And so it has finally come to this: Cole Phelps, on the pursuit of a conspiracy involving Arson, Murder, and good ol’-fashioned Hollywood grift to the tune of billions, has been completely shut out by the LAPD itself, corrupt as it is.

If he wishes to finally get to the truth, and expose this plot for what it is, he needs to cast aside old grudges and seek out the help of his old rival, Jack Kelso. Aside from DLC cases, Jack will take his rightful place as primary protagonist for most of the game from here on out.

I mentioned Heather Alexandria’s posts about LA Noire from Kotaku. You can find a links to all of these posts, including the specific one I referenced, here for your viewing pleasure, thought be warned that there are spoilers in it.

One of my viewers asked what the importance of the rest of the story was, since Jack can be thought of as the actual noir protagonist, and this is where the story wraps up. At the time, the reason I gave is that they wanted to have you go through the cases and have the experience of solving them as a post-World War 2 cop in LA.

Upon reflection, it occurred to me that there’s actually a good reason why we go through the desks in the way that we do. Each of them servers a pretty critical purpose.

• The Patrol and Traffic desks serve as the player’s introduction to the game mechanics and the world respectively. They gives us a glimpse into the average day in the life of a cop on the force in Las Angeles.
• Homicide starts to show us that the veneer we’ve grown used to in the Traffic desk. By replacing the mildly sexist but otherwise milquetoast and competent Bekowsky with the lazy drunk Rusty Galloway, we’re shown that LAPD detectives aren’t always good people. This extends into the desk’s finale, where the true killer’s identity is covered up to avoid political scandal.
• And this demonstration of how easy it is to influence police is highlighted and brought to the forefront during the Vice desk. Not only is Cole’s new partner, Roy Earle, open racist, sexist, and corrupt, and brags about it as if everyone should aspire to be as much of a scumbag as he is. We’re also shown how organized crime bribes the cops to look away from all but the most serious of criminal offenses, all parties doing whatever they can to hide their dark underbelly. This concludes with Cole Phelps act of weakness being used to cover up a conspiracy that echoes all the way to the top of Hollywood’s wealthy upper class.

And that leads us to where we are now. Since we, as the player, go through all of that, we know exactly what pushes Cole Phelps to reach out to Jack. He knows his hands are tied, and that he needs someone who is willing and capable of doing whatever it takes to expose the people behind the series of fires sweeping the city. All of these other desks provide the groundwork for this change of hands, so that we can focus on the real meat of the story here in the finale, without concerning ourselves with excess exposition.

With this mind, I think I can safely say that I’ve turned a corner with LA Noire. Technically issues with the PC version aside, and despite my criticisms of the Homicide and Vice desks (which I mostly stand behind), it’s an interesting game that came out at a time when Adventure games weren’t in vogue, and used those mechanics to tell a tale of corruption and intrigue that has a lot going for it.

Dare it say it might, in fact, be a good video game!?

I think I might.

As many of you may know, every Saturday night I play Commander with a few of my friends on Cockatrice. Normally, I take to Twitter to go through the decks I played with and won with, talking about some of the combos and big plays I performed.

However, this week is a bit different. Instead of our own decks, we played with the recently releases decklists for the pre-constructed Commander 2019 decks. Normally, we get in several games on Commander in a night, but this night only had time for a single game, since the one match we played lasted 3.5 hours.

With this in mind, I’ll be going over my thoughts on each of the decks, and what big plays each of them performed. Further, the thread will be posted here as a blog post, rather than a tweet thread. I might just do that for future posts as well, but I’m undecided as of now.

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The deck that actually won was the Naya Populate deck, with Ghired, Conclave Exile as the Commander. I was genuinely impressed by the deck’s overall performance and resiliency. Almost every single time after a big board clear was played, the deck was back up and running immediately afterward, generating tokens and reestablishing the board.

The player piloting the deck was able to get Garruk, Primal Hunter out early, and the token generation combined with the card draw kept him in steady supply. In addition, the size of his board made it nearly impossible to attack into Garruk, so he was able to pull off the -3 twice and rapidly accelerate his draw.

