Hey everyone! I know I haven't posted in quite some time...almost 6 months, however life has changed for me quite a bit and I've come to find some time and a post worth posting to the avid readers :D. SO! With that said this is a MTG post / tournament report for SCG Invitational Qualifier Temecula.
My Deck:
Walkers
4 Jace TMS
3 Gideon Jura
Sorceries
4 Preordain
3 Day of Judgement
Instants
3 Spell Pierce
3 Mana Leak
2 Into the roil
Artifacts
2 Tumble Magnets
2 Sword of Feast and Famine
Creatures
4 Squad Hawks
4 Stoneforge Mistics
Basic Lands:
4 Plains
4 Islands
Non basic:
3 Tectonic Edge
1 Mystifying Maze
4 Glacial Fortress
4 Seachrome Coasts
4 Celestial Colonnade
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Marsh Flats
SideBoard:
3 Kor firewalker
2 Leyline of Sanctity
2 Flashfreeze
2 Oust
1 Sylovk Lifestaff
2 Volition Reins
2 Divine Offering
1 Jace Beleren
So yeah, thats it! Nothing too different about most Caw-Blade archetype, mainly based of Mike Flores' deck in the last StarCity open in atlanta. However, swapping out 1 Tech edge for 1 Mystifying Maze proved to be beyond clutch.
In terms of boarding... I was determined NOT to lose to red decks anymore. Thats why I bring in 10 hate cards against them (everything except the last 5). Caw-Blade is naturally strong vs everything in the format maindeck-wize except RDW, RUG control (draw dependent), and the pesky elves...
Anyway, that was my mindset going into the tourney, crush the red decks, out-play the mirror and just let the birds peck everything else to death.
Round 1 RDW
So this was where I needed to see if my sideboard strategy would work...With RDW, for those who aren't familiar with the matchup, they almost ALWAYS win game 1, almost always. Unless they draw terrible or you just somehow get there the odds are against you. However this was a random case of the "run goods" because I actually took game 1 off my opponent, putting me in great shape to win the match.
Game 2 was insanely good for my opponent, he casts a goblin guide and beats for 2, I take it and he passes to me. I oust the annoying guide on my turn 1, saving me almost another 4-6 damage. He then casts a wardriver and passes. I cast hawk, get a couple more and pass back. Then then bursts my hawk casts goblin wardriver #2, and swigs for 5, putting me at 13. I have day-o and need to survive just 1 turn to cast it. I decide the best way to do it, is to cast a hawk and tap land. He then casts another goblin guide and an ember-hauler. Which....he then ember's my hawk, and beats for...13....yeah exacties on turn 4 for him, that'll happen, not a whole lot i could do.
Game 3 was VERY difficult as I had to mull to 5 and didn't draw a single board card, minus sylvok lifestaff. There was a crucial point in the game where I was at 3 life, zero creatures on board, but lifestaff. Gideon at 2, Jace at 9, two tumble magnets with 1&2 counters respectively, with my opponent having ember-hauler and goblin guide; no cards in hand. I fateseal with jace putting him to 11, i see a burn spell and send it to the bottom. I'm forced with a tough decision here, where I'm supposed to either decide to play the odds and pray he doesn't draw a draw spell, OR trade a high amount of resources to make sure i don't die. So I decide to animate Gideon, and equip it with lifestaff. I beat for 7, and then cast ANOTHER gideon from my hand legendary ruling them out so i could gain 3 life putting me to 6. Normally I would never have to kill my own gideon with another one of my own gideons but you have to do whatever it is to make sure you win. I ended up fatesealing him out with jace, but thats another story. That play caused me to win the game. Out-of-the-box resource use is how you sometimes get there!
Round 2 Caw-Blade
Mirror Match! The only difference is my opponent seemed to be playing Sword of body as his first choice search. This was a mistake most people would agree to. Sword of B&M is significantly worst than sword of F&F, in current format. There is no reason to be playing sword of B&M over F&F because the mill is almost irrelevant + with the amount of hawks you can fetch out, having a creature is really insignificant. Discarding a card from you're opponents hand + timewalking lands is far better almost every scenario.
I was able to take game 1, lost game 2, didn't have the draw :( But game 3 was mine for the taking, I was able to out-resource my opponent with a volition reins on HIS jace (V Reins is the BEST mirror match card, there is nothing else that comes close to it in the board). He had to cast his 2nd jace to legendary rule his out, while i casted my jace the following turn, with him down 2 jaces, and me only down a volition reins the game quickly swung in my favor. GG.
Round 3 Elves
By far the worst matchup for my deck in the meta. I day-o'd 2 times game 1, but because he was able land a garruk afterwards and have infinite 3/3 beasts i was unable to come back from it. Game 2 was a bit more of a landslide win for him, he shit-out elves like you do, and then when i tapped out; lead the stampede for 4/5 hitting crucial creatures. I was fk'd, very bad matchups are terrible. Scooped and went on with the tourney.
Round 4 RDW
Another RDW deck, I rolled my eyes at seeing goblin guide from my opponent and then was determined NOT to lose to this crappy archetype. I lost game one as I'm supposed to. However, my firewalkers seemed to show up in games 2-3, which was a blow-out card against RDW. I actually ended game 3 with 21 life as i oust'd two of my squad hawks at the end for style points, only to cast the 3rd and get them back :D
Also my opponent liked the doodles i did on my hawks, especially the freedom hawk. Which, I explained to him that the freedom hawk was a symbol of America! Dropping freedom bombs on goblin terrorists. :D
Round 5 U/B control (non-infect)
This was the home-brew deck that had been doing well in the tourney. But it was time to come across a real deck and it ended up dying. I boarded in my volition reins against him and was able to steal his Abyssal Persecutor and proceed to beat him down with it only to into the roil it back into his hand ftw :D
My Record at this point is: 4:1:0
Round 6 Elves (draw)
My opponent was 4-0-1 so I was lucky enough to get paired up and draw into top 8. At this point I was able to get some dinner with Edwin Rivas, a long-time player of magic and his friends over at the pizza place next door. Edwin had already qualified to go into the Star City Invitational so he was just there to cheer his brother and friends on.
TOP 8 - Boo yea!
Quarter-Finals - Elves
I ended up playing Corey again, my only loss in the swiss, for the first round of top 8. He had me game 1 without much trouble, i fought hard but the elves came out and I had no solution to deal with them. Game 2 I was able to take the win with double sword of Feast and Famine hitting him on turn 5 without him having a fauna shaman to tutor up an Equipment destruction elf.
