My Journey to Get More Healthy

I am taking a break from my normal gaming blog, to talk about something a little more personal. I decided to try and get more healthy during this quarantine, and this has been my journey so far. I am not a personal trainer, nor do I have one. I am not being paid to do this, and I'm not advertising anything. I am simply an average dad, unhappy with my physical health, and I wanted to make it better. I haven't been perfect, but I think I have made forward progression in general, and that's something. Always moving forward, even if that means I take it slow, or that I'm not always perfect. I also hope this little quarantine workout could maybe inspire someone else to try their own. I wish you luck, you can do it! And thanks for reading! For those of who want to see my (spoiler warning) 20-pound-loss-results before reading a tome, check out the bottom of the page first for pics. :)

Goals

For a while now, I have been unhappy with my physical health. Here are 10 little things that bothered me that I wanted to change. These are in no particular order:

1. I was always tired.

2. I didn't like the way I looked. I hated being so out of shape. I felt as though I was just helping the "gamer-bod" stereotype.

3. My wife told me I should do some exercise and try to get more healthy. Plus, I want to be more desirable for my wife as well.

4. I wanted to be a better role model for my boys.

5. My doctor told me to lose weight, and looking at any health chart I was considered "obese".

6. I have stomach issues. I have seen doctors about it, but they have never been able to diagnose me. I do know it is tied to what I eat though, and I knew that the more I eat, the worse it gets.

7. I ate way too much bad stuff. I was always eating snacks. I noticed how hypocritical of me it was when I would criticize my young sons for wanting and eating treats as often as they did, when I ate way more, frequently after they were in bed sleeping.

8. I am supposed to be an image bearer for Christ. The Bible talks about taking care of yourself, and I couldn't honestly say I was doing that. If anything, I was being self destructive.

9. I have issues with depression, and adding body issues only helped me stay in ruts longer.

10. I wanted to get back into sports, but I was in no shape to even start.

Routine

So I finally decided to try to get back in shape and hopefully lose some weight, feel healthier, and look better. I knew the most basic thing about getting healthy is simply to exercise more, and eat less. So that's where I decided to start. I was not interested in going to a gym, or spending exorbitant amounts of money. I wanted some small, simple life changes that could improve my life. I also figured that if I started small, it would be easier to get going and to continue to do it. I was inspired by those "Do 100 pushups a day" workouts I've seen around. That seemed possible to do. I decided I wanted to do 100 pushups a day and a good amount of crunches/situps as well as my bare minimum, and go from there. As my gym teachers could tell you, pushups were never my forte. That was always one of the hardest things for me to do for the Presidential Fitness Tests we had in school. I struggled to even do 10. So although 100 pushups sounds like a lot, if I can do them, starting slow and with few reps at a time, anyone can.

But first, let me tell you what my old routine was:

1. Exercise - I would play with the kids, but that would be it. And what I did, I hardly ran around, and mainly sat in a chair or on the ground and played little games that required no movement. I didn't play any sports anymore, partly because I recently had shoulder surgery, partly because money is tight, but also partly because I was lazy. Also the quarantine didn't help.

2. Eating - My diet was in the air and it consisted of anything and everything.

a. Breakfast -In the mornings I would eat a big bowl of cereal, with half the time it being some sugar infused kids cereal, so not very healthy. I would also frequently have coffee with a lot of creamer in it.

b. Lunch - I would usually eat some leftovers, and lots of them. I followed that frequently with a little sugar treat

c. Dinner - I would eat what my wife prepared for the family, but I would have huge portions and frequently go for seconds.

d. After dinner - At night after the kids went to bed, I would usually snack. Sometimes it was chips and cheese/salsa, almost always it was accompanied with sugar treats like candy left over from Halloween/Christmas/Easter/Guilt purchases, etc. I would eat a lot. I'm talking several candy bars or gummies, or a big bowl of ice cream.

e. Randomly throughout the day I would snack here and there. It wasn't consistent, but the little snack was always sugary.

d. All of this adds up to me getting tired when I brought groceries up the stairs for example. Well, getting tired when I did anything physical, really. I was 230 pounds, with most of it being unhealthy fat. I had no muscle tone, with the generic, dad-bod gut.

New Routine 
This workout and regimen would be adhered to for 5 days a week, with me being "off" on weekends. No counting calories, no going to a gym, just keep it simple. I use 10 pound weights and a treadmill, but that's the extent of my collection that I use, lol:

1. 100 push-ups a day. I started out with sets of 10 because I didn't think I could do more.

2. 50 crunches per set of pushups, because building your core is healthy, and a good way to lose weight.

3. Curl 10 pound weights in sets of 10, after my push-ups.

4. Eat less - In general I wanted to cut back on the amount of food I ate, but also replace it with better food, and cut way down on the amount of treats I ate. Also, I wanted to drink more water.

a. Breakfast - A spoonful of peanut butter (for the protein) and a glass of water.

b. Lunch - Vegetables and fruit. It would vary as to the type                                                      carrots/broccoli/cauliflower/strawberries/apples/grapes), and I even allowed myself to have                  salad dressing with the veggies. Or, I would have scrambled eggs. More recently, instead of                eggs, I decided on some oatmeal with flax seed (to help with stomach issues), cooked with                  vanilla protein powder mixed with water (to help with taste and to give some protein), and then          sprinkle blueberries/raisins/dried cherries. Also, a glass of water.

c. Dinner - The dinner I didn't really change. My wife has tried to cook more healthy for us, and        to do something other than what the rest of the family did would be too disruptive, so I just try            to control my portions. I would have less food, not go for seconds, and also drink a glass of                  water with the meal.

d. Randomly throughout the day I would make sure I drank more water. I also chewed a lot of          sugar-free gum. It was something my doctor told me to do, as it can help a lot with stomach                issues. But it also helps curb an appetite in a pinch.

e. After I did my workout of push-ups and crunches, I would have a protein drink that was                simply 2 cups of protein powder mixed in a glass of water. I really don't mind the taste,                        personally, and it helped keep my protein up which in turn would help my muscles recover, help          with weight loss, and help curb my appetite.

f. Really cut out the snacks after the kids go to bed. The wife and I frequently watch TV or a            movie together, so it was always really easy to snack. I didn't completely eliminate the snacks,            but I cut it way down, and some nights I didn't have anything. I would chew my gum and drink          my water.

After the first couple of weeks, I began to try and shorten the amount of time it took to do the workout by increasing the reps, as well as add in some cardio and more weight training. It has been very gradual. I have tried and stopped a number of things. Some things were dropped or changed due to it putting too much stress on my surgery shoulder, but others just haven't been kept up because of time constraints. The thing that has remained consistent has been the push-ups, crunches, and light weight curling.

One note, was that I had to change up how I did push-ups because it was hurting my shoulder. I had always done push-ups by having my arms be parallel with my shoulders, as in my arms at a 90 degree angle from my body. I changed it to a 45 degree angle, as that is a more proper technique I've read. That has made it much better and easier. Just food for thought in case you were like me.

As of this writing, I have worked up to this (changing it incrementally each week or so):
4 sets consisting of the following:

1. 25 push-ups
2. 100 crunches
3. 25 curls

On Mondays/Wednesdays/Fridays:

1. I have tried to add in some cardio by adding 1 lap on the treadmill to each set. With 4 sets this rounds up to a nice mile. I have been able to increase the speed in which I do the laps each week, and right now the total mile run is around 8 minutes (but remember I only do 1 lap at a time, so don't be too impressed, or think it is impossible for you).
2. I have also worked up to a set of 15 10-pound dumbell shoulder presses
3. A set of 20 tricep curls with the 10-pound weights. This one I've had to change form a couple of times because of the stress it has put on my shoulder. It probably means I'm not doing it right, but changing how I've done them has cut down on the pain.

Randomly and inconsistently:

I have tried a number of other exercises to target specific areas, but nothing has been added consistently. I'd be up for learning new and better techniques, and Youtube is helpful for looking up how to do things.

