Awesome 1-Mana Creatures, part 4: Red

January 9, 2014 Robin 6 Comments

Today, we get to see Red’s wide array of 1-mana creature greatness, just as we’ve seen White, Blue, and Green earlier in this series. With lots of little Goblins and Orcs running around, Red, like Green, has quite a few options for cheap but useful creatures!

If your favorite 1-mana Red creature isn’t featured here, drop me a (nice) line in the comments! All card images came from MagicCards.info.

Play this guy, then start targeting him with spells and watch your army assemble.	1/1 for 1, with Firebreathing for 1R. Nice!
Good way to get rid of 1/1 grounded token armies! (coughELVEScough)	Great first-strike option for Goblins, and good creature all around.
ROARRRR. Now I suddenly need to build a deck around this guy.	Here’s one flavor of 1/1 Mountainwalking creatures: others include Goblin Mountaineer, Mountain Goat, and Zodiac Goat.
The “making another creature mostly unblockable” ability is great, especially when it comes into play for such a low mana investment!	With the 0/2 toughness, this little guy can withstand a bigger punch; with the 1-mana-per-point Firebreathing, he can pump up the power quicker.
Great way to get rid of one of the big-mama blockers in the way!	With this thing, you can deal potentially 4 damage to a player with one card!
The haste and bouncing-back-to-hand means this is one hard-to-pin-down creature annoyance for your opponent!	Since flight is so seldom seen at low mana costs in red, you’ve got to get it where you can! Yay for blocking a dragon with a bunch of goblins in a hot-air balloon!
A constant source of 1 damage, for 1 mana!	GREAT for putting out lots of Goblins in few turns.
If you need your Goblins (or Dragons, or Orcs, or Dwarves) to deal double damage, use this guy! Just make sure you have a Goblin to sack somehow, if you’re not completely reliant on the creature type.	Fiddle with your Artifact-wielding opponent’s combo strategy, for 1 mana. Hee hee!
Blocking a regen ability? Doesn’t sound that “durr hurr” to me! LOL	Play this guy and start laying out the cheap spells to keep your creatures from being blocked…
If Wolvie gets through, 1 damage to player. If he gets blocked, still 1 damage to player. No drawback!	Because sometimes you’ll be facing a Red-playing opponent with your Red deck.
A classic for Red/Green decks.	Since you have to ditch a card to make this work, this could be good for Madness decks!
If you’re attacking first turn with this guy, he’s pretty great. If you’ve got him and two or more buddies attacking…he’s SILLY. 😀	One-upping Bloodfire Dwarf with a little more mana investment.
Another classic for most Red decks!	Great 1/1 for 1 Kinship creature for Goblins.
Fix your mana (especially in a Red/Green deck) with this guy!	Most of Sensei’s Divining Top’s ability, with legs!
The option to play this Unleashed is what sets this apart.	Play this, wait 4 turns, and you have a 3/3 flying Bird–in Red, no less!
Red gets Wither? Yep, through creatures like this!	The Multikicker option is great, but even if you can’t kick it, you’ve still got a 1/1 haste for 1.
Hilarious fun with Shatterstorm.	Smaug, much? LOL
The ability to shuffle your library–in Red–seems pretty rare, and very useful.	It’s like a baby Ball Lightning! Aww, what a cute little bundle of destruction!
Deal damage to a player, and then damage a creature to boot–for 1 mana!	The Soulbond option is what makes this simple little creature good.
Either your opponent takes 4 right away, or you get a 4/3 creature for 1 that’s going to smack them in the face every turn until they deal with it. Good options!	Great for those times when you just need ONE MORE RED MANA.

Wednesday in the Word

The Whole Point of the Song of Songs

January 8, 2014 Robin Leave a comment

Song of Songs 8:6-7a
Place me like a seal over your heart, like a seal on your arm; for love is as strong as death, its jealousy unyielding as the grave. It burns like blazing fire, like a mighty flame. 7 Many waters cannot quench love; rivers cannot sweep it away.

