Transcript
Speaker: Hello and welcome to the Nordic Star Wars Unlimited podcast.
Speaker: My name, wait a second.
Speaker: Sorry, wrong group of guys.
Speaker: Sorry, guys.
Speaker: Sorry.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Shall I start again?
Speaker: Hey, and welcome to the Nordic Key Forge podcast.
Speaker: There we go.
Speaker: That's the game.
Speaker: This is a game by Fantasy Flight Games that are giving it its all.
Speaker: They are going for OP.
Speaker: They're going for local tournaments, store championships.
Speaker: Keyforge is back, baby, and FFG is pumping all the... Wait a moment.
Speaker: That's not true.
Speaker: Wow.
Speaker: Okay, I did not expect you to go that far.
Speaker: Anyway, so...
Speaker: Yeah, so here we are.
Speaker: We're back, episode number 69, and yeah, we're here to talk about Key Forge on the deadline date for the Nordic Key Forge League season 25.
Speaker: 23.
Speaker: 23, 24, season 24, surely.
Speaker: Is it 24?
Speaker: Because they'll just fact check me.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: we are in season 23 we're in 2024 season 23 season 23 deadline day we are so prepared today everyone we are so prepared you guys have probably heard the voice of our very own Hugh Hefner Karl also known as Algonon also known as Beekeeper also known as the Swedish Keyforge champion calling into my mansion yeah you're wearing too much clothes today Karl
Speaker: We also have our resident water boy hydrophilic attack.
Speaker: Hey.
Speaker: I mean, you do more than bring us water.
Speaker: You bring... I usually bring a lot of tea, but I've been trying to cut down on caffeine in the evening, so no tea today.
Speaker: Does tea have caffeine in?
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: What?
Speaker: Since when?
Speaker: I'm joking.
Speaker: English breakfast tea has caffeine in.
Speaker: I know that.
Speaker: Yeah, that's my favorite.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Wow, I've got like a thousand teabags.
Speaker: I dare you, introduce me.
Speaker: We also have our really unsarcastic, unfunny host here as well, Zaramis, who's decided to come in last minute because, I don't know, you weren't even going to come and then you suddenly just popped in before you started recording and we don't know what we're doing yet.
Speaker: Zaramis, hey, how are you doing?
Speaker: Good to see you.
Speaker: Hi, everyone.
Speaker: How's flesh and blood going for you?
Speaker: It's going well.
Speaker: I am in such a positive mood.
Speaker: Amazing.
Speaker: Fantasy Flight Games has really revived this game after they bought it from Ghost Galaxy.
Speaker: And I'm so happy because they really proved with Star Wars Unlimited that they have what it takes to really take a card game and run it for more than two years.
Speaker: And yeah, I'm really happy that they bought back Keyforge.
Speaker: We all thought it was there.
Speaker: Anyway, okay, let's talk about the elephant in the room because I am getting... Let's do something about Forge Night.
Speaker: The last two weeks I've been playing Star Wars Unlimited.
Speaker: I went to Preli release.
Speaker: I'm really enjoying it.
Speaker: And I don't recognize Fantasy Flight Games.
Speaker: I do not recognize the company that has brought us this game.
Speaker: And if you search the Nordic Takedown podcast, Takedown is one of the popular cards in the game.
Speaker: I started a podcast with another Swedish guy and we're really enjoying it and we don't understand what happened because...
Speaker: Fantasy Flight feel like a company we can believe in.
Speaker: Like they've done everything right about this game.
Speaker: And I'm thinking if only they did this for Key Forge.
Speaker: If only they did all the stuff they're doing now and followed through with it and put the effort into Key Forge that they put into Star Wars, putting into Star Wars Unlimited now.
Speaker: in terms of getting it out to game, to game stores.
Speaker: You're on the wrong podcast again, Jason.
Speaker: No, no, no, no.
Speaker: I'm talking about key force now.
Speaker: I'm really, I really wish that like we were in the place where like there was, they could push this into game shops that they could really push and just invest a little bit more money into saying to game shops.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: We know you got burned by this game before.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Let us try and prove to you with a little bit of extra cheddar that we're serious about this game.
Speaker: Hold on now, Bucko.
Speaker: That would require any kind of humility or being able to say that they're wrong about anything.
Speaker: And I mean, that's a tall order for Ghost Galaxy.
Speaker: Yeah, okay.
Speaker: But that's just how I'm feeling because before Star Wars Unlimited came out, I was a little bit like, do I want to get into bed with a Fantasy Flight Games game again?
