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@snouthide-stegadon
Endings
So lots of thoughts on what happened but I think I’m just going to take a step back from it all for a bit. Not like my opinions will change the situation anyways. Will just see what happens next. If SBE sells the content to a competent software dev, that would be cool. If they port our accounts, I’d truly be happy.
I’m also somewhat interested if a community version arises. Kaelari already has a solid foundation built. We have a lot of players who’s profession is in the field. I myself built an Ascension app when the iOS version was stalled when SBE tried their disastrous attempt to build it themselves. It was fun, and not all that difficult, though I didn’t have it as online play which kept things simple. If you’re curious, you can watch a demo here. If nothing happens, I may build a local version of Solforge for kicks. While online would be sweet, it’s probably more work than I’m willing to commit and I also want to avoid being accountable to the community crybabies. Will see how I feel in a month.
Going forward, will still play Ascension (cardboard is forever, and Playdek is a competent company), and I really enjoy the stuff White Wizard Games is making. Not sure if I’ll start another collectable game; the art on Faeria looks amazing, and Elder Scrolls Legends looks solid as well, but might take a bit of a break. If there is one lesson learned though — never back an SBE Kickstarter, the track record is a bloody embarrassment.
Anyway, it was a fun ride. I was never competative, but the creative potential the game offered me was A-plus. Only real regret was buying that last big block of gold, which in all likelihood was worthless. I’d love to know the story of what really happened behind the scenes, but unless someone makes a fake account, breaks the NDA, and posts details, will probably remain a pile of speculation.
Too bad it couldn’t last. Such potential derailed by an unending series of bed-shittings.
A nod to everyone who did stuff on their own time to make the experience better. Every article, deck suggestion, video, and reasonable debate. Thats all for now, kids.
Glad I saved up all this shit for set 8
Now that the hammer has dropped, can't say shocked but always held out hope. Will write more once I've had a chance to process it more.
Salty
Know Your Forgeborn - Vandergus
Where you at?
I live in the midwest United States on the west coast of Michigan. Got a little house in the woods where we go to the beach in the summer and play in the snow in the winter.
When did you start playing?
I started playing during Rise of the Forgeborn right when set 2.1 was coming out. I vaguely remember seeing the spoiler for Scatterspore Eidolon and thinking the card was insane. It's an 8/8 at level 1! I also remember getting destroyed by Epidemic and Echowhisp in some of my first constructed games and wondering how those cards were fair. Oh how things have changed. Although, I'm not sure what has changed more, the game of Solforge or my ability to play it well.
Preferred formats?
Uh, yeah draft! I will play Weekend Warrior events from time to time if I'm looking for a change of pace but I usually keep my play time to games where I can earn Elite Tickets. And while I played fewer than a handful of constructed queues in the old client, the new ladder and AA rewards have turned me into a bit of a constructed player. It's actually not so bad! Of course, I'm not much more than a net-decking sheep so I rely on my TIC teammates or Konan's metagame reports to help me out. I'm a decent player but a lousy (competitive) brewer.
Favourite card?
I am proud to say I'm still faithful to my true love, Kadrasian Stoneback. I think it is an incredibly well designed and powerful card for draft. It rewards careful, thoughtful play but it rarely wins the game by simply hitting the board. It has great synergies with a lot of cards (mobility triggers, buff effects) but also allows for counterplay from your opponent (defender animators and destroyers, poison effects, lane fill), which you have to be aware of. My favorite deck to play it in is NT aggro/control, which puts a lot of focus on keeping the board clear and relies on a couple big, standalone threats to put on pressure. In that setting, Stoneback can hang around for entire ranks getting in 50+ damage before your opponent can find a way to kill it. I think the attraction boils down to it having an ability that at first seems like a drawback but is actually a benefit.
Hopes for Solforge?
The thing I want most for Solforge is more players. Beyond the obvious of being a more successful game, more players means a bigger community with more discussions, more streamers, and more articles. One of the reasons I started writing about draft in the first place was that there simply wasn't anyone else doing it. I wanted to spur conversation on reddit and in the forums about draft strategy, what cards were good, how to play NT, all that stuff. I'm happy we finally have a draft streamer in NoLucksGiven but the community has room for a lot more voices. Having a strong, diverse community makes the game itself so much deeper and more enjoyable. I think it's related to shared experience, which is a huge factor in how people enjoy things. If you experience something fun, that's great. But then if you can go tell somebody about it and they laugh along with you, that's a whole nother level. If you read someone else's story about climbing the ranked ladder and identify with the dreaded platinum grind, then it somehow validates your own experience. I want more of that in the Solforge community.
