TIME CONTROL

They say that time flies when you're having fun, or if you're doing something that can be considered as fun. If I could, I'd spend my life only doing things that I deem fun. The years may fly, making me die that much faster, but at least I had a blast.

I pause in my writing, wondering whether or not I should turn this ramble into a post for my blog. Would a narrative on waiting for your turn at the Social Security Services branch make good entry material? Considering that a blog is a personal thing, naturally, anything that I post I would consider good enough, right? Quite a dilemma, no?

It was around quarter to nine when I began to write, my right ankle on my left knee, my plastic folder propped on my right leg and thigh, scribbling intently on the back of a rejected thesis proposal. In the vernacular, my pose would be called de cuatro, evoking the shape of the Arabic numeral 4. I wrote to accelerate the chimes that signal change on the LED display - it is currently serving customer 1017. When 1049 comes around, it will be my turn.

I'm doing this on a workday, Wednesday, and when night falls I'll be heading to the office. I work the graveyard shift for a business outsourcing firm, handling tech support for a financial software company. The pay is quite good - a college washout who only has a high school diploma to his name could do worse than $415.55 a month.

Again I pause, as a soft-spoken gentleman calls out names in a carrying voice, and I hear him mention mine. I walk up to him and he informs me to head to the ID capture area. Good, I think - I'm making progress. (The ID capture area, contrary to what you might have imagined, was not laden with red and white spheres the size of baseballs.) It has been exactly thirty minutes since I started writing this, and I move deeper into the alcove that holds the camera equipment. An older man chats me up, and we speak for a minute. A guard walks over and begins sorting people who need to get their picture taken.

(Here ends the manuscript - original content follows.)

I was third in line for getting my photo taken. A short, pregnant woman in a red dress was accommodated first, and the older man who spoke with me went second. The process is simple - stare at the camera, then walk up to the desk to record your right index fingerprint and thumbprint, and do the same for your left hand. Finally, you are asked to enter and confirm a four-digit PIN. The same man who was calling out names earlier took my biometrics, wrote on a slip of paper which he tore off and handed to me. It seems to be my claim stub for the ID card.

"Next," he called out. I took that as my cue to leave.

I was waiting for a ride home by 10:33 AM.

I only update when there's something I feel noteworthy that's got to be shared with the passing reader.

Complaining about the slowness of help with a thesis proposal isn't noteworthy.

Raking in 4 wins and 0 losses at a DCI-sanctioned magic tournament?

Now that's what I'm talking about.

Doing the above with a ragtag no-bells no-whistles deck?

Definitely blog-worthy.

Here's the decklist, with commentary.

Creatures (19):

1 Festering Goblin - Can take down a X/2 creature after combat, thanks to its -1/-1 to target once it dies. Alternately, can knock out a couple of x/1 creatures instead. In reality, didn't pop out as often as I'd like it to have done so. He's one mean 1/1.

1 Giant Spider - Mainly in for air defense, he made the cut because between him and an instant that gives a small P/T boost, I'd take the 2/4 spider. Didn't come out to play much.

1 Joiner Adept - good early beats (2/1) and turns your lands into painless Cities of Brass. Seriously, what guy playing green and two other colors would pass this up?

1 Kavu Climber - I got it for the cantrip, since it's overpriced for its 3/3 body. However, it was the straight guy in a two-man comedy act that can break a deadlock.

1 Llanowar Elves - I needed an early guy, and he can double as extra mana to get key creatures into play faster. The difference of one turn is huge.

1 Might Weaver - early beats, to the tune of 2/1. Theoretically, he should be able to give red or white creatures trample, but my red creatures were either tech or evasive, and there was only one valid recipient for trample.

1 Nekrataal - Mr. 187 himself. He hits the table and an enemy hits the bin. Most of the time. The rest of the time he's an expensive 2/1 first striker for 4 mana.

2 Phyrexian Rager - I know what you're thinking - playing an ogre (read: 2/2) that nicks you for one and gives you a card in return? In a 40-card deck, hell, yes! Also, I was scrabbling for critters, and the card pile had two of them. It was too good for me to pass up.

