My favourite card from the next set is [card]Awakening Zone[/card]. I don't know why, but it feels like the kind of card I play often. =D
Going Shopping for a New Phone
Recently it's been becoming more apparent that I'm having less and less free time to blog (and tweeting more instead) - but that's really because I've been doing two very important things: studying for my exams in April and shopping for a new phone. As far as studying for my exams is going, it's not going well. I'm not sure how to study for something I've studied for before, and practising isn't quite working as well as I'd hoped. Finding a new strategy is a lot more difficult than I thought. I guess I'll be roughing it out until I find new motivation and methods to study properly.
Shopping for a new phone hasn't been easy either. There are now three smartphone-type operating systems to choose from - the last time I went shopping for a PDA + phone combo in 2006, I had only one choice - Windows Mobile. Now, there are three main contenders in my view - Windows Mobile, iPhone OS and Android. (I'm aware of Symbian, and even more aware of Blackberry - but let's face it - the flagship devices of these two OSes are totally incomparable to the other three. Perhaps the iPhone 3GS is lagging in this area now, but I'm sure the next iteration due this year will change that - and when I'm shopping in this window of time, it's worthwhile to wait 2-3 months.)
The best thing is that phones of this class have gotten much cheaper. They used to cost RM2,500 to RM3,000 pretty easily - and while they still do sometimes, they can often be bought much cheaper a lot earlier in their life cycles. (like say RM2,000)
Windows Mobile's flagship device is clearly the HTC HD2. Nothing else comes close to it. The biggest reason I dropped it out of contention was the fact that Windows Mobile is going to be replaced by Windows Phone 7. And Microsoft seems to be fully intent on alienating its current userbase. With every announcement they make about Windows Phone 7, I get less and less happy. I can't blame Microsoft for the radical changes they are going for for WP7, but they could have at least made an effort to keep their remaining userbase.
Let's move on the iPhone. The current flagship is crappy compared to the HTC HD2 and the HTC Desire. It has one button. It doesn't have a nice home screen - if you could call what it has a home screen. (I lived with a home screen like that once. That was when Palm OS was king, and was about to be dethroned because it forgot that OSes need updating.) What it does have however, is awesome third party support. There are apps for everything - and if those don't satisfy all your needs, you can jailbreak for the remaining missing features - customizable home screen, lock screen info and so on. However - the current flagship is set to be replaced this year, and so anything could happen.
The Android flagships are probably the Google Nexus One (for the US) and HTC Desire (for the rest of the world). Considering that Android's situations is similar to what Windows Mobile's situation was previously, it's difficult to know when they will be replaced - although a good bet is within a year's time. I didn't even consider Android until I saw it for myself and realized why it just fit. I don't even know why. Widgets on the home screen, the apps all felt like what I was used to. The openness of the platform seems the same as Windows Mobile - except that the SDK default language is Java - which I'm guessing can make things a little sluggish at times - but I'm not worried since there's an accompanying NDK for those apps that really need speed. When people realise that speed matters more, they'll work on apps in the NDK.
So, currently, I'm planning to purchase a HTC Desire - but I'll be waiting 2 months to see if Apple can change my mind. It hasn't won any points with me with iPhone OS 4, but Android so far certainly has won many with version 2.1.
Card: Wild Nacatl
It's an awesome common that's powered by having certain lands in play - and [card]Mountain[/card] and [card]Plains[/card] aren't all that hard to get into play nowadays with [card]Terramorphic Expanse[/card] and [card]Naya Panorama[/card] around.
You see it in nearly every iteration of Extended and Standard Zoo now - all this and it's a simple common!
Thoughts on Consistency
I have to admit that the following is a particularly badly thought out rant. How consistently does your deck perform? How often does your awesome deck tech work? How often does your combo go off?
When I first started playing Magic, I was never concerned over how consistent something was. Neither did I give much thought to mind games. In fact, due to budget constraints, I was playing preconstructed decks. Of course, this was the age when preconstructed decks were pretty good, although they were still far from consistent. This was also during the block known for being broken – Urza block.
At this period in time, while I only had one or two decks, most people had several. Looking back, I know why I won as many games as I did – everyone I played with was toting around 120-150 card decks. I was only using 60. Despite my lack of experience at the time, my preconstructed decks seemed to be winning more often than it should have. It was consistent with its plays, and forced the less consistent decks to play catch up all the time – not something to do easily, considering we were all playing cards of similar power/quality.
