Archetype Analysis: Laval

Posted on October 30, 2021 by stalkingvengeance

Last updated: 18.02.2026 (WIP)

“Lavalval Exlord” serves as an example for old archetypes still getting support after years of radio silence.

Maybe some of you can remember my “Flamvell” review quite a while back; if you do not, you can read up up on those tepid design catastrophes here. However, I mentioned back then that the “Flamvells” worked as the alpha version of the “Laval” archetype, which I want to take a look at in this article. That does not mean that “Laval” is a well thought-out and solidly functioning archetype, they are better but still have some problems. “Flamvell” might have been an incongruent mess of cards, but while “Laval” does stick to a certain design philosophy they do often limit creative deckbuilding by being both Fire Attribute and extremely xenophobic effect-wise. Also, they are fairly old at this point in time, since they came out when Xyz monsters took the first steps in Yugioh and it shows in some of the card effects. Nevertheless, let us see whether “Laval” can build some decent boards in 2021, or if they are doomed to fail like the “Flamvells” before them.

Continue reading →

Stalk’s Videogame Corner: Dungeon Siege II

Posted on October 23, 2021 by stalkingvengeance

Game: Dungeon Siege II
Developer: Gas Powered Games
Genre: Action Role-Playing Game
Releases: 2005 (Windows)
Stalk’s Rating: 4/10

My second ever videogame article on this blog was about “Dungeon Siege“, a game that I found ugly, boring, and questionably designed from the viewpoint of the 2020s. I really only played the first “Dungeon Siege” again after years of simply ignoring the game because I did not want to feel beaten by it. Years before, I borrowed the game, got to the third chapter, and dropped it since it was so dull. And yes, playing it again was as much of a chore as I remembered and there are probably lots of people that would tell me that I could use the twelve hours I needed to play through the game doing other things, but I wanted a kind of closure with the title.

Continue reading →

Archetype Analysis: Drytron

Posted on October 16, 2021 by stalkingvengeance

Last updated: 08.02.2026 (WIP)

“Drytron Meteonis Draconids” in the artwork of “Meteonis Drytron“.

Ritual Summoning was frowned at for quite a while in Yugioh’s history. It was available pretty much from the start in the realms of the TCG, but summoning effect-less monsters for questionable amounts of resources only really served as cards to fill the trading folder with. The mechanic got upgraded over time, with “Gishki” introducing hand-melting summon loops and “Nekroz” being strong enough to actually become the deck to beat during its time. The next step was taken in 2020 with “Drytron”, an archetype that re-invented some of the rules in Ritual Summoning and then slowly growing into the competitively viable force we know the deck as today. They also happen to be the subject of this Archetype Analysis, so strap in for some space dragons.

Continue reading →

Hellbent – Empty hand, many problems

Posted on October 9, 2021 by stalkingvengeance

Emptying your hand costs one Black mana, but what comes after that?

Here is another round of me ranting about the (mis-)use of Magic the Gathering keywords on a design level. Today, we go to Ravnica, a plane that was very much a fan-favorite until WotC reused the realm so often that some people could not stand seeing the place anymore. However, the entire concept of a plane being pretty much one gigantic city and the ten guilds all having their very own section of government but still vying for more power was an incredibly good idea. Talking about those guilds, every single one of them introduced a new keyword to the game for every set they appeared in; and in this article, I want to take a look at Rakdos and their first contribution to the game, which was “Hellbent”.

Continue reading →

Archetype Analysis: Ghostrick

Posted on October 2, 2021 by stalkingvengeance

Last updated: 31.01.2026 (WIP)

“Ghostrick” artworks normally show the monsters doing cute and silly stuff … or “Ghostrick Witch” berating someone.

Halloween seems to come early this year, since Konami revealed support for one of the fan-favorite archetypes in the game: “Ghostrick”. The cutesy horror-trope group, that started appearing in 2013’s Shadow Specters, rose to fame not due to its playstyle but its art design and humor. They were never competitively viable, but that does not matter since they manage to combine cool cards with an unorthodox playstyle of “peek-a-booing” out of face-down defense position, doing some mischief, and then hiding again in the safety of being face-down on the field. They are certainly different than many other archetypes in the game, but that is just all the more reason to take a look at them. By the way, shoutouts to Discord user “~Demented~King~”, who helped providing information for this article.

Continue reading →