Humble Statements

    Anyone who has ever stepped into the teenage and twenty year old age of shoes, in the alternative scene, knows the constant battle between which brand of shoe is better, Converse or Vans. Trying to defend each side can be a bit of a challenge for even the most adept connoisseur of each brand. This is to explain how each shoe has compared under testing of initial beauty, durability, as well as aesthetic look when worn. Note: this is one person's view and if it conflicts with your own views should not be disputed as to each their own.

    The first aspect of each shoe is the ability to catch eyes in the store, mall, school, or any place where one is trying to make a statement or trying to show off a shoe for sale to the general public. As far as initial beauty goes and eye catching ability, the winner is Converse. With their many different styles and eye popping colors available most people will speak up when someone wearing a new pair of Converse over a person who is wearing a new pair of Vans. While Vans also has a multiple styles of shoes and patterns, they are not as eye catching as their competitor. Their patterns also are sometimes ridiculed for being very cheesy as people move away from the solid colors and into the checkered patterns and flames going down the sides that have the connotation of being childish.
    After you have gotten away from the first initial uses of the shoes, most people have some sort of stain or blemish on their shoes that now have to either be removed or lived with. The shoe that looks best while worn over time is Vans. Vans that are worn over and over become softer and more rugged looking but do not look down trodden like the worn Converse. Part of this comes from the bright colors not aging well along with the all white surrounding of the shoe being white so any blemished is announced for anyone who looks down to see the earthen spots on the bright canvas. Vans with their more earthen tones look fine with a bit of dirt one them as it does not interfere with the overall vibe of the shoe and the type of message that they are trying to send. This also means that Converse take a lot more effort to keep looking nice as they need to look new every time you wear them for optimum public response. So, if you are up to cleaning your shoes after every time you go out then Converse are still the pair of shoes are still the pair for you.
    Finally, most people wear their shoes enough to were they begin to fall apart and the winner of the two shoes goes to Vans. While the outside of Converse do not fall apart and tear as bad as some of the Vans do over a long period of time, one of the most annoying things that happens is when the sole of your Converse begin to squeak as you walk in them, which can become annoying over time. This is probably one of the major slights against Converse as it happens to almost every Converse owner. With no real way to fix this problem it is only a matter of time before the owner is forced to go and get another pair of shoes. Vans on the other hand while the sole of the shoe may stay in place for a long time, the rest of the shoe will fall apart before then. Even whilst the fabric around of the shoe is falling apart, the rugged look still comes through and apparently, nothing is more rugged then some earthen shaded shoes going and being on the verge of falling apart.
   Overall, if you are trying to go for the outgoing and eye catching look, then you should pick Converse, but remember to clean them at least once a week and get over the squeaking that is going to ring from the soles. If those options are not as appealing then pick up a pair of dark Vans and be happy knowing that the shoes will last as well as some other people who really pay attention to your footwear will give out compliments.

Hope everyone enjoyed and hope to see you all in the next article, if you liked it, hit the follow button for more content every week. Have a wonderful time. Enjoy life.

For anyone who does not live close to me or has not talked to me about my recent lifestyle choices, I have changed my eating and drinking habits to become a more healthy self. I started this just a little bit after Christmas, so not necessarily a 'New Year, New Me' type endeavor, but just one that I have decided to pick up. I have completely stopped drinking all forms of soda drinks and for the past month have not had any artificial sugars to try and promote my own well being and slimming down, not in weight per say, but instead in my muscle to fat ratio. I have lost about five pounds in a month, and become much more toned then previously. According to the girlfriend, I have also become more handsome, though I do doubt that. It is not some diet bandwagon that I have jumped on but instead just something good to do for myself. If any, what are some good progresses that you have done to help make yourself better for the year 2016, it does not have to be anything major but I would like to get to know some of the people who read my blog. Until next time. Have a wonderful time of life.

Most people who play or watch Magic the Gathering may not even have ever heard about this format as those whom they look up to do not play it so it does not get much coverage. Basically the premise behind the Pauper format is to build a deck using all common print cards with only a small ban list in order to give people a cheaper way to play competitively for those who do not have upward of $200 dollars to drop on a mediocre deck and do alright with. With only having common cards available a few problems do arise.

While commons come out in bulk every new set, the amount of variety that comes into the format is rather minimal due to the fact that Wizards likes to make the better cards more rare then just common ones. Obviously we have had some acceptions, recently with Gurmag Angler being a bit of a splash in all formats in some way or another. Other then that though, the archtypes are rather the same as they were a year ago with the exception of some archetypes that have fallen off, such as Goblins or Exhume. This leads to a rather redundant and less appealing format for players who want not to spend as much money. I am not asking for a planeswalker or anything to break the format but some cards that could help mix it up would be greatly appreciated as after a while playing against Delver and Burn gets a little old.