Up till this point, the Song of Songs (also known as the Song of Solomon) has created a dialogue between Beloved and Lover which reads a lot like flirtation to modern readers. However, the verses above give a new dimension to the conversation; suddenly, it doesn’t read like flirtation purely for its own interests, but a delicate dance leading to the ideal marriage (the “seal” on the lover’s heart), where “love is as strong as death,” a God-kindled fire unquenchable by anything earthly.

This is where this whole book of Scripture has been leading–that flirtation and courtship are not mere ends in and of themselves, but ideally lead to a love blessed and sanctified by God. It gives new meaning to the words of the Beloved and the Lover, showing that this has been God leading them closer together in spirit, and not just them saying gushy things to each other. In short, it shows us the character of a Godly relationship; it isn’t without passion or fire, and it isn’t boring. Rather the opposite–the Beloved and Lover look forward to a life spent continually cherishing and delighting in each other, and God has just such a relationship planned for each of us.

(See my earlier post on this passage, which digs into the symbolism representing God’s relationship to humanity!)

Tuesday on the Soapbox

My Sense of Humor, Visualized (Infographic)

January 7, 2014 Robin Leave a comment

This chart is about as accurate as I could muster! I’ve been told many things about my sense of humor (i.e., that it doesn’t exist, or that I don’t laugh at things that are “clearly funny”), but as you’ll see, the “funny” side is just as filled out as the “non-funny” side! Check out the things that will make me wrinkle my brow with disgust, as well as the things that will have me making uncontrollable squeaky laughs of belly destruction. 😀

(And yes, I am well aware that the non-funny side includes very popular comedy styles/shows, but hey, everyone’s got an opinion :D)

Monday in the HTMLab

Don’t Forget to Credit Your Design Sources

January 6, 2014 Robin Leave a comment

Sometimes we get all swept up in the process of design and we forget exactly what font we used, where we found those Photoshop brushes, what site Google Images found that picture, etc. It may not seem like a big deal, but it’s actually important to credit other people’s work, especially when their work has made yours possible. Not only does it create good feeling among the creative crowds who make the stuff you use, but it also raises awareness about their work and may draw more interest their way! In webdesign, we’re all helping each other with links, after all!

So, here’s a handy little guide to crediting your design sources (and adding credits where none were before):

Properly Crediting Design Sources to Begin With

As you find brushes, fonts, graphics, photos, etc., copy-paste the URLs of each site where you found them. Also note the creator’s name, if provided, and their personal work’s website (if different from the source link).
Place your credits either at the bottom of each page of your site, or on a separate page (this option works great for longer lists of credits).
Your list doesn’t have to be super-organized or stiffly written. A simple, casual format like this could work: “I used brushes made by This Girl (WebsiteA.com), found the image by This Girl over at WebsiteB.com, and used This Cool Font, made by This Guy (WebsiteC.com).” (Just make sure you include the links somewhere in that text!)

Fixing or Adding Credits

Check through your files to see if you saved the Readme documents for your downloaded font or brush. Most creators will include at least a little something that can help you credit your source correctly.
If you don’t remember where you got your brush or image, try doing as specific a Google search as you can for it, and comb through all the sites you usually visit for visual design resources. It may be time-consuming, but it’ll be worth it!
If you just can’t remember or decipher what font you used on a design (been there done that), give the WhatTheFont tool a try. Though the process is a little more involved, it’s always been accurate whenever I’ve used it!
If all else fails and you are clueless as to where one of your design elements came from, put a line in your credits like this: “Apologies, but I have no idea where I downloaded this font/brush/image; if this is your work, please contact me and I will gladly put up your link.” Be honest, and you might just make a new design friend!

Sunday in the Wild

Sticking with Posting at Noon for Now

January 5, 2014 Robin Leave a comment

I haven’t seen much change in how many people have been counted as “viewing” my posts since I made the change from 9AM to 12PM EST, but I will say the 12PM time slot is easier for me to manage. I didn’t stay up way late or get up way early to stress over finishing a post this last week, which was AWESOME! Thus, I’ll stick with noon posts till I hear different from y’all readers.

