Hopefully i’ll be able to return you to a more regular blogging pattern soon, as my backfilling ended this week.
Don’t count on it though, because I just acquired a new Playstation game and it is sensational. I just 5-starred Hotel California, 99% notes hit (only missed four) and i’m pretty pleased with myself.
Yes folks, it’s Guitar Hero: World Tour. Do yourself a favour and pick this up today! (and a console, if you need to. It’s that good.)
And now for some hilarity. I think the picture says it all. I don’t really think I deserved this…I’d had that feral hydra in my hand for like five turns and I hadn’t played it! A smaller version of the img will be here, click it to see the full version.
How to congratulate your opponent on a removal spell well timed.
Nothing exciting here, i’m just putting a Cruel variant down that I can copy into MWS when I get home without any fuss.
4 Mulldrifter
4 Kitchen Finks
3 Cloudthresher
1 Nucklavee
4 Broken Ambitions
4 Cryptic Command
4 Wrath of God
2 Pyroclasm
4 Esper Charm
3 Bant Charm
2 Cruel Ultimatum
4 Reflecting Pool
3 Arcane Sanctum
3 Adarkar Wastes
4 Vivid Creek
4 Vivid Grove
2 Vivid Meadow
3 Twilight Mire
2 Island
Sideboard:
4 Paladin en-Vec
3 Oblivion Ring
2 Pyroclasm
4 Condemn
2 Negate
Updates are likely going to be few and far between over the next two weeks, i’m backfilling a colleague’s role while she goes on two weeks holiday, and it’s a lot of work. I believe the technical term is “A Metric Fuckton of work”. I stayed an hour after work yesterday and still didn’t get everything done. So I won’t have much time to do any bloggery.
My weekend was fulfilling, but kind of meh – I started on the cleaning of my unit. It’s going to be an epic operation that will no doubt be in a permanent status of “not quite finished”. At the moment, I have the priorities done – the area around my playstation and book/CD/DVD/game shelf. The remaining mess from my living room is in a pile of “to be sorted” stuff that i’m going to do this week. I did try and do a special update during the weekend, but I cocked it all up. Maybe next weekend I can try another.
Then there’s my kitchen…the dishes…oh good lord. I’m seriously contemplating just binning all my plates and crockery and starting all over again.
Next, a short plug for the Facebook game Dungeons & Dragons: Tiny Adventures. It’s just a watered-down D&D, but with the events 10-15 mins apart. So you can be doing something…say…work, study, or modo…then go back to your adventure for a second, then go back to you what you were doing. The friend interaction is where all the appeal is, as you can give each other “buffs” (+1 to your total), thus creating a “buff network” where everyone is boosting their friends’ rolls.
So everyone buff me.
…I am so quoting that out of context.
And now…an AustralianGamer signup update in true AG fashion!
*wind whistles through the trees*
…So, what did you think?
In all seriousness, two weeks and still nothing. And not much participation on your end either! Law of averages suggests that if lots of us sign up, the more chance that one of us makes it. The admins are back from an expo, so hopefully they might go to the forum signups to accept the singups of everyone they met at the expo.
As an indicator of how flat-out i’ve been, I started this post on Tuesday, and its Wednesday night that i’m finishing it. Yesterday I had a decklist to share, but it didn’t win any games, so i’m not going to post it.
The last thing I wanted to do is explain the entire point of the blog. I have a lot of different contacts in different quarters all asking me for ideas re: things, or my ideas on magic in general. Rather than forget who i’d told what, I decided to establish this blog. Any ideas I have will be here soon after I have them. So PLEASE stop trying to pre-empt the blog by getting ideas from me…particularly this extended idea I keep teasing. I’m not going to tell you. It’s exciting and promising, but I really want to see if it puts up results first, and I want to take my time with it. So some patience all around would be very much appreciated.
That’s all I have for now.
Until next time,
– RP.
omg! Two updates in one day!
I just had to share this with you guys, this is why I LOVE Shuh-Mons. And before you ask, yes, that is a BACKUP Thunderblust.
Pow. Just Pow.
