Budget Kills Series: Part 1 Saprolings

Welcome to my first deck of my Budget Kills Series.

This is a B/G (Black, Green) Saproling Token Deck.

Before I begin I said that I was going to post a Food Chain Saproling Deck, but I won't. I had to cannibalize the deck so much that if was Food Chain with some Saproling Tokens which didn't work out for me.

Lands: 16

8x - Swamp

8x - Forest

Black: 12

4x - Nether Traitor

4x - Deathspore Thallid

2x - Attrition

2x - Grave Pact

Green: 24

4x - Thallid

4x - Sporoloth Ancient

4x - Utopia Mycon

2x - Thallid Shell-Dweller

2x - Vitaspore Thallid

2x - Feral Thallid

2x - Thorn Thallid

2x - nath's Elite

2x - Savage Thallid

Artifact: 8

4x - Genesis Chamber

2x - Phyrexian Altar

2x - Coat of Arms

This is a very good deck and as a bonus stay well within budgets.

The average price for this deck is about $30.00.

I always try to keep my budget decks under $50.00 and this one fits perfectly.

The way this deck works is that ever creature with thallid in it's name gets a Spore Counter placed on it during your Upkeep. After three Spore Counters are on it, you may remove 3 of them to put a 1/1 Saproling Creature Token into play. Cards like Sporoloth Ancient make this remove 2 instead of 3. Sporoloth Ancient is a must in this deck because it speeds your deck up by an extra turn.

The big killer combo in this deck is not a Saproling or a Thallid, it's the Nether Traitor + Attrition + Grave Pact + Genesis Chamber + Phyrexian Altar.

This combo alone kills a lot of other creature decks that you run across, and I'll tell you how!

You don't need to have Attrition + Grave Pact but they are amazing because Attrition Says pay 1 Black Mana Sacrifice a creature: Destroy target nonblack creature. Grave Pact states that Whenever a creature you control dies, each other player sacrifices a creature. So when you sac a creature to destroy a non-black creature Grave pact kills one of their anyway by forcing them to sac one. You can use Attrition even if your opponent has all Black Creatures. Attrition won't kill the creature but because you killed one of your own Grave Pact will still trigger!

Nether Traitor + Genesis Chamber + Phyrexian Altar = Infinite Creatures and infinite mana.

have a Genesis Chamber in play and bring in 2 Nether Traitors. When a creatures comes into play when Genesis Chamber is already in, This Happens:

Whenever a nontoken creature enters the battlefield, if Genesis Chamber is untapped, that creature's controller puts a 1/1 colorless Myr artifact creature token onto the battlefield.

So after you put your 2 Nether Traitors in play you have those 2 Traitors and 2 Colorless Myr Creature Tokens. Phyrexian Altar states: Sacrifice a creature: Add one mana of any color to your mana pool. So you sac a Nether Traitor for 1 B mana, then sac one of the tokens are a saproling token, or whatever. When you do that The Nether Traitor's ability triggers (The one that's in the Graveyard) Whenever another creature is put into your graveyard from the battlefield, you may pay B. If you do, return Nether Traitor from your graveyard to the battlefield. Upon doing this you get another creature token from Genesis Chamber. So if you had all 4 Genesis Chambers in play, each one would make a creature token. This is turn gives you as much mana as you want, plus you can sac for Attrition and if Grave Pact is in play while you are just using the Phyrexian Arena + Genesis Chamber + Nether Traitor, you are forcing them to sac their creatures as well. This deck is slow, so I would suggest using Howling Mines to get through your cards faster, I also recommend the best card for token decks, but it's a little expensive.

Doubling Season ($23.46 Each) but what makes the card so perfect for not only this deck but token decks in general is that it does the following:

If an effect would put one or more tokens onto the battlefield under your control, it puts twice that many of those tokens onto the battlefield instead.

If an effect would place one or more counters on a permanent you control, it places twice that many of those counters on that permanent instead.

This would literally Double your output of creatures and tokens. One Doubling Season with 4 Genesis Chambers + 1 Nether Traitor coming into play = 1 Nether Traitor + 4 1/1 Myr Artifact Creature Tokens + 4 more Myr Artifact Creature Tokens from Genesis Chamber.

It doubles the speed of this deck and steamrolls through a lot of decks.

I hope this deck gives you some help, please feel free to use this deck as you see fit, or don't use it.

Total price of the deck  without the Doubling Seasons' and Howling Mines:

$30.00

The Grand Total with the deck and the 4 Howling Mines and 2 Doubling Seasons':

$92.92

Minecraft Review

Let's Build something together!!!! Or leave me alone while I blow stuff up.

