I went to UC Davis. The protestors were gathering on the Quad, an area specifically designated for large gatherings of people on foot. The students had set up tents there, and the reason for the police presence was to remove the tents. One of my friends got pepper sprayed right in the face (a mechanical engineer; not going to say his name, but you should find it easily enough if you research it) as he was sitting in the line.
Now, I'm not going to argue for or against the use of pepper spray. What grates me is the justifications the police chief gave, which videos and testimony show as clearly false. If they had not tried to spin it as a hostile crowd intimidating trained police men, I wouldn't be mad about it. The police were not surrounded; the police were not scared for their safety; there was absolutely no violence from the protestors, even after the pepper spraying. The claims of the police chief simply are not true. Both the officer who sprayed everyone and the police chief were put on administrative leave, but I seriously doubt their jobs are in jeopardy, as this sort of behavior is now the norm rather than the exception.
Also of note:
“Chemical agents are weapons used to minimize the potential for injury to officers, offenders, or other persons. They should only be used in situations where such force reasonably appears justified and necessary.”
Crud, I just made an argument against pepper spraying. My bad.
Anyway, standard right to peaceful assembly and what-what.
My first deck was Baru, Fist of Krosa, right when Zendikar first came out, and I retired it because it sucked.
I have retired Zur the Enchanter multiple times, because the plan is always the same three or four enchantments, and that's boring.
Kaervek the Merciless was retired because it was my third deck, and I didn't realize that trying to punish everyone with such a high-cost general without support was a bad idea. People would always kill me first, and the deck didn't really have answers. I could probably rebuild it now that I have a better grasp of the format.
Rafiq used to be my total baller deck, but then I slowly started harvesting the good cards out for more varied decks, and then it became retired for a bit. I then turned it into budget Voltron, using Trinket Mage and flicker effects to get 1-cost equipment. I don't use it much, other than when I need some giggles.
Sliver Overlord was killed mostly because it tied up too much of my nonbasic lands, and because I made the deck in about 10 minutes, so I wasn't too choked up about it.
Have that frank miller guy who did 300 and suckerpunch make it. Sounds good to me.
Frank Miller? Oh God no.
Gideon would become a grizzled old guy who mentions kids with their names and ages every time. "Skinny little Jace, age 19."
Chandra, Liliana, and any other girls would suddenly begin to act and dress like ladies of the evening (though that isn't too far from Liliana anyway). Miller will insist in interviews that all his woman are independent and strong, even though they all take a backseat to the large muscle-bound gravelly voiced men who are obviously superior to the women.
Garruk would monologue to himself repeatedly with a limited selection of words. That is to say, he would repeat his own internal thoughts to himself using a small amount of words, saying similar things over and over again to himself. "My beasts scream. I hunt them and master them. They are my friends, and my worst enemy. They scream. I am the master of the hunt. I have friends and enemies, who I am master over."
Jace? Scheming weasel who will become comic relief, and lose all magic ability for the sake of "plot."
The cities they visit? Crime infested places with corrupt peacekeepers.
And what about Sorin? He's the Goddamned Batman!
Basically, no, Frank Miller would be a bad choice. I would prefer Stephen Spielberg. Or the guy who directed the original Street Fighter movie, because that was gloriously bad.
Anyways, I instantly thought of adding this to my EDH decks, should I ever pull one. Hopefully, everyone will hate it so I can pick it up for cheap. >:D
Also, for limited, big butt beats are big butt beats, and this guy comes with a tiny sweep to boot.
I don't care if this has been said before about the art, but: Hero of Bikinihold.
On topic, I find it interesting that Battlecry is like the inverse of Exalted. I can see it on white, blue, and green cards; black and blue don't seem really "battlecryish" to me.
As for the card itself, it doesn't really feel mythic, but I do see its potential. I think the mismatched creature types deliberately messes with the power level. Overall, I like it.
Godo, Bandit Warlord is a workhorse that gives you excellent card advantage in a colour that doesn't have much card advantage. Fun times.
Kaervek the Merciless is one mean card to go against. Sure, he costs a lot, but once you have him out, any spell to get rid of him will most likely hurt your opponent just as much. I slapped together a deck with him, and I got hated really bad; even so, with the right cards, you can go down in a blaze of spite and take someone down with you. Muwahaha!
Zur the Enchanter is simply unfair in duels. As my friend always said, 'Tutoring is tech,' and he tutors up EVERYTHING. Once I have shroud and Flickerform on him, he's damn near impossible to kill. I took apart that deck because it just wasn't fun for everyone. With Kaervek, at least the other players can screw over your acceleration.
Erayo, Soratami Ascendant is really nasty with the proper amount of Sol Ring type broken accel and suspend cards and counters. Once that deck gets going, you are basically playing solitaire. Of course, in a game with 6 players willing to wait and sacrifice cheap spells, it gets hated on, but even then, that's several turns of the erayo player basically doing what he wants.
