MAKE KEYFORGE GREAT AGAIN: DARK TIDINGS

The MKFGA series returns once again, but this time it is not Riku, and I am not talking about a set that is too powerful. Riku was kind enough to let me, quickdraw3457, revisit Dark Tidings, and talk about what I love about the set, and also what could be done to improve it. Despite my love for the set, I don't think it's perfect, so I hope you spend a few minutes with me to hear my perspective on the only set that has a recognizable nickname -- "The Best Set."

THE MEANING BEHIND DT BEST SET

The nickname / catch phrase that Dark Tidings earned -- "DT Best Set" -- is just an opinion after all, but it does prove that the set has a cult following. I am unabashedly part of that cult.

As much as I and others love DT, we know it's not perfect. We don't love it for being powerful, either (although in its day, it could surprise unsuspecting players). We love it for the weirdness it added to the game, and the strategy that stems from that. We love it for the emphasis on tactics and battle line management. Despite it's flaws, we love it for the Tide, and the possibilities opened up by the "37th Card" (or "38th Card" if you count the Archon card). Finally, we love it for the excellent concept of Evil Twins decks, which add another piece of collectibility to a game that was already infinitely collectible.

These are just a few of the things that are behind the "Best Set" mantra. Let's dive deeper.

DOUBLE SIDED ARTIFACTS

There are a number of rares (usually artifacts) in the set that completely warp games in ways players had not seen before. They often force you to find different avenues to winning, while not being completely backbreaking like cards such as Quixxle Stone could be. Some of my personal favorites include Whirlpool (obviously), The Ulfberht Device, Tide Warp, Widespread Corruption, Dry The River, The First Scroll, and Pestergrove. Every house has a card like these that affects both players, so while they are rare, it still felt like a considerable number of decks contained something that made you evaluate the matchup and decide if it would help you more or hurt you. Not every deck could take advantage of these either, but learning when it was in your benefit to play these types of cards was very rewarding, especially if you were playing Adaptive.

BATTLE LINE TACTICS

DT was also, in my opinion, the first set that really made your battle line ordering matter beyond taunt and a few other specific cards in older sets. Cards like Infighting, Technobabble, Grand Melee, Static Charge, Badgemagus, Holdfast, and Rocketeer Tryska are some examples of cards that get a lot stronger if you have set up your battle line correctly. They are even more complex when combined with each other (try playing around an opponent who has Infighting and Technobabble, and you'll find it to be quite a challenging puzzle). So many of these cards are common as well, meaning most decks have multiple cards that care about the battle line in different ways.

Before DT, I found myself playing creatures anywhere randomly, with the only exception being sometimes leaving flanks open next to a taunter. In DT, I have to understand which of my cards I can make even stronger by planning multiple turns ahead, and also see what my opponent is doing to understand when they might be finally playing that Infighting or Grand Melee.

THE 37TH CARD

The implementation of The Tide card was not perfect, but the concept of the 37th card really expanded the possibilities of the game in ways not seen before, while also offering another dimension of strategy to players. It is a new layer to keep in mind that adds depth to the game that wasn't there in prior sets. Every deck has cards that function one way if the tide is high, and another if the tide is not high. Players have to weigh the cost of taking the tide against the benefits of doing so. Is it worth 3 chains to gain an extra aember? What about 2

aember? Giving opponent an aember? Destroying a creature? Sometimes the answers are obvious, but asking these questions is another way of testing the player. Additionally, the tide often requires you to plan a few turns ahead. Part of the calculus is also understanding if it's worth a slower turn that handcrafts and raises the tide for free, or taking chains in a different house to get the benefit of a card that needs high tide now.

Although the Tide card changed what was possible in KeyForge, sets that came after it haven't improved on the possibilities the 37th card adds. Token Creatures came in Winds of Exchange but were an entirely different mechanic than the tide. Prophecies also try to expand on this, but their implemention was perhaps worse than The Tide. Crucible Clash introduced Archon Powers that really seem to be feast or famine. Too many Archon Powers have such a minimal impact on the game that you don't even notice they are there (or worse, they are so bad you wish they weren't). Even after all these years, the Tide, in my opinion, remains the best execution of a 37th card in all of KeyForge.

