[Off-Topic] Community Chat Thread

[Lifeless]

Oddly I got into Berserk after playing the game on the Dreamcast and subsequently watching the original anime. From what I recall the game was quite good even if I had no ideal what the Hell was going on. I've always meant to pick up the manga. Maybe I'll get around to it once it's completed.

[duducrash]

The artwork has some crazy details, and it's a fairly unique story. It definitely pulls no punches and has dark themes, but I don't think it gets "edgy for its own sake".

It trully does go hard. I don't think it is too edgy, and I dont want to sound like a puritan chasing sex away. Just like when sometimes sex is in the story as a metaphor. I think it is a good storytelling device and it allows for some great exposition and so on.

the game looks fun, but I think it might go further than what Ive read so far. But Ive been reading fast. i'm in volume 23 out of 41 I have, So I'll finish and see if I can get it

[5colorsrainbow]

@benjameenbear @TheAmericanSpirit
Also of note Cynthia Williams (the now ex ceo) only has the role since 2022 so most if not all the choices to do with magic are things and products being made under her tenue are ones that one we just now seeing due to magic working 2-3 years in advances on sets and many issues where in motion long before she stepped in.

[RxPhantom]

Do you all keep up with mainstream comics? Recently, maybve a month or two ago, Andrea Sorentino was recently exposed/accused of using AI in his own work. He is a stabilished artist with a good enough following. and i'll tell you what, I wouldnt've known had it not being explained to me like I'm 5 I dont think we'll be able to separate some drawings from AI in a couple of years. Specially if the artist feeds it only with his own artwork

https://bleedingcool.com/comics/accusat ... -mount-ai/

I think this will happen with Magic if we don't push back hard enough.

@benjameenbear @TheAmericanSpirit
Also of note Cynthia Williams (the now ex ceo) only has the role since 2022 so most if not all the choices to do with magic are things and products being made under her tenue are ones that one we just now seeing due to magic working 2-3 years in advances on sets and many issues where in motion long before she stepped in.

I don't think this news is a big deal. I do think Magic is on the cusp of a reckoning though, especially when it comes to product fatigue. I also think the Marvel products won't meet expectations, and that'll have all sorts of implications.

[Guardman]

So for FNM last night we drafted my custom BotW set at my LGS. It was a ton of fun and it seemed like everyone really enjoyed it. There were 8 people total, so it was the perfect number. One person drafted four Blupee along with an Ocarina of Time so each time I saw one of his games he had an army of Blupee's going on.

I ended up winning the draft in the end, going 3-0, with a UR Equipment Go-Wide Aggro deck. The only rare I was playing was Blood Moon Traitor, while in the last match my opponent was playing 4 rares and 2 mythics. But a little luck on him getting mana screwed one game and just having a lot of two and three drops meant I did enough damage before he could deploy his game winning threats to win.

Also my set already created a meme thanks to Stone Pebblit having twelve copies instead of the six like everyone other common. May every pack have a Stone Pebblit.

[5colorsrainbow]

So for FNM last night we drafted my custom BotW set at my LGS. It was a ton of fun and it seemed like everyone really enjoyed it. There were 8 people total, so it was the perfect number. One person drafted four Blupee along with an Ocarina of Time so each time I saw one of his games he had an army of Blupee's going on.

I ended up winning the draft in the end, going 3-0, with a UR Equipment Go-Wide Aggro deck. The only rare I was playing was Blood Moon Traitor, while in the last match my opponent was playing 4 rares and 2 mythics. But a little luck on him getting mana screwed one game and just having a lot of two and three drops meant I did enough damage before he could deploy his game winning threats to win.

Also my set already created a meme thanks to Stone Pebblit having twelve copies instead of the six like everyone other common. May every pack have a Stone Pebblit.

Love this, been also fiddling with a Zelda UB set in my spare time.

