A Merry Christmas to you all!

After a semi-productive  run at the gym yesterday (I borrowed my brother’s Nike+ sensor, messed up the recalibration, and ended up with a really high pace on my last run), I came home to see my brother had discovered something that filled me with a mixture of horror and amusement.

Apparently, ABS-CBN has purchased the rights for a localization of Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight.

Beyond the obvious “why?” and “why Twilight?” questions, I don’t really know what to think of this. A student of mine said it probably wouldn’t get much worse, and would at least be funnier with Shaina Magdayao.

I do, however, know what I think of the original Twilight. If only for its completely retarded portrayal of vampires, I don’t even want to touch it. I never cared much for vampires (especially with their inflated powers), but Twilight portrayed them in such a manner that I felt I’d be insulted if I were a vampire.

What would the tragic Strahd von Zarovich of Ravenloft say, imprisoned as he is? Or Baron Sengir, evil overlord of Ulgrotha? Or my favorite vampire of all, the tyrannical genius King Kaius ir’Wynarn of Karrnath in Eberron? Even my own creation, the insane, swashbuckling perverted-mockery-of-her-human-self Ardragon Millia the Lance (who was supposed to be a boss in my D&D campaign and is actually a former party member) would find Edward Cullen laughable.

Zarovich, despite being an incredibly powerful necromancer and fighter, as well as being the absolute ruler of his domain, is cursed to meet a woman whom he believes is Tatyana, his brother’s fiancee whom he loved, and see her die. Over and over again. That is tragedy. (Zarovich art by William O’Connor) Zarovich is my vampire of choice when it comes to tragedy.

Baron Sengir of Ulgrotha, from M:tG.

Sengir: the epitome of vampire attitude. Just look at Baron Sengir’s flavor text. Beast. Defiler. He has attitude, and people attest to that. He corrupted Ihsan, the most powerful paladin of the local order, and turned him into an undead specter. His personal bodyguard was a good guy who had to turn bad (Veldrane), his “grandmother” is a wizard who caused the last apocalypse on that plane (Grandmother Sengir), his “daughter” is a dwarf sorceress he stole from the local clan, and nobody on the entire plane dares to mess with him.

Edward Cullen, meanwhile, sneaks into his love interest’s bedroom and watches her sleep. Seriously, girls, would you want that?

(Art by Lucio Parillo)

Kaius: The epitome of Vampire Power. I think the motivator says enough, but let me add some more:

Strength 23, Dexterity 22, Constitution —, Intelligence 20, Wisdom 18, Charisma 23.

For those not-well versed in D&D, a Str of 23 means he can bench-press 600 pounds, but it’s not like he needs to. A Dexterity of 22 means he can run circles around almost anyone, except maybe air elementals. Constitution — means he’s [un]dead. Intelligence 20 means he has genius IQ, and Wisdom 18 means he has the common sense to back that up. And 23 Charisma means he has an entire nation willingly serving him, or at least serve his country. Instead of drinking animal blood, he has a harem of fanatics who willingly let him feed off them. (Btw, the average human commoner is supposed to have a 10 in all stats.)

Oh, and yes. He’s actually pursuing world peace and willingly embraced the evil cult of Vol (who afflicted him with vampirism) to save his nation in its darkest hour.

As for immunity to sunlight, he’s got that covered. Whenever he means someone outside, he simply asks his clerics to cast protective spells on him. He’s good with that sword too, being an 11th-level Fighter.

He’s basically Dracula, Hitler, Lelouch vi Britannia, and Suzaku Kururugi combined.  (And yes, D&D vampires have the ability to dominate people with their gaze.)

Eat your heart out, Edward Cullen.

I should not fail to mention this one, which I find immensely hilarious.

In any case, if you really like Twilight, then you’re free to your opinions. Just saying that it’s really not a vampire story. It’s Sweet Valley High with haemovores.

All trademarks are owned by their respective owners, not me.

Nike+ IS ALIVE

For some reason, my Nike+ is now working again. I can offer no explanations as to why this happened. I just hope it lasts longer and works properly for my runs tomorrow and over the weekend.

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Finally, in the spirit of the season and as a response to all the cloying political correctness of this age:

(You never expect Stephen Colbert to be politically-correct anyway.)

Earworms:
-Hagane no Messiah by JAM Project. A song I haven’t listened to in a long time.
-Fire in the Night by After Omega
Projects:
-The Black and the Purple Chapter ???: Fallen Art Thou, Eveningstar!
-Hell’s Heart: An Eberron Campaign
-Soul Calibur 3: Grinding for weapons

So there’s been a lot of hoo-hah about The Golden Compass lately, about how anti-Christian it is. Many people seem to be spreading emails that warn people against watching it and reading the novels.

