[Off-Topic] Community Chat Thread

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Lifeless
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Post by Lifeless » 2 years ago

I'd love to stop shaving but between my wife not liking my full beard and me hating how my mustache grows in I stick with the chinstrap I've had since college. I'm a regular every-other-day electric shaver and have been for years. It took a surprisingly long time for my skin to get used to it but now I hardly ever have any irritation or trouble.

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Post by pokken » 2 years ago

Lifeless wrote:
2 years ago
It took a surprisingly long time for my skin to get used to it but now I hardly ever have any irritation or trouble.
My grandpa actually taught me that, I never believed him. "You've got to just keep using it until your face gets trained" or something like that. made no sense to me but I eventually stuck with it and got there =P

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Post by SocorroTortoise » 2 years ago

My beard ranges from ~2 weeks worth of growth to "haven't shaved in months." I don't think my wife has ever even seen me clean shaven outside of pictures.

On instruments, I have an entry level bass from back in high school when a bunch of friends wanted to start a band (never really spent any serious time with it, though), a viola, and a mandolin. I'm horribly out of practice on any of them at best right now. I keep meaning to pick up the mandolin then getting distracted by other things.
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Post by toctheyounger » 2 years ago

pokken wrote:
2 years ago
Best I can do at this late hour. Just a quarter pounder p pickup, sperzel locking tuners, stainless steel mandolin sized frets like a dingwall. Swamp ash body.

Scale is 36 to 33.5 so not quite the 37-34 of a ding. I did play one of those for a while and they are stupid nice tho.
It looks gorgeous. I've never played anything that high end myself. My most opulent bass is a Music Man stingray, the off brand version of the Ernie Balls. It's well made and has plenty of punch through, but it's far from high end. I did pick up and MTD Kingston before deciding on this one, but I don't regret the decision at all, it's been very robust and the reduced cost allowed me to pick up some pedals and the head/cab setup, which nowadays you can't get first hand anymore, and honestly, it's an incredibly versatile head with a lot of power. Even through headphones (make sure they can handle line level power) it sounds exquisite.

I've also got a Kala ubass, which is lovely to just pick up and doodle with if you don't have a lot of space or time. I've never actually plugged it in, that's how busy I am, but I've heard it does a great representation of an upright bass when heard through speakers.

I can't wait to play again, but I'm expecting true sloppiness. My theory knowledge is very patchy as I'm entirely self taught, and having not touched either of my basses for at least 18 months I don't really expect my fingers to know what to do either.
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Post by cryogen » 2 years ago

I'm jealous of all y'alls bass skills. I bought a cheap one to learn, but zero time to actually practice turns out to be a problem. So every once in a while I'll pick it up and pluck a couple of bass riffs I memorized.

On the subject of facial hair, I have properly shaved exactly once since I retired from the military. Now I just take trimmers to it when it gets to be an annoying 1/4 inch. So like once a week.
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Post by toctheyounger » 2 years ago

cryogen wrote:
2 years ago
I'm jealous of all y'alls bass skills. I bought a cheap one to learn, but zero time to actually practice turns out to be a problem. So every once in a while I'll pick it up and pluck a couple of bass riffs I memorized.

On the subject of facial hair, I have properly shaved exactly once since I retired from the military. Now I just take trimmers to it when it gets to be an annoying 1/4 inch. So like once a week.
I wouldn't call what I do skillful per se. I don't/can't compose my own pieces and I'm pretty limited in what I can cover (the best I ever managed was Seek and Destroy by Metallica and parts of some Mars Volta cuts). There's just a massive bridge between the theory I do know and applying it to my instrument.

Trimming is relatable - I'd love to grow a long and voluminous beard but mine tends to just curl in on itself and get super itchy, so I keep it close cropped. That also staves off my mustache in the never ending battle for my mouth.
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Post by pokken » 2 years ago

cryogen wrote:
2 years ago
I'm jealous of all y'alls bass skills. I bought a cheap one to learn, but zero time to actually practice turns out to be a problem. So every once in a while I'll pick it up and pluck a couple of bass riffs I memorized.
toctheyounger wrote:
2 years ago

I wouldn't call what I do skillful per se. I don't/can't compose my own pieces and I'm pretty limited in what I can cover (the best I ever managed was Seek and Destroy by Metallica and parts of some Mars Volta cuts). There's just a massive bridge between the theory I do know and applying it to my instrument.

