Ey up peeps,

It's been a while, eh? I really need to keep this thing up to date a bit more often. I guess I'm just a bit annoyed that it seemed like no one read my last blog which I put a bit of heart and soul into. If you haven't read it, go read it now and make a lonely Scotsman a happy man. Make sure and come back though!

http://my.tcgplayer.com/blog/view/id_723/

Firstly, I want to congratulate Robin, Zaiem and Jeremy for making it through to the final three of TCGpprentice. They are all very good writers and all have imporved dramatically over the course of the contest. It was disappointing to see them go through on 'default' after Fletcher missed the deadline, but hey, sometimes life catches up.

All three would make good feature writers but I have a soft spot for one in particular. I'm saying no names. I wish all three of you the very best of luck.

Annoyance of the Week: Why is the IM and chat room system in my.tcgplayer so bad as to be effectively unusable? It annoys me no end. Sure, we can just use MSN or AIM or whatever but then what's the point of even having it? I have tried on different occasions to speak to people using the intergrated IM and it is just horrific. I've never lasted any longer than a few minutes.

Speaking of things that annoy me, MM has had a rough patch. Round about 50, 51, 52 there was a serious drop-off. William is one of my favourite writers but the quality was nowhere near what he is capable of recently. I thought things were coming back round when he made his comments on the French recently. Now don't get me wrong, no-one likes a piss take even more than Dave here - I fully understand Willy's context and appreciate his humour - but this was a painfully obvious case of wrong place, wrong time. Just be careful dude.

Cool thing of the week: The number of sealed pools being posted here on tcgplayer. I'm loving all the pools we're getting to pore through. Cedric set the ground work but I've had a lot of love for Rak's 'What Would You Do?' series. I find it fascinating to see how other people would build the same pool as me. In some pools, the 'answer' is obvious, in others, I've ended up in two completely different  base colours to people like RoninX or Falkor.

And finally, Scotland play Italy this Saturday in the final qualification game for the 2008 European Champions. In this qualifying season, Scotland managed to find themselves in the same group as Italy (World Champions), France (World Champion runner up) and Ukraine (World Champion quarter finalists). We have played some fantastic football over the last 18 months trying to quality including beating the French both home and away and if we beat Italy in Glasgow on Saturday, we qualify instead of them. The whole of Scotland is buzzing about our biggest football game in decades. So on Saturday, keep your fingers crossed for us.

-Flame on-

Dave

5 comments View Entry

I love reading all the blogs that appear here. It's one of the things I look forward to each and every day. People are passionate about the game and hearing them talk about it fascinates me. The only thing I don't like about blogging is you don't always get a good sense of what the person is all about. I feel for a blog to be successful overall, you need a bit of non-Magic background on that person.

That's not something I've really done yet so this is my chance to rectify that situation. I'm going to talk about some of the cool stuff I have. Hope you enjoy reading this as much as I enjoyed making it...

Preacher Drawing

I love comic books. For all of those out there that like this kind of thing, I'm not really a superheroes kinda guy. I prefer grittier stuff Such as Transmetropolitan and Powers. Of course, the greatest comic of all time (apart from Watchmen) is Preacher.

I managed to pick up a sketch of the Saint of Killers a few years back on eBay. It cost a fair bit but I think it was worth it. It also has the signatures of Garth Ennis (writer) and Steve Dillon (artist) at the bottom.

Laptops

Denise and I are fairly geeky. We like to chill out in the evenings on the PC - not MMORPGs mind you. But only because I know I'd get seriously addicted to WoW seriously quickly. I DJ using my laptop too (it's the one on the left) and Denise was getting annoyed that whenever I was out working in the evening, she couldn't access the net. So we bought her that shiny 17" Hewlett Packard on the right. It's very cool.

