The "Blues"

The "Blues"

Moonlit Savior Spoilers Article #2

Article Written by Steven Peets

Hello fellow Force of Will players today I'd like to take a moment to talk about the new blue spoilers for the up coming set.  Most of which have a musical theme to them which makes me super hyped so lets get started.

First up the new ruler Songstress of Shangri-La and her "better half" Coup d'Etat Mastermind, Shion.  I've read a lot of articles and posts about this card and for now her reputation is about as good as Martin Shkreli's.  Few people have gotten behind this card or even really tried to understand how a competitive deck could be built with her.  Being able to look at the top of your deck at any time is a powerful mechanic and having a Judgement that costs only ONE blue will and 2 void makes her easy to judgement and splash other will colors in your deck.  Now her J-Ruler side is another beast and completely busted if set up for a combo or high tempo style deck.  Putting any resonator in the game 5 cost or less onto the battle field for free is extremely strong.  Her God's Art is well placed in Water will and highly deserved.  Over all when I read this card from front to back what I see is.... I know whats on top of my deck at any point in the game.. I flip into my combo resonator or tempo resonator while also having the option to "Blazer" someones J/resonator.  At this point if I could of asked anything for Water Will last year this card is almost what I would of asked for to a T.  Knowing when its okay to shuffle your deck is and always will be a powerful mechanic in any CTCG. 

With great power comes great deck manipulation.  Like I stated above knowing what you will draw is powerful but being able to change that is even more powerful.  Early to mid game the regular tap ability on this card will be helpful.  The secondary ability will be back breaking on your opponent if your deck is set up properly.  Search for any card and place it on top of your deck is boarder line busted when you really think about it.  Game one this is still a very strong and heavy handed ability to compliment whatever your decks strategy is.  Game two and three this card is the ultimate bomb in your deck.  The reason I say this is because it allows your side board to go a little bit more broad than most ruler's will allow you.  Essentially no matter what you are facing against with this card in your deck the chances of you getting your side boarded cards are a lot higher.  This card could even be considered four extra copies of whatever tech card you've added games two and three.  The card is strong and very underestimated with the possibility of putting Water back on the competitive map.  That being said this card is not limited to water decks which makes it even better.  For those that have played MTG this is a scary card and could lead to a downward spiral of control or combo esk decks.  Whether it be in the standard format of Force of Will or future legacy tournaments this card will make a deck and be the sole reason why that arch type was made.  

Not much to really say that can't be read.  A stone that places a card into your hand when Shangri-la is your ruler or you know whats on top of your deck.  Really powerful and well placed in this color and something Water needed to keep up with other card drawing engines.  That being said it does not draw you a card which is a bit of a let down but still a nice ability. 

Not the most busted card but definitely not a bad early game resonator.  Having the possibility to stop a Cthugha train early in the game is nothing to write off and definitely something blue could use.

One of my favorite cards spoiled so far from the new set.  He is definitely combo worthy by having multiples on the battle field or having multiple attack phases with him.  He feels a little slow but if protected well enough combat math for your opponent becomes an absolute nightmare.  Attacking into him is equally as dangerous as his offensive side is.  He is also easily splash able in almost any deck thanks to one water double void cost.  If you can protect him well enough he will win you the game without much thought other than turning him side ways.  

  I like this card a lot but I'm not really happy with it.  At three cost it seems slow because its a chant spell.  I would even take it being triple Water Will to see it at instant speed.    That being said the power level on this card at the right time is back breaking on your opponent and will either win you the game or definitely swing it into your favor.  Bouncing a resonator is great putting a 2 cost water resonator into play for free is great and spending two less on a Coup's god art is amazing.  Two resonators I see as being target number one for this card to hit off the top of your deck are Hera or Muse.

