Thinking Outside the Box

So I've been here in Beijing for a few days now, and from what I've seen so far it is truly an amazing place. The first night after I arrived, we went out for dinner with my friend's parents. It was just a small little neighborhood restaurant not too far from their apartment, so other than some Olympic tourists last yeaｒ　ｔｈｅｙ　ｐｒｏｂａｂｌｙ　ｄｏｎ’ｔ　ｈａｖｅ　ａ　ｌｏｔ　ｏｆ　ｗｈｉｔｅ　ｃｕｓｔｏｍｅｒｓ。　　Ｗｅ　ｈａｄ　Ｂｅｉｊｉｎｇ　ｄｕｃｋ　ａｎｄ　ａ　ｂｕｎｃｈ　ｏｆ　ｏｔｈｅｒ　ｓｔｕｆｆ　ｔｈａｔ　Ｉ　ｃａｎ‘ｔ　ｒｅｍｅｍｂｅｒ　ｔｈｅ　ｎａｍｅｓ　ｏｆ，　ｂｕｔ　ｉｔ　ｗａｓ　ａｌｌ　ｇｒｅａｔ。　　Ａｎｄ　ｅｘｔｒｅｍｅｌｙ　ｃｈｅａｐ　ｃｏｍｐａｒｅｄ　ｔｏ　ｗｈａｔ　ｙｏｕ　ｗｏｕｌｄ　ｐａｙ　ｆｏｒ　ｔｈｅ　ｓａｍｅ　ｍｅａｌ　ｂａｃｋ　ｈｏｍｅ。 A quick stop at the Bird's Nest to take some quick photos (it's an amazing building, especially at night!), then it was time for some sleep after my long trip over thｅ　Ｐａｃｉｆｉｃ． Ｔｈｅ　ｎｅｘｔ　ｄａｙ　Ｄａｎｎｙ　ａｎｄ　Ｉ braved the cold and struck out on a siteseeing mission。 Our first stop ended up being。。。McDonalds！ Trust me that was not my first choice for breakfast but the Chinese place we tried first wasn‘t open yet。 Hashbro...

Well I'm heading off to China in a few hours to take in the Chinese New Year in authentic style, but that doesn't mean I'm going to leave you all without a few final thoughts. Did you really think you were going to get off that easy? Last Friday for our Golden Age Open tourney we had another very solid turn out of 10 players. Green Lanterns, two Exiles, Hellboy, Weapon X, Marauders, Purifiers and more were just a few of the decks we had hit the tables. After four rounds of play my Purifiers build only went 2-2, but I had good fun playing it and came up with an idea to tighten it up a little bit. I pulled out a turn 8 win against Exiles too, so I was more than pleased with that. The big winner of the night was, once again, Will! I believe that makes him a whopping 12-0, as he's won three tournaments, all with flawless, no-loss records. So my parting challenge to you, my beloved Vs. Systemites...is to turn your attention to the quiet, friendly fellow who seems to w...

I have a love-hate relationship with this show. It's gone on long enough that I think Clark should have long ago learned to fly and at least started thinking about the costume. When season 8 started and I saw the guy they'd cast as Doomsday, my heart sank even farther than it had during the extremely weak finale for season 7. Over the past month I hadn't been able to catch the show, so it was pure luck that I was sitting at home and flipped the TV on just in time to see a guy with an axe materialize in Clark's barn. I sat bolt upright in my chair and said, "Holy crap is that The Persuader ?!" Not fifteen seconds later, three members of the Legion showed up. The f-ing LEGION, and they looked just like they should! I won't ruin the rest of the episode if you haven't seen it yet, but this has got to be one of the coolest things I've seen in a television series in a very long time. I think Space is still running Smallville on Saturday evenings, ...

After having some time to play with a lot of the cards from Marvel Evolutions I have decided that I enjoy playing the Marauders quite a lot. My deck originally started out as a build for one of our Random Punks events shortly before Christmas. I liked it well enough that I didn't take it apart right away, and even tried to make it a little better. My current build doesn't include any rare cards for the three Marauder legends: Gambit, Mr. Sinister and Mystique. In fact, I don't even have Gambit in my deck at all. I just don't think any of his character or support cards are good enough to warrant adding my one or two copies of them in. My deck is actually pretty simply and runs well enough for me to enjoy playing it even when it loses...because they're almost always close games. Sinister's Disciples Characters: 4x MEV-116 Vertigo (1) 4x MEV-115 Unuscione (2) 2x MEV-106 Prism (2) 4x MEV-095 Lady Mastermind (3) 4x MEV-099 Mr. Sinister, Famine (3) 2x MEV-093 Har...

I hope that everyone had a good holiday season and partied it up on New Year's Eve. 2008 was a great year for me on a lot of fronts. I found a great new job that I enjoy going to, made a lot of new friends and renewed several old friendships, became an uncle, and am very thankful for all of it. VS has been a big part of that year, not only keeping me busy on many evenings and weekends, but also being a gateway into making a lot of new friends. The first event of the year at Trilogy was another Build-a-Legend event. We had 7 players in total, with one being a newcomer to the group. He brought along two others who bought some cards and watched, but weren't quiet ready to take the plunge into a full-on tourney. Of our seven players I believe we had legend decks for Spider-Man, Deadpool, Jean Grey, Darkseid, Cyclops and Multiple Man. I know there were two others, but what they were has totally slipped my mind. My apologies to both of those players. After four rounds of play...

For those of you who aren't members of the forums on VSRealms.com, you should be. There is a long-running podcast that two of the 'realms members have been doing, called The Ring Has Chosen . I've been listening to Cliff and Squire since before Halloween of '07, and tune in religiously every week for the latest episode. These guys do a great job and always make me laugh with their fun banter, off-topic ranting, and insight into the game. A while back I sent Cliff an email to let them know how much I enjoyed their show, and was shortly thereafter invited to join them for an episode! I'll let the episode do the rest of the talking, but I just wanted to let them, and everyone else, know how much I enjoyed being on the show. It was hands down the most fun I've had in a long time. Thanks again for having me on guys! So go listen to The Ring Has Chosen episode 68! It's available for download on iTunes, or can be streamed at www.the-kamiza.com

Well I just got finished talking with the guys from The Ring Has Chosen (the absolute best pod-cast on the inter-webs!), and was gently reprimanded for not having updated my blog in almost a week. We'll talk more about that later on...for now I thought I'd get back to my regularly scheduled programming, and start talking about the rest of the teams from Marvel Evolution. I believe the next team I said I'd look at would be X-Factor. Even if it wasn't, well...it is now! From a broad perspective I like how they were handled. All three eras of the team were covered: the original five X-Men, the government-sponsored team led by Havok, and the current X-Factor Investigations. I know the first two teams best, as X-Factor was one of the books that I read for the longest back in the day. Keeping with the X-Men team, the original five has some great recovery effects from Angel and Jean Grey, some stun and don't-get-stunned shenanigans with Cyclops, and Beast / Iceman r...