The second recipe

Hello Ladies and Gentleman, yet another time!

Since I posted how to prepare soy and cook something with it last time around, I figured why not show you people smoething completely "natural". To stick to a certain structure I'll first show you a "basic recipe" and then an "implementation" as we computer science people like to call it.

Let's get this started, shall we?! Wait a minute... I bet you want to know what exactly I have in mind. Well, ...bread dumplings!

Step 1 - Preparing the "dough" (I kind of lack the corect word for it)

For 5 to 6 dumplings I usually fill a big bowl with about 200 to 250 gram (don't pin me down on that) of dried white bread, add 1/2 cup of coarse-grained what flour and 200 ml of soy milk (you can use any other plant milk too of course).
Stir it up a bit aaaand... you're ready for step 2

Step 2 - Shaping the dumplings

That's where the dirty work begins. First prepare a small pile of the coarse-grained wheat flour on a small plate. Then take two handfulls of the bread-flour-milk mix out of the bowl and shape it into a dumpling. Lastly roll the dumpling in the prepared flour so it gets covered in a thin coat of flour and give it a little "pat on the back" so the excess flour gets knocked off.
Rinse and repeat until you've no more "dumpling dough" left.

Step 3 - Cooking the dumplings

If you've managed to get here without making a mess... you've done something wrong. But whether your kitchen looks like a warzone or not, those dumplings need to be finished. Fill a pot with water, add a bit of salt and make it boil. Throw in the dumplings then immediately turn down the heat. After 7-10 minutes they're ready to be eaten.



Alrighty, now that we've got our dumplings why don't we make something to go along with it?

For 3 servings you'll need:

1 cup of mountain lentils (those are the best ones, if you can't get those green lenses will do just fine)
2 1/2 cups of water
2 cups of soy milk (/ any plant milk)
250 g soy cuisine
1 bay leaf
salt & pepper
3 cloves of garlic
some plant oil

First give the lentils in a pot along with the water and boil them until they're soft. Meanwhile cut the garlic into tiny pieces. When the lenses are finished give them in a pan along with the garlic and roast them a bit. Then add the milk and bay leaf and let it boil for a while.

 To finish it off add the cuisine and season it with salt and pepper. Then lastly enjoy your dumplings with "Cream-Lentils".

D stands for Diet

Hello Ladies and Gentlemen, yet another time!

The last week(s) the "Durdling"-Part of this blog was covered quite enough so I figured its time for some "Diet". Since I'm a student I tend to rarely have hours and hours of time to prepare and cook my meals, so I'd like to showcase some of the dishes I "came up with" that are tasty and quick while also not leaving you completely incapable of moving or thinking for the next few hours.

Let's start with one of the basic concepts: Making Soy-Medaillons out of dried Soy-Chips.
(Please note that I also make Soy-Granulate, Soy-Dices etc like this...)

Step 1 - Making some soup

You first want to prepare some vegetable stock. So simply combine hot water with a soup cube.

Very well done! :P On to...

Step 2 - Soaking the Soy-Chips

After you've made the soup simply put the desired amount of Soy-Chips/Granulate/Dices/etc
into it and let it soak for at least 10 Minutes. You might even want to stir a bit in order to get them soaked from all sides.

After this we continue with...

Step 3 - Squeezing the Soy-"Whatever-You-Used"

Pretty straight forward: Take a spoon/fork, dump the Soy into a sieve and "apply pressure". For some dishes you might wanna catch the soup for later use.

That's it! After that you can use the Soy for whatever you want. For example you can make a so-called "Reisfleisch".

For 2 servings you need:

1 Onion
100 g (frozen) Peas
100 g dried Soy-"Schnetzel"
1 cup of Rice
2 tablespoons Tomato Paste
1 cup of soup (preferably the "waste" of preparing the soy)
Vegetable Oil


Cook the rice (1 cup of Rice | 2 cups of Water). Meanwhile dice the Onion. When the rice is finished, sweat the cut onion in a pan with some vegetable oil then add the soy. Add the tomato paste and the peas, stir a bit then deglaze the whole thing with soup.

After that you want to keep it cooking until there is little to no liquid left. To finish, turn off the stove, add the rice, stir a bit and you're done.

Another example would be to simply use some bigger soy-medaillons and simply fry them until they're crispy, then eat them to a salad.

That`s it for now, I hope you liked the recipe, you should definitely try it some time soon!

Cardevaluation in Multiplayer-EDH - The Conclusion

Hello Ladies and Gentlemen, yet another time!

Last time I promised you two personal Top10 lists of cads that are over-/underrated in multiplayer-EDH, but in the last days I figured since we're talking about Magic, Top8 lists would probably fit the theme better much like the ones on channelfireball.com.

