I had the pleasure of attending the Invasion Earth 1K Super Tournament at Kirwan’s Game Store in Catskill, NY this past weekend. Accompanying me on this sojourn was none other than my younger brother, Tyler Hine. You may remember Tyler as the winner of the Poughkeepsie, NY KMC back in season one. Although, it’s more likely that you don’t remember that or know who he is at all; Tyler had only attended 3 competitive tournaments prior to this past weekend, with one of them being Summer Champs. Tyler and I met up with fellow ARG writer Corey Gaudreau at the Read more
The Pile Prevails
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Jan 2014
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21
Jan 2014
I’ve been playing a lot of Kaijudo in recent weeks, but it feels different than it did last year. Typically I’m ruminating on how to classify and chronicle the top decks, or trying to tech against said decks, or trying to fine-tune version 47.5 of my oft-disappointing (but always fun) Corrupted deck. I’m a neurotic person when it comes to TCGs; I always want to be the first one to discover the next big thing. That aspect of my personality is never going to change, but I’m starting to realize that any tournament player who categorizes themselves primarily as a Read more
18
Dec 2013
Kaijudo is evolving. Just ask [ccProd]Blinder Beetle Prime[/ccProd]. A steady release of new cards adds to the number of potential strategies, sure, but the overall competency and dedication of the competitive player base has grown stronger on a parallel track. Step back and consider all the things that have happened to advance the game in the year 2013. At this time last year, the very concept of Kaijudo Master Challenges and a Championship seemed like a pipedream. Flash forward to today, and realize we’ve bore witness to dozens of decks and hundreds of tournaments. While the game is still its Read more
09
Dec 2013
Welcome to another installment of Quick Kaiju! The community is still buzzing over the wildly successful Winter Championship held in Irving, Texas. The weekend was packed with plenty of great matches and surprises, and it was capped off with an unprecedented second straight Championship victory, courtesy of ARG’s own Bobby Brake! Sadly, I was unable to attend the LCQs thanks to a bunch of lame work-related schedule conflicts– but never fear! I was glued to Wizards’ fantastic Twitch.tv stream all weekend long, settling in with the incomparable Carl Reddish and a slew of the game’s most interesting personalities. Varying opinions Read more
21
Nov 2013
Welcome to the final installment of the three part Cracking the Corruption series. If you haven’t yet done so, check out Part 1 here and Part 2 here. In Part 2, we decided to try our hand at a Water/Nature build with a Fire splash after using Bobby Brake’s Water/Nature/Darkness version as a starting point. We’re pretty certain that we want to be in green, but the Fire splash is iffy. If [ccProd]Blitz Commando[/ccProd] doesn’t pull his weight, then the whole thing falls apart. [ccProd]Tornado Flame[/ccProd] and [ccProd]Gilaflame the Assaulter[/ccProd] aren’t bad cards by any stretch, but they’re inessential; we’re simply playing Read more
13
Nov 2013
Welcome back! If you haven’t already done so, check out my article from last week here. We’ve taken a first look at each available Corrupted creature, and formulated some initial reactions. Opinions on cards are subject to change as we progress into the deckbuilding stage. It’s important to be open to re-evaluation when our initial results inevitably fall short of expectations. For now, though, we’re certain that we want to be playing Water and Nature as our primary colors. Whether we want to splash is going to come down to how well we can execute our gameplan on this two-color Read more
06
Nov 2013
When I see archetype-specific support in Kaijudo, I stop and take notice. I mean, we get some cool tribal interactions every now and again, but unless a creature type has a bunch of relevant Evolutions, it doesn’t impact gameplay. The obvious exception are the Dragons, whom had an entire set dedicated to them. Dragons emerged as a viable deck immediately, and have remained a tournament powerhouse ever since. Enter: Corrupted creatures. Invasion Earth fast approaches, and it is a set largely driven by storyline considerations originating with the animated series. The evil Choten has used his influence over the Water civilization to Read more
30
Oct 2013
Welcome to Quick Kaiju, the article series wherein I cover all sorts of disparate topics that matter to me this week. These otherwise rambling, undefined thoughts have been wrestled into a semblance of coherency and painstakingly categorized for your reading pleasure. This is where I just let my fingers (and sometimes my mind) loose and proceed to type away. Join me, won’t you? Six Feet Under I attended the KMC at Six Feet Under Games this past Saturday, which was very professionally run and barely an hour away from my house. 37 players showed up, which was a bit disappointing (I Read more
16
Oct 2013
Kaijudo Championship qualifiers Joe Bass, Todd Anderson, and Dave Pendergrass have opened the community’s eyes to a very intriguing new archetype: LWD Tempo. Initially concocted by Gerry Thompson, the deck aims to take advantage of the efficient creatures available in the Esper shard. LWD Tempo systematically picks apart the opponent’s setup, while constantly threatening to get in for shields when the opportunity presents itself. If left unchecked, the forward momentum is too much to overcome. The LWD Tempo player’s eventual aggression is buoyed thanks to contributions from all-stars like [ccProd]General Finbarr[/ccProd], [ccProd]Cyber Scamp[/ccProd], and [ccProd]Keeper of Laws[/ccProd], ensuring a steady Read more
09
Oct 2013
Given the linear, creature-progression-based nature of Kaijudo, it’s highly unlikely that a truly viable combo deck will ever emerge (barring some unforeseen broken interaction). Top decks will include various two or three card interactions that are particularly beneficial in certain matchups, sure, but I’m not talking about small synergies here. I’m talking about all-out, balls-to-the-wall, make-the-opponent-cry combo decks. For Magic: The Gathering, Wizards intentionally allows powerful combos to exist, provided those combos require mana-intensive high cost creatures and spells. For example, you can gain infinite life and make infinite huge dudes in Standard right now with a combination of [ccProd]Archangel Read more
