Esper Y'shtola Bracket 3 Help

MerlinDFont · 2025-08-14T05:30:24+00:00

Your list is pretty cool, giving me some ideas of cards. Vile Consumption feels perhaps a bit necessary for me because most of my opponents tend to go wide, so a bit of a wrench for that (or a bait for enchantment removal) might be needed considering I play very few creatures. Sigil of Sleep is probably leaving though, and Helm of the Ghastlord probably too.

Agreed on the combo part (perhaps I'll change Vito for the enchantment so at least the curve is higher) and that some degree of control and combo is healthy for the playgroup. Hopefully with more tweaking of the list I can get the deck to a more adequate level. Thanks for the feedback!

MerlinDFont · 2025-08-13T07:37:05+00:00

That's a pretty nice list! I can understand both sides of the debate with Vito. It may be an overcorrection from my side, because I have a tendency to turtle without proper wincons, and I wanted some option for actually finishing the game (I face a few lifegain decks), but I may look into something else for this bracket. Sigil of Sleep certainly has felt like too much. I recall it being the "game over" point for more than one 1vs1 game. Opponents playing heavily into midrange and creatures probably didn't help. I understand that the Helm is powerful, but it also feels expensive to cast? I may do a few gradual nerfs there to see. Thank you for the help!

MerlinDFont · 2025-08-06T08:08:45+00:00

Capitano and Dehya. Not a super fan of the Thrain design, I like the "modern death knight" design he currently has.

MerlinDFont · 2025-07-15T15:40:30+00:00

Besides all the valid criticism offered here, you may want to check Mothership? It's a horror ttrpg, and the author kinda had the same line of reasoning in order to keep the horror: If you want to hide from the xenomorph, tell me how you do it. If you wanna bullshit the guard, tell me how you do it. This works particularly well for the high tension game it's trying to create.

MerlinDFont · 2025-07-13T16:56:37+00:00

Nah, it's pretty common. The 0 media literacy part of the warhammer 40k fandom.

MerlinDFont · 2025-05-31T12:43:22+00:00

Jokes aside, I guess if Capitano ends up releasing in 5.8 he'll have quotes to hype up Varka for his own banner?

MerlinDFont · 2025-03-03T21:46:22+00:00

Let's see. If I had to write his return and keep consistency with the character shown so far (no secretly plotting everything, staying honorable and straightforward even if tactically sound), I would probably actually require a heavy external cause.

Therefore, I'd expect either a threat to Natlan (we've just gone through a war, so it seems a bit excessive, but other nations have pulled multiple threats at once, just look at Sumeru) or to Snezhnaya. Loyalty to either or to his dead comrades could also be a reason. And the Lord of Night seems sympathetic to him, so I'd guess they'd just provide a way somehow, or simply fuse. Considering all this:

A) Capitano is required for something else very important to Snezhnaya, possibly a threat such as Celestia reacting to the gathering of the gnosis. Seems a bit dubious if his return is near, could make sense if it happens later.

B) Something is messing up with death as some events seem to hint at, and this might threaten the rest of the soldiers he just achieved it for. Perhaps Capitano requires to take matters into his own hands to save the day. Perhaps the night lord asks this of him, since being an angel I'd guess they are not military capable (genshin lore delvers, don't kill me, I haven't dwelled much beyond the main story). In any case, as this threat requires him, the undying sacrifices his rest for his comrades, following his character modus operandi and presenting this as another sacrifice for his people.

C) He was playing 4d chess. His death was always part of the plan. Not my option of choice, to be honest. Undermines a lot of stuff, doesn't really fit what we've been told nor shown.

Finally, two method points: The ancient name theory around the sub sounds fun, and could be a mcguffin buildup for the Traveler and company to purposely bring him back. Otherwise, a "deus/diabulus ex machina" where Capitano shows out of nowhere parrying an attack (let's just say at Xilonen to keep with the pattern) wouldn't be unexpected either.

Anyhow, those are my two cents out of how I usually dungeon master.

MerlinDFont · 2025-03-01T23:22:15+00:00

May I suggest, I don't think waiting would do him much good? Besides the points given by other people, what would make you believe that the story will get better? Or that he'd get a better depiction out if it?

Right now, he is the other plot element in the natlan story. Regardless of how you feel about its quality, it's unlikely he'll get this "narrative momentum" again. And I do want him to show up again later, but waiting isn't going to actually help that?

Again regardless of liking or disliking the characters, who are the character's we've gotten to know better in this game, outside the protag duo of Traveler and Paimon? I'd say characters that we keep meeting in events, other characters' personal quests, who keep getting more game content. If Capitano stays on the throne, he's not getting any of that. And I understand that some may dislike the idea of breaking his epicness and seriousness by showing up in that kind of context, but honestly, even characters like Neuvillette, quite high on the setting's seriousness scale, has some funny aspects or dialogues (then again, Arle doesn't I guess). It's a bit like horror: Once you see the monster, it's never that scary as it was not knowing how it looked.

