Civil War: Iron Man

Civil War does a pretty good job of vilifying Tony Stark. This collection lets us see what's driving him. The Iron Man collection includes the "Casualties of War" 1-shot, Iron Man #13-#14, and "The Confession." Interestingly, the stories in these issues also provide a direct look into Captain America's view of the Marvel Civil War.

In Casualties, Tony and Steve meet in secret. The encounter is told using vignettes of their past relationship as Avengers team-mates. While the contexts are very different, the parallels are striking. We start to tie together all the flashback and retroactive stories and realize Tony sees the Super-Human Registration Act as the lesser of all evils. He may be a futurist, but he's also a pessimist. Supporting the Act is the only way he can see will set the public at ease over super-powered folk.

The Iron Man issues are introduced with a concise "summary page" bringing us up to speed on what's been happening in the regular monthly series. It's both a blessing and a shame since we find Tony is having a crisis of faith over a recent plot which turned him into a murderer. If this isn't build-up to his shaky state of mind in Civil War, I don't know what would be. The audience finds Tony struggling with issues of morality and responsibility. It's quite a powerful arc and it most definitely recommended reading.

Finally, the last part of the collection is "The Confession." This was published concurrently with the infamous Captain America #25 and is a spin-off from those events. Taking place after the conclusion of the war, Tony and Steve meet again: in the brig of a SHIELD Heli-carrier. Tony is there to finally lay out exactly why and how the SHRA came about. He reveals that his plans go back as far as the retroactive events depicted in Illuminati and that he knew all along he would lose his reputation and the respect of his peers. But that he stood for what he believed in: a responsibility to the trust of those whom super-heroes have sworn to protect. And he finally answers the most important question: was doing what he's done worth it in the end?

If there was one major tie-in collection that bookends with Road to Civil War, this is it. Highly Recommended.

eBay life

I'm about 50/50 when it comes to dealing with eBay. I've experienced everything from a seller shipping me the wrong thing (sometimes worth the effort to follow-up with, sometimes not) to an outright rip-off where an item never arrived.

So I'm happy to report that from time to time, I decided to take the plunge and buy something else on eBay and the deal works out. It hasn't arrived yet, but I got a Hellboy Director's Cut DVD on Sunday. I finally got a feedback today (which implies the seller finally noticed I'd won and paid for it 5 days ago). I'm not complaining because quite frankly, I'm very much aware that sometimes, the seller is just a guy. You know, "just a guy" as in, he's got other things to worry about in life than keeping his nose glued on the auction he's running.

So why am I clamoring for a film 3 years old now? Well, the sequel is currently filming. And I never got this movie (but loved it at the cinema when it came out). And actually, I'm looking up the animated videos that came out because I've heard good things about them. I think the western world in general is finally starting to get over their "PG-13" hump when it comes to animated features (discounting the mainstream acceptance of anime, it's still a kid's domain really).

Civil War: Captain America

The funny thing about Captain America's role in the Civil War is that he is a symbol more than anything. Civil War tended to focus more on grey-area cast like Spider-Man (rightly, as that's where the drama is). As such, there's very little to say about Cap once established as the leader of the anti-registration underground.

As such, the solo monthly makes time to spotlight love interest, Sharon Carter. The 3-part "Drums of War" tale shines a light on the people around Cap but rarely gets inside his head. There is almost no internal monologue for him and instead uses dialogue for exposition. In fact, it is more of a build-up to the turn of events in issue #25 than advancing the Civil War plot. It feels much like the Captain America: Disassembled collection that way: anciliary.

Also in this collection is the Winter Soldier: Winter Kills 1-shot about the return of Bucky Barnes. He was one of few examples of heroes killed and not resurrected... until now. Like the Illuminati retroactive continuity, Bucky was revealed to have survived and was coerced into operating as a drone assassin for years. The story is about how a time-displaced man attempts to accept how the world has changed since he last saw it in 1944. While it doesn't tie in directly with Civil War, it touches on Nick Fury's activities and reveals that Marvel's super-villains are still at large and taking advantage of the Civil War confusion.

