You can still play with the starter decks, but the store would have to support the Origin: Bifrost format, which ignores the Lifebreak mechanic. Heresay indicates that Lifebreak was not a popular mechanic in other territories, where the Valhalla cluster was released. So, it is unlikely to come back any time soon. People are not entirely sure why the game creators chose to release those starter decks in the U.S., knowing that they would not add cards to support Lifebreak.
However, in July, a new starter deck will be released that will be based on the Grimm cluster, so Lifebreak won't be a factor.
Looks like Fire/Wind Aggro with Little Red, the True Fairy Tale is right up my alley as far as competitive budget decks go for Grimm Cluster block though I don't think it will stand much of a chance against Alice in Wonderland, Bloody Snow White, and Kaguya. Here's the decklist btw:
Ruler / J-Ruler (1)
1 Crimson Girl in the Sky / Little Red, the True Fairy Tale
Resonators (23)
4 Hunter in Black Forest
4 Wolf-Haunted in Black Forest
4 Seven Dwarfs
4 Beowulf, the Blazing Wolf
4 Oz, the Great Wizard
3 Moon Night Pouncer
Other Spells (17)
4 Refarth, the Castle in Heaven
4 Evolution of Limits
3 Duel of Truth
3 Rapid Decay
3 Poison Apple
"Restriction breeds creativity." - Sheldon Menery on EDH / Commander in Magic: The Gathering
"Cancel Culture is the real reason why everyone's not allowed to have nice things anymore." - Anonymous
"For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?" - Mark 8:36
"Most men and women will grow up to love their servitude and will never dream of revolution." - Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
"Every life decision is always a risk / reward proposition." - Sanjay Gupta
Looks like Fire/Wind Aggro with Little Red, the True Fairy Tale is right up my alley as far as competitive budget decks go for Grimm Cluster block though I don't think it will stand much of a chance against Alice in Wonderland, Bloody Snow White, and Kaguya. Here's the decklist btw:
Ruler / J-Ruler (1)
1 Crimson Girl in the Sky / Little Red, the True Fairy Tale
Resonators (23)
4 Hunter in Black Forest
4 Wolf-Haunted in Black Forest
4 Seven Dwarfs
4 Beowulf, the Blazing Wolf
4 Oz, the Great Wizard
3 Moon Night Pouncer
Other Spells (17)
4 Refarth, the Castle in Heaven
4 Evolution of Limits
3 Duel of Truth
3 Rapid Decay
3 Poison Apple
Magic Stones (10)
6 Magic Stone of Flame
4 Magic Stone of Wind
Seeing as how you're using Little Red as your ruler with all of her abilities to double pump spells, I'd go more all-in with her. All of the "Wizard of Oz" cards like the cowardly lion and company deal with counters and spells that give stat boosts. The archetype is a fairly popular and pretty competitive one known as "Yellow brick Road" aggro. I've played against the deck on several occasions with several different lists, and have seen it kill as quickly as turns 2-3! Very fun to use
Yeah one of my friends suggested that I should run Musketeers instead of Little Red since he feels that it fits toward my play style a bit more cause I've always enjoyed running Elf Combo in MTG. Gretel, Elvish Priest, and Aramis, the Three Musketeers ramp like crazy for getting enough Resonators to deal first strike and pierce damage. Here's a decklist I already plan on building for it:
Ruler / J-Ruler (1)
1 Puss in Boots / D’Artangan, the Bayoneteer
Resonators (22)
4 Elvish Priest
4 Gretel
4 Pumpkin Witch
4 Aramis, the Three Musketeers
3 Athos, the Three Musketeers
3 Porthos, the Three Musketeers
Other Spells (18)
4 Realm of Evolution
3 Xeex the Ancient Magic
3 Law of Silence
2 Musketeer's Bayonet
2 Stoning to Death
2 Absolute Cake Zone
2 Crucifix
Magic Stones (10)
5 Magic Stone of Wind
4 Magic Stone of Black Silence
1 Feethsing, the Holy Wind Stone
"Restriction breeds creativity." - Sheldon Menery on EDH / Commander in Magic: The Gathering
"Cancel Culture is the real reason why everyone's not allowed to have nice things anymore." - Anonymous
"For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?" - Mark 8:36
"Most men and women will grow up to love their servitude and will never dream of revolution." - Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
"Every life decision is always a risk / reward proposition." - Sanjay Gupta
I tried this once. It's too similar to Magic for me. The shop keeper said there might be a Duel Deck type product in the future. That would interest me. But I have no interest in constructing decks from boosters.
