MTG Salvation

As you can tell the last few months haven't really been blogworthy for me. There were instances here and there of things to talk about but by them my blog has long been forgotten. But now I'm trying to get this thing cranking again.

Today, I start with a product recommendation. Or lack of one as this case maybe. I wanted to try Stride gum a few weeks ago but don't really chew gum but saw they were giving away packs of gum then. Got it in the mail today. A flavor by the name of Forever Fruit. First, Stride should not be classified as just a gum as when I opened the package there was a smell strong enough to make the gum double as a body spray/cologne. Seriously. It smelled good though so I didn't complain. However, that was the last time I didn't complain. That flavor is the worst tasting gum EVER! It was definitely fruity but what fruit I couldn't tell you as it didn't taste like anything but an overwhelming taste of sour bananas and everything tropical... So yeah, as Kramer would say - DON'T BUY! DON'T BUY!

Secondly, about these Planeswalker cards I first saw today... I honestly like them so far. At least this black one. A free, once a turn discard outlet can be good and with those other two abilities it makes it worth it. Two downsides tho: You have to sit there and protect it just like having a second head in a single player game and it can apparently be destroyed just like any other permanent thru any card that has the word permanent in it. The latter makes no friggin sense to me as if that were possible those same cards should blast you out of the water but really that's only minor and flavor related. However it can still be pretty problematic... The former makes the most sense but can only lead to problems since these Planeswalkers apparently have Shandalarian life totals. I guess anything with a Loyalty value of 7 or more might be considered broken to start maybe but still having to block for these guys makes them pretty lame in some situations (unless they create their own chump blockers...).

Yes this is a new fact I seemed to have learned. The world itself with be rent asunder if we as humans do not say the simple please and thank you's that people seem to deserve on the internet. Yes, that's right. It seems people get REALLY pissed off if they don't hear thank you if you've given them something that's actually part of the game...

If you're wondering where this came from brave audience (the few of you that get to see this as this is set as private - and you'll soon see why) I present to you the following series of events:
Last week I bought a casual game via my paypal funds called The Poppit Show. In the game, you get these power up things to finish the games and if you don't use them you can donate them to other players playing in the same chat room in exchange for more points than you otherwise would if you kept them. Now it's not an uncommon occurance to get quite a few of these if you end up going away for a few minutes for one reason or another. And since I didn't really feel like talking at all in the chat room I (like many others) just don't say thank you.

Well, for the fifth time now, it seems someone went off on this saying that she's downright pissed that people didn't say thank you once for giving away the powerups. And by pissed she flipped out on everyone in the entire room and called us all selfish ********s and all she wants to hear is a thank you each time she gives one away. Keep in mind the afforementioned fact that you get more points if you give them away so it's not like keeping them will do you any good. On top of that SOMEONE ELSE in the room managed to say that it wasn't very christian of anyone in the room if they didn't say thank you.

Now, people who know me know I'm not exactly that rude. I have my moments just like anyone else... but especially that last statement set me off good... so this is for you people on the internet that want to hear thank you for your own stupid self-satisfaction:

Thank you - for being the biggest ******* douchebags on the internet.

For the people who have to push other's religions and morals on others:

**** yourself with the nearest biggest dildo you can find. In the ass. It sounds like you need the dick...

(Sidenote: Please keep in mind that like 99% of the time women yell at me for this sort of thing - and it happens all the time.)

For the trolls on the internet that get your kicks off of trying to piss off other people:

Thanks for wasting your life on lil' ole me (and others). You've really managed to accomplish something by pissing off someone on the other side of the world in your spare moments of boredom. I bet you want to hang this plaque on the nearest wall... It'll be coming in 4-6 weeks douchebags.

Remember: It's the internet. Unless you're someone I actually know and care about, I couldn't give a ***** about you and your feelings. Odds are you're probably an ******** anyway...

As some of you may know I have a Nintendo DS and am planning to get a Wi-Fi USB for it later this month if the money so lets me... for your perusal I have the following games right now thanks to a personal sale I picked up last month... I guess the owner didn't like the DS that much. Some of them are new ones I picked up with my own cash:

New Super Mario Bros.
Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin
Pokemon Diamond
Pokemon Pearl
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Justice for All
Hotel Dusk: Room 215
Sonic Rush
Contact
Final Fantasy Fables - Chocobo Tales
Kirby: Squeak Squad
Mario Kart DS
Mario and Luigi: Partners in Time
Warioware Touched

Not a huge collection by any means but a pretty nice and entertaining set I must say. And everything but FF Fables, Diamond, Pearl, NSMB, and Castlevania: PoR I picked up in the collection for about 100 bucks. Was pretty nice.

