Wow. What year is it? Kowal? Zee-Herbus? Good lawd.

BTW I'm alive, hi.

I'd love to see Nick billtheduck T. at this thing. Is he alive? Kitzmiller?

I've seen enough. Kerz will be in attendance. My first event in over five years.

Steve H: It'll be great to see you. We may have to throw down grudge match style.

Steve M: Try your best to get our here. It's been far too long..

Dave L: You have my Squees? Motherfucker!

Jacob: Use the magic powers derived from your beard to fly to the venue.

*On a separate note, I have communicated with Jeff Anand and he has committed his attendance. In addition, I got a "Will probs be going" from Carl.

Chuck: I hate you.

I'm no 100% sure if i'll be playing because I'm so far removed from the environment, I don't want to make myself look silly round after round by reading cards. However, I will have my party shoes on.

Ray,

I love you.

However, this thread makes me kind of sad. Does anyone on TMD nowadays even know who I am? I'd love to see a Zherbus at this event.

Oh... sup guys?

Yes, I do remember that time at Steve's when I was really drunk. Since then I've acquired at least a little bit of drinking maturity. Damn you guys for taking advantage of a poor high-school Kerz.

I am just finishing up my third year at school, and if everything goes well I'll be interning this summer in Washington, DC. Doing exactly what, I'm not sure yet.

@Zherbus: Stevey baby! Where have you been all my life. Hows the family?

Hola. I just stumbled onto TMD for the first time in about a year. I see there are still a few active members who I actually recognize. How the hell has everyone been? I'll give a bit of an update on my life in a few, I'm just stepping out but I miss everyone and want to hear whats new in the community/everyone's lives!

Aaron

Kerz and Ashok make sweet love, 2: this time, it's personal.

I mean... um..

Wow, this is a great collection. I LOVE the old GAT reports, as well as the old Team Hadley members in all of their sarcastic bastard-like glory.

kl0wn hit the nail on the head: , so new-folk, read up!

<3 Roche.

Miss ya dude, but hey, you're on OUR team now.

I really, really liked that random guy who called kl0wn a cumdumpster. But, I appreciate this:

Hey everyone-

Yes, I got a digital camera (http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/Sony-Cyber-shot-DSC-P200-Digital-Camera/sem/rpsm/oid/116669/catOid/-13062/rpem/ccd/productDetail.do)

and No, I didn't get married.

Hadley guys: I miss you all, I think all of us reuniting would be a truly sick idea. I've been doing a fair amount of boozing since I got to school, and I will definitely be able to keep up . Steve, I'll give ya a ring soon about some SQ. Well definitely have to have another round.

Myke: I may be making a temporary comeback if Jeff can lend me a deck for a tourney or two. If I do, your ass is mine. Ante? One Null Rod.

I just made my schedule for next semester, just continuing the basic History track along with some electives:
US History II, Western Civ II, History in the Modern World, Elem Latin II, and Expo Writing.

Well, I'm gonna run, everyone have a safe and happy turkey day!

Kerzner

I'm so glad to hear from everyone!

@Dooge- I'm planning on going to law school, but I'm not sure where or what kind of law I'm interested in. Maaaybe corperate, but it's a long way off. I could also do a doctorate in history, I'm not sure.

Regardless, I'm happy to know everyone at TMD is doing well, keep the responses coming theres still alot of people I want to hear from!

Hey everyone, just checking in on TMD... seems things have slown down a bit. I'm at college and studying a double major in History and Political Science, with a Latin Minor, pre-law. I'm enjoying college life, as well as life without magic... although I do miss cardboard a little. How's everyone doing? Let me know, I'm interested in hearing from my old TMD buddies!

Kerz

If all these cool folk are going... I may just make a stop in. Hopefully someone can lend me a pile of no less than 60 cards 

Sup Molot! Nice you see you man! Hope all is well.

This is almost the exact point I was trying to prove- while the format doesn't require the knowlege of the attack phase as much as Standard does, Standard in turn doesn't require as extensive knowlege and experience with certen facets of the game which are important to vintage. Ideally, all formats would use the entire game to it's maximum- thus creating the most skill intensive enviornment possible.

rofl

-Peeks head in-

Not to pick on Mister Leith, but this statement just affirms the ignornace that runs rampant throughout the majority of Vintage players. Assuming you are an average, competent Vintage player,I HIGHLY DOUBT you know the combat phase as well as someone who has strictly played Limited or Standard for just one year. The facts are, this format totally ignores (arguably) one of the most important assets of Magic. Don't try to dispute that.

I was just going to comment on that. With overuse comes lack of meaning, and most of the time when people makes these allusions they don't fully realize what Hitler did. However radically democratic you are, Bush is not even close to Hitler in any way, shape or form.

