Hello all.
Quiet week, I know. But the holiday pause on TV combined with no donations (so no FNM) and no luck trading or securing a box to open means...well...not a lot that can be done. However, this post is for some good news.
Effective this week The Legendary Nerdling now has a schedule and it is as follows!
Tuesdays - Magic Deck Tech and Discussion. Here I will plan decks, discuss options and consider pros and cons of current concerns as well as give some feedback on recent events for the MtG community.
Thursdays - TV Review Bonanza. Here I will review the current series of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., The Flash and Arrow.
Saturdays - FNM Feedback and Results. Should I get any donations I will attend Friday Night Magic and report the outcome, what was played and so on come Saturday.
Sunday - 40k Rants and Reviews. Product reviews, tactics, army lists...all things 40k shall be on the Sunday.
Scattered liberally will be other TV and movie reviews, game reviews and anything else like product openings.
Hopefully this can help get a pattern going for you, the reader.
Remember folks, always feel free to comment with suggestions and opinions and should you wish to donate (so that a FNM Feedback can be posted up on Saturday or any other thing you wish can be reviewed) feel free to do so with the button over yonder. --->
Until Next Time!
Sunday, 29 November 2015
Friday, 27 November 2015
So, no reviews this week...
My bad folks.
Forgot that so many series just disappear around thanksgiving for a week or two, so as a result I've had nothing to watch and review. Oops. Things should hopefully return to normal as of next week.
Unfortunately it doesn't look like there's going to be a FNM for me this week either - no donations so no funds spare to go in and play the deck I posted up earlier in the week. Sadly this means there's probably not going to be anything on Saturday either.
Once again folks, I ask for comments and feedback. This is surprisingly important to any blogger, writer or artist out there. Ultimately I want to do things for you. I want to review the things you want to see reviewed, I want to have educated debates with you, I want feedback from you.
I'd love to keep doing this on my own but I'm beginning to feel this is stagnating just a bit. Even worse when it's a dead week such as this one.
Donations, as always can be made via the button to the right. Comments can be left below.
You can also follow me on Twitter - @RoccoLostInHull
But please, leave comments on what you want to see reviewed, what you want me to watch or play or any suggestions you may have for a regular series of posts. This blog is peaking at 50 viewers every now and then. I want it to reach even more. Spread the word folks, share if you like and please, please please...
Provide some feedback. Good or bad, it's all ultimately good in the end.
Forgot that so many series just disappear around thanksgiving for a week or two, so as a result I've had nothing to watch and review. Oops. Things should hopefully return to normal as of next week.
Unfortunately it doesn't look like there's going to be a FNM for me this week either - no donations so no funds spare to go in and play the deck I posted up earlier in the week. Sadly this means there's probably not going to be anything on Saturday either.
Once again folks, I ask for comments and feedback. This is surprisingly important to any blogger, writer or artist out there. Ultimately I want to do things for you. I want to review the things you want to see reviewed, I want to have educated debates with you, I want feedback from you.
I'd love to keep doing this on my own but I'm beginning to feel this is stagnating just a bit. Even worse when it's a dead week such as this one.
Donations, as always can be made via the button to the right. Comments can be left below.
You can also follow me on Twitter - @RoccoLostInHull
But please, leave comments on what you want to see reviewed, what you want me to watch or play or any suggestions you may have for a regular series of posts. This blog is peaking at 50 viewers every now and then. I want it to reach even more. Spread the word folks, share if you like and please, please please...
Provide some feedback. Good or bad, it's all ultimately good in the end.
Tuesday, 24 November 2015
MtG: Some Standard Deckbrewing - Mardu Allies
Hello again all.
Do not worry - your regular Flash/Arrow/Agents of Shield review will be up on Thursday...but what I am doing now is something different. As some of you may remember, when I put up the poll a few weeks back one of the concepts I discussed doing was a MtG Deck Tech type series - possibly leading to me attending FNMs, playing the decks out and reviewing and going over my performance on the Saturday.
Of course, this is all donation dependant...so feel free to click the button and donate if you like but for now I'm going to discuss an idea.
First I will recommend a very handy site - www.shoeboxmtg.com. Now I know cataloging collections is tedious and tiresome but the advantage of doing so is that once it's done it's minimal effort to do again. Furthermore, Shoebox MtG also has a function where you can search decks, going back the past month or two, pulling up decks from the Top 8, 16, 32 etc from sanctioned MtG events and it compares your collection, letting you know what you need to spend to finish a deck or how many cards you are shy of a deck. This is of course great for deckbuilding and brewing as it lets you find a frame you are close to and with a bit of tinkering or splashing you can add to it and substitute what you have for what is missing, or add new things altogether.
And that is just what I chose to do with the deck we are discussing today.
The 'shell' is Kenneth Durant's B/W Allies from the SCG Standard - Rhode Island that took place over a month ago. Tweaking some numbers, splashing a bit more red and substituting what is lacking and we end up with a deck that looks something like.... this.
To break it down here...
3x Ally Encampment 2x Altar's Reap 2x Bloodstained Mire 1x Chasm Guide 1x Crackling Doom 4x Drana's Emissary 2x Drana, Liberator of Malakir 3x Evolving Wilds 3x Expedition Envoy 2x Firemantle Mage 3x Kalastria Healer 2x Kor Bladewhirl 2x Lantern Scout 2x Makindi Patrol 1x March from the Tomb 2x Mountain 5x Plains 1x Resolute Blademaster 2x Retreat to Emeria 3x Serene Steward 2x Smoldering Marsh 2x Stasis Snare 5x Swamp 2x Valorous Stance 3x Zulaport Cutthroat Sideboard 1x Aligned Hedron Network 2x Angelic Captain 2x Blighted Steppe 2x Despise 1x Felidar Sovereign 1x Harsh Sustenance 1x Quarantine Field 1x Smite the Monstrous 2x Stasis Snare 2x Transgress the Mind
What we have is a deck of several small creatures and a glut of 1, 2 and 3 CMCs throughout. For most decks this is probably a bad idea...but not so for Allies. You want to be able to drop multiple things a turn to trigger the myriad rally effects but you also want to make sure you can always get something down. It is a very, very straightforward aggro deck that relies on a cascade of effects to quickly overrun and swamp the opponent.
Much like the Abzan Warrior decks of Tarkir it's all about synergy. In this case it's Creature type that's super important and best of all? It's cheap. I tweaked the Shell a bit to include some fetch lands and splash a bit more red it as well as a few different allies for different effects. The sideboard is very much an adaptive sideboard...
Which also can turn the deck into a Lifegain deck. Now let me tell you, even without the sideboard elements of the Blighted Steppe, Sustenance and the Sovereign as a win-con this deck gains life fast. Triggering lifelink, the Emissary's proc each turn, the Healer and Cutthroat procs...it swings life fast and with the life swinging it ramps up just as fast.
I feel this could be fun at a local FNM, possibly this Friday should any donations come through - certainly a different pace from my attempts at Temur or Grixis Eldrazi. Much quicker, which is ultimately something needed.
Even better, this is a cheap deck - probably easily set up on MTGO as well. The real cost in actual money is the fetches but take those out and it's a $50 deck. 30 tix on MTGO.
As always comments are welcome, as are donations and suggestions for anything else you'd like me to see or do.
Monday, 23 November 2015
Jessica Jones....AKA Why Netflix is the Perfect Dream for Marvel's Cinematic Universe
Let's cut straight to the point, shall we?
A few years ago, realising the success of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and how it could cover some of Marvel's huge catalogue of characters that would probably never get full blown movies of their own...combined with getting a whole bunch of licenses back from Fox (Daredevil, the Punisher, Ghost Rider, Blade amongst others) the creative team decided to look through that catalogue.
Yeah, AoS is a solid series...but there's some characters who are just too...dark to fit in with AoS. They don't match its archetype of storyline. And they're not really ones who mesh well with Marvel's planned movies. Street level characters. Characters like Daredevil, the Defenders, the Punisher....
Characters that have a lot of very, very painful backstory to them. Backstory that involves domestic abuse, rape, drugs, alcoholism...stuff you really can't put in movies (not with Marvel's intended audiences) or indeed on TV as it would fall past the watershed.
And there we have Netflix. No ratings. No watershed. Complete freedom to create a series at a time, to give these street level characters the love they deserve. I'm not going to review and sing praise of Daredevil...because it was already incredible. It did a better job at getting the story down and true, we did not see the iconic costume until the last episode...but you know what? That worked. The character fit into the cinematic universe like a charm and the series played very heavily on the fact that a lot of the ghetto and slum districts of major cities would not fall under government surveilance. It also broached the idea that metahumans could come about from different sources- Daredevil gave us the traditional science origin...but also gave us the first hints of mystical influences.
Now, on to Jessica Jones. No spoilers. Just commentary on the storyline, the acting and how wonderfully this series portrayed the darker aspects of the comics it was based off of. Sure, I can comment that it's a huge leap forward for the 'gender issues' that have always surrounded comics. DC's over there fussing about Wonder Woman and still being reluctant to give her a solo movie of her own and Supergirl unfortunately seems...very light and fluffy.
