ORCS Hype

In about 4 weeks from now, we will get the Sneak for ORCS. I don't think the Sneak card has been revealed yet, but I know there is a lot of hype for this set, just like there was for PHSW. People were hyped on Rabbit, Laggia, and Dolkka for last set, so what are people hyping for this set? I'd say the first and foremost thing is Tour Bus. Will it be broken enough to potentially cause Tour Guide's price to increase, will it expedite the Guide reprint, or will it just be kinda meh/bad? Too early to tell with the effect still not known.

Next on the list of hype is the new Inzektor archetype. I've done a little reading for them and seen a little of them in action on DN, seen some OCG tournament results, and it seems like something that will only get better over time. Just because they may not necessarily be tier 1 upon release, doesn't mean they won't be after a few more sets (remember GB, GK, and BW?). However the fact that they're getting tops in OCG land already most likely will mean that they'll be good here. Maybe not necessarily the best, but good. Remember back when people would always wish that Konami would make more Insect and Dinosaur support? I just kinda lol to myself thinking about how we used to think "oh they'll never make Insects or Dinosaurs good" back in the day, but given enough time, you never know.

We have Ninjas next, and I have to admit I really haven't done any research into them yet. I played against one a day or two ago on DN with Karakuri, but it seriously didn't do anything note-worthy. The best play he did was summon the Hanzo guy, then I trounced it next turn or two. My guess is that Inzektor will be a better deck than Ninja, if only for the facts that 1) Haven't seen any Ninja decks top OCG tourneys. 2) Seen a lot less of it on DN (compared to Inzektor) and 3) Haven't seen as much hype on the forums for them (again, compared to Inzektor). Regardless, in both archetype's cases, we also have to consider that they could easily get some TCG exclusive that absolutely sets them over-the-top.

Rounding out my list is Trance Archfiend, the support card for Dark World. My buddy from Texas, Brandon, is pretty hyped for this card, but he always over-hypes new cards. I remember him going crazy over Codarus when it came out; how much play has that card gotten since it came out lol. I see this card as being pretty good, but not sure how it'll incorporate itself into current DW builds. Does it take over the Raven spot? Some builds now don't even run Raven, so what will it replace? Is it better to run this over Tour Guide? If you get too many non-DW cards in there, that can hinder the natural flow of the deck. Lots of things to consider, so again, I think it's kinda hard to tell how it'll affect DW and thus the game in general.

Speaking of DW, I went over to Danny's today for a little bit of testing against him and Shiggs, and I built up the build Claudio Kirchmar posted on DGz's DW thread. It's basically a "turbo" version that runs Reckless Greeds and Upstart Goblins, as well as max Dealings. The games that I could get stuff rolling, it did what it's built to do, but the games that I just sat there with a hand full of monsters or a hand full of S/T's, I seriously just said "your go" turn after turn. Maybe I wasn't playing it right, but what can I do with a hand of 2 Snoww, 2 Beige, Broww, and Grapha? Hope that they're playing GK and Royal Tribute me? lol. I know things like that aren't "of the norm" at all, since the deck only runs 14 monsters, but meh, I just think DW in general is too easily handled games 2 and 3.

We will most likely be getting a case of this like we did for PHSW, but may just hold box tourneys with the boxes instead of gambling by hoping to pull good stuff. If we manage to get only 10 people to enter at $10 per entry, that's $100 per box, which only costs $58 in the first place. If we get the word out enough I don't think a 15 person tourney would be unreasonable at all, and that becomes a very good profit margin. In the case of guaranteed profit vs profit from taking a risk, guaranteed profit is usually the better option. The only concern is how often can we effectively hold box tourneys in order to get rid of a whole case? I'd rather enter a $10 box tourney over a $5 normal local any day of the week 24/7, but surely not everyone would be willing to do that.

The last thing I wanted to bring up about ORCS was the upped release date. With ORCS Sneak being on Jan 14/15th, and the PHSW one was Nov 5/6, that's less than 2 months between set releases. I don't think any explanation has been given regarding why we're getting the next set a month earlier than normal. Is this something we can expect for future sets? If only for this set, why? Is Konami wanting to just pump out more sets to make more money? How is this gonna affect everyone if in every set we get some broke $100+ Secret Rare? These tactics are just gonna blow up in their face eventually. I know I'm not willing to spend $300+ on a playset of some broke card I need to stay competitive every 2 months, and most players are probably in the same exact boat. I may be over-thinking it and it's a lot to consider, but it's something we shouldn't just ignore.

In other news, our new house is officially ours tomorrow. Just got done signing up for power and waste, all I need now is cable/internet. I will be a resident of Spokane Valley, which is great news since I will be very close to Board Game Nation, and I see no reason why I couldn't make the Monday tourneys on a weekly basis. I'll be much closer to the rest of the team as well, so hopefully we can get more real-life testing in and just hang out more in general. I'll also be much closer to Lightning, but not sure if I'll make the trip out there anymore if I'm easily able to make it to BGN. Realistically I probably still will, just cuz I really enjoy playing the game right now.

EDIT: Oh forgot to mention, apparently there will be 2 Chaos Sorcerer in the Dragonic Legion deck, which accounts for the 40th card.