EVIL TWINS

Evil Twin decks were the first time in KeyForge's history that you could really open a chase deck. Before, the coolest things you could see opening a deck were Mavericks and Legacies (which are both universally loved as well), or special rares like Four Horsemen decks (and we all know how those turned out) or Gigantic creatures. Evil Twins take this excitement to the next level. They are a brilliant extension of what is possible with algorithmically generated decks. Not only do they have mirror versions of creatures in every house, they are also otherwise copies of another deck generated by the algorithm. The name is the same except for the "Evil Twin" prefix/suffix, the Archon art has special treatment (while keeping the same core image of the non-Evil Archon card), and the Evil Twin creatures use a different design template too. Evil Twin decks looked fantastic as a

result. They also gave players something to collect. Many players longed to unite twin decks, and it was a real reason to keep hunting for evil twins of your own decks. Unfortunately, the rarity was believed to be about 1/12 decks being an evil twin, which meant most of your favorite decks will never have an evil twin, and the evil twins in general were very difficult to find.

This is another element unique to DT that GG has failed to replicate since. The closest thing they've made is probably Skybeasts in Aember Skies, but that's not the same as replicating a deck with a twinned version (and no, I'm not counting the accidental WoE duplicate decks).

Considering both the Evil Twin concept and the 37th Card, I consider DT to be a groundbreaking set from a design standpoint. Unfortunately, from a development standpoint the set left a lot to be desired by many players.

WHAT WENT WRONG

Despite my love for the set, I can still acknowledge that it missed the mark in some areas. The only way for an opponent playing a non-DT deck to interact with the tide was to take 3 chains to raise it, almost always for no immediate benefit. In many ways, the tide was a minor disruption mechanic when played cross-set. Many decks had just 0 or 1 cards that were able to raise the tide without a penalty, forcing those decks to often take chains just so their cards can function, slowing the deck down immensely over the course of the game. Finally, the set also really undershot on power level after the exceptional (and hugely popular) Mass Mutation expansion.

TIDE PROBLEMS

The number one complaint from players about DT is always about the Tide. Players playing against DT don't want to have to take chains to counter the opponent's deck, and players playing with DT expect to not have to take chains to make their deck function at a base level (especially when the power level of cards is already weaker than players were used to, but more on that below).

As the opponent playing a non-DT deck, I too often see players preemptively take the tide to try to counteract some value from cards like Chelonia. In reality, there are probably fewer than 5 cards that exist in DT that should actually make your opponent raise the tide with a non-DT deck: Static Collection Array, Medicus Lacus, Dry The River, and Laerie of the Lake. If they don't have these cards, there's virtually no reason to ever raise the tide. If you see your opponent has a Chelonia, raising just to make them raise before gaining value from is almost never worth it. If they have reap effects, such as Jackie Tar or Freebooter Faye, raising the tide won't stop them because they have a chance to raise before using it (often for free if they have tide raisers). The only cards that you should raise for are ones that have an effect during your turn, or ones that have an effect before your opponent's main phase.

This is a design problem with the Tide, because it actually takes most of the strategy out of tide management. The set needed more cards that function differently with low tide, a lesser cost for non-DT decks to raise the tide, and more cards that lower the tide in DT (such as Bilgewarden, Tidal Wave, and Tide Warp). Without cards like these, in over 90% of games featuring DT vs non-DT, the Tide will be raised once and should not be raised again.

REVERSE POWER CREEP

Through the first 4 sets (up to Mass Mutation), Fantasy Flight Games did an admirable job of managing power creep in the game. Worlds Collide and Mass Mutation were each better than their predecessors, but not by a significant margin. For a unique deck game, it was rather impressive. Unfortunately, FFG was a bit too conservative with DT.

You would be hard-pressed to name a card or combo introduced in DT as powerful as cards like Etan's Jar, Ultra Gravitron, Subject Kirby, or Infurnace, or combos like Tribute + Sic Semper or obviously Martian Generosity + Key Abduction. Ceaseforge and Chronophage are two of the most powerful cards introduced in DT, but surrounded by mostly

underwhelming cards, they didn't get a chance to shine. Some of the other best cards, like the Evil Twins of Sea Urchin and Witch of the Dawn are essentially ultra-rares.

