My most anticipated event at Gen Con 2023 was the 7th Sea : City of Five SailsWorld Championship. I heard about the game while looking through the Gen Con event list for tournaments, and I had managed to get about 10 games in before Gen Con and another 3 Friday night. Posted a bit about the game here.
I went into the tournament wanting to play a Castille/Soline deck because it seemed like the weakest faction so I felt challenged to make it work. Played some games against my good friend Tom Dixon the night before the event, and it just felt frustratingly underpowered. So, I switched to Eisen/Kaspar because I was super excited about exploiting Unsavory Salve, and Eisen seemed reasonably powerful overall. Was a bit worried that everyone was going to be playing Eisen, but I was pleasantly surprised to see it was tied for the least represented faction (with Vodacce/The Don) for my hipster self. I was also very surprised with how underwhelming Unsavory Salve turned out to be.
Gen Con 2023 Top Eisen Decklist
This is the list I ran for the tournament. (There are 6 changes I made after the event):
Generally speaking, I intended this to be a midrange deck that could win with any of the three victory conditions. The major idea I wanted to experiment with was shrugging off challenges while pushing through small amounts of damage at a time, not necessarily focusing on initiating challenges myself. I wanted only-parry cards (ex. Regroup) to end duels (if you send no threat back, the duel ends), and I wanted to use the guns (ex. Polished Flintlock) to whittle down characters.
Unsavory Salve’s ability to erase a threat and turn it into a wound had me salivating over the idea of achieving both of those goals at the same time. Specifically, it could turn Appealing to the People, Breastplate, and Kaspar’s Panzerhand into 3 or 4 parry cards, that inflicted an unblockable wound and ended the duel, effectively erasing the value of my opponent’s Engage Action (challenge). Even getting an unlucky Opulence Gamble could at least end the duel and deal a wound. Important remainder though, you can only trigger one Technique per combat round, so you can’t use 2 Unsavory Salves to cancel 2 Thrust (ex. Tending the Wounded). In addition, if your weapon is destroyed or stolen, you lose the Salve.
Lastly, we packed 15 attachments into the deck to have an attachment density greater than 1/3 to make Otto likely to draw a card off his ability. Throwing Knives were primarily included to hit that threshold and to help enable Last Word.
For those of you who clicked and are new to the blog, I will let you know that I can go on for quite a while about very intricate strategic ideas. Welcome!
*courtier bow*
While there is only 1 leader to choose from, Kaspar is strong with his big butt (9 resolve) and his ability to recruit at 4 influence. The former lets him refuse challenges he doesn’t want, and the latter lets him recruit strong Mercenaries with minimal card disadvantage.
Approach
Otto‘s straightforward. Muster him round 1 of every game to draw an extra card each turn.
Rena was included to shield my weaker characters/mercenaries by allowing for multiple intervenes a turn, even while engaged.
Daniella gives an extra challenge to any reasonable merc I recruit, even while both are engaged, which also lets me get additional value from attachments.
Terrell can potentially net me a bonus card if he gambles into an attachment. (One of my most underrated cards.)
Rosine can engage characters and really hurt sorcerers, 5th include.
Midnight Shipment and Let’s Haggle, I included them initially to put out extra city cards that I could pay for, even though I was thinking lowest initiative went first. Finding out the night before that it was highest initiative was a major boon.
Armed and Marshaled seemed great as I have a ton of attachments and engaging a character is great.
Song of Eisen seemed okay, but it was Eisen specific and getting back a merc to buy later seemed reasonable in addition to the Renown.
Faction
Dark Gift, Otto enabler. Once per day extra mobility or healing seems great. 3 riposte is nice.
Kaspar’s Panzerhand, Otto enabler, Unsavory Salve combat. 4 parry is strong, but while all of the effects seem powerful, likely too expensive/situational to equip often.
Langschwert, Otto enabler, Unsavory Salve enabler. (Another incredibly underestimated card.)
Polished Flintlock, Otto enabler, Unsavory Salve enabler, Last Word Enabler. Inflict unpreventable chip/finishing damage.
Unsavory Salve, Otto enabler, see above.
Breastplate, Otto enabler, Unsavory Salve combat, wanted to equip it to help mitigate damage.
Matchlock Musket, Otto enabler. Inflict unpreventable chip damage. (Underestimated)
Throwing Knife, Otto enabler, Unsavory Salve enabler, Last Word Enabler (underestimated)
Uppman’s Jacket, Otto enabler. Maybe have the +1 Influence be relevant
Last Word, unpreventable wound in combat even if bad RPT and possibly push people around (underestimated)
Move Along, issue additional challenge even while engaged
Press the Advantage, almost cut this card due to the 2-cost. Maneuver against an engaged enemy felt overcosted, but I figured I would hold onto them for the ability to engage and send home an enemy in case I happened to build up cards in hand.
Bleed Out, finish off a character weakened by chip damage
Not Today, panic added the 2nd copy over 2nd Uppman’s Jacket Friday night to protect against potential shenanigans like Yevgeni or Heroic End, which scarred me early in my playtesting against myself.
Uneventful day 1. Day 2 The Don left unguarded and engaged. Challenge once (accepted) get some damage in leaving him at 3 health. Well-Equipped to En garde and challenge again, can’t be refused or death. Follow up with Matchlock Musket or Fight Through the Pain combat card to push more threat than can be blocked.
Unremarkable day 1 and 2. On day 3 I have 3 renown to opponent’s 4. 3 renown on the Docks, 2 on the Grand Bazaar. I get greedy and try to control both the Docks and the Grand Bazaar to win that day. Soline player adeptly dances around and uses trickanery to gain control of the docks and threaten victory. I attempt to use a combination of Claude de la Roche, murder, forced interventions, Press the Advantage, Dark Gift and a Regroup to take and hold the Docks with less overall influence (Last Word in reserve with a Polished Flintlock on the board to enable). Night of Drinking and Taunt hold me off. I’m left with just an En garde Rena equipped with a Throwing Knife at the location, in addition to a bunch of other engaged characters with random attachments including a Duckfoot Pistol.
I think I’m beat. My opponent knows I’m beat. It looks like a Renown win for him, but I go into the tank (think about all of my possible lines for an extended period of time). Eventually I come out of the tank and use Last Word to push my opponent’s engaged Carmella Vanessa Salvaggi off the location (since her once per day is still available). Then Rena, equipped with a Throwing Knife, challenges Soline with 2 wounds. My thought is that if Soline refuses, I do 3 wounds and can then use my Polished Flintlock and Duckfoot Pistol to finish them off. Right before initiating I realize that Duckfoot Pistol can’t hit leaders, so if my opponent refuses the duel, my opponent wins, as all of my characters are engaged out, I only have 1 card in hand, and I can’t do the last wound to finish Soline. Having no other paths to victory, I initiate the challenge anyway and hope my opponent makes a mistake and accepts.
My opponent accepts the duel. He immediately gambles into Robbery to steal Rena‘s Throwing Knives and bring her back down to 2 combat for restricted hostilities. Soline takes 1 damage going to 3 wounds (4 resolve remaining). I gamble, Rena survives and puts out a decent amount of threat, but we are once again at a point where if my opponent just takes the 2 damage they win. Instead, he gambles into Life in the Canals. After thinking about it for a while, my opponent decides to draw instead of making me discard my last card (since I still had a gamble left). Soline takes 1 or 2 more damage.
