SixPrizes Underground LEAKS
By HeyTrainer
As many of you know, I write frequently for SixPrizes.com's paid "Underground" section. It's been a great way to earn some pocket change, and -without a doubt – it's one of the most surefire ways to blaze a trail in the Pokemon TCG community.
However, it's been tough getting second to Fulop in so many writer polls; and it's too much pressure always having to play second fiddle to such a great player. Likewise, the community upstart, Jwittz, has done a number on my results multiple times, and I'm beginning to feel that my writing is underappreciated.
Perhaps it's premature, or perhaps immature, but I have decided to leak the first two weeks of May's articles (we write well in advance of the due date, and never turn our articles in the day of). Hopefully Adam, my fellow staff members, and all of the subscribers can forgive me for this breach of trust; however, I can't help this any longer, and so I've decided to hook you up.
Let's start with Fulop. He hasn't written many deck articles, but one that's been close to his heart as of late is an edited Mewperior:
Mewperior (5/3/2011) *1
By Chris Fulop
"We walk the streets alone
Hearts and hands both left empty
We're battered to the ground
Left cold to beg for mercy
We choke on our despair
No arms open to take us
We've been thrown to the wolves
But We're still standing
We are the distant beacons
We are the guiding light
We flicker in this darkness
To illuminate the night
So will you take my hand
To lead you through this nightmare
We're running for our lives
Our lungs still barely breathing
We are the last alive
Our hearts still barely beating
We won't let this world put out this dying flame.
We stare at these horrors
Wide eyed and never blinking
We live this daily grind
Our will and nerve unbreaking
Were left to fend for our own
With our morale unbending
This fire burns inside us
Unwilling to extinquish
We raise our fists in anger
Demanding revolution
We are the distant beacons
We are the guiding light
We flicker in this darkness
To illuminate the night
So will you take my hand
To lead you through this nightmare
We're running for our lives
Our lungs still barely breathing
We are the last alive
Our hearts still barely beating
We won't let this world put out this dying flame.
We are lost with no direction
Yet we run full steam ahead
We don't know where we are going
We don't know where we'll end
All we're left with is each other
Don't let that slip away
Please take my hand.
Of course, Josh "Jwittz" W. has many articles that are high in demand due to his popular "Prof-it" show. Since he has become established as a Sablelock expert of sorts, countless people have been hounding him for his opinion on just _how_ broken the deck will become when the new Black and White rules are implemented. This is his opinion on the matter:
The Impact of Black and White (5/5/2011) *2
By Josh W.
" The dominant cinema situates black characters primarily for the pleasure of white spectators. To illustrate this point, one may note how black characters in contemporary Hollywood films are made less threatening to whites either by white domestication of black customs and culture—a process of decrination and isolation—or by stories in which blacks are depicted as playing by the rules of white society and losing” (Diawara 894).
Put in the perspective of the black spectator, much of what Diawara asserts about Hollywood cinema is true: the black spectator is forced to identify with a white hero, while viewing his or her own race as criminal (894). However, when this is put into perspective of films from the Blaxploitation genre—films directly marketed toward black audience—the lines are blurred. These films (often Hollywood funded) deal with much more powerful and dynamic black characters playing lead roles, thus giving the black spectator a role model that they can identify with. However, these films also draw heavily on stereotype, which in its own way damages the black spectator’s perception, and perpetuates these stereotypes for a white audience.
In this essay, I will show that in two of the first Blaxploitation films produced, the 1971 Shaft and the 1972 Super Fly (directed by Gordon Parks and his son, Gordon Parks Jr. respectively) attempt (but do not always succeed) to deal with a black spectator through separate means. Shaft attempts to create a modern-day black “superhero” for blacks to identify with through the cool and suave Shaft, while Super Fly uses the powerful but conflicted Priest in an attempt to create a sympathetic tone for the plight of black freedom.
Despite that these films were directed by father and son, one year apart, their plots bear little resemblance to each other, besides starring a hip black protagonist. In Shaft, an independent, cool, and handsome detective with the same name deals with both the police and local black gangs to recover a crime boss’s daughter. Effectively acting as the “black James Bond”, Shaft plays by his own rules, has a large ego, and deals with several sexual escapades along the way. Super Fly, on the other hand, deals with the successful drug dealer Priest, who finds himself questioning his own lifestyle. Priest constantly strives to leave his life of thrills and luxury to “get out of the game” and live a normal life. While still a powerful character, Priest suffers a constant burden and stress that he strives to lift throughout the film.
