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Into the Malediction
61 Plays4 days ago
Thank you for listening! Feel free to send us any comments, feedback, or topics you'd like for us to cover! intothemalediction@gmail.com
Visit https://play.malediction.gg/ for the game's deck builder, list of cards, and event listings!
Join the Malediction Discord server! https://discord.gg/f9uCj98t2c
Seekers of the Malediction: https://youtube.com/@seekersofthemalediction?si=nPD_v6J5RhARER4P
Maladdicted: https://youtube.com/@maladdictedplay?si=F2YTxSKOIhva3IdK
Transcript
Intro
00:00:08
Garrett
Hey, what's up, Spuds? My name's Garrett, also known as the Admiral Tater. Originally, I got my start in Star Wars Armada, and it created a huge passion for wargaming, and i'm a big fan now of lots of different things.
00:00:23
Garrett
I love working with communities and seeing how the games are made behind the scenes. i I am a huge ah maker.
00:00:33
Garrett
I love making accessories and game aids to make playing games easier and more fun. And I'm really excited to be a part of this new malediction game
00:00:44
Allen Stelly
Howdy everybody. I am Alan or im Mercer. I am an avid gamer, ah be it tabletop, RPG or video games. Never played any TCG games, but I've been in wargaming for about a decade now. Started out in Armada and Battletech.
00:01:02
Allen Stelly
ah Current favorite games are Malediction for tabletop, Dagger Heart for RPG and for video games. I'm still currently addicted to Tainted Grail Fall of Avalon.
00:01:13
Allen Stelly
they had some expansions.
00:01:17
Allen Stelly
I enjoy organizing and running tabletop events, be it Armada, Malediction, Battletech, and Daggerheart. I'm a playtester and a herald in Malediction.
00:01:29
Nick
and Hey, everyone. This is Nick. I'm coming from a loose background and a variety of games. I grew up on Dungeons and Dragons and Magic the Gathering. I got in Star Wars Armada um and for Warhammer 40K, but for me, board gaming is is my big passion.
00:01:44
Nick
I taught Imperium, Root, Wingspan, you name it. I'm really excited to be here with these ah these fine gentlemen. We're going to talk about our new addiction, maladdiction. Yeah.
00:01:57
Garrett
I love it. All right. ah Hey guys, welcome. So this is our first episode. That's our our our long introductions. But the introduction to the podcast itself, ah we are going to be doing a more casual and lore based malediction.
00:02:16
Garrett
ah We in the community have other competitive podcasters or YouTube channels. i Alan will f absolutely link them ah below.
00:02:28
Garrett
But you can check out Zach and Pat on their YouTube channel, Seekers of the Malediction for Competitive Analysis, and Bruno on his YouTube channel, Maledicted for Deck Building.
00:02:39
Garrett
ah So, but anyways, this is our first episode, and we're going to do our best to introduce a myriad of topics. It's a lot of information.
00:02:50
Garrett
And so we're going to try and organize it for you. and introduce you to the company behind it, what Malediction is, why you should absolutely play it, and we'll try and be entertaining along the way. All right. All right. So I guess our first topic, Malediction is made by a company called Lute Studios.
00:03:12
Garrett
Alan, Alan, what is Lute Studios?
00:03:14
Allen Stelly
and so Yeah, so Lute is a... Man, and I am i am a Lute Studio subscriber. So they have monthly subscriptions in a number of ways. They do fantasy and sci-fi STLs.
00:03:30
Allen Stelly
So if you play Daggerheart, Dungeons & Dragons, DC20, any of those, you can subscribe to them. You'll get a monthly bundle of STLs, usually between 15 and 25 models.
00:03:42
Allen Stelly
not just minis they do props they do statues they do busts and all these minis are awesome for printing they come pre-supported so it's it's really good if you're into that type of thing which i am
00:03:55
Garrett
That is huge, having them pre-supported. Because you can print their resin supports on an FDM printer.
00:04:04
Allen Stelly
oh yeah the the pre-supports are great I am a noob to both FDM and resin printing, and I have very little issues with their models, both Loot Studio side and malediction side.
00:04:17
Nick
Now the models are a beautiful too.
00:04:19
Nick
Yeah.
00:04:21
Nick
I
00:04:21
Garrett
Yeah, they're they're incredible.
00:04:22
Garrett
ah Lute Studios has a ton of talent within them. One of the artist modelers, I think, ah comes from Sideshow Collectibles, and he's famous. I feel bad. i we there's so We were looking at the credits trying to figure out which name it was, and we couldn't remember.
00:04:38
Garrett
um
00:04:38
Nick
don't remember his name.
00:04:39
Garrett
But beyond beyond the insane art and models, they also have in some incredible game dev talent. ah We have met a couple of them in person, especially Fabio.
00:04:51
Garrett
Hershey is like their of their lead game devs. And he recently came from a Song of Ice of Fire, and I think he worked there for like almost a decade. Just tons of experience.
00:05:03
Garrett
And Nikki, also another top dev lead, and they're just doing a great job. They recently, the game launched last year I think GameFound is where it started.
00:05:18
Garrett
And recently, though, February, they relaunched it with new packaging and new two-player starter boxes, which is fantastic for the community. And on top of that, ah they have a Discord, an official one, ah that actually works well.
00:05:34
Garrett
And where people are allowed to talk and it's not a corporate censorship 24-7, which is big.