There was also a period where we were in deep trouble due to the embalmed Angel of Sanctions. As it kept populating, it exiled so many key pieces from the rest of our boards that we were having difficulty staying in it. Ghired’s Belligerence where X=10 also did an excellent job of keeping us down while keeping him in a steady supple of tokens.

Though a different player finally finished off two of us (in a group of 4), he was in such a strong position for most of the game that he stayed the Archenemy for the rest of us. And despite that, he managed to stay on top and win.

The deck I ran was the Jeskai Flashback deck, helmed by Sevinne, the Chronoclasm. While the deck has some solid plays, I was mostly disappointed in its performance. Sevinne seems like he would be a solid Commander in the right deck, but despite being themed around Flashback, he didn’t have the kind of support that I feel like he should have for his second ability. As a creature though, he’s a solid blocker, able to keep even the strongest creatures from scratching his controller.

The most recurring synergy that I took advantage of was Oona’s Grace. With it’s retrace ability, I was able to spend 2U to transform a land into an extra two cards thanks to Sevinne’s ability to copy it. Sadly, that was the most profound card draw I was able to get in the game we played, but it was enough to help me keep up with the others.

My other big accomplishment was keeping the table’s big Naya-colored Archenemy off their draw enchantments like Elemental Bond, and their token generators like Song of the Worldsoul, using my removal pieces like Ray of Distortion, which also got copied by Sevinne. I was also able to use Refuse // Cooperate to copy the Madness deck’s In Garruk’s Wake to turn it into a full board wipe rather than a one-sided one for some laughs.

I briefly had moments with cards like Guttersnipe and Burning Vengeance, where I was setting up to deal tons of damage to the board, but I wasn’t able to capitalize on them since they got destroyed before I could do so. There’s a solid idea in this deck, but I think the execution leaves just a bit to be desired.

Kadena, Slinking Sorcerer‘s Sultai Morph deck was the deck I was most excited to see in action. Though I wasn’t the pilot, I was pleased to see how well in performed and might build my own version of it at some point in the future. She’s everything a morph deck could want, allowing her pilot to play one Morph spell for free each turn, and turning them into cantrips.

The most impressive aspect of the deck is the way it can interact with everyone one the board to throw wrenches into all of their plans. Between stealing the Populate player’s Ohran Frostfang with a morphed Chromeshell Crab, using Thousand Winds to bounce all of the populated tokens and give all the other players the cards exiled with Angel of Sanctions, and casting Echoing Truth clearing all the Pegasus tokens my Jeskai flashback deck created with Storm Herd, it was responsible for controlling the game.

Sadly, we didn’t get the chance to see it’s splashier plays, but there’s clearly a lot going on with the deck. I think it’ll make waves in a different way than the Naya populate deck did.

I’m not entirely sure what to make of the Madness deck, led by Anje Falkenrath. It spend a large portion of the game completely out of it, top-decking for what seemed like at least 5 to 10 turns. Nevertheless, it still had some impact. Its Bloodthirsty Blade allowed the pilot to force the populate deck to attack everyone else with pieces that could be destroyed on block.

But for the most part, almost every play from that deck didn’t feel very effective or was easily soaked by the rest of us… until they discarded From Under the Floorboards and played it for X=14 with the Madness cost. Which might not have been that bad, if we hadn’t forgotten that they had Warstorm Surge on the board. That was enough to knock me and the Morph player out of the game, but the Populated player just wouldn’t relent and closed out the game since he had so much life from swinging with Wingmate Roc and an army of token.

Even with the one play, it’s hard to say that the deck feels all that strong. Again, most of the time we just ignored it because it wasn’t making too much of a splash on the board, and getting punished whenever it did.

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This was my first time playing with Precons out of the box, and I had a good time even if I didn’t make much of a splash. This was a good game, but not one I’m eager to relive due to the length of it.

One of the best parts about this new Core Set 2020 is the way that it’s opened up a ton of new possibility space for deck building in standard, to the point where I get to try new strategies that I’ve always wanted to, but could never get to work quite right.

