Rmoval

Studies

[sdyuteiaok]

Man, super tired so I just thought I'd knock out some Timeless games, but just one of those days where I could not buy a win. Finally got it done, but, man, that's frustrating when they just have just the right thing or just one more threat than you have answers to or they get under your counters and you never draw removal. Anyway. It also looks like the Power 9 puzzle is finally dead. It's been lingering in this buggy form for a while but as of last Monday, it's just not loaded, and I feel like we'll give it a couple more days, but if I understand, the creator of the puzzle is no longer working on it and has indeed given up on it, so that's probably it for the best Magic puzzle I've encountered. But at least MTG-Doku is taking up the charge, though it's not as good. The basic grid is way, way too easy, though I do like the additional challenge of trying to beat the other players by getting more obscure cards, though this system is also a little bugged cuz it looks like if you play too early, it counts your initial stats in your stat breakdown, so like one time, I was the first person to complete the puzzle so I got maximum percentage on everything--only when you refresh later on after more players have guessed does it adjust you down to your proper percentage, and rather than the full 900%, I often get pretty low. So far my record is 7% (a puhfect numbuhhhh!), but that isn't reflected in my all-time stats cuz I gather it just looks at that initial score when you first submit, meaning I'd have to play at the end of the day rather than the top, which is a little inconvenient. I left feedback that they ought to tell you what certain cutesy clues mean, though, as some were impossible to solve unless you figured out exactly what they mean, which is absolutely frustrating cuz it's not quizzing your Magic knowledge, but your ability to discern what the writer means the clue to be. Fortunately they updated with my suggestion to include a hangar that you can hover into to get an explanation of what they're actually looking for. But the main challenge, which is right up there with getting a perfect Power 9, is getting a perfect 27 on the Cube version of the puzzle. That's the real puzzle. I've gotten 28 like thrice, but I actually hit 27 once, and man, that felt incredible. I still prefer the Power 9, but seeing as that's looking like it's finally bitten the dust, I'm just fine getting my MTG puzzles via the Doku and Type Wizard, where you guess creatures' types--I've gotten it two or three times...but these puzzles are way more interesting when you impose additional challenges--so I'm chasing getting a perfect on Type Wizard without going over, since you don't get penalized for overguessing, just under, so this is way harder. And then for the regular Doku, true victory is a full rainbow (9 unique guesses) with a low percentage. The cube version is simply getting it in 27 guesses; a lot more lenience on guessing since it's such a big puzzle, so I allow myself to count getting part of the name right and using the dropdown to help me get the exact name.

[sdyuteiaok]

Man, had a big Prismari deck, but it just was lacking oomph. And this is now the second time I've come up short on playables, though fortunately they weren't total bottom of the barrel cards for my last two, but they were a little on the iffy side. We had to include a second Textbook Tabulator and a second Zealous Lorecaster. One of each is fine and preferable, but two is definitely pushing it. But we didn't get any Visionary's Dance or anything, so our main way to win was to wipe the opponent's hand with Arcane Omens and then Snarl Song our way to victory, either with a couple 4/4s or greater or just recurring the heck out of that spell from our Lorecasters and our Wisdom of the Ancients. We were missing crucial cheap interaction, which made me extremely skeptical about this deck, and that indeed came to pass. I had two Essence Scatter and two Brush Off, but I could never draw the creature disruption early, and it just so happened it seemed like everyone was on the Izzet aggro plan. I haven't seen that deck in action, but it was just a marathon of this style back to back. And we were also missing a sweeper of some sort. I bet I shoulda just took it a little easier on my land picks to get some more spells in there, cuz we had plenty of taplands, but not a whole lot to do with them. But this was a super weird deck to begin with, as we were like BG Prismari, with two of the 1BG kill something gain 1, plus a Wander Off--and this 3B exile spell was the subject of a severe misplay. I was getting run over, of course, but managed to stick a Lorecaster and induce my opponent to waste his turn dealing with it, but the card I shoulda returned was not the 1BG killspell but the exiler, cuz sure enough, he had the B trick to give his Orzhov Rhino indestructible. I had plenty of lands at that point, so there was no need to pick the cheaper spell, but the more reliable one. That Rhino ended up being too much to handle and we lost shortly after. But one game we recurred Snarl Song twice--and didn't even have to cast it that third time cuz it was just an insurance policy should anything happen to my 4/4 from the first or second cast of it that was slugging it out. So the deck was pretty neat, certainly a new experience--I told you this format is still fascinating, from the various, various Prismari decks you can build, such as this one, to the Izzet aggro numbers we saw plenty of this run--but we just didn't have the tools to make this thing reliable, notably burn. We in fact only had three red spells: a 2B artifact and two Lorecasters. I am almost certain we blew it in the draft, and shoulda prioritized some sharper spells over a couple of the lands. I don't recall seeing any Troves, though we did manage to pick up a Channeler, but for the most part, you shouldn't worry too much about getting five colors reliably--it just kinda happens if you have your stuff reasonably built, with a solid number of taplands. Being so short on cheap disruption--I passed a Mockery and a Tome Blast--was the deathknell, though, and we only scraped out two wins. But fortunately we're doing well enough that we got a number of bullets left, at least two or three in gems alone, and then we have at least one gold run ready, too, so we should be able to finish out the set's run, I'd imagine. And maybe we might pick up the blue Mystical Archives bundle after all...I dunno...

