Picture time.

I just changed my room around, putting my selves back on top of the original desk they came with. Now when I look up, it looks like this:

Feels good.

'Lo thar.

Hello! Long time no post. Life's busy.

I'm currently set to graduate from UWS in April 2013. That's a good thing. I'm also doing some list checking up. Here's my stats:


Started ::  9

The Adventures of Augie March
At Swim-Two-Birds
Go Tell it on the Mountain
Gone With the Wind
I, Claudius
On the Road
The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe
Deliverance
Catch-22




Own, unstarted :: 5

The French Lieutenant's Woman
Lucky Jim
A Passage to India
Under the Volcano
The Power and the Glory



Read ::

Animal Farm
Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret
The Assistant
The Big Sleep
Brideshead Revisited
The Catcher in the Rye
A Clockwork Orange
The Day of the Locust
Falconer
The Grapes of Wrath
The Great Gatsby
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
A Handful of Dust
Lolita
Lord of the Flies
The Lord of the Rings
Money
Naked Lunch
Neuromancer
1984
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Pale Fire
Play It As It Lays
Possession
Rabbit, Run
The Crying of Lot 49
To Kill a Mockingbird
Tropic of Cancer
Slaughterhouse Five
Watchmen



44 books looked at, read, or otherwise.


The rest, 56 remaining ::

All the King's Men
American Pastoral
An American Tragedy
Appointment in Samarra
Atonement
Beloved
The Berlin Stories
The Blind Assassin
Blood Meridian
The Bridge of San Luis Rey
Call It Sleep
The Confessions of Nat Turner
The Corrections
A Dance to the Music of Time
Death Comes for the Archbishop
A Death in the Family
The Death of the Heart
Dog Soldiers
The Golden Notebook
Gravity's Rainbow
The Heart is A Lonely Hunter
The Heart of the Matter
Herzog
Housekeeping
A House for Mr. Biswas
Infinite Jest
Invisible Man
Light in August
The Moviegoer
Loving
The Man Who Loved Children
Midnight's Children
Mrs. Dalloway
Native Son
Never Let Me Go
The Painted Bird
Portnoy's Complaint
Ragtime
The Recognitions
Red Harvest
Revolutionary Road
The Sheltering Sky
Snow Crash
The Sot-Weed Factor
The Sound and the Fury
The Sportswriter
The Spy Who Came in From the Cold
The Sun Also Rises
Their Eyes Were Watching God
Things Fall Apart
To the Lighthouse
Ubik
Under the Net
White Noise
White Teeth
Wide Sargasso Sea

Read more: http://entertainment.time.com/2005/10/16/all-time-100-

novels/slide/times-list-of-the-100-best-novels/#all#ixzz1puBwQ6ee




That's how things are for me. I've come a good way from the  original 9, don't you think? I need to write reviews, or atleast scadily clad, wish-they-were-review things of these books, but it's probably easier and simpler to write about the books I loved, and where their relevance lies to myself or whomever I imagine the target readers to be.

The latest two I finished were Possession, and the Crying of Lot 49. Both were great, but Possession was certainly lengthy (like a good Guiness) and Crying was a bit short (but felt quick and twisted, like someone who's frozen a coke n spirit, forgotten such and just had that first mouthful of never-freeze alcohol). I will be rereading Possession at some points in my life, but the Crying I'm unsure on.

I guess that makes an interesting topic. Books you'd read a second time, or repeatedly. I can already tell you I've read 1985, Clockwork Orange and Lolita many times, but none as much as 1984. I read every copy of that book that I can, usually other peoples copies, like friends or relatives. The bets copy I know of is my brothers, which was the original I read, and features the artwork or a businessman on the front, who became Winstan Smith to me.

Not only was it the first version of the book I ever held, but it was also incredible comfortable. Like new clothes that've been worn well, and worn comfortably, and now have that "your body" feeling to them. I offered to buy it off my brother for $50, and he declined.

My own copies feels too papery and new, and I imagine I'd have to wait for my nephew to get interested in reading before he's read it and it's bashed around in his school bag a bit, but that's not for some years anyway. Possibly never.

Regardless, I AM here, and the list continues to be read, albeit slowly. I think the next will be good long days with Gone with the Wind. My father is always watching Fox Classics, which loves showing Gone with the Wind, so the reminder is never far from me.

Cheers!

Updates?

Hallo! I haven't read a lot lately, atleast nothing worth writing about here. What I am interested in now is what books have you read, to educate or just satisfy curiosity, that would normally seem very out of place for you.

At the moment I'm reading/finishing Possession from The List, but on the side I'm reading A Child Against all Odds, written by Robert Wynstan, the mustachiod professor who made that Human Body series years and years ago.

It reads remarkably well. It takes into account every single ethic you could want to, plus all religions and they're many different views of when a human becomes a human and gets all those same rights, but it's fantastically informative.

This might be out of place for me, because I'm not looking into IVF for any reason. I have a girl I'm going to marry, but I can't support myself at the moment let alone a whole house, car, etc family feeding them. Two of my siblings are currently trying for children though, so that may be the start of the interest.

Regardless, a Magic the Gathering writer, who also reads a lot of books to educate himself in hopes of being a great writer one day mightn't seem like the first person to read the book, or buy it. But I've always been deeply interested in all sciences. The how and why of how small things works is really amazing, and I consider a book like The Fabric of the Cosmos (Green) a "jaunt through the park" in terms of reading. That's technically a very heavy book, going through the entire history of science and relativity and gravity and the concept of everything, written in a time BEFORE the discovery of the big's boson field/particle.

I think what attracts me most is the games you get to play afterwards. With the basic concepts gained, you can dream up situations where you can tweak things. Existance etc all that. It has a lot to do with my being a judge for Magic the Gathering, too. You can give me the most complicated board situation, and I'll figure it out for you. 99% correct, because no judge is 100%. But it's the proper full control, with no concern for time, that makes it better.

I must admit I feel no pressure, as a writer, to "get something out there." If I write well, and good, and sell, it'll happen when it does. I'm not trying to squeeze anything out. I have two things almost nice and ready, but even then I'd have to spend a good while rewriting them some more before I'd be happy to let them go.

So that's what I'm thinking about lately, and reading. Possession is still a great read, and lots of fun, and it's not the "typical" run around and find old letters from an eon ago style story. You can see where awful books by bad writers get their inspiration from, think of the Da Vinci Code, and how the readers are going back and forth, figuring out puzzles. That is HEAVILY derived from this, only the Da Vinci Code gives you a wee feeling of excitement, as you entertain afterwards the idea that Jesus might have had a genetic descendant anyway, and hey why not, it's in some book some jerk wrote.

If you like that book, I don't apologise for my opinion, but for making you feel bad about liking it.

Possession gives less "fantastic!" chase and much more depth of character, spewing forth an entire collection of writings that the reader must read to understand the story and background of the characters, from both the past and present of the novel, as well as the "unwinding story" of what happens between the 'main characters' of the past, who're still very active and energetic characters, despite being long since dead in the current story. It's certainly thinking about holding hands with Nabokov's Pale Fire, seeing both books endevour to tell a story by way of not telling it straight forward, through the normal written novel format.

So a big thumbs up to such an entertaining book before I've even finished it. Briefly, comparing Possession to Pale Fire again, I have found Possession easier to read, despite the fact that I'm still reading it.

I imagine next I'll set up a short/long book duo, the long book being Gone with the Wind. I love that story, what I've seen from the movie. For the short, possible Catch-22. I know, I know. They're both long books! The problem is how they feel like they read, too. Catch-22 "reads quick" so is a short book, despite length. Gone with the Wind is a long book, and significant, historical and CRAMMED with storyline, so a bit like a Guiness. Catch-22 would be your standard Lowenbrau.

Possessed by possession?

At the moment I’m reading Possession. A gift from my sweety, I originally confused it for Atonement! Which I’m dreading reading, seeing they made a movie with Keira Knightly. I just haven’t liked her acting since who knows when.

Possession, however, is a very good book. Long, yes, but not unrewarding. It’s about two main scholars who’re into previous generation writers, and piecing their lives back together. ONLY there’s a few hints that the two writers were in some way linked, romantically, and it’s up to the main characters to find out.

The format of the book includes a lot of letters, from characters to one another, both in present time, as well as current characters reading older characters letters. This also includes entire written passages featured as the older characters works.

This means a lot of reading, which is just reading, to get through the lengthier passages. And this isn’t bad, per se. If you just want a read that’ll be good and long, then you can’t go wrong. It draws a big comparison to Pale Fire, by Vladamir Nabakov, but Pale Fire was unforgivable. It’s follows the similar method of a modern day writer, analysing to hell the works of a past writer, but Pale Fire is quite different because the explanation half of the book becomes quite thick and full. (It’s actually a brilliant read, but if Possession is a good thick read, Pale Fire is concrete breakfast.)

I’m only halfway through Possession at the moment, so I wont say any more than I’m enjoying it more than I thought I would. I also bought Sherlock Holmes the other day. Not on the list, no, but some purely recreational reading is needed every now and then.

I figured I’d start at the start, so it’s Hound of the Baskervilles for me. At very first, I wasn’t going to buy the book, but within the first page I was already delighted by the honey-fun style of writing, so I had to buy it.

I also purchased To the Lighthouse recently, at the bargain bargain price of $9.95! Five cents cheaper than $10, I cannot believe it!

Reading, beer and today.

Let me set the scene. It's a grey day outside, chilled but my jacket warms me. Mother and sisters watching the TV, seated deep into warm cushions or heated bu the fire's glow. I'm one beer into lunch and Sound of Music is on the TV.

So it's perfect sitting down with a book, or writing. I chose writing, can you tell? Writing about reading though. Normally, when I read, it's on the train or bus to wherever I'm headed. Usually uni, though now uni is finished for me, hopefully forever (cheers, ta). That means now I get to count less on reading whilst in transit, and have to find time to read instead.

Years ago I'd read before I read to bed, the current novel of choice beside my pillow. Now, with technology, I have my laptop and phone to contend with. I can call my significant other, or cruise the internet for videos of things I'm interested in, or even read 101books.net, which I suggest you do too.

The in-home combatants don't really matter, considering it's Foxtel. If it's not Mythbusters I'm not too easily distracted. So with all the above to take into consideration, you'll find I read quite a lot but feel like I never read much, and write in-my-head a lot more than I write down here, or in my book.

I will admit that almost every time having a drink is a mistake. It makes the mind swim too much, even one, so that writing is harder to discipline.

Anyway onto the books! I am currently reading Possession, while I have just finished MONEY by Martin Amis. I'll go over Money first, because it's an amazing read.

/////

So, 1984. Wait, what? No seriously, I need to start with 1984 first. It is THE book I suggest to everyone, ever, when they ask What's the next book I should read? Or if I could only have read one book in my life, that'd be it. George Orwell writes far too well and too realistically for this to be taken anyway but seriously, and I have never read a book that made me sympathise with the main character, Winston Smith, so well. I mean utterly. Completely. I hadn't felt like I was holding a characters hand in any particular scene until I read 1984, and we got to the end of 1984. It's the best book I'm ever going to read, and that includes my own if I ever get them published. Now to money.

