<3 You're very sweet

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CF

Anekdoten - Manolith

Boo! How come I wasn't invited to such awesomeness? I had Saturday and (sadly also) Sunday off

I had to give Womp cookies. He had none. WTF was that about?

Oh, and Brit and Toad sure are petite

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CF

Oval looks like a failed half-circle. If you first want to arch, arch properly. Oval is neither this or that really..

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CF

I'll be in Paris during worlds (qualified! yay!). Who else is going? I heard some of the Dutchies will be there.

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Chris

*chuckles* (it didn't actually sound like an accusation, more like a finished ruling ;o)

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CF

He is obviously able to shuffle without looking at any cards, so the fact that he keeps going back to his "oops, I got a peek at some cards here and there"-technique really is a suspicious one. Sure, he may not intentionally try to see some cards, but he seems quite fond of the fact that he gets to do it at every tournament until he is told not to. I sometimes get a glance at some cards when I riffle too, accidentally, but I never do this to an opponent's deck and if it does happen I will always shuffle carefully a good while after said accidental peek. The descriptions I got of Oliver's technique, however, seems far more grave. The angle at which he shuffles and looks both sound.. well.. wrong.

At least now he will get rid of that bad habit. IMO what he admits to is cheating, but not bad enough to warrant suspension.. Whether or not he is only guilty of what he admits to is an interesting question though.

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Chris

There has been rumours of his shuffling being a little shady for a while and it seems judges were checking things out carefully in Malmö.

I know two people who played against him before he was DQ'ed and both had -significantly- more lands than spells in their games. One of them finished 65th, just outside of day 2, with a loss to Ruel (and me, coincidentally).. so if Ruel hadn't done anything wrong maybe he would have won - and if Ruel wouldn't have been caught, maybe his tiebreakers would have been better so he'd make day 2.. Bad luck I guess =)

This is, of course, huge news.. I really wonder what the DCI will do and how wotc will handle it. It would be very embarrassing for them to have their pet pro completely dishonoured.. and to think of how much money Ruel will be out by losing his level 6 status... And how will Antoine be treated now?

I suspect the game got too serious for Olivier.. it got too business-like, with such an immense pressure to always do well and he caved in to creating some advantages. I do not believe Antoine would do something like this though..

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Chris

Gatherer and wizards autocard had "printed text" showing as default yesterday. The oracle text still had the old versions. It was a little confusing that "printed text" was suddenly default on the autocard, but you could still choose oracle and get answers.

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Chris

Wizards never said they would change the wording on Time Vault for power reasons. This is what was said:

"In the meantime, here are the most prominent cards Monday's Oracle update will attempt to restore to their printed wording (though note that some of the cards on this list didn't originally get the errata for power reasons)"

That some took this as YAY TIME VAULT FUSSILADE IS BROKEN AGAIN is their problem. You got ahead of yourselves. Stop whining.

Edit: Heh. Funny. True Believer is now a Meddling Mage for Intuition as well. I assumed this was what they would change.

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Chris

I see people talking as if actual updates have been posted somewhere.. I can't find anything. Is this a case of me being blind or people talking ahead of themselves?

--
Chris

Prereleases here were small; 25-32 players. First one I squeezed into top8 on tiebreakers with 3-2 and split the finals. Second I went 4-1 and lost the QF to two consequtive topdecks of Skred for 5. Traded in the Coldsnap boosters I won for Dissension and for the first time in ages actually opened them. 1 Sky Swallower and 23 junk rares ;o) Serves me right for actually cracking packs... so stupid.

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Chris

I've seen visible wear (as in, the card was in lesser shape than what people would call "NM") on "PSA9" cards, still inside that plastic case, so I kind of question the whole concept.

--
CF

I agree. It would make the most sense.

Also, just a tidbit, Flame Fussilade wasn't the first card to abuse Time Vault - I've died several times to a INF/INF Lodestone Myr.

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Chris

This is how the card was intended to be, I'm pretty sure: "Skip a turn to be able to take another one later". That's it. You put one turn in the Vault and you can then use it later. It fits the name and flavour and you can see the original wording, considering what other cards existed at the time, trying to reinforce this.

Ideally they would have just removed the entire tap/untapped bit and just said:

Time Vault 3
Skip a turn: But a time counter on Time Vault
Remove all counters from Time Vault: Take another turn after this one.

I have no idea why they didn't just do this (possibly with T: as part of the second cost and with "Use this ability only once per turn" on the first ability). They did, however, fix it so that it's no untapping machine. Now the card text fits the flavour of a "Time Vault". I approve.

Stephen: If a company fixes one thing and then cancels it due to someone complaining, won't you have serious trouble trusting them to ever be able to push through with anything. I know I would. The errata could have been better, but you _are_ upset about the untapping machine mechanic disappearing - something that has nothing to do with the mechanic and flavour of the card. Surely you can find better uses of your time than heading this futile crusade? That said, the article seemed solid and most of the points against Gottlieb's reasoning accurate. It's just that they don't really matter, cause everything was arguments supporting an action WotC should not and must not go through with. Gottlieb has flimsy reasoning, ok, but the card works like it should now, imo. And a company needs to stick to their decisions when they do something like this (even though this is the 5th time or whatever they're fixing it).

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Chris

*sigh* lots of 100KB+ avatars. How fun boards will get eventually.

--
Chris

How about drawing just a few cards, say 2-3 and in -addition- you get to look through your opponent's hand and deck while keeping the "lose the game" trigger. That way it's a last ditch effort to find burn, but if you don't succeed you at least get some information out of him for the next game - potentially very useful if lose the 2nd game.

