Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Basics of Malediction
65 Plays15 days ago
The Warband covers the basics of Malediction gameplay and the weekly lore article!
The Everbleeding Giants: https://malediction.gg/story/everbleedinggiants/
Thank you for listening and if you enjoyed the episode give us a follow! Email us at intothemalediction@gmail.com
Recommended
Transcript
Podcast Introduction and Technical Issues
00:00:08
Garrett
Hello everybody and welcome back. Again, i am one of your hosts, Garrett, also known as Admiral Tater. And I'm excited to be joined by my fellow co-host today, ah my friend, Nick and Alan. Introduce yourselves gentlemen.
00:00:26
m3rcier
Hey, this is Alan.
00:00:30
Nick
Hey everybody, this is Nick. I'm a 3315 in the discords.
Episode Topics Overview
00:00:35
Garrett
Excellent. Well, boys, today we've made it to episode three on our adventure. Now, what the audience doesn't know, however, this is our second time recording episode three. We had an old-fashioned learning at the end that we didn't record our audio.
00:00:49
Garrett
Every podcast does it. ah We had to get it out of the way early, hopefully, and we won't do it again. ah However, that means we should do even better this time. Now, today's episode...
00:01:02
Garrett
ah we've got two things we're going to go over the first thing is we have ah the first of the short story lore drops that loot studio is doing for malediction and alan's going to tell us about that but before that also our ah topic today is going to be a basic game overview of how to play malediction and we're going to try and narrate that as best as possible without visual aid.
00:01:29
Garrett
so But if you are listening, you can always look at the rulebook online and follow along.
Introduction to Glore Primer Stories
00:01:35
Garrett
Now, the Glore Primer, Alan, please tell us about it.
00:01:40
m3rcier
These are a new, looks like they're short stories, but we, I believe we're supposed to get them weekly from the lore team. They'll either be in the Echoes bi-weekly email, or I think the last one they shared on Discord. So it might be one week Discord, the next week yeah the email blasts. But the first week, which is this week, is going to be the Ever Bleeding Giants.
Lore of the Ever Bleeding Giants
00:02:07
m3rcier
kind of lore on the giants that we see in the game that are in the Noxus Fleshgordon, Fleshgarden terrain. And then some of the artwork, which they did release some more of the artwork when they put this out.
00:02:23
m3rcier
But the giants were created and then, I guess, built, however we want to say it by the Everlasting themselves. Specifically, I think the one that either brainstormed them and built them or had a hand in there being built was, what is it?
00:02:40
m3rcier
Ogre.
00:02:42
Garrett
One of them, one of them, or a couple of them.
00:02:42
m3rcier
Galdon. Galdon. Galdon, yeah. Yep. ah And they helped them, they helped the Everlasting make the acorn, not or not the acorn, wow, thorn.
00:02:54
Garrett
The acorn, oh my gosh, that's what we're calling it now on, the acorn.
00:02:54
m3rcier
ah And then, yeah, the acorn, listen, the acorn, helped them make the thorn. And then where the story, in this week's lore is it goes into detail what they are they're ever bleeding so they were the only creatures that all of the everlasting poured themselves into all the other creatures it was a subset of the everlasting that did it so the giants are immortal also specifically the one you see in the flesh garden that has the stake driven through his head and he's bleeding from his mouth he is still alive
00:03:32
m3rcier
ah as the name implies, he's ever going to bleed until whatever spells or I guess maybe those stakes that are driven through him are magical. They're keeping them contained.
00:03:44
m3rcier
After they built the thorn, the everlasting contained the giants because they were afraid of them because of their power. One of them released some of the giants who then proceeded to kill or we believe kill one of the other everlasting.
00:04:01
m3rcier
leading up to the everlasting war yep i'm trying think inside you know we see them in in the flesh gardens in game there are no giants or are aware of their like units their blood is toxic or at least acidic because if it gets on you it's gonna harm or damage you which the primal blood use in two ways they try to
00:04:01
Nick
Yeah, it was a Moloch.
00:04:28
m3rcier
make their enemies go for swim in the in the blood pools, which obviously hurts. But they also use it themselves to put themselves into a blood rage from the the pain it causes when it it's on them. It puts them into a blood rage.
00:04:41
m3rcier
But good story by Arthur. And I hit some of the highlights in it. I don't want to go completely over or word by word. I want you to hit that website. I'll have a link in the description.
00:04:53
m3rcier
That way you can read it.
00:04:53
Garrett
Yes.
00:04:54
m3rcier
Probably take you about two minutes maybe.
00:04:57
Nick
Yeah, they're all quick.
00:04:57
Garrett
Yeah, they're they're just quick snippets.
00:04:58
m3rcier
but uh they're quick
00:05:00
Garrett
Yeah, it's super cool. Also, like, you know, we talked about the one giant in the terrain that's got the stake through his head. And I don't know if all the terrain pieces are supposed to be to scale of each other.
00:05:14
Garrett
But he's like a small giant, right? Because ah other terrain pieces, you got the hand. Uh, that's just absolutely outrageously huge. Uh, cause if that's, it goes to another giant, you know, and then you have, uh, that giant rib cage rib cage as well. Right.
00:05:30
Garrett
Uh, so potentially these giants are like kaiju size, guess, uh, potentially, but maybe those aren't meant to be totally to scale. I'm not sure what the tension was.
00:05:41
Garrett
Um, but awesome. Uh, thank you, Alan.
00:05:43
Nick
Yeah, definitely. I want us to come back to this when we do the Primal Blood faction too, because I want to touch on how every faction really gets where their their magic comes from and how the magic differs
Malediction Factions and Magic Access
00:05:54
m3rcier
Yeah.
00:05:54
Nick
between factions.
00:05:56
Garrett
ah Yes, yes, that is an excellent point. ah Because everyone has to find magic differently because of the lack of Yimri's outpouring.
00:06:05
Nick
The fall.
00:06:08
Garrett
So, um all right, gentlemen, moving into basic game overview.
