All posts by Blond

Uncategorized

Rapid Fire! Random Thoughts on the 2019 NFL Season

Leave a comment

-Biggest surprise of the season must be how good the Baltimore Ravens are.  I think most people figured that Lamar Jackson was going to be more of an average QB with a good season sprinkled in here and there.  Yup. Average. The guy has been unstoppable.  You can’t contain him, and even if your coverage is good, he uses his feet to either buy time until a receiver inevitably gets open, or he will just pick up the first down himself. I’m always surprised at how fast the ball comes out of his hands with minimal effort for 20-30-yard gains even when his feet aren’t planted.  I knew the Ravens defense was already good and with the offseason addition of Earl Thomas it got better.   It seems that after the blowout loss to Cleveland, they have been on the warpath.  I watched him destroy my beloved New England Patriots with relative ease and my gut says that when they meet in the Playoffs, they will do so again. 

-Well it finally happened; the Kansas City Chiefs defense is so damn bad that even the offense can’t bail them out anymore.  When is Andy Reid going to learn that you need a defense?  Not every game should be a sprint on the scoreboard.  They were my AFC pick to make the Super Bowl this year.  Wha..? I didn’t pick the Patriots?! More on that later.

-What the hell happened to the Rams?  One season after they made the Super Bowl and they look awful.  The offense just can’t get anything going and the defense isn’t good enough to keep them in games.  Goff looked like the next big thing last year and at this point looks like a very, very average QB. My working theory is that whoever faces the Patriots in the Super Bowl falls off the Max Kellerman trademarked “cliff” going forward.  Think about it! Rams? Suck. Falcons? Suck. Eagles? Kinda Suck. Seahawks? Well they slightly sucked for a couple of years after that horrific goal line call in the 2014 Super Bowl, but they are looking decent this year.  Maybe the curse wears off?

-I’m still shocked at Marcus Mariota being benched for Ryan Tannehill. Even more shocked that Tannehill is actually playing decently.  What happened to Mariota?! He was a world-beater in Oregon! I think sometimes that college-level talent doesn’t necessarily translate to the NFL. Don’t get me wrong, I still think he’s better than a lot of the QBs in the NFL, but he’s just not consistent.

-Buffalo Bills are for real.  Yeah.  Let that sink in.  Josh Allen is not a draft bust like I thought he would be.  In fact, for the most part, has been getting better and better as the season goes on. Even more surprising is the fact that they have a really good defense.  Only thing going against them is that they are in New England’s division so the most they can hope for is a Wild Card spot.

-San Francisco 49ers are also very much for real.  Jimmy G hasn’t always been stellar this season, but he’s done enough to keep me playing the “What If” game.  As in what if the Pats didn’t trade him for essentially nothing.  Yeah, I’m still crying over that. Also, the 49ers’ defense is ridiculous.  At only 1 loss this season, I can see how they are the NFC favorite to make the Super Bowl.   I don’t think so though…

-My Super Bowl pick?  Well as I stated above barring any injury to Lamar Jackson the Ravens will represent the AFC.  NFC? Well part of me thinks that the 49ers avenge their only loss this season to the Seahawks BUT I think Russell Wilson is just too clutch and the Seahawks knock the 49ers out of the Playoffs in what should be a close game.  Ravens vs Seahawks.  Ravens win 31-17.

-The New England Patriots Offense. Yikes.  I know a lot of people are blaming a very green receiver roster for the offensive issues this season but as much as it pains me to say it, Tom Brady is also responsible.  I can hear the cries of blasphemy from my fellow N.E fans already, but I do think it’s true.  It’s taking him longer to get the ball out of his hand and his accuracy seems to be off.  He’s missing a lot of easy throws on screen passes that he used to make with no problem.  And we’re talking a lot of missed throws in soft coverage.  His awareness in the pocket also seems to be an issue.  Ok, enough picking on Brady, the receivers also seem to have a ton of drops on what should be easy uncontested catches. Hopefully they find their rhythm in the next couple of games or they’re screwed.  While I think their #1 defense can continue to win games for them, that same defense struggled mightily against Baltimore. 

-Speaking of N.E’s defense, Stephon Gilmore is a beast.  Best cornerback in the league by far.  I knew he was insanely good, but to completely shut down Amari Cooper was mind-blowing.  0 catches.  To be fair Dallas should have won that game since Ezekiel Elliot finally had some momentum going and was picking up 5-6 yards per carry. But Jason Garrett is going to do Jason Garrett things like throw the ball on 3rd and 1 against the best secondary in the league.  Jerry Jones really needs to grow a pair and get rid of the guy. 

