Here is our (belated) Thanksgiving Podcast.

(Click Here for Mirror)

Due to scheduling errors and me being busy, it took this long to get it up and for that I'm sorry. Tune in though to listen to our staff discuss TP2 Previews, how crummy our holidays were, as well as some info on the upcoming Kages & the Perfect Curve's Holiday Party on December 18th.

Don't forget to check back for our amazing holiday contest this Wednesday. Prizes include a SEALED box of cards and a few other fun goodies.

Oh and also beware of the ending theme at the end. I felt like including something from "Sora No Otoshimono" as the ending. Sadly, it's VERY loud after I tried to mix the tracks together and encoded it. Re-encoding it would take a while and volumizing part of the track is a hassle. Forgive me.

Labels: Chief Tsuzumiya Haruhi, Happy Thanksgiving, Podcast, tsu

Have a Happy Thanksgiving from everyone here at The Perfect Curve!

Check back tomorrow for our special holiday podcast.

-TsuMobile

Labels: Chief Tsuzumiya Haruhi, Happy Thanksgiving, tsu, TsuMobile

Earlier today I posted up the surname of my preview card; [Akatsuki's Left Hand]. I'm actually pretty surprised that no one guessed that it would be a Deidara, the Character who's Ninjutsu involves the molding of chakra with the mouth on his hands. Anyway, here's our preview from Tournament Pack 2:

So, I probably don't need to point out that this card is incredibly underwhelming. I really did want to write a positive report on the card, but after much deliberation, I've decided to instead talk about why this card isn't good, and what I believe should have been done with the card.

So the first problem with the card is that it sets a condition for finding an "Akatsuki" Ninja on the bottom of your deck to trigger. The problem with this is obviously that there just isn't support for an akatsuki based deck right now, further more, there are very few cards in the format that even allow you to manipulate the bottom of your deck. The second problem is the reward. To put it bluntly, it just sucks. Other cards loop jutsus and missions repeatedly, while Deidara can at BEST pick up a jutsu once (That is if you manage to reveal an "Akatsuki" Ninja).

For a Turn five ninja, I just feel like his effect is far too restrictive. I think the best way to have designed this card would have been to make him say "During the mission phase, if you have 3 or more in play "Akatsuki" Ninja in play, you may move a jutsu card from your discard pile to you hand." This slight change not only promotes the akatsuki deck that Bandai clearly tried to pish with this card original effect, but it also has enough power for people to WANT to play him. Hopefully Bandai will learn from this for future design. Anyway, thanks for reading, and check back on friday for our Thanksgiving Podcast!

-Andrew

Labels: previews, Tournament Pack 2, Zero

Labels: Boston, Chunin, naruto ccg, Scotty Doesn't Know

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Obviously this post is meant for fun.

(P.S. Don't forget to read Zero's Blurb below. I kind of stole his thunder with this joke. Go read it. Stop reading this. Go read that. Now. NOW!)

Labels: Chief Tsuzumiya Haruhi, KONAN DA BARBEAUTIAN, previews, Tournament Pack 2, tsu

So I realized today that I haven't post up anything in awhile, and rather than make you guys think I hate you (Hate is a strong word..) I figured I would just post up a random blurb to talk about stuffs going on in the life of Andrew Kardis, Card Game Extraordinaire!... This sounded way more awesome in my head at 2:30 in the morning while taking an online exam for my Biopsychology course, so forgive me if that came off a bit corny.

I recently (about 3 weeks ago) participated in the Magic: the Gathering Grand Prix Torronto event. Being the only one in my group without any byes (Most players walk in to major events with anywhere from 1-3 byes) and the format being Scars of Mirrodin Limited, a limited format I didn't have particularly amazing results with, I wasn't particularly confident in myself. Despite opening a very unusual, bomb-lacking pool, I ended up going 9-1 day one... to then go 1-5 day two in the draft portion of the event. I made some decisions in the drafts on day two that, in retrospect were poor, and as a result, I walked away without any money. I still ended up getting in the top 100 players, out of over 1400, and with any luck next time I'll do even better.

