“It started with him being a Batman villain and ended with him being a Batman villain, but on an episode of Teen Titans Go.”
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My favorite part about Magic: The Gathering is absolutely how varied and interesting deck building is. With 25 years worth of cards and mechanics, pretty much anything is possible. As of late, I’ve been updating a few of my decks, and I decided that I want to share some of them. Today I’ll be talking about one of the first good decks I’ve ever used, a budget black/red (Rakdos) aggro deck that I affectionately call Super Weenie Hut Jr.
And when I say budget, I mean REALLY budget. It’s composed of nothing but commons and uncommons, but I’ve been able to make it see a good amount of success over the years. This is the most recently updated version of this deck.
x4 Rakdos Cackler
x4 Tormented Soul
x4 Rakdos Shred Freak
x4 Spike Jester
x4 Minotaur Skullcleaver
x4 Mogis’s Marauder
x4 Lightning Bolt
x4 Go For The Throat
x4 Untamed Hunger
x4 Madcap Skills
x4 Dragonskull Summit
x9 Swamp
x7 Mountain
Pretty straight forward strategy here. Play good value, low cost cards throughout the game and swing in with them as consistently as you can. Eventually use one of the menace-giving auras to make creatures harder to block and/or play Mogis’s Marauder and win the game. Let’s get into the meat of it, starting with the one-drops: Rakdos Cackler and Tormented Soul.
This deck wants to attack a lot, so these two offer some really good advantages. Rakdos Cackler is a super versatile card. Early game, you can Unleash and get a 2/2 on the board on turn 1, or later in the game, it’s still a solid card to play quite simply because it adds to your field of weenies and is mana efficient. The fact it loses its ability to block if unleashed doesn’t really bother this deck because it’s not going to do much blocking to begin with, plus if you ever have to be cautious, you can just not unleash it. That said if you’re playing defensively with this deck, you’ve probably already lost. The reasoning for Tormented Soul is the same. The fact that it can’t block is made up for by the fact that this deck doesn’t block much, and being an unblockable 1/1 that we can pump later with our auras is super good for how aggressive we’re trying to be here, especially since this card can help us get past threats that are simply too big for this deck to handle otherwise.
For our two-drops, we have Rakdos Shred Freak and Spike Jester.
Again, reasoning here is quite simple. Rakdos Shred Freak is a 2/1 with haste, and Spike Jester is a 3/1 with haste. Fast, easy damage. But let’s take a look at the board for a minute here. Let’s say turn 1 you play Rakdos Cackler and unleash it. That means if you play Spike Jester the following turn, you’re swinging for 5 damage on turn 2. Between the 1 and 2-drops in this deck, you pretty much never run out of ammo to throw at someone.
Finally, our 3-drop creatures: Minotaur Skullcleaver and Mogis’s Marauder.
These two are quite honestly some of my favorite cards ever printed. Minotaur Skullcleaver is a hyper-aggressive monster, coming onto the field as a 4/2 with haste. Skullcleaver is scary because it’s not only 4 damage raw the turn you play it, but the turn it’s played, it can deal with threats the deck otherwise couldn’t handle. Those threats being literally anything with 4+ toughness. He’s hard to block, super cheap and efficient. Mogis’s Marauder is this deck’s win condition for when you’re facing a deck that either doesn’t run red or black, or runs them but isn’t swarmy. That is, if you haven’t already won from repeatedly bashing your opponent’s face in. When Mogis’s Marauder comes into play, it gives X creatures haste and intimidate until end of turn where X is your devotion to black. Notice something about the cards in this deck? The only permanents that don’t count towards devotion to black are Minotaur Skullcleaver and Madcap Skills. Chances are when you play this, you’ve got enough devotion to black to pretty much give your whole side of the board intimidate, which you use to swing in and win the game. So long as your opponent isn’t running black. Generally speaking, if you’ve been playing well and drop Mogis’s Marauder on turn 4, you can probably win the game. If you’ve been playing well and drop him on turn 5, you definitely win the game.
