Sunday Miscellania

Due to a busy Easter weekend, this post is a day late and a dollar short. But I wanted to give you a quick update about what I'm working on.

First, as you may have noticed, my 40 Days Away from Magic is over. Hence the fact that I have lots of plans for upcoming articles and projects.

Second, although the official card gallery is not yet complete for Journey to Nyx, the entire set has been spoiled on various sites, including this one. As such, I am already at work on my Standard Pauper review of the set. Part One should be submitted sometime this week.

Third, I have decided that for the upcoming Season 25 of Monday Pauper Deck Challenge, I will be doing a weekly video follow-up with the winning deck for each event. I actually did this way back in Season 9, and some of those videos remain my most watched videos ever. This time around the videos will be accompanied with a weekly article over at PureMTGO, but the emphasis will definitely be on the videos themselves.

Finally, I hope to have an updated Hidden Strings decklist completed this weekend, which I will test out for tomorrow's Monday Pauper Deck Challenge. Win or lose, I plan on discussing my decklist this coming week.

And by way of postscript, if you have any ideas for future projects or posts, I'd love to hear about it in the comments below.

Surviving Tornados, Part Two

Last time, I wrote about how my family and I have endured not one but two close encounters with violent, destructive tornadoes. Overall, I feel very blessed. We certainly endured property loss and inconvenience, but both times we were not only completely taken care of, but walked away without a scratch. For reasons I cannot explain, many were not so fortunate. The tornado that swept through Moore Oklahoma last May was particularly heart-breaking. This footage tells the tale much better than I could here.

With all the advances in weather forecasting, the chances of surviving a major tornado are so much better than they once were. Here's what you need to know to survive:

• Keep informed. If you live in an area where tornadoes have struck in the past, make sure you have reliable access to weather information. Severe weather outbreaks are now predicted several days in advance. Keep an eye on the weather, pay attention to media outlets, and make sure you have multiple ways to receive any warnings that are issued for your area. Weather radios and weather apps are both valuable technological resources - use them.
• Know when and where to take shelter. The vast majority of tornadoes are survivable, even if you're directly in the path, by taking appropriate shelter. Go into the lowest level of a building, find an interior room without windows, get low to the ground, and protect your head. Of course, the absolute best place to be is underground - either in a basement, a cellar or tornado shelter.
• Avoid vehicles, highway underpasses, mobile homes, or warehouses. Most of the time, you'd be better off outside on the ground than in one of these. In particular, people often think they can escape a tornado by car. Unfortunately, the ensuing traffic jams often end up trapping you right in the path of the storm, with no shelter available. Most of the time, you're better off staying put.
• Take warnings seriously. In the age of the cellphone, too many people decide to run outside and take video of a tornado instead of taking shelter. Heed the warnings, protect yourself and your loved ones, and don't do anything stupid.

If you're looking for an entertaining and informative book on the topic of tornadoes and the science of severe weather warnings, I highly recommend Warnings: The True Story of How Science Tamed the Weather, available straight from Amazon in either print or e-book.

Finally, an a completely unrelated note, today ends my 40 Days Away from Magic. I am looking forward to diving back into my favorite hobby in the week ahead. For my next post, I'll have several updates about my plans moving forward. See you then.

Issue from MPDC 24.04

Honestly, I didn't think I would be addressing this issue. Let me explain.

Last Monday, during the Finals of MPDC 24.04, there was a conflict between the two remaining players. After the Top 4 matches ended, one of the players requested a 20 minute break to take care of something work-related. The other player was unwilling to do so and believed that he should have been awarded a free win since his opponent would be unavailable to start the match within 10 minutes of the previous round ending. When the first player returned from his break, the second player was still online but refused to play out the match at that time.

I was unavailable at the time of the conflict, and didn't find out about it until the incident was over. After mulling it over, I emailed the two parties and requested that they reschedule a time to play out the match. The second player was unwilling to do so. On that basis, I went ahead and declared the final match a tie and shared the prizes among them.

Yesterday, I learned that one of the players wrote about the incident over at his blog. You can read his account here. I went ahead and posted a brief summary of what happened over at PDCmagic in response, and decided that since it was being discussed in the community, it made sense to go ahead and address it here as well.

Just for clarity, the rules do state that if a player is not present to begin his or her match within 10 minutes of the pairing announcement, that player forfeits the match. Generally, this has only been enforced when a player is actually offline at that time. Even then, sometimes the first player decides to wait it out a bit longer to see if his or her opponent ever shows up. In other instances, when a player lets me or his opponent know that he or she will be delayed, this has not been an issue. Similarly, from what I've heard from other players, there seems to be a consensus that there is nothing wrong if two players agree beforehand to delay the start of their match, especially if it's during the Finals when no other players are affected.

Probably what needs to happen is that the rules be clarified and specifically spell out under what circumstances a player may request a delay and the maximum amount of time that delay may take. 

What do you think?

PS - Let me remind you that I am still in the midst of my 40 days without Magic, which means contacting me on Twitter or expecting me to know what's going on in the community may not be the best approach. That 40 days will end on Sunday, April 13th, which means I've got less than three weeks to go. Overall I'm feeling pretty good about the whole situation. But, I don't want to be that guy who stops taking his meds halfway through the prescription just because he's feeling better.