For Reference:
Shuh-mons:
4 Flamekin Harbinger
4 Stigma Lasher
4 Smokebraider
4 Rage Forger
4 Hell’s Thunder
4 Thunderblust
4 Shock
4 Incinerate
4 Flame Javelin
2 Mutavault
22 Mountain
Sideboard:
4 Magma Spray
4 Dragon’s Claw
3 Cryoclasm
2 Murderous Redcap
2 Spitebellows
Just firstly, on the “Who’s that Pokemon challenge” – that’s not the whole pokemon, it’s a partial silhouette.
Since last we met, I’ve had not much time to test the Reveillark deck (admittedly, the process was delayed by several games of NHL 09), but here is a quick recap of what I did play. I bought the pieces of the deck, with Archon of Justice being a surprisingly low two tickets. I played a few games in the casual room, went zero and X before winning a match, consisting of one win against a mulligan, my opponent winning game 2, then conceding game 3, then deciding RIGHT I’M SORTED NOW and plowing unashmedly into the Constructed Queue room. I was quite surprised to discover that there is now such thing as a 4-man queue. Given my time constraints, and that the 4-man had three people waiting, I jumped on in.
My first round opponent lead off with an early Wooly Thoctar, but I had a wrath to answer it. He had a backup horde, but a couple Kitchen Finks and a Reveillark were quite good for my “conserve damage” plan and I was soon able to get past his defenses with my fliers.
Game 2 was rather bizarre. He was stalled on mana, and most of it was painful mana. I wasn’t getting very far with my 2 Kitchen Finks and One Mulldrifter. Finally I had him down to 7 Life…he had a bloom tender and had finally pulled out of his land trouble, and I had my three creatures, a Mind Stone and lands….it was at this point he tapped out for what must have been the world’s worst Realm Razer Just to recount, this left the board at:
Bloom Tender
Realm Razer
7 Life
Vs
Kitchen Finks
Kitchen Finks
Mulldrifter
Mind Stone
> 20 Life
Not the best situation for him, especially considering I was one Blue source away from Flashfreeze coming online.
He was able to immediately tap Bloom tender for RGW and O-Ring a Finks, but quickly went to 2 on my turn. He was then able to make another O-Ring for my Mulldrifter, but was forced to block my Finks in order to not die. I got timewalked to be fair, but his next turn yielded not much of note whilst mine gave me a Reveillark.
The second and final round saw me up against a red deck. I was once again on a “preserve damage” plan and a Finks-heavy draw on the play was well suited to this task. So was condemn on his turn 3 Ram-Gang. A-bang-bang!! We played a lot of back-and-forth, I was drawing a lot of land, but so was he, and I had to play in such a way that if he ripped, or was sandbagging Demigod at a couple of points I was just dead, but I managed to get there in the end.
Game 2 was absolutely bee-e-ay-youtiful…for him. Turn 1 Figure, Turn 2 Lasher…I had a Condemn to slow him down, and I managed to stall a couple turns with archon-mannequin, but this just delayed the brutal and inevitable.
Game 3 saw me play an early Sower, and between Mannequin and Reveillark I was able to steal his creatures, use them to chump a couple of times (that “preserve damage” rather than “race” plan) and eventually I somehow won..i’m not quite sure how it happened myself, I just got there.
At the end of the game he made some comment about both games his draw had his lands outnumber his spells by two, and it was the only way I could win. Sadly he left the game before I could deliver the response “well you know, I gotta get Larky sometimes.” We’ll just pretend I did.
Usually I hate when people makes excuses other than “well, that’s magic for ya sometimes” when they lose but this time it didn’t bother me. THANKS FOR THE EXTRA BOOSTER, YOU TWAT!
I’m such a good winner.
Next time: Some red Shuh-mon Shuh-naningans.
Until then,
– RP
Let’s pick up the slack from yesterday’s post with an immediate decklist.
4 Mulldrifter
4 Kitchen Finks
3 Reveillark
2 Shriekmaw
2 Sower of Temptation
2 Archon of Justice
1 Fulminator Mage
4 Mind Stone
4 Wrath of God
4 Cryptic Command
3 Makeshift Mannequin
3 Condemn
4 Reflecting Pool
4 Vivid Creek
3 Adarkar Wastes
3 Esper Tri-Land
1 Vivid Meadow
1 Vivid Marsh
4 Island
3 Plains
1 Swamp
The basic land mix is to be tuned according to whatever filter lands I have on MODO.
