#this message is copy+pasted from discord a few years ago... so sorry

[lie-lover]

i have a theory: merasmus is referred to by most of his friends with he/him but almost all of the times he's referred to by government or newspapers or whatever who supposedly dont know him they use she/her and nouns like ma'am and stuff. what if merasmus is transmasc but hasnt gotten it officially documented, so hes still seen as a woman in government documents?

i just have this mental video of soldier going "Merasmus has pretended to be a lot of things, like a good roomate! and a woman! in fact, he pretended to be a woman so well the government still believes him! Hah, those officials won't know what hit 'em when they find out the truth"

[mysterysideblogscary]

google doc copy and paste

Before crying wolf about anything, you should read through these 3 tabs, there isn't much to read but it is really useful, like the links tab under info, and a bunch of quality of life settings (Shown in one of the questions).

FYI if you can only see a 3 gear tab (on the right), you need to close chat first for it to appear

This is meant as just a general Q&A, most of the other big questions like “when is reset??” are in the tabs.If you have any questions please ask chat in pxls or in discord pxls (questions will be answered within 3-5 business days)

Q. What's the point of pixels?

A. Idk you can place pixels, sometimes it turns to art, and sometimes it doesn't.

You can make your own art, join factions and help them with art, grief (except people will be mad at you), or just chill in chat, whatever floats your boat.

Q. How to Chat? Why is Chat?

A. Chat’s chat. Sometimes it's so quiet that you see messages from two hours ago and sometimes every message is from the same minute. Try not to spam (i.e. type out 1 word messages, have the entire chat as your name, spam pinging others). If someone is being aggressive or out of line you can report them and the appeal would be sent straight to the mods, but don’t abuse it or you'll get banned lol.

Q. Can't post links/create factions?

A. You get access to posting links at 250 pixels placed, and 1000 placed for faction creation

You can post your coordinates in chat like this : (x, y) ex. (400, 342)

Q. Happy new year?? it surely isn’t!

A. Yes it is + you're bald. But in truth it's an “event” that happens every hour in chat where everyone says happy new year. When you think about it, it's always the new year.

Q. Is there anything that's not allowed to be drawn?

A. Obviously the TOS rules, and whatever else is in the pixel rules.

However, there are a few generally disliked things in the community, those being:

- Flags: Could be for a few reasons why they are hated, but generally flags are removed by either the factions they are built near or anyone. If you still want to make art around that nation/country, you could make art from said place.

- Single color spread/”void”: Uninteresting and too simple, try harder.

- Badly rendered art: Also known as fiddled art, it happens when you convert art with a lot of color to pxls palette of colors. there are a bunch of guides to defiddling it. (Look to “how to make art?”)

- Single pixel thickness art: Again kinda lazy and doesn’t look good with other lattices being near it (an outline might save it from being deleted).

- Duplicated art: Unless it's with a good reason, having the same art twice is usually looked down on.

Q. My art got deleted! Why?

A. Sorry to hear that! This might have happened because one of a few different reasons:

- It was one of the disliked arts (see previous question)

- It was built in an outline of a pre-claimed art, meaning there was art that was gonna be built there already. You can tell a pre-claim by an outline of a single color. It's easier to spot them if you zoom out. (If you want to preclaim an art, you have to do that kinda early during a new canvas)

- It was built in a lattice, which is usually fine but sometimes the faction is against it.

You can always ask in chat if you have any further questions.

**A big tip is if you want your art to last, you should build an outline around it. **

Preferably with one solid pixel of color, this is really recommended because if your art has jagged pixels, an outline will smooth it out, making it both look better with a lattice behind it and giving it a “polish”. The clueless bot has a command to auto make an outline if your image is a png with a clear background.  ex. >outline green Image or link

Q. How are big pieces of art made?

A. Usually big arts would have their faction's name and a unique lattice around it. If the art doesn't have a name around it then it's either a solo build, the faction doesn't want a name or they forgor. 

