Do you mean for Sasaya to be able flip whether or not it is actually regenerated? That puts it closer to the right power level, but it isn't particularly exciting or strong. I thought it was marginal when I thought the flipped version allowed you to regenerate any creature you controlled...being able to regenerate only snakes makes this unplayable.
I think this version of Seshiro is considerably weaker than the original, which was a fine snake lord. A shrouded 3/3 for 2GG would be a great uncommon, but this rare is unnecessarily nerfed with the last ability. The second ability doesn't really add too much value...you are only really protecting your guys from Judge Unworthy (and only if your opponent doesn't have 3 to spare).
The Shizuko is cool in concept (though we absolutely cannot use that picture). The tapping untapped forests thing, however, has the same problem as Wood Elemental, the worst creature of all time. Maybe have it put regular 1/1 snake or spirit tokens into play, and then give the mana ability to them vika a static ability on Shizuko itself.
I would rather go with my three cards than these, but I'd also rather have some other opinions (and some renders..though they are less important this round).
Ok, so the deadline is tonight. Anyone on the team have other suggestions and/or render-making software? I'm literally in the middle of my move to NY, so I'm less than useful in both departments. I will be back sporadically for the rest of the night to offer feedback.
I really like Shimatsu. Kodama of the Center Tree is also really awesome, but I worry that we'll get docked for the ability being very blue. I'm not sure why, but I don't find Iizuka especially flavorful, but I suppose that can be changed with flavor-text.
Upon rereading my Iizuka, I see what you mean. The original idea was for his ability to represent him sacrificing his friends to save himself, but the wording started to become an ungodly mess. I simplified it down to that more traditional red retargeting ability, but it seems to have lost most of the flavor.
He certainly should sacrifice other samurai...maybe to do some kind of Berserk effect?
Three quick-n'-dirty updates...I may want to tweak these later.
Shimatsu the Bloodcloaked - R
Legendary Creature - Demon Spirit
As Shimatsu the Bloodcloaked comes into play, sacrifice any number of permanents. Shimatsu comes into play with that many +1/+1 counters on it. Grandeur - Double the number of counters on Shimatsu the Bloodcloaked
0/0
Kodama of the Center Tree - 3G
Legendary Creature - Spirit
Kodama of the Center Tree's power and toughness are equal to the number of spirits in play.
0: Kodama of the Center Tree becomes a copy of target spirit until end of turn and retains this ability.
*/*
Iizuka the Ruthless - 3RR
Legendary Creature - Human Samurai
Double Strike, Bushido 2
Sacrifice a Samurai: Change the target of target spell or activated ability with a single target.
3/3
Sounds fine to me...I personally thought the flip cards worked simply because they were showing off a radically new mechanic. Most of them were underpowered, but at least they had something going for them.
Are we totally set on just submitting flip cards? Nothing about the challenge suggests that the cards have to be related in any way. I have some ideas for other legends amid the CHK block, and will submit those sometime tomorrow unless there are any strenuous objections.
Hmm I am having difficulty installing MTGO... seems that the very last step when it tries to download some master.lst it will say the connection is lost, does anyone else have this problem before?
If your computer has a dual processor, set the affinity of magic.exe to one or the other. You can do that by going to the Task Manager (ctl-alt-del), going to the program and right-clicking.
Otherwise, check out the tech support thread on Wizards' site. I've always found the answer I was looking for right away.
Black is definitely the worst color in TPF limited, and U/B is the pairing I'd be least inclined to do. That said, I have been won with UB decks as well as lost to them, so it's not impossible.
Green does present a problem in that Black's common removal in this block is not actually that good (and Death Rattle is a blank). Your best bet is often Rathi Trapper in multiples. Even Melancholy, which is often marginal, can be a big part of a controlling deck that picks away with Blightspeakers, Urborg Syphon-Mages and shadowy guys.
In blue, you'll want the usual suite of evasive guys and possibly some Leaden Fists. Foresee and especially Fathom Seer can be really helpful if you have madness cards and are emptying your hand very fast.
I mostly agree with Finn, though more on the unlikeliness of us coming into contact with extraterrestrial intelligences than their unlikeliness of their existence.