Trimming is relatable - I'd love to grow a long and voluminous beard but mine tends to just curl in on itself and get super itchy, so I keep it close cropped. That also staves off my mustache in the never ending battle for my mouth.
I got a lot better at composing and improvising than I ever did at playing intricate stuff. I think the "hardest" piece I ever played was Bernadette by the Four Tops (Jamerson on bass ofc).

Honestly not sure I would ever be able to learn at this age; when I learned I worked in a datacenter, overnight shifts from 6pm to 6am. It was often very slow, and one of the owners used to bring me in bass books-- he was a serious Victor Wooten type guy--way out there slap stuff.

I probably played close to a thousand hours that first year, I'd guess over 800 hours at work. I'd just sit there practicing walking bass through the circle of 5ths backwards and forwards for hours in between tickets and building new servers. Then after that we built a studio at home and I'd practice an hour a day by myself and two 3 hour practices a week with the band. It's crazy looking back how much time I sunk into it given that I don't even play anymore.

I do have a few (local) TV appearances and a 5 song EP that I composed a few of the bass parts for (Hello, Madness, and of course I contributed my uh, style, to the others).

https://redcomplex.bandcamp.com/
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Post by Hermes_ » 2 years ago

so, walmart finally got some TSR and i bought one of those booster draft things and pulled:

foil Jhoira of the Ghitu,
Ith, High Arcanist
time shifted Trinket Mage
Time shifted Grenzo, Dungeon Warden
Hypergenesis
Coalition Relic
time shifted Alesha, Who Smiles at Death
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Post by TheGildedGoose » 2 years ago

toctheyounger wrote:
2 years ago
Mars Volta cuts
Did you hear about their new vinyl box set, La Realidad de los Sueños? I desperately wanted to pick a copy up but didn't have five hundred Yankee dollars to drop on it. It's got virtually everything they've ever recorded, including some rare stuff I've only heard via bootlegging.

Interestingly, I, too, picked up the bass briefly. I learned some Pixies, Gang of Four, and Talking Heads lines before giving up.

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Post by toctheyounger » 2 years ago

TheGildedGoose wrote:
2 years ago
toctheyounger wrote:
2 years ago
Mars Volta cuts
Did you hear about their new vinyl box set, La Realidad de los Sueños? I desperately wanted to pick a copy up but didn't have five hundred Yankee dollars to drop on it. It's got virtually everything they've ever recorded, including some rare stuff I've only heard via bootlegging.

Interestingly, I, too, picked up the bass briefly. I learned some Pixies, Gang of Four, and Talking Heads lines before giving up.
I hadn't! I definitely couldn't afford it though. I did hear about the Cloud Hills tapes which is a collection of the full cuts from the Deloused sessions.

Honestly I'm still holding out hope for a reunion. Ikey being gone sucks but otherwise they have all the makings of an apocalyptic reunion. They're responsible for some of the best concerts I've ever been to. And I'm kind of in love with their bassist, Juan Alderete. The guy is a total demon.
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Post by Yatsufusa » 2 years ago

Wow I return here briefly, wanted to comment on the faction thread, ended up with a grandfather story reminiscing about my favorite lore of MTG past.

But that also definitively concluded that my personal "golden age" of Magic Lore started with Kamigawa (when I started playing) and ended when the Eldrazi arc ended (even if the Eldrazi arc itself was unsatisfying, it was still closure). I didn't really care that much for the Bolas Arc during the arc itself, but after it and when the TWD debacle happened and fully severed my affinity with the lore, yeah I recognized that my "golden age" actually closed with the conclusion of the Eldrazi arc.

