I am back from the Keyforge Celebration, home of the first Keyforge World Championship. My Counselor Latus Saurian cosplay outfit is back in the closet. This was my first outing, and although it was probably my worst competitive Keyforge showing ever, I still had a ton of fun. I highly recommend anyone to attend if possible. I think my highlight was being able to play with the new set in the Nightfall Sealed Tournament, but one thing I never thought I would say was that I thoroughly enjoyed the new Menagerie set and event.
When this set was first announced, I was mildly interested. There was a mystery as to what it was, and it pointed to the new campaign which would explain in greater detail. Then, we unlocked Menagerie as a stretch goal and we were treated to what it was, and I was...less interested. The concept was cool: a set filled with pods of thematic packets, chase rares, combos, and bundled up in a wacky and crazy circus-themed set. However, there was the HUGE caveat in that these decks were not tournament legal. I suddenly had flashes of the Unchained set flash in my memory. I could almost hear my several Unchained decks that I received for free from the last campaign practically laughing at me, sitting there unopened, gathering dust in a box in the corner. Not another set that is practically useless! I have no interest in opening my Unchained decks, and I'm even less interested in trying to play even a friendly tournament with them. I would always rather play with tournament legal decks. So I planned on going to KFC basically ignoring Menagerie, content knowing that I could always play in sealed events during the day.
"Menagerie would make for a great new player experience"
When I received my cool KFC grab bag, a Menagerie pack was inside. We were told that throughout the weekend, we needed to randomly play people with our Menagerie decks. Every 2 wins would get us a ticket that could be used to access a prize wall, and every 2 losses we would get a ticket that would allow us to purchase another Menagerie deck (to a max of 3). It sounded like a fun enough format, but I still wasn't all that interested. However, while waiting in line to register for the last chance qualifier, I overheard and then saw Keyforge's favorite personality, Sydnie Steele, hyping over her Menagerie deck. I then heard several others excitedly open their packs in amazement. This set had the new Geistoid House in it! This new set has a previously unknown Keyraken House in it based off of the Keyforge Adventures co op game! Well, I had to open mine now.
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| The new Keyraken House! |
Although I was not treated to either of those two new and exciting houses, I was treated to a really spicy combo deck. Down at the bottom of the Archon card listed the 2 packets I got: GenKA and Rad Penny. To add further excitement those 2 houses-with-combos were joined by a Logos pod with Auto-Encoder. I got really excited. This looked like a really fun deck to play! This looked like I would do really well in this event! All of a sudden I was flipping my badge to the Menagerie side like Roxanne putting on her red light. I was ready to get down to play.
Although my deck was probably higher than average, and a ton of fun to play, it was by no means overpowered compared to my opponents'. I lost to a giant creature Menagerie deck that had tons of Brobnar giants that sat their menacingly, happy to murder everything on the board and then reap for the win. I lost to a much better version of my GenKA pod that had their Martian Generosity card with 3 amber pips!!! I got annihilated by a Dis pod with several Maleficorns in it that pinged everything to death. Every game was pretty exciting, and it was really fun to see what crazy combos my opponents had. I even had fun losing because that meant I could go back and try my luck with a new deck.
After several games I was itching to try a new deck. I had opened another fun looking deck whose Menagerie packets were Mars Abduction and Kelifi Dragon. Kelifi Dragon is a pretty bad card, but it does grace the front of the Menagerie packs, so that's cool. However, the Mars Abduction pod was insane. It had the new Curse of Disappearances card from Grim Reminders, and boy that card packs a wallop, or is "fire" as the youth say. If I got that card out, it was really hard for my opponent to do anything of value. I shall be looking closely at any of my Grim Reminders decks that has this Curse card in it for sure. While playing with this deck, I got to check out someone who had the Keyraken House. And that was really cool. I don't think the Keyraken pod is all that great in terms of competitiveness, but it was really cool to see in action and the art is amazing. It happened to be an awful matchup because I Scooped up the Keyraken as soon as it dropped, and then all the tentacles had to be played to archives for the rest of the game.
Although I didn't get to play a lot of games with it, my last Menagerie deck had the new House Geistoid in it with the Clocks packet! I grew up with a lot of clocks in my house, so many that my parents are lovingly called Grandma and Grandpa Clock by my children, so it felt pretty special to me. I don't think the clocks are terribly competitive, but it is fun to put so many time counters on them. Tick-Tocks are actually pretty decent and easy to pull off, and I even got to take a second turn with Ancestral Time-Keeper.
Throughout the weekend, as I excitedly played new people, and got to see their decks and combos, something occurred to me: Menagerie would make for a great new player experience. If you are anything like me, you have probably tried to share Keyforge with new players. It can difficult finding good decks to show them. Although I like the new starter mini decks that help teach new players, they lack the punch of seeing what a full deck can look like. With Menagerie I think it gets closer to that. This is especially true for decks that have pods like my GenKA deck, but having a deck with good synergy and combos feels fun to play and pull off. Seeing an opponent play a cool combo is also exciting, especially if it is in a friendly format, with no money attached. I felt a very similar feeling to when I play a new set: A sense of wonder and excitement, that makes me want to open more packs to find better combos. It makes me want to buy more. I'm addicted like a crack addict, except I crack open new packs. I think Menagerie does a great job of showing new players what Keyforge can be. See how fun it was to pull off a GenKA turn? You can find those combos in real decks too! Like that Ganger Chieften/Drummernaut rule of 6 interaction that feels like you're cheating? Well, you can find that too!
I think it would be a great idea to market Menagerie in that light: as a way to showcase what Keyforge can be. I highly recommend someone grabbing several of those packs, and then use them in a friendly new player tournament. I am sure that new players would get really excited about their decks, and I feel as though it is more likely they will find fun combos with this set than taking a chance on a random deck.
I teach at a small, private school, and I fully plan on using my Menagerie decks as tools to teach kids the wonderful game of Keyforge in after-school gaming clubs. I encourage you all to do the same. In order to do that, I will need some more. And so I will gladly be adding Keyforge Menagerie decks to my pledge. Thank you for reading, and happy gaming!
