#I want to draw more of Santa!Mana

[milfingo]

Hello hello I hope you don't mind answering but what sort of shenanigans these different versions of Ingo would get into? How would Emmet handle all of them in a hypothetical scenario?

I'm sorry I took so long to answer ahhh! Mostly I just didn't know what to say and also I wanted to finish the ficlet before I said anymore about the other versions of Ingo in the au >.< But these boys are a handful and Emmet is but one master. If he managed to summon all of them oof. Rip his mana. But since I took so long I figured I'd write something for all of the different versions and one with all of them together. Maximum shenanigans.

Gonna make the one with them altogether separate though cause man. I feel bad for taking forever DX

Rider

Imagine if you will it is a snowy day in Johto. Emmet and his servant are out doing recon and the enemy they are spying on happens to have a caster who specializes in ice. She is known as the Cheerful Snow Fairy, and her master is a no name mage who seems too old and cranky to be participating in a GW. Anyways, things go smoothly until they run into one of her alarms which triggers a series of traps that make a clean escape difficult. Forced to fight, they are at a disadvantage as this is her home turf. Even worse when she opts to unleash her NP that summons something akin to a massive Abomasnow. Due to being unprepared, Emmet doesn’t have the mana reserves needed to power Rider’s NP to escape. In a desperate bid Rider attempts to draw mana from his surroundings. Not something he should technically be able to do but if his caster form can, then so can he! IT WORKS! Only the outcome is something no one expects. Casters always strive to make their workshops atop powerful leylines, however this is also where more than just the mana of the world converges. So do spirits and the leftovers from a time before. And in the case of dear Rider, without the innate class skill to be able to filter what he is absorbing for energy he gets a nice surprise! As the energy surrounding them seeps into him it mixes with his spirit origin and augments it juuuust that tiny bit. And when the resulting energy explosion settles, he is wearing a familiar looking hat, carrying a familiar looking sack and sporting some even weirder hair that remind Emmet of a certain generous bird pokemon. To which Rider promptly reaches into his bag and lobs a fair few presents at his opponent. Unlike the familiar bird pokemon these are all deadly and it quickly puts an end to the fight as caster retreats and Emmet is left stating at his very much santa-fied servant. How the heck is he gonna fix this??? Caster

Emmet needs to get use to his big bother being so much older than him now. Not physically, not the throne took care of that. But more so just everything else. He’s lived a long life and seems to forget his now more youthful form a fair but. This time however its Emmet who forgets he isn’t just an old man as Caster drags him to the beach. He’s heard about the surfing being good this time of year and wants to give it a spin.

Poor Emmet, since its a bit impromptu given the whole GW he hasn’t got anything packed. No problem, his brother has just the fix for it! With a snap they’re both decked out for a perfect summer day! Despite how much Emmet doesn’t want to he can’t say no to his brother! So off to the beach they go.

The instant they hit the beach all bets are off, Caster tosses aside his top layers and oh god he is getting Attention. Attention that he is very happy to have. Emmet can only watch in awe as his once mildy awkward brother now has the beach goes wrapped around his pinky. Free drinks from the bar, people hanging off his every word. What the hell happened in Hisui!?!?

Its ok Emmet, you don’t need to know.

But oh, that is not the worst part. The worst part is when his brother finally hits the water and its like something collective breaks in the minds of the people around him. He can feel the UST the air.

When Caster returns from his at this point showboating he makes a mention to head home without him. He’s going out to eat. That confuses the other. Until something dawned on him. His brother was likely low on mana. And they never bothered to do mana transfer because that would be too awkward and his hear CANNOT handle that PLEASE NO just where in the world was he getting his mana from??? Seeing the other’s confused look Caster just looks to the crowd with a smirk and licks his lip. Emmet takes a whole minute to reboot and leave. Nope. Not going to think about it.

Assassin

Assassin is the most unexpected way Emmet would have ever thought the throne would screw him over. She was not like him at all. Any yet the moments she was. They were too often. It made him ache and added fuel to his desire to obtain the grail. And yet on days like this. She terrified him in ways only she could.

It was Valentines Day. And she had declared that since he was hopeless, she would give him chocolates. Nevermind that, that was not a custom of Unova. Either way she has raided his kitchen. He prays she is actually able to cook. Because prior to their separation, neither could cook without the other.

It turns out. As she lectures him, making poison is similar to cooking (it isn’t) with some added chemistry (which at this point is baking but don’t tell her that). He is forced to sit and watch her craft his gift. It is a process as she demands his favorite foods, flavors, colors, even if he is allergic to anything. Which they had covered days ago. And with each question answered she seemed to pull thing out of her magical basket. She even pulled out what looked to be a live person before shoving them back inside. “Ignore the weird cat thing. I think it’s cute.” Despite watching the whole process, by the end he cannot help but feel like she is trying to poison him. She is after all not unlike the poison princess whose touch guaranteed death. She was glaring at him. He takes a bite. It is another 3 hours until he wakes up and she is looking at him smugly. “Bet you feel like a million bucks now.” “Holy shit. You’re right...”

[radramblog]

My commander decks, Pt. 2

I don’t like leaving these two-parters open for too long, so I’m gonna nip this one in the bud now.

Zada, Hedron Grinder- Mono-Red Storm/Tokens

My Zada deck came from having played a weird Red/Green Werewolves/Zada Aggro/Combo deck in Shadows over Innistrad standard, and then getting to come back to it some time later since a lot of those cards took a really long time to rotate out for some reason. The deck was, admittedly, kind of a pile, but it was huge fun and could just kill people out of nowhere. This commander deck, based on a very well-put-together list on tappedout, spawned from how much I ended up loving Zada, with her unique effect lending surprisingly well to an all-in combo deck. 

This deck doesn’t come out of the box very often, and for pretty good reason. Not a lot of people appreciate getting combo’d off against, especially when it’s as loose and indeterminate as this deck is, and there is just so much math involved that even piloting it can become a pain. It’s incredibly powerful, being fragile in some ways but resilient in ways you wouldn’t expect. It’s actually probably the closest thing to a cEDH deck I have, though it would obviously stand no chance at an actually competitive table.

The deck, at this point, has deviated pretty heavily from the primer it was based on, both since I don’t want to buy overpriced cards that aren’t significant upgrades and because I have some jankier effects I wanted to play (also, because that list has been consistently updated and mine hasn’t). I’ve had it called a Goblins deck, and while there are a lot of Goblin cards in it (I mean, Goblin Matron is there), it actually kinda gets under my skin when people do that. It’s not a Goblin deck, Goblins just happen to be really good at making tokens! I don’t really like Goblins. (Zada is an exception.)

 Basandra, Battle Seraph- Boros Forced Combat/Pillowfort

Basandra was one of four decks I built after I got really bored, hit Random 4 times on EDHRec, and designed four decks based on the results. While I did end up proxying up 2 of the others (Seizan Mono-B Group Sl/hug, DL Atarka Dragons/Panharmonicon), Basandra was the only one that resonated with me enough to want to build it for real. It represents to me the possibilities of Boros beyond just aggro and the handful of archetypes the colour pair has been crumbed over the years.