Q. What are factions?

A. Factions are groups of people who place together, either because they have a shared interest or goal. You can join as many as you want but you can only display one name. You can access that setting by clicking on your name at the bottom left and selecting factions.

The big factions are Osu, Green lattice, Legion, Mane, and many many others. They can be found in the factions channel in the main pxls discord.

Fun fact, bigger number = better person

Q. How do I make art?

A. Use this, https://docs.google.com/document/d/1NEX_O1TeyprmHE7QZobkJhRZ5L2vwjSNHYk4oCTI4HY/edit#heading=h.vgbblrt5qmkm

If you want to make something big (above 2.5k or so), you should generally check with either chat or the #plans channel in the discord. Remember, if the canvas is already past about 2 weeks that means most of the big areas have been filled, so you'll have to wait until the next canvas. Each canvas lasts from 25-40 days.

Don’t forget to add an outline around it, in fact it's recommended to start with one!

Q. Things to do while placing? 

A. A lot of people do things like listening to music, watching videos, or only placing like 6 pixels every hour, your call.

However, I would recommend checking out an idle game, such as: Antimatter dimensions, Clicker heroes, Kittens game, Cookie clicker, Realm Grinder, Synergism, NGU idle, Idle Skilling, Transporter defender, Idle research, Idle Champions of the Forgotten Realms,Time Clickers, Unnamed Space Idle, IdleOn, The Perfect Tower II, Idle Spiral, Chillquarium, Kiwi Clicker, Trimps, Idle Wizard, Idling to Rule the Gods, Card Storm Idle, Tap Ninja, My Life as an Archeologist, Incremental Adventures, Universal Paper Clips, Idle Bouncer, Idle Dice 2, Plantera 1 and 2, CompactO Idle, Soda Dungeon, Wizard and Minion Idle, Shonen Idle Z, Crafting Idle Clicker, Orb of Creation, Melvor Idle, Cell to Singularity, Idle Slayer, Farmer Against Potatoes Idle, Grim Clicker, or Underworld Idle. 

Q. Recommended settings?

A. Green means it's recommended to have it on, blue means you should play around with it if you like it or not. Obviously it's up to you but this is what I find to work the best.

[spoiltizzy]

discord message copy-and-paste minific thing

(cw for my usual kink stuff but also for angst and disordered eating behaviours)

some kinda modern AU where stede knows where to find ed after their weird breakup which was mostly stede running away but he doesn’t, because he doesn’t have mary to boost his confidence because the divorce was a good few years ago and he felt no need to run back to her or his children because he’d settled that matter in the past. but there was nobody there to make him more sure of his love, or where he belonged. so he’s just been stewing in his guilt and self-loathing and feelings of being horrible or bad or inadequate.

stede is just wildly stuffing food into his face in some self-hate-fuelled binge in the maccas parking lot, yeah

he’s crying and the whole exercise is some self-punishing attempt to trap himself in feeling disgusted by himself while feeling justified in all his negative feelings towards himself

that and he wants his stomach to hurt so bad he can’t feel anything else

and it does. it really hurts. and he finds himself so utterly disgusting he almost wants to die a little bit

but uh

ed’s walking down the street. and he sees stede’s car. and he sees stede in it, crying. he’s seen stede eat because he’s happy, sooo full and enjoying himself and loving it.

he’s never seen this though.

it’s captivating in some awful way, it makes his heart feel like it’s falling out of his chest. he’s terrified of how fucking miserable stede looks. god. stede shouldn’t look like that when he’s eating. even if it’s crappy fast food.

when he saw stede his instinct was to be consumed by fuckin anger. stede left, stede did that to him, stede ripped his heart out and stomped on it and he didn’t even care except. well. that’s wrong. something else is going on. he almost feels angry stede has the audacity to feel so sad when he did the same to ed, callously and randomly.

but it’s just so heartbreaking to watch stede cry in his car and shove food into his mouth like it’s going to save him

smack himself in the head and slump forward shaking and then gasp and keep crying and eating. ed kinda just... walks up to the car and he barely notices he’s done it until he’s standing there

stede sees ed out the window and he freaks out and he tries to start the car and he tries to hide his face and he tries to hide his tummy

he's chubbier since ed saw him last.

