Suggested block sealed formats of Magic: The Gathering

I was recently in discussions with a L3 Magic: The Gathering (MTG) judge from one of my local game shops (LGS), Games Laboratory, around the suggested / recommended configuration to be used when playing sealed deck format when it comes to block sets. Sealed deck is a form of a limited format where players make a 40 card deck from a restricted pool of cards. Over the history of MTG, the pool has varied, but it appears that the current most preferred pool is using 6 booster packs. Other ways in the past is by using a Tournament pack and some additional booster packs.

The sealed limited format in MTG is the format I play the most with my "kitchen table" group.

The L3 suggested for any Large-Small-Small block (and the size refers to the card pool size of each individual set), it should be 2 boosters from the first set, 2 boosters, from the second set, and 2 boosters from the third set. This will take into account the way blocks are designed. So therefore, we have come up with the following recommendations:

Return to Ravnica block (Return to Ravnica, Gatecrash, Dragon's Maze)

• 2 from Return to Ravnica, 2 from Gatecrash, 2 from Dragon's Maze

Innistrad block (Innistrad, Dark Ascension, Avacyn Restored)
This block has the two types of sealed pools:

• 3 from Innistrad, 3 from Dark Ascension
• 6 from Avacyn Restored

Scars of Mirrodin block (Scars of Mirrodin, Mirrodin Besieged, New Phyrexia)

• 2 from Scars of Mirrodin, 2 from Mirrodin Besieged, 2 from New Phyrexia

Zendikar block (Zendikar, Worldwake, Rise of the Eldrazi)
This block has the two types of sealed pools:

• 3 from Zendikar, 3 from Worldwake
• 6 from Rise of the Eldrazi

Alara block (Shards of Alara, Conflux, Alara Reborn)

• 2 from Shards of Alara, 2 from Conflux, 2 from Alara Reborn

Note that this was the last block to have the Tournament Pack, so people that played MTG when this was released may have had different experiences.

Lorwyn-Shadowmoor block (Lorwyn, Morningtide, Shadowmoor, Eventide)
This block was actually made up of 2 mini-blocks, so the suggested way of doing a sealed game with these are:

• 3 from Lorwyn, 3 from Morningtide
• 3 from Shadowmoor, 3 from Eventide

I will stop there (for the moment), as I find it more difficult / expensive to obtain any sealed booster boxes older than the Lorwyn-Shadowmoor block.

I welcome any feedback around these suggestions / recommendation, and may edit this blog entry from time to time. Keep in mind, these are only suggestions and recommendations, and should not deter you from playing sealed formats with 6 different boosters from different sets.

Say "no" to eBay's Global Shipping Program

As some of you may know, I play Magic: The Gathering (MTG), and as someone who plays the games and collects the cards, a more cost effective way of gathering the cards is via eBay. I am not new when it comes to on-line shopping. I doubt many other people out there who are connected to the internet are also unaware of eBay. They connect sellers with buyers on a global scale.

Recently, eBay introduced a new feature for sellers in the USA - the Global Shipping Program (GSP). The GSP sounds like a great service - on the surface. Sellers in the USA package their goods, and send it to the GSP hub, in Kentucky, where Pitney Bowes takes over and ships it to international customers. As long as the seller gets it to the GSP hub, the service takes care of the rest. It will also calculate the international shipping costs, and any additional customs costs, and that will be all billed to the buyer.

But in reality, there are many problems associated with the GSP. The cost to cover such a service is very expensive. As I mentioned, I play and collect MTG cards. The cost of shipping 4 pieces of thin cardboard to me is around $US30. Who thinks that is reasonable? Even with padding / protection, expedited shipping, and tracking - it would be around the $US12 mark. My usual expectations for 4 pieces of thin cardboard safely shipping to me is around $US3 to $US4 per item. This will get cheaper (per unit) if the seller allows for combined shipping. Obviously, there is some additional mark-ups inserted into the GSP fee - which as I mentioned gets passed onto the buyer. While this make make it easier for the seller, it does not make it easier or cheaper for the buyer.

This video has someone discussing some of the other problems:

The video gets interesting around the 10m22s when the person in the video reads out a response sent to him from eBay around a dispute he has with damage to a product.