Of all the resonators revealed so far in all the colors this one to me is the strongest.  There is so much value to be had with this card that its almost mind blowing.  Two cost one water one void makes it splash able.  A 400/600 body isn't bad for a blue resonator.  With Shangri-La as your ruler this card reads put a card on top of your deck into your hand 100% of the time.  Something important to note though it does not say draw a card so that is a little bit of a let down in terms of other drawing card synergies.  Her second ability is frightening to say the least.  Turning your entire board into Gareth is a whole other level of shenanigans that this game might not be ready for.  Another important note is it does not say PRINTED DEF which makes this card even better.  Putting this card into play with Shion's Hymn is essentially like living the "Dream" three will to bounce a resonator put Muse into play put a card into your hand from muse protect your team and then god art a J/Resonator out of your way for you to attack is VALUE town.  

Over all I think a lot of people have under valued some of the new blue cards and honestly rightfully so.  Unfortunately from what I've seen the power level of each color in the game is no where near balanced.  There are still strong cards in blue like Cheshire and Alice's World but these have only been splashed to further improve other decks.  Blue has been the "red headed step child" for a long time now and with the release of these spoilers I finally think blue is headed in the right direction.  Whether that be tempo, control, or combo we now have a ruler that is willing to go either or all three at the same time.  So with all that said hopefully Water will no longer have "The Blues" and can continue being a real part of what FoW was originally about.  Thanks for taking the time to read our articles and we appreciate any feed back or thoughts on current or earlier articles written by us.

Steven Peets

Don't be late to the ball!

Don't be late to the ball!

Written by Steven Peets

“Cinderella, you're as lovely as your name

 Cinderella, you're a sunset in a frame

 Though you're dressed in rags, you wear an air of queenly grace

 Anyone can see a throne would be your proper place.”

  Hello fellow Force of Will players and welcome to my first article.  Today I'd like to discuss a different approach on a deck and one of my favorite cards Cinderella, the Ashen Maiden.  First lets look at her, go over her abilities, and rate the card over all. Two dark for a 400/400 is in no way what I would consider value and pretty mediocre when compared to other double will cost resonators.  Not to mention she will not be easy to splash in multiwill colored decks.  Her abilities however make up for her lack in printed atk/def.  The first being whenever this card deals damage to your opponent, you may search your main deck for a prince resonator, reveal it and put it into your hand and then shuffle.  Pretty straight forward and a cute ability.  Next we have Activate: banish a resonator this card deals 200 damage to each resonator your opponent controls.  Now that is the kind of ability I can get behind.  With the right resonators and proper deck set up she is a real control power house.  Over all I'd give her a solid 3/5 in the new meta.    

  It is no surprise poor Cinderella has fallen off with how aggressive the format has become.  With how most decks are preparing to face an aggressive plan you never have time to properly set her up.  That being said don't count her out just yet.  Now the plan most of the time when you are facing a barrage of aggro resonators on the other side of the field is to of course remove them.  If they aren't alive they can't hurt you and you get to continue playing with your strategy.  The same can be said for almost any TCG, removal in most decks is a necessity.  What Cinderella offers is the exact opposite strategy.  "But wait she is a form a removal what are you even talking about" I know that and you would be absolutely correct except her abilities are made to be "broken".  IE her combo Ame-no-Habakiri  which has taken up residence lately with good ol Lancelot.  Cinderella with Ame-no-Habakiri is ultimate "value town".  You buff her to 800/800 and now when you banish a resonator your opponent takes damage as well per creature hit by the banish.  You also get the "cute" ability of searching that many Prince resonators out of your deck.  So if your opponent has 5 resonators and you banish one single resonator they take 1000 damage and you search for 5 prince resonators in your deck.  All of this seems great in a fairy tale world, but the reality is you'll get ran over by bahablast if you set your deck up like a regular dark/fire control deck.

  So lets take a look at how you could set up a deck made to not kill resonators until its time to "Go to the ball".  First thing to decide is the ruler the two I have chose are R/R or Grim.  R/R offers... a ridiculous amount of value and Grim offers a little more safety from split heaven and earth.  Both can be used and appreciated but for now we'll go with R/R.  Next the stones.. it goes without saying this will be greedy.  A mixture of Ruler's memoria, Magic stone of moon shade, moon light, and 1 or 2 Unyielding flame's memoria.  The reason for the flames memoria is combining that with Cinderella is absurd.  Dealing an additional 200 per banish will almost kill your opponent on the spot or put them in range of an attack or thunder.  Third the spells and resonators and which ones to choose.  So in a deck where you need to stall but not kill there are a few cards that help to do just that.  Bind of Gravity, Rasputin, Slipper of Cinderella, Cheshire, Seal of Grimmia all of these cards enable your opponents resonators to stay around and prevents them from doing much damage.  Rasputin is your "third" part of the combo that really ensures your win with Cinderella.  Being able to banish multiple times with one creature is something we need in the deck and has always been the go to creature for Cinderella.

