Flava Text

OK, here's a blog-rule-breaking Magic-related post for you.

I can't tell you how excited I am!

Some Magic cards have what's called "flavour text" on them. The idea is to give depth to the card and add colour to the game. Some flavour text is ripped from classic literature. Some is created by the Magic R&D team -- it usually has an element of imaginary game character saying "blah, blah, D&D crap, blah, blah...". The classic quotes are always so much better...

Anway, for the second year running, Wizards of the Coasts have run an online competition for players of the game to submit their own ideas for flavour text to Magic R&D for inclusion in the next Core Set of the game due for release next year.

They put up three cards -- Fear, Naturalize and Shock -- for the great unwashed game-playing masses to submit on.

I've got to say that all three of my submissions seriously kicked ass.

To continue the story I shall now quote directly from the Magic article that was posted up today:

"For the final vote of the promotion, we have the ten finalists for each card in the flavor text competition. The readers of magicthegathering.com sent us nearly 10,000 entries, and narrowing them all down to this list of finalists was no simple task (and not just because of the numbers involved). So here, to close out our promotion, are the final three votes of Selecting Ninth Edition. Pick your favorites and make sure to check back next week for the results as well as a complete wrap-up of all the other votes as well."

Guess who made the shortlist for Fear? From 10,000 submissions!
[Smile]

If you'd like to vote on my submission -- so I can have my flavour text live forever -- you can vote for it here. You'll need to register with the site first. (Do it!)

And you need to vote for #6:
"Hold on to your sword, your nerve, and your bowels."

Frankly it pisses on all the other submissions, but every vote counts as they say...

Bon Anniversary

It's September and that means three things:

1) We're off on holiday to Spain for ten days.

2) Whilst we're away it's India's first birthday! Happy Birthday for the 13th! (I can't believe how quickly the last 12 months have gone)

3) This blog becomes two years old on the 11th. This is pretty amazing for me, as the previous diaries I've written have at most lasted all of 5 weeks. Thank you for reading.

See you when we get back from Espana!