The Flash and The Arrow - Hype Over?

As some of you will already know from earlier posts on this blog, the Nerdling is a huge, huge, huge fan of The CW's Flash and Arrow series, of how the characters have developed, how there is this established continuity that is only set to get larger with Heroes of Tomorrow and Vixen and of how the series has literally taken a ground up approach and produced something with the right elements of humour, darkness and action.

But recently many sites out there have commented that both series have hit this odd sort of side-plot lull while they lay down the groundworks for the forthcoming Heroes of Tomorrow. And I have to admit, after last night, where Arrow seemed to be yet another off filler episode dedicated solely to polishing up the recently resurrected Sarah Lance (or White Canary as she will be)....yeah. I can see why.

This week's Flash wasn't much better. A solid 40+ minutes dedicated to fixing Firestorm, seemingly having forgotten about the impending threat that is Zoom.

So the Nerdling has decided he needs to discuss this. Are both series still strong? Yes, yes they are. Do both series need to go off on such a tangent to help establish Heroes of Tomorrow? No. Hells no. They've already demonstrated with the animated mini-series of Vixen that you can have character development occur away from the TV show that is still relevant to the series it is in. And to be perfectly honest, the HoT build up could have been done much better as a series of shorts focusing on the key characters being moved across, rather than this strangely laborious and artificially forced effort to pull it into the spotlight. I know I've harped on about how both series openly support and endorse the other and how I love this sense of community between them...and to be honest I expect nothing less from HoT. But this development does not need to take place at the expense of the two flagship shows for the setting that have already established a much deeper, darker underlying plot in place for each respective series (Zoom and H.I.V.E.).

If anything this approach is very much the filler/flashback episode phenomenon that a lot of people pan in any sort of animated series. It is the point where you feel someone ran out of material and it feels fake and just...not right.

I'll be honest and say, this week, Arrow dropped the ball. After it's pointless Filler fluff episode there didn't seem to be any significant return to the plot or any significant revelation as a result of this. No indication of something bigger coming from Darhk, no indication of H.I.V.E. bringing in more known characters to the setting.

Sure, you could argue this episode was very much about a sort of closure with Ollie and Captain Lance...but that angle has cropped up two or three times so far and never seems to stick. It was redundant. It was meaningless. I feel as though nothing was accomplished in that episode and its attempt to bring us back on track was... Ollie's running for Mayor. I don't even think we're back on track to be honest. We still have the whole Ray Palmer issue that's probably going to eat another episode or two.

Meh.

I mean, come on guys. I love you but at least Flash had a double whammy in the form of King Shark and then the re-introduction of who I can only assume is the Earth 2 Harrison Wells. King Shark alone was teased throughout and then the final thing...well. Yes, yes please.

My only worry is that the Earth 2 villains are just temporary one-offs with no real lasting presence...and essentially each appearance is nothing more than a cursory nod with a convenient way of not having them stick around and thus not having them flooding the setting with costumes and capes. Atom Smasher I think is a prime example of this.

But that has me asking one big question.

 Are we getting a real deal Killer Frost (along the lines of Cisco going to Vibe) or are we going to get an Earth 2 Killer Frost just as a one off nod to the Season 1 finale's teaser from above?

I don't do ratings. But if I did this week's Arrow would be well below par. The Flash redeemed itself in a somewhat more significant way, though I find myself questioning the Earth 2 angle more and more. I mean, yeah, I can understand not wanting to flood the setting with too many metas...that's good. But a lot of these I feel should be more than customary one-offs.

But that's the downside of being a Nerdling...sometimes the TV show has to step away from the comic. It's more a logistics sort of thing...they just can't realistically keep all these metas floating at all times.

An update - things yet to come. And stuff.

First of all,

To those who have read and stuck around this long...thank you. It means a lot and I will continue to provide, best I can as the real world takes its toll on me. As always, feel free to let me know if there is anything in particular you want me to look at, review or comment on - I will try to find it in some form or another and give it a thorough looking over.

But good news. Hopefully within the next few days there shall be another box for me to open and review my pulls...Fate Reforged this time. Yes, yes, I know BFZ is the new hotness but I pretty much have full sets of stuff for BFZ. Plus, I need to trade for and barter for these boxes. Sadly my finances are not in a state where I can just buy them...though I wish they were.

I also am planning to review The Walking Dead, Flash and Arrow for this week. Have watched one, the others are pending at the moment. They all promise to be interesting from what has been seen so far.

Also, feel free to link me and let me know. Seriously. I will return the favour...the layout of this thing is still very much in the air.

