[Off-Topic] Community Chat Thread

[Hermes_]

I'm tempted to make a deck with the central idea of "What was once yours is now mine" but no clue beyond that lol

[DirkGently]

Remember how I said several million years ago that I was going to make an alter of The Man With No Name? Well I finally did it.

I guess I should make a deck around him now? It'll definitely be too powerful for my local meta though.

[cheonice]

I'm tempted to make a deck with the central idea of "What was once yours is now mine" but no clue beyond that lol

My friend hat great success with Lazav, Dimir Mastermind and a bunch of clones. He tried to build a deck that scales with his opponents strength and it worked quite well. You can find his outdated decklist here
Another unusual take would be my Purphoros, Bronze-Blooded. I use a lot of Threaten-on-a-stick cards like Zealous Conscripts or Molten Primordial in addition to Etali, Primal Storm et al. You can find the decklist here.

[Toshi]

I'm tempted to make a deck with the central idea of "What was once yours is now mine" but no clue beyond that lol

Ever since i both built Gonti, Lord of Luxury and Uvilda, Dean of Perfection // Nassari, Dean of Expression (Nassari side up), i have been very happy with both of them. I am maintaining both lists and you can find them in my signature for inspiration, if you feel like it.

Also, a friend of mine has built Captain N'ghathrod and while that one works well, it works a little "too well", since it is so easy to enable it in a million ways.

[duducrash]

Remember how I said several million years ago that I was going to make an alter of The Man With No Name? Well I finally did it.

Thats lovely. You done it yourself? I recently got a bunch of alters "pre-ordered" a friend of a friend needed cash badly and I like payed for some. but should be months until I get all. First should be here soon though

do we haven an alters thread? we could do one.

[TheAmericanSpirit]

Remember how I said several million years ago that I was going to make an alter of The Man With No Name? Well I finally did it.

IMG_3961.jpg

I guess I should make a deck around him now? It'll definitely be too powerful for my local meta though.

Love love love this alter. Removing the text on the name panel is such an artful way to reference the namelessness of the character. The setting sun/wispy cloud background is just classic and you've used the shading well to naturally cover some of the weaknesses in your painting style. Beautiful work, truly.

Do you take commissions? What's the international shipping rate from USA to NZ?

[materpillar]

I almost got Khârn the Betrayer + Pyrohemia off in my group hug deck yesterday but someone fun policed me. I wasn't aware of that silly interaction before drawing those.

[Dunadain]

If anyone was curious, The Mandolorian season finale did not disappoint.

[Hermes_]

Remember how I said several million years ago that I was going to make an alter of The Man With No Name? Well I finally did it.

IMG_3961.jpg

I guess I should make a deck around him now? It'll definitely be too powerful for my local meta though.

well, it's no pretty girl but it's still cool

[DirkGently]

@duducrash Yep, I've been trying to get into it. There's probably an alters section somewhere on the site (I know there was on sally) but everything outside of the commander subforum doesn't exist for me lol.

@TheAmericanSpirit Thanks! Lol called out on using silhouette to hide Clint's face. Trying to paint recognizable faces is really difficult! I was able to do a recognizable job on my large scale mockup, but on the smaller scale it's really tough, tiny differences make the whole thing look off and it's hard to make corrections. I considered making his entire body black except for the patterns on the poncho, but I think it looks pretty solid with the grey patches even if it's not recognizably Clint. I blame the nose. And yeah I'm quite happy with how the sunset turned out.

I've been (very passively, marketing is welllll outside of my skillset) to drum up a little side business with the alters. I don't think there's much of a market in NZ, although I should probably try posting them up on facebook or something rather than just setting them gently on the table at my LGS and hoping someone will be impressed and commission me xD The only other person I could find in NZ doing alters was charging a fairly insane rate, I think it was $350 (that was when I decided to start doing my own lol). And most of his were just border extensions, which...I mean matching colors is difficult for sure, but in the era of easily available borderless printings it seems like such a waste of time. If I'm going to go to the trouble to alter a card, I want to do something unique with it.

Anyway I'd be thrilled to be commissioned - while shipping a package is pricey, posting a card is actually pretty reasonable, NZpost ships 100 grams for 3.80, which is more than enough for a toploader.

