Vocaloid 2 Fun

So I started playing around with the Vocaloid program a couple of days ago.  I've always wanted to try it out and now I finally have the chance.

Overall, the program's not to difficult to use, though there are a lot of little details that must be worked out in order to produce a decent song.  I'm nowhere near pro, but I think I'm on the way to at least be competent.  The user must have a hefty amount of prior music knowledge, such as understanding of notations, tones, dynamics, techniques, and so forth.  It takes a while to get used to the functions of each aspect, which all play important roles in making the digital singer sound as smooth as possible.

What Vocaloid program would be complete without the digital singer Hatsune Miku (see previous post)?  Of course, I had to choose Miku as my pop idol of choice.  Here's a song that I uploaded to YouTube earlier.  It's a Hatsune Miku version of "Euterpe," the oft-played insert song from Guilty Crown.

Remember, Miku's a digital entity.  She's not going to sound as real or accurate as a human vocalist... but regardless, I like the possibilities that are spawning from Vocaloid 2.  Maybe I can do a butchered version of an English song in the future?

Sims 3 Power

Well, it's been a while since I've posted here.  My excuse is this:

Yes.  EA Games' The Sims 3 has pretty much occupied 75 percent of my waking hours (I work the other 24 percent and eat one percent of the time).

The thing about The Sims 3, and all the other Sims games for that matter, is that once you start a particular project, you can't stop.  And for someone with self-declared OCD like me, stopping is seriously out of the question.  It's 6 a.m. here and I'm still tweaking things in the game.

For example, take a look at this:

Why, it's Hatsune Miku!  The virtual pop star!

The first image is from The Sims 3, which I made after scouring the net for hair, clothing and accessory parts.  Eventually I was able to combine everything and—if you look at the second image, the official art—conjure something up that looks awfully like the real deal.

How about this?

Who's that?

That is correct.  It's Haruhi from The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya.  And yes, that's correct, I've gone that far.  But that's not all I did...

...I gave her a bunny suit, too.  Sure, it's not the best work, but it was certainly fun as hell to put it all together.  I'll have to find time to finish building her house, though.  And throw in a Sims version of Kyon, as well.

Right now, my current project involves building up Hilda from Beelzebub, and anime that is still currently airing in Japan.

A rather typical blonde bombshell in a gothic lolita dress.  Happens all the time and I was too tempted to resist making her.

I'm missing the little braided ponytail.  I've dug through countless websites online and I'm starting to believe "massive-left-side-bangs-plus-braided-ponytail" types of hair currently do not exist.  I could take up 3D modeling and design, but... not now.  Not yet, anyway.

Wolf whistle...

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword - Review: One of the Best

That's that.  It took me about 48 hours to complete to main game for The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, and I must say, it was all worth it and beyond.

Ever since I finished The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, I never would have thought another Zelda game would ever, ever be nearly as good.  About 12 years later, I found the game.

Skyward Sword is just as good as Ocarina of Time.  There.  I said it.  OOT might hold a lot more memories for older gamers, but SS is new, it is fresh, and it is excellent.

I will now do a review for this game.  Out of 10, I will have to score Skyward Sword a 9.5, following this rubric:

30 percent gameplay.

30 percent storyline/plot.

20 percent graphics.

10 percent music/sound.

10 percent style (atmosphere, ingenuity, etc.).

Each aspect of the game is scored from 0 to 10, which is then multiplied by the percentage, generating the result.  The following will be my opinions and judgments for the game... and for those who do not wish to see spoilers, skip the rest of this post.

Gameplay: 9.6

Originally, when I first started playing SS, I would have scored the gameplay much lower than a 9 or 8.  However, as I continued through, the occasional minor controller unresponsiveness became almost completely negligible.  And that was it.  Rare faulty WiiMotion Plus responses were the only cons to SS's gameplay.  Items such as the Slingshot, Arrows, Beetle and Grappler that relied heavily on on-screen aiming were plagued by the occasional unresponsiveness.  However, everything was easily remedied with a single click on the D-Pad's down button.  With that, in addition to pointing the WiiMote at the center of the television screen, aiming is no longer an issue.

Many people who started playing SS like I did early on criticized the faulty controls.  But as the game moved along and Link acquires a horde of different weapons and gadgets, you instinctively hit down on the D-Pad whenever you use an item anyway.  We learn to center our screen before firing off the Beetle, preventing headaches that come along when the Beetle helplessly crashes into a fiery pit of doom because we lost control of the WiiMote.

All that said, the reason why I can call SS's gameplay nearly perfect is because of all the designs involved with motion sensing and classic Zelda items.  For instance, old-school Bombs involved running and smacking the A button to throw, whereas pressing A while standing still will place the Bomb down.  Now with motion sensing, you literally make a throwing or bowling motion with the WiiMote to chuck or roll, respectively, a Bomb.  The Arrows weapon uses motion sensing to aim, with a simple held down A button to charge and fire off an arrow.  However, with the inclusion of the Nunchuk, you can "quickfire" an arrow by holding the C button and yanking back on the Nunchuk while aiming with the WiiMote.  This is very similar to using a real bow and arrow.

But perhaps the most addicting aspect of gameplay is the bread and butter sword hacking and slashing, shield countering, incessant spin attacking and WiiMote/Nunchuk flailing.  In older Zelda games, it was fairly easy to go through the majority of the game without ever using the shield (barring various puzzles and boss battles that require shield use).  In SS, many ordinary enemies—down to the lowly Bokoblin—sometimes involve heavy use of the shield because their A.I. allows movement tracking.  This means that whenever you slightly raise the WiiMote in preparation for a top-down vertical strike, the enemy sees this coming and prepares to block.  Of course, you can simply flail and go vertical, horizontal, vertical, spin attack, vertical attack in quick, successive blows to overwhelm an enemy, but this rarely works.  Requiring the balanced use of timed attacks, shield guarding, parries and counterattacking, SS pretty much hit the nail on the head when it comes to motion gameplay.

And all of this talk about motion sensing cannot ignore the fact that SS has some of the best puzzles and dungeons since OOT.  One of my most loved and hated missions in SS are the "trials."  Dear God, they are as frustrating as they were exhilarating.  Collecting 15 scattered tear drops over a particular region is hard enough, but to do it without any gear?  Tough.  All you can do is run and climb walls—and with limited stamina, remember.  Each tear job grants you 90 seconds tops to grab another tear drop before the area's guardians awaken and basically clobber you with one hit and force you to start over.  The intense moment of terror before a guardian catches up with you and deals you instant death is incomparable.  And that's why it's fun.  When you do complete the trial, there's the automatic sigh of relief.  Little did I know after my third completed trial (Farore's, Nayru's and Din's) that there was a fourth trial.  God.  I didn't know if my Nunchuk could handle all the squeezing from my left hand.

