<![CDATA[ PCGamer ]]> https://www.pcgamer.com Fri, 25 Oct 2024 08:52:25 +0000 en <![CDATA[ Balatro adds new card backs from Stardew Valley, Cyberpunk 2077, Slay the Spire, and Binding of Isaac, and they're all free ]]>

The Balatro party is getting bigger: Two months after surprising everyone by adding Geralt and Dave the Diver to the game in the Friends of Jimbo "collaboration pack," LocalThunk and Playstack have rolled out a new one with card art from Cyberpunk 2077, Slay the Spire, The Binding of Isaac, and Stardew Valley.

The Friends of Jimbo 2 collab pack is out now and, as with the first, it's free for all players. The new card art (which has no impact on gameplay) features a number of characters you might be familiar with. If you've ever thought to yourself, "Boy, I really wish I could play Balatro with Johnny Silverhand and Jackie (or at least have their faces plastered on my cards)," this is for you.

I focus on them because I'm playing Cyberpunk 2077 right now (well, not right now, right now I'm working) but they're far from the only notable new backs. Isaac is here too along with some vaguely disturbing Joker card art, as are Ironclad, Silent, and Defect from Slay the Spire, and Stardew Valley villagers Pierre, Lewis, and Marnie.

Image 1 of 4

Balatro Friends of Jimbo 2 card backs

(Image credit: LocalThunk)
Image 2 of 4

Balatro Friends of Jimbo 2 card backs

(Image credit: LocalThunk)
Image 3 of 4

Balatro Friends of Jimbo 2 card backs

(Image credit: LocalThunk)
Image 4 of 4

Balatro Friends of Jimbo 2 card backs

(Image credit: LocalThunk)

"After we launched the first collaboration pack this summer, we knew we wanted to invite even more friends to join the party," Playstack PR manager Wout van Halderen said. "Working with these talented developers and studios has been such a rewarding experience, and seeing their creations in Balatro has been a real highlight for both Playstack and LocalThunk."

LocalThunk, the solo developer of Balatro, revealed on X that the Stardew Valley card art was made by Stardew creator Eric Barone himself. "Thanks for the great game LocalThunk, I'm honored that Stardew is included," Barone wrote in response. " I have to 100% the game now."

(Image credit: LocalThunk/Eric Barone (Twitter))

It's a genuinely remarkable mix of characters, drawn from big-studio, big-budget games and huge indie hits alike, and the fact that all these games are lining up to be friends with Jimbo reflects just how much of a phenomenon Balatro really is. People just love this game: In August, CD Projekt global PR director Radek Grabowski said the studio decided to collaborate with LocalThunk on Witcher 3 card backs because people there dig it so much, and in hindsight—especially since Playstack said the original Friends of Jimbo pack was the first in a planned series—I suppose we could've foreseen that Cyberpunk 2077 would follow suit.

The new Balatro card skins can be unlocked via the game's new Customize Deck settings menu. As for whether more Friends of Jimbo packs will follow, that's at the very least a possibility: van Halderen told PC Gamer, "We have some more surprises on the horizon and as long as there is a taste for these collaborations, we are open to doing them with cool partners."

]]>
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/card-games/balatro-adds-new-card-backs-from-stardew-valley-cyberpunk-2077-slay-the-spire-and-binding-of-isaac-and-theyre-all-free bF9DAkJ4hZzq5rPGJYUH2P Thu, 24 Oct 2024 17:10:17 +0000
<![CDATA[ Today's Google Doodle is an alarmingly compelling card game about defeating mankind's oldest enemy: The Moon ]]> A wise man once said: The Moon is disgusting. He forgot to mention that it was also stupid. Strategically inept. A trifle to conquer on the battlefield.

This is the lesson I've learnt from today's Google Doodle, anyway. I would not ordinarily write about the Google Doodle, being as it is only a Doodle on Google. But today's Google Doodle is more than a Doodle, it's a game you can play on Google, dude (el).

If you head over to Google (that's google.com, if you need the URL) you'll find a neat little strategy/card game that someone in Mountain View presumably cooked up in the free 20% of their work day. It's themed around the lunar phases, and sees you face off against a persistently chirpy half-moon in a quest to amass points.

