S'Tsung's personal blog

Glissa update

2012-02-11T05:50:00.000-08:00

Just a small update on my Glissa deck. I wasn't taking this deck seriously but it works, so maybe I might try to improve it later.

Anyway I added Grim Backwoods. I like that land^^. (EDIT: tcgplayer did not recognize it, I'll try putting it back in the list...it reverted back to the original decklist...argh)

EDIT2:

Ok the update is bigger than I thought. I changed the mana base quite a lot. I added fetchlands, bayou, grim backwoods, command tower and reflecting pool. I decided not to play svogthos. I just never used that land as a creature. Card draw and the possibility to sacrifice something is much better.

I added few more creatures (sheoldred, ink-eyes, genesis) and bitterblossom, beacon of unrest and maybe something more (memory jar). I actually discarded all the discard and added creatures and card draw. The updated decklist is at tcgplayer ->

Glissa, the Traitor

Kyuden Kitsune Revisited

2012-02-07T16:05:00.000-08:00

Today I bought a Lion Starter so I won't need to be telling my opponents that my Central Castle is actually Shamate Keep^_^. Anyway this posts is about Mantis not Lion.

I just did not know what to do with the two decks I keep. Military was weak and Honor was simply to slow. So I tried to take best of the two worlds and create one deck. My military deck needed more force so I tried to increase in Dynasty.

As far as Fate deck goes, I just took cards that seemed good and put them together. Even knowing that many cards require bowing my personality and that Heart of Darkness is not that good with Gina etc. But if you know what you have in the deck and how to use it it works. The deck still feels the same as my previous military. Probably this can change to Honor even though it will take ages. I might actually help it a bit in Dynasty and/or Fate. It could easily work.

Now the deck feels relatively good.

Kyuden Kitsune

Dynasty
Kyuden Kitsune XP
Border Keep XP
Bamboo Harvesters

3x Kobune Port
3x Remote Village
3x Ageless Shrine
1x Imperial Treasury
2x Traveling Peddler
2x Archery Range
1x Indomitable Home
2x Overgrown Grove
1x Yoritomo's Guidance XP
3x Qalyar
3x Sleepless One
3x Shakash
3x Moshi Tomeno
3x Kitsune Tokoru
3x Kitsune Gina
3x The Red Hunger
1x Yoritomo Hiromi
1x Kitsune Hisano

Fate
3x Fury of a mob
3x Siege Volley
3x Sundering Strike
3x Great Sacrifice
3x Satoshi's War Fan
3x Broken Alliance
3x Sneak Attack
3x Entrenched Position
1x Creating Order
3x Reckless Rush
3x Tireless Efforts
3x Pearls and Spirits
1x Ring of Water
3x Heart of Darkness
3x Oblivious
1x A Game of Dice

Tune

2012-01-31T09:45:00.000-08:00

Whole my life I've been humming some tunes and melodies but I never took advantage of it. All the 'music' I produced was mostly without a melody. Pretty wierd as melody is what comes to my minbd very easy. Most of the time I could imagine these melodies played on a flute or koto.

Today when coming back from school after an unsuccessful attempt at working on my paper (due to internet not working well in our studio) I realized that certain melody is in my head and it repeats itself over and over. I don't know where it comes from but it just popped up in my head as all those precedant ones. I set down and wrote down the notes on a sheet of paper so when I would get back to the store I could play it.

I imagined some temple in the mountains, misty morning, rain. So here it is.

Honor of the Lion (Paragons)

2012-01-24T18:39:00.000-08:00

Chenged to Honor build. Comments later (when it's not 3:42 AM)

Shamate Keep

Dynasty

Shamate Keep
1x Border Keep XP
1x Bamboo Harvesters

3x Indomitable Home
2x Traveling Peddler
2x Family Library
3x Archery Range
3x Remote Village
3x Copper Mine

1x Akodo Kobi
3x Matsu Nishijo (how ever he's called)
3x Akodo Tezuka
3x Matsu Koyama
3x Akodo Kamina
1x Akodo Dairuko
3x Akodo Kakihara
3x Kitsu Kagako
3x Akodo Dosei (or Dosei? force does not matter - but the keyword even if I should pay 3 more does. This deck gains honor fast)

