Category: Keyforge

Introducing Archonitos

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I wanted to create something to give away at Keyforge Celebration 2022 because I think giving weird things to strangers is fun. I figured Keyforge fans are interested in procedural generation, so I came up with the idea of characters based on the Archon shapes in Keyforge, but I wanted them to be silly and cartoonish. Hence the name Archonitos (little archons).

Each Archonito card is unique. I wrote a simple python script to make a set of random choices. The character image has five traits: shape, color, texture, eyes, and mouth. Each trait has ten options, for a total of 10^5 possible character images. Each of these options is stored in a GIMP layer and I can turn the visibility on or off for each selected trait to make the combined image.

Then the script generates a name (based on a little custom script I wrote) and assigns a random number between 0-100 for each of the three stats: Charm, Strange, and Fingers. Then each Archonito has a team name that is drawn from lists of science fiction and fantasy words for a science fantasy mashup (to be on-brand for Simon Finchley), a temperament drawn from a list of emotions and traits, and two card associations, one from a list of cards from popular trading card games and board games, and one from a list of tarot cards. So the total number of possible Archonito cards is quite large.

I wanted the cards to look like they might be from a game from an alternate-timeline 90’s, but I have not designed a game to go with the cards. At least, not yet.

I made the cards tarot-sized and gave each card a tarot correspondence so that, if I ended up with extra, the cards could potentially be used for patchwork tarot trades or for some tie-in with Tarot of the Trunk.

The first batch has fifty cards in it. I may do a second batch if there is interest, but the cards would be for sale to cover printing costs. I would also change a few things in the generation options so that each batch is unique. If I had to print a very large number, I would try to figure out how to more fully automate the GIMP-layer image generation process, which was manageable for such a small batch of images, but would quickly become unwieldy for a large print run.

Seven Sins of Keyforge

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Warning: the article contains spoilers for set 4 of Keyforge, Mass Mutation.

It’s been an exciting week for Keyforge with the announcement of set 4, Mass Mutation. I am sure I am not alone in my excitement for the new Enhance keyword and the two-card gigantic creatures. But at the very end of the announcement article, there was also this enticing little gem:

“If you thought the Four Horsemen were impressive, wait until you see the Seven Sins!”

This raises a lot more questions than it answers, and leaves a lot of room for speculation. If, like the Four Horsemen, there were a group of seven cards that always appear together in the same house (presumably Dis), that does not leave a lot of variation for the remaining five cards in that house. (Although we have seen this already, as Plague Rats can show up in Shadows with up to seven copies in a deck.)

But there is another possibility: since there are seven houses in Mass Mutation (Dis, Logos, Sanctum, Saurian Republic, Star Alliance, Shadows, Untamed), it could be that each house has one corresponding sin, similar to leaders in Worlds Collide or shards in Age of Ascension. So, assuming that designers are following the traditional list of Seven Deadly Sins (Lust, Gluttony, Greed, Sloth, Wrath, Envy, Pride), which house corresponds to which sin?

Let’s see if we can work it out using what we know about the houses, and other cards in the game, particularly the seven Bane variants in Dis. (While the Bane cards reference traits, and not houses, I think it is fairly obvious which Bane corresponds to which house.)

Let’s start with the obvious ones:

Greed: Shadows

It’s no question that the house of thieves and stealing should correspond to the sin of desire for money and things. Thieves’ Bane depicts a pile of gold, and the Shadows shard is the Shard of Greed. Done and done.

Pride: Saurian Republic

Brad Andres has spoken at length on various podcasts that one of the core design ideas for the Saurian Republic was the idea of hubris, or excessive pride, so it is obvious that these two should go together. Dinosaur’s Bane depicts an elegant mirror, the symbol of vanity and pride.

Okay, now we have to take some logical leaps:

Sloth – Dis

So, there isn’t really a lazy house (how could there be, in a fast-paced action game like Keyforge?) But if we look at the card Demon’s Bane, the item which “lures” demons into a trap is a chess-like board game. We see another game depicted on the Dis action A Fair Game. It’s not clear to me what these games mean to the demons of Dis, but if they are a distraction from their normal demon activities, perhaps sloth is the proper correspondence. 

Of course, Sloth could also correspond to Untamed, the only house to feature an actual sloth.

Gluttony – Untamed

Again, I return to the Bane cards. The card Beast’s Bane depicts a juicy piece of meat on the bone, large enough to satisfy any glutton. While there are beasts in every house except Sanctum, the house with the most beasts by far is Untamed. So the connection goes Untamed to beasts, beasts to juicy meat (via the Beast’s Bane card), juicy meat to gluttony.

