Braden Gardner
There’s no getting around a common truth of many tabletop RPGs – spellcasters are harder characters to build, manage, and optimize than non-spellcasters. Despite a much more streamlined set of rules compared to its earlier versions, 5th edition Dungeons & Dragons is no exception, adding an entire extra page of information to any spellcaster’s character …
When a Magic: The Gathering player thinks of control, their instinct is to think of blue. With its wealth of efficient counterspells and card draw options, no other color comes close to blue’s prowess when it comes to picking and choosing what spells its opponents are allowed to resolve. Since card advantage and attrition are …
One of the first lessons you learn when playing video games is to keep your health from reaching 0. In games like Super Mario Bros., this means not letting Mario take a hit while he’s small. In RPGs, you can usually see every character’s exact HP total. When a character gets low, you heal them …
There’s typically no shortage of things to do when running a new character through a Terraria world. Houses need to be built for NPCs, ore has to be mined to craft equipment so you can start putting bosses in their place, and the world has to be explored in order to prepare for events in …
When playing in a Magic: The Gathering format where decks are typically built around a legendary creature, it isn’t exactly a revelation to point out that you should include the ability to answer said creatures while building your Commander deck. Spot removal, or spells that destroy a single creature, can definitely get the job done …
Each color in Magic: The Gathering‘s color pie excels at certain tasks, performing them far better than any other. For example, green is the best at mana ramp, black is the best at tutoring, blue has the best countermagic, red gets the best burn spells, and white is the best at mass removal (also referred …
Artifacts and enchantments are often the underappreciated heroes of Commander games. Ramping mana, providing utility, and changing the rules of the game to better suit their owners’ needs, it’s easy to forget that removal for these types of cards is as important as removal for dangerous creatures. Sometimes, even more so. When playing against decks …
Mana and tempo go hand in hand when playing a game of Magic: the Gathering (MTG). The more mana you have, the more spells you can play during a turn cycle to prevent threats from hitting the table, taking them off the battlefield, or simply stealing them for yourself. Unfortunately, blue really gets the short …