I play my card in hand for combat afraid of my opponent flipping a second Life in the Canals and making me discard. He defends enough to stay at at least 2 Resolve. I use my last Gamble, he defends and goes down to 1 Resolve. Seeing I am out of Gambles (Soline’s -1 Finesse), all of my characters are engaged, and I have no cards in hand. Opponent offers me his hand to shake for his victory. I calmly ask if he passes. Confused he does a quick scan of the board and says he passes. I activate my Polished Flintlock to shoot the engaged Soline, and then offer my hand.
Assassination Victory. 2-0
This was one of the best examples of “playing to your outs” I have had in any game. Instead of conceding after failing to disrupt the guaranteed Renown win that we both devoted a ton of time to working through, I ran through all of my options until I found a possibility. Then, even though I knew my opponent could survive it, I forced him to play perfectly again (without having perfect information of my hand), after perfectly rebuffing my Renown assault just before. This surprised him and made him claim he made a mistake previously which he dwelled on. Finally, after the relief of surviving the duel and thinking I was completely out of the game, he relaxed and passed. He ended the game with Improvising in hand which could have been used on the Fight Through the Pain in my discard pile to heal his Soline back to 2 Resolve due to the stolen Throwing Knives.
Day 1, I just barely managed to fend off a turn 1 Domination victory. I have been using Midnight Shipment and Let’s Haggle all tournament and have taken the first action on almost every single day so far. This enabled me to effectively blank my opponent’s muster of Cirilo Naucriparos as I beat him to the single strong Merc flip from the city deck.
Over the next couple days, I continue to get my pick of Mercs from the city deck to the point of having to send one to the locker on day 3 or 4. While doing so, I also manage to pick off and/or whittle down his characters while generating a 5 to 2 renown lead. My opponent concedes.
This was also the first round with the story-based game alterations. In this one, Eisen was in control of the forums, so anyone had to win a pressure by 2 to take control of that location for the day. It was a fun addition, but I do not remember it having much of a gameplay impact. Due to the concession, we agreed Eisen was in control of it, as I had the character power to do it.
Having just seen and discussed the Vodacce turn 1 Domination potential last game, I was particularly on my guard to make sure I did not succumb to it. Guaranteed turn 1 Alcee and Angelo is pretty scary.
This was the second round with a lore-based gameplay modification. In this one, the Crystal Eye was added to the Grand Bazaar first, in addition to the random City card added on the first day. I wanted to chase the story reward, but Captain’s Coatspawned on the Forums, and I was way too scared to let Vodacce have it. (I also think the card on the Docks was either weak or irrelevant, Siren’s Scream?) Due to this, I opened with Let’s Haggle, still out initiativing Plans within Plans. I sent Kaspar to the forums to guarantee my opponent didn’t get Captain’s Coat. He went to the Grand Bazaar to get the Skull. I used my City Action on Let’s Haggle to have Kaspar take the Skull without the -1 discount. I then went on to take the Coat later.
I do not remember if my opponent sent any character to claim the Coat at a later time, but if not, I regret spending the 3 cards to pick it up, after initially denying it to the Don. While I still wanted it to enable me to still parley with characters and/or initiate challenges while leaving my claim action available, the 3-card cost was expensive when combined with the Skull putting me on 1 card on the first turn. This most likely hampered my ability to play some of my strong cards later in the game. At minimum, I think I would have preferred to at least draw an opponent’s character to the location if he got greedy enough to try to take it. In the end, it was Shoddied before I ever used it, netting me -1 card advantage for no benefit (aside from denying it to my opponent which was probably worth it, since it can be very hard to kill off a Vodacce’s characters).
The next mistake I made was getting too comfortable not being challenged. For my first 3 games, I was definitely the combat aggressor. So, in this game, I equipped a Matchlock Musket to Otto without really thinking. I had other actions to take which had higher priority (no idea what they were), and then one of Vodacce’s characters came and snuffed out Otto denying me a bunch of potential value and effectively causing me to lose 2 cards in hand for nothing, one of which being Musket which I have come to value tremendously for combat (especially with Terrell in after Gen Con games).
Things were starting to look up in day 3? as I got to recruit Maryam Benu Pleroma, an excellent fighter with some protection from shenanigans. No protection from the non-targeting Veronica’s Guile Maneuver though which hurt, as sending her home prevented my own shenanigans. I also want to take this moment to thank the Judge staff for answering all of the rules questions throughout the entirety of the event, especially as there were a bunch of new players without a ton of experience (like myself, although I probably had more games under my belt than the majority of players there). All of you judges were great and excellently dressed in character.
In the end, things were looking quite good, I was either about to win or still in good shape, but a well-executed combination of getting Alcee killed and then bringing her back with Bravos to reclaim the last location secured the win for my opponent.
Thinking back on it further, I am convincing myself more and more that actually paying for the Coat (if my opponent didn’t move in to buy it) was a mistake. Those 3 cards could have been a paid Press the Advantage, Move Along, Well-Equipped, Appealing to the People, or even Last Word, Regroup, Stratege to either kill/engage Alcee or at least mess with the influence math to prevent the location from being retaken; although, who’s to say if I would have had the discipline to hold onto one of those, probably not. I will now though. (If I see a potential line for my opponent to kill Alcee, while having at least 2 cards in hand, with a location that just needs someone to initiate a challenge to steal it back.)
Renown Loss. 3-1 (don’t think it was a Domination loss, but might have been)
This was the matchup I was most worried about because I was afraid of getting smushed. However, I had a plan. Assassinate Yevgeni.
In my 2nd game testing against myself, I ran Yevgeni into Odette and Yevgeni came out with 3 wounds over multiple rounds to Odette’s 0. It made me realize that a protracted duel with Yevgeni (using a seemingly more standard/defensive dueling strategy that I have since abandoned) was actually a liability, and the best way to sideline a Ussura player was to make Yevgeni unable to fight.
Day 2, Sigurd Ulfsen flips up, the best anti-Ussura city deck card in the game. Utilizing Sigurd to protect Maryam (now equipped with a Langshwert) from getting initiated on, I chase Yevgeni down and inflict 8 wounds onto him while only taking 5 (propped up by the Cuirass). After Day 2 I have 1 Renown at most to my opponent’s 3 or 4.
Day 3, Yevgeni dodges Maryam, so I go after a different character with her. Opponent does a sick Sunder on my Cuirass instantly causing Maryam to die to her 5 wounds before I can send threat back to finish them off. From here, however, my focus on hunting Yevgeni and his crew while preventing Yevgeni from initiating challenges on my major players has begun to pay dividends. I am able to come back from my Renown deficit investment (with some help from my opponent’s refusal to capture the Docks so Ussura won’t get framed for the murder of a Musketeer [story-line effect, also made all damage at the Docks lethal, which did not come into play].
Day 4, I collect enough Renown to win the game.
Renown Win. 4-1
Game 6 (Top 16): Opponent Didn’t Show
Unfortunate as I would rather play than get a free win, but it happens. Got some sweet promos.
Interesting to note the top 5 was all Vodacce (with only 9 Vodacce players) except for me as Eisen in 3rd. I was also the only Eisen in top 16 (only 9 Eisen players as well). Overall a very balanced distribution of factions which surprised me.
After seeing the crazy movement capabilities of the last Castille player, I am cautious and deliberate not to open myself up to any mistake-punishes. My opponent and I both agree that Castille is overall weaker and the Castille player must punish mistakes to win, so he is very deliberate to not miss any. Translation, we both took a long time to think through our moves.
