-+@ Mercenary @+-

which is one of the things the new B5 set is going to overhaul, but more on that later...



Art Credits:
Pygmy Korul by Werner/Gillette/Holmberg, background by Jon Ellenberger
Garen by Beth Zyglowicz
Kintor Guide by Holmberg/Werner

All three images for TW, for a change, and each one of those has a tale behind it - doesn't all cards really? Before I get there though, I did 2 TW cards today, so that cuts down the total to 5 more to go - 2 Nar, 2 d'Resh and one Universal. 95%... almost at the end of the road.

I have been trying for almost a month to get myself motivated to photoshop that Korul, but had no success. I just wasn't in the mood for it and the end result weren't very good. Fast forward to today, I visited RespondCreate, and saw this awesome picture of the aftereffects of a blizzard. Well, that person was online and we ended chatting and I got his permission to use the picture... which formed the background for the Pygmy Korul. With such an awesome background to work with though, the Koruls (almost) fell into place. One card down.

Garen was a card I did sometime ago, then realised I had no permission to actually use the image. So today I asked the artist if she'd mind if I used the image and she said yes. So here's the card and the image. I like that image, and eventhough it's not exactly 2i quality, it's a good Nar image.

The Kintor started life as Kintor Cub, but when I was finalising the list of cards, I realised that there would be no way that I could hope to have a Cub, so it got changed to Kintor Scout. I've already mentioned in a previous blog how I came across the image - it's on the front of the VotS packs and I don't think it's used on any of the cards, so that's fair game for it to be made into a card.

And since I'm on MND news... the DJ images on the engine were rather well received. Granted, the cards aren't usuable at the moment, but the artwork seems to blast people away. That's a good thing. The contest finishes tomorrow, although I wonder if I'll have the time to judge it.

The Malovis challenge still have about 2 weeks to go and Mitch seems to be getting better at handling the defeat... well, he won a game today, which is probably why. He also wrote an entry in the group blog about his experiences. That's cool since he hardly writes there. Well, hopefully we'll get enough players next month for a tournament.

And tournament wise, the forums are still flooded with the after effects of the Rage tournament - a good thing. I think the Rage players have enjoyed the tournament and are already talking about the next tournament. It seems they had a new player as well, so that's a good sign, if nothing else.

The B5 discussion is still centred around the Mercenaries and the streamlining proposed got summarised by Bruce today in a rather concise post. I like the direction he's heading there and I hope the mercenaries will get more play in future. There were also talks about a league system on the engine, and I gave my support for it as long as I don't have to organise anything. I have no idea if that will happen or not.

Game wise, I think Monster Rancher was the only thing that advanced over the past couple of days. I think Mark posted the game rules up on his site. I wonder if he's aiming for an anniversary release date too... he's definately gunning for the end of the month alpha test I think, at the rate he's working.

I haven't actually touched Hyborean Gates today and the though of clipping more cards just isn't too appealing today so I'm leaving it be for the time being. Still, the sooner that gets finished, the happier I'll be and I hope I can get back into the groove of clipping those images tomorrow.

I found someones original CCG today... it seems the templates were based on Magic cards and the rules were based on Yu-Gi-Oh. I'll say blegh there and move on. Some people are, apparently, way too unoriginal.