MTG: Explorers of Ixalan

Today's review is of the 2017 release, Explorers of Ixalan.  For 2-4 players, it takes 30-60 minutes.

Overview
Explorers of Ixalan is a Magic: the Gathering variant.  The game includes four preconstructed decks, one for each tribe on Ixalan (vampire, dinosaur, pirate, merfolk). Everyone starts at 20 life, and the game is played according to normal Magic rules (get your opponent to zero life), but with a twist: on your turn, you can buy up to one tile, laid out before the game starts as displayed below, by spending the amount of mana indicated on it.  Purchased tiles are flipped and effect performed (it could be ongoing or one-time use)- and the ongoing ones can be taken from other players (when your creature(s) do them damage, you can take one tile).

game in progress; image from here

Review
This is a fun variant of Magic and worth a play or two; they basically mixed the Magic engine into a board game.  The tile angle helps make the game 'busier' in a good way- it increases the probability that you can do something every turn (you can spend your mana on land tiles if you can't play spells). The included decks are okay- not overly special, but they give you the flavor of the Ixalan block.  It does make the game more complicated, and may thus only appeal to Magic players.  I prefer 'normal' Magic, but this is a good exercise in how a slight rules change can alter strategy (and/or gameplay experience) a good deal.  I've seen this game go on clearance occasionally; pick it up when it does.

Rating: B+

Sorry!

Today's review is of the 1929 release, Sorry!  For 2-4 players, it takes 30 minutes- but feels like hours.

Overview
You have four pawns in your starting area.  The goal: get all four to your home area first.  On your turn, you draw a card.  Generally, it's a number card, and you move one pawn the stated number of spaces.  It might be a Sorry! card, though, which lets you take one pawn from your starting area and replace an opponent's on the board, forcing them back to their starting area.  You can only move a pawn out of your starting area when you draw a 1 or a 2, and other numbers have special rules, as stated on the card.  First with all four in the home zone wins!

a re-relase of the Sorry! in its original form; image from here

Review
My kids are really into this game right now, and it makes me sad.  Sorry! is a horrible game, for several reasons:
- many turns where no action is possible.  You need a 1 or 2 to start, and sometimes you don't draw those for five or ten turns.  And towards the end, when your pawns are close to home, you need a card with the exact number on it to get your pawn home, which can take forever to draw.
- there are many cards that make the game last forever.  Sorry! cards, swapping cards, etc., drag the game out and cause frustration.
- there are few meaningful choices.  Games, at their heart, are about meaningful choices.  Sorry! has almost none.  You draw, you move.  Okay, maybe you can pick which of your pawns to move . . . if you have more than one out, and if both are eligible to move the number of spaces.  That's it.

The only redeeming value is its simplicity (my 4-year-old enjoys it) and helping kids learn counting.  Otherwise, avoid- or you'll be sorry.

Rating: D

Eldraine is coming

Have you heard?  A new Magic: the Gathering expansion launches soon, and spoiler cards are popping up every day.  The Throne of Eldraine's theme is- wait for it- a mix of Arthurian legend and Grimm's Fairy Tales.  What?!  Check out the trailer below.



I love both themes, and seeing how the mix will be a lot of fun.  I need to build a gingerbread deck.

Reflecting on the MCU

The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) is far from done, but it passed a significant chapter in its history after Avengers: Endgame.  That film ended not only phase 3, but some main characters' involvement in the franchise, and clearly marked the end of an era. Thus, it's time to reflect.

It's astonishing that Marvel could put together a 22-film run that was, largely, interesting and well done.  Not every movie was gold, but many were, and almost all were at least entertaining.
The below titles link to my reviews of each film, are presented in order of release, and broken into the three phases.

Phase 1:
Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man 2, Thor, Captain America, The Avengers

This phase, understandably, introduced us to the 'main' avengers- Iron Man, Hulk, Thor, and Captain America.  Each (except Hulk) got an origin film; only Iron Man had more than one film before the first group film, The Avengers.  From this lot, I liked Iron Man and The Avengers best; The Incredible Hulk was terrible, and the remainder okay.

