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Kabanaw posted:They prerecorded a second match so they could comment on it later. They didn't realize the lighting was bad until they already recorded 20 minutes. Yeah, an official CFB person explained it in chat after I posted that. I had just tuned in. Also, this poor guy. On the one hand it's  to me because he's basically playing the platonic ideal of schoolyard constructed Magic decks, on the other hand it's  because I have to believe he just completely didn't know what he was getting into by showing up at a GP like this. If you're going to drop $40 (or whatever it is here) registering for a huge Magic tournament, why wouldn't you at least learn what's up and maybe build a budget tier 2 deck like, I don't know, not this.e: apparently Ben Lundquist is being really nice though
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Apr 5, 2014 18:45
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Part 13: Chapter Twelve Polukranos is giant, forty feet long and twenty feet high, with ten heads. I remember this being fifty before? By some unexplained mechanism, the ground liquefies under his claws, then rehardens as he steps away, leaving permanent tracks. Would have thought something this big should have sunk if it's doing that. They send Nikka to Meletis for help and Daxos organises his little band of warriors into a phalanx. Which is loving dumb against the fantasy equivalent of a giant tank who would like nothing better than an inflexible, clumped target, but there you go. Polukranos charges and the men 'panic' and actually do the sensible thing of splitting up and attacking from all sides. Elspeth acts the part of a seasoned warrior here, apparently managing to cordon off her general angst about battle/destruction/death when she's in the middle of a fight, which is nice. She confirms with Daxos that all the heads should be cut off at once (and he explains that things are weaker here than in Nyx, which is why it only has a fifth as many heads.) She cuts off a head which sprouts into two new ones, to her disappointment. She switches tactics to attacking the body, but that's immortal while the heads are going. Enough: she's confirmed that the Theros warriors weren't just unable to kill a hydra other ways and it is an actual issue of the thing's biology. I can see people taking issue with her doing stuff other that what Daxos has explicitly said will work, but I approve of her at least checking that the legends were accurate and it wasn't just incompetence before. Most of Daxos' men having been eaten at this stage, Elspeth does her Soldier token summoning, buffs them, and directs them to pin down the heads. Elspeth almost manages to get all of them in one swipe of Godsend, but the last head of course manages to just jerk away, and now she's facing about thirty heads from the doubling effects plus miscellaneous heads chopped off already. Chomp chomp and everyone except Daxos and Elspeth is dead. Welp. Daxos puts a binding spell on Polukranos to slow him down, and Elspeth has an idea. She part severs a head, which kills it but leaves no room for new heads to grow. A solution! She and Daxos manage to work their way through all the heads before his magic wears off, and she finishes the hydra with a strike to the heart. Victory. And probably a lot of resentment from one of the nicer gods, Nylea, but you gotta do what you gotta do. Daxos declares her worthy of Godsend and Heliod's Champion. With no backing from his god, mind. He says there'll be a place for her at the temple and suggests she stay there, stop whatever wandering took her away all those years ago. Elspeth's pathological need for a stable home hits her like a ton of bricks and she agrees. quote:Griffins wheeled in playful circles above the city. As she watched them dive in the wind currents, she felt like she might fall, and she touched Daxos’s arm to steady herself. He reached out and took her hand. Fin. I'll post with a brief summary of the whole story, and an analysis of what I did/didn't like later.
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Apr 5, 2014 18:50
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JerryLee posted:Yeah, an official CFB person explained it in chat after I posted that. I had just tuned in. Even if you go X-0 you get the sweet Batterskull Promo and usually a playmat so it's not a total loss, although it looks like only VIP's get the playmat at GP Phoenix. You do get CFB sleeves, tokens, pen, and lifepad!
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Apr 5, 2014 18:51
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Kabanaw posted:
Siren of Silent Song! More like great stuff.
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Apr 5, 2014 18:51
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Ben Lundquist is a stand up guy. He's playing how I would play people like this I encounter at FNM: basically try to explain things and be friendly about letting them take things back because you know you're not gonna lose this matchup.
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Apr 5, 2014 18:51
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Hey maybe that guy playing draft uncommons will have someone help him build a decent deck for next time.  It is a bit weird they picked them to be on camera though.
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Apr 5, 2014 18:57
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Korak posted:Hey maybe that guy playing draft uncommons will have someone help him build a decent deck for next time. It was round 1 and Ben Lundquist is a name player. You generally don't see any pro players before round 4 since they tend to have byes. Ben is still kinda coming back so he isn't rolling in byes yet.