Day 1. Castille gets off to the better start gaining control of the 2 Renown Grand Bazaar and the 1 Renown Docks. No one controls the Forums with 1 renown on it. I have the ability to use Midnight Shipment‘s City Action to move Ravenna Destine in and claim it (since I recruited both her and Adelheide Schmidt from there), but if I do, Soline can reaction in, claim it, and win with Domination. So I hold and hope my opponent gets greedy, forgets about Midnight Shipment‘s City Action, and moves in to claim it. He does. I Midnight Shipment over to the Grand Bazaar and split the influence 2 to 2 (also avoiding Domination loss).
Day 2, I refuse to accept a good thing. He has control over the Grand Bazaar, I have the forums with equal Renown on both. He’s at 3 cards in hand with a bunch of characters up. I have 8 with Kaspar at home and a bunch of engaged characters. He passes. Not wanting to discard, I equip Kaspar with Dark Gift. Opponent passes again. I agonize over whether I should accept, but I get greedy and send Kaspar to the Docks to try to claim another Renown instead of taking my 3 card advantage into day 3. He passes, and I get even greedier.
I say, “whelp, will see if this loses me the game,” and I activate Kaspar’s Engage ability to find a merc (since I think only Takama Siad was available that day). I flip Vladislav Novikoff…against a non-dueling deck…a character with no influence…when 1 influence was all I cared about…sadness. Of the remaining mercs in the deck, I had a 7 of 11 chance of hitting a character with influence, but those odds probably weren’t good enough to risk not claiming the location, especially since only Maryam of those weren’t just awful for me (Kalla Forsberg would have been okay, usually solid for me). My opponent then acts, and I am forced into burning 4 of my 6 cards to hold him off while playing around Makepeace Botwighte. I do manage to hold it with a lethal challenge that gets intervened in by the last En garde character, but before that I forget about Makepeace and Dark Gift my engaged Kaspar in having him take Eko Sorridi damage +1 more from something else for leaving, just for him to be sent home. Around this time we get a warning that time will be called shortly.
Going into Day 3, I know the game won’t wrap up before time is called, but I do not remember the tie-breakers/order. I vaguely remembered something about wounds, so I quick try to heal while holding my opponent off from claiming the high Renown location. Time gets called. We have equal renown. No one controls any locations. The Castille player has more total influence and wins the game.
Timeout Influence Tiebreaker Loss 5*-2
It is unfortunate that the game was called on time but completely understandable as we were both taking inordinate amounts of time to think through our moves. That being said, it was a great game with a lot of interesting decisions to make and good learned lessons, honestly no hard feelings. Going first each day also protected me from the Adaptable Domination win that my opponent accidentally revealed to me before realizing he wasn’t the first player.
Post-Tournament Deck Thoughts/Card Analysis
Major takeaways from the event were
Always going first with Midnight Shipment and Let’s Haggle in addition to occasionally the others was incredibly powerful for getting to all of the Mercs/attachments from the City Deck I wanted
The City Action on each of those and Armed and Marshalled were all incredible/unexpected by my opponents
Turn 1 Domination is real and scary especially as I’m a value deck
Whiffed 8 times trying for an attachment with Otto, want more attachments
Rena did work, although Langshwert was the true hero
Fight Through the Pain is one of the best cards in the game, supports overwhelming-force combat ideaology (briefly send as much threat as possible, ideally 2 or 3 above your restricted hostilities)
Otto, added in 2nd copy of Uppman’s Jacket and 2 copies of Corpse Speak almost exclusively to raise the odds of hitting with Otto to get an extra card to discard to costs. Due to all of the whiffing, he was very underwhelming a lot of the times, but I haven’t given up on him yet.
Rena, did not use her Engage a weapon to intervene ability once, but wrecked some face with her 3 Combat 3 Finesse when she had a Langschwert equipped. Throwing Knives was also a reasonable 0-cost way to get her up to 3 combat.
Daniella, came in only a couple times when I had strong mercs. Strong in those situations though. Okay duelist against pacifist factions. Is the only user for the addition of the Corpse Speaks.
Terrell, didn’t particularly shine in the tournament but in post-tournament games has been a major standout. Being able to play Musket from hand followed by Panzerhand without losing either after the duel is incredible. 5 resolve is major as well.
Rosine, considered using her to help me prevent the domination victory, but basically never particularly felt like bringing her out as my combat was doing so well. Ultimately cut her for Phillip Hase
Phillip Hase, the movement reaction on equip feels so good to have in my pocket. The 2 influence feels nice too. (And another 3 combat character is always appreciated with the amount of combat I initiate.)
Midnight Shipment, fantastic. The “I go first” card (highest initiative) that can flip up another strong card to take (or get taken). The movement City Action is also fantastic for catching people off-guard, like sending your newly recruited Merc off to fight an engaged character.
Let’s Haggle, fantastic. Effectively a second “I go first” card. Attachments are generally great to flip up for combat based decks as well. The ability to snipe the attachment while not on the Grand Bazaar is quite nice, as is the discount to maintain card advantage.
Song of Eisen, I keep it for the almost guaranteed Renown gain but rarely play it.
Faction
Corpse Speak, attachments 17 and 18 for Otto reliability. Will be played very infrequently for its effect, however, there are quite a few reasonable Risks worth having Daniella replay.
Kaspar’s Panzerhand, great with Terrell. Might be nice against Montaigne, but I have yet to spend 2 to equip it, and I doubt I will often…ever?
Langschwert, one of the best cards in the deck. The ability to throw an extra threat in your challenge and then to stack another on your haymaker follow up is enough to kill a lot of characters. 0-cost too. So good.
Polished Flintlock, only came down once, but I was giggling about it for a couple days afterwards (maybe played twice). With Opulence upped to 2-of, it seems quite nice if I only have to spend 1 card for it. The threat of 1 more damage is definitely worth it and having another Last Word enabler is great.
Unsavory Salve, never played it. Somewhat afraid of Shoddy, but mostly I fought factions where I didn’t want the duels to end, no Montaigne opponents, and I was hunting boar. Stays in the deck as an attachment for Otto though. Likely gets pushed out as new attachments become available.
Breastplate, never wanted to play it in combat unless to potentially fend off a final strike. Never wanted to use 2 cards (itself + 1) to equip it. Otto fodder.
Matchlock Musket, oh man I think people are sleeping on this card. The 5 threat is absolutely incredible as it allows you to overwhelm an opponent’s dueling defenses. It seems like a lot of people are enamored with cards that give 3 Riposte/Parry (I was too), but if you play a Musket with a Langschwert charge on a 3 combat hero, there 3 defense becomes literally meaningless. Turns their Appealing to the People into an Opulence. I did this to so many players and they just stared at it until they realized they just lose to it. The fact that Terrellcan play this for free is incredible. The fact that Otto pulls it is great. The fact that you can also equip it to finish off a wounded card and then keep pumping out damage is delicious but generally its secondary function. This is the poster child of overwhelming-force combat. It isn’t about surviving your opponent’s threat with Riposte/Parry on your Gambles, its about surviving with Resolve and killing them almost instantly, even if it costs a card from hand. (Then you can gamble after to mitigate some of the return threat.)
Throwing Knife, quite reasonable at enabling Rena and other “equipped” effects like Well-Equipped. The extra thrust can matter too and if it inflicts a wound, it is a better return-on-investment than all of my other unpreventable wound inflictors like Bleed Out.
Uppman’s Jacket, Otto fodder. Not a bad card and the +1 Influence can certainly matter, but Kaspar’s 4 on recruit is usually enough.