Objective of Malediction Game
00:06:15
Garrett
So we're not going to crazy in depth here.
00:06:19
Garrett
We're basically going to tell people, you know, how to play, ah but not all the super exceptions and mishmashes and tons of legality. So anyways, malediction.
00:06:37
Garrett
Top question off the top of your head. how do you How do you win a game malediction? it So that in the game, there's relics, and these relics are just like we talked about. in our other episode.
00:06:49
Garrett
it's It's the leftover items made by the Everlasting with with magic and echo that are in the malediction. And so these relics, these husks, contain incredible valuable artifacts. And so each game, four of these come out on the board.
Components Needed for Malediction
00:07:05
Garrett
And if one of your characters captures a relic, it's worth 10 mastery points while you hold it. And then also, if you defeat an enemy units, you get mastery worth what that unit was worth, including their items.
00:07:19
Garrett
And so the goal of the game is the first first individual or team ah to 40 mastery points or whatever the end goal was be wins. forty with Whoever has 40 or more at the end of a round.
00:07:32
Garrett
And so if you if you can get two to three relics, that's 20 to 30 points by itself. So That's how you win. But how do we how do we get to these points? Let's find out. So game components. What do you need to play Malediction?
00:07:48
Garrett
I'm going to run through these real fast here. So they're the game standard is played on a two and a half by two and a half foot mat. Now, the core sets, like the two player starter sets, come with paper ones.
00:08:02
Garrett
However, Malediction does sell a super nice neoprene one. and And you're more than welcome to just ah mark out an area and play within it. yeah But you will have to create
Options for Game Component Acquisition
00:08:13
Garrett
your own deployment zones in the corners.
00:08:15
Garrett
ah Now, the next part is not only do you need your deck and your cards, right? You have to have characters that go with your cards. Now, the game i can be played with standees, and these are little cardboard punch-outs that go in little plastic holders.
00:08:33
Garrett
And these are the base sizes that can be used. And they go from small, medium to large. And then also the coolest part about malediction is every time you buy a pack of something, you get the STLs that go with the cards.
00:08:51
Garrett
And so you can either resin or FDM prints the miniatures, or if you don't want to mess with all that nonsense, you can simply just purchase all the models directly from the studios. And then, also there are terrain now in the little two player starter kits.
00:09:08
Garrett
If you want all four sets of terrain, you got to get two both two-player starter sets. and then But they include all the terrain need to play. But then also, just like the miniatures, ah you get the STLs to print the terrain.
00:09:22
Garrett
And it prints really, really well, especially on bamboo printers, I will say. Now, also included when you buy the game is you get a D20 dice. And you only
Tracking Metrics in Malediction
00:09:33
Garrett
need a single D20 dice to play this game.
00:09:37
Garrett
It's best if both players have one. But after that, you need a couple things to track some numbers. ah Now, i already talked about mastery points, ah but then you also have to keep track of your magic score, which is like your echo, your mana, how many points you have to spend.
00:09:53
Garrett
And so the game comes with the little cardboard one that tracks echo and mastery both. And then there's a round counter. The game doesn't have a set amount rounds. It goes unlimited until somebody wins, usually around four to four to five rounds typically is where it stops.
00:10:09
Garrett
And that's a little cardboard punch out as well. And then now the game comes with little little cardboard tokens to track wounds. ah But now even even more cool when you buy the game, there's files available to 3D print all of these things. And potentially in the future, maybe some really cool acrylics. Now, ah those are... and then Oh, and I almost forgot, you also need a ruler to play because on the actual board, the miniatures and terrain all have to follow...
00:10:39
Garrett
distances and inches. And so the game comes with a 12 inch flexible ruler made. I think it's from Mylar or something like that. And, but having a little widget, that's like a three to one inch tool is also incredibly helpful to play.
00:10:55
Garrett
Now that is all the stuff you got to bring. And it's real, if you're just bring standees and cardboard, it's, it's very compact. because your deck is just a deck. You need dice and then a few cardboard things, and that can all be fit in a pretty compact bag. Okay.
00:11:13
Garrett
All right. I have yapped enough. We've laid out all the components. I'm going pass it to Nick now, because he hasn't talked much yet, and it's his turn. We're going to talk about Battlefield setup. How do we prepare to play a game of maledictions?
Battlefield Setup Process in Malediction
00:11:28
Nick
Well, once we've got everything on the table, we're going to start by rolling your d20 with your opponent and see who gets to place your first piece of terrain. And so each player will be bringing with their deck one terrain card, either your cardboard or your 3D printed terrain.
00:11:49
Nick
um And I will say real quick, if you're using 3D printed terrain, you and your opponent must also be using the same style terrain. So you have to either be using 3D together or cardboard together.
00:12:01
Nick
um it's you You cannot play cardboard on one half and 3D on the other. It is not the same game. ah so But once you have your terrain card, you put it aside and you pull out your pieces. You have one large, one medium.
00:12:19
Nick
And the game has three small pieces. If you buy the two-player starters, they only come with two pieces, I believe, but the STLs actually have three 3D prints for small terrain.
00:12:30
Garrett
That is correct, yes.
00:12:32
Nick
And so you have your terrain off to the side. Whoever wins the die roll gets to place the first terrain piece. So you place starting with your largest piece and alternating back and forth.
00:12:44
Nick
the player who places the last terrain piece will then place the first husk. Now, the husks are going to be where your relics are going. Typically, you know you put your terrain in places that you can you know use them advantageously. If you're using the flesh gardens, it's a little more aggressive.
00:13:01
Nick
um And then like for the husks, you want to make sure you put husks in kind of a neutral position that you can reach them from a deployment zone. But you have to be careful, because once all the Husks are down, we're now going to bid for deployment zones.
00:13:16
Nick
And so I'll just cover this real quick. the Once all the Husks are down, you draw your first seven cards, and each player will then choose one card to bid. going to be banished, it's out of the game, as but it lets you it's to be a big decision here.
00:13:32
Nick
Whoever wins the bid, gets to choose either what deployment zone they choose want to deploy into, or they can have the initiative token on turn one.
