The 'Shroom:Issue 127/Strategy Wing

Director Notes
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Hello everyone and welcome to this month's Strategy Wing! This month I have a few announcements. Firstly, I want to apologize, but due to real life circumstances, my sections are absent this month. The life bug has also caught, who will submit a section when he can as opposed to a monthly or bimonthly (like a frequent guest section). Another thing to announce this month is that has decided that this month will feature the last Mario Kart: Wheel Tips Corner. This section has been around since the founding of this team, and it's sad to see it go but I wish Yoshi876 the best with his endeavors. If you would like to write for this team, feel free to send us an application! I accept sections even if they aren't Mario, so long as they pass the application process. With all my major announcements out of the way, I hope you enjoy this issue!

Section of the Month Congratulations to for his well-written sections in 126!

Mario Kart: Wheel Tips Corner
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Hello 'Shroom racers! And welcome to Mario Kart Wheel Tips Corner, here I plan to give you just some extra tips to help you with your racing, or just some changes in a track that might catch you off guard if you aren't prepared for them. Lights are out, let's start racing.

Kool Karts You can't race if you don't have a Kart to do it in, so in this section I'll give you some facts about a Kart, Bike, ATV or even tyres and gliders that you can use hopefully for racing success.

In this edition of Kool Karts, we're going to be looking at something that while admittedly might not be very spoopy, it does have Dry Bones driving it, so it qualifies in my book. Yes, it's the Dry Bomber.

Unlike actual tanks, the Dry Bomber has great handling and acceleration, some good mini-turbo, and decent off-road. However, like a tank, its drift stat is only reasonable, and it's incredibly slow. Can't say what tanks are like on items, but this one isn't very good with it. Your best bet with this Kart is tracks with lots of corners, as your acceleration should get you out front, and your handling means you can take the corners pretty well. But on straights, almost everything else will be catching up with you.

What's Changed? Retro tracks are now a huge portion of the Mario Kart games, typically amounting to half the courses in the game. But usually these courses change some things up, so in this section I'll help you find out "What's Changed" in the retro tracks.

Again, not a massively spooky one, but the atmosphere makes it at least foreboding. Also, as this is my final Wheel Tips Corner, I figured I'd throw in my favourite track anyhow.

Have I ever mentioned graphics in this section? I have? Well, guess what? We start with the normal graphics update. Moving onto more interesting things, the ramp at the start can now be tricked off of, the interior of the airships has been changed a little, such as the room with the Rocket Engines having lava underneath it. The Bullet Bills have been replaced with Banzai Bills, and they fire at a more regular interval, and finally there is now a glide pad in the cannon section instead of just being blasted out. And this means if you're hit with an item, you need Lakitu, rather than being invulnerable.

Ace Shortcut In this small section I give you a way to shave a few seconds off your time, whether you know about it or not. Be warned, most of these shortcuts will require a Mushroom.

This issue I bring you a shortcut from Luigi's Mansion in ''Mario Kart 7.

As you exit the mansion into the graveyard, you will see a small ramp with a glide pad on it. Boost over the grass, and fly over the wall. Alternatively, as there is a hole in the wall, you can just drive through that as well.

And that's all from me for this section. Goodbye. Don't get too spooked!

Isaac Synergies
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Happy Halloween ‘Shroom readers! You know if you think about it, The Binding of Isaac is a pretty scary game. So much death and murder and macabre. It fuels me to find AMAZING synergies for you, so let’s get started now!

Do you remember my first ever entry in this section? It featured a controversial item called Tiny Planet, an item which causes your tears to orbit around your body. Well thanks to a new item in Afterbirth+’s Booster Pack, there is another great synergy with Tiny Planet. That item would be Technology Zero! Technology Zero links your tears together with a static bolt to deal extra damage. Usually it’s just chip damage, but when paired with Tiny Planet it becomes much more. Since your tears orbit around you, the Technology Zero static will link all of your tears, and you will be surrounded by a huge electrical field. It’s an amazing combo that looks really cool too!