Fight Through the Pain, one of the best cards in the game. For the same overwhelming-force reasons as Musket, it trades the valuable attachment tag for a wound heal that happens after restricted hostilities. So, if someone Musket+ Langschwerts me with a 3 combat character, as long as I don’t die, this effectively has 4 Parry, in addition to the 5 thrust. Chef’s kiss. Even though I brought it for the action heal, I would be hard pressed to ever not save it for combat, but it can get you above the 3 health threshhold to enable one round of surviving combat or refusing duels etc. Bring me all of the cards that effectively negate R/P defense.
Iron Reply, meh. Haven’t gotten into many situations where this can just finish off a character. Next card I would cut if I have to. Considered running New Strategies over them, but I don’t want to completely cut off the Renown win.
Last Word, 0-cost enemy movement is so helpful in so many ways. Move out a possible intervener. Push out influence to enable a claim. Send someone over to your smasher, etc. This card did so much work for me and no one ever saw it coming.
Move Along, great, additional challenge to kill a character or send them home engaged for 2 total cards.
Press the Advantage, I still never want to pay for this as combat card, unless I’m about to get an Assassination. But, the ability to engage and send someone home is so strong, especially since I frequently have a card advantage with Otto (post attachment increase) and Kaspar’s 4 influence recruit.
Regroup, decent movement tool. Usually don’t want to be the one ending duels. It stays for the movement.
Stratege, a wanted more movement after seeing the Vodacce/Solines out there. Never played it in the tournament … or after yet…However, since it is not a “City” Action, it could even move my engaged characters out of home, so I can follow up with Well-Equipped or Move Alongs!
Appealing to the People, if it lets me En garde, it is solid, but the requirement to control the location is not meaningless. 3 Parry isn’t terrible against those final gambles.
Bleed Out, finishing off a character is worth 2 cards. 1 Riposte 3 Thrust isn’t bad either.
Not Today, cut entirely as I was the threat, not the threatened. Did save Otto from a Yevgeni once though. Not worth including… probably
Opulence, deck contains a bunch of 2 cost cards and I am frequently chasing down city cards. With the deletion of Not Today, the odds of flipping two terrible gamble cards for maintaining a duel are acceptable
Shoddy Craftmanship, why kill the attachment when you can kill the character? (Cut)
Tending the Wounded, used once to heal 4, was okay. 3 parry is fine, other cards are better. (Cut)
Conclusion
I really enjoyed the game, and the distribution model lets me mess around with whatever deck I feel like without having to chase down cards etc. Really enjoying the game, the festival/judges were great, story is a definite plus with a cool writer, and I’m looking forward to seeing how the overwhelming force doctrine maps onto the other factions.
7th Sea : City of Five Sails is a 2-player, expandable (non-collectible) dueling card game with Pirates, Musketeers, and Sorcerers (with multiplayer formats). Your goal is either
Assassination: Kill your opponent’s Leader
Domination: Control all 3 corelocations in the city at the end of the day
Renown: Control locations in the city over 5 days to collect 7 (or the most) Renown
To accomplish this, each Day you choose 1 of your 5 pre-selected Characters to add to the fray and 1 of your 5 pre-selected Schemes to shape it. These are supported by your randomized 40-card Faction deck. However, before you make your choices, a neutral card is added to each location that players can race to Recruit, Equip, or exploit that Day from a randomized 30-card City deck. (This City deck is defined by Pine Box Entertainment, and they plan to rotate it, in part based on the actions taken in Organized Play events/tournaments).
Cards in your Faction deck can be
Played for their primary effect (equipping characters or performing one-time effects)
Played for their combat values in a duel (regardless of their primary effect)
Discarded to pay the cost of other powerful Faction and/or City cards (Race for the Galaxy style [one of my favorite game mechanisms])
Players alternate taking a single action until all players pass consecutively.
Initiating back and forth Duels and Claiming a Location are the primary two actions the game is built around (in addition to playing cards, character movement, and Passing).
Current Thoughts
As of this point, I have played about 10 games, half of which with decks I’ve built. I am still in the exploration phase as I feel out everything this game has to offer, but so far, I have been enjoying it and actively want to continue experimenting.
During the third game, the flow of play clicked and now actions can go pretty snappy back and forth, especially since you’ll want to be thinking multiple moves into the future. I actively enjoy the combination of City cards coming out, and then deciding which Scheme card to respond with, to determine where Renown gets put, what bonus effect to gain, your likelihood of going first each day, and whether you’ll draw more of less cards than normal. That feels great, especially since you can only use each of your 5 schemes once for the up to 5 days.
Card management also feels good. As mentioned above, I love the discard cards from hand to pay for other cards mechanism. It also synergizes well with deckbuilding enabling you to include situational cards, cards you actively want to play, and cards you actively want for dueling (especially if flipped in gambling). The tension between Gambling in duels and playing from hand is also a satisfying choice; Gambling has certainly screwed me, but not in a way that turns me off from the game, since “Gambling” is a very apt name for the mechanism.
My one disappointment so far is that deck building feels very limited at this point, with seemingly only one way to take each faction, for now. As additional expansions come out with new cards and characters for each faction, I expect/hope this will improve. For now, it mostly feels like optimization as opposed to exploration.
**As of 4/4/2026, with 2 expansions released and a 3rd finalized and on Table Top Simulator, each faction has two leaders to choose from and plenty of Faction cards to allow for unique builds for each leader. (I’m also the two-time World/Gen Con champion, excellent game.) There is also a solo-mode releasing with the newest expansion.
Faction Overview
Each of the 5 factions feel different and interesting to play. Currently, my vague feeling for each is
Castille: Try to deprive your opponent of as many actions and choices as possible, weak dueling, Renown primary win condition
Eisen: Bruteforce overwhelm your opponents by ending duels (refusing or returning no threat) and pushing unpreventable damage, Any win condition
Montaigne: Best duelists, force your opponents into duels and extend them, Any win condition
Ussura: Combo deck, find the hammer and/or buff Yevgeni to issue one-shot challenges, kill opponent in a duel as soon as possible, Domination/Assassination win conditions
Vodacce: Take as many actions as possible, everyone outside The Family is expendable towards your Renown win condition (or surprise Assassination)
I plan to do individual write ups on the deck I built for each of these factions.
Theme/Art/Lore
If I can buy this playmat at GenCon, I will, love it. Would buy a framed print of it too.
I’ve recently discovered that good Theming/Art/Lore can really draw me into a game (much more than I expected), and I have been drawn in to 7th Sea : City of Five Sails.
I learned about the game while looking for tournaments in the Gen Con 2023 event catalogue, and as a non-collectible, 2-player card game, I was obviously immediately intrigued. There is a World Championship Festival Saturday starting at 10am, and it will have a story-based game augmentation in 3 of the rounds (28 open spots remaining as of today).
So I looked into it further and saw they had Chanteys with lore on their website and in their rulebook. All of the stories have been interesting and have actively made me want to explore the world. Apparently, the setting is based off a 7th Sea Role Playing Game and there was a previous collectible version of the game in the late 90s.
Going in to the World Championship, for gameplay reasons I think I am leaning towards playing Eisen, but for thematic reasons, I will likely pick a different faction so I can usurp them. That being said, I see that Ussura won the 6-week salon (and Eisen won the initial 2022 Gen Con tournament), so my personality is pushing me away from those. Ahhh, so many fun considerations to agonize over for what I want to play! Ultimately, I need (and want) to get more games in to feel out the factions more, and I need (and want) to pour through all of the lore to come to a compromise of the two.