Even as a young person, I believe I am qualified to speak on this format. I have been through the entire cycle:

When I was 12 years old, and Masques block was in full swing, the game of Magic was introduced to me. I went through the stages of playing in a group of friends with house rules and whatnot, and soon discovered my local cardshop and their weekly 20-30 man type one tournaments. By the time Planeshift was on the shelves, I was ready to make the jump: from this game being a silly way to waste time to a fun, competitive, game of wits and calculations. Once I began playing in tournaments, I was utterly destroyed during the rounds. After a month passed, my 13 year old brain flashed me "you aren't getting unlucky every week, you simply aren't on the same level as the competition on the most basic plane: the deck". I did what, in my opinion, is the best thing for a player not knowing of a format to do: copy someone else's shit like it was my job. For the next few weeks, I sat out of the tournament and noticed which decks were winning, and which weren't. I quickly made the decision to save up my pennies and invest in a more serious deck, so I could actually win something. Is this the exact moment when I went from a casual player to a tournament player? Absolutely not. Some would say, playing a netdeck would disqualify me from casual status, but I disagree. It is all in the way you approach the game. I was approaching it to win my local 20 man tournaments, in which the same people showed every week, and there was no on line collaboration (not like it didn't exist yet, it's just that the players were too lazy/ignorant to make use of it). After I made my deck and began playing it every week, my playskill developed, as well as my magic knowledge from lurking on TMD (Kerzkid11 = best 13 year old evar!). My goal, always, was to get to the level of playing in the power tournaments I read about. My budget sleigh deck was not going to get me there.

So, around Onslaught/Legions (don't hold me to these), and after reading up and continuing to win the small tournaments, I decided to make another leap: bigger tournament magic. By bigger, I don't mean Waterbury, or SCG. I mean Hadley, Cape Cod, and other 30-50 mans in which people I knew from TMD traveled in packs to compete on a semi-competitive level. Still, once I began hitting these tournaments, the atmosphere was always casual, with tons of wacky decks, and a lot of players in the tournament knowing they don't have a shot in the world. There was no rule lawyering, and the "judge" was often a level 0 who was participating in the event. The players were solid- the people I was playing with are some of the TMD elite still posting or spoken about today. These tournaments, at this point in time, were the perfect, perfect type one. The atmosphere was cool enough to keep the casual guys around (this includes prize structure/tourney price), but the competition was fierce enough to lure the top notch players from 100 miles away. My goal was to always keep getting better, to get to the level of play in which I read about happening at Gencon or Origins, or the level of knowledge of the format that the Paragons had. I stived to be the competitive player.

Time passed, events got bigger, power prices hit the roof, players got better. Around Mirrodin/Darksteel era, I was playing in 4 tournaments a month, usually 2 of them being for a Black Lotus. I remember one distinct moment where the fact that type one blew up really hit me: I'm pretty sure it was at AndyStok's double lotus event. Like, 175 people showed, which was around 50 less than he expected! The event sizes were getting out of control. Eight rounds! Thats almost PTQ level! At this event, I played a Keeper concoction which Dave Lawrence and myself had cooked up and playtested the night before. Around one of the early rounds, I ran into a rules lawyer who ended up screwing me over because I had an 14 card sideboard on the table (one was stuck in my box, unnoticed). I thought back to the days where this would be solved by getting me another copy, or just playing on, and sighed. The golden age of type one was 6 feet under. This was the new era. 20% of the field playing the exact same list, and people getting wins by using the rules in the lowest possible way. I had become everything I strived for- a high-level player and name in the TMD community, but all I wanted was type one to go back to the days of old. Even TMD was showing signs of change/strain. But I won't get into that.(See JD's comments above).

So in summation, YES, Vintage HAS bled out all of the casual players. Vintage has bled out more than that, Steve. It has bled out many people who were not casual at all, but still wanted a fun, enjoyable game (This includes but is not limited to nearly the entire Team Hadley and old CT crews sans a few)There are so many things taking the enjoyment out of this format: rules lawyering, lessening deck diversity (I know we have a lot of archetypes, but NO deck was EVER more than 10% of the tournament 2 years ago), and the advent of more and more absolutely degenerate, unfun decks. And if you think unfun is a relative term, make a poll on how many players have fun when killed turn one or locked down turn two. Vintage as we knew it is gone forever. The new age has many participants and supporters, and I commend them for their efforts and writings. However, I am not a member of this group. Was the golden age I described more of a gilded age? You may think so. Please, argue. With that, I bid my official farewell to Type One (NOT "Vintage") forever.