This reanimator deck is one example. There haven’t been many of either good resurrection targets, or spells in Standard while I’ve been playing. With the introduction of Core Set (and War of the Spark), there are enough of each that a viable deck can be built.

The decklist can be found here.

The first thing you’ll notice is that despite having Drakuseth in the deck, which requires 4RRR to cast, we don’t have a single Red mana source in our deck. That’s because he’ll be our reanimation target. His stat line and ability are such that one he does hit the board, it’ll only take a few big swings to quickly clean up and opponent’s board by wiping away small creatures and hitting for face.

As for how we’ll do that, Bond of Revival is the choice spell. It may be a 5-drop, but it has the benefit of giving Drakuseth haste, so he can immediately swing in. When I first saw the deck, I was surprised not to see Blood for Bones on the list, but since there’s an overall lack of creatures in the deck, and the card doesn’t give Haste, I understand why the deck doesn’t use it.

Most of the rest of the deck’s goal is to assemble these two key pieces, cycling through the deck for Bond of Revival while (hopefully) pitching Drakuseth before we get to a point where we can cast it for a speedy win. This makes it something akin to a combo deck in that sense. There’s also some spot removal in the form of Tyrant’s Scorn and a few board clears like Cry of the Carnarium and Ritual of Soot to deal with aggressive decks. Tomebound Lick also servers double duty in this respect, sifting through the deck while also being a solid blocker in most situation.

But another key star of the show, the reason why this otherwise Dimir deck splashes for Green, is Tamiyo, Collector of Tales. This has the benefit of protecting us from enemy discard and sacrifice effects, but that’s merely a side effect. The real benefit is her +1 ability to both filter out unneeded cards (and hopefully Drakuseth) while getting to those Bonds of Revival quickly. In addition, her -3 allows her to reuse that card over and over until Drakuseth can stick onto the board, or if he keeps getting removed.

In terms of winning, it’s a bit hit-or-miss, but it’s fun and I had a great time running it.

After a long and arduous journey, Cole Phelps finally arrives at the Arson deck: The final desk of his career as an LAPD detective.

And with some solid Detective Work, we’ll be able to help him through it.

This is where the game’s plot truly begins, and we start to see the web of conspiracies show itself in earnest.

We also begin to really understand the depths of Cole Phelp’s deep-seated personal issues here. As the flashbacks to his time in the war show us, he’s always been someone who obediently follows all the rules and protocols of his station, even when they force him. And as a detective, that’s even more true.

And considering this obsession with obeying the rules, it’s easy to see why it doesn’t make sense for him to fall in love with Else and have an affair, as a married man. As we continue to see later on, self-sabotage is also in line with his nature.

When I first played through the game, I was angry about this twist. Over time, I’ve grown to mellow out a lot more about it. Yeah, it doesn’t totally make sense, but it works for the direction they clearly wanted to go with this story.

That brings us to the Arson desk. A disgraced detective, demoted to one of the lowest position in the LAPD, partnered with a well-meaning but gruff veteran. Despite the odds, his latest case throws him onto the trait of yet another organized crime ring, even greater than any he’s yet to encounter.

Next time, we’ll begin move closer towards this new foe.

When it comes to Magic: The Gathering, one of my favorite experiences is finding a silly concept that has enough support in the cards to become a competitively viable deck. Way back during in the days of the Closed Beta, the deck I played most was based on Muldrotha, the Gravetide. While not a competitive deck, it played well enough and gave me a ton of fun.

While this Simic Flash deck doesn’t offer Muldrotha’s sheer recursive power, it’s in the similar vein of fun concepts that seem like they shouldn’t work, but actually gels into a coherent package that can absolutely end games. On top of that, it fits the kind of reactive playstyle that normally gravitates me toward control decks like Esper and Grixis builds.

You check out the decklist here. Since this version is being used in best-of-one matches, I opted to ignore the sideboard, but the main deck is actually pretty cheap, consisting mostly of commons and uncommons (mana base aside).

The most important part of playing this deck is getting to the 4th land (in any combination that can produce UUGG) as soon as possible, and then getting rid of as many lands as possible beyond that. There are two major reasons for this.

