Magic: The Gathering; Dimir, My Process for Deck Building

  By K. L. Zolnoski | February 28, 2015 - 1:56 am | Games
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Hythonia the Cruel

Everyone has their own, unique, process for building a deck when it comes to Magic. Even people who build competitive, tournament decks have their own approach, that is part of the beauty of the game, that it taps into creativity on the part of the players. This also causes people to become attached to their decks. They built them, they play them, it’s something they are invested in. I’m sharing three decks that I’ve put together that are moderately successful. I thought it would be useful, possibly even helpful to see my process for building a deck. Now I like … Continue reading →

Magic : The Gathering About that Orzhov Deck

  By K. L. Zolnoski | February 21, 2015 - 5:50 am | Games
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Obzedat, Ghost Council

Just the week before Christmas 2014 I got back into playing Magic: The Gathering. I dusted off my two old decks and after several painful defeats reworked them, taking out some old cards and putting in some new ones. I’ve been having so much fun I decided to make a new deck with all new cards. I started with a couple cards I knew I wanted to play and then as I chose cards that I thought went with them I began to think about what I wanted the deck to do. With my Rakdos deck it’s all about sacrificing … Continue reading →

The Continuing Story of a Betta Named Gipsy Danger

  By K. L. Zolnoski | February 14, 2015 - 3:13 am | Betta Aquarium
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Gipsy

Degarla, alas my Degarla. As it turns out Degarla was a girl snail. Ebriah was not a girl snail. I discovered this when I checked the tank on Christmas morning to feed everyone and there was a gift of a clutch of eggs left on the edge of the tank. It didn’t take any time at all to discover that Degarla was the generous one who left the gift. What I did not know was that female snails will leave their ponds and go in search of new ponds to lay eggs in. Sadly, our house is a vast desert … Continue reading →

Magic: The Gathering –Speaking of Johnny Decks

  By K. L. Zolnoski | February 7, 2015 - 1:54 am | Games
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Avacyn, Angel of Hope

Last time I wrote about my Fallen Angel deck, now named Rakdos. I seem to recall that I promised I’d write up my Angel deck, now called Azorius (Blue and White). This is my slowest deck. The mana threshold went up from 5 to 7 when I rebuilt it and there is very little acceleration to be found playing Blue or White. I also didn’t want to dilute the deck by putting too many counter spell type cards in it. I had to use some countering abilities though, since I cannot speed up the deck, my only hope is to … Continue reading →

A Productive Superbowl, Writing was done

  By K. L. Zolnoski | February 2, 2015 - 3:41 am | Author Updates, Betta Aquarium
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Gipsy's new tank

Well, gentle reader, despite Seattle throwing away the Superbowl with that last play call, I got a lot done tonight. I got a chapter of new content written for The Shadow of the Hand of God and I’ve written and pre-scheduled the next four posts for the little blog here. One for each Saturday in February. Three about Magic: The Gathering and one about my Betta and the sadness of a lost snail. So the good news is that there will be blogs and maybe some extra ones as topics suggest themselves to me. I’m really getting excited about the … Continue reading →

Portland Comic Con 2015 A Late but Great Review

  By K. L. Zolnoski | January 31, 2015 - 11:10 pm | Comicons
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Mothra cosplay w/thanks to S. Shadow's Natural Photography

Wizard World’s Portland Comic Con happened at the Portland Convention Center in Portland, Oregon January 23, 24 and 25. Yes I’m a week behind and I do apologize, gentle reader. So many amazing things happened at the con and I did tweet one or two of them, and now I’d like to write them up properly. Friday was the first day of the con and due to work I didn’t make it. One must keep one’s job to continue to enjoy going to cons. Saturday I wore my Mothra cosplay and Sunday I wore my steampunk cosplay. I’m afraid I … Continue reading →

A Prodigal Magic: The Gathering Player Returns To The Game

  By K. L. Zolnoski | January 18, 2015 - 7:53 pm | Games
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Rukh Egg

Well, that would be me. I stopped playing just after Mercadian Masques came out (has it been so long?). I had started playing Magic: The Gathering right after The Dark came out, so not a bad run but life got busy and I didn’t have the time or the money to keep up and it kind of fell by the wayside. So fast forward to the week before Christmas and my family, after months of badgering, gets me to play MTG again. Now everyone is playing all these new cards from sets and expansions I’ve never even heard of. This … Continue reading →

Ghost Shrimp, Vashta Nerada, Catfish, Gallifrey and Gipsy Danger–Yeah

  By K. L. Zolnoski | November 29, 2014 - 4:03 am | Betta Aquarium
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Gipsy Danger the crown tailed betta named after a Jaeger

A blue and red crown tail betta named Gipsy Danger (once again, don’t judge me), is the first pet I’ve had in 20 years. I have a lot of repressed pet love that is being showered on this particular betta. Gipsy has a 5.5 gallon tank, into which I’ve placed two mystery snails — Degarla and Ebriah Horror of the Deep (remember – no judging). I have so much repressed pet love, even the snails are spoilt. I can’t let them go hungry though, that’d be cruel. The snails have not seemed to be able to keep up with the … Continue reading →

Mothra Cosplay Makes The Rounds

  By K. L. Zolnoski | November 27, 2014 - 3:05 pm | Cosplay
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Mosura-ya

After much thought, and many second thoughts I must confess, I shared a fairly unflattering photograph of my Mothra cosplay on the Mothra fan page. I should not have been worried. The people that run it are lovely and so are the fans. I chose the photo I did because it is the one with the best lighting and shows off the wings the best of any I’ve had taken so far. I look ridiculous since I’m trying to make the wings as big and visible as possible but that’s the beauty of Cosplayers and fans–they don’t judge, they love … Continue reading →