«11 Hours Later»

Just a quick update on my Deckbox progress.

I took a break for a week or two, but now I'm back at it. I've just entered my black commons, and that alone took me 11 hours. I've now got 10,961 cards in my inventory. I estimate about 4,000 more to go.

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«Deckbox»

No, not Dropbox. It's Deckbox (though Dropbox is useful, too). Deckbox is a site for making an inventory of your TCG cards, as well as make a tradelist and wishlist. It supports Magic: The Gathering, Warhammer Invasion, and World of Warcraft TCG.

I only play Magic: The Gathering, and I'm currently in the process of inputting all my cards, so I'll have an easily searchable database of all my cards. It's a long-term goal, it's going to take a while. For now I've got my rares and some of my commons entered, I'll continue working on it. So far (at the time I'm writing this) I've entered 5,777 cards.

You can view my profile to see my wishlist or tradelist. Yeah, I'm even adding commons to my tradelist. You can just use "Search & Filter" to find what you want. Or make an account of your own and add cards to your wishlist, then view my profile and it will tell you what cards I have that you want. Of course, I only trade face-to-face, so I'm not sure how much good it will do most of you. You'd have to be local in Ketchikan, Alaska...

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«MTG Group»

Before I get into my topic for today, I finally had to enact a capcha to cut down on comment spam, even with how much I hate capchas. So now you'll have to figure out what the squiggly little letters are before your comment will be posted. Sorry...

So my interest in Magic: the Gathering¹ is up again. I found a group to play with (or rather, they found me). Old addictions can be rekindled at any time.

Out of nowhere I got a comment on an old post about weekly gatherings in town. Then an email. Next thing I know I'm at a pizza place with 7 other Magic players. And here I thought the Magic community was utterly dead in this town.

Now I'm back to looking through my cards and trying to find ways to hone my decks...

^1: Magic: the Gathering is a trading card game.

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«Card Collection»

I just bought a collection of magic cards for $100. I'd say there were about 3,000 cards. While I didn't get anything too exciting, it was worth it - but only just.

Here's my Magic The Gathering collection now.

Click image to view full.

The big boxes are 5,000-count boxes. That being they were designed to hold 5,000 cards. I don't actually know the exact number of cards in them.

Yes, I keep my cards sorted by color and rarity. The rares are in the binder. There's more pages in that binder that what it looks like in the picture; it's one of those 4-inch binders.

The small box in the lower left holds my best decks, and the medium box to the right holds all my other random crap-decks.

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«Ebon Dragon Shoop Da Whoop (500th Post)»

Half a thousand posts... Who would of ever thought I'd make it this far?

This is why we can't have nice things...

Click image to view full.

Yeah, I did that to the image in photoshop. The art was originally used on the Magic: the gathering card Ebon Dragon.

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«Hopelessly Bidding on Cards»

A few days ago I was bored and decided to bid on a bunch of Magic The Gathering cards on eBay. At one point I had 21 items I was bidding on.

I knew I wouldn't win many of them, however. I was bidding on things like dual lands and fetch lands (MTG players will know what those are). The minimum bids started at $0.99, and I put in a maximum bid of $1.07; no higher. Of course, dual lands go for at least $20-$30 each, and some of the auctions were for 4 cards.

Most of the auctions I was bidding on have already ended or are about to. Most of them ended upwards of $70+, well above my maximum of $1.07. I never intended to win the items, it was just something to do. I wasn't too worried, and in the off-chance that I actually won the bid I'd be happy to pay $1.07 +shipping to get the cards. There was only a couple of bids that I actually planned on winning. I've already received 2 out of 4 of them. Actually, the first one I revived wasn't even cards. I'll reveal on Tuesday what that item was.

I also bought 27 cards from KardKastle. Those cards were cheap enough that it wasn't worth the shipping to buy them separately on eBay. Once I get all my cards I ordered, I'll finally be able to build a deck I've wanted to build for years. It'll be quite a unique deck; perhaps not real competitive, but should be fun.

Once I build the deck and playtest it a little, I may post a decklist here like I have with 2 of my other decks so far: Draconic Shadows and Pitiful Elves. Unless a certain someone gives it away (you know who you are), the deck will remain a secret until then.

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«Magic Deck: Pitiful Elves»

(To my regular readers: If you know what I'm talking about, then read on. Otherwise just skip over this.)

I haven't played Magic: the Gathering for so long... Ever since the local game shop closed, there's nowhere to go to play. At least nowhere that I'm aware of. If you're in Ketchikan, Alaska and know of a place, please tell me.

I really should rename this deck. When I first built it, I didn't even have any Llanowar Elves. What's an elf deck without Llanowar Elves? Pitiful; that's what. So I made sure its name reflected that.

