Box of Lunch

[lunchbizzle]

New PC Review Post:

Alright, long techy post incoming. You've been warned!

My new computer is officially up and running, and I'm ready to give a little blog post/review of things. I've learned a lot from this build, and wanted to share my discoveries with others.

To give some background. This roughly my 5-6th computer I've built from scratch. My 2nd intel PC (first few were AMD), and my very first ever Nvidia PC. I've always supported AMD/ATI, but I cannot in good conscience give them money when Nvidia/Intel is just so far ahead in performance. I still love you AMD/ATI!

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Motherboard: I used the MSI Gaming M7 MOBO. This was by far my most frustrating purchase to pull the trigger on. There are SO many MOBO's now a days. The MOBO is very important to me, a lot of builders tend to skimp on this, and I've come to learn: a high quality MOBO will earn your money over the years. I've always been an ASUS fanboy, but I just couldn't find enough consistently good reviews and specs for the Maximus product line to warrant the price. I've never owned MSI, so I was a bit nervous.

I have to say, MSI has impressed me. ASUS still has better packaging, as they really spoil you with nice presentation and included parts and pieces. However, the BIOS for this MSI MOBO is excellent. It gives you lots of features and options, while also giving the ability to overclock (OC) very easily and effectively. MSI does seem to want you to install a lot of programs/applications, which makes me a little cranky, but so far I'm pleased with everything from this MOBO.

Processor: This thing is insane. 6700k i7. It's way overkill for practically anything I can throw at it. This is more so future proofing than anything, processor is just a beast. Anything from 6400-6600k is going to give you great performance. Sorry AMD. :(

Video Card: So, I've never owned an EVGA card. I want to take an aside to say: I may have become a life long EVGA fan boy. The packaging, the parts, the pieces themselves. Everything is beautiful, well-made, and they go out of their way to give you a premium experience. I respect that a lot. I wanted to splurge a little bit, and truly get the best video card for my money. The 1080 is still just a little too inflated for me to justify, and the 1070 seems to be killing everything I throw at it.

A budget option of the 1060 would do great for basically everyone, the 1070 is probably the best price/quality ratio currently, and the 1080 is just Jesus Christ in video card form.

RAM: Always used G-skill, always been fine. Decided to try Corsair. Great packaging, RAM looks sexy, and is stable as a rock. I'll update as start to OC and push it's limits. Always get reliable RAM.

Processor Cooler: I have a confession. I've always used the stock fan. I've never had heating issues...ever. So, I admit I am a little skeptical of some of the more hardcore bros pushing liquid cooling and super air coolers. However, I respect that I don't usually OC, or don't always push my parts to the limits. I tend to play it safe and maybe should be more aggressive.

I decided to split the difference and get an after-market cooler, but was air cooled. The Cooler Master EVO 212. The thing was a little bit of a bitch to install, and is freaking huge, but it seems to be running super solid. My CPU has not gone over 33 degrees celsius. Which seems pretty legit. I plan on investigating Corsair based liquid cooling in the future, but for now, it's doing a great job. Also, it was $30. Can't beat it.

Power Supply: EVGA 650W G2. Another concession to EVGA. This thing is beautifully made, and came packaged like a bottle of $1000 wine. Truly a high level of respect and craftsmanship by EVGA. My very first modular PS, how did I ever live before this? Spend the extra few bucks people, and always get modular. It's so beautiful and makes cable management easy as pie.

Monitor: Dell 27in 1440p 144hz G-sync. I spent many many weeks researching monitors. Boy, have they gotten complicated. Do you want 1440p? 144hz? Both? G-sync? Some have this, some don't. Some have them all! I ultimately decided to spend a little more money and just get everything in one package. I also was surprised as you might be, that it's a Dell?! Isn't Dell shitty? Well, turns out, they make really freaking good monitors. I would not recommend Dell for anything else, but this monitor is the real deal. It's beautiful and is the bow on top of the entire package.

Case: I saved the best for last. If you take anything from this post, take this. Buy the Corsair Air 540 series for your next build. It's big, but by god this is the best computer part I've ever owned or bought. It made building my PC a pleasure, and joy. It gives you incredible features, cable management, virtually no need for any tools, and it just feels really well-made and completely designed for the pc builder. I cannot recommend this case enough. Worth every single penny. It's super quiet, great cooling, and amazing ability to be adapted to exactly what you want to do with your PC. Superb.

Lastly, I want to recommend pcpartpicker.com. I remember the days of having 10x newegg tabs open at a time. Taking the mobo and finding all the right parts, sorting by reviews or specs. pcpartpicker does everything for you, and makes building a pc downright dangerously fun and easy. You'll get addicted to it.

Special thanks to Radio, for being my 2nd opinion on everything, and my consultant. You helped a lot man. I hoped this was helpful or enjoyable for any who read it. Please comment or DM me with any questions. I love helping people build and upgrade their PCs! See link for my build: http://pcpartpicker.com/list/TTJ68K

[theartofmtg]

Magic Origins || Kaladesh

Mandatory Kaladesh art spam with all the excitement today!

[markrosewater]

Have you seen Batman vs. Superman? If so, what did you think of it?

I’ve seen it. I prefer superhero films where I like the superheroes. 

[postrk]

I smell a #clue and 22 new #tokens, live now and I’ll bring a slew to #ECCC. More #mtgsoi tokens are coming. #dog #daschund #wienerdog #victorian #steampunk #illustration #art #artist #artcard #artwork #rkpost #token #Mtg #mtgdeck #mtgaddicts #mtgelite #mtgcommunity

[mediamattersforamerica]

Spot-on.