[sdyuteiaok]

I found out about this Day of Play event, which is a free Foundations phantom draft for a random cosmetic to promote playing games, some larger initiative Hasbro is taking part in or something. What an insanely stingy way to do it, man. Phantom draft. Foundations. Only one prize, despite the ticker thing indicating you get one prize per win. And then it's only a cosmetic. And it's random. And it can be from apparently anything, including Alchemy--which of course I got. And you only get one entry. And it's only available for like 24 hours or so. Just unbelievable man. And by unbelievable, I of course mean believable. They are so cartoonishly stingy. Couldn't at least one of those things be more friendly towards players? The whole idea is to promote playing. But every aspect of it discourages it. Like...it's Foundations, man, let us keep these largely useless cards. Are you gonna bankrupt the company by letting us keep the cards? Why is the prize so tight? One cosmetic, when the prize tracker looks like you get one thing per win...why? Just freaking let us win a bunch of random common cosmetics and have the frail hope of rolling into something flashier. Or if it's just one prize, why not just make it guaranteed to at least be one of the Foundation alt-arts? Like...who is this ruining financially? It costs you nothing and you earn so much good will from just the illusion of generosity. This is so easy and obvious. Anyway. Of course I haven't drafted Foundations in forever, so I just stuck to general drafting principles, actively read the draft, and thought back to my vague memories of the format, which I didn't draft much when it was out, to begin with. I recalled there was a stark dearth of card draw in the format, and oddly red had the most reliable card draw in the format thanks to the 4R burn spell that can rummage, so I made sure to pick up one of those when it was clear I was in BR. We started off in this draw-light format with the 3BB rare Vampire that draws on creature death, though, so that was a great way to kick off the draft. And I had a ton of removal and cheap guys to keep chipping in until we got to our bigger bodies. The deck did quite well, but we lost to a guy that was like mono rares and finished off with a Vivien, and we couldn't draw our Hero's Downfall. Anyway, pretty nice games, a nice change of pace, but the absolute stinginess did leave a bitter taste to the event. Since there's only a little time left in our cascade draft, I did make sure to get a few last games of that in, as regularly scheduled, and it remains a sweet format. I really probably shoulda just gone for my second Tackle Artist, cuz just casting a four-drop and then this thing becoming unwieldy with almost no effort is definitely a way to win ballgames. But I couldn't settle on what to ditch. Mighta just been a land, cuz we had two Troves, a Channeler, and a Craft with Pride, plus a 1/4 graveleave guy, so realistically, we had plenty of ramp low on the curve to get us to our topend. But anyway, definitely a cool way to change things up, and perhaps this was only so successful cuz of this particular format, which is eph heavy. But I'm sure it would also work in a creature-heavy format, too, though that might induce more stalemates while people wait to deck. I notice that with the lighter emphasis on creatures here, your cascades can often just knock a guy out so your mini-squad can swing in. As opposed to if this were creature heavy, everything would bring a buddy and nobody could get through. I'm almost certain they did this very thing before...Kaldheim maybe? Anyway, it worked wonderfully for this format, that's for sure.

