Distracted - Terribly

I'm supposed to give a speech this Saturday. I have no idea what I'll be talking about. My content is barely feasible, and it seems I'm just giving a speech for the heck of it. I have no idea what I'm going to be speaking about. I've prepared it in my mind, but I'm not exactly confident that it will make a good speech. I'm not getting the jitters. I'm just having a problem trying to make sure that my speech actually makes sense. Being sincere might not make a good speech, but more likely a sincere talk. I'm just hoping that everything works out. My first speech was easy, but choosing the topic for the second speech feels like a nightmare.

To be honest, I've contemplated talking about err.... fear of death. :P

Why Enduring Ideal Is No Good

Several days ago, I decided to try out an Enduring Ideal deck. Since I have a lack of Sensei's Divining Tops, I had to rely on pure luck to draw Enduring Ideal - including the use of Honden of Seeing Winds. The deck is a five-colour deck: running at least one of each basic land, 4 Sakura-Tribe Elder, 4 Orochi Leafcaller and 4 Kodama's Reach to pull out the required lands. The deck list is as follows: 11 Forest 7 Plains 1 Island 1 Swamp 1 Mountain 3 Ghostly Prison 3 Final Judgment 3 Solar Tide 1 Seismic Assault 1 Reverence 1 Meishin, the Mind Cage 2 Honden of Cleansing Fire 2 Honden of Seeing Winds 2 Honden of Night's Reach 2 Honden of Infinite Rage 2 Honden of Life's Web 4 Orochi Leafcaller 4 Sakura-Tribe Elder 4 Kodama's Reach 3 Enduring Ideal 1 Sensei's Divining Top

Did this deck run well? Honden of Seeing Winds did dig up some pretty interesting cards and the Top proved to be indispensable. However, the deck itself proved to be quite a problem to run - it was always short on mana to play Hondens whenever I didn't draw an Enduring Ideal. I soon stumbled upon a solution taking a cue from Myojin Flare, I put in 4 Heartbeat of Spring to spruce up whatever little mana I had.

The deck now ran in complete madness - usually meaning I got to play a beautiful Solar Tide or Final Judgment followed by an Enduring Ideal. Sweet. Goldfishing showed that the deck was slow, but it had a stylish way of winning - loads of Shrines and enchantments locking down on your opponents and you finally run through with everything you have (1/1 spirit tokens).

Off to try it out against a real deck: a simple burn deck. Obviously, the matchup was horrendously bad, but it revealed that in actual play, you wouldn't win for way too long. Inconceivably bad for a deck with such synergy. The moral of the story? Play Myojins. :D And that ends the tale of my Honden deck. The mana base was actually fundamentally the same as Myojin Flare. All I had to do was remove the enchantments, some Solar Tides, put in a few Myojin, some Maga, Traitor to Mortals, Time of Needs and the deck was absolutely complete! As for the playtesting of this deck, let's just say it went pretty well and far more consistently than Enduring Ideal.

Enduring Ideal is still a good idea for casual though.

The Chewxy Case: Publicity Stunt?

Today, chewxy finally came out of 'hiding' and explained his few nice blog posts. While it would have been nice to say that he could orchestrate this entire thing by himself, as I have hinted, he probably had a least one accomplice to help in the orchestration of the plan - even in the hoax. Of course, let's just leave chewxy alone to be slaughtered, killed, hunted for petrol money, covered with tar and feathers. :D As far as most of us are concerned, we were either humouring him, or believed his post through and through. I will decline to comment, as such comment may lead one to a reveltion that oneself is a bloody idiot. Was this a publicity stunt for The Anthology? Probable. Was this stunt funny? No. Was this a prank? If it was a prank, it was a pretty short one at that. Of course, planning a far more elaborate prank would likely be in the flavour of reality that the Royal Police Force may deem it wise to hunt you down. :D

What's my next article? Probably more details on my approach to Hondens - with my terrible lack of Sensei's Divining Top. ><