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edh-a-to-z · 7 years ago

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Budget EDH - Tajic, Blade of the Legion

Check it out here: (deck link)

Hail planeswalker!

I had been working on a deck tech for Angus Mackenzie (the next in my series of alphabetical commanders, coming soon!) when I realized something.

It’s crazy prices - Angus alone is over 150. Crazy expensive manabase (for maximum effectiveness), and basically pricey overall.

So, I wanna see if I can make a deck out of spare parts. Spare parts and under $50 dollars. So, here we go!

Tajic is a straightforward commander - get some dudes on the board, smash in.

We need Voltron parts, Tokens to go wide (plus go-wide support), some utility cards, and a cheap mana base. Let’s get to it!

Voltron

Our plan is to get Tajic out, soup him up, and lay waste.

We want evasion, haste, and damage. Luckily, Tajic is indestructible, which makes him much stickier - we can get away with leaving him around.

We want Tajic to swing through without problems, so that means unblockable on trample, and we need to pile on the damage (we also want him swinging at +5/+5, but that’s a token problem).

For unblockability, we need Spectra Ward. Protection from all colors is functionally unblockable. Hot Soup doesn’t have a downside for us, Whispersilk Cloak is great, and Rogue’s Passage are great and cheap.

Inquisitor’s Flail has no downside and doubles it’s equipped creatures damage, and Sword of Vengeance gives us a boatload of buffs. Relic Seeker is a cheap option to fetch us equipment, and Thalia’s Lancers can fetch us any legendary including Tenza, Godo’s Maul which works great with Tajic.

Open the Armory and Godo, Bandit Warlord are cheap tutors.

Tokens

Captain of the Watch; by Greg Staples

Sunhome Guildmage can pop out hastey tokens and buff the team. Captain of the Watch is one of my pet cards, as she’s a one-man army and buff. Myr Battlesphere can bring an army and clear blockers, Trading Post gives you options and very scary 0/1 goats (that can attack!), Chancellor of the Forge is a fatty with tokens, Darien King of Kjeldor just went down in price. Conqueror's Pledge, Nomad’s Assembly, and Increasing Devotion are one-card armies

Paying to make tokens with Master Trinketeer, Oketra the True, and Drogskol Cavalry are also options.

There’s also some options for tokens not involving creatures. Assemble the Legion, Mobilization are great.

Utility

Cast Out, Banishing Light and Oblivion Ring are some great removal options.

While we wanna avoid board sweepers, as we’re so devoted to the board, we wanna try out a few - it’s not like Tajic will die! While OG Wrath is over budget, we can consider Rout and Sublime Exhalation. Solid choices both, and both budget.

Rapid fire:

Draw from Staff of Nin, Mentor of the Meek, Magus of the Wheel and Skullclamp is a must.

Firemane Angel and Frontline Medic are great Battalion creatures.

Forsake the Worldly, Oblation, Swords to Plowshares, Condemn, Darksteel Mutation, Duergar Hedge-Mage,

Marshal’s Anthem and Cathar’s Crusade are THE anthems.

Adriana Captain of the Guard wants you to hit everyone, and Nobilis of War and Veteran Swordsmith make sure your tokens hit hard. Bring in Phantom General and Intangible Virtue as well.

On the defense, use Pariah on Tajic (he can take it!), and Plea For Guidance to get that (and any other) enchantments.

Chandra, Flamecaller nets you cards and can spam out creatures.

Stonecloaker, Sun Titan, Archon of Justice, Boros Guildmage, Twilight Shepherd, Hellkite Charger and Hoard-Smelter Dragon I didn’t feel like sorting. But they’re fun.

Mana Base

This is gonna be interesting.

Take a look at all those dual lands. Rugged Prarie, Sacred Foundry, Plateau. Look at them and weep.

We’re a guildgate kinda deck.

Start with 15 Mountains and 15 Plains. Plus Evolving Wilds and Terramorphic Expanse. Then Needle Spires, Boros Guildgate and Garrison, Wind-Scarred Crag, Slayer’s Stronghold also help. Add some cycling lands and cheap utility lands as you see fit.

On the manarock side of things, we use Boros Keyrune and Cluestone, Darksteel Ingot, Commander’s Sphere and Mindstone for some light ramping.

After Building the Deck

We want Tajic, our commander, to hit the ground turn 4, and by turn 5 be a swinging 7/7. With some help, he should be able to kill another player with commander damage in 2-3 good swings. We also need him activated. If that means we swing in with a 0/1 Goat and a 1/1 Solider, do it. Make tokens often and fast - swarming is our backup plans. Don’t worry about board wipes, we have so many bodies on the field it’s easy to come back.

Bargain with your opponents - especially one’s in White or Black who can exile or -X/-X Tajic. Our only real fear is that, or Pacifism.

Diplomacy is quick and hard in EDH, and time your attacks to kill someone with another’s help.

Once you go a couple rounds with this deck, take it apart and analyze what works for you. Add some better cards from your collection, or experiment with some bulk you have.