[sdyuteiaok]

All right, taking a quick break from drafting Strixhaven to draft Strixhaven for Midweek Magic, but this has the cascade emblem, which is a legitimately game-altering twist, as opposed to say the first land enters tapped emblem. It's cool when something like this radically alters your understanding and prosecution of a thitherto familiar format. I didn't get any premium one-drops, and in fact, ended up cutting my XXU eph regrower cuz while it's nice to snap back a bunch of spells, it just didn't come up in this format, as it would in the regular format, and it just introduced the chance to misclick if you ever accidentally cast it for 0 while it always hit on any two-drop spell. But my thinking was that the Opus creatures would be a little better here, and indeed they were. I bumped up to two Textbook Tabulators, and those guys chunk in, but also knock lands out of your deck to ensure better hits on subsequent casts. I have one of two Tackle Artist, might want to put in that second, cuz the reasonably large cost gets another cast off, and then everything from that point on can get devastating. I do wish I had some more disruption, particularly bounce to reset any monsters, but we have some good burn, including two Vibrant Outbursts to both kill stuff instantly and slow down big guys, which accomplishes a similar goal as bounce spells, meanwhile juicing our Opus creatures. Our rares are the 2/2 menace Goblin, the 4-damage/draw 1UURR, and...that might be it. Anyway, the deck's strength is in how well it can weather onslaughts, and then grind out the opponent thanks to two Trove and the exiler Archaic, which ensures I never deck and that I can get solid hits back into my deck to cascade into, which is really cool. But the stars of the show are the Tabulators and the Tackle guy, which once crunched in for 10 solo. Meanwhile my burn spells clear the path and keep us safe. It's not the best Prismari deck I've ever drafted, but it's got a lot of resilience and it's geared to this event specifically, and I feel it's successful in that regard. The games play out so differently, I'm eager to play some more tomorrow.

[sdyuteiaok]

Man, had a really solid RW deck today, which we kinda speculated on early, but it paid off huge. The first pick--and subsequent picks--had a wealth of Orzhov stuff to choose from, including the 1WWBB guy that blinks stuff, but I figured it was too much of a gamble to go so all-in on Silverquill, but I'm pretty sure that woulda been viable too--I was seeing super late 2/2 repartee drain 1s and stuff. But I was quite content with our RW path. I p1p1 the 3/4 menace that makes a 2/2 when graveleave, and ended up getting as second one, even, as I figured this card was a bit easier to cast and also let me not necessarily get locked into a specific school yet, though of course he thrives in RW, whereas the other ones, particularly the rare, are that school or bust. We also saw one of maybe four 2/2 bouncers, so there coulda been some kinda aggro Prismari deck, I bet. We ended up getting two of the 4W revive and draw on graveleave, and man, getting both of those plus at least one of my 3/4 menaces rolling at the same time was absurd. And that was without even factoring my 2RW artifact pinging all the while or my super late 2/1 Bird pecking in. We even got the History Buff legend, plus a Sloth and three or four 3/1s and one or two rummage Horses to help get stuff into and out of the graveyard. This was definitely a trophy deck, but we only managed five wins, which is just wonderful, don't get me wrong, but this one definitely had the makings of a trophy. I am almost certain I blew one game for sequencing--getting everything just right to trigger my graveleavers, factor in the artifact, and pump the right thing required some quick, complex planning, and I just felt a little under the gun, though I did read my opponent for the B -/+ card, I just needed to get my Bird out in time to see a graveleave to trigger, but I messed it up and he popped it before I could get a crucial counter. But, man, we were so close to getting him, but his very last card, on his diminished board, which couldn't withstand a full attack from my army of tokens and stuff, was the double-strike lifelink card and he had an Owlin Historian to glide past us on the ground and keep him alive just enough to counter my massive swings, and ultimately he had just enough wiggle room to end it. I am almost certain I coulda gotten him had I played a little tighter. But we had some excellent games, and we got five wins, so we're in great position to finish out the format strong. I'm gonna stick with SOS over any cube stuff cuz I'm just really feeling this format and I don't want to incinerate my resources, and we're already looking at a sizeable haul come pack day. And this set is particularly valuable cuz it has that juiced bonus sheet, whereas cube is mostly old, irrelevant sets. Last time I cubed I got a bunch of old Core Set packs! Like...thanks for playing, sucka. I did get one Cube pack though, and even with these super premium packs, it was like Dack Fayden and stuff...not relevant unless we could build our own cubes or something. Plus I just like this format, anyway. Various shades of Prismari or justt straight Silverquill or Lorehold, it's all good. And I feel like I'm definitely getting better at the latter two, as well, after plenty of runs with the variety of Prismari decks you can draft. And even then, I am more than pleased to get more reps in with the innumerable styles of UR available.

