Lucky Strike

Hello everyone and welcome back to Tiro Finale for a short tale of luck and unexpected fortunes. For those of you who have followed the blog for a while, would know of my illustrious history with lady luck, of lack thereof. For that reason, I make it a point to avoid lotteries like a plague especially when real money is involved. Be it something as benign as blind boxes to the heavier stuff like betting in casinos, I have made it somewhat of a life goal to stay away from.

Lottery elements in video games are one thing but, when it comes to real life physical transactions, I can never seem to catch a break. Now the more logical and rational one among you would probably explain that the odds are always stacked against the player and towards the house whenever any form of lottery/raffle/gambling is involved and rightfully so.

Take Banpresto's Ichiban Kuji (literally Best Lottery) for example, prizes range from A to G with decreasing rarity along the way. Granted there are a fixed number of prizes with a smaller quantity going towards the more valuable prize, the odds of one picking up a top prize is especially low. And it is not even a case of, you win some, you lose some. In the grand scheme of things, these lotteries are more akin to you win rarely and lose often. Even when you do win big, there is always someone who does the exact opposite, losing big. In the end, the only guaranteed winner is the house.

Yet, surround yourself with a particular type of individual long enough and you start to question the notion of your rational calculation of odds very seriously. Individuals who seem to be surrounded by undeniable luck in every single Kuji ticket they tear open. Just how lucky can one get? One day while browsing a local hobby store, my friend decides on a whim to get one ticket for a fairly recent (March 2018) Madoka Magica Kuji. Single Kuji ticket just to give it a shot? Certainly sounds fair. 

But, a single Kuji ticket from an Ichiban Kuji V. Premium? That costs 2,000 Yen per ticket, or a little over three times the price of a Ichiban Kuji Premium ticket! Sure,there may only be A and B prizes up for grabs. But the fact that the A Prize was limited to only 1,500 pieces meant that only one A Prize was available in each set. Talk about slim odds! 

 

With cash handed over and hands thoroughly rummaging through the still full ticket box, he pulled out a lone ticket. Unceremoniously, said ticket was torn open as one would after having opened several hundreds of these in the past. Because we were almost certain the alphabet inscribed would read as B, there was a notable time lag followed by a synchronous "Oh!". There was no mistaking it, the letter inscribed upon the dull ticket tab said it all, A, as in A Prize. 

Just as unceremoniously as the ticket was opened so, was the handing over of the top shelf prize into the possession of its new owner. For a brief moment, I thought to myself, it sure must be nice to have such good luck. But before I could entertain the thought much longer, my friend turned towards me and simply handed the beautiful piece of canvas art to me as I heard, "here you go, it's yours. At that moment, whatever doubt I had in me vanished. Indeed, it certainly feels nice to have good luck!

I hope you enjoyed that little story I have to share in regards to this recent addition to my Madoka Magica collection. Being a limited edition piece, this will certainly be a piece that I will cherish for many, many years to come! With that, I thank you so much for taking the time to read and hope to see you next time on Tiro Finale for more adventures with us. Until then, thank you so much for reading and have yourself a wonderful day ahead!