Friday, October 31, 2008--Happy
All Hallow's Eve!
Today at work, there were a lot of people dressing up. I took pictures. They are posted on
Facebook. I also put on my black hood and cloak, but I didn't put on the gloves or face paint, so the illusion was not complete.
On this day:
In 2003: I scare the shit out of Jessica Vu because "I looked real".
In 2002:
Candy Hand!
Wednesday, October 29, 2008--Why does it feel like October has a lot of On this days but nothing happened this October?
On this day:
In 2005: I write "I wonder if she's going to keep her promise...". I have no idea who the fuck I'm talking about?
Tuesday, October 28, 2008--So today, I got Fallout 3. It's essentially Oblivion with guns (especially since Bethesda took over the franchise). So far, it's as addictive as Oblivion, but it's much more compelling and draws me in a lot more. I like it.
Monday, October 27, 2008--
On this day:
In 2003:
Prof Hilfinger: You can submit Project #2 and we'll still run a sanity test for you.
Me: Sanity tests, huh? I still can't believe I haven't failed any yet.
Tracy: *laughs*
Sunday, October 26, 2008--
On this day:
In 2006: Shortest entry ever!
Saturday, October 25, 2008--
On this day:
In 2002: I read Jabberwocky for the first time.
Wednesday, October 22, 2008--
On this day:
In 2005: Work begins on Demons Engine Architecture 3.
Tuesday, October 21, 2008--After work today, I went to the building 16 cafeteria to play another Alara booster draft. Learning from previous lessons, I was willing to play 5-color, but more selective about it. Ultimately, I ended up with a deck with three
Dragon Fodders and some devour creatures such as
Thunder-Thrash Elder,
Thorn-Thrash Viashino, and a frickin'
Mycoloth. I also had a couple of green fatties, and I rounded out my colors with an
Agony Warp, a
Grixis Charm, and of course, a few
Tidehollow Strixes, so I was playing Blue-Black-Red-Green (or, Not-White). But the Blue was really just a splash, so I was playing Black-Red-Green (Jund) splash Blue.
In any case, the people at Microsoft are all better than me, so naturally, I got destroyed. But it's okay. It's still fun and educational. (According to Sameer, Alara draft is in fact
not a slow format.)
On this day:
In 2003: Demons v2 is conceived... only to be scrapped 2 years later.
Monday, October 20, 2008--
On this day:
In 2006: My first ever MTG Constructed tournament. It was a playtest for States 2006, and I won second place.
Sunday, October 19, 2008--
On this day:
In 2006: Rohan makes his first appearance in my bloop.
Saturday, October 18, 2008--
On this day:
In 2003: "It looks more like a deformed Pac-man."
In 2002: The second shortest journal entry ever, succeeded by October 26, 2006.
Friday, October 17, 2008--After work today, I went to Uncle's Games at Crossroads Mall to play another Alara booster draft. This time, I planned to play 5-color. Meaning, if there was a really good card in the pack, I would take the card. Otherwise, I would take color fixing. Otherwise, I would take a good card that was already in my solid colors.
During the actual draft, though, I ended up opening another
Cruel Ultimatum as well as a
Prince of Thralls, so I was solidly in Blue-Black-Red. Also, I had drafted a lot of green fatties, so that put me in Blue-Black-Red-Green. And then I splashed white to play
Oblivion Ring and
Woolly Thoctar, so I was really playing Blue-Black-Red-Green splash White. Except Blue was one of my lesser colors. I really only had blue to play the Cruel Ultimatum, the Prince of Thralls, and a few
Tidehollow Strixes, so really, I was playing Black-Red-Green splash Blue and White. But yeah, I was still playing 5-color.
In any case, the draft was four rounds. I lost the first round to a guy who had a really fast deck. (He played the Heralds just to have 1-drops!) Then, I won the second and third rounds. Finally, I played against Tim, who I knew was better than me, but I resolved to fight him to the death (in game)... but I still lost.
Final Record: 2-2
Not bad. I think I'm getting the hang of this, though. Although I should be more conservative about taking cards "outside" of my "colors". I didn't really need that many white cards, given that I cut most of them.
On this day:
In 2005: Abhi eats his room freshener. (It smelled like nutbread. And looked like and tasted like nutbread, too.)
Wednesday, October 15, 2008--
On this day:
In 2002: Ryan Chao makes his first appearance on my bloop.