There is almost certainly intelligent life elsewhere in the universe, and as Finn says, there is no reason to assume that our evolutionary path is the one other intelligences would take. While the conditions are exceedingly rare that would allow the evolution of creatures as smart as we are, there may be even rarer worlds that are even more conducive to the evolution of intelligent life than Earth. Even seemingly trivial things, like the shape of continents, could have a tremendous effect on this hypothetical species social gowth, in addition to their physical evolution, leading to a world much less prone to self-destruction.
Of course, as Finn also says, this is an almost entirely moot point unless faster-than-light communication (to say nothing of travel) is in the cards, which it does not seem to be. This essay by Charlie Stross is a very nice encapsulation of the problem. A lot of his fellow sci-fi travelers take him to task for not being sufficiently optimistic about the technology we haven't developed yet and have no reason to believe we ever will be able to, but I think he's more or less on the money.
A lot of techno-futurists want to frame this idea in the context of post-human life/society, where non-biological intelligences would be able to accomplish what we meatbags cannot. But that begs this particular question, considering we are talking about habitable planets, which presupposes we will still have bodies that need physical habitats. Though it doesn't address the speed of light problem at all, it's nice to think outside the box a little on that particular subject.
Whenever the subject comes up, I'm always reminded of the Terry Bisson short story, They're Made out of Meat (here's a well done short film version, too). Perhaps we're approaching this problem from the wrong angle?
Everyone needs to find a replay of the Larry King Live show that was on tonight. Cena, Jericho, Bret Hart, Ted DiBiase and Steve Blackman (among other non-wrestling figures related to the business) discuss the Benoit case.
This was the whole hour, so they covered a lot of ground...from the crimes themselves, to Benoit's personal life, steroids, lifestyle, and the corporate culture of the WWE. There were a number of extremely insightful and on-point questions from King and the audience. It was crazy to have Cena be the first current WWE figure speak in this kind of forum. He seemed like he was being "coached" to toe the company line, but on the whole he was very put together and professional. Jericho, in particular, came across extremely well, and probably did the best job of explaining how
wresting actually works to a lay audience.
I was shocked to see that Cena did the show live and not satellited in from Raw...I only saw a second where The King was asking about the Other King, but nothing about the issues. I was under the impression that WWE was not going to talk about Benoit on their shows...what was Cena portrayed to have been doing on Larry King?
Hollow Pursuits2WB
Enchantment - Aura
Enchant Player
Whenever a card in a graveyard becomes the target of a spell or ability, remove that card from the game and enchanted player loses 1 life. Seek not what lies beyond the void, for you will find it: oblivion.
I realize that this board encompasses what is probably part of Hasbro's dream demographic (since it is convened around one of their other products), but this was not a 10/10, "best movie ever." This was extremely entertaining crap. And that's fine by me.
I can't even really complain about the product placement, as heavy-handed as it was, considering the entire concept is based on long-format advertising for toys.
One thing I'm surprised no one has brought up:
The last scene. Sam finally gets to make out with Mikhela. Things look like they could get pretty serious...we've got a romantic sunset and the chemical/emotional aftereffects of surviving a crazy interstellar robot war and saving humanity going on. One problem: they are about to have sex on top of their friend Bumblebee. Oh, and all of the other Autobots are right there, looking directly at them.
I realize they have a different outlook on human sexuality, considering Ratchet's one line of dialogue. But that's just weird.
I wish I hadn't just passed that foil coalition relic.
I also got screwed on Korlash before his stock went up so steeply...I sold two for 7 each, now they are in Damnation range (12-14). Goyf is also up there, as others have said.
Out of the FS lands, Canopy seems to be the hottest.
There are a couple of purples that have some secondary value. Off the top of my head, Soltari Priest, The Rack and Wall of Roots all go for 1 tix.
But just troll the Buyers section of the marketplace. All of the bots are pretty much identical in what they are looking for/price, but it's worth a cursory search to see if there are any outliers.
I like Coach. And as much as I like Regal as a GM, I'd much prefer Coach if it means that Regal wont be wrestling. Coach is a lot better when he's playing off other people (one of the all-time-great Rock promos was made by his facial expressions while doing the Charleston in Charleston), but he can also pull off the vindictive weasel authority figure quite well.
The bigger question involves how and when Vince will return. The cat's out of the bag as far as him being alive, though I imagine he would rather put some distance between himself and that angle for the time being. I would say he could hitch his wagon to the HHH return in a neo-Corporation angle, but it looks like Trips is being booked as a face and Vince will remain a (legit) heel for a long time coming.
Then again, the return swerve has worked for HHH before, if my memory serves.
