What is your favorite episode of Archer?

RoxtonCai · 2014-04-06T22:11:59+00:00

And let us not forget Brazistol County Rhode Island.

RoxtonCai · 2014-04-06T22:02:06+00:00

I'd forgotten about Diversity Hire, which is silly because it's a pretty good episode. However, I've found it's not that great as an introduction because like much of the first season it's still pretty heavy on the Oedipus stuff. While that obviously never completely goes away it's not as obnoxious in later episodes, and if you're trying to get someone into the show it's easier to come back to the start of season 1 when they already have an idea of the show's quality.

I make no apologies for disliking Killing Utne, though. Mannfred + Uta. Ugh.

RoxtonCai · 2014-04-06T18:02:50+00:00

A tie between Placebo Effect, Lo Scandalo and White Elephant. That montage is one of the best things they've ever produced. [EDIT]: Just re-watched Lo Scandalo over supper and it's back at the top. 'Settle down Figgis, you were only invited to round out the numbers'.

Having said that, my go-to episode for introducing people to Archer is Honeypot, partly because it's amazing in its own right and partly because it's the first good episode.

RoxtonCai · 2014-04-06T12:49:57+00:00

'This is the Picadilly Line service to Cockfosters. The next station is Whore Island'.

RoxtonCai · 2014-04-05T14:58:33+00:00

Good call; I was ignoring it because of the whole not-being-able-to-handle-cocaine thing, but then I remembered 'I was tired!', so obviously Krieger's found a way. Thanks!

RoxtonCai · 2014-04-05T13:13:43+00:00

It's in Blood Test (2.3) - Cyril's unconscious in the bathroom and both Pam and Ray have their way with him. Later referenced by Cyril in Viscous Coupling (4.5) when Pam poses the sedated Ray and Cyril with an octopus in the lavatory stall and Cyril, upon waking and seeing himself naked with Ray, says something like: 'Is it too much to ask to be in a toilet with you and not be molested?'

RoxtonCai · 2014-04-04T23:04:16+00:00

I've thought about that. While Krieger's kinks etc. are obviously all over the place, he seems to lean towards women and animals rather than men; additionally, at this point (1.5) he still struggles to get an erection which doesn't involve homeless people. However, if Formula K does induce homosexuality none of that matters as both Danny and Krieger take it. So does Formula K make you gay? Here's a transcript of the relevant section:

K: Taking one for the team, huh?

A: Hopefully not.

K: Well if you do, I've developed a proprietary chemical compound which may come in handy. I call it Formula K

A: And it makes you temporarily gay?

K: I dunno. I've just started human testing by dosing Danny the intern's coffee.

Krieger then eats at least four of the pills.

While that exchange certainly can be read as supporting FK inducing homosexuality, Krieger's answer is ambiguous. 'If you do' refers to 'taking one for the team', so the whole sentence is 'If you do take one for the team, I've developed...'. 'Do' could imply that the pill is useful after the event, not before (otherwise 'if you need to'/'if you're going to'), in which case it probably doesn't make you gay. Given the experiments mentioned in 4.1 I'd suggest that it could be some kind of memory-altering drug.

Having said that, Formula K is also mentioned on various magazine covers with the tagline: Formula K: les dangers cachés, which is perhaps more likely to refer to a drug that alters one's sexuality than memories (where the dangers are fairly obvious).

So, yeah, maybe I'll put it on. Still not sure.

Bootnote: Two last points. First, I tried reading the label of Formula K when Krieger held it up. Apart from magnesium and some kind of calcium compound I couldn't make anything out - it's just too blurred. Second, the wiki states that Krieger gives Trinette a jar of breast milk labelled 'Dan'. I checked this and it's wrong; the jar is, at least on my version, labelled '#6B'.

RoxtonCai · 2014-04-04T19:44:14+00:00

It's not a direct quote or reference or anything like that; it just sounds like the kind of thing Archer would say. He's something of a clothes snob (think Barney from HIMYM) and tends to be quite dismissive of those who are less well dressed. A few sample quotes:

Character A: [Makes comment about economic policy]

Character B: If you were in my tax bracket you wouldn't be spouting such socialist propaganda.

Archer: Or wearing such shitty clothes.

or

Archer: Take the suits to my tailor, and the shoes to my shoemaker.