Closing
For anyone looking to play, there is an official Tabletop Simulator mod and Pinebox Entertainment discord. I am looking to get as many games in as possible, so if interested you can reach out through discord, username: tomsepicgaming
Mindbug is a 2-player card game where you play creatures to attack your opponent. You only get 10 creatures, but the deliciously intriguing part is you also get 2 mindbugs which let you steal an opponent’s creature as if you had played it.
Elegant and beautiful.
Trying to figure out how to sequence your plays to navigate your opponent’s mindbugs, while agonizing over when to use yours is just so good. So, so good.
Beyond Evolution
Mindbug Beyond Evolution is the first stand-alone expansion and second expansion overall for Mindbug. It contains 44 new playable cards (16 unique and 14 with two copies). Beyond Evolution also introduces two new keywords: Action and Evolve.
Action is an effect you can trigger on a creature that started your turn in play, instead of Attacking or Playing a card for your turn. For example, if you start your turn with Infernostrich in play, you can use its action to Defeat an enemy creature with power 7 or more, and then your opponent takes their turn.
Evolve lets you upgrade a creature to a stronger version of itself going from stage I to stage II to finally stage III.
Beyond Evolution Review
I actively do not recommend this new stand alone product as a starting point into Mindbug, one of my favorite games literally included in a tattoo on my arm.
As is frequently the case with expansions, this adds a level of complexity and nebulousness Beyond what you find in the base game. If you already love Mindbug and both you and your opponents want an added challenge, this expansion definitely delivers that. There are interesting new cards that lead to significantly more complicated board states and “discovered” attacks as the board states shift due to dying creatures (love you Coach Panda), but the counter play is much less obvious, less forgiving, and feels worse/more unfair than the base game (even though the balance seems on point when you adjust to it).
One of the major culprits for this is the increased amount of Tough, especially on creatures with incredibly powerful effects like difficult to prevent damage. Robopup is the prime example, a 1 power Sneaky, Tough. If you play a Robopup on an empty board, whoever gets it is likely to be able to make at least one and likely two unblocked attacks before it can either be destroyed twice, or a hunter can be played to attack it twice. (In this stand alone expansion, there are only 2 copies of a sneaky card bigger than this, and two copies of a card that stops sneakies from attacking.) Knowing this, you do not want to play a Robopup unless you already have a hunter in play or one of the few immediate answers to it available, or conversely you want to mindbug it if your opponent plays it. However, if you do not know this and you let it resolve for your opponent, or they mindbug the one you played, you are going to have a serious problem. Even playing against better than average strategic-gamers, they repeatedly made the mistake of playing this and other similar cards only for me to mindbug it and make them feel helpless. Other culprits include Dragon Inn, Mole Machine, and the frog and penguin levelers. (To be fair, The Experiment and Octocopter are two additional answers to these powerful Tough creatures.)
In addition to these, cards like Dr. Orange U. Tan (which lets you lose a life to return all opposing creatures to hand) and Westside Monster feel oppressive while Chuckling Chimporg feels too narrow.
All that being said, when I got a chance to play against one of the best Mindbug players in the world, everything felt reasonable and interesting; however, even I still made an objective misplay into a board state that my opponent insisted we rewind (allowing reasonable rewinding being my preferred way to play for all games).
Conclusion
Overall, I would be legitimately thrilled to play in a Mindbug tournament with this set included or even by itself, but I can’t see myself ever breaking it out outside of that, unless I run into another voracious Mindbug fanatic like myself who craves more content.
I have been wanting to write a book for a long time. I want a book to introduce anyone to board game strategy to exist. And, I enjoy talking about board games and strategy. So let’s do it, finally! (This is where I would insert a picture of my Gillian tattoo, but I have to wait until 5/17/23 before I’ll actually have it.)
So, there is content out there that talks about board games from a design perspective and plenty of content with game specific strategy, but what I want to create is a book that draws upon my moderate array of board gaming experience, to define the overarching strategy concepts that I bring to any game I play. As I have done with Epic, I want to level the playing field as much as I can to enable other people to actually compete with me (not that I’m overconfident or anything and don’t frequently lament my downfall at the hands of my own hubris).
My favorite part of board/card gaming is the face to face social interaction between two+ people actively competing to win (without being jerks about it) and having a great time while doing it. Gen Con 2022 I competed in (and won) both a Jaipur tournament and a sealed SolForge Fusion tournament, and while both were fun, the Jaipur tournament with the casual, banter-filled atmosphere, subjected to my aggressive heavy camel-taking strategy that caught everyone by surprise, was far superior. Having opponents who actively knew how to play at the highest level forced me to see new devious tactics (such as heavily manipulating the market by taking a bunch of leather with camels to fill my hand to 7, triggering my opponent to think it was safe to take all of the camels, only for them to pop up 3 luxury goods to the table with a smirk on their face, for me to counter-smirk by dropping my leather right back to the table to take the luxury, *sigh* so beautiful *sigh*)…where was I again?
Right, I want MORE. More gamers who see the beauty in high level competitive play for its own sake (without feeling the need to cheat or maliciously angle-shoot etc.). I want to provide a groundwork for the average person to truly experience what I believe to be the heights of strategic gaming, ideally in an amusing to consume format without needing to devote the thousands of hours I’ve accumulated (which still is not where near enough).
Call for Assistance
In order to actually progress towards this goal of a board game strategy book, I need motivation, more gaming experience, and the collective knowledge of all of you to challenge my ideas (so they can grow) and to inform me of similar content I can standardize against. My plan is to complete a first draft without looking around too much to lower the possibility of accidental plagiarism, but after that, if there are established terms already in use, I might adopt those while also providing references/links to other high caliber content.
Roadmap
First, I want to develop a list strategic concepts that are present across a wide range of games. In order to do that, I am creating quick summaries of the games I know well including Goal of the Game, Game-specific Tactics to achieve that goal, and strategic concepts that inform why those tactics are valuable. So, when I have the motivation to work on this, I plan on filling out this summary for at least one more game.
Once I have filled out most of the games below, I want to identify the strategic concepts I want to talk about the most. (In addition, I plan on seeing if any of those are concepts you all want to see explored first.)
Then, when I have the motivation, I will try to go one concept at a time. First a definition of the concept. Followed by an in-depth explanation, likely ending with examples from the list of games below. In addition, to providing references/links to others who have discussed this topic, such as the “Who’s the Beatdown” article by Mike Flores … although reading this article, it seems incredibly unapproachable to anyone without a background in Magic which I actively will want to avoid to keep this book more generically approachable. (I’m also not entirely sure how I’ll have these transfer over into the book.)
Progress So Far (as of 4/29/23)
I took a week off of work to begin working on this book which I’ve had the idea to work on for a long time. This is as far I’ve gotten so far. I am hoping blogging my progress going forward will be able to help maintain my motivation to keep going (since I haven’t worked on it since 3/19/23). But phew, I’m beat, will come back to later.
Book Goal
Casually explain high-level board game strategy so readers can develop their own game-specific tactics.
