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Thursday, August 26, 2010

Ramblings VIII: Sad Things

have you ridden a bus lately?

last aug. 23, the third killer bus of the week took the lives of 8 Hongkong nationals, and that of the hostage taker, in a widely covered hostage taking crisis at the Quirino Grandstand Luneta Park, Manila, which lasted 11 hours. of course it is very wrong to blame the loss of life to the poor bus (whose doors and windows have been pounded, and whose interiors have been showered with bullets and tear gas). the one to blame, that's a topic for another post (which i would not bother doing).

this is just to say something creepy. also, last tuesday, a tricycle was hit by, guess what, another bus.


a major major win

kudos to Ms. Universe 4th Runner Up, Venus Raj for her major major achievement. everybody's major majorly tired of that expression, really.

pointing game

as always, after something nasty (like a killer hostage crisis) happens, the following events is a series of termination, hiccups, and vomiting. better keep safe distance. and to the Chinese people, please, do not think of all Filipinos as hostage-takers. such actions (like the one DH terminated because of the crisis) are narrow minded and illogical and are leaning toward racism. we apologize for one misguided soul which claimed 8 more. however, that is not enough reason to judge a whole nation. the Manila police stood up to their reputation and acted stupidly, we apologize. our president chose not to act, but that was his call. what do you want him to do? go to the site and steal the show? or better yet assault the bus and take down the hostage taker himself? he acted accordingly, so please, stop calling him an idiot.

after all of this is done. we will all forget it. "we are a nation of forgetful people," and i don't remember who said that.

Magic musings

my officemate bought a deck. just an intro pack, and he keeps suggesting that Raging Goblin is good. please, help me convince him otherwise.

no picture taking, please. thank you.

for all those stupid faces taking pictures in front of the manila bus, please. do yourself a favor and get your stupid a$$ out of there. shameful, seriously.

Mamarazzi

watched this with my GF last night. Andy Eigenmann was so sexy and so beautiful.

the movie, well, i spent half the movie laughing, the other half trying to keep pace with the story. para siyang minadali na ewan. but it was a good laugh. with uge and sweet together, you'll never get wrong.

i'll be ending this with the full trailer of the said film and with the saying: ....................................

get it?

me neither.

P.S.

i can't find a trailer for this movie that's not linked to facebook or youtube (both sites are blocked here at the office). sorry. will update later.

Fame

The bus, like a vanquished beast lay

sprawled in the middle of the road

as they go near to admire

the humor

and the dryness.

On the side of the road, a boy stands

looking firmly

on the tightly shut window


blinds admiring the spectacle

from the distance

of a shot. As the police came charging in,

children playing with cheap guns.


Then it hit the boy––

not a realization, but

a bullet.

Now he lays on a cot

eyes closed,

savoring his own fifteen minutes

of newfound


fame

before they come and carry him

away.

Friday, August 20, 2010

Ramblings VII: Pre-Work Musings

some musings before work.

on a cab.

i'm riding the cab, really, not a taxi, but on a death cab. anybody knows how to download all of their songs?

look ma, no hands, i mean fingers.

i was loitering around Time Zone at Metropoint. oftentimes i would be watching players play Tekken 6 Bloodline Rebellion. there was a guy playing. he was using steve fox (w/c didn't surprise me, since that character's quite popular in arcades). he was against marduk, i think. AI. and he was bashing him left and right. fair enough. but i can't quite see his hands from where i stood (you see, it's quite important to look at Tekken players' hands for that will tell you how they do the things you see them do), so i went to the other side. there i saw that his right hand (the one he uses to press 1,2,3,4) is missing four fingers! FOUR! and his thumb looks more like a wilted forefinger. amazing. i could be sitting against this guy with all of my 10 pretty healthy fingers and won't be able to do anything. he's either a tekken addict or an admirable guy with sincere enthusiasm and hardworking soul...or a bit of both.

date set.

the date is already set for our batch's swimming/reunion. sept. 18-19. hope it would be a blast.

Thursday, August 19, 2010

Excited: Vampires Suck

well, this is a breath of fresh air, or not. well, am quite excited with this movie which started showing, i think yesterday, though am not sure since i know nobody who has watched it. the trailer's a blast. if you had watched the original twilight films, you will notice that everything's almost the same: the blockings, the sounds, the costume, the color pallet, everything, even the actors, to an extent (although there's something quite not right with how these people look like. hehe...well, here's the trailer. enjoy!





this other trailer has a scene where "bella" is being carried in piggy-back by "edward" with a twist. :)

Thursday, August 12, 2010

Silence - A Game

The game is called

silence.


