A New Resolve

)So here I go again. I’m making a resolution to myself that I need to kick things in gear and accomplish more things. I think in part this is a result of the new job that I started a few weeks ago.

It seems that I have quite a few productive things that I could be doing outside of work that I’ve been slacking on. This blog, for instance, really needs to be updated more often. Thus, here I go. I’m going to be aiming for an entry of some kind each week. We’ll see how close I get to it. Granted, you could make certain arguments about how productive (or not) that writing a blog online is. Hopefully, at some point I’ll stumble onto something funny or otherwise worthwhile for people to read.

Aside from this blog, I need to get cracking more on the church website that I’m de facto webmaster for. I’ve left the updates there too far between. Or my DeviantArt page. Or a whole host of other things. This is a digital age. I’ve been part of the very large percentage of consumers so far, and I’ve passively absorbed information from the web. Now, I really ought to start producing something of my own. Whether anyone else actually gets any value out of it is another matter entirely.

Oh well, we’ll see what happens. Up next, a review of the web based CCG Warstorm!

South Central National ’08

I play A Game of Thrones for the community. It’s a great gaming system from a tactical and strategic standpoint, with a number of twists unique to it, but the community is what has kept me in the game for years. These are people that I might only randomly see at tournaments a couple times a year, but I always still feel like I can pick up the middle of a conversation we left months ago. I got into the game after reading George RR Martin’s fantasy novels (the first of which is titled A Game of Thrones ) in the summer of ’02. For the first few years of my involvement in the game I stuck exclusively to local tournaments in Joplin, MO, but gradually I grew more and more competitive. With a now former World Champ in my meta (Greg Atkinson of the Springfield area) I had to expand. I have several 3^rd place finishes at larger events and a winning record at last year’s World Championships, but not quite enough to break all the way out yet. Which brings us, of course, to the last weekend of April; The South Central Nationals 08.

This was not the first event of this nature that I’ve hosted, thankfully. It’s good to have a little experience under my belt and make things a better event this time around. This was the first time that I’ve run an event at Meta-Games, though it’s the second event of this level (formerly Regionals) that has been held at the store. This year I think was a success for a number of reasons. First off, I’ve got to say it was a total pleasure to work with the staff at MGU. The guys are all a blast to talk to and were more than willing to do whatever I thought needed to be done to make the event a success. Next we had a solid core group of players from all over Missouri that turned out to play. Out of our 15 players, we had some from Neosho, Springfield, Columbia and St. Louis! Also, the event was attended by travelers from Indiana and Iowa. It was also great because it gave at least one retired player that I know a chance to check the game out after an absence for a few years and see what it’s about. He’s since told me he wants to get back in rather heavily and possibly get another ex-player or two.

We began Friday night, the 25^th, with a dozen players for the multiplayer (henceforth known as “melee” in the medieval spirit) Championship for our national region. This worked out beautifully as the revised melee rules call for 4 man tables, so this allowed 3 tables very nicely. We played two rounds of essentially random pairing, with the the second round leaving me witness to something I had not seen in AGoT before- and infinite mill deck. Well, ok, so it wasn’t quite infinite as he couldn’t had to mill his own deck and then recycle it the next phase before he could begin again, but it was near enough for our purposes. That might have been the most boring game I’ve ever set through, but I have to give him congratulations on turning out a pretty complicated idea and making it work. Let not the naysayers claim AGoT does not allow for combo decks. With the way melee games tend to drag on, even with a time limit, we had to cut the tournament here to allow for a finals table, which bent the rules slightly and allowed 6 players so that we wouldn’t have to cut someone with a record essentially even with two of the people that did make it. This was a knockdown game of setbacks if I ever saw one. People were turning on each other left and right. It was amazing to watch. I once again witnessed something amazing- the highest claim I’ve ever seen on a card- 34, I believe, on The Things I Do for Love. For those of you not familiar with claim, I would try to explain it in M:TG terms… it’s very, very vaguely like having a 34/34 creature smack you right in the middle of the face.

The Championship game ran to time, but by the end, Josh Staton pulled the victory!

