Welcome to Gaia! :: View User's Journal | Gaia Journals

spent an interesting weekend teaching a friend to play magic from scratch. he did quite qell - beating me two times after I'd been playing for six years and him for only two hours. sent him home with a white deck and the names of a few cards too look out for. I have high hopes for him, since he's an old pokémon card player, and though some of the terminology kinda threw him he caught on much quicker then many of my other students.
in any case, I wish him the best of luck in the game!

Bianchi

stressed . . . scream scream scream scream scream gonk AAAAAAAAAAARRRRRGGGGGGG!!!!
I HATE MIRRODIN!!

. . .just had to get that out. . .
nothing burns me more then having to duke it out with some sort of 12/12 double strike trample viligeance indestructible (who the hell came up with that mechanic anyway) frog or some retarded myr with a shiatload of equiptment on it, and watch my hard earned phanoms or pingers get crushed into nothing by cheap a** cards that shouldn't have been printed in the first place. and the worst part is when it;s done by some total noob who smirks at you afterwards as if he were the pinacle of evolution. . . stressed
thank god kamigawa isn't going to be that stupid

the new mod for my Blue/Red deck is finally working properly -
Out:
1 Soul barrier
[2U, Enchantment, "Whenever an opponent successfully casts a creature spell, Soul Barrier deals 2 damage to that player unless he or she pays 2"]
though soul barrier is versatile at pissing off most kinds of creature decks, and may even buy you a turn if your opponent chooses to wait until they have enough mana to prevent the damage rather then play for tempo. Tempo very valuable to this deck, since even one extra turn of dropping pingers can turn the tide on the field of combat. however, with most of my current opponents opting for the non-creature control where it's simply a waste of a turn, or else they're playing the low cost, superfast weenie decks where this thing is only valuable on the first and second drops (and since this is a 3rd turn drop. . .).

3 lightning elemental [3R, Creature, 4/1, "haste"]
as much as I love the extra muscle of the lightning elemental, the four mana cost, as well as it's almost innevitable death in combat makes this guy a waste of time if my pingers can deal that much damage without fear of death. besides, my goblin deck needs them

2 seal of fire
[R, Enchantment, "sac: 2 damage to target creature or player"]
with lightning elemental's out, and pingers more plentiful then ever, the seals of fire are almost a waste of card space. though it's nice to have that extra money in the bank, it's better to have a more reliable source of damage

In:
3 prodigal sorcer
[2U, Creature, 1/1, "T, 1 damage to target creature or player"]
the original pinger is back!! three more pingers brings the total complement of direct damage dealers up to 10, roughly a quarter of all the spells *cracks knuckles* stare right, who's next. . .
2 Fire/Ice
[1U, Instant, "tap target permanent, draw a card"/1R, Instant, "Fire deals 2 damage divided as you choose between any number of creatures and or players"]
my favourite split card after order and chaos, it fits in well with the mana curve and it is flexible to boot.
2 Prohibit
[1U, Instant, "kicker 2. counter target spell with converted mana cost of 2 or less. if you payed the kicker cost, counter target spell with converted mana cost of 4 or less"]
another nice little counter that covers for when mana leak ceases to be an effective answer - it;s also useful for dealing with other counterspells as well as nasty surprises like Giant Growth or Fling.

the new deck is a little faster then the old one - what I really need now are some mass cover spells to guard against those irriating spells like tremor or shower of coals.
in any case, further mods to follow!

~ bianchi