I'm actually writing this on that laptop on the left at the moment. The '2' key came off when we were playing with the cat one time. No biggie. She should really clean some of those fingerprints off hers too...

iPod Touch

I got an iPod Touch a week or so back :D:D:D

I had had my Nano for like 3 years and it was only a wee 2Gb one so I was due a new one. I couldn't justify the expense of an iPhone. It's not even out in the UK yet. So 16Gb iPod Touch it is. Oh, and the headphones there are my Sennheiser HD25s. If any of you out there DJ you'll know what I'm talking about. They are so frickin ace. I've had that pair for six years now.

And yes, I haven't taken the film off the screen yet. I'm waiting to get a jacket for it and I don't want the screen covered in fingerprints before then.

Mui Mui and Cat

Mui Mui is our Labrador. She's named after the wee dudes from Loco Roco. If you have a PSP you'd better own Loco Roco or I'll come and kick you ass. It's ace. And so is Mui. She's just coming up for one year old and she's like a kid - constantly energetic and demanding attention. I love her to bits.

The cat is named Cat. He's a bit more chilled out than Mui. He likes crisps (chips?) too. Oh, and bonus points if you can guess where we got Cat's name from

TV and consoles

We bought the TV coming up for a year ago now. She's a 47" 1080 Toshiba Regza LCD. Ain't she beautiful? Me and Denise play a lot of video games so we decided to treat ourselves to a nice TV. That's a Wii, PS3 and XBox 360 in the bottom left of the cabinet. One of the PCs is normally hooked up to the TV via HDMI.

Comics and books

Like I say, I like comics - these are most of my trades. If you squint, you should be able to make out what a lot of them are. Most are from the Vertigo label which I love. Most of the books are Denise's. I started reading the Wheel of Time book but just couldn't get past book 4. Whilst I feel really sorry about Robert Jordan passing recently, I'm glad I never soldiered on to book 11 only to find he would never finish 12...

Revised Set

I don't own any P9 or anything. It doesn't bother me. This is the coolest thing in my collection - a pristine, complete set of Revised. It's not worth all that much I guess but I took the time to put it together myself, card by card. I've almost needed to sell it a couple of times for one reason or another but we're through that now and I never need to worry about that again. Sentimental more than anything I guess.

DVDs / Games

You can tell a lot about someone based on their DVD and games collection. Just remember that this belongs to me and Denise. The full set of Miyasaki / Ghibli DVDs are there in the top left. That silver box set in the 2nd row, 2nd column is the Neon Genesis Evangelion Platinum boxset. That took a bit of time and pennies to come by but its so so good. I like a lot of anime such as Vampire Hunter D, Cowboy Bebop and Ghost in the Shell. None come close to the epic that is Evangelion.

And notice Bioshock and Halo 3 there in the bottom left amongst other things

Lorwyn boosters

These bad boys will be getting drafted this weekend. All that potential... Foil Jace ftw

I might even give the Lorwyn book a try if I can find the time. I expect it'll be rubbish though.

Friends

That's me on the left with my boys at T in the Park which is a big annual music festival each year in Scotland. It's the weekend I look most forward to each year - I'm including Christmas and New Year here. It rained the whole weekend but that never stopped us having a good time. Already starting to get excited about T in the Park 2008.

And this is me with my mates doing karaoke in fancy dress. My best friend James is in the dodgy Hawaiian shirt. And yes. I am dressed in a Buzz Lightyear outfit. After a few drinks then a few more, I can tell you that infinity and beyond were the last things on my mind...

Denise

And this is my better half Denise on the left with her friend Meni. To clarify, I'm not so sexist as to believe I have Denise like she's some kind of possession. Needless to say, she is my life and I know I'll be with here a very long time.

And so there we go. You know a bit more about me now so hopefully you'll feel you can come and approach me after I write something controversial or something you disagree with in a blog or thread. Either way, I'm not just a name and a really bad wee profile pic now. Be good, and if you can't be good, be careful.

-Flame on-

Dave

6 comments View Entry

This is just a short wee blog because I've had a mini-brainwave. I have a great idea for a seperate full-length blog which I will be implementing this evening hopefully.