-On the subject of good ol’ Jerry, during yesterday’s (Thanksgiving) game against Buffalo, I loved that every time Dallas completely crapped the bed, the camera would zoom in on the owner’s box to get his reaction.  It’s like the network wanted to either catch old man tears on film so very badly or they wanted him to hold up sign that read “Jason, if you can read this, you’re fired”. To be fair, it would have been understandable if he did either.  I missed it, but I heard that he literally did have tears in his eyes during an interview after the game.  Jason Garrett, you are a total dumpster fire of a coach and you also made Jerry cry. I couldn’t help but laugh when he goes for it on 4th and 1 on the 19-yard line when it was a close game, but then when they are down 2 scores in the 3rd quarter, he kicks the field goal.  What?!

Uncategorized

Thank ****! It’s Thanksgiving! (What I’m Thankful For)

Leave a comment

It’s that time of year; where we get fat on dead bird and reflect on things in our lives that make us not want to swing from our shoelaces from a ceiling fan.  Don’t know about you but that sentence gave me the warm and fuzzies.   Well, in the spirit of the holiday season I’ve decided to share, with our loyal readers (bots), the things that I’m most thankful for this year.

Shawn’s Hate of the New England Patriots:  He’s hated them before it was the thing to do.  Eff the Pats indeed.  Can you blame him?  They have essentially ruined the NFL for him for the past decade.  All I know is that it makes the diehard N.E fan in me cackle manically whenever he voices his utter contempt for them.

Comic Books: The beginning of the year was rough for me.  Work was really wearing me down and making me depressed, but I dove headfirst into my comic collection and it worked wonders.  Between reading them, hunting them, buying them, sorting them and talking with Shawn daily about them, it kept me sane as well as kept my shoestrings in my shoes.   Just having that escape when I didn’t necessarily have the time to play MTG or play a video game made a huge difference and really got me through.  Dying media? Maybe, but I’ll go down with the ship.

Nintendo Switch Lite: I’m getting married next fall and since both my parents and my soon-to-be bride’s parents are not swimming in money like ****ing Scrooge McDuck <insert Ducktales theme song here>, we have to foot the bill for the entire thing.  Which means less money on nerd stuff, so I haven’t been able to run out and get a Switch yet. All I’ve heard for the past year is how awesome the damn thing is but yet the price hasn’t dropped on it.  BUT Nintendo has taken mercy on the nerds on a budget and announced the Lite version of the Switch for $199.  Yeah, it doesn’t connect to a tv, but screw it, I play mostly handhelds anyways (insert joke here), and highly doubt I would even use a switch on my tv.  I can justify 200 bucks for a Switch, but the cheap gamer in me is holding out for a Black Friday (AKA Materialpossessiongeddon) deal on one. Either way, I will be a proud owner by the end of the year.

Madden Football:  I don’t think I ever laugh as hard as when I play Madden against Shawn.  Between our obvious inability to throw a completed pass without it getting picked off, the crappy commentary (specifically when they talk about Tom Brady, even though neither one of us are playing as the Patriots), and our own completely inappropriate commentary which will never see the light of day, it’s always a good time.

DCBS (Discount Comic Book Service): Although their shipments can be a bit wonky (I’m still waiting for a book that was released in August and a few from September), I can’t complain about the prices and with the aforementioned wedding expenses they’ve allowed me to stay current in the hobby instead of trying to play catch up via Midtown Comics and paying twice the amount.  Sorry, I still like Midtown Comics for their exclusive autographed books, but the shipping times are always ridiculous.

Teflon Trump’s Fat Fingers of Twitterin’ Doom:  We tend to stay away from politics on this site since it tends to be a divisive subject. Also, our readership is basically all Russian bots and we all know that Trump+Russians=Besties. Hey-OH!  Seriously though folks, sometimes the s*** this guy tweets out makes me laugh due to the sheer unfiltered stupidity packed into those 280 characters.  It’s both amazing and horrific entertainment all wrapped up into one fat spray-tanned package.  What are all the late-night hosts going to do if he’s actually impeached/loses the next election?! Someone is going to have to do daily wellness checks on Colbert.

Alright that’s it for this year folks! I hope that you and yours have a fantastic holiday season! 