00:13:44
Garrett
but Now, that's really cool for the deployment zones. And what what why are the deployment zones cool in Malediction?
00:13:51
Nick
So there's four deployment zones, one in each corner of the board. Now, when you're placing the train in husks, you don't know who's going to be where. it's It can be pretty obvious pretty quickly that each player is kind of probably setting up a deployment zone that they would like to have.
00:14:08
Nick
um But whoever wins the bid can choose any of the four deployment zones. Now, once one is picked, the opponent is always going to be the opposite corner.
00:14:18
Nick
And so this can be a really pivotal decision because if you're if the Husks are in positions that are maybe... very uneven or asymmetrical, you can really put your opponent at disadvantage and keep one or maybe both husks away from their deployment zone.
00:14:35
Nick
um And so it's a really big, that first bit is really important, not in all games, but in some games.
00:14:45
Nick
Yep, so that's a yeah that's the point.
00:14:46
Garrett
Excellent. So yeah. Okay. So, uh, like you said, we break down who gets deployed, who gets initiative first. So now the, after this point, uh, one player has initiative and we have our seven cards, right.
00:15:03
Garrett
Has been reduced down to six. And like you said, there's a banished pile of, there's a discard pile. And then there is our actual deck. Now, Alan, we have. reached the start of the game here, the start of round one, basically, the player with initiative ah now gets to make what decision?
00:15:22
m3rcier
Yeah, so player with initiative, which is why initiative is so powerful. You get to pick who deploys first, and then after deployments are done, you get to pick who goes first.
00:15:34
m3rcier
When it comes to deployments, there's a little bit of a strategy in deploying first, just like there is with who gets to activate first.
00:15:47
m3rcier
So initiative is in addition to the third advantage of some effects, ability spells, whatever, what have you, if they have a simultaneous trigger, the person with initiative gets to pick the order they go in if they're an unowned effect.
00:16:06
m3rcier
So definitely has strong advantages to having initiative. once all the terrain's out, you pick deployment, you pick who deploys.
00:16:18
m3rcier
believe that's where we are, correct? Right into the deployment phase?
00:16:22
Garrett
That's correct. So now, ah once your once your players have everything out on the board, and when I say everything, I mean the the units you drew from your deck ah that you had the Echo to start with. And I don't know if Nick said this, I don't remember, but your legacy that your Seeker comes with will state how much Echo you start with.
00:16:44
Garrett
The Mono Faction Seekers start with 25, and all the Split Faction Seekers currently start with 20. twenty Correct me if I'm wrong. That is the current state of the game in May of 2026. But the Echo determines how many items and units you can deploy, but you always want to keep some Echo in reserve ah so that you can use your spells. Now, Alan, after um deployment, ah now at this point, the person in initiative decides who goes first, and then they get to activate a character. How do you activate in a character, and what can a character do when activated?
00:17:21
m3rcier
So when you activate a unit, ah you'll take their card, you'll turn it 90 degrees so sideways. It's now exhausted. Once you do that, that unit on the board will gain two action points along with the option to do a channel spell during their activation window.
00:17:42
m3rcier
So action points can be spent to do moves, attacks, charges, or shifts. move and attack each cost one action point so you could move move or attack attack or move attack in any combination if you're just doing those two charge and swift are advanced actions they each cost two ap and then course move you move for each action point you can move the distance up to the distance on your move attribute on your card
00:18:17
m3rcier
So for someone like the Knights of Astartis, he can move five inches with one action point. And then he can take his next action move again. So he can go a total of 10. tech Attack is what it sounds like. Range attack or melee attack.
00:18:33
m3rcier
A charge, you move. It's it's a combination of move and attack. You move up to twice of your current move attribute. So for a Knight, it would be 10. And where you end up,
00:18:47
m3rcier
you have to be within, you have to have make the ability to make a melee attack at the end of the charge. So typically, for like for the Knight of the Stardays, he can charge someone that's up to around 11 inches away because he'll end up one inch away from his charged target, and then he can make the melee attack.
00:19:07
m3rcier
Some units will have abilities to modify.
00:19:07
Garrett
how do you How do you decide if you can charge at something?
00:19:10
m3rcier
Click.
00:19:13
m3rcier
So you draw you have to draw a line of sight from the center of the charging unit space to any point on the the target space. It doesn't have to be the center. It can be one edge or the other.
00:19:25
m3rcier
But you have to be able to draw a line of sight because then you're going to move down that line of sight to to get to the unit.
00:19:33
Garrett
What can block line of sight?
00:19:37
m3rcier
Other units, the husks. or the both the meat sorry hu the high points on a terrain piece so if you play with the cardboard it's going to be the areas that are red will block line of sight
00:19:57
Garrett
Excellent, excellent. And then shift. Let's talk about shift.
00:20:03
m3rcier
I think it's probably one of the ones that's underrated, but a shift for two action points allows you to make one move action. So for a Knight of the Stardates, up to five inches.
00:20:13
m3rcier
Has to be in a straight line to somewhere you have line of sight to, and it prevents any type of retaliations. So if you're engaged, typically what going to used for is you're engaged and you move back, you fall back, but you stop retaliations by shifting.
00:20:32
m3rcier
That's one of its most common usages. The other one, and this is a tactical usage, is typically when you move, you can't move through an area where your unit that unit's base can't fit. So if you're a the large base and there's not room for your base to sit between two other units, you can't move between them.
00:20:52
m3rcier
However, you can shift through it if you can see through it. And you can end where your where your base would fit over there. So it's good for shifting through a frontline.
00:21:04
m3rcier
and then it's also good for shifting through certain parts of certain terrain.
00:21:09
Garrett
Yes, because you can shift through anything that's blocking your path. And that's one really cool thing about Maladiction is the fact that everything on the board is a physical object that matters, like the actual presence of it. There's nothing that's, you know, ah there's no invisible barriers or anything. Everything there is an actual barrier.
