Why I Came Back
Wake up world! My name is Bob Lanza, self-proclaimed Magic: The Gathering geek, and collector of cards. I work as an IT Guru during the day, and at night I Sleep. I picked up Magic again around January 2009 and have since had success as of late on the tournament scene. I’m one of the founding members of Team Chaotic. I’ll be writing articles on the current meta, life, and possibly the occasional rant. Welcome, and enjoy!
I can’t begin to tell you how many people out there in the world today play Magic: The Gathering. Every corner I turn, I find someone else who is ready and raring to duel. Magic is a game of strategy, wits, luck, and let’s face it- money. If you don’t have the most recent cards, you don’t have what it takes to reach that next level. But seriously, who doesn’t want to play a game slated in a fantasy world where you are a Planeswalker (a superior being who has not only potent magic, but the ability to walk from one plane of existence to another). At your control are countless spells, creatures, enchantments, artifacts and other tools to show your dominance over man and beast. The trick is combining these abilities into something that will not only make you the victor, but also showcase your smarts. I digress.
I started playing Magic when I was about 13-years-old, circa 1994. Magic was young and new, and some of the kids at school started playing. I found this new card game fascinating and being the geek that I am, (seriously, if you play magic you’re a geek- embrace it) I was full on hooked from the first time I tapped a forest for this magic called “mana.” Back then there weren’t nearly as many cards as there are today, and having certain cards gave you a flat out advantage. Being only 13 at the time, it was difficult to procure money to buy booster packs, boxes, starter packs and other accessories. Every chance I got, I scraped together a few bucks here or there for some cards, never knowing what a “rare” was let alone today’s “mythic rares.” I knew what I liked and what worked for me. I thought that cards like Craw Wurm were amazing because of the sheer power. I ran the Channel Fireball combo for a bit, and then everybody stopped playing me. But for the most part back then, I kept things simple: Green Stompy and Red Burn, both of which led me to mild success. When the Ice Age block came out, I had begged and pleaded for a booster box from my family. I don’t recall how much these boxes cost back then, but I know they were not too thrilled that this was my latest obsession and it was EXPENSIVE even then! Needless to say, I got the box and with that came new cards and new ways to beat my friends.
High school rolled around shortly after, and my cards disappeared into The Abyss that is my closet. There they sat for 14 years. Jokingly in my last year of college (last of 7) I had talked about my geeky tendencies and how I used to play Magic: The Gathering. I couldn’t believe that one of my good college friends used to play when he was younger, and better yet, he still had his cards! Just like that, the addiction started all over again. However, now I’m older and smarter (I think), and more in tune with the way things work.
After trying to find new techniques to beat my friends, I decided that I needed a new edge- that’s right, cards from the new sets. I started by buying a box of Conflux. After opening them, I remembered the thrill of pulling a rare card. Shortly thereafter, I learned about the tournament scene and what was legal for each format. It was then that I decided I was going to become a Standard Legal kind of guy. Hell, I just spent 80 bucks on a box of Conflux, how much could it cost to go back to Shards of Alara and then just keep up with everything afterwards? Man it’s expensive, but oh so worth it! The game to this day still keeps me thinking, “how can I play better- no, perfectly!”
As they say, the rest is history. I currently have found many more people to duel, and I have since formed/joined a team of experienced players from both way back in the day and the present time. I have had some recent luck as a deck builder and player in some tournaments lately. Limited is something completely untapped for me, and yet I’ve won the last three Sealed events in which I’ve participated. In the end, this hobby of mine has cost me big bucks, but I wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world, except maybe a foil Jace, the Mind Sculptor.
Rise of the Eldrazi Pre-Release roundup
This past weekend I attended my first pre-release (and Limited) event at my local shop, Numbskullz. I am usually a Constructed player so switching gears to Limited was a challenge. No longer could I build a deck and test it for weeks before I brought it to FNM, I was on the spot and I had to get a deck together within 30 minutes. 24 players showed up and the event lasted about 5 1/2 hours. We played 5 rounds and then the top 4 decided to split because of the time. Over all I went 2-3 which I consider to be fair since I never attended a Limited event before. My deck started out as a tri color (black, blue, green) that won me round one. Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief was hands down the key card for me both of the games we played. I used her ability to kill off all the creatures my opponent had out and attacked for 10+ two turns in a row. With no creatures to block, thats game over. I only had one copy of this card, but I managed to draw it both games. Round one was the highlight of the day unfortunately, with things going downhill fast. Rounds two and three I lost 0-2, both within 15 minutes. I kept drawing single color land which totally crippled my hand. After the third round I decided to switch my deck completely. I ended up with a white green deck that was smaller (45 cards) and faster. I won round four 2-1 and lost round five 1-2. Round four was somewhat frustrating to me because the player I was facing jumped down my throat over every little thing I questioned. I have been playing for many years but I do not consider myself all knowing when it comes to the rules. Factor in the new set with new mechanics, I was questioning/reading every card in play. Just because you thought out the card and what you are going to do with it doesn’t mean I will as soon as it drops into play. Overall the event was a great learning experience and I am considering attending the release event as well.