Over time, I’ve become more interested in building more consistent decks. I’ve built surprising consistent (although not resilient) decks during Onslaught-Mirrodin, Mirrodin-Kamigawa and Kamigawa-Ravnica periods, although recently I haven’t tried anything new. Zendikar feels weak, and Alara feels restrictive. I’m sure it’s just a matter of getting used to it after the insanity of Time Spiral, but it feels like I can build less decks I like to play – so I started looking at Extended.
I missed about 2 and a half blocks (Planar Chaos – Alara Reborn), but I find that a lot of my cards are still pretty good in Extended. Barring me missing all-so-important [card]Tarmogoyf[/card]s and [card]Thoughtseize[/card]s, I could still build a decent Extended deck. Not something that’d win any tournaments, but nevertheless consistent. But I realized I’m digressing, so moving along.
A deck can become consistent by either consistently drawing the cards it wants or making sure it always has the cards it wants. You can do the former only one way. Do a lot of testing and know a lot of theory. There is always a right number for a given metagame – while you can’t predict the metagame to a very high certainty, you can certainly guess quite well. The latter is the same – tutors. Tutors have always fascinated me, as they allow you to fill your deck with 1-ofs. They also allow and enable interesting decks using (or abusing) [card]Gifts Ungiven[/card] or [card]Mystical Teachings[/card]. More recently, Wizards printed [card]Knight of the Reliquary[/card], [card]Ranger of Eos[/card] and [card]Stoneforge Mystic[/card], all very interesting cards in their own right.
You can also be consistent by being resilient. If they can’t destroy what you’re attacking with, they’ll lose eventually. Attacking with a [card]Sphinx of Jwar Isle[/card] or even [card]Kor Firewalker[/card] seems like a rather mundane idea, but if they can’t deal with it easily, they’re still going to lose.
Drawing a lot cards, while being a strange idea, does work for consistency. How else can a deck like Turbofog continue to keep drawing [card]Fog[/card]s? The more cards from your library in your hand the more likely you are to find the card you want. Some combo decks go to the extreme of making your entire library available, but that’s another story altogether. (Those decks, while fun to play, take too damn long because playing your entire library isn’t exactly the easiest thing to do.
For Public Transport!
I prefer taking public transport to work. I think a lot of people don’t appreciate the value of public transport – either that or I’m super lucky every damn day. 1. Public transport is cheap – It’s the cheapest way to get someone else to drive you places. Your total fares per day may seem high (mine is RM 8.10) – but the fact is that in Kuala Lumpur, RM 8.10 is barely enough to cover your parking charges, let alone your fuel and road toll costs. For me, RM 8.10 a day is get someone else to drive you home is a bargain! That comes up to RM 178.20 a month, considering that the average month has roughly 22 working days.
2. Public transport is faster – This may seem counterintuitive, and this is because it’s not always true. However, this holds true for me. Despite the fact that I take one monorail, one light rail transit train AND one bus home (that’s three different modes of public transport – and three sessions of waiting for something to come), I actually get home on average half an hour earlier than if I were to drive every day. How is this possible? Traffic jams. Taking two trains that can’t be obstructed by cars saves me an enormous amount of time. If the bus frequency were actually regular (which it isn’t thanks to traffic jams), I would be able to get home 45 minutes to an hour earlier on average (of course, this is an example of faulty logic, since if it didn’t jam, I could get home in 30 minutes – public transport would take 50 minutes if it didn’t jam – but if it did jam, driving would take 1 hour 45 minutes on average and public transport would get me home in an average 1 hour 15 minutes including waiting time).
3. Public transport alleviates stress – Public transport is simple. You get on the train. Squeeze with people until the desired stop and get off. Yes, this is less comfortable than a car. But getting squished by other people isn’t so bad compared to braving Kuala Lumpur’s jams. Imagine being squished in your car by other cars. And buses. And motorcycles. Then, imagine moving inches at a time. On public transport, I can be reading a newspaper, listening to music or even playing a video game. If I were in a car, I can’t do any of those – I’d then lose my spot to some crazy driver who is trying to play bumper cars in real life.
Those are the three main advantages for public transport I can think of. There are numerous others. I am aware of the many problems with Malaysian public transport, among them being bus frequency (actually a fault of the traffic jams – and is really a chicken and egg problem), reliability, overcrowding, etc. but I think the chief reason is people making excuses not to take it. There are always a few genuine excuses in there, like there’s no bus going to my housing estate and so on – but I’m highly doubtful that that many of the drivers in KL can honestly claim that. Part of public transport is finding your way around – and it may surprise you how fast it can be, despite the number of interchanges you might need to make. There’s also an impression that only lower income people should take the bus – this is incorrect. Go to any developed country and look at who takes the buses.