Hello everyone! I have only been on Reddit for a few months but I learned so much from it that I figured I should try and give back to the community. English is my second language and this is the first time I ever write a full-length article, I hope you will enjoy reading it and I would be very thankful if you could provide some feedback about my writing, about the topic, or about anything else really… So here goes!
Why you should learn poker and game theory:
My story is similar to that of many: I learned about the game 10 years ago (during the golden age of online poker) when some friends of mine invited me to play a home game. Although I initially thought of poker as just another game of chance akin to playing slots or roulette in a casino, I quickly came to realize that there is a lot more to it as my more experienced friends would repeatedly get the best of me during these home games, which led me to start watching videos and reading strategy books to improve my skill… Little did I know it’d be the start of a journey that would impact many different aspects of my life way beyond the game itself, as most of the fundamental principles learned through poker can be applied to your decision-making outside of the game, especially when it comes to money management and investing. Now, let’s dive into a few of these principles:
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- Risk management (i.e. Bankroll management)
When learning about how to be successful playing poker, the first big piece of advice most people come across is bankroll management or BRM. To understand BRM, you must first realize that poker has a lot of variance: you might be vastly ahead in a given hand but there is almost always a slim chance that you will lose in the end if one specific card hits. This implies that you will sometimes lose even though you were a 99% favorite, and that you will sometimes get unlucky and lose 2, 5 or maybe even 20 such encounters in a row. THIS is variance. It doesn’t mean that you played bad or that you made bad decisions, but rather that you got unlucky. Over time you will have lucky streaks and unlucky streaks, and these will average out in the long term… It’s just the way the game goes.
Now that we understand variance, let’s get back to BRM. What is it exactly? Let’s say you are the best poker player in the world but you only have 1000$ that you can EVER use to play with. Taking your whole 1000$ on one table and multiplying your stack at an exponential rate might seem like a good idea. Surely nothing can go wrong since you’re the best player in the world right? But variance can be a bitch ;) Even if you’re the best you will lose regularly and you will sometimes get unlucky, it’s just part of the game. The correct move here is to apply BRM, which means only using a small % of your available capital for each game you play in order to reduce the risk of going broke. Using only 100$ per game would already be a lot safer, but you still run the risk of going under on a streak of bad luck. If you only allocate 10$ per game you play, then it becomes virtually impossible for you to ever go broke, even on a huge streak of bad luck. Sure it’s not as exciting and you won’t be making money quite as fast as you could, but this is the way to go to make sure you don’t go broke…
This approach to risk management translates very well to investing:
- Only invest what you can afford to lose. Once the money is on the table it’s as good as gone, which is why you should only use your “spare” cash and never invest with your living expenses or worse, borrow money to invest.
- Diversify your investments. There is always a chance, however slim it might be, that you will lose most of your investment. This is why going all-in on a specific investment is generally a bad idea (this applies particularly well in the crypto space).
Proper BRM allows you to make sure that you will come out ahead in the long run if you play well, which basically comes down to making more good decisions than bad ones. But that’s assuming you don’t let emotions come in the way of your decision-making, which brings us to our next point…
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- Emotional management (i.e. Handling tilt/Positive mindset)
Nobody likes losing… In the same way we enjoy winning because of the dopamine rush, we feel bad when we lose which is totally natural. Overcoming this and avoiding tilt (irrational decisions made out of angefrustration) is an essential skill for any successful poker player. You might play a sound game of poker and apply good BRM, but you will still lose if you let your emotions get the best of you.
After a loss, rather than being angry and frustrated, you should evaluate your decision-making. If your decision-making was good, you just got unlucky and you shouldn’t worry about it since you are playing for the long run (remember that variance teaches us that anything can happen in the short-term). If your decision-making was bad, you need to learn from your mistakes and move on. The key here is to always have a positive mindset: making mistakes is part of the learning process and should be seen as an occasion to improve. Being angry and ranting, on the other hand, rarely result in anything positive.
Again, this translates very well to investing:
- Don’t be impulsive, don’t let your emotions cloud your judgment. You should not FOMO because the price is pumping, nor should you sell because of FUD or price corrections. If you believe in a project, short-term price changes (did I hear someone say “variance”?) shouldn’t bother you.
- Don’t get stuck up on losses. You bought the top and it crashed immediately after? You sold the bottom right before a huge rally? Don’t let this bother you: what’s done is done and you just need to move on and make the best of your current situation.
- Have a positive mindset. Anger and frustration lead to nothing. Yes you could have bought in 2009 when you first heard about it, hindsight is always 20/20. Stay positive and keep learning/improving yourself.
The good thing about all this is that it goes way beyond poker or investing. Being aware of your emotions and how they affect you, learning how to handle losing even when you were “supposed” to win, etc… All this can tremendously help you in all aspects of life by making you less impulsive and more rational in your decision-making. Now, this leaves us with our last fundamental principle of a sound poker strategy:
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- Basic stats and probabilities (i.e. Expected value/Odds)
To become an accomplished player, you will inevitably have to learn about these simple mathematical tools that poker players use all the time in their decision-making process, such as odds and expected value. To make it very simple, the expected value (EV) of any bet is (REWARD \ WinRate - RISK), meaning that if you can bet 1000$ with a chance to win 10k$ half of the time, your EV is *(10000\0.5)-1000 = +4000$**. Obviously these are great odds to take as long as you have enough capital to overcome variance. But things would be very different if the odds of winning were only 5% as your EV would then be negative *(10000\0.05)-1000 = -500$.*** Now this is clearly a bet you should not take…
Now that you know probabilities, statistics and game theory are useful decision-making tools in poker, guess what? They are also extremely useful in investing! Even better, the study of game theory with problems such as the “Byzantine generals” or the “Three prisoners” has been, along with cryptography, the foundation on which blockchain technology was built, enabling the trustless and decentralized services that are about to revolutionize our world…
Assuming this was enough to pique your interest and make you want to dig deeper, I’ll just add that just like the other topics we discussed and as you might have guessed, this translates very well to investing and also to pretty much anything in your life:
- Learn how to break down complex situations. Logical thinking paired with a statistical approach will help you break down any complex problem into several easier problems, making the whole thing a lot easier to approach/comprehend.
- Base your decisions on a methodical and rational approach. List every possible outcome along with its associated upside/downside, estimate the probability of each outcome to occur and make the best decision based on the information available.
My point here is that risk management, emotional management and statistics/game theory are all awesome tools that you should definitely add to your arsenal. Not only will it improve your money-management and investing, it will also be beneficial to your decision-making and to your life in general. Of course poker is not the only way to learn about these, but I personally found it to be the best practice ground to refine and improve them, which is why I strongly encourage you all to try it out and study the game.
I hope you enjoyed the article, and I wish you all a happy 2021 bull run! May we all come closer to retirement and financial independence!
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TL;DR: more than a game, poker is a school of thought. It teaches you to be reasonable, to assess the risk of every single choice you make, to overcome you emotions, to play the long game rather than the short game, to make informed decisions, etc… This has made me a lot wiser in every aspect of my life, which is why I strongly encourage to try it out and read about poker strategy.

Hey you. Yeah, you. You tired of playing the same Golos deck, playing two lands a turn, drawing into your combo pieces, and winning while the entire table finishes War and Peace on their phones? You bored with your Sultai landfall deck, where you play solitaire for three hours? Board police getting too much to bear?
Well, let me introduce you to your new best friend: [[Neheb, the Eternal]].
Now, if you've never seen Neheb before, I know what you're thinking. "Wow, that card looks absolutely absurd", and buddy, you're right. Neheb decks aren't as much EDH decks as they are high-score attempts, seeing how much damage they can dish out in a single turn. Damage doublers, triplers, pingers that only go face, and enough X spells to make Zaxara cry in a little Sultai corner.
You want infinite combats? Neheb. You want to [[Comet Storm]] for 80? Neheb. You want to burn that lifegain deck right back to the pit it crawled out of? YOU WANT TO PUT THE FEAR OF GOD INTO ANYONE WHO DARES CONTINUE TO LIVE? N E H E B.
STEP ONE: RAMP
While Neheb himself is both a beeftank of a man and creates mana like he's eighty mountains strapped to a rocket sled, Neheb works best when he's out, and five mana isn't exactly cheap. So, what do we need? The standard rocks and ramp, like [[Sol Ring]], [[Wayfarer's Bauble]], [[Mind Stone]], [[Arcane Signet]], [[Ruby Medallion]], you get it. We do, however, run a few interesting ramp cards.
[[Cryptolith Fragment]] comes in tapped, sure, but once we have our big Lazotep Lasher out, we can tap it for one mana in the main phase, and three (3!) mana in the 2nd main phase. The good news is that if it transformed, something has gone horribly wrong, so we're not even gonna talk about the back. If it does flip, though, nine mana in the 2nd main isn't bad at all.
[[Everflowing Chalice]] isn't a rock, it's a bank. If you have a ton of mana floating in the second main, and you will, Everflowing Chalice is a way to keep some of it and use it on turns going forward. You can replace this with [[Horizon Stone]], I guess, but Everflowing is just a bit faster, and remember: Horizon Stone is based on Kruphix, and he's Simic, and we blow Simic players into small chunks. Oh, also, we have better Horizon Stone.
THAT'S RIGHT WE HAVE [[Leyline Tyrant]] BABY. You want to float mana? Leyline Tyrant. You want an evasive beater? Leyline Tyrant. You want protection from removal in the form of Leyline Tyrant choosing violence and blowing up someone's face? Ley. Line. Tyrant.
You want mana? You want it NOW? Cool. We got [[Seething Song]] and [[Jeska's Will]] for all your mana needs. Turn 2 Neheb is always a bucket of fun. Black can keep [[Dark Ritual]], I bet they're casting single target removal with it, what a bunch of nerds.
Our mana doubler is [[Extraplanar Lens]] and [[Snow-Covered Mountains]]. We want mana. Not them. If they have snow-covered mountains, blow them up first. Cowards.
[[Chandra, Torch of Defiance]] has two +1 abilities: gain red red, or deal two damage to each opponent, draw a card, and get six red mana. She's here for her good +1.
Now that we have our mana online, let's talk about our two plans: Nukes and Dukes.
STEP TWO: DUKES
PART ONE: BOXING GLOVES
Neheb is a commander that likes to attack. Once he's out, we're going to want to have him swing probably ever turn, because even if he's blocked he goes right over the top. The issue, however, is that while he has 6 toughness, that's not a lot going into the late game. So, we've got some boxing gloves for our beeftank.
[[Darksteel Plate]] lets us not really worry about Neheb. Slap some darksteel on that lazotep and watch the haymakers fly.
[[Sword of War and Peace]] and [[Sword of Sinew and Steel]] give him protection from white and black, and also importantly, RED. We can use our X spells that also hit creatures with impunity once we give Neheb one of his twin blades.
[[Shadowspear]] gives Neheb trample, which lets him smack harder, and also, for two mana, you can remove indestructible and hexproof from an opponent's permanents. A glorious piece of tech. The lifelink can be nice, but it's, there to punch through. Speaking of punching through
[[Embercleave]] needs no introduction. If you're turning something sideways, Embercleave is always a great way to make sure it damn well hurts.
[[Swiftfoot Boots]] makes killing Neheb harder, and anything that makes Neheb stickier is good in my books. Haste is also an absolute plus. We don't have [[Lightning Greaves]] because we want to give Neheb more equipment than just lightning greaves, and shroud makes that harder than it needs to be.
PART TWO: SIDEWAYS CREATURES
If we're swinging more than once a turn, and we WILL be swinging more than once a turn, we want to swing with things that create effects that benefit from multiple combats. Enter our beaters:
[[Tectonic Giant]] swings once and deals three damage to everyone, or impulse draws. You swing multiple times with him and with Neheb in play, and boy howdy did you just draw and make a ton of mana. An absolute unit of a card.
[[Etali, Primal Storm]] is four free draws per swing. You swing multiple times with Stompy McCardsteal, and you've basically cast Villainous Wealth in red.
[[Neheb, Dreadhorde Champion]] is both real and not impulse draw and mana ramp. Swing, dump bad cards, get mana, repeat. EZ Clap.
PART THREE: TECHNICAL KNOCKOUT
[[World at War]] and [[Savage Beating]] gives us extra combats, with World At War having rebound to guarantee us extra combat the next turn and Savage Beating giving us double strike to combat trick like an absolute madman if we need to really add insult to injury.
[[Aggrivated Assault]] takes a small amount to explain. So, if we swing with Neheb, and he's unblocked, we get four mana. Tap a mountain, five mana, get an extra combat, swing with Neheb, go to the next main phase, EIGHT MANA, because Neheb cares about total damage of the turn, and checks every post-combat main phase, not your first one. That's right. We go infinite. Blow up the world, send out Neheb, and swing for infinite gaining infinite mana.
Also do not shout the names of the cards in this section because most of them are absolutely crimes and your pod will call the cops to stop you from beating their life totals into the dirt.
STEP THREE: NUKES
PART ONE: PRIMING FOR FISSION
Before we can bow up the world, we need to prime ourselves for it. To do this, we need to damage our opponents, and get our damage increasing abilities online.
[[Acidic Soil]] and [[Price of Progress]] are pretty much free damage. That guy who spent all game mana fixing? Yeah, he's getting shot for 16. The Golos deck? 30. Acidic Soil is there because it also counts basics, so the budget player who thought he was safe can get slapped for daring to play Magic as well.
[[Chandra's Ignition]] is 5 red mana for 12 red mana if you hit Neheb with it. It also board wipes. Slap it on Etali if you have protection for Neheb, and watch the world go down in fire.
[[Flame Rift]], [[Slagstorm]], and [[Fiery Confluence]] hit our opponents for dirt cheap costs. Three mana to get nine mana? two mana and four life for 12 mana? Treasonous Ogre is crying, he's been unemployed. Fiery Confluence is also a board wipe and a removal spell, which is super neato, as we're a mono-colored deck, so our toolbox isn't super diverse.
[[Combustible Gearhulk]] says "Give me draw or give me mana''. It's our Fact or Fiction, and much like Fact or Fiction, there are only bad answers. With an average CMC of 3, we're going to either draw three or get our mana back when someone takes 6 damage.
[[Pyrohemia]] says "pay one red mana: Gain three red mana". It's literally just Dark Ritual that is also removal. If you can't see why that's good I have no idea what you're doing in a red burn deck explanation.
[[Heartless Hidetsugu]] deals damage to each opponent equal to half their life total, rounded down. Deals damage. This isn't loss of life, this isn't 'becomes', Hidetsugu takes their life totals outside with a baseball bat and teaches it to fear the color red. Shadowspear on him makes you gain all the life they lost. If you have a damage doubler out, Hidetsugu says "Tap this creature, Win the Game." If he taps, and Neheb is out, one X spell almost guarantees a player death.
PART TWO: ROCKET FUEL
[[Torbran, Thane of Red Fell]] is not a damage doubler, but it does make our smaller pingers like Flame Rift, Fiery Confluence, and Pyrohemia absolutely backbreaking. Think of him as the initial charge.
[[Insult // Injury]] often time reads "Pay 3 mana: Your next spell kills a player". Injury is nice, but we're really here for the cheap damage double and to stop any damage prevention shenanigans. We're casting Insult when we know we can go off.
[[Fiery Emancipation]] Is here because, honestly, we make so much mana we'd be stupid not to run it. Six mana to triple damage when we make dozens of mana a turn is an incredible deal, and because it's one-sided, we don't have to worry about people killing us immediately with their tiny creatures. [[Furnace of Rath]] is two mana cheaper, yes, but importantly it doubles instead of triples, and also, uh, it doubles on US. We're trying not to self-destruct.
PART FOUR: DETONATION
[[Rolling Earthquake]] hits everything without horsemanship, so it hits everything. It's strictly better than Earthquake, because if we're casting an X spell, 80% of the time we're casting it because either A) We're about to lose or B) We're about to win.
[[Molten Disaster]] has split second, which makes it uncounterable, unreturnable, and uninteractable. It's our "YOU DARE PLAY BLUE?!" card.
[[Jaya's Immolating Inferno]] targets up to three targets. You will have three opponents in your pod. The math works.
[[Comet Storm]] is flexible, in that if you've already blown someone to kingdom come, it costs one less mana! So that's nice! It's also great target removal, and great with our newest card...
[[Toralf, God of Fury]]. Oh yeah. In this deck, a deck where we overkill everything, Toralf becomes an absolute monster. Earthquake everyone, and have the excess damage dealt to their creatures finish them off. The flip side of the card also goes mana-positive with Neheb, if we really need to get there and are just out of reach. This is a card this deck loves like your opponents love not being blown off the face of the earth by fireballs.
PART FIVE: CLUSTER MUNITIONS
[[Primal Amulet]] lets us copy our damage when it flips, and makes our damage spells cheaper before it does. It's easy to see why it's an all-star here.
[[Reverberate]] lets us copy something. Sometimes it'll be the counter that's trying to stop Jaya's Immolating Inferno. Sometimes it'll be the Immolating Inferno itself.
[[Reiterate]] is a multi-use reverberate, and we have the mana to use it.
STEP 4: THE REST OF THE DECK ^{ThisIsn'tAStepButShhhhhh}
HASTE
We want to give our creatures haste. [[Generator Servant]], [[Purphoros, Bronze-Blooded]], we can wheel away an [[Anger]] with ease, and [[Ogre Battledriver]] gives us a bit of oomph when our creatures enter the battlefield. Purphoros also functions as a sneak attack for when we want a creature to attack, but we don't have the mana to get it out.
DRAW
Look. We're in mono red, which means we have... one tutor that's halfway decent for our plan, and that's [[Gamble]]. We need draw. We're running a lot of it. [[Valakut Awakening]], [[Reforge the Soul]], [[Molten Psyche]], [[Magus of the Wheel]], [[Commune with Lava]], [[Cathartic Reunion]], [[Faithless Looting]] whatever we need to draw a whole ton, we have.
The real all-star draw card is [[Knollspine Dragon]]. Draw equal to damage to target opponent? In a burn deck? In a burn deck where our burn makes mana? Oh baby you best believe that when you slam this puppy down people are going to quake in their boots. From the dragon. And maybe from the Rolling Earthquake. Or the Molten Disaster. Whatever.
REMOVAL
We're not running much actual removal, because, well, A: Mono Red, and B: We're a player removal deck. If you want board control, or if you want a deck that doesn't feel like piloting a crashing roller coaster that is currently on fire, go play [[Zada, Hedron Grinder]]. We're here for the boom boom.
[[Vandalblast]] and [[Shattering Spree]] let us remove pesky artifacts, [[Blasphemous act]] removes board states for dirt cheap, and [[Chaos Warp]] lets us deal with one of anything.
[[Deflecting Swat]] is for anyone trying to touch our Lazotep Loverboy or for stack interaction when our [[Pyroblast]] fails to stop a counter.
LANDS
[[Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx]] is pure gas, [[Ancient Tomb]] gets Neheb out fast, and [[Rogue's passage]] gets us through chump blockers and deathtouchers if we need to swing with Neheb. Other than that, it's mountains, a [[Myriad Landscape]], and a [[Smoldering Crater]] to remind our opponents of the fate that awaits them and also some draw if we need it.
SIDEBOARD
For some, four X spells isn't enough. [[Fall of the Titans]] and [[Earthquake]] are easy to slot in, and for those who want more combat, [[Fury of the Horde]] is easy enough to get. [[Mana Geyser]] is great against landfall decks, [[Red Elemental Blast]] is good if your meta includes people who try to stop you from throwing the sun at them (Cowards.). If you want more draw, [[Apex of Power]] is a free draw 10 spell, and [[Dragon Mage]] is a [[Wheel of Fortune]] on a stick. Well, Magus of the Wheel is Wheel of Fortune on a stick ALRIGHT YOU GET IT.
UPGRADES
The easiest upgrade path for this deck is fast mana. [[Mana Crypt]], [[Grim Monolith]], [[Mana Vault]], [[Jeweled Lotus]] the faster you can pump out Neheb the better. They're not on this list because they're pretty goddamn expensive, and if you turn two Neheb people are going to focus you into the absolute dirt. [[Doubling Cube]] is neat, but honestly, it's just a but overkill.
Otherwise, upgrades include [[Wheel of Fortune]], your favorite Eldrazi Titan as a big ol' beater if you like the multiple combats, [[Sword of Fire and Ice]] is just the best damn sword we can get, and I'd say get [[Gauntlet of Might]] but for many people that card costs more than rent for the month, so just skip it.
GAMEPLAN
Step 1) Cast Neheb as fast as possible.
Step 2) Deal symmetrical damage, swing in.
Step 3) Go infinite with Aggressive Assault or cast a spell where X is, like, six trillion.
We're not interested in things like "Midrange" or "Control". No. We're Neheb. We're here to get high scores on the "How much damage can I make without going infinite" leaderboards. This is not a deck that does anything besides slam into people. It explodes. It goes absolutely haywire, totally off the rails, you'll need a calculator to check your mana.
This deck exists for one reason and one reason only: This deck is for Burn Timmies. Is it competitive? Eh. Does it win a lot? Eh. Does the fear in the eyes of your opponents make this deck worth it? Yes.
For your consideration, Nuclear Neheb: https://www.archidekt.com/decks/1072303#NUCLEAR_NEHEB