So, summing things up:

• Greater costs get passed to the buyer
• GSP opens up packages sent to them, and repackages them
• Any disputes over damage are ignored by eBay
• GSP has a "hands-off" approach to resolving disputes
• No value declaration
• It means less money in the hands of seller, as more goes to eBay - which in turn, means international buyers will not tend to spend as much for products US sellers may be offering
• GSP also has a tendency for under-calculating the shipping costs of items seen on the search page when compared to the single item listing pages

What can you do as a buyer? Inform the sellers about the reality of GSP. Do some of your own research, weigh up comments from people who have bought products via the GSP. Most people use eBay to find bargains. Inform the users using GSP that you prefer sellers that "manually" ship items. If the fact that eBay fees are now making internet goods more expensive, support your local stores - buy from them.

What can you do as a seller? Deactivate GSP by doing the opposite of what is listed in this link, or via the steps listed in this eBay forum thread. Listen to your buyers. Without them, all you have is your product, and less potential customers.

Lastly, both groups can keep complaining to eBay. I am sure GSP has some benefits in some situations, but I am yet to see what those situations are, and am yet to read a glowing review of GSP, but I have read that eBay Global Shipping Program Exposes Sellers to Bad Feedback.

Tinker's Air Jordan 2012

I recently wore these sneakers to NutMeg's 30th birthday. When I mean recently, I mean it was in June. As you have seen from what I have been writing, I do not have much time to update this blog, but I will attempt to do it when I can.

The Air Jordan 2012 was created as a modular shoe. It had one outer shell, 2 inner cuffs, and 3 insoles. You can mix'n'match all the different components. Currently I am happy with the low inner liner, with the Fly Over insoles. They are very comfortable, and I would not have a problem using them for casual wear, as well as sport.

The query some of you may have is why am I wearing sneakers to a 30th birthday. Was it a casual affair? Well not it was not. The birthday was a theme dress-up. NutMeg asked people to come dressed in the 50s, but KittyKat and I dressed in the 30s. The Air Jordan 2012 (in this instance, Tinker Hatfield's personal design) looks similar to a wingtip shoe with spat look on it, as you can see:

These shoes were worn under a grey pinstripe suit, with tie and fedora hat. The best thing I liked about this shoe was that no one who saw me thought I was wearing sneakers until I pointed it out. I am definitely looking for the next formal occasion I can slip into these.

A "more" useful date prompt for the desktop applet

I have been using Linux Mint desktops recently, and I find these easy to use. The only part I dislike about them is the date in the calendar applet in the task bar. This should fix it:

%A %d/%m/%Y %l:%M %p

This will make the date time look like this:

Wednesday 25/09/2013 2:16 PM

Alternatively, I also like the look of:

%A %d.%m.%Y %l:%M %p

This will make the date time look like this:

Wednesday 25.09.2013 2:16 PM

My first green triangle

I've made my first green triangle in Ingress. Here it is:

For the effort I have put in, I get +744 Mind Units (MUs) for the Enlightened faction. This was done while I grinded my way up to level 3. The game does get somewhat easier the higher you advance, but it also means you do a lot more grinding to get up to higher levels.

I'm not sure on the strategy to follow. Either I will let the Resistance faction take back what I have claimed, or I will defend what I have claimed. The game does not seem to have a definite path, except for the constant exchange of portals between the two factions.

Looks like Google came out with a better game

I came up with a game a long time ago, when I was bored and working in Canberra. Thinking about how isolated it was, I wonder sometimes why someone else did not come up with the game sooner. I called it the blog photo game.

Anyway, it appears that Google have come out with a far better version: Ingress.


If you have the opportunity to play this game, I highly suggest it. It turns your Android phone into a "scanner" and then you take photos, and check-in to locations around your city, or your country. At the bare essence of the game, you are now employed by Google to make sure their "geo-data" in your city is accurate. It also allows for the creation of other applications like Field Trip.

My apologies to the Apple iPhone faithful. The game is solely for Android appliances. While you may be happy in the fact that you are not an unpaid employee of Google, you are missing out on the fun of this game. Apparently an Apple version is due out soon.

