Balance and Imbalance: Basics

Disclaimer: Ok so this is a topic I actually want to have a nice and lengthy article on at some point but here are some bullet points to start.


Let's begin, recently I have been getting back into Starcraft. If you didn't know Starcraft is my favorite game and franchise, I am a huge fan of the RTS and I think this is a great example of how one should be (to be honest what really sets this apart from others is the storyline but thats a different article). Anyway back into this world I'm rediscovering what the meta is in SC2. It's core is basically the same as the original but obviously with new units and varying ways to use them. Now this brings us to balance, you see this game is usually heavily debated about, one side people claim it to be perfectly balanced and on the other side is obviously the contrast that it is out of wack. Every game has this debate but SC is at the heart of it and tends to come out as an example. I will come out and say that this came is not perfectly balanced but also unless you are playing rock paper scissors its gonna be pretty hard to perfectly fine tune a game of that complexity there is no way to account for the way every person thinks and acts when handed this many tools. Now saying that I'm willing to say that are pretty damn close. I'm going to delve a little deeper into this franchise to make a point then we will apply it to other games.

The idea behind Starcraft has always been simple, 3 different races with the 3 main styles of play. The Zerg: cheap and efficient creatures you can churn of a lot of in a little time and rush in and win an early offensive or just out number but are very weak and can die very easily; The Terran: these were the earthlings and they were made as the perfect middle ground, highly versatile, mid range cost, decent armor...they storm the mid game field as a force to be reckoned with; finally we have The Protoss: high cost high damage high armor monsters, if you let them get to late game they we virtually unstoppable. The idea between these generalized race was to make it simple, Zerg beat Protoss, Protoss beat Terran, Terran beat Zerg, at least at the core. It was the way you reacted and played your race that would determine if you won...allowing it to be more of a battle of wits than tech. Now in the long run there were issues, mathematically in the original the Zerg would win out, they were just really fast...now that being said the number one player in the world for a while played Terran, therefore showing my point. Anyway I'm digressing a bit they way I see this system breaking down was each race excelled at a certain point in the game to almost brokeness, your job as a player was to keep your opponent from reaching that stage while furthering your own path to which ever was the stage you were most lethal. Now this is exactly how I think games should be balanced, balance through imbalance. The phase I always say to Sefah is if everything is OP then nothing is. Now this system obviously has its flaws, this is clearly why Zerg is the hardest to keep in balance because their time is before the other two races but this time around it looks like they are much more kept at bay without losing their edge.

The reason why I like this some much is the reward the player gets out of this. A lot of companies I feel tend to jump straight to the nerf hammer once something gets out of hand, with out actually looking at why its so broken. When your doing things just right in an RTS or a MOBA or a FPS or any game you should feel like you are broken as shit... that's the point... that's the reward. If I starve off a Zerg rush with some well timed Reapers at their minerals, when it hits mid game I want to absolutely wreck them. I deserve it in that scenario I out played them, Zerg have a clear advantage and thought tactics I out did them now let me roll out my golden victory. This can be said about LoL too, if I'm playing a champion and I'm 7 and 0 I better damn well have to be focused down. I don't want to have out played my opponents in lane for 20 minuets to have a mild lead, I want a victory. There is a fine line between strong and out of line, and that is where we need to be aiming not at some safe point where things are bland and vanilla.

Now yes this causes issues the 3 main ones being power creep, noob friendliness, and bat shit broken.

Power creep is a common problem, you just keep buffing and buffing and things just keep getting out dated, the biggest offended is WoW. Now this is something you have to work on and unfortunately takes time. There will be nerf's it has to happen, but you need to listen to the community and watch to see what is making it over powered, is it numbers or is it just that you have added an unexplored aspect to your game that you should now strive to add counter play with on existing elements. I hate to see a champion in league get nerf'd because they are high skill high reward or because they have a tool no one else does. Its way more satisfying to see some champs get mild buffs to help them keep in line.

Bat shit broken as I said is just a new element to your game that sends everything out crazy, a good example of this was again in League, release week Xin Zhao. The first week he was out it was disgusting...his numbers were off the chart. The maini reason for this is also the solution. the week or two before he came out the testing realms were down...Riot figured they could just release him with out enough time for the players to feel him out...they haven't made that mistake again. The best person to tell you if your shit is broken is the player base, make sure to open test things before final release.

