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Daily Blog Challenge: January 25th
Today’s Theme: Favorite Normal Pokemon
I never really think much of normal pokemons. After all, theyre just that. However, I found some that seem to be anything but normal.
So whose my favorite: Porygon
Honestly, any of the Porygons have always fascinated me. In the 90’s they seemed so cool. They were based on computers and coding. He had the signatures move conversion 1 and 2 and Sharpen. Which in all honesty are cooler in theory than practice, but it’s still cool. I think part of the mystery is that I’ve never fully studied them. This helps keep them kind of in the dark. It’s my imagination doing the telling. It’s like with Unown or a handful of legends. I never look beyond what is given, so there’s still a lot I do not know about them. That’s cool to me.
So whose you’re favorite?
Thanks for taking the time to read this!
Check back tomorrow for more daily blog!
Top Five Pokeballs that should exist!
It’s been tooooooo loooong since we’ve done a Top Five, so here’s an easy one to try and get us in the swing of things!
Remember the good old days of just having 4(5 if you count safari) different types of Pokeballs? Yeah, I’ve never said that either. One of favorite aspects of Johto were new pokeballs. Albeit, I grew up and realized there really isn’t a point to buy anything other than ultra balls once you can afford them. That does not mean we cannot have some fun with wacky pokeball ideas. Right? Plus, I always buy out there balls to try and capture the legendary pokemons in funny balls.
So here we go.
#5-The Random Ball- Okay. You’re gonna have to hear me out here. It wouldn’t be a DaHubbz countdown if we didn’t have a wacky and and crazy entry on this top five. You know how early in the game you get a bunch of pokemons no one cares for? Well the Random Ball will take that pokemon you do not care for and turn them into a random pokemon. I love this idea because it adds a curve ball to the every day mundane task of dealing with those annoying early game pokemons. It would throw off the balance of the game, so I suppose you can make it only available after you beat the Elite For or maybe make it the semi-random ball.
#4- The Nurture Ball- So, the badges let you do a lot of cool stuff outside of battle. Get into the Elite Four, use HMs, and oh, use traded pokemon. This use to be such a hassle back when I was still starting out. Blastoise would be falling asleep or recharging for who knows why. This Nurture Ball would make that a little less demanding. If badge two lets Lv 30 obey, than if a Lv 30 Pokemon is caught with a Nurture Ball and traded to someone, that Pokemon would obey even if the second owner did not have the second badge.
#3- Luck Ball- I think this one is pretty cool. Its a pokeball that has a chance to raise one random stat. If these pokeballs are accessible early on this could be a huge boost to get by the first couple parts of the game. It’d be pretty awesome. Don’t think there is any other thing needed to say about it. Yeap.
#2- The Scatter Ball- You know how they’ve made horde encounters a thing? Well, if you ever tried to catch a pokemon while the entire horde is still alive, you cannot “aim” somehow. I have two ideas for this one. Either A). It bust into multiple balls and attempts to catch all of them. or B). You could call it The Scope Ball or something where it singles out a single Pokemon in a horde. I think this ball would be relevant since the horde seems to be sticking around.
#1- The Lead Ball- Maybe not the best name for it but I didn’t want to name it the sticky ball or the trap ball. I am not sure how this ball would function completely yet. Some ideas for it that I do have are A). As the namesake, it makes the pokemon like lead and unable to flee. This would prevent abra from teleporting or the legendaries from fleeing. Chasing the dogs or the birds or the lake spirits or whatever, were always some of the most dreaded parts of my experience and this would just be an option to keep them stationary. B). Maybe it could have a better catch rate against pokemon that flee.
So there ya have it. That’s my top five. Feel free to add your own in the comments!
Until next time, check out other Top Fives Here
Or more Pokemon Here
Magic Monday: A Beginner’s Guide to Magic- Black
In honor of the Star Wars movie, we join the dark side.
You know the stories they tell you about witchcraft and voodoo and necromancy? Well that were here to do! Black wizards use tricks and savage tactics to manipulate aspects of the game. Often, they do not care about their creatures and gain perks when they die. Black is very twisted, but it is very satisfying.
