#metagame

[aurelion-solar]

Lux - Demacia Rising Concept Art by Den Yang

[strontiumsun]

Thoughts on the TCG Pocket meta now that I've played it for a week

Well I've certainly enjoyed playing TCG Pocket. I'm surprised at how easy it is to get rare cards and rare art cards on top of that, and the streamlined battle mode is easy on-the-go fun. But despite not having played the actual TCG, I'm not unaware of how much nuance was cut out of the game to streamline it into a bite-sized experience. In specific, the metagame lacks depth.

Of the ten archetypes, Fire, Water, Grass, Lightning and Psychic have clear strategies baked into the cards (with Water having multiple, IMO). Fighting, Darkness, Metal, Dragon and Colorless, not so much. Some of these strategies are meta, some are not.

Meta Strategies:

Grass: A surprisingly reliable deck, with access to an excellent supporter card in Erika, healing +50 hp to any Grass Pokemon. Exeggutor is your lead mon - regular or ex, both work - with its high HP and annoying low-cost move that does double damage on a coin flip. While Eggy sponges damage and heals with Erika, you work on building up a Venusaur ex in on the bench. Sprinkle in any support Pokemon you'd like - I think Butterfree's healing ability has great potential. Unfortunately I don't have all the cards for this deck, but I've seen other players use it to great success.

Psychic: The only deck with reliable energy acceleration. It has multiple strong attackers in Mewtwo ex, Alakazam and Gengar ex. The name of the game is building up Gardevoir on the bench so she can use her broken Psy Shadow abilty to attach 2 Psychic energy per turn. That takes 3 turns minimum if you get lucky, with luck being the name of the game. Sometimes, you can have Mewtwo ex ready to dish out 150 damage by turn 3. Otherwise, you have to hope you draw your cards before your opponent sets up. I don't have two copies of the Gardevoir line so my version of this deck isn't up to snuff.

Powerful but Volatile:

Fire: This deck is potentially very powerful but highly luck-dependent. Moltres ex provides energy acceleration... at the cost of a coin flip. You can generate anywhere from 0-3 energy per turn. And unlike Gardevoir, it has to be in the active spot to accelerate energy. The core strategy here is to build up multiple Fire attackers, specifically Charizard ex, while Moltres tanks attacks with its high HP and accelerates energy. The caveat is that once Charizard ex is in the active spot, it won't be able to regain energy from Moltres - and it loses 2 energy per use of its 200-power attack. I faced an opponent with this deck today and they surprised me in the end with a backup Magmar powered by Blaine. Definitely gets results, but cross your fingers.

Water: Like Fire, Water has a luck-based way to accelerate energy - Misty. Unlike Moltres ex, Misty is a supporter card, and you can have 2 per deck. But you can get very unlucky quite easily with this card, as one tails and you get nothing, whereas Moltres ex gets 3 chances to flip heads. Water has a lot of good ex Pokemon, like Blastoise ex and Lapras ex. It's a very flexible archetype, and I've found success with a particular deck (more on that later).

Dragon: Probably the most volatile deck in the game. There are no cards that support Dragon-type Pokemon, which is a problem when Dragonite - a Stage 2 - takes 4 attachments to do damage. Its attack deals damage to the active and benched Pokemon... at random. If you want this deck to succeed, you need max copies of Dratini/Dragonair/Dragonite and a lot of luck.

Noob Trap:

Lightning: Pikachu ex decks are super easy to use! And super underwhelming. It's easy to stack Lightning Pokemon on the bench, but the most damage you can do is 90, and you often find yourself falling short of KOing bulky Pokemon ex before you get KO'd. Unless you're up against a Water deck, the damage just isn't high enough.

Underexplored:

Fighting: This archetype has a surprising number of cards, including two Pokemon ex and multiple reliable 1-prize attackers, but is largely underexplored by the player base. Being Psychic- and Grass-weak when those are two of the best decks is a factor.

Colorless: Colorless cards have a ton of utility but not a ton of power. It's an archetype I haven't seen anyone trying, but as they can be used with any deck, it's still common to fight against Colorless Pokemon. I'd be on the lookout for Fearow, Kangaskan and perhaps Cinccinno.