1. Leg Lifts
2. Squats
3. Wrist Lifts
4. Shoulder Shrugs with weights
5. Planks

Let's be real

Ok, the routine I laid out might be starting to sound like any routine you've read about, and quickly decided it wasn't for you. I know I read (typically in January), many such workout routines, and know that those kinds of New Years resolutions never seem to last. So let me be honest (which I feel is missing from most of those paid advertisement workouts):

1. I wasn't perfect. I had my routine, and I tried to adhere to it, but I wasn't perfect. I had dinners where I had seconds, or ate something completely unhealthy. There were nights where I snacked because I was going through a small bout of depression. Healthy meals were missed, extra workout things added were not done, snacks and sugar were eaten. When my family was going somewhere and we stopped at fast food, I ordered something. I went to the beach on vacation with my family and almost everything was thrown out the window for a full week. Life happens. You stumble on stuff like this. The important thing is to try. Get back onto it. It's not too late. When I got back from vacation I went back to my routine, even if it meant taking it a little more slowly since I was out of it for a week. It's ok. You are ok.

2. There are things I wish I would be doing more. I wish I did more cardio. I know that more cardio would mean being more healthy, and definitely more weight lost. But I hate cardio workouts. I always have. I could do it while playing sports because while you're playing, you don't notice it as much. And sometimes I can do cardio exercise while training for sports, because I want to do better. But just doing cardio throughout the day sounds awful for me. I don't understand those guys that just go for a run every day. So for me, I did single laps at a time. I listened to music while I ran so that it would distract me. I daydreamed while running so it would distract me. I figure even if I do just 1 mile, and split the laps up between sets, that's still forward progress. That's still good. Find something that works for you. Maybe you can do more cardio, I wish I did more. Maybe I'll find the discipline someday.

3. I wish I slept better. Some say that the most important thing when it comes to physical health is sleep. I think they say the average is 7-9 hours? I'm at 5-6, and it's disrupted sleep. I have trouble sleeping, sure. But the main thing is that I stay up late. I want to because I don't get time to myself or alone time with my wife until the kids go to sleep, and that whole process isn't done til like 9:30-10 at night. So unless I want to just go to sleep immediately when they do, if I want to do something I have to stay up. I would be doing better if I slept more, I know.

4. I still have depression. This comes as no surprise to people that have it, and I'm not as bad as many, but even having health doesn't mean that goes away. I still have bad days. But do I think my mental health is better since I started getting more healthy? Of course! Anything you can do to try and cut out the negative things that you dwell on during episodes will be better for you.

5. I don't know how much of this I will be able to keep up. That's always the catch for so many of these life changes. If it doesn't become habit, then you just go back to the rut. I think starting out small gives me a better chance at continuing. I can conceive of myself continuing on eating a more healthy breakfast from now on, at least on average. I think drinking more water and chewing gum is something that can be done long term. I think that doing 100 push-ups and 50-100 crunches with every set of push-ups is doable per day, especially if you keep it up. It doesn't take very long, especially when you've done it a bunch. I don't know if the cardio and the weight lifting will continue. I hope it does, but I doubt my schedule will allow to consistently work out for as many days as I can currently do. But I figure if I can continue to eat more healthy, and do even a little workout, I'll continue to make forward progress.

Results (Picture time!)

I apologize for the picture quality, I have never done this before and don't know what I'm doing, lol. I also didn't have a hard plan of what I wanted to do when I started this when it came to pictures.

 

 

I started this on May 15th. When I weighed myself I was 230 pounds. As of July 13th I am 210 pounds. I definitely have more energy. I don't know how to measure muscle gain, but I know I've gained muscle and tone. I think I look better. I still have a nice layer of fat over pretty much everything, and that will take a long time to get rid of, lol. I'm not sure I will ever be rid of it, but I am liking my progress. My abs are more tight and pronounced, and the same with my arms. I am actually getting back muscles around my shoulder blades, which I've never had before, so that's cool. My chest is also less saggy than it was. I'm unsure about how much more strength I have, as I have not been doing classical strength training, but I'm sure the pushups have helped. There are plenty of things where my shoulder hurts less than it did. Obviously, losing 20 pounds is really nice. I'd like to lose more. I am still considered to be overweight according to BMI and pretty much all standards, so it'd be nice to get that down some more. But forward progress!

So that is my journey so far. Thank you for lasting this long. I am proud of what I've accomplished so far, and hopeful that it will continue in the future. I wish you well in your health goals, and feel free to ask me any questions, or offer some tips! I'm always up for learning something new. Thanks again for reading, and happy gaming!

The 5 Best Returning Cards in Keyforge: Mass Mutation

Everyone is excited about all the new cards in the new set from Keyforge, Mass Mutation. And why shouldn't they? There is some amazing stuff coming our way! But while looking through the card list and checking out what to expect, I have come across some old cards that are returning in this set, and I think they should be talked about too. Card games are very interesting, in that you can see them grow and change with each expansion. In one set a certain card may be considered weak, and then in a few expansions it is highly sought after. I think the best games manage to do that. They manage to make older cards newly relevant. Now these cards I will be talking about I doubt were considered garbage cards, but I'm sure they will be appreciated more in Mass Mutation. I wanted to showcase one card from each House. As a side note, I've decided against showcasing cards from the Saurian Republic and the Grand Star Alliance, simply because they have no cards that are returning from a hiatus, like the other Houses. So without further ado, let's dive in!

1. Gateway to Dis - This card was hardly hated in the first set. In fact, it was quite necessary for some top tier decks, especially those that had tons of Dis creatures, maybe a Lifeward, and an Arise! But it wasn't loved by all, simply because the board state was not the biggest thing in the first set. It was all about Shadows stealing, powerful action card combos, and more of that, rather than a powerful board presence. And those chains that Gateway to Dis gave hurt more because of needing to "go off" on any given combo.

When Age of Ascension came around, the board state became a little more important, but we lost Gateway to Dis in favor of Unlocked Gateway. Now that card didn't have the chains, but it could only be played at the end of the turn, and so you couldn't pull off the Arise shenanigans as easily or effectively. But still, I don't think Gateway to Dis was missed that much.

Then came World's Collide, and the meta as we knew it shifted drastically. The action-heavy and stealing meta was taken over by the newest House, the Saurian Republic. Board presence was everything. The Saurians captured your amber, held onto it, and attacking them felt fruitless a lot of the time, because of how huge they were. The other Houses also all fared better with board presence. It was a clear design change for the game. I think it was for the better. But one thing was obvious, if you were playing against a WC deck, you better have a way to deal with the board. In the first 2 sets, you could get away with playing a sealed game without a board wipe. But in WC, it was almost a death sentence, unless you had a considerable board presence yourself. We still had Unlocked Gateway, but I really missed Gateway to Dis. Since the game was more dependent on the board, rather than action cards, I felt as though the chains would not hurt as much as well. And whenever I play in a WC sealed event, I hardly ever worry about chains.

Now we come to Mass Mutation. Gateway to Dis is back. The Saurians are back, scary as ever, and every other House is continuing the board presence importance. We also have new gigantic creatures, that really cannot be taken out by attacking, so I think board clears will be vitally important again. I think the introduction of the Enhancing cards is also very important. If you remember from WC, Warding was a big reason why Saurians were so dominant. And even a basic board clear might not even take out a creature. And even Gateway to Dis is not a good card to play if all you are getting is a couple of Wards removed. But Enhancing cards could allow for some ways around that. The damage bonus icon is among the most common, so expect to see that on a lot of cards, and that little damage is enough to remove Wards. I think that, along with Gateway to Dis coming back, is going to be a really powerful and needed combo in this set.

