Mabinogi Duel: G2 Era of Dragons -- an excellent F2P mobile CCG

Wow.  This is some mobile CCG!  Great art, unique cards, deck designer is good, plays well, good strategy.



And bouncing boobs, can't forget those.

Only a few downsides on this awesome game: f2p constant reminder, premium currency, some confusing UI & events, etc.

I wonder if Korea uses lots of coupons, as they are abundant in this game?

Tips:
I'm still a newb, but I've observed a few things of note.
- Try to do the Advanced Challenge daily for both Daily Mission and Draft.  That gets you 5 crystals and "a" card -- however, if you win you get 5 cards to pick from and can spend 6 gems for another pick, so you could wind up with 5 new cards for 30 gems, which is a deal!  Normally boosters cost 30 gems for 5 random cards, or 999 gold for a single.  Of you gather cards this way, you can decide if you want to spend on the cards or pass.  *This is my main way get 3-5* cards.*
- Deal with the Cat Merchant, but don't take his first offer unless you like it.  You can tweak the deal a lot.  Occasionally its a good deal, but often he wants to take a very good card in exchange for junk, so be careful.

I haven't read the boards or gotten too deep in the 'meta gaming' yet, so that's about it.  My current 2 strongest Decks feature a red dragon & a barbarian, but the White deck with a hero that stops people from attacking is my strongest.

I wonder how long I will play Mobinagi?  Join me!  Find REkzkaRZ & we can swap cards!

Magic Puzzle Quest (& Marvel Puzzle Quest)

Ooooh, a new Puzzle Quest!  And it's a blend of Magic: The Gathering (ie MTG) and Puzzle Quest! Made by D3 (makers of Marvel Puzzle Quest) & Wizards of the Coast!  What could go wrong?

This was my thought as I dloaded Magic PQ, somewhat concerned that it might affect my addictive daily playing of Marvel PQ.  Well, I now doubt that, despite the fact that I think Magic PQ is a 3-4* game on track to be a 5* game.  But Marvel PQ already is a 4* game, IMO.

The Good:
Lots of Plainswalkers, lots of cards.  Deck building mechanic.  CCG.  Strategic play.  Looks very nice.

The Bad:
10 card decks?!?  Really?  Meh!  Plainswalkers get first weak power at Lvl 2, next at Lvl 14?!?  Tiles in match-3 game look very similar (esp Blue & Black), esp when a 'support tile' is in play.  While art looks great, not much animation here.  Lots of cards, but can be hard to know what's going on, and I haven't found a 'recap' / log button to see what opponent's action was.  And lastly -- this is an F2P game w/2 currencies, and despite getting both just by playing, clearly the emph is on spending real money for premium currency to buy boosters.  (And I won't be spending anything, most likely.)

My Tips/Tricks:
I'm a newb, but I'm a veteran MTG & Marvel PQ player.  I will likely update these as I play more.

1 - Spend your currency well.  I dropped 50 crystals (premium) to add all Planeswalkers (PW's).  Rationale: the game is new, and I can see their costs soon jumping.  Also, when new PW's arrive, I'm sure they will also cost.  And for deck building, you can't play cards that don't share a color w/your PW.  Sure, I like Green, but also like 'em all.

2 - Get an early booster or two, but then start saving for the rates.  I didn't want all my cards to be 'standard', but my first 2 boosters didn't offer much of anything interesting.  Oh well.  (Update:  got my main Blue PW to Lvl 14 &  bought a few more boosters & got a Black Mythic card.  Frustrating.)

3 - UI Tips:
3a - Deck design is on the Planeswalkers menu.  And, if you are new to Magic, there's a Quick Update option which has the AI do it all for you.  You can also empty  your deck and yoi can Autobuild it with the AI. Not bad!
3b - Support Tiles - to distinguish between your Support Tiles & opponent's in play, the counter will be on that player's side.  The color is the color of the glow (this took me forever to figure out).