And then Marvel drop this on us. It's equally as dark as Daredevil, it's clever, it has wit and you know what? The fact that the lead is a woman doesn't dampen or hamper the superhero staple one bit. It helps that Marvel chose a sensible character to test this approach with...Ms. Jones dresses sensibly, she's street-smart and here's the catch. No fancy origin. No alien history. Indeed, half the time she does what she does with her wits.
Unfortunately, as much as I would love to sing praise for Krysten Ritter's delightful portrayal of a character who has some tragically dark roots, as well as her wit, her down to earth style and her honest nature...
The show was stolen...by a certain...Purple Man.
A few years ago, realising the success of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and how it could cover some of Marvel's huge catalogue of characters that would probably never get full blown movies of their own...combined with getting a whole bunch of licenses back from Fox (Daredevil, the Punisher, Ghost Rider, Blade amongst others) the creative team decided to look through that catalogue.
Yeah, AoS is a solid series...but there's some characters who are just too...dark to fit in with AoS. They don't match its archetype of storyline. And they're not really ones who mesh well with Marvel's planned movies. Street level characters. Characters like Daredevil, the Defenders, the Punisher....
Characters that have a lot of very, very painful backstory to them. Backstory that involves domestic abuse, rape, drugs, alcoholism...stuff you really can't put in movies (not with Marvel's intended audiences) or indeed on TV as it would fall past the watershed.
And there we have Netflix. No ratings. No watershed. Complete freedom to create a series at a time, to give these street level characters the love they deserve. I'm not going to review and sing praise of Daredevil...because it was already incredible. It did a better job at getting the story down and true, we did not see the iconic costume until the last episode...but you know what? That worked. The character fit into the cinematic universe like a charm and the series played very heavily on the fact that a lot of the ghetto and slum districts of major cities would not fall under government surveilance. It also broached the idea that metahumans could come about from different sources- Daredevil gave us the traditional science origin...but also gave us the first hints of mystical influences.
Now, on to Jessica Jones. No spoilers. Just commentary on the storyline, the acting and how wonderfully this series portrayed the darker aspects of the comics it was based off of. Sure, I can comment that it's a huge leap forward for the 'gender issues' that have always surrounded comics. DC's over there fussing about Wonder Woman and still being reluctant to give her a solo movie of her own and Supergirl unfortunately seems...very light and fluffy.
And then Marvel drop this on us. It's equally as dark as Daredevil, it's clever, it has wit and you know what? The fact that the lead is a woman doesn't dampen or hamper the superhero staple one bit. It helps that Marvel chose a sensible character to test this approach with...Ms. Jones dresses sensibly, she's street-smart and here's the catch. No fancy origin. No alien history. Indeed, half the time she does what she does with her wits.
Unfortunately, as much as I would love to sing praise for Krysten Ritter's delightful portrayal of a character who has some tragically dark roots, as well as her wit, her down to earth style and her honest nature...
The show was stolen...by a certain...Purple Man.
What? No. No. Not that purple man...thing...whatever the Grimace actually is...
This one. Holy Christ...Tennant's range is displayed beautifully throughout this series. For someone whose rise to fame came from playing such a lighthearted character (or that's how everyone sees the Doctor) you have to also realise...that character was very, very dark in his nature. Some of the Doctor's lines are brutal...
And it's no different with Tennant's Kilgrave. His performance is genuinely disturbing and reaches a level that's only truly obtainable through Netflix with its lack of ratings or watershed. And so it should. The character in the comics also went down a very...very dark path. I will warn you now.
Those panels alone...yeah. Squickworthy. To see this series respect this sort of perturbing darkness is huge. To see Tennant portral the Purple Man's emotions so vividly...from the creepy to the controlling to the outraged tantrums...yeaaaaaah.
Not to say that he was the only star of the show. In fact, it's hard to focus on just one person. Every character had life. Admittedly some were more loathsome than others but you sort of connected with every face you came across. The fact that Luke Cage became a prominent figure...well, not only is that a pleasant nod to the relationship in the comics..but it's also good for setting up his own series.
I've seen some other reviews complain about some...fairly inane points to be honest. So let's address those here.
Why hasn't SHIELD, Hydra or some other organisation picked up on X's activities? Because the big organisations don't care so much about what happens in a run down district of a major city. There are no significantly big events to warrant their attention and the characters involved are not actively seeking attention.
Why don't the characters mention, comment on or care about what happened from Daredevil? Again, because these shows are street level. There is mention of Daredevil at the very end but I'll be honest here. Neither side sought publicity. The events of a corrupt crimelord being brought down...not really significant since it's always implied this sort of thing is practically commonplace about Hell's Kitchen.
Why are there no cameos from the big names? Again, these are not the events to warrant their attention. At the time of these shows they were off dicking about after Hydra or whatever. I doubt you're going to send the big guns in for a report that a car was lifted up.
What I do hope this leads to....?
Going from this and assuming that the other Netflix shows are well done...and that Daredevil Season 2 is also relatively smooth (and bless it for giving us The Punisher)? I hope we'll see a 'New Avengers' story arc. This is possible with Marvel having partially gotten the rights back for Spider-Man and one could hope that Fox relinquish their death grip on the X-franchise so we can get a Wolverine...although at this point it would have to be a 'new' Wolverine since Jackman's contract is up and I doubt he'd step back in.
Unfortunately, Marvel confirming that Spider-Man is still going to be a teenage kid in Civil War means that should we ever see a New Avengers arc...well...we're going to miss out on one gem of interaction.
Yeah. That interaction. Where Luke Cage felt threatened by Peter Parker's past history with Jessica.
As always folks...
Thanks for reading, feel free to comment and feel free to donate as well...FNM this week is Standard so £6 would be a gem to rustle up for an article on Saturday...but if not, well, not to be.
Friday, 20 November 2015
State of the Blog: Results and the Nerdling Promise!
Hello all.
Time for an update and a promise of sorts. As you can see, to the left there is now a Donation button. Allow me to explain why.
Last week I put up a poll - asking whether or not people wanted this blog to become dedicated to a specific aspect or to remain a general all-rounder with a variety of topics. The two votes and two comments on the last State of the Blog post made it clear - I should remain with a variety of topics.
However, I am still putting up a donation button and allow me to explain why.
I love reviewing things. I love opening product, seeing what I've pulled and I'd love to start regularly attending local Friday Night Magics and to make a regular series of Saturday posts reviewing the outcome of the night, what I pulled, what I drafted, deck-tech and the like. However, there is one thing that holds me back.
And it doesn't hold me back for FNM either. It prevents me from getting games to review, it prevents me from doing a lot of thing and in the long run this could hamper me. Money. Currently I am unemployed, hunting jobs but also having to put a lot of bills on slow burning arrangements which means that when I do get a job it'll bite me in the arse and I'll be paying back a lot over time.
So with that in mind...
I have decided to ask for Donations. But let's lay down some rules and make a promise to you, the Reader.
Time for an update and a promise of sorts. As you can see, to the left there is now a Donation button. Allow me to explain why.
Last week I put up a poll - asking whether or not people wanted this blog to become dedicated to a specific aspect or to remain a general all-rounder with a variety of topics. The two votes and two comments on the last State of the Blog post made it clear - I should remain with a variety of topics.
However, I am still putting up a donation button and allow me to explain why.
I love reviewing things. I love opening product, seeing what I've pulled and I'd love to start regularly attending local Friday Night Magics and to make a regular series of Saturday posts reviewing the outcome of the night, what I pulled, what I drafted, deck-tech and the like. However, there is one thing that holds me back.
And it doesn't hold me back for FNM either. It prevents me from getting games to review, it prevents me from doing a lot of thing and in the long run this could hamper me. Money. Currently I am unemployed, hunting jobs but also having to put a lot of bills on slow burning arrangements which means that when I do get a job it'll bite me in the arse and I'll be paying back a lot over time.
So with that in mind...
I have decided to ask for Donations. But let's lay down some rules and make a promise to you, the Reader.
- 1) Donations will be used for content for the Blog and nothing more. This is not food money. This is not rent money. This is money to either attend events, purchase products to open/play and review or to contribute toward adding new features to the blog, such as getting a decent camera set up for video reviews, getting MTGO set up to play online and do deck tech there or to play specific games or review specific product as requested by the readers (You should be able to leave a message there!)
- 2) Nerdling Blog Posts will become more regular, constant and consistent. Donations will help to create a regular series (a FNM series, a MTGO series, a PC Game review series, a 'Loot Crate' review series) of posts that shall be put up on a set day, circumstances permitting. Should the donator wish they will be accredited and thanked (always thanked, seriously). And when the Nerdling does eventually find a new job and start working, blog quality and frequency will not suffer as a result.
- 3) Donations go toward whatever the donator requests. Completely in your control guys. You have the final say on what to watch, what to read, what to open and review. If this means I get stuck watching chick flicks for a month then so be it.
- 4) The Nerdling will spend donations wisely - he will find the best deals he can for sealed product or games and make the full use of every pound, penny and dollar donated his way to further the growth of the Blog.
- 5) Should The Legendary Nerdling grow into something big, get sponsors and get product etc. donated then the Nerdling will start to do things like Giveaways and raffles. The Nerdling will give back to those who have given to him.
There. Those are now my rules. I must follow them. And rest assured I will.
But let us give you a breakdown of costs so you understand.
