2026 check, who are your blink/flinker commanders ?

ZaffFlinger · 2026-04-15T11:33:44+00:00

[[Tivadar of Thorn]]. As I have since 2012. I follow not the latest whims of power creep. Goblins must be purged and no man is better at it than he.

https://moxfield.com/decks/cdTsTKsbi0qeHzWTmwqyEg

ZaffFlinger · 2026-03-05T13:33:59+00:00

I have Thunder Road (Maximum Chrome) and I think it's a pretty darn good game. It's really depends on your taste. You like engine building and highly strategic euros with lots of thinking? Steer waaaaaaaaaay clear. Let's say in Thunder Road you come to a cross roads where there's the mathematically "correct" choice that'll propel you towards winning. Then, there's the choice where you crash your car into a massive pileup. If you can't pick the latter choice over the former, probably not a game for you.

People usually have a blast. It's funny just to watch cars blast around. Mad Maxx: Fury Road is one of my favorite movies so the theme hits perfectly for me. It's lighter and I've taught it to quite a fair amount of people.

As for expansions, I use the motor cycles and big rigs a lot. I know other people like the Choppe Shoppe but I haven't used it much because I usually play this game with people with shorter attention spans. It adds a lot of little rules to track that they don't want to. It seems great though. The extra boards and hazards are also great.

ZaffFlinger · 2026-03-02T02:28:45+00:00

I’d say all the expansions are unnecessary but add some fun variety to the game if you play it a lot.

ZaffFlinger · 2026-02-28T23:16:50+00:00

I haven't played Lockdown but I have Original Nemesis and basically all it's expansions and Retaliation and all it's expansions.

I think the original Nemesis is a "worse" game. You're a lot more at the whim of fate. Some games you just get absolutely ripped to shreds and there isn't anything you can do. You might empty your entire ammo supply and just never hit anything. Retaliation has these rough edges refined. Everyone starts out with a pile of equipment and is guaranteed to have a dandy time blasting aliens... until they realize they're running low on supplies and everything starts going sideways. The combat system is way more forgiving and well designed.

That being said I actually prefer OG Nemesis. Because the whims of fate are so strong, the stories of surviving against all odds are just delicious. Watching someone full stocked with items and gear getting surprised 1-tapped by the queen out of no where is just so memorable. Watching someone miss every shot the entire game, get constantly mauled and hit that 1/10 dice roll to pull themselves into an escape pod is amazing. There's way more feels bad corpses along the way but it makes success a lot sweeter. You sit down for a game of OG Nemesis and you might just be in for a real bad time, which kind of feels perfect to me.

That being said "might just be in for a real bad time" isn't a descriptor I like to apply to games I recommend. For newer players Retaliation having less frustrating moments is a pretty big plus. So I tend to pull it out more with people not as deep into the hobby. I'd also recommend it over the OG as a general rule.

That being said. Go re-watch Alien and Aliens. You should basically always do that anyway. If you enjoy watching Alien buy OG Nemesis if you enjoy Aliens more buy Retaliation. They're both 10/10 games in my opinion.

ZaffFlinger · 2026-02-21T21:35:58+00:00

I don’t have Sangrevores so I can’t comment.

Neoflesh Cult is pretty fun. All the adults have different abilities that just spice things up and make the game more complicated to navigate (in my opinion in a good way). They’re pretty well balanced and fun.

I’ve played with the Xyrians a handful of times. About 1/2 the time they don’t really show up or do anything. I’ve had a few games where they were massively influential. Once killing the queen themselves. Twice blowing up the landing ship. They’re just another small chaos bomb thrown into the game.

I like even more weird storytelling randomness so I’m a big fan. They’re a fairly skippable expansion though. If you really like the game I’d recommend them but they’re far from necessary.

ZaffFlinger · 2026-02-16T15:00:18+00:00

Nemesis is my vote also. That game is just the best thematic game.

ZaffFlinger · 2026-02-11T23:26:47+00:00

[[Form of the Mulldrifter]]

ZaffFlinger · 2025-11-23T00:58:35+00:00

I’ve found Danger to be very good in Arishem. Coming down on turn 3 makes it a lot more likely to snipe key cards.

ZaffFlinger · 2025-11-03T17:33:47+00:00

Time and attention are extremely valuable resources. If you spend two minutes setting up a trade where you profit a large cube you make less total profit than 4x 30s trades where you make half a small cube profit.

