Back to Magic!!

So, here's the deal. Myles has recently (in the past few months) thrown himself into the YouTube Magic: The Gathering trading community. Who knew such a thing existed??!? Basically, you film your binder and post the video on YouTube so that everyone can see what you have for trade. Then you arrange everything over private messaging and mail your cards out to COMPLETE STRANGERS and hope they keep up their end of the bargain!!! Most of them have been honest, and they are patient, understanding and forgiving (one of Myles' envelopes arrived at its destination torn up to bits and pieces, but the cards were fine, so the trader took it very easy on him). He only just now met his first dishonest (d-bag) trader who received Myles' cards then cancelled his YouTube account. I guess his collection is complete? Oh well...if Orrin O. from Montana (his old YouTube name was: LimaBean1211) tries to trade with you, please tell him that MiloDaGreat1 says to go to hell!!! Heh...Myles isn't even that mad - it was only about $10 worth of cards. No biggie...he knew the risks going in.

Myles also saw an opportunity to draw attention to his trades by creating a fun little YouTube show called Milo: The Gathering, where he invites friends over to talk about different aspects of Magic. Check out his channel! It gained popularity pretty quickly among the YouTube traders and I think he may have inspired a few other traders to start their own web series, too!

MiloDaGreat1 on YouTube!!

ANYWAY...enough about Myles. The point is, I can't avoid Magic: The Gathering!!! I am currently addicted to opening packs - it's so fun!! You never know what you're going to get! Just like a box of chocolates...and life?? Weird.

Lately, I've been using my limited (VERY limited) artistic skills to alter the art on crappy, worthless (read: expendable) cards. Every now and then I find a card that I can immediately see how I want to alter. I've done a few now - most are very small - so I thought I would share them...but, not here. I think I will follow in my friend's footsteps and just tumble them.

I gave those wolves some motivation! Plus, I <3 bunnies!!!!

Here I am on Tumblr!!! Everybody's tumblin'...

Back to the Basics!!!

Okay, so it’s been six months (half a year!!!) since I’ve written anything for this here “gaming” blog. I’ve licked my wounds from the horrible showing I had at the M12 pre-release, skipped Innistrad completely, and am putting it all behind me. I DID play at the Grand Prix Montreal (scrubbed at 2-2-1), but it was really just an excuse to go to Montreal and let’s face it – I’m no MTG player. I will leave that to Myles, who is carving a cozy little niche for himself in the YouTube MTG trading community. You can follow his progress with his trades (he’s trying to get a “piece of power“ by trading cards that have been donated to him) here. Also, he’s converted our tiny living room into the set for his nerdy Magic show, Milo: The Gathering. I’m credited as the director, but I swear, all I do is push the record button, and crudely edit the resulting material into a passably presentable finished video. You can watch them here, if you are so inclined. 

No…my time is better spent (wasted?) trying out all the new games we've acquired over the last few months. After Myles and I scrubbed out of Montreal, we had a free day to wander around and explore the city. We ended up at a great little game store called, Chez Geek, where the owner got super excited - giddy even - when we picked up King of Tokyo. Of course, Myles gravitated towards it because it is a board game created by none other than, Richard Garfield - the creator of Magic: The Gathering.


But, don't let that stop you non-Magic-playing people!! This game is so much fun!!! It's currently our favourite board game to play when we don't want to get too deep into strategy. The concept and execution are so simple that you can pretty much just dive right in and start playing. Basically, you control a monster that fights the other monsters (i.e. players) while trying to take over Tokyo. You start with 10 health points, which decrease every time you are attacked, which means you can die (and get eliminated from the game) if you hit zero hearts. The first monster to earn 20 victory points or the last monster standing (whichever happens first) wins the game! Easy peasy! The mechanics of the game are simple - roll a bunch of custom dice (very similar to Zombie dice) and choose whether to take energy cubes, victory points, healing points, or you can attack. If you are the monster occupying Tokyo, your attacks will hit all other opponents, but you are unable to heal. If you are not in Tokyo, your attack only hits the monster that is in Tokyo, and you are allowed to heal. If the monster in Tokyo takes damage from an attack roll, they can switch places with the monster that dealt damage. You might be thinking, "why would I risk being in Tokyo?" Well, the answer to that is, you get 2 victory points if you start your turn in Tokyo. Doesn't sound like a lot, but points can be pretty hard to come by. The real fun comes with the special cards on which you can spend energy cubes to buy. These cards allow you to earn victory points, or deal extra damage, or heal, or roll an extra die each turn, or cause your opponents to roll one less die each turn...so many different things!!! In fact, we don't even know all the different things you can do with these cards because we haven't gone through them all, yet. They really change the dynamics of the game and add enough variety to allow players to pursue different strategies.


The dude at Chez Geek told us that this is one of few games where the more players you have, the more fun it is to play. Often, if a game says it's for 2-6 players, it's probably best to play with 4. We haven't had a chance to try it out with a full group of monsters, but you can tell that it would be crazy, chaotic, and totally fun. Can't wait to wrangle up a larger group of friends so we can all try to take over Tokyo!!

Check out the awesome monsters that you can control! Myles always goes for the Cyber Bunny...I like to mix it up each time we play. 

Here's a pic of the dice. You need three of a kind when you are going for victory points (so, if you roll three 2s, you get two points...each additional 2 is worth 1 extra point). Otherwise, 1 bolt = 1 energy cube; 1 paw = 1 attack; and 1 heart = 1 healing point.