Rock Paper Dynamite

The King is Dead

2006-04-12T12:15:00.000+10:00

Long Live the KingThis blog can now be found at:http://rockpaperdynamite.wordpress.com/

Windows Live Messenger Invites

2006-03-28T13:14:00.000+11:00

Could someone please help me out by letting me give them WLM beta invitations. Just reply with an email address that is both your passport and a valid working email that you can check.

Free speech or Life?

2006-03-16T22:17:00.000+11:00

Just watching Hotel Rwanda at the moment.It really puts a few universal rights under an interesting spot light. The root right that was first forgotten was that everyone is equal. When the Portuguese first came in and elevated one clan over the other and disturbed the natural economy between them it set in motion the terrible actions depicted.But this is ancient history and hopefully wont be

Azorious Deck

2006-03-15T21:51:00.000+11:00

I've been thinking about this Azorious based deck for a while now, all I really needs is some dual lands, but I'm sure Dissension will have some other goodies for it.Disruption:4x Leyline of Singularity3x Faiths Fetters3x Confiscate (this is the slot I think is most likely to be replaced in Dissension, I'm hoping for a good UW permanent stealer)3x Threads of Disloyalty3x Pacifism3x Spirit Link3x

New Look - Same Crapness

2006-03-10T09:35:00.000+11:00

Changed the theme to the blue version because black was getting on my nerves.Problem is that changing themes really doesn't get around the crud that is blogger. Why can't the default themes include:Post heading perma-link to article.Ok actually that list was rather short, but its still annoying. Wonder how much longer till I move to rpd.cerberos.id.au and wordpress?

What am I trying to do?

2006-03-08T16:06:00.000+11:00

I've been trying to wrestle with the question of how I'm going to create my faith community around Magic. This has been missing the point somewhat though: What am I going to create? For that matter am I going to create anything or just shape something?I've been tasked with creating a missional team based around Magic. Kewl, I'll just go do that as soon as I know what a missional team is. (Have

Judge Test

2006-03-03T08:51:00.000+11:00

Just letting all my faithful readers that I passed my level 1 judge test on the weekend.

Crappy Cards Suck

2006-02-10T08:11:00.000+11:00

Couldn't find all the cards I needed for the white version of the rock above, so I had to:-3 Mortify+2 Faith's Fetters+1 Last Gasp-3 Birds-4 Dark Confidant+4 Civic Wayfinder+3 Nezumi GraverobberAnd the mana base was far from optimal without birds and only 7 relivant shock lands. So I managed to go a lousy 1-2 against the feild last night :(I'm starting to think that the red option might be more

What Should the Rock Look Like?

2006-02-08T09:39:00.000+11:00

There are so many options for a good rock deck these days. If your looking at an agressive version these are what I'd consider auto includes:4x Birds of Paradise4x Umezawa's Jitte4x Hypnotic Specter4x Dryad Sophisticate4x Dark Confidant4x Putrefy4x Moldervine CloakThats 28 slots that I consider non negotiable. These collection of cards gives you many very very strong turn three game states:Bird +

Real Judging

2006-01-25T09:53:00.000+11:00

I helped judge the Melbourne Prerelease this weekend just gone. It was lots of fun, I turned up later than requested on the Saturday morning due to the train I was meant to catch being canceled. Maybe not actually checking which venue we were using also excabated my tardiness but I was still there only 20 minutes late.After getting handed a nice navy blue Guildpact prerelease shirt and a short

Gruul Themed Decks Are Easy To Build

2006-01-24T17:00:00.000+11:00

Building Gruul themed decks is easy, take this list that i'm making up on the spot:20x Creatures4x Llanowar Elves4x Wild Cantor4x Scab-Clan Mauler4x Giant Solifuge4x Dryad Sophisticate4x Enchantments4x Moldervine Cloak4x Artifacts4x Umezama's Jitte12x Spells4x Pyroclasm4x Savage Twister4x Lightning Helix20x Land4x Stomping Ground4x Sacred Foundry4x Temple Garden2x Vitu-Ghazi, the City-Tree4x