How do you earn points, you ask? Each turn you and your enemy moon select between three cards (you each get a new card every turn). Each card represents a phase of the Moon: crescent, half, full, whatever they call it when there's no moon, and so on. Your task is to slap your cards down on the board in a way that either matches a card next to it, creates a full moon with the card next to it (so, a crescent moon next to a three-quarter moon would count), or that establishes a lunar cycle.

That last one is more complicated, and it's also the most lucrative option. Essentially, if you can lay down a track of cards that represents a complete part of a lunar cycle (for instance, a crescent, then a half, then a three-quarter moon), you get points for each card. The longer your complete lunar cycle, the more points.

It's actually pretty addictive? The boards get more complex as you progress through the game, and at some point the whole thing began handing me bonus, once-per-playthrough cards that I could deploy to do wild nonsense like destroying two random cards on the board, or destroying cards controlled by the other side. It's a genuinely engaging accretion of complexity that meant I spent far too long playing it before I started writing this article.

My only problem, as I suggested up top, is that the Moon is a fool. Maybe I just haven't gotten to the harder levels yet, but it's not too hard to absolutely bamboozle the celestial idiot every round. I sometimes had to sit and watch it pass up obvious opportunities to get one over on me more than once. It's a little underwhelming on that front, but it's also a free game you can play by visiting Google, so I don't feel compelled to shout about it too much. Besides, it's nice to know I'm smarter than the Moon.

]]>
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/card-games/todays-google-doodle-is-an-alarmingly-compelling-card-game-about-defeating-mankinds-oldest-enemy-the-moon 8ZCZP94hNXcF4cL2FmhnUX Thu, 24 Oct 2024 16:45:22 +0000
<![CDATA[ Gorgeous deck-building shop sim Potionomics just got a patch that fixes all my problems with it—plus voice acting, and an option to smooch everyone in a single playthrough ]]> I had a ton of fondness for Potionomics when it came out in 2022—as did PC Gamer, apparently, as we gave it an 87 in our Potionomics review. In case you missed this charming gem—it's a shop simulator by Voracious Games about inheriting a bunch of debt and a potions store. The way it handles selling those potions (and competing in competitions) is via deckbuilding—with the protagonist gaining new sales tactics from the people she interacts with, then flogging her wares in Slay the Spire-style battles.

It's a genuinely gorgeous little thing. Everything from its UI, to its character designs, to its animations are designed to give you a lovely little fuzz of belonging, and it helps that its mechanics all slot together satisfyingly, too. Alas, it had a few key problems when I played it that stopped me from finishing my playthrough—problems that are now thoroughly fixed via a major update that dropped yesterday.

First up—being a game where time is a concern, Potionomics had this weird friction where you could end up in an XCOM-style death spiral if you wasted your time in those early days. This made it mechanically engaging, but often meant new players would spend a few hours getting invested before realising they were screwed. Well, now there's difficulty options you can change at any time.

On that time restriction, one thing that always bothered me was how Potionomics ended. Mostly in that it did. It had this Persona-style deadline cutoff date where the credits roll and that's basically it—which would be a fine way to structure things if it was a short game, but I didn't finish my playthrough and I'd sunk about 30 hours into the thing. Well, now there's an endless mode after the story's finished, so you can tie off all your little romance arcs.

Speaking of, it was that long playtime—a good thing under any other circumstance—that also frustrated me when it came to the game's romance options. Potionomics is filled with a cast of lovely, well-written characters, but you only ever get to smooch one in a playthrough and, given the fact said playthroughs last dozens of hours? It sucked. Well, no longer—there's a "Free Love" mode you can toggle on when starting your game that lets you be as polyamorous as you'd like.

And I haven't even gotten to the biggest feature here which is—voice acting! You can see an example of that below. It should be noted that while this trailer for the "Masterwork Edition" cites consoles, all the new features therein are just free updates for the Steam version.

In a moment of what I can only assume is divine madness, the developers have added voice acting to the game two years after its release for its major story cutscenes. Now if you don't mind me, I'm going to sit here pulling my non-existent hair out over how to spend my very limited free time, seeing as I'm knee deep in Metaphor: ReFantazio (which is really quite very good), soon to play Dragon Age: The Veilguard, and have absolutely just added a Potionomics playthrough to my list of things to do. I don't think I'm going outside for a while.