Anyhow, peace for now folks.

The Nerdling.

Supergirl - Or how I learned to stop cringing, 35 minutes in.

So,....yeah.

This is a thing. Last night CBS debuted Supergirl. Or, as the character herself so succinctly put it, 'Why not Superwoman?' But this is only the beginning of a very slippery slope and I for one hope they can manage to pull this show away from these directions that it was beginning to inch towards.

Can I just start off by saying they actually cast the character of Kara Zor-El perfectly? Melissa Benoist embodies the just the right qualities of naive, inexperienced and confident. She's also a Supergirl who's refreshingly not been cast on qualities of pure eye candy. No sir, Laura Vandervoot you are not and thank you very much for that fact. This in itself creates a character that is more likeable and makes the whole down to earth, rookie hero approach much more...believable in that respect.

But sadly, despite that I found myself cringing before the title itself even came on. First we have the beginnings of the awkward love triangle - with Winn....who I will get to in a moment and then we have Jimmy Olsen, who appears to have taken those Terry Crews Old Spice commericals to heart and somehow become a big buff black man (complete with tight shirt and all) rather than the skinny white kid we're all familiar with. What.

Why are they introducing the pining co-worker and the eye-candy man before the title is even on screen? Why are they already hinting at the love triangle angle? I mean, I get it. The show is very much about a female superhero. Girl power and all that. Painfully thrust into our faces with Cat Grant and the opening spiel about her being the most powerful woman of blah blah and blah. Ok, we got it. We accept that.

But please guys. Let's not assume that this female empowerment gig means we need to go down the zany love triangle route. I mean, you had moments where you took the girly girl stereotype and slapped it away...the costume choice, Kara's protest about being named Supergirl and not Superwoman...all very good. But please don't drop hints as to other stereotypes that drag the genre down being there. It's just not needed.

Yes, yes, we'll get to Winn in a moment. Shh. Wait a paragraph or two.

Ok, so, cringeworthy beginning. Some elements are fine, some elements are very much forced and some elements are unknowns. But then, during the the whole costume selection and modification montage.... it happened.

'It's not an S.'

Anyone else remember this scene from Man of Steel (which was, by the way, name dropped like, five times)? Anyone else remember how it got criticised and ripped to shreds for being wholly unnecessary, meaningless and just downright stupid? I mean, come on. You've lived on Earth for at least a decade. You've learned our language. You've seen our alphabet. You know full well that the average Earthling doesn't know one fucking thing about Krypton.

So why the hell are these Kryptonians trying to correct us on their alphabet. 'Hey guys, I know you don't mean it but it's like, really rude that you get the alphabet of my dead planet, having exploded some 20+ years ago wrong, not that you even knew it existed and I've lived here so pretty much know your alphabet but haven't told one fucking person mine. Still, you shouldn't get it wrong.'

Can I just say the whole family crest thing that DC shoehorned in many years ago was one of the dumbest developments I've ever known. When Superman was first created, way back when the S literally stood for Super. Just like Batman had a great big bat on his chest. And Spider Man a spider. And Captain America had a great big A with the stars and stripes everywhere.

Seriously. There's a good reason for this. I should imagine, as a rookie hero, you would want to make your appearance memorable and have a symbol or letter that immediately ties to your identity. Sort of like creating a brand. You know, something that is recognisable.

But the whole 'family crest' thing or 'it stands for hope' approach makes it come across like some pretentious social justice warrior.

Actually I'm the Woman of the House of El, which also means Hope but you wouldn't know because you humans are too mainstream to know about my long dead planet and its obscure as fuck politics. And that is totally rude and unacceptable of you.

Guys. Can we not? Please? Can we just not go down this path? Female empowerment, fine. Fine even with the tacky enforced angles you are shoving in. But please, let's not have eye candy. Let's not have love triangles. Let's not have a social justice warrior approach to obscure alien languages.

Ok, so the fight scenes, the rescuing...all pretty much standard. Ok, acceptable.

But here's what really got me. The way in which they brazenly dropped names - your average TV viewer will have no idea who the hell these characters are. A comic geek? Well, as a comic geek I would like to confess I squeed.

Let's start with Winn. Short for Winslow Schott. Also the alias of an existing Superman villain known as Toyman. 'But this Toyman's not old!' Ok, fair point. However, remember that in the Superman/Batman comic series they introduced a younger Toyman - Hiro Okamura. And where the original Toyman was purely a villain, Hiro was something of a sidekick. It wouldn't be remiss for the writers to have merged the two characters, resulting in a younger Winslow - same name as the villain, same role and approach as the sidekick.

