I do remember a couple guys from the Ring of Fire amateur MMA tournament in Denver a couple years back got their clocks cleaned in street fight situations but, I think both involved ambushes.
4) a better appreciation for the importance of center line.
Ahh, well, you'd enjoy Wing Chun, then. Honestly, it only really has like...a distinct number of traps that are technically useful, Bruce Lee boiled them down to around 9 but any who, the center line is serious business in the art so I'd think you'd enjoy it.
If you're going with Krav then seriously look for all the earkmarks of the "mcdojo". If you see any ads in the place with a house Mom or an obvious attractive model in hand wraps you'll know you're in the wrong place. If you see the instructors sitting down and not even working on the mats or on the bags with the students especially during the line drills...you're in the wrong place. If all you get is philosophy about self defense and magical stories about what you can do against a knife, or multiple attackers, and little to no gun defense...you're in the wrong place. That is all they had in Denver as far as Krav Maga goes...it is why the art is so terrible there(we had a higher up police detective and his friends learn a bunch of Kali there because the Krav got a couple guys in the Thornton police department seriously injured).
It has a lot benefits but, it is so poorly taught in this country. Honestly, it has some things I don't like about it but, it makes up for it with that iron clad gun defense...if you learn nothing else from it learn the gun defense moves. They're pretty solid. Even a Kali mad ex-Marine Mercenary instructor for furthered combat and gun skills like Kelly McCann emphasizes Krav for gun defense and that's a pretty solid recommendation in its own.
If you're thinking of learning a martial art Filipino Kali is always a fresh breath of air from a martial art perspective.
It accounts for most weapons and teaches a nice degree of disarms, strips, and tactics when fighting with and against an opponent wielding a weapon specifically knives and sticks. If you stick around in the weapon side long enough you also learn a nice base for sword, spear, shield, axe, and machete.
There is also a large empty hand and kicking side to the FMA that can be extremely effective which more or less emphasizes the same angle of attacks and movements you learn as extensions from your weapon training(though, honestly, like most martial arts, ever, it always boils down to a strong kick boxing base in the end).
Though, honestly, like most martial arts, you'll never have enough training to properly defend yourself for any and every situation especially when it comes to true self defense in reality(being that lots of what you learn in Kali is dramatically violent sometimes being that Kali's roots were born in War and only can account for so much). But, if you are looking for an art that is challenging and can be an amazing work out FMA is worth taking a look at.
I can attest that Krav Maga is also quite good for learning as an art although, like RivalTuna has mentioned, it is really hard to find any schools that aren't Mcdojos for it.
I liked the film even with the flaws. I don't think any one flaw ruins the whole movie per say but, it definitely isn't without some issues.
I feel the whole tone from the outset, almost like a drunken recollection by Tony Stark, robs the film of certain qualities that allow a film to grow as it attempts to capture your attention, suspend your reality based beliefs, and completely immerse you in the world it is creating where you'll accept that an extremely wealthy man in a poly-alloy suit can do almost anything it seems like with or without Avengers just by understanding engineering and all the science and technology that lies therein.
My main problem simply is that, to me, it really didn't feel like a third movie experience where one expects a major villain and a climactic resolution that either carries into another set of film(s) or a big resolution that leaves you satisfied. I was just left feeling sort of content, I guess. I was definitely on-board once I heard Mandarin but they went deep left field on that one and the obvious bad guy that is Aldrich Killian was just...obvious? He definitely died far too easily in that last fight anyways. Hell, he breathed fire and survived exploding and falling several stories to the ground and still was coming back and regenerating. I was hoping for a solution other than a small convenient explosion to do him in(and let us not even delve into how easily we all foresaw the events involving the Extremis and Pepper Potts play out. Christ, I even heard someone gasp in my theater when Potts fell into the fire. How can you gasp when you know she was given an extra dose of the stuff, was handling it nicely, and you know what it does? ) . :/
I don't know I'm digressing but, all I'm saying is that if this was supposed to be a film where Tony Stark is exploring the idea of "creating demons" you would think the events within the film would be a little more dark than what we were shown. I don't mean to say it like it should have been Christopher Nolan Dark Knight "Dark" but, it should have made a stronger attempt than what we got.
