About Me

10/28/2023 Update: While it doesn’t directly affect my board gaming, I have recently finally accepted I am on the Ace/Aro spectrums, and that has been unbelievably helpful for my mental health. I mention it here in case anyone else is struggling with the possibility of being Asexual or Aromantic to show there are others out there. I cannot highly enough recommend the novel Loveless by Alice Oseman for anyone questioning or wanting to know more about the Aro/Ace experience.

I decided to update this page today because I’ve been thinking it was too out of date for a while now. Coincidentally, today (1/19/20) is the exact four-year anniversary of my first post.

I am a board game enthusiast who loves the socially-centered intellectual-experimentation I get out of playing card/board games. My favorites range from Dixit and Skull (simple cleverness-enablers) to Epic Card Game and Axis and Allies 1940 combined (robust planning-rewarders).

After four years of playing/competing and blogging/streaming Epic Card Game, I believe it is fairly uncontroversial to say I am was one of the best players in the world (although the app is bringing up a bunch of really strong players so I’m not sure how much longer this will remain uncontroversial to say). (As of 5/4/2022, there are now significantly more players better or at least as strong as me.) This comes largely from repeatedly losing to better players, analyzing my mistakes, and then working through my conclusions in over 150 published Epic posts containing around a quarter of a million total words. (In addition to five guest articles and hours of video content.) That being said, I’m still improving (having made another large leap in understanding at Origins 2019), and I can see multiple areas of underexplored strategy that I want to delve into (and then write about). On the other hand, I have also gotten to the point where I can enjoy games without needing to win or play optimally. [I have no plans to create more Epic content at this time.]

I currently live in a condo in the suburbs of the Twin Cities (Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN). I work at Mackin, a book distributor for primarily K-12 libraries, and thanks to both of these facts in addition to my experiences with Epic and its community, I am by far the happiest I have ever been in my life. Feel free to reach out if you would like to play some games at any of the many game stores in the Twin Cities.

My Blog/Epic/Depression History

I originally started this blog in an attempt to create a sort-of digital portfolio for trying to get into the board game industry. At the time I was recovering from the crippling culmination of my depression that had begun to manifest in 8th grade; I had quit my job as a programmer, where I thought about suicide daily, as I tried to save up enough of the $150,000 to reasonably go to NYU’s two-year masters program in Game Design, since that was the only path where I could even imagine being happy. My week at Wise Wizard Games, thanks to Kickstarting Epic, heightened my desire to start a blog, and a surprise connection to a different large board game company was just enough impetus to enable me to actually push through and do it (in addition to the previous months of medication and separation from my toxic job).

Initially, I was able to get out a post a day (previews, reviews, strategy content) as I worked through a backlog of my gaming experiences. However, my Epic posts were consistently my most viewed and commented on content. So, as my experience with Epic grew and my backlog of gaming experiences shrank, I steadily focused more and more on Epic, announcing a shift to focus on it in anticipation of Origins Game Fair in June 2016.

Origins was amazing. It was my first chance to have extended, in-person conversations with strangers about this game we all loved (all but one of whom were incredible), it was my first in-person competitive card game experience with major stakes, I surprised myself by making top 4 in both limited tournaments (gaining major insight from both of my losses), I saw just how far behind I was in constructed ability (in addition to seeing Derek Arnold play an Epic strategy I had never imagined), and my pet Combative Humans deck exceeded my expectations (earning me my first loss to Hampus Eriksson, in the finals, igniting my loathing of Muse). From those experiences I was able to produce a lot of high quality Epic content, including my Epic Limited: Get Ahead, Stay Ahead article which remains one of my best and my first Epic Puzzle contest.

Then, I won the first limited event at Gen Con, which qualified me for the World Championship. I was unable to stand for 15 minutes after that as I was flooded with pride for my play and the tangible affirmation that my Epic blog content had value. In addition, I met Tom Dixon, the single most important person for building my self confidence by bluntly stating and making me accept my value as a person. (He is one of way too many in the Epic community to mention … now, but I love you all. You immeasurably improved my life.)

From that point, this became an Epic Card Game blog (that occasionally wrote about other gaming topics). It’s been that way through two World Championships (the repeated splitting of the prize pool of the second, and other community outrages), the alpha-launch of the Epic Card Game app, and a few more Origins/Gen Cons. (With a few long posting droughts in between). During this time I moved to Minnesota for a Fantasy Flight Games internship, worked in their factory, moved into a new apartment that I love with my friends, started working at Mackin (which my love of has allowed me to move on from my goal to work in the board game industry), established another strong friendship, and did some minor playtest assistance for a reader on a game recently picked up by a board game company (super excited to talk more about this game when I can). Thanks to the Epic community and all of these major life improvements, I have so many more things-I-want-to-do competing for my time, and the self-confidence to actually try to do them.