Fate
3x Greatful Reward
3x My Enemy's Mercy
3x Great Sacrifice
1x Creating Order
3x Flooded Pass
3x A Paragon's Strength
3x Heavily Engaged
1x A Game of Dice
3x Wall of Honor
3x Surety of Purpose
3x Entrenched Position
3x Guided By Honor
3x Siege Volley
3x Cast Aside the Weak
3x Sundering Strike

Lion Paragons EE

2012-01-22T08:58:00.000-08:00

Here's another experimental deck for Emperor Arc. I just took my Celestial deck and tried to make it playable at EE. First revelations - there's not enough Paragons. So which ones I should play? Ok I need to check if there are some I ignored - for example Dosei. If there is one more, maybe I could do something with that.

Also I'm not sure if I want to play this as military or Honor. If I choose I can try to figure out which other personalities I want to play. For example Daigotsu Hotako would fit military paragons and Dosei would fit more defensive Paragons. I can still play Fumiyo XP. But still I don't like her...

...

So I'll try next time

+1 Fumiyo XP
-1 Kaido

+3 Dosei
-3 Gohei

+3 Surety of Purpose
-3 Spirit of the Paragon

Shamate Keep

Dynasty

Shamate Keep
1x Border Keep XP
1x Bamboo Harvesters

3x Ageless Shrine
2x Chugo Seido
1x Family Library
3x Archery Range
3x Remote Village
3x Copper Mine
1x Shinden Shorai
1x Traveling Peddler

1x Akodo Kobi
3x Matsu Nishijo (how ever he's called)
3x Akodo Tezuka
3x Matsu Koyama
3x Matsu Kaido
1x Akodo Dairuko
3x Akodo Kakihara
3x Ikoma Sugo
3x Gohei/Dosei (or Dosei? force does not matter - but the keyword even if I should pay 3 more does. This deck gains honor fast)

Fate
3x Greatful Reward
3x Iron Will
3x Great Sacrifice
1x Creating Order
2x Know No Fear
3x A Paragon's Strength
3x Spirit of the Paragon (I hate this card but sometimes I need some of those goddamn non-paragons to BE paragons)
1x A Game of Dice
3x The Perfect Moment
3x Effortless Counterattack
3x Entrenched Position
3x Guided By Honor
3x Sneak Attack
1x Ring of Water
3x Cast Aside the Weak
3x Sundering Strike

More EDH stuff

2012-01-18T14:37:00.001-08:00

My two new slightly unfinished magic alters.^_~.

Sometimes Karn is too much ...

2012-01-15T03:24:00.001-08:00

I just needed a swamp *sniff*

And that's when temporal aperture goes infinite^^

Burning Vengeance

2012-01-07T11:07:00.000-08:00

After playing with Eldritch Onslaught I decided to try out some Burning Vengeance deck that I could play with against the boys in our game store.

I delved into the two Innistrad boxes my boyfriend opened and looked for some cards with flashback and some burn. I would add some snapcasters and would play probably play witchbane orb for more protection but I did not find those cards in the boxes.

It's quite fun^^

Burning Vengeance

4x Burning Vengeance
3x Dissipate
2x Devil's Play
4x Think Twice
3x Forbidden Alchemy
4x Rolling Temblor
4x Brimstone Volley
3x Dream Twist
4x Desperate Ravings
4x Geistflame
2x Shimmering Grotto
2x Sulfur Falls
50/50 Islands/Mountains

Happy New Year

2011-12-31T19:30:00.001-08:00

Eastern Hub Port

2011-12-29T07:51:00.000-08:00

I'm trying to think about my extended essay for school, write a bit, research and after some time of trying to concentrate I just have to stop for some time. I'm kind of stuck and I'm afraid I won't be ablet o finish my work. Each day I rewrite my original text that probably is from majority irrelevant. I need to put my arguments there and somehow put my research into it... Anyway this post is not about my difficulties with the paper but about what came of it^^.