@Hermes_ lol thanks! I'd do pretty girls if somebody wanted it, I've got no shame (just liquidated the rest of my easily-available investments, after this I'm digging into my retirement funds). No guarantees that the face will look like Avril Lavigne though. Might have to do her in silhouette.

[Hermes_]

@Hermes_ lol thanks! I'd do pretty girls if somebody wanted it, I've got no shame (just liquidated the rest of my easily-available investments, after this I'm digging into my retirement funds). No guarantees that the face will look like Avril Lavigne though. Might have to do her in silhouette.

It's all good, i just wanted to tease. Strangely we don't have an alter forum just custom cards.


I did however commission an actual piece from a friend for one of the characters in my book that i'm working on.

EDIT: for card alters the only one i'd really want is

[duducrash]

350?!?!?! Im not one to put price into other people work but holy hell. I pay like about 1/10th of that


I have 3 alters in process, idk when I'll get it tbh. both Tolsimir, Friend to Wolves and Tolsimir Wolfblood altered as San and Ashitaka from pricess mononoke are already locked. Third one should be a Kotori, Pilot Prodigy as Poe Dameron, including a baloon with "I can fly anything" but this is not sure yet. I love the idea but would I ever build it?

[Shabbaman]

EDIT: for card alters the only one i'd really want is

Does this imply there's a germ inside of Rainbow Sparkle?

[Hermes_]

EDIT: for card alters the only one i'd really want is

Does this imply there's a germ inside of Rainbow Sparkle?

you mean rainbow DASH

[duducrash]

I played this Mirrorpool on spelltable. One opponent noted it was stampless and said a friend could be interested. So now a dude from Singapore is willing to pay $10 for it. I dont think I'll sell because shipping seems to be pretty nuts, but the minor misprints is trully amazing

[RxPhantom]

I can't believe I'm saying this, but The Mandalorian has officially become my favorite piece of Star Wars media.

You can argue with me all you want, but after last week's episode I haven't been able to get this show off my mind, and nothing else from the Star Wars franchise, not even the original movies, has done that to me.

I'd argue that the Mandalorian is one of the only worthwhile pieces of Star Wars media in the first place. I used to think I liked Star Wars, but eventually I realized that I only really liked two of the movies and Mando. I tried watching some a few years ago and it just didn't move me.

[toctheyounger]

I can't believe I'm saying this, but The Mandalorian has officially become my favorite piece of Star Wars media.

You can argue with me all you want, but after last week's episode I haven't been able to get this show off my mind, and nothing else from the Star Wars franchise, not even the original movies, has done that to me.

I'd argue that the Mandalorian is one of the only worthwhile pieces of Star Wars media in the first place. I used to think I liked Star Wars, but eventually I realized that I only really liked two of the movies and Mando. I tried watching some a few years ago and it just didn't move me.

Not trying to start a war of words with anyone but I've honestly never understood why Star Wars is so revered. The story is fine at best and outside of like scenes here and there a lot of it is very contrived. I've not looked far into the wider universe, but that's because I've not been moved to. I honestly think because it was the most popular SF franchise in the early 80s it's got that nostalgia hit to it. Which is why people are so critical of it now; nothing is good as what you want to remember something was.

[BeneTleilax]

IMO, New Hope, Empire Strikes Back and Rogue One are the only really good pieces of Star Wars media, with Mando being "good for Star Wars" but not really holding up to Cowboy Bebop or similar space westerns.

[Venedrex]

I can't believe I'm saying this, but The Mandalorian has officially become my favorite piece of Star Wars media.

You can argue with me all you want, but after last week's episode I haven't been able to get this show off my mind, and nothing else from the Star Wars franchise, not even the original movies, has done that to me.

I'd argue that the Mandalorian is one of the only worthwhile pieces of Star Wars media in the first place. I used to think I liked Star Wars, but eventually I realized that I only really liked two of the movies and Mando. I tried watching some a few years ago and it just didn't move me.

Not trying to start a war of words with anyone but I've honestly never understood why Star Wars is so revered. The story is fine at best and outside of like scenes here and there a lot of it is very contrived. I've not looked far into the wider universe, but that's because I've not been moved to. I honestly think because it was the most popular SF franchise in the early 80s it's got that nostalgia hit to it. Which is why people are so critical of it now; nothing is good as what you want to remember something was.