--
Chris

Take care, fellow BD'er.

--
Chris

I like the strong focus of this deck. I'd probably put in a Trinket Mage for one of the Needles, just so I could find artifacts via Survival, but that's just me. I might have more thoughts on this deck after I take it for a spin.

--
Chris

Precisely.

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Chris

For some reason I can't find the log where I discussed this on #themanadrain with Zherbus - that's a shame cause we summed up most of the problems... anyhow:

I think inflated egos should take some of the blame. "Back in the day" where innovation started to surge, I'm pretty sure we can all agree most of it came directly from or was helped along by the europeans, specifically the Germans (Dülmen). GAT, TNT completely, development of stax and 4cc etc etc. Despite having frequent big tournaments there, there was always innovation going on.

Then came the SCG and other big tournies in the US and suddenly the American side went hyper-serious with teams and even more damaging; the winners declaring themselves omniscient and suddenly boasting a grossly arrogant attitude. Or worse: If they shared something it was already "old" tech in their eyes AND THEY MADE SCG CHARGE FOR IT! What the hell. Premium. Blah!  Anyhow... The sharing of tech between Europe and the US quickly stopped in the online community, because one side did nothing but keep their secrets tight and claim to know best. Many of the innovative Europeans (except the ones with a history here) seemingly dropped out of the community and just kept playing their tournaments and discussing amongst themselves. Sure, there's a fair bit of money on the line at the SCG events, but is it really THAT serious that one has to be a total asshole? If some of the "serious t1 players" spent as much time on another format they could win far greater prizes I'm sure. Get a grip. It's a game!

I too lost all interest in discussing tech in such an overly serious and.. unpleasant environment. I'm pretty sure the Germans and (to some extent) the Italians still come up with innovative things - they still have plenty of tournaments. There are things left to discover too! I actually know of an idea/deck or two so keep on thinking ;o)

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Chris

1. What do you predict the turnout to be?

Note: Do not include a range
Scoring: 1 point within 100 people; 2 points within 50 people; 3 points within 5 people

639

2. How many Force of Wills do you expect to see in the Top 8?

12 1 point

3. How many Wastelands in the Top 8?

12 2 points

4. In the top 8, what will be the most popular:

a. Blue card*? (2 points): Brainstorm 2 points
b. White card*? (2 points): Swords to Plowshares 2 points
c. Green card*? (2 points): Survival of the Fittest
d. Red card*? (2 points): Red Elemental Blast (hope SBs are included)
e. Black card*? (2 points): Dark Ritual
f. Gold card*? (2 points): Fire/Ice, if that's not considered gold then... Vindicate?
g. Artifact*? (2 points): Is Æther vial legal?
h. non-land card?** (3 points): Brainstorm 3 points

5. What's going to be the highest placing combination deck?
Illusions/Donate

6. What's the most common basic land type in the Top 8?
Mountain

7. What's the most common dual land in the Top 8?
Volcanic Island

8. Goblins in the T8? (yes or no)
Yes 1 point

9. Flame Vault in the T8? (yes or no)
No 1 point

10. Threshold (UWG) in the T8? (yes or no)
Yes 1 point

11. Threshold (URG) in the T8? (yes or no)
No

12. Survival.dec in the T8? (yes or no)
Yes 1 point

13. High Tide in the T8? (yes or no)
No 1 point

14. Landstill in the T8? (yes or no)
Yes 1 point

15. BW Deadguy Ale (Disruption) in the T8? (yes or no)
No 1 point

16. ______________ [deck] will take first place. (Specific deck type)
Goblin

17. Who will win: Pro or Not?
Not

18. The winner will be from ________________. (Specific country)
France

19. The winner will be: ______________. (Specific player name)
Gabriel Nassif

Total: 17 points

Amen!

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CF

Playing wise it's probably something involving Holistic Wisdom.. or just owning all the Necropotence decks with Replenish back in the day. Can't really remember anything specific that's extra awesome. The only Magic match I remember extremely fondly is a feature match of the 2003 Norwegian nationals where I played Moment's Peace 14 turns in a row and then decked him with Deep Analysis/Mirari. The frustration on my opponents face was quite funny.

Communitywise.. hm, haven't done much of that. I guess playing the Nordic Championships five or so years ago.

--
Chris

They're not called Penalty _guidelines_ for nothing. Game loss for irrepairable game state is not only too harsh, but imo completely off mark considering the circumstances. Procedural error, warning isn't.

--
Chris (DCI level 2 judge)

Circumcision generates billions of dollars for the American health industry. That's why the so strongly "recommend" it. Parents do it because they don't want to have their kid teased. OH NO THE TEASING! No kid must ever experience that!

Americans are so silly =)

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Chris

There are very many variants of whale meat and most are ickily prepared (marinated in vinegar something for who knows what reasons), so that seems like a nasty generalisation. I used to think the exact same way until I have some -awesome- whale meat. It's probably like saying cow meat is overrated after having a hamburger.

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Chris

I own 5:

wt.no
xm.no
webmagic.no
argivian.com
flaaten.net

They're all pretty much inactive currently.

--
Chris

One of the funniest things I've ever read at tmd. Good job.

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Chris

*chuckle* Just play, Stephen. Maybe you possibly do horribly and thus miss one bye in some event.. big friggin deal. Magic is about enjoying the game. If you were just at the threshold for a worlds/PT ratings invite I'd understand it, but a "possible bye"...  please.

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Chris