00:05:39
Allen Stelly
Thank you.
00:05:42
Garrett
And a big part of that is Jason Cloer, the community manager, who I'm pretty sure does not sleep or does anything because he's always online responding to people, not only on Discord, but on YouTube as well.
00:05:54
Garrett
ah Moving on here, though, the other huge thing they do is a TTS mod. because they own their own IP, they created their own mod, and it works phenomenally.
00:06:10
Garrett
It's free to download, so you can try out the entire game before you purchase any of the physical products, which I do recommend. And on top of that on top of that, so it's a card game, but it's not a ah chase card game, so you you know what you're buying, which is very good, and you can look through what all the decks will be.
00:06:28
Garrett
ah They have a really good website with all the art, and then when you purchase something, You get standees with the two player starter boxes. I think with some of the secret decks, you have to buy the standees and the cards.
00:06:41
Nick
I'm separate.
00:06:43
Garrett
However, when you do buy the cards, you get the STLs, the downloads. And if you are a right printing hobbyist, of course, you can go to town, print them all.
00:06:55
Garrett
terrain especially prints great on FDM printers like bamboo. But if you don't want to waste any of your time with that, you can just straight up buy the models, done.
00:07:06
Nick
Yeah, and I want to jump in and kind of kind of ah say, like, you know, we're talking about, you know, what is Malediction. It's a new type of game. People are familiar with, like, miniature skirmish games. People are familiar with with trading card games.
00:07:20
Nick
But Malediction is a unique blend of the two. You build a deck um that contains, like, your Seeker. It's kind of like the hero of your your deck.
00:07:30
Nick
And you have miniatures that relate to every unit in your deck. And so as you play, you play your cards, but you actually deploy them as miniatures into your skirmish game. So you're playing a skirmish game that's completely driven by your deck building.
00:07:45
Garrett
Yes. Uh, and so I think the big selling point, uh, part of it is it has familiar systems. So the card system works kind of like magic or like most, you know, TCG games and then where you're building around a seeker, he's like a commander or whatever.
00:08:00
Garrett
And then the combat on the map works a little bit like D and D where you have a D 20 and all the stats are on the cards and it's easy to follow, you know, what damage is applied or what's not.
00:08:11
Garrett
And then The movement on the board itself is inches based, which is great. And it's a two and a half by two and a half board for normal play. And then there's terrain on it. So it's got a little bit of skirmish, you know, kill team, uh, feel to moving the models around, which correspond to cards and it's, it's fast, which is great. You know, you don't have to invest, uh, two and a half hours into a single game and they can last as little as, you know, 30 minutes sometimes.
00:08:39
Garrett
So. Uh, the last thing i want to talk about is also their like crazy Harold program, Alan.
00:08:48
Allen Stelly
Yeah. but Before the Herald, I was going to just, uh, emphasize the standees that you get if you do the two player box or if you buy the, the standee boxes, they're official. So they, they can play in any of the tournaments. You can play with them whenever you, whenever you want, uh, they're flat pack. So in the size of, uh, Garrett, like you had said, a lunch kit, but or a laptop bag, you can essentially pack the entire game cards, all the standees and the cardboard terrain and travel with it.
00:09:16
Allen Stelly
Uh, It's great. You don't have to bring the minis if you don't want to. The terrain is very big, so it's ah hard to travel with a lot of it. But if you just do the cardboard standees and the cardboard terrain, you can take the entire game with you. It's super portable.
00:09:31
Allen Stelly
As far as the the Herald program, I am a Herald, and I believe, Nick, you are going to be a Herald.
00:09:36
Nick
I am a journeyman herald now.
00:09:37
Allen Stelly
they There you go.
00:09:40
Nick
e
00:09:41
Allen Stelly
So we are like official community reps for the for the game. So we can create events on the Play Network, which is their current platform.
00:09:53
Allen Stelly
we can When we create the events, you can get Malediction points, which can be used to buy Alt-Arc cards if you play in our events. We get support from Malediction for our events, which some of our events we'll talk about later.
00:10:10
Allen Stelly
But there's just a lot of support from the Malediction Loot Studios that they give to the Heralds so that the Heralds can then help assist with growing the game in our local communities.
00:10:22
Allen Stelly
it's It's a fantastic program, even for the stores. ah If a store stocks the product, they actually get a commercial license to print all of the minis, including the terrain, which they can then sell.
00:10:37
Allen Stelly
which is big, especially if a store has a print farm or something like that. They cannot just make money from the merchandise. They can make money off their printing services. but' i haven't been part of a ah gaming community where the manufacturer or the developer puts this much effort into their community.
00:10:57
Allen Stelly
They are very pro. Like the official TTS mod, like Garrett said, is... It's there so that the community can play the game before they buy in, see if they even like it. They update it almost monthly, maybe every couple of months. When there's when there's new content, it's in there within like a week or two of the new content probably, if not right before.
00:11:19
Allen Stelly
And then Jason is the community manager who kind runs the community stuff, but also the Herald program. Uh, yeah, Garrett's right. I don't know if he sleeps. ah I think he runs on caffeine like 24 hours a day.
00:11:34
Garrett
kind It's gotta be more than caffeine.
00:11:35
Allen Stelly
It's crazy. The stuff that he gets done. Yeah.
00:11:37
Nick
He responds immediately.
