Welcome back! This one is [comment redacted].

This card went on a little journey. Originally, I wanted a creature that couldn't attack or block, but still got to swing three times. The problem is that you can't just say "now it can attack or block". The cleanest way to do it was to say the creature lost all abilities. And that's not straightforward... I don't like the idea of commons that make players ask someone if the card does what they think it's supposed to do.

So I changed it to an enchantment that could become a creature three times. Done and posted. But this didn't feel very different from a lot of other enchantments that become creatures, and I wasn't digging the flavor.

So, after thinking about it for a little while, I came back here and edited to this. Yes, you can 'combo' on this card with a card that adds, then removes counters. But more importantly, we need to know this creature's name, as well as its type, and the type of counters it's using.

I'm trying to avoid offering too many suggestions for the design, but what about "CARDNAME can't attack or block unless you remove a counter from it"? I think they use that templating but I'm not sure. Admittedly, that doesn't go as smoothly with the "gain ability" words.

­Crystal cannonade
Artifact Creature - Golem
Charge

Huh. I guess that does work? I guess we're somewhere else by now, but I'll have to keep that under my hat.

Huh. So it's got charges, you can burn them up quickly to be all kind of flexible, or use them one at a time. This feels like a variant on the clockwork creatures, to be honest. So sure - why not. Clockwork counters.

Now, what kind of clockwork is it? Menace and trample and reach, on demand. But no haste, or first strike. So it's got all the "I'm big" abilities, and none of the "Nimble" ones.

So I'll go with a descriptive name. This is a Lumbering Clockwork. Creature type Beast.

Poll is up Choose your favorite card here!

But, also, while I have your attention, the Kickstarter for my first book starts today. 'Winning Streak: Tales and Trivia of the 40 Most Popular Games' took a long time coming, and I would love to share it with you fine people. The Kickstarter page is right here.

That's your only warning, though. As a rule of thumb, we don't advertise our projects on Multiverse. I figured I only got to attach this news to one post. ;)

I tried delaying to see if the poll would stop being an even split, but nothing doing. 😛 Seeing as how I was forced to make a choice between two equally strong options, I flipped a coin and it came up heads. Congratulations, Jack!

See you all in (((NTC #070)))!

Thank you!

Good luck with the kick starter! I read a lot of your board games blog posts (I really like your blog) -- is the book based on them or something new?

The book is roughly my article series of the According to Ranker list of the 40 most Popular Board games. It required a healthy amount of updates, though, as well as some bonus research, tighter jokes, better formatting, and an overhaul of the images... which will probably be overhauled again depending on how successful the campaign is.

The advance reviews have been interesting. Book reviewers seem to really dig it. Board game reviewers... I think they want a different book, which they quite frankly deserve. As far as I can tell, there hasn't been a book that reviews board games printed within the past ten years. My book comes along that looks like it's a book of reviews, but is more of a pastiche of stories, trivia, and jokes. I get the frustration.