Uncategorized

Why Pioneer Will Stick/Why Pioneer Will fail

1 Comment

Howdy gang! Today I wanted to touch on the subject of the newest format of Magic the Gathering that’s gaining steam; Pioneer.  For those of you who are scratching your virtual heads (looking at you Sergei), Pioneer is basically Modern but with the restriction of only being able to use cards from the Return to Ravnica block forward. Being more of a Modern player this format resonates with me.  I got back into the game during the RTR block and while it holds a special place in my heart, I kick myself for not getting back into the game years before when the staples of Modern were first released.  Yes, unfortunately, I’ve always gone to modern feeling underpowered as I stared across the table at Tarmogoyfs, Lilys, Emrakruls, Karns, Fetches,  ..you get the point, while I played mostly budget decks as I’m a responsible (ish) adult who refuses to spend a grand or two on a Tier1 Modern deck.  With this format, it feels like equal footing.  It’s Modern for the new guys.  While giddy on the inside, I’m cautious on the exterior.  Why? Well I’m glad that you asked, voice in my head, I’ll tell you why I think this format could already be in trouble and why, on my soft caramel and nougat inside (Mmm Milky Ways), I think this might stick.

Fail!

WOTC has already made it clear that there will be weekly bannings as the competitive scene meta comes to light. I think a big reason why this format has caught on fire in the last few weeks is the fact that all the overpowered cards from Standard-Ghosts past are now playable again.  Emrakrul, The Promised End, Deathrite Shaman, Aetherworks Marvel, Dig Through Time, Treasure Cruise, Saheeli Rai and that damn Felidar Cat..the list goes on and on.  It’s actually been interesting to track the card value spikes online while giggling to myself knowing that there would be a crash on a lot of the cards due to the Ban Hammer being swung around every week.  Right off the bat, WOTC banned Fetches (thank you!), and just last week dropped the hammer on the Felidar Beast, therefore killing the Saheeli infinite combo, Oath of Nissa and Leyline of Abundance (to kill mana fixing right out of the gate).  While, personally, I rather play fair games that last more 4 turns, I think there a lot of players that get a rush from pulling off infinite combos, playing overpowered cards, and just generally breaking the system and sticking it to the man. Once the bans keep coming, I can see a lot of players dropping the format and crying into their playset of Treasure Cruises. (C’mon we all know that is going away!).

Here to Stay!

Simply put; everyone is ****ing tired of getting their collective ***es kicked by the same Modern decks over and over again.   Jund, Tron, Lantern Control, Burn, Bant.  We’ve all at one time played against them either in person or online. If you haven’t, then consider yourself lucky.  Next person who plays Lantern Control against me will get dropkicked in the ****ing throat. Try me m*******r. Ahem..er..anyways..How many times have  you watched SCG Modern streams just to see the same decks over and over and over?  How many times have you perused the Top 8 decklists just to see the same decks over and over and over?  This is a fresh start! The meta is constantly in a state of flux as WOTC bans what they deem as unfair, so the top decks haven’t been decided yet and probably won’t be for awhile until the bans have subsided.  This format feels different as Wizards is pushing it hard in the competitive scene.  I fully expect a Pioneer Masters set next year. Write it down.   I’ve never felt this sense of excitement from players when it came to any other format.  Brawl? Meh. Wizards is still pushing it but not as hard. Tiny Leaders? Who gives a tiny crap? Pioneer? Hell yes! People instantly reacted to the announcement and singles prices went haywire. My gut tells me Pioneer will be a winner due to Modern Fatigue and the uncreative deck brewing of that format, as well as people having tons of old Standard cards just sitting in binders that are not Standard-legal but also not powerful enough to compete in Modern.  The possibilities are endless right now and I think people are picking up on that. It’s not often that you can get in on the ground floor of a format.

Bonus Section! Coming to a Banned List Near You!

  1. Aetherworks Marvel
  2. Oko
  3. Dig through Time
  4. Treasure Cruise
  5. Fabled Passage

On the Tabletop

MTG Monday Night Modern Vol.2

Leave a comment

A few weeks ago I decided that I was going to make my triumphant(?) return to a Monday night Modern event at one of the local game stores near me. I won’t name them because they haven’t thrown us a sponsorship along with a lifetime supply of gaming goodies. C’mon! You know I’m in this for the free stuff! I kid! I kid! Ahem.

The one part of going to game nights that causes me anxiety is picking which deck to play. I basically went back and forth between Bogles and Storm for the entire week before. Bogles is annoying and one of those Tier 2 modern decks that sneaks into Tier 1 from time to time, while Storm is more fun to actually play with and can lead to some quick kills if your opponent doesn’t recognize the important cogs of the deck but I did have the “Weird Paradise Mantle” combo in the deck and always felt slightly sheepish playing it. In the end, after talking with (at?) Shawn (Modern isn’t his thing), about which deck I should play, I decided to go with Bogles.

