I've had a couple of odd times in my Magic history. Off the top of my head:
1) Similar to CatParty, I knew a guy who when he played he genuinely believed if I could slap a card on the table and declare he passed the turn, it was beyond the ability to be countered.
2) One player I knew was most likely a supremely annoying cheater at FNM. He'd always draw 8 or 9 cards at the start of each game, look at them, put the extras back, then decide if he was going to mulligan. If you called him on it, it was always an accident naturally. The only way to stop him from doing that was to count his card drawing aloud as he went.
3) Had an opponent rage-quit when I wouldn't allow him to exile Gaea's Revenge with his O-Ring. He was determined that "if Emrakul can be o-ringed, your stupid green creature can be too!" Sadly no judge on hand to prove me right to him.
4) Just 2 weeks back at GP Toronto I sat down for a match in the main event and laid out my playmat. I will say that my mat art is the Steve Argyle art of Chandra and Liliana "about to get awesome", and it invariably makes me the talk of the table each round briefly. I get asked a couple questions about it and I tell them the name of the art is 'Planeswalkers for Equality', and then my opponent starts talking about how he has "so many problems with equality and freaks wanting it." Well that drains the fun from the table instantly, and he's still muttering about not liking my mat. I can just hear him winding up before calling for the Judge. One the judge arrives he tells him he is genuinely offended by my mat and wants me to not use it. The judge asks me if I have another mat, I say yes and show the GP mat in my bag. He says that while he can't force me to change it, asks if I would mind doing so. I said I do mind and I'd prefer if my opponent is on tilt for the match. Judge shrugs and walks away. Guy didn't say 1 more word to me for the 3 games, especially after I won.
I will say that I enjoyed the novel quite a bit. Doug did a good job of not causing any new timeline frak-ups while still calling back to previous storylines (especially AoA).
Alara Unbroken was (to my mind) that last decent block novel, but wasn't without it's own flaws. It's biggest was trying to tell 3 novels worth of story in just 1. This feels like a return to the old form, telling a story but not rushing it.
Overall I think The Secretist had a decent story and pace, and I'm happily looking forward to the next parts. And yes, while getting the ebook means dealing with Amazon, I consider it a small price to pay to have our block storylines again.
Including Sliver Queen was a cruel joke anyways, since she's not the proper general of a sliver deck, Overlord is. Sliver Queen needs to be printed normal size so that she can go IN the sliver deck. They're just taunting us
You're right on one hand, she's not the best Sliver to have as a general. However, she is a good general in her own right. She's the general of my friend's Super Friends EDH deck. Pump out blockers to defend the planeswalkers and is devastating with Necrotic Sliver (only other sliver in the deck).
Man, this product was a real nuisance in the end. The stories just in this thread alone should give WotC pause before doing something like this again.
I highly recommend reading MaRo's Tumblr posts. He's answered a lot of questions about this lately and is offering as much honest insight as he can. Basically, he's said out-right this product was far more popular than they imagined, and that the print run was estimated many months ago.
Seinar and Froze Over are correct. There is 1 damage being dealt to Stuffy, and Gisela will cause that to be halfed-rounded up, thus none is dealt to him, and in turn, none to the selected opponent.
You are correct. The Angel can cause the Conscript's ability to fizzle, since the flickered creature is not the same permenant, as far as the ability is concerned.
There have been novels as far back at the Ice Age block, though they're getting hard to find in local stores. There are the web comics on Wizards' site. And there are comic books coming out every couple of weeks lately.
Lastly, the Wiki (link near the top of this page) has a surprising amount a storyline info.
Game two, after sideboarding I dropped Dryad Militant on turn 1 followed by Rest in Peace on turn 2. He picked up his only land and said "Game 3".
1) Similar to CatParty, I knew a guy who when he played he genuinely believed if I could slap a card on the table and declare he passed the turn, it was beyond the ability to be countered.
2) One player I knew was most likely a supremely annoying cheater at FNM. He'd always draw 8 or 9 cards at the start of each game, look at them, put the extras back, then decide if he was going to mulligan. If you called him on it, it was always an accident naturally. The only way to stop him from doing that was to count his card drawing aloud as he went.
3) Had an opponent rage-quit when I wouldn't allow him to exile Gaea's Revenge with his O-Ring. He was determined that "if Emrakul can be o-ringed, your stupid green creature can be too!" Sadly no judge on hand to prove me right to him.
4) Just 2 weeks back at GP Toronto I sat down for a match in the main event and laid out my playmat. I will say that my mat art is the Steve Argyle art of Chandra and Liliana "about to get awesome", and it invariably makes me the talk of the table each round briefly. I get asked a couple questions about it and I tell them the name of the art is 'Planeswalkers for Equality', and then my opponent starts talking about how he has "so many problems with equality and freaks wanting it." Well that drains the fun from the table instantly, and he's still muttering about not liking my mat. I can just hear him winding up before calling for the Judge. One the judge arrives he tells him he is genuinely offended by my mat and wants me to not use it. The judge asks me if I have another mat, I say yes and show the GP mat in my bag. He says that while he can't force me to change it, asks if I would mind doing so. I said I do mind and I'd prefer if my opponent is on tilt for the match. Judge shrugs and walks away. Guy didn't say 1 more word to me for the 3 games, especially after I won.
Alara Unbroken was (to my mind) that last decent block novel, but wasn't without it's own flaws. It's biggest was trying to tell 3 novels worth of story in just 1. This feels like a return to the old form, telling a story but not rushing it.
Overall I think The Secretist had a decent story and pace, and I'm happily looking forward to the next parts. And yes, while getting the ebook means dealing with Amazon, I consider it a small price to pay to have our block storylines again.
My friend Nissa Revane would like to have a word with you.
You're right on one hand, she's not the best Sliver to have as a general. However, she is a good general in her own right. She's the general of my friend's Super Friends EDH deck. Pump out blockers to defend the planeswalkers and is devastating with Necrotic Sliver (only other sliver in the deck).
I highly recommend reading MaRo's Tumblr posts. He's answered a lot of questions about this lately and is offering as much honest insight as he can. Basically, he's said out-right this product was far more popular than they imagined, and that the print run was estimated many months ago.
As for how I feel about the exploitative store owners that were selling them, well, that's another story for another day.
I vote less. Don't get me wrong, it's a solid card, but it's far from impossible to find.
Lastly, the Wiki (link near the top of this page) has a surprising amount a storyline info.
Doubtful. Biorhythm doesn't fit in the crunch.
It's also this week's Wallpaper of the week:
http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/arcana/1005
EDIT: Seems there's a few other threads on this now too...