Genshin Impact Review

 

Genshin Impact

NaN/10

 

I played one game more than any other this year, and it was League of Legends.  It’s always f**king LoL, I hate that game but it’s unparalleled in its ability to drag me back in thinking that maybe this time I’ll have fun.  In fairness, this year did see the release of Arena mode, a 2v2v2v2 mode where games are fast, silly, and most importantly, fun.  Additionally, given I played LoL almost entirely to hang out with some of my best friends, all in all the game is in an ok state.

 

The game I put the 2^nd most amount of time into this year was Genshin Impact.  I started playing in July.

 

Before I start singing the praises of what I think is the 3^rd best game I played this year, a disclaimer.  Genshin Impact is a gacha game, a game where your characters are almost entirely decided by you putting coins into a virtual slot machine and pulling a lever, with the odds of getting who you want being incredibly low.  Yes, you can free to play, but the allure of spending money is always going to be there and is far too easy.  Additionally, the game is run by a Chinese company which means that it inherently supports the CCP, a regime I really do not think should exist as it is.  And previously, there was very strict anticheat software that, while less stringent now, would give permissions that had permission to read and write anywhere on your computer.  This game is not without major issues and if you have a gambling problem, do not play this game.

 

Anyway, Genshin Impact is the third best game I’ve played this year.

 

Genshin is a 3^rd person open world action-adventure game centered around teams of 4 characters with different elemental abilities.  There are 7 different elemental types, each with the ability to interact with other elements, 76 different characters each with several abilities, 5 different weapon classes with dozens of different weapons, making the amount of combinations of different things you can do in the game incredibly large.  You can put together combinations of characters that do absurd amounts of damage, nuke the field, melt bosses in seconds, and look good while doing it. 

There’s two main allures to the game.  The first is that it looks and plays great.  It’s very much in the style of Breath of the Wild, with vast landscapes and cool random encounters wherever you look.  The combat is fluid and fun, you’re switching between dudes pretty often so it rarely gets stale and you get to learn new systems and concepts more or less on the fly.  There’s a couple tutorial dungeons but overall the game lets you go nuts for the most part.  Plus, the soundtrack is absolutely incredible at times, so you’ll have a great background to whatever you’re doing, especially if what you’re doing is a boss fight because holy do the boss themes slap hard.

The second is that after getting through the prologue, you realize that there’s a story here that’s actually really engaging and compelling.  The game starts with you and your sibling being brought down by some god, and after being trapped for 500 years (see how many things happened 500 years ago in the game.  It’s a lot.), you emerge from your confinement in the land of Teyvat.  Fishing out your evil goddess familiar backup food wonderful companion, Paimon, you head out on an adventure to try and find your twin, who is missing, and to find the god that struck you down half a millennium ago.  Along the way, you learn that there are 7 gods, one for each element and country, and thus your story is set in motion: meet these 7 gods and figure out who is the one whose ass you need to kick.

That summarizes the first 3ish hours of the main story.  The main story as it currently stands is about 60 hours.  It’s not done.

Without delving too much into spoilers, you learn about several secret societies, fight not!Russian spies, duel several gods, help people prepare for their own funerals, rewrite time twice, go on romantic dates, do a little terrorism, do a little revolutioning, and help several people deal with their crippling depression.

The story of the game is very character based, which is where the danger of the gacha system comes into play, because you’ll meet some characters and be like “I want that guy on my team” and surprise, he’s a 5-star limited event character so you’ve got like 20 days to try and roll for him and too bad you used all your currency, do you want to buy more?  While the rate of return on money spent is actually abysmal, the fact that it exists and causes people to spend hundreds if not thousands of dollars on it is a real black spot on the game.

But by not getting too lost in its own lore and allowing the characters to shine, Genshin does things that other similar RPGs have issue with, where while the stakes might be apocalyptic in scale, you don’t really feel like its anything more than another fight if there’s no reason for you to care.  In Genshin, the world ending event might result in the friend you’ve spend the past 3 hours with dying or becoming seriously hurt at least, so you’ve got to stop the bad guys if you want to keep them safe.  It keeps the stakes grounded while still allowing them to go to ludicrous levels.

That said, most of your time is not spent doing the main story or even the equally excellent side stories and quests.  It’s going to be spent fighting set bosses and encounters, or running around the world for materials to level up your characters.  You have a limited resource that refreshes at a set rate that you can spend to claim the rewards for these dungeons and get the resources that you need to make your characters more powerful as the world also levels up alongside you as you advance.  For the world resources, they respawn a set times every week.  So your primary barrier for advancement is always going to be time.  On one hand, this is nice because you can’t, no matter how you try, level up every character in like a week.  However, you do get the ability to again spend money to reset some timers, which isn’t great imo.