Having played at the same spot many times, I know who the regular attendees are and which deck that they tend to play. Unfortunately, Lantern Control is one of those decks that always seems to be present. I can’t stress how much I HATE Lantern Control. I loathe it. Ensnaring Bridge is such a piece of ******* ****. You know a control deck is too controlling when Shawn, king of the blue mages, hates it too. I fully support a new rule that says if your opponent brings Lantern Control to a game night, you are well within your rights to take that deck outside, light it on fire, and then piss on it to put the fire out. I had joked with Shawn about having crap luck and knowing that I would have to play against someone who was running Lantern Control….

Round 1: Lantern Control. Yup. Very. First. ****ing. Round.
My opponent, who was actually the judge of the event, was a really nice guy. I think people at these game nights tend to think that they are going to be paired up with “Serious Sam” and just get down to business with no friendliness. He was very formal to begin with but once he plopped down a Codex Shredder only to be met with a stream of expletives from the other side of the table, he relaxed and joked around a bit with me which made playing this piece of crap deck bearable. The first game was actually close because he had trouble getting his hand empty and I had stopped pumping up my Bogles and was just swinging with 1/1’s. I was able to get him down to 8 life before he was able to get that last card out of his hand and then lock me, and the game, down. The 2nd game went worse for me, he started with the necessary pieces in his hand and basically had me locked down by the 4th turn. Just to be a dweeb about it, I made him play the entire game out instead of conceding. God, I hate this deck.

0-1

Round 2: Druid Combo
From Lantern Control right to an infinite combo deck! LA DEE ****ING DA!

I made several misplays in the first game and he beat me without even getting the infinite combo of Devoted Druid and Vizier of Remedies out on the table. For those of you not familiar with the combo, Devoted Druid taps to add 1 green mana to your pool but also has the ability to untap if you put a -1/-1 counter on him. Vizier of Remedies basically prevents your creatures from getting -1/-1 counters. Yep. Infinite Mana to do fun things like use Duskwatch Recruiter to search endlessly through your deck until you hit the stompy favorite of your choice and play it. In this case my opponent went with Walking Ballista, which gets infinite counters on it, which in turn does infinite damage to me. I don’t think I even hit him once in this game. Complete and utter blowout.

0-2

Round 3: Elves
Ok, I’ll be honest, this isn’t an official match. My buddy and I both had byes this round and decided to play each other instead of wandering around aimlessly for an hour waiting for the next round to begin. Against Elves you know you have to take it down quick by either outracing it or remove the little guys immediately once they hit the table. Since I was running only 2 copies of Path to Exile in my deck, (mistake), I had to outrace it. I lost the first game but won the next one and we left it as a tie.

0-2-1

After our match, we both decided to pack it up and call it a night, we both were in the running for last place as he had gone 0-2 as well and wasn’t really happy about it. Most likely we would have ended up paired with each other in the last round anyways. I wasn’t surprised at all that I had not done well. Modern is like swimming with the sharks. Some nights you eat and some nights you get eaten. Hindsight is a cruel mistress and I realized that if I had brought my Storm deck I would have done slightly better against Lantern Control since I had burn spells along with Guttersnipe. So basically, I could have just used all of my one mana cantrips and pinged away at my opponent with ‘Snipe’s ability. Most likely I would have still lost but damn it, I can dream of putting up a better fight than I did.

For those of you who are curious, these were the decks that were played that night:

Eldratron, Burn, Elves, BG Elves, Jund x2, Lantern Control x2,
Druid Combo, and my bitch ass Bogles.

I believe a Lantern Control deck won the whole shebang. #banthebridge

Thanks for reading! I look forward to sharing many more stories of getting absolutely pummeled at Modern nights with you all!

Comics!, Snap *censored* Pop Culture

Comic Haul! (Midtown Comics) 6/14/18

Leave a comment

Hey gang! I’m back to tell you all about my latest haul from Midtown Comics. As always, the comics are rated between 1-10 and more importantly, there are spoilers below. You have been warned. Seriously, don’t whine to us if something gets spoiled. Spoilerific reviews ahead.

Still there?

Let’s do this.