It also happens to be a pretty political deck. While the plan of making people fight each other instead of me is all well and good, in a perfect situation you’re still going to have one more opponent left to deal with. The deck is pretty light in ways to actually win the game, although having a Flying commander does help a little bit (See, she does do something!). With that said, I’ve played the deck enough times to have racked up a few wins, so it’s far from helpless, and the random hate pieces that are mostly in to keep people from going over my defences can just lock some decks out of the game. (If you’re a deck that loses to Aven Mindcensor then you deserve to lose to Aven Mindcensor, sorry)

I really enjoy the Thalia’s Lancers package. Tutors like this and like Mwonvuli Beast Tracker in the Radha deck are fun to build around, with the right combination of cards letting them turn into mini toolboxes. In this deck, the Lancers can find land, ramp, removal, pillowfort effects, card draw, making them extremely versatile. While I am generally opposed to tutors, Lancers get a pass.

 O-Kagachi, Vengeful Kami- 5-Colour Spirit Tribal/Cast Triggers

This deck is stupid bad but it’s built around a bunch of silly cards that I love. The spirits of Kamigawa look and feel bizarre, but in an elegant way- they’re off in their own little world, doing whatever, while the rest of the game happens around them.

Unfortunately, most of them kinda suck. There’s a reason I didn’t build around Soulshift, and it’s not because I’d die to Rest in Peace.

This deck, therefore, is an eclectic collection of spirits, good and bad, with the stated goal of finding enough cost reduction to start loop-casting members of the -Onna cycle, generating value through “whenever you cast a Spirit or Arcane spell…” effects. Getting to this point, however, is it’s own endeavour. The deck is desperately in need of a rebuild, with way too high a curve and not enough ramp to support itself. The deck includes the entirety of the Myojin cycle, all 5 Dragon Spirits, and all 3 pieces of Iname- not to mention, most of the Spirits that actually have good effects are fairly mana-hungry themselves. Even the manabase is a bit silly, though I have gotten away with proxying fetches and shocks since the deck doesn’t need any help flopping.

When the deck does get going, though, it can get pretty out of hand. Literally, in fact-the deck can rip through people’s hands and occasionally lands, but the cards doing so are so expensive and bad that it feels more earned than just dropping Narset/Windfall or Armageddon. No-one can stay mad when they lose to Myojin of Infinite Rage, since the Myojin is the one with all the Rage. It can be resilient as well, with great recursion effects such as Karador and Iname, Life Aspect just happening to be Spirits. It’s still not good, but it’s something.

 Gonti, Lord of Luxury- Mono-Black Theft/Control

Like Zada, Gonti spawned from a standard deck I enjoyed playing, in this case the Azor’s Gateway Mono-Black Control deck I piloted to surprising success for a long time. A fair few cards in the deck come directly from that list, including the incredibly water-damaged Torment of Hailfire and some of the weirdo one ofs like Tetzimoc and Liliana, Death’s Majesty. The deck is grindier than anything, with incremental draw being the name of the game and murdering opponent’s threats the subtitle. Gonti, in addition to being one of my favourite cards of all time, supports Mono-Black Control quite well, being able to grab answers to things that would normally be pretty difficult for mono-B to handle off of other people’s decks, or creating synergies where no-one expects them. As a result, while there’s not as many of this type of effect as many Gonti decks, there is still some amount of cards that let Gonti re-enter than most decks they helm, there’s still a fair few ways to do so.

Theft is not a particularly well-supported strategy, especially in Black, but it serves to add replayability and versatility to the deck. The deck doesn’t play a huge number of threats, and most of the ones that it does are those that add to the steady value train or that double as something else. I haven’t quite committed to putting Praetor’s Grasp in, but I’m thinking about it. I also opted not to add in the new hotness of Opposition Agent, because as it turns out that’s not the kind of magic I want to play, and with a full hand and frequent planeswalkers on the board I don’t really need to go out of my way to generate more hate.

Playing this deck does harken back to that old standard deck, thinking ahead about which cards I need to keep around to answer certain threats I guess are coming up, and getting unexpected surprises off the top of my opponent’s library to win in unexpected ways (I once Gonti’d a Radiant Destiny off of my opponent’s Vampire deck, realised between Gonti and a few Gifteds I had a pile of Aetherborn cooking, and beat them down with that). Control is far from my favourite deck archetype, but it’s nice to have the option there if I want it.

 Hallar, the Firefletcher- Gruul Kicker

My Hallar deck was given to me as part of the EDH subreddit’s Secret Santa, the maybe only year it was ran, and it still shows some evidence of the budget limit that exchange carried. While I have done my best to improve on it and diversify it, there’s really only so much one can do with such a narrow commander.

With that said, it’s not like the deck is bad. Especially since the addition of more Kicker cards in Zendikar Rising, Hallar has more option to choose from, and they can get burning very quickly. From what I’ve seen, however, most Hallar decks build around cheap Kicker costs, trying to trigger their ability as many times as possible as quickly as possible. And while some of these cheaper cards are of course present in my list, I chose to instead play some of the other bigger kicker cards, along with more ramp, to help spread the attention away from Hallar as needed and to give the deck something to do if they start costing upwards of 10 mana. I’m not convinced this added resilience is the correct path, but it’s my path, and the deck performs admirably even faced against substantially more expensive lists.

 With that, I have listed all of my current commander decks. While I have a few in the build process, maybe I should stop? Because 10 is likely enough. Either way, I hope you enjoyed reading about what and why these decks are, and I hope to see you on the other side of a table soon. (I won’t play Zada game one, promise.)

[venus-says]

Kamen Rider Wizard Episodes 01-17

Where's Kaede? The magical show is about to begin.

The fourth installment in my "watch all of Kamen Rider" series is here! I'm two months and I still haven't given up, I'm not gonna lie I'm very surprised with myself. XD

As much as I was excited to start this new series, the bad taste Fourze has left into my mouth got me a little apprehensive. But, while Wizard isn't a perfect show, I was very pleased with this first third of it.

This is a show about hope and, much like its predecessor, the show isn't subtle about it. But somehow it works here, first because the dramas the MOTW victims go through feels more grounded and believable, and second because it's not just a bunch of teenagers going around dealing with stuff that to an adult's eye seems very dumb. It also helps that, for the most part, the characters here don't have a twisted notion of what Hope is, though there are some times where "hope" is mixed with "dream" and it feels a bit weird, but I think the two themes are correlated so it's not that big of a stretch.

If there's one thing I don't like about Wizard is the bad CGI. I understand that the effects aren't the best, after all, this show is heavily dependant on special effects because of all the magic spells so they can't use the best and most expensive CGI all the time, but I can't deny that they feel very wonky. I think if the engage sequences inside people's underworlds didn't exist or included actors in suits doing the monsters instead of large CGI creatures, they could afford better and more polished effects. Sadly that didn't happen so that's a letdown, at least the only instances where this bugs me is in the underworld scenes and during the Flame Dragon form attack so that's not that big of a deal.

Another thing I also don't like is the villains, the concept of the Phantoms is really good but the generals they lack a loooooot of personality. Phoenix is the hot-blooded villain and Medusa is the stereotypical female villain, in terms of design Phoenix is basically Ankh and Medusa is basically Mezool so it just shows they don't have a lot going on for them. Though the reveal that happened in episodes 14 and 15 made me interested so I didn't lose all hope in the antagonists just yet.