"Don't Be Late To The Ball"

Ruler

 R/R

Resonators

Rasputin x 2

Elisabeth, Shadow Princess of Blood x 2

Cinderella, The Ashen Maiden x 4

I, the pilot x 2

The Little Prince x 2

Witch of the Night x 3 (New darkness ressonator)

Cheshire Cat, the Grinning Remnant x 3

Spells/Additions

Bind of gravity x 4

Flame of outer world x 2

Ame-no-habakiri x 3

Seal of Grimmia x 4

Regalia

Artemis, The God's Bow x 3

Change the World, Orb of Illusion x 4

Stones 

Magic Stone of Moon light x 1

Unyielding flame's memoria x 1

Magic stone of moon shade x4

Ruler's Memoria x 4

Side board

Flame of outer world x 2

Blazer Gill Rabus x 1

Rapid Decay x 3

Deathscythe, the life reaper x 4

Keen sense x 3

Stoning to Death x 2

  There's a few other ways you can build this deck.  With this set up though I have found it to be the most balanced in what you're wanting to do and trying to stop in a game.  You're really looking to "combo off" by turn 4 or 5.  Stalling will be your game plan and so I would label this deck as 4 Will Turbo Fog. 

  That's it for now thanks for reading and taking an interest in our blog and I hope you're never "late to the ball".

         Steven Peets

         

               

    

  

Dark Side of the Moon

DARK SIDE OF THE MOON

Moonlit Savior Spoilers Article #1

Article Written by Chase Madrie

Hello everyone and welcome to the first of many articles going over Force of Will spoilers. Yesterday we got our second look at what's ahead to come in Moonlit Savior and needless to say there is a bit a hype about the big reveal. The Primogenitor has finally stepped from the shadows and brought with him much controversy but we aren't going to just jump on the bandwagon just yet! A comprehensive break down is in order. 

The Ruler Side: First off, nothing too crazy about the judgement save the moon will cost. Nice to see a mechanic that was once so niche get some more lovin'. Primo's second ability is definitely worth some hype in my opinion. This obviously shuts down the Valentina 2.0 or 28 regalia decks but its also a constant issue that any deck running any regalia has to deal with. In the mirror match his own regalia will be boarded to prevent having a dead card in hand. Regalia is so heavily used in most decks these days that this ability severely cripples a lot of decks. This slows Reflect even further which most likely there intent. Will we see more decks cut out regalia all together, or at least all the regalia moved to the sideboard, to prevent having dead cards in the main when your opponent flips over this guy in front of you? Its very possible that it will impact the meta in a drastic way. Only time will tell.

