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Benjamin Macready

My name is Ben, and I am a Gold Standard NCTJ certified journalist. I specialise in pieces about gaming and the culture surrounding it. I believe that games, whether they are played digitally or on a tabletop, are unambiguously art. Games can tell branching stories that wouldn’t be possible in other mediums. I aim to document and critique them on their own terms.

Wargamer •

Get 25% off a cult hit solo board game, crammed full of charming pixel art

Puzzle Dungeon is a solitaire dungeon crawler made by a solo developer, and it's currently 25% off for the entirety of October via Etsy.Dungeons can contain all sorts of nasty surprises, from dragons, to mimics, to deadly traps - and sometimes, they're just loaded up with puzzles. Puzzle Dungeon is a solo dungeon crawler board game with gorgeous pixel art and a very strong 7.8 rating on Board Game Geek, and for the whole of October you can get it for 25% off its already affordable base price.
In...
SUPERJUMP •

Stewpots and Space Travel: An Interview With Takuma Okada

Takuma Okada is a tabletop game designer based in Portland, Oregon. Going by the title “No Road Home” on itch.io, Okada has been designing games about identity, isolation, and exploration since 2018. Their works include Stewpot: Tales from a Fantasy Tavern, a game about retired adventurers settling down and opening up a pub, which has been nominated for the 2025 ENNIE award for “Best Family Game”. They also created the Alone series, a selection of three solo-journaling games about exploring wond...
Wargamer •

New Super Shredder MTG card is going to absolutely tear up games

Of all the cards previewed for Magic: The Gathering's TMNT set, ferocious Black two-drop Super Shredder might be most worthy of our fear.Wizards of the Coast's upcoming MTG Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles crossover has received a frosty response from some Magic: The Gathering players. Just like other Universes Beyond offerings before it, disgruntled fans have been quick to dismiss this Ninja Turtles release as a cash-grab. Love it or hate it, though, you can't deny the sheer power of many of the TM...
Wargamer •

Are Pokémon TCG Mega Heroes Mini Tins weird, or is it just me?

Many Pokémon TCG expansions, although not all of them, feature Mini Tins: little metallic tubs containing two boosters and some added extras. The newest Pokémon set, Mega Evolution, continues this trend, with chunkier booster boxes and ETBs releasing alongside a "Mega Heroes Mini Tin". Naturally, like all other Pokémon products on the planet, most retailers have either already sold their stock of these tins, or they're only available at a wildly higher rate than their recommended retail price of...
Wargamer •

I want to love MTG's new 5 color Ninja Turtles commander - but it's such a mess

Heroes in a Half Shell may be a powerful five color commander in Magic: The Gathering's new TMNT set - but holy hell, it's weirdly designed.So it's official, Magic: the Gathering will once again return to New York, in the upcoming MTG Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles set. After swinging across the skyline in Marvel's Spider-Man, we'll be delving down into the sewers next. And, speaking of cramped dark places, one of TMNT's new commanders was clearly dredged from a particularly sinister corner of the...
Wargamer •

This Gen 5 Pokémon card's price spiked 500%, but fans aren't sure it's worth it

Solosis 118/086, from Pokémon TCG's Black Bolt set, exploded in price from $10 to $62 last month - but now its star seems to be falling.Generation five gave the Pokémon TCG plenty of powerful pocket monsters, from brutal, three-headed menace Hydreigon to draconic legendary Pokémon Zekrom and Reshiram. Forget about those titans, though; over the past few weeks one of Unova's smallest Pokémon has been on a massive journey in the collectors' market. Solosis 118/086 from the set Black Bolt has seen...
Wargamer •

New Heroes of Might and Magic card game banks $800k in crowdfunding launch

Archon Studio's shiny new HoMM card game started crowdfunding on Gamefound on Friday - and it's already raised over $800k in pledges. A day after its crowdfunding launch on Friday, October 10, Archon Studio's Heroes of Might & Magic: The Card Game has already amassed over $800,000 from backers on Gamefound, having hit its initial $58k goal in just over five minutes.
If you've somehow never heard of Heroes of Might & Magic, it's a collection of PC strategy RPGs known for their expansive maps, gri...
Wargamer •

Scythe creators' latest board game is a sumptuously painted superhero designer

Whether they're an alien from the planet Krypton, the victim of a radioactive Spider bite, or a bored billionaire who decides to dress up like a bat and start pummelling people, every Superhero has a backstory. And Stonemaier Games has turned those all important origin stories into, er, Origin Story, a brand new board game about crafting the history of several superheroes that combines trick taking and tableau building elements.
Revealed online on October 1, Origin Story has already attracted so...
Wargamer •

