For the past four years, there's been this annual secret santa event on /a/. I'm not actually sure how the whole thing started off in 2012, but I was among the first to join back then, and it was a pretty fun experience. The organizers have come and gone, but the secret santa thing seems to be a tradition now (as traditional as it gets on an imageboard, really) and after two years of absence, I decided to give it a go this year. I wasn't really expecting much, but I actually managed to receive my cards and, well, I felt pretty happy. The only ominous thing about the cards is that both had Chinatsu on them. I had no idea this many people liked Chinatsu. Then again I hardly post in the Yuri Yuri threads (thankfully) so I don't know that much.

I'll probably be sending out my cards within the first week of January, since the printers are taking a very, very long time to print out my cards. There should still be two cards heading my way, which should be pretty exciting. Sometimes I get really amazed by just how trustworthy a group of anonymous people on the Internet truly are. It's a community that I've spent my past five years with and sometimes I wonder if I'll ever actually quit that place. There's hardly any other place on Earth where I get to rank girls and say all sorts of random things to them. Sometimes I just get the impulse of saying 'I want to cuddle and have lots of children with Honoka' or 'I want to do X to Y' or something stupid like that.

Speaking of Honoka, I just bought a figure of her about two weeks ago. She looks great! I'm starting to assemble my Honoka shrine now, and if there's a new CD out from her I'll most likely buy it too. I'm not sure why exactly I like Honoka so much. In terms of personality, I really like Kotori, while in terms of looks, you can't beat Eli. But for some reason I just really, really like Honoka. Maybe it's because she's just a very genuine person, someone you can imagine having a conversation with, having fun with, laugh with and cry with. Honoka has her moments but for the most part, she's pretty, outgoing, and authentic. Truly the best girl. She might not be real, but that doesn't really matter. As Illya puts it: 'Don't Think, Imagine!"

It's been a while. It's New Year's Day in New Zealand (the clock went past midnight about two hours ago), and this will be my first post in 2016, it seems. I have been really lazy for the past two months or so, since school had been extraordinarily busy for me. I'm in the middle of a break right now, so I guess I can get some writing going on and talk about card games and video games and cute girls.

2014 was an incredibly important year for Hearthstone. Both Naxxramas and Goblin vs. Gnomes were released in that year, and cards like Loatheb, Sludge Belcher, Dr. Boom and Piloted Shredder permanently changed the meta. In contrast, I feel that 2015 was a lot quieter. Blackrock Mountain only had a rather small impact on the meta (beyond Emperor Thaurissan and Grim Patron), and the true potential for League of Explorers is yet to be seen. With that said, cards like Sir Finley and Reno Jackson have added a lot of deck-building potential to the game, and the new Discovery mechanic is a very appropriate and 'fair' use of RNG. 

Of course, the actual meta game changed a lot. Hunter is now, for the most part, a tier 2 or even a tier 3 class. And just earlier this year, the meta game had been a toss-up between Patron Warrior, Secrets Paladin and Midrange Druid, with Patron Warrior usually coming up on top. Now that Warsong Commander has been nerfed to the status of Undertaker and Starving Buzzard, Secrets Paladin is now officially the most popular, if not the strongest deck in Hearthstone. It has no bad match-ups, it's hard to make mistakes with it which makes it perfect for laddering, and it is very mana efficient. 

The reality is, I think, that Blizzard has consciously played an active role in pushing Paladin to tier one status. With every expansion, Paladin has received relevant cards, from Shielded Minibot and Muster for Battle, to Mysterious Challenger and Keeper of Uldaman. In contrast, Hunter has received almost none, beyond Quickshot. It seems to me that Blizzard is experimenting with an alternative way of nerfing or buffing certain classes - give the weaker classes stronger cards and give the stronger classes irrelevant/gimmicky cards. If this theory is correct, then it's pretty apparent that Blizzard has done a pretty good job.

I have been working on my free-to-play account on Europe for a significant chunk of the year. My goal was to produce at least two meta decks (aka decks that would carry a competent player to Legend) without spending any gold, within six months. I achieved the goal two weeks ago. I completed a full Hybrid Hunter and Zoo deck (with Dr. Boom), while my Midrange Druid and Secret Paladin decks were about 80% finished. That's almost four decks in total! So it is, in fact, possible to play this game competitively, and for free. In retrospect, it really boiled down to three things: you need to be good at arena (I average about 6-7 wins per run, and last week I managed to hit two 12 wins), you need to play a lot, and you need to be careful about managing your gold.