2. Effervescent Principle - Wow, Dis went on a long time, didn't it? I doubt the others will be so in depth, don't worry. Our next guest is that old favorite: Effervescent Principle. This was another card that was hardly hated, but in sets where stealing was the preferred method of amber control, this card wasn't a favorite. It hit both you and your opponent, gave you a dreaded chain, and basically just set things back for everyone. The card hasn't changed, but the meta has. Stealing is not as great as it once was, thanks to cards like Odoac the Patrician. So sometimes you need something else to help get your opponent off a key. Back comes Effervescent Principle, which is a great way to guarantee that your opponent will lose something. I feel as though there are several combos out there that allow an opponent to burst their amber gain, giving them huge amounts, and this card can help against that. At the very least, it will cause an opponent to be very wary of gaining tons of amber. The chains don't matter as much anymore either, which is nice. I will be a lot more excited about Effervescent Principle in this set than before I think.

3. Equalize - Sanctum as a House is coming back from a hiatus, so you could put all of their cards into this article, but that would be silly. This is one card in particular I am looking forward to getting back. I was thinking how awesome it would be to get a Legacy Maverick Equalize in WC, so you can imagine my excitement about hearing it was coming back for this set. Now this card was hardly thought about in the first two sets. It wasn't awful, but there were tons of times it wasn't that effective, and played only for the bonus amber. As soon as Saurian came around, manipulating amber became hugely important. How many times have you lost a game because you couldn't steal any amber thanks to Odoac the Patrician? Or sat there helpless as your opponent eventually plays Sic Semper Tyrannus on his huge amber-filled Centurion Stenopius with an Imperial Scutum? Or have had to deal with a protected Senator Shrix with a ton of amber on him, able to forge a 3rd key on your opponent's next turn? Equalize gets around that. It allows you to dump all that exalted and captured and gathered amber onto a weak, unprotected, little creature, ripe for destruction. Sanctum is also more offensive than they were in the first couple of sets, so attacking those creatures should be easier as well. And Warding does nothing to protect from this, which is a big plus as well!

You can also use Equalize as a combo piece in your own deck, especially if you have Saurians. There is a ton of potential with this card. I expect it to be a big player in games now.

4. Old Bruno - I don't have much to say about Old Bruno. I missed him. Shadows took a huge hit in WC, and was pushed into arguably the worst House slot in the set. So many good cards were taken out, and Houses like Saurian had a ton of cards that seemed to specifically target Shadows strategy. I'm not saying that was a bad thing, but it was meta changing. I always liked Old Bruno, even though stealing was better at the time. But now, stealing is still risky as your only way of controlling your opponent's amber. Capturing is much more reliable, even though it may be temporary. Capturing 3 amber frequently will get your opponent off a key, and if you can manage to Ward Old Bruno? Well, there are few things more infuriating than spending 3 attacks to kill a single creature. You might as well just Reap at that point. So I welcome back Old Bruno with open arms, and hope that it balances out Shadows a little more than the previous set.

5. Word of Returning - As soon as spoilers started to hit with WC, and I was knee deep in competitive Keyforge, with aspirations to eventually go to Worlds (Hope that still happens someday), I immediately began scouring my decks for this card. I was giddy with excitement, thinking I might get a head start against the competition. I even bought one or two from the secondary market, which I rarely do, just in anticipation of testing this card against what I thought the new meta would be. I was proven correct, in that this card can be devastating to Saurians in particular. I didn't happen to get my hands on a great deck with it due to being poor, lol, but with it returning in this set, I can try again! Look at this card! It looks like it was custom made to go against Saurians. But on top of that, it is specifically geared to go against capturing creatures, which are all the rage. Sanctum is hit hard, and even my lovely Old Bruno above, is flat out killed. This card gets rid of Wards for good measure. You don't have to worry about any protection, as there is none that can get in the way of getting your amber from enemy creatures. This is an amazing card, and one that I will specifically be looking for in every Untamed deck I get.

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So those are my thoughts about the 5 best returning cards in Keyforge's latest expansion Mass Mutation. I can't wait to get my hands on the new set when it hopefully gets released in July in the US. To all of you lucky enough to have decks already, let me know what you think of my assessment? And everyone, do you agree? What cards are you most excited about that are returning from hiatus? I hope you enjoyed this article, and as always, happy gaming!

Mass Mutation Spoiler List! (UPDATED 16 cards on 5/11/20!)

Hello again everyone, it's that wonderful time of year as we gear up for another Keyforge set release! I am particularly excited about this set, as it seems to be bringing a lot of what makes Keyforge unique to the table, without overly complicating things for newer players. Perfect. It is my goal to continue to update this as we get new cards. I will need some help, so if you see or get any new cards, please let me know, so we can have the most up to date list out there! I'm doing this for the community to continue to build the hype and keep everyone informed. I will be having a change log at the top of the article so to keep regulars more informed. Obviously, this has spoilers for the new set, so if you want to remain in the dark, read no further. Thank you so much for your words of support and let's dive in!

*Change Log*

05/11/2020 (16 Cards from Archaeon/ El Scizor/ Team Hamburg Atlanteans from Germany, you can watch the reveal stream here)
Dis - Wail of the Damned
Logos - Causal Loop, Even Ivan, Infomorph
Sanctum - Aemberheart, Gizelhart's Standard, Master of the Grey
Saurian - Charybdis, Scylla, Legion's March, Patronage, Senator Quintina
Shadows - Bo Nithin, Shoulder Id
Star Alliance - LCdr. Trigon, Dino-Alien

04/16/2020 (Cards from Livestream and FFG article)
Sanctum - Commandeer, Fangs of Gizelhart, General Xalvador, Gizelhart's Zealot, Scrivener Favian, Mad Prophet Gizelhart
Saurian - Galeatops, Humble, Lyco-Saurus, Monument to Primus, Sacro-Saurus
Untamed - Floomf, Gloriana's Attendant, Keyfrog, Reclaimed by Nature, Resurgence, Savage Clash, Mushroom with a View, Wild Bounty, Mercy Malkin Queen
Dis - Dark Minion, Imp-losion, Break-key, Desire, Envy, Pride, Wrath,
Logos - Eclectic Inquiry, Chronus, Mutagenic Serum
Shadows - Dark Wave, Look Over There!, Subtle Otto, Tempting Offer, Miasma Bomb, Reckless Rizzo, Safe House, Mole, Lyco-Thief
Star Alliance - Teleporter Chief Tink, Away Team

03/10/2020 (Cards from Tabletop Royale and LordFarquaad. Thanks guys!)
Star Alliance - Ensign El-Samra, Access Denied, Subject Kirby
Dis - Sinder, Waking Nightmare

03/07/2020 (Cards from the deck giveaway from the Crucible Cast. Thanks to Archonvict's Crypt for the uploads!)
Logos - Mind Over Matter, Q-Mechs
Saurian - Faust the Great, Hedonistic Intent, Spoils of Battle, Techno-Saurus
Star Alliance - Blast Shielding, Subdue

03/03/2020
Untamed - Niffle Kong (translated)

02/27/2020 (cards found the livestream here)
Dis - Stirring Grave, Essence Scale, Bonesaw, Umbra-Fiend, Double Doom
Logos - Lethologica, Munchling, Daemo-Bot, Opposition Research, Cyber-Clone, Bot Bookton, Diametric Charge, Novu Dynamo,
Star Alliance - Particle Sweep, Survey, Mutagenesis Researcher, Scout Pete, ANT1-1ONY, Matter Maker
Saurian - Amphora Captura, Consul Primus, Saurian Egg, It's Coming...
Sanctum - Squire Alys, Font of the Eye, Seeker of Truth, Exchange Officer
At the very bottom is the first Mass Mutation decklist, with how enhanced cards are shown

02/02/2020 Pallindrome day! (cards gotten from Wossy Play's youtube video found here
Star Alliance - Observ-u-Max
Untamed - Rapid Evolution

1/31/2020 (card images from the announcement livestream and FFG article)
Shadows - Rad Penny, The Shadowsmith
Dis - Snarette, Hystricog
Logos - Dino-Bot, Lyco-Bot, Umbra-Bot, Ivan le Pepere
Star Alliance - Armory Officer Nel, Hayden Oswin, Securi-Droid
Saurian - Deusillus, Dark Centurion
Sanctum - Ardent Hero, Gizelhart's Wrath, Bull-wark, Berinon

Shadows

Rad Penny - Fitting that our first spoiler is a mutated version of a card that has previously been in every set. I can't say I'm sad to see Bad Penny go. There were times that her ability was useful, but most of the time she was a liability. This card, however, looks like quite the opposite. Sure, she won't be as good if an opponent has a Gargantadon or Odoac out, but in general this is a much better card than it was before. A common card that allows for steal is a pretty good deal. Compare this to Urchin, which is a card everyone thinks highly of, and this comes close if not surpasses it in my opinion. I also really love the vibrant art!

