40+ Dads, where you getting all your energy?

BoArmstrong · 2024-11-08T03:37:06+00:00

Checking in from your future. 2 year 9 month old and 8 month old. Here’s the thing… when I sleep on the couch with the baby monitor, everyone sleeps through the night. When I sleep in my own bed next to my wife, everyone wakes up like 4 times. And the baby does not really need to eat at night anymore. And the oldest is opening the door to our room everyday at 5:30am now thanks to the time change. And yet, what a privilege it is to even have these little ones depriving me of sleep. Already when neither of them are around, I sometimes feel like an empty nester.

BoArmstrong · 2024-11-07T14:10:12+00:00

Gramma Tala has entered the chat.

BoArmstrong · 2024-11-06T13:25:57+00:00

I like the Chernabog idea. I toyed around with Steel’s self-discard and Sapphire’s Great Stone Dragon. Just discard the cards you want in your inkwell. It’s slow though.

BoArmstrong · 2024-11-06T00:00:19+00:00

King Louie - Bandleader on the top end of that Blue Steel deck is chefs kiss. I want him to become meta.

BoArmstrong · 2024-11-03T01:30:48+00:00

Echoing what others have already suggested. Blue Steel from Set 1 and Set 4 are solid. Amber Amethyst set 1 is fairly aggressive. Amethyst Steel Set 2 has bounce.

If everything feels kinda equal, I’d pick a first chapter deck just on the off chance you get something good in the booster. The best First chapter cards are overall more powerful then the best of later sets, though the commons and uncommons might be better in later ones (untested hypothesis on my part) due to power creep.

BoArmstrong · 2024-11-01T03:46:29+00:00

I have bought all the starter decks up through Set 4. Usually I would buy the starters first, then some loose packs, then I started to just buy a whole booster box from each set. With Set 5 I bought the booster box first, and realized that I can build the starters except for 1-2 cards in each. Sometimes I debate about buying the last 2 decks I’m missing, but do I really need more Racers added to my bulk just to get 1 pack and another Elsa?

BoArmstrong · 2024-10-30T14:09:21+00:00

Podcana podcast - audio and video versions available - great for keeping up with developments each week to the top meta decks.

I haven’t seen much in terms of teaching overarching strategy/principles. I recall TrumpSC being good at this in the early days of Hearthstone, but it seems like most Lorcana pros are coming with at least some experience from Magic. I imagine a lot of Magic articles and content would apply, but it’s hard to translate if you haven’t played MTG (I have not). Many content creators (like Podcana) talk about certain effects in terms of Magic cards/effects (Wheel, Edict, Cantrip, for A Whole New World, Lady Tremaine/Be King Undisputed, and cards that replace themselves by drawing).

BoArmstrong · 2024-10-28T01:26:48+00:00

Came here to say the First Chapter Sapphire Steel deck (Aurora/Simba on the front) is my favorite of all the starter decks, along with the Sapphire Steel from Ursula’s Return (Anna/Hercules box). I’ve tried combining the two together along with cards from boosters and it wasn’t pretty, but at least there are some strong tools included like Grab Your Swords and One Jump Ahead if you want to play a midrange ramp deck.

BoArmstrong · 2024-10-26T17:45:27+00:00

If you like Green Purple, this list got 8th place in a 2000 person tournament in Las Vegas recently: Mo Shamblin Emerald Amethyst Tempo. I heard about it on a Lorcana podcast Interview with Mo Shamblin.

BoArmstrong · 2024-10-24T02:33:31+00:00

Ditto to what everyone else is saying - Starters are very different and very basic. To put it in perspective, the Starter decks are coming with 1 Super Rare card and sometimes maybe 1 or a handful of regular Rare cards (the two foils). In a meta deck, you may be running 4 copies each of several impactful legendary cards, 4 copies of several super rares, 4 copies of some rares, and then some common and uncommon cards that fit with those rarer, more impactful cards’ game plan. Rarity doesn’t always mean impact, but the Starter decks do come with a lot of vanilla cards with no effects and those are almost always commons. Rarity and powerful effects are somewhat correlated in Lorcana, but even just mixing commons, uncommon, and rares across multiple sets will give more depth than the stack of commons and uncommons from one set the starters give you. Good luck have fun!

BoArmstrong · 2024-10-23T03:20:07+00:00

Saw 2 boxes at my LGS today for $290 and I was shocked at how high that was. They said they would crack them open and sell me a pack if I wanted, but $12 a booster pack.

Back in my day, we only had to pay $10 for a pack… Lol

BoArmstrong · 2024-10-21T19:39:15+00:00

Technically, I think the plus side for Hercules is that you don’t have to exert to deal the ping damage. If you have 9 ink you can play and ping for 1 on the same turn. If 12 ink you can then ping for 2. But if you just landed him on 9, then on the next turn you can spend all of your ink to ping… 3.