Phase 2:
Iron Man 3, Thor: The Dark World, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Guardians of the Galaxy, 
Avengers: Age of Ultron, Ant-man

Phase two kicked off with more films from main characters before introducing the Guardians of the Galaxy crew (though it was back to the mains in Avengers: Age of Ultron).  Ant-man rounded out the group.  The two newcomers introduced a more playful flavor into the universe and were my favorites from this block.  I remain impressed that Marvel could pull off an Ant-man film.

Phase 3:
Captain America: Civil War, Doctor Strange, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Spider-man: Homecoming, Thor: Ragnarok, Black Panther, Avengers: Infinity War, Ant-man and the Wasp, 
Captain Marvel, Avengers: Endgame

By this point, the films were a well-oiled machine.  Civil War felt like another Avengers movie, new characters (Dr. Strange, Spider-man, Black Panther, Captain Marvel) joined the scene and blended in well [mostly . . . more on that in a minute], and the series concluded masterfully with the two Avengers flicks.  I liked almost all from this block, with Spider-man being a slight favorite.

Tiering the movies
I started my reviews in 2013, a year after I started blogging.  Looking back, I got nicer over time with my grading, or I was too harsh initially.  This is how I ranked them:

Movie	Rating	Numerical
Spider-man: Homecoming	A	96
Guardians of the Galaxy	A	95
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2	A	95
Iron Man	A	94
The Avengers	A	94
Captain America: Civil War	A-	93
Avengers: Endgame	A-	93
Ant-man	A-	92
Doctor Strange	A-	92
Avengers: Infinity War	A-	92
Iron Man 3	A-	90
Black Panther	A-	90
Thor: Ragnarok	B+	89
Ant-man and the Wasp	B+	88
Captain America: The Winter Soldier	B+	87
Thor	B+	86
Avengers: Age of Ultron	B	85
Iron Man 2	B-	82
Thor: The Dark World	B-	80
Captain America	C+	79
Captain Marvel	C+	78
The Incredible Hulk	D	65

Again, those were assigned over a 6-year period.  Would I grade them the same?  I'd change only two, making:
- Captain America higher (B or B-)
- Thor: Ragnarok higher (A-)

I'd put the movies in three tiers: excellent, good, and poor.  Adjusting for two films as I state above, I'd rate 13 films "excellent," 6 "good," and 3 "poor."  Not bad overall; good job, Marvel.

Overall Observations
I was impressed with the way they wove 22 films together, and managed the 'overall' suspense levels.  They did a good job spacing climactic movies (like the Avengers films) with other titles that contributed to the overall story but gave the audience a 'breather.'

My main beef with the franchise centers around Captain Marvel.  She's an (apparently) invincible being that thankfully only shows up at the end of the series, in her self-titled film and Endgame.  They say she's the Marvel equivalent of Superman.  That's fine, but unlike Superman, we never saw any weakness- no kryptonite.  To solve that problem, the writers had her come and go in the movies, dismissing the pattern as necessary since she has to protect many worlds.  Not convincing enough for me; I would have liked better.  Why can't she just show up and kill all the enemies?  Why involve the others?  That was disappointing.

Consistent Themes
Most people don't go to Marvel films for their messages; they want action, suspense, and humor.  You get that in each film, yet there are always messages.  In the MCU, many films deal with some aspect of responsibility or authority, looking at questions like:

If you have a superhero gift or develop amazing technology, must you use it for good?  And does the government have the right to control that tech (or person)?  To whom do superheroes answer?  How should they handle collateral damage?  And what happens when things go wrong- when technology or gifts are used poorly?  How do we respond?

Final Thoughts
When my kids are a bit older, I'd like to sit down with them and watch through the MCU, start to finish.  Perhaps I'll have a different take on them.  But for now, it was a great ride.