Finally you get to noob friendliness, this is a tough one. You see this high reward of stomping someone is only really taken as ok when its against someone of equal skill level, where the blame is really being out played and nothing else. When you have a good match and just lose out even when its a stomp towards the end, most people aren't angry. But when you lose and its because you are some teammate was just violently out classed you walk away angry and upset.  Having a I'm balanced balance will only aggravate that with out a solid matchmaking system. The sad truth is matchmaking will also never be perfect but if you are gonna have a PvP heavy game you damn well better have a good one. A solid system shoud give most matches a good feel to them and the power will give a solid victory to the winner and the loser will strive to get into that position.


Phew...this turned out longer than planned.
These are just my feelings and I plan on continuing this later on with more details and suggestions but for now I figured you would enjoy some food for thought from my head.

Anyway see you guys friday! Thanks for reading

Not So Random Card

So I'm alittle busy today so this will be a short article, I'm gonna do a quick review of 2 of my fav green cards.

Acidic Slime - 3GG

Creature - Ooze

Deathtouch
When Acidic Slime enters the battlefield, destroy target artifact, enchantment, or land.

2/2

Ok lets start with Acidic Slime, in my opinion this is one of the best cards of all time. I used to doubt its usefulness but then i played with it and I saw how remarkable this card is in a deck.

Now 5 cost 2/2 is alittle steep but  you get deathtouch on it and you get an effect that will always hit. The way I look at it is this, this card is a potential double removal spell on legs. It can remove creatures or stall swinging with its deathtouch, its effect is perfect for sideboards or even main boards and plus it can hit lands, (good land destruction is hard to find) the value of fucking up a land base is very high especially in multi-color decks. Also it has legs so it can swing. 

The only thing holding this card back from disgustingly OP is its double green. The cost makes it kinda hard to splash in a deck not using green as the main color or at least somewhat main. 4/5

Rancor - G

Enchant - Aura

Enchanted creature gets +2/+0 and trample.

When Rancor is put into the graveyard from the battlefield return Rancor to it's owners hand.

This is my favorite card in magic. I love the art, the flavor text, and its effects (made sure to post the old one not the next print with out the flavor). This card sets the bar for enchantments.

Let's start with the cost....G....ok so its perfect as cheap as you can get with a colored spell and also splashable. Moving right on from that.

It is an enchant it gives ok stats and trample. So its good early game as just a buff and that trample makes it a good mid and late game push to get you into lethal damage. Plus with it being so cheap it'll basically never hold you back.

BUT BUT BUT LOLZORRRRRRRRRRRRR...Sefah says all enchantments are bad because they 2 for 1 you and its basically over extending blah blah blah control is the best. 

Hmmm I see your point except...BAM second effect! Recursion built in, as long as this card resolves it'll come back to your hand (baring exile). It's basically never a bad play since it will come back.

Over all its good stats, good at any time, and cheap and reoccurring. Basically if you are in green you should probably be running these. 5/5 

Anyway guys hope you enjoyed my love for green today, if not see picture above.

See you Wednesday

SCS Live! : Left4Dead

Snow Covered Swamp Stream:

We'll be streaming the ever-popular zombie game: Left 4 Dead

http://www.twitch.tv/baalhrezem

Players:
Lolzor
Baalhrezem/Sefah
MourningPhoenix


In case you missed the our previous streams, this is the basic gyst of it:

Season 3 Items: Ditch or Grab?

Best and Worst Items of Season 3:

Now that it has been several weeks into season 3, I will share my opinion on some of the new items. For strictly organizational purposes I have divided them into sections (support/non-support) for easier digesting. To view the previous article you can click this link:

http://www.snowcoveredswamp.com/2013/02/support-items-in-season-3.html

Statikk Shiv - A really cool item. It replaces Ionic Spark but more importantly, it builds out of zeal now. Zeal Items were amazing on ADCs but with season 2, your only options were Phantom Dancer or Trinity Force. It's not particularly abusable but it is stronger than Phantom Dancer on certain champions like Ezreal or Twitch. Twitch has the chance of it being absurd, due to his ult applies on-hit effects to everyone in a line. Possible damage on 1 champion in a minion wave is 1400 off the unique passive, because remember, the magic damage can also crit now.

Iceborn Gauntlet - Really, REALLY strong. Everything Trinity Force was supposed to be, almost killing it. I feel the armor it gives is way too high.

Tiamat/Ravenous Hydra - I recently found out it has an internal cooldown of .05 seconds. This means it is not abusable on Shyvana's double strike/flame breath. I feel they did that on purpose. Other than that, it's a really strong snowball jungler item.