Tajic, Blade of the Legion; by James Ryman

So, there you have it. Under 50 bucks. Uses a lot of EDH staples that can be used later, and can easily be upgraded to a more token based strategy, or a better equipment package.

Well campers, that was fun. If you want me to feature another budget commander, let me know! Questions, comments, ideas, hit me with it, I’m always looking for stuff in my inbox!

#mtg #edh #edhatoz #commander #tajic blade of the legion #atoz commander #budget commander #budget edhatoz #budget edh

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leighlikescartoons · 7 years ago

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A Look at ReBoot: The Guardian Code (Official Trailer)

Now, I’ve never watched the original ReBoot, it was a little before my time. It started airing after the era of cartoons I’m drawn to (60′s-80′s) and stopped airing before my memory started cataloging any information. I feel the need to say that because of just how disappointed everyone who did watch Reboot seem to be.

I also love Power Rangers. My favorite series, that isn’t animated, is Power Rangers Jungle Fury. The ridiculous fights, gratuitous explosions, and almost good, but still nacho cheesy dialogue is the guiltiest of guilty pleasure for me. ReBoot: The Guardian Code looks like a show that will be stuffed full and ready to burst with just that.

The trailer opens with who can only be the villain. A dark, dingy warehouse, things all over the floor. Zip-up hoodie, black, hood up and walking towards a computer with 6-8 monitors of various shades of purple. Typing on one keyboard and hitting enter on the other. Oh yeah, there’s no doubt in my mind. This guy is a hacker and a good one at that. They’re not pulling out any stops with this villain straight out of the 90′s.

Cut to... a school. Well, of course it’s a school, cause it’s gonna be one of those shows. Kids love shows set in high-school for whatever reason. “Alan Turing High, only the most tech progressive school in the city,” one of the main characters says into the front facing camera of a smartphone. Landscape, but upturned just slight, so the actual camera can get a good sweeping shot of her talking mechanically into what I can only assume is her vlog.

Ok... a few things right off the bat. First and foremost, “the most tech progressive school in the city.” What city? How many tech progressive schools are in your city? You know this is fictional right? Dude lie. Most tech progressive school in the state, country, world! You picked city? You may as well have said “Most tech progressive school on this street. Boo. Second, she’s talking into a front facing smart phone. If you’re gonna go cheesy, go cheesy baby. Make it a camcorder in one hand, while she’s idly scrolling through a PDA in the other. Remember PDA’s? How can you not put one in a show like this? I mean, come on.

“Nothing happens on the first day of school!” Except mad dunks and a kid moving into the basketball court because it’s his house now. I have to give props to vlog girl, because she nailed the newtuber vibe. The, ‘I’ll just point a camera at myself and hope for the best. Charisma? Naaaaah don’t need that. I’ll just go with the monotone approach. Will I be entertaining? We’ll see.’.

Austin and Parker get reassigned to homeroom “0″ and there’s this great fadecut. It’s quite possibly my favorite moment in any trailer I’ve ever seen. The duo look at each other, the scene fades to... a scene where they’re standing in the exact same positions staring at each other in the exact same way. It only lasts a second before Austin pulls Parker closer in a sort of half-hug, but it’s fantastic. Bravo to who ever edited the trailer together.

So then they get transported into, what I can only assume is the cyber-world. They’ve got a great color scheme. Red, Green, Blue, and Yellow. Where have I seen this before? Anyways, I have a strong feeling that Austin, the lanky kid that looks like the “Caucasian 1″ preset in every video game ever, all decked out in red is probably going to be the leader. Then there’s Trey, the one who moved into the Basketball Court in blue, who’s going to be the hot headed second in command. He’ll probably have an episode where he gets mad and runs off to deal with the bad guy alone only to get saved by everyone else with a big ‘ol “We’re a team!” message at the end. Then there’s Parker, short and in green. He’s be the dorky one. Well, they’re all dorks, but he’ll be the extra dorky one who knows every little thing about everything. Finally Tamra, the vlogger in yellow. She’ll almost definitely be... the girl who most likely won’t do anything remarkable because the writers don’t actually know how to write a cool girl character. You just write her the same as you would write a cool guy character, it’s not that hard. But I’m rooting for you Tamra, hopefully you’ll get to be more than the girl that red and blue both have a crush on and end up fighting over. Because that’s lame.

Then comes VERA. An artificial intelligence that gets put into a physical body. My favorite type of character. No, it actually is, like no sarcasm. Aya, from Green Lantern the Animated Series? Fantastic. She saved Hal, Razor, and Kilowag more than once. Great character. Plus it adds to that cheesy factor I just really adore.

Finally we have a good look at the action and what the animation will look like while various characters spout lines in the background giving vague plot points. This part of the trailer is important because it tells you a few things. A) This is a cheesy high-schoolers saving the world type show and you can’t really expect much out of it. 2) The bad guy is trying to... do something for... a reason. C) The action scenes are going to be worth any painful dialogue and jokes that come along with the cheesy premise.

