Hey I'm Ben. I enjoy playing piano and board games.

My friend introduced SW2 to me last summer (2021) and I fell in love with it. I had played Hearthstone as a kid and while that game lacked any deep strategy and was pay-to-win, I always liked something about the deck-dueling vibe. Summoner wars is everything I wanted from the genre! Just grab a deck with a friend and have fun! The design is impeccable and has a massive skill ceiling while simultaneously a very elegant ruleset that is super easy to get into (what is it about second edition games being so good?!) New games usually overwhelm me, but for this it was just 'oh yea move, get three attacks in, and I'll figure the rest out later.' (The magic and discard system is also brilliant and adds so much more complexity to the 'draw one card at the end of your turn and facepalm' dynamic I was used to.) When the only friend who was at the same skill level as me lost his enthusiasm for the game, I joined the league to get the butt-whipping I deserve :)

Favorite card is Frost Shamans because they hit three dice every time. Unwieeeeeeldy Maaaaagic! Ret-Talus (or his lesser known secret name, Raz-Taz) was my first love: in my second game ever my friend played him against me and I was blown away by what this game can do. In other card games a combo deck often means sitting around all game until specific cards fall into your hand, but not this one! Every card combos so well with every other card that no matter what you draw there’s bound to be some synergy. (This game has such brilliant design!! Every single deck has this high level of craftsmanship.) But really I go through phases of being excited to play one faction and then another for each of them. I could never choose one, I love them all. (… except for Sera and Svara but shhh) Edit: I've started enjoying both of the girls now with the errata. Hooray! Kuldak would probably be my favorite deck if I didn't feel a bit bad everytime I forced my opponent to play against him. I found Tacullu the hardest deck to really understand when I first started playing—there seems to be so much complexity with Wind Mage positioning that I'm just now starting to figure it out. Being bad at a deck and trying things out is really the best fun in this game for me. (Kindly ignore all of the times I have raged about not understanding a deck.) At this point she might be becoming my favorite deck. Update: Well the Cloaks have all the positional complexity of Tacullu... times a billion. These guys are crazy hard for me. Update 2: I've recently discovered that Sera can actually be kinda fun if you just discard like mad. Also, Kuldak is my spirit animal. Update 3: Krusk joins Vlox as least favorite deck. Fun to play but super-gate feels OP. Also I could definitely see Selundar becoming my favorite deck. Having a blast with him.

Svara's the only faction that I don't look forward to playing (because my brain's too small for all that slidey math) (EDIT: Out of Shadows math is definitely competing for the title now). I personally think that that level of shenanigans is a bit much for this game, but obviously it's too late to change. So how about let's say original Gate art for each faction! I still think Sera would be more fun w/ 0 cost Mass Heal, though the 3av buff has gone a long way. But really I'd love to see a master/starter set champion buff pack at some point. The Eater being good would make such a difference for Sneeks, making his Plan B (econ) more viable. Now that the devs know they can fool around w/ 4 and even 3 cost champs, I think making Jacob one such would be so good. Doesn't need to have the same ability or anything really, just having a solid low cost ranged champion in that deck would make all the difference. My boys Guldass and Elut-Bal need some love too. Same for Valna and Drake. And there's a few others that don't matter too much but would still be cool to see. That Miti-tree art is so cool it's a shame to never see it on the board.

My favorites games: Galaxy Trucker, Escape Curse of the Temple, the Crew, Monikers (write your own cards edition), 6 Nimmt, Innovation, Railroad Ink, Skull, Captain Sonar, Inis. I also adore Spirit Island and Gloomhaven (and now Frosthaven woo!), though I've played them to death at this point. As for videogames, I loved all Mario games (both 2D and 3D) for the Wii, 3DS, and Wii U as a kid; and a bit later Minecraft, Terraria, and then Soulsborne games.