Lachryphagy is a new item in the latest Booster Pack. With this item, it makes your tears “hungry”. If you shoot one of your tears into another tear, they will eat each other and become bigger. And you can keep feeding that tear more tears until it bursts and splashes tears all over the room. This may be a little hard to imagine, so in the beginning of the GIF below I’ll show what this looks like by itself. Now this item is absolutely amazing and there’s so many great synergies for it. I’m honestly debating if I should dedicate a whole section to Lachryphagy. Anyways, I decided to show one of the most powerful synergies with this new item, which would be the combination with Monstro’s Lung. Remember how I said that when tears run into each other they will get bigger? Well with Monstro’s Lung, virtually all of your tears will run into each other. This combination is just too insane to explain so please watch the GIF to see this synergy in all of it’s beauty.

Lastly I’m going to show off yet another new item in the most recent Booster Pack, which is Haemolacria. This item was based off of a very popular mod called Water Balloon, which you shoot a water balloon for tears. Now instead of water balloons, Haemolacria shoots glops of bleeding tears. Yeah I don’t really understand why the change either, but it works exactly the same though. When you shoot your tear, it will lob up much like it does with Ipecac, and when it hits the ground it will spray tears in all directions, giving it a great potential to be a powerful item. Believe it or not, brimstone also synergizes with this item. When you lob a Haemolacria shot with Brimstone, first the tear will have a Brimstone symbol on it, which I feel is a nice touch, and when it touches the ground, an explosion of Brimstone covers the room. It’s as great as it sounds and potentially game breaking.

And that is three great synergies for you to seek out and find. It’s dawned on me that the lifespan of Binding of Isaac is coming to a close, with Afterbirth+ being the final DLC and the booster packs ending this year. Despite this, I still think this game has endless fun and I hope you agree.

Pokédex Power
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Hello everyone, it's me, Yoshi876 again with a new edition of Pokédex Power, the section written by the man who is only occasionally weirded out by the Pokédex entries of Ghost Pokémon. But who can blame me? You try reading some of them.

It's Halloween time, and so it shouldn't be a surprise to anyone that I have chosen a Ghost type Pokémon for this edition. The usual plan will be to have a Ghost type for Halloween, but if I end up running out of them, then I do not mind swapping to just a generally spooky Pokémon.

This month we are focusing on Drifblim. I've trained a Drifblim on multiple Pokémon games, and I find it to be surprisingly decent. Obviously, the HP stat is amazing, and Aftermath is a fairly decent ability, unless you happen to be up against it, in which case it is an awful ability. I also like its design, although I'm not too fussed on its concept. So let's what happens with the Pokédex entries. Will I like them, or end up not too fussed about them?

Generation IV

Drifblim's introductory Pokédex entries already annoy, as they already contradict themselves. In Diamond it says that nobody knows where they go, whereas in Pearl they mention how they drift and have can end up anywhere, so of course it can be assumed that nobody knows where they actually end up. I do, however, like its nocturnal aspect. But I am confused as to why it carries people and Pokémon. Is it simply unaware? The HeartGold and SoulSilver entries give some nice basic information on its general biology, and Platinum at least gives Drifblim a mysterious vibe with this vanishing spiel. But again, if they vanish, why would we know where they go?

Generation V

Generation V doesn't add anything new, but I feel that Black 2, and White 2 do at least give further clarification on the fact that Drifblim just drift about.

Generation VI

Generation VI continues the trend of offering no new information.

Generation VII

Sun and Moon have in the past provided some decent Pokédex entries, but not this time. Sun tries to go for a spooky vibe, but seeing as Drifblim is rounded, and drifts overseas, it's completely natural for this man to have lost his grip and fallen. Moon just hammers home the point that Platinum made, in which Drifblim have a habit of just disappearing.

Conclusion

Drifblim has really poor Pokédex entries. Other than the Gen II remakes, and the Platinum entries, none of the entries are particularly interesting, and they start contradicting each other. What might have worked well is if they went with Drifblim being a ferrier of lost souls to the nether-realm. A poor showing for our first Halloween Pokémon.