Magic: The Gathering resources on the web

I have been attempting for a while to document the websites I visit when I want information on Magic: The Gathering (MTG), and here is my current list (in no particular order):

• MTG Top 8
• Card set information
• Drafting simulator
• MTG Card Staples
• Wizards of the Coast's MTG Website
• mtgGoldfish
• MTGPulse
• MTGO Stats
• Magic: The Redditing
• Competitive Magic on reddit
• MTGPrice
• Wizards of the Coast's Gatherer
• MagicCardInfo
• Judge's Corner on Youtube
• Magic: The Gathering channel on Youtube
• The Magic Show on Youtube
• Wizard's Play Network on Youtube
• DoctorWhyMagic on Youtube
• Ertai's Lament
• MTG Salvation wiki

I hope other people looking for resources for the game also find this list useful. I am sure there are plenty more sites, and others will have their favourites. I am happy to update this over time, if I find any more or am informed of any more.

Australian government backs down from internet filter

I have not written in this blog for a long time, as I have been busy recently, but something in the news has broken my "silence".

The good senator Conroy is now also the level-headed senator Conroy. In a win for anti-censorship, the Australian Government has backed down from implementing a nationwide internet filter. Instead they have asked for individual internet companies to block the most degenerate of all child pornography websites.

While this is a better idea than a nationwide filter, I do not know what it will target. I do not know of any public websites that deal with child pornography. It is not like you can search for the topic on the internet and find websites, where you can then purchase images or movies. Still, I welcome this move.

I have been following, and writing, about this topic for a long time. As a parent, I welcome that fact that the government is allowing me to take responsibility of raising my child in a way where he will have limitless access to knowledge, and with my assistance, also know what is right and wrong.

Toddler Adidas Shelltoes

With someone special on his way, KittyKat and I decided we needed to purchase some sneakers for the little man. KittyKat saw these on special and knew that I would be getting them. There is not much I can write about the Adidas Superstar II for toddlers, as I cannot actually try them on, but they look just as sturdy as the Shelltoes I have.

The main difference is the laces with the adult version and the toddler version - with the toddler version not having any laces but velcro straps instead.

After little man arrives, I'll report on what they appear to do, but keep in mind, this is more of an exercise in marketing than in comfort for any toddler. Most toddlers may get about 2 months usage out of these type of shoes (especially in this shoe size) before they are not longer usable. I have already made comments on this in the Adidas Toy Story Woody shoes article I have written, and my stance is still the same.

The revised SplinterWin deck on Android

I've recently been working on my Infinite Copies Modern deck for Magic: The Gathering (MTG), and this is the latest iteration of it:


SplinterWin (Modern) [blue/red]
CREATURES

• 2 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
• 4 Pestermite
• 4 Deceiver Exarch
• 2 Spellskite

NONCREATURES

• 4 Splinter Twin
• 3 Pact of Negation
• 4 Remand
• 2 Mana Leak
• 2 Dispel
• 1 Firespout
• 1 Lightning Bolt
• 4 Serum Visions
• 1 Spreading Seas
• 2 Echoing Truth

LANDS

• 4 Steam Vents
• 4 Reflecting Pool
• 4 Scalding Tarn
• 4 Cascade Bluffs
• 4 Sulfur Falls
• 2 Island
• 1 Breeding Pool
• 1 Stomping Ground

SIDEBOARDS

• 2 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
• 2 Spellskite
• 3 Nihil Spellbomb
• 3 Naturalize
• 2 Firespout
• 1 Echoing Truth
• 1 Dispel
• 1 Lightning Bolt

I have been working on this deck with my new Android phone and it the MTG toolbox application. The application itself is quiet interesting, but appears to be prone to crashing during mid operation. SpecialK has the same application on his iPhone, and it does not appear to have the same crashing problems. The application's features include a card viewer, a location finder, a news reader - all of this is to do with MTG, of course. Additionally, I am able to analyse the decks I create (seeing percentage breakdowns of different cards in the deck), build different decks at the same time, share the decks (via email or sms), and even draw sample hands.

