Day 2
Well, today a few notable things happen. Whether your interested or not I'm bloggin it!
First off, we attempted to go to Paris. This was indeed the aim of today. But at the train station only first class was available... £400 for 4 people. So that makes paris tomorrow at £200... still massively expensive... And I complain about my £5.30 to the local tournament! I guess you'll hear about Paris tomorrow, but today you'll have to leave that.
Secondly, I saw a dude just chilling with a flamethrower. He appeared to be using it for some development work on the pavement, but at the time I saw it there was little other use than just to look badass. I just thought I had to comment on it.
Reims Cathedral... there's a site to see. It really is a stunning piece of architecture of enormous proportions, which looks as if it would be a massive feat to build now, never mind back in the day of its origin before cranes and the like were apparent. I highly respected whoever designed and co-ordinated that. Truly impressive.
French keyboards... Blargh. Very annoying. My touch typing skills were questioned when I saw that I had a few letters off, but looking at the keyboard showed indeed the locations were different. It was fairly... interesting.
And Champagne making. Went to a place and saw that. Rather interesting how far down it is and the process, but I'll let you go on your own tour to see that. Nonetheless they had bottles from 1893 with all sorts growing on it which was... interesting.
I won't keep you long, so that's it!
A website for enithing gaming.
Monday, 24 October 2011
Sunday, 23 October 2011
France
Sooo, a journey to France. I figure why not follow the actual definition of blog and talk about the day. This may be my only entry depending on how interesting the other days are, but I have a few things to talk about here as it is.
I'll start with the end, our hotel. It's odd. It appears grand and whatnot but I notice theres like 60's floorboards which really take away from that feeling... completely. check in was about 20 seconds long which is quite fast, but getting to the room, odd. We literally went up a flight of stairs, up another flight of stairs, across a hall then down another into what seemed like a box with entry to our room and another. The rooms themselves, as my sister described "Seem like the walls are closing in on you." I don't quite mimic the feeling, but there's some odd paintings throughout the rooms... It's odd to say the least. Theres sponge on the back of our doors with a reasonable size gap... The architect of this place was either tight on space or fairly... unique. And a window view of a wall is always brilliant, but I can't complain as that's not exactly a rare occurrence.
On our drive we missed a turning and ended spanning 6km of motorway to get back to Reims which is always fun. On the ferry over one of the tables had glasses shaking like... I'm running out of metaphors, so I'll say it shook LOADS. Was quite unnerving. I can't comment much more, so I'll pause for now and see if night gives anything else. Or it'll end here. I may or may not edit later... I'm good at this whole blogging thing :D
I'll start with the end, our hotel. It's odd. It appears grand and whatnot but I notice theres like 60's floorboards which really take away from that feeling... completely. check in was about 20 seconds long which is quite fast, but getting to the room, odd. We literally went up a flight of stairs, up another flight of stairs, across a hall then down another into what seemed like a box with entry to our room and another. The rooms themselves, as my sister described "Seem like the walls are closing in on you." I don't quite mimic the feeling, but there's some odd paintings throughout the rooms... It's odd to say the least. Theres sponge on the back of our doors with a reasonable size gap... The architect of this place was either tight on space or fairly... unique. And a window view of a wall is always brilliant, but I can't complain as that's not exactly a rare occurrence.
On our drive we missed a turning and ended spanning 6km of motorway to get back to Reims which is always fun. On the ferry over one of the tables had glasses shaking like... I'm running out of metaphors, so I'll say it shook LOADS. Was quite unnerving. I can't comment much more, so I'll pause for now and see if night gives anything else. Or it'll end here. I may or may not edit later... I'm good at this whole blogging thing :D
Saturday, 22 October 2011
Lack of posts
Basically, my wednesday feature was battles, but my partner moved to uni so it's much more problematic to play. And for friday, I want to review Xenoblade Chronciles but its a long game and I have to play it, so updates may be infrequent.