I'd like to come here and say that thankfully the other side of this coin has amazing characters that balance out the blandness of the villains, but sadly that's not the case. While Haruto is very cool, everyone else on his gang aside from Wajima isn't the greatest. And what's more sad about all of this is that each member of the gang has things that could make them great, but most of the time they're there being used as comic relief so when it's their time to shine is hard to take them seriously. Rinko could've been very interesting to see as a rookie female detective that has a strong sense of justice, but she's very underused and more often than not she's there playing a comedy role. Shunpei is naive and has a genuinely pure heart, and he would've been a great companion if the show didn't make him very extra and exaggerated making him look dumb rather than a kind kid too pure for this world. Koyomi should be the most interesting of them all since she's an empty shell powered up by mana, but we barely see her and her "introductory" arc was very rough in the edges with them making her seem like she is "jealous" of Haruto and has feelings for him. I wanna make clear that despite my problems I still like these characters, they had times where they shined a lot which made me like them, but they have those flaws and I can't overlook them. Of course, this is only the beginning of the season which means there's still more time so they have opportunities to grow so I'm very open-minded for them.

A character I don't have any hopes for is Kousuke, aka Beast, aka the mid-season Rider. As much as I appreciate that the dude didn't just appear out of nowhere during a fight, he still follows tradition and I don't like him, in fact, I hate this dude. I've seen him only once but I already hate him more than any of his predecessors. I don't wanna go for very long since he appeared only in one episode and the next arc will be more focused on him, I believe, so I'll have plenty of time to dish on him next week, but for now, let's just say I want to see choke him with his bottle of mayonnaise while engaging on his gross eating habits.

Talking about the man of the time, Wizard himself, Haruto is a bit weird, but in a good way. I appreciate that his "default mode" is a more serious one, it doesn't make him look off whenever the moment needs him to be more grounded/angry, but also gives openings for him to be playful and crack a few jokes here and there, I really like that in his personality. I feel like his backstory is a bit too much, but all main riders so far had some sort of tragic background that seemed way too heavy to be believable so I can't hold that against him.

Wizard is a rider I really like both in design and powers. Weird helmet shapes on his side forms aside, I really dig everything on his design. I never cosplayed on my life, but if I ever did a Kamen Rider cosplay it would probably be Wizard. The hand in the belt and the gun/sword, and the rings are way too big for my taste, but these need to be sold as toys so I think that's the reason why they're this big and I can get past that. I absolutely love the droids for this season and I love even more that they're called familiars if I had the money I'd buy ALL OF THEM. I love Wizard's elemental powers, but his "side rings" are weird and very situational, it seems weird to complain about that coming from a season with 40 EXTREMELY situational side powers, but c'mon, they have a spell that makes the user smell bad, what use does that have? Though I can't deny I'd love that sleep spell because my insomnia can be a bitch sometimes.

I'm a little thorn on the first power-up Wizard got, while I love its design in all of the three forms we've seen so far, and I love when the dragon parts merge with him in the Hurricane and Water Dragon styles, I hate how they came to be. Especially after seeing that Wiseman was the one that gave the stone for Flame Dragon and Water Dragon I expected this power-up to have a bigger thrown back to not make them as spammable as they are, and these things were supposed to be dangerous after all they use the power of Haruto's inner Phantom so, it's a bit of a letdown when you think about them under these lenses. They're still pretty cool though, I love them, aside of Flame Dragon form while doing the special attack, that head coming out of his chest is cursed and it doesn't deserve any love.

To mention a few episodes I really enjoyed I wanna highlight episodes 6 and 7 that had a very interesting plot centered around a con artist, I really liked the outcome of that one. I also loved episodes 8 and 9, as much as I think it's a bit forced I liked seeing Haruto's backstory and drawing a parallel with the victim of the week and what he was going through on its absurdity it felt very real and strong and I was all here for it. Episode 14 was kinda interesting, but it was more because of the reveal rather than the main story of that episode.

My favorite episodes were 12 and 13, as well as the Christmas episode. Both of these stories were very beautiful and emotional, I usually pause a lot to take screenshots and notes during the episodes but in these three episodes I had almost 0 pauses, I was really invested and felt very touched by these stories. 12 and 13 was Shunpei time to shine and it gave me a new appreciation for his character, it was also a great story about passing a legacy and keeping traditions alive, I also appreciate that the story ended on a very positive note despite of the Gate closing his business after everything that happened - that was a very good move on my eyes. And the Christmas episode was a real surprise to me, I usually don't care for the holidays' episodes but this episode was very beautiful, the thing with Santa appearing and giving a special spell that restores the destroyed gifts was a bit of a stretch, but I can't deny that I was very happy to see it happen just so that we could have a good ending so I'll give it a pass this time.

And that pretty much sums it all for now, I'm pretty hopeful *winkwink* for the next portion of Wizard even though I hate the new Rider so I'm excited to come back next week. What are your thoughts on Wizard? Let me know in the comments. I'll see you all the next time. o/

[manabingu]

ManaTagged! Heyoo~

tagged by the sweet ♥ @rainbow-galaxy-supernova  (sorry its overdue)

The last:

1.) Drink: Raspberry Milk Tea w/Lychee Popping Pearls

2.) Phone call: to @tyrestgwa earlier today via skype

3.) Text message: to @crystalwoodsart

4.) Song you listened to: Phoenix Ash’s Cover of JAP by Abingdon Boys School & Fome’s Cover of Count Zero by T.M. Revolution (SO FCKN GOOD)

5.) Time you cried: yesterday 8D during Wonder Woman ;U;o

6.) Dated someone twice: Tyrest is the first & only official dating. But me and @crystalwoodsart have been married practically since 6th grade. She is mY WAIFU!

7.) Been Cheated on: Thank Ra No!

8.) Kissed someone and regretted it: Nah.BUT I mean- iN DREAMS YES.

9.) Lost someone special: It’s a universal thing. Namely pets for me

10.) Been depressed: 8) Story of my LIFE! But I’ve been makin progress

11.) Gotten drunk and thrown up: I REFUSE to consume alcohol/drugs

12-14.) LIST 3 FAVORITE COLORS: Turquoise,Galaxy Print,Pastels/Silver tie

IN THE LAST YEAR HAVE YOU…

15.) Made new friends: I’ve been blessed thanks to YT Idol w/new singer pals!

16.) Fallen out of love: Yeah...in  high school I had so many talent crushes. Which I think is normal for theater kids. But I think I ended up with the correct person. He truly understands me. And though I sometimes wonder what would my life be if I had confessed my love to those others, I’m happy I waited for the person who accepted me just the way I am ;w;o

17.) Laughed until you cried: AS AN ABRIDGER, I am privileged to be surrounded by INCREDIBLY hilarious people & I love it!♥

18.) Found out someone was talking about you: YES. And BOY is it a trip when I find people are horrible trolls. I find out about sweet people who say super kind things about me or my work all the time. But when I get a heads up about backstabbers or people who get close for the wrong reasons, I put my guard up around them & just do my own thing. Because a path of jealousy, hatred & vengeance isn’t for me. Bullies can talk, but I’ll always ignore them.

