Kept you waiting? In the past month or so, I'm on a sudden hiatus because of my schedule. From the last posting of my article talking about Allys in the (not so) new Battle for Zendikar block, I'm stuck in clearing my final examinations, preparing for my overseas trip, tying up loose ends for the MTG community I'm involved with. So... While I'm inactive here, I'm VERY active outside trying to finish up things. Now that I'm more or less settled down, let's carry on where I have left off.
First things first, I'm now in Munich, Germany! It's a fantastic place and I really love it here! Any German MTG players out there? Where do you guys play Modern events or just for fun? Any card shops to recommend? I found a few places, but I want to know from you guys!
For this article, it's more about a personal reflection. So currently, the regular readers will know I own an ally deck. But, I don't think many knows that I also pilot a Living End deck. I'm not exactly tournament proficient with it, but I do get by with a few wins here and there. The reason why I am bringing this up is that I started off the blog with the intention of blogging my trades, which then slowly shifted to talking about speculation and about my gameplay. However, somehow along the way, I lost the momentum to do gameplay blogs and just focused on speculation and occasional reviews. Well, it seems that as the time passes, I have jumped around different types of articles, trying out and experimenting what works and what do not.
Mentioned in an earlier, and similar entry, I found what works and I will continue to develop on those as my cornerstones. However, this proved to be tougher than expected for a simple reason: I failed to look up what is already around in the web. Not specifically that I'm enclosed in my own little world, but I just failed to take into account that there are many article sites and blogs similar to this competing for the same number of people. Often, sites like MTGGoldfish, MTGPrice and even on Youtube, the Mana Source and Tolarian Community College have means and resources to upload videos or articles on the latest trends, analysis and news for the players, while I can only become what is called a second-hand resource site. I took a hiatus for a month or so for a second reason; if I am continuing to do this blog, I have to find a voice among the hundreds of articles and websites that are out there and even more on those coming out. Not that I'm discrediting anyone, including myself. The amount of work and effort to generate out an article consistently is a lot and I trust that most of you who have ever wrote an article will know how much effort and time goes into making one.
I have created a Patreon site for the blog and honestly, that was the biggest risk I have done so far in terms of this entire project. To date, I stand at $0 with no supporters. The reason is simple, there is nothing I have to show. A very good comment came up on Reddit, when I started posting there 9 months ago, mentioning that I should find something that is worth people coming to my site to read. I mentioned back then that I do have content that is worth reading and there are a few that are interesting, accordingly. But, this comment came back to hit me when I realised how my content and quality stood among the others out there when I set up the Patreon site. Yes, I know that many blogs are not funded, but honestly, the entire end point for Project: Zer0 was to fund my MTG expenditure and possibly a side income. That was the ultimate goal and reason why I started this in the first place.
I wanted to do this article as a means of self-reflection for awhile now, but being caught up in chasing the number of views, promoting my page and trying to find a unique spot in this vast internet has made me put off this article until now. Initially, I dedicated that I have to post on average of 3-4 articles a month but as time pass, it becomes tougher to dedicate that same amount of time I could 1 year ago. Hence, I sought for the Patreon as a means of sustaining the funds required to put my mind at ease to continue doing this. Eventually this comes to a realisation that I have to continue searching something that is worth people paying me.