*crickets chirping* 😛

Saturday with the Spark

Don’t Let Anyone Kill Your Art

January 4, 2014 Robin Leave a comment

This post arose out of a conversation I had with my little cousin (who is now 19 and in her second semester of college, so I guess she’s not so “little” anymore, lol). Around Christmas I asked her how her art classes had gone, knowing that she had planned to major in Art and had likely faced a rocky transition into college art classes. Boy, I didn’t know the half of it.

“Oh, I changed my major,” she replied when I asked her. “I took an art class and the teacher basically killed my desire to do any more art.” She went on to describe how the art teacher had insisted on each student doing dozens of drawings each week, ostensibly to “practice their skills,” but then apparently had used the opportunity to harshly critique rather than build their skills up.

She seemed pretty buoyant about the whole thing, and about her future in her new major, but I was sad about it. While we spoke, I encouraged her to keep at her art, even if it was only a hobby, and not to let it go just because of one teacher, whose opinions were not fact (and whose art teaching methods seemed a bit suspect).

Now, my advice, while perfectly fine, is easier said than followed. How often has my enjoyment of my own art been tainted because I didn’t get the reaction I expected from my audience? How often have I doubted myself and my abilities because of an offhand judgmental comment from someone else? When I make art, I am literally displaying part of my soul…and when someone else finds it unworthy or is indifferent to it, I am wounded as a result, even if I gamely try to continue on.

This is a dangerous path for us artists to travel; once we start prioritizing others’ opinions of our works (especially the ones that seem meant to destroy our desire rather than perfect our skill), then we can easily lose the passion for our art that we began with. And yet, many of us fall victim to this specifically because our art is so close to our selves. We have to actively combat this problem, otherwise the creative fountain within us will be stilled–not by lack of ability, but by the anxiety that comes from wondering whether anyone else will like what we make.

I leave you with this point: art, in whatever form it takes, is a subjective thing–the beauty of a piece can’t be quantified completely. Thus, no one else’s opinion is more unbiased than your own opinion when it comes to your artworks. If you like your work, and other people like it, that’s great. If you like your work, and you’re the only person in the world who likes it, so what? Art is meant to soothe, to inspire, and to be enjoyed rather than to be cut apart and analyzed to death like a dissected frog in a lab. If it only soothes, inspires, and brings enjoyment to its creator, then it has done what it was designed to do already; other people’s positive opinions are just icing on the cake (and the critical people don’t deserve a slice of the cake).

…

(now I just have to follow these words of wisdom when it comes to this blog! LOL)

Friday around the Web

Improve Your Monday, Power of Old People, A Soldier and His Squirrel, and Increasing Lung Capacity

January 3, 2014 Robin 1 Comment

Improve Your Monday!
Though this is written more for men, most of these tips can apply to all of us–de-junking our email inboxes, taking time to talk (not text), and 8 more tips for making Monday much better, behind the click!

The Power of Old People (video)
This old lady teaches this young whippersnapper who’s boss! xD

A Soldier and His Squirrel (long image)
Aww. Have your Kleenex ready. :’)

WikiHow: Increase Your Lung Capacity
REALLY cool pictorial guide to taking deeper breaths–you’d be surprised how many of us don’t breathe deeply enough!

Thursday in the Zone

Awesome 1-Mana Creatures, part 3: Green

January 2, 2014 Robin 10 Comments

Continuing with my series on awesome 1-mana creatures (which began with White and Blue), I’m covering the wide, wide world of 1-mana green creatures today, seeking the best and/or most interesting of the bunch to present here. 1-mana powerhouses on legs are Green’s strength; the following list contains creatures you would never believe cost just 1 green mana!

As always, if I’ve missed an awesome Green creature, let me know (nicely) in the comments! All images came from MagicCards.info.

