Bio
I graduated from my music Ph.D. program in 2024. I enjoy teaching music theory. I also am curious about everything, which makes me enjoy reading, consuming all manner of media, and writing about them.
My Summoner Wars (Hi)Story
Discovered the first edition of SW late in its life and enjoyed it but didn't get to play it very much. I was very excited to see that the game was getting a second edition! I got onboard just as the second-edition master set was being released. I'm enjoying it a lot and love the balance, variety, and creativity of faction designs!
Favourite faction and favourite card
My initial answer was Cloaks and Moto Boots, but I can feel my preferences and tastes changing as I play more and get to know more different factions.
I'll keep a log below of the factions I've most focused on each ranked season.
Season 1: Cloaks, Eternal Council.
Season 2: Wayfarers, Sand Goblins, Vanguards, Tundra Orcs.
Season 3: Cloaks, Swamp Orcs, Fallen Kingdom.
Season 4: Cave Goblins, Crimson Order, High Elves.
Season 5: High Elves, Sand Goblins, Savanna Elves, Polar Dwarves, Shimmersea Fae.
Season 6: The Filth, Storm Goblins, Breakers, plus favorites from previous seasons
What would I change about Summoner Wars
If resources were infinite, custom dice (not necessarily even d6) for specific units might be fun. That would allow for a lot of fine-tuning of dice probabilities.
Also, if resources were unlimited, it would be awesome to have optional 3d animations in the digital app, to give the feeling of being in the arena of some old-fashioned card-dueling anime. :)
Games beside Summoner Wars
I grew up playing Heroscape and still play it occasionally. One of the things that initially drew me to Summoner Wars was that it was designed by one of the people who worked on Heroscape. SW keeps the things that I most enjoyed about Heroscape--a large amount of variety and replayability in asymmetrical matchups, an emphasis on dice probabilities, and a fun setting in a fantasy world where all kinds of different characters clash--but delivers them with a greater amount of strategic and tactical depth.
I also enjoy the Total War series of video games and some roguelike/roguelite games: FTL, Into the Breach, Poker Quest.