MONEY, by Martin Amis, is the same, but for money. It takes us by the hand and whips us along with John Self, our simple-named main character. He's a writer, and porn director, who's been enlisted to shoot what promises to be a good movie, that'll really make his name, and get everyone MONEY. The entire book is about money, how it works, what it makes you do, how you can get more, how everyone wants, no one has it, and everyone who does spends it like it's a toy, in a manner that the rest simply can't.

The biggest similarity between the two books is Big Brother and money. Both have a simple and utter control over the story, the world, the main characters. There's nothing they can seem to do that gets them out of the water, into greener pastures. Even when you think they're on top of things, there's still that sniff of trouble, worry in the air.

I wont go further into it because I don't want to ruin the plots, or twists, or amazements, or moments, or revelations that both books have, but saying that Money even comes close to comparing with 1984 is quite a big thing, coming from a fan like me. Certain books you know you'll reread once you're done with them, and this is easily one of them. John Self shares his everything with you, much like Henry Miller in Tropic, and the same trap is set that must be lived through.

There's a definite difference between a character that shares a lot with you, and one that shares everything with you. The former kind of book doesn't really get its point across, because it never makes the right connection. It's stilted and you don't feel quite so close to the action, the heart and mind of the main character.

It's worth it to note that Martin Amis puts himself in the novel. Quite a bit. It's not a small bit, but quite a large part, where he ends up talking with John Self and helping him to figure some things out. Normally when a writer puts themself in the book. The only other comparison I can think of is Clockwork Orange, where Burgess shows up in the book, as does the book A Clockwork Orange, but not as he himself and with no real secret knowledge of things that are going on. In Money, Amis shows us and is quite quick to help John Self suss out the kind of things that are going on, being hired as a writer himself to help with the movie's script. I don't know any other writer who's put themself so much into the book that they couldn't be taken out for fear of severe damage.

So it's certainly unique, and certainly engaging, and certainly "looking over your shoulder" style reading, so it's my favourite of the books I've read thus far, from the List. This doesn't include the original 9 books that I had read before I ever found the list. I'll talk about those books next, because it's always interesting to see which books people had read before the list, much like it's interesting to see how they pick their next book from the list and whether they go off what other's have said, or just off the title.

Myself? I try and go off title alone.

Fahrenheit 451

This book is not on the list - Fahrenheit 451 - but it's author - the great Ray Bradbury - passed on the 7th June. Like it or not, it's the one book I agree could've been on the List but wasn't. The other book is rather obviously Brave New World. I say obviously because my favourite genre is always going to be the eutopian/dystopian future. I've got my own idea for a script of that sort, which I actually submitted for a university assignment.

Regardless - a great writer is dead, and all of us book lovers, writers, critics, have to feel that sort of thing. The course thoughts usually swerve straight towards jokes that could be made (think of when Steve Irwin died, how quick did South Park put him in an episode with a Stingray still in his chest?). Something bad about books, burning, and all that.

The serious people will talk about how revolutionary his book was, particularly Fahrenheit 451. There's a future world, were books are banned. Books burn at the temperature 451 degrees, and houses are fire proof. So in this future world, when you're found with books your front door is knocked down, they come inside with the firetruck and burn the house clear of books, rather than down.

A remarkable thing about the book is how Bradbury wrote it. He used typewriters that were paid for by the hour or half hour, for maybe a penny. He spent a week working for hours at a time, and after his writing he owned a tidy sum of money on using the typewriters, but he was completely enthralled by the story, had to write it, and let it burn out of him onto the paper and through his fingers. It's quite an apt parallel to how the story tells itself - quick, brash, but with a good impact and for a proper end.

There was a movie made of the book too, which got mixed reviews. Some people don't like the 1984 movie that was made, and it set up a hard time for any future dystopian novel future book/movie translations. Fahrenheit wasn't any different, with a lot of fans saying it was tripe, and obviously the writer had nothing to do with it. They changed the world and storyline too much. The problem? Ray Bradbury was apparently there for the whole thing, giving the OK on all and any changes they made!

Depending on how true that is, it's quite funny. I hear people make the same claim about Disney's recent movie version of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, but I will never believe Douglas Adams would've penned that script, NOR that he would've let the movie go to screen looking like that. Disney undervalued the long-time dedicated fanbase of the book series, and tried far too hard - and annoyingly - to appeal to the mass audiences out there.

It worked in a way. Us steadfast fans promised our mates it'd be great, we all went and were severely disappointed, never to return. We liked seeing our favourite characters on the big screen, but apart from that, PLURH. Friends who weren't swept up in the original wave were lucky, and didn't see it. For all their effort, they certainly don't have the support to get a second movie out of it, especially after having Arthur and Trillian get together in the final scene of the movie.

There is 6 books in the Hitchhiker's Guide series, and do you know how often Arthur and Trillian meet up? Hook up? Get together? Apart from Randomly, NEVER. Not to say they shouldn't, and we didn't dream of it at times, but that's just too stupid to suddenly give the Hitchhiker's Guide fandom what it's always been OK without, actually. I'm reminded briefly of Fry's attempts to get Leela in Futurama, but I'm digressing waaay to much here. Apologies.

There are several books you should all read, because there's nothing better than a "what if" scenario that is fleshed out good -and proper- and holds a biiig mirror up to current society, asking it "What do you see?"

So:
1984 - this utter classic and my number 1 book of forever introduces the idea of Big Brother, and Winston Smith is our hero who's set against the government-run world. A movie adaptation exists.
Brave New World - this number 2 is a great look at a more science-fictiony world, where everyone is conditioned from pre-birth through infanthood to really know their place and stick it out, regardless, as hardwired as your genes. John is a "savage", someone from outside the main city of our story, were reproduction happens normally. Fate crushed the two worlds together, and it's Johns reaction to a sterile, laugh-at-you-for-your-natural-ways world that drives the story along to it's conclusion, asking us if we really want to live in a world of genetic perfection to a point of designer made GENERATIONS. No movie adaptation exists, though it should.
Clockwork Orange - believe it or not, we're just trendy and in the heighth of fashion here - young Alex D'Large and his droogs are future babies, from a world were things have turned the darkest corner. I like to think of Clockwork Orange as a story that takes "Boys will be boys" and pushes it to it's limit. It raises a good many questions about the rights or correctional methods and how far you can push the "change" before it becomes a compulsion rather than a want. Poor Alex is indeed brainwashed, and he no longer desires to attack whoever he likes, steal and rape and pillage in general, feeling sick whenever the opportunity presents itself. But we're then shown that a man who doesn't get to choose to be good ceases to be a man, and is not good at all. He doesn't choose good, he simply avoids evil because it makes him ill. This is not redemption, nor lasting. A movie adaptation, a very famous one, exists, and it's ending is quite controversial, seeing it lops off the last chapter entirely, which distinctly alters the books ending and in the end it's meaning. I for one prefer the shorter version entirely, but I respect the book seperately from the movie, and acknowledge that they're both different pieces of media, even if they're from the same seed.
Fahrenheit 451 - I've given a brief description of this up above. Out of all the pieces mentioned here, only 1984 and Clockwork Orange are on The List, but it doesn't make the other entries any less significant. The List is good at highlighting "best ofs", certainly, but if you're into those books there's a great chance you'd be into the entire genre, which is where this extra research will bear you some real fruit. A movie adaptation exists, that I haven't watched and have been warned against. It just makes it seem more tempting, ironically.
AD4M & 3VE - Not actually published yet, it's my own dystopian/eutopian novel. Is it cheeky putting my own work here? Sure why not, but hey if I'm not gonna push my own stuff who is? At the moment it exists as a script which I am preening for inclusion in my portfolio.
The basic premise is revolution, as we see a typical robots versus human society, where both have an equal existence if you glimpse at it. Look harder, and there's plenty that points to an unfair standing of all society. No movie adaptation exists yet.
THX1138 - This one is NOT a novel, but is George Lucas' own go at the eutopia/dystopia society media. It's interesting how it starts, but is quite obviously self-gratifying seeing THX 1138 is George Lucas' own sound system production company. It begins with tones of varying "this is the future" sort of worlds, where emotions are forbidden and everyone's doped up on some significant drug, like soma. The main character, also named THX 1138, has a wife who's off her meds for some reason, and she convinces him to not take his meds. Undrugged, they enjoy touching, emotion, I'm sure some sex. This alerts the authorities who just go ape and begin persuing them. This is where the movie devolves into one big chase scene, that goes forever until THX manages to escape to the top levels of the world. Sans wife, roll credits. That's it, that's the movie. It's very good for a look at world-building, because George is good at that, but seems bad at everything else. We've all seen Star Wars 1, 2 and 3. They're not really worthy of the shadow of 4, 5 and 6, are they?
Regardless THX1138 seems like it wanted to be a novel much more than a movie, and seeing it was never written it feels only half done. Like all good movies, it does involved bosoms of some sort (No really. 1984, Clockwork Orange and THX1138 all have them).

And that's my skinny on that. Thank you, Ray Bradbury, for your contribution to the world of fiction, the warning against the bookless future (which we seem to be heading towards...) and for writing.

To point, or not to point?

Quick, what's the moral/point of 1984? Don't give the government total control! And what about Lord of the Flies? Human nature is degenerate, and truly capable of darkness! What about "Are you there, God? It's me, Margaret"? That life is a constant question of identity, even at such a young, developing age, good!

Now what about Lolita? Umm... Don't date young girls? No, well. That's obvious. Don't travel all around America? No, not really... Alright well how about Money, by Martin Amis? Well, obviously don't get into the movie business. No, that's what Hollywood's for. Don't be John Self? Don't think so. Well what about Tropic of Capricorn? Actually that IS just a fantastically long ramble...

It would appear, upon second glance at some of these books, that they don't have a point. Not a central theme to tie the entire thing together. You sit down, read the book and have a great time, am inspired by the writing, the characters. And when you think about it, summing up the point is just pointing at something the characters did, and realising that's not an event--that's a point. A bit like Alice in Wonderland, she has an episodic time without any real story being told.

Quick aside on Alice. She's one of my favourite heroins in all of literature, and always will be. The characters are wonderfully different and written, and the events are all silly and nonsensical, and don't lend themself very well to real-world movies (no really, just watch Burton's attempt). Alice in Wonderland is great for character, how it's written, and nothing else.

That's the point I'm making here. You can have a great book without any particular point. Vladamir Nabakov said (writer of Lolita and Pale Fire) that he didn't have any moral intended for the book -- he just wanted to write. He set out learning English (he grew up russian, da) and then wanted to write a fantastically lyrical book, which he did. There wasn't any point he was trying to make, so we must assume then that the success is simply a great big "Look at me, and my writing!" Normally I'd say that's egotistical. If you really set out to just write a book to show off how well you could write, that's trite.

But with Nabakov, and Miller and Amis I am well and truly happy they have. You could include Naked Lunch in that lot, very easily. William Burrough's book was the first one I truly had some difficulty reading. Graphic to a horrid point, yet you get the idea -- the life of a drug addled anyone is going to be NUTS. Not only that, but it's a real part of society and needs addressing. Before that, it needs to be observed. So perhaps Naked Lunch does have more of a point to make then the other books, but it's still essentially a man's record of a crazy time he's had, and it is laid out before the reader, to make of it what they will.

Peter David, a comic book writer, spoke about the three main categories a book's story may follow. A person versus Nature (One flew over the cuckoos nest, Falconer). A persons versus someone/group else (1984). And finally, a person versus themself, such as our above listed books. In each story we see the struggle of a character against themself. Always wanting to be better their situation. Struggling to not just give in and do what everyone else is doing, what they think they should do.

