Wall for trachy (page 20)

Reminder to self: When Marnie Was There on kissanime

Watched Inside Out. It is indeed a welcome return to form for Pixar after three misses. Now they're actually back to making me cry. It's a beautiful look into the emotional maturation of a 12 year old girl, and it is relatable to pretty much everybody. I can easily recommend watching this film.

I really enjoyed Justice League: Gods and Monsters. Justice League: War and Throne of Atlantis were both awful movies. Thankfully Bruce Timm decided to grace us with his talent. I've always enjoyed the alternate universe take in superhero comics. This one has Superman with Zod as his biological father, Batman is essentially Man-Bat, and Wonder Woman comes from New Genesis. The take on Superman is most interesting to me, and I think I like it more than regular Supes. A recurring theme in the Superman mythos is his struggle with moderating his power. There is a very real risk of Superman just breaking his values and becoming a tyrant. With this version of Superman having Zod for a father, that risk is much more likely. This guy isn't goody-two-shoes. And it shows in both style of animation and character development.

With the release of the new Battlefront, I'll be writing up some sort of piece on Star Wars video games, or at least the good ones. There are a surprising number of excellent games in the franchise.

Still very excited for Star Wars Episode VII, despite the whole wiping out of the Expanded Universe thing. I'll just treat it like an alt universe if they change too much, although if the only major change is Chewie lives, I'll be fine with that. They could actually just set it in between the death of Jacen Solo and the rise of Darth Krayt, and that wouldn't impact too much of the EU. It would destroy all my hopes of seeing Mara Jade on the big screen though. :(

Really sad news that TotalBiscuit's cancer has spread to his liver. This is especially hard to hear since it had seemed he was doing better. The guy is a paragon of ethics in a field that is otherwise devoid of ethics. Also really sucks for his family. The dude is only in his 30s. :(

So after a few days from my playgroup's draft from a case, I ended up with a ton of goodies. Here's my haul for Battle for Zendikar, after trades.

Godless Shrine!
3 Dragonmaster Outcast (1 foil)
1 Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger
4 Zada, Hedron Grinder
1 Drana, Liberator of Malakir
1 Noyan Dar, Roil Shaper
2 Omnath, Locus of Rage
2 Kiora
1 Ob Nixilis
4 Quarantine Field
2 Foil Cup Island
4 RG Duals
1 WU Dual
2 WG Duals
1 UB Dual

Probably won't be buying into anymore BFZ products unless they're fat packs or drafting. Will buy singles if I need them.

Lots of other bulk cards.

Watching The Flash on Netflix. I'll write my full thoughts on it when I finish the season. Just have to say though, they did one thing that I am just giddy over. Mark Hamill is the actor playing Trickster. So they actually brought in the voice actor from the amazing Justice League animated series to reprise his role. And of course, Mark Hamill is an amazing villain. His role as Luke Skywalker is all well and good, but it doesn't come close in comparison to the talent he displayed voicing villains such as Joker and Trickster. The show gets a few things wrong. But when it gets them right, it gets them very right.

In all seriousness, whoever writes the UR for Nissa is just terrible. Glad we got a break from that and got a best walker Kiora story instead with quality writing.

If you are having issues with fat pack pricing, I'd honestly say to take the lesser of two evils and buy them at a superstore. They are required to sell them at MSRP.  LGS stores are still profiting with the $40 sale. By raising the price they're effectively telling you what they value more, meaning they're not much different than Target or Walmart in my eyes.

Drafting is definitely a different experience. I wasn't a big fan of drafting in the Tarkir block because the set wasn't so balanced imo. Abzan, Atarka, and Sultai were way too powerful in comparison to the rest of the clans. I'd point people towards RTR instead of those.
Magic Origins, being a core set, was great for new players. Not a lot of special drafting stuff since nothing was very new.
BFZ is really great for drafting. The Eldrazi / Ally alignments makes for easy deck building. I'm a huge fan. Since Kozilek will probably show up next set, I think OotGW will be a different experience for draft, at least much more different than Tarkir.

This set is different, for sure. I'm a big fan of the Ingest mechanic over Annihilator. Not a lot of eternal staples, but there's quite a few cards that will become staples in my EDH decks. Wizards did a pretty great job with the cards, though the vorthos for some characters are pretty sub-par.

The only downside for this set has really been the Fat Pack issues.