2 Pincher Beetles - Normally I wouldn't consider playing with 3/1 dudes, especially these dudes. You can't cast Giant Growth or Healing salve on these bugs to save them, thanks to their Shroud ability. On the plus side, opponents can't bounce, burn, kill, enchant, or do other shenanigans on these bugs. In my fights, however, these guys were stalwart soldiers, facing down enemy 5/4 and 6/4 Wurms with no fear - and the threat of the next couple of guys...

2 Prodigal Pyromancer - the (dare I say it?) jewel of my army. I nicknamed them Ash and Ember in my head, and they always drew the opponents glares when either hit the table, and a groan when both of them went online. They kept x/2 and x/1 creatures away, and as mentioned above, 4 toughness ain't so safe around pincher beetles anymore, often resulting in the beetles going to the red zone unmolested. Fear the flames, or at least, the threat of flames.

1 Ravenous Rats - Another early beater, and an expendable one at that. The discard effect didn't really help that much, from what I've experienced in the matches that it did enter play. Oh well.

1 Rock Badger - Expensive, evasive (mountainwalk) 3/3 red creature. Need I say any more? He's golden when the opponent was playing red, clunky when no mountains were around.

1 Stampeding Wildebeests - Kavu Climber's partner-in-crime, as well as a major deterrent to enemy attackers. At 5/4 for four mana, he's terribly efficient, except for a small drawback - a green creature has to go home every upkeep. Enter Kavu Climber, and you have a setup that says "Draw to cards every turn for 3GG, and get a 3/3 blocker to boot." In their debut performance, these two criminals dug my library for lands and blockers until I could draw Blaze and point to my opponent's head.

1 Thundering Giant - A 4/3 creature with haste that costs 5 mana, two of them red. Getting hit by 4 damage for 5 mana feels like direct damage to me, except he's reusable. Useful for punishing opponents with weak or no defense on your turn.

2 Viashino Runner - More evasive red guys. They ensure an easy 3 damage if the opponent doesn't keep 2 creatures to block, which makes up for the 2 toughness. An OK card for 4 mana.

Spells (5):

1 Blaze - When you see this card in your choices, take it. Splash red in your deck if you have to. In Limited, this is the bomb. It kills either a key enemy critter or a weakened enemy wizard.

1 Demolish - This card usually is delegated to the sideboard, but because I knew there was a chance that I'd be facing transformers (not the mechs from the movie or that 80's show, but non-basic lands that turn in to creatures with abilities by spending 2 mana), this card was mandatory. And on the off chance that an annoying artifact comes up, it's gonna be toast.

1 Fists of the Anvil - Due to the lack of direct damage in the deck, I went for the next best thing. I saw how effective the Fists were in a match that I watched, where an aggressive deck tapped out to attack and finished the round 1 turn earlier thanks to the extra 4 damage. It wonderfully happened to me as well on my last game, where it spelled a win over reinforcements that could have stymied me had there been a next opponent's turn.

1 Spitting Earth - In Limited, you take whatever damage you can get. Spitting Earth is good whenever you draw it, dealing damage equal to the mountains you have in play. Too bad it's a sorcery though.

1 Terror - The classic black instant kill spell. If it ain't a machine or a minion of evil, it's gonna die from a heart attack.

Lands (16):
6 Forest
5 Mountain
5 Swamp

Like I said, no bombs, no flash, just plain old whittle him down to zero before he does the same to you.

Until next time.

Hello, friend, it's been a while. A little over a year has passed since I last did anything with this tiny parcel of Internet virtual estate.

Well, what has passed since then? I'm about to leave my interesting job for a return to the U of the P, in hopes of snagging the ever-elusive scroll of hire-y-ness: gives you +1 prestige point and adds +5 to your Job-Hunting feat rolls.

I've seen what I believe to be the best mecha series of all time, booting Mobile Battleship Nadesico from its pedestal in my hall of fame - Shinkon Gattai Godannar. If neither of these names sound familiar, wiki them, or better yet, grab them off the Net while you still can.

It's a year late, but better late than never as I've just finished watching The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. Voted as one of the best to come out in 2006, and after seeing it I was like "I know why it wasn't the best - there was no mecha action in it." I've been thinking of converting full-time to Haruhiism - the belief that the power to reset and rewrite the universe at a whim resides in a short-haired Japanese brunette schoolgirl who has her heart set out for a male classmate of hers with no last name. On second thought, maybe I better put it off for later days.

This will be all for my reclamation post - I've yet to sleep, and I need to ask my buddies for a certain picture.