In the mean time... Why couldn't WotC print cards that care about the rarity of other cards? How about something like this....

Common Sense   1U

Uncommon

Instant

Counter target common spell.

or

Rare Kill  1B (crap card name I know)

Uncommon

Instant

Destroy target rare creature.

Now I'm not a card designer or templater so apologies if there are any obvious mistakes here. And I know there are some small corner cases where you have a card which exists in two rarites such as Loxodon Warhammer or the like. I'm fairly certain the rules could be flexed to mitigate any problems such as Warhammer in Extended. Perhaps just make the official rarity of the card it's latest printing irrespective of the rarity of the printed card used? That's maybe not the ideal solution but I'm sure smarter peeople than me could figure a way round the issue of a very small subset of cards.

Is there something really obvious I which I am missing here? This kind of stuff has already kinda happened before during Kamagawa with 'Legend matters' cards.

I'm not really sure what I'm trying to do with this blog. I just wanted to put an idea out there and hear your opinions. It appears to be to be a completely untouched area of design space. Or have I missed a really small selection of cards from before my time? Let me know.

-Flame on-

Dave

8 comments View Entry

So, despite being in the top three for Task Zero and Task One, I found myself in direct competition with an article that was 25% over the 'soft cap' and an individual who wasn't able to get their stuff in on time. If that's not a damning indictment of my Task Two piece, what is?

I honestly don't feel my piece was the weakest of the four being judged. From reading the forums, the general mood seems to be one of surprise. I'm not going to BS here - I was not the strongest writer in the competition. (I have already made my mind up who is likely to win). That said, I was expecting to be in there in the last 3 or 4 keeping everyone else honest. And hey, if they slipped up, I had a shot.

Certain things upset me more than anything though...

1) I am derided for suggesting I am a limited specialist. Well the only reason I said that was because I suck at constructed. I'm not Richie Hoaen and if I made it sound like I was, I apologise. My reason for pointing out my rating wasn't to boast - quite the opposite - I'd imagine most of the people following the competition have ratings round about mine. Oh, and guess what I did Sunday? Yeah, I made top 8 at my 'local' PTQ Kuala Lumpur. A four hour round trip including some of the best UK players. The irony...

2) I made some undeniably poor card decisions. I think out of the 25 cards in my 5 'top 5' lists, maybe 2 or 3 were outright wrong. Some of the others were debatable. There's a massive difference between being wrong (Nath's Elite) and being questionable (Glimmerdust Nap). The whole point of the piece as I stated was to give a base point for discussion. I reckon 22 out of 25 is a pretty decent hit ratio given how little experience I had with the set. Far better and more experienced writers have made early card evaluation errors. Some writers even suggested in Future Sight reviews that Tarmogoyf was one or two stars. Some of the writers in question were involved in TCGpprentice judging. And I took it upon myself to defend those individuals in my Task One article.

3) I didn't play it safe. This is one of the things I am most proud of. I chose to put myself out there and make the predicitons. If I had known that taking a safer option would have made it more likely for me to get through, I would have thought about it. Then I would have written about the top 5 commons for each colour anyway. Playing it safe was never what I was about.

I'm not trying to be bitter about all of this. I'm just trying to explain my rationale for being so disappointed. I'd also like to take this opportunity to thank all of the judges for there efforts. Especially Riki - I disagree with your decision lad but still have a lot of love and respect.

I believe I'm a stronger writer than some of the people still in the competition but that doesn't mean anything. They're in and I'm out. I cannot begin to describe how much I have enjoyed being part of the competition with you guys and I wish you all the very best of luck.

So how do I feel overall? Honestly I'm not sure. Riki made a bad call ditching Tom Klenotic for Josh (a mistake he recified last week). He has also made a mistake this week in my opinion (and it appears that is echoed by most, if not all of the people in the forums). TCGpprentice is still a very great thing and it will find a great writer from those left in the competition. I'm just sorry I won't be one of those duking it out until the end.