Game 3 was the grudgematch, but the thing that won it for me was Mystifying maze! There was a scenario where we were both about to lethal eachother in a all-out attack, he being elves had more damge to deal but i was at 12, while he was at 7. He was able to throw another blocker in me to give himself 1 more turn of attacks, as well as being able to tutor up ezuri and use his ulti. Which he did, the only thing that saved me was being able to maze out his archdruid, minusing his elves by 1 each preventing the druid damage and the lord effecting dealing me 11 not 12 damage. I attacked for lethal next turn. Very good match, strong opponent, we both played incredibly well.
Semi-Finals U/W Control Pilot: Edwin Rivas
We had an amazing match. really strong on both sides.
Game 1 was a landslide win for me. He tried to roll out a baby-jace on turn 3, after I casted a stoneforge on turn 2 with open mana. I suppose he was thinking I was going to play a land maybe a hawk and pass turn on my turn 4, however I roll out papa jace and end up raping him in resources. The sword connects a few times and its gg.
Game 2 I kept a 6 lander with a Divine offering. Against Edwin, thats not horrible especially with two of those lands being tec-edges. My plan was to either draw into business, OR edge him out sticking him to 3-4 lands. No edwin managed to get ALL the lands in the world and land a baby jace, I lose. Yes, it's almost that simple land jace 1.0 or 2.0 and you win.
Game 3 I keep a 1 lander after mulling to 6 because it has preordain and a baby jace. I get to 3 lands I will probably win as I'm going first. So, the plan works. I stick baby jace but Edwin sticks his sea-gate oracle. Which was annoying, because i only get to minus jace once before I have to plus him again. This happened a few times, until I finally got a hawk with a sword and proceeded to take away the card I was giving him with jace. I stick a gideon to protect my baby jace and proceed to win from there on out. It was a fun match, Edwin played well he set up a good defence but was unable to stop the hawks beating for 3 a piece.
Finals - Draw
Amazingly enough Edwin's brother had made it to the finals. I knew that was the whole point of them coming so they could all go and play in the Invitational together. Edwins brother Michael is a good player, but I've seen him make some pretty crucial mistakes, (like searching for Sword of B&M at non-optimal times). My instincts told me I could probably beat him, but to dreamcrush him out of going on a trip with his brother wasn't really my style. Also, out of all probability I was not going to be able to go the invitational anyway, AND have never played a legacy tourney in my life. Sooo, with all that on the stack I decided to split-second a Split.
Me --> 1/2 cash and 2nd place packs
Michael --> invite + 1/2 cash
We both profit this way, although it'll say he got first when the official Standings come up. Even though this kinda bugs me that I could have beat him, I felt like I made out like Charley Sheen; WINNING! :D
All in all a couple of cards that did nothing for me:
White Leyline - the only matchup with having it in is valacute. I brought it out against red deck and firewalker was key in winning that 1. I think that volition reining a Primeval is almost as good as having white leyline. But all in all I could have been playing 1 more firewalker and another tech-edge and it would have probably been better. 4 Converted mana cost is too much for the tempo of this format sneaking it in turn zero is the only way to go and even then its only semi-useful.
Into the roil was amazing. Super awesome. Cannot tell you how clutch that spell was. Playing two in the main board saved me from a lot of pitfalls i could have ran into. I boarded it out A LOT especially against red deck and a couple of other fast-pased decks, but being able to bounce something, only to have them discard it with the sword trigger is by far one of the best plays caw-blade can do.
Baby Jace - Was very very very clutch as well, having the 5 jaces in the mirror match allows you to make sure you never run out of jace supply. Like i mentioned earlier my opponent drew two jaces, which killed each other only to have my jace hit the board and start wrecking the subsequent turns.
MVP play of the day: Legendary ruling Gideon with another 1 of my own Gideons to gain 3 life...
That's pretty much everything! Hope you guys enjoy, comments, concerns, discuss!
-Leo
Sunday, April 10, 2011
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Lesbian porn and conservative males who watch it....
I have to say at first I was a bit baffled on how to approach this post, mainly because it was picked by popular demand on a poll which was started on my facebook wall titled "What should I write about next?" Anyway, a had more than 5 people request I write about this topic originally proposed by Michelle B, so if you have any complaints about any of this post or what it's about, direct them to her... thats M-I-C-H-E-L-L-E B.
Anyway, when it comes to porn; I'm a fan. NOT to say that alternatives to real sex are better, but lets face it, if we were to have sex whenever we wanted, then the porn industry would be more for educational purpose than recreational. Generally, I don't keep a database of porn on my computer simply because thats incredibly incriminating and slightly embarrassing if your friends / baby cousin open up a folder named XXX DO NOT OPEN ME (that or you'd have to be really dumb to name your porn folder that, although a friend of mine did name his Rugrat Videos and you can imagine what his little sister thought when she was clicking on it...) Instead, I tend to keep my pornography in cyberspace. Either on an online database, or simply streaming it free of a couple sites that I tend to visit. I have never bought any porn in my life, however, even though I torrented it, I feel like buying the Pirates porn would have been a worthy investment.
Now that I've all shared with you where I keep my "stash," which is semi-irrelevant to the topic at hand; I say this because I honestly didn't have much of a collection of pornography where it was just lesbian interaction. I'm not sure why, but I always felt like it was boring with out one of them getting drilled. So, as a enthusiastic blogger, I felt it was my duty to do some research into the subject. Although it was a bit awkward having to explain what I was doing to a security guard while I was in the library viewing the material, I somehow was able to get off with only a warning. Anyway, thats another story for another time...what is important is that I was able to watch about 10 hours of lesbian porn footage since undergoing this post, and I have to say I'm very impressed with the results.
For starters, why is lesbian porn good? Well, for anyone wondering why guys ogle 2+ women doing sexual things together is because there's 2 of everything. Are two pair of breasts better than 1? If you don't think YES then you're probably batting for the other team (not that there is anything wrong with that) But any straight male can find some appreciation for the multiple naked female bodies.
On to the subject at hand! Lesbian porn has a lot of great things to bring to the table, for starters women know their bodies WAY better than men could ever, so they know exactly what to do down there. And let me tell you guys, if you think you know what your doing, go watch 10 hours of lesbian porn and then come back to me and say: "oh yea I knew everything that was there to know." Or if you've already done your homework; cheers to you Vagina Service Expert, you'll make the next Budweiser Men of Genius add.
Another thing is lesbian porn tends to be non-violent. Even the hardcore parts where two chicks gang up on 1 or S&M the intensity of "hardcore", on average, never seemed to reach above a 7/10 (based of a scale that I just made up! O.o) Regardless, I hope you get my point, they're much nicer to their bodies than the porn I watch with men where they're sole purpose is to pretend their penis is a jackhammer and a vagina is a gopher hole.
