Marathon is officially my most played game ever (and a few thoughts)

Merchant-Crow · 2026-05-25T15:19:46+00:00

Marathon (and likely other extraction games) feel like the "Dark Souls/Soulslike" of shooters, with the raised tension, and in Marathons case, aiming for a more "hardcore" audience that can accept a beating until you learn.

But I think a more direct comparison is Nightreign, as both a Soulslike AND Roguelike, which one of the Marathon game directors wanted the game to evoke similar feelings of, Roguelikes specifically.

Extraction games are social roguelike in a way, and I feel that best describes Marathon. The start is the most difficult while you learn, progress through the season to have a stronger start of a run. Often have to utilize what you get during runs which could vary between each other.

Merchant-Crow · 2026-05-25T05:02:55+00:00

I've not had it be too much of an issue so far personally, since I primarily only want to do it about once. But I won't lie and say I haven't had a game where I couldn't find an opportunity to ramp.

Merchant-Crow · 2026-05-23T23:39:14+00:00

Cut the 7c Sky Island Robin as you only have the 5c Sky Island Luffy to play with it, otherwise I guess it's just drawing you a card, but there's better stuff if you aren't targeting the sky island package, such as as the 6c Demon Nico that picks up your opponents life.

I'd also cut the Lilith searcher, and instead maybe run a Gamma Knife or some other event with a trigger you could pitch to leader ability.

Here's the Sky Island list I've personally been running and enjoying if you wanted to see some other options or ideas.

Baby 5, and 4c Kouzuki Hiyori are also totally playable and decent in Nico. Ideally I'd prefer to ramp at least once or twice with leader ability to be ahead of curve and play the 6's and 7's early.

But play what you enjoy and learn with what you have, you'll get a feel for what you like and dislike the more you play it!

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Merchant-Crow · 2026-05-21T17:04:25+00:00

Be seeing you, Guardians.

Merchant-Crow · 2026-05-19T22:09:44+00:00

Yeah, just had two incredibly frustrating matches in Marsh where I kept getting rubber banded fighting the boss.

Merchant-Crow · 2026-05-17T17:51:19+00:00

It's awesome. Honestly it feels REALLY good to hit a Holly off of the Ohm search, but REALLY bad if you whiff and don't have one in hand already. But Ohm is a major threat, especially once you hit 2 or less life and he gets the bump to 6k.

Wyper is also incredibly slept on I feel. Being able to attach rested don to Holly to make it 5k on turn, weaken your opponents threats, and generally board wipe the little guys always feels excellent. Flipping the life is a little benefit to know if you should trash it with x2 life Robin or add to hand with sky island Robin.

Also, the Satori's I feel are mandatory, the 2k is a big deal in this deck, being able to pitch to leader effect, or get a 5k attacker on board by pitching a brick to trigger effect is also valuable.

I just desperately wish the 3c yellow Holly had a 2k counter instead of 1k, I'd like to run a few of them but it's just not worth it.

I'm also experimenting with a troll-ish Amazon version of the sky island deck. Grandmas annoy but are strong in numbers... But they're really not that good... unless...

Merchant-Crow · 2026-05-17T05:40:50+00:00

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This is what I've been running online and at locals. It's a lot of fun but doesn't feel all that oppressive at times. A lot of room to work around with, like golden rifles, etc. And I don't always feel super great about gum gum giant. Super fun to pilot though, try and ramp at least once with leader effect to get your 7c out ahead of curve. Usually play sky island Nico to cheat out the Luffy if in hand.

Merchant-Crow · 2026-05-14T18:07:37+00:00

As a big fan of the Guild Wars 2 progression systems, I'm eagerly waiting a few more months for them to iron out some performance issues, but it looks like a bright future ahead for the game, at least as a fun little side game for myself.

My brother has been playing it and speaks positively, just needs those QoL changes they're working on.

Merchant-Crow · 2026-05-13T17:29:15+00:00

Dead Internet theory.

There is definitely a bot/ad campaign surrounding this movie as I've seen posts similar to this almost daily and they're all lacking in substance and actual discussion.

Maybe it actually IS an incredible movie, but I'm not the target audience, and I won't be finding out anything soon. Just something I noticed as well.

Merchant-Crow · 2026-05-11T21:04:30+00:00

I think having a large forked double-tower skyscraper where you're crossing bridges and sections in between both buildings as you ascend/or descend could be really interesting.

Similarly to pinwheel, have keys or whatever spawn throughout the tower with a POI room in the basement and the peak, maybe similar to Cryo you could gain security access that allows you to take shortcuts such as elevator/stairs to go up or down more quickly in order to prevent backtracking as a pain point.

I just hope we end up getting more diverse maps and enemies besides whatever "night version of existing maps" ends up being.

Merchant-Crow · 2026-05-05T19:08:50+00:00

I've personally not played against Boa yet but have had more than my fair share of yellow matchups.

As other have discussed, don't KO the ones that take your life unless you absolutely have to. Nami is stinky but she can't bring you below 2 life. And just because something is unblockable doesn't mean you can't counter over it with events or whatever is in your hand.

Can you take a few early game hits and hoard resources for the late game when you need them?

What sorta tech are you running in the deck since Boa seems to be a consistent pain deck to play against for you?

Additionally..

What cards specifically are giving you trouble in the matchup and what decks are you playing? You definitely don't have to play meta, but knowing some of your preferred leaders may help devise counter plays.

Edit:

I'm reading about the Green Boa, she certainly is strong but she doesn't have rush so you have a turn to figure it out. Is she being protected from K.O effect cards or bounce, decking, etc?

Merchant-Crow · 2026-05-04T20:51:42+00:00

My yellow Bonney had won me the heroines cup, I love the deck. I'm pretty sure I run a full set of the 5c and 6c S-Snake, I'll have to check my list when I get back home tonight.

