Sunday Morning Theros

Brian came over Sunday with his new deck to play some Theros.

 

 

I am still running my great Minotaur Rakdos deck, which matched up nicely with his UW Control deck.

 

 

Our first match was the longest game I have ever played--it went like 30 rounds. Neither of us could find a win condition. He removed all my creatures. When I needed to, I was able to get to his planeswalkers [he had THREE in his deck].

 

 

 

He was able to mill me out in the end.

 

 

 

Brian then went 1-2 against Jack's latest creation which is a very very good deck.

 

We completed our game two in a much more traditional way with me winning after about 8 rounds of fun magic.

 

 

I am very much enjoying my Rakdos deck. I know it needs a lot of work, but even when it looses it still creates some fun moments.

 

We had a lot of rules questions this morning. I am still not sure where the best most official place to go for ruling on this stuff--any suggestions would be awesome. I recently learned from the Magic the Amateuring cast that I am a level zero judge which does give me a lot more confidence on this stuff.

 

In any event, here are the questions we had:

 

 

1. Do Guild Gates have summoning sickness?
   
   
   We ruled that the do not.
2. What happens if you Time Ebb at token--does the token go on the top of your deck or back into your token pile?
   
   
   In this case, Brian cast Time Ebb on my 2/2 Zombie token.
   
   
   
   It was late in the game, we had tons of mana, and it was the only creature on the board.
   
   We ruled it was simply discarded.
   
3. Is a Planeswalker a creature?
   
   
   
   we ruled she was not a creature.
4. When does a Planeswalker pump?
   Whenever she wants to? Ba-Dum-DUM!
   
   We ruled during main & main phase [again]. 
5. Does essence scatter work on a God? Jack cast Nylea, God of the Hunt
   
   
   Brian responded with an Essence Scatter counter,
   
   
   since Jack's devotion to green was less than 5, Nylea was not a creature; however, the card has Creature as a type.
   
   We ruled Essence Scatter did not work. 
6. When does an Enchantment Creature become a Creature?  Brian case Sea God's Revenge
   
   
   on my Kragma Warcaller
   
   
   with Nighthowler equipped as an aura.
   
   
   Does the Nighthowler drop as a creature which can be targeted for removal and thus be counted as part of Sea God's Revenge?
   
   We ruled that the Nighthowler was not a legal target when the sorcery was cast & thus was not removed.

Please leave a comment correct & clarifying any of these rules questions.

 

 

 

 

Children's Hospital Orange County

Jack had his infusion at CHOC today. He has uveitis & has to have infusions every 8 weeks.

 

 

 We set up cards in the room--one of the nurses had a brother who played and knew what we were up to. Jack was very excited.

While Nurse Uma was setting up the initial medications and taking vitals and stuff we were able to get in two quick games--I won the first and he won the second. Before we could finish the match it was time for the infusion. 

 

Jack is super brave during this part and really likes to watch the entire process.

 

Also, note the pizza--Friday is pizza day at Pediatric Infusion Center which is one of the main reasons we go on Fridays. Also, we had heard that it is generally not that busy of a day--this Friday however was massively busy with just about every room occupied and a lot of kids running around.

 

 

Jack, however, was not running around--or able to finish our match.

 

He has gotten bigger and now receives 50mg of Benedryl which makes him extremely tired. The infusion went well without any major issues--some leg 'itching' and 'numbness' which was new, but not alarming.

 

Entire process took four hours.

 

Having Magic cards with us, definitely made the early part of the procedure a lot easier.

Gaurdians of Meletis

I love this card.

Not just because it is a cheap blocker in a slow set that needs more removal, but because of what it represents.

Geeking Out brought more attention to this card in a Vlog episode on Queer Representation in RPG's:

which I think is really important.

Celebrating when someone gets it right is important.

Celebrating when a companies in the gaming world gets it right may be even more important. When so many games are getting it so wrong, it is just plain refreshing to see Wizards of the Coast do this so well. Perhaps this is why Hasbro has been recognized for its efforts by being named one of the "World's Most Ethical Companies" and is ranked as one of Corporate Responsibility Magazine's "100 Best Corporate Citizens."

I love that this card was not revealed with a lot of fanfare & self congratulator press releases--the design team at Magic just seems to have done this because it was obvious, natural, and simply made sense. I think the right word is Kudos.

I would love to hear from the artist, Magali Villeneuve, on what kind of art direction she received when making this card--but she appears to only speak French. An interview with translation would be awesome. I hope she keeps up the good work!

Movember

This year, the thirteenth year of Movember, and I have decided to create a team of D&D people to participate in this great event to raise money for Men's Health issues. I first found out about Movember because my friend Barmak grew some amazing Mutton chops three years ago during November and then I heard Jeff at the Tome Show talk about his participation.

It is a very fun activity, does not really take all that much effort, and is for a good cause.

If you are interested please sign up and join the D&D Team.

 

Actual Play Murder in Baldur’s Gate--D&D Encounters S15 S8