Yet another observation is lesbian porn tends to have about 10x more orgasms than heterosexual porn. Honestly didn't realize how many times a female could orgasm consecutively without a break, I knew it was more but still. I remember watching this porn where both females involved were able to orgasm 25x in a 2 hour period. First off let me say "UNFAIR!" Male reload time, even at early ages, is at least 5 min, and we have a preset amount of bullets. 25 times in 2 hours?! Its true, they were very satisfied ladies.
Also the "storyline" that lesbian pornos have tend to be WAY better than heterosexual porn. Its generally not tacky and almost 1/2 way realistic, or perhaps thats the other part of me wishing all females were secretly gay, at least a little bit. Regardless normally I would fast forward to the actual fucking in my usual porn videos, but having watched the whole episodes of lesbian porn I have to say bravo to the writers and actresses alike.
All in all, I have to say this was a fun project. I was able to get some stats and although heterosexual porn and group sex is more popular to watch, lesbian porn comes in as a close 3rd as most sold type of porn in the industry. So keep it up ladies! I'll be keeping an eye out for any superstars at the next AVN awards.
-Leo
Anyway, when it comes to porn; I'm a fan. NOT to say that alternatives to real sex are better, but lets face it, if we were to have sex whenever we wanted, then the porn industry would be more for educational purpose than recreational. Generally, I don't keep a database of porn on my computer simply because thats incredibly incriminating and slightly embarrassing if your friends / baby cousin open up a folder named XXX DO NOT OPEN ME (that or you'd have to be really dumb to name your porn folder that, although a friend of mine did name his Rugrat Videos and you can imagine what his little sister thought when she was clicking on it...) Instead, I tend to keep my pornography in cyberspace. Either on an online database, or simply streaming it free of a couple sites that I tend to visit. I have never bought any porn in my life, however, even though I torrented it, I feel like buying the Pirates porn would have been a worthy investment.
Now that I've all shared with you where I keep my "stash," which is semi-irrelevant to the topic at hand; I say this because I honestly didn't have much of a collection of pornography where it was just lesbian interaction. I'm not sure why, but I always felt like it was boring with out one of them getting drilled. So, as a enthusiastic blogger, I felt it was my duty to do some research into the subject. Although it was a bit awkward having to explain what I was doing to a security guard while I was in the library viewing the material, I somehow was able to get off with only a warning. Anyway, thats another story for another time...what is important is that I was able to watch about 10 hours of lesbian porn footage since undergoing this post, and I have to say I'm very impressed with the results.
For starters, why is lesbian porn good? Well, for anyone wondering why guys ogle 2+ women doing sexual things together is because there's 2 of everything. Are two pair of breasts better than 1? If you don't think YES then you're probably batting for the other team (not that there is anything wrong with that) But any straight male can find some appreciation for the multiple naked female bodies.
"there is nothing greater than the love that exists between two naked women...... while I watch" - Mark; Blink 182: The Mark, Tom and Travis Show
Yes thats right, but why? For started Men are incredibly visual and judge attractiveness instinctively by physical looks first. So doubling up on our initial instincts for the opposite sex is just what the doctor ordered for a good time. Not to that isn't the same for women, its just men are more-so wired that way.On to the subject at hand! Lesbian porn has a lot of great things to bring to the table, for starters women know their bodies WAY better than men could ever, so they know exactly what to do down there. And let me tell you guys, if you think you know what your doing, go watch 10 hours of lesbian porn and then come back to me and say: "oh yea I knew everything that was there to know." Or if you've already done your homework; cheers to you Vagina Service Expert, you'll make the next Budweiser Men of Genius add.
Another thing is lesbian porn tends to be non-violent. Even the hardcore parts where two chicks gang up on 1 or S&M the intensity of "hardcore", on average, never seemed to reach above a 7/10 (based of a scale that I just made up! O.o) Regardless, I hope you get my point, they're much nicer to their bodies than the porn I watch with men where they're sole purpose is to pretend their penis is a jackhammer and a vagina is a gopher hole.
Yet another observation is lesbian porn tends to have about 10x more orgasms than heterosexual porn. Honestly didn't realize how many times a female could orgasm consecutively without a break, I knew it was more but still. I remember watching this porn where both females involved were able to orgasm 25x in a 2 hour period. First off let me say "UNFAIR!" Male reload time, even at early ages, is at least 5 min, and we have a preset amount of bullets. 25 times in 2 hours?! Its true, they were very satisfied ladies.
Also the "storyline" that lesbian pornos have tend to be WAY better than heterosexual porn. Its generally not tacky and almost 1/2 way realistic, or perhaps thats the other part of me wishing all females were secretly gay, at least a little bit. Regardless normally I would fast forward to the actual fucking in my usual porn videos, but having watched the whole episodes of lesbian porn I have to say bravo to the writers and actresses alike.
All in all, I have to say this was a fun project. I was able to get some stats and although heterosexual porn and group sex is more popular to watch, lesbian porn comes in as a close 3rd as most sold type of porn in the industry. So keep it up ladies! I'll be keeping an eye out for any superstars at the next AVN awards.
-Leo
Thursday, October 14, 2010
"Gamer Boyfriend," what you should know...
So a good friend of mine asked me about how to deal with her gaming boyfriend and I though I would go ahead and create a post about my personal experiences with dilemma. I know there's been a lot of posts and concern regarding the phrase "my boyfriend plays too much video games." And they're either followed up with suggestions to break up with him, or on how to change the man into a non-gamer. Well, neither solution would be the case here.
As a fellow gamer I know how intense a game can be, in terms of how captivating and time consuming they are. The first thing you have to understand about a gamer is that video games are a release; a competition played in a way where you generally "win" giving you an ego boost for the rest of the day. To say gamers is to video games is crackheads is to crack would probably be right on the SAT.
So, if you feel like your boyfriend is spending too much time on video games and not enough time doing other things (like yourself :D) then I suggest you follow a few guidelines into making him think of other things to do.
1st. Gaming is FUN. You have to realize, gamers play video games because of how much action they have and how competitive they are. If you want them to stop playing video games for something else you have to come up with an activity that trumps the fun aspect of video games. Sometimes this is quite hard but to do this but, trust me, there are other outs of fun in leu of video games.
