firstRainbowRose

Nope, not just you.

Hey guys, I moved all the discussion about which character is the greatest to it's own topic. Let's try to keep things on this thread about book two specifically. Thanks!

Are you the guy who came to the ToM release party?

I agree completely. I hadn't read that post until now (I got lazy over the holidays), but I will send out a tweet about it shortly.

Just a quick fact I've been told to post. Brandon said at the magic draft he did a while ago that the second MB trilogy takes place 50 years after the events of Alloy. When I asked him how that works since it's supposed to be an urban setting, he said that since their metallurgy is so much better than ours they would progress faster. So, yeah, the end of Alloy could actually be set up for the second trilogy.

Best of luck on the mission! We'll look forward to getting you back.

Just to add/clarify with the Vin actress, it's someone that has agreed to play the part, so she's pretty much cast. It's now just a matter of getting more momentum in Hollywood.

What I want to know is this: if he's not from there, what type of magic system would be based around hate? My guess (from what I've heard) is it fits the world of Silence Divine, but Brandon wouldn't confirm or deny that thought.

Just a quick FYI, it wasn't me who asked about Hoid. I was busy talking with Josh at that point about how to handle a few of the prize give aways. However, if we have a recording of him throwing shirts into the crowd, that was me.

Here's the thing: the original post says: Which means that the description between the two books should be the same. What we need to do is do a ctrl+f the other books with the way the two companions are described.

I would like to announce that I just won tickets to Mannheim Steamroller here in utah on the 23rd!!! I love showtunes saturday night so much!!!!!

That could also be a misunderstanding from the interview we did with Brandon back when WoK was going to come out where he said there were two worlds in that solar system. The second world though has a book all it's own (Silence Divine).

It is not. It's based here on earth, in our times.

I agree with the comment about artifacts, and will get that changed when I get home. As for going into what to expect from each color I think that's better saved for someone who is actually playing. Heck, I didn't know most of that. This is just supposed to be really basic so you can watch Brandon play and have a basic idea of what's going on. Also, thanks for that resource. I plan on looking at it myself at the very least!

Part four: drafts and other stuff This is going to be where I talk about a few different things. For now I want to focus on drafts (since they confused me when I was first getting started.) (Mind, I'm going to assume that you have a basic understanding of MTG for this section. If you want to do a draft for your first game of magic you can, but I'd really advise against it.) A draft is actually quite a bit of fun once you get the hang of how it works. They usually cost to enter, but you get to keep all of the cards you gets. There are a few different types of drafts, but from what I can tell the most common style goes as follows: Each player is given a booster pack. Then when you're given the okay you open your pack, and find the one card you'd want to keep the most. The rest of the cards are then passed to the person next to you, who selects a card and passes the pack on. (Mind, while they're looking through the pack you just opened, you're looking at the cards you were just handed.) This keeps on going until all of the cards from that booster pack are taken, then it starts over with a new pack. This is done three times. From there you make a deck out of the cards you've selected. (Though, you don't actually have to use all the cards! I was kind of sad when I found that out because I passed over a couple of cards I would have loved to keep because they didn't fit in with the deck I was building.) Once your deck is built you play someone else three games. Your wins are tracked, and whoever has the most wins at the end of the night is the great winner! I believe theirs another type which involves elimination, but I'm not sure how those games work. I can't think of anything else to say right now. If I do, I'll edit this to say it. Again, if you want to see a more in depth explanation, here's the official MTG how-to on youtube: .I hope this has helped you at least have a better understanding of what's being talked about!

Part three: creatures, and other card types Here's the other major part of this game, the creatures. These are pretty much what they sound like: creatures... and people. (For the ease of the game, humans are considered a creature as well.) The main purpose of creatures is to do one of two things: attack or defend. The first round a creature is played they have what's called "summoning sickness" (since it's called "summoning" to play the cards), and they can't be used to attack someone. They can still defend though. Once it comes to your turn again they are healthy, happy, and ready to get blood! (As always, there are exceptions to the sickness thing, but this is just for basic understanding.) Attacking is kind of odd in that when you're attacking you tap the creatures (again to show which one you're using), and it attacks the player, NOT they're creatures. That player then gets to chose which of their creatures defends against who. You don't tap a creature to defend, but a tapped creature can't defend. And of course you don't get to untap until it's your turn again, so sometimes people will just take the damage -- which reduces their life count. In most cases using a creature to defend, even if it's weaker and dies, prevents you from losing life. However, if someone attacks you and you don't have any creatures to defend with, or all your creatures are tapped, you're going to take damage. So remember up top when I said there were creature cards and other cards? Well, let's talk a little bit about those card types as well. There are things like artifacts that can be used to beef up your creature (give them more attack points) or prevent certain things from happening. There's also enchantments which can do all types of things (a few just off the top of my head are allow you to draw another card, tap or untap a card, give you control of another players card. All types like I said.). All of these cards so far stay on the field once they've been played. However, there are cards that expire like sorcery, which do similar things to enchantments, but once they've been used must be discarded. There's also instants which are pretty cool because they can be played at any time as long as you have the mana required. (This is cool because there's instants that make it so newly summoned creatures have to die.) I think that's all there is really to say about the different card types without it getting too crazy. This is where things usually get the most complicated is trying to understand what each card does, so really the best thing to do is to actually play a game or two.

