Hey peeps!  Here’s some food for thought for y’all.  I never used to think of this when I was just a regular member of LBS.  Even when I first became a Mod here, I guess I used to take LBS for granted.  My perceptions have changed drastically since then.

For those that don’t know, I am the PR guy.  What that means is that I’m the pain-in-the-ass that goes out and harasses businesses and companies for prize support.  Fortunately, I’ve had some success.  And what THAT means is I’ve met some awesome business owners who believe in gaming, EoJ, and LBShooters.  So as far as prize support goes, we, at LBS, are set until the end of 2008.  Great, right?  Well, yes and no.

To be the best tourney, league, contest, and special event site for EoJ means we have expanded all these events for our members.  Our tourneys have gone from 16 players to 64.  The prizes have doubled.  Our league has winners in every division.  We have special events, such as the “Half-a-Grand” tourney and keito’s newest invention, the Flashchat tourneys.  Without feeling cocky, I can honestly say that LBS has more events and more prizes than all other EoJ sites combined.  That is a simple fact.

I don’t know what keito spends on the site personally, but I can guess.  Considering the fact that he ran this site out of his own pocket for the first 6 months (prizes and all), you can guess as well that he is running “in the red”.  And that’s fine by him.  He doesn’t want to make 1¢ off of LBS.  He does it for the love of the game.  He does it for the love of the site.  He does it for the love of the members…his friends.

Now, I can tell you about the costs that I know of.  Shipping prizes = $25 - $30 per tourney (two of those each month), approx. $20 per league per month, maybe another $15 - $20 per Flashchat tourney (however many of those we run in a month), plus X amount of dollars to cover whatever other special event we have.  When you add it up, it comes to a substantial chunk of change. 

So I want everyone to think of me as that annoying guy on PBS (Public Broadcasting System) who continually interrupts your enjoyment of the “Fawlty Towers” marathon by asking for money in-between episodes.  LBS has done it’s best to show our members as much love as it can.  If you really enjoy this site, please show LBS some love too.  The Paypal donation button works here, so throw your support and a few bucks at us.

Thanks, peeps!

P.S.  Just to negate any rumors that may start as a result of this post, LBS is NOT in financial trouble.  We are not going anywhere…we’re here to stay.  This is simple economics - our active members have substantially outgrown our donating members.

 

Hi all, sorry for the absence, I have been real busy lately but am back with some thoughts. The ‘ask the developers’ a question thread from spryby got me thinking of a few questions and ideas. I got thinking about the future of EOJ, as I think all of us are wondering what’s coming up ahead? I started thinking more long term and have recorded a few of those thoughts here.

The thing I’m most afraid of is EOJ only reach the limits as a video game, meaning the eventual dissipation and extinction. Right now what supports the game is the community and people playing together online. However, games are run through Sony servers and those won’t be up and running forever. So what happens when they do shut down? A typical videogame still has a few players play single player but most of the time they simply fade into extinction. With new technologies, games, and consoles coming out periodically, without a sequel or remake, older games also have no chance of returning. So my question is does Sony plan to make EOJ a long term gaming experience or let it fade out with the life of the PS3?

With EOJ lacking a more extensive single player mode and relying on official servers to play online multiplayer, unless they have plans to extend the lifetime of the EOJ, it’s hard to see it lasting several years down the road. However, with rumor/news that WOTC is taking over the distributing and marketing of EOJ (instead of Hasbro), I have hope that this will result in a greater interest in EOJ from all players, and allow the current players more accessibility to the products and cards. The news from spryby about Sony having other things planned and finally getting support to the official sites has also gotten me real excited for what’s coming.

I also hope EOJ makes a showing at Gen-Con this year to draw even more attention, I have a local game/card business owner attending and I’ve told him to keep a look-out for us. (Anyone else going?)

I’m just a hopeful EOJ player who would love to be playing this again and again for years to come, far beyond the life of the PS3. That however also poses a problem as EOJ is currently designed to run on the PS3. (Yes you can play it without the PS3 and camera, but I think it loses something when you do. The combination of the technology and physical cards is more than a gimmick, for me it greatly enhances the game. Perhaps if the camera could be given a driver to run on a computer [again eventually, after the PS4 comes along as I’m quite happy with the PS3 ], the technology could still be utilized.)