Minecraft can be many things for everyone. it can be a fun and challenging  survival game for you and your friends, it can be let's just be creative and build whatever I want. or it can be a solo challenge game or your choice. It's versatile, and that's what a lot of games struggle with on a regular basis. I for one love it because I just go around and build whatever I want, whether it be a huge wooden mansion (or stone) or a roller coaster, or a big maze of TNT waiting to be blown up.

There is a lot to learn about Minecraft before you can really relax in the game. While you can gather resources necessary to ensure your survival, you need to know how to craft them. The greatest thing I ever did for myself was to look online at instructions for noobs to see how to create the first basic things needed. After I knew how to create the crafting table and a torch I took the time to create everything else I needed. Well to be fair I think I created (Without looking) about 85% of what I know about Minecraft.

Even though it was hard at first Minecraft has become my favorite game to just have fun with. I don't care what is going on a Creeper could sneek up behind me and blow up and I'm still having fun. Mostly because I love wacking them off my Roller Coaster Rails!

Why did I blow up the house that I spent 20+ Hours working on??? Because if was fun! Just make a backup of your saves, :P

The expression The World is your Oyster really does apply here. You control what happens next, more so than with an RPG with a morality based engine because if you don't craft the items that you need to survive, then your gonna be in for a world of hurt!



One of the best things about Minecraft is that when you click on create a new world you don't really know what your gonna get, or where in that world you'll wind up. I've wound up in the middle of a dessert to the tops of a snowy mountain, if gives it a realistic flair!

Another great thing is installing different mods. There are a lot of mods for Minecraft. They range from new items to create more amazing objects like a Nuclear Facility, to mini maps that can be placed so you never get lost. There are also texture packs that you can install to change the skin of Minecraft as well. You can really do a lot with  Minecraft because it can change to whatever you want it to be!

Minecraft is a fun game and one that I will always enjoy because of the shear adventure and the not knowing what's coming around the corner.

This Creeper gives it a 9.5 out of 10

Update on Budget Kills if was going to start on last Friday but moving furniture took too much time for me from thursday through yesterday. Budget Kills will not only start but be on every Tuesday/Wednesday.

Sad gaming update:

There will be no more updates for the PSP as of right now, I was cruising along pretty good and now the psp is broke, I will replace it when I can. My disc 1 of Legend of Dragoon is missing so that's on a hiatus. However I do have many more games and I will be taking a few of them on, first up is Final Fantasy X for the PS2.

I have never played the whole thing, I stopped a certain point and I never progressed after that. I didn't level up enough and I was getting annihilated by the boss of that area. I will beat it this time since I want to play Final Fantasy X-2 some day.

 Magic the gathering update:

I have changed my Gaea's Blessing Mill deck to where I'm quite happy right now:

6 Plains
4 Island
2 Forrest
4 Tropical Island
1 Seaside Citadel

White:

4 Wrath of God
2 Island Sanctuary

Blue:

4 Ponder
4 Counterspell
4 Force of Will
4 Fact or Fiction
4 Sage Owl
2 Dreamborn Muse
1 Frozen AEther
1 Jace, The Mind Sculptor
Green:

2 Gaea's Blessing
1 Azusa, Lost but Seeking

Artifact:

4 Howling Mine
4 Mesmeric Orb
1 Chrome Mox

It is at a point where my turn 1 drops are almost at the 50% mark (I think it's at about 45.8%)
And my Turn 2 Drops are about 98.8%

I want to add 2 more cards to this deck: Sensei's Divining Top

They will aid with my Turn 1 drops and they are really killer in decks where looking at the top cards is very critical, plus you can draw that card it you so choose to.

Including Jace, the Mind Sculptor in the deck is probably one of the best decisions behind adding the Tropical Islands and the Force of Wills.

In a few days I will start a weekly Budget Kills Series.

I will post budget Magic the Gathering decks that I've built and tested that can stand their ground against a variety of other decks:

The first deck will be a Budget B/G Saproling Token deck. And as a bonus for this being the first in a long line of Budget Series I will make a Budget Food Chain Saproling Deck as well. Food Chain and it's possibilities will be explained in that post.

So please stay tunes for update/information of Final Fantasy X + the new Budget Kills series!

Review of the week - Age of Mythology

We're going back to a different Age! An Age of Gods and Titans, and Lightning Bolts/Earthquakes/Tornados/Plagues, and every other power that the gods had to use.