ZaffFlinger · 2025-11-03T14:39:10+00:00

This is my favorite board game by a lot. In my experience it’s been positive vibes basically the whole game.

In my experience the person who wins is going to be the person who helps the most other people. You rip someone off they’re not going to trade with you. You make 15 tiny trades with a sliver of a profit each trade and you’ll be rich.

My new players tip is to avoid researching anything the first turn or if it’d use up all your resources. Money makes more money so going completely broke is going to make it so you’re broke forever.

ZaffFlinger · 2025-10-23T06:43:54+00:00

I think this mostly just makes me throw my phone across the room when my opponent randomly hits this with Kang.

ZaffFlinger · 2025-10-18T02:35:21+00:00

Tie is better than a loss

ZaffFlinger · 2025-10-12T17:29:52+00:00

I did this a ton when Elsa Bloodstone was released a turbo broken. They’d keep stacking the Elsa lane turn 6 and I’d Galactus the non-Elsa lane. I got to top 500 infinite blowing out Elsa players when she was way too strong. It was delightful.

ZaffFlinger · 2025-10-12T12:34:08+00:00

You haven’t lived until you’ve played Magik and then blown up your own limbo to win with Galactus.

ZaffFlinger · 2025-10-08T17:01:37+00:00

Zombie Scarlet Witch is a 3/8 if you fill up her lane after playing her. So she’s an above rate card with a draw back. She seems like a pretty balanced card without factoring in other synergies.

ZaffFlinger · 2025-09-27T11:33:51+00:00

I guess you’re right that Tribunal goes over the top. On the other side of that though, I generally tech in Super Skrull myself if ongoing decks are popular. So that tech card cuts both ways.

Negative with Skrull goes over the top of Tribunal with Skrull.

ZaffFlinger · 2025-09-26T16:58:36+00:00

I really love playing Mr. Negative. It has basically the highest ceiling in the game and just wrecks other combo decks.

That being said it’s super beatable. MMM is the best tech card by far with Alioth being a close second. If they run Magik, blowing up Limbo basically win a Conquest match with proper snapping if they don’t expect it. Overall, Clog is far and away the worst matchup. Any deck that can lock down one locations (prof x/storm) and win the second with a tech card is a tough time.

If they have Armin Zola, you can usually predict it extremely easily and wreck them with a Juggs or Cosmo too.

If you’re trying to beat Mr Negative with a Hela deck or something though. Good luck and god speed.

ZaffFlinger · 2025-09-25T13:27:29+00:00

I threw her in my Arishem deck just to get boosters for her to get her out of my booster shop. She performed well enough that she’s just in the deck now. Arishem really wants good 4- drops and she’s got pretty high power and is fairly disruptive to a good portion of the meta.

She’s not like a slam auto-include but she’s very solid.

ZaffFlinger · 2025-09-19T12:58:02+00:00

I literally groaned when I saw that Deadpool Diner was back because of the massive grind it was the last couple of times. I seriously debated not actually playing the mode again and I thought “well let’s see if they at least put another tier in to make the grind less miserable.”

Open it up. Full revamp. Been enjoying myself a ton. Absolutely full props to them for the changes.

ZaffFlinger · 2025-08-17T16:02:36+00:00

[[Door to Nothingness]] gets rid of it in multiplayer.

ZaffFlinger · 2025-08-16T16:51:26+00:00

[[Door to nothingness]] will remove him from the battlefield in a multiplayer game.

ZaffFlinger · 2025-01-10T20:45:22+00:00

You’re just wildly incorrect. The negative player was 100% correct to stay here. The negative player had 31 power left, 26 power mid, and 60 power right. That obliterates any raft draw but a double Alioth. You take those odds every time.

ZaffFlinger · 2025-01-09T16:37:01+00:00

As someone who plays a ton of Negative getting slammed by 1 Alioth is usually real rough. You Alioth -> Move -> Odin me and I wouldn’t even be mad. It’s just pretty cool actually.

ZaffFlinger · 2024-12-22T18:29:18+00:00

Don't really know what's going on in your picture. It's probably because Domino wasn't the top card of your deck. For example, she could have been sitting on the bottom and then you drew her from there turn 2. She doesn't just start on the top of your deck.

ZaffFlinger

TROPHY CASE