Mark of Eviction + Nightmare Void

2006-01-09T11:36:00.000+11:00

This pair of cards seams to be a fairly hellish combo for your opponents. Obviously the idea is to continually bounce your opponents creatures and force them to be discarded. Filling the deck with more discard would seam like a decent idea to try and deal with more troublesome permanents, and to give you something to force the discarding of when they didn't top deck a creature. Drain life for the

Snow

2005-12-27T14:10:00.000+11:00

Bloody snow. I have two major issues with the proliferation of snow right now:Its 30 odd Degrees out side so snow is not something that’s really on the books right nowI shouldn’t be being forced to use MTGSalvation.com just so that I can find out when the release date for Guildpact is. (yes I know that the first expansion to a block comes out on the first Friday of February, but I like to be sure

Holidays

2005-11-28T11:16:00.000+11:00

Just letting you all know that the Blog will not be updated over the next few weeks till after christmas as I won't be playing any/much magic in the next few weeks.

Possum in the Back Yard

2005-11-11T12:05:00.000+11:00

Bad Draft Plays 101: Suicide Missions

2005-11-11T09:39:00.000+11:00

Was playing in a Ravnica Draft last night and drafted a hot agro Dimir deck, with such niceties as:2x Mark of Eviction2x Snapping Drake2x Dimir Guildmage1x Moroii1x Vedalken Dismisser2x Flight of Fancy1x Clutch of the Undercity1x Keening Bansheeand the ultimate combo rare for the deck: Followed Footsteps.Yes I did manage to get the Footsteps onto both the Keening Banshee and the Vedalken

Uncommon Drafting

2005-11-10T10:42:00.000+11:00

The other day I was doing a draft with ~10 people (if my recollection holds) and managed to draft one of the best piles of uncommons I've ever managed. I opened a Moldervine Cloak and Putrefy in Packs 1 and 2. A Darkblask also came past pretty early and by the end of the draft I had in my pile:Moldervine CloakPutrefyDarkblastCarrion HowlerSpectral SearchlightNullmage ShephardEthereal

TnT

2005-11-09T22:34:00.000+11:00

I have to say that playing with this deck is an awful amount of fun, it has so much sheer power. I'm pretty sure that I would have gone better with it if I had of played it a little bit more aggresivly.Whenever I looked at the game state and noticed that I was going to loose on the next turn I would just decide to win, and most of the time the deck complied. Sure this was mainly when I had a Tog

The Trials of a Newb

2005-11-08T13:17:00.000+11:00

After speaking to some lecturers at uni about their homosexual tendencies (they need me to comeback over summer to do 1 more subject before I graduate), I dropped past some random building in the city to pick up some Deeds and an Overgrown Tomb to finish of my deck, which looked somewhat like this:*Main Deck*4 Polluted Delta1 Bloodstained Mire3 Watery Grave4 Overgrown Tomb1 Lonely Sandbar2

Mulliganing with Strategy?

2005-11-07T15:16:00.000+11:00

I've never been very good at mulliganing, pretty much all I have ever done is: Do I have enough land: >= 2 Land <= 4 Land Or some way to see many cards with the opening hand even without 2 permanent mana sources (for example in Type1 I'd keep a hand with Island, Ancestral recall, Lotus Petal and accumulated Knowledge) Do have anything to do: A decent creature Some

GP Melbourne Mini Report

2005-11-07T10:42:00.000+11:00

!Friday:GPT#1: Lost in first round :(GPT#2: Lost in first round :(Saturday:GP Melbourne Round 1: Won against Pink WeenieGP Melbourne Round 2: Won against really really bad draws from a Goblin deckGP Melbourne Round 3: Lost against BGAGP Melbourne Round 4: Won against control Tog (traditional Tog + Life from the Loam engine)GP Melbourne Round 5: Lost against control Tog (ditto)GP Melbourne Round 6

Yes it is cold in here

2005-10-26T22:06:00.000+10:00

Today Wizards announced the full detail of what is happening with Coldsnap. It's going to be long lost third set to Iceage block. Its going to get the full curent treatment, fatpack, theme decks etc.I think it will be realy interesting to see what cards they put into the theme decks, as its a chance for Wizards to re-release some highly sort after cards like Force of Will and um foily Forces of

Brrrr, is it Cold in Here?