Mercurial Scimitar - Haven't seen enough of it. But QSS was already a poor buy compared to GA in season 2. The last nerf taking away its MR and increasing the cost hurt it. At least it upgrades into something though. Final upgrade is 6th item, but get QSS earlier if it calls for it.

Sword of the Divine - A really funny item. IE+this can make for hilarious plays. I've toyed around with it in ARAM on awkward champions such as Rengar/Malphite with some success. But I think it was intended for Master Yi, or other AD assassins who build lots of AD and not a lot of crit. The attack speed seems wasted on the champion's though. Would optimally be built out of AD for maximum efficiency.

Runaan's Hurricane - A noob trap. No really. It's just not strong enough on most champions to warrant it. Occasional awkward builds work with Kog'Maw/Teemo but is still subpar compared to a defensive item. PLS DO NOT BUILD THIS ON VARUS.

Zephyr - very situational Jax/Irelia/Kayle item. Haven't seen enough of it to see it outside of closet cases. Which is good/balanced I guess.

Manamune/Muramana - Not strong enough to warrant it on anyone who didn't already build Manamune in season 2, but a good change nonetheless.

Ohmwrecker - An absolute flop. No one builds this item and it's a pretty bad concept that can be overcome by team composition and/or proper tower juggling. Somewhat of a support item since it has Philo Stone, but possibly the worst the item in the game.

Archangel's Staff/Seraph's Embrace - It's nice it has an upgrade, it's sad there's no more stacking Archangel's abusiveness. Really strong shield.

Liandry's Torment - A trap item 90% of the time. It made me sad that the #1 burst caster item (Haunting Guise) and it's upgrade turns out to not help them excel at that job at all. DFG was more designed for that.
I wrote this up before the last change and the new changes to it made it so it is pretty decent on a lot of casters. It used to be instant-AoE damage was the worst for this so Gragas, Ziggs, and the like felt crippled against the Warmog's changes, but now it seems stronger.

Hunter's Machete - Such a good item. Best jungler item of all.
Spirit Stone - Too expensive, would rather Philo Stone 99% of the time.
Spirit of Lizard/Golem/Wraith - Too expensive to be a midgame item, not cost effective enough to warrant a slot late game.
I wrote this up before the last change. Spirit stone is now correctly costed for it to build into items. Spellvamp Spirit is ridiculous on AP jungles and I would even consider getting it on AP mids who can use the spellvamp, even with the "gold tax" on mana regen. Spirit of Lizard seems really strong now since they brought down the costs, but not anything outrageous. Spirit of Golem is okay now too. Tenacity allows you to get Ninja Tabi which seems increasingly more useful.

Not new items but changes:
Doran's Blade - 5 hp per hit seems really low. Old Doran's was 3% lifesteal which makes 167 damage the crossover point, probably more since lifesteal calculates on armor as well. The only problem Longsword builds into everything in the game now and you likely wouldn't get this unless you were having a tough time in lane.

Doran's Ring - The new mana-on-kill addition really helped things out. It's a really strong item now.

Doran's Shield - Very underrated. An anti-auto attack which makes it really good in some toplane match-ups, in addition it's really good in ARAM.

The Black Cleaver - So the first season 3 incarnation of this item was a little ridiculous. But it seems to have died down. It gives a response to armor-stacking, but is becoming less and less relevant against HP stacking. Which you would just get Bloodthirster for anyways.

Warmog's Armor - Even though the old warmog's was more slot-efficient, this one is much easier to get. It's the primary defensive choice option on basically everyone, including AD carries.

Athene's Unholy Grail - Used to be the rush on a lot of champions (Orianna, Ziggs, Anivia) but now seems more situational with the decrease in AP. Morellonomicon is looking a lot stronger actually.

Blade of the Ruined King - When this was first introduced in 3v3s it was okay. It was a bruiser item that's a counter-bruiser item.

Lichbane - Not much has changed except the base damage, making it a better rush. The cross-over point is 200 AP, but they did nerf the lategame power of it. Old lichbane did 800 AP as 800 damage but the new one does 800 AP as 650 damage. The switch from physical to magical also helped a lot.

Boot Enchants - Really hard to say. Homeguard boots are amazing on defense. But you really wouldn't want any of the others. I always hear things like:
Furor - ADC
Captain - Initiator or Supports
Distortion - General Purpose for Flash
Alacrity - Really good on bruisers and melees

And for the most part they are true, but it just doesn't seem worth the gold in stats 70% of the time and it's better to just save your gold. But that still doesn't make Homeguard king of all enchants. You can win games because of Homeguard, you can only make your advantage bigger with other enchants, which you could have won with real items too if you put your money towards them.



