Having Hindsight is Better Than Not Seeing at All - Battle for Zendikar Sealed Deck Thoughts

This post is going to be all about Magic the Gathering. Readers have been warned.

I attended the Prerelease today for Battle for Zendikar. This post is mostly going to be me going through my sealed deck thought process and my realization of how I should have gone about my deck build. Comments, as always, are welcomed.

First, a little background: I play at Uncle's Games in Crossroads, and their prereleases are usually a great mix of young and old, new and veteran players. I like the atmosphere, and I also prefer the familiar faces. My win rate is usually 50%, which isn't bad but isn't great either. Going 2-2-0 nets you one prize pack at Uncle's, so that's basically the threshold for "winning."

I play Sealed Deck almost exclusively now, mostly because I don't want to spend the money to play Standard, and I like the idea of deck building. Also it's the format that lets you open the most packs, and that feeling never gets old ;)

My pool for today was as follows (broken down by casting color and sorted by CMC, rares/mythic bolded):

Colorless (4)

Titan's Presence, Instant (3)

Hedron Archive, Artifact (4)

Kozilek's Channeler, Creature 4/4 (5)

Ruin Processor, Creature 7/8 (7)

Multicolored (4)

Herald of Kozilek, Creature 2/4 (1UR)

Veteran Warleader, Creature */* (1GW)

Ulamog's Nullifier, Creature 2/3 (2UB)

Kiora, Master of the Depths, Planeswalker (2GU)

Non-basic land (9)

2x Mortuary Mire

2x Skyline Cascade

2x Evolving Wilds

Spawning Bed

Prairie Stream

Lumbering Falls

Red (9)

Lavastep Raider, Creature 1/2 (R)

Outnumber, Instant (R)

Kozilek's Sentinel, Creature 1/4 (1R)

Tunneling Geopede, Creature 3/2 (2R)

2x Nettle Drone, Creature 3/1 (2R)

Touch of the Void, Sorcery (2R)

Shatterskull Recruit, Creature 4/4 (3RR)

Stonefury, Instant (3RR)

Green (16)
Sylvan Scrying, Sorcery (1G)

Earthen Arms, Sorcery (1G)

Plummet, Instant (1G)

2x Tajuru Stalwart, Creature 0/1 (2G)

Void Attendant, Creature 2/3 (2G)

Unnatural Aggression, Instant (2G)

Retreat to Kazandu, Enchantment (2G)

2x Natural Connection, Instant (2G)

2x Eyeless Watcher, Creature 1/1 (3G)

Infuse with the Elements, Instant (3G)

2x Reclaiming Vines, Sorcery (2GG)

Tajuru Beastmaster, Creature 5/5 (5G)

Blue (16)

Clutch of Currents, Sorcery (U)

5x Rush of Ice, Sorcery (U)

Tide Drifter, Creature 0/5 (1U)

Mist Intruder, Creature 1/2 (1U)

Coralhelm Guide, Creature 2/1 (1U)

Tightening Coils, Enchantment (1U)

Retreat to Coralhelm, Enchantment (2U)

Adverse Conditions, Instant (3U)

Incubator Drone, Creature 2/3 (3U)

2x Oracle of Dust, Creature 3/5 (4U)

Wave-Wing Elemental, Creature 3/4 (5U)

White (11)

3x Cliffside Lookout, Creature 1/1 (W)

Kor Castigator, Creature 3/1 (1W)

Felidar Cub, Creature 2/2 (1W)

Fortified Rampart, Creature 0/6 (1W)

Ondu Rising, Sorcery (1W)

Lantern Scout, Creature 3/2 (2W)

Stasis Snare, Enchantment (1WW)

Smite the Monstrous, Instant (3W)

Hero of Goma Fada, Creature 4/3 (4W)

Black (16)

Altar's Reap, Instant (1B)

Kalastria Healer, Creature 1/2 (1B)

Complete Disregard, Instant (2B)

Malakir Familiar, Creature 2/1 (2B)

2x Voracious Null, Creature 2/2 (2B)

