Thursday, November 30, 2006

Jeopardy and Magic Dreams

Yesterday there was a pretty good match on Jeopardy, and then I had weird dreams about Magic, where there were a few cards that didn’t exist.

So first, about Jeopardy. So, the defending champ had 9800, another guy had 10800, and the leading woman had 14000. There were 2 clues left, $800 and $1200. The defending champ had control of the board, so he chose the $1200, and it was the other daily double.

9800 / 10800 / 14000, with $800 clue left on the board. After some thinking, he bet $5001. And he got it correct.

And then the $800 clue came up, and the leading woman answered it correctly, and then the standings were

14801 / 10800 / 14800. Such goodness. So that was a pretty good strategy by the defending champ – but now for the interesting part. How much did each of them wager in final jeopardy? Take a few minutes to think about it, about the strategies, and whatever… and then keep that in mind. I’ll talk about the magic dreams now, and conclude the post with the results of final jeopardy.

I had dreams about magic… location is unimportant, it wasn’t our house though. I’ll just skip through the plays and just talk about the cards my mind made up, but let’s just say I was winning because I had 1 flying creature. Vinh started coming back but I had some good removal in my hand.

The first creature I played was something like
Creature – UU
2/2
Flying
During your upkeep, pay UU or bury this creature. If the upkeep was paid using a snow land or legendary land, this guy gains vigilance until end of turn and has “when this deals combat damage to a player, you may untap target permanent.”

Apparently I did have a snow land, maybe even snow legendary land, so it did have vigilance.

Vinh played some 1/2 flying creature, and he also had this:
Azorious Creature - 3UW
4/3
This creature is unblockable.
2, T: Target creature becomes unblockable until end of turn.

Wow, that’s good. But luckily I had a weird removal spell in my hand… I’ll modify it a bit so it’s easier for most of us to understand, and less wordy:

1B
Sorcery
Target creature an opponent controls gains Phytohydraness until end of turn and gets Kiku Shadowed.
Another target creature that player controls gets Kiku Shadowed.

It wasn’t exactly like this, because the 1/2 became a 1/3 afterwards instead of a 2/3, but I didn’t want to write that out. So the 4/3 killed itself, and the 1/2 got stronger (which kinda sucks for my flying guy, but whatever).

There’s another card in my hand, which was supposedly a rare Ravnica card (by the expansion symbol) with a mechanic that came from Kamigawa. The mechanic was called “Pledge”. I remember two cards with Pledge, one black creature which supposedly sucked (it had a similar picture to Hunted Horror, maybe that’s why), and this land.

The land I had was a legendary land that produces white mana, and it had pledge. I think it basically was a plains, but also had the pretty much same ability as Pure Intentions – so if someone were to make you discard your hand, you can pay W or something to get all the cards back. It also doubles as a plains in case the other ability was no good. So it’s like a flexible legendary land…

Apparently the black creature was really bad, but I can’t think as to why. I don’t remember the casting cost or P/T, so I’ll make something up:

Creature – 6BB
5/6
Pledge X
When this comes into play, tap X creatures you control.
When this goes to the graveyard from play, put X +1/+1 counters on each of those X creatures.

I think Pledge means to commit to something beforehand. So in this case, you tap the creatures before you get the bonus. I think this card was supposedly bad because it leaves you open for a turn, if you tapped all your creatures. This was the way the card was worded – I’m sure we can find other ways to word it to make it bad, or find other restrictions. But anyway, this was the card, and that was Pledge.

And that’s it about Magic. I woke up eventually so the dream didn’t get concluded. But now I will conclude with Final Jeopardy.

First, the 10800 guy. He got the answer correct and he bet 4001, so he had 14801. The standings now were:

14801 / 14801 / 14800.

Remember, if you tie for first, both people move on, and Jeopardy spends twice as much money that game. Most people don’t remember this or they want total victories or something… I think if everyone worked with one another, much more money could be won on Jeopardy (by different people).

Next, the 14800 woman – She got it correct and she bet 6801, so she had 21601, which is equal to what would happen if the 10800 went all-in and doubled up, plus 1. She knows she can only win if defending champ either gets it incorrect, or gets it correct and bets very little. There’s not really a good point to going all-in. She can bet $2, except then she has to think about the 3rd place guy. So, she bets enough to beat him, but not go all-in herself.

The standings now are
14801 / 14801 / 21601.

The leader usually has the easiest choice in betting. And the leader did just that. He bet 14800, so that even if 2nd place doubled up to 29600, he would still beat her if he got it correct. And he did. Final standings were

29601 / 14801 / 21601.

Well played, defending champion. Well played. And that was an interesting match, with the way the last two clues went down, and the wagering for final jeopardy.

