I figure I might as well start using the "blog" feature of this site, so I will periodically chime in with what I'm currently doing in the Epic Duels world.  And hence, here is my first "real" blog post to date.

First off, I haven't posted a new deck in almost a year.  I have gone through a bit of a rough patch with the epic duels community over the last couple of years.  The fallout with Obi-Wan John, and then the Jedi Council hit hard and by March of 2008, I had gotten fed up with everything.  Beginning in April I became so frustrated that I did some things that I regret (making an issue out of a mundane misunderstanding, and then taking revenge by shutting down the wiki).  These were stupid, childish things to do.  I even posted a ridiculous letter about it.  I was so turned off from epic duels that I vowed to leave and never come back.  And for about 3 months, that's exactly what I did. 

It was shortly after this time (after I had sufficiently cooled down) that Roman and Sultan emailed asking me to come back to the community.  I began checking the boards, and in an effort to smooth things over I did a major overhaul of the wiki and began contributing again.  There are always going to be disputes, disagreements and frustrating things...this is a fact of life...but I hope to be able to deal with them maturely from now on.  If I ever lash out, or stomp off in frustration, it's because I am so passionate about this board game.  I love it, and customizing it has more or less become my hobby.  I have strong opinions on just about every imaginible component of Epic Duels, and I'm not afriad to share them.

So, what does this mean now?  I entered the epic duels community around March/April of 2004, and made my first post to the old epic duels yahoo group on June 3rd, 2004.  Interestingly, Docmogs was the first (and only) person to reply to that message.  Shortly thereafter, I posted my Ackbar deck, and the rest was history.  For the next 4 years I ended up posting over 20 decks, and 1 full expansion with 12 more.

What am I working on now?  Well, honestly, nothing really.  In response to a challenge on the forum, I thought it might be fun to make new decks for all the Hasbro characters (keeping the major/minor characters and artwork intact, leaving everything else fair game to change, including basic decks, HP, and any talent cards).  I have begun this project, but it has stalled several times and it has proved to be a much bigger undertaking than I anticipated.   So, who knows if that will ever be completed.  Also, I've always been meaning to go through and update all my old decks, not only to make tweaks, but to also update their VASSAL extensions.  But, that too seems like such a major undertaking that I am left with only thinking about it.

I started a new full-time job last August (first time ever!), and therefore, my free time has dwindled significantly.  Although, I am looking forward to summers off, that means any new material from me will likely have to wait until summer.  With the little free time I have, I find myself wanting to veg out on the couch rather than spend it on the computer.  So, my deck making is currently on "Idle".  I've been helping out a little bit with the new LOTR expansion over at the forum, but with the exception of a few decks (Frodo, Witchking and Saruman), I have had limited input.  And with the new Clone Wars Epic Duels due out in about a year it leaves me wondering...what's next for me and Epic Duels?