10.29.02  Who Knew?

OK folks.  Make sure you're strapped in tight.  Here we go again and we are going to hit the ground running.

Apparently, my last article was well received.  I had no clue you guys liked that crazy writing style.  It's definitely a lot more fun, so for the near future we are going to stick to it.  Glad that all of you E-mailed me to express your opinions.

Now I have to figure out where to start.  Show of hands...?  Yes, you over there.  Ah, yes, good call.  The fetch lands from Onslaught. These have definitely been a hot topic.  I have been discussing the merits of these cards with people for the past few days in my store.  First of all, I want to say that I have had people turn their nose up at the eight dollar price tag I have on these lands.  However, even at eight dollars I don't seem to be able to keep them in my display case.  Go figure.  Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if they peak at around $10 by or during Pro Tour Houston weekend.

Another thing about those lands.  They aren't good as a full set of four in EVERY deck.  When I first saw them, I thought you should probably play them even if the colors in your deck didn't share a land.  After all, they would thin your deck down and increase the quality of your draws, that can't be so bad right?  Not necessarily.

You see, you don't play them in addition to your regular land count, you would play them as part of your land count most likely.  Possibly one or two over, but still within your normal lands count.  We will assume you are playing something like Red/Green and have only 22 lands.  If you have four Wooded Foothills (sac land), then you only truly have 18 lands.  So if you draw one, or even two, of these up early, when you use them, you actually decrease the chance that you will draw land.  This could be bad in some matches where you want to have a Ravenous Baloth ASAP.  For slower control decks, with a higher land count, it's not as big of an issue, because the deck will eventually produce land for you anyway.  I'm not saying the lands are terrible.  I'm just trying to point out that they might take a little more though to play an apply than we all first thought.

Oh, by the way, my Gamecube is getting like 23048392840938 times more than my Playstation.  I would recommend getting one if you haven't already.  The games are more fun.  There are more multiplayer games.  And the games you can get on either system always seems to run better and smoother on the Gamecube.

For those wrestling fans out there, I would suggest that you order the Survivor Series pay-per-view.  It looks like it's gonna be a slobberknocker.  The elimination chamber might be gimmicky, but with all the people involved, it should turn out to be a great match and a great show.

Oh yeah, Pro Tour Houston.  I mentioned it earlier.  Let's not forget about the TEXANS PLAY FREE TOURNAMENT!!  It's a Grand Prix Trial for New Orleans.  It is extended format, by the way.  It is actually open to ALL players, but if you live in Texas and bring proof of residency, you get to play in the event free.  The event is being sponsored by my store, The Game Closet. It's Friday night at 6:00PM central, so don't be late.  That's November 8th for all of you not near a calendar.

I'll have a booth set up there, so stop in and say hello.  It would be nice if you bought something while you were there too!  You buying stuff helps me eat, and I like to eat.  You wouldn't know it from looking at me, but I do! :)

By the way, this all came about, because WotC wants to increase the attendance level of Pro Tours.  Don't let our efforts go to waste.  The Pro Tour is such a neat thing to have around.  Show up in Houston and give your support.

Damn the Angels!  Wait...damn.  I just realized something.  I can't dog the Angels without sounding like I'm condemning myself.  Anyway, I seriously thought that Major League Baseball needed the Giants to win the World Series.  After all the strike talks and the disgruntled fans, I think that the MLB definitely needed to finish on a high note with a fell good story.  They didn't.  We will see what happens next season.

Basketball season is now upon us.  Go Lakers!

It's about that time for the State Championships of Magic again.  This weekend, the new format will be legal for the first time.  There are a LOT of viable decks.  We shall see what people decide to play and see what develops.  What makes this all interesting is that the last chance qualifier at Pro Tour Houston on Thursday evening is going to be Standard format.  So it will be fun to see what kind of metagame develops with only one week's worth of tournament results available under the new format.

I still think WotC needs to add something to States.  They should give the winner an automatic invite to Nationals.  Maybe even just give byes at Regionals.  First could get three byes, second could get two byes and third and fourth could get one bye.  Either one of those would encourage me to go to the State Championships.  As it stands now, I don't feel like driving to Houston, driving back, and then driving back to Houston in five days for Pro Tour Houston.  I know many players that share that same feeling with me.  Many of the best players tend to stay away from States.  Also, is it really worth it to call yourself the State Champion if you didn't compete against the best players in the state?

