).

With similarly minded people

This element is really where the crux of draft boot camping comes into play. You may not want to boot camp out 5 – 10 drafts with teammates in one day. Alternatively, you might, but your buddies may not.

Like anything in life, it all comes down to goals and expectations. If you want to get better at Flesh and Blood draft, get more serious about competing, and better structure your practice time, you’re going to have a hard time if your practice partners don’t also share that goal.

I don’t include this section to demean people who have less ambitious goals. In fact, my own goals with the game are in a weird, undefinable spot right now. All I know is that if your group of drafters aren’t on the same page as to the objectives of the draft boot camp, you’ll leave frustrated.

Common pitfalls/tips and tricks

When you go to organize a boot camp for your friends/testing partners, it will generally be a smooth experience once you nail down a date and location. That being said, some things may pop up that you can get ahead of if you plan properly.

Not having clearly defined goals

As just discussed, not having clearly defined goals really undermines any testing enterprise. For the most recent boot camp I organized for Outsiders, I didn’t do a good job of seeing what we wanted out of the boot camp experience.

We did six drafts (I think) that day, and it was definitely useful. That being said, it may have been better if we had articulated some group goals ahead of time. For example, one boot-camper (I don’t love this phrasing either) mentioned that it would have been a good idea for people to have created tier lists for rares and commons, or at least have a general idea of theories they wanted to prove or disprove.

I talked a little bit about preliminary card evaluation for limited in last week’s quadrant theory edition, and I agree with our boot-camper that it would have been nice to have hypothesis to prove or disprove at the camp. We could have even used quadrant theory to have pre-camp meetings about what cards we wanted to get more information about.

Likewise, I regret not gathering more data. In any card game testing, there is often too small of a sample size for any data driven exercise to prove useful. That being said, in a six draft day, that’s around 72 matches happening. It’s not statically insignificant if you find that, of the 10 Uzuri vs. Riptide matches, all 10 resulted in Uzuri fatiguing Riptide.

It would also be useful to know what people’s tendencies for going first/second were. After the fact, it would be useful to go back to players and ask, “How did going second feel? Would you have changed your decision? In the matches since the boot camp, have you learned anything else about that decision point?”

I bring all of these examples forward as examples of things to consider about what you want out of the experience and to hopefully define them before heading into your boot camp.

Not getting a clear head count

This “pitfall” is here mostly to prevent people feeling annoyed at when they have to sit out for a draft. It sucks to be the ninth person at an eight person event. Because our goal is to get quality drafts, it undermines the experience to add a 9th or 10th drafter to the pod.

At the most recent boot camp I ran, I over booked. Fortunately, people were flexible and cool with being randomly excluded from a draft or two throughout the day. And because we had an even amount, those two players could play classic constructed during the draft they sat out.

Scheduling with card players is pretty challenging, so I understand the difficulty of wanting to make sure you have enough people on the day of the boot camp. That being said, if you’re worried that someone might flake (I say this knowing full well that I’m the flake of my group), you might want to address the more pressing elephant in the room of whether that person has goals that are aligned for the type of boot camp that you’re looking to run. See, I told you it’s all about goals.

If you are in a position where you feel it’s best to overbook, I would plan for the worst case scenario of everyone showing up. Make sure that people know they may have to sit for a draft or two. They can otherwise be involved, like helping with pick decisions or discussing lines of play, but I felt bad when people had to sit in our drafts, so I just want to minimize that where possible.

Not having product

It would really suck to get through two or three drafts, be gaining some momentum towards a productive day, only to realize that you’ve ran out of sealed product!

My Magic friend’s group solved this problem by requiring each boot-camper to provide their own box. Entry was available to basically anyone, but to get in the door, you had to provide a box.

I understand this isn’t feasible for everyone, and you may not want to exclude friends from the drafts simply because they can’t spring for a box. No one should be excluded for that. So just keep in mind product availability heading into the boot camp. If you’re going to aim for six drafts, make sure you have six confirmed boxes accounted for before the weekend. If you don’t have the product, you can simply adjust expectations for the boot camp!

Conclusion

A draft boot camp is mostly just jamming a bunch of drafts with particular goals in mind. Anytime you take a simple thing (here, drafting) and tag “serious” onto the end of it, you just want to make sure you do what you can to make it worth your time.

I love draft boot camping. There’s something about getting together with a bunch of buddies for a whole day of gaming that really reminds you of what’s good in life. It also has the competitive upside as well: if you do this the first weekend product is available, you’ll undoubtedly have more drafts in than anyone else at your next tournament. If you do this ahead of a major event you’re preparing for, you’ll be more prepared and focused for the event than you would have otherwise.

Have you ran a draft boot camp before? How did you handle things? What issues did you run into, and what was the group’s consensus of the boot camp? Let me know in the blog’s comment section. If you do decide to give draft boot camp a go, I hope you let me know how it goes!

If you’ve read this far, I’d greatly appreciate if you’d consider subscribing, for free, to this newsletter. The weekly newsletter will hopefully grow as I get feedback and experience, and I truly look forward to sharing it with everyone.

Next week: A Guide to the Brawl in Pittsburgh –or– an interview! I promise this whole blog isn’t abstract theory discussion. I’m looking forward to getting into some news and notes here soon!