Despite this, Genshin does its best to make your goals aligned with having fun.  In general, the encounters are designed to be beaten, and even the challenging encounters are super fun once you figure out the patterns of enemies and how you can manipulate the terrain, your abilities, and the enemies themselves to your advantage. 

Should you play Genshin Impact?  Probably not?  It’s a pretty large time investment and the flaws can and should be dealbreakers for a lot of people.  But there hasn’t been a world that’s captivated me like this since Elden Ring.  It apparently has costs hundreds of millions of dollars to make, and it shows.  This is not a shitty cash grab MMO, this is a labor of love and nothing can really take away from it.  It’s a clear 9/10 game for me if I ignore the non-gameplay issues, not perfect, but a game that has kept me engrossed since I started.  I can’t ask for much more.

March of the Machine Type 4 Review

 

Whaaaaaaaaaaaat is up nerds, we are back with another Type 4 review, this time looking at March of the Machine and its Aftermath (and its associated Commander stuff).  This set gives us a whole new card type in battles, so let’s see how those do in the King of Formats.

Scrollshift: These cantrip instants are often perfectly fine to play, but don’t expect too much out of them.  This might get you some extra value off the flicker, but you need a creature or something in play.  That said, this does counter removal for several key permanents, so worth thinking about.

Sunfall: Clear the board with exile, then make a big guy.  Standard set wrath, and this is a real good one.  The last Phyrexian wrath that made a dude only destroyed, and this one lets you keep the dude back to flip at instant speed.  Strong playable.

Artistic Refusal: A Counterspell with sick upside, drawing 2 and discarding one is big game.  Another great playable.

Meeting of Minds: We are long past the days of Inspiration being a playable card.  Convoke doesn’t really boost this either.  If you need it, it exists, but you probably don’t.

See Double: It’s difficult to really prepare for the conditions here, but an instant speed clone for any creature or a Twincast has some amount of value, and if you’re deep in the game you get both, which can be real big game.  Worth considering.

Breach the Multiverse: Big fun sorcery of the set, this has some interesting game in that with 40 card decks, milling 10 is not small game.  But possibly getting 4+ creatures or Planeswalkers is the real big game here.  Sweet card, probably worth it in nearly every stack.

Deadly Derision: Murder that targets Planeswalkers #20 at this point.  You need some number of this effect, so pick the ones you like.

Merciless Repurposing: Another better Swords to Plowshares.  This one makes you a 3/3 whenever you need one.  Good card.

Pile On: Better than the one above because Surveil is great in the format, but rare so probably harder to get if you’re just staring.  That said, this is something I’d add on.

Chandra, Hope’s Beacon: Is taking a turn off worth making every instant and sorcery you cast until Chandra dies very hard to counter?  With the ability to fireball or personal Howling Mine?  Possibly, but there are a lot of ifs, buts, and maybes on this one.  If it survives, maybe it does gross stuff, but one of its abilities does nothing, and one might do nothing, and and and... You can see my concern.  The power is possibly there, but I don’t like “possibly” in my Type 4 cards.

City on Fire: Similarly, I don’t like taking a turn off to do effectively nothing.  That said, triple damage is a lot of damage.  Makes 1/1s into monsters, and monsters into one-shot threats.  Probably not good enough, but could lead to cool stories.

Copper Host Crusher: An 8/8 trample hexproof, while not super scary for the larger stacks, is a real high danger threat when you’re starting out, and at uncommon this is likely to be real easy to get. 

Deeproot Wayfinder: Not a Type 4 card, but this is almost certainly the best card of the set for EDH.

Drana and Linvala: Your opponent’s have Glarecaster or Masticore?  Surprise!  You have those now.  This is gonna win games and ruin lives.

Ghalta and Mavren: The issue here is the abilities specify other for the big one, meaning if this is your only guy you get a 1/1.  That said, this is a 12/12 trample, which is a house.

Halo Forager: Lets you cast any instant or sorcery, but only at sorcery speed.  Still, can be very flexible, though relies on what’s in the yard so far.

Kogla and Yidaro: A near-uncounterable disenchant that cantrips is fantastic.  Also there’s a 7/7 dude here that can possibly kill people.  But the cycle ability is why we’re here.

Krox and Kunoros: At the cost of 5 other cards, you reanimate the best fatty you have.  And possibly do it again.  Probably not 3 times though.  Still, a 6/6 with a bunch of abilities isn’t bad either.

Yargle and Multani: The biggest house possible.  Probably not good enough.  But awesome.

Elesh Norn: If you can flip her, she’s insane and probably wins in short order.  But flipping her is going to be difficult, and if they kill her in response, you’re screwed.  Also her trigger is worthless.  Pass for me.

Heliod, the Radiant Dawn: Our 3^rd Vedalken Orrery.  That’s also a dude, so weaker, but can get you a replacement card.  Still, Vedalken Orrery is ridiculous in the format, so more is always better.