I’m sure they mean well, but this is again another case of overreaction that reminds me a lot about The Da Vinci Code.

I haven’t watched the movie or read Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy, so I can’t really say much. However, I did stumble upon a blog post that I agree with a hundred percent: [here].

I’m of the opinion that if the Church is depicted as a monstrous engine of tyranny, then it should prove itself to be otherwise instead of being defensive and whining about this man, his books, and the movie based on them. The Church of Christ has lasted for 2000 years and has endured persecution in various forms for just as long. If we are truly following the teachings of Christ, then I don’t think this is anything to fear. The post above says everything else I have to say.

Magic, Again
So I’ve decided quite a while ago to stop buying any more Magic cards. It’s a very expensive hobby to maintain and cards become obsolete all the time, so I’m going to stick to my Zest Seven deck indefinitely. I used it against some of my students last Sunday. It hasn’t lost its touch. My Pseudo-Izzetron got steamrolled twice due to its slow pace. It’s just really difficult to sustain a burn barrage if the mana isn’t coming. On the other hand, my Gruul deck smashed everything. Not very hard to do with Gruul.

It’s funny how Zest Seven works. For a long time the deck doesn’t seem to be doing much, but what it actually does is neutralize all your threats. By the time Angel of Despair hits the board, it’s usually endgame.

The Black and the Purple
Milica is dead. I’ve still yet to write down my chapters of the story, but I’m definitely going to be writing the her last chapter alive. So yeah, I can actually be productive this break!

Hell’s Heart
Our one-shot Singapore campaign is finally going to push through. We still have to settle on the dates we’re going to play, but if we can make these last the whole day, it would be completely awesome. I’m going to be putting up some new information on our campaign journal that will help my players prepare for the adventure.

C&C 3
Finally got around to playing this game again. I just patched it up to 1.09, and somehow this makes it run better. As of late I’ve been successfully using the Scrin Mothership to destroy the AI bases entirely, a tactic I’ll call Base Delta Zero.

BDZing is a throwback to an extremely cheesy tactic my friends and I used way back in Red Alert: Aftermath.
The Soviet side had a unit called the MAD Tank, which was about as slow as a Mammoth Tank and much more expensive. Now since I’d played Dark Reign before Aftermath, I’d thought the “MAD” meant “Mobile Air Defense.” So I built a MAD Tank and deployed it.

A massive explosion later, I realized that the MAD Tank was a base destruction tool. It took a full third off the HP of every building in a very large area.

I later learned that MAD stood for “Mutually Assured Destruction” and that three MAD Tanks detonating simultaneously could obliterate a base completely. This tactic was abused a lot in our multiplayer games, where Soviets would turtle up and build three MAD Tanks as fast as they can. While tricky to pull off, it was quite effective when it worked. IF it worked. Getting three slow units to a defensible position close to you opponent’s base is just asking for trouble. What’s worse, the Soviet’s Iron Curtain invulnerability could only target a single unit. Interestingly enough, the MAD Tank did not detonate until the Invulnerability charge expired.

The Scrin Mothership is likewise extremely tricky to use. It costs 5000 credits, and is insanely slow. A couple of rocket infantry squads can take it down easily if a commander plays his cards right. However, the Mothership’s Catalyst Cannon can level a base completely if it gets to a good position in good condition.

Now here’s the problem. The mothership’s cannon power is proportionate to its remaining health. A badly-damaged Mothership will only be able to unleash a very small catalyst blast. At full HP, however, the blast takes up a good portion of the game screen. It doesn’t end there, though.
The initial explosion causes everything caught in the blast to explode immediately (it seems to do this regardless of HP). Each explosion sends off a smaller shockwave that tags everything in the object’s respective area. After a short delay, everything that got tagged explodes as well. The process is repeated until nothing is left.

Current System Configuration: I feel the tension building
Earworms:
-Cry for Eternity by Dragonforce

Sustenance:
[Breakfast]: Chocolate oatmeal and ensaymada
[Lunch:] Homemade burger
[Dinner] –
[Coffee] Homebrew mocha

Current Read:
Eats, Shoots and Leaves by Lynne Truss. I bought this book in New York last summer, but never got to read much of it until now. I’ll post an in-depth review on it when I’m done. And yes, I’m actually READING something now! Fantastic!

