July 7, 2023

• Brush: Böker – Synthetic
• Razor: Blackland Era
• Blade: Astra SP (Green) (3)
• Lather: Abbate y La Mantia – Vulcano
• Post Shave: Barrister and Mann – The Full Measure of Man
• Fragrance: Bulgari – Man
• Music: James Brown - It's a man's world

FOF

Daily Challenge: My opponent is on the play (he starts the game). I have to face a scruffy beard he cheated into play (played a card without paying its required ressources). My turn starts. I equip (keyword in magic) my Blackland Era with an Astra blade. I think thats the line of play I have to take now (sequencing my cards in a certain order). With my Böker synthetic, I try to whip up a creamy lather. My opponent counters it (a card has no effect before it enters the play area). Scruffy beard and runny lather. Not the best combination. Lets see what my deck is capable off. The Era is a trustworthy clock. Even with the runny lather, I have a clock on board (a card where both players are aware will win the game in X turns if nothing happens). Turn by turn I go WTG, XTG and ATG and win game 1. The beard is gone with a tiny bit of stubble on difficult areas left. Still I am amazed by the blackland Era. Lets review what happened. My goal was to use a spicy soap. Can it get spicier than chilly? If you are in doubt, my beloved anise is also on the scent notes of Volcano. All combined with carnation forms a pretty nice combo of fresh spiciness. Note that till this week i though carnation meant: “burned”.

Lets get to game 2: My opponent starts with the Full measure of men combo. I can only concede as the fresh tobacco flowers attack my nostrills, all backed up by the sweet and spicy mouse de saxe. Altough my GF hates to smell the combo, I liked it more and more the more I use it. By now, it smells like a candy you would eat while sitting at the chimneyfire in a leather seat while you are sipping on Rum or whiskey.

Last game: I sideboard against what I saw (during games you may change up to 15 cards in your deck) and can play a bulgari man. He controls the whole boardstate with notes of white wood. It also has a nice freshness to it. According to the scent pyramid, its because of bergamote, but I cant smell it. During the game, I also get notes of herbs, probably the violet and amber or pear. The scent does not change during the day. From the start its fresh, crisp and clear. A great scent for colder autumn days.

As you might know or have guessed, during Corona my friends a colleague and me got into Magic the gathering , the mother of all collectible cardgames again. It helped us to stay sane as we could meet in a small circle and play the cards we grew up with as teens. By a colleague I got into tournament magic, which turns out to be very expensive. There was a point where I ordered cards for around 250€ and swore to myself that I have to go to tournaments now. 1.5 years later my deck is worth around 2000$ and i have been in the top 8 of local bigger tournaments two times. Everyone knows what I play, but I try to mix things up from time to time. As magic is looking back on 30 years of history, there were cards that were just too strong. The company wizards of the coast formulated a list of cards that will never get a reprint. Still people have and play those cards. I knew of them and wanted to play that format, since my favorite combo card is on that reserved list. So at one point I had to look for cards that were last printed in 1995 and had to be in an okay condition or else they would not be legal for tournaments. A lot of people on these tournaments have the cards for decades or put some real money in it to get them. Of course there is a lot of slang in magic, but I want to present you some things that I hope you will easily understand.