I think that this style of story really frees up the contraints of a writer, allowing them to indeed focus much more on character, happenstance and writing well. If you have a point to make, then very well -- make it so well, so believable and loud that the world can't help but notice (Grapes of Wrath, 1984, I'm looking at your). If you're going to avoid making a specific point, then give us a bloody good look at something we wouldn't experience in our life. So the crazed drugged decades of Burrough's life, pre-Naked Lunch -- I thank you. John Self's hazardous life styled around making a movie, Martin Amis I thank you. Henry Miller and your crazy, self-styled bouts of fantastic imagery and head-trips -- I think I thank you the most.

For in reader we can find entertainment, and we don't need to learn anything specific or revolutionary from it. We can just have a very nice piece of writing, one that takes us away from our lot in life and gives us someone else's shoes to wear, and properly.

There is a balance here, between choosing a point, and choosing to write well. Writing without a point, as I said above, seems stupid to me, or highly pretentious. To manage this style of book without being pretentious is incredibly hard, but I think opening the honesty barrel and tipping it onto the page is the only way.

The best example I can give you of this is also the most likely to offend book, Tropic of Capricorn. Consider the fact that every second word begins with c and is four letters. Miller never apologises, never begins to apologise, and had his book banned just about everywhere before it was printed. This is the kind of honesty and connection you need with the reader, before they'll consider your work not pretentious, but actually truth, your truth, that they are then thankful for the sharing of.

So taking all the above into consideration, I'm feeling a little bit better about the lack of any single clear theme running through my own book.

Thank you for reading.

What's this new set up?

Well this website has just changed it's layout, that's what the title is in reference to.

Today was great. I woke up at Amy's, saw her off at uni then went and bought some books. It took a while, but in the process I had to sit on the floor and produce my laptop. I do this often. I'm in the heart of Sydney, where all the swanky wankers come to eat/dine/read/prove they are whatever they hope they look like, and I sit on the floor like a hippy.

I had to check the titles of books that were on the list, That Infamous List, to see if the store didn't have them. I also needed a bathroom, so made a detour for that and found the kids section, playing Sooty. I watched Sooty until I remembered my need for a bathroom. Dymocks wouldn't help me there.

So I found one at the foodcourt, and, bowels satisfied, went back to shopping. I found a few, but got UNDER THE VOLCANO and PASSAGE TO INDIA. I base my buying on what a new book sounds like, and it's vague and hardly read blurb on the back. Passage to India sounds like travel, and Under the volcano is about a man drinking himself to death. There is always something fantastic to learn in that process, whether in a book or real life.

For instance at the moment this neighbour of Amy's is really up the creek, and has the hardest time coming to terms with it. He wont see Doctors, no treatment will be taken, but if there's a crash down the street, he's off ON FOOT to see it. Or to Blacktown (don't know what for) he's able to do that. But if it's Doctors? Nah, needs a lift off someone with a car. Appointment to get a knee job? Nah, government coming to fix something that day (true story, though used as a convenient excuse).

The man's desire to not tell himself "You are about to die" extends to the point at which he'll live out the life of a fit person, who CAN do without those check ups. Interesting.

I cleaned up my room/workspace today. Cleared the crap cluttering my collection of cardboard guarded books. Threw out some old card games I enjoy (Magic the Gathering, for those wondering). Reshelfed my books, so the middle row is long and standing and definately all "the List".

For the new readers out there, "the List" will always refer to the Time Magazine's 100 Best novels, from 1923 to 2005. (1923 was when they started printing. 2005 was the year they posted the list.) I had read 9 books on the list, and vowed to read them all, as a practice in persistence, as well as a fine way to educate myself on the practice of writing. What better way?

I have also finished university just recently, which has inspired the cleaning and prepping. I am getting ready to resume writing, dusting off my 2008-started novel which has been 50% written. Not even up to rewriting yet!

Here's a link to the List:
http://entertainment.time.com/2005/10/16/all-time-100-novels/#all

And yes, I have read many of the books. I'll post my list (read, owned but not started, still to buy) tomorrow.

And thank you for reading.

MORE BOOKS!

I bought some more books today. I'm a Communications student at uws, and did rather well in Communication Laws and Ethics today, so I went and bought more books. I also finished one.

So I bought Lucky Jim and The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. To look at the two, based on title, Lucky Jim sounds more blokes and fun and jokes, and the prime of miss Jean Brodie sounds rather similar, but with more regalness. To read the very starts, Lucky Jim feels a bit more like Catcher in the Rye but with a more successful and scholarly minded Harrison. Miss Jean Brodie read a lot quicker and with more fun so far, and that's after about 10 pages each.

I finished reading Falconer, which is an odd book. It gets lumped with Naked Lunch, where in it was a book I was having some difficulty reading at some point or another. And both books had them in the middle. With Naked Lunch I was feeling sick at some of the stories of the Mugwumps, but this was my own fault. The section that was horrible was in a blue film the characters were watching, you see?

Falconer had it different, seeing about halfway through I lost any feeling that the book would turn up good. Sure it must be good, it was on the list, and it's recognised everywhere. But I found a main character who was once again complacant with whatever happened, just dealing out a bunch of memories that they reported to us, the readers. I like the heroes to have a great big say in things, like Winston Smith in 1984. Even a hero who fails is more interesting than a no-one who does nothing.

Thankfully the story ends quite well, and the middle funk is dispelled entirely. I actually finished the book and had a laugh to myself. Great end!

Now I need to decide what to begin reading next. Jean Brodie looks very good, because it's lighter, written by a female and not yet another "man versus this weird/odd world" style story. Those stories are a bit like cathedrals. When you see one, it's amazing. When you tour and see many, they're all great. Once you've been around Europe twice, and seen just about any that matter in any way shape and form, they all merge into the same class of "giant and religiously relevant buildings", and it becomes Yeah yeah yeah, I've seen that already!

As a small aside, I like the fact that when I see Sydney's cathedral I'm entirely underwhelmed and feel rather dwarfed. Sure it's a big building, compared to my house, but compared to the cathedrals in Europe? We are but a child, playing with child's cars while daddy's actually goes Broom broom!

For another example, Tropic of Capricon is great, Tropic of Cancer still good but not as wow, and the works just continue to diminish (slightly, and mostly from repetition), through over exposure I imagine.

The other books for consideration: The Adventures of Augie March (started, but so long!)
Catch 22 (not started, but I'm looking forward to it quite a bit)
Gone with the Wind (this really wants an entire day in the sun, for reading)
I, Claudius (this seems like it'll want a few hundred trips on the train) and lastly
Go Tell it To the Mountain (black brother done broke 'way from his religion!)

I can't decide tonight, but I will be looking at Jean Brodie tonight regardless. Being a thinner, smaller book it makes for an easier reading companion, so she'll stay by my bedside and be read before sleeping each night. I'll get back to you on which book I actually take up to read through.

Seeya mate!

ps. I have also obtained and read a bit of Gravity's Rainbow. It sounds more exciting then it has so far sounded, and has earned a "slow burner" tag. Which is odd, because no other book has had that yet, and I've gathered about 40 of these books!

Back to Time 100!

Magic players, please head on over to foxmurdoch.blogspot.com. These two blogs are being fixed, so they're both returning to their original purpose. Here is where I write about the Time magazines 100 best novels from 1923 to 2005. Now I'll let you in on my progress. Here's a list of information about it all, and I'm up to 34 books! That's over a third, so I need to figure out some way to celebrate.

Anyway, the info!:

Reading (not actively)

The Adventures of Augie March
At Swim-Two-Birds
Gone With the Wind
I, Claudius
On the Road
The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe

Own, unstarted

Catch-22
Falconer
Possession

Owned and read

Animal Farm
Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret
The Assistant
The Big Sleep
Brideshead Revisited
The Catcher in the Rye
A Clockwork Orange
The Day of the Locust
The Grapes of Wrath
The Great Gatsby
A Handful of Dust
Lolita
Lord of the Flies
The Lord of the Rings
Naked Lunch
Neuromancer
1984
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Pale Fire
Play It As It Lays
Rabbit, Run
To Kill a Mockingbird
Tropic of Cancer
Slaughterhouse Five
Watchmen
34 books.

The rest, 66 remaining.

All the King's Men
American Pastoral
An American Tragedy
Appointment in Samarra
Atonement
Beloved
The Berlin Stories
The Blind Assassin
Blood Meridian
The Bridge of San Luis Rey
Call It Sleep
The Confessions of Nat Turner
The Corrections
The Crying of Lot 49
A Dance to the Music of Time
Death Comes for the Archbishop
A Death in the Family
The Death of the Heart
Deliverance
Dog Soldiers
The French Lieutenant's Woman
The Golden Notebook
Go Tell it on the Mountain
Gravity's Rainbow
The Heart is A Lonely Hunter
The Heart of the Matter
Herzog
Housekeeping
A House for Mr. Biswas
Infinite Jest
Invisible Man
Light in August
The Moviegoer
Loving
Lucky Jim
The Man Who Loved Children
Midnight's Children
Money
Mrs. Dalloway
Native Son
Never Let Me Go
The Painted Bird
A Passage to India
Portnoy's Complaint
The Power and the Glory
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
Ragtime
The Recognitions
Red Harvest
Revolutionary Road
The Sheltering Sky
Snow Crash
The Sot-Weed Factor
The Sound and the Fury
The Sportswriter
The Spy Who Came in From the Cold
The Sun Also Rises
Their Eyes Were Watching God
Things Fall Apart
To the Lighthouse
Ubik
Under the Net
Under the Volcano
White Noise
White Teeth
Wide Sargasso Sea

Read more: http://entertainment.time.com/2005/10/16/all-time-100-novels/slide/times-list-of-the-100-best-novels/#all#ixzz1puBwQ6ee

Rounds 2-4 (belated, yes)

Round 2 versus Sarah

Blue white skies was ALL THERE WAS in this aerial combat. She takes game one despite my Griffins and Blazing Torch, while I take game 2 when I commit a Blasphemous Act with the only undying creature on the board. Game 3 I get off to a smacking start, when she attacks her voiceless spirit into my Nephalia Seakite, then drop a Mikaeus, the Lunarch for 4!

She then Dungeon Geists him and its stalled. This game started with only ten minutes which wound down. Eventually I wanted to upgrade my Delver into a Relentless Skaabs, but she didn't bite when I began bashing with my 1/1 scientist of insecty doom (and rightly so, being on like 18) and time is called. We're both on 16 and we can't get through the others defense, so we agree to draw.

Games 1-1-1
Rounds 1-0-1

/////

Round 3 I'm against Tim.

He's got the draw bracket too, so I can tell we're going to go to time unless one of us just plays into the other's tricks. In my case, I played into his deck being the opposite of my deck. My removal was OK, his was just everywhere, plus he had two Skirsdag Flayers.

So unforunately we're fighting game 1 til he gets Mentor of the Meek and it draws him his deck. Including the two Skirsdag Flayers. I had a chance to shoot them at one point, but the Skirsdag got it, while the Mentor kept adrawin'. It's hard at those times to tell what you hate more, losing creatures or them drawing cards?

I figure now it's better to work on percentages. If I leave the Skirsdag, I'm 100% losing a creature. If he draws cards, there's atleast chances he'll draw chaff/land/useless crap.