I actually managed to start testing with Path of Pain stuff this past week. I've tested against Water, Earth, and Lightning the most, and I've got to say that Sasuke (State 2) is obnoxious as a card. Chiriku, while good, avoids being over powered by being affected by the number of powerful non-Jutsu effects in the game, only protecting his team, and not being Valid. Sasuke on the other hand is unaffected by everything, Protects every Water Ninja you control, and might as well be valid, since you can just reinforce over an injured Sasuke (State 2). I'm not saying that Sasuke is the end all be all, but he's just too hard to get rid of in my eyes and would be better off banned. I dislike calling for a card to be banned, but I just feel that untouchable Ninjas are just bad for the game.

After talking to Tylar, he confirmed that we will be getting 1-2 Preview(s) for Tournament Pack 2, which is great because I wasn't sure if they were intending on giving out any previews for such a small set (only 30 new cards). Since Pat has his own preview on Bandai for his articles, I will probably be doing a write up for our preview here. Heres to hoping we don't get a completely useless card *Fingers crossed*

I also haven't really had a chance to put out a list of what I feel to be the top cards in the set like I usually do, so here is a quick list of the cards I feel to be Over/Underrated after playing with the set for a bit:

-Overrated-
-Sasuke [Eyes of the Serpeant]: While not a bad card, I would much rather my opponent drop down this guy than his Target exclusive counterpart any day of the week.
-Pledge Under a Setting Sun: Every time this card has been used against me, it's just been a worse version of Water Style: Waterfall Basin Jutsu.
-Pain (Deva Path): Don't get me wrong, he's a good card. He is just nowhere near what the hype made him out to be. I'd probably only play him in a one or two decks as a one of.
-Deidara [Dangerous Artist]: He just doesn't fit in ANYTHING. As expected (By me) his effect is also pretty irrelivant most of the time unless you already happen to be winning.
-Kabuto(Possesed Mode): I really like this card, but I knew he just wasn't good enough to make it into the big leagues (for now). It's just too much effort for a card that actually works against your decks theme (Chakra burn) in a slot with much better ninja.

-Unrrated-
-Kakuzu (Soul form): Testing has shown that he's as powerful as I thought he would be. I lost a few games to him, and brining him out, even in an even board position never caused the one using him to lose, or even be put in a worse position.
-Chiriku: Card is good. I happened to overlook him, but I have to say that I'm fairly impressed by the guy after watching him in action.
-Striking Shadow Snake: With Chakra Generation at an all time high, this card is alot better than most (Including myself) thought it would be.

I still haven't got a chance to play around with the Lee/Guy Platoon, or Third Hokage, but unfortunately, with the way the format is skewed, I don't have high hopes for them. I'm also really looking forward to trying out the new tsunade, who seems to interact fairly well with other new cards like coordination and barrier prep. When I've done a bit more testing I'll put up another one of these. Until next time.

-Andrew

Labels: Blurbs, Broken Cards, Path of Pain, Zero

Here is the Tenative Schedule for the Perfect Curve for the next month or so:

-November 15th-22nd: Discussions on Path of Pain testing, meta, and TP2 previews.
-November 24th "The Perfect Curve Thanksgiving Podcast Special"
-December 1st - 18th - "The Perfect Curve Holiday Contest!"
-December 11th-12th - "All Things Fun!" event coverage posted live from round to round via smart phone. Video coverage/live stream pending.
-December 18th-19th "The Perfect Curve Christmas Party" - Footage of casuals, video games, cubing, partying and potentially a podcast to celebrate the holiday season.

Open Forum

Just wanted to, without names, throw some things out there and get them off my chest that have been bugging me

-Water. It's not fun to play. It's not fun to play against. Sasuke (State 2) makes for an incredibly boring format.

-Void. Aside from God Realm, I haven't had much success with the deck. Basically, it just seems too mediocre.

-Earth. Will probably win a lot of matches this upcoming format. Not because it's good. No, that's not it at all. It'll win simply because most games end with the turn marker ending well past turn 30. Enjoy your 50 minute rounds.

-Lightning. Toads is a sack deck. Taijutsu is not. Toads is the obvious play for Lightning.