2005-10-24T22:00:00.000+10:00

July 2006: Coldsnap From the frozen vaults deep below Wizards of the Coast, Coldsnap, the legendary Lost Third Set of the Ice Age Block is coming out at last. It's not part of Ravnica Block, it's not part of the block after that. But -- get this -- it will be tournament-legal! Intrigued? Tune back in on Wednesday, when Randy Buehler will explain all. So Coldsnap will be released during July

Victorian States

2005-10-23T12:05:00.000+10:00

Firstly the customary deck list:3x Last Gasp4x Putrefy4x Umezawa's Jitte4x Moldervine Cloak4x Birds of Paradise3x Elves of Deep Shadow4x Hypnotic Specter4x Ravenous Rats4x Nezumi Graverobber3x Ink-Eyes, Servant of Oni4x Llanowar Wastes1x Overgrown Tomb1x Shizo, Death's Storehouse7x Forest9x SwampSideboard:4x Cranial Extraction4x Naturalize4x Nezumi Shortfang3x NekrataalThis was the version of

Giant Fun Was Had

2005-10-16T10:11:00.000+10:00

The event went off yesterday with about as little hassle as could be imagined. 10 teams ended up playing in the event, when 10.00 rolled past 2 teams were unaccounted for out of the 11 pre-registrations, with some of the teams having people get word to me that they weren’t going to turn up, but with those slots easily filled by people who just turned up. The 10th team turned up 10 minutes into

Mmmm Product

2005-10-13T16:49:00.000+10:00

I currently have in my possession more un-opened product than I ever have before: over 4 displays of it. The biggest problem with it is that I'm not going to get to open much, if any, of it. Around 1/3rd of the people who have told me that they are coming have done so after the official cutoff date, but that is ok so far, because we had only just needed to got to 2 boxes of tournies and boosters,

Two Headed Giant Just 5 Days Away

2005-10-10T09:22:00.000+10:00

This coming weekend is the Two Headed Giant tournament at my Church, so far we have 8 teams playing and have room left for 2 more teams if people are still interested. (email me at gareth@cerberos.id.au or phone Nigel at 9484 4788 to register or roll the dice and just turn up).I'm looking forward to running the event and it is looking to be great fun.

15 Land?

2005-10-03T14:13:00.000+10:00

Over on StarCityGames.com I was just reading about a 4 colour deck (two splash colours) that ran only 15 land and was contemplating only 14 (link). On Sunday at the Games Village Sneak Peak I ran a 3 colour deck (all three colours in equal numbers) and only ran 15 land in it and never had a single problem with only 3 extra mana producers. So just how low will land counts go?

9th ИЗДАНИЕ

2005-10-03T11:41:00.000+10:00

I was looking into purchasing some 9th edition cases, but in Russian because it sounded like fun and I'd love black bordered pain lands, WOG's, Llanowar Elves, Jester's Caps, Hypnotic Specters, Verdant Forces, etc, etc, etc. To my absolute horror I found that boxes of 9th edition boosters are selling for between $USD150 and $USD220 on eBay and for numbers at the higher end of this scale on web

Friday Night Drafting at LURG

2005-10-01T12:24:00.000+10:00

The slightly silly people at LURG (LaTrobe University Roleplay Group) brought too much Saviors of Kamigawa so we still have another 2 or 3 drafts of that left before we get around to playing any Ravnica drafts. This is particularly annoying as we are playing triple Saviors drafts. This is a particularly odd format and should never be touched.Luckily last night though in the format of madness I

Nice Guys Finish Last

2005-09-26T14:23:00.000+10:00

Played in the Two Headed Giant event at our (Melbourne) prerelease yesterday. It was a lot of fun, but was a bit tedious playing with someone as green as my team mate (second time playing magic ever). First round we lost with about 3 or 4 minutes on the clock. Second round we drew during extra turns. Third round we won during turn 4 of extra time. Round 4 we managed to win in around 30 minutes.

Super Happy Fun Set

2005-09-25T09:19:00.000+10:00

FWI: Ravnica: City of Guilds is realy fun!

To Jitte or to Not?

