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 I have written a large number of pieces, primarily focussed on gaming and nerd culture. Trading Card Games are a special focus of mine.  I have played Magic: the Gathering since I was 8 years old. I love to explore the ways that TCGs convey emergent narratives through gameplay.

Card Games

Card Gamer •

The New Odion Archetype in Maze of the Master - Card Gamer

Images courtesy of KONAMI
Maze of the Master is Yu-Gi-Oh!‘s latest booster set. These 112 cards cover a variety of different archetypes: there’s a new Ancient Gear card, some new Trickstars, and a thoroughly bizarre attempt at integrating Red Nova Dragon and the Earthbound Immortals. The big focus of the set, though, is on Odion’s cards.
Odion was a character from the original Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters anime. He was the adoptive brother, loyal henchman, and only friend of Marik Ishtar, the antagon...
EDHREC •

Under the Radar - Deekah, Fractal Theorist | EDHREC

Today's Under the Radar column marks a fun milestone. Back in August of last year, we analyzed Pashalik MonsPashalik Mons, an underloved mono-red Goblin who has lived his whole life in Krenko'sKrenko's shadow.A month later, we assessed Apothecary WhiteApothecary White, a mono-white Food commander, who is maybe more of a chef than an apothecary, but is still pretty great.At the start of 2025, we took a look at Old One EyeOld One Eye, a monstrous mono-green Tyranid. A fortnight ago, we reviewed Dr...
Card Gamer •

Every Summoning Method in Yu-Gi-Oh! Explained - Card Gamer

Images courtesy of KONAMI
One of the most daunting hurdles facing any new Yu-Gi-Oh! player is learning about all of the different ways of Summoning monsters. From Synchro Summoning to XYZ Summoning, there are a multitude of different ways to get monsters into play. This handy guide will outline all of the different Summoning methods in the game, and explain how they all work.

Normal Summoning a monster card means playing it from your hand into one of your five main monster zones. A Normal Summo...
EDHREC •

Under the Radar - Drana, Liberator of Malakir | EDHREC

Magic: The Gathering is full of Vampires. On Innistrad, we have Sorin MarkovSorin Markov, his old man EdgarEdgar, and Olivia VoldarenOlivia Voldaren who had maybe the bloodiest wedding this side of Game of Thrones.On Ixalan we have the saint Elenda, the Dusk RoseElenda, the Dusk Rose, the sinner Vona, Butcher of MaganVona, Butcher of Magan, and Amalia Benavides AguirreAmalia Benavides Aguirre who's neither as holy as Elenda, or as cruel as Vona, but is more capable than either of them of comboin...
Card Gamer •

Yu-Gi-Oh! Early Days Collection Review - Card Gamer

Images courtesy of KONAMI
The Yu-Gi-Oh! Early Days Collection, which releases today, is a compilation of 14 different Yu-Gi-Oh! games from the late 1990s and early 2000s. KONAMI is making a clear appeal to nostalgia here. This collection puts the original Duel Monsters anime in the spotlight, embracing the game as it was before the modern complexities of Synchro, XYZ, Pendulum, and Link summoning.
The duels you’ll play here will be clashes of old cards like Ocubeam and Uraby. There are some grea...
Card Gamer •

5 Big Changes In Yu-Gi-Oh! Since You Used To Play - Card Gamer

Images credited to KONAMI
With the Yu-Gi-Oh! EARLY DAYS COLLECTION set for release on the 27th of February, there are plenty of lapsed Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG players looking to return to the game. But the Yu-Gi-Oh! of today is very different from the game that Kaiba, Joey, and Yugi used to play back on Nick Toons in the early 2000s. There are a huge number of new types of monsters, plenty of new ways of playing, and the power level of the game has risen dramatically.
So if you’re looking to get back in...
EDHREC •

Under the Radar - Anya, Merciless Angel | EDHREC

Today on Under the Radar we'll be looking at a commander who came out a decade ago. 2015 was a crazy year, Inside Out was in theatres, Undertale had just come out, and everyone was trying to guess the color of a dress.In the world of Magic: The Gathering players were getting their hands on another set of commander precons. The theme for the 2015 decks was experience counters.The commanders of these decks would gain experience counters and grow stronger as the game progressed. This gave us severa...
EDHREC •

