I've Officially Returned to the Competitive Scene (In This Case: Lorcana)

Yes, indeedily do, I have begun competing in Lorcana events. Last time I competed in a tournament was March of last year where I got 2nd at a $2k event (which you can read about here if you want).

I played in four Set Championships and one local this past month. I played Amber Steel the whole set. Here is the final version of my deck list: https://dreamborn.ink/decks/y4rEwNip6Lq6GdahwAl9 I'd continue to tweak it if I had more tournaments, but I feel really good about that form.

Quick Report of Each Set Champs and Lessons I Learned:

Set Champs 1: 

Summary:

        I, uh, didn't have 8 of the best cards in my deck at the tournament as they hadn't arrived in the mail. Still did surprisingly well for having my hand tied behind my back. When 3-2. Got 11th missing the Top 8 cut.

Lessons:

        In my round one, I was fully taken up by tournament jitters and was playing much much faster than was required, which caused me to make some severe misplays. It was pretty frustrating. But I learned the lesson to calm myself down and take deep breaths. And just because my opponent is playing at a fast clip doesn't mean I need to. Slow down, think through the play, execute.

        Also having a good deck is important lolol.

MVP:

        Bambi did SO much work for me and instantly became a staple in my deck moving forward. She wasn't in my first iteration of the deck and was only put in because I was missing so many other cards, and she killed it.

LVP:

        Eilonwy was never meant to be in the deck either and boy oh boy did she never see the light of day again. She died to various instances of ping damage and was just a waste of a card over and over again. I'm pretty sure it would've been better for me to ink her in every game than play her (except maybe one).

Set Champs 2:

Summary:

        I did so well! I got 2nd and it was awesome and it was a blast. In the five rounds of Swiss, I won my first four rounds and lost my fifth to Izzy getting me the 2nd Seed going into the Top 8 cut. I won two rounds in top cut to make it into the finals where I ultimately lost to Izzy again. 

        One of the players I beat in Swiss and again in Top 8 was Prince, a player who had just recently won a 128-Player CCQ to qualify for Nationals. Awesome win to get (and I beat him 2-0 both times!).

        I do feel like I was getting lucky throughout the day with some huge top decks (ex. topdecking item removal literally both times Prince played down a key item). But I also feel like I was playing extremely smart and sharp the whole day. I was thinking through lines clearly, thinking about my opponent's outs etc. I feel great about how I preformed.

Lessons:

        I got to talk to Izzy about our games, and he brought up was how he looked at my hand a couple turns ago and how that helped him. I had completely forgotten about it. It's important to remember what tricks you have up your sleeve vs. what tricks your opponent already knows.

MVP:

        Prince Charming single-handedly won me 3-4 games against Yurple. Benja also came in clutch in key moments.

Set Champs 3:

Summary:

        18 people dropped from the tournament. The day before 30 people had signed up. Turned into a 12-person bracket. Was rather disappointing.

        Round 1, I fought Izzy again. I managed to take a game this time, but still lost.

        Round 2, I fought against a Aggro Amber/Emerald deck. They had some unfortunate draws and petered out both games. I won 2-0.

        Round 3, I fought Mouse House. Game 1, I was ahead and then threw the game away. Was really unfortunate. More on this in my lessons.

        Round 4, I fought Crystal who was playing Yurple. I won 2-0. In one game, I made a poor mistake that luckily didn't get punished hard enough to make a difference.

        Still managed to squeak into 8th place to get a Promo. I had the same tiebreakers as Derek who was in 9th; we're not sure exactly how it was determined I should be above him.

Lessons:

        Don't get comfortable. Think about your opponent's outs. You're winning, but what options do they have to turn the game around? What are their win-cons? Play around them. When you're ahead, it's still important to take a deep breath and think.

LVP:

        Benja did so well the previous week, I over-teched into him by adding another copy. He ended up being useless the entire day and was a big liability. 

Set Champs 4:

Summary:

        Fun competitive tournament, but didn't quite make the cut.

        Lost Round 1 to Wakeen who was playing Mouse House. Man, I don't like fighting that deck. 1-2.

        Won Round 2 to a player playing an off meta Sapphire/Amber deck. 2-0.

        Won Round 3 to a player playing Mouse House. He made some critical misplays; there was nothing I could do if he had just quested, but alas: I won 2-0. Still don't like fighting Mouse House.

        Lost Round 4 to Ruben who was playing Yurple. First Yurple I've lost any games to -- I was 8-0 in games against Yurple before I lost 2-0 to Ruben. We had a great conversation about our games after. More on that in Lessons.

        Won Round 4 to an off-meta Purple Steel deck. 2-0.