-Flame on-

Dave

13 comments View Entry

So, I went to the prerelease today. Here's my pool...

White

Oblivion Ring

Springjack Knight

Kinsbaile Skirmisher

Wellgabber Apothercary

Cenn's Heir

Triclopean Sight

Plover Knights

Knight of Meadowgrain

Kinsbaile Ballonist x2

Wizened Cenn

Burrenton Forge-Tender

Lairwatch Giant

Surge of Thoughtweft

Hillcomber Giant

Blue

Paperfin Rascal x2

Ringskipper

Protective Bubble

Aquitect's Will

Streambed Aquitects

Mulldrifter

Ponder

Familiar's Ruse

Drowner of Secrets x2

Spellstutter Sprite

Wings of Velis Vel

Glimmerdust Nap

Black

Weed Strangle

Skeletal Changeling

Thorntooth Witch x2

Moonglove Winnower x2

Nameless Inversion

Peppersmoke

Black Poplar Shaman

Warren Pilferers

Eyeblight's Ending

Spiderwig Boggart

Bog Hoodlums

Facevaulter

Prowess of the Fair

Scarred Vinebreeder

Hunter of Eyeblights

Red

Wild Ricochet

Boggart Forager x2

Soulbright Flamekin x2

Glarewielder

Rebellion of the Flamekin

Blind-Spot Giant

Inner-Flame Acolyte x2

Smokebraider

Caterwailing Boggart

Flamekin Bladewhirl

Fire-Belly Changeling

Changeling Beserker

Mudbutton Torchrunner

Hurly-Burly

Stinkdrinker Daredevil

Green


Incremental Growth

Woodland Guidance

Heal the Scars

Eyes of the Wisent

Sylvan Echoes

Warren-Scourge Elf

Hunt Down x2

Elvish Eulogist

Spring Cleaning

Nath's Elite

Briarhorn

Gilt-Leaf Ambush x2

Kithkin Daggerdare

Battlewand Oak

Woodland Changeling

Cloudcrown Oak

Treefolk Harbinger

Gold

Doran, the Siege Tower

Lands and Artifacts

Vivid Meadow

Secluded Glen

Ancient Amphitheater

Shelldock Isle

Deathrender

Wanderer's Twig

Answer's on a postcard people... Here's what I went with for what it's worth...

Briarhorn

Gilt-Leaf Ambush x2

Kithkin Daggerdare

Battlewand Oak

Woodland Changeling

Cloudcrown Oak

Treefolk Harbinger

Weed Strangle

Skeletal Changeling

Thorntooth Witch x2

Moonglove Winnower x2

Nameless Inversion

Peppersmoke

Black Poplar Shaman

Warren Pilferers

Eyeblight's Ending

Oblivion Ring

Doran, The Siege Tower

Deathrender

Wanderer's Twing

Vivid Meadow

Plains

Swamp x8

Forest x7

No Planeswalkers and no Elemental Incarnations!

 
Blue didn't appeal at all - there was just no depth. Red looked ok, but for some reason I'm not really sure of myself at the moment, I don't like red in Lorwyn. It just seems to be lacking somehow.

It might just be Doran that made me think that though. I mean, c'mon, there was just no way I wasn't running that bad boy.

It was a tough call which other colour to cut - I think there was a decent GW, BW and BG deck in there, each splashing the third if necessary. In the end, I wanted the removal of black coupled with the Treefolk which were predominately in green. I didn't include Hunter of Eyeblights. Not sure whether or not that was a mistake or not to be honest.

So how did the deck do? Well there were 20 of us meaning five rounds of competition. I got beaten black and blue in the first match from a Bog-Strider Ash piloted very, very well by young Rita Jappy. Each game my removal had been sucked up. Indeed, in game 2, I had already cast Doran before she cast Ash, making for a very short clock.

