Keyforge: The Age of Ascension is upon us!

PMAvers

https://twitter.com/ffgames/status/1062079494318669825?s=21

Oh hey, neat. Special holiday-themed KeyForge playmat sold through the website.

Rius

So I picked up two decks over the weekend; one while I was at GameHoleCon (aka WorstNameCon), the other from my FLGS. That "Wang, the Suddenly Bruised" deck came from GHC, I met the guy who pulled it lol.

Anywho, my two decks are...

Student Vaultinghause
Logos - Dis - Mars

I'm a big fan of Dis so I was happy to get it in one of my decks. It has two rare cards in Logos; Transposition Sandals and Spangler Box. The Sandals are an Upgrade that gives a creature "Action: Swap this creature with another friendly creature in the battleline. You may use that other creature this turn." Seems strong but I have yet to really experience it. The Spangler Box is an artifact that, when used, purges a creature in play and then the opponent gains control of the Box. If the Box is removed from play, all cards purged by it are returned to play. That seems pretty awesome if the opponent doesn't have Logos as a faction.

There's also a rare card in Dis; Hecatomb destroys each Dis creature and that creature's controller gets one Aether. Good for lategame swings perhaps? And then I have...

Sister Firarios Sanders
Mars - Shadows - Sanctum

One of the rares is Mars' Phylyx the Disintegrator, who is a 1 power Elusive creature whose Action causes the opponent to lose 1 Aether per each other friendly Mars creature. The other rare is Sanctum's Oath of Poverty, which destroys each of my artifacts and gives me two Aether for each. The deck's artifacts are not spectacular, so that's a reasonable card but if drawn early it is super dead weight.

Gonna go play some games after work and get a feel for both of these decks. The second one is probably more powerful, it has a lot of healing and stealing/capturing in it. But the first looks more fun.

ArcSyn

So are we calling it Ember, Amber, or attempting to type Æmber every time?

Bedlam

Amber.

Mr. G

I think it's on purpose so everyone is split on how to pronounce it

It was pretty much equal between "amber" and "ember" at the events I went to

admanb

It's funny that Magic officially removed "Æ" from their design dictionary and shortly after Garfield designed a game with it baked into the core mechanics.

PMAvers

For some reason I keep on calling it Æther. I have no idea why.

Frem

The official pronunciation is “amber;” used by FFG in their videos about the game. This is silly and wrong, which is apparently the point.

https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2018/9/21/the-long-and-winding-road/

While we were at it, we struggled for a new name for the "amber" that had replaced the initial prototype's “gems.” We didn't want to use the name of any real-world element or compound, because we wanted to keep it sounding and feeling strange and mysterious. After discarding terms like "gemonite" and “quintessence," someone pitched “æmber.”

“Isn't that goofy?” someone said.

“That's what's brilliant about it. It's like something from a Saturday morning cartoon. It's perfect.”

Mr. G

A lot of things about this game’s aesthetic make a lot more sense once you hear them use the words “Saturday morning cartoon”

Matev

Ok, quick question before I go Deck hunting at the local store. Is there a way to tell what a given deck’s name will be before you crack it open?

bobAkirafett

Matev wrote: »

Ok, quick question before I go Deck hunting at the local store. Is there a way to tell what a given deck’s name will be before you crack it open?

If you didn't go on prerelease you might have to wait until the 15th, and you can't see the deck name outside the cardboard, but the actual deck is shrinkwrapped and I think you can see the name from there.

Bedlam

Theres no way to tell anything about a deck without ripping the cardboard seal.

Matev

Well, that makes it harrowing.

Darkewolfe

I wish to play this now, please.

Seidkona

I cannot wait to get a deck. I was going to hit up a pre-release but it didn't work out.

Darkewolfe

Entaru wrote: »

I cannot wait to get a deck. I was going to hit up a pre-release but it didn't work out.

Yeah, I was busy

Mr. G

This is the deck/token box I just ordered off Etsy, it can hold 4 decks and sets of tokens, I think it'll work perfectly for me

Bedlam

Yodeling Rogue :bigfrown:

Jam Warrior

I'm hearing scary rumours of insufficient starter box stock being delivered to stores... I now have the fear for my order, especially as it is by mail.

Also:

Ah_Pook

Ooh I got a shipping notice for my pre-order

crimsoncoyote

I might run up to the ffg store during lunch Thursday and see if they have any cores available...