But that's not where the bomb dropped.

Who's that charming, alien hating hardcase? Is it the new Jimmy Olsen's dad? Well, thankfully no.

That my friends is Hank Henshaw. Now, like Winn that name won't mean much to you. Perhaps the following image may help.

The Cyborg Superman. The villain who at one point was locked up in the Green Lantern Corps' holding cells due to the threat he posed. The villain who joined the Sinestro Corps along with Superman Prime (you know, the one who punched through the Fourth Wall...yeah....) and participated in the merry slaughter of several Green Lanterns.

Better still, the fact that this show is being shown on CBS, rather than Fox leads to another positive thought for us all. CBS is kind of a sister network to The CW. What this means is that there is potential for crossovers, officially mixing the Supergirl with Arrow/Flash. 

Now if that happens and someone at The CW or CBS can negotiate the rights to the Green Lantern then we can truly be happy. And it would be great too. After all Hal Jordan and Ollie were great friends...

Game Day Results and some TV Considerations

Welp.

Sorry for not posting a few days. Few things.

First, Battle For Zendikar Game Day yesterday - the result for me? A resounding loss. If there was a wooden spoon it would have been mine. First two games were just me being overwhelmed by four colour threat decks...just too many things for me to deal with, can't exile all the things.

The third game was a Bant Token deck zerging me...

And the fourth game I got screwed in the second and third games by too little mana or too much mana with none of my fetches showing up to help me cycle. I even won the first game of the fourth match with ease...

So, let's look at our deck objectively shall we?

Grixis Eldrazi - The Disappointment

Oh dear. Where to begin. First, let's look at our land base.

The Shrines of the Forsaken Gods...did nothing. Ultimately I felt there were times that a basic land would have done better. There simply wasn't anything 'big' and colorless that I could have used the ramp for. So, lesson learned...nice as these are in concept, they're going to be dropped. Even in a deck where I may want to ramp some fatties these things punish me elsewhere. When you have a shrine instead of a basic you cannot do anything really. The only way you could really avoid being too heavily punished is if you ran a true colourless deck...but in Standard? Nope. You can't survive off the handful of Colorless Eldrazi and artifacts alone.

The second thing is...a lack of direction. I had control elements, I had aggro elements. I didn't have true dedication to go one direction or the other. Ultimately I should have. I can't just half-ass it. This is something from my wargaming side that's affecting me...I try to make armies etc. that are all rounders...not so much extremes. With Magic? I need to prepare to go into an extreme.

So, yeah.

This Friday I can start to make amends. I've realised that I can splash to 4 colours like I wanted...mana fixing is so easy until Khans rotates out.

So I present my newer idea. It can still be refined before FNM this Friday, but I am thinking of more aggro, mixing in green and splashing some blue for minor control elements.

http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/jund-blue-eldrazi-reworked/

Yay learning.


Now in other business...

TV. That wonderful thing. Time to go straight with what I feel most comfortable and knowledgeable about.

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

We're not going into episode reviews yet. Just a preliminary summary in preparation for Tuesday. Can I just say that I absolutely love this aspect of Marvel? This gigantic, universal continuity they decided to keep when they tentatively released Iron Man and have maintained ever since? Nothing against DC's own programming, but something about this maintained continuity just lends itself to loyalty from a viewer...it rewards you for sticking with them.

Not only did the movies start to link bit by bit from one to the other...but they then went and spawned a TV series. Which then started referencing the movies. And then started to fill in the gaps between some of the movies or portrayed what happened behind the scenes.

In the meantime DC have sort of never had this. The closest they get is the Arrow/Flashverse setting (now with added Vixen) but sadly they've already confirmed that Justice League and Suicide Squad are building around the Man of Steel movie setting rather than the much stronger, much more consistent TV series.

What makes this even worse...is the fact that Man of Steel's pedigree is 3 years old. And in that time they've effectively rebooted Batman twice (Gotham and Batman vs Superman) from the Nolan films and with Supergirl this is, what, the 4th or 5th Superman setting reboot we've had?

Iron Man came out in 2008. And has maintained, on the most part, the same actors in the same roles and what's better is that these movie-versions don't really stray that far from their comic counterparts. They really don't. The characters are very true to their base, whereas in Man of Steel Superman casually allowed half a damn city to be murdered through collateral damage. Ooops.