Underdeveloped:

Darkness: If Psychic is meta, you'd think Darkness decks would be a good counter, right? Unfortunately, there are no Darkness Pokemon ex in the game currently. Without a strong Pokemon to anchor them, this archetype doesn't have any real estate in the meta. That said, I did fight an opponent that combined Mewtwo ex with Weezing and Koga and it actually worked really well.

Metal: There are 5 Metal cards currently. Better than Dragon, right? But the cards aren't very splashable. Meltan has built-in energy acceleration but it has to be in the active spot to use it, and once it evolves it loses that ability. Paired with its low HP, and there's a reason I have never faced a Metal deck. Future expansions will hopefully give this archetype a chance to shine.

My Water deck - Splash Damage

I've recently developed a Water deck that I think is pretty strong. I call it the Splash Damage Deck. This deck plays Articuno ex in the lead and builds up Greninja on the bench. The idea is to combine Greninja's Water Shuriken ability (meaning it activates while on the bench) with Articuno ex's relatively weak for an ex Blizzard attack. With one Greninja, you can amp Blizzard from base 90 damage to 110 damage. With two Greninja, you bring that damage to 130. Not only that, you also do splash damage to the bench. And if Blizzard's 90 power is going to KO the active Pokemon, you can throw Water Shurikens at a Pokemon on the bench, potentially doing up to 50 damage.

I play two copies of Articuno ex, Froakie, Frogadier and Greninja, one copy each of Staryu and Starmie ex as a back-up attacker and cleaner, two copies of Misty and then general support and item cards. I could get rid of two items or two supporters to run another set of Staryu and Starmie ex if I have consistency problems.

If you read all that, let me know what strategies you've found success with and what your favorite cards are!

[omnitheist27]

Crossover Space Tournament

Finally! After so many decisions, I finally published my Yu-Gi-Oh! fanfic!

Synopsis: Taken and stranded in another dimension, Kaiba and the others are forced to train and learn many things about the Duel Monsters card game to participate in a tournament hosted by a mysterious, omnipotent being. Watch as they live amongst each other and having to duel using potentially lethal solid vision. Mass Yu-Gi-Oh! Crossover (DSOD, GX, 5Ds, ZEXAL, ARC-V, VRAINS, & SEVENS)

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13952406/1/Crossover-Space-Tournament

@azure-witch13 @violent-kurumi @asterism343

[shecait]

𝔾̴̧̇ʌʍ̴̹̓̐𝔢𝖙iͥ͛ʍ̵̼̗͗𝔢͛²𝟹̐̈

𝓦𝓮𝓵𝓬𝓸𝓶𝓮 to #𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐆𝐚𝐦𝐞𝟐𝟑 or #𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐆ʌ𝐦𝐞𝟐𝟑

𝙼𝙾𝙳 𝚃𝙶𝟸𝟹 𝚂𝙳𝟾𝟻 𝟻𝟻𝟻 𝟸𝟹 ˢᵗᵃʳᵗ ²⁰²⁰/³¹⁸⁶ ʸᵒᴸᴰ

ʜᴇʀᴇ ʏᴏᴜ ʟᴇᴀʀɴ ɴᴏᴛʜɪɴɢ, ᴇxᴄᴇᴘᴛ ɴᴏᴛʜɪɴɢ ᴀɴᴅ ᴛʜᴀᴛ ᴇxᴄʟᴜꜱɪᴠᴇʟʏ. ᴀɴᴅ ɪꜰ ʏᴏᴜ ᴅᴏ, ᴛʜᴇʀᴇ ᴡᴀꜱ ᴀ ꜱʏꜱᴛᴇᴍ ᴇʀʀᴏʀ.

𝕀𝕟 𝕥𝕙𝕚𝕤 𝔾𝕒𝕞𝕖 "𝕥𝕙𝕖𝕣𝕖 𝕒𝕣𝕖 𝕟𝕠 ℝ𝕦𝕝𝕖𝕤, 𝕦𝕟𝕝𝕖𝕤𝕤 𝕪𝕠𝕦 𝕨𝕒𝕟𝕥 𝕥𝕠 𝕔𝕣𝕖𝕒𝕥𝕖 𝕥𝕙𝕖𝕞!"