The tone of each film is instantly distinguishable through its introduction. Shaft opens with a pan over New York City’s busy streets at a top down angle, and as the funky bass riff from the movie’s titular theme begins, we see Shaft emerge—complete in a stylish brown leather jacket. The camera focuses on his face for a brief moment, then follows him from the high angle once again as he casually strolls through heavy traffic, hands in pockets. The tone for Shaft (both the character and film) is set by Issac Hayes’ theme: it begins with a narrator asking “Who’s the private dick that’s a sex machine to all the chicks?” immediately answered by a chorus of females responding “Shaft!”. Within the film’s opening minutes, the black audience is given a character that is cool, uncaring, well dressed, and attractive. This is a character that the male black audience wants to be, and that a female black audience wants to swoon over. By setting and character alone, this Blaxploitation film offers the black spectator something they rarely received in the 1970s: a hero.
Super Fly’s introduction, on the other hand, paints a different picture. We’re given the same high angle over a street corner, but this time over a clearly less wealthy and run-down neighborhood. Two fairly ragged drug dealers shuffle down the streets in the cold, with piles of garbage visible against each building. While the film does contain an upbeat titular theme as well, it instead opts to open with Curtis Mayfield’s “Little Child Runnin Wild”, which depicts a character that “never smiles”, is “all alone”, who “didn’t have to be here”. Only after this initial introduction do we meet Priest, the main character: with a blank expression, he snorts cocaine off of a cross necklace while sitting naked next to one of his girlfriends. Despite his obvious life of luxury and his sexual prowess, his attitude is cold and tired. Immediately after scolding a few dealers that work under him, we then switch to an upbeat theme as Priest drives by in an expensive car. However, after immediately succeeding the dreary introduction, the happy moment feels false—very much in line with Priest’s perception of his own life. Through this introduction, the black spectator is given a different kind of protagonist, one they can sympathize with. They immediately identify their own color-based struggles with Priest’s, and allow Priest to act as a symbol of black redemption.
Both films take the tone set by the introduction and amplify it over the course of the film. Just as Shaft’s introduction paints him out to be cool, the rest of the film glorifies simply how cool he is. Shaft’s position as a detective gives him an air of power and authority that the black spectator isn’t used to. Shaft constantly forces those he works with and those seeking his skills to play by his rules—including the white Lieutenant Vic, Shaft’s working partner. The camera is constantly panning over Shaft’s face and body—using both low angles to increase his apparent size and prominence, and also eye line matches with female characters to reveal him as an object of desire. Shaft’s own name is an obvious phallic pun to stand in for sexual strength, and this is constantly emphasized as Shaft beds multiple women of multiple races. Even in his love scene with Dee, it is his own body that dominates the screen, with his back and buttocks as the prevalent image.
While Shaft briefly mentions a rough past by joking to Dee that he “was born poor and born black”, and by reminiscing to Ben of times where they fought together for black freedom, his character is more of an emphasis on success than a symbol of the struggle. His image is that of a flawless individual that overcame his struggle to the point where it carries no burden on him any longer—he serves as the perfect symbol of desirability for the black spectator. If Shaft is the symbol of success after the struggle, then Priest is a symbol for the struggle itself. While he attempts to hold the “cool factor” that Shaft contains externally, his internal struggle is constantly apparent. Despite his dreams of living a normal life, he is constantly brought down by most of his comrades, claiming that drug dealing is “the only game the man left him to play”, and that it was “what he was born to do”. Prince has all of the things that Shaft has—money, respect, and women, yet he is discontent with the means and lifestyle that he goes through to achieve them.
While women are attracted to Shaft like magnets, Prince seems to be too caught up in his own struggle to give in to his sexual magnetism. In fact, the only time he makes love on camera is when his girlfriend Georgia offers to “help him share the weight” of his troubles. This love scene, lasting nearly 3 full minutes, features a focus on both partners’ bodies—revealing Priest as a much less dominant and more dependent character than Shaft. Just as Shaft stands in to the black spectator as a symbol for sexual prowess and strength, Priest gives the black spectator a symbol of pain and redemption. Both the cross that he wears throughout the film, and his religiously grounded name “Priest” are reminiscent of Jesus Christ. Priest’s “Christ-like” struggle offers the black spectator a figure that they can respect through his suffering and ultimate redemption.
