Sunday Ramblings: The Geek Life episode 9

Let me tell you some little secrets...

Last week, I was building some Monster Fighters sets, and they advertise it with 'glow in the dark' parts as cool stuffsies in the sets.

But these have been by far their original glowparts.  As I restored an older set, from the Castle range somewhere in the later 80s, you can see those ghosts that glow in the dark where already present...


Two weeks ago, when I made the playstation challenge overview, I told the world I had to be careful still for Andy.  It was a lie.  I'm actually been playing cat and mouse on purpose, trying to match his points tally on a daily basis, and then score like one bronze more.  I could strike the finishing blow if I wanted to, but I don't...  I'm being sadistic at the moment

Last week, I was in high hopes that my revised Rakdos deck would be able to have a fighting chance this weekend on the Game Days.  The chance was that big, that I just have disassembled it completely and build something totally different, totally otherwise...

Game Day was a disaster on both days, I haven't even reached my 'goal' of 25 planeswalker points over two days, as I kept flunking with mana issues, usually of the non showing black variety even though I played 11 black sources.  The decklist can be found in the disaster of GPT post of last saturday, with the added modifications I said I would be doing.

Saturday: Game Day M14, the first one

Round 1: I faced Kenny and a mono red aggro deck of Barrage of Expendables / Young Pyromancer build, and had to start with a mulligan to 5.  However, in game 2 I managed to topdeck a Ratchet Bomb, cleaning his tokens, but alas in game 3 the 'where is my black mana' curse started to kick in.  A sign of things to come...

Round 2: A green Ooze deck, and with his oozes on the table, and 2 Dreadbores in hand in both rounds, guess what didn't shown up...  I flooded red mana and had only a Loyalist to play.

Round 3: Bye.  Points.  Period

Round 4: Another regular red decker, Sven, beat me 2-1.  I won a round he flooded, I lost two while... yep, you guessed it, that makes 5 GAMES IN A ROW with 11 sources in the deck...

Round 5: Shocklands and Control.  He milled me in game 1, enter 4 Burning Earths from sideboard, and I took home the win in the end.

A 2-3 record, not great, but for my doing not to bad...

So onto the second Game Day on sunday and the juicy loot.  There where only 13 players, so Top 8 and the Diplomats promo should have been doable.

Heck, maybe if I got lucky, I could have a shot at the game mat...

So I started round 1 as a rocket against Jund.  In game 1 he got stuck on mana and my Haste weenies finished the job swiftly.  Game 2 after sideboard, 2 Burning Earths did the rest...

Awright, 3 rounds to go and only 1 needed to be won to be almost sure for the top 8

Round 2 made me face red black green aggro, and to give an illustration on how it went, even with him having no basic lands and me 2 Burning Earths on the table, I couldn't draw any removal to cope with the Major of Averbruck, nor draw any of my 31 beasties to block his wolves.

Round 3 Control.  Mill, mill, mill, mill.  The only game I won was the second with the hasters, but when you see the Drownyard mill you for six and then see 3 out of 4 of your Burning Earths pass by...

So it all rocked on the final round and a Sliver deck.  Easy, I've haven't gotten any problems with those decks before, I tend to outhaste him and surgically remove some 'key slivers'.  Round 1 I stuck on 1 land, round 2 I stayed on 2.

No top 8 for me.

Yes, the deck was already prepared for 'post rotation', and I fear the loss of my Vexing Devils, Searing Spears, Pillar of Flames and most imporantly Falkenrath Aristocrats has cost me dearly.

What Have I Been Reading?

Zero Sum Game, a novel from the Star Trek Typhon Pact series written by David Mack.  Together with Peter David and JM Dillard, I always thought he wrote the best novels for Star Trek, as they read smoothly and have some unusual twists.  In this one, Bashir and former 'Jack Pack' member Sarina Douglas set out on a covert mission for Starfleet Intelligence.  They have to destroy a slipstream drive prototype the Breen are building,  and we learn that the Breen are actually also a multispecies federation instead of just a single race.  And that Section 31 still has plans for Doctor Bashir...