Age of mythology is from Ensemble Studios who has created and bestowed to use one of the best game RTS series ever Age of Empires. AoM was a step in a different direction for the company, because of the fact that Age of Empires was all historical based and this was/is mythological (Who can really say that it is fiction though, one never knows!)

Another thing to note for this game was the new engine that it was created on, this was their first shot at a 3D engine and it did a really amazing job. The graphics are amazing for the time and can still hold up to this date. You can easily tell an enemy from an ally or even one of your own armies. The game does make a note for it as well when you put your mouse over a unit like a soldier or Medusa, etc. that if it's an enemy you have the sword/attack pointer as the regular mouse pointer. It's still easier to tell them apart then other games I've played both recent games and older games. The attention to detail that they put into the game shows very well from buildings have some kind of animation (lanterns, glowing items, etc.) to the waves of water crashing against the shores. There's always something moving making it feel more real than a game. The sounds in this game are also stunning, from the music in the background (which is actually quite good) to the sounds of your villagers mining for gold, or chopping down trees, or even your units attacking enemies. Both the visuals and the sounds make this game feel more alive, like it has a soul.

The story of the game is lengthy but exciting, it keeps you on your toes. It's not one of those games that has a 60 minute story or part of a story and before you know it either the game is over or you fell asleep and forgot what happened. You control Greek, Egyptian, and Norse forces (The three main factions of the game) over a span of something like 26+ missions I believe. Each force has their own buildings (Although each building is technically the same, they way the look/the style is different for each) The forces are also like the building i9n the fact that an archer is an archer but depending on what forcwe your using depends on what they would look like.

There are many different types of units that you can use like villages, regular soldiers, cavelry, minotaurs, mythical creatures, and heroes. There are more but I forgot what they are exactly and there are 1-3 different ones for each unit. I believe the caverly one there are 3 different ones that you can create.

The random map mode is really fun you can choose a variety of options like an arid desert of Egypt, to the shores of Atlantis. You can also make the opponent harder or easier depending on your skill level. You can also create a map of your own and make it so that either you or them have more resources at your disposal.

Online multiplayer is fun, I can't tell you eactly everything about online because It's been years since I've played online and I don't know if you can anymore. I doubt it. Basically you can have 1v1 or a have 3 duke it out at once. Depending on your skill level though I suggest trying the map mode giving your opponent the advantage because the online players (When this game came out) were incredibly good at it.It was super easy top find people to play wether you were playing with someone you knew or never met before, it was so easy to find people wanting to play matches that were the same as you were.

The game playes really well, as well as other Real Time Strategy games play. The controls and how to play come second nature if you've either played Age of Empires or another type of RTS. Or even if you never played an RTS like me it was really easy to learn how to play it.

I would suggest you pick this game up, also get the (I think gold edition) because it comes with the Titans Expansion for free. The Titans expansion added more storyline missions and units to control, but unfortunatly they didn't amek any more expansions.

I give this game a 9 out of 10!

Hello all...

Here is an update for all fo you. I recently bought Fallout 3 GotY and I've been loving it. I like the mods that you can get for it like Fellout and Fook 2. Fallout 3 is so much better on the PC then on the PS3 (Which I've already beaten it on)

In Final Fantasy I for the PSP not much, been leveling so I can get level 5 magics.

Here is also an update for anyone who cares about Magic the Gathering:

I've recently been playing again, both on MTGO and with the real cards. I'm re-building my favorite deck in the world and here is the decklist and strategy in case anyone cares:

Lands:

4 Mishra's Factory
4 Plains
5 Island
5 Forest
1 Seaside Citadel
1 Tropical island

White:

4 Wrath of God
2 Island Sanctuary

Blue:

4 Ponder
4 Counterspell
2 Mana Leak
2 Frozen AEther
4 Fact or Fiction
4 Sage Owl
2 Dreamborn muse

Green:

2 Gaea's Blessing
1 Azusa, Lost but Seeking

Artifact:

4 Howling Mine
4 Mesmeric Orb
1 Chrome Mox

The way that this deck works is by milling. milling is the act of taking the top card of your opponent's library and putting it into the Graveyard. This deck Mills both your Opponent and yourself. Once all of their cards are in the Graveyard they will lose (well once their next forced draw step starts) but this can also happen to you, so what do you do you ask? You make sure that you have Gaea's Blessing. When Gaea's Blessing goes from your library into your graveyard you shuffle all of your cards back into your library.

Cards like fact or fiction help out tremendously because you can use it to see if Gaea's Blessing is one of the cards so you can put her into the Graveyard reshuffling your cards back into your library. This is a slow deck at first but when it comes off it's really quick. 4 Mesmeric Orbs are needed (as are 4 Dreamborn Muse but I only have 2 right now) because when you untap a card you have to mill a card.