Welcome to Jeskai Skalds. This is an assertive midrange deck focused on capitalizing on the incredibly powerful saga: Showdown of the Skalds. The deck's primary plan is to apply early pressure and interaction while setting up for devastating combo-like turns with the second and third lore counters.
Performance:
I have currently piloted the deck to mythic #341 with a 74% win rate over 61 matches of BO3. It has felt like it has almost no weak matchups outside of maybe Rakdos yoink and sac decks. It performs well against pretty much every version of Yorion. It is strong against Gruul adventures with the caveat that they tend to run away with the game if you can't interact with their brushfire elementals. Strong against rogues. It is a coin flip in the mirror against other Showdown of the Skald decks like Naya and straight Boros. This is a link to the deck's stats on untapped.
https://mtga.untapped.gg/profile/a2ec539b-105a-41a7-afea-f5273673359a/FVYGQCXSBREEDAMC2GXDT462M4/deck/839a8223-ecc2-4a49-b5b2-673ecc0b55cb?gameType=constructed&constructedType=ranked
The Deck:
https://scryfall.com/@TheOinkinatodecks/964164e5-025a-467f-a760-98b64d210ac5
4 Giant Killer
4 Sprite Dragon
4 Hengegate Pathway
4 Riverglide Pathway
4 Robber of the Rich
2 Mountain
3 Shepherd of the Flock
4 Crash Through
3 Temple of Enlightenment
2 Plains
4 Raugrin Triome
4 Needleverge Pathway
4 Showdown of the Skalds
4 Shock
1 Temple of Epiphany
4 Bonecrusher Giant
3 Skyclave Apparition
2 Fight as One
// Sideboard
3 Glass Casket
2 The Royal Scions
3 Disdainful Stroke
3 Drannith Magistrate
3 Ox of Agonas
1 Skyclave Apparition
Showdown of the Skalds
Showdown is the impetus for the deck. The card is of course incredibly strong by itself with any deck plan. However, there are a couple of ways to take its effects and turn them up to ten. This deck is looking to really capitalize on the second two lore counters through haste creatures & cheap spells.
The Haste Threats
Haste creatures in combination with showdown allow the deck to spend a lot less time on set up turns. It can allow the deck to generate game ending threats from an empty board which is especially important given the high quality of interaction and sweepers present in the format.
Robber of the Rich is the weaker of the two hasters. However, it still applies pressure if left unchecked so it tends to be a strong early play to eat up interaction from the opponent.
Sprite Dragon is where the money is at. It is the reason we are playing blue at all. The combination of its own counter ability and the Skalds trigger to add counters causes it to become an absolutely dominant threat. Sprite Dragons are often in the 5/5 to 10/10 range in this deck and can frequently kill in one to two hits.
Cheap Spells
The deck is playing more "low impact" spells than your average deck in standard. We are playing 4 Shocks, 4 Crash Throughs, and 2 Fight as One. The shocks are very rarely played now due to Bone Crusher Giant. These cheap spells, while not impressive on there, own synergize well with both Sprite Dragon and Showdown they allow us to almost always convert every card exiled with Showdown into actual cards and multiple counters when Sprite Dragon is on the board. Lets look at each choice:
Shock is by far the best instant/sorcery at one mana available in our colors. It actually gain a lot of equity because of Bone Crusher Giant. People are used to stomp replacing it so they rarely play around one red mana left up. In addition when you play 4 Shock and Four stomp you have a potential 16 points of burn in your deck which is no joke when you see so many cards from Showdown
Crash Through is the choice based on its ability to can trip. The deck would play Opt, but it puts too many restrictions on the mana base. There is some minor upside with the trample as creatures can get massive in this deck.
There are also two Fight as Ones in the deck as I have found the effect to be particularly potent at protecting Sprite Dragon. In addition the deck has a good spread of non-human and humans so it often finds both targets.
Adventures
We are still playing with Throne of Eldraine so we of course have access to the busted adventure creatures. They are additionally strong in this deck as they give you two spells to trigger Showdown. It also means that we get to play a creature weighted deck that still has 25 non-creature spells in it for Sprite Dragon.
Bone Crusher Giant I have already mentioned a couple of times but it is of course insane. At this point it doesn't need to be explained but, suffice it to say, this card completely slaps.
Giant Killer plays incredibly well in the deck as its creature half is reasonable and cheap which works with Skalds very well. In addition Chop Down is incredibly strong in the meta right now. Every red deck has at minimum four Bone Crusher Giants, every green deck is full of targets, and thanks to Yorion pretty much every blue and/or white deck has a playset of 4/5 fliers running around.
Shepherd of the Flock is the final adventure creature we play. It is played over Brazen Borrower both due to its superior synergy and the fact that it stresses the mana base less. Shepherd on the front side is an acceptable body that can deal damage and trade up with a few creatures. The real money is the additional spell which triggers Sprite Dragon, protects your threats, and most importantly can re-buy Showdown of the Skalds.
Skyclave Apparition is here as the deck's universal answer to most of the threats in Standard. It is an include on raw power and it of course doesn't hurt that it provides a body for Showdown counters.
The Mana Base & How to Deploy it
We are primarily a Boros deck. The only blue card in the main deck is Sprite Dragon. When deploying mana the deck wants to assemble in order of these priorities: one source of each color, two white for Skyclave Apparition, a weighting of lands toward red for combo/burn turns. This seems contradictory but it is pretty easy to assemble thanks to the Triome present in our colors. The rest of the mana base is composed of all of the available pathways and then a mix of temples that have blue and one of the other two colors. This allows the deck to get the one source of blue online while also progressing to steps two and three of the mana priorities.
Sideboard
Drannith Magistrate primarily hits four things: Adventure, Escape, Foretell, and Showdown of the Scald/Robber of the Rich type effects. If your opponent deck has 8 or more cards in these categories it can be a strong board in as it is a low effort way to pressure their resources. This is a good board in against Gruul Adventures, Izzet Flash, Rakdos Midrange, and Naya Adventures.
Glass Casket answers powerful three drops and creatures with three toughness that our main board shock effects can't hit. This is a good board in against Mono Green Variants, Gruul and Naya Adventures, Rogues, and White based aggro decks with Hallowblades.
Skyclave Apparition answers similar issues as Glass Casket while also being able to interact with certain flavors of Yorion profitably.
Disdainful Stroke is incredibly efficient at protecting you the turn before you are looking to have an insane skald turn. It can also buy an additional turn against a haymakers out of control and Yorion decks. This a good board in against pretty much every build of control and Yorion. It is also good against Izzet flash and strong on the draw against Gruul based decks to snag Questing Beast, Great Henge, and Vivien.
The Royal Scions converts your cheap creatures into scary threats while quickly building to an ultimate that tends to do about 7 damage to the face. Good against decks without many creatures and strong at snowballing while on the play. A good board in against Yorion, Control decks, and ramp decks.
Ox of Agonas is primarily targeted hate for rogues while it is mostly for the one matchup it improves the matchup so dramatically that it is worth the sideboard slots. It also can be boarded in as a one of in matchups against non-white decks that interact enough to fill your graveyard quickly.
Thanks for reading. Feel free to shoot me any thoughts or questions. This deck has been an absolute blast and I am legitimately curious if it will end up seeing more play. If I had to guess the advantage gained by adding blue might not be strong enough. I haven't played a straight Boros build yet to know for sure.

Signups are now closed! Click here to go to Tribunal.

If you haven't already, please fill out this form to finish signing up for Season 14. If you don't fill out the form, you won't be counted!

The Character Scramble is a writing prompt tournament where people compete to write the best story they can. At the beginning, everyone submits characters that meet specified guidelines. Then, the submitted characters are randomized and distributed evenly to all participants.
After each participant receives their team, the participants are slotted into a single-elimination bracket. Writing prompts are assigned and participants write a story that features their team fighting against their opponent's team. Afterward, everyone votes for whichever story they prefer, and the participant of each match with the most votes moves on to the next round. The pattern continues until only one participant remains: the new Character Scramble champion!
The champion chooses the theme, tier, and rules of the next Character Scramble. They also receive a temporary custom flair as their reward.
Click here to join the email list. If you join the email list, you'll receive an email for every Scramble post that is made.
Join the official Discord channel if you want to be part of a large, vibrant community of Scramble participants, or if you just want a quick analysis of your characters and tips for competing. The majority of Scramble discussion takes place on the Discord and we also make announcements and post links there first, so it's the best way to keep up to date on what's going on in Scramble.

Frequently Asked Questions

Character Submission List

Basic Rules / Scramble Process

• Sign-ups will be from Friday, January 8 to Friday, January 29.
  
  • PLEASE NOTE: Signups will close at 7pm PST on January 29, and Tribunal will go up. Anyone who isn’t done when Tribunal goes up will have their incomplete submissions removed or will be DQed if they don’t have enough submissions after removal. GET YOUR STUFF DONE WELL BEFORE THE DEADLINE!
• Each user who wishes to participate must submit THREE (3) characters that adhere to the rules listed in the Submission Rules section.
  
• Users may also submit up to TWO (2) back-up characters that adhere to the same set of rules.
  
  • Users must specify in the submission that the character is a back-up.
  • If a main submission is deemed out-of-tier in Tribunal, the submission will be replaced by an entry from the back-up pool.
• Users must also submit ONE (1) Devil Fruit as specified in the FAQ and may submit an additional backup Devil Fruit if they so desire.
  
• Each character must be submitted in their own parent comment in this thread. Don't reply to your own submission comment with another submission; make a separate comment thread for each individual submission.
  
• After you complete your submission posts for all of your main submissions and any back-up submissions, fill out and submit the submission form linked at the very top of this post.
  
  • If you need to make a change, just resubmit the submission form with the same name and new info. We'll use whichever version is newest.
  • DO NOT resubmit after Tribunal; we'll account for any Tribunal changes to rosters.
• After Sign-ups is the Tribunal, a community-regulated place for users to point out characters they feel are over- or underpowered.
  
  • Please keep an open mind when receiving criticism; it is encouraged for you to comment on the characters of other participants as well.
  • Characters with issues that are not amicably resolved may be replaced by a back-up character at the discretion of the GMs and a panel of selected judges.
  • If you would like to apply to be a Tribunal judge, please fill out this form.
• After Tribunal, the characters are scrambled so that every participant receives three characters.
  
  • In Season 14, each participant is guaranteed to receive one of their own submissions, but they will not receive more than one.
  • Participants also have the option to opt out of NSFW submissions and veto ONE submission out of the list of total submissions. (Users cannot veto their own submission.)
  • Links to a form for opt-out and veto will be provided after Tribunal ends and before the scrambling happens.
• Every round, a prompt is posted. Players are expected to write about how their characters would defeat their opponents based on the prompt.
  
• At the end of the round, the thread is locked and the voting thread is posted. Voting is done using Google forms.
  
  • Voting is mandatory; failing to vote in any round will result in disqualification.
  • If you cannot vote due to time constraints, message u/FreestyleKneepad and we can work around that.
• After results are posted, the brackets are updated and the next round begins.
  

Theme & Tier / Submission Rules

The theme of Scramble 14 is One Piece, based on the manga/anime series about the Golden Age of Piracy. Your team will set sail on a globe-spanning adventure, from island to island, searching for the greatest treasure of all time. For more info, check out the Hype Post.
The tier benchmark for this season is Luke Cage (616), using a modified RT we have built specifically for this season's tier.Your submissions must score between a Likely and an Unlikely Victory versus Luke. For more information about what that means, check the FAQ.
The tier benchmark for Devil Fruit submissions is the following: Scramble Luke Cage (as defined above) with the abilities granted by your Devil Fruit must be able to achieve a Draw or Likely Victory against Scramble Luke Cage with the Punch-Punch Fruit, meaning he can launch fist-sized shockwaves at bullet speed that are equal in power to his own punches. For more details on the Devil Fruit submission process, check the FAQ.
You get ONE (1) major change for any character submissions and NO major changes for Devil Fruit submissions. However, we’ll allow you to remove a bunch of out-of-tier powers from a Devil Fruit submission without counting so many changes as a major change like we typically would, so don’t worry about that. Refer to the FAQ for more info.

• If you aren’t competing and only submitting backups, you may submit 3 backup characters and 2 backup Devil Fruits. You must do the writing prompt for all character submissions.

Additionally, please adhere to the following guidelines:

• Characters must be in tier.
  
• Characters must be researchable.
  