I was going to write a wishlist about things that would help improve the lifetime of the game but this post is already too long, so I’ll do it later.  This post was not meant as a rant or bash against anybody, in case it reads that way.  I would just love it if EOJ was something I could play with others around the world for years to come.  Thanks for reading, and please forgive any mistakes as I’m exhausted but feel inspired to get this out but don’t have time to re-edit.  I know I jump around a lot but hopefully it makes some sort of sense. Finally, please share your thoughts.

Since there is alot of hue and cry about facing these decks by the members of the forum, I took out time to go through the top 100 list and noted down the names of the attrition users. The list also contains the random players i met in my games who are not in the top 100 so far. However what’s interesting is the fact that the number of these decks is highest in the top positions and the frequency decreases down the list. After my games against them, I realized it would help me most to know from the first turn of the game if my opponent is running attrition or not. This allows better decisions for mulliganing and strategy. So here goes;

Attrition Deck Runners :

Mark_Justice_IR
Ken-FALCON
Figer
Dozens ( LBS )
1TruKing (A.K.A.) P1mpPanda (A.K.A.) Brucelei ( LBS )
Arikalau
TripAces ( LBS ) ( Occ. )
Pukurino
MutoKing
Killer_Shark_EOJ ( LBS ) ( Occ. )
SkyWalker012
Tidus7
VFighter07 ( LBS )
Maizing ( Occ. )
Tukumo_Jyuuku
Andy5566
RealGambler
Andy0703
Jander52
Rookies (A.K.A.) Airpoow
AFC12M
JY1899
Keichan4791 ( Online ID Japanese Name )
Remem16
ArcaneJMS ( LBS )
Pajaroto
Nijiam ( Hybrid Discard Attrition )

 

Please do however keep in mind that it’s possible that these people have multiple decks and may use others, don’t take my word as law with these players. Also I mentioned (Occ.) in front of names that do use other decks sometimes as well. Initially this list was meant for my personal archives but I felt I should share with others as well.

As Always Thank You For Reading

Hey peeps! Tried to do this the easy (short) way by providing a link in my previous blog, but Wordpress doesn’t seem to want to let me do that so here it is in all it’s glory:

THE EYE OF JUDGMENT™ GLOSSARY

This is an alphabetical list of THE EYE OF JUDGMENT™ game terms, including new rules introduced by the BIOLITH REBELLION SET.2 cards.

Activation Cost

The amount of mana you must spend to make one of your creatures attack or turn 90º on its field.

Adjacent

A neighboring field, on the horizontal or vertical axis (not diagonal).

Affiliation

A creature group label used to trigger certain special rules and combos.

For example: Flame Magus and Aluhja Priestess are both affiliated to the Church of Parmus.

Attack

All creatures have an Attack score. This is the amount of damage it inflicts (Hit Points deducted) when it attacks another creature. An attack may be either physical or a Magic Attack.

Attack Zones

The fields that a creature can attack with respect to its location and orientation. The black box shows the creature’s location on the board with the white side at the front. Red arrows show default target(s), pink arrows are optional targets. For Magic Attacks a pink arrow on a purple burst indicates that the field will be targeted if conditions are met.

 

Examples:

 

·                 Physical attack to the creature’s front. Card 020

·                 Physical attack to either the field directly in front or 2 squares away. Card 031

·                 Physical attack to both squares in the creature’s front.  Card 008

·                 Magic Attack targeting one creature. Card 001

 

·                 Magic Attack targeting all fields (conditions may apply). Card 017

·                 Cross-shaped Magic Attack. Card

Blind side

If a creature is attacked from a field on its blind side, the attacker gains a +1 bonus to its Attack. The blind side is often located to a creature’s rear but this is not always the case. Some creatures have multiple blind sides, while others have none at all.

Board

The playing area, consisting of 9 fields.

Decoy

A creature with the decoy ability distracts affected enemy creatures so that they can only target creatures with decoy. Note: if a creature with a multi-field Attack Zone targets the decoy creature, it will attack all creatures in the other default fields as well.