Speaker: Do I want to get burned again?
Speaker: Etc.
Speaker: I'll get in on the interview.
Speaker: I have to say, I'm a bit uneasy about this discussion because the Nordic Takedown podcast sounds like you want to destroy this podcast.
Speaker: I really don't want to destroy this podcast because this podcast... Right, right.
Speaker: I think we'll move on to another forge tonight for someone who has played Keyforge.
Speaker: No, no, no, no, no.
Speaker: I'm not done yet.
Speaker: I'm not done.
Speaker: I will mute you.
Speaker: I will mute you.
Speaker: We're not even five minutes in and I will mute you.
Speaker: I have, I have the power.
Speaker: The point, the point I'm trying, the point I'm trying to make is like, I really miss the key forge.
Speaker: That never was.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: We miss it too.
Speaker: Well, I kind of miss being able to go into a shop and pick up a deck and there being some play in other countries apart from the US.
Speaker: I agree.
Speaker: I guess what they're doing now with Star Wars is basically them learning from their mistakes with Keyforge and trying to get right this time.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I mean, they've got Jim Carver over from Magic who knows how to do it.
Speaker: I have to correct you here.
Speaker: So they're learning from Warhammer Conquest, Game of Thrones, Game of Thrones First Edition, let's see, Netrunner.
Speaker: You could argue that they've had the chance to learn this lesson.
Speaker: Jason, I'm sure in two years' time you'll have an episode on your Take Down podcast where you will discuss what went wrong.
Speaker: Yeah, I mean, we can remember this.
Speaker: Episode 69, you guys can find me wherever I am in two years' time and just go, what were you saying?
Speaker: But, I don't know, it feels different.
Speaker: You would say, I miss GG.
Speaker: I miss how GG was handling stuff.
Speaker: We are seven minutes into the episode and Jason is still talking about Star Wars.
Speaker: I know, I know.
Speaker: Have you guys tried to play Star Wars yet?
Speaker: Do you guys want me to explain how to play it?
Speaker: No, I'm not interested at all.
Speaker: I don't like... Okay, I have been playing some Keyforge.
Speaker: There's no stopping him.
Speaker: I have been playing Keyforge.
Speaker: There isn't no stopping me.
Speaker: I've got the mic.
Speaker: Shut up.
Speaker: I'll mute you all.
Speaker: I have been playing Keyforge.
Speaker: I've lost every single competitive Keyforge game I've played.
Speaker: However, I've been promoted.
Speaker: I'm having the best season I've had in seasons, like in years, it feels like.
Speaker: I've been promoted.
Speaker: Yeah, exactly.
Speaker: And I've been promoted.
Speaker: I'm having a really, really good season so far.
Speaker: And the deadline's tonight for Dex.
Speaker: So yeah, that's me.
Speaker: Anyone else want to follow up with that?
Speaker: Yeah, I have submitted a fully controlled lineup.
Speaker: There's going to be feel bad all the way.
Speaker: It's going to be infinite trawler combos with mid-year festivities.
Speaker: It's going to be Infernas and Itazjar.
Speaker: It's going to be triple befuddle.
Speaker: I'm not in your division, I hope.
Speaker: I'm going out with a redacted.
Speaker: Okay, nice.
Speaker: I've got to get the redacted soundbite out again.
Speaker: I played a lot of Key Forge and I played the most degenerate decks and yeah, I hate the game.
Speaker: I want to find anything else, yet I'm here.
Speaker: I've submitted a control lineup.
Speaker: That's all I can say.
Speaker: Are they doing okay in testing against the Scream Reminders?
Speaker: Yeah, Hellenai is doing great.
Speaker: The triple funnel deck is doing pretty great.
Speaker: And yeah.
Speaker: And Algernon, yeah, we've heard your dulcet tones.
Speaker: so far.
Speaker: How has your keyboard been going?
Speaker: Are you submitting six control decks with all the hate cards in the game?
Speaker: Nah, I'm going rush.
Speaker: That's the only other solution.
Speaker: Yeah, I'm adding another Kota and yeah.
Speaker: But I'm bringing three new decks.
Speaker: Carl, six Kota Light Up.
Speaker: Well, it's the most fun I have in Keefer.
Speaker: You want to spend as few turns as possible with those Grim Reminders decks.
Speaker: You've got to stick with your laurels.
Speaker: You're the Swedish champion on Kota.
Speaker: I mean, you want to spend as few turns as possible playing Key Forge.
