The Mr. Shipley Experience

 One of the biggest issues I have with drafting online is the experience.  In MTGO, it's just the entire client.  There are a lot of cool features I'm just never going to get into because I'm just never going to use that software in it's current state. In MTG Arena, there are no features to just draft with a pod you put together and then play in that pod for prizes.  The matching algorithms are horrible for a player like me.  There's also no interaction across the table, I like chatter.  Frankly, the Gathering part of the game us just as fun for me.  Also, you can't just simulate a Sealed Draft by opening 6 packs in the client and sharing those results, they aren't equivalent. So there are a lot of ways you can draft cards outside of Wizard's of the Coast-provided games.  You can draft in websites and then bring those draft results into MTG Arena - provided you have the cards in your collection already.  Some of htese require you to install s...

Before I go into the Return to Dark Tower  (by @RestorationGames), I'd like to return to my childhood, when I played the original game with my sister and cousins ...  back to the early 1980's Yeah, there's the box I remember!  So this was my favorite game in the early 80s, from when I was 7 through 8 years old.  I showed so much affinity for the game that my grandmother, who bought the game for all her grandchildren to play at her house, let me take it home (I'm sure I likely asked/begged multiple times - and tried not to fidget in church so I could cash that goodwill in).  Some kids in the neighborhood also had it, so I played a LOT. Well, my sister also enjoyed it and I was the luckiest brother at 8 years old when she and I scrounged up enough money to get some new batteries to play the game.  All we had to do was pick up the batteries - can DO.  We lived less than a mile from a CVS pharmacy and I had a bicycle.  EASY PEASY LEMON SQUEEZY, KID! s...

 I played a little Pioneer today for a Degen Supporter Event.  I had a good time, got completely lost with renting a deck from cardhoarder.  But I got that completed, sadly they didn't have 4 cards I needed for the list I chose, so I made a last minute replacement and it didn't go so well: 0-3 so I dropped out after match 3.   I ended the night, after getting frustrated with a Bant Angels deck (not a lot of interaction with), I thought what the heck, I might be able to make an Explorer deck... I'm going to WAR! The deck kind of came to me as I recall reading some article about how Opt was a good mechanic in Explorer/Pioneer so I started there.  Then thought, What kind of cheaper CMC planeswalkers could I try?  Enter: Wizard's Aren't Reasonable (or WAR). This should have in no way grant me any sort of wins - so I'm not gonna be upset if I just lose 3, but I did really well in Standard Unranked matches.  So I thought, what the heck, I'll take it i...

(tldr; forgot my wallet at home, asked Lowe's staff if I could use mobile app for curbside pickup, used app to ring myself out and paypal to pay - web had unit listed for $80 cheaper than the store did) So I'm in this one bedroom loft situation, but like a real loft with an open bedroom above the living room/kitchen.  Not the "lofts" they offer in cities, which are basically closets-turned-apartments at 500 and less sq feet.  I'm very luck to have it!  It was constructed in the late 90s and at that time, someone had made a decision to install an air conditioner through the wall, so there's a cut-out in the wall for a unit.  Back in the late 90s, Sears and Kenmore were a good bet.  They'd installed a unit that could be purchased with a wall-mount cabinet or a window-mount kit.  It died sometime in 2019. So this year, I finally got around to removing the old unit so I could replace it. Well, it's not the current standard size as the cutout is 24" W ...

So last night I decided I'd give a try to win a token to enter into the Arena Qualifier this weekend!  WOOO, let's get it!  The Qualifier Play-In was Best of 3 Streets of New Capenna Sealed Format.  OK, not bad - I don't normally practice sealed because it's very difficult to get rewarded, you have to win all your matchups to get your entry fee back.  Anyhow, I figured this time was worth it, and the rewards are a lot better on the Qualifier than they are in the regular sealed format. So yeah, I only lost 1 of all of my games, and won every match.  With this deck here: I was pretty stoked!  Nice draft, decent action in the games, many were very close.  I thought I might even get into Day 2 of the Arena Open!  I woke up early, fairly excited.  All up until I opened my packs.  I ended up with some pretty mediocre decks to be able to play, and the whole Arena Open play today was a total bust at 0-2!  It was demoralizing hahaha, a nice ...

The Reality Chip So I've been brewing up a fun deck for the Degen Supporter Event on May 1.  I've been calling it Reality Bender and my theme is that nothing is quite right with it.  There are ninja's, ravens, dragons, and demons.  Even a sketchy merchant or two.  Here's the deck I'm running, fairly proud of this brew.  It's doing well on the ladder.  I might want to call it something else - Maybe Nightmare Reality?  Or Reality is A Nightmare?  I haven't seen this in the meta, and it will only live for a couple days in it's current form until New Capenna is released, but I'm having a great time with it.

Today, I went to a local store to Join the Maestros  play the Streets of New Capenna Prerelease event.  This being my first in-person hosted event ever, I was pretty excited.  In the event, you chose one of 5 families.  they gave you sealed booster packs plus some cards specific to that family and you were let loose to build your deck.  We had 4 rounds today and I went 2W-2L, which netted 2 extra booster packs.  I definitely chose the Maestros (UBR), for I have some experience playing Grixis (UBR) decks. I ended up with some really sweet cards, but some of the best I had were in Green/White.  Reading Twitter today, I was reading about how weak U (Blue) was turning out, and I agree at least with the cards I had.  I lost the worse to an Obscura (Esper) deck that had the Sanctuary Warden : With the Shield tokens it comes with, removal for me wasn't much of an option.  I had 2 removal spells that would work for most other creatures: Murder and M...