  • The show, video game, movie, or other media from which your character originates must be accessible in some way, ideally online.
  • Your character must have a functional Respect Thread, so that people can understand your character's stats and abilities at a glance. It is preferable that your character's Respect Thread is hosted on the Respect Threads subreddit, but CharacteTeam of the Week posts or any real repository of cited feats are acceptable.
  • If your character does not have a Respect Thread of any kind, please at the minimum include a Mini-RT in the sign-up post with at least five combat-related feats that completely cover the character's stats and abilities.
  • VSBattlesWiki pages or similar sources are not acceptable Respect Threads.
• You cannot submit characters that you have created, helped to create, or in any way developed.
  
  • If the GMs believe you have asked someone else to submit a character you created, we might ban that as well.
• You cannot submit a character with feats based on a previous Scramble story. This rule prevents Scramble writers from tailoring characters to be submitted to future tiers.
  
• You cannot submit controversial real life figures. No Trump, no Putin, no Kanye, none of that. The GMs reserve the right to decide what qualifies as "controversial."
  
• While you can submit characters from NSFW series with risqué material (such as an ecchi anime), you cannot submit characters from actual pornography.
  
• The GMs reserve the right to veto specific submissions under the "Dude, come on" reasoning. This clause may sound extremely abusable, but honestly we'll only use it for submissions we feel violate the spirit of the above guidelines or are otherwise deemed unusable, like "disaster movie lava" or "a swarm of bees with the consciousness of Steve Buscemi."
  
• Characters from ongoing series remain at the balance level from when they were submitted.
  
  • If you get Goku on your team and Goku unlocks Super Saiyan Ultra Mega Deluxe with Curly Fries in the anime after the Scramble season starts, you don't get to add that power to your character. This rule applies to new feats, new weapons, new powers, and so on.

Not exactly rules, but some suggestions:

• Because you are guaranteed to receive one of your own submissions at random, submit characters you actually want to write yourself.
  
  • Ask yourself: Will your hilarious meme submission idea actually be hilarious over the course of an entire writing contest, or will the joke get old immediately?
  • If you're only submitting a character because the act of submitting them is funny, don't submit them.
  • Along these lines, while some less controversial personalities like Jerma or Adam Sandler might be submittable, we’d just like to mention that these typically aren’t well-received submissions, as they tend to require deep-diving a Youtuber’s video library or actor’s interviews and movies, which balloons research by a lot.
• If you don't have any ideas for submissions, it's recommended that you try submitting one of the many back-ups we're likely to have.
  
  • Alternatively, here's a community-created suggestions doc with potentially in-tier submissions to give you ideas.
• Sometimes people like different things, and that's okay. Don't hate on a submission just because you personally don't like the character or the series. And on the other end, you don't have to withdraw a submission just because someone else doesn't like them.
  
• You are allowed to make changes to a character for the purpose of making sure they're in tier or otherwise clarifying what gear they have available.
  
  • There are limits to the number and magnitude of changes you can make; check the FAQ for more information.
  • In general, avoid submissions with changes that radically change the character, such as "Ferris Bueller with Iron Man's armor" or "Goku with the stats of Captain America."
• Duplicate submissions aren't prohibited, but try to avoid submitting the fifth Spider-Man submission this Scramble. Check to see if someone else has already submitted your character before you.
  
• Listen to feedback. You don't have to follow it, but if a lot of people are saying the same thing, at least humor the idea that they have a point.
  

Submission Forms

To submit a character, fill out the following form in a comment to this thread. Include either the writing or non-writing prompt. As long as all of the below information is included, you can reformat your submission post however you want for maximum aesthetic.
All three of your main submissions MUST use the writing prompt to count. Back-up submissions may use the non-writing prompt.
If you're not competing and only submitting one or more back-ups, you must use the writing prompt.
The form has changed since last Scramble, so be sure to actually read it.

Character Submissions

Name: The character's name.
Series: The name of the piece of media your character is from. You can add specifications necessary.
Biography: A quick summary of your character. Who are they? What can they do? Where are they from? What are they like? It doesn't need to be a novel, but a good paragraph of information is appreciated.
Research: A link to your RT or RT-substitute, as well as any other links that might help someone understand your character quickly. You may also suggest how much of the series someone needs to read/watch to get a good idea of the character.
Justification: Briefly outline why you think your character is in tier, and where in the tier they fall (Unlikely Victory, Draw, or Likely Victory—See the FAQ for more information). The non-writing prompt already covers some of this information, but to expedite the Tribunal process, at least give a sentence or two.
Motivation: Why has your character set sail for adventure? What great desire calls them to the sea and beyond? This is where you describe what your character is fighting for. Are they a pirate seeking might, fame, or riches? Do they have a deeper desire they seek to fulfill somewhere out there in the world? Perhaps, they don’t call themselves a pirate at all. Basically, why are they here?
Major Changes: Check the FAQ for what to put here. You only get one!
Minor Changes: Check the FAQ for what to put here. You get as many of these as you need, but don't go overboard.

Devil Fruit Submissions

Devil Fruit Name: The name of your fruit. Typical naming scheme is a repeating phrase (1-2 syllables) and then “Fruit” or “no mi”, depending on whether you're naming it in English or Japanese. Zoan-type fruits may have a broader classification, then have “Model: [Species]” at the end. Examples: Gum Gum Fruit, Mera Mera no mi, Ushi Ushi no mi, Model: Giraffe.
Devil Fruit Type: Paramecia? Logia? Zoan? Refer to the FAQ for an explanation of each. The actual function of the fruit only changes if you pick Zoan, which comes with specific parameters as well.
Character Name: The name of the character these powers are derived from.
Series: The name of the media this character is from. You can add specifications as necessary.
Description: What abilities does this Devil Fruit give? Outline them here. If this is a Zoan type, describe what is unique about this new form.
Research: A link to your RT or RT-substitute, as well as any other links that might help someone understand these powers quickly. Please specify which sections of the RT are being drawn from, and if it is not clear, please organize the feats in a comment below. You may also suggest how much of the series someone needs to read/watch to get a good idea of the powers, or what parts they can specifically watch.
Minor Changes: Check the FAQ for what to put here. You get as many of these as you need, but don't go overboard. Remember, you get NO major changes!
Analysis Versus Punch-Punch Luke Cage: What advantages does your fruit offer that can turn the tides in their favour? How does the tiersetting battle play out? What strategies can be used by someone with this fruit in battle? Delve into multiple outcomes, and different ways the powers can be applied. This section should be used as a space to demonstrate what your Devil Fruit can do in a combat setting.
Other Uses: There’s a lot more to life than just fighting. In the broader scope, how might this ability be used while not directly in combat? Perhaps it’s good for espionage, or surveillance, or maybe it’s just useful to turn into a dragon every once in a while. Be creative!
Best Case Scenario: What kind of character would benefit most by getting the powers of this fruit? Would it best benefit a tough bruiser with no ranged attacks of their own, or a flimsy spellcaster who could use the help protecting themselves? This might be helpful for the recipient to decide who to give the fruit to.

Prompts

All of your main character submissions MUST use the writing prompt to count. Back-up submissions may use the non-writing prompt. If you're not competing and only submitting a back-up, you must use the writing prompt.

Character Writing Prompt

Your character’s journey has begun, but there’s a slight issue with this whole thing: Navigation is really hard. Thus, they find themselves stopped in the quaint village of Orange Town, and in order to safely get anywhere else, they’ll need some help.
Luckily for them, if they can find a Log Pose, they won’t have to worry about this issue ever again! These babies make navigation a breeze by just pointing in the direction of nearby islands. How convenient! The only issue is that the only Log Pose on this island is in the possession of a fearsome pirate, and he doesn’t plan on giving it up without a fight.
Your character comes face-to-face with Captain Luke Cage, who’s just like Luke Cage but a pirate and mean and his feats are REALLY specific for some reason. If they want this Log Pose, they’re not going to be able to get it without a fight. Whether they lay down the challenge themselves or Cage decides he wants to make an example out of them, eventually the area clears out of any bystanders. You square off, and it’s time for the showdown.
After finally achieving their victory, your character is free to take the Log Pose for themselves and set off once again. Onwards, to another adventure!
Prompt Rules:

• I’m Gonna Be King Of The Pirates!: There is no bad ending to this tale. For the purposes of Scramble, your story should always have your team or characters on the winning side. Let your story show how your victory is achieved! Even if the chances are slim to none, demonstrate how your crew is able to come out on top.
  
• Cage Match With Captain Luke Cage (Cage Not Included): This fight is going to happen. Your character can’t talk their way out of it, or hightail it out of there before anything even goes down. No matter what your character is feeling about this whole thing, they better put up their dukes, or they’re gonna get rocked right into next Scramble. And they might not even be in tier for that one!
  
• Luke Cage, More Like Colossus The Thing Power Man Mike Tyson of Mike Tyson Mysteries!: Maybe you wanna spice things up a little bit, hey, I feel ya. You can swap out someone for Luke Cage if you’d rather write them, but note that this change is purely cosmetic. The character will still have all of Cage’s stats and abilities.
  
• Where’s Everybody Going? Bingo?: Sure, there may be other people on the island, but you’ll notice it said the area cleared out. For the purposes of tiering and simplicity, the only two around these parts are your character and ole’ Luke. Feel free to get wild; there’s no one else around to hurt.
  

Character Non-Writing Prompt

Analysis Versus Luke Cage: Go deeper into how your character fares against the benchmark. How their abilities match the tier's, how their stats counteract each other, specific instances that are likely to happen in a fight between them, and so on. Because this analysis serves as a replacement for a narrative, you need to communicate how your character fights (for instance, whether they rush in headlong or approach tactically and exploit weaknesses) and what that means for them fighting other characters.
Biggest Strength and Weakness: Discuss the best thing your character brings to the table in a fight (a tactical mind, unorthodox abilities, good stats, et cetera), and also what detriments or drawbacks they might have (a specific stat that's lower than the others, lack of ranged options, inability to work with others, et cetera.)
Character in Setting/with Team: Analyze the flavor of your submission. How does your character deal with other submissions? How does your character deal with the setting? Are they inclined to thrive in a world of piracy, or are their sensibilities suited to something else? How does your character deal with just being in a Scramble? Are they good at working on any kind of team, or will they just be a pain in the ass the whole way?
Role on Ship: This is just for fun, we're not separating the submissions by roles or anything, nor do you need to give a solid title or job to any character. That being said, what skills might your character bring to the table for their fellow crewmates? Are they a natural-born leader who gets the captain's hat, or do they just steer the damn boat? Are they doing that marksman thing? Maybe cooking? Perhaps even doctoring? Ya yo ya yo? You tell us.

Howdy folks! Zaalo here. I wanted to put a list together of what I think will be the most impactful cards in Historic as well as discuss the strategies that get better and some fringe/new decks that may get enabled. I’m really excited for the set and think the card flexibility of the MDFC Gods will allow for exciting games with multiple lines of play and a varied meta game, the likes of which we haven’t seen in Historic. There is also some mainboard Uro hate that slots perfectly into both popular existing archetypes and exciting new ones. Being impactful doesn’t necessarily equate to power. I considered the following criteria when evaluating these cards for Historic:
-How often it will see play. If it slots into multiple archetypes, I tended to rate it higher
-Whether or not it enables a new archetype and/or causes a fringe deck to become Tier 1-3
-How it interacts with the meta; if an archetype or card will have a heavy warping effect on the meta
-Flexibility & raw power
Lets jump in!
Honorable Mentions: Pathway Lands/Snow Basics
Smoother land bases for Simic, Azorius, Rakdos, and Golgari. 'Nuff said. While I don’t think we’ll see snow decks running rampant, there’ll be a few good ones in the meta, even if they only end up seeing fringe play. There is one snow deck that I expect to be VERY good.

10) [[Niko Aris]]

Tempo decks are coming back! All of Niko's abilities are solid. Their first -1 will have more relevant targets than people realize, and it'll be very easy to pop off a shard or get some other card draw to take out a creature. [[Paradoxical Outcome]] hasn't really seen any play since the release of Kaladesh Remastered, but I think Niko could make that happen. I like the idea of running [[Authority of the Consuls]] on 1, controlling the early game with [[Seal Away]] and [[Baffling End]], getting down Niko, and then casting Paradoxical Outcome to get your early removal and Niko back, wiping their board next turn. I think Niko will be much better in Pioneer where you can T3feri, Spell Queller, Niko durdle to lock your opponent out. Still, I think this does enough, pairs well with Kaya, and has lots of building potential to make some waves in new Azorius/Esper tempo archetypes. Of note: one thing that makes this card a huge liability is that it is the only Planeswalker with a triggered ability, which means your opponent can destroy it before you get to activate them. Additionally it can get blown out if you pop a shard to kill an x/3 or x/4, and then get targeted by removal before you can activate.

9) [[Cosima, God of the Voyage//The Omenkeel]]

This is one of the more difficult cards in the set to evaluate, but I think it will end up being really strong in addition to its flexibility. Firstly, the stats on this are good; having a 2/4 body on 3 can stall a good amount of decks, and a 3/3 is a clock against control decks. You're reliably going to be able to hit land with your Omenkeel attacks, and even when you don't, you've taken away their spells. Vehicles line up really well in the format already, since they dodge removal, and can leave you a blocker even if your other creature gets removed. The best ability here is clearly being able to exile Cosima and use her as an engine to go toe to toe in the long game. Like Niko, I think this card's natural home is a tempo deck where you've got powerful ETB creatures, but probably most naturally fits into Simic where you're ramping anyway.

8) [[Reidane, God of the Worthy//Valkmira, Protector’s Shield]]

Wizards did a brilliant job on the design of this card. I can’t think of a more flexible hate card in the history of Magic. The problem I see with it is that it’s not doing work a lot of the time. In the current meta, it’s only punishing 25-30% of decks, with Goblins, Sacrifice, Control, and Paradox Engine being the most commonly played strategies that it nerfs. That would probably relegate it to SB play, right? Probably, but the reason the design of this card is so great is because it serves to balance the meta game should particular strategies become popular; this card allows for a constantly shifting meta since it can become a frightening mainboard threat against some dominant and powerful strategies.
Some things to keep in mind that are keeping my expectations tempered:
-I can’t see this being played mainboard in non-aggressive strategies. A 2/3 isn’t what you want in a control deck. I’m not sure what a W/X midrange deck looks like in Historic, but maybe it would have a natural home in Orzhov Angels if that becomes a thing. Right now it only slots into G/W CoCo, and once Kaldheim gets released, I think a white weenies deck is viable.
-it begs you to hit it on curve. The tax on 4 CMC is the most relevant ability.
-Valkmira's target taxing effect will likely be largely irrelevant...the taxing effect doesn’t come down til T4 (or maybe T3 in CoCo). If you get it down on three it could do some work, but is taking a turn off for a marginal tax that your opponent can play around a good play? Probably not. And by T4 the effect is largely obsolete.
-the snow mana clause will likely be largely irrelevant. The Historic builds that will make use of snow are: Sultai/DimiTemuSimic, which will often already be online or have access to removal by the time Reidane gets down; Mono U Tempo is probably going to be the best snow deck and can easily counter or bounce her. The other potentially viable snow strategies are likely to be fringe: Mono B/Dimir Zombies and Big Red - both of which have some great support cards and ARE prone to getting punished by her snow hate ability.

7) [[Usher of the Fallen]]

WOTC has nerfed 1-drops the last few years, so seeing an above rate creature with upside that slots perfectly into White Weenies makes me think we’ll be seeing a lot of this card in any aggressive, go-wide strategy. Also, the Spirit and Warrior types matters and may enable some tribal or party decks down the line. We’ll see how far these strategies go in the format, but this lil guy can at least bring them to the brink.

6) [[Tergrid, God of Fright//Tergrid's Lantern]]

This card is insanely powerful AND synergistic. The problem is that it costs 5 mana, so in order for it see play and not get blown out, you need to have free sacrifice and/or discard outlets (and ideally away to ramp into it). Rakdos builds will likely fall by the wayside, and give way to Jund Food and Jund Sacrifice, which will reliably be able to cast this and [[Immusturm Predator]]. These decks will be way more powered than the Rakdos builds and likely just as consistent. Tergrid breaks mirror matches wildly in your favor, punishing your opponent's game plan. Another place this could see play is Discard decks...[[Skull Raid]] is exactly what those decks were craving and I think we'll see Tier 3 [[Tinybones, Trinket Thief]] builds that use this as a payoff. Doom Foretold decks could also

5) [[Birgi, God of Tales//Harnfel, Horn of Abundance]]

Could we finally see a good storm deck in Historic? There’s already some decent burn decks that use Thermo-Alchemist — if they splash blue for Curiosity, that could be a house. It seems decent in Mono R without having to go all-in on cantrips. And those aren’t the only archetypes this could see play. Rakdos Midrange will love this card. If this survives T3, they’re able to have much more productive T4’s than they otherwise would — often times they’ll have to choose between dropping a Chandra, Torch of Defiance and having it die the next turn, or using a Fatal Push and falling behind on tempo. This allows those decks to double spell, stabilize the board (kill 2 creatures) AND have a Chandra, Torch of Defiance in play, ready to tick up. The back side will be amazing and help close out games in which it’s stabilized but doesn’t have any answers in hand. Graveyard decks can also maybe make use of this to; being able to multi-spell in the decks is really good. I’m thinking of dropping something like a Venture Deeper (Merfolk Secretkeeper) and Unburial Rites in the same turn. I think this will be a heavily played 2-3 of in a variety of decks.

