American Idol 11: DeAndre Brackensick

There is always that one defining moment when people watching American Idol realize that the contestant really has star potential and has a chance of becoming a successful artist. I think I saw these moments in Carrie Underwood's How Do I Get You Alone, Elliot Yamin's Song For You, and Carly Smithson's Here You Come Again performances. And the other night, I believe I saw DeAndre Brackensick's defining moment when he sang Eric Benet's Sometimes I Cry. This guy is sick, Brackensick, especially when he reaches the last parts of the song.

Here's a link to DeAndre's version just in case the video isn't showing up. Below is Eric Benet's official music video.

Here's a link to Eric's version just in case the video isn't showing up.

Comparing the two isn't really fair, and you have to give it to DeAndre since he was killing in a live performance while Eric Benet's video has already been cleaned up. I would buy the DeAndre version in a heartbeat. Not many guys can sing that high. And even if DeAndre doesn't win since these types of songs do not appeal to everyone's tastes, to me, he is already a star. Great job, and good luck with the competition. Hope you make it to the finale.

What about you readers? Which contestant are you rooting for?

Alteil: Honor of the Lion / Zagar

Refess card collectors will have an opportunity to complete their copies of Honor of the Lion / Zagar this weekend, starting the 31st of March up to the 2nd of April. For only 300 gran, the special offer packs comes with a guaranteed copy of Zagar as well as a chance of getting a 3-star card. And since Zagar was given as a promo card last year, chances are, you only need to buy two packs to complete your set.

Now let's take a look at what this card has to offer.   

To be honest, this Zagar (since there are a lot of alternative Zagar cards) doesn't really feel right for an EX Lap Solar Kingdom deck. I feel that either Elite Folrart Acolyte or Folrart Knight Captain can do an even better job than Zagar since they buff other units beside themselves.

Zagar is also one of those self-penalizing cards. It taps itself during night time, which can be a pain when you are on the verge of attacking a unit that is down to 10 HP or some similar scenario. Self-engaging as a skill is really a pain for Refess which is already slow as a whole. This is also the reason why Folrart Heavy Knight fails miserably in some scenarios. (Example, you remove its DEF entirely and it ends up engaging itself instead of dealing a crucial attack that can kill and enemy unit and disrupt an opponent's tempo).

Discipline of the Lion is a great skill if you can pull it off. It counters level 3 Returns, but from experience, a good Falkow player will always return Zagar before this skill can be triggered. Refess cards with 1 SP or greater activation and a self-penalizing skill (like Granverion) are really difficult to setup. You can probably pull it off against a newbie. But Folrart veterans know just how to disrupt a Refess deck's build up. The key to a Refess Solar Kingdom deck is synergy. So remove a key unit and you'll see that Refess deck fall like a house of cards.

Zagar doesn't fit in a knight deck either. So perhaps when a Refess Captain's deck comes along, perhaps I'll see Zagar being used after all. But until then, the only reason why I purchased him is to complete my set.

What about you? Do you think Zagar can be competitive in Folrart Arena? Give me a replay link if you can prove so. ^_^

Ikariam: Kyra, the New Town Adviser

After several years of service, Ikariam's town adviser has been replaced. Look at the picture of the new town adviser.

Why was the old town advised replaced. Kyra, the new town adviser is actually his wife and her explanation is as follows.

Its about time that the advisers got a face lift and it is also nice to have a female presence among them. It is also great to have a name to call at least one of the advisers. I always thought of them as either the Military Guy, the Scientist, the Diplomat, and the one which looks like Caesar (because of the olive branches).

Why has Ikariam done this? Is it in preparation for April Fools Day, or will Kyra hold the town adviser position permanently? Will the old town adviser have some other post to fill up once the new town and island designs are implemented? If so, then this must also mean that the changes to Ikariam's layouts might be implemented soon, and about time too. 

What do you think? Should Ikariam retain Kyra as town adviser or should they bring back the old one? Why not comment below in the following format.

Should Kyra remain as town adviser? (Yes/No)

Reason? Sample: I think she's a fresh change for the game

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Alteil EX 10 The Story of Cassandra 2: Elneith

Is Elneith the new Sergis? This was the first question going through my mind as I saw the Soul Skill of this new card. And if you have been a long time Alteil player, you know that Sergis is one of the best Soul Skill cards, usually placed at the 2nd SS slot, dealing minus 40 MAX HP to two enemy units when triggered.

Fountain Sword Strike is probably the only reason to avail of this card. There are a lot of  better level 3 cards for a Solar Kingdom or Knights deck. But would you replace Sergis with Elneith as an SS?

I have seen a file in action with three successive Elneith's in the SS slots. And it appeared as though three was always the maximum number of enemies being affected by the triggered skill. But that particular match could have been a fluke. There is always a 1/3 probability that only one enemy will be affected. And for a conservative player like me, I would rather have a sure thing that occurs all the time than something better that can only occur 1/3 of the time.

But if you have been using Elneith as an SS, perhaps you can enlighten us on the probability of hitting 3 enemies every match, for say 10 matches. If the evidences shows that her skill triggers most of the time, perhaps the card designers have made a slight tweak in the chances of the SS triggering for multiple enemies. Perhaps then would I consider acquiring Elneith.