ed puts a hand up to the window and stede hasn’t locked the door so he just opens it. stede stops trying to scramble away from the door and freezes and stares at ed with food and grease on his face and wide eyes full of tears and red from crying.

stede says he’s sorry

he repeats it over and over again and starts to loose the rhythm of the words as his breath gets faster and faster

like some panicked stim that’s not really succeeding to calm him

ed should be angry really. ed should be so fucking mad that stede didn’t find ed and just tell him that

that he needed to be confronted to say it and all the time he’s been feeling sorry for himself like some idiot

but it’s just so… so….

ed can’t take the look on stede’s face. it hurts

stede is too panicked to refuse and still breathing the words when ed takes his hand and pulls him up and out of the car. though the fullness makes him grunt a bit when he needs to stand, and one of his hands finds his belly because it hurts so much

and ed opens the back and gently pushes stede down lying across the back seats

and climbs in after him and closes the door

“shh, ‘s okay. fucking hell, mate, calm down.” ed’s voice breaks in sympathy with the next word, “please. fuck, you’re scaring me over here.”

but stede just pathetically wails another more impassioned “i’m sorry”

ed puts a hand over stede’s mouth and goes “shut up, stede” with just a little tiny bit of the frustration that has mostly been taken out of him by how much he hates seeing stede so upset. it might make stede’s face crumple more but it gets him quiet for a moment ed’s gaze trails down from stede’s face, soft jawline softer than he remembered. pink cheeks, still covered in crumbs and fast food grease. collared shirt. always impeccably dressed, even for a breakdown in his own car, huh. elbows. propping him up a little. fingers as covered in grease and residue as his face.

fabric puckering around each button

drips of sauce down his shirt. it’s a shame, but it doesn’t matter, does it?

he’s softer

but he also looks supremely bloated with fullness

top part of his belly is bulging with food, honestly. and ed puts his hands on it. it’s so firm. stede burps quietly, and he shakes and he whimpers and he’s looking at ed with the wild terrified eyes of an injured animal

and

“fuck, stede” ed breathes. “what’ve you done to yourself?” it sounds hurt. it sounds close to tears. stede might feel absolutely terrified. ed hates him, thinks he’s disgusting, is horrified by stede’s greed and how disgusting he is. really, the only thing ed’s horrified about is that stede’s hurt himself

but ed just sorta,, leans down. gets close to it

starts rubbing gentle circles on stede’s belly and giving it soft kisses. untucks his shirt. stede’s belt is already unbuckled, the button on his slacks is already undone, ed just pulls the zip down to give him extra room.

“shh, shh, shh. it’s okay. fuck— you’re okay, stede”

stede’s shaking his head and he apologises again

“i’m sorry, i’m so sorry”

“don’t be. please.”

and just

“why don’t you hate me?” stede says and it’s desperate and it’s like he’s begging ed to hate him

and ed really doesn’t have an answer. “why would i hate you?”

stede starts crying again

ed puts his hand on stede’s mouth again and kisses stede’s belly and says “you’re absolutely beautiful. i wish it wasn’t hurting.”

stede’s so stunned ed’s said something so nice he laughs

“it does hurt quite a bit”

“how much have you got in here?”

stede’s list is pretty long

he’s been to a whole bunch of places through a whole bunch of drive-throughs

at some point he trails off

he’s looking at ed like he expects to be chastised

ed calls him a lunatic and kisses him on the mouth

and tells him that next time, he shouldn’t cry about it. and he should get nicer food. it can be like the meals they used to have together

and stede can enjoy eating too much

and it will be nice

[simplycomplicatedwriting]

Here’s a mini thing I got carried away with (Shane x Farmer)

