International Camel Races. September.
To fear God and maintain His Church
To serve the liege lord in valour and faith
To protect the weak and defenceless
To give succour to widows and orphans
To refrain from the wanton giving of offence
To live by honour and for glory
To despise pecuniary reward
To fight for the welfare of all
To obey those placed in authority
To guard the honour of fellow knights
To eschew unfairness, meanness and deceit
To keep faith
At all times to speak the truth
To persevere to the end in any enterprise begun
To respect the honour of women
Never to refuse a challenge from an equal
Never to turn the back upon a foe
Alternate ending for my Animation 202 Final <3
My animation 202 final. Enjoy!
150 AF: After Fallout (Session 2-The Ship)
The band begins its journey by travelling roughly along what was once route 70, and eventually makes its way into Kansas. They have to contend with a marauding bandit gang or two along the way, nothing serious or notable. That changes when, diverting from the (heavily overgrown) interstate to skirt a city, they come across a ship. In the middle of a blasted desert, partially buried as if it had sprung a leak and was sinking into the earth, is an enormous warship. While none of the group had seen a battleship before, Wandering Tom recognizes it as such. With three huge turrets of three guns each, broadside batteries, a soaring command tower, and engines and propellers protruding from the sides and rear, the ship is one of the single largest things any of them has ever seen, short of the decaying skyscrapers they seek to avoid. Jake confessed that as the route they are taking is not his usual, so he has never passed this way before.
The men are confused, and rightly so, as to what a mammoth seafaring vessel could be doing in a place such as this. They know that The War was intense, but they are skeptical that such a large ship could have been thrown this distance. They decide to investigate.
150 AF: After Fallout (Session 1-The Introduction)
I just started a campaign that takes place in the world that the Anarchist Fulfillment Collective project was from. My approach to this game is that as I have only really developed one small part of the world, the players choices in creating their characters and backstory will have a profound effect on shaping what the world looks like at the start of the game. I decided that I would have them come up with character concepts while I was at work and when I got back we’d start play right away. The only guidance I gave them was a copy of the AFC project and that they were travelling together to the Isle of Social Nongovernment. That was about as far as I’d planned ahead as well. I intend to allow this campaign to sort of build itself.
I only have two players (by choice, not necessity), who happen to be my two best childhood friends. They collaborated and made two western themed characters, Wandering Tom and The Manager. Wandering Tom carries a guitar and has a voice of gold, whereas The Manager is a big fellow who doesn’t say much but what needs to be said. They roam from town to town in what was once Colorado, taking on odd jobs or Wandering Tom playing guitar while The Manager handles the finances.
I decided based off this
Random Pack Draft: July 6th, 2011
A few friends (I only really knew Zach, who hosted the event, and Lyle, who sort of organized it) and I put together a draft where we each bought 3 packs from any set. Due to what was available at nearby stores on short notice, we ended up with a lot of Mirrodin II block, Zendikar, and Shadowmoor, with some 7th Edition, Nemisis, and a couple other random packs. (I myself brought 2 Shadowmoor and a 7th edition). Unlike last week’s FNM, I didn’t have a whole lot of amazing bombs, but I was able to put together a solid Red and Black deck. I had a bunch of efficient creatures and enough removal to keep the other side of the board manageable. I ran the pairings, doing a form of double elimination modified for time, and ended up winning the draft 3-0.
Round one I played a guy named Eric. He was also playing red black, but his pool (or at least his deck) didn’t seem as good and quite frankly I just outplayed him. It felt like I was a turn ahead the whole time. Zach and Lyle were paired round one, with Lyle winning and Zach going on to dominate the looser’s bracket.
Friday Night Magic: July 1st, 2011
This was my draft deck for FNM at Heroes Comics in Norwalk, CT. It ended up going 3-1, with the only loss to my own brother (who is considerably better than me and went 4-0). Phyrexian Obliterator was my first pick and ended up pretty much guaranteeing I was playing black. I tried to go black green infect, but never ended up getting more than a few good green cards, most notably Asceticism. 3x Grim Affliction, Triumph of the Hordes, Skinrender, and Phyrexian Vatmother all were hugely helpful. The rest of my pool was black and green cards that didn’t make the cut, and some other miscellaneous stuff.
Round one was against a guy named Robert who was playing Black infect with red and green, I think. Game 1 was relatively close, but game 2 saw Phyrexian Obliterator enchanted with Phyrisis and swinging on turn 5, which ended things quickly.
End Result: 2-0
Jace Gets Banned
“It seems like every time we visit Mirrodin, shit gets REAL.”
-Alex
So earlier today, presumably at midnight, Magic: The Gathering creators Wizards of the Coast announced that Jace, The Mind Sculptor and Stoneforge Mystic are to be put on the standard ban list.
According to this article (which, if you are a Magic player or are interested in the reasons behind the ban, I would definitely recommend reading) by Aaron Forsythe:
“The Standard metagame is stagnant and unhealthy at the moment, and has been for months. Jace, The Mind Sculptor is appearing in winning deck lists an alarming percentage of the time, with Stoneforge Mystic appearing almost as often. For reference, 88% of the decks in Day 2 of Grand Prix Singapore contained multiple copies of Jace, and almost 70% of the Day 2 decks contained Stoneforge Mystic. The numbers from Pro Tour Qualifiers and independent large events like the StarCityGames.com Open Series look very similar.”
Later in the article, he writes:
“There exists a crowd of competitive players who pursue perfection, who have no personal attachment to any certain cards or decks save those that reward them for their great skill and dedication. I very much appreciate that mindset; in fact, much of our organized play encourages it. But there exists a larger crowd for whom decks and cards are extensions of themselves, who revel in diverse metagames wherein they can show off their creativity. They want to be able to play decks that suit their whims and personalities without feeling like they are wasting their time; they want Magic to afford them the opportunities to individualize while still taking it seriously. Standard has lost that in recent months, and we aim to bring it back.”
Obviously people are going to be split over whether this was deserved, opinions which will not go unaffected by Jace’s huge price tag. Some have said that this was purely a business move on wizards part; that they did it to please the masses. To that I say that the primary role of a game like magic is to please the masses. Not blindly, mind you. Wizards has to look at players beyond the the top tier who will always play with the best possible deck, which is something that ultra competitive players across all games often forget. While the community will bitch and moan without warrant about top tier cards forever, there will come from time to time cards that actually are too powerful, and more specifically too defining. The state of the game suffers as a result.