00:21:31
Garrett
um Now, you mentioned this, Alan. You mentioned, along with action points, they can spend a channel spell, and there's another spell in the game as well, ah Nick, can you tell us about channel spells and then the other type of spell, a character or anybody, not a character, but the the the player can do at any point?
00:21:49
Nick
Absolutely, I'd love to. So as Garrick said, we have we have two types of spells.
00:21:52
Garrett
The enthusiasm.
00:21:56
Nick
So Swift spells are are pretty simple. You can play them at any point during the action phase. Now most of them will have a trigger a timing trigger that will tell you kind of when you're they're meant to be played.
00:22:10
Nick
For example, some will say you know when a character would suffer damage or during an attack. and But those you know you spend the Echo, you play them. It doesn't matter if it's your opponent's turn or if it's your turn.
00:22:24
Nick
you know that's It's that simple. Channel spells get a little more restrictive. So as the players take turns activating a unit, once you activate the unit, you open up your timing window to play one channel spell.
00:22:39
Nick
And so you're limited to one channel per activation only on that unit's activation turn. So you you're very rarely ah ever able to play any kind channel spell outside of that window.
00:22:51
Nick
So your action your unit has two actions. So let's say you're going to move twice. You can play channel spell before you move. You could play a channel spell after you move once, but before you move a second time.
00:23:03
Nick
Or you could play that channel spell after you've moved twice, but before you fully end the activation. And so you have a little bit of flexibility with what you want to do with with your your spell.
00:23:17
Nick
I'm not going to really even go into examples because there's just so many to to pull from. There's a lot of flexibility. Channel spells are very powerful.
00:23:26
Garrett
Beautifully said. Now, so, okay. All right. We don't want to get lost here we don't want lost. So we've talked about, ah you know, activate a character, exhaust the card, two action points, channel spells, swift spells.
00:23:40
Garrett
After you you're done activating your character, of the opponent then, if they have a character available who's ready, then activates character. You alternate activations.
00:23:50
Garrett
And there is no pass mechanic ah in Malediction. So if your opponent has five characters and you have one, ah you're going to sit there and watch them activate four things in a row. So ah the other important part of Malediction is there are melee attacks and range attacks that we've kind of talked about. so A range attack is just like the charge thing. You have to have line of sight, so the middle point of what's shooting to the some point of the base of what you're attacking with.
00:24:22
Garrett
And your range is determined by a stat on your character card. And then if you want to make a melee attack, you have to be at one inch, at one inch of the opponent you're attacking.
00:24:37
Garrett
Now that's not the only thing that requires to be one inch. You also have to be one inch of a ah unit or husk where a relic is to be nearby.
00:24:47
Garrett
Nearby means one inch. And to pick up a relic, a character has to be within or at one inch of that relic and no enemy characters can be at one inch of that relic. If they are, then the relic is contested and the character i won't be able to pick it up at the end of the round.
00:25:03
Garrett
Okay. so We've been kind of in round one here a little bit talking about how this works. So after everyone's made their moves or made any potential attacks, which is very unusual for round one, i typically, typically both players are picking up two relics.
00:25:18
Garrett
And so once all characters have been exhausted, everyone's played all their swift spells, you then immediately, the player with initiative gets to decide who gets to pick the first relic.
00:25:31
Garrett
Now, when we put the four relics down at the beginning of the game, we pulled the top four relic cards and put them out. So the player of the initiative gets to pick which character he wants to go first, and then he gets to pick up one of the four relics, or they can draw blind off the top of the deck.
00:25:49
Garrett
And so he'll pick up one of those Relic cards, attaches it to his character, and then they'll put they'll draw another card and put it down, so there's always four showing. And then the players alternate, picking up husks, until all husks that are uncontested ah have been picked up.
00:26:06
Garrett
Now, um at this point, both players get 10 mastery per relic they picked up, and then ah what happens is it's the end of the round.
00:26:17
Garrett
ah We start a new round. Both players ready all their cards, and the way you get more echo naturally in the game is at the start of each round, ah you get more. So with round two, at the start of the second round, you get four echo each player.
00:26:33
Garrett
And then in round three, you get six. Round four, you get eight. Round five, you each get 10, and that is the max. So if you go beyond round five, you still only get 10 echo per player.
00:26:47
Garrett
Now, at the start of round two or round three or whatever, each player is going to draw two more cards. And now the next, ah as you remember, one of these players has initiative, but there is a way to steal initiative.
00:27:02
Garrett
Alan, how does bidding for initiative work in round two going forward?
00:27:10
m3rcier
See, in round two, if you do not have initiative, you have the option to bid for initiative if you want to. If you don't want to, you don't have to.
00:27:21
m3rcier
Bidding consists of the same thing. You are going to put one of your, you're going to choose a card where your bid amount is the cost of that card. You'll put it face down. The person with the initiative also has the option. They can choose to either bid against you to try and keep in initiative, ship which means you both end banishing a card or they can choose not to, in which case you still banish the card that you bid with and gain initiative because they didn't contest it. However, they're not giving up a card. So depending on your deck and if you need the cards or can expend the cards, you may or may not bid, but it will always move. If you do bid and it's a tie. So both of us put out, uh,
00:28:07
m3rcier
a night of Astartes, a tie always goes to the person who does not currently have initiative, so the person who started the bid.
00:28:19
Garrett
Excellent. Well said. Now, okay, so somebody has either kept the initiative or lost the initiative and the other player gains it. And at this point now, ah players can deploy again.
00:28:30
Garrett
Nick, so both players have drawn two cards. We've bid and we've looked at our new echo we've gained. How does deployment work after the first round?
00:28:40
Nick
Yeah, so this is where deployment can start getting a little spicy. Now, depending on who has initiative now, either whoever just gained it or whoever kept it from turn one, they still get to decide who deploys first.