Here’s a mono Black deck I threw together for today:
Lands 23
23x Swamp
Monsters 29
4x Bloodsoaked Champion
4x Hangarback Walker
4x Zulaport Cutthroat
4x Qarsi Sadist
4x Carrier Thrall
4x Nantuko Husk
2x Drana, Liberator of Malakir
2x Smothering Abomination
1x Gurmag Angler
Spells 8
1x Bone Splinters
3x Alter’s Reap
2x Ruinous Path
1x Murderous Cut
1x Duress
1x Transgress The Mind
Creatures die! It’s part of the game, after all. Our deck just takes advantage of this. This deck is stylized in the form and aristocrats deck that runs cards that want to die. Were mono black and not fancy. So we do not run Rally The Ancestors. You want to be sac’n Bloodsoaked Champion because he can revive himself. Hangarback leaves tokens behind, which, in return, can sac’d themselves. Do this while Zulaport is on the field and you start to hurt your opponent. Sac’n as a result of Nantuko Husk can beef him up and just kill your opponent right there. Drana, Smothering, Gurmag are here to finish the deal. The spells are mix of goodies from removal to draw spells. Duress is good for control and Transgress picks stuff out that is bigger than us.
Black is for players who- want evil creatures and diabolical spells. If you have ever dreamed of playing the bad guy black is for you. You have access to some of the best straight removal, most of your creatures have abilities
Pros- Black cards give you some amount of say in what sticks around(In the form of removal). Like green, the little guys shine here. Though green pumps its creatures, black normally does not mind if it’s creatures die. You may not always have board presence because you are sac’n your creatures, but with all your removal they should have trouble establishing a board on you as well.
Cons- As mentioned, your creatures are small. Drana is a flyer which helps, but she’s still a 2/3 for 3. Gurmag is a welcomed addition because you can delve all your sac’d guys to get him out for 1 or 2. Remember, black with go faster, green will get bigger, and blue will try to deny you, but you are the most wicked one of them all!
Next week we finish the colors up with white!
Until then check out more Magic Monday here!
Scream Queens: Closing Thoughts!
Scream Queens is over and season two is not been confirmed, so lets have a closing thought… for now!
If you can recall all the way back to my first review of this show(Scream Queens First Review), it did not receive favorable words. So has my mind changed? Yes! Well, kind of.
Lets start with spoiler warnings. YES. THERE WILL BE SPOILERS. So, if you have not seen the finale, go watch than come back.
Okay, so we will begin with the Red Devils. Were they good villains? By that, I mean were they memorable? Iconic? Well thought out? Memorable, probably not. Well thought out, yes, surprisingly. I hated on this show for not staying on topic and just jumping all over the place. When, in the end, everything was tied together, I was actually quite surprised. If you remember, I said of the remaining characters alive, Chanel #6 seemed the most likely due to her being the most like Boone. Similar looks, a characteristic that stood out from their brothers and sisters, and seemed to be playing a role. When it was revealed to be her, it came to no surprise. I will say I am bummed it was not Chanel #4. Now, I am college student and do not think highly of fraternities or sororities. I am in no way trying to insult or offend anybody in a fraternity or sorority. I had plenty of friends in my classes and on my hall who were in them and I was never entertained by their stories. This show not only takes those same stories I heard and common stereotypes and brings them to life. So, this show is particularly funny to me. However, this is a satire so obviously they take those stereotypes to the extreme. The funny part to me is by the time it is coming to it’s end, most of the characters at some point seemed to think the Red Devil was doing the world a favor. This was an interesting aspect to me that most of the characters almost seemed to sympathize with them. From Grace to Dean Munch, they all at some point or another said “maybe the Red Devil killer is right”. It is particularly referring to how hazing use to run rampart in the college system resulting in shattered self esteem and sometimes death and suicide. Towards the end the Red Devil is almost painted as a Robin Hood-esque character who was toppling an empire. I think this perspective added some depth to the otherwise boring and formulated mindless murders this show was initially imitating from slashers that came before. I am not a fan of the horror genre. I always felt a well thought out villain you could sympathize with was missing from the genre. Now, albeit, a woman giving birth in a tub at a sorority house while her sisters let her bleed out, is a little out there, but, how the public eye started viewing the sorority house as the more wicked evil is what this show really did right. Murder, of course, is never the answer. At times, though, the show made you believe the the sisters were the real evil here. My big complaint is that the Dickie Dollar Scholars were not bad people, just mindless. I do not exactly see why they were being targeted when you compare them to the Chanels.
