I read various posts and found them to be rather enjoyable. at this point, I wish some of our locals would come here more often. There are a few pro players here (yes, you know who you are and yes, I do consider you friends although what I create and do in the magic community is completely independent as I belong to no team), most of our small gang here seem to hear about decks through the grapevine or through actually playing against them. Well.... might as well introduce myself
My name known locally: Shields (Actually, my first name is John and I prefer to be called that)
Age: 22
Height: 6' 1''
Weight: 202 LBS
Max Bench Press lift: 125 LBS
Max Leg Press Lift: 400 LBS
Jung, Meyers, Briggs Personality Type: ENTJ - check this thing out yourself. its really cool and can be found at
www.personalitypage.com !
Potential Girlfriend: Yes, this small but cute flamboyant girl seems unsure of continuing to date her current boyfriend who is an Army Ranger since he is getting ready be sent to one of the most dangerous areas in Iraq. Well... thank goodness for an idiotic president (reference
www.bushorchimp.com), the beginnings of World War III in my opinion, being physically (although not mentally with a Stanford Binet IQ average score of 175) disabled (note that I am favor of socialized healthcare and am pissed and am feeling panicked about having an average medical expense of $50,000 US$ before insurance per year) and the power of simply trying to be her friend as opposed to being her pimpdaddy.
Spending Philosophy: Save every single dime you can and be reasonable with your investments. Plan for the future and if something does not look like a sound investment long-term investment, either look for another option or work with the hand you are dealt
Magic Playing Philosophy: This is really something I consider a night out with friends. Is it really worth all the bragging to claim victory on a prize that you could buy at the most a small pizza with or to realize that your travel expenses to the big things are actually more expensive than the prize you won?
Area where I typically hang out - a local store in the Blacksburg, VA area
Have I ever been to a major magic event - no, and I really do not think they are worth the gas, food, time and hotel money since most people are not likely to win enough to cover the basic travel expenses.
Favorite Format: Type 1, with proxies for cards most do not have like Power 9
Favorite Card: A tie between Moat and Ensnaring Bridge
Least Favorite Card: Anything that can win the game within a single or second turn, despite my own use of the same darn cards; ie I am the pot calling the kettle black
Favorite Place to Find Deals on Magic Cards: Magictraders, which has brought me the majority of the top demand cards I own without charging me my left nut for cards I would like by making all trades free,with the exception of requiring all trades to be done between people via email correspondance and use of the postal service.
www.magictraders.comLeast Favorite Place to findmagic deals: Unfortunately, I really dislike Star City Games as their prices are unrealistic for demanded cards, the trade values they offer you for your cards are highway robbery, and the people that work there have been incredibly rude to me each time that I have gone there over the past years. Yes, may get me banned for dissing one of manadrain's main sponsors, but I say Star City can take their deals and stick them where the sun don't shine aka they can go bankrupt for all I care. The thieving and greedy, dishonest b##tards. I will never go there again nor do I reccomend this store to all that I meet when trading cards for the store's often unethical practices and trades. Forgive me, site administrators, but this is my opinion on that store
Job: Student studying both Human Services and Spanish.
Current GPA: Approximately 3.5 on a 4 point scale
Jobs that I am considering after school: Psychology, Law, Social Work, Interpreter for the government, Recreational Therapy, Alternative Dispute Resolution, Crisis negotiator, possibly an FBI worker, or Rehabilitative Aid for local individuals
Job that some think that I am, but I am actually not: Pimp (for magic cards at this point) and a local thug
This kinda bugs me, ok ok ok.... actually I am really really pissed about the gossip spreader who put libel on me for my desires to find a potential source of profit in almost everything I have done, being tight with money and if anything taking advantage my potentially prosperous business skills.
At the same time I get the groovy feeling of looking back at the 1970's movies of the guy with the velvet trenchcoat, big fuzzy hat with a feather in it, a little black book for deals, pockets full of cash and a big golden cane with a huge jewel on top for smacking the misbehaving people. I think it is because I use a different price guide than scrye and tend to profit from most deals I do via regular communication, negotiation and use of the internet for Magictraders and its far lower, true prices that people actually paid for their cards.
