Roll20

Earlier this week, I wrote about one of my favorite tools for roleplaying games called 3D Virtual Tabletop. It's a great app to have when you're sitting around a table with friends. But what if you don't have a local gaming group? That's where my second favorite tool comes in: Roll20.

Roll20 is another virtual tabletop - but this time, it's designed not just to represent a battle board, but give you the tools to run or play in an entirely online campaign. It's an entire platform of tools designed to simple, elegant, and user-friendly, runs entirely in a web browser (or app on your favorite mobile device), and is compatible with just about any RPG system. It supports online character sheets, dice rollers that truly simulate actual randomness, video and voice chat, journals that represent information shared across multiple users, map features like dynamic lighting and fog of war, a virtual jukebox for music and sound effects, and an online marketplace chock full of art, maps, icons, music, and anything else you might need to run an online campaign.

Roll20 also has a huge community of people playing just about any RPG system you can imagine, with opportunities every day for new players to jump into one-shots or long-term campaigns. As a new player, it took me very little time to figure out how everything worked, and my experiences have been very positive. You can check out their "Looking for Group" forum for yourself and see all the possibilities that await you.

Oh, and I forgot to mention the most impressive part: it's free!

And while I haven't delved into this aspect of the program yet, the developers obviously worked hard to make everything as easy for the GMs as possible. If you want to know more about how you can use Roll20 as a GM, check out this video below.

I hope this opens up a whole new world of online gaming for you. I know it did for me. See you next time!

The Angry Chicken

Despite my Tweet yesterday, I am still a major proponent of Hearthstone, even if the "pressure" to complete my daily missions without ever letting more than 3 days pass by has made it feel more obligation than fun sometimes. I am always on the lookout for free, helpful resources to improve my game, and when I find them, I really enjoy sharing them with others.

As I mentioned last time, I forgot my Saturday post last week, so I am determined to get four in this week. Today, I want to share with you an awesome Hearthstone podcast called The Angry Chicken.

Named after a curious (and absolutely awful) Hearthstone card, The Angry Chicken is produced every week by the team of Garrett Weinzierl, William "Dills" Gregory, and Jocelyn Moffett. It's available in both video and audio only formats. In fact, you can even watch it live on Mondays at 10pm Eastern time on their Twitch channel. Each week this team brings you up to speed on all the latest Hearthstone news and rumors, as well as covering strategies, crazy stories, and reader E-mails.

The production values for this podcast are excellent. They had a custom music score for their opener, and each weekly segment is also accompanied by a short bumper. These elements also incorporate sounds from the game itself, and complement the sound and feel of Hearthstone so well you might be hard pressed to tell what came from the game and what's original. The audio quality of each host is also quite good, especially given that they are just using Skype to connect with each other.

I would call this podcast the "Limited Resources" of Hearthstone, and that is high praise indeed. If you're into Hearthstone at all, you definitely should check out this podcast.

As an addendum, Part 2 of my Standard Pauper review of Dragons of Tarkir has been published over at PureMTGO. Definitely give it a read and let me know what you think!

3D Virtual Tabletop

I realized today that somehow I forgot to post to the blog last Saturday. Sorry about that. So to make up for it, there will be four blog posts this week, starting today (Monday).

Today I want to share with you one of my favorite roleplaying game aids. I don't know about you, but I love the look and feel of using tabletop maps while I'm gaming. While these aren't strictly necessary, most systems assume you'll be using them for combat, and it also goes a long way towards helping immerse you into the world the GM is describing. And that's why I love 3D Virtual Tabletop.

3D Virtual Tabletop is a free app for most tablets and phones that acts just like a real tabletop board or map. You can zoom in and out, rotate it in all three dimensions, hide or reveal parts of the map, slide all of the different virtual minis around anywhere on the map, and import any graphics you want from all of the standard formats, both for the map itself and for the miniatures. You can have all the wonder of details minis and dungeon tiles without ever having to lift a brush or leave your home.

This application uses a simple and clear interface, and comes preloaded with dozens of monsters, heroes, and maps. There is also an extensive library of YouTube videos that will show you exactly how things work. Even on my somewhat dated Ipad2, it runs smoothly and quickly without any graphical glitches or crashes.

While the app itself is free, if you want the ability to stream your map to other devices (and thus allow your players to see something different than what you're viewing), there is a modest fee of $10 a year or $1 a month to enable those features. But honestly, at least around our table, I've never had the need to stream it to other devices.

I highly recommend you give this a try the next time you and your friends are gathered together for a night of roleplaying. And since it's free, what do you have to lose?

Isn't Standard Pauper an "Official" Format Online?

It was brought to my attention this week that Standard Pauper is not listed as an official online-only format on Wizards' website. Now this might be excusable if they're just trying to focus on the popular or dominant formats. But no, even other casual formats like Kaleidoscope, Momir Basic, Prismatic, Singleton, and Tribal are listed. This seems to be a clear oversight and should be addressed.

Colin, better known to the community as Cabel, is the one who brought this to my attention. If you're curious, you can read some his reasons why he thinks this is the case here (warning though, it's a bit long). I prefer to believe this is simply an oversight on the part of Wizards of the Coast, and as such, the best thing to do is simply to bring it to their attention. Which I did on Twitter.

Now I'm encouraging all of my readers to do the same. Click the link, favorite it, retweet it to your followers, and/or add your own thoughts to the message. This is an easy way to let them know that we still care about this format.

