Summoner Wars 2e!

It's funny that you're complaining about the page. They're dropping a new dedicated site sometime in the next week I think! (They mentioned it on the episode we recorded recently which isn't out yet, heh).

When it comes to the Fungal Dwarves, I recall you mentioning that you like playing Control decks in Hearthstone and other games. If the part you like about control is the inevitability and grindiness, then Fungal Dwarves could be a great option for you! You might also look into the Vanguards, Crimson Order, Swamp Orcs or Savanna Elves. If it's more about just drawing lots of cards, the Eternal Council excels at that.

Yeah, I'm probably mostly a control player. When I was playing MTG in the 90s, Black discard control was my favorite (using Necropotence, usually) but I also played Stasis and Draw-Go pretty regularly, too. But I've been playing all kinds of decks in HS in recent years and have gravitated toward what are known as "midrange" decks there, which are just finding the best cards or combinations of them and taking the game in whatever direction suits the situation (i.e. I'm the aggro if the opportunity is there.) But I'm really fond of tribal decks (one type of minion, like goblins or imps or whatever) or minions that have a similar function so they meld together nicely, which seems to be the main approach of SW decks in the first place, which is probably why it has such appeal.

A lot of the base decks are pretty flexible in the strategy they can employ based on the matchup. It’s not really until you get into deckbuilding that some decks feel more shoehorned. Like my Tundra Orc deck with Brub and Fighters is more of a combo/OTK kind of deck at times- but it usually takes awhile to set up.

Yeah, it looked like a lot of them would qualify as "midrange" HS decks, in that they have different avenues to victory. One thing that stuck out to me from reading around was that the Savanna Elves seem to be acknowledged as the top deck of the moment, but the Swamp Orcs, who utilize basically the same mechanism (boost manipulation and exploitation) are regarded as subpar. I clearly don't understand many of the finer points of application when it comes to cards and abilities, but I remember thinking that was kind of odd when reading through the cards.

I think people were still figuring them out. My co-host recently said he might even put the Swamp Orcs in the top 5, with Savanna Elves, High Elves, Shadow Elves, and Cloaks.

In typing that out, I say, “Nerf Elves.”

Alrighty, then. I am signed up and- even playing against the comp -have quickly realized that I have no idea what I'm doing, at least with the Fungal Dwarves. Maybe I'll try their icy cousins.

One more thing (and if there's a better place for me to be blathering on about this other than here in the forum, just say so): I've gathered that some Polar Dwarves cards got nerfed and some Vanguard cards(?) got buffed. Obviously, those changes on the website are already incorporated, but if I was to get into the physical game, I've seen two seemingly conflicting opinions out there. One seems to imply that people on the subscription service for new factions will receive the changed cards automatically. The other states that the changed cards were shipped out with all High Elves decks...?

The replacement cards are in the High Elves deck afaik. Which went out to subscribers awhile ago. Also my impression is that when they’ve reprinted the master set, they have the new versions of Sera Eldwyn and Ice Ram.

Also I don’t know if you use Discord much, but there are some quick question answerers there (including myself) if I don’t catch it here right away. I think you can find a link to it somewhere on the game’s page.

Still my go-to game. Probably over 3k plays on summoner wars online now. There's now an app version for iOS/Android. (Make sure to look for Summoner Wars Online).

Up to 15 or 16 episodes of the podcast too. Any feedback on that is much appreciated. We had Dan Thurot on a little bit ago.

We just released an episode for Summoner Wars and my buddy Capp mentioned your podcast and spoke highly of it in the recording. Didn't realize you were part of it.

Sagrilarus wrote: We just released an episode for Summoner Wars and my buddy Capp mentioned your podcast and spoke highly of it in the recording. Didn't realize you were part of it.

Discard for Magic is what put the itch on to get Summoner Wars played. Seemed only right to give the shout out.

As a mildly dissenting opinion, I have to say that I've just not found an appeal to the game after several games online. This could easily be colored by my general distaste for online board games, as I've yet to get a game in with another person sitting across the table from me. But my experience has been either against the AI, which inevitably drags the game out to empty decks and which it also inevitably loses; two games against Jexik, one of which I somehow won and the other of which he blew me away in about 5 turns; and participating in this season's league matches on SW-Zone, which I will likely never do again, as everyone involved in the league is some measure of light years ahead of me. I mean, granted, you probably shouldn't go to a PTQ if you've just started playing Magic a couple months ago, but the enormous risk in each play (e.g. one mistake can easily doom your entire strategy) and the extreme mismatches between some factions just don't seem to leave a lot of room to accommodate a handicap like you'd see in significant skill disparities in abstracts like Go or chess.

Again, perhaps I'd think differently if I had someone who could play real life matches with me, so I could appreciate the interplay on the board, rather than clicking my mouse, but I have a hard time seeing why I'd be playing SW over something like Neuroshima Hex, if I wanted a 2-player with a variety of factions, or Unmatched or Funkoverse or something similar. The randomness of NH and Unmatched is based on the draw. The randomness of Funko is based on the dice. The randomness of SW is based on the draw AND the dice which, again, only heightens the risk I mentioned earlier. I'm just not connecting with it, for whatever reason.

Jackwraith wrote: As a mildly dissenting opinion, I have to say that I've just not found an appeal to the game after several games online. This could easily be colored by my general distaste for online board games, as I've yet to get a game in with another person sitting across the table from me. But my experience has been either against the AI, which inevitably drags the game out to empty decks and which it also inevitably loses; two games against Jexik, one of which I somehow won and the other of which he blew me away in about 5 turns; and participating in this season's league matches on SW-Zone, which I will likely never do again, as everyone involved in the league is some measure of light years ahead of me. I mean, granted, you probably shouldn't go to a PTQ if you've just started playing Magic a couple months ago, but the enormous risk in each play (e.g. one mistake can easily doom your entire strategy) and the extreme mismatches between some factions just don't seem to leave a lot of room to accommodate a handicap like you'd see in significant skill disparities in abstracts like Go or chess.

Again, perhaps I'd think differently if I had someone who could play real life matches with me, so I could appreciate the interplay on the board, rather than clicking my mouse, but I have a hard time seeing why I'd be playing SW over something like Neuroshima Hex, if I wanted a 2-player with a variety of factions, or Unmatched or Funkoverse or something similar. The randomness of NH and Unmatched is based on the draw. The randomness of Funko is based on the dice. The randomness of SW is based on the draw AND the dice which, again, only heightens the risk I mentioned earlier. I'm just not connecting with it, for whatever reason.

I'd like you to go to your room young man and think about what you just said.

I recognize that I’m probably the weird one for liking the game as much as I do. It’s a solid 7 after all. I’ll have to give that episode of Cellar a listen when it comes out.

Edit: Listened. 15 for an old Master Set is certainly a steal. I think you captured a lot of the game’s appeal. Thanks for the shout out. I posted a link to yours in the 2e discord.