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For about a week I had no idea what to write. My brain was just totally flatlined, and I couldn’t figure out anything meaningful to say. Anyway, I’ve got a lot of ground to cover, so bear with the length of this post.

On Reverse Creation
I was surprised to receive an email notification of a comment on a rather old entry on my previous blog. The entry in question was about Reverse Creation, a haunting, anonymous poem that was written as a mirror image of Genesis 1. For those too lazy to click the link:

REVERSE CREATION
In the end, we destroyed the heaven that was called Earth. The Earth had been beautiful until our spirit moved over it and destroyed all things.

And we said…

Let there be darkness… and there was darkness. And we liked the darkness; so we called the darkness, Security. And we divided ourselves into races and religions and classes of society. And there was no morning and no evening on the seventh day before the end.

And we said…

Let there be a strong government to control us in our darkness. Let there be armies to control our bodies so that we may learn to kill one another neatly and efficiently in our darkness. And there was no evening and no morning on the sixth day before the end.

And we said…

Let there be rockets and bombs to kill faster and easier; let there be gas chambers and furnaces to be more thorough. And there was no evening and no morning on the fifth day before the end.

And we said…

Let there be drugs and other forms of escape, for there is this constant annoyance – Reality – which is disturbing our comfort. And there was no evening and no morning on the fourth day before the end.

And we said…

Let there be divisions among the nations, so that we may know who is our common enemy. And there was no evening and no morning on the third day before the end.

And finally we said…

Let us create God in our image. Let some other God compete with us. Let us say that God thinks as we think, hates as we hate, and kills as we kill. And there was no morning and no evening on the second day before the end.

On the last day, there was a great noise on the face of the Earth. Fire consumed the beautiful globe, and there was silence. The blackened Earth now rested to worship the one true God; and God saw all that we had done, and in the silence over the smoldering ruins… God wept.

Author unknown

One look at history and one might see where we are in this poem. But that’s besides the point.

The comments were made by a couple of anonymous people (at first I thought they were the same person, but apparently they’re not), and it seems that they stumbled upon my blog via Google, the Grand Unifier of Mankind. They were desperately begging for this poem’s author, but alas, I admitted that no one knows who truly wrote it. (We can safely conclude, however, that it was written in the latter half of the 20th century, given its references to the Cold War and other significant events therein.)

However, I did find something interesting that I hadn’t seen or noticed in my previous readings of the Bible: the prophet Jeremiah actually wrote a similar piece of verse in his book of prophecy.

²³ I saw the earth, and, behold, it was waste and void; and the heavens, and they had no light.
²⁴ I saw the mountains, and behold, they trembled, and all the hills moved back and forth.
²⁵ I saw, and behold, there was no man, and all the birds of the sky had fled.
²⁶ I saw, and behold, the fruitful field was a wilderness, and all its cities were broken down at the presence of Yahweh, and before his fierce anger.
²⁷ For thus says Yahweh, The whole land shall be a desolation; yet will I not make a full end.
²⁸ For this shall the earth mourn, and the heavens above be black; because I have spoken it, I have purposed it, and I have not repented, neither will I turn back from it.
-Jeremiah 4:23-28

The context of Jeremiah 4 is God’s judgment on Israel and Judah for their wickedness—but the divine retribution is so extreme that it seems the Earth itself is unmade. Quite chilling. After all, the Bible itself says that “it is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the Living God.” (Hebrews 10:31)

Nevertheless, God still holds back—“Yet I will not make a full end.” While the nation of Israel gets wiped off the face of the Earth by the Assyrians and Judah gets exiled by the Babylonians some decades later, the Persian Empire does relocate the Judean exiles. (They’re scattered a second time by the Roman Empire–the current state of Israel didn’t exist until after World War II). There is at least a glimmer of hope in God’s version, punishing the wayward children that they might return.

In the more contemporary Reverse Creation poem, however, man simply goes all the way– all his foolish way– and blows himself to smithereens. God weeps over the ruined Earth in the end, and man ceases to exist. Dark and chilling, yes, but the truth is far closer to the Reverse Creation than we would like to think.

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Not Anonymously,

Your Black Lion

†††††††
The Lichlord Cometh With Card Advantage

On to a less serious topic. I’d have written a separate post for this section, but I didn’t want the above article to get buried.

Blue/Black Control has been a commonly-used Magic deckbuild for quite a long time. There were times in which its popularity slumped, yes, but there have always been enough oppressive cards of the appropriate colors to make the decks. With the coming of Time Spiral, however, U/B players are treated to an interesting Legendary Creature: Dralnu, Lich Lord.

