Mondaynight Madness

Kill'em with kindness.

That isn't a death threat. It is a concept that teaches that if you would normally wish to do harm, then instead, take the high road and attack the other person with kindness with vigor to match their own.

Not everbody is up to that task. Getting mad doesn't do much for you. It does release bad chemicals in to your body that make it almost impossible to focus and think clearly.

So instead of getting mad, get happy. Find the place that allows you to compliment your foe instead of insulting them. Hug them instead of hitting them. Find that warm place that will allow you to love instead of hate. From LOVE all things are possible.

Sunday Night Truths

This is my first installment of the Sunday Night Truths series. This will be an ongoing series of posts relating to assorted Truths learned throughout the week.

1) American Idol on the Wii is a LOT of fun. I bought it for my family and I and my step-daughter-to-be and her friends that were over fell in love with it in moments after it was started. Great family fun if people can stay good natured with each other.

2) Few CCGs are capable of staying around for long because the people that excel at gaming can't help but look for and find "broken" (that is to say game effects that go so far outside of the rules that the game-state is left "broken") combinations and cause other players not to have fun, so they leave the game and seek something else to play. You can count the successful games on both hands, but would need a room full of friends to count the failures.

3) It is far greater to quit a game than to lose a friend. The game won't stay with you for the rest of your life, but if you are lucky, that friend will.

4) Build memories whenever and wherever you can. "The road less travelled" is worth the trip, even if only for the stories you'll get to tell for years to come. Besides, your kids'll appreciate you more for it later.

5) Don't proport to know who a person is just because you THINK you know WHAT they are. Some of the best things are found in the strangest places.

6) The next time you want to yell at somebody stop yourself and imagine hugging them instead of raising your voice. You'll smile and that will almost always break the tension in the mood. If that doesn't work, then imagine the most horrible thing you can summon in your imagination happening to a person. Then substitute that person out and a Smurf IN. If THAT doesn't make you smile, you need the time out, not the other person.

7) Otis Spunkmeyer cookies are FAR too delicious NOT to treat yourself to a couple every month.

8) Love everything you do. The practice of making something your own and loving it for whatever it is will make you a better person and you will grow for it.

9) Live beneath your means. That's from a list I saw in Reader's Digest years ago. The concept is so simple it escapes many people. It is best exemplified in another of those gems, "Only use a credit card for convenience, never for credit." By staying beneath what you can afford, you will find that you are actually saving money over time. Your grandkids will thank you for that.

10) Last on tonight's list we have this gem: Hold on to your family, not your things. People are far more important than things.

It'd be a better day with Black Panther news...

... But so far, as of today, I have none.

However, I did find out that I AM going to be splitting a case with a pal, so while I don't get a whole case to myself, I DO get to build all of my fantasy decks in to reality.

Yeah boy!!

SHIELD, here I come!

Losing to Superman... on turn 9!!?

I played Underworld /Defenders for our Modern Age bring your own set tournament Monday night.

I defeated a Spider-friends/ Syndicate team-up in the first round, but my opponent had never played in a tournament before and was reluctant to discard to his Spider-man's effect, since he had a handful of good cards. My hot play of this game was chaining to Shuma Gorath's trigger by using Red Guardian, then stunning her with Hawkeye so she would recover and ready and could be used again.

Game 2 I defeated a solid Arkham build, but only just barely. END gaining team-ups saved the day this time. Hulk with help from Valkyrie and Quasar spelled almost certain doom, even with me randomly selecting my opponent's only 7 drop in his hand for his Killer Croc!


Game 3 I played against something that I don't remember right this minute. :( I won the game, but don't recall the match at all.

Game 4 I lost to Superman on turn 9. That's right, gang! Superman laid the smack down on my Defenders/Underworld concoction. After a series of bak anc forths for the entire game, I made a HORRIBLE play on turn 7 and played Hulk and my opponent had his 7 drop Superman in hand already, locking my double Backed-up Hulk from even stepping across the table. Bummer. This was followed by his locking down Noble Kale on turn 8 and attacking me, and then locking Kale and playing a 9 drop Superman on 9. Had I attacked his protected 3 drop on 8 with Hellstorm, and then his exposed 5 drop With my Gigantic Hulk, I'd have faired a little better, but in the ned, it didn't matter, since he had 2 of the Superman END gaining plot twists, gaining himself 16 END between them. OUCH.

Game 5 I lost to an Insanity deck that I would later confirm was misusing Beside Myself a little bit. Sure, I'd still have missed my drops that sealed my fate, but perhaps he wouldn't have drawn an extra 12 cards that game, either :)

I'll post the deck list later if any body wants to see it :)

The first 2 sample images for my submissions to UDE

Well, as per the initial couple of art suggestions, there they are. There is a little more inking to be done, and a little photoshop magic to be done, but this is basically what to expect to see.

Let me know what you guys and gals think. Harsh criticism is expected, though keep it clean enough for kids to read ;)

Late to the party, but better late than never...

It is no secret amongst my circle of friends that I have a fixation with the Marvel Team-Up ongoing plot twist We Had a Team Up.

But while studying it again tonight it occurred to me that I had possibly been reading it wrong for months. Like most people, most likely.

Tonight I realized that, based on the wording, you don't need to already control the character whose name you choose.

"But what are the implications and uses for such?" Glad you asked. The benefits of being able to give a character and character cards you don't yet control team affiliations means the ability to get around loyalty as well as DUAL LOYALTY! That's right folks, We Had a Team-up allows it's player to offer the chosen character the ability to meet it's loyalty requirements with out actually controlling any of the chosen characters printed affiliations! This simple factor allows many of the dual loyalty characters released in Marvel Team-up to be "splashed" in to decks they might not normally be able to fit in to!

Hellstorm just got a whole lot better!

Incompatible Hardware...?

While attempting to scan and load the images I started working on for submissions to UDE for VS (thread that takes suggestions for submissions to be found here) I learned that my new computer isn't compatible with the old scanner. So now I have to either take a photograph and post that in order to offer a snake peek at what's in the works, or I have to figure out how to get the scanner to work with the laptop instead.

I've debuted the imagery to a couple of members of Vsrealms.com and they were both enthusiastic about the pics.

Hopefully the finished products will delight most viewers :)

Updates to follow!