Deck

Each player must have a deck of 30 Summoning Cards to play THE EYE OF JUDGMENT™.

Defense Zones

Each of the four fields adjacent to a creature can be described as strong (the creature can counterattack if attacked from this field), weak (it cannot counterattack) or blind (it cannot counterattack and its attacker gains a +1 Attack bonus).

The black box shows the creature’s location on the board with the white side at the front. A blue arrow indicates a strong field, white fields are weak and B is blind.

 

Examples:

·                 Strong if attacked from the front, blind at the back, weak at the sides. Card 003

·                 Strong from all sides. Card 002

·                 Blind on all sides. Card 001

Destroyed

When one of your creatures on the board reaches zero Hit Points, it must be put into your Graveyard. This normally gives you 1 point of exit mana.

Discard

Placing a card from your hand into your graveyard.

Dodge

A creature with Dodge avoids all damage from physical attacks half the time. A creature may have more than one Dodge attempt – only one needs to succeed to negate all damage.

Draw

Taking a card from your library into your hand.

Enemy creature

Any creature owned by your opponent.

Exit mana

When one of your creatures is destroyed, you receive 1 mana. Some creatures in BIOLITH REBELLION SET 2 have the ability to steal or deprive the opposing player of exit mana.

Element

There are five elements in THE EYE OF JUDGMENT™: the four Prime Elements (Fire, Water, Earth and Wood) and Biolith. Fire is the opposite of Water; Earth is the opposite of Wood; Biolith has no opposite.

Field

There are 9 Fields arranged in a 3 x 3 grid to form the board. Field tiles are double-sided and show an element on each side.

Field bonus

A creature’s Hit Points are increased (+2) while it occupies a field that matches its element.

Field order

The position of each field is numbered as follows:

 

1 2 3

4 5 6

7 8 9

 

When several events need to be resolved at the same time, they are worked out in field order.

Field penalty

A creature’s Hit Points are reduced (-2) while it occupies a field whose element is the opposite of its own.

Fieldquake

An effect that causes a field tile to be flipped over to its reverse side.

Fieldmorph

The target field becomes the same element as the creature occupying it. Fieldmorph is lost if the creature is moved from the field.

Graveyard

A face-up card pile where you must place any of your cards that are discarded, sacrificed, destroyed or cast (spells).

Fortress

A Fortress cannot attack. It may counterattack, if able to do so.

Half the time

Literally, a 50% chance that something will happen.

Hand

The cards held by a player and kept hidden from his opponent. You start with a hand of 5 cards and may never hold more than 7 cards at the end of your turn.

Hit Points (HPs)

Used to measure a creature’s life. Hit Points are reduced when a creature takes damage from an attack or spell. When a creature’s HPs reach zero, it is destroyed.

Intercept

Every time a new enemy creature is summoned, a creature with this ability attacks at no Activation Cost the summoned enemy half the time before it can make its attack. This happens if the enemy is within the intercepting creature’s Attack Zone, and is not treated as an Activation.

Incarnation

Incarnation is a form of summoning. A creature with Incarnation may be brought onto the board on top of an existing allied creature of the same element. You must sacrifice the allied creature on the board to summon the new creature onto that field, paying the difference between the Summoning Cost of the new creature and that of the sacrificed creature.

 

The summoned creature cannot attack on the turn it is summoned, but this does not end your turn. You cannot use Incarnation to summon a creature of the same name as the one you sacrifice. Any power that is triggered by summoning will also be triggered by Incarnation.

Invocation

Lets you incarnate (see incarnation) a creature onto another creature of the same element / race etc. However, you cannot summon the same creature as one that was summoned in this turn or with the same name as the sacrificed creature.

Invisibility

When a creature gains Invisibility it avoids all damage from physical and Magic Attacks and spells which cause direct damage.

Library

The deck of 30 cards that you draw from throughout the game. Shuffled and placed face down at the start of the game.

Location

The field that a creature is standing on.

Magic Attack

Unless otherwise stated on the card, a Magic Attack targets 1 enemy creature of your choice. Magic Attacks cannot be counter-attacked and are not affected by Dodge attempts or Protection.

