The Amiibopocalypse is Over... For Now

Well, Nintendo finally released the final Smash Bros amiibo and they are now sitting on our shelf. I was a little frustrated that Nintendo would release 2 versions of the final 3 amiibo because, well, because that's twice the price for completing the collection! However, Corrine P2 and Cloud P2 have been extremely difficult to get a hold of. As such, my cognitive dissonance allows me to be satisfied with having a "complete" collection without having a "complete" collection. We may never get those final alternate versions of 2 of the characters, but at least we have 1 of each character!

Now behold, the amiibo in all their glory! :)

It looks awesome, and I'm proud to have actually played and trained up a number of them into Smash Bros monsters. The hunt for amiibos is over for now... though the amiibos of the 4 champions from Zelda: Breath of the Wild look awesome and dang it Nintendo I will have to get those too!

Clash Royale Decks

I've been playing Clash Royale on my phone since it first came out in 2016. Now, I don't play it all the time every day, but if I've got a couple minutes to kill here or there I'll pop it open and play a match or two. It's a lot of fun. Many of the matches are very close with each person intensely playing cards to counter their opponent. Sometimes, you get smashed... Other times, you completely smash them. Like I said - it's a lot of fun. I'm level 10 at the moment! Here's a few of the decks I've been using lately.

This is my tried and true deck. It's gotten me just above 3800 trophies, and when I finally accumulate enough gold to upgrade a couple of the cards I expect to get even higher. There's nothing too fancy about it. There are no legendary cards, and most of the cards can be acquired early in the game. It sometimes has trouble with decks that use a lot of lightning, and I've had to develop some techniques for dealing with elite barbarians, sparky, bowler, and golem.

The mortar is integral to this deck and chips away at opponent's towers. Meanwhile, I defend it. Fire spirits are great for taking out minion horde and alright against elite barbarians when I also drop a valkyrie or mini pekka. The wizard and valkyrie take out hordes with ease, and the musketeer drops balloons and other flying pests out of the air. Mini pekka unloads a ton of damage if it makes it to the tower. Zap helps take out hordes, reset towers, enemies, and other cards with charge up attacks. Finally, the fireball is great for dealing a lot of damage in a decent sized area. Use it take out buildings and finish off towers - even better if there are some enemy units around to get hit at the same time.


This is my current golem deck. Ever since I got a golem I've wanted to make a deck utilizing it, and I think I've finally found one that works for me. It's gotten me into the 3300-3400 trophy range, but I'm hoping to get a little bit higher. Unlike my other deck, this one has more often steamrolled opponents. However, I feel like I'm at risk of being steamrolled by my opponent with this deck more often - and believe me it's happened.

The golem is pretty self explanatory. Drop it at the back, or up front, and get ready to support it. It's usually a good idea to not drop it right away - find out what sort of cards your opponent has that might counter it. If those cards are out of rotation it might be a good time to drop the golem. Meanwhile, while waiting to drop the golem defend with the log, zap, and the wizard. If something heavy is coming drop the mini pekka or lumberjack. What we want to do is get the lumberjack and golem out at the same time. That makes for a terrifying golem. This deck has been pretty fun so far - I think I want to switch out the archers for the mega minion, but I need to level it up some more first.

If you haven't given the game a try - give it a try! It's free, and though it has in-app purchases I've made it as far as I have without spending any money. Have fun, and don't be a jerk with your emotes!

Superbia's Tank is off the Back Burner!

I mentioned Superbia's Tank over a year ago here. I've had it on my mind ever since and the rules have been an ongoing work in progress. Tweaks and massive revisions aside I think I've gotten it to a point where I just need to do some testing.

Player's tanks are made up of 3 distinct pieces - allowing for a whole variety of tanks.

I've been working like a madman any chance I get to create line art for the game. At this point I've got everything drawn, but I haven't added any colour yet. This, hopefully, will come in time, but at this point it's high time I start testing the dang game! Here, take a gander at some of the artwork I've created for Superbia's Tank.

Player's order their tanks around the board, and a player's tank is made up of 3 distinct tank parts. The turret, the frame, and the treads. Tank part designs have been influenced from a variety of different objects. The telescopic cannon, the top right image, for instance is designed using aesthetics of a telescope.

Additionally, have a gander at how this artwork looks on the cards themselves. Again, colour hasn't been a priority because I want to start testing first.