As for other stuff...

I suddenly find myself very alone here due to some extenuating circumstances that those of you who know me already know about. But for the benefit of those of you who don't know here it is: Five of my closest friends decided to move to South Carolina in a rather rushed move. They hadn't even told anyone when they did it. That isn't to say there was no warning because two of them did talk about it but only said they were thinking but not too seriously. Still it brings up one important question I must answer:

What the hell am I still doing here?

To tell you the truth I don't know really know. I'm dying to leave here but I don't really have the money to move to the place I really wanna go - Michigan, to be with my LD girlfriend. If I could come up with that I could move easily. But until then I'm here... unhappy that I'm here.

I was looking through my computer the other night cleaning out old files I didn't need and saw something I forgot about: My first designed set, Origins. I never released it but I got to fixing some of the craziness templating-wise. I was amazed to have very little as Tnisk has been absolutely swamped with templating issues for some reason even I can't explain. If anyone wants to take a look feel free to. You can download the .rar of it here. Can't attach for some reason...

As for the not-here-yet's, that would be FS previews. I'm frankly not impressed. Not even with the free counter. Or Venser. I'm waiting... patiently. Thankfully, there are another 150 or so cards to reveal. I hope there's something I can actually use in there.

Yes you saw that right: I'm actually building Balacing 'Tings. It's not an almighty awesome deck for extended as I understand it but I feel it can be pretty good still and rage a charge or something like that. This is my temporary list subject to changes. Note also I have nothing for SB yet aside from the obvious Krosan Grip and Pithing Needle and a singular Balancing Act.



Stuff to ponder:
Life from the Loam
Obliterate - It'd probably only be a 1 or 2 of in this deck but hte mana cost is too hefty for me to see this get play. In fact I'd be much more likely to play:
Decree of Annihilation - Simply for its cycling ability. It's probably going singular SB right now.

Also, if it works right, I'm considering changing the Chromatic Sphere to Darksteel Ingots (or similar) but the card draw of the sphere makes it better - for now.

Other ideas are welcome!

This is just to let everyone know that the fixes for my custom set, Tnisk, are finally uploaded to the server and ready for download. See my previous post for what the exact fixes were. For instructions on installing the patch and the pics for Tnisk on MWS see this excellent guide by Alacar Leoricar, posted on his block right here.

Meanwhile, I'll be reading lots of Future Sight as I just got that in today. I feel like it's bragging now tho - this is the third place I've said it on the site.

Last time I let everyone know I made it to round 3 in the FCC and well somehow that ended up being a tie. That means I advanced to the final round. Honestly it doesn't look like I've scored BADLY so far but it seems that there are a few other cards that are better than mine - maybe. We'll find out with the final tallies in the next two or so days.

As for the real reason for this post, I FINALLY got Tnisk corrected. I dunno what went wrong with the original patch and scans between me and the uploader but that's not important now. Anyway, here's a list of changes to expect as I went ahead and did some power leveling too before it got too late:

1) Cosmetic changes to: Alarm Griffin, Hallowed Gatekeeper, Parsek Guard, Liege's Valor, Ready Charge, Sunsword Honoree, Magical Transplant, Mind of the Archivist, Mischievous Faerie, Defiling Steam, Evagon Enlightenment, Blood Visions, Eruption of T'kork, Bulk Up

2) Frighten can only get nonland cards. That was its original intent but somehow that clause got left out.

3) Avenger's Hope, Fetid-Breath Grinder, and Shining Armor now affect each creature with those individual colors. Original intent but the wording was incorrect.

4) Valshon Base Rampart has its "Flagbearer" text Oraclized. Man, is that wordy now or what?

5) Reflecting Ray had its "divided as you choose" clause put it. Again in there originally but messed up when uploading.

6) Destiny Machine's can't be countered clause has been turned into Split Second. This seems really odd and I hesitated to do it but I didn't want the thing to own house when paired with counters because of its triggered ability and how that works.

7) Potency has had a reword so that its a replacement effect and not a delayed trigger. Much smoother this way.