While, I cannot recommend this as a Civil War book, it is a must-read for getting on the Captain America #25 bandwagon.

Memorable day out for everyone

Submitted for your approval:

My Nose - is it a the result of a cat scratching my face? No.

I learned an important lesson today at the big outdoor paintball field. Stay cool and hydrated. I'm sure everyone, including the staff will remember me for a while - I'm living proof when they warn players to drink lots of fluids. While I had a glass of water when I woke up, the only other drink I had was a cup of coffee with breakfast at Tim Hortens.

After only 2 games I was breathing hard and feeling all out of it. I sat down in the shade off on the side of the dead box staging area. It was very strange since I'd never had this sort of experience before. I sat fighting to stay awake but before I knew it, I was drifting off to "sleep." At one point I recall opening my eyes and realizing I was blind - like my brain just could not process any information from my eyeballs.

And then at one point I suddenly felt very relaxed. In fact, I vaguely recall dreaming a bit as my mind wandered. And then before I knew it, I heard voices and I realized the cool sensation I was feeling was my face in the gravel: I'd fallen off the bench when I fainted. I was escorted off the field for a break and given a cold-compress from the first-aid kit.

Besides that, I had a great time. I was able to use my marker with no troubles and the new barrel was nice. Kind of difficult to judge its performance because we were firing at such long ranges. I had EvilTwin and his brothers join me and overall it was fantastic. They've just left after a steak dinner at The Keg (why hadn't I noticed how lovely all the servers were before). I've already disassembled my Ion for cleaning and I'll leave it to dry overnight (paint got inside the breech and I had to wash it inside and out). For now, I think I'll give my folks a call and then call it a day and go to bed.

The Hot Wheels Batmobile 2007

There's surprisingly little information about this particular model. After crawling the web, I've come to the conclusion that this is not a repaint variant, but actually is a new design by Mattel to resemble the Batmobile as it appears in the "The Batman" animated series.

But more surprising is that Google does not turn up much about the "Joker Run" play set at all nor are there many decent photos of the car itself. So here you go:
One final note, there are variations on this sculpt. One appears in the "Mystery Machine" line up. And a straight-up repaint with green trim (instead of blue) appears in the Riddler-themed play set (which I believe is essentially identical to the Joker set except colours and stickers). Which one is the "original" one? Who knows? Who cares?

stupid little toy craving

This one's for my cousin and her boyfriend who weren't sure whether I was joking or not about getting a Hot-Wheels play-set. The photo shows my freshly acquired Batman "Joker's Run" set with evidence of the take-out pizza we had and a discarded box of green-tea Pocky; so you know it's not somebody stock photo I stole off the web). ^_^

I guess I'll do a little review of the set. I'm not particularly well versed in Hot Wheels collecting so I couldn't tell you for sure, but I rather suspect this is one of those repackaged sets that Mattel threw together just because they recently got the DC-Comics license and who could blame them but to put DC characters on EVERYTHING? I also suspect the Batmobile that comes with this set is probably just a repaint of an existing "future car." But the bottom does indeed have a DC and 2007 copyright stamp. And since I haven't played with a genuine Hot Wheels brand toy car in ages, I'm highly entertained by how slick the axels are and can't help rolling it back and forth on the counter top...

The launcher is a little on the light side for my taste, I have to hold it down with both hands to make it actually work right. And it's deceptively wide-mouthed so there's absolutely no accuracy to it. You need to position the car very carefully to aim it at the ramp. Aside: the set comes with a spare elastics for the launcher.

Maybe it's my clumsy adult hands, but I'm having a horrible time just getting the car to hit the jump, never mind actually bothering with the timing. Oh, yeah, almost forgot, that "jaw" thing? It's a wind-up trap that opens and closes, so in order to hit that Joker billboard, you need to hit your jump when the trap is down. If it's open, Batman goes for a spectacular crash... well... as spectacular as a little die-cast car is going crash anyway.

