Game Day!

Haha! Today I'll be getting together with some friends for a day of gaming fun! Hopefully, we'll be able to play some of my group's favorite games, like Seven Wonders and Mechwarrior: Age of Destruction! It promises to be a fun day!

Mechwarrior: Dark Age and Age of Destruction

About a week ago, a member of a gaming group I am in said that they were getting rid of their collection of Mechwarrior clix miniatures and that they would give them to whoever could give them a new home. I quickly volunteered, since I've had a fair amount of experience with the miniatures and own a small collection of them.

On Saturday morning, (03/14/15) we both pulled into a parking lot where we had agreed to meet after a sudden change of plans. As they opened the trunk, my jaw dropped, literally. The  entire trunk was filled with toolboxes, fishing boxes and a bag. I never guessed that a collection that I was getting for free, would be that big! To be honest, I'm still not positive of everything I have. I have to keep going back and digging through it to check if I have that faction or this miniature here or there. It's such an awesome collection and I'm very happy I was able to give it a good home.

Basically, what I am saying is that you may be seeing a lot of Mechwarrior stuff very soon! I'd like to even do a Battle Report at some point, but we'll see...

Dragon Week Day 7: The End

We end the week very fittingly. We end the the week with Cardfight: Vanguard's Dragonic Overlord The End!

He's a Grade 3 card, whose full potential is unleashed when he rides Dragonic Overlord. If you thought Schwarzchild Dragon was the only Dragon to have a scary Persona Blast, wait until you hear The End's! When this unit's attack hits, you can Counter Blast two cards and discard a card named Dragonic Overlord The End from your hand to activate a devastating effect. By paying the cost, Dragonic Overlord the End is able to Stand once again to crush his enemies! One of the best parts of his ability is that it can be activated more than once per turn, as long as you can pay the cost! This is the perfect way to end the game, grinding your opponent into the dust!

Unfortunately, his ability can be shut down by guarding his attack, so it's best to activate it late in the game, when you need that final rush for victory.

Did I mention that the artwork is amazing? One version of the card even has the line "the End shall never fall!" printed in gold foil lettering!

Dragonic Overlord The End, in my opinion, is the only way to end Dragon Week! Thank you for reading and I hope you've enjoyed the week!

Dragon Week Day 6: Pokémon Dragon Typing

Have you seen the Dragon types in the Pokémon TCG? If you haven't, they're a fairly new type and both puzzle and intriuge me.

Dragon Type cards have a goldish-green look to them and are usually weak to Fairy Types. Their retreat cost is low/medium. The odd (and cool) thing about them is that you don't use Dragon Energies to power their attacks. Instead, they use a combination of other energies! For example, a certain Goomie needs both a Water Energy and a Fairy Energy to power its attacks, while a Deino needs a Psychic Energy and a Dark Energy to attack. 

Now, if you've been paying attention and you understand how Pokémon deck building works, you might have seen how useful these cards can be for combo-color decks. That also means that you can't (very successfully) play a deck with the only Type being Dragon.

In closing, all of the Dragon Type Pokémon I've seen have been built to bridge the gap between two Typea in multi-Type deck. They are extremely situational deck building-wise, but can have a tremendous impact on the game with their powerful attacks and unique abilities! I can't wait to see the Dragon Type become more used and better supported! Who knows, maybe one day we'll get the right cards to built a single-Type Dragon deck! 

Dragon Week Day 5: Black Dragons

Now we're back to Buddyfight! The Black Dragons are quickly becoming more and more supported, so I figured I'd devote a whole post to them!

So, Black Dragons are an archetype of Darkness Dragon World, meaning that they have access to a majorly scary repitoire of destruction and defense spells. They have some good offensive set spells like Pain Field and Crisis Field as well.

Okay, it's time for me to write about what I consider staple cards in a Black Dragon deck! (I'll tell you some of the abilities of each card, then move on to tell you about the Black Dragon's main gimmick)

Death Dragon, Deathgaze Dragon is a must-have! He is a size 1 monster with 6000/2/1000 in the order of Power/Critical/Defense so he's clearly an offensive monster. (Perfect for the Black Dragon play style!) He also costs one gauge to call, which isn't bad considering he has the awesome ability "Spectral Strike." Spectral Strike causes two damage to your opponent whenever Deathgaze destroys one of their monsters. Deathgaze is great at opening up your opponent's center position or playing in a rush kind of strategy, using him to run your opponent's out of monsters while damaging them.

