…but, in case you’ve already seen it, or just want more Avengers right now, here’s the post-credits Avengers trailer for the 2012 summer movie!
http://io9.com/5825798/watch-the-awesome-first-teaser-trailer-for-the-avengers
EDIT: I was fooled! That’s not the trailer at the end of Capt. America. It’s still a short preview, though, better than nothing?
Ever since I first picked up the PS2 original, released by Atlus, at the super-cheap used price of $40 from GameFly back in 2003, I have been a huge fan of Disgaea. The main game is always challenging, with intricate maze-like stages with terrain-based obstacles coupled with enemy units designed to have an advantage on the stage. After you beat the game, there are nigh-impossible side-quests and secret bosses that require you to exploit every loophole you can find to maximize every aspect of your team. And, once you beat those, you can continue maxing out your characters, their items, and unlocking the best items in the game, which oftentimes requires you to face maximized enemies… armies of them, that make your powered-up characters look like dust bunnies!
I’ve never played Makai Kingdom, although I own it and really should. However, I was told that the Omega spells in Disgaea 2 pictured the deities from that game, which I thought was neat. The first game also featured cameo playable characters from old NIS games, and subsequent games have also always had a large number of cameos from the first Disgaea and various other NIS games that have been released (or not! *coughAsagicough*). However, Disgaea 4 will be taking things an extra step, featuring cameos from franchises that have absolutely nothing to do with Disgaea!
Including this AWESOME gem~!
For those unfamiliar with the character in Omega Wind, that’s Holo from Spice & Wolf, a really good anime about… economics!
Disgaea 4 is set to release in early September in the US.
http://www.moetron.com/2010/12/10/makai-senki-disgaea-4-omega-spell-anime-cameos/
So the two mystery cards from my last post are Platinum Emperion in the main and Pelakka Wurm in the board. Platinum Emperion won me 2 games yesterday, which helped lead to a 4-1-1 finish at the SCG Super IQ in Minneapolis. Unfortunately, my tiebreakers were pretty bad, so I placed 10th, and my last round opponent, with whom I unintentionally drew, finished 9th.
Becker played a similar deck at 3 events over the weekend, a FNM, the PTQ in Boston, and a TCQ today. He sported a 10-3-1 record overall (pending TCQ results), claiming that Emperion won him 3 matches (yes, matches, not games). His deck is playing Green’s Sun Zenith over a 2nd Solemn, and 2 Emrakuls instead of a Kozilek, Forests instead of Gardens or the singleton Island, and a rather different board (4 Nature’s Claims, 2 Slimes, Wurmcoil over 3 Spellskites).
My games were against BU infect (loss), GU infect (win), Valakut (win), Jund (win), Vampires (win), and UW Control (draw). The BU infect loss was because both games he had a ridiculous start and I couldn’t go off quick enough. First game he went turn 2 Plague Stinger, Virulent Swipe + rebound, then Distortion Strike + rebound. 3+3+2+2 = 10 :( Game 2, he landed a Blighted Agent and equipped Livewire Lash for a turn until I Slimed it, but then landed back-to-back Hand of the Praetors, playing a Plague Stinger along with the second one to finish me off.
GU infect, she never got enough pump or any evasion creatures, so I was able to fend off the initial rush with a Simulacrum and Battlement, then I went off with Titans, sneaking in an Emrakul. Game 2, I got an early Spellskite followed by a second Spellskite after she naturalized one. After that, she just didn’t get anything relevant, so I landed another Emrakul to win.
The first game against Valakut had my favorite play of the tournament :) I had 2 Edges, Eye of Ugin, 6 other random lands, 2 Battlements, an Amulet, 2 Titans, and a tapped Emrakul on board, with 8 life. He has 3 Valakuts, 4 Mountains, a Titan, 6 3/4 plant tokens, Avenger, and a Cobra in play, and he has 8 life. He declares his attack, swinging with the team. I declare no response to the Titan trigger. He fetches 2 Mountains. I ask him, “All right, so you’ve got 6 Valakut triggers. Are they all aimed at me?” He responds, “Yep, all at your head.” “OK, response.” I tap 7 land + Eye of Ugin, grabbing Platinum Emperion, then tap both Battlements and Amulet, putting it into play. “No blocks.” He reclines while grinning, “That’s awesome.” The rest of the match was pretty uneventful; he went off really really early in game 2, probably a turn 6 kill (I redirected 4 Valakut triggers to Spellskite, taking 8 damage instead, 6 from Titan. He lays a 7th Mountain post-combat), then I got a turn 5 Emrakul game 3 (turn 3 Amulet, turn 4 Survival for Emrakul).
Jund was a pretty fun, interactive match for me, although my opponent was frustrated as hell. He was able to Lavamancer + Bolt + Dismember my initial plays of Lotus Cobra into Overgrown Battlement + Fauna Shaman, but I trapped in a Titan, fetched and hardcasted an Ulamog, then trapped another Titan when he was swinging with Grave Titan + 2 zombies + Solemn + Cobra with open mana and his Lavamancer online (I’m at 7), fetching 2 Gardens to take zero combat damage. I draw and pass, his EOT fetching Emrakul. I currently have 12 mana; he scratches his head; I attacked with Titan, grabbed Eye of Ugin, then dropped a fetchland and cast Emrakul. He scoops (says he miscounted my mana). Second game, he had a turn 3 Duress to knock out an Amulet, seeing Emperion and Baloth. I topdeck another Amulet, then turn 4 the Emperion, followed by a Spellskite + Island. He apparently only had 1 real out in his deck (Beast Within) for Emperion. He lays a Garruk2, followed by a Grave Titan next turn, to draw 6. 2 turns later, he draws another 6, killing Garruk. No dice. In the meantime, I Titan for Eye of Ugin, then get the mana to fetch Emrakul. He told me that, of his 12 draws from Garruk, 8 were land.
