alexgndl

Allrighty then, just opened 12 packs-9 from the fat pack and 3 free. For the first time EVER, I didn't pull any mythics. Still got some nice stuff though-Daxos of Meletis, Sylvan Caryatid, Hammer of Purphoros, Steam Augury, Chained to the Rocks, and then the Boros scryland and Nythkos, Shrine to Nyx. All in all, I'm quite happy. Probably didn't break even, but I got a lot of nice stuff that'll go a long way in helping me with my decks. I'd say it's worth it. Also, I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say that Spellheart Chimera is my favorite card in the set so far. Flample for 3, and the power just goes up as you play Sorceries and Instants? As well as being in the colors for doing exactly that? It's going right in my Izzet deck, possibly an entire playset. It's gonna be fun.

I hear that Scrylands are going to plummet soon, people are pegging their final-ish resting point at about 3 bucks. So you shouldn't have a problem with that. I mean, think about it-sure, they're rare lands, but at the end of the day they're still guildgates with Scry 1 nailed onto it. The only reason they're so high right now is because it's our only option besides shocks. Anyways, I have 2 decks that I'm working on. One is my Rakdos midrange deck that's probably going to stay the same-if I change anything, it'll be replacing the guildgates with either Scry lands or Shocks, and possibly taking out Master of Cruelties and putting Underworld Cerberus in there instead. I'm also thinking of doing a U/R deck, not exactly sure where I want to take it though. I pulled a Thassa at the prerelease (btw, how'd you guys do there? I went 1-3 off of U/R. Not too bad, given that I hardly ever win at tournaments, and most of my losses were because I suck as a player, not because my deck was bad.) and I really love her-scrying every turn is crazy powerful, and her other stuff is great as well. Thinking of getting a few Master of Waves and comboing with Young Pyromancer and Molten Birth to make an elemental token army. Not sure how feasible that'll be in standard though. It'd basically be a controlly token deck, with something fun like Dragonshift for a wincon. Think new Chandra would work well in here? Not sure. Really excited for Theros to actually release, definitely going to try and get a fat pack tomorrow. And I think I have enough points on my Waterstones card that I'll get a free 10 pound gift card too, so I'll buy 2 or 3 more packs as well from that. Hopefully I'll have some nice pulls to report.

I think the next announcements are gonna be the Steambox (that runs on SteamOS) and Source 2. Calling it now. Don't know if HL3 is gonna be a launch title, but it definitely seems possible. But to be honest, I kind of don't want them to do it-one of my friends absolutely loves those games and it's just so fun to see him squirming about this.

Jontron posted on Facebook last night about possibly posting a video today! PREPARE YOUR BUTTHOLES

Actually, if Reddit is any indication, most decks that do really well usually go U/R, not U/B. I've seen one or two Grixis decks, but for the most part they just stick with Izzet. Also, that deck looks really fucking nasty to play against.

Ok, so the earliest prerelease reports are in-thank you, Australia. Looks like Blue is incredibly strong, since evasion seems to be even more crazy insane in this format. Loads of people are raving about Benthic Giant, for very good reasons-it's a 4/5 Hexproof common for 6 mana. The fact that you can actually get that fucker out means it's a teensy bit slower than say...Gatecrash. Though that's not saying much. But just slap an enchantment or two on ol' Benthy (Aqueous Form is another common that people are saying is very strong, for obvious reasons) and you're golden. While most games do go sort of late, the bigger monstrosity creatures (Shipbreaker Kraken, et al) usually don't really have time to shine. Instead, people suggest going either with Heroic or Bestow creatures, particularly the Blue or Black Bestows. Finally, Thassa seems to just rape everything in her path here-you pull her, and if you're going particularly heavily blue, chances are you're going to win. Can't wait to play myself, definitely going over to my LGS in a little while to scope it out.

Hahahahahahaha, that's awesome! Why haven't I ever thought of that? Also, Black's taken for the Theros prerelease at my LGS...looks like I'm going blue instead. Which should be interesting, because I've never really...played blue at all. Besides my mill deck, which was less blue and more "hurr durr I play Curse of the Bloody Tome on you and just wait it out". So yeah. Raz, tips on what you think will be good for limited (especially in blue, but I'm sure I can multicolor a bit) would be incredibly helpful

So Joseph Gordon-Levitt did an AMA yesterday, and in it he said that he plays MtG. Mind=blown.

[spoiler2]1. Sceptile 2. Aerodactyl 3. Gyarados 4. Flareon 5. Espeon 6. Arcanine 7. Togekiss 8. Primeape 9. Lucario 10. Infernape[/spoiler2]

Goddamn it. Wait. WAIT. You had a fucking Treecko on your team...and you didn't use him against the goddamn Nosepass?

