Here is another infrequent post of recommendations of stuff to watch on Netflix. Two new series have recently hit it that I am currently really enjoying.

The first I had dismissed when I read a description of it when first aired on the SyFy channel. But when I saw the teaser trailer on Netflix it appeared a lot more appealing.

Happy is a based on a graphic novel by Grant Morrison. The opening scene violently visceral and surreal sets the tone for whole series.

And I love it. A combination of live action and animation. It has some dark themes, it’s violent, it’s funny, the performances are fantastic. I’m a big fan of this show. I’ll be getting the graphic novel now to read for sure.

Friday evenings as a kid/teenager were along with Saturday mornings some of my favourite tv. 6pm Fridays if I remember correctly I’d be spoiled with classics of the time like The Water Margins and Monkey. Although I seem to remember them running for longer than they actually did apparently. I’ve looked at dvds of the complete series for both and there are far far fewer episodes than I remember.

Monkey had a light hearted approach to its material. But it was fun. Now Netflix has produced an updated version of the series. It’s struck an interesting route for an update. A lot these days go for the dark gritty reimagining. But this one has not gone that route, but it hasn’t also gone for copying the original either, they have hit a nice mid point. I actually like the route they have gone, and the choices they have made. I particularly like the actor who plays monkey and his portrayal. Casting Sandy as a female character an interesting choice, that works. The rest of the main casting choices and their performances are solid.

Don’t forget that this weekend is Prerelease weekend for Magic the Gathering Dominaria. I would imagine all FLGS that sell MtG and do FNM will be running Prerelease events this weekend. I know my FLGS The Hobbit Hole are running some. They still have places on some of them, except the Saturday 11am one that is sold out (luckily I have my ticket for that already).

The Prerelease kits are good value and even more so this time because there is going to be 2 promo cards in the kits this time. Plus stores can also sell booster boxes a week early thanks to WotC. Which I suspect is them trying to get in the good graces of the FLGS again after dropping the ball on one or two recent releases (Iconic Masters, Masters 25, Explorers of Ixalan come to mind). Each booster box while stocks last comes with the sweet promo legendary creature Firesong and Sunspeaker.

Plus I think the 2 Planeswalker decks will also be available this weekend too. And if I’m not mistaken these too come with a couple of booster packs.

So if you have no plans for the weekend I’d highly recommend attending a Prerelease event.

Math Trade Update

Well the algorithm did its job and none of my offers were taken, I was offered nothing. So it was a kind of a non-event, and a bit of a let down. Will I try again? Not sure, it’s rare that I get rid of a game from my collection. And when I do it’s usually in the run up to UKGE that I do it, with collection at the expo. That way I don’t have the hassle of postage etc. So those 3 items I put in the math trade will probably go up the week before UKGE along with my Star Wars: Destiny collection. But I’ll worry about all that nearer the time.

As the observant will have noticed first versions of the dragons tribal, mono red and elves tribal Commander decks have been created and the deck lists shared on here. Plus if I remember correctly a deck list for a dinosaur tribal brawl deck has also been shared.

As a disclaimer this post and all my others are really my notes for me to refer back to. I’m nearly 50, my memory ain’t that great at this most ancient of ages and this is where I record things I want to remember. Having said that here are the things I want to remember about decks I’m building.

In very early planning stages, which basically means I have a handful at most of possible cards to use put to one side, no commander decided yet:

• Death and Taxes deck
• Angel deck

I’m also rebuilding the Scarab God deck. But not really spent much time on that.

Ideas I’ve had for decks include the following:

• Wither/infect
• Carebear
• Abuse etb triggers
• Saproling and fungus

Depending on how the mood takes me, one or two of the ideas could jump ahead of those that I mentioned above.

I’m not sure when I will finish those decks. I suppose it depends on how much MtG and particularly Commander I get to play after I move jobs. The two MtG Leagues I ran were well attended, and 2 Commander sessions were fairly successful around the same time. However since then I’ve tried to get a couple of sessions of Commander running but the lack of response has been disappointing. I’ve had to cancel them. Commander is my favourite format for the game. Obviously within Fenland Gamers not so much. I have a Brawl event set up for next Sunday. So that’s (and it’s not as if Magic players need it) an excuse to play with the new cards that they have just got at the Prerelease events. At the moment it’s looking like it too will be cancelled. Which is a bit disappointing. Will this push me into MtG: Arena?