Finally, the set comes with a completely useless Batman figurine standing about 1.5cm tall. I guess you could say it's almost to scale with the Batmobile... not really. All in all, this isn't any different than a cubicle toy you'd find in a novelty store. It's a little game I can play on my own so I'm thinking I'll stick it in my office for those later afternoons when nobody's around...

tour-guide duty

Had visitors this past week so I took some time off to spend it with them (otherwise I'd never get away from the office; I'm the sort to take my work too damn personal).

Picked up my cousin and her boyfriend from the train station late Tuesday evening. Got some Tim Horten's in us before coming back to the house (it's a pretty long drive when you think about it).

Wednesday: Rainy out, took our time. Made a big bacon-egg breakfast. Taught them to play Guitar Hero. Stopped by Taco Bell (unplanned, but we were hungry and and it was still rainy). Went to the Science and Tech Museum. Took a VR trip to Mars (it was pretty neat, like a miniature Hydroid'94). screen was a little bit on the small side... not sure how educational it was. Participated in an "Anatomy of a Murder" interactive exhibit. That was pretty cool. Cousin's boyfriend solved the case (I missed a very important clue at one of the stations that threw me off). Stopped at the mall to kill pre-supper hour. Stopped by Mongolian Village. It was a good except it felt weird because it wasn't actually a buffet - you paid by weight like a salad bar. I prefer the Great Khan in Toronto where it's paid one price and eat until you get sick. That way you're not constantly thinking about the price. Cousin forgot glasses and pills, so we called it a day and headed home.

Thursday: beautiful day out. Organized a picnic and ate in the park next door. I was introduced to "pinwheel sandwiches" - a spinach, red-pepper, cream-cheese in tortilla wrap affair that looks like sushi when cut up. More Guitar Hero for the afternoon. Saw Transformers and then stopped at Lone Star for Tex-Mex themed meal.

Friday: really weird day out. Lazy morning... more Guitar Hero. Introduced Taiko Drum Master (realized I hadn't needed to worry about coming up with boardgames or anything; my PS2 provided endless entertainment). Visited the Museum of Nature. It was... odd. My cousin did not remember going there (but I recall taking her before with her ex-boyfriend). However, it was hardly recognizable thanks to the construction going on (last time the other half was undergoing renovations). We saw a neat evolution-of-the-planet film presentation complete with lighting and wind and mist effects. Had Vietnamese "pho" noodles for supper. By this time we'd decided to watch the new Harry Potter movie after I'd get caught up (and they'd get refreshed).


Saturday: pissy weather - seemed nice at times, and at others it would rain unexpectedly. I took the tourists downtown for a Sharwarma lunch. The diner clearly wasn't dirty enough because the wraps we got were a little too touristy for my taste (its content was practically a salad rather than the greasy humus and pickled turnip I'm used to). We walked around and took in Parliament Hill. Stopped in a bookstore. Went for gelato (Italian-style ice-cream). Then made our way back to the car. Got take-out pizza (can't fool me; it tasted just like McCain Delissio!) at a local pizzeria. Then went out again for the movie... It was raining again when we left the theatre. Cousin was moaning about her vacation being over by then.

She made an omelette breakfast with some of the leftover stuff I had in the fridge. I brought them to the train station for noon and made our goodbyes. I came home and did some laundry ...the usual sort of thing and enjoyed being alone for a while.

Editorial: Order of the Phoenix

If there is one major discovery I've made about Harry Potter this year it's that 5 years down the line, I've finally understood why Potter became a break out success when it did. That is, I distinctly recall Potter-mania didn't occur until after Goblet of Fire was published. Sure there were probably some die-hard fans before the fourth book came out but really, the movies didn't start until very (relatively speaking) recently. If there were any comparison I could draw to something I hold dear to myself, I'd say it's very much like Babylon 5. I have a terrible time convincing people to watch B5 because season 1 was dull as hell.

Anyway, I watched the first several films as they came out because it was a hip thing to do. But I am not a huge fan - I never even read the books. I enjoyed the films for what they were: escapism. Somewhere along the way, I sort of let go of it. Which is too bad, because I wish I had absorbed as much as I could before last night.