The “Lich” concept in Magic is not new. It has existed in contemporary fantasy for quite a while. While “lich” is an Old English word that simply means “corpse,” the term is now commonly applied to a wizard who has willingly entered a state of undeath to further his or her studies. Being undead, he or she is not susceptible to all the frailties of the flesh, and can carry on his or her arcane arts and sciences for centuries or even millennia. Of course, trading one’s soul for power always has its drawbacks, and Magic shows this quite clearly: All “Lich” cards give one a massive advantage in exchange for a massive penalty. Some of them even cause you to lose the game if you cannot meet certain conditions.

Thankfully, with our friend Dralnu, the Lich effect is somehow isolated. You have him be the Lich in your place, which prevents you from dying. Sure, he still eats up your permanents when he gets damaged, but his advantage is more useful than one might think.

Let’s go back to what U/B does best: control. Unlike control decks that use White (which tend to render things useless or blow them up entirely), U/B tends to create massive card advantage: you simply get to use more of your cards earlier than your opponent, who you cause to waste cards. Among the five colors, Blue is the master of card drawing, while Black is the master of discarding. And guess what? Dralnu’s in those colors.

But what’s the big deal? How does Dralnu contribute to CA?

He allows you to fire off a spell twice. At first glance, it seems that this is simply the equivalent of adding another copy of your spell into your deck. True enough–but the algorithm isn’t that simple.

Let’s say you have four copies of a spell in your deck. Obviously, if you get to draw them all over the course of the game, Dralnu allows you to cast each spell twice. That’s not a mere “+1 use”–it’s more correctly seen as a “double the number of times you can cast this spell” effect. The goodness does not end there.
You somehow draw four copies of this spell–all in your opening hand. At the same time, you get mana screwed (Magic’s unpleasant but necessary balancing mechanic that practically causes one to lose if he or she does not draw the correct mana sources to cast spells), so you end up tossing most of them into the graveyard. If you have our Lich pal in play, you can actually still use the spell, which would normally be completely wasted. In essence, you can still play nonpermanent spells from your graveyard as if they were in your hand. (Dralnu has a limit, though–he needs to tap for you to use his Flashback ability)

But what about that massive drawback?

Well, you might notice that the only color that has the ability to deal damage practically at whim is Red. If your opponent is not playing red, then things are a lot easier. Also, you’re playing Blue, the master of countermagic and frustration. You’re bound to have some techniques up your sleeve that can protect Lord Dralnu. You know combat isn’t U/B’s strongpoint, so forget about using Dralnu to block.

Now, on to my deck concept. Granted it isn’t anything revolutionary or groundbreaking, but I certainly think it does the job of creating massive card advantage (and frustration) quite well.

Legacy of Madness CA Control (Legacy/Extended-legal)

Card Name	Quantity	Type	Mana Cost	P/T
Dimir Guildmage	3	Creature-Human Wizard		2/2
Dimir Cutpurse	3	Creature-Spirit		2/2
Blizzard Specter	2	Snow Creature-Specter		2/3
Circu, Dimir Lobotomist	2	Legendary Creature-Human Wizard		2/3
Dralnu, Lich Lord	3	Legendary Creature-Zombie Lord		3/3
Consult the Necrosages	3	Sorcery		n/a
Psychic Drain	2	Sorcery		n/a
Glimpse the Unthinkable	2	Sorcery		n/a
Lobotomy	2	Sorcery		n/a
Ancestral Vision	1	Sorcery	Suspend-	n/a
Undermine	3	Instant		n/a
Clutch of the Undercity	3	Instant		n/a
Sudden Death	2	Instant		n/a
Wipe Away	2	Instant		n/a
Perplex	2	Instant		n/a
Lim-Dul’s Vault	1	Instant		n/a
Ornate Kanzashi	1	Artifact		n/a
Jester’s Scepter	1	Artifact		n/a
Underground Sea	4	Land-Island Swamp	n/a	n/a
Watery Grave	4	Land-Island Swamp	n/a	n/a
Underground River	3	Land	n/a	n/a
Island	3	Basic Land-Island	n/a	n/a
Swamp	2	Basic Land-Swamp	n/a	n/a
Duskmantle, House of Shadow	1	Land	n/a	n/a

Summary
Creatures: 13
Instants: 13
Sorceries: 10
Artifacts: 2
Lands: 22

This deck is all about building card advantage. Your win condition is removing your opponent’s win condition. Gutting your opponent’s deck as quickly as you can will guarantee a concession or at the very least, a painfully slow beatdown with your creatures.