So game 2 goes similar. I have both my Juggernaut's in my opening hand, but cast the first one turn 4 without protection, despite the Saving Grasp in hand. Turn 5 gets a lot of replay value, eats up his removal, but then I've just used my gas to get rid of his removal gas, and it's top decks for both of us. This stinks as 1/1s beat down, he's marginally ahead on life and then he gets that 3/3 Vampire who steals cards for you to cast, as well as being suddenly on 6 life with him having 6 power of flyers. Poop!

Games 0-2
Rounds 1-1-1

So that's the belated rounds 2-4. I know you've probably already read 5-7 so you know how I end up, but that's the relay. NOW to work it all into a nice article that reads well and concisely for Good Games. Woot!

///////////

Round 4

Round 4 v M Yang

Well this round was good, seeing I was threatening to tilt. My opponent was doing back and forth enough, less removal than my last opponent. Then we manage to trade blows, when I stabilise at 8, and continue to beat him down with my Invisible Stalker and then pump that every turn using a Mikaeus for 5. Life goes 14 11 7 2, INCREASING CONFUSION FOR THE LOSE!

Yeah. Game 2 we keep going, though he has Increasing Confusion again and didn't cast it at the opportune time, and I manage to beat him down.

Game 3 he mulls to five and I'm quite happy, and Liam joins me to watch and I beat him down with some creatures, time some slick moves perfectly to untap and shoot blockers and tap them down permanently with Dungeon Geists, and he doesn't get what he needs to stablise. I was almost packing darts when he seemed about to recover, but even then I just reminded myself that I had 20 life and he didn't.

Games 2-1
Rounds 2-1-1

Rounds 5-7!!

I thought I posted before now? ANYWAY:

////////////////

The next 3 rounds are a bit speckled, because they went to time and I couldn't write them down immediately after.

Round 5

There was Ashleigh, a nice german fellow who looked like an aussie german blend. His deck lost two games straight, the first one because my fliers got there quite well, and the second because I got my Delver of Secrest flipped and equipped with Butcher's Cleaver straight away. He managed to amass a defense and smash me for plenty, but a Boiling Oil and a (3 kill an attacker) destroyed his attack, so instead of 12 it was for 3, then he died.

I had a Mikaeus who was huge, with the Cleaver, but he got a SilverclawGriffin that was bigger, and thanks to first strike who cares about life gain? I pumped Mikaeus some more, he put Inquisitor's Flail on it, and then I handed my Cleaver to my own Silverclaw Griffin. Thanks to the Flail it would deal enough damage at the same time to clean it up.

Games 2-0
Matches 3-1-1

Round 6

I forget. Maybe it'll come to me later. But I genuinely forget. He had stuff, that's right! Joe, my opponent named Joe. We had the same kind of cards, with both had Blasphemous Act, and we could both play around it. My Mikaeus was huge, and his team was good, and quicker but not quick enough to NOT deal with my junk, and then um...

Game 3, we go to time. It's 3 and 2 meaning 3 turns for me, 2 for him. He's low, near death. On my turn I gte Invisible Stalker to pair with Mikaeus. He can't attack seeing Mikaeus is 8/8ish. He has two blockers. Next turn I attack with just Mikaeus, which he doesn't raise an eyebrow at. He blocks with one creature, I use Blazing Torch on his remaining creature and then that's it -- if he doesn't have a blocker I'll win. Invisi-stalker could only deal 1, not enough, but he windmills his card for the turn...

And everybody can guess that it was a swamp.

Games 2-1
Matches 4-1-1

Round 7

This round I'm against Brendan, who I've been playing beside all day thanks to both of us being in the draw bracket. I even joked about it winding up that way, and there we are paired up.

Game 1 is great because he has many creatures, but I get the combo going, Cleaver for my Invisible Stalker. You think someone would see the digested meat, right? I'm swinging, he's only doing an effective one damage a turn, and surmouts an INCREDIBLE offense that I survive.

His mistakes: not flipping a Cloistered Youth. He was already into his main phase and playing a land, and I didn't mind it not flipping. The second was when he didn't play a Tragic Slip he had, and the third was masteful on my part.

I counted, and he had lethal next turn assuming I couldn't block. It's his turn, I smash him down to next turn letha and then attacks all out, tapping all my creatures...

Except for my Gargoyle. I look at his creatures, count up the power and say "So we're in blockers?" He says "That's lethal right?"

I draw the Gargoyle over to his 3/3 and block, saying "That shouldn't be." We count up, I take 7 in the end, go to 3. I swing back for the win next turn with my team, including my Galvanic Juggernaut. He came down early and just stayed tapped, yay!

Game 2 I win the 39 card bingo, as he sideboards for a while and seems angry. I count his cards, find 39 and call a judge. They take him away and yeah, it's only 39 so a game lose for him. Match to me.

Games 1-0
Matches
5-1-1

Assuming I win the next round I'll make day, being above all the 6-2-2 players, which is great and fun. Ammy is presumably 7-0 at this point, HAS made day two, and James as well. Wish me luck!

OK, here we have Round 1!

This is all posts written thus far:

9.10
So we're all taking out seats to begin the deck registration. Well over a hundred players, about to open 6 boosters a piece, register what's in the deck and THEN pass it to another player to build with. Sounds easy, yeah?

The number of international and female players has risen sharply, compared to, say, normal Magic. Didn't manage to eat breakfast this morning as we hopped a taxi to get here on time. Shame, but my mate Gibs has a bye so he'll do a food round while I'm forced to win round 1. Easy pie.

This is exciting.

10.21
Deck built. Nice blue white flyers, with the Invisi-stalker/Butcher's Cleaver combo :)

Now everyone else can leave, the allow the poor saps without any round 1 byes to battle it out, for dignity, honour, and all that other stuff.

////////////////

My deck:

8 Islands
6 Plains
1 Mountain
2 Evolving Wilds
---
17 lands

2x Juggernaut
2x Stormbound Geist
Dungeongeist
Invisible Stalker
Angel of Flight Alabaster
Relentless Skaabs
Mikaeus, the Lunarch
Stitcher's Apprentice
Nephalia Seakite
Thraben Sentry
Selfless Cathar
Silverclaw Griffin
Delver of Secrest
---
15 creatures

Rebuke
Blazing Torch
Divination
Butcher's Cleaver
Blastphemous Act
Burning Oil
Feeling of Dread
Warden of the Wall
---
8 other

//////////

Round 1 v Dave

My opponent sports a black red deck that get's out dorks, but I get out a Seakite (he didn't run anyone into it) that I suit up with a Butcher's Cleaver (I wanted my Stalker to have it!) and he sets up a minor defense with Occultist and Nearhearth Stalker, only I've got Feeling of Dread to tap him out.

Game 2 he makes that Walking Undead, but I match that with Selfless Cathar and Stitcher's Apprentice, both going 2 a turn until 4 when Juggernaught shows up. He takes the first, and I write "2x Juggernaut" next to the life change on the life pad. He asks why? and I show him, next turn, the second Juggernaut. Along with the Stitcher's Apprentice for untapping, it looks well and truly over. Both bash in, he double blocks to trade but I use the Selfless Cathar from turn 1 and it's a blow out.

2-0 games
1-0 match

SO CONSIDERING how well the build went, getting that "round 1 bye" everybody was so hyped about wasn't really that profitable. Sure Dave is down one round, but he's not out yet, and everyone who's NOT played a proper match yet isn't quite warmed up. So here's hoping, hey?

Day 1 of GP Melbourne

8.30am
The phone goes off and I get dressed and meet Gibs downstairs, where I write this and where there is a BEVVY of young girls. Don't get excited, they're all too young for you, but it's obvious there's some girls school event being run here. I keep the door open for three girls who're meeting up with everyone down stairs, and one of them realises that they left their key with the teacher, so how're they going to get back in?

Gibs is finding something to eat while I write this. We're going to walk to the tram, catch that down to Flinders street then walk the rest of the way. I have a feeling I may miss the first grinder, but I'm OK with that.

On the topic of grinders I may only do one or two. It's $40 a pop, plus I gotta pay $40 to even enter tomorrow, so I don't wanna do myself in before the main event's even begun. We'll arrive, figure out when they're doing the sealed, and then maybe float around until then.


11.55am
Finally found a chance to sit and do nothing. This is after:

Finding the MCE and realising that it's the wrong place. We DID venture there, Amy and I, for the Dr Who in january but it's not the same place. So after an hour of walking to the wrong place, we had another half hour of walking the correct way.

After the finding the real place, finding which section of the place was the real actual location for all the Magic fun.

After finding the event, finding a cash machine (still unfound as I write this)

Giving up and sitting down after consuming my second bottle of coke for the day and a jam filled chocolate doughnut.

SO let's just say it's very tiring walking around with your bag for far longer than you imagined, but we'll be better planned for tomorrow. I'm signed into the third grinder of the day (Sealed) and after I've had a break I'll look for the ATM again. Maybe. I hates it.

Anyway, the help here was non-existant. There is ZERO signs to an atm. I asked one fella where the atm was, and he pointed kind of THERE. I asked a second, who pointed there as well, but said don't go that way and they mentioned a players lounge. That was closed, for sure. Then I asked another person who said "Melbourne Cricket Ground" and that was a first, some solid location, before 3 more people joined in and tried to give us further directions.

Apparently you need to go back around the front and INSIDE as if you were buying a ticket from ticketek, and there's an ATM in there. You also need to want to walk around there for the third time. At the moment, I lack this desire.

2.41pm
Sealed number 3

Well I sat down, opened my card pool and it had both Brimstone Volley, Fires of Undeath, Skirsdag Flayer and Thraben Doomsayer. But that's OK because I got passed a pool with foil Liliana of the Veil, so I was set and sold that to my mate to pay for my next sealed.

My pool was great, but didn't win. Game 1 I get an early Vorapede out, but my opponent Matt makes a Fortress crab who can block all day. I formulated a plan to sack it to my Falkenrath Torturer, as this would make him big enough to bash in, but I didn't want to kill it the first time for my opponent. In the end, bad choice. He takes game 1, game 2 I take real quick and game 3 goes to time as beat down early, Lili and such to kill his blockers but he assembles the Invisible Stalker and Butcher's Cleaver.

The race was very exciting, players all waiting on us (last match) and I bash, lose a creature so he gtes morbid'd for 5 to Brimstone Volley, then Fires of Undeath, but he bashed next turn, then Brimstone and Snapcaster'd it back. Bad beats, so close oh wells.

Now for sealed 2!


7.14
I'm writing this a BIT after it happened.

Sealed grinder number 2 gets off to a far more humble start, and there's less buzz seeing I've already done the open, register, pass and build that occurs. My pool isn't anything amazing and I build a red/green/white/black thing, which isn't super bad but is really rather inconsistent. I play a few too many red splashes, like Mondronen Shaman and Rage Thrower, and lose the first round.

It was close-ish though. Game 1 I win convincingly, game 2 he gets Fengraf Monstrosity while I get nothing, and game 3 I mull down to four. Nobody likes that, it's a boring fight, there's minor hopes that the underdog can pull it out, and some times they will, but most often it's just the simple thrashing everyone expects, as this was.

