26 Oct 4704 - Webdate, Settle,
Sprode
Seriously, it would have taken less than ten seconds to check out.
I've changed the character portrait gallery I made for the Galactic Dawn
campaign to have a nifty table made with a cascading style sheet (css). It has
hovering features, and lets you view each image alone with a single click. This
is my first venture on my website into css at all, and pundits indicate to me
that I should use it very much the more, so who knows. Perhaps someday the
running links at the head of each of my main sites will have their own
cascadingly stylized shite.
Other changes: I discovered that I had been in the middle of making an html
table for the Metroid Manga that I re-dubbed, and decided to finish it. You now
have a table of links to all the pages each by each. Enjoy.
Right now I am in the land of infinite tests, and am even going to a tournament
this weekend for Magic: The Gathering, where my great performance may elevate me
to the esteem of tens, maybe even dozens of people. I have had a little
difficulty in assembling all the pieces of the deck I intend to run, but should
have it all shored up by the weekend when I bring it to bear against the
competition, many of whom (speaking of decks and not people) I know and shall
trounce. Or not. The best part about competitive magic is seeing what everyone
else thinks of deck design and how they exploit interactions.
My preferred affectation is to the information war of tournament magic. Chess,
for example, is a game of complete information. The only thing you're hiding is
your plan: that which remains to be seen. Everything about the current game
state is knowable and (unless you and your opponent are hopeless at the game)
known. In Magic, there are ten thousand ways to hold secret information, and you
should exploit all of them. The ideal would be to defeat your opponent without
him knowing how you did it. This is too much to hope for as sooner or later
you're going to have to show him what you have done or what you're doing. He
doesn't know every card in your deck, or even what you have in your hand. This
could cause you to start holding on to land later in the game to make your
opponent think that you have some answers in reserve. It will lead you to leave
mana open when maybe you don't even need to. Anything to give the illusion that
you have exactly what your opponent doesn't want you to have will hinder your
opponent's development, and win games. On the reverse side, you have to know
exactly what he's doing and what all the cards in his deck and hand are. This is
a lofty goal, but seems asymmetric: how can I know what you have without you
knowing what I have?
The solution is to research. Strictly speaking, you don't know what the guy
across the table is playing until you've seen it all, and you'll never really
see it all. If you do know, however, what kinds of decks people are playing
with, this can lend you a huge advantage in the information war. Knowing the
archetypes of deck, their strengths and weaknesses and how to pick them apart,
this is key. Then you know exactly what the other guy is playing after only the
first or second turns. You'll know what to sideboard in entirely.
And about the sideboard, pay attention to how many cards your opponent is
putting in. This demonstrates how much of a threat he thinks you are, or
otherwise what he thinks of the matchup. How much he puts in could give you an
idea of what to expect, and knowledge of deck archetypes includes knowledge of
how they sideboard. You'll know how they plan to side against you, so you should
know how to side against that. In war, one should always be two or three steps
ahead.
When you sideboard, shuffle your entire sideboard into your deck and then remove
one sideboardsworth of cards. Even if you intend to swap out nothing, your
opponent has no idea how many you did swap. Four, ten, one of them, all of them?
No clue. This is a small affair of the information war, but a good one.
Here's to progress.
Later tonight I'll be instructing in Settlers of Catan and curing colds. Don't
be alarmed if I assault you more than once about the cards. I will need to
collect them soon.