Monday, 17 October 2011
Magic vs ygo, part 2
Format:
This is a key difference between the two games. Yearly now, Magic has new formats released with new ways to play that interact with every card printed. Off the top of my head Single, Multi, EDH, sealed, draft, planechase and archenemy name but a few. That’s not even getting into formats within some of these such as standard or modern. Yu-Gi-Oh sits with just a lonely two formats – advanced and traditional, or to those not in the know with and without banned cards respectively. While the advanced format is fun enough, being able to choose in Magic is arguably better. Different formats appeal to different people, so the casual players can stick to Multiplayer EDH but die hard competitives can learn the intricacy’s of a draft or craft a brilliant new 60 card deck. Most of the games in Yu-Gi-Oh are played on the standalone Advanced format, so finding your place in the game is often much harder with every player fitting under the same bracket. Magic’s many formats generally work for it, allowing you to do whatever you want whenever. It’s multiplayer support is also great – Yu-Gi-Oh has tag team rules, but no official setup for odd number of players or even an all versus all game. Magic has to win here in sheer terms of what you can do with the game. Speaking of which…
Sealed:
This format exists in both games, but to a far greater extent in magic. A Yu-Gi-Oh player can be expected to do this no more than once every three months, as a “Sneak Peek” at the new set before it’s launch is held, where you get 5 packs, make a 20 card deck and duke it out. You’ll find a fair few of your cards require others to work, which leads to a pretty small pool. And at the end of that, you have little left other than early cards. And then nothing for three months. Put simply, the packs are not made with this format in mind, but it is simply thrust upon it. Magic embraces it. Drafts are regular events at most FNM venues, and limited(6 packs+basic lands = deck) is more less common, they still happen. I have done three drafts at the time of writing this article, and you will have already read what I think of limited. They are great fun. A card you otherwise saw fit for no deck – this still stands – except for limited. A lack of options make some lesser cards a much greater threat. The passing of the cards themselves in a draft is a game in itself, and one Yu-Gi-Oh is certainly lacking. Some people are annoyed to see a fair few cards made just for the draft – but it’s a format arguably almost as important as constructed play – as seen in that most Pro Tours have it as a mandatory element of the day. At least they have a place, Yu-Gi-Oh just sees card existing for the show and the shoebox. This format is a MAJOR reason to play magic, as it’s really fun, gives a reason to buy packs, as even if you pull rubbish you still get a good time out of it. I always look forward to a draft, arguably much more than a regular gaming day as you get the tournament with it too, and possibly the best part of drafts is how it simply negates price. You must pay the entry fee, yes, but that’s not much of a problem. Getting a constructed deck to the top tier could cost several hundred pounds, but you know a draft is never going to cost you more than £15. So you can turn up knowing everyone has a fair chance of winning down to skill more than wallet size. Indeed, A series of lucky pulls can give you an advantage, but skill prevails over all in this format, even down to the picking of packs, and I love the game for this. And if that £15 is an issue, some draft groups sell the money cards the pull and put the price back into the next draft, making it even cheaper. Indeed, a few lucky pulls could see the event turn a profit! And this £15 is just standard for FNM magic events. If you find eight people willing to play you can make it cheaper with prices, or even get it down to £7.50 each. (For those wanting to know, Chaoscards.com, its £30 for 12 packs, two lots is a full draft set and £7.50 each.) if you disregard them altogether. So if you so choose you can keep playing a fun format for free – or use it as an excuse to buy packs – whatever works! So really, for sealed, to put it bluntly, Magic kicks Yu-Gi-Oh’s arse.