Up in Norcal, it has pretty much been raining nonstop for the same amount of time. We had but a brief respite yesterday, and I took advantage of the opportunity of sunshine by watching Beauty and the Beast.
I was on the edge about Instill Infection, but since it was one of my three removal spells in my colors, I went ahead and ran it.
It turns out it's great for killing Riddlesmith's and the like. Plus, you can draw into your other removal, which allowed me to win the game once.
I did have a Molder Beast and a Corpse Cur at one point, but I took them out for the Walls, which I really needed to stop flyers. The Cystbearer was pretty much interchangeable with a Blistergrub; I sided the bug in whenever my opponent played black.
So, I won with Infection twice, obviously with Skittles on the board. I won a game with a Golem alpha strike, which was sort of funny. The two Bleak Coven Vampires were absolute beasts, as I made a guy lose 8 life, then proceeded to beat face. Blistergrub + Strata Scythe + Opponent playing Swamps = GG. This one guy kept on Arresting my creatures, so I threw down a Rachet Bomb, killed everything for 3, then beat down with Skinrender.
I was pleasantly surprised by Instill Infection. I always had a use for it whenever I drew it. Goodbye, Riddlesmith, you broken piece of cardboard!
Strata Scythe is awesome. Pick it!
The only times I lost were two games against a ridiculous red-black deck with Geth, lots of Shatters, and Liquimetal Coating, and a deck with Genesis Wave in it.
As for the viability of Infect, you either need to have a single of Skittles, like me, or have every creature in your deck have infect, which one person had.
I think Strata Scythe needs more love. That little baby won me games. I played black-green, and chose swamp every time. It was especially sweet when I had the swampwalk bug, and my opponent was playing swamps. At one point, I had a 15/13 Molder Beast. Boosh!
I will vouch for Dralna being a bomb. I pulled two of her in my Sealed pool, and I ran 5 Swamps just to play her, since she was my only good black card. My deck was pretty terrible, but whenever I got her out, I won 4 out of the five games that I got her.
Too bad the rest of my deck sucked so much that I lost 4 matches. Those were the times when I didn't get her out, or that one game that went to time when both of us drew literally all our lands (Seriously, I drew 15 out of the 17 lands in my deck. Same with my opponent).
Wizards, here is a 20. Take my money!
I already have a Niv-Mizzet, but I certainly wouldn't mind one in foil with that art.
I went to UC Davis. The protestors were gathering on the Quad, an area specifically designated for large gatherings of people on foot. The students had set up tents there, and the reason for the police presence was to remove the tents. One of my friends got pepper sprayed right in the face (a mechanical engineer; not going to say his name, but you should find it easily enough if you research it) as he was sitting in the line.
Here's a link to some interesting information:
http://studentactivism.net/2011/11/20/ten-things-you-should-know-about-fridays-uc-davis-police-violence/
Now, I'm not going to argue for or against the use of pepper spray. What grates me is the justifications the police chief gave, which videos and testimony show as clearly false. If they had not tried to spin it as a hostile crowd intimidating trained police men, I wouldn't be mad about it. The police were not surrounded; the police were not scared for their safety; there was absolutely no violence from the protestors, even after the pepper spraying. The claims of the police chief simply are not true. Both the officer who sprayed everyone and the police chief were put on administrative leave, but I seriously doubt their jobs are in jeopardy, as this sort of behavior is now the norm rather than the exception.
Also of note:
“Chemical agents are weapons used to minimize the potential for injury to officers, offenders, or other persons. They should only be used in situations where such force reasonably appears justified and necessary.”
Crud, I just made an argument against pepper spraying. My bad.
Anyway, standard right to peaceful assembly and what-what.
Oh God yes, let there be a legendary blue-black ninja.
Wizards, here is a check for 80 dollars.
I have retired Zur the Enchanter multiple times, because the plan is always the same three or four enchantments, and that's boring.
Kaervek the Merciless was retired because it was my third deck, and I didn't realize that trying to punish everyone with such a high-cost general without support was a bad idea. People would always kill me first, and the deck didn't really have answers. I could probably rebuild it now that I have a better grasp of the format.
Rafiq used to be my total baller deck, but then I slowly started harvesting the good cards out for more varied decks, and then it became retired for a bit. I then turned it into budget Voltron, using Trinket Mage and flicker effects to get 1-cost equipment. I don't use it much, other than when I need some giggles.
Sliver Overlord was killed mostly because it tied up too much of my nonbasic lands, and because I made the deck in about 10 minutes, so I wasn't too choked up about it.
Frank Miller? Oh God no.