On Saturday, we fielded 15 players for the head to head (henceforth known as “joust”) tournament at noon. For the joust tournament we played 5 rounds of Swiss pairings, then had a break for dinner and a cut to a final four, with the remaining players opting to head home, watch the finals, or play in a classic draft tournament. I’ve been working on tweaking different revisions and slants on a certain deck for over a year now for my main tournament mainstay, and while this often means that people have a good idea of certain cards to expect against me, I still feel that the decktype itself is so strong that it warrants my continued tinkering and tweaking. Unfortunately, this tournament, things just didn’t pan out for me as well as I had hoped. I wound up 2-2-1 (with the time coming from my first round game that went to time). Guess I should have gone with the previous revision that got me into the top 8 at a 55 player tournament in Chicago. Go figure. Things went much more fortuitously for our ex-World Champ, Greg Atkinson, who made the top 4 cut, and last year’s South Central champ, Justin Fox, who finished 5-0 in Swiss to enter the top 4. The semi finals round wound up with a bit of an upset as Fox was upset by newcomer Kevin McClure, and Atkinson by Lukas Liepzinger (whose last name, I think my memory has sadly butchered). The two new comers then faced of in a best two out of three to determine who would be the last man standing.

The first two games of the series were swept by Kevin McClure who became our new South Central Joust Champion!

Kennon’s Chicon III and State of the Game Pt. 3

For those that are interested, I thought I would post my deck here with some thoughts behind it before I add the draft and state of the game thoughts later.
http://tzumainn.com/agot/decks/deck.php?current_deck_id=13184

ChiCon III 7th Place – Lannister
—– Plots (7) avg income: 4.1 —–
Conventions of War x1 Five Kings Edition U222
Wildfire Assault x1 Five Kings Edition F241
Prove One’s Worth x1 A House of Talons R138
Bounty of the Realm x1 Iron Throne Edition R223
Take Them By Surprise x1 Iron Throne Edition R231
The Gathering Storm x1 Iron Throne Edition F241
The Sack of Winterfell x1 Winter Premium Starter G49
—– Characters (36) avg cost: 2.4 —–
* Cersei Lannister x1 Five Kings Edition U31
* Joffrey Baratheon x1 Five Kings Edition U32
* Ser Jaime Lannister x1 Five Kings Edition U35
* The Hound x1 Five Kings Edition R36
Golden Tooth Guard x3 Five Kings Edition C40
Lannisport Weaponsmith x3 Five Kings Edition C41
* Tywin Lannister x3 A House of Thorns R10
* Knight of Flowers x1 A House of Thorns U61
* The Queen of Thorns x1 A House of Thorns R64
* The Bastard of Bolton x1 A House of Thorns R69
* Ser Stafford Lannister x1 Iron Throne Edition R30
Doubting Septa x3 Iron Throne Edition U35
* Ser Arys Oakheart x1 Iron Throne Edition R132
* Myrcella Lannister x1 Iron Throne Legacy Pack F9
* Ser Jacelyn Bywater x1 A Song of Twilight R16
Enemy Informer x3 Winter Edition C30
Expendable Ally x3 Winter Edition C31
Ser Amory’s Poachers x3 Winter Edition U35
* Lord of Bones x1 Winter Edition U136
Personal Guard x3 Winter Promotion P5
—– Locations (15) avg cost: 0.4 —–
* Castamere x1 Five Kings Edition U47
* Queen Cersei’s Chambers x1 Iron Throne Edition U42
Sunset Sea x3 Iron Throne Edition U144
* The Iron Throne x1 Iron Throne Edition R167
The Roseroad x3 Iron Throne Edition C171
Marbrand Estates x3 Iron Throne Legacy Pack F10
Corrupt Treasury x3 Winter Edition C39
—– Attachments (7) avg cost: 1.1 —–
Seal of the Hand x3 Iron Throne Edition R25
Frozen Solid x2 Winter Edition U2
Tywin’s Protege x2 Winter Edition R23
—– Events (17) —–
Put to the Question x2 A House of Thorns R124
You’ve Killed the Wrong Dwarf x3 Iron Throne Edition U220
Paper Shield x2 Iron Throne Legacy Pack F45
Azor Ahai Born Again x3 A Song of Night C111
From Winter’s Touch Returned x2 A Song of Night C117
Massing at Twilight x3 A Song of Twilight C127
Queen Cersei’s Command x2 A Song of Twilight C129