Another fault (other than the random crashing) I have seen in the application is that during the simulated drawing of sample hands, there is a significant doubling up of cards in sequence. I do not think the randomiser works well. I have not seen behaviour like this in real life draws.


I am still keen to know of alternative applications, as well as decks in the modern format that are competitive against this deck, which can win by turn 4 around 35% of the time, and by turn 5 around 60% of the time. It would win easier if Preordain and Ponder were not banned in the format - but there are reasons for that, and it has been discussed in:

• What’s Up with the Modern Banned List?

Other Modern format deck ideas have been discussed in:

• Analyzing the Modern Format - Post-Dark Ascension Edition

This blog's split copy

Google sent me out an email to my regular email account stating that I had an "unregistered" blog. This was a surprise to me, and I treated it suspiciously. The reason is that I use this blog for most of my postings. I investigated further.

I may have set this one up initially, but I thought I had deleted it. Everything I saw about it pointed to something I would have done.

Long story short, I now have splitcopy.blogspot.com available. And as you can read from the first page, I do not know what I will do with it yet. I may turn it into my own personal rant / twitter / pic of the day blog.

Any suggestions?

Avacyn breaks out of the Helvault

I can now confirm what was in the Helvault (as you may be able to see from my previous post). It is Avacyn breaking out of the promotional material:

And I can also confirm that along with the promotional material, there was spindown life counters with the Avacyn Restored symbol on it, over-sized cards of Avacyn, other angels, and Griselbrand, and additionally, some Angel / Demon two sided token cards. All images of these products were spoiled a day or two before the release. I was fortunate enough to obtain the life counter and 4 of the the token cards. I did not try to get the over-sized cards - which I believe would be suited for Commander / EDH.

I am not overly impressed with this set in a sealed format, but neither am I disappointed with it. It has a feel that for this Magic: The Gathering (MTG) set, it is only somewhat connected to the rest of the block via its flavour and the undying mechanic. It did have a feel that it was made for the Commander / EDH format. I do not think this is a bad concept, but playing it in a sealed format meant I did not have much to do until turn 4 or 5. If my opponent could swarm out better smaller creatures than me, then he was able to subdue me. In my sealed pool, I did not have much that was large or any cards with the miracle mechanic - so I did not experience those mechanics. I did not feel that this set was strong enough to stand on its own. I believe that Innistrad, and even Dark Ascension were far better stand alone sets.

My final record was 1 win and 3 losses. This is a step down from the Dark Ascension pre-release where I won one more match, but better than the Innistrad pre-release where I did not win any matches.

Still, it was a great atmosphere at Games Laboratory. The staff there did a great job of organising and running the event.

Saying that, I have yet to play in a draft format with this set.

Does anyone want to comment on their experiences with the set so far?

What is inside the Helvault?

Games Laboratory has a Helvault for the Avacyn Restored set of Magic: The Gathering (MTG) pre-release tonight.

Anyone want to guess what is inside? I will confirm it tonight! Wish me luck!

No more N900 - now onto Android

This week I sadly said goodbye to the Nokia N900. The N900 came out in 2009, and offered so much promise as to what a truly free open sourced phone could offer, but Nokia managed it to failure.

I got my N900 after I was introduced to it by Ax - back in 2010. He showed me his N900 with all the great features:

• Keyboard slider design
• 5 Megapixel camera
• Linux (Maemo) as its Operating System
• No tedious technique to "root" the device
• Command line available

The device was a symbol of freedom. I was able to do what I wanted to it, and I did not have to go through Nokia to do it. Unfortunately, Nokia decided to continue development of the operating system, and moved onto MeeGo. MeeGo being Linux itself was also a good step, but it did not back port it to the N900. Nokia made it for the N9. Then Nokia made a horrific decision - they entered a partnership with Microsoft. Their phones went from being Symbian based, to running Linux, to in the future running Microsoft's mobile version - Windows Phone. I was not impressed. They should have gone to Android.

Regardless of their decisions, I stuck with the Nokia N900. I even purchased a second unit when my initial unit's micro USB port started to malfunction. KittyKat also had a N900, but made the jump to an Android phone (the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10) after she accidentally dropped the phone, and then ran over it. Little did she know she was paving the way for myself.