[sdyuteiaok]

Wow, I wasn't going to draft today, but since I needed to eat up some time, I figured I might as well, and we got a super janky Silverquill deck--it was so bad I was actually short playables! Plural! My first several picks were geared towards Prismari soup, including picking up a Trove, but it just wasn't coming together, and fortunately I had the makings of a backdoor into Silverquill, and indeed that's what the packs were dictating, so I was able to slip into BW, but I lost a good chunk of early picks, though they weren't stellar to being with, aside from the Trove. But by the end of the draft, I was short two cards! That's basically unheard of these days, ever since they made an effort to make the commons all pretty playable, so it's mainly a matter of deciding which lackluster or mediocre card is your 23rd inclusion, rather than I just-plain don't have a 23rd card, as used to be the case, when you'd have to run something that was just a notch above an 18th land. So I included my Trove, which actually did help us out by buffering our life so we could attack more aggressively and not need to worry about crackbacks as much--and I even pulled off the mondo combo of holding full control to cast my p1p1 Murder, tap it to gain life, and activate the Murder's infusion life drain rider. And then we were also relatively low on creatures, too, so that made it even more sketchy that we had to run two of the revive-two cards, but it was either that or an 18th land. So it was better than literally nothing, even though there was a high risk I wouldn't have two creatures in the grave frequently enough. But because you are guaranteed two life from casting it, I was able to leverage it as 2B gain two life some times, which was just enough to get me rolling. I only grabbed two creatures a couple times, but the two life was perfect to trigger one of my only rares, the 1/3 lifelinker that prepares Sign in Blood. This one game she drew me like six cards, including a revive to bring her and a pal back when she finally got deal with. But we had some incidental pumps to get her to a permanent two life gain range to prepare herself. And wouldn't you know it, this ultra janky deck actually trophied! I was stunned. But we had two 1/2 prepare untap/tap draw guys, which helped us get our curve rolling if we ever stumbled, and we had our millionth overall rare painland, which got into the red zone a number of times, and was enough to guarantee a couple wins even after wraths. And those double revives also conveniently dug us back from some wraths, too. So things really lined up well. The deck was nice and aggressive, though we were lacking just a couple more cheap creatures, but our removal was quite solid, but the strength was in our resilience since we could just come out the gates gunning and then mow down bigger threats while our little guys got to work. I acknowledge we got pretty luck when a few opponents stalled out or we happened to draw our revives or pumps when we needed them to power up our Sign in Blood lady, but I feel like we played pretty tightly, too. Anyway, this was absolutely one of the most surprising runs I've ever done, totally did not see a trophy coming, but we take these. And we're into platinum, too, so that's all squared away. Even took part in the ranked brawl event for some free XP. Looking ahead, I believe I'll stick with Strixhaven over risking all these resources in Cube, though, cuz as I recall it took a while to warm up to cube, and I just have so many resources now, I'd rather not blow such a lead, especially as we're heading into a new format where it behooves you to get that format down as soon as possible, and that just takes multiple shots at it, and we're in a position to do that, meanwhile we're pretty solid with Strixhaven, so we should be able to hold our own in the meantime. Maybe, maybe if we keep crushing I can afford a quick cube swing, and we'll see if more cubing is in the cards.

[sdyuteiaok]

A bit tight on time, but we did get our studies done earlier, though only just now posting them...

