Magic: the Gathering

I'm sure more than a few of us on here play Magic: The Gathering casually, or even as a hobby. If you do, feel free to skip past this next section.
If you don't, here's a very short rundown of the basic game.

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Magic: The Gathering is a collectible card game published by Wizards of the Coast(currently a division of Hasbro). It's played with decks of 60 to 100 cards(With some variants affecting the number of cards used.), one deck per person. Most local comic stores hold a weekly tournament each Friday, called Friday Night Magic, with other tournaments occasionally popping up. Some are free, others have a small buy-in, at the friendly level of the game. The goal is to utilize your cards to reach one of several outcomes in the game: Reduce your opponent to zero life, or to cause your opponent to have to draw a card when he has no more cards available to draw.

Intro Packs, which currently include a 60-card deck and two 15-card booster packs are a great way to start playing, and have an MSRP of US$14.99. If you choose to go this route, however, Wal-mart is selling Intro Packs for the current expansion, Gatecrash, for 14 dollars. While you're never required to buy another card past that to play casually, to play in tournaments requires the occasional update of your deck. To do this, you can either buy additional booster packs, at US$3.99 a pack, MSRP, or purchase cards one or two at a time through your local game store, Amazon.com, or eBay.

***Warning: Due to a few people who have worked out a way to figure out which packs out of a booster box are most likely to contain the value cards, you're best off buying booster packs at Wal-mart or your FLGS. This technique is called Box Mapping, and is fairly complicated to do on your own.***

For the rules of the game, and additional information, please visit http://wizards.com/Magic and then click Trading Card Game near the top of the screen, then click the link labeled "New To Magic".

If you want to learn about the game and never hold a card in your hand, there is a digital product available. It is called Duel of the Planeswalkers, the current edition is 2013, and it is available through Steam, PSN, Xbox Live, and, new to this addition, on the iPad App Store. It will additionally be available through the Android Store once 2014 is released.

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For those who are already familiar with the game, the new expansion, the last in the Return To Ravnica block, is titled Dragon Maze. The prerelease event is scheduled to occur on April 27, 2013, and will be MSRP $25.00. Players will be able to choose between one of 10 possible guild packs. Each Dragon Maze prerelease guild pack will contain 4 Dragon's Maze booster packs, one prerelease booster pack for the guild you choose, and one prerelease booster pack for a guild that shares one color with your chosen guild.

What does this mean?

It means that if you choose Golgari, whose colors are green and black, inside you'll find the Golgari prerelease pack from Return to Ravnica, as well as the prerelease booster pack for either Orzhov(Black/White), Rakdos(Black/Red), Dimir(Black/Blue), Selesnya(Green/White), Gruul(Green/Red), or Simic(Green/Blue).

After you assemble your deck, then the fun begins!

I plan to visit Knight's Comics and Games in Henderson, KY for my prerelease. I'm rolling either Golgari or Dimir. Who knows? I might see one or more of you there!

Hopefully, from this point on, this thread will be used to discuss the game, the cards, how to play, and what decks you use, or plan to use. This thread is currently, and will remain a positive thread, at least in regards to posters. If you have opinions on a deck or some cards someone else is running, then be sure to be constructive with your comments. If you have an opinion on WOTC, the game itself, or the public face of magic, feel free to go wild. Of course, board rules apply.

Tell Us About Your FLGS

Just like the thread title says, tell us about your local game and/or comic book shop.

Edit: no jiveposting. It hasn't happened yet, but I want to keep the thread positive overall. Therefore, no arguments about what is or isn't a game store. Your local Barnes & Noble even counts, as they sell card games, RPG books, traditional games, etc.

There's no real format I'm going to demand you follow, but it would be nice to know some details. Some elements you might include are as follows:

What kind of building is it? Did they repurpose part of a strip mall? Is it in a real mall? Did the owner convert his garage?

How well lit is it? Is it a dingy pit where you have to read titles using the light from your phone, or is it bright and shiny?

How roomy is it? Are the aisles spacious, like at Walgreens, or is it as crowded as the stereotypical non-chain convenience store, shelves so loaded down with crap that you don't dare turn around, for fear you might knock the NASCAR lighter displays over?

Do they have tables for gaming?

Is it in a safe neighborhood, or do you have to leave before dark, and only enter in packs?

Is the staff/owner friendly? Are they soulless autonomons, answering questions with grunts and shrugs, or are they happy to be there, and maybe teach you or someone else about a new product?