I'm hoping it will be a fun, strategic game. Players will discretely play orders and then reveal them. You'll want to draw cards to find the legendary tank pieces, claiming 4 of which wins the game, but being shot at makes it harder to draw cards. There will be a small board for player's tanks to move around, and the closer to the center you are the more cards you can draw. I can't wait to print out a prototype and test it out!

Grand Vorgus Cup - Smash 4 Amiibo Tournament

Well well well. It seems I've finally trained just about all of the amiibo I'd like to - all of my mains and the other characters I like to play. Sure, there are some others I might like to train, but the amiibo unavailability and cost of those amiibos means I'm drawing a line. Now, what to do with all these amiibo I've trained? It's fun to fight with them (and get obliterated most of the time), and it's fun to play with a friend and try our luck at defeating them. However, there's a greater question that needs to be answered... Who among these daring amiibos is the strongest, the bestest, the most glorious champion?!

The 12 mighty challengers!

That, is a question I shall seek to answer with the Grand Vorgus Cup - Smash 4 Amiibo Tournament! WooOOOoOOO!

There will be 12 competitors each duking it out in a double-elimination style tournament to be crowned champion. Best 2 out of 3 fights wins the bracket and proceeds to the next round. We'll be fighting on Battleground with no items and 2 stock each.  Let me introduce you to our intrepid warriors:

Sanic the legendary hegehog. Gotta go fast! Very hard to hit in a fight.

Kupa Junia is the king of taking a beating with ultra-high defense and healing effects.

2Spooky4Me hits pretty dang hard with spooky telekinesis.

Greninjy is another hard to hit fighter. All ninja like Greninjy.

Apollo seems to be the most patient little amiibo, but can explode into a fight out of nowhere.

Dankey Kang is all about smacking his opponents HARD. I've seen him inflict over 100% in a single hit!

Mr Mustard tends to linger in a match until he's at about 350%, or sometimes more.

Deddy Keng is a feisty little monkey not afraid to bite your face off.

Vorgus packs a wallop while confidently strolling across any stage.

BrainMagic is a volatile character. Super, perfect, exploding, healing shields are it's ultimate weapon.

Korby whips around landing all manner of blows to opponents with those stubby limbs.

P Bubs (whom can't seem to look straight in this photo) likes to float around and pummel opponents.

Here is the randomized starting brackets. I'll be using www.challonge.com to setup and organize this tournament.

After each round I will edit this post and add a new picture of the results. Let the Tournament... BEGIN!

Match 1 - Kupa Junia Vs. Sanic
At first Kupa Junia had a lot of trouble hitting Sanic which gave Sanic game 1. Afterwards, Kupa Junia opted for strategic strikes and sheilding. Sanic, unable to keep up with Kupa Junia's healing effects, lost the next two games - Kupa Junia not losing a single stock.

Match 2 - Korby Vs. Dankey Kang
Dankey Kang hits hard straight out of the gate, but Korby soon equalized the percent at 158% each. The pink puffball takes the first match with air superiority. In Match 2 Korby starts off strong, but Dankey Kang quickly counters and takes the match. Each match has been incredibly equal - coming down to a single KO blow. However, Korby takes the third win in these incredibly hard-hitting rapid matches.

Match 3 - Greninjy Vs. Deddy Keng
This set had a lot of skilled and nimble dodging from both parties. Greninjy especially showing off some fancy footwork with an incredible 10+ footstools. It was enough to overwhelm Deddy Keng in Match 1. In Match 2 and 3 Deddy Keng had gotten wise. Taking a whole stock of Greninjy's without taking a single percent. Both parties had a mistep and SD'd once, but in the end Deddy Keng was victorious.

Match 4 - 2Spooky4Me Vs. Mr Mustard
Match 1 saw Mr Mustard predominantly chasing after 2Spooky4Me, but to no avail as 2Spooky4Me turned and striked at every moment. Mr Mustard managed to catch up with some huge hits in Match 2. In the final match 2Spooky4Me broke Mr Mustard's sheild, but took no advantage of the opportunity. With both fighters a shot away from victroy 2Spooky4Me clinches the win with a swing of his bat.

That concludes Round 1. We saw each set go all three games - each fighter not wanting to go to the loser's bracket.

Match 5 - BrainMagic Vs. Kupa Junia
BrainMagic continually shut Kupa Junia down with it's exploding shield in the first match. In Match 2 Kupa Junia comes back with a vengeance. BrainMagic at 115% before having to deal with Kupa Junia's final stock - Kupa Junia easily takes the match. Match 3 saw BrainMagic open with a mega 71% combo and take Kupa Junia all the way up to 194% before even getting hit. BrainMagic wins the match after fighting hard to deal a total 655% damage across Kupa Junia's 2 stocks.