00:11:38
Allen Stelly
Yep. Yeah. yeah i mean, he responds quickly. Even when we were at Adepticon, he was still providing customer support to people on the discord while we were at Adepticon, which is crazy.
00:11:52
Garrett
So, yes. So what we're trying to say here is that this is a ah game company, this is their first game, but it's not the people behind the game's first game.
00:12:03
Garrett
ah
00:12:03
Allen Stelly
Thank you.
00:12:04
Garrett
And they have a established you know supply chains, logistics, and ways to get product out. And it's ah it's you shouldn't feel nervous about buying in because there is a players out there to play with. And it's new and it's fresh and exciting.
00:12:20
Garrett
um So i we absolutely recommend it. But now that we've gotten all of that out of the way, Uh, we're going start and try to move into, you know, uh, what is the world of malediction? Why is it interesting? Uh, essentially what you can do is you can go to their website.
00:12:39
Garrett
Oh, and before we go too far, there's also an online deck builder and you can look through other people's decks as well, who upload them and save them make them public. Uh, but anyways, malediction, uh, you can download the lore primer and the rule book and all that from the uh malediction website i think it's dot gg and then it's full of this very long multiple you know millennia story of how we've gotten to this uh thing that we're playing in that represents on this two and a half two and a board uh alan would you like to tell us about what is the world of maledictions
00:13:17
Allen Stelly
Yeah, so it is set on the world of Agnar. I believe I'm saying that right. You have a a god with a capital G, which Ymir. And then you have gods, lowercase g, that are called the Everlasting.
00:13:33
Allen Stelly
Ymir created them. And then over the number of centuries or millennia, they actually turned against her, imprisoned her, and then wound up fighting against themselves. So the malediction is the result of them fighting amongst themselves.
00:13:49
Allen Stelly
the The most powerful three tried to use an artifact, the artifact they used to imprison Ymir. And it caused the Great Wounding, which is basically a realm of chaotic magic, untapped power, and just chaos contained by the Wall of Galdrum.
00:14:09
Allen Stelly
And that is where our Seekers and where the game actually takes place is within this realm where you're trying to gather artifacts and stuff like that. But ah it is, don't want to grimdark, but it's a dark setting.
00:14:26
Garrett
Yeah, there's a lot of, like, suffering, right, in the world.
00:14:26
Allen Stelly
and you're
00:14:29
Garrett
We were looking at the art yesterday of the actual, you know, malediction wall.
00:14:30
Allen Stelly
Oh, yes.
00:14:36
Garrett
And it's, you know, it's incredible looking. I think I compared it to a little bit like if the attack on Titan walls, like we're ah not filled in so you can see the Titans and it's just, you know, it's jet it's massive. It, you know, it, uh, tickles your imagination.
00:14:52
Garrett
Uh, and then, you know, there's it's, full it's old and it's full of all these relics, uh, that are in there and That is like kind of the point of the game while you're playing it is to collect these things inside the malediction fighting other factions and Nick, can you tell us what is a seeker?
00:15:14
Garrett
What are these relics and what factions exist?
00:15:18
Nick
Absolutely. Yeah. So ah the seekers are basically the chosen few who have the skills, aptitude, you know divine blessing, whatever you want to call it. They are the ones chosen to enter the malediction.
00:15:32
Nick
They're chosen by what we call legacies. Legacies were these powerful so soul-bound artifacts that were created by the everlasting. ah They're basically just superpower relics that are that have the kind sentience to choose who wields them.
00:15:46
Nick
And so these powerful relics choose their seekers. The seekers are then tasked with gathering a warband, braving the malediction, and finding more and more relics to bring back power and artifacts to their factions.
00:16:00
Nick
And so ah the factions, there's four factions right now, four major factions. There's some other little city-states and free free inter... um free realms, but the four factions we're going to focus on are going to be the Order of the Shattered Throne.
00:16:14
Nick
They are a religious order ah that seeks to uphold kind of the same hierarchical structure of the Everlasting. They they kind of worship some of the Everlasting last gifts, basically.
00:16:27
Nick
And so they are going to be kind of like your knights and priests. um If you're familiar with Magic Gathering, it's very much your white faction. So it's going to be a lot of, they have a lot of healing magic. They do a lot of you know, holy quests and crusades. But, you know, they it gets a little dark ah in how zealous they can be.
00:16:48
Nick
and Moving on to the southwest of the world, the Primal Blood is going to be just a might makes right um kind of chaotic rule of these warmongering tribes.
00:17:06
Nick
um especially it's hard to talk about Primal Blood without talking about the main seeker for Primal Blood, which is Thunder Steps. and He's just a massive Titan, but they basically are trying to undo like all of the Everlasting's control over the goddess because they want to restore the world to its natural state.
00:17:30
Nick
And so they they're very unaligned. They're just kind of a weapon without a without a master.
00:17:36
Nick
ah Then they have the Conclave of the Spheres. They sit out in the ocean. They are a bunch of wizards that are sequestered back in their temples and towers, and they study the magic and alternates to alternates the magic, Liastrum.
00:17:53
Nick
ah That's where we get a lot of advancements in the different technologies and stuff, but they are very ah shrewd and task-focused. They're not doing it for the good of the people.
00:18:05
Nick
They're doing it for kind of their own advancement of power. And the last one is the Legion of the Fallen. And that is going to be a collection of just...
