Hey,

It seems like no matter what day, it’s not a good day to play Magic in person. The local game shop hosts events Fridays and Sundays. Yet Friday’s are difficult because I am just coming out of a 10-hour workday. Sundays are difficult because it’s my special day to relax, and the entry fee is twice as much ($30).

Ended up not attending today’s event and just opted to pick up some Magic cards/accessories.

So far played my white deck online and haven’t won a single game. I have yet to play my black deck though. Probably will start constructing a blue deck over the next few weeks.

As far as other tabletop games? Not sure yet. Considering playing Arkham Horrors: The Card Game or Lord of the Rings: The Card Game. Just not sure what I’m in the mood for, Lovecraftian Horror or Fantasy? I picked up some official gamemats for these two games so it’ll add a bit to the flavor (as opposed to playing on a MTG playmat.

Gone back to playing some iOS games. I’m currently playing Azur Lane, Girls Frontline, and BanG Dream! I’m watching the BanG Dream anime but I’m a bit disappointed there’s no mention of the other bands. I’m also watching a bit of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure. I haven’t picked up on any of this summer’s anime just yet though. I might just watch Dr Stone or something good.

No plans as far as console/PC gaming for the week. I’m playing a little bit of Fire Emblem Three Houses, and I’m considering getting back into Monster Hunter World or maybe even God Eater 3.

Nothing much else this week. I’ll most likely just be chilling on the couch and on my desk for the next few days until I get back to work on Wednesday.

Well, I requested today off a month ago. Came to work today and was told…”Why are you here?” Whoops! I came back home and now enjoying the day off.

Had a hard time sleeping last night. Woke up at 12:30AM thinking about setting up Gloomhaven for some reason. Going to refrain from that board game for now as I’m trying to limit my focus to just a few areas, primarily Magic: The Gathering.

Now I’m not quite skilled yet, I play a few games online each night, primarily with prebuilt decks to get a hold of what my strengths and weaknesses are, what strategies I work best at, what colors I’m good at…that sorta thing.

I did create a real paper prebuilt white deck and have been tweaking it the past few days. I also replicated the deck in MTG: Arena to see how well it plays and what I can do to refine it. I find it really depends on the opponent I encounter. Some are average like me, and I found a few of them drop out of frustration or just run through a bit of bad luck…others are incredibly skilled and completely destroy me within 5 minutes.

I’m playing primarily Core 2020 cards, but I’ll be incorporating some of the cards from the previous expansion sets. My goal is this: Buffs and/or Life restoration. I have quite a few cards that say “Give +x/+x to a creature” and a few that say “Gain x life when…”. I’d like to incorporate both types of cards, if possible.

I’m also planning on building a Black deck. I’ll have to go through the cards and figure out what goes with what. My overall end game though is to incorporate both black and white and make a really cool black/white multicolored deck.

With all that said, I’m finding deckbuilding a lot of fun. I thought it would be the least interesting aspect, but finding out what works with what, and operating within some boundaries has made it incredibly enjoyable, almost as much as playing the game.

Well that’s it for now, I’m going back to bed and will enjoy the rest of my day off.

Tomorrow I head back to work for another week. I’m tired and quite eager for a vacation. I have a week off mid-August so that’s that.

I haven’t been much in the mood for hobbies today. I’d like to continue a game of Gloomhaven, but that’s a massive undertaking and I’m not sure I want to start on it just yet. I’m also considering picking up an organizer for Gloomhaven, but the best one I can find is about $100, which is almost the price of the game itself. It also requires a lot of assembly which I’m not sure I have the patience for.

I haven’t figured out any other solo board game in my collection I’d like to play just yet. I’m thinking LOTR or Mansions of Madness, but the setup for those games takes up so much time I’m not even sure I’d want to commit to it, especially during the weekdays.

With consoles, I’m mainly playing Fire Emblem: Three Houses, which is fine so far, but I haven’t been quite “hooked” as I had hoped. One of the reasons I loved the original Fire Emblem games was the tactical strategy mechanics. But this game focuses a lot on the social JRPG aspect, drawing heavily from Persona, and I’m not sure I’m able to commit to a game like that. Haven’t been much in the mood for other console games.

