Thursday, March 31, 2005

Blogging Developments

Over the last two days, I have started two more blogs. OK, that begs the question - "If you don't manage one blog well, how can you expect to keep up with three?"

Here's the deal: I have set up a "Link" blog through Bloglines. I call it Random Clippage.

I have also started a Magic blog, called Random Magic: The Gathering Decks.

You can subscribe to all three of my blogs using Bloglines (or any other subscription service). Please do, it makes me feel better. Of course, then I may think that people read this...

I started the Magic blog so I could post decks and pertinent theory for future use. I will still share my thoughts on the game here on occasion, but I'm putting the decklists there. If you don't play the game, but enjoy my wordsmithing (is that a word?), I won't make your experience more tedious by boring you with decklists.

The link blog is just that. I might post here about things there (nice abiguity, yes?), but that will just be interesting stuff I find or have sent to me.

Well, that's that. Permanent links to the other blogs will be on the right.

Later...

Tuesday, March 29, 2005

About the NCAAs...

Holy crap.

I am quite possibly the most full-of-poo prognosticator on the planet. Did you read the stuff I spewed the other day? Wow, near-total stupidity. Of course, I did get two of the Final Four right. Then again, I got nearly every other prediction wrong. If you haven't read my last post, don't. Save yourself. Here, watch something with bunnies.

In current news, I've joined my company's co-ed softball team. We start play next month. I'm not even going into how I'm dreading this. Corporate softball is like Major League Baseball without money or talent. There are the haves - those companies who play every year and have had the same core group of players forever. And there are the have-nots - those companies who decide to throw together 12-14 random humans and tell them to run, hit, throw, and catch. Highlights is in the latter. However, we'll practice in a couple of weeks and see what happens. Hopefully our captain/coach/person-who-pretends-to-know-a-lot-about-the-game will realize that I should play first base or not at all, but we'll see. Pray for me...

For now, I sign off.

Wednesday, March 16, 2005

March Madness

Did you hear?

The NCAA Tournament started last night.

Oakland (from Michigan, not California) defeated Alabama A&M 79-69 in the Opening Round Game, which pits the 64th and 65th best teams in the tournament against each other. Woo hoo, right?

Not so much.

However, it does mean that it's arrived. The NCAA Tournament is here. March Madness. We'll fill out brackets, make expert analysis at the water cooler, and inevitably be wrong the whole time. But that's OK, it's fun.

Speaking of not-so-expert-analysis, I'm prepared to give mine. But first, you need to see a bracket. OK, now I start.

DISCLAIMER: The opinions of Sam do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the world at large or of any sane person. Therefore, those people whose opinions match Sam's are probably insane. Maybe not, but probably.

Chicago Region

Round 1 winners: Illinois, Nevada, Alabama, BC, LSU, Arizona, S. Illinois, Oklahoma State

Note: Alabama will beat Wisconsin - Milwaukee, no matter what everyone thinks. They have the most talented roster of the 5-seeds, and would have been a four had they beaten Florida in the SEC Tournament. Pick another 12 to beat a 5, not this one. (Yes, I am an Alabama fan. I do see Milwaukee as a good team. It will be a good game, but Alabama should win.)

Round 2: Illinois, Alabama, Arizona, Oklahoma State
Sweet 16: Illinois, Oklahoma State
Region Champion: Illinois

Albuquerque Region

Round 1: Washington, Pacific, Georgia Tech, Louisville, Texas Tech, Gonzaga, West Virginia, Wake Forest

Round 2: Washington, Georgia Tech, Gonzaga, Wake Forest
Sweet 16: Georgia Tech, Gonzaga

Note: Tech and Gonzaga? Yes, that's right. Georgia Tech is playing tremendous basketball right now, and Wake Forest isn't. That's a recipe for two minor upsets, and for our first one-seed to fall. Sorry Washington. I just don't buy the Pac-10 as a power conference, and I see them as a two or three seed, not a one. Therefore, like Stanford last year, it will be an early exit for the Pac-10 champ.

Region Champion: Gonzaga

Syracuse Region

Round 1: UNC, Minnesota, New Mexico, Florida, Wisconsin, Kansas, NC State, UConn

Note: New Mexico will beat Villanova. Book it.