00:18:16
Nick
Well, not just necromancers, but a lot of oligarchs and rulers who oversee this vast landscape of just barren wastes and swampland that is...
00:18:28
Nick
rife with undead. They kind of use the undead as part of their labor force and in a way they kind of preserve a lot of the histories. One of my favorite parts of their faction is that they have an entire library of basically heads that they use as living histories to call back from like centuries past.
00:18:49
Garrett
Awesome. Thanks, Nick. Yeah, so four factions, and they all have ah respective Seekers, and of course, like any good any good game, ah there's Seekers who draw from both one or two factions at a time to make deck building more interesting.
00:19:05
Garrett
um and nick mentioned this while he was talking he he said like you know in the southwest or whatever ah in the lore primer i love i'm a huge map guy i love looking at maps of fantasy worlds and so this one's got a really cool map uh that you can look at uh and the malediction's like kind in the middle and of this like uh it's like a mirrored louisiana looking place which is pretty funny but the and
00:19:27
Nick
Mm-hmm.
00:19:31
Garrett
they haven't done this yet, but it's really cool. The way you get into the malediction is like these different gates with cool names. And I don't think we've expanded on a game yet about maybe like going through different gates and what that means.
00:19:41
Garrett
um I was just, that just thought crossed my mind, but in an inside the malediction is, you know, all sorts of different chaotic terrain.
00:19:52
Garrett
Cause it's like, it was a place of like a great city. And so there's ruins of, you know, of great, um i don't want to say the word city, and I guess buildings, but then there's like ah stuff called like flesh gardens, which is like you know like basically just giant giant dead giants of like boiling pots of blood, and then death shroud moors, I think is what it's called, and it's just you know really dangerous, like forbidden forest type stuff from Lord the Rings.
00:20:25
Nick
Yeah, but I always picture like thick fogs.
00:20:28
Garrett
Yeah, like you can't see through it. And then there's like, you know, star cast magical halls or whatever that like boost your magical ability. And then of course, all that terrain is represented in the game itself and then has different interactions with how the game works.
00:20:45
Garrett
And then there's a little cards that come with each of your your decks that you pick a terrain to go with and then it tells you what happens. um But anyways, I was just looking the map that crossed my mind.
00:20:55
Allen Stelly
Before you go on, Derek, I was going to say before you go on, the the world of Maledich Agnar, but all of this only takes place on a single continent on that planet.
00:20:57
Garrett
What do you say?
00:21:06
Allen Stelly
We know nothing about the the seas themselves or any of the other continents.
00:21:11
Nick
Yeah,
00:21:12
Garrett
Oh yes, that's right.
00:21:12
Allen Stelly
All this is just on a a single continent. So there's so much more to be fleshed out in the future.
00:21:20
Garrett
Right, to like add additional factions, right? It's kind of like when you're looking at Game of Thrones and you've got Essos and Westeros and it's like, wait a second, what's beyond this like this map, right?
00:21:23
Allen Stelly
Mm-hmm.
00:21:29
Nick
there's a whole so Sothrosis is like off the map, but it's referenced in the text.
00:21:29
Garrett
Right.
00:21:33
Garrett
Yes.
00:21:35
Nick
It's like, what does that even where is that even at?
00:21:36
Garrett
Yes. So cool. um
00:21:38
Nick
Yeah.
00:21:39
Garrett
But anyways, back to where I was i was heading is the Seekers. And I will start with the, i I don't know if we should call her the flagship Seeker of the franchise. I kind of, her art's in a lot of places, but it's it's who I like to call her and people like to call her Siggy.
00:21:54
Garrett
Sigryth and Jarovus. This is Order of the Shattered Thrones main Seeker, the Blessed Chosen, ah you know, your holier than thou, Priestess, Warrior Knight,
00:22:07
Garrett
And her whole thing is she carries around the shield with the statue from like a fallen, uh, gate or, or whatever. And it's called like the shield of Androvan or something.
00:22:21
Garrett
Anyways, but her whole thing is defense, uh, lots of damage protection, you know, nights that surround her. And then she's got like, you know she smites, you know, that real, uh, religious signing sounding melee attack.
00:22:35
Garrett
Uh, and then. But she's built around just the gold, the gold faction cards. and And next, though, we'll let Alan talk about the next secret.
00:22:47
Allen Stelly
So I have Laundriel, the Spellwarden. She is an Order and Conclave Seeker. She started out, she's the oldest seeker from a lore perspective that we're aware of right now.
00:23:00
Allen Stelly
She was a child during the fall when the Everlasting War happened and created the Great Wounding. And during the fall, she was sealed in her legacy, which is the Ark.
00:23:11
Allen Stelly
And then when they unsealed her and woke her up in the Order's New Territory, She stayed there for a time, but she is an, I'm going to butcher this, Urswa, which is Malediction's version kind of of the elves and of the order is predominantly human. So eventually, you know, she left there and went to the conclave, which is mostly Urswa.
00:23:38
Allen Stelly
And then she was even, i guess, exiled there after a certain time, which we can dig into a little bit more when we talk about the other conclave. But she's also, like Siggy, somewhat defensive. She uses the same white spell prevent or damage prevention spells.
00:23:57
Allen Stelly
But with her, it's much more of she's defensive to enable her offense. So she also has Repose on her unit. So if you graze her, she can attack you back.