I was playing with an idea I had for an imagine and pitched it over discord. This is just a copy-paste of the messages I sent about the prompt which turned into a half-assed mini story. It starts off as a prompt but goes into more detail and Yes the tense changes at points- sorry about that, but I was writing this over the course of a few hours between doing other things. I really liked the idea in the end so I thought I’d share :)

Shane x Farmer OC/You except it's an alternative POV Groundhog Day-esque mystery, where Shane's anxiety and low self-esteem makes him question why on Earth the farmer wants to be friends enough that he starts to notice how they can act a little weird. Weird as in the way they pause at random moments before something happens as if they were expecting it when there was no way they could have known, or how they seem to know everything he likes but play it off as a "good guess". Then, of course, the Farmer and Shane fall in love and start dating. Shane notices the Farmer goes to Cindersap forest a lot, and always in a sneaking manner. He hears from Lewis about the weird man who lives in a tower and those insecurities kick in once again. Shane and the Farmer have a fight about it, with the Farmer flatly denying any suggestions and tries to defuse the situation (and they seem to know exactly what to say to calm him down, which only frustrates him further). Shane then goes to investigate on his own and see if the Farmer is cheating on him (which is what he suspects). He finds the wizard in the tower,

[completely out of character dialogue but you get the gist]

Rasmodius: Ah, [Farmer's name]'s husband... what do you want?

Shane: ... husband?

Shane: Who- we're not married. I'm not their husband. Who are you?

Rasmodius: A-hah, finally divorced you, have they? I'm not surprised. If you want a love potion to win them back, that's not how this works

Shane: What are you on about? We have never been married- I've barely known them a year!

An awkward silence ensues and a look of concern washes over the Wizard's face. He mutters something to himself and makes a wave with his hand. Shane is pushed out of the tower against his will and the door slams firmly shut. He goes home confused and still, if not more, upset.

The next morning Shane wanders onto the farm hungover from the night before, him having drunk himself to sleep. As he approached from the upper right from town, he can hear loud voices. Once he gets close enough he see's the wizard on the Farmer's doorstep and the Farmer in the doorway. They're having a heated discussion. The farmer looks like they've been crying. Being the caring boyfriend, Shane goes to the Farmer's defence without hesitation. The wizard gives the farmer a look, which causes them to cast their eyes down. They don't look at Shane.

"You need to fix this," the Wizard states firmly. The harshness and obvious anger in his voice makes the Farmer wince. Shane goes to intervene, but the Wizard leaves too quickly for it to matter.

The Farmer doesn't invite Shane into their house like they normally would. They keep the doorway blocked with their body and come off as reserved. The sight of them causes a pain in Shane's head, like a memory fighting its way to the surface. It makes him blurt, "We've been here before." The Farmer sobs. Shane doesn't comfort them, only looking on in shock and confusion.

"We're were married," The Farmer confesses. 

Long ago, in another life, the Farmer had met Shane in the secluded Pelican Town in Stardew Valley. It was like a whole other world, so cut off from the rest of society. The war hadn't reached the valley, nor had it been consumed by modern technology. The other threat to it was Joja mart, which the Farmer swiftly put an end to with the help of the Junimos. Shane and the Farmer married in the Summer of the Farmer's third year. Their love was sweet and naive. It took the Farmer a long time to gain Shane's trust, to learn what he liked and what he didn't, but they enjoyed everyone second of it. Of course, married life was much different from dating. Very quickly the threads of their relationship came undone. Tempers were tested and their love was challenged. Snide comments turned to midnight screaming matches and neither could find common ground. The Farmer was hard-working, but at times struggled to empathise with him. Shane was passionate, but still struggling with his mental health and found it difficult to have any motivation. 

That was their first marriage.

With a quick deal, the Farmer was given a second chance to start again. A new life in the same old Pelican Town. A completely clean slate. They knew what they were doing this time. They knew how to woo Shane while also keeping the Farm in good condition. They were like a machine. The two married in the Winter of the Farmer's first year. Shane, unaware of the upper hand the Farmer had, was smitten. He'd found his soulmate. They were perfect together, so of course, when the topic of babies came up, they were quick to make a decision. 

