So my jerkface friend Will gets to go to Comic-Con every year, as I'm stuck at home drooling at the sneak previews. This year it prompted me to do:

THE TOP 5 THINGS WILL SHOULD BRING ME HOME AS A GIFT FROM COMIC CON

5) Admiral Ackbar Mini Bust

It's a bust! Based off the art of Steven Daily, "Magnitude" depecits everybody's favorite tentacled admiral as, well, an actual admiral. I really want this for his magnificent stash, and I guess it's nice it comes with a solid wooden case. Seriously though, look at that mustache. Be jealous Tom Selleck. 

4) Super Best Friends Forever

These super adorable statues remind me of my younger years watching Teen Titans in my Under-Roos. DC has an online store with more Super Best Friend goodies, but SDCC is the only place to nab these three. Points for making Batgirl look like she's doing a dance move from Thriller. 

3) Wiz Kids Hero Clix Exclusives 

Yup, that's a Hero Clix immortalizing the kiss Supes and Wonder Woman shared in the new iteration  of Justice League. I just got into Heroclix, so  I have no idea if the this hero is going to blowing up nerds at local tournaments, but the sculpt is worth the money alone. Wiz Kids also is peddling Shuma Gorath, a team base featuring the Trinity of Sin, and a very impressive sculpt of the Serpent from Marvel's Fear Itself storyline. 

2) Dragon Ball Z Scouter

If this doesn't make your inner nerd squeal, I don't know what will. The scouter comes in three colors and plays sounds from the show. Where was this when I was kid?! I had to fashion mine out of tin foil and rubber bands. I was the coolest kid in the trash can. I can just all the nerds buying two of these, just so they can crush one in a blind rage. 

1) Transformable Plushy Zergling/Baneling

There it is. Quite possible the most adorable killing machine I've ever seen. The plushy folds into itself to mimic the transformation into the acid filled balls of death. Sadly with only 2,000 in stock, Blizzard is making these stuffed balls raffle prizes. I'll just have to settle with massing banelings in my matches of Starcraft 2.

Well there you have it folks. My top 5 list of things my jerkface friend Will should bring back as gifts from Comic Con. Now I'm off to spam his inbox with "I hate you" messages. 

Internet Findings: Critical Path

Perusing the interwebs( Once again, thank you StumbleUpon), and found this website. Critical Path, is a website dedicated to exploring the "art, philosophy, politics and psychology" of video games.They achieve this through interviews with various game designers and video game celebrities. Some notable interviews include Bioshock creator Ken Levine discussion on Skill Sets and Metal Gear Solid creator Hideo Kojima on the subject of heroes. Critical Path plans to expand it's current interview set and even takes emails from fans on what they want to see asked. Check out Critical Path here and learn a little bit more about the scholarly side of video games.

IM's Seed

For those that don't know, or those that are looking for a new avenue of Esports action, the GSL is one of Korea's primer Starcraft 2 Leagues. Hosting monthly tournaments, players battle through the brackets to be named champion and cut a slice of the hefty prize pool. If you've never watched the GSL before it's separated into to leagues or Codes. Code A, are the up and coming stars. Players that have either been eliminated from Code S or players

SK's MC

that are new to the scene. Code A is fun to watch,as it's an ever changing landscape. Code S are where the primer players reside. Players like Naniwa or Nestea, play their matches in Code S. Code S is the main draw to GSL, and it's finals are usually a big spectacle. This year, the community is excited that the Code S finals will have two Protoss players battling for the crown. The last time a Protoss player was champion, was in 2011 and over ten tournament finals ago. SK Gaming's MC once again has to battle in the Code S finals to show that his gaming skills reign supreme and reclaim his title. MC is most known for amazing Blink Stalker micro. MC defeated fan favorite DRG in the Round of 4, to claim his spot in the finals.His opponent, Incredible Miracle's Seed, before this season was a relatively unknown player. Seed had shown skills in Code A and Team League but never exploded like he did this season. Seed has shown incredible sense of both timing and control of his units, as he made his way through the Code S brackets. Seed defeated another unknown player, Byun,in the Round of 4 with spectacular fashion. Both sets of games from the Round of 4 are up on GOM TV's website and are worth watching. So will the veteran Protoss player bring new tricks stake his claim? Or will IM Seed's spunk and fresh play shatter MC's old playstyle? Find out Thursday night at 10:00 PM. You can stream the games live at GOM TV. They will be casted in English by the wonderful, and hilarious, casting team of Dan "Artosis" Stemkoski and Nick "Tasteless" Plott.

BoxeR holding the  GSTL Trophy

Also happening this weekend on GOM TV is the GSL Team League finals. The Team League pits the Starcraft 2 Teams, such as Incredible Miracle or Evil Geniuses, against each other in a first to 5 match up. The format is exciting because it allows fans to see unknown players shine, as well as, see their favorite players anchor their teams. This year the teams FXO and SlayerS will be battling for the championship. The Team League format is relatively new to the GSL, having two seasons as a running tournament and three "special event" months. Team SlayerS, founded by famed player BoxeR, is a two time champion looking for a third. This is the first time Team FXO has been in a Team League Finals. SlayerS is obviously the favored team, with heavy hitter players like Alicia, CocA and former GSL champion MMA. Yet, if FXO can receive continued stellar performances from TheBest and Oz, then FXO should have no problem sniping SlayerS's top players. The GSTL Finals will be airing Friday at 10:00 PM on GOM TV's website.(Note: I do not own any of these pictures. Most were taken from Liquipedia. MC's was taken from Thisisgame.com)