Jaipur
Goals of the game is to get the most victory points
Early discs for the low value
Big as possible sets
As much luxury as possible
Tactics
Turn in your non-luxury goods if you see your opponent take them at start of game
Turn in non-luxury so as not to flip more cards
Avoiding taking camels to avoid flipping luxury cards for opponent
Taking camels to gain handsize advantage
Swapping out non-luxury goods for luxury to also stifle market
Taking a bunch of camels when your opponent has none or a nearly full hand
Turn in cards to clear up space in your hand for more cards
Strategy
Pay attention to what opponent has and minimize their potential points
Limit opponents’ potential plays
Focus on maximizing assets for self in comparison to opponent (opportunity cost)
Taking the Ruby instead of your 5th Leather
Card Advantage
Risk Management
Mindbug
Goal of the game is to reduce your opponent to 0 life
Have an uncontested attacker
Finish off opponent
Get your opponent to only Mindbug cards you can deal with
Tactics
Offer a card you have a counter to in hand
Mindbug a card you don’t have a counter to in hand
Attack when your opponent can’t stop it, otherwise don’t without reason
Only play as many cards as are needed (advance towards goal)
Don’t chumpblock unless necessary
Know the possible cards, especially finishers
Play cards that are great for you that are actively mediocre for your opponent to steal
Play support cards before their value is apparent
Learn your opponent’s playstyle and card preferences to counter them
Bluff and/or change it up once your opponent learns yours
Read body language
Card economy have your cards gain more value than the cards needed to stop them
Kangasaurus Rex multiple creatures, Plated Scorpion kills two, Strage Barrel
Know when to break your own rules
Tempo
Know what needs to be answered immediately and what can wait
Mindbug decision depends on
Board state
Both Players’ health totals
Cards in both players hands
Potentially cards in both players’ discard piles
Remaining Mindbugs
Playing cards you don’t need to buy time/chump blocking
Strategy
Read your opponent react to body language and anticipate plays
Think multiple moves in advance
Preserve resources/timing
Card Economy
Tempo
Stay Focused
Arkham Horror LCG
Goal of the game is ultimately to win the final scenario
Each individual scenario progress the Act Deck usually by getting clues and surviving
Make your character stronger by maximizing victory points and avoiding trauma
Tactics
Maximize action economy by getting multiple clues/doing multiple damage in one action
Kill vs evade
Card efficiency (how much value per card per resource)
Specializing vs Generalizing (Clue vs Kill), evade/will
Teamwork (countering their weaknesses and relying on their strengths)
Getting permanent buffs out as early as possible to maximize use
Maximizing character powers
Risk management (token bag)
Split or stay together
Search effects especially for finding experience cards
Clearing off more clues than needed to get VP, Hunting down VP enemies
Negating doom to give extra actions
Prepare for known treachery cards (blind vs returning)
Cycling skills
Strategy
Action and Card Economy
Teamwork (countering weaknesses and relying on strengths)
Maximizing buffs (value) as early as possible
Anticipate Treachery
Risk Management
Card Advantage
Card Quality (experience cards, getting out key pieces, cycling)
Dominion
Goal of the game is to have the most VP in deck at end of the game
Usually by getting more provinces (or colonies) faster than your opponent(s)
Exploiting other VP gaining strategies to subvert province rush
Tactics
Thinning deck to improve card quality (trashing cards)
Get card draw to gain access to more and better cards sooner
Buy high value cards
Disrupt opponents strategy (buy their cards, play targeted attacks)
Maximizing the value of your cards/turns
Spending all of your money
Playing towards the strengths of your cards, away from their weaknesses
Prioritize synergy though
Plan strategy ahead of time
Adapt as your plan sputters
Don’t buy non-synergistic cards just because you can (curses, moat)
Don’t buy more actions than you can play (Card Quality)
Be careful about buying VP before your deck is ready (Provinces/Gardens)
Pay attention to remaining VP and have a general idea what opponent’s have
Watch out for inadvertently helping opponents (Trade Route, Council Room)
Strategy
Plan your strategy at the start of the game
Card Quality
Maximize card value
Adapt (Anticipate Treachery)
Tempo
Stay Focused
Card Advantage
Star Realms
Goal of the game is to reduce your opponent to 0 health
Tactics
Buy cards of the same faction to trigger ally effects
Thin your deck to get to your better cards sooner
Add card draw to get to your better cards sooner
Counter what your opponent is doing by buying cards that are incredible for them, but still reasonable for you
Buy counter cards (destroy target base if base heavy)
Gain cards that give more money early, more damage late
Discard is decent early game to disrupt buying
Discard is good late game if opponent’s deck is thinned or you have a lot
Health Gain is good if your deck is bigger (costs) more than your opponent’s and/or your deck is more thinned than theirs
Damage is more important early if your opponent gets bases (bases are better if your opponent doesn’t have/can’t get damage)
Explorers are good early to help get more expensive cards, and should be scrapped to thin deck later
Everything is better with a thinned deck, but prioritizing a thinned deck without the ability to survive opponent’s aggression or get high value/synergistic cards isn’t good
Scrap your economy and Scrapping cards late game if they don’t provide efficient additional effects
Rush to get highest value cards (Brainworld) before your opponent can
Adapt based on trade row (if it shows a lot of efficient, inexpensive damage, maybe don’t go minor economy + scrap)
Card Quality (some cards are just better than others for the same purchase cost)
Kill bases unless you can win, best bases first
Buying cards that are less than you can afford that you know your opponent will want and can afford
Strategy
Card Quality
Maximize card value (ally triggers)
Anticipate and Perform Treachery
Tempo
Card Advantage
Maximizing value as soon as possible (bigger ships earlier give more chance for value)
Widget Ridge
Goal of the game is to generate the most spark
Tactics
Prioritize money cards early to get high value cards (card quality)
Pay attention to connections (maximizing value of cards)
Focus on getting a great full-construct and/or reusing connect abilities
Draw cards and thin deck good (Card quality)
Timing/sequencing of effects, play cards that want you to have less spark first
Keeping cards in your workshop vs letting them hit discard pile
Buying cards that are less than you can afford that you know your opponent will want and can afford
Buy Accessory/Augments with the only connection(s) opponent’s devices can use
Strategy
Card Quality
Maximizing value of cards
Minor Anticipate/Perform Treachery
Timing/Sequencing of effects
Radlands
Goal of the game is to destroy all of your opponent’s bases
Tactics
Develop efficient ways to deal damage, ideal 1 water for 1 damage
Avoid relying on 2 water for 1 damage as it is less efficient
Protect your key cards with characters in front of them
Protect your damaged bases
Target the most disruptive cards of your opponent
Draw cards to have more option for both junk effects and play effects
Choose synergistic bases with a reasonable starting hand size (Don’t pick all 0 starting hand bases)
Spend all of your water every turn
Don’t underestimate spending 2 water to draw a card
Take your time
Time your effects for the biggest impact (events as 0, get a bunch of punks then return everything to hand, etc.)
Muse is bonus water every turn
It is largely an efficiency puzzle
Play to your bases/cards strengths/synergies
Axis and Allies (2nd edition 1940)
Goal of the game is to get your opponent to surrender by making it practically impossible to achieve their win condition
Tactics
As the axis, be aggressive, plan your first 3 turns thoroughly
As allies, react to what your opponent does, but don’t let them bait you too hard
As the soviets, planes are great at disrupting a fragmented advance
Overwhelming force to preserve your units
Infantry to take hits protecting your higher value units that deal hits
Can opening with other nations to make way for haymakers (Italy for Germany, Britain for US)
Income taken from opponents compound for you, but stretching yourself too thin leaves you open to counter attack
Every turn you spend building up is a turn your opponent’s spend building up
Tempo is incredibly important for Axis while Allies largely have to delay to give time for their economy to crush
Generally don’t leave territories with units outside of the borders
Don’t free France, use their production instead?