Well, thanks for reading my article this week. I'll bother Lolzor to make his post now.

FNM: Fuck Boros Reckoner!

So this is a very delayed post, but since I dropped the ball I decided to wait till i played FNM today and talk about my experience.

As you saw from my earlier post about my decklist, I'm running Boros aggro. Now if you haven't played in a standard torny since gate crash I'm gonna give you a heads up there are 2 decks, Boros aggro and Midrange. Now it might be different in your home town but from what I saw here and what I saw at the pro tour we are about to have a bit of a stale format. There was one or two controlish decks that thrived off of extort and sphinx revelation but the top 4 was all R/W or R/W + another color.

I had very good success with my deck, i went 2-2 but one game was distinctly my fault and not my decks and it prevented the 3-1 (frustrating because without that I would've top'd...and it was early so I kicked myself the whole time). The secret OP card in my deck was Madcap Skills, no one saw it coming and smacking in for an unchecked 4 or 5 turn 2 really sets the pace. The Skyknight Legionnaire will be staying since the mid game flying push was quite relevant.

But now we must get to the title of this article. In every single deck there was 2 or more copies of this damn card (except mine, i dont have 120 to drop on a playset) . This card is absolutely insane, the aforementioned misplay was at the hands this 3 drop power house. If you are unfamiliar with the new must have it is a 3 drop   Hybrid R/W 3/3. Its first effect is pay red or white and give it first strike, the second ability is any damage dealt to it can also be dealt to target creature or player. This ability has given birth to an instant win, an infinite life combo and is the 2 for 1 king right now. Most of my games were determined by how many of these i saw.

Honestly this card isnt broken, just really high value. It is being splashed in almost every deck, and I assume this is all you will be seeing till Dragon's Maze comes out.

Anyway thank you for reading and sorry about the delay. If you have any experiences you want to share leave them in the comments

See you sunday!

MUCMonday #32

Making Up Cards Monday #32:

Welcome back to another segment of MUCMonday. Getting right back into the swing of things, here are this week's cards:

Everyone is traveling since last weekend, after several hectic Magic games, including a 6-player free-for-all EDH match.

It looks like this week we will be posting some cards that havent been seen before from our MUCMondays:










Praetor, the Contaminator - 2BG
Planeswalker - Praetor
+1 : Each players gets a poison counter.
-2 : Draw a card, then proliferate.
-5 : creatures you control gain +X/+X and trample until end of turn, where X is the number of poison counters in the game.
3

A card I made forever ago, but didn't share.










Rogue Lord - 2UUBB
Creature - Human Rogue
Rogue Lord is unblockable.
All instant and sorcery spells you cast have cipher.

Lolzor's idea of the perfect cipher card.













Consuming Ooze - XGGG
Sorcery
As an additional cost to cast Consuming Ooze, sacrifice all creatures you control.
Put X green ooze creature tokens onto the battlefield with power and toughness equal to the combined power of creatures sacrificed this way.

An interesting card, I don't know if it's mythic quality but it's interesting.












Weapon Master - 2W
Creature - Human Soldier
As long as Weapon Master is equipped, it has first strike vigilance.
Metalcraft - As long as you control three or more artifacts, Weapon Master gets +1/+1 for each equipment attached to him.

Lolzor wanted to "revisit" mechanics that never did quite take off, one of them being Metalcraft. Expect more failed mechanics such as "clash" or "kinship".

Sunday Stream: Echos of SAJCFHP

Todays steam is gonna be a mesh of  everything. We are all in the "gaming house" so itll be a chill session with magic (mainly EDH) and some table top gaming.

Gonna be mainly conversations and games. Come join in chat and spend your sunday with us!

www.twitch.tv/Baalhrezem

My Solution to the New Ranked System:

My Solutions to the New Ranked System:

**Make MMR/Elo visible again**

Yeah, yeah. I know. This was intended with the new system. But Elo was never broken so why fix it? The new League system will be IN ADDITION to the new league system. You can still be 1600 and get stuck by feeders and trolls in Silver I. In season 2, the point of playing ranked was for stats and numbers. Numbers that you see. Numbers you can compare to other players, KDA, win rates, etc. By taking away the major number that players compared themselves eachother by defeats the purpose of ranked.

This also let's people see how good you are in lobbies. I don't know about you guys, but I enjoyed seeing players fill up in ARAM lobbies and go "oh damn, that 1800 player is Gragas this game." Why? Because this information was not hidden to me.