Magic Protection

This functions like Protection but only protects against Magic Attack (not physical) damage.

Mana

Magical energy used for summoning and activating creatures, and casting spells.

You receive 2 points of mana in the second phase of your turn. When one of your creatures is destroyed, you receive 1 point of exit mana.

Mulligan

Before starting the duel, if you are not happy with your hand of 5 cards, you can shuffle them back into your library and draw another 5 cards. You can only do this once per game.

Orientation

The direction a creature is facing with the top edge of the card always considered to be the front. Orientation must be considered when working out a creature’s Attack and Defense Zones.

Owner

The owner of the card remains the same throughout the duel, even if a creature is possessed.

Perfect Dodge

A creature with Perfect Dodge avoids all damage from physical attacks all the time.

Phase

A player’s turn is divided into 5 phases which must be carried out in order:

1) Draw card 2) Mana charge 3) Actions/Spells 4) Summon a creature 5) Turn Resolution.

Physical Attack

All attacks cause physical damage unless the attack is specified as a Magic Attack. Physical attacks can be reduced by Protection or negated completely by a successful Dodge attempt.

Possession

When you gain Possession of an enemy creature you can activate it in your actions phase as if it were one of your own creatures. The possessed creature cannot be activated by its original owner. Creatures that are possessed upon summoning do not carry out their initial attack. A possessed creature cannot be activated on the turn it is possessed. Creatures with the power of Possession may themselves be possessed.

Protection

When a creature has Protection, the damage from a physical attack is reduced by the amount of that protection. For example, Protection +2 would reduce an Attack of 4 to an Attack of 2. In the case of a creature that attacks more than once, each attack is reduced by the Protection.

Quickness

A creature with Quickness counterattacks before the attack of a creature without Quickness. Attacking a creature with Quickness can be dangerous – if the counterattack destroys the attacking creature, it cannot attack at all. If both attacker and target have Quickness, the attacker attacks first as normal.

Race

A creature group label used to trigger certain special rules and combos.  For example: Dancing Temptress and Skeleton Soldier are both of the Undead race.

Resurrection

If a creature with this ability is destroyed and you hold a duplicate of it in your hand, you may summon the duplicate to the previously occupied field by spending 1 mana. This summoning occurs in your opponent’s turn and the summoned creature does not receive a free attack.

Return

If a creature is destroyed, you may return it to your hand (instead of the graveyard) by paying 1 mana. Note: all the rules for creature destruction apply even if the creature is returned, including exit mana.

Sacrifice

You must remove one of your creatures from the board and put it into your graveyard. Unlike creature destruction, this does not generate exit mana.

Spell

A magical effect that may be cast in your actions phase. Spells may help you and/or your creatures or harm your opponent. When a spell’s effects have been resolved, its card is put into your graveyard.

Summoning Cards

THE EYE OF JUDGMENT™ creature and spell cards are collectively known as Summoning Cards.

Summoning Cost

The amount of mana that you must spend to summon a creature or cast a spell.

Summoning Lock

The summoning lock is lifted when there are a total of 4 or more creatures on the board. Creatures with the padlock icon cannot be summoned until the summoning lock is lifted. Biolith creatures ignore the summoning lock if they are summoned to a Biolith field.

Turn

A player’s turn consists of 5 phases.

Hey peeps!  Chuck Lacson sent me this e-mail tonight:

First of all, Japan has given us clearance to give you the entire SET 1 and 2 Glossary (attached) to share with the entire community.  Feel free to post on your sites or share them with your visitors!

Second, I’m sure you have noticed that both Japan and Europe have both had official EOJ tournaments and you were probably wondering when the US was going to follow.  I’m happy to announce we will get our chance next month!   (Looking at Mid-July)  But that’s not the great news, we want “you” to be involved in its creation!  

Starting today, we would love to get your ideas and input!  What are your ideas on how the tournament should be set up?  What should we call it?  What should the special ranking be?  We will take the best ideas and make it happen in July, and continue to use your suggestions in future tournaments!  