4x Silent Skimmer, Creature 0/4 (3B)

2x Mire's Malice, Sorcery (3B)

Mind Raker, Creature 3/3 (3B)

Skitterskin, Creature 4/3 (3B)

Grip of Desolation, Instant (4BB)

Defiant Bloodlord, Creature 4/5 (5BB)

I got really excited when I saw Kiora. This is the first planeswalker I've opened in a Sealed Deck tournament since Rise of the Eldrazi. Apparently the Eldrazi planeswalkers like me. What happened next though was that I became obsessed with fitting her into a deck, so naturally it would be UGB right? In my excitement I mentally dismissed Red and White as having too few cards to support a deck, and I saw that I did have the mana fixing necessary to run three colors, so I immediately jumped right in and built this:

Creatures (16)

Mist Intruder

Tide Drifter

Incubator Drone

Ulamog's Nullifier

Kozilek's Channeler

Ruin Processor

Kalastria Healer

Malakir Familiar

2x Silent Skimmer

2x Tajuru Stalwart

2x Eyeless Watcher

Void Attendant

Tajuru Beastmaster

Planeswalker (1)

Kiora, Master of the Depths

Other (6)

Infuse with the Elements

Unnatural Aggression

Complete Disregard

Rush of Ice

Clutch of Currents

Grip of Desolation

Lands (17)

2x Evolving Wilds

Spawning Bed

Prairie Stream

Lumbering Falls

2x Mortuary Mire

2x Skyline Cascade

3x Swamp

3x Forest

2x Island

Looking at my deck in this format, I'm pretty sure people can see a few issues immediately. Unfortunately, they were lost on me during the deck building phase, and I then went on to a 1-2-1 record. Needless to say, not happy with myself.

The question now is, was this really the best deck I could build with my pool? As I was dismantling my deck I noticed that I'd used three of my seven rares, which is a respectable number for Sealed Deck, but TWO OF THEM WERE LANDS. Now, lands are important, but most of the time, especially in Limited, they're not going to win the game.

I should have chosen a different 40 cards. I should have chosen these:

GW Allies and Friends

Creatures (16)

3x Cliffside Lookout

Kor Castigator

Felidar Cub

Lantern Scout

Hero of Goma Fada

Kozilek's Channeler

Ruin Processor

2x Tajuru Stalwart

2x Eyeless Watcher

Void Attendant

Tajuru Beastmaster

Veteran Warleader

Planeswalker (1)

Kiora, Master of the Depths

Other (6)

Earthen Arms

Infuse with the Elements

Unnatural Aggression

Retreat to Kazandu

Stasis Snare

Smite the Monstrous

Lands (17)

2x Evolving Wilds

Spawning Bed

Lumbering Falls

Prairie Stream

2x Island

5x Plains

5x Forests

With this deck, 25% of my deck is Allies, which means a lot of chances for lifelink, indestructible, and +1/+1 effects. I also use six of my seven rares, which is a minor indicator of inherent power in the deck. On top of that I am able to incorporate the Retreat into this mana curve, and both +1/+1 counters or gaining life on landfall are great choices. Stasis Snare and Smite the Monstrous are both extremely well-costed removal spells, and I even get enchantment removal on a stick in the form of Felidar Cub. I get four sources for blue mana (and two wild cards in Evolving Wilds), which is more than enough to support Kiora.

Would I have done better with this deck during the tournament? That is up in the air. However, I probably would have given myself an easier path to success (and those two wins) using the second deck instead of the first. In previous tournaments I wouldn't even have been able to see this though, so I'm definitely proud of myself for improving to the point where I am noticing things like this.

What would you have sleeved up given this pool? Let me know your thoughts in the comments!

The state of console games

Two posts in two days...what is the world coming to? I'd usually leave video game ranting to Angry Video Game Nerd, except I'm getting that feeling right now.

I love video games. I may not have the console history that rabid fans use to measure their e-peen, but I've always enjoyed console gaming (even though I'm a PC gamer at heart). And really, growing up it seemed like the good games never stopped. Even now, as a member of the 9-5 workforce, there's always time for games, or at least I make time for them (usually to the extreme ire of Cindy).