Both films offer characters and scenarios for the black spectator to identify with, but there are still moments in both films that present white racism, creating moments of confusion that relate to Diuwara’s thesis of white power in dominant cinema. While Shaft is an ultimate figure of respect and power, he has to work for white men in order to get the position that he has. While he does undermine most of the white authority around him, he also interestingly undermines the black men around him as well. Despite his apparent history with Ben and his black militants, he constantly talks down to Ben, often simply using him and his men for extra firepower in completing his own mission. There is also a staggering amount of black on black violence between Bumpy’s mob and Ben’s militants, further creating confusion for the black spectator as to which side within this self-conflict that they are supposed to support. The film also plays into common stereotypes of blacks, including street dialect and foul language. While Shaft himself is a black man that gatherers respect from people of all kinds, the film’s background and situations make the perception of black people much more ambiguous.
Super Fly’s message is also one that leaves a mixed message about race. Prince’s struggle is one that is mixed between different race relations. The reason that he is inferior and struggling is because of “the man”—or white authority pushing on the freedom of black men. In the scene where Prince talks with Georgia about his plans to leave the game, we see him gazing through a fence at white children playing with sleds. While the film aims to draw on this feeling of inferiority to relate with the black spectator, the fact that it establishes inferiority in the first place gives off a confusing message. Like Shaft, Priest also seems to care less about black militants fighting for freedom. When a group approaches him and asks him for money, he exclaims for them to “go sing your marching song somewhere else”. He tells them that until they raise arms and are willing to fight with guns that he’ll have no part in their movement. This moment is strange in that while the militants swear that “we’ll see you again”, they’re never seen or referred to again. This moment, like the one in Shaft, reveals Super Fly to be most effective to the black audience as a character study revealing a strong black man in his struggle. However, once again, it remains confusing and alienating in its depiction of the African American people.
Both Parks and Parks Jr. created films that aimed to put Hollywood movies in the perspective of black characters to appeal to a black audience. However, while both films create different protagonists that a black spectator can relate to, the presence of white racism and black weakness that Diawara refers to is still present. "
Now I'd like to share a very special article. 2008 National Champion Gino Lombardi is no stranger to the Pokemon community: with his stellar performances that season, coupled with his larger-than-life character, it's no surprise that he's one of the most well-known figures in this game. However, his play-testing group, "Team Underground," took considerable offense at SixPrizes calling its paid section "Underground."
To settle the matter, Gino and Adam agreed on a compromise: a personal invite to join the SixPrizes Underground staff, but at two times the cost of regular writers. Here is his first article for the site…
Expert Strategies (5/10/2011) *3
By Gino L./James W.
"Representing the REAL team underground
Not the six prizes UNDERGROUND.
The REAL team underground
You know, like the 2008 national champion, Gino Lombardi?
or runner-up Jay Hung-Rung?
or runner-up Darrell M.?
OR like the 2010 1st place National Champ, Con Le?
All Underground players right there. The REAL Underground!
Not this SixPrizes pay-for Underground bite off.
C’mon man, you gonna steal my Pokemon team's name?!
and use it to pay for your BILLS?!
What about PREMIUM? What about MASTER TRAINER?
You know I aint no j-wittz or something but Kettler put me up to this…
I flip a coin, I cut the deck
I got a god hand
It's a wrap, cut the check
Plus the top deck
and my bench set
and I'm looking
he ain't even got a bench yet
So what's the play
I'm attaching to my active
and you know that I'm attacking
I'm taking prizes after every knockout
He takes no prizes all he gets is KNOCKED out
I play to win
I shake his hand
Then I check the pairings and I play again
I flip again, God Hand again
Flip the starter over, they like NOT AGAIN
I'm like yes again, once again
Im gonna WIN no stopping him
I went rogue for the win I'm a classic
and I'm UNDERGROUND you can’t stand it!
*4"
Lastly, here's my article on "advanced mind games"…It's pretty self-explanatory, so you can read it for yourself!
Advanced Mind Games (5/12/2011) *5
By John K.
"Sally forth:
They have venomous tongues, the whole lot of them…But yours? It contains anti-bodies – remedies that result in a praiseworthy cure. Unfortunately for you, they don’t like you, because snakes need some kind of defense in their arsenal to be uninhibited; otherwise, they would feel vulnerable to more than just the mongoose. They can’t let themselves feel lower to you, so they will respond to your cures with more poison. Yes, the king cobras are in denial: by assuming that your cure won’t push through, and by assuming that more poison is best, their fall will be that much greater. So keep offering your cure – they’ll give in eventually, even if violence occurs between now and then.