Aetherdrift Set Review - Enemy & Wedge | EDHREC

Today we'll be racing through all of the notable enemy color cards from Aetherdrift.All sorts of wacky racers have signed up for Ghirapur Grand-Prix, there are Shark PiratesShark Pirates, BikersBikers that look like they've stepped straight out of Tron, and even a fewfew GodsGods have turned up.Let's charge right in and have a look at the best racers that the multiverse has to offer. Magic: The Gathering's answer to Pikachu is back again in Aetherdrift in what may be his most powerful appearance...
Card Gamer •

Yu-Gi-Oh! Championship Series Birmingham Meta Breakdown - Card Gamer

Images courtesy of KONAMI
Almost 2,500 Duelists came from all over the world to attend the Yu-Gi-Oh! Championship Series Birmingham (YCS) last weekend.
Heading into the YCS, it was anticipated that the story of the tournament would be the clash between Ryzeal and Maliss. These two meta-defining archetypes both made their Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG debut in December 2024’s Crossover Breakers. Ryzeal is an XYZ archetype, capable of rushing out their threats and detonating the opponent’s cards. Maliss, meanwhil...
Card Gamer •

Quarter Century Stampede Reveals at YCS Birmingham - Card Gamer

Images courtesy of KONAMI
Quarter Century Stampede is due for release in April of 2025. The set is intended to serve as a nostalgic tour through the history of the Yu-Gi-Oh! Trading Card Game (or TCG). It will be the last opportunity for Duelists to get their hands on Quarter Century Secret Rare cards. At YCS Birmingham several cards due to be reprinted in Quarter Century Stampede were revealed, and we’re sharing them with you today.
Many of these reprints were chosen by Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG fans. Quar...
Card Gamer •

Yu-Gi-Oh! EARLY DAYS COLLECTION Preview - Card Gamer

Images courtesy of KONAMI
The Yu-Gi-Oh! EARLY DAYS COLLECTION will release on the February 27th, 2025. Fortunately, for those who are hungry to get some more details about the
game, Card Gamer has been granted a preemptive peek at it prior to its official release.
I was given several hours to try out three of the fourteen games in this curated card game collection. I collected some creatures in Yu-Gi-Oh! Monster Capsule, I battled my way through Yu-Gi-Oh! 7 Trials to Glory: World Championship To...
Card Gamer •

Marvel Legendary - Weapon X Expansion Review - Card Gamer

All images courtesy of Upper Deck Entertainment
Before Logan was Wolverine, he was Weapon X, a test subject whose bones were coated in adamantium, resulting in his jaded attitude and his signature metal claws. The latest Marvel Legendary expansion, from Upper Deck, focuses on Wolverine’s backstory, and the stories of the other Weapon experiments.
This review will analyze all the new cards introduced in the Weapon X expansion, and if Legendary‘s latest expansion is a smash hit like X-Men: Days...
EDHREC •

Under the Radar - Bruse Tarl, Roving Rancher | EDHREC

From SliversSlivers to SerpentsSerpents, Magic is filled with all sorts of different creature types.If you're determined enough you can build a deck focused on any kind of creatures that you want, no matter how niche.Every once in a while, Wizards of the Coast print a brand new commander to support a creature type that they have never shown an interest in before. Baru, WurmspeakerBaru, Wurmspeaker gave Wurms some long-awaited love back in 2022, Gallia of the Endless DanceGallia of the Endless Da...
Card Gamer •

Marvel Legendary – Core Set Mastermind and Villain Review - Card Gamer

Today we’re talking about the masterminds and villains that debuted in Marvel Legendary‘s Core Set. We’ll explore how difficult they are to take down, and how fun they are as opponents. The game’s power level has increased significantly over time, so many of these old villains pale in comparison to the bad guys from more recent expansions.
If you enjoy this, we also have an article assessing the heroes from the Core Set.
Red Skull, what have they done to you? This game does Red Skull dirty; you’...
EDHREC •

Under the Radar - Hurska Sweet-Tooth | EDHREC

Welcome back to Under the Radar, the series where we discuss brewing around niche commanders that haven't gotten enough love from the community. Supplemental products are great sources of unconventional commander. From Ravnica: Clue Edition to the Fallout cards, there are plenty of products that never went into standard and are loaded full of great commanders. The commander that we'll be talking about today comes from Foundations Jumpstart.Foundations was the final physical Magic set released in...
Card Gamer •

Marvel Legendary - Core Set Hero Review - Card Gamer

Marvel Legendary is a fantastic deck building game from Upper Deck. We’ve already published a guide on how to play, but while knowing the rules is one thing, knowing the right heroes to pick is another.  The game’s Core Set came out in 2012; some of these heroes have stood the test of time and are still going strong today, others haven’t aged well at all. Let’s dive right in and review the heroes from Marvel Legendary’s Core Set.
   