There's always something new to play...except when there...isn't...

I just completed a year working as a tester on the Xbox One. The "next-gen" consoles have been out for a while now, with the Wii U finally hitting its stride (supposedly), the Xbox One slightly making a comeback (maybe), and the PS4 still going strong (uhh sure?). My question is, where are the games?

I haven't bought an Xbox One or PS4 yet. In my opinion, neither console has a strong enough library of games already released or announced to justify a purchase. Dragon Age: Inquisition? That was a no-brainer buy for PC for me. Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare? Not a fan of the PvP and the campaign's like 10 hours long, if you're slow. Forza? Sure it's fun, but I still have my 360 racing setup. Bloodborne? Seriously? Mortal Kombat X? Sorry but that's a nostalgia buy at best...and the new and improved fatalities are a negative in my opinion. Destiny? Sure, if Bungie hadn't run that IP into the ground shortly after release... Evolve was the March of video games (in like a lion, out like a lamb). Halo MCC had sooooo many issues, but it was fun playing the Halo single player campaigns again...until you realize that wait, I'm just replaying the old Halo games, which were twitchy and had really terrible story-telling...and are still twitchy with terrible story-telling. Assassin's Creed Unity...what a mess that ended up being.

I seriously had more fun playing Powerstar Golf on the Xbox One than any of the games I just listed (excepting DA:I but I played that on PC). So then, Nintendo must be doing okay on the Wii U right?

Well, let's see...Mario Kart 8, Super Smash Bros. Those are the only two games mainstream fans care about. Me personally, I've never been a huge fan of SSB. Hyrule Warriors was fun for a while. But that makes...3 games? Bayonetta 2, but it still has the ridiculously unnecessary gratuitous nudity issue that the first one had, which they fixed with Nintendo costumes, but left in the sequel? Nintendo is still the king of poor design decisions...

This was supposed to have been Nintendo's year. Last year's E3, Nintendo completely blew Sony and Microsoft out of the water in terms of pure excitement concerning new games. Except now we're coming to E3 2015 and Zelda has been pushed back, Codename STEAM didn't actually generate any steam, Monster Hunter 4 still has the same crappy control system as the previous Nintendo ported Monster Hunters, and Xenoblade Chronicles X still doesn't have a Western release date despite releasing in Japan next Wednesday.

Come on, everyone. The heart has really dropped out of video games this year. Considering my top games of 2015 are Pillars of Eternity and Xenoblade Chronicles 3D, it seems a return to the basics is in order. Make me want to play games instead of writing blog posts!

To freelance or not to freelance

I'm very bad at this writing thing. I always start writing projects thinking "this time I'll keep it going!" and it never happens. This is why my blogs (like this one) are always empty, and I'm not a writer. However, what I've realized is that I'm an extremely good editor. It's not just spelling and grammar; I can pick out tone and style as well. I have frequent issues with self-published books (usually picked up on my Kindle), but it happens quite often with major content providers as well (e.g. news, current events, pop culture sites).

I also find myself enjoying translation work in the only two languages I'm fluent in: Chinese (Mandarin for spoken, both Traditional and Simplified for written) and English (mostly American, of course). Japanese has been my next project for years now, but much like writing blogs, learning it is a stop-and-go affair.

That brings me to the subject of this post. For the past year, mostly due to financial concerns, I've been toying with the idea of doing freelance translation and editing work. I already do a lot of this on a pro bono basis (starting from high school actually) - mostly for family and friends but also for kindred souls on the internet. For examples of my latest work you can check out the Xenoblade Chronicles X video subs by 許為傑. I own the Google+ page darkshard45, and I've been helping 許為傑 with grammar and flow.

The major issue with making this into a side business is time. Translating and editing are typically very time-sensitive. Editing is something I can complete within an hour or two for most projects, but translation projects can take days or weeks with work and life competing for attention. I can always start with just editing, but translating is where I stand out and usually do my best work. I'm afraid that it will become too time-consuming, and I'll end up letting down customers who would actually be paying now.