Ready?


Begin.

Random Card Challenge

i've been quite busy these past few days. so busy that a post that i started writing last monday is still a draft. anyway, before i get to post that, i'll copy and paste something i've been doing here at the office to wake myself up. i call it RANDOM CARD CHALLENGE.

the instructions: i'll click the "Random Card" tab on The Gatherer until three standard-legal cards come up. i'll then build a deck around (meaning those three cards would be part of the victory condition) or with (meaning the cards would just be in the deck) those cards, whatever those cards would be.

here are some examples:

CHALLENGE 1

CARD #1: Angelic Arbiter

CARD #2: Crumbling Necropolis

CARD #3: Resounding Scream


i got excited when i hit the arbiter because the card was playable, but when i hit the grixis triland and than unheard of card, then the challenge was on. since it was in grixis splashing white, i thought of discard. and discard with the arbiter out would be quite tricky. when i play a discard spell, i can't attack which is fine. and the villain has to either attack or just pass...well, that didn't make sense. oh well, here it is.



ANGELIC DISCARD

Lands (24)

2 Celestial Colonnade

4 Crumbling Necropolis

2 Island

2 Lavaclaw Reeches

3 Marsh Flat

2 Mountain

2 Plains

3 Scalding Tarn

4 Swamp

Creature (6)

3 Angelic Arbiter

3 Lilliana’s Spectre

Other Spells (30)

4 Blightning

2 Countersquall

3 Diabolic Tutor

4 Lilliana’s Caress

4 Mana Leak

2 Megrim

4 Mind Rot

3 Oblivion Ring

2 Path to Exile

2 Resounding Scream


CHALLENGE # 2

CARD #1: Celestial Colonnade

CARD #2: Demonic Appetite

CARD #3: Dragonskull Summit

a bummer. two lands and an unplayable aura even in limited. however, the r/b color of the deck and the sacrifice a creature cost for the appetite made me think of a deck that has some sacrifice synergies. enchanting a mortician beetle with the appetite gives it a counter each turn while boosting it +3/+3. add some token producers and white for elspeth and voila:

DEMONIC BEETLE

Lands (24)

2 Celestial Colonnade

3 Crumbling Necropolis

3 Dragonskull Summit

1 Island

3 Marsh Flats

3 Mountain

2 Plains

2 Scalding Tarn

5 Swamp

Creatures (12)

4 Dread Drone

4 Emrakul’s Hatcher

4 Mortician Beetle

Other Spells (24)

4 Corpsehatch

4 Demonic Appetite

2 Eldrazi Monument

3 Elspeth Knight Errant

4 Lightning Bolt

4 Mana Leak

3 Oblivion Ring

CHALLENGE 3

CARD #1: Giant Spider

CARD #2: Holy Strength

CARD #3: Manabarbs

well, the first 3-color deck in the challenge. i had a hard time figuring out synergies between these cards. well, what i thought of, since the spider is a good defender, i thought of locking down my opponent's creatures w/defenders and his mana with the barbs then trying to damage him via other means. i thought of vent sentinel:

BARBED DEFENDERS

Lands (24)

3 Arid Mesa

2 Forest

4 Jungle Shrine

4 Mountain

1 Plains

2 Raging Ravine

4 Rootbound Crag

2 Stirring Wildwood

2 Verdant Catacombs

Creatures (24)

2 Giant Spider

4 Joraga Treespeaker

2 Knotvine Mystic

4 Llanowar Elves

4 Overgrown Battlement

4 Raging Nimbus

4 Vent Sentinel

Other Spells (12)

4 Banefire

2 Holy Strength

4 Lightning Bolt

2 Manabarbs

well, the following two decks i built while inside the LRT. not that it influenced it or anything, just shows how dedicated i am. :)

CHALLENGE 4

CARD #1: Arc Runner

CARD #2: Ornithopter

CARD #3: Mind Rot

TWO COLORS! at last! well, b/r are the easiest and most powerful decks to build. what i looked at is arc runner's until end of turn existence and ornithipter's 0 casting cost. then i thought of sarkahn the mad. turn your runner into a dragon on the end step, or cast sarkahn, then cast ornithopter and turn it into a dragon. nice. the mind rot, well, i'll just throw in one.