Below are the limitations we can set for each tournament currently as well as some FAQ.  Base your suggestions off of this information.  Let us know if you have any questions.

We are looking forward to hearing from all of you!

- Chuck

Official EOJ Tournament

The possible limitations / conditions you can set in each Online event

(X = Whatever amount the organizers want to set each time.  It is not acceptable either “equal” or “over” X)
—————————————————————————————
1.  Total # of Mana : The total mana in your deck has to be under X mana.

2.  Total # of Spell card : The total # of Spell card has to be under X.

3.  Cost regulation : The summoning / casting cost per a card has to be under X.  

Note: “Cost” means summoning / casting cost of each card, not a total # of summoning / casting cost of a deck.

4.  Prohibit using a specific element : Players can’t carry creatures of a designated element.   (You can prohibit only 1 specified element, not plural)

- None
- FIRE
- WATER
- EARTH
- WOOD
- BIOLITH
 
5.  Limit a SET : Players have to use designated SET(s).  (example patterns: SET1 only / SET2 only / SET1 & SET2)

- SET.1
- SET.2
- SET.1 and 2

6.   Limit rarity : Players can carry only cards with designated rarities.  (You can specify up to 3 rarities.)
- Common
- Uncommon
- Rare
- UltraRare

FAQ

1.  Can players play as many matches as they are able to during the tournament to win?

Yes, they can.

2.  Is there a limit on the number of matches they can participate in?

No, they can participate in any matches as far as time permits / they can find someone to play with.

3.  It seems that the players with the most free time to play will be the winners, is that the case?

No, the way of gaining high/low rank through the games is structured as below.

Example situation:

Rank 1: player A
—
Rank 5: player B
—
Rank 20: player C

1) If player C wins player A, player C’s rank gets higher at once since C can win the higher player.
2) If player A loses player C, player A’s rank gets down at once since A loses the lower player.
3) If player C wins player B, player C’s rank gets high but not as high as 1)’s case since B’s rank is lower than A’s.

The logic is that depending on the opponent’s rank, the range of getting/losing rank will be different. Therefore no matter how much the players who have the most free time play, we can’t tell that these people will be the winners. If someone can keep winning, then it will be possible to be a winner, but JP PD team said that it would be very difficult to keep winning.

4)  Will we be able to offer special ranking titles to our winners?

Yes.

* The character limit for rank titles is 18 characters.
* Also, you can set up to 2 ranking titles at this time.

 

In recent times a lot of controversy has sparked over the attrition decks and how one would defeat them, i will waste none of my time to comment about them as i believe enough articles exist about them and i can offer no better insight.

However i will mention the core fundament of the game that has long been forgotten, Versatility. If you intend to run a serious session in ranked online play, do not fear attrition nor speed and neither polish. Fear the new players with thier bizzare decks that may not consistently win nor shutdown opponents but devestate with the element of surprise, i recently met a player who played the “Juno Forest Trap” against me, initially i laughed at his choice of cards only to be bitterly defeated due to the very same card. In my opinion if you are a decent enough player you will look at the opponent’s deck, the card’s he has played so far, the current mana he has and the rituals he cast to count all the possibilities that he can go with. This is what we all do to win and it works effectively more often that not, but in certain cases it is that comfortability and knowledge of the cards and the game mechanics that work against us. So in essence i suppose the better of the players have lost the ability to capitalize on most cards. 

I, for instance, have something close to 10 cards that i must always put in decks, now considering i must put 2 of each card to increase my deck consistentcy and then there are the staple spells. So in the end no matter how hard i try i’m only left with a 3 - 4 cards to think about changing and it really hurts the idea of playing with different decks and winning at the same time. This hurts the ability of most players to adapt and cope with game changes and the strategy changes, i for one always disliked speed decks because they force the game to end really fast, disliked zealots because a 5 year old could win with them and lastly dislike attrition decks due to the fact that they are all cookie cutter decks. It’s like bringing a gun to a knife fight and even if i win the duel it does not prove that im a better player, it just proves the deck i copied off someone is stronger than my opponent’s deck. I always stick to originality, it’s true, inspiration comes from everywhere but there’s a huge difference between inspiration and cheap imitation.