2nd. Positive reinforcement. All guys require in life is 3 things, Food, sex, and peace and quiet (Chris rock, 1998). However, those requirements really don't involve you as a girlfriend of choice. SO! You have to use these to your advantage, in trying to ween off your boyfriend's video games time. DO NOT offer him one of these things in EXCHANGE for not playing video games, that will only encourage him to expect it INSTEAD OF and if you for example cook him dinner and he comes off the computer / console to eat he'll ask "whats next?" and if you got nothing he'll go right back to the games. Instead reward activities with this. Say you invite him to go to the zoo or park with you, then on the way home convince him to take a 45 min break doing whatever he wants (a break from you is GOOD!) then surprise him with dinner. He'll feel guilty you went through so much work out of your way that he will try and make it up to you somehow, perhaps a massage or simply talking to you afterwards.
3rd. Sex. I mentioned sex in #2 briefly but it needs its own section. Sex if your trump card. If your a prude and doesn't have sex till you're married, well...forget it stop reading now this post is worthless to you. For the rest of america (Fuck ya!) or anyone else who approves of the "shag" sex is both the best tool to get your boyfriend to do what you want or the deal-breaker that keeps him stuck in front of a game screen. It would be ignorant of all women reading this if they didn't understand that sex isn't something you can use to your benefit. Believe it or not, sex > games; which is why I said it to be your ultimate trump card. However, with regard to #1, if you abuse your sex right and only use it to get him off the computer and into the bed, after he's done with you where do you think he's going to go back to? So you have to be careful. Sex is something all guys want, and we'll practically do anything for it during highschool, college, and late into our twenties, which gives you females a huge time frame to use that to your leverage. The reason you have to be careful about how you use sex is if you get on a "schedule" and don't keep to it, or your boyfriend feels like he's done enough to deserve sex and you hold out it'll discourage him from doing nice things for you because its not worth it to him in the end. As blatantly harsh as that sounds, guys will only put up with "x" amount of girlfriend issues unless your putting out. There, its been said. And if you find yourself thinking "my boyfriend would never think that way...," just stop having sex with him for a few weeks and see where your relationship goes.
Finding a level ground where you get what you and your boyfriend wants out of the relationship is quite hard, compromise is key here, but the main thing you have to be honest with yourself is "do I still want to be with someone who enjoys playing video games?" If the answer is no then he's not for you, you can't just change a man because you think you can, that type of thinking will only make you and him miserable over time. However, if you don't mind your boyfriend playing video games, simply talk it out with him and figure out an idea to do things INSTEAD of gaming. Suggestion 1 is probably the quickest and easiest solution to this, then rewarding him from being a good boyfriend by spending time with you with suggestion 2-3 will create a strong desire from your boyfriend to make you happy. Gamers don't change; they just change the type of game they play. Which brings us to the next section:
What kind of gamer is your boyfriend?
1. Shoot em up! These type of gamers are generally easier to "unplug," they tend to play shorter games, where they kill each other with a gun of sorts. These type of gamers' mood is directly relative to how well they do. If they kill an entire team by themselves, then they feel like gods and are happy to bestow their godly aura to the rest of the world. If they're screaming at the screen explaining how the opposing team is cheating, or a plethora of curse words, they're probably not doing so well. How to deal with this kind of boyfriend? Well, let him finish his segment of games, and based on how he did, either interact with him (if he won), or give him space if he lost. Shoot em up! types generally can't keep focus on the intensity level of the game for more than a couple hours tops...however IT IS KEY! not to interrupt them when their mid-match, that will just set of a bomb you do not want to clean up. In-between matches (generally only 5 min long) is the perfect time to approach and interact with them in the 30second-1min window the game allows.
2. RTS- Real time strategy. These games you're generally looking down on the battlefield, bird's eye view and manipulating your forces that way. These type of games can go on from 10min to over an hour. RTS's are incredibly skill dependent and hard to play. For the time that they're playing, interrupting them would be catastrophic to the outcome of the game. If you see your boyfriend playing 1 of these games, call out to him to stop and let you talk to him about something in-between matches, so you don't possibly screw up his micro.
3. RPG- Role playing games. These are by far the most time consuming. If your boyfriend plays WoW you know what I'm talking about. The end-game idea behind these games is to group with a large group of friends (up to 40 or more), and go take on harder level bosses inside high skilled dungeons. Because of the teamwork required to defeat these monsters time-frames where enough people can log on at the same time and play together is almost required. So, with that said if your boyfriend or anyone you know who plays these types of games mentions having a "raid" that night, well expect them to be playing the game for the duration of time. Generally raids go for about 3 hours, and happen 3-5 times a week. The best way to counter this, is to talk about your boyfriend and schedule to make sure you and him can still hang out while he makes his raids. If there is too much conflict tell him to join another guild that works with his raid times, he might not like it, but its a compromise he can make if he wants to keep you as a happy girlfriend.
4. Other - There are other gamers who do play other games, but those normally have a "save" spot where you can simply but it down. The 3 mentioned above are the competitive multiplayer online type games that require no break while playing them.
Final words on the subject, gamers are not that complicated and for the most part have no problem getting off the game if you really want them too so long as you let them play later or keep out of the raiding schedule. Recognizing that gaming is a outlet they use to relax or have fun means that you have to try and be a creative fun girlfriend who is proactive about coming up with things to do. Maybe going to the zoo isn't your boyfriends thing but to the computer convention around the corner might be fun, and then you can use that as "we went to where you wanted to go last time..." leverage. Believe it or not gamers like girlfriends and want to keep their girlfriends and as long as its not changing who they are as men or as gamers, they would rather go out of their way to keep you as a girlfriend than not (sometimes...). So hopefully you all learned a thing or two from this, both men and women, but more importantly if its not working out because the addiction to gaming > what you're happy with then don't force it, some gamers can't unplug and become legitimately addicted to the "escape" of games and forget how reality functions. But if its under control and you'd like to have some involvement maybe this'll help.
-Leo
As a fellow gamer I know how intense a game can be, in terms of how captivating and time consuming they are. The first thing you have to understand about a gamer is that video games are a release; a competition played in a way where you generally "win" giving you an ego boost for the rest of the day. To say gamers is to video games is crackheads is to crack would probably be right on the SAT.
So, if you feel like your boyfriend is spending too much time on video games and not enough time doing other things (like yourself :D) then I suggest you follow a few guidelines into making him think of other things to do.
1st. Gaming is FUN. You have to realize, gamers play video games because of how much action they have and how competitive they are. If you want them to stop playing video games for something else you have to come up with an activity that trumps the fun aspect of video games. Sometimes this is quite hard but to do this but, trust me, there are other outs of fun in leu of video games.
