Online Journal

---

Sunday, June 29, 2008--Today was insanely hot (I wish I were insanely hot), so I turned on the fan that I had bought oh so many months ago to make my apartment cool. It was awesome. It was cool.

---

Saturday, June 28, 2008--So Diablo 3 was announced today. w00t!


Also, today was the Magic the Gathering Lorwyn-Shadowmoor Block PTQ. I went in with the Elf Grenade deck, as made famous by Alan Comer.

In round 1, I played against Scott, who was running Green-White aggro. In game 1, I get two Vanquishers and two Perfects fairly quickly, but he gets out a Packmaster and O-Rings one of my Perfects.

him: Let's see who can make tokens faster.
me: Oh trust me, I can make tokens faster than you.

Elvish Prom, and then overrun him for the win. In game 2, I get the combo off and beat him. Not a bad start. Interestingly, in both games, I had to mull down to 5. Record: 1-0

In round 2, I played against Joe, who did 5-color. In both games, I got bad draws, and he pwned me for it. Record: 1-1

In round 3, I played against Joe, who had a Rogue deck. That is, he played a deck that use the Rogue creature type. Not only that, but I don't think he netdecked it, so it was a rogue Rogue deck. He out-aggroed me in two straight games. Record: 1-2

In round 4, I played against [I forgot his name], who also played 5-color. In game 1, I managed to Roar for 13, bringing him from 19 to 6, but then on the next turn, he Firespouted, wiping my board. Later on, I managed to Roar for 5 more, bringing him down to 1, but on this turn, he Austere Commanded, wiping the board again. Unfortunately, I was unable to get another point of damage before he gained control and killed me. In game 2, he simply controlled me to death with Shriekmaws and Mulldrifters. Record: 1-3

In round 5, I went up against Brett, who ran Kithkin with a splash of green for Wilt-Leaf Liege. In game 1, I mulliganed down to 4 and lost. In game 2, I mulliganed down to 3 and lost. Good game? Record: 1-4

In round 6, I went up against Jacob, who also ran Green-White aggro. In game 1, he's stuck on the one white hideaway land. I, on the other hand, had to mull to 4, but I still overran him with token goodness. In game 2, he gets an early Vanquisher and a Wilt-Leaf Cavaliers and gets me down to 2 life. But then, I got the combo off and won. Record: 2-4

In round 7, I played against Tomas who ran Red-Green aggro. In game 1, I got the combo off and pwned him, but in games 2 and 3, I was unable to get the combo off and he pwned me instead. Record: 2-5

In the 8th and final round, I played against Brice, who ran Kithkin. In game 1, I tapped out to put a bunch of elves into play, but since he's playing Kithkin, he just uses Mirrorweave to beat me before I get a chance to untap. In game 2, I mulliganed down to 5, but couldn't draw anything useful before I died. (I, uh, I died.) Record: 2-6

It's official. WORST TOURNEY EVER! At least I had fun with Elf Grenade (and learned that Elf Grenade beats GW aggro), but next time, I'm gonna use a serious deck. (Either spend the time to develop a good red deck or netdeck Fae.)

Final ranking: 77th place.

---

Friday, June 27, 2008--

After work today, I went to Uncle's Games at Crossroad's Mall for a Block Constructed Magic Tournament in preparation for the PTQ tomorrow. I was running Elf Grenade, as made famous by Alan Comer.