Competitive Play:
I won’t lie – I’ve read about the respective competitive metagames for longer than I’ve played in them myself. Across both systems I’ve played in relatively few competitive events, so I guess I’m a causal. However, I think I’ve seen enough to give my verdict. I rather Yu-Gi-Oh. Both the games certainly have their respective mind games in the form of mana open and face downs that make the game more than just open information. Both games contain bluffing that could separate a good from great player. Both have intricacy’s of play and careful combos to execute, and both are fun to play even at the highest level. Yet one MAJOR problem stands out for me – lands. I’ll come back to it. In Yu-Gi-Oh, the only resource you really need depends upon your deck – and you build for it and face the consequences. Sure, every deck has bad hands and draws in every game system, but that’s why we have match play over single games. But if you get multiple bad hands in a match in Yu-Gi-Oh, its either a very bad day for you or you could do with altering your deck construction. Magic has the same problems ignoring land, but bring it in… and things can get frustrating. You could build the most efficient and brilliant deck in the world, yet fail. Pulling lands is a frustrating prospect, as in a competitive environment losing because you drew too few or many during a game even with the perfect balance of lands in deck just happens. I’m not denying Yu-Gi-Oh has these problems, as indeed leaning towards one type of card over another can lead to a frustrating game – but again, Magic can also see this as annoying when not drawing any creatures or spells. So they both have the problem here, just magic has the additional hurdle of lands. My view may not be concrete due to lack of experience, but from an outside view this seems a frustrating issue. It does reconcile this however…
Casual:
I can’t imagine playing Yu-Gi-Oh casually. Perhaps it’s because I have played the game for over ten years I can’t bare to pickup a bad card, but it’s a fact. This is an article on my opinion after all. But there is other evidence. Magic just has more to suit the casual crowd (as I see it.) I’ll go back and say they can still take part in drafts and have fun. But there are many cards designed with the casual player in mind, where a fun game is much more important than a winning one. Perhaps the biggest motivator to casual play to me and people I know is the presence of multiplayer. Having a few people round for magic can see a big game with politics aplenty and good fun all around, win or lose. EDH is another format I simply love, 100 cards, all different (other than basic lands) but kept together by the consistency of your commanders prescene. It’s a long, fun, crazy ride where all matter of things could happen. Again, Yu-Gi-Oh has no generally recognised equivalent. Perhaps someone in a remote area of Britain has come up with a brilliant format to rival EDH, but until then multiplayer is master in magic. If you want to go casual Yu-Gi-Oh, I’m sure its possible, but I’m not the right guy to ask. The competitive casual place of making a fun deck that can with against people, sure, that’s great, and – yes, it’s great fun – more than single player magic – but for casual it can’t quite match up. But I will point out it’s still more fun one on one for me, personally.
This is a key difference between the two games. Yearly now, Magic has new formats released with new ways to play that interact with every card printed. Off the top of my head Single, Multi, EDH, sealed, draft, planechase and archenemy name but a few. That’s not even getting into formats within some of these such as standard or modern. Yu-Gi-Oh sits with just a lonely two formats – advanced and traditional, or to those not in the know with and without banned cards respectively. While the advanced format is fun enough, being able to choose in Magic is arguably better. Different formats appeal to different people, so the casual players can stick to Multiplayer EDH but die hard competitives can learn the intricacy’s of a draft or craft a brilliant new 60 card deck. Most of the games in Yu-Gi-Oh are played on the standalone Advanced format, so finding your place in the game is often much harder with every player fitting under the same bracket. Magic’s many formats generally work for it, allowing you to do whatever you want whenever. It’s multiplayer support is also great – Yu-Gi-Oh has tag team rules, but no official setup for odd number of players or even an all versus all game. Magic has to win here in sheer terms of what you can do with the game. Speaking of which…
Sealed:
This format exists in both games, but to a far greater extent in magic. A Yu-Gi-Oh player can be expected to do this no more than once every three months, as a “Sneak Peek” at the new set before it’s launch is held, where you get 5 packs, make a 20 card deck and duke it out. You’ll find a fair few of your cards require others to work, which leads to a pretty small pool. And at the end of that, you have little left other than early cards. And then nothing for three months. Put simply, the packs are not made with this format in mind, but it is simply thrust upon it. Magic embraces it. Drafts are regular events at most FNM venues, and limited(6 packs+basic lands = deck) is more less common, they still happen. I have done three drafts at the time of writing this article, and you will have already read what I think of