[sdyuteiaok]

Couldn't sleep, so I just rolled into my "next" day after a few minutes trying to pass out. I can't stand sleeping, I just detest the utter waste of time involved in trying to fall asleep. I'd rather be doing stuff exhausted than doing nothing restfully. Anyway, didn't want to risk not being fully alert in a draft, though, so I just zombied through some Timeless games. Surprisingly difficult to get that fourth win, though...just could never get stuff to line up. One emblematic play was I finally stabilized with a Toxic Deluge to clear the board, and then of course his last card is a flashed in creature, and I'm right under the gun again and can't stabilize again. I did swap out a Undercity Plunder for my first purposeful craft in forever, a third copy of Inquisition of Kozilek. Realistically, I've been wanting one more disruption item, and I had penciled in a Force of Will or Daze, and I'm looking forward to Pack Day coming up cuz I am hoping to rip at least one of these, so maybe I shoulda just waited to see if I open any, but I've been wanting that third IOK, too, though the previous version of the deck has been solid enough without it. I just find the two mana for the Undercity Plunder is a little inconvenient, and there's a world of difference between having a turn-one discard and not. So that's why I went in for yet another discard card, and meanwhile my Psychic Frogs do a great job of clearing my hand of irrelevant cards later on in the game. I absolutely love how it owns Chalice of the Void, cuz all those cards just get churned into damage. Anyway. I dunno. Just feeling drained, yet...not tired enough to sleep...how long have I been awake at this point? Man...oh, and also, how neat that they finally announced Final Fantasy's final installment. Just as I had predicted, they're going for the poetic 2027 publish date. It looks huge, and I'm so happy for all the FF7 fans that are so happy about this news. I still feel like an outside observer, since I don't really count myself necessarily as a fan, but like I'm auditing a class. I have certainly grown great affinity for the series, but I've barely played the game--I remember we musta rented it from Blockbuster back in the day, but I just gave up really, really soon into it, and never looked back. I was more into Nintendo, and specifically Pokemon, and looking back, FF just felt a little too above my age bracket, I guess. It just felt like a game for older kids, and I was not there, I definitely would rather be hanging out in the Pokemon universe. But experiencing this game and franchise through Magic initially, then its soundtracks, then Briana White's playthroughs, I definitely feel great warmth for the series, and just like when the fetchlands finally got reprinted, I was so thrilled for all the eternal players despite not being one myself, I am elated FF fans around the world are collectively experiencing such a pleasant surprise and development. I don't know the narrative super well, but I was shocked there was even going to be a part three. Just listening to the soundtrack and stuff, I'm like...didn't they beat the bad guy? What more is there left to do? And then once I learned a little more, I'm like...is there enough material for a third game? But the trailers seem to indicate an even huger game, so I'm sure they'll pack it to the brim. I just hope we get to experience the playthroughs. Hope everything's all right with the cast and everything, they all seem like such nice, genuine people.

[sdyuteiaok]