2005-09-22T10:08:00.000+10:00

Jitte (Umezawa's naturally) is one of the defining cards of block constructed and looks likely to rule Standard for the next year. Its ubiquitous status in most decks makes all creature based decks run it, and most of them then find its important to run Manriki-Gusari to try and gain Jitte advantage. Jitte advantage has been named as the sole reason that some decks run Godo, so other than the

Prerelease This Weekend

2005-09-22T09:26:00.000+10:00

I'm only planning on playing in 3 events this year, as I've started to find the team event is much too fun to miss. Also I'm pretty sure I've worked out how to go about building decks in Ravnica sealed Two Headed Giant: one deck is B/U based and the other is W/R based, and green gets added to which ever deck is weaker.This seams to be fairly obvious with the way the guilds are arranged:It's quiet

Spoiler is Full

2005-09-14T09:52:00.000+10:00

/me does happy danceSome of you may have noted that MTGSalvation.com has finished the Ravnica:CoG spoiler. One of the hottest rares in the set was spoiled in the last rush of information: Moonlight Bargain 2BB Instant (R) Look at the top five cards of your library. For each card, put that card into your graveyard unless you pay 2 life. Then put the rest into your hand. Its the black Fact or

Spoiler Nearly Full

2005-09-10T17:10:00.000+10:00

Just reminding people that MTGSalvation.com's Ravnica spoiler is nearing completion and is very good reading now.With some of the cards that have shown up on the spoiler I've made a few untested changes to BF.dec I've added 4 of these beasties:Trophy Hunter - 2GCreature - Human Archer (U)1G: Trophy Hunter deals 1 damage to target creature with flying.Whenever a creature with flying dealt damage

BF.dec Isn't Bad

2005-09-03T12:31:00.000+10:00

Broken Fatties.dec isn't all that bad, I pulled it out last night against the guys a LURG (LaTrobe University Roleplay Group) and it surprised me. First I played it against my pre-saviors White Weenie Legends block deck. It went something like 2-2 with both decks having reasonably average draws, no mana screw or flood for either deck. Then I played it in 3 4 player games. It dominated. Completely

Tini Tiny

2005-09-02T12:27:00.000+10:00

Why does Wizards of the Coast insist on only realising their desktop images in 1280*960? Don't they realise that their target audience (computer using geeks who play magic) show that many of their users are likely to want images at greater resolutions?So ok, maybe huge images might take up too much of WotC's bandwidth, so why not use some peer to peer serving of it? BitTorrent clients are not all

Make Me Money

2005-09-01T10:55:00.000+10:00

Just added some adds to this site, now I have a non-zero chance of making some money out of all this time I waste writing these messages to no one.

Broken Fatties.dec

2005-08-31T23:42:00.000+10:00

I'm sort of sure its a good idea to put several large fat creatures into a deck, when they cost 5 or less mana and you have several good efficient ways of getting around there drawbacks available.Firstly the fatties:Hunted Troll - 2GGCreature - Troll Warrior (R)When Hunted Troll comes into play, put four 1/1 blue faerie tokens with flying into play under the control of target opponent.G:

With whom does the Buck Stop

2005-08-31T09:26:00.000+10:00

Why do tournament results take so long to appear on the DCI's reports? Only 2 of the events that I competed in at Nationals have shown up yet. One being a PTQ and the other being one of the sealed side events, Saturdays lucky dip if my memory of who played in what is right.Either DCI reporter is such a bad application to use that it is so horrendous to use that people avoid it as much as possible

Ahhhh! Dragons

2005-08-30T09:56:00.000+10:00

What do people like more than dragons?Dragons on turn 5 - with no mana accelerationDragons on turn 3 - with a single seething song6/6 Dragons, with haste!What people don't like though is giving their opponents creatures:Hunted Dragon 3RRCreature - Dragon (R)Flying, hasteWhen Hunted Dragon comes into play, put three 2/2 white Knight creature tokens with first strike into play under target

I can't believe it's not TnN

2005-08-28T10:14:00.000+10:00

Chord of Calling - XGGGInstant (R)Convoke (Each creature you tap while playing this spell reduces its cost by 1 or by one mana of that creature's color.)Search your library for a creature card with converted mana cost X or less and put it into play. Then shuffle your library.I just love how close minded 99% of people are. They see this hot new rare that will be printed in Ravnica and go OMGWTFBBQ