The original concept here was obviously enough to abuse AHoTh Tywin– everyone and their uncle is doing it these days. Obviously many of the cards (PTTQ, Paper Shield, From Winter’s Touch Returned, Queen of Thorns) are directed towards keeping the big man in play once he’s hit the board. To compliment this is a fairly standard assortment of kneel from Personal Guards to You’ve Killed the Wrong Dwarf. Also a few cards were chosen for general utility such as the strong suggestion from Dobbler many months ago now to run Frozen Solid out of house, a decision that I have yet to regret. Also, prior to GenCon, Staton convinced me that Azor Ahai Born Again was a great extra finisher card once I had the lock down. Originally to compliment those themes, I had the deck packed with all the character ability immunity I could in order to make Tywin as one sided of an effect as I could. Unfortunately, the rotation of Valyrian block left me hurting on that front- only Ser Jacelyn Bywater and the Lord of Bones remain (FFG, bring some character ability immunity back for Lannister. It was a nice theme for them) As I contemplated what to replace that theme with, it occurred to me that the faster I was able to make this deck, the better. At that point, I decided that three AABA would be a certainty since they generally enable 6 power or so in a single turn, once I have some of the screws on. Also, I loaded the deck out with most all of the in house Lannister renown that I could find, but it still seemed like something was lacking… then it struck me! Lannister has a huge number of cheap unique characters, and not so very long ago, the game was graced with a way to grant renown to each of them for a turn. Thus, I added Prove One’s Worth and the true scheme of the deck was born. Feign a Tywin lock as best I can (sometimes to the point of actually establishing it, but really to focus on rushing out the victory at a speed that Lannister is not known for. For a real example of how beautifully this can work (and the only time it has worked this well) check out the report of my game against Mathlete.

Kennon’s Chicon III and State of the Game Pt. 2

For those of you that couldn’t have guessed I was piloting a Lannister deck with no agenda in order to capitalize on AHoTh Tywin Lannister. It’s a build that I’ve been tweaking since last year’s ChiCon, but this time around I thought I had a few more tweaks that people wouldn’t be ready for. I’ll post a decklist and more thoughts on the deck later.

Round 1:

Andy Anderson- Baratheon/ No Agenda

This was a game that had me wary at first. He went out to a strong start with Old Bear Mormont (whose repeatable standing is a worry for my deck) and two Sister of Fire, a card that the local Baratheon player has made me utterly hate. I didn’t have Tywin in my opening hand, even after a mulligan, but I did draw him on the 1st draw. Andy fought valiantly against my growing Tywin lock, but his last chance to take Tywin out, via a surprise Make Him Fly, was foiled by a Paper Shield and by the 5th turn I had seven uniques in play to take advantage of my Prove One’s Worth. Win to me. 1-0

Props: Prove One’s Worth. I knew with the large number of great Lannister uniques I could run, this plot would be money.

Slops: None that I can think of.

Round 2:

Jonathan “Longclaw16″ Benton- Lannister/Treaty Martell

This was a tight, grueling match that lasted to time and a draw. He ended with 18 power to my 7 or 8. Two turns before that, I had been at 14 power and had a You Killed the Wrong Dwarf in my hand that could have given me the last power I needed to win, but Tywin was my only standing character, so I was unable to play it on him and Jonathan knelt Tywin with a Joffrey Lannister that he played in his marshalling before I could drop another character for the win. With Tywin out of the way, he was able to sneak in for an unopposed challenge with the ITE Red Viper and assassinate Tywin. From here, I dropped back to play a defensive game and plot a new strategy, but time arrived before I felt the true crush of defeat. Draw. 1-0-1

Props: Longclaw’s draw. He had obscene amounts and it made me envious.

Slops: Realizing afterwards that I might have been able to play You Killed the Wrong Dwarf on one of my already kneeling characters. What’s the current ruling on that these days? Am I going to be feeling like a total moron?

