I think these decks really want Mana Tithe somehwere in the 75.  Any white aggro deck needs it against Wrath and Damnation.  Either you counter their removal or you force them to hold off for a turn because they fear your counter.  Either way, it should translate to a good amount of added damage against control.

Also, I've been working on a highly disruptive version that also runs Boom//Bust.  Since white is already heavily played, tweaking hte base to have 4 Flagstones helps the early Boom plan to also push wrath back a turn.  This is in addition to the normal discard of castigate and/or Fall.  If the meta shakes out as very control orientd with wrath and damnation being the defining cards, I think the disruption heavy build will be the way to go.

I developed this same mechanic a few years back.  There are a few problems with it though.  1) Why play lands when you could just play landmorphs, which are going to be more useful unless they have a worse drawback (like coming into play tapped).  2) even if the cards are overcosted, we still have uncounterable creatures etc. that have the bonus of being lands.

The ones I came up with were overcosted and were always better when played straight from hand, as opposed to landmorphed.  Overall it is great for consistency, but I'm not sure the game wants this much consistency.

I won my release event yesterday, I went with G/R beatdown with a splash of white.  Here's the deck as much as I can remember:

4 Goblin Rimerunner
2 Ronom Hulk
1 Orhan Yeti
1 Boreal Druid
2 Boreal Centaur
1 Karplusan Strider
2 Martyr of Ashes
1 Allosaurus Rider
1 Juniper Order Ranger
1 Steam Spitter

2 Into the North
2 Surging Flame
2 Skred
1 Gelid Shackles

1 Snow-Covered Plains
2 Snow-Covered Forest
2 Snow-Covered Mountain
1 Highland Weald
1 Mouth of Ronom
5 Forest
5 Mountain

Skred is by far the best removal if you can pick up a decent number of snow permanents.  When I entered the third-pack I already had a couple of snow lands, but since I had so many playables I started drafting them a bit higher.  Into the North is great, especially if you get a Mouth of Ronom like I did.

Goblin Rimerunner is amazing (his nickname for us is The Rumrunner).  He has a little synergy with Ronom Hulk, since you just need to keep their non-snow from blocking and smashing for 5.  The haste ability is a great trick, absolutely wrecking an opponent.

I had actually picked up six Rimerunners, and I didn't play all of them only because of curve issues.  Allosaurus Rider won me both games in the finals.  Most people don't have a way to deal with a 10/10 in this format.  Also, splashing for Juniper Order Ranger and Gelid Shackles was definitely the right call.  The shackles were good, but the Ranger is nuts.  I got away with just running the 1 SC Plains for a white source since I had my two Into the Norths.

I never saw the ripple strategy really work out very well.  I think I hit my two Surging Flames one time and one guy hit 4 of the bounce spell, but otherwise I never saw any ripple action.

Strange, I've always found Precious Jerusalem to be my least favourite song on ANATO.  I've never heard that particular Hammerfall song, but all I have heard of Hammerfall is just ridiculously cheesy.  Not to say it isn't damn catchy.

It is very hard to pick a favourite song.  A Change of Seasons has been mentioned a couple times.  I know someone also said Hallowed by Thy Name.  I really enjoy both of those.  I'm not sure if I can call them my favourite of all time though.

I'll go with Bleed by Sentenced.

The Things They Carried is excellent.  The year I was a freshman at college all of us incoming first-years were required to read it.  It was awesome.  He is also a local author for me, having grown up just a county away.

THe last book I finished was "Shaman's Crossing" by Robin Hobb.  I love Hobb, and while this book was slow to start I really enjoyed it by the end.

I'm currently reading "House of Chains" by Steven Erikson.  It is the 4th book in the Malazan Book of the Fallen series.  Excellent high fantasy.

I apologize for not getting that you were joking.  I understand not liking Death Metal, it took me a long time to appreciate it.  But when I listen to Death Metal, either it has what I'm looking for or it doesn't, and the stuff that does is what I consider good.  Really this is what all music comes down to: does it have what you are looking for?  For the vast majority of people, Death Metal does not contain anything that they are seeking.  And even when it is, it takes a long time to understand the depth and complexity inherent in the music and the vocals.  There are great dynamics to Death vocals, but they are subtle and it takes an appreciation of the music first to really understand the depth the genre has as a whole.

And just going off what Bram said, all good Death bands are fine craftsmen.  The thought that goes into any good Death song is staggering.  You can never say that a good Death song just "wrote itself".

You fail to understand that it is a different skill set and that the appeal of Death Metal really isn't the same as what draws people to other types of music.  If you are expecting singing, that is why you are disappointed.  If you don't understand Death Metal for what it is about, you can't really criticize it on grounds of what it is not.  When I listen to Death Metal, I interpret the vocals as simply another instrument used to create atmosphere and convey emotion.  While the appeal of Death Metal is pretty esoteric, for people who are able to get into the genre there are definite good and bad bands.

That being said, I enjoy Black Metal a lot more than Death Metal.  But most people don't even have the ability to differentiate between the two.