[Hermes_]

done with my 1/35 scale Tamiya Russian Army Tank T-72M1 build

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[Hermes_]

From the Hasbro Earnings Call - 24 Apr 2024

[folding_music]

"we maintain our long-term bullishness on the brand" wow! reminds me why I don't read these things lol

edit: Thread slain!
erotic review of Thunder Junction and its satellite sets suggests it's the driest set ever made, saved only from being 0/10 by the areas in which goth and cowboy intersect, a few individual anthromorphs and the cactusfolk whose wiry bristliness at least suggests a type of sensation. cowboy dress honestly is to clothing what kelloggs is to cereal

[materpillar]

@pokken You still living a few hours away from Cleveland? I still think it'd be cool to meet up sometime.

[duducrash]

Im almost up to date with berserk, 36 out of 42 volumes read. Trully amazing.

I'll tell you what, the art is something else, trully amazing

[pokken]

@pokken You still living a few hours away from Cleveland? I still think it'd be cool to meet up sometime.

Yep! Actually just rode the train through there :D I'm in Erie (although Chicago for work this week). Got some cool early dawn shots of what I believe to be the Sandusky lake shore I should try to post.

I'll let ya know the next time I'm organically in Cle area and you are similarly always welcome to hit me up in Erie. Me and the crew play magic most Fridays at gateway games. Tho probably more on my porch this summer I hope .

[materpillar]

@pokken You still living a few hours away from Cleveland? I still think it'd be cool to meet up sometime.

Yep! Actually just rode the train through there :D I'm in Erie (although Chicago for work this week). Got some cool early dawn shots of what I believe to be the Sandusky lake shore I should try to post.

I'll let ya know the next time I'm organically in Cle area and you are similarly always welcome to hit me up in Erie. Me and the crew play magic most Fridays at gateway games. Tho probably more on my porch this summer I hope .

Could you send me a pm so I could try to set up some time to swing by? I believe yours are still locked. My weekends are usually pretty booked out.

[Hermes_]

I see no way this could go wrong https://wpn.wizards.com/en/event/magic-presents-pride

This event is only available to WPN stores in the U.S. and Canada. For the Magic Presents: Pride event, treat all eligible commanders as though they had the partner ability. This allows players to add an additional commander to a deck they already have or use a never-before-seen combination of two commanders to helm a totally new deck.

Commanders that already have abilities like partner won't let players have more than two commanders at this event, but we applaud their enthusiasm. Remember that the extra commander still counts toward the 100 cards in their deck.

[materpillar]

@pokken
In your user control panel there's a "board preferences tab"
In there is a "Allow users to send you private messages:"

xD I can't respond at the moment

[pokken]

@pokken
In your user control panel there's a "board preferences tab"
In there is a "Allow users to send you private messages:"

xD I can't respond at the moment

Wow I must have been super cranky last time I took some time off. Fixed. :D

[DirkGently]

I almost died last weekend.

Had an experienced/rusty student getting back in the saddle. After a few passes, managed to get a good approach. Touched down fine. Told him to put the power back in for a touch and go...and he applied no rudder (or maybe the wrong rudder considering how quickly things went bad) and sent us off the side of the runway. I grabbed the controls and made the (probably bad) decision to take off before we hit the fence...we were barely above the stall, maybe 30 feet off the ground, with me barely in control of the plane as it did a big swoop to the left and right. For a few seconds I was certain we were going to crash. Then we got enough speed and made it up into the air.

Hands were shaking for the rest of the day, but I had to project calm considering the next lesson was a 10 year old with his mom hovering.

Christ I hope this job doesn't kill me =/

[Hermes_]

I almost died last weekend.

Had an experienced/rusty student getting back in the saddle. After a few passes, managed to get a good approach. Touched down fine. Told him to put the power back in for a touch and go...and he applied no rudder (or maybe the wrong rudder considering how quickly things went bad) and sent us off the side of the runway. I grabbed the controls and made the (probably bad) decision to take off before we hit the fence...we were barely above the stall, maybe 30 feet off the ground, with me barely in control of the plane as it did a big swoop to the left and right. For a few seconds I was certain we were going to crash. Then we got enough speed and made it up into the air.

Hands were shaking for the rest of the day, but I had to project calm considering the next lesson was a 10 year old with his mom hovering.