In round 1, I played against Michael Swailes, the same guy who had pwned me in round 2 on June 6. In any case, he was playing Fae. In game 1, I was manaflooded. In game 2, I mulliganed down to 4, and he got out a turn 2 Bitterblossom. Needless to say, I was brutally massacred. Record: 0-1

I then proceeded to get the round 2 bye, because I have some kind of bye-fu. Record: 1-1

In round 3, I played against D. Aisaka, who was running a Merrow deck, apparently. In game 1, he out-aggroed me with a pair of Merrow Reejereys and a good Sygg. In game 2, I combo'ed off. (Yay me!) In game 3, I failed to anticipate his counterspells and failed to side in Guttural Response, which may or may not have made a difference. Anyway, he counterspelled me to death. (Or rather, he used counterspells to prevent me from going off and just pounded me to death with his merrow. Record: 1-2

In round 4, I played against Kasey, who was also playing Fae. In game 1, I combo'ed off and pwned him. (Double yay!) In game 2, I didn't get the combo off, but I managed to make 14+ tokens and effectively outraced Bitterblossom and/or overran him. (Two yays and a half!) Record: 2-2

This deck is not horrible. It loses, but it can get the combo off every now and then, which is what really matters. But after talking with some people, I've decided to add Wren's Run Vanquishers and Imperious Perfects so that I can beat down with my elves and have the combo as an extra thing thrown in there with which I can randomly win. Brief playtesting at home afterwards revealed this to be a good plan.

Anyway, time to sleep so I can wake up for the PTQ tomorrow! Good night!

---

Thursday, June 26, 2008--After work today, I would have gone to the gym, but I felt I needed more time to recover from yesterday's sickness, so I didn't go to the gym.

---

Wednesday, June 25, 2008--I felt sick today, so I didn't go to work. Because I was sick. Yeah.

---

Tuesday, June 24, 2008--After work today, I went to the booster draft with the Tuesday Night Magic players in Cafe 16/17. I also went because I wanted to test the elf token deck that is based on Alan Comer's deck. However, I ended up drafting instead. I'd post the decklist, but it is quite uninteresting. Basically, I went red-black again, because it's too easy to go red-black in Shadowmoor.

---

Sunday, June 22, 2008--

---

Saturday, June 21, 2008--For some reason, I decided to play some Oblivion today. I am... oblivious as to why I chose to play Oblivion.

---

Friday, June 20, 2008--Today, me and Lois and Jiahua and JoN went to go to the IMAX to see Kung-Fu Panda like we originally planned last week before Lois was epicly late. Except Jiahua fell ill, so she cancelled out. So it was just me and Lois and JoN. My thoughts on Kung-Fu Panda: It was entertaining, but it seemed too short and too unbelievable even for such a childish fantasy film.

---

Thursday, June 19, 2008--After work today, I went to the gym and benchpressed 125 lbs on the free weights. I'm getting stronger every day!

---

Wednesday, June 18, 2008--Today, I did not play MGS4, because after having beaten it once, I opted not to start a second playthrough. Instead, I opted to sleep early tonight.

---

Tuesday, June 17, 2008--I beat MGS4 today. I had gotten the game on Thursday night, June 12. Finished it on Tuesday night, June 17. That's 6 nights. (Although I didn't play on Friday night, but no one cares.)

Time on the clock: 23:25:56
Difficulty: Naked Normal (second easiest difficulty level, below the standard "Solid Normal")
Titles awarded: Hawk, Inchworm, Hyena, Scorpion

It should be noted that the game can theoretically be beaten in under 5 hours, but that's only if you literally run through the entire game and skip all the cutscenes. Either that or you have mad skills.

In any case, I feel that this is most definitely the weakest of the MGS games. It felt like Hideo put so much emphasis on the storytelling that there wasn't very much room for gameplay. Don't get me wrong, the gameplay wasn't bad. The gameplay was very solid, including a few unique scenarios. There just wasn't very much of it. Most of the game was cutscenes. And not all the cutscenes were good either. The mission briefings were especially boring. The fact that there were multiple acts instead of a single stretch of continuous gameplay made the game feel really disjointed. And the worst part is, there was no final battle, like REX from MGS1 or RAY from MGS2 or Shagohad from MGS3. It just kinda ended, and it was rather anti-climatic.

Even the story was rather weak. It looks like Hideo just put in lots of awesome stuff that would make fans happy, like the Beauty & the Beast gang or cyborg ninja Raiden, but the story itself was all splash and no substance.