All in all, I’m pretty excited. If this show aired Week-to-Week, I wouldn’t even bother, but since Netflix picked it up, it’ll shape up to be a few enjoyable mornings worth of television.

#Reboot #Reboot Reboot #The Guardian Code #Series #Show #Animation #Animated #Cartoon #Cartoons #cgi #CGI animation #Seires #Netflix #Original #Trailer #Official #Review #power ranger #cheesy

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auburnfamilynews · 6 years ago

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North Alabama @ #24 Auburn

Tuesday: 8 – 7 W/11

Talk about a bullet dodged. Auburn found themselves down 5-0 after just an inning and a half of play to the North Alabama Lions and then was down to their final out needing a run down 7-6 in the 9th. Both times the Auburn Offense answered the call and the Tigers finished the Midweek portion of the schedule with an 8-7 victory. Auburn finishes with an 8-5 midweek mark which is good enough for this year I believe. The story of this evening though was Richard Fitts, who only faced 3 batters Saturday against Georgia before being lifted but answered the bell when Brooks Fuller couldn’t find his rhythm in the 2nd inning. Fitts went on to go 6.1 giving up a run on 4 hits with 8 Ks. Will Holland went 2 for 4 to continue his heat up and Steven Williams matched him at the .500 mark for the evening and put in 3 RBIs for his efforts. The Tigers headed down for Baton Rouge yesterday morning and get set to take on LSU in a pivotal SEC Series at the Tigers look for that signature road series victory to close the season.

Strong relief effort from @TheFitts43 last night. The freshman retired 12 straight and 18 of 19 in his outing.#WarEagle | #Attack pic.twitter.com/hBkVMeuiLS

— Auburn Baseball (@AuburnBaseball) May 15, 2019

Around the League

#2 Vanderbilt

vs Middle Tennessee St, TUE: 5-2 W

Not much to see here as Vandy does Vandy things and gets the coasting win. The Dores look to wrap up the Regular Season Title on Friday night against Kentucky if they win tonight.

#4 Mississippi State

vs Louisiana Tech, TUE: 7-3 W

Really nice gesture by State against the Bulldogs as tickets were free to the game and they asked fans to donate money to go towards the relief efforts in Ruston following the Tornado that ran through campus, including La Tech’s baseball park. If you haven’t seen the pictures, they are absolutely heartbreaking. Good win for State and now they host the Gamecocks who are desperate for a win.

GAMEDAY! The @SalvationArmyUS will be accepting monetary donations at tonight's game to support the Ruston, La. community! : La. Tech : #NewDude ⏰: 6:30 PM CT / : https://t.co/kRuJAqpfcv : https://t.co/KSgvKZSgMn : https://t.co/2d62jujgeb : FREE!#HailState pic.twitter.com/yXTjJ52LVl

— Mississippi State Baseball ⚾️ (@HailStateBB) May 14, 2019

#14 LSU

vs New Orleans, TUE: 7-5 W

Another touch and go game for LSU as the offense was spotty but when they put up numbers, they were crooked for the win. Now LSU prepares to host Auburn for what will be an interesting series to say the least. Who will get the opportune hits…that will be the decider in this one.

#18 Tennessee

vs Tennessee Tech, TUE: 7-4 W

Strike up another in-state win for the Vols as they head to the Grove to take on a suddenly reeling Ole Miss team. This truly is a must in for Ole Miss after a bombshell weekend against state. Game 1 is on the SEC Network if you don’t wanna watch the Tigers.

Kentucky

vs Michigan, TUE: 7-4 W

There goes a solid win for the Cats and what a week for it to come. Michigan was in the running for an at-large bid earlier this season but has fallen off as the rugged Big 10 schedule (tongue directly in cheek) took its toll but it’s still a name and a good win for Kentucky. Now the Cats prepare to host Vandy…good luck!

Alabama

vs Samford, TUE: 4-2 W

Alabama gets good momentum as they head to Athens to take on Georgia and looks to extend their season by at least one game.

South Carolina

vs USC-Upstate, TUE: 1-0 W

South Carolina caps off the clean sweep for the midweek for the conference with a 1-0 winner. That’s about all to say for this one, as now the Gamecocks, Tide and Cats get set to do battle for one good 9 innings to get to Hoover.