My second unit's micro USB port started to malfunction again, and I knew this was leading to an untimely end for the unit. It must have been a weak point of the phone, as I found out recently that Ax's N900 went down the same path. Ax is now using an Android phone as well.

What makes Android interesting is the fact it is also a Linux based phone. Unfortunately it does not have the initial freedom in-built to it like the N900 does, as the system is more locked down, but it does have the potential to be "root'ed". Therefore, it is goodbye to the N900 and hello to the Sony Ericsson Xperia pro. Fortunately, it has a slider keyboard, that is similar to the N900, the form is somewhat less clunky than the N900, and it has a 8.1 Megapixel camera.

In the first few days of using this new device has been interesting. I am still getting use to the new keyboard, and the new layout of the desktops, but otherwise it has made a good replacement.

I have already noticed there has been more applications written for the Android system than the Maemo system. This is evident in the Google Play site - the Android's market site. Another observation I have made is that Android multi-tasking is not as good as I have witnessed on the N900 - with the Android phone only really being able to background 6 applications. Other than that I am pleased with my new device, and if I do anything exceptional with it, I will write about it on this site.

I drove on the new GDE

I will usually speak about how bad Canberra can be. In this post, I want to mention something that Canberra finally have fixed. And in fixing it, they have slightly improved the region.

Previously on this blog (here and here), I have mentioned that the Gungahlin Drive Extension (GDE) caused more problems that it fixed. After 7 years, it is finally complete. Well done to all involved!!

Pity it took so long, was done incorrectly the first time, and injured people with a collapse of a section of it in 2010, and cost over $200 million. Seeing how it is around 9 kilometers long, it works out to over $10 million per kilometer. Not the best allocation of funds, but seeing how Canberra was designed for the car, and public transport is an after thought, this may be seen as a huge cost savings in the future.

While driving around Canberra in the weekend just past was improved, and there seems to be a better connection between the north part of the city and the rest of it, it is still a very sparse and sterile city. I hope the region improves more, but I doubt it.

Guy Pierce apologizes for his comments about Canberra

Australian actor, Guy Pierce, has recently apologized for comments made on an American (USA) TV show about "Canberra bashing".

Why?

Looking at the video, while Guy may have made fun of Canberra, he has not really said anything that is not true about Canberra. Canberra Centenary Creative Director Robyn Archer has asked people to stop bashing Canberra. She has also mentioned that most people that do it have never been there.

I was there for 2.5 years, and let me state this - "It is a [CENSORED] dump!" The truth does not set Canberra free.

Lower casing variables in DOS

Occasionally, I will need to use MS-DOS in my role at work. MS-DOS is one of the scripting languages to use while using Microsoft Windows operating system.

One of the problems with MS-DOS is that it is case-insensitive. MS-DOS does not distinguish the difference between upper case or lower case when using it. While this may not cause problems most circumstances while using Windows, it may potentially cause problems when interacting with other systems or programs.

I have used the following snippet of code to convert the %computername% variable, which was set as upper case to lower case. The result will be stored as %mycomputername%

echo>%computername%
dir /b/l %computername%>lower.tmp
set /p mycomputername=<lower.tmp
del lower.tmp
del %computername%

This snippet works by creating an empty file based on the variable that is in upper case. Then a directory listing is made, with the appropriate flags to list the output in lower case, and the output of this is stored in a file called lower.tmp. Then the contents of that file is read into the new variable. Finally the two temporary files are deleted.

I would have thought it would have been easier than that.

Teams are winning - including me (sometimes)

For the first time in a few months, both the teams I am following are winning!

The Boston Celtics recently beat the Chicago Bulls, and the Melbourne Victory beat the Central Coast Mariners. The former teams play in the NBA, and the later teams play in the A-League. What makes both teams interesting to watch at the moment is they are both quality teams on paper, but are not really producing winning results (until recently). And while the Celtics are currently above a 50% win-loss ratio, the Victory are struggling to have wins on the board, having more matches end in draws than anything else.

GO CELTICS!!
GO VICTORY!!

