Post Friday Night Magic

I participated in my first Friday Night Magic, at Game Emporium, last night. Not sure exactly how many people were there, but I think there were at least twenty. There were five rounds, and each round is best two out of three. I won three rounds and lost two, with none going into the third set. So, I won six sets, lost four, and placed ninth. I did pretty decent for starting so recently, I feel.

I used my Black/Red deck, which was primarily crafted by Steve. However, since this was my first FNM, I had to sign up for my DCI card, which got me a premade thirty card deck.

I decided to go ahead and use these new cards to create my very own Black deck.

See ya, next week, FNM!

Black/Red (60)	Black (60)
Lands
3 Dragonskull Summit 9 Mountain 7 Swamp	20 Swamp
Creatures
3 Blood Ogre 2 Bloodrage Vampire 4 Duskhunter Bat 3 Goblin Arsonist 4 Goblin Fireslinger 2 Grim Lavamancer 4 Stormblood Berserker 3 Tormented Soul 3 Vampire Outcasts	2 Blood Seeker 3 Bloodrage Vampire 2 Caustic Hound 4 Duskhunter Bat 2 Gravedigger 2 Mortis Dogs 3 Onyx Mage 2 Sengir Vampire 4 Tormented Soul 3 Vampire Outcasts
Spells
4 Doom Blade 4 Incinerate 1 Red Sun's Zenith 4 Shock	3 Dark Favor 4 Doom Blade 2 Morbid Plunder 4 Spread the Sickness
Sideboard
N/A	SB: 3 Child of Night SB: 2 Disentomb SB: 4 Horrifying Revelation SB: 3 Mind Rot SB: 3 Warpath Ghoul

My Name is Aaron Miller, and I Will Be the Next PlayStation Tester.

Today starts the voting process for the next PlayStation Tester. The Tester is a reality show put on by PlayStation that awards the winner with the opportunity to work for Sony in Quality Assurance (game testing) for an upcoming game.

The producers will pick most of the contestants, but the community is allowed to pick one special user.

So, you should all sign up and vote for me!

I Entered Into the Gathering

Growing up, I had always wanted to get into Magic: the Gathering, but never had the means to dive into the culture:

If prices have stayed roughly the same, I would have had to save three weeks worth of allowances to just buy an intro pack to have enough cards to play with. That definitely was not going to happen. Likewise, I doubt I would have been "mature" enough to fully comprehend the gameplay mechanics and effective deck building theory.

Recently, though, Game Emporium had begun selling MtG merchandise, which reinvigorated my friend Steve's love for the strategy card game. Needing a more social hobby, I had decided to finally purchase my first intro deck.

With Steve's help, I (mostly Steve) turned the M12 Core Set Black/Red Intro into the following deck. I hope to be able to amass a decent collection to fully utilize all kinds of decks.

// Deck: Proto Deck (60)
// Lands
3 Dragonskull Summit
10 Mountain
7 Swamp

// Creatures
2 Bloodrage Vampire
4 Duskhunter Bat
1 Flameblast Dragon
4 Goblin Arsonist
4 Goblin Fireslinger
4 Stormblood Berserker
4 Tormented Soul
2 Vampire Outcasts

// Spells
4 Doom Blade
2 Fireball
2 Incinerate
4 Shock
2 Tectonic Rift
1 Warstorm Surge

Borderlands 2 Confirmed

One of the best games of the first decade of the new millennium is getting a very well deserved sequel.




Borderlands 2 will release sometime after this current fiscal year ends, which is post March 2012.

Which means it could theoretically release just before my birthday, and that would be stupendous.

Oh, Sad, Sad Sadness

My Modnation Racers is faulty, and I do not know how to fix it. This is terrible.

Several months ago, MNR received an update to help combat loading times, which were admittingly long. Instead of being forced to go into the Modspot (the main hub or menu, where you drive to separate areas for your career, creations, online racing, etc), you would be given the option of going to Career Central, the Modspot, or Creation Station. If I were to attempt to enter the Modspot, the loading screen would cease to load at 71%. However, I could freely enter the other two options.

I googled the issue shortly after noticing it, and found someone who had the same issue; no one replied to his or her querry, so I gave up and stopped playing. I thought that, even though there was another, separate account of this issue, it may be my disc.

Recently, though, I had an MNR itch and decided to continue creating Mods and Karts. I wanted to race, again, and found out my library had the game.

I checked the game out, and, to much dismay, the problem persisted with the new disc. This indicated, definitively, that the problem was not my disc; I regoogled the problem. I found, on the official Playstation forums, some more people having the same issue. One of the posters made me realize it happened after the update. I deleted, redownloaded all nigh 4 gb, and reinstalled it, because this is where the various updates laid.

No luck.

There are hundreds and hundreds of items to be collected, and some of the challenges are, indeed, quite challenging. INCREDIBLY challenging. Sadly, this meant, to me, that my save file was somehow corrupted.

I backed up my save file, just in case, and then realized I could simply hop onto another profile without a save for the game.

I did so.

The load still failed.

This is with a separate disc.

I do not know how to fix this. This is incredibly sad, to me, because I really do believe this is the best PS3 exclusive (it has much more replay value than Metal Gear Solid 4, you see). I am sad.

UPDATE: There may be a solution: the only thing I have yet to try is another console. The HDMI on my console is nonfunctioning. I received the system for Christmas, which would mean it was purchased, probably, just before (this was a replacement for my original that bit the dust 2 weeks prior to Christmas) the holiday. This means it is still under warranty, and can be replaced for free. So, I test it out in a different PS3 (while still downloading all the updates - bleh). I think I shall try this. I mean, I'd get a PS3 with a working HDMI if nothing else.