Speaker: That's the best lineup strategy going forward.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I am playing one rush deck.
Speaker: I'm bringing my super speedy 11 creature Kaibang deck as well.
Speaker: Are we just forgetting the Forge Knight area of this and going straight into our lineups now?
Speaker: Basically, but we're going to ask the next person, Hydro as well.
Speaker: The next person.
Speaker: Wait, Hydro is bringing... Let's see.
Speaker: Yes, I have done so much preparation.
Speaker: I've put 50 hours into Final Fantasy VII Rebirth.
Speaker: That's my fortunate.
Speaker: I thought we were going to say I've put 50 hours into no curve assignment.
Speaker: No, I haven't put any minutes into playing Keyforge, actually.
Speaker: Welcome to the Nordic Final Fantasy podcast.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So Hydro is the winner.
Speaker: He spent the least time playing Keyforge.
Speaker: So I am just taking the exact same lineup as last season, which...
Speaker: You could have played 400 hours of key points in the case, it would have been.
Speaker: So yeah, I'm taking the same line up as last season.
Speaker: Yes, that's true.
Speaker: So I'm just taking the shortcuts to the same outcome.
Speaker: But did you, last season you changed decks, didn't you?
Speaker: Yes, last season I put in two new decks which performed well in that meta.
Speaker: But are you not putting Grim and Minders in?
Speaker: No, I don't like any of my Grimm Reminder decks.
Speaker: I haven't played them all, but I've just not really felt like playing Grimm Reminders.
Speaker: What a shocker.
Speaker: I like playing it, actually.
Speaker: It's fun to play.
Speaker: Not super good Grim Reminders.
Speaker: It's really fun.
Speaker: That I agree with.
Speaker: Medium level Grim Reminders is a lot of fun.
Speaker: I think everything except a few cards that we've discussed in the last few episodes actually makes a set pretty fun.
Speaker: Unfortunately, those cards will exist in all their great decks and thus means high level Grim Reminders is...
Speaker: Redacted.
Speaker: Oh, sorry.
Speaker: I'm swearing a lot today.
Speaker: It's the most cancerous state of Keyforge that we have seen in this realm of possibility.
Speaker: Well, I mean, it's interesting to say that because I've tested some mass mutation decks up against...
Speaker: the grim reminders that out there, and I'm just getting destroyed, like, Sabine is my kind of, I guess, control deck with artifact hate, etc, etc.
Speaker: And it just still can't, you know, that's the one thing before Winds of Exchange, it just feel like the power creep is just the power creep curve is just gone way, way too high.
Speaker: In terms of, you know, grim and mindless versus other sets.
Speaker: You just need some recurable Dysenia.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: What if Dysenia, then you have a card that you can play on the same turn that Archive's or Dysenia again?
Speaker: Wouldn't that be crazy?
Speaker: Would that be like a broken card?
Speaker: Is that quick enough?
Speaker: Oh, wait!
Speaker: But is that still quick enough, though, to go up against some other speed?
Speaker: Well, it breaks the winds of death.
Speaker: Dysenia does break the Archive's 17 creatures.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Basically, my hedge against the winds of death is that I have a lot of cards, a lot of creatures that give me amber on play.
Speaker: So maybe.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Ye olde dust pixies.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Dust pixies can go on the list.
Speaker: Yeah, but kind of the only consideration I've done for Grim Reminders really, because it's the same lineup as before, I was considering switching out my triple Infernus deck with the quadruple Brad Penny, and I'm keeping it just because I think the Infernus is good.
Speaker: Yeah, that's definitely good.
Speaker: Yeah, but we still won't see Grim Reminders taking over since we can only have two of it.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So if you ban one of them, then you only have one matchup versus Grim Reminders.
Speaker: Yeah, it's a shame that the distribution hasn't been as Ghost Galaxy have wanted worldwide at the moment because I saw Ysavo, he dropped out of the league today or yesterday because he hasn't had Grim Reminders.
Speaker: He can't get a hold of Grim Reminders decks.
Speaker: It's a case if you didn't back the...
Speaker: Game found worldwide.
Speaker: You still don't have it.
Speaker: I think I heard Alpha Spell got it in stock today.
Speaker: Manator still haven't got it in.
Speaker: We still don't know when the store championship is.
Speaker: And we've got...
Speaker: we haven't even booked it in because we don't know if we're getting the stock.
Speaker: So like, it's a shame that the rest of the world is missing out now on a proper release of this game.