Round 2: UNC, Florida, Kansas, UConn
Sweet 16: UNC, UConn
Region Champion: UNC

Austin Region

Round 1: Duke, Stanford, Michigan St, Syracuse, Utah, Oklahoma, Iowa, Kentucky
Round 2: Duke, Syracuse, Utah, Kentucky
Sweet 16: Duke, Kentucky
Region Champion: Duke

FINAL FOUR

Illinois def. Gonzaga
Duke def. North Carolina

CHAMPIONSHIP

Illinois def. Duke

So there you have it. Illinois will be your NCAA Champion. Or not. It's just my opinion. And I'm insane, remember?

Later...

Tuesday, March 15, 2005

Rambling Randomly...

Did you know there is a website which offers a random number generating service? That's right folks. RANDOM NUMBERS. Visit www.random.org for fun with random numbers. Yay randomness!

Of course, if you don't like randomness, then you can get not-so-random numbers. NoEntropy.net can give you this. Of course, if you are reading this blog (I've confirmed that there are five of you), I'm sure that you would prefer randomness. Of course, since the rest of the world isn't reading this, then maybe nonrandomness is the way to go. I don't know...

Justin and I saw Constantine this weekend. Good movie, but not 100% true to the Hellblazer comic on which it was based. Keanu Reeves makes a good asshole. Rachel Weisz (from the Mummy movies) does a great job in her role as the cop turned unwilling psychic. All in all a good ride, but it will be hated by the Hellblazer crowd. Such is life. Get over it, fellow comic geeks. It ain't all bad...

Actually, I think I'll start hating all things not true to the original. In fact, starting now, I hate the X-Men movies. Should have called Jean Grey "Marvel Girl." Shouldn't have had Wolverine, Storm, or Rogue. Should have just had them get their asses kicked by Magneto until Professor Xavier could find some solution that makes no sense. Yeah, that's the ticket...or not. I think I'll still like those movies after all. I can accept the minor changes for the good of the story. Whew...that was close.

***WE INTERRUPT YOUR REGULARLY SCHEDULED POST FOR A RANT - THIS WILL CONTAIN INFORMATION NOT KNOWN TO THOSE UNFAMILIAR TO THE SUBJECT MATTER. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.***

Of course, what Hollywood did with Queen of the Damned was utter crap...I would have thought so had I not read the books, but come on...the scene when Lestat wakes up and walks outside - in the daytime, no less - irks me on many levels. If I remember my Vampire Chronicles, the last time Akasha was outside during the daytime, the vampire race ended up extra crispy. Now, her and Lestat can share their metaphorical cigarettes after sex outside, no matter the hour. That's believable, really.

***THIS CONCLUDES OUR RANT. WE NOW RETURN YOU TO YOUR REGULARLY SCHEDULED POST, ALREADY IN PROGRESS.***

Speaking of movies, I'm checking out a midnight screening of The Princess Bride on March 25. If you're in Columbus it's at the Lennox Theatre. If you're not, you have my permission not to care.

'Til next time...

Thursday, March 10, 2005

My Necro Deck

WARNING: THE FOLLOWING POST CONTAINS MAGIC: THE GATHERING CONTENT. READER DISCRETION ADVISED.

I was trolling the Star City Games forums this morning, I saw a topic which asked members what their favorite deck was. Now most people had decks that they took to tournaments, or one they saw on some tournament report and admired. I couldn't resist. I posted My Necro Deck.

(For those who don't know, a Necro deck is a deck based around the card Necropotence. The deck trades life for cards while disrupting the opponent and slapping them around with small- to medium-sized creatures. Necropotence is considered one of the most powerful cards in Magic, and has since been restricted or banned in every format where it would be legal.)

My Necro Deck started out as my Type 2 deck quite some time ago. It was a good deck in the format, but it wasn't inherently broken. (Necro wasn't banned until much later, when newer cards made the card TOO good.) As the Type 2 format is always the newest cards, the pieces of the Necro deck began to rotate out. However, I wasn't playing competitive Magic when this happened (I had taken a break after moving to Ohio), so I left the deck together. After a while, I heard about the restriction/banning of Necropotence itself, as well as Yawgmoth's Will, another important part of the deck. I decided to make my deck illegal. I would leave as many copies (up to four, as I wanted to have fun, not be absurd) as I either had in my possession or felt the deck needed, whichever was less. My most recent list looked like this:

Land:
4 Mishra's Factory
2 Lake of the Dead
2 Strip Mine
15 Swamp

Creatures:
4 Hypnotic Specter
4 Black Knight
2 Masticore

Other Spells:
4 Necropotence
4 Nevinyrral's Disk
4 Dark Ritual
4 Consume Spirit
2 Yawgmoth's Will
2 Mind Twist
1 Mirror Universe
4 Urza's Bauble
2 Corrupt

Those that have played against the deck can attest to the absurd power level of said deck. I was fortunate enough to be able to attend an "anything goes" tournament about one year ago. I went 9-0 in matches and 18-2 in games (matches are two out of three games). I retired the deck shortly after that. I suppose I felt that I needed to move on, as I had kept the deck together for six years (with various builds). I also allowed the deck to go out on top, winning the only tournament that would allow it.

