Reaction: Monsterpocalypse

After a few weeks of browsing the manual from the starter set and picking up boosters are random, I was moderately ready to demo the game with Weirdguy. Here are my initial reactions as a complete n00b to this game.

First, it's a pretty hard sell as far as CMGs go. The requires that each player picks up a “starter set.” This means between 2 people to play, they invest $50USD (at MSRP) up front for the absolute minimum playable equipment. Considering the requirements of the game (each player needs a set of the specialty dice, a Monster figure, a group of Units figures, a map, and at least 4 buildings on the map), this is, quite frankly, the most affordable way to get startered. That's because if one were to acquire the dice and an absolute minimum of miniatures to play, one would spend a lot more on individual products in the line.

On the other hand, if you're lucky enough to be Weirdguy and know me, then you get to check out the game for free because my OCD tendencies have made me purchase enough stuff to allow 2 players stage a very simple game.

Secondly, it's a very young game. Game evolve over time. Revisions get added to subsequent additions. Rules get tweaked with official errata. Clarifications are provided. None of this seems to exist for Monsterpocalypse. The rulebook is all you get and you really need to read it very carefully to understand every nuance when it comes to the little things that Privateer Press seems to assume you should grasp right away.

The box came with a fold-out helpfully marked “Read this first!” in large bold print. This seems to be a trend – they are eager to get you started with a run-down of the game mechanics. However, like my experience with the AT-43 Initiation Set, this introduction won't help you set up the an actual game. In the end, you still need to read the thick full-colour 60-page rulebook.

Once we set up, we got down to spawning Spawning our Units and trying to Advance them towards each other. I did the obvious things like paying Action dice to move each figure and rolling attacks. But sooner than later, we started to come across the little not-so-obvious questions. Like what to do with the Power-Dice (could we use them to supplement any rolls we want?). Do Power Attacks cost the required minimum 1 Action die and 1 Power die in addition to the dice-in-play specified on the Monster's base? All this information can be had in one way or another, but it's not easily found. We spent a lot of time reading and rereading the rulebook's text, trying to gleaned the implied information out of the example situations cited.

My final reaction having tried it is that while I like the game, I still don't particularly care for this game's distribution system. Other than the start-up costs, the game harkens back to the old days of games like Magic: The Gathering. There are no “army sets”; figures come in boosters at random. To date, only 2 products in the regular line-up contain any fixed figures: The starter set gets you 4 specific support Units. If you're lucky, the random Monster figure will be of a corresponding faction to one of those. The other is a map-pack which comes with an exclusive “Government Building” miniature.

I've already won my first auction for a matched lot through eBay. I'm looking forward to trying to play again with a group of figures that can take advantage of their faction's abilities when they work together rather than the confused bunch I had to demo with.

Tournament of n00bs (Day 7)

On the final day of my active participation in the round-robin, I dropped my 8th and final match to the tournament’s dark horse. He played a Black/White deck – both life-draining and life-restoring (from the Time Spirals era of M:TG, IIRC). Nothing spectacular occurred this game outside the usual events. I found myself skipping the first several turns before I could play Onyx Goblet (meaning at least I wasn’t going to be shut-out). I played several Dragon Fodder, giving tokens promptly used as meat-shields until a Flying creature came around. The match was rather forgettable.

I walk away from this tournament with one all-important lesson: choose a strategy and stick to during deck-building. Conflux was so shiny and new and I easily bought into the idea of 5-colour play. Domain abilities were so tempting. The thought of Might of Alara granting +5/+5 to any creature was intense. Exploding Borders dealing five in damage instantly could turn the tide of any game.

But the key, I think, was to avoid such temptation. Domain could have been just as effective at 3 colours. I’ll take a +3/+3 boost any day if it costs only 1 mana to cast. Trouble came when my Hellkite Overlord, a star in my tournament deck showed up in my hand. It costs 8 to play, which is not a problem if you built your deck following the classic 60/40 card ratio rule and only 3 colours. On average you should be able to play it within the first 10 turns or so. But in my 5-colour deck, it was entirely possible my vast collection of mana was still missing a key Swamp, Mountain, or Forest.