From there, I managed to win out finishing a respectable 4-1, good for 4th out of the 20 taking part. I'm not sure the deck is actually as good as the record all of the same. Losing the first round and being in the bottom bracket for the next few meant the deck had less of a challenge than it otherwise may have. Oh well, you can only beat who you are drawn against.

I'd appreciate some ideas on how you guys would build the deck.

And first impressions of Lorwyn? Well, I haven't had the opportunity to draft it and that is something to look forward to. My gut feels that this set is very, very Timmy. It seems to lack some of the subtleness and ingenuity of Ravnica and Time Spiral Sealed. That may improve with Morningtide added to the mix.

I also noticed a lot of games going to time with stalled boards. I think this has a lot to do with the quality of removal in the set. I'll be talking more about that in my coming TCGpprentice article. I want to thank everyone who has taken the time to give me feedback so far in the contest. It really has helped me no end. Hopefully you'll see for yourself when my Task Two hits the front page.

Anyways, thanks for reading.

-Flame on-

Dave

2 comments View Entry

Dudes and Dudettes,

Firstly, go and get yourself a copy of the song I mention above. Man, I have listened to that song like 40 times over the past few days. Literally. It's all that is good in music these days. A beautiful, happy track about a guy and a chick. Good times.

Now I need to make an apology. I was recently a dick to someone I have grown to have a lot of respect in recent weeks. I was annoyed that he had acted in a certain way in something he had said. What I hadn't done was taken the time to think that he may have been forced to act the way he had for the time being. Sometimes you have to choose the right time and place to have your battles. I hadn't realised that at the time and was was a bit of a twat over the whole situation. Hopefully the person reading this realises who this is aimed at - sorry mate.

So why 'Resolutions'? Well, in a lot of ways we are fast approaching New Year. Lorwyn heralds the opening of of the 07/08 Magic year. You're going to get a chance to read my opinions on that sooner rather than later. And the US TV season starts. The best programme on TV right now, Avatar, started again on Saturday. Whilst I have *ahem* obtained a copy of that, I've not been able to watch it yet. Hopefully get that under the belt this evening. And Prison Break, Heroes, Reaper and Journeymen all start or resume within a 48 hour period. How do you guys that side of the pond do it? You have cock all TV for like 4 months then fire everything at your potential audiences all at once.

What with it being New Year I had to set myself a key resolution. I have to win TCGpprentice. I didn't realise it when I first started taking part. It kind of hit me last week when working on a couple of ideas how much I want to win. I'm not even sure what it is that is causing the way I feel. I guess I'm just a bit egotistical and like the idea that you guys would listen to my opinion week in, week out. I don't know. All things said and done, the competition is fierce. Some of these guys can really write. So don't misunderstand a wish to win with some sort of superiority complex. Just to be standing shoulder-to-shoulder with some of these writers is high praise indeed. But there it is, gnawing away at me now - I need to win this. Here's hoping that over the next few months, you and the judges feel the same way.

-Flame on-

Dave

2 comments View Entry

Write a blog, he says. Before midnight Thursday he says. Oh, and make it good or this will be your first and last TCGpprentice piece, he says. And so this is the start of the competition officially for me. Though it looks like Riki is going to keep us all honest based on the initial email he sent out.

I'm not going to go through lengthy introductions here because, assuming I get through this round, Riki will be posting a short piece on each of the competition writers giving you an idea of what we're about. And if you have been following my stuff over here in my.tcgplayer.com so far, you should have a good idea of where I am coming from. I've also decided that my blog needs a title. On the way home from M-Fest, Marco Orsini-Jones mentioned that for much of the main event he was 'on the bubble' meaning that he had to win-out from where he was in the standings to have any hope of making top 8. It just kind of struck a chord with me, not least as it's a common predicament I find myself in, and so it will be my new blog title.