RUNNING MAD

Lands (24)

4 Dragonskull Summit

4 Lavaclaw Reeches

5 Mountain

3 Scalding Tarn

5 Swamp

3 Verdant Catacombs

Creatures (18)

4 Arc Runner

4 Ball Lightning

2 Dread Drone

4 Hellspark Elemental

4 Ornithopter

Other Spells (18)

1 Eldrazi Monument

4 Grim Discovery

4 Lightning Bolt

1 Mind Rot

4 Sarkahn the Mad

4 Terminate

CHALLENGE 5

CARD #1: River Boa

CARD #2: Hyena Umbra

CARD #3: Tidehollow Strix

talk about weird. this would be esper, with green. what i looked at is the boa's islandwalk ability and the strix's 3 mana cost. and then i thought of a spreading seas deck. well, at least i tried.

ESPER GONE GREEN

Lands (24)

3 Arcane Sanctum

3 Creeping Tar Pit

2 Forest

2 Glacial Fortress

3 Island

2 Marsh Flats

2 Misty Rainforest

2 Plains

2 Sunpetal Grove

3 Swamp

Creatures (15)

4 Esper Stormblade

4 River Boa

4 Tidehollow Sculler

3 Tidehollow Strix

Other Spells (21)

4 Ardent Plea

1 Canopy Cover

4 Convincing Mirage

2 Deny Reality

2 Hyena Umbra

4 Spreading Seas

4 Stormcaller’s Boon

well, that's it. you could alter the instructions for better results (like 3 rare nonland cards). you could check what the cards do by searching them here. have fun.

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Overpriced

Closely packed surprises

unwind themselves as you speak

slowly,

of why we meet here now

in the coffee shop we used to go to

when we would forget the world

in a pair of overpriced caffeine cups.

And now it seems that,

I would do the forgetting

alone, from now on.

In a cup of overpriced caffeine,

I would drown a world

not including you.


Overpriced.

Monday, August 9, 2010

The Newer Age of Artifacts

remember this deck:

UW AGGRO ARTIFACTS (v1)

Lands (24)
1 Dread Statuary
6 Island
9 Plains
4 Sejiri Refuge
4 Terramorphic Expanse

Creatures (20)
4 Esper Stormblade (3-Pointer)
4 Juggernaut
4 Master of Etherium (Team Captain)
4 Steel Overseer (MVP!)
4 Vedalken Outlander

Spells (16)
4 Everflowing Chalice
3 Oblivion Ring
3 Open the Vaults
3 Path to Exile
3 Voltaic Key

Sideboard (15)
3 Dragon's Claw
4 Ethersworn Shieldmage
4 Lodestone Golem
4 Reinforced Bulwark

i finally bought the missing pieces for my deck so i have put it together and went to my friend's place (the one who has a land destruction deck and who introduced me to magic which i talked about here) and played a couple of games. the deck changed dramatically. here's the new list:

UW AGGRO ARTIFACTS (v2) aka STANDARD AFFINITY

Lands (23)
1 Dread Statuary
7 Island
7 Plains
4 Sejiri Refuge
4 Terramorphic Expanse

Creatures (20)
4 Etherium Sculptor
4 Lodestone Golem
4 Master of Etherium
4 Steel Overseer
4 Vedalken Outlander

Spells (16)
4 Everflowing Chalice
2 Levitation
1 Obelisk of Alara
4 Oblivion Ring
3 Open the Vaults
3 Voltaic Key

Sideboard (15)
2 Dispeller's Capsule
3 Ethersworn Shieldmage
4 Mana Leak
4 Spreading Seas
2 Whispersilk Cloak

changes were because of mainly three reasons: 1) speed; 2) evasion; 3) resiliency. i'll talk about these one by one.

speed.

when affinity was around during standard, it was hated, it was unloved, it was something i didn't play since i did not yet play magic back then. that deck was fast! my aim with this deck was to bring a sense of affinity back in standard. Etherium Sculptor does that, to an extent, burping free keys, semi-free overseers and almost free masters. with multiple sculptors out, you can just dump your hand to the board! my main problem is, with this such a low curve and such many means to earn extra mana, i'm thinking of cutting more lands for creatures and/or spells, especially draw spells that can refill my hands.

with this speed, over-extending is really something to be wary of, especially that i don't have any ways to protect them from a Day of Judgment. that's where Open the Vaults tries to help out. after they clear your board, refill with your own ultimatum-esque spell. as you can see, everything in the main deck could be returned by opening the vaults. quite neat, i might add.

evasion.

oftentimes as i was testing the deck, i had gigantic artifact creatures but no way to attack effectively (either the villain has chump blockers, or they have larger creatures). i initially thought of Stormcaller's Boon, whose cascade could also prove to be useful; but i settled for the much simpler Levitation which is usually game over when you have lots of gigantic creatures on the field.