"A rich man thinks all other people are rich, and an intelligent man thinks all other people are similarly gifted. Both are always terribly shocked when they discover the truth of the world. You, my dear brother, are a pious man." - Strahd von Zarovich
I tried this once. It's too similar to Magic for me. The shop keeper said there might be a Duel Deck type product in the future. That would interest me. But I have no interest in constructing decks from boosters.
A duel deck product is scheduled for release in July.
I've been watching this one for a few months too, and I think I'll be trying to get some boxes to build a draft set/cube out of it (me and my group just keep gravitating away from constructed... anything). I don't think anyone in my group would be interested in keeping up with a competative scene, so boardgame-afying FoW seems like an interesting way to get some use out of the product.
The new Vingolf set coming out in July looks like every magic players' wet dream of a power 9 + ABUR duals + commander-2011-generals re-release; it will apparently contain all of the dual mana stones and a bunch of other high priced staples. July seems like a pretty damn good time to jump into the game for those that are curious.
I've also been gravitating away from anything Constructed as well. All the card games have certain things that bother me. I hate top-decking lands midgame in Magic, hate the over-reliance on legendaries in pokemon, and Yugioh is just Yugioh (garbage). I personally like draft a lot for one specific reason: The gameplay resembles the packs. What I mean is that your deck consists of commons the most, just like packs, then rares are the least likely thing to encounter, and uncommons are in between. I love this because it gives me a Chess-like vibe where you have a balanced ranking of pawns and power pieces. I think this is why I can't get behind MTG constructed: most decks just have you running four-ofs of rares for the most part, with common pawns like wayfinder or elvish mystic being the true rarity.
Granted, Force of Will doesn't seem too different from what I've seen so far, what with the four-of Cheshire Cat that is commonplace. I really wish a card game would have a four-of rule for same name cards applied only to commons, with rares being allowed only in doubles. But I do really love the mana system being separate from the main deck, the extremely strong and consistent mulligan, and the combat system. The mana system makes sure every top-deck is a live draw, which makes card advantage extremely important. This is the only thing I actually ever enjoyed about Yugioh, in that keeping track of card advantage every second of the game was paramount. While still important in MTG and Pokemon, it feels really watered down and secondary due to all the dead draws from land/energy.
One thing that I'm sceptical about is the color wheel, though. This game doesn't seem to care about it at all. The different attributes don't seem to have certain flavors to them, at least not as strong as Magic's. And beyond that you have the cost-less dual stones that let you run a 4-5 color deck with ease. If that wasn't enough, your trap cards can be played for two colorless, despite the actual cost. This really doesn't feel like a game where you are picking colors to cover your bases, like in MTG. Rather, it seems like you just pick either really good cards that you want to play with, or the cards that your archetype calls for, and then just use the colors associated with them.
The color pie for Force of Will is similar in a few ways but vastly different in others.
Darkness is strong in creature removal and weakening (-X/-X).
Water is strong in draw power and flying creatures.
Wind is strong in counterspells and mana ramp. Its creatures have more toughness
Light is strong in supporting itself and board wipes.
Fire is strong in direct damage and is currently non-basic stone hate.
The most important change was separating counterspell and card draw power across two colors. Wind gets counterspells and Water gets draw power. This at least avoids Water from being the dominant element as blue is in long-term Magic.
There is a semblance of color identity in Force of Will, but it's a little different than in Magic. If you really wanted strong restrictions in identity, you would pretty much go with a World of Warcraft/Hearthstone model, where your hero's class dictates a lot of your "non-generic" cards.
Chant - Standby cards have really specific conditions, so even though it costs 2 mana to set them, they were not played competitively. The rules have been revised to either set them for two or cast them as an instant from your hand for the full cost when the card's conditions are met.
I think dual stones not having any drawback is definitely a mistake, but they have printed hosers against those, which Magic doesn't really do anymore.
I haven't played it, but from what I have seen so far, I'm not impressed. It's basically another Magic clone. You have your five colors, creatures (resonants), lands (crystals or something...), instants and enchantments.
I don't see any reason for picking this game up, as FoW plays just like Magic with only a few tweaks in the rules. Not to mention that the art is really weird. On one hand we have werewolves and Cthulhu monsters and on another cute anime girls. And I still don't get the flavor of this game. We have Nordic Gods, werewolves, vampires, musketeers, bunny girls, dragons, robots, the game is all over the place.