House Dimir’s Guildmages and Cutpurses will allow you to get an early card advantage, while added-value removal spells like Wipe Away, Sudden Death, and Clutch of the Undercity will allow your beatdown to continue unabated.

You have a few countermagic spells thrown in for emergencies: Undermine, which punishes your opponent while countering his spells; and Perplex, which can make for some painful mind games.

This deck also features utility spells such as Consult the Necrosages (which provides CA no matter how it’s used), Ancestral Vision and Lim-Dul’s Vault. Use these to get out Circu and Dralnu as fast as you can! Take note: Perplex and Clutch of the Undercity have Transmute! This means you can pitch Perplex and search for one of the many 3-cost spells in the deck. Clutch of the Undercity can also allow you to search for your 4-cost spells: you would usually choose between Circu or Lobotomy. Either way, your opponent will be in for a world of hurt if either one manages to get through. It doesn’t stop there! Even after you’ve transmuted your Perplexes and Clutches, you can still use Dralnu to cast them!

I’m sure this deck will make for lots of fun (and frustration in my opponent’s case). If you’re planning to build it, go ahead and enjoy–but feel free to make innovations of your own. (I frown on netdecking)

Just a little post that I had to separate from the previous entry.

My friend Mac posted a little image he found of a Magic: The Gathering card that featured no less than the legendary Forgotten Realms hero Drizzt Do’Urden.

A little background. Drizzt is a Drow, a race of subterranean elves that populate the Forgotten Realms world. Practically all Drow are evil demon-worshippers, Drizzt is an exception. He dwells on the surface and is one of Faerun’s most famous heroes.

He has a side fueled by pure instinct (which he relied on when he had to survive in the Underdark alone after leaving his homeland), but he is able to control this side now, summoning it when needed.

Unfortunately, I have to say that this card is very badly thought out. Here’s why.

-Most glaring: the panther he summons, Guenwhyvar, is listed in the card as a black creature. A panther, being a natural hunter, should be affiliated with green instead, as black is the color of death and darkness, not nature. Either that or the creator of this card left out the color altogether and made the creature a “Black Panther,” not a black “Panther.”

-The creature type is wrong. It should be “Legendary Creature — Drow Elf Warrior.” (As “Ranger” isn’t an existing creature type. It doesn’t make sense to invent it just for Drizzt) Alternatively, the “Drow” could be ommitted altogether as Drow are elves anyway.

-Protection from Black. As awesome as Drizzt is, I really cannot see anything that will make him immune to black magical attacks.

-Double Strike and Haste are Red abilities. I know he’s got a bit of Red in his casting cost, but that’s totally inappropriate for what Drizzt is, being a champion of the nature goddess Mielikki. Red does not belong in this creature’s color portfolio.
-For a creature who is predominantly White/Green, an offensive-bent 7/5 power/toughness rating is inappropriate—not to mention far too high even for such a powerful hero.

-The casting cost is so high that poor Drizzt is almost completely useless.

This is how I’d do it.

-White represents his noble side, while Green represents his primal side. Red is far too destructive to be included in his portfolio, and although Drizzt still uses inherent Drow abilities, he has totally forsaken the Black ways of the Drow. The casting cost has also been tweaked to make him actually usable.

-Power toughness has been dumbed down to 3/4, which is still hefty for an elf. Having a P/T of 7/5 WITH Double Strike made him capable of taking down any Leviathan-class creature, which I really don’t see him doing. I know Drizzt rocks, but I still can’t see him squashing a Lord of the Pit without straining himself to the limit. This way, Drizzt can take down a massive 7/7 creature by using his two abilities and relying on Guenhwyvar as backup.

-The white damage prevention ability can either be seen as Twinkle’s blinding ability, or as his darkness shroud ability. Sure, darkness is in Black’s portfolio, but the ability to prevent damage is White.

-The Hunter can be unleashed through Drizzt’s second ability. Drizzt gains a rather hefty bonus for only GG. Of course, it isn’t an almighty ability.

-Guenwhyvar can only be summoned once each turn. I know that the summoning isn’t taxing enough to actually “tap” Drizzt, but this is for balance’s sake–not to mention that Green has lots of ways of untapping creatures anyway. Also, Guenwhyvar is a Spirit Cat (being from the Astral Plane). White represents her otherworldly Spirit side, while Green represents her primal hunter side. Also, she’s legendary.

