The Land of Stories

Sometimes sensible ramblings regarding books, board/video games, and writing- twitch.tv/anna_wayfinder

[annawayfinder]

Delicious Flavour

Friend of mine opened a Karlov Manor pack recently and passed me a copy of Shock. They said I should have it because I’d enjoy the flavour text. To be fair, they’re not wrong. It’s quite delicious.

[annawayfinder]

Finally!

Been saving some money, where I can, for some of the more expensive cards I’d like in my collection, either for decks or my folder.

My LGS finally had some copies of this card come in and I had enough saved to snap it up!

Needless to say, it went into a commander deck. I can’t afford a play set at the moment but even having one for a deck/the collection is awesome 🤩

[annawayfinder]

I’m supposed to be building mono coloured decks, but I got distracted.

Guess I’m making an Izzet deck instead.

Okay, I’m making an Oathbreaker deck…

…

…

… Okay, fine! I’ll make both.

[annawayfinder]

So, recently I received a gift. It was from a good friend and fellow Magic: The Gathering player. They found me some cards for my collection (and decks of course)

They wanted me to have the alternative Tatyova art for my commander deck and, I have to say, the alt art is rather good! The rest are all Jace and Jace adjacent cards which I’d been hoping to put in decks or add to my collection. For example, Jace’s Phantasm went straight into the side board of my mono blue mill deck, and I want to use the Call the Gatewatch card for a super friends deck I have a few ideas for.

I should also point out that save for Phyrexian Arena they gave me three or four copies of each spell so as to be good in decks which aren’t singleton.

Which is to say, my friend is so kind and I’m glad they were able to add to my ever increasing collection of Jace cards. I mean, they even included story spotlight cards in their gift! :) :)

[annawayfinder]

For the next 24 days I’m attempting to read a short story daily. A Short Story Advent Calendar, if you will. I’ve put 30 stories into the Mug of Destiny™️, hopefully drawing one each day.

Join in, if you’d like. It doesn’t have to be a short story, it can be a poem or pages of a novel you want to finish.

Don’t worry about missing days. We’re busy and this’s supposed to be fun. I’ll be reminding myself of this too.

First story is ‘We Interrupt This Broadcast’ by Mary Robinette Kowal from the collection Word Puppets.

[annawayfinder]

In order to learn more about Magic: the Gathering, I’ve decided to build mono coloured decks. I’ve already built a mono white deck and now I wanted to tackle blue. My initial thought was to build around Mill but while I was searching through my spare cards I found a play set of Jace’s Erasure and now I’m thinking of going with Mill with a side of card draw/mill effects.

I’m excited to see how this turns out. I don’t expect it to be a brilliant deck (in the beginning), but more something to build on and learn from.

Also, the art and flavour text on this card are great!

[annawayfinder]

Just finished cracking packs for my draft games with friends tomorrow and I pulled Johann, Apprentice Sorcerer. I know it’s probably not the ‘best’ legendary, but it looks like he could be a lot of fun to build a deck around. The ideas are already swirling.

[annawayfinder]

Recently, I found myself getting back into Magic: The Gathering. I had played it a little bit in the past, even going so far as to brew a commander deck with a friend. However, I lost track of it with one thing and another and it’s been a while since I played.

I dug out my decks and found I wanted to play again and since I know people who play the game they were happy to take a somewhat noob under their wing and get me reacquainted with the rules.

When Wilds of Eldraine was announced I was thinking I would use it as an opportunity to update my decks and maybe brew some new ones to the point that I ended up buying a booster box so I could participate in a sealed draft with the aforementioned friends; the first one I’d ever done. Here’s the result. I called the deck Ultra Processed Food as the deck worked around Greta and food tokens making my creatures big.

I had to watch a few draft tutorials to get this right, but I’m fairly happy with the result and may extend it to a full deck. I’m also taking part in another sealed draft this weekend. I wonder what the next deck will look like?

[annawayfinder]

Further Theatrhythm Shenanigans

Recently, I’ve been working on a review of Theatrhythm Final Bar Line to practice writing skills, which may have become rusty. For this I decided to take into account the following:

For a good overview of the game and its mechanics I should play a full PT on Basic and Expert (Ultimate and Supreme are hardest). I also feel Basic and Expert are the difficulties the majority of players will engage with. Therefore, it made sense to be able to discuss them.

