The Third Alternative

This week I had a blast playing Magic the Gathering with my friend Ryan. We played sealed, a format where each player builds a deck based on 6 sealed packs they open. You gotta build the best deck you can with the limited card pool those 6 packs offer you. The set was Strixhaven: School of Mages. The theme for the set is basically Harry Potter. The color combinations align to a 5 schools of magic. Upon opening my 6 packs, it was clear I would build a black-white (Silverquill) deck and a red-blue (Prismari) deck. It was also clear that the Silverquill deck had better cards.

Let’s start with the crappy Prismary deck. To be honest, I built this because I got a good number of cards in this color combination, and one of them was Grapeshot, a very, very good red spell that you can use create a killer combo thanks to its Storm ability. Sadly, things did not go well and before I could combo anything with Grapeshot, I had to use spells to defend myself against creatures. Another card that had potential was Conspiracy Theorist. Also didn’t pan out. While we’re listing cards that didn’t do much, I’ll add one from the Silverquill deck: Silverquill Apprentice. Seems like an OK card, but in the games I played this time, she just didn’t do much for me.

Ryan was playing a blue-green (Quandrix) deck. Among the cards that gave me a lot of hardship were: Needlethorn Drake, Wormhole Serpent, and Fractal Summoning. The drake is “just” a 1/1 with Deathtouch, but what that really means is that I had to be careful what I attack with because it’s sudden death for any larger creature blocked by this flyer. The other 2 cards ensured Ryan’s creatures were able to hit me, and did hit me hard.

On to the part where things did work well for me: the Silverquill deck! As I opened the 6 packs, I noticed 2 things: I was getting a lot of black and white cards, and I loved the artwork on many of them, especially all the warlocks. So, I knew I’d build this deck right away. Sedgemoor Witch and Shadewing Laureate were both very good creatures. They did their job and I love the artwork, especially on the laureate. Arrogant Poet was good too. Cool artwork, a nice option to pay 2 life and give him flying.

In terms of spells, Lash of Malice, Closing Statement, and Mage Hunter’s Onslaught were great. I loved Closing Statement for its option to pay less when casting it on the end step. While it meant fewer combat tricks, removal is removal, and it still meant one less creature for my opponent.

Speaking of tricks, my favourite creature card in terms of utility has to be Spiteful Squad. This creature is a little pricy at 4 mana, but I realized how useful it gets as soon as it gained some counters. It gets big, and when it dies, some other creature gets all those juicy counters. Awesome! Other neat spells were Divine Gambit and Professor’s Warning. The former is, as stated, a bit of a gambit. Luckily it did work in my favour as Ryan happened to lack a permanent to play at that moment. The latter is very good for just 1 mana. The counter could go on Spiteful Squad, for example.

That’s about it! We played few rounds with a mix of these decks. Won some, lost some. It was good fun and I really enjoyed the set and the artwork, especially the warlocks and the special prints of classic spells like Grapeshot.

©️ Razvan Ungureanu

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In an age when technology is touching more and more aspects of your life, you have to start wondering whether you are the programmer or the programmed. Who holds the reins in your relationship with technology?

I often leave my iPhone behind when I walk my dog. I do it on purpose because I don’t want to be distracted. Without even thinking about it, my hand reaches for my pocket, looking for the ever-present iPhone. I see an interesting landscape and my mind automatically thinks I should take a photo with my iPhone. I think of a friend or relative and I want to reach for the phone to message them.

I believe companies like Apple, Google, Amazon, Meta, etc. know this fully well, and I am starting to believe that they are no longer in the business of creating devices that help us in life, but rather they are building frameworks where we are being programmed to become more and more dependant on their hardware and software.

When is the last time you drove somewhere without the help of Google Maps? When is the last time you used a camera to take photos, and not your smartphone? Do you still wear a regular watch, or have you embraced the tracking handcuff of Apple, Samsung, Garmin, and Google? Can you go one year without ordering something on Amazon? What about one month?

I have an Apple Watch, and I go through phases of love and hate for the device. I stop using it when I feel like it’s too distracting or too needy. I dislike having to charge it every day. A regular watch can go for years on one battery! This needy Apple tracker needs too much of my attention for me to tolerate it for more than a few weeks at a time. I quickly tire of it and go back to a regular watch, or no watch at all. Recently, upon switching back to a regular watch, I realized I was always using the Apple Watch to check the weather. I repeated that behaviour so many times that I catch myself trying to check the weather on my regular watch too! Apple successfully programmed me to look for the weather conditions on my wrist.

Recently, Apple added some new functionality to the iPhone and Apple Watch. A Journal app was introduced on the iPhone, and both devices now allow users to log their daily mood or mental state. By collecting mental state data from these two sources, Apple will be able to start predicting what makes each user happy and what makes them sad, which in turn will empower Apple to create even more products that will seem to know us better than we know ourselves.

My approach is to be careful with these technologies. I make a point of taking extended breaks from gadgets like the Apple Watch, and I try to be mindful of my screen time on devices like the iPhone, iPad, and computers. It’s so easy to be swept away by the dopamine-infused wave of technology. It’s up to each individual to pause and take control of their tech, or risk being used by their devices as a data point for others to profit.

©️ Razvan Ungureanu

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