Aaron Kerzner

Hello All! As of late, I've been getting more and more into techno/house/trance scene, but I have trouble finding new artists, due to there being no real radio station or MTV devoted to the genre (at least not in Rhode Island). I figure with all the DDR-playing asians, Funky-fresh Europeans, and Ecstasy-popping American rave-heads on TMD, I'd generate some good feedback about things I should look into. So, I ask you to please post favorite DJs, Artists, Songs, Albums, or anything relating to Techno- I'm interested in learning more about it. Thanks a lot!

PS- In doing research, the best electronica-type music I can find all comes from non-US countries, and I can't find anywhere to download or even buy it! For example: http://www.ukdancerecords.com/defaultvinylrecordstore.asp?style=recrel <-- judging by the samples, a lot of that stuff is really cool, but I couldn't find it for downloading on any of my programs.

I'm in love with trance/house/techno. Please, post other stuff of your own (or your friends')  if you have it!

Appealing to the Ebonics market would be something like "Hey man, yo gonna get wet!" or something to that effect. I find it very hard to believe that the "YOUR" was intentional marketing genius. The ebonics speakers can read YOU'RE the same way, too. That isn't really ebonics, IMO. Come to think of it, is there any objective ebonics authority?

When I first got my licence, some stupid chick slammed into me while going the wrong way in a parking lot. The insurance covered it, but the mechanic fucking chopped my  car to pieces. When I got it back (I needed a new front right and back left quarterpanel), the workmanship was.... awful. A runningboard was falling off and I was advised to "buy some glue", as well as the gas tank door not opening (I had to pry it). Upon further inspection, my bumper was held on with no more than TWO Sheetrock screws. Yes, the long screws which are used to attach sheetrock to studs. Two of those, and it looked like my bumper was on fine. Within the first week, the back part of the bumper came un-tucked from wherever he stuck it, and it was hanging a bit low. Tonight, I went over a speed bump and, there goes my fucking bumper. To boot, I ran over the fucking screw and it popped my tire! I had to get out of the car, grab the bumper, finagle it into the car, and begin to drive home when I realized the screw caused a slow leak. Overall, I was an angry, angry Kerz. I will be going back to the mecahnic tomorrow. With a bat.

I have a 47 Human Paladin on Destromath, a Mid-Pop PVP Server. The PVP factor did get to me in the lower levels, where I would get ganked when questing, but now, as I get higer and higher, I learn to love it more and more. It keeps you on your toes, can lead to some great fun, but also great frustration. The Horde outnumbers us 3:1 on my server, so they always get the chest that drops in STV. As a matter of fact, they almost own the whole area due to the camp at Grom. Right now I'm having a good time on my Paladin, the levels between SM runs and ZF runs I found very unattractive for a few reasons:

1. Uldaman is the worst, THE WORST instance in history. I won't give reasons, most players will agree.
2. Sans Uldaman, these few levels are tough to grind out with non-grouping quests (They are hard to solo unless you want to farm)
3. Due to the two above reasons, in this timespan you are almost at the mercy of your ability to find groups. I would log on, fly to IF, LFG for a half hour, get frustrated and go farm somewhere to try to solo a red quest (not happening). This was the downside of my low-pop server (we just moved up to mid!).

Anyways, I just thought I'd share some thoughts. I've had a really great time, and the bugs are few and far between. I'd reccommend the game. Obviously, it's hideously addictive.

I saw a sign at six flags yesterday that got me thinking.

"YOUR GONNA GET WET!"

While I can barely stand the "gonna", I will let it slide. But, a MAJOR nationwide company making a mistake which compromises such a basic rule of the English language in a sign seen by every park-goer? That is ridiculous. How can they disregard our language that much? How can a higher-up not spot that and change the YOUR to YOU ARE or YOU'RE ?I understand breaking rules is the key to innovation in the language (slang becoming an accepted word and so on) this is not the correct way to do it. This isn't a geek reading typos out of the Peluciville Post here,nor is it another stuffy politician complaining how netspeak ruins the language.This is a view of something which has become a very, very bad problem in our country. Such phrases as "I am good" (opposed to "I am well") or "I got 2 legs" (opposed to "I have two legs") are becoming almost expected and so widely accepted, it doesn't matter if someone does this. No one corrects them. I will never correct someone's language in real life, despite me despising it. It's horribly rude and condescending, now matter how you slice it. That's what makes this such a touchy subject. Does anyone else notice this decline in quality of grammar, spelling, and punctuation throughout media and citizens?

I have three separate friends that were born on this day. Weird.

There will always be horror stories simply due to the staggaring amount of transactions that happen daily and the fact that with such a large volume, there will be a small percentage of problems. I have never had a problem, and I am certain there is nothing that will even hold a candle to paypal in the markey for online banking and money transfer.

I'll be there. Need rides? PM me.