The Shadowsmith - Can't see the power, although we can probably assume it will be less than or equal to 3. This seems too specific to be good, but maybe Shadows will get lots of Mutants, or maybe we will get lots of little mutant hound-thingies found in this art and the Shadowsmith will make them much better or something.

Dark Wave - Very similar to poison wave, except it only hits non-Mutants. Hard to tell right now if that is better or worse. I suppose it's possible you could have tons of mutants and your opponent doesn't, which makes this card much better, but that seems extremely situational. Nevertheless, this will be great against weenie and ward decks

Look Over There! - A similar but worse Relentless Whispers. It doesn't give you a raw amber, and it only steals if you DON'T destroy your target. Sometimes that might be useful, or easier to pull off, but I'd rather have relentless whispers.

Subtle Otto - A subtle chain as a creature. No raw amber. Sometimes having creatures is better than just an event, so this may not be too bad.

Tempting Offer - A raw amber with a capture amber enhance, I like it already. This on-play ability could wreck Saurians. Giving your opponent an amber in most other cases is not good, though. It will be good to get rid of wards though I think, because your opponent shouldn't get the amber if the creature doesn't actually go to their hand.

Miasma Bomb - Hmmm, interesting. I initially thought it was just worse than Miasma, but then I saw it was an artifact. That makes it much more interesting. You will have to be wary of artifact stealing or destruction, but being able to not hold this card in your hand, and use it when you need to, will be quite nice. The enhance on it seems rather odd and not needed, but I'll take it.

Reckless Rizzo - So that's what happened to everyone's favorite character from Grease? Yeah this seems pretty good if it can ever work. Losing elusive is hardly an issue as long as you get to steal. It will suck if your opponent has a Gargantadon out though, lol.

Safe House - This seems like a great artifact to have, as long as this set gives us plenty of good on-play creatures. Notice that you get to archive any friendly creature, not just Shadows.

Mole - Ooooo I like this. More anti-Saurian. This could be quite devastating and game changing to use. It is rare though, so don't count on it.

Lyco-Thief - Pretty generic, but could be very annoying. It's nice to have some defense to pair with skirmish.

Bo Nithing - Great art, wonderfully creepy flavor text, and a decent card in itself. Obviously it isn't good early game, but mid and late game it's at least as good as an Urchin, and it could get you 2 steal, which is amazing.

Shoulder Id - I wonder if we will see any other Freudian concepts making their way into Shadows ideology. I like it. I also really like this card. 6 power with taunt is exactly what Shadows needs, and it helps in proper Shadows fashion by giving you some serious stealing capability. This will really make enrage better for them if you can pull it off. I am sure there are some fun combos out there to use with this card but I am coming up blank currently.














Dis

Snarette - Ah, another old favorite. Time will tell how good this will be, as it does not have the immediate impact that the old one had (capture 3 amber), but this has more potential to get rid of the amber, similar to Sanctum's Aubade the Grim. This has a higher ceiling and long term effect for sure, and this should combo nicely with Saurian's or Sanctum's capture abilities.

Hystricog - Our first example of an "Enhancer". These cards modify cards in your deck. Don't worry, the Enhance part of the card is just reminder text, as the changes to the cards have already been made when your deck was algorithmically created. So somewhere in your deck, these 3 damage icons will show up on cards, and will act the same as raw amber on previous cards, in that they will be the first thing that happens when the card is played. It seems these enhancers will also synergize nicely with the icons they create. This seems like a great ability for a decently strong 4-power body. Those great Saurians will have to watch it with this guy around. Plus those 3 damage icons will do wonders against Wards.

Stirring Grave - I like this a lot. Bonus amber and you get to archive a useful creature from your discard pile. This doesn't help cycle your hand, but sometimes it might be better to grab that Infurnace or E'e on the Fringes.

Essence Scale - This could be quite useful. As we have seen with The Golden Spiral for Saurian, it can be amazing to be able to use a creature when it comes into play, or use a creature from a different house that is on the board. This allows both as well, but with a Dis twist, and considering that Dis has plenty of creatures to destroy AND get something beneficial, well I'm gonna like this card. Plus, it gives an amber bonus, which is something The Golden Spiral does not have.

Bonesaw - I actually have really liked Alaka and Bramble Lynx because of their ability to come into play ready if you do something, so I'm guessing I will like Bonesaw as well. This will combo nicely with the above Essence Scale as well. 5 Power is also very useful in this game, as it can survive a lot.

Umbra-Fiend - We were told on the reveal stream that there are a bunch of different creatures that will be similar to this, just with different demonized targets. Similar to the bots in Logos. I'm not a huge fan of Umbra in general, since he has to last too long, but I like this one. This is especially nice since Dis has so many positive ways of killing its own creatures.

Double Doom - It's...not too bad. Bouncing is great against Saurians, and discarding can be really nice as well, especially against combo decks, but a lack of a bonus amber, and the fact that sometimes you don't want to bounce an enemy creature makes this not as good as it could be. Plus, it lacks the diversity of allowing you to bounce any creature. It will still do amazing things from time to time. Bounce a huge Centurion Stenopius and I'm sure you will be swayed by this card.

Sinder - 6 power and 2 armor with taunt is a very daunting prospect, but it's a shame that the reap ability is such a huge setback. Yes, Dis has the most to gain from destroying its own creatures, but it's still going to be a setback a lot of the time. There will be decks where this will shine, but there's a distinct possibility this will come in and just protect stuff and never reap, which is a shame.

Waking Nightmare - I like this. Raw amber and it gives a card a capture amber, already pretty nice. And then it also can give you some extra amber control for a turn. This could easily take your opponent off a key, and it has a high ceiling. It is possible it won't do anything at all if you have no Dis creatures, which is a shame. But that high ceiling and other benefits already mentioned make me like it better than The Evil Eye.

Dark Minion - Simple, but effective. The added enhance ability is nice. This will be quite good against warding decks.

Imp-losion - Yeah this looks great for Dis. Just what they like to use. Targeted removal is so important, and this gives you a raw amber and the ability to get rid of a friendly creature, which is commonly useful for Dis. I like it.

Break-key - Wow, this card is good. Sure, it doesn't help you if you are tied or ahead, but this card could easily get you back in the game. Plus, with so much key cost modifiers at our Dis-posal (see what I did there?), you could easily force your opponent to spend tons on keys, unforge them, and then take them out of a key. This seems better than Key Hammer.

Desire - Yay, our first look at the sin creature chase cards! We know that each deck that has one of these, gets at least 3 others. We don't know if there are 7 in total though. It would be awesome if you could get a deck with all 7, but who knows if they even made them. But anyway, this creature seems pretty good. Sure, it sucks to make your own keys cost more, but it's Reap ability could help tip the balance. A big problem though, is that these sin creatures don't seem to fetch each other like the Horsemen for Sanctum could do, which will make them much harder to synergize. Still cool though. I love key cheat cards.

Envy - This is a great ability if it can ever go off, but pulling this off will be difficult without some fetching and luck that your opponent can't get rid of the sin creatures on their turn. You will force your opponent to action though, which may throw off their game.

Pride - This is a fun little ability, although Dis is not known for protecting. I suppose it's in theme with being prideful though. It can at least ward itself.

Wrath - This is probably the most consistent and the best I've seen so far. If you can manage to ward this guy or boost his stats, he could be insane. 3 armor will be very tough to deal with, and having poison and skirmish is just nasty. The Fight ability is also quite huge, as you could really mess with a lot of decks, forcing them to fight....right into your 3 armor and poison creature, lol.