-Kabutops. Why are you so good in everything BUT Water? *rages*

-Tsunade from TP2. Why does everyone think this card is good? It's unique and definitely better than the other "Slug" tutor but does anyone actually think this will see play outside of them printing another "Slug" Ninja? :/

-Shizune from TP2. "When this Ninja is put in play, pick up a 'Kick of Anger' Jutsu from your discard pile because there isn't anything else worth being picked up, at least at the time of this preview."

-Haters. Why are you still posting on Bandai about how they're doing a terrible job with the game? I feel your entire existence on the website is simply to troll and nothing more. If you want to complain, go over to Thomas's Awesome Website. That way all the complaining can be consolidated into one thread rather than shitting up an entire forum. I'd say make the thread on Bandai but that would just result in a ban for the topic creator. . . so instead use Thomas's awesome playground. Regardless of what I say though, it isn't going to stop people from making the Bandai forums terrible. It isn't going to stop people from negging my articles because they think I'm some kind of Bandai White Knight. It is going to stop people from going to 2EZ Forums though.

-Josh. Negging me cause I didn't mention you in my article? Seriously? I was intended to give you your own in early December. Come on man. . . why the hate? :/

-Card Makers. Judging takes a lot longer than I thought it would. I apologize profusely if I gave you some off scores (especially in the Text Category). I'm still new at the whole judging point system . . . it really needs a better rubric. Srsly.

-TP2. If I don't get a box of this this time, I'm going to flip. There was no TP1 in my area. I'll rage if there is no TP2 in my area.

-Gary. Shotgun TP2. You had your Chibi cahds. Mah turn now.

-I haven't had a haircut in over 10 weeks.

-I haven't shaved in 2 weeks.

-I look like a hobo.

Labels: bandai, Chief Tsuzumiya Haruhi, tsu

Title says it all. But before I go on to talk about my opinions of the event I want to say a few things.

First, I want everyone to do me a favor and get their heads out of their asses. Yes, you heard me. I'm sick and tired of people saying things like "Is ATF stupid? Why would they schedule it so early? And why did they take the Battle Spirits Core Championship over the Shonen Jump last year? Are they stupid?"

You do realize this is a business right?

Right?

If you don't understand what's fully going on, here is the basic gyst of the story. Granted it is not perfect because I only talk to Ed Evans from All Things Fun. I AM NOT his official spokesperson, nor am I him, so these details may not be set in stone. Just want to get that out there to cover my own ass.

Bandai gives All Things Fun a Shonen Jump Championship because they're the top selling/performing store in the North East for Naruto and they consistently show their support by carrying all of Bandai's products and attending their dealer shows.

Bandai decides to give the Battle Spirits Core Championship to another store besides ATF. For whatever reason, it fails. Perhaps due to the game not being supported or stores simply thinking it won't bring them much revenue/recognition by hosting it.

Bandai decides that if All Things Fun were to host the Core Championship, it would have a huge turnout and be a huge success.

All Things Fun, knowing full well that the player base for Battle Spirits is far less than Naruto (which translates to less people and less revenue), decides to ask something along the lines of "Well if we take the Core Championship, what's in it for us?"

Bandai responds with "How about you get the first Kage/Shonen Jump Championship of next season?" So after talking, that All Things Fun would take the Battle Spirits Championship in exchange for a Kage/SJC as well as a few other unnamed perks that you or I may never hear about. It was merely hinted at.

Then we, as a player base, cried foul when there wasn't going to be anymore tournaments until next spring/summer. So what did Bandai do? Try to fix it to keep their player base happy. So they decided to put an end to the off season as quickly as possible. . . and I would assume that by the time they got approval for a tournament structure to be approved for December 2010 - December 2011, we arrived at the end of October/early November.

As promised, the first Kage goes to All Things Fun. And I'm assuming December 11th was chosen simply because it is probably the only available weekend that isn't occupied by Yu-Gi-Oh (Which if you don't know All Things Fun's Saturday locals for Yu-Gi-Oh range from 60-80 players). Pretty much, the date is set in stone and there's probably no way to change it because of A) Holidays B) It'd be incredibly short notice to change it C) I'm sure they're locked into December since the tournament structure REQUIRES one a month, so if ATF doesn't take it they either lose it or pass it off to someone else and create the same scenario D) It coincides with Yu-Gi-Oh and at the end of the day YGO wins because it makes WAY more money. Their local would make more money than this Kage if they charged the same amount for an entry fee...so yeah it's very unlikely things will get changed.