My initial thought was to make this blog 'Planeswalkers (What are they Good For?), going for a full-frontal parody of Riki's piece on why white is so weak in Magic at the moment. Then I realised I wasn't narcissistic enough. I find it difficult to constantly rip other writers to pieces. No matter how hard I try I just can't be overly verbose all of the time. And my conscious trembles at the thought of constantly telling my readers in my article threads that they are wrong. Cheap shot

Down to business. At the moment you just can't escape the discussion of Planeswalkers in MtG messageboards, threads and chat rooms throughout the known world. A lot of the conversation has been reflected in these forums to the point of banal repetition. There's a few things that haven't been talked about in the debate so far which I feel the need to share with you. Before we get there, have a good look at the latest one to be revealed to us. In all her glory...

Got it? Right, there's a couple of important things we need to discuss about her and her brethren.

Firstly, a wise man said if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Magic had a rough patch a couple of years back. Mirrodin block had been disgustingly linear and over-powered with several outright mistakes from R&D. CoK block tried to rectify this by being boring and weak. At least they didn't make any obvious mistakes. Ignoring Jitte. Which is really easy to do seeing as it seen bugger all play.

/sarcasm

But the boys in Renton turned it around. Ravnica was dynamic and open-ended spawning a multitude of decks and arguably the greatest draft experience ever in RGD. Time Spiral continued the theme, putting the real power with the innovative deck builders out there. It looks like Wizards have once again discovered the art of creating beautiful, balanced sets without building the decks for us. Good times.

The result of all of this is that Magic is currently thriving. Playing numbers are up, people are returning to the game in droves and Wizards of the Coast are coining it in. Hellfire, I played Magic in the Louvre last year. The frickin Louvre! Over two thousand, five hundred players took part in sanctioned events at Worlds last year. Magic is not a VS System; Magic is currently in the ascendancy. It most certainly isn't broke anyway...

And while I wouldn't put a new card type alongside something as huge as, say, a sixth colour (yes, that is how you spell it you damned colonials, you), there is no doubt that it should be a big occasion. Planeswalkers feel gimmicky to me - something no more significant than a new keyword in a new set. So why do they feel so contrived and downright desperate? Why do I feel like R&D are trying to repair something that doesn't need repairing? The whole thing just doesn't feel 'special' to me. It should.

Secondly, if you are doing a new card type, at least try and innovate. It's not like you haven't managed it successfully over the past couple of years. Now I'm guessing you, my faithful and trustworthy readers, are getting a bit confused. 'Planeswalkers are like nothing we've ever seen before!' I hear you cry. Wrong. Go back and have a good read of the card. Go on...

Now consider the following card of my own creation;

Chandra's Revenge (Rare)

 
No casting cost

Sorcery

Chandra's Revenge is red.

Suspend 2 - 3RR

Deal 10 damage to target player and each creature he or she controls.

Whenever a time counter is removed from Chandra's Revenge, deal one damage to target player.

Right, before we go any further, let's get this out the way. Yes, the above card ignores the 'middle' ability of the Chandra. You aren't going to play Chandra wanting to use her middle ability if you can help it anyway. Sure, its nice to have but any time you use that -X ability, you're going to be a bit disappointed with yourself. And yes, I realise that you can't attack Chandra's Revenge with creatures and you can't point Lava Axe at it. You can however 'attack' it with the likes of Pull from Eternity and Riftsweeper and you have the knowledge that keeping Cancel in hand might be a good idea so it shakes out in the wash. There are a few other differences in how the cards would play but they are minor. Glad we got that out the way.

Ask yourself, how different is the Planeswalker from the sorcery I described above? How innovative is it? It would appear that all the Planeswalkers have a minor ability that increases loyalty a wee bit, a major ability that takes a massive chuck of loyalty away and something inbetween. And yet to me, all these cards have done is taken a keyword, Suspend, which we have seen used extensively for the last year, the last 12 months and three sets, and tweaked it a bit to fit.

The new card type. We waited years for it. Man, its going to be something that shakes the way we view and play Magic to the very core of the game! Oh wait, no it isn't. It's going to be a rehash of a keyword we've seen before. Lots. In the last block. Go team!