After this I got myself and Gibbers, or he got me, and we left to find a pub. Alone with his came Shane, a mate of his. We spent AGES finding a pub, also trying to follow people directions which were about as useful as those given earlier about the ATM.

I did also find the ATM btw. Thanks to the heavenly saints I know up in Lismore, they walked me very much right up to it, where it charged me $2 to check my account, then another $2.50 (why increase?) to actually take some monies out.

Aside aside, we find a pub called insignia, where I'm so starved and done in from the day (Gibbs eventually traded my bag off me, considering how damn heavy it was) that I ordered a beer without considering the shout's rights. So Craig started the shouts and I have yet to return them, though I have just noticed that his glass is empty.

So the day has been a joy and success. I played Magic, met players, cheered my mates on and found no real success myself, though only paying for one event (my openings from the previous paid for the second) was good.

I imagine tonight will devolve into unrecordable events, so I'll maybe remember them, but most likely not.

10.42
So day 1 has ended. I didn't win any grinders, but Ammy did (proud of her) and Tim did (a lismorian, must be proud of him) and I've gotten two more loads of cards for only the one payment (Lilli paid for the second go).

We had a few drinks (too many?) before trekking home. I find the way pretty easy enough, while we pass a few suggestive places with names like "The main course" and well, ya know. We found the Melbourne equivalent of Kings Cross, lessay.

So, tomorrow we awake for an early trip in to the city, we know the way there a lot better but have to be there by 8.45, we think. I need to drink a lot of water, before retiring for the night and changing into the GP shirt that we all got when we registered today.

GP Melbourne: Day 0

Or "pre day." Tonight I share a nice dinner/drink with my gal before tomorrow I speed home and pack my bags for many a day of Magic fun!

Friday is grinding all day. This means atleast $80 on new cards I wont care about moments after making the top 1 spot and claiming my three free byes, yee!

Saturday is THE big day. Sealed, a few rounds, then hoping that I make day 2. I'll keep you posted.

Sunday is either day 2 to some mild monies and success, or travelling around Victoria and having a look at her beautiful beauties. Eitherway, success and much fun to be had, assuredly!

Keep checking back here for updates through out the week.

I'm travelling with C Gibs, as I said, and our flight isn't til 8.10pm tomorrow night. Before then, mad panic as we weigh up what we need more: clothes or cards?

Melbourne GP 2012!!

Tomorrow we set flight! Victoria is a brilliant little state, and I love Melbourne ever since I visited back in January. (Doctor Who symphony orchestra, beautiful geek love there).

I'm travelling with man C Gibs (he's not a rapper) instead of the usual go-to guru Rony because he's gotten a life and a job and has to deal with that. Which is rather funny, considering my own switch from "nothing but work" last to "nothing but play, at the possible expense of work" this year. Let's rock this!

Now I haven't updated since January 19, which was a shock because I didn't think it had been that long. Eitherway, the explanation is that I stopped playing FNM once I visited Lismore to help with the Dark Ascension prerelease, and without even realising it I've been doing some very good level 2 judge stuff.

Namely mentoring Lismore and her judge lvl 0s enough for them to pass their lvl 1s. They haven't passed yet, but I'm being pulled over to help assess their abilities at GP Melbourne, so that's fun stuff for them and was entirely unnoticed by myself. I was just helping a mate to run his store and his Magic games, and it came naturally.

So expect a good write up of the event, the flight, the location we stayed and some geek love for Melbourne. My sweety wont be with me this time (she was for Doctor Who) but that's OK, it's always good to have a small smidgen of time apart so you can miss the other person properly.

ALSO if you love Magic cards that rip on Magic cards, here's Nyxathid Goes to Town by a budding artist and designer extraordinare Petr Joura.

http://nyxathidgoestotown.wordpress.com/

We'll see you after the jump.
Fox.

3-1! We're kicking tha bottoms.

Hallo, I am very happy to say that all of the win conditions I bought yesterday won a game themself. A Mirran Crusader suited up with Sword War and Peace is lotsa fun (with just 1 card in the opponent's hand, that's 10 damage) and Geist of St Traft lead to a very cool victory round 3. Or 2. Anyway, the games!

At Blacktown again, I'm paired against Blake who's fresh from work and newish to Magic.

Round 1 v Blake with red deck gets there.

Unfortunately for Blake, red deck didn't get there, though the story is funny. There's a turn 1 Reckless Waif that doesn't flip because I keep smoothing my hand and making plays until I land a Hero of Bladehold. Easy victory? Naaah, he's got the maindeck Combust for it (yikes!). That's OK, my hands full of threats so I just play another Hero and hope it sticks. Nope, Combust number 2 torches her.

The game continues uneventful for a moment as his Waif does flip and begins bashing in, when I cast my Mirran Crusader hoping to staunch the flow before it can begin. He answers with, yes you guessed it, Flame Slash.

What? Flame Slash? And sorcery speed mind you?? Funnily enough I pointed out that Flame Slash was a sorcery BEFORE that it wasn't even legal standard. "I gotta call the guy running this thing," I tell Blake, and the runner comes in from his smoke break/phone call. Seeing this isn't FNM I didn't say anything. My opponent was awarded a game lose, asked if he had any other nonlegal cards and we were told to play on from the current situation. I don't know that I like the 'play on' rule, seeing I was winning and was about to be handed another win for an easy match.

Still, it's not official FNM, though it is DCI sanctioned, though it is REGULAR so who knows/cares/whatever. We find a few Lightning Bolt and even a Chain Lightning in his deck, and I figure it's the lightning bolt special fanciness type deck, replace them all with Mountains and continue play.

Back to the action, Mirran Crusader looks smarmy bashing in next turn, when Elspeth shows up and makes dorks, gains me some life and a Fireball from Blake doesn't do much to save him.

1-0
1-0

That feels odd to write. Funnily enough the commoission the unStandard cards caused went along the table, and in round 2 one of the fellas who was talking about it got busted for Ornithopters. Good games!

My round 1 opponent was the amazing Mr Anderson.

Round 2 vs Wolf Run Wolf

Seeing the match up but not knowing the wolf part of it (ramp into lotsa mana, drop a lot of which Wolves exactly?) I keep a good hand for me that doesn't get there. His Birds of Paradise begin attacking when doubled with a Green Sun Zenith for another, followed by a Hero of Oxid Ridge. It's hard to block without creatures, let alone being dead.

For game 2 I sideboarded in my Dismembers and Spellskites, hoping he'd get anyone but his Hero's. He plays a Mayor of Avabruck early which I Dismember, going to 16, because my Geist of St Traft doesn't need to die yet. He drops to 14 off my first attack, tries to make a Kirin Outlaw as a blocker which gets Oblivion Ring'd and he takes another hit, going to 8. He has another Kirin Outlaw which I Dismember again [to 12] but then Consecrated Sphinx shows up and seals the deal.

Game 3 I don't change my sideboarding, though considering the Hero of Oxid Ridge I should have taken out the Spellskites.

Anderson gets an early Getstaf Shepherd who flips rather quick and my Phantasmal Image tries keeping up but he doesn't really. My hand is filled with complicated tricky measures I *could* take to stop the flow, but he has Midnight Howling [the werewolf enchantment] so that my Day of Judgment is useless, and he uses Kessig Wolf Run on my Phantasm who just can't hack the hike. I die pretty soundly, Anderson on a flush looking 16.

2-1
1-1

I also make a mental note: Actually Ghost Quarter's to the main, stupid. I forgot t mention I had counted my deck in between rounds and found 59 cards in the main. I'd removed a Plains for 2 Ghost Qs but neglected to put them in. This may have changed the match results (game loss each, then just play one game) but the result is the same. I ask Runner for the land banks and gets myself a nice replacement Island.

Round 3 versus Rony.

Yet again, my best mate/arch nemesis Rony is the opponent. He's trying a Burning Vengeance deck, which I think is great. Playing FNM the points are really worth it and the boosters are rather arbitary as to who gets them, so the games are just for fun. We tested before the event and he countered everything I did and had a B Vengeance on board when the first round was called, so I didn't know what my chances looked like.

Game 1 I keep 7 and he keeps 6, and he has the Burning Vengeance turn 3. I drop a Hero to just lay the smacks in, but he has a Geistflame and flashes it back to kill the Hero. I think that's a pretty good capability for the deck, but I answer with Consecrated Sphinx and begin drawing oodles, then next turn follow it up with a Sphinx copy via Phantasmal Image. He tries for a Forbidden Alchemy but it finds nothing and he concedes to 8 flying power and me drawing 5 a turn cycle.

Game 2 I sideboard in all my Negates, because they were especially good, and ask Rony jokingly "You're creatureless aren't you?" He confirms so I out all the Timely Reinforcments and Day of Judgment for goodstuff, including another Mirran Crusader.

Game 2 Rony and me lay lands until he tries to Alchemy, which I Leak. He doesn't have the counter-counter and just shrugs as he draws, me joking "Did you need that to draw out of a rut?" He drops the Burning Vengeance next, when I get a Hero and we all know that 7>2. Only he has a Sever the Bloodline for it, so I drop Gideon and hope to avoid all the creature removal he has.

Gidy gets him down to 14, then 8 then a Mirran Crusader joins my side of the fight which gets Mana Leak'd but I pay the 3. Rony's last turn he casts a Snapcaster Mage (liar! There WERE creatures!) but I check out his graveyard and see only a Sever the Bloodline that could make things bad. Dissapate does away with that removal and Rony dies.

2-0
2-1

My final round is against David, playing green white with artifacts in. He's got the powerful stuff, ala Gideon and DoJ, so he's playing green/white "me".

We both keep 7 and he has an early Jade Mage, which I copy with Phantasmal Image to keep the beats off/trade. He doesn't beat, so I do him down to 18. Hero comes down for me, which gets matched by a Druidic Satchel (for reals). I've written here *squints* P. H. squiggle, so I don't know what I played next, but he drops from 18 to 8, taking 7 from Hero-tokens and 3 from the Jade Mage. Hero 2 comes down, and he has a Day of Judgment! Back breaking, if I didn't have another Hero, the third. His answer then is Gideon, who says "Come at me bro," in a real convincing manner, so my team does buying David another turn.

He has a Satchel there after which isn't enough to beat my Hero beats matched with another Phantasmal Image-Hero.

Game 1 I sideboard Negate for his Gideon, Day of Judgment etc. We both keep 7 and I get a very stiff question straight away. He drops Grand Abolisher (no mana leak, no dissappate, etc) so for turn 2 there's no point in playing an untapped land. Does that mean Seachrome Coast or Glacial Fortress? I drop the Fortress tapped, figuring a turn 3 Seachrome Coast to Oblivion Ring the Abolisher is just delicious.

He gets a Satchel on an empty board, which isn't itself threatening but without any pressure from me it threatens to take control of the game. I get another Oblivion Ring so he drops Scepter of the Empires and begins a long game of plinking me down. I'm down to 17 when I get Elspeth and make some dorks, and gain life up to 20 again, but all the while he plinks me with Sceptre. He resolves a Garruk's Companion which begins beating me for 3 a turn and uses his Exilir to go up to 25.

I'm down to 14 when Elesh Norn shows up for the first time ever and rips the game a new one. My soldiers are 3/3, I bash for goods (his 2 minions died) and I make another 3 tokens with Elspeth, and then he Day of Judgments. Yeah, that happens some times.