Like most of my better decks, it has dramatically changed from what originally I intended it to be. It started out as your average elf deck: basically, build up a horde of elves and attack with them. However, it somehow morphed into a fast combo deck. It uses the common Staff of Domination + Priest of Titania combo, but it also combos with Cloudstone Curio + Aluren + Elvish Visionary. There are many other minor combos and synergies. Basically it's just a matter of time before something combos off; and usually it just takes a few turns. It's even possible for a turn 2 win, but it's highly unlikely.

You'll also notice the insanely low amount of land in the deck at a whopping 9. All I need is one forest or a Land Grant. From there on my elves can produce all the mana I need.

Pitiful Elves, 60 cards:

Creatures (30)
4x Birchlore Rangers
4x Elvish Visionary
4x Fyndhorn Elves
4x Llanowar Elves
2x Lys Alana Huntmaster
4x Priest of Titania
4x Quirion Ranger
1x Timberwatch Elf
3x Wirewood Symbiote

Enchantments (4)
2x Aluren
2x Concordant Crossroads

Instants (4)
2x Naturalize
2x Wirewood Pride

Sorceries (8)
4x Glimpse of Nature
4x Land Grant

Land (9)
8x Forest
1x Pendelhaven

Other Spells (5)
3x Cloudstone Curio
2x Staff of Domination

If you have any suggestions, feel free to leave a comment.

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«Magic Deck: Draconic Shadows»

(To my regular readers: If you know what I'm talking about, then read on. Otherwise just skip over this. Although I wouldn't mind attracting a few Magic players as regular readers.)

I decided to post deck lists for a few of my Magic: the Gathering decks I have constructed. This one is named Draconic Shadows and is a casual Vintage format deck.

The mana base was a sort-of personal project. The Badlands were not cheap. There are no basic lands, and nearly every land can produce both black and red mana. This is my favorite deck (not really my best, though), so it got special treatment in the land department.

The main strategy is to use Kokusho, the Evening Star to win by attacking with it and/or killing it. Due to the legend rule, if I play another one they both die. Most of the other cards in the deck either help me get it out or stall the game until I do. I use Makeshift Mannequin to reanimate them. Perhaps the card that describes best the way the deck plays is No Mercy.

Draconic Shadows, 60 cards:

Creatures (4)
4x Kokusho, the Evening Star

Enchantments (2)
2x No Mercy

Instants (18)
4x Dark Ritual
4x Lightning Bolt
4x Makeshift Mannequin
2x Shattering Pulse
4x Terminate

Sorceries (13)
1x Demonic Tutor
4x Diabolic Tutor
4x Kaervek's Torch
4x Pyroclasm

Land (23)
4x Badlands
4x Blood Crypt
4x Bloodstained Mire
1x Hammerheim
1x Miren, the Moaning Well
1x Shinka, the Bloodsoaked Keep
1x Shizo, Death's Storehouse
2x Sulfurous Springs
4x Tainted Peak
1x Urborg

If you have suggestions, feel free to leave a comment.

EDIT: In: 4x Makeshift Mannequin; Out: 3x Beacon of Unrest, 1x Infernal Tutor.
The decklist above reflects these changes.

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«Premature Zombie Apocalypse?»

Response to Why?? on Escape Hatch. It is recommended you go read that first.

Ok, you're back and have read that post on Escape Hatch? If you didn't, that's your problem now...

I really need to pay more attention to the random little things and commit them to memory. It would make for more interesting blog posts. But here's a few "why's" I can remember...

Yesterday I received some Magic: the Gathering cards that I bought on eBay. The envelope they came in was about half covered with a bunch of random 4 cent stamps. It looked like it came from a foreign country (but really it came from Nashville, Tennessee). Why did the seller have so many 4 cent stamps laying around?

I bought 2 hot apple pies at McDonalds yesterday. There was a sticker on the back side of the receipt tape indicating I had won an "instant prize". I got a pretty good deal really: I spent $1.59 (after tax) and got the two hot apple pies I was buying, a couple of coupons for a free cheeseburger and free sundae (my "instant prize"), and an entry into a $50 drawing. Why, or more importantly how did they put that sticker on the receipt tape? Have you ever tried unrolling something like that and then tried to roll it back up perfectly?

Why does it seem like street lights always go out when you approach them? The night before last I rode my bike up to the cemetery. It's pretty dark around there at night, but there's one street light near the war veterans memorial. Any time I came near it, it would go out. After I passed it, it would come back on. I've had street lights go out when I passed them many, many times before; this is just the most recent example. Why do they do that?

Why do people find graveyards spooky at night? Do they really believe the living dead are going to rise out of the ground and begin the zombie apocalypse ahead of schedule? I mean seriously, everyone around you is long dead and six feet under. There's nothing to be afraid of except perhaps tripping on a tombstone.

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