The J-Ruler Side: Here comes the meat. Sweet mother of card text! Anymore abilities and the card might as well had no art, but I digress. Right off the bat lets talk about his base attack and defense stats. Base stats of 12/12 make him quite a force to be reckoned with regardless of what abilities he has. It get's worse when you stack a Pitch Black Moon on top of that but we will get to that in a minute. Extremely solid and scary base stats. On to the abilities. His enter the field ability is nice. Search your deck for Pitch Black Moon might as well read "When this card enters your field it becomes a 14/14." Nothing mind blowing and a bit "more win"-ish but nice to have. Even just putting 1 copy in the main makes this a nice bump. Onto the second ability- Pay 1 Moon: Cancel target activate ability. Need I say more? Built in, unlimited, Glimpse of Kaguya just a tap of a stone away. The fact that it stops so much is crazy. Perfect for all those darkness control players. I would be pretty salty having to deal with this while playing my Melgis rush deck. Silencing my Lances would be frustrating enough much less being able to shut down Unleash the Demon Sword. The potential of this ability is outrageous in my opinion. The third ability is more standard for darkness. Two will to -2/-2 is great. This puts most J-rulers into Flames range and also combos quite nicely with other blanket field effects like Dark Arthur's continuous ability. Its great utility for a darkness ruler to have. Lastly we arrive at his God's Art. I conclude that this is his most inconsistent ability, but I am not however condemning it at all. For 4 will you can search out a resonator, a regalia, AND a field addition. At first glimpse this ability does seem overpowered but lets think on this a bit. Stealing a resonator is guaranteed. That's good. Stealing a regalia and a field addition? Not so guaranteed. We've already established that regalia might be more scarce in the new meta so that's a bummer if they have none at all for you to steal. More field additions could see more play depending on what is released in this new set, but we have no reason so far to think they will have more presence in main decks than they currently do. So 4 cost for at least a resonator is not that amazing. Now, that being said its not a useless ability and getting all 3 from your opponent could certainly turn the tide in your favor. Yamata combo decks will have to watch out for this for sure! I personally would't feel bad at all taking a Yamata and a Realm of Pure Spirits and whatever regalia I choose away from my opponent and putting it straight into my field.

The Verdict: Very solid darkness ruler for many reasons. Kicks poor Dark Alice to the sideboard. Easily Tier 1 in my opinion. I expect to see him quite a lot when the set drops. Is he as broke as the the community would lead us to believe? Will this be another Reflect? No, I don't think so.

The Regailia: Alrighty! First ability on the card has some good uses. Producing a moon will for activate abilities is quite nice. Remember you can use it to pay for void on any abilities on cards previous to this set including other J-rulers not just Primo. As far as what has been spoiled for this set you can use The Globe to pay for the Witch of the Night resonator and on Primo's J-ruler cancel activate ability making them essentially free making those abilities even scarier. I would assume that more cards with moon will activate abilities are not too far off and I am curious to see what comes after this as the set is spoiled more. The second part extra free ramping for Primo himself. If you have it available and are free to use it being able to judgment and god's art a turn earlier excellent. The second ability lets you bounce back to your ruler side. This is useful not only for keeping him safe but also to re-apply the regalia hate and if you judgment again you can search out another moon. 

The Verdict: On its own this card is value town. Free activates and quicker Judgment and God's Arts plus the ability to bounce back when needed or wanted. Unfortunately there is a high risk that you have Primo as your opponents ruler or barrier of shadows to deal with which utterly destroys this cards usefulness.

The Field Addition: Pitch Black Moons first ability like I stated before is a bit "More Win" than anything else, but who doesn't want 2/2 on their J-Ruler? The second ability to discard a resonator to put another from your graveyard into your hand plays very nice with mill decks and combo decks. Also works well with cthulhu decks and of course moon decks like wererabbits or werewolves. I expect to see this card get some play in a variety of decks. The fact that you can retrieve it for free and put it in your field with Primo is of course great.

The Verdict: Great field addition card that has many uses.

The Spell Chant-Instant: A 1 cost instant that can move a resonator from your graveyard to your hand is pretty solid for most darkness deck and like the moon it plays well with mill and combo decks. Also has usefulness retrieving cards like a Xeex'd Blazer Eater of Dimensions. Not paying 2 more will to search a resonator from your main deck seems unwise.

The Verdict: Paying 3 will to retrieve 2 resonators is good. The fact that its an instant makes it even better.

The Spell Chant: On its own this card is pretty lack luster. Stoning is better outright for the first part and paying 2 will to destroy a 0 cost regalia is not a fair trade. When combined with Primo it becomes less mediocre. Being able to do both is nice removal and worth the 2 will. The only thing really holding this card back is that it is a Chant. Which I feel hurts it even more.

The Verdict: On its own it is terrible but coupled with Primo its a decent, but not great, removal spell.

The Resonator: I really like this card. Its early game rush hate. It even gimps Lance. Being a 1 cost 800 wall makes it quite good. The activate hurts early game rush even more. Combined with the regalia it can be a free neg to a resonator which increases its value.