On Deck (with SEC Schedule and this week’s C&M Top 25 Rankings)

*ALL GAMES ARE THURSDAY – SATURDAY*

#2 Vanderbilt @ Kentucky

South Carolina @ #3 Mississippi State

#4 Arkansas @ #15 Texas A&M

Alabama @ #6 Georgia

#17 Tennessee @ #23 Ole Miss

Florida @ #21 Missouri

#24 Auburn @ #22 LSU

A lot of compelling matchups but only 3 top 25 matchups this weekend. Each contest has drama built in to it though so it will be a lot of fun to follow as the games happen around the same time all three days. As for Auburn and LSU, the Louisiana version of the Tigers have had an up and down season so it’s hard to truly know what you are going to get from week to week. LSU looked out classed against Arkansas last weekend but took 2 of 3 from State at the Dude earlier this season. Auburn is mixing up their starters this weekend, giving Jack Owen and Tanner Burns a complete week of rest going into these games and having Elliott Anderson start game 1 tonight against LSU. The Fightin’ Tigers will throw Sophomore righty Eric Walker against Anderson. Walker brings in a 4-4 record with a 5.21 ERA. Friday night Jack Owen will face right hander Landon Marceaux who has a 3-2 mark and a 6.56 ERA. LSU is TBA for Saturday but they will more than likely throw either Zack Hess (3-4, 4.99 ERA) or Ma’Khail Hilliard (0-3, 5.70 ERA) in that game but we shall see. At the plate, LSU is batting .271 as a team and is paced by 4 guys batting over .300. Josh Smith is the toughest out, batting .345 with 7 bombs. He is trailed by Zach Watson (.317), Antoine Duplantis (.314) and Daniel Cabrera (.301 and leads the team in HRs with 12). As far as a prediction this one is a complete toss up to me. Auburn could come out and be the team we’ve been waiting for them to be for a couple of months, or LSU could do the same. Either way it will be fun to see what happens as we get set for Hoover.

from College and Magnolia - All Posts https://www.collegeandmagnolia.com/2019/5/16/18627826/midweek-round-up-north-alabama

#IFTTT #Blogger #auburn #auburn fast #wareagle #AuburnFamilyNews #war eagle #sec #football news #aubu

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animeride-blog · 7 years ago

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Vatican Kiseki Chousakan Episode 1&2 Review https://animeride.com/arspecial/4454/vatican-kiseki-chousakan-episode-12-review/ #Blog, #Episode12, #Review, #TheVaticanMiracleExaminer, #VaticanKisekiChousakan

New Post has been published on https://animeride.com/arspecial/4454/vatican-kiseki-chousakan-episode-12-review/

Vatican Kiseki Chousakan Episode 1&2 Review

“I would have gotten away with it too, if it weren’t for you meddling priests!”

Based on a series of novels written by Rin Fujiki and illustrated by THORES Shibamoto, the Vatican Miracle Examiner (Vatican Kiseki Chōsakan) anime had the premiere of its first two episodes on Tuesday.

Vatican Miracle Examiner revolves around servants of God Kō Josef Hiraga—an American of Japanese descent—and Robert Nicholas—an Italian man. Both are priests, and despite their fantasy-like robes, this anime takes place in the present day. The catholic priests aren’t just any normal religious men. They’re miracle examiners for the Vatican, investigating so-called miracles around the world and proving them false in order to solve cases.

In the first episode, we are introduced to the first caper. People living at a Catholic boarding school in the United States are mysteriously being afflicted with the “stigma,” in this case, stigma meaning marks bloody holes in hands resembling the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ. One of the people affected was one of the sisters, who—according to her—has been impregnated by God as a virgin, similar to Mary in the Bible. Strangely enough, she is indeed twelve weeks pregnant, but her hymen is in tact. In addition, a series of gruesome murders begins occurring at the school, and seemingly reacting to this tragedy, the statue of Mary in the church begins crying actual tears—something one of the school’s priests deems a “miracle.”

Now, Hiraga and Robert might seem kind of like anti-Catholic party poopers for trying to disprove miracles in the world, but what’s most interesting about their work is that they’re debunking these occurrences in order to protect their faith. For example, because having more than one child of God would break down the foundation of the religion as a whole, both Hiraga and Robert are determined to find out what exactly happened to her. By proving miracles as false, it makes possible real miracles more meaningful. Hiraga and Robert want to believe in real miracles—especially Hiraga, whose younger brother is ill and wheelchair-bound.

Because this is the present day, the two use modern methods to complete their missions. They fly on airplanes to reach their mission destinations, and Hiraga is constantly using a laptop to send emails to his confidante at the Vatican, Lauren (who is a dude), for information. And speaking of technology, man, is the Vatican itself decked out in high-tech gadgets! Not only does the facility have an eye-scanner lock like you would see in spy movies, but once you go behind the high-security doors, there’s an entire “Vatican Information Bureau” filled with tech-savvy priests in robes searching for supposed miracles happening around the world on their computers. The combination of the rustic Vatican mixed with the advanced technology of the present is an interesting one.

In the production value department, Vatican Miracle Examiner is a pleasure to experience. The music is made up of Catholic-inspired melodies and rearrangements of hymns, including those like Ave Maria. While most of the music is fairly somber, it noticeably uses a more jazzy tune in some scenes to sound more “mystery”-like, giving it a more of a Clue or Scooby Doo vibe overall.

But what cannot be ignored in this series is its backgrounds. From the grand Catholic structures to the gloomy, mysterious European landscapes, each background is made with love and detail. The premiere screening, which did not have the opening sequence complete in time, was instead a reedited version of the director’s research footage from Italy that he took when preparing for the work. When seeing the real life footage put side-by-side with the backgrounds, it’s obvious how much work was put into them.

