Shift in Magic Format and Halo woes

Ok, so I've been writing this blog based on this formula.

I spend X amount of dollars on Magic->I play Magic until I win some kind of profit or run out of money.

I don't think this is an accurate representation of how I'm actually doing in Magic though. I win alot more then it seems I do on this blog. I just generally don't make a profit on it. Trading tickets one for another entry of equivilent value. So as of today I am changing the format yet again. I apologize for this, but sometimes it takes time to sculpt the right formula. I am adapting the new formula from the old "Going Infinite" series on magic.tcgplayer.com, written by Blake Rasmussen. I am updating it for Shards of Alara, as he wrote this series during the Time Spiral Era a couple of years back. Also, I am adding more detail in an attempt to try and keep a very detailed record. I'll be adding/changing the decks in the table as what I'm playing changes. As of right now I am concentrating more on Block(Shards of Alara) and Extended rather then Standard which is a Faeries fest. You either play faeries, or you play what beats faeries, and hope you don't lose to anything else you might face. I was playing a Reveillark deck to some success, then I played B/W tokens, but nothing seemed to consistently win. My favorite deck in Standard right now is the planeswalker creatureless deck. It is SO much fun to play, but impossible to make work in the current format. I'll keep you guys apprised of my progress, and be keeping the below table up to date, and I plan on including it at the bottom of my posts here, whether the post is Magic related or not. I'm also going to try and find the decklists that I'm using so that you guys can comment/critique them, or just have a better idea what I'm talking about.

MAGIC THE GATHERING ONLINE status at a glance:
Total Queues played:5
Queues played this week:5
Constructed (Ala Block):2
Constructed (Extended):2
Constructed (Standard):
Drafts Shards of Alara (4-3-2-2): 1
Match Record (extended Death cloud):
Match Record (extended Dragonstorm): 2-0
Match Record (extended Ad Naseum): 2-0
Match Record (Bant Block): 2-3
Match Record (Jund Block):
Match Record (Mono-White Block):
Match Record (Draft): 1-1
Overall Match Record:7-4
Packs won:6
Tickets from packs:24
Net ticket gain this week:0
Net ticket gain total:0
Money spent this week: 24 dollars (purchased at beginning of week, 12 tickets and 3 packs of Shards of Alara boosters)
Money spent Overall (Started on 1/1/09):24 dollars







Halo Woes:
So for the last two weeks, I think my team and I despite having new team uniforms have been
having the worst two weeks of our Halo careers. I mean this was really bad, like the best guy on our team getting 3 kills in a game, the worst getting no kills. I finally realized why this was. First, this was Christmas break, and all the teenagers and college kids who are unbelievably good at this game were off. Second, we kept drawing repeaters. By repeaters I mean people who have reached lvl 50 in Halo, get tired of facing good people like themselves, and get a new Xbox live account, and level themselves back up, troucing us (actual lvl 20s) along the way. The lack of strategy with our team is also a factor. I am going to try talking more strategy during our games, maybe get the less experienced girls to stick together either with each other or with myself. Hopefully our Halo lives will improve with these measures.