Drenched in MTG

Last night I spent the evening getting my butt kicked at EDH/Commander format Magic the Gathering. S'ok though! I had lots of fun while getting my head handed to me. The people who hosted the gaming session are a married couple- nice folks, great deck builders, and they field all my noobity questions with patience and good humor. I explained to them that I collected more than played way back in the day (1997-2001). So I know the basic mechanics of play but beyond that- I have not a clue!

For those of you who don't know, Commander format uses a 100 card deck, you can only have one of each card except basic lands, and you can use any card from any expansion- EVER. There are thousands of cards in in MTG, so to build a truly formidible EDH deck you must have a great knowledge of the cards already or do a lot of time consuming research.

With the help of my good friend Charles I've managed to cobble together a functioning Green/Black Elves deck. It's a rough deck, needs about ten coats of polish, but it's playable- and it's mine dammit!

Througout the 3 games we played I had to read the effects of about 95% of the cards as each was played. I was content though that I was much better able to keep track of my 3 enemies' strategies and the general states of their fields than I was at my first session with the group. I made some more strategic plays, some better card and timing choices. Not that it made much difference to my life total! :)

I went in expecting to learn, not to win- and I'm satisfied with the evening's results. I can at least say that I've moved up from the easy-pickins weight class to the out-of-shape-but-going-down-swinging class. And it's become even more obvious:

So much to learn. So many cards to acquire!

My host, who is himself a veritable walking encyclopedia of Magic cards, came up with a fan-freakin-tastic analogy for the Commander format learning curve: "Trying to take a drink of water from a fire hose."

YUS

YUSSIR you are correct!

He also told me that once I've done my learning that I'm going to be a 'beast' Magic player.

Hope he's right about that too!

Avenge the Makeup!

What's the best way to stop a group of nerds eyeball deep in a DnD campaign dead in their tracks?

Show them the new Avengers trailer!

Seriously, Iron Kingoms campaigning away, Our half elf Duskblade youtubes up the trailer, turns his laptop around for the rest of us to see and BLAM! DEAD SILENCE!

That is until the pwnage starts. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPoHPNeU9fc <=== Link to the Trailer

Heros assemble!

Cap vs Ironman vs Thor! Temper temper gentlemen!

HULK CATCH LITTLE METAL MAN FALLING DOWN!

Alien assaults from the sky! Loki killed the M-A-C store! YOU BASTARD!!!!!!!!! (This particular scene enrages my makeup obsessed self quite thoroughly)

Working together to save our planet AWWWWWW!

PEW PEW BOOM BANG @_@ @_@ @_@

Trailer ends


At this point there are 5 pools of drool for the DM to mop up off his floor. All who have witness the awsomeness are a little twitchy and tingly as they recover from their nerdgasms. It is agreed that we must all go and see this movie as a group. Two of us (myself included) immediately voluteer to cosplay for the event.

Holy crap I cannot wait for this movie to come out!

Thank you for reading,

That is all.