Games Played: Magic, Domaine, Quiddler
Gamers: Phil (x2), Chip, Geno, Robert, Sara, Dave
MAGIC (0:24)
Phil, Geno: won
Robert, Chip: lost
We started with a two-player team game. Phil, Geno and I played green decks, and Robert played a black deck.
Geno and Phil's decks depended on getting big creatures into play quickly. Phil played a Vernal Bloom early on, which I destroyed after taking advantage of it for a turn or so. Geno played a Forgotten Ancient which grew quickly. Robert had a little trouble getting out early lands, and only played a single creature. Fortunately, his Dross Prowler had fear, so it was able to get in and do some damage. My deck takes a little while to start drawing cards with Skullclamp, but Geno and Phil grew quickly into an unbeatable force.
MAGIC (0:25)
Chip: 2 games
Robert: 1 game
Robert and I played a match between my red burn deck, and his blue accelerated artifact deck. Each game was a close race - Robert won the first, and I managed to win the next two.
The cards played in the first two games were almost identical. I reduced our life totals with Flame Rift, and looked to Fireblast (with its alternate cost) for the game winner. Robert used Ur-Golem's Eye (and a Sculpting Steel copy) to bring out Arcbound Overseer.
Playing three games with the same decks helps to mitigate the luck of the draw, and allows players to get a good idea of how well their deck (and their opponent's deck) really performs. Time permitting, I really like playing this way.
DOMAINE (1:03)
Robert: 30+
Sara: 18
Chip: 15
Phil (the Elder): 14
After Magic, we split into two groups, one playing Bohnanza (Beans!) and the other playing Domaine. Domaine is an area-control game in which players deploy knights to defend their castles and expand their influence. Robert and Phil were new to the game. I explained the rules, emphasizing the importance of getting gold early, and we began.
I took and early lead in points, but Sara was earning more gold each turn than I was, and Phil was earning even more. Phil took the point lead in the mid-game, with a few of his domains able to grow unfettered by neighbors, while Sara and I built up our defenses as neighbors. When she finally got the upper hand, I declared a truce between us, and we both focused on Phil (the obvious leader). Robert was just starting to develop a domain in the center of the board near the royal city, which he later stole from Phil.
Close to the end of the game (about 3 cards remaining in the deck), Phil made a small error. He didn't see how close he was to completing a decent-sized domain. Instead, I trapped him into a much smaller area. After this discussion, Robert realized (with a little prompting) that he could create two huge domains for himself with just two walls. After counting up the points of these two areas, he had over 30 points, enough to end the game prematurely and win.
Domaine is an enjoyable game, and victories like the above are unusual, but exciting. The game tends to slow down towards the end, but regularly finishes in a little over an hour.
QUIDDLER (0:50)
Sara: 275
Chip: 237
Phil (the Elder): 213
We introduced Phil to Quiddler, the word-forming card game. He had poor hands in the first two rounds, as Sara and I each had a tenfold lead over him. I assured him that the later rounds were more important, and he would easily be able to overcome this start.
He was, in fact, able to catch up quickly - well, catch up to me, at any rate. By the midpoint of the game, Sara was consistently 30 or 40 points ahead of us. Even as we plotted against her, trying to steal any bonuses from her each round, we couldn't close the gap.
This is a pretty good word game as long as the players play pretty quickly. During the final rounds, the downtime as your opponents try to find the best combination of words can take forever. This is probably best with three players (although it can take up to eight!).
MAGIC (1:02)
Chip: won
Dave: lost
While waiting for the game of Munchkin to finish, Dave and I played a game of Magic (as did Sara and Phil). Dave played a white deck including the Sword of Fire and Ice, and I played by green skullclamp deck. Each creature came into play with two 1/1 tokens, thanks to multiple copies of Genesis Chamber. It was a long battle, but I was finally able to overwhelm my opponent.
posted by FlyingSheep @ 9:49 AM
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