It seems like this game was made solely to appeal to people who are already fans of the series, with lots of cameos to previous games. People who are already fans of MGS will love MGS4, but newcomers to the series will wonder why the series got such high ratings. (Hint: The other 3 games were totally awesome and could indeed stand on their own.)

I rate it 7.5 out of 10.

---

Monday, June 16, 2008--After work, I went to the gym and used the Gravitron unaided some more. And it was good. (I'm getting stronger every day?)

Then, after that, I played a little more MGS4. *MGS4*In continuation of Act 4, I had the most amazing boss fight against Vamp. So he's quick, but I managed to gun him down. However, Vamp is immortal, so he just got right back up. I figured it was a multi-phase boss fight, so I gunned him down again. But then, he got right back up again. Otacon shouted at me that Vamp is immortal, so I needed to figure out another way of dealing with him other than gunning him down over and over again. So I tried putting him to sleep with tranq darts. Except Vamp just regenerated from that as well. Then it occured to me, the Syringe that Naomi gave me suppressed nanomachines. And Vamp's immortality is due to nanomachines, so I figured I needed to grab him with CQC and stick him with Syringe. Unfortunately, Vamp can't be grabbed while he's still "alive". So I eventually figured that after I gun him down, while he's regenerating, that's the best time to grab him. So I did. Unfortunately, I messed up. Instead of sticking him with the Syringe, I forgot to equip the Syringe, so I slit his throat with the knife instead. So after gunning him down again, I grabbed him with CQC again and made sure to equip the Syringe and stick him with it. And that was the end of the boss fight. Too bad I spent most of my rations on it.

Then, the suicide Gekko show up. Raiden also shows up. So then, I have to use the frickin' Rail Gun I got from Crying Wolf to fend off the Gekko while Raiden duels against Vamp and Otacon uses Mk III to re-activate Metal Gear REX (because all this fighting was happening in the Metal Gear REX hangar where the final battle of MGS1 happened). So it was a frickin' sweet battle between Raiden and Vamp, but I couldn't watch it because I was too busy gunning down the suicide Gekko with the frickin' Rail Gun. The best part was, while I was just about to blast a Gekko, the fight ends with Raiden cutting down Vamp and finishing the fight.

And to make it even crazier, Otacon successfully re-activates Metal Gear REX, and I use it to stampede out of the hangar, stomping over hordes of Gekko on my way out. And then, on the outside, Liquid shows up with frickin' Metal Gear RAY. So there's a Metal Gear battle outside. It was frickin' sweet.

And that ended Act 4. (Time on the clock: 19:30ish)

Now, it's time for Act 5, where I sneak onboard Liquid's ship that's based on Arsenal Gear from MGS2 that he so lovingly named Outer Haven.*MGS4*

---

Sunday, June 15, 2008--To no one's surprise, I played more MGS4 today. *MGS4*So now that I'm in Shadow Moses, it turns out that it's virtually all mechs here, which means my tranq darts are useless. And then, I fought Crying Wolf, which was apparently the sniper battle of the game. (Although in theory, I could prolly beat her using an assault rifle, but she's so fast and her weak spot is relatively small (I need to hit her human body when she comes out of her wolf bot to snipe me), that it was just easier to do with the sniper rifle. (Although then again, in MGS1, during the second Sniper Wolf battle, I beat her with the Nikita Rocket.))

And then after I beat her, I put the game down for the night because I have work tomorrow. (That and it was a long fight.)*MGS4*

---

Saturday, June 14, 2008--Today, I played more MGS4.