So what would the point of this be? Well one, obviously everyone gets to see their elo again with the new League system, the best of both worlds. The League system would still work with the end-of-season rewards so that instead of beating a number for your rewards, you have to win your promotion series, still letting you feel accomplished which I believe was the purpose of the new system.

**Add demotion matches**

One of the problems with dropping a division after hitting a new one is the uncertainty of losing the next game will get you demoted. This also allows the grace period of entering a new division to be static, say two.

So if you win a division series and get promoted to Gold II, you can have two shitty games, and the system will go "We noticed you are having difficulty performing in your division. To make sure you belong in this division, you are entering a demotion series. Don't worry, if you win you will still gain LP as normal." So you lose 2 games, enter the demotion series, then lose 1 win 2, you will have gained LP as if you won 2, lost 1. This eliminates the uncertainty of demoting and in my opinion makes demoting somewhat more difficult, similar to how promoting is difficult consider that to hit 100 LP you need to win a game, and then you have to win a best of three, making you play basically four games where you have to win three of them--which is really asking for a lot. Additionally, if you lose 4 games in a row, you would be demoted to Gold III with 50 LP, about the same LP as you would have lost if you dropped all of the games anyways.  *This does not apply to tier games so you still won't drop from silver to bronze.* Riot was correct on the "tier anxiety" being a real thing.

**Remove the LP cap on Diamond I**

I really don't know a lot about this since I'm no where close to this, but it is creating inactivity on Diamond I players with 100 LP as losing a game would remove them from the "queue" to get into challenger. And then winning a game after that would reset them to the back of the line. Removing the LP cap also makes it so the #1 Diamond player could have 253 League points, meanwhile #2 has 190, making the first player eligible for challenger because he was more dedicated/better. If he drops the promotion series, the next one steps up, etc.

**Really Bad Ideas that I thought of that should not be implemented but I typed out anyways**

Queue dodging is now -5 LP. If someone else on your team queue dodged, you have no change. If you managed to get the enemy team to queue dodge, you are rewarded +1 LP.
League Points awarded for winning a game are reduced by 1 LP per person. An MVP system is in place where you are able to award 1 League Point to any of your teammates, except yourself.
League Point reduction for losses are increased by 1 LP per person per loss, with the same intention of MVP system on losing teams, where you cannot vote for yourself, granting them +1 LP.

I don't know why I thought of this, but the idea was the if you outpicked the enemy team, you were rewarded for it. The others were ideas to make it so if you performed well, regardless of in a losing or winning game, you were rewarded for it. If you went 8-3-12 in a losing game when your teammates went 2-6, they would probably give you the LP you deserved for trying to carry. Likewise, if you went 7-0-7 on a winning team, or made the game-winning play, your teammates would grant your the LP for it.

I suppose if no one voted it would just be harder to climb divisions, so if you didn't vote on any MVP it would just give it randomly.



Thanks to http://www.reddit.com/r/leagueoflegends/comments/18ftcq/the_problems_of_the_new_tiersystem/
 for motivating me to type this out.
And thanks to you! For reading!

3 Things You Should Be Watching (No TV required)

This is gonna be a quick one guys, just a short summary of a few shows I really enjoy.

1. Table Top:

Table top is a show on Geek and Sundry. Every other week they play through a table top game and explain how it works. It's fun to watch and informative....oh also hosted by Will Wheaton <_<

You can find it here: http://www.youtube.com/geekandsundry

2. Extra Credits:

Extra Credits is an animated food for thought. the 3 members are very smart and insightful people who take a deeper look into the gaming industry and gaming as a whole. Its def worth a look into.

You can find it here: http://penny-arcade.com/patv/show/extra-credits

3. LoadingReadyRun

These guys are honestly my favorite thing to watch. Period. They are and internet comedy group with something new for you almost every day of the week. Ranging from skits to mtg streams to podcasts and lets plays, this is the most dedicated internet group you will find...and they are fucking hilarious. If you check out only one of these make it LRR

Their site is here: www.loadingreadyrun.com

Alright I'm out, join Sefah for his article Friday and a new stream on Sunday.