Round 3:

Jesse “Complord”- Baratheon/No Treaty

Jesse is always an incredibly fun guy to converse and play with, so I was looking forward to this game. Unfortunately, I started it with a fairly boneheaded move by attempting to defend one of his challenges with a personal guard that he had put In the Name of the King on. Three power to him. I really need to carefully read cards and not just assume that they don’t trigger off of defense. Fortunately for me, Jesse also made a similar move the next turn as I attempted to use Bounty of the Realm to dig into my deck for Tywin. Jesse flipped The Gathering Storm…. and let me have initiative! Grinning, I triggered my plot to discard and put five into my hand (netting Tywin in the process) and then triggered his plot to swap into Conventions of War. Needless to say, I dropped most of my brand new hand, then traded it all in again next turn on a “second” Bounty of the Realm. The game was tricky as Jesse stymied some of my important challenges with a Vale Ward. The tide finally turned as I neared 15 power and an important two claim intrigue challenge discarded both a Seductive Promise and the Vale Ward that would have given him the strength to change the course of the game with that event. Win. 2-0-1

Props: Bounty of the Realm. By now most everyone knows what a great plot it is, but random occurrences like this really reinforce that for me.

Slops: I really have to learn to read cards properly. Unfortunately, so does Complord.

Round 4:

John “Mathlete” Bruno- Lannister/No Agenda

Now, to really set this up, let me say that prior to this, I’m fairly certain that I’ve been stuck playing against John in every event we’ve both been playing in. And I’ve lost every time. I was nervous going into this as our last game at GenCon had been tight, but I figured this would probably be a defeat for me. Now comes the glorious part.

I flopped several reducers, Jacelyn Bywater and a weenie. First plot, I revealed Take Them By Surprise and chose John to go first. He played out several characters, and was done. By this point, I had an interesting hand- Tywin Lannister, The Queen of Thorns, Tywin’s Protege, and 3! Azor Ahai Born Again. I dropped Tywin, the QoT and slapped the Protege on Tywin. John made no challenges, probably looking to see what sort of moves I would make. I fired off the first AABA, which he had no cancel for and charged right in with Tywin, who met a Lannister Pays His Debts. for half a second, I almost picked Tywin up, thinking that I had been too bold and had just tanked the game. Then I realized that I’m an idiot and had the QoT in play, so I canceled his event, letting Tywin continue to rule the Challenge phase. Luckily, I also realized something else unique- that if I had the Protege on Bywater, I could actually play each of the remaining AABA as Tywin and Bywater would each by at 5 strength. I returned the attachment to my hand, and we quickly moved to the next round where I won initiative and chose to go first. I dropped the Protege on Bywater and little else. John played his Marshalling, and when Challenges rolled around, each of my AABAs went off without a hitch, netting me a 2nd turn victory with a Lannister control deck where Bruno never even made a challenge! Wow, I was riding high. Win. 3-0-1

Props: Azor Ahai Born Again and Tywin’s Protege. AABA is such an amazingly powerful card, and I give credit to Staton for suggesting it to me before GenCon this past year. It’s potential knows few bounds. Also, I’m so very grateful that I decided at the last minute to run two copies of Tywin’s Protege for the strength boosting almost more than the attachment control.

Slops: Me for gloating so much about my victory. Sorry John, but it was pretty gratifying after years now of beatdowns from you.

Round 5:

Jim “Beardo Deluxe” Sweeney- Lannister/ No Agenda

Well, this seemed to be a bit of a mirror match as we saw many of the same cards. The Red Cloaks worked out extremely well for him, and it made me a bit sad that they had been cut from my build. At first, I thought the game might go well as we each only had three strength characters as the highest in play and I started with two AABA in my hand. Unfortunately my three strength character was Stafford Lannister. *grumble grumble* Suffice it to say that those events stayed in my hand. He managed to get Tywin out against me, and I languished without one until the 5th turn. Sadly, I waited too long to use Bounty of the Realm in order to dig for Tywin and he correctly played Outfox. Jim also used Forgotten Plans to blank my Prove One’s Worth. He pretty much dismantled me this game. Loss. 4-1-1

Props: Castamere. Even though I forgot all day to use my when I had it in play, Jonathan and Jim showed me just how amazing it is when it’s in play.

Slops: My huge deck. if I’d been able to cut it down even to 65 cards, it would have really cut the time it took to find Tywin, and then I could have utilized those AABAs in my hand.