Justice League #1 (Cover B? C? I dunno..it’s the Jim Lee variant)
Here we go! I’ve been eagerly awaiting this issue ever since it was announced that Scott Snyder was taking over JL. Fresh off of Dark Knights Metal and JL: No Justice, you would think that this issue would slow down just a bit so new readers would get acclimated to the characters, but no! Action right from the first page! I can’t stress how good this issue is. Scott Snyder’s script is on point as usual and the artwork is absolutely gorgeous with every panel being as detailed as possible. The Justice League faces a universe altering threat tied to the hole in the “Source Wall” from Metal as Martian Manhunter reflects on his role on the team as well as his past. There are a few funny moments in the book like when the Justice League is telepathically connected trying to figure out who does the best “Batman” voice. Really solid start to the Snyder era. (10/10)

Batman #48 (Cover A and B)
This issue fell a little flat for me. Joker takes over a church and kills everyone in it just to get Batman’s attention. Why? So he can ask Bats if he can be his best man. This is basically a Batman comic where Batman says two words and the Joker has 99% of the dialogue. I think my issue here is that in a couple of key moments, Batman acts way out of character. What are the odds that Batman is going to be caught off-guard and allow Joker to put a gun to his head, have a short monologue, and then allow him to pull the trigger? I was fairly certain that the main power that Batman possesses besides his brain, is his martial arts knowledge. And as if that’s not confusing enough, at the end of the book, Joker asks Batman to pray with him. And Batman kneels down next to him instead of knocking him out, or even restraining him, no, he kneels down to pray with the Joker. Is Joker suddenly Catholic?? He didn’t think for a second that its probably a trap?!? And lo and behold a bomb then detonates to the surprise of no one. Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure that Tom King has a much better grasp of his version of Batman than I do, but all in all, it just seemed too out of character for me. The next issue is advertised as Catwoman and Joker one on one so let’s hope this story gets a little better going into #50. (5/10)

Immortal Hulk #1 (Cover A)
Admittedly, I’m not a huge Hulk fan and for the most part have fallen out of touch with the character. After brushing up on my Hulk history, I ordered the new 1st (not so much) issue of Hulk. I had been looking forward to this issue because it was announced that it would have more of a horror vibe to it. I’m a huge bronze age horror junkie so I was really hoping this would have the same feel to it. First of all, thank you Marvel, for including the legacy issue number underneath the new one. For collectors like Shawn and myself, this is really helpful for cataloging purposes since collecting an entire run can get confusing with all the reboots that tend to happen. This book definitely has a darker vibe to it, with Bruce Banner being the Hulk once again, and apparently turns into the Hulk, even if he is “dead”, when the sun goes down. The artwork is really decent, and the story in this issue was tragic but fairly simplistic. Overall an interesting take on the Hulk and I’m adding the title to my pull list. (8/10)

Amazing Spider-Man 800 (Reg. Cover and H.Ramos Connecting Variant)
Here it is, the 800th(!) issue of Spidey, and holy hell it’s a doozy! 80 pages of intense action and plot twists as the Red Goblin storyline wraps up! This issue was simply incredible. Tons of references to classic stories, several jaw-dropping moments like Venom agreeing to help Spidey, to the point of lending him the Venom symbiote to even things out with Red Goblin, even friggin’ Doc Oc lends a hand, and the death of a longtime character. This issue hit it out of the park, and is absolutely worth the price tag. I liked it so much that I bought 2 copies, the regular and the Humberto Ramos connecting variant. (11/10)

Comics!, Hobbies, Snap *censored* Pop Culture

Comics Books: How Marvel is Killing the Industry One Gimmick at a Time

Leave a comment

For the last few months, I’ve been in denial. In denial of the slow decline of comics. There, I said it: Comics are declining. Shawn had texted me a couple of times in the past saying as much once he left the hobby behind. I didn’t want to believe it, and in those cases agreed with his observations but not necessarily that the entire industry was in trouble. After all, DC Comics was still putting out quality books. Well folks, the industry is in trouble. DC Comics is still chugging along producing really great stuff (Batman, Batman: White Knight, Wonder Woman, Justice League, Dark Nights Metal), but Marvel Comics has stopped pulling its weight.

If you remember it was only last August that Marvel announced their “Legacy” initiative after Secret Empire concluded, which was essentially just a fancy term for going back to original numbering on their line of books and “bringing the fun back to comics”.

I gritted my teeth and said, “Ok, it feels like a reboot-ish thing but I’ll try a few titles out.”

I fell under the spell of the Lenticular covers, fully aware that it felt all too familiar. It felt like the same mistakes that were made back in ’96, when the industry essentially collapsed and Marvel declared bankruptcy. Gimmick covers, reboots, character deaths,..etc, it turned off both the casual reader and the collector. Cripes, I still remember standing in line just to pick up Superman #75 because it was the end of Superman. At that point we were not yet conditioned to the fact that a death isn’t a death in comics. A little while later after enduring the painfully crappy “Funeral for a Friend” crossover and the god-awful Four Supermen crossover, Superman was alive and well and the industry was, well, not.

