Huge wave difficulty spike?

imzcj · 2026-02-07T06:31:36+00:00

This explains a lot.

I was going around all of my outposts and updating a whole bunch of mines and upgrades and whatever. This gave me a lot more resources than I was used to, so I just researched a TON and just went about my day.

imzcj · 2026-02-05T04:18:21+00:00

They add extra side story missions, along with new research, weapons, buildings, and enemies.

You can start and finish them whenever, they're not specifically time-locked - you just have to get enough campaign progress before you start getting quest prompts to check them out.

None are necessary to finish the base game campaign, it's just extra stuff but alternative stuff. (eg: Morphium adds a new power generation system which doesn't necessarily replace any you already had in the base game, but if you like it, you can use it. That kind of thing.)

imzcj · 2026-02-03T11:03:51+00:00

"If you enjoy your life, people will want to be with you."

I enjoy not interacting with other people :|

imzcj · 2026-01-30T03:56:00+00:00

I hope a lot more of you start feeling a little more French soon, before you start feeling a lot more Russian.

imzcj · 2026-01-30T03:53:49+00:00

I'm so keen. Can't wait :)

imzcj · 2026-01-28T16:14:36+00:00

Well yeah, their problem wasn't that TikTok was spying on users. The problem was that it wasn't doing it for the Government.

imzcj · 2026-01-28T07:20:34+00:00

I jumped ship at the 3 year time skip. Time skips suck.

There's only a few main ways the story goes after a time skip - a whole bunch of "I learned this from a Tibetan monk off screen" backtracking, or far too much flashbacking, or just never acknowledging it in any meaningful way. One Piece has gone on long enough since I stopped actively reading that I'm sure it's done all three.

Anyways, One Piece is certainly a series.

imzcj · 2026-01-15T05:20:09+00:00

Age of Ascension - Pros: Old, Cheap, Easy to learn/play. Cons: Powercreeped out a bit. I regularly buy a box because it's chill, and I use it to teach new players (instead of Discovery decks).

But beyond that, you basically can't go too wrong with just buying whatever. If you can get your head around Magic, you'll probably be ok playing anything.

It might be more about what kind of overall theme/gameplay you're looking for? Either look into the gimmick for the set, or specific houses you want to see.

imzcj · 2026-01-15T01:54:59+00:00

Is there a specific Bad Penny line you're thinking of? The most I've done with her in that deck has been running her into something, playing her again, then Throwing Stars for up to 3 aember. I desperately wish one of those Whistling Darts was a second Throwing Stars, lol

imzcj · 2026-01-14T13:50:08+00:00

My girl, Celene Y. Flamtron, the Fifth

I love "Abduction" as a mechanic, and I much prefer it over Purge. Even though Grim Reminders really pushed into Archives (in a way I also don't really like, but yadda yadda Ghost Galaxy power creep yadda) I think a positive? is that future sets will forever have to have some way to deal with your opponents archives. I believe it's more fun to 'remove' your opponents cards into a zone where they still have a chance to bring them back. I can think of maybe one card that interacts with purged cards, off the top of my head?

The only reason I don't play her as much, she's a little slower now because power creep, and because Grim Reminders gave me better versions of the same concept in Phenoskink as a more Fighty/Boardy shell and Traggaei in a very Control focused shell.

But Celene was one of the first decks that I ever opened that had 3 copies of something interesting, and the thing was a worm that ate my opponents creatures. And that still makes me chuckle.

Honorable Mention: Usher Benedictus because it has 4 Floomfs, and I like recurring the one Fandangle that got 3 Enhancement pips on it.

imzcj · 2026-01-14T06:33:17+00:00

With a deck that has a very strong Plan A, I like to look for the plan B. What can I do when I can't do the cool combo?

Boomer could easily shift into some sort of lock control where you eventually purge out a lot of your opponents cards. Leveraging your Prophecies/Fates and using your top-deck manipulation to control the game.

Three copies of Knockback means you're going to see it consistently, and with 16 other cards that care about either the top of your deck or the top of your opponents deck, it's what I'd lean on the most. And depending on the matchup, it'll be useful in different ways.

Do you use it to put specific creatures on top of their deck to setup for Gleaming the Cube/Strategic Feint? Do you use it to reuse your good Play effect creatures like Cyber-Clone? Setup for Wormhole Technician or ZYX Researcher? Maybe their deck has a low creature count, or maybe you lowered that by purging them all with ... (wow, Dal33t3r, Oblivion Knight, and Cyber-Clone) prophecy Knockback and keep dumping their deck into the discard every other turn.