I think my next step, sadly outside the tournament, will be to reduce the colours of my deck and go back to the classic Jund configuration. Seed all 4 Hellkite Overlord cards among all my other Jund “greatest hits.” And then worry about the cheap creatures I will need to populate in the deck. Most importantly, follow the prescribed Jund strategy of “dog-eat-dog.” Take advantage of the Devour keyword. Or even try using the Dragon’s Herald’s ability in combination with a Hissing Iguanar on the table. Sacrifice 3 creatures to automatically bring in Hellkite Overlord and simultaneously deal 3 in damage? Sold!

Now to put my theories into practice…

This is the end of my Tournament of n00bs column but I will post the occasional battle-reports. And of course, also my play-test results after I reconfigure my deck back to the classic Jund setup.

Tournament of n00bs (Day 6)

I am back on my losing streak of 2 games. Making matters worse is the upset I suffered today against Robin (of the Dynamic Duo). As I kept warning people, Robin's luck had to turn around sooner or later and he finally ended his 4-game losing streak with a win against me today (in fact he won the following game as well).

 

As for myself, the unthinkable scenario made an encore appearance when not 1 red mana would appear until I found a Rupture Spire and played my trusty Exploding Borders. After that, I had a shot at playing Dragon Fodder to at least get a couple of tokens on the field. Meanwhile I held in my hand several big creatures I simply could not play including a Predator Dragon and Hellkite Overlord. I eyed Robin's Manaforce Mace anxiously sitting unequipped next to a lonely 2/2 creature...

And that was when I accidentally made my fatal error.

 

With both sides extremely low on Life count, I drew the final Mountain I needed to play Hellkite Overlord. Naturally in my excitment I played its Haste ability to cut down on Robin's Life counter believing it would act as the great equalizer. But I should have been more patient. Summoning this dragon meant I was left tapped out of mana. Instead, as hindsight is 20/20, I should have noticed that the 2/2 creature on the table was actually an Artifact Creature. I should have saved my Hellkite Overlord then and instead simply played Naturalize to eliminate that threat. Then allow my tokens to cancel out his tokens as well, leaving both of us on equal footing one more turn. Then only after ensuring I had no fear of retaliation, would I play my dragons.

 

As one of the remaining Dark Horses in the tournament, Robin's win over me means I have been eliminated from the final play-off position. Not that it matter, because by winning his second match, he also ensured that others currently tied in contention for the final spot have also currently fallen out of the running as well. From here on, I play much like a bot in a video game providing win/loss records for the remaining candidates. Thankfully, I have only 1 more round-robin match up with which to endure such humiliation.

 

...at least I know what the difference is between a Sorcery and an Instant... (rolls eyes at certain players sitting around the lunch table).

Life: Easter weekend 2009

In case anybody out there cares... I'm back from my hometown.

Like every other visit I arrived with a "crunch." Seems the ditch through-pipe has raised another inch or so (or the surrounding earth sunken a bit more). I'm afraid bottoming out the car has knocked something loose ...again. I didn't notice on the highway but it was when made my way through the city back to my house that I realized just how unusually loud my engine was.

On the bright side a few bits of gaming news from this weekend.

I played M:TG and lost a lot to my brother. He played a variety of custom decks he had built over the years (some dating back to his early youth when Magic was still new). While I played with only the pre-constructed decks from the Jace vs Chandra set. I also threw together a custom Jund deck with my leftovers (my best cards are still locked away for the tournament, unfortunately).

We finally, after many months of bad timing, got to play AT-43 for the first time. Either it was mismatched unit types, or just unable to schedule a rendez-vous together, we never were able to even try a proper game after finishing the contents of the Initiation Set. The first game was... quite a mess, to be honest. We chose the first scenario in the rulebook (a straight up "kill your opponent for points" setup; no capture objectives, no reinforcement units). We randomly set up a game board by placing my collection of tiles, then the terrain elements, then randomly choosing sides of the map to start from.