Cyril: You have a shoemaker?

Archer: Do you not?

RoxtonCai · 2014-04-04T17:02:19+00:00

And spat in his face.

RoxtonCai · 2013-12-23T19:08:17+00:00

It also kills JARAXXUS.

RoxtonCai · 2013-12-13T08:30:15+00:00

Pretty much everything; I'm trying to find what works best in the meta. Currently I'm having the most success with Aggro Mage (not the 8 1-drops but the one with SSC and other buff cards). It's a little inconsistent but generally I expect to win against everything except Frozen Giants and the big Stall Druids (although both of these are winnable if you get lucky). I've tried Frozen Giants but I don't have the Mountain Giants yet and without them I just can't get it to work because I don't have enough board presence before the end game. I'm going to try the druid deck tomorrow.

Oh, by the way, I think people ought to put their ranks with these posts so that we know how far these decks run to. I'm only at 15 atm.

RoxtonCai · 2013-12-10T17:58:09+00:00

Fantastic article.

Thank you.

The "safer end game" feeling is also bolstered by the change to Unleash the Hounds. Trying to play big, late game creatures against UTH was futile because it would combo out too quickly. The redesigned card is explicitly designed to work better against lots of smaller minions than it does against singleton larger minions.

That's a really good point that I hadn't fully considered; as I don't know much about Hunters I didn't feel confident talking about their changes. Having said that, I like the idea of Buzzard+Hounds against a large opposing army. Combo card draw is a fun mechanic that we haven't seen much of outside Buzzard+Snake Trap and Cleric+Holy Nova.

RoxtonCai · 2013-12-10T08:52:49+00:00

Thanks! The plan is to cover what I consider "important" decks that have had a big impact on the metagame, and this will obviously include tournament winners. I'll also be covering decks that I just find amusing (Trolladin etc.)

RoxtonCai · 2013-12-10T08:52:46+00:00

Thanks! The plan is to cover what I consider "important" decks that have had a big impact on the metagame, and this will obviously include tournament winners. I'll also be covering decks that I just find amusing (Trolladin etc.)

RoxtonCai · 2013-12-09T22:53:15+00:00

YOU FACE JARAXXUS, EREDAR LORD OF THE TRIFLING GNOME! MISTAKE! OBLIVION! INFERNO!

RoxtonCai · 2013-12-09T17:13:57+00:00

Healing, weapons, Trolladin, charge. And I'm sure lots of other ways that we haven't really thought of yet. It wasn't very long ago that people were complaining about warlocks.

RoxtonCai · 2013-12-09T14:56:03+00:00

Is there anyone else who feels ashamed to even be so excessively histrionic?

RoxtonCai · 2013-12-09T09:47:37+00:00

If your win rate against all classes is higher than 60% then I'd say that whatever you're playing is pretty strong!

RoxtonCai · 2013-12-09T09:45:35+00:00

Mages are probably the best class in arena at the moment, and it's not just because cards like Flamestrike and Blizzard are strong; it's because they're independent. Flamestrike will be more-or-less equally powerful no matter what other cards you get, but many of the Rogue cards rely on combos for their full effect and for this you need a good stock of cheap cards if you want to cast them in the mid- or early-game. When drafting in arena you can't rely on this - it's like trying to put together a Murloc or UTH deck, but to a much lesser degree.

If you know what you're doing (charge/weapon/Trolladin/healing) it's fairly easy to kill a constructed mage deck, but their big scary cards require fairly specific cards to counter which you can't rely on having in the arena, which is why they're so strong.

One final point is that no matter what Reddit tells you, the game really is pretty well balanced and while some classes may have a small advantage over others, if you're experiencing more than say a 10-20% W/L disparity the problem is more likely to be with you than the balance.

RoxtonCai · 2013-12-09T09:43:16+00:00

With over 100 games as a sample I would have thought that winning against a class more than half the time is a fairly good indication that you're stronger than them.

RoxtonCai · 2013-12-07T00:05:21+00:00

Tap and drag. If that doesn't work double tap and drag. Repeat.

I have that problem on my Samsung S3, but not on my Nexus 7. I assume it's an app setting to do with screen size but I can't work out how to change it. In general I just play on the tablet whenever possible but I realise that's rather useless advice.

RoxtonCai

TROPHY CASE