19.) Met someone who changed you: Namely Tyrest,Crystal,Panda,Wraith10, @cozymochi (bows to her greatness), LordMoonstone, @kittykatsandbox, (FAB SENPAI) @ahsimwithsake & @laurathia who are 1 of 2 sets of adoptive internet parents I have XD and MOST RECENT OF ALL CEONN. If I hadn’t met Ceonn, my singing career journey wouldn’t have taken off.THANX

20.) Found out who your true friends are: YEP 8)! Sadly, just recently too...

21.) Kissed someone on your Facebook list: Well, hispanic people greet each other by cheek kisses so  I will say yes.

22.) How many of your Facebook friends do you know in real life: Everyone cuz my FB is family & IRL friends only ^^; BUT my ZEXAL Abridged has a FB 

23.) Do you have any pets: My pet cockatiel Patchos 8D

24.) Do you want to change your name: No, but don’t mind having a stage name to be honest. I love stage names ^_^

25.) What did you do for your last birthday: Probably sang,drew & other stuff 

26.) What time did you wake up: 9 or 10ish? I had to meet some friends today

27.) What were you doing at midnight last night: GAWKING at Gal Gadot

28.) Name something you cannot wait for:Anime Idol @ Metrocon, finally getting out more song covers/abridged stuff. And being stable again.

29.) When was the last time you saw your mother?: a few seconds ago

30.) What is one thing you wish you could change about your life: I wish that ONE thing didn’t happen & my family had the same wealth we shoulda had if luck was on our side. That & I wish I wasn’t afraid of certain things so I could progress faster.

31.) What are you listening to right now: Fome’s Covers,& MY own covers

32.) Have you ever talked to a person named Tom: yeS?

33.) Something that is getting on your nerves: Hypocrites lately 8)

34.) Most visited website: Tumblr,Instagram,Twitter & YT are tied tbh

35-37.) Finished all of school: yeppers

38.) Hair color: Dark Chocolate Brown (I used swatches at Sally’s XD)

39.) Long or short hair: I enjoy having long princess hair, but I cut it recently QuQ woops. Mostly cuz I wanted to try a T.M. Revolution hairdo XD

40.) Do you have a crush on someone: I HAVE ANIMAY HUSbANDs/WAifUS

41.) What do you like about yourself: My voice range! I used to be SO self conscious as a kid, but eventually it became my greatest strength because it’s SO versatile it honestly I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for my unique voice QuQ

42.) Piercings: My ears have been pierced since birth. Mom wanted it

43.) Blood type: O? I think was what it was? It’s been years lol

44.) Nickname: Mana & Ginga (to my singer friends)

45.) Relationship status: Taken by Tyrest (with Crystal on the side ;D heh)

46.) Zodiac sign: I am a proud Sagittarius ♐

47.) Pronouns: Her is fine, but I don’t mind He if I’m crossplaying (mostly Ginga). It’s kind of a weird thing for me cuz I’m genderfluid ;w; but if anything to avoid confusion, just go with feminine one XD cuz whatvs???

48.) Favorite TV show: ITS HARD. I like too many things.Non-Anime TV Show wise I watch mostly Trail & Error & Fresh Off the Boat. But Anime-wise: ZEXAL (but YGO in general), Darker Than Black, One Punch Man/Mob Psycho 100, Uta no Prince-sama, Saint Seiya/Omega, Tokyo Mew Mew, Kaleido Star, anything by CLAMP, Kamen Rider Gaim/Fourze, Death Note, Attack on Titan, Tokyo Magnitude 8.0, FMA...too many...I know I have more...

49.) Tattoos: NoPe

50.) Right or left hand: Righty

FIRST…

51.) Surgery: In 8th grade I almost died 8D! Ruptured appendix, 3 consecutive operations & all because the first time I went to the emrgency they sent me home & misdiagnosed me with stomach flu 8D HAH.HAH.HAAAA ;~~~;...

52.) Piercing: Ears only as mentioned previously

54.) Sport:I don’t do any.My fave is figure skating tho. I love Yuzuru Hanyu♥

55.) Vacation: Technically me comin to the U.S for the first time counts

56.) Pair of trainers: Is that slang for shoes???...uhh??

MORE GENERAL…

57.) Eating: I ate sushi at a Chinese Buffet called Giant Panda today

58.) Drinking: finished all the boba tea ;w;

59.) I’m about to: Sleep cuz it’s 1am xD

61.) Waiting for: Good news, & replies from a few emails I sent this week

62.) Want: To make my YT Channel flourish & master my voice

63.) Get married: With luck but I think a paper doesn’t dictate if you love a person or not. BECAUSE i wanna pursue singing/acting, I know I’ll always be traveling ;w; so that decision is hard. I mean we can be OFFICIAL via the paper thingy but like, I already know we’re together XD ffff lol

64.) Career: Singer/Actor/Voice Actor & Internet Personality maybe

65.) Hugs or kisses: Both ^o^...cuz honestly I’m a fluffy person ;w;o

66.) Lips or eyes: Both again...I Can’T HElP IT (deep down my thoughts are as swirly with flirtatious things...proly explains Ginga’s mannerisms)

67.) Shorter or taller: I’m short ;w; sniffs 5′1. Everyone else is a tree

68.) Older or younger: Depends on relationship type? Like I think having a partner at a relatively older age because I am anxious af & need someone older to guide me when I’m struggling, but don’t mind younger (but MATURE) person by 2 years max. But when it comes to friends, I befriend anyone who is kind-hearted. Because we can learn a lot from elders/ our youth

70.) Nice arms or nice stomach: I don’t mind either or but TMR is @U@

71.) Sensitive or loud: I’m drawn more to sensitive people because they have higher levels of compassion & kinder hearts.

72.) Hook up or relationship: Relationship cuz I’m loyal AF

73.) Troublemaker or hesitant: Egh...both have downfalls. Hesitant is safer tho

HAVE YOU EVER…

74.) Kissed a stranger?: Nope BUT if I become an actor, that is a thought that keeps me up at night XD cuz ...again...I’m loyal af ;-;

75.) Drank hard liquor?: EWW >_>

76.) Lost glasses contact/lenses?: YES. During a musical in 10th grade (Suessical I was Cat in the Hat) I was on a trampoline and THEY FLEW OFF MY FACE! And ....we never found em O_O...they vanished....

77.) Turned someone down?: Yeah...a bunch of creepy fanboys throughout the years... 8) unfortunately the downfall of being an internet person

78.) Sex on first date?: DEPENDS. I’m demisexual, so I’m attracted to personality/emotional bonds not physical appearances. So IF my emotions towards them is high enough, I dunno if things could happen? But usually I stay reserved cuz I need to feel like I honestly love the person THAT much.

79.) Broken someone’s heart?: Probably ;w;...2 old buddies. I knew they had crushes on me...but I just didn’t feel the same way towards them -actually someone ELSE admitted they had a crush on me last month so the count is now up to 3...AGH. I WISH they can find someone who will make em happy because I think they deserve it tbh. They’re good dudes.