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Apr 5, 2014 18:58
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Early round coverage is the best for Standard because they're able to feature things other than Mono Black or Esper Control mirrors.
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Apr 5, 2014 19:14
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Yeah, this match owns. We have RBW purphoros/assemble the legon vs. Vraska ultimate.
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Apr 5, 2014 19:24
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Vraska Ultimate victory is the best victory
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Apr 5, 2014 19:24
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Assassination on camera 
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Apr 5, 2014 19:25
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BXCX posted:Assassination on camera This is a very different post taken out of context.
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Apr 5, 2014 19:25
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vOv posted:This is a very different post taken out of context. This Channel Fireball coverage brought to you by Zapruder Clothing Company.
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Apr 5, 2014 19:33
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Dr. Clockwork posted:So I still have a sealed box of Modern Masters. Should I sell it now before the bubble bursts, or ride it out and hope it continues to gain value? I second What a Judas' post. I was getting frustrated at it stalling at $250 for the longest time and then it went to $350 in like a week. SCG opened a ton for GP Richmond and now it's ~$420. Even if you got in at $250 (which was the standard 'gouging LGS' price) you're likely doubling up by next year. If you're looking to sell I would wait at least until the next spike, which will likely be in the Summer when everyone at PTQs is playing Modern. It's easily got the highest ROI of any booster box in recent memory, and as long as Modern keeps growing I can't see that changing.
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Apr 5, 2014 19:51
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And back over to SCG as GPPHX puts up...an Esper Control mirror for the round 3 feature
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Apr 5, 2014 19:58
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Promoted Pawn posted:I second What a Judas' post. I was getting frustrated at it stalling at $250 for the longest time and then it went to $350 in like a week. SCG opened a ton for GP Richmond and now it's ~$420. Even if you got in at $250 (which was the standard 'gouging LGS' price) you're likely doubling up by next year. If you're looking to sell I would wait at least until the next spike, which will likely be in the Summer when everyone at PTQs is playing Modern. I'd have a hard time not taking a good cash offer for mine in person right now. However, to put the effort into selling it online, they need to climb past $500.
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Apr 5, 2014 20:03
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JerryLee posted:Are you playing BUG superfriends or something? That sounds awesome. Fervid shamans willingly submit to shockers in hopes of glimpsing the fortunes of the future.
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Apr 5, 2014 20:56
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They named a card Tunnel Ignus, guys.
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Apr 5, 2014 22:03
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Death Bot posted:They named a card Tunnel Ignus, guys. Un-set 3, Cunning Linguist. It's a tutor for foreign cards. 
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Apr 5, 2014 22:11
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Serperoth posted:Un-set 3, Cunning Linguist. It's a tutor for foreign cards. Also a legendary equipment for the frazzled editor, the Penis Mightier.
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Apr 5, 2014 22:31
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RoleModel posted:Also a legendary equipment for the frazzled editor, the Penis Mightier. What matters is does it work? Will it really mighty my penis, man? Because I've ordered devices like that before - wasted a pretty penny, I don't mind telling you. And if The Penis Mightier works, I'll order a dozen.
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Apr 5, 2014 22:55
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Korak posted:^^^ How were the other games? Did he sandbag in the other games to push it to a draw or what? IMHO it seems like a nice thing to do to give him the win if y'all both played at a good pace. It was U/W with a single Aetherling as its only wincon. Even if you play that deck fast, its slow. Getting the draw got me some packs at the end of the night. Im not going to concede and take a loss just because he would have won if he hadn't mis-played. In short, gently caress Sphinx's Revelation . All the decks that run it.
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Apr 5, 2014 22:58
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RoleModel posted:Also a legendary equipment for the frazzled editor, the Penis Mightier. Pen Island sounds like a cool Land idea, kinda like Murmuring Bosk.
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Apr 5, 2014 22:59
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JerryLee posted:Yeah, an official CFB person explained it in chat after I posted that. I had just tuned in. Haha, were Huey and LSV the commentators for it? I can imagine Huey's completely annoyed stoneface at having to analyze a kitchen table match; then again he always wears an annoyed stoneface. edit: nevermind, found the recording: http://www.twitch.tv/channelfireball/b/517302311 starts around 45:40 and this is the happiest i've ever been watching magic: the gathering MiddleEastBeast fucked around with this message at 23:31 on Apr 5, 2014 |
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Apr 5, 2014 23:24
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"At some point maybe we will even see a match that doesn't involve Esper Control" "One can only hope" I think even the commentators are sick of calling the same match over and over again.
