So I woke up this morning and felt a blog-sized movement in my bladder. So here I am emptying my thoughts over you.

(There are many ways you can go with those last couple of sentances. Choose your inference wisely.)

Team names

Outwith the established tcgplayer writers such as Riki, Reubs is far and away my fav blogger over here. He's just a naturally funny guy. He could do with getting TMP on video a bit more often but when he compensates with light and witty prose you can forgive him. I would probably father his children. But I come from a country where (heterosexual) men wear 'skirts'. Would I be the mother? Stay tuned to find out!

Anyway, in his last couple of blogs he mentions his team / play group / testing group name as On The Bubble. He stole that from me. I need answers and I need them now, in a J. Jonah Jameson stylee (get the reference, get a pat on the back!).

MM!

William Spaniel has always been a difficult writer for me. I will start off by saying, when he is brilliant, he is brilliant. There was never a weekly article I looked forward to more than MM. And alongside Riki and Jon Loucks, the support and advice he provided me during TCGpprentice was invaluable in helping me see my deficiencies as a writer. It was a truly great thing to read a fearless, focussed and honest Spaniel attack. I honestly got the impression that he always had the best for the game at heart.

But there was the flip side to MM. When it was bad, it was rubbish. This was only ever more apparent when you knew what he was capable of. He also took certain wee jokes a bit to far - TFM Unnecesary Capitalisation for example. It was interesting to hear the rationale Willy gave in his farewell MM last week. It sounds like life has finally caught up with him and Magic needs to take a step down in priorities.

Well we'll miss you lad - the good and the bad. It takes guts to challenge the establishment time after time and there wasn't anyone around more courageous than you. Don't be a stranger.

Block Rock

I know we are a little away from Block Constructed season yet but we've begun initial discussions into how Doran.dec may be translated. You have to remember that the UK didn't have a GP last year and given that Birmingham is Block, we're entitled to get a little excited a bit earlier. And yes, I know that Shadowmoor will be legal for that event too so this appears even more premature but an initial stab in the dark doesn't hurt anyone. How ace and random was that last sentance!?!

This is my personal first stab at a list. I'm not going to dissect it too much here - will save that for a future blog - but thoughts and ideas are appreciated.

Block Rock as suggested by Dave Whitelaw

3 Doran, the Siege Tower

1 Reach of Branches

4 Treefolk Harbinger

4 Nameless Inversion

4 Garruk Wildspeaker

4 Unstoppable Ash

4 Chameleon Colossus

3 Profane Command

3 Battlefield Oak

4 Eyeblights Ending

2 Fertile Ground

4 Murmuring Bosk

4 Gilt-Leaf Palace

2 Mutavault

8 Forests

3 Swamps

3 Plains

The contentious slot for me is the Battlewand Oak. Not sure what needs to go there but it does need to be a Treefolk. Bosk Bannaret doesn't actually help all that much in this deck (doesn't reduce Doran for example) but is certainly a possibility. The mana base may need tweaked too but the above appears to be fairly stable. And before you go there, I am aware of the glut of 4 drops in the above but they all seem fairly necessary to me and testing has proven reliable. Another Fertile Ground might be necessary however.

Anyways, so much for me not talking about the list.

Stepping up

How fricking cool is it to see the Apprenti getting their opportunity to step up to the plate!? Zaiem seems to be settling into the job nicely. And the relevant authorities have seen fit to give Robin his own Featured Writer slot.

I was terrified that TCGplayer would not take the opportunity to tap into the rich vein of talent that they discovered during the contest but my fears were unrealised. Even Falkor has been given a much-deserved featured blogger slot which I am sure is merely a stepping-stone before taking a weekly slot beside Zaiem and Robin on the front page itself. Good times. Looking forward to the second TCGppretice.

Clever advertising shocker!!!

So I read a fair few webcomics each day - stuff like Questionable Content, Gunnerkrigg Court, Girl Genius, Diesel Sweeties and BOASAS to name but a few. One of my favourites is Penny Arcade.

Imagine my surprise when I nipped on there after getting home from holiday at the weekend to see some cool Magic ads! Like actually funny, well-written, clever Magic advertising! Seems ironic to me that Wizards would put the time and money into investing in some great advertising (obv designed by the Penny Arcade guys themselves) and yet we would be subjected to horrible, tacky banner ads on the Mothership itself.

Man, WotC isn't exactly adorning itself in glory right now, is it?

Morningtide / Eventide

Speaking of the Mothership, today they announced the set name for 'Doughnut' - Eventide. So the next mini-block is going to have a day / night theme. I cannot even begin to describe to you how excited I am about this. The potential design space they are opening up with a simple light / dark theme is massive. They need to be careful to ensure the block isn't too parasitic and that each set stands by itself but if they get it right, it will be muchos fun, I am sure.

Right, that's enough for just now. Behave yourselves.

-Flame on-

Dave

Tags: On The Bubble Dave Magic Lorwyn Morningtide MM