4) [[Mystic Reflection]]

this is my favorite card in the set, and hell, probably my favorite blue spell ever printed. This does so much:
-turns an upcoming Elder Giant into a dork that can’t Escape its new destiny
-is an effective conditional counter spell against planeswalkers
-can upgrade your creatures/downgrade your opponent’s; this has all sorts of fun build around implications and can flip tempo on its head (I’m most excited to brew a donate style tempo Role Reversal deck in Pioneer with Firedrinker Satyr, Faerie Impostor, Bonecrusher Giant, Brazen Borrower, etc.)
-is an instant-kill combo piece (this + Terror of the Peaks + double token generation = 20 to the face)
-is affordably costed and can become even cheaper to set up your combo turns
Where it’ll see play:
u/x Combo Decks - the current Lukka deck is not good, but I think with the addition of Mystic Reflection, we’ll be seeing this all over Historic (and Standard)
Mono-U Tempo - functioning as a more flexible counterspell that can transform your weenies into beaters and your opponent’s beaters into 1/1’s that they won’t have much use for
Azorius Control/Esper Tempo - I think the control decks will want to move toward a more creature-laden tempo-oriented build. Mainboarding Skyclave Apparition is really good and being able to get them and other strong ETB back to your hand with Niko and Kaya can help you maintain control of the game.

3) [[Ascendant Spirit]]

I’ve spent too much time on Reddit trying to get people to see the light on this card
This is exactly what Mono U Tempo in Historic was missing. Having a mana sink on turns where you don't counter a spell or flash something in is really huge for that deck. It doesn't immediately pair well immediately with Curious Obsession, but it doesn’t need to since you’re still running your other evasive creature suite. This also allows you to lower the curve of the build.
Now let’s in to play pattern — if you play it out T1, your T2 you have the option to either cast a flashy boi, counter their spell, bluff a spell, play a non-flash flyer (likely the weakest option in most scenarios), or pump this. If you’re playing against Valki or another incredibly strong 2 drop, you can keep that mana open to counter it. If you’re playing against aggro you can leave it open to bluff blocking their T1 threat with a 2/3. If you’re playing against control or removal, you can drop an additional creature and bluff [[Spell Pierce]]. Now let’s look at what happens when you draw this card T3 (or later). Play it on 3 with two mana open, leaving up mana for a counter spell. If you don’t counter anything, you invest the mana to make it a 2/3. Your next turn: you can make it a [[Tempest Djinn]] on their turn (or yours if you really want to push through damage). So you’re turning this into a creature that’s going to have about the same stats as TJ most of the time and allowing yourself to stay on game plan by leaving up mana to counter problematic cards and win gain incremental value.
I've seen some people talking about this in Spirits or multi-color builds, but I'm skeptical that you could make the land base reliable enough to take advantage of the mana sink.

2) [[Doomskar]]

I think this just straight up replaces Wrath of God in control. Being able to cast this on T3 is a huge upgrade and gives the deck a fighting chance against aggressive decks, where it has been struggling lately. It also grants you a certain amount of bluff equity since most control decks will want to run [[Behold the Multiverse]] in conjunction. Being able to hold it up if your opponent doesn’t commit to the board and you have other answers in hand further lends to its flexibility. Having a solid control deck in the meta is a strong check on the other decks in the format.

1) [[Valki, God of Lies//Tibalt, Cosmic Impostor]]

I was initially pretty disappointed in the card. I thought it would have pretty narrow building restrictions because I believed that any deck that wants this has to care about casting the Tibalt side reliably (this still may be true). As a result, I had thought that Jund and ramp strategies were the only options. I’ve since come around and think that it’s completely busted and will see a lot of play in several archetypes. Here’s my overview on the card:
Unlike most legends, he’s rarely dead in multiples since you can have Valki permanently copy their creature and then drop another Valki.
While copying an Uro on T3 is great, how about casting Tibalt on T3?! [[Release to the Wind]] builds seem very real to me in both Historic and Pioneer, and will only continue to get more great targets with the MDFC’s abound in upcoming sets through the year. Adventure cards play really nicely with RttW as well and I could see a new type of Reanimator build with Merfolk SecretkeepeStitcher’s Supplier. Doom Foretold decks may also want to splash red for Tibalt/RttW. The best Grixis decks that include him, I think will want to focus on cheating him out rather than controlling the early game to cast him late. I believe that the best decks that make use of him will be the ones that try and ramp or cheat him into play as opposed to more classic control strategies.
There are so many ways to cheat Valki into play from your graveyard- Lurrus, Call of the Death-Dweller, Inscription of Ruin, Elspeth Conquer’s Death, Claim//Fame. It’ll be interesting to see how effective a reanimator deck is, and with all the GY fillers/and way to recur creatures, I think we’ll get a few decks with intersecting archetypes.
Play patterns: I think most people are a little too high on the Valki side. Playing this on T2 is what you want to be doing against a lot of decks. It’s too fragile to just about any removal spell and paying 2 just to see your opponent’s hand and draw out a removal spell doesn’t seem great. It seems much better as a midgame card, where you can activate the ability the same turn it comes down. The play pattern will likely change depending what you’re playing against, but I predict that more often than not, playing Valki on curve isn’t what you want to be doing.
I think Tibalt will boost the popularity of these fringe Jund Midrange, Grixis Control, and possiblyRakdos Midrange, and will likely give birth to a “Release the Adventures Reanimator” deck pairing Release to the Wind with DFCs.
Other Cards Worth Mentioning

[[In Search of Greatness]]

I was initially a sour-sport to the players who were bullish on this card. And while it’s been incredibly overrated, mostly because people seem to miss that the free cast only counts other permanents (so you can’t play a free 3-drop on T3), this does have some powerful implications, albeit incredibly narrow.
In order to effectively build-around it, you need to:
-have ways to keep refilling your hand and/or tutor cards; the enchantment asks A LOT to go off. Not only do you need to curve out and keep your permanents on the battlefield, but you have to have the right card in hand at the right time AND an additional good spell in hand to gain a tempo advantage.
-only play high CMC creatures (if at all); as payoffs. Taking a turn off to play ISOG and then curving into a three-drop creature only to have it die before your upkeep means you’ve probably already lost. To avoid this, I’d only be playing enchantments (which dodge most removal spells) and spells at the 1-4 CMC slots.
Thus, the only place I think this could see play is in Abzan, Bant, and 4-Color Doom Foretold decks or Selesneya Prison decks. It’s far more likely to succeed in a Doom Foretold deck, since there’s good card draw options in Omen of the Sea, though having access to Idyllic Tutor to get the Solemnity + Nine Lives lock online is pretty janky and if you HAD to play a 3-drop creature, Setessan Champion does what you want it to do. That said, I still think this card asks too much, and that it’ll be bad if you don’t play it early.

[[Skull Raid]]

This card is a major role-player that the Tinybones discard strategies were desperately missing. When testing Mono B, Dimir, and Grixis discard decks post-Jumpstart, I was usually losing because I wasn’t drawing enough discard when I needed it, had dead discard spells in hand, or was not able to draw into my finishers fast enough for my opponent to stabilize. This card is so flexible and plays great on curve. Foretelling this on 2 into Waste Not and Thoughtseize T3, and having a flexible spell on 4 can destroy a lot of more powered decks. Tergid is also a solid top-end for the deck. I think in order for this to be a tier deck, it’ll need a symmetrical draw effect that doesn’t punish or tax you too badly.

[[Immersturm Predator]]

A resilient flyer and free sac outlet that breaks the mirror match in your favor and snipes Elder Giants from GY's will definitely see play and keep sac decks in the top tier. Jund Food/Sacrifice will be the go-to builds.

[[Old-Growth Troll]]

There's no denying this card's power and it will definitely see play in the Mono G stompy (and possibly even G/b decks). The problem is that those decks are already really crowded at the 3-drop slot, so while slightly upgrading the deck, it doesn't really do anything to break new territory.
Tribes
It's hard to say how well tribes will fare in Historic, since we haven't really seen how well the new tribal payoffs play. Most of the decks don't seem to have enough support or be powerful enough to make the cut in Historic. Here's my breakdown of the Kaldheim tribes and their potential impact on Historic:
Elves: [[Elvish Warmaster]] seems underpowered - it fights for a slot with [[Dwynen's Elite]], but has no immediate impact. I could see the decks including 1-2 still, but its hardly an all-in card. [[Tyvar Kell]] is a sideboard card that can help play the long game against Midrange and Control. [[Realmwalker]] is crazy good ([[Experimental Frenzy]] on a stick) and what I like best for this deck. It'll be meta dependent, whether it's a mainboard or sideboard card, but if the deck sees any significant tier play, it will be because of this card. Golgari elves doesn't seem to make sense in Historic, since there's not any really payoff for doing so, and Mono G may also be able to make use of snow cards. Overall, I'm not all that impressed with the deck, but could see it bumping up to T3 on the back of Realmwalker.
Giants: I could maybe see an Izzet or Grixis Giant control deck being a thing. You don't need that many Giants in your deck for it to tick, but I think there's better and stronger things to be doing in the format, and a lot of the Giant payoffs you'd be in for are just prone to getting turned off before you get the benefit. Probably fringe play, but nothing special here.
Angels: Of all the tribes, I think Angels got the most best cards, but not synergistic for an Angel-tribal deck. That said, I think there are enough lifegain pieces for a Tier 2 or 3 deck to be viable. It would likely be very different than the [[Soul Warden]]/[[Heliod, Sun-Crowned]] decks floating around. The curve plays really strongly here with [[Speaker of the Heavens]] and [[Bishop of the Wings]] with [[Resplendent Marshal]], Reidane, and [[Righteous Valkyrie]] all viable options on turn 3. These decks will also have access to two really good anti-control cards in [[Glorious Protector]] and to a lesser degree Redaine, who can delay their board wipes. If any of the tribal decks get there, I think this will be the one.
Zombies: [[Narfi, Betrayer King]] is Death Baron’s best buddy: a lord that’s great fodder for [[Cryptbreaker]] and ETBs at instant speed. This is so powerful. Zombies may very well make some waves in Historic in a Mono B or Dimir build. There's still a few pieces missing for this to be a top tier deck, but I think it could see some play and will eventually get there (WOTC, I think Gravecrawler is acceptable for Historic Masters 4). The deck wants an additional discard outlet, another good 1 and/or 2 drop zombie, and could’ve benefited from an additional cheap snow card. The downsides of a Mono B vs a Dimir build is up for debate: on the one hand, Mono B has a consistent snow mana base so you can reliably cast him from the GY but get punished if you get him stuck in hand; on the other Dimir has more building options and a way to hard cast him (not what you want to be doing) but an unreliable snow base for recursion. If I were going to build this deck, I'd start with Mono B, but I'm likely going to wait until we get the things I mentioned.
Berserkers: While [[The Bloodsky Massacre]] is one of the best sagas on its face, there just isn't enough tribal support for Historic. In Standard and Pioneer though...
Warriors: There's some good Warriors in the set, but nothing strong enough that I'd choose it over another aggressive strategy.
Changelings: These are roleplayers to make other tribal strategies work. Not happening.
Dwarves: Magda's day in the sun will come, but there isn't enough support for her yet. I think she's the card to watch in anticipation of the D&D set.
Trolls: LOL...nope
Sagas
The Sagas are interesting in that the Uncommon cycle is likely to see more play than the rares. I think in general, most of the sagas won’t see play except occasionally in fringe archetypes. The only ones I think will see play in any tier decks are:
[[King Narfi’s Betrayal]] - This is a great enabler for graveyard strategies and feeds into your game plan right away as opposed to [[Battle for Bretagard]], for example. It’s second and third modes are also extremely powerful for three mana, and still does a lot of work if you only get one creature or PW out of the deal. Yes, it's slow, but it does everything a Reanimator deck wants to do for only 3 mana.
[[Showdown of the Skalds]] - Could very likely be a two of in the top end of some aggressive Boros strategies. I haven’t seen any decklists that would suggest a tier player here, but there may be enough in this set for some party decks to thrive…a Naya CoCo deck similar to the G/W lists we’ve seen could also makes use of a card draw beefer-upper like this.
[[The Trickster-God’s Heist]] - Switcheroo is a unique effect, and this is a great tempo flip in [[Doom Foretold]] lists against midrange decks that could also break the mirror; I’m here for swapping a [[Treacherous Blessing]] for an [[Elspeth Conquers Death]].
[[Arni Slays the Troll]] - I don’t see too many Gruul lists running [[Domri’s Ambush]] anymore, but depending on how the meta shakes out, this could be successful in a hyper-aggressive, weenie/mono R dominated format (which I think we’re unlike to see).
[[Kardur’s Vicious Return]] - This is likely too slow for the sacrifice decks, but with discard decks getting an upgrade in [[Skull Raid]] and Tegrid, I think this slots in wonderfully. Sacrificing a [[Burglar Rat]] to stabilize the board and then further fuel your game plan in the coming turns is solid.
A Beloved Archetype Gets Tools
Big Red snow gets a lot of things to bump this archetype up! Unfortunately, as long as Aether Gust is in the format, I don’t think this deck has a real shot. That said, it gets a lot of great cards that will almost certainly get better with the D&D set this fall. [[Goldspan Dragon]] is probably on par with [[Glorybringer]]; and in some situations, ramping will be the stronger option. [[Toralf, God of Fury]] can upgrade your board wipes out of the SB. [[Tundra Fumarole]] allows for some tempo blowouts, especially when paired with Chandras. [[Frost Bite]] is an amazing piece of early removal to help you control the early game before you go off. [[Birgi, God of Tales//Harnfel, Horn of Abundance]] is very powerful in helping you go off with two big spells in the same turn and get you a card advantage engine in the late game. It also has access to Demon Bolt (which is probably worse than Redcap Melee out of the SB). Magda is very good too, but doesn’t have enough support yet.
Sign-Off
While Kaldheim took a fairly big power dip overall compared to recent sets, I think there are some brilliantly designed/flexible cards that will give birth to a diverse and powerful metagame.
I also predict that Uro will NOT be banned, and think that may even be the right call (I hate the card as much as the next player). This set offers powerful maindeck answers that are part of your game plan in Valki, Mystic Reflection, and Immersturm Predator.
Let me know what y’all think! Did I overlook a card? Am I overrating certain strategies? What do your top 10 lists look like for the format?

Note: Many of the links are to the Amity Arena Library, a website devoted to the game which includes tracking the history of it through patchnotes and a running history of what cards entered and left the meta. Their website was a valuable resource for this post.