Gideon would become a grizzled old guy who mentions kids with their names and ages every time. "Skinny little Jace, age 19."
Chandra, Liliana, and any other girls would suddenly begin to act and dress like ladies of the evening (though that isn't too far from Liliana anyway). Miller will insist in interviews that all his woman are independent and strong, even though they all take a backseat to the large muscle-bound gravelly voiced men who are obviously superior to the women.
Garruk would monologue to himself repeatedly with a limited selection of words. That is to say, he would repeat his own internal thoughts to himself using a small amount of words, saying similar things over and over again to himself. "My beasts scream. I hunt them and master them. They are my friends, and my worst enemy. They scream. I am the master of the hunt. I have friends and enemies, who I am master over."
Jace? Scheming weasel who will become comic relief, and lose all magic ability for the sake of "plot."
The cities they visit? Crime infested places with corrupt peacekeepers.
And what about Sorin? He's the Goddamned Batman!
Basically, no, Frank Miller would be a bad choice. I would prefer Stephen Spielberg. Or the guy who directed the original Street Fighter movie, because that was gloriously bad.
I also love the Praetor creature type. Praetor tribal for the win!
This made me LOL.
Anyways, I instantly thought of adding this to my EDH decks, should I ever pull one. Hopefully, everyone will hate it so I can pick it up for cheap. >:D
Also, for limited, big butt beats are big butt beats, and this guy comes with a tiny sweep to boot.
On topic, I find it interesting that Battlecry is like the inverse of Exalted. I can see it on white, blue, and green cards; black and blue don't seem really "battlecryish" to me.
As for the card itself, it doesn't really feel mythic, but I do see its potential. I think the mismatched creature types deliberately messes with the power level. Overall, I like it.
Kaervek the Merciless is one mean card to go against. Sure, he costs a lot, but once you have him out, any spell to get rid of him will most likely hurt your opponent just as much. I slapped together a deck with him, and I got hated really bad; even so, with the right cards, you can go down in a blaze of spite and take someone down with you. Muwahaha!
Zur the Enchanter is simply unfair in duels. As my friend always said, 'Tutoring is tech,' and he tutors up EVERYTHING. Once I have shroud and Flickerform on him, he's damn near impossible to kill. I took apart that deck because it just wasn't fun for everyone. With Kaervek, at least the other players can screw over your acceleration.
Erayo, Soratami Ascendant is really nasty with the proper amount of Sol Ring type broken accel and suspend cards and counters. Once that deck gets going, you are basically playing solitaire. Of course, in a game with 6 players willing to wait and sacrifice cheap spells, it gets hated on, but even then, that's several turns of the erayo player basically doing what he wants.
And now it's back to super depressing gray rain.
It turns out it's great for killing Riddlesmith's and the like. Plus, you can draw into your other removal, which allowed me to win the game once.
5 Forest
13 Swamps
Creatures
1 Painsmith
1 Skinrender
2 Bleak Coven Vampires
1 Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon
1 Cystbearer
1 Acid Web Spider
1 Perilous Myr
1 Sylvok Replica
1 Copper Myr
1 Ichorclaw Myr
1 Etched Champion
1 Snapsail Glider
1 Precursor Golem
2 Wall of Tanglecord
1 Rusted Relic
1 Strata Scythe
1 Ratchet Bomb
1 Trigon of Rage
Instants/Sorceries
1 Grasp of Darkness
1 Instill Infection
I did have a Molder Beast and a Corpse Cur at one point, but I took them out for the Walls, which I really needed to stop flyers. The Cystbearer was pretty much interchangeable with a Blistergrub; I sided the bug in whenever my opponent played black.
So, I won with Infection twice, obviously with Skittles on the board. I won a game with a Golem alpha strike, which was sort of funny. The two Bleak Coven Vampires were absolute beasts, as I made a guy lose 8 life, then proceeded to beat face. Blistergrub + Strata Scythe + Opponent playing Swamps = GG. This one guy kept on Arresting my creatures, so I threw down a Rachet Bomb, killed everything for 3, then beat down with Skinrender.
I was pleasantly surprised by Instill Infection. I always had a use for it whenever I drew it. Goodbye, Riddlesmith, you broken piece of cardboard!
Strata Scythe is awesome. Pick it!
The only times I lost were two games against a ridiculous red-black deck with Geth, lots of Shatters, and Liquimetal Coating, and a deck with Genesis Wave in it.
As for the viability of Infect, you either need to have a single of Skittles, like me, or have every creature in your deck have infect, which one person had.
The +4/-1 equipment was also scary sometimes.
Too bad the rest of my deck sucked so much that I lost 4 matches. Those were the times when I didn't get her out, or that one game that went to time when both of us drew literally all our lands (Seriously, I drew 15 out of the 17 lands in my deck. Same with my opponent).