2nd. Positive reinforcement. All guys require in life is 3 things, Food, sex, and peace and quiet (Chris rock, 1998). However, those requirements really don't involve you as a girlfriend of choice. SO! You have to use these to your advantage, in trying to ween off your boyfriend's video games time. DO NOT offer him one of these things in EXCHANGE for not playing video games, that will only encourage him to expect it INSTEAD OF and if you for example cook him dinner and he comes off the computer / console to eat he'll ask "whats next?" and if you got nothing he'll go right back to the games. Instead reward activities with this. Say you invite him to go to the zoo or park with you, then on the way home convince him to take a 45 min break doing whatever he wants (a break from you is GOOD!) then surprise him with dinner. He'll feel guilty you went through so much work out of your way that he will try and make it up to you somehow, perhaps a massage or simply talking to you afterwards.
3rd. Sex. I mentioned sex in #2 briefly but it needs its own section. Sex if your trump card. If your a prude and doesn't have sex till you're married, well...forget it stop reading now this post is worthless to you. For the rest of america (Fuck ya!) or anyone else who approves of the "shag" sex is both the best tool to get your boyfriend to do what you want or the deal-breaker that keeps him stuck in front of a game screen. It would be ignorant of all women reading this if they didn't understand that sex isn't something you can use to your benefit. Believe it or not, sex > games; which is why I said it to be your ultimate trump card. However, with regard to #1, if you abuse your sex right and only use it to get him off the computer and into the bed, after he's done with you where do you think he's going to go back to? So you have to be careful. Sex is something all guys want, and we'll practically do anything for it during highschool, college, and late into our twenties, which gives you females a huge time frame to use that to your leverage. The reason you have to be careful about how you use sex is if you get on a "schedule" and don't keep to it, or your boyfriend feels like he's done enough to deserve sex and you hold out it'll discourage him from doing nice things for you because its not worth it to him in the end. As blatantly harsh as that sounds, guys will only put up with "x" amount of girlfriend issues unless your putting out. There, its been said. And if you find yourself thinking "my boyfriend would never think that way...," just stop having sex with him for a few weeks and see where your relationship goes.
Finding a level ground where you get what you and your boyfriend wants out of the relationship is quite hard, compromise is key here, but the main thing you have to be honest with yourself is "do I still want to be with someone who enjoys playing video games?" If the answer is no then he's not for you, you can't just change a man because you think you can, that type of thinking will only make you and him miserable over time. However, if you don't mind your boyfriend playing video games, simply talk it out with him and figure out an idea to do things INSTEAD of gaming. Suggestion 1 is probably the quickest and easiest solution to this, then rewarding him from being a good boyfriend by spending time with you with suggestion 2-3 will create a strong desire from your boyfriend to make you happy. Gamers don't change; they just change the type of game they play. Which brings us to the next section:
What kind of gamer is your boyfriend?
1. Shoot em up! These type of gamers are generally easier to "unplug," they tend to play shorter games, where they kill each other with a gun of sorts. These type of gamers' mood is directly relative to how well they do. If they kill an entire team by themselves, then they feel like gods and are happy to bestow their godly aura to the rest of the world. If they're screaming at the screen explaining how the opposing team is cheating, or a plethora of curse words, they're probably not doing so well. How to deal with this kind of boyfriend? Well, let him finish his segment of games, and based on how he did, either interact with him (if he won), or give him space if he lost. Shoot em up! types generally can't keep focus on the intensity level of the game for more than a couple hours tops...however IT IS KEY! not to interrupt them when their mid-match, that will just set of a bomb you do not want to clean up. In-between matches (generally only 5 min long) is the perfect time to approach and interact with them in the 30second-1min window the game allows.
2. RTS- Real time strategy. These games you're generally looking down on the battlefield, bird's eye view and manipulating your forces that way. These type of games can go on from 10min to over an hour. RTS's are incredibly skill dependent and hard to play. For the time that they're playing, interrupting them would be catastrophic to the outcome of the game. If you see your boyfriend playing 1 of these games, call out to him to stop and let you talk to him about something in-between matches, so you don't possibly screw up his micro.
3. RPG- Role playing games. These are by far the most time consuming. If your boyfriend plays WoW you know what I'm talking about. The end-game idea behind these games is to group with a large group of friends (up to 40 or more), and go take on harder level bosses inside high skilled dungeons. Because of the teamwork required to defeat these monsters time-frames where enough people can log on at the same time and play together is almost required. So, with that said if your boyfriend or anyone you know who plays these types of games mentions having a "raid" that night, well expect them to be playing the game for the duration of time. Generally raids go for about 3 hours, and happen 3-5 times a week. The best way to counter this, is to talk about your boyfriend and schedule to make sure you and him can still hang out while he makes his raids. If there is too much conflict tell him to join another guild that works with his raid times, he might not like it, but its a compromise he can make if he wants to keep you as a happy girlfriend.
4. Other - There are other gamers who do play other games, but those normally have a "save" spot where you can simply but it down. The 3 mentioned above are the competitive multiplayer online type games that require no break while playing them.
Final words on the subject, gamers are not that complicated and for the most part have no problem getting off the game if you really want them too so long as you let them play later or keep out of the raiding schedule. Recognizing that gaming is a outlet they use to relax or have fun means that you have to try and be a creative fun girlfriend who is proactive about coming up with things to do. Maybe going to the zoo isn't your boyfriends thing but to the computer convention around the corner might be fun, and then you can use that as "we went to where you wanted to go last time..." leverage. Believe it or not gamers like girlfriends and want to keep their girlfriends and as long as its not changing who they are as men or as gamers, they would rather go out of their way to keep you as a girlfriend than not (sometimes...). So hopefully you all learned a thing or two from this, both men and women, but more importantly if its not working out because the addiction to gaming > what you're happy with then don't force it, some gamers can't unplug and become legitimately addicted to the "escape" of games and forget how reality functions. But if its under control and you'd like to have some involvement maybe this'll help.
-Leo
Monday, September 6, 2010
Sunmesa Games: Sunday Rise of the Eldrazi Draft - FIRST PLACE!
I went to a magic tourney this past monday for labor day. And won the damn thing! Here's the basic breakdown:
Sunmesa Games: Sunday Rise of the Eldrazi Draft.
Format: 2x 10 man Pods
Place: 1st! Boo yea!
