Would have made more sense a few minutes ago

The kind of photography I want to get more into.. I think my stylist partner would agree. The week is almost done guys and gals!

Weekend Going-ons

I don't think i'll be getting Krieg from Gearbox until the last dlc content comes out for the Seasons Pass; still a bit sore about the cost of it due to sly marketing. The fanboys will obviously get it and the probably the only people that are really playing it these days. Altho there are a few sales this week 'coincidently' to probably revive interest in it.

What happened to that Mechwarrior game that was teased out to us about 8 months ago? Instead we get this:

MechWarrior Online

It doesn't look too bad, but it looks like its more arena-based rather than storybased. Augh. Makes me want to play Mechwarrior Mercenaries!

I've been playing Neverwinter Nights 2 these days with my sad sad Drow Warlock. Sad? Because I didn't think he would need the Concentration skill .. but obviously he does and the slightest whack means his spell fails. To top it off, he switched out an invocation (think: spell) which was a big mistake.. being able to summon an undead minion is great when the game surprises you on a quest where you're by yourself. I'm committed to finishing the game.. altho I can't tell how much farther I have and clearly want to make a new character.. altho unsure of what.. Druid? Cleric? Barbarian? Unsure..

The Best Policy: Honesty

Don't you just love it when you're eagerly anticipating that game you've been tracking for months (or years), and then come launch day.... splat. It doesn't work.. or there are huge queues.. or the servers are down.. or its unstable.. or its just plain laggy?

I've been waiting for Krieg the Psycho (new class)for Borderlands 2 to come out.. a perfect time to start playing again..

And then I find out that "Hey.. just so you know, at the very bottom of your news article, this character doesn't come with your pre-order or seasons pass for free." Wait. Wut?

I had forgotten that the first Borderlands 2 class, the Mechromancer came free b/c I had pre-ordered it. What the Gearbox Marketing Department "clearly" forgot to do was make it clear that everyone had to pay extra to get access to the new class. No ifs, ands or buts. I don't mind having to pay for it, but be more clear Gearbox.. you guys have a good sense of humor, play it that way.. sure people will still gripe either way, but atleast you're being honest. Now I'm unsure whether I should cough up 800 Microsoft points for you. 

Shades of Not-Loading-Because-DRM-Sucks-the-Big-One

This is what i've been doing these days:

Taking photos.

DRM: You suck. To play Might and Magic: Heroes 6 (aka: Heroes of Might and Magic 6), not only do you need to playing through Steam, you now have to play with a Steam-like application called U-Play as well. Sure they did interesting (in-game and outside game rewards) things with it, its still a clunky user-unfriendly system. I seriously would have bought the newest package on Steam that included 3 of Ubisoft's expansions, but thanks to all the technical difficulties (see: it won't load up at all now) today, I won't ever spend a money with them again. Ok that sounded fan-boi-rantey: lets just say, i'm going think long and hard on whether I spend extra disposable income on a game that utilizes DRM. Sorry; no 50$ for you. 

Oh YES aka Time to Roll a New Character

I forsee another 50+ hours of Borderlands 2 in my future!

Selesnya Sentry of Suck

Still here; I haven't been playing much of anything these days. Waiting for May 14th when the new Borderlands 2 character Kreig becomes available. I think i've played the beginning part of Neverwinter Nights 2 so many times that I can't wrap my head around it anymore... or it could be the style of gameplay is stale.

Anyways, I was adjusting some decks and came across this one:

Yuck. Who in their right mind would pay 6 mana to regenerate a 3/2?
I would pay 4 at the most.. even then, I wouldn't think it's worth it. Bad card.

Dragon's Maze: Catch and Flinnnng

You know what to do

Click it.

There was one Fuse card in Dragon's Maze that I didn't particularly like (maybe it was a "I've run out of ideas, so here").. this isn't the one tho:

I absolutely love taking control of something, then sacrificing it.. very Slave of Bolas feel to it, except for the fact that it would be a red/white/blue deck... which... I haven't ever thought of making. 

Good things (cool and amazingly designed cards)can't last forever.. and I think the next 3 cards are the case. Prove me wrong, but the following come to mind when I see these kinds of cards:

Don't like the randomness to it.. if it hurt only your enemies, even random, then it would be ok. It meets the flavor of the goblin which tends to hurt themselves due to their stupidity. Ill admit that the art is cool.

There are countless articles on the Wizards website that talks about complexity and how they try to avoid making something too wordy.. this flies right in the face of that concept!

Whenever... yada yada... yada... zzzzzzz. Come on! So much reading! I really hope I don't get this card in my boosters; I don't care how powerful it is (is it? I'll read it again).. who is going to spend the time to read this card? TL:DR.

