Where you at?

I live in the midwest United States on the west coast of Michigan. Got a little house in the woods where we go to the beach in the summer and play in the snow in the winter.

When did you start playing?

I started playing during Rise of the Forgeborn right when set 2.1 was coming out. I vaguely remember seeing the spoiler for Scatterspore Eidolon and thinking the card was insane. It’s an 8/8 at level 1! I also remember getting destroyed by Epidemic and Echowhisp in some of my first constructed games and wondering how those cards were fair. Oh how things have changed. Although, I’m not sure what has changed more, the game of Solforge or my ability to play it well.

Preferred formats?

Uh, yeah draft! I will play Weekend Warrior events from time to time if I’m looking for a change of pace but I usually keep my play time to games where I can earn Elite Tickets. And while I played fewer than a handful of constructed queues in the old client, the new ladder and AA rewards have turned me into a bit of a constructed player. It’s actually not so bad! Of course, I’m not much more than a net-decking sheep so I rely on my TIC teammates or Konan’s metagame reports to help me out. I’m a decent player but a lousy (competitive) brewer.

Favourite card?

I am proud to say I’m still faithful to my true love, Kadrasian Stoneback. I think it is an incredibly well designed and powerful card for draft. It rewards careful, thoughtful play but it rarely wins the game by simply hitting the board. It has great synergies with a lot of cards (mobility triggers, buff effects) but also allows for counterplay from your opponent (defender animators and destroyers, poison effects, lane fill), which you have to be aware of. My favorite deck to play it in is NT aggro/control, which puts a lot of focus on keeping the board clear and relies on a couple big, standalone threats to put on pressure. In that setting, Stoneback can hang around for entire ranks getting in 50+ damage before your opponent can find a way to kill it. I think the attraction boils down to it having an ability that at first seems like a drawback but is actually a benefit.

Hopes for Solforge?

The thing I want most for Solforge is more players. Beyond the obvious of being a more successful game, more players means a bigger community with more discussions, more streamers, and more articles. One of the reasons I started writing about draft in the first place was that there simply wasn’t anyone else doing it. I wanted to spur conversation on reddit and in the forums about draft strategy, what cards were good, how to play NT, all that stuff. I’m happy we finally have a draft streamer in NoLucksGiven but the community has room for a lot more voices. Having a strong, diverse community makes the game itself so much deeper and more enjoyable. I think it’s related to shared experience, which is a huge factor in how people enjoy things. If you experience something fun, that’s great. But then if you can go tell somebody about it and they laugh along with you, that’s a whole nother level. If you read someone else’s story about climbing the ranked ladder and identify with the dreaded platinum grind, then it somehow validates your own experience. I want more of that in the Solforge community.

Proud accomplishments?

I’m not much of a tournament player, mostly for scheduling reasons. I used to love making it on the weekly leaderboards, especially when it got cut to the top 10, because it was one of the only ways for draft players to get their skills officially recognized. But now I just have to be content with keeping my own stats and patting myself on the back every now and then. Or bragging to my TIC teammates, “I have a 79% win rate in draft this season, I swear!”

Tell us something interesting about yourself!

Hmm. I’m a straight middle-aged white dude in a technical career? I used to play Magic: the Gathering? Yeah, I think those are pretty well covered in the community. How about vintage lawn tractor repair? I recently bought a ‘68 John Deere 112 to mow the lawn and plow the driveway at my new house. They’re pretty cheap and (supposedly) easy to find parts for so I thought it would make for some good greasy projects. Well, turns out, carbs are not easy to find for them and this one needs a brand new one. So if you’ve got a carb layin’ around your backyard for a Tecumseh HH100 engine (serial #115093B) I’d be willing to offer some real nice alt arts for it.