Prize: 6 packs of M11, 1 pack of Eldrazi, 1 Vengevine, 1 Gideon
Deck: Mono Black, aka NWA
Went 5-0 in the tourney being hosted, kick some major ass with Cadaver Imp. Crusher's going to the graveyard didn't really phase me too much. Aslo with 4 GREAT removal spells, things went good :D But, card of the DAY: Keening Stone. BEST fking draft card ever. Won me 1/2 my games. Decking never seemed so over powered :D
Match 1 Matchup: Red / Green Ramp
This matchup I actually lost the 1st round. It was really really bad for me, because he put an umbra on his Wildheart Invoker and out of all my removal, the only thing that killed it was Induce Despair, and I didn't draw it, I just got big and slowly beat me down...sad panda.
Game 2. Easily won, I was able to rush my crusher out there and stop the board from getting crazy on his side, with no answer to crusher, I easily won.
Game 3. A Aura Gnarlind hit the board, with was quickly attached with a Boar Umbra making a 7/7 unblockable (or only blockable by crusher) creature, well That was way to fast for me, so i quickly induced it revealing Crusher FTW. With no more threats, I eventually get my crusher out and win the game.
Match 2 Matchup: Mono White:
Game 1. I'm able to curve beautifully into everything and drop Drana on turn 5. He follows up with dropping Linvala shutting up my awesome removal ability :*(. With no way to really deal damage, even though Drana flies, he had set up a Hedron-Field Purists to stop me from really doing anything. So he's free to out aggro me with Linvala, except I chump block with Cadaver Imp. I draw, cast cadaver imp returning the 1 that recently died. After my opponent see's whats going on he quickly remarks "oh great, your going to cadaver cycle ftw, huh?" I chuckle and reply "yes." Only all too soon to draw into my Keening stone and put him on a 4 turn clock. As I "cadaver cycled" and blocked all the inc damage, I continued to keening stone him till dead :D
Game 2. Was even a worst draw for my opponent and I had an established board. I really don't remember too much as to what happened however, Keening stone hit the table on turn 5, ramped from a Pawn Of Ulamog eldrazi and just continued to mill from there on out. Leaving me 2-0.
Match 3 Matchup: Green / Red Ramp agro
First I'd like to say Zack, it was a pleasure meeting you at the tourney. Zack beat my friend Matt the game before so I felt obligated to take vendetta for him. So here's how it went:
Game 1: Can't remember. It was a mix twist of crazy shinanigans that caused me to lose because of some crazy beatdown I was too bewildered to remember, He just won outright.
Game 2: As well A bit hazy but I believe it was a landslide in my favor this time.
Game 3: This was the grudgematch. It was REALLY a good game. I remember the board position VERY well. He had a Pelakka Wurm equipped with a Splinter Twin, and some kind of wall or another irrelevant creature. I had Keening stone working so he was already 2 turns from dying, and a bloodthrone vampire, pawn of ulamg, a cadaver imp, and a Zulaport enforcer, all ready to die for the sake of me leaving 2 turns to finish with keening stone. He made a pelakka wurm token at the end of my turn and swung with everything. I had to do a nifty block with all my guys in order to pump up bloothrone vampire enought to stop the inc damage, (about 30 in all kuz he had might in his hand) but thanks to pawn of ulamog i was able to do so, getting a free eldrazi spawn after killing off your guys only makes bloodthrone vampire that much more OP. In the end I ended up taking the win with keening stone milling the final card out of his deck. GG Zack, well played.
Match 4: Matt Bartmus
Conceded. Matt being a buddy, realizes this is an all or nothing tourney, and because I got pair down, (Zack beat him the round before) Graciously concedes and gives me the win. Great news here because at this stage of the competition, there are only 3 people with 3-0 records, which means going into around 4, even though I got paired down, I'll be playing the 1 guy it'll take to win the whole thing.
Match 5: Black w/splash of blue and green
My opponent was really good player, solid deck and new how to draft. He'd been going to the event the WHOLE weekend and won the grand prize of a trip to Tennessee to play at the GP there. Solid, so I had to play like I've never played before.
Game 1: Landslide me. I draw INSANE, get everything I need to get him, even though I did get stuck on 3 lands for 2 turns, he did indeed cast a Perish the thought on me as he saw I was struggling with land drops he could pluck my 4 drop out of my hand. WHat he didn't realize is that I was holding back 3 cadaver imps, Crusher, Drana, vendetta, and a couple other totally playable cards. Slow playing that ftw. Anyway he gets me to shuffle drana back into my deck before playing his own the next turn. With my super draw skills I am able to draw into a Induce Despair and erase drana from the table (my only out to her besides virulent swipe as my other 2 removals are non-black creatures). A huge sigh from my opponent as he sits there drawing 1 card a turn (mainly land) with the only creature he has is a Null Champion fully leveled up, and I have "cadaver cycle" on the board WITH a pawn of ulamog, so he eventually just stopped attacking. I got to draw a large amount of spells slowly but surely waiting for that Crusher or keening stone to show up. It was keening stone and My opponent quickly concedes after realizing that he was a on 2 turn clock with all the cards in his graveyard.
Game 2: My opponent ramps like a CHAMP. I get stuck on 3 lands (ON THE DRAW! WT F!) and watch as he turn 5 casts crusher, I look at him with the typical "oh shit look" and figure out a way to deal with it. I cast my cadaver imp, with 3 mana and pass turn. He swings with the monster, and I annihilate 2/3 swamps (i really needed since I have a corpsehatch in my hand...) Oh well I block with cadaver Imp and cast Virulent Swipe, taking the Crusher down with me. I draw LAND! yes. okay cast my bloodthrone vampire for 2, and pass turn. My opponent with like 10 lands, and then equips Eldrazi Constription so his Kozilek's Predator and I'm like...Hmm....so another crusher, I sack my bloothrone vampire in response and let the annihilator take out my two lands before I scoop with NOTHING on the table.
We have a few words before game 3, starting with my opponent saying "jesus man your deck is insane" And I respond, oh yea well hey I heard conscription is pretty good. Especially after you annihilate me with crusher on turn 5. He nods in approval and we cut for game 3.
Game 3: I knew I had the win with the opener I had. It was slow, lots of land drops with SOLID cards. Crusher, Corpsehatch, Dreamstone hedron, keening stone, everything i needed to win. So I play a land and say go. So does my opponent. We do this until turn 5! Where I cast my Zalaport enforcer, and level him quickly to 1. He plays Null Champion and passes. Things just look better. I start attacking with my enforcer seeing if he'll go for a trade, because I was about to drop Dreamstone and crusher the next turn. He doesn't. Takes the damage and then returns fire with his Null champion at level 2. Eventually after a couple turns, we both have our creatures max level and I get him to 6 life, and I stand a 7. I swing with Zalaport AND crusher for lethal, he HAS to block crusher trying to figure out How the heck he's going to survive this with NO black creatures on the table. . So he does, yet before damage resolves, I hit my Zalaport with a virulent swipe getting him to 7 power dropping my opponent down to -1. The math was hard for my opponent because he could have gotten me down to 1, But 1 isn't good enough. With 2 cadaver imps and a keening STILL in my hand killing of a creature I had on the board only meant it would come back a turn later.