Wail of the Damned - Enhance a card in your deck with a capture amber icon, and then flat out be able to destroy a creature with no bonus icons? Yeah that's amazing. It's not as good in this set since there will be lots of creatures with bonus icons, but against older sets, this is almost a guarantee awesome card. Especially against those pesky dinos from the previous set. Even still, this is an awesome card I would gladly take. Direct removal is hard to come by, and this has no requirements.














Logos

Dino-Bot - Our first example of the Logos-Bots, that apparently have mutated with every other House, giving Logos a little taste of every House. This version allows us to exalt to deal damage, which doesn't sound worth it most of the time. The Reap ability will be nice in setting up big turns and getting through your deck though. This seems like a good late-game play. At least that is a strong body.

Lyco-Bot - Here is our Untamed version. Skirmish in the past hasn't been great, but with boards being bigger and lasting longer, Skirmish has been more important, so hopefully this will see some play. It also seems all of these bots will have the same Reap effect, which isn't bad. Also, I am noticing that they have the power symbol for the rarity, so that probably means you are guaranteed to get at least 2 of these in a deck when you get 1. I doubt this will get as much attention as the shard decks from AoA, and even then nobody talks about those anymore.

Umbra-Bot - Yeah nothing too special about this, unless you really love this ability. I will admit the ability is decent at getting through your deck, but the card draw isn't anything huge unless you have lots of them.

Ivan le Pepere - I have been told this can be translated as "Action: If your opponent has an even number of amber, steal 1." This seems like it's too situational to be good, especially for Logos, who has little amber control that actually modifies pool amber, but I'm sure it will be decent at some points.

Lethologica - I like these types of cards, they allow for some great cycling, as well as possibly getting exactly what you need in a specific house. This also gets you a bonus amber, so that's great. Keep in mind that this spoiled card has been enhanced with the draw card bonus icon, and that it normally will not have it. I can't wait for more draw card bonus icons to show up on my cards.

Munchling - Skirmish has become much better in the past set, and so I'm thinking it will still be pretty good in this one, since board presence is so common. However, 3 power is not great with so many hazardous 3 creatures out there. I don't typically like discarding in house on a turn, but being able to gain an amber can be game saving, and I wonder if we will be getting Edai back in this set, because sometimes it is nice to be able to manipulate your archive from time to time.

Daemo-Bot - This seems really good. A very good reap ability that lets you cycle your hand and possibly draw a card you need, and a great destroyed effect to mess with your opponent. I love putting my opponent in positions where they want to destroy my stuff, but don't want to at the same time. Also it was mentioned in the livestream that there are 42 variations of these bots in this set! I know, crazy!

Opposition Research - Ah, another Enhance card. I don't care as much about the damage bonus icon, but then again, it is very nice against ward. Preventing your opponent from reaping can be game changing, especially in the late game, but I really wish this naturally had an amber bonus. I think there will be many times where this is a dead card. But again, most of the Enhancing cards probably aren't that great by themselves, and mainly get their use from enhancing other cards.

Cyber-Clone - Logos loves doing stuff like this. These kinds of cards can be amazing, but I do find they can be hard to keep track of. Luckily, this one purges, so it should be easier to keep track of. Also, this creature has hard removal on-play, which is an amazing thing to have. As long as your opponent's creatures aren't warded, this just gets everything and gets rid of it. Very few cards have that much permanence and reliability in their removal, as well as giving you bonus stuff. It's no wonder this is rare. Amazing card.

Bot Bookton - Hey, the Doc is back, and with upgrades! After apparently merging with her pet science project, Doc has apparently lost 1 power, and instead of drawing a card, just allows you to play a card. This can be amazing, may win you a game, may get out an off-house card into play early, but like Wild Wormhole, may also completely backfire and screw you over. Such are the haphazard ways of mad science I suppose. I am always wary of such cards, but they can be very helpful sometimes.

Diametric Charge - Now that looks almost like an enhanced bonus amber icon, but it's missing the electricity on the side that those typically have. I can't imagine this has 2 bonus amber normally, but it is DIAmetric Charge, so maybe it is intended. Either way, I have always loved Logos pinging cards, and this has a nice spread. Goodbye wards and weak creatures! Also, amazing art and flavor text!

Novu Dynamo - This would make a great miniature. Come on FFG, go borrow from Heroscape and make a game already! This is quite the beefy Logos creature. I'm pretty sure this is the biggest we've ever seen. 8 power with 2 armor is extremely hard to deal with. It has a built in way of off setting this with the need to discard, but that can also be a huge boon with allowing you to filter your hand and gain free amber. Also, keep in mind this is done before the key forging step of your turn, so you can sneakily not be in check on your turn, and then forge a key without your opponent maybe realizing. I really like this card.

Mind Over Matter - This is a very interesting card. Part creature control, part combo setup. I like it. This is especially good against Saurian and their capturing shenanigans. This could potentially be a huge combo maker with cards such as Edai and maybe in the future with Sanctum coming back with Epic Quest? Maybe with Mars eventually with Key Abduction? This seems like a really good card and I look forward to giving it a try.

Q-Mechs - This is a fun little card. Just like the card above, this will combo well with Edai, and it has a fun on-play ability. With the advent of enhancements, this could get particularly interesting. Having a capture amber icon isn't wonderful, since it is so easy to kill, but hey, amber control is amber control. Being able to play it again on future turns would be great. I personally would love to see this card with a bonus amber or a card draw icon, but honestly what card wouldn't you want to see that with? But I like these little guys.

Eclectic Inquiry - Raw amber and free 2 archive. Sounds great to me. Not really a bad side to this. Great card. Now if you could pair this with some Edais, this would be insane.

Chronus - This is amazing. Archiving is so good in this game, as it can set up massive turns, and this gives you card draw as well, which can help that even further. Keep in mind, you only get to archive if this creature is also out when you resolve the card draw icon, but still. I like it.

Mutagenic Serum - This is fun. I love raw amber, and I love activating creatures, no matter the house. This will only let me use Mutants, but that seems to be quite prevalent, and so this card will probably get more use than a typical Sigil of Brotherhood from Sanctum.

Causal Loop - Man, I hope to get a legacy Edai with this card. I have always liked to archive cards, and this helps with that. It frees up space in your hand and helps to set up big turns later, or to help you save important cards for later. Other cards may have an amber icon on them, but is still great. And plus, you stand a good chance of getting this card with a bonus icon on it at some point since there are so many enhance cards in this set. Great stuff.

Even Ivan - Poor Ivan. This is a pretty decent card though. 4 power is ok power that can stick around, and giving Logos some steal is a very welcome thing. You can get someone off a key with this so that always has me excited.

Infomorph - This art looks amazing. 2 card draw icons are always welcome, but this isn't much else. There are plenty of Mutant synergies in this set so that's good as well, and at 4 power this can handle itself against a lot.


















Star Alliance

Armory Officer Nel - Another enhancer! This icon is the card draw icon, which seems really good to me. This ability is also pretty nuts, especially for Star Alliance. I can't wait to get this with a bunch of upgrades. Will Transporter Platform make a return? Because if so, holy crap will that be an insane combo.

Hayden Oswin - It's a decent Reap ability if you can ever use it. Light of the Archons will be a big help to give this human a little beef, but I doubt it will usually stay alive to be able to use the ability much. Plus, if you don't have upgrades, this is nothing special. Also, where is her Star Alliance title? Is she just a random red shirt human?

Securi-Droid - Well that is adorable. I want one. Considering how these types of Star Alliance Robots have been in the past, I'm going to assume that this little guy can give a creature Taunt if he is played as an upgrade, which is a very useful ability, especially with Light of the Archons out there. This is one of the better upgrade robots for sure.

Observ-u-Max - Keep in mind that this card most likely just has a raw amber. The capture amber icon is added from an enhance card, so it is not on that normally. Anyway, like a good Star Alliance upgrade, this card gives you a raw amber, and it also gives you some amber control with a capture. Seems solid enough to me.