00:24:09
Allen Stelly
It's just a very much a, if you're from Magic's Gathering, it's very much a control deck. Or at least that's how she likes to play. is She likes to control the field, control the tempo.
00:24:20
Allen Stelly
so if you want to beat her or at least put her off her game, you have to rush her. You have to take control from her.
00:24:29
Allen Stelly
Next one is going to be Nick with another Order Seeker.
00:24:34
Nick
Yeah, so one of my personal favorites, this is Grieza, the Lingering Wound. Now this is going to be our Order and a Legion the Fallen dual faction. And so Grieza is actually a spirit or a combination of spirits. He's an amalgamation that just took place in the malediction of all these oath-bound spirits that now basically seek to fulfill their purpose of reclaiming a relic.
00:25:00
Nick
And so Grieza's playstyle is um all about spirits. And so you have a little bit of order and a little bit of ah like fallen spirits. and He like commands himself through, you know he kind of like possesses the spirits in the frontline and attacks through them.
00:25:17
Nick
So it gives you a lot of... um you you know You can fill his deck with a lot of cheaper, like weak spirits that you can then punch up with using Greza himself through them. Use his like attack bonus and damage bonus and everything. ah he he plays really really different than the other order seekers because he's not all about like damage prevention he's more about um leveraging cheap units and being like very aggressive and then keeping them alive with some healing spells but yeah so and then uh garrett you want to take take the next one there
00:25:54
Garrett
Yes. So, uh, in order here, Auric Evenhand. So he is, we've had our, our mix of Conclave, mix of Legion. He is our primal order, uh, mix.
00:26:05
Garrett
So Auric, uh, I made this joke yesterday when we were practicing, but you know, his art, he just looks like an absolute beast. He's always bulking. He's on tests and peptides for sure.
00:26:17
Garrett
um just, I don't know how that torso works, but, uh, his cool thing is he's all about, uh, being able to mix the unbridled offense of primal and then also the defensive units from the order, which is, or I played Nick yesterday our yeah, I think it was yesterday, but, and I was like, okay, I kept putting damage on, but it's like, nah, just going to shift this to another character.
00:26:35
Nick
Yeah.
00:26:41
Garrett
uh who can absorb damage i was like okay we'll keep doing that i guess for 20 minutes and then he's really cool he's got the items is his thing so he's called even hand uh so normally in malediction characters could carry one item but oric carry two items and his whole thing his like legacy is like being able to burn and churn items uh to boost uh his faction draw cards um search through the deck etc etc uh so he's he's
00:27:07
Nick
Thank you.
00:27:10
Garrett
I'm after watching Nick play a little bit with them. I'm a little bit more excited about him, ah but he's another interesting one, especially if you really like just, you know, playing the game in a non card gamey combo ish way.
00:27:25
Garrett
It's more, he's more like thunder steps aggressive. So moving on though, to, to Alan's favorite, I think.
00:27:35
Allen Stelly
my My current favorite is a mix between Primal and Conclade, so red and blue. And it's the, I guess, the most unique Seeker legacy combo in the game right now because it's Liana who dreams, which is the legacy, and then Karma Mok, which is the Seeker.
00:27:55
Allen Stelly
But Karma Mok is a construct that Liana slumbers within, so she still controls him. Yeah. It's a little bit weird because everyone else, the Seeker is the Seeker, then they have their Legacy. This one is a combination of the Seeker and the Legacy together.
00:28:14
Allen Stelly
But definitely a ah so a very aggressive spell-focused combination. ah Other unique thing is, due to that uniqueness in the combination, is you can build for Lyanna.
00:28:28
Allen Stelly
So you can build towards the Legacy, or you can build towards Karmamok, which is the Seeker unit. That is the ultimate glass cannon of all the seekers. He has the lowest defense tied for the lowest health, but he has one of the strongest attack combos. I think, I believe it's a six, four.
00:28:49
Allen Stelly
So hits for six and grazes for four. So it's pretty rough. But from a lore perspective, she's, we had a slumbers because she tried to push her power too far.
00:29:02
Allen Stelly
And if she didn't put herself in a type of stasis within Karma Mock, she would die from poisoning from the Lysstrom. I believe that was, the yeah, Lysstrom poisoning.
00:29:13
Allen Stelly
But again, Red Blue, my current favorites. One of the two new ones. Grieza was the other new Seeker that just came out with the first expansion. The next Seeker is going to be a a Primal Legion, so kind of kind of broke our tie-ins here, but Nick's going to take that one.
00:29:30
Nick
Yeah. Yeah, Ingor, the spirit bound. It's another really cool one. i love this guy. he yeah He comes from the primal lands and basically it's the you know whole might makes right. He couldn't step to thunder steps. And so he was kind of pushed out um as any kind of like leader of the primal blood people.
00:29:50
Nick
And so in the within the malediction, he performed like dark rituals and got like possessed by the spirits from like all the chaos. And he came back, and ah his whole thing is, ah you know like Alan said, is Primal and Legion. So he's all aggressive and plays a lot with ah losing your own units.
00:30:12
Nick
So in this game, it's tricky, because every time one of your units is killed, your opponent gains points. And that's how that you win the game when you get the first person to 40. So you don't want to give your opponent more mastery than they deserve.