]]>
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/card-games/gorgeous-deck-building-shop-sim-potionomics-just-got-a-patch-that-fixes-all-my-problems-with-it-plus-voice-acting-and-an-option-to-smooch-everyone-in-a-single-playthrough DtGGtKcbVzPUWWuNHrKYB8 Wed, 23 Oct 2024 11:27:40 +0000
<![CDATA[ The Zootopia Russian Roulette game is kind of a bummer to play, but it's fun to watch ]]> Liar's Bar is a social deception game aimed at Twitch streamers or friend groups who like party games that end with a table of dead Zootopia rejects. It's basically Dogs Playing Poker as a videogame and not really much more than that. Most of the appeal seems to be watching other people play it rather than playing it yourself, and even then I think it's a little too early access to be more than a novelty at this point.

The game dropped earlier this month and has been a hit with a ton of YouTubers and streamers, which seemingly primed it to reach over 100K concurrent Steam players when the latest update released this week. It's since fallen back down to around 15K, but if you do a quick YouTube search for it there are pages of people playing it. After checking it out myself, I can see why it fell off so quickly.

You've played half of Liar's Bar the moment you load it up and see an overhead shot of a poker table sitting in the middle of a bar with dice spilling out of a cup, a loose deck of playing cards, and a revolver lying in a pool of blood dripping onto the wooden floor. Actually controlling the game doesn't reveal much more than the vibe of the menu screen. It's a sleazed up Tabletop Simulator for people who think Russian Roulette is like, so crazy, man.

Even the characters are pretty much the kind of stereotypes you'd expect for something like this. There's a doberman wearing a black tank top and a gold chain, a large rhino man in a Hawaiian shirt, and Jessica Rabbit as an actual rabbit. They each have the suggestion of backstories told through a few comic book panels in a menu, but at the table they speak like animatronics. Liar's Bar uses AI generated voices that sound either literally robotic or devoid of personality. And despite using AI, they don't have a lot to say. Once you've heard the bunny girl, Cupcake, repeat "Honey, I've got tricks, and not just up my sleeve" for the 20th time you'll wish there were actual voice actors giving these animals a modicum of personality.

None of this seems like the point, though. Liar's Bar is really just a stage for playing two bluffing games—Liar's Dice and Liar's Deck—with three other people on voice chat. You can jump straight into an open lobby or find one in a list, but because of the game's simplicity, you're better off playing with people you know. The problem is that Liar's Bar doesn't have a lot of ways for you to 'read' other players. All you have is a head to nod up and down from your first-person view. It's not like Among Us where just doing your tasks and moving your character around can reveal your intentions. The rules of the game have to prompt you with things to accuse each other of, and Liar's Bar isn't quite there yet.

(Image credit: Curve Animation)

Liar's Bar isn't goofy enough or chaotic enough to keep coming back to.

Both of the games you can play are pretty simple to understand. Liar's Dice, which is based on the real game, gives everyone a set of dice to help them declare how many of each are in play. The stakes are raised every turn as each player has to declare either a higher number of dice (e.g. three threes) or a higher dice face (three fours). When someone calls liar, the dice are revealed and if they don't add up, the bluffing player has to drink poison.

Liar's Deck is similar: Players take turns announcing the cards they play (e.g. two kings) and if they're caught lying, they're forced to pick their gun up and pray the chamber is empty.

It's all rather macabre for a game made to be played with friends, especially when someone dies and you're left staring at their lifeless eyes for the rest of the game. If the tone wasn't such a bummer I might've liked the recently added devil card that forces everyone else to pull the trigger if someone calls a bluff. But Liar's Bar isn't goofy enough or chaotic enough to keep coming back to; it lives and dies on your friend group or your willingness to play with strangers.

Developer Curve Animation says it's working on new characters, modes, and rules for the games which could manage to keep it interesting for longer than a few hours. Right now, it's entertaining fodder for your favorite YouTubers and streamers to riff off each other. To me, that's the ideal way to experience this game. You kind of need a group of people willing to play up the absurdity of it to lighten the mood. Otherwise, it feels like it'll need the six months it's supposedly going to be in early access for it to grow into something worth trying to play yourself.

Liar's Bar is available right now on Steam for $6.99.