Now as for instants, it’s quite simple. This deck is running two instants: Lightning Bolt and Go For The Throat.
So uh, what is there to explain? Lightning Bolt is an amazing card that can help keep your tempo going or just smack your opponent in the face for 3 damage. Go for the Throat is amazing removal for every threat that isn’t an artifact. Creatures in this deck don’t really go past 4 power, so if any really big threats show up, Go for the Throat can generally handle them.
As for enchantments, this is where the deck becomes really mean. Fun, but mean. We’re running 4 copies of both Madcap Skills and Untamed Hunger.
Menace has always been a really cool ability, in my opinion. It doesn’t make your creatures unblockable by any means, but it makes them incredible frustrating to deal with. being forced to double block is always something players dread, and when you’re being as aggressive as this deck, it makes it even more frustrating. Madcap Skills gives a creature +3/+0 and menace, and Untamed Hunger gives a creature +2/+1 and menace. By the time you end up playing these auras chances are you’ll have built up a solid board state of 3-4 creatures. Putting menace on any of them will make them terrifying, and force your opponent to deal with your offensive pressure in ways they probably didn’t want to. Generally speaking, Madcap Skills is preferred on cards like Rakdos Cackler and Minotaur Skullcleaver and Untamed Hunger is preferred on Spike Jester and Rakdos Shred Freak. But any combination of aura and creature work. Tormented Soul makes menace not important, but a 4/1 or 3/2 unblockable is still scary. Untamed Hunger also helps with Mogis’s Marauder by adding to your devotion to black. Menace also helps in conjunction with Mogis’s Marauder. If your opponent has a way to get through intimidate, you can still mess with their blockers by having a menace or two on the board.
Our mana base is quite simple, with 9 Swamps, 7 Mountains, and 4 Dragonskull Summits. Really basic setup because quite frankly, this is all you need. You could replace the check lands with better ones like, say, shock lands, but then this deck wouldn’t be as cost-effective.
For a super budget version, you could run only basic lands and still have the deck function well, cutting the price of the deck down to about $30 USD. Just replace the 4 Dragonskull Summits with 2 swamps and 2 mountains. Roughy 1/3 of your creatures are hybrid mana, so getting mana stuck generally isn’t an issue.
Total price of this deck is just under $40 USD, $30 USD for the super budget version, and for that price, you get a fun, aggressive deck with interesting abilities.
Super Smash Brothers 64 holds a special place in my heart. I’ve been playing this game ever since I small child. My history with Smash begins when I went to a flea market with my dad. I was about 6 years old we randomly found a copy of Super Smash Brothers for the Nintendo 64. As soon as I got home I put the cartage in my Nintendo 64 and I played it for hours. All of my favorite Nintendo characters were in one game and they, at the time, looked incredible in 3D. I never thought I would see a game where Mario would fight Pikachu, it was mind blowing. This game also exposed me to characters that I had never even heard of before like Ness, Captain Falcon, Link, and Fox. This game knows that you might not know some of the characters so they give every character a summary so you can know their background. This made me appreciate Ness the most and he quickly became my favorite and most used character after I read his bio. These character bios give an extra amount of depth that even as child could appreciate.
Smash 64 character selection screen. ( via PlayBuzz)
I showed this game to my cousins and we would play for hours and hours doing crazy challenges. For example, every character has a different target test stage and you can play it multiple times to try and get a higher score each time or even do it as fast as you can. Me and friends would always do the different break the targets to see who could do it the fastest. Then whenever we would play in versus more we would turn items up on high which made every time we played different and chaotic. There were also so many stages to play on and they had some fun twist. The best part of the whole experience would definitely have to be unlocking new characters that you were not expecting. You could unlock characters like Ness, Jiggly puff, Luigi, and Captain Falcon. After you fulfil a certain requirement the character that you could unlock will challenge you and if you win you can use them. This would create an exciting moment for an unsuspecting player and it feels like an amazing accomplishment after you unlock the character.