"The Wrestling Observer Newsletter are reporting that Chris Benoit took out a new life insurance policy, which listed his ex-wife and oldest child David, 14, and Megan, 10, as the beneficiaries. Nancy apparently confronted Chris about it and he refused to change it. Nancy also found out that Chris Benoit set up a new bank account in the name of his ex-wife in Edmonton."
well I guess benoit had planned something like this for awhile, i mean he made sure his other children and ex wife were going to be taken care of financially speaking, who knows how long he planned this, week? months?
Life insurance policies generally have clauses in place to prevent people from collecting as a result of suicide (for this exact reason). This might speak to the nature of Chris's relationship to Nancy, but in any case, we are likely talking about a mentally disturbed person and can't really speculate about motive.
In regards to WWE severing all ties to the Benoit name, I think it makes perfect sense, for the time being. We are still in the news cycle about this incident and WWE's reputation and stock price are both taking a pounding due to the negative coverage. WWE has always confiscated signs that somone somwehere might take offense to (I had my "testicles = ratings" sign taken away, even when that was pretty much Test's catchphrase, word for word), and considering many fans might have things to say about Benoit that are not exactly "R.I.P.," it's the smart move.
Did you notice how everyone on Raw was being extremely careful not to use words like "kill" or "dead"? It's going to be like this for a while.
Do you mean for Sasaya to be able flip whether or not it is actually regenerated? That puts it closer to the right power level, but it isn't particularly exciting or strong. I thought it was marginal when I thought the flipped version allowed you to regenerate any creature you controlled...being able to regenerate only snakes makes this unplayable.
I think this version of Seshiro is considerably weaker than the original, which was a fine snake lord. A shrouded 3/3 for 2GG would be a great uncommon, but this rare is unnecessarily nerfed with the last ability. The second ability doesn't really add too much value...you are only really protecting your guys from Judge Unworthy (and only if your opponent doesn't have 3 to spare).
The Shizuko is cool in concept (though we absolutely cannot use that picture). The tapping untapped forests thing, however, has the same problem as Wood Elemental, the worst creature of all time. Maybe have it put regular 1/1 snake or spirit tokens into play, and then give the mana ability to them vika a static ability on Shizuko itself.
I would rather go with my three cards than these, but I'd also rather have some other opinions (and some renders..though they are less important this round).
Upon rereading my Iizuka, I see what you mean. The original idea was for his ability to represent him sacrificing his friends to save himself, but the wording started to become an ungodly mess. I simplified it down to that more traditional red retargeting ability, but it seems to have lost most of the flavor.
He certainly should sacrifice other samurai...maybe to do some kind of Berserk effect?
Shimatsu the Bloodcloaked - R
Legendary Creature - Demon Spirit
As Shimatsu the Bloodcloaked comes into play, sacrifice any number of permanents. Shimatsu comes into play with that many +1/+1 counters on it.
Grandeur - Double the number of counters on Shimatsu the Bloodcloaked
0/0
Kodama of the Center Tree - 3G
Legendary Creature - Spirit
Kodama of the Center Tree's power and toughness are equal to the number of spirits in play.
0: Kodama of the Center Tree becomes a copy of target spirit until end of turn and retains this ability.
*/*
Iizuka the Ruthless - 3RR
Legendary Creature - Human Samurai
Double Strike, Bushido 2
Sacrifice a Samurai: Change the target of target spell or activated ability with a single target.
3/3
If your computer has a dual processor, set the affinity of magic.exe to one or the other. You can do that by going to the Task Manager (ctl-alt-del), going to the program and right-clicking.
Otherwise, check out the tech support thread on Wizards' site. I've always found the answer I was looking for right away.
Green does present a problem in that Black's common removal in this block is not actually that good (and Death Rattle is a blank). Your best bet is often Rathi Trapper in multiples. Even Melancholy, which is often marginal, can be a big part of a controlling deck that picks away with Blightspeakers, Urborg Syphon-Mages and shadowy guys.
In blue, you'll want the usual suite of evasive guys and possibly some Leaden Fists. Foresee and especially Fathom Seer can be really helpful if you have madness cards and are emptying your hand very fast.