00:28:52
Nick
But there's one new new change now. Starting in round two, you may deploy as reinforcements. Now, what this means is that you may deploy a unit from your hand nearby an unengaged ally now that's just a lot of keywords and terminology there but what that means is you can play a new unit onto the battlefield as long as they're within one inch of a unit that you already have on the battlefield as long as they don't have an enemy within one inch of them engaging them the one exception to this is um or not exception really but uh one reason that this timing can get really powerful is that you can deploy a unit into engagement
00:29:35
Nick
So if your unit is about two inches away from an enemy, if you have the initiative, you can deploy first and put one of your units right into engagement with that enemy unit, and now your opponent cannot deploy reinforcements on them.
00:29:49
Nick
And that can be a big swing.
00:29:51
Garrett
I think that's my favorite method because I like the idea. It's hard to pull off, but like deploying a unit into engagement and then stopping them from being able to bring in a reinforcement.
00:30:04
Garrett
And then they're forced to put their units back at the corner that they started in.
00:30:09
Nick
Absolutely. And if you have the initiative, you can also activate that unit first and get your two attacks without even having to move. So it's a great way to get some of your slower, bigger units right into the fight and get the most out of them.
00:30:23
m3rcier
or your single-minded units to actually do something other than move around the board.
00:30:29
Garrett
Indeed. Excellent. Okay. So, uh, all right, so that's deployment after a round one. And the next thing, we really need to go into detail is how do units actually fight each other. But before we do that, we need to pause.
00:30:46
Garrett
And we need to talk about these stats on these character cards. So, cause we've alluded to a couple things so far, like range and speed, but all character cards have a few important things. So first off they have a name and then they have the faction that they go to. Some are mono faction, some are dual faction, and that'll tell you what seekers can take them.
00:31:11
Garrett
And then in the upper left-hand corner of cards, if you're following along, i you'll notice that there is a diamond with a color and a number. Now the color coordinates to the tier of unit it is. There are four tiers. There's basic, which is like copper, elite, that is silver, unique, that's gold, and legendary, that's red.
00:31:34
Garrett
Now only legendary items in the game, the only legendary items are the seekers. And then uniques are When you're building a deck, you can have a one copy of a unique card. ah Elites, you can have two copies. And basics, you can have four copies. Now, along with that information, you'll also have...
00:31:56
Garrett
the unit's keywords. And so sometimes certain cards and spells will only interact with units that are, for example, spirits. And so the unit has to have the keyword spirit on the card.
00:32:09
Garrett
And then underneath that, there'll be details that show the abilities that unit has. Okay, but now the real meat and potatoes is the stats on the left-hand side of every card.
00:32:22
Garrett
and so there's six uh critical stats in the game now the first thing on the card it's like a little swinging sword and that little swinging sword represents accuracy what is accuracy well it is uh that d20 dice we have now when you're making an attack uh you roll a d20 and it's going to come up with a number let's say it comes up with eight.
00:32:45
Garrett
And then you're going look at the accuracy on your unit card, and you're going to add whatever number next to that swinging sword to your accuracy. So now that actual roll is a nine if your accuracy is a one. So it's eight plus one equals nine.
00:32:59
Garrett
All right. Now the next stat on the card is your damage stat, your hit stat. It's a fractional number on the card. Okay.
00:33:10
Garrett
There is a upper left-hand number, and a lower right-hand number, numerator and denominator. The numerator, the top one, is your hit damage. So if you attack somebody and you hit them, which we'll talk about in a second, you'll apply that bigger damage number.
00:33:26
Garrett
And if you miss them, you'll apply the grays damage number, which is always smaller. Now, after that, we have the little bow and arrow. The little bow and arrow represents the range set. Now some units that are melee have no range, okay?
00:33:45
Garrett
And so it'll say zero, but like archers will have range like eight, ten inches, And then you can also attach items and pick up relics that increase range or increase any of these stats, really.
00:33:57
Garrett
And a unit that has no range that picks up an item or relic that has range, they now gain range. So you don't have to have range to take advantage of a ranged weapon.
00:34:10
Garrett
And then after that is a little boot. And this boot represents speed. And whatever number says next to that is how many inches a character can move. And so like Alan was explaining earlier, if you have ah a speed of five, you can go five inches.
00:34:26
Garrett
And just like he said, if you're charging, you double that. So you can go, you can charge 10 inches ah if you have a five next to your boot. And after that is a little shield and the shield ah represents your defense. So for example, maybe your shield says 10.
00:34:43
Garrett
And so earlier in our example, we rolled the eight and then had the accuracy of plus one. We rolled a nine. Nine is less than 10. So that means that attack grazed you. So you would only take the lower number of damage.
00:34:57
Garrett
And if they had rolled a 10 or more, they would hit you and you would get the take the larger damage. And where does that damage go? Well, it goes to your wound pool.
00:35:10
Garrett
And then the last thing is a little heart, and that represents how much health a unit has. And so if there is a 10 or an 18 or an 8 next to that heart, that's how many wounds you can take before you are defeated.
00:35:21
Garrett
As soon as you take ah all the wounds equal to what you have, you immediately die. Even if you have not activated yet, ah you're immediately dead. Unless there's some exception to what your unit can do when it dies.
00:35:35
Garrett
There's always exceptions. But normally, a unit dies and your opponent gets the mastery points worth equal to what the card is worth in the upper left hand corner now okay so we kind of discussed our combat work there while was discussing the character card uh but alan how does melee combat work and how does range combat work
00:36:01
m3rcier
So melee combat, you have to be within range, melee range, which for base game for units is nearby. So within one inch, there are some abilities that ah change that ability, but you're within one inch and you have line of effect.
00:36:23
m3rcier
You do not need line of sight to make it. You just need line of effect. so you could stand behind another unit and if you are within one inch of your target, you can still smack them.
00:36:39
m3rcier
ranged attacks, right. So melee, you're within one inch, you make the attack. Range, you would refer to the range stat on your card.
00:36:48
m3rcier
You know, i think four, six, eight, I think we have some that have 10 and 12, as long as the target you have is within line of sight. So here you do have to draw a line of sight and line of effect to the target within range.