Each volume of the original Vatican Miracle Examiner light novel sends the priests to new locations like Africa, Britain, Norway, and Mexico in order to solve mysteries surrounding so-called miracles. It’s hard to tell at the pace the show is going if it will cover more than just the first volume’s serial murder case, but it would be interesting to see how the visuals and possibly music would change if they got that far.

Overall, Vatican Miracle Examiner packs a powerful mystery with intriguing themes and elements that will keep me watching past the first episode. Even as someone of not strong faith, the connections between religion and the mortal world have my attention.

Vatican Miracle Examiner will premiere in Japan on July 7. Streaming is planned for the United States through Amazon’s Anime Strike service.

HOPE YOU ENJOYED THE POST !

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#Blog #Episode 12 #Review #The Vatican Miracle Examiner #Vatican Kiseki Chousakan

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itsworn · 7 years ago

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Totally Custom, Top-Notch Pro Touring 1968 Camaro

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to build a phenomenal car. After meeting Jim Gloe, we think it takes a nuclear engineer.

Yes, that’s right; Jim’s a real nuclear engineer. And that’s his real name. But what’s important here is that he built a 1968 Camaro to basically reactor specs. Like 316-series stainless—it’s all over the car in the form of brackets and tabs. Ever seen welds in a car done to ASME XI specs? Well now you have.

The affair began in 1972 with another ’68 that he bought at the ripe ol’ age of 14. “It had an LS6,” he says. “Which, frankly, stands for Long Straight 6, which in my situation, was a 230ci straight-six.” But he traded that one for a Vega, which he at least built to Pro Street specs. But the first-gen Camaro that got away was always in the back of his mind.

“In the year 2000, my wife and I decided to build a ground-up 1968 Camaro,” Jim begins. And this time he swore to do it the way we always promise ourselves. As in, “This time, it shall be without the limits and financial constraints I endured as a young kid.” Only unlike most of us, he actually did it.

That Jim fabricated his own rotisserie then commenced a program of bagging and tagging everything that came off the car, documenting the disassembly with more than 600 photos, should set the stage for how this build went.

After he disassembled the car, he delivered the major components to Detroit Speed Inc. There, the car got all N.O.S. beltline sheetmetal. Then it underwent modifications dictated more by function than simply form. For example, a cowl-induction hood would’ve accommodated the tall-deck big-block but at the expense of a higher center of gravity. So the DSE crew sectioned the crossmember for pan clearance and relieved it for header and pulley space to mount the engine lower.

A trip to DSE is usually what defines a car’s nature. And make no mistake; this car’s all the better for it. But it was the work by Jim and Tony Goodrich from Tony’s Rod and Custom that really sets the car apart.

For example, the 316-series stainless mentioned before has most of the tensile strength of 4130 and the corrosion resistance of stainless. They’re properties that make the material abundant in the reactor world (and expensive everywhere).

And that’s only the tip of the iceberg. Reactors have redundancies, so Jim built it into various components. Like the car has a key switch in the event that the pushbutton starter fails. To hedge his bets, he even used gold-plated terminals. This kind of caution inspired him to do something kind of unheard of in the weight- (and style) conscious world of street machines: he carries a spare tire. The dude even created the fuel filler in the likeness of an ASME Class I flange, a design used in leak-sensitive assemblies. You know, like nuclear reactors.

Speaking of leaking, the headers won’t. Ever. Dissatisfied with production header gaskets, Jim contracted Percy’s High Performance to build six-layer gaskets from dead-soft aluminum. Of which, you and I can now buy at Summit Racing (PN PHP-66089, if you’re curious).

The engine is even one-offed for function sake. Jim runs a Ram Jet manifold, which fits only short-deck engines. He had Wilson Manifolds’ shop foreman Tony modify it to fit the engine and shorten it to fit under the hood. He also shaved the redundant bosses, webs, and center fuel rail.

Ever pragmatic, Jim participated in a kind of apprenticeship with his own car under the tutelage of Tony Goodrich at Tony’s Rod and Custom. They employed custom techniques to refine the car mechanically. For example, they cut and modified the sheetmetal to eliminate the body shims that the factory used for expediency. Rather than being a bolt-on, the rear spoiler is now an integral part of the trunk thanks to Tony. Though the lid is admittedly heavier than stock, Jim took it as an opportunity to fabricate stronger springs in the form of stainless gas struts that he had made in Germany. He kept the stock hood hinges, replacing the coils with similar struts that attach directly to the hood. The philosophy being that it’s the load path rather than the hinges themselves that cause panel-alignment issues.

And rather than spending a bunch of money to hide things like plumbing, Jim spent a bunch of money on Swagelok components. Components he encounters daily in reactors. Components that will never fail in the course of this car’s activities.

Naturally, he used top-shelf fasteners, even making a few from ARP components where production ones didn’t exist. Oh, and get this: where torque specs didn’t exist, he created them.