I am also Jshields on Magictraders if you wanna trade
Favorite Classes: Foreign Language classes - I think these are fun
Least Favorite Classes: Math - no real applied or practical use for these made them really boring despite my earning good grades in classes
Favorite Non Magic activities: Exercise, swimming, reading, humor and comedy, spending quality time with my family (yes, I am a mama's boy and if you ever make fun of my mama....... oh you know what will happen....), bowling, going to movies, debate, counseling those in need, being hugged, cooking, learning new stuff, reading encyclopedias and nonfiction, and I loves da ladies!!!! Come on, who is yo pimp daddy???!!??
Date that I first bought magic singles: Spring 1996 - I bought a playset of Lightning Bolts and a playset of Fireballs for $1 total
Date I first bought a pack of magic cards: Summer 1996 - I bought 3 boosters of Mirage and 3 of 4th Edition
Date I started playing Magic: 1999/2000 when Masques came out and I got royally whupped by everyone and their mamma regularly
Date I started to actually gain a chance to play competitively: Fall 2001 When Apocalypse became legal over the summer, I was busy with summer school, but fell quickly in love with my Deedmonger B/G aggro discard deck
Expensive cards that I own: 1 Playset of all the revised blue dual lands, 4 Taiga, 3 Bayou, 4 Italian Mana Drains, 1 Mana Crypt, a playset of most of the extended top chase rares (ie almost all fetches, 4 intuitions (3 foreign), 4 wrath of gods (2 foreign), birds of paradise (currently being rebuilt since I traded 3 away 2 weeks ago for my final mana drain), chrome moxes vampiric tutors, aluren), as well as most of the main components to make any Type 1 competitive control netdeck excluding power, although I technically should own an Ancestral recall, but the person I bought it from online ripped me on it
Favorite Decks: Oath of Druids from various years, Landstill, Keeper, Parfait, PT Funk (Yes, I actually did come up with an almost identical idea at the same time that Matt the Great did without even knowing that he was already working on a design for it), the old extended Junk Phoenix deck aka SSS control (Too bad I had not thought of it earlier), Ophidian decks, Taiga.dec, and decks that work that people make by their own imagination
Least Favorite Decks: Stasis, any deck that wins in 1 turn (this makes the rest of the round really boring!), Worldgorger Dragon, Arcbound Ravager based decks, and Ankh Sligh
First Stupid offer I ever took advantage of and felt ripped at the time, only to realize that I made a fortune later: Fall 2001 - a local player was quitting and sold me 2 Morphling, 4 Birds of Paradise, 4 Wrath of God, 2 Force of Will, 1 Underground Sea, 1 Bayou, 1 Vampiric Tutor, an entire U/W Pro Tour Counter Rebel deck that used the actual cards and not the gold bordered versions, and about 50 uncommons for $85 total
Second Stupid offer that was made to me that I profited from: Later on in fall 2001 - a guy that quit during revised sold me 4 Taiga, 4 Swords to Plowshares, 2 Serra Angel, 2 Mana Leak, and 2 Gaea's Blessing for $20 total
Third Ridiculously low offer that I somehow got from a store in winter 2001: 4 Mishra's Factory, 6 Hypnotic Specter, 3 Demonic Tutor, 10 various pain lands, 6 Swords to Plowshares, 4 Land Tax (English Legends), 2 Balance and 1 Cursed Scroll for $.50 a piece (yes, fifty cents each)
Fourth offer that gave me a huge profit of cards greater than any I ever had: 500 Rares (Most of which were cards like 2 playsets of Force of Will, 6 wrath of God, a playset of each of the ice ages pain lands, and many other chase rares, and enough to enable me to play competitive type 1 after a long series of trades on magictraders, the old mana drain trading post, and brainburst trading post) for $27 (I still wonder what this person was thinking when they did this... they must have been desperate) Spring 2002
For more, I will add some of my history later. I have traveled throughout the world for starters, am extremely extroverted and can be rather imposing (ENTJ personality), am an Aries, and often am used in helping people to settle disputes.
Also, regarding the idea that I have been cheating at cards.... I will be posting a rather long history of what has been making people confused about some of my appearance and the short answer is NO I HAVE NOT BEEN CHEATING. I do not stack my deck, at points pay little attention to the game, try to stick to what I know about the DCI floor rules, and have to compromise on shuffling my deck due to having difficulty with the use of both my eyes and hands from Cerebral Palsy.