"We had kids...?" The memories Shane was getting back were faint and hard to interpret, but he knew the Farmer was telling the truth. He felt sick. The regret that washed over the Farmer's face when he spoke only made it worse.

"You- We, hated it. We were terrible parents. I wasn't fit for it, I-I was too busy all the time, and it stressed you out so much. We weren't happy." The Farmer's voice began to crack. "It just wouldn't stop crying... no matter what we did... it just wouldn't stop."

The Farmer had found themselves on the Witch's doorstep again, ready to make a deal. They had remembered what the Witch had offered them last time and decided to take them up on one of their offers. 'Only you, I and the wizard will have any memories of these events you are about to erase'. With a hefty fee, the Farmer wished for their troubled child to be set free, to be turned into a dove. 

This was no easy fix, though. Somehow, in some way, Shane figured it out, and he stood in the rain where he was standing now, looking at the Farmer as they stood in the doorway, hoping- praying for some kind of answer that would make it all better. He relied on the Farmer for that. They always seemed to fix his problems for him, but all the sudden they were the cause.

"You were going to hurt yourself... I couldn't let you go. I had to stop you." 

Shane had gone to the cliff edge like he had done times before, but nothing the Farmer had said changed his mind. They were the problem, not the solution anymore. 

..

One more time. Just one more time and they'd get it right. Things would be perfect, and they would be happy. But the Farmer couldn't restart again. They felt themselves getting older both physically and mentally from the constant stress. A different deal with the witch, and with a little extra. Erase the town's memory of Shane and they're relationship. Any trace that they had been any more their friends would be gone. Additionally, for the price of their soul, Stardew Valley would continue to be a secluded, untouched miracle in a war-torn world, where no ill would come to the valley and its inhabitants would stay in their happy little bubble. There would be no death, no ageing, and the outside world would only resume when interacted with. It was a strong spell, but it was worth it for an eternity of paradise. The Farmer could start again with Shane while keeping their progress on the farm and with the rest of the town, that way they would be ready for anything.

"So here we are," The Farmer said with a forced laugh. They looked like how Shane felt- complete and utter shit. Hopeless, lost and hurt was a good way to put it. By now the hidden memories had come back just like any other memory, but it didn't ease Shane. Somehow he could comprehend it all, but what does one do in that situation? Knowing knowledge that shouldn't be known. Sure, the Farmer told him of two instances where they had reset their relationship (and practically time itself), but how many other times had they toyed with this power? How could one determine what was genuine and what was a forced lie implanted into the mind? Shane thought of the child he now remembered. He felt guilty for forgetting. He felt grief for the child he had lost. He felt betrayed, oh so betrayed, by the one he thought he cared for so deeply, who had used and toyed with him like he were some program that could be edited and reset at a whim.

"I hate you,"

Those three words. Three words the Farmer thought they could never withstand hearing from him... but they had. They had more times than they would ever acknowledge. The naive Farmer who came to Stardew Valley would have never survived the heartbreak, but that person was gone- consumed by the determination to fix things. They were barely fazed by the words at this point; the phrase was like a paper cut, it hurt, but only for a moment. Why should they worry, anyway? They'd get it right next time. 

"One more time," they said. "It'll be the last and I'll get it right. We'll be happy. I'll wipe the slate clean this time."

[comfyspookyburrito]

My new year’s resolution. (I should’ve posted this earlier this year.)

Hello, sorry I haven’t been active lately or live streamed. I needed to take time off to reflect the rough start we all had in this new year .

Well, let me discuss everything I want done before 2022 in a long ass blogpost. Yes I still use Tumblr.

IRL:

1 - Become as smarter as possible through those “school subjects” I neglected when I was a kid. Maybe study music, Japanese or game dev shit.

2- Workout and hopefully get results within the next 2 years. I’m pretty fucking convinced that it takes 3 years to go from toothpick to normal strong and 5 for more. You can’t convince me unless I work my body hard, long enough to see for myself.

