Norman Ralph

Having played with my Zombie deck a few times now I have made some decisions about its content. Firstly, I want to get rid of the Angel’s Trumpet artifact as although it forces ability strong creatures to attack rather than use their abilities, it also hampers my defensive strategy by forcing me to attack rather than leave blockers. I am thinking of replacing it with either another artifact or enchantment that allows me some way of preventing creatures using their abilities, or with an instant or sorcery that allows me to destroy enchantments – particularly Circle of Protection Black!

I have seen a couple of interesting cards out there, but nothing definitive, so will keep looking and experimenting. Will let you know the outcome ASAP. Any ideas let me know.

Well it has been a little while since I last mentioned my new found hobby, Magic: The Gathering so I thought I would remedy it today. I have been playing a few weeks now and have a number of preconstructed decks to play along with my self-made black deck. I am really starting to get to grips with a lot of the nuances involved in the game along with spreading the gospel. I have managed to get Liz hooked too. She went out and bought a couple of Time Spiral pre-constructed decks to have a play with, but I am currently looking after them My brother arrived back in Kikrham today and managed to squeeze in a tutorial and several games with him. he isn’t the type to get hooked easily, but he is definitely taken with them.

I don’t care that it is a game for proper geeks, it really fires the imagination and the skill and tactical awareness required to construct and then play the game is actually at a very high level. I still think the game relies too heavily on an element of luck, especially reliant on the speed at which you can develop land. but otherwise I am well and truly addicted to the game. Rest assured that there will be plenty more posts on the subject in the future

Well of the four people that are currently resident in my house, only two are actually paying rent! Thats fifty per cent! Crazy.

Sarann headed off to Ireland today to visit her mum for a few weeks, leaving B and I as the sole remaining rent paying residents, with Maths Chris and Si making up the foursome.

Normally, this would be a matter of contention for me, I hate freeloaders…but in this case I am willing to make an exception. I quite like them being here. It is not often that there are more boys than girls in this house, especially seeing as until July I lived with four girls (now down to three). Excessive Magic playing, network gaming and general geekiness prevails. Throw in the fact that both are relatively house trained and we get a good living environment. One that I think i will thrive in. The only issue is that with Sarann gone and Michelle not back until September we have no maternal figure to guide us – we will be eating fried egg in waffle sandwiches and takeaway as a matter of course in no time at all, plus without lots of girlies to shame me into doing housework I don;t think the current relative tidyness will last very long at all.

Ah well. At least I will survive.

Land (20):

20 x Swamps

Creatures (17):

1 x Ascendant Evincar – Vampire (3/3, Flying, Black Creatures +1/+1, Non-black Creatures -1/-1)
1 x Lord of the Undead – Zombie(2/2, Other Zombies +1/+1, 1B, t Return Zombie to hand from graveyard)
2 x Severed Legion – Zombie (2/2, Fear)
2 x Gravediggers – Zombie (2/2, When played return target creature to hand from graveyard)
1 x Festering Goblin – Zombie Goblin (1/1, When put in graveyard from play target creature -1/-1)
1 x Gempalm Polluter – Zombie (4/3, Cycling 2B – when cycled target player loses 1 life for each Zombie in play)
1 x Dripping Dead – Zombie (4/1, Can’t block, Destroys target creature if deals combat damage)
1 x Keeper of the Dead – Wizard (1/2, B, t Destroy target non-black creature)
1 x Nekrataal – (2/1, First strike, When played destroy target non-artifact non-black creature)
2 x Restless Dead – Skeletons (1/1, B Regenerate)
1 x Abyssal Specter – Specter (2/3, Flying, When deals damage to player that player discards 1 card)
1 x Wake of Vultures – (3/1, Flying, 1B Sacrifice creature Regenerate)
1 x Belbe’s Percher – (2/2, Flying, Can only block flying creatures)
1 x Screeching Harpy – (2/2, Flying. 1B Regenerate)

Sorcery (13):

2 x Raise Dead – Return target creature from graveyard to hand
2 x Syphon Soul – Deals 2 damage to target player, you receive 2 life
1 x Diabolic Tutor – Search library and move 1 card to hand
1 x Unnerve – Each opponent discards 2 cards
1 x Soul Feast – Target player loses 4 life, you gain 4 life
1 x Mind Rot – Target player discards 2 cards
1 x Death’s Duet – Return 2 creatures from graveyard to hand
1 x Restless Dreams – Discard X cards, return X cards from graveyard to hand
1 x Assassinate – Destroy tapped creature
1 x Essence Drain – deals 3 damage to player/creature, gain 3 life
1 x Buried Alive – Search library and move 3 creatures to graveyard

Instant (6):

3 x Dark Ritual – Add BBB to mana pool
2 x Terror – Destroy target non-artifact non-black creature
1 x Agonising Demise – Destroy target non-artifact non-black creature

Enchantments (1):

1 x Death Watch – Enchant Creature (If creature is put into graveyard controlling player loses life equal to power and you gain life equal to toughness)

Artifacts (3):

1 x Demon’s Horn – When black spell is played you gain 1 life
1 x Angel’s Trumpet – Attacking does not cause creatures to tap, all creatures that do not attack are tapped at end of turn
1 x Soul Net – 1, gain 1 life each time creature is put itno graveyard from play

Comments?

Right, so I have been a World of Warcraft convert for nigh on six months now, add to that my nerdiness when it comes to Star Trek and my love of computer games etc and you would think that I am already somewhat of a geek. You would be wrong!

This last week has seen me introduced to a trading card game called Magic: The Gathering. I have never been a huge TGC fan, though I did get quite into the Star Wars one several years back. However, I am hooked on Magic now. I bought myself my own deck on Saturday and have already started yoinking cards from Si and MC to put together my very first home made deck. So I am currently playing a Black/Red pre-made deck and am trying to balance out my zombie heavy Black deck. I am looking to try and put together a wierd ass Green/Black or Red/Blue deck next – they look like fun.

Will update on my finalised decks soon.

Today is the first day in a while where I don’t know what to do with myself. I don’t have a job to dread (I finished my work up at the university yesterday), I have no really pressing things on my to-do list and I don’t have any uni work or anything piled up. I am at a loose end. There is lots for me to do though, the house needs a really good tidying up, my network cable needs laying (I did the rest of the house last weekend, but managed to forget my room!!) and I need to start downloading all the updates to WoW following my re-install of Windows. Somehow, these things are not exciting me as much as they possibly should. What I really want to do is go into town and buy some Magic: The Gathering trading cards.

I was introduced to this game recently by Si and MC and it rocks! It’s basically a trading card game based around magic. Most of my readers will have heard of it and some will probably play it, but it’s new to me so I am still rather obsessed about it. What is it with fads?

Anyway, today is the first real day of my summer and it’s raining. If I believed in omens I would probably take this as a sign that my summer was going to suck! I mean everything and everyone has gone crazy recently. The last two weeks has stretched Kara, Si and my sanity to breaking point. George is really struggling with some personal issues and Sarann is in love again B and MC seem to be the only people on a level at the moment, though being loud about it!

Oh well, here is to a very relaxing and recharging summer. I need it.