I went to see Order of the Phoenix under very unusual circumstances. When I go into a sequel film, I'm usually very well versed in the previous installments. I like to think I'm getting more bang for the buck if I know all I can so that I'm not busy concentrating on the unfamiliar. I watched the third film many months ago. I had a reasonable appreciation because by then the story had kicked into high-gear and secrets of the Potter family legacy had begun to reveal themselves. But for whatever reason, I'd never bothered to look up the fourth film. It was during our trip out for Transformers when we thought, it'd be fun to see another movie later on.

So in between, I picked up Goblet of Fire on DVD. It was remarkable how much detail was crammed into that film. Having not read the book, I wondered if I was missing anything important. For instance, I felt like I was being bombarded by too many characters and I was losing track of who I'd met before in previous films.

Sadly, the same thing happened in Order of the Phoenix. While the plot remained decently straight-forward, every time a new character showed up, I wondered if I was supposed to remember a detail I had missed earlier. My cousin who accompanied me assured me none of it was important (she admitted to having watched the previous films multiple times on DVD in the past). For the uninitiated, thankfully, the film assumes nothing. Everyone at the Hogwarts school who acts benign is friendly. Anyone acting adversarial is obviously unfriendly. There are no surprise turns, only surprise appearances (and disappearances). And if anything, the film is simply a feast for the eyes and the producers seemed to go out of their way to outdo the likes of Lord of the Rings (ever imagine a D&D styled battle between wizards?). What might have stuck out like a sore thumb among the likes of Gandalf versus Saruman fits right in with Dumbledore versus Voldemort.

However, despite the flashy thrill-ride we are treated to, there remains the feeling that I'm missing out on something. I've been inspired to look up the books. I will read them (probably in rapid-fire succession (at least the 5 to get myself up to speed) and then I will re-watch the Prisoner of Azkhaban because that's definitely the turning point when Harry realizes there's a lot more to his life at Hogwarts than just being the "Boy who lived." As of last time I'm suddenly appreciating the saga that much more... maybe the kids were on to something.

Reaction: Transformers

Finally saw the Transformers movie last night. I think perhaps I was one of the only people who was not looking forward to this. One time I picked up a Transformers DVD thinking I'd relive my childhood only to be sorely disappointed because I learned 2 things watching the cartoon as an adult: that my folks were right (it was a half-hour toy commercial), and that I should have left a childhood memory be.

When I heard a big-budget FX-laden Transformers movie was on the way, I braced for the worst. But I must admit now that I was pleasantly surprised. You still have to treat it as it was meant to be: it's a kid-friendly action film with a very simple plot. The writers cleverly adapted several bits of Transformers mythos. And they surprisingly paid homage without making it sound like they were expecting a cheap pop from the audience.

Alright, so now for the bullet list:

• The good guys and bad guys are here fighting over a mysterious life-giving Cube. That is all. Too simple? No, it's just enough, you don't need to ask for much when it comes to a movie about giant robots pummeling each other.
• The Cube appears to be a nod to the "Underbase" device seen in the old Marvel comics.
• The producers had a little fun at VW's expense by featuring a Beetle as the rejected used car. Volkswagen and Hasbro/Takara had a "difference of opinion" (VW refuses to be affiliated with a "violent" franchise). This is also why a NewBeetle never appeared as Bumblebee in the Binaltech toy line-up.
• I really liked the idea that the Transformers scan any nearby object to transform into. This plot device easily dismissed any questions of how they do what they do; that isn't important to the story anyway.
• Optimus Prime's mouth guard is retractable. Weird choice, but understandable, and that's okay with me.
• Frenzy is never referred to by name. For the record, the CD player is Frenzy. He arguably has the most screen time of all the robot characters... what a strange choice.
• Scorpinok is also never referred to by name... and he never transforms either and remains a simple plot device. I thought that sucked.
• Porsche appears prominently as a product-placement, yet, Jazz (who was originally a 911 back in 1984) appears as a Mazda. But they got his personality right and he breakdances while he transforms (blink and you'll miss it). That was hilarious.
• The human cast were great. I was particularly surprised by Tyrese as a tough-guy soldier (my opinion of him has gone way up from his appearance in 2Fast 2Furious).
• "More than meets the eye" is a nod to the tag-line on the first Hasbro toys.
• "Freedom is the right of all sentient beings" is a nod to the "tech specs" card on printed on the back of the Optimus Prime toy from way back.
• "One shall stand, one shall fall" is a nod to the 1986 animated movie (not coincidentally that movie also used this quote in a battle between Optimus Prime and Megatron).
• Megatron is the guy who looks the most different from his cartoon and toy origins. And yet, somehow, as he has the most close-ups, seems to have a face that resembles the Beast Wars Megatron. Maybe that was my imagination.