Perhaps we all need to forget what we’ve learnt about this game and start afresh that is the only way that the better players will stay better. I have seen it happen in all online games, everytime a patch hits the old pros cannot cope and adapt to the new game mechanics and they start to suffer. Thus the newer players move in as they are more adept at accepting change and new ways to play the game. I suppose, time will change things, i love this game and it would seriously sadden me to see it break apart. I have made great friends due to it and had an even better time in the community. A time i want to last eternal.

Hey peeps!  Yes, it’s finally happened!  Chuck Lacson, Mark Valledor, and SCEA have provided prize support to LBShooters!  In fact, Chuck shipped them overnight to my abode.  It will be my greatest pleasure to take this stack of goodies and “spread the love” throughout our membership.  And that’s not all…stay tuned for some more great things to come from SCEA…hehe.

Let us not forget my good buddy Tony and Ideal808.  Tony has been “loving” LBS for the past few months and continues to offer incredible prize support for our community.  I know where I’m going for my set 3 boosters and theme decks!

Finally, keep reading the blog, peeps!  Apophis posted an excellent article on attrition decks below.  With all the commotion caused by this new fad (?), his blog post is a MUST READ!  Thanks, Apophis.

Since about the only topic under intense discussion in the EoJ universe right now is attrition decks, there’s no better time to write about them. I’ve mostly refrained from posting on the forums about attrition decks while everyone else has been discussing various ideas, but as the debate is only intensifying I’ll post my opinions of them and compare them to the broken (or so most of us would agree) zealot decks of 2.00.

If for some reason you haven’t played against an attrition deck or seen one yet, I’d strongly advise you to watch one of Mark_Justice_IR’s replays. He’s in the top 10 last I checked and is apparently the player who first created attrition decks. Many other players in the top 100 play attrition decks, including most players currently in the top 10 as of this post. Most attrition decks have very little variation so once you’ve watched an entire attrition deck game you’ll probably see only slight changes between any other attrition decks you watch. The same could be said about zealot decks in 2.00 although I’d have to say I saw more variation in successful zealot decks than I now see in successful attrition decks.

When it comes to brokenness, zealot decks were clearly more broken than attrition decks are now because games involving zealot decks could be all but decided by the second turn. Attrition decks at least don’t gain control of a games until much later on, and they can be somewhat vulnerable early on in games. Otherwise they would be as close to a broken deck as I’ve seen in EoJ, and not only because they seem to be the most consistent winner at the moment. The entire metagame in 2.00 was based around zealot decks, and even though the number of players using attrition decks now isn’t anywhere remotely close to the number of players using zealot decks in 2.00, they have still altered the metagame far more than any other deck in 2.01. Also as I mentioned at the start of this post, it’s about the only strategy-related issue discussed on EoJ forums now, which was exactly the same for zealots in 2.00.

Some players didn’t think zealot decks were broken in 2.00, although they were in the minority and I’m sure during the few days I experimented with a zealot deck when the patch first became available in North America most players who played against it would say they were totally broken. They forced players to use a particular type of deck to compete against them for one, and even then zealot decks in the hands of top players would be nearly impossible to beat regardless. I wouldn’t go so far to say attrition decks are broken although my most memorable game against one at least confirmed to me that they’re the most consistent winners and are often capable of withstanding some mana denial in the beginning of the game that could easily cripple a number of other commonly played decks. The memorable game I’m referring to was a game in a one-day tourney vs. 1TruKing, where I went first and managed to play three Kadenas in a row during my first three turns. Against any other type of deck, I’d probably have an 11 or at most 13 or 15 turn win at that point. Not so when playing against King’s attrition deck, as it wasn’t until turn 20 when he surrendered. I’ve played all three of my Kadenas in too many games to even remember now, and that one game vs. King was about the only time I ever felt in danger of possibly losing a game when doing so.