This MTG Spider-Man commander is so bad, only one person picked it

Only one Magic: The Gathering player on the internet has posted a Beetle, Legacy Criminal deck - what makes this card so epically unpopular?In the Spider-Man comics, Janice Lincoln, a.k.a. "The Beetle" is a formidable threat to New York and its arachnid protector. She's a member of the Sinister Six, a group of Spider-Man's most infamous adversaries, and founder of the Syndicate, a league of criminal superwomen. In Magic: the Gathering, however, Beetle, Legacy Criminal has been done dirty. She's...
Wargamer •

"Awesome" and "unique" Pokémon Mega Evolutions Yveltal promo is, sadly, neither

The Pokémon TCG's Mega Evolution set comes to Europe with an Yveltal promo card - but it's a sour deal compared to what US fans got already.After a two week delay compared to the US,  European Pokémon TCG fans will finally get their hands on the newest Pokémon set, Mega Evolution, on Friday, October 10. And alongside all its shiny new, mega evolved 'mons, European players buying the new set from one of 18 stores can get a special edition Yveltal, described by The Pokémon Company as "an awesome p...
Wargamer •

Why you should never draft Red in MTG Spider-Man

It's no secret that the MTG Spider-Man set sucks. It's gotten many Magic: The Gathering players as riled up as J. Jonah Jameson on a slow news day, and collector booster prices have plummeted quite as fast as Peter Parker would with broken web slinger (that's enough now - Ed.) There are many reasons this set didn't stick the landing, but for me, the biggest is that its all-important Limited gameplay simply isn't fun. Spider-Man drafts are poorly balanced, and, above all, Red cards are almost unu...
Wargamer •

Famously useless Pokémon card sees $100 price spike in just two weeks

Magikarp may be appalling in battle, but Pokémon TCG collectors love the Paldea Evolved Magikarp IR card so much, it's now worth over $400!Magikarp is, canonically, one of the most pathetic pocket monsters in the entire Pokémon TCG. All it's capable of doing is splashing, tackling, occasionally flailing about, and eventually evolving into Gyarados. Despite being the fishy punchline of the Pokédex, though, Magikarp does sometimes get a moment in the sun. In 2023's Paldea Evolved set, the floppy f...
Wargamer •

Get this classic cathedral building board game on sale for less than $10

The Pillars of the Earth is a well regarded, visually gorgeous worker placement board game - and Amazon has it on sale for under ten bucks!Board games and cathedrals go together like orcs and goblins. From The Red Cathedral to Architects of the West Kingdom, anyone looking to construct a massive church on their tabletop is spoilt for choice, and 'pretty church stuff' is an ever popular theme for new releases. But, as the long-toothed old timers in our list of the best board games demonstrate, ol...
EDHREC •

Ranking the New Spider-Man Sagas | EDHREC

Images courtesy of Wizards of the Coast and MarvelThe new Spider-Man set has given us an exciting cycle of Sagas, one for each color. These Sagas depict four beloved Spider-Man story arcs, and also The Clone SagaThe Clone Saga. The cards in this cycle are not created equal, and some of them are significantly stronger than others.This isn't unusual. In fact, most cycles are uneven like this. Everyone remembers Syr Konrad, the GrimSyr Konrad, the Grim from Throne of Eldraine. Few recall Konrad's p...
Wargamer •

Magic: The Gathering's Furby crossover is deliciously deranged

Magic: the Gathering is releasing a batch of five Furby cards which reimagine the fluffy, talking toys as horrors from beyond your worst nightmares. Secret Lair x Furby: The Oddbodies is just one of three Furby themed Secret Lairs arriving on October 13, as part of Wizard of the Coast's enormous Secret Lair: Secret Scare Superdrop.
Although a collab with The flippin' Office was just announced, this still has to go down as one of the strangest Secret Lairs in Magic's history. An Oddbody is a fan...
Wargamer •

Look out Wingspan, a new birdy board game just launched on Kickstarter

Isle of Feathers has arrived on Kickstarter - a tile-laying puzzle board game where players compete to build their vision of an avian paradise.Ever heard of a Sandy Gallito, Varied Tit, or Chatham Shag? No, these are not 19th-century innuendos, but birds in the new Kickstarter board game Isle of Feathers, which arrived on the crowdfunding platform on September 28.
Isle of Feathers has the tagline 'A Love Letter To Strange Birds', and as you'd expect, it's absolutely full of feathered freaks. In...
Wargamer •

