Mike Selinker Lone Shark Games |
Cyrad RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 16 |
Vic Wertz Chief Technical Officer |
Orbis Orboros |
Reading Talitha I thought I finally found a use for Consecration. Then I saw she doesn't have Divine. Then I saw that Consecration doesn't care about divine. Finally, I realized that, because it always banishes itself, I'll probably never find a satisfactory use for it.*
It was quite the roller-coaster.
*This is probably good given the alternative, a playable and reusable Consecration, would be absurdly strong
PS Several of the picture links are broken, either leading to the wrong one or an error
Keith Richmond Lone Shark Games |
1 person marked this as a favorite. |
If you're wondering about Zvarbel Spell Trapper, check here.
Mike Selinker Lone Shark Games |
zeroth_hour2 |
Wow Seltyiel, it seems that your Jerkin has some elements of Crocodile in it.
Also, it looks like the "rival iconic gang" (Seltyiel, Damiel, Oloch and Meligaster from the comics) is here to play as well.
The Thrune Agent shuffle power is played, right? It's optional, or do you have to do it?
The Staffbearer is climbing up in life - he was a Social Climber once upon a time... :)
zeroth_hour2 |
It looks like Zvarbel can't run her face into a villain and not have the villain escape, because the villain escaping is after resolving the encounter.
It also looks like you're supposed to shuffle the deck even though the monster is put on top afterward, because technically shuffling the monster back into the deck is part of the "Resolve the Encounter" step, which is before "after the encounter". Is this intended?
Doppelschwert |
Magus Arcana has merely a typo in the link above, the picture is available.
It's a shame Talitha is not very good at using the first power.
skizzerz |
It looks like Zvarbel can't run her face into a villain and not have the villain escape, because the villain escaping is after resolving the encounter.
It also looks like you're supposed to shuffle the deck even though the monster is put on top afterward, because technically shuffling the monster back into the deck is part of the "Resolve the Encounter" step, which is before "after the encounter". Is this intended?
Zvarbel's power explicitly says "non-villain" so yes, it doesn't impact villains.
If you're putting it back on top of the deck it came from instead of shuffling it into the deck, then the deck is never shuffled. The wording isn't quite as clear as it possibly should be in that regard, but that is certainly the correct way to play it. Anything else doesn't make any sense -- you can't shuffle decks for no reason, so you'd have to be shuffling the bane into the deck as part of resolving, which means you can't put it on top of the deck without searching through the deck for it again. As such, the RAI is clearly that you put it on top instead of shuffling it into the deck.
Here is link to Zvarbel's Spell Trapper role card, since blog links are broken.
Hawkmoon269 |
Here is Zvarbel's character card.
The filename lacks the standard "Front" that is typically used. (i.e. Zvarbel.jpg instead of ZvarbelFront.jpg)
The link used in the blog has Arcana misspelled. It is missing the first "c" in Arcana
Correct:
PZO6821-MagusArcanca.jpg
Blog:
PZO6821-MagusAranca.jpg
Keith Richmond Lone Shark Games |
Vic Wertz Chief Technical Officer |
Vic Wertz Chief Technical Officer |
Doppelschwert |
Looks interesting; it's a deck I'd probably pick up at some point.
Doppelschwert wrote:It's a shame Talitha is not very good at using the first power.She may not have chosen the same arcana as Seltyiel. Even if they all have and use the same card, it's only a d6 vs. d8.
My comment was based on confusing skill with die; you and Keith are right, of course. Looking forward to playing her and the other Magi even more!
I wonder how SnS Seltyiel plays with the Arcana and his new custom sword.
Vic Wertz Chief Technical Officer |
1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I wonder how SnS Seltyiel plays with the Arcana and his new custom sword.
Magus Arcana is a cohort, and SnS Seltyiel doesn't have a cohort listed.
But he is still Gallivance's owner, and he does have the Magus trait, so that card is quite useful for him.
Magus players will also want to consider the Elven Scimitar promo card from Iconic Heroes Set #6, which is a lot like Gallivance, but has a different discard power.
Mike Selinker Lone Shark Games |
Hawkmoon269 |
Is it weird to anyone else that Talitha's 3rd power is a positive effect with a POSITIVE (i.e. Not Negative) cost? Normally you don't get positives for both sides of that equation.
Or am I missing something?