I will be posting some more decks and combos in the near future. Also stay tuned for a review of a game. I'm not sure what game because I give all of the games I want to review a number and use Random.org to randomly pick a number and that's the game that's gonna get a review!

Yu-Gi-Oh: Forbidden Memories

Yu-Gi-Oh: Forbidden Memories PSX

"It's time to D-D-D-D-D-DUEL"

Or is it? You see that's the ultimate question for this game, to

duel or not to duel. This game doesn't stay true to the CCG at

all, which is surprising because it's not all that hard to do. in

case you don't know in the world of Yu-Gi-Oh cards each Monster

(creatures you use to attack/defend with) have a set number of

Stars (Levels) from 1-12 (I think 12). monsters with 1-4 stars

need nothing special to put them into play (Unless a card says

otherwise) you just select the card from your hand and play.

Monsters with star levels 5-6 require a tribute (sacrifice a

creature in play) in order to play the monster. The more stars you

go the more tributes are required, just not in this game. If I

remember correctly Dark Duel Stories for the GBC was the same way

as this game. All you do is play the monster! it doesn't matter

if your monster is a level 1 or a level 12, just play him. It

really takes the strategy out of the game and while it does make

it easier for you, it also makes it 10 times worse for you as

well! one good feature is if you want to burn through (get rid of

junk cards in your hand to replace them with more from the deck

you press up on each card you want to do this for. This is also

the same way that you would create a fusion of cards. Another

downfall with this game is that (unlike the real CCG) you can only

play one card per turn. So you can't put down a creature card and

then put down a magic/trap card on that same turn, you have to

wait. One other good thing about this game are the opponents that

you get to play against. From Kaiba, to Joey, to Rex and just

about everyone else. They really added a lot of good famous

characters, each with their own types of decks. Another thing to

point out is that the real cards have abilities, while this games

doesn't have any. It's not so much a deal breaker as it is another

nail in the coffin. Another thing to note about this game is that

if you want the best of the best cards, or even slightly decent

cards, you're gonna have to earn them. By earn them I mean grind

for ever and ever in order to earn enough star chips. For each

game you can you get a set number of Star Chips that you can use

to buy a card. I believe the lowest is 1 and the highest is 5. So

if you wanted a card that cost 500 star chips you have to either

earn it in battle (you get a random card depending on your

performance for either power or defense) you need to win 100

games. That sounds crazy right? Well hold on there cowboy a Blue-

Eyes White Dragon cost an astonishing 999999 Star Chips to buy ONE

OF THEM. At the max of 5 chips per game you need to play 199999.8

games. It's outrageous and ludicrous at at the same time. But wait

there's another downfall with this game (I'M SERIIOUSLY NOT JOKING

HERE!) Each monster card when played has 2 symbols that can be

played, these are called Guardian Stars. There are 2 sets of

Guardian Stars that are used. here are the sets of stars and what

they are strong and weak to:

Mercury beats Sun, Sun beats Moon, Moon beats Venus, Venus beats

Mercury.

Mars Beats Jupiter Beats Saturn Beats Uranus Beats Pluto Beat

Neptune Beats

Mars.

What all of this means is that if your creature is Mars and your

opponents GS is Jupiter you get a power and defense boost of (I

believe 500) it can also go the opposite way where your opponent

get's the boost.

This is a tricky aspect to try to figure out right away, which is

why you should have this information with you at all times while

playing so you can know which to play and which not to play.

The price of the cards in star chips, not being able to play more

than one card per turn and can play whatever you want whenever

you want (Remember it's a Double–Edged Sword) really put a death

grip on the gameplay. I wish they would’ve took just a bit more

time to work on the gameplay, and not spend all of that time

working on the characters and their individual stories.

The story of the game is that you are in Ancient Egypt as Prince

who (After playing a few duels and progressing the storyline you

wind up in modern times playing as Yugi in a big tournament. Does

this sound somewhat familiar? It should because it follows the

anime pretty well.

I like listening to the music, well I should say I like listening

to it some of the time. It can quickly become repetitive and

annoying. the aren't really any good sound effects either. There

is a 3D fighting with (I believe different sounds) I never sued it

since it takes much more time to watch then a regular animation

because it loads up a 3D representation of the creatures in

battle. Most of the time the attacks are the same so it because

really repetitive and boring fast!

In the end the game can be fun when it doesn't cheat (Your

opponents can get their better cards out much faster than you can

dream of) but it's still really boring when your trying to come up

with a decent deck.