I'm sensing a whole lotta unmentioned contempt for the prequel trilogy floating around here, so lemme take the stand for a second. People love to bash the prequels. We get it. I hate sand is a dumb line. In fact, a lot of the worst parts about the prequels is the terrible dialogue. To tell you the truth, as a kid, back before I discovered the internet and Reddit and memes. I hated the whole Anakin x Padme parts and skipped them.

But even the bad dialogue does kind of make sense, at least for Anakin. The man is a former slave who got yanked from life on a backwater planet when he was a little kid to join a monastic order of space wizards with strict orders not to be a normal person and develop relationships. The dude is not gonna know how to charm a girl. Or hold a conversation. I mean, the most respected member of the Jedi is a guy who talks in backwards speak, literally. Snappy repartee is not their forte, although Yoda does manage to pull of some pretty solid one liners.

But I loved what the prequels were trying to convey. A war on a galactic scale between a stagnant superpower and a rising one. The principles of democracy, tyranny, technology, nature vs nurture. You to love to see it. (OK maybe not the war part but bear with me). As a child, I must have watched Attack of the Clones and the other two prequels about a thousand times. (Or more) I thought Jar Jar was funny. I was THE target audience, and I ate it up. I get that it is fashionable to dunk on old popular franchises because we are all enlightened and we've watched film critics on Youtube. That's not an insult either, I love Cinemawins. Not sins, mind you.

I loved Qui-Gon Jinn and seeing young Obi-Wan. I loved seeing Anakin before he became Vader. I loved watching the clones and learning about them be produced in secret from a template of an expert bounty hunter/warrior. I've been using a lot of past tense in this post if you haven't noticed. But you know what? I still love the prequels. Sure, I cringe at the horrible script in parts. I'm not a huge fan of all the choices. (Looking at you tornado palpatine.) (You know actually I still like I take it back.) However, I get what Lucas was trying to convey. It is difficult to translate an evil being fighting at a supernatural speed that is faster than the good space wizards who fight at supernatural speed in the form of live action.

I love Mace Windu and his purple lightsaber and his aggressive nature. He did what I would have wanted to do if I was in his shoes with Jango. Most Jedi you expect to just vaguely talk about peace and look the other way but Mace just charges in and gets the job done when he scrambles to Geonosis.

And, I mean, lemme just talk about Count Dooku for one second. Played by Christopher Lee. DING. (one win) Literally tells Obi-Wan point blank about the entire truth of the mastermind behind it all, gets dismissed. DING. Fights two Jedi at once and beats them both. DING. Gets betrayed by Sidious (but that's the Sith way of course) doesn't beg for mercy, but goes out like a champ. DING. I mean, CMON, what a fantastic, nuanced character.

Also, each villain is a mirror of what Anakin will become. Maul is the brutal puppet of Sidious who goes around killing Jedi... just like Vader will become. Dooku is a Jedi who betrayed the order for supposedly noble reasons just like Anakin did. And lastly, Grievous is obviously the cyborg that Vader will embody upon his defeat on Mustafar.


To be fair, should Darth Maul have died so early? Eh, I mean I get it he's a super cool character too but if the biggest complaint about a character is they died to soon, that's pretty good. Is Jar Jar Binks annoying and did he have too much screentime. Yeah, maybe. But the actor playing him did a great job, even if you hate the character, and it would've been fine if it had been a smaller dose.

EDIT: Before people tell me THE CLONE WARS, yeah I know that Maul comes back. But the sentence, Obi-Wan kills maul is still true don't @ me. You want a real hot take, I love that maul got more time to shine because he is super neat, but honestly I'd have been fine with him actually dying on Naboo. He killed Qui-Gon and single-handedly set Anakin on the path to Vader. That's a pretty big impact, even if he only ever got to appear in one movie.

Lucas wanted to show what happened to the Jedi, show the Clone Wars (Yes I know we didn't see the whole thing but what was he supposed to do make six movies?) and most of all show the origins and fall of Anakin Skywalker, and despite the many flaws, I believe he mostly succeeded.