Does anyone know if there will be a special gift set from Wizards of the Coast for Magic this Christmas.  It seems that each of the last few years, they've released a neat boxed set for the Holidays.  I haven't heard about anything for this year yet.

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For anyone that's interested, I have been writing Yu-Gi-Oh and WWE Raw Deal articles for Scrye magazine.  I should have one in the current issue that just released.  Also I recently wrote some stuff for the WWE Raw Deal website.

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The hits on the Pojo are up lately.  Thanks for stopping in and reading.  The increase in hits shows that you guys appreciate everything we are doing.

NBA Live 2003 is exceptionally better than 2002.  There is a huge difference.  I rented it just two days ago.  The 'freestyle control' is good stuff.

I'm a huge Dallas Cowboys fan, so Sunday was a great day for me!  Congrats to Emmitt Smith. Too bad the team lost.  Oh well.  I guess you can't ask for everything.  I've actually met him before.  He is an extremely nice guy.  He deserves it.  Assuming that Marshal Faulk doesn't get injured anymore, he might break his record.  But we will see.  Smith sounds like he might pull a Jerry Rice and play forever.

Onslaught seems to have a lot of people baffled.  It's definitely a set that favors good deck builders right now.  The set has a lot to offer.  You definitely need to look beyond the rares to build decks around.  A lot of the cards that everyone was excited about haven't even made their way into decks from what I am seeing.  Some of the old deck types are still playable, but they take a sizable bit of adjusting.

For those of you that keep e-mailing me asking why I haven't entered the writer's Grand Prix on Brainburst...well...her'es my official answer: It's a loyalty thing and it's a time thing.  First of all, I would have to make extra time to write ANOTHER article every week in additional to my magazine articles, the other websites I write for, and trying to keep up with the Card of the Day stuff.  On top of that, I still have a business to run every day.  Also, Pojo has taken care of me.  I've been with them for what seems like forever.  I've written for magazines and such with Pojo.  I get free reign to write what I want on Pojo.  Could I get paid more writing for Brainburst?  It's quite possible that I could.  Is it worth it?  Not in my eyes, at this moment.

Speaking of loyalty, this brings me to another situation.  Too many of you guys are griping about stores closing down in your area.  There's a reason for that.  You need to shop there so they can make money and don't have to close!  You have to PAY where you PLAY.  I can tell you from both sides how things work.  Yes, as a player you want to save a little cash.  I'm sure if you talked to your store owner, he'd be willing to save you $5-15 on a box or something just to make sure he got the sale.  I sell mine at $89 and drop the price incrementally for each box beyond the first purchased.  Also, as a player, you want tournaments and a place to play.  From a store perspective, you have utilities and the like to pay.  A bunch of internet sites and distributors are either working out of their house or a warehouse.  Low overheard. 

Remember it was most likely a store where you learned to play the game and got introduced into tournaments and such.  That same store runs demos, pays employees, pays electricity, runs tournaments, organizes singles, and pays rent.  Our store pays for the space our playing area takes up all the time.  Whether it is being used or not.  If people don't come and play in that space, it goes to waste, we lose money, and we would have to shut down.  Fortunately, people make use of our space.  That's great for us considering we have nearly 3,000 sq. ft. of space.

All I'm saying is this: Make a purchase at your local game store more often.  Pick up your sleeves there.  Buy some snacks while you're hanging out.  Pick up one or two singles.  Maybe buy a draft set from them.  Something.  If you want your stores to stay open, shop there first.  Then if they close you will have a legitimate right to complain. 

Damn, good thing I'm not afraid of heights, because my soapbox seems to keep getting taller and taller.

Well, I'll be spending more time preparing for Houston this week.  As always keep reading.  Also, I will try to keep up and keep replying to all the e-mails I receive.

Please do me a favor as a reader and a player and check out the follwing site:

http://www.ShopWhereYouPlay.Org

It's worth the read.

Until next time

DeQuan
(a.k.a. PowrDragn)