Back on track though - Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. was a pretty bold move for Marvel. A TV series based off the movies, connecting to the movies and maintaining the continuity. Very difficult to do and plan ahead for with filming schedules and the like. But they have done it. They have made it work. And Marvel have not only had yet another prime-time mainstream TV series on the same premise, exploring even more aspects (Agent Carter) but have also accepted that some of their characters would benefit even more from the opportunities presented by the unrated options of Netflix.

And even more appropriately, the characters appearing in the Netflix series are their street level characters - so the absence of S.H.I.E.L.D., the blissful ignorance of floating cities and alien invasions aren't that painful. Because they would never be a priority at street level, nor would street level vigilantes gather the attentions of the higher ups. Plus it's allowing Marvel to restore some of their tarnished, formerly licensed characters back to a semblance of belonging.

Daredevil  season 2 will see Elektra and the Punisher (who was hinted as a sort of unofficial Easter Egg in Winter Soldier), as well as ties to Jessica Jones (who can potentially link in to Spider-Man if Sony let Marvel have more freedom with the character), Luke Cage and Iron Fist.

Another key thing to note - all these street level characters...along with Spider Man and Wolverine formed a 'new' Avengers team. If Marvel can get their rights back - and we've seen it start to happen, particularly with the rumours about the Fantastic Four then we could be in for a treat following their Infinity Gauntlet plans!

5 am Musings

Let's just take a moment to admire this shiny Sarkhan.

So shiny. So new. So Sarkhan.

Yeah, I wasted a whole post for this. Fantastic!

More stuff to come soon. Decided I may just have to dive into the deep end TV wise and go where I'm strongest. Hi Marvel. I like you. Imma review you first.

But for now. Shiny shiny.

Nerdlings of Tarkir : MtG Booster Box and Fat Pack Opening and Review!

As promised folks, here it is. Both a Khans of Tarkir Booster Box and a Dragons of Tarkir Fat Pack, both ready to be reviewed, criticised and just generally assessed overall by the Nerdling. But first, I owe some of you an explanation.

Why Khans? Why Dragons? After all, Battle for Zendikar is the new hot thing that's currently all the rage in MtG, so what am I doing opening a booster box from a set due to rotate out in January? Well my lovelies, or not lovelies as some of you may well be...the reason is simple. A nod to both the beginning and end of the Block that brought me back into playing Magic the Gathering.

Now, where to start. First, let's have a look at our sealed product that we shall be opening today. I was going to do a video but as I have only a crappy phone, a video was right out - trust me, the quality was terrible.

Here we see both our sealed products waiting to be opened. Ignore the random Eldar and Tyranid in the background trying to sneak in and get attention. Now, if you're a MtG player you may well understand the oddly satisfying emotions associated with cracking open a pack. Sure, it's a lottery and the more fiscal minded will tell you that sealed isn't worth the money, will never break even and leaves you with a lot of waste...but it's just that feeling of awe and wonder you get opening a pack, like you had when you were younger and first started playing. What's inside? Is it something good? Is it something you want or need?

It's here that I want to give a nod to Magic Madhouse whom I purchased the Booster Box from. Their prices are fair, they can deliver it quick and they have decent stock. Furthermore they have a rather neat loyalty scheme where you end up getting store credit for buying from them - meaning that your next order costs even less!

It's really no different from a scratchcard or unwrapping presents on Christmas morning. You win some, you lose some, it's the feeling that's important. Now I'm going to experience this...42 times over.

Rather than take a photo of each individual pack being opened I've decided to be smart.  Look at the box. Just look at it.

36 Boosters, neatly stacked into three piles of twelve. So what I'm going to do is take each pile, open them and photograph the results. Simples! Now, generally, when opening sealed you kind of want to be able to make your money back - you want to net some quality rares and uncommons that you can possibly sell back to make back some money. Or you want cards that have value beyond Standard rotation and are quality for Modern or Legacy.

In the case of Khans the big money cards are as follows: Fetchlands (averaging about $20 each), the Planeswalkers, Anafenza, Wingmate Rocs, Dig Through Time and our favourite, the Siege Rhino. If I can crack a few of these I could be well on the way to making money back.

Furthermore, the Fetchlands are incredibly valuable and desired because they work so well in Modern as well. And with the current Standard's dual lands - well, Fetches are only going to go up in price for the few months this interaction is allowed to continue.

First twelve packs. Mmm. New box. New packs. Let's get cracking shall we?

Woah! Right off the bat we get some serious, serious value. Three Fetchlands and a foil Sarkhan. Those four cards alone have a $77 value. Personally for me, the foothills are great. They will happily slide into my Modern deck but best of all...foil. Mythic. Rare. This is my first ever foil Mythic. So to pull it in my first review....well. That bodes well. It may not be worth a bomb but hey, I'm happy with it.