Two more thoughts I'd like to touch on before closing up.
Despite the fact that this movie is all about robots knocking each other around, the main character is still the human, Sam. Which means all the Transformers (both Autobot and Decepticon) are supporting cast. And sadly, they never got around to developing them as characters very well. In fact, a majority of them show up only half-way through the story as plot-devices. That irritated me.
And finally, transformers unaccounted for by the end of the film:
Scorpinok was never destroyed (but the military sure came close). Starscream is featured in an amazing aerial dogfight sequence... and promptly disappears from the movie. Three new Transformers are created during the course of the final battle thanks to accidental contact with the Cube: a Cadillac, a Mountain Dew vending machine, and a microwave oven... We aren't told if they are sentient. But we should assume they are hostile given a demonstration of the Cube's power in an earlier part of the film.

Still, this is definitely good pop-corn fun and while my opinion doesn't count for much (since it's already raking in the money), I hope it remains successful. It's success can prove to Hollywood that big-budget robot movies can be done right. And that could open the doors for a whole slew of robot-themed films just like what X-Men and Spider-Man did for super-hero movies.

no word from PBL

Well, just to update everyone who cares, it's now about 2 business days since I sent my complaint to PBL about the barrel (see previous post). And as I figured, they haven't responded to me. One good thing though is that they charged my credit card upfront, so I guess I can ignore the amount on the invoice. That is the back-ordered gear-bag is paid for but not invoiced. Which in turn means my barrel cost me whatever the original bill of sale was and not wasn't listed on the invoice.

Anyway, to pad this post a little, here's another look at what my Ion looks like with the non-2006 edition Progressive on it.

Old Smart Parts Progressive

Interesting...
I arrived home to find a box on my doorstep today. As as you can see above that's my new setup. Notice anything weird about the tip of the Progressive barrel? Yup, PBL sent me what appears to be an older model. Their web site lists only the 2006 barrel (which has a smoothly tapered tip instead of a flaring tip).

Not sure if I want to complain. I mean, it's technically the same barrel with a very similar bore size (in fact, I did the 3-point test with a ball I happen to have on hand and it was closer to 4-point contact than 3-point contact). It's just I did not expect my marker to wind up looking like this. I will definitely write back to PBL and mention this anyway. They deserve to know that I'm not an idiot and that yes, I did indeed notice.

What I WILL complain about is that the invoice indicates they charged me $41.95 for it... which is a regular price of a Progressive 2k6 Barrel at PBL. Where's my Canada Day sale discount?!

Reaction: Solid State Society

This was going to be a tubes update (because a few things happened this week: like the arrival of a notification for a depot pick-up, learning that something from PBL turned out to be back-ordered). But instead, I'll concentrate on one thing that went right.

I got my copy of Ghost in the Shell Stand Alone Complex "Solid State Society" from the mailbox last night! Maybe it's been a while since I sat down and watched an episode of SAC, but this was an excellent presentation.