The reason why a lot of new players have trouble getting into this game, I think, isn't really because Blizzard isn't giving out enough gold or packs. For one, I already think that Tavern Brawl is more than adequate for providing a steady stream of gold and packs. The real gap is the knowledge gap. Most new players just don't have the basic card game knowledge (knowing how to trade, etc) to play this game, not to mention that arena drafting is inherently very complex. The reason why I was able to successfully create a free-to-play account had a lot more to do with my experience in this game, and not because I managed to get lucky and unpacked a Legendary, etc. Perhaps a new tutorial might help?

Anyway, I'll definitely be playing more Hearthstone in January. To round off this post, I'd like to share two decklists that I'll be using on my free-to-play account, starting with my favourite class, Hunter. I really think that Hybrid Hunter is the go-to Hunter archetype right now. Face Hunter is pretty bad right now (except against Secrets Paladin) and Midrange Hunter is far too slow. Hybrid Hunter seems to be the most appropriate archetype right now, because in Hunter, you need both board control and the burst and Hybrid Hunter provides that. 

The tech cards in this list are Argent Squire and the two copies of Glaivezooka. To fight off cards like Darnassus Aspirant and Shielded Minibot, turn one Webspinner just isn't cutting it anymore. In contrast, cards like Argent Squire allows me to trade efficiently (particularly with the Glaivezooka buff) into cards like Knife Juggler. No Eaglehorn Bow in this list - you almost never get Secret value off it, and Glaivezooka usually ends up doing the same amount of damage for one less mana. 

The next list is Midrange Druid. I'm not much of a Druid player, but I've played against that class so many times that I know the deck very well. As long as the Force of Nature/Savage Roar combo exists, Midrange Druid will never go out of fashion. Midrange Druid is basically a deck capable of taking up just about any matchups, has heal, card draw, burst and tempo in the form of Innervate and Wild Growth. A really good all around deck designed for laddering. 

The hard part about building Midrange Druid is choosing what goes in the 5-mana slot. I personally prefer Sludge Belcher. I certainly can see myself playing two Azure Drakes, however, since cycling is very important in any midrange decks, and the spell power helps with removing threats (the one weakness of Midrange Druid is its lack of efficient removals). Beyond that, I really think that other tech cards (Sylvanas etc) are all worthy of inclusion, but with a deck as versatile as Midrange Druid, it's probably best to leave the core as it is.

I don't really watch much anime anymore. The only show that I'm watching right now is Yuru Yuri S3. The first three episodes have been pretty decent - nothing spectacular or particularly memorable, but pretty good overall. Last night, however, I watched episode four, and what an amazing episode it was. I'd easily rank it as one of the best Yuru Yuri episodes from the three seasons combined, and perhaps one of the best in the entire yuri genre. Everything from the episode came together almost seamlessly. They managed to crank up the yuri to eleven and nothing felt risqué at all. Very pure, very tender. It's times like this when you drift into an fantasy wonderland where being a lesbian seems to be the solution to every problem in the world. 

Well, in Yuru Yuri, pure love trumps everything else, right?

So every year in Auckland there's this anime convention that gets held at the same netball stadium. There are other conventions, to be sure, but this one is probably the only convention in the whole of New Zealand that caters specifically to anime. My previous experiences had been pretty decent (it's been a year since my last post on this convention, who knew!) and hopefully this year would be even better. So I packed and set off, managing to arrive there at about one.

The thing about conventions is that it attracts the best and worst people in the fandom. Some people are pretty chill while others can be really obnoxious, and that's just something you'll have to deal with. The community in New Zealand is really small, so it's not surprising that you're going to see some Dr. Who cosplay here and there even though, well, neither Dr. Who nor something like Adventure Time counts as anime.

Most of the merchandise there is really overpriced, but there were quite a few good stalls, since people were selling their own art and things of that sort. I think that by going to conventions, you get a good idea of what the most popular (aka flavour-of-the-month) anime is among the Western fan base. Three years ago, it was Madoka. Two years ago, Attack on Titan and Free, and last year it was Kill la Kill. This year - and you'd never believe it - it was actually Love Live! I'd actually never imagined anyone except for a vocal minority would be into idols. I was wrong.

This convention turned out to be a weird reunion of some sorts. The Love Live cosplayers, who were at the Love Live movie screening, came here as well, and this time their costumes were actually pretty good. Most of the people who went to Noizi Ito's earlier event came here as well. That included the president of my university's anime club, whom I had a nice short chat with. There really are only so many anime fans in the Auckland region, and it gives me a weird feeling that somehow everyone is now together in the same room.

