Preview Alara Reborn

Alara Reborn feels quite well. It seems like that there are no mono color cards. There are few hybrid multicolor cards each with funny abilities. The expansion is strong on big creatures and there are many ways of playing the cards which is really nice. Cycling is used widely and there is a new ability - Cascade (When you play this spell, remove cards from the top of your library from the game until you remove a nonland card that costs less. You may play it without paying its mana cost. Put the removed cards on the bottom in a random order.).

I have to say that cascade was quite fun and few times people got exactly what they needed (that goddamn terminate I did not even get a hold on!!) This happened to me few times. Me almost winning the game and preparing for the final attack and bam! Terminate.

Anyway I got some really nice cards for an Esper deck and I will probably use them (along with Meddling Mage in my esper deck). But I did not get enough cards for esper deck today and I did not really feel like splashing green. (I would have to add red as well as I had nothing useful in green...and if it was of any use it was RG ... I really did not like the idea of 5 color deck) so I decided to build a dragon deck as I got three dragons - Predator and Broodmate Dragon and Dragon Broodmother.

First match was nice except that I lost because of well 3 removal spells in one turn and ending up facing Hellkite Overlord. And I don't speak about that hammer +2/+2 lifelink, trample. That's just an overkill.

Second match was not fun at all as I got mana screwed pretty badly. I changed the numbers of particular lands after this so it was much better later, still I should have added more mountains.

The tournament went on, me not really having luck and I was in a pretty bad shape as well. But after I got past the really bad headache I actually started winning and won the rest of the games. Maybe my rating won't go down for this tourney^^.
Quite fun was when I really managed to get the brooding dragon in play and was brooding 'little' dragons each turn. Even all those lives my opponent gained weren't enough against my 4/4, 4/4, 7/7, 5/5, 1/1 dragons^_^.

It was nice to play (even though it could have been better in terms of me feeling better and getting some more reasonable 1-5cc cards, heh). It was WAY better than the last preview I played - Planar Chaos.

Mana symbol tattoo

Self-explanatory I think.

Gift^2

Well, today I received a gift from Squop - Esper Intro Pack to Shards of Alara. It contains Master of Etherium (being sold for 320CZK here, the pack itself costs like 200CZK or something - maybe more but still a good deal already isn't it?)

Anyway these packs always contain a booster. I was asked to open it so I did - after few minutes of trying to get inside it. I checked the before last card and what awaited me?

... a shock indeed.

My dexterity is getting worse...and patience gone as well

Today I woke up at like 5 am but fell asleep almost immediately once again. I woke up several more times (4 times in total). This is a bad sign. Usually it means I won't be able to stay up for the whole day. I managed to get out from the house few minutes earlier than usual but I knew that I won't be able to run today. I woke up feeling pretty sick, my stomach was complaining and I had really NO will to run today.

I arrived at the bus station at x.38 and you know what? The bus that is supposed to be leaving at x.46 just decided to come 8 minutes earlier. Anyway glad that I got on it. Today I sat down on the ground because I did not feel good at all. In Prague I got up and realized that I have cramps all over my body^_^. Next time I might try to stand as usual.

At school we were supposed to show our paper on Paul Rand. Mine is catastrophic I would say. I need to finish it today as tomorrow I won't have any time to do it.

After school I went to the bus station, managed to miss the bus so I continued reading Reaper's Gale.

At home I went to sleep. I woke up few hours later with some crazy ideas about Phage, Gerrard, Akroma and Squee. I also dreamed about making castles out of magic the gathering cards. I got up ... ate something and then fell asleep once again. When I woke up probably for the 8th time today I decided to STAY awake. I drank bit of jasmin tea.

Later I grabbed my 8th edition demo cards and tried to build a castle out of them.

I failed.

I tried few more times, but to no avail. Mint and near mint cards are just not good for this. I tried with some 4th edition cards as well but I did not get past the 3rd floor.

I decided to try building that castle of cards in protector sleeves (the ones that are not slippery). I took my demonic deck and tried my luck...I rather not comment on what happened. Base was fine. First floor as well. Third floor - I managed it, yay! Fourth floor. Corrupt in one hand and dark banishing in the other => FAIL.
I tried once again. Once again castle destroyed when I was trying to place corrupt. Same thing happened to me one more time. Next time I try I will just leave this card aside I guess. Maybe I'm just superstitious.

Now, it's time for some work...*yawn*

Vector art - tattoo designs

Yesterday, I was messing up with Illustrator ...and well here are the results.
The first I've done were the mana symbols. The white one was impossible to do...I did not manage to make it right but well. Even the red mana symbol was easy compared to it^_^.
The dragon was quite easy to do, but the the faerie took me ages to do. Anyway leave comments if you feel like to.