limited. They are great fun. A card you otherwise saw fit for no deck – this still stands – except for limited. A lack of options make some lesser cards a much greater threat. The passing of the cards themselves in a draft is a game in itself, and one Yu-Gi-Oh is certainly lacking. Some people are annoyed to see a fair few cards made just for the draft – but it’s a format arguably almost as important as constructed play – as seen in that most Pro Tours have it as a mandatory element of the day. At least they have a place, Yu-Gi-Oh just sees card existing for the show and the shoebox. This format is a MAJOR reason to play magic, as it’s really fun, gives a reason to buy packs, as even if you pull rubbish you still get a good time out of it. I always look forward to a draft, arguably much more than a regular gaming day as you get the tournament with it too, and possibly the best part of drafts is how it simply negates price. You must pay the entry fee, yes, but that’s not much of a problem. Getting a constructed deck to the top tier could cost several hundred pounds, but you know a draft is never going to cost you more than £15. So you can turn up knowing everyone has a fair chance of winning down to skill more than wallet size. Indeed, A series of lucky pulls can give you an advantage, but skill prevails over all in this format, even down to the picking of packs, and I love the game for this. And if that £15 is an issue, some draft groups sell the money cards the pull and put the price back into the next draft, making it even cheaper. Indeed, a few lucky pulls could see the event turn a profit! And this £15 is just standard for FNM magic events. If you find eight people willing to play you can make it cheaper with prices, or even get it down to £7.50 each. (For those wanting to know, Chaoscards.com, its £30 for 12 packs, two lots is a full draft set and £7.50 each.) if you disregard them altogether. So if you so choose you can keep playing a fun format for free – or use it as an excuse to buy packs – whatever works! So really, for sealed, to put it bluntly, Magic kicks Yu-Gi-Oh’s arse.
Competitive Play:
I won’t lie – I’ve read about the respective competitive metagames for longer than I’ve played in them myself. Across both systems I’ve played in relatively few competitive events, so I guess I’m a causal. However, I think I’ve seen enough to give my verdict. I rather Yu-Gi-Oh. Both the games certainly have their respective mind games in the form of mana open and face downs that make the game more than just open information. Both games contain bluffing that could separate a good from great player. Both have intricacy’s of play and careful combos to execute, and both are fun to play even at the highest level. Yet one MAJOR problem stands out for me – lands. I’ll come back to it. In Yu-Gi-Oh, the only resource you really need depends upon your deck – and you build for it and face the consequences. Sure, every deck has bad hands and draws in every game system, but that’s why we have match play over single games. But if you get multiple bad hands in a match in Yu-Gi-Oh, its either a very bad day for you or you could do with altering your deck construction. Magic has the same problems ignoring land, but bring it in… and things can get frustrating. You could build the most efficient and brilliant deck in the world, yet fail. Pulling lands is a frustrating prospect, as in a competitive environment losing because you drew too few or many during a game even with the perfect balance of lands in deck just happens. I’m not denying Yu-Gi-Oh has these problems, as indeed leaning towards one type of card over another can lead to a frustrating game – but again, Magic can also see this as annoying when not drawing any creatures or spells. So they both have the problem here, just magic has the additional hurdle of lands. My view may not be concrete due to lack of experience, but from an outside view this seems a frustrating issue. It does reconcile this however…
Casual:
I can’t imagine playing Yu-Gi-Oh casually. Perhaps it’s because I have played the game for over ten years I can’t bare to pickup a bad card, but it’s a fact. This is an article on my opinion after all. But there is other evidence. Magic just has more to suit the casual crowd (as I see it.) I’ll go back and say they can still take part in drafts and have fun. But there are many cards designed with the casual player in mind, where a fun game is much more important than a winning one. Perhaps the biggest motivator to casual play to me and people I know is the presence of multiplayer. Having a few people round for magic can see a big game with politics aplenty and good fun all around, win or lose. EDH is another format I simply love, 100 cards, all different (other than basic lands) but kept together by the consistency of your commanders prescene. It’s a long, fun, crazy ride where all matter of things could happen. Again, Yu-Gi-Oh has no generally recognised equivalent. Perhaps someone in a remote area of Britain has come up with a brilliant format to rival EDH, but until then multiplayer is master in magic. If you want to go casual Yu-Gi-Oh, I’m sure its possible, but I’m not the right guy to ask. The competitive casual place of making a fun deck that can with against people, sure, that’s great, and – yes, it’s great fun – more than single player magic – but for casual it can’t quite match up. But I will point out it’s still more fun one on one for me, personally.