First instinct: I always get the LE version. I'm almost afraid I'm missing out on something if I even consider the regular editions ...borders on OCD sometimes. The LE version of this movie comes in a beautiful "steelbook" package with 3 discs: the movie, an extras disc, and the music soundtrack on an audio CD.
The movie itself is a straight-up sequel to the popular SAC television series. The funny thing being that the movie ties together several concepts seen in the other incarnations of Ghost in the Shell. And as such, the movie seems familiar and new at the same time. We're introduced to a Section 9 with former rookie Togosa in the squad-leader position... and with him is a fellow we (as English readers) only recently met in the GitS1.5 "Human Error Processor" manga published by Dark Horse. Section 9 is also without Major Kusanagi who is now working alone underground (similar to the movie continuity) and surfacing in public using a series of remote-controlled androids (not unlike the depiction in the GitS2 "Man Machine Interface" manga). And we're also back to a mysterious rogue hack going by the code-name "Puppeteer" also not unlike the events in the original manga...
And finally, we're reintroduced to the walking talking tanks... but these are not the Tachikoma we've come to know during the series. Fans will remember that those guys were tragically but unceremoniously wiped out in the line of duty before the series came to an end. Thankfully, they are given their due in this film after a disastrous outing with their replacement units (Batou is lucky to survive the incident).
Of course, Kusanagi is back to kick some serious butt. Which brings up a I point I wanted to address. There's an unusual amount of action-oriented material in the movie. It's distinct from the plodding pace of the Mamoru Oshii films. This movie paces itself with a certain urgency. The team is up against a conspiracy with victims played against each other either being sniped or hacked to commit suicide at every turn. And the body count keeps rising as Section 9 races to uncover the overwhelming plot covering everything from crooked politicians and psycho hackers to child abductions and identity theft.The package: Well, the soundtrack is everything one comes to expect for a Ghost in the Shell soundtrack. More techno than opera this time. However, the Extras disc is jam-packed with must-see material. There's a run-down of the SAC universe for the uninitiated. Interview sessions with the English production team and with Production IG in Japan. A look at a promotional Tachikoma robot built by Nissan labs to promote the film. And also a look at the conceptual design process for the "near-future" cars we see in the SAC series. Very cool stuff for the Ghost in the Shell fans. I'm glad I spent the extra few dollars for the LE version.

I'm so very tired of this...

OK, so I've figured out that the success of a dual-layer DVD burn is dependent on what I ate for supper on the Wednesday of the week I attempt the burn. No really, that's about as random as it gets.

My brother has notified me that after a weekend here doing no less than 3 test burns in his laptop, he went home with one last ISO on his hard-drive that stubbornly will refuse to burn on a Memorex disc! And while I have a couple of burns on Fujifilm discs prior to giving them away to my brother many months ago when this story started, I've found that CloneDVD2 is NOT compatible with the Fujifilm discs...

So what to do with that ISO? I burn it to the last remaining Philips disc I have... and it... works... sort of. At least it's readable and does not give a "no disc in drive" error. Except, and here's where things get REAL weird: it does not readable in my secondary drive (the Pioneer one). It plays in my stand-alone player with flying colours and is readable in the LG burner, but the Pioneer drive will have none of it.

So now I have another mystery: is my Pioneer drive acting up (it's pretty old)? Why does it read some of my Philips burns and not others? Why will it read that Ultraman movie I made (a rip of a Region 2 DVD I bought) and not a concert I made a year ago when all this started? WTF is going on?!

the week in the tubes

The timing was strange but could work out in my favour... I was wary of throwing stuff on my credit card because at the beginning of June I'd put on quite a chunk of money for car repairs... But I'm playing the game: will I get billed for July or for June this month? Hmm...

Amazon listed the full-length movie follow-up to the Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex series. It was due out this week on DVD so I pre-ordered it. Got an email saying it shipped today. Also waiting for book 2 of the Marvel Annihilation collection. Love to support the local shops but I'd be a fool to pass up a 37% discount from cover price.