Record of the day: 5-0
So boo yea! Mono black just got there. Nothing like a good amount of cadaver imps to brighten your day when your creature die and come back :D. Anyway, I had a great time, made some new trades. Misplayed Only twice, once it cost me the game in game 1. So all in all a REALLY good tourney. Even though i pulled crap "money" rares, Drana and Keening stone were absolutely exceptional in the format. Keening stone especially. There are a LIMITED number of cards in eldrazi that actually deal with that card, gald i picked it up. And if your wondering what my 1st pack picks were:
Pack 1: Corpsehatch (rare - Dormant Gomazoa /cry i know i did)
Pack 2: Drana
Pack 3: Keening stone
I played no other rares and basically hate drafted any other cards i didn't like, after I realized i was going to be playing mono-black.
Anyway thanks to Matt for Driving. And everyone at sunmesa events / Jodie's Group of judges / event managers who put the event together.
-Leo
PS I got a ribbon! here's a picture:
Sunmesa Games: Sunday Rise of the Eldrazi Draft.
Format: 2x 10 man Pods
Place: 1st! Boo yea!
Prize: 6 packs of M11, 1 pack of Eldrazi, 1 Vengevine, 1 Gideon
Deck: Mono Black, aka NWA
Decklist:
Swamps x18
Escaped Null x 1
Corpsehatch x 1
Bloodthrone vampire x 1
Virulent Swipe x 1
Ventetta x 1
Induce Despair x 1
Drana, Kalastria Bloodcheif x 1 (oh yea...)
Arrogant Bloodlord x 1
Zulaport Enforcer x 3
Bala Ged Scorpion x 2
Cadaver Imp x 4 (BOO YEA!)
Pawn of Ulamog x 1
Ulamog's Crusher x 2
Dreamstone Hedron x 1
Keening Stone x 1 (best pick ever!)
Went 5-0 in the tourney being hosted, kick some major ass with Cadaver Imp. Crusher's going to the graveyard didn't really phase me too much. Aslo with 4 GREAT removal spells, things went good :D But, card of the DAY: Keening Stone. BEST fking draft card ever. Won me 1/2 my games. Decking never seemed so over powered :D
Match 1 Matchup: Red / Green Ramp
This matchup I actually lost the 1st round. It was really really bad for me, because he put an umbra on his Wildheart Invoker and out of all my removal, the only thing that killed it was Induce Despair, and I didn't draw it, I just got big and slowly beat me down...sad panda.
Game 2. Easily won, I was able to rush my crusher out there and stop the board from getting crazy on his side, with no answer to crusher, I easily won.
Game 3. A Aura Gnarlind hit the board, with was quickly attached with a Boar Umbra making a 7/7 unblockable (or only blockable by crusher) creature, well That was way to fast for me, so i quickly induced it revealing Crusher FTW. With no more threats, I eventually get my crusher out and win the game.
Match 2 Matchup: Mono White:
Game 1. I'm able to curve beautifully into everything and drop Drana on turn 5. He follows up with dropping Linvala shutting up my awesome removal ability :*(. With no way to really deal damage, even though Drana flies, he had set up a Hedron-Field Purists to stop me from really doing anything. So he's free to out aggro me with Linvala, except I chump block with Cadaver Imp. I draw, cast cadaver imp returning the 1 that recently died. After my opponent see's whats going on he quickly remarks "oh great, your going to cadaver cycle ftw, huh?" I chuckle and reply "yes." Only all too soon to draw into my Keening stone and put him on a 4 turn clock. As I "cadaver cycled" and blocked all the inc damage, I continued to keening stone him till dead :D
Game 2. Was even a worst draw for my opponent and I had an established board. I really don't remember too much as to what happened however, Keening stone hit the table on turn 5, ramped from a Pawn Of Ulamog eldrazi and just continued to mill from there on out. Leaving me 2-0.
Match 3 Matchup: Green / Red Ramp agro
First I'd like to say Zack, it was a pleasure meeting you at the tourney. Zack beat my friend Matt the game before so I felt obligated to take vendetta for him. So here's how it went:
Game 1: Can't remember. It was a mix twist of crazy shinanigans that caused me to lose because of some crazy beatdown I was too bewildered to remember, He just won outright.
Game 2: As well A bit hazy but I believe it was a landslide in my favor this time.
Game 3: This was the grudgematch. It was REALLY a good game. I remember the board position VERY well. He had a Pelakka Wurm equipped with a Splinter Twin, and some kind of wall or another irrelevant creature. I had Keening stone working so he was already 2 turns from dying, and a bloodthrone vampire, pawn of ulamg, a cadaver imp, and a Zulaport enforcer, all ready to die for the sake of me leaving 2 turns to finish with keening stone. He made a pelakka wurm token at the end of my turn and swung with everything. I had to do a nifty block with all my guys in order to pump up bloothrone vampire enought to stop the inc damage, (about 30 in all kuz he had might in his hand) but thanks to pawn of ulamog i was able to do so, getting a free eldrazi spawn after killing off your guys only makes bloodthrone vampire that much more OP. In the end I ended up taking the win with keening stone milling the final card out of his deck. GG Zack, well played.
Match 4: Matt Bartmus
Conceded. Matt being a buddy, realizes this is an all or nothing tourney, and because I got pair down, (Zack beat him the round before) Graciously concedes and gives me the win. Great news here because at this stage of the competition, there are only 3 people with 3-0 records, which means going into around 4, even though I got paired down, I'll be playing the 1 guy it'll take to win the whole thing.
Match 5: Black w/splash of blue and green
My opponent was really good player, solid deck and new how to draft. He'd been going to the event the WHOLE weekend and won the grand prize of a trip to Tennessee to play at the GP there. Solid, so I had to play like I've never played before.
Game 1: Landslide me. I draw INSANE, get everything I need to get him, even though I did get stuck on 3 lands for 2 turns, he did indeed cast a Perish the thought on me as he saw I was struggling with land drops he could pluck my 4 drop out of my hand. WHat he didn't realize is that I was holding back 3 cadaver imps, Crusher, Drana, vendetta, and a couple other totally playable cards. Slow playing that ftw. Anyway he gets me to shuffle drana back into my deck before playing his own the next turn. With my super draw skills I am able to draw into a Induce Despair and erase drana from the table (my only out to her besides virulent swipe as my other 2 removals are non-black creatures). A huge sigh from my opponent as he sits there drawing 1 card a turn (mainly land) with the only creature he has is a Null Champion fully leveled up, and I have "cadaver cycle" on the board WITH a pawn of ulamog, so he eventually just stopped attacking. I got to draw a large amount of spells slowly but surely waiting for that Crusher or keening stone to show up. It was keening stone and My opponent quickly concedes after realizing that he was a on 2 turn clock with all the cards in his graveyard.