Round 6:

Nick “The Nickler/ FFG Nick” Agranoff- Targaryen/ The True Queen

Right off the bat, Nick worried me because I had never played against this type of deck before. I knew that I could literally be facing every single problem card from every other house… and that was a terrifying prospect. In fact, Nick opened with one of my least favorite characters, though it was in house for him- Pyat Pree. Luckily, he was just waiting to recieve the Seal of the Hand before he could be a problem. I managed to pull of Tywin and AABA on the 5th turn, as well as having 5KE Cersei in play as a CBK wight and Amory’s Poachers. Nick ‘Winged in Ser Arys Oakheart to knock out my Poachers and slow me down, as well as stopping my Bounty of the Realm with Outfox, thus keeping my hand pretty small all of that game. Also, Nick effectively stopped my military challenges via the WE Red Viper who was gaining power like a madman. The turn I finally took the game, I think we had each started with 10 power, so it was fairly tight all the way through. In the end, I triumphed though. Win. 4-1-1

Props: Seal of the Hand. That attachment is just so versatile in a deck like this either defensively or offensively.

Slops: Ser Stafford Lannister. I had him in my hand literally the entire game and just refused to play him because of his immunity. How often does something like that happen? This just isn’t the deck for him.

Well, it turned out that a 4-1-1 record was good enough to let me into the top eight again this year, this time at the seventh seed pitting me against Madkasel. We decided to play our game quickly in the hopes that whoever was knocked out could get into the amazing Super Draft.

Quarterfinals:

Drew “Madkasel: Kasel- Baratheon/ Brothers at War

As Madk mentioned earlier, this game was a fight for the ages. Drew started with a fantastic 6 card flop and put the pressure on quickly. Thankfully, I was able to drop Tywin into play early, and though I lost several standing character to his First Snow of Winter, so did he. The Iron Throne took out some of his influence in the form of the Vale, and I preceded to bleed power from him as I won dominance. It appeared that I had the Tywin lock screws on pretty tight as he played what appeared to be his last hope, Robert’s Wine Cellar, the same turn that I drew and played both a Frozen Solid and an Expendable Ally. Unfortunately for me, he also soon managed to drop Chosen by R’hllor on 5KE Robert Baratheon which limited my options greatly. Drew then really brought the pressure back to me by playing a Burdonsome Official, who I knew would be targetted straight for Tywin if he could win a power challenge. Sadly, I had never been able to bait Drew into using and locking down his Tarth before, so he was able to win and lock Tywin himself down. From here the game stabilized for him quickly as I drew the needed Tywin’s Protege to bounce the Burdensome Official, but I wasn’t paying attending and played it on the Lord of Bones rather than Amory’s Poachers which could have won the intrigue. In the end, Drew’s renown onslaught from there proved too much. Loss.

Props: Frozen Solid. Even at three gold, it’s just too good not to run for a house that needs location/attachment control like Lannister does. And it doesn’t hurt to draw it on the perfect turn either.

Slops: Myself for not having or using the cancel. Either I had killed my Expendable Ally for claim or simply forgot to use it. I don’t remember which now, but either way, I should have remembered to have it there for something like the Official.

Kennon’s Chicon III and State of the Game Pt.1

Well, this past weekend was the third annual ChiCon and the second that I’ve made it to, and let me say that it was an absolute blast. Simply amazing in every regard. After the wondrous events of last year, my expectations were pretty high, but let me say that they most certainly met, regardless. The sheer generosity of AJ, patience of Ktom, and culinary skills of The Shiek all know no bounds. A most heartfelt thanks goes to those responsible for this going off without a hitch from my scrubbiest opponent, to the most talented rules fanatics, to…….. well….. everyone involved in the smallest way (even Guiness, the world’s largest, and possibly laziest dog). Hopefully I didn’t forget to thank anyone.

This was a bit of an odd trip for me since my usual traveling companion for major AGOT events, Dobbler, was unable to go. Thankfully, some of the Columbia, MO crew were going and quite willing to let me tag along for a ride. The weekend before ChiCon, a local player here, Joel, randomly told me that he would be able to attend. Unfortunately, our reigning World Champion, Sam Tham, was unable to attend since he was feeling rather under the weather. Still, Dan, Bowen, Joel and I made the trek across what appeared to be an increasingly icy wasteland as we traveled further north. Fortunately for us, the roads were all amazingly clear, and no more winter weather came down as we drove.

We arrived at the Casino of Mundelein just after eleven on Friday night, so we missed out on the multiplayer event, but with Joel’s school schedule we just couldn’t have made it otherwise. Crazy professors threatening to fail him if he misses another class….. I have no idea when they started that sort of thing. Anyway, it was good to drop in and get the feel of things as we wandered around and saw who was there. I always love the first arrival at an event like this and seeing the friends that I don’t get to see often enough by far.