80.) Had your heart broken?: Once yeah, an old childhood crush was honestly insensitive when I asked him if he ever felt something for me &  he said “ehhh not really?” in a way that came off as insensitive XD?....yeah. But the MORE I thought about why I liked him, the more I realized I could NEVER be in a relationship with them cuz they were immature & didn’t know how to be serious.They don’t balance goofiness & sensitivity & I need a balanced person

81.) Been arrested?: NO

82.) Cried when someone died?: waterfalls of tears cuz I’m an emotional wreck

83.) Fallen for a friend?: yeah =w= a bunch of abridgers/singers hah. I get talent crushes ALL the time, but don’t act on it cuz I’m shy AND taken XD

DO YOU BELIEVE IN…

84.) Yourself?: Usually...but I have many moments where I question if I’m good enough or worthy enough to be here ;w; gotta work on my Kattobingu

85.) Miracles?: Shining Draws should be real. But yeah miracles CAN happen

86.) Love at first sight?: FUYA OKUDAIRA 8D...and Takanori Nishikawa...and Mahiro Takasugi and Aoi Shouta tbh

87.) Santa Claus?: Elf is my favorite Christmas movie

88.) Kiss on the first date?: IT DEPENDS. But if it happens? AIGHT????

89.) Angels?: Yes \QwQ/! angels are real. @rosey-ballerina is one

OTHER….

90.) Current best friend’s name: Crystal is my bff & waifu but Tyrest too but honestly Kimmy, Panda & Ceonn are also tied with those 2

91.) Eye color: Brownies eUe

92.) Favorite movie: Finding Nemo, Big Hero 6,Lion King (all 3), All 3 Yu-Gi-Oh! Movies,The Emperor’s New Groove,Mrs. Doubtfire, Moana, Wonder Woman, Mary Poppins, Arrival, The Mummy, Matilda, Harry Potter, Pokemon 3,Hercules, Grave of the Fireflies, Antman, The Producers....and a few others

I tag: @t-chan @sylphwriter @eleanorose123 @ivmysterynumbers @zexalfangirl @shybunny @galaxyeyedphoton 

[nomunun]

@amalasdraws​ tagged me for the 92 truths meme thing so here ya go!

rules: once you have been tagged you are supposed to write 92 truths about yourself

LAST… [1] drink: water [2] phone call: my father [3] text message: group chat w two if my friends abt my life being over  [4] song you listened to: blind - break away [5] time you cried: 10 minutes ago lmao

HAVE YOU EVER… [6] dated someone twice: no [7] been cheated on: no [8] kissed someone and regretted it: nah [9] lost someone special: y..eah... [10] been depressed: what me?? depressed ???? sounds fake [11] gotten drunk and thrown up: only once

LIST 3 FAVOURITE COLOURS: [12] blue [13] mint [14] everything pastel

IN THE LAST YEAR HAVE YOU… [15] made new friends: yes [16] fallen out of love: lmao i WISH [17] laughed until you cried: i don’t think so ? [18] found out someone was talking about you: in a good way, yes 😎 [19] met someone who changed you: mmmh nah don’t think so [20] found out who your true friends are: YES lmao [21] kissed someone on your facebook list: no :(

GENERAL… [22] how many of your facebook friends do you know in real life: most of them, those i don’t know irl live abroad [23] do you have any pets: i have a doggo and she’s a nerd [24] do you want to change your name: :))))))))))))))))))))))))) (yes!) [25] what did you do for your last birthday: i went to an amusement park with my besties and it was v nice ahhh [26] what time did you wake up: around 10am [27] what were you doing at midnight last night: crying lmao [28] name something you cannot wait for: dying being rich and famous 👌 [29] when was the last time you saw your mother: last week i think [30] what is one thing you wish you could change about your life: erase the past 5 years lmao [31] what are you listening to right now: pendulum - encoder [32] have you ever talked to a person named tom: i don’t think so [33] something that is getting on your nerves: myself lmao [34] most visited website: tumblr :,) [35] elementary: was shitty [36] high school: was even more shitty so i dropped out [37] college: is p okay so far [38] hair colour: some blonde bullshit but im gonna dye it soon [39] long or short hair: i have an outgrowing buzzcut  [40] do you have a crush on someone: nah idk probs not [41] what do you like about yourself? ??? i haven’t killed myself yet so thats good ????? [42] piercings: 11 (3 in my face, 8 on my ears) [43]blood type: a+ [44] nickname: teddy, shrimpy [45] relationship status: single fry  [46] zodiac sign: cancer [47] pronouns: she/her [48] fav tv show: rn it’s b99 bcuz im currently watching it [49] tattoos: 9 and more to come [50] right or left handed: right

FIRST… [51] surgery: had my tonsils removed bcuz i stopped breathing at night and almost died lmao [52] piercing: ears [53] best friend: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ i have a couple of good friends but not a best friend i guess [54] sport: judo [55] vacation: sweden i think [56] pair of trainers: i have no idea

RIGHT NOW… [57] eating:  nothing [58] drinking: also nothing [59] i’m about to: probably rearrange my flat and then draw [60] listening to: the weeks - buttons [61] waiting for: death food  [62] want: money, also the district court of my hometown to burn down [63] get married: definitely not. [64] career: something were i can sit at home and draw and don’t have to interact w people and still get a shitload of money please

WHICH IS BETTER…

[65] hugs or kisses: kisses [66] lips or eyes: lips [67] shorter or taller: taller (lbr i dont really have a choice here) [68] older or younger: p much same sage is perfect tbh [70] nice arms or nice stomach: stomach [71] sensitive or loud: both [72] hook up or relationship: relationship [73] troublemaker or hesitant: troublemaker :,)

HAVE YOU EVER… [74] kissed a stranger? yah [75] drank hard liquor? yes [76] lost glasses/contact lenses? nope [77] turned someone down: yah [78] sex on first date? does meeting irl for the first time count bcuz then yes lmao [79] broken someone’s heart? yes pls kill me [80] had your own heart broken? yah [81] been arrested? nope 😎 [82] cried when someone died? yah [83] fallen for a friend: y..ah

DO YOU BELIEVE IN… [84] yourself? hell no lmao [85] miracles? kind of [86] love at first sight? crush yeah, love no [87] santa claus? no [88] kiss on the first date? yes! [89] angels? not in the biblical sense but yes

OTHER… [90] current best friend’s name: if i had to pick it’d be saki and mana probably [91] eye colour: blue [92] favourite movie: pacific rim, cloud atlas, star wars

i tag @punkshimizu and @punchserver and @tazilp

[magicarasa]

CFAC 04 Season 2 Entries -- Part 3

Sparkler by Federica

Sorry these are running pretty late today. Here’s the final batch of entries for this week’s CFAC!

@sabertoothlotus

I was trying to find something different to tie a black -x/-x spell to, and it occurred to me that I can use creatures in the graveyard as a resource. I decided the X payment and the exile cost were needed to keep things balanced.

Welcome to the party! We had a similar design yesterday; XB is the baseline for this sort of effect. It doesn’t need the added cost of exiling stuff from your graveyard and with that it could definitely include some sort of bonus. Perhaps some token creation?

Two points!

@sphinxs-revelation

After finding out that there is an awesome Skeleton token, I just had to make a spell that created it. I was debating whether to add a player as an additional target to prevent fizzling the token production, but I’m actually a fan of the idea of spells failing if cast carelessly.

Huh, speak of the devil. The -X/-X spell with additional cost and some bonus. I actually think this would be fine at XB. This is likely a rare as well. Otherwise this is basically the sort of design I’ve been talking about the past two days with regard to this kind of spell.

Two points!