What Does Everything Cost
Local FNM Standard - £6
Local FNM Draft - £13
Local Club Draft (Chaos Drafts, Block Drafts, Legendary Drafts etc) - £10
Local Game Day - £6
Local Pre-Release - £25
Cost of average PC Game - £40
Cost of average Indie PC Game - £10
Cost of Sealed Booster Box (online vendors) - £75 (not including postage)
Cost of Sealed Fat Pack (online vendors) - £35 (not including postage)
Cost of Booster Pack - £4
Cost of MTGO set up - $10
Cost of Digital Camera to record videos etc - £150ish (?)
Cost of watching a chick flick currently in cinemas - £7
As you can see, it adds up. I've been very fortunate in being able to trade for things until now - I hope you guys realise that, for this blog so far I've spent/traded for £275 worth of boxes, games and events. But now comes the hard slog.
Thank you all for reading so far. Please, feel free to donate if you can or want to and as always feel free to make suggestions about what you want me to watch, read, play or open to review for you and I shall try to do my very best to get it done for you.
But seriously...please don't send me to watch a month's worth of chick flicks. You think my suffering through Arrow is bad....
Thursday, 19 November 2015
Big Catch Up 3: Hey Look, Plot! Poke it with a stick!
I'm at something of a loss here. Really, I am. After several weeks of bland disappointment from both the Marvel and DC television camps this week happened. This week happened without too much stalling, needless sister series filler or resurrection plots. This week happened and my word, it was good.
Let's start with Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. shall we? Let's go over some key points from the past few weeks...
The past few weeks...were slow. They dragged out. They showed no promise of Inhumans despite an epidemic of them. They showed no progression of Grant Ward, despite his status as a recurring series villain and the hype that built up over his new Hydra. They introduced a big bad in the form of a filler character who promptly seemed to drop straight off the record again after the somewhat fruitless 'Agent May has feelings' situation happened. Again.
What could they possibly do to fix this?
Well, to start with open up with a Grant Ward centric scene. Advance the plot just a bit more from the 'Ooooh, Hydra' tease and see that there is some serious concern about the character. And straight into a fight scene where Ward demonstrates what happens when a rogue agent is a rogue agent. Now I know some people are dissatisfied by how easily he seems to dust off his attackers..'they're meant to be trained Hydra agents!' they would cry. As though trained Hydra agents in the comics were more than faceless mooks.
Sorry, trained Hydra agents don't cut it against a guy who was Hydra trained, SHIELD trained and personal pet project of the original Deathlok trained. Yeah, the super spy angle may be off-putting but really, after Cal you lost the right to complain that the villain is seemingly all powerful. It's more the personality we should be looking at...
And Grant Ward is still a big mystery.
Further on, we discover that Coulson isn't as unsuspecting about his new not-quite girlfriend as we all thought. Referencing something she said a number of episodes back he sets into motion a plan to figure out what is going on. Which goes into another golden staple for the series. The comedy infiltration angle.
Let's start with Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. shall we? Let's go over some key points from the past few weeks...
The past few weeks...were slow. They dragged out. They showed no promise of Inhumans despite an epidemic of them. They showed no progression of Grant Ward, despite his status as a recurring series villain and the hype that built up over his new Hydra. They introduced a big bad in the form of a filler character who promptly seemed to drop straight off the record again after the somewhat fruitless 'Agent May has feelings' situation happened. Again.
What could they possibly do to fix this?
Well, to start with open up with a Grant Ward centric scene. Advance the plot just a bit more from the 'Ooooh, Hydra' tease and see that there is some serious concern about the character. And straight into a fight scene where Ward demonstrates what happens when a rogue agent is a rogue agent. Now I know some people are dissatisfied by how easily he seems to dust off his attackers..'they're meant to be trained Hydra agents!' they would cry. As though trained Hydra agents in the comics were more than faceless mooks.
Sorry, trained Hydra agents don't cut it against a guy who was Hydra trained, SHIELD trained and personal pet project of the original Deathlok trained. Yeah, the super spy angle may be off-putting but really, after Cal you lost the right to complain that the villain is seemingly all powerful. It's more the personality we should be looking at...
And Grant Ward is still a big mystery.
Further on, we discover that Coulson isn't as unsuspecting about his new not-quite girlfriend as we all thought. Referencing something she said a number of episodes back he sets into motion a plan to figure out what is going on. Which goes into another golden staple for the series. The comedy infiltration angle.
Now, this...this is a gem. The angle of Hunter as a cynical hacker for profit whose sole purpose seems to be to piss people off is hilarious. For a character who was little more than a minor background character they're doing a lot with him and I for one love it.
Now some people complain that Hunter was not the right choice. Why send him when they could have sent Daisy? Well, for one I'd like to assume that the ATCU are rather concerned with Inhumans and would recognise Daisy a mile off. Her being a portable earthquake generator Inhuman and all. Same with Lincoln. They are on the 'list' so sending them in...wouldn't be infiltration at all.
The plan's convoluted but the reveals that come from this sequence of events are huge. First, we discover the fish oil capsules and the cryo-tubes of failed experiements. Then we discover the Inhuman agent. And we also discover that Andrew/Lash isn't there at all but having a bit of a chat...with a certain Gideon Malick.
Remember the whole bugbear about the lack of Inhumans and the relatively slow, stale pace for a season that we hoped would be significantly more action-packed, especially since we have a proper meta-scale agent now? Well, it would seem that Hydra are trying to make Inhumans. We might be getting a full on war.
Of course, the reveal about Malick at this point was inevitable...Coulson cornering Ros and getting the pieces together just seemed 'mandatory'.
But wait, there's more big reveal coming. Grant tracks the vault down. And Malick starts to explain the history of Hydra...at the same time as Fitz pieces together the logo on the uniform and the symbol from the castle.
Hail Hydra indeed. Slightly disappointed it wasn't The Hellfire Club but considering the stranglehold that Fox has on the X-family....it would have been too much to expect that to sneak through.
All told a very solid improvement. Grant Ward, action, further reinforcement and promises of action...yes please. Let's pick up the pace and get going!
Now, let's move on to CW's The Flash.
Gorilla Warfare. Cheesy pun aside it's always good to have a Grodd episode. I personally prefer the episodes with proper metas that aren't just 'a guy that can do X'. And the fact that Grodd's not Earth-2 related or indeed even connected to Zoom is just that much better.
This guys is how you do a 'filler' episode when you want to stall the plot just a little bit. You keep up the action but you keep it distanced from your primary plotline. And Grodd was always a solid go-to for this. Now, sadly, this isn't the Grodd we know and love from the comics...no race of super intelligent apes...though Garrick hints to that Grodd on Earth-2. But Grodd is still Grodd.
Strong, smart, cunning. The plot is relatively straight forward. Grodd steals stuff. Grodd kidnaps the lovely Ms Snow. And because Barry is having his long overdue crisis of faith it's up to the 'normals' to figure out a way to save her.
Seeing Wells in the 'spare' Reverse Flash costume...well...that sent shivers down some spines. And when Cisco decided to coach him...oh my indeed. The uncanny similarity was even more apparant and though it didn't hold up long against Grodd it certainly was enough to give everyone a case of the jeebies. Wells as a character is dominant and terrifying...even without his last season revelations. The fact that Earth-2's version pulled off the same level of terror with the 'son I never had' line was just too good.
And fathers were an important theme. The return of Barry's father to pull him out of his funk (thank you CW for not making this 6 episodes of emo Barry), the relationship between Wells and Grodd and Iris' secret concerning Joe's possible unknown son. Who, if it isn't Wally West...I might just have to find something to eat.
I mean, come on guys. First you give us Jessie Quick on Earth-2 and now you tease to a mystery male West that is going to have to be Wally.
The only let down for me? The mandatory Hawkgirl bits. Bleh. I am getting more and more tired of this. I can not stress exactly how pointless this whole angle is and I hope that once Legends of Tomorrow is underway that we never see a return to this style of direction again. Introduce new series in web shorts, animated clips or special one off episodes, sure. But please, please do not eat half a season with filler and fluff for two of your shows.
Speaking of the second show...
Summary time.
First, it seems the plot points that were just wrapped up...may have been incorrectly wrapped up! Alright. Thank you. Thank you for not having such a bland and meaningless ending to the Diggle saga. The brother being alive twist was...I don't know yet. But I am glad it's not as cut and dry as the pathetic excuse of last week.
Thankfully, it's an episode with no Sarah. Thank fucking god for that. And Roy's involvement is as it used to be - helpful when he needed to be helpful, not to the point of completely dominating the show.
We get a little bit more going on...mainly Darhk stepping foot into Ollie's politics, learning that Captain Lance is no longer trusted...ok. Fine. We get Thea losing control and nearly rampaging...and the odd discovery that Darhk's 'magic' and her do not mix. Okay....?
But something about Arrow still isn't sitting right with me. It seems like the show is still trying to pick up the pieces of something. The flashbacks are important...we know that...but I would really like if we could get some sort of significant reveal and soon? Please,
For now Arrow is rapidly dropping down in interest for me. To the point where I might stop bothering. We need something to spice it up...something to shake the rather stagnant position everyone is in up.
Yeah, the Arrow review is brief. Meh. That is how I feel about it.
So, overall...?
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and The Flash were great this week. They both went back to their roots and that helps a lot. There is a lesson here...if you want something to have impact...or you want to stall something...make sure you have options. Present it in a familiar way, don't let up on the action and make sure it's still relevant.