[magicjudge]

Let’s Talk About Color Identity

With the wider re-introduction of double-faced cards in Shadows over Innistrad, I’ve been getting a lot of questions about the color identities of certain cards and what Commander / EDH decks they can be played in, so let’s talk about that.

What is Color Identity? Color identity is an attribute of a card. It basically sums up all of the card’s color values, taking into account three things: Colored mana symbols in the card’s mana cost, mana symbols in its rules text, and any color indicators it might have. In the case of double-faced cards, we look at the attributes of both faces of the card. 

A card’s color identity only matters for deckbuilding in the Commander format. A card can only be played in a commander deck if its color identity doesn’t contain any colors not found in the commander’s color identity.

Let’s Build a Deck! To demonstrate the principles of color identity, let’s pretend that we’re building a new commander deck and that we’ve chosen Dragonlord Dromoka as our commander:

Wow! She’s neat-o! Now that we have Dromoka as our commander, we need to determine her color identity. She has green and white mana symbols in her mana cost, no mana symbols in her rules text, and no color indicator. This all means that her color identity is green and white, and it means that we can’t run any cards in our deck that have blue, black, or red in their color identities.

(I’ve added helpful color identity pentagons next to each card pictured to illustrate what we’re discussing.)

What should we put into our deck next? We like playing allies, so how about General Tazri?

Well, Tazri has only white mana symbols in her mana cost, so that works so far, and she doesn’t have a color indicator, so we’re in the clear there, but she has that ability that costs WUBRG to activate and that sadly means she has a white, blue, black, red, and green color identity and can’t be a member of Dromoka’s deck. :(

All right, fine… well what about Archangel Avacyn? We’ve opened her at the SoI prerelease and are excited to play with her in deck. Let’s take a look…

Her mana cost has white mana symbols, and she has no mana symbols in her rules text, but she has that red color indicator on her Avacyn, the Purifier side. This gives her a red and white color identity, which means she can’t play nicely with Dromoka.

Other Mana Symbols There are some other mana symbols besides the five normal colored mana symbols, so lets talk about how they affect a card’s color identity.

Hybrid mana symbols consist of two different mana symbols combined into one. For the purposes of color identity, they count as mana symbols of all of their constituent colors.

Kitchen Finks has a green and white color identity because of its green and white hybrid mana cost.

Phyrexian mana symbols represents a cost that can be paid either with 2 life or a mana of the appropriate color. Phyrexian mana symbols count as mana symbols of their color.

Dismember has a black color identity because of the black Phyrexian mana symbols in its mana cost.

The colorless mana symbol looks like a diamond and represents either colorless mana that is added to a mana pool or a cost that can only be paid with colorless mana. Colorless isn’t a color, and thus the colorless mana symbol doesn’t contribute to a card’s color identity.

Endbringer has no colored mana symbols in its mana cost or rules text and it doesn’t have a color indicator, so it has a colorless color identity. It can be played in any commander deck.

Unidentified Color Objects Talking about colorless mana is an excellent segue into talking about our next subject: things that don’t affect color identity.

First there’s Devoid, which makes the permanent it’s on have no color, but as we said, a permanent’s color isn’t always the same as its color identity. (e.g. General Tazri is a white permanent, but has a WUBRG color identity.) Permanents with devoid still have colored mana symbols in their mana costs and sometimes their rules text, and those mana symbols still define the card’s color identity.

Despite having devoid, Catacomb Sifter has a black and green color identity because of its mana cost.

While mana symbols in a card’s rules text contributes to its color identity, mana symbols in its reminder text don’t. (This mostly matters for monowhite and monoblack cards with Extort, which has a white and black hybrid mana symbol in its reminder text, but also applies to a few other cards such as Charmed Pendant.)

Blind Obedience has a white color identity because of its mana cost. The white/black hybrid symbol in the extort ability is reminder text and doesn’t affect it’s color identity. e.g. Blind Obedience could be played in the Dragonlord Dromoka deck.

In Conclusion… So that’s it. That’s everything I can think to say about color identity in a (relatively large) nutshell. I hope you enjoyed this little primer and, as always, if you have any follow-up questions please drop them in my inbox: magicjudge.tumblr.com/ask

[howardlyonart]

Mana Confluence time-lapse. #mtg #mtgart #art #painting #timelapse

[lollipopcrumbs]

Accurate point, when someone walks into a school with an AK47, terrorism is on your doorstep. #WeThePeople

[cardboard-crack]

My new book is now available on my site and on Amazon. Please check it out, thanks!

[champagnemanagement]

i made two of these. i like this one bc he looks contemplative and a little sad.

[markrosewater]

Will the zendikar expedition cards be only for the first few print runs? or will it be for the entire run of Battle for zendikar a

I believe it is for the entire print run.

[markrosewater]

Will expeditions be in ANY booster or just those packaged in boxes? I need to know if I need to put in a vacation request with my family and draw money out of their college funds to attend all the prereleases I can fit into those 48 hours.

You have a chance to open a Zendikar Expeditions card in any Battle for Zendikar (or Sweat) booster.

[markrosewater]

Where does annihilator sit on the storm scale?

I think I put it at 7.

[akatopdeck]

[boredpanda]

[flashlights-n-traintimes]

National Geographic photographers are metal as fuck

[jackfromnc-deactivated20151211]

deserves reblogging because these aren’t even the best photos of the crew, but are still pretty damn good.

[space-trash-club]

Bernie Sanders Merch by Look Human

[thelittleblackmermaid-blog]

I want all of them

[postrk]

#GenCon booth 2833 is ready for stuff and things. Check out the creative #token solution. 170 of them have to go somewhere. #gencon2015 #rkpost (at Indiana Convention Center)