contradictions

first off, if you want my atom feed, here's the link (although yaps has provided it already through his comment): http://pepseehcola.blogspot.com/atom.xml. yan. gamitin nyo sa my yahoo nyo. i used sam's atom feed to test in my yahoo.

anyway, field trip's tomorrow. marami daw bakla sa abs-cbn. we all know what happened the last time there was a gay in close contact >_< rod knows this.

this afternoon, me, leiron, rod, and mark went to the cadlum hall to have some fun (and point fingers at the third years' decks. honestly.) but then, me and rod remained to have a couple of games. at the end of the couple of games, his deck box was stolen, and we all suspected ibarra (the fat guy with a hilariously small voice, hence, we call him a goon/ogre) or his company to have stolen it (but he was the only one who went over to our table to spectate.) which was enough to make my blood simmer.

but that isn't why i'm angry.

as if by the guidance of karma (or vipaka, you miss ayen purists), ms. juanillo came and threatened them (the third years, for we packed up our cards already) to "keep them or i'll confiscate them." -- which was enough to merit a gesture of triumph from me, but she added --

"those are the same as playing cards. nakakabobo ang mga yan; you should be keeping those at home."

there are three ideas in her statement, two of which are legitimate facts (one which may be argued as a half-truth, according to the broad-worded school rules), and the other one, a mere unresearched opinion.

nakakabobo ang magic?

really?

p***** ina mo!

(sorry for cursing, but i have solid evidence to prove her statement wrong.)

there are five colors in magic; white, black, blue, green, and red. whichever color you decide to play; you will always involve math, a refined sense of logic and awareness (if you're playing black), and a good understanding of verbal and written english, because you must understand the strict rules (if you don't, i will always argue the rules with you because i have a fine understanding of them). anyway, there are cards that actually involve the use of what you have learned in class, for example:

Murderous Betrayal - BBB (that's triple black.)

Enchantment

BB, pay half your life, rounded up: Destroy target nonblack creature. It can't be regenerated.

now, let's assume your life was 19. and you want to activate this enchantment to destroy your opponent's fresh slith firewalker (you're fighting sligh, which is to say, you're fighting me). how many life points will you cough up?

you have 19 divided by 2 = 9.5. rounding up, that's 10. that's just the math in your head. here comes the logic. by now, it should be the fourth turn at the earliest; i have five mana waiting already. if you decide to activate this and cough up 10 life, you'll be left with 9 life, just enough for me to end this game with a pulse of the forge + shrapnel blast combo. is it worth it to kill a 2/2 slith?

if i were in your place, i wouldn't do it, because that would earn me a loss just to accomplish a small-term goal.

here's another one:

Frogmite - 4

Artifact Creature

Affinity for artifacts (This costs 1 less to play for each artifact you control.)

2/2

This one is really simple. Say you have three artifacts in play. 4 - 3 = 1. tap one land to play it.

want a tough one? the one that will make your head (even mine) hurt?

consider this scenario.

you are staring down four 1/1's on your opponent's side of the field. you have 10 mountains untapped, waiting for you to use them, and the creatures for one final attack to win you the game. you draw, and topdeck a fireball.

fireball is the only card that takes a while for me to compute (hence leiron's term, big red math) and i've stalled in games just to think if my mana's enough to cast a defining fireball. here's the text:

Fireball - XR (x is a variable. just like in algebra.)

Sorcery

Fireball deals X damage divided evenly, rounded down, among any number of target creatures and/or players.
As an additional cost to play Fireball, pay 1 for each target beyond the first.

even now, i don't know how this card works (rules-wise).

so, i need to deal four damage. i work out the math in my head (the ogre needs pen and paper just to keep track of his own life. bah.)

there's 1 already for the initial cost to play the spell. (10-1=9 mana left to spend)
another 1 for the first 1/1 to get hit. (9-1=8 mana left to spend)
pay 2 to deal one damage to the next 1/1. remember, 1 more for each target beyond the first. (8-2=6 mana left to spend)
pay another 2 to deal one damage to the third 1/1. (6-2=4 mana left to spend)
pay another 2 to deal the last point of damage to the last 1/1. (4-2=2 mana.)

i need to compute this data whenever i cast this spell just to see if i have enough mana to manage it.

consider the case of the arc-slogger, when i count how many cards i have left in my deck to feed it to him.

let's say someone kills my slogger and it's the only card left i can use to win. i have five mana open; just enough for 10 points of damage. catch is, does my deck have enough cards in it?

let's say that:

x = points of damage you can deal with arc-slogger.
y = number of cards in hand, z = number of cards in play, and v = number of cards in the graveyard.

(it's the method of counting before you start blasting.)

here's the equation:

sorry, the formatting jumbled it up. it's supposed to be 60 minus y + z + v, all over 10, and then multiply 2 to the quotient. see if you can make it out in the jumbled equation below.

{ 60 - ( y + z + v ) }
x = 2 { -------------------- } (my excuse for a big parentheses)
{ 10 }

to find out how many damage you can deal to the opponent.

author's note: if you've made it this far, i thank you for bearing with me in my magic article. i applaud you for reading up to this far. i also apologize for having written a novel blog, but i assure you that it is all in good intention.

now that i have presented my case, can you still say na nakakabobo ang magic? can you still say that this is eating up our minds? can you still say that it has no educational value? if so, i have more cases up my sleeve.

sorry rod, i couldn't have let it go without having my say.

anyway, thanks for reading, i'll let you know what happened in the field trip tomorrow.