So what happened this fall? Marvel puts out their fancy little covers and we all flock to buy them. Wrong. We actually didn’t all run out and buy them. I mean, I did because I’m an idiot but a majority of people realized that a cover doesn’t matter. It’s what’s between the covers that matters. And what was between those covers was of the same quality that existed before Legacy, and that quality wasn’t great in comparison to what DC was putting out. Sure, there were a few good storylines, but as a whole Marvel was in trouble.

One of their most talented writers, Brian Michael Bendis, decided to jump ship and joined the competition. He later revealed that Marvel tried to convince him to stay by offering him a Deadpool or Wolverine book. Typical Marvel. This brings me to my next point: riding the hype wave of a popular character until people stop caring. How many Deadpool books can they pump out? Again, sins of the past..Do you remember how many Wolverine books were around in the 90’s? How many cameos he had in other books? It was mind-boggling. Deadpool is being treated the same way. You can’t base an entire company off of one frickin’ character. I’ll be honest with you, DC is starting to fall into the same trap with Batman. Since Scott Snyder wrote the hell out of the “New 52” series and sold a ton of books, there has been a real focus on Bats in the DC Universe. Are the books good? Absolutely. Just yesterday, I told Shawn to give White Knight a try. However this doesn’t mean that every month there should be a new Bats series, and its starting to be that way. DC just released Brave and Bold: Batman & The Wonder Woman #1 as well as Batman: Sins of the Father #1. That’s two new titles in the same month. So while DC is putting out better quality, I do get worried that they will fall into the same traps that Marvel has.

One thing they haven’t done is raise their cover prices, which in the end is what most people care about. They even lowered the price on their Dark Nights Metal books once they saw that the sales were so great for the first two one-shots a dollar. Maybe it’s just me but that shows that they listen to and appreciate their audience. I read an interview with Marvel chief Joe Quesada where he takes the exact opposite approach and defends the $4-$5 cover prices essentially saying that the fans have enjoyed underpriced books for too long and Marvel charges what they think the creativity in their books is really worth. My guess is that he feels untouchable because Marvel Studios is an absolute juggernaut in the box office, and soundly kicks the bajeezus out of DC. Fun fact: Did you know that Black Panther has already surpassed Justice League in total domestic sales in its first week?! So while, Quesada might feel untouchable in that aspect of the business, he, unfortunately for him, only runs the comic side. The lesson that is being learned as we speak is that movie viewers do not turn into comic readers.

So how does Marvel try to remedy this problem? By rebooting. Over and over again. Y’know to give any new readers a “jumping on point”. So in May, coincidentally when Avengers: Infinity War is due to release, Marvel is going to, yup, reboot again! All that Legacy “bringing the fun back to comics” stuff? Gone! Long-term readers? Eh, go screw! I don’t understand the mentality of this decision. Do they really think that because a gazillion Avengers tickets will be sold that it will translate into a gazillion issues of Avengers #1 being sold? What happens when the second Avengers: Infinity War flick is released? Another reboot? This logic alienates current readers in order to possibly attract new ones, which obviously hasn’t worked.

They are calling this upcoming reboot their “Fresh Start” initiative. (Shakes head)

After many conversations with Shawn combined with the points I’ve made above, I believe that your buddies at 2 Guys has a solution to save the industry, or at the very least, save Marvel Comics.

-Drop cover prices to $2.99 to be even with DC. Your books currently suffer from low quality writing and art, so the excuse of us having to pay for their creative value holds no water.
-For the love of ****ing God stop rebooting.
-Hire some new talent, get some unknown pencillers, some unknown writers, colorists,..etc, who knows? You might discover the next Scott Snyder or David Finch.
-No more Lenticular covers, no more shiny covers, hell, I wouldn’t be sad to see variants go away in general.
-No more cheap gimmicks like mish-mashing ****ing characters like “Weapon H” or “Red Goblin”. Do we really need another Wolverine-like character? No. No, we don’t.

Well, that’s my two cents as far as the comic industry goes, agree? Disagree? Let me know. I think that one thing we can all agree on as comic fans is that our hobby needs to be protected from cash grabby schemes and we deserve better than what Marvel is selling us. DC? Well you’re doing fine, but watch those Bat books and the foil covers, we’ve got our eyes on you….

Digital Playground, Hobbies, On the Tabletop, Snap *censored* Pop Culture, Uncategorized

Rapid Fire!..Random Thoughts 2/19

Leave a comment

-To buy a box of M25 or not? I wish the spoilers were flowing a little more freely since the boxes are below $200 at the moment and while the thought of possibly pulling a Jace, the Mind Sculptor out of a pack is dancing in my head, it”s not quite enough to make me jump and preorder. My prediction for the big ticket cards in the set: Enemy fetches, Tarmogoyf, Aether Vial, Liliana of the Veil, Wurmcoil Engine, Force of Will, Mana Drain and Crucible of the Worlds.

