-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Topic of the Month   Table of Contents   Tournaments

Continuing on my power trip from last issue, I decided to go for one of the head honchos himself, everybody's favorite Keebler Elf, Dalamar! Now I know what you're thinking, great all questions about being an Admin right? Wrong. I decided to talk to him about the new deck remakes, and what’s coming up with them. Who knows what we'll find out what he has in store for TTA.

Sachi: So Dalamar, to start, what are you main reasons that you wanted to re-do some of the decks?

Dalamar: To make the decks look better overall.

Sachi: Do you do them all yourself, or do you get some people to help out?

Dalamar: I've got Sage helping me with the DL deck, and Kamikaze/Cefca helping with the FF7 deck. I'll be doing the FF5 deck by myself.

Sachi: What do you find yourself to excel in the most about cardmaking? (Guest Question asked by Kamikaze)

Dalamar: I'm not really sure about that.

Sachi: For all our Custom Card Freaks out there, what programs do you use for making the cards? Also, do you search for the images or 'create' them yourself?

Dalamar: I use MS Paint for card making. For images, it depends on the deck. The images for FF5/FF7 will come directly from the games. The images for the DL deck are coming from multiple sources (images scanned from a DL artbook being one, for example).

Sachi: Besides the ones you're working on right now (FFV and DL), what else do you have planned?

Dalamar: Well, I would have entered the Xenogears/Xenosaga deck competition if I'd been able to find a good source of enemy/boss images from the Xenosaga games. I may make a Breath of Fire 2 deck eventually to go with the Breath of Fire deck I made a few months ago. As for random cards, I've been working with some Disgaea 1/2 sprites the past few days to see how they come out. Not sure if it'll end up as a full deck or not, though. Other than that though, I'm usually always working on something, card-wise. Just depends on what I find, really.

Sachi: Whats going on with the FF7 deck? I seem to remember you working on the levels 1-9 a while ago, but I haven't seen an update on those, whats the plan Boss?

Dalamar: I can no longer play the PC version of the game, so I'm now relying on Cefca to get me the rest of the images, so that's why there hasn't been much mentioned about it lately. That, and I've been working mainly on the Dragonlance deck lately.

Sachi: The level 10s seem to be creating a little bit of drama, mostly just about the new number changes for Nanaki and Sephiroth, both of which I completely love, but what made you change their values?

Dalamar: I don't believe triple numbered combos belong on levels 9 and 10. The Dalamar and Paladine cards in the DL deck will also be changed for the same reason.

Sachi: Darn, there goes my level 10 hand. But, since you're redoing other decks, will you be changing any other values, other than the two mentioned?

Dalamar: Some will change, yes. Dupe combos, mainly, but I've changed a few combos in the DL deck already. Lucy Torkay (which is taking Ackal's place on level 1) and Hotak de-Droka (taking Chot's place on level 2) are both getting number changes.

Sachi: I know I said no questions about being an Admin, but we all know I lie to get what I want :p. So what exactly does being an admin of one of the largest (if not the largest) Triple Triad site like?

Dalamar: It's normally not too bad. I stay busy with trades most of the time. It can get a bit hectic when it comes close to a tournament deadline and very few games have been played.

Sachi: Are there any huge obstacles that you face daily, or if not daily, frequently?

Dalamar: Not really, you guys are great.

Sachi: What about the good aspects, whats one of the best parts of running our favorite place on the internets?

Dalamar: The players, since without them, there wouldn't be a site.

Sachi: Back to real life for a moment, what do you do during the day? Work, school, both, or neither?

Dalamar: I help take care of my nephew.

Sachi: What do you think TTA has in store for the future?

Dalamar: As far as new things go? No idea. Odin's always making changes/additions to Quest, so you can ask him (or Grat, since quite a few of the ideas Odin gets come from him) if you're interested in finding out what he's got planned for it.

Sachi: And finally, any chance we could get a preview of any cards/decks that haven't been released yet?

Dalamar: Any ones I've completed for the Dragonlance deck can be found at http://www.knightofavl.net/Cards/Dragonlance/index.html and the FFV ones are at http://www.knightofavl.net/Cards/Dalamar/FF5New/Final/index.html and finally the FF7 ones can be found at http://www.knightofavl.net/Cards/Dalamar/FF7New/final.html. There's also an Anime Deck that Seto is working on. You can see a preview of it on the Custom Cards board.