Proud accomplishments?
I'm not much of a tournament player, mostly for scheduling reasons. I used to love making it on the weekly leaderboards, especially when it got cut to the top 10, because it was one of the only ways for draft players to get their skills officially recognized. But now I just have to be content with keeping my own stats and patting myself on the back every now and then. Or bragging to my TIC teammates, "I have a 79% win rate in draft this season, I swear!"
Tell us something interesting about yourself!
Hmm. I'm a straight middle-aged white dude in a technical career? I used to play Magic: the Gathering? Yeah, I think those are pretty well covered in the community. How about vintage lawn tractor repair? I recently bought a '68 John Deere 112 to mow the lawn and plow the driveway at my new house. They're pretty cheap and (supposedly) easy to find parts for so I thought it would make for some good greasy projects. Well, turns out, carbs are not easy to find for them and this one needs a brand new one. So if you've got a carb layin' around your backyard for a Tecumseh HH100 engine (serial #115093B) I'd be willing to offer some real nice alt arts for it.
Fancy Forge Flair - Nguyen
Three fierce ladies. I dig how Ambriel is chilling while the other two appear to be swooping in to help fight. Nguyen, you have Fancy Forge Flair!
Fundecks - Redacted
This deck is good for a bunch of laughs. With a bit of luck, you can have some really big monsters stomping about. The base concept is to use Metadata Redactor to remove undesirable effects from otherwise good creatures.
Negaters of Nasty Things
Metadata Redactor x3
The fun engine. Take note that the redactor effect is not level gated, so unless you can get some tricks out of him, there is no reason to give it levelling focus.
Relic Hunter x3
The backup plan for nullifying cards with bad effects. Relic Hunter can eat a Mutant or Talisin, gaining their stats but not their effects. When playing decks with good removal, you may want to tread lightly with this card, as you can find yourself getting 2-4-1'd. Hitting Relic Hunter with the Redactor will remove his breakthrough effect, so be careful.
The Scout can also help to set up a formation on board to trigger the Redactor. You'll have to make a judgement call if wiping the Scout's effect is worth the combo.
Redactor Targets
Talisin, Bard of Abundance x3
A good body just asking to be redacted. Alternately, you can live dangerously and give your oppenent that extra play. Remember that L3 Talisin only benefits you, so don't you dare redact it!
Shardplate Mutant x3
Mutant has one of the best stat sets across all levels. The discard effect is horrid, but is ripe for redacting. It also functions well as an underlevelled blocker; it can take out many attacking creatures.
Citadel Guard x3
Another stat beast. Less risky than Mutant, as an unredacted Guard will just chill on the board.
Levellers
Nexus Overwatch x3
A good body and levels a card in the middle. The Forge effect means it doesn't care about getting redacted. Favouring slot 3 helps set up formations in 2 and 4.
Aetherforge Oracle x2
I like this card due to its high attack. The restriction to only levelling spells and low health can make it lousy in certain cases, so feel free to replace with a card like Technosmith. I find spells in the deck, particularly Oath and Roar, benefit from levelling.
Damage Delivery Systems
Savage Oath x2
Will turn Talisin or Mutant into a serious threat. Best played when your opponent has chump blocked you with something lousy.
Aegis Wings x2
Allow your hulking creatures to slide into an empty lane, and get out of the way for a new formation. Just be sure you don't redact a creature with wings! Feel free to replace with Jet Pack for more flexability (and less armor)
Ferocious Roar x2
All those big bodies can pile up, allowing for some Roar value.
Shardbound Invoker x3
A solid underdrop used to buff a friend in need.
Leyline Vermin x1
This card was primarily added in reaction to the large amounts of poison lurking in the lower rungs of the ladder. Substitute at will.
Game Plan
Levelling priorities: Talisin, Mutant, Citadel Guard. A Savage Oath if you can manage it.