FNM and Saturday draft

Since Mirrodin I completely changed my point of view on artifacts in Magic. At times artifacts were rare (with some exceptions) they really had their own story/feeling etc. I also loved the magic the gathering stories about artifacts and their creators. But with Mirrodin everything changed. Mirrodin block feels like intergalactic battle between armies of artifacts/artifact creatures that instead of being pitted against each other on the ground fight their battles in the space. I have no idea about the story of Mirrodin and I always ignored it. My hate towards any artifact cards (except a few) grew with each day. Each day I had to fight against some ravagers, d. colossus or a creature equipped with all the Kaldra equips. I had to put an end to it and that's the first time and I thought that it would be the last time as well that I actually played a deck with majority of cards being artifacts.

On Friday Shadowmoor was being drafted. At the beginning of the draft I started picking up removal stuff...but nothing special or really striking did not come in my direction so I had no idea what to draft. (as the cards I had were BU)I started drafting fearies but it was obvious that few more other people are drafting the same and I will be left with crap. I started to be picking up scarecrows later on. In the end I ended up with more artifacts than faeries. My deck was based on flying and wither but it wasn't enough to stand a chance in the tournament. All the unblockable creatures were drafted by other players.

I got Kitchen Finks and Hellspark E. DCI cards that day so it wasn't that bad afterall? (except my rating going down^_^)

On Saturday it was much more interesting. First booster I opened had Tezzeret in it. I picked the Planeswalker so no one else would get it and play artifacts. The second I got was Master of Etherium and thus it was decided. I would go for artifacts, flying creatures and exalted creatures. Some UBW artifact deck came out of it and it was actually playable unlike the day before. It was pretty confusing though to be paying a colored mana for the artifacts. I'm not used to that and it was quite difficult to concentrate on what lands to tap. (or even realize what color/type the cards are)

Anyway with all those cards I ended up with...I decided to build a regular T2 deck. Not sure if anything will come out of it but I made the decision. Maybe my hate will dissipate...?

Lightning

Cats came to my room to wake me up slightly after 5am. I was too lazy to get up but eventually got up and prepared myself to go to school.

It was pretty dim outside, big storm clouds everywhere. Still I got outside and with a bit of uneasiness I headed off to the bus station. Few minutes later as I was walking out of a sudden a lightning struck. The world around me turned immediately white. I was blinded by the lightning for a while and in the same time I heard a thunder. I thought that it would tear my ears. My heart was beating hard and I thought I would just collapse and not move at all. The gray dim colors of the outer world won the fight against the bright white light generated by the lightning and I started to see in color once again.
Stunned and frozen to the ground. I was wondering what to do for a while but decided to try catch the bus going for Prague. I managed that, soaking wet I arrived to our computer lab wondering if that will cause some damage or not^_^.

I'm still shaken by this experience. I never thought something like this would happen. I've been in many storms, I've seen many lightnings but nothing can compare to this experience.

Magic related boredom - Mana symbols

Yesterday evening was really a bad for me. I arrive exhausted and everything I tried to do ended up completely messed up. My DVD drive died, my system died, my magic cards ended up all over the room.
I was too lazy recovering the system or picking up the cards and sorting them out once again. (all black card protectors, yay)...so I was wondering what to do else. The result of 'trying to calm down and not to think about all that went wrong' is this =>
It's more about the idea then the actual work. Because I was in no condition to do something properly.

My cat - The Deck master

Yesterday I was testing my new Naya deck against my persist deck. In the middle of the game I had to leave for a while and when I came back I found my cat laying on my elves, with her paw nicely sitting on the library^_^. Lovely.

Manic Monday

12am. I knew I wouldn't be able to fall asleep. I got myself an infusion of melissa and camomille but that did not help me sleep.

1am. I started to wonder if I'd like to spent the remaining 4 hours reading The Book of the Malazan Dead or try to figure out how to build a EDH deck.

2am. Still wide awake, doing nothing...

5am. Time to get up^_~. I just did not want to believe that I should be getting up. Later on I turned off the alarm, got up and got ready.
I ventured outside of the house and the instant I closed the front door I got a running nose and *cough* *cough*. I walked as fast as I could in my zombie-sleep walk mode and was glad that I have still 6 minutes to go so I don't need to rush. To my disappointment, at that very moment the bus arrived to the station and I was still 3 minutes away - by walk if not waiting on the lights. From walk I switched to the fastest run I could muster and managed to get to the bus in time. I had to stand all the way to school...-_-

8am. The lesson started. Once again we were told something about the British grading system etc...and got some introduction to Computer Application in Arts and Design.