10/28/2023 Update: At 32, I have covered my arms in tattoos openly depicting my passions (board games, anime, books currently) as opposed to hiding myself behind stoic shyness, which I have been slowly working to overcome since starting this blog. In the same year, I also came out on the Aro/Ace Spectrums after having finally experienced both Romantic and Physical attraction to two different people, one of which remains a very important friend.

Going Forward

For the reasons above and due to the infrequent physical Epic events and new card releases, my motivation to write Epic content has significantly diminished, as it isn’t my only thing anymore, and I’m no longer trying to get into the board game industry. (Wise Wizard Games also haven’t posted anything about it for 2 and a half years.) I have one more article I absolutely will write on my Aggro-Combo Human token list from Origins 2019 [didn’t]; another article on how to build competitive Epic decks I both want to and feel I need to write (to satiate my completionism although it will be hard) [didn’t], and a few other planned ones that I want to write, but probably won’t any time soon. (I have another massive non-Epic project I’ve been wanting to tackle on here instead. In addition to a Widget Ridge review. [Spoiler: it’s honestly one of my favorite games.][did])

That being said, every time I start playing Epic again after a break, I immediately fall back in love with it. Epic is truly a phenomenal game. I plan on streaming all of the monthly tournaments I can (including the one this Saturday 1/25/19) at https://www.twitch.tv/tomsepicgaming, and I’ve been wanting to challenge more people to streamed showmatches (feel free to reach out if you would be interested in playing in one). Further, I will definitely review new cards and continue to compete in all of the physical 10ks that I can, which could certainly spawn more articles. And who knows, if the app gets filled with players and queue times become reasonable after the official open-beta launch planned for February, I might do regular scheduled streaming. (The app is now live.)

Overall though, I’m actually at an incredible place mentally that I was certain was impossible for the past 15 years, doing something professionally I initially stumbled into as a stop-gap that I had never previously considered. In addition, my overall physical health is the best it has ever been too. This blog and its readers have been a major contributing factor, and I have no plans to abandon either even though my post frequency is decreasing. Thank you for being here. As of 5/4/2022, I have no plans of posting new articles, but I might post some stuff here and there. 10/28/2023, I am back to posting when things excite me. Trying to work on a Board Game Strategy book as I have the time/motivation.

My name is Tom Sorenson. I am a History, English double major with a computer science minor who gave up a position programming with a major financial software company to follow my passion, games. Currently I am working on designing board games that I can then submit to small game companies to get my foot in the door of the industry. (I am also working part-time at a local Planet Fitness.)

I am creating this blog to serve a few purposes. The obvious selfish one is to create a body of work that I can present to companies to display what I am capable of producing. For everyone else, I want to create a place for people to break into and advance in the hobby of board games. I will primarily be reviewing games in a manner that assumes no familiarity with the subject. While this blog is partly for myself, I honestly want more people to get into the hobby because I believe it is so amazing. In addition to my reviews, I will be including links to good places to buy games, other reviewers/board game websites, conventions, and anything else I believe new gamers might want to access.

My other primary goal of this website is to discuss the Epic Card Game by White Wizard Games (now Wise Wizard Games). This is by far my favorite game currently, I want more people to play it, I want to discuss strategy, I want to cover competitive play, and I want to compete in it personally. I am unquestionably biased in this regard because I did help to fund the game through Kickstarter.com, I went to their HQ to design a card for a future expansion as a reward, and I like the employees there. I am, however, not receiving any money from them and will be honest about how I feel about their products. For instance, I am not nearly as big a fan of their other game Star Realms as the rest of the gaming community seems to be, but I don’t dislike it.

List of #1 Favorite Games Over the Years

For fellow gamers here is a list of my favorite games over the years to give you an idea of what I generally enjoy *see picture above as well*. The list starts with my current favorite and goes back to Monopoly. It includes board games, computer games, and one sport.

Arkham Horror LCG (5/4/2022)
Epic Card Game
Widget Ridge
Race for the Galaxy
Smash Up
Dominion
Civilization 5
Axis and Allies (1940 European and Pacific Combined 2nd Edition)
Racquetball
Magic: The Gathering
Guild Wars
Risk 2210
Stratego
Masterpiece
Monopoly

My High Level Board Game Design Ideas

Jury-Rigging Mech Arena Game
Multi-deck Mill-centric Non-Collectible TCG
Bowling Deck Building Game