Not to mention, a whole lot of it is show not tell. Lucas doesn't have a billboard that says: THE JEDI ARE LAZY, ARROGANT NUMBSKULLS WHO HAVE LET PEACE DEFEAT THEM. WHICH IS WHY THEY DON'T NOTICE A STINKING SITH LORD GETTING ELECTED PRESIDENT. Yes, I know part of it is Palpatine is really good at blending in. But the Jedi should have been more active, in the same vein as Qui-Gon and Obi Wan instead of just letting things play out and seeing what happens.

But all throughout the films you see evidence of the council and the Jedi being prideful and making mistakes. They don't think the Sith could return in Ep 1. They don't think anyone could have messed with Archives in Ep 2. They don't think any Jedi would ever betray them even if they put said Jedi in a situation where he is forced to spy on his president. in Ep 3.

The reason the story resonates for me is because the idea of a nation/republic growing complacent, corrupt, and being brought down from within is very real, and has happened time and time again.

The prequels make every character and every scene from the originals 10X better imho. Just watch the clip of Alec Guinness recounting to Luke about the Clone Wars with the prequel scenes added in. *Chefs kiss* You understand just how good of a villain Palpatine is.

Without the Prequels, my dude is just an old guy who laughs a lot and gets his toys blown up twice by some jumped up punks in orange pajamas. With the prequels, he's revealed as an insanely brilliant and insidious (yep, Lucas likes stating the obvious in the old villain names.) manipulator who destroyed most of the Galaxy by playing both sides of a conflict to cement his power and rule over a fractured galaxy in desperate need of some imperial order. (or at least that is the propaganda, I'm not a member of TheEmpireDidNothingWrong I promise lol) How's that for a glow-up?

I mean, if nothing else, the prequels have generated more memes than most properties combined. That's gotta count for something right?

And to close this long winded kind of pathetic internet rant about a popular movie franchise, I'm not trying to say that anyone HAS to like Star Wars. But I've grown a little tired of people saying that some things are just popular because of nostalgia. I liked what I liked a long time ago, and contrary to popular belief, I STILL LIKE IT. Frankly, if you liked something a long time time ago and you grow out it, more power to you.

But.

I played WoW back in the day, stopped because I find Retail boring. WoW classic came out, I played it, despite EVERYONE scaring me by talking about all the flaws and problems and how classic is garbage and retail fixed all its issues. Guess what? I played as a Troll Shaman and had the most fun I've had playing a video game in years. The only reason I stopped is because I didn't want to lose my family, job, and friends playing all day.

The very people who had gone up and down about how it would be a miserable experience because there might be difficulties and the guided track won't be present? Yeah, tell that to the absolute blast I had teaming up with a group of people slaying spiders and waiting for the slowest boss spawn ever, only to finally realize after we had practically joined a guild that the spider was in the opposite corner of the zone. I laughed so hard I almost cried.

It was ton of fun to just connect with people instead of just being shuttled to my pre planned retail quest chain that would never have led to me getting lost and making friends trying kill a boss in the wrong spot. In Retail, I would've soloed the entire zone while being told how powerful of a hero I was and not having any human contact. No challenge, no sense of achievement, no story to tell later.

But I personally think the Prequels got flak for the crime of being too ambitious. (OK and because some of the acting might have been bad, and the dialogue was hilariously bad in parts I won't defend 7 8 9 though. As far I'm concerned, those are Rey's bad dream and she is going to wake up to see Luke standing over with a mug of warm blue milk asking if she had another nightmare. Let me think of something positive to say about them. The casting was good. The actors were good. OK that's it I'm done.

Oh, and I should say for the record, I really like Mando. I was just complaining that the season is over and I have to wait to see more of it.

P.S

Rouge One and Andor are probably two of my all time favorite pieces of Star Wars content. Not what you expected from the guy who just went to bat for the prequels huh?

I don't just like the old stuff. I like stuff that tells a meaningful story, and in my not so humble opinion, Star Wars tells a meaningful story, even if it is a simple one/the oldest one in the book.

[toctheyounger]

I'm sensing a whole lotta unmentioned contempt for the prequel trilogy floating around here, so lemme take the stand for a second. People love to bash the prequels. We get it. I hate sand is a dumb line. In fact, a lot of the worst parts about the prequels is the terrible dialogue. To tell you the truth, as a kid, back before I discovered the internet and Reddit and memes. I hated the whole Anakin x Padme parts and skipped them.

Sorry to snip so much away. Just expediency etc.