I figure this is where I needed opinions from people who know me. Some of you know me well, and most of you don't. What do you think should be my course of action? Should I attempt to make this into a freelance business or just keep it as a hobby?

Destiny, Destiny, Destiny...

So a lot of people have been exposed to the Destiny beta. If you've been living under a rock, Destiny is Bungie's new IP, kind of like an MMO FPS. (I hope you know that Bungie previously worked on something called Halo, which was kind of popular. Just a little.)

Anyway, so I was playing in the beta for the past few days, realizing that I have very few friends on Xbox Live Gold for the 360 and even fewer friends on PS3. I'm quite sure that of all the people I know and have interacted with, probably 50% of them do have said accounts, but it's just not in my nature to "swap gamertags" unless we have a game in mind. Well, Destiny just might be that game.

Unfortunately, Destiny is only in the realm of possibility right now. The issue is this - after playing Destiny about 3 hours a day for about 6 days, I realized that it's very boring when you don't play with friends. The gameplay is still there, but you lose out on the social aspect.

Pause for dramatic effect.

I prefer single player games. If you look at my games library, it is full of single player titles, where multiplayer is either nonexistent or basically an afterthought. I even play MMOs as a single player, usually not for a prolonged period of time, but it happens. The problem though is that all of these games are RPGs. And an FPS is a different kind of beast.

FPSs scream out for the social aspect. They almost require you to be playing with a buddy on the couch or with friends over some sort of chat server. Frenetic gameplay coupled with a first person perspective means you're constantly looking for your next target and your friends are there to "help" you with that. These past few days I figured out just why I never thought I liked FPSs - I was playing them wrong.

But that brings me to the second issue with Destiny - it's coming out on too many platforms. At launch, Destiny is going to have four separate "servers," for Xbox 360, Xbox One, PS3, and PS4. In theory, this is great, because people won't have to upgrade to the new consoles to play this "next-gen" game. The problem comes when you actually think about the future of Destiny.

Destiny is an MMO that lives purely in the console world. Unlike the world of PC gaming, console gamers don't randomly upgrade bits and pieces of their hardware when they feel like it. You upgrade to the next console when you have the means or drive to do so. Personally, I don't feel the need to get an Xbox One or PS4 right now. Neither console has a critical mass of games that I want to play, and the absolute lack of backwards compatibility with my current games and accessories is a big letdown.

If I buy Destiny for Xbox 360, I'm getting an immediate "fix" for this game. However, it should be obvious that the 360 and PS3 don't have a place in Bungie's 10-year plan for Destiny. Microsoft and Sony aren't going to be supporting their older consoles for that many years. There won't be new updates coming for those consoles that far in the future. If you're planning for the long haul, buying for the older consoles is just not smart since you'll effectively be buying the same game twice.

However, as with most MMOs, if you don't get in at launch or near launch, you miss the wider sense of community. The amount of people that play a certain MMO 6 months or a year after launch is much, much different from the amount that log in for the first three months. So then the question is, are you willing to buy the new consoles to cash in on the benefits of playing at launch?

What I'm really hoping that Bungie will announce in the next month is the ability to "upgrade" from the 360 or PS3 game to the corresponding One or PS4 game for a minimal amount of money, say $10. This is what Gamestop and other retailers were offering buyers last year with the imminent release of the PS4 and Xbox One. It makes sense, shows a connection to your player-base, and still pushes people to buy the new consoles. Even limiting the amount of time the promotion would be valid is fine - I think having a year to take advantage of it should be about right.

We'll see what, if anything, Bungie has to say about this. My fingers are crossed.

What's Wrong With Microsoft

So hopefully everyone knows the big news that came out of E3. Sony literally gave Microsoft the finger with their official unveiling of the Playstation 4, and it'll be rough for Microsoft to dig themselves out of the hole they dug for themselves. Judging from the complete lack of any real response from Microsoft at this point, they have no idea what to do at this point in time.