My mood mainly has been with mostly on PC games: Total War: Three Kingdoms immediately comes to mind. Something I can play for an hour or so and contribute to a larger overall story that I made. A story of epic conquest, battles, and all that sort of cool stuff. Games such as Civilization, Age of Wonders, Total War have had me hooked for years…and it’s a good way to take an hour or so out of my day.

I’m also craving something relatively mindless, such as Diablo III. Something where I don’t have to sit through an hour long tutorial on how to play and just click things, gain loot. With that regard, I’m playing A LOT of Magic The Gathering: Arena in between activities. I can sit for 15 minutes, battle an opponent, and strategize based on my deck and how I play my cards…like a modern day chess.

I’ve slowed down on some of my big purchases. Only things I’m picking up this week are some card game accessories. I need decksleeves, playmats, that sorta stuff. I don’t need any more board games, figures, or video games for the time being and after some big purchases last month, I definitely need to cut back.

Other than that, I’m catching up on some shows. Watching a bit of Avatar: The Last Airbender, Veronica Mars, and Twilight Zone this weekend. I started Black Sails on Starz recently and I’m finding it enjoyable so far. I also started on Vinland Saga and I don’t see what the fuss is about…so far? I’m still going to watch a couple more episodes to see if it hooks me.

I’d like to watch a bit more JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure since it’s been about a month since I’ve last watched an episode. Also got a few more episodes of Rising of Shield Hero and Reincarnation of a Slime that I’d like to watch sometime over the next couple weeks.

I haven’t been much in the mood for simulators. Did a reinstall of X-Plane 11, but can’t get myself to spend time reinstalling all my addons. I’ll get around to it sometime.

Another fun week. Another new hobby to pursue.

I played Dominion a few days ago and found it a lot of fun. We couldn’t finish the game (it would have taken at least another hour), but it’s really quick to learn and fun building a deck. It’s great that there are expansions too, but I don’t really need them just yet. I didn’t realize how fun deck building games actually are.

Anyways, last week I went to the local gaming/comic book shop to pick up the card game One Deck Dungeon. I asked about Magic The Gathering since it’s always interested me as a kid/adult, and collectible trading cards/games has always been a weak spot for me. I started off with collecting Basketball cards and then went to Star Wars: The Collectible Card Game before growing out of it. Because I liked the deck building aspect of Dominion and other similar games, I figured I should check out Magic.

I already know the rules of Magic from various desktop/tablet games, and I absolutely love the artwork, so why not? The guy at the shop told me that the local Magic group is super friendly, and figuring it’s a good way to make new friends, I think I’m going to get a few decks set up to try it out. I picked up the deck builder kit, a few booster packs, and a few starter decks and I’m having a lot of fun so far.

I think what intrigues me is that it’s just as fun to build a deck as it is to play the game. I find it similar to board games where I like reading the rules, and setting it up…but often I find myself too exhausted to actually play a 4 hour game.

With that said. I’m looking to build a Green deck to start. I just have to find the right balance of cards from my deck builder kit and maybe mix it up a bit with some new cards I picked up from the booster packs.

Also, one of the biggest pros is that it doesn’t take up too much space. After picking up a bunch of board games last month, my entire bottom shelf space is completely filled up to the point where I had to box a lot of my collectible figures. I’m still trying to figure out where to put those figures.

With that aside, what else do I want to do this weekend?

I’d like to set up a game of Zombicide: Black Plague. The only issue is that I only have enough table space for one game, and building up Magic decks is taking up most of that space at the moment. I’d also like to build some LEGO and Gundam stuff, but have the same issue…not enough space.

On the PC spectrum. I’d like to play some Elder Scrolls Online, Doom, and some Euro Truck Simulator 2. With ETS2, there is a new ProMods release out that’s compatible with the latest version, so I’m definitely going to check into that.

Also worth noting, I’ll be doing some small hardware upgrades. My keyboard “7” keypad button no longer syncs with the rest of the keyboard. It’s lasted me a good 4 years and I think it’s time for a new keyboard. I’m going with SteelSeries to match the rest of my desktop setup. I also ordered a new sensor for my mouse so it has higher precision, and basically upgrades my mouse from a Rival 700 to 710.

