Anime Figures-Too Sexy for American Culture? Part 2 February 4, 2008
Posted by 54071 in : Anime Figures , add a commentFor those of you who might have missed the first part of this post, you can read it here…
To illustrate my point further as to the cultural differences between Japan and the US, let’s take a look at a post called ” Cutie Doll ” from Danny Choo.com…and let me tell you up front this is not a small pvc figure okay….
If you click the above link to the post on Danny’s blog, you will see several pictures of Cutie Doll, which is called a Companion doll, and several of it’s features which includes the ability to change the dolls face ” when you get bored of it “, make the doll’s breasts ” Larger ” by inserting condoms filled with water into some sort of device that will enhance said doll’s bust size, and as far the rest of the doll goes, she is ” Anatomically Correct ” if you get my meaning.
But the real difference here with this ” Doll ” is the fact that the face actually looks cute, in comparison to the type of blowup companion if you will, that we have here in the US, and these dolls have a Nano Skin which has a realistic texture to it, I guess thus enhancing the real experience for said user.
I told you we weren’t talking about a small scale pvc figure here didn’t I?
Now, for my US sensibilities, this is a bit much to take, but I guess to each his or her own.
Okay, I know that this was a bit off of the beaten path, and wasn’t really aimed at the original target of Sexy Anime Figures, but it does show another bit of difference ( if not weirdness ) in culture between our two countries, and it does kind of illustrate the difference of how we perceive what is taboo and what is not, I think.
Drafting Morningtide or My Winless Saturday Night
Posted by 54071 in : TCG & CCG Card Games , add a commentAs always when a new block of Magic cards comes out, our little gang of players get together to draft, and so last night we did indeed draft the last set of the Lorwyn block called Morningtide.
Morningtide is a 150 card set, which breaks down as follows..
White- 28 cards
Blue- 28 cards
Black- 28 cards
Red- 28
Green- 28
No Multi-color
Creatures- 93
Artifacts- 6
Enchantments- 8
Lands- 4
Instants- 19
Sorceries- 20
Tribal- 18
Now, notice the last category, Tribal…
Tribal was something that was to make this block of cards more interesting and create a better synergy between cards relating to one another and actually working better together.
And so I decided to try this out and I went with two tribes, with the thought that each tribe would work in and of themselves, each tribe having their own synergy and with some pretty tough power cards.
There were only a few problems with my plan…
a) The first problem was I had chosen to play with less than a 50 card deck, and after losing the first round, I went to 60 cards adding additional land to the deck.
b) I actually wound up playing three colors…this wasn’t the worst thing…but it didn’t help the deck in the end, actually requiring me to add the extra land cards to the deck.
c) The worst offense for me was the Mana Curve of the deck, which happened to be no less than a 4 drop, which in the environment that I play in, which is usually pretty quick decks ( usually no less than a two drop ) pretty much was a recipe for disaster.
Some key cards I went for…
Green
Reins of the Vinesteed- Enchantment Aura
The mechanic of the card is that you would be able to attach it to another creature of the same creature type when it went into the graveyard.
Leaf -Crowned Elder- Creature- Treefolk Shaman
Kinship is the cards mechanic, letting you in the beginning of your upkeep look at the top card of your library, and if the card happens to be another card that shares the same creature type, you can play it for free.
Guardian of Cloverdell- Creature- Treefolk Shaman
When the card comes into play, it generates 3 1/1 white Kithkin Soldier tokens. It also has ” 1 Forest, sac a Kithkin and gain 1 life. gaining life is always a good thing.
Red
Roar of the Crowd- Sorcery
This card allows you to do damage against a creature or a player, based on the amount of creatures of a particular type, you do that much damage. This is your basic direct damage card.
Hostile Realm- Enchantment-Aura
You enchant your own land, and than when you tap that land, you select a target creature, and that creature cannot block for that turn. Great card to give yourself some easy damage points to your opponent.
Boldwyr Intimidator- Creature- Giant Warrior
This is a great card, but it will come out late in your game, unless you have a way to get it out early.
The card reads Cowards cannot block Warriors, and it has two abilities…
a)1 Red- target creature becomes a coward till end of turn
b)1 Red 2 Colorless- target creature becomes a warrior till end of turn
Spitebellows- Creature- Elemental
When Spitebellows leaves play, it deals 6 damage to target creature.
Another great creature, with 6 power for 6 mana, or to do the straight damage, you can play it for it’s evoke cost of 3 mana ( two red and a colorless )
Again, in the end for me, I needed to maybe play two out of the three colors I had chosen ( the other color being white, and I won’t bother listing those cards here ) and have a better mana curve for the deck.
And I will end this post by saying that there will not be another Magic block release till May, with a pre-release in April.