4 - Card Selection - During play, check your hand frequently (ie every round!) & strategically rearrange cards.  Also don't forget to use your PW's powers, even if they suck.  And don't mana-charge up Support Cards that need creatures w/o 1-2 creatures in play.

5 - Cards cycle during play -- you can only have 3 creatures at a time.  Reenforcement is when you play two of the same creature.  If you have 3 creatures in play, reconsider swapping out a monster until the last minute.  Reenforcement of creatures in play is generally better than swapping them out.  Also, you can fully charge creatures and hold them in your hand.

I wish I had more tips, but if you post yours I will happily include them here (and in my gameplay!!).
Thanks!  Happy Holidays!

Heroes & Castles 2 - a 5 star game for Android & iPhone - trick / tip

This is a great game for Android & iPhone.  It's a 3rd person Tower Defense that plays more like a 3D 'Battle Chess' with all kinds of creatures.

This game is a very high quality & could be a console game.

**Highly recommended**

My trick for items: (Reposted from H&C2 Wikia)
Trick for items -- with 9-10 crystals minimum, save your game to cloud.

Go to Blacksmith & buy 1-2 items.

If you got a rare (or better) that you want, save game to cloud again (locking in item to your save).

If you didn't get anything exciting, blow the rest of the crystals on items just to see what you get (only for curiosity), then reload your game from cloud.

Suddenly you have all your crystals back, no purchased items, and can do go shopping again.

While this is a classic savegame cheat, after doing it ~20-30x, I got a few Epic items.

Wish I'd thought of this trick sooner!
(Reposted from rekzkarz.com)

Marvel Future Fight -- review & tips & tricks

Marvel Future Fight
A cool 3D 'on rails' F2P Action RPG featuring a smattering of Marvel Heroes, by Korean game dev NetMarble.

This game is pretty fun.  So many Marvel Superheroes games are out there; how does this one compare? Pretty well!

Successes - great 3d art & music, 3x3 battles, a good number of heroes, simple gameplay that is fun, social element, autopilot is a smart innovation, arena = PVP, and a lot of events.

Failings - Still an F2P game with many encouragements to purchase virtual items/heroes, ranges between somewhat repetitive to very grindy, multiple currencies (money, diamonds, many building materials (3 each per 4 hero types)), and a lot of notifications.

This entry came from reading an article claiming to be a list of 'Tips, Tricks & Strategy', but there was not a single tip!!  So I added my own (& am reposting here):

Here's a tip -- once you pass a level, you can auto-pilot thru it.  Deactivate the autopilot at the boss encounter if you are concerned you won't pass.  Your touch is better than AI.  Autopilot is a nice way to grind levels.

Another tip -- First make 1 hero awesome, & they can carry others along for levels.  (I've been reading on reddit /r/futurefight that people think Captain America is fairly weak & Black Widow is the strongest of the starter heroes.)  Over time, you start gathering a bunch of heroes, but you probably can't focus on all of them, so you start building a team (3 heroes).

As for which initial heroes to make awesome, apparently some really are weaker than others, but my view is take a hero that you want to watch a lot.  I like Blade and Hulkbuster Iron Man, but they are not the best heroes in the game.  So what?!
My team 1 (strongest) right now is Blade 25, Capt Amer 30, and Black Widow 25.  My team 2 is Elektra, Iron Man, and War Machine, and my team 3 is Ultron, Vision, and Hulkbuster Iron Man.

Another tip -- heroes level up, get improved gear, level up skills, can 'slot in' ISO, mastering a level (gives the center position hero a bonus) and finally level up stars.  That's a lot of leveling!  Levelling up stars unlocks new Skill slots for heroes.  On top of that, ISO's have various combinations which unlock bonuses, and you can put teams together that also give bonuses.  When you get an official team together, they get a big bonus AND a power that works ~ 1x every 120 secs (approx 1x per mission).