Wrath – Sanctum

If Brobnar or Mars were in Mass Mutation, either of those houses would be my pick for wrath over Sanctum. And in the absence of the Saurians, I would probably put Sanctum with pride, since “few are judged worthy to enter” their cities. But, with the story hint that Sanctum are angry about the discovery and use of the dark aember (even though they found it first) and the newly revealed card Bull-wark with the Assault trait, which implies aggression, I feel comfortable putting Sanctum with wrath.

So, the leftovers:

Envy – Logos

Now we have to start making things up. Perhaps the scientists of Logos are envious of all the other houses on the Crucible. They are not as big as the Brobnar, as shiny as the Sanctum, or as deadly as the Dis. This is why they pour all their effort into learning, desperate to be the smartest so that maybe, one day, someone will pay attention to them. The flavor text on the Logos shard, Shard of Knowledge, is “Forged from desire,” that is, the desire… to be like others? Maybe?

Lust – Star Alliance

You can see it in their eyes. Every member of the Star Alliance, having traveled through space for so long, is absolutely dripping with lust, desperate for the touch of… yeah, I got nothing. But seven houses with seven sins means something gets left over.

It’s hard to think of any card in the game, much less an entire house, that one could associate with the idea of lust. Even Succubus, a card named after a spirit of seduction, is about as sexy as a porcupine. In my mind, it is a positive aspect of Keyforge that the art is designed to be as welcoming to as many kinds of players as possible, and this includes avoiding the sexy depiction of female bodies common in other game art. But it makes me curious, assuming the designers are following the traditional list of the seven deadly sins, how they will include lust in a game that is for the most part bright, colorful, friendly, and sexless.

So, what do you think? Do you have a different way you would arrange the seven sins with the seven houses? Or do you have a different theory altogether for what the Seven Sins will be? Comment below or wherever you found this article.

Sealed Cube: An Alternative Keyforge Cube Format

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When hearing about draft formats for Keyforge using a cube, I hear the following two common complaints:

  1. It takes too long to draft.
  2. It doesn’t “feel” like Keyforge.

I am proposing a different way to use a Keyforge cube that addresses these two complaints. I call it Sealed Cube. It should be compatible with any existing Keyforge cube. The idea is to simulate the feeling of Sealed format Keyforge without having to open fresh decks every time you play.

Here’s what you need:

How to Play

  • A Keyforge Cube (or just a big pile of decks)
  • A different set of opaque card sleeves for each player
  • A way to determine house combinations (see below)

To start, sort all the cards in the cube into piles by house. If there are any paired cards in your cube, like Timetraveller, Four Horsemen, Ortannu, Igon, Xenos/Toad, or Brews, put just one card from the pairing into the house pile and set the rest aside. For Blasters, put the Blaster in the pile and the matching officer aside. Shuffle each pile separately.

For each player, determine which houses they are going to play. If you have a complete set of house chain trackers, you could use those. Or just use one card from each house. Shuffle the seven or nine house cards together and then deal three to a player. That is the house combination they will be playing for this game. Collect the house cards, shuffle, and deal again for the next player.

For each house a player was given, deal that player twelve cards from the matching house pile. If a player was dealt a paired card, randomly replace cards from that house with the matching paired cards that were set aside earlier. Sleeve each deck of 36 cards, and you are good to go! A randomly generated Sealed Keyforge deck.

Benefits and Drawbacks

Benefits of this method:

  • Faster than draft
  • Feels like Keyforge (no deck construction)
  • Cheaper than regular Sealed
  • Fun use for bulk decks

Here are some potential drawbacks of Cube Sealed vs. regular Sealed:

  1. The algorithm. There is a lot about the algorithm that we don’t know, and it is possible with this method, depending on the composition of your cube, to generate decks that the algorithm did not intend. For example, if there is a card that is limited to one per deck but there is more than one copy in your cube, or if the algorithm makes sure there is a minimum number of creatures in a deck, these factors are not accounted for in Cube Sealed.
  2. Cross-set mixes. If you have cards from more than one set in your cube, that could create decks that are not possible with the algorithm. 
  3. Ambassadors and Plants. I’m not sure of a good way to include cards that are dependant on the other houses in your deck. 
  4. Not an actual deck. If you get a deck you like, you can’t play that deck at official events.

What do you think? Even if the decks are slightly wonky, it would still make for a fun night of Keyforge. If you try out this method, let me know your thoughts.