First, once the magic number has been hit, the decks two major finishers come into play. Those cards specifically are Frilled Mystic and Nightpack Ambusher. The sheer value from both of these cards is not to be underestimated.
In the case of Frilled Mystic, her 3/2 stat line is okay, but even better is the ability to counter a spell without losing a card, instead placing a body on the board. This can seriously disrupt and ruin an opponent’s plan while setting yourself up for victory.
A similar case can be made for the Nightpack Ambusher. Even though this deck doesn’t run any other wolves or werewolves, the ability to surprise an opponent with a 4/4 in the middle of their combat step (or at the end of their turn when they’ve exhausted their mana) can completely shatter an otherwise strong attack. And should it remain on the board (which it usually does), the tokens it produces can creature enough power to just win the game. This is usually the card that will ensure a win once it lands.

And yet, despite having such excellent 4-drops, we don’t want to have any lands beyond that. This is a tempo deck, which relies heavily on getting into a rhythm while disrupting the opponent as much as possible. As a result, once we get to our desired land count, we want as many playables as we can get our hands on. This is why we run Sinister Sabotage and the Temple of Mystery, since the Surveil/Scry can help us filter our those excess lands (or get to our 4th if we’re in the early game). And if we can get mana flooded, Spectral Sailor can help us transform that into card draw in the hopes of getting to the key pieces we need.

The rest of the deck is just strong value at instant speed, including good blockers, counter spells, and ways to bounce creatures back into the hand. Overall, it’s a deck a enjoy running quite a bit.

Out of the blue, a few weeks back, I got a message from an old friend from high school. After talking with him for a bit, I agreed to join him and a friend of his for a one-off game session. When he said he wanted to play Warframe, I was intrigued.

Several other people I know are head-over-heels in love with the game, and I figured I’d give it a shot to see if it was something I might be into. And, of course, I streamed it for everyone to see.

Apologies for my overall quietness during the recording. I spend most of it trying to listen to what my friends had to say and also taking in all of the mechanics and progression systems. And also, maybe one day I’ll learn how to balance audio when streaming through my Capture Card.

It’s difficult to determine whether or not I’ll stick with Warframe. In general, I tend to shy away from these “lifestyle games” because I like to dive heavy into a game’s campaign, beat it, and move on to the next one on my list. As a result, these games don’t really find a good slot into my schedule most of the time.

But as far as I can tell, the game is really good. I like how mobile players are, and the shooting feels responsive. It’s difficult to make any calls beyond that since I was obviously carried for most of the session.

Despite having one of the worst, most corrupt partners in the entire LAPD, we join detective Cole Phelps in attempting to crack down on corrupt drug trade.

But no crime can escape us so long as we’re to do a bit of Detective Work – LA Noire.

It strange that despite the length, most of the juiciest meat takes part towards the end of this episode. We’ve talked about many of these things before, but it bears repeating. Despite not being developed by Rockstar, LA Noire still suffers from the hallmarks of their design: An over-infatuation with open worlds doesn’t make any meaningful contributions to the game. And like most Rockstar games, it tends to bring in complicated themes without doing much with them, as if they have to prove how adult their writing is.

But in addition to all of that, there’s the weird scene where Cole Phelps, a married man, goes out of his way to have an affair with a woman he’s grown infatuated with. During my first playthrough of the game, I remember being taken aback by this twist. Over time, I’ve warmed up a lot more to it, but to explain requires more details that we’ll talk about in later cases.

The other crucial detail this plot does get into is the corrupt nature of the LAPD. I’m not going to discuss the historical corruption of the force at the time LA Noire takes place, though you should look it up for yourself as it’s a very fascinating topic. What is worth nothing is the way the department as a whole, even “good” cops like Cole Phelps, get bent towards protecting this corruption even if they’d be otherwise opposed to it.

Sure, he gets in his subtle acts of rebellion against the authorities at play, like with the boxer on that fixed match, but he’d ultimately still fall in line because otherwise he’d be shaking the boat too much. And as a glory hound with a chip on his shoulder and something to prove, Cole Phelps can’t stand the idea of risking his position.

