[Off-Topic] Community Chat Thread

[Hermes_]

The musical geek in me squeed when i read the flavor text for Frontline Rebel

[DirkGently]

I watched it last week and rather enjoyed it. It had a surreal weird quality visually that I thought the set builders/designers killed it on. Mark Ruffalo's character was a great, grimey scumbag piece of garbage. Story was interesting enough, had memorable characters throughout.

However, I don't think it's a movie I'm likely to get the urge to rewatch super often and it wouldn't come close to being a favorite movie of mine or anything like that.

Visually the movie is really cool, excellent sets etc (though I did have sort of a claustrophobic feeling for a decent bit of it, despite being set outdoors). But for me, those sorts of things are pretty unimportant if the story and characters aren't enjoyable to me.

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On that score, I did eventually like Bella, but I really don't agree with the decision to have her act the way she does at the beginning, which made her seem extremely dangerous and unstable. I get that she's acting like a child, but would your average child playfully stab a corpse in the face over and over? And then adding in sexuality in the context of a child-brained person was offputting as well. If your main character makes me anxious every time she's on screen for the first 45 minutes, you're making it a lot harder - imo unnecessarily - to pivot into liking them.

@toctheyounger Yeah, there are a lot of filmmaking elements that (to my uncultured eye) seemed to be very well done, but without a connection to the story or the characters, meh.

As far as the plot, I really don't find myself engaged by movies that don't have a core conflict. Sure, you want her to get away from Mark Ruffalo, but it's only part of the movie and it's not a strong conflict imo. There was rarely a point in the movie where I was thinking "I really hope X happens/doesn't happen". The plot feels very "a bunch of random things happen".

I guess what I'm saying is that I don't like goodstuff decks xD

The musical geek in me squeed when i read the flavor text for Frontline Rebel

JFC it's got "rebel" in its name and they still can't make it a rebel. Rebels really are WotC's least favorite tribe.

[Dragonlover]

JFC it's got "rebel" in its name and they still can't make it a rebel. Rebels really are WotC's least favorite tribe.

It infuriates me that Kaladesh didn't have any Rebels in the entire block. Would have been an absolute slam dunk, but nope.

Dragonlover

[Hermes_]

Not bad for a first time using the airbrush to prime and my first time using a booth. Both the booth filter and my own air filter made it easy to deal with any smell from painting.

[Lifeless]

Very nice! I just started using an airbrush too, for priming and topcoating miniatures during bad weather. I did a large batch of miniatures a while back that got ruined because of humidity when I sprayed them so I kind of threw a fit and got the whole airbrush rig, lol. I'm not very good with it yet.

[Hermes_]

Very nice! I just started using an airbrush too, for priming and topcoating miniatures during bad weather. I did a large batch of miniatures a while back that got ruined because of humidity when I sprayed them so I kind of threw a fit and got the whole airbrush rig, lol. I'm not very good with it yet.

I'm not very good yet either

This with a base coat of US Desert armor

[toctheyounger]

@toctheyounger Yeah, there are a lot of filmmaking elements that (to my uncultured eye) seemed to be very well done, but without a connection to the story or the characters, meh.

As far as the plot, I really don't find myself engaged by movies that don't have a core conflict. Sure, you want her to get away from Mark Ruffalo, but it's only part of the movie and it's not a strong conflict imo. There was rarely a point in the movie where I was thinking "I really hope X happens/doesn't happen". The plot feels very "a bunch of random things happen".

I guess what I'm saying is that I don't like goodstuff decks xD

This all makes sense. I kind of thought the same. I think the film could've saved someone like you some time by naming itself the life and times of Bella Baxter rather than what it was. It really was just a story of discovery and growth, there wasn't a lot of point otherwise. I'm not necessarily averse to a film without any particular premise or point, but I struggled to stay in the mix myself here, too. I enjoyed the film from an aesthetic standpoint, but otherwise the elements I enjoyed I can definitely find elsewhere and enjoy more.

[duducrash]

You know what I hate the most about counterspells decks? That players piloting them are 9 out of 10 times bad players. Will counter 3 Scavenging Ooze and will have nothing for a Emergent Ultimatum .

Seriously, I don't get why people think they have to use counters or removal just because they have in hand

[pokken]

You know what I hate the most about counterspells decks? That players piloting them are 9 out of 10 times bad players. Will counter 3 Scavenging Ooze and will have nothing for a Emergent Ultimatum .

Seriously, I don't get why people think they have to use counters or removal just because they have in hand

It's just as bad with removal as it is with counterspells.