The Chanels are a different breed of crazy. They stayed crazy through and through. While I never really liked any of their characters, the asylum scene was one of my favorite scenes in the whole show. It showed maybe what the Red Devil was doing had some legs to it. Chanel #3 was able to accept herself, Chanel #5 mellowed out(albeit, with the help of medicine) and Chanel did not have to try to be superior, though I think weve learned she will always be a tyrant at heart. While this scene is one of my favorites, the ending also makes no sense, but we will get to that later. I do not feel like there is much to say about them more than that. Every time they had a chance to change or apologize for the things they done, they threw them away without a second thought.
Pete and Grace’s relationship and dynamic might have been my favorite aspect of the show. At times it did seem like they were just snooping around and getting nothing done, but the opening scene of the finale was powerful and uncomfortable. I love this scene because any scene that lets me quote one of my favorite movies is a good scene. “You either die the hero, or you live long enough to see yourself turn into the villain”- Harvey Dent. Poor, poor Pete. Pete spun it like it was his and Grace’s mission and he was doing to keep Grace safe, but I think Pete was always kind of crazy. I think he would’ve been all on board if they approached him day 1. It was clear he always wanted revenge on Chanel but I was quite oblivious to what extent he would take it too. I have not double checked the timeline, but if I am not mistaken, he was content with Dean Munch taking the fall and letting the twins continue their rampage. That does not seem very boy scout like, Pete. The sad part in all of this is Grace. Grace was a genuine saint for most of the series. It was so hypocritical and uncomfortable to watch her berate Pete for working with the Red Devil after A. see tried to kill Dean Munch and B. Said maybe the Red Devil was doing the right thing. It probably was for the best things did not work out. Her and Zayday succeeded in transforming Kappa, which was nice to see.
In the early review, I said Dean Munch was one of the only interesting and in-depth characters. This is still slightly true. The weird part is how her chapter ended. She was left alive. She murdered her husband, got a ghost writer to write her book, and covered up the death of a student on campus. Call me crazy, but she should have been the first character to go.
I know I just said the final scene was one of my favorite scenes of the series, but it was also one of the dumbest. I understand this show is ripping on tropes of the genre, but it gets to a point where it does not have to rip off of them. Which trope am I referring to? The Red Devil appearing at the end. What is the point? Who is this Red Devil? What do we know?
We know Boone and Pete are dead. They were the muscle. We know Hester said she was never going to kill again. So who was in the asylum? Boone did tell Pete there were more killers, so maybe this killer is from another school? The staff has mentioned if a season two gets picked up it will be a summer camp theme. So how does this tie into the asylum finale? This ending seemed forced and made no sense based what we know at this point in time. I expected the Chanel’s to be plotting their revenge on Hester Gracie and Zayday. Clearly, this is a really simple plot compared to this season’s plot so I doubt it is likely. I do like the idea of summer camp because it gives the writers even more tropes to utterly ruin.
The other thing I did not like is the scene where Hester tells how the Chanels are “guilty”. Everything was so thought out up to this point. The plan was twenty years in the making. Every move was calculated and precise. Every motive was solid and every action meaningful. But this scene just seemed rushed, forced, and intentionally jumbled up and messy. I was following it when she was blaming Chanel #5, but after that it just seemed to drag on without accomplishing much. It would’ve been better if along the way they hinted about Chanel #3 having split personalities or anything like that. With Chanel #5 parents, I thought Gigi set this up 20 years ago and I was actually thinking “dang, that is cold”, but everything was something Hester threw together last minute to help things conveniently go off without a hitch.