Other noteworthies - the Ascendancies and the Hardened Scales. Great in their own right, just not super value.

Note - No Siege Rhinos yet.

Right. Middle pile time. Twelve more packs. Twelve more chances of great pulls. 

Hmmm? Well. So-so. Ok, so not as fantastic as the first twelve. But still, another Fetchland, a Wingmate Roc and a Dig Through Time. About $40 worth of value here. Not bad, but not amazing. Some of these cards are interesting but no real value to most. Still, a fourth fetchland. 

And still no Siege Rhinos. It's like I am destined to be Rhinoless.

See this? The final 12 packs in the box. What joy shall we get from these?

The answer? None. Sure, some of these are neat in their own way...but none of these are value. Still, considering the insanity of the first twelve...I can't say it's all that bad. All in all I've managed to net over $115 of value from this box, added to my stock and hey...

Not one damn Siege Rhino.

I'm laughing here. Not a single damn Siege Rhino. Not one. I can get duplicate Fetchlands...I can get foil Mythics...but not a single Siege Rhino. Guess Abzan is not for me.

But wait! There's more! We still have the Dragons fat pack to crack open yet.

Uh oh. Something's missing. I can see my boosters, the crappy little deck boxes, I can see the lands...even the little dice....but not the Player's Guide booklet. Now you might be thinking - who cares, it's just a damn booklet. It's just pictures of the cards! But I don't. I like these booklets. They're great random things to flick through when you get random ideas. They have some of the lore and fluff in them. So....

I was a sad Nerdling. I've emailed WotC's customer support explaining what has come and I know they're normally quite good with this...so here's to hoping I get a good outcome from this. Some people may wonder why I don't just take it back and exchange it...that's the thing. I can't. Fat Packs are limited runs so to spot one out in the wild...well, it's a rare occurance. The store won't have any more left in stock.

Now, I'm going to be honest here. Something was off about these packs. They were incredibly snug on the cards. They felt dry...almost crumbly. They didn't open cleanly and it almost certainly wasn't like foil. Maybe this batch was buggered up?  

This...combined with the missing part of the product made my rare find feel a bit...disappointing. I'll come out and say I really didn't get the same value with the Fat Pack - the box paid for itself but this? 

Nope. Nothing really. Foil Radiant Purge, a Secure the Wastes...but no real value.

Ah well.

A least I got a funky pink dice.

Until next time folks.

Thinking I should catch up on some TV... Flash, Arrow or Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.?

Let me know in the comments! 

Nerdling Rising

Testing. Testing. One, two, three.

Alrighty then.

So here's the low down folks.  Some of you may be thinking 'Not again.' Some of you may be wondering what madness has persisted to persuade me to try this yet again. And some of you are probably shaking your head sadly.

Fair enough. In the past I was apathetic. I was lazy. I did too little and did not try hard enough to thrive, so rightfully fell to the wayside and was forgotten. I also specialised a bit too much. I focused on one thing, pretty much limiting my audience from the word go.

Well, not today.

A broader spectrum is needed! TV Shows. Card games. Other games. Other things in general. Admittedly, still not everyone's cup of tea, but hey, win some and lose some.

What is this?

This will be a blog of reviews, general thoughts and commentary of sorts. I will open sealed product, review published product and generally go off on tangents. Expect terrible puns, terrible humour and scathing commentary from time to time. I'm fine, really.

With any luck my first 'review' will be a booster box of some Magic the Gathering: Khans of Tarkir. If I ever get hold of one. There are reasons and I will discuss them openly in the post. Don't worry. There is method to my madness.

Yes, this will be updated soon. Fancy images. Headers. The like. I may need help with that too.

For the Warhammer lot out there - yes, it is a deliberate thing; Nerdling = Nurgling. Was thinking, eventually, something involving a Nerd Nurgling. Sort of sums up my life.

Who are you?

Me? I'm just a 31 year old nerdling. Born in the US, living in England the past 20 or so years and immersed in this sort of culture that my house is filled with miniatures, roleplaying books, sci fi and other odds and ends. Online gaming, card gaming, pen and paper...I sort of love it all and to be fair it has kept me relatively sane in the long run.

Guess it's time to review stuff, eh?

I will say this however - I need help. I need people to channel energy, give suggestions or hell, throw links at me to look at. Want to see something reviewed? Let me know. Send me a sample. Send me a copy. I'll try and buy what I can but my current situation is financially awkward as I hunt a new job.

Here's to the future.

Nerdling Out.