Wednesday, 12 October 2011
Tuesday, 11 October 2011
Monday, 10 October 2011
Innistrad Draft
Drafting Innistrad
Hey guys! Taking a break from yugioh to get back to dedicated magic, but expect that next week. For now, heres my first Innistrad draft!
Now I must confess, a few cards may have muddled up so the below list may not be complete accurate. I remember having 42 cards yet this list only shows 40, so I must have missed two somewhere.
http://www.mtgdeckbuilder.net/Decks/ViewDeck/236616
Anyway. The drafting process was interesting. First pick I was gifted with a awesome mythic, essence of the wild. That got me in green, no contest. My second pick was Cackling Counterpart, which is an awesome card in itself, but I picked it mainly because my standard deck wanted it. I can't recall every pick, but I tried to force green and it simply was not happening. I found a good few blue cards so that became a colour to go for, but afterwards green was gobbled up by the table. I was still trying to force it with a first pick ulvenwald mystics pack two. But eventually it was pretty obvious half the table was going green, and black seemed completely open. So about half way through I decided to change and ended up with a decent number of decent cards. I was especially surprised how low my curve was for U/B, it felt more like aggro than control!
The draft itself was fun. We had 8 people and everyone played everyone... with the result being me going 7-0! A first for me and very pleased. Some games were VERY tense, and some unfortunate. I'll quote my game with Alex as tense, game 3, he's on one life. Yet he has a bunch of creatures including an angelic overseer. I think I'm gonna lose, as I only have a swamp in hand, but attacking with my typhoid rats forced him to block, allowing my skirsdag high priest to get a demon to let me squeeze in a win. Very tense, especially considering the other two were just as tight. Another is my game versus Ollie, both won a game than last game he mulligan'd down to four and then played cards in the wrong order - a bit anti climactic for a tense game, as I've never beat him in a paper draft before.
How is Innistrad itself? Plays well. Is fun. the draft itself seemed to pass as usual for me, having no clue on colours til the end of second pack then having a go. It was fun. Although I must confess, when it comes to draft talk I don't know what to say more that what I have. Perhaps I could expand, perhaps I've said it all. beyond battle reports I can't say much else! So I'll talk about a card I love that's vaguely related.
Cackling Counterpart.
Why so good?
I love it. Its a clone. and It's three mana. That's a good start! not quite phantasmal images cheap, and not able to retrieve with sun titan. The first is of course a problem, the second irrelevant since my testing with this has been in U/B. It has flashback, which is certainly relevant in drafts and can also be in standard play, and there's no harm! Perhaps it's biggest drawback is that it can only copy your creatures. This can be a problem, being slightly win-more in this respect, but not always. If you can control your own creatures this problem should mitigate, so its fine. And you can always use regular clone backup. The best thing about this card. One word - Instant.
This does so much for cloning. Your opponent plays doom blade, assuming the upper hand. You screw that and clone it so they are down a removal spell, and you're down a card (unless you copy something like Wurmcoil engine!) but you can flash it back later for that all important card advantage on any ol' card. Other uses? Your creatures tapped! So they attack with less fear. But oh, its back, and its untapped and ready to block! Or even my personal favourite use, its like a much more threatening think twice. Whereas that is play a card for me to mana leak or I'll draw a card, this is play something for me to counter or you'll be staring down another 6/6. All of these are superb, so I freaking love my testing of this card so far. It's no definite replacement for regular clones, but it's certainly worth trying!