]]>
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/card-games/the-zootopia-russian-roulette-game-is-kind-of-a-bummer-to-play-but-its-fun-to-watch LFAY3B7fwYANd9iZbX9xMh Tue, 22 Oct 2024 22:42:36 +0000
<![CDATA[ Legendary game designer Jordan Weisman's next project is an open world deck-building pirate romance tactical RPG ]]> If you're anything like me, you probably spent long hours of your childhood afternoons playing BattleTech on the kitchen table and listening to the MechWarrior 2 soundtrack on your Discman. No? Just me? Well, if you do happen to be a sicko like me, you probably keep tabs on Jordan Weisman, the designer who brought us not only BattleTech but Shadowrun, Earthdawn, and Crimson Skies. He's got a Kickstarter campaign going until November 14th to fund a new PC game called Sea of Legends, based on an also-crowdfunded tabletop game by Zach Weisman.

Sea of Legends looks to be quite the genre mashup—it's described on the Kickstarter as an "open world deck-building RPG," but also boasts a romance system where you can woo the sons or daughters of local governors to build alliances and curry favor. Perhaps we can win their hearts in sexy swordfights?

Gameplay is centered around tactical deck to deck battles on an isometric grid, where you use a deck of cards to take actions with your rascally crew (y'know, deck to deck deck to deck battles). Your deck will be built from cards for each of your characters, each of whom have quests you can complete to gather more cards and improve your deck. 

The essence of good pirating starts with other ships to plunder, and there are plenty of those: trade ships, troop ships, other pirates, and the infamous Spanish black ships full of ill-gotten gold. You'll spend your loot upgrading your ship, hiring new crew, or buying new magical items to help you on your quest to become the Pirate King or Queen.

You might be wondering where magical items fit into a game about pirates, but there's a bit of a fantasy element going on here. Undead conquistadors who've drunk from the fountain of youth and a secret cult that worships the Kraken add a bit of spice to your rum, and honestly if I'm playing a pirate game and don't get attacked by the Kraken at least once I tend to leave a little disappointed.

I'm always a little leery of Kickstarters, but Weisman has a good record. He funded Shadowrun Returns on Kickstarter, a game we thought was solid if not spectacular. He's also had successful campaigns for a board game, Golem Arcana, and their follow up Shadowrun game, Shadowrun: Hong Kong, about which Alexis Ong wrote a fantastic piece in 2022 which you should absolutely check out if you haven't already.

The tides of time will tell if Sea of Legends will be able to break into the holy trinity of pirate games (AC4, Secret of Monkey Island, and Sid Meier's Pirates!, for those wondering. No, I will not be taking questions). Either way I'll be checking it out for sure, assuming of course that it gets funded. 

]]>
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/card-games/legendary-game-designer-jordan-weismans-next-project-is-an-open-world-deck-building-pirate-romance-tactical-rpg kUFwDcbWSwMLsmyePtPQrH Mon, 14 Oct 2024 19:23:16 +0000
<![CDATA[ Whoops, Blizzard just leaked all the cards from Hearthstone's next expansion ]]>

Blizzard announced a new Hearthstone expansion today, The Great Dark Beyond, a spacefaring set of 145 new cards set to go live on November 5. Unfortunately, in a break from the normal drip-feed reveal schedule, every single card was revealed to the community at the same time thanks to what must be the biggest leak in the game's decade-long life. It's one way to celebrate, I suppose.

It's not clear what caused the leak—the game's devs have been quiet about it on social media so far—but according to a post on Resetera, it tracks back to a free card, Avatar of Hearthstone, that Blizzard gave away as part of today's 30.6 patch

(Image credit: Blizzard)

That card is part of the game's 10th anniversary celebration giveaways, and is earned by playing at least one game on the new patch. However, after claiming the card (which is very cool and flavourful, not that that will comfort Blizzard much right now) it seems that the entire Great Dark Beyond expansion set became viewable as uncraftable cards in the collection.

This one really sucks for the Hearthstone team. New set reveals are typically tightly-managed affairs that roll out over the course of weeks, with sites and influencers typically showing off a few cards at a time and opining on how they might impact the game. 

Take, for example, our own reveal of three cards from the Whizbang's Workshop reveal earlier this year: You got not only a look at the cards themselves, but also insightful thoughts on which of them might be, as resident Hearthstoner Tim Clark put it, "the real juicer."

That analysis has value, as well as building hype, and Blizzard will likely still go ahead with the planned reveal schedule, but for some the excitement of seeing the new cards for the first time is gone. That may be a particularly harsh gut punch with this expansion, which will add the dranei as a new minion type and let players build and launch starships. From the announcement:

Throughout The Great Dark Beyond, you’ll find Starship Piece minions. When they die, their stats and effects get added to your in-progress Starship construction. When you’re ready, press the button and Launch your Starship directly onto the board for 5 Mana. You can stack as many pieces as you want before you launch—the sky’s the limit!