Now I sorta understand why the pre-modern era folks hold the likes of Urza and Yawgmoth so closely (I understand their importance, but I was never there when it happened so they will never be as close to me like Hidetsugu and the Eldrazi are).
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Post by SocorroTortoise » 2 years ago

Yatsufusa wrote:
2 years ago
Now I sorta understand why the pre-modern era folks hold the likes of Urza and Yawgmoth so closely (I understand their importance, but I was never there when it happened so they will never be as close to me like Hidetsugu and the Eldrazi are).
The Weatherlight story arc lasted for a long time, and a lot of it was told through the cards in the set. I've never read any of the MtG novels/comics nor really sought out the story and I could probably still give you the broad strokes of the Rath cycle storyline 20+ years later. A lot of those characters are the ones I associate with the game because that's when I was starting to play. Even if you're mostly invested in the gameplay (like I am), those characters are familiar after being the story focus for years of sets and it's nice to see modern power level takes on the cards, or cards for characters that previously only showed up in flavor text or card art.

I think we actually have most of the big hitters from that era at this point. Off the top of my head, Gix and Takara are the biggest story names without cards and I don't even have a sense of whether Takara was ever really a character other than Volrath in disguise.
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Post by toctheyounger » 2 years ago

SocorroTortoise wrote:
2 years ago
Yatsufusa wrote:
2 years ago
Now I sorta understand why the pre-modern era folks hold the likes of Urza and Yawgmoth so closely (I understand their importance, but I was never there when it happened so they will never be as close to me like Hidetsugu and the Eldrazi are).
The Weatherlight story arc lasted for a long time, and a lot of it was told through the cards in the set. I've never read any of the MtG novels/comics nor really sought out the story and I could probably still give you the broad strokes of the Rath cycle storyline 20+ years later. A lot of those characters are the ones I associate with the game because that's when I was starting to play. Even if you're mostly invested in the gameplay (like I am), those characters are familiar after being the story focus for years of sets and it's nice to see modern power level takes on the cards, or cards for characters that previously only showed up in flavor text or card art.

I think we actually have most of the big hitters from that era at this point. Off the top of my head, Gix and Takara are the biggest story names without cards and I don't even have a sense of whether Takara was ever really a character other than Volrath in disguise.
For anyone wanting to dig a little deeper @Jay13x did a really good series of articles covering the lore of the sets over on salvation. Its how I familiarised myself with the parts I missed. Its witty, concise and very well written.

I don't think the series covers everything ever but it definitely goes over the fall of the Thran, the brothers' war, the weatherlight saga, including a full coubt of how many times Gerard crashes the weatherlight and all of the time Urza embodies the phrase antihero.

If you wanna fill in the gaps in the lore for yourself its worth the read.
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Post by EonAon » 2 years ago

One does wonder if the developers of that day actually blocked out their entire storyline that they were going to use and made sure of the backgrounds and characterizations. I mean the Gatewatch wasn't a BAD idea per say but the retcons it went through on some of the books didn't endear itself with the fans and the outright reversal of cannon in some cases means that whatever narrative was more a on the fly development rather than a planned out story.

Admittedly using Bolas as the big bad plot thread wasn't a bad idea since he is pretty much the epitome of power hungery but it did feel rushed to a extent. Though that's more likely since they had to push the eldrazi subplot forward to clear the path to even follow the vague trail they had been leading us with Bolas' actions that we were seeing from a periphery. Adding in time travel shenanigans didnt help it either.

I do really wish they would take a year and NOT use any of the face Planeswalkers/Gatewatch. Developing new ones or following up ones like Basari would be interesting. I mean Niko Aris was a good start but it was very hard to understand why they would even bump into Kaya in Kaldheim regardless of Tibalt. Admittedly Teferi can take a long walk off a short pier since ever since the timespiral legendary he got he has been a huge PIA because the synonymies with time he has always seemed to break the fun when they try and develop his cards. The three drop was a bit much in my book.

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Post by toctheyounger » 2 years ago

EonAon wrote:
2 years ago
One does wonder if the developers of that day actually blocked out their entire storyline that they were going to use and made sure of the backgrounds and characterizations. I mean the Gatewatch wasn't a BAD idea per say but the retcons it went through on some of the books didn't endear itself with the fans and the outright reversal of cannon in some cases means that whatever narrative was more a on the fly development rather than a planned out story.