Lolzor's Adventures in Standard

Hey guys this week I'm gonna talk a bit about my new post gatecrash Standard deck
the deck list is as follows:

Boros Deck Wins

R/W Standard 

60 Cards

26 Creatures

4   Skyknight Legionnaire

4   Champion of the Parish

4   Legion Loyalist

4   Silverblade Paladin 

4   Hellrider

2   Frontline Medic

4   Ash Zealot

12 Other Spells

4   Madcap Skills

4   Boros Charm

4   Skullcrack

22 Lands

8   Plains

4   Sacred Foundry

8   Mountain

2   Slayers' Stronghold

Sideboard

2   Frontline Medic

3   Blind Obedience

4   Homing Lightning

4   Oblivion Ring

2   Aurelia, the Warleader

Ok lets talk about it. As you can see from the title this is very similar to most variants of "red deck wins" so its a very aggressive deck. Every thing in this is running in the 2 drop 3 drop range, optimally this is a turn 4 win. I almost always need a turn one play and have to maintain that pressure for the rest of the game. I'm playing the best aggro 3 drop (Silverblade) and a crazy efficient 2 drop (Ash Zealot) to keep that goal. Frontline Medic is kind of a just midgame push so I don't get fucked over and the Boros Charm is too versatile to not run. The Madcap skills is good for early pressure and the Skullcrack is part burn for a final push and part anti-Thragtusk. 

The sideboard is pretty weak but I havent had large tests yet. The Aurelia is if I need to transition to a more mid to late game deck, same with the extra medics. The Homing Lightning is anti token and the Oblivion Rings are for spot removal against something like a rites deck. and finally the Blind Obedience is in case of a deck similar to mine, setting me a turn ahead is always good by me. 

Overall is an aggressive balls out aggro deck which can only work in this current meta seeing as fast and hard is every deck right now. We will see if I change it once more decks start emerging.

I plan on making a midrange Jund deck with some bloodrush for post October...but that is for another Monday.

Thanks for reading see you wednesday!

SCS Live!

Alright! So its Sunday, time for SCS Live! This week we are going to be be doing some Ranked 5's in League of Legends. We have a large cluster fuck in this call and we hope you enjoy. We are live right now!

Channel: www.twitch.tv/baalhrezem

If you miss us don't worry it'll be recorded and available on the channel as soon an we are done.


And if you missed the rest or our weeks content

http://www.snowcoveredswamp.com/2013/02/best-guild-in-gatecrash.html
http://www.snowcoveredswamp.com/2013/02/review-time-ftl.html
http://www.snowcoveredswamp.com/2013/02/support-items-in-season-3.html

Support Items in Season 3

Best and Worst Support Items of Season 3:

Alright, a while ago I said that I would make an article about the new items. Now that it has been several weeks into season 3, I will share my opinion on some of the new items. For strictly organizational purposes I will divide them into sections for easier digesting.

Supports got a lot of love in season 3. The new item's are highly considered as support-oriented:

Shard of True Ice - An interesting item. It keeps the gp10 but overall it's fairly weak. It's like a Lulu ult but without the knockup or hp, just the slow Aura. It's useful to make initiates stronger and I've occasionally seen it on ADCs to kite even better, but the aura radius is a tad too small for it to be considered amazing.

Mikael's Crucible - At first I thought this item was very powerful, but it wasn't what I thought it was. It is actually NOT QSS on a target, it is instead a cleanse. This is important because it won't remove suppressions or other harmful effects such as ignite/grievous wounds. All it does is heal and remove non-suppressions.

Runic Bulwark - #1 item in the game. (Even if you just leave it at Aegis.) Every team should have at least one. It's so good for a single slot you could even consider buying two considering that for a single slot it gives 60 MR--the highest in the game.

Eleisa's Miracle - I thought it would be ridiculous in ARAM/Dominion but it's still more valueable to get real items for 1100 gold. Consider taking heal with a hypercarry like Kog'Maw or Vayne, but even still, 20% CDR of heal is not enough to warrant 1100 gold on a support--where gold is already hard to come by.

Banner of Command - An interesting split-push item. My team's toplane occasionally buys this item with some success. That CDR addition really helped it out.

Twin Shadows - One of the best scouting tools almost rendering Clairovoyance obsolete. It will go to the nearest champions even if you don't have sight on them. Not exactly abusable but super relevant to a support needs. Additonally it won't seek out stealthed champions but if you activated it while the champion was not stealthed, and while the wraith was en route they stealth, it will still reveal them, making it interesting mid-teamfight against something like a vayne.

Sightstone/Ruby Sightstone - What seems to be the quintessential support item. Possibly the best gp10 item in the game, despite not giving gp10. Can still be grabbed by toplanes/midlanes/jungle for huge map control. Consider 2 on your team if you are winning heavily.

Crystalline Flask - Was intended to be a support item, but is highly abusable in midlane and some toplanes. It's still amazing choice, even as a starting item.

Doran's Shield - Not strictly a support item, but it is something to consider getting early on.