Anybody can build a Starship, but six classes in The Great Dark Beyond have dedicated Starship cards: Death Knight, Demon Hunter, Druid, Hunter, Rogue, and Warlock. Each of those classes has a unique name and art for their Starship, representing their role in The Great Dark Beyond.

It's a little weird for Hearthstone, thematically at least, but that's what makes it interesting—and why today's leak has to be such an air-out-of-the-tires moment for Blizzard.

One bright spot amidst all this is that some Hearthstone players on social media are urging others not to share the leaked cards (and for the record, we will not be). Zeddy, a well-known Hearthstone content creator, said he's simply going to pretend none of this ever happened. Which might be the best way forward for all involved: Head down, power through it. After all, while a lot of Hearthstone players are going to see these cards early, there will be many more who won't.

If you want to see the leaked cards yourself, well, it's not hard to find them; if you don't, on the other hand, you might want to avoid Reddit and your favorite Hearthstone leaks account on X for a while.

Apart from all the leak kerfuffle, Hearthstone players can look forward to a pre-release Tavern Brawl that will begin on October 29 and run until The Great Dark Beyond launches on November 5. The Great Dark Beyond Mega Bundle is available for pre-purchase now.

]]>
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/card-games/whoops-blizzard-just-leaked-all-the-cards-from-hearthstones-next-expansion WhtpJs8pRhiKt6yVD88ZSN Thu, 10 Oct 2024 20:14:53 +0000
<![CDATA[ 87% of eBay's trading card experts 'earn less than a living wage,' say union organizers ]]> TCG authenticating is an integral part of any trading card ecosystem, especially for big-time collectors or players who just want to honor some of their greatest cards. But life for the people behind the authenticators isn't so easy: earlier this month, one of the biggest authentication centers rallied to demand better wages and respect. 

The Campaign to Organise Digital Employees in the Tech, Games, and Digital Industries (CODE-CWA) announced that members of eBay's authentication center in Syracuse would be holding a rally on October 3 to demand a living wage. "The majority of eBay authentication centre workers in Syracuse earn less than a living wage for a single person without children," CODE-CWA says in a tweet. "eBay is worth almost $29 Billion." 

The authentication centre in Syracuse deals with thousands of Pokémon, Yu-Gi-Oh, and Magic: The Gathering cards a day, and most of the work sees authenticators standing in one spot sorting inspected cards for hours on end. "It's pretty rough when you're just standing in one spot, sedentary, for extended periods of time," an authentication worker, Giacona, says (via Polygon). "A lot of my co-workers have sciatica issues. It hurts more to not move than it does to move." 

Giacona also reveals that her wage starts at just $16.25 an hour, and in a larger report by CODE-CWA, it is revealed that the median wage at this authentication centre is $18.25 per hour, with 87% of authentication centre workers earning less than a living wage in Syracuse. 78% of respondents also reported feeling financially insecure due to low wages. 

This financial insecurity means that around 66% of workers have to rely on friends, family, or public assistance to get by, with many workers reporting that they often have to delay buying groceries or getting necessary medical care. 

So far, workers have tried to reach out to eBay to make headway on new agreements for better wages, but it's been difficult. "When we began the bargaining process, we agreed with the CWA that we would address the non-economic components of the contract before discussing economic topics like wages," eBay told Polygon. "We have a handful of remaining non-economic proposals to agree upon before we move to economic discussions, which we expect to occur soon." This just sounds like stalling to me, and there's been no further information shared about wage discussion in the following weeks, so I'm unsure as to what "soon" means. 

"I put everything, my whole heart, into my work," another authenticator worker, Megan Wheeler, says. "And to see that come back with almost nothing, to hear them say they care but not show it, to go through something that should be as wonderful as pregnancy and preparing for a family, and to be worried about choosing between my job or my family. It feels terrible. It feels like it belongs much further in the past than in 2024." 

However, after a successful demonstration with the Syracuse community members last week, many workers are still hopeful for a positive outcome. The Syracuse TCG authentication centre is one of the largest employers in the area, so if the demands are met, it could have far-reaching benefits. "It'll enrich the community and the local economy as a whole," Giacona says. "That's our hope."

