The Warhammer 40k Commander decks for Magic the Gathering recently released to an eager audience. The decks offer a glimpse into the Universes Beyond concept, with unique, thematic art for reprints and interesting new cards.
The Tyranid Swarm is a +1/+1 counters deck with a token creature subtheme. It also features several creatures with X casting cost. As is, the deck is straight forward: Play creatures, make them big, then stomp over opponents. The default commander, The Swarmlord, complements this idea by not only getting 2 +1/+1 counters for each time it’s cast from the command zone, but also draws a card any time a creature you control with a counter on it dies.
Like many people, my involvement with Magic the Gathering is more or less limited to playing Commander. I also like to keep things as inexpensive as possible, and definitely skew to the more casual side of game play. These should be decks that perform decently, and offer a good starting point for your upgrades.
This deck wants to put +1/+1 counters on Mowu as possible, as Mowu gets a nice bonus from them. This along with Trample and Vigilance gives plenty of chances to get commander damage on your opponents.
Mei Hatsume was introduced to the My Hero Academia game in the Crimson Rampage set. Initially, opinions were negative, with most considering the character mid-tier at best. However, players soon realized that Mei can grant large and consistent damage bonuses while also maintaining significant card advantage.
This deck uses the Life resource. While decks will typically use All to make use of several powerful Weapon attacks, Life grants more interaction with flipping foundations, making Mei’s Enhance more powerful overall.
Twitter users – follow @BCW_Records and retweet the respective Thursday, September 1st tweet for a chance to win the turntable, speakers, gift card, and the BCW record supplies listed below. Follow and retweet by 9:00 a.m. EST on Tuesday, September 6th, 2022 for your chance to win. One winner will be randomly selected from all participants, limited to Twitter users in the 48 contiguous United States.
My Hero Academia has revitalized the Universus system, thanks to the crossover appeal from fans of the anime. In fact, the Jasco booth at Gen Con was constantly full with people taking demos of the game. For better or worse, the meta also moves quickly, with a character considered useless jumping to high usage in a matter of weeks.
With this in mind, I offer this little deck tech. It is not tournament viable, at least not now, but should work well for casual or local play using a very high-risk/high-reward style. The deck is capable of throwing out several high-damage, nearly unblockable attacks each turn, but only if all the pieces are in place. Without further ado, the list.
The 55th annual Gen Con convention is in the books and gamers across the world are slowly recovering. When not at the booth, several of the BCW staff wandered the exhibit hall, looking for fun and interesting games. Here is a sampling of what we found.
Andrew enjoyed It’s a Wonderful Kingdom, a 1-2 player card drafting game from Lucky Duck Games. It uses a “I split you choose mechanic” where you draft cards to either build or pitch for resources. The layers of strategies plus the addition of the quests make for a challenging, yet fun, fast game.
Rick found Chonky Donkey appealing. It is a 3-8 player party game where the goal is to not laugh. The player flips over the top answer card and reads it out loud. The other players then pick one of their question cards from their hands and reads the question card out loud to match with the answer card from the active player. If the active player laughs, they win no points but if they can control the laughter, they will score a point.
For myself, my pick is Valiant Wars from Strange Machine Games. The game is a mix of deck-building strategy and press-your-luck gameplay. Players generate gold to buy soldiers and champions, and use swords to win victory point granting locations. The game also becomes harder to win the closer to victory you are, which reduces blowout games.
This year was a return to form, with over 50,000 gamers filling downtown Indianapolis for the best four days in gaming. As usual, the convention was fun but exhausting. We hope to see everyone next year as well.
Marvel United is a cooperative board game in which 1 to 4 players each represent one of the many heroes from the Marvel universe, trying to stop the schemes of the chosen villain. Teamwork is necessary, as everything you do effects what the other players can do on their turns.
The game begins with the villain taking the first turn. The players place the top card of the Master Plan deck face-up on the table. This is the start of the Storyline. The first player draws a card then plays a card face up in the Storyline. Subsequent turns are similar, but players can perform actions on the previous 2 hero cards in addition to their own. Heroes win if they complete 2 of the 3 missions and deal enough damage to knock the villain out. The players lose if the villain’s plot is successful or if they run out of Master Plan cards. They also lose if a Hero runs out of cards in their hand and deck. You can find more information on the official site.
If you want to display your favorite sports or game cards on a wall, BCW Interlocking Card Frames are an amazing system. Each frame has a black border and looks great individually, but it’s the interlocking system that makes these frames special. With the turn of two screws, each frame can connect with a neighboring frame, allowing you to form a grid for however many cards you want to display.
2022 Gen Con attendees can visit the BCW Supplies/Spectrum booth (2721) during the exhibit hall hours to purchase a Gen Con Dice Bag. These officially licensed Gen Con Dice Bags are extra large, and can comfortably hold 350 dice (50 sets). Your dice will stay secure in the bag with drawstring cords. The golden stitched Gen Con logo makes this a special souvenir from your 2022 trip.
The Gen Con Dice Bag is a traditional style bag, designed to sit flat on the table either opened or closed. While the bag does feature strong stitching and sturdy materials, we do not recommend using the dice bag as a last ditch improvised weapon for when you fail your perception check.
Get one for $15, or FREE with a $75 purchase at the BCW Supplies/Spectrum booth (2721).