He's at sixteen after my attack, I drop a Mirran Crusader with Mana Leak back up and he tries to Day of Judgment again. I counter it with Mana Leak and that's rather game, as he has no more threats or counters and his 14 just gets chewed out. Sword of War and Peace shows up and makes it two "small" attacks before I've got the match.

2-0
3-1

So a beaut 3-1 performance! There was certainly times when I could have played smarter, such as dropping loads of creatures into two Day of Judgments. Losing Elesh and all those lovely 3/3 Soldier tokens wasn't so bad though, considering the way I played. I knew the possibility was there, and it meant I could win NOW if he didn't have DoJ. He did, but because of how I'd chosen to play I still had the just-as-lethal threat or Mirran Crusader+Sword.

As I said above the Sword and Geist were both worth it, though I think St Traft will be moved to the sideboard. I like him in games against removal.dec, but he needs more cards to remove blockers and ones that preferably don't cost me 4 life to play. You know, those Vapor Snags I never added.

In his place the Mirran Crusader will rejoin the maindeck (so 2x main) also because of the Sword of War and Peace. It's just nice to know how quick that clock is, and only blue creatures can block after the Swords on the Crusader.

So after my thoughts, here's tonights deck. Note to self: add those Lands. Tricksy lands.

Geist of St Traft to sideboard
Mana Leak/Timely Reinforcments from sb gone -> 2x Vapor Snag in.

So tonight's run (proper FNM, at Megagames again) will look like this:

8 Island
7 Plains
4 Seachrome Coast
4 Glacial Fortress
2 Ghost Quarter
---
25 lands

4 Hero of Bladehold
2 Wurmcoil Engine
2 Phantasmal Image
2 Consecrated Sphinx
2 Mirran Crusader
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
---
13 creatures

4 Ponder
4 Oblivion Ring
3 Timely Reinforcements
3 Dissipate
3 Mana Leak
2 Day of Judgment
1 Sword of War and Peace
1 Gideon Joura
1 Elspeth Tirel
---
22 others


2 Negate
2 Dismember
2 Steel Sabotage
2 Spellskites
2 Go for the Throat
1 Geist of Saint Traft
1 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Isolated Chapel
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Swamp
---
15 sideboard

OK so based on the cards I have upstairs, we're experimenting lightly with a black splash. Go for the Throat, Nihil with black for card draw. The Nihil would have been Forbidden Alchemy, but 1 mana is cheap to pay and the exile-your-bin isn't counterable, so against opposing Snapcaster Mage's I will be FEARLESS. The Ghost Quarter is against the self same decks, because when they get Drownyard going it's just yuck.

Thanks all, I'll letcha know!

TNM, thursday night's Magic

Hello hello, here's the latest brew of my deck:

8 Island
7 Plains
4 Seachrome Coast
4 Glacial Fortress
2 Ghost Quarter
---
25 lands

4 Hero of Bladehold
2 Wurmcoil Engine
2 Phantasmal Image
2 Consecrated Sphinx
1 Geist of St Traft
1 Mirran Crusader
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
---
13 creatures

4 Ponder
4 Oblivion Ring
3 Timely Reinforcements
3 Dissipate
3 Mana Leak
2 Day of Judgment
1 Sword of War and Peace
1 Gideon Joura
1 Elspeth Tirel
---
22 others

2 Negate
2 Ghost Quarter
2 Dismember
2 Steel Sabotage
2 Spellskites
1 Timely Reinforcements
1 Mirran Crusader
1 Wurmcoil Engine
1 Blue Sun's Zenith
1 Mana Leak
---
13 sideboard

Do note Traft and s of War/Peace are in the main, because they're new threats and look like fun together. Again, no black added because the lands haven't arrived. I'm not sure how I'd do against the control decks now, but with Traft I've got a threat cheap enough to drop early, who they HAVE to counter because they can't doom blade it, ditto for the Mirran Crusader, but now he's a singleton with a brother in the sideboard.

Moved some counterspells around too, 3 Mana Leaks with 2 Negates in the side, to make less redundant draws at the games end when Mana Leaks "pay 3!" is negligible.

I also parked one of the Wurms in the sideboard, and he's joined by some Spellskites. The skites are just good creatures, blocking everything early (like that Noble vampire!) and redirecting spells away from my lovely Consecrated Sphinx, say, then bounced safely to hand and replayed ala giggle (thanks steel sabotage).

Venser and Jace are vacated from the sideboard because there was never a time when I wanted to play them. Venser is a random fella who I'd consider putting back in at some point, but Jace REALLY wants to be in a mill deck, because the effects seem random without the help of Nephalia Drownyard, and the +1 ability is rather underwhelming (though good) for 5 mana.

Elesh was moved to the main because I love and want to have her babies, which goes well with the increase to 25 lands main. Rony insists that 26 is what I want, and he said I always mana screwed against him, but seeing I won those games I'm agreeing with me. Plus I don't wanna see a million land when my threat cost 4 (Hero) and such. The big spells that cost 6 are really just there to close out the game/eat removal for the smaller looking, "plan B" guys.

So I'll let you know how I go! I am trying to figure out how to do pictures on this thing, but at the moment it's not working. There's an HTML editor button I can see, so hopefully I'll just locate the directory I need to link to (I made my own website a few times now).

Ta! Fox.

Techno, not chess.

I was planning to write about chess, and relate it to Magic, and how playing any game and playing it well and finding the underlying stratedgies will help you in every other game (or learning how to spell strategy properly), but instead I'm outside because it's annoying inside, and I can. Instead; technology.

I'm seated outside on a lovely cool night, not minding the mozzie bites because they beat the incessant drill of the TV into my brain, and obviously I avoid the peat bog like conditions of being inside. The internet I'm using is being screamed in to my computer by a wireless router, who in turn is getting it from I don't know where. The very first computers took up entire rooms and those who worked on it predicted they'd just get bigger. Now they've just announced that they can get a byte of information down to about 96 single atoms.

If the internet connection were to break, I could activate the bluetooth on my phone, connect THAT to the internet, and keep right on going. The amazing part is my niece and nephew wont care, wont be able to care, because to them it was always a part a life, simple and granted.

I remember hearing about the days of black and white TV, and how people would tape strips of coloured celophane to their TV and kid that they had colour TV. Now we've got whatever TV they ever played on youtube, or isohunt.com, the myriad of jungles of information out there that are so uncategorised and "oversold" as to cause a hyper active attention system in any daily user, thus shrinking their ability to focus, pay attention and ultimately think clearly.

So I love still reading books, and I enjoy sleeping with the battery pulled out of my phone. Try telling me anything THEN, facebook/twitter/internet. Of course, the battle isn't won! It kicks up again when I think of my dearest, and that I want to hear from her, talk to her, communicate. She's not that far away, phone or computer. Or telephone, the old fashioned thing with the "wireless"ness but it's never as impressive because it's not a network.

I can relate this back to Magic, actually. Back in the days, the early days, the days before even I knew what a "Standard tournament" meant, there were 4/5s. And they were HUGE. Bigger than your 15/15s of today, oh my yes. They could be blocked by two creatures and KILL THEM BOTH. They were easily worth 7 mana for the size alone.

The comparison is pretty simple. As Magic got older and evolved, the card pool expanded. Much like technology. As both got better, so did the users and the regulators, sort of like creatures and kill spells. Now a 2/2 who can't be shot and makes a 4/4 co-attacker is worth only 3 mana! Back in the day I remember playing a 1/1 who tapped for Red mana and was red itself. Whoever heard or red acceleration?

Eitherway, the minor funk this technology shock creates comes from the idea that if you tell anyone "Hey, technology wasn't always this good" they'll just say "But yes, it is right now and who cares and let's watch stupid cat videos all over the internet all night." I don't really hear the "thanks" there, and I can't personally tell you anything about anyone who worked on getting the internet to being a real thing, apart from Al Gore, and I only know he had it set up at the white house years before the public found out about it. And I'm not even sure how accurate that information is.

So, I guess, I'm taking it for granted that this amazing new technology will be taken for granted by most, and no thanks really awarded to whoever made it. Companies make money off the internet, not whoever created it. Perhaps the same became of whoever thought of the Letter, but it all stands true.

So next time you cast your 6/6 for 4CC and get a really nifty bonus anyway, just remember the brave souls who went before you, and thought a 4/5 was really big and a great deal for only 7 mana.

Fox Murdoch.

Ramping/pimping for thursday night

Hallo hallo, Magic hasn't been such a focus this week as I've been with my honey. Thursday and friday are on this week though, and I just bought some nice bling for my white blue deliciousness. There isn't any black being added yet, seeing the lands haven't arrived and I really think my chances against non-Solar flare decks aren't terrible. Don't ask me about that red deck wins deck though. And why didn't anyone tell me Negate was legal? It counters everything.

Except that 1/1.

I took out the Sphere on the Suns from the sb and put in Geist of Traft, Sword War Peace and 2 Spellskites. The Skites are good because they also fit into the sideboard of my Legacy deck, which I should talk about here some time soon.

I believe Geist has arguments for main or sideboard. As a sb card, he'd be brought in as an any extra Phantasmal Image kill against himself, otherwise he'd simply be great against infi-removal.dec, but I'd need some way to protect him each combat. That's where I think protection spells would rock, inparticular Apostle's Blessing, which I was originally eyeing off.

The Sword will go into the main as random greatness, plus doubles as evasion for Traft as well as super-dupering up my M Crusader to have protection from everything nonBlue. The Spellkites will help against the aggro decks, as well as the other decks that try and pop my cards. Vapor Snag my Hero? Nopes!

Looks fun. Stand by for more, this time about Games in general (think Chess).

FNM again, 13th

Well hi howdy. Wanna know how last week went? OK, press holt Ctrl and press Pg Dn now. For those who like to read a story proper, just keep agoin'. By the way, Ah'm also watching How the West Was Won right now, so excuse mah ak-sent.

Taking the list previously written, I was eagerly awaiting how the deck would run without the Solemn's, and curious to see when I'd wanna side in the great 1-ofs in my sideboard, namely Elesh Norn, Venser and Jace. Turns out Elesh is a very easy inclusion to any deck with creatures, especially any deck running Delver of Secrets seeing every creature it plays is just dead. Also, Snapcaster Mage's no longer bash for two, while your whole team is just stupid big. I mean a 6/8 flying sphinx just isn't Ouch enough.

Also the Think Twice's being gone was an easy fix, seeing it's just a card that cycles, which is inherently useless right? Let's get to it.

Round 1 versus Jarred playing Solar Flare.

Straight away my arch nemesis. I haven't got much of a chance right here, because every threat I play can be countered or killed, and at the end of his turn so I ain't got much chance to interact right like. We both keep 7.

My threats for the first game are two Hero of Bladeholds that get Doom Blade'd each. He gets out some Pristine Talisman action and drops a Grave Titan. I manage to cast DoJ, while he Forbidden's for an answer he doesn't find. His turn he drops Gideon (that traitor!) onto the field, saying all the critters I don't own gotta attack him. I Oblivion Ring during my own turn, but he Alchemy's again, and finds the Mana Leak to counter it, or always had it and felt like playing around.

Sideboarding I don't know what he'll do and don't remember how I sideboarded, but he plays Drownyard and I can't do anything as my library slips into my graveyard. I knew I had 2 Ghost Quarters main but even if I drew one o' them he'd still have another Drownyard I wager. I try an Elspeth to out bash him, countered, then a Sphinx who draws me two cards before dying as well. Also in reality it were a stupid choice, seeing I'm just milling myself another 2 per turn, if I do choose to draw.