Great for Green/White–not often that any creature generates white mana, after all!	The ability to become a 3/3, AND the ability to be played for no cost? Awesome!
A classic for mana ramp, PLUS it flies–a rarity in Green!	Run 4 of these little guys and somebody’s getting +4/+4…or perhaps 4 creatures are getting +1/+1, or any other combo you choose!
Sometimes you just need colorless mana, even in a Green deck. For that, there’s this guy.	A little touch of Blue flavor (countering spells) on a Green creature, playing off of Green’s historical hatred for artifacts.
Great for keeping your creature force ready to block!	One of my boyfriend’s favorites, for its synergy with Muscle Burst as well as its land fetch.
(Technically a 0-mana creature, but it’s a land that’s summoning-sick like a creature, so I think it counts.) Great as a land source OR an emergency blocker!	Would be hilarious with Lure for killing a token army!
For those times when you need to add Trample to a creature that really ought to have it (ahem, Krosan Cloudscraper?)	1/1 shroud, and it’s an Elf to boot!
Great for mana ramp.	The green Soul Warden, and arguably better suited to Green for all the creatures Green can play for cheap.
1/1 Evolve is actually pretty strong, given that you’re likely going to play more powerful creatures later. And you can use those counters to regen it? SWEET	1/1 Reach is already great for Green, but the added power upon blocking a flying creature is just gravy.
If you need to be able to enchant your creatures, this little lady will serve you better than Elvish Lookout (mentioned earlier in this list).	More powerful than it might appear–Infect is DANGEROUSLY good.
Ditch a card for land fetch when you need it? OKAY! Helps to thin your deck AND get you the mana you need!	Great for at least partially combating a Mill deck–gets your lands back into play where you need them.
Here we see one reason why Elves win so doggone FAST in Magic…mana ramp on creatures!	Forestwalk is always a nice touch in a Green deck; Shanodin Dryads, Willow Dryad, and Zodiac Rabbit all come with this ability too.
Sack for mana ramp–a little different functionality from Elvish Pioneer, but same result!	Can’t leave out this classic, either! Elf and mana ramp for 1 mana…phew!
And if you want to get COMPLETELY silly with your Llanowar Elf action…LOL	Not so great in a one-on-one, but I could see this working great in a team game or Emperor game to help your buddies ramp up just as fast as you do!
Swampwalk is unusual but handy for a Green creature.	Shroud PLUS the ability to be a 3/3 mid- to late-game.
There’s a reason these things were snapped up like hotcakes when they were first printed–Exalted, 3 colors of mana, AND a 1/1 creature in one package!	This is one of those creatures that works great with your own cards, but gets SILLY when you play against another Green deck.
Suddenly I have an urge to build a Cat deck just to include this little beast!	Early-game mana cost, mid- AND late-game functionality. WIN
1-mana STOMP! Who cares that you have to sack a land to get it?	The phrase “EACH creature with flying” makes this 1-mana elf GREAT. Wonderful for getting rid of an army of 1/1 Birds, Spirits, etc.!
1/1 flying Faerie in Green? Yes, it exists!	Hilarious with a little mana ramp. And I love the flavor text, LOL
Like Rogue Elephant, this cat is utterly worth the extra cost of sacking a land, AND it adds Shroud!	1/1 deathtouch <3
Fog on legs!	Though it has no power, its potential high toughness PLUS Reach is well worth it for 1 mana.
Wither AND the ability to be a 3/3 till end of turn? WOOT!	A classic first-turn alpha strike creature–even if you can’t pay the echo cost next turn, you still did 2 damage first turn!
Block creatures up to 3 power, even in the air!	Lovely synergy for Green/White/Red, Green/White, and Green/Red, but still a good creature even in a mono-Green deck!
Weren’t expecting that out of Green, were you? Just power up the bugs with Gaea’s Anthem and keep opponents from bouncing, preventing damage, etc.!	A Persist-like new ability on a 1/1 Wolf? Cool!

Wednesday in the Word

Luke Tells the After-Resurrection Story

January 1, 2014 Robin Leave a comment

Acts 1:1-9
1 In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach 2 until the day he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen. 3 After his suffering, he presented himself to them and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God.