Admittedly using Bolas as the big bad plot thread wasn't a bad idea since he is pretty much the epitome of power hungery but it did feel rushed to a extent. Though that's more likely since they had to push the eldrazi subplot forward to clear the path to even follow the vague trail they had been leading us with Bolas' actions that we were seeing from a periphery. Adding in time travel shenanigans didnt help it either.

I do really wish they would take a year and NOT use any of the face Planeswalkers/Gatewatch. Developing new ones or following up ones like Basari would be interesting. I mean Niko Aris was a good start but it was very hard to understand why they would even bump into Kaya in Kaldheim regardless of Tibalt. Admittedly Teferi can take a long walk off a short pier since ever since the timespiral legendary he got he has been a huge PIA because the synonymies with time he has always seemed to break the fun when they try and develop his cards. The three drop was a bit much in my book.
Yeah the retconning is a little weird (although I think its for the best in the case of war of the spark, that was a hot, homophobic steaming garbage pile that should have been climactic and epic and deserved all the lambasting the community threw at it). That being said, the older stories are messy too. Not in the same way, theyre just disjointed and due to the fact that there are a variety of authors involved styles change and it does get a little cringey in places - for example Commander Guff was an awful addition to the very end of the Yawgmoth story arc that breaks the 4th wall and really only adds lame comedy to what ought to be a pretty serious finale. Also Mirrodin got retconned pretty massively on the revisit too. I think as far as broader plots they might have given their authors brief for how the finish line should look and an overview of how the characters ought to be but I doubt there was much in between.

Its a weird thing, this is a card game and were blessed to have as much story as we do; I just think it becomes too easy to compare it to novels you've read and expect it to stand up as consistently, when the reality is that its often a miracle we get the good parts we do have.

I've found as far as the older lore goes it reads fairly well, but better with a wide scope so that you can't get up too close to see all of the minutiae and flaws. All that being said my introduction to the game was Weatherlight, and I still love Volrath as the big bad enemy - there's parts of the story that are a little off but it'll always be special to me. That whole arc was really nice. In modern times I actually really liked Ixalan too; I forget who wrote it but they brought some much needed depth to Jace as a character and the story was pretty compelling.

I do agree though, we could use less Gatewatch. Its fine, just...this isn't the Avengers, you know? And I don't want it to feel like it is.
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Post by 5colorsrainbow » 2 years ago

EonAon wrote:
2 years ago
I do really wish they would take a year and NOT use any of the face Planeswalkers/Gatewatch. Developing new ones or following up ones like Basari would be interesting. I mean Niko Aris was a good start but it was very hard to understand why they would even bump into Kaya in Kaldheim regardless of Tibalt. Admittedly Teferi can take a long walk off a short pier since ever since the timespiral legendary he got he has been a huge PIA because the synonymies with time he has always seemed to break the fun when they try and develop his cards. The three drop was a bit much in my book.
We just did, Eldraine, Theros and Ikoria didnt have any gatewatch. Ikoria also featured more of Vivien, Kaldheim is biggest story Tibalt was from a main set and Strixhaven just now featured the Kenrith twins and Lukka.
toctheyounger wrote:
2 years ago
Yeah the retconning is a little weird (although I think its for the best in the case of war of the spark, that was a hot, homophobic steaming garbage pile that should have been climactic and epic and deserved all the lambasting the community threw at it). That being said, the older stories are messy too. Not in the same way, theyre just disjointed and due to the fact that there are a variety of authors involved styles change and it does get a little cringey in places - for example Commander Guff was an awful addition to the very end of the Yawgmoth story arc that breaks the 4th wall and really only adds lame comedy to what ought to be a pretty serious finale.
The retcons are gonna happen no matter what. To add on what you said as the game as evolved we have see the world building team* shift around and change with it with different leaders and members coming in and out. Heck far as I'm aware nearly all the people who where on team when the gatewatch started even (Btz) have all since left wotc or take new positions not related to mtg lore. So when you get different people they will want different things from the lore and sometimes when going back to plane or characters they realize some stuff just didn't mess with what the present lore and team wants as well as all the ways they have tried to do the lore (novels vs online, in house vs out of house authors, ect).