I give this game a 3 out of 10

Side note that this is one of my favorite yu-gi-oh games but I

will still bash a game when it's horrible, and this game is!

Update

Sorry there hasn't been an update in a week. I started my new job and things got a little crazy. However I bought a new game from Steam:

Fallout 3: GotY

Now I already completly beat this game on the PS3, all sidequests, all trophies, every weapon, everything!

The only reason why I bought it (Besides that it was on sale $6.79 or something like that) is because I can mod this thing. Some of the mods like Fellout look amazing, and the dynamic weather with Acid rain is freaking awesome.

Just in case anyone cares, I'm in Rivet right now!

I have not done anything in Final Fantasy I for the PSP but I will son. I'm also getting back into Magic the Gathering, which brings me to my first point and I might even make a pool about this too. Should I also throw some Magic the Gathering info on this blog as well?

I've played in Vintage, Legacy, Extended, and Standard Tournaments. I play mostly Legacy but I can make a deck with just about any cards. For some reason I have a knack for putting together cards to make a really killer combo. Look up the Thopter Foundry Sword of the Meek combo. I came across that combo about a month before everyone else. I can look at a spoiler list of cards coming out in a new set and instantly see great combos.

Chrono Trigger Review

Chrono Trigger is a game that send trends and others try to replicate but

can never duplicate. Even the sequel failed to live up to the original.

The whole game is built on one aspect, Time Travel. One of the best things

in this game that I wish would have been in the sequel Chrono Cross is are

the combos (Techs) in the game. Now what separates this game from other

RPG's of the same ilk is that you have Dual Techs where 2 characters (or

more, not really sure if there are 3, it's been years since I've played

this) are both used in order to achieve a cool move. It not only adds

depth from a who should I try stance, but it also adds some fun and

originality into the battles. You might never go into battle being bored

and you might be able to play this game over and over again for the fact

that you might develop/learn new Techs. Another good thing is that the

battle are quick, nothing is really long and drawn out. You can have a

variety in your group but you can only have 3 active people at a time.

Weapons range from person to person. Chrono uses swords (Katanas) while

Marle uses Bows, Lucca has Guns, etc. Another thing to note here is the

New Game + feature that was in Chrono Cross. It's a great feature that

makes the game more fun and also helps with endings.

The Time Travel really makes this game into what it is. Not only can you

add new battles and new environments to check out and explore but it also

incorporates it into the storyline and that's what really propels this

game like no other. Once you add Time Travel (and good TT, not some

garbage look where go here, now we go here, etc.) into a storyline you

just added a layer of depth that can not only sustain itself, but other

aspects of the story and the game as a whole.

The graphics in this game are excellent. Forgetting that this game came

out on the SNES this is still a please game to the eyes. The colors are

are vibrant and the details are perfect. There is now errant glitches in

the game at all, everything just seems and feels fresh and crisp.

The sounds in this game rival some of the best in the world. There are

some songs in Chro0no Cross that are better, however there are many in

Chrono Trigger that CC couldn't even touch it with a boom lift! The attack

sounds are also very, very good. Some sounds are re-hashed but that's

expected from games as early as this and games with as many attack as this

game does.

One last not is cause and effect. There is a law of motion from Sir Isaac

Newton:

Third Law: For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.

What this means is that for each one of your actions in this game there is

a different ending for the game. There are multiple endings in this game

and each one is affected by the choices you make in the game. There are

about 15 different endings to the game in all. So choose your actions

wisely. While there are other games that do this, like Chrono Cross,

Catherine, (Catherine is a great game and I'll be reviewing this sometime

soon) Silent Hill, Dead Rising, Metal Gear Solid, Resident Evil, heavy

Rain, Star Ocean: The Second Story (I believe that it has the most endings

of any game with like 80+ endings). All of those games have one thing in

common Chrono Trigger. While it's not the first game (Look at Bubble

Bobble) but it set the trend that a lot of games have followed since then.

Well in the end Chrono Trigger is a great example of what a RPG should be

and I hope that if you never played this game that one day you just might.

You can pick this up on SNES, DS, PSX, Wii, iOS, Android, etc. it's out

there!

I give this game a 10 out of 10!

Update on Final Fantasy I PSP Status

I have successful defeated Asto, I have reclaimed the Crown and the eye. Went to Matoya and got the Tonic that will heal the Elf Prince. I have to give him the Tonic so I can get the last few awesome treasures and move on to the next chapter.

Oh By the Way my Part Consists of 2 Warriors, one White Mage and One Black Mage. They are all Level 15.