I’d love to see WotC reprint in some way the Vanguard cards, and the Archenemy scheme cards. Ideally the Conspiracy conspiracies cards would also be nice (but a set of these can still be picked up easily and cheaply so less pressure on these). If WotC were clever they would do a box set that gathers these multiplayer formats altogether, print a nice little rules booklet, add in one or two multiplayer formats (see that Commandzone podcast on spicing up Commander for some of those) with some tokens to support them, like role cards for the one based on Bang!

I’ve finally crumbled and decided to give the UK Math Trade a try. I’m treating it as a kind of experiment.

What is a Math Trade? It’s a complicated way to trade games. People add to a list the games they want to trade. That bits simple. They then look through what people have put up for trade and hopefully find some that they would like to get. This part is handled by a separate website to the list. When you find something you would like you then have to say which of the games you added to the trade you’d like to offer for it. Once again that seems simple. Once everyone has done this by a given deadline, a piece of software does the complicated stuff and matches people up. After that you get to decide if you will accept the offer being made to you that was assigned by this algorithm. While you are doing that, others are also doing the same. All accepted offers then get sent out, and people have got rid of old games they no longer want and get new games that they want to try. And I think that’s the whole Math Trade in a none coherent explanation.

So I’ve put up an unopened Dark Souls the board game, a Kickstarter Edition of Clans of Caledonia with the metal coins, and the expansion for Star Wars: Rebellion unopened.

If I can get The Gaia Project then I’ll be really happy. But Nations or Civilisation would also not be a bad result.

So let’s see how this goes.

It’s the start of the Easter holidays, and I decided my Easter present to myself would be 9 booster packs of this little card game called Magic the Gathering.

So starting tomorrow I will open 3 packs and post my pulls on here. And then I’ll repeat that for the following 2 days.

While I was choosing my packs at my FLGS, I put my order in for pre-release weekend. Along with which of the Summer releases I wanted.

Oh one for the diary it’s MtG Open House again on the 14th April at your FLGS.

I’m so tempted by Star Wars Legion which has just been released over here. But I don’t know anyone who is getting it, or wants to get it and play. So I’m loathe to invest time and more importantly money into it. It’s not as if I’m getting some of my more miniature heavy games like Imperial Assault, Zombicide, and The Others to the table. So if I’m struggling to get them played it’s going to be even harder to get a miniatures game to the table. It’s not like I was playing X-Wing every week when I had that. That’s the drawback of living in the back of beyond.

Sometimes games sit there on the gaming shelf eating away at your conscience saying “Play me, play me”.

Here are three games I haven’t played since getting them that I’d really like to get to the table soon, and are screaming at me to play them.

I got Homeland for a bargain tenner in the later half of 2017. It had reasonable reviews at the time, at that price a steal. Hidden traitor games are fun. Just need to get the right players together to try it. Naturally the other two are kickstarters that arrived in 2018, and yeah I want to get them to the table.

Existing games I want to play

I have the new expansion for Cry Havoc, and the first expansion for Kemet. So naturally I want to play these games with the new stuff. Scythe I just want to play again with those lovely airships from The Wind Gambit expansion.

Seeing as illness put a stopper on me seeing the new Black Panther movie until this coming weekend. Thought I’d give a couple of viewing recommendations on Amazon Prime. The first is the complete, all episodes of every season of Scrubs.

I really like Scrubs. Unlike Friends this series still holds up really well. There is a heart to this series that shines through the moments of comedy. That’s a really hard thing to pull off. Like all really popular series during their lifetime they are packed full of guest appearances from celebrities.

Also recently added to Prime is the movie The Big Sick. This movie is apparently a biopic, a true life story of how the comedian Kumail Nanjiani met his wife.

Yeah I like a romcom, because this is basically what the movie is. I like the stand up element of the story, it’s a side that appeals to me, and that I have an interest in. Just get the popcorn and watch.

This looks like I’m jumping on a bandwagon especially after Sunday and the 5 BAFTA wins, but I had seen this movie well before that (just saying). Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri, is an awesome movie. Great performances from the main cast.

This is a powerful movie, I’d even say there is a bit of an emotional roller coaster element to the movie. The fact characters shift between likeable and sympathetic, to unlikeable, and back, or vice versa, gives the story a depth missing from so many movies these days. It’s refreshing to see such a compelling movie doing well. Tonally I think the movie is similar to the likes of No Country for Old Men. And easily stands shoulder to shoulder with it also. Just go and see it, you won’t regret it.

Just saying why I’m quiet at the mo. Half term and this hits. I’ve been lucky the last few holidays and avoided catching anything. But it’s a drawback of the job.

I’ll just suffer in not so much silence now.