Correction: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that workers at the Syracuse authentication center are on strike. There is no strike.

]]>
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/card-games/87-percent-of-ebays-trading-card-experts-earn-less-than-a-living-wage-so-the-only-thing-left-to-do-is-go-on-strike 9P3B6camGyHWryGJHvnft7 Wed, 09 Oct 2024 11:44:12 +0000
<![CDATA[ Magic: The Gathering followed its fuzzy animal set with one based on slasher movies and horror novels, a juxtaposition that was 'both a coincidence and deliberate' ]]> Each Magic: The Gathering set has a theme to differentiate it, but it's rare to see a contrast as stark as that between the adorable birds and bunnies of Bloomburrow on one hand and the modern horror of Duskmourn on the other. This is a Magic set about a haunted mansion that fills an entire dimension that references dead teenager movies and killer clowns. It's like filing your A. A. Milne next to your Stephen King.

Mike Turian, a former professional Magic player who is now one of its developer/designers, calls the incongruity "both a coincidence and deliberate," saying that, "While we don't necessarily aim for such huge momentum swings in tonality between sets, we definitely try to hit upon multiple themes per year. This is to ensure there's a little bit of something for everyone. Cute critters to creepy horrors is certainly the extreme end of that scale but as we explore more and more settings and themes for Magic, that's bound to happen." This was the perfect time to launch Duskmourn, he explains, meaning the set could be out in time for Halloween. 

Each set features special guest artists suited to its theme. David Petersen, creator of the comic book Mouse Guard, illustrated several Bloomburrow cards for instance. Among the artists on Duskmourn are Tim Jacobus, famous for his Goosebumps covers, and Masahiro Ito, monster designer and art director for the original Silent Hill games. Ito contributed art for a reprint of Damnation, an iconic card with the succinct rules text: "Destroy all creatures. They can't be regenerated." Which is frightening enough on its own, but now it's accompanied by Ito's rendition of Valgavoth, a moth-like demon who lords over Duskmourn and has way too many arms. 

"An elder demon of enormous power that turns an entire plane into a feeding ground?" Turian says. "Definitely something Ito could help us depict. It was an honour to see such a brilliant mind at work designing the artwork for Damnation and it's a process we hope to continue into the future. Working with artists such Junji Ito and Yoshitaka Amano in recent years has made us realize that we at Wizards (as well as Magic fans) love seeing additional external influences on our artwork. We hope to work with Masahiro Ito again in the future."

In terms of mechanics, Duskmourn is all about enchantment cards like the new Rooms, which have two effects representing adjacent areas of the haunted house. You pay the cost for one, but can unlock the other by paying its cost later to open the door and let out whatever's inside. 

"The concept of doors and the horror trope of 'choose your own doom' is something we latched onto fairly early in the design process," Turian says. "From a flavor perspective, doors make a lot of sense to depict 'exploring the haunted house'. Enchantments simply made the most sense when it came to representing that idea on the battlefield. Mechanically, players love flexibility in their cards. An effect they can play early while still having staying power in the late game is highly valued among more competitive players and is also a feel-good for those less competitive-minded."

(Image credit: Wizards of the Coast/Jodie Muir)

The other new enchantments in Duskmourn are also a new creature type, called Glimmers: glowing animal spirits who are the only friendly thing you're likely to meet in the infinite haunted house.

"These are enchantment creatures that represent the hopes and persistence of Duskmourn's survivors," Turian says. "The horrors of the plane are balanced out well by these small sparks of hope. Glimmers offer a cycle of Enduring creatures who start as creatures with abilities and if they die, they return just as enchantments (they're no longer creatures). It's not all doom and gloom on Duskmourn!"

Magic's done horror-themed sets before, like the gothic Innistrad sets with their vampires and werewolves, and the body horror of Phyrexia. Personally I think Phyrexia is the creepiest one they've done, but Duskmourn certainly has some unsettling stuff in it, especially when it draws inspiration from real fears like having your teeth fall out. Turian's own fears include a bunch that are based on the card game he's dedicated so much of his life to.

"From a Magic perspective, my biggest nightmare is opening a sick rare in my first pack of a draft and then just being hard cut from those colors. Another common piece of nightmare fuel is sitting down for a game of Commander against three prison decks such that I never get to play a single card. As a former pro player, I've also definitely had nightmares of waking up too late for a tournament or misregistering my decklist."