Without further ado, here they are:

Top8 List of cards that I think are overvalued by the majority of players:

8. Roon of the Hidden Realm
He basically suffers from the same illness that Momir Vig does: He doesn't do anything alone and needs to stay in play until your next turn to be really effective. The main problem is that he would provide too much value if he were to stay in play and the way he works is too fragile. You can kill him before he looses summoning sickness or you can kill the creatures he might want to blink even if he were to get haste.

7. Burgeoning
While of course making some amazing starts happen the card can go two ways: Either you kept a grip full of lands, in which case you will have a bunch of lands in play with no good follow up except maybe your commander and those two cards you have in hand, or you kept more gas which will still paint a target on your back while not giving you the boost in mana to fight through it. One way or the other I don't think there are many decks out there that should play the card.

6. Damia, Sage of Stone
Funny enough on of the better commanders to run Burgeoning in is Damia. The problem is, you don't want to build that deck anyway. She costs a bunch of mana and has to stay in play until your next upkeep, in which case she would be insane which is the reason why she won't stay in play for that long. Of course you can build a Damia-Deck that doesn`t rely on her to refuel the hand but then again why do you run her as your commander...?

5. Prophet of Kruphix
Good god, we're getting a little bit redundant. Prophet is like Burgeoning for creatures. Run out all of them and make good use of his/her abilites to die to a mass removal in the format of mass removals, or don't run out your whole hand and still get targeted by the table because "he/she got a prophet - kill it with fire!" in which case you might need to run out your hand anyway... Either way Prophet alone doesn't do much besides getting you killed. Then again if you pair it with a Consecrated Sphinx the card can be insane, but to be honest that's more to blame on the Sphinx......

4. Riku of Two Reflections
The king of Momir-Vig-ness. The creature-copy-part triggers on entering the battlefield which makes him likely to go down to "Lightning-Bolt-to-the-face-syndrom" with the creature on the stack even if you managed to untap with him. If you play him "Momir-Mode" (him and a creature/spell in the same turn) though you might face some mana troubles because 5 for Riku and 2 for the trigger makes 7 the first time you play him. Now tell me about all the sweet creatures/spells that you can then still afford to play....

3. Force of Will
Alright now we're getting to the "Big Boys". Good ol' FoW might shine in Legacy and Vintage where mana is tight, Tempo is the main ressource and you're playing 1v1. Multiplayer-EDH just doesn't work that way because when you're playing against more than one opponent there's no real Tempo, the matches are grindier so the games go slower and it's more about Card Advantage. Would you really want to 2 for 1 yourself against ONE of your opponents while the others enjoy their little 3 for 0?

2. Necropotence
We already had that one so you might wanna check out the earlier post.

1. Jace, the Mindsculptor
Big Jace, Jace 2.0... There are all kinds of names for him. I like to call him, "4 mana sorcery speed brainstorm that draws attention from the whole table while costing 60€/70$." Nuff said.


Don't get me wrong here, the above mentioned cards aren't bad but I think some of them (the non-commander-cards) go into way to many decks. And by too many I mean 75-90% of decks shouldn't play them. A deck full of sweepers and counterspells might still be able to get Necropotence to be decent and a 52-Land-Angry-Borb deck can have some really nasty Burgeoning-draws but people seem to play those cards just because their deck is black/green...

Let's get to something more positive...

Top8 List of card that I think are undervalued by the majority of players:

8. Blood Reckoning
Good god, how I love this type of card. It "detargets" you because you know, why should they attack you when they can attack somebody else? So basically your opponents will smack eachother a lot more often while you can sit back, relax and enjoy your coffee/beer/whatever you're drinking. In other words, Blood Reckoning deals a lot more damage to your opponents than it says on the card because each time you DON'T get attacked because of it, the damage dealt is basically damage dealt by Blood Reckoning... and noone will notice.

7. Darien, King of Kjeldor
Partially the same as #8, a bit more vulnerable to removal but way more potent when you do get attacked once in a while because you can then return the favor (damage) 1:1.

6. Jace Beleren
Most of the time you will draw 3 cards out of it while the rest draws one. That might seem a little bit unfavorable but while it's a 3:3 against the whle table (in a 4 player game), your enemies are still each others enemy and not all those cards will get thrown at you... Profit! Some people might even want you to keep him around to get another free card out of the +2 activation. So lay low and Jace away :)

5. Pharika, God of Affliction
The explanation to Pharika was posted prior to this entry... just look it up ;)

4. Reaper of the Wilds
4 mana 4/5 with three abilites? Sign me up. Deathtouch to create favorable blocks? Check! Hexproof to keep him/her around longer? Check! And still if the card didn't have those two abilites I would still play it since getting a free Scry everytime any other creatures dies is quite the game. And remember the best value is the value that comes in little bits so noonce notices it. And if there happens to resolve a sweeper you still get a bunch of Scry 1s chained together to help you find new toys to play with....