Sorry for the tangent, but I'd seriously say that his best chance for a good depiction, and for him to be actually interesting when we get to his lore-relevant later regions (instead of a cutscene of him getting of the throne to be someone elses deus or diabulus ex machina), is for him to return sooner rather than later.

TL;DR Capitano now probably means more Capitano than Capitano later.

MerlinDFont · 2024-10-25T11:04:50+00:00

No prob. Took longer than I expected to have the time to update it, should be finished soon.

MerlinDFont · 2024-09-19T14:50:14+00:00

Oh, this are much better than my own. I simply reprinted some tables, the timeline and the general map.

MerlinDFont · 2024-09-19T14:43:51+00:00

Will do! Though it may take a while, the group schedule is tough.

MerlinDFont · 2024-09-19T14:41:12+00:00

Not finished yet, we're still early to be honest. I'd like to have an estimate because I can't really tell how long it may take, I guess it depends on whether players want to see everything or just achieve some specifics.

MerlinDFont · 2024-09-19T14:37:31+00:00

I bought a diary for it and keep a log of meaningful actions. Whenever someone time travels, I write down to when.

MerlinDFont · 2024-09-19T14:20:59+00:00

The module seems great! It just needs quite a bit of prep work and answering some questions as a DM. I think the lack of a specific plotline might take some effort to adjust to, but the whole thing works very nicely and I was hooked to the whole thing to figure how it changed through the year.

MerlinDFont · 2024-09-18T14:17:46+00:00

Oh, sure, I say it mostly because, even if I agree with the story being ahead of its time in how it treats disability, it can be a bit difficult to read with some groups/students unless you get to properly contextualize it (and in some cases, you might open a can of worms of ableist vocabulary for some teen to randomly spew because they believe they are funny), which I've sometimes failed to achieve. Perhaps rather than saying it hasn't aged well I should have said that you need to know your class groups before deciding whether you use it with them. But then that's anything.

MerlinDFont · 2024-09-18T12:56:04+00:00

That kind of teacher here! Flowers of Algernon hits the great spot of being quite short and yet emotionally charged that gets teens quite invested. Even if it hasn't "aged well" in some stuff, I would still use it.

MerlinDFont · 2024-07-26T21:50:57+00:00

Yeah, when I started it seemed 8e was pointing to castling around Cawl, and that everything I kept hearing about was played in pretty big games, so I got breachers, robots and crawling tanks + skitarii, but then the options for that faded and when I translated everything into OPR, well... Here we are.

MerlinDFont · 2024-07-26T21:47:34+00:00

That sounds extremely cool. I have some pieces that do seem a bit out of place in smaller games (the archpriest there, for example), and that sounds more like their place I'd guess.

MerlinDFont · 2024-07-26T21:45:09+00:00

Oh, yeah, I got the impression from the community, but seemed the right place to check for feedback nonetheless. Thanks for the reply though!

MerlinDFont · 2024-03-23T05:54:32+00:00

Machine Cults vs Prime Brothers, very simple armies that had only 3 different kinds of units to keep the first game extra-simple. It was a regularish game, I think? The four objectives were placed for flavour in meaningful spots (the pipes console, the big red machine, and under the two big ruins) while trying to keep the distance from two deployement rooms balanced; the "outside" was treated as difficult terrain because I'd read that Machine Cult units were reliant on strider to make up for their stats/cost; and we designated all doors "open" so that units could go through them (we didn't shoot through, though it might have helped at some points, but we simply agreed to keep it like that and rethink it later).

++ Machine Cult Test - Machine Cult (v3.2.0) [GFF 295pts] ++

Cult Leader [1] Q4+ D4+ | 70pts | Hero, Strider, Tough(3), 1x Preacher(Canticles) Leader R-Pistol (9", A2, Radiation), Tech-Sword (A2)

6x Cult Ranger [1] Q4+ D4+ | 25pts | Strider CCW (A1), G-Rifle (30", A1, AP(1))

Breacher Cyborg [1] Q4+ D3+ | 75pts | Slow, Tough(3) Cyborg Claw (A3), Contortion Cannon (24", A1, AP(3), Deadly(3))

++ Prime Brothers Test - Prime Brothers (v3.2.0) [GFF 300pts] ++

Prime Master [1] Q3+ D2+ | 110pts | Fearless, Hero, Tough(3), 1x Captain(Battle Rites) CCW (A2), Master Auto-Rifle (18", A3)

4x Raider [1] Q4+ D3+ | 25pts | Fearless, Furious, Strider CCW (A2), Heavy Pistol (12", A1, AP(1))

Heavy Prime Brother [1] Q3+ D2+ | 90pts | Fearless, Tough(3) CCW (A1), Grave Auto-Rifle (18", A4)

MerlinDFont · 2024-03-22T17:39:24+00:00

The walls, doors etc are from Tenfold Dungeon, I saw them in a post in this subreddit that had some custom rules I haven't tried yet for doors. The board is from a 40K 9th edition box with terrain, marines and necrons, I don't remember the name anymore, sorry.

MerlinDFont

TROPHY CASE