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Post by ZephyrPhantom on Jan 20, 2024 8:18:51 GMT
TONIGHTI ( ZephyrPhantom) land in the middle of a split personality war! Animus ( Daij_Djan) orders everything but tea! and Marvoni ( dangerousdice) is here, there, and everywhere! "Fire is danger. It can burn whole buildings if someone is careless.""It can burn whole buildings if someone is careless.""It can burn whole buildings if someone is careless.""It can burn whole buildings if someone is careless."- *SMASH* "Someone change that rubbish before I start a REAL fire!"Hello and welcome to yet another episode of everyone's favorite random images and video clipshow! In the last episode, we were all captured as SCPs and I was brutally murdered - much to my benefit, actually! I'm now at the end of time with Daij_Djan at this strange place that is shaped like a creature named Patrick. How or why they chose that, I suppose we'll find out when it's his turn to explain why this place is the perfect hideaway for time travelers that have no idea what the hell is going on. Eccentric Servitor Creature - Alien Citizen When ~ enters the battlefield, each player may scry 1. You may scry X, where X is the number of players that scried this way, then draw a card. 0/3 "Your order for the top of the deck section, please?"I'll have a... ▓░▓░▓░▓░▓░▓░▓░? Or a ░░░░░░? Bloody hell, my translation magic must broken. While I fix that, let's move onto our first question, and design our orders! #1 We're heading into the holidays as I (The Not-Doctor) write this question, which means it's time for that Human custom of gift-giving and drinking various holiday exclusive beverages. If you had to recommend one set for anyone else in this group to play cards from, which one would it be?
Art credits: ThatSpideyKidmukopinoEstaNoEsDafroSascha Kohlmann
...I feel like I'm forgetting someone.
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Post by Daij_Djan on Jan 25, 2024 0:34:06 GMT
Hello everyone! It's nice to be back, hope you all had a nice time during our small break. But now, it's nice to get back on track again - wherever we might actually be..? 0..... 0..... Wait, what?! OK, that's.. gonna take some time wrapping my head around it.. Sure, I have heard about one's shadow having a mind of its own.. But an avatar?! Definitely won't promise that.. But yeah, for the moment we might want to move on.. (It's not like this'd be the weirdest thing that has happened with this group - like, would it even make the top 10? ) Eccentric Servitor Creature - Alien Citizen When ~ enters the battlefield, each player may scry 1. You may scry X, where X is the number of players that scried this way, then draw a card. 0/3 "Your order for the top of the deck section, please?" How do you know they even have that here..? For now, I think I'll at the very least try reading the menu first, please? (inspired by the Sieges except one of the two options is an ETB this time. looks a bit weird, but it should work just fine rules wise)#1 We're heading into the holidays as I (The Not-Doctor) write this question, which means it's time for that Human custom of gift-giving and drinking various holiday exclusive beverages. If you had to recommend one set for anyone else in this group to play cards from, which one would it be? This is kind of a tricky question for several reasons. First of all, if we're just talking about "cards from the set", then probably almost every set would offer some potential options for anyone - and if we rather take the "entire set" approach, then I'm kind of a bit lost on all the options So instead, please allow me to cheat a bit here and bend the question a bit: My suggestion would be a custom Cube, offering a unique play experience for the entire group at once. Personally, I've built two Cubes in the past: - The second one (yeah, I start with this one, deal with it^^) contained 450 cards fitting into 30 boosters each containing a rare, four uncommons and ten commons - so contrary to most Cubes it indeed cared about rarities and needed to be shuffled in three seperate stacks each time. While that was a bit annoying at times, it actually played quite nice nethertheless.
- The first one I actually only built a part of. Together with two friends we decided to each create a third of a Cube on our own (with some additional rules like we only used pre-Modern old school framed cards) - and then we just threw our parts together and had fun with it. Yes, it was kind of a weird mess at times some cards sudenly showing up as two-offs (interestingly enough we didn't have a single three-off card though) also due to our restrictions creatures definitely weren't really on par with the removal we used - but it was so much fun back then
So my suggestion for a new play experience would be exactly that: Try building your own Cube (also obvious nod to how this requires the same skills as designing a custom set) - or maybe even try setting one up with three of four friends for the ultimate chaotic experience! ...I feel like I'm forgetting someone. Nah, it's probably nothing. Looks like the two of us are up to a great start.. (all manga artwork by Satoshi Mizukami)
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Post by ZephyrPhantom on Jan 25, 2024 13:32:18 GMT
Fascinating, it's as if the loss of my eldritch pest has resulted in you getting one of your own to balance the scales...