Best Episode- Probably Episode 9 Ghost Stories.
Worst Episode- I would not necessarily say to skip any but Episode 7 Before of Young Girls seems borderline filler.
Favorite Character- Chad and Dean Munch are great!
Best line- This show is really quotable. If I were to watch it all over again I probably could find 10 or 20 best lines, but the one freshest on my mind is “You go, Cyclops”- Denise, Episode 13 The Finale. It is my favorite because it sums up the humor of the dialogue and the ignorance of the characters to the magnitude of whats going on around them
Okay here are the positives:
-Dialogue is priceless
-Half the deaths are pretty cool
-The interesting characters are really interesting
-The show overcomes its mind numbing slow start
Here are the cons-
-Characters are super shallow
-The other half of the deaths make you question the budget.
-The dull character are really dull.
-The show crashes under the weight of it’s momentum.
Verdict: My feelings towards the finale are an echoing sentiment of my feelings towards the show as a whole. The last four episodes were building up to such a high. I was fully prepared to apologize for doubting this and give it an 8. However, half of the 2 hour finale felted, rushed, insincere and just an all around waste of time. Having the Red Devil Killer come back was the worst way to end this and had no logical grounds to even occur. The ending was unrewarding and even insulting to the loyal fans who sat by this show despite it’s attempts to see how little it could try. Hester is a walking embodiment of this show. The show makes you think it was all thought out and planned, but it all just felt like they tried so hard on episodes 9-12 that when it got to the finale there was just no gas in the tank to finish. Chad and Zayday were some of the best characters and they were used sparingly towards the end. Do not get me wrong. I do not regret watching. It was quite enjoyable at times. I’d even go as far as to say I am interested in a season 2. All I am saying is you have to reward your audience for sticking to the end of your show, and this series did not.
Score: 5.5 out of 10. It definitely improved since the beginning but it’s legs gave out to early. It does make for a good binge watch.
Magic Monday
Today were going Green!
For the Outdoorsmen in us all.
Green decks are defined by their creatures. Their little creatures work in conjunction in the early game to help your board presence get massive and out of hand in the late game. Green lets you summon unfair creatures to just absolutely demolish your opponents!
Here is a mono-green landfall deck I threw together
Lands 24
20x Forest
4x Evolving Wilds
Creatures 22
4x Jaddi Offshoot
4x Scythe Leopard
4x Snapping Gnarlid
3x Nissa Vastwood
4x Undergrowth Champion
2x Territorial Baloth
1x Oran-Reef Hyrda
Spells 14
4x Nissa’s Pilgrimage
4x Explosive Vegetation
2x Plummet
1x Reclaiming Vine
3x Swell To Growth
Landfall is mechanic in which creatures get some buff by having a land enter the field. Every creature in this deck has landfall except Nissa. When Nissa enters, however, she can search for a land. We have 8 spells plus 3 Nissas that go search for basic lands, which 20 of the land cards are basics. The Evolving Wilds are there so we can have two land triggers on the same turn! You have some money, ditch the evolving wilds and go buy some legit fetchlands. Plummets kill things with flying, which Green wizards hate. Reclaiming vines kills Silkwrap and other enchantment based removal. Swell to Growth beefs up our creatures as well as lets us play another land(which will in return beef them up more). This can just result in killing your opponents sometimes.
Green is for players who- want to be the biggest, baddest dude out there. If you survive the early game, you will dominate the late game. Green loves to commit to the board and swarm the opponent.
Cons- Remember swarming the board leaves you open to be hit by board wipe. You will be slower than red, and have no say so in permission like blue, but you be bigger them!
Next week we go to the dark side with black!
Until than check out more Magic Monday
Remember you can find this and other decks on my tappedout account.
