Vanilla Mood

I love this group. They're positively...enchanting.
I mean, just listen to their rendition of the classic "Moon River."

Vanilla Mood is incredible, and they've caught my attention more than another string quarter, Bond, did. Unfortunately, I haven't found an album of this group. Yet.

Yes, I love their music enough to create a second post in a single day for them. Anyone who knows my blogging pattern would know how rare that is. But never mind that. Listen to them play. They're incredible.
This one's "Can't Take My Eyes Off You."

Deckbuilder's Diary: Black

As the few among you who know what I'm talking about now know, I've gotten back into playing Magic: the Gathering. Of course, to play, I need a deck. I don't know if I've mentioned this or not, but I'm currently working on a black deck. I've decided to try and build a black weenie deck --- a deck type that I never fully built back in my heyday. At least, not for black. I had two perfectly viable weenie decks (one red and one white) in the past, but I honestly have no idea where either one is now. Anyway.

The deck itself is almost complete, with a solid strategy behind it. One that, I think, is becoming increasingly prevalent and predominant in Magic nowadays: creature power. The main damage this deck is designed to do is in creature form, basically. From Prickly Boggart...

...to the perennial favorite, the Black Knight...

...the core of the strategy is the core of all weenie deck strategies: continually hammer away at the enemy with a large number of cheap, efficient, low-cost creatures. However, like most modern weenie decks, I recognize the need for big beef.

What do you think the damn Gleancrawler is for?


I still have more than a few kinks to work out, though. For one thing, I lack big beef. The deck currently only has three creatures with a power or toughness that's higher than 4. That's two Plague Slivers and the aforementioned Gleancrawler. The bigger problem is that, unlike the smaller creatures that are easier to get rid of, they lack evasive capabilities. Then again, that's probably why I intend to grab the following creatures, which serve to add both more beef to the deck and possess much-needed evasive capabilities:

Dread


Demigod of Revenge


Oona, Queen of the Fae


Oona also adds something else that the deck needs: alternatives. The problem with a creature-focused deck is that it falters very quickly if the game degenerates into a stalemate. Unfortunately, this deck is prone to getting into stalemates with the decks I've played it against, but most especially stalls when taking on a creature deck that can match its pace. The big beef that I intend to put in have some way to avoid conventional blockers, but Oona also has the additional power to both deprive my opponents of options (library burn) and generate token creatures for me. Both have the potential to break a stalemate in my favor, though the former can also double as a win condition on high enough mana.

Another weakness the deck has is a common one when faced with a red deck that focuses on hitting the player: it can't hit back. The only real ways that my deck, in the current form, can hit back is through Choice of Damnations or Maga, Traitor to Mortals. The latter relies heavily on mana and the former needs to be timed perfectly to maximize the "screw over" effect. In other words, I need more ways to hit the player directly without relying on creatures.

For that purpose, I turn to both old and new school Magic.

The first solution is the simple, effective, classic Drain Life. The more modern version, Consume Spirit, works too. As for new school, I took a look around and the most likely to be readily available means for me to cause loss of life for my opponent (and potentially gain some for myself) comes from the upcoming set Shadowmoor, where Oona and the Demigod are coming from too. For that purpose, I feel I need to grab Ashenmoor Liege (more than one, if possible) and Rite of Consumption. It helps that Rite works so deviously well with a late-game Maga for some massive damage. I'm thinking of getting a Corrupt or two if I can find them, too.

It'll take some time before I can put everything together, but I should make a big leap towards completing this sometime either by the end of this week or by early next week - depending on how soon I can get my hands on a little something.

Of course, once this black menace to society is done, I intend to work on something a little les twisted and malignant: a green/white elf deck.

And now, I leave you with my personal favorite among the upcoming set's cards, Fists of the Demigod:

Because I like the art.

Cash Is Fine. In Fact, Cash Is Preferable.

It is no secret that I love money. I love having it. I love spending it. I love the feeling that comes with people owing me money. I love the feeling that I get when I collect debts even more. You might say I have a very unnatural attachment to my finances --- not to mention the things that I obtain through use of my finances. However, there is one aspect of finance that I bitterly dislike.

And no, it isn't taxes. That's more of a government thing, in my book.

I hate banks.

To be more specific, I despise the ATM network system.

Especially when it decides to go up and shut itself down when I'm in the middle of getting my Cthulhu-damned pay.

This all happened a few days after payday. The transaction is a relatively simple one. Go to ATM, check balance, withdraw money, leave. Painless, really. Done it a few hundred times before. However, this particular event goes awry in the most ridiculously perfect way. Somewhere along the process, I have to confirm the withdrawal of my cash before the machine actually spits it out in nice, crisp bills. The machine decides to go off-line, eat my card, and screw me over in the one or two seconds in between the aforementioned events. This event has only served to solidify my belief that I should get my pay in cold, hard cash. What does this mean? A few things.

First, my card was stuck in there.

This I got taken care of by talking to the people inside the bank, who got it out for me. At the very least, I have my card back. The same card that reminds me that the bastards at the bank still have my money and won't give it to me.

Second, due to the inexplicably perfect timing of it all, the bank records now show that, since I confirmed the withdrawal, I already have my money. Which I don't.

This, of course, is very, very taxing. I guess I can consider myself fortunate that I have a little bit of money on the side, so I can use that to tide me over until I get what I earned back. However, this whole situation makes me feel like I'm the one paying for a screw-up on the bank's part, which I shouldn't be.

Third, because of the incredible timing, I am now stuck waiting for the bank to conduct an investigation into the things that happened before I can get my money.

If I'm timing this correctly, they should be done by the time payday hits. That's if they even bother to give me my money. As I said, these banking bastards seem utterly and completely dependent on their computer records to tell them everything. The awful timing of the outage just means that the money I should have gotten is currently stuck in limbo, and I'm unlikely to get it anytime soon.

I'm going to try and wait this one out, though. They said that they'd inform me in a week or two if --- IF! --- I can get my money. Bastards though they may be, I'm willing to see how this pans out. If the bank refuses to recognize my claim to my money, I'll take my friend's advice and see if my employer's accounting department can do anything about this. After all, technically speaking, the company is the client and not me.

For the curious, the bank in question is Banco De Oro.

Expect a more...inelegant post on my part should they try to do a Gene Cruz on me.

And on a completely unrelated note:
You did not see me on TV. It was only someone who looked like me and had the same name.

I ADMIT NOTHING!

Achmed!

Watch it! This is quality, funny stuff.