-Finally, I got a better shot of Todd Lockwood’s Drizzt artwork for the cover of The Thousand Orcs. Sure, it doesn’t show the orcs getting owned, but it certainly makes Drizzt the focus of the artwork.
There you have it. I’m an übergeek.

Geekily,

Your Black Lion

Current System Configuration: Exam Week Mode
Earworms:
-Over the Rainbow by Freedom Call [Power Metal] A very beautiful song. It opens with a lovely church organ solo, very dark and baroque, and segues into an uplifting song about persevering toward one’s glorious eternal destiny. The guitar solo is particularly amazing—sure, it isn’t as neckbreakingly fast as Through the Fire and the Flames, but I really find the combination of the dark, rich sound of a church organ and the soaring wail of an electric guitar soul-piercingly wonderful.

Star rise and lead me home! [To a] Powerful kingdom of happiness!
Sustenance:
[Breakfast] Grilled cheese sandwich
[Lunch] Chicken cordon bleu and my brother’s special spicy tuna pasta
[Dinner] none yet
[Coffee] Starbucks Grande mocha frappuccino with a double shot of espresso. Argh, I really need caffeine in my veins today.
Current Read:
none. Argh, I want to read so badly.

Yesterday I encountered a rather despicable Bible character who isn’t given much attention. King Jehoram of Judah reigned after two good kings, Asa and Jehoshaphat. Jehoram was Jehoshaphat’s heir, and he was nothing like his father or his grandfather. For starters, when he acceded to the throne, he killed off all his brothers and all the princes. He reverted to the idolatrous worship of the Baals and took the nation with him. Because of this, God abandoned him and Jehoram failed miserably in quelling an Edomite revolt. Eventually, the prophet Elijah wrote a letter to him, telling him that his days were numbered and that he was going to die of a painful intestinal disease. At the end of his life, his guts came out, and he died in great pain, “to no one’s regret.” What a way to go.

Imagine dying and no one mourning for you. I can only assume that he was a man who never loved.

Love, a poor word often misunderstood by this generation. Many people see it as merely an issue of the glands, merely a matter of preference, merely a passing emotion. To the abyss with all this drivel.

Love is an action. Hence, “I love you.” “I” is the subject of that declarative sentence. “Love” is the action, and “you” is the object. When one says “I love you,” it is a declaration of an action. Not an emotion. This action entails more than just the hormonal oozing of one’s endocrines. This is an act of the will and of the heart.

One’s will chooses to love. One’s heart sustains that choice, because it is often irrational.

Love is an unconditional commitment to the greatest good of another, usually resulting in sacrifice.

This was Pastor Peter’s definition of the l-word, and I do think it sums up the concept quite clearly. We don’t love based on condition, we just do. Sure, at first we are attracted to someone because of his or her looks and personality, but after getting to know that person and enduring all the pain associated with human interaction, that is when we can say that we love that person.

Tall order.

Yes, this is much, much easier said than done. That’s the deal with Christianity, it was never meant to be easy–in fact, many times it seems to be the hardest way to live. But isn’t that what the right way often is? The Commandment to Love is so simple, so broad. It gives us so much leeway to do it, perhaps because of its sheer difficulty. It’s all about someone else–first about God, then about the other person. These two go hand in hand and are not mutually exclusive. One cannot love out of one’s own power, one needs God’s love in order to give love to others. On the other hand, we cannot claim to love God if we don’t love the other.

I really pray that all Christendom would remember this Commandment. Sure, it’s hard to do, but if we have everybody trying, maybe people will actually stop mocking us for our faith and see Christ’s point.

“By this it will be clear to all men that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” -Jesus Christ, John 13:35.
Trying to love,

Your Black Lion

PS: On the topic of love, here’s a really interesting poem–from Magic: The Gathering.

Oh no, he just had to revert to his geeky self again, you say. Hear me out, and just read it. It’s a poem of rather epic length, but I just love the imagery. It was written for the Mirage block way back in 1997, and parts of its text were featured on a number of cards. This caused many players to be intrigued by the poem. The Wizards of the Coast website published it some time ago. The author of this poem is Jenny Scott, one of the designers working on the set. The set has an African theme, so you will see the influence of the said continent on the set. In the poem, Day is feminine while Night is masculine.
Favorite lines:
Tell why Truth must fight with Falsehood, and why Truth will always win. –Day
Your voice resounds like a songbird’s, every word is a sweet, soft song.
When you run you’re graceful and swift, sleek as a powerful panther.
Mysterious chameleon, you’re a thousand women at once,
sharp and strong as a lioness, yet gentle as a striped gazelle. –Night

I remember your sacred rites. You were so funny, so grown up,
so stiff and serious, all arms and elbows. You went in a girl,
but you returned a warrior. You marched back with the others–
your hair was cut, your eye tattooed with the red triangle of war. –Night

Night wears a black cloak lined with fire, studded inside with gleaming stars.
At dawn and dusk he spies his love. Across the rolling hills of sky,
they glimpse each other–so briefly. They throw each other kisses, cry.
Their tears spill over Jamuraa. Mixed with blood, they wash everything red.