Mobile gaming has taken off like a wildfire since the advent of the smartphone boosted the average processing power a phone could carry. Initially it took the form of crossing over older, more easily runnable games onto the mobile market to... mixed success, but in recent years we've seen both the West and East use mobile gaming to replace the old fashioned movie tie in game. It's easily accessable, has a much wider reach than consoles or PC, you can take it on the go and standards are inherently lower for mobile games than they are a full 60 dollar game.
Since the 2010s, mobile gaming has shifted to what's called the "Freemium" module. The game itself is free to download and start playing, but is insideously designed with obnoxious paywalls or artificial limiters put in place to limit how much you can play each day. If the game is part of a pre-existing franchise, additional money can be made through a premium currency or a chance to obtain high-powered units by rolling a slot machine random chance mechanic. And thus, gacha gaming was born. This sub has had several threads in the past on high profile gacha games, such as the monolithic Fate Grand/Order, Pokemon Go or Genshin Impact. One of the more popular things to roll for in gachas as a consequence is wallpapers for your homescreen, especially for high-grade units as they're usually animated to move a little bit on the homescreen. Today we're looking a low to mid-tier gacha game that rose and fell with the advent of one catgirl. Let's talk RWBY.
RWBY is an online web anime made by Rooster Teeth focusing on four prospective monster hunters who get embroiled in a world-spanning shadow war. It's of debatable quality in matters of animation, combat, voice acting, story, worldbuilding, romance, and it's kind of a little racist if I'm being honest, but one of the major positives of RWBY is that the series tends to have good character design. Series creator Monty Oum set in the guidelines for the show while making it that most if not every design should be made to be cosplay friendly, hence why most of the outfits have things most costume designers haven't heard of like... pockets. And Rooster Teeth, above all else, likes making money. So they know people like RWBY's character designs, enough so that in 2017 plans were made to release a gacha game themed around RWBY called Amity Arena, which would be developed by Korean company NHN Entertainment.
Amity Arena is a PvP tower defense game. Each player controls two turrets and a tower and has three minutes to use units themed from the show to destroy the other player's structures. Whoever took out more wins, destroying a tower is an instant victory. When the game launched, it had three tiers for units- Common (generally held for mooks or low-tier characters in the show), Rare (roughly protagonist-level or elite mooks go here) and Epic (High tier characters usually with an active ability that did lots of damage or stopped enemies in their tracks). The game launched in October 2018 to generally positive reviews from both mobile game players and RWBY fans alike. Fans were happy to get a lot of new official art for the characters in the game and the base gameplay loop was fun. Criticism at the time was largely themed around the lack of content besides PVP matches and some issues with the meta but overall, the launch went well. Each month, the developers would add new units, including popular characters like Neopolitian, Cinder Fall, Zwei the dog, and more.
But everything changed with February 20th 2019, which introduced Neon Katt, the titular catgirl (RWBY characters are themed around fairytales, except for Neon, who is themed around Nyan Cat, and her partner Flynt Coal, who is themed off a potentially racist joke made by Rooster Teeth).
Neon is a character from RWBY Volume 3 who's part of a team that RWBY face during a tournament arc. Her partner, Flynt Coal, was part of the game at launch, and Neon would join him a few months later. Neon in the show is a cocky fighter who taunts the heroes and zips around on rollarskates, which in-game is represented by Neon skating towards the nearest enemy structure to her and hitting it, while all units within a radius of Neon are taunted and provoked into attacking her above all other targets unless they-selves are coded to hit structures. On its own, not a bad idea for a unit, but Neon came with four big caveats:

• Neon was the fourth corner of the square that became known as the Artillery Arena meta, which saw Neon, Cinder (who had an AOE ability she could use which was wide enough to hit a turret and tower and single-handedly killed the entire launch meta of using fragile swarm units), Zwei (an on-summon high damage AOE on any part of the map) and Penny (another AOE ability that instead did chip damage and locked a location down) turn the game's meta into a chip game. Every player ran at least one of the above cards, if only to counter the others. Neon was the universal counter in being anti-swarm and the hardest to stop, especially at launch where her taunt range was so large, it could grab units from the other lane.
  
• Neon launched with a unit weight of "Heavy", which meant that if she was behind a unit she could push it on her way to the turret. This launched a sub-meta where Neon was placed behind a larger unit such as the Ursa (which like Neon was a unit that focused on structures but was made slow to cover its tankiness), to push them towards the turret faster. This was called Disco Bear. They eventually patched this so Neon phased through units by making her a lightweight.
  
• Neon couldn't die. She was invincible until she hit a structure, which combined with her taunt meant that Neon was very annoying to fight and could lock down an entire lane of the battlefield by being placed well and taunting enemies to let you prepare a counter.
  
• Neon was a very cheap unit to summon. Amity Arena uses a mechanic called "Aura" where all units cost a certain amount and it recharges over the match- for instance, protagonist Ruby Rose has a Rare card that costs four Aura to summon, while Weiss Schnee has two rares that cost three and five. Neo only cost two Aura, which made her one of the cheapest units of the game and thus disproportionately powerful for her cost and easy to cycle through your deck so you could spam her.
  

From the word go, Neon is an unpopular unit; she's clearly overbalanced and elements such as the Disco Bear glitch have players thinking she'll have to get knocked down in a nerf- she'll either be made slower, more expensive, or able to die pre-hitting a structure, right?
Neon doesn't show up in the next patch. Instead, before she's fixed, an entire new class of units called Legendaries are introduced, and this is where the game goes full gacha. Legendaries were meant to represent the highest tier characters in the game, the ones who were either the most popular characters or the highest-tier fighters in the show. Or in some cases, the popular ships such as combo cards for White Rose (Ruby/Weiss), Bumblebee (Blake/Yang) and Flower Power (Ren/Nora). Legendaries, representing their value, were impossibly rare and had an infinitely small chance of actually appearing (The most reliable method was to buy the premium chests and hope you'd roll a Legendary, which often cost tons of money), and if you did get one, there was no way to guess which Legendary you'd actually get. Some such as White Rose and Adam were high tier units, others like Hazel or Checkmate were... kinda broken at launch. The playerbase isn't happy at this, especially as free to play players are left out in the cold and reliant on the game giving them high tier units effectively out of pity.
Neon would get a small nerf in the April patch which lessened her taunt range and killed the Disco Bear meta, but her invincibility would be left untouched, even as players submitted feedback regarding how to make it more efficient. The official Amity Arena discord has a weekly feedback section on Tuesdays where players could submit up to four suggestions on how to nerf/buff units and general requests for quality of life such as "Can this character get a new skin from this part of the show," or "Can we have an option to lower music volume that's not just muting all music?" (they never did add that second request) Neon would then remain in this state until the November patch, despite constant weekly requests for a Neon rework, and all it would do is make Neon functionally mortal, in that she had a flat shield bar of 20 that would be lowered by one for each attack before the next hit would kill her. Neon could now die... but your chances of actually doing enough damage to stop her were slim, and regardless, you were now at a serious Aura defecit.
It took seven months for this one unit to get a substantial nerf, all while the game added new units every week and the number of units being affected by patches each month began to gradually sink. To round up some of the major issues people had with Amity that developed throughout 2019 alongside Neon's general existance making life hell:

• Common units were meant to be chump fodder, but could level up the most amount of times with a level cap at 13. This meant longer-term units that had a long time to level such as the Xiong Family card, the AK-130s the Beowolf Pack, or the White Fang gunners, could become shockingly strong if players grinded the money up to reach max level.
  
• A pre-existing divide between free players and players willing to burn money IRL to get access to premium currencies led to a huge disparity in play. Free players have long complained about how hard it is to scrounge money together to level up units at higher costs as even the basic currency of Lien is hard to get large quantities of (you get a certain amount every match win but otherwise you need to burn the Schnee Premium Dust currency for the highest payouts, but SPD is also needed for shop resets, buying crates or unlocking cosmetics). The developers used to do frequent double weekends where all gains were doubled for a weekend, but these became less and less frequent as time went on. Legendaries only added to the divide, as their rarity was bad enough for players willing to spend money (one player, known as one of the largest whales in the community, in trying to get Sienna Khan, reported burning nearly nine hundred dollars on her, while taking nearly six hundred to get the Ice Flower card).
  
• One actual counter was born to fight Neon in the Argus Shield, a stationary unit that existed solely to stall units and take damage. At 2 Aura, it was the first structure to counter Neon, which allevated one of the primary problems with Neon in that no way to counter her was cost-efficient for an enemy player. They buffed the Wall to 3 Aura eventually which killed that hope, and all this happened before Neon's November nerf.
  
• The Summer of 2019 saw a large number of defensive units released; alongside the Argus Shield, several different units were released themed around turrets for the technological kingdom of Atlas, such as the Beam Turret. The Atlesian Burrow Gun was the straw that broke the camel's back and made for a miserable meta as the Burrow Gun would only appear (and be available to take damage) when a unit entered its range. These three units together were all very overpowered on launch and led to a large exodus of players sick of defensive and chip-based metas, especially as what few offensive units that were good enough to counter these metas (such as Professor Port and Adam Taurus) were often nerfed into the ground within a month of release.
  
• Also around this time it became apparent that the developers were unable to meet the quotas that Rooster Teeth was forcing on them. The social media team admitted that a certain number of units needed to be in the game in time for Winter 2019 when Volume 7 was set to start, and as the year went on more and more game-breaking bugs were being found in units, or they were at best horrifically undertuned or overpowered. The Apathy was perhaps the largest case of this, as an unfound bug pre-release meant that the Apathy (who have a passive ability that let them self-duplicate) had no cap on their power, meaning that they could immediately overwhelm defenses and in the case of some phones, be such a resource hog the phone would crash. Many Legendary units were especially guilty of being under-tuned due to low Legendary availability meaning they were simply weren't powerful enough to compare with high-levelled units. Checkmate's ability simply didn't work at launch, and Neon made several more such as Hazel Rainart a joke. May Marigold's invisibility bubble would have been an interesting game changer... were it not for a bug that made it that units placed in the bubble still played their sound lines, meaning players knew what to expect. Things were so bad that when Flower Power launched and wasn't broken or needed an emergency patch, the playerbase were shocked.
  

Unfortunately, the Novemember patch did little to stop the problems with Neon, and a new problem would rear its head for Christmas: Jinn. This unit embodied many of the problems players had: She was a Legendary so it would be hard for free players to get her, and only added to the sheer number of Legendaries that were out there. She was another structure card, and she was horrifically broken. Stopping time for seven seconds in an area around any friendly units, Jinn broke the game overnight, with players horrified at how little playtesting she'd clearly had. Most chip units now couldn't damage structures as Jinn simply could stop time and freeze the turret for the duration of the attack. And to make matters worse? She cost two Aura, meaning it was very easy to cycle a deck and start Jinn spamming.
And yet at two aura she was still one of the only cost-efficient Neon counters... until they patched her to be worth three Aura instead. Talking of the feline menace, January saw Neon get a HP nerf that set her shield at 14. Finally, Neon could be realistically be taken out, still at an Aura defecit but at least it can be countered and now they just have to raise her Aura- why are you buffing her game?
Less than a month later, Neon got, of all things, a buff. Her HP shield was set at 20, and her attacks now did double damage. This is around the point where a lot of players begin to suspect the developers aren't listening to feedback and more long-term players dip out or drop the game. Neon got touched one more time in April, which slowed her down (which itself was a problem as Neon's lessened speed on spawn simply made her better at generating aggro), she dealt 10% less damage and made it somewhat easier to hit her enough to kill her, but a new problem was on the horizon. Because Neon was now no longer the game's White Whale for patches.
Meet the White Fang Gunner Barracks. Added in September 2019, the Barracks fell under many player's radar simply because they were horrifically undertuned. Their gimmick was that every few seconds, a White Fang Gunner would spawn, with three spawning on death. In April, as Neon got her last appearance in the patches, the Barracks got a huge buff and became the centerpiece of the meta; they now spawned two Gunners, which made them immensely valuable for just five Aura. You could overwhelm many anti-swarm units before they had a chance, and shred your way through turrets.
The Barracks would then go six months before this overtuning was rectified, barring one nerf in August that lowered their health to try and stem the tide of units. To sum up every other thing that went wrong during the year meta-wise:

• The playercount was getting so low that players were able to make lists of the AI bots the developers had in place so lower-level players had a challenge (Amity breaks up players by a trophy system where you gain trophies with every win, and by this point most of the active players were in the 2500 to 3500 range. This also meant new players steamrolled through the lower levels only to hit a brick wall in the 3000 range, with the only reliable solution being to willingly lose matches until you were in your optimal range and grind victories until you reached a certain level.
  
• The patches became more and more threadbare, going from 8+ units getting changed each month in early 2019 to three units at most getting changed in 2020 patches outside of the anniversary patch going back to the golden days of eight. The only area where they didn't get more threadbare was in the cosmetics and emotes that the developers were cranking out, all of which were only available through hours of grinding or premium currencies. This was despite the fact that the units were being released slower, going from once a week to once a fortnite.
  
• The majority of units added in 2020 were Epic or Legendary tier, which were the hardest to get for free players unless they got lucky and they were added to the store (and if they had the lien as a Legendary in the store costs a flat 40,000 Lien). One Common and four Epics were released compared to twelve Epics and seven Legendaries. The release of Moonslice Adam especially was annoying for this regard, as Adam already had a Legendary released (at least for Team RWBY, each of them headlined a Legendary when it came to the team attack cards), and this was clearly done to pander to Adam's fans again as his first unit saw a spike in interest in the game. The math was done and showed how artifically scarce Legendaries were made.
  
• The undeovertuning was still in play. Colossus is seen as one of the worst cards in the entire game because of its gimmick. I have literally never seen anyone play it. Flynt became overtuned and now he's a staple thanks to his trumpet's AOE attack being able to hurt turrets and shred most units. Launcher Nora was an especially overtuned unit thanks to her high-damage constant AOE barrage and long range meaning she could annhilate most anything if given enough cover. Even after patches she's still dangerous. September saw the White Fang Dropship Formation added, which was widely seen as a terrible unit and done as an emergency addition because the planned unit for September in the Grimm Seer had to be cut last minute for technical reasons.
  
• The game has barely had significant content added since launch, with the primary gameplay still just being PVP. Barring Battle of Beacon (a mode where you can play as Ruby and Weiss and fend off Grimm which most players just use to grind chests, and no, they still haven't added Blake or Yang) and Plaza (a lobby where you can dress up as a character and run around Beacon), the game has added no new features and quality of life content players have requested since launch (rerolling in the shop, Superior Crates having guaranteed Legendary spawn rates) have been released at a snail's pace (you still can't reroll Legendaries if you're looking for a specific unit). Academies where players can unite to trade units and chat still lacks features that have been requested for years such as the ability to delete messages. And Plaza immediately went to hell because players were doing erotic role play in the chats and after people came forward with proof that minors were being sexually harassed in the Plaza or being coerced into side-channels, the dev response was to... just turn off the chat entirely instead of banning the accounts or implementing moderation. This also removed the chatlog which deleted a lot of the evidence of said harassment.
  

As OctobeNovember comes in, the players are getting more and more furious. The weekly feedback includes a near constant demand for an acknowledgement from the developers given how often it feels like the feedback is being ignored. The social media team get caught several times hyping up how the coming patch would address player concerns, only for said patch to lack those units. The meta has been locked down to the Xiong Family, Flynt, Launcher Nora, Spider-Mines and the hell-cat herself in Neon. Everyone runs at least one of these, people run meta decks not because they want to, but because it's the only way to have a chance of victory.
And then in December, things implode. The patch for the month was set to launch on December 10th with the monthly event missions. But when the clock rolls around, the event missions (which usually take about two weeks to do if you're doing as many as you can a day)... has a six day timer. And the update doesn't come out. The art team doesn't release new unit art. The shop has no special timed bundles. There's no patch notes. And then the Twitter team who've been hard carrying the game through... actually talking to the players and acknowledging the grievances they have... admitted that they don't know what's going on either. The best guess is that the devs have come down with Covid, but no statements to confirm or deny this leave it as guesswork. The timer eventually got reset and people could do the event, but then on Christmas itself, another issue.
Ruby has appeared in the plaza on Halloween (her canonical birthday) and Christmas, and if you go talk to her you get free stuff. But on Christmas people, people discovered that Ruby was talking as if you'd already talked to her. Because they hadn't updated Ruby yet for 2020. She still thought it was 2019 so if you'd talked to her then for goodies, she had none now. They patched it eventually but a lot of people didn't see this fix before the timer ran out to get the free stuff.
Some have resorted to memes to cope with the fact that the game just seems to have died out of the blue. Others have been trying to desperately rally the players and find a way to save it. Some resorted to friendly mockery of the whales who'd spent thousands on a game that seems to be dying (seriously though gacha games need to curb this shit but they won't because whales are godsends for their bank balances).
If the game doesn't get an update in January then two months without new content will mark the end, and the already significant playercount drops will only increase. And it's hard to say if any one thing could have turned Amity Arena's fate around beyond just "Have a better balancing team who can respond better to feedback." Neon began the time of death, but by the time December rolled around the meta was in a horrifically toxic place where if you wanted to make any progession, you had to get down and dirty with the pigs. The team just constantly failed to balance problem units outside of their emergency hotfixes of Jinn, and more often then not they went after units and buffed or nerfed them at random going off playcounts to determine what needed fixing instead of the actual written feedback they were getting. It's clear from the references to the show and some of the attempts to reach out to the community that at least one person in the team genuinely wanted to make the good appealing to RWBY fans, but somewhere during the game's lifespan, they lost their way. Less focus needed to be put on how to milk the players, and instead focusing on making a game sustainable and enjoyable enough to warrant the cosmetics and emotes. The game's failure ultimately isn't on the playerbase. It's on the people who were actually making the game who chose to slack off because they thought it acceptable to do so.
Thanks for reading.
EDIT: HOT OFF THE PRESSES, I JUMPED THE GUN
Had I waited one more day, my story would have had a far more sudden ending, as the game just announced its shutdown for January.
RIP.

About God Field

So recently I noticed that 5th gen, Pekora and Matsuri have started streaming/playing the game God Field. Suisei & Shion also joined in to play on Pekora's stream. Pekora also mentioned potentially doing a tournament for the game (not confirmed yet though). It seems like we might continue to see more streams of this game within Hololive.
However, I haven't seen anyone TLing any stream clips, which is a shame since it's a very funny game, made even more entertaining when Hololive members are playing it! I suspect it's because the game isn't well known to the overseas audience, so I decided to make this guide for TLers and EN fans who are interested but don't understand the game. I've provided examples from Hololive streams so that you can practice following along.
If you don't know anything about God Field, in short, it's a party card game. You could say it's like the Mario Kart of card games, and by that I mean it's a mixture of skill and unfair RNG mechanics and lucky card draws. The game also has the weird ability to make players start role playing, somehow due to its weird "God" theming and its unusual card and status names. You'll see players start to say silly things as they attack each other cards like "Goodbye Sword" or inflict weird status effects like "Fog". But these aspects are what creates very hilarious interactions and dialogue between the players, some of which I'll include at the end of this guide as a bonus.
You can also play the game for free here, but there's no tutorial, so I recommend reading this guide as you go.

