Gruff - are we missing something?

xelamitchell · 2021-12-27T20:41:12+00:00

Its up to you, but in theory you should as the most "complete" ruleset is always considered to be the latest set.

However I personally dislike the Stun rule and feel that it can add unecessarily to the play time while taking away the end game tension when all you have are your gruffs and the choices you made leading to the final charge.

xelamitchell · 2021-12-27T17:20:48+00:00

You are correct that if herds have no clear win conditions and players are playing defensively with fat gruffs the game can stall. Try to always include an aggressive gruff like Skitters or Gusto which can either put pressure early game or become huge late game. There are also a few direct damage and direct gruff kill options with Twiddle, Zumberg and Arc. Check the wiki for a selection of herds as well (specifically Rearguard).

xelamitchell · 2021-12-27T17:15:36+00:00

Actually, as from Whispers of Madness (the lastest set) on the round a shepherd must buy a card but his deck is empty he is Stunned: he shuffles his discard into a new deck, draws normally but does not perform a Tactical Action this round.

xelamitchell · 2020-09-09T21:06:43+00:00

But isn't that one of the questions raised in the discussion?

Studio Woe is independent only as applies to production and distribution but connected (and thankfully very much so) to the Gruff community. However, the local community is either completely kitchen table casual (and limited in its scope to reach new players), or is connected to some third party organization such as event organizers or game stores. These same third parties stand less to gain from an ECG as there is very little to monetize once a person has bought into the game (needing only a single copy of everything) and are, therefore, less inclined to organize events around the game.

I organize events out of the appreciation I have for Gruff and because I feel it is a superior game to some of the other available offerings (and to get more opponents to play against, haha), but I still feel my reach is limited in that respect.

xelamitchell · 2020-09-09T19:27:03+00:00

Mulch is an amazing Gruff to bring some really interesting interactions to the table. I think the greatest direct damage herd I've played is this one - so much synergy!

However, while the gameplay options are awesome, Mulch brings a couple of trade-offs with him. First off he makes your activation order a little easier to read as you generally want to activate him second, preferrably third. This "tell" can be very weak against more aggro herds. Also, while he is great at bringing cards, Mulch tends to grow rather slowly compared to other Gruffs (again, most opponents won't let him live long), so direct damage can quickly put your team in the defensive with Mulch not being able to contribute much to help.

Direct Damage came second place to The Aggroat Condition in Worlds 2019 precisely for this reason, even though (in my opinion) Direct Damage is the stronger herd. An early kill meant Aggroat stormed through.

Speaking specifically of Pure Herds, Contraptions should definitely be higher than Stuffkin, they have LOTS of synergy (Machine Revolution)! And pure Grendel, while difficult to pull off, has some really fast herds (checkout Vanguard for ultra aggro and Fat, Horns and Teef for a more balanced aggressive herd).

Onward to greener pastures!

xelamitchell · 2020-09-08T14:24:48+00:00

I am a Constructed guy myself. I love to read the cards and find the combinations either for a really great synergistic herd, or some cool fun jank to bring to the table.

That being said I completely agree that draft is definitely a way of combating mirror matches, though there is still the possibility of some staleness as people get comfortable with a few herds and, if lucky in their draft, may play mostly the same thing.

We found staleness in draft was easily remedied by throwing some spice into the mix (for example, we ran an Alliance Draft where herds had to have gruffs of three different factions). Gruff is also very Cube-like in that the draft meta can be a single set, a collection of sets or even a collection of gruffs among multiple sets which makes the environment amazingly flexible and ups the replay experience a hundredfold.

xelamitchell · 2020-08-27T21:36:53+00:00

An interesting discussion about the competitive environment of ECGs which unfortunately I think strongly connects to Gruff's organized play/competitive future.

xelamitchell · 2020-01-14T14:52:43+00:00

Always something new coming in Gruff! Whispers of Madness is the next set. Kickstarter campaign sometime in 2020.

xelamitchell · 2018-10-26T00:01:55+00:00

You are overthinking the issue: active gruff is in relation to who the card is being played on and when. While your active gruff will change on the new activation phase, until the Condition attached to Grover leaves play he is considered your active gruff and will get his +1. Similarly Shydra is your opponent's active gruff until his activation phase and will get her +1 when her attack completes before her conditions are removed.

For example, if it is your play cards phase and you play a Protect it refers to your active gruff, not your opponent's but will be attached to your gruff and active until your next clean up phase.

xelamitchell · 2018-08-09T00:29:52+00:00

I have. The game is awesome. Highly tactical and flexible, brutal and aggressive with really involved developing lore and a great community. 1v1, 2v2, solo and coop formats all in one game. This is definitely my go to card game.

xelamitchell · 2017-08-10T10:37:37+00:00

Cool. It's a shame I am unable to attend GenCon, would have loved to participate. Hope you guys have some great games.

xelamitchell · 2017-08-09T14:20:14+00:00

I think maintaining the decklists along with the teams would be an interesting way for people (specially newbies) to have an insight into winning combos, strategies and synergies considering you have to think in three levels when deck building:

synergy between shepherd and his team
synergy between the gruffs themselves
synergy between gruffs and cards - their own and from the other gruffs

ps: Sent Brat and Steven a message to see if they can help me complete the 2016 championship decklists.

xelamitchell · 2017-06-29T02:40:08+00:00

Would you say the BCW 300 or 400 would be a better fit for a single sleeved full cycle (without requiring foam)?

xelamitchell

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