He also gets Karn, who is HORRIBLE to play against. Which is to say he a fantastic card. Upon hitting the board, threat the first is gone. In this case, Sphinx. Then if I don't present another one during his tapped out turn, he just exiles a card from my hand. Mind you I gave him a Timely Reinforcements, but soon enough the game is obviously completely over.

I swear that the deck needs black in some form, and he agrees, and Rony laughs when it seems like I've finally seen the light. That, or simply play more things that work at end of turn, when it'll encourage my control opponents to tap out for counterspells. (In reality, I'm just thinking of adding the slightest touch o' Black for Forbidden Alchemy.)

0-2
0-1

Round 2 I'm paired up against Nathan, mah arch nemesis. Or my "bro" from Mega games. He's piloting the Twinx Poison deck, or what you might know as solar flare with the Spellcaster's Pike deck. I don't know this until game 1, when I keep a 5 lander and keeps 6.

He Tribute to Hunger's my first Hero because he's hungry, then Snapcaster's it back to eat my Wurmcoil Engine as well, but from his lofty 30 life he's smacked down to 24 but the follow up tokens. I sit on my cards before copying the Snapcaster with Phantasmal Image to flashback my Ponder and go asearchin'. Elspeth comes down soon after and begins gaining me life, when he castes Surgical Extraction for Mana Leaks. "You do it," I say, giving him my everything and letting him exile them hisself.

Now at this I'll take a small detour. If I'm playing well at all levels, that includes FNM or a GP. So I play by the rules to the T. While searching Nathan only took the 3 Mana Leaks in my deck, leaving the original on in the graveyard. Halfway through the match he finds another Extraction and spies my bin again, removing the "left behind" Mana Leak which I says he can't do so-sir-ee. I explain to him the rules of the cards say everything right thar, so he begins to argue, sees the point and figures it don't matter anyway. In a GP this would matter good and proper, as I could later Snapcaster my own Mana Leak back, (regardless of my deck's current configuration) so I say it's made us both better players. Now back to it.

At 29 life I begin to gain life with Elspeth, making tokens when she can. His life trickles down from 24 to 22 and eventually 16, 11 and 9, but he gets a Pike out, "Man up" his Inkmoth Nexus and "suit up" with his Pike, and bashing Elspeth lil' head in. Soon after her, he comes to poison me outta the game, me at 10+ poison but 38 life. It may not read like it, but this game took 30 odd minutes.

Game 2 I don't record our opening hands, so we'll say 7. He gets a Sun Titan early, I deal with it and get a Hero and he's straight down to 13 from an unblocked hit. He assembles the winning hand of Inkmoth Nexus with Pike threatening, but I have an Oblivion Ring to get rid of instant-death-fear.

He keeps my Hero at bay using Feeling of Dread (surprisingly useful) so the tokens get to bash as simple 1/1s. I get Elspeth to make some more tokens and increase the pressure, and she starts cooking up the counters as he resolves a Sun Titan against me returning an Inkmoth. He's got a Ghost Quarter for my Ghost Quarter, then Elspeth blows up the board. This was hilarious to actually do, because it was done completely wrong. I put Elspeth in the bin. "She had 6 counters. Her ultimates only 5." I put all my creatures in the bin. "Your dudes are tokens." You know, makes sense.

His Pike returns and he threatens to then poison me out, but I bum block with the Soldier token, and on the following turn have the Oblivion Ring to stop him from getting the poison kill, my soldiers finally doin' the overwhelming thing.

Game 3 we know there isn't much time left, so I sideboard quick enough but I'm aware of the crappy start risk and him being able to simply win the match. He keeps a full grip, I forget my own.

He gets to a quick Inkmoth poisoning attack, before trying a Shrine of the White Tokens which I counter with my sideboard Steel Sabotage (worth it!). The next hit comes from a Pike wielding Inkmoth Nexus (6 poison) but he can't kill me on the last turn as I draw and play an Oblivion Ring, that goes along reel purdy with the two I already had in hand. Time is called, and I draw.

Bonus: during game 2 I passed one turn without activating Elspeth at all. Nathan laughed at the mistake just as I noticed it myself. "Elspeth is not Lilly." I tell Nathan both have to win, so we'll be 2-1-1 brothers and totally rock all the 6 pointers.

1-1-1
0-1-1

Round 3 versus Jeremy playing black/red Vamps

Well, Vamps certainly isn't the deck it was. Jeremy has Bloodcrazed Neonite and I let it run into my Hero of Bladehold. He casts Crossway Vampire so Hero can't block his attack that drops me to 17, when I cast Timely Reinforcements and bash for 7 with Hero. His next life is 8 and then we shuffle for game 2.

Game 2 I get an education in opponent level's. We both keep 7, he has Stormkirk Noble turn 1 but it stops dead (after he enchants it with a Gruesome Deformity) when I get desperate and cast an Phantasmal Image copying. It never attacks again, so I believe Jeremy thought it was a 3/3 red dork as well. The 3/3 part ain't right.

Jeremy Tribute to Hungers up to 23, then drops to 16 as I get a Wurm out and start stabilising real nice like. He casts a Markov Patrician at one point that blocks my Hero on it's lonesome, gaining a minute of time. Now my board is filled with tokens and I drop a second Wurm, when Jeremy has a Sever the Bloodline against me. It's a great move, dealling with two awesome threats and leaving no token-y residue but the Soldier tokens just eat face, as another Wurm joins in the final swing of Hero, tokens, and Wurm, taking Jeremy from 27 to -20.

2-0
1-1-1

Between rounds I find Nathan who has won his match, so we're both 1-1-1. We need to win the last round, though I'm paired up against Rony. Rony, the fella who I was taking to FNM for his birthday. I concede straight away, but he protests profusely and we play it out.

Rony's piloting a Delver of Secrets blue/red deck, which is he own fun brew. It looks fun but too inconsistent, seeing without a flipped Delver is has no real pressure beside the burn. We both keep 7 handers, me keeping 2 counter spells, sphinx n lands.

He has the Delver and plinks me for 1 before trying to Ponder, which I Leak. He reveals a Disperse next and beats me to 16, then resolves a second Ponder. I Wrath after that clearing the board, though Rony Disperse's his Insect and replaying it his turn. He attempts to play a Bears which I laugh at, to think I'm countering.

Elspeth shows up and begins making babies, which he Gut Shots, Vapor Snags and then blocks with AEther Adept (yes). Hero comes down on my side, he AEthers again but I have the inevitability as he can't get a threat going, while mine are coming in a constant stream now, via new cards and Elspeth tokens/life gain.

He struggles to remake ground, but a Mirran Crusader that I double up with Phantasmal Image, which Rony carves outta the way with Arc Trail (2 your Crusader, naturally) before a Timely Reinforcements prompts a concession.

Game 2 is too tricky for my liking, the game went long when I didn't feel like it would, so I take out the Mana Leaks in favour of more threats. Stupid, I guess? The idea was good, but I didn't count on game 2.

We both keep 7, and Rony's turn 1 Delver flips immediately (Mana Leak revealed) into Insect Ab. I'm at 10 before I Timely back to 20 and Soldiers, but he Leaks and has a second Delver instead! My Day of Judgment never gets its sunrise (Mana Leak #2) and I drop and O Ring at 4 life that does nothing really useful.

Game 3 the Mana Leaks go right back in. And did I mention I brought Elesh in? Naturally.

So the final game of the night. Rony is 2-1 and wants glory, I'm 1-1-1 and wanna win. We both keep 7 handers and Rony's early Phantasmal Bear is Oblivion Ring'd into Oblivion. He has another creature which turns on my Timely Reinforcements, gumming up the ground and raising me ot a lofty 24. AEther Adept and Arc Trail deal with my tokens, while I Oblivion Ring another Bear and he Vapor Snag's my tokens.

He life snips away in snippets of 2 when he tries for a Delver, which I Dissapate, which he Dissapates. The next turn I Day of Judgment, which he swears I didn't have because I wasn't playing it. I had a second in hand which I'd had since the games start, so I felt confident that I would get the points.

At this point my hand is Elspeth, Hero and Sphinx, and I know I can layer out the threats in the right order. The first one will get Mana Leak certainly, then after that hopefully the next two make it. I cast a Timely Reinforcements regardless and Rony says "Life only?" I didn't realise the board was empty, so I shrug and accept my play mistake, upping to 19 life.

Next turn my Elspeth is countered instantly, "Why are you playing bad?" Rony asks earnestly, followed next turn by a Hero of Bladehold that he Vagor Snag's, before it comes down again. Rony draws for the turn and Arc Trails, targeting me for 2 and the Hero for one, which I think about before I let resolve. Immediately after comes the Incinerate everyone was expecting, which I Leak. Sphinx comes down soon after, to match Rony's new Bear, and that takes the card when I'm drawing 3 a turn and Rony's outta gas.

Boom!! 2-1 win for an event result of:
2-1-1 (7 points).

So the new design played remarkably well. After my round 1 lose and revelation I was expecting a few more loses but didn't lose another match. 4th outta 12, the most annoying thing about my latest list is the Sphere's in the sideboard. Never even considered. I'm super wanting to move Elesh to the main, and main deck Timely Reinforcements is just so fun and unexpected, it's a proper show stopper.

Gideon also has been amazing since I managed to get my Ps and start driving him properly, and Elspeth has also been a great card for her versatility with army production/life gain potential.

Now, did I miss the Solemns or Think Twice's at all? No, not one bit. There was a teensy bit of "aww, I'm bored," while playing Nathan in round 2, as he'd draw cards at the end of turn, but apart from that nothing. They truly are "get there" cards, and when your deck is full of them you can't get "there" assuming "there" is your threat and thus the win. I also ran 3 Wurms main which I will maintain before I love a chunky Wurm. Everybody else suggests 2.

The Ghost Quarters were also good, so I'm moving 2 main and removing a Plains, leaving 2 more in the sideboard against dedicated Kessig Wolf Run/nonBasic land lovin' decks.

As mentioned above, the black I'm hoping to add is Forbidden Alchemy, and some Go for the Throats. Being able to let a spell resolve and then "counter" it once it's on the board is great, as it puts less strain on the mana I need to leave open. Doom Blades as further answers to Inkmoth Nexus's too, seeing everybody and their dog has them.

As for the Land base, I've got some Isolated Chapels. Not so much for this deck, but for Sorin who's about to be released. Everybody's seen him, right? I figure putting those 4 Chapels and 1 Swamp in the main will help the deck to run the flashback/Terror wannabes, and we'll have ourselves a not-quite Solar Flare.

Thanks for reading all this by the way, it's fun to really play some Magic now :)

Updatees...

Not a typo. If you've come looking for an update, I work from 6.45 both saturday and sunday, so I'm pooped and typically don't wanna "work" on a weekend night, even if writing about Magic is still a lot of fun. Needing to get my facts right/making sure the post reads well is considerable work.

Having said that, FNM last night went great for me, coming 5th outta 12. For the first time I can remember I broke the 2-2 mould with a 2-1-1 performance! Also won some Isolated Chapels and preordered some Sorin's from the store. Business class, oh yeah.

More tomorrow night!