So now that that's out of the way, here's the short lists of the Pros & Cons:

Pros
-My local store. I can roll out of bed 10 minutes before the event and still be there on time

-It doesn't cost me or anyone else going with me any money to crash at my place. (By the way, spots at Costa del Tsu are filling up fast. Reserve yours now!)

-New format means that the playing field is a mystery meaning if you have an incredibly bomby deck (ala Respective Dreams) you'll basically dominate the entire field

-Small field. Most people aren't expected to show which means it is much easier to take the top spots.

Cons
-Prize Support Cut. This is terrible. I realize that the prize structure has been cut down severely since events are much more frequent but they should have stayed at least the same. Seriously Viz? The game already has declining numbers because the prize support is just plain terrible. Why play Naruto when you can play Yu-Gi-Oh and win just as much at their regional events? I'm not saying you have to match YGO but if you EVER want to make a bigger kick back with this game, you need to seriously consider better prizing.

-Short notice. TERRIBLY short notice. With work, school & the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday, I'd expect that most of us have less than 2 actual weeks of play testing and gathering the actual cards we need. On top of this, many people aren't going to show up which not only makes it a small field (easy to top) but it gives the Jump a bad rep. No one cares that you topped or won a Jump with 30 or 40 people. That's like winning a large Chunin.

-Not knowing what deck to play. This is a question I think most of us are asking. There is nothing to look at since this has been the off season. It's incredibly difficult to figure out what to play. I expect most people to fall back on the obvious, which leaves room for someone to gut the rest of the crowd with another deck. It's just hard to assess the field right now outside of say... Water?

I want this event to succeed, but right now it just seems like it's in a shaky position.

Edit:

So after going down to the store, basically this is how the Kage got scheduled.

*Two Nights Ago*

Store Owner: Let's check the good old email... Oh look a letter from Bandai. Hmmm. . . You will be hosting a Kage. . . blah blah blah... December 11th. . . . blah blah blah. . . Wait. . . WHAT!?

And so Christmas shopping weekend had to be scraped because apparently it was already set in stone that this would be the tournament date. The store is left scratching their heads wondering what the heck happened but they're gonna suck it up and host it anyways. Poor communication? Probably.

But onto more pressing matters. Prizing. Again. I know I said the prizing was bad but if you look at it: 12 Kages now instead of 10 Shonen Jump Championships. . . that's not justification for cutting the prize support. We're missing a PSP from each event, which is about $150~200 in prizing. 2 Extra Kages does not make up for the fact that $2000 is just missing from the prize roster. Doesn't anyone seem to care about that?

I know I said a few weeks back people over react to things, but I personally don't feel this is one of them. Remember how I also said that there is a time when the community should backlash when things aren't right? Now would be that time people! :D

Bad game balance? Fine. . . it can be fixed via restrictions/bans/erratas/new sets.

Changes in game mechanics? Fine. . . I can get used to it.

Cutting the already small prize support for this game? That's where you draw the line. It was BARELY profitable to travel for this game. A round trip bus/plane/train ticket and the $10~20 entry fee, the cost to find a place to stay, and the money you spend in food is going to end up costing you like $200 no matter how you slice it. You could have just bought the PSP rather than attemping to travel to compete for it. This is a step back and I really think unless they change things or offer some kind of Top 16/Top 8 incentive like specialized mats or exclusive alternate arts, these tournaments (unless they happen to be local like this one coming up for me) are not worth it. At all.

Labels: AllThingsFun, bandai, Chief Tsuzumiya Haruhi, Kage, Shonen Jump Championship, tsu

Labels: AllThingsFun, Chief Tsuzumiya Haruhi, Shonen Jump Championship, tsu

My San Francisco Giants are the World Series Champions.

A collection of has-beens and never-beens (carried by the best pitching in the league)... world champions!

-Josh

Labels: josh