The Verdict: Efficient early game rush hate resonator with the potential to be more troublesome for free. I give it two thumbs up.

The Memoria: To wrap this up we finally have the new darkness/moon stone. Not really much to say other than it goes with Primo like macaroni and cheese. 

Well that sums up all that I have to say about the new darkness spoilers. I hope you enjoyed reading the article and if you have any comments or suggestions you can message me or comment below. Follow us on Facebook. Be on the look out for Videos on Youtube and streaming coming soon. Until next time happy gaming.

Janktown Madness Article #1

Janktown Madness

Article #1

The Brides of Dracula

Written by: Robert Robinson

Hello everyone and welcome to our first Janktown Madness article! Today we will be looking at a fun brew that should take quite a few of your opponents by surprise. The deck is called “The Brides of Dracula” for rather nefarious reasons that I shall leave up to your wild imaginations.

Earlier this evening I started browsing through my collection looking for rulers that would be fun to build around yet still decently competitive. I decided to build this deck because of Dracula’s absurdly powerful ability to steal your opponent’s resonators if he can kill them. The deck list is below, and after that I will delve into more detail about why I chose each of the cards.

Ruler

Alucard, the Dark Noble / Dracula, the Demonic One

Stone Deck

4 x Ruler’s Memoria

3 x Magic Stone of Moon Shade

3 x Magic Stone of Black Silence

Main Deck

4 x Gleipnir, the Red Binding of Fate

3 x Excalibur, the God’s Sword

4 x Laevateinn, the Demon Sword

2 x Soulhunt

2 x Rapid Decay

4 x The Beast Queen’s Counterattack

4 x Dual of Truth

4 x The Scorn of Dark Alice

2 x Stoning to Death

3 x Vampire Bat

4 x Servant of Vampire

4 x Lora, the Blood Speaker

Side Board

*Still a work in progress.*

One of the first things most people notice is just how greedy the stone deck is. The question of “What do you do about Splits…” has been the most asked question so far, and the answer is simple: I like to run this deck off of two stones. The Ruler’s Memoria are fantastic, and I think the 3/3 split of the other two stones is the proper way to go.

For efficiency, and to allow the deck to run off of two stones, I chose cheap cards that synergize well with both sides of our ruler. Alucard requires you to control a vampire and have one of your opponent’s creatures enter the graveyard in the same turn so that you can J-Activate him. Cheap vampires such as Servant of Vampire and Lora, the Blood Speaker, and kill spells such as Soulhunt and Rapid Decay, allow us to consistently be able to J-Activate by turn 3. Spells that let Dracula fight once he has been J-Activated, such as Dual of Truth and Beast Queen’s Counterattack, allow us to kill just about any resonator that our opponent can throw at us in the early game. Stoning to death and the Scorn of Dark Alice are fantastic spells that fill out the deck’s rather extensive removal suite.

Having so many regalia ensures that we should always draw one in our opening hand, and the possibility of multiples of the same regalia allows even more shenanigans such as will ramping and extra card draw.

• ·         Laevateinn is my favorite regalia in the deck because of just how much work it can put in with Dracula. Giving swiftness while pumping our damage output is fantastic, and being able to banish any resonators that we are able to steal is a great bonus. This is especially useful against Reflect players that may try to bounce their creatures back to hand once we have taken them.

• ·         Excalibur gives Dracula target attack while also buffing him. I think three is the proper number here.

• ·         Gleipnir is an amazing card that I have been vastly underestimating. Card advantage is never a bad thing, and being able to ensure a blocker gives us even more control of the board.

The side board is still a work in progress. I’m thinking of adding Holy Grail in the side to deal with additions that may give us grief, while also allowing us to fight and not worry about the damage as much. I’ll also probably add in Vlad, but other than that I have no idea what I want to put in there yet. Let me know in the comments what you guys and gals think should go in there.

Well that’s it for now ladies and gents. I hope you enjoyed our first Janktown Madness article. Thank you for taking the time to read along with us. If you have any questions, concerns, or suggestions, please leave them in the comment section. Until next time folks, always know where your towel is.

Robert Robinson