One grand portion of playing Pauper online is that you get the same bonuses from the Pauper League wins as you would a Standard or Modern League. This allows people to get that semi competitive feel without having to pump out hundreds of dollars to just win a little bit, making pauper a very good way to start into playing magic and funding itself. While you may not have one hundred plus dollars to be throwing into a deck you could pay fifty and then make that money back as well as be able to expand your collection to other formats that you may feel that you want to play. Being able to get the latest packs of cards, plus the ability to go into two more leagues just off of going 5-0 in one seems like a fairly good deal for putting in eight bucks to play a cheap deck. Not to mention that you can either open a pack and reap the rewards of it or use it to draft and paying two dollars to possibly have the chance to win more packs as well as sell the expensive cards that you could have picked up. This is the real reason to me that someone would play pauper is to put a small amount of money into something for a possible big return on it.

On another note I will soon be building a UW Control deck for modern as well as a Burn Pauper deck in order to have more personal material to write about. Hope everyone enjoyed my views and if not then comment below and talk to me. Until next time people.

             Recently for anyone who cares to watch over my affairs, I have been playing Magic the Gathering Online and with the format being Pauper, a review will come later on for that format but for right now I would like to talk about a deck I have been playing called Delver Fiend. A very generic list that I have assembled based on the other fiend decks I have read up on at MTG Goldfish. The deck wins by using beatdowns with either Kiln Fiend or Nivix Cyclops as well as spells to pump them up to lethal. Many times in game one of matches  try to go for the turn three or four combo kill of Fiend plus Temur Battlerage, as well as another two spells (preferably Apostle's Blessing is one of them) which allows me to attack for 10 damage without interference from creatures and the ability to double strike due to Battlerage which kills the opponent. Once the match moves on to game two, the game becomes drawn out and I have to resort to beating down with multiple of my creatures generally, which is where Delver of Secrets greatly helps the deck out with a 3/2 flier, generally on turn two. Most of the time we lose game two since the opponent has adjusted their deck to stop ours in the early game and seeing as how we do not know anything about the opponent's deck other then the colors of land which only help so much. In game three I do fairly well, now knowing what I needed to sideboard in to combat their decks hate against my own and I win a fair percentage of the time in the late game. One problem with the deck is that you want one Fiend and a healthy number of spells, but if that Fiend gets destroyed then you are just left with spells which do not help as much. Keeping this in mind when we go to the sideboard you have the ability in some decks to put in Stormbound Geist which gives you another creature to be able to beat down with. Some decks now are moving toward Eldrazi Skyspawner as it creates a scion which can help block if you are getting into the late game. Against regular Delver it brings in a counter suite of Dispels and Pyroblasts in order to keep them from just getting the raw card advantage that it creates and Electrickery much of the time to help clean out the mass of faeries that they can string together. The challenge in sideboarding with this deck is to make sure you try not to dilute away from the killing as much, many decks in the recent month or two have gone down from four Temur Battlerage to just three. I still have not completely figured out the sideboarding of the deck yet as I try to do as little as possible for the reason that I do not want to take away from the combo. If playing against GU Mill, you side out some of the Apostle's blessings as well as the mainboard copy of Flame slash since they have no creatures, and bring in Flaring Pain as well as some counter spells so that you can try to push through their antidamage spells. The bad matchups for this deck are Burn and Soul Sisters. Burn is just too quick and interactive for us to handle and soul sisters, if the combo is not found early, gains too much life for us to easily win. This deck preys upon decks that do not do much interaction early on in the game and are trying to set up for the mid to late as we can usually take them out in the early turns. Overall, I enjoy playing the deck with some moderate successes along the way and I hope that everyone has enjoyed the article.

So... Yeah, I did a thing where now I have a blog. Well first off I'll explain who I am. I am a guy living in Georgia who loves people, marching band, Magic the Gathering, and his girlfriend. I got this mostly because my girlfriend has one and that I thought it would be interesting to see what people think of me and such. Anyway, I will be posting mostly about my life and other things that catch my eye. These may include DCI shows, Magic the Gathering tournaments and ideas, as well as just kinda what's going on in life. This blog could be anywhere from happy emotions to extremely sad. So... Pretty much whatever I feel like posting and whenever though it won't be less than once a week, and more then likely a couple times a week. Hope everyone enjoys. That is if I can actually remind myself to get onto this and blog.