Guff is also a actual mary sue, an author self-insert reality bender is about as MS as you can be.

*which the name is a good example as they (around Dominaria) shift having a creative team to having a world building team (who are the basically the old creative team) and the Franchise team who in charge of handling magics IP in all forms. Its originally head Nick Kelmen ended up with more control of the final stories and novels and was the one in charge of hiring and working with the authors. He has since left around a month ago and thus someone new will be charge.
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Post by EonAon » 2 years ago

5colorsrainbow wrote:
2 years ago
We just did, Eldraine, Theros and Ikoria didnt have any gatewatch. Ikoria also featured more of Vivien, Kaldheim is biggest story Tibalt was from a main set and Strixhaven just now featured the Kenrith twins and Lukka.
Only technically, we still have their Bae in Lilliana, but this is the sewing up her plot strings arc(maybe). I dont mind Kaya so much since when she appeared all we knew of her was she killed ghosts or helped them move on while striking justice for and against their creators. Then the War of the Spark which she was promptly joined then ejected from the Guild Orzhav. But she is still Gatewatch. Bit pedantic I admit but still we have the one of the Lorwyn Five and their new adjunct appearing in story.

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Post by RxPhantom » 2 years ago

I can't bring myself to try and care about the story anymore. They are way too comfortable retconning things.

Hey, remember when Nissa Revane was an elvish supremacist? Well now she's a tree-hugging granola girl.

Hey, remember when Gideon Jura|M12 was some boring white guy? Well now he's some boring Mediterranean guy.*

Hey, remember when Jace was an arrogant jerk? Well now he's, like, not.

The erasure of Nissa and Chandra's relationship was a bridge too far, though.
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Post by pokken » 2 years ago

I don't think I ever cared about the story even a whit. I like the mechanics and the art and I guess the overall vibe of dueling super wizards? The rest can whatever, it's all basically the Nickelback of fiction.

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Post by Guardman » 2 years ago

Overall, I find the stories to be eh... Too much focus on big events and grand spectacle, and not enough time spent on character. Not that it is exactly a bad thing, considering that they aren't exactly good or consistent with character anyways. But even then, there is too much focus on Planeswalkers doing Planeswalker stuff. Some of the best stories in magic have just regular denizens of the plane as their characters. I mean, many of the short stories set in Ravnica are a pretty entertaining read when they don't have Planeswalkers. And I remember the old Ravnica and Kamigawa novels not being half bad (but this was years ago and might be through rose colored glasses).

The two planeswalker stories that I've read recently that are pretty good is Children of the Nameless (which is good, pulpy fun) and Return to Dominaria: Episode 7 (which is a self-contained, sweet story about Teferi finding love and becoming a father).

I think they will be the first to admit they have a story problem, which is why they took an entire set off (Theros: Beyond Death) to retool.

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Post by Rumpy5897 » 2 years ago

I used to think that I am completely indifferent to what's actually being depicted on cardboard, but the never-ending Jacetus League parade and the increasingly blatant pursuit of external inspiration changed my mind. I'm actively dreading the D&D set, as I realised I don't actually want any sort of D&D stuff in my decks, yet some the cards will probably be deserving of inclusion. I don't follow the story at all, nothing about the snippets I could pick up from the cards encouraged me to do so. The nerd rage surrounding the WAR books was severe enough to make its way to me though.

Personally, I feel the game peaked aesthetically during 1998-2003. The cards were visually pleasing, the shards of story on display didn't bother me anywhere near as much, and the clarity of information was improved from the early years. What is it that that era did story-wise that was better than the current one? I guess the characters didn't linger around omnipresently as long as the current main cast, plus I probably just don't like planeswalkers as much. I very rarely put planeswalker cards in decks, justifying in front of myself that it's for mechanical reasons, but maybe there's still some sort of "old man yells at cloud" bias of changing times.