Match 6 - Vorgus Vs. Korby
Korby is the obvious air master, but Vorgus showing she is just as capable. Plenty of aerials being exchanged, though many are not connecting from either party. Match 1 and 2 were incredibly even. Vorgus taking Match 1 with a charged beam shot and Korby taking match 2 with a quick up smash. Korby starts Match 3 by overwhelming Vorgus. Vorgus, in the end, was unable to equalize the match and Korby finished her off with 2 stock still in the bag.

Match 7 - P Bubs Vs. Deddy Keng P Bubs was substantially knocked around in match 1 by Deddy Keng. She did make good use of her Toad counter to deal some nice damage, but it was too little too late. Match 2 saw P Bubs determined to stay in the fight reaching 308% at one point, but not being able to get the KO on a 228% Deddy Keng. It's the first 2 Match set of the tournament!

Match 8 - Apollo Vs. 2Spooky4Me

In Match 1 2Spooky4Me hits Apollo hard, but Apollo keeps the match even thanks to the trusty Pikmin. Lucas breaks Apollo's shield with an up smash and smokes him out of the stadium with his bat. Another up smash from 2Spooky4Me proves fatal - and again in Match 2. Apollo manages to break 2Spooky4Me's shield, but it's early in the match and doesn't amount to anything. 2 Spooky4Me proceeded to clean up.

This concludes Round 2! We saw our first 2 Match sets and sent more competitors to the loser's brackets. BrainMagic, Korby, Deddy keng, and 2Spooky4Me proceed to Round 3!

Match 15 - BrainMagic Vs. Korby
BrainMagic aggressively charges out of the gate surprising Korby. Korby gets his footing and evens it out. Evenly matched at 162%. The fighters trade stocks. It's a tense first match but BrainMagic takes it with an exploding shield. Korby launches a flurry of attacks in Match 2, but barely manages to land any of them. The match stays even, but an up throw from BrainMagic sends Korby to the Loser's bracket.

Match 16 - Deddy Keng Vs. 2Spooky4Me
Deddy cranks it up to 11 while 2Spooky4Me tries to dodge as many attacks as possible. 2Spooky4Me trying to end a stock with an up smash, but misses 5 times before succeeding with the bat instead. In match 2 Deddy manages to keep the game tight and edges ahead in the final push - then lands a KO hit. Match 3 saw a spookily untouchable 2Spooky4Me overwhelm and take a stock of Deddy Keng while only taking 14%. Deddy, determined to catch up, steps up his game. It's not enough to avoid another KO from the bat though.

That concludes Round 3! Both sets were high intensity. Now, we're left with BrainMagic and 2Spooky4Me facing off in a very psychically charged Semifinal set!

Match 12 - Apollo Vs. Sanic
Sanic clearly dominated at first, but Apollo hung in there each stock - at one point avoiding Sanic's KO hits while at 252%!

Match 11 - Dankey Kang Vs. P Bubs Dankey Kang quickly finishes the set, beating P Bubs 2 matches in a row with a total time of less than 2 minutes!

Match 10 - Vorgus Vs. Greninjy
It took 3 long matches to settle the fates of these competitors. After the third match - one of the longest of the tournament so far - Vorgus took the victory.

Match 9 - Kupa Junia Vs. Mr Mustard
Who could have ever expected a brawl between these two family members? Father Koopa immediately showed his alpha status by showing no mercy to the poor child. Kupa Junia put up more of a fight in the second bout and managed to get a stock off of Mr Mustard. However, Mr Mustard proves he's still the king.

That's the end of Loser's Round 1. Our first four tournament knockouts were Sanic, P Bubs, Greninjy, and Kupa Junia.

Match 14 - Apollo Vs. Dankey Kang
Dankey Kang was unable to land as many hits as he needed (and he only needed a few) in order to finish off Apollo. Apollo, managing to hit back with many firm shots and finishing Dankey Kang off with up airs more than once.

Match 13 - Vorgus Vs. Mr Mustard
Mr Mustard stuck around well over 200% on every stock forcing Vorgus to slowly fall behind as the battle raged. Mr Mustard

Loser's Round 2 see crowd favourite, Dankey Kang, knocked out of the tournament. Joining him on the sidelines is Vorgus. Apollo and Mr Mustard advance to face Korby and Deddy Keng proving his side smash is a force to truly be reckoned with.