*MGS4*While Act 1 was in the middle east (kinda like a war on terror thing, except no, it's just war), Act 2 was in the jungle, somewhere in South America. It was rather reminiscent of MGS3. (With camouflage and all! Except the MGS4 camouflage is better.) During this act, I fought Laughing Octopus, who apparently spent most of the battle hiding from me, so it was a Hide & Seek battle. (Some amusing instances are Octopus disguising herself as Mk II or as Naomi.) Then, I had to torack down Naomi because she was grabbed by PMCs. Then, it was me manning the turret of Drebin's armored car. It was sweet. Then, Raiden showed up and kicked some Gekko ass, then had a sweet fight against Vamp. It was sweet. By the end of Act 2, my total play time was around 11:45.

Onto Act 3. Act 3 was interesting because I was in a city swarming with PMCs. Apparently, it was nighttime, and there was a mandatory curfew, but it was a city, so I just went around disguised as a civilian. In any case, I had to tail another civilian who was secretly part of the resistance. It was funny, because when the civilian got in trouble, I had to take out the PMCs guarding him with well-placed tranquilizer darts, and the civilian was all like, "Huh? What happened? Oh well, I'll just keep on going." Then, it was a motorcycle ride with Big Mama (who turned out to be Eva, so it was just like MGS3), and then a boss battle against a flying Raging Raven. Then, it was a spectacular Act 3 Finale with Liquid/Ocelot taking command of all the military. "Behold! Guns of the Patriots!" "Bang!" By the end of Act 3, my total play time was around 14:45.

I started Act 4. Apparently, I get to go back to Shadow Moses (MGS1 setting). They even had a throwback where Snake had a dream, and the dream was the first area of MGS1. (And then I had to go there, so it was a good reminder of what the first area of MGS1 was like.)*MGS4*


Heh, Duckie's so sweet!

---

Friday, June 13, 2008--Happy Friday the 13th!

After work today, me and Lois and Jiahua and JoN were originally planning on going to the IMAX, but Lois is epic fail at getting off work in time, so instead, we wandered around Seattle a bit, then just went to Lincoln Square in downtown Bellevue to see Indiana Jones 4. It was all right, but it was ridiculous, though. Were the original Indiana Jones movies quite so ridiculous? Somehow, I don't think so.

---

Thursday, June 12, 2008--After work today, I went to GameStop and picked up my preordered copy of Metal Gear Solid 4 and ended up playing for a good 5 and a half hours.

*MGS4*I got to the end of Act 1. (Yes, MGS4 is in acts. I don't like it, but whatever.) It's pretty interesting. First, it was fairly difficult while I tried to evade PMCs and insurgents alike. Then, I got the insurgent disguise, so the insurgents didn't go hostile on me anymore, and I could blend in as I helped the insurgents fight the PMCs. Then, the Beauty and the Beast Unit showed up and killed off all of the insurgents, so it was difficult again as I had to sneak around to get past the PMCs.*MGS4*

---

Wednesday, June 11, 2008--After work today, me and JKern and MichCh went to the Japanese restaurant that had replaced Koi, a new place called "KoBe". It was all right. The upside was that it wasn't crowded.

---

Monday, June 9, 2008--After work today, I went to the gym and used the Gravitron unaided. So really, I just did a bunch of pullups. And it was a really good workout. I'm getting stronger every day!

---

Sunday, June 8, 2008--Because I didn't get much sleep on Friday night because I was excited about Regionals, and because I stayed up late last night hanging out with the guys at Chris's place, I slept a lot today. Perhaps too much.

---

Saturday, June 7, 2008--Today was Magic the Gathering Regionals. I drove to Seattle early in the morning to play in the tournament.