Where did Microsoft go wrong? Considering that the Xbox 360 currently has higher market share than the Playstation 3, Microsoft could have just maintained the status quo, put the price point of the One at $400, and probably kept cruising along. Instead, they released confusing messages about used games and requiring an Internet connection and then announced a price point of $500, hoping that flashing pictures of a new Halo game and realistic Call of Duty dogs would pull the wool over gamers' eyes.

Forbes called this one entirely correct. There was no reason for Microsoft to do any of this. So what was the motivation? I call greed. These past few years have shown a new Microsoft trying to push the bar on how far they can go on pricing. By allowing all of their products to be linked through a Microsoft account, Microsoft has a truly unique ability to be a part of every aspect of a family's day. Think about the products Microsoft has released: Windows Phone, Xbox and Kinect, Surface, Bing, Zune (but more importantly Zune Pass), Outlook.com, and of course the ever ubiquitous Windows and Office. These products cover everything from work and school to entertainment and social life.

What happened then is Microsoft got too ahead of themselves. They made the assumption that everyone would buy into this connected life with little to no regard for price or ease of use. Everyone was shocked when the price of the Surface was announced, yet it's still selling and there probably won't be a price cut anytime soon. That set a dangerous precedent for the Xbox One. When Microsoft did their on-campus unveiling of the One, I predicted a price point of $500 based on the pricing of the Surface alone. My other friends weren't expecting it to be more than $300, to keep it in line with 360 pricing and facilitate the jump to a new console with no backwards compatibility. I wasn't happy to be proven right.

So what can Microsoft do now? To be honest, any move they make now is just conceding that Sony completely outplayed them. It's going to be hard for them to lose face like that. Microsoft's current "take it or leave it" stance on their Xbox One policies reinforce that they're unwilling to try to make any corrections now. Unfortunately, this will probably come back to bite them later on. This unwillingness to budge is most likely going to give Sony the upper hand for the next 5 years or so until the next "next gen" console is released.

Hex Kickstarter Ending!

Just a PSA that the Hex Kickstarter has less than 24 hours remaining on it! Get in on the awesome value-packed tiers while you still can. This digital TCG and MMO experience is looking to be the next big thing, and it's being released later this year!

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cze/hex-mmo-trading-card-game

Want ALL the [Digital?] TCGs!

When I think of TCG, I immediately think of Magic the Gathering. It was my introduction to TCGs, almost fifteen years ago. Since then I've been on again, off again, with my latest return about three years ago. There are also Yu-Gi-Oh and Pokemon, both of which are still popular today, as well as some lesser known TCGs.

But all of these are traditional physical card-based games. This past year has also seen two powerhouses tackling the digital trading card game, which is what I want to focus on in this article.

Those two games are Solforge and Hex. Both are Kickstarter projects. Both have great development teams. And both stand to break open the digital TCG genre.

Solforge is from Gary Games, the makers of Ascension, a deck building game that I also recommend taking a look at, and the legendary Richard Garfield. The Kickstarter ended last September, with a release slated later this year on PC and iOS, and a later release on Android. What's notable about it is that its cards evolve as you play them - each card has 3 levels, and as they level, they grow in power and ability. This is probably the first real foray into having cards change on the play. A demo is already publicly available for iPad, with the PC beta available to Kickstarter backers.

Hex is being made by Cryptozoic Entertainment, the company that brings you the WoW TCG. Their Kickstarter ends on Friday, so take a look if it sounds interesting. Hex is even more ambitious than Solforge, with transforming cards (similar to Solforge), card-specific equipment that changes a card's powers, and champions that have their own powers that can affect the board. Each card also tracks how it's been used, with achievements that unlock extended art and experience points that can level the card into a foil. With less than $200k to go until basically all backers receive early access to Alpha, we may be able to play this sometime this year as well.

I'm excited for both of these games, having backed both for some amount of money. Will these games be the push the digital TCG genre needs to establish itself over its mature physical older brother? Let me know your opinion in the comments! And I'll see you in game.