Personally, when it comes to Commander, this entire block has had a lot of disappoints for me. But that’s because I run a monored Jaya deck in the format, so multicolored options limit me a lot. But when I’m not playing Commander, I love basking in all the colors – and Boros is one of my favorite color pairings.

Dragon’s Maze Casual & Commander Reviews
White, Orzhov & Selesnya | Blue, Simic & Azorius
Black, Dimir & Rakdos | Red, Izzet & Boros

Gatecrash Casual & Commander Review
Orzhov Syndicate | House of Dimir | Simic Combine | Gruul Clans | Boros Legion
White | Black | Blue | Green | Red | Other

Return to Ravnica Casual & Commander Reviews
Azorious Senate  | Izzet League | Cult of Rakdos | Golgari Swarm | Selesnya Conclave
White | Blue | Red | Black | Green | Gold, Artifact & Lands

Awe of the Guilds

Mostly limited fodder, Awe of the Guilds can make for some interesting plays due to its limitations. But being sorcery speed means you can’t use it to screw combats you aren’t directly involved with.

Clear a Path

Well, you now have a way to stop Wall of Deni- nope, you still don’t. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: arena, boros, dragons maze, Gaming, izzet, magic: the gathering, red, review

This review takes the darkest color and pairs it up with its two natural allies in a delicious Grixis blend. Black is always fun in multiplayer, but when combined with red or blue, it is a combination of colors that can do pretty much anything. So whether you like the secrecy of Dimir, the recklessness of Rakdos or the selfishness of black, this Dragon’s Maze review is for you.

Dragon’s Maze Casual & Commander Reviews
White, Orzhov & Selesnya | Blue, Simic & Azorius
Black, Dimir & Rakdos |

Gatecrash Casual & Commander Review
Orzhov Syndicate | House of Dimir | Simic Combine | Gruul Clans | Boros Legion
White | Black | Blue | Green | Red | Other

Return to Ravnica Casual & Commander Reviews
Azorious Senate  | Izzet League | Cult of Rakdos | Golgari Swarm | Selesnya Conclave
White | Blue | Red | Black | Green | Gold, Artifact & Lands

Bane Alley Blackguard

This is an odd vanilla creature. But Wizards is shifting black into the higher toughness than power bracket with this set. But for me to care about a vanilla creature, it has to do something special.

Blood Scrivener

The power of this card is absurd. Being a 2/1 zombie for 1B is already solid, but that ability is exceptional. As someone who’s playstyle regularly goes all-in, having a quick way to refill your hand is nice. It pairs wonderfully with Hellbent in a twisted way, but what I really love is that it triggers whenever you would draw a card – not just during your draw step. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: arena, black, dimir, dragons maze, Gaming, magic: the gathering, rakdos, review

The “Escalation Die”

Where we found it: This is a mechanic that exists in a few other RPGs, but most notably 13th Age which is an RPG developed by a few of the lead designers on D&D 3rd and 4th editions.

What is it: A mechanic aimed at speeding up combat by giving ever increasing bonuses to attack rolls as combat rounds progress. Enemies become easier to attack, meaning characters get “stronger” the longer a fight goes on. It starts at +1 and increases each round toward a max of +6.

Why is it important: Combat takes a long time in D&D. This was especially true in 4th edition, and while D&D Next has some specific changes that address that issue, combat can still be a real grind sometimes. After enough rounds it just degenerates into players aimlessly hacking away at monsters till they die, and that’s if the players are rolling well. The Escalation die reduces and improves combat by increasing the chance that players will hit, and effectively encouraging risky or fun actions because of the attack bonus. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: D&D Next, dungeons and dragons, Gaming, Home Brew

The second part of our Dragon’s Maze review looks at the color Blue and two guilds: Simic and Azorious! These blue aligned guilds show off just how versatile the color of manipulation can get when paired up. But even mono-color players will want to take a look at some of the offerings.

Dragon’s Maze Casual & Commander Reviews
White, Orzhov & Selesnya | Blue, Simic & Azorius

Gatecrash Casual & Commander Review
Orzhov Syndicate | House of Dimir | Simic Combine | Gruul Clans | Boros Legion
White | Black | Blue | Green | Red | Other

Return to Ravnica Casual & Commander Reviews
Azorious Senate  | Izzet League | Cult of Rakdos | Golgari Swarm | Selesnya Conclave
White | Blue | Red | Black | Green | Gold, Artifact & Lands

Ætherling

The new Morphling feels a touch out of place to me for one reason:  where are my white and black lings? We’ve gotten Torching and Thornling! But Ætherling is an interesting take on the Morphling design. The bigger body is nice, and the self-flickering is very powerful. While not a ground breaking card, it certainly is worth considering if you run the original depending on the speed of your playgroup. The only real concern about him is the casting cost. While he costs 6 on paper, he really costs 7 or more since you’ll want to protect him too.