Storyline/Plot: 10

Skyward Sword has got to be one of the most engaging Zelda stories ever.  And I mean ever.  When I first pointed out how intrigued I was with the early hours of this game in my last post about SS, I had no idea what I was in for 20 hours later.  I believe it was Nintendo's intention to get the player to support Link and Zelda's relationship.  Thus, when the two of them become separated in the beginning of the game, we could do nothing else but to try and find Zelda as soon as possible.  And it just so happens that Link, as a character in the game, wishes to do the same.  That said, whenever we do find Zelda, Nintendo punishes us by sweeping Zelda away after a merely 45 seconds on screen, forcing us to tackle the next challenges in order to find Zelda... again.  Personally, not that I minded, I actually wanted to find Zelda.  Games like OOT didn't have searching for Zelda as one of the main points.  Zelda was there because... well, she was a plot device.  In SS, not only is Zelda a plot device, but she is the driving factor for most of what Link does in the game.  In Twilight Princess, Zelda was again... well, there.  Just there.  Not the case in Skyward Sword.

Though SS uses the same old "evil taking over the world and we must stop it" archetype, it's what's in between that truly matters.  For me, all the characters in SS are fantastic—from some of the minor no-name bazaar customers to the wandering Gorons to the villainous Ghirahim.  They all have something to offer.  Speaking of Ghirahim, the villain is so repulsing and amusing at the same time that I have to give Nintendo some credit for throwing in such a character.  Yes, there is no Ganon(dorf) in SS.  We have Ghirahim and his demon "master" Demise, who pretty much gets about a minute of screentime, excluding the final boss battle.  But who needs Ganon when you have this:

Ah, Ghirahim.  So evil.  So annoying.  So well designed.  Because of that, it makes beating him at the end of the game so much more enjoyable.  I bet Link feels the same.

Since SS serves as the 25th anniversary offering from The Legend of Zelda franchise, there's no ignoring all the references and side stories in SS that uncovers the mysteries of all the future Zelda games.  The goddess Hylia, for example, is the origin of Hyrule and the setting for virtually all the Zelda games.  In SS, there is no Hyrule, but a "surface world."  There is no Hylian Shield for Link (except in a special optional side quest later on in the game).  There is no "princess" Zelda, no Ganon as mentioned before, no Master Sword until hours and hours and hours and hours and hours into the game.  We learn about the Sheikah and who they are.  We learn about the origins of the Triforce.  We learn that Demise, the big baddie that shows up at the very end of the game, is the predecessor of Ganondorf.  We learn by the very end of the ending cinematic, after the credits and all, that Link and Zelda ultimately chose to live on the surface world, starting the chain of incarnations and resurrections that would continue in Hyrule for centuries (and game titles) and millenia.

The game's ending has got to be one of the best.  It definitely gets the job done after chasing Zelda for 40 plus hours.  Just to say, as I went through the game with Link knowing that Zelda went through the same paths just earlier put a huge question mark atop my head.  How did she make it to the surface without breaking her back?  How did she make it through the temples?  How did she meet Impa?  Those questions were all answered in the closing credits for the game.  In the credits, we get to see Zelda awaken on the surface world and begin her half of her fated journey.  Genius.  I think back on my early hours of SS and getting accustomed to Link's quest and loved it.

Graphics: 8.6

Well, there isn't much to say about the graphics.  It isn't technically advanced in comparison to games on Playstation 3 or XBox 360, but it does get the job done.  The good thing is that the cinematic sequences do not visually appear any different from the in-game camera.  Transitions are virtually seamless.

I normally don't nitpick at graphics unless the game is supposed to be known for its graphics.  SS, like most Zelda games, is based upon its gameplay and puzzle designs.  Thus, when I see Link jump into a pool of water with nary a ripple, I simply tilt my head and do my best to disregard what I just saw.  The same applies to some recycled scenes, such as when Link acquires the three sacred flames to enhance the Goddess Sword.  The scenes are pretty much the same, except for an alternation of colors (green to blue to red, depending on the quest).

Overall, the graphics are great, but not excellent.

Music/Sound: 9.8

When a Zelda game comes along, I know Koji Kondo must be behind the conductor's stand.  And when Koji Kondo is in charge, I know the music will be great.  Koji Kondo to Zelda is Nobuo Uematsu to Final Fantasy.

Excerpt from "Ballad of the Goddess," The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

Phenomenal stuff.  While the above sample isn't exactly the same as what shows up throughout the game, it's representative of what Kondo can do for the game.

The harp for Skyward Sword is clearly a nod to the ocarina used in Ocarina of Time.  Both instruments are instrumental (cough) in the progression of their respective plots.  While the gameplay elements for playing the instruments are drastically different, the introduction of orchestral tracks in SS allows a greater enjoyment for the created music.  While Link fiddles with simple harp tunes, background vocals or orchestra gradually enters and transitions into a full-blown composition.

Of course, when we talk about Zelda music, we cannot forget the classic main theme and Zelda's lullaby.  Both are present, albeit very discretely.  Zelda's lullaby is only played during the most delicate of moments when Link and Zelda temporarily reunite, before getting separated by various circumstances.  As for the main theme, it sneaks into the Song of the Hero, one of the melodies required for advancing the storyline.  It takes an ear to pick it up, but it's there all right.  Other than that, the only time the main theme plays again is during the credits, which is a must.  But because it's so rare to hear the classic tunes, whenever they do come up in their new orchestral renditions, we can appreciate them so much more.

The only downside to the music is the rate that some of them are played.  While the majority of times the background and ambient music blend superbly well with the game, other times they blatantly stand out, especially when they get played continuously over the course of the game.  Sure, I can forget it within a minute of entering a new dungeon, but whenever Link descends into the aforementioned new dungeon, an eerie tune is played for five seconds.  Every time.  As I've said, it's forgettable, but it blatantly stands out and I personally don't think it belongs there.  That's one example.  Another example?  Well, I can't think of any, really.  Similar instances occur here and there, but that's pretty much it.  Occasional blips of overused and misplaced music are its only downside.

Regarding sound, there is not much to say except that everything is relatively standard for a Zelda game.  We have Link's trademark yells, grunts and howls of pain.  We have the traditional Zelda treasure chest opening sound effect, the low-in-health warning beeps, and the familiar tune that sounds after successfully unlocking a door or gate.  They are staples that fans and players continue to enjoy even 25 years after the original Zelda game.

Style: 9.5

The replayability of SS?  Completely replayable.  There's the so-called "hero" mode that you unlock after completing the main game, something that I have yet to tackle.  There are the standard side-quests that come with every Zelda game.  But the most interesting thing about SS—to me anyway—is the references to other games.

Since Skyward Sword serves as the prequel to all Zelda games, many things nod to its chronological successors.  The vast desert-turned-sea and pirate ships of Lanayru serve as homage to Wind Waker.  The side quest involving Batreaux and the Gratitude Crystals is a nod to Ocarina of Time's Skulltula House side quest.