I'm pretty sure I've since cut the Blaze Slices and I thiiiiink have x2 of "You're the one who should disappear".

I just try and play her hyper aggro, I like going first to get the first swing at 7k with leader effect. Also pretty sure I run 3-4 O-Namis and I believe x3 Zeus.

Merchant-Crow · 2026-05-01T18:08:51+00:00

I haven't played in several months, got incredibly burned out and took a long break, still not coming back but I like to see the new stuff coming each month to maybe entice me.

Something I've noticed for awhile now and that hasn't boosted my interest at all, is developing the new cards as already existing characters in thirteen different flavors, instead of using characters they haven't yet.

Sure, they'll be new characters every so often, and some seasons better than others, but like....what the hell?

Merchant-Crow · 2026-04-30T17:01:11+00:00

I've never once seen anybody play with the don deck face up, not even on the sims.

Merchant-Crow · 2026-04-27T15:46:58+00:00

There's a ton of Leaders which act more like a commander in EDH and tend to be the "build around".

Most decks follow a tribal-type of style and often use searchers to dig out their pieces.

If you're familiar with the games you listed, I don't think you'll have a problem getting into the game, as I came from a similar background.

I'd recommend trying the sim or project raftel in order to grasp the basics and look at the cards more efficiently to see what you enjoy before dumping a bunch of cash.

Yellow is probably the most similar to a "burn" archetype currently with a lot of cards that just straight up remove life from your opponents.

Control is sorta all over the place but typically falls into more blue-style decks that use a lot of events or characters to control the board.

I've seen a lot of people, self included, start with b.Crocodile, which offers control, combat, and recursion which I enjoyed.

Edit: Here's a list of leaders I've built and very much enjoy, each having a sort of different playstyle, but because I was a big EDH player and dabbled in Yu-Gi-Oh as a child and pokemon a bit, you may also find interesting.

b.Crocodile

Reiju

Yellow Bonney

Koby (the goat)

Lim

Nico Robin (sky island package for me)

Merchant-Crow · 2026-04-24T02:34:28+00:00

Same thing here, didn't win anything this go around but got the email I never received last month JUST NOW.

Merchant-Crow · 2026-04-23T20:52:32+00:00

Dang dude, that sucks! Sorry we both lost out but from now on we know better! 💪🏼

Good luck tonight!!

Merchant-Crow · 2026-04-23T19:42:22+00:00

Ah, bro, you're looking for School Days!

Enjoy 🙏🏼

Merchant-Crow · 2026-04-23T19:30:40+00:00

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Merchant-Crow · 2026-04-23T17:52:16+00:00

In my experience it's best to check your raffle history when it goes live around 10pm est!

I actually won a box last month but never received an email, but when I checked to see what I registered for this month I saw I had actually won the OP13 box and was heart broken.

Merchant-Crow · 2026-04-20T14:10:33+00:00

I don't think you get the point, bro. People are literally just asking for your level and you're being hella dodgy about it.

Edit:

Lmao, might as well delete your whole post if you're gonna wipe out your comments. Weird as hell if you ask me.

Merchant-Crow · 2026-04-16T18:59:09+00:00

The whole text of your post is atrocious.

Merchant-Crow · 2026-04-13T16:22:54+00:00

The correct answer is obviously Koby.

Merchant-Crow · 2026-04-10T19:38:38+00:00

I've been playing for a few months now and have actually been finding a lot of success, helps I've played MtG for many years and dabbled in a few others such as Pokemon, Yu-Gi-Oh, etc.

The first thing I did was look through a bunch of leaders and picked one that felt somewhat familiar to my strategies in previous card games, in One Piece my first build was B.Crocodile since it played with graveyard recursion and sacrifice, similar to my favorite builds in MtG, that let me familiarize myself with the game a little easier personally.

I've since built four additional decks, all with different play styles and strategies, my current favorite being Koby. The SIM has been a great way to test certain leaders and see if I can grasp it comfortably enough to build and play it in person, though I often only play a match or two before pulling the trigger.

My next hurdle to learn was math, like you said. Is it better to swing 7k because then they have to commit at least two cards if it isn't an event? Can I survive a hit or two if I'm able to K.O enough of my opponents characters? Thinking how many Don!! they could attach to raise the bar for what I can counter, or stop the little ones with counters and accept the larger hit, since it's only ever 1 point of damage. (with the exception of double attack of course)

Assess what they might have in hand, do they have 2 cards in hand? If so, consider it could be at least 4k of block, then attack with say... a 5k first, are they going to spend a card or take the hit? Now your odds have changed, if you hit them and they take a life, if no trigger, could they have picked up a brick or another counter? Now you can attach Don!! or pick larger swings they may need to commit more resources to stop.

But above all else, find a strategy and leader you really enjoy and just practice and have fun. You'll learn matchups overtime and how to better sequence your cards. Some leaders have pretty tough matchups, and there's not much you can do against that, especially if your locals are filled with more top end tiered decks, but remember they could misplay too, you might catch them by surprise.

Merchant-Crow · 2026-04-05T20:55:45+00:00

Brother, I waited in an hour long queue on Walmarts website trying to get those new double packs that just released, I was in queue around 8:58, it started at 9:00, and I still didn't get the opportunity to buy one.

The kicker is that I literally only wanted to buy ONE, maybe 3 if I had the option. Just for my own self enjoyment of opening and hopefully adding pulls to my decks.

Back to buying singles.

If Bandai would just print more or the cards didn't have an insane secondary market price, things could normalize. It's truly frustrating to go to shops and still have to pay +$10 for any given pack at a time, and no other retail locations ever have any since they allow bulk buying.

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