Prepping for FNM (real one this time)

So tonight Rony and I sleeve up again for battle. He's taking a burning vengeance deck, which'll be interesting, while I'm still piloting blue/white. To date I'd have to say the fun is quite high, but that's because I feel like I'm doing things at every point in the game. Key culprit of fun there is Solemn Simulacrum, who's apparently not all that good because he only accelerates into something big/game ending, which apparently I don't have.

I have got the Wurms and Sphinx's, which I imagine count, but the deck still wants more tweaks. I'm moving the Day of Judgment duo to the main board, and bringing in some Vapor Snags with an Unsummon. The deck really wants to interact with the opponent's things more, and O Ring while great isn't cheap enough to remove their threat and then lay down my own. Paying U on top of a threat works well, and it would've made my game 1 round 1 yesterday a lot easier, as I desperately dug for (and found, hoo yeah) any removal to get a Birds of Paradise outta the sky. And I know Dismember came only cost 1 and is permanent, but I don't like the life cost, esp if I'm looking for cheap answers against the red/white aggro decks.

Steel Sabotage would have reset one thing yesterday had I drawn it, the red Shrine's of my round 4 opponent's. Apart from that, it wasn't used.

For some inspiration I reread this article by LSV, where he's running an Esper coloured deck. No I'm not running black, but the similarities are undeniable.

http://www.channelfireball.com/home/running-the-gauntlet-esper-daily-event-1/

See that Volition Reins in the side? Elesh? Elspeth? Basically it's a more honed version of my own deck, plus black. On that note, I do wonder if I find myself getting bored with just blue/white and wanting to expand into black, or ditching white entirely for black. A major culprit of that is of course the upcoming Sorin's Awesomeness card. Haven't seen it?

http://media.wizards.com/images/magic/tcg/products/dka/9xh27x1cck_en.jpg

That's right. Black white tokens hurrah! Buy up now.

Before I get on with the list I'm sporting tonight, I did a pile shuffle yesterday and found one extra card. So yesterday I was running 61 main, 15 sideboard. Silly Fox!

Also, forget the Snags.

8 Island
7 Plains
4 Seachrome Coast
4 Glacial Fortress
2 Ghost Quarter
---
25 lands

4 Hero of Bladehold
2 Wurmcoil Engine
2 Mirran Crusader
2 Phantasmal Image
2 Consecrated Sphinx
---
12 creatures

4 Mana Leak
4 Ponder
4 Oblivion Ring
4 Timely Reinforcements
3 Dissipate
2 Day of Judgment
1 Gideon Joura
1 Elspeth Tirel
---
23 others



4 Solemn Simulacrum
2 Ghost Quarter
2 Vapor Snag
2 Dismember
2 Steel Sabotage
1 Venser, the Sojourner
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
1 Jace Memory Adept
---
15 sideboard


This build has more land with Ghost Quarters in the main and 2 in the sideboard for Kessig match up, as well as 2 Vapor's/2 Dismembers split. I'll let you know how I go.

Fox

FNM - results. first, a correction.

A correction indeed. Blacktown doesn't run FNM. It runs Magic on thursday night, and it's not FNM. They just run an event. So no whistles nor worries Magic/Wizards, they wasn't a single Glistener Elf promo to be seen. Shame really, I wanted another one.

No no no, indeed this set of Magic went down thusly:

Game 1 match 1 I'm against Brad. Clothing of choice for me is a "cool guy/intimidation" set of jacket, white converse and cool red shirt with an "I have issues" dogtag. Also the killer face and hair. I don't think it did much but make me look at nice dressed up for Magic, really.

Brad was playing green/white tokens and Galvony Township. I win game 1, but it's close for a while. My first mistake is using Oblivion Ring on his Birds of Paradise. He was playing a load of ramp, and I figured I could keep him off big numbers, OR wait and exile the threat, and I opted for the first. Birdies gets exiled, then Garruk the Flipper shows up. Oh well.

I get to cast a Consecrated Sphinx and begin drawing a lot, Phantasmal Image to get another and I'm drawing 5 per turn cycle. This is great because I can attack in the air unmolested, while he creates a nice big ground force. He gets really big when I drop a Wurmcoil Engine, me thinking it wont save me from the alpha strike. When it comes to the attack, I block here and there (Wurmcoil on Geist-Honored Monk, etc) and gain just enough to life, on two life.

It was at this point a great many things came together and worked beautifully. He was on 16 from a lone Sphinx bash, so I played the Phantasm and copied it. 2 swings of 8 would kill him. He can see this too, so I bash him to 8, drop Gideon Jura and DON'T screw up. Big tick for me. Everyone has to attack Gideon, it's enough to kill him, and presumably this allows me to fly over for the win. Otherwise I'm on two, so any removal and I die.

He plays a Birds of Paradise. I draw Think Twice, which draws Ponder, which finds Oblivion Ring for the exile and the game. I'd like to thank anyone who's ever said "Just hold on there and play to your outs." I knew my outs were blow up the world or exile the birdies, went searching for O Ring and found it. Good game.

Game 2 he gets a much better start, and my threats don't really do much, my blockers being Mirran Crusader against his green/white army. I get confused and lose the Crusader I block a white dork, but by this point I lose and we hadn't started shuffling for game 3 when time was called.

1-1 games
0-0-1 matches

Round 2 was against another blue white deck that had also drawn. Groan. We were going to have slow games, assuming we both played D. Game 1 I misplay and try to cast something (gasp) which he of course Mana Leaks. This means I'm tapped out on his turn, and he resolves a Geist of Saint Traft against me. This isn't immediately game over, as I continually get 2/2s to put in his way, ala Solemn Simulacrum, but the angel token eventually deals with me as the Saint Traft gets an Angelic Destiny of his own.

I bring in DoJ and Ratchet Bomb, seeing I can blow it for 0 or crank it to three before he even drops Saint Traft, but I keep a bad hand while his seems perfectly OK anyway. We get into one decent counter war, which I win, but it doesn't matter as Traft shows up once again and I have no answer, and DoJ gets countered.

0-2
0-1-1

Round 3

My opponent is a little kid, who's only just learnt to play Magic. He read a few cards that I played, so I explained a few things that I was doing as we were playing. One of the players up from me, a gentleman my friend Rony knows, whose name I forget (sorry man, what is your name?) was laughing at how well I was explaining what "I" was doing, neglecting to say "But you can stop all this if you just shock my Phantasmal Image now." I didn't know the kid had Shock eitherway, the point I think is interesting is once again how should you treat brand new/younger players.

I don't advocate playing their game for them, nor going super easy on them because they're new to it. I like to educate where I can, so I have a Hero of Bladehold for example I explain the battle steps and how he can shoot my stuff before I attack, which will mean no tokens and no +1/+0. At this point Rony laughs at how cruel I'm being, but I defend myself saying "What am I meant to do, concede because he's a kid?"

I'd stick by it again in the future. It's probably ruthless, as in I don't want to lose to a kid who doesn't know the game well, but I don't intend to leave them in the dark (compared to the seasoned players etc), so I'll educate after the game, or during it if they seem to be doing nothing. The most annoying for me when learning a game is having a hand of Stuff, and just not knowing what it could do. I ask a million questions when learning a game, so when I see someone new to a game I imagine they would do the same. If they don't, I'll ask the questions for them.

Eitherway, I win. Both games Hero of Bladehold comes down and that's it. One gets double Shock'd, so I played a second. On second thoughts, I probably didn't need that Consecrated Sphinx/Phantasmal Image combo. At the time I was thinking "mercy killing."

2-0
1-1-1

Round 4 karma caught up with as I'm paired against mono-red counter creatures burn. Stormblood Berserker, Chandra's Pheonix, red Shrine and Volt Charge all make very short work of me, and my creatures. I manage to buy a turn in game 1 when I'm at low life but resolve a Wurmcoil Engine. His Shrine is sitting on 8 counters while I'm sweating only 7 life, and he activates the Shrine targeting my Wurm. He has enough to finish me the next turn eitherway.

Game 2 goes similarly quick and bad, as my early dorks get cleared aside. He has double Pheonix, I Day of Judgment, he pings me and rebuys both Birds and continues bashing like nothing happened. O Ring doesn't show up, poor dear. I try the same trick when his Shrine is up to lethal and I've got a Wurmcoil to resolve, but he doesn't bite this time and kills me in his upkeep.

0-2
1-1-2.

I come 13th outta 22, which is rather a 2-2 style result. It's at this point that the integrity of how Blacktown runs it's Magic shows. Before I go on I will point out again that this wasn't FNM, and as such there was only points on the line, no FNM promos or otherwise. In fact I'll start with the good.

There is space. This is always great, because I hate small dungeons that cram all their players into a room. Second, there was food and drinks aplenty. Pizza for $8.50 when you sign up for Magic is great, and you can pick whatever you like. Plus a drinks fridge that I took a picture of, just because it was that great. The only fridge that looks better is one from new year, aka mine, that was filled with beer. Third, the man himself who ran the joint. After rounds, we stayed back and played until 1ish, when the store is reported to close at 10pm. He's a good fella and fun to chat to.

Now, the bad. Players are given the ability to report their wins, on the actual computer running Wizards Event Reporter (WER). This is crap. I don't care how well people know things, because they get it wrong. I know this because as we're sitting and chatting after rounds, my right-seated neighbour congratulates my opponent on his 4-0 performance. "So you won the whole thing," they say.

Let's check my results again, before the last round. 1-1-1, or 4 points. Against a guy who was obviously 3-0 or 9 points. I should have been no where near this crazy fine cat and his mono-red deck. I point out the error and we begin to hunt down the error. His round 1 opponent had put the match results in incorrectly, and as such he'd been placed down since round 2.

This is the kind of thing that I don't like at Magic events. Allowing the players the ease of entering their results when they finish sounds nice, but it allows for an entire event to be run incorrectly. If this were a high end event, it makes a great deal more difference than it does at this random event. It's a confusing sign of ownership, one of too much casualness, and not owning the event/score boarding properly.

For a quick comparison, Megagames in Penrith use paper slips for results and the TO always calls out the result before he puts it into the system. It may seem small, but it helps a lot.

Now having reported all that, how would I change my deck? Well I'd have to reconsider quite a lot. In point form:

+The Sun Titan's never really impressed when they showed up. Titan into Phantasm into O Ring never happened, and when I managed to chain Titan into Phantasm anyway the pair of 6/6s were largely useless because I got swarmed. I wanted DoJ much more often then I wanted Sun Titan.
+Where were you, Dissapate? Seriously, I got like 1 the entire tournament lol. No seriously, I needed to mulligan a lot more than I did this tournament. Note for tomorrow's FNM.
+I need to spend more time thinking like a boss ala Paulo/LSV, especially in the control mirror. Trying to play a threat first is akin to slipping up, because of course my round 2 opponent (James, right?) had the Mana Leak, and it just meant I was tapped out for his turn, allowing the threat that I couldn't unstick. So this leads straight to my next point.
+Vapor Snares wanted!! 3 with another in the SB, because God damn this deck just can't seem to deal with some things. It's cheap, buys time, has the added ping, and best of all resets a lot of cards. It allows Sun Titan to go again if needed, but removes the counters from a Stormkirk Noble, for example.

Those are quite big points. I'll stop there, please post comments, it takes one second to make an account.

Fox "Tomorrow will go better" Murdoch.