Jin-Gitaxias: Make pretty much every spell you cast cantrip, and again flip into a threat that probably wins you the game.  Loved it when I saw him, love him now.

Ayara, Furnace Queen: You want the back side of pretty much all of these, and this is no exception.  Getting a dude back every turn is super strong, even if you can’t keep doing the same guy over and over.  Still, requires a flip and combat, but not the biggest asks.  Good card.

Invasion of Fiora: The first battle we’re talking about and the back side... isn’t great.  But the front is a flexible wrath that is on a new permanent type so it might be moderately harder to interact with.  Flipping it gets you something at least, but Marchesa 3 isn’t anything to write home about.  Consider this the front alone and you’ll be able to judge it appropriately for your stack.

Invasion of Innistrad: -13/-13 kills pretty much everything in the format, which is neat.  As opposed to the last battle, this one flips into a very relevant permanent, with Deluge of the Dead being able to make you an army and remove a ton of resources from your opponents. 

Sheoldred: ETB is already pretty good, and 8 cards in a yard is not a hard ask in the middle game.  Once she slips, you get some selected removal, some strong disruption, and then a mass reanimation effect.  Winning should be trivial at that point. 

Etali, Primal Conqueror: ETBs to have a pretty insane effect, flipping each player (including you) is pretty crazy.  Possibly too crazy, as the back side of a one-shot machine is rather concerning.  That said, can be killed in response to the flip, so probably fairer than Blightsteel/Emrakul/Progenitus, who never give you an opportunity to stop them.  But if anything would join those, he’d be it.

Invasion of Shandalar: Base it’s draw 3 permanents as a sorcery, which isn’t the best but isn’t trash, especially since you played them once.  Once it flips, it gives you a free permanent every turn, which is pretty big game.  Worth considering.

Vorinclex: Flips without condition, and can get you 2 big guys immediately, then makes them bigger.  A pretty aggro card, so consider it as such.  And remember, if you manage to flip back to Vorinclex, flip it right back on over.

Invasion of Alara: If everything hits right, this does a lot.  But too often not everything is going to hit right, leaving you wishing you were playing anything else.  Worth considering, but don’t expect it to be great.

Blight Titan: This is a decent size, but it also makes bodies that survive most wraths until you want them.  Pretty cool card.

Infernal Sovereign: This looks... odd.  But it only stops your draw step so go nuts with card draw spells I guess.  Probably fine.

Niv-Mizzet, Supreme: Yeah this will do some crazy stuff.  There are a few conditions, but recasting a bunch of powerful spells is never something I don’t want to do.  Also slightly difficult to kill.  Worth consideration.

Plargg and Nassari: In a bigger game this becomes... bigger game, but it’s still a do-nothing for a solid turn so that might be of concern.  Still, if this activates, getting two free spells with some selection is quite strong, so its possible this is worth the occasional do-nothing games for the ones where it pops off.

Filter Out: Limited utility, but it might be broad enough to be relevant, and instant speed gives it a good bit of slack in how bad it can be.  Probably good enough.

 

And that wraps us up!   Just a ton of strong removal and a couple bombs, this is a set that I can get behind.  And having played with Heliod already, I can confirm that Vedalken Orrery #3 is still super relevant.  Tune back in next time where I discuss the Lord of the Rings set, which should hopefully be soonish.

All Will Be One Type 4 Review

Hellllooooooo everyone and welcome back to another Type 4 Set Review, this time focusing on Phyrexia: All Will Be One.  The set looks super cool from initial impressions so let’s see what sort of stuff we have!

Elesh Norn, Mother of Machines: Reasonable body, with a very potent effect.  Any permanent having double triggers is super strong, and cutting off those of your opponents can neuter a lot of their impact.  That said, no immediate board impact, no real protection for herself, and as your only creature she’s not really good at all.  Probably annoying as hell in EDH but only a mid-tier threat here.

The Eternal Wanderer: Not the best Planeswalker for the format, but definitely one of the stronger ones.  In-built protection against swarm attacks, first two abilities provide good utility, and the ult can come down immediately for an excellent effect.  Very cool card.

Mondrak, Glory Dominus: While this looks exciting, a 4/4 with maybe indestructible isn’t all that good, and it needs you to cast another spell for it to be good at all.  Pass for me.

Phyrexian Vindicator: Big, scary, and impossible to kill with damage (and turns off damage based mass removal too).  A classic card for the format, but classic cards aren’t at their best these days.  Still, worth a look.

Vanish into Eternity: Is this a reprint?  It looks like one.  But regardless, this is the generic “great removal spell” of the set, which is still great and makes not having expensive older cards way easier.  Swords is finally obsolete in the format.

Blue Sun’s Twilight: Steal a guy, and get a 2^nd of them.  Very good card for the format, definitely something your target is going to want to counter.  Getting all the sweet ETB effects is fantastic too.