Today morning I played with my friend a game of Legend of the Five Rings. I really appreciated this. He hasn't played since Samurai and does not want to play because well of one of our local players that seem to mess up everything he touches. Anyway I played with my Emperor decks against his Samurai Great Falls Castle deck.

In between writing my essay and trying to figure our where to head next I started writing names of cards down and see if I could produce a samurai decklist. This deck is purely theoretical, I could actually try to put it together as I own majority of the cards.

My friend was telling me that there wasn't much draw in Samurai which might be true so I looked for some cards I could use. I knew that there is one follower and send home card drawing cards for samurais so I found those and integrated them in my deck. There's ofcourse Taoist Archer and Veteran Advisor but I'm not sure how good this gold scheme can get. Few Against Many is a wonderful card, both abilities are good.

No matter what...the decklist is here. I might go look for my samurai personalities later. I did not find the box with those cards, have to be somewhere here. hm....

Eastern Hub Port

Eastern Hub Port
ERM? 1x Border Keep
hm? 1x Bamboo Harvesters

Dynasty: ??
3x Kobune Port
3x Rich Coffers
2x Fortified Camp
2x Private Trader (or how the holding that gives gold for an action is named)
1x Temple of Gisei Toshi
2x Secluded Waystation
2x Secluded Village
1x I am ready

3x Yoritomo Kurei
3x Yoritomo Sunagawa
3x Yoritomo Tadame
1x Yoritomo Utemaro XP2
3x Tsuruchi Shisuken
1x Moshi Nakata
3x Yoritomo Jera
1x Moto Xiao
3x Tsuruchi Saya
1x Yoritomo Tadame XP

Fate: ??
3x Taoist Archer
3x Ronin Brotherhood
3x Imperial Elite Guard
3x Wandering Budoka
3x Peasant Vengeance
3x Hold!
1x Koutetsu Unabara
3x Oni Daikyu
2x Juslty Earned Victory
2x Unwavering Assault
2x Knowledge
3x Few Against Many
3x Standing Fast
3x Ruthless Advance/Doomed Intention or combination of both?
1x Ring of Water
1x some smaller follower??
1x ???

Copics attempt

2011-12-24T15:03:00.000-08:00

For quite some time I wanted to buy some copic markers. My boyfriend bought me a set so I wanted to see how it works^_^. I don't have the right colors nor the right colors for the blendings effects I would want but anyway the copics are just purely awesome!

Here's a little picture I colored tonight. Ignore the lineart for now^^. I couldn't even write kanji in the proper way with it o_O

[EE] Kyuden Kitsune revisited - Honor this time

2011-12-21T07:49:00.000-08:00

I went through some cards and created a draft of KKexp honor. I ignored cards many cards so I still have to see if there are some good cards in previous editions.

I played with it today against EE legal deck and it was quite fun. I had problems with distinguishing what token is what and what which token does, but otherwise it felt good^^. If I would manage to win one battle everything would be fine. With some tweaks this is going to work for sure.

I'm missing a personality (actually two in dynasty) and I haven't gone through the fate cards much yet.

Kyuden Kitsune XP

Kyuden Kitsune Xp
1x Border Keep Exp
1x Bamboo Harvesters Exp

Dynasty: ??
3x Kobune Port
3x Merchant Atoll
3x Ageless Shrine
2x Temple of Hotei
1x Temple of Gisei Toshi
1x Traveling Peddler
2x Overgrown Grove
1x Naoharu's Gift
1x Ebisu's Honesty
1x Willing Spirits

3x Kitsune Kohaki
3x Kitsune Gina
3x Kitsune Denhei
3x Kitsune Tokoru
3x Moshi Tomeno
1x Kitsune Ohsuki
1x Kitsune Hisano
3x Shakash

Fate: ??
3x Entrenched Position
3x Sundering Strike
3x Pearls and Spirits
3x Seeking the Way
3x Wall of Honor
3x Obscuring Pathways
3x Unpeachable Name
3x Duels of Serpents
3x Consecration
3x The Mountain's Power
1x A Game of Dice
2x Capturing the Soul
2x Chikushudo Trickery
3x Great Sacrifice

Cards in consideration

Warded Path
Surprise Attack
Hanabi
Pearl of Rage
Rage of the Spirits
Taming the Beast
Earth Flows
Fury of a mob

I'll try to figure out if defending and trying to divide my opponent's army will work if not I'll play more cards that can do something in actual battle. I have to review Reckless Rush and Sundering Strike. Both cards are awesome but I'll try to figure out if there are other ways more suited for my nonhumans and shugenjas.