Boot Enchants - Really the only one you want is Homeguard. And most of the time you don't even get it because it's the cost of Ruby Crystal. But if you were to get any other enchant, consider Captain's Boots. I know it seems wonky getting an initiator enchant on a support, but if you consider if both your support in the back and initiator in the front have the captain enchant, your ADC will have a huge movespeed boost for kiting.


General changes in prices to:
Armor/MR - Stacking Armor/MR is not as useful as stacking HP. You should have plenty of Armor/MR from Bulwark + Runes + Masteries that getting all the other HP items such as Locket is better. Your team can stack Giant's Belt items to better success now so long as you have basic armor/MR.
Attack Speed - It got more expensive. Making Nunu very, VERY valueable. Other ADCs with built in attack speed such as Kog'Maw, Tristana, Graves, etc. become stronger.
Attack Damage - It got cheaper. Making autoattacking champions such as Tristana and Ashe significantly weaker, while making ADCs with AD ratios stronger. (Graves, Missfortune, Caitlyn)

Still the final items on a support look like: Shurelia's, Ruby Sightstone, Boots, Bulwark
With the other 2 slots choosing between: Locket of the Iron Solari, Mikael's Crucible, Twin Shadows, Shard of True Ice
Obviously there will be scenarios where your jungler gets Aegis/Bulwark and that could free up a slot. Feel free to experiment.

Thanks for reading! Be sure to tune in on Sunday for some general streaming of League of Legends.

ADDENDUM


Edit: People have been asking why I haven't talked about Zeke's/Locket/Shurelia's/WotA. At first I didn't talk about them because they weren't new season 3 items so they still hold true to what I thought about them in season 2. Since some of them were changed, I guess I will talk about them.

Zeke's - highly situational item. If you are running a bruiser top and an AD assassin mid, it would be the optimal scenario to get it, but it still doesn't beat Shurelia's, Ruby Sightstone, Boots, Bulwark. Perhaps leave it Aegis instead of Bulwark against another AD-heavy team and your next item would be Zeke's. And even still, there might be more pressing issues such as loss of map control for Twin Shadows, burst damage becoming a problem for Locket or Mikael's incase someone gets caught by an Ashe arrow or something. 6th item for sure, maybe 5th.

WotA - highly situational item. Similar to Zeke's, only get this when you, and your double AP team benefits from this. It still doesn't beat Shurelia's, Ruby Sightstone, Boots, Bulwark and basically the same thing as Zeke's.

Locket - a highly underrated item. It's actually more effective than Bulwark if you can use it right. It's also great against burst and allows you to defend your ADC a lot better.

Shurelia's - another quintessential item. It allows so many plays to be made I wouldn't even feel bad if my support rushed this over Aegis.

Philo Stone - still good. Slightly weaker. whatever. Builds into shurelia's.

Kage's Lucky Pick - limited build options from it, but if it looks like a grind fest I guess it wouldn't be bad grabbing it early. Sightstone is still better.

Avarice Blade - pls no

Review Time! : FTL

So I recently, and by recently I mean every time this happens, I lost all my money to a steam sale. Now I have way too many games to play. So in order to get me motivated on playing them and to give me some articles to write I'm going to start reviewing them! On to the article!

FTL: Faster Than Light

What is it?:

The way I've been describing FTL to most people is Oregon Trail in space. That sounds odd but in the game you are controlling a spacecraft with a crew and you are being chased by rebels trying to obtain the information on your ship. Your job is to reach your final destination as quick as possible with out being caught or running out of fuel. Simple right? Kinda...along the way you encounter other ships, both good and bad, and other obstacles to hinder or help your journey.

How does it play?:

As I said before you are in control of ship and crew, you take control in a number of ways.

Crew: You are able to move the crew members from room to room, in the rooms the either run the equipment (like in the Ships hull where someone is needed to pilot) or repair any damage sustained from your journey (say after a battle with another ship).

Ship: You are able to control all aspects of the ship starting with what gets power and what doesn't. You have a limited amount of allotted power your job is to determine what is needed at any given moment, do you really need your engines running or do u need those shields at full power? You also have access to the doors so you can do nifty things like opening the airlock to put out a fire.

You start on a point and from there you choose where you want to go next. Each jump costs one fuel and you have a limited amount, there are stores where you can buy many things from more fuel to more crew members.

After you have picked your next destination you will warp there. When you arrive you usually will get a triggered event, usually an event like you see a ship in distress will you help, its you job to make your choice and then react accordingly.

This whole game is in real time so you do need to constantly micro while making choices, to sit and wait around is to lose your ship.