Lessons:

        Don't get tunnel vision. Sure, if Meilin gets you Strength of a Raging Fire, you're in a good spot, but what if she doesn't? What other options do you have available to you? If she gets you Thunderbolt instead, would that change how you play?

        If they have it, they have it, so sometimes, you just have to make a play. If he has a Gaston, you probably just lose on the spot no matter what you do. So just play like he doesn't -- do what you can do to stop his good lines that you do have control over (in this case, stopping the Luisa shift).

Lilo & Stitch Songs Basic Deck Guide | Set 13

Made this Lorcana deck guide video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rml042XkzXg

        I think it turned out well, although I'm definitely kind of insecure on how helpful it actually is. I'm afraid some people will watch it and then just respond "This is just barebones info that I could've discerned for myself by just looking at the decklist". 

        Buuuuut, maybe I'm just wrong about that, and even if it's true, I gotta create to get better. It was a fun process and I could see myself doing it again for other decks in the future, so bare minimum this was fun, good practice. But hopefully it's more than just that and somebody actually finds what I have to say insightful/helpful.

My Ranking of Every Live-Action Spider-Man Movie

        NOTE: There are no spoilers for Brand New Day here, although I will be ranking it and giving some non-spoiler thoughts on it. There are spoilers for most of the other Spider-Man films, though.

        Another Note: I published a post "Who is my Favorite Spider-Man?". Although many things I talked about over there could fit in in several spots in here, I left them out since I already wrote about them.

        Okay, just finished watching Spider-Man: No Way Home, which concludes my watchings of the (core) Spider-Man films in preparation(/because I wanted to) for Spider-Man: Brand New Day. I'll come back to this draft and rank Brand New Day once I've seen it.

        This was notably my first time seeing the Tobey Maguire trilogy. It was also my first time watching Spider-Man: No Way Home after seeing both the Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield films. The first, (and only other) time I had watched No Way Home was in theaters before I had seen any other spider-man film. (Although, I think I should note, I did know how Gwen Stacy died before watching No Way Home for the first time.)

        I wanted to rank them and give a couple thoughts about them. NOTE THIS IS MY PERSONAL ENJOYMENT/FEELINGS; IT IS NOT INTENDED TO BE AN OBJECTIVE RATING. 

        IN REGARDS TO SPIDER-VERSE: Although I'm not officially ranking them here, I'm fairly confident both Spider-Verse films would make it into my top four. Maybe even taking both the top spots.

1. Spider-Man: No Way Home

        This movie is a freaking triumph. I love this movie. I think it was really cool that it still landed with me before I had even seen the other Spider-Man films and now is even better. 
        As referenced, I knew how Gwen Stacy died before my first viewing, so Andrew catching MJ landed the first time, but the moment landed soo much harder after seeing Andrew's films. Additionally, knowing additional small references was great ("Sun in the palm of my hand", "You were never a nobody Max", "Trying to do better" etc.).
        A cool thing that I didn't even realize was a cool thing the first time I watched No Way Home was Tobey Maguire being the one to stop Tom Holland from killing the Green Goblin. A moment which is so much more meaningful now after watching Spider-Man 3 where one of the major themes was forgiving/letting go of revenge.
        Does the first chunk of the movie have weird pacing, and is not nearly as great? For sure, for sure. But it's peak beyond that.

2. Spider-Man: Brand New Day

        I was so high on life after watching this film and frankly should maybe be number one, but No Way Home made me more emotional to the point of shedding some amount of tears and Brand New Day didn't, so that's the major reason No Way Home is still my favorite. 
        I thought the dialogue felt very natural and good. The MCU presence felt incredibly natural and not forced at all -- was done incredibly imo. Thought the pacing was really good. Action was incredible. Great emotional moments, although some of them only landed, like, 75% for me. Humor was funny and natural. Man, I love this movie.

3. Spider-Man

        This movie blew all my expectations out of the water. The plot kept thickening. Even up to the very end, the plot kept thickening and making the story better and richer.
        Ex. Final scene. At the funeral when it set Harry Osborn up as a villian/enemy and a piece of heart-wrenching conflict as Harry expresses his love for Peter but his anger toward Spider-Man. At that point I was like, "Oh snap, what a good way to end the movie", but then it thickened again with Mary Jane telling Peter how she feels, but Peter saying a friend is all he has room for right now. Freaking heart-wrenching beauty. So good.

4. Spider-Man 2

        So good. I knew going into this one that it was generally regarded as the best Spider-Man film. I was thrown off by some directorial stuff (ex. randomly becoming a horror movie when the arms took control). Also felt like some decisions characters made felt a tad less realistic than the first one + Harry hearing voices and finding the Goblin stuff just felt unrealistic/weird too. Which is why I put Spider-Man 1 above. But the story and the emotional-wrenching stuff is top notch and, in those categories, are stronger than Spider-Man, imo.