Also thinking about Indomitable Home...if clan holdings won't be reprinted I'm going to play this.

Innistrad first real experience

2011-12-11T08:05:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I had the chance to draft Innistrad and today I build GW Tokens deck out of two boxes of Innistrad. I know I'm pretty late to discover the card from Innistrad^^ (considering limited).

My drafting experience wasn't that good^^. The deck was capable of 2:1 but it really lacked creatures.

I started picking removal which in the end probably wasn't as good idea as I thought. I should have been picking good aggro creatures since the beginning which would made me play RW. I ended up playing RB with not so many creatures which was a problem. Traitorous blood and more burn spells was something that could help me but wasn't that good as a flood of creatures. I did not quite count with the transform ability and I was caught offguard by it. But the three rounds were nice and it was nice to see what the cards can do. It seems to me though that the best way is going really aggro...meh. Actually mill seems quite viable if you get the right cards as well.

I'm glad I had the chance to draft. I thought that I wouldn't have the opportunity to draft this expansion set at all.

When I saw Geist-Honored Monk I wanted to build a deck around. That card just seems overpowered for ISD Block^_^. Well, ok we have Garruk there (good with tokens), Snapcaster Mage (burning vengeance, it should work in ISD block right...but with W and G going strong and being able to destroy enchantments easily...hmhm) but well this card just can truly beat an opponent. So I searched the cards from the two boxes and put this together.

I can imagine this working with red as well. Still Garruk + Doomed Traveler seems efficient enough.

Township Tokens

4 Avacyn's Pilgrim
4 Doomed Traveler
4 Fiend Hunter
4 Geist-Honored Monk
3 Hamlet Captain
4 Mayor of Avabruck
2 Mentor of the Meek
1 Mikaeus, the Lunarch
Creatures [26]
1 Garruk Relentless
Planeswalkers [1]
4 Intangible Virtue
4 Midnight Haunting
Spells [8]
10 Forest
4 Gavony Township
10 Plains
1 Shimmering Grotto

Kyuden Kitsune - Non-human military

2011-12-03T09:50:00.000-08:00

Today I tried some non-human military. It was supposed to be EE legal but it seems that Yutakana no Onna is not EE legal? I though that she was reprinted but maybe not...

Here's the decklist.

Kyuden Kitsune XP

Kyuden Kitsune Xp
1x Border Keep Exp
1x Bamboo Harvesters Exp

Dynasty: ??
3x Kobune Port
3x Merchant Atoll (it actually works well)
3x Everwinter Copse (Does not really help much, but it is forest and winter card. Also can be tapped for honor and it gives one more gold.)
3x Ageless Shrine
3x Recuitment Officer (have to try it)

1x Blessings of Shi-Tien ....

1x The Dark Naga
3x The Sleepless One
3x Qalyar (great peronality, this little creature is what this deck needs!)
1x Fukuzo
3x Kitsune Tokoru
3x Moshi Tomeno (cheap and has naval, but it's not the personality I would like to play.)
3x Yukataka no Onna
3x The Shakash
3x The Red Hunger
1x Kitsune Ohsuki
1x Kitsune Hisano