Reject Imperfection: Cancel with set ability.  There’s always one.  This one isn’t very good.  Play it if you need some.

Tamiyo’s Logbook: Another tome, which are again plentiful in the format at this point.  Some are always fun to use, and this is as good as most of the others.

Black Sun’s Twilight: I thought the Blue one would be best, but damn does this give it a run for the money.  Kill their threat, get one of yours back, all at instant speed.  Fantastic card.

Capricious Hellraiser: Cool effect, but a little random for my taste.  I want my graveyard casting to be more targeted (though this is if you have 3 or fewer cards, but still).  Plus, the body isn’t all that much to write home about.  Not unplayable, but still wish it did more.

Red Sun’s Twilight: This is so close to being good enough.  If it were an instant.  If it didn’t exile them at EoT.  At least you can overpay for X, kill fewer than 5, and get the tokens still.  This is certainly a cool card, but it’s probably not there on power.

Conduit of Worlds: While lands aren’t super common, replaying Blighted Cataract every turn seems cool as a bonus, because the tap ability is what’s hopping here.  Don’t want to cast spells from your hand?  Make them deal with this one threat over and over.  Has to be a permanent, but there are plenty of those that can mess people up.  Note this will turn off “free” spells, Cascade, alternate costs, and any other way that we typically cheat the One Spell A Turn restriction, but this level of recursive threat that doesn’t even lock you out on other turns seems fantastic.  I’ll be trying it out.

Green Sun’s Twilight: This effectively tutors for a land and creature and puts them into play.  I don’t play any tutoring myself, but you might, and if so this seems like a pretty good one.

Tyrranax Rex: an 8/8 Trample Haste that can’t be countered is still pretty big game today.  Ward here is obviously worthless, but Toxic might come up against people gaining a lot of life.  There are surprisingly few alternate ways to win the game in Type 4 beyond damage or self-decking, so poison isn’t unwelcome here.

Zopandrel, Hunger Dominus: Make all your stuff bigger every turn.  This is a sweet finisher and potentially alright on its own.  That said, until you get two other creatures, this guy himself isn’t all that robust.  Potentially cool, but I’m not a buyer.

Atraxa, Grand Unifier: Keyword soup returns, with a bigger body and a sick ETB.  Drawing 4 off this shouldn’t be hard at all for even the most generic Type 4 deck, and you have some selection too.  Autoinclude for me.

Kaya, Intangible Slayer: Can’t be targeted, which in the world of plentiful Planeswalker killing is nice.  But the real draw here is that every ability on her is kinda fantastic.  +2 can and will end games fast, 0 is just draw 2 every turn, and -3 steals ETBs and kills their stuff.  I’m a buyer on this as one of the best PWs in the format, maybe even 2^nd best (With Teferi, Time Raveler being the clear #1).

Ovika, Enigma Goliath: Here, Ward is actually sorta relevant, but clearly the big game is casting noncreatures and getting a ton of 1/1s.  This is a fantastic aggro card.  My dream situation is going this into Titanic Ultimatum, make 7 dudes, swing for 42 first strike trample lifelink.  Living the dream as only this format can bring.

Ria Ivor, Bane of Bladehold: Included here only as the most wordy card I’ve seen in a while.

Argentum Masticore: This isn’t the OG (and nothing every really will be), but it’s not bad.  5/5 pro multicolor is a decent body, and this kills any nonland with the discard.  That said, the allure of Masticore was killing everything, so this probably doesn’t scratch enough itches to make the cut.

 

And as always, we’ve got some Commander cards.  And some other cards.  I really hate how hard it was to find EVERY card in the set.

Clever Concealment: Anti-wrath that can be a free spell.  Not sure if its good enough, but the effect is pretty unique and powerful enough.

Goldwarden’s Gambit: 10 power of 2/2s with haste is not insignificant.  A decent aggro card that plays well with token matters, anthems, and the like.

Hexplate Wallbreaker: Getting 2 attacks every turn is REAL big game.  Slam this on whoever you have, keep the 2/2 back to block, and get cranking.

Wurmquake: Make 14 power of trample off one card across two bodies.  Wurm sorceries are a classic in the format, and while this isn’t the best of them, it’s probably still ok in a lot of stacks.

Synthesis Pod: This is a goofy card, but it might be ok.  It can turn your countered spells into something of theirs, and if you know some of the cards in decks you can try and be specific with it.  Not sure if it’s good enough for my stack, but it’s certainly cool.

 

And that will wrap us up!  Two great Planeswalkers and two fantastic X spells, alongside a couple strong utility artifacts and bodies, but there’s a lot of stuff that’s just not quite there.  EDHwise, set looks great, but not as awesome here.  That said, I’m excited to fool around with some of the cards, so until next time, have fun!