Core Set 2020 has finally dropped in Magic Arena, and new decks are being developed as I write this. However, as I’m coming back from AnthroCon, I didn’t have much time to build a new construct of my own.

So let’s run a favorite deck of mine, Grixis Control, and see what new strategies people have come up with in the downtime. You can find the deck I piloted here, if you’re interested. (I can’t take credit for it.)

There’s not a whole lot to say about my deck’s strategy. The goal is to summon one of the two Nicol Bolas cards and stall the game long enough to get to one of their ultimates, winning the game. To that end, it’s packed with cards like Narset to search for spells and removal to keep the opponent from getting a board presence.

What I am interested in is the various new decks I encountered in this stream. In particular, it is difficult to overlook the effectiveness of Temur Elemental decks. In particular, Risen Reef seems to be doing a lot of work for them. Between that the number of ways they have to accelerate mana, I get the impression it will be a major force over the next year of the format.

Another thing I want to call attention to is the… brief brush we have with the MTGA update system. After being in open beta for so long, the update issues really should have been addressed by now. In any other online game, the client would be able to handle updates as they come in, but in Arena players manually have to apply each update as they come. And as this game updates frequently, that can happen multiple times in the same week. It’s nothing game breaking, but it’s a minor annoyance that compounds after time a new patch is released.

What may potentially be game breaking is the new Mastery system, along with many of the other changes the monetization scheme has gone through since the beginning of Arena. Between all the cosmetics like sleeves, player avatars, and card styles, there are a ton of things players can spend gems (purchased with real world money) to customize their game. And yet, it is difficult for a free-to-play player to keep up with new sets without dropping even more money on packs. Against my better judgement, I’ve even spend real money to buy the gems I need for card packs more than a few times.

This Mastery system goes even farther to make packs harder to obtain through playing the game. In the old model, every 5 wins in a given week, up to 15 wins. would net the player a guaranteed pack of the latest set. But now, those 5 wins might advance the same player a mastery level, which might net them a pack (and maybe only if they bought the gold-tier mastery track like a Battle Pass in Fortnite). It’s noticeably more predatory, meaning that packs are harder to come by.

I don’t feel comfortable supporting the game the way I used to, and while I’ll still play it because I enjoy the Standard format, I have to seriously think about my long-term prospects with Arena.

Our adventures in the seedy underbelly of LA continue as we throw our lot in with one of the most corrupt cops in town. It’s up to us to bring some professionalism to this relationship as we perform… Detective Work.

This is the fourth time I have played through LA Noire, and while no one would ever accuse Roy Earle of being a decent person. However, it’s hard not to notice certain tendencies in his character.

Specifically, there is a noticeable tendency in these early Vice cases for deliberately antagonist and bully minorities and people of color. Not to mention that literally every minority in the Vice desk involved in the drug trade (even the victims). There’s nothing inherently wrong with incorporating these ideas. As I said on stream, it might be worthwhile to use this as a vehicle to make comments on the nature of police work in 1950’s LA.

The problem is that they never follow through on why this is a problem and what the effects of this attitude are. Roy Earle is offered the chance to defend his stance by saying that he’s not interesting in stopping the drug trade so much as controlling it, but this ignores the real life consequences. The people we book in drug-related cases are never the people in charge, profiting off the trade. It’s always the middle, non-white, man.

Meanwhile, the usually-wealthy top brass is spared, because they can afford to bribe the LAPD to look the other way. Roy’s idea of “control”, whether he’s aware of it or not, is to wield the law as a cudgel against the downtrodden and keep those in power where they are. All of this is there, but the game doesn’t appear interested in threading the needle.

And given how openly corrupt Earle is, openly conspiring with drug lords to fix a boxing match for big profits, it wouldn’t be difficult to make that leap. Our resident boy scout, Cole Phelps, is clearly uncomfortable with the arrangement, but never goes so far as to point this out or confront his new partner. He sits in silence, like a good patsy. (Though his act of rebellion and hostility in “The Set Up” does deserve notice and appreciation).

It’s such a shame. I would love this game a lot more if it did more to than just bring up this injustices in an effort to score brownie point. As it stands, it feels like it barely scratches the surface.