10:30 am. Free till 6pm. So what should I do next I wondered? I went to my previous employer to get some documents from them and I got them to my surprise.^_^. After that I had some time to kill so I went to Novy Smichov mall and got something to eat.

11:30 am. I slowly walked to the tram station and got on the first one that arrived - it was in direction of Palmovka. I sat down, opened my book and started to read. Few dozen pages later I arrived at the terminal station. What I did not mention is that an inspector came to me and asked me to show him my license. I had to switch the trams and it was already past 12 so I decided to hop on tram going to Florenc. I unfortunately fell asleep but I woke up at Florenc getting off in haste. I again forgot to mention that the very same inspector asked me for my license again.

12:10pm. I set off in the direction of the bus station and by some accident I realized that I stand in front of Cerny Rytir game store - my destination. I entered the place and asked for the cards I wanted to buy (snakeform, nantuko husk, devoted druid, heartmender and eyeblight's ending).

After this half-asleep I managed not to get lost and end up in Outpost. (Un)Fortunately I did not fall asleep ... because of the much lower temperature than in the trams/outside of Outpost. Once more during my trip to Outpost I run into the very same inspector again^_^.

At Outpost many small children arrived and it was pretty loud there. We played two-headed giant with some kids which wasn't a good idea after all. Later older people started coming in hopefully and kids went home. It got much calmer.

Someone came to outpost and when he saw me he claimed 'DDR players also play Magic?'. That caught me offguard. I did not get that offended but still it wasn't nice to hear. That very same person wanted to register to DCI so he could get a free booster or what but wasn't allowed to. We were talking about DCI for a while and someone decided find out my name and check my rating. As I found out I'm far from being the last in the Czech Republic^_~ even though it's nothing worth mentioning hehe. I got my DCI card back (in one piece hopefully) and Stepans entered my nickname + magic to google. First site to come up was my deviantart page and then this blog.

I was also told that starting today drafts (for beginners) will be held here regularly. Today it was Coldsnap that was supposed to be drafted (and it was). Too bad it started at 6pm which is the time I had to leave for school. Later drafts would be from tenth edition. Who knows what will follow.

At six after being beaten by a burn deck (I was completely dull and 9 poison counters in one round did not suffice, shock decided that one sliver died-_-). I had to leave for school, at the very same time Squop entered outpost. After almost a collision of the two of us we decided to head for school together.

I came on time hopefully. The lesson was nice, the professor even nicer. 'Animé' as the French would say. We will see what our projects will be about later. I'm looking forward to all the projects even though I have no idea how I will cope with it.

At 9.10pm it was the time to leave. Squop accompanied me to the bus station for which I'm grateful. When we were in the underground I got a message saying....

'FNM is earlier this week - on Wednesday.'

That's probably all I have to say... Wednesdays and Mondays are killers at school-_-.

Quotes of the day
'Lady Sliver'
----------------
P1 'Do you have [name of card from revised]'
Me 'Yes. I've got few cards of interest...like some tutors for example'
P1 'I want to be old as you [so he could have the cards as well]'
P2 'I did not hear the beginning...but being as old as her??'
----------------

...I'm to dead to think of other stuff...

FNM

complete random tid bits

---

player 1: megrim, megrim, some rats. 8 lives or so.
player 2: 3 lives. biting his opponent by few lives each turn...
player one draws ravenous rats. second player swearing.

---

p1 - a lot of elves + bloodfire colossus. 35 lives
p2 - wurms and rootwellas. 7 lives
player 2 attacks as he would be dead next turn. 27 points of damage if nothing else would be cast. player 2 plays Overrun.

---

player x: first booster opened - Shivan Reef. player x: second booster opened - Adarkar Wastes. player y: lucky, getting those lands. player x: crap, I don't need them!

---

me opening a booster: primal rage, pyromancer, blaze, lure, shatter storm, llanowar elves...karplusan forest, bloodfire colossus. me thinking: 'this is a joke. almost every card green or red, karplusan forest and one more rare???'

---

I did not end up last as expected.

---

p1 drawing a fifth land in a row...
p2: getting close to almost killing his opponent.(one more round and win)
p1: 'All I need is corrupt, now'. P1 draws a card (Corrupt). Taps 5 swamps.
p2: 'oh f*ck'
p1: shows corrupt...

---

Here I rule

I got a Here I rule pin with Jace on it (from Squop) and I was wondering what that 'Here I rule' campaign is. So I searched that on the internet. I found out that it's a campaign to get new MtG players. The player receives a starter demo deck (that is actually playable), DCI registration and that's about it^_~.