5. Spider-Man: Far From Home

        The Mysterio fights are still some of the coolest Spider-Man scenes we've gotten, which is why I prefer this movie over Homecoming. The moments with Happy in the plane were powerful and awesome. I think the pacing is kind of wonky though.
        Peter's identity getting revealed in the end credits scene gutted me when I watched it in theaters.

        The first two Tom Holland movies feel very different than the Tobey and Andrew movies, which makes it harder to rank. The MCU presence just shifts a lot of things.

6. Spider-Man: Homecoming

        First time personally using this slang word, but I feel it fits perfectly here: I felt like RDJ's performance mogged Tom Holland's in this movie, which is a little awkward since it's, you know, a Tom Holland Spider-Man film and not an Iron Man film. But what can you do, it's RDJ. Still really like the film, though. Vulture's identity reveal was really good.

7. The Amazing Spider-Man 2

        Man, the emotional scenes in this movie hit for me. I think many other parts are much rougher than The Amazing Spider-Man, but the emotional scenes were strong enough for me to like it more than The Amazing Spider-Man even though on paper I recognize that The Amazing Spider-Man is better.

8. The Amazing Spider-Man

        I really liked how this movie dove into why Peter was an orphan. It's a question I've had and am surprised it's never brought up in the other adaptations. But I like how this one does it, tying in with the cross-species plot and having it be the root of some good emotional moments.

9. Spider-Man 3

        This movie started off so rough, but I think it stuck the landing. Peter letting Gwen kiss him was soooo hard to watch, I took several breaks because I was cringing so hard over how stupid Peter was. I liked Harry's redemption at the end. Bully Maguire will forever be iconic. The last scene made my heart happy; I'm glad Peter and Mary Jane figured it out. It was a good scene to end a great trilogy.

SPIDER-MAN. I LOVE SPIDER-MAN. Easily my favorite superhero.

Btw, the 9 Spider-Man Movies >> the 9 Star Wars Movies

My Favorite 10 Seconds From Every TØP Song

        This video took a lot of effort to make, but I'm happy to have created it.

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nESXBReWMWU

        I posted it a week ago and since then some fellow fans of Twenty One Pilots have found it, which has been super fun!

        One of those fans pointed out that I was missing Navigating. Which also led me to discover I'm also missing The Craving. Another person commented, "Great vid! I agreed with most of these. Can you make a longer version to finish out the clips more cleanly and add the songs you missed? (I understand why you kept them to 10 seconds though.)" 

        
        So I made that video! Here's a link to that extended version, which attempts to find better stopping points instead of ending strictly at 10 seconds (and includes the forgotten The Craving and Navigating):

        https://youtu.be/T7GlS51_Jck

My Ranking of Every TØP Album

        I've discussed this topic in a couple blog posts in the past.

        Here I pick my favorite, but don't rank them all: https://whateveriwant7.blogspot.com/2024/07/my-fav-tp-album.html

        Back in July of 2017 I talk about various TØP related things including my (presumably) earliest album rankings at the bottom of the post: https://whateveriwant7.blogspot.com/2017/07/twenty-one-pilots-list.html

        This is my ordering of all their albums from favorite to least favorite. I was pondering this some after making my most recent tier list, and this is what I came to. 

        Note: This is primarily based upon how I feel -- not strictly looking at the data of seeing how the songs stack up against each other on the tier list; however, I will reference my current tier list as data. Writing this (alongside working on an upcoming project "My Fav 10 Seconds From Every TØP Song") has brought to my attention various shifts I would make to my tier list, so it's not like my current tier list is perfectly reflective of my current feelings anyway.

1. Vessel

        Vessel's still the GOAT, what can I say? How much of this is just a legacy pick? I am unsure. But this album has fundamentally shifted what type of music I love more than any piece of media, so it's kind of a big deal to me. It's had such a big impact in my life musically, but also just in general as well.

        It is simply jam-packed with songs that I consider all-time greats. Car Radio, Holding Onto You, Guns for Hands, Ode to Sleep, and, of course, Migraine and Trees, which both have topped every one of my Twenty One Pilots tier lists for as long as I can remember. 

        Additionally, I feel I would be remiss if I also didn't mention how powerful Truce is and how much I enjoy Fake You Out as well.

        Does the album have some weaker songs in my mind? Yeah, absolutely. But, man, I don't know bro, like, I just love this album so much.

2. Clancy

        Clancy coming in at number 2! I feel like this is not something I would have expected, but this album has carved out a spot in my heart over the past couple of years since its release. I love this album.

        Once again, does this album have some weaker songs on it in my opinion? Absolutely. But even those songs still just work so well in the context of the album somehow. I don't know how to describe it exactly. 

