[Off-Topic] Community Chat Thread

[RxPhantom]

Is it wrong to say they're all kind of lame and Kellan looks like a milquetoast pretty boy? I'd go borderless I guess.

[duducrash]

The Ikoria/Adventure cover looks like the cover of a novel I would read when I was 12. 10/10

[DirkGently]

Just had one of the craizest prereleases of my life. Played a wild 5c brew with 15 lands and minimum 11 sources per color, went 4-0, won 3 set boosters and an extra prerelease kit, and then won the random draw for a commander precon to boot.

@RxPhantom I mean male faeries are pretty much archetypical twinks so it goes with the territory.

@duducrash Glad someone else prefers the storybook. I ended up getting the storybook art - the original wasn't an option (their only copies were foil, hisssss).

[duducrash]

I did a White Sun's Twilight with X = 33! In Azorious! Cool games

[RxPhantom]

After seeing that Aurelia I started looking around and just bought a Multiverse Legends Grimgin halo foil thanks to you bums.

In all fairness, there is no such thing as bad Grimgrin art. That Innistrad frame is cool.

[Hermes_]

Apparently, some in my group don't like the fact that I tend to go after them based on their decks and how well they play them. For example this is one of the decks: https://www.moxfield.com/decks/0SBQeA7T1ECmcaR2cUu-sg

[Dunadain]

Apparently, some in my group don't like the fact that I tend to go after them based on their decks and how well they play them. For example this is one of the decks: https://www.moxfield.com/decks/0SBQeA7T1ECmcaR2cUu-sg

I don't care who you are or what the rest of your deck is, you flip up Sythis, Harvest's Hand, and I'm gunning for you XD.

[RxPhantom]

Apparently, some in my group don't like the fact that I tend to go after them based on their decks and how well they play them. For example this is one of the decks: https://www.moxfield.com/decks/0SBQeA7T1ECmcaR2cUu-sg

I don't care who you are or what the rest of your deck is, you flip up Sythis, Harvest's Hand, and I'm gunning for you XD.

This is sound reasoning and I support it 100%.

On an unrelated note, after seeing them in person, I've mostly come around to the side profile treatments from Commander Masters. I even replaced my Kykar, Wind's Fury|84491 after decrying it as goofy looking. Just look at him, staring at me with those bedroom eyes, practically begging me to paint him like one of my French girls.

[Lifeless]

I wish they just went all in and made them Glamour Shots style headshots. They're ridiculous as-is and I see no excuse for half measures.

[duducrash]

Alt arts are a sweet direction to push the game towards, as it doesnt rely on scarcity, provides a non-curlying alternative to pimp the decks and look sweet. I only wish those cowards gave me a sweet ass Karador version

[DirkGently]

My biggest complaint with the infinite alternate art styles is that it's become impossible to identify cards from across the table.

Borrowed one of the LotR precons last night and had to read the name of every bloody card because all the art is different. "Huh, what's this card, I don't recognize...oh, it's literally Swords to Plowshares. Neat."

Also I won the game thanks to Aragorn, King of Gondor after badmouthing him on here xD

[TheAmericanSpirit]

Borrowed one of the LotR precons last night and had to read the name of every bloody card because all the art is different. "Huh, what's this card, I don't recognize...oh, it's literally Swords to Plowshares. Neat."

That really isn't much of a new problem though when you think about it. They've been reprinting cards with different arts since the 90's. If you were only familiar with this Brainstorm|ICE, this Brainstorm|MMQ might have confused you at first glance. The alternate arts are just another tentacle of this same phenomenon. The truth is, no one is ever too enfranchised to RTFC.

[Lifeless]

It's not just existing cards though, even brand new cards commonly get 3 different printings on initial release. I only have so many neurons.

[Hermes_]

I've never been good at remembering cards and what they do, so even if the other player tells me i may ask if i can look at the card and read it.

[Guardman]

So has anyone else here watched the new live action One Piece. I went in cautiously optimistic, but found myself blown away by how much fun I was having watching it. You could tell Oda was really hands on with everything. And the casting was spot on. I especially want to shout out there choices for Luffy, Garp, Buggy, Don Krieg, and especially especially Dracule Mihawk who looks like they ripped him straight from the manga. I especially want to do a huge shout out to the wanted poster 4th wall breaks (see below for them - Also Spoiler Warning for those that don't know One Piece).

Wanted Posters

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Also, I liked a lot of the changes that they made from the manga. A few standouts were:

SPOILER

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• Having Don Krieg not survive his battle with Mihawk. While the casting and the wanted poster reaction was spot on, Don Krieg was probably the most forgettable of the big bads of the East Blue saga.
• I love that they included Garp from the get go and gave Luffy and Koby a lot more interactions.
• Introducing Arlong earlier and giving him more screen time really worked. He worked great as the big big bad of Season 1.
• The costume design was great, especially for the fish men. Even the hair colors worked for me (with the noticeable exception of Nami's sister whose hair looked way too much like a wig).
• Mihawk - That's it, Mihawk. (Though I wish we got to see him riding around on his boat)
• The special effects for the most part were well done. And especially once I got into the swing of things, weren't distracting.
• While I understand why they didn't, I sort of wish they included Jango and his moonwalking ways.

[DirkGently]

That really isn't much of a new problem though when you think about it. They've been reprinting cards with different arts since the 90's. If you were only familiar with this Brainstorm|ICE, this Brainstorm|MMQ might have confused you at first glance. The alternate arts are just another tentacle of this same phenomenon. The truth is, no one is ever too enfranchised to RTFC.