8) The Being cycle: It's second ability now costs 3 mana to use. Infinite loop and all.

9) Dredgling and Power of Shadows have both had "if ~this~ is in your graveyard" clauses add into their silence abilities.

I believe that's all that is. Now for some audience participation. I have a fair idea which cards should be put into the set's FAQ but I need your help to give me an accurate idea of what should be included. Anyone that wants to - when the file is online that is - can drop a line here on the blog and lemme know what seems confusing to them. In fact I encourage it!

Made it past round 2 of the FCC this month somehow. I agree with the judge that rated with my card last round for the most part. It wasn't particularly exciting. This round, however, looks interesting. I got this thus far:


I dunno how particularly useful it would be but I know the cost is about right for that thing. It wouldn't be a useful ability until late in the game anyway.

Also, I seem to be one of the first to submit a finished card each time this month. I think it's cause I believe my best ideas come early in the process and not late (and lately that's mostly true because I have nothing else coming to mind late in the process). Just thought it an interesting thought.

God I hate that song now...

Anyway, I had one of the talks of my life tonight with my girlfriend. It was about marriage. To those of you out there - no I'm not getting married anytime soon. But the fact is I think she needed to air some of her hesitance about the entire issue and to be reassured of my take on it. Honestly, I'm really happy she feels that way about marriage, as I'm one who thinks it's quite a good thing but I'm in no means of a mind to think it's absolutely necessary just to love someone. It's just like an extra sign of commitment to me.

Don't get me wrong - to those of you who think that you need the blessings of God just to love/**** someone I'm not of that mind at all. I do think that's a good part of it as well tho. My mind just tells me that if we absolutely needed god's permission just to ****, god would've killed us all LONG ago. I mean we've been disobeying him and relaxing his rules for centuries now so you'd think he'd get sick of that if he wanted to stick to em sternly.

In any case, if you can see this, I love you hun and I'm glad you feel the way you do about this whole issue... It means a lot to me that you shared this with me.

Well I changed my deck over to the Izzet precon. As I might have said during a previous entry I was getting quite bored with it considering it was pretty much filled out in terms of getting what I needed. And thusly I use Izzet for a nice change of pace. What I plan to do with the thing is pure evil - but first I need the cards to do it. Anyway here's what I got so far. It doesn't look that good, I'll admit - but it's gonna take a lot of time to build this one up to optimum as opposed to my last try.



If I told you what I was doing with this deck, you'd kill me. For those who've seen my trade list, you've probably already figured it out...

And as a bonus I'm putting up this mono-:symg: concoction I made when Dissension came out and totally forgot about until now. I played a game with it today and frankly I love the little bugger. It could stand a lot of improvement tho...



I'm willing to listen to suggestions on the latter deck. I rather like the trickiness of Mono-G here.

Yup this is what I got...

Your atypical :symb::symr: control setup here. Few people know this but back in the day I played this BR control deck that focused itself around Lavaborn Muse and similar effects and used things like Browbeat and discard to really put it to them. I love BR the most but I'm sad to say it's very one dimensional these days. It's not like UR at ALL...



Paradise Plume may seem like a bad choice for any deck but I found it to be pretty good here - especially if my opponent is playing black. Red seems secondary however and if it wasn't for Akroma, Demonfire, and Sudden Shock, I doubt I'd be using it at all.

Second deck, Second life. I had a form of this deck since Ravnica came out. It's definitely my most consistent deck but I like it the least cause it seems to do one thing and one thing only: smash face. I've been doing way too much of that recently (see forthcoming coffeehouse league deck) and hence the first deck and the next deck:



Still quite fun even tho its not as refined as the netdeck versions... I never cared for stuff that ran out of gas anyway.

Yup, its my first entry of a deck on a Magic forum. What took me so long?



Fairly simple. Might replace the Draining Whelk with either a Body Double or a Vesuvan Shapeshifter depending on my meta. Lack of SB also because of meta. Everyone's is different. I do have to say Debtor's Knell works well if you're facing a lot of control decks.

Ugh... I was afraid this was gonna happen. Announcement:

Some small errata fixes are necessary for Tnisk. When those are done, I'll let everyone know. Thankfully, almost none of them are functional changes in regards to how it was originally concieved. There are a few, however, so keep an eye out for them. I'll be sure to make a list of changes along with that entry.