What's the clientele like? Are they the stereotypical goony bastard, who didn't bother to shower this week because screw it, it's not like he's been doing anything physical? Are they mostly teenagers there to play pokemon or m:tg? If a woman were to come in, would she be welcomed, or treated like a freak of nature, there to be ogled and stared at, and made to feel like a piece of meat?

Is it clean and well organized, or does it feel like you stepped into a hoarder's basement?

What does it specialize in? Is it card game central with just a very few other products? Is it mostly comics? Does it skew towards collectible items like figures and toys? Is it board/war game-centric?

Does it have scheduled event nights?

Please include the name and town so that we can all watch for it when/if we're in the area. If your store is covered by another sparker, feel free to quote their post and add your own opinions.

Alice's Restaurant

This song is called Alice's Restaurant. It's about Alice, and the restaurant, but Alice's Restaurant is not the name of the restaurant, that's just the name of the song. That's why I called the song Alice's Restaurant.


You can get anything you want at Alice's Restaurant
You can get anything you want at Alice's Restaurant
Walk right in it's around the back
Just a half a mile from the railroad track
You can get anything you want at Alice's Restaurant

Now it all started two Thanksgivings ago, was on - two years ago on Thanksgiving, when my friend and I went up to visit Alice at the restaurant. But Alice doesn't live in the restaurant, she lives in the church nearby the restaurant, in the bell-tower, with her husband Ray and Fasha the dog. And livin' in the bell tower like that, they got a lot of room downstairs where the pews used to be in. Havin' all that room, seein' as how they took out all the pews, they decided that they didn't have to take out their garbage for a long time.

We got up there, we found all the garbage in there, and we decided it'd be a friendly gesture for us to take the garbage down to the city dump. So we took the half a ton of garbage, put it in the back of a red VW microbus, took shovels and rakes and implements of destruction and headed on toward the city dump.

Well, we got there and there was a big sign and a chain across the dump saying, "Closed on Thanksgiving." And we had never heard of a dump closed on Thanksgiving before, and with tears in our eyes we drove off into the sunset looking for another place to put the garbage.

We didn't find one. Until we came to a side road, and off the side of the side road there was another fifteen foot cliff, and at the bottom of the cliff was another pile of garbage. And we decided that one big pile is better than two little piles, and rather than bring that one up we decided to throw ours down.

That's what we did. Drove back to the church, had a Thanksgiving dinner that couldn't be beat, went to sleep and didn't get up until the next morning, when we got a phone call from Officer Obie. He said, "Kid, we found your name on an envelope at the bottom of a half a ton of garbage, and just wanted to know if you had any information about it." And I said, "Yes, sir, Officer Obie, I cannot tell a lie, I put that envelope under that garbage."

After speaking to Obie for about forty-five minutes on the telephone we finally arrived at the truth of the matter and said that we had to go down and pick up the garbage, and also had to go down and speak to him at the police officer's station. So we got in the red VW microbus with the shovels and rakes and implements of destruction and headed on toward the police officer's station.

Now friends, there was only one or two things that Obie coulda done at the police station, and the first was that he could have given us a medal for being so brave and honest on the telephone, which wasn't very likely, and we didn't expect it, and the other thing was he could have bawled us out and told us never to be seen driving garbage around the vicinity again, which is what we expected, but when we got to the police officer's station there was a third possibility that we hadn't even counted upon, and we was both immediately arrested. Handcuffed. And I said, "Obie, I don't think I can pick up the garbage with these handcuffs on." He said, "Shut up, kid. Get in the back of the patrol car."

And that's what we did, sat in the back of the patrol car and drove to the quote Scene of the Crime unquote. I want tell you about the town of Stockbridge, Massachusetts, where this happened here, they got three stop signs, two police officers, and one police car, but when we got to the Scene of the Crime there was five police officers and three police cars, being the biggest crime of the last fifty years, and everybody wanted to get in the newspaper story about it. And they was using up all kinds of cop equipment that they had hanging around the police officer's station. They was taking plaster tire tracks, foot prints, dog smelling prints, and they took twenty seven eight-by-ten color glossy photographs with circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one explaining what each one was, to be used as evidence against us. Took pictures of the approach, the getaway, the northwest corner the southwest corner and that's not to mention the aerial photography.