Tuesday, November 21, 2006

Backdraft, Superdraft

Last weekend, the others were supposed to come over and have the Superdraft. Technically, we should've had the super draft waay before Time Spiral came out, but alas, that didn't happen. Anyway, David did come over, and so we drafted. I tried to buy a TS booster box at Image, but they ran out, so we didn't have TS cards. Oy, and now we have to replace a bunch of boosters. We used 11 boosters for 2 drafts. Usually 2 drafts take 15-18 boosters, but we managed to do it with 11, which is great.

First, we had a backdraft. This is our first backdraft, so we made up some simple rules, which were good enough. Your deck has to have at least 10 creatures, and at most 3 colours. So you put together 24 cards, give them to a player, and that player will decide how land distribution will go. There were some more complicated things, where we took out the signets and they were taken at the end, maybe sorta like rolling a die for them in Warcraft. In this case, it was Rock Scissor Paper if it was contested. Also, for 4-5 colour cards (the Yore-Tiller Nephilim), we decided that it would be a 3 colour card, and one of the colours would be free. So the Nephilim was also like a signet, where you can take it at the end.

OMG, we opened some great cards in this draft. Sure, there was a Yore-Tiller Nephilim, which is interesting but nobody would want to use it in a great draft. Anyway, we all started with a 9th edition booster and removed the basic land from each one. Vinh opened the Blood Moon, so that was a first pick for him. David opened a Royal Assassin, so it was like, ummm damn. I opened Wrath of God. Hehe... interesting... so I decided to take it, heehee.

Next, we each opened one of CBS. I open... YOSEI. The MORNING STAR. Oh no. If it was a real thing, I probaly would've taken WOG and Yosei. but alas... oh well. I think the other rares were... man, I have to think now. Oh yeah, HIgure of the Still Wind and... the green legendary enchantment guy. After that, we each opened one from RGD. I open Yore Tiller. David opens Szadek. Vinh opens... ack, I don't remember... oh yeah, Lady Blue Fingers.

Anyway, backdrafting was fun. I think David's deck is the "worst", although it only played one game. Vinh's deck is the "best", but it only played one game. My deck played two games, won one and lost the other. My deck is special because 5 of its non-creature cards are enchantment destruction. heh. What bad dud cards, hehe. It's so beautiful.

Anyway, I guess I can write more about the backdraft later. But the next morning, we decide to have a real draft, but a bit different. There were so many unused good cards from the backdraft, so we put them back into a pool (it was a bit less than 60 cards, so we added some cards to make it 60 again), and then we added 2 boosters, a R and G, so we would have 90 cards. We split them into piles of 10, so we had 9 10-pack boosters. We each started with a take two, and then we started drafting them.

I opened Yosei. First pick for the win. Used my take two for a Seal of Doom. Anyway, the other two rares we added were Dream Leash and Dune Brood Nephilim. That's right, two guildpact boosters gave us two nephilims. Let's hope when we replace them, we get... more playable cards.

Blah blah blah. Eventually I made a black white blue deck, featuring Yosei, Szadek, and HIgure of the Still Wind. I think my deck was the best. Master Decoy and Icy Manipulator were good, and whenever Yosei hit the table it was pretty good. Higure is a good addition too - I have one other ninja in my deck, the dude that draws you cards.

All in all, it was a fun time. I hope to have the superdraft soon, and get a wii soon too. Maybe we can have the superdraft this saturday. Then again, it's always a maybe. Maybe wii'll just go to Ambrose's house and play with the wii all day, heh.

Anyway, so this backdraft gave me an idea about the superdraft. Maybe we can mix it up, once or twice. Remember, the superdraft consists of 3 or 4 drafts:
1) Main draft (5 boosters)
2) Draft 2 (3 boosters + 2 equiv boosters)
3) Draft 3 (2 boosters + 2 equiv boosters)
and optionally, draft 4 (4 equiv boosters) (or is it more?)

Lemme do some quick math... 5... -2 = 3... -2 + 3+2 -2 = 4... -2 + 2+2-2 = 4... yeah, that's 4, I think. So there's an optionally 4th draft, which contains 4 boosters. Technically you can find 5 boosters for the last draft, and that would be pretty interesting.

The 2 variations that I thought of are, either, the last draft, the optional draft with all the rejected cards, is the backdraft. Another variation is that one of the middle drafts is a backdraft. We can instead switch drafts 2 and 3, and then the 2nd draft (2 equiv + 2 real boosters) can be the backdraft.

It would surely add some variation to the entire draft experience. Of course, we can add other variations, where some parts are open drafted or winston drafted, or we can stick to the tried-and-true formula. Whatever works. Anyway, I just want to have this super draft soon. I also want a good reason to open more Time Spiral boosters, hehe, so I can finally know some full cycles... I need... black suspend, black magus, black sliver, white split-second, white 10 to cast, green 10 to cast, Lhurgoyf lady, and of course I'm still curious about purple cards.