In round 1, I played against Dustin, who had a Reveillark deck. I had sideboard defenses against Greater Gargadon and Teferi's Moat, but I didn't see Gargadon until game 3, and I never saw Teferi's Moat, so when he finally plopped down (or rather, suspended) the Gargadon, I was completely defenseless. (Well, I did side in 2 Pulls from Eternity just in case, but they weren't enough--not even close.) On the bright side, I got to see the combo again, but the kid just didn't know how to do it, so I had to sit there for a few minutes while he figured it out--and then killed me with it. Record: 0-1

In round 2, I faced off against Ben, who ran a red-green Land Destruction deck, featuring Deus of Calamity. He manascrewed me quite handily, and to add insult to injury, messed me up with a Magus of the Moon. Record: 0-2

In round 3, I faced off against Jaclyn, who was running a Red Deck. The interesting thing about her deck was that she was running Blood Knights, which are normally a bad pick for Red Deck, except that they had Pro-White. And most of my creatures were white. Fortunately, I tricked her into suiciding most of her Blood Knights into surprise Treetop Villages. After that, I just pwned her with frickin' big creatures. Record: 1-2

In round 4, I played against Matt, who was running GBelves. Now, from playtesting, I knew that GBelves were a bit stronger than GWelves, but this was by no means a "bad matchup". In game 1, I quickly ran out of steam. ("So this is what Red Deck feels like.") In games 2 and 3, I played very carefully and managed to pull out the win. In game 3, I actually won with only 1 life left. (Whew!) Record: 2-2

In round 5, I played against Tim, who ran Red Deck. In game 1, I had bad draws and just plain lost. In game 2, he apparently sideboarded in Everlasting Torment (that card name is fun to say) and used it quite effectively with his burn. Unfortunately, my creatures were more effective and pwned him to death. In game 3, he got out a turn 5 Demigod of Revenge, but fortunately, I outraced it, just barely. Record: 3-2

In round 6, I played against Jeremy, who was running what I believe to be a Quick 'N' Toast. I pound him in game 1. In game 2, I managed to get him down to 1 life, but he stabilizes and plays Teferi's Moat, then beats me to death with Oona. We had 10 minutes to play game 3, and we were unable to finish. Draw. Record: 3-2-1

In round 7, I went against Christopher, who was running the Fae. In game 1, I was manascrewed, lost. In game 2, I got him down to 3 life, but then ran out of steam, lost. Record: 3-3-1

In the final round, I went against Chad, who was also running Quick 'N' Toast. I pounded him in game 1. In game 2, I was manascrewd. (Well, we both were, but he drew his lands first and killed me.) In game 3, he just plain outplayed me. Record: 3-4-1

Not my worst tournament ever. (That dubious honor goes to 2006 States.) I ended up getting 93rd out of 191, which totally does not qualify for prizes.

After the tournament, I went to meet with Chris and Abhi to go to Buca di Beppo to get loads of Italian food. It was delicious. Then, we went back to Chris's place to play Rock Band and/or Gears of War.

---

Friday, June 6, 2008--After work today, I went to Uncle's Games at Crossroads Mall for a Standard FNM in preparation for Regionals tomorrow. I was playing the GWelves deck.

In round 1, I got the bye, so I went to get some food. (Mr. Bye never wins.) Record: 1-0

In round 2, I lost to a Reveillark deck, which I had playtested against but grossly misunderestimated. Fortunately, I got to see the Reveillark combo for the first time. (Well, I already know how it works. This was the first time I saw it go off.) I also learned that Greater Gargadon (especially when combined with Sower of Temptation) really wrecks me. Record: 1-1

In round 3, I played against Andrew H's experimental Relentless Rats deck. The way it worked was to discard a Rat (mainly by having too many cards in hand), and then to Extirpate himself to reduce his library to a small size. Then, he could activate Shelldock Isle and get something good (like Akroma. He was able to get the combo on me once, but fortunately, he didn't hit anything good. In game 2, he kept getting bad draws and mulliganed down to, like, 5 or something. And I just pwnt him. Record: 2-1

In the last round, I played against Souza, who had what I later learned was a "Quick 'N' Toast" deck. It toasted me fairly quickly. (With Firespouts!) Record: 2-2

The results weren't that good, but I figured I might as well play tomorrow.

---

Thurday, June 5, 2008--Happy Birthday Tracy?