You can try to be like liars. It is possible for those of your kind to wear ridiculous cow suits to blend in with the herd. Unfortunately for you, though, you’ve the inclination to do things overzealously: you eat rich, green grass as if it were death incarnate; you cringe as you drink water from the smelly slop; and your “moo” is not guttural enough. As a result, you will be spotted immediately. It is natural to bow to your instincts alone, and – believe me – mooing ain’t one of them. Either way, they will realize that unlikes are unlike; you aren’t like them. You are not a member of the herd, for you lack the instinct to sense coming storms, and you lack the inclination to deep down into the slop.
It is these moments where your decision becomes clear: stop trying to be like them. If you are not livestock, then you will be unable to act like livestock without some hint of revealing parody in your heart, and thus must stick to your own path, whatever that may be. Whenever you try to lie, it is against your nature, and it is against your instincts. It projects miserably, and your disrespect for the cattle lain to slaughter shines through in your tone. You are clearly superior to them, but cast aside the mocking attitude; otherwise, you will not even be tolerated. It is egregious to insult a creature while it is in misery, and even if they don’t realize it yet, they certainly are miserable. Compassion may be a tough thing to hold, but for now, settle with being estranged, and cling to a hatred of hate.
You’ve asked a question: “what’s an F sharp?” Unfortunately for you, your pupils dilate, your eyes water, and that once-confident baritone goes flatter than a beginning bandsman in junior high school. Answer this with head-on embracement of your body language: it tells a better story than you do, so why not let it do the talking?
It turns out that the others all feared being strewn on a platter as much or more as you did, and so they dared not let their quirks consume them. Furthermore, some even snickered…The same ones who were as void of knowledge as you were!
Their cherishing of you is never tantamount to the filling of that void, however. Though you may be lost, lonely, and uncertain in your early days, recognize that from that void, a bright, shining star can be born. And from that sacrifice, more can grow, and discover their own rights.
You are now the sun in this world: song, poem, and story are dedicated to your nurturing powers. Unfortunately for you, intimacy incinerates anything that dares come close, and chars everything just outside. They “want” to cling to an ideal of truth, and as a result no longer advocate straying from your example. “Honesty’s the best policy,” your parents would espouse. “Lying is a sin,” said the pastor.
But from their safe distance away, these feeble people became too complacent. And so they quietly uttered a simple regret: “why can’t I be like you?” Desperate, they stared into your being.
You blinded them. And so never again would they look: by being exposed to your shining example prematurely, their capacity to comprehend was burnt away. Your example with these mongrels was set too soon, and so you must give up on them. Let the creatures gradually work themselves into your direction – give them hints, and give them hope. As it stands now, though, you are stuck in solitude.
Maybe you aren’t so different from them at times, so don’t get arrogant. Your name can be Apollo, Garuda, Ra, or some long-lost string of syllables that start with a “Q” and end with an “L.” It doesn’t matter, for as honest as you are, and as glorious of an example as you may be, there are blemishes in that record, and you’ve led others off of cliffs. It is therefore your obligation, Mister or Miss Truth, to make amends when you do “not” tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth (so help you God). Abide by these commandments three, bestowed upon a stone slab:
If you should lie, then you may admit to it. Brace yourself for more hatred from the snakes and the cattle. “You wretched man! You have defanged and mocked us…Be gone with you!” the serpents jeered. Why should they treat you as something exceptional, anyways? Now you are just as much of a creature as they are by admitting your fault, but – worse yet – you are still alone. Once again, the only way to move on is to endure it.
If you should lie or deceive, but are unable to find strength to admit it, then work to make your lie a reality. When you try, you are the God of this world – the God that puts anything you were taught in Sunday school to shame. Sure, your declarations of independence once started out as gross exaggerations, but they are met by will. You say you make six figures a year? You say you can bang anything you want? Accept only the “figures” you mean, be they monetary or skating techniques. And if by “bang” you meant your head on the desk, then yeah…But that probably doesn’t include attractive Swedish models.
This you can grow out of. Sometimes, little spouts of venom are actually useful defenses for your dreams. It is right after the lie when you must catch yourself, and then consider why you said what you did. When it is willed from a dream, act to make that dream reality, and never look back. This is when your omnipotence and omniscience – your ascent to Godhood and glory – become evident, and this is when the plebeians follow behind.