Duskmourn: House of Horror is available now in both paper magic and digitally in Magic: The Gathering Arena. 

]]>
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/card-games/magic-the-gathering-followed-its-fuzzy-animal-set-with-one-based-on-slasher-movies-and-horror-novels-a-juxtaposition-that-was-both-a-coincidence-and-deliberate h5Q53NvxoScAjdbebwtF5Y Thu, 03 Oct 2024 23:00:57 +0000
<![CDATA[ WoTC forced to take over popular Magic: The Gathering competitive format after community tantrum over card bans involves 'credible threats of physical assault' ]]> The Magic: The Gathering community's been in turmoil lately, but first, some much-needed context for the uninitiated among you: The Commander Rules committee is a volunteer group of MTG players who, in conjunction with Wizards of the Coast, preside over the Commander format of competitive play. It's one of the most popular rulesets and, crucially, happens to have a list of banned cards.

As somewhat of an outsider to the hobby, it's genuinely interesting to flick through that list and look at the reasons for said bans. They range from the obvious 'this thing's broken' justifications to lowering the barrier to entry. Take Time Walk, for example: "removing it from the card pool was intended to combat the notion that Commander is a prohibitively expensive and inaccessible format."

The controversial bans in question are the first in the format since 2021—and, notably, also some of the first major rules decisions made after Sheldon Menery, considered the godfather of the Commander Rules committee, died September 7 2023 from throat cancer.

The forbidden cards were Dockside, Jeweled Lotus, Mana Crypt, and Nadu, Winged Wisdom. Some players were, it seems, very unhappy with this news. An FAQ posted in the aftermath of the bans gives some insight into the complaints, based on what the committee was keen to address.

The main anger seems to be directed at the cards' perceived reduction in value—a dent in the wallet of people who try to make money off these things, yet expect to never eat a loss—as well as frustrations towards a lack of proper notice: "We used to have a watchlist," the FAQ states, "but it caused noticeable grief when things weren’t acted upon, slowed down our ability to react when we saw a problem, and shifted the losses to the less enfranchised players who were less aware. So we got rid of it."

As is often upsettingly the case with these sorts of things, a contingent of the community took it way too far. As stated on the Discord by community admin Logan/Seraph Six in an announcement:

"Over the last several days we have seen some of the most vitriolic and reprehensible behaviour from people coming into this community seeking to do harm. Never before have I seen such a disgraceful example of the worst kinds of humanity in the Commander community. Anyone participating in the instigation of this behaviour should be ashamed of what they have done."

The threats, according to Logan, included "credible threats of physical assault at conventions, dissemination of personal information, wishes for death, and blatant toxicity."

This statement coincided with a similar post by Jim Lapage, a member of the committee, on Twitter. Lapage writes: "Last week I reached out to Wizards of the Coast for help, and we collectively began work on transitioning all management responsibilities of the format. I'll be providing them with my roadmap, contacts, and documentation to ensure that the transition is smooth."

Lapage continues: "I am truly devastated. This is not the outcome I wanted, but it is the only option that provides both appropriate care and attention to the community, and the safety that the format's leaders deserve as human beings."

(Image credit: @JimTSF on Twitter/X.)

In other words, Wizards of the Coast is now handling the format instead of a group of passionate community experts, not because of corporate meddling, but because people who were upset over a trading card game couldn't resist threatening real human beings over their cardboard depreciating in value.

As someone who has received similar ire from the gaming public over writing words for this website, the whole thing boils my blood, but it completely doesn't surprise me—anonymity and bitterness is a toxic cocktail that makes certain people act terribly. It is, invariably, why we can't have nice things.

Logan puts it well: "While there are many employees at Wizards of the Coast that are wonderful, passionate people, some who I know and appreciate immensely, the company is ultimately a for-profit piece of a larger for-profit company."

(Image credit: Official MTG Commander Discord)

"You will never again get the privilege of one-on-one communication with a decision maker of the format. There’s no doubt that the people who will be taking over managing Commander will be kept mostly anonymous for their own safety, given what just happened to the Rules Committee. This is all thanks to the most toxic and terrible kinds of people that should have no place among us."