A good read, not the very best of Star Trek novels out there, but worth having a look at if you are into these kind of Star Trek meets James Bond stories.

Another thing I've been readin was the Orion Pax saga of Transformers Prime, compressing three episodes in a graphic novel.  Though 'graphic' is said to much, they use stills of the TV show and added textballoons.  I didn't enjoy this one, it was to 'straight from TV'.  It'll end up for trade for something else me thinks, like most of the Prime material I have lying around.

What Have I Been Watching?

A single picture says more then a thousand words in this case...

What Have I Been Bricking?

Thanks to Bricklink, I'm one (actually, two) steps closer to owning the complete Pharaoh's Quest line.  I tracked and got the two promo sets, still sealed and for only a few euros each.  One came from the UK, one from Sweden, and now I'm still waiting for the Flying Mummy Attack to arrive, leaving me only the big set, Scorpion Pyramid, to go.

But that isn't all I build this week.  I got myself that stagecoach I've been drooling over from The Lone Ranger range.  I haven't seen the movie yet, but the sets look amazing, bar perhaps the train chase as that set is almost only rails, rails and more rails.  Now, I'll probably end up trying to complete the series when they drop in price, like hopefully the Prince of Persia range did (and which will be the next on the goals to complete after the mummies).

What Have I Been Collecting?

My Lunamaria Hawke collection has been expanded with two more ubercute Chibi models.

What Have I Been Gaming?

Of course, to be able to play Cat and Mouse with my victim, I have had to finsih some games.  I managed to complete career mode on F1 Race Stars, but more importantly I managed to 100% Duels of the Planeswalkers in less then 8 hours and a half, on the hardest level.  With the Illusion deck mostly, as flyers are always nice.  And somehow build an 'Awesome' rated deck in Sealed.

So why does this never carry over to the hard table?


So that is about it for this week, which has been mostly Magic heavy in the report.  To finish, let me show you the build I'm now working on, as I closed the story on my Rakdos deck, called lovingly The Bordello, and am now going for this Red (and more black after sideboard) 'Fireworks' deck.

The initial idea is simple: Pyromancer makes tokens and Guttersnipe shoots to kill, while I cast removal and burn spells to creature and opponent alike.  It still needs some tuning but I haven't gotten quit all the cards in my possession; some trades to go still.

In the end, the 3 Toil and Trouble (just to annoy those Sphinx decks) are going to be cleared out and replaced with one each of a Mindsparker, Young Pyromancer and Molten Rebirth, causing probably the Rakdos's Returns to move to the sideboard afterwards.

Fireworks by Tomsche Murrath

Creatures - 9

3x Young Pyromancer
4x Guttersnipe
2x Boros Reckoner

Enchantments - 6 

4x Burning Earth
2x Barrage of Expendables

Instants - 12

4x Shock
4x Electrickery
4x Skullcrack

Sorcery - 13

4x Mizzium Mortars
4x Flames of the Firebrand
3x Molten Rebirth
2x Rakdos's Return

Land - 20

4x Blood Crypt
5x Swamp
11 x Mountain

Sideboard - 15

3x Mindsparker
3x Toil / Trouble
3x Rakdos Charm
3x Dreadbore
3x Doom Blade


Yes, it is still extreme, and yes, I still need some kind of extra defense build into it, but it is what it is, a rough, first draft... we'll see how it goes between now and Theros...

There are still some cards I'm contemplating to include, like more Barrages, or Showstopper (for some reason, I love that card) and if all else fails, to make it a random nuthouse with Possibility Storm.

IF I can convince the girlfriend with HUGE eyes that I can go out and play comming friday evening to give it a first go and get an impression...

But for now, I can only say bye bye to you all and until next week

AYOOOOOOOOOO SIIIILLLLLLVEEEERRRRRRRRRRRRR