Iced Earth is not greater than Blind Guardian.  But The Glorious Burden was a pretty good album.  The subject matter was different than most metal albums, but that is refreshing.  Things don't need to be all swords/sorcery, agression, death, etc.  I thought it was quite refreshing.  There were a few weak songs, but Valley Forge, all the Gettysburg songs, Waterloo, and a few others were quite good.

But the reason Blind Guardian is better than Iced Earth is that BG evolves while IE is pretty stagnant.  Seriously, Schaffer needs to write some new riffs sometime.  Not to mention I think BG, while perhaps not more technically skilled, is one of the best bands when it comes to composition of songs.

Guardian's list is awesome.


Arjen Anthony Lucassen does a bunch of projects with vocalists from all kinds of different bands.  Probably his most well known group is Ayreon, but he has several others.  On the latest Ayreon album "The Human Equation" you have the following singers:

James Labrie from Dream Theater
Devin Townsend from Strapping Young Lad, The Devin Townsend Band, and several others
Mikael Akerfeldt from Opeth
Devon Graves from Dead Soul Tribe

and a bunch more.  One girl who sang on the album Marcella Bovio also sings for Arjen's newest project - Stream of Passion.


Anyway, Arjen is about the greatest musical genius alive right now that no one knows about.

We had a thread on this a few months back.  I got through level 26 or so until I got really sick and stopped playing for a weekend and never picked it back up.  I went back a couple weeks ago, but they have changed a lot of the passwords and such and I don't feel like going through those first 26 levels again.

I'm interested in most non-casual formats, so I read all the articles that fit in there.  I love Mike Flores.  I love that each week I get two columns from him.  He normally writes the most interesting and well thought out articles.  His SCG articles are better, but I still enjoy his official site ones.

While Mark Justice was never suspended, I believe there were quite a few reports of him cheating.  Bob Maher, the Great One, was suspended.  I think they both deserve to be in the Hall of Fame.  Bob Maher is probably the third best player to ever play the game.  Skill-wise, I would say Long is top three on this ballot.  He cheated, but so did a lot of the players in the early days.  He isn't a very likeable guy, but so are a lot of guys in the baseball hall of fame.

If I had a vote, I would have voted for Mike until I read what his response was to BDMs questionaire.  That just showed that he didn't care, so don't give it to him.

Otherwise, my list would be:

Finkel
Kastle
Justice
Rade
Dougherty

With Humpherys being the unlucky sixth man.

I like all the Dream Theater and Blind Guardian fans in this thread.  For BG fans, you'll know where my username came from.
Oh, and while Demons & Wizards is awesome, I can't say it is better than Guardian.  It is on par with Iced Earth in my mind, but it can't touch guardian.


Guitarist: Micheal Romeo (kudos to the other person that mentioned him)
Drummer: Mike Portnoy
Vocalist: Ronnie James Dio

I'm not sure how effective this deck will be.  As Jacob pointed out, you could easily mill your own win conditions away.  I think that typical dampen would work better.  White is pretty effective, giving you Ethereal Haze, Candle's Glow (not very relevant, being uncommon), and the awesome Waxmane Baku.  If you get two Baku's on line, you can surive a long time.  Cage of hands is another good creature control card which will always take care of their largest creature.  Between the Baku and Cage of Hands, you easily make up for the loss of Whisper.

Beatdown isn't going to be very fast in this format, so I feel that a more typical dampen thought deck would serve you better.

Ump, I'm on 25 as well, and I don't have good enough photo editing software either.  I downloaded something simple they said would get the job done, but so far no luck with it.

When I have time I intend to finish it though.

Yeah, 8 was hard.

Read the line below the picture.  What jumps out at you?  Say it fast.  What does it sound like?

Source code is your friend.  You'll have to download something.

It's not just a point and click thing.  Everything about the page can be used as hints or even the passage to the next level, such as: title, text, url, source code, picture, etc.

There are two ways around level two.

Level 3, read the title and url.

Look at the title, and then do exactly as it says.  It is hard to see in the dark, so make it brighter.

Most of the puzzles involve clues in the source code.  Some of them the picture doesn't matter much at all, in others it is integral.  It involves a lot of lateral thinking.  Also, some are very dependent on a person having a particular skill, like identifying musical notes by sound or being proficient with photoshop or similar programs.

Before going to bed I decided I would do one more level, two hours later I had no idea I had been working on it for more than 5 minutes, but I did pass that level.

This has to be the most challenging and entertaining riddle I have ever done.

http://www.notpron.com

This riddle will keep you busy for weeks trying to solve it.  It might be tempting to give up early, but once you've solved a few levels it gets addictive.

I started it a couple days ago and am on level 22 (of 81).  Be prepared to give up hours of your time though.

I had a Boseiju in play and dropped a compulsion.  There were three of us left, and one guy had Nezumi Graverobber/Nighteyes the Desecrator in play.  I had a very creature heavy deck, and discarded many for him to graverob (~20).  During his turn I was able to fog.  My turn, I cast a Reins of Power (uncounterable) for the win.