3 - get in touch with friends I know and bond with all my family buds while I still can, and study a lot of shit too.

On the internet:

1 - Compare myself to other artists, serious long art practice until the end of the year.

2 - Remake all of my deleted content including stuff made on steam.

3 - Break the mold and actively engage conversations with communities all over again. DeviantArt, discord, twitter, YouTube, twitch. 

4 - No more friends on the internet. I have plenty in real life. Anybody who indulges toxicity because of this. I’ll just tell them to go outside and make some friends.

4. Number four, DO NOT listen to the things I crossed off, I am going through my history of bad comments and remarks in order to speak the truth. During times like this I was insecure and taking it out on people for no reason.

“Explaining reasons why I chose these goals for 2021.”

When I was still a kid in high school, I always felt a part of me was empty. To this day I’m embarrassed whenever I think about how skinny wand stupid I am. I refuse to stick with a low school IQ or stay weak.

In real life I am going to gain muscle, and study everything I should have done before I graduated. I’ll likely never go to a college ever again. So I at least want to appear smart like everyone else. Gaining muscle, regardless if it will only make my issues worse. It will help me feel that I can prolong my life being healthy.

I also want to take a moment and pay my respect to my grandmother and grandfather, no longer here on earth. They’re final words and moments that I saw has left a life lasting message that I will fulfill this year. Even if it kills me I won’t be satisfied again until I fill that emptiness absent  in my childhood.

ANYWAY! ON TO THE INTERNET!

I want to become a game developer and make a good game before the end of my life. With that said here is all the context you need to catch up on me.

I deleted all of my past encounters and work online from embarrassment and I want to keep that aspect of my life away from everyone. I don’t want to be known today as the person I was ten years ago. People need to believe that it is possible for someone to change. It’s crucial to my life here on out that I prove my worth now, not 10 years ago.

Even without words, I know how much some of my work felt to others and how much it saddens them to see that investment gone.

Rather than just copy and reupload shit, why not go further? I could use this opportunity to build my new image, as SpookyBurrito, a distinctive style. Remake and bring new quality into these old ass, pngs.

Speaking of change, I was in a few communities years ago and for a while thought nothing could go wrong. But it’s clear in 2021. I don’t belong in any of these communities ever again.

It would be wiser to find new hurdles to tread. Take risks. Even if I make new enemies, it would be worth it so much to find new people that can relate or even reason with me to begin with. Maybe I’m not the only person on earth that likes for example, the Moe Mekuri games. A whole trilogy on steam that I would love to invest and get good at. If you don’t like lewd content, the ost’s, visuals, and gameplay will leave a very long fantastic impression.

Lastly, I want to address something. I’m not a shy person anymore. I’m not a goody two-shoe’s, and while I can be a jackass at times, I’m not a troll, attention seeker, or trouble maker.

I will call out anybody scummy enough that deserves to be exposed. I don’t care about cancel culture at all, I give no fucks. It will have no affect on me if anybody stops caring about me on twitter or whatever shit on social media. But I won’t tolerate any pathetic activity online. I don’t have to say anything. You know who you are. Idiots who never learn and laugh at any pain they poke at with a drill, keep their distance, if I find fucked up people, fucking run from me.

But don’t take it the wrong way, I have no hate or ill if I don’t want friends online. Mutual relationships should be perfectly normal for any adult in 2021.

(I’m perfectly fine with chatting and having fun playing games together with anybody, add me on steam and shit. Just please, don’t get attached to anybody over the internet. Trust me. Months of  agony over assholes online you once trusted is not worth it. It’s for your own good.) 

(5/29/2023 edit)

The entire topic of relationships and this last part is completely false and inaccurate. I made a lot of false judgements and accusations after a time I needed to recover. The reason I am saying this now, is because this line towards how you should feel on the internet is total bullshit.