I continue to sling ideas at the wall in the hope that something sticks. I have an old favourite i’m dying to test as well, so tomorrow’s update my just have some hilarity of the shuh-mon variety. I love shuh-mons. And red decks. And brunettes with blue eyes…
Until next time,
– RP
Post-post update:
Let’s play a game with my traffic graph.
WHO’S THAT POKEMON?!?
Who's that Pokemon?
Comment your answer, the winner gets..I don’t know, a namedrop or something. Yeah, the prize sucks. Get over it.
Thank you ReeceP. Your registration has been successful. The administrator wishes to preview all new registered accounts before posting permissions are granted. The administrator has been notified of your registration.
So said the AustralianGamer Forums after I opted to resend the validation for my account.
Happy 1st Week Annviersary, my non-participation in the AG Forums!
To celebrate this undoubtedly monumentous occasion, I propose that my CH readership all register themselves (this is not a membership drive, really) at the forums: http://www.australiangamer.com/forum/index.php?act=idx and just see how long it takes us all to get on there. Use something close to your real name, something that doesn’t scream “potential spambot”. I’m declaring a race to get active! Register at the forums, leave a comment saying what username you signed up as, and we’ll see what usernames get active first.
Also, if I maybe missed an instruction? It wouldn’t be the first time, so let me know.
Now, an obligatory shout-out to Celebrity reader and all-star Magician, Australian National Finalist Brandon Lau. Brandon, send me that Berlin planeswalker deck, you fiend! My one wasn’t good! (Are you noticing a trend with these decks I post? They all suck!)
This is going to be a first for a CH post, but I don’t have a decklist tonight, I was flat-out at work and am absolutely wiped, so i’m going to turn in early.
Until next time,
– RP
So Saturday Night’s party was epic in more ways than one.
In order to get there, I had to get the train from Glendalough to the City, and catch the #95 bus from the City to my mate’s place in Floreat. The problem was that by the time I had sufficiently deciphered Transperth’s website to determine this, it was too late to catch my bus from the City.
Not to be deterred, I (relatively) quickly came up with a new plan. My mate’s house was off Grantham St, which in turn came off the street I live on, Harborne St. I decided to walk to Grantham St and catch the bus from there down the long way to my mate’s house. And if worse came to worse, I knew that Grantham St is straight and I wouldn’t get lost.
Plan: Not so bad.
Execution: Tits.
Worse came to worse and I ended up having to walk the entire four kilometres (4092 metres according to the Transperth website) to my friends’ house.
Verdict: So worth it.
I had an absolute blast at the party, met up with a group of guys who I hadn’t seen in years, and it was just like old time, we were all doubled over laughing within about five or ten minutes, and so it went on the rest of the night.
Why were we laughing so much? lolmerica, of course!
I’m eating a nice dish of hypocrisy by talking about this subject now, considering how sick I am of hearing about it, but the subject of Barack Obama’s election came up in our group rather quickly. Americans have been collectively patting themselves on the back since the result came in…and even Canadians have jumped in on the act as well and I have to question…are you guys for real?
Like…for reals!?
As an Australian, I did want Obama to win, but that is only because I anticipate spectacular failure on his part, and hopefully our dollar will strengthen, allowing things like importing and say…buying modo tickets to become a lot easier.
At the party, my friend Ross (not the host) made a rather good point that this guy is basically Ronald Reagan the second. During his acceptance speech, he for all intents and purposes sent another 60K troops to Iraq. This is the Vietnam Sucker-Punch, and the suckers are the US citizens! On this precedent, I’m going to predict spectacular failure for the Democrats, and if i’m wrong, well America is an ally, so i’m sure for Australia, it’s win-win either way.
Speaking of Australian, or AustralianGamer to be exact – still nothing. One of the admins had been on about fifteen minutes before I checked as well. This is highly entertaining for me, so I think I’ll keep a periodic check of how long its been. Tomorrow makes a week, I might propose some anniversary celebrations if nothing has happened.