The rule I teach to new players is, "Don't use these things until not using them will lose you the game" - which is an oversimplified rule, but it is a significant better heuristic than "omg kill sumfin"

If you practice holding your removal until you will lose unless you use it (e.g. on a fatal attack, or a combo) you force yourself to learn what things you can let get away in the future or not. e.g. sometimes burning an early removal to stop a turn 1 Rhystic Study is correct but you never learn how bad it would be if you just always instantly kill.

[Hermes_]

Next time I do an Abrams, I'll start with the dark earth as the base coat and then do the other two colors. I've learned a lot about air brushing while doing this. I like blue tac for making the camo instead of masking tape.

[Venedrex]

You know what I hate the most about counterspells decks? That players piloting them are 9 out of 10 times bad players. Will counter 3 Scavenging Ooze and will have nothing for a Emergent Ultimatum .

Seriously, I don't get why people think they have to use counters or removal just because they have in hand

It's just as bad with removal as it is with counterspells.

The rule I teach to new players is, "Don't use these things until not using them will lose you the game" - which is an oversimplified rule, but it is a significant better heuristic than "omg kill sumfin"

If you practice holding your removal until you will lose unless you use it (e.g. on a fatal attack, or a combo) you force yourself to learn what things you can let get away in the future or not. e.g. sometimes burning an early removal to stop a turn 1 Rhystic Study is correct but you never learn how bad it would be if you just always instantly kill.

Yeah, in a multiplayer game, not every threat is going at you. If I have my Talrand, Sky Summoner deck and someone were to play Elder Gargaroth, do I need to counter it? Maybe, but it might hit one of my opponents, and make its controller seem to be the bigger threat at the table. Now if that green player was to play Fauna Shaman or Tooth and Nail, now we have something going on. But like you say, lots of things are fine to let through in multiplayer imho, you can't play like you do in 1v1 control decks, trying to stop everything. (and even in those decks you have to pick what to counter as well).

I guess what I'm trying to say is, half the time, let your enemies do your work for you as a control player, and intervene only when nesseccary to stop what you must. Not to mention, you might just let your opponents throw stuff on the board so you can set up a wipe like Cyc rift or farewell.

[Hermes_]

And i'm declaring it done

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[DirkGently]

Holy cow Obeka, Splitter of Seconds is exploding on EDHrec. Triple the second most popular commander in the set.

[Rumpy5897]

I'm not surprised. It's got that Feather quality where it does something novel and zany, yet useful. It's a cool design alright.

We had a fun little thought exercise with the guys recently and we ranked the various decks of the ten years (!) of the group into a tier list. Not all of them existed at once, so e.g. Purph getting ranked as high as he did was the result of his strength relative to Patron. Figured you all would get a kick out of a visual representation of a meta where Patron and Feather are among the wildest decks around



I need to figure out something to build for the potato bracket as the Saryth got decent enough with time to not only escape the bottom rung but become perceived as a mid deck. My gut response is to go for Baru, Wurmspeaker and rehome all the old timey wurms that got streamlined out of Saryth with time, along with ones that lacked trample (Plated Slagwurm, Symbiotic Wurm). I'm concerned it may end up too conceptually similar to the Saryth though. Guess we'll see how it shakes out.

[Toshi]

- How is Krenko, Mob Boss built that he's just mid in a Meta where Patron of the Orochi is top tier!?
- How do you get Bruse Tarl, Boorish Herder and Mayael the Anima to upper tier levels?
- How do you get Jeleva, Nephalia's Scourge below them!?
- What does casual gamers' Chainer, Nightmare Adept look like?
- My girl Alesha, Who Smiles at Death and that dumb General Tazri boy in potato bracket!?

[duducrash]

and that dumb General Tazri boy

Hey! she deserve some respect! I tried making a true allies deck work in t2, modern and now EDH and without her this dream would've been dead years ago

[BlackbirdPlaysMTG]

I'm not surprised. It's got that Feather quality where it does something novel and zany, yet useful. It's a cool design alright.

We had a fun little thought exercise with the guys recently and we ranked the various decks of the ten years (!) of the group into a tier list. Not all of them existed at once, so e.g. Purph getting ranked as high as he did was the result of his strength relative to Patron. Figured you all would get a kick out of a visual representation of a meta where Patron and Feather are among the wildest decks around

Glad to see my girl Mayael so high up there !

[Rumpy5897]

As you can probably guess, a lot of this boils down to builds. I think I still qualify as the resident Spike, albeit with a pronounced Johnny side. The rest of the guys are a lot more chill, and with time I chilled a bit too. Though I'm still extremely obsessive and have routinely ended up over-tuning decks that were fine for the group in earlier iterations.

- How is Krenko, Mob Boss built that he's just mid in a Meta where Patron of the Orochi is top tier!?