So, onto part two: Land and mana The first thing I want to discuss is mana or land. This is one of the most important parts of MTG, since it's pretty much what fuels the game. As a few of you video gamers are aware mana is a term used to describe the "cost" of doing magic. You have to have a certain number of land, and sometimes it even has to be a specific color, in order to play a card. There are five colors of land: mountain (red), forest (green), plains (white), island (blue), and swamp (black). The land types are mostly for aesthetics, and I've usually heard them called by their color, but sometimes you'll hear it referred to by it's type. (Actually, about the only time I see this is when it's on the cards themselves.) So when you hear someone talking about a blue/black deck that means that all of the cards in their deck either require blue or black mana in order to be played. (A colorless deck is one that can use any type of mana to play any of the cards.) The only reason the color matters is some cards require a specific color before they can be played. (So, to break it down to a Brandon style explanation you can't use Tin to make you stronger. You've got to have some pewter.) Land doesn't "expire", and it doesn't cost anything to play, so once it's down it stays available -- unless someone has a card that makes you get rid of it. If you want to play a card you "tap" your land, which usually just means twisting it to the side to show you're using it, and put your card down from there. Once you've tapped a card it doesn't untap until your next turn (again, there are ways to get around this, but don't worry about those for now). About the only other thing to note right now is that you can usually only play one land card each turn.

As I'm sure all of you saw, Brandon sent out a tweet asking how many people wanted to play Magic with him on Monday, and like most of those call out I see a ton of people going "I'd love to join you, if I knew how to play." So, I decided to give everyone here a little bit of a crash course on what the heck magic is, so even if you don't play you can at least understand what Brandon's talking about when he says he's playing a colorless deck, or a draft, or something else. This way as well if you're interested in getting into Magic, but don't want to seem like an idiot walking into a game store and asking all the wrong questions, you'll have some small idea of what you're talking about. Of course, I'd encourage you if you're truly interested in learning to play! Everything makes a lot more sense when you're the one playing instead of just reading or watching a video. And don't be scared of looking like an idiot! Most of the people I've meet have been really nice and willing to explain or answer questions. (Also, there's a pretty good video series on youtube if you want to see instead of read what I'm saying here. is the first video.)(Note for those of you who are avid players, this is just going to be pretty basic. I don't want to overwhelm anyone with super details.) So, the first thing to note is that this is a playing card game. (I know, duh. But I said it was going to be the basics!) There area few different types of cards: mana or land, creatures, and a few others that just kind of serve to beef up, or counter act another card. (Don't yell at me for lumping these together people! They're not that important to understanding game play right off. Maybe I'll get into more detail about them later.) Each player starts out with 20 life points, and through different actions those points can go up or down (yes, it is possible to have more than 20 life points). You start out the game with 7 cards, but you might end up having less than that. You draw cards from your "library" (the remainder of your deck), and if a creature dies you put it into your "graveyard" (discard pile). The game ends when someone loses all of their life points, or else you go through your entire library. The basic game play is really simple: each player takes a turn. During their turn they can do a few different things. The standard thing to do is draw a card, play a land, cast a spell, attack another player, and that's the end. There are other ways to play things, but when you're first starting out it's usually how things go. (At least, it was for me.) That's the most very basic information for playing magic! I'm going to break this up into a few posts to go over a few of the extra details just to keep things from being too overwhelming.

Mine was on purpose. I know it's not right, but I was too lazy to come up with an "IN". Plus, I think mine is cool.

Gah! I completely forgot about that yesterday! I'm sorry, but I know you were awesome, and you'll be awesome while you're out!

What is Al's mother's first name? What's Grandpa Smedry's talent? What is the name of the youngest ever female knight? Who drives the car to the library? What is Al's talent? What animal did Al once break?

About the tv deal: he has made some mention of it through his tour, and all that is widely known at this time is it has a target for a pilot to be filmed in April. As for more details we'll just have to wait, but the conept is for a whole tv series, so think big.

I can answer a couple of the questions. First off, the name thing is a coincidence. Originally, the priest was named something else, but Brandon's editor wanted to change it, so he did. The logic is that since all of the five scollars are highly revered people in world name their kids after them. (Like, naming someone Elizabeth after the queen or what have you). Second, you can use black to awaken objects. The only color that is inert is gray -- and this includes things that are dyed gray as well.

Thanks for the congrats. That's something that means a lot to me, and Josh. As for what Hoid is saying, sadly it's nothing too special. According to what Brandon signed in my book he's just saying congrats.

I got this e-mail from someone and knew I had to share it. Thanks Brian for passing word along!