Honestly, I just don't think much of the premise of the stories (again, I've done like 1 2 3 4 5 6 7, nothing else outside of these) is anything to really write home about. It's not original, it's fairly predictable, it's just a fine story to me. I think George Lucas was clever enough, but mostly lucky. The score of the originals is wonderful, and some of the cinematics are really great, but the series, the premise, the whole concept moving forward is just....not something that sparks joy for me. I don't understand how people commit so much time to debating the ins and outs. Yes, the prequels were mixed at best, but honestly I wasn't that committed before they were released anyway.

That said I'm into Middle Earth, so each to their own. People probably think the same for that, so y'know.

[Venedrex]

I'm sensing a whole lotta unmentioned contempt for the prequel trilogy floating around here, so lemme take the stand for a second. People love to bash the prequels. We get it. I hate sand is a dumb line. In fact, a lot of the worst parts about the prequels is the terrible dialogue. To tell you the truth, as a kid, back before I discovered the internet and Reddit and memes. I hated the whole Anakin x Padme parts and skipped them.

Sorry to snip so much away. Just expediency etc.

Honestly, I just don't think much of the premise of the stories (again, I've done like 1 2 3 4 5 6 7, nothing else outside of these) is anything to really write home about. It's not original, it's fairly predictable, it's just a fine story to me. I think George Lucas was clever enough, but mostly lucky. The score of the originals is wonderful, and some of the cinematics are really great, but the series, the premise, the whole concept moving forward is just....not something that sparks joy for me. I don't understand how people commit so much time to debating the ins and outs. Yes, the prequels were mixed at best, but honestly I wasn't that committed before they were released anyway.

That said I'm into Middle Earth, so each to their own. People probably think the same for that, so y'know.

Yeah, to each their own. I love the Lord of the Rings about as much as I love Star Wars. I'm not really upset, despite my giant wall of text. I just felt like someone should stand up for what I think is a pretty good story that I think gets dunked on because it has flaws. It's kind of like Catan to me. A lot of people get into board games because of games like Catan, that are one step above monopoly, and then they immediately turn around and talk about how garbage Catan is. Well, I mean, it is what led you (the general you not you specifically) to the refined stuff like Gloomhaven or whatever. Or in movie terms, Avant Garde Cinema.

Maybe Star Wars is what you say, but I bet it inspired a lot of filmmakers and directors to want to learn the craft and eventually produce the great works of cinema that are talked about today. I still think it is good stuff, even if it may lack some nuance. Also, by the same hand, didn't someone on this thread say something about how there are only so many stories? If that is true, which I don't really believe since there are roughly 8 billion humans with unique life experiences to produce unique stories, that would seem to back up Star Wars as being one of those few story archetypes we can tell.

[Hermes_]

That said I'm into Middle Earth, so each to their own. People probably think the same for that, so y'know.

no probably about it, I know people who feel that rings of power committed an immortal sin or something along those lines.

Also just look at how people HERE feel about the MTG story line

I keep saying it: Nerds can be both the best and worst fans

[Venedrex]

That said I'm into Middle Earth, so each to their own. People probably think the same for that, so y'know.

no probably about it, I know people who feel that rings of power committed an immortal sin or something along those lines.

Also just look at how people HERE feel about the MTG story line

I keep saying it: Nerds can be both the best and worst fans

Yeah, I mean, I just torched MTG's story earlier on this thread and now I'm defending Star Wars' story. Kind of hypocritical when I think about it. It's just human nature. We get offended when someone disses what we love and then we turn around and diss something we hate.

[Dragonlover]

Star Wars is so revered because everyone watched it with their dad when they were 7 years old, and it's basically pure nostalgia for a lot of people. It's also not that great, but that's fine.

Dragonlover

[Venedrex]

Star Wars is so revered because everyone watched it with their dad when they were 7 years old, and it's basically pure nostalgia for a lot of people. It's also not that great, but that's fine.

Dragonlover

I'm gonna need some supporting arguments for that weapons grade shade lol.

Again, is Star Wars the best thing in the universe? No. Is it at LEAST on par with MTG's story. Yes. Bet you'd like it more if the Emperor was the Dragon Emperor. Although we do have Krayt Dragons soo, legally you cannot diss Star Wars, otherwise you are dissing Dragons by extension. LOL