Game 2: My opponent ramps like a CHAMP. I get stuck on 3 lands (ON THE DRAW! WT F!) and watch as he turn 5 casts crusher, I look at him with the typical "oh shit look" and figure out a way to deal with it. I cast my cadaver imp, with 3 mana and pass turn. He swings with the monster, and I annihilate 2/3 swamps (i really needed since I have a corpsehatch in my hand...) Oh well I block with cadaver Imp and cast Virulent Swipe, taking the Crusher down with me. I draw LAND! yes. okay cast my bloodthrone vampire for 2, and pass turn. My opponent with like 10 lands, and then equips Eldrazi Constription so his Kozilek's Predator and I'm like...Hmm....so another crusher, I sack my bloothrone vampire in response and let the annihilator take out my two lands before I scoop with NOTHING on the table.
We have a few words before game 3, starting with my opponent saying "jesus man your deck is insane" And I respond, oh yea well hey I heard conscription is pretty good. Especially after you annihilate me with crusher on turn 5. He nods in approval and we cut for game 3.
Game 3: I knew I had the win with the opener I had. It was slow, lots of land drops with SOLID cards. Crusher, Corpsehatch, Dreamstone hedron, keening stone, everything i needed to win. So I play a land and say go. So does my opponent. We do this until turn 5! Where I cast my Zalaport enforcer, and level him quickly to 1. He plays Null Champion and passes. Things just look better. I start attacking with my enforcer seeing if he'll go for a trade, because I was about to drop Dreamstone and crusher the next turn. He doesn't. Takes the damage and then returns fire with his Null champion at level 2. Eventually after a couple turns, we both have our creatures max level and I get him to 6 life, and I stand a 7. I swing with Zalaport AND crusher for lethal, he HAS to block crusher trying to figure out How the heck he's going to survive this with NO black creatures on the table. . So he does, yet before damage resolves, I hit my Zalaport with a virulent swipe getting him to 7 power dropping my opponent down to -1. The math was hard for my opponent because he could have gotten me down to 1, But 1 isn't good enough. With 2 cadaver imps and a keening STILL in my hand killing of a creature I had on the board only meant it would come back a turn later.
Record of the day: 5-0
So boo yea! Mono black just got there. Nothing like a good amount of cadaver imps to brighten your day when your creature die and come back :D. Anyway, I had a great time, made some new trades. Misplayed Only twice, once it cost me the game in game 1. So all in all a REALLY good tourney. Even though i pulled crap "money" rares, Drana and Keening stone were absolutely exceptional in the format. Keening stone especially. There are a LIMITED number of cards in eldrazi that actually deal with that card, gald i picked it up. And if your wondering what my 1st pack picks were:
Pack 1: Corpsehatch (rare - Dormant Gomazoa /cry i know i did)
Pack 2: Drana
Pack 3: Keening stone
I played no other rares and basically hate drafted any other cards i didn't like, after I realized i was going to be playing mono-black.
Anyway thanks to Matt for Driving. And everyone at sunmesa events / Jodie's Group of judges / event managers who put the event together.
-Leo
Friday, August 27, 2010
Speculative Buying; Market Poachers? Or Price Pacesetters?
First off, welcome all to my first blog post on Exceptionally Interesting! I thought I would start off this blog by discussing the thread my fellow colleague had put up about his personal experience in trying to purchase some MTG cards.
MgtWar - Cape Fear Games Fails here's the actual thread. A follow up thread by Don was created soon after the post on MgtWar's blog, this can be viewed here: A Case Against Speculation (of any volume).
I've gone ahead and already posted on both the sites, giving my two cents but there are overarching themes that I feel are exceptionally interesting and should be included in my blog.
The first: Internet markets. I believe a lot of shop owners don't realize the scale the internet works off of, and how dangerous it can be if you are not fully prepared to take on an infinite cliental. It is good business to expand your client list, however with the revolution of internet markets the customers AND sellers are anonymous. With this in mind it leads to my next two topics of discussion:
Speculative Buying as Market Poachers: A lot of store owners view speculative buying as unethical and bad business. Fair to say, being bought out for the sake of profit and not for the sake of play would feel like being cheated. Yes, this is not good for business especially because as a merchant, you hold power in the economy because you have a good to sell, as soon as you no longer have this good, you become irrelevant and powerless.
So how can you assure yourself to be always "stocked"? Well, a merchant does have the right to refuse service to anyone. This right Cape Fear games invokes to deny Veteran's request. Which by all legal, and ethical means, is legit. However, this method is quite unfriendly with the image the company gives off. Being a merchant your number one responsibility is to appeal, the best way you can, to the customers needs. Because it is proven in market research that if you please 1 customer he'll tell 1 in 10 people about how well he felt your service was, but an unhappy customer is likely to tell 4/10 people they know how bad your service was. That research was conducted based on the real life situation, not factoring internet markets, which have already posted many blogs about this business transactions have already been created so you can almost exponentially guess how many people this thread has reached.
So with a capitalist economy, is it impossible to get away from speculative buying, regardless if its bad for business? AND regardless if you have right to refuse service your reputation becomes tainted, so how do sellers win?
Speculative Buying as Price Pacesttters: A lot of the larger magic vendor companies already do this but they ASSURE stock. EIther by holding back part of their inventory and after they sell out of the current stock they relist, or they put a limit on how many of a single card someone my buy. Either way they've learned to not fight something they can't beat and use speculative buyers to their advantage by relisting the card for higher value based on the choices they feel the speculators might be buying at. Not only that, but they also look to BUY and RESTOCK more in these cards that are being bought, from other sites or local purchase. If the vendor is on top of his game and follows the market he could make some serious profits.
I suppose my point is that I find speculative buying to be completely inherent in a capitalist economy that promotes free markets. Its up to the merchants to deal with it how they seem fit and of course also deal with the ramifications of those actions. To MgtVeteran, and those that read his post, I would urge you not to hate Cape Fear for their view on speculative trading but to how the customer service and policy they have to deal with speculative buying was conducted. And to Don I wish you well In your business and am happy you've posted with an open mind about this.
-Leo
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