I have never heard of this game before seeing this topic, so I have no reason to defend it, but... doesn't Magic pretty much have all that stuff too? Each block of Magic has brought us to a different theme, with a wider variety even than what you just named being represented.
I haven't played it, but from what I have seen so far, I'm not impressed. It's basically another Magic clone. You have your five colors, creatures (resonants), lands (crystals or something...), instants and enchantments.
I don't see any reason for picking this game up, as FoW plays just like Magic with only a few tweaks in the rules. Not to mention that the art is really weird. On one hand we have werewolves and Cthulhu monsters and on another cute anime girls. And I still don't get the flavor of this game. We have Nordic Gods, werewolves, vampires, musketeers, bunny girls, dragons, robots, the game is all over the place.
I have never heard of this game before seeing this topic, so I have no reason to defend it, but... doesn't Magic pretty much have all that stuff too? Each block of Magic has brought us to a different theme, with a wider variety even than what you just named being represented.
Yes, but Magic never had this mush-mash of creature types and themes in the single BLOCK (apart from Time Spiral).
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Watch your thoughts, for they become words.
Watch your words, for they become actions.
Watch your actions, for they become habits.
Watch your habits, for they become character.
Watch your character, for it becomes your destiny.
What hosers are there against dual stones by the way? I've seen Split Heaven and Earth, but that's about it. I too think that the dual stones should have had enter tapped restrictions or something, but that might be too slow for this game. Then again, maybe not if they're going to print cards like Gretel. Every single deck is running max special stones in it despite the fact that they know full well someone could be running 4 Thunder and 4 Split. And no one is going to use side deck space for basic stones no matter how many hosers there are. At this point, I really want the game/developers to communicate. This game seems like it could get really sacky and volatile like Yugioh, or it could become more balanced as they simply stop printing dumb stuff, such as how MTG started.
I saw some of this action at my local FLGS recently and some of the reactions were similar. The art is gorgeous but definitely all of the place thematically. And it's certainly reminiscent of MtG, mechanically - though I heard some players saying that the need/challenge to get rares and good cards is less aggressive.
I actually was impressed by the art/design on the card backs! Very cool, although ultimately not very important.
Ultimately I don't feel like it differentiates enough catch me, and I feel like Epic is going to walk a similar path.
I saw some of this action at my local FLGS recently and some of the reactions were similar. The art is gorgeous but definitely all of the place thematically. And it's certainly reminiscent of MtG, mechanically - though I heard some players saying that the need/challenge to get rares and good cards is less aggressive.
I actually was impressed by the art/design on the card backs! Very cool, although ultimately not very important.
Ultimately I don't feel like it differentiates enough catch me, and I feel like Epic is going to walk a similar path.
Set sizes are currently small, so buying a booster box yields better Expected Value (EV) than Magic. So, you have a better chance of getting good cards, but make no mistake, most competitive Force of Will decks still need good rares or super rares as the backbone of the deck.
I fell in love with this game after playing a few games and doing some research back in May. I feel like this could go very far if people are only willing to put some time and effort into it. I'm doing my part by getting it carried at my LGS, as well as teaching people how to play. Since 90% of my area is MTG-based, and I am no exception, teaching this game is a breeze; all I needed to do was just make a terminology equivalent guide and rules differences list.
The game has now absolutely exploded in my area. Almost all the Yugioh players and a very large portion of the MTG players are all over it. I witnessed 4 boxes get sold immediately upon being delivered to the shop (I was one of them). And the game has been growing at two separate card shops in my area. The only thing I don't like is that I now have to deal with the toxic Yugioh community again and their over-inflated egos. Just to give you an idea about Yugioh players, they think they know it all about the rules of this game despite almost all of it being based on MTG, and they pretty much all netdeck top 8 lists while the MTG players tend to be the ones who are having fun with the new game and experimenting blindly.
I fell in love with this game after playing a few games and doing some research back in May. I feel like this could go very far if people are only willing to put some time and effort into it. I'm doing my part by getting it carried at my LGS, as well as teaching people how to play. Since 90% of my area is MTG-based, and I am no exception, teaching this game is a breeze; all I needed to do was just make a terminology equivalent guide and rules differences list.
It's funny because when I learn this game, I didn't even use the keywords on the card. I simply use the MTG equivalent. Hell I even nickname certain cards in magic terms like Cheshire cat is brainstorm stick.