@shadowknight1224

So I got ambitious. This is a bit of everything. It’s costly enough to be a mana sink, it’s card draw at a cost (your creatures) and it’s mass removal (albeit not targeted). The flavour text is inspired by Hayley Westenra’s Dark Waltz (which I recommend to give a listen for ghost-related stuff, it was great inspiration for this card).

This does it all but at that cost it’s pretty reasonable to want something like this. I don’t actually think the tokens need flying or two be more than one creature type in a vacuum but neither of those things are some egregious flaw or anything. Honestly I think the only thing I have to add is I believe the template would be something like “For each creature you control destroyed this way” and then that but with don’t tossed in there for the second bit.

Two points!

@nine-effing-hells

“Deathforge” sounds like a necromantic discipline, perhaps using souls to empower or fuel spells. Since the art depicts a mage (feels a little bit weird using fanart that can be so easily identified as such) using what appears to be a soul-infused spell that looks a fair bit like flames, I interpreted that as soul-fueled burn. On its own, the card is another FTK variant, but presumably the “Deathforge” series of cards in this hypothetical set would offer some other fodder for this. (This card is meant to be in the “targeted removal” slot.)

Just a 3/2 that can hit for two when it enters is a good start. Being able to get additional bonus from that (and sort of hate on potential graveyard hate) is really nifty.

There aren’t a huge number of examples, but I think you could push this to 3 CMC without much issue. It’s exciting with upside but the two color cost is prohibitive enough to justify that.

Two points!

@outerspace-messiah

After finding the word “Dear” comes between “dead” and “death,” I liked the idea of having a wishlist to Death as a child has a wishlist for Santa. I’m going for draw spell, but it also works as other things as well because sometimes death mages have multiple things they want to ask of Death.

It’s a kind of restrictive cost, so huge things can’t be done with it like infinite life from Exsanguinate, but I thought the final pricing at instant speed was appropriate. I also think it’s cool as an instant because instant speed blockers (skeleton blockers!) are nice.

Finishing things off with one more variant on a favorite this week. The cost is prohibitive but honestly I’m not sure it’s enough here. A great deal of power for modal spells comes from the options they provide. WBG for two +1/+1 counters isn’t great. Abzan Charm is worth a card slot because it can do other things. What you’re paying for with this is versatility. Instant is actually the thing I’d drop here.

So this is an X spell that exiles creatures from your grave as an additional cost. The difference from this and previous ones is that it isn’t targeted removal but instead provides a few choices of ability. All things black doesn’t often get at instant speed, let alone picking them a la carte as needed at the moment.

I like the options and I think this has really cool potential as something akin to a command cycle (maybe each color cares about a specific card type though that gets a bit tricky).

Two points!

[wiresandstarlings]

a marathon runner, my ankles are sprained

Hey, my name is Allen Wu, and I top 4'd the Santa Clara RPTQ last weekend. Not a huge result, granted, but I promised my therapist I'd start writing again and this is a better occasion than most.

There's a trend in tournament reports these days to focus on stories rather than the grit of Magic gameplay, and I appreciate that trend. Magic is a fun game, but the real appeal of tournament Magic is good times with friends in cities all over the world. Narrative reports are not only more entertaining, they're also more true. And there's so much magic content out there these days that nobody really needs another deck breakdown.

That said, there's not much of a story here. I live in Mountain View, which is a twenty minute train ride away from the ChannelFireball Game Center in Santa Clara. I qualified via Silver pro level. I woke up at eight, ate yogurt and some coffee cake for breakfast, played a match on Magic Online to warm up, and biked to the train station. I picked up some cards and sleeved my deck, and the tournament started shortly after.

My deck choice was, however, a little unusual. I inched my way into standard following the Pro Tour, and I couldn't find a deck I liked for a long time. BG with Mindwrack Demons and 4 Verdurous Gearhulk was too clunky, and I lost so many games because I drew a Blossoming Marsh, Traverse the Ulvenwald, or Hissing Quagmire when I needed an untapped land to cast a finisher. 4c Saheeli flooded a lot,  played so many low-impact cards, and everyone on Magic Online was ready for the combo. The mana and inherent inconsistency of the vehicle mechanic scared me away from Mardu. Every other deck felt an order of magnitude less powerful than these three, though I did enjoy a brief flirtation with a 5c Improvise brew.

Recent builds of the three big decks have obviously solved many of these problems, but since I didn't have much time to test I was looking to find rather than innovate.

The first deck I really liked was Oliver Tiu's BG build with Oath of Nissa, Sylvan Advocate, Nissas, no Mindwrack Demons, and a full 25 lands. Tiu's build maintained the power of the Delirium builds but played Gearhulk on 5 far more consistently, and it had even more nut draw potential with the full squad of Nissas. However, as 4c Saheeli decks began playing more copies of Chandra and her Oath, and as players began to figure out the control decks, I found I ultimately flooded too often with Oliver's list. When my opponents always killed my turn 2 Snake, my other cards were just too slow or too low-impact to do anything.

I shelved testing for a while, until I saw the list Ben Stark played in SCG Baltimore. It looked like Ben had solved all the problems of previous BG lists. By playing only 2 cards that cost 4 or more mana, Ben's list could play 4 Traverse the Ulvenwald while rarely missing key land drops. Gnarlwood Dryads helped break serve and further ameliorated the cost of playing so many tapped lands (counting Traverse as a land that comes into play tapped), and Grim Flayer was a real threat even without a Snake in play. Flayers and Traverses both mitigated flood. The list I ultimately played at the RPTQ was only a few cards off from Ben's:

4 Blooming Marsh 4 Evolving Wilds 4 Hissing Quagmire 6 Forest 4 Swamp

2 Gnarlwood Dryad 4 Grim Flayer 4 Winding Constrictor 4 Walking Ballista 2 Scrapheap Scrounger 3 Nissa, Voice of Zendikar 3 Rishkar, Peema Renegade 2 Tireless Tracker 1 Gonti, Lord of Luxury 2 Verdurous Gearhulk

4 Fatal Push 4 Traverse the Ulvenwald 2 Grasp of Darkness 1 Grapple with the Past

Sideboard: 1 Blossoming Defense 1 Gonti, Lord of Luxury 1 Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet 2 Natural Obsolescence 1 Natural State 1 Noxious Gearhulk 1 Ob Nixilis Reignited 2 Ruinous Path 1 Scrapheap Scrounger 1 Tireless Tracker 3 Transgress the Mind

By the week of the RPTQ, my friends were largely off BG because they didn't like its 4c Saheeli matchup and weren't sure how it fared against the new Mardu builds with Oath of Liliana in the sideboard. An actual conversation from the day of the RTPQ:

Still, I was winning these matchups way more often than I was losing online. I felt comfortable with the deck, I liked how it played, and I'd put a lot of practice into it. So I borrowed and bought some cards and was locked in by Thursday night.