Other than that, I have been playing in the Magic: The Gathering (MTG) prerelease tournament for Dark Ascension and in the MTG League at Games Laboratory. While I am not ruling the game, I am starting to win a few matches here and there. It feel better than just loosing every single game, but then again, I do not put as much effort into this game as I would like.

With the introduction of the new set for Dark Ascension, I have already seen some new ideas for my to add to my infinite copies of tokens deck which is powered by the Splinter Twin / Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker combo. While it does not affect the main deck very much, the new mechanics from the latest set will definitely change what I believe should go into my sideboard. Cards that I believe will need to be considered in my sideboard are:

• Faithless Looting
• Grafdigger's Cage
• Ancient Grudge (from the Innistrad set - but any previous version is also fine)
• Dismember
• Flame Slash
• Sleight of Hand

The exact quantities of the ones mentioned here is something I need to work on, as well as possibly including some duplicate of the spells in my main deck into my sideboard - up to the maximum of 4 of any card.

This leads me to the psychology of how people feel things based on how much control we have over the aspects in front of us. When it comes to cheering about a sporting team, no matter how much I cheer or oppose a team, it does not affect their final outcome. It comes down to those sports people and how they play, as to what results are achieved. It also comes down to their opponents and how well their opponents play as well. In summary to this situation, I am not too upset when a team I support looses, just somewhat annoyed.

When it comes down to a card game that I have some (perceived) "control" over, it does get a little bit beyond annoying if I had a possible win, and did not make the correct decisions, or choose the right elements at hand to bring forth a winning result. If I play against a deck that my opponent has tuned, play tested a lot, and I loose to it - I do not feel very bad. I noticed in the MTG League that most of my opponents have at least one, if not two, mythic rare cards. While some of those cards are awful to use, some (in the correct circumstances) are game changers. Loosing to those decks do not upset me. Winning to those decks is always a pleasant surprise, as I do not have any mythic rare cards in any of my MTG League decks. The only time I am upset is if through a mistake of my own, I loose to a deck that is underpowered or is on the same level as mine. Luckily, it has not happened much.

Upper and lower case in vim

I use vim for most of my text editing, especially with it comes to configuration and text files on UNIX / Linux machines, and there are times where I need to convert the entire file to uppercase or to lowercase. I find these two commands useful (when in command mode of vim):

:%s/[A-Z]/\L&/g

converts all uppercase characters to lowercase,

:%s/[a-z]/\U&/g

converts all lowercase characters to uppercase.

You could always toggle case characters using "~" as well.

Dark Ascension midnight pre-release survivor

I have survived another Magic: The Gathering (MTG) pre-release, and this one was with a better record than my last attempt at a pre-release (with Innistrad), where I did not win a single match. In the pre-release for Dark Ascension, I came out with a record of 2 wins and 2 losses.

This time around, FrankieG, SpecialK, and Jarvo joined me. Everyone, except Jarvo, had a great time. Jarvo did not like the competitive nature of the event - but then again, this game and this type of way of playing it is not for everyone. He will be now sticking to either casual playing, or not playing at all. I hope he keeps playing. Strangely enough, FrankieG, SpecialK, and Jarvo all had 1 win each - and it was their first event of this nature. I would have thought any win would have been a good outcome for the event.

The format of the Dark Ascension pre-release was a sealed format. People competing in the event get 3 booster packs of Innistrad, and 3 booster packs of Dark Ascension. I believe the intention of this is to make it a more even game, as Dark Ascension's pool is small, but I did not find this to be a problem.

My strategy for the evening was creating two decks. I had a red / green deck based on werewolves and getting them to transform, and a blue / white deck that had many creatures that had flying. Both decks also has a splash of black for creature removal - something which is important in this type of format. My strategy was to start with the werewolves deck (which appeared initially to be the stronger deck), and switch to the flying creatures deck if I was beaten in the first game of a match up by a significant amount. Both matches I lost were to red / black decks, and it was not by much.

Once again, the event was hosted by the team at Games Laboratory in their new store in the Galleria Centre, corner of Bourke Street and Elizabeth Street, in Melbourne. I can truly say I enjoyed myself, and I look forward to the upcoming products and the next releases of this game.