Axis need to focus on taking as much territory as possible so needs units that can
Don’t let highly valuable units and or territory be taken for little cost
Strategy
Maximize economy while minimizing opponent’s economy
Axis need to win as quickly as possible
Great Western Trail 2nd Edition
Goal
Epic Card Game
Goal of the game is to either reduce your opponent to 0 hit points or draw from an empty deck
Tactics
Play burn to finish off opponent, if they spend their gold on their turn, you get 2 gold in a row before they can spend another
Combine 0s with specific ones to do all of the damage at once and force a response
Pace your 0’s to stay ahead and make your opponent’s removal inefficient
Play the most powerful cards
Play cards your opponents aren’t expecting in powerful ways
Include enough cards to reliably hit loyalty effects
Provide continual pressure that your opponent can’t keep up with
Heal to get out of range of your opponent finishing you off with burn
Pay attention to your opponent’s likely drafted cards or common included cards in deck archetypes to either counter them in draft/deck building or play around the most devastating blowouts
Play to your outs, play to win, not to just not lose, unless that is how you win (delaying your loss for a couple turns if you that makes it so you can’t win is guaranteed to lose)
Take your time to think through all of your lines
Card advantage, have more cards in hand to have more options and to get to your best options faster
Card filtering to find your best cards (MGH, Zannos)
Maximize the value of your cards by including cards that support them
Preserve your gold until after your opponent spends theirs, bait/force opponent to spend first
Know when to cycle vs hold onto a card for value
Ideally never have a turn where your opponent spends their gold and you do not
High risk plays can win games, but can also lose them
Overload your opponent’s answers
Mindgames are a thing
Attack alone and early if your opponent has no good answers in play
Have a plan to beat the most common cards/decks/strategies
Don’t reveal new cards to loyalty if you don’t have to/don’t always reveal all cards you can
Practice/test
Match threats to answers
Hold off on your free mass discard pile removal to bait opponent into making bad plays, prioritize getting one otherwise have an aggressive enough deck to not need one
Recycle your best cards first/strategically to get to what you expect you will need in order
Play to your strengths playstyle wise
Strategy
Magic: The Gathering
Goal
Netrunner LCG
Goal
Rise of Augustus
Goal
Battlestar Galactica
Goal
Agricola (Worker Placement)
Goal
Hanamikoji
Goal
Ticket to Ride
Goal
Catan
Goal
7 Wonders Duel
Goal
Wingspan
Goal
Race for the Galaxy
Goal
TrekkingGames
Goal
Alchemists
Goal
Splendor
Goal
Carcassonne
Goal
Under Falling Skies
Goal
Sushi Go
Goal
Camel Up
Goal
Dixit
Goal
Specter Ops
Goal
Tikal
Goal
Ninjato
Goal
Acquire
Goal
Takenoko
Goal
Mandala
Goal
Thurn and Taxis
Goal
Paperback
Goal of the game is to have the most victory points in your deck by game end
Tactics
Prioritize cards that have more value to you
If you can come up with long words to snag the common letters, emphasize card draw and multi-character cards
If you struggle to think of long words, emphasize high buying power individual letters
Generally avoid wilds/VP early, unless you can get card draw and big words, as they can dilute your buying power
Minor filtering
Have a large vocabulary (outside knowledge)
Get the double/triple word scores to get the highest value VP cards
Focus on using your most powerful effects to get even more powerful effects
Strategy
Play to your strengths
Maximize value
Smash Up
Goal
7 Wonders Architects
Goal
Kahuna
Goal of the game is to have the most victory points by controlling islands at 3 points
Tactics
Build up cards in hand to make a devastating sequence of plays
Hold onto or play island cards to manipulate what gets shuffled
Place bridges on opponent’s controlled islands that they can’t kick off
Solidify your own islands to protect against losing pieces
Secure key connections before your opponent can, if you see them take dangerous cards
Start by making a safe foothold to build off from
Knowing when not to take a card, manipulate turn order at cost of a card
Drawing from deck to hide your information, especially if nothing valuable on display, likely to get you garbage though so usually better to take a tangentially valuable face up card
Make big plays right before the end of a round to score that round’s points
Only use 2 cards to remove a bridge as a last resort or in a combo play to remove multiple bridges (card advantage)
Focus on protecting your bridges and slowly expanding
Losing a lot of in play bridges is the main way to lose the game
Strategy
Sequencing/Timing
Card advantage (not spending two cards removing bridges often, almost always taking cards, using fewer cards to knock out/negate more cards played by opponent)
Anticipate and Initiate Treachery
Pay attention to what opponent takes and how eager they are to take it
Maximize value of cards
Push Fight
Goal of the game is to push one of your opponent’s pieces off of the board
Tactics
Trap and isolate a circle on board edge
Maneuver pieces to form a wall to obstruct opponent’s movement
Constrict opponent’s space to maneuver
Force opponent to make specific moves and/or pushes
Keep circles centralized
Get a square into opponent’s back line
Push just own pieces
Use pieces to form pushable lines
Look into opponent’s potential plays/responses
Exploit anchor for positional plays, protects whole line from being pushed back
Pay attention to what board state will look like after push
When I was sent this card to spoil for the upcoming kickstarter expansion Mindbug Beyond, I saw the Play effect and my mind focused entirely on that, forgetting everything else since that aspect is so powerful. Looking back and seeing it has Hunter and Tough too, I am shook.
For those of you who do not know, Mindbugis a two-player card game where you play cards to attack your opponent from 3 life to 0. There are only creatures, but you both get exactly 2 Mindbugs that can be used to permanently steal a creature when your opponent plays it, gaining all of the effects as if you had played it. I love this game so much it made it into my (still healing) tattoo from two weeks ago.
(That is Rhino Turtle on the end there. The full hand being Arkham Horror LCG, Dixit, Epic, Dominion, Jaipur, Radlands, Widget Ridge, Rhino Turtle [Mindbug].)
The card is Swiss Army Bug. It is a 4-power creature with Hunter, Tough, and Play: You may copy the Play effect of another creature. I confirmed that the Play effect can copy any Play effect of any creature in play by either player. As of now the Play effects are:
New Creations: Hungry Hungry Hamster, Ratomancer, Goreagle Alpha
The effect that immediately came to mind was copying Killer Bee. Due to the nature of Killer Bee’s unpreventable life loss if your opponent is out of Mindbugs, this can be the extra copy you follow up with after your actual copy of Killer Bee draws out your opponent’s last Mindbug. Having this can also allow you to play Killer Bee early to get that 5-power Hunter into play before your opponent can get any value from Sneaky characters.
As someone who is personally a big fan of having multiple of the same effect in hand, so I can double Ferret Bomber you (or now quadruple), this is a card I am definitely looking forward to. It can also give you extra copies of the one-ofs Giraffodile, Brain Fly, Mysterious Mermaid, and Ratomancer (or let you borrow the effect of those played by your opponent).
That being said, as is the case with Compost Dragon and Grave Robber, any play of Swiss Army Bug while your opponent has a Mindbug requires you to analyze just how powerful any of the in-play Play-effects would be against you. This also means sequencing your Play-effects becomes more important because if you do have a Killer Bee in play, you are at 1 life, and your opponent has a Mindbug left, you can’t play Swiss Army Bug, no matter how tempting the Kangasaurus Rex trigger undoubtedly is.