We're getting The Office MTG cards, because no one is safe from Dwight Schrute

The Office's Dwight Schrute gets his own suite of Secret Lair Magic: The Gathering cards in October, because human culture is eating itself.A brand new MTG Secret Lair has been announced at MagicCon Atlanta featuring, for some reason, Dwight Schrute from The Office. Secret Lair X The Office: Dwight's Destiny has artwork of Dunder Mifflin's hardest working, and most arrogant, employee pasted over 6 pre-existing Magic Cards.
The drop will release on Monday, October 13 2025 on the dedicated webstor...
Wargamer •

Pokémon Phantasmal Flames' Japanese golden Charizard price tops $600 in 48 hours

Mega Charizard X ex was released in Japan on Friday, and its most valuable gold variant is already selling for over 600 bucks on Ebay!Three things in life are inevitable: death, taxes, and Charizard Pokémon cards spiking to ludicrously high prices. Inferno X - the Japanese precursor to the English Pokémon set Phantasmal Flames - released in Japan on Friday, and its chase card Mega Charizard X ex has hit the market like a truck. Several variants of the new 'zard card are available - but the most...
Wyrd Science •

Girl By Moonlight: Hope, Transcendence, Transformation

Hope can be a powerful thing. The desire to believe, to push on in the face of adversity has been the subject of countless stories. From Star Wars, which asserts that "rebellions are built on hope", to Warhammer 40,000’s more cynical message that "hope is the first step on the road to disappointment."  Discussions about the strength, or the futility, of hope have rumbled on for as long as people have told stories. Whatever other vices may have burst forth from Pandora’s Box, or jar if you’re fee...
EDHREC •

Madness and Mayhem - Comparing Magic's Discard Mechanics | EDHREC

Alchemist's GreetingAlchemist's Greeting | Art by Jakub Kasper | Electro's BoltElectro's Bolt | Art by JB CasacopReleased in February of 2002, the second set of Odyssey block, Torment, is one of Magic's strangest expansions. Its unique selling point is that it's deeply asymmetric. Most sets contain, roughly, the same number of cards of each color. Torment, in contrast, is weighted heavily towards black. There are 40 black cards in the set, while the other colors have between 21 and 28 cards.This...
Wargamer •

This board game about making board games features 300+ real board games

The Game Makers is the latest project from the publisher of Ultimate Werewolf, and it allows players to build board game companies.The Game Makers, a board game that's all about designing board games, launched on Kickstarter on September 2. Publisher Bezier Games, known best for its Ultimate Werewolf series, Suburbia, and Castles of Mad King Ludwig, is working in conjunction with a staggering number of other creators to bring the project to life.
The Game Makers offers a tour of the wonderful wo...
Wargamer •

The MTG Spiderman bonus sheet has some epic cards, and Shock, for some reason

The Source Material bonus sheet for Magic: The Gathering's Spider-Man set is full of powerful cards - and one weakling put there as a joke.One in every 24 MTG Spider-Man play boosters, and every Collector Booster, contains a card from the "Source Material bonus sheet". These are reprints of cards from Magic's past, featuring artwork from the Spider-Man comics. Many of these cards are powerful staples that will slide into any Commander deck as easily as Spider-Man slings his way across the New Yo...
Wargamer •

Classic Pokémon card Birthday Pikachu abruptly doubles in price

Birthday Pikachu and other cards from Pokémon TCG's Celebrations Classic Collection have spiked in value ahead of the game's 30th year.Birthday Pikachu is one of the Pokémon TCG's most eye catching cards. While most printings of this cake-eating electric mouse cost upwards of $50, often climbing into hundreds, there was (until recently) an affordable way to get a copy. The newer Celebrations: Classic Collection version used to be cheap, at just over $6. Now, the card's price has more than double...
Wargamer •

There's a Morbius MTG Card now, whether you like it or not

The new MTG Spider-Man set contains some unusual cards, from Imposter Syndrome, a delightful reference to the Spider-Man Pointing meme, to the absurdly powerful Spider-Punk. Maybe the strangest card we've seen so far, though, is Morbius the Living Vampire: a vampiric villain revealed this week in a set otherwise swarming with arachnids.
Morbius is a Spider-Man villain who's been vamping around since the seventies, but this bloodsucking bad guy is most famous (or perhaps infamous), for being the...
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