Woo, woo, woo, this will be a brief one this week! Between work, and getting ready for my trip to the Grand Prix in Sydney this weekend, and endeavoring to actually spend some time outside in the fresh air and sunshine, and watching far too much Strapping Young Lad on YouTube, I’m just plain running out of time to fill this weeks column with much nonsense! Which is ridiculous, because all it’s been so far is nonsensical rubbish… what can I say?
Wibble. That’s certainly something I can say. Wibble. See? I did it again! The word “wibble” turns up in an episode of Blackadder in season four, which is another thing I have spent the last week doing (in this case, watching) instead of things I should have been doing.
Some of the things I still need to do within the next day before are as follows:
Some laundry: My grandmother never actually got around to telling me that I needed to have clean underwear on me at all times in case I was in a car accident or something, but I’m pretty sure she wanted to. It was probably more the fact that she couldn’t get a word in edge-wise while I was around. Funny that.
Get my hair cut: While I don’t look like a wookie just yet, I am certainly in need of a good trim about the ears and neck. I usually manage to time my trip to the hairdressers with some kind of trip overseas. I feel that being clean-shaven and neat at the edges helps me not endure a cavity search at the airport. Actually, that fresh air and sunshine I mentioned earlier was replaced yesterday by a great deal of falling liquid and chilliness, and that has made me unwilling to go out for anything other than work. I was going to do before and after pictures for you, because I know how much you guys love completely off topic pictures of me wearing nothing but a blush. I’m sure I’ll manage to get in for a few minutes within the next day or so.
Reading the spoiler: After a prerelease, I usually take the time to peruse the spoiler itself to see what’s going to be cool and so on. This time it was even more important that I familiarize myself with the Time Spiral set, as I would be writing Grand Prix coverage about it in a couple of days. Oh well, it will give me something to read while on the plane.
Get Travel Insurance: Once, when a bunch of us visited Australia, a friend of mine somehow ended up with chickenpox. He and his partner were forced to stay there for a week until he was no longer contagious. My traveling companion and I went up to their room to visit them, and to see if they needed anything.
“Good thing we had travel insurance” she said.
“Travel Insurance, eh?” I mulled over, hand on chin, “Good thing I’ve already had chicken pops.”
“Travel Insurance, eh?” my travel companion also quipped, but just plain left it at that. It took me all over six seconds to push him out the door to make preparations for our immediate departure before any spots began to show up all over him.
Checking out the Top 8 replays of the Magic Online Premier Events to keep you guys updated on what’s on the up and what’s not: Oh wait, I made time to do that one!
11 (12) Solar Flare (Blue/Black/White Control)
10 (7) Simic Aggro Control (Blue/Green)
8 (6) Satanic Sligh (Rakdos Burn)
4 (3) Heartbeat (Heartbeat of Spring/Early Harvest Combo)
4 (1) Simic Snake Aggro Control (Green/Blue)
3 (4) Magnivore (Blue/Red Land Destruction Control)
3 (2) Sea Stompy (Green/Red/Blue Aggro Control)
3 (1) Ghost Dad (Black/White Tallowisp Aggro)
3 (0) Zoo (Green/White/Red Aggro)
2 (3) Azorius Enduring Ideal Control
2 (6) Counterbalance Control (Blue/Black/White Control, sometimes without the Black)
2 (1) Izzetron (Blue/Red Urzatron Control)
2 (1) Simic Erayo Ninja (The mBracht special)
2 (0) Battle of Wits (Made my day, I can tell you. And yes, one of them even won their quarterfinals match!)
1 (1) Hand in Hand (Black/White Aggro Control)
1 (2) Selesnya Aggro Control (Green/White Aggro Control)
1 (0) Mono Blue Snow Control (Just Blue, and like, Snow)
1 (0) Dimir Aggro Control (Blue/Black Aggro Control)
1 (0) Dimir Control (Blue/Black Control)
0 (2) Unknown (Cry, cry, come back and play!)
0 (2) Gruul Snow Aggro Control (I hope that sums it up)
0 (1) Gruul Beats (Green/Red Aggro)
0 (1) Izzet Snow Control (Blue/Red Snow Control)
Oh yeah, sleep: That was the other thing, daylight savings kicked in here over the weekend too. No wonder I’m worn out! … Probably because I took a quick scan of the card prices for you all as well. Hopefully it will give you an idea or where prices are floating for now.
The numbers shown, for instance, as 2-4 are the price people are buying the card for, followed by the price people are selling the card for. The prices shown in parenthesis, like this (2-4), are the prices from last week. If a card and its prices have been bolded, it’s because there has been a change in price from the week before to help you differentiate those cards from the others that are a little more… static in their movements. Card prices are in Tickets, because that’s what most people buy and sell with on Magic Online. Also note that prices can fluctuate based on the time of day as well, depending on just how many people are online selling at the time. Due to my uniquely antipodean location down here in the pacific and my tendency to hold down a regular nine to five job, the prices below end up being more of a general indication of what’s going on than an exact science.
Pithing Needle 14-16 (14-15)
Umezawa’s Jitte 5-7 (5-7)
Cranial Extraction 3-4 (3-4)
Dark Confidant 4-5 (4-5)
Meloku the Clouded Mirror 2-4 (2-4)
Keiga, the Tide Star 2-4 (2-4)
Simic Sky Swallower 3-5 (3-5)
Giant Solifuge 3-4 (3-4)
Loxodon Hierarch 3-4 (3-4)
Burning-Tree Shaman 1-3 (1-3)
Ghost Council of Orzhova 1-3 (1-3)
Ohran Viper 9-10 (8-9)
Birds of Paradise 4-6 (4-5)
Demonfire 4-5 (4-5)
Wildfire 2-3 (2-3)
Magnivore 2-4 (2-4)
Wrath of God 10-12 (10-11)
Paladin En-Vec 5-6 (5-7)
Adarkar Valkyrie 2-4 (2-4)
Yosei, the Morning Star 2-4 (2-4)
Scrying Sheets 6-7 (6-8)
Breeding Pool 13-15 (12-14)
Hallowed Fountain 10-12 (10-12)
Blood Crypt 9-10 (8-10)
Godless Shrine 7-9 (8-9)
Shivan Reef 7-8 (7-8)
Steam Vents 7-8 (7-8)
Stomping Ground 6-8 (6-8)
Yavimaya Coast 5-7 (5-7)
Caves of Koilos 5-7 (5-7)
Watery Grave 5-6 (5-6)
Temple Garden 5-6 (5-6)
Overgrown Tomb 5-6 (5-6)
Sacred Foundry 5-6 (5-6)
Forge[/author]“]Battlefield [author name="Forge"]Forge[/author] 4-5 (4-5)
Underground River 4-5 (4-5)
Karplusan Forest 3-5 (3-5)
Llanowar Wastes 3-5 (3-5)
Sulfurous Springs 3-4 (3-4)
Adarkar Wastes 3-4 (3-4)
Brushland 3-4 (3-4)
I’ll be back after this short trip to Australia: yes that’s right, I don’t actually live in Australia, I’ll be visiting it only. Hopefully I’ll have more time to write stuff once I’m back, although it will probably be mostly off topic as usual. Until then, take care and don’t forget to floss between those teeth towards the back.
{e}