Basics

The goal is to get your opponent's HP to 0. There are two main card types, attack (攻) cards and defence (守) cards. During your turn, you use attack cards to attack an opponent. The opponent can use defence cards to defend against it. 1ATK is equal to 1DEF.
EX: Suisei attacks Pekora with the 14 ATK "Violent Flail" (a very fitting card for her). Pekora defends with "Iron Armor", a 5DEF card, so she takes 9 damage. (https://youtu.be/LugGHWGuVIc?t=3161)
When defending, you can stack as many defence cards as you want at once. But for attacking, it's a bit different. You can only use 1 attack card normally, but you can combine "combo attack" cards to make a stronger attack. You can tell if it's a combo attack card if it has a "+" in its damage, for example "+3 攻" or "+3 ATK". Note that combo attack cards don't have to be used in a combo, they can also be used as standalone attacks.
EX: Polka attacks Lamy with a monstrous 10+13+10 card combo, a total of 33 damage. Lamy defends with a 1, 3, and 9 DEF combo, a total of 13 DEF, so she takes 20 damage. (https://youtu.be/LugGHWGuVIc?t=3314)

Elements

Some cards are color-coded, meaning they have an element. Elemental attacks can only be blocked with an elemental defence of a certain element. Fire & water (red & blue) counter each other, and stone & wood (grey & orange) counter each other. Elemental attacks are very hard to deal with, because you often won't have the specific elemental defence needed in your hand. Elemental cards themselves are also more uncommon than non-elemental cards. Note that you can use elemental defence cards to defend against non-elemental attacks too.
EX: Lamy attacks Botan with "Fire Crossbow", a +4 ATK fire card. Note that she used a combo card by itself instead of making a combo, which was actually a good play, because it preserved the card's element, making it so that Botan needed water element defence to defend it. Of course, Botan didn't have it, so *she took 4 damage. (https://youtu.be/LugGHWGuVIc?t=2603)
*This is a funny moment during a 3v3 team game of "Botan/Polka/Suisei" vs "Pekora/Nene/Lamy", where Botan says she'll "be a wall" for her teammates, and proceeds to get brutally focus-fired by the opposing team. More on why that happens later.
Actually, there are two more elements that behave quite differently: light (yellow) and dark (purple). Light cannot be blocked, and can substitute as Fire/WateStone/Wood for both attacks and defence. So it's like a wildcard element, as well as being virtually undefendable (a few cards can block it). Dark can be blocked by anything, even by non-elemental defence, but it kills the opponent if even 1 damage goes through. As you can imagine, both of these elements are very scary to deal with.
EX1: Shion attacks Pekora with "Justice Lance", a 5 ATK light card. Note that none of Pekora's defence cards are lit up, showing that they can't be selected, because again, light element attacks are unblockable. (https://youtu.be/LugGHWGuVIc?t=5623)
EX2: Botan attacks Nene with "Killer Fork", a 5 ATK dark card. Nene didn't have any defence cards, so she died despite having 24HP due to the dark element's instant kill effect. Note that Botan likely knew she had no defence cards, because in the early rounds of this 3v3 team game, Team Suisei/Botan/Polka all attacked Nene, causing her to use her up defence cards early on. (https://youtu.be/LugGHWGuVIc?t=2977)
You might be thinking that if you combine something like +10 ATK cards with a 5 ATK dark element card, you have the recipe for an OP combo. But actually, stacking attack cards of different elements will cause the entire attack to become non elemental, so you'll lose the "dark instant-kill" effect. However, there are combo cards which are elemental, so if you're lucky enough to get a +5 ATK dark element, you can combine it with a 5 ATK dark element to create a very lethal dark element attack.

Tip for Following Along as a Viewer

It can be hard to add up all the cards and consider the elements for a given interaction, especially when the players play very fast. Some cards are also both attack and defence cards, meaning they have an ATK and DEF value, making it extra hard to understand if you don't know the kanji. So as a tip, the game itself will show the total ATK, total DEF, and elements of a given interaction. It's shown below each of the two "card columns" of the field.
And as mentioned before, usable cards will light up in your hand, so you can tell if the streamer was forced to take an attack because they had no cards to play, or if they took it in purpose to save their cards for later.
EX1: Polka attacks with a 9ATK card and +10 Light ATK *card. Remember that non elemental and light don't combine, so it's actually just a non elemental attack altogether. Note the "19 攻" near the bottom left, showing the total attack, and the fact that it's black means that it's non elemental. On Nene's side, it shows a black "15 守" , meaning the total defence is 15, and is also non elemental. (https://youtu.be/LugGHWGuVIc?t=2679)
*The light card Polka used is called "Meteor", hence why Polka says Suisei's catchphrase in reference to it.
EX2: Lamy attacks Botan with 3 wood ATK and +1 light ATK. Since light substitutes as wood, you can see in the bottom-left that it becomes an orange "+4 攻", or in other woods, a 4 damage wood attack. Once again, Botan is unable to defend, since elemental defence is very rare. (https://youtu.be/LugGHWGuVIc?t=2926)

AoE Attacks

Some attacks have a "%" in their damage, for example "50% 9ATK". What this means is that they have a % chance of hitting each opponent with that much damage. So with "50% 9ATK", if you're in a 8 player free for all, you can think of it as flipping a coin for each of your 7 opponents, and if it lands on heads, they get hit by 9ATK. Depending on luck, the attack can either hit everyone, miss everyone, or do some mix of hitting/missing. AoE attacks are all elemental by design as well, making them extra annoying.
EX: Polka attacks Pekora/Nene/Lamy with "Rain Deity's Sword", a 50% 9ATK water card. And to her luck, it successfully hits all three of them. (https://youtu.be/LugGHWGuVIc?t=2771)

Spells

Spells work basically like how they do in RPGs; they cost MP, and they can be used infinitely. You'll notice after a player uses them the first time, that the card stays in the bottom right of the player's hand. It's sort of like they "learned" the spell. Most spells are simply elemental attacks that cost MP, but there are some other unique effects they can do as well. In general, spells are much stronger than regular attack cards in this game, since they're essentially infinitely reusable elemental attacks. But they're usually hard to use since MP is a somewhat uncommon resource, and spells themselves are uncommon as well.
EX: Pekora vs Shion. Pekora has a measly 2HP, and Shion uses the spell "Ice", a 4ATK water spell that costs 2MP, to finish her off. Luckily, Pekora draws "Moonlight Shield" just in time, which reflect spells, and manages to survive. But if you recall, spells are reusable, so Shion just uses "Ice" the next turn. Miraculously, Pekora draws "Moonlight Sword", which also can reflect spells, and survives yet another turn. Finally, for a third time, Shion casts "Ice", but this time Pekora is all out of luck. (https://youtu.be/LugGHWGuVIc?t=5637)
Spells actually have an interesting side effect. Because of how card draw works (you replenish the same amount of cards that you use), when using a spell, it counts as if you "used it" even though it remained in your hand. So your hand size will increase by 1 every time you use it, meaning it gives +1 card advantage. So if you have a cheap cost spell, you can cast it many times over the course of a game to continuously increase your hand size - and thus create a massive card advantage over your opponent. If you've played card games before, you'll realize that this is a very powerful effect.
EX: Pekora attacks Shion with a 6 ATK wood spell. Watch Pekora's hand in the bottom-left, and notice that she gains a card slot in her hand when she uses the spell. Also note that her hand is much bigger than the default hand size, as she's already used the spell a bunch before. (https://youtu.be/LugGHWGuVIc?t=5152)

Statuses

There are very non-traditional status effects in this game, so I'll explain each one:
Fog: The background becomes blue, and various things become blocked with a blue fill. You can't see what cards other players play, unless they're attacking you. You also can't see anyone's HP/MP/Money, besides your own, and you cannot select who you target when you attack.
EX: Shion uses the "Fog" spell on Pekora. Pekora actually has a consumable that can cure it called "Heart Shell", which can cure all statuses, so she uses it. But "Heart Shell" is single-use, and if you recall, spells are infinite use, so Shion just casts "Fog" again right after, since the MP cost is low. The interaction itself is funny, with Shion constantly teasing her about "absolutely wanting Pekora to not be able to see~" (https://youtu.be/LugGHWGuVIc?t=5547)
Dream: All cards you draw have a 50% of being "disguised" - meaning they can actually be a different card then what it visually appears as. It'll reveal what the card really is when you use it. A "disguised" card will have a misty filter on it. Note that cards can't turn into cards of another type - meaning you can't defend with a defence card, but then it turns into an attack/spell/consumable card with 0 DEF. It'll always turn into another defence card. And if it's an elemental defence card, it'll turn into an elemental defence card of the same element. This makes it so that you can't play a "wrong" or "invalid" card as a result of dream.
EX: In a close game of Pekora vs Matsuri, where both players have 7HP left, Matsuri attacks Pekora with a 11ATK combo. Pekora's only defence card is a potentially fake "Flame Boots", a 3DEF card, so she thinks she will lose, especially since elemental cards tend to have low DEF, so even if it's fake, it'll still probably turn into another weak card. However, it's actually revealed to be "Flame Armor", a 12DEF card, so she survives with excitement. (Volume Warning https://youtu.be/LugGHWGuVIc?t=4706)
Flash: You can only use up to 1 defence card when defending.
EX: Polka hits Botan with *"Horror Wheel", a +11 ATK card. Botan counters with "Uranus Ring", which inflicts flash to whoever damaged her, so Polka gets the "Flash" status. Then, Lamy attacks the "Flashed" Polka with the 9 ATK "Power Halberd", which is difficult to defend since she can only play 1 defence card. To top it off, Polka's under "Dream" as well, meaning she doesn't know if her 1 defence card will be good enough, since it may change into another, weaker card. This interaction shows a special yellow text (まぶしい) that translates to "bright". So while getting hit, Polka says "It's bright! What's with this brightness?" (https://youtu.be/22rt5Xnte6k?t=1043)
*You might be wondering why Polka used a combo attack on its own, since unlike in the previous similar example with Lamy, it's non-elemental, so it should be better to combine it with another attack. It's because she was new to the game - Nene actually starts explaining it to her about "+" and "combo" cards during that timestamp after she plays it.
Dark Cloud: If you're hit with a % attack, it has a 100% chance of hitting.
EX: Shion hits Pekora with "Flare Axe", a 50% 10ATK fire card. Pekora is already under Dark Cloud, so she gets hit. This interaction shows a special purple text (不可避) which translates to "inevitable", as in it's inevitable the hit will land. (https://youtu.be/LugGHWGuVIc?t=5967)
Cold->Fever->Hell->Heaven: These disease statuses give -1/-2/-5/+5 HP per turn. They're related in that diseases can get "worse" at a 5% chance each turn, or when you catch another disease. When a disease becomes worse, it turns into the "next stage" disease. Meaning cold turns into fever, which turns into hell, which turns into heaven, and after heaven, you'll simply die.
Heaven is quite odd since unlike the other diseases, it gives you HP per turn rather than dealing damage per turn. But instead you have a 5% chance of dying at the end of your turn. So it can create some thrilling situations where a player is nearly unkillable because of the +5HP per turn, but also can die at any moment if their luck turns bad.
EX: Lamy uses "Heaven Herb" on herself, which gives +20 MP, but also puts herself under "heaven". Note the +5HP that appears after as a result of "heaven". Polka questions the play at first, since heaven is very dangerous so you'd rather give it to someone else, but then she realizes you can cure it later. So Lamy used it as a desperate way to heal herself, as her HP was running low. (https://youtu.be/LugGHWGuVIc?t=3144)

Common Keywords

There are some common card effects that are important to know.
Bounce Attack/Spell - Redirects an attack/spell to anyone in the game, even to the person who bounced it! A quirk of this mechanic is that the attack/spell will become unblockable if you bounce it and it redirects to yourself.
EX: During a team battle, Polka uses the light element spell "Meteor" on Lamy. Normally, light is unblockable - but Lamy plays "Sky Helm" which bounces spells. It then bounces to... (https://youtu.be/LugGHWGuVIc?t=3010) Polka's ally Botan, causing Polka's attack to kill her own teammate, who only had 7HP, and no way to counter light element.
Reflect Attack/Spell - Reflects the attack/spell back to the attackecaster. Fairly self explanatory, but it's good to be aware of, as it's the common cause of funny moments, along with "Bounce".
EX: Pekora vs Shion. Pekora has only 7HP and is on her last legs, while Shion has 22HP. Shion plays "Ice Age", a 75% 30ATK water spell. Shion thinks she just won, as it's nearly impossible to deal with 30 water damage. But... (https://youtu.be/LugGHWGuVIc?t=5268) Pekora uses "Moonlight Sword", which is an attack card that can also be used as a defence card to reflect spells, and makes a comeback.
Cast Spell w/o Cost: You can combine a card with this effect to cast a spell for free. This is why you'll see players occasionally cast a spell without enough MP, and combine it with a seemingly unrelated armoweapon.
EX: Polka casts the spell "Meteor" which costs 7MP on Lamy, but she only has 1MP. She then combines it with the consumable card "Spiritual Doll", which allows a spell to be casted with no cost. (https://youtu.be/LugGHWGuVIc?t=3074)
Block Attack/Spell - It allows you to fully block certain kinds of attacks, regardless of how high the damage is.
Counterattack - A defensive keyword that activates upon receiving damage. You'll see counterattack on a set of cards known as "Elemental Planet Rings", like the "Uranus Ring" mentioned before. They all have very different effects. Some effects scale based on how much damage you took, meaning you might intentionally take more damage to boost the effect. A common mistake is to use defensive cards with a counterattack card, because it may weaken the special effect.
EX: Pekora vs Shion. Shion counters Pekora's 11ATK "Gravity Mace" with "Saturn Ring", which counterattacks with double the received damage, as stone element. So Pekora was countered with 22 stone ATK. If Shion instead tried to fully block the attack while using Saturn Ring, it would've dealt no damage. (https://youtu.be/LugGHWGuVIc?t=6025)
Inflict "X Status" on Damage - If the attack deals at least 1 damage, it'll also inflict a status.
EX: During the 5th Gen FFA, Lamy attacks Polka with "Bogus Spear", which has "inflict Dream on hit". Polka gets scared, saying "I have to completely defend this!". Earlier in the stream, nearly everyone had spent a long time under the effects of "Dream", so she was afraid of experiencing it again. It's a very scary status to be afflicted with. (https://youtu.be/22rt5Xnte6k?t=4301)

Consumables

These are mostly cards that simply heal HP, MP, or cure statuses. Though there are actually some with much more wild effects, like the "Heaven Herb" mentioned previously. An interesting part about these cards is that you can use them on someone else, so for example you can heal allies in team matches. One more notable feature is that they're in a separate category from attacks or spells, and this game only has blocking cards that work against attacks and spells. As a result, there is no way to block consumable cards.
EX: Continuing from a previous example, Pekora uses "Heart Shell" to cure her teammate Lamy's "Heaven". She was afraid that Lamy would die from heaven, leaving her in a 1v2 situation, so she waited a few turns for it to heal her, then cured her. (https://youtu.be/LugGHWGuVIc?t=3237)

Money

You may have noticed that both players and cards have "￥" on them. "￥", or money, is used for three specific cards: "buy", "sell", and "exchange". These cards are fairly common, have very unique effects, and can be OP when used right, so I'll explain them thoroughly.
Buy: target a player, then the game chooses a random card from their hand. You then have the option of buying that card from them. The real power of this card comes from its glitchy side effect - similar to spells, after buying a card, it actually increases the buyer's hand size by 1. But unlike spells, it also decreases the seller's hand size by 1, meaning this gives a +2 card advantage. You might notice a player's hand size becoming extremely small or big, as a result of multiple uses of this card. Needless to say, this card is extremely powerful.
EX: Pekora gets lucky and manages to buy Shion's "Real Ghost Sword", a 12ATK lifesteal card. This effect is very powerful and essentially means the card has 24ATK in terms of value. (https://youtu.be/LugGHWGuVIc?t=5331)
Sell: choose one of the cards in your hand, and target a player to forcefully sell it to. It has the same side effect as "buy" cards, meaning you lose 1 hand size for using it, and the opponent gains 1 hand size. So at first it seems like a terrible card since it has -2 card advantage, but it actually has its uses. For example, what happens if you sell a $30 card to someone with $0 money? The victim is forced to buy the card no matter what. If they're too poor, they pay in MP instead. If they have insufficient MP, then they pay in HP. So they can actually die from being too poor to buy a card. So when used on a poor player, this card actually becomes an unblockable MP drain, and/or an unblockable attack.
EX: Suisei says "Peko-chan, Peko-chan, looks like you don't have any money right now" and then sells her an expensive Heart Shell. To add insult to injury, she already has two Heart Shells, and because she has no money, she lost 15MP instead, which she crucially needed because she has 3 useful spells in her hand. (https://youtu.be/LugGHWGuVIc?t=3217)
Exchange: allows you to freely exchange your HP, MP, and money at a 1:1:1 ratio. This card is pretty straight forward, and doesn't have any crazy side effects like the others. The thing to note is that there are very few ways to gain HP/MP/money in this game, so this card is one of the most versatile cards in the game and combos well with all HP/MP/money cards.
EX: Shion vs Pekora. Shion has been using the spell "Treasure", which costs 5MP but gives 10$, to reach a total of $60. And as her HP runs low, she uses "exchange" to turn 60$ into 40HP and 20MP. As a result of this, while taking Pekora's attacks, she was able to fully heal herself, and leave herself with 20MP for a strong spell later, all the while increasing her hand size by a lot due to spamming the spell "Treasure". (https://youtu.be/LugGHWGuVIc?t=5798)
These cards all belong to the "trade" category, so like "consumables", they aren't considered an "attack/spell", so they cannot be blocked.
Note that money is not used to play cards, this value is strictly only for buying and selling. Cards don't have any cost to play them (except MP for spell cards).