Almost immediately, we made our first mistakes. There are certain things you don't really think of when you come from a WH40k 4th edition background... Like the fact that all units can run faster if they choose not to shoot. Instead, I misread the Therian optional "Dash" to mean that I could move a full 30cm in addition to whatever previous combat move they made! Other silly mistakes included the thought that "take cover" meant you could get a saving throw even when your unit was out in the open. About half-way through the game we decided that made no sense and went back to "warhammer logic" - if it's partially behind something, then it gets a chance to hide.

I thoroughly enjoyed our first match. I think its one major game mechanic that trumps WH40k is the fact that you take turns activating units. WH40k may be more "real" in that all your units are effectively acting simultaneously, but AT-43 is simply more fast-paced gaming because you don't sit around waiting for your opponent to move 6 to 10 units around the field. Both players are engaged at all times because you're busy thinking of ways to outmanoeuvre the opponent.

As a final note, if you missed it my Tweet, I did indeed find a Matcatz Fightpad. I chose the Ryu design. I am consistently amused that the EB-Games in my tiny home-town manage to get inventory for these sorts of hard-to-find items and that they seem to sit on the shelves for quite a while. I actually also saw a non-Tournament-Edition Fightstick as well, but I think I'll take my chances and wait to see if I can get my hands on a TE.

Tournament of n00bs (Day 5)

Another loss drops my total win percentage down to 33.3%. I’m not quite sitting dead last but I am indeed in trouble and the odds are against advancing beyond round-robin play. The fourth and final play-off position is 2 wins away and I need to count on at least 2 other players to lose their remaining match-ups in order to leap-frog them. And this does not address the current dark horse – one fellow who so far has played and won his only game. I’m told that particular match-up was nothing short of “epic” clocking in at a whopping 45 minutes.

I entered a 50/50 chance match today. My opponent, like me, also had 2 wins under his belt but had only played 4 games thus far. His win percentage was therefore higher. There was nothing particular I could put my finger on if I were to lay blame other than, “some days the cards just don’t come up.”

I started with a fairly strong hand but in general, I have very few cards that cost less than 3 mana to cast. I would only start playing cards in the third turn (other than a reasonably healthy supply of Lands). It was just a matter of attrition for this game since my opponent (playing a Naya-styled deck) started to drop several Saprolings. This effectively caused a stand-off against my Sprouting Thrinax. My only luck this game was to be able to play an Onyx Goblet (which strangely, made its first appearance since I started in the tournament).
When the Sprouting Thrinax died in combat, it left me my own army of Saprolings (the stand-off continued). I had a decent combo in my hand which unfortunately was too early to play. Without enough mana, I had no choice but to play a Dragon Fodder for a couple more tokens. But I wouldn’t last another two rounds to collect enough mana to use a Predator Dragon’s Devour ability. Which in any case, having lost nearly half my life in the early turns, my build-up to larger creatures could not keep up with the Naya growth.

Tournament of n00bs (Day 4)

I stopped my 2-game losing streak by winning in style today. Some days luck just swings in my favour. I played an old-school player using a 4th edition deck of black. And while he was able to play several small Creatures, the first was an Artifact so I was able to at least get delay his game while I built up a mana pool of Lands. I quickly built a large collection of Lands (including my core Jund colours in Basic Lands).

Then the terrible killer combo in my hand was ready: My Exploding Borders finalized all 5 Basic Lands to open with 5 damage. Next turn came a Hellkite Overlord, which alone is already devastating. The final move in my attack combination was lacking only 1 mana (it would have been sweet if it played out in one turn), I held in my hand a Dragon Fodder and a Predator Dragon. So instead, I used what red mana I had to get my goblin tokens and the rest to boost the Hellkite Overlord. It seemed my opponent’s luck had run out because he couldn’t play anything this turn allowing me to next Devour the goblins creating an 8/8 Predator Dragon. And very little in this universe can withstand the attack of 2 Dragons with Haste combined.

My previous losses have taken its toll on my standing in the round-robin, however. At the moment I sit in fifth position with only 2 wins and a ratio of 40%. Weirdguy on the other hand has continued to rack up the wins landing in first place with a 100% win ratio so far.