Magic Monday: A Beginner’s Guide to Magic- Red
The first color we will be tackling is red. What does it mean to be a red wizard? and what does a deck look like for a red Wizard? We will be going over all that in todays post(All link lead to Amazon where you can view the cards and purchase them if you like them)
Red decks are super aggressive and would love to win before their opponents even establish a board presence. How to do they accomplish this? Red decks normally have two approaches. Play super fast creatures like Goblin Guide or Monastery Swiftspear. These cards have huge upside such as Haste, lets your creatures avoid summoning sickness, and prowess, lets you beef up your cards by playing spells(Which red loves to do). You can swing on turn one and the cards are so low on the curve you flood the field early and overwhelm your opponents.
The other approach is through burn. Burn is when you play a spell that does direct damage to your opponent such as Lightning Bolt or Wild Slash. This puts the opponent on a clock and makes them play around your spells. They have to constantly worry about how much burn is actually in your hands.
This is the standard Red Deck. It is also know as Atarka Red.
Standard Red Aggro(Atarka Red)- Antonio Castellani pulled from MTGTop8
Lands 21:
4 Bloodstained Mire
2 Cinder Glade
1 Forest
8 Mountain
2 Windswept Heath
4 Wooded Foothills
Creatures 14:
4 Abbot Of Keral Keep
2 Lightning Berserker
4 Monastery Swiftspear
4 Zurgo Bellstriker
Spells 25:
4x Atarka’s Command
3x Become Immense
4x Dragon Fodder
2x Fiery Impulse
2x Hordeling Outburst
3x Temur Battle Rage
4x Titan’s Strength
3x Wild Slash
Pros- This deck uses small creatures to storm the field and then uses pump spells to beef up their creatures. The deck uses combat tricks to win the game out of nowhere. If your opponent does not declare blockers, Temur Battle Rage can win the game instantly.
Cons- Much like the problems with most red decks, you can run out of gas with your burn spells or your opponent can just play larger creatures than you.
Red is for player who- If you want to play super aggressive and never let your opponent have a chance in the fight, Red is the way to go. Burn, aggressive creatures, and just all-around destruction make red super fun to play but a nightmare to play against.
Next Week we look at the color Blue!
Until than Check out more Magic Monday!
Magic Monday: A Beginner’s Guide- Colors
Today were launching a new series within Magic Monday. A nice little beginners guide to the five colors: Red, Blue, Green, Black, White.
We will discuss what each colors goal is, signature cards, why to play them/not to play them, and what a standard deck would look like.
Note: This is not an overly in-depth look at each five colors. If you already have a grasp on the five colors. This guide will not be of much use to you. This guide will serve to help new comers be able to jump into the game by learning the colors. If you know something and want to contribute to each color more, feel free to add suggestions and such in the comments of the respective colors!
Today we will start with Red. Check back at 8pm Eastern for that post!
Manga Monday! A Silent Voice
Remember how I said Manga Monday would be Neon Genesis? Yeah, slight change of plans. I read A Silent Voice Vol 1 today and decided that is what we will talk about today.
A Silent Voice was written by Yoshitoki Oima and published by Kodansha. It started as a One-Shot back 2011, and has since been serialized. The series ran from 2013 to 2014 collecting seven volumes.
Spoilers: There will be slight Vol 1 spoilers. I do not know how the rest of the series pans out, so I dont know if this spoilers will “give it all away”, but they shouldnt.
Plot: Shoya Ishida is your typical preteen: dumb, reckless, and just all around clueless. He calls himself a daredevil and does stunts with reckless abandon all in the name of winning his war with Boredom. His best buddies grow up and tire of his behavior (they are now in middle school for crying out loud!) Finding himself slowly but surely losing his war, he must think of new ways to defeat his foe without his friends. Enter new girl. Shoko Nshimiya. A deaf transfer student. Shoya gets the idea that he must make her life miserable, and so he does. The rest of the manga plays out as Shoya tries desperately to convey to a deaf girl she is not liked. I want spoil if he is successful.
Characters: This manga has a lot of characters getting introduced quite early in the beginning chapters, but were focusing on two. Shoya and Shoko.
Shoya: As mentioned, his character is relentlessly mean and absent hearted and metaphorically blind. He can be funny and entertaining at times, but at most he is super stubborn and stuck in his hateful ways despite his teacher and parent’s endless attempts to get him to quit. He is also extremely unaware to the situation and what is truly going on at the school and classroom around him.