All we had was an obvious bad guy with a front man that basically turned a classic Marvel villain into a cinematic farce. True, sometimes a simple plan is the best one especially one perpetrated in plain sight but, I don't think this kind of plot fits a third movie especially for a flagship franchise like Iron Man. It just seemed weak to me. I didn't hate it but, I feel there should have been one last big enemy for Iron Man to fight with there being a deeper plot than a scorned scientist abusing regenerative growth science and hiding behind the figment of terrorism. Though, I'll take it over there not being an Iron Man 3 any day of the week. I'll tell you that much. Like I said, I liked the film but, it is not without flaws.
Quote from Highroller »
All of that is rather irrelevant to the greater issue: even if no one knew who the Mandarin was, are you trying to tell me this version of him works?
It works but, in a sad disappointing way. I mean, he satisfied all the bases for a character and is believable enough being that we live in an age of Islamist extremism and is a part of a larger more devious plot line that works, somewhat. I just feel that is just so out in left field it is just almost unnecessary but, it does work.
2) No, the ability still resolves as normal. The Hellrider isn't an attacking creature anymore, but the ability will deal 1 damage for the Hound, if it is on the battlefield still.
Oh, so if Aetherize sends all attacking creatures plus Hellrider back to my hand then no damage will occur at all? Or will the ability damage for Hellrider and the other attacking creatures still occur on the stack after they go back to my hand?
1.) So, Hellrider and Hound of Griselbrand are attacking my opponent and there are no spells to stop them from my opponent and no creatures to block them. As the attack occurs Hellrider's ability triggers and here is my question, does the ability do two damage to my opponent due to there being two attacking creatures or three due to the fact the Hound of Griselbrand has double strike? Or does the mere fact the Hound is attacking at all just trigger the ability once?
2.) As I declare attackers in this same scenario if my opponent plays an unsummon or Aetherize does Hellrider's ability do nothing due to there not being a Hellrider on the battlefield when his ability finally gets to resolve on the stack?
At first I tried to like this new Chandra art but, it is just not doing itself any favors. I get the arms are foreshortened but, the positioning of them and her body is just awkward not to mention her head seems a bit too big.
The background is a little better being obviously blocked out as a volcano or some volcanic area she is crossing but, the background fades into mixtures of red and black further muddling the image. I just plain don't like this new art for her. I was really hoping for something better than Thunder Thigh Queen that was the M13 Chandra but, man, they dropped the ball on the decision to okay this.
Here is hoping she has better abilities than her M13 counter part.
Emmara or whoever makes it to the end of the maze which dawns a new age of totalitarian guild jackbootery. Whatever. I'm done feeling anything about the poor attempt at flavor and story line crafting for this set.
So, we should expect Yawgmoth to come back to life right? I mean, Brady isn't working for WotC anymore and he always said that would never happen so long as he was there.
Yes, yes, I think we should. It is just cliche enough to force us to go back to New Phyrexia, too. I could even guess maybe some Karn battling Yawgmoth crap for the plane of machines.
Actually, at this point I think we should expect Wizards to just throw the story line and flavor in general to the wind in favor of card sales and promotional crap.
The trailer for Return to Ravnica was sort of sickening in that regard. It wasn't really about Ravnica at all in the end. It was just like "Hey, Jace is doing stuff...on Ravnica, there are some guilds, go figure, and oh, hey, come to the pre-release and buy some cards...". I was expecting a cool motion graphic trailer similar to the 2D animation trailer of the original Ravnica but, all we got was an oddly expository wink filled card game promotion. It could be worse but, I was hoping for something a little more from creative.
I plan on finally writing a small series of Innistrad short stories because no one did anything for that set and it is just a gold mine of characters, settings, and motifs. It is begging for some kind of novel or short story.
However, I have a couple questions about matters that I simply couldn't figure out or find in my research attempts(not that I did hard core research but a couple search attempts yielded nothing and I figured asking those in the know would save time).
So, how much time passed between the disappearance of Avacyn and the Innistrad card set?
Where did the demons and devils come from? While on the subject, when did the Skirsdag Cult start?
Are all Parishes just under attack all the time by the Undead, Wereolves, and Vampires or are some safer than others(likes the ones closer to Thraben)?