Alteil EX 10 The Story of Cassandra 2: Gardia

Today, we look at Profound Clown / Gardia, one of the weird cards from Alteil's EX 10 release. This card seems like a card you place in "fun files", and not really a card for a meta file. It reminds me of Formuna and Galdirea in terms of strangeness.

The card has terrible HP for a level 4 unit. But its a cat, so it must be very fragile. (Well, Man-Eating Tiger is a cat and level 2, at that, how come it ain't as fragile, no?) But at least it has an AGI stat of 5, allowing its action skill Raise! to be triggered most of the time. The problem with Raise is that it can easily heal your enemies as well as damage them. So if your opponent's card is down to 10 life, Raise can bring that up to 40 if the card has 40 or more MAX HP. (Again, the randomness of Formuna and Galdirea).

Gardia's close skill Call! is a good counter measure against rush or stomp files like Eternal Night or Pixies. In this case, Gardia is actually better placed at the front line. Some attention to file arrangement is necessary if you are playing this card. You need to make sure that there are no character cards at or nearest to the lower right corner of your file or you end up sending Gardia to the cemetery.

Stay! is actually pretty cool for an SS. It's a combination between a revive SS and an engage SS. This in my opinion is the area can become most useful. 

I'm wondering if a Mildoreo file can benefit from Gardia. If you ever try one, let us know the effectiveness of the file. Have fun testing!!!

Alteil EX 10 The Story of Cassandra 2: Granverion

Today, we look at another new EX 10 card, Angel Paladin / Granverion. Initially, this card seems to be badly designed. Just take one look at its Start skill and Auto Skill and you hear Refess players whining about how the card will be no good (myself included).

But if you have supporting units like Regus Engineer, the card might prove playable. Keeping Regus Engineer alive long enough is another matter though since she is squishy. Salamanders and Dragon Breaths are all too common counters. If you don't want to use her, then probably pack lots of miracle fruits.

Granverion's 20 DEF and 5 DEF stacking auto skill can make him pretty difficult to kill using other damaging units. But his low HP, can be a cause for concern, especially against cards like Francis and Winston.

Perhaps these new cards are the beginnings of the Mech Soldier file. Only time will tell. Still, I can't help but think that with cards like these, who needs enemies. Perhaps designers have a sick sense of humor  making Refess such a pain to play after all the whining of how Eternal Morning and Solar Kingdom were dominating the Folrart Arena. Bring back Refess' glory days and give it some OP cards. ^_^

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Alteil EX 10 The Story of Cassandra 2: Felice

New cards will be available to players with the release of Alteil EX 10. This expansion is dubbed "The Story of Cassandra 2", a continuation EX 8's story line.

With every EX release, player's try to pick out which sphere will benefit the most from the new expansion. And while some of the cards have potential as soul skills, if I were to bet on a game changer, it would be the EX cards for Gowen. So let's take a look at one of those cards, namely Felice.

You have to love a card with a skill that says, "if that unit takes damage, it gets HP=0." There are many ways to enhance the attack power of a unit, from grim enhancements like Magic Weapon or Ignition, to Kurina and BKR's attribute enhancing skills. Felice can even claim the attack power of fellow warriors such as Genshin (highest base level attack power to date at 70 ATK, followed by Asuet and Thunderbolt at 50 ATK). Felice might find her way into a BKR, a Warrior, or even a Gowen Monster's file. And I for one can't wait to see her in action.

Her soul skill seems ok too, kind of a diminished BKR SS that comes with 30 damage. And it stacks. 

My concerns with Felice is that she might be a bit slow for a Gowen file (solved by level 6 rank up), and her range forces a player to place her at the front line, which is already full in a warrior deck. Her 40 HP doesn't help. Wish she had at least 2 range. Perhaps Invisibility Edge and other range modifying cards will have some use. If she turns out to be a "weak" card, then they might buff her in the next errata.

Ikariam Workshop Level For New Ships

Wondering what workshop level is required for upgrading all your new ships' weapons and armor?

You should be able to access all these upgrades at a workshop level of 26.

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Print Screen Tall Web Pages

This is just an alternative method in case you want to get a screen shot of a tall web page but don't want the hassle of installing browser add-ons or new software. If you are using Google Chrome, go to the Tools menu (the wrench icon at the top right corner of the browser).

Scroll down to the Zoom option and adjust its value until you can see the entire webpage.

Now, you can press Print Screen and save it in any image processing software. Simple as that.

Ikariam: Can You Own 12 Towns?

To answer this question, let us look at the amount of building material (wood, can be abbreviated as B.M., but lets just refer to it as wood) required for a level 11 Palace, needed to create 12 towns. The amount of wood needed for a level 11 Palace is 2,561,499. This amount already takes into account that one building space is allotted for a Carpenter's Workshop at a maximum level of 32, providing a 33% cost reduction.