You've prepaid the cost by having to bury a blessing for something else (probably Magus Arcana). It basically lightens the cost of other things,very turning them into a later positive.
Hawkmoon269 |
The Thrune Agent shuffle power is played, right? It's optional, or do you have to do it?
Powers on cards in your hand are active only when you choose to play them. Though, admittedly, it isn't worded the typical way. The action to play it is sort of mixed with the effect the way it is worded. I would have expected "When you play a weapon or spell for your contact check, shuffle this card into your deck to shuffle the weapon or spell into your deck." But that sounds awkward too. Maybe more like "Shuffle this card into your deck to shuffle a weapon or spell into your deck that you play for your combat check." My tongue doesn't really like any of those.
JohnF |
3 people marked this as a favorite. |
zeroth_hour2 wrote:The Staffbearer is climbing up in life - he was a Social Climber once upon a time... :)I literally just discovered this myself yesterday and buried my face in my hands. Totally on me.
You're supposed to bury things under your character card, not in your hand (and you're not supposed to have more than one hand).
cartmanbeck RPG Superstar 2014 Top 16 |
Mike Selinker wrote:zeroth_hour2 wrote:The Staffbearer is climbing up in life - he was a Social Climber once upon a time... :)I literally just discovered this myself yesterday and buried my face in my hands. Totally on me.You're supposed to bury things under your character card, not in your hand (and you're not supposed to have more than one hand).
LOL
Longshot11 |
1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Some first-glance thoughts:
- Talitha: “On any check, when you would discard a blessing, you may bury it instead” - I notice the curious absence of “for its power” here. While this would exclude some blessings (the Osiris one, that improves healing, not checks, I believe?), does it also include blessings discarded to pay costs or for damage from the check?
- Zvarbel: it may have been introduced earlier and that I've missed it, but I welcome the “and/or” wording finally seeing the light of day
- I'm not familiar with the RPG equivalent that Spellcharger Jerkin emulates, but it really sounds like it should have the Magic trait ?
- Staffbearer: if I fail combat check – can I use its first power to save him from being discarded from my hand? It doesn't require anyone else to do something to be relevant, and while I also get to shuffle a random Staff in my deck, it's obvious that I play the card to 'save' it – which seems relevant enough to the 'Take Damage' step?
- Blessing of Angradd – I love how often it will get recharged!
As a whole – I'm in love with this deck! If I was to buy a Class deck – this would be it!
Hawkmoon269 |
- Talitha: “On any check, when you would discard a blessing, you may bury it instead” - I notice the curious absence of “for its power” here. While this would exclude some blessings (the Osiris one, that improves healing, not checks, I believe?), does it also include blessings discarded to pay costs or for damage from the check?
I think so. If you are willing to take the temporarily higher cost of burying the blessing for the potential later use of it, that sounds fine.
- Staffbearer: if I fail combat check – can I use its first power to save him from being discarded from my hand? It doesn't require anyone else to do something to be relevant, and while I also get to shuffle a random Staff in my deck, it's obvious that I play the card to 'save' it – which seems relevant enough to the 'Take Damage' step?
I don't think so. It still has to in and of itself be relevant to the step. And it doesn't seem anymore relevant than playing Cure when you are being dealt damage.
First World Bard |
Some first-glance thoughts:
- I'm not familiar with the RPG equivalent that Spellcharger Jerkin emulates, but it really sounds like it should have the Magic trait ?!
I'm guessing they left that trait out because of the association of the Magic keyword on (non-buckler?) armors with the ability to recharge when resetting one's hand.
Mike Selinker Lone Shark Games |
- Talitha: “On any check, when you would discard a blessing, you may bury it instead” - I notice the curious absence of “for its power” here. While this would exclude some blessings (the Osiris one, that improves healing, not checks, I believe?), does it also include blessings discarded to pay costs or for damage from the check?
Yes.
- Zvarbel: it may have been introduced earlier and that I've missed it, but I welcome the “and/or” wording finally seeing the light of day
Pretty sure "and/or" first appeared on Amiri in Rise of the Runelords' character add-on deck.
- I'm not familiar with the RPG equivalent that Spellcharger Jerkin emulates, but it really sounds like it should have the Magic trait ?
We made it up, and no, it shouldn't.
James McKendrew |
I got my copy yesterday and had a wonderful time perusing it. Only one thing was sad-making.
All three characters have the same Cohort. This is just fine for OP, but for AP, that means that, if you only have one Magus Deck, you can't have two people playing Magi out of that deck.