It was fun while it lasted...

Tuesday, March 01, 2005

What, me evil?

I am 38% evil.




I could go either way. I have sinned quite a bit but I still have a bit of room for error. My life is a tug of war between good and evil.


Are you evil? find out at Hilowitz.com

I find this intriguing, since I assumed I was at least 61% evil.

Oh, well. I'm out...

The King Is Dead, Long Live the King

I'm back. So f'n what. I just lost approximately $40 bucks - and that's just so far.

What is he talking about, you ask? First, read this:

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dci/announce/dci20050301a

Now I know, those of you who don't play competitive Magic would like me to just get to the punchline. The first card listed under the "Standard" heading - Arcbound Ravager - is rare. I bought four (the most you can play of any one card under tournament rules) at $25/each approximately one year ago. The price has stood pat pretty much all year. Now it's banned.

Quit whining, you say. "Bah!" I say. I'm out $40 today, probably another $20 to $40 before the price finishes plummeting. I'm distraught, I don't know what to do...my Ravagers are gone, and I've got a deck that sucks complete and total ass now!!!! I have no further reason to live, and I'll now be signing off...forever.

..........................................................................


..........................................................................


OK, not really (drama, much?). Actually, I'm quite happy that the DCI (the governing body of Magic tournaments) did what they did. I don't really care about my cards being devalued - that happens all the time in a game that's always changing. I care about competition, and the Affinity deck which Arcbound Ravager, Disciple of the Vault, and the Artifact lands appeared in was too dominant. It was so good that you either needed to play it or build your deck to beat it. That isn't healthy. I remember 1999.

1999 was the year when Urza's Saga was released onto the Magic community. In this expansion, the card Tolarian Academy was included. Tolarian Academy provided an amount of blue mana (the stuff used to cast spell cards in Magic) equal to the number of artifacts its controller had on his or her side. A card called Mind over Matter was released in the previous set (Exodus) which allowed you to discard a card to tap or untap pretty much anything - including lands. Therefore, using cards like Windfall, Time Spiral, and others to draw most of their deck, casting low-cost artifacts along the way to make Academy produce stupid amounts of mana, they would use a card called Stroke of Genius to make you draw something like one million cards. The problem with that is what? A simple rule of Magic - if the game tells you to draw a card and you can't, you lose. These decks could go off no matter what was put up against them, and even if you did beat them, you were probably just extremely lucky (or the Academy player was that bad).

Therefore, when the opportunity came, Tolarian Academy was banned. At the time, I was frustrated, yet relieved. You see, I had four Academies, which I allowed a friend to appropriate because I refused to play the deck (I hate combo decks). But those things were worth $25 or $30 bucks a pop. Once we tired of them, we'd move them to someother evil combo player. Of course, the bottom fell out of the market, and we were stuck with them. Over time, though, I realized something...I was having more fun at the tournaments. You see, everyone had been so worried about Academy, that real deck innovation was almost nonexistent. You could try as you might, but if you weren't playing Academy or one of two other decks (which could beat Academy 30 percent of the time - a good percentage, trust me), you had no chance.

Wizards decided to ban Academy for the good of the game, not for the good of the Sam. I thought that sucked for me, but in reality, they did me a favor. They made the game more accessible by fixing a mistake.

Today, they banned Arcbound Ravager. They did so for the good of the game. And again, they made the game more accessible by fixing a mistake. I can live with that, even though I might lose a little money on the deal.

As for those Tolarian Academies, I gave them to another friend about six months ago for a couple of random cards. I hear he wants to build an old school version of the deck that terrorized Magic in 1999. As for me, I'll keep my Ravagers, because they didn't ban them in Extended...

'Til next time,

Sam

P.S. I've posted a link to the Magic card database over on the right. If you need to know what any cards do, it can help you.

Edit: I removed the link, but you can click here instead. I plan on linking to individual cards in future posts, but I'm not going back and adding links to all of them to this post.