Another comparison with zealot decks that I find to be perfectly valid is that attrition decks increase the luck factor in the game significantly where EoJ already has enough luck involved otherwise. If an opponent of an attrition player isn’t able to deny the attrition player mana early in the game, the attrition player is all but assured of the victory. Then even if an opponent of an attrition player uses Kadenas or Lapse against an attrition player early, it’s still not nearly a guarantee of a win as it usually would be against other types of decks. Summoning cost increasing creatures can be fairly effective against attrition decks although again they need to be played early on. Most other cards I’ve seen players suggest to combat attrition decks would either be less effective then the aforementioned strategies or inferior to other cards against more conventional types of decks, so unless I was sure I’d be playing against an opponent using an attrition deck beforehand I wouldn’t bother using them.

In any case, attrition decks are creating a division in the EoJ community very similar to what happened during 2.00 with zealots, and just the fact that they alone are dominating strategy talk and igniting flame wars the same way zealot decks did could and maybe should very well be reason to take action. There may have been players who usually didn’t have trouble beating zealot decks in 2.00, but against a top player using a zealot deck an opponent stood very little of any chance of winning the game. The same could be said of attrition decks now, where some players might not have trouble beating them for the most part but mainly because they haven’t played against top players using one where they’re close to unbeatable.

Ultimately, interest in EoJ seems to be declining somewhat further, and I’m continually becoming more unsure about how long EoJ will last as a result of issues with set 2. EoJ during set 1 was about as close to a perfect game as I have ever played at least until the latter stages of set 1-only play where very few deck archetypes remained highly competitive. Most EoJ players would agree that zealots were broken during 2.00 and the same could probably now be said of attrition decks in 2.01. I personally wouldn’t go so far as to say attrition decks are obviously broken yet but some longtime players with experience playing both zealot decks and attrition decks are saying otherwise, some even saying that attrition decks are more broken than zealot decks were during 2.00. All in all, if a particular deck archetype is considered broken because it is very nearly unbeatable in the hands of top players, alters the metagame so drastically that it is about the only strategy-related topic being discussed, and fosters division within the community, then consider attrition decks broken.

Hey peeps!  It’s amazing how a lack of communication can create rifts and real communication can repair those same rifts.

Chuck Lacson and I exchanged lengthy e-mails tonight concerning my last blog post and some of the issues that concern all of us and EoJ.  I will not go into details on the contents of those e-mails.  Suffice it to say, grievances were aired, misunderstandings explained, lines of communication were opened, and apologies were offered.  It also served to remind me that just because Chuck or Mark or SCEA isn’t feeding us weekly updates, that there is nothing going on behind the scenes.

My apologies as well to LBS blog members.  I felt it was necessary to delete my previous blog entry.  It was unfair and irresponsible of me to post that article without giving Chuck or Mark an opportunity to respond prior to it being published.  The power of the press (even on a little gaming blog like this one) can be astonishing.

Stay tuned, peeps, for some good stuff to follow.

Hey peeps! Keito is a “Flashchat Tourney Maniac” when he doesn’t have to work the next day…lol. Yes, we had another one this morning (or tomorrow morning for keito). Here is a summary of the matches that took place:
First Round:
HTGJONES vs keito - HTGJONES wins
sprybry vs eojcollectors - sprybry wins
sjabth vs RockChef - sjabth wins
CyberControl vs Shad0wW0lf0 - CyberControl wins

Second Round:
HTGJONES vs sprybry - sprybry wins
sjabth vs CyberControl - CyberControl wins

Final Round:
sprybry vs CyberControl - sprybry wins

This tourney added a ‘losers’ bracket as well. My apologies to the players that duked it out in this second bracket - keito was keeping track of it in the flashchat. At the time of this writing, keito was battling with HTGJONES for third place overall. I hope the winner of that match will post in the comments section of this blog post.

My thanks once again to keito for instituting such an awesome idea and for supplying some great prizes for them as well.  The winner today got their choice of a Japanese General Lug promo (which I already won) or a Blu-Ray movie.  Many thanks as well to all the players who participated in today’s tournament - it was alot of fun, as are all LBS events.

A special note to all the frustrated players who do not have a chance to join these tourneys.  Yours truly (me) will start hosting these “spur-of-the-moment” flashchat events.  These will take place in the evenings around 9pm EST (LBShooters time).  Look for them soon in a flashchat room nearest you!