4 On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. 5 For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”

6 So when they met together, they asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”

7 He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

9 After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.

Luke begins the Book of Acts right where his Gospel leaves off–describing the last instructions Jesus gave the apostles as well as His ascension into heaven. Jesus didn’t just get resurrected and leave His disciples completely to themselves; He stayed around “over a period of forty days” (v. 3), speaking with them about the kingdom of God and giving them a few last things for them to remember as they carried forth His teachings and established the early Christian church. (Not only that, He was proving He had truly risen from the dead, appearing all over the local region to many different people, speaking with them, eating with them, etc.)

Two important things Jesus mentioned are the arrival of the Holy Spirit, bringing a “gift” for them (v. 4-5), and where the disciples should take His message after they receive said gift (v. 7-8). They are supposed to stay in Jerusalem until the Holy Spirit comes; the gift mentioned arrives in chapter 2, and (at least from my reading) seems to be the gift of languages (speaking in tongues). This will be very handy for the disciples, since they are to travel to distant lands to speak of Jesus, to fulfill the Great Commission.

Jesus’ last two pieces of advice are short but full of meaning:

The Holy Spirit will equip them with every ability they need to witness. How many times have I found myself making excuses that I don’t know “how to witness right,” that I’m inexperienced, that I stutter and make a fool of myself? Jesus first reassures the disciples (and us modern believers) that the Holy Spirit, the third personage of God, will be with them as they go forth and speak to others about Jesus. Believers then and now can rely on that strength–you’d be surprised how the right words just seem to come forth when you witness!
They are to witness not only to their own communities, but to everyone, because everyone can be included in the kingdom of God. Christianity was not merely for the Jews and the Jewish lands they had all grown up in–Christ’s message was (and still is) meant for anyone to hear, and open for anyone to accept no matter what their background, language, culture, etc. This would be greatly important for the disciples to remember, as the early church struggles with people saying that to be a Christian you have to be a Jew first, etc. (It’s also important for us today, as we struggle with churches increasingly treating themselves like a members-only club rather than an open place of worship for all.)

With Jesus’ first instruction, it’s no wonder that the disciples begin to think the kingdom of God is already coming (v. 6)–if this “Holy Spirit” is coming, then doesn’t that mean the fulfillment of all that the Old Testament foretold? But Jesus makes it clear in His second instruction that they will go out witnessing to everyone, and the kingdom of God will arrive when God wills. Once Jesus has said that, then He is taken up to heaven…and the work of the early church begins with these 11 people.

Tuesday on the Soapbox

Let’s Not Shame Depressed/Anxious People

December 31, 2013 Robin Leave a comment

Recently, I read an informative article on Forbes.com called “Mentally Strong People: The 13 Things They Avoid.” I did like the points it made about breaking out of fear and learning how to be patient…but I have to admit, part of the article irked me, too. According to this article, I am mentally weak in at least 10 different ways, and have been since childhood. Coincidentally, I have also suffered multiple lapses of depression and anxiety attacks since at least the age of 8.

Striving toward the goals on this list of mental strengths IS a task worth doing; however, this article casts some forms of “mental weakness” as a completely controllable, chosen way of life. I know better.

What Mentally Strong People Don’t Do, According to This Article

Waste time feeling sorry for themselves
Give away their power
Shy away from change
Waste energy on things they can’t control
Worry about pleasing others
Fear taking calculated risks
Dwell on the past
Make the same mistakes over and over
Resent other people’s success
Give up after failure
Fear alone time
Feel the world owes them anything
Expect immediate results

My Big Problems with This List

Most of these points are valid, and can be adopted by changing your perspective and outlook to match; that’s perfectly fine. Unfortunately, there are a few points on this list that people may not be enduring by choice; I am speaking primarily of depression and anxiety. This article, I feel, goes a little too close to shaming/blaming people who have depressed or anxious thought patterns, such as the following:

