Disqus - Latest Comments for justindz

Re: New York State Protects "Hallowed Ground" Of Conservation Movement

justindz — Wed, 24 Sep 2014 10:48:27 -0000

I grew up spending my summers in and around Mateskared and return almost every summer with my own kids. I am excited that it's being recognized as a place that needs to be protected from the vagaries of the future.

Re: Engage with the livestream

justindz — Wed, 09 Jul 2014 10:32:32 -0000

Should we be organizing at a more local level to fill positions with opponents of corruption? Members of Congress tend to come from "smaller" offices and build up through the ranks. If we can in parallel start selecting for a better pool of future candidates, we may be able to have twice the influence over time.

Re: Gamer Boy, Gamer Girl: Daniel Tack

justindz — Tue, 20 Aug 2013 10:47:08 -0000

Shandalar MMO is the only correct answer to that question!

Re: CNN Promotes Eugenics

justindz — Fri, 27 Jul 2012 11:26:26 -0000

Right. They're being hired to do a specific job: look attractive. Now, I think it's fair to say that our community is more "subject matter expertise" demanding of their booth babes than car aficionados. That's not a knock on car people. It's just a cultural difference. So I would say that the minimum requirement for a "booth babe" is to be babe-like. However, a desired quality should be knowledge of the product, culture, etc. If you can talk the talk and be babe-like, you should get paid more. Why? You are simply better marketing and will generate better ROI.

This guy just wanted to rant. There wasn't really room for nuance. Shocking on the Internet, I know.

So, when do you start your new career? :-P

Re: http://justindz.tumblr.com/post/27020196740

justindz — Thu, 12 Jul 2012 07:05:43 -0000

I have MUC and most of Enchantress. I rarely get to play. For Merfolk, check out Master of the Pearled Trident. You got a lord upgrade.

Re: http://justindz.tumblr.com/post/19117487185

justindz — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 07:15:01 -0000

I got knocked out round 2. Game 1, the guy played turn 3 Liliana to my one creature, then followed up with Midnight Haunting and Mausoleum Guard. Ow. Game 2, I almost killed him despite drawing 10 of my 16 land and 7 of my 23 spells. You'll have that, sometimes.

Re: http://justindz.tumblr.com/post/19008627146

justindz — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 13:45:07 -0000

You sound less sexy when I'm not congested?

Re: http://justindz.tumblr.com/post/18930245878

justindz — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 06:48:54 -0000

You have to be pretty aggressive to capitalize. Or have stuff with flying, first strike, trample, etc.

Re: Heroku | Nezumi 2.0 for Managing Heroku Apps 'on-the-go' Now Available for iPhone

justindz — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 10:39:18 -0000

I would love a promo code. I am trying to "push" usage of Heroku and having visuals is very helpful :-)

Re: http://justindz.tumblr.com/post/17128257598

justindz — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 07:02:46 -0000

Sam and Ella were two of the ingredients I used.

I bake this the full time, but at a slightly lower temperature than suggest. The bad stuff dies. Of course, I do eat tons of raw dough first and have my whole life. So far, so good.

Re: http://justindz.tumblr.com/post/16758633189

justindz — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 18:51:24 -0000

I'm not sure I'm qualified to answer, but I sure am opinionated. This is a bit outside the scope of my article, but I could probably write on the process I would engage in if I were to aggressively pursue pro status.

Alternately, my teammate is on the pro tour now and may be writing for SCG in the future. I could suggest the topic to him.

Re: Dark Ascension Non-Report

justindz — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 18:34:07 -0000

Red was pretty bad in Innistrad, most of the time. I do think it actually got quite a bit better in DKA, although still not a windmill slam. Stromkirk Captain is pretty underrated. First strike is huge, especially against Undying.

Re: Dark Ascension Non-Report

justindz — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 06:54:31 -0000

If your pool is sub-optimal, you can probably do worse than GWr with pressure and removal.

I played against a Drogskol Reaver too. However, in my games, the game was always over before he had enough mana. Except in the final game where I was stuck on 3 land for like 10 turns and he had perfect mana. But it turns out it could have been a Moon Heron and I probably still would have died to it at that point.