00:37:06
m3rcier
Then you can make the melee attack. Each one is just one action point. So you can do two melees, two ranged, or if you have the ability, you could do a melee attack and a ranged.
00:37:19
m3rcier
But at that point, if someone is within melee range of you, they might get what we call a retaliation against your range attack. So range attacks will trigger a retaliation if you do so while you're engaged with another unit.
00:37:38
Garrett
Excellent, excellent. Thank you. all right, Nick. Nick, we're sliding back to you. So, what happens when a unit holding a relic is defeated?
00:37:50
Nick
Right, so this is, this is ah game's getting exciting. Units start dropping. So as we know, as we talked about earlier, the husks on the board represent the fallen forms of former relic wielders.
00:38:05
Nick
And we' we're recovering these relics from these husks. So when one of your units carrying a relic dies, they are corrupted into a new husk. You remove their model from the board and replace them with a new husk.
00:38:20
Nick
The relic they were equipped with goes to the bottom of the deck, and now you have a new Hust to fight over with your opponent. And don't forget, when you lose a relic, you lose the 10 mastery, because you don't get points for effort.
00:38:32
Garrett
this is This is very correct. ah So um you lose Relic. So it's a big swing, right? Because you lose 10 points and potentially i if the Relic is uncontested at the end of the round, your opponent can pick it up and gain 10 points.
00:38:49
Garrett
ah So it could be ah it could be like a 20 point differential swing, right? And then now the Relics, ah did you say what happens to the Relic cards after they get dropped?
00:39:01
Nick
Yeah, every every lost relic will be returned face down to the bottom of the relic deck. So you i don't think we'll ever see the same relic twice.
00:39:09
Garrett
No, I don't think there's any way currently in the game that you can search the Relic deck. Now, um the other thing I don't think we ah purposefully said is when you defeat a unit or you play a channel or swift spell, um usually what happens is that unit or a spell goes in your discard pile.
00:39:14
Nick
That quickly.
00:39:31
Garrett
And so that's important to keep note of. Whenever a unit is banished, the only time units get banished is when cards specifically say banish a card, or if you've used that card to bid for initiative, ah those go to the banish pile.
00:39:45
Garrett
um And then no matter what, at the start of each round, both players get the game Echo and both players get the draw two cards. And so that it never changes.
00:39:56
Garrett
so So we've went through quite a bit of it. And then, so these, these these oh, sorry, what'd you say?
00:40:01
m3rcier
I was going to say, the only thing that can stop you from drawing your two cards is if there's not two cards to draw, in which case the the game ends then and there.
00:40:13
Garrett
Oh yes, and what does that mean?
00:40:17
m3rcier
And the person that was unable to draw two cards at the start of a round is the loser.
00:40:23
Garrett
Yes, fascinating. i You would have to be in a real... that the the The sequence of events that would lead to that would have to be pretty impressive. It's pretty hard to get through even almost two-thirds of your deck in most games.
00:40:37
m3rcier
Yeah, I think in Magic, and Nick, correct me, but it's called Milling the Deck. It's really hard to do it right now in Malediction.
00:40:48
Nick
Yeah, I don't really think there's any cards that specifically mill. And yeah, when we say milling, if for if for those of you who aren't aren't Magic players, milling is an when effect or ability causes you to discard the top part of your deck.
00:41:00
Nick
um Most of the time it's used offensively. Sometimes sometimes it can be used in yourself to like sort your deck. But I don't think there's really anything that mills in this game other than maybe Ingor's legacy.
00:41:12
m3rcier
Laundriel does somewhat with her her legacy and then some of the spells she can play.
00:41:17
Nick
I think...
00:41:22
Nick
So very few, very few sources.
00:41:24
Garrett
Yes. Okay. Now, the next thing, some some admin notes for playing is we kind of kind of said this. We need to deploy. You can deploy a unit, and with that unit, you can deploy an item with them.
00:41:37
Garrett
Normally, 99% of units can only hold one item. ah You can hold an item and a relic at the same time. You can hold both.
00:41:49
Garrett
If your unit card has the keyword clumsy, you cannot hold cannot hold items or relics. So that's important. However, a clumsy unit can contest a relic.
00:42:02
Garrett
ah So you can keep other characters from picking them up. And then items, if you kill a character with an item, you get both the points for the character and the item towards your mastery score.
00:42:14
Garrett
And that player puts the card and item in his discard pile. What if you want to trade items around? Well, you can deploy in with an item.
00:42:25
Garrett
And then as long as you're nearby an ally, ah each character you have can trade an item one time per turn. So that's ah that's how you can get units onto the board with items they might not want that you want to deploy and give to another unit that are more advantageous to them.
00:42:48
Garrett
ah Let's see here. Can you guys think of anything else that we missed? We've talked about line of sight and line of effect. For example, line of effect is really important for things like healing and prayer.
00:43:04
Garrett
Is that correct, Alan? Am I right there?
00:43:07
m3rcier
So any ability or spell that requires you to take a measurement will require line of effect. So for example, for a priest to pray, he has to have line of effect to his allies. That way he can use them for like pray three. He can get three echo if they're all within line of effect and within range.
00:43:29
m3rcier
But he does not have to see them. He has have line of effect to them.
00:43:36
Garrett
Perfect.
00:43:36
m3rcier
versus a spell like uh cataclysmic blast i believe is the one that does five damage uh to all units that are within three inches of it your casting unit does not have to have line of effects to the point you pick but the units you want to make the victim of that spell do have to have the range and line of effect on them
00:44:00
Garrett
Perfect, perfect. Now, Nick, Nick, now this is a dice game as well, right? What is the, uh, what happens when you roll a one and what happens when you roll not exciting for you if you roll the one.
00:44:13
Nick
Right, so they're both really excited when they happen. ah When we roll a natural 1 on the die during an attack, the attack is called a Critical Graze. Well, it's exciting it's exciting for somebody table.
00:44:27
Garrett
That's true, that's true.
00:44:27
Nick
yeah So a Critical Graze is going to be 1 damage, regardless of modifiers. So you don't get to add like your ambush damage or any like other bonuses you might have. um And on the inverse of that, a natural 20 is a critical hit.