Great Evil Dragon Samael Apocaslypse is much more of a specialist weapon for the Black Dragons, but can be incredibly useful when you need him. He has 8000/1/7000 with Double Attack. However, he's not free! In fact, he costs three gauge to call! Possessing the same Spectral Strike as Deathgaze, he can be a killer rush-style card.

Black Dragon Shield. Come on, it's in the name. Need I say more?

Even though I already mentioned them, I'd like to talk about Crisis Field and Pain Field. Crisis field costs one gauge and is a Set Spell. It gives all monsters on your field with Spectral Strike Power +2000. That's a nice power bonus for a lot of Black Dragons.

Pain Field is another Set Spell. It costs two gauge and you must take one damage. Whenever your opponent nullifies one of your attacks, they take one damage AND they can only gain life with their Buddycall. That is a scary, scary card for only two gauge and one damage.

Well, that's about it. I'll tell you, though, before I saw some of the truly powerful rush attacks of the Black Dragons, I wa snot impressed with Darkness Dragon World. As you can believe, they quickly changed my mind!

Dragon Week Day 4: Blue-Eyes White Dragon

You know, the one from Yu-Gi-Oh? Possibly the most well known monster in the game? 

Anyway, Blue-Eyes was at one point, (at least in my neighborhood) the monster that everyone wanted to have! I mean, it was almost a myth until last year, when I happily received a Yu-Gi-Oh structure deck named "Saga of Blue-Eyes White Dragon."

Then, Blue-Eyes changed from a myth to beast with mythical power. He absolutely crushed my opponents in the early days of having that deck and after some modifications to the deck, he became easier to summon with the addition of two more Blue-Eyes.

Now, enough about its story and how much it means to me, let's learn about the card. 

Blue-Eyes is a normal monster, so no abilities. However, it has a whopping 3000 ATK and a fair 2500 DEF. It's incredibly high ATK stat makes a scary card to have to attack. Unfortunately, besides its high attack, it doesn't have any special abilities of its own. The combos you can create are awesome, though! Here are some now!

Favorite Combo:

Use the XYZ monster Wind-Up Zenmaister's ability to trigger Maiden with Eyes of Blue's ability (when she is targeted by a card, she summons Blue-Eyes from the hand, deck or graveyard) and poof! Blue-Eyes appears!

Second Favorite Combo:

Use Dragon Shrine to send Blue-Eyes to the graveyard, then call it back using Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon's ability (Summons a dragon monster from your graveyard once per turn).

These are the combos that I use the most! Try them out and tell me what you think!

I think Blue-Eyes is an awesome dragon to have, both for its story and for the sick 3-card combos you can pull off using it!

Dragon Week Day 3: Schwarzschild Dragon

Now we're jumping into a dragon from Cardfight: Vanguard! (I told you all dragons would be welcome!) Now, CF: Vanguard has some pretty sick dragons and I'll be talking about one that is truly unforgettable!

Schwarzschild Dragon is actually part of  a ride chain, one that starts with the Grade 0 monster, Micro-Hole Dracokid, then rides to Grade 1 Gravity Ball Dragon and Grade 2 Gravity Collapse Dragon, finishing, of course, with Schwarzchild Dragon. Like most ride chains, this one has several countermeasures to prevent Gradelock. (If you ride the Grade 1, you can search the top 5 cards of your deck for the Grade 2 or Grade 3 of the ride chain)

However, Schwarzchild really excels in the realm of his Persona Blast! It's Limit Break 4, by the way. By Counter-Blasting 3 cards and discarding a Shwarzschild Dragon from your hand, you can increase your Vanguard Schwarzchild Dragon's power by 10000 and its critical by 1! That's not all, though! You can also lock up to three of your opponent's Rear-Guard units! In one turn, you can effectively cripple your opponent's offense for next turn and wear down their defense with Schwarzchild Dragon's punishing attack!