My matches in the RTPQ:

loss 2-1 vs. BG win 2-0 vs. 4c Saheeli win 2-0 vs. Mardu Ballista win 2-1 vs. Mardu Ballista win 2-0 vs. Jeskai Saheeli draw win 2-0 vs. Jeskai Saheeli

Starting off with a loss was a little unfortunate, but thankfully my opponents all crushed their remaining matches and I not only could draw into top 8, but wound up third seed. My finals match was mercifully anticlimactic. In the first game, my opponent mulliganed to a mediocre hand and I had a great draw with little removal, a good distribution of lands and threats, and – most importantly – an unanswered Winding Constrictor on the play. In the second game, he mulliganed again but had a Radiant Flames on turn 4 for my 2 Grim Flayers. But I had a third Flayer which he couldn't answer after a Traverse and Evolving Wilds gave me Delirium, and that Flayer smoothed my draws for the remainder of the game. I had a Grasp of Darkness in hand for either combo or Torrential Gearhulk, but I only had 3 black mana, so for most of the game I forewent attacking with Hissing Quagmire to leave up Grasp. On the last turn, I drew a Trangress the Mind to see my opponent's hand of Immolating Glare and Negate, then activated my Quagmire and minused Nissa for lethal.

There were a few interesting spots in the tournament proper. In the first game of the second round, I had a mana-light draw and my opponent answered my first few threats, so all I had going was a Nissa against my opponent's Saheeli. My opponent's turns were so weak he almost certainly had Felidar Guardian in hand, but he didn't have white mana or a fourth land. So when he scried an Attune to the top and found Plains, I knew I was dead the following turn. I had both Grasp of Darkness and Fatal Push in hand, but only a single black mana and no way to trigger Revolt. So I minused Nissa to 1 on my two plants and attacked his Saheeli to 1, hoping he would kill Nissa with Saheeli's +1 before going for the combo. Thankfully he did, so I was able to Push his Guardian and then kill his Saheeli. I drew the lands for my Gearhulk, which carried me the rest of the way.

Round 4, I lost a quick game 1 after mulliganing into a hand with a bunch of Traverses that needed an instant or artifact for Delirium but never got there. On the play for game 2, I boarded into a fairly greedy configuration with all my Nissas and all my Scroungers because my opponent's sideboarding looked pretty involved and I figured I could afford to be more aggressive on the play even if my opponent didn't sideboard into planeswalker midrange. My hand for game 2 had a bunch of tapped lands and I skipped playing Grim Flayer on 2 to guarantee a turn 3 Nissa, which is normally an awful play because of Heart of Kiran, but I got rewarded when opponent curved Ballista into Oath of Liliana on my plant. Game 3, my opponent didn't touch his sideboard so I boarded even greedier despite being on the draw, removing my 2 remaining Fatal Pushes. That ultimately didn't matter though, after my opponent risked a one-lander on the play rather than mulligan to 5.

The game I'm most proud of this tournament was game 2 of round 5, against end boss Harold Chow. He surprised me with a Fevered Vision on the play which ultimately dealt me 12 damage, and I had to walk a tightrope of managing my hand size, beating him down, and playing around Torrential Gearhulk over a protracted game. The game was too long and complicated to describe in detail, and I may or may not have forgotten about a Scrapheap Scrounger in my graveyard for a couple turns during that balancing act. Even so, I was happy with how I'd played.

To conclude, a brief sideboarding guide against the major decks of the format. The usual caveat emptor of how sideboarding should depend on the exact cards in your opponent's deck, how your opponent plays, and how you think he'll sideboard applies in this format even more than others because of how much variation there is within archtypes. Still, I hope this guide will illustrate what's important in each matchup.  

BG on the play: -2 Walking Ballista -2 Gnarlwood Dryad -1 Rishkar, Peema Renegade -1 Grapple with the Past

+1 Ob Nixilis Reignited +1 Noxious Gearhulk +1 Gonti, Lord of Luxury +1 Tireless Tracker +2 Ruinous Path

on the draw: -1 Rishkar, Peema Renegade -1 Verdurous Gearhulk

+2 Gnarlwood Dryad

Basically, you want all your removal for big creatures and all your cards that are resilient to removal, since your opponent will likely be on a similar plan. Verdurous Gearhulk is a lot worse in this matchup postboard, as making an 8/8 is asking to get blown out by Ob Nixilis or Noxious Gearhulk and smaller creatures will often have traded or gotten picked off by turn 5.

Mirrors and pseudo-mirrors are defined by BG's high density of 2-drops. The player going first will almost always have a play on turn 2, and the player on the draw will often have to spend their second turn answering that threat rather than developing their own because leaving a Flayer or Snake in play is so risky. The Gnarlwood Dryads are excellent on the draw as they let you break that parity, but on the play you want to get ahead and stay ahead.

Mardu max greed: -4 Fatal Push -2 Grasp of Darkness -2 Rishkar, Peema Renegade -1 Verdurous Gearhulk -1 Walking Ballista

+3 Transgress the Mind +2 Ruinous Path +1 Natural State +1 Scrapheap Scrounger +1 Gonti, Lord of Luxury +1 Tireless Tracker +1 Blossoming Defense

min greed: -3 Nissa, Voice of Zendikar -2 Scrapheap Scrounger -1 Grapple with the Past -1 Gonti, Lord of Luxury

+2 Ruinous Path +2 Natural Obsolescence +1 Natural State +1 Blossoming Defense +1 Tireless Tracker

Sideboarding in this matchup is tricky because you have to guess whether your opponent is sideboarding into a midrange deck or if she'll stay aggressive with Hearts of Kiran. The max greed configuration is if you know your opponent is playing the exact GP Utrecht list and will always transform. The min greed configuration is if you think your opponent will resubmit her game 1 deck. In practice, you want to be somewhere between the two configurations based on what cards you saw from your opponent, whether you're on the play or the draw, and how far you think your opponent will commit to the planeswalker plan. (Eg. if you think they might leave in Hearts or Scroungers but also board in Oath of Lilianas.) The cards you want against the two setups are wildly divergent, so the key is trimming rather than cutting for game 2 and reconfiguring again for game 3 if the match comes to that.

4c Saheeli on the play: -2 Gnarlwood Dryad -2 Fatal Push -1 Nissa, Voice of Zendikar -1 Rishkar, Peema Renegade -1 Grapple with the Past -1 Gonti, Lord of Luxury

+3 Transgress the Mind +2 Ruinous Path +1 Kalitas, Traitor to Ghet +1 Scrapheap Scrounger +1 Tireless Tracker

on the draw: -2 Nissa, Voice of Zendikar -1 Verdurous Gearhulk

+2 Gnarlwood Dryad +1 Rishkar, Peema Renegade

Push is unreliable as it only kills Servant without Revolt, and Nissa dies quite easily between thopters, Oath of Chandra damage, and Saheeli. Gonti and Grapple are just weak cards in the matchup. I leave a couple Push in because I value the tempo a Revolted Push on a 3-drop or Guardian generates, and Nissa on the play is still quite powerful. I want to max out on interaction with planeswalkers, as that's how 4c Saheeli usually wins. Kalitas is a little vulnerable to Chandra, but while he's in play 4c Saheeli can no longer block favorably.

Gnarlwood Dryads again show up on the draw but not the play because on the draw they let you develop against a Servant of the Conduit without mortal fear of a turn 3 Chandra. Even if 4c Saheeli doesn't have a Servant, the Dryads will still let you break the parity of 2-mana removal for 2-mana creatures and make it more difficult for your opponent to set up Chandra against a single creature. The Dryads aren't necessary on the play because you'll have had more opportunities to develop before Chandra becomes relevant.  