3. Coercive Portal
"I'm so glad my board didn't blow up!" is what they will think. "Thanks for the free card suckers!" is what you will think.

2. Journeyer's Kite
I already explained it, so scroll back one blog-entry.... for value!

1. Seer's Sundial
Soooo slow but soooo good. Actually the slowness of the Sundial makes it so insanely good. You won't draw a card every turn unless you topdeck a bunch of lands in a row in which case you're "the poor guy who is topdecking so bad"... and drawing a bunch of cards but nobody will think about that. You can slowly but surely build up really nice mana base while keeping your hand filled up, much like the Kite. Only that Fetchlands and Rampspells are kind of insane...


So what can you learn from this post? When building a deck for multiplayer-EDH don't solely go for "the highest powerlevel" because there are only a few decks - with a really good draw - that can beat the whole table alone. If you try and fail at it you're very likely to not only loose the game but also not have too much fun. Try to be a bit political at times, let others work for you while you seem innocent. Cards that sceam: "Value!!! Cardadvantage!!! Damage!!!" are more likely to get you killed than anything else, so build up small advantages while others play those cards and get killed because of it. It will make winning a lot easier and you'll have a ton more fun playing when you're not playing against a team of 3 people all the time.

That it for today! I hope you liked this Monster-Post... see you around!

Low powerlevel and how it can affect your game

Hello Ladies and Gantlemen, yet another time!

Last time I was going on about powerful cards in a vaccuum being not as impactful as you'd wish.
Just to clear things up, I don't think those cards are necesserarily bad in general but unless you have a good reason to run them I would be cautious of adding them to your deck. Or at least you should be aware of what the cards do to the flow of the game and play them accordingly (e.g. only cast a Necropotence when people are low on cards themselfs and you/somebody else whiped the board).

As promised, today I will cover the other side of the coin which are cards that are seemingly innocent but can do quite a lot of work for you. Sometimes people even won't notice until it's too late which would be the ideal scenario.

My favourite in this section would be:

Let's go over the facts here: For the first basic land you get you have to pay 5 mana in total, and 3 mana from there on for each consecutive land. IF the kite stays in play.
But then again why shouldn't he, one basic land a turn isn't really impressive is it, so if someone got that Krosan Grip why should he throw it at your kite?

So you're sitting there kiting away - which can be translated to drawing an additional card per turn without anyone really noticing - and while everyone else on the table is fighting over ressources you're quietly making landdrops while making sure to survive. Once lategame hits, you probably have the most lands in play unless someone plays a really ramp heavy deck and your topdecks are insanely better than anyone elses as 8 turns of consecutive kiting in a 38-land-deck reduce the number of lands in your deck by over 20% not to mention that you will have tons of mana to play those sweet cards.

Compared to Necropotence it sure isn't as splashy but it sure get's the job done well while not drawing any attention (unless your opponents also read this blog...).

How about another example?

As with the "powerful" cards, I also wanted to provide one example that can be used as a Commander and is a bit underrated.

Pharikas ability doesn't seem much and is definitely not a reason for others to focus you but if you look a little closer and factor in politics and general multiplayer gameplay you'll see the potential unfold before your very eyes. 

Just a few little scenarios when having Pharika in play and GGBB available:

1. You're getting attacked by some creatures: 

     - Step1: Exile some "used" creatures like Sakura-Tribe Elder or Fleshbag Marauder.

     - Step2: Get two 1/1 Snakes with Deathtouch for your troubles.

     - Step3: Block the two best creatures that are attacking you with those snakes

     - Step4: Profit!

2. Somebody else is getting attacked:

     - Step1: Exile potential reanimation targets from the persons graveyard that's getting attacked

     - Step2: He gets two 1/1 Snakes with Deathtouch for his troubles.

     - Step3: He will most likely block with those.

     - Step4: Double-Profit - The attacker lost two creatures and the defender lost two creatures he                            might've wanted to recurr

3. People have reanimation/regrowth-effects/spells in hand:

    - Step1: They can't cast/use them because all it will do for them is create a 1/1 Snake-Token

    - Step2: Profit!

And to top things of, Pharika is indestructible and doesn't threaten to take over the game. She just enables you to take control of attacksteps and reanimation-shenanigans. That's all.... which is actually quite a lot. 

That's it for today, I hope you will check in again next time when I finish this series about card evalutaion in multiplayer EDH with a little conclusion and my personal Top10 Over-&Underrated Cards lists. 

PS.: Have a token for your troubles...

Powerful in a vaccuum and the actual impact

Hello Ladies and Gentlemen, yet another time!

As I mainly play Multiplayer EDH - or Commander as some call it - right now, I want to talk a little about card evaluation and deckbuilding which is arguably the most important part in Magic alltogether but even more important in Multiplayer EDH.

