Tournament Report

I went to the Rise of the Eldrazi pre-release this past weekend and here's what I have to say about it.

First off, the Eldrazi are freaking insane. I realize they are expensive, but with the set, getting them isn't extraordinarily hard, and this is coming from Sealed. In Sealed, you can run 9-costs (yes, plural) and expect to play them. They are unbelievably powerful, and annoying as hell to face. I went 2 wins, 2 losses and dropped the first day, but 3 out of the 4 wins I got were from Eldrazi. That's how good they are. Sealed runs really slowly, as you might guess considering the high drops you can run. There is a lot of stall to get there, with lots of walls just to tide you over to your giant creatures. It makes the set interesting. I think that getting Eldrazi will be easier outside of Sealed (more Spawn token producers and just easier to build to it), but that they might get overwhelmed quickly in Constructed, just because people are able to build a lot faster and clear things, making it harder to get to your Spawn tokens, just killing your Spawn tokens or anything like that.

The levelers are really good also. The second day, I ran levelers and was consistently building threats early, which is the main advantage to the levelers. It may be expensive to get to the final level, but along the way you can beat face. There is a 2 cost Green creature that's 2/2 to start, but with 2G, he becomes a 4/4, and paying the cost three more times gets you a 6/6 Trample. So, turn 2, get a 2/2 out, turn 3 make him a 4/4, then beat face until eventually you get the mana and make him a 6/6 Trample. Technically, over the course of the game, it costs 14 (9GGGGG) to get a 6/6 Trample, but it is worth it.

Also, I despise tiebreakers. Our tournament Sunday went 6 rounds, and I went 4 wins, 2 losses. Because my tiebreakers were apparently worse than other people, I ended up in 9th place. There was prize support for, you guessed it, top 8. 1st got something like 30 packs, and 2nd got less, 3rd and 4th got less, and 5th-8th got 5 packs each. Somebody who had the same record as me got 5 packs while I got nothing. Stupid tiebreakers...

Kick-Ass revisited

Because of not being in a city with a movie theater within easy reach I have to really plan my trips to the movies. That means that since I have classes tomorrow and two pre-release tournaments for M:TG Rise of the Eldrazi over the weekend, I probably won't see it until Wednesday, when I have no classes. Until then though, I am extremely nervous.

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Turn Coat

If you didn't already know this about me, I love the Dresden Files series. I just absolutely love it.

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And I Thought My Jokes Were Bad

Here's a story I wrote for a creative writing in fiction class that I thought might be enjoyed by people who would possibly read this. If you find it hard to read, I can send you the .docx file that it is in. Just leave a comment asking for the original.

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Silliness

Outside, on my way to class, I felt a few drops of rain from above. By a few, I mean barely any. They existed. You could see them on the ground. They weren't plentiful, though. There were only a couple. Still, the problem with that is that the sun was also in my eyes.

Damn it, nature! Stop being hypocritical! If it's sunny, it isn't supposed to rain. If it rains, it isn't supposed to be sunny. Let us say that S(sky) means the sky is sunny and R(sky) means the sky is raining.
S(sky) → ¬R(sky)
R(sky) → ¬S(sky)

Now, it is sunny and rainy
S(sky) ∧ R(sky)

This leads to a contradiction
S(sky) [∧ Elim]
R(sky) [∧ Elim]
¬R(sky) [→ Elim]
⊥ [⊥ Intro]

Therefore, nature just produced a contradiction. DAMN YOU, NATURE!

Hypocrisy

I can be a little loud at times. I've been known to project. I've acted, and in productions where we don't have microphones to blast our voices over speakers, I had to project myself. People have mentioned how loud I can be. But most of the time, I try to be quieter. When I get more tired and less in control over every little thing I do, then I can get louder, and I know this. I apologize to people I've kept up by being too loud. But, and this is a big but, I realize I am loud, and after a realization, I generally try to keep my voice down with conscious effort.

Then there's this guy I know, let's call him Hal. Hal is very loud. All the time. His regular voice is projecting. I live in a suite in my dorm where I share a room with my roommate that is connected to another room via a bathroom. Hal lives in that other room. Now, the walls in this dorm aren't the best constructed things. Heck, the whole place sometimes feels like it's going to fall apart. But, I digress. Hal will often just speak loudly.

Now, I know this is not some rule that everybody has to follow, but this is my general guideline for wakefulness, maybe more specifically to my dorm than somewhere else. If the next day is a weekday (aka school day), then loud stops by 12:00 midnight. Probably would be better for more like 11:00, but 12:00 generally works fine for the people I know. If the next day is a weekend, then loud stops by midnight more as a guideline than a rule. I'll probably try and stop by then, but don't feel incredibly bad if I don't. If the day is a weekday, then noise can begin around 8:00 or so. Some people have class at 8:00 (poor souls), and more than anything, it is probably when I should get up. If the day is a weekend, I won't make noise before noon if possible. I like to sleep in when possible. So to lay it all out:
Stop on Sun, Mon, Tues, Wed, Thurs night = 12:00 AM (maybe 11:00 PM)
Stop on Fri, Sat night = 12:00 AM (more guideline)
Start on Mon, Tues, Wed, Thurs, Fri morning = 8:00 AM
Start on Sat, Sun morning = 12:00 PM

Now, I know people don't have to follow this, but it seems somewhat like a common courtesy. I don't follow it exactly, and I'm sorry I don't. Hal seems to think that some school days are more important than others. Maybe it's when he does and doesn't have class that things change. I don't know and I really don't care. What I do care about is how loud he is. Sunday nights or Monday nights, he could be up at 1 AM or even later, talking in his normal, overpowering, loud voice about anything, it doesn't matter, and falling asleep will be nigh-impossible. But tonight, literally slightly after midnight, instead of asking politely, which I'd still take slightly hypocritically, he bangs on the wall to get me and my roommate to be quieter. Okay, so I'm assuming that's what the banging was for, but I'm pretty sure I'm right. Just last night, at the same time, no, probably later, he was talking in the hallway on his phone. There is a room that if you close the doors, it is somewhat soundproof. If you don't, you're just in the hallway, and in a room, you can hear what is in the hallway pretty darn well.

So, I'm sorry for keeping people up slightly, but dear Deadpool, Hal, if you want to complain about me, get your own sound level under check first.

More on Kick-Ass

Not for the kiddies, this is the ridiculous new Red Band trailer for Kick-Ass. Full names aren't required, but you need to put something in every box, and a date that does make you old enough to see the trailer.