Plus, we have all the lore and history that SS offers in preparation for all the Zelda games to follow.  I can't get enough of it.

There's one thing in particular that I was not fond of at the beginning of the game and even at the end are the birds of Skyloft: the Loftwing.  No.  Just no.  I understand that for people to live in the sky, they have to ride something.  It just so happens that they're birds.  But not just any birds.  They're ugly birds that look like a unfortunate cross-breed between an ugly duckling that grew up to be an ugly duck and a vulture-eagle hybrid.  Had they changed the head design to resemble something cooler like a falcon, then that would work.  But no, they opted for an ugly duck.  But that's just my opinion.  I would not lower a game's score just on one small aspect like a character's mount...

But perhaps I will.  When the traditional horse was substituted with the Loftwing, I expected air travel to be much smoother and easier than traversing the land on a horse.  Instead, I found air travel to be a hassle, a concept much more difficult to master than ordering a horse to gallop at full speed.  Flying on the Loftwing seems graceful only in cinematic sequences—particularly when Zelda is riding one.  Other than that, air travel is bumpy and rarely quick or efficient.

Overall, though, I applaud the atmosphere of SS.  I enjoy the nuances of Easter eggs, the pathetic yet adorable Kwikwis of Faron Woods, the time-shifting robots of Lanayu Desert, and the ghetto Mogmas of Eldin Volcano.  Having themes certainly help, as seen in the success of OOT.  Combine everything, including the Loftwing tragedy, the style of SS is just a tad short of perfect.

Final Score: 9.5 - Superb

Interview: Guilty Crown Staff

While I'm busy trying to beat the main storyline for The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, I can still manage some time to read up on same interesting tidbits on the net.

I suggest a read for this article on Anime News Network:

"After the New York Comic Con premiere of the first two episodes of the new Guilty Crown anime, [David Cabrera] sat down with Chief Producers Kōji Yamamoto and Ryo Ohyama, Production I.G's George Wada. Aniplex USA's Yosuke Kodaka interpreted. Guilty Crown is available streaming at Funimation.com and NicoNico.com..."

 Full article here:

I have to say, a lot of points were covered that I had already anticipated since the first couple of episodes, such as the comparison between Shu and Shinji (Evangelion) and the potential of multiple seasons...

Onward With Skyward Sword!

It's here!  It's here!

It took over three years, but it's here!  In celebration of The Legend of Zelda's 25th anniversary, here's:

Yes.  The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword is in my possession on the day of its release.  I wanted it that badly.  The Wii has been on its way out for me, as I barely play any games on it other than MLB Power Pros 2008 just because I'm an avid baseball fan.  As a matter of fact, Skyward Sword is the first Wii game I have purchased since Super Smash Bros. Brawl.  It's been that long.  All the games that I've wanted since Brawl were either on Playstation 3 or XBox 360.  Fortunately, I own a PS3, so I wasn't completely lost.  Now that I have Skyward Sword, it's back to the Wii for me.

I'm only about three hours into the game and I've barely scratched the surface.  So far, I've noticed several things, both good and bad.  I guess we'll start with the bad first so the good things will be fresh in our memories by the end of this post.

So, bad thing number one.  Well, It's not that bad, but, man, the graphics.  They're okay, but even Brawl has better graphics.  Skyward Sword has this little mash-up of Wind Waker and Twilight Princess graphics, which is... well, I guess it works, but it doesn't really make the Wii look any better than the GameCube.  Sure, the cinematic sequences and in-game textures are no different from each other, which makes transitioning very smooth.  It gets the job done, however... it's no improvement from any recent Zelda releases.

Bad thing number two is by far the worst problem.  As much as WiiMotion Plus has improved upon the original WiiMote, the controls are still a little funky and shaky in Skyward Sword.  I am willing to say that within the first three hours, 75 percent of the time everything worked smoothly, but the remainder 25 percent involved a lot of controller recalibration.  It happens rarely enough that it doesn't interrupt the gameplay to a point of intense hatred for all things motion sensor, but it happens often enough that it's noticeable and rather annoying.

That's as much negativity as I can say about Skyward Sword... so far.  The rest are all good to excellent.

Good thing number one.  Zelda is not the same old damsel-in-distress as often depicted in the older games.  This time—at least so far from what I'm seeing—she can be seen on the same level as Link.  She even has a personality, which, thank God Almighty, grabbed my attention right away.  At least I'm not just focused on making Link the most awesome protagonist ever.  I can actually root for Zelda to do something, or say something, impressive and/or witty.  Oh, and before I forget, her cute/hot factor got boosted significantly.

See, graphics not that impressive—as I've mentioned earlier—but it gets the job done.  Look at Zelda.  Look at her.  She is stunning!  And plus, I pointed out that she has a genuine, full personality now, as well.  Not only can we try and find Zelda and whatnot, but her relationship with Link in this game is also on a totally different level.  It's not some "hero saves the princess" deal in this game.  It's a quasi-realistic "boy searches for girl he cares about" scenario.  Cliché?  Perhaps.  But it's something to pay attention to, nonetheless.

For good thing number two I am deciding between the story and the music.  All right, let's just say it's good thing number two and good thing number three in no particular order or ranking.  I must say, Skyward Sword has got to be the most theatrical version of any Zelda game.  Ever.  Half the time, I thought I was watching a CGI movie.  This is a big deal, considering that I've only gotten through about three hours of the game (which technically shouldn't be called "three hours of gameplay" because I spent more than enough time wandering around and testing the controls).  It's not a bad thing, I repeat, it's a good thing.  The story is engaging, partly because Zelda and Link have personalities.  They're more believable characters now.

Speaking of Link... yes, he's still mute.  You don't hear anything exit his lips besides obligatory grunts, faint chuckles, yells, battle cries and howls of pain.  However, to my knowledge, his supposed "talking" animation has been used far more in Skyward Sword than any other Zelda game I've played.  He is seen "talking" animatedly despite having no dialogue appear on screen and nothing leaving his mouth.  Characters he "talks" to always respond as if he was saying something.  Bummer.  Too bad we'll never know how Link speaks.  Not that we want to know, I'm sure.  He's a man of few words and he ought to stay that way to maintain his cool factor.  So, this "talking" animation... it adds to his personality as I've been constantly pointing out.  His scenes in the first couple of hours with Zelda are just superb attention-grabbing material.  Kudos, Nintendo.

As for the music, I've got to say, I'm highly biased because I've always been a fan of orchestral scores.  The fact that Koji Kondo remained the music director/composer/mastermind/etc. and the background music for Skyward Sword moved beyond cheap MIDI and cheap digital alternate routes to incorporate full orchestral scores is... well, just awesome.  Music that fit with different scenes like hands and gloves tells us that something is obviously working here.  As long as you can play the game without being bothered by the music, or simply wander around a given environment to listen in on the ambient music, something is right about the combination.  This is the case with Skyward Sword.