And it wasn’t just mechanical stuff that he went overboard on. For example, rather than invest a ton of time perfecting pot-metal faux hood vents, he worked with Dean Rodgers and Baumgartner Race Cars to design and whittle functional ones from billet aluminum.

Even the 572 emblems were designed with a custom typeface then cut from brass stock and hand-shaped before being chrome-plated.

This car is made special by things one just can’t buy. Like rather than send the car for upholstery, Jim and wife, Geralyn, invited Scott and Gary Long to stay at their house, erecting an impromptu sewing room in their living room and a workshop in their basement.

And it’s not just their work that makes the cockpit stand out. Jim used a Hurst shifter to fabricate his own shift housing. It’s actually a Powertrain Control Solutions Simple Shift that selects gears.

Is Jim Gloe’s Camaro overkill? Of course it is. But so are a lot of cars that we feature.

The subtle difference here is that this car’s overkill testifies to its creator’s interests and skills. This is a build that follows the design axiom: form follows function, where the look of something is dictated by its components. Also following high-design principles is the honesty; Jim didn’t hide anything. “We wanted the guts to show,” he observes. What makes it extra interesting is that Jim kept various components that most people replace with fancier ones (hood hinges, for one), investing the savings in places where they mattered more to him (the Swagelok stuff, for another).

The rest of us won’t build a car to reactor specs. Nay, we shouldn’t. Because that wouldn’t be true to us. And honestly, it’s probably not true to us to do things to a car just because other people do them.

But we can all take away something from Jim Gloe’s build. Primarily, that we should do things that reflect our own interests and skills. Because it really doesn’t take a nuclear engineer to build a car that stands out; it just takes someone who’s willing to put a little bit of themselves into whatever they do.

Tech Check

Owner: Jim and Geralyn Gloe, Fulton, Missouri

Vehicle: 1968 Camaro

Engine

Type: Chevrolet Performance big-block

Displacement: 572 ci

Compression Ratio: 9.6:1

Bore: 4.560 inches

Stroke: 4.375 inches

Cylinder Heads: Edelbrock rectangular port

Camshaft: Lunati grind RRB1-234-244 (0.575-inch lift, 234/244-deg. duration at 0.050-inch)

Induction: Ram Jet 502 modified by Wilson Manifolds, Arizona Speed & Marine throttle body, FAST XFI ECU, 60-lb/hr high-Z EV1 injectors in full-sequential mode with 10-degree opening retard

Ignition: FAST dual-sync distributor, MSD 6A digital ignition

Exhaust: Custom-built 2-inch primary headers with 3.5-inch collectors with stainless 0.065-wall 3-inch pipes and Borla mufflers

Output: 638 hp

Drivetrain

Transmission: 4L80E built by Gordon Stoney, supervising engineer of Hydramatic Division

Rear Axle: GM 14-bolt with Torino-style axle ends, Truetrac limited-slip, 3.55:1 gears, Moser 33-spline axleshafts

Chassis

Steering: DSE 600-series Saginaw

Front Suspension: DSE with stock drum spindles and Addco 1 1/8-inch antiroll bar custom bent to clear Milodon oil pan

Rear Suspension: DSE QUADRALink

Brakes: Baer/Alcon drilled/slotted 13.5-inch rotors with six-piston, staggered-bore monoblock calipers, front; Baer SS4+ 13-inch drilled/slotted rotors with polished hats, four-piston calipers, rear

Wheels & Tires

Wheels: Budnik Tiller 5 (custom cut for caliper clearance) 17×8 (4.875-inch backspace) front, 18×12.5 (7.25-inch backspace) rear

Tires: BFGoodrich G-Force Rival S, 245/40 front, 335/30 rear

Interior

Upholstery: Luxor II Ultraleather

Seats: Fourth-gen Camaro, custom trimmed

Door panels: Fesler, modified with speaker bosses

Steering Wheel: Budnik

Instrumentation: AutoMeter Pro-Comp Ultra-Lite II with warning lights

Shifter: Custom-fabricated assembly by owner, Powertrain Control

Audio: Alpine head unit with JL signal processors and amplifiers, Focal Slimline front speakers and 165KF rears. Installed by owner, tuned by Eric “The Entertainer” Pyle (Jefferson City, MO)

Built By: Scott and Gary Long, SEANAE Interiors (Grovespring, MO)

Exterior

Body Prep & Paint: Tony Goodrich, Tony’s Rod & Custom

Modifications: Rockers extended 2 inches with ground effects added to backs of rear fenders and leading edges of fronts

Hood: Stock SS with billet aluminum vents designed by Dean Rodgers, machined by Baumgartner Race Cars. Milled for vent function

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gamethyme · 8 years ago

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<i>MegaCivilization</i>

I got to play Mega Civilization again a few weeks ago. A full eighteen-player game, even. Several of my friends on Plus had asked me to let them know how it went and tell them what I thought of the game. I figured it'd be waaaaaay too long to be a good social media post (not that I've been stopped by that before, mind you), so I'm writing about it here. Let me start with an overview of the game. This will probably run a bit long.