Tournament of n00bs (Day 3)

I played 2 more Round-Robin match-ups today in the tournament.
First up was Weirdguy who finally came back from vacation. A decent amount of Land came up off the draw (neither side asked to mulligan). I counted on my wide variety of colours to keep me afloat. Weirdguy got out a series of small Creatures with Lifelink which easily got him a constant supply of health. I blocked with a Sprouting Thrinax hoping the resulting Saprolings would be useful later (they were not other than to perform chump blocks; this does nothing to prevent the Lifelink from triggering). My only saving grace was to deploy a Hellkite Overlord. His Flying, Haste, and Trample combination kept cancelling out the Lifelink effects so that my opponent kept hovering between 10 and 20 points. But as the turns went on, his smaller creatures inevitable cut me down each turn.

In my second game today, I played another dreadfully mediocre game. I don’t think I was particularly unlucky as much as my opponent was extremely lucky. I drew the usual selection of Lands and a few random creatures. I played an Exploding Borders for 4 points of damage, and also a Grixis Battlemage who served only as a normal 2/2 attacker. But a few turns later my opponent played a series Sorcery in postcombat to deal nearly 15 points of damage. I groaned, realizing that had I not been so eager to play the Exploding Borders the previous turn, that I did indeed have enough mana to play the Lich’s Mirror still in my hand. Such is a fatal error I will not make a second time.

Officially, my win ratio drops to 25% today (having played 4 games in the round-robin and only winning 1 so far). If I've done my math right, I'll need to win all my remaining round-robin games to advance... not bloody likely! :)

Tournament of n00bs (Day 2)

I faced off against Batman (I call him that because he one of the dynamic duo around the office). He opened with a mulligan while I, mana-shy after yesterday's "unthinkable scenario" disaster, decided to roll with the hand full of Lands and Obelisks (and only 1 Creature and 1 Artifact).

Thankfully this game I managed my B-R-G colour combo off the draw and was able to field a Sprouting Thrinax early. Luck was on my side (because it definitely wasn't with Batman today). He drew few Lands and wound up summoning only some smaller Creatures. Reluctant to give them up, he didn't block the Sprouting Thrinax (allowing me to cause 3 damage several times). I turned a Bant Panorama into a 4th Basic Land and tried Might of Alara on the Sprouting Thrinax. Batman countered that Instant with a Cancel but I got my regular 3 damage in anyway.

My shuffles today would prove better as I drew Exploding Border. It would only be a matter of time. My opponent continued to cut down on me as well since Sprouting Thrinax was still the only Creature on my side of the table. Soon I grew tired of waiting for him to kill it (so that I could Devour the resulting Saprolings with my Thorn-Thrash Viashino). Instead I played an Esper Battlemage to try messing with him.

But none of that mattered and the final turns came down to luck of the draw: would I draw something useless (like more Lands giving me mana-burn)? Or would I draw something else? I drew my second of two Exploding Borders. I won my second match bringing my win ratio in the round-robin up to 50%.

Tournament of n00bs

Here we are, a bunch of IT yuppies and I open my big mouth one day. Not coincidentally the same day that Weirdguy happens on a big stack of somebody's unwanted Magic: The Gathering cards at Value Village for a couple of bucks. See what I have wrought.

It is about 3 months later since I opened my big mouth. "We should play. I've never played before. Now's my chance," I said.

Players popped out of the woodwork when passers-by caught Weirdguy and I playing together during our lunch-break. And today is day one of our Round-Robin tournament. 9 players and at stake is Fat Pack of the upcoming Alara Reborn set (paid for by the entry fees we collected and pooled).

And in game 1 of the round-robin format... I lost. The unthinkable scenario: I play a heavily-modified Jund deck at 5 colours - and I did not draw a single red mana. The only damage I was able to deal (and I suspect my opponent was pitying me, because he should have been able to chump-block me) was 6 points by combining a Grixis Battlemage with a Might of Alara.

I will make a post every day I participate in the tournament to report the goings on. I only hope a reshuffle will bring me better luck down the line.