After the ordeal, we went back to the jail. Obie said he was going to put us in the cell. Said, "Kid, I'm going to put you in the cell, I want your wallet and your belt." And I said, "Obie, I can understand you wanting my wallet so I don't have any money to spend in the cell, but what do you want my belt for?" And he said, "Kid, we don't want any hangings." I said, "Obie, did you think I was going to hang myself for littering?" Obie said he was making sure, and friends Obie was, cause he took out the toilet seat so I couldn't hit myself over the head and drown, and he took out the toilet paper so I couldn't bend the bars roll out the - roll the toilet paper out the window, slide down the roll and have an escape. Obie was making sure, and it was about four or five hours later that Alice (remember Alice? It's a song about Alice), Alice came by and with a few nasty words to Obie on the side, bailed us out of jail, and we went back to the church, had a another thanksgiving dinner that couldn't be beat, and didn't get up until the next morning, when we all had to go to court.

We walked in, sat down, Obie came in with the twenty seven eight-by-ten color glossy pictures with circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one, sat down. Man came in said, "All rise." We all stood up, and Obie stood up with the twenty seven eight-by-ten color glossy pictures, and the judge walked in sat down with a seeing eye dog, and he sat down, we sat down. Obie looked at the seeing eye dog, and then at the twenty seven eight-by-ten color glossy pictures with circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one, and looked at the seeing eye dog. And then at twenty seven eight-by-ten color glossy pictures with circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one and began to cry, 'cause Obie came to the realization that it was a typical case of American blind justice, and there wasn't nothing he could do about it, and the judge wasn't going to look at the twenty seven eight-by-ten color glossy pictures with the circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one explaining what each one was to be used as evidence against us. And we was fined $50 and had to pick up the garbage in the snow, but that's not what I came to tell you about.

Came to talk about the draft.

They got a building down New York City, it's called Whitehall Street, where you walk in, you get injected, inspected, detected, infected, neglected and selected. I went down to get my physical examination one day, and I walked in, I sat down, got good and drunk the night before, so I looked and felt my best when I went in that morning. `Cause I wanted to look like the all-American kid from New York City, man I wanted, I wanted to feel like the all-, I wanted to be the all American kid from New York, and I walked in, sat down, I was hung down, brung down, hung up, and all kinds o' mean nasty ugly things. And I walked in and sat down and they gave me a piece of paper, said, "Kid, see the psychiatrist, room 604."

And I went up there, I said, "Shrink, I want to kill. I mean, I wanna, I wanna kill. Kill. I wanna, I wanna see, I wanna see blood and gore and guts and veins in my teeth. Eat dead burnt bodies. I mean kill, Kill, KILL, KILL." And I started jumpin' up and down yelling, "KILL, KILL," and he started jumpin' up and down with me and we was both jumping up and down yelling, "KILL, KILL." And the Sergeant came over, pinned a medal on me, sent me down the hall, said, "You're our boy."

Didn't feel too good about it.

Proceeded on down the hall getting' more injections, inspections, detections, neglections and all kinds of stuff that they was doin' to me at the thing there, and I was there for two hours, three hours, four hours, I was there for a long time going through all kinds of mean nasty ugly things and I was just having a tough time there, and they was inspecting, injecting every single part of me, and they was leaving no part untouched. Proceeded through, and when I finally came to the see the last man, I walked in, walked in sat down after a whole big thing there, and I walked up and said, "What do you want?" He said, "Kid, we only got one question. Have you ever been arrested?"

And I proceeded to tell him the story of the Alice's Restaurant Massacre, with full orchestration and five part harmony and stuff like that and all the phenome... - and he stopped me right there and said, "Kid, did you ever go to court?"

And I proceeded to tell him the story of the twenty seven eight-by-ten color glossy pictures with the circles and arrows and the paragraph on the back of each one, and he stopped me right there and said, "Kid, I want you to go and sit down on that bench that says Group W. NOW, kid!!"

And I, I walked over to the, to the bench there, and there is, Group W's where they put you if you may not be moral enough to join the army after committing your special crime, and there was all kinds of mean nasty ugly looking people on the bench there. Mother rapers. Father stabbers. Father rapers! Father rapers sitting right there on the bench next to me! And they was mean and nasty and ugly and horrible crime-type guys sitting on the bench next to me.