   
Black Widow is the most powerful hero in the Core Set, and...
EDHREC •

Under the Radar - Old One Eye | EDHREC

The universe of Warhammer 40,000 may be a grim fascistic dystopia, but it did give us some pretty iconic commanders. There's Trazyn the Infinite who enables all kinds of graveyard/artifact synergies, Be'lakor, the Dark Master a staple Demon commander, and of course Ghyrson Starn, Kelermorph who leads more than 15,000 wacky pinger decks.
Not every legendary creature from these precons rose to the top though. Old One Eye, the subject of our article today, leads only 225 decks (as of 12/23/2024), m...
Card Gamer •

How to Play Marvel Legendary - Card Gamer

Marvel Legendary, from Upper Deck, is one of the greatest deck building games of all time. The game first released in 2012, and even now, 12 years later, several new expansions are still released for it every year. If you’re looking to learn how to play one of Marvel’s most popular games, here’s a handy guide to get you started.
The Marvel Legendary core set contains the following cards:
Here’s how you set everything up so that you’re ready for your first game.

Shuffle these cards together to...
EDHREC •

Under the Radar - Sauron, the Lidless Eye - EDHREC

December 16, 2024 by
Ben Macready
In the land of Mordor where the shadows lie.
There are lots of commanders that you may want to try.
There's Uglúk, Mauhúr and other Uruk-hai.
But today we'll look at Sauron, the Lidless Eye.
Only 416 people have built around this big bad guy.
But he's an awesome card, and now I'll show you why...
There may only be one Ring, but Magic: the Gathering features four different printings of Sauron.
The most popular is Sauron, the Dark Lord who currently lead...
EDHREC •

Under the Radar - The Wandering Rescuer - EDHREC

December 2, 2024 by
Ben Macready
Duskmourn: House of Horrors may no longer be the newest set in Standard, but we can still look back on it fondly as an expansion that provided us with plenty of terrifying commanders to choose from. Both Valgavoth, Terror Eater and Valgavoth, Harrower of Souls demonstrate their right to rule the plane by being Elder Demons with brutally strong effects. The Mindskinner possesses a formidably frontloaded 10/1 stat line for a cost of only and the less sai...
EDHREC •

Under the Radar - Captain Ripley Vance - EDHREC

November 18, 2024 by
Ben Macready
The Modern Horizons sets contain some of the strongest cards of all time, and they have given us all sorts of powerful commanders. Back in 2019, Modern Horizons 1 gave us Urza, Lord High Artificer. Urza, Lord High Artificer is, currently, the 47th most popular commander of all time, at the head of more than 12,500 decks.
Modern Horizons 2 in 2021 gave us Chatterfang, Squirrel General who is the 18th most popular commander in the game, and leads more th...
EDHREC •

Under the Radar - Zareth San, the Trickster - EDHREC

October 28, 2024 by
Ben Macready
Today on Under the Radar, we'll be looking at Zareth San, the Trickster. This Merfolk likes loot, but isn't a Merfolk Looter. Currently (as of 10/19/2024), he only has 162 decks built around him. Zareth San is an amphibious thief who wants you to mill your opponents until their graveyards are populated with a plethora of powerful permanents for him to plunder. Without further ado, let's get to reviewing this Rogue...
The Rogue creature type and mill dec...
EDHREC •

Under the Radar - Orca, Siege Demon - EDHREC

October 14, 2024 by
Ben Macready
Today's Under the Radar will evaluate Orca, Siege Demon, a Dominarian that likes it when other creatures die. With only 178 decks currently built around her (as of 10/04/2024) Orca, Siege Demon comfortably qualifies to be explored in this series. She's a sacrifice-themed commander who uses the deaths of other creatures as a means to grow bigger and bigger. Once she's grown big enough, Orca will trample over your opponents' creatures and pummel them unti...
EDHREC •