Match 17 - Korby Vs. Apollo
Korby was too fast and furious for Apollo. Not a moment went by where Korby wasn't right up in Apollo's face. The match was pretty even, but Korby seemed to quickly get that KO in before Apollo ever could.

Match 18 - Deddy Keng Vs. Mr Mustard Deddy clearly knew his was around Mr Mustard in Match 1. However, in Match 2 Mr Mustard opened the floodgates and unleashed fury upon Deddy Keng. In Match 3, Deddy took bloody vengeance against Mr Mustard knocking him out without losing a stock and only sustaining a final 11% damage.

Apollo and Mr Mustard have been knocked clean out of the tournament. Korby now faces Deddy Keng in Loser's Round 4.

Match 20 - BrainMagic Vs. 2Spooky4Me
BrainMagic's shield seems to be posing a problem for 2Spooky4Me. A stunning glare frome BrainMagic has 2Spooky4Me unable to move and BrainMagic takes him out. 2Spooky4Me equalizes the score quickly. BrainMagic, in an emberassing mistep, SD's while trying to evade a pikafire from off the stage! In the second Match a Prone BrainMagic takes the full force of 2Spooky4Me's up smash. A hard ground slam down air sends 2Spooky4Me flying into the ground and bouncing straight all the way up and out of the screen. 2Spooky4Me secures his spot in the finals with a homerun - proving BrainMagic's perfect exploding shield is not invincible after all.

Match 19 - Korby Vs. Deddy Keng
These 2 fast paced fighters come fast out of the gate. Deddy Keng takes the lead and begins to work Korby over without breaking a sweat. Korby dodges frantically to stay in the game, but it's not enough. In Match 2 Deddy Keng scores three up smashes and sends Korby flying. It seems Korby doesn't want the victory as badly as Deddy Keng who handily takes the set.

2Spooky4Me is ready for the finals! Who will they face off against?

Match 21 - BrainMagic Vs. DeddyKeng
It's an evenly matched brawl with each fighter hitting the other hard. Deddy gets the first stock, but now sits at 174%. BrainMagic takes him out after a while. BrainMagic, now behind, tries hard to catch up. He does so with a well timed shield and 2 forward smashes. It's anyone's game. Deddy Keng manages to land a charged smash attack on BrainMagic's shield breaking it! Deddy takes the first match with a calm forward smash. In the second Match BrainMagic had all the oomph taken out of him. Deddy shows his superiority over the psychic creature. BrainMagic makes a small come back, but was just too far behind to make anything more happen.

BrainMagic is knocked out of the tournament. Deddy Keng is on to the finals for a rematch against the very same competitor whom sent him to the Loser's brackets in the first place!

THE FINALS

Match 22 - 2Spooky4Me Vs. Deddy Keng
2Spooky4Me gets an early freeze on Deddy and hammers him good. Deddy retaliates best he can. It's a close match. 2Spooky4Me lands another freeze, but doesn't make the most of the opportunity. Deddy is falling behind as 2Spooky4Me now giving him no time to catch his breath. 2Spooky4Me nails Deddy Keng with that bat stick for a win. In the second Match the fight was closely matched. 2Spooky4Me tosses Deddy to one side, and then rushes over and under him to land a devastating up smash. Deddy now falling behind again - unable to get a stock off 2Spooky4Me even though he's at 123%. Finally, Deddy lands a KO blow, but is now behind at 120% to a fresh stock. 2Spooky4Me dodges a strong forward smash from Deddy and lands his own down smash firmly into Deddy's feet - sending him flying. It's enough for 2Spooky4Me to be crowned the champion!

2Spooky4Me is crowned the champion!

There we have it folks! The Lucas amiibo "2Spooky4Me" is the champion of the Grand Vorgus Cup! He played a total of 5 sets (12 fights total) - only losing twice in the whole tournament. Once to Mr Mustard and once to Deddy Keng. Deddy Keng had a chance to get revenge and take the Grand Vorgus Cup for himself, but was knocked flat by 2Spooky4Me in the final match. Thanks for reading! I'll leave with the final results.

2Spooky4Me - Grand Vorgus Cup Champion

MTG: Terra Terror

I want to share a deck I made a few years ago that I've just had the chance to revise. I call that deck Terra Terror! Mwahaha hahaha! It is the ultimate land control and decimation deck ever devised! Well, or so I hope. I actually haven't had a chance to really test it in a real game yet, but on paper it sounds brutal and cruel.