It wouldn’t be a Cramped Headspace post without a decklist, so in lieu of getting permission to discuss my teammate’s decklist, and in lieu of posting the Extended deck i’ve been looking at (I promise it’s coming, I just want to test it a little first.), i’ve come up with my own build of a Planeswalker deck in Standard.
‘Walking in Standard
4 Kitchen Finks
3 Cloudthresher
3 Stoic Angel
2 Sower of Temptation
4 Wrath of God
4 Courier’s Capsule
4 Obelisk of Bant
3 Garruk Wildspeaker
3 Jace Beleren
2 Tezzeret the Seeker
2 Elspeth, Knight Errant
1 Rings of Brighthearth
1 Loxodon Warhammer
4 Treetop Village
4 Seaside Citadel
4 Reflecting Pool
3 Flooded Grove
3 Mystic Gate
2 Wooded Bastion
2 Adarkar Wastes
2 Vivid Grove
Garruk and Tezzeret tag-team in multiple ways. They both help to provide a lot of mana with their untapping ability. They can between them make a 6/3 Trampling Lifelinking monster that can attack and defend. Tezzeret and Jace between them can draw a lot of cards. Elspeth can lump in with the Tezzeruk beast to make it even bigger, or it’s just a natural combination with Garruk’s beast making.
Stoic Angel is a natural measure to help defend the planeswalkers from attack, as is Wrath of God and Cloudthresher. Kitchen Finks is an early blocker, and Sower demands removal which can in turn draw it away from Planeswalkers. This is another untested, designed-at-work deck so I hope to get a chance to test it tonight.
Until next time!
– RP
Antoine Elves was a giant pile of “meh”. It had some explosive moments, none of which lasted longer than a moment, and some funny draws, but it turns out that there really needs to be some card-advantage in the deck.
On that note, I also tried Bantoine Elves, which was a bit more exciting, but the mana kinda sucked. I’ll endeavour to figure out the right mix between powerful spells and mana…it might just turn out to be U/G or something. I’m sure counterspells would help, counterspell make everything better, right?
FYI, Here’s the Bantoine Elves list
// Lands
8 [UG] Forest
4 [SHM] Fire-Lit Thicket
4 [SHM] Wooded Bastion
4 [EVE] Flooded Grove
// Creatures
2 [ALA] Mycoloth
4 [ALA] Ranger of Eos
4 [EVE] Nettle Sentinel
4 [10E] Llanowar Elves
2 [LRW] Elvish Harbinger
4 [MOR] Heritage Druid
4 [8E] Birds of Paradise
// Spells
4 [ALA] Bant Charm
2 [MOR] Roar of the Crowd
3 [MOR] Distant Melody
4 [LRW] Gilt-Leaf Ambush
3 [LRW] Elvish Promenade
——-
And now, a non-magical tale I have to share. A while back I was googling to find the two videos Yahtzee did before he started making Zero Punctuation (available at The Escapist, obligatory plug) when I stumbled across a couple of podcast appearances he’d made over at the site http://www.australiangamer.com On..Tuesday I think it was, I signed up to their forums because I wanted to share a story I had that related to some content they’d had on one of these podcasts. I signed up, did my “click here to validate your account” thing. The next page had something about the admins requiring themselves to authenticate each signup, presumably as an anti-spam measure. Oddly though, as we speak I still can’t see any forums when I’m logged in. I can browse ’til my hearts content as a guest…not so much as a member.
This strikes me as somewhat bizarre, especially given that I signed up under my name and last initial, ReeceP, so I can’t imagine that I look like a spambot. The other odd thing is that I can see the members online, and i’ve seen the admins online on multiple occasions. So here we’ll have the “AustralianGamer Forum Countdown” and see how long it takes me to get posting there!
I’ve got a party tonight, but check back here for an exciting-looking extended deck I designed at work. Also my teammate has made a super-exciting standard deck that’s an alternate look at an idea that appeared at PT: Berlin that i’d like to share with you. We’ll see how I go with that, but definitely look out for that extended list.
Until next time,
– RP
Cramped Headspace 