PMAvers

Article up talking about the Master Vault a little bit.

https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2018/11/13/the-master-vault-1/

Bedlam

Matev wrote: »

Well, that makes it harrowing.

You are 100% getting "Becky, who ugly cries" and theres nothing you can do about it! :rotate:

Athenor

Literally the only reason I'm getting a starter is for the tokens and a couple random decks.

... I found out another employee here at work ordered an entire case of decks. Man. Way more than I'm willing to drop!

crimsoncoyote

Athenor wrote: »

Literally the only reason I'm getting a starter is for the tokens and a couple random decks.

... I found out another employee here at work ordered an entire case of decks. Man. Way more than I'm willing to drop!

A different deck for every day of the week!

Jam Warrior

There appears to be a worldwide shortage of starter sets. I'm hearing of shops getting barely a fifth of their order.

On the plus side I was offered 5 decks instead so I'll take that and live with improvised tokens.

Mr. G

It’d be a bummer if I can’t get mine, but I only want it for the starter decks to teach with, I already have two decks so I COULD teach with those, but I’d rather use what they specially designed for learning with

Carnarvon

The only really important bit would be the chain tracker, I think? Nothing you can't use an app for, I guess.

Cantido

FFG's intro blurb for Organized Play belongs in the OP!

FFG wrote:

In the beginning, there was no KeyForge. There were other card games, and they had Netdecking and Predictable Metas. They had countless options, but the "collective wisdom" of online whisperers saw those options reduced by to one-dozen or fewer. Players knew 90% of an opponent's card from the first card reveal.

And then there was KeyForge!

Mr. G

Carnarvon wrote: »

The only really important bit would be the chain tracker, I think? Nothing you can't use an app for, I guess.

You don’t even need that if you can just remember that past every multiple of 6 you draw to one less

1-6 is draw to 5, 7-12 is draw to 4, and so on

bobAkirafett

Mr. G wrote: »

Carnarvon wrote: »

The only really important bit would be the chain tracker, I think? Nothing you can't use an app for, I guess.

You don’t even need that if you can just remember that past every multiple of 6 you draw to one less

1-6 is draw to 5, 7-12 is draw to 4, and so on

Just using a d6 placed on the deck would be enough. Each d6 is -1draw.

discrider

Cantido wrote: »

FFG's intro blurb for Organized Play belongs in the OP!

FFG wrote:

In the beginning, there was no KeyForge. There were other card games, and they had Netdecking and Predictable Metas. They had countless options, but the "collective wisdom" of online whisperers saw those options reduced by to one-dozen or fewer. Players knew 90% of an opponent's card from the first card reveal.

And then there was KeyForge!

Someone needs to hold a Yugioh-themed Keystone event, where everyone buys their deck at the start and then plays cards as emphatically as possible.

Jam Warrior

Sponsored Archon names?!



Yes it's a website. No you don't want to check that at work.

Blimey, what a thing to have been randomly generated.

Rius

That's incredible

Dirtmuncher

Jam Warrior wrote: »

Sponsored Archon names?!



Yes it's a website. No you don't want to check that at work.

Blimey, what a thing to have been randomly generated.

All cards exposed streaming service. She even shows her QR-code.

Polaritie

Jam Warrior wrote: »

Sponsored Archon names?!



Yes it's a website. No you don't want to check that at work.

Blimey, what a thing to have been randomly generated.

Especially when it's Fraulein instead of Frau.

crimsoncoyote

There's no way that's real...

Alistair Hutton

Jam Warrior wrote: »

I'm hearing scary rumours of insufficient starter box stock being delivered to stores... I now have the fear for my order, especially as it is by mail.

Also:

Seeing new funny names is never going to get old.

I though the boy who basically headbutts heaven was peak funny name but elephant punching is somehow funnier

Jam Warrior

crimsoncoyote wrote: »

There's no way that's real...

I find it more likely that their random syllable conjoiner made an unfortunate combo than someone went to the effort of faking that.

We'll know soon enough. All decks registered in the app will apparently be publicly searchable.

Cantido

A good article on the universal strategy of Keyforge.
https://medium.com/@jaysonsethlindley/how-do-keyforge-universal-strategies-for-piloting-in-the-crucible-4ebce8c7a744

In this way, I would postulate that almost every deck in Keyforge is best thought of, first and foremost, as a Midrange deck. Midrange decks in other card games are decks that adjust their strategy in response to the boardstate and what the opponent is doing, and almost every deck in Keyforge needs to play that way.

*erection*