The previous incarnation of this deck focused solely on things that blew up lands which is the point, but it seemed to have a tough time keeping itself afloat in battle. I'd end up behind, or outnumbered, or out of cards and out of options. This new version should be much scarier! Fear it!

4 x Llanowar Elves - For the cheap ramp.
4 x Akki Blizzard Herder - For the cheap land destruction.
1 x Krosan Restorer - Helps get lands back.
1 x Dwarven Driller - Helps destroy even more lands!
2 x Countryside Crusher - Gets stronger and stronger.
2 x Terravore - Hey! I get stronger and stronger too!
1 x Mina and Denn, Wildborn - For the additional land play and trample.

4 x Winter Orb - Brrr, it sure is getting cold. ;) Slows things right down.
4 x Custody Battle - Just hand those creatures over.
3 x Crown of the Ages - And... now hand another creature over.
3 x Gruul Cluestone - More ramp.
3 x Harrow - Some more awesome ramp!
3 x Roiling Terrain - Bam! Damage! Ow!
1 x Price of Glory - Don't even think about using instants during my turn.

12 x Mountains
11 x Forests

First off, the biggest difference in this deck is now the inclusion of 4 Winter Orb's and the addition of ways for me to ramp despite my land situation. Winter's Orb slows the game to a screeching halt... if you don't have alternative ways of creating mana. The cluestone and elves help ramp it up and the fact that 90% of my deck can be cast with 3 or less mana definitely helps. I really wanted another one or two Krosan Restorers because once threshold is reached, and it will be with this deck, it can produce so much mana. Unfortunately, I only have one and everywhere I looked was out of stock.

Secondly, the deck now includes some Crown of the Ages to accompany the already present Custody Battles. They go together like peanut butter and jam and bread and it's oh so delicious. Opponents will either have to lose a land, or risk permanently losing a creature to my side. Crown of the Ages can move Custody Battle to other creatures, and the original creature would remain under my control. It's devious and deadly.

Third. I've got some potentially heavy hitters in the deck now. Previously I had next to nothing for this job and at some point you got to hit back. Terravore and Countryside Crusher are perfect for this deck. They should be big and bad in no time.

Finally, I've added a few other cards that could prove useful. Mina and Denn, Wildborn will let me play additional lands and give those heavy hitters some trample. Harrow will help me ramp. Price of Glory will protect and potentially destroy even more land. I do love Price of Glory.

All in all I believe it's a large improvement over the original incarnation. Terra Terror should be interesting to say the least!

The Great Note Archive Mission

I've been holding on to a huge couple of binders full of notes for years now. I have high school notes from all sorts of classes - math, physics, social studies, english, etc. I have post-secondary notes from the Art Institute of Vancouver. There's notes from my time in Kwantlen in the Drafting program. Basically, there's a lot of paper just sitting around taking up space. I'd like to change that!

Part of me thinks, "I'll never look at this stuff again so just chuck it out and move on." Well, the other part of me says, "WHAT IF I NEED IT ONE DAY?!"

So, to compromise I'll try to take all these notes, turn them into digital copies, and chuck the hard copies. It's a bit of an undertaking that's for sure. So here's what I'm going to do...

Here's my Note Picture Taking K'Nex Apparatus!

I've created an apparatus to place my phone in and take pictures of every page of notes. It's built out of K'Nex and will allow me to slide a page in, take a picture, pull the page out, and repeat. I've opted for this method as opposed to scanning as it should simply be much quicker to simply hit a button on my phone every couple of seconds. The scanner takes too long to move up and down the page and wait for me to drop it and push a couple of buttons. This, combined with the fact that I don't need the quality to be amazing, just good enough to read, means I really don't need to use the scanner.

Here's the skeleton of the apparatus. The papers were only there to help reflect light.

The photos will be uploaded automatically to Google's Google Photo cloud. From there I plan to download them (possibly crop them) and reupload them in an organized fashion to Google Drive. Google Photos are weird in that if you move them around in Google Drive they still relate back to Google Photos and I really don't know how else to break this connection other than by downloading them and then deleting them from Google Photos. This was they'll only be accessible in Google Drive and not turning my Google Photos page into a collection of notes. It should work.

By the end I'll hopefully gain a couple shelves of space! Goodbye clutter!