My magical translator's still on the fritz here, so let's start with that response, actually - I think a cube is an excellent suggestion (and one I hadn't thought of) because it lets you bring a tailored out of the box experience out for you and friends to enjoy. I do think the upfront skill needed to be build a Cube can be intimidating and perhaps even a problem if you're not well versed in it, but everyone's gotta start somewhere and I do think it offers a level of control that may not necessarily found in just taking random cards and slapping together kitchen table decks. It trades speed and accessibility for a more controlled balance, in other words.
I like the approach of choosing between an ETB or a longer term effect. I suppose you 'return' the menu when you're done with a convenient sac outlet or two...
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Post by ZephyrPhantom on Feb 5, 2024 3:05:02 GMT
Blink twice across space and time if you're alive, dangerousdice ! (I'll have my proper answer up by the end of this week, otheriwse.)
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Post by ZephyrPhantom on Feb 11, 2024 22:38:36 GMT
Well, this is awkward. Sparkling Water Artifact - Food When ~ enters the battlefield, target creature gains +1/+1 until end of turn. , , Sacrifice ~: You gain 3 life. I was going to give this haste, but I couldn't figure out how to make that make sense, and I didn't quite want to make it an energy drink either. So here we are! I've had a few weeks to (semi)-think about it, and I still think I'd recommend original Ravnica block. There's something the old European aesthetic portrayal of the the guilds that doesn't quite strike nowadays in the midst of literal tanks and detectives with deerstalker hats running around the place, with truly strange guildless tidbits like the Nephilim or Order of the Stars filling in the gaps long before Gateless and the like forced them to all be united around a common theme as well. Magic was still solidifying how to sell color pairs at the time and as a result it's an interesting blend of old and new, with odd nowadays-'impractical' creatures like the Hunted Cycle (e.g. Hunted Dragon) being mixed in with iconic cards like the Guildmages and the occasional Bottled Cloister or Sky Swallower to mix things up. For a little less potentially mechanically wacky time, I would probably recommend Return to Ravnica block, where things are a lot more refined and consistent and some other theme hasn't hijacked the plot just yet as it tends to happen on Ravnica now. Though, I guess at some point RTR and Guilds of Ravnica sort of just blend together with how similar they look... ...well, let's go straight from Christmas to New Year's then! Now, Daij_Djan and Animus here appear to have cowrote this next question... hey, have we ever gotten a card that represents sticky notes yet? We need to put these questions down on something with how often we keep forgetting where we are. *RIIIIIP*Oi, where did the other half of that note go?! Waiter?! Sogging heck, it better not be in the fly soup.... Actually, scratch that first card design question, maybe design something sticky that'll help me find the rest of that question!
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Post by sdfkjgh on Feb 12, 2024 23:53:10 GMT
Chaps, you've got to hide me! There's some strange shapeshifter wearing a tacky piece of costume jewelry and his godawfully underdeveloped Gary Stu sycophant hunting me down for god only knows why! But the weirdest thing is, far weirder than the means they have for nullifying all my normal abilities to deal with such impudence, that underling looks exactly like our old friend, sdfkjgh! Even worse, my favorite cousin has informed me that those same weirdos are coming after them as well! What in the coldest blazes of the innermost Circle has been going on here?!
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Post by Daij_Djan on Feb 17, 2024 20:41:53 GMT
(sadly I wasn't able to finish my answer by yesterday and since it's my son's birthday this weekend, my response will most likely take till Tuesday)
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Post by ZephyrPhantom on Feb 17, 2024 23:58:49 GMT
(sadly I wasn't able to finish my answer by yesterday and since it's my son's birthday this weekend, my response will most likely take till Tuesday) (No rush, happy birthday to him. )
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Post by Daij_Djan on Mar 1, 2024 22:52:40 GMT
OK, first of all: (No rush, happy birthday to him. Big thanks We had lots of fun over the weekend – but sadly the week after went a bit crazy and left me with lots of stuff to catch up to, which is why this sadly took so long. But I finally caught up to most of the urgend things, so here we finally go! No comment – moving on: I've had a few weeks to (semi)-think about it, and I still think I'd recommend original Ravnica block. There's something the old European aesthetic portrayal of the the guilds that doesn't quite strike nowadays in the midst of literal tanks and detectives with deerstalker hats running around the place, with truly strange guildless tidbits like the Nephilim or Order of the Stars filling in the gaps long before Gateless and the like forced them to all be united around a common theme as well. Magic was still solidifying how to sell color pairs at the time and as a result it's an interesting blend of old and new, with odd nowadays-'impractical' creatures like the Hunted Cycle (e.g. Hunted Dragon) being mixed in with iconic cards like the Guildmages and the occasional Bottled Cloister or Sky Swallower to mix things up. For a little less potentially mechanically wacky time, I would probably recommend Return to Ravnica block, where things are a lot more refined and consistent and some