I'm very certain there are plenty of more good things to be said about this game by the time I complete the main storyline (which I'm going to bet to be about 30 plus hours).  One of these aspects I'll be watching for is the dungeon or temple layouts.  Are the puzzles challenging?  Are the level designs engaging?  I do hope they are.  On the other hand, what about the bad things?  Well, they're pretty much outweighed by the good as of now.  I'm simply going to keep an open mind as I continue through the game.  People with no attention spans need to stay away from this game.  Details, details, details.  You must pay attention to details in this game—or any other Zelda games, for that matter.  Anyway, so far it's turning out to be a fun ride, gameplay-wise and cinematography-wise.

Guilty Crown Update

Well!  When I said I had high hopes for Guilty Crown as of the fifth episode, boy was I pleased with the recently released sixth episode.  Finally, it looks like things are happening and characters are truly being revealed.

Still, the series is filled with cliché moments and devices.  But still, Guilty Crown is proving to be a worthwhile watch.  Although Anime News Network lists Guilty Crown as 11 episodes long, both My Anime List and Wikipedia report the series as 22 episodes.  While 11 episodes is doable, I believe 22 episodes is far more realistic.  At the rate the plot is developing, mysteries being introduced and characters developing, 11 episodes equates rushing, while 22 is... well, more standard.

While Shu remains oftentimes a weak, pathetic male lead, he is starting to show signs of being a worthy character that viewers can support.  I support him now, nonetheless, just because I've supported characters like him in the past.

Ahem:

Shinji Ikari - Neon Genesis Evangelion (1995)

WEAK, PATHETIC MALE LEAD

Renton Thurston - Eureka Seven (2005)

WEAK, PATHETIC MALE LEAD

Shu Ouma - Guilty Crown (2011)

WEAK, PATHETIC MALE LEAD

Yes, all three have their early moments that show some form of hope... but in essence, they start off as virtually worthless young men who have serious confidence issues.  As Guilty Crown is projected to be the shortest of the three anime titles—Evangelion at 26 episodes (plus a ton of alternative titles and releases) and Eureka Seven at 50 (plus an alternate film)—it looks like Shu will have the opportunity to demonstrate his manhood a tad earlier than the others.  At least that's what I predict.

Currently, I give Guilty Crown a B+.  By the end of the series, I hope this title can convince me to bump it to an A- or A.  I repeat, I have great hopes for this anime.  Don't let me down.

MTG Top 10: Dragon Legends

Back when I first started really getting into Magic: the Gathering, it was during the Invasion block (Invasion, Planeshift, Apocalypse).  Right off the bat, I was introduced to some of my favorite cards—strictly speaking in terms of flavor, not versatility—of all time: legendary dragons.

At the time, there was a quintet of dragon legends—one of each color—in the Invasion set, being these:

Darigaaz, the Igniter: red
Rith, the Awakener: green
Treva, the Renewer: white
Dromar, the Banisher: blue
Crosis, the Purger: black

Dear God, I was fascinated with them in my early MTG playing days.  Of course, I didn't own any of them until much later.  And before I got my own copies, I was usually pounded to death by the opposition, who continuously trounced me with these monstrosities.

Years went by and I have the quintet tucked away in my binder of rare cards.  But as my knowledge of MTG expanded, I realized that these weren't the only legendary dragons around.  There were old ones very similar to these.  And as new expansion sets were released, more dragon legends found themselves in decks and collections.

So here is a list that I came up with that counts down, in my opinion, the best of the legendary dragons.

10. Crosis, the Purger

As fun as constantly bringing out and attacking with massive creatures, sometimes you just have to go the evil, malicious route.  Black-colored spells and abilities are notorious for its nasty elements, and Crosis, the Purger, the black representative of the Invasion dragon legend quintet, is that master of cruelty.

If you happen to be playing against a deck that focuses heavily on a single color, Crosis can single-handedly ruin all your opponent's plans.  Having flying grants you a pretty good chance that an attack will successfully go through, allowing you to activate Crosis's ability.

I didn't think I'd start with one of my favorite dragons from my old days of playing... but constantly forcing your opponent to abandon essential pieces of his deck is just plain mean.  When Crosis is used in combination with cards like Painter's Servant, you basically force your opponent to throw out everything he has in his hand each time Crosis successfully deals combat damage.  If not, you can always have something like Telepathy and just pick out what you want discarded.

Crosis is simply a great addition to any decks focused around the discard strategy.  Cards like Liliana's Caress, The Rack and Abyssal Nocturnus all provide synergy with Crosis's ability.  I was often on the receiving end of Crosis's evil in my early days.  I still remember those moments vividly.

9. Bladewing the Risen

One of my favorite playing strategies is "reanimation."  Reanimation styles of play involves intentionally dumping your creature targets into your graveyard, followed by using spells and abilities to throw them directly onto the battlefield, bypassing heavy mana costs involved to traditionally cast them.  Typical methods include using Entomb or Buried Alive to dump creatures into the graveyard, then using Exhume or Animate Dead to bring them onto the battlefield.

So what we have here is Bladewing the Risen, which in the MTG storyline is the dead version of Rorix Bladewing.

Look at the art.  Bladewing the Risen undoubtedly screams reanimation, especially in reanimation decks that feature powerful dragons.  Say you start off the game by laying down a Swamp.  You then proceed to cast Dark Ritual, netting you 3 black mana to cast Buried Alive.  You throw out Bladewing the Risen from your deck, along with two big dragons... for instance, Hellkite Overlord and Balefire Dragon.  The following turn, you cast Exhume, and assuming your opponent has no creatures in his graveyard as of yet, you place Bladewing the Risen onto the battlefield.  Now as soon as Bladewing enters play, his ability triggers, allowing you to bring back one other dragon you tossed with Buried Alive the turn earlier.  Say you pick Hellkite Overlord.  Now you have a 4/4 and 8/8 flying beasts out on the second turn.

To go even further, say you play Recurring Nightmare on your third turn.  Now you get to kill off Bladewing the Risen to return Balefire Dragon to play.  Given that Bladewing's now in your graveyard, you get to throw more dragons into your grave, reanimate Bladewing, thereby reanimating more dragons.  You can rinse and repeat with Recurring Nightmare until you're blue in the face (or black and red in this case).  This is some serious, scary stuff.


8. Rith, the Awakener

Ah, yes.  I'll have to admit, I've always had a soft spot for... A massive swarm of weenie 1/1 creatures that remind me of Starcraft's Zerglings.  And this is exactly what Rith, the Awakener can do for you.

Just like Crosis, if you're facing a deck with predominantly one color, Rith would have a field day pounding out waves after waves of 1/1 Saproling tokens.