... just like the game. In fact, buckle up. This is going to be a crazy-long post. Ever play the Civilization computer game? It was (reportedly) inspired by this game. Each turn, you'll go through a number of steps to grow your civilization, build cities, trade with other cultures, suffer through calamities, acquire technologies, and loop back around to the beginning again.

It looks crazy, but it's not. Tax Collection - the more cities you have, the more taxes you need to collect. If you don't have enough tokens to collect taxes, Bad Things Happen. Population Expansion - your dudes on the map turn into more dudes on the map. Each space you have will add up to two more population markers. Movement - Move your dudes on the map. Want to build a city? Move a bunch of dudes into a space. You can build almost anywhere, but some spaces are better-suited to it. Want to pick a fight with another player? Move into their spaces with your dudes. Conflict - It's important to remember that this is not a war game. Conflict does happen, but if you find that you're involved in a lot of conflict, then you're probably not doing well. Two players who spend the entire game feuding with one another tend to both sink rather than one sinking and one rising. City Construction - Got enough dudes in a space? Build a city. Keep in mind that every city on the board requires a certain number of dudes somewhere on the map, too, or else the city starves. "Remove surplus population" is not, by the way, a stealth reference to something Ebenezer Scrooge once said. Every spot on the board has a maximum number of dudes who can hang out there. If you have more in a space than it can support, they starve and are removed. Trade Cards Acquisition - There are nine decks of trading cards. Ten if you include water. You get one card per city that you hold. Your first card will always be from the '1' deck, your second card from the '2' deck, and so on. Higher numbers are better, more valuable stuff. So the '1' deck is fur and ochre and the like. The '9' deck is gold and pearls. BUT lurking in each deck are Calamities. Bad Things. Floods. Famines. Slave revolts. Superstition. Pirates. Barbarians. You can also spend money to buy '9' cards, and some technologies (see below a bit) allow you to buy other cards (which is a good way to move tokens out of your taxes to avoid those tax revolts). Trade - This really is the meat of the game. Once you have three (or more - ideally more) cards, you can participate in trading. Ignore the arrows in this image - it's a crop from the rulebook that was talking about something else.