If the Carpenter's Workshop were not present, then the amount of building material needed would be 3,823,133. There are 11 building spaces in a town. The Palace has to take one space, leaving us with 10 spaces to work with. A Warehouse has a capacity of 8000 wood per level. If only Warehouses are constructed, and if 10 Warehouses were possible, here is what an analysis of the maximum wood capacity for the town would look like.

	Capacity/level	Levels	Number	Max Capacity
Warehouse	8000	40	10	3200000
Town Hall	1500			1500
Total				3201500

Clearly, 3,201,500 is less than 3,823,133 and a 12th town is not possible under these conditions.

So let's look at the scenario where a Carpenter's Workshop is utilized. The wood requirement is reduced to 2,561,499. But we take away one building space for a warehouse.

	Capacity/level	Levels	Number	Max Capacity
Warehouse	8000	40	9	2880000
Townhall	1500			1500
Total				2881500

Clearly, 2,881,500 is greater than 2,561,499 and a 12th town would have been possible under these conditions. But as of this writing, Ikariam has limited the number of Warehouses to a maximum of 4 per town. You can check here. So even under this scenario, a 12th town is not possible.

But to compensate for the maximum warehouse limit per town, Ikariam introduced the Dump which has a capacity of 32,000 wood per level. If we assume a maximum level of 40 for the Dump, then

	Capacity/level	Levels	Number	Max Capacity
Warehouse	8000	40	4	1280000
Dump	32000	40	1	1280000
Townhall	1500			1500
Total				2561500

And 2,561,500 just barely exceeds 2,561,499. So under this scenario, a 12th town is possible. And proving this is my current goal.

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Carly Smithson Here You Come Again Chords

It pains me to see that after 4 years, there is still no decent guitar chord arrangement available online for Carly Smithson's rendition of "Here You Come Again" during American Idol Season 7. I believe that her performance is one of the best acoustic performances you will ever see on the AI stage. Check it out. And neglect Simon's comments about her wardrobe and just listen to the song.

I am no expert, but here is an attempt at creating the guitar chords for this performance. I hope you enjoy it and if you can come up or find the actual guitar tabs, please place a link on the comments.

Here You Come Again performed by Carly Smithson

G        Bm7       C - CM7

Here you come again

G              Bm7             C  -  CM7

Just when I'm about to make it work without you

    Em                 Am         Em              Am

You look into my eyes, and lie those pretty lies

    D                   D              D7 

And pretty soon I’m wondering how I came to doubt you

Chorus:

EbM7             Dm7        

All you gotta do is smile that smile

    C#M7         Cm7

And there go all my defenses

Cm7 – Dm7 – EbM7                 Dm7     

Just leave it up to you and in a little while

       G                      C                   D 

You're messin' up my mind and fillin' up my senses

(Key change one half-step up)

G#      Cm7    C#M7

Here you come again

G#                  Cm7          C#M7

Lookin' better than a body has a right to

    Fm            Bbm      Fm          Bbm

And shakin' up my soul that all I really know

  Eb            Eb – Ebsus - Eb

Is here you come again

         G# - Cm7 - C#M7 – Eb – Ebsus - Eb

And here I ---------------- go

          G# (or F)

Oh Here I go

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Corregidor 2012

It is nice to be able to visit a place you haven't been to in a very long time. My memories of Corregidor when I was young have become fragmented and needed refreshing. So it was nice of the Lord to provide me the opportunity to be part of a tour of Corregidor this past week.

I remember climbing up World War II cannons during my childhood and I remember the Malinta Tunnel. But I no longer had any recollection of ruins of U.S. military barracks and buildings that are located all over this tadpole shaped island. Why dd the U.S. invest millions in making this island a military fortress? Perhaps because of its strategic location, being a bastion at Manila Bay.

What was once a prison, not unlike the "Rock" or Alcatraz, has been converted to a tourist destination. After disembarking from a ferry, fleets of open-air buses await visitors who have signed up for the tour. Each bus has a designated tour guide who will gladly assist and explain to the passengers the history related to each destination and pit stop on the island. We were lucky to have been under Mr. Joe Banal, a long-time guide on the island aware of its rich history.

We passed several battery locations, seeing different kinds of U.S. cannons used during the second world war. I was also able to climb up the Corregidor light house for the very first time which offers an excellent panoramic view of the entire island as well as its neighboring islands, (Carabao Island, Caballo Island, and El Prayle Isand). There are also newly built tourist destinations such as the Eternal Flame of Freedom, Japanese Memorial Garden, and the Pacific War Memorial.

The people with me were looking forward to the zip line ride on Corregidor. Sadly, this service seems to have been discontinued due to safety concerns. And if you have a white sandy beach envisioned, you might be better off going to Boracay. Corregidor's beaches are better for rock balancing activities than for swimming.

But if you are a World War II history buff, Corregidor is a rich treasure trove of WWII memorabilia and information. Make sure to prepare a bit of cash though since prices are steep compared to city prices. There are also no commercial establishments such as McDonalds or Starbucks on the island. You either eat at the local hotel or local restaurants on the island. As soon as your ferry gets back from the island, these usual food destinations are available at Manila Bay.

A day is enough to cover all tourist spots as long as you start early. Make sure to allot about 2 hours of travel to the island by ferry, and 2 hours back.

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