Be aware of lane placement. Try to maintain a board state where you are prep'd to play a Redactor Target followed by Metadata Redactor in formation.
Use Relic Hunter to handle situations where a redaction play isn't possible. Be wary of this against decks with good removal.
Alternatives
Adding more Leylines for free creatures has worked well for me (there are currently three available in AN).
If you lack the legendary Talisin and Mutant, you can always replace with more defenders (but really, you'll do better with a regular AT Defenders deck). To up your jank factor, try AN and redact Ebonskull Knight.
In general, avoid cards with good persistant effects or Activate effects (as they get redacted). Forge effects and big stats are your friends.
Anvillon Arbiter
This card has a lot of potential synergies in the deck. It can deny an opponent a free Talisin card, and also ruin any free-play tech they are running. I personally found that I was either never playing the card, or would end up in a situation where my best play was to redact its ability. It certainly involves careful lane placement -- maybe it's the card for you.
Esperian Sage
A weak body, but can hit two cards and chump block / set up formations.
Vault Welder
Good stats, and has the potential to work well with Relic Scout.
The funniest experience I had with this deck was playing against spiders. Citidel Guards in lanes 1 & 3. Play two Relic Hunter on each. Opponent Spider's both of them. I then drop a Redactor in lane 2, removing the Defender status. Buddy timed me out in rage -- worth it.
Fancy Forge Flair - jazzymantis
Talisin dishing out the jazz beats on his pipe while mantises (mantii?) dance. jazzymantis, you have Fancy Forge Flair!
Fancy Forge Flair - Devi
Rotting, lurking beasts of nightmares. Devi, you have Fancy Forge Flair!
Share the Wealth
Solforge Ladder has been a fixture in the community for years. Kaelari, the main driving force behind the site, provides this service for free and without ads. I remember when trading was added to the game, with very little forewarning. The ladder had a trading system built in what seemed like hours. The guy is always online and always adding things. It’s not a trivial hobby.
Earlier this year, all the data was lost when the hosting service went under without warning (not having absurd numbers of distributed backups is always a painful lesson). At this point there had been no game updates in months; I figured Kaelari would just walk away from it. But nope, roared back to glory.
Now with the new client and the, um, issues that come with it, Kaelari has gone next level with API integration. He’s providing bug fixes (such as unscrappable cards and horrid deck builder) and features the devs can’t prioritize (like bulk open and observer mode).
Some have called Kaelari the Saviour of Solforge, and I find it hard to argue against that mantle. The holiday season is approaching, and for many of us, that means getting kicked hard in the wallet. Even the Saviour of Solforge can feel the strain. So he’s proposing choice: he gets another job over the holidays, or has people support the ladder through a premium account and he can spend that time building more amazing features on the site.
The link at the top goes into more detail. Basically a month of premium will cost the same as a shitty fast food burger. It lets you put a sweet icon beside your name, and possibly other things.
But if you’re like “I’d love to support the site, but I really need that AA Xithian Host” well you are also in luck. Gold can be bought through the site, and a small cut goes towards the ladder. Non-US players may find that PayPal’s conversion rate is better than what platform stores offer (I’m looking at you, iOS).
So if you have the extra coin, I encourage you to consider supporting the ladder. I think the guy has earned it. Thanks for reading.
Fundecks - Snouty’s Sludges
I generally don't play top decks; brewing and losing is more my style when it comes to the ladder. I wanted to mess around with an old pal, Dysian Sludge. Turns out the deck does alright -- I was able to take it to Gold Tier before running out of time (a first for me, I've never gone past Silver I thanks to janky decks). Even stole a win from someone in the Titanium Top 10 at the time (I'm sure they drew poorly, but didn't stop me from cackling). So lets take a peek at this fun-filled deck. Ladder Deck Link
The Core
Dysian Sludge x3
Glorious Sludges. The main benefit of these lads is that no one is expecting them. They see you up your life and expect you're on a Wegu deck. If you can get the pair, this card essentially puts (by level) a 10/10 20/20 30/30 on the board, and splits it for multi-lane goodness. The split also means normal removal can only get half of the value. And the cherry on the sludge pile is the Allied shrinkage, great for clearing out lingering creatures.
Even if you can't keep above 120 life, the card is still a decent body with close-to on-level stats and a single shrink.