Got an email on Friday night from PBL. Those are the guys I bought my Smart Parts ION from initially. 15% off everything on-line for the Holiday weekend. I still need a gear bag so I ordered a Proto duffel. I also padded my order with a new barrel. A buddy from work has the same Smart Parts Progressive 2k6 barrel for his Kingman Spyder and says he liked it a lot. Don't know when they'll ship... if they're as fast as they were last time, it'll arrive pretty quick (maybe even within the week.

Speaking of holiday sales, Futureshop and Bestbuy both sent me spam this weekend but I ignored it in favour to hunting for my own stuff. Actually I just stumbled on it at Dell. I had missed it earlier during the Days of Deals promo, but I've been looking for batteries. And it seems that Dell will at random discount consumer goods. So I was able to get an 8-pack of NiMH batteries for only $20. Got a shipping notice today!

video wallpaper

File this one under "stupid things you can make your computer do without Windows Vista." You may have heard by now that one of the freebies Microsoft is giving away to Vista Ultimate users is a little novelty app called "DreamScene" which turns any video file into a moving wallpaper.

Well MyDigitalLife has published an article detailing exactly how to accomplish the same thing... for free... and on Windows XP. And all you need is VLC media player.

It's not without its glitches though.
For one thing, you'll need to remember that this is VLC running in the background (i.e.: you can choose to skip the part where you hide it from the task bar, but then if you're like me and like your Alt-Tab shortcut, then you'll eventually swap back to the player. Videos with sound of course will also get annoying pretty quickly. Finally, I noticed that at the end of the playlist, VLC behaves unpredictably - in my case, it tried to loop the video to play again but then it not only paused, but it also became it's own full-screen video meaning an Alt-Tab me to a the full screen video instead of the VLC interface... man it was weird.

I'm going to keep playing with this and if anything interesting turns up I'll follow-up.

Thoughts on UFS

Universal Fighting System pits several popular fighting-game genre properties against each other in a one-on-one showdown. These are my notes based on my newbie experiences with my Taki (Soul Calibur 3) and Terry Bogard (King of Fighters 2006) against Ken Masters (Street Fighter 2) and Cassandra, Siegfried , and Cassandra (SC3).

The game is a throwback to Magic: The Gathering. Players must attempt to play cards to the table from their hand using a combination of "committing" cards previously set down and using a random-number "control" from the draw deck. Each character has a set "vitality" and when drained through repeated attack, loses the match.

General reactions:
Sabretooth Games really need to republish a comprehensive rules sheet. Although all cards issued for the game are compatible with each other, each new revision has a tendency to generate a new vague question that might be obvious to experienced players, but simply are not addressed directly. But on the other hand, a starter deck is 100% legally playable. The boxes inlcude 60 cards: the character cards, a selection of themed cards for that character, and the rest are random cards from the corresponding set. The trick is to learn how that character works...

Playing Taki:
Taki is a character with many attacks. Many of the Taki-themed cards (depicting her special moves and abilities) are more often Attack cards than Foundation cards. And since a majority of Attacks feature a Control-check of 2, the odds of drawing a Control-check of only 2 increase. And the likelihood of drawing a string of successful Control-check for making attack combos decreases. Her upside is that she's got several features that involve healing herself. It's really a matter of being able to use those abilities every chance you get.

Playing Terry Bogard:
Terry appears to be a more traditional character. I've noticed that he's favours the Reversal mechanic heavily. Many of his cards are designed to be played during the opponent's turn as counter-attacks. This worked out well particularly in a fight against someone like Ken who has very few blocks.

Remarks about my opponents:
Ken (or perhaps the SF2 property in general) appears to simulate the button-mashing technique. Ken-themed cards have a tendency to have lots of cheaply-played Attacks. And those Attack cards usually don't feature a block ability. Ken also favours drawing lots of cards to increase his hand-size. While this does allow a wider choice of cards to play during a turn, it also means the draw deck is cycled faster (and the deck will shrink on each cycle according to the rules).

I have no comments to make about the other SC3 character decks I've played against as they've always been embarrassing incidents where I was wiped out while using my unbalanced Taki deck. But overall, it's a decently playable game provided you make up a few rules when the included rules sheet is unclear. I just need to find more players to play with.