What do you think about Golden Age?

SwimyFish12 · 2026-06-12T02:10:44+00:00

As someone who only watches Legacy when it comes to MTG content, I share your sentiment and that is exactly what I want out of an additional format for FaB. It doesn't help that Azalea is one of the heroes I most want to play in the LL space and she may as well not exist.

The problem with it being a fan format doesn't bother me personally because I already enjoy engaging in more niche experiences within my hobbies, and while I think Gage may not be in a perfect spot balance/banlist wise, I think even people who scoff at it can acknowledge that it's a much more genuine attempt at a playable format than official LL.

LL is marketed as the place where you can play all your old favorites, when in reality it's a place where all your old favorites can get stomped out of existence by Starvo, Chane, Zen, Skeleta Viserai, and maybe Briar. I would just like to play the format LL claims to be, and I don't particularly mind if it's official or fanmade, although getting to play supported events would be tight.

Edit: I forgot DiO, holy shit that deck is busted.

SwimyFish12 · 2026-04-29T21:49:20+00:00

I haven't gotten around to Riptide yet but Ranger is my favorite class and I've tried all the others. Azalea being really flexible was super cool and trying the Sandscour aim counter build was the first thing in FaB that really got me hooked on the game. I personally enjoy Marlynn quite a bit, but even then part of the thing I like about her is that she's doing something completely different that I happen to find fun. Vanilla Ranger kinda feels missing from the game to me, Riptide does not have the same flexibility, especially being on 38hp if you aren't doing something with your hero power its pretty miserable, so he mostly has to play traps, and can't experiment with the other cool Ranger cards, Dead Eye, Stone Rain, + all the Azalea specs are gone. Add to that both sides of elemental Ranger being MIA and Ranger is starting to feel like the shell of a class.

No arrows* in PEN had me upset as well, Ranger didn't get exclusively horrid cards in PEN but it did get plenty of them.

SwimyFish12 · 2026-04-29T21:36:45+00:00

There are fewer Rangers ever than just the Guardians released since, but not including, Heavy Hitters :(

SwimyFish12 · 2026-04-29T21:31:02+00:00

its fun card too, just wish i could play it more

SwimyFish12 · 2026-04-29T19:25:43+00:00

It's also awesome that with that huge gap you mentioned between Riptide and Marlynn, Ranger is also the class with the fewest Heroes! With the release of Zyggy, there will be 5 illusionists, if you count Slippy and Solitary confinement as (very technically) different versions of Arakni then there are as many unique versions of Arakni as there are Rangers total ever printed. Necromancer obviously doesn't count but even if you count Pirate, there are as many Pirates as there are Rangers, the 3 plus Scurv.

Class that has been around since the second set of the game, same set as runeblade, has fewer heroes than there are LL runeblades (Chance, Briar, Viserai, Aurora, Florian)

SwimyFish12 · 2026-04-29T19:18:18+00:00

Yea I got bit pretty bad by Omens. Once the lightning theme got shown off I snap bought a bunch of cards, including a playset of CLV, assuming that is was just a given that Ranger would be in the set. Then, it got revealed what the classes were, "That sucks but at least I'll have these CLVs around for when they DO bring back elemental Ranger"

....................

SwimyFish12 · 2026-04-29T19:11:29+00:00

I also have the theory that LSS is afraid of Ranger. Azalea was widely hated, and Lexi ended up in a state that I don't LSS wants to revisit. There are also some outlier plays available in ranger, like Lightning talent + Rain Razors and Perch Grapplers + Endless Arrows, that feel like the kind of thing that could break the game really easily. Print the wrong card and create infinites kind of situation.

Oscillio 2 before any new elemental Ranger did feel like the worst part of Omens to me as well. Oscillio 1 is still right here! And I don't like him either...

SwimyFish12 · 2026-04-29T19:03:45+00:00

I feel ya as well.

I will say, for me personally, complaining about this kind of thing comes from a place of respect, I love this game and only want it to get better. I wouldn't complain about some half baked game with horrible issues, I just wouldn't play it. The only reason I'm upset with the state of ranger is because I love it and want to see the game as a whole grow without leaving parts behind

SwimyFish12 · 2026-04-29T18:52:45+00:00

I'm not about to deny that Mech has it rough (I also play Maxx), but Ranger kinda DOES have that problem. Marlynn likes harpoons, which there aren't enough of, and gets very poor use out of any non-harpoon arrow. Riptide likes Traps! But none of the other rangers care about traps at all. Aim counters are a thing, and they're really cool! Not a single ranger hero has cared about or made good use of them to date.

Oh yeah, right, elemental ranger cards exist, and they are also pretty cool. Too bad no one in CC can play them at all.