Team FXO

M13: My Take
After starting college I picked up Magic The Gathering quite heavily. I never played in tournaments or anything professional, but I was king of the table top in my dorm. I like to keep up with the current sets, so I'll pick a pack here and there. Occasionally I see a card like Phyrexian Obliterator or a set like Innistrad, that sparks my interests so much that commit to multiple purchases. Mostly though,. I stick with my beloved Black Vampire deck. I've been a Black player since Middle School. It was easier for me to learn than Blue, but offered all the same basic board control that Blue did. It's been hard for me to switch since then. M13, the new Magic Core Set, might have broken me. A Core Set comes out every summer and consists of all the necessarily cards that Wizards(the creators) feels the current Metagame needs. So Core Sets usually consist of reprints of basic building block cards. Occasionally the Core Set will introduce players to a card ability, like Hexproof, that will be in the upcoming Block Sets. So I disappointed when I saw how scarce Black was in this new set.  Wizard's focus was obviously on the colors of Blue and White, to counteract the last block where Black was a predominant color.  I was, however, very pleased to see reprints of my two favorite cards, Vampire Nighthawk and Vampire Nocturnus. Nighthawk is, in my opinion, a mainstay in almost any functioning vampire deck. The card does so much for three mana, that it's almost crazy not to run four of them. Nocturnus is a card that demands a response from your opponent, as it pumps all your Vampires up. So the two haven't been legal in Standard play in awhile, so it'll be nice to see those two at FNMs, Pro Tours and Grand Prixs. My problem with Black cards that were in M13, was that there wasn't anything amazing. Sure they printed a card called Murder, which is cool, but it's no different than any other black removal card. Even the new Liliana, seemed a shadow of her former Innistrad glory.  Ultimately , if I want amazing black cards I'll be looking back at Innistrad/Dark Ascension. So, if I'm ditching black what color am I switching to? 

His color

Oh yes, you've read that right. Three mana. I never payed attention to Ajani, because he was always a lifegain card. Lifegain was a strategy that never interested me but it wasn't aggresive. This Ajani seems so aggressive. He's two buff spells for three mana. So every turn my Steppe Lynx or whatever card is out, is getting another +1/+1 buff. My army's strength just grows while Ajani is on the table, forcing my opponent to deal with Ajani and not my army or my life points. So he either buys me time by sacrificing himself or baiting a Cancel, or, he sits on the table and buffs my army. Not to mention I can give any of my buffed creatures doublestrike and flying whenever I want. Oh, we haven't get got to his ultimate yet. So my Soul Wardens, that he's buffing all game, will love as I pop his ultimate and get 40 2/2 Cat Tokens. Then I laugh as I win with my Cat Army. I am in love with this card. These are the kinds of cards that excite me to play Magic and create new decks. Congratulations Wizards, for creating another masterpiece and keeping me on for another year. 

It's time for INDIE GAME MONDAY!!!

(Or: How I Forgot to Post on Sunday....)

The game I have for you today is Outsmart! 

Anneite at the University

Outsmart! is an in-browser strategy game. You play as Anneite, a driven girl who happens to be married to an unmotivated man, Robme. After being told by his parents that he needs to raise 50k, it's your job as Robme's girlfriend to motivate him to make that money. Anneite has three skill levels, Charisma, Intelligence, and Lovability, that the player can raise and lower. For example, a making Robme work increase your money total but lowers his love for you. Each  skill opens new activities for her to do and impact Robme's work ethic differently. The game allows for players exploit different options the three skills have to offer, giving each player the ability to tailor their experience to their own liking.The characters are charming and the art style suits the writing perfectly. Typically I'm not a fan of 8 bar soundtracks in games, but with how catchy the pop beat is, I can make an exception. I even found myself bopping my head to the beat more than once. The whole game takes about 20-45 minutes to play, depending on how quick you find your grove.  The game can be found here and was created by "stellarnull" and "hipon".

Raising skills in Outsmart!

CRAZY INDIE GAME SUNDAY!


Apparently I just made a theme up for Sunday...regretting it now. Nonetheless, I have two amazing indie games to share with the world that I've dug up. The first, is a little game called Today I Die. 

Today I Die

Today I Die, is sort of a word puzzle game but that takes the backseat as it's all about player experience. It sucks the player into the emotions of the words on screen by captivating them with witty gameplay and a fantastic soundtrack. The game was created by wizard Daniel Benmergui and can be found here. Let me know how you like it and donate to Daniel if you do.

Screenshot from Passage

The other game I have for you guys is a game called Passage. I don't want to ruin the game. but as the creator notes "if you don't get it at first keep playing". It's incredibly short, so if you run through it and miss the message you can play through it again a second/third time without much gripe. Please please please, if you enjoy the game at all, and have extra cash flow, donate something to Mr. Jason Rohrer. The man needs to support his family. Check it out here and let me, and Jason, know how you feel about it. (I do not own any of these games, and am posting this to spread these two geniuses work around.)

So rarely is a day that I'm pleased with the internet as much as I am today. Perusing through the interwebs(Thank you StumbleUpon) and found this little gem.

That just happened. Admit it, you loved every catchy second of it too.