Arrow. I...yeah. No. Come on. I appreciate the fact there was no LoT filler. I really do. But I do wish you'd either pick up the pace a little bit or realise what made the impact of your earlier seasons significant. We need big reveals. We need drama. We need something besides the mandatory half an hour of faffing about.
Tuesday, 17 November 2015
A Conundrum of Cost.
So, interesting Conundrum of Cost at this particular moment in time folks.
To attend FNM this week or no?
For those of you wondering why this is an issue....
Currently I am on Jobseekers Allowance. This means I get a paltry sum per fortnight, with which I have to pay for gas, electricty, some bills and then food. Luxuries are indeed a luxury.
FNM is a rather costly extra for me. I could probably do one or two but regularly..particularly with draft...well, let's just tell you guys the prices.
Draft comes in at a hefty £13.
Standard comes in at £6.
Going each week, assuming I buy something to drink while there will set me back £20 a fortnight, easily. Which is very, very rough on my finances currently.
So, a simple yes or no for now...
Do I go or no?
If I go I will likely post on Saturday for a review on my games, what I fielded and what I learned. I know some of you would actually like this sort of thing, so I ask you now.
If not then I might just feel bad but might have more funds spare.
Comments below, please!
P.S. Only a few days on the poll to the side. I have decided that regardless of outcome I will be making a donate button from Paypal in order to help fund myself along. I will do a proper promise post and all when this is sorted - essentially the poll plus comments is helping to determine the direction I go in...whether I become dedicated to one aspect or stay fluid.
To attend FNM this week or no?
For those of you wondering why this is an issue....
Currently I am on Jobseekers Allowance. This means I get a paltry sum per fortnight, with which I have to pay for gas, electricty, some bills and then food. Luxuries are indeed a luxury.
FNM is a rather costly extra for me. I could probably do one or two but regularly..particularly with draft...well, let's just tell you guys the prices.
Draft comes in at a hefty £13.
Standard comes in at £6.
Going each week, assuming I buy something to drink while there will set me back £20 a fortnight, easily. Which is very, very rough on my finances currently.
So, a simple yes or no for now...
Do I go or no?
If I go I will likely post on Saturday for a review on my games, what I fielded and what I learned. I know some of you would actually like this sort of thing, so I ask you now.
If not then I might just feel bad but might have more funds spare.
Comments below, please!
P.S. Only a few days on the poll to the side. I have decided that regardless of outcome I will be making a donate button from Paypal in order to help fund myself along. I will do a proper promise post and all when this is sorted - essentially the poll plus comments is helping to determine the direction I go in...whether I become dedicated to one aspect or stay fluid.
Monday, 16 November 2015
Dragons of Nerdlingkir: Booster Box Opening and Review
Hey, remember when I said I had another box coming to open? Welp, guess what showed up today, thanks to the whims of Royal Mail.
Now, to start with. Packaging. You might remember from the Fat Pack that the packaging was a disgrace - dry, crumbly and unpleasant...thankfully these packs are not in such a state. Smooth, happily crinkling and pleasant to the touch. Phew. Maybe I just got shafted with a bad box for the Fat Pack.
Now, let's be honest. I'm an idiot. I opened thirteen instead of twelve, got seriously confused, thought my box was a pack short and then had to go count a few more times to realise what I had done. Well done me. Genius!
Now, from our first pulls we have the following that immediately stand out. The Den Protector ($14), Dragonlord Atarka ($10) and a Foil Zurgo Bellstriker ($7). $31 of value pulls so far but what is troubling is the single Mythic Rare in 13 packs so far. Not good omens it would seem. Still, let's punish ourselves and open 11 packs next.
No fear! The last third of the box to the rescue with 3 more Mythics...unfortunately 4 out of 36 packs seems a bit low but still...let's look at value again. A Deathmist Raptor ($20), a Narset ($9) and another Ojutai's Command ($4). $33 in total.
All told we've got $99 of value from the money cards. Not amazing but hopefully enough for trades. Altogether not too shabby a box from rares and mythics alone though I was somewhat nervous til the very end.
One card I will nod toward is the Risen Executioner in the last lost. Currently he has very little value however I can his value spiking come Summer next year when Shadows over Innistrad is released. Innistrad will likely have a nice, solid Tribal element for Zombies so a Zombie Lord equivalent in standard could prove useful...but not currently it would seem.
Also, please remember - to the side is a poll about the current situation, open a few days more. Comments are appreciated as I do very much want to keep doing this for you guys, eventually getting my stuff sorted to do videos as well as blog post.
Enjoy and have a pleasant day everyone!
Awww yis, Booster Box opening time. Now, as before I want to remind you folks of the following points and make a few new ones.
First, use resources like TCGPlayer and MTGStocks.com to check and see what the value cards are of a set when you open a product. This is particulalry important if you plan on selling on as it can help determine whether or not you will be able to afford another box through trades or whether you will have to dip into some cash.
Second, don't do this at home. Unless you really want to. I'll be perfectly honest and say that the odds of making up a box worth of value from selling cards opened are incredibly slim. Furthermore, you will not be able to get what you want for your standard decks from a single box. If you have money to burn or can get some decent trades it's fun (because we all know the pleasure of opening a pack) but it's not viable in the long run.
Now, first, we check for value. Value for Dragons of Tarkir is much like Khans - significantly better than Fate Reforged. In this case Dragonlord Ojutai is the real winner, followed by Deathmist Raptors, Atarka's and Kolaghan's Commands, Den Protectors and Collected Companies. Planeswalker Narset has a pretty bit of value stuck onto her as well. Unlike Fate Reforged which had a huge blob of $2 rares a lot of Dragons sits between the $4 and $8 mark, which isn't bad in the long run. Means we may have more luck selling for the Magic:Origins box.
Now, to start with. Packaging. You might remember from the Fat Pack that the packaging was a disgrace - dry, crumbly and unpleasant...thankfully these packs are not in such a state. Smooth, happily crinkling and pleasant to the touch. Phew. Maybe I just got shafted with a bad box for the Fat Pack.
Now, let's be honest. I'm an idiot. I opened thirteen instead of twelve, got seriously confused, thought my box was a pack short and then had to go count a few more times to realise what I had done. Well done me. Genius!
Now, from our first pulls we have the following that immediately stand out. The Den Protector ($14), Dragonlord Atarka ($10) and a Foil Zurgo Bellstriker ($7). $31 of value pulls so far but what is troubling is the single Mythic Rare in 13 packs so far. Not good omens it would seem. Still, let's punish ourselves and open 11 packs next.
Heyyy! Not shabby. Another Den Protector ($14), a Collected Company ($8), a Thunderbreak Regent ($5), a Secure the Wastes ($4) and an Ojutai's Command ($4). Remember that bubble I spoke of earlier? This lot is sat in it. $35 of value...but wait...not a single Mythic Rare. We're two thirds of the way through the box and we've pulled a single mythic. This is sort of the nightmare scenario people dread. What if they got the gammy box?
No fear! The last third of the box to the rescue with 3 more Mythics...unfortunately 4 out of 36 packs seems a bit low but still...let's look at value again. A Deathmist Raptor ($20), a Narset ($9) and another Ojutai's Command ($4). $33 in total.
All told we've got $99 of value from the money cards. Not amazing but hopefully enough for trades. Altogether not too shabby a box from rares and mythics alone though I was somewhat nervous til the very end.
One card I will nod toward is the Risen Executioner in the last lost. Currently he has very little value however I can his value spiking come Summer next year when Shadows over Innistrad is released. Innistrad will likely have a nice, solid Tribal element for Zombies so a Zombie Lord equivalent in standard could prove useful...but not currently it would seem.
Also, please remember - to the side is a poll about the current situation, open a few days more. Comments are appreciated as I do very much want to keep doing this for you guys, eventually getting my stuff sorted to do videos as well as blog post.
Enjoy and have a pleasant day everyone!
Saturday, 14 November 2015
NerdlingTale: Undertale Review
As some of you may well know...there's currently a rather popular and successful RPG on the market for computer games. With a wide world to explore, plenty of pop-culture references and callouts, well developed characters who naturally endear themselves to you as well as challenging puzzles and a somewhat unique 'combat' system that causes it to stand out from its competitors.
No, not Fallout 4. We're talking Undertale.
Where do I start? How do I start? Where do we begin with this simplistic masterpiece that, in a world dominated by big money studios that can pump celebrities, wads of cash, licenses and hype, managed to come about from an Indie developer, Toby Fox and was funded not on licenses but instead a simple Kickstarter campaign?
Simply put this game does not have fancy graphics. It does not grind your PC to a crawl for desire to utilise the processor to its fullest. It does not demand you have the most up to date components and drivers nor should it even need to. It's a callback to the older games with a very simplistic art style, its manual up/down/left/right controls and more importantly a dialogue system that actually has meaning and impact.
I'll not spoil the plot too much - just give you the basics. You play a human child, who fell down and got trapped in the Underground where the Monster races have been trapped after a war. You simply have to survive. This takes you on a journey with some brilliant personalities, who have charm and wit of their own.