40 Days Away From Magic, Part Three

As I announced on Twitter earlier this week, I will be taking  40 days away from Magic the Gathering. This means I will not play, write, or blog about Magic. This even includes staying away from my Twitter feed and the various websites that provide high quality articles and videos related to this great game. I will, however, continue to host Monday Pauper Deck Challenge.

This week, I will be exploring three reasons why I believe this is the right decision and the right time for me to take this time away from the hobby that I enjoy so much. I posted the first reason on Tuesday, as well as the second reason on Thursday. Today I want to talk about the third and final reason.

About a year ago, I was diagnosed with depression. While my case was relatively minor, it appears likely I had been struggling with it for years without any recognition or treatment. I started taking anti-depressants, and the results have been dramatic. Yet I still struggle from time to time. So, in addition to my medication, I have also been exploring what triggers my episodes and how to mitigate those situations.

Unfortunately, playing Magic the Gathering can be a trigger. While I get great enjoyment out of providing a great tournament and resources for Standard Pauper, when my personal gaming is in a rut, it is easy for it to begin to affect me emotionally. And this, in turn, takes its toll on my life, my friends, and my family. I have tried pushing through these episodes while continuing to play, but as of yet this has not been a successful strategy.

I am hopeful that the next few weeks without Magic will help in this area. Already, I can recognize patterns in my gaming that have been unhealthy. At the same time, I already miss a lot of the things I enjoy about the game, and it hasn't even been a full week yet. I sincerely believe that this 40 day period away from Magic will lead to breakthrough. But even if it doesn't, I do know that it will allow me to enjoy Magic the Gathering for a long time to come.

Next week, I will be back to my less personal posts here on my blog. I've got books and games to review, some more writing resources to discuss, and a few other surprises in the queue. And it won't be long before the 40 days will be at an end. I promise I will have lots of great Standard Pauper content forthcoming.

Thanks for reading.

40 Days Away From Magic, Part Two

As I announced on Twitter earlier this week, I will be taking  40 days away from Magic the Gathering. This means I will not play, write, or blog about Magic. This even includes staying away from my Twitter feed and the various websites that provide high quality articles and videos related to this great game. I will, however, continue to host Monday Pauper Deck Challenge.

This week, I will be exploring three reasons why I believe this is the right decision and the right time for me to take this time away from the hobby that I enjoy so much. I posted the first reason on Tuesday. Here's the second one.

The broken locks were a warning,
you got inside my head
I tried my best to be guarded,
I'm an open book instead
I still see your reflection
inside of my eyes
That are looking for a purpose,
they're still looking for life

                                                                                                - “Broken”

Several years ago, I was part of a conversation about how you know when something you enjoy has become unhealthy or destructive. My friend’s answer was: when it owns your heart.
 

That’s why I feel like I need some time away from Magic. I fear it’s gotten to the point that it owns my heart. So much of my leisure time has been devoted to it: reading articles, watching videos, testing out different decks, writing about it, blogging about it – the list goes on. Even worse, when my play experience goes badly - as it will for anyone from time to time – my reaction is way out of proportion. In fact, after a particularly frustrating match during MPDC this week, there was a moment when I just wanted to log off Magic Online and never open it again.
 

So if my diagnosis is right, the best cure is time away. Time to discover just enmeshed this game has become in my heart. Time to reflect on where this has become dehumanizing and unhealthy. And time away to miss what is good and fun about it and look forward to returning to it next month.
 

In the end, I believe this time away will restore my enjoyment of the game – and in the process, make me a better Magic player. See you next time.

40 Days Away from Magic, Part One

As I announced on Twitter yesterday, I will be taking the next 40 days away from Magic the Gathering. This means I will not play, write, or blog about Magic. This even includes staying away from my Twitter feed and the various websites that provide high quality articles and videos related to this great game. I will, however, continue to host Monday Pauper Deck Challenge.

This week, I want to explore three reasons why I believe this is the right decision and the right time for me to take this time away from the hobby that I enjoy so much. Here's the first one.

Tomorrow marks the start of the observation of Lent, a Christian religious observance that marks a period of repentance and devotion to God in preparation for the celebration of Easter. In the past, I have misunderstood Lent to be a typical "anti-world" Christian activity, rejecting so called "worldly-things" in favor of "heavenly things." Or, even worse, as a shallow religious activity designed to convince an arbitrary God to overlook past mistakes and/or earn His blessings.

However, as I read more about this ancient tradition, I discovered that it is, in fact, about something very different. All of us have a limited ability to experience things in life. We only have so much brain-power, so much attention, and so many waking hours. Lent, then, is a time to set aside lesser things to make margin in one's life for something better. A time to recognize those things that are dehumanizing and hurtful, turn from them, and embrace something better.

So for the next 40 days, I will be setting aside the time I normally focus on Magic to instead pursue more important goals: spending time with friends and family, developing my writing skills, enjoying some good literature, and cultivating love, joy, and peace. I believe that by intentionally pursuing these things over the next 40 days, I will not only experience a better, richer life; in the end, it will also free me to have a greater enjoyment of Magic in the future. More on that next time.