I find if I can get a double sludge early on, my opponent is on the back foot and focuses on the on-board threat, allowing me to keep raising my health and just applying more creature pressure.
Life Gainers
Sludges need life. These are the cards that attempt to keep it high.
Oros x3
Big body, breakthrough, and life gain. L4 can be a finisher if player life is high enough. Rarely is Oros a bad card to play.
Stag of Lys x3
I prefer this cervidae over Glowstride, mainly for the better L3 stats. With all the other threats in the deck, opponents will often de-prioritize killing the Stag, allowing a few procs of the life gain.
Rubyscale Dragon x3
Great for keeping creatures around and adding a bit of life. The weak L1 means I usually only play this on an opening turn, or with a strong board already in place.
Primeval Ancient x2
Probably the sketchiest card in the deck. Helps with life gain and lane filling, but if you can't get the second dino, usually not a good play. If tweaking the deck, this would probably be the first card to go.
Wegu's Embrace x1
If I'm stuck playing cards that don't gain life, this can help remedy the situation. Necromoeba likes this spell a lot.
Removal
Scourgeflame Sorcerer x3
While Broodqueen gives you a snakey friend, I prefer the soft level gating of the Sorcerer. The deck offers a good number of token-ish to sacrifice, and L3 doesn't even need any. I'll put priority on this guy if opponent is levelling bombs.
Grave Pact x3
The other main source of removal. Soft gated as well, free at L3, and doesn't need to wait for an activation.
Necromoeba x3
Provides fodder for Sorcerer and Pact, fills lanes for Lifeblood, and has the ability to stick around and be pain in the ass. The Oozlings can also provide timely blocks and extra face damage if you luck out.
Buffers
Lifeblood Dryad x3
A full board is fairly common with this deck; Lifeblood takes advantage of it.
Dysian Siphon x3
Great for messing up trades and taking out weak blockers. Like the Sludge, opponents don't often expect the first one.
Game Plan
Try to get life above 120 as soon as possible. In L1, block opponents creatures even if it's not a great trade -- take it in the sack to protect your life.
Sludge away! Once they hit the board, you will have some room to make smarter plays while your opponent deals with them.
Level some removal, especially if you are playing against a late-game deck. But if you believe you can get away with it, pressure with board-fill buffage (Necromoeba & Lifeblood).
Snouty's favourites: Oros, Sludge, Stag, Necromoeba
Alternatives
Lots of room for tweaking here, kids. Here are just a few of many variant brews.
Wegu
Acts as a good backup threat if you drop below 120 health. But don't expect an explosive growth spurt.
Deepbranch Ancient
Want to live dangerously? Get full-board value with the Ancient.
Glowstride Stag
Has a powerful advantage of raising your life when you Forge instead of end-of-turn or battle damage situations. Can make the difference of being able to trigger early-game Sludges.
Lichmane Dragon
The deck offers lots of Formation opportunities. Lichmane has a strong body and a useful effect -- more removal fodder, more boardfill, or you can get real lucky and spawn something good.
Gemheart Sprout
MVP Sprout can give a lot of value. While it's the farthest thing from a threat, it can generate a good chunk of life and sticks around to help trigger those Dryads. Opponents will focus on the attacking creatures.
Non-Legendary Alternatives
Broodqueen
A decent stand-in for Sourgeflame Sorcerer. The hard level gating means you need to prioritize it, but it gives a token and draws focus.
Lightbringer Council
Another means of life gain if you don't have the Rubyscales or Primevals. Remember the effect won't work on Zombies or Oozes.
NT Thanksgiving Deck
Today on the ladder, a number of players (notables include JockeD, ghybru, Skaven, BlinksWithFists, Djurre, Jacob38) built up a Thanksgiving themed deck. Let's take a look at this beast.