And it doesn't pull punches. The very 'prologue' section in the Ruins is quite moving, especially your interactions with Toriel. And from there the emotions just keep on going. Sans and Papyrus, the dogs, Alphys, Undyne, Mettaton, Temmie...all these characters have their quirks and ultimately you come to know them a lot better.
And this rollercoaster ride of emotions is part of Undertale's charm and unique combat system. Sure, it has the traditional Level and EXP....but there is no requirement for you to actually kill anything. You have options and ultimately you can go through the game without harming a single soul. Kindness is as potent a weapon as a blade here. Furthermore your actions have consequences. What you do to one NPC can and will be reflected later on, to the extent that your very journey through the game can change, including what bosses you end up facing and how you face them.
Morality is important. You have to do what you feel is the right thing. And ultimately your own actions can make things harder for you. I'll be honest and say that this aspect is by far my favourite aspect of this game.
The fact that whatever you do has an impact...and can alter the very structure of the game itself is incredible. It is a game focused on the gameplay, the puzzles, the mechanics...rather than the graphics or who voices who.
However, Undertale does have an incredible soundtrack. Toby Fox's abilities here make the chip tune style well and truly catchy and endearing and really, each song is an aspect of the characters it is linked to. You cannot be upset playing this game. It endears itself to you, even at an audial level.
And the music is powerful. Just as words have an impact, so does sound. For a game produced with very basic resources it is truly a masterpiece. And this is a pattern that has come about fairly recently - for all the big studios that pump brand name games in your face...the Indie offerings are even more impressive. Undertale keeps that standard up and as such I would recommend anyone to go play it. And prepare to get stuck in.
Undertale is not an expensive game. You can get it for about £7 on Steam or direct from its own website - http://www.undertale.com/
I highly recommend this game. Especially if you want to have a genuinely good time and a journey where you will laugh, smile and cry.
No, not Fallout 4. We're talking Undertale.
Where do I start? How do I start? Where do we begin with this simplistic masterpiece that, in a world dominated by big money studios that can pump celebrities, wads of cash, licenses and hype, managed to come about from an Indie developer, Toby Fox and was funded not on licenses but instead a simple Kickstarter campaign?
Simply put this game does not have fancy graphics. It does not grind your PC to a crawl for desire to utilise the processor to its fullest. It does not demand you have the most up to date components and drivers nor should it even need to. It's a callback to the older games with a very simplistic art style, its manual up/down/left/right controls and more importantly a dialogue system that actually has meaning and impact.
I'll not spoil the plot too much - just give you the basics. You play a human child, who fell down and got trapped in the Underground where the Monster races have been trapped after a war. You simply have to survive. This takes you on a journey with some brilliant personalities, who have charm and wit of their own.
And it doesn't pull punches. The very 'prologue' section in the Ruins is quite moving, especially your interactions with Toriel. And from there the emotions just keep on going. Sans and Papyrus, the dogs, Alphys, Undyne, Mettaton, Temmie...all these characters have their quirks and ultimately you come to know them a lot better.
And this rollercoaster ride of emotions is part of Undertale's charm and unique combat system. Sure, it has the traditional Level and EXP....but there is no requirement for you to actually kill anything. You have options and ultimately you can go through the game without harming a single soul. Kindness is as potent a weapon as a blade here. Furthermore your actions have consequences. What you do to one NPC can and will be reflected later on, to the extent that your very journey through the game can change, including what bosses you end up facing and how you face them.
Morality is important. You have to do what you feel is the right thing. And ultimately your own actions can make things harder for you. I'll be honest and say that this aspect is by far my favourite aspect of this game.
The fact that whatever you do has an impact...and can alter the very structure of the game itself is incredible. It is a game focused on the gameplay, the puzzles, the mechanics...rather than the graphics or who voices who.
However, Undertale does have an incredible soundtrack. Toby Fox's abilities here make the chip tune style well and truly catchy and endearing and really, each song is an aspect of the characters it is linked to. You cannot be upset playing this game. It endears itself to you, even at an audial level.
And the music is powerful. Just as words have an impact, so does sound. For a game produced with very basic resources it is truly a masterpiece. And this is a pattern that has come about fairly recently - for all the big studios that pump brand name games in your face...the Indie offerings are even more impressive. Undertale keeps that standard up and as such I would recommend anyone to go play it. And prepare to get stuck in.
Undertale is not an expensive game. You can get it for about £7 on Steam or direct from its own website - http://www.undertale.com/
I highly recommend this game. Especially if you want to have a genuinely good time and a journey where you will laugh, smile and cry.
Friday, 13 November 2015
State of the Blog: Three Weeks In
Wow.
Three weeks. And I can say that we've had an average of about 15 views per post, though this has spiked up to 40 in some cases. The top viewed posts are oddly enough the Magic the Gathering product opening ones and the intro...
Huh. That's potentially awkward. I do hope that's not entirely the case, largely because that turns this blog ridiculously expensive...I doubt I'm going to continue to have luck on the trading cards for booster boxes front unless people start donating for that to happen. And as you may have noticed I've not set up a donate button, link or anything like that because it just's not right in my mind.
Ah, the perils of being currently unemployed. Sadly folks I simply cannot buy the product myself with what little benefits I am currently getting as I hunt for jobs. I do hope you will stick around for other things, like the TV reviews or the coming review for Undertale that I have planned.
Still, we're getting one more booster box within the next week or so... Dragons of Tarkir. Yes, yes, that set with the horrible packaging. Hopefully I can pull some money cards from there and that'll help toward getting an Origins box to review, yeah?
So...I need some help. Still no comments, apart from the odd ones on Facebook, where some of you will have seen the link to this blog...so, there's that I guess. I need answers - I will create a poll and stick it on the blog (I think that's possible?) but I need feedback.
Where do I go now? What do I continue to do with The Legendary Nerdling?
a) Keep it as it is now, reviewing all sorts from TV to movies to games to MtG Products.
b) Focus on the MtG side of things. We can help with donations as long as you keep reviewing.
c) Focus on the TV and movie side of things! It's effectively free?
Please let me know in comments, either here or elsewhere - I will eventually get around to adding contact details, honest.
P.S. Please feel free to offer design advice or assistance. I'm a snarky reviewer, not a programmer damnit!
Three weeks. And I can say that we've had an average of about 15 views per post, though this has spiked up to 40 in some cases. The top viewed posts are oddly enough the Magic the Gathering product opening ones and the intro...
Huh. That's potentially awkward. I do hope that's not entirely the case, largely because that turns this blog ridiculously expensive...I doubt I'm going to continue to have luck on the trading cards for booster boxes front unless people start donating for that to happen. And as you may have noticed I've not set up a donate button, link or anything like that because it just's not right in my mind.
Ah, the perils of being currently unemployed. Sadly folks I simply cannot buy the product myself with what little benefits I am currently getting as I hunt for jobs. I do hope you will stick around for other things, like the TV reviews or the coming review for Undertale that I have planned.
Still, we're getting one more booster box within the next week or so... Dragons of Tarkir. Yes, yes, that set with the horrible packaging. Hopefully I can pull some money cards from there and that'll help toward getting an Origins box to review, yeah?
So...I need some help. Still no comments, apart from the odd ones on Facebook, where some of you will have seen the link to this blog...so, there's that I guess. I need answers - I will create a poll and stick it on the blog (I think that's possible?) but I need feedback.
Where do I go now? What do I continue to do with The Legendary Nerdling?
a) Keep it as it is now, reviewing all sorts from TV to movies to games to MtG Products.
b) Focus on the MtG side of things. We can help with donations as long as you keep reviewing.
c) Focus on the TV and movie side of things! It's effectively free?
Please let me know in comments, either here or elsewhere - I will eventually get around to adding contact details, honest.
P.S. Please feel free to offer design advice or assistance. I'm a snarky reviewer, not a programmer damnit!
Thursday, 12 November 2015
Big Catch Up 2: Pick Up The Ball Boogaloo.
Where to begin? As those of you who regularly keep tabs on this may well remember...last week's offerings from ABC and The CW were remarkably lacklustre and dull, with relatively bland filler plots, meaningless character shoutouts and all around poor direction and focus. Not good, eh?
So where to begin when looking at this week...did they pick up the ball they dropped a few weeks back? Are they turning these potential train wrecks back around and getting on the happy town express that caused these series to take off in the first place?
Well, the Nerdling can say...yes. Sort of. Kind of.
So, let's start with Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
I've noticed, after the events of this week that there seems to be a rather unfortunate pattern with Agent May and who she chooses to get jiggy with, to put it bluntly. So much so that I'm probably now going to start using her as a show villain indicator. Is she dating someone? That's the bad guy.
For those of you still confused...last week's big, unimpressive reveal was the identity of Lash, the big bad scary inhuman as Andrew. May's ex-husband who she sort-of kind-of was getting back together with. You know, just as she sort-of, kind-of was getting together with Grant Ward way back a few seasons ago.
Did I call Andrew a minor side character that no one gave a fuck about last week? Yes. Yes I did. Because unfortunately Andrew is still a minor side character. He's the guy that appears in random episodes and only became semi-regular with this season. And lo and behold, seven episodes in and he's being taken back out again.