Temur Tower -4 Fatal Push -2 Gnarlwood Dryad -2 Walking Ballista -2 Rishkar, Peema Renegade -1 Verdurous Gearhulk

+3 Transgress the Mind +2 Natural Obsolescence +1 Natural State +1 Ob Nixilis Reignited +1 Gonti, Lord of Luxury +1 Tireless Tracker +1 Blossoming Defense +1 Scrapheap Scrounger

No shenanigans here, just bad cards out and good cards in. The only debatable part of this plan is leaving in Grasps of Darkness, but I like them because they both kill the Whirler Virtuosos and Shielded Aether Thieves the Tower deck will have postboard and let you win combat against Torrential Gearhulk.

I'm not playing GP New Jersey because of school, but if I were I'd likely play the same 75. The only change I'd make is moving the Kalitas to the maindeck over either the Gonti or a Verdurous Gearhulk. Kalitas is an excellent game 1 card against almost everything, and the mirror, where Gonti and Gearhulk are best, is much less common now.

Thanks for reading. I didn't think I'd qualify for the Pro Tour again after starting school, so I'm pretty ecstatic.

props: Jake, for lending me Grim Flayers and his luckiest Grapple with the Past Nathan, for reminding me play-draw matters the group chat, for being great CFB, for an excellently run tournament Tireless Tracker, for never getting tired slops: Hunter, for ever doubting medium GB Felidar Guardian, Winding Constrictor, and Heart of Kiran, because why

[goats-and-coffee]

2 #MoneyFoodSoap

Bonoite  y'all!

Now that I've got internet figured out this will be a more regular time to get an email, at least until training finishes (at which point I need to figure out what my data plan is going to be/ if I'm getting another SIM card with a different provider etc.). I have my computer, my phone from home and I can make them usable with the nifty hotspot on the PC phone and up to a gig of data on our plan.

First things first, vocabulary! Bondia- good morning (used until 11:30/12) Botarde- good afternoon (used until it is dark outside) Bonoite- you're smart (matenek), take a guess Ate logu- see ya later Ate orsida- see ya later today Ate aban see ya tomorrow Mana- sister Maun- brother I'm speaking tetum so much I am unable to recall Spanish, though it helps me remember the Portuguese words. Also I'll sometimes prepare what I'm planning on saying to someone in my head and then remember they speak English. I've started just think in Tetum

Weather: Hot. Always warm, the locals say it gets cold at night but I'm always explaining that where I come from this is warm. I'm never aware of the temp but I think up to 90 in the day and down to 72 in the night? Generally clear, sometimes cloudy, usually hazy from folks burning fires for cooking, to get rid of trash, and for farming in preparation for the rainy season.

Where am I? I'm in the aldeia (neighborhood) of Sucalau within the suco (county) of Dare in the Districtu (state) of Dili. I'll be here for another six weeks (time is flying by!) and we don't find out until my next update where we will be for good.

What on earth am I doing here? I'm in the Community Economic Development, and we have three goals (not to be confused with the PC's three goals). Succinctly: income generating activities, nutrition, and hygiene. Or: money, food, soap. So what am I learning? These past two weeks we revisited our keyhole gardens and learned why they're great for our program, learned about WaSH (water sanitation and hygiene), talked to local businesses, talked about SWOT and Appreciative Inquiry, and have been practicing using PACA tools.

Keyhole gardens are especially great because they are very productive (feeds family of five and then some), they are resistant to the extreme weather conditions, and you can use grey water via the compost basket when the water isn't really here. So like now, since we are coming at the end of the dry season.  I have plenty of drinking water but sometimes we wait to do laundry.

The local businesses Sucalau and Fatunaba talked to were the museum and the catfish shop. The museum is open on weekends and the owner sells coffee and grilled cheese sandwiches. There is a super interesting history that involves the previous First Lady, missing money and the UN. But that's all I will say. The owner of the fish store nearby started with a gift of a startup set up from her son two years ago and she sells the fish for $1/2 dollars each and someone up the hill farms more fish that replenish her supply at no cost and the water she refills the tank with is from the river and free. She uses the money for her daily household expenses and is very proud of her business.

PACA stands for Participatory Analysis for Community Action and basically means that the community is involved in the needs assessment and the projects that come from it which ensures its relevance and sustainably. The tools we have been practicing using are community mapping (where community members draw a map of the community noting where they go, how often and where they don't go and there's discussion around it), daily activities (talking about what they do on a daily basis), seasonal calendar (what's available when) and a straight up needs assessment. They all are really fun to facilitate although a struggle with limited language skills. But we always have at least three people who can translate. Some of the biggest issues in Fatunaba were the schools not being good enough, the water, the clinic being far away, transportation, and industry/jobs not being here. In that order according to our participants. That is what we got from the needs assessment, the most recent one we did.

I still don't know what I will be doing for my site placement until next week as well. I told them I have experience with assessing needs for the youth group at Planned Parenthood and that I can't be much warmer than the temperature we are at in Dare, so I probably won't be on the coast.

Halloween and Loron Matebian So since Halloween isn't celebrated here, the other trainees and some staff were planning on doing a "hike to the waterfall". An hour/hour and a half each way. Many of us thought that meant like going from our place to one of the training centers and back. Turns out we were going up and down very steep hills, many of which if you miss a step, that's it. We left the meeting spot around one (after an extra half hour walk for us Sucalau folks) we got back around seven. Six hours. With maybe 45 minutes tops at the waterfall. I am not in the shape that it takes to do a hike at the level that hike was. Oh also the shortcut we missed took us back through Sucalau first so sorry to the Santa Cruz and Fila Be Ba Tua folks that had an extra half hour at the end. I was laughing at everything from exhaustion and immediately prepared a bottle of Oral Rehydration therapy (like Gatorade but flavorless...mmmm electrolytes). Then, since Reza (prayer) was at my house I got to have everyone laugh at me because I was tired and it was very far. It's a good thing that waterfall was beautiful because that was a once in a lifetime hike. Never again. The next day was Loron Matebian, which translates literally to Day of the Dead, but apparently is called All Souls Day in English. It's also pretty similar in concept to Dia de Los Muertos. We ate, went to mass and then took the flowers and candles to the cemetery to pay respects. I like going to mass and participating in Reza, although mostly because of the community aspect and the kids. The other day I sang at the celebration of St Francis Xavier with the kids and some moms. In Tetum.

Shaking things up~

I don't know if you heard but there were a few earthquakes in Indonesia that reached us this week. Separate from the one in Pakistan. The first one was first thing in the morning and  I thought a truck was speeding down the hill and maybe something hit the house. Later in the afternoon, when I was looking for information on it another struck and caused minor damage. No one in Timor got hurt from what I know and everyone in PC is fine. There was no tsunami threat. They originated about 70km away with a M5.7 and M6.2 respectively. All good in the neighborhood. I'm more scared of an earthquake in Seattle than here. Anything else? Oh! #nodevelopmentwithoutflipchartpaper comes from my noticing how much flip chart paper we were going through during training and asking a Technical Trainer about how much we go through. She said that I don't want to know and that her friend came up with the hashtag joke. You don't do this work or campus organizing without a ton of butcher/flip chart paper. And hopefully you get #moneyfoodsoap.

Ate logu!

[dgmpains]

Mana would definitely dress up as Santa during the Holiday Season. I want to draw Allen sitting on Mana’s (Santa Claus’s) lap, but for now have this cute comic of Allen meeting Santa.