I'm ready to get cracking on a draft set for FoW. I've purchased 2 copies of vingolf, 1 copy of the alice cycle starter, and a smattering of additional rulers and rares to balance the "color pie." Folks on some of the dedicated FoW boards have said that the game's limited leaves a bit to be desired, but I'm interested in the cube building challenge and the opportunity to play something similar but not exactly like magic.
Aside from the cheesecake-factor, which I'm sure will make some of my friends roll their eyes, I was very, very impressed by the Vingolf set. It seems like a really great introduction to the game, and if rumors are true that the company will be releasing a new one annually, it should be fairly easy to jump in and out of the game as the set-themes appeal to players.
Both Feithsing, the Magus of Holy Wind and Chesire Cat, the Grinning Remnant wouldn't have shot up in price as they did had they've been reprinted in Vingolf: Engage Knights since they're both staples for Wind and Water. Last time I checked Feitshing was being valued at $25 a piece where as Chesire Cat is still $20 a piece.
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America Bless Christ Jesus
"Restriction breeds creativity." - Sheldon Menery on EDH / Commander in Magic: The Gathering
"Cancel Culture is the real reason why everyone's not allowed to have nice things anymore." - Anonymous
"For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?" - Mark 8:36
"Most men and women will grow up to love their servitude and will never dream of revolution." - Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
"Every life decision is always a risk / reward proposition." - Sanjay Gupta
I just decided to try out the game after scoping out how it is played, cost of cards and getting into it, etc. Right now I'd say it has a leg up on MTG simply because they haven't gotten to this bloat point magic has achieved with cards.
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1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
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However, in July, a new starter deck will be released that will be based on the Grimm cluster, so Lifebreak won't be a factor.
Ruler / J-Ruler (1)
1 Crimson Girl in the Sky / Little Red, the True Fairy Tale
Resonators (23)
4 Hunter in Black Forest
4 Wolf-Haunted in Black Forest
4 Seven Dwarfs
4 Beowulf, the Blazing Wolf
4 Oz, the Great Wizard
3 Moon Night Pouncer
Other Spells (17)
4 Refarth, the Castle in Heaven
4 Evolution of Limits
3 Duel of Truth
3 Rapid Decay
3 Poison Apple
Magic Stones (10)
6 Magic Stone of Flame
4 Magic Stone of Wind
"Restriction breeds creativity." - Sheldon Menery on EDH / Commander in Magic: The Gathering
"Cancel Culture is the real reason why everyone's not allowed to have nice things anymore." - Anonymous
"For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?" - Mark 8:36
"Most men and women will grow up to love their servitude and will never dream of revolution." - Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
"Every life decision is always a risk / reward proposition." - Sanjay Gupta
Seeing as how you're using Little Red as your ruler with all of her abilities to double pump spells, I'd go more all-in with her. All of the "Wizard of Oz" cards like the cowardly lion and company deal with counters and spells that give stat boosts. The archetype is a fairly popular and pretty competitive one known as "Yellow brick Road" aggro. I've played against the deck on several occasions with several different lists, and have seen it kill as quickly as turns 2-3! Very fun to use
WB Eldrazi Processors BW
Legacy:
WUBRGLandless DredgeGRBUW
EDH:
BGMeren of Clan Nel TothGB
WUBrago, King Eternal (Budget!)UW
Ruler / J-Ruler (1)
1 Puss in Boots / D’Artangan, the Bayoneteer
Resonators (22)
4 Elvish Priest
4 Gretel
4 Pumpkin Witch
4 Aramis, the Three Musketeers
3 Athos, the Three Musketeers
3 Porthos, the Three Musketeers
Other Spells (18)
4 Realm of Evolution
3 Xeex the Ancient Magic
3 Law of Silence
2 Musketeer's Bayonet
2 Stoning to Death
2 Absolute Cake Zone
2 Crucifix
Magic Stones (10)
5 Magic Stone of Wind
4 Magic Stone of Black Silence
1 Feethsing, the Holy Wind Stone
Deck Total (50)
"Restriction breeds creativity." - Sheldon Menery on EDH / Commander in Magic: The Gathering
"Cancel Culture is the real reason why everyone's not allowed to have nice things anymore." - Anonymous
"For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?" - Mark 8:36
"Most men and women will grow up to love their servitude and will never dream of revolution." - Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
"Every life decision is always a risk / reward proposition." - Sanjay Gupta
A duel deck product is scheduled for release in July.