Speaker: Because people haven't to drop from the league this season.
Speaker: Yeah, especially since we also delayed the start of this season to make sure that people got a chance to buy the decks.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker: And there could be many, many distribution reasons for this.
Speaker: And we don't know the details, so we won't speculate on anything more than we speculated on in the first 15 minutes of this podcast episode.
Speaker: But yeah, I think it's good that we did go for limiting to two Grim reminders because I probably would have gone three or four Grim reminders in my lineups this season.
Speaker: So yeah, and I'm going all change.
Speaker: I'm only bringing one, but it's because I don't want to test them.
Speaker: I feel no joy in testing Grim reminders now because I get annoyed by the design of the set.
Speaker: And I mean, this could be our shortest episode ever.
Speaker: It's good that you talked for seven minutes at the start because, I mean, we've already gone through our lineups.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I mean, I'm bringing my Halifest deck back and that's the only deck I'm keeping.
Speaker: And I'm playing two of the decks that Riku sent me over that I got from Riku.
Speaker: Woe decks, which are just really fun.
Speaker: I haven't decided.
Speaker: I mean, it's not...
Speaker: on paper yet.
Speaker: It's not fully decided, but that's what it's looking like.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And just, again, I'm going for trying to go for a woe rush.
Speaker: I have one rushy deck and then five control decks.
Speaker: That's basically what I'm running.
Speaker: I think I'm actually not improving, but maybe making my lineup worse compared to last season.
Speaker: But I just bring
Speaker: Like the six decks I have most of them playing.
Speaker: But I mean, the meta is going to be, is going to change so much now.
Speaker: Like it's going to be interesting just to see like the people that did bring Grim Reminders against the people who didn't bring Grim Reminders.
Speaker: That'll be really interesting to see at the end of the season.
Speaker: Um,
Speaker: like how many decks out there have actually gone up and taken down Grim and Minders and what are they like like Simon it's going to be really interesting to hear from you at the end of the season what did your essence jar Infernus control control control hate do you think I will actually get to play Helena this season
Speaker: I don't know.
Speaker: You may do.
Speaker: I think I will because if people don't ban my name deck, they are in for a boring match.
Speaker: That's the Green Reminders.
Speaker: I think it's actually going to be really interesting to see what people ban this season.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Many people bring in new heat and the Green Reminders will, yeah, a lot of people will ban that.
Speaker: So it opens up other decks that you had previously.
Speaker: that you never got to play.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Probably.
Speaker: I'm trying to include some of my best, like I'm including my two best performing out of my three best performing old decks and then bringing three new and one that never really got to shine last season because everyone banned my Bryos Arch control.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But Kaibang will be fun to play.
Speaker: Like that deck is just fun.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, but that's going to be the big just from what I've realized and how I've played is that Winds of Exchange has needed the big boards.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker: Grim Reminders doesn't.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: Which is good for many of my older because they all stopped being good because people played enormous wide boards.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Cool.
Speaker: So that's been episode 69.
Speaker: Yeah, I mean, I'm done here.
Speaker: What else do we have to say?
Speaker: We could give tips to people preparing their lineups, but the tips is basically, you know.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: They are redundant now since people already put in their lineups.
Speaker: Exactly.
Speaker: Well, they have one hour and 30 minutes or something.
Speaker: Yeah, because I can edit that quickly.
Speaker: I can edit that quickly.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, but I'm actually also bringing one of the decks that Riku sent over.
Speaker: Like a surprise deck that he just gave me, which is really, really nice.
Speaker: Oh, wow.
Speaker: Nice.
Speaker: A Kota deck.
Speaker: Very fast.
Speaker: Sadly, no keysheets.
Speaker: Just like my other Kota decks.
Speaker: But it has...
Speaker: Yeah, it has what you want.
Speaker: Crazy Burst in Untamed and some Steel.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Burst of shadows.
Speaker: And then a board wipe that I have not in.
Speaker: I don't have any board wipes in my other Kota decks.
Speaker: So I think it's nice.
Speaker: Actually, I think given that I have three very similar decks, I think my opponents will probably ban very, I think I can predict pretty much what they will do in those matches.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Which is nice, I guess.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: So, okay, guys, so what you're looking forward to in Keyforge.
Speaker: I'm looking forward to store championships and post release.
Speaker: Oh, yeah, the post release.
Speaker: Yeah, we will have some sealed events with the pre-release packs, which will be held after like half a month after the release is set in our shop.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I'm looking forward to Ghost Galaxy realizing they were wrong, should have nurtured their community, the failure of Ember Skies and their admission that they suck.