And the meanest, ugliest, nastiest one, the meanest father raper of them all, was coming over to me and he was mean 'n' ugly 'n' nasty 'n' horrible and all kind of things and he sat down next to me and said, "Kid, whad'ya get?" I said, "I didn't get nothing, I had to pay $50 and pick up the garbage." He said, "What were you arrested for, kid?" And I said, "Littering." And they all moved away from me on the bench there, and the hairy eyeball and all kinds of mean nasty things, till I said, "And creating a nuisance." And they all came back, shook my hand, and we had a great time on the bench, talkin' about crime, mother stabbing, father raping, all kinds of groovy things that we was talking about on the bench. And everything was fine, we was smoking cigarettes and all kinds of things, until the Sergeant came over, had some paper in his hand, held it up and said.

"Kids, this-piece-of-paper's-got-47-words-37-sentences-58-words-we-wanna-know-details-of-the-crime-time-of-the-crime-and-any-other-kind-of-thing-you-gotta-say-pertaining-to-and-about-the-crime-I-want-to-know-arresting-officer's-name-and-any-other-kind-of-thing-you-gotta-say", and talked for forty-five minutes and nobody understood a word that he said, but we had fun filling out the forms and playing with the pencils on the bench there, and I filled out the massacre with the four part harmony, and wrote it down there, just like it was, and everything was fine and I put down the pencil, and I turned over the piece of paper, and there, there on the other side, in the middle of the other side, away from everything else on the other side, in parentheses, capital letters, quotated, read the following words:

("KID, HAVE YOU REHABILITATED YOURSELF?")

I went over to the Sergeant, said, "Sergeant, you got a lot a damn gall to ask me if I've rehabilitated myself, I mean, I mean, I mean that just, I'm sittin' here on the bench, I mean I'm sittin' here on the Group W bench 'cause you want to know if I'm moral enough join the army, burn women, kids, houses and villages after bein' a litterbug." He looked at me and said, "Kid, we don't like your kind, and we're gonna send your fingerprints off to Washington."

And friends, somewhere in Washington enshrined in some little folder, is a study in black and white of my fingerprints. And the only reason I'm singing you this song now is cause you may know somebody in a similar situation, or you may be in a similar situation, and if you're in a situation like that there's only one thing you can do and that's walk in to the shrink wherever you are, just walk in say "Shrink...


You can get anything you want at Alice's restaurant

And walk out. You know, if one person, just one person does it they may think he's really sick and they won't take him. And if two people, two people do it, in harmony, they may think they're both faggots and they won't take either of them. And three people do it, three, can you imagine, three people walking in singin' a bar of Alice's Restaurant and walking out. They may think it's an organization. And can you, can you imagine fifty people a day, I said fifty people a day walking in, singin' a bar of Alice's Restaurant and walking out. And friends, they may think it's a movement.

And that's what it is, the Alice's Restaurant Anti-Massacree Movement, and all you got to do to join is sing it the next time it comes around on the guitar.

With feeling. So we'll wait 'til it comes around on the guitar here, and sing it when it does. Here it comes.


You can get anything you want, at Alice's Restaurant
You can get anything you want, at Alice's Restaurant
Walk right in it's around the back
Just a half a mile from the railroad track
You can get anything you want, at Alice's Restaurant

That was horrible. If you want to end war and stuff, you gotta sing loud. I've been singing this song now for twenty five minutes. I could sing it for another twenty five minutes. I'm not proud... or tired.

So we'll wait till it comes around again, and this time with four part harmony and feeling.

We're just waitin' for it to come around, is what we're doing.

All right now?


You can get anything you want at Alice's Restaurant - excepting Alice
You can get anything you want at Alice's Restaurant
Walk right in it's around the back
Just a half a mile from the railroad track
And you can get anything you want, at Alice's Restaurant

Da da da da da da da dum
At Alice's Restaurant

Rock band thanksgiving ps3

I start my vacation at 7:00 am today. I plan to get more rocking out done over the next 9 days than I have since I bought my house. All of you are invited to play too. Post your instruments and PSN ID below. We'll add each other and play some this week.

PSN ID: kizudarake1

Instruments: bass: medium.
Guitar: medium.
Vocals: hard.

mc chris is a jerk.

Well, Cheets, it's not an isolated incident. Here's a Kotaku story expanding on it.

Kotaku



Well, I've spent MY last dime on ANYTHING featuring mc chris. I'm not buying anything even guest starring him. (Sorry, ATHF) It's good he sells primarily MP3s. It's a lot easier to physically rectally insert a flash drive than a cd.