00:44:43
Nick
Now, when you score critical hit, you're going to look at your your power stat there, those two numbers, and you're going to add them together. So for example, if you have, like Sigrith has a 5 over 3, her critical hit damage is 8.
00:45:00
Garrett
Indeed. Okay, perfect. So that's critical hits, critical grazes. um I roll a lot of ones. It's pretty exciting. ah We have a friend who's got a YouTube channel, 13th Fleet, and we filmed a little demo game. And one of our players, Aaron, I think you rolled like six natural ones during the course of the game.
00:45:19
Garrett
It was really funny. ah Now, ah The last thing i want to talk about is deck building. I did say earlier how many copies of different tiers you can have.
00:45:32
Garrett
um Alan, can you tell us the definitive final rule for building your deck so you can get ready for your first game of malediction?
00:45:43
Garrett
And what is a deck called, actually? There's a name for it, and I always forget to call it this. what Do you know the name?
00:45:49
m3rcier
A warband is your warband.
00:45:51
Garrett
Warband.
00:45:53
m3rcier
Yeah. So when you... Rules for building your deck are the deck itself has to be between 30 and 50 cards. ah Not inside of that 30 to 50 cards is going to be your seeker that you pick along with the accompanying legacy.
00:46:12
m3rcier
And then you have a terrain card you can pick any of the four terrains you can use with your deck. They're not faction locked. They are faction themed, but not faction locked. And then your normal, your main deck consists of 30 to 50 mixture of units, items, and spells.
00:46:32
m3rcier
Then you have a side deck which can contain up to seven cards. and you're able to sideboard some move cards from your main deck to your side deck right before you start to play the game after you see your opponent's warband, because both players warband public knowledge.
00:46:49
m3rcier
So before you start the match, you can take a look at it. The faction requirements. If you are a mono seeker, you can only take cards that are mono. If you're a dual seeker, you can take the mono cards from each faction.
00:47:05
m3rcier
So for Landriel, she can take Conclave or Order. And then she also has access to a small subset of cards that are dual faction. So for her, she'd be able to take any card that has the Order and the Conclave symbol on it.
00:47:20
m3rcier
Whereas a Monoseeker cannot take any of the dual cards. ah So like Siggy couldn't take a card that is Order and Conclave because she does not have access to Conclave.
00:47:33
Garrett
Perfect. Perfect. Perfect. Nick, where can people build their decks today right now?
00:47:40
Nick
All right. So we yeah there is a website, Malediction. so What's the full Malediction Play?
00:47:47
Garrett
Yeah, I put you, I put you on the spot on this one.
00:47:49
Nick
You put it on the spot. I didn't have it pulled up.
00:47:50
Garrett
I got him. I got him. Ladies and gentlemen.
00:47:51
Nick
I've got bookmarked here.
00:47:52
m3rcier
And it's clay.malediction.gg
00:47:53
Nick
It's play.malediction.com.
00:47:57
m3rcier
forward slash cards or forward slash decks.
00:48:01
Garrett
And this is a separate login from your normal malediction website login where like you store your STLs. ah they're not They're not connected because I think they use a a common card building thing.
00:48:17
Nick
Yeah, it's at card.io. Yeah.
00:48:19
Garrett
Yeah, thank you.
00:48:19
Nick
Yep.
00:48:20
Garrett
That's it, card.io. All right, so excellent. All right, all right, gents. I think we've covered everything that's super important. I'm sure the comments will let us know any egregious errors.
00:48:32
Garrett
egregious errors. The next thing is on our our personal agenda.
00:48:36
m3rcier
before we before we move from Before we move from that, Garrett, we we do leave.
00:48:39
Garrett
ah you What do you got? What do you got for me?
00:48:43
m3rcier
So just so y'all are aware, any of the egregious errors you find, make sure to correct us in the comments. Just know that we put them in on purpose so that you could comment.
00:48:53
Garrett
Oh, that's a good catch. I like that. Uh... that's that's ah That's engagement farming at its finest. um Okay, so the next thing is final final thoughts on ah the rules we just laid out.
00:49:09
Garrett
Alan, what about you? What's your final thoughts here on our basic rules?
00:49:13
m3rcier
hello Oh, not really final thoughts, but the the rules that stick out to me the most because they've, i don't want to hurt me the most, but they've kind of rules that had the most and so exciting results on the game.
00:49:27
m3rcier
Shift. I lost a game because instead of locking up a ah husk, I tried to kill another unit because I was like, oh yeah, none of my opponent's units can get to that husk.
00:49:43
m3rcier
did everything the way I want it to last unit for my opponent wasn't engaged with any of mine shifted through the terrain. Cause there certain trains you can shift through and ended right next to that husk and picked it up to win the game.
00:49:58
m3rcier
So, that was, uh, didn't know happen right then, but shift is my, my, my big one that, uh, I think people undervalue.
00:50:08
m3rcier
And then bidding for initiative. I want to stress how important it is. It can be game-breaking. Garrett, I think you talked about it. Deploying, taking initiative or having it, choosing to deploy first, and then putting the unit into engagement so that your opponent can no longer reinforcement deploy. He has to deploy at the other side of the bar board in the corner.
00:50:31
m3rcier
Can completely swing a game.
00:50:35
Nick
And um I'm glad you brought up shifting, Alan, because I think one thing we didn't talk about was retaliation.
00:50:41
Garrett
Oh no, Nick, Nick, ah jiggle jiggle your ah your headphone cord little bit. Sorry folks, technical difficulties.
00:50:48
Nick
Am I back?
00:50:48
Garrett
Nerd's back, he's back.
00:50:51
Nick
Yeah, I'm glad you brought up shifting because one thing we didn't talk about was retaliation.
00:50:55
Nick
And so, yeah.
00:50:55
Garrett
Oh, we didn't, you're right, and riposte.