00:30:24
Nick
But Ingor really likes to trigger his unit's death. And so you have to play it carefully with a lot of cheap, yeah know expendable units. And when they die, you get to play your spell cards kind of out of sequence.
00:30:37
Nick
So you get a lot of chaos. There's a lot of randomness to his playstyle. And if you really enjoy that, especially if ah you know it's a red-black kind of oh aggressive feel, he's a really good spirit seeker for that playstyle.
00:30:54
Garrett
And then next we have Thunder Steps. Big Daddy Thunder, my favorite. Mostly because you don't have to think real hard while are you're doing it. ah he's the He's the primal's ah main boy.
00:31:06
Garrett
ah he climbed out of the malediction. ah He's got a sweet red gem in his forehead as an eye. He's got Tusk coming out. He looks ridiculous.
00:31:17
Garrett
I love it. um he Their whole thing is charging is like his thing. So at all times, like you're wanting units to be lined up to charge. And they get bonus to charging.
00:31:28
Garrett
And then its it's all built around primal cards, the red cards. And so it's just all about aggression and offense. ah But moving on, we've got another, the main Legion seeker.
00:31:46
Allen Stelly
So Lord Stemus Vordendahl is a essentially the number two or the right hand man to the Queen of the Dead in the Legion.
00:31:58
Allen Stelly
He is, ah believe he's the second oldest that we're aware of. Thunder Steps might be older, but I don't think we have any confirmation.
00:32:05
Nick
Nobody knows.
00:32:07
Allen Stelly
He is an undead knight that is very charming, very cunning, and very deceiving a Nick's next seeker we can talk about. But he is he's a knight. So he wants to get up there. He wants to fight. He doesn't really worry about... He's not a necromancer outright. But he can raise the dead and brings the dead with him.
00:32:31
Allen Stelly
But when he commands, it's from the front. Surrounded by his undead and just battering your enemies. He's definitely not a stand in the back and watch his undead fight. He's up there with them.
00:32:46
Allen Stelly
And he is deadly when he is in you know engaged in combat. I guess that leads us into Nick's Seeker.
00:32:57
Nick
Countess Morida Umberland. Yeah, so she is our Conclave and Legion Seeker. ah Yeah, her her little ah short little backstory is that she was born to a like noble family in the Legion, but she didn't have any like natural talents, anything big going for So her family didn't really have high hopes. So she ended up just working as an archivist in the ah the Epitaph, which is that library where they keep all the heads up.
00:33:24
Nick
and she just studied the histories of the Legion. Vorendal ended up kind of charming her a little bit to get things he wanted out of her, and he she did some work for him.
00:33:34
Nick
And when she discovered kind of secrets that one of the these heads was kind of whispering to her, you know, when she mentioned Vorendal's name, this this, you know,
00:33:45
Nick
woman uh basically got enraged and kind of told this whole story of betrayal so when morta brought that up to vorendal he basically you know slaps her across the face and scars her and cast her out and you know betrays her so she flees to the conclave and becomes like a powerful like necromancer that kind of blends you know this like study of magic with the study of you know um uh what they call the um the breath the the breath that they use to raise the dead.
00:34:16
Nick
And so she's a really good, um, she's, she's a good seeker, uh, right now with using a lot of the very basic, um, skeletons and zombies in the Legion decks.
00:34:27
Nick
Um, she's able to bring her cards back. She can search, she can kind of search her deck for basic, you know, skeletons and bring them out. And so you can really flood your, your board with a lot of cheap units.
00:34:38
Nick
Um, And so, but you know, you she because she's that Conclave in Legion, she has a lot of disposable expendable units, but she also has access to like some of the more powerful magic cards or spell cards in the game with counter spells and stuff.
00:34:53
Nick
And speaking a Conclave...
00:34:56
Allen Stelly
So Polinor, the prime archivist, he was set to be the number one man in the conclave, uh, and bringing his apprentice Laundrielle alongside him.
00:35:10
Allen Stelly
but through sort of his own machinations, he was, i think I said that right, maybe machinations. Uh, he didn't achieve the number one position. He was kind of cast down or somewhat exiled to a remote outpost, uh,
00:35:26
Allen Stelly
through his own doing. And that outpost is the closest conclave outpost to the Malediction. So all of the relics that Seekers, conclave Seekers gather, they come back through him. So in a way, put himself in a more powerful position.
00:35:42
Allen Stelly
But he is the quintessential Mage. He leads from the back, throwing spells and attacks. If you ignore him, he's going to ruin your day from range.
00:35:53
Allen Stelly
So you definitely want to get up there and take care of him. His legacy is the Runefold Gauntlet, which he went into the malediction by himself without a vest or i'm sorry without a legacy, claimed this legacy, came back out, and that's how he, you know, the power he gained to ascend within him the Conclave.
00:36:15
Allen Stelly
pure per Pure blue seeker, so he's not a a cross between any of the other ones. But he's our our last seeker. I think that's a total of 10 of them they have in the game right now.
00:36:26
Allen Stelly
So 10 Seekers, four four of the factions. I don't think there's any combination that we're currently missing between the four different factions, though.
00:36:35
Nick
Nope.
00:36:37
Garrett
Now they're all covered for now, but I'm sure there's plans. Uh, all right. Well, so we've tried to like cover some of the lore and the seekers.
00:36:41
Nick
Yeah.