The new Vingolf set coming out in July looks like every magic players' wet dream of a power 9 + ABUR duals + commander-2011-generals re-release; it will apparently contain all of the dual mana stones and a bunch of other high priced staples. July seems like a pretty damn good time to jump into the game for those that are curious.
"Personally I love high-riak, low-reqars gambles. Life's best with a decent amount of riak. And f*** reqars."
Granted, Force of Will doesn't seem too different from what I've seen so far, what with the four-of Cheshire Cat that is commonplace. I really wish a card game would have a four-of rule for same name cards applied only to commons, with rares being allowed only in doubles. But I do really love the mana system being separate from the main deck, the extremely strong and consistent mulligan, and the combat system. The mana system makes sure every top-deck is a live draw, which makes card advantage extremely important. This is the only thing I actually ever enjoyed about Yugioh, in that keeping track of card advantage every second of the game was paramount. While still important in MTG and Pokemon, it feels really watered down and secondary due to all the dead draws from land/energy.
One thing that I'm sceptical about is the color wheel, though. This game doesn't seem to care about it at all. The different attributes don't seem to have certain flavors to them, at least not as strong as Magic's. And beyond that you have the cost-less dual stones that let you run a 4-5 color deck with ease. If that wasn't enough, your trap cards can be played for two colorless, despite the actual cost. This really doesn't feel like a game where you are picking colors to cover your bases, like in MTG. Rather, it seems like you just pick either really good cards that you want to play with, or the cards that your archetype calls for, and then just use the colors associated with them.
Darkness is strong in creature removal and weakening (-X/-X).
Water is strong in draw power and flying creatures.
Wind is strong in counterspells and mana ramp. Its creatures have more toughness
Light is strong in supporting itself and board wipes.
Fire is strong in direct damage and is currently non-basic stone hate.
The most important change was separating counterspell and card draw power across two colors. Wind gets counterspells and Water gets draw power. This at least avoids Water from being the dominant element as blue is in long-term Magic.
There is a semblance of color identity in Force of Will, but it's a little different than in Magic. If you really wanted strong restrictions in identity, you would pretty much go with a World of Warcraft/Hearthstone model, where your hero's class dictates a lot of your "non-generic" cards.
Chant - Standby cards have really specific conditions, so even though it costs 2 mana to set them, they were not played competitively. The rules have been revised to either set them for two or cast them as an instant from your hand for the full cost when the card's conditions are met.
I think dual stones not having any drawback is definitely a mistake, but they have printed hosers against those, which Magic doesn't really do anymore.
I have never heard of this game before seeing this topic, so I have no reason to defend it, but... doesn't Magic pretty much have all that stuff too? Each block of Magic has brought us to a different theme, with a wider variety even than what you just named being represented.
Yes, but Magic never had this mush-mash of creature types and themes in the single BLOCK (apart from Time Spiral).
Watch your words, for they become actions.
Watch your actions, for they become habits.
Watch your habits, for they become character.
Watch your character, for it becomes your destiny.
I actually was impressed by the art/design on the card backs! Very cool, although ultimately not very important.
Ultimately I don't feel like it differentiates enough catch me, and I feel like Epic is going to walk a similar path.
Set sizes are currently small, so buying a booster box yields better Expected Value (EV) than Magic. So, you have a better chance of getting good cards, but make no mistake, most competitive Force of Will decks still need good rares or super rares as the backbone of the deck.
It's funny because when I learn this game, I didn't even use the keywords on the card. I simply use the MTG equivalent. Hell I even nickname certain cards in magic terms like Cheshire cat is brainstorm stick.
Aside from the cheesecake-factor, which I'm sure will make some of my friends roll their eyes, I was very, very impressed by the Vingolf set. It seems like a really great introduction to the game, and if rumors are true that the company will be releasing a new one annually, it should be fairly easy to jump in and out of the game as the set-themes appeal to players.
"Personally I love high-riak, low-reqars gambles. Life's best with a decent amount of riak. And f*** reqars."
"Restriction breeds creativity." - Sheldon Menery on EDH / Commander in Magic: The Gathering
"Cancel Culture is the real reason why everyone's not allowed to have nice things anymore." - Anonymous
"For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?" - Mark 8:36
"Most men and women will grow up to love their servitude and will never dream of revolution." - Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
"Every life decision is always a risk / reward proposition." - Sanjay Gupta
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!