-The first DLC characters for Dragonball FighterZ have been announced; Borly and Bardoc. Bardoc is Goku”s pops so it”s essentially another Saiyan which is a little disappointing. While I have gushed uncontrollably about the game, I do wish they would bring in some more non-Saiyan characters. On the other hand Borly should be the largest character in the game so it”ll be interesting to see how powerful the character actually is.

-A Japanese bike company (Khodaa-Bloom) designed a really cool Megaman themed bike. It can be yours for the low, low price of $2700 USD. For that price, it better come with a friggin” Buster Shot on the front.

-Not sure where I”ve been, but somehow I missed the fact that Gamestop managed to swing a deal to have a Secret of Mana remake for the PS4 be a Gamestop exclusive. Interesting to see if this becomes a thing, (i.e. Target gets exclusive games, Walmart gets exclusive games,..).

-Only 59 more days until God of War 4 is released. But who”s counting?

-For all of my Star Wars fans out there, you can preorder the largest Star Wars toy that Hasbro has ever made, Jabba”s Sail Barge, for a mere $499.99! This monstrosity is 4 feet long, a little over a foot wide, and a 1 A? feet tall, and comes with either divorce papers or a letter from your child expressing their undying love and gratitude. There is a catch, Hasbro will only start production if they get 5,000 preorders by 4/3 (currently, as of this post, they have 1,259 orders). You can place your preorder at www.hasbrolab.com.

-Finally, I want to thank everyone who follows us on Twitter and/or Instagram!

Digital Playground

The Death of Marvel vs Capcom

Leave a comment

Marvel vs Capcom: Infinite is dead. Let’s just get that out there in the open. I know, you know it, Capcom knows it. Capcom knows it so much that they omitted MVC from their Capcom Pro tournament. Think about that. The company that designed, marketed and released the game is saying that their own game is not good enough for their own tournament. Holy hell, people. This is a sad day for me as I have been a huge fan of the MVC series and to see it get the ol’ Street Fighter V treatment, aka releasing an unfinished game, and then to basically lose support from its studio, is a travesty to me. At least Street Fighter V has been updated and Capcom supports it. Do you know how many Twitch viewers MVC gets? A few hundred at a time. Really. A few hundred. Which essentially means that the general gaming community has lost interest in it. To pour another pile of crap onto this growing mountain of fertilizer, it won’t be included in EVO this year. For those of you not familiar with EVO, it’s essentially the World Series of fighting games. This is a death sentence. If the game is now not going to be in any noteworthy tournaments that’s a wrap folks. It appears that Dragonball FighterZ has taken its place as the premier 3v3 tag fighter on the market (rightfully so).

So with all that doom and gloom out of the way, I’m really trying to find a way to look at this from a positive point of view. Is this the wakeup call that Capcom needs? Are we as a collective group saying, ?Stop releasing beta versions of your fighters or your product will sit on the shelves?? God, I hope so. Enough is enough. Capcom has always been guilty of performing the blatant cash grab (re: releasing the same game over and over again with a new mode, or with a couple of new fighters that you have to download), but to knowingly release an unfinished game and forcing the consumer to download massive update files to patch it, is unforgivable. They have done it twice in a row with Street Fighter V and MVC. By the way, Street Fighter V was rereleased as Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition, which is the exact same game as the original version but comes with a download code for more characters. Yup. Cash. Grab. I love Street Fighter, I really do, and I was so disappointed when I bought SFV only to find that I needed to download a 9gb file just to play it. With that said, I love the MVC series even more, so it’s even more of a travesty that Capcom, well, Capcom’ed it, and released the game with a weak roster which has led to weaker sales. So what better way to remedy poor sales then by’rereleasing the game in a steelbook case and a download code for more characters. You know what? With some games this would be okay, and by some games, I mean any game that feels like a finished product. I know that in the past I have complained about DLC as being greedy but I know that’s the way the gaming world works today: companies have to try to get as much revenue off of a title as possible and if it’s by selling digital content then it’s easier to increase their margin and also cover the production costs of eventually rereleasing the title with everything included. In the case of MVC, it feels like the download code should have been given out for free in order to decrease the unhappiness of the community, instead of trying to sell another copy of the game with everything that was missing from the first version but in a metal friggin’ case. Capcom, clearly you’re able to release quality games, you *literally* just did with Monster Hunter World, why can’t you show the same love for your fighter fans?

