M13 Poor Print Quality

So this is what I meant by the poorer print quality of M13 Do you see the double print in the magmaquake leading to a "thicker" font? The two cards were held side by side but see how crisp the normal one (flames of the Firebrand) is. Only the rares have this problem, and its not all the rares just some. I am pretty sure there is another form of bleed (this one is like a double print leading to a thicker font).

I'm not really sure if this is the norm, but I have only really noticed it now. And only for M13.

Epic Sphynx Skin

Now I do know I haven't been a good boy in MH.


But I will try to update more often.

Anyways this was from the art feedback friday

You know how the tournament prize skin for the Sphyx was always a little like a drag queen ? (I thought that was cute)

BUT. Cute was not to be. EPIC was the name of the game. So EPIC it shalt be:

Sapphire

So I recently got this =)

woo hoo!

This is an unlimited mox sapphire.

and alot earlier I acquired these:

This is the full (as of now) set of Happy Holiday promos. Which are promos that WOTC gives out to staff during christmas.

They are usually goofy and not tournament legal, so that fall purely into collectible or cube domains.

I wanted them for a xmas cube. Or a normal cube but just added spice for the holidays.

Rebacked Cards

In a thread about counterfeit Black Lotuses I found this link posted which I thought was quite interesting =)


http://gantopian.com/wordpress/?p=155


It is about how to spot rebacked cards.

Mouse Hunt - The Tribal Isles

This is just to note my strategies in teh Mouse Hunt game


I really cannot remember my setup in the earlier portions of the game....

But since I am at the Isles now, that is as good a place as any to start.



The Isles are separated into

Cape Clawed

Elub Shore

Nerg Plains

Derr Dunes





Cape Clawed? You don't really need to hunt here. But this is the area of lowest risk.... as only the low level mice are here. However.. only use high luck setups as the mice from the Isles are align to their types: Hydro Tactical Physical.


Going to Elub, I used Harpoon with Aqua for gathering shells

Harpoon/Polar to get the Elder

For the chief - I used ASG (Ancient Spear Gun) and Polar together with Shell
- I used Tribal base and it was horrible (I actually like the name tiki.. but the name does not resonate with me... becos... well I don't know what a tiki is =P and even if I do ..[which I now do].. it still does'nt resonate as it did not have an impression on me... soI'll stick with Tribal or Tbase or tribase for now). I kept missing. I suspect it is because the Elub bosses actually have very high power. A little too high for Aqua (when luck kicks in) and polar can do a better job.

Seeing that a ASG/Polar setup


Going to Nerg I used Ambush with polar to catch Grandfather and Ambush/Aq to gather veggies

for the chief - currently using HVMT (Horrific Venus Mouse Trap)
still not caught after about 100 gumbo


Going to Derr, I used Pbot/Aqua to gather stones and Pbot/polar to catch the Aged.

for the chief - caught with Rhinobot/polar

The Dark Knight Rises

Just a quick movie review.

Hmmm I am not sure if I normally do this on this blog or the other but anyways...


The show was alright. It had too many things going on and you needed alot of background information to understand what was going on.

My mom was pretty lost. My dad enjoyed it I think , my sis was oki with it but thought it was not as good as the second one. When asked further on why was it less good, her answer was rather odd but insightful.

"it is less dark than the second" "the second was better but darker"


My expectations when entering the theater was that the show would be a dark but well made show.

I still think it was a pretty well made show. But I think the producers pulled a few punches.

This installation of Batman had a "feel good" element to it. It had the arise from the dirt and do well, and not quite enough grit. The dirt was'nt rubbed in enough. The hopeless was almost there but not quite palpable. You kinda knew he WILL make it on the third try.

The violence was highly controlled and only hinted at. I think if you are going to hide the violence you need to be pretty good at hinting. And if you are going to introduce violence you gotta do it no matter how unpleasant it is.

For example. I felt that Immortals was a rather disturbing show. Yes there was a certain amount of gratitious violence, but it was'nt that which got me. The brutality is actually the part where some one was castrated. i don't believe that scene was shown but the built up and the sound? was heavily hinted. (The show Immortal did quite a bit of homework on torture methods btw ;))

In pure prose terms, think of Edgar Allan Poe versus Stephen Kings' rendition of violence and horror. Poe's horror is largely hinted at whereas King's is gratitious and graphic.

So my point is if you are not going to show violence (as I think was the decision of the producers) you need to be good at hinting. Which I think was a little lacking, but to be fair I think the art of hinted horror is an art and not a science, so its hard to be too critical of failure (but an instance done well should be lauded).



STILL. I think it was a pretty good movie. Was'nt bad, just the lack of darkness is just not quite batman =P (a bit like how I felt that they made a mockery of the Avengers a little when Hulk went all goofy - still if it wins fans, I'm all for it).