Speaker: And they should have just done one thing right.
Speaker: Listen to some people who actually know this community and the game.
Speaker: A rat that wins a death while they still have a chance.
Speaker: Go for store championships.
Speaker: I think they still have a chance.
Speaker: I also think they still have a chance.
Speaker: That's why I keep submitting my please for the love of God, reverse course, save the game.
Speaker: You could do something right here.
Speaker: I also sent in after you posted today with the same sentiment.
Speaker: I think they can still fix what's making the reminders utterly broken at the top level.
Speaker: With those two cards being fixed, that solves a lot of things.
Speaker: And yeah, I really hope they listen to that.
Speaker: Yeah, there has to be some erotas in this moving forward because it is... It's not fun on either side of the game.
Speaker: If I'm playing Give Reminders, I'm not enjoying winning.
Speaker: Yep, same.
Speaker: If I'm playing non-Give Reminders, I'm not enjoying being destroyed.
Speaker: Because I have no chance.
Speaker: It's not the fair even back and forth game that we know Keyforge to be.
Speaker: Yeah, like top level Arkham will move into what top level Alliance has been.
Speaker: which is basically just a race and luck fest.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Zero interactions a lot of times.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And it's really sad that it's come to that now because I remember trying Grim Reminders out.
Speaker: I mean, you all heard us playing Grim Reminders, playing it for the first time.
Speaker: It was so much fun.
Speaker: The stuff that you can do with the deck, the scrap stuff, it's a lot of
Speaker: fun to actually do it, but it's not, it's only fun for so long to play Solitaire.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I still find it super fun.
Speaker: Like I don't have any of these like super broken decks.
Speaker: So I enjoy my decks that I have.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But like some of the decks you face, um, once they go off, it's just not key push anymore.
Speaker: Really?
Speaker: I feel.
Speaker: And, um,
Speaker: at the top level at Arkhan tournaments in the future, those are the decks we will see.
Speaker: Yeah, definitely.
Speaker: So it's a problem, not particularly for me, I guess, since I don't play those tournaments.
Speaker: I play in KFL, I can ban stuff.
Speaker: We can have our own restrictions and stuff.
Speaker: It's a problem for the game because those are the formats that they are pushing.
Speaker: So we'll see.
Speaker: You know what format will be really fun with the Grimm Reminders?
Speaker: Adaptive.
Speaker: Adaptive.
Speaker: Yeah, or just taking a sealed deck and playing with it without modifying it in any way.
Speaker: That could also be quite fun.
Speaker: That's a groundbreaking idea.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, it's almost like you could base an entire game around it.
Speaker: I don't know.
Speaker: And just play it.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I also think that format has the advantage that it's fun for the other sets as well, probably.
Speaker: Like, could work for all sets.
Speaker: Just as adaptive works for all sets.
Speaker: but yeah they're digging the grave in that like releasing these the power creep sets and narrowing down what we can play competitively and it's just yeah those two things together makes for but why what do you think the reasoning is behind that
Speaker: that they bring out to like Winds of Exchange was more powerful, but it was beatable.
Speaker: I think they were afraid of doing another Dark Tidings and they overcompensated.
Speaker: And I think Winds of Exchange, I think, was still on the right side of that.
Speaker: But yeah, I think probably they didn't really test for like
Speaker: the tail end of the distribution when you get all of these cards, mostly in Geistoy, that really synergize with each other and turn the game into solitaire.
Speaker: And they didn't test those cards that are fine on their own, but really become busted when you combine them all together.
Speaker: That's my guess.
Speaker: Like, some limited... They wanted powerful cards to make the sets not weak, and then they didn't properly test...
Speaker: the top end of that.
Speaker: That's my guess.
Speaker: I don't think it's deliberate.
Speaker: That's my... Yeah, I agree.
Speaker: The balancing or the testing, I think, is made with sealed play in mind.
Speaker: But then we don't really have sealed play, which is weird.
Speaker: Because most sets that are power crypts or increased in power level
Speaker: works very well in sealed because like every deck you open will be will have some fun combos out you don't have those dud decks that do nothing i mean and that's that's one thing that's one thing that i thought was positive like i've of the 14 i've opened everything is like sas isn't everything we keep saying it but it's still it's getting more and more accurate but 72 is my lowest
Speaker: Of the 14 decks I've opened.
Speaker: And I think a lot of people are the same there.