There's actually a TV spot for the Here I rule campaign that is pretty bad I think. I liked the previous Magic: The Gathering spots more (they were actually quite funny unlike the Here I rule one which is more of a joke.)

The starter pack consists of 30 cards and quick start guide (the big mtg sheet showing all the zones, some basic rules and the turn steps). Green is an elf deck that can't to much except get on the table and then a BIG elven avatar comes into play and kills the opponent^_^. Blue is a control of sorts, red is a burn deck, black is a discard deck and I have no idea about white (probably knight deck). Each player who wants this deck needs to be registered (probably to DCI) and can start to play. Good thing about these decks is that they are actually playable unlike the demo decks from earlier campaign. If WotC would do something like a mix between the real Starter deck and these demo packs it would be nice I think. (as the starter decks are more straightforward and limiting).

Next week on 11th of April there's last PTQ - Honolulu and Here I Rule campaign should be promoted there (even though I don't get it much as pro-players and beginners at one place does not make much sense?). I might go there and see how it's going. If I won't end up at Pragocon09.

So in general we have here 'Here I rule' which is meant for complete beginners that would like to explore this game and 'Gateway' for starting players that would like to get to the pro-tournament level later (or those who want the DCI foils). Cool and that's not all. The MtG editions should be now released yearly not in 2 years cycles. What else awaits us?
----------------------------------
At the last FNM 3 biting lands were opened^_^ Shivan Reef, Adarkar Wastes and Karplusan Forest. I was never witness to something like this before. But well a good rare pick can mean a much bigger chance of winning than getting a dual land so well...

Frantic Friday

I got up today quite late in the morning (after 10 am) and realized that I don't have much time to do anything if I want to go to local FNM tournament. I knew that I would have to vacuum clean the upper part of the house and probably do some more cleaning. I also needed to wash my hair etc...

So well I started by getting something to eat. After that it was time for some housework and then finally time for the shower. Lunch awaited me when I got out.

Few minutes later I was already late for the FNM that should start at 2pm. I wasn't sure about it but I wanted to come there on time. Note that I knew about this location and tournaments from a magazine called Legenda which I used to be buying like 14 years ago up to year 2003 (during that period the club was active and the location and time never changed - not by much). So I hoped that with a bit of luck the place and time wouldn't change. ^_^

I arrived there at 2:20. Nothing seemed to be happening there except well students going home or coming in for some lessons. No sight of any Magic player. I could ask someone at the staffroom about the Magic club or at the headmaster's room. I decided that the first possibility is a better choice^_^. So I went inside and asked about it. I hoped I wouldn't need to explain what the hell is Magic; hopefully I saw there a MtG diploma pinned to a board and that calmed me down. I got the information needed.

Anyway the start of FNMs are usually at 3pm so I know it for next time. I wanted to participate in the tournament but I knew that I would probably have to leave. So I checked with the people in Prague to see if I need to be on time or not(thus meaning arriving one hour before the event starts or I arriving later - which would probably be one hour later). The event got delayed for some unknown reasons so I stayed at the mtg club and decided to enter the tourney.
I hoped I could stay till the end but my mother called me - being angry - that I did not inform her that I would leave later. I had no other choice then to leave. Few minutes later I realized that I don't have my cell phone which would be a fail. So I returned back as fast as I could to collect it^_~ I always know how to make a fool out of myself when I go somewhere for the first time.

At home my mother prepared me a dinner and I found out that the bus leaves in 15 minutes (Glad I did not stay till the end of the tournament). I wasn't really happy about that. I collected few things I needed in haste and headed to Prague.

In Prague I went to the event that was held in a new club called The Toaster Club.
I was waiting there for many hours to have a speech. I spent some time with some charismatic lady who seemed to love Guitar Hero games (playing on Hard in GH1-3 and medium in GHWT). Later
I played Mahjong solitaire game, chess and some other games I could on Nintendo DS. Some people were coming there and were asking me how to play Super Mario Bros^_~ (quite funny to hear that). I explained that to them and then concentrated on the game of chess I was playing at that time. The CPU was taking a long time to think of a move so I eventually decided to go to Wii stand and try all the games in Wii Play. In Wii Play Golf I managed to finish a course with 0 points^_^. I got few birdies^_^ hehehe. Tennis was quite fun and it was probably the most popular mini-game played at the event.

The DJs at the club playing that night were good. I enjoyed listening to their mixing and to watch them as they mixed the tunes. I really enjoyed that and I'm grateful for being able to hear it. Probably I would fancy coming back to the club and enjoy some live DJ performances (if they are of the same quality).