Stupid Saviours

2005-08-27T15:23:00.000+10:00

Has anyone noticed a theme: "Gareth Hates stupidity". I hate it when implied that I'm stupid (see previous entry). I hate it when I am stupid (see and on e of the numerous mistakes I makes during any given tournament, or when I don't do the work for university subjects). I hate it when other people are stupid.Like when 2 out of 3 people on the mtgSalvation.com forums talk about the hot new duel

Stupid Advertisers

2005-08-26T11:19:00.000+10:00

One of my largest pet peeves is when advertisers treat us all as idiots. For instance when is a certain battery manufacturer going to realise that saying "last up to 3 times longer" doesn't match the advert they just showed us with the bunny running over 3 times as far as the competing bunny?Now two of my most visited web sites have just started doing some cross promotion and there using there

Answer

2005-08-26T10:35:00.000+10:00

If a copy of a ESG gets returned to hand and then you are asked to pay mana, you will be given an oportunity to play mana abilities, so you can then remove the copy from the game and generate mana. This works as long as the oportunity to produce mana is inside the same resolving effect that has returned the ESG to hand.

Rules 401

2005-08-25T20:39:00.000+10:00

Ok, occasionaly I'm going to post the occasional odd rules situation that I've come across that interest me.Is it possible to remove from the game a copy of an Elvish Spirit Guide to generate mana?

Is this Australia's Capital?

2005-08-25T19:51:00.000+10:00

Just a collection of thoughts about the nations capital: Student concessions on public transport are only for ACT students and students from other countries Just because a judge is judging at nationals doesn't mean they understand the rules well Just because a judge is head judging a nationals side event doesn't mean they understand the rules Vintage players should have to call a judge

Lucky Dip

2005-08-25T09:43:00.000+10:00

I un-equivocally love this format, sure I suck at it but I'll put that down to me being a good player and therefore someone at a disadvatage the more random the format.So why do I love a format that I suck at? Who wouldn't love a format where you can seal the game with a Lumbering Satyr sitting next to a Flailing Ogre?

Nationals

2005-08-24T19:10:00.000+10:00

This last weekend I went up to Nationals in Canberra, I staid with a good friend of mines family out in the suburbs. Except for the silliness of needing to catch a taxi home at 10.00 Sunday night as all the busses have already stopped (and taxi drivers who can hardly stay on the road) it was a very nice arrangement, making the weekend much cheaper for us.On Saturday I paid my $100 for the all day

Getlaidmagic.com

2005-08-15T19:45:00.000+10:00

Ok so magic web sites are now trying to give you tips on how to pick up girls? Whats next, how to make money while playing magic???Linkage

Old Cards

2005-08-15T13:01:00.000+10:00

Warning: those readers who have moral objections to rants or public criticism of WotC are advised that the following message maybe distressing.I love change. No really I do. Well as long as its change for the good. Printing Quicksand in 9th is kewl, I like being introduced to old cards that I've never experienced before. I like T2 changing noticeably with changes in the core set.I also like the

My Precious Darkness

2005-08-09T13:02:00.000+10:00

I'm wondering at the moment if the following cards are an essential building block to many of today's decks:4x Hypnotic Specter4x Sword of Fire and Ice4x Will-o'-the-WispThese 3 cards are so powerful, and have such great synergy its hard to think of a deck with swamps in it that doesn't want to run them. I'm sure pretty soon I'm going to be adding (and replacing SoFI with Jitte) :Dimir Cutpurse

Rumour Season 2

2005-08-08T14:12:00.000+10:00

Is everyone else getting excited about Ravnica: City of Guilds?The sheer number of good cards seams to be stagering, and rumour that it will contain the second best ever dual lands (behind the original duals) is amazing. Thats in adition to the filter artifacts:Boros Signet 2Artifact (c)1, T: Add BR to your mana poolI mean there strictly better than the talismans except when you want to only

The Joys of a New Format

2005-08-08T13:48:00.000+10:00

In preperation for My upcoming Two Headed Giant tournament I am trying to keep upto date with all the rulings and so on todo with the format. So to my immense enjoyment I was reading the 2HG FAQ today and found that they have put a rule into the comprehensive rules incorrectly :(If an effect sets a single player’s life total to a number, what number so I set the Team’s life total to?If an effect