Unfathomable appears to be a symptom of FFG trying to learn from their mistakes of Worlds Collide, when the new houses introduced came in at a power level above the rest. Unfathomable had a lackluster debut, and would have benefitted greatly from some of the more valuable cards that we saw in Winds of Exchange, such as Abyssal Sight and Befuddle (both commons that set the power curve high in WoE). The new house seemed to want to take on the characteristics of Dis without overshadowing it, and the result was a large number of effects that didn't make much impact on the game, like exhausting creatures.

Not only were the new cards made for DT weaker, but most of the reprints were also not among the best (with the biggest exceptions being things like EDAI, Captain Val Jericho, and Punctuated Equilibrium). Cards like Too Much To Protect, Ronnie Wristclocks, Interdimensional Graft, Neutron Shark, Chronus, Stealth Mode, Exile, and Mimicry would have been exceptionally strong reprints to add to the set. Even other rares like Oath of Poverty would have found a great niche in DT. All of these could have taken the place of other reprints in the set, and they would have really helped the set keep up with its predecessors. The above cards could have been inserted in place of other reprints such as Infomorph, Francis the Economist, Bumblebird, and others, and the set would be objectively improved without losing any of its flavor.

WHAT SOLUTIONS COULD THE FUTURE HOLD?

Rather than focus this part on a "what if" that would require a Timetraveler and Help From Future Self to implement, I will instead talk about what can still be done to improve players' experience with DT within reason. Errata for individual cards is off the table, however improvements to the Tide card could be done without causing confusing, since they can easily be reprinted and are not deck specific.

DARKER TIDINGS

The one thing most people talk about is GG doing a re-do of Dark Tidings like they did when they released More Mutation. Frankly, I don't think this would be very successful unless it was a pretty big overhaul of the card pool and a revised Tide card. More Mutation didn't really modify the card pool outside of adding cards and probably tweaking the algorithm to make gigantic creatures appear more often. For a remake of the set to work for DT, they would have to replace a number of cards with stronger ones, and at that point I think the set probably loses a lot of its flavor. It would require a significant amount of playtesting for not very much benefit. It seems most likely to me that this approach would actually not be very well received by either the DT cultists or the DT haters, but it is something that GG could have in their arsenal if they wanted to. I am just neither holding my breath nor hoping that this is actually done.

The most important thing that could come out of a "Darker Tidings" set would be an updated Tide card, that allowed players of non-DT decks playing against it to interact with the tide more easily. As stated above, there is usually no reason for an opponent to take 3 chains to raise the tide, when so little of the set requires high tide at the start of your turn. Additionally, if the tide was simply more affordable to raise for the opponent, then it actually just serves to hurt DT decks even more. For that reason, the revised tide has to work in a way that benefits both players, and increases interaction.

CHANGING TIDES

Fortunately, as a 37th card that is not specific or unique to each deck, the Tide can easily be modified and distributed for use globally without the need for a revised set release. Every deck already uses the same card, and doesn't matter if the name on the back of the card doesn't match. Even more, since GG has been printing rules cards in each deck, they have the ability to also print clean rules cards for the Tide, explaining how it works in general as well as any modifications to the rules that might be necessary.

Since we know GG loves to insert agency into the game, revised Tide cards could also take advantage of that. Print a few new versions of the tide that each contain slightly different variations, and allow players to choose which one they want to use when playing with a Dark Tidings deck. This would allow DT players to at least gain a very slight advantage by picking a Tide card that best fit their deck's strengths and weaknesses.

As an example, maybe a new Tide changes how players can raise the tide that doesn't require chains. It could give each creature (on both sides of the board) an "Action: Raise the tide" ability. Maybe simply allow players to discard a card of the active house to raise the tide. Since DT is known to be a weak set, perhaps a new mechanic could be to make a new Tide card help as a catch-up mechanism -- if a player has more keys forged than their opponent, they may not raise the tide. You could even incorporate the new "Overwhelmed" keyword from Draconian Measures (recall that you are "Overwhelmed" if your opponent controls more creatures than you) to allow players who are Overwhelmed to raise the tide for a lesser amount than if they are not Overwhelmed. Providing an added bonus for a DT player raising the tide could be an option to take advantage of as well.

