Hello everyone!

For those of you who don’t know, some time ago I posted a survey that asked you all about what sort of blogs you would like to see for the Monday slot.

The results were…inconclusive, considering not too many people didn’t take the survey, though I am greatly appreciative of all of the people who did.

So in lieu of that, I went back to the drawing board and thought about what I could do to accurately decide on what new blog to do to take over the Monday slot.

Then, I had an idea that could be pretty interesting and could settle what would take over the Monday slot and allow me to give a bit of a preview on what that blog would look like.

I introduce you all to…THE BLOG SHOWDOWN!!

This is where each Monday there will be a blog that will act as sort of a pilot for that blog series and the way that they will be judged is by whichever blog gets the most engagement over three weeks from that blog being published. Engagement includes views, comments, shares and likes, and the one that comes out on top will be the blog I go on forward with.

The reason for three weeks is because if I did it over the time that Blog Showdown would be active, then older blogs have a higher opportunity to win because they have more time to be read. Three weeks can be a bit rougher for the first couple of blogs, but unless I want to post all of the options I am presenting at once, then this is one of the fairer options.

Now as much as I would want to put all the options from the survey on the list, I am instead choosing eight in order to streamline the most voted for options from the surveys.

I will present a summary of each blog here as well as the title of the blog in order to give you an idea of what to look for if you are intrigued with a particular blog.

Set Seeing

This blog will encompass me taking a look at a Magic the Gathering set, taking a look at the mechanics and cards of the set and giving my opinion of the set.

While it will share a lot of DNA from Magic Super Cube, I’ll be looking at not just Standard sets, but also Modern Horizons sets, Commander sets, Unsets, and other supplemental sets to give every set a look under the microscope to see what I like, didn’t like, and what could have been improved now having a hindsight look at it.

Mechanics Shop

This is a much more nitty gritty blog where I will take a look at Magic’s (and maybe other) card mechanics and talk about them.

This has been a blog idea I have had for a while, and while I think it is interesting to have a deep dive look on a particular card mechanic and see where that mechanic works, where it fails, and how I would fix that mechanic.

I would be starting off with Magic mechanics, but maybe over time I could take a look at other card game mechanics if that was something that you all would like.

Starter Decked

Now we are moving on to other card games where in this blog I take a look at other card games from the perspective of a new player and see how that game entices new players.

Around a year or so ago I bought a bunch of starter products in order to have this very blog be one that talks about starter products and how well they look, and I still have those around.

Rather than letting all of those things sit in a closet, I can take them out, look them over again and see how those card games bring in new players to their game, as well as highlight some lesser known card games.

From Exile

This is going to be a much more critical look at card games, more specifically card games that have failed.

I am going to be looking for card games that have come out and are no longer being produced, see how that game played, and see if there could have been more to the game or if it was discontinued for a reason beyond a company going bankrupt.

While I tend not to talk too much about failed games, this could provide an interesting outlook on card game design on what not to do or to take some gem of a mechanic from a failed game and bring it into your game.

Casually Reviewed

Moving on from card games to other media, this will be a blog where I talk about a piece of media and review it.

Pretty straightforward and simple, I choose a piece of media whether that be a show, movie, short, video game, book, comic, anime, manga, album or any piece of media and talk about what I think of it.

It’s not crazy to think that I would like to talk about more than just Magic, and this will be a way for me to express my thoughts on other pieces of media as well as potentially expand my horizons as I look for more pieces of media to talk about.

Goofy Grouping

This is a much less serious blog, but one that I think could be interesting and that is making a tier list of a piece of media and having those tier lists be kind of dumb.

Like which character in this TV show would most likely spot me for a cup of coffee, or which one would lie in court for me, or which character would help me move a couch.

This is definitely on sillier side of blog ideas, but can also work as a way of being a type of character study for the characters of a piece of media.

Solo Stories

And this is where I can get much more creative, because these will be one shot fiction stories.

A fun fact about me is that my passion for writing started when I was a sophomore in high school when I actually began writing fanfiction. I won’t reveal my former identities since I haven’t written fanfiction in many years, but I do enjoy myself some creative writing and would like to try my hand at it again.

These will be one shot original stories by yours truly, and who knows if it wins and I end up writing a bunch of them I may release them as a collection one day.

Fork in the Road

By far the most interactive of the options, this is another form of a creative writing exercise that relies on audience participation.

They will be original stories, but the twist is at the end of each blog there will be a number of choices that you all get to decide on how a story ends up by commenting which option you decide on.

This one will definitely be one of the hardest to make because it relies on so much audience participation, that if one week no one comments, then the story will have to default to a random choice and then it ends up being a regular story.

Get Ready…

So those are going to be the eight blog choices to pick from.

They won’t release in the above listed order, so starting this upcoming Monday there will be a blog titled Blog Showdown: ??? with the question marks being replaced with one of the titles of the blogs and the blog being that choice.

Which blog will win? That’s for all of you to decide!

Three weeks to get the blog you like viewed and commented on in order for it to become a permanent main stay on the website, so keep an eye out for the blog you want to see!

See you then!

Peace,

From, J.M. Casual