At first I liked this one a lot more because it is dripping in the Azorius motif amd not to mention it actually has a background but, I am finding I like the promo a little bit more after a second look at this one. This one seems a little boring and flat to me the more I look at it. I think it is the fact that it is just practically monochromatic with very little contrast and the scene is just a boring three fourths shot of some Azorious guild member playing with Magic.
Though, I could be a little biased towards the promo being that I enjoy terrorizing the die hard constructed Izzet guy in our play group who simply cannot stop all the counterspells, board wiping, life gain and card draw and exile Azorius brings to the table. The promo art is just the icing on the cake at this point. I might as well just photoshop my friend's face on the card. I do like the obvious Izzet mage caricature being silenced here though. It has a little more life in it than whatever that Azorius guy is doing but, the lack of background is a little off putting.
I kind of agree. As much as I like all this land diversity and subsequent three color power house deck building going on I would like a big reset to a simpler standard or at least one that isn't so razor sharp with its aggro.
Ahh, well, you'd enjoy Wing Chun, then. Honestly, it only really has like...a distinct number of traps that are technically useful, Bruce Lee boiled them down to around 9 but any who, the center line is serious business in the art so I'd think you'd enjoy it.
If you're going with Krav then seriously look for all the earkmarks of the "mcdojo". If you see any ads in the place with a house Mom or an obvious attractive model in hand wraps you'll know you're in the wrong place. If you see the instructors sitting down and not even working on the mats or on the bags with the students especially during the line drills...you're in the wrong place. If all you get is philosophy about self defense and magical stories about what you can do against a knife, or multiple attackers, and little to no gun defense...you're in the wrong place. That is all they had in Denver as far as Krav Maga goes...it is why the art is so terrible there(we had a higher up police detective and his friends learn a bunch of Kali there because the Krav got a couple guys in the Thornton police department seriously injured).
It has a lot benefits but, it is so poorly taught in this country. Honestly, it has some things I don't like about it but, it makes up for it with that iron clad gun defense...if you learn nothing else from it learn the gun defense moves. They're pretty solid. Even a Kali mad ex-Marine Mercenary instructor for furthered combat and gun skills like Kelly McCann emphasizes Krav for gun defense and that's a pretty solid recommendation in its own.
It accounts for most weapons and teaches a nice degree of disarms, strips, and tactics when fighting with and against an opponent wielding a weapon specifically knives and sticks. If you stick around in the weapon side long enough you also learn a nice base for sword, spear, shield, axe, and machete.
There is also a large empty hand and kicking side to the FMA that can be extremely effective which more or less emphasizes the same angle of attacks and movements you learn as extensions from your weapon training(though, honestly, like most martial arts, ever, it always boils down to a strong kick boxing base in the end).
Though, honestly, like most martial arts, you'll never have enough training to properly defend yourself for any and every situation especially when it comes to true self defense in reality(being that lots of what you learn in Kali is dramatically violent sometimes being that Kali's roots were born in War and only can account for so much). But, if you are looking for an art that is challenging and can be an amazing work out FMA is worth taking a look at.
I can attest that Krav Maga is also quite good for learning as an art although, like RivalTuna has mentioned, it is really hard to find any schools that aren't Mcdojos for it.
I liked the film even with the flaws. I don't think any one flaw ruins the whole movie per say but, it definitely isn't without some issues.
I feel the whole tone from the outset, almost like a drunken recollection by Tony Stark, robs the film of certain qualities that allow a film to grow as it attempts to capture your attention, suspend your reality based beliefs, and completely immerse you in the world it is creating where you'll accept that an extremely wealthy man in a poly-alloy suit can do almost anything it seems like with or without Avengers just by understanding engineering and all the science and technology that lies therein.