Ugh, had a close-but-not-quite Prismari deck for my first SOS draft in a while. I feel like we were missing some closers. And what a game to go out on for our 3-3 finish. My opening hand was three different colored lands, two Potioner's Troves and two Arcane Omens, quite emblematic of this format. But we didn't really have the punch needed to capitalize on our wonderful mana situation. I definitely needed a Snarl Song or Visionary's Dance. But I took a 5-mana 3/3 flyer surveil 2 relatively highly once it became clear I was not getting anything to close with. I even had to swing in with my two 3BB modal sweeper, burn, or 3/3 cards. But I severely misplayed in my nervousness to fire off Arcane Omens. I debated waiting a turn so I could surprise block with a 3/3 so that I could both eat a guy, hinder future attacks, and stabilize while the following turn I Arcane Omens for likely the entire hand, but instead I jumped the gun to fire off Omens and just couldn't keep up with what was on the board. And I hit that pattern a couple times in the run, so I feel the lesson here is stabilize first and then wipe their hand. It's not worth it to clear their hand if you can't immediately lock up the field, too. I did that very thing in another game, and that's how it's definitely supposed to go, but just firing off Omens without being able to stabilize is clearly a recipe for disaster. I'm trying to think if we got any rares...now that I think about it, I'm not sure we did aside from our milliionth BW slowland. We did pick up a couple never-draft, insta-sideboard rares for the collection though, so at least there was that. And I misplayed with those Troves, too--I missed a couple of lifegains cuz I freaking tapped wrong. That was quite frustrating. I coulda bought another turn in one game for sure--and we both were just drawing lands like crazy towards the end, so all I needed was like one spell to get back into it. But I also messed up a surveil with my dual--I clicked to end his turn, thinking it'd then get me to the end step window, where I was prepared to surveil to get us out of this land pocket, but instead I just went to my turn, and couldn't even surveil on my upkeep. Definitely cost me the game. But we got three wins, which is the absolute minimum we can settle for. And I thought while studying, I'd try to listen to this Caleb Pierce and Briana White signing that came up on my recommended list, but these guys are so crazy funny, it's almost impossible not to want to actually watch the stream...these guys are like an actual comedy duo. I had been holding off on giving this a listen while I work my way through other interviews, but thought this might be a nice little way to boost my energy towards the end of the week. And sure enough, my face hurts from laughing so hard, so much, man. Just cannot be productive with this audio. It's so cool how well the cast gets along. I caught her livestream yesterday, and she seems to be indicating she did finally book something, so that was also a pleasant development. Maybe things are looking up. She is truly skilled, and definitely deserves more work, so hopefully she's through her land pocket and is drawing live. Speaking of drawing live, we gotta get rolling on the next illustration...

[sdyuteiaok]

Ok, took our little BW deck out for a spin in the slow Standard MWM event, and could largely ignore the first turn tapland emblem, as could most decks, it feels like. But this and the other deck I tried out here weren't terribly great. The BW deck was apparently from an Avatar/Foundations constructed event, and it felt a bit under-powered. Or at least, everything everyone else was doing was just insurmountable far too frequently. My wraths clear the board, but not the enchantments and artifacts churning out stuff. Or if I focus on the non-creature permanents, the creatures get out of hand. So you needed a fragile balance, otherwise the deck just couldn't keep up. I don't even remember my initial deck...was it BG? No...it had a blue Emeritus, so it musta been blue black? Yeah, with Kaito and Jadzi, that deck. Yeah, both decks felt like they could put up a good fight, and you just had to hope the opponent didn't get their ball rolling. But that is not consistent enough to make for a satisfactory experience, so if I were to continue playing the event, I'd want to revamp the decks or build something new altogether, as these weren't delivering enough. Anyway. Eager to get cracking on some stuff. Thankfully we've got time and energy, so hopefully this goes well. Though we also have some dumb upkeep stuff to handle, too...maybe we can make those into breaks when my energy starts to dip...

[sdyuteiaok]

Whew...what a marathon...found out there was a time-sensitive thing I had to do and I believe I got it done in time...hopefully this works. Just passed out afterward...now we wait...

[sdyuteiaok]

Just taking it relatively easy, as I want to get our next illustration rolling. I'm feeling pretty tired tough...just physically--it's like no matter what, I can only sleep for a couple hours...it's easier to trick myself into falling asleep at my desk or on a chair. But it looks like we've got a new Bilmuri album to check out, so that's perfect timing, as it's hard to do original creative work while listening to interviews. Sometimes even just songs with vocals are tough. But at the brainstorming stage, I really can only handle music at most...putting on an interview is just asking for the creative flow to slow to a crawl. Even new music itself can also be a detriment, actually--the ideal thing is old instrumental music I know extremely well so there's no chance of it interrupting my thought process. But good music in general is helpful. Hopefully I can snap up ideas while listening to the over-the-top patriotic stylings of Bilmuri, as I believe we might be drawing something along those lines. Anyway, I'll take another study of the theme and get cracking, with an eye to ship this first pass by the end of the day.