Wait, Danny's a virgin? Shit, I'm not even gay and I'd say yes if he asked.

I remember I once Nuzlocked Sapphire, and I caught a Zigzagoon on almost every single route. EXCEPT for the only route where you can catch a Skarmory-I fucking got that shit and it was like the greatest thing ever.

Someone actually named something after me! :D

So NASA announced today that Voyager One has become the first man-made object to leave the solar system. It's currently about 11.66 BILLION miles away from earth, and has been going steady for almost 40 years now. And it's expected to continue sending data for another 10-15 or so. Honestly, I'm ecstatic about this-the Voyager missions really interested me as a kid, and were a huge influence in me going into astronomy (even though I flunked out). And just think about it-we basically exploded something so hard that it ESCAPED THE FUCKING SUN. How cool is that?!

Yes, that's pretty much correct-Voyager just passed the first of those-solar wind is caused by the magnetic field of the Sun. Its gravitational pull, however, affects objects up to about a light year away. It's gonna be a while until it leaves that area.

Excludes-while the Oort Cloud is still marginally effected by the Sun's gravitational pull, the solar wind doesn't quite reach that far.

No, the boundary line of the solar system is kinda fluid, but it's loosely considered to be the point at which the solar wind stops effecting particles. I think. Not 100% sure, since I flunked out of my astronomy major. But it sounds right. But incidentally (Raz), this is why it seems like people say this all the time about Voyager-because it's just so damn hard to pin down an exact moment until way after the fact.

It's narrated by Egoraptor!

Are you able to trade between games? If so, either Gengar or Togekiss. Also, I've found that trading/evolving the Eevee you get into a Glaceon immediately is seriously useful. Moreso if you're able to teach it Avalanche/Blizzard right off the bat. Yes, I know I'm a cheating bastard.

You know, it's gotten to the point now where I'm not even phased by Arin cross-dressing. It's just like "eh. He's done better" now.

Oh for the love of God, why? Anyone but him. I'll take a fucking mega-Sunkern over him.

I was in your shoes roughly 8 months ago, so I feel like I can help at least a little. I really recommend buying a Deckbuilder's Toolkit. It's about $20, and includes a bunch of different cards, a ton of lands, and a few boosters. You're not going to get many insanely good cards from it, but as a base to start from, it really can't be beat. Going off of what Simon said, white is VERY noob-friendly. My old humans/angels deck barely has any duplicates of cards in it (which is generally a very bad thing-you want to be able to draw your best cards over and over, so you have 4 of each in the deck) but it's still one of the strongest decks in my friends' playgroup. Which might be an indication of their skill level, but I digress. If you really want to learn about the strategy behind the game, I recommend checking out two websites. The first is the Magic subreddit. They can be a bit rude sometimes, but every Tuesday they run a "tutor" thread where you can ask anything you like. And it really helps, I've learned a lot from there. The other website is Tapped Out. It's basically a deckbuilding site. You can put your own decklists on there and get tips from people, or you can just search around and see what works well. This really helps not so much with playing, but with learning just how to build a good deck. It's a fantastic site. And finally, probably the tip that's helped me the most-when making a deck, try and ensure that your deck is 60 cards EXACTLY. Not 59 (which is under the limit anyways). Not 61. 60 and only 60. It took me a really long time to realize this, and once I cleaned out my decks I started winning a LOT more. When you have 60 cards, you tend to draw your best ones more, you get more lands, etc. It's something that a lot of new players really struggle with, and once you get the hang of it, you're just going to be that much better for it. I know it's kind of a lot to be throwing at you, but honestly, it's a really fun game and it's totally worth it. Welcome to Magic! Hope you stick around :D

Welp, I just got back from Magic Celebration...I got my ass handed to me. Pretty much everyone chose Blue, and I didn't...I pulled a Thorncaster Sliver in my rare slot, and since there's no slivers in any of the intro decks they give you, I went Green instead. So my games were basically me dropping someone, and then either getting Frost Breath'd or just bounced. It was brutal. And I didn't get a free pack at the end because those were for people who'd signed up early (I hadn't). But I got a free FNM promo of Judge's Familiar instead, which was cool, along with the 4 other colors for intro decks. I'm hoping to get some of my housemates into Magic with them. All in all, it was fun as hell. But next time I'm totally going Blue. Except for the Theros prerelease because I want the black promo really bad.

Sadly, it's not that deck. I'm pretty sure it's just the one Red/Green deck they have there. And I'm not gonna go asking around if they have any more lying around the house, because the one girl's really cute and I really like her and I don't want to seem like a colossal nerd. Well...even moreso than I already have.