When I first started playing the format I had a really competitive approach as I was playing mainly Standard and Legacy at that time, so I was streamlining my deck as much as possible and tried to actively win games by overpowering my opponents. The commander of choice:

There's no doubt that Momir Vig is one of the most broken commanders out there, as he basically gives you access to your whole deck while always being available as he's your general. So when evaluating him from a competitive/powerlevel perspective he's definitely at least 9/10.

Alright, but then I played my first set of multiplayer matches. I played some Lands, a Ramp-Spell and a Turn 4 Momir Vig... which then got hit by a variety of these bad boys:

...etc

So basically in order to use Momir Vig properly you had to wait until you had at least 7 Mana, as you need to cast him first and then another creature that triggers his abilities as there is no way in hell you will be able to untap with him in play. It's only natural that you opponents will try to handle a "bomb" like him but while in 1v1 you only have to protect him for one turn, in multiplayer you have to be able to protect him for 3 or 4 turns in a row, which is a stretch on your hand and mana.

So when all is said and done, Momir is a one time, X3UG Tutor with an additional cost that says: "As an additional cost to cast this card, cast a green and/or blue creature card from your hand with converted manacost X." Preeeeetty unimpressive.

There is another example for cards like this, which is kind of famous throughout my playgroup:

Good ol' Necropotence. Banned in Legacy and restricted in Vintage for a reason, I came to the conclusion that Necropotence is one of the biggest traps in multiplayer EDH. Let's see:

You can pay 1 life for one card as often as you'd like, which means you can drown your opponents in cards and win that way right?... Wrong! Most of the time the match will go like that:

- Cast Necropotence and fill my grip.

- Everyone on the table looks over to you, sees your full hand and that Enchantment.

- You just payed a bunch of life in order to fill your hand with cards which means you can get killed more easy.

- You get beaten to death as all those cards can't help you against the combined power/tempo of 4 decks as it will simply overload your mana. (Remember you only untap after all your opponents had their turns)

Conclusion: Necropotence lost you the game.

That's it for today, next time I will continue with the other side of the coin: seemingly mediocre cards that impact the game a lot more than you'd think.

Combining durdling and diet

Hello Ladies and Gentlemen, yet another time - for real now!

In my first "real" blog entry I want to showcase a minecraft mod I stumbled upon some time ago:
http://www.minecraftforum.net/forums/mapping-and-modding/minecraft-mods/2339963-the-vegan-option-adds-vegan-alternatives-for-all

The Vegan Option! How sweet is that. During the last 2 years I always tried to "stay vegan" in game, avoiding sheep- and cowfarms as much as I could. Foodwise it's rather easy, Baked Potatoes are your friend but when it comes to crafting you soon get into trouble. How to get level 30 enchants without using leather for books (easy), how do I get "vegan" Ender Pearls without killing Endermen in the first place (hard/luckbased) or getting a Laser Drill from MineFactoryReloaded setup without having poor pigs get slaughtered in a slaughterhouse (impossible)?

While the mod doesn't offer an alternative to the last mentioned problem - which is modrelated -, it replaces nearly all vanilla animal products (except the Nether Star and the Dragon Egg) in a way that's fun, creative and even does kind of make sense (like replacing Eggs with Apple Sauce in baking recipes).

I will definitely check out the mod in the future and see what gets added to replace mod-items, as the author approaches v.1.0.0 because as I am playing very modheavy I'd like it to have some more modintegration before loading it up.

Aaaaand that's it again. See you people around...

A Beginning

Hello Ladies and Gentlemen, yet another time!

Well actually, this is the first time I'm posting something on here, but going forth I plan to post at least twice a week. The topic of each post will range from (hopefully) funny and entertaining things regarding Magic:the Gathering, modded Minecraft, et cetera, - the Durdling-Part - to more "serious" stuff about Veganism and vegan food and lifestyle - the Diet-Part.

"Who is this guy anyway?!" you might ask now. Good question, because if you're not one of the seven people that followed my youtube-channel back in the day or you're sometimes checking reddit @ r/feedthebeast you have no way of knowing the person that calls himself "SibirianPns" all over the web.
I'm a 21 year old computer science student from Austria. As easy as that. But why am I writing this blog? Basically I want to share my thoughts on the above mentioned topics with the world, be it to just put it down on virtual paper or to find people all over the web to discuss them with - your choice.

Everyday my mind is circling around ideas on how to build that really fun and alternative commander-deck or how you could cook a vegan dish out of an unvegan "original" (I'll use the term "original" here for now just to be clear for everyone even though I don't necessarily think there is an "original" way of some kind of food). And even though I could most probably just post these thoughts in a respective forum, a personal blog gives me the possibility to post them as they cross my mind without caring about wether it's the right place or not.

I guess that's it for this introductional post, see you people around next week!