Which is a pity. Lash, as a comic character actually had this really strange pseudo-religious zealot motive behind him - culling the weak inhumans who were not worthy of their heritage. It would have been a nice nod to the plot of the last season and maybe an indicator that this ancient culture that had planned to Inhumanise the world had actually been intelligent enough to have a Plan B. But instead, Andrew-Lash's motives remain...unclear. Was he doing it because the Inhuman situation was stressing people out? Was he doing it for 'the lols'? We never get that. Nor do we really get a sufficient explanation as to why Lincoln came back, conveniently remembering the Ledger MacGuffin and then went full aggro batshit crazy on a capture mission.
Of course we got the standard 'May is human, see her be sad' approach which pretty much always happens with any sort of big villain reveal it would seem, we got some special effects and we got an almost artificially quick resolution to this doldrum of muddled plots that the series seemed to have blundered into.
Not perfect but certainly not as droll and filler-like as last week was. And hey, the ending though. We finally get to see something more happening. A hint of a deeper plot. Admittedly Grant still feels like he's being used as a tool but that reveal made things spicy indeed.
I honestly don't know where AoS is going to go now. Lash...unfortunately seemed like an odd filler, when he could have potentially been so much more. Now we sort of don't have much of an indicator as to an underlying plot other than 'Oooh, Spooky Sneaky Hydra.'
They picked the ball up. They just didn't do anything with it. A step in the right direction but we need some serious improvements over the next few weeks.
So where to begin when looking at this week...did they pick up the ball they dropped a few weeks back? Are they turning these potential train wrecks back around and getting on the happy town express that caused these series to take off in the first place?
Well, the Nerdling can say...yes. Sort of. Kind of.
So, let's start with Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
I've noticed, after the events of this week that there seems to be a rather unfortunate pattern with Agent May and who she chooses to get jiggy with, to put it bluntly. So much so that I'm probably now going to start using her as a show villain indicator. Is she dating someone? That's the bad guy.
For those of you still confused...last week's big, unimpressive reveal was the identity of Lash, the big bad scary inhuman as Andrew. May's ex-husband who she sort-of kind-of was getting back together with. You know, just as she sort-of, kind-of was getting together with Grant Ward way back a few seasons ago.
Did I call Andrew a minor side character that no one gave a fuck about last week? Yes. Yes I did. Because unfortunately Andrew is still a minor side character. He's the guy that appears in random episodes and only became semi-regular with this season. And lo and behold, seven episodes in and he's being taken back out again.
Which is a pity. Lash, as a comic character actually had this really strange pseudo-religious zealot motive behind him - culling the weak inhumans who were not worthy of their heritage. It would have been a nice nod to the plot of the last season and maybe an indicator that this ancient culture that had planned to Inhumanise the world had actually been intelligent enough to have a Plan B. But instead, Andrew-Lash's motives remain...unclear. Was he doing it because the Inhuman situation was stressing people out? Was he doing it for 'the lols'? We never get that. Nor do we really get a sufficient explanation as to why Lincoln came back, conveniently remembering the Ledger MacGuffin and then went full aggro batshit crazy on a capture mission.
Of course we got the standard 'May is human, see her be sad' approach which pretty much always happens with any sort of big villain reveal it would seem, we got some special effects and we got an almost artificially quick resolution to this doldrum of muddled plots that the series seemed to have blundered into.
Not perfect but certainly not as droll and filler-like as last week was. And hey, the ending though. We finally get to see something more happening. A hint of a deeper plot. Admittedly Grant still feels like he's being used as a tool but that reveal made things spicy indeed.
I honestly don't know where AoS is going to go now. Lash...unfortunately seemed like an odd filler, when he could have potentially been so much more. Now we sort of don't have much of an indicator as to an underlying plot other than 'Oooh, Spooky Sneaky Hydra.'
They picked the ball up. They just didn't do anything with it. A step in the right direction but we need some serious improvements over the next few weeks.
If there's one shining star of a show this week that not only picked up the ball but managed to win the game with a perfect point shot in the last minute...it's The Flash. Not only did the show get back to its roots with the brilliantly lighthearted 'set up', complete with banter, awkward moments and a really, really poorly enacted plan with hilariously bad acting involved...
It knocked us square off our feet and reminded us of exactly how serious a threat Zoom was. And boy oh boy, what a brutal beating that was. It was the thing Barry needed. The beatdown to bring him back down to earth, to realise he still had a lot to learn and still had a lot of improvements he could be making. The big bad properly established himself as a big bad...in the last ten minutes of the episode.
Now, a lot of people are trying to question exactly who Zoom is. Personally, I'm in love with the fact he seems so monstrous, his costume is jet black, he effectively 'killed' the Earth-2 Flash by stealing his speed and has been mentioned to be specifically targetting speedsters. All this reminds me of something that crops up a number of times in the Flash comics and relates specifically to the Flash family - specifically speedsters.
The whole Black Flash concept. The death of speedsters. But wait, Zoom gets even better. We learn the name and 'nickname' of Earth-2's Dr. Wells' daughter, who Zoom has as a prisoner. Jessie Quick.
Jessie Quick? Wait.
Jessie Quick! Now, currently she has no powers that we know of. However, the comic Jessie Quick is another speedster, another part of the Flash family as it were. Perhaps we're being teased a bit? I mean, why did Zoom take her specifically? Sure, perhaps to get at Harrison Wells. Or perhaps, because Zoom is the 'death' of speedsters so targetted a girl who essentially would have been another Speedster. After all, was Wells not Thawne in the last season? Maybe the Speedster trait is genetic? Who knows.
Hats off to the Flash for being so brutally good. It returned to its light hearted roots, advanced its underlying plot and gave us a big bad intro that pretty much floored everyone. Zoom is indeed monstrous and his savage introduction was a grim reminder of how serious a threat he was. You can only hype someone up so much before you need them to mop the floor with the hero to prove it.
Ok, so, The Flash got the ball and scored. Let's see how its 'sister' show did.
...
...
...
Ok. So, one show picked up the ball at least. One show picked up the ball and performed a miracle with it. And Arrow...forgot what the ball was. As I predicted, another bland filler week. But wait, it gets better. Not only is it bland filler for Legends of Tomorrow but it's tackily done and forcibly inserted into the underlying plot.
Ray's alive! And captured by Damien Darhk! Oh no! Wait, what? What? Why was Darhk randomly shoved into the 'let's bring back Ray' filler? That makes no sense. Seriously. It makes no frigging sense.
I wanted to hope that maybe Arrow wouldn't me another bland and uninteresting week of disappointment, but no, can't have nice things now, can we? Not only do we get Felicity going full sob story over Ray being alive (and captured by the series villain who no one even knew about - what a twist!) but we have yet more Sarah angst as she just starts randomly offing people on missions. Welp. Ok. Guess we need more Sarah filler.
Between that and the characer of Laurel becoming increasingly 'damp'...wow. I don't even know why I bother anymore with this show. It appears to have been hit a lot worse than The Flash in terms of bland Legends of Tomorrow filler material...you know, despite only two characters of the entire sodding cast coming from Arrow whilst the majority of the rest are Flash intros. Wait, what? Ok, how is it that Arrow has squandered half its current season lifetime on meaningless filler fluff for two characters...and yet The Flash has not only done it with one less episode but also for six characters?!
Seriously. Arrow contributes White Canary (Sarah) and Atom (Ray). The Flash is contributing Captain Cold, Heatwave, Both halves of Firestorm, Hawkgirl, probably Hawkman and in essence Rip Hunter (who was eluded to in Season 1 and to be fair the whole other dimension/time travel gig seems to be a Flash thing).
I'm at a loss here. Arrow misses the ball, stumbles about a bit, distracts us for a few seconds with Felicity's mother's breasts, kicks the ball away for another flashback and then trips over its own shoes, curling back up into a weeping fetal ball of filler episode
In fact, the only 'good' thing about Arrow at the moment seems to be the inklings of Mister Terrific that we only get to see on fleeting occasions while they faff about in filler.
Overall?
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. - better. Not good but better.
The Flash - Yes please, can we have more of this? Thanks.
Arrow - No. NO. NO.
I thank you all for reading....
And remind you, if you want me to review things, let me know. Leave a comment, contact me, do all those good things. I want this blog to grow and become strong, like baby ram. Well, not like a baby ram.
Share with friends. Leave comments. Tell me what you want.
And have a good day folks.
Monday, 9 November 2015
Big Catch Up. Many Disappoint. Such Nerdling. Wow.
Yes, yes yes yes. I know. I've put this off. I've stalled and delayed. There's a reason. A perfectly valid reason for all of this.
That reason is that I just...don't want to review ABC's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. or The CW's Arrow and Flash because they are all just...so...very...fucking...disappointing. We are talking disappointment that, were this an anime I would pretty much abandon the series, forget it existed and come back to it in eight months time down to sheer boredom or because I remembered it existed.
And what makes me super sad about all of this? The very fact that I am a stupidly big fan of these series. Previous posts have seen me heap praise on Marvel's TV take as well as the Arrowverse setting. But it seems there's some sort of nasty bug of pure disappointment that's just going around.
Let's...just get this over with. With Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. we had a very simple and effective set up. We all loved Coulson as the 'human' P.O.V. 'heart' character in Marvel's Phase One movies. And a series based on his exploits was great. Giving him sudden responsibility was fair...and introducing Skye as the TV viewer's mini-Coulson was good. But there were always extra characters. Extra personalities and the series could focus on them to prevent us getting bored of any particular central focus.