[sdyuteiaok]

All right, turned in the illustration yesterday, hopefully it works for them. I dunno. Just signed up for more spots...I dunno. I had a reasonably good experience, and it did feel like a kind of booster shot in terms of confidence...I've felt so out of it since Inktober...that post-Inktober depression always hits quite heavily, and this past year being the finale--plus some other unrelated turmoil, of course--must have helped make this final round extra crushing. But it was reassuring seeing that I can still illustrate...I still reasonably know what I'm doing. I just need to harness this into stuff I actually, truly want to do as a proper portfolio piece (PPP). It's so easy to feel discouraged, but the trick, at least for me, as I find it, is to keep rolling, don't let the doubt seep in and take control. I'm listening to Briana White's livestream--it's so neat to see her live after having seen so much of her YouTube videos, but one of the reasons she's so compelling is cuz she is also emblematic of not giving up. Apparently she's had some difficulties booking the next thing, and that's kinda how I've been feeling for the past forever--you achieve something incredible and then...kinda things go quiet. You can feel defeated or you can keep trying. I have been basically trying to fool myself into feeling like not giving up. And granted my achievements aren't anything comparable to hers, but she keeps trying and stays positive, and that helps. I dunno. I can already feel the doubt seeping in. I literally just shipped this illustration less than 24 hours ago and was reasonably pleased with how it turned out, and yet I'm already imaging how terrible it is, how pointless my participation in the project is, and how futile efforts to try again are. Just gotta stay in motion. That's how it's always been, and yet I have to keep re-learning this about myself. I dunno. Anyway.

[sdyuteiaok]

Wow, what a journey. I thought I messed up and was drawing on the wrong page yesterday, so today's studies would technically be on the page for yesterday, which is annoying, but not the worst. I've accidentally skipped pages before--at least once several days went by or I had to complete an entire sketchbook before I realized I missed a page--but this was the relatively more common (while still rare) case of simply getting one day's page ahead cuz I drew on the opposite page. Well, when turning the page on this spread of the past two days, it turns out I was in fact drawing on the correct page--no flip flop--but something still felt off, and as it turns out I've been drawing these past couple of days upside down! So that's kind of annoying, especially as today's a special day--it's the Etherington Bros.' 1,000th tutorial. I have been studying them pretty much since the beginning of this project and it's so cool how utterly varied and even niche their topics are, the way they make you draw stuff you never really considered or might have even taken for granted. So today's studies are all from their most recent tutorial spread celebrating the big 1-0-0-0. Hopefully we keep this notebook right-side up going forward. I have to say, I'm impressed with the quality of its paper, such relatively sturdy paper, it feels great in a tactile sense to draw in. Our Sharpie's still spilling ink, though, but at least we can manage that well enough that it doesn't get absolutely everywhere, but it'd be nice to draw in this notebook with a regular, non-explosive pen some time. Anyway, congratulations to the Etherington Bros. They've been giants in the online art education world, and it's been great seeing them grow in prominence over the years. I'm glad they're also apparently doing quite well from this work, too. That's really the ideal scenario--doing what you love, helping people in the process, and then being rewarded so you're comfortable.

[sdyuteiaok]

Just some quickish Brawl games for today since we really want to get this illustration done--we're pretty close, so hope to wrap by tomorrow. Also, this Sharpie was finally no longer spilling ink, but today it was quite messy, and the ink's even lingering on my fingers, so it's really digging in. I believe it's the cap area, but I always tend to to hold the cap into my fingers in my non-drawing hand, so I just gotta remember not to do that, and I'm pretty sure that'll solve this as I thought we had the past couple of days. Anyway. Got some nice interviews lined up to draw to, hopefully these keep my pumped while drawing and we can ship this thing. I was nervous I might strain my wrist again, but we're taking breaks, stretching, and being mindful overall. But this upcoming section is what I've been nervous about...I felt like I was maybe detecting some pain just getting the preliminary work on it done, but either the cessation precluded any lasting, notable pain, or it just wasn't meaningful enough pain, but we're feeling fine now, and that's great. Eager to get back into it...might even be able to wrap today...but still want to take at least some time distance myself before submitting, cuz you never know what you miss when you are so attached so closely to something for so long. That time apart is quite crucial and under-utilized and we should have a little time to spare besides.