Particle Sweep - This seems like a great card. It will obviously be better in Sealed play as you are almost guaranteed to be going against Mutant creatures in a Mass Mutation game. But even if not, there are some Mutants in previous sets, and 2 damage is enough to deal with plenty of problematic creatures. That bonus amber really helps sell the card too.

Survey - Another enhancing card. This card may have also enhanced itself, which we have been told can happen. The bonus amber is needed, because just simply looking at the top 2 cards isn't that amazing in this game. Now, if you can combine this with Book of IEQ, that's a different story, and it's possible you can help filter your deck of chaff as well, but in general this card isn't amazing. But again, enhancing cards are probably made like that on purpose. Actually, since this card always enhances something with a card draw, that is pretty nice. I take it back, this is one of the better enhancers.

Mutagenesis Researcher - Well this is just plain fun. This card gives you all of the bonus icons, and they could be anywhere in your deck. Unfortunately, we have found out that we will not know which cards get which specific bonus icons (although we will at least know which cards are enhanced), so that will make just glancing at a deck difficult. But this creature seems like so much fun. I love the bonus icons, and they can give you some pretty amazing combinations.

Scout Pete - I can see the witty and comedic cartoon show now: "The Splendiferous Misadventures of Scout Pete". This is another good card to combo with Book of IEQ or Lay of the Land. He also lets you filter your deck some if you need to. 4 power is definitely on the better side of Star Alliance creatures, but I think I would rather have many other creatures in this house.

ANT1-1ONY - Now THIS is a creature I would take in any house, in any deck. This creature is amazing. Sure, it leaks amber back to your opponent each turn, but it's a guarantee key forge check blocker. 6 power is also really annoying to deal with. This card will win many games. Be ready to get excited whenever you see his silly name.
My only gripe with the name is that I can't quite tell if that's a 0 or an O in his name.

Matter Maker - Although the livestream did not say, judging by the little Star Alliance symbols on the boots, and looking at how it works, I'm guessing this is a Maverick card that originally belongs in Star Alliance. This is an amazing card for Star Alliance (as well as Sanctum). This gives you so much speed in getting stuff out of your hand and onto the board. I really like this card, and am very sad it is a rare.

Blast Shielding - This is a great upgrade. So often I just want a Light of the Archons simply to help a creature stay alive, and this does that too. 2 armor and a raw amber is amazing. Now what is very interesting, is that you can bounce this around your Star Alliance creatures. This could be a great way to help clear a board by fighting and triggering fight abilities while keeping your guys fairly safe. I would gladly take this in most of my Star Alliance decks.

Subdue - This is ok. I think I'd much rather have Zap. It gives you raw amber, it can take off a ward, and stunning is always nice, but it is very light on creature control, and sometimes you really need to remove stuff. It's not a total loss, but I think there are better options out there.

Ensign El-Samra - Yikes, this seems really good. This card will always give your deck 3 free card draws, which will go really far in speeding up your deck. Not only that, but this enhancer actually has a decent action ability. Sure, most times it may just be easier to reap. But there will be times where a card draw a damage is crucial. There will be times where reaping might not be allowed, but getting a free amber will be able to be done. There will be times where capturing 1 amber will take your opponent off a key. This is one of the best new cards we've seen so far. This being rare is unfortunate, but expect it to really propel the decks that it is in.

Access Denied - This isn't too bad. It gives you a raw amber and can cripple several creatures. I doesn't synergize as well with Transporter Platform, which is one of my favorite combos from WC, but I'm not even positive that will be in this set. I will actually prefer this to a lot of upgrades in general, simply because I feel I can get a benefit more quickly. I will almost always want to put it on an enemy creature, which could limit it.

Subject Kirby - This art is a little weird. This does not look like Com. Officer Kirby. Our original looked black, and this one looks white, even when taking into consideration the mutations. It is interesting how he mutated though. He went from 3 power down to 2, which is considerable, because now he can be killed by a lot more than before. And his ability changed from playing an artifact/upgrade/action card to just a creature. I like the ability a lot. There have been plenty of times when I wished I could play a creature. I think I do prefer this ability to the other, which is maybe the cause of the loss in power as well. I like how FFG can essentially nerf or slightly alter cards in a thematic and fun way with future sets. It's a great mechanic.

Teleporter Chief Tink - I love the shenanigans that Star Alliance can pull off, and this is a new twist. It could prove to be amazing to get better use of some of your better creatures, or it might be useful to shift your lineup a little. I am sure there will be lots of cool little tricks I will discover when playing with this card.

Away Team - As long as you get some upgrades to go along with this group, then this is an awesome card. Many of the Star Alliance upgrades give you raw amber, so getting another chance to play them will be great. 5 power is also very welcome in a typically small creature power house. Plus, it's a robot, so Chief Engineer Walls can bring this back.

LCdr. Trigon - I don't recall seeing Lieutenant Commander being abbreviated that way, I always saw it as LCDR, but a quick Google search showed this is normal. I don't usually like discarding my own cards, although at least Star Alliance can use that ability with all their scrying abilities. But, with the right deck, this could be a great ability, but you have to have a lot of enhanced cards to make it likely to pay off.

Dino-Alien - I thought all these guys were in Logos? Is this a maverick? This is also a power-rarity, so that means it is grouped with something else. Interesting. This card is also weird in that it doesn't explicitly tell you what to do with the 3rd card you draw. I thought they said to return cards to the top of the deck, but maybe I'm missing something. 5 power is decent, and that fight ability is amazing. On play removal is also nice, although I doubt I want to exalt him. But that fight ability will be real sweet.

Saurian

Deusillus - Our first example of Keyforge's new gigantic creature cards! So these creatures are spread across 2 cards, as you can see. You need to play both in order to put the creature into play. You play them together and they come in as a single creature. The designers said that they all will have powerful on-play abilities, so to make them still worth it even if they get bounced or destroyed right away. That's good, because holding onto cards is typically bad in Keyforge. We have been told that there will be cards that allow you to fetch cards, and so maybe that will make this easier, but I have a hard time thinking these will be competitive. Still though, they are really cool looking and it's an exciting design space in my opinion. I can't wait for exciting Sealed play stories. That being said, this ability is quite nice. It's a guarantee delay to an opponent's keys, which are extremely rare. It also will most likely remove a creature when it comes in. And that 20 power isn't going anywhere except for some hard removal or bounce. It doesn't even come into play stunned, nor does it limit the damage it can do! Plus, it lets you get rid of its captured amber while helping with a board wipe. Very cool. I wonder if you can get doubles of this creature in your deck, which would make it much more likely to draw. This will also combo quite nicely with Tribute and Sic Semper Tyrannus.

Dark Centurion - Oooo, another enhancer! This one gives 2 capture amber icons! Very nice! Unsure if it has armor, but the 5 power is always welcome. That Action ability is amazing though. Getting rid of captured amber is Saurian's biggest weakness, and this allows for that, as well as warding if needed! Great stuff, and it's a common as well!

Amphora Captura - This is great, Be ready to squint your eyes at decklists with this card, trying to figure out what cards are even in your deck because everything is light blue thanks to being enhanced by this card, lol. But seriously, this artifact is amazing. Not only is it giving you tons of great bonus icons in your deck, it gives you some great flexibility and amazing amber control on top of it, as an artifact! Also, it's Saurian, who, I don't know if you know, don't mind capturing amber from time to time. This card is amazing.

Consul Primus - That is an interesting look at Saurian writing, I wonder how long they spent designing that, or if that was just an artistic choice. This is a solid enhancer, who gives some amber control to a card and house that may not have access to it otherwise. And that reap ability is also very nice, giving lots of flexibility to either move some stuff around on yours or your opponents creatures.

Saurian Egg - This is going to be nasty. For one, it's a creature with a bonus amber, which is already hard to come by. But also, it gives you a chance to filter your deck, possibly play some Saurian creatures that you didn't have in your hand, AND make them much bigger! Plus, it's an omni ability so you can do it whenever! Get some of these in a Star Alliance deck with some of their new look-at-the-top-card-of-your-deck cards, and you can ramp up your board really easily. Get ready to be really sad when you get a deck with only like 3 Saurian creatures in it though.