Vampires was pretty uneventful. The guy is running maindeck Manic Vandal, so he nukes my turn 3 Amulet. I’m still able to land a Titan and fetch+cast Emrakul. Second game, I get a turn 1 Garden, turn 2 Spellskite, which he Vandals, then turn 4 Amulet. At some point I topdeck Emrakul; he attempts a Crush, but it’s too late, I lay Emrakul in response. He has the Gatekeeper, but my little plant foils him, so he can’t lay it. Both games he did get me below 10, though, so his clock was just too slow.
UW Control will be a more interesting story to write up, so I’ll take my time and do it later :)
So there’s a StarCity qualifier this weekend in Minneapolis, and this is the deck I’ll be wielding:
3 Fauna Shaman
4 Explore
4 Overgrown Battlement
4 Lotus Cobra
2 Solemn Simulacrum
4 Quicksilver Amulet
1 Acidic Slime
4 Primeval Titan
4 Summoning Trap
1 ***SECRET TECH***
1 Kozilek
1 Ulamog
1 Emrakul
4 Misty Rainforest
4 Verdant Catacombs
8 Forest
2 Khalni Garden
4 Eldrazi Temple
1 Eye of Ugin
2 Tectonic Edge
1 Island
SIDEBOARD:
4 Obstinate Baloth
1 Acidic Slime
1 ***SO MUCH SECRET TECH***
3 Nature’s Claim
3 Creeping Corrosion
3 Spellskite
I might not reveal the ***SUPER SECRET TECH*** until after GenCon, since this is Alan’s deck and he’ll probably play it at Nationals (unless Becker and I get super-stomped this weekend; Becker is playing in a PTQ in Boston with a similar build).
Here’s the first The Dark Knight Rises trailer, courtesy io9. The guy on the bed… might be Liam Neeson/Ra’s al Ghul? I can’t really tell, but since they’re talking about the man/symbol/legend stuff, I assume it is.
EDIT: According to the io9 article (I’m awesome at reading), that’s actually Jim Gordon bedridden. Doesn’t really look like Gary Oldman to me though…
Man, how epic would this movie be if Aaron Eckhart came back to play Two-Face who didn’t actually die… I was pretty disappointed that his role as Two-Face was so short in The Dark Knight, because I felt like he did a fantastic job in the few scenes he had :(
So I was browsing the NIS America online store and started analyzing the giclee images more closely. I’m not super familiar with every NIS game, so I was wondering if anyone knew some of the characters on the Disgaea 3 Walkathon image?
Here is a link to the product in the store.
From the left, there’s Mao, Raspberyl, Pram & Zetta, Tink, Prièr, Aramis, Prinny hero, the weird old guy who had a free DLC thing, (don’t know), Yukimaru, Gordon, Jennifer, Thursday, Kurtis, (don’t know), Taro, Dragon, Marjoly, (don’t know), Hanako, Rozalin, Nekomata, Vyers, Adell, Pleinair, and Prinny Kurtis.
So yesterday, I played in the M12 Launch Party at Legion Games out in Burnsville, MN. I was visiting my family back in MN, so I got to check out the new store. It’s kind of in a dumpy area, but so was the old store. The parking situation seems a bit sketchy for stuff like PTQs, but I think I remember seeing a “Add’l parking in the back” sign. It’s a bit further from Cty Rd 42 and all those food options, although there is a Taco Bell, a Famous Daves, and a great local Chinese place called House of Wu nearby.
Here is the sealed pool I opened. I’m quite confident I built the best deck with the following list:
Alabaster Mage Arbalest Elite Archon of Justice Auramancer Griffin Rider x2 Griffin Sentinel x2 Oblivion Ring Pacifism x2 Peregrine Griffin Stormfront Pegasus x2 Aven Fleetwing Chasm Drake Mind Unbound Negate x2 Phantasmal Dragon Sphinx of Ulthuun Greatsword Swiftfoot Boots Glacial Fortress [foil]
Quick plug for Kano Yasuhiro’s new series Kagami no Kuni no Harisugawa! I first heard about it on ANN, but I didn’t realize it was going to begin so soon when, lo and behold!, Red Hawk already picked it up and scanlated it! Kano is one of my favorite mangakas, primarily for Mx0, but I also really like Pretty Face, which is published in the US by VIZ Media.
Kano’s work is highlighted mostly by attractive teenage girls and virtuous but rough male leads, and the same is true in Kagami. However, another aspect I’ve really enjoyed in his work is a really simple, clean premise that he takes in very imaginative directions. Pretty Face had an accident victim’s face restored to his crush’s face, who turns out to have a twin. Mx0 had a normal student admitted to a school for magic, who is forced to hide that he can’t use magic. The story is very simple on paper, but the stories that Kano writes both stay true to this original plot point but explore very interesting and creative situations that stretch the plot point as far as it can go.
This week’s Sket Dance finally debuts one of my favorite characters from the manga, Dante the shy poser! I think his style of character comes out a lot better in anime than in manga, as opposed to J-Son-sensei, whose story in the first half of the episode seemed less effective than it was in the manga.
Dante is a “visual kei” fan, which is a subgenre of Japanese-style rock where the visual style of the band members is of equal importance to the music; they typically dress extremely flamboyantly, something a bit similar to the band KISS. He enjoys acting the part as well, which does not blend well with his innate introvertedness. This results in pretty much everything he does involving inordinate amounts of posing, and all of his words being elaborate metaphors for what he really means to say. Except in the particular instance where he first meets the Sket-dan, of course :)
Here’s a closer picture of Dante… explaining his favorite movie, hah.
simplephobia 