Last time I came, I met a really good artist who drew a lot of Love Live fan-art. It turns out he's come a long way since and now he's well into making his first game. I went to his stall and greeted him, and asked him if he remembered me. He didn't. I said that I was the person who really liked Honoka, and he instantly remembered. I think that's a sort of litmus test for Love Live fans, really, is that you remember people by who their favourite (best) girl is and not by other things like names. I believe he really likes Nozomi and Eli.

I had a really nice chat with him. Like me, he also used to browse a lot of 4chan, and the conversation that happens between two people that browses /a/ is totally different from a more 'normal' conversation. I can't really put my finger on how exactly it's different, but it just is. Anyway, I asked him a bunch of questions about how things are going on in Japan, since he just came back from there. Apparently Love Live is enormously popular (obviously), but @ is holding its ground, and Wake Up Girls is still a spectacular failure. He also told me that no-one in Japan cares about what /a/ thinks - or what the Western fandom thinks in general, rather. Nothing too surprising. 

So I bought some stuff from him, and after a bit of nagging, I managed to get him to sketch me a portrait of Honoka. Maybe this is turning into a yearly tradition or something. I'm pretty sure we only meet like once a year anyway so I might as well make the most of it. But honestly, I have a lot of respect for him, since he's actually a very good artist and obviously works very hard. 

I kept walking on, and then a girl called my name. I looked back and she immediately lowered here head, pretending that she didn't see me. But I recognized her immediately - she was my high school classmate, whom I haven't seen in four years. I couldn't remember her name, but she still looked every bit like how she was in high school. It turns out that she's putting out some of her drawings for sale, and it turns out she really likes Saber and that apparently Fate/Zero is a masterpiece. I told her that I really liked Prisma Illya and she accused me of being a lolicon. Of course I denied it outright but deep inside she was kind of right.

It turns out that the high school arrangement hasn't changed at all. Back in high school, there was a bunch of people who really liked anime - herself included. Most of them are turning up to this convention as well, though I'll probably be gone before they get here. So much for my high school reunion, then, but it was pretty fun chatting to her while it lasted.

Lots of drama happened on the day, as well. But that's a story for another post. 

A lot of things happened this week. This Wednesday, Noizi Ito came to Auckland. I was actually quite excited about this, even though I've never really liked Haruhi (or anything else by her, for that matter). I seriously considered not going, because the event was going to be held at a polytechnic that's two hours away from where I live. But I went anyway. 

By the time I got there, I was pretty exhausted. The event was held at a very small gallery, with prints of her art hanging around the walls. There was also a glass cabinet with a couple of Haruhi figures and dolls. So walking into the gallery (in a surreal way) felt like walking into my own room. I didn't recognize anyone there, aside from the owner of a local anime store who instantly knew who I was. 

Noizi Ito came with her husband. She didn't look very different from her photos, though she looks a bit jet-lagged. The event started about fifteen minutes late. Everyone huddled into the gallery and watched Noizi Ito introduce herself. It was pretty awkward, really, and things got even more awkward when Noizi Ito tried to make a joke and it got lost in the translation. The atmosphere was just very awkward in general, and made me a bit uncomfortable.

Noizi Ito walked around the gallery explaining her work, where her inspiration came from, and all that stuff. It was actually quite dull, and when she finished explaining her drawings we huddled back into the lobby where she was about to do a live drawing of an original character. There was also going to be a raffle, with a signed artbook, a DVD set and a Haruhi nendoroid as the prizes.

She started drawing and everyone watched very, very attentively. Except for a few creepy old men standing near me, who kept on snapping pictures of her even though there was a sign that said 'No Photography Allowed'. I swear, these anime events always attracts the creepiest people. Most people there looked pretty socially awkward, but some were just downright creepy. I don't know why. Every time I go to one of these events, it always happens. 

Next came the Q&A session. I was the first person to speak. I thanked her for coming to Auckland, then told her that I found some of her Love Live fan-art online. So I asked which Love Live is the best Love Live, and why. Everyone in the audience laughed for some reason. Noizi Ito said that she really liked Love Live, and that her favourite girl is Nico because she is very cute and hard-working. Well, I guess this shows Noizi Ito clearly has bad taste. I was going to ask her to do a 'Nico-Nico-Nii' as well, but then I decided against it.

So overall, the event went pretty well. The four hours of commuting almost killed me (I left home at four and got back at around eleven), but I was sort of happy I got to meet the illustrator of Haruhi and ask her a really pressing question - for me, anyway. Noizi Ito was going to make an appearance again at a local convention later in the week. And so that's where I went next.