I’m always impressed by article writers and their ability to take a great quote and link it into the subject matter they are discussing. You’ll see the likes of SunTzu, Nietzsche, Shakespeare, Dickens and other such notables.
I thought I might start the article off in the same vein, so here’s some Dr.Seuss.
Sam
If you will let me be,
I will try them. You will see.
(munch, munch, munch)
Sam!
I like green eggs and ham!
I do! I like them, Sam-I-am!
And I would eat them on a boat.
And I would eat them with a goat….
And I will eat them in the rain.
And in the dark. And on a train.
And in a car. And in a tree.
They are so good, so good, you see!
For those unfortunate enough not to have experienced Dr.Seuss (or having kids), the gist of the story (Green Eggs and Ham) is a character, Mr.Knox, is being hassled by a small dude called Sam-I-am. Sam is trying to get Mr.Knox to try something he hasn’t tried before, Green eggs and Ham. Mr.Knox declines but Sam is persistent and in the end (as shown above), relents, only to find that green eggs and ham are darned good.
There are very few article writers on the net that go down the path of Sam-I-am. Rian Fike (stu barnes) and Michael Barnes spring to mind, occasionally Tim Willoughby and in the past, Jason Grabham-Meyer. Though how many people try these non traditional ideas, how many of us are like Mr.Knox, refusing point blank to play something unless it is at least tier 1.5.
Whenever this sort of article is to be found you’ll normally find me lapping it up. I love playing unorthodox decks, weird combos, in fact anything that isn’t part of the mainstream. I’ll respect someone for taking something different to a tourney, such as Crimelords or Synister Syndicate, even when they meet with little success. At least they are trying to think outside the box. Every now and again one of these rogue decks does something good, then its no longer rogue, thanks to the internet.
But hey we can’t knock the internet, otherwise you wouldn’t be reading this. I netdeck, all the time in fact, as I need to know what to run as a testing gauntlet for whatever I may be tinkering with at any particular point in time.
I have recently had a quite lengthy absence from the game due to my wife and I being engaged with a new business venture, the opening of our own comic shop in Maidstone, UK. Before my hiatus I could always be found playing around with the loons, the insane folks of Arkham Asylum. I had met with little success until Poison Ivy, Deadly Rose broke onto the scene and with her came Anthony Macali's Migga City deck.
I fell in love with the deck, but not wanting to netdeck per se, set about utilising the Ivy/Hatter combo alongside my other favourite character Doom. I designed a deck that utilised aspects of Anthonys deck, JLA of Arkham to cause discard and Doom abuse for re-usage. The deck was working a treat in testing, then just before its first run out in tournament play , JL of Arkham went and got banned. D'oh!
Now, upon my return to the game we have a batch of new loons in the Worlds Finest expansion. I eagerly await getting my teeth into them to see if either a straight AI build or a variation of previous tinkerings will become viable.
Now alot of you are probably wondering why I'm discussing Worlds Finest with the imminent release of Marvel Legends. The reason is clear, this evening is the first chance I've had to look through the new cards to see what firecrackers are set off in my head.
Will hopefully post here again in the next few days with what I came up with.
Graham Beadle
The Grinning Demon
www.grinningdemon.co.uk