So I was surprised I would pick Rith—being that she's (that's right, she) a dragon legend from my old, naive days of playing—but I can't help but notice that Rith is indeed a very powerful creature.  I mean, there are only so many creatures—or cards for that matter—that can continuously generate an army for you by simply... well, doing what she does best, just being on the battlefield and attacking whenever possible.

Let's say your opponent is in a tight spot.  He doesn't have any creature capable of blocking Rith.  All right, and he has two green creatures and a white enchantment on his side of the field.  Meanwhile, you have Rith, who is red, green and white all in one package, two other white creatures, a green enchantment—let's say it's Rancor just for fun—attached to Rith, and a random red enchantment.  So we have a total of four green permanents on the field, three white, and two red.  When you attack with Rith, the clear choice to pick when activating her ability is green.  By doing so, you put four green 1/1 Saproling tokens into play.  What's great about this scenario is that you can attack with Rith the next turn, choose green as the color again, and this time put out eight 1/1 tokens.  Guess what?  The next turn you can put out 16.  Then 32.  Then 64... Hmm.

Of course, your opponent is one Wrath of God away from saving him a lot of trouble, but you can anticipate such a plan and throw a Caller of the Claw out right after and replace Rith and all your 1/1's with 2/2's.  Point being, there is so much you can do with Rith and her horde of Zerglings.

7. Teneb, the Harvester

Remember how I said reanimation is one of my favorite playing styles?  Well, here's another legendary dragon that falls into the category of reanimation.

Teneb, the Harvester is part of a quintet of dragon legends similar to the Invasion block one that I mentioned earlier.  Teneb's the representative of black, a very suitable job given that his ability deals with reanimation.

What's great about Teneb is that he isn't limited to resurrecting creatures from your grave.  He can "put target creature card from a graveyard onto the battlefield under your control."  That's right, find a way to Terminate your opponent's Platinum Angel, successfully attack your opponent with Teneb, pay the cost of the ability, and make that dead angel your new minion.  And you can keep doing this as much as you want as often as you want.

Certainly, Teneb's great and all, but he's best used in conjunction with other cards, specifically reanimation based ones and those that clear away your opponent's creatures.  That way, you can have a steady base of dead creatures to resurrect every time you swing with Teneb.

6. Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind

When you combine blue and red with a dragon wizard—really, a dragon wizard?—you get only one card in the entire MTG universe.  And that's Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind.  Red and blue is already an odd combination.  Originally, when I saw "Legendary Creature" and "Dragon Wizard," I was confused.  What in the world?

Niv-Mizzet, when he first showed up in the Guildpact expansion, he had an infamously ridiculous flavor text: 

(Z–>)90º – (E–N²W)90ºt = 1

Do this.  If you tilt your head 90 degrees counter-clockwise,  "(Z–>)90º" becomes "NIV" and "(E–N²W)90ºt" becomes "MIZZET" (N² is simply NN).  How ridiculous is that?  My mind was blown.  That's a dragon wizard for you.  The formula says he's as intelligent as any wizard and as narcissistic as any dragon.

Moving along, what makes Niv-Mizzet such a dangerous creature is his ability to simply tap to let you draw a card—giving you card advantage—and deal damage to a target—clearing the board or hurting your opponent directly.  His triggered ability, which is responsible for the damage dealing, can occur multiple times in one go.  If you decide to cast Brainstorm, you draw three cards, automatically letting Niv-Mizzet dish out three damage to a single target, or split up to three different ones.  This also means he automatically pings a target for one damage during your upkeep when you undergo your draw phase.

The possibilities for advantage is boundless.  You can use Brainstorm for the auto-three damage.  You can combine Niv-Mizzet with Arcanis, the Omnipotent... drawing three with Arcanis to deal three damage, drawing more with Niv-Mizzet himself and dealing more damage.  You can use Mind Spring and draw a ton of cards and deal a ton of damage.

But the greatest of combinations must be Niv-Mizzet with Mind Over Matter.  With these two cards, you can tap Niv-Mizzet to draw a card and deal one damage to your opponent.  You can use that freshly drawn card as payment for Mind Over Matter.  By discarding that card, you can untap Niv-Mizzet, allowing you to draw another card and deal another point of damage.  Now you can discard that card and untap Niv-Mizzet with Mind Over Matter.  Do it again?  Yes, please.  Essentially, you can smack your opponent for one damage at a time for as many cards you have in your library.

Sure, the Niv-Mizzet + Mind Over Matter combo is rather mana-cost expensive, but it's pretty much along the lines of certain victory.  Of course, you can use Quicksilver Dagger on any other creature in most cases, but this is just to prove how versatile a single creature like Niv-Mizzet can be.

5. Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon

Infect is a very interesting way of going about your path to victory.  Back in the old days, cards that meant infect had text that simply explained "poison counters."  Nowadays, the term infect replaced all of that.  Poison counters are still the term, but they are merely markers for creatures that deal damage via the infect ability.  MTG rules state that if any player, at any point in time, is marked with 10 or more poison counters, he or she instantly loses.  A 6/6 creature with infect does not deal six damage to creatures or players.  If all six damage hits a player, that player gets six poison counters added on to any poison counters from before.  As for combat damage to creatures, the creature with infect adds -1/-1 counters to any creature that comes in contact.  So a 6/6 creature with infect will die to an 8/8, but the 8/8 will be marked with six -1/-1 counters, making it a 2/2 until it leaves play.

Now that that's out of the way, here is the only dragon in the game of MTG that has the infect ability: Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon.  And he's the only "Dragon Skeleton" in the game, as well.  Anyway, sure, he's not as big as most of the others, being 4/4; but can fly, he can regenerate himself, and he can have haste if you choose to pay one more mana when he enters the battlefield, thereby allowing you to throw four poison counters at your opponent if there are no blockers in the way.

Find some way to pump up Skithiryx—for instance, Dragon Breath—and/or give him trample and you will have yourself a quicker way to victory than constantly dealing traditional damage.  The ability to place -1/-1 counters on other creatures is great, too, given that Skithiryx can regenerate if he gets killed by someone fatter than him.  He blocks a 7/7 beast?  Okay, Skithiryx dies, but he regenerates.  Now the 7/7 is permanently a 3/3.  No longer an issue for Skithiryx.  This, everyone, is a fun legendary dragon.

4. Scion of the Ur-Dragon

Try not to be annoyed, but I'll apologize in advance.  Given the situation, I will have to return to the topic of reanimation yet again.  This dragon legend, Scion of the Ur-Dragon, can go hand-in-hand with Bladewing the Risen in a dragon-based reanimation deck.

How would you like to be able to play as any dragon in your deck without ever drawing it into your hand?  How would you like to skip all the Entombs and Buried Alives and just use this one card?