Speaker: So you know you can bust by one deck and you're not going to get an AOA reversal deck.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Or not even that.
Speaker: To be fair to them, I think just raising the floor is a good thing that they have done.
Speaker: Yes, yes, yeah.
Speaker: So that is good.
Speaker: It's just that you can't at the same time just raise the ceiling by like
Speaker: I don't know how much, but it's a lot.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It's this saying that the road to hell is paved with the good intentions.
Speaker: I guess it's kind of applicable here.
Speaker: I don't know.
Speaker: I personally don't think they aimed to make
Speaker: all the other sets like useless or something like that.
Speaker: I just think they wanted to raise the floor and they weren't mindful enough what happens to the ceiling.
Speaker: Yeah, probably.
Speaker: And they took over those set designs as well, right?
Speaker: like a lot of stuff was already done there was a lot of stuff already done I think River Mind was 60% done so they probably just upped a few things that were already there like being afraid of it being like you say another DT and so we could have been in this position with Fantasy Flight as well
Speaker: with stronger sets if they kept it and they didn't lose the algorithm, etc.
Speaker: We could have been in the same situation with them.
Speaker: I guess they have probably better testing.
Speaker: Or maybe listen to their testers or whatever went wrong with some of these cards.
Speaker: I mean, some of them are just so also really written from a rules perspective that you wonder, did anyone even read these cards?
Speaker: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker: Singing scythe and so on.
Speaker: You can return this from your discard pile.
Speaker: Like, what the hell?
Speaker: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, exactly.
Speaker: How much text can we fit on a card?
Speaker: What's the limit?
Speaker: Let's push it.
Speaker: The rumors I've heard is that basically they were iterating really fast on card designs and didn't really give time to testers.
Speaker: Which is a shame because they didn't need to.
Speaker: I don't think so.
Speaker: Yeah, but that's why some of the things that are kind of baffling to us might have snuck in that they never really had time to test the latest versions of some of these effects.
Speaker: And that's what I've heard.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And I mean, that's fine.
Speaker: They are a small team.
Speaker: I mean, you can make mistakes.
Speaker: It's just like owning up to those mistakes and maybe correcting them.
Speaker: putting out some errata here and there where it's needed would be a good approach, I think.
Speaker: If you have to rush things a bit
Speaker: Yeah, I mean, this delayed release kind of works as a kind of extended playtest if you wanted to, I guess.
Speaker: So you could be smart about this and change some of these things.
Speaker: Yeah, I think that's the weird thing that you just reminded me.
Speaker: We're having this discussion and the set hasn't been officially released worldwide yet.
Speaker: Which is a weird thing.
Speaker: But if anyone's listening to this podcast or you're a first-time player for Keyforge, Keyforge is great.
Speaker: I'm looking up for Keyforge.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It is great.
Speaker: It is a really fun game.
Speaker: We're here for a reason.
Speaker: We're still pressing that record button because we still love the game and we still...
Speaker: want to play and we still want to enjoy it.
Speaker: I had a rant today to a friend.
Speaker: We're still pretty much the same people that have been here for two years or whatever.
Speaker: We're doing this.
Speaker: Three years, actually, I think.
Speaker: There's a reason because we love the game.
Speaker: Yeah, exactly.
Speaker: It is.
Speaker: And I went on a rant today with someone because I have, you know, I've
Speaker: Like I've probably taught the game to like 10 people in the last couple of months locally.
Speaker: We've got people playing it.
Speaker: I've got them playing with my Reminders decks and they loved it.
Speaker: Like new players absolutely, they're loving this game, coming into it and playing it and seeing some of the stuff you can do.
Speaker: And so it still has appeal.
Speaker: Like the game isn't dead in the way that it still has the appeal, but you go into a game shop, they see the appeal because of current players pushing out and saying, hey, what about this game, Keyforge?
Speaker: Oh, wait, that's still around?
Speaker: Yeah, cool.
Speaker: Did you ever try it?
Speaker: No.
Speaker: Okay, here's a deck.
Speaker: Let's play.
Speaker: Wow, this is actually a lot of fun.
Speaker: Wow.
Speaker: like where can I get some more?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It's, it's coming into the shops next week.
Speaker: That was too much.
Speaker: That was like a month ago or something like that, because you know, the people that I've got people here like hungry to play, but the distribution, it hasn't been there to support,
Speaker: what I've been pushing.
Speaker: Um, so it's still a really good game and it's still a really fun game.