Christ I hope this job doesn't kill me =/

Until you get it written and notarized that I get your MTG collection, you're not allowed to die okay?

[Dunadain]

At least it would have been a badass way to go.

[materpillar]

I almost died last weekend.

Had an experienced/rusty student getting back in the saddle. After a few passes, managed to get a good approach. Touched down fine. Told him to put the power back in for a touch and go...and he applied no rudder (or maybe the wrong rudder considering how quickly things went bad) and sent us off the side of the runway. I grabbed the controls and made the (probably bad) decision to take off before we hit the fence...we were barely above the stall, maybe 30 feet off the ground, with me barely in control of the plane as it did a big swoop to the left and right. For a few seconds I was certain we were going to crash. Then we got enough speed and made it up into the air.

Hands were shaking for the rest of the day, but I had to project calm considering the next lesson was a 10 year old with his mom hovering.

Christ I hope this job doesn't kill me =/

I've have some vague Illusions of Grandeur of visiting New Zealand one day. Showing up at your LGS and out politicing your Phelddagrif. Until that day comes, I expect you to stay alive.

Glad you're ok. That sounds hella spooky.

[DirkGently]

Until you get it written and notarized that I get your MTG collection, you're not allowed to die okay?

I have no idea how my gf would go about trying to sell off my collection. Honestly I'd be kinda curious.

Maybe she'd spend so long trying to figure out which cards were worth money that she'd end up finally getting into the game once I'm dead xD

[duducrash]

I alawys think I'm going to die, so every now and then I set up a video talking to my fiancée on how to navigate my hobbies in the events of me dying. Magic is the easiest, because she could take the binders and decks to my FLGS and get 60-70% of the value with no troubles. Otrher hobbies would be a hassle to sell

[Guardman]

So my birthday was yesterday and everyone ended getting me the same present:

SPOILER

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And it was perfect.




Behold my Umbreon army. They all know Wish // Protect // Toxic // Foul Play. Only 3 more to go for my team to be complete. BWAHAHAHA!!!

[materpillar]

Just met up with @pokken at his local LGS. It's the first time I've played at a LGS with randos in a long time. My first impression is holy %$#% cards released in the last 3-4 years are absurd. Games are hella fast now. Secondly, I'm now very much on team ban Sol Ring.

We played 6 games (!) in 4.5 hours or so. I got mostly pubstomped but I had some terrible draws/decisions/luck.

Game 1: I kept an unplayable hand so that I could flaunt my Elephant Graveyard. I basically couldn't cast anything until turn 5 and it turns out that Obeka, Splitter of Seconds is a flat out must kill card. She wasn't killed and the table rapidly folded. In other news, keeping a hand of cards you can't cast to show off an expensive reserved list card is not exactly optimal play.

Game 2: I kept a 2 land hand and got to experience that Slicer, Hired Muscle // Slicer, High-Speed Antagonist is some absolute %$#%$#%. I mean, I already knew that logically but experiencing it on turn 2 is something. My Changeling tribal deck is also some absolute %$#%$#% though so it wasn't unwarranted or anything. That being said I missed a couple of land drops and I kindly let @pokken untap so he could Swerve my Crib Swap so Slicer didn't die and I took a pile of extra damage. Slicer stalled out but I was down to 9 life and barely died to a couple of the other players' dragon. Pretty sure I would have won if I'd have untapped but I was last in the turn order. So it goes.

Game 3: High CMC tribal did the casual T4 Spellbound Dragon. T5 make it a 14/5. Clunk someone and then post combat drop The Great Henge into Ghalta, Primal Hunger which felt amazing. T6 I dropped stuff and ate a wrath. T7-T9 a bunch of stuff happened but I managed to stick Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth and Cabal Coffers and used them to burn out the table with Heretic's Punishment

Game 4: I busted out Tivadar of Thorn. An opponent played Haktos the Unscarred and rolled a 4 on his weakness. Tivadar is basically a pile of 2-3 drops and no one else could answer him so Haktos rolled the table killing me turn 6. If he'd killed @pokken instead of me I would have likely killed him in the 1v1 with Archon of Coronation.