If you should lie or deceive, are unable to find strength to admit to it, and are either unable or unwilling to make your lie a reality, then protect the abstract ideal of your untruth – the hopes for the future aren’t lost forever, kid. People may know well that you, the 400 pound man who works at the grocery store, wasn’t a United States astronaut, but what they also know is that you wanted them to believe that ludicrous statement. What is it that you wanted, Mr. Omniscient? Did you want to go into outer space, or did you just want to break out of that miserable nine-to-five rigmarole? Or maybe it was a desperate stretch for respect. Do you get enough of it in the daily routine?
As a final warning: a great number of people are disgusting, so don’t stoop down to their level just to gain their affection. It might sound tiring to hear this by now, but the only ones worth giving a care over are those who would be happy with you no matter how successful you were. Just because your fabrication-tempered shield was broken doesn’t mean that all is lost, because there are shields of justice for that lie.
If you should lie or deceive, are unable to find strength to admit to it, are either unable or unwilling to make your lie a reality, and cannot protect the abstract ideal of your untruth, then your lie was an unqualified waste to begin with. Throw it in the garbage can – spare the recycle bin, because this is going to the dump. They are marks on your permanent record, and the larger your file gets, the more certain it is that you are an untouchable (but for all of the right reasons to consider someone as such). What is it when you declare love from the “bottom of the heart,” yet you know you will never mean it? If it is ever found out, then you have infected the object of your abuse with a contagion that will eat away at his or her flesh until there is only bone left. Then, others will see you not as a mere outcast of nature – they will view you as abhorrent to its very foundation. You will be treated like the leper you are, and you will be subject to abuse, scorn, and eternal damnation.
Remember: your lies are tiny evils that accumulate over time, and will come back in full force to harm the world. Those poor, far-off people thousands of miles away will walk on the trash mound that you made for them, founded knee-deep in fetid excrement, infected syringes, and wasteful vanity. However, people are nasty, so you don’t need to care about them…Right?
What of the animals, though? Fish will get caught in your six-pack rings, suffocate, and die a most agonizing, ghastly demise. Bees, with their regular sources of pollen already devastated, will use the devilishly sweet leavings of your cola can lies to make Beelzebub honey, founded in phosphoric acid, unnatural coloring, and high fructose corn syrup galore. Then, you will finally get your just desserts: a plate of sweet treats, made using the best of your own nastiness. Because they are unsalvageable pollutants that are caused by mankind, they are the worst of their kind, and it is these mistruths that your mama meant when she said, “honesty is the best policy.”
If you should twist your tongue on all the conditionals tied to lying, then don’t feel bad, because that comes naturally when going against the truth. So take a deep breath, and recollect yourself.
It is a lonely road to tell the truth; it is a lonely road to hit rock-bottom, as well. Perhaps it is best summed up as just that: a lonely road, no matter how you cut it. But everyone is just as isolated as you are – cast aside for their strong morality or their strong amorality, for they too are the snake opponents, the cowsuit cretins, the bandsmen, astronauts, Gods, and even the lepers. But not all at once: their dualistic natures, just like yours, will branch off into no less than three separate duels, and there is always an internal struggle.
In response to this dilemma, the Arabs said, “the enemy of my enemy is my friend.” When you are at odds with a particular truth or falsity, find someone who is also in your position; find someone who is also alone. It is here where you’ll make a stand; here, where you will stave off the threats; and here, where you’ll make the most real friends you can ever hope to have. Whether you speak or not, this connection will establish a truth that cannot be broken, and a bond that is unshakable.
So sally forth, friend. Advance in the eyes of those who are worth it, seize what you desire, and evoke the truth proudly. "
For the greater knowledge of the Pokemon community, this leak was necessary. Although I may suffer incredulous insults for the next several months, especially from paying members, I'm sure even my dissenters will learn to appreciate what's been done this day.
'Til next time,
-HeyTrainer
*1 -Real Title: "Beacon"
*2 – Real Title: "The Parks’ Blaxploitations: Two Attempts to Appeal to the Black Spectator"
*3 – Real Title: "The Real Team Underground"
*4 – "Props to Muk Man aka James Wilson for the lyrics. O yeah he's on TEAM UNDERGROUND not SIX PRIZES Underground. UGHHHHHH!!! " Also edited by John K.
*5 – Real Title: "How to Tell the Truth (in a World of Untruth)"