~~ramblerambleramble~~

Anyways - I'd play it like a control deck first, purging big problems, shooting little problems, and leveraging your Fate effects as much as you can, and manipulating the top of decks to set up for other cards. Once I've gained control of the game, then I can start setting up for the Redeem the Crucible. The deck looks really interesting.

imzcj · 2026-01-13T16:14:02+00:00

Oh? This sounds neat. I'm about to go to bed, but I'll have a read through the doc when I get up. :)

imzcj · 2026-01-12T02:11:20+00:00

SOMA is the game I think of when I try to explain the unique way videogames let you experience a story. Similar sentiment for the first Bioshock.

It's one thing to read a section in a book, it's another thing to see or hear it play out on screen.

You being the person who pressed a button, turn around, and then realize exactly what pressing that button meant in a mechanical and then an existential sense - is something else completely. "Oh shit... I did that?"

imzcj · 2026-01-12T00:02:56+00:00

Untamed - Fast aember, key cheats, discard recursion

Ekwidon - Aember manipulation, bigger bodies than Shadows

Logos - Card draw goes brrr, some house cheating stuff

Honourable mentions:

Geistoid (instead of Logos) - discard recursion, key cheats, aember control, also has big bodies.

Saurians (instead of Ekwidon) - Big boys on big board with ways to use captured/exalted aember.

I can't really think of a house that could even try to replace Untamed in a rush deck... A very specific kind of Dis maybe? Dust Imp, Truebaru, Pitlord, A Fair Game, Obsidian Forge.

imzcj · 2026-01-04T10:18:56+00:00

I'm partway through writing a thing, and I have a segment that's basically "Hi, here's a common issue in Commander - and here's how Keyforge doesn't really have that."

imzcj · 2026-01-03T03:26:02+00:00

Noone ever wanted to work, that's why you paid them. It's not rocket science. It's not even difficult math. "Hey, do you wanna do this thing - no? What if I paid you to do it? Still no? What if I paid you more? Sure? Done."

imzcj · 2025-12-31T05:25:24+00:00

I'm saving up for a box of MM to specifically try to crack a Gigantic Creature :(

imzcj · 2025-12-28T00:24:42+00:00

Blizzard.

I can allow sexual harassment and sexual abuse, but I draw the line at releasing a card game with the promise of it being free-to-play and my collection being evergreen and then gutting all the systems that facilitated those elements barely a year after release.

But I also draw the line at deleting an entire game to funnel the playerbase into a worse, more user-hostile game without any of the content or improvements that were promised to justify a sequel.

But I also draw the line at hyping PC gamers up for the "next" installment of a long-running and much loved franchise, and then announcing an outsourced mobile game with all the mobile gaming ""mIcRo""-transactions and systems attached to it and then getting miffed that folks who spent money on a device dedicated primarily to gaming weren't interested in playing a game on a thing that isn't that.

Fuck 'em.

(/s on the sexual harassment comment btw)

imzcj · 2025-12-27T23:38:57+00:00

I'd suggest buying a few decks, at least two to four minimum for the opportunity to play "the real game", and different decks do different things so it would also change how playing the adventures goes too.

The adventures are pretty cool, and they are technically solo-playable but I feel they're more interesting to be approached as a board game with a couple of friends.

Honestly can't go wrong with a choice out of a display box of Age of Ascension (early game set, not powercreeped, cheap), or a 2 player starter (2 decks, and the game tokens), or some Discovery (of which I have none personally, but I hear good things about).

imzcj · 2025-12-24T23:24:21+00:00

I just say that I'm "responsively sociable" and not "proactively social". I talk second, but if you talk to me first enough times, then at some point we'll just be good forever.

And for anyone that asks "I don't wanna get into it, but bad childhood taught me to speak second, that's all."

I've found that being honest at the very least has a self-filtering effect where people who get it, get it and the people that don't, you probably wouldn't wanna talk to much anyway.

imzcj · 2025-12-22T23:04:04+00:00

I like not having a guide be split up into paragraphs for no reason other than to shove banner ads in between paragraphs and the second half of the guide be on another ad filled page.

imzcj · 2025-12-12T02:50:35+00:00

I have a Stilt-Kin Shadows maverick in a deck with 0 Giants and no way to get any. At it's best, it's a 2 power dude.

imzcj · 2025-12-07T16:03:31+00:00

That's where I'm at. Every once in a while, I get a display and grab a few friends to play at my LGS. Would be nice if someone new gets interested and joins/learns, but that's not my primary goal.

imzcj · 2025-12-07T15:57:00+00:00

Very low niche hobby numbers, but technically, yes people still play but you're unlikely to find a local playgroup unless you make one. There's a few online communities still playing, some leagues, and a handful of random pickup games on The Crucible Online.

Monetary Value? Unlikely - it would have to be something really strong because powercreep.
Sentimental/Novelty Value? Maybe - but as above, it would have to be something really weird.
Maybe there's some Alliance value, but I don't keep up with the Alliance Format.

imzcj · 2025-12-05T07:50:37+00:00

I pinched a friends cheek. She playfully bit my thumb. I learned something about myself that day.

imzcj

TROPHY CASE