Guardians

Certain cards will allow players to summon elemental guardians, which have a 25% chance of casting cards after every opponent's turn. The cards they cast depend on their element, the dark guardian for example will randomly choose between 5 dark element cards. Also, guardians don't need MP to cast spells. Guardians have a 10% of disappearing when the player they belong to gets hit. There's also a money guardian and a healing guardian, which are less deadly since they don't attack, but still are quite annoying if left alone for too long.
In general, guardians are a huge threat, as it's impossible to keep up with the amount of elemental defence cards needed to block their elemental attacks. The value they generate over time is so threatening that players in a team or FFA game will often start focus firing you for having one.
EX1: Pekora uses "Guardian Sealed Jar" on her teammate Lamy, to give her a guardian. She gets the darkness guardian, which has the potential to win the game on its own by constantly sending out dark element attacks. However, its threat causes Lamy to get *brutally targeted by Team Suisei & Polka, and eventually the guardian falls (Summoning https://youtu.be/LugGHWGuVIc?t=3042) (Disappears https://youtu.be/LugGHWGuVIc?t=3115)
*If you remember, Lamy had to use "Heaven Herb" on herself before due to her HP getting low. This was from the same game and happens right after this. So her HP was getting low because of the guardian her ally Pekora gave her.
EX2: Remember the Botan moment from before, where she says "I'll be a wall for everyone!" in a 3v3 game? The reason she said this was actually because she played "Guardian Sealed Jar" before, and thus you can see she has a guardian icon next to her on the top right. So she was playfully speaking to the fact that she drew the opposing team's aggro. And indeed, she ends up taking the brunt of the opposing team's attacks and dies first for her team. (https://youtu.be/LugGHWGuVIc?t=2603)

Apocalypse

There's an optional setting in the game where when a certain number of turns pass, the apocalypse starts. When this happens, the background changes, and there's a high chance of drawing "devil" cards, which have various effects, most notable of which is just straight up receiving unblockable damage. It's basically a "hurry-up" mode - a way to stop games from being too long. Another fun interaction is that since devils count as cards, you can actually: draw a devil, take damage, devil gets discarded/used so you draw another card, you draw ANOTHER devil, take damage, and repeat. So you can simply die from endless devil damage, all from one card draw!
Pekora/Matsuri/Polka didn't use the setting, so there are no examples of it. But I explained it in case one of them uses it in the future.

Playing The Game

Within the RNG, the game has some interesting mechanics and strategy, which I've tried my best to cover. But if you want to understand the streams fully, I ultimately recommend playing the game yourself, as there's many unique card effects that I haven't covered. In addition to effects, knowing the card names and draw rarity adds much needed context to what the players are saying. There are times when players will play multiple powerful rare cards in a row, which adds to the hilarity.
The game is free and playable on browser and mobile. There's a "bible" on the top-right where you can check card effects and rarities, and modes where you can play vs AI, with friends, or with strangers. This game is very fun with friends, but is boring alone IMO. However, there's no tutorial, and the UI is confusing, so you should familiarize yourself with the game first before introducing it to friends.
It also has a NND style chat, so if you're wondering about the floating text that sometimes appears, it's the hololive members typing it.
The game uses odd "God"-themed terms for things, which I avoided using in the guide to prevent confusion. But you'll need to know them to play the game, and the players themselves make references to it, so here's a chart:

God Field's Terms	Regular Game Terms
Artifact	Card
Curse	Status
Miracle	Spell
Sundry	Consumable
Ascension	Death
Seizure	Death by Heaven
Forgive	Allow (allow an action to happen without playing any cards in response)
Pray	Pass (if you have no attack cards, pass and draw a card)
Bible	Glossary / Card Library
Gift Rate	Draw Chance
Phenomena	Global Effect
Prophet	Player
Hidden Melee	Private Lobby

Again, one of the charms of the game is how it makes the players "role-play" as they attack each other with unethical cards combos and statuses, so I'm hoping that whoever TLs any clips can capture the nuance and wordplay well. Thanks for reading!

Bonus: Stream Highlights

• Pekora vs Shion. Pekora gets excited as she draws "Dangerous Pestle", a 30ATK light card, a powerful and unblockable card which has the effect of randomly attacking anyone in the game. Shion's HP is below 30. Pekora gets cocky towards Shion as she uses it. Can you guess what happens next? https://youtu.be/LugGHWGuVIc?t=5610 The attack hits herself and ends up losing the game soon after because of it.
• Shion vs Pekora. With Pekora at 46HP and Shion at 17HP, Shion's chances look dim. In addition, she takes Pekora's "Gravity Mace", an 11 ATK card, without defending, instead countering with "Saturn Ring", a defence card that counterattacks with double the damage that she just took to the attacker as stone element - so 22 stone damage is dealt to Pekora. But Pekora still has 24HP, so the situation still seems bad. (https://youtu.be/LugGHWGuVIc?t=6025) Until Shion plays a "Waterfall", a 25ATK water spell, which is just enough to make a nearly perfect sudden comeback against Pekora.
• Pekora vs Matsuri. Pekora attacks with an insane 31 attack combo. And the base attack card, "Ghost Sword", has lifesteal, so the whole attack gets lifesteal as well. (https://youtu.be/LugGHWGuVIc?t=4040) But Matsuri counters with "Reflecting Sword" which reflects non elemental attacks. Now, not only does Pekora have to deal with the attack, but Matsuri gets "ownership" of the attack, meaning she gets the lifesteal as well.
• Matsuri vs Pekora, Matsuri has been building up MP all game, making Pekora think that a massively strong spell was coming, which forced her to waste turns playing defensively. But it was just a bluff, and Matsuri exchanges all her MP for HP instead. Pekora says "Eh? Suddenly your HP is at 90... wait a second, weren't you saying you were gonna use that MP for an attack?" (https://youtu.be/LugGHWGuVIc?t=4319)
• Team Battle: Polka noticed that Pekora did not block an attack in the previous turn and plays the "weakest" card in the game. Botan says "There's no way you'll die, right?" https://youtu.be/LugGHWGuVIc?t=3357 Self-explanatory.
• Matsuri vs Polka: Polka inflicted Dream onto Matsuri earlier, so Matsuri cures herself with "Heart Shell". Then Polka hits her with "Bogus Spear", which inflicts "Dream" upon damage. Polka then teases her about making her dream forever in a creepy voice. Later, they have a cute convo about waking up when Matsuri finally cures herself again. https://youtu.be/8qhduadHdtM?t=2502
• 5th Gen FFA: Earlier, Botan used "String of Fate" which causes a random "Phenomena", which is like a global status effect. It caused "Mushroom Outbreak", which causes everyone to lose control of their attack for 3 turns, as the game automatically plays random attacks cards for them. This causes Nene to unwillingly attack Lamy with an overkill combo, consisting of "God Sword", a 30ATK card, and "Angel Bow", a +15 ATK card, making a total of 45ATK. Nene blames Botan for it. And shortly after, Botan is forced to use "Magical Stick", an attack which uses all your MP and deals double your MP's damage. But the Mushroom Outbreak makes her target herself. (https://youtu.be/22rt5Xnte6k?t=1911)
• 5th Gen FFA: Polka and Botan both buy a card from Nene. Then Polka plays "Nocturnal Broom" on Nene, which removes 3 cards from the target's hand, and just like "buy", the hand size permanently gets smaller. Watch as Nene's hand size shrinks, and as Nene laments the loss of her "Diamond Sword". (https://youtu.be/22rt5Xnte6k?t=2170)
• 5th Gen FFA: Nene despairs as she dies to Polka's 10 light damage Meteor spell. But Nene's "Ascension Bow" which she had in her hand, comes into play, which has the effect of activating as a "75% 30 Light ATK" card upon dying. (https://youtu.be/22rt5Xnte6k?t=3524) She manages to take out Botan with her death, but misses against Lamy and Polka. This card is able to turn the game into a draw.
• Polka online ranked vs Horse. Polka sells "Gold Club" to Horse, a 1ATK card that costs 25$. It's a card that basically only exists for buying/selling. Horse counters by selling it back. But Polka counters by selling it back, thanks to having an extra sell card. (https://youtu.be/UH8eQRXbpUU?t=3575 )Later in the game, Horse actually sells it back once more, but Polka has another sell ready and immediately sells it back.

Trades

1. DEN gives 1.9, 3.71, and 2022 1st to ATL for 1.4, 5.132
2. MIA gives 2.36 and 3.82 to NO for 1.28
3. NYJ gives 1.23, 3.87, and 5.130 to AZ for 1.16
4. TB gives 2.61, 3.93, and 2022 6th to IND for 2.54 and 5.149

​

Draft

Round 1 (and explanations)