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Apr 6, 2014 01:14
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Watching this Naya Aggro guy on SCG get blown out twice by overloaded mortars when he's got a ton of power already on the field is hilarious. If you have Fleecemane with five untapped mana and your opinion is tapped out, unless you're going for the kill that turn you probably should monstrous it.
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Apr 6, 2014 01:18
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Korak posted:Watching this Naya Aggro guy on SCG get blown out twice by overloaded mortars when he's got a ton of power already on the field is hilarious. If you have Fleecemane with five untapped mana and your opinion is tapped out, unless you're going for the kill that turn you probably should monstrous it. That Naya aggro guy was trying his best to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory in all of his games. Only games he won was "durr, Boros charm????"
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Apr 6, 2014 01:24
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Unrelated question: how do scrylands work with Blood Moon?
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Apr 6, 2014 01:35
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Maha posted:Unrelated question: how do scrylands work with Blood Moon? Worst of both worlds I think, comes in tapped, and doesn't scry.
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Apr 6, 2014 01:49
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I believe they come into play tapped Edit: I am wrong. Comes into play tapped, but you don't get the scry. oryx fucked around with this message at 02:00 on Apr 6, 2014 |
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Apr 6, 2014 01:52
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Assuming the people who've tried to follow my summaries are kind of interested but don't want to go actually reading Magic novels, here's the ten sentence synopsis of the synopsis for the barely interested and wholly impatient: Gods on Theros fight a lot. Elspeth, just escaped from her Phyrexianised plane, picks up a special sword used by one of them and lost in a battle, then runs away again because the gods are really loving frightening to a six year old kid whose life until now has been lived in a Phyrexian cage. Ten years later, she returns to Theros. Chief god Heliod recruits her and does funky poo poo to her sword which is now a spear with a big blade and called Godsend. The gods start fighting again over old and new wrongs, partly inspired by this sword and Elspeth's arrival. Xenagos is a dick and very smug about it. He does practically nothing of actual relevance to the story though. Kruphix locks up all the gods because they won't loving stop fighting and will probably kill lots of mortals if they keep it up. This means Elspeth has to fight the giant hydra Polukranos more or less alone. She does and wins, what the gently caress did you think was going to happen? List of the chapter by chapter summaries: Prologue Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 (Chapter 9 extracts) Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 And the final is this book worth it? now that the reading itself is done: The Good Helland did some decent work with writing gods. The idea of their continual, careless shapeshifting into all kind of vast and small phenomena was a sound concept and was pulled off well. There was more potential, but it was still fundamentally strong. Their battles genuinely felt like divine fights too. Some of the specific gods were also executed properly. Nylea felt nicely Green, was likeable, really badass, and brought a new perspective to the story. Her sympathy for Polukranos made her a distinct personality in a believable way. Purphoros' condition was probably too closely based in real life Alzheimer's but it did its job of making him a sympathetic/tragic figure. Or I'm kind of projecting my experience with suffers of it too closely and it's getting more pings from me than it necessarily should, I'll cop to that being probable. I liked the exploration of Theros oracles as kind of focusing lenses for the gods, letting them see at a human scale, and I liked the idea that they had an innate power which was just being used by the gods (and that this wasn't well known even among the non oracle priests.) The  Elspeth was in character from her previous experiences, but didn't develop or even show any new sides to her. She's still the same person at the end of the story as she was at the beginning. If someone's a fan, this is a book that involves her but doesn't do anything with her. Similarly, there's very little new and exciting if you liked the plane. New details on the oracles aside, this overlays a plot and gives very little else to its setting that flavour wonks haven't already seen in mothership articles and the cards. The Kamigawa novels, for instance, seemed to expand and explore their world far better than this did, even with the vignettes sniping cool bits away from them. The other humans made little impression on me. I had the best sense of Nikka's character, but only because her base personality was a very familiar cliché. The rest often had interesting little aspects but not enough time to show them off. Xiro's story with Iroas could have been interesting; Sarpedon's theological troubles with planeswalkers looked great; and Daxos felt like he had a lot of potential but we only had about about a chapter and half with him. It's probably much more a fault of Wizards' scheduling than Helland's problem, but when you're judging the book itself, you still see a lot of wasted potential. The Bad The sentence "you don't need to buy this book" encapsulates a lot of my criticism succinctly. I've summarised it for you and there's nothing really in it beyond the plot, nothing to make it more than the sum of its parts, nothing that makes it an actual pleasure to read. That's one way to really make me dislike a book: if you can get the same experience in a hundredth of the time by reading a synopsis or a Wikipedia article. It's a lovely way to write, or do anything for that matter. The prose was, as