So, how does this thing work?

Ok, first post. Ahem. Guess I should start off with why this exists and who I am.

I've gone by a number of names online and off. In the vast world of the internet, I've held names such as Karamozov (still in use on a forum somewhere so stalk me!), Nariivla and mostly Alviaran wherever possible. Maybe someday I'll actually explain where those come from.

As for the real world, my full name is Nathaniel, though I've never gone by it. Mostly I've been Nathan. But knowing so many Nathans anymore (my count is currently at ten all time, eight locally as I recall) I've lately been going to just Nate. Cuts down the confusion a fair bit.

But despite that, I'm here to be Alviaran, the Meddling Mage!

This blog is to be a personal repository for my gaming thoughts and projects. When I raised the idea to a friend of mine (who's WoW/MtG blog you can find here. Woo first plug!) and said I'd need a name, he somehow immediately came up with "Meddling Mage". When I thought about it, it fit. Perfectly in fact. The name comes from this card for Magic. It's an annoying card and a fun one at that, but it exemplifies my preferred playstyle in anything I do: denial and deprivation. In Magic, I play control decks (and failing those, discard). In Warmachine, I play Cryx (oh, the debuffs and denial...). In DnD, I deny my enemies options through invoking flat-footed effects and such (I tend to play rogues in DnD for some reason, my preferred spellcasters less often). And so on and so forth.

So thanks out to my friend Mugsley for giving me this name to go with the others I've accrued over time.

But anyway, this will be where I post my thoughts and results from MtG, Warmachine and whatever else. Just a place to offload my thoughts and maybe get some feedback from others. Also a place for me to stick pictures of Warmachine/Hordes minis as I paint them up, using this to guilt myself into actually finishing them. But I'll tell you what I'm playing these days:

Warmachine:
Cryx (tons with Skarre being my special lady with the Great Rack)
Cygnar (ok, honestly, just to fulfill a two battlebox requirement for Warmachine Press Ganger application...but I've always had a thing for lightning. Trust me, that will come up again)

Hordes:
Circle Orboros (Kaya being a favorite here though I haven't tried her out under the MK2 rules)
Legion of Everblight (Haven't played them much but Rhyas always seemed to be a silly amount of fun...watching her ping pong across my Cryx to wipe out both Goreshade and Skarre in a tournament was hilarious, even though it was me losing)

Magic Standard/T2:
Jund (oh, shut up. It works, it's fun, and I run Ob Nixilis for some reason!)
Team America (I miss my counterspells so much...)
Vampires (Because everyone and their cat love vampires. And I have the Nocturnuses)

Magic Extended:
Zoo (waving back and forth from little to big zoo)

Magic Legacy:
Canadian Threshold (just completed it! Need to take it out for a spin now. Oh, I have counterspells. It makes me happy)


So that's it for now. Oh, warning in general for the future: I'm a wordy bastard. Nothing is likely to be short. I've avoided Twitter because 140 characters would be terribly restrictive to me. Expect some updates both in terms of posts and the other random things as I get this whole blog thing sorted out. But I do want to begin this all by closing out posts with whatever my current project is. Whether that be achievement/trophy hunting in a video game, painting miniatures, acquiring cards for certain decks or whatever. This is to keep me honest about my progress. Sadly, my camera is 115 miles away for another two weeks, but then I'll start adding photos to what I'm doing too.

-Alviaran, the Meddling Mage

Current Project
Cygnar Battlebox
Assembled/bare metal
0/4 models