Bolt the Bird: People use Bird of paradise to accelerate their gameplan or fix their ressources. The other player often disrupt that with a lightning bolt
Black lotus: Probably magics most famous card as its the most expensive one. A tournament legal one starts at 9500€ currently. The thing is that there are barely any tournaments anymore where you can play that card as its often forbidden to play it. I think that there are maybe 4 tournaments per year in whole europe where you can play it
Death and taxes: A decktype consisting of a lot of white creatures. It comes from the saying: “There are only a few things certain in life. Death, taxes and a mono white deck on a magic tournament”.
Nic fit: The internet does not forgett. Someone came up with a deckname “nice fit”, but had a typo. The deck is called that way till today.
Cheerios: A deck that plays a lot of things with 0 somewhere on their cards. 0 looks like cheerios.
There are a whole lot decks named after food: Fruity / cocoa pebbles, strawberry cheesecake/ parfait /shortcake, full english breakfast, cephalid breakfast, count chocula, Oops all spells (oops all berries)
The Rock: Another deck named after the actor and wrestler because he often referred to himself and his millions of fans.
Stax: The deck was named $T4KS, an acronym for “The Four Thousand Dollar Solution”
Tin- Fins: Deck named after a restaurant in a show
Johnny: Combo Player
Timmy: Strong creature or player that wants to play big strong stuff
Weenie: small tiny creature
Dork: A creature you play just for it's effect, not combat relevance
chump: often used with chump block. A creature looses a combat but protects you
Aristocrats: A deck type where you sacrifice your own things and benefit from it

My todays sub-theme was “man”. I could swear that Volcano had a different marketing when I bought it. It highlighted masculinity. Now I only find a quote about doubt and security on volcanos. Because of the artwork on the label of a nacked greek men forging something, I think my theme idea still holds. Full measure of men has the theme right in its name. How did Anise and freshness play together with dark chocolate like candy aftershave? Better than I had imagined. It added a freshness to it. Anise in the soap is even an ingredient in Mousse de Saxe, so i learned today. The fragrance fitted my theme by name, but the scent was not that well matching. I highlighted the freshness of the fragrance and the combination of soap and aftershave, but the way they achieve this is just different. The white woods in ‘man’ do not match with the wood notes in ‘men’. They do not collide, but just do not fit together.

**July 7, 2023**

* **Brush:** Böker – Synthetic
* **Razor:** Blackland Era
* **Blade:** Astra SP (Green) (3)
* **Lather:** Abbate y La Mantia – Vulcano
* **Post Shave:** Barrister and Mann – The Full Measure of Man
* **Fragrance:** Bulgari – Man
* **Music:** James Brown - It's a man's world

#FOF

**Daily Challenge:**
My opponent is on the play (he starts the game). I have to face a scruffy beard he cheated into play (played a card without paying its required ressources).
My turn starts. I equip (keyword in magic) my Blackland Era with an Astra blade. I think thats the line of play I have to take now (sequencing my cards in a certain order). With my Böker synthetic, I try to whip up a creamy lather. My opponent counters it (a card has no effect before it enters the play area). Scruffy beard and runny lather. Not the best combination. Lets see what my deck is capable off.
The Era is a trustworthy clock. Even with the runny lather, I have a clock on board (a card where both players are aware will win the game in X turns if nothing happens). Turn by turn I go WTG, XTG and ATG and win game 1. The beard is gone with a tiny bit of stubble on difficult areas left. Still I am amazed by the blackland Era. Lets review what happened. My goal was to use a spicy soap. Can it get spicier than chilly? If you are in doubt, my beloved anise is also on the scent notes of Volcano. All combined with carnation forms a pretty nice combo of fresh spiciness. Note that till this week i though carnation meant: “burned”.

Lets get to game 2:
My opponent starts with the Full measure of men combo. I can only concede as the fresh tobacco flowers attack my nostrills, all backed up by the sweet and spicy mouse de saxe. Altough my GF hates to smell the combo, I liked it more and more the more I use it. By now, it smells like a candy you would eat while sitting at the chimneyfire in a leather seat while you are sipping on Rum or whiskey.

Last game:
I sideboard against what I saw (during games you may change up to 15 cards in your deck) and can play a bulgari man. He controls the whole boardstate with notes of white wood. It also has a nice freshness to it. According to the scent pyramid, its because of bergamote, but I cant smell it. During the game, I also get notes of herbs, probably the violet and amber or pear. The scent does not change during the day. From the start its fresh, crisp and clear. A great scent for colder autumn days.