When Super Smash Brothers is present at any sort of gathering, a multitude of people will begin to reminisce on how much they used to play the game and claim how they were the best. This usually calls on the competitive nature of other people who also claim to be the best and this leads to a huge battle to see who is the best in this game they have not played in years. These reasons blend together perfectly to give an amazing experience and leave a lasting impression. I think Super Smash Brothers is one of the best games of all time and if you ever get a chance I would definitely recommend you try it out this title for the 64 to see where the smash series originated from and hopefully you can see why it has lasted throughout the years.
Cover image via SSB Wiki
The Lifecast’s DM Greg Fernandes, D&D-izes The Legend of Zelda’s Link. As well as created usable version of his impressive arsenal.
Last week we revisited a classic, and this week we move into the realm of recent hits. Undertale is just barely two years old, and has made an impression on internet culture– for better or for worse.
The Lifecast’s Dungeon Master shares a homebrew about balancing the powerlevels between Dexterity and the D&D 5E’s other statistics.
“So it’s a speedrun to pay off your mortgage?”
“Well, that’s just life.”
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Introducing: Vinyl Highlights! A four-part series highlighting Deanna’s video game vinyl collection, and a brief look into others she has stashed away.
This week we work in some structure, some discussion, and some relevant events!
All our social media pages are linked below and through our LinkTree! If you need to find us anywhere, that’s a good place to start. If you want to ask us questions, email us or drop it in the Discord. Again, linked below.
Recorded live on October 30, 2017.
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We accept questions for the podcast constantly on our site, through Discord, and if you email questions@thelifecast.net.
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Castlevania is yet another game this year celebrating a milestone. Released in Japan in 1986 and in the US in 1987, Castlevania is now 30 years old. Simon Belmont’s first daring adventure into Count Dracula’s castle wowed NES owners back in the late 80s. It was another platformer released for a system whose library is full of memorable platforming games.
However, to quote the 80s classic This is Spinal Tap, it goes to eleven.
It’s one of the few games to fire off on each cylinder in each category. The graphics, the sound, the controls, the enemies, and bosses etc.. are all remarkable. It’s impressive the game has been unforgettable after all these years, despite being the first game in a long-running series.
For those who haven’t experienced fighting the evil vampire and his minions, they are missing out on one of the quintessential side-scrolling games.
The first battle against Dracula is one of the best, and more difficult, games on the NES
A shadowy, forbidding castle, followed by a gigantic bat greets players at the title screen. Pressing start will show one of the most memorable introductions to any video game. There is no dialogue or any indication of what is going to happen.
It’s Simon Belmont, confidently walking up to a gate. He is armed with the famous Vampire Killer whip and ready to take on Count Dracula and vanquish the evil inside the castle.
One of the reasons why Castlevania is such a unique game is the world created by Konami. The game itself started out as a tribute to both the classic Universal Monster films, as well as the Hammer Dracula film series. Taking one look at the variety of enemies and bosses in this game it is not hard to see why. Besides vampires, there are mummies, the gorgon Medusa and even Frankenstein’s monster designed after Boris Karloff’s iconic portrayal.
The game may not seem scary, but that was not Konami’s intention. They wanted to give players a creative universe, one that is set apart from the typical platformer. A spooky castle with dozens of horror homages is certainly what gives Castlevania its identity. No better example of this than the first game.
One characteristic of the game players will immediately notice is the graphics and the quality of detail. For an NES game only released one year (two years in North America) into the system’s lifespan, this is nothing to brush off. Backgrounds and stage graphics are incredible. Players will know they are in a fancy hall, broken down tower or a complicated laboratory. Simon himself is a well-animated sprite himself and actually resembles a person. A person made of eight bits, but a person nonetheless.
The controls are simple. Jump with A and whip with B. Getting that down is not hard for any newcomer. It also makes for some intense, yet strategic, gameplay.