There is a ten-minute trading phase, and trading works like this: You tell someone "I have X and I'm looking for Y." In return, the'll tell you, "I have Y, but I need Z." Because no-one ever has what you want at the same time you have what they want and so all trades seem to require trading with a third party for stuff that you don't want so that you can trade it to someone who has something that you do want. Every trade has to include a minimum of three cards. You can trade more, but you can't trade any fewer than that. Also, you only need to be honest about two of those cards (the first two you mention) and you can't even mention calamities. But those are also traded around here. Usually as a third card in a trade. So you can get badly screwed. And see that "Famine" card there? That third one? See the words "NON-TRADEABLE" under the title? You can't get rid of that card. If you get a non-tradeable card during card acquisition, you're going to suffer. So what you're trying to do is get sets of cards. That lacquer card is a set of one card right now. The numbers at the bottom are the points they're worth. So one lacquer is 5 points. Two lacquers is 20 points. Three is 45 points, all the way up to six of them, which is 180 points. Higher-numbered cards (more cities, remember) are worth more points, but the calamities are worse, too. So when someone offers you a high-value card for your low-numbered cards, you're probably going to get screwed. And when someone offers what you're looking for, you're probably going to get screwed. Calamity Selection - No matter how badly you got screwed in trading, you can only ever suffer from a maximum of three calamities in a single turn. Determined randomly, of course. Calamity Resolution - This is where your civilization dies as all the bad things you just traded for hit you. Your cities will be destroyed by barbarians. Your people will panic and burn their own homes down. Volcanoes will erupt next door. A civil war will erupt and suddenly that guy from the other end of the board will control half of your stuff. Some calamities are so bad that they'll hit multiple players. Special Abilities - These require that you have certain technologies. Don't worry. You won't get any of these, because you'll be too busy getting pounded by calamities to be able to do anything. Remove Surplus Population - Remember that whole "people starving" thing? Well calamities can change things so that your people starve again. And it's possible that your cities will crumble from lack of support following some of these calamities. Civilization Advances Acquisition - If you have any trade good sets left, you can now spend them to buy technologies. There are a ton of techs to choose from and they do a variety of things. Some of them make calamities less calamitous for you. Some of them will allow you to force things on other people. Or buy additional trade goods. All of them give discounts on other techs that you'll buy in the future, and all of them are worth victory points. Tier 1 techs are worth 1 VP, Tier 2 are worth 3, and Tier 3 are worth 6. AST Alteration - There is a big board in this game that you use to keep track of whether your civilization is on track or falling behind. There are a series of "walls" that you'll hit as the game goes on. The first wall is "Do you have three cities?" If you meet the requirements, you advance. If you don't, then you don't advance. If you have zero cities, you actually regress. Each space that you advance is worth five victory points. This also serves as the turn tracker. So how did my game on Saturday go? When we got there, the hosts had already set the board up. This, by the way, saved us about two hours. Because you need to make sure that you have the correct set of trade cards for the number of players you have, and they need to be divided into East and West sets and then by number and then shuffled in a certain order. All of the techs need to be laid out, and players need to have their starting unit set in a certain spot on the (six-foot-long) game board. We drew nations out of a cup as soon as we got there. Going into this, I knew that some players were new and some players were more experienced. I knew who was going to be difficult to beat and who was going to be easy to pound on. And I resolved to be nice to the new players. Avoid trading them terrible calamities, give them reasonable trades. Maintain stable and peaceful borders with them if they wound up near me. And then I drew my nation. Nubia. For those of you who don't know it, it's just Southeast of Egypt, and South of Saba (which is on the Arabian Peninsula). Their expansion options boil down to "Into Egypt" and "Into the Arabian Peninsula." Because everything else is desert. In theory, they can move into North Africa and squabble with Carthage, but in practice it's not worth the effort. Leave Carthage to Iberia, Egypt, and Rome. And then my wife (a new player) drew Egypt. Egypt isn't a difficult power, provided you have friendlyish neighbors. But they need to work with their neighbors to draw borders right away. And they need to figure out which neighbors they can trust and which they can't. This put me in A Spot. Because not expanding into Egypt makes it look like I'm giving my wife favoritism. And the player playing Saba was one of the more experienced players at the table. Trustworthy, yes, but to a point. Like everyone should be at this game. It ended up not being an issue. About four turns in, I managed to end a trading phase with two Major Calamities. I was knocked from six cities to three. The next turn, I rebuilt. Partially. And then wound up with two more Major Calamities. One of which put Barbarians on my Western border (with Egypt), which made it damn near impossible to expand into Egypt even if I'd wanted to. And then another player was hit by pirates, who also stole one of my cities. That, by the way, was a dick move on the part of the other player. The two calamities had knocked me down to two cities. After two turns in a row of being hit by two Major Calamities, I was already looking at an uphill struggle just to stay in the game. Taking one of my cities and turning it over to pirates meant that I was effectively out of it. Because successfully attacking cities is really expensive. There ain't no coming back. But I was determined to try. Meanwhile, Carthage was having similar issues. Rome, Iberia, and the Celts seemed to have an alliance (which was bad for Carthage, Minoa, and Hellas). Worth noting: Hellas was a first-time player who is not likely to ever play again. That alliance? It benefited Rome much more than it benefited Iberia or the Celts, because Rome could ignore its Western flank and so easily pushed back on Carthage and Minoa and Hellas. Hellas, meanwhile, struggled to hold on against Hatti, the Celts, Rome, and (to a lesser extent) Minoa (who tried to play nice with Hellas because she saw how big a threat Rome was). In the East, Kushan manged to push back Parthia and Indus. Maurya and Dravidia came to terms early and struggled to push Kushan and Indus back. Persia and Parthia also pushed on Indus. Since Indus was the one who hit me with the pirates, I'm not crying any tears over their struggles. Maurya was actually doing very well until I made them a secondary victim of one of my calamities (which almost took them out of the game). And then they benefited from a Civil War in Saba that they used to invade me. I had that one coming, though. The rest of the game for me was a struggle. I never got above four cities for more than a turn or two, which meant it was very difficult to get sets with enough value that I was able to buy techs. I didn't have anything people wanted to trade for, as they were working on high-value sets. I was barely surviving for roughly ten hours of gameplay. Meanwhile, Egypt was stable. She wasn't able to grow much, because she built cities in a way that made it more difficult for her to grow (a rookie mistake, and something I should have remembered could be a problem). And every time she traded with Rome, she got a calamity, which has to have been extremely frustrating. We wrapped around 10 pm, after starting at 8 am. I wound up 15th out of eighteen. Steph was 17th. Indus was 18th. Kushan won, with Rome in second. Here are my takeaways from the game:

It's not a war game. This needs to be drilled into new players. If they approach it as a war game, they are going to lose, and lose badly.

Trading is the key to the game. And not just trading, but also not trading (selective boycotts and embargoes) is important, too. Because if everyone refuses to trade with someone, they will have a difficult time getting sets and they will be stuck with whatever calamities they drew. So when you have a runaway leader, stop trading with them.

Watch where you build your cities. You can cripple your growth by building them too early or in the wrong place (or both).

This is not a war game. I know I mentioned this earlier, but it's an important enough note that it needed to be mentioned again.

When it's not your turn, stand away from the table. I can't even count the number of times I had to ask someone to move because it was my turn to move and I couldn't get to my pieces.

Having someone work as an MC is a fantastic idea. Our hosts served as MCs and kept the game going. They were also playing, and I suspect that their game suffered a bit because of the dual-duty (they were Saba and Minoa). But it kept the game moving, and this game can drag if there isn't someone driving.

Despite the frustrations I experienced, I want to play again. Largely because I just want to do better.

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