Finally, even just a 4-power Hunter, Tough is a card I would frequently be happy to have online early. This can be especially true if your hand is nothing but low power creatures (and/or you can exploit its 4 or less power). Playing this out early when the Play-effect is inactive will likely get your opponent to let you have it, since not triggering the strong play effect makes it appear to be a throwaway. Then, any 4 or less power creature you get Mindbugged becomes hunter fodder for your Swiss Army Bug. Of course, after the first time you do this to your opponent, they might get wise and realize they need to Mindbug this early, until you follow it up with all of the Rhino Turtles (*deviously contented sigh* good ol’ Rhino Turtle).
My only complaint about this card is that it is a “may” effect. It doesn’t force the controller to trigger a play effect such as Goreagle Alpha’s You lose 1 life point (like Mysterious Mermaid does). While I haven’t been able to think of a situation where I could force my opponent into both needing to Mindbug this and immediately losing if they do (if it wasn’t a “may” effect), my sadistic side is disappointed that I never will be able to. Sadness.
Anyways, I know I will be buying multiple copies of the Beyond expansion when it goes live on Kickstarter soon, so I can distribute them to all of the people I have hooked. Great game, and if you haven’t tried it yet, I highly recommend it. (Here’s the dice tower review by Tom Vasel on it as well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-9G24mEsgw)
This Sunday 1/22/23 at 10am CST I will be streaming the new video game HatMania, by the creator of one of my favorite card games Mindbug, on my twitch channel: twitch.tv/tomsepicgaming
“HatMania is a retro top down multitasking platformer with a twist. To successfully guide two companions through a treacherous dungeon, you must split your attention and navigate both their fates at the same time.” This will be my first time playing it. (I might go into it early to make sure I know the controls ahead of time though, haven’t decided.)
Mindbug is a 2-player card game where each player has the opportunity to steal exactly 2 of their opponent’s 10 cards throughout the course of a game.
On your turn, you either attack with a creature you have in play or play a creature from your hand. When you play a creature, your opponent has a chance to use one of their two mindbugs to steal that creature and treat it as if they played it themself. Mindbugs do not replenish so figuring out what to play when and when to mindbug your opponent is incredibly interesting. I highly recommend the game. (I just bought enough base sets and expansions to have 5 full sets to gift to people.) [Review by Tom Vasel from the Dice Tower]
According to FedEx, my Epic Guardians of Gowana (Jungle) kickstarter is set to arrive by end of day tonight. Assuming they don’t lose it (again), I am planning on going through all of the new cards and giving my initial impressions on them Sunday May 23rd. I have seen some spoilers, and there are a few spicy ones already. After that, I’ll spend a ton of time deck building. I’ll also be more than happy to work out any suggested ideas from chat and/or give feedback on any decks. HOWEVER, I make no guarantees that my suggestions will be worthwhile because I already know I have no idea how to effectively play some of the new cards (which excites me greatly).
I’ll probably start around 8am CDT with breaks to eat some ramen and play in the Dark Draft weekly at 11am CDT.
March 2021 Constructed Monthly
I said I would put this tournament up on Youtube because there were some great games, and I have finally started doing so. The first game is up now, and I’ll post the next game at 7pm Saturday, Tuesday, Thursday until I get knocked out, followed by a deck explanation video. The deck is midrange (obviously) but also combo, built around Mist Guide Herald and a card I considered trash tier for a long time (until Duels).
I want to like this card because this plus Little Devil is a two-card combo that threatens 14 damage, but I just don’t think it’s viable. (Secret Legion + Revolt is 21.) I brought it to the No Core Constructed Monthly to help support Demonic Rising as a combo kill against Kark, got crushed by a more controlling Evil token deck without it (no one brought Kark). Overall, I was never in a position where I could play it when my opponent’s gold was down and they had no blockers, which admittedly could have been due to me building the deck sub-optimally.
As an “Or Draw 2” it’s never bad in limited, and it can always just be a blitzing 7/7 on-turn gold-punisher. Even with just two zombies that can attack, it adds 13/13 in stats to the board for a single turn. One thing I realized at the end of that tournament and nearly forgot now is that it is actually decent off-turn no stop your opponent’s onslaught. Much worse than off-turn Justice Prevails, Battle Cry, or Demonic Rising if you have a board, but okay, and it comes with a 7/7 blocker.
Maybe you want this in a deck that’s running both Little Devil and Guilt Demon (and maybe future blitzing 0-cost Evil champions)? Overall though, it is difficult to fit 1-cost cards that primarily just buff your champions in play for attacks, and Demonic Rising will almost always be significantly better and Justice Prevails isn’t that far behind it…However, this in a Krieg deck seems like it could be terrifying. Krieg in play assuming its initial 2 zombies are gone, play Eager Necromancer into this for 3 6/6 blitzing zombies, a 3/3 blitzing zombie, a 7/7 blitzing demon and an 11/11 Krieg. This provides 19/19 worth of blitzing stats, still not great but maybe the rest of the Evil token/combo package rounds it out. (I’m really looking forward to Krieg.)
[Unfortunately this is the last rating I have written up for now. On the plus side, I am in the process of getting pre-approved for my home loan and will be interviewing real estate agents immediately afterwards, so progress on that front.]
While agonizing which tier to put this in between 5 and 7, ^that was the thought that decided it. I don’t think this is a terrible card. In fact, I think it is fairly powerful and it has worked well both for and against me; however, I think any decks that would want this card are doomed to fail because they are too susceptible to disruption.
Human tokens: I do not like 1-cost static buffs in human tokens, not Standard Bearer, not Helena’s Chosen, and not this. 1-cost static buffs for damage are unreliable. To disrupt your offense, your opponent can remove either your 1-cost static buff or your tokens it’s buffing. While their deck/draw might not be well-equipped to handle a specific one of those, odds are it can probably handle the other. Therefore, in the aggro-combo version of human tokens (which I believe to be the best), you’re only inserting another point of failure into your combo. I’d much rather force my opponent to have exactly Wither/Flash Fire than Wither/Flash Fire/Disappearing Act/Vanishing (not to mention the popular 1-cost answers like Drain Essence/Erase).
I don’t believe control-combo human token decks are particularly viable right now because they take too long to get going, and they either lose before going off enough, or your opponent draws into their necessary answers in time. This also only buffs the offense of the human tokens leaving them vulnerable to the same mass removal. At least with Forest Dweller, the +3 defense is incredibly relevant.
0-Cost Good Flyers: Another idea for Imperial Commander is to use it with 0-cost airborne champions namely: Rescue Griffin, White Dragon, Faithful Pegasus, Watchful Gargoyle, and/or Dragonling. All of those cards with +3 offense are quite frightening. This is pretty much the situation I have seen the Commander do the best, once in the no-burn showmatch v Tatian and once in a limited game. The main problems are the same things as in the Human tokens example, don’t get these cards together and/or feel bad when your opponent splits them up. Most of these zeros aren’t quite powerful enough by themselves (except Gargoyle), so even though +3 offense makes them terrifying, it isn’t reliable.
Mass Tribute/Loyalty -> Draw a card with Noble Unicorn: I’ve tried it so many times. At the end of the day, it doesn’t do powerful enough things soon enough to matter against Wild. Also, the Good 0-cost cards aren’t able to mitigate the power differential between Wild’s 1-cost plays as opposed to Good’s. If Lash/Rage and Spore Beast didn’t exist to push damage, maybe? It’s okay vs control. This card doesn’t make that archetype viable. I’m not even going to try to build that deck after finishing this review either.
Overall, this seems like a win more card. It is only particularly strong when your ahead and your opponent has nothing.