00:36:45
Garrett
that there's a lot of information and overwhelming, but, uh, definitely check out the lore primer to check out some more of the story. There's lot of interesting, uh, politics in universe. Uh, if there's anything more you guys want to hear from us, because we'd love to talk about all this kind of stuff, let us know.
00:37:03
Garrett
If you're able to be on a platform, they can leave a comment or send us an email, which Alan will also provide. And I'm putting a lot on him now. the next thing The next thing I want to talk about is how does this game even work?
00:37:13
Allen Stelly
Thank you.
00:37:16
Garrett
ah It's a great question. So you build a deck, you build a deck, right? i With the rules provided, and we're going to over that more in a future episode. ah But essentially, you have your deck, you have your Seeker, your legacy that goes with your Seeker, and your terrain.
00:37:35
Garrett
And then you square up with your opponent, and you know you set up the board, you set up the relics, you draw your hand, and you get to playing.
00:37:47
Garrett
The system is based around an alternating ah activation with initiative, that you bid for between players, and then each activation has two action points that you use.
00:38:03
Garrett
And then in the game, there's moving, there's attacking, there's channel spells, and there's swift spells. And those are like the four basic things that happen.
00:38:14
Garrett
And then there's some special things that can go on as well, uh, that we'll cover later. ah do you guys have What would you guys like to say about how the game works and then the systems involved? and like Why is it fun to sit down and actually play this?
00:38:32
Allen Stelly
Yeah, so, i mean, the the three of us also came from Armada, which has cards, but they're more fixed. Like, you you build your list, it's built out of cards, and you put them down, and they're all on display for your opponent. They don't they don't move, you're not doing any drawing.
00:38:50
Allen Stelly
And then there's dice for your attacks and all that stuff. In Malediction, you have... twice the RNG. You have your D20, which can be really swingy for your attacks.
00:39:03
Allen Stelly
But you also have the card draw aspect. So it's a very dynamic game. It also, i don't really think I've had the same, even with the same deck, I really haven't played a game that's been similar to the other one because of the randomness of the D20 and the card draw.
00:39:24
Allen Stelly
But it's fun. It's fast-paced. So even if a game does not go you know, all that great, but you finish quick, you can just get another game in and, you know, you might be able to get two in, in the time it normally would take to play a ah single competitive game.
00:39:38
Nick
Mm-hmm.
00:39:38
Allen Stelly
So very fast paced, very quick.
00:39:41
Allen Stelly
And it is tactical. It is not, uh, I haven't played any TCGs, but you know, your units don't just magically appear in the ether and they can attack each other. You actually have to move your units, and plot out how to do choke points and,
00:39:57
Allen Stelly
use the terrain, block the terrain, that kind of thing.
00:40:01
Nick
Yeah, no, I want to jump on that too with the, you know, separating it. from You know, i've I've been playing Magic since I was a teenager. And, ah you know, it's it's it's a very different game because you can't just look at somebody's deck and get a real 3D idea of what it's going to look like on the on the map.
00:40:18
Nick
ah Between terrain placements and having to draw a line of sight, ah you know, a unit that looks good on on the card but is, like, very slow, you know you have to really use tactically. You have to make sure you you deploy them in a way that they're not getting stuck out of the fight for too long or you know your opponent is able to just get away from you.
00:40:38
Nick
And so you can never kill anything because they just fly away. um for For me, i love the consistency of this game. Your your deck starts at 30 cards, whereas most other TCGs start at 40 or 50.
00:40:52
Nick
And so having 30 cards, you know you at the beginning of the game, you draw seven, and every turn you draw two. And so of the course about five or six rounds, you'll see probably close to 18, 19 cards your 30 card And so you can really build a consistent you know um deck based around a a very solid theme. Whereas sometimes, you know especially if you're used to playing something like Commander where you have a 100-card deck, you know you' just kind of you're hoping for it. you you know You put a lot of redundancies in your deck to just make it happen. But with this game, you you can build around your Seeker because your Seeker's always available. They don't go in your deck and get shuffled. So your Seeker's always there and your Legacy's always active, even if your Seeker's not on the table.
00:41:34
Nick
And so you can really build a deck around a a consistent theme. And the game is so fast-paced. On turn two, you're already attacking each other and and making making decisions. So it's not like some of those war games where you know turns one and two are just setting up and scoring points, and then you're waiting for turn three or four before somebody actually makes a move.
00:41:55
Allen Stelly
Yeah, one of your thunder steps, good chance you're fighting on round one.
00:41:58
Nick
Yeah, stay away. Stay away from other steps.
00:42:02
Garrett
charge across the table. Don't worry, he usually dies pretty fast if you can concentrate some firepower on him.
00:42:08
Allen Stelly
But there is, you know, you you you draw your seven and then draw your two each round. So you do get through about half of the deck. A lot of the Seekers have, I think in Magic they call it tutoring. There are plenty of options to draw cards outside of the normal draw window.
00:42:18
Nick
Yeah.
00:42:23
Allen Stelly
So, especially with, I think, Laundrielle and there's a few others, you may say you may see close to 25 of your cards if if it's played with the right rhythm and pace and, you know, you get lucky with some of your other draws.
00:42:39
Allen Stelly
I think with that, we're going to go into where we, you know, end of every podcast, we kind of want to do future event announcements. So I wanted to go over where this we just started the last round today. So next Saturday we will end the it's called the Waypoint Grand Melee.