i was quite wary of main boarding too many nonartifact spells because lodestone golem main board would make it a wee bit more difficult to cast. but i think the reward is heftier than the risk so in goes the pair of enchantments.

resiliency.

aside for dying from mass removal. removal of some key artifacts (overseers and masters) could greatly impair the deck. to mitigate this, i main boarded the golems just to slow them down a bit more. i included counter magic and cloaks in the sideboard to counter (obviously) or make my creatures untargettable and unblockable.

sideboard.

the sideboard changes were drastic. the only card that were retained were the shieldmages, and even their number was suffered a casualty. let me talk about the card choices.

dispeller's capsule.

the deck's half-dead when someone Pithing Needles my overseers; plus, it's quite useful against Pyromancers Ascension-type decks.

ethersworn shieldmage.
against random red decks or other aggro decks, just to up the creature count.

mana leak.
a mainstay in any deck that plays blue nowadays. i'll be boarding these against control decks.

spreading seas.


against jund and decks that utilize man lands.

whispersilk cloak.

for evasion and shroud.

well, that's that. i can no longer remember the games, but one complaint i have with the deck is that its pretty hard to keep track of the counters when playing it in paper.

till next time. i'll be posting two decks later that i played a few weeks back and didn't get the chance to post.

till then!

Ramblings VI: Busy

yes, today is a busy morning. i am planning to post some things later. so, till then...

Friday, August 6, 2010

Ramblings V: De Ja Vu

nothing's doing here at the office. will just ramble off a few things.

new hair, hate it.

not me, emma watson, the harry potter franchise hermoine granger has finally done away with her long locks. It says here that she has been wanting to do this for years and years. what do you say? i hate it. i love it long.


that makes me love evanna lynch more!


budget.

because of my stupidity, i am P1,944.00 short. so i need to make do with what i (which technically should "i will") have, and budget them accordingly:

for parents: P4, 000
for gf (and me): P2, 000 (at least...you'll never know)
for myself only: P800 (need to buy a playset of Steel Overseers satisfy my MTG craving
for payments: P1, 500
all in all, that's: P8, 300

that leaves me with roughly 1, 300 which i should juggle for the rest of the two weeks (more than 2 weeks actually). sad little thing. there's also a planned outing with my highschool buds. need to figure that one out. i'm thinking of cutting the overseers, but with Scars of Mirrodin, an artifact-centric (theoretically, given that when MTG first planeswalked into Mirrodin, everything was robotic) set, the price of those things would soar! i need to get them while they're steel (pun, obviously intended) cheap. i don't want to let slip another Vampire Nocturnus.*



time warp.

you think this was a post written straight (by straight i mean written without interruptions, not written straightly or with a straight coherent thought, or, by all intents and purposes, by a straight guy, which by the way i am, which is not being defensive but....well, you get the point). what i'm trying to say is that i began this post almost 200 minutes ago with the sentence:

nothing's doing here at the office.


this stuck true for just quite a while before i was handed some paperwork to finish. so, after more than 200 minutes of not entirely just writing this post, i'll end it now with this:

nothing's doing here at the office...again.

*Vampire Nocturnus is a card which, when was first released, just cost about P75 due to its unplayability (vampires being not a viable deck back then). But when Zendikar featured loads of strong vampires, VN suddenly became a star and a hype about the new Vampire Deck (thanks, edward cullen) made it soar to almost P500 each!

Thursday, August 5, 2010

Cheating

Stupid move
to cheat a cat,
who knows nothing but
the end of a fishbone

and its fins and
meat
sticking
to white bone.

Remove it, the cat wonders.
Vanished? It stretches its neck and scans
what it can

Meow.

Then,
seeing nothing,
moves on.

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Excited: Paranormal Activity 2

had nightmares with the creepy (but almost sleepy, that it's scary) movie Paranormal Activity last year? then you have a new nightmare waiting to happen as Paramount Pictures releases Paranormal Activity 2!

will it have the sequel's sickness, of being inevitably worse than its predecessor? who knows...just try to keep your eyes glued to the trailer. nothing will scare you...i promise...almost.

Ramblings IV: Sorry Miss

halved
the coming payday is a disaster. i got two 5-point feedbacks earning me a 50% incentive deduction. after all the budgeting i did last night, on how i would "smartly" spend my pesos, i need to re-do it again, this time, putting more emphasis on the needs that i want, rather than the wants that i need...

news flash
tekken is already being shown in cinemas. that took me by surprise! i thought it won't be up till next month. oh well, need to grab the boys to watch some ass kickin' action.

cheaters never lie
really doesn't stop at jokes, can't you.