Readership and Censorship

This blog doesn't have much in the way of people reading it. At all. Sure, there are loads of readers - at least my site statistics say so, and of course, I'm nowhere close to ever using my bandwidth to the max thanks to all these super small PHP files. Disk usage is high, bandwidth usage is low. I have no idea how small or how big the audience for my site is, but however small it is, I apologize for the lack of quality content lately. It's not entirely writer's block - it's more like self censorship. I have a lot of ideas about what to blog about, but I believe that it is in my best interests as well as long term interests to keep them to myself.

I've been distracting myself with Magic greatly. I believe I'm using it as an outlet for unused brain power or sorts. Jogging my brain to find various ways to win the game. Over the past few months, I've learned a lot about the game: 20 life is actually very little - so little that my games usually find me running down my own life count to around 3 before I turn the tables and win the game. Combos are difficult to pull off without some sort of tutoring - and life is happier if your deck is just full of pure synergy rather than full of bull strength. I still have to learn a lot about synergy, since I'm still puzzled over how well Myojin Flare plays - even if it is as slow as time, it's as fun as Earth is. :D

Another thing I've learned is that studying is becoming tedious and boring. I just can't stand walking into another class if I already know what is going to be taught in that class, how it is going to be taught and what is going to be said. It's just plainly impossible. Imagine walking into a class completely prepared - you know what is going to be taught something like 3 weeks ago when you read through it, you know what it going to happen, how it's going to be taught, even knowing what the slides on the screen are going to contain. All that - and now - include a hypnotizing voice. Now - try to keep awake. I know the freakin' lecturer isn't boring - he's very interesting - it's just that trying to stay awake during lectures is near impossible for me, if not impossible.

My Maths capabilities are beginning to return after 3 months of Quantitative Analysis classes. My speed is again beginning to return to my normal pace (which some people might call err... really fast :P) and my accuracy is back to normal. However, my efficiency algorithms have not quite been regenerated, but I believe that I've gotten faster to compensate for the current lack of them. Fortunately, I get to use a calculator for my exams, but I believe I should practise for working with the lack of one: I should regain my speed with standard calculations.

I'm still trying to find a cool new topic to talk about - and I hope you will remain patient. If I ever get down to finishing my PSP review, it will be up on Mambo - not on my blog. :P

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.