00:42:58
Allen Stelly
It is the monthly TTS tournament that I run. This month we had 32 people sign up and play. Next month it's going to be called the Everlasting Grand Melee. and i think I'm probably going to stick with that one going forward.
00:43:12
Allen Stelly
It'll run the last three weeks of May and then, you know, June, July, everything after that. These two, because we didn't cover this yet. I'm from Texas, so I'm in the the middle of Texas, but I travel for work. So I cover not pretty much at all four of the big cities.
00:43:30
Allen Stelly
And then my two cohorts here are both from central Kentucky, right?
00:43:33
Nick
Mm-hmm. Very Yep.
00:43:35
Allen Stelly
So at Chaotic Good, they will have a demo day on May ninth So go in, see these guys, play some games with them.
00:43:40
Garrett
And I really want to put it
00:43:43
Allen Stelly
I will be doing demos at Pelican in South Houston on May 16th. And then I will be running the 1v1 tournament on August 1st in Dallas at the Lone Star Open, which is one of the frontline gaming events.
00:43:58
Allen Stelly
And then for weekly play, which you can see all the stuff going on, it's official. at play.malediction.gg forward slash events.
00:44:05
Nick
Yes.
00:44:09
Allen Stelly
At Odin's Place in Houston, which used to be Dragon's Lair, we play every Tuesday. At Enten Games in Houston, we also play on Sundays. In Dallas, they have a regular game night at Texas Toy Soldier, but I don't know what night it is.
00:44:25
Allen Stelly
We also play at Brick House Games in Dallas on Wednesdays. And then just a quick run-through of the Play Network for everybody We have demo and free play night at Orchard City Games in West co Colonia. I think that's British Columbia.
00:44:43
Allen Stelly
Demo game night at Tabletop. It's a German word. There's no way I'm going to pronounce it, but it's the Clubhouse in Hamburg. A paint and tank, which is unique in Wisconsin, Burlington, Wisconsin. I already covered the Texas one.
00:45:01
Allen Stelly
Hamilton, Ontario at Black Knight Games. And then it's Hangrund and it's HE. I'm not sure what country that is, but it's a play night, a normal play night.
00:45:14
Allen Stelly
And then at Mana Vault in Utah, they have a casual play night on April 30th. Also in Fremont, California, on April 30th, they have a play night at Games of Fremont.
00:45:29
Allen Stelly
Pretty easy name to remember there. demolition games in salt lake city on friday may 1st the wizard chest in denver colorado on may 1st and then on may 2nd in newcastle at northern alliance
00:45:32
Nick
Thank you.
00:45:46
Garrett
And I'm sorry, Alan, where can they find this information again? All
00:45:50
Allen Stelly
play.malediction.gg forward slash events yep so they can do that the other one would be rocky mountain open which
00:45:53
Garrett
right, perfect.
00:45:59
Allen Stelly
I don't know if that's a frontline gaming one, but I know it's a bigger event in Colorado. They're going to have demos and learn to play theirs too. ah But there's 22 events within the next seven days.
00:46:10
Allen Stelly
So definitely get on the website, take a look at it.
00:46:11
Garrett
a lot.
00:46:13
Allen Stelly
Yeah, it it is a good deal of them.
00:46:15
Garrett
The game is popping off.
00:46:17
Nick
Yeah.
00:46:17
Nick
Yeah. Especially for a good, it's and a launch year. It's an amazing amount of events going on and so, and so many things online too.
00:46:17
Garrett
Good time to join.
00:46:25
Allen Stelly
It's just a plethora them.
00:46:26
Nick
Yeah. We haven't even talked about the discord.
00:46:29
Garrett
We did talk it a little bit.
00:46:29
Allen Stelly
Oh no, that you can get on and well, yeah, if you hop in Discord, there is a Looking for Group channel.
00:46:30
Garrett
We talked about that earlier, but yes, it's important.
00:46:31
Nick
Yeah.
00:46:36
Allen Stelly
You can find a game pretty much any time of the day you want. For the most part, i can't really speak to in the middle of the night for those of us that live in the States, but I've seen people at 3 a.m.
00:46:48
Allen Stelly
get a game with someone from Europe or Asia. So it definitely has global appeal. If you want to play the game, Definitely get on Discord, and you can either play it online or find a local event near you.
00:47:00
Nick
And most people, if you if you're looking to try the game out for the first time, go to the Discord and just just put it out there and say, hey, I'm brand new. I want to try it before I buy it. And you'll find somebody who will do a demo with you on TTS.
00:47:14
Nick
So it's a great, the community is great.
00:47:16
Garrett
Amazing.
00:47:16
Nick
It's been, it's full of wonderful people. So.
00:47:20
Garrett
Well, gentlemen, I want to thank you so much for ah being a part of this with me. And I just want to say Alan is our organizer here. He's the head of our our podcast. So big thanks Alan for inviting Nick and I to do this.
00:47:33
Garrett
um Hopefully, folks, as we go forward, ah we get even smoother and better at this. And forgive us for any of our awkwardness here in our in our first trial episode as we jump into this malediction game.
00:47:48
Garrett
But that's everything we have for you today. And we'll try to get another episode out here soon. I will say goodbye as Garrett here and gents.
00:48:00
Allen Stelly
I'll see y'all later. Thank y'all.
00:48:01
Nick
It's been a great time. Y'all take care.