Sigh...

No LSS for today. I'm in a rush.

.:Whee!!!:.

Thanks to sir Chaps, my computer is now working again! And he didn't even deactivate F6 or anything. It's now working perfectly fine.

I'm soooo glad...

You know what this means?

Yep. That means my blogging ought to normalize again by next week. Right now, my mind is plain out of ideas to write about barring the usual biographical entries, so I want to do some creative writing again, especially the Suman Sa Latik thing, as well as some Philosophical reflections which I haven't done in a long while.

.:GMA-7:.

Sir Mike Enriquez will follow up on my application with GMA today. I am hoping that the verdict on me would be... favorable. Let's see what happens, I guess. I'm fairly optimistic, but not the least bit overconfident about my chances.

If I get this job, my money woes for the moment would be over. I definitely need to get my hands on 5 Moxen and a Time Walk by next year. Death Long is just way too good a deck to pass up on playing...

.:What The Hades?:.

My pay has not increased. Not by one cent.

What gives? I've been working full time since August already!

Screw this. If this keeps up, I'll end up going to the poorhouse, thanks to them.

Wow. More work, same pay. What the eff do they think I am?

.:JD Long:.

I've been considering writing another three-part primer on Death Long, but I'm trying to see precisely what I can say about the deck that hasn't already been said by Smennen.

At the same time, I'd be lying if I said I felt completely comfortable with just giving away the secrets and weaknesses of the deck just when people still have no idea how to deal with it due to the changes JDizzle made with the deck since Smennen quit trying to fix it. The subtle changes that were made are now currently taking Death Long to a whole new level, simply because now, Long has an out against Control decks as early as Game 1, given what they can do, and now aren't as vulnerable to hate due to the changes in Game 2.

Furthermore, their new sideboard means they will never be totally hosed by whatever hate an opponent would board in, and the sideboard plan becomes even more dangerous for the opponent simply because they can't just automatically board out certain cards after the first game because of what they assume the Long player will board in.

And lastly, I'm not going to claim I'm the most brilliant combo player in the country, but I will definitely assert I've been the most patient with combo among all the currently active Vintage players in the country. I've played through all sorts of hate, from Chalice of the Void to Null Rod, to Arcane Laboratory, to Tormod's Crypt, to Sphere of Resistance, and I've went between struggling to completely breezing past these so-called hosers.

In my opinion, and just take it for what it's worth, Death Long is the superior combo deck the meta has to offer right now, period. It has speed, ample consistency, ample disruption, and a terrific Plan B to fall back on when it can't combo out.

Compare that to the other more popular Combo decks:

– Long is faster than Doomsday, FCG, Oath, Sensei, Dragon, and TPS. Unlike any of these decks, Long is capable of winning on the first turn almost 15% of the time, which is half as often as Belcher's 30%.
– Long can ignore the counterspells of Doomsday, Sensei, Dragon, and TPS, assuming its maindeck Control hate goes through.
– Long is slower but far more consistent than Belcher. Neither does Long have to aggresively mull the way Belcher does.
– Long can force a Mind's Desire against heavy Control-based Combo like Oath, and make the opponent cry from that point on.
– Long does not die to Jester's Cap, unlike Sensei, TPS, Doomsday, and Oath.
– Long has a fallback Plan B when it gets hated out in Game 2, just like FCG, Doomsday, and TPS.
– Long has the highest threat density among all these combo decks, and as such, gives Control decks a nightmare over what to counter. FCG will not be as successful without key Goblins like Recruiter, Piledriver, and Lackey. TPS will not be successful without Yawgmoth's Will and Draw 7's, and have less “tutors” as opposed to Long's actual tutors AND wishes. Sensei is shut down without the Top and Brainfreeze. Doomsday is shut down without Tendrils and Beacon. Oath is shut down without its creatures. Dragon's threats are only their discard outlets and animate spells.

However, to be fair, here are a few of Death Long's shortcomings:

– Long has a horrible mismatch in Workshop. Then again, few decks, and even fewer combo decks, don't. Considering how usual it is for Workshop decks to take the Top 8 in tournaments, that's definitely something to consider.
– Long is the most complicated pure combo deck I have ever played. I doubt other people who have experimented with combo decks including Long can disagree with this fact. Doomsday actually feels like Sligh when compared to Death Long's insane learning curve. If you can't handle the sheer amount of mental work that goes on in Long's gameplay, forget it. Try Doomsday first, then if you can handle it, step on up to Long, as they have somewhat similar gameplans.
– Long requires complete Power 9. And I mean REQUIRES. I doubt you can get away with lacking so much as one Mox. I'm trying to see if four Moxen and a Mox Diamond in the place of the missing Mox will do, and I'll get back to you when I find out whether or not it's an okay substitute.
– Long is suicidal with its life total. Death Wish, Necro, Yawgmoth's Bargain, City Of Brass, and other similar cards hurt big time.
– Like most other combo decks, Long can die to discard. Considering how Sui Black still makes the rounds in the Philippine meta, you have to always remember that fact.
– Lastly, Long's own flexibility with its sideboard can prove to be a problem when you want to adapt to a different meta. What do you take out? What do you put in? I didn't bother and just netdecked completely, being fully aware of why those cards were there. It hasn't failed me so far.