Fate: ??
3x Entrenched Position
3x Sundering Strike
3x Fury of a Mob
3x Tireless Efforts (I have a lot of cards that bow my personalities as a cost. so that's why I play this. The other action comes handy a lot as well)
3x Oblivious (perfect! keeps my opponent personalities at reasonable numbers and can take down a personality I hate)
2x Pearls and Spirits (I like the card but eh...)
3x Near Miss (that's like 2 koku for my follower or a negate its destruction? I kind of like that)
A game of dice
1x Satoshi's Dual Warfans (I need more cards like that)
3x Sneak Attack
3x Scourge of the Sea
Black Pearl
3x Taming the Beast
1x the Vengeful
3x Reckless Rush
3x Broken Alliance

So well...I like it^^. I thought that this could work and be a bit 'rushy'.
I chose Kyuden Kitsune because the Mantis Shugenja's create nonhuman spirits with good abilities. It is also a forest and I can gain honor via the stronghold. The ability on it is good.

Then I have all the nagas I could find + Fukuzo that can remove a personality from a discard pile or well be a copy of something.

Atoll + Ageless Shrine is all what is needed. I would like to add Recruitment Offices to see what it does,. Having even more personalities for attack/defense might prove good and will help me keep the numbers for fury of a mob.

Yukataka no Onna is has a good force and can be a nightmare for clans with higher family honor.

Red Hunger is brute force + good ability and it is one of the personalities that wants to have Naval.

I put Sneak Attack in the deck but I don't think that 3x is necessary. I would probably play two though. If I'll find something better battle action I won't play the card at all.

Entrenched Position has a good ability in battle and can help me against clans going first.

So that's about it I guess. I'll try to look for some other cards. I miss movement or more bowing of enemy cards. So I'll try to figure out what to do with it. Also I don't have any negate effects. The redirecting guidance seems good but that's only one card. I'll see what I can come up with.
----------------------------------------
I'd like to play Surprise Attack as well...hmhm..

Emperor Arc? L5R rant...xy

2011-12-02T03:10:00.000-08:00

Well, I've been thinking about why I don't really enjoy playing this game that much (compared to Magic). Well, many things come up starting with the rules changes from time to time (which actually means quite often for my liking), inconsistency of certain decks etc.

But there are other elements that ruin the game for me. They are closely linked to the local community

1. Current arc

The current arc is still Celestial. For few more months it will still be the official format. I know that many players are bored of it and seem not to like it. But on the other hand did they even change their decks or build a new one? Not really. Some ended with PotD o_O. I mean come on, the current arc has many more cards.

I spend some time playing Mantis Commanders, then Crab Duelist and lastly Dragon LSC Honor. My Crab Duelist deck is still celestial legal but is outdated and can't handle many decks that can be build now and this is the problem of certain players here. They do not progress. They are frozen in time and are not willing to move on.

Then there are those that claim that the Celestial Arc is too overpowered or boring and whatnot and they want to play EE legal decks. But wait a minute....we don't even have the cards needed for those decks! It started as 2 sets decks! It's not a bad thing to play a EE legal deck but asking others to play it as well and ignoring the fact that it's still CELESTIAL ARC is a problem. I have Celestial decks and I would still want to play but with whom? With players stuck in the past or with those that ignore celestial as much as possible?

When there was a tournament league going on it was the same. Who actually cared about a new set? In Magic this does not happen. (It's like coming with Lorwyn block deck to an Extended tournament...).

2. Mind game

The second major thing is...well mind games. I did not realize that I really need this in a game but after pondering about this for a long time I came to the conclusion that I do. If I want to enjoy a game I need the player interaction - that means that both players count with what other player can play and you just play around it. When I play against someone who ignores all that and just plays the way he think is correct I get lost and I don't enjoy the game at all. Because well, it's not a game. I mean I could just take my deck and play alone.

This is also why I wasn't really sure what a good player in L5R is or if there can a be a good player. If a game can be played on the same 'mind level' as in Magic. I met only three people that played this way outside our community in which I can name two people. The outside local community players are Daniel Nagy and 2 other players that were in top 8 at Prague's Kotei. These players played well and I enjoyed the games. The mind game was present, both of us knew which cards are relevant for the match up and which cards we need to play around. We knew which card combination would screw the game. The anticipation of how it will end was there. Sure if one was would misplay it would ruin the game as well. Anyway those three memorable games are something that I was expecting from L5R.