That was Season One. That was fun. It made comic nods for us. It tied in to the movies. It introduced Deathlok. It was great. And then we had Season Two. Ok, Skye got a bit more of a focus, but Phil was getting equal parts love and attention too. Grant got attention. The whole Inhuman origin angle was neat though, let's be real, the series was stolen by Kyle MacLachlan's fantastic portrayal of Calvin Zabo. The whole father-daughter thing with Skye was interesting and ultimately confirmed her role as Quake, giving a whole nod to future angles bringing in new inhumans, heroes or whatever. And the series finale, the whole Secret Warriors thing seemed promising. A good nod toward a future angle where the series could develop and give us new and exciting things.
So why, 6 episodes in have they not successfully managed to shift the angle away from Skye? Why have the fucked up so hard? She's becoming bland. The other personalities of the show are being reduced to side characters and the plot itself seems to be rotating about Skye's whole special snowflake angle...which is terrible. Absolutely terrible. Why are we not seeing more than fleeting glimpses of Ward or Fitz-Simmons? Why have we seen no new inhumans or hero types whatsoever? Like, they found one and that's it.
Secret Warriors? More like Public Disappointment. This is not the angle the show was built on. This was not the focus the previous seasons had. It's like they've somehow forgotten the other characters exist. I mean, let's sum up the plot. Yeah, here we go. 6 episodes in six lines.
Coulson's got a girlfriend.
Skye's got special snowflake syndrome.
May went emo and raged at Hunter for doing the exact same thing she has done before (to him of all people).
Inhumans are an epidemic though we've seen bugger all of them.
Fitz-Simmons are having adventures with a portal rock.
Lash is a minor side character no one gives a fuck about, killing the whole dramatic reveal.
Ew. Seriously. Guys. This week you need to get this back on track. You will have noticed I made no mention of Grant who was such an important character in the past two seasons. Why? Because he has done nothing. Seriously. When we saw him reforming Hydra the rumours flew about who he was going to 'be'. Apparantly 'nothing'.
Less focus on Skye, more focus on your huge cast of characters and different angles. You did this for two seasons so far, you can do it again.
Phew.
Ok. That's one fire put out.
Is it sad that last week the only Arrowverse related thing that I watched that didn't make me want to claw my eyes out and just give up was Adult Swim's Robot Chicken spoof? It probably is. And let me explain why I am not even going to dignify these series with seperate reviews.
I am sick and tired of Legends of Tomorrow.
It's not even out yet and I'm already at the point where I do not want to watch it. And this is because of how this build up toward it is being handled. You see, imagine if Agents of Shield wasted half a season introducing us to Matt Murdock, Wilson Fisk, the harshness of the legal world...all the while not advancing any sort of plot despite having a huge plot dangling in front of our eyes the entire time.
It's infuriating. Yes. I understand you need to introduce Character X or Character Y. You need to tell us how so and so got their groove back. You can do this in five minute character clips or little animated clips. You do not have to suck multiple episodes out of a completely different TV series or two to build up to it.
I do not care about Kendra. I do not care about Ray. I do not care about three episodes of Arrow dedicated entirely to bringing back a dead character to stick in a completely different TV series. I do not care enough to have characters shoved in my face and forced into identities when they're clearly not ready.
A while back there was this whole uproar about Marvel's time-displaced X-Men and the revelation that Iceman was gay. People found the way it was revealed...practically forced out to be distasteful. And the worst bit is? Watching Cisco being grilled? Holy shit, why has Tumblr not frothed over in a storm of rage about that?
I'll be honest here. I lied.
There was two good things related to Arrowverse this week.
Constantine was the second. It's a shame his series got axed. He was always such a fun character, being so rough around the edges. But that is an unfortunate fate for those characters. People love them, PR doesn't.
See? No review of episode plot.
Because this artificial focus on Legends of Tomorrow is killing that for me. Really. The plot is just being ignored and buried, people are coming to terms in the most...lacklustre and off-character ways and I dread this week's offerings because it's going to be more of the same. Hopefully, hopefully Arrow at least can...nope. Fuck. We're going to have two Atom focused episodes now. And Flash is buggered because we're probably going to have a Kendra episode.
Wake me up when the plot comes back, thanks.
That reason is that I just...don't want to review ABC's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. or The CW's Arrow and Flash because they are all just...so...very...fucking...disappointing. We are talking disappointment that, were this an anime I would pretty much abandon the series, forget it existed and come back to it in eight months time down to sheer boredom or because I remembered it existed.
And what makes me super sad about all of this? The very fact that I am a stupidly big fan of these series. Previous posts have seen me heap praise on Marvel's TV take as well as the Arrowverse setting. But it seems there's some sort of nasty bug of pure disappointment that's just going around.
Let's...just get this over with. With Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. we had a very simple and effective set up. We all loved Coulson as the 'human' P.O.V. 'heart' character in Marvel's Phase One movies. And a series based on his exploits was great. Giving him sudden responsibility was fair...and introducing Skye as the TV viewer's mini-Coulson was good. But there were always extra characters. Extra personalities and the series could focus on them to prevent us getting bored of any particular central focus.
That was Season One. That was fun. It made comic nods for us. It tied in to the movies. It introduced Deathlok. It was great. And then we had Season Two. Ok, Skye got a bit more of a focus, but Phil was getting equal parts love and attention too. Grant got attention. The whole Inhuman origin angle was neat though, let's be real, the series was stolen by Kyle MacLachlan's fantastic portrayal of Calvin Zabo. The whole father-daughter thing with Skye was interesting and ultimately confirmed her role as Quake, giving a whole nod to future angles bringing in new inhumans, heroes or whatever. And the series finale, the whole Secret Warriors thing seemed promising. A good nod toward a future angle where the series could develop and give us new and exciting things.
So why, 6 episodes in have they not successfully managed to shift the angle away from Skye? Why have the fucked up so hard? She's becoming bland. The other personalities of the show are being reduced to side characters and the plot itself seems to be rotating about Skye's whole special snowflake angle...which is terrible. Absolutely terrible. Why are we not seeing more than fleeting glimpses of Ward or Fitz-Simmons? Why have we seen no new inhumans or hero types whatsoever? Like, they found one and that's it.
Secret Warriors? More like Public Disappointment. This is not the angle the show was built on. This was not the focus the previous seasons had. It's like they've somehow forgotten the other characters exist. I mean, let's sum up the plot. Yeah, here we go. 6 episodes in six lines.
Coulson's got a girlfriend.
Skye's got special snowflake syndrome.
May went emo and raged at Hunter for doing the exact same thing she has done before (to him of all people).
Inhumans are an epidemic though we've seen bugger all of them.
Fitz-Simmons are having adventures with a portal rock.
Lash is a minor side character no one gives a fuck about, killing the whole dramatic reveal.
Ew. Seriously. Guys. This week you need to get this back on track. You will have noticed I made no mention of Grant who was such an important character in the past two seasons. Why? Because he has done nothing. Seriously. When we saw him reforming Hydra the rumours flew about who he was going to 'be'. Apparantly 'nothing'.
Less focus on Skye, more focus on your huge cast of characters and different angles. You did this for two seasons so far, you can do it again.
Phew.
Ok. That's one fire put out.
Is it sad that last week the only Arrowverse related thing that I watched that didn't make me want to claw my eyes out and just give up was Adult Swim's Robot Chicken spoof? It probably is. And let me explain why I am not even going to dignify these series with seperate reviews.
I am sick and tired of Legends of Tomorrow.
It's not even out yet and I'm already at the point where I do not want to watch it. And this is because of how this build up toward it is being handled. You see, imagine if Agents of Shield wasted half a season introducing us to Matt Murdock, Wilson Fisk, the harshness of the legal world...all the while not advancing any sort of plot despite having a huge plot dangling in front of our eyes the entire time.
It's infuriating. Yes. I understand you need to introduce Character X or Character Y. You need to tell us how so and so got their groove back. You can do this in five minute character clips or little animated clips. You do not have to suck multiple episodes out of a completely different TV series or two to build up to it.
I do not care about Kendra. I do not care about Ray. I do not care about three episodes of Arrow dedicated entirely to bringing back a dead character to stick in a completely different TV series. I do not care enough to have characters shoved in my face and forced into identities when they're clearly not ready.
A while back there was this whole uproar about Marvel's time-displaced X-Men and the revelation that Iceman was gay. People found the way it was revealed...practically forced out to be distasteful. And the worst bit is? Watching Cisco being grilled? Holy shit, why has Tumblr not frothed over in a storm of rage about that?
I'll be honest here. I lied.
There was two good things related to Arrowverse this week.
Constantine was the second. It's a shame his series got axed. He was always such a fun character, being so rough around the edges. But that is an unfortunate fate for those characters. People love them, PR doesn't.
See? No review of episode plot.
Because this artificial focus on Legends of Tomorrow is killing that for me. Really. The plot is just being ignored and buried, people are coming to terms in the most...lacklustre and off-character ways and I dread this week's offerings because it's going to be more of the same. Hopefully, hopefully Arrow at least can...nope. Fuck. We're going to have two Atom focused episodes now. And Flash is buggered because we're probably going to have a Kendra episode.
Wake me up when the plot comes back, thanks.