We left about midnight and got ourselves settled into the hotel for some deckbuilding and playtesting for the main event. Joel had been playing a 45 card Greyjoy rush deck that was pretty solid, but I felt was probably a little too heavy on saves with 15 or so in the deck… We streamlined it some and he set to playing a few games with Bowen. While this was going on, Dan was attempting to put together a Greyjoy mill deck. Bowen had been advising, but I took over for Dan to bounce ideas off of as our roommates played. With a few hours out of the way and several games played, we settled in for some needed sleep. By the time I pulled my lazy self out of the bed to shower, Bowen was constructing a totally new deck for the day as he was unsatisfied with his Lannister Army deck’s performance in the playtest games. In many ways it was all too soon when we found ourselves once again in the basement of the Casino of Mundelein, getting registered for one of the best events ever…

Cutting People Out of Your Life

Cutting people out of your life is not a pleasant thing to do. I’ve had to do it before with a friend that I just couldn’t stand any more. Not that we were fighting or anything. Simply that his lies were getting more and more frequent, as well as theft. I simply couldn’t let it go on any longer when he would tell one story to me, a second to my parents five minutes later, and a then a couple weeks later his mother would tell me the truth. There are times when you have to cut people out of your life because no matter how much you try to be a good example, they just keep moving down a bad path.

On the other hand, it might be coming to a point like that with another friend. But not for anything bad. Certainly, I didn’t agree with a choice she made, but that doesn’t make it bad. Honestly, the thing in general is good. I refuse to believe that you should need to cut someone out of your life as a result of a good action. I know her life now can’t be exactly the same as it was before, but if you have a real friendship, you find a way to make it work. Well, I suppose at this point, I ought to be clear about what happened. There’s only so many ways to dance around it and still have things make sense. She got married. Alright, I don’t want to intrude by any means and I’m certainly not entertaining thoughts of her changing her mind. I realize we’re not going to be calling each other up at 2 AM, or talking about deep questions of life, love and religion. But throwing away basically all contact with each other? I don’t find that to be wise. Perhaps I’m just too idealistic, but I would hope that an open relationship would be possible. By that I mean, not sending texts on the sly or anything, but letting her husband be fully aware that we still chat some and that it’s not any attempt to mess things up. Just a simple “Hey, how’s your day going?” or “The kids I’m subbing for are right little heathens today.” Maybe I don’t really understand how the world and interpersonal relationships work, but somehow I don’t think that we’re here on this world to abandon those that really care about us, regardless of how those bonds need to be reinterpreted when something like this happens. Thus, I have no intention of cutting her out of my life. I’m not going to sit around desperately waiting to talk to her, but it’s in her court now, if she wants to chat a bit each week or whatever then I’m in.

*shrug* And I figure if anyone happens to be randomly reading my blog, this will be the one that gets some comments.

An Ethical Conundrum

So, we’ve been conversing about some tricky issues amongst ourselves during our Pint and a Half Night festivities. Basically, it’s a question of ethics versus legality. What do you do if you get a speeding ticket? Do you get a lawyer, pay the court fees, and get it pled down to faulty equipment? Or do you suck it up, take the points on your license and pay the fine? Just because it’s technically legal to have your offense transferred like that, does that make it ethical? My business major friends seem to agree that it is entirely ethical to do so. They say that if it’s allowed by the law, then it must be ethical. Somehow, I remain unconvinced on this issue. You’re not being punished for the offense you committed. Weaseling out of it that way is legal, I’m not arguing that, but I don’t find it to be an ethical action. For the record, I’ve never had a ticket changed like that, and I’ve had enough that I was one away from losing my license at one point. I sucked it up and paid the proper consequences for my actions. Oh well. Maybe I’m just an idealist.

Changes Cometh!

Well, it seems like ’08 is a time for changes. Or at least the time leading up to the New Year. I’ve gotten a promotion at the theater. It’s been a good month or so as Assistant Manager. Not the most glorious position, but I like the work well enough, and it takes job pressure off so I can do some thinking. Also, something that I dreaded for a long time finally came to pass. On another site, I once wrote a blog about when the impending horror of it all really hit me…. a year and a half or more ago. So, now it has happened. I don’t think I’ll detail it for the handful of people that might be stumbling on to this blog, but let’s just say it involved a relationship and that it wasn’t good.