1. JAX Jaguars -- Trevor Lawrence, QB 1, Clemson

Self-explanatory
2) NYJ Jets -- Zach Wilson, QB 2, BYU
Fields and Wilson are neck and neck in terms of who deserves to be QB 2. While Fields has more upside, Wilson as more immediate impact and a more polished game. Consider this a high floor, high ceiling versus lower floor, heigher ceiling debate. And in the draft, you don't want to take a risk, especially early on. Wilson is the "safer" option, and will become a New York Jet.
3) MIA Dolphins -- DeVonta Smith, WR 1, Alabama
I agonized over this pick, because in many respects, this ought to straight up be Penei Sewell. You're not supposed to use the 3rd pick for a need based selection, but I think Miami can get away with it here. Smith's production was absurd -- so much so it landed him the Heisman. We've seen Alabama receivers dominate in the NFL, and while you select a player and not their collegiate helmet, there is a good correlation between success as a wideout in Alabama's program, and developing at the NFL level. Lastly, the Fins need playmakers. Give Austin Jackson another year to develop at LT, and use one of the many other draft picks this year to select a top lineman anyhow. Yes, its tougher to guess which linemen will be successful, but Smith feels like a guarantee to be something special with the way he gets separation despite his size.
4) DEN Broncos -- Justin Fields, QB 3, Ohio State
Whether Fields or Wilson is left on the board is irrelevant, Denver should move up and take them. Atlanta is looking to trade back with Ryan under contract through 2022, and contrary to popular belief, it is not optimal to move him just yet. The Broncos need someone not named Drew Lock slinging the football, but they don't need someone to fill in immediately. Fields can sit back, learn their playbook, and prepare for making NFL reads at NFL speeds. He will also get some phenomenal weapons with Fant, Jeudy, Hamler, and Patrick.
5) CIN Bengals -- Penei Sewell, OT 1, Oregon
Don't get me wrong, Sewell is a top 3 prospect easily enough. Teams ahead of the Bengals value the QB position a lot considering it's importance in the modern NFL, and the DeVonta Smith pick really sets the Bengals up nicely. Save Joe Burrow's career by actually protecting him. That's the gameplan for the Bengals to win and turn around their franchise. If Sewell is not here, in my opinion, you trade back and take Slater or Darrisaw.
6) PHI Eagles -- JaMarr Chase, WR 2, LSU
Yes, I know there's a Smith hype train right now. I've been on it since well before DeVonta was going to win the Heisman. And yes, I understand that Chase is the "better" prospect. But taking a year off from watchable football makes evaluating him and comparing the two receivers quite difficult. So in a sense, I have Chase dropping to WR 2. As for the Eagles... JJAW and Reagor haven't exactly blown away the competition. They still have some solid pieces, but a true WR 1 would go a long way in restoring the franchise. You can also consider corner here, but frankly, I think Chase is a better player than either Farley or Surtain.
7) DET Lions -- Micah Parsons, LB 1, Penn St.
Detroit has glaring holes on defense that absolutely need to be filled. Parsons is the type of player that can change a culture, and maybe even a franchise. He can do it all -- run stop, pass rush, pass cover. I see him taking on a Justin Simmons type role, and he might even have a similar slow start. The Lions should only consider defensive selections here with both Smith and Chase off the board.
8) CAR Panthers -- Trey Lance, QB 4, NDSU
Another top 10 caliber QB going top 10. Lance has measureables to translate successfully to the NFL level. He's a genetic specimen. I don't think he can come in and compete for a starting spot right away, but under Matt Rhule and behind Teddy Bridgewater, he can learn an offense quickly, and will likely get playing time by the second half of the season. Lance would be an investment into Carolina's future, but his upside is so incredible, its hard to justify passing on him.
9) ATL Falcons -- Caleb Farley, CB 1, Virginia Tech
I could see Farley, Surtain, or Horn, as well as Rousseau and Kwity Paye all going here at 9 to the Falcons. Personally, I see Farley as the best corner, and the corner position feels more complete than this year's edge rushers. Also, you technically, and I mean theoretically here, don't need pass rush if you can lock down the receivers. This isn't really true, but it's a nice thought with some practical applications. The short of it is, there aren't really any elite edge rushing prospects this year, but there's plenty of top end talent that can be selected later on. The Falcons have an extra Third due to their trade down, so expect them to pursue an Edge Rusher a little bit later.
10) DAL Cowboys -- Patrick Surtain II, CB 2, Alabama
The Cowboys' secondary is bad, and I think that's sugar coating it. Diggs was a nice piece last year, but this year, you need a corner who you can put on an island with a wideout. Surtain is that lockdown guy, and even if he's not, he's the closest thing this draft has to a complete CB prospect.
11) NYG Giants -- Greg Rousseau, EDGE 1, Miami (Fl)
The Giants have a few options here. Jaycee Horn comes to mind, although it's a little early for him. You can go and get Jaylen Waddle, but with Shepherd and Slayton on the team, you'd essentially have all speedy and technician type receivers. Pass rush is something the Giants sorely lack, and Rousseau is a diamond in the rough. His speed, power, and length are so much fun to watch. Rousseau is missing technique, but he did take the entire season off to improve his draft stock. We can't really say more until we see the combine, but for now, Rousseau is the top edge in this draft.
12) SF 49ers -- Jaycee Horn, CB 3, South Carolina
Remember when I said it's a little early for Horn? Well, yea, it was, by a single pick. I do think this selection is a bit of a need-based reach, however with no QB available and few other major holes on the Niners team, a need-based reach is fine in my book. The Niners are going to be losing some corners in FA and Jason Verett and Richard Sherman are only getting older. Some fresh blood needs to pump in that cornerback room, and Horn is the perfect developmental piece to learn from such established vets.
13) LAC Chargers -- Christian Darrisaw, OT 2, Virginia Tech
I wasn't too high on Darrisaw until recently when I watched his tape. I thought he seemed undersized, but he sure doesn't play like it. The Chargers ought to protect Herbert, and need help all across their O-Line. Expect Darrisaw to be the first of a few O-Line related draft picks in 2021.
14) MIN Vikings -- RaShawn Slater, OL 1, Northwestern
Slater can project to play any O-Line position in the NFL, which is why I think he'll be such a good fit for the Vikings. They have multiple gaps inside, and Slater's versatility will ease that reconstruction process. The Vikings offense is lethal when operating a full strength, so whether it's protecting Cousins or pancaking someone for Dalvin Cook, Slater should have his hands full.
15) NE Patriots -- Kyle Pitts, TE 1, Florida
Pitts deserves to be a top 10 selection. His catch radius is astounding, and he's basically an oversized, elite wide receiver. The Patriots need receivers too...badly. Instead of going with Jaylen Waddle or Rashod Bateman, I could totally see Bellichick and Co. drafting who could essentially be the next great New England tight end.
16) NYJ Jets -- Jaylen Waddle, WR 3, Alabama
The Jets have a lot of draft capital with which to rebuild their franchise, and I'm sure new Head Coach Robert Saleh wants to do exactly that. But there's only a few ways to win an NFL draft, and one of them is taking the right player at the right time to maximize your value. Waddle is better than a fringe top-16 selection, but he gets pushed down due to need and injury history. It was really nice to see him back in the title game, and that should set a positive tone heading into the draft. The Jets trade up to get an explosive weapon for Trevor Lawrence,
17) LV Raiders -- Kwity Paye, EDGE 2, Michigan
The Raiders' fatal flaw is defense. It feels like they trot out 5-6 players instead of the normal 11, and that's often reflected by the game score. The quickest way to improve a defense is through pass rush. Clelin Ferell is elite at run stopping, and Maxx Crosby is a solid player in his own right, but neither have that killer instinct to go after the QB and dismantle an entire play. Paye, on the other hand, is known for doing just that. Extra pressure will also help out the weak Raiders secondary.
18) MIA Dolphins -- Jeremiah Koramoah-Nwosu, LB 2, Notre Dame
I'm going to keep putting JOK in this same draft spot almost automatically until draft day. JOK is a fantastic run stopper who can diagnose plays like House from, well House. He works well enough in coverage as well, and I think with some Brian Flores coaching, he can shine at the next level. The Fins could use some help in the linebacker room, and JOK can elevate the entire position group if he's coached up right.
19) WAS Football Team -- Rashod Bateman, WR 4, Minnesota
If Waddle wasn't taken at 16, this pick would've been even more obvious. Get Heinicke a big receiver who can go up and get the football. That unlocks McLaurin to streak down the sidelines or run a deep slant through the middle of the field. Bateman essentially stretches the field, into wear safeties have to remain wary of both recievers, plus both of Washington's running backs who have good hands and often pop out of the backfield.
20) CHI Bears -- Liam Eichenberg, OT 3, Notre Dame
I said player, not helmet, and in Eichenberg's case, I kinda gave him points for both. Notre Dame tackles typically translate really well to the NFL, the same way Bama receivers and Iowa tight ends do. Eichenberg himself is next up in a long line of successful ND linemen, with excellent length, good hand-fighting technique, and plenty of bulk. The Bears need an anchor who can give whomever their signal caller is some extra time in the pocket. Eichengberg joins his old buddy Cole Kmet in Chicago.
21) IND Colts -- Jaelen Phillips, EDGE 3, Miami (Fl)
The second of three top Edge rushers coming from Miami finds his way onto the Indy Colts. I will admit, I am extremely biased when it comes to my Colts, and being a Miami fan, I kinda just threw a dart with this choice. But hear me out because there is some justification to the selection: First, Ballard said he will be slow and methodical when selecting a QB, that its not about getting a guy, but the right guy. The right guy won't be here at 21, and the Colts aren't moving into the top 8 this draft. Second, with Eichenberg off the table, the next best OT is Cosmi. While he fits, it feels like a reach just to get someone to fill AC's shoes. The Colts have some picks later on, and I'm confident that the middle-tiered OTs are just as suitable as Cosmi would be. Third, the Colts' biggest hole is at Edge Rusher. Turray is not the player Indy hoped he would be, Houston is aging and on the way out, and Autry is kinda meh. Ballard said it himself, Banogu needs to come online. With all those question marks, it seems to me, the best choice is taking a high upside Edge rusher. Phillips has amazing length, speed, technique, strength, you name it. I would only be skittish about his injury history, but after the season he had at Miami, he's worth the risk. A former number 1 overall recruit nationally from highschool and a Second Team All American deserves a first round selection. He has tools for days, and if he can get onto a veteran, playoff team, he just might win the DROY. The caveat is: so long as he can stay healthy.
22) TEN Titans -- Joseph Ossai, EDGE 4, Texas
Ossai is a really good player, with a few gaps in his game that he would need to patch before starting in the NFL. The Titans desperately need pass rush, especially considering how good their defensive backs look on paper. EDGE is the last key to the puzzle which would take the Titans from a perennial AFC South contender to a perennial AFC Championship contender.
23) AZ Cardinals -- Tyson Campbell, CB 4, Georgia
I'm just going to say that Campbell is longer than Stokes, more physical, and I think his build will translate to the NFL better. Campbell, to me, is the clear cut CB 4 and Arizona wants a corner in the first round. Trading back from 16 makes a lot of sense considering Campbell is certainly the beginning of the 2nd tier corners and should not go as early as 16. The Cards add an extra selection in both the third and fifth round and still get their guy.
24) PIT Steelers -- Samuel Cosmi, OT 4, Texas
If there's one thing I've learned from this sub, it is that Pittsburg's offensive line is overrated. They're about to get a physical hulk in Cosmi, who by weight alone is tough enough to push past. Cosmi will be great for buying Big Ben some extra seconds in the pocket, and could be an anchor for a decade if he plays up to his potential.
25) JAX Jaguars -- Davion Nixon, DT 1, Iowa State
Shocker to have Nixon, and not Barrmore or Tufele as my DT 1, but I really liked how athletic and natural he looked at the position. I mean, this man rumbled for a pick 6 in one of the most impressive big man touchdowns I've seen at the collegiate level. He just plays instinctively, and that always feels like what the Jags look for in a prospect. Ramsay, Henderson, Chaisson, Allen. All previous instinctive players taken by Jacksonville in recent memory, and I, for one, am a big fan.
26) CLE Browns -- Zaven Collins, LB 3, Tulsa
You can make a bunch of arguments for where the Browns should go with this pick. Safety, CB 2, inside and outside linebacker all have a case. Zaven Collins is the best safety/CB/LB available at this point in the draft, and he would be a massive upgrade over some of the current starters like B.J. Goodson and Malcolm Smith. Easy choice here, don't overthink it.
27) BAL Ravens -- Wyatt Davis, OG 1, Ohio State
So, this is a bit of a toss up, in part because I want Baltimore to take a receiver in the first round, and in part because Davis just simply should not be there at 27. He is a unit, and clearly the best guard in the draft. I penciled him in to Minnesota for my past mocks, but the rise of Rashawn Slater gave birth to Davis' plummet. He is also the second best player remaining on the draft board behind Etienne and is a clear and present need for Baltimore. Sorry Ravens fans, or you're welcome. Whichever.
28) MIA Dolphins -- Travis Etienne, RB 1, Clemson
Remember how I said Etienne was the BPA at 27? Well, that was true for a while. Running backs aren't really worth what they used to be, but a player like Etienne can absolutely change a team's landscape the same way Dalvin Cook, Todd Gurley, Derrick Henry, Alvin Kamara, and CMC did for their respective teams. Miami trades away some of it's cached draft assets to get a bluechip runner with feather-soft hands and a knack for finding open space. This is going to be a scary Dolphins team, considering they just went 10-6, and would be getting two of the very best skill position players in the draft. Something to watch out for, especially if Etienne falls this far. (Also, by moving up to 28, Miami hops the Buccaneers who would absolutely take ETN at 29).
29) TB Buccaneers -- Azeez Ojoulari, EDGE 5, Georgia
I don't really know what to say about this pick, aside from that it feels like a consolation prize. Ojoulari has some great pass rushing skills, and with Suh and JPP aging, getting a young DE seems like a smart play.
30) BUF Bills -- Christian Barrmore, DT 2, Alabama
I've been up and down with Barrmore, but after seeing his college playoff performance, I think he's the best player remaining on the draft board. I figeted with Freiermuth and Leatherwood, but ultimately settled on Barrmore because Buffalo continued to get gashed along the D-Line by opposing RBs. Basically, Barrmore is a Quinton Jefferson replacement, not that they need it.
31) KC Chiefs -- Carlos Basham Jr., EDGE 6, Wake Forest
Frank Clark has underperformed given his hefty contract, Kpassagnon has been downright bad. I understand he's a rookie and has time and room to grow, but you should never say no to healthy competition. It's also too early to draft a center, although Landon Dickerson is on my mind if I'm the Chiefs GM. Basham Jr. is a strong, technique driven player that can bully an opposing LT.
32) GB Packers -- Chris Olave, WR 5, Ohio State
This is my draft darling. I watched Olave play in both playoff games, and absolutely fell in love. I watched his highlight reel and I can't stop raving about the dude. I honestly don't know how he wins some of his matchups, he just seems to see the field differently. He just knows when to turn on/off the jets and he's the type of player I can see forming an instant connection with an elite QB. If he does go to the Packers, he will put up some crazy numbers. I'm talking thousand yard receiving, 7-10 TDs, and 70 + receptions. (That's also pending a Will Fuller signing, which would obviously hurt Olave's opportunities).
Round 2
33) JAX Jaguars -- Alex Leatherwood, OL 2, Alabama
34) NYJ Jets -- Alijah Vera-Tucker, OG 2, USC
35) ATL Falcons -- Patrick Jones II, EDGE 7, Pittsburg
36) NO Saints -- Mac Jones, QB 5, Alabama
The Saints traded down from their first round selection to the early second to nab an extra third round pick. With their new pick, they take Drew Brees' ideal successor in Mac Jones. Jones has solid arm strength, makes good reads, but runs a simple offense. He has a high football IQ, and I think he would pair really well with Slants-McGhee (Michael Thomas) and Alvin Kamara. He's more of a game manager than a win-it-yourself QB, but he can excel at management the same way Alex Smith did in SF and KC.
37) PHI Eagles -- Asante Samuel Jr., CB 6, FSU
Not a typo, Samuel is not the 5th best corner in this draft, but he will be the 5th one taken according to this mock. Something about his moxie and personality screams Philly Philly to me.
38) CIN Bengals -- Shaun Wade, CB 5, Ohio State
39) CAR Panthers -- Chazz Surratt, LB 4, North Carolina
40) DEN Broncos -- Dillon Radunz, OT 5, NDSU
41) DET Lions -- Rondale Moore, WR 6, Purdue
42) NYG Giants -- Amon-Ra St. Brown, WR 7, USC
43) SF 49ers -- Kyle Trask, QB 6, Florida
44) DAL Cowboys -- Jay Tufele, DT 2, USC
45) JAX Jaguars -- Trevor Moehrig, S 1, ATCU
46) NE Patriots -- Terrace Marshall Jr., WR 8, LSU
47) LAC Chargers -- Eric Stokes, CB 7, Georgia
48) LV Raiders -- Jevon Holland, DB 1, Oregon
I feel like I ought to explain that Holland is listed as a DB because I project him to play either corner or safety. His size is underwhelming, but his speed makes up for it to secure a day two selection. Vegas wants some versatility and flexibility, which is what gets Holland drafted over some better safeties.
49) AZ Cardinals -- Pat Freiermuth, TE 2, Penn State
50) MIA Dolphins -- Trey Smith, OG 3, Tennessee
51) WAS Football Team -- Jaylen Mayfield, OT 7, Michigan
52) CHI Bears -- Elijah Moore, WR 10, Ole Miss
Again, not a typo. I believe there is a better WR on the board, but I think the Bears rock with Moore instead, in part due to production, and in part due to rising draft stock.
53) TEN Titans -- Nick Bolton, LB 5, Missouri
54) TB Buccaneers -- Najee Harris, RB 2, Alabama
First, let me say I believe Harris is going to be the best tailback drafted. He moves like a flowing river, crashing into some opponents and bending around others. I am extremely impressed with him, and I don't think he deserves to fall this far. The thing is, a lot of teams have secure RBs at the moment, with exceptions being Miami, Arizona, New England (to an extent), Pittsburgh, Green Bay, Buffalo, and Tampa. Tampa has Jones II for another year after this one, and will start thinking about moving on. They trade up for an absolute gem in Harris, who can be their feature back behind one of the best O Lines is football right now. Tampa doesn't sacrifice too much, just their third and a future pick, and they get back a 5th this year as well. For those of you who think they give up a little too much, I plugged the values into the Johnson trade chart to be certain. Tampa loses a bit of value, but they get to catapult Pittsburgh to secure their RB of the future.
55) PIT Steelers -- Javonte Williams, RB 3, North Carolina
They settled for the next best back in Williams, who runs like a wrecking ball but still has really nice hands. Not a bad James Connor replacement at all.
56) SEA Seahawks -- Levi Onwuzurike, DT 4, Washington
This is a mix of best player available and filling in a need. Onwuzurike is heavily underrated and should be touted as an early day 2 selection. I'm not sure if this qualifies as a steal, but its definitely good value for someone who can run stuff for years to come.
57) LA Rams -- Deonte Brown, OG 4, Alabama
Brown is critically underrated. He looks like Blastoise from Pokemon, his arms are like cannons, and he's basically an impenetrable shell. I like him a lot, and I think Cam Akers and Jared Goff will too. I don't know if the Rams need a center, but Creed Humphrey could also slot in here.
58) CLE Browns -- Derion Kendrick , CB 8, Clemson
59) BAL Ravens -- Kadarius Toney, WR 9, Florida
60) NO Saints -- Elijah Molden, DB 2, Washington
See explanation for Jevon Holland
61) IND Colts -- Walker Little, OT 7, Stanford
Little reminds me of Anthony Costanzo, and he will likely be available if the Colts do trade back from 54. Little is anything but, he's actually pretty large. On top of that, he is very, very smart, and not just because he attends Stanford. If the Colts want to avoid maneuvering Quinton Nelson, this is who they should draft.
62) BUF Bills -- Spencer Brown, OT 8, Northern Illinois
63) KC Chiefs -- Landon Dickerson, C 1, Alabama
64) GB Packers -- Baron Browning, LB 6, Ohio State
Is it bad that the team I think is going to win the Superbowl also ends up with two of my favorite prospects? That's just kinda how my board fell, but I'm starting to think I need to shuffle it in case they see this.
Round 3
65) JAX Jaguars -- Brevin Jordan, TE 3, Miami (Fl)
66) NYJ Jets -- Paulson Adebo, CB 9, Stanford
67) HOU Texans -- Sage Surratt, WR 11, Wake Forest
Finally got to the Texans pick, and they take a large and in charge receiver in Surratt. It's tough to predict what the Texans will do while they sort out the whole Watson situation.
68) ATL Falcons -- Jaime Newman, QB 7, Georgia
69) CIN Bengals -- Quincy Roche, EDGE 8, Miami (Fl)
May not be the best pick in the darft, but certainly the nicest
70) PHI Eagles -- Dylan Moses, LB 7, Alabama
71) ATL Falcons -- Hamsah Nasriladeen, S 2, FSU
72) DET Lions -- Jayson Oweh, EDGE 9, Penn State
73) CAR Panthers -- Rodarius Williams, CB 10, LSU
74) WAS Football Team -- Charlie Kolar, TE 4, Iowa State
75) DAL Cowboys -- Rashad Weaver, EDGE 10, Pittsburgh
76) NYG Giants -- Josh Jobe, CB 11, Alabama
77) NE Patriots -- Forfeit
78) LAC Chargers -- Tyler Linderbaum, C 2, Iowa
Replaceable with Creed Humphrey as well
79) MIN Vikings -- Andre Cisco, S 3, Syracuse
80) AZ Cardinals -- Marvin Wilson, DT 5, FSU
81) LV Raiders -- Jabril Cox, LB 8, LSU
82) NO Saints -- Paris Ford, S 4, Pittsburgh
I know I gave them Molden earlier, but Ford is really the BPA at this spot. I also think he is criminally underrated and initialy had him as my S 1 over Moehrig. My only concern is that he had one of the best pass rushing units in the country pestering opposing QBs, so I'm not totally sure his production is 100% legitimate. Still a phenomenal player.
83) WAS Football Team -- Pete Werner, LB 9, Ohio State
84) CHI Bears -- Kenny Pickett, QB 8, Pittsburgh
85) IND Colts -- Israel Mukuamu, CB 12, South Carolina
86) TEN Titans -- Tylan Wallace, WR 12, Oklahoma State
87) AZ Cardinals -- Josh Myers, C 3, Ohio State
88) PIT Steelers -- Shakur Brown, CB 13, Michigan State
89) LAR Rams -- Daniel Faalele, OT 9, Minnesota
90) CLE Browns -- Richard LeCounte III, S 5, Georgia
91) MIN Vikings -- Jackson Carman, OT 10, Clemson
92) CLE Browns -- Aidan Hutchinson, EDGE 11, Michigan
93) IND Colts -- Kellen Mond, QB 9, Texas A&M
94) BUF Bills -- Hunter Long, TE 5, Boston College
95) KC Chiefs -- Cameron McGrone, LB 9, LSU
96) GB Packers -- Jaret Patterson, RB 4, Buffalo
Compensatory Picks
97) NE Patriots -- Sam Ehlinger, QB 10, Texas
98) LAC Chargers -- Dazz Newsome, WR 13, North Carolina
99) NO Saints -- Seth Williams, WR 14, Auburn
100) DAL Cowboys -- Ar'Darius Washington, S 6, TCU
101) TEN Titans -- Kenneth "Kenny" Gainwell, RB 5, Memphis
102) LAR Rams -- Charles Snowden III, EDGE 12, Virginia
​
Note: I'm posting this without proof reading, so kindly lmk if I messed something up.