I should examine the various modes in the game, if I have access to them. So, whilst I can’t play multiplayer, I will be checking out one button mode and so forth.

Progress: I finished Basic last week and since then I have been practicing for Expert. It is certainly a leap in difficulty from Basic so it’s giving me plenty to think/write about. I have to be careful as I’m enjoying playing the game so much I’m in danger of injuring my thumbs. I wanted to make this update as it may be a little time before the review is ready and seeing this will remind me progress is being made; also it means I’m writing.

Here are my current top three tracks. I practice these the most. I wonder if this will change as I make my way through my second adventure with the game?

1) Doom Castle: FF Mystic Quest 2) Bombing Mission: Final Fantasy VII 3) Apoplexy: Final Fantasy Tactics

[annawayfinder]

Reading Slump :(

I’m a little bit frustrated with this situation as it has been going on for some weeks. I’m not sure what’s going wrong, if anything. I have a book on my shelf which I’m only reading a chapter at a time before putting it down. It’s a good book as well, just can’t seem to get into anything right now. Not even comics are helping.

So, I’ve decided to try something. I’ve picked some books which have caught my eye and I’ll read a little bit of each one until something clicks with me. If it doesn’t, I’ll take the hint from the brain matter and do something else this weekend.

I will also not be annoyed at myself if doing something else is what’s needed. I’ve read 80+ books this year and so it’s quite possible brain needs a rest.

[annawayfinder]

Theatrhythm Final Fantasy.

I’ve just finished my first Theatrhythm game. To be honest, this was not something I thought I could do.

Before this I had completed Melody of Memory twice but this Theatrhythm is, to me, a little harder. The triggers are faster and the learning curve a little greater. For now, I’ve only completed the game on Basic, but I would like to try and see if I can play on Expert too. I have so many thoughts about this game. Maybe I’ll get them into another post in the future. For now, I guess I practice for Expert Mode.

[annawayfinder]

Had a clear out recently and I found something I thought I’d lost. Look at this beaut.

I’d purchased a used copy of Final Fantasy VII many years after release and so the guide is also thrifted. It’s fairly detailed given it’s about ten pages of a magazine. It even includes a secrets section. Internet solutions are so ubiquitous now; I miss these little magazine guides.

I did also end up with a copy of the official guide so I figured this little gem had been lost to the ether. However, I’m glad I still have it as it’s a great little piece of game history.

[annawayfinder]

Books!

My babies are heeerrrreee!

[annawayfinder]

Kingdom Hearts 3D

It’s been a while since I have been able to visit the second hand game store. Boy am I glad I popped in today. Look what they had:

I already have the remaster of this game, but I really wanted to play it in its original form and see what it would have been like to play when it first came out. It was also complete with booklets and AR cards.

Look how much thought they put into the packaging as well. It’s so adorable.

Can’t wait to start collecting dream eaters again and experience this game on original hardware.

I only have to find a copy of Re:Coded now hehe.

[annawayfinder]

Internet Break 🙂

I’m having a little rest from the internet across the weekend and I’m oddly excited for it. My mind is currently pondering which movies I may get round to and if I’ll be able to read more or concentrate better on hobbies.

It’s a little scary too. We’re so used to having the internet around us and taking a break from it feels akin to cutting yourself away from the world for a bit.

My main hope is it will be a restful time, especially for my mind.

[annawayfinder]

Happy April!

Spring is here! Here’s to a good week.

I’m feeling in a comic book mood this week. Here’s what I’m hoping to read. All the books I’m reading this week are second (third/fourth…) reads and I’m excite. Feel like there’s a lot of emphasis on reading a book and moving on, quick, to the next one. On this blog we stan re reads. I also advocate multiple play throughs of video games soooo…

Anyway, the books:

I also want to spend some time this week on this beaut. It’s also a second (third?) read. Highly recommend all of these, obvs.

[annawayfinder]

Dragon Quest IX

Awesome thing happened recently. Went to the local second hand game store and found this:

It’s so difficult to find Dragon Quest games on DS as many retain a high value. Luckily, this time, it was a good price and it came complete with booklets. It’s in such good condition the codes for Nintendo Club haven’t been scratched. An excellent deal.

I’ve tested it and thankfully it works! Hurrah. The premise and system looks interesting and I’m looking forward to getting to try this when I’ve finished DQ8.