Raszero out.
P.S.
A shoutout to my brilliant friend who splashed green for Moonmist and Full Moon's Rise in U/W with the only flip card as cloistered youth <3
Hey guys! Taking a break from yugioh to get back to dedicated magic, but expect that next week. For now, heres my first Innistrad draft!
Now I must confess, a few cards may have muddled up so the below list may not be complete accurate. I remember having 42 cards yet this list only shows 40, so I must have missed two somewhere.
http://www.mtgdeckbuilder.net/Decks/ViewDeck/236616
Anyway. The drafting process was interesting. First pick I was gifted with a awesome mythic, essence of the wild. That got me in green, no contest. My second pick was Cackling Counterpart, which is an awesome card in itself, but I picked it mainly because my standard deck wanted it. I can't recall every pick, but I tried to force green and it simply was not happening. I found a good few blue cards so that became a colour to go for, but afterwards green was gobbled up by the table. I was still trying to force it with a first pick ulvenwald mystics pack two. But eventually it was pretty obvious half the table was going green, and black seemed completely open. So about half way through I decided to change and ended up with a decent number of decent cards. I was especially surprised how low my curve was for U/B, it felt more like aggro than control!
The draft itself was fun. We had 8 people and everyone played everyone... with the result being me going 7-0! A first for me and very pleased. Some games were VERY tense, and some unfortunate. I'll quote my game with Alex as tense, game 3, he's on one life. Yet he has a bunch of creatures including an angelic overseer. I think I'm gonna lose, as I only have a swamp in hand, but attacking with my typhoid rats forced him to block, allowing my skirsdag high priest to get a demon to let me squeeze in a win. Very tense, especially considering the other two were just as tight. Another is my game versus Ollie, both won a game than last game he mulligan'd down to four and then played cards in the wrong order - a bit anti climactic for a tense game, as I've never beat him in a paper draft before.
How is Innistrad itself? Plays well. Is fun. the draft itself seemed to pass as usual for me, having no clue on colours til the end of second pack then having a go. It was fun. Although I must confess, when it comes to draft talk I don't know what to say more that what I have. Perhaps I could expand, perhaps I've said it all. beyond battle reports I can't say much else! So I'll talk about a card I love that's vaguely related.
Cackling Counterpart.
Why so good?
I love it. Its a clone. and It's three mana. That's a good start! not quite phantasmal images cheap, and not able to retrieve with sun titan. The first is of course a problem, the second irrelevant since my testing with this has been in U/B. It has flashback, which is certainly relevant in drafts and can also be in standard play, and there's no harm! Perhaps it's biggest drawback is that it can only copy your creatures. This can be a problem, being slightly win-more in this respect, but not always. If you can control your own creatures this problem should mitigate, so its fine. And you can always use regular clone backup. The best thing about this card. One word - Instant.
This does so much for cloning. Your opponent plays doom blade, assuming the upper hand. You screw that and clone it so they are down a removal spell, and you're down a card (unless you copy something like Wurmcoil engine!) but you can flash it back later for that all important card advantage on any ol' card. Other uses? Your creatures tapped! So they attack with less fear. But oh, its back, and its untapped and ready to block! Or even my personal favourite use, its like a much more threatening think twice. Whereas that is play a card for me to mana leak or I'll draw a card, this is play something for me to counter or you'll be staring down another 6/6. All of these are superb, so I freaking love my testing of this card so far. It's no definite replacement for regular clones, but it's certainly worth trying!
Raszero out.
P.S.
A shoutout to my brilliant friend who splashed green for Moonmist and Full Moon's Rise in U/W with the only flip card as cloistered youth <3
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