Shoko: The infinitely cooler one. She is deaf and uses a notebook to communicate to her classmates. She eagerly tries to make friends in spite of Shoya trying to convince everyone she is borderline the devil. One of the ironic moments of her campaign is an exchange between her and her mom and their hair dresser(Shoya’s mom) where Shoko adamantly denies her mom’s wishes to cut her hair like a boy. Her mom believes that will help her stop getting bullied? Anyway, Shoya’s mom refuses to cut because Shoko doesn’t want it. cut Shoko’s mom says “I do not need your opinion or Shoto’s”. This scene is powerful to me, because it shows, in a way, Shoko s getting bullied by her mom. Her mom makes her voice even more mute than it was. The image is super powerful to me. I really respect Shoko’s character because she is tenacious through and through. I cant help but think that her decision at the end of the manga was really her moms idea.
The World: Not much is made about the world. There is no treasure at the end of the sea, or no dragon balls hiding in the corners of the world. Most of the manga takes place at school or at his house. The rest of the world seems to not exist outside of Shoya and Shoko’s interactions.
Recap:
Action: Barely any.
Romance: I feel like a relationship could be blooming here. It is hard to tell based off the ending of this volume though.
Plot: Shoya is all over the place, but the plot is easy enough to follow.
Characters: Pretty meaty characters for an opening volume. You love and you hate em.
The World: Could be fleshed out more, but I am not entirely sure what that would add to the manga as a whole
Humor: Solid, when used.
Verdict: Good read. It switches scene rapidly, keep that in mind. Altogether, great read if you can sit through poor little Shoto getting bullied for hundreds of pages.
Score: 7 out 10. Mostly because it seems like it has a hard time staying focused. Maybe it’s the authors intent because Shoya is all over the place. Otherwise, it’s a wonderful opening act.
Final Note (There will be spoilers in this part!)
The scene where Shoya arrives at school to learn his classmates had been writing on this desk all a long was a huge scene and maybe one of my favorites in any manga. I teared up a bit, because it makes you reflect on how mean Shoya was, but how Shoto defended him til the very end. A+ to this scene
Check the manga out yourself by purchasing it here
Check out other Manga Monday’s Here
Manga Monday will be back next week!
This is first in a small little series of updates with some pretty big news coming the closer we get to my birthday(November 23rd) and the new years! I picked up Neon Genesis Evangelion and will read it throughout this week and be ready to talk about it Monday. Yes, MANGA MONDAY(This link and the rest just lead you to their respective catergories on my blog) IS BACK
I got another test tomorrow(They just keep coming). I’ll also try to work on some more Magic Monday so we can get that going again. Still no word on when I might testify, but I might have news regarding a new job, which hopefully means we can get reviews up more often! I am still trying to get caught up on fall animes(Though I have no idea on what I want to even watch this season so suggestions would be great!). I will also try to get some more top 5’s going.
Tomorrow I will give a shout out to all the awarenesses for the month of November
I am slowly but surely getting back into the swing of things. Things keep coming up that keep derailing my momentum.
I am going to try to use twitter more so go follow me Here for more updates! I got a lot of fun stuff I want to do on there, but I need more followers to make it really fun. Help make it happen!
Check Back Tomorrow for a new post!
October Update
Hey guys.
Hoping to get back to posting regularly starting November. Ive been preparing for some things Ive got going on this week. For one, I have test this week Secondly, I’ve been subpoenaed to court(that could be anytime between Monday through Friday. P.S. I am witness, I am not the one on trial.). And I’m still trying to get job interviews as well.
Due to that last note, I don’t currently have money of my own, so I have not been able to purchase mangas or anything of that nature.
I did get Yoshi’s Woolly World though. The first week of November I am hoping to showcase it. I am also planning on highlighting some of the new animes. And of course, We’ll give a shout out to all the awareness’s for November.
So that’s upcoming at the start of next month! Hope everyone is having a great weekend!
Da_Hubbz 