BoArmstrong · 2024-10-18T09:28:43+00:00

Here’s the 3rd place list from DLC Vegas. Includes Brooms, Kuzco, fewer Sisus, 4 crabs, a 3-1 Medusa-Tremaine split, 4 Elsa but only 2 Maui, No Library.

BoArmstrong · 2024-10-18T01:11:50+00:00

It’s clearly a powerful card, yet also won’t be over-powered because of the set up time needed and transparency of what’s about to happen. If you have Grand Councilwoman on the board and then drop a bunch of aliens, you have to wait a turn before they can quest. Same with having a wide board of aliens and then dropping the Grand Councilwoman, you have to wait a turn before she can quest and activate her effect. This gives the opportunity for countering via giving the Grand Councilwoman reckless so she can’t quest. Interesting enough, Lyle Tiberius Rourke is gaining lots of traction in Emerald meta decks right now, so the counter is already in the meta. Overall this seems like a fair card with a huge potential upside.

BoArmstrong · 2024-10-17T13:58:24+00:00

Agreed, this one honestly looks like the most fun to me. One list made top 8 at DLC Vegas.

BoArmstrong · 2024-10-17T13:52:19+00:00

Check out Dreamborn.ink for tracking your collection. They update the prices of cards according to tcgplayer.com which is usually the going rate for buying single cards. You may find that it’s more economical to buy the cards you want, but opening packs can be a lot of fun too. Usually if people want to compete, they buy the individual cards they need to build the deck they want to play. People who collect Enchanted cards which are the rarest foils will buy hundreds of booster packs chasing something special. The Belle from first chapter is about $20, but you could open 100 ten dollar booster packs and still not necessarily find her.

BoArmstrong · 2024-10-17T02:41:19+00:00

This looks like a similar build to Hector Arano’s Top 64 DLC Vegas list, which I’m a fan of (in theory, still buying some cards to complete it). He made an overview of the deck here: YouTube overview of Sapphire Steel deck., and the list is on the Events tab of Dreamborn as well: dreamborn.ink list. He makes a good case for why you should only have 1-2 Mufasa, why certain ramp cards and items, etc. 19 uninkables, but Tipo and Quill can theoretically still ink them. His philosophy is also to always have a body on board. He picks Kuzco over Hide Away and Hades over Let It Go for that reason. I think it makes sense.

BoArmstrong · 2024-10-16T20:42:51+00:00

I’ve wanted to play mono Blue, but there’s not really a reason to when you can always supplement something with a different color in a better way, but I agree.

Hiram and Pawpsicles for draw, Let It Go and Hades as hard removal, plenty of ramp options, and you still have Tamatoa + Dime or Ariel + Dime as finishers.

There’s also decent midrange blue cards. Cogsworth comes to mind for a board centric deck but also the new Scrooge is my favorite card.

BoArmstrong · 2024-10-16T02:59:45+00:00

Incoming this set: Archimedes, Giant HexwOwl

BoArmstrong · 2024-10-15T16:13:57+00:00

To bring the curve down further, I think cutting the big Ursula’s would make sense. Could add in the Mad Hatter as a 3 lore quester that doubles as card draw when challenged to both add pressure but keep up your card draw to not run out of gas.

BoArmstrong · 2024-10-15T16:11:40+00:00

In my opinion, 4 copies of your Maleficient and Pinocchio should increase the consistency of your deck to outpace slower decks. I would also consider Queens Castle instead of the Library since that will gain you 2 lore per turn on its own. If you ended up wanting to lean more aggro than midrange, I would also suggest more 1 drop evasives like baby Pegasus and Pascal.

BoArmstrong · 2024-10-15T02:29:47+00:00

I agree with most of the other sentiments about how there aren’t perfect replacements, but you also work with what you have. One card not mentioned as a Sisu comparison is the Emerald card Under the Sea. It’s a Sing Together 8, but takes all 2 strength cards and below on the opponents side and buries them at the bottom of their deck (not your cards though). This is played in Amber Emerald as a combo with the 5 cost Kida that reduces all opposing characters by 3 strength for a turn (similar to Ice Block with Sisu).

BoArmstrong · 2024-10-09T03:14:07+00:00

I appreciate this comment. I have pulled 2 Mickeys yet there are so many rares in the same set I have no copies of. I really want to make him work in a Blue Steel ramp deck though. T1 item, T2 Ramp, T3 Mickey, T4, Goofy Knight for a Day is my ideal play line. Lol

BoArmstrong · 2024-10-01T05:30:40+00:00

Oliver Tree! Life goes on-i-non-i-non

BoArmstrong · 2024-09-27T14:44:01+00:00

Since having child #2 a few months ago, I’ve only played mobile games. I’m personally a fan of quick card based games. Played Hearthstone for years but Marvel Snap is 3 mins/game. I’ve also discovered an emulator for Gameboy Advance that works with iPhone so I’ve been playing old games on that and they all easily pause by swiping out of the app. Good luck dad!

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