other theme hasn't hijacked the plot just yet as it tends to happen on Ravnica now. Though, I guess at some point RTR and Guilds of Ravnica sort of just blend together with how similar they look... Good suggestion indeed. On the one hand, Ravnica is mor generic than other potential choices, but at the same time definitely feeling Magic-like with many iconic characters and locations let alone the guilds themselves). Also I feel like a meta focussed on twocolored builds is the safest choice for stuff like this. Though to be fair, exactly because Magic sets / planes nowadays span over so many themes and archetypes (not even counting external UB lore), intentionally aiming for a flavor / theme fitting for the target audience can be the best hook as well (a bit more on that below). ] What were your highs and lows of Magic 2023? What are your hopes / fears / predictions for the upcoming year?Let's be real, I think we've all ranted quite a bit about the shortcomings of the past year already, so I'll just skip that part. I think I'll simply leave the Professor's take on the topic here for now – but to balance out the negativity I'll include both videos: As far as what I liked best, I think 'll have to add an anecdote from us meeting my brother-in-law two weekends back. Apparently he's been part of a playgroup for a few months now, including the girlfried of one of his buddies. The girl in question always was semi-interested in the game, but it didn't really click for her – until the LotR stuff came out. Being the big fan she was, she completely dived into the deep end and is enjoying the game ever since. So my takeaway is, despite all the valid critiques concerning story, designs, let alone the company itself – the designers still have it. All the UB products have received a lot of praise as far as I can tell, and even „normal“ sets still include tone of clever and flavorful designs. Yes, they tend to get burried under tons and tons of product – but despite everything, they still exist. As far as 2024 is concerned, I honestly don't expect many changes compared to 2023. While it might be hard to deny product fatigue is a thing, the game clearly hasn't received that much of a hit WotC would completely take a step back and try a different route instead. Products will continuesly get pumped out, number of Secret Lairs will rival the wordcount on a modern generic double-faced card.. .., and as only potential change I'd really expect we'll maybe see the announced slight reduction of legends in an average set over the course of the year. hey, have we ever gotten a card that represents sticky notes yet? We need to put these questions down on something with how often we keep forgetting where we are. Pretty sure this should only exist in UnSet territory..? Wait, what? Also hey, don't let your golems eat all the food you don't like in the end – who's gonna pay for all of this?! Actually, scratch that first card design question, maybe design something sticky that'll help me find the rest of that question! Oh, right.. I did miss this one (literally only noticed as I was about to upload all the art).. Panicking.. When in doubt – do a meme! Nailed it! (all manga artwork by Satoshi Mizukami)
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Post by ZephyrPhantom on Apr 7, 2024 3:21:30 GMT
Incovenient Death Instant Target player destroys a creature of their choice. -hrkkkkkkkkkkkk!Oh Elspeth, what in the name of the Thunder Junction backwaters was in that triple spined porcufish?! Well, it seems I'm still alive (albeit needing a Bag of many bags for...you know *blegh*), let's get on with the show. I think you're right, Daij_Djan , about the situation regarding new players - we, the older playerbase, might not see it, but "Every set is someone's first set" is still in full effect - maybe the best way to put it is that now WoTC is constantly churning out "first sets" nonstop. I know the block model was not as popular as we think and I'm not calling for it to return (even if I personally would like it), but I think there's more to the money printer than short term gain, unlike what the average social media post tends to claim. I'm not exactly in a condition to think about it, but we're even seeing this bleed into canon magic design - the use of Phoenix feathers on Vryn as healing items is extremely convenient timing considering the Final Fantasy set is coming out in the coming year. Cards indeed have gotten more wordy, as we've discussed before - whether we turn into Yugioh or not, that's another question entirely... blegh, excuse me, I need to get another bag.
You're probably right that WoTC isn't going to change course any time soon - if anything, this new, UFS (now called Universus, for those of you that still play it) style of design is here to stay and it's printing even more money than before and likely to create new engaged fans. I think, for both the sake of enjoying the game, and maybe just so this group isn't dunking on the same talking point over and over, we have to come to terms with the fact this is the way the game is and what good we can get out of it now, either personally or otherwise. One other thing I will bring up is that I'm glad Deckbuilder's Challenge was created and still manages to chug along despite making a deck being a taller hurdle for submissions. I really enjoy what people have put out for it and it makes for a good repository of Commander and constructed decks to play online. Which leads nicely to our next question (which fortunately doesn't have two card names, but I really liked that design in particular:) Oh, that's right, I lost the D...well, the question's pretty clear, right? You know, *cough* I feel a bit...lighter. And isn't the table a bit higher up? Can someone get me a mirror?
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