Speaker: And the next episode, hopefully we'll be a bit more positive because we'd have played some pre-releases and store championships and we would have, you know, started playing the league games and, and everything.
Speaker: Like what's always positive is like, uh, nothing Gigi, uh,
Speaker: does or anyone else can ever like kill the game or destroy the game because we have what we have we have the sets uh or and the decks um like we have a system that works we can make our own leagues we can make the restrictions as we please we can use fan-made formats if we don't like like the official ones or we can
Speaker: go to whatever events we want to do.
Speaker: We own the game.
Speaker: So in that sense, it's great and it will always be great.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: You can be depressed at times for what could have been, but it's still great.
Speaker: And we said this during the hiatus and everything.
Speaker: We love the game, so we want to know it's got a future and be excited about where it's going.
Speaker: And that's what will make other people pick up and other people start to enjoy the game as well.
Speaker: Yeah, run over.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I'm actually going to make a local small gaming convention this May with my local game group.
Speaker: And I'm going to host a beginners Key Forge tournament there.
Speaker: in a way to just give out all my decks that I have.
Speaker: I need to get rid of them somehow.
Speaker: I mean, that's what I've been doing.
Speaker: I bought like 100 Words Collide bulk decks off of Gunnar and I probably have about 20 of them left.
Speaker: I've just been giving out decks, giving out playmats, giving out tokens, etc, etc.
Speaker: And it works because people are like, oh, this is great.
Speaker: This is great.
Speaker: And they've been playing.
Speaker: They've been coming.
Speaker: They brought back a couple of friends and they just took the game group on a Monday nights and just sat in a corner and picked up a couple of decks to play Keyforge.
Speaker: while we were playing another game.
Speaker: I finally got Dune Imperium Uprising, and such a good game.
Speaker: For those board gamers out there, if you get a chance to play Dune Imperium Uprising, which is the new replacement for the base game of Dune Imperium, you won't ever want to play the base game of Dune Imperium again.
Speaker: I want to play the base game.
Speaker: It improves it so much.
Speaker: So we've been kind of going to that on a Monday nights.
Speaker: But people have still been coming back up after that Key Force night and saying, yeah, can I borrow a couple of your decks again so we can play this?
Speaker: And it's super fun.
Speaker: I wish I wanted to start something local.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker: I wish I could go to my locals and say, hey, this game has really been revived once again.
Speaker: I wish that is in two years' time.
Speaker: Now I'm just looking for some other game that scratches the same edge because I'm tired.
Speaker: Yeah, but you're into the organized play side of things, right?
Speaker: Yeah, but the reason why I can't seem to quit Keyforge is that I just love looking for decks so much.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: There's a game I can tell you about, Simon, if you're interested.
Speaker: Yeah, I bet.
Speaker: I bet you can.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It's called Locana.
Speaker: Yeah, totally as Deck Discovery, right?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It's really fun.
Speaker: The April Fools that we did a couple of years ago when we said this was the Nordic Digimon podcast just as a joke.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: the i think it's come back to kind of bite me on the ass a little bit because there's actually about a small a bigger community here in quivita playing digimon than was playing key fortune
Speaker: And I was like, ah, OK.
Speaker: I noticed them the other day playing during one of the magic sessions.
Speaker: I was thinking, hang on a second.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Apparently it's a good game.
Speaker: I've never played it.
Speaker: Might be good.
Speaker: Yeah, apparently it's a good game.
Speaker: Digimon players out there, we are sorry we've made fun of you.
Speaker: Or your game.
Speaker: I mean, you will always have inferior games with good IPs that draw attention.
Speaker: Like the new Star Wars game, for example.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Except I don't like Star Wars either.
Speaker: So, yeah.
Speaker: You don't like Star Wars?
Speaker: No.
Speaker: You... Why did I even invite you on this podcast?
Speaker: Yeah, I don't know.
Speaker: I don't really like Star Wars either.
Speaker: I actually like Star Wars.
Speaker: I don't like that FFG game.
Speaker: Okay, we need to have another discussion.
Speaker: Last 20 minutes of this podcast is going to be a whole other discussion.
Speaker: Why don't you invite us all to your takedown podcast?
Speaker: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, I mean, yeah.
Speaker: We talk about other games, but the thing is, there still isn't a game like Key Forge.
Speaker: Like there's still the uniqueness of key force.
Speaker: You still won't get the game where you can just pick up and they can play.
Speaker: And yeah.
Speaker: And that's the game.
Speaker: And that's the main game.
Speaker: And that's why we stick around.