It's Coming... - Ah yes, here is that card that will always accompany the gigantic creatures such as Deusillus, above. If you get one of the gigantic creatures, you are guaranteed to get this card as well. I think it is really needed, but depending on how amazing those gigantic creatures really are, that is a 4th of your house taken up already. We were told on the stream that this is going to be the same art, no matter which House's gigantic creature you get. And, we were told that not every house gets a gigantic creature this set. Interestingly enough, this card may be a hindrance in that you can't just play it for the amber. Unless the creature is already out on the board or purged, you WILL be adding a half into your hand, and you may or may not be able to play it. So you may be clogging your hand. I am glad to see the raw amber at least.

Faust the Great - Ooooo this is amazing. That is some serious amber control. This would be decent in any house thanks to that on-play ability, but with Saurian it is downright abusive. Keep in mind it is each friendly creature and not amber on creatures. But still, you automatically can make keys +1, and it is probably likely you will make it even higher. 4 power is also much better than 3, allowing this guy to survive a decent amount of base-creature power out there. Plus, as a common, we will be seeing a lot of him. Great stuff.

Hedonistic Intent - Great art, great flavor text, and it seems like a great card. As with the card above, and even comboing with it, this card excels with Saurian. This is a great way to help you prepare for an Axiom of Grisk or Ancient Power. Also note that it is each flank creature, including your opponents' creatures. So this could be a good way of generating some amber, especially with the raw amber it also provides. If you have an empty board, this is great to play and put amber on your opponent's creatures. You will have to be careful as with most Saurian stuff, in case you give them too much amber to grab on the board, but this seems like a decent card.

Spoils of Battle - Also an interesting card. I love amber control, and this definitely has some, but it also gives you some to your opponent, so it could be risky. But if you have 1 creature, and your opponent has none, you get a raw amber and capture 2, which seems really good. If you have lots of Saurian with amber on them, which is pretty easy to do, they all get to capture some more. This card could easily take an opponent off a key. This will be a great swingy card similar to Tribute I am thinking.

Techno-Saurus - Another mutated Saurian, with a wonderful Logos-ey ability. The on-play ability is fine if you absolutely need to, but be careful with doing it willy-nilly. Crucial creature control options are great to have in a deck though. I really like the reap ability though. This is a great way to help cycle through your hand. I would rather have Philophosaurus, but this isn't awful.

Galeatops - Nice and simple. Being common, this guy is gonna cause some problems with a lot of decks as it will be very hard to get rid of.

Humble - The best Saurian decks have ways of manipulating the amber on them. This does that. It may not quite be as good as Scutum, and not gaining the amber is sad, but sometimes you just need to make sure your opponent doesn't get anything and this lets you do that. Also, the flavor text is awesome.

Monument to Primus - I like this. It's pretty simple. It allows for better setups with cards like Axiom of Grisk or Senator Shrix. I like the thematic flavor if Primus is in the discard pile, in which case this becomes very nice as it allows you to move captured amber to your opponents' creatures, hopefully enabling you to gain more when you destroy them. Note that it is a power rarity, and so most likely comes with at least one Primus.

Lyco-Saurus - There seem to be several mutated dinos in this set. This one is Untamed themed and it simply has skirmish, nothing too special.

Sacro-Saurus - Another mutant dino, and I'm guessing this is Sanctum themed? It has a lot of power and 2 armor, so that's pretty cool.

Charybdis - That art is pretty, and since this is a power rarity card that is paired with Scylla, I will want this combo just for the art, let alone that they seem really good. 7 power is really hard to deal with. Even the Saurians are typically at the top with 6. 7 is a lot harder to get. And since you will most likely have to fight multiple times to kill this thing, this ability could be devastating. I love it.

Scylla - And here is the other card that is paired with Charybdis, although don't mistaken it as a gigantic creature. They just happen to come together in a deck. While Charybdis makes your opponent lost amber if they fight, perhaps they will just want to reap instead. Not if you also get out Scylla. 4 damage is enough to take out most of the good weenie reaping creatures in the game, and with 7 power again, this will be hard to deal with. Awesome duo. I will enjoy chasing this. I don't like the art as much on this one though.

Legion's March - Not sure if I like the go-kart art. I like the amber bonus, but this card seems a little hard to pull off. It will most likely do nothing most of the time, and it could backfire horribly as well. I am sure there will be the odd time it is one-sided in your favor but that will as rare as this card itself.

Patronage - This isn't too bad if you captured a decent amount of amber, but then if it's a lot, you will be giving your opponent a lot of amber too. You will never gain more than 1 more amber than your opponent, so this doesn't feel amazing. Sure, it will be nice for you to gain some of your opponent's amber, but usually when I capture amber the important thing is to keep it away from them, not give it back. That being said, there will be some fun times where this is a huge amber gain for you and totally worth it.

Senator Quintina - I don't like cards that can benefit your opponent, and this is dangerously in that territory. Sure, you can slow your opponent down if they don't want to exalt, but sometimes they are Saurians and that's exactly what they want to do. Also, when you reap, you will have to exalt, and sometimes you may not want to. There are so many better rares for Saurian that I will gladly skip this.












Sanctum

Ardent Hero - Sanctum is back! I missed them, if not for their powerful play than for their amazing art! And this card seems pretty good. I am wary of Sanctum's hatred for Mutations, as on one hand it's cool for story, it's not great for competitive play, as those abilities are useless against older sets. But this one does a great job of staying relevant. This will cause a lot of trouble for the big hitting Saurian. And depending on how prevalent Mutants are in the set, this could be huge in Sealed play with the ability to protect important creatures. And at common, we will probably see them a lot. As usual, I love the art!

Gizelhart's Wrath - And here is an example of a card that makes me wary. If there are a ton of Mutants in the set, then this could be a good board wipe, although note that it will lay waste to your own Mutants as well (although maybe Sanctum has the fewest since they seem to hate them). I want to see Gizelhart in this set. At least you get a raw amber out of it, as this card can only be detrimental if you play against older decks. It's also a rare, so it probably won't matter too much either way.

Bull-wark - Speaking of Sanctum and Mutations, our poor Bulwark has been changed, and not for the better in my opinion. We will see how important Assault will be, and it is better against Wards and such, but I really loved the old Bulwark with all that armor giving. The old one also had 2 armor, which significant.

Berinon - Man, that art is beautiful. 5 power and 2 armor is seriously huge. I like the story theme of him getting angry when Mutants come into play. It's definitely a negative, as his Reap ability is amazing. I wonder if Sanctum will have any calming mantras or cleanses to help with getting enraged? Also, the flavor text mentions "The Red Shroud", and that sounds like a sweet knightly order and I can't wait to hear more!

Squire Alys - I like her a lot. She is simple. Very weak power, but actually pretty difficult to get rid of thanks to that armor. And that capture 2 is some really consistent amber control. With the advent of cards like Gargantadon and Odoac, capture has become a much more important and reliant form of amber control. So this is a great addition to the game.

Font of the Eye - I love artifacts with omni abilities, and this is one of the best. I think this would be a decent artifact even if it was just an action, but with omni it's amazing. Amber control is so important in Keyforge, and this can give you amber control every single turn, with any house. That is rare and much needed in a deck. Plus, this is common, so be prepared to see this a lot, and even in multiples.

Seeker of Truth - Meh. I do like being able to use cards out of house on a turn, but rarely do I want to fight with them. I will admit in the past set, and probably in this set, fighting is more useful, but still, I'd probably rather have other cards. More importantly, 3 power and 1 armor is rarely big enough to even survive a fight that you really want to do.

Exchange Officer - During the livestream, this was explained as being a Star Alliance card that is never in Star Alliance. What happens is that when the deck is generated, this card will switch places with a card in another house, and will make them both mavericks. That's pretty cool. The unique deck game of Keyforge shining through again. And with that, this card seems really good. This creature gets a raw amber?! And it has the wonderful Play/Fight/Reap ability of using a Star Alliance card. Any card, not just creature. Yeah this is pretty amazing.

