Probably horribly outing myself as a Paper Boomer here, but *man* there is not enough time being spoiler season and drafting full-bore. I think the LR set review dropped a day or two before drafting opened up on Arena. I am a gentleman of leisure! I need to listen in my armchair with a snuffer of brandy
Format review: M21
Generally, I enjoy the core sets. Good, solid bread-and-butter magic without crazy mechanics to thwart my limited time availability. However I went on quite the rollercoaster with M21: I plunged to a sub 40% win-rate for the first time since tracking, panicked, got some coaching, and then clawed my way out of the pit (possibly aided by all the Spikes getting bored and moving on). REGARDLESS it remains a net-win in my book.
trophies
Read morePost-Game: 9-1-20
Post-Game: 8-29-20
Post-Game: 8-27-20
Post-Game: 8-26-20
Coaching session with Ethan from Lords of Limited! I took a stay-cation day and decided to try it. I’ve never done digital coaching before and it was astoundingly helpful. A little odd, since I’ve listened to 200+ hours of the Lords of Limited Podcast, it felt like being reunited with an friend/celebrity.
Draft log
Read moreThe Essay, Pre
During Lil’ Chandra earliest (and pre-earliest) days, I tried to keep a semi-regular journal of what was helpful and what was not helpful. What resources did we keep going back to and which baby classes had me pleading with the Benalish Momma to cut class at lunch. What’s funny about it is that the sleep deprivation is so real, I have almost no memory of any of this. However I have reason to trust the author knew what he was talking about at the time. –May 2019
So you’re having a baby! Congratulations! We’ll start off with the first rule: YMMV. You’re Mileage May Vary. Much like wedding planning (and anything else that is both expensive and emotionally fraught) the only rule is to figure out what works best for you as a couple. Plus, there is a major “N of 1” problem with all parenting advice: just because it worked for Lil’ Chandra does not guarantee that it will work for you. I tried to keep everything here at a higher level, more of a framework for the struggles we faced and how we made decisions. This is a sketch of what worked out for our family. This has into two parts, the pre-birth prep and the whole “omg baby” part.
Read morePost-Game: 8-22-20
Dark confession time: COVID-19 has lured me into getting into K-pop. A good overview article lured me, and let’s be honest, I’ve always been K-pop-curious. There’s also a decent chance that the Benalish Momma made an ill-thought out desire, “I wish he would stop listening to that stupid orchestrated video game music.”
(finger closes on the monkey’s fist)
Draft log
The Toddler Book Champs
Reading books to your loving, adoring child is a true highlight. Trapped into repeating “Lonky Zonky goes Kablooee” for the 39th time to your squirming, not-asleep child is a definite circle of hell. That said, for some reason there are books that are a delight to repeat. Also key: if there are multiples by the same author. This helps keep the books fresh while reducing search costs. Below are a selection of the Best of the Best for Team Benalish.
We are in a Book (or really anything by Mo Willems)
A grand champion of children’s lit, Mo Willems was a former Sesame Street animator and his books are just rock solid. From breaking the fourth wall (We are in a Book), to a trilogy of loss and redemption (the Knuffle Bunny saga), to a reluctant pigeon, Mo Willems is both prolific and shockingly funny/clever/heartfelt.
This is a little more Benalish Dad-centric, but it turns out that there’s a generation of D&D nerds who graduated to parenthood and are eager for instructional ABC books that read, “C is for Chupucabra with a lot to digest. D is for Demon who can be such a pest.” Fun, nerdy, and with delightful pictures, the authors have been branching out into some longer form material too.
Frankly, more children’s books would benefit from a touch of dark humor, and this story of a bear who lost his hat, and the lengths to which he would go to recover it, is actually pretty funny. Great art too.
Written by Neil Gaiman (of Neverwhere and other dark contemperary fantasy), it’s a story of a panda with a big, big sneeze. Also has a good building rhythm, (“Are you going to sneeze?” “Ah, AHH, AHHHHH. No.”)
Translated from Japanese, these books are an absolute delight. Also a very nice change of pace from Western toddler literature, these books follow two sisters on their semi-magical, very low key journeys through the woods, the town, the snowy day, etc.
Julia Donaldson is probably more famous for “The Gruffalo” but I really enjoy this one. Just infectiously catchy rhyme and rhythm. Let’s see how I do:
The witch had a cat
And a hat that was black
And long ginger hair
In a braid down her back
Part of the “Wordless Trilogy” these books are in fact, quite wordless. But the gorgeous art (and a modern retelling of “Harold and the Purple Crayon”) is very fun to read and create the story along with your Nugget.
Post-Game: 8-22-20
Draft log
Well *super* embarrassing that I just stone-cold overlooked an Enthralling Hold in P2p5. But green was quite open and I just build a fairly straightforward ramp deck with a blue splash for some removal.
This deck’s plan: ramp into bigger creatures and reasonable removal. It does that too!
Summary
Lost to a very good RW deck in round 1 that also combo’d with some unfortunate mulligan & land luck. The next two games I won in pretty rousing fashion. I particularly liked my final match where I got out both Shrines. It’s true that the green shrine is pretty underwhelming, especially without a splash. But when you have the blue shrine turboing you cards, they do work well together.
Interesting Moments
Keep or mull?
At first I thought this was a for-sure mull, with no action for way too long. Then I noticed that my oppo, with a slow-ish RB deck, put me only the play. And that ticked me over to keeping. If I knew I was facing RW aggro, I probably still mull with no action until turn 4. But I kept, drew a nice 2-drop, and never really looked back.
Benalish Dad 