On the PS4, I’m playing through Judgement and it just doesn’t grab me the same way that the Yakuza series has. I’d hate to dump the game, but I really don’t know whether to finish it or continue playing some of my other games. On the Switch, I would like to play some Zelda: Breath of the Wild whenever I get the chance.

With TV, I’m working my way through the Rising of Shield Hero. Really good series an I can’t wait to see how it ends. I’m also just starting Stranger Things, Season 3 so I hope to catch some episodes soon.

That’s about it for now. Hoping for a good rest of the week!

Things are getting back to normal this week. I’ve picked up most of the board games that I’ve been wanting to try out for a few years now. Played a few turns of Eldritch Horror, which looks like a great game to play with others. Most recent is Star Wars Rebellion (the board game, not the PC game of the same name), which I have just set up and looks like a lot of fun. I’m probably going to play a few turns of that game before cleaning up my table and working on some LEGO and model kit projects.

This week, on the TV front, I’m starting on the Hobbit movies since I missed out on them years ago. I’m also working my way through the Star Wars movies again, for like the 10th time while going to finally get through Clone Wars and Rebels when I get the opportunity. Lastly, I’m queuing up Avatar: The Last Airbender, Studio Ghibli films, and Dragon Ball Z Kai. I have a lot to keep me entertained this week.

With PC gaming, I’m playing Final Fantasy XIV again. I’d like to continue the story but as DPS, I’m hitting a brick wall with trying to queue up for the mandatory story dungeon. I rage quit last year when I waited for over an hour and nobody would run through the dungeon with me. This time I’m working towards being a healer, so I instantly get queued up and leveled so I can progress through the story again. I also joined a really cool guild so I can have some people to hang out with while I do this. On the downside, I’ve been neglecting ESO as I simply don’t have time for two MMOs.

On the PS4, I’m playing through Assassin’s Creed Odyssey. I’d like to get through that and eventually go back and play The Witcher 3 before Cyberpunk comes out. There’s also God of War, Horizon Zero Dawn, Final Fantasy XII, and Spider-Man on my queue so it seems like I’ll always have something to play.

Simulators, I plan on running through one or two hauls in American Truck Simulator: Washington DLC. Most likely will do that after this post.

With books, I’m in the Star Wars mood. I want to work through some Star Wars novels and comics. I’m not sure which novel to start on just yet (possibly Lost Stars by Claudia Gray), but with comics I’ll definitely start with the main Star Wars series, followed by Darth Vader.

That’s about it for now. Going to have a really busy week ahead of me. Somehow I’ll have to manage to squeeze all of this in after work each day, at least until next Sunday when I’m off again.

In a world of limitless choice, I’ve struggled to figure out what exactly I like.

With games, there’s just so much endless possibility. Yet there are a few things that haven’t changed in years.

• I like grand strategy games
• I like roleplaying games (CRPGs)

As I start to get back into board games, I see a similar trend.

• I like grand strategy games
• I like roleplaying games (Tabletop)

I’ve tried to force myself to try playing different genres: first person shooters, JRPGs, hack and slash games, platformers, etc. While I enjoy them for one reason or another, I always go back to grand strategy games and roleplaying games.

I think much of it stems from the fact I actually enjoy figuring out how to play them. Sometimes I find reading the manuals, setting up my characters, and learning the mechanics of everything just as much fun as the game itself.

I enjoy simulators for much the same reason. Flight simulators for example…I get so bored during the flight, but spending a couple hours setting up the aircraft, my flight plan, and preparing for landing is what I really enjoy.

So I think it’s easy to narrow down, finally, what I’m really interested in and focus on just a few genres instead of a wide array of genres. I save more money, and I’m generally happier.

I’m still working on figuring out what I enjoy in books. Generally, fantasy novels are a niche that I really am into. I’m also into comic books. But I’m not quite there yet.

The same goes for television. I really like comic book, sci-fi, and fantasy series (and anime). Can’t say the same for much of anything else.

So there’s that.