My main problem simply is that, to me, it really didn't feel like a third movie experience where one expects a major villain and a climactic resolution that either carries into another set of film(s) or a big resolution that leaves you satisfied. I was just left feeling sort of content, I guess. I was definitely on-board once I heard Mandarin but they went deep left field on that one and the obvious bad guy that is Aldrich Killian was just...obvious? He definitely died far too easily in that last fight anyways. Hell, he breathed fire and survived exploding and falling several stories to the ground and still was coming back and regenerating. I was hoping for a solution other than a small convenient explosion to do him in(and let us not even delve into how easily we all foresaw the events involving the Extremis and Pepper Potts play out. Christ, I even heard someone gasp in my theater when Potts fell into the fire. How can you gasp when you know she was given an extra dose of the stuff, was handling it nicely, and you know what it does? ) . :/
I don't know I'm digressing but, all I'm saying is that if this was supposed to be a film where Tony Stark is exploring the idea of "creating demons" you would think the events within the film would be a little more dark than what we were shown. I don't mean to say it like it should have been Christopher Nolan Dark Knight "Dark" but, it should have made a stronger attempt than what we got.
All we had was an obvious bad guy with a front man that basically turned a classic Marvel villain into a cinematic farce. True, sometimes a simple plan is the best one especially one perpetrated in plain sight but, I don't think this kind of plot fits a third movie especially for a flagship franchise like Iron Man. It just seemed weak to me. I didn't hate it but, I feel there should have been one last big enemy for Iron Man to fight with there being a deeper plot than a scorned scientist abusing regenerative growth science and hiding behind the figment of terrorism. Though, I'll take it over there not being an Iron Man 3 any day of the week. I'll tell you that much. Like I said, I liked the film but, it is not without flaws.
It works but, in a sad disappointing way. I mean, he satisfied all the bases for a character and is believable enough being that we live in an age of Islamist extremism and is a part of a larger more devious plot line that works, somewhat. I just feel that is just so out in left field it is just almost unnecessary but, it does work.
Oh, so if Aetherize sends all attacking creatures plus Hellrider back to my hand then no damage will occur at all? Or will the ability damage for Hellrider and the other attacking creatures still occur on the stack after they go back to my hand?
2.) As I declare attackers in this same scenario if my opponent plays an unsummon or Aetherize does Hellrider's ability do nothing due to there not being a Hellrider on the battlefield when his ability finally gets to resolve on the stack?
The background is a little better being obviously blocked out as a volcano or some volcanic area she is crossing but, the background fades into mixtures of red and black further muddling the image. I just plain don't like this new art for her. I was really hoping for something better than Thunder Thigh Queen that was the M13 Chandra but, man, they dropped the ball on the decision to okay this.
Here is hoping she has better abilities than her M13 counter part.
Yes, yes, I think we should. It is just cliche enough to force us to go back to New Phyrexia, too. I could even guess maybe some Karn battling Yawgmoth crap for the plane of machines.
Actually, at this point I think we should expect Wizards to just throw the story line and flavor in general to the wind in favor of card sales and promotional crap.
The trailer for Return to Ravnica was sort of sickening in that regard. It wasn't really about Ravnica at all in the end. It was just like "Hey, Jace is doing stuff...on Ravnica, there are some guilds, go figure, and oh, hey, come to the pre-release and buy some cards...". I was expecting a cool motion graphic trailer similar to the 2D animation trailer of the original Ravnica but, all we got was an oddly expository wink filled card game promotion. It could be worse but, I was hoping for something a little more from creative.
Well, there isn't a big enough face palm for this one. I even have that in one of my favorites folders for MTG story line and setting stuff. -_-
Thanks for the answers folks. If I run into more questions later I know where to come.
However, I have a couple questions about matters that I simply couldn't figure out or find in my research attempts(not that I did hard core research but a couple search attempts yielded nothing and I figured asking those in the know would save time).
So, how much time passed between the disappearance of Avacyn and the Innistrad card set?
Where did the demons and devils come from? While on the subject, when did the Skirsdag Cult start?
Are all Parishes just under attack all the time by the Undead, Wereolves, and Vampires or are some safer than others(likes the ones closer to Thraben)?
Though, I could be a little biased towards the promo being that I enjoy terrorizing the die hard constructed Izzet guy in our play group who simply cannot stop all the counterspells, board wiping, life gain and card draw and exile Azorius brings to the table. The promo art is just the icing on the cake at this point. I might as well just photoshop my friend's face on the card. I do like the obvious Izzet mage caricature being silenced here though. It has a little more life in it than whatever that Azorius guy is doing but, the lack of background is a little off putting.
I kind of agree. As much as I like all this land diversity and subsequent three color power house deck building going on I would like a big reset to a simpler standard or at least one that isn't so razor sharp with its aggro.