Hidden Strings

Dimir’s new Cipher spell is close to what people wanted. While I had been hoping the Dragon’s Maze would combine abilities across guilds – like Cipher Detain, this is still close. A different take on Hands of Binding, the ability to untap another permanent makes it so the attacking creature has vigilance or can be used to barter deals with unlikely allies at the table in times of need. A solid little cipher spell, it’s what I had been hoping the ability would do. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: arena, azorius, blue, dragons maze, Gaming, magic: the gathering, review, simic

One of the things about gaming that I enjoy most is helping to bring new people to the hobby, introducing them to games and teaching them the rules and strategies of others. However, I’ve yet to try doing this with little kids, but it sounds like that would be difficult. Luckily for all of us, the game designers over at Funto11 are working on doing just that with their latest Kickstarter endeavor, Fairy Mischief.

Fairy Mischief is a card game from Funto11, makers of Miskatonic School for Girls and Flame War. The game is aimed at trying to get kids, specifically young girls, to make the transition from simple games, like the card game War, up to tabletop games by introducing them to new gameplay types, simple strategies and mechanics. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Fairy Mischief, Funto11, Gaming, kickstarter

Kickstarter is quickly becoming a favorite place for us here at Castles and Cooks to mine for our next great game or piece of cooking equipment. While the risks are well established, the chance to discover something truly unique is one of the things that keeps us coming back for more. From time to time we’ll aggregate our favorite Kickstarters here and tell you why they are worth supporting.

Methodology: We do not actually back every project listed in this round-up (though we do specifically indicate those projects we have helped fund). The projects that we choose are based on several factors, but we tend to gravitate toward projects that have low risk, great value, and where there is excellent communication about the economics. It also helps for the product to just be awesome, something that we would want to play or use. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Dwarven, Fairy Mischief, Gaming, kickstarter, Relic Expedition, Shore Soup, zombicide

Kickstarter is quickly becoming a favorite place for us here at Castles and Cooks to mine for our next great game or piece of cooking equipment. While the risks are well established, the chance to discover something truly unique is one of the things that keeps us coming back for more. From time to time we’ll aggregate our favorite Kickstarters here and tell you why they are worth supporting.

Methodology: We do not actually back every project listed in this round-up (though we do specifically indicate those projects we have helped fund). The projects that we choose are based on several factors, but we tend to gravitate toward projects that have low risk, great value, and where there is excellent communication about the economics. It also helps for the product to just be awesome, something that we would want to play or use.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Dragon's Hoard, Dungeon Roll, Gaming, kickstarter, Story War, Sweet & Salty

The world of Kickstarter is rife with opportunity and tragedy. The independent crowd source funding site has gained widespread attention and popularity for the staggering money that developers across industries have raised by appealing directly to consumers.

Yet for every Double Fine Adventure and Zombicide there are dozens of projects that barely raise any money at all, and fall well short of funding goals. According to a study by Ethan Mollick of UPenn in 2012, only 3% of projects that fail get even 50% toward their goal. With all of the odds seemingly stacked against projects that don’t take off, it seems crazy to think that a company would go back to Kickstarter a second time after failing.

Enter Evil Intent, the first project from Kraken Games, a small Houston based gaming company currently operating out of a home office. In it you play as an evil mastermind with plans to takeover the world. Trouble is all of your opponents have the same idea. Players take turns trying to accumulate resources and assets to achieve their secret evil scheme all while trying to prevent their rivals from doing the same. The game calls for 2-6 players and scales in duration based on the number of players.

Evil Intent first was posted to Kickstarter in the latter half of 2012. It had a funding goal of around $55,000, but by the end of fundraising it hadn’t even reached 50% (the final tally was $23,439). Many people would have given up, perhaps moved on to other projects. Instead Kraken Games re-tooled, fueled by feedback from backers, and returned to Kickstarter with a vengeance – and a funding goal that was cut by more than half! Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Evil Intent, Gaming, kickstarter

I’ve always balked a little bit on dueling miniatures games. Partly because restricting a game to 1 on 1 doesn’t really do a lot for me when hanging out with a group of friends, but also because I’ve never found them a lot of fun. But I love Star Wars, so when the X-Wing Miniatures game was released, I was somewhat interested. Then I saw the ship models and everything changed.

Suggested ages: 13 and up
Number of players: 2
Playing time: 15 – 20 minutes
Contents: Rulebook, Quick-start rulebook,  1 X-Wing and 2 Tie Fighters with stands & bases, ship tokens, dice, range ruler, obstacle markers, maneuver templates, 3 maneuver dials, damage/upgrade cards, ship cards, action tokens, mission tokens.
Retail price: $43.99 available on Amazon.com Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Arena Review, Fantasy Flight, Gaming, Star Wars