At 3am I got to my sister's flat where I was supposed to sleep over. I woke her up and she let me in. I fell asleep quite fast, exhausted. I wonder if I sleep there well because I like it there or because I always come there completely exhausted.

In the morning I wanted to check buses leaving for Beroun and I got a surprise. I got an email from the DCI. I clicked on the link and found out that my standing in the last FNM tournament was submitted. And even with all the lost games (+ automatic losses for the games I did not play) I did not end up last^_^.

Elder Dragon Highlander...

Today I went to school to get some information about the lessons, grading, timetable. And well I got the information needed. The funny thing is that... Monday, Thursday looks like 1 lesson starting at 8 am and other one starting at 7 pm! That's really cool. *irony*

After that I went to see my sister to pass her few episodes of Heroes, to give her some replacement parts for a RC model helicopter etc. We went together to Govinda, an Indian vegetarian restaurant. I like the food but well it's all vegetables and I get hungry too soon and that happened today as well.

Later, I went to Outpost hoping I would play a bit of Magic: The Gathering. Too bad for me no one was interested in standard or extended. So I decided to watch other people play their Highlander decks. I was too exhausted to go home ...

There was one really extraordinary match. Imagine a blue control against whatever (green aggro). In play there's Jushi Apprentice (flipped) and well loads of lands as you can imagine. The player of the control wanted Reliquary Tower in play and hoped to draw it. He decided to draw as many cards as he could (20...). Too bad the card wasn't there so he tried it once again...and no it wasn't there either. Last attempt...Tower no where to be find. Well, all this cards that would make him win where in the graveyard. Opponent decided to try to play Tormod's Crypt but it god countered (the player did not even realize that he actually countered that spell). He started thinking about how he could kill his opponent...Well, all he got was Capsize, bunch of counterspells and Jushi Apprentice. So he decided to mill opponent's library. (I forgot to mention a part of the game that was like: blue and red Honden shrines in play but this lead to drawing cards from a library which did not have THAT many cards so it ended up 'capsized'). He did not do it in the end. Instead he decided to have more fun. He made some of his lands alive and attacked with them. The last life was taken away with Spectral Searchlight - Mana Burn.

Later, I tried this deck as well (lovely). Then I borrowed a different deck. Green treefolk/elves deck. I drew 7 cards, looked at the new design of the cards. 'You don't play just the new cards don't you' was my question. The reply was: 'Not all of them are new...there are cards from Shadowmoor and up'. So I was like 'Cool, I'll have to read EACH card in my hand'. Opponents were playing mono blacks and crypt rats were cleaning the table of creatures and also made some serious damage to us as well. I did not really care about that as I added a lot of life and attacked few times with some 'big' treefolk guys.^_^. I won this game, hihi. But well I was lucky. (with 23 lives and my last opponent having 4 so...)

There were many interesting games that day (ok not so many as it was all highlender/highlander). For example Zombie Traillblazer got once to the table, died. But Infernal Caretaker returned this zombie back to the owners' hand(s). Later in the game when this card was quite forgotten, Phage the Untouchable ended up in play. Opponent having 5 swamps and two nice creatures (anyone wants -2/-2 or monocolor protection?). I have to say that the swamp was a problem. Phage got swampwalk and went through unblocked.

[b]Quotes of the day.[/b]
---------------------------------
Person1: 'What do you play?'
Person2: 'All common vs. all common'
Person3: 'Check [player2]'s hand' (the player had 5 rares and one uncommon card in his hand)
Person1: 'Hm, that looks more like All Rare deck'
---------------------------------
'You don't play just the new cards don't you'
'Not all of them are new...there are cards from Shadowmoor and up'.
'Cool, new cards thus'.
---------------------------------
'Sliver'
'Mana tithe'
'Sliver'
'Sliver attacks'
'Judge Unworthy'
'Sliver'
'Mana Tithe'
'Sliver'
'Sliver attacks'
'Judge Unworthy'
'What's going on?'
'I control the slivers'
[white 'control' deck player dead]
---------------------------------
First match
'Sprouting Thrinax'
'Sprouting Thrinax'
'Sprouting Thrinax'
'Loads of saprolings...'
Second match
'Sprouting Thrinax'
'Sprouting Thrinax'
'Sprouting Thrinax'
'Loads of saprolings...'
'WTF???? o_O These Thrinaxes always come'
---------------------------------
'nuf'
---------------------------------
'You want to kill me with that Llanowar elf?'
[that player lost the game because of that elf later in the game]
---------------------------------

Akroma, Cosplay

Ok...I just randomly browsed the internet and came across this...
So I present to you guard_Shaltar as Akroma, Angel of Wrath