As you might know or have guessed, during Corona my friends a colleague and me got into [Magic the gathering](https://www.reddit.com/r/funny/comments/202wd3/i_participated_in_one_of_the_biggest_magic_the/) , the mother of all collectible cardgames again. It helped us to stay sane as we could meet in a small circle and play the cards we grew up with as teens. By a colleague I got into tournament magic, which turns out to be very expensive. There was a point where I ordered cards for around 250€ and swore to myself that I have to go to tournaments now. 1.5 years later my deck is worth around 2000$ and i have been in the top 8 of local bigger tournaments two times. Everyone knows what I play, but I try to mix things up from time to time. As magic is looking back on 30 years of history, there were cards that were just too strong. The company wizards of the coast formulated a list of cards that will never get a reprint. Still people have and play those cards. I knew of them and wanted to play that format, since my favorite combo card is on that reserved list. So at one point I had to look for cards that were last printed in 1995 and had to be in an okay condition or else they would not be legal for tournaments. A lot of people on these tournaments have the cards for decades or put some real money in it to get them.
Of course there is a lot of slang in magic, but I want to present you some things that I hope you will easily understand.

**Bolt the Bird:** People use [Bird of paradise](https://cards.scryfall.io/large/front/a/2/a2985857-fee5-42a6-9b5d-e157ada52a03.jpg?1562244585) to accelerate their gameplan or fix their ressources. The other player often disrupt that with a [lightning bolt](https://cards.scryfall.io/large/front/f/2/f29ba16f-c8fb-42fe-aabf-87089cb214a7.jpg?1673147852)
**[Black lotus](https://cards.scryfall.io/large/front/b/0/b0faa7f2-b547-42c4-a810-839da50dadfe.jpg?1559591477):** Probably magics most famous card as its the most expensive one. A tournament legal one starts at 9500€ currently. The thing is that there are barely any tournaments anymore where you can play that card as its often forbidden to play it. I think that there are maybe 4 tournaments per year in whole europe where you can play it
**Death and taxes:** A decktype consisting of a lot of white creatures. It comes from the saying: “There are only a few things certain in life. Death, taxes and a mono white deck on a magic tournament”.
**Nic fit:** The internet does not forgett. Someone came up with a deckname “nice fit”, but had a typo. The deck is called that way till today.
**Cheerios:** A deck that plays a lot of things with 0 somewhere on their cards. 0 looks like cheerios.
There are a whole lot decks named after food: Fruity / cocoa pebbles, strawberry cheesecake/ parfait /shortcake, full english breakfast, cephalid breakfast, count chocula, Oops all spells (oops all berries)
**The Rock:** Another deck named after the actor and wrestler because he often referred to himself and his millions of fans.
**Stax:** The deck was named $T4KS, an acronym for “The Four Thousand Dollar Solution”
**Tin- Fins:** Deck named after a restaurant in a show
**Johnny:** Combo Player
**Timmy:** Strong creature or player that wants to play big strong stuff
**Weenie:** small tiny creature
**Dork:** A creature you play just for it's effect, not combat relevance
**chump:** often used with chump block. A creature looses a combat but protects you
**Aristocrats:** A deck type where you sacrifice your own things and benefit from it


My todays sub-theme was “man”. I could swear that Volcano had a different marketing when I bought it. It highlighted masculinity. Now I only find a quote about doubt and security on volcanos. Because of the artwork on the label of a nacked greek men forging something, I think my theme idea still holds.
Full measure of men has the theme right in its name. How did Anise and freshness play together with dark chocolate like candy aftershave? Better than I had imagined. It added a freshness to it. Anise in the soap is even an ingredient in Mousse de Saxe, so i learned today.
The fragrance fitted my theme by name, but the scent was not that well matching. I highlighted the freshness of the fragrance and the combination of soap and aftershave, but the way they achieve this is just different. The white woods in ‘man’ do not match with the wood notes in ‘men’. They do not collide, but just do not fit together.