What? You're not on Twitter?! Well, that's a shame, because there is a ton of great content about Magic there, and it gives you an accessible way to interact not only directly with Wizards of the Coast, but with all sorts of Magic personalities and community members. You don't even have to post anything yourself. Just make an account, follow people whose content you enjoy, and be part of the conversation.

And speaking of Cabel, he has recently resumed writing on his blog after a long hiatus, so I encourage you to check it out. He's just finished looking at the new White cards in Dragons of Tarkir. It's always great to have more voices in the Standard Pauper community.

Treasure Cruise Banned?

Here we go again.

Early this week, Wizards announced that as of April 1st, Treasure Cruise would be banned in Pauper. This reignited a simmering discussion about whether this card would or should also be banned in Standard Pauper. This is an issue that has seen quite a bit of discussion since the card was released, with a vocal minority arguing that the card is "bonkers" broken while the majority simply believe it is good but not detrimental to the format. As I have stated before, I am firmly in the latter camp.

But of course, the real concern was whether or not the banning of Treasure Cruise in Pauper would, by default or by neglect, mean that the card would also be banned in Standard Pauper. I actually tweeted this very question, both to the general Magic Online Twitter handle and to Lee Sharpe, the Digital Product Manager for Magic Online. Imagine my surprise when I received within just a few short minutes this reply from none other than Ryan Spain, former co-host of Limited Resources and current Design Manager for Magic Online:

I think it's safe to say that the ban will not affect Standard Pauper. And a big shout-out to Ryan for answering my question so quickly.

So let's put this to bed once and for all. Treasure Cruise should not, and (almost certainly) will not, be banned in Standard Pauper.

More Exploits in Dragons of Tarkir

As I continue the process of working through the entire collection of Dragons of Tarkir Commons, I have been writing all week about what impact these new cards will have on the format. As I mentioned last time, by far my favorite new mechanic in this set is Exploit. While I don't think all five of these Commons will see widespread play in the format, I don't think it's premature to state that this mechanic will probably make the biggest impact as a whole.

Let's take a look at two more of them:

Gurmog Drowner harkens back to one of my favorite cards, Forbidden Alchemy. While it costs an extra mana, and is Sorcery speed as well, this is still a powerful effect, especially given the extra synergy you get from placing the other cards in your Graveyard with Delve. A 2/4 for 3U is decent, but not that exciting; such cards typically only see play with a relevant ability. In a dedicated Delve deck, this probably slots right in, giving you the spell ability most of the time, but also a 2/4 when you need it. Or, if you have tokens or other abilities that trigger on death, this is also well worth considering.

At 4, Silumgar Butcher is both a 3/3 creature and dealing -3/-3 is overcosted by one mana, so you're definitely paying extra for the flexibility here. Lash of the Whip has not seen much play in Standard Pauper, since if you're paying that much for removal you want less conditional removal like Flesh to Dust, even if it is a bit more expensive. However, if Black can find enough creatures with relevant 'enters the graveyard' abilities, it shouldn't be too difficult to get both sides of this card. And in that scenario, this card is quite strong. As such, this should see play in decks with these type of effects.

Given how strong the Dimir Control deck already was, these Exploit cards may be enough to push that deck to dominate the metagame going forward. We shall see.

In other news, the Standard Pauper Sealed League came to an end this week, with  _ShipIt_ taking home the trophy with his Boros build. Congrats to him, and thanks to everyone who participated! I've had several people ask if I plan on running it again, and I would love to do it again in the future.

Exploit in Dragons of Tarkir

Of all the mechanics in Dragons of Tarkir, Exploit is probably my favorite. This mechanic  essentially ask you to make a choice between getting either get a vanilla creature or a Sorcery speed spell effect. The flexibility of this choice is quite valuable. And even better, if you have a creature with an ability that triggers on dying, or just one that has been rendered irrelevant, you can sacrifice it instead and get both halves of the Exploit card.

Allow me to illustrate the design simplicity with one of the new Commons:

 Sidisi's Faithful is the perfect example of the flexibility of Exploit. Against an aggressive archetype, the ability to drop an 0/4 on the first turn provides some great early defense. Or, later in the game, it instead can be used as a Sorcery speed Unsummon, perhaps getting your opponent's best creature out of play. While you can't use it to dodge most forms of removal, it does allow you to get rid of pesky Auras or get a blocker out of the way. While neither the creature nor the ability are amazing, at worst this is a great Sideboard option against aggressive decks. In that spot, it might even be better than Voyage's End against hyper-aggressive decks.

With Sidisi's Faithful, most of the time you're quite happy getting either effect without needing to sacrifice another creature. But sometimes, you really want the ability to get both the creature and the spell. Let's take a look at my favorite of these Exploit creatures:

Both halves of Vulturous Aven are quite good, giving you either a 2/3 Flyer in Black or a Sign in Blood effect, although you're paying a considerable premium on the spell-effect. Black rarely sees high Toughness in Flying creatures, so even without the Exploit ability, this card is already borderline playable. As such, you will almost never want to Exploit itself to trigger the Sign in Blood ability. But in combination with cheap creatures like Typhoid Rats or enters the graveyard effects like Black Cat (or the newly released Dutiful Attendant), you have the potential to get some phenomenal value out of this card. If you're playing Black, you should probably be playing this card.

I am definitely excited to get my hands on these cards in the near future. What do you think of Exploit?