Speaker: And that's why we stick around.
Speaker: That's why we want to play.
Speaker: And that's why we still play in KFL every season.
Speaker: And because that's our game.
Speaker: um so we just we just really hope that the silence that ghost galaxy are in at the moment they're little you know they're they're they're not as active in the media at the moment they're doing a few emails out here and there that they are considering how to
Speaker: errata and improve or do something about the next set to bring a little bit more balance to the force the force or about balance in the crucible yeah yeah I am huge on Star Wars I have a deeper personal reason did you say anything they could have given that away because I didn't see any of it coming
Speaker: Yeah, I know, right.
Speaker: It's a little bit like Captain Obvious over here.
Speaker: But I'm always going to like Star Wars things.
Speaker: Yeah, but hopefully they're kind of coming up with a way to bring balance to the crucible.
Speaker: Don't tell me you at least, or you even like the sequel movies, episode seven, nine.
Speaker: The sequel movies.
Speaker: I'm torn.
Speaker: Please don't tell me you like those.
Speaker: I'm torn because I know John Boyega, who plays Finn in the sequels.
Speaker: And so like I worked when he was 16, I worked on a project that went to the National Theatre in London.
Speaker: And so I've worked with him before.
Speaker: You can't say.
Speaker: So I can't say fully no.
Speaker: I can see what they were trying to do.
Speaker: But the second episode, the second episode of the trilogy was just like, it needs to be redone.
Speaker: That's the one actually, because Star Wars fans hate it.
Speaker: That's the one I think I would like out of all of them.
Speaker: Because I haven't seen it either.
Speaker: It has some great things.
Speaker: I actually think, like, this is handling of the Star Wars series.
Speaker: is worse than Gigi's handling of the keyboard.
Speaker: Do you know what?
Speaker: In the sequels, I see where you're coming from when you come to the sequel films.
Speaker: Because they shouldn't have changed the director.
Speaker: They should have just stuck with the storyline and gone with it.
Speaker: Because the third episode was trying to undo what the second episode did.
Speaker: However, the Rogue one... Yeah, that was decent.
Speaker: Andor, Obi-Wan, all the spin off stuff is absolutely fantastic.
Speaker: Yeah, I like Ashitaka as well.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And Ashoka is absolutely incredible.
Speaker: Ashitaka, yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, I think that's the Keyforge player.
Speaker: Keyforge player, yeah, yeah.
Speaker: Is he French?
Speaker: Shout out.
Speaker: Shout out to Ashitaka.
Speaker: Apparently you're a Jedi in the Clone Wars.
Speaker: That's what I've been telling all my colleagues when I talk about the Ashitaka TV series.
Speaker: okay a show goes great yeah yeah i'll tell you i mean there's a lot that were great and they were so good and it actually makes hayden christian son look good as darth vader what or as anika skywalker how is that possible
Speaker: No, but because the sequels weren't as good, that when you watch the prequels, you actually kind of think, well, maybe he's not that bad.
Speaker: Right, we've gone over 40 minutes.
Speaker: We've done the minimum.
Speaker: Bye, everyone.
Speaker: Yeah, now we're really scraping the bottom of the barrel.
Speaker: We're discussing Star Wars.
Speaker: We're discussing Hayden Christensen.
Speaker: We started with Star Wars and we finished with Star Wars.
Speaker: We're discussing the sequel.
Speaker: Is there any more... Is there any discussion that people are more sick of in the world?
Speaker: Good luck everyone for season 23.
Speaker: There is so much moving and shaking.
Speaker: How many were we in the end?
Speaker: We were 200 and...
Speaker: 12, 216 players still holding steady.
Speaker: And I mean, considering that season 24 will be 15 people, this is probably the best we're going to get.
Speaker: I don't think it will go down that much.
Speaker: But it's still going strong.
Speaker: A few players have dropped out and a few players, you know, probably a bit of Keyforge burnout, waiting for Grim Reminders.
Speaker: Quite a lot of new players as well.
Speaker: There is quite a lot of new players, which is also really good.
Speaker: And we should encourage the new players to play this game.
Speaker: We want to encourage the new players to play this game.
Speaker: We're just in an odd place at the moment, being the seasoned veterans of...
Speaker: the game.
Speaker: That's how it is.
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: And that's just how it is.
Speaker: So good luck for the season.
Speaker: For John and Prosper.
Speaker: That's good luck from me.
Speaker: Bye.
Speaker: May the force be with you.
Speaker: Alright, have we stopped recording?