An infamous feature of Castlevania, and the series as a whole, is the extreme difficulty. It is not a cheap game, although certain bosses are pretty difficult. However, the jumping controls are incredibly strange. Simon Belmont needs to gain a good amount of momentum in order to make certain jumps. It allows for players to not get careless and having to plan their jumps. Climbing stairs are strange too since you can’t jump onto the stairs in. Instead, players press up on the control pad. Finally, there It takes a little while to get into the setup.
Once a player finds their rhythm, jumping and climbing stairs is nothing. In a bizarre way, it actually adds to the game itself.
Impressive level design and a memorable soundtrack add to Castlevania
The levels are well detailed in a cosmetic sense, but the actual designs are intricate. This comes from Konami’s technique for designing levels during this era in gaming. The team behind several of their games, including Castlevania on the NES, strictly used graph paper in order to map out the stage.
This method kept the levels of Castlevania organized, but it also makes the levels flow better during gameplay.
Finally, there is the soundtrack. Castlevania showcases one of the greatest collections of music on the NES. Tracks like “Wicked Child” have a spooky, urgent tone behind them. “Stalker” sets up an atmospheric groove. Of course, no Castlevania game is complete without a version of the song “Vampire Killer.” The NES version of the song is still the best and most addictive to listen to.
My personal history with the first Castlevania
I first played the original Castlevania, not on an NES, but on a computer. Even more strange is the catalyst for how I got into this franchise. The game in question was Super Smash Bros. Melee.
It was February of 2003 and I was scouring the Internet for classic Nintendo games to play for free. I would research the games after getting a trophy of a particular character in Melee, and would want to play that particular game.
I stumbled upon a website which played NES games… nearly its whole library! I forgot which game I was intending to play, but I accidentally clicked on a completely different one without realizing it.
The game in question was Castlevania and I became hooked on it the second it booted up.
There was something about this horror-themed world that drew me in. I was, and still am, a fan of the classic Universal Monster films, which certainly helped. I always enjoyed platformers, so that is another aspect as to why I enjoyed the game. Most importantly, I was having fun. Whipping the zombies in the great hall of the castle, to jumping over Madusa heads, to finding all the classic horror monsters being represented it made for one of the best first impressions for a game.
From that point forward, I became obsessed with Castlevania and the franchise as a whole. I excessively researched the history of it; what all the bosses looked like, what other games were like in the franchise, and if anyone else had
I tried playing nearly as many games in the series as possible. I became incredibly giddy when the NES classic was re-released on Game Boy Advanced, downloaded Super Castlevania IV on my Wii as one of the first Virtual Console games, and I bought a PS3 to play the Lords of Shadow reboot.
An incredible and enduring game 30 years later
The Castlevania series has been haunting gamers for three decades. Even after numerous sequels, spin-offs and reboots, the original Castlevania is still a perennial classic. In my eyes, Castlevania is a bona fide classic and deserves to be seen as one. I also love the entire franchise so much to the point where I consider it my personal favorite gaming series.
It broke ground for platformers in level design. It introduced the world to a new type of atmosphere. Most importantly, the game was just flat out fun and manages to succeed on every single feature that makes it a video game.
The Belmonts, their allies, and others will always have their eternal struggle with the evil Count Dracula.
Fans of the first Castlevania will always have their eternal appreciation for it.
When the Castlevania Netflix series was first announced, many fans were excited (I KNOW I WAS!) but overall skeptical since the quality ratio of video game adaptations to TV and film has been average at best. At the risk of beating THAT dead horse into the ground, fans breathed a sigh of relief when it was revealed cult-hit producer Adi Shankar was involved and he was using Warren Ellis’ script and storyline.
The result? Castlevania on Netflix is an overly violent, sometimes too story heavy animated series that ends up doing a great job setting up the universe and characters. The animation is top-notch and the voice work is outstanding. Most importantly, it doesn’t condescend its target audience or compromises its source material in any way. It’s a shame it’s only four episodes, though.