Peter Pan Live

Continuing my Pan kick, Peter Pan Live was a live-broadcast production of the musical in 2014.  Headlined by Christopher Walken and Allison Williams, it was largely panned (get it?) by critics, but I enjoyed it well enough.  Putting on such a production live, for that length of time (it ran over three hours), is impressive.  One big dig was Christopher Walken, who (according to one critic) appeared unaware that he was on national television, often having a faint voice or (seeming to) forget lines- unless that was all part of the act (or just Walken being Walken).  Overall, it didn't blow me away as memorable, but it wasn't atrocious, either.

Rating: B-  

Pan

Peter is a young boy in an orphanage, with only a letter and pan trinket to remind him of his mother.  But when he's whisked away to Neverland on a flying pirate ship, he's about to discover his heritage- and destiny.  Can he help the fairies and natives beat Blackbeard, the enslaving pirate?

I enjoyed Peter Pan the novel.  This movie prequel was a disaster.  Plagued by poor or nonexistent plot and character development, bizarre musical adaptations (from Nirvana and the Ramones, no less), poor CGI, and cheesy in general, I can't think of a positive thing to say about this film.  It doesn't know what tone it wants to set or what it is trying to say.  Very disappointing.

Rating: D

The Lord of the Rings: Journeys in Middle Earth

Today's review is of the 2019 release, The Lord of the Rings: Journeys in Middle Earth.  For 1-5 players, it takes 1-2 hours per session.

Overview
Your and your band of heroes as on an adventure.  Your job is to complete the objective(s) (outlined by the free companion digital app) before the threat meter is too great.  You each have a character with role, skills, items, and other abilities to help you.  But watch out- your foes are strong, and the menace strengthens in the unknown lands.  Can you and your fellowship prevail?

Journeys in Middle Earth is a campaign played over a series of adventures.  Each adventure (or game) takes 1-2 hours.

One game is played over rounds.  Each round, there is an action phase (where you have four actions to travel, attack, or explore), shadow phase (where the enemy moves and fights), and the rally phase (where you shuffle your used cards back into your skill deck and the threat meter increases).
- traveling allows you to move around the map
- attacking eliminates enemies who are trying to kill you and the fellowship
- exploring reveals situations that force you to decide how to proceed.  It could be helping a farmer capture his escaped chickens, exploring an ancient tomb, climbing a tree to get a view of an area, etc.

Key to the game is the skill deck each hero uses, which consists of basic cards + character-specific cards + role-specific cards.  Most of those cards are established at the beginning, where you'll create and shuffle the deck per the rules.  Each round, you'll use the skill deck to overcome challenges and enemies, and can also use specific cards to lay down in front of you for ongoing effects.

game in progress; image from here

As an app-assisted game, you follow the app's instructions to set up your party, lay (and expand) the map tiles, place and move enemies, and so on.  The app (free of course, but requires a smartphone or tablet) will keep track of everything and save, enabling you to continue the campaign from where you left it.  The app also introduces variance (no two games will be identical) and adjusts difficulty based on the number of people playing.

Review
For years I've been looking for an epic LOTR game that captures the spirit of the movies.  While this isn't quite that, it is the closest thing I've seen.  Breaking the overall campaign into multiple game sessions is a good idea (and necessary to capture the epic nature of the world in bite-size chunks).  There are mostly familiar characters (the base game comes with Aragorn, Legolas, Bilbo, Gimli, Beravor and Elena), but there's no mention of the one ring.  It's largely an "explore Middle Earth" game, as far as I've seen.  And it's fun. 

This is my first app-assisted game, too, and I enjoyed that.  Built-in variation is nice and enhances replayability (and future expansions promise no end of possibilities).  It does, of course, require a tablet (smartphone works, too, but tablet is much better for visibility).  Overall, I recommend this one.

Rating: A

UPDATE: in early 2022, we played through the 14-adventure Bones of Arnor campaign.