But once, with a magician’s help, Time was stopped and Day stood still.
Night spread over Jamuraa, wrapped Day in his dark cloak and held her.
In their miraculous embrace, the two became as One. Until
pulled from Day’s arms, Night sank, commanded by the western horizon that always beckons him to come. –Day

I won’t give up hope, my love. –Night

The full text is here. Enjoy.

Current System Configuration: Discipline Committee Arbiter

Earworms:
-The Glory of Rome from Tobias Sammet’s Avantasia: The Metal Opera [Power Metal]
Sustenance:
[Breakfast] Oatmeal and cinnamon bread
[Lunch] Hungarian sausage, pumpkin soup, breaded porkchop and brown rice
[Dinner] Three pieces of exceptionally greasy samosa
[Coffee] Homebrew
Current Read:
None

D: D: D: Wizards of the Coast has done it again. They just made the new Magic set, Time Spiral, a sneakily awesome treat. The sortable spoiler is now available here. The set itself is made up of new cards, and each is a homage to a card from ages past. However, the temporal chaos does not end there.

Wizards is reprinting old cards as part of Time Spiral. Not with new art and the new frame, mind you. They are using the old artwork with the classic frame. These cards are called Timeshifted and are printed with a purple expansion symbol. (Originally, cards printed after the Stronghold set had black symbols for commons, silver symbols for uncommons, and gold symbols for rares.) Timeshifted cards also appear one per pack, and there are more of them in the set than the gold rares. Thus, each Timeshifted card is more than 50% rarer than the regular rares. Thus it is possible to actually get more than one rare in each Time Spiral booster pack. And yes. Akroma, Angel of Wrath is back as a Timeshift. Of course, you might just get a lowly Squire as your Timeshift, but the mere possibility of actually getting two awesome rares is just fantastic. The nostalgia deluge continues! I really look forward to this. Vinci was planning to buy a box. Now I’m in on it.

Temporally distorted,

Your Black Lion

Just a little Magic-related post. You may ignore this post if you find geekiness distasteful or if you do not wish to learn about Magic: The Gathering.

Played a little set of Magic with my brother this afternoon. He was using his Rakdos
beatdown deck against my aggro/control Orzhov deck, ZEST SEVEN.

Although he has beaten my deck in single duels, I was still able to defend my best-of-three title. He still hasn’t beaten ZEST SEVEN in best-of-three matches.

Here’s what’s in ZEST SEVEN:

ZEST SEVEN Orzhov-affiliated Aggro/Control

White Spells:
4x Lionheart Maverick (W, 1/1)
3x Shrieking Grotesque (2W, 2/1)
3x Faith’s Fetters (3W)
2x Wrath of God (2WW)
1x Balance (1W)
Black Spells:
3x Cry of Contrition (B)
2x Okiba-Gang Shinobi (3BB, 3/2)
1x Toshiro Umezawa (1BB, 2/2)
Gold Spells (B/W):
4x Castigate (WB)
3x Orzhov Guildmage (W/B,W/B)
3x Mortify (1WB)
2x Vindicate (1WB)
2x Teysa, Orzhov Scion (1WB, 2/3)
2x Ghost Council of Orzhova (WWBB, 4/4) aka Obzedat
2x Angel of Despair (3WWBB, 5/5)

Artifacts:

1x Umezawa’s Jitte (2)
Lands:

1x Caves of Koilos
1x Shizo, Death’s Storehouse
1x Eiganjo Castle
1x Godless Shrine
9x Swamp
9x Plains

ZEST SEVEN is a very controlling deck. It likes the board to stay clear of threats, and that’s what the various denial and removal spells do. Cry of Contrition eats away at my opponent’s hand, while Castigate directly deals with threats. Anything that isn’t an artifact or land can get smashed by Mortify. If it’s a land or artifact, it gets Vindicated. Faith’s Fetters is also a good neutralization tool (and it gives me life to boot). In a serious pinch, Wrath of God and Balance can be used to completely vaporize mass creature threats.