That said, I'm REALLY looking forward to playing Talitha.
zeroth_hour2 |
If you're putting it back on top of the deck it came from instead of shuffling it into the deck, then the deck is never shuffled. The wording isn't quite as clear as it possibly should be in that regard, but that is certainly the correct way to play it. Anything else doesn't make any sense -- you can't shuffle decks for no reason, so you'd have to be shuffling the bane into the deck as part of resolving, which means you can't put it on top of the deck without searching through the deck for it again. As such, the RAI is clearly that you put it on top instead of shuffling it into the deck.
Here is link to Zvarbel's Spell Trapper role card, since blog links are broken.
I agree RAI replaces the shuffle. I think the issue is the "after the encounter" thing, which is necessitated by the damage reduction. It's also necessitated by the need for the wording to be in plain English rather than using the "step/phase" wording that a lot of TCGs use.
It's not intuitive that "after the encounter" is part of the "resolve the encounter" step, just like it's not intuitive that "before you act", especially without the quotes, is during the "before you act" step (I had to explain that to quite a few people whenever I demoed Wrath of the Righteous).
The context of a card like Defensive Stance makes "after the encounter" referring to "resolve the encounter" step fairly easy; but that actually directly refers to the bane being defeated.
But strangely enough, "after the encounter" is referenced in the "resolve the encounter" step, but negatively (unlike the "before you act" and "after you act" steps). Specifically, "If you move during an encounter, any effects that would happen after that encounter do not happen."
elcoderdude |
I don't think "after the encounter" is part of the "resolve the encounter" step. It's after it.
Otherwise "any effects that would happen after that encounter" could include, for instance, shuffling an undefeated bane into its location deck.
Instead, the effects referred to here are ones that really do follow an encounter, like an attempt to close a location after defeating a henchman (you can't do that if the henchman fight moved you to another location).
Frencois |
OK now the non-native-english-speaker will join in that funny discussion. So try to follow :-).
If you fail... you may
Zvarbel's power doesn't say "After/if you failed...". So you have to decide the "may" at the time you fail the check. So if you decide to put the bane on top of the deck after the encounter at that point, then when you reach the Resolve the Encounter step, the "shuffle the bane in the location won't happen for one of the following two reasons:
- either you treat it as impossible since the bane already has its future covered;- either you consider that there are two things to be done with it but then the character card's power overules the rulebook by virtue of the Golden Rules and the result is the same.
IMHO.
Vic Wertz Chief Technical Officer |
I don't think "after the encounter" is part of the "resolve the encounter" step. It's after it.
Yep. When we use "after the encounter," it's usually because we want to make sure that we're clear of all the weird things that can happen during an encounter, or because we want to make sure you're past any "per encounter" limits.
Brother Tyler |
When the Magus Class Deck was first announced, I could barely contain myself. I did, but only because expressing my joy at the news would have been unseemly - like Ren and Stimpy dancing to the Happy Happy Joy Joy song, but turned up to 11. Very undignified. And then cartmanbeck started teasing me about the upcoming deck, knowing how much I like the magus class.
And this preview blog post came up while I was away on vacation, so my excitement burgeoned upon seeing it. The images of the cards posted were great, but I wanted to see the entire deck before I posted.
It arrived in the mail yesterday and was promptly given the sleeving treatment, allowing me to look at each card. And still I held off, wanting more time to think about the cards and the deck en toto.
I really like how the variation in the magus class has been shown, with each character working in a distinct manner, including the CD version of Seltyiel not being anything like the S&S version*. The presence of a dwarf character didn't surprise me in the least. The exotic staff magus was a surprise, but in a good way (as the discussion above has noted, her rules mechanics are quite innovative). Interestingly enough, Talitha is the only one that is focused on specific weapons (i.e., those with the Staff trait). While it's true that Zvarbel is going to tend towards the various hammers (due to their powers benefiting her Craft and Disable checks), both Seltyiel and Zvarbel will find any of the weapons beneficial, depending upon how the player wants to compose the character's deck.
I also really like how the cohort is useful for each of the magus characters, but with each benefiting from different powers on the card. The single instance of the card has already been noted by James McKendrew, and though I initially didn't see the issue, the variation in the various magus characters' powers and roles means that it might actually be viable to have two or more in the same party (see Shannon Applecline's advice on building a party and complementary powers). This doesn't matter for Organized Play, of course, but might affect regular play.