So quick, let's have this super draft before it becomes CBS9RGDOTPFX. Actually it looks sorta cool, ending with an X. Maybe we should wait till then. But not really.

::edit:: Played some more games with Vinh. Bao:Vinh means Bao played with the deck that was made using the cards Vinh drafted.
Bao:Vinh vs David:Bao - Bao Wins; Vinh's deck wins, Bao's deck loses
Bao:Bao vs Vinh:David - Bao Wins; Bao's deck wins, David's deck loses
Bao:David vs Vinh:Vinh - Bao Wins; David's deck wins, Vinh's deck loses
Bao:Bao vs Vinh:Vinh - Bao Wins; Bao's deck wins, Vinh's deck loses
Bao:David vs Vinh:Bao - Bao Wins; David's deck wins, Bao's deck loses
Bao:Vinh vs Vinh:David - Bao Wins; Vinh's deck wins, David's deck loses
Bao:David vs Vinh:Vinh - Bao Wins; David's deck wins, Vinh's deck loses
Bao:Vinh vs Vinh:David - Bao Wins; Vinh's deck wins, David's deck loses.

So after 8 games, the scores are... still tied. After 6 games, all things are tied, and after 8 games, David vs Vinh's deck are still tied. But in total, Bao wins all games.

There were a few notable moments in these games. In the most recent game, Vinh (using David's deck) got me down to 1 life. It was a vicious battle, with some people making mistakes on both sides. In the end, he had a mountain walker and a Bog Imp with Indomitable Will, so he kept doing 3 damage a turn.

However, at the end of the game, I got the Crafty Pathmage + Yore-tiller Nephilim + Bottle Gnomes combo, so every turn he would hit me for 3 and I would gain 3 life, while Yore-Tiller took him down from 22 to 0.

In another game, Bao:David vs Vinh:Vinh, Vinh was doing pretty well, like, 14 to 20. I had low mana, but I was doing okay... and then I bring out Lady Blue Fingers. Vinh then proceeds to play Bog Imp, which I toughen up and taken. Now I had a 2/2 flyer hitting him every turn, and after a few more turns I had a Horned Turtle, Court Hussar, and Bottle Gnomes in ... wait a minute... anyway, I had those 3 in play, so his 2/2's couldn't attack me even if they wanted to.

In another game, a Wrath of God killed 2 creatures on turn 5, and after that a Seasoned Marshal and a Kavu Climber took the game after that.

Overall, it's a fun game. It's very interesting and weird, when there's a lockdown on the table because no creature has more than 1 power... ::/end edit::

Wednesday, November 15, 2006

RWP #1 and music sources

Hi. The RWP #1 has created such a buzz and it has so many fans now. Wow. A 3-day random project to create that much… awesomeness is… well, awesome. I’m not sure when #2 is coming out, but it’s not this weekend – and I’m not sure what it will be about, or if I’m going to plan before hand what it should be about… but we’ll see. Just for reference, I’ll post the link here too:

http://www.baomon.com/blog/RWP1.html

Anyway, David asks where I got the music from. Well, I got it from Youtube, and so this brings us to this blog post. I mentioned some of these videos before, but didn’t link to them.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6B26asyGKDo

The first video is by Noah Kalina, a photographer from New York. This is the first video I saw from this “trend”, and it’s… not bad. The guy takes a picture of himself everyday for 6 years, and has compiled it into this video. The video is about 6 minutes long. I urge you to take a look – but you don’t have to watch the whole thing. A minute or two should be enough. Music’s pretty good though. I posted a link to the music on my other blog.

The second video contains the song which I used, which I just found out is the

Baby Elephant Walk by Henry Mancini

This video is two minutes long, although, once again, you can probably get the effect in about 30 seconds. But the song is so good you just want to watch the whole thing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DnVtoifKFzo

Note there are tens or hundreds of other parodies just like this one, except this one has the good music. And it’s pretty funny compared to the other ones. So I give this one special honours, for being funnier and having better music than the other parodies.

Lastly, if you go to Noah’s website, he has a FAQ on about why he’s doing this, and from there there’s another link to another video. Noah’s video is 6 minutes long encompassing 6 years; John’s video below is 2 minutes long, encompassing 8 years, so it’s 4 times as fast. Also John actually changes. Noah just gets a bit older, but John, he lets his hair grow long, gets a moustache, shaves his head, changes his glasses all the time- it’s amazingly hypnotic to watch. I strongly urge you to watch this one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vc_PU3D3QNE

Lastly, I found one more video, 3 minutes long, 3 years, of a woman’s life. It’s not especially good compared to the others, but I’ll reference it here anyway.

http://www.atomfilms.com/af/content/me

And that’s where the music comes from. Maybe I should do these too – but maybe with Vinh. That’d be interesting cuz he’s still young, heh.

Wednesday, November 01, 2006

Lexus LS

That looks like a good car. I want 8-speed automatic, and a car that can park itself.