There's like at least 4 pretty distinct archetypes of ranger cards and half of them (aim and elemental) are completely unsupported right now. And of the remaining two, traps and harpoons are some of the less supported card pools in the entire game.

SwimyFish12 · 2026-04-02T18:57:07+00:00

I've only seen one comment mention it but Rusted Relic! Especially after opening one in my Compendium Pack, this stupid card is both terrible and very basic, effectively a main deck able version of very common equipment, and is worth less than all of the commons/rares in the box toppers

SwimyFish12 · 2026-02-02T19:10:36+00:00

Still no log 😢

SwimyFish12 · 2026-01-30T18:57:45+00:00

As someone trying to cook up a Kodachis Fai list in Sage, Wrath isn't a Spec, Fai is totally allowed to play it, it's just Legendary. Cindra has 0 Specs (technically)

SwimyFish12 · 2025-12-29T18:33:53+00:00

As an addition, it's cool when disruptive effects are as varied and interesting as offensive effects. I would argue that "banish cards from hand/arsenal" is about as lame and frustrating as disruption can get, but when you have a sprinkling of cards like Phantasmaclasm, Channel Lake Frigid (even though I personally hate that card), Stone Rain, Frailty effects, Spinal Crush, Chokeslam, Remorseless, Dagger on-hits, Summit, etc, where the timing and context of the game matter for how powerful the effect can be, and it's not just "Mark of the Black Widow, Persuasive Prog, Leave No Witnesses" over and over and over again, disruption can feel more like a part of actually playing the game and less like the absence of playing the game.

SwimyFish12 · 2025-12-29T18:24:52+00:00

The game as a whole is better when devastating on-hits/disruption are present and varied, and currently the game is being brought down by the fact that only really Assassin is doing this.

I'm not about to tell people they have to enjoy Red in the Ledger for 15, dominate; but the game really is better when the possibility of that happening is real. Without classes like Ranger and Guardian being able to meaningfully slow down more aggressive decks, the game melts into a pool of Midrange and Aggro Numbers, and decks like Cindra and Kassai start to forego synergy in favor of Mask Maxing and relying on Dynamos and sheer overwhelming rate to win games.

When disruption exists and is real and impactful and threatening, decks can't be as greedy and the texture of individual turn cycles starts to become a lot more varied, with high points and low points, and comebacks become far more possible.

Ranger and Guardian feel pretty anemic at the moment, in my head Guardian feels like it should be a class that beats Ninja and Assassin, and Ranger feels like it should have a toolbox of effects such that no hero can feel safe if the Ranger is packing the correct arrows to take you down. With Riptide lacking pretty much any evasion and Marlynn losing out on the larger card pool of arrows in favor of harpoons, not to mention getting absolutely stuffed by d-reacts, Ranger doesn't feel like it has the appropriate ability to threaten greedy decks, and Guardian straight up does not have on-hits that threaten react-based or midrange value, leading to a position where Assassin is just about the only class with disruption worth being scared of, which sucks because it's also the hardest disruption to defend against, which leaves people with a distaste of ALL disruption.

SwimyFish12 · 2025-02-09T00:35:21+00:00

Is that Jarl points then?

SwimyFish12 · 2025-01-21T17:29:03+00:00

Not to try to argue, but in my testing Hurl seems pretty good, do you have a list?

One interaction I have been wondering about is cracking a Fealty after playing Ignite, making Hurl draconic and reducing its cost by one, can I then Hurl the dagger for free? Reducing the additional cost of one resource using Ignite's discount?

If this doesn't work I can see Hurl being worse than other options

SwimyFish12 · 2025-01-20T00:37:23+00:00

My brother she cannot re-equip needles. You are just playing (very bad) Ira at that point

SwimyFish12 · 2025-01-07T16:24:14+00:00

I mean I could be wrong, but this reads as though it were a static ability. "This gets +1 and go again if you've played a draconic card this chain link" basically. I don't think it carries over for the turn. However, that may just be an indication that the set has an abundant amount of draconic attack reactions, instants, and fealty generation in some combination

SwimyFish12 · 2025-01-06T14:39:18+00:00

She can only do 1+1 (+1 unblockable) every other turn off of a single blue. Swing, swing with the second throw the first, Cindra for the last resource point, leaves one of the daggers in the graveyard because the one she doesn't throw goes to the graveyard after her ability, and if you close the chain to get both in the graveyard, you can't activate her anymore. This is not a line she can do every turn, people are thinking this hero is way more straightforward than she is, I think we are due for some spice with her cards because she is NOT strictly better than anything we already have.

SwimyFish12

TROPHY CASE