        Next Semester and Vignette being two absolute GOATs of all time. Two songs in my top 5? Very impressive. Feat only matched by Vessel. Oldies Station here as an emotional powerhouse. Paladin Strait -- so good.

        Oh, and shoutout to Lavish for being the slowest grower I have ever seen -- I kind of hated the song when I first listened to it (debuting in the bottom 10), but every listen, I enjoy it just a smidgen more (now still bottom half, but, you know, much that's much better than bottom 10). 

3. Trench

        In a vacuum, does Trench beat out Clancy? I think so, yes. Trench is a masterpiece, the production quality is insane, and the music is incredible. This album is generally considered their magnum opus for a reason. But we don't live in a vacuum. And so for some reason I prefer Clancy right now. 

        But, like, golly, when is the last time you listened to Neon Gravestones and Morph? Those songs are freaking perfect, man. And holy guacamole, the flow in Levitate is insane and Bandito and Chlorine and, man, this album is soooo good. Writing this out makes me question just a tad if Clancy really should be above it, haha, but I'm going to leave it as is for now.

        If you asked me what Twenty One Pilots best album is, Trench is my pick. I agree that it's their magnum opus. But what their best and what my favorite are are two different questions.

4. Breach

        After my first listen of Breach, I would have said it was in contention with Vessel for number one. Unfortunately, I have cooled off significantly on a lot of the songs on it since then.

        I do think this album is the most polarized out the albums I've talked about so far. Garbage and One Way just aren't my favorites, and Days Lie Dormant belongs right where I put it in F-Tier. 

        But it also has it's fair share of heavy hitters, which is evidenced by the fact that Breach is currently tied with Vessel for most songs in my top 10 (each having 3).

        

        Like, golly, if I liked the rap cadence in City Walls just a little more, it would be my favorite song oat. And Downstairs' conclusion part with the two parts overlapping is quite possibly my favorite section of any song in their entire discography. And Center Mass is peak.

        Clancy and Trench are clearly 2/3 for me, but I think Breach deserves to be chucked into those conversations.

5. Self-Titled

        I think lyrically Self-Titled can easily go toe-to-toe with any album and has some stellar songs on it that stand the test of time. 

        Taxi Cab has made several appearances in my top 10 for good reason, even peaking at #5. I love The Pantaloon (and I don't care if it turns out a lot of the TØP community doesn't, haha). Fall Away is fantastic. Friend, Please is powerful. Oh Ms Believer is peaceful. Addict With a Pen is amazing.

        However, the older sound/lower production quality makes me want to listen to this album less often, and over time I've just been enjoying specific songs not so much.

6. Blurryface

        

        Interesting thing about Blurryface when compared to Clancy -- Like I referenced earlier, even the weaker songs on Clancy still feel great in the unit that is that album. Blurryface, on the other hand, I much prefer as individual songs. As an album, the songs just kind of blur and feel very samey to me. I don't know, maybe that's just me. 

        That being said, I do overall enjoy the individual songs. The Judge is the only song that strikes into S-Tier, but the album does have a solid presence in A-Tier.

7. Scaled and Icy

        Interesting thing about Scaled and Icy when compared to Blurryface/Clancy: Clancy feels great as a unit. Blurryface kind of just blurs together as a unit. Scaled and Icy feels actively worse as a unit.                Every time I listen to Scaled and Icy, I can't help but wish it was something different than it is. Is that entirely fair to Scaled and Icy? Not really, no. But I can't help but be caught in that feeling.

        When I listen to the songs individually strewn throughout other songs, it helps me just view them as alright songs (some great (Shy Away, Redecorate, Choker, Formidable), some not so great (*cough* Bounce Man *cough*)), but when I listen to the songs as an album, it's hard to escape the feeling of "This is the album after Trench. Sad days."

        I feel the need to chuck a reminder right here that these are just my opinions on the songs and are not meant to be mean in any way to anyone who disagrees with me or to Tyler and Josh themselves.

8. Regional At Best

        Oh, how my opinions have shifted. In the past, I heralded RAB as my favorite album (which you can see in my post from 2017 linked at the top). And now I just, like, really don't like the sound on almost all the songs. 

        Now, now, to be fair to RAB, when I think of this album, I don't include the songs that got put onto Vessel. Having those heavy hitters would probably help. Although, in a couple-few of those cases, being an active detriment instead, haha, so maybe it would just balance out. 

Final Note:

        

        It wouldn't surprise me if 1-4 swap in any way down the road (with Trench and Clancy (2 and 3) being the closest right now). Same with 5-7 (with Self-Titled and Blurryface (5 and 6) being the closest right now). RAB could climb up for sure, but less likely than 5-7 swapping around. Pretty clear stable divide between 4 and 5, though.