Two Headed Giant

2005-07-26T18:08:00.000+10:00

Check it out, I'm running a Two Headed Giant tournament at my church, come along if you happen to be in the .5% of the world thats close enough to Preston Victoria to bother coming :)9.30am Saturday October 15Northern Community Church of Christ81 High Street Preston$25 per person (includes product to build decks from + garanteed prizes)PDF Flyer

So Onto Nationals

2005-07-06T23:29:00.000+10:00

But you heard me say I came 17th (even though the online details on the DCI site say I came 24th BOOO), so what am I doing saying I'm going to nationals? Well me and Warren (and his fiance and fiance's friend) are going to drive up to Canberra and try and grind in, then be happy to scrub out of the main event in time to play in the vintage national championship.So now comes the tough point of

Opps Regionals

2005-07-06T20:53:00.000+10:00

I believe that regionals was a few weeks ago.I also believe that I played in it and came 17th.Out of 70 odd I believe.I'm fairly happy with my 4-3 effort. I feel things may have been better for me if I hadn't of lost the first round to a Red/Black pile.dec. I mean who expects such a deck to sideboard how it did.The situation you see is that he'd pulse of the forged me a few times, so I knew he

Finally I don't suck so much

2005-06-04T15:57:00.000+10:00

I finally went 2-1 in a draft. It was the first time I had in 10 drafts, of those 10 drafts I went 1-2 8 times and 0-3 once, the other one was a 1+1,1 (getting a bye in the second round).The point of this post though was to bitch and moan about my favorite card store dropping its prize payout structure for its drafts from 2-1-1-1 to 2-1-1. This has started people drawing the final round as one of

Bu Suck!

2005-05-28T23:10:00.000+10:00

Ok that idea sucked. Not only do all of the pieces, while they seam decent on their own, do all that much when not comboing. But they also never draw anywhere near early enough to lock the opponent down to no new cards for it to matter.I think I need to do 2 things to this list to get it respectable, add more good cards, and more removal. Preferably both.So how's this look?4x Skull Collector4x

Bu Lock?

2005-05-28T10:50:00.000+10:00

Ok here's the list:4x Skull Collector2x Crystal Shard4x Aether Vial3x Fabricate4x Chittering Rats4x Ravenous Rats4x Distress4x Nezumi Shortfang3x Kiku's Whisper4x tendo's Icebridge4x Salt Marsh4x Island1x Minamo, School at Water's Edge1x Shizo, Death's Storehouse10x SwampSB?Perfect Combo Opening:Turn 1: Swamp, Eather VialTurn 2: Vial counters = 1, Swamp, Nezumi ShortfangTurn 3: Vial counters = 2,

Saviors must be blasphemy

2005-05-23T20:13:00.000+10:00

God must have been unhappy with me looking towards other saviors this weekend, as I went abysmally at the pre-release. Sure I averaged 4 packs of prizes per flight I entered which implies that I went 2-2 in each, but really I went 2-5 +bye across the 2 individual flights and 2-2 +bye in the team flight (as did my team). I managed to pickup 4 packs in each of the individual flights due to prize

Mmmm Leather

2005-05-05T16:19:00.000+10:00

Just brought my self a nice new keyboard and mouse combo. A lovely MS wireless ergonomic setup. With lovely leather palm rest on the keyboard. I do like the feeling of leather. Its by far the nicest keyboard and mouse I've ever used, although the 2D mouse wheel feels rather funny and Linux doesn't seam to play nice with the second wheel axis.So how many of you apparently non-existent readers have

Rumor Season

2005-05-05T08:25:00.000+10:00

I really love these three months of the year, nothing beats trying to determine if a card is real or not. This rumor season will be the first one where I'm going to be looking at cards and thinking, which deck will that improve for regionals. I'm sure this will just make me waste even more time than usual on Magic.

Regionals

2005-05-03T18:32:00.000+10:00

I've been contemplating my options for regionals. There seams to be several good options, namely: MUC; BG(Deathcloud); TnN and RG beats all seam like valid options. I enjoyed playing UG control at states and found it to have very solid matchups against everything except afinity (I can't build a decent sideboard), but I now feel that MUC is just strictly better with Vedalken Shackles.BG control

Wooo

2005-05-03T16:16:00.000+10:00

This is my brand spanking new blog, I'll detail here my experiences trying to find the next piece of dynamite for Magic. I by no means try to think of my self as being any good, this is just being setup to make me feel more important