I would never, condone anyone to adopt that behavior, just because there are people out there that can take advantage of you, does not mean that they are bad people, meanwhile anyone online who HAS went too far to a point that other people who share such extreme problems when it comes to bad people who would advise you to stay away from them is the only time you should ever feel mutual towards someone, hating terrible people is normal.

There is NOTHING wrong with getting in a friendship with someone across the world, and it can lead to a healthy lifestyle. I have no other words than to openly express yourself because that’s human nature, and following anything said I crossed out is only going to isolate you into a toxic lifestyle.

If you want to be my friend and you want me to be yours, that is ok, I’m not going to deny that anymore. But please remember that this is something you have to earn. Have patience, show your true feelings and express your passions, and don't let anyone try discourage you.

These are not words I came up with, this is something I’ve been told over the course of my life with close peers, who have taught me this. That is how you become a better person.

And one more thing to point out. I am not a person who judges or discriminates anyone for any reason at all. I have a very high tolerance towards trolling and even negative emotions in general. I’m ok if people treat me like shit because I’m old enough to handle it. But just like everyone else, if you push my buttons, I may have to push yours too, something else I’ve learned, I’ve even been told that it’s called karma.

Thank you for reading this long update, sorry I couldn’t post it sooner. I have plenty of content in store for this year, most of it I haven’t even talked about.

[kunicfftcg-blog]

Tournament Report - A Noobs First 1st tournament

Hello my dear non-existent readers, I am Kunic and I literally just started playing Final Fantasy TCG not 8 days ago. Twirls mustache

Before I get on with everything that’s happened in this slightly-elongated past week, let’s get to my backstory! 

...

Okay, okay, I won’t go into too many details; only the relevant stuff will be covered. In short, this is the first physical TCG I’ve played in over 11 years. The last TCG I played was Yu-Gi-Oh!, which I played for about 5 years from 2002-2007. I wasn’t anything huge in the scene, but I did stand out a bit (not to stroke my own ego or anything). 

The area I lived in was the heart of where some of the Metagame.com writers lived (remember that awesome site?), and, taking inspiration, I began to write for TCGPlayer.com. Coinciding with this, I also moderated their Yu-Gi-Oh! forum. Therefore, to say I was heavily ingrained in a subsection of the NA Yu-Gi-Oh! scene would be an understatement. However, as life went on, I had to make some choices that drove me away from the game.

As a last hurrah, after 7 months of not playing the game, I entered into a 2007 Shonen Jump Championship that happened in my city, where I took 23rd out of close to 230 entrants, with my only 2 losses happening to top-8 finalists. This is my highest Yu-Gi-Oh! accomplishment, and I’d say that it’s a damned fine way of ending things, wouldn’t you?

This is a picture from Metagame.com that shows the top table going into Round 9 of the event. Can you spot me?

Anyhow, backstory complete, let’s move on! 

So after a long hiatus, I was itching to get back into a card game. Yu-Gi-Oh! has changed way to much, and not for my liking, so that was out of the question. Ultimately my friend messaged me on Discord about how he’s wanting to try out Final Fantasy TCG. So I read the rules 8 days ago, and off to the races we went!

My local card shop hosts tournaments every other weekend, so I had just a week to prepare for my first event, and then I’d need to wait 2 weeks for the next. I decided that I wanted to build a cheap deck with locally sourced cards first, and then I’d splurge on the harder-to-find cards online during the 2 weeks of downtime I’ll have. To achieve this, I purchased a few Opus IV boosters, as well as all 3 Opus V starters (my local card shop was running a weekly special, putting them all at $8.99). This helped to pad out my core cards (Evoker’s and such). 

During my research, I discovered the lovely midgar.blog, where I took immense inspiration for a mono wind deck. I pieced together a near carbon copy, sans a few of the harder to get cards (lookin’ at you, Izana), and with just $17 spent, I was ready for the event.

My first FFTCG Tournament

We had a turn-out of 9 total people. Well, it was 8, and then 9. You see, standings were posted, my opponent and I sat down to play, and then... Nevermind, we have a 9th person, new standings will be posted! So round 1 ended up being a BYE for me. I was a little disheartened by this, but by now a few players knew I was brand-spankin’ new to the game, so they let me hover over and watch their games to learn.