Before I go, I want to take this opportunity to wish my fellow TCGpprentice contestants the very best of luck. This is a competition but I don't feel like I am competing against these guys directly. This competition for me is about Dave Whitelaw vs. Dave Whitelaw. At the end of the day, if I do the best writing I possibly can over the next few months then I have a shot. If I do my best and don't win then the better man gets the job. There's no shame in being beaten by a better man. If I don't give this my all, then I don't deserve to win anyway. Either way, you guys are in for one helluva ride.

-Flame on-

Dave

15 comments View Entry

I've opened with a baseball reference. A Scotsman with a baseball reference. Sometimes I even blow myself away.

+3 aceness for Dave

This is going to be a short blog I expect but we'll see as we go along. The stuff I am going to be talking about is pretty huge though. For me anyways.

Denise is my soulmate and I love her dearly. I am not always the easiest man in the world to live with but she tolerates my every quirk and looks after me like I never imagined anyone would. I asked her to marry me on Monday and she accepted. I'm taking this opportunity to say how much I love her. No date or anything set but we're looking at heading over to Vegas in 09. We'll see. Good times.

/soppiness 

+ 3 more aceness for Dave

Riki has started sending out info to the competitors of TCGpprentice (of which I am one). Starting to get nervous about the first article. Very excited but very nervous. I have a multitude of ideas for the first one but nothing definite yet. I'm looking forward to the feedback from the community. It's certainly going to be an exciting few months. Knowing who the competition is now, I'm actually more than a little jealous of you, the general magic.tgcplayer.com community as there are some very talented guys taking part - you are going to have a lot of interesting stuff to read. I hope I manage to keep up with the other guys.

I watched Tales of Earthsea last night which is the latest Ghibli film. I am a massive Ghibli fan - I've got all the films on DVD. Stuff like Totoro and Howl's Moving Castle is just timeless to me. Tales of Earthsea is a very good movie but it just didn't feel like a Ghibli film to me. I'm not sure how to express this... When you go to see a Disney film, you can expect certain things to happen. You know the score will be fantastic. You will expect a certain level of animation and a very childlike experience. You know that there will be three acts - the setup, the main protagonist's fall from grace and his redemption. Ghibli films also follow a path but it's much less definable. Films like Spirited Away take you along a spiritual and emotional journey that feels good and wholseome and very much like its stablemates. Earthsea did not follow this tradition. Perhaps it was because it was the first film without Miyasaki at the helm, rather his son. Anyways, a good film, but just don't expect a natural progression from Kiki or Mononoke.

-Flame on-

Dave

6 comments View Entry

And the green Planeswalker....

There we have it. Brion seems very very good to me. A Gruul staple alongside the likes of Solifuge and Burning Tree Shaman. I think he would sit quite nice at the top of the curve. Summon the Schools is a poor man's Sprout Swarm and Warren Pilferers will be a limited staple.

But the Planeswalker. I'm going to go on record as saying this guy is better than Liliana Vess. He effectively costs 2 because of the +1 ability (you can use one ability on each of your turns at sorcery speed, included the turn you cast it) and he Overruns the next turn!

As an aside, I want to offer a big pat on the back to Robin - most of his predictions were pretty spot on according to Inquest. To clarify...

Summary of how Planeswalkers work:


-Planeswalkers come into play with Loyalty counters equal to their loyalty


-You can use one of their abilities once per turn, including the turn
they come into play for the loyalty cost/benefit. (Although the article
doesn't say it, it would seem to be that it is only on your turn,
otherwise Liliana Vess easily locks your opponent out once they have no
cards left in hand)


-When a Planeswalker has 0 loyalty it goes to your graveyard


-You can attack planeswalkers with creatures to reduce their loyalty


-If a spell or ability would deal damage to a player you can choose for it to hit one of that players planeswalkers instead


-You can have multiple Planeswalkers in play at a time, just not ones with the same subtype

Dave

10 comments View Entry