Though it doesn’t look like it, this deck is very creature-dependent. It starts off with weenies like the Lionheart Maverick for an early offense and spot defense (because it has Vigilance). Turn 2 drops like Orzhov Guildmage are very nifty: 2 mana for a 2/2 creature is good enough, its abilities make it better. Teysa is an excellent creature remover. As long as I have fodder to sacrifice, she can dispose of nasty creatures permanently.

You may wonder why Toshi Umezawa is in my deck. I thought it was a good idea to put him in because he gets more mileage out of my Mortifies. I was originally supposed to put a couple of Wrecking Balls in the deck, but I decided against it when I threw out my other mana producers. Nevertheless, Toshi has still proven himself against my brother—he single-handedly halted my brother’s annoying Rakdos Guildmage offense by cutting one of the Guildmages to pieces. The death of that Guildmage allowed me to reuse a spent Mortify in my graveyard. Granted, Toshi may not survive long enough for that to happen, but he gives me options.

My heavy hitters are the Ghost Councils and the Angels of Despair. The Ghost Councils are excellent threats that are playable in the first few turns, while the Angels can turn the tide of the battle with their Vindicate-in-a-can ability plus their massive power (5/5, which is not a common rating for Angel-types).

My brother’s deck looks like this:

Red Spells:

3x Seal of Fire (R)
2x Taste for Mayhem (R)
2x Pyromatics (1R)
3x Fencer’s Magemark(2R)
2x Rakdos Pit Dragon (2RR)
1x Demonfire (XR)

Black Spells:

2x Delirium Skeins (2B)

Gold Spells (B/R):

3x Gobhobbler Rats (BR, 2/2)
2x Rakdos Guildmage (B/R, B/R, 2/2)
1x Avatar of Discord (B/R,B/R,B/R, 5/3)
1x Rakdos Augermage (BBR, 3/2)
2x Wrecking Ball (2BR)
1x Dread Slag (3BR, 9/9)

Lands:

8x Mountain
6x Swamp
1x Blood Crypt

My brother’s strategy is a typical Rakdos guild strategy: He drops his hand as fast as he can (usually hitting mine at the same time, that’s what Delirium Skeins is for) while hitting me with an endless barrage of creatures. As soon as he runs out of cards in hand, his creatures and spells are Hellbent, receiving a significant powerup.

Unfortunately, his Rakdos Pit Dragons are easily-neutralized threats, and so are the Rakdos Guildmages. He has usually killed my creatures with Wrecking Balls and Seals of Fire, but the body count on his side is usually higher, especially when I drop Wrath of God.

Beware, however: this deck has only 40 cards. That does make it streamlined–he almost always gets what he needs. However, adding 20 more cards can add a lot of options.
A short summary of today’s set:

Game 1:

My brother drew a strong opening hand, and I got color screwed. I kept drawing Plains, but my black mana sources were lacking. I did manage to Mortify and Fetter all of his threats, though, so that kept him unable to act until I pulled out enough mana to drop an Angel of Despair. My success with her was short-lived. She got blocked by a Pit Dragon. For a long time, both of us kept drawing lands, until I drew a Ghost Council followed by a Jitte. The Council murdered a very threatening Rakdos Guildmage with the Jitte. My brother’s life went down very quickly after that.

Me: 1, Vince: 0

Game 2:

My mana balance was better this time, and although both of my Ghost Councils were killed by midgame, they had left him bruised and bleeding. A lowly Okiba-Gang Shinobi finished him off.

Me: 2, Vince: 0

Game 3:

I was rather hosed in this last game because Vince used his Delirium Skeins to rid me of my precious Mortifies. However, he was not able to build up enough steam to hit me hard. A Ghost Council dropped his life to dangerous levels, and although he was able to find a blocker for it, I was able to bring out an Angel of Despair to end the killguilder party.

Me: 3, Vince: 0

It was a tough fight, but the two of us have proven that while Vince’s deck is formidable, it lacks options. It only has a single way to go on the offensive, and when that fails, he folds up very quickly. Although the Cult of Rakdos is all about reckless, self-destructive attacks, it has no way to recover if its attacks fail. The Orzhov Syndicate, however, is capable of multiple points of attack. With a little aggro boost, the Guild of Deals can poke its opponent into submission through denial and removal, and then move in for the kill with the Obzedat or an Angel of Despair.

Vince plans to expand his deck to 60 cards. He needs to. But I definitely look forward to the fresh new threat that it will be.

Victorious,

Your Black Lion