But anyway, back to the vague sort of topic for this blog. A Game of Thrones! ’08 brings huge changes to the game as it was announced just before the end of the year that the entire game will be changing to a non-collectible format. The 40 card fixed packs will resemble the Call of Cthulhu Asylum Packs that I enjoy greatly, but will improve the model immensely by featuring a monthly release schedule. I’m greatly saddened by the loss of boosters and a much smaller card pool released each year, as well as the loss of draft as a viable form of limited play, but we’ll see if the new schedule keeps things constantly fresh for the metagame.

Now on the other hand, this announcement also came with a change to organized play. From here on out the officially supported format for the Regionals/Nationals program and the World Championship will be multiplayer. Evidently this change, along with the fixed format, is part of a new effort to broaden the playerbase to a more casual group. Interesting concept, I must say. I’m certain that the fixed format will do so. The tournament format on the other hand… not so much. At a local level FFG will still be allowing the Night’s Watch to run their own tournaments in whatever format they like, be it 1v1, multi, or some form of limited. That is no real change from previous support. Local groups that prefer to play multi will continue to do so, and those that prefer 1v1 will most likely continue with 1v1 as though nothing happened. At the higher levels, however, is where the problem I see begins to rear it’s ugly head. The very point of such things as Nationals and Worlds is that they are competitive by very design. The changes in the game structure are essentially there to attract casual players. Are these players the ones most likely to compete at such levels? Sadly, no. Those players brought into the game by the new, lower level of input necessary (both on money and time spent chasing cards) are those that most likely compete at various other games and pick AGOT up as a sideline, or are those that simply have little time to spare for the game and make it a pure hobby. Neither of those types of players will be interested in devoting the time and effort to traveling and competing at such levels, be it due to money issues, conflicts with games more important to them, or general life taking far greater precedent.

Who then would continue to show at such levels? The players who do take the game competitively, a vast number of which already play the game and favor 1v1 and the skillsets that it requires. These are the types of players that do travel and make time for such competition because it is not a sideline hobby for them. For many, it may be their main competitive outlet. Will many of these players continue to travel for multiplayer based events at the National+ level? The jury’s still out for sure, but it seems likely that their interest will trail sharply as the support for their format wanes at the highest level of support. With those players feeling less inclined to travel, and the new casual players far less likely to ever begin to travel, it looks as though there is a dangerous possibility of the upper echelon of supported tournaments to begin what could be a very rapid spiral downward.

I hope ’08 will be kind to the game I love, but it seems that only time will tell.

AGOT and Updates

Well, well, well, I really need to get cracking on some writing if I ever get the time. I’ve got some thoughts on Five Kings Edition drafting that will probably be outdated by the new set by the time I get around to typing them as well as some constructive ideas for forum threads based on some things I’ve picked up from other gaming forums.

Man, ideas are often not the hard part. It’s getting organized and actually jumping to do something that tends to be difficult.

On that same sort of note, I really wish I could get more people from work to help out with the holiday cleaning chores. Being nearly the only one working on it gets pretty draining.

Blogged with Flock

Well that didn’t go so well…

Here I am, sitting at the desk of my current job, thinking about how much of a pigsty this place is sometimes. The desk is shared between about 4 different people throughout the week, and some of them tend to leave a bit of a mess. Sure, if it’s papers and whatnot, I don’t mind too much, but being littered with half full cups of soda and several really grimy plastic containers that had evidently been used for food and then not clean…ever… is a little much for me.

Too bad the other job that I applied for didn’t pan out. I thought the interview went relatively well a the time, and it was with people that I already knew. Looking back though, there’s much I could have and indeed should have said. Thinking on the questions they asked me, maybe they had already decided on the person that was interviewed before me. Regardless, I saw the person they did hire walk by today, and it was a bit odd.

Oh well, there’s another couple openings that I think I’m going to try to shoot for. This time at the new elementary school that’s being built. Being an assistant librarian or a computer lab clerk wouldn’t be too bad…. pay would be better than here at least. Of course, now I need to get three people to hurry up and write letters of recommendation for me. *sigh* It’s never easy, is it? Guess I have something to look forward to this week. That and hopefully updating this blog more often. Maybe even with something interesting enough that people would like to read it.