After you finish your encounter you have more options the main one being upgrade your ship. You collect currency in game which is used to purchase things from the store or cna be used to buy upgrades. You always have access to the upgrade menu and you can get one of a few things: more allotted energy, upgraded power for any of your current systems, or one of a few miscellaneous power ups.

How does it hold up against games like it?:

To be honest I don't know any games like this so...yea gonna leave this blank...

Final thoughts:

This game is great, I've been playing it quite frequently as of late. It is a full enough game for a decent gaming session and also easy enough to just pop on for 20 minutes and leave. The retro graphics lend to the whole feel of it and there is so much to unlock and so many achievements that it lends itself to ton of replays (not to mention the random nature of the games)

Over all I recommend it, and at 10 dollars (and on sale all the time) this is one Kickstarter game you really need to try.

9/10

Best Guild in Gatecrash?

Gatecrash Time!

Alright the prerelease is over and the release weekend has passed time to talk about Gatecrash a bit. I'll be honest I've switched recently from a standard player to a limited player but Im going to talk about each guild as best I can in both respects.

Gruul: Red/Green

So Gruul seems to be a fairly strong in limited. Thriving in large efficient creatures it doesnt really need an amazing pool to work.

Bloodrush: Very good for limited gives all your creatures to be uncounterable combat tricks while not forcing you to cut down on creatures. Enough Said.

Saddly with out the support of another color I don't see this working in standard.


Simic: Blue/Green

Hands down the strongest in limited. I really underestimated this guild but the combination of colors provides for ramp and protection with alot of unique creatures that work very well atleast in this format...I laughed at a  0/4 unblockable with evolve till it stomped all over my Boros deck.

Evolve: This seemed decent but they way the block is setup its very exploitable...not great in sealed unless you have the right pool but amazing in a draft.

Idk about standard on this one it seems strong but idk if its fast enough or strong enough to keep up against other mroe aggressive decks.


Dimir: Black/Blue

I would have to say this is probably the worst in limited (excluding a nice pool or people just ignoring the colors) It requires too many key pieces to make it work

Cipher: Great ability...usually over costed but there are some gems that can make a great deck

I would watch out for this maybe paired up with another color or guild it seem dangerous

Boros: Red/White

Standard for a solid draft deck, efficient low cost creatures with a nice side of burn removal. Never a bad choice and you dont need an epic pool to make it work all the boros cards are pretty solid

Battalion: Unfortunately this is a very weak mechanic it only works if you over extend and with a few exceptions is not very worth it

The best creatures will probably see play in already established decks making the already efficient even more deadly

Orzhov: Black/White

Second best in limited easily. Just too good splash it in anything or make a full deck most of the cards are just extreme amounts of value.

Extort: Ok so against popular opinion I knew this would would be strong...but holy crap its strong just gives you a steady clock on your opponents and keeps you nice and healty

Yea this will see play be scared of control...be very scared.


Ok guys thats it for Magic Monday, tune in Wednesday for another article

The new SCS!

UPDATES!

Alright guys Lolzor again, its time for all of the change I posted about earlier. Starting this Monday a new schedule of content will be coming out.

What is that schedule you ask...I'LL TELL YOU!

Monday: 
Magic! We maybe changing to a more gaming site but MtG was always the first here at SCS so either me or Sefah will post something Magic related on mondays. It may be a MUC or  Interesting play or maybe just a random card or 2 but we will post something.

Wednesday:
Lolzor day! I will be writing an article on whatever the hell I feel like that week. My stuff will probably tend to be a bit scattered seeing as my gaming is as well now adays.

Friday:
Sefah day! Sefah will be writing an article on what he wants...mind you itll probably be LoL related seeing as he is trying to be pro or something now...but he knows a lot so it should be good.

Sunday: 
STREAM DAY! Thats right every sunday me and Sefah are gonna fire up the stream and play some games for your entertainment (be gentle we are new at this) It could be a lets play or DnD or Mtgo or probably alot of League but itll be there or some sort of video will take its place.

BUT LOLZOR WHAT ABOUT BANGCHUCKERS?????????
Yea...so BC! is dead for right now...due to a lot of time constraints on all members we cant produce it properly and till we can there will be no more strips. Now I'm working my hardest to find some kind of replacement or something but for now you will have to forgive me I'm working on it.

ETC...
Anyway I'm hoping to get some more social networking things going i.e a Facebook and a Twitter and such...stay tuned for that. Also hoping for a site overhaul if I can find the time.


Any way i hope you all will enjoy whats to come...See you monday!