Sypha Belnades is a highlight of the series. She’s voiced by Alejandra Reynoso.
Caution: minor spoilers ahead.
Castlevania continues the trend of great Netflix Originals
Warren Ellis wrote the story back in the mid-2000s and based it off of Castlevania III: Dracula’s Curse. Although, as the story progresses, elements of Rondo of Blood and Symphony of the Night are sprinkled in. The series starts off with Lisa visiting Count Dracula’s castle to learn how to be a doctor. The two actually engage in some sort-of sweet chemistry together and romance blossoms. Unfortunately, Count Dracula’s late wife is soon burned at the stake for being a witch and Dracula swears revenge on all of mankind by unleashing hellish monsters on the land of Wallachia. Somehow, the disgraced Trevor Belmont gets involved with a resistance involving the mage-ish Sypha Belnades and Dracula’s son Alucard. And then it’s…over?
The animation is very much in the stylish-anime aesthetic that appears to be taking after the DS games Dawn of Sorrow, Portrait of Ruin, and Order of Ecclesia. It works and becomes free-flowing during the major action scenes. When Sypha and Trevor take on the cyclops in the 3rd episode, it’s incredible with the movements.
It’s also never too over-the-top with style, but violence is a tad ridiculous. Seriously, within two episodes there is enough decapitations, dismemberments, and testicular trauma (although, the rest of the bar fight in the second episode is pretty funny) then you’d expect.
Voice work is outstanding. Richard Armitage is, without question, the best actor of the bunch. His portrayal of Trevor as a burned-out, ashamed vampire hunter is entertaining but also adds more depth to a character that really didn’t have much. Aside from his Sasuke Uchida-hairstyle, he’s an awesome character who not only acts like a total badass but manages to get some good one-liners out there.
Trevor Belmont, voiced by Richard Armitage
Graham McTavish, whose voice you may recognize as Zoran Lazaravic or Charlie Cutter in the Uncharted games, is great as the Count even if he’s not in it for too long. Alejandra Reynoso’s Sypha is great as well and doesn’t fall into typical “lead female role” trope. In fact, she partakes in more action than Trevor or Alucard and gets to use a ton of awesome spells.
Count Dracula, voiced by Graham McTavish
The length and weird script of Castlevania are the only minor problems
With only four episodes, the series manages to cram enough lore to keep fans frothing at the mouths. But its over right before it all kicks off. It’s nothing against the series itself, but it ends on a cliffhanger that rivals Halo 2. Also, a lack of the pirate Grant DeNasty is a shame for many longtime fans and the subplot with the church is just kind of there. It does get a good conclusion, but it just hangs there in front of the major conflict with Dracula.
There are some random bits of comedy thrown in, and while some of it is welcome, a lot of it just doesn’t work. The biggest offender is the quick joke during the climactic fight at the end of episode 4. Also, some lines of dialogue sound a bit too “modern.” It doesn’t destroy or hinder any of the episodes’ momentum, but it just comes off as a producer’s attempt to make it funnier. At least the majority of Ellis’ vision is retained.
Castlevania on Netflix sounds too good to be true, but it is. It’s a quick and sometimes super awkward, but overall a solid, solid first season. It’s great to see the games being represented in such a great way without having to compromise itself.
It’s good to know Netflix greenlit a second season the same day the series came out.
Castlevania: Lords of Shadow was first revealed at E3 2009 without the Castlevania moniker, instead of being a newly produced Hideo Kojima game. However, once it was revealed to be part of the storied franchise, Lords of Shadow became a reboot to the entire Castlevania series. This was also the first time in more than 10 years that Koji Igarashi was not involved. The game was to be developed by MecurySteam, the studio behind the immensely underrated Clive Barker’s Jericho.
It appeared this was the direction Konami wanted to take, and while the first game is excellent, the entire Lords of Shadow subseries is incredibly underwhelming.