Re: http://justindz.tumblr.com/post/11045465729

justindz — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 22:55:35 -0000

It was the other way around. I had all the stuff on the bottom.

Re: Classic White Trash (Or, My MTGO Update)

justindz — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 22:34:39 -0000

Got an Oath rematch and won in 3. Game 1, he got the turn 1 Oath and Forced my Relic Warder. Games 2 and 3, I got to Relic Warder his Oath and proceed to beat down with backup Relic Warder, Abolish and Fiend Hunter in a few situations.

I definitely think I'm going to add some Plains over monkeys and see how that goes. I always feel like I'm praying to rip a Plains at some point ;-)

Re: Justin Duewel-Zahniser: Magic the Gathering in 2011: the 30+, Married w/ Children Review

justindz — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 07:19:19 -0000

Thanks for the feedback. Did I miss anything?

Re: Organized Play, Planeswalker Points, and You

justindz — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 07:53:33 -0000

All in all, I feel like this makes the SCG circuit way more significant than it was before. I wonder if it will have the side-effect of making those events even more competitive than they already are.

Re: Notes from Gameday

justindz — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 12:36:05 -0000

This.

I will say that I learned a fair bit and accomplished part of what I had hoped to accomplish. I can improve my deck and at least understand some of its strengths and weaknesses. I was, of course, starting from a baseline that showed up in Pro Tour Top 8s, so hopefully I was reasonable practice for you. It wasn't wasted for me.

But, yeah, as a whole, we didn't accomplish much. I did play like 12 games against Crock before you guys got there. That was helpful, but our matches were probably more so. I knew I was going to spend some time playing EDH because I brought the kids there to get decks, but the Mental Magic thing was a bit of a waste for those of us trying to get ready for the PTQ season. I even had a stack of junk cards and a sharpie, but no one requested any other gauntlet decks.

I don't think everyone should be obligated to be competitive-focused like we are. The lunch convo with Crock was awkward, though.

Are you making any decks on MTGO that you'd want to test? Or Cockatrice?

Re: Updates from a Level 1 Prodigy

justindz — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 18:25:01 -0000

Nope. Seems to be the same. Maybe it's a UK thing?

Re: Why Commander Works

justindz — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 08:21:56 -0000

I would second recommending that book. I almost never read non-fiction bestsellers, but I picked this one up because I work in design and love games. Some of the book is filler, but less than usual and I think it's probably even a better self help book than most (Chicken Soup for the Ragequit, etc.) and especially for people who enjoy playing games.

Re: Nobody Knows Anything

justindz — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 07:54:19 -0000

The trader with the best information and the least empathy for the other person will "win" every time, given a short enough time window or an old enough card that the values are stable. Which is the other fiction. See: Skaab Ruinator, Time Vault, etc.

Re: Did Another MTGO Draft

justindz — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 22:03:16 -0000

8-4s are the best value, hands down. That's where you want to be. Of course, my grinder friend says "if you want tickets, don't draft." But I like drafting, so neener. Just don't do 4-3-2-2 or 5-3-2-2 or whatever. It's really bad value.

And, yeah, mulligan is an art form. The deck sounds decent too. MTGO also has a random shuffler, unlike the real world, so it's a bit different than what you'd be used to, actually.

Re: http://justindz.tumblr.com/post/13129383582

justindz — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 08:48:33 -0000

We're going to start playing proxy vintage for fun, so I'm basically building Vintage oath control. Proxying Power 9, Time Vault, Library and a few other things like Mana Crypt until I can pick them up.

Re: Did Another MTGO Draft

justindz — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 10:50:02 -0000

I think I'm going to start drafting more aggressive decks. The way the matches are timed is so very different from paper Magic and definitely rewards you for having a strong aggro or at least aggro-control strategy. And the totally different reads and tells without being able to see your player makes control decision making very different. I'll give that a stab and see how it goes.

Re: Another Innistrad Draft Report

justindz — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 14:33:04 -0000

Thanks man. I've been writing up draft/sealed for a bit. Comments help encourage me to keep going. Let me know if there's anything you'd like to see or so on and I'll do what I can.