Holy fuck. All they needed to do was get a photo of the strip. How do you fail that and use ai?

Yeah. I had to make a similar choice and they fell.

Shop 1 basically had no 'native' regulars and pretty awful pricing

Shop 2 had a couple tentpole players, but they refused to engage with any other shop, or wider community. Moment they quit to move onto the next game, the shop dumped FaB

To tell on myself, some of this concern is very personal. Locally, FaB would've died a fad in '22 if my bro & I weren't at every armory. Back of my mind, I worry FaB can still die if I don't maintain it

My job's forced my hand. I can't help at the same capacity anymore

🧵/end

2024 was so strong & it looked like we'd take off post-HNT; was expecting it all year. But '25 ended up like '23, a rough patch to ride out

We can rebound, but we're burning through LGSs & players as we stumble, that could hurt in the long run

🧵/6

I really like PEN & SAge is necessary to capture & retain newbies. It's uncertain if we can establish SAge here

There's a soft 3 Armory limit before numbers tanks & each Armory is someone's only CC event. I'm advocating for SAge events before PEN drops, but people lack time
🧵/5

No Prerelease brought new players in beyond that event. Hell, Gen Con is next to us & only 1 person showed for 1 armory due to it

Product-wise, FaB sets w/ gimmicks don't sell. Less newbies (& regulars) showed for SEA & SUP. I doubt a non-player bought Smash Palace locally

🧵/4

6 isn't enough to replace decay for our size of community, esp w/ our Super Players playing less

Dawn, my bro, & I played 3 armories a week & now it's just me at 1 armory a week. Others who did 2 a week are tapped out & playing less too (often cause of sets not hitting)

🧵/3

Of the 42 newbies this year, only ~6ish stuck. Some reasons
- 2 LGSs dropped FaB bc they had no store advocates &/or ineffective player advocates (weren't even showing up)
- Flakey newbies making large buy ins, then ghosting (way too common & I can't explain why)

🧵/2

Nah, Vis is going to stay on top imo. Vis is the best RB against Starvo, warmongers, and most anything you could throw. It didn't need Thorn, and losing dirge is minor

I'd honestly be glad to see Starvo take the biggest share again, he's the only viable control/midrange deck in the format generally

Letting the format stew a little longer in the background imo. And probably allowing for a more complex restrict/ban list.

It's going to be a perpetual Runeblade format by default until Warmongers/Control decks are up to par.

Funny enough, Starvo being better could help the format atm

Yeah. We were trying, but Tuffnut pitches were not allowing us. I lost to arsenaling a Buckwild and never being given a turn that could use it.

This deck has crazy variance you wouldn't think is there.

Forgot these 'small' ones.