𝐒̴̙́͠†Ⓐ𝐫† 𝐡𝔢𝐫𝔢 -->>> https://pastebin.com/BsMq5Jvd

[mtg-realm]

Magic: the Gathering - Post Zendikar Rising Standard

If you think that standard format is not diverse at the moment . . . you’d be absolutely correct.  Here is yesterday’s screen-cap of the SCG online tournament.  Here’s the final official standings : http://old.starcitygames.com/decks/SCG_Tour_Online_Championship_Qualifier/2020-09-26_standard_Magic+Arena_0_0/1/?_ga=2.4835635.1047556991.1601232705-811881358.1598732196

[dope-daggerx3]

People in this fandom can be the worst.

A lot of you took a genuinely amazing moment of tactical genius by Laura Bailey, and bogged it down with complaints that 'Marisha was gonna metagame, she should be shot' or 'Nott was gonna exacerbate the war, I hate her now' or 'Talisen was gonna interrupt Laura and make us miss her awesome move, he should die for it'.

Like first of all, it's a game.

Second of all, if you have every played this game you know that sometimes you don't catch yourself when you're about to metagame. You want your friends and family to have a good time playing, and you get caught up in everything, so you do things that you wouldn't normally do, like knock on the Hags door, or try to stop 'the thing' from happening to save your friend.

Third of all, we have all always known what Nott's goal has been, since like one of the first episodes. She told us that she needed to help Caleb to get stronger to help her, and then later she explained that she needed to change back into her Halfling form to go home to her family. We have been watching this character's arc for 93 episodes, and we know she will do anything to accomplish her goals. Not to mention on every Talks that Sam and Liam have ever been on, we know that they have said that they are Agents of Chaos, and something like fucking up their attempts to fix the war is right up their alley.

The growth with Nott, is that she didn't take the deal, the growth with Nott is that she went out to talk to her friends and tried to reason with herself that it wasn't something she could just do.

I know that we all have very strong feelings about this show, these characters, and this cast, but the disappointment and heartbreak that I experienced when I finished the episode and went on social media to geek out about Laura's epic move only to be greeted by hundreds of posts about how stupid Marisha is, or how awful Tal is, or how much everyone hates Nott now because of something she didn't even go through with, was disheartening at best.

We can obviously have discussions and feel things about what happens on CR, but Jesus guys, sometimes you make it no fun to be here.

[smash-64]

Metagame Documentary thoughts

After the cut!

So I have to start out by saying I’m really enjoying the new documentary by Samox. We’ve all been anticipating it for years and I honestly am only into competitive Smash at all because of the first documentary, The Smash Brothers. 

As of this writing, episodes 7 and 8 have yet to debut, so this might be an incomplete analysis; but seeing as though it appears that the climax of the story being told is Apex 2015, I feel as though I have seen enough to get a feeling for how the documentary is coming together. I think that the way the stories were told in the first documentary was a bit more focused. It’s partly due to how each episode of The Smash Brothers was devoted to specific players, but also because each of those players got essentially the same amount of spotlight. Korean DJ got a little less because his Smash career was shorter, and Mango got a little more because of the inclusion of EVO 2013′s whole story. But Metagame feels unevenly spread. We have tons about Mango, tons about Armada (which is understandable since the initial plan for this documentary was to tell his story), and a lot of psychology from PPMD. But Mew2King is pretty anonymous, which is at least slightly understandable since he had his own episode in the first documentary, but so did Mango and he has the spotlight in Metagame. And on top of that, Hungrybox feels really left out as well.

I’m still really pumped for the last two episodes and this would be an insta-buy on DVD or something, as would the first one, but I think the more episodic focus of The Smash Brothers was able to form a more effective, bite-sized narrative. Metagame’s story is there, but it feels slower and less focused. Maybe I was expecting something more along the lines of the first documentary, where each episode focused on a specific player, while this one is more of a timeline of just what happened year by year. It’s cool to see how one god dominated or struggled against another, but I didn’t feel like there was as much tension until Leffen came along. 