After work today, I went to the gym and benchpressed 120 lbs on the free weights. I'm getting stronger every day! (Okay, not really. Today was really more of a make-up-for-not-having-worked-out-over-vacation day.)

---

Wednesday, June 4, 2008--After work today, I decided to play more GTA4. *GTA4*So I know I can evade 3 stars provided I have a decent car. So I retried the mission and tried to get a decent escape car ready to go. Unfortunately, when the cops spawned, my car unspawned, prolly because it was partially blocking the entrance or something, I dunno. So unfortunately, I had to make do with the crappy truck park in front of the abandoned building. Fortunately, there seems to be a limit on the number of cops that chase me. I was able to get them to bunch up behind me as I weaved through them. Then, when there were no cops around, I managed to snag a van, which was suboptimal, but it was better than the truck. (I would have gotten something better, but I opted to get the first car I saw, since the cops were catching up fairly quickly once I was on foot.) Somehow, despite being in crappy cars, I managed to outrun the cops and make it to a Pay 'N' Spray with just a sliver of life left.

And then Michelle turned out to be a cop in disguise and she took the coke from me. (That was supposed to happen, so it was still mission success.)*GTA4*

...and my jaw locked up again. Since I was playing this same mission both times, it's likely caused by a high level of psychological tension. The question is: why now? Why didn't this happen before? It's not the first time I've had game-induced adrenaline rushes. Ah well, I'll figure it out some other day. I'm tired now.

---

Tuesday, June 3, 2008--...and when I woke up, my jaw had unlocked.


After work today, I went to Cafe 16/17 to draft with the peeps. I also planned on playtesting my GW elf deck for Regionals this Saturday (I had switched from a RG goblin deck to a GW elf deck sometime during my vacation to California), and I still needed a bunch of Safehold Elites (3 more, to be exact; I already had 1). So during the draft, I ended up forcing green-white in an effort to get more Safehold Elites. Fortunately, I was able to get more Safehold Elites. Unfortunately, I was only able to get 2 of them.

10xPlains
6xForest
Viridescent Wisps
2xSafewright Quest
Zealous Guardian
Devoted Druid
2xMedicine Runner
Safehold Sentry
2xSafehold Elite
2xCurse of Chains
Last Breath
Farhaven Elf
Thistledown Duo
Wilt-Leaf Cavaliers
Mercy Killing
Shield of the Oversoul
Steel of the Godhead
Mudbrawler Raiders
Blazethorn Scarecrow
Old Ghastbark
Thornwatch Scarecrow
Woeleecher

The deck did pretty well for a deck that I forced, but I'm still getting my ass kicked, because the Microsoft players are still better than me.

Afterwards, I playtested my GW elf deck against Sameer and found that GW elves loses to GB elves. (Also, Sameer gave me the last Safehold Elite that I needed. Thanks, Sameer.)

---

Monday, June 2, 2008--

After work today, I went to the gym, and after I went to the gym, I decided to play some GTA4. In any case, I played a rather difficult mission in GTA4 and failed. *GTA4*So the mission was the Elizabeta mission where you have to go to the old hospital to get the coke. So on my way in, there were loads of enemies, and I was like, wow, this is pretty easy. Then, I killed all the baddies, and suddenly the cops showed up with 3 stars. As I tried to escape, most of my health got shot away, and the escape car got shot up pretty badly, so I could barely move. So I decided to ditch the car, but on my way to another car, the cops wiped me out.*GTA4*

At that point, I suddenly realized that my jaw had locked up, so I decided to call it a night with GTA4 and visit the Group Health Urgent Care Center. Unfortunately, even after taking X-rays and CAT scans, they couldn't find anything wrong with my jaw, so the doctor prescribed me some muscle relaxers (but the pharmacy was closed, so I couldn't actually get any) and gave me a referral to the ENT clinic.

Since that wasn't fruitful and since I was quite tired, I decided to sleep...

---

Sunday, June 1, 2008--Today, I flew back to Bluemond, because that's where I needed to be.

---