MTG FNM Report - URdrazi

It's a new Standard environment and luckily the URdrazi deck I've been playing recently didn't lose a lot to rotation. Here's what I played:

Mainboard	Sideboard
4x Kozilek's Sentinel 4x Dimentional Infiltrator 4x Herald of Kozilek 4x Vile Aggregate 4x Eldrazi Skyspawner 4x Eldrazi Obligator 2x Thought-Knot Seer 4x Reality Smasher 4x Spatial Contortion 2x Brutal Expulsion 1x Mirrorpool 2x Ruins of Oran-Rief 2x Sea Gate Wreckage 4x Corrupted Crossroads 4x Shivan Reef 1x Yavimaya Coast 5x Island 5x Mountain	3x Spell Shrivel 1x Void Shatter 2x Dispel 2x Negate 2x Roast 3x Seismic Rupture 2x Brutal Expulsion

I've been quite enjoying playing this deck, and even with the loss of Ghost-Fire Blade, I think it's got a lot of angles. It can play aggressive, with two ways to play a turn four Reality Smasher in Eldrazi Skyspawner and Herald of Kozilek, and can close out the game with a well-timed Eldtazi Obligator. It can also play the defensive roll as Kozilek's Sentinel and Herald of Kozilek block very effectively while Dimentional Infiltrator and Eldrazi Skyspawner can fly in for damage.

Round 1: 2-0 vs Counter Burn

I was excited to see this deck in the tournament. It looks like the idea was to flash in a Rattlechains while pushing tempo in the early game and use Pyromancer's Goggles with cards like magmatic insight to grind out value in the mid to late game. Unfortunately my opponent mulliganed to 5 in the first game and I swarmed over him. In the second game, I managed to get a Eldrazi Skyspwaner down early and it went the distance while my opponent was forced to deal with everything else.

Round 2: 2-0 vs RG Eldrazi Ramp

This is another deck that didn't lose a lot of cards to rotation. Thankfully I was able to keep up the pressure and close out the game before my opponent could start playing his big spells. Brutal Expulsion was absolutely fantastic in this match-up, remanding an Explosive Vegetation and exiling a Hangerback Walker was…. Brutal.

Round 3: 2-1 vs UG Eldrazi Agro

This was basically the mon-blue Eldrazi list splashing green for Sylvan Advocate and Lumbering Falls. I won the die roll, and while I think that made a huge the difference, I do think the UR version has advantage in the matchup. Vile Aggregate blocks Thought-Knot Seer and Sylvan Advocate fantastically, the Herald of Kozilek gives me an extra way to ramp out a Reality Smasher and Eldrazi Obligator can setup a massive alpha strike.

So I went 3-0 on a quiet night at FNM. I had a lot of fun and feel that the URdrazi deck is a solid choice in the early meta. 

-Odd

As easy to stop as it is to comprehend. - Flavour text, Reality Smasher

Is English Evolving?

The Oxford English Dictionary has released it's 2015 Word of the Year: The emoji Face with Tears of Joy.

An emoji is defined by Wiktionary as "any of the standardised ideogrammatic icons used in Japanese text messaging (which have since been adopted internationally)." It comes from the Japanese characters for picture (e) and character (moji).

I know a lot of people are going to be horrified by this announcement. "It's not even a word!", I hear them scream, "They're destroying English!" and such similar outbursts. This sort of thing happens every time something new gets added to the great tome that is the OED and as such, I think we can ignore the uproar as repetitive.

For my two cents, I think that this year is far more interesting than last year's word (Vape). What is language if not the way in which we communicate with each other? If that's the case, then the emojis are certainly becoming an integral part of our shared language and it's important that the OED acknowledge it.

What I find fascinating is that English is now incorporating pictographs into everyday use, even replacing previous usages. Pictographs seem to be useful for quickly communicating general but complex ideas (such as emotion), but I think they would be less efficient in technical discussion where details are important.

It will be interesting to watch how our language adapts to our new modes communication and how quickly it will change.

-Odd
“Language, never forget, is more fashion than science, and matters of usage, spelling and pronunciation tend to wander around like hemlines.” ― Bill Bryson, The Mother Tongue: English and How It Got That Way

The Last Discworld novel

A couple weeks ago, my gorgeous lady bought me The Shepherd's Crown for my birthday. I had been waiting with a rabid anticipation (as I always have for a new Discworld novel) but when I actually had it in hand a strange thing happened. I wasn't sure if I wanted to read it.

The abstract on the back of the jacket ends with a devastating line: "The Last Discworld Novel". Thats it. The last one. Fin.

This, the 41st Discworld novel, rushed up the best seller lists, taking just three days to sell over 52 000 copies in the UK alone, and Terry Pratchett's daughter (Rhianna Pratchett) and his assistant (Rob Wilkins) have confirmed that neither of them will be writing any more Discworld books.

The series has been a running theme in my life for so long that I can't really envision a world where it doesn't continue. It occurred to me that if I don't read The Shepherd's Crown, there will always be a new Discworld novel waiting for me.

That's obviously insane and I am, of course, going to read it. Still: if ever there was a time to build the anticipation, the last Discworld novel must be it. To that end I'm going to re-read the other Tiffany books before I sit down with The Shepherd's Crown.


If you're a fan of Pratchett I wonder if you thought of this at all and if you're not, then I envy you the discovery of the Discworld.

-Odd

"Fantasy is an exercise bicycle for the mind. It might not take you anywhere, but it tones up the muscles that can. Of course, I could be wrong." -Terry Pratchett