As for the new set itself, it plays very slow in Limited. It seemed to be a race to see who can get out the first Eldrazi and attack with it. I don’t remember a player who lost a match with an Eldrazi on the table first. Ironically, I never played a single Eldrazi (I had 3 in my deck) so maybe that was a flaw in my deck building. I am looking forward to seeing what impact this set makes on Standard. I have a few ideas floating around for my Jund deck (Vengevine anyone?) and I also am thinking about changes to my Vamp/Mono White decks. Green seems to be the big gainer with ROE so I might start a Mono Green Eldrazi deck. I have most of the cards already and a deck like that is dominating FNM week in and week out. I have 2 booster boxes pre-ordered so I should get some good pulls.
I hope everyone likes the new theme and good luck with your release events this weekend!
Alive
I guess I should start by apologizing. Its been close to a year since I put up anything new here and up until recently, it didn’t concern me much. The last year of my life has been one giant roller coaster that I had a hard time dealing with. Every single aspect of my life has changed, for better or for worse, and I am finally getting to the point where I have enough sanity to write a bit.
I never liked getting into personal matters here so I will try and keep that stuff brief. That side of my life has been the hardest. I have lost a lot in the last year but I have emerged gaining more I feel. Things seem to be more stable than ever and all the pieces are falling into place. I met an amazing woman a few months ago and she is the reason things are on the upswing. I have some great friends who have also helped a lot. I don’t know where I would be without them. I am working in a new building, 40 miles south of where I live. The commute sucks ass, but I will be moving in with said woman come summertime which will be closer. I haven’t decided if I like working where I am yet. I will save that judgment till after I move.
Enough of that stuff, lets move on.
Site Related
I just renewed my hosting for the year and I plan to get this place going again. My focus will still be where it is now, but more toward Magic, music and technology. I still have a Mac and I am still an Apple fan. The fact is, I work in a Windows world. All the computers I support, all the servers I administer, they are all Windows. I do support 2 Macs, but the amount of work that requires is minimal. I plan to talk about everything technology that strikes my fancy and that will cover a very broad area. I am looking at new designs for the site to kick off the semi-transition. Right now I am looking at Joomla for the back-end, but I will still consider WordPress since I have been using it for years. I am not sure how long this will all take since my life is very busy. I seem to have very little free time to devote to the site these days.
Maintenance
Maintenance is still going strong. It still gets downloaded about 2000-3000 times a month even thou the current version is over 2 years old. I do have a lot of ideas on where to go with the program but again, finding time to research and code is an issue. I mentioned before that I wanted to bring the program over to the iPhone format and that is still an interest. I am not sure if it can be done, but with the launch of the iPad, I see more of a use for it.
Magic
Magic has become a very big focus in my life. I regularly attend Friday Night Magic at a local spot, I play Dual of the Planeswalkers on my Xbox and I play Magic Online from time to time. I currently run a variation of Jund and a buddy of mine uses my cards running either Vampires or White Weenie. I do a ton of research throughout the week before FNM so I can be prepared for what I might see. I feel I am becoming a very well rounded player even thou most people seem to think I can only run Jund. With Rise of the Eldrazi about to be unleashed on us, I am already thinking about what might replace my Jund deck come October when most the cards are rotated out of Standard. Vampires seems to be a good choice, but its very hard to know before the other sets are released. M11 and Scars of Mirrodin are still to be seen and those sets might change the face of Standard completely. I know things will be different just with the Shards block rotating out, but what else might happen is a mystery. I would love to start getting into Extended as well, but the learning curve for that would be steep and I don’t have the cards. So that might have to wait.
Music?
I haven’t talked about music that much here, but it is a huge part of my life. I have been playing guitar for about 10 years now and I consider my guitars (all 3 of them, 4 if you count my girlfriends) to be life savers. I currently own a PRS SE Custom 24, an Epiphone Black Beauty and an old Epiphone acoustic guitar. The acoustic says “Epi” on the headstock so I assume it was made before Gibson got the rights to Epiphone? I really have no idea. I currently use a Fender FM65DSP 65 Watt amp with a Danelectro Black Coffee distortion pedal. I mostly play rock and metal stuff but I tend to experiment with a variety of sounds depending on my mood. I listen to the same kind of music as I play. Rarely will you see me sitting by without some kind of music playing.
Gaming
I still play games quite a bit (when I have time). I recently purchased a nice 55 inch Samsung LCD TV and my wonderful girlfriend got me an Xbox 360 for my birthday (gamer tag Sharvan if you wish to add me). I am trying to get back into World of Warcraft, but having that big TV sitting idle in my living room seems to be a crime. Sitting down to play Fallout 3 on the 55 inch TV with surround sound is pretty damn sweet.
Well that is all I can think of right now. I can’t give any time frame for when the site will change or when I will start posting more, but I will. As always, feel free to contact me.