I did have one question about the Thrune Agent after looking through the cards, but it was already asked by zeroth_hour2:
The Thrune Agent shuffle power is played, right? It's optional, or do you have to do it?
It seems fairly straightforward in its intent (at the very least, it's a good way to minimize potential damage you might take if succeeding at the combat check or recharging the spell aren't 100% guaranteed), but doesn't seem to match the templates that I can recall. Assuming I'm interpreting the rule correctly, the Thrune Agent needs to be revealed a la:
"When you play a weapon or a spell for your combat check, reveal this card to shuffle the weapon or spell and this card into your deck."
Interesting observation: The wording of the Thrune Agent doesn't appear to exclude the applicability when the weapon or spell would be discarded, buried, or banished. If that is the case, this is a very useful ally (which is fitting for a level 6 ally).
Overall, there are a lot of great cards in this deck. There are a lot of ways for the various magus characters to self-heal and cycle through cards. Particular favorites of mine include the Bleachling Lunatic (great synergy with Talitha), Treacherous Teleport, Aegis of Recovery, and Spellguard Bracers.
* To answer Doppelschwert's question:
I wonder how SnS Seltyiel plays with the Arcana and his new custom sword.
Short answer: S&S Seltyiel doesn't play well with the Magus Class Deck [for Organized Play]. That version is driven by the use of (arcane) spells with the Attack trait, but this class deck only has 3 total such spells, and only 1 of those has the Basic trait. Use of S&S Seltyiel would rely upon the luck of acquiring (or being given) the spells he needs. That's kind of a shame because Spellblade Seltyiel is a creature of sublime beauty when it comes to combat checks. To be honest, I'm actually kind of surprised that S&S Seltyiel was given such short shrift in this.
My initial assessment is that y'all have done a great job with this class deck. I am looking forward to trying each of these characters out.
Brother Tyler |
D'oh! One thing I missed is that the roles for Seltyiel actually surprised me.
The Bladebound role isn't in any way bad, but it's not at all how I envisioned that role being portrayed. Admittedly, I'm a bit biased and this can probably be chalked up to my own expectation management (or mismanagement, perhaps). The two role-based powers appear to be in conflict with each other, though. The first enables you to not discard a weapon, discarding Magus Arcana or a spell, instead; whereas the second encourages you to discard a weapon. I suppose that since so few power feats for this role are used for the role powers and are instead used to enhance the core powers, the intent is that players would choose one power or the other, not both. In that, each is interesting and potent enough alone, so it's not a real problem.
The Myrmidarch role, on the other hand, appears to be weak. It's not so bad in regular play, where you have the potential to reconstruct Seltyiel's entire deck with whatever cards are available (a potential good application of multiple magi in a party, with Seltyiel shifting over to a Ranged combat role and the other magus remaining Melee-oriented). In OP, however, you're screwed because none of the weapons in the deck have the Ranged trait. You're basically relying upon acquiring or being given such weapons during the scenario (and you won't be able to carry them through the next scenario). Admittedly, the power feat isn't solely about Ranged combat, allowing you to enhance Seltyiel's Dexterity check for any kind of check (hello, barriers and dragons), so it's not in any way completely useless. Again, this is only one power feat, so I guess it's not terrible. The other four role-based power feats aren't bad (though the damage reduction power may have been perfect for a magus character that followed the skirnir archetype).
Neither of these roles is bad or renders Seltyiel unplayable, but it only seemed fair to bring the issues (that I perceive) with them up. I'm still hankering to try CD Seltyiel out in the game.
Keith Richmond Lone Shark Games |
Admittedly, the power feat isn't solely about Ranged combat
Yep, the Ranged is actually just a freebie / bonus kicker on being able to have a d12 Dexterity as needed.
though the damage reduction power may have been perfect for a magus character that followed the skirnir archetype).
Seltyiel is far too fashion conscious to be caught anywhere with a shield. ;)
Doppelschwert |
I'm jealous of you guys; I missed the time window for the original subscription shipping date by a day, and now my Magus Deck won't be shipped until the end of the month, which will then take another month to arrive here. :(
Luckily, the waiting time for the next class deck will be shorter as compensation. Is there a date we can expect the character sheets to go online (Reepazo included)?
I'd guess we're out of luck until after GenCon, but a man can dream...