I hope this isn’t the end of the MvC franchise but I have a hard time believing that Capcom will be in a hurry to invest money and resources into another title after they have essentially pulled support from the franchise. Who knows? Maybe after Avengers: Infinity War is released and sells a bazillion and a half tickets, Capcom will be inspired to ride the hype wave. Ah well, either way life goes on, so I’ll dry my eyes and then play some Dragonball FighterZ.


Also, MvC 2 is the best of the MvC series. I don’t know why people say 3 is. 52 characters! 52, people! *drops mic*

Digital Playground

Deck List! Hearthstone Secret Aggro Hunter (Standard)

Leave a comment

I discovered this little gem online and decided to give it a whirl. I went 6-1 with it only losing to a Warlock deck (shocking..). Regardless it’s very cool, and you can quickly overwhelm your opponent right out of the gate. As far as mulligan tips go, try to get a Secret Keeper in your opening hand along with some of the 2 drop Secrets in order to pump it. You can also look for an Alleycat and a Cloaked Huntress. The Alleycat puts instant pressure on your opponent and on T3 the Huntress comes out and your secrets are now free. It’s a very synergistic deck that can put up a fight against anything out there, besides Warlock apparently. I definitely recommend you try this one out and let us know what you think.

Digital Playground

Currently Playing…Battle Chasers: Nightwar (PS4)

Leave a comment

I’m hoping that all my fellow comic nerds out there remember the late 90’s comic series, Battle Chasers. It was created by one of my favorite artists on this planet, Joe Madureira, who is known for mixing Anime designs with really detailed American-style shading techniques. His style blew my mind when he was drawing Uncanny X-men, but once he started to work on Battle Chasers, he really started to hit his stride as a penciller. He was and still is one of the major influences of my pencil work, which makes this review a little hard to do. But my job is to give unbiased opinions for you guys, and I would be doing a crappy job if I told you that this game is amazing.

Battle Chasers starts out promising. The visuals are really sharp and you can tell that a ton of time was put into character design, the environments as well as the cut scenes. I was a little annoyed that the beginning of the game was a longer cut scene that lasts several minutes before you can actually play. Once you can actually play the game is pretty decent to begin with. It’s an old school JRPG with some unique elements that work well. There are two different kind of maps in this game: one that is an overworld view with different map points you move between and enemy encounters that are clearly identified, and the others are Diablo-esque dungeons. I really liked the dungeons and love the idea of mixing dungeon exploration with a turn-based JRPG. Each character in your party has different abilities that help you get through the dungeon. Before you enter a dungeon you have the choice of difficulty level, the harder the difficulty the better the loot you can pick up. The majority of Nightwar is actually spent in the randomly generated dungeons. But there is also plenty of side quests, crafting, and exploring to do in this game, I still haven’t become disinterested in the game because there is always something to do.

Ok, so what else did I like about this game? Other than the visuals and the dungeons that I mentioned above, the combat feels old school, which I love, yet also had a fresh feeling with the Overdrive mechanic. Usually you pay mana to use spells and special abilities, but by doing attacks you build up your Overdrive meter, which when fully charged, lets you use abilities for free, increases damage, etc. It adds an additional element of strategy to each fight, do you use the Overdrive early and try to build it up again? Or do you hold off until you have a boss on the ropes? I also like that random enemy encounters are not a thing in this game. It’s one of my pet peeves about other RPGs. Nothing worse than trying to walk somewhere and getting constantly bombarded by random enemies.

Okay, so now onto the bad stuff. The game crashed a few times on me. After some interwebz research, I wasn’t the only one that this happened to. I was very, very thankful that it autosaves so much so I didn’t really lose much. Still, this is something that is unforgivable in a finished product. I also found the inventory screen to be clunky and confusing, as well as having tiny font (I played this on my 60″), and the font was still on the smaller side. If it wasn’t for these issues, one being major, this game is actually decent as far as a JRPG goes. So back to the end of the first paragraph, I can’t say this game is amazing, don’t get me wrong, it’s certainly one of the better JRPGs that has been released in the past couple of years, but the bug and the menu design hold it back from being great. Is it worth the $25 price tag? Absolutely. Is it perfect? No, but still fun.

Buy it: If you’re an old school JRPG fan, like Diablo and used to be a fan of the Battle Chasers comic. It’s really neat seeing the characters come to life so to speak.

Try it: If you like JRPGs, this game is worth giving giving a shot. Is it Final Fantasy 3? No, but you might want to consider adding it to your collection anyways.

Walk by it: If you’re looking for a perfectly polished game. Or you have kids. Seriously, don’t buy this for your kids. Red Monika’s outfit is a bit much, and hers is not the only one, there is a witch in the game that leaves very little to the imagination.