Tuesday, October 14, 2008--Happy Birthday Princess Vivian!
Also
On this day:
In 2005: Princess Vivian makes her first appearance on my bloop.
Monday, October 13, 2008--
Saturday, October 11, 2008--
Happy Birthday Justin! and Lizzie.
Friday, October 10, 2008--
On this day:
In 2006: I play a casual MTG draft with
Alan Comer.
Thursday, October 9, 2008--
On this day:
In 2002:
- The first addendum... points to yesterday.
- Lei Huang makes her first appearance in my journal.
- Nadia Shaw makes her first appearance in my journal.
Wednesday, October 8, 2008--
On this day:
In 2005: Nadia tears her hand open. Ow!
In 2003: I have lunch with XineWu, who eats one slice of pizza, a small piece of cake, a cookie, and a soda.
Thursday, October 7, 2008--After work today, I went to the building 16 cafeteria (ditching the Tuesday Night Dinner & Games folk) to play Magic the Gathering. There was a booster draft. My first pick was a
Cruel Ultimatum, so I decided to play blue-black-red (Grixis) to take advantage of it. A while later on, I drifted into a splash of white as well. So in the end, I drafted a deck that was blue-black-red with a splash of white (that is, not green).
I had a lot of mana fixing, but I felt my creatures were subpar. Despite that, I still managed to win 3 out of 4 matches. Interestingly, in one of my matches, my win was when I played Cruel Ultimatum, and my opponent conceded in response. And I was just like, um, okay...
In any case, drafting Alara is very different than drafting any other set. Since there's so much color fixing in Alara, I shouldn't be afraid of just taking a good card outside of my colors. When I finally build my deck, I could either cut weak colors or just play 5 color. Of course, this is just theory. I have to actually try it and verify that this is a viable Alara strategy.
Finally, I found out that drafting artifacts doesn't work so well unless you have a Master of Etherium or something.
On this day:
In 2002: *shrig*
Monday, October 6, 2008--
Q: If she really is so expendable to me, then why can't I stop thinking about her?
A: Because I'm weak.
On this day:
In 2007: I beat Soul Nomad.
In 2004: "Well, you can't go wrong with Christ. Especially if your alternative is Clancy."
Saturday, October 4, 2008--
On this day:
In 2002: Alex Jukl makes his first appearance on mu bloop.
Friday, October 3, 2008--After work today, I decided to go to Uncle's Games at Crossroads Mall to play Magic (which I haven't done in a while). Today was the release event for
Shards of Alara, so we did Sealed. Also, since Brian (the Tournament Organizer) promised WotC he would playtest this for him, he made us play with "shard rules", meaning we picked a shard and were only allowed to play with those 3 colors.
So in my Sealed Pool, I opened a foil
Elspeth and a
Vein Drinker. Ideally, I'd go red-black-white so I can take advantage of both of them. Unfortunately, we were playing Shard Rules, and there's no red-black-white shard. So I had to choose between Vein Drinker and Elspeth. Since I was more comfortable using creatures than planeswalkers, and since I'm more comfortable with red-black than white, I decided to go with the Vein Drinker. (This may have been a mistake, but no one cares.)
I ultimately went red-black-blue (Grixis), even though I banned myself from playing blue. I still allowed myself to use blue, though, because adding blue into the mix allowed me to have 2 more removal cards and a lot more fliers. As it turns out, even though my deck was rather low on fatties, I had no shortage of fliers. Most of my wins were because of a superior air force.
One of my games, I was going up against a guy who had an army full of fatties. Fortunately for me, he press his advantage as much as he should have, and I ended up getting a field full of fliers. At some point, I was able to play my Vein Drinker. Then, he was at 9 life, and I had 9 power worth of damage in the air. I thought to myself, I could have some fun with Vein Drinker, or I could just end the game right there and then. I decided to play it safe and finished him off without pumping my Vein Drinker, which was a good play, because on his next turn, he would have drawn the mountain he needed to play Titanic Ultimatum for the win.
I ultimately went 3-2 and got 6th place in a field of 25 players (including Devin Low of WotC R&D fame, though I never actually played him). Not bad. Plenty of room to grow, though.
Thursday, October 2, 2008--
On this day:
In 2003: Franklin makes his first appearance on my bloop.