Game 5: Tivadar run back. @pokken was running Ephara, God of the Polis which is basically Tivadar except better in every way. That matchup is basically unwinnable, on top of which I flooded out haaaaaaaaaard.

Game 6: Playing Yurlok of Scorch Thrash to see if they thought it was group hug or if they agreed with @DirkGently that it kinda isn't. I go T4 Rankle, Master of Pranks. T5 Hunted Dragon. @pokken goes T4 Xenagos, God of Revels. T5 Bloodthirster attack me for 12. Flash in Anzrag, the Quake-Mole with a hideaway land. Gives the mole haste with Xenagos and attacks someone else with it. They block it. Hit the third player with a large Bloodthirster. 4th combat double the mole again to a 32/28 and kill me. That'll show me for tapping out turn 5 while at 30+ life.


One of the players at the table was basically on all glass cannon decks all the time. He was rocked Obeka, Splitter of Seconds, Grimgrin, Corpse-Born, Rohgahh, Kher Keep Overlord, Haktos the Unscarred, Zask, Skittering Swarmlord, and Kenessos, Priest of Thassa. I'm pretty sure every one of his decks would just hard fold to Imprisoned in the Moon on his commander. He won half the games but If I played him against on a semi regular basis I'd either out glass cannon him with Changelings or just make sure I played a deck that could kill his general twice and he wouldn't be an issue at all. Just not figuring out that all of his decks were the same flavor of glass cannon degenerate until too late stopped me from doing much.

The other player seemed to just be mostly outgunned by the glass cannon player.

I think @pokken got a faster read on the glass cannon player than I did because he obliterated him the last two games of the evening by out controlled him with Ephara, God of the Polis. The next game he out glass cannoned him with Xenagos, God of Revels.

[pokken]

First of all @materpillar it was awesome hanging with you, thanks for makin the drive! I really enjoyed getting to see some decks I've followed for years in person.

I'm now very much on team ban Sol Ring.

Same, it ruins every game it shows up in pretty much. Adds very little to the format. But if you don't play it against randos you get wrecked unless you're constantly killing everything.

My first impression is holy %$#% cards released in the last 3-4 years are absurd. Games are hella fast now.

This is the most important point I keep having to drive home for myself. These guys were playing mostly like ~$300 decks with high ratios of new cards and that's the norm now. They're pushing lethal on turn 6 or 7 most games with this stuff.

I miss slightly slower grindier games with cards that don't do so much. new cards just...do all the things :D

faster read on the glass cannon player

I'm pretty sure every one of his decks would just hard fold to Imprisoned in the Moon on his commander.

I think your summation of his playstyle is extremely accurate. I had not played with them before but every deck was basically commander-centric, extremely tuned and linear. Good way to make solid decks on a reasonable budget.

The Zask deck in particular was one where I regretted cutting Gilded Drake :D When I transmuted Muddle I knew in my heart I should have been getting Gilded Drake and realized I'd tried to friendly up my deck.

The other guy I had less of a read on; he had some very good decks and was a decent player. I could not tell if he was intentionally sandbagging much of the time, but he certainly was with Oloro and his discard choices with Hinata made me very curious. Like he literally discarded answers to the board state. So I was left a little unsure. Very nice guy, my best guess is he doesn't like confrontation and didn't want to get yelled at for comboing us out -- me, I'm always good to go to the next game :D

Again my apologies for failing to....read or do basic math at the end there, Xenagos, God of Revels deck took a turn or so longer than needed unnecessarily. Ephara's current build is fun but takes a lot of mental energy to pilot.

and got to experience that Slicer, Hired Muscle // Slicer, High-Speed Antagonist is some absolute %$#%$#%

Yeah Slicer is ridiculous. I never play it more than once a night because it's basically (I realized) a group hug deck. It shortens the game clock significantly and it never wins. :D

I must say your play with saving that guy by ninja-bouncing slicer was sick though. I love the creative ways people find to stop it.