For what it's worth, the new stuff does seem to be working. Targeting the immersion of the kitchen table casual crowd for the past decade has proven successful, and I have a recollection of realising that a person I knew was a hyper-casual MTG player. Their exact expressed sentiment? "The planeswalkers are so cool, I like Chandra because she's on fire."
 
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Post by Hermes_ » 2 years ago

Rumpy5897 wrote:
2 years ago
Their exact expressed sentiment? "The planeswalkers are so cool, I like Chandra because she's on fire."
She's hot on many different levels and i think her pop funko figure is cute lol
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Post by EonAon » 2 years ago

I personally am excited to see what forgotten realms will bring to the table top. Yes yes people say "but its not really part of our multiverse" but seeing how they use the make your own story aspect they might try with a D&D set tickles me to no small margin. Zendikar was a attempt at that initially but that got blocked by the Eldrazi story. The second go round didnt fare much better since Nahiri really feels to be a person that didnt grow up over the years, and has to have everything go their way. Which is a trait that all oldwalkers have come to think of it. When all you have is a hammer you just got to summon a creature to pound in that nail even if that creature is a red flaming elemental that will burn down the house the nail is resting on.

That and for those who D&D as well as play in magic the Bestiary alone for both ability and classical creatures we just don't get because of IP infringement has GOT to be exciting you. Also I really hope that they do make a land card called the Geysers of Gygax based around the Futurama joke because its a fitting tribute for the man and just so darn fitting for someone who while not in MTG really helped get fantasy based games like MTG going by the inspiration they gave. Heck mechanically party might even make a comeback in some way. I really didnt mind that mechanic but it did feel oddly spaced into Zendikar in some ways.

The fact that it may also give backstory on a card like The Wanderer since they could use that walker as the link between both IP's. They drop that character and nothing came about them and they were MOST interesting of Sparks cards. So much to work with there.

Honestly I really wish they would go back to a older format in some ways. Narratively/mechanically Kaldheim needed multiple sets. I think it could have used two to be honest and still told its story correctly. Theros, Throne, and Ikora felt complete as one set even if Ikora probably could have used two just for wistful thinking. I love we can get more planes in a year now but its definitely compressed the narrative.

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Post by EonAon » 2 years ago

Hermes_ wrote:
2 years ago
Rumpy5897 wrote:
2 years ago
Their exact expressed sentiment? "The planeswalkers are so cool, I like Chandra because she's on fire."
She's hot on many different levels and i think her pop funko figure is cute lol
Its weird. I feel there is this extreme dissonance from the character Chandra. The art on her personal cards is great, very steampunk fire mage very beautiful and powerful. The character in game has all the character of a kiln brick. So very one note. Which is odd considering she was taught abet secretly by the best one liner giver in Jaya Ballard. There is some snark there yes but the humor that we see in her character in the story feels lacking in the cards except when she does the gatewatch oath.

I mean even on the new cards they gave Jaya in Blindblast and Karplusan Hound you get a much better sense of her personality than Chandra.

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Post by JWK » 2 years ago

The story has been at best mediocre for a long while, but mediocre is better than the steaming awfulness of the War novel and later ones. I think the last time it was consistently pretty good was Ixalan or shortly after that. The first Vivien story we got, which was set there, was pretty well-written, and though it presented her as a pretty cold-blooded extremist, that's more interesting than anything we've actually seen of most walkers in a long while.

Strixhaven made very little sense. Lukka is a blazing dumpster of a character whose choices in this story make no sense whatsoever, and I hope he planeswalks into a black hole or something. I am so, so tired of story after story of interesting places inhabited by what should be cool characters who are rendered incompetent to be the stars of their own worlds in order to have these planar interlopers show up and do everything. You have a school full of archmages, founded by ancient elder dragons, yet none of them do anything of actual importance in the main Strixhaven story, or can even figure out what/where the actual threat is, while Will and Rowan save the day. Ugh.

I would like to see a year or so with no new planeswalker cards at all, or at very least extremely minimal planeswalker presence... maybe things like Tamiyo showing up somewhere to observe and figure things out but not take direct action.
I have 68 active EDH decks, with more in progress. I don't consider this a problem. Do you?
I am also one of those barbarians who enjoys winning by turning creatures sideways.

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