Commandeer - Oooo, Sanctum's Library Access like card. Raw amber and for every card you play after this, you get to capture an amber. This is a great amber control card.

Fangs of Gizelhart - I love this set's thematic elements. And Sanctum seem to a lot to do with dealing with the mutations, and something to do with Gizelhart, who seems to be on tons of cards. This card seems pretty good too. Sanctum recently has not had a ton of power in their creatures, so this will most likely be able to get rid of those pesky Saurians. This is also a great way of dealing with those new gigantic creatures.

General Xalvador - A solid 4/2 body with 2 capture amber icons spread in your deck. Sounds like a great Sanctum card to me. Looks amazing as well.

Gizelhart's Zealot - Yay, more theme! 4 power is very useful considering his somewhat negative enraged upon play. However, keep in mind that if there are no enemy creatures, then this creature is free to reap the turn he comes in, which is pretty awesome.

Scrivener Fabian - This is amazing. The enhance is great, but that bonus ability that allows you to steal instead is incredible. This is exactly the kind of stuff that Sanctum needs.

Mad Prophet Gizelhart - And here he is at last. She? Not really sure what is going on here. I guess Gizelhart is the snake. Odd. I wonder if we will get some more info and lore about this, because I think this is the first we've seen Sanctum with snakes. I love the themes of the leaders of the various houses, and this one is pretty cool. This particular copy has enhanced icons just FYI. But 4 power and 3 armor is nothing to sneeze at, and that ability seems like pretty sweet amber generation. Unlike previous sets, Sanctum finally has a better chance at using their healing. The board presence established by the previous set really helps that, and I could easily see this gaining you a bunch of amber. Keep in mind it is only non-Mutants, but it is everyone's, not just yours.

Aemberheart - Oooo, Saurian wishes they had this. Even with having to exalt, this is a pretty decent artifact. I believe Sanctum has some ways of manipulating amber on their creatures, so this could be very nice. But as I said, this will be amazing if paired with Saurians.

Gizelhart's Standard - With all this lovely story and theme with this set, I want a minis board game even more now. Here's another great artifact, and I'm happily surprised it isn't rare. I loved Haedroth's Wall, and this has even better synergy in my opinion. You always want to protect captured amber, and 1 armor helps more than 2 power in my opinion. Just like the artifact above, this will be bonkers if it is a maverick or is paired with Saurian. That bonus amber is top notch and the "negative" on play exalt is negligible, especially because it means they get some armor. That could even be used to help you on offense, which is some great flexibility.

Master of the Grey - Beautiful art, I wish this character had a name. Perhaps she will in a later set, or perhaps members of the Grey Order have no names. Either way, this is an awesome card. I love passive abilities, and in this set, this passive is crazy good. There are going to be so many bonus icons around this is bound to get some use out of it in every game. It may not be as good in previous sets but I will still take it. 4 power and 1 armor gives it some longevity as well.

Untamed

Rapid Evolution - Now we don't see all of this card, and remember that the damage icon is added from an enhance card, so it normally doesn't have that. But I, and most others, seem to think that this gives a +1 power counter for each amber on the creature that you chose. It's possible it is something else, but that seems accurate. Not awful I suppose. It's nice to make those creatures bigger, although you might want to be careful of Sic Semper Tyrannus. But still, it gives raw amber, so it can't be too awful.

Niffle Kong - Translation:

Play: Search your deck and discard pile for all Niffle creatures, reveal them, and put them into your hand.Fight/Reap: Destroy a friendly Niffle. If you do, deal 3 damage to a creature, steal 1 æmber, and destroy an artifact controlled by your opponent.

Yay, our second gigantic creature spoiled! This one is quite interesting. This is potentially more game changing than Deusillus. Just like how Arise can win you games, this card can do something similar. Establishing a huge board is a big part of Keyforge right now. Although you have to sacrifice a friendly Niffle (I hope there is a blond damsel Niffle in this set), you get some creature control, amber control, and most importantly, artifact control. That is a big deal. I am a little sad this guy is so "weak" when compared to Deusillus. I feel as though these two should be close to the same power, given a titanic match between them is so cinematic, but oh well. 12 power is still pretty ridiculous. However, despite my excitement initially over this card, I do have my doubts. Obviously getting out these gigantic creatures will be difficult, even with a fetch card to help. But specifically to this card, in order to make this card really good, you need a lot of Niffle creatures in your deck. And in the past, Niffle creatures were gimmicky and fun, but rarely competitive. So I feel as though the better the payout for this creature, the worse your deck will be. And if you have trouble getting this creature out, your Untamed component of your deck will be awful. I wonder if you are guaranteed a certain amount of Niffle creatures to go along with this? I kind of hope so, or else his on-play ability would be useless. But then again, that would mean like half your Untamed component would be auto included whenever you get this card. Time will tell. Still, I really love the concept of these gigantic creatures and I'm excited to see how they will play.

Floomf - Well that is adorable. We have a new attempt at dethroning the cutest Keyforge creature, the Fuzzy Gruen. This also seems pretty decent. I like that it can give itself the power counters.

Gloriana's Attendant - Like a Dust Pixie, but probably worse. Probably what Dust Pixie should have been all along. This is still a very solid card for giving your deck 2 amber icons. It's just not as abusable as Dust Pixie in a rush deck. I still really like it. I wonder who Gloriana is, this flavor text has me hungry for more.

Keyfrog - What most of us have likely typed by accident at one time or another, and probably the inspiration for this card. Key cheating is good for a deck to have. This one at least doesn't clog your hand. I think it will be tough to pull off, but it's a great threat with which to mess with your opponent's mind. Awesome art too. I wish it had some flavor text.

Reclaimed by Nature - I love artifact control, and this one doesn't disappoint. Purging is awesome, and this allows you to grab some bonus icons as well. This would have been good in any set, but this could be amazing in this set with all these enhancements.

Resurgence - This seems really good. A slight twist on Regrowth. Sure, I miss the amber bonus, but an enhance draw is nice, and this allows you to maybe grab 2 creatures, which is awesome.

Savage Clash - I love the art and theme of this card. Board wipes have never been more important, and it looks like this set continues that trend. This will be a card to look for in every Untamed deck.

Mushroom with a View - This particular card has a couple of enhanced bonus icons, which is pretty awesome. The ability is ok, nothing too crazy. It does seem like healing will be more useful in this set than the first two, but in general I don't really care for healing.

Wild Bounty - Enhance with 2 amber bonus icons, sign me up. But this on play ability is pretty crazy. This looks like the big combo card for Untamed in the set. This will allow for some crazy turns of bonus icon abuse. I can't wait to find a deck with tons of bonus icons in it with this card. So many other enhancing cards have crap secondary abilities, but this one is extremely good.

Mercy, Malkin Queen - Yay, another chase card! We found the master of Floomfs! Our resident cat lady. And this looks awesome for our little feline friends. I wonder how many cats are in this set, if any, besides Floomf. Even with just Floomf this seems like a really good card. Warding is awesome, and free warding is hard to come by. I also really like the fight ability. I can't wait to chain a big cat fighting turn. Also, I'm from Pittsburgh, so any name reference to Evgeni Malkin of the Pittsburgh Penguins is a happy reference for me.

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Random group pic (I tried to get the ones I could read into their respective houses above)

Example of what a Mass Mutation Decklist will look like

So this is what the new Mass Mutation decklist will look like. In light blue, you will see cards that have been enhanced. This does not let you know which cards actually enhanced them, you'll just have to memorize that. This also does not let you know which bonus icons these enhanced cards received, which is a real bummer. Now, we won;t be able to just look at a deck and see a crazy combo. We will have to open and see, which will hurt the secondary market. Although I'm sure FFG doesn't care about that, and neither will plenty of people, because now you just have to open the deck and see, which is honestly more in line with Richard Garfield's vision for the game.










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