Everyone is talking about the game as something superior to Magic in terms of game play and being much more consistent. But still I can't hardly enjoy the game when I get to play against someone that can't even understand that THIS match up is a 100% win or loss. The player won't even realize that if by a chance this (something) would happen it would change the outcome of the game....Why the hell play such a game? What makes me angry the most is the fact that the player does not see the way how I could win or lose even though the game has already been decided by turn 3.

This probably concludes my rant. Simply put... I'd love to play but the games have to have a certain level of game play. I'll gladly build a deck that is of equal level to someone else's deck but if the player does not even see what I did and why....that's sad. I just wanted to play a game that I could call a game not T3 win.

Lady Bei color

2011-11-30T11:40:00.000-08:00

And a colored version...(WIP)

Another drawing - Lady Bei

2011-11-30T10:22:00.000-08:00

Another landscape attempt, drawing this time

2011-11-29T08:02:00.000-08:00

Landscape attempt

2011-11-27T04:06:00.000-08:00

Um..now what should I do with it?

City of Traitors

2011-11-22T13:43:00.000-08:00

Work in progress. I need to work on the colors and the 'buildings' and maybe it will look good in the end...hopefully.

Magic: The Gathering World Championship

2011-11-20T18:01:00.000-08:00

Last few days, I worked for school, was trying to sell as much cards as I could and in between I was trying to follow what's going on at Worlds. This morning 3am it all ended and Iyanaga is the new champion. He smiled in the end^_^.

That's him after him won the last game.

And this was one of his awesome wins^_~. That's when he played Sphere of the Suns to have metalcraft. He then proceeded and played one galvanic blast after another.

City of Traitors Alter Draft

2011-11-20T09:31:00.000-08:00

Trying to figure out how to alter City of Traitors. This is one of the ideas that came to mind. Now I just wonder if I can make it look good or it will screw the card... We'll see...

Lion Paragon - Shamate Keep

2011-11-18T09:48:00.000-08:00

I have Last Step Castle deck for this arc but no one wants to play against it. So it seems I won't be able to play with honor decks much. My crane dishonor did not see much play either as it met similar response. So what military I should try? Certainly something versatile and something what I like. Since the release of Shamate Keep I wanted to try it. I wrote a decklist down and it seemed playable. In the meantime our local Lion Clan player build Paragon deck and it works for him. My deck is a bit different though. My play style is different but it seems that the decks still work in similar fashion. I don't want to steal anybody's idea or anything, but unfortunately I wanted to play Paragons and I build a deck similar to well probably many Paragon decks out there^^.

The only sad thing for me is that I won't have much chances to play with it... *sniff*. I like it. But well... EE is coming and I counted 73 reprints so far. (At least 73 non-personality cards that I recognized as reprints). So maybe...similar deck will be playable later? Who knows... Fate-wise it's quite EE legal.

So here's the decklist. There are cards I'm not really sure about. Primarily fate cards.

Guided By Honor
Scouting Far Afield
Desperate Rush
Iron Will

I like Guided by Honor and it won me many battles. I would like to play the card 3 times, but well ... I would want to play it like 2.2x? That does not count as a playset though. I included Scouting Far Afield so I could return OAS primarily. But I won't probably meet much honor here so I decided to have this card instead OAS so I could bring something else back. But most of the time it ends up being used as +3F.
Desperate Rush is a card I wasn't really sure about, but with Proper Deference, Shameful and Cowardly it usually works. It is a kill action of sorts and that's why I have it there in a playset. Especially when those Lions PH is usually high. Unless I have Kasei on the table. I also have 1x Iron Will as this card sometimes can win a game but many times does not really serve me much except for another +3F. I actually would keep the card in the deck.

I think that dynasty side is pretty clear. This is the first deck that can actually use Sadahige's ability well^_^ so I included him. It never was a good personality for me but now...he's cool!

Actually I have one more slot available in my dynasty deck and I'm not really sure what to include. It should be SAMURAI and if possible Paragon. But I did not find anything worth it. So well...For the time being its Furumaro, but I don't like the card in my deck.