Even though the Persona Blast requires a bit of luck to pull off, when you do get it off it can be devastating! I would highly recommend getting some Schwarzchild Dragons from yugiohmint.com! (They carrot them for quite cheap and as singles)

I love talking about the mighty Schwarzchild Dragon and its ride chain, so leave a comment below if you feel like it! 

Dragon Week Day 2: Blue Sky Knights

For day 2, I'm  going to talk a for a bit about monsters from Buddyfight, more specifically, Dragon World.

The Blue Sky Knights (BSK) are an interesting subtype of Dragon World. Unlike regular Armordragons, their power and defense are surprisingly low. On the bright side, they cost very little gauge, so you can spend more gauge on spells, impacts and items. Their critical numbers are not spectacular, either.

However, their main gimmick is somewhat simple, but incredible useful. The BSK use all manner of ways to increase the player's life points. BSK Drum Bunker Dragon gets you one life when he attacks, Bonblade Dragon gives you one life when he enters the field and Crimson Arrow Dragon gives you two life when he enters the field when there are two or more BSK in the drop zone.

The Blue Sky Knights even have an equip card to go with them! It's called Dragonblade, Dragowing! It starts with a critical of two and costs one gauge to equip. It also gains a critical every time you gain life, to a maximum total of three critical.

As you can see, the BSK are not the most powerful subtype of Dragon World, but they play great as a sort of hybrid tank/rush type of deck. The Blue Sky Knights are a deck I would love to build, given the time and the money!

I hope you enjoyed my analysis!

Dragon Week Day 1: Salamence

To kick off Dragon Week, I thought I'd do a little throwback to Pokémon Week and talk about my Salamence-focused Pokémon TCG deck. Just a heads-up before I say any more about it, this deck does not fit in the Limited Format, I'm purely playing this deck for fun within a small group of friends.

                            

Ah, okay, so, in order to get Salamence to the field, we have to evolve him first from Bagon, then Shelgon. This means it needs to be easy to find one of Salamence's lower stage evolutions, which isn't hard because the deck is draw-heavy. I chose three Bagon, two Shelgon and one Salamence (I would have put another Salamence into the deck but I didn't have another one).

Next, let's see what types this deck is running, shall we? The Salamence deck is Fire and Normal-typed, focusing more on the Fire side of the deck. For Fire Pokémon, I like to run some Stage 1s like: Rapidash, Charmeleon and Macargo. For the Normal types, I like  Delcatty, Raticate and, of course, the Stage 2 Salamence.

Now, because of Salamence's unique attack, Dragon Finish, I need to put both Fire and Water type energy cards in my deck. I tend to run a ratio of about 1:1 for energy types. However, even though his attack costs 4 energies, 2 Fire, 2 Water, it is worth the cost. Th player I given a choice, they can discard 2 Fire energies to deal 100 damage to the defending Pokémon OR they can discard 2 Water energies to deal 100 damage to a Pokémon on your opponent's bench! This makes Salamence twice as useful, even though he has to have a steady stream of energies coming to him.

Now, as you might be able to tell, the Stage 1s are there only as backup and protection for Salamence. This is what makes the deck so risky and exciting! It's a constant race with my opponent rose if I can get Salamence out first or if they can defeat me before I get him powered up!

I hope you enjoyed the first day of Dragon Week! Check back tomorrow for Day 2!

The Week of Dragons Begins!

Hello, this week, we have another weeklong event on Creative Wargaming! Much like, Pokémon Week, there will be one post per day, each focusing on a different card, combo or miniature. 

Unlike Pokémon Week, however, the topic is a bit more broad. All dragons will be welcome in Dragon Week! 

Well, what are you waiting for? Let's start Dragron Week!

Perfect Pack 01: Golden Buddy Pack!

Today marks the release of Future Card Buddyfight's first Perfect Pack: Golden Buddy Pack! I'm super excited about this, even though I've only been a member of the Buddyfight community for a short time. How fortunate is it, then, that yugiohmint.com carries the new Pack! (Make sure you check them out and pick up a few packs or even a box!) Anyway, the cool thing about GBP is that every card in the set  is a RR card or higher and it has a ton of Buddyrare monsters! I'm stoked about this being released and for the new episode of Buddyfight on YouTube, tonight! As Buddyfight's main Magic World user, Tetsuya, would say, "Peace out, yo!"