The Spread
3 X Blitzmane, the Destroyer -- a delicious turkey
3 X Cindersmoke Wyvern -- we need more turkey
2 X Cauldron Mystic -- mmm, soup
1 X Festering Slime -- cranberry sauce
2 X AA Grimgaunt Doomrider -- his head supplies the pumpkin pie
2 X Everflame Phoenix -- moar birdmeat, please
The Guests
3 X Graveborn Glutton -- that is you
1 X Dread -- the arrival of the inlaws
1 X Necromoeba -- your aunt and her stupid children
1 X Xithian Shambler -- hungry uncle Ted, who normally eats TV dinners
The Feast
1 X Hungering Strike -- craving the birdmeat
2 X Scythe of Chiron -- carve that bird
1 X Group Meal -- do I need to explain?
3 X Iniog, Carrion Demon -- the turkey carcass
1 X Trial by Combat -- after dinner fights
2 X Death Current -- wanting to murder your inlaws
1 X Explosive Demise -- eventual result of the night
So go ahead, kids, and ride this deck to Titanium. Personally, I would have added three Xithian Hosts, but can respect not wanting the deck to be too good.
Sure, I’m a Lupin
Fancy Forge Flair - DotAkaine
Three great pieces, all having the theme of blue magic and gnashing jaws. DotAkaine, you have Fancy Forge Flair!
Snouty comes out of beta
Good day! I've been meaning to fire this site back up ever since the new client dropped in late May. Add in some distractions and laziness, and here we are at the end of November.
Solforge has had its share of ups and downs, particularly post-beta. I thought I'd start off with a positive article on things I like about the new client. Don't worry kids, we'll have plenty of time to shit all over the bad stuff. I play on iOS so take that into consideration.
New Icon
Yessssssss. No more having people see my device and ask me why I have Clash of Clans installed. This change is a gawddamn home run.
Turn Timer
The biggest quality of life improvement for me. Time griefers are now just a minor annoyance. Less players are dragging out games due to multi-queue or doing forge calculus on every turn. The amount I play has greatly increased due to the blessed new timer.
App Behaviour
Three subtle changes were made in the low level guts of the app. The amount of network data used was nearly cut in half (it's still a pig compared to similar apps). The app no longer grows a massive cache of user data (which could only be cleared by reinstalling the game). And you can now leave the game and come back to it without a full restart triggering.
The Ladder
Kaelari's ladder is a thing of beauty, but as a mobile player it meant I'd have to fire up my desktop. I was never one for the constructed queue (saved tickets for draft), and found the casual queue too inconsistent. Now I can sit on the couch and grab a decent game. My hope is the user base will grow and make skill level matches better.
Player Profiles
I dig being able to see an opponent's level, collection, last login, and flair. I think I'll start featuring sweet flairs I encounter.
Rank Up Animation
While I still prefer the old faction-effect animations, the card vortex at rank-up is right grand. When I see it, it makes me want to holler. It's like Prince Adam pulling out his sword and becoming He-Man. It's like Napoleon Dynamite crushing a teather-ball. You can just feel your deck getting enhanced. One day, maybe I can buy a different card back and bring it to a whole new level. Dreams. Plus, it triggers after your turn, so it doesn't delay your play one bit.
Myster Meat - Spider Queen Update
Brief instalment of mystery meat today. Poking through the latest build of Solforge, and lo and behold I found these two goodies that tie into the Spider Queen featured earlier on this site.
Cocoons and Spiders!!! Â So gonna go out on a limb and guess Spider Queen has the ability to cocoon a creature (possibly yours, possibly an opponent) and have it hatch into a spider. Â Fun times!
Anyway, I hope to have a real Mystery Meat article published soon, there were a few new sets of artwork hidden in 5.2
Brief Update
To the three people who follow the Snouthide Stegadon, hey, hows it goin’. No activity here for a while, my apologies. Computer broke, decided to fix it myself. Took longer than expected waiting for parts and stupidly small screwdrivers to arrive.
Going forward, I’m thinking of ceasing to post links to other sites for a number of reasons
The ladder and reddit do the same thing, and are read by more people
Tumblr’s tag search is weak, and it’s often difficult to assign decks into tags that make sense
The historical value of old articles is less than I had originally hoped it would be. No one really cares what yeti decks from June 2014 looked like
The number of written articles published has decreased
While the number of quality deck-based videos is increasing, I find I don’t have the time to watch them in a timely manner to decide if they are worth posting
I think I’ll continue to do the Mystery Meat articles, as I get a kick out of them. As for surveys, I may do another but only when the time is right. It’s a challenge to design questions that are, uncomplicated, interesting and meaningful. At the moment, not enough has changed to warrant another survey. But hopefully at some point there will be another.
Thanks for stopping by