There are infinite possibilities for variations of this, and with proper playtesting many of them could be released as tournament legal additions to the game. With Artiforge at GG's disposal, it's not unreasonable to design and print fixed packs with 10-15 different options for Tide cards for players. It would be a one time purchase, but a fun way for players to freshen up their old DT decks and find new ways to play them and take advantage of them. A renewed focus on casual play in KeyForge would be a major boon to local groups gathering at their LGS.

RIPTIDE

I would be remiss if I did not give a shoutout and mention to one of the better tested and well known variants on the Tide card that was designed by a player and DT enthusiast -- DevDev's "Riptide" variant.

Riptide is a modified Tide Card that has different levels of high and low tide, as well as a neutral status. Each time a card with the Tide symbol in its text box is played or used, the tide is raised one step for that player. If a player raises the tide to the 3rd (and highest) step, they also gain an additional aember. However, if the tide is low for you, raising it will only inch the tide one step closer to you, so it won't automatically become high right away. Finally, each creature gains "Action: Raise the tide two steps instead of one". There are other minor rules that come with it, but everything is spelled out very clearly in the Riptide rules.

The Riptide rules do a good job giving the DT deck a slight advantage over non-DT decks (by design), and removing the chaining element to the set that lets decks function at a base efficiency that every other set does. There is still strategy in how you manage the tide, and if you focus on it heavily, an aember bonus waiting for you at the end as well. It's a very enjoyable variant, and a great example of the possibilities of overhauling the Tide card within the confines of the existing Tide rules.

FINAL WORDS

There has always seemed to be an association between Dark Tidings fans and Adaptive players (probably because of the chain mechanic). I don't know if there is a correlation between the two for certain, but it makes sense to me for reasons besides chains. Dark Tidings is not an archon lover's set for obvious reasons. But it does appeal to the players who like to focus on their favorite niche of KeyForge, which is a big part of the adaptive format -- stick to what you love.

My love of Dark Tidings is more than that association with adaptive. I believe I'm the type of gamer that enjoys a set like this and the type of strategy it emphasizes. It feels like a much less linear type of gameplay than other sets, which forces you as the player to be able to make adjustments on the fly to react to the evolving game states. To me, other sets have a lack of empathy, which results in the player being able to focus primarily on what their own deck wants to do consistently in order to win. Perhaps that's a COTA rush deck, an AOA Gangernaut/GENKA combo deck, a WC board flood deck, a MM grind deck that drags the game on to a point of inevitability, or a GR deck that wants to just set up rule of 6 combos. It's hard to find that one trademark style that can be applied to a large subset of DT decks because they all seem to function so differently.

My ask of the reader is to step back from the Archon mindset of trying to find the best deck you can to increase your chances of winning, and to look around at some DT decks that might have caught your eye at one point in the past. Find a format or create a social contract with other players to create an environment where you can play the deck without helplessly losing, and focus on the little things in a game of KeyForge that matter. Think about how much your battle line management impacts the end result, or times when you're conflicted on fighting or reaping. Think ahead to how the tide is affecting your future plans, and pay attention to how much or how little the 3 chains you took is actually impacting your game plan.

These little things are what made KeyForge a great game from the start, and what make sealed the most popular format in the game as well. The game is at its best when the little things matter, not the big things. The big things are boring. Anybody can reap for 12 with Dr. X and Ironyx Rebel combo, or play Winds of Death and Key Abduction for a free key, or discard half your opponent's hand (and inevitably their outs) with a Rage Reset or Reiteration that triggers automatically. A good game (not just KeyForge, but any good board/card game) wants the little things to matter -- that decision on fighting off a creature when you had the chance, or properly setting up your battle line to survive the Infighting, or having the Tide Warp raise the tide for you to let you forge for 5 with Static Collection Array. Winning a game because of a small decision you made 3 turns earlier is the absolute best feeling in this game -- and that's what winning games with DT comes down to. I hope you can find those games with some neglected DT gems in your collection.

I'd like to close by thanking Riku for giving me the opportunity to write this. It has caused me to think more deeply about what it is I love about Dark Tidings, and to try to put it into writing. It's been a great exercise, and I hope some of you who don't like DT took the time to get to the end here, and are willing to give it another shot in the right environment. If you want a DT punching bag, you can reach me on Discord any time.