The One True Nobody!

Man, today just wasn't my day in Magic Arena. It looks like Silver Tier 2 might be my deck's current limit... I need to get my hands on those Shocklands from Edge of Eternities soon, speed my mana base up a bit.

My affinity for Asuka Kazama in Tekken is also something that made it easy to get into Dead or Alive when I tried DOA5. Darn good game.

Trick question, of course. They both weigh the same as a ton of bricks when Ajani is the one throwing them at you.

Here's a question. What's heavier: a kilogram of chainsaw, or a kilogram of feathers?

Woo, I'm on a bit of a roll today. This time I managed to Starfall Invocation my enemy's entire board, gifted a card, with enough mana left over to Swiftfoot Boots Lightning directly into action... with my Planeswalker's -3: flying and double-strike. Ajani was at 6, so... lather, rinse, repeat.

Well, part of it in my case is that I fell asleep in the early hours of the morning, so I knew I'd be waking up late. I just woke up WAY LATER than planned.

Man, the black decks all use Regenerate as a main mechanic, but guess what's a real pain in the ass to deal with in the early game? Regeneration. And guess what all the enemies in my starting area are? Black-deck users!

Look at that fucking card art, thoguh. Looney Tunes.

S-seriously, two buff spells on turn two with two mana? This game doesn't pull any punches, does it.

Ahhh, shit, I'm sunk. They buffed their monsters just enough that I can't possibly block enough to survive this turn.

One of the cool things about this game is that it adheres to "there is actually no set board layout" aspect of Magic, so you can organize your cards on your side of the board however suits you.

Man. This is my first duel of the game and I'm already sweating bullets...

Oh, excellent, I get to figure out what the hell "Banding" is.

YouTube video by Citanul Chronicler Stealing a Deck in Shandalar (Ante gone wild)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=HwN5...

A lot of cards that you wouldn't necessarily use in the physical game (or in Arena/Online) might get their time to shine in a game like this, since those "weaker" cards become a part of the player's ongoing power progression. They may not win you THE game, but they may just win you *games,* see.

I think one of the cool things about a Magic: The Gathering RPG (or the Pokemon TCG RPG, or a lot of the old Yu-Gi-Oh videogames) is that you can't just rely on the relatively small selection of meta-approved cards; you need to learn all the cards from the bottom up as you find them.

Magic: The Gathering '97, the PC game better known as "Shandalar" for its setting, has a fan-made port to run it better on modern systems! ...And another fan-made port that adds a bunch of cards and stuff, but I picked this one because it's closer to the original game.

Anyway, I can actually play!

YouTube video by Citanul Chronicler Shandalar is like the Dark Souls of Magic: The Gathering

www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvzY...

I actually keep wanting to play this game, but it's always tough finding the time and mental energy to get into a really old-school PC game like this.

I mean, yaaaaay, I'm Silver Tier 2 now, but I didn't get to actually PLAY MAGIC.

I keep telling myself "one more game" and then getting these people who just don't do anything and time-out, and it's like, "Well, I got a point toward ranking, but that didn't really count as 'playing one more game...'"

Or, well, at least not lost right away. They do have a lot of cards in their hand still.

Sigh... all I needed was a basic land. You know what my deck gave me? EVOLVING WILDS. If I'd had enough Rare Wildcards to replace the last two of those in my deck with Fabled Passage cards, I'd have won!

Hm.

HMMMMMMM.

That could be interesting to sic on a Vivi Cauldron player if you can get it out...

Vivi Cauldron is a pain in the ass deck to deal with though, man! I really need to fine-tune my deck and include more answers for it... it's about time I work on a sideboard.

Tomorrow. Tonight I need to video-edit.

...I manifest-dreaded Disenchant to the battlefield. He bounced it to my hand and I immediately tapped two lands to Disenchant their Cauldron.

Heart of the Cards, baby.

In that battle with the Vivi user that I actually won, I did a bit of a big-brain play. I used Ticket Booth to Manifest Dread, mostly just to get a blocker on the field, but one of the cards that came up was Disenchant! Since the player used a number of Bounce spells...

Phew... HOLY SHIT, VIVI DECKS ARE OVERPOWERED. But. I pulled through. Those Disenchant and Unwanted Remake cards came in clutch.

I got their cauldron AND all four of their Vivi copies. I'm on my way to a hard-won victory...

Well, that turn sure was fun. Would be a shame if I had another board-clear in my hand...

The same shit again. UGH.