There is almost certainly intelligent life elsewhere in the universe, and as Finn says, there is no reason to assume that our evolutionary path is the one other intelligences would take. While the conditions are exceedingly rare that would allow the evolution of creatures as smart as we are, there may be even rarer worlds that are even more conducive to the evolution of intelligent life than Earth. Even seemingly trivial things, like the shape of continents, could have a tremendous effect on this hypothetical species social gowth, in addition to their physical evolution, leading to a world much less prone to self-destruction.
Of course, as Finn also says, this is an almost entirely moot point unless faster-than-light communication (to say nothing of travel) is in the cards, which it does not seem to be. This essay by Charlie Stross is a very nice encapsulation of the problem. A lot of his fellow sci-fi travelers take him to task for not being sufficiently optimistic about the technology we haven't developed yet and have no reason to believe we ever will be able to, but I think he's more or less on the money.
A lot of techno-futurists want to frame this idea in the context of post-human life/society, where non-biological intelligences would be able to accomplish what we meatbags cannot. But that begs this particular question, considering we are talking about habitable planets, which presupposes we will still have bodies that need physical habitats. Though it doesn't address the speed of light problem at all, it's nice to think outside the box a little on that particular subject.
Whenever the subject comes up, I'm always reminded of the Terry Bisson short story, They're Made out of Meat (here's a well done short film version, too). Perhaps we're approaching this problem from the wrong angle?
This was the whole hour, so they covered a lot of ground...from the crimes themselves, to Benoit's personal life, steroids, lifestyle, and the corporate culture of the WWE. There were a number of extremely insightful and on-point questions from King and the audience. It was crazy to have Cena be the first current WWE figure speak in this kind of forum. He seemed like he was being "coached" to toe the company line, but on the whole he was very put together and professional. Jericho, in particular, came across extremely well, and probably did the best job of explaining how
wresting actually works to a lay audience.
I was shocked to see that Cena did the show live and not satellited in from Raw...I only saw a second where The King was asking about the Other King, but nothing about the issues. I was under the impression that WWE was not going to talk about Benoit on their shows...what was Cena portrayed to have been doing on Larry King?
Enchantment - Aura
Enchant Player
Whenever a card in a graveyard becomes the target of a spell or ability, remove that card from the game and enchanted player loses 1 life.
Seek not what lies beyond the void, for you will find it: oblivion.
I can't even really complain about the product placement, as heavy-handed as it was, considering the entire concept is based on long-format advertising for toys.
One thing I'm surprised no one has brought up:
The last scene. Sam finally gets to make out with Mikhela. Things look like they could get pretty serious...we've got a romantic sunset and the chemical/emotional aftereffects of surviving a crazy interstellar robot war and saving humanity going on. One problem: they are about to have sex on top of their friend Bumblebee. Oh, and all of the other Autobots are right there, looking directly at them.
I realize they have a different outlook on human sexuality, considering Ratchet's one line of dialogue. But that's just weird.
I also got screwed on Korlash before his stock went up so steeply...I sold two for 7 each, now they are in Damnation range (12-14). Goyf is also up there, as others have said.
Out of the FS lands, Canopy seems to be the hottest.
There are a couple of purples that have some secondary value. Off the top of my head, Soltari Priest, The Rack and Wall of Roots all go for 1 tix.
But just troll the Buyers section of the marketplace. All of the bots are pretty much identical in what they are looking for/price, but it's worth a cursory search to see if there are any outliers.
The bigger question involves how and when Vince will return. The cat's out of the bag as far as him being alive, though I imagine he would rather put some distance between himself and that angle for the time being. I would say he could hitch his wagon to the HHH return in a neo-Corporation angle, but it looks like Trips is being booked as a face and Vince will remain a (legit) heel for a long time coming.
Then again, the return swerve has worked for HHH before, if my memory serves.
Life insurance policies generally have clauses in place to prevent people from collecting as a result of suicide (for this exact reason). This might speak to the nature of Chris's relationship to Nancy, but in any case, we are likely talking about a mentally disturbed person and can't really speculate about motive.
In regards to WWE severing all ties to the Benoit name, I think it makes perfect sense, for the time being. We are still in the news cycle about this incident and WWE's reputation and stock price are both taking a pounding due to the negative coverage. WWE has always confiscated signs that somone somwehere might take offense to (I had my "testicles = ratings" sign taken away, even when that was pretty much Test's catchphrase, word for word), and considering many fans might have things to say about Benoit that are not exactly "R.I.P.," it's the smart move.
Did you notice how everyone on Raw was being extremely careful not to use words like "kill" or "dead"? It's going to be like this for a while.