Under the Radar - The Odd Acorn Gang - EDHREC

September 30, 2024 by
Ben Macready
So, we're leaving behind the cozy, pleasant plane of Bloomburrow to head out to the horrifying eldritch doom world of Duskmourn. Let's wave Bloomburrow goodbye by analyzing a Commander from that plane who slipped Under The Radar with fewer than 500 players building a deck around them so far. The Odd Acorn Gang is the backup commander from the Squirreled Away precon. This troublesome gang of forest fighters offers up a pretty unique take on Squirrel ty...
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Gaming

SUPERJUMP •

An Interview with the Developers of Microtopia

An interview with Cordyceps Collective on how real insect behaviour inspired their design and much more

There is more overlap between video games and insects than you might expect. Satoshi Tajiri was inspired to create Pokémon by his time hunting bugs as a child. Hollow Knight shows us that insects can be as central to a Metroidvania game as vampires and space parasites, and Animal Crossing would just feel incomplete without the trusty bug-catching net.

Cordyceps Collective are a Netherlands-...
Card Gamer •

Yu-Gi-Oh! Early Days Collection Review - Card Gamer

Images courtesy of KONAMI
The Yu-Gi-Oh! Early Days Collection, which releases today, is a compilation of 14 different Yu-Gi-Oh! games from the late 1990s and early 2000s. KONAMI is making a clear appeal to nostalgia here. This collection puts the original Duel Monsters anime in the spotlight, embracing the game as it was before the modern complexities of Synchro, XYZ, Pendulum, and Link summoning.
The duels you’ll play here will be clashes of old cards like Ocubeam and Uraby. There are some grea...
SUPERJUMP •

2024 Games of the Year

Welcome to SUPERJUMP's annual Games of the Year celebration. As always, I like to introduce these awards by expressing gratitude for the year gone by.

Thank you game developers. You are creating marvels of art and science - important cultural artifacts - under increasingly difficult circumstances. Whether you work for a large studio or you're a solo developer: thank you. We are all living in an increasingly dangerous and intolerant world, where the moral pendulum appears to be swinging in a vio...
SUPERJUMP •

Dungeon Inn Review

Inns in RPGs are truly miraculous.  However bruised and battered your adventuring party may be, if they rest up for the night at an inn then they will emerge the next day fully healed and ready for more.  Dungeons, meanwhile, serve the opposite purpose. A fresh and ready adventuring party delves down into a dungeon and emerges exhausted and beaten, but hopefully with huge loads of loot.

Dungeon Inn is a game all about running an RPG inn of your very own, located conveniently at the entrance to...
SUPERJUMP •

Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes Embraces Silliness

There’s a single moment, roughly a quarter of the way through Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes, that perfectly encapsulates the spirit of the game. The party is delving into a mystical forest dungeon called the Proving Grounds. An enigmatic cloaked bandit known as Hurstwine cuts through the murky woods ahead of them, the heroes in hot pursuit.

Both the player characters and Hurstwine are seeking a primal lens, an ancient and powerful artifact that lies at the heart of the dungeon. It’s a race...
SUPERJUMP •

Potionomics: Bring Your Best Brew

Potions are the lifeblood of all RPG adventuring parties. No one would get beyond the first floor of any dungeon without guzzling down a frankly unhealthy amount of brightly coloured magical goop. Potionomics puts the player into the shoes of a potion vendor, ready to provide the heroes of the world with the colourful healing concoctions they so desperately need.

The game is a bubbling melting pot of various genres, mixing business management elements with deckbuilding-based haggling gameplay a
SUPERJUMP •

Total War: Attila and the "Dark Ages"

Total War: Attila portrays the collapse of the Roman Empire as an unmitigated tragedy. How does this depiction measure up to scrutiny?

These words are gruffly recited by the narrator of Total War: Attila towards the end of the game’s introduction. This quote paraphrases two verses from the book of Revelations which describe Conquest, the first of the four horsemen of the apocalypse, being unleashed upon the world. Accompanying this narration is footage of a pitched battle being waged at night b
SUPERJUMP •

Are Golden Endings Always the Right Path?