“Mentally strong people don’t waste time feeling sorry for themselves.” Unfortunately, when you’re depressed, your life is one big cesspool of “sorry.” Life feels pointless; you find yourself pondering the question “Why am I even here? Why do I exist? Everyone would be better off if I just died so I wasn’t taking up space.” And when depression has argued you into a logical corner like this, sometimes you have to spend half an hour mentally talking yourself into taking a shower, let alone getting out of the house and being “useful.” It’s very difficult NOT to feel sorry for yourself when you see other people being normal and having a good life, and you feel like your ability to live is broken.
“Mentally strong people don’t give away their power.” When you’re depressed or anxious, you don’t HAVE any power anymore–that’s the whole problem. These mental conditions encroach on you like a garbage compactor, slowly compressing your thoughts until they tangle and crunch in on themselves. Other people’s opinions simply pile in on top of these already-twisted thoughts, adding more noise and more confusion to the mess of your life. And God help you if others are judging you harshly for going through this mess, as if you CHOSE this punishing way of life, as if you “could change if you really wanted to.” How INSULTING, and utterly unhelpful–comments like that just make the thought compactor move faster, and you’re even more powerless to change it.
“Mentally strong people don’t waste energy on things they can’t control.” Yeah, except anxiety takes that choice away from you, completely. It doesn’t matter if what you’re anxious about is in your control or not–your brain is going to lock on to it and hang on like a hermit crab. The song of worry plays on and on, endlessly, drowning out most other thoughts, diminishing your appetite, and keeping sleep just barely at bay; it’s like trying to walk against a strong wind.
“Mentally strong people don’t dwell on the past.” Fine and dandy, except when it’s 4 am and your brain has decided to play you a never-ending newsreel of all the horrible things you’ve done or thought about in your life. Depression brings up guilt, which in turn regurgitates your past–except that these memories always cast you as the villain, the outcast, the one who should be hated or destroyed for all the failures and mistakes, all the hurt you’ve caused. Mentally “strong” folks, how would you deal with this, when your own brain turns against you? When you’re depressed, you are mentally drowning in this, every moment, and you can’t just “think positive” or “quit thinking about the past” to fix it.
“Mentally strong people don’t give up after failure.” Failure causes a certain degree of anxiety–that’s a given for just about anyone. In normal folks, that anxiety can propel them to greater achievement later. But in folks like me, who already hate and fear failure as if it means certain death, failure binds up our brains in sticky spiderwebs of anxiety, and depression plays the role of the approaching spider. A failure is one more way you’re weak; it’s one more thing to be guilty about, and depression feeds on guilt as spiders feed on bugs, sapping the will to try again–why bother, when you’re just going to fail again and prove what a waste of space you are?
“Mentally strong people don’t fear alone time.” Alone time? Oh, you mean “Incessant Internal Guilt-Trip” time. Or maybe you meant “Wonder-What-Everyone-Else-Is-Doing-Without-Me” time. Perhaps even “Reasons-I-Should-Kill-Myself” time. My alone time, historically speaking, has been full of this kind of overwhelming negativity, and I’m not the only one to experience it this way–depression wraps your brain in this kind of foggy thinking. Even when you are with others, you feel pretty alone mentally, and when you are alone in reality, the negative feelings double in size, because you don’t have other people helping to drown it all out. Every thought process takes a negative turn whether you want it to or not–it’s like they’re all on railroads headed toward the pit.

My Point: “Mental Strength” May Require Professional Help for Some Folks

If you find yourself able to turn your thoughts around by reading helpful/inspiring articles, then that’s awesome. But for people like me who suffer clinical depression and/or anxiety, some of these points may just be too tough to tackle on our own. I think the Forbes article ignores that, as if all people can just fix these skewed mental mindsets on their own. (I tried fixing my depression on my own, and I ended up worse off than before.)

Think of it this way: we would not ask a cancer patient to administer his or her own chemotherapy, nor we would expect a person to perform his or her own surgery in the hospital. Why, then, does society believe that depressed or anxious people can somehow heal themselves–or that they chose to be sick in the first place? Mental strength is a wonderful goal, but for some, it may require more than just a self-help book to achieve. It may require various forms of therapy, friend/family support, medications, etc. And that’s nothing to be ashamed of.