Recent happenings

I thought I was in good shape for the match vs my workshop opponent in round 5 of the CQ league with this opener unless my opponent would lead with a Chalice of the Void for 0.
My opponent played a turn 1 Metalworker which was quite bad for me.
I was distracted by irl stuff and I misplayed the hand which at the start of the turn I already planned the right sequence to do so I ended up being unable to cast Tezzeret on my turn which would make it so that my opponent had to have Staff of Domination (which he plays 4 of) or I would win. Alas, a resolved Metalworker would immediately spell my doom because everything would just plop down  next turn and I wouldn't be able to do much no matter what I drew into, even he had all lands I would not be able to do much with my potential draws unless I topdeck Tinker so I scooped in such a scenario.

Game 2, my opponent had Metalworker and Staff of Domination so I lost that.

Anyway, last week I bought some Vanguard cards at my local card shop when I went there.
Surprisingly, I couldn't get any Magic cards so I got some from Starcity game on the last day of its sale. I couldn't really buy more than what I bought because shipping cost past $200 became exorbitant ($50+??? It was about $10 for orders less than $200) and I figured dual lands could be procured locally instead so I decided just to get the less expensive cards.

I learnt some of the rules of Vanguard then and the rest I found out from opponents online.

I've been catching the anime from its start and I am quite impressed with the game and how it is marketed.

I found a Vanguard version of apprentice here and they have a chatroom on Evolve where you can occasionally pick up cardfights. I designed a Blaster deck but there is still much to figure out with regards to deckbuilding. I got some of the core cards of the deck from a person I talked to and he just so happened to want to liquidate his deck. The cards were much cheaper than I had expected (as compared to ebay). I think the card selling market is rather limited (ie online shops) so I think it is a nice market to get into for card shops.

I noticed that I could get 4 different arts for Blaster Blade so I am considering doing so despite not having even played one game irl. There are many aspects of the game to be proficient at and to understand or strategize and I am quite hooked to that. I am actually considering getting the 3DS (I hope it isn't expensive) and the game (which comes with 3 promos - Blaster Blade, Dark and the Dragonic Overlord) to get to play the game and figure out all the minute stuff I want to understand.

I find that the Nintendo platforms have very good card playing system like for Pokémon cards (my 1st TCG),Yu-Gi-Oh (never was interested in the physical cards for this game) and Duel Masters which I have played on emulators in the past.

I enjoy the "earn money buy packs, play against AI, play tournaments" type of gameplay that these offer (like Shandalar of Mtg and not Duels of the Planeswalkers). Too bad Wotc hasn't figured out how to do this after Shandalar.