This is exactly what Scion of the Ur-Dragon can do.  In a reanimation deck, it shouldn't be difficult for you to resurrect it as a target from your graveyard.  And when you do reanimate it, you can start using its ability to move more dragons from your deck into your graveyard, thus providing more dragons as reanimation targets.

But then again, that's not all that's great about Scion of the Ur-Dragon's abilities.  Sure, it's great that you can dump more dragons for reanimation, but as a result, Scion of the Ur-Dragon becomes that dragon for a turn.  You pay two mana and dump out Rith.  Scion of the Ur-Dragon temporarily becomes a copy of Rith.  You attack, you activate what would have been Rith's ability (see above) and gain a horde of Saproling tokens.  You pay two mana and dump out a Hellkite Overlord.  Scion of the Ur-Dragon is an 8/8 flying, trampling monstrosity that can regenerate and get pumped up with each offering of red mana.  The options continue.  And after the effect wears off, why not reanimate that dragon you tossed out?

3. Keiga, the Tide Star

Something's awfully intriguing about mass mind control in sci-fi novels or movies.  It's always somewhat nightmarish to the imagination.  But control elements in MTG tend to be blue in color, not the nightmarish black.

The mass mind control master for dragon legends happens to be blue, but there's nothing really nightmarish to think of him... except by your opponent, of course.

Keiga, the Tide Star is part of the legendary Japanese dragon quintet—yes, like the others, made up of a representative of each color.  Keiga represents blue and serves to mind control your opponent's creatures.  But how does this end up as mass mind control?

In MTG, rules state that there can only be one "legend" of a certain name on the battlefield at a given time.  If there are two, both are instantly destroyed.  Both will be on the field though, if only for a split second.  Here's where the strategy comes in.  You will have Keiga on the battlefield.  However, you will intentionally try to get more Keiga's out onto the field, thereby killing them all.  And when Keiga dies, you gain control of an opponent's creature.  The most infamous method, by far, is using Rites of Replication.  If the spell is kicked, you can pump out five copies of Keiga.  And because all of those copies are considered "legends," they all essentially kill themselves, granting you a total of six creatures you get to steal from your opponent.

Mass mind control.  If your opponent's sole game plan was to finish you off with Blightsteel Colossus or Emrakul, the Aeons Torn... well, there goes that idea.

2. Nicol Bolas

Honestly, I should've swapped the positions of Keiga and this guy, Nicol Bolas.  But I am heavily biased, given that Nicol Bolas is a staple in the MTG universe, story-wise and ancestry (the original printing was in 1994 and the reprinted one in 2008).  This isn't to say he's anything short of a face-smashing beast.

Just look at this card.  He's pretty simple.  He costs eight mana as a 7/7 flyer.  Reasonable.  There's the unfortunate per upkeep cost of three mana, else you sacrifice him.  Fine, that's not too big of a problem.  But every time he deals damage to an opponent—not just combat damage, any damage—your opponent discards his entire hand.  That's evil.  Evil as in the flavor text, "Dominaria's most ancient evil," evil.

I thought Crosis and his constant discard effect was brutal, but Nicol Bolas, being the "elder" dragon, puts the little one to shame.  Something simple as a Fire Whip attached to Nicol Bolas effectively gives him this ability: "Tap: target player discards his or her hand."

That.  Is.  Dumb.

As long as you have the blue, black and red mana ready during your upkeep to pay his maintenance cost, if he's enchanted by something like Fire Whip, he can really keep your opponent from ever doing anything for the rest of the game.  "Oh, you drew a card?  Tap.  Oh, you can't play it because it's not an instant?  Well, that card's gone, sorry."  Dumb.

If you can make Nicol Bolas a reanimation target (remember as long as you can afford the upkeep costs), things get even dumber.

1. Kokusho, the Evening Star

It's those Japanese dragon legends again.  Like Keiga, Kokusho, the Evening Star likes to kill himself in order to do anything fancy.  Mass mind control is pretty fancy, but that's not what Kokusho is here for.

Sure, taking all your opponent's creatures may give you a very good chance at winning, but that is nothing.  That is too slow compared to what Kokusho can do.

The same strategy employed with Keiga works for Kokusho.  Here's a refresher.  There can only be one legendary permanent of a certain name on the battlefield at any given time.  Once the second hits, both move from the battlefield into the graveyard.  Now take a look at Kokusho's ability.  Once he dies, your opponent loses five life and you gain five.  Not too shabby.  That won't win you the game, though.  What will win you the game is if you use the aforementioned Rites of Replication, kick it, and throw down a total of five additional Kokusho's.  That's six Kokusho's heading for the graveyard at once.  That means 30 life instantaneously down the drain for your opponent.  I believe he is dead at that point.

There are other ways to do this besides Rites of Replication, of course.  You can use Iname, Death Aspect to dump four copies of Kokusho into your graveyard (here we go with the reanimation tactic again) and then bring all four back simultaneously with Twilight's Call or Living Death.  Boom, the Kokusho's kill each other.  Your opponent loses 20 life lost.  Game.

Decks built around Kokusho can simply stall and disrupt the opponent until the necessary pieces are arranged.  It's a pretty straightforward and extremely deadly game plan.

Crown of Guilt

"After the outbreak of the unidentified virus 'Lost Christmas' in 2029, Japan has been under the control of a multi-nation organization called GHQ. Ohma Shu is a 17-year-old boy who has a psychic power in his right hand. He can use the power 'Ability of King' to extract tools or weapons from his friends. He has been avoiding making trouble for others but his life changes when he meets a girl Yuzuriha Inori, a member of a resistance guerrilla group called 'Undertaker,' whose members pilot mecha weapons to fight against the government."

via Anime News Network

Currently airing right now in Japan is an anime titled Guilty Crown.  For newcomers, this series looks to be an eye-popper.

Oh, Inori so pretty!  So shiny!  And oh so emotionless (see below)!

Not exaggerating.  Scenes are beautifully rendered all throughout.  This is thanks to "Redjuice" of the band, Supercell.  The artist manages all the illustrations that go with composer Ryo's music.  I first started exploring Supercell's music when I was first introduced to "君の知らない物語 (Kimi no Shiranai Monogatari)" a.k.a. "The Story You Don't Know," the ending theme to the anime Bakemonogatari.  Now I wouldn't be pointing any of this out if I didn't like Supercell.  The music score that goes along with Guilty Crown, as of now, is phenomenal.

But Guilty Crown has one big problem so far, despite there being only five episodes out right now (with episode 6 due this Thursday).  The story isn't advancing.  Sources point out that Guilty Crown will only have 11 episodes.  If that's the case, I'm willing to bet the series will need three to four seasons in order to get anywhere, simply based on the pace it's currently maintaining.