Castlevania: Lords of Shadow
Castlevania: Lords of Shadow contains fantastic, top-tier presentation, graphics, and gameplay. MercurySteam managed to push both consoles of the seventh generation to the limits of their capabilities. It’s a rich and incredibly detailed world where all kinds of grotesque and scary monsters live and almost urges the player to keep on going.
Gameplay is similar to God of War with its stylish combat based around combos. Luckily for players, they aren’t hard to memorize and can be chained very well. It helps the controls are very responsive. The game isn’t about just fighting, as the puzzle solving and platforming is a lot of fun. Swinging your whip from Super Castlevania IV makes a return.
Lords of Shadow even features downright impressive voice acting from a variety of Hollywood actors. Veteran character actors Robert Carlyle and Jason Isaacs are superb voicing the game’s protagonist Gabriel Belmont and antagonist, respectively. Patrick Stewart, who almost needs no introduction, is excellent as always, narrating the story. The story is pretty standard stuff, but overall engaging. There is also an incredible twist that really gives the new universe a chance to shine into something different.
The game’s only major flaw is it does not feel like a true Castlevania game. To be fair, since it is a reboot, it makes sense to not have a lot of typical features. There are enough horror elements and actual castles to walk around in. The adventure in the game itself is similar to older games like Dracula’s Curse or Super Castlevania IV.
Overall, Lords of Shadow was one of 2010’s best games and looked like a promising start.
Castlevania: Lords of Shadow – Mirror of Fate
Lords of Shadow was successful enough to warrant a sequel and a spin-off. The spin-off, Lords of Shadow – Mirror of Fate (author’s note: Yes, that is the official title.) was released for the Nintendo 3DS and re-released in HD for PS3 and Xbox 360. Mirror of Fate gets back to the series’ roots with side scrolling. It does manage to throw in some exploration and combo-based combat as its console big brother. However, it’s incredibly stripped down and kind of boring. For a rebooted series trying to find its own identity, it’s a step back. To make matters worse, it looks like a late-era PS1 game.
The story is also incredibly complicated, trying to shoehorn more Belmonts. Game of Thrones’ Richard Madden joins the cast of actors, portraying the new Trevor Belmont. (Trevor is now Gabriel Belmont’s son and Simon Belmont is Trevor’s son. As Dr. Evil once said, “Right…”) Players take control of the two in varying points in the game. Instead of telling the story in a creative manner, it just makes it a jumbled mess.
Mirror of Fate was a misstep in the new rebooted series. Luckily, the new sequel console sequel, creatively titled Lords of Shadow 2, showed some promise.
Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2
Unfortunately, this game is where the Lords of Shadow subseries fell apart. Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 is a mix of decent and awful ideas. It tries too hard to do so much and tells one of the most underwhelming stories in the entire franchise, rebooted or not. The voice acting, which was one of the best parts of the first Lords of Shadow, sounds phoned in and has some incredibly forced references. On top of these issues, the game just is not fun to play.
Confusingly enough, you get to play as Count Dracula fighting against the Belmonts and evil corporations in the present day. It’s a huge missed opportunity to recreate other classic Castlevania games, but instead becoming yet another open world game in a big city. Combat is basically unchanged from the first game but has forced and unintuitive stealth sections.
Lords of Shadow 2 took a promising new rebooted series and flushed all potential down the drain. Castlevania just became yet another series that was unnecessarily rebooted and started to collect dust on GameStop shelves.
Sadly, it was the end…or is it?
It’s a shame the series has ended on such a down note. Not to get personal and start narrating the article, but as a longtime fan of Castlevania, it truly pains me knowing Lords of Shadow 2 was the last official console game. Castlevania is a series with a legacy to rival other classic franchises, it’s sad knowing this was it for the Belmonts.
Until Adi Shankar decided to take his own stab at the series with help from a little comic book writer named Warren Ellis…