It's not an issue of possibility, it's an issue of frequency. Sure, cards have always been reprinted with different arts, but it was relatively rare, and initially only in the actual standard-legal set that everyone would be playing with anyway. Now every UB deck series is going to mean reprinting hundreds of staples in unrecognizable arts all at once, and in a place that most people have no reason to look at. That on top of the multiple arts for many cards in the main sets - though having done a bit of research, it's a lower percentage of cards for which that's true than I would have guessed. Kellan getting 3 is pretty unusual.

Anyway, playing the deck myself it wasn't that bad since I had plenty of time to examine the cards on other peoples' turns. But when it's someone else playing it, with all of their permanents unrecognizable on the other side of the table, it slows me down a decent bit trying to track what was going on over there. A lot moreso than a few stray reprints.

[DirkGently]

Oh yeah, also some big upsets in the WOE commander race today - Eriette of the Charmed Apple has taken the lead from rowan (happened a few days ago) but both of them are different varieties of lame so idc.

But there are some other more interesting upsets - I was clearly wrong about Beluna Grandsquall's popularity , she's been shooting up the ranks, now past Agatha of the Vile Cauldron and closing in on Will, Scion of Peace. Even more surprising, Totentanz, Swarm Piper and The Goose Mother both passed up everyone's favorite, Kellan, the Fae-Blooded, with Totentanz passing Syr Ginger, the Meal Ender as well.

For his part, Kellan looks like he might be gaining slowly on Syr Ginger and could claw himself back up to 11th...as long as Yenna, Redtooth Regent doesn't pass him up as well. She hasn't been climbing as fast as I thought she would, but she is slowly gaining on him so it could happen.

Below Yenna, there's only 2 real contenders before a steep, steep dropoff - Greta, Sweettooth Scourge and Obyra, Dreaming Duelist. Can't say I understand the popularity of either tbh, Greta's abilities look like limited fodder and Obyra does so little to boost faerie power, idk why you wouldn't want to play one of the precon commanders instead. Personally if I had to build non-totentanz uncommons I'd probably go with Sharae of Numbing Depths (quality card, tragically in the same set as Hylda of the Icy Crown) and Troyan, Gutsy Explorer (reliable strong mana ramp).

[duducrash]

but both of them are different varieties of lame so idc.

I think both are cool. perhaps not open to many unique builds but cool. Rowan seems specially powerful

[DirkGently]

I think both are cool. perhaps not open to many unique builds but cool. Rowan seems specially powerful

Rowan is insanely powerful, to the degree that unless you have counterspells or her controller is on low life, she basically must be killed on sight. I feel this is a miserable way for cards to be designed and wish wotc would never print this kind of garbage again. Though on the plus side, Rowan is face-up enough that if she shows up in a game I can switch to a deck with 40 counterspells and watch her faceplant.

Eriette is just boring. Her pacifism ability is dangerous to rely on, and there's hardly any cards efficient enough to make it worth trying to exploit - just play actual pacifism-type auras if you want to spend a card to partially-neutralize enemy creatures. Her drain ability is functional but predictable and uninteresting, and also generally runs counter to the plan that tends to develop when you're loading a bunch of auras onto creatures.

[duducrash]

Eriette is just boring

you could like pump your oponents and pillow fort and let them fool rip each other apart, right?

[Dunadain]

I honestly think Eriette of the Charmed Apple is pretty neat, but I am brewing too many decks atm already

[toctheyounger]

I've never been good at remembering cards and what they do, so even if the other player tells me i may ask if i can look at the card and read it.

I am good at remembering cards and it's still good practice. I can grok what most cards are aiming to achieve but it's fairly often you need exact wording to know what happens IRL. In the words of Stirling Archer, "HEY! PHRASING"

[DirkGently]

you could like pump your oponents and pillow fort and let them fool rip each other apart, right?

She doesn't goad the creatures, they just can't attack you. If you're the threat they can just not attack. They can even still block you.

And when she dies you have no protection so you have just helped your opponents hit you harder. If you're playing a bunch of other pillowfort stuff as backup, you could just play that stuff without Eriette, and then you don't need any auras either.

Also the scariest creatures don't only attack so it's not an effective form of removal against many important creatures.

I don't even see many efficient ways to create a bunch of auras attached to enemy creatures in BW. She really wants something like Asinine Antics or Smoke Spirits' Aid but I don't see it.

[TheAmericanSpirit]

@DirkGently I still think it's basically the same thing at the end of the day. See something unfamiliar? Ask to see the card. There are already like 16k unique cards anyway, so seeing a reprint with new art is functionally no different than seeing a card you've never seen before from 1998 or whatever, except you have the advantage of already knowing the card's text.

[Dunadain]

@DirkGently

Alright, fine, I'll actually stand up for Eriette of the Charmed Apple, but don't ask me to actually brew it, I'm having a lot of fun with Orca, Siege Demon right now, and both Thantis, the Warweaver AND Ebondeath, Dracolich are due for a tune up.

First of all, you keep bringing up that Eriette of the Charmed Apple can be removed and then your toast, but your an aura tribal deck anyways, your going to be running cards like Kaya's Ghostform and Timely Ward anyways, so you've got some play there.

Second of all, it's not like you're just playing a bunch of Guard Dutys, don't get me wrong, you probably play a couple of Sentinel's Eyes type cards, but for the most part you play REAL auras that now also slowly kill your opponents and keep their stuff from attacking you.

Finally, and most importantly, you don't have to enchant your opponents stuff. You can just run good auras and enjoy the drain. On Thin Ice, Ossification, etc.

Basically, she's a win con and some additional protection (emphasis on additional, you still need to run wipes and spot removal) which is pretty much everything a classic control deck wants in a commander.