On that note, I realized that Guilty Crown is showing major similarities with another sci-fi anime: Eureka Seven.  The male protagonists in both series, Shu in Guilty Crown and Renton in Eureka Seven, initially start out as whiny, self-hating bratty teens with serious confidence issues... but they soon grow up only as people around them basically pump them up with boosters like, "You are the chosen one!  Only you can save us all!"  The female protagonists in both series, Inori in Guilty Crown and Eureka in Eureka Seven, begin as emotionless, floating bricks that appear human... and in Eureka Seven's case (might as well be Guilty Crown's, too), the girl shows more signs of humanity after she and her male counterpart's constant shouting and calling-out to each other ("Renton!" "Eureka!"  "RENTON!" "EUREKA!" repeat 10 times) finally get through.

Speaking of similarities, the constant calling-out made an appearance in Guilty Crown, as well:

Click to enlarge
Okay, so it didn't loop 10 times.  And Inori didn't exactly shout her second time around.  But you get the idea.

The pace that Guilty Crown is currently working on is eerily similar to how Eureka Seven panned out.  But the good news is that Eureka Seven turned out to be one of my favorite series, thanks to the amount of time I decided to invest in following all 50 episodes.  Thus, I do hope Guilty Crown is separated into four parts of 11, 12, 13 or so episodes, much like Eureka Seven was... given that Guilty Crown continues its snail's pace of storytelling.

Despite the drawbacks of the first few episodes, Guilty Crown has shown signs of life in the latest episode, where apparently the director and storyboard leaders decided to do some side character exploration.  For the majority of anime that I have watched, I devote a lot of attention to the characters and how they are portrayed and developed.  The fact that Guilty Crown finally started this was a necessary step in grabbing my interest for sure.

Ayase seems pretty cool so far. Her being voiced by Kana Hanazawa (Suou Pavlichenko "Darker Than Black: Gemini of the Meteor," Anri Sonohara "Durarara!!") makes her even cooler.

If the story fails to go anywhere in the 11 episodes its due for, it won't be a total disaster... not to me anyway.  At least I had something pretty to look at for 4.5 hours.  Nonetheless, I seriously, seriously hope Guilty Crown does its job.  It looks too good to be an empty, pointless show.  After all, I'm a fan of Supercell and I believe their people can get it all done.  I'm sure I'm not the only one out there that wishes for this show to continue stepping up, as it did in episode 5.  Only episode 6 can show us this Thursday.

Got Mill?

I was looking through the casual play section of Wizards' MTG forums and I came across one of my old favorite types of decks.

Mill!

A mill deck basically has one purpose: to get the opponent's library down to zero, therefore making the poor guy lose just because he can't draw any cards.

So here's what I came up with, for legacy ruled play:

Lands

7x Island

5x Swamp

4x Drowned Catacomb or Underground Sea (if affordable...)

4x Polluted Delta

Creatures

3x Painter's Servant

4x Raven Guild Master

1x Nemesis of Reason

Enchantments

4x Bloodchief Ascension

Sorceries & Instants

4x Glimpse the Unthinkable

4x Countersquall

4x Undermine

4x Brain Freeze
4x Brainstorm

Artifacts

3x Mindcrank

3x Whispersilk Cloak
2x Grindstone

So basically, we have two routes to take.  The main path—which should be the fastest track if you can Brainstorm your way to the right cards—involves getting out Painter's Servant and Grindstone.  With Painter's Servant, you choose a color once it comes into play.  If you have Grindstone out, you activate its ability and your opponent basically loses his entire library via Grindstone's repeated effect.

Now, if that scenario eludes you, you can also take the Mindcrank and Bloodchief Ascension path.  The deck's counter spells—Countersquall and Undermine—are quick ways for your opponent to lose life, adding the necessary counters to Bloodchief Ascension.  Once that's taken care of, Mindcrank and Bloodchief Ascension—plus any single effect that causes one card to go into your opponent's graveyard—that's it.  The two cards will continuously trigger each other, thus your opponent loses his entire library in one go.

Now, if both scenarios fail to become reality, then you'll have to go the slow and painful path... which isn't an official route, by the way.  Nonetheless, this can now be any combination of combining Raven Guild Master and Whispersilk Cloak—which causes the creature to become unblockable and untargetable—easily going through your opponent's creature defenses and zapping him for 10 cards at a time.  The same can be applied to Nemesis of Reason.  Throw in a few Glimpse the Unthinkable and stormed Brain Freezes, perhaps the slow part of "slow and painful" won't be a problem.

One last note, though.  Pray to God your opponent doesn't have a very deck-specific nuisance like Laboratory Maniac out on the field.  If he or she does, looks like a sideboard will have to be made.  Probably something like... PAINFUL DEATH can work.  Though in all honestly, a card like Doom Blade should be in the main deck... hmm.  Probably should swap out a couple of Glimpses, or something.

Well, thinking about all this just made me want to recreate a mill deck.  It's been years since I've even thought about the concept... hey, maybe I will make this list into a reality.

Card Sleeves!

Trading card sleeves are important.  Yes, they are.  They both protect the cards and make them look shiny (if the cards themselves have been scratched up or creased beforehand).

I recently got my hands on 100 counts of this type of card sleeve from MAX Protection:

Oh, dear God, it's perfect.  Not only is it awesome in appearance, but it's also holographic.  This is titled "Manga Witch," which in my opinion, is a very stupid and generic name.  Not that I can think of anything better at the moment.  MAX Protection doesn't manufacture the greatest quality of card sleeves—in comparison to some other brands like generic Ultra Pro and Dragon Shield—but to me, it's definitely one of the most eye-catching (more so than Fantasy Flight).  

What I really want to get my hands on is this:

This is the super rare "Black Lotus Girl" card sleeve.  I think I might have gone across dozens of websites, but all of them mark this product as out-of-stock.  Little did I know at that time, Black Lotus Girl had been out-of-print for years... and it still is.  Even the art versions of card binders are hard to find nowadays.  What a shame.  But don't get me wrong, I'm happy with my Manga Witch for more than one reason.  Not only is it amazing in appearance, but it's also out-of-print, just like Black Lotus Girl.  I actually found mine at the best price at Magic Madhouse, a company in... England.  Maybe there are other sites hiding in the far reaches of the web that also offer good prices for out-of-print card sleeves, but none that I've come across just yet.

That's right.  These babies are quite hard to track down.  Black Lotus Girl, just like the real Black Lotus, continues to elude me.

Initiation: the Oath

Everything has to start somewhere.

For the purpose of this page, I will devote most of my time covering things that interest me—and hopefully you, the reader.

For this initial post, I will be dealing with Magic: the Gathering.  If you are clueless about this game, feel free to check out the Wikipedia article here, or visit the MTG homepage over here.

All things concerned, let's say you know the game and most of its nuances.  If that's the case, let me bring up the topic of the day:

VINTAGE PLAY

I started hanging around MTG sometime in 2000-2001, during the Prophecy and Invasion block sets.  But don't get me wrong, I had a ton of cards gathered up from the mid-1990s.  For this reason, I was always more interested in vintage and legacy styles of play.