This deck is pretty versatile and that's what I like on decks. It's a military though...um...not my style.

Shamate Keep

Shamate Keep
1x Border Keep Exp
1x Bamboo Harvesters

Dynasty: ??
3x Copper Mine
3x Remote Village
2x Chugo Seido
3x Ageless Shrine
Traveling Peddler
2x Fortified Docks
My Father's Shrine
Kitsune Den

1x Farmlands
1x Akodo's Guidance
1x War of the Dark Fire
1x Alter History

1x Akodo Shigetoshi
3x Matsu Nishijo
3x Matsu Kinihara
3x Matsu Shunran
1x Akodo Ryozo
Akodo Tsudoken
3x Matsu Kasei
Akodo Sadahige
Akodo Kobi EXP
3x Matsu Koyama
Ikoma Hagio EXP

Fate: ??
3x Force of Spirit
3x Grateful Reward
3x Singh Remnants
3x My Life is Yours
Ring of Water
Iron Will
2x Will
3x Know No Fear
2x Proper Deference
2x Shameful and Cowardly
3x Desperate Rush
3x Sneak Attack
Creating Order
A Game of Dice
Scouting Far Afield
3x Cast Aside the Weak
Only Actions Speak
2x Guided by Honor
3x The Perfect Moment

EDH Tourney aka I have nothing to write about...

2011-11-17T10:39:00.000-08:00

A holiday in our country, some players actually came here to play some highlander. Six people counting me was here. EDH is being played here at least twice a week but the day of the tournament no one usually shows up. So even 4 people is a lot.

I played my Mimeoplasm deck and in the first round I encountered Scion of the Ur-Dragon. My deck is build in a way so it could possible deal with everything it can encounter. In this case I decided to keep my opponent of the remaining fifth color so I would not need to deal with the general as that card can kill me in 1-2 turns. I destroyed twice a source of black mana which gave me enough time to play Karn Liberated which won me the game.

In round 2 I played against mono-green deck (running some multicolored cards like progenitus and green/x lieges). So I knew that I wouldn't need to deal with the general as the player was unable to play it. His start was mana elf + wall of roots and later played cards like Brawn, Vigor, Omnath and some big beasts. I was playing lands. I had 2 islands, 2 colorless lands + mana stone. If this card would be destroyed I would probably lose. Anyway my back up plan was Jace TMS who would slow my opponent enough till I would get a forest, search for two swamps and then play Damnation. Anyway I managed to play Skyshroud Claim getting me the lands I needed and played Damnation. Jace followed. My opponent having only one card in his hand - I had Dissipate for that. Jace won me the game even though I had big creatures on my side and 14/14 Mimeoplasm. One more attack would suffice as well.

Round three. Hidetsugu goblins + some big creatures like Akroma and Inferno Titan. He played like 6 goblins fast and dealt me some damage. My only removal in my hand was Life's Finale. I was hoping to survive till the point I could actually play the card but still 15 was were it ended. I played Life's Finale and my opponent was also left with one card on his hand. I reanimated some creatures but later Jokulhaups restarted the game. My opponent wasn't drawing lands. I got one first after 3 turns - Creeping Tar Pit. Flooded Grove followed. I tutored the one more land so I could ramp and I even drew Sol Ring. That pretty much decided the game.

After that I handed out the prizes to other people.

3:0, one lifetime point, and hopefully few satisfied players.

Jace - Acrylics on paper

2011-11-15T11:42:00.000-08:00

Oh well, my first attempt at painting something bigger is relatively finished..or well. I just painted something that should have been Jace Beleren from Magic: The Gathering.

What I learned? Not sure this time. I started with a base coat which was in shades of grey. Then painted outline of what it should be on the painting and then tried to refine it. I learned that...I can't draw ^_~ as usual and that I hardly orient myself on that sheet of paper. I learned that more paint actually works pretty well though and that 'erasing' with water works wonders. But one would need to know where something went wrong. I need to work on that. Anyway here's the painting. No...I'm not going to be presenting that tomorrow...no way.