Just a 23-year old male meek geek who likes Magic the Gathering, board games, and video games, some anime, and Star Trek. Â A computer programmer by trade. Â I'll also be posting random cute, funny, and relevant stuff I come across. Â BTW, I have a secret, but it shouldn't be too hard to figure out what it is....
I have a suggestion based on recent disappointment from more enfranchised players: What if Wizards periodically put a survey on the website where players could choose three cards from a list of every Magic card (the list is already used on MTGO, anyway) that they want to see reprinted? That way, you can choose the ones that you're comfortable reprinting in a limited environment or in something like FTV, and meet player expectations.
Letâs try that here. What card that hasnât been reprinted (that can be reprinted) do you most want reprinted?
Kylo has a cracked crystal in his lightsaber which is why it looks so ragged and unstable. And the crossguard blades are vents for the saber because the crystal is so stressed it can barely contain the power of the weapon. So basically itâs a crudely assembled saber with modern components that mirrors an ancient design.
Itâs 9:00 am on Christmas in 2015. Exactly 30 years ago TO THE TIME, millions of kids around the world were playing Super Mario Bros. for the first time ever
I believe this video (not created by me) should be required viewing for all Christians, all nonstraight people, all atheists, and everyone else, to be quite honest. Â
Itâs âcommon knowledgeâ that the Christian bible says practicing homosexuality is a sin.  However, upon closer inspection, each verse that supposedly supports this claim is actually very shaky evidence, for one of three reasons:
1) The verse condemns someone for an act that includes both homosexuality and something we know to be a sin, like attempted rape or idol worship. Â Thus, itâs impossible to conclude from there that homosexuality in and of itself is bad (when separated from what makes the particular action discussed in the verse bad).
2) The verse is part of the bizarrely specific (by todayâs standards) laws of Leviticus (which restricted things like food and clothing, among many, many other aspects of life). Â Itâs widely accepted that these laws were meant for that situation only and do not apply today.
3) In the verse, apostle Paul uses a Greek word weâre actually not sure how to translate (and the other uses of the word donât really support the âhomosexualsâ translation).
So to all you nonstraight people out there, and allies, rejoice as you are off the scriptural hook! Â (At least on the issue of orientation. Â Donât forget that the other rules for straight people still also apply to you.) Â To all who use the Bible to condemn homosexualitiy, please consider this evidence and re-examine whether your belief is consistent with a benevolent God that loves us all equally. Â Please do not spread a false and hateful message that only causes pain and conflict in the Christian and LGBTQIA communities alike.
My Subconscious Does Not Know How To Design Balanced Magic Cards
So far I have had two dreams in which I encountered Magic cards I had never seen before, apparently designed by my subconscious. Â In both cases, the new cards were...well...hilariously busted. Â Donât hold your breath waiting for them to come out in a set anytime soon. Â
See the crimes against design below:
Okay, my brain designed this as a Yu-Gi-Oh monster with Yu-Gi-Oh level stats but MTG style keywords, and scaling the numbers down (from 1000, 1600, and 2400 to 2, 4, and 6, respectively) resulted in the above card.  Itâs obviously busted beyond belief in either game.  Pay 2 of my life to deal 8 damage to you, or 6 to you and shock a creature?  At the cost of no card advantage or mana? Iâll take 4, no need to play red!  (Note that cycling is an activated ability, so it triggers âtotem powerâ). Â
And yes, youâre reading that last keyword right. Â And yes, that is indeed the keyword my brain came up with for that ability. Â And no, I swear I wasnât listening to NSYNC the day before!
About the only good thing I can think of is that âtotem powerâ could be an interesting ability for a set revolving around activated abilities, especially ones granted to creatures by effects like Retraction Helix.
And now for the second stupid broken design:
(This dream happened before they revealed the cycle of âbattle lands/tango landsâ for Battle for Zendikar.)
Iâm trying to imagine the thought process my subconscious arrived at here...
Voice of Curiosity: Â What will the cycle of mana-fixing lands be in BfZ?
Voice of Optimisim: Â Maybe theyâll reprint the original duals! Â Itâd be awesome to finally pick those up!!
Voice of Reason: Â They canât reprint those lands, theyâre on the Reserved List!
Voice of Optimism: Â But if they made them BASIC lands, they would be functionally different, so they would not violate the Reserved List!
Voice of Reason: Â Yup! Â Hadnât thought of that. Â Makes perfect sense! Â Good job, Voice of Optimism! Â High five!
Conscious Mind, the Next Day: Â *cringes internally*
Well, after a dismal failure with my Eldrazi Aggro deck last week (1 match draw and 2 match losses), I decided to make some significant changes, resulting in the new deck here:Â http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/grixis-devoid-thopters-1/. Â And boy did they pay off!
First of all, trying to go on an all-out offensive just doesnât work with so many 3-drops. Â I also got stuck on 2 lands far too often (meaning a helpless death as so many important cards cost 3) and even when I didnât, my cards were just too weak to compete with midrange decks. Â To fix these, I decided to bump the land count from 22 to 24 (plus 2 Pilgrimâs Eyes to search lands) and add more 4-drops. Â Which ones? Â
Why, how about Whirler Rogue and Pia and Kiran Nalaar, which each produce TWO 1/1 flying COLORLESS artifact Thopter tokens? Â Thatâs +2 power to our Vile friend and 2 creatures to get boosted by Ruination Guide, pick up a Ghostfire Blade, or gain us life with Tomb of the Spirit Dragon. Â Not to mention, Whirler Rogue can turn a 3/2 or the Vile Aggregate itself (or anything wielding a Blade, really) into an unblockable killer, and Pia and Kiran Nalaar can shoot down small creatures or just blast our opponentâs face. Â Whirler Rogue in particular is so nice that Iâm strongly considering putting in a fourth.