In essence, vintage is basically "all-cards-are-playable (minus gambling 'ante' related cards) minus-some-overpowered-restricted-cards."  In other words, every black/white bordered card ever printed, aside from the ante cards (see Demonic Attorney, for example), are playable.  The "overpowered-restricted-cards" that I'm talking about can be found on the vintage deck construction list here.  These restricted cards are either too powerful or too easy manipulated into throwing games out of wack.

As for legacy play, pretty much all the banned cards in vintage apply for legacy.  However, the majority of restricted cards in vintage are outright banned in legacy.  Details can be found here.

Vintage and legacy styles of play are sweet because they allow me to keep my options open.  When dealing with other forms such as standard or extended, a lot of older cards are pretty much thrown out the window, lest they're reprinted in newer sets.  Not my cup of tea.

So, moving on.  I would like to talk about a deck that I'm currently working on for vintage play.  Let's say it's a casual vintage deck that I can use for playing against friends.  Well, casual to start, but let's see if it can see competitive play one day.

The deck that I'm talking about is composed of these cards as of now:

Lands

4x Forbidden Orchard

4x Misty Rainforest

4x Tropical Island

3x Volcanic Island

1x Underground Sea

Creatures

1x Akroma, Angel of Wrath

1x Progenitus

1x Hellkite Overlord

Artifacts

1x Black Lotus

1x Mox Emerald

1x Mox Jet

1x Mox Pearl

1x Mox Ruby

1x Mox Sapphire

1x Lotus Petal

1x Mana Vault

1x Sol Ring

2x Chalice of the Void

Enchantments

4x Oath of Druids

Sorceries & Instants

4x Force of Will

4x Mana Leak

4x Impulse

2x Spell Pierce

1x Ancestral Recall

1x Time Walk

1x Brainstorm

1x Ponder

1x Misdirection

1x Demonic Tutor

1x Vampiric Tutor

1x Gaea's Blessing

1x Krosan Reclamation

1x Nature's Claim

1x Ancient Grudge

Planeswalkers

1x Jace, the Mind Sculptor

...Before I get into anything, nope, I do not have a sideboard worked out as of yet.  Why?  Well, as I've said, this is going to be a somewhat casual deck for now.

Moving along, what is this deck?  It is, in fact, a classic "Oath of Druids" vintage deck—based upon the staple and iconic Oath of Druids enchantment that this entire deck revolves around.  The way this deck works is quite simple.  As the player, you must have Oath of Druids on the field when one of your opponents controls at least one more creature than you.  Here's where the land, Forbidden Orchard comes in.  You can use the Orchard to add mana of any color to your pool, but as a bonus—especially in this deck—you throw a 1/1 creature onto your opponent's side.  Now your opponent has one more creature on the battlefield than you, allowing you to throw Oath of Druids out into play and begin the path to victory.

Once your upkeep comes up with Oath of Druids in play, you virtually dump every card you have from the top of your deck until you find a creature, which you immediately throw into play.  Given that this deck only has three creatures, two of whom have flying, haste and trample (Akroma and the Hellkite), the last being Progenitus, a 10/10 with protection from everything, your opponent can seriously have a 1/1 against your 6/6, 8/8 or 10/10 face-smasher.  Even when that's not scary enough, you can tap the Orchard to throw yet another measly 1/1 on your opponent's side, thus allowing Oath of Druids to trigger for you once more on your next turn.

That's the gist of the deck: give your opponent more creatures than you, Oath up a massive face-smasher for the win.  While all of this is happening, all the other cards—other than Forbidden Orchard, Oath of Druids and the creatures—serve distinct purposes.

Black Lotus, Lotus Petal, Sol Ring, Mana Vault and the five Mox pieces all serve as mana engines in addition to whichever lands you may have out.  This enables the ability to throw out Forbidden Orchards and Oath of Druids on the first turn, allowing you to grab the aforementioned face-smasher on your second turn.  Also, with more mana at hand, we go to the next important pieces of the deck.

Counter spells.  Force of Will, Mana Leak, Spell Pierce, Misdirection and Chalice of the Void all serve to counter and lock down your opponent from messing with your plan.  I opted for Mana Leak over Mana Drain not because of monetary differences (Mana Drain: $100+, Mana Leak: $0.25), but because you don't need two blue mana for Mana Leak, plus early game situations won't allow your opponent to pay the extra three mana to stop Mana Leak anyway.  Yes, Mana Drain is deadly and powerful, but seriously, Mana Leak gets the job done.

Say your opponent throws onto the battlefield a Black Lotus, a white-mana land, a Mox Pearl, and say, a Mana Crypt on his first turn.  He sacrifices the Lotus for three green mana, taps the land, Mox and Crypt for four more, and decides to hard-cast a monstrous Novablast Wurm, hoping to prevent you from ever having a creature on the field.  Well, okay, you have one blue mana and another mana source left over from your first turn, specifically planning on using a cool Mana Leak because you don't have a trusty Force of Will at hand.  Well, there we go.  You play Mana Leak in response, your opponent has nothing left to tap for mana.  The wurm never made it onto the field.  Now your opponent lost his wurm, his Black Lotus is gone, his Crypt will probably now start wreaking havoc on him during his next turns, and you just successfully stalled your opponent big time while you can continue working on your game plan.

Similarly, I chose Spell Pierce over many other counter spell varieties for the same reason.  Spell Pierce just targets noncreature spells, that's all.

We also have enabling spells, namely Ancestral Recall, Time Walk, Brainstorm, Ponder, Impulse, Vampiric Tutor and Demonic Tutor.  These cards either manipulate the library, allow you to draw more, or find the cards you want and therefore give you a better card advantage.  Jace, the Mind Sculptor falls into this category as well, since he pretty much acts like a free, constant Brainstorm (darn Brainstorm is restricted in vintage play).

Finally, we have situational spells.  Nature's Claim and Ancient Grudge serve to clear out artifact and/or enchantment nuisances if you manage to let them slip past your counter spells.  Then we have Krosan Reclamation and Gaea's Blessing.  Krosan Reclamation's true role is simply to return your very limited creatures back into your deck so you can Oath them right back out.  That, or to bring back Gaea's Blessing, if it by chance got thrown into your graveyard from someplace other than your library.  Gaea's Blessing is the one card in the deck that prevents you from decking yourself into a loss.  As soon as Gaea's Blessing hits the graveyard from Oath's trigger, you get your creature and then you shuffle Gaea's Blessing and everything in your graveyard right back into your library.  Neat stuff.

And that's my classic Oath of Druids deck.  It's a work in progress, as I am still waiting on some of the parts to come in.  After that, it's a test run against friends.  Maybe I'll throw in a sideboard by then (some Ground Seals, perhaps?).

Hope this first entry cuts the cake.