[sdyuteiaok]

Ok, since we're so close to getting into platinum for the month, just decided to use our four wins to try to get there today, since yesterday was randomly impossible to win enough, and of course when we settle in for an extended session, we got it on the first try. So at this point, since we're so close to the new season, I'll just stick to Brawl while we wait to get back into those sweet, sweet Gold Leagues for limited, which bodes well for our gem count, as we've already got a little buffer here, including some gold reserves building up at this point, too. We did lose a lot of gold for the Alchemy bundle, but we're rebuilding, and hopefully some drafts in the Gold Leagues will yield some more rides on the gem train, just in time for the set to run its course...as always, a new set is looming, though it's freaking Marvel whatever. Ugh. But this is going to be a serious set, so despite detesting Universes Beyond, and having a special loathing for superheroes specifically, I do have high expectations for this set. I doubt it'll match Avatar or Final Fantasy, but there's no way it'll be another stain like the Spider-Man set. MaRo has mentioned this was the one set/property that animated him for Universes Beyond to begin with, so now we get to see what these horrendously detestable sets can look like at their full creative power. Also finishing off the Turks signing, what a fascinating and charming group of people. It'd be cool if Briana White interviewed them, especially the actress who plays Elena, as it seems like they'd get along really well and have a lot to talk about in general, since they seem to raise similar topics. She did host an interview with all the Crisis Core Reunion actors, which was really cool, but Elena wasn't in that one. Anyway, I hope they're all doing well. The common thread between both group interviews, and others at that, is that their industry is quite tough and you gotta be persistent and not easily discouraged, so I hope they're all doing well and booking what they go for. The session is from 2024, so maybe stuff they were auditioning for at around that time is now coming out. Anyway, really cool listen. Again, it's evident how much they admire each other as people and artists, and it's really cool how well they just gel. I mean, what are the odds? While acting, they don't even necessarily need chemistry cuz they all record individually, but you can definitely believe them as a true team from this stream.

[sdyuteiaok]

Okay, I had modified my UG deck a bit with more ramp and less reliance on proliferate cards and we went on a tear...I think that was seven in a row today. This deck is definitely hit or miss, though, and I am pretty sure I just hit a bunch of easy opponents. This deck is definitely not a contender against serious decks. I feel like we could use another mass bounce effect to slow down the aggro opponents, as that is surely the bane of this deck--if the opponent gets a squad of dudes rolling early it's hard to come back while we durdle around with out counters and stuff. We really need a turn or two of PWs to stabilize, but without that, it's much harder to put up a good fight. Anyway. Today's audio has been listening to autograph signings with the Crisis Core and Remake crew, and now we're on to a signing with just the Turks, and man, it's so, so cool to see how well these guys all get along, plus hearing about their histories and stuff. It's so cool how so many of them also are fans of video games, too, and they all seem to be genuinely friends--Rude and Tseng are even hanging out at a diner while signing, that's pretty cool. I'm blown away at how well the Final Fantasy 7 R cast in general all get along so well--whenever they're together, they really all seem like old friends. Coming from a Magic perspective, where a lot of the artists don't really know Magic, it's a little disappointing they don't really "care" about what they're working on, so whenever you come across an artist who really likes and understands Magic, it's always so cool, and as far as I can tell, pretty much everyone in the Final Fantasy 7 reboot project is actually into the game at least as narrative (a few don't play much at all, of course) and genuinely enjoys the company of their castmates and admires and respects the incredible work they've done, both in this series and beyond. This Turks signing is surprisingly dense with background info on these guys, it really does feel like they're just hanging out. It's also funny how you can hear the actors kinda speak close to their in-game voices, so it's like the actual Turks are chatting away. Reno's voice is the only one that is distant enough from his actor's speaking voice that it takes a little bit of effort to hear him, but like when the first person showed up, I of course didn't know the person's face, but she sounded just like Elena! And sure enough, she wasn't the autograph session company host, like in the previous signing (and that guy really needs to dial it back and let the actors shine), but she was Elena herself, though she's kinda the host of this session anyway, but they all feel like like they're sorta hosting a mutual interview. It's a neat, strange session, but they all get along so well, it's I suppose closer to a podcast hangout than an autograph signing session. Anyway. Already lamenting this session coming to a close, I just want to hear them in conversation. They all seem cool and humble, despite their characters kinda being the bad guys and various shades of arrogant. So that's also amusing--these tough, antagonistic characters are just kind of geeking out chatting about whatever.