[otomememento]

Tea for Twelve

Cybird Creative Challenge: Day 6 - Wormhole

CRACK!

“Thunder?  But the sky is clear…”

THUD!

“It’s a girl!”

“No, it’s a woman!”

Ivy stood up and brushed herself off.  Looking around she saw ten pairs of eyes staring at her.  Her own eyes widened.  Those ten eyes belonged to an assortment of men.  Not just any men: highly attractive men wearing military uniforms.

“No.  Oh no.  No, no, no, no!” she said, words rapidly tumbling out of her mouth.

“What kind of girl falls from the sky?” asked one of the men, his uniform highly decorated and colored in black, blue, and silver.

“Don’t even start!” the woman snapped.  The man’s green eyes widened in shock, and then narrowed.

“You just got here; how could I have offended you already?” he asked with a dry chuckle.

“Maybe she can sense you’re a brat,” suggested another man, this one quite tall.  Ivy turned to him, expression slightly cross.

“Oh, go water a plant or something,” she snapped.  The man’s purple eyes widened like the first man’s had.

“Have we met somewhere before?” he asked, pursing his lips.

“Not the way you’re thinking of it,” Ivy replied, brushing a stray lock of hair out of her eyes.

“The young lady obviously has some sense, despite her outlandish clothing.  You are just a bunch of rabble,” came a rather cultured voice from the other side of the table.  Ivy whipped around to stare at him.

“Don’t think you guys are going to get off easy either, you overbearing stuffed shirt!”

“How dare you!” sputtered the man, his porcelain features flushing with anger.

“She got you there,” said a voice from the first side of the table.  Ivy turned back around and her eyes trained in on the speaker.

“Well, you can just…” she began hotly.  Then her shoulder slumped.  “Okay, you just keep being you.  I can’t really find much to complain about.”  She thought for a moment.  “I suppose I could make a weak attempt at telling you to go home to your father.”  Then she shook her head.  “Nah.”

“You seem to know a suspicious amount of information for someone who just fell out of the sky,” came a cool, imperious voice.  Slowly Ivy turned around.

“And you tend to withhold a suspicious amount of information,” she retorted.  “Like the reason for all those scars on your arm.”  The man narrowed his eyes blue eyes at her.  Slowly the turned red.

“Sit down and behave,” he said with command in his voice, a ripple of energy flowing outward.

“Fat chance!” Ivy shouted, holding her hands out in front of her.  A bright, hex-patterned flash appeared, accompanied by a faint shattered sound.

“You blocked my magic!”

“Oh, good, that worked.  I wasn’t completely certain.”

“Perhaps, my King, we’ll have to try more traditional methods,” suggested a smooth, light voice.

“Sorry; I’ll have to pass.  I don’t think I’d get along very well with your methods,” Ivy said.  She tried to look defiant, but her expression was starting to waver; she was running out of steam.  Finally she sat, cross-legged, in the middle of table, pushing aside the plates and cups.  For a moment, no one said anything.

“How did you get here?” asked a voice gently.  “Usually visitors from elsewhere show up in a specific location, and this is not it.”  Ivy slowly looked towards this new voice, her expression twitching slightly.

“I didn’t fall down the rabbit hole, if that’s what you mean,” she answered, sounding resigned.  “As you may have guessed already, I did come from the land of reason, but about a hundred years ahead of the one you know.”  She sighed, her body slowly deflating.  Whatever had irritated her, whatever force was driving her, seemed to have dried up.  “There was a storm, and an accident, as lightning struck Big Ben.  I found myself here.”

“It still doesn’t explain how you know so much,” the man…no, Blanc, for Ivy knew exactly who he was, prompted.  Ivy’s cheeks flushed with embarrassment.

“You just had to ask me that question, didn’t you?” she asked, her tone a mix of wry self-depreciation and amusement.  Blanc simply looked at her expectantly, as did the officers of the two armies.  So many eyes on her just made her blush deepen.  “In my time there are…let’s call them chronicles…of certain events that happened here,” she said, choosing her words carefully.  After all, she didn’t want to admit that she had, at some point in time, dated most of them via a phone app.  

She’d never live down the embarrassment.