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A Handful of Magic Items 13
It’s our unlucky 13th installment in A Handful of Magic Items! We’re heading back to December’s 25 Magical Artifact Adventure Seeds article for inspiration. As last time, since these items are supposed to be unique and rare we didn’t hold them to the normal balance testing, so use at your own risk!
Staff of Soulcatching (requires attunement)
The Staff of Soulcatching can hold up to 20 souls at a time. Whenever a celestial, dragon, fey, fiend, humanoid or any other creature size Medium or larger dies within 30 feet of a creature wielding the Staff of Soulcatching, the wielder may use a reaction to activate the staff. Roll a d20; if the number rolled is equal to or higher than the hit dice or level of the dying creature, that creature’s soul is absorbed into the staff. While in the staff, the creature has no memory and cannot be resurrected by any means.
As an action, the wielder can use the staff to do one of the following, releasing all of the souls inside while doing so: Read More
Tournament Report: NEOS March Monthly Group 2 (1-4 with Erhnamgeddon)
In my first Old School 93/94 on a Budget article, I boasted that you can play Old School, competitively, for just $40. During the NEOS Monthly Tournament series, I put that bold statement to the test. Now that the tournament is officially over, I can post the results, which are what you would expect: a meager 1-4. However, I won several games (4/13; a win percentage of 31%) against legitimate decks piloted by some of the community’s best players, including a finalist. More importantly, I had a ton of fun, and that’s what really matters. (“Some of the best games… that I’ve had in tournaments is when I’m at the middle or bottom tables where it really doesn’t matter… Everyone’s laughing and having a good time… and you wouldn’t be able to tell who won the game…” Andy Baquero, All Tings Considered, “Spike to Spice“ at 28:20)
Old School 93/94 on a Budget ($40): U/R Burn
The community’s response to last month’s budget article was amazing. Among the support were several requests for a budget Red deck (the only color left out of the article). As I brewed, a $40 budget version of Mono Red, that I felt confident in, proved to be a challenge. I couldn’t quite build Goblins or Sligh the way I wanted to with that much of a restraint on the budget. On paper, it looked really underpowered without Chain Lightnings or Blood Moons. If you have more room in your budget, DFB’s Goblins list is a great place to start. Ultimately, I chose to build U/R Burn for my next deck tech because I expect it should have a similar feel to Goblins, Sligh, and/or Suicide Blue. Additionally, U/R Burn itself is a top-tier deck.
25 Shadow Plane Adventure Seeds
It may be getting lighter outside, but it’s getting darker in this month’s Adventure Seeds! For this month I went with adventures in, or involving the plane of shadow! Some settings have some established facts about what may exist on their own shadow plane, so I tried be sure to incorporate some of facts into the seeds.
My biggest challenge with this set was not just taking any idea and attaching “shadow-” to it. For example, why not just make a “Shadow Dragon” attacking the “Shadow Castle” and speaking about the “Shadow Gems”? You’ll notice a couple that walk this line, though I hope I was able to bring them back around with another part of the seed that is unique.
A Handful of Magic Items 12
We’ve hit installment 12 of A Handful of Magic items! This time, we’re taking some of the items teased in our 25 Magical Artifact Adventure Seeds article and fleshing them out for use! As these items are supposed to be unique and rare we didn’t hold them to the normal balance testing, so use at your own risk!
Crowfeather Robe (requires attunement)
Once per day, as an action the wearer can activate the Crowfeather Robe. When activated, the wearer is transported into a pocket dimension and 1d6+1 crows appear in the space where they stood, lasting for a minute. These crows make immediate move actions, controlled by the wearer and act on the wearer’s initiative. As an action on their turn, the wearer can appear in the space of any crow that is alive, causing all crows to disappear. If all of the crows are slain while the wearer is in the pocket dimension, they appear in the space of where the last crow was slain, taking damage as if targeted by the attack that took out the crow. If the wearer is still in the pocket dimension when the duration expires, they must appear in the space of a crow.
Persuasion Check: Unearthed Arcana – Artificer Revised
January left us high and dry, and our friends at Wizards of the Coast waited until the last minute to deliver the revised Artificer class in February! Originally appearing in Unearthed Arcana over two years ago, hopefully these revisions mean that the Artificer is coming to official published material soon!
Rather than deep dive and provide a deep analysis into every aspect of the Artificer, I’m going to focus on what changed from the original (you can see it here) and how it affects the flavor and abilities of the Artificer (as well as my own two cents)! If you have ideas, insights, and comments that go beyond what I cover, be sure to leave them below or head over to our Discord and join the conversation!
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Knowledge Vault: Transmutation
On the First Friday of every month, we (somewhat satirically) crack into some lesser-known Old School 93/94 cards with the intent to open a dialogue and encourage brewing.
In 2004, as my focus shifted from Magic to girls and cards, most of my time spent playing Magic was “Mental Magic.” If I had to guess, the only times that I cast the (1)(B) Transmutation were as Demonic Tutor or Diabolic Edict, instead of itself. In late 2017, I dabbled in a well-known Pauper format deck, Tireless Tribe Combo, that used its namesake and Inside Out to perform a one-hit coup de grâce. To me, Transmutation has similar potential.
Ready Review: “An Unlikely Story,” a book store and cafe in Plainville, MA
Late last year, on a Saturday morning, my girlfriend and I were looking for a local cafe or bookstore so that she could get some work done on her laptop. A quick Google search indicated that a magical place, with both coffee AND books, was just around the corner.
Old School 93/94 on a Budget: G/w Erhnamgeddon and U/B Tempo ($40 USD) Deck Techs
In last month’s article, I skimmed the surface of what most people assume is the primary barrier to entry: monetary co$t. In an effort to disprove that assumption, I settled on building two Old School 93/94 “precons” with a budget of $40 USD each. Sure, you can build cheaper decks, but I wanted to build decks that would leave you with a stack of useful cards afterwards.
25 Futuristic City Adventure Seeds
It’s a new month, and we have a new month’s Adventure Seeds! At a reader’s request I decided to give sci-fi a spin, specifically adventures one could find in a futuristic city or metropolis. Fantasy is definitely more of my specialty, so this was a fun challenge and a good nudge for me to maybe dust off that copy of Starfinder I have on the shelf and give it a go!
The challenges here were that, being in such a fantasy mindset, the limitations of complications of life in the future escaped me. I know what is possible in a medieval setting (which, accompanied by MAGIC!, makes for easy parameters) but the seemingly more complicated world of sci-fi through me for a hyperloop. I’m definitely going to crack open a sci-fi novel or two and refresh myself on some great aspects of the genre!
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