Wizards of the Coast's statement puts out some clarifications as to how this thing's going to go from now on:

"While ownership of the format may be changing, members of the Rules Committee and others in the community will continue to be involved, and the vision for a social format will not change. We've had some preliminary conversations already about what we would like to accomplish and have some ideas we will be rolling out together in the months to come.

"For now, the safety and well-being of the Rules Committee is the priority. What has happened this past week is entirely unacceptable. By working together as a team, we can shoulder the responsibility of this format and everything that comes along with it."

]]>
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/card-games/wotc-forced-to-take-over-popular-magic-the-gathering-competitive-format-after-community-tantrum-threats-and-outrage-over-card-bans WXxQCHXoWkUwae3kEccE8 Tue, 01 Oct 2024 14:49:52 +0000
<![CDATA[ Magic: The Gathering will soon have 5 entire cards dedicated to Slimer, in case you want to strike fear into the heart of your local game store ]]> There are more disgusting Magic: The Gathering cards in the universe's lore than those contained within this upcoming Halloween-themed Secret Lair drop. However, there's something about the malicious no-good gluttony of Slimer that fills me with dread.

For the uninitiated, these aren't new cards, but essentially "skins" of old ones, released via the TCG's Secret Lair series, which has crossed over with properties like League of Legends, Lord of the Rings, and Monty Python. Now existing in the same hallowed halls as Hatsune Miku, Slimer is getting five entire cards dedicated to his pustulent visage. The art of which has been shared by Polygon in the run-up to the Camp Totally Safe superdrop.

The names of these things, more than anything, are excellent in how unfortunate they make me feel. Have a gander:

  • Slimer, Voracious Apparition (The Mimeoplasm)
  • Slimed (Trickbind)
  • Escape Containment (Incarnation Technique)
  • Slimer's Feast (Windfall)
  • And Pernicious Deed, which is such an aptly-fitting verb for Slimer that it literally hasn't had its name changed at all.
Image 1 of 5

Five cards included in an upcoming Secret Lair drop, featuring Slimer, a disgusting, no-good ghost.

(Image credit: Wizards of the Coast (via Polygon))
Image 2 of 5

Five cards included in an upcoming Secret Lair drop, featuring Slimer, a disgusting, no-good ghost.

(Image credit: Wizards of the Coast (via Polygon))
Image 3 of 5

Five cards included in an upcoming Secret Lair drop, featuring Slimer, a disgusting, no-good ghost.

(Image credit: Wizards of the Coast (via Polygon))
Image 4 of 5

Five cards included in an upcoming Secret Lair drop, featuring Slimer, a disgusting, no-good ghost.

(Image credit: Wizards of the Coast (via Polygon))
Image 5 of 5

Five cards included in an upcoming Secret Lair drop, featuring Slimer, a disgusting, no-good ghost.

(Image credit: Wizards of the Coast (via Polygon))

The artwork commissioned for these cards is terrible—and by terrible, I mean absolutely stellar at doing what it sets out to do. Why is Slimer so into that chicken leg he's eating? Do we really need to see his unfurled tongue with webs of his saliva sticking to his fingers? Do I need to see his unfortunate butt moments after he slimed someone, his head turned over his shoulder as if in coquettish mischief? Must I bear witness to his cake-smothered upper lip as he engages in the most pernicious of deeds which is… eating a cake, apparently?

Yes, says Wizards of the Coast, yes you do. Even the Real Ghostbusters segment of the superdrop isn't safe from Slimer, although at the very least, he looks dapper and educated—though this is only because his mind's been swapped with Dr. Egon Spengler.

Mind, Magic: The Gathering is no stranger to gross-out cards. I tapped into the knowledge of our resident MTG enjoyer James Bentley, who was able to enlighten me to the existence of cards like Spike Breeder, Brain Maggot, and Peer into the Abyss, all with appropriately upsetting artwork. Brain Maggot in particular makes me feel like we had it nice and breezy with Baldur's Gate 3.

Slimer will also be joined by Chucky from the 1988 slasher Child's Play (and the more recent TV series), in case you'd like to engage your pediophobia (that's a fear of dolls). This entire cursed payload will be arriving September 30.

]]>
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/card-games/magic-the-gathering-will-soon-have-5-entire-cards-dedicated-to-slimer-in-case-you-want-to-strike-fear-into-the-heart-of-your-local-game-store 6QLRi3FPbjtQdeDXYycKED Wed, 18 Sep 2024 15:19:35 +0000