A convenient interaction: Â Since Equipment doesnât really need to tap to function, each Ghostfire Blade pays for half of a Whirler Rogue unblockability activation every turn for free! Â Just something to keep in mind.
I took the deck to Monday Night Standard this week and it utterly devoured the competition, going 3-0 in matches without dropping a single game! Â However, my testing is not complete--I didnât really get to test against Ramp, Esper Tokens, Abzan, or any form of control, so how good it truly is remains to be seen. Â Also, I only drew Thopter Spy Network once (on a turn I made a lethal attack anyways) so some more testing will be needed to see how effective the Network is at grinding out long games.
IT IS CHRISTMAS EVE/SARAJEVO 12/24 AND IT IS SO MUCH FUCKING MORE THAN CAROL OF THE BELLS.
SO DURING THE BOSNIAN WAR (WHICH WAS THIS NASTY-ASS CONFLICT IN BOSNIA AND HERZGOVINA) THERE WAS THIS BADASS CELLO-PLAYING MOTHERFUCKER NAMED VEDRAN SMAILOVIC. HE WAS FROM SARAJEVO WAS UPSET ABOUT ALL THE SHIT AND NASTINESS THAT CAME ABOUT THROUGH THIS WAR (THIS WAS FULL-ON BROTHER-KILLING-BROTHER SHIT) THAT HE WENT AROUND TO BOMBED-OUT, BLOWN UP BUILDINGS AND FUNERALSâWHERE HE WAS AT RISK OF FUCKING SNIPER FIREâAND PLAYING THE CELLO. THIS GUY WAS SO SET ON PROVIDING ONE TINY SPOT OF BEAUTY IN A SERIOUSLY NASTY WAR HE WAS RISKING BEING FUCKING SHOT OR BLOWN UP.
AND THIS IS THE GUY WHO INSPIRED THIS SONG.
HEâS WHY THEREâS THE CALM CELLO PART AT THE BEGINNING BEFORE EVERYTHING GETS ALL VIOLENT-SOUNDING. ITâS THEMATIC.
THATâS WHY THIS CHRISTMAS SONG GOES SO FUCKING HARD.
Worst is when you crack the fetch during your turn to play a card but shuffle during your opponentâs turn to save time, except their turn is just âbasic, creature, goâ and youâre still shuffling...and then when you finally give it to them to cut and get it back, you realize you have to play ANOTHER fetchland and the process begins anew....
As promised, here is a well-formatted decklist for the Grixis Devoid deck I took to Monday Night Standard.
How did the deck do? Â I was pleasantly surprised by how well the creatures were able to match up against my opponentsâ, especially when I got out a Ghostfire Blade. Â Honestly, the biggest letdown was only having three unconditional creature removal spells (2 Murderous Cut and 1 Ruinous Path) which often left me helpless against big creatures like Dragonlord Atarka. Also, I think the deck may be slightly heavy on the 3-drops--perhaps cutting some Dominator Drones for smaller creatures would be a good idea. Â The Drones just die too easily to be worth 3 mana much of the time.
Round 1 of the event was against the red-green ramp deck that inspired the creation of this deck, and in all 3 games my opponent managed to cast Dragonlord Atarka. Â I was fortunate in Game 1--all my creatures out at the time had 5 or more toughness, so she only took out one, and I had Murderous Cut to clear her out and let the rest of my creatures keep swinging. Â Later my opponent revealed to me that he had two Ugins in his hand--but there was nothing useful they could do for him! Â Rounds 2 and 3 I wasnât so fortunate--no hard removal for Atarka in either game, plus I had to mulligan to 5 in game 3 (six lander followed by one lander).
Round 2 was against a Black-Green sacrifice/tokens deck with Nantuko Husks and Zulaport Cutthroats. Â Incredibly grindy matchup. Â My Outpost Sieges and his Evolutionary Leaps kept each of us fueled with cards, and Game 3 ended in a draw on time with no clear winner in sight. Â (Not that it was unexciting--the final turns consisted of him throwing a Nantuko Husk at me with plenty of sac fodder, me blocking with a Bladed-up Vile Aggregate or other beefy creature, him saccing just enough to save his Husk and kill my blocker, and me topdecking another creature next turn.)
Round 3 was against a Red-Green landfall player, always a dangerous and aggressive deck to face. Â Game 1 he simply got out more attackers than I could produce blockers, and I lost just before my Tomb of the Spirit Dragon could gain me enough life to keep alive. Â I sided in plenty of removal for Game 2 and 3, and managed to eke out two wins. Â (Game 2 was nerve-wracking with me trying to finish him off before he assembled Become Immense/Temur Battle Rage, as I couldnât remove all his creatures, but Game 3 was much less stressful, as I drew two Murderous Cuts and held onto one with mana up for most of the game.) Â Arc Lighting was a blowout against the landfall deck, as on my turn, the creatures are small!
Anyway, this deck was fun to play and didnât fare too poorly, so Iâll try it again with some minor tweaks. Â Maybe Disdainful Stroke will get a chance to shine, as I only drew it in one game, against the BG player, who had little worth countering....