The Krenko is a pile of random goblins the guy finds cool, with zero attempt at abusing the commander's ability, and at one point a very precarious land count situation. The Patron is a combo deck, which I've written up and maintained for the past 10 years

- How do you get Bruse Tarl, Boorish Herder and Mayael the Anima to upper tier levels?

The Bruse came equipped with Tymna the Weaver, and it was a pretty fast voltron deck packed full of interaction. The Mayael was the guy's pet deck and was decked out with a bunch of fancy creatures and solid ramp. There was definitely an Avacyn, Angel of Hope, there were Eldrazi. Getting good quality fat stuff a bit ahead of time was sufficient to do well.

- How do you get Jeleva, Nephalia's Scourge below them!?

You don't put anything degenerate in the 99, easy

- What does casual gamers' Chainer, Nightmare Adept look like?

A bunch of cool creatures the guy had lying around. The top end is stuff like Combustible Gearhulk and Abhorrent Overlord.

- My girl Alesha, Who Smiles at Death and that dumb General Tazri boy in potato bracket!?

The Alesha is probably the most contentious placement, as it's a similar story to the Chainer... for the most part. Turns out doing "cool creatures I had lying around" at 2 or less power is weaker, and then once every however many games it pieces together a Reveillark combo and wins. I don't think it's ever won sans Reveillark combo though. The Tazri was a pile of random block Ally chaff with some cheap pick-ups and the most heinous 2015 mana base you could imagine.

[materpillar]

I'm not surprised. It's got that Feather quality where it does something novel and zany, yet useful. It's a cool design alright.

We had a fun little thought exercise with the guys recently and we ranked the various decks of the ten years (!) of the group into a tier list. Not all of them existed at once, so e.g. Purph getting ranked as high as he did was the result of his strength relative to Patron. Figured you all would get a kick out of a visual representation of a meta where Patron and Feather are among the wildest decks around



I need to figure out something to build for the potato bracket as the Saryth got decent enough with time to not only escape the bottom rung but become perceived as a mid deck. My gut response is to go for Baru, Wurmspeaker and rehome all the old timey wurms that got streamlined out of Saryth with time, along with ones that lacked trample (Plated Slagwurm, Symbiotic Wurm). I'm concerned it may end up too conceptually similar to the Saryth though. Guess we'll see how it shakes out.

This is super neat. My highest confusion is why Sheoldred, Whispering One is in the same ranks as combo decks. Does the general just never get cast or is that the wrong Sheoldred picture?

[Lifeless]

This is such a fun idea. I should definitely do the same next time our whole group can get together.

[pokken]

I'm more confused how ya'll can recognize cards by their arts, I'm like 30% at best :D

[Toshi]

I'm more confused how ya'll can recognize cards by their arts,

I spend waaaaay too much time on scryfall, my friend.

[Dunadain]

- How is Krenko, Mob Boss built that he's just mid in a Meta where Patron of the Orochi is top tier!?

Patron of the Orochi is a menace, put some respect on his name XD.

- How do you get Jeleva, Nephalia's Scourge below them!?

Is jeleva that good? She used to have the (dubious) distribution of being the least-bad grixis storm commander, but she doesn't even have that anymore.

[DirkGently]

I'm more confused how ya'll can recognize cards by their arts, I'm like 30% at best :D

Pokken outing himself as a casual xD

In fairness I do sometimes not recognise new cards because of all the alternate arts. But I think I can identify the approximate mechanics for like 80%+ of cards by at least one art, and most of the ones I can't are some random common with banding.

If only whatever mental mechanisms I use to memorise cards could be dedicated to something actually useful. There's something very sticky about card mechanics, I know plenty of people who also have fairly encyclopaedic card knowledge, it seems to be relatively common.

[Dunadain]

I'm more confused how ya'll can recognize cards by their arts, I'm like 30% at best :D

Going down the list for myself:

Biggest Bois: could probably write each card down verbatim besides Zegana, their's like 4 of her and I don't know how to tell them apart, and I dont remember Windgrace's Ult

Upper Tier: I think the kraken's name is something like Tromokratis, but idk. I don't remember the mechanics on Gisa but I'm pretty sure that one's Gisa Ghoulcaller.

Mid AF: First one is generic enchantress, but don't remember the name or exact mechanics. no idea what the third one is, don't remember which elder dragon that is, and the demon is some UB Slop that I can never keep track of.

Casual Gamers: Idk what her text box is but I'm pretty sure the name is Shanna, the purifying blade. No idea what the ashnod card is, but the red hair means it's got to be Ashnod. No idea which Will and Kenrith that is, but it's certainly one of them.

Potato Bracket: Interestingly I know all of these perfectly, but the bracket is smaller so I miht have just been lucky.

Everything I didn't mention I'm pretty sure I have memorized.

How did I do?