 

Ugh.. and you're mythic rare too? Another card I hope I never get. I understand in tournament, this card might be amazing (prevent your opponent from casting a certain spell, and making you cast yours faster).. but thats REALLY boring for casual format. So sure, if you have a friend.. or a group of friends that somehow (don't ask me how tho) use all the same card to win the game.. then sure, this mythic might be worth it.. otherwise.. i'd sell it to a tournament player :P

Where are my Dimir cards Wizards?

Dragon's Maze: Savage Milling

Click on the banner for more information on the newest MTG cards and information. Every day there's more exciting cards!

Talking about exciting cards... I absolutely LOVE what Wizards have done with Fuse cards.. the rares tend to require 3 colors, but boy are they cool when used together!

Breaking is a fantastic mill card on it's own, but coupled with Entering, you can get some pretty devastating monsters to use against their master! Looks like Dimir and Rakdos are working together...

 

I'm not particularly a fan of hydras.. mostly b/c I'm not lucky enough to get them in boosters.. but this one is pretty cool; constantly getting bigger whenever you have extra mana. I don't particularly like relying on one card to win a game, but a few of them working together. Cards like Savageborn Hydra are incredibly powerful, but can be mindcontrolled or removed easily.

They always tend to be mythics as well. Very Gruul feel to it tho. *tip of the hat*

I absolutely love how Wizards have implemented milling in Return to Ravnica; I never liked the straight "mill x  card", and love cards like this one:

It brings a bit of danger to the match, for you 'could' mill a minimum of 4 cards if you're unlucky.. or you can mill half a person's deck. It could go either way. We demand MOAR Dimir goodness!

Dragon's Maze: Burn Baby Burn

Make sure you're going to MTG Daily for new articles and new card reveals for the newest expansion: Dragon's Maze. Today's article reveals an uncommon fused spell, and while at first glance, it looks (honestly) pitiful, the article goes on to show how incredible it is and how it may change the face of tournaments. I absolutely love cards/strategies that counter decks that are overpowered; it makes me remember when my close friend had a very powerful Infect deck and made a green/black elf deck that was purely built to feed on the Infect mechanic. After a few rounds in FFA, he decided he couldnt attack me anymore, for he would just be helping me get stronger!

So you look at this card and think "3 mana to turn something into a 0/1 for 1 turn is kinda weak" and then you say "sure, even if you fuse them together, its like an expensive removal spell." But then you look at the following card:

Cards such as Thragtusk or Boros Reckoner are both HEAVILY used in tournaments and very powerful rares. I'm thankful that my friends don't utilize these kinds of cards too much.. except one (Brown Magic!) person. But a card like Turn & Burn, not only sounds cool, but is flexible and gets rid of these powerful cards without their secondary effect triggering.

Dragon's Maze Spoiler: Melek, Izzet Paragon and Fused Mechanic

I'll give props to the people at Wizards to continually improve upon themselves and produce better products. That includes better ways to navigate their website and find the information that their visitors crave. One of the things that they implemented recently is having this banner on the main screen of the Daily MTG screen.

Basically directing you to the page with all the information of the newest expansion/block for MTG.

After reading a few articles from Daily MTG, I recognize and agree with the issue development encountered with Dragon's Maze: a small set of cards (145 vs 300+) and needing to accommodate enough cards for 10 guilds. Basically, there will be less than 14 cards that would be exclusively used by one guild. I do look forward to the DM to see what cards they will reveal including:

Very cool; a cat weird.. kinda like Ajani. Would have never have thought of a Weird to be a champion for Izzet, much less a guild. Basically, one extra card in your hand.. and an extra card to be played. This can result in needing less of a certain card, playing it more and having greater variety in one's deck. A good reason to make a blue red deck... oh wait.. ;)

When I saw this card, I thought "oh no.. I can't believe they made this" (in a bad way) b/c it made me think of cards like Callow Jushi. Less room for the art.. needing to look upside down... usually complicated.. didn't like it at all.

Then it made me think of my most hated part of the Innistrad block: Werewolves. YUCK. Needing to have a checklist card instead of the actual card made it very annoying for players that use card protectors. Then having to set aside the cards. Although no one ever asked to sneak a peek at what cards you have set aside, a player with good observation would know you're using two sided cards and may switch decks accordingly.

When looking at fused cards, I saw what it brought to the table: flexibility. Especially if you utilized both (all)types of mana, you could cast half of the spell in the early stages of the game, while fusing the spells at end game to have a more powerful effect. The love cards that are useful both in early and end game. The two cards that they've revealed so far with Fuse, seem to work hand in hand. I am excited to see some rare versions of the mechanic.. altho we may only see 2 of those at the most (i'm guessing they'll make a red/blue and blue/black/red rare fused spell) due to the number of cards that can be created.