1-0

One of the players I was watching wrapped up his game in about 10 minutes, and wanted to have a match with me to teach me. Thanks dude with the rainbow watchband (I’m horrible with names)! He was going to use his tournament deck, which was a Chocobo’s deck, but then I mentioned it’d be a near mirror match-up, so he swapped it out for a mono-lightning deck (I think). I ended up winning this (yay!), but I knew it was because he didn’t get the removal he needed.

Standings for round 2 were posted and I was up against a Scion’s deck! Specifically it was Earth/Lighting. Thing’s started out nicely for me, but then they turned sour real fast. You see, this deck has 1 major weakness, and that’s removal. It doesn’t matter the type of removal, the opponent just needs it and I can’t come back. Well, he had Al-Cid. The good Al-Cid. Yeah I was dead by turn 3. I scored two points of damage out of spite and conceded as I just couldn’t come back from that.

But hey, at least some hot Yuffie-on-Yuffie action happened this game. That’s always a plus, right?

1-1

The third round was a bit more interesting as I was up against Mono Ice. You know, discards and crap. Pretty fast he had 2 Gesper’s and 2 Thaumaturge. Yeah that was brutal. But you know what he didn’t have? Removal. Considering virtually every card in my deck is a 1 or 2, I just resorted to dumping my hand every turn. Yeah that buffed Thaumaturge, but he couldn’t risk attacking with them due to the size of my board. So I just bide my time with Black Chocobo and waited until I drew Shemhazai, the Whisperer. Boom, victory over the ice threat!

2-1

The fourth and final round before the semi and grand-finals. I was placed in top 4 at the time and, as a result of how my local store does things, was given an non-foil Promo Exdeath. Neat!

Alright, so I was originally going to by up against rainbow wristband guy again, but the system accidentally gave someone a BYE two times in a row, so they had to redo the listings. Rainbow wristband guy begrudgingly got it, sorry dude. 

Anyhow, my final opponent... I can’t really recall his deck. He really only played 3 cards against me: 

Chaos

Kam’lanaut

Zodiark, Keeper of Precepts 

The Zodiark was both a huge issue, and why I ultimately won this game. You see, due to these big plays (all happening within the first 3-4 turns), he didn’t have much else in terms of board presence. He had a 2 drop that blocked me early early on, but I was able to deal with it. Afterwards I could easily direct attack past the Kam’lanaut... until he dropped the Zodiark. This wiped out 4 of my forwards, which immediately brought him down to just 2 life, but I lacked a board, and only had 1 card in hand. Thankfully that card was my faithful Black Chocobo, and I drew into 2 more forwards, including Yuffie. This lead to a secured victory on my next turn.

3-1

Boy this is getting long. But I got top 4!

At this point it was time for semi-finals. Now, my shop does something cool here. First place gets 8 boosters and 2 promo cards, second gets 6 boosts and 1 promo card, and 3rd/4th gets 3 boosters. However, instead of playing, we could split all the boosters evenly (5-each), and the top 2 seeded players get their respective promo card prizes. We opted for the latter. So a $5 entry got my a Promo Exdeath, and 5 boosters of my choice (per the suggestions of everyone around me, I went with Opus VI).

And that’s it for the tournament! I got 3rd place, which is about 6 places higher than I expected to be. Pretty proud of that.’

Post tournament shenanigans

At this point, my friend had showed up and mentioned how the shop still had 3 of the Opus VI Pre Release Kits on hand for $35 each... Yeah I was gonna get me one of those!

I didn’t get too much from all the boosters, mostly just a few foil Hero and Rare cards, but man it was all worth it for that sexy foil Guy and the Gullwing card back.

Yeah, this was a ton of fun. For having not played a physical TCG in over a decade, I thoroughly enjoyed myself. 

Sorry for such a long post, but I just had to get all of my excitement out!