One thing which makes video games unique is their ability to tell stories with branching narratives. This is something that isn’t possible using other mediums, outside of experimental choose-your-own adventure stories like Black Mirror: Bandersnatch and The Warlock of Firetop Mountain. The interactive nature of video games makes it possible for them to have multiple different endings depending on the path the player takes through the story. This means that players can get endings tailored to the
SUPERJUMP •

Storyteller Review - A Tale Worth Telling

Storyteller is a puzzle game created by Daniel Benmergui, an Argentinian game developer who is probably best known for creating the adorable art game I Wish I Were The Moon.

In Storyteller, the player is given a magical book that they need to fill with insightful tales. Every level is an individual story that the player needs to bring to life. Each story provides the player with an objective that needs to be accomplished by utilising a series of different characters and scenes. For example, pla
SUPERJUMP •

Dragon Ball: The Breakers Review

The Dragon Ball series is famous, or perhaps infamous, for its bombastic battle sequences. Shirtless space aliens, with absurdly sculpted physiques, scream and launch energy blasts at one another. Villains loudly monologue about their invincibility, before the heroes eventually bring them down after a five-minute-long transformation sequence. All of the attacks have wacky names which fans can recite by heart. Because the series is extremely action-oriented, there have been innumerable Dragon Bal
SUPERJUMP •

Why Do Birds Fly? The Moral Philosophy of Tales of Berseria

“Why do you think that birds fly?”

This strange sentence is not an excerpt from a book on falconry. Nor is it a question from a biology exam or a promo for the Philadelphia Eagles. It’s from the 2016 Bandai Namco RPG Tales of Berseria.

The game’s primary antagonist, Artorius Collbrande, uses this question as a means of evaluating people’s moral principles. But how does a basic question about the biology of birds tell us anything about someone’s morality?

More to the point, does this question

Other Articles

South West Londoner •

Review: See How They Run

See How They Run is a comical whodunnit, which lovingly spoofs the murder mystery genre with the care and affection that only a sincere parody can provide.

There are some great laughs, but it builds towards a disappointing conclusion. The film is certainly funny, but it’s hardly a mystery of Agatha Christie’s calibre.

Our leading duo consists of the eager and excitable rookie Constable Stalker (Saoirse

Ronan) and her boozy superior officer Inspector Stoppard (Sam Rockwell).

The pair have a d
South West Londoner •

Thor: Love and Thunder proves lightning does strike twice

There have now been four Thor films and their quality varies wildly – but Thor: Love and Thunder is among the franchise’s best.

The Original Thor (2009) was a perfectly serviceable superhero origin story, that did a fine job of introducing Chris Hemsworth’s titular character without excelling enough to be truly great or being inadequate enough to be truly terrible.

Thor: The Dark World (2013) ranks among Marvel’s most forgettable films, as it features an utterly generic plotline performed by a
South West Londoner •

Elizabeth II: The Queen & history's other longest reigning rulers

In February of 1952 Queen Elizabeth II became the queen of the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth.

Her platinum jubilee, in June of 2022, marks the official public celebration of her 70 year long reign.

Elizabeth II is one of history’s longest reigning rulers, however, she does not have the longest reign of all time.

Several other rulers have had reigns which have rivalled, or even exceeded, her 70 years.

Here are a few of their stories…

Louis XIV ruled France from May 1643 to September 17
North West Londoner •

Labour keeps control of Enfield but Conservatives make gains

Labour kept control of Enfield council on Thursday after holding the 38 seats they took into the 2022 election, but the Conservatives had a successful night gaining seven councillors and shutting out any other party from the area.

The election results mean that all of Enfield’s 63 seats are held by either Labour or Tory councillors, after the Greens, the Liberal Democrats and the Independent Community First Group, a group of former Labour councillors, lost their two, one and seven councillors r
South West Londoner •

Fundraiser launched for injured Croydon swan

A fundraiser is in progress to assist the treatment of a swan from Croydon who was hurt in a dog attack.

Wayne the swan was injured on the afternoon of the 7 February after a dog bit him on the beak.

The Swan Sanctuary is a wildlife rescue service based in Shepperton, specialising in treating swans.

The sanctuary took Wayne into its care on 8 February.

In a Facebook post The Swan Sanctuary announced: “Wayne was attacked by a dog and has suffered a life changing injury to his beak.”

“We are