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I was Noface (with a Staff badge) for about two hours Saturday afternoon. I got about a hundred pictures taken. I wouldn't bother to ask, but last time I wore this costume I got just as many pictures and not a single picture popped up in the galleries thread!

If you've got one of me, I'd love it if you'd PM me the URL! Thanks

I have a question, hopefully it's not as completely ridiculous as it sounds :x

'Live' ammunition!

I'm making "smoke flares" for my Lord Yupa costume to go in my shirt breast pockets. If you're familiar with the character (he's from Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind) you might recall that they look an *awful* lot like shotgun shells. Which I happen to have.

I've cut some of said shells open and extracted all shot, wadding, and charge from them with painstaking detail. I have yet to discharge the priming cap. Once that's done they'll be completely inert, just harmless shells of steel and plastic.... that still look like shotgun shells.

Is this acceptable?

I would feel a lot better if you were using something that was not ever live ammunition. We aren't allowing non-functional guns which were once real, and I can't say that I would let you carry non-functional ammo, either. I just... can't even think of how to make this work for you, honestly. The trouble with a gutted shotgun shell is that when you're carrying it around, it still looks real, which is great for "realistic" cosplay, but not so good for our props policy... ... are you going to have a gun?

No gun, just the shells. I just finished removing the priming caps (figured out I could do it without explosions, this was a good thing), I'd be happy to scan them for you if you like, but it sounds like safety isn't really the issue. If it helps at all, it is easy to demonstrate at closer inspection that they are completely nonfunctional. You can see from both ends that there's nothing inside but wooden dowel to extend them to the depth of the pocket. I'm getting that the issue is people misinterpreting them from a distance though, so I understand if that won't fly. I guess it's paint and washers time... :\

Would these props be okay?

Rifle:
http://aphaestus.deviantart.com/art/Sniper-Rifle-WIP-2-164539421
I'm going to paint is like this when i finish assembling it: http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h4/timebmb757/Sniper_IMG.png
It's made from wood and PVC pipe. Would it be okay to carry it around if i painted the tip orange? Or will it look to real?

Butterfly Knife:
http://aphaestus.deviantart.com/art/Butterfly-Knife-WIP-139754830
Whole thing is made of wood and the tip of the blade is rounded.

Revolver:
http://aphaestus.deviantart.com/art/Ambassador-WIP-2-139754606
It is in the process of being painted to look like this: http://img217.imageshack.us/img217/7091/ambassador.jpg
Do i have to add an orange tip to this? It would look ridiculous if i tried to paint one on.

Hidden Blade:
http://aphaestus.deviantart.com/art/Hidden-Blade-and-Forearm-Armor-157705543
I'm cosplaying Altair from Assassin's Creed and i'm wonder if it will be legal to carry that around. The blade is made from wood and it has a locking mechanism. The blade won't come out unless i pull on the mechanism. This prop is gravity operated.

That is some beautiful woodcraft, sir. Are you professional?

I have a question, hopefully it's not as completely ridiculous as it sounds :x

'Live' ammunition!

I'm making "smoke flares" for my Lord Yupa costume to go in my shirt breast pockets. If you're familiar with the character (he's from Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind) you might recall that they look an *awful* lot like shotgun shells. Which I happen to have.

I've cut some of said shells open and extracted all shot, wadding, and charge from them with painstaking detail. I have yet to discharge the priming cap. Once that's done they'll be completely inert, just harmless shells of steel and plastic.... that still look like shotgun shells.

Is this acceptable?

I'll try to bring my EDH deck (EDH = Elder Dragon Highlander, just by the by. Elder Dragon because originally your commander had to be one of the elder dragons from the Legends set, and Highlander because 'there can be only one' [of each card])

I'll also try to bring my pre-con cube for pickup Pile, and possibly a little bit of draft. Not so sure about this, because some of the cards in my cube are on loan from other people, who might be bummed if an anonymous con-goer pocketed their Cruel Ultimatum on the sly.


On formats, for those who were wondering: There are four generally-accepted tournament-legal formats, two of which are 'rotating' and two of which are 'eternal'. All formats have a decent saturation of play, and unfortunately for casual collectors, the eternal formats (i.e. ones where the cards don't get cycled out as they get older) are extremely competitive, and decks range from $200 to upwards of $5,000. Fortunately, the cycling formats have a pretty long shelf-life (2-7 years).

A breakdown of the official DCI-sanctioned formats:

Standard - By far the most popular format, and the shorter of the cycling formats, standard generally includes the most recent 'core' set (a set containing reprints of many classic staples of the game. currently Magic 2010, more commonly referred to as M10), and the two most recent blocks (themed groups of 3 sets, currently Alara block [Shards of Alara, Conflux, Alara Reborn] and the just-finished Zendikar block [Zendikar, Worldwake, Rise of the Eldrazi]).
Standard tournaments get tons of play, and competitive play rewards players who spend a lot of time following the rapidly-evolving tournament meta-tech (what decks are hot, what decks are not, what your deck beats and what it scoops to, and so forth)

Extended - The other cycling format is Extended, which is arguably the cheapest format to play at a competitive level, and includes all the core sets and blocks released in the last 7 years (I don't remember exactly where this line stands, somewhere in the vicinity of Mirrodin block IIRC)

Vintage - The format of the *true* magic geek, Vintage allows nearly every card ever printed in Magic (The exceptions are cards that mention ante, which was a printed rule in the very very early editions of the game, and is no longer allowed during tournament play, and a tiny handful of cards removed for political reasons--cards requiring physical skill that can be difficult for handicapped players, cards that make games drag on for hours, etc.). Vintage does maintain a 'restricted list' of cards considered too powerful for players to be allowed to use a full set of 4 in a deck. Only one of a given restricted card (including reprints of the same card) are allowed in a single deck.
The trouble with Vintage, especially for new players, is that many cards printed in the early days of Magic were significantly above the power level of cards printed since then. These cards are rare, expensive, and often difficult to use properly. A few sell for over a thousand dollars each. Aside from the financial barrier, the level of advanced mathematical and statistical analysis required to really understand what makes a good deck, and how to play one in Vintage, make this format pretty much reserved for true veterans of the game.

Legacy - 'Vintage lite', Legacy is the more accessible of the eternal formats. The primary difference is that all the cards on the Vintage restricted list are instead banned, which radically changes the meta strategy for this format. Since all the truly expensive cards from the early core sets are on the restricted list, that also makes Legacy significantly cheaper. It's still not cheap, but it's closer to the realm of reasonable, and the level of mastery required is more accommodating too.


There are some other non-official formats that still see lots of popular play, EDH is the one that jumps to mind. EDH is tons of fun, you can build a competitive deck for pennies on the dollar of a legacy deck, it doesn't cycle out, and it's generally more suited to newer players and casual group games. They've got a website where you can check out the rules, and they have their own banned list.

"I pay 3 to summon 'Wall of Text', 0/3 defender with 'When this creature enters the battlefield, tap all forum readers'"
sorry >_>