I noted at the start, stilted. It mostly tended towards the abrupt, but sometimes decided to string all its little pieces together into one overrunning sentence which then stuttered and stumbled at all the highly visible joins. It's not unreadable, but it's distinctly not good. Heliod's characterisation was either appalling or was an attempt at writing an inconsistent personality which failed terribly because neither the characters or the narrative ever pointed out that he's got really severe bipolar disorder. You're just tossed from one emotion to the other without any warning or anyone seeming to notice. He feels like he has absolutely no grounding, no stability and is therefore very unWhite - it's this rather than any unpleasantness of his part which makes me call him out as being in the wrong colour. Along similar lines, Xenagos was a disappointment. With a couple of exceptions noted above, I didn't think the gods were that well done, but you could at least see that it wasn't a black and white issue: both sides had proper grievances against the other. This makes it particularly disappointing when a situation absolutely ripe for a sympathetic villain whose point you could see instead turned into Xenagos just being a poo poo. He's not likeable, he's not justified, he's just a horrible smug dick and I was cheering all the way while Nylea beat the poo poo out of him. The fact that my summary can say he did basically nothing of plot relevance is also a strike against. He nudged Polukranos toward Meletis and that's like it. Petros' kidnapping might have an impact later and there are brief mentions of his ascension rituals for the next book, but he has no genuine impact here, no justification for appearing. The only shame about cutting him to make room for other characters would be that Nylea would lose some great scenes. The mess with Nikka demands a whole hell of a lot of explanation as to what the gently caress happened, and we didn't get it. Some really weird realism issues: pursuers always appearing at exactly the proper distance for a dramatic escape; Daxos being given an inviolable command by his god that overrides his free will but taking a day to get a couple of miles from his city; the three major human poleis of Theros all being within two days' wagonride of each other; Elspeth handling a spear as well as her sword because bigger = an upgrade with no need to develop new skills. Like, I don't demand that you work out the economy of your entire world or whatever, that's loving dumb, but a basic sense that this is not how poo poo really works should have been pinging in lots of places. In the end, nay. Don't read it. If you care about the storyline, read my summary. If you don't like my summary, fair enough, but find someone else's instead. I hate saying this, because I'd love Wizards to eventually put out good Magic novels and you can tell that this stuff is always on the verge of being outright ejected because it doesn't get enough profit. Despite that I still can't urge anyone to buy this book, even as a guilty pleasure read, because it just isn't good. It's not soulwrenchingly poo poo, but it is not good. 2/5 stars, balancing a few good ideas and some basic work at keeping true to the existing character's personality against a lot of bad new stuff and prose which does dodge being unreadable, but not by much.
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Apr 6, 2014 01:54
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oryx posted:I believe they come into play tapped and you get to scry. However, they are ultimately only mountains after that. I think it comes in tapped, since that's part of how it's played, before it's a permanent, but the scry is a trigger that goes off after. Since it's a mountain all the time it's in play, I don't think that goes off.
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Apr 6, 2014 02:00
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BizarroAzrael posted:I think it comes in tapped, since that's part of how it's played, before it's a permanent, but the scry is a trigger that goes off after. Since it's a mountain all the time it's in play, I don't think that goes off. You're totally right. When the scry would trigger, it is already a mountain.
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Apr 6, 2014 02:04
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AgentSythe posted:That Naya aggro guy was trying his best to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory in all of his games. Only games he won was "durr, Boros charm????"
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Apr 6, 2014 02:06
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Hahah. Mono-Green doin' poo poo. Mending Touch for the win.
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Apr 6, 2014 02:12
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AlternateNu posted:Hahah. Mono-Green doin' poo poo. Mending Touch for the win.  I've tested that mono green aggro deck out and it has some fun explosive draws pretty regularly. I'm not surprised it is doing well in an esper heavy meta.Sullivan just 5 CMC Jace ult'd on cam.
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Apr 6, 2014 02:22
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Korak posted:
Mono-G STILL doin' poo poo. I love this standard! There is so much random out there.
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Apr 6, 2014 03:16
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holy poo poo lol. mono G vs mono B, turn two tusker into turn 3 burning tree burning tree slaughterhorn against nothing but a 1/1 packrat. Its like we traveled back in time to naya blitz Pack rat is bad people, stop playing it! vvv its a two drop 
A big flaming stink fucked around with this message at 04:56 on Apr 6, 2014 |
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Apr 6, 2014 04:45
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IS THAT THE 3/1 VIGILANCE 3 DROP? What IS this deck?! 
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Apr 6, 2014 04:51
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boo mull to
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Apr 6, 2014 05:06
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