Wednesday, 4 November 2015
Fate ReNerdlinged: Booster Box Opening and Review
What's this? What's this? A parcel has arrived!
What's this? What's this? Sealed product before my eyes!
So many shiny boosters to open for you guys!
Ahem. Seriously. Mini Nightmare Before Christmas stint there, so soon after Halloween. But yes, it arrived. A new sealed box for me to open, along with a FNM Promo Hordeling Outburst, I suspect as apology for the delay in getting the box posted out to me.
Now, as with any sealed product it's worth being well aware of what cards have actual value and to accept that not all sealed product makes its money back. In fact, Fate Reforged, being a middle set of a block has that same unfortunate problem almost all other middle sets have - they're largely considered meh, with very little value cards that have any meaningful impact.
Now, personally I use www.mtgstocks.com as a good resource to determine the relative 'value' cards of a set. Super handy for opening a box or random booster to know if you have serious value on your hands.
Now as we can see, FRF has three 'big' value cards. Ugin, Monastery Mentor and Soulfire Grand Master. The next in value is Tasigur and the Warden of the First Tree and then a respectable clump of $2.50ish cards - some of which are uncommons.
Furthermore, each FRF booster has a chance to have one of the Khans fetchlands in place of its normal land, so there's some serious value to be had there as well.
Let's get cracking with the first lot, shall we? Now, let me start off by saying that these packs are smooth, snug and feel very good. As some might remember from my last review the Dragons packs felt terrible, dry and crinkly...thankfully not so in this case.
Now, haul from the first twelve....not that impressive. Only real value sat in there is Tasigur. Ok, so, that's $4. The Torrent Elemental is the next bit of value at $1. Oh dear.
Still, I traded for this, so can't be too upset. There's an Alesha in there, which brings me to an interesting diversionary point for this review. This was probably the first case of trans-gender identity being addressed in any sort of fantasy game. So for it to get into something as big as MtG...well, that's significant. And the character in question? Alesha. A human boy who identifies as a woman, in a clan of berserkers and warriors to the extent where when he came of age and chose his own name...he chose his grandmother's name. Now, Alesha's an interesting character in that respect. And in Wizard's storyline Alesha was actually quite a strong individual in terms of willpower and leadership. Good on you WotC.
Our second lot of twelve produced a somewhat better haul. Another Tasigur ($4), a Soulfire Grand Master ($11.50), a Whisperwood Elemental ($2.70) and...wait...what's that? Fetchland! Bloodstained Mire at $21 may have just made up for this shoddy performance so far. Total value to this point? $44. Not too great but better than expected.
Our last two packs yielded a pleasant surprise for me at least.
A foil Warden of the First Tree. Yep, another foil Mythic on a box opening/review from myself. Wonder if this is going to become a pattern? $7 there...not as impressive as the foil Sarkhan but still, foil Mythics are always a delight to pull.
Unfortunately the last pulls weren't that impressive. The Windswept Heath fetchland is the big pull and even then it's $14. Between the lot here? Maybe $24 at a push. Maybe $70 total for the box.
Bit disappointing, but as I said earlier it's the middle set of a block and suffers from the middle set syndrome - where most of the cards are unimpressive and tend to be worth very little. Now, I know I have some of the super value uncommons in the pile and really, it'll be nice to pad out my personal playsets...but sadly I don't think I've pulled enough to push on for a trade for another box. Such is life.
Hopefully the new 2 set approach means that both sets will be equally as viable and have as much pull as eachother. We'll just have to wait and see.
For the record, if you want me to review stuff, feel free to let me know. If you want to contribute stuff to be opened and reviewed, again, let me know.
This box...eh...a bust. It happens. Such is fate. If the fetches had been blue the box would have swung back to the positive, but I guess we can't get everything we want, eh?
Monday, 2 November 2015
The Walking Dead: Season 6 - so far review...
Ok. So, finally I get around to do this. First, I will sensibly caution about potential spoilers. And I will state, yeah, I understand why people got so pissed off about social media doing a play by play commentary and spoiling the episode, literally, as it aired. Hats off to Facebook and Twitter for those big plays.
First, let me start by saying that though The Walking Dead is indeed based on the graphic novels and series of the same name, I am treating the TV series as something different...and rightfully so. A lot of the antagonists are odd hybrids of the comic antagonists and a lot of the central characters are nods to different things. Sure, prior knowledge of the comics might help avoid some spoilers...but in the same respect, they're not exactly the same characters, are they?
The first three episodes of Season 6 are...interesting. From a purely artistic point of view I liked them. I liked the idea of the same story being told from three different sets of viewpoints over the three episodes, as well as the chain of events that one group's experience brought to the others. And given the size of the primary cast, Rick's Group as it were, this is probably an approach they may want to take more often.
So rather than analyse each episode individually, let's look at key points from all of them...or more specifically the actions of key characters. With this whole multiple POV approach that is probably for the best, right?
Rick - Unsurprisingly Rick has established himself in a dominant leadership position. To the point where the Alexandrians are regularly butting heads with his group. Now, to be fair as the character who is the main focus of the show, the main character for the audience to emphasise with and the main character we have followed so far...well, this is to be expected. Early on in the show he took on this sort of 'messiah' role. He suffered hardships. He lost his wife. He draws others to him. He leads. Even his former career as a police sheriff lends itself to this image.
And if Rick is indeed the new messiah in this world gone to hell that puts the position of 'his' hands as Carol and Daryl. But here's where the group's composition gets really interesting...and in the second episode of the season this becomes very much apparent for all to see.
The biblical concept of the left and right hands of God - the left being 'lawful judgement' and the right being 'loving kindness' is very cleverly inverted with this series. One would expect Daryl to be the left hand. He's had a rough upbringing, he very much looks like the sort of character who could kill and pass such a judgement and he's always portrayed as being at odds with everyone else, standing alone from them. A sort of solemn position of someone who has to pass the harsh judgements.
But Daryl is actually the right hand of Rick. Yes, that's right. Daryl is the hand of loving kindness. His character has developed as such and his relationship with Beth in Season 4 and Season 5 very much portrays him as a kinder individual, rather than a more aggressive individual.
So that sets Carol as the left hand. The hand of lawful judgement. And my god, how so. No mercy asked or given, this 'kind lady' pretty much storms through the Wolves with ease. She shows herself as being more capable than most and puts down those who are fatally wounded. Her actions in earlier seasons also back this approach.
And to be honest, Carol scares the hell out of me. It's like she has a completely different persona hidden behind the smiles and kindness...something that even the Alexandrians can be seen as being upset and scared of.
Speaking of 'core' characters...this is the same idea of every series. A character that has been around and survived since the very beginning in a series such as this is seen to have some sort of immunity. Some sort of plot armour. We don't expect them to be 'mortal', especially 6 seasons in.
But Glenn. My god. No matter how you put things, Glenn's ultimate fate is the thing that will have shocked people the most. After the amazing episode of Carol we get this...and not even halfway through the 3rd episode. Yeah, that's right. His death isn't even the 'finale' of the episode. It's the midpoint. And it's brought about in a tragic and pitiful way. Nicholas takes the coward's way out. The character that was always shaky and weak, especially after getting called out and caught out on it last season...doesn't learn.
And this final piece of him not learning...pulls down one of the characters who has been in the series since the very beginning. Already the internet has theories of how he survived and that clearly wasn't him being mercilessly devoured on screen. The fact they didn't show the full consumption is one of the key points people are holding on to, just in case. Of course, this could also be the fact that AMC didn't feel the need to go Game of Thrones on us with gratuitous gore.
Now if Glenn does come back? Well, ok. That'll be a nice twist. But part of me hopes he doesn't. Part of me wants the shock that a character who has been part of the core group can die so easily to stick around. That 'shock' to us is a reality for them. Throughout the first three episodes, in the bits that cut to her Michonne reminds us of this. Rick's group has survived. They've been in those situations where they have looked into the abyss and pulled through...the rebellious Alexandrians have not. It is a stark reminder of how different peoples' lifestyles have been and that leads us to the final character and bit I will look at...who also happens to be the primary focus of the fourth episode of the season so far.
Morgan. When we first saw him, early on...he was cautious. When we next saw him...he'd completely lost it. And when he returned yet again? He was sane. The fourth episode focuses on that...and the character of Eastman is great for that. He's a down to earth, sensible pacifist. He's a guy who is just surviving. No grand plans. No 'we must rebuild society' approach. Just a guy in the woods. And as Morgan's mind slowly returns from madness...we learn that the super sane Eastman...might not be all that he is.
Eastman's backstory is powerful. He lost it all. And then he passes it off as valuing all life as precious. That he turned the other cheek. Until later on...when not only does Morgan have to confront the consequences of his actions in the Walker eating the new star of the show (RIP Tabitha) but also the fact that Eastman's not as 'innocent' and pure as he presented himself. He did do the vile act he planned...and afterwards never again.
The fourth episode fills in the gaps for Morgan...but in that respect...in the fact he has to deal with his consequences it ties to the cliffhanger of the third episode with Rick and the RV. The fact he let some of the Wolves go came back...just as the fact he killed a man in his madness did in regards to Eastman.
So far? We've had our shocks. We've had our awesome moments. And we've had those moments of understanding.
But most of all...
We lost two stars. RIP Tabitha and Glenn. Especially Tabitha. Best goat.
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