00:50:59
Nick
Yep. So ah real quick, we're just going to zoom back to the action phase. So there are some actions you can take that provoke retaliation. So things like moving when you're already engaged with an enemy or trying to use like a spell like ability like pray or heal when you're engaged with like a melee unit, they provoke retaliation. So your opponent will get to make a free melee attack against you.
00:51:21
Nick
And that's pretty much it. There's lots of other triggers for retaliation, but it's going to be more specific to the cards. But the other thing about shifting is that it's two action points to do it, but it doesn't provoke retaliation.
00:51:34
Nick
So it's the best way to get some of your squishy units away from danger when when you need to.
00:51:42
m3rcier
And it's great for strategically falling back to make your, if your opponent wants to kill you, they have to keep going the direction you want. So it's great for that.
00:51:52
Garrett
Yes, stacking units in the order you want. Excellent. Okay, Nick, is that I'm going to count those as your final thoughts. I'm going count them. We're running down on our timeline. I'm going to say mine is I love charging. I love the charge mechanic.
00:52:05
Garrett
I think it's so fun standing on ah ah a piece of terrain like the Asteria Pathways that gives you plus two speed and then having another item that gives you more speed and then charging like 25 inches across the board um and then hitting somebody.
00:52:21
Garrett
so
00:52:21
m3rcier
what What Seeker do you play?
00:52:23
Garrett
I like Thunder Steps.
00:52:23
m3rcier
Again?
00:52:24
Garrett
I like Thunder Steps. He dies a lot, but man, it is very exciting for those brief few moments. um now Now, ah what deck you have? You have 60 seconds, Alan.
00:52:36
Garrett
What deck do you like to play right now?
00:52:40
m3rcier
Leanna Spellstrike. So not leaning on Karma Walk for most of the heavy lifting. I'm relying on spells and basic and elite units.
00:52:51
m3rcier
along with a few uniques.
00:52:55
Garrett
That is the meatball for everybody out there. And Nick, what what are you playing right now?
00:53:00
Nick
I've been playing a lot of Greza. I love that little guy. And going to use a remainder of my time to talk my final thoughts in the game.
00:53:06
Garrett
He's taking it back, ladies and gentlemen.
00:53:07
Nick
I'm taking it back.
00:53:08
Garrett
He's taking it back.
00:53:09
Nick
So I do want to say real quick, these are my my final thoughts, is ah compared to other trading card games, one of the things that really stands out to me ah that's really really fresh is the drawing two cards every turn and not having a lot of spells and abilities that draw cards into your hand.
00:53:24
Nick
ah Some other games get so bogged down with like stacking draw mechanics that you end up just overpowering your opponent by just choice. This game has some limited deck searching, ah but not a lot of like straight card draw. So it it keeps the game like fresh, and and you still get to see most of your deck, just the way the game's structured.
00:53:45
Nick
ah But yeah, the remainder of my 15 seconds, Grieza is awesome. I love the spirits, keeping them alive with a bunch of healing spells and just wearing your opponent down with like cheap units that when they finally kill them, they only get the three Echo or three Mastery for it. It's ah it's a great look.
00:54:02
Garrett
Fantastic. Fantastic. Uh, and then like alluded to earlier, I like to play thunder steps. Um, a huge fan of combining, uh, all the units that can, uh, charge really, really fast and then have knockback power, uh, which is a component we didn't really talk about, but it's some units have knocked back and when they hit something they can shove a unit back a certain amount of inches, and which is pretty cool.
00:54:28
Garrett
You can knock units out of when they're contesting relics. All right, Alan, it's time for us to talk about events. What is upcoming as of whatever day this is right now, May 11th?
00:54:44
m3rcier
Yeah. So as of May 12th, it will be, of course, the Everlasting, Trials of the Everlasting, our monthly online tournament just kicked off on Sunday.
00:54:56
m3rcier
Lone Star Open in Dallas, Texas on August 1st. And that very same weekend is Gen Con. You'll have your 2v2 tournament on Friday, July 31st.
00:55:08
m3rcier
You'll have the 1v1 tournament on August, Saturday, August 1st at Gen Con. Registration opens ah on Gen Con's website, May 17th.
00:55:18
Garrett
Do we know how many seats are available for that yet?
00:55:18
m3rcier
Then I believe it was 16 or 32, but I'm not sure if they've announced that yet.
00:55:31
m3rcier
August 29th and 30th, so the end of August, we have Tacticon in Denver, Colorado. And then as far as demos, we have UKGE in Birmingham in the United Kingdom on May 29th to May 31st.
00:55:48
m3rcier
And then a shout out because George Mann, he is a member of the lore team for Malediction, will be at UKGE. So if you want to go see him, chat with him, head by the Malediction or Loot Studios booth and give him a shout.
00:56:08
m3rcier
I will be demoing this weekend, May 16th at Pelican in South Houston. Again on June 13th, I have a demo at Copperhead Brewery in North Houston.
00:56:22
m3rcier
And then in two days, I think on Thursday in Brazil, they will have a learn to play at Garagem Nerd in Belo Horizonte. I think I said that right.
00:56:35
m3rcier
I probably butchered it. I apologize. May 23rd game.
00:56:39
Garrett
It's close enough. It looks pretty looks pretty good.
00:56:41
m3rcier
Yeah. May 23rd game grid in Lehigh, Utah. Butchered that too. And then on May 30th in breadburg, Germany at bed burger tablets.
00:56:55
m3rcier
Frun day. Again, I butchered that. Those are our tournaments and demos. We will probably once a month try and go through the, the, the weekly thing, which we did in the last episode. So those are your events.
00:57:06
Garrett
Yes. Excellent. Excellent. Thank you, Alan. Well, gents, that's the end of episode two. I want to thank every episode three. i want to thank everybody for listening. And again, please tell us what you'd like to see in future episodes or how we're doing now. Anything is appreciated or drop a review if possible.
00:57:25
Garrett
All right, ladies gentlemen, that'll be it for this one. Goodbye.
00:57:31
Nick
See y'all next time.
00:57:31
m3rcier
I'll talk to you later.