Indeed. Your help in making these, to say nothing of what you've done for the forum have really been a solid support for us all. We'll miss seeing you in the mod cave.
I'm glad your last mod piece made it to publication though, and that you got to talk about Ephara.
- bobthefunny
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Jan 11, 2015bobthefunny posted a message on Word of Command #4 - Engines of CommandPosted in: Articles
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Dec 3, 2014bobthefunny posted a message on Word of Command #3 - Welcoming New CommandersYour method of letting players tumble out into their own camps can be a good one when you have enough room to do it. People will naturally gravitate into the games that fit their decks' schedules.Posted in: Articles
In smaller environments where you may only have one or two pods going though, it can be a bit more difficult. Also, you then get problematic players like me who like to play across the entire spectrum.
I also believe that casual environments can provide excellent learning areas, but you have to be careful of it as well. One trap that my own group has been running into now is being too lenient on take-backs. Originally implemented to allow the newer players some freedom of thought and to help them work through what courses of actions to take. It can start to be abused into not fully thinking through a situation. An example being that one player cast Council's Judgment to remove my Commander. The second player voted for another permanent in order to set up a double exile option for player C, and player C then mistakenly selected a third permanent for more exily goodness, at which point I selected one of the other targets for my vote in order to save my Commander. Player C hadn't really thought things through (and I'd also quickly jumped the gun on my own vote, I'll admit), but we ended up rewinding that play so he could properly select his vote.
I find it helps best to properly (and as honestly as possible) represent the board state for newer players. For example, with cards with the Will of The Council, such as Council's Judgment, I find that it helps to explain to newer players what the consequence of their vote will do to the options the next player in line will be able to make. After a while, you can scale back the aid you give to after the play or game is over, that way they can learn from their own choices, but still have the benefit of a different viewpoint.
In one game, my brother should have had lethal on me since he had a pro-black creature, and he was paranoid about a Duplicant in my Chainer deck's graveyard... except that he misplayed having forgotten that Chainer would reanimate it as a black creature and opted to spread his equipments out instead. Since my brother should have known better, that was an observation I made at the end of the game (a few turns later). He has never forgotten it again.
These kinds of interactions though can really help all players improve their own levels of play. -
Nov 8, 2014bobthefunny posted a message on Word of Command #3 - Welcoming New CommandersAbsolutely! The greatest way to truly learn anything is to teach it. It really makes you get an in-depth understanding of the subject.Posted in: Articles
I'm glad you enjoyed the article. -
Sep 28, 2014bobthefunny posted a message on Word of Command #2 - KHAAAAANS!Should have been Corpsejack Menace, I guess.Posted in: Articles
Indeed, much thanks to the entire editorial staff, this wouldn't be possible without them. -
Mar 29, 2012bobthefunny posted a message on Tibor & LumiaSol Grail, while getting points for being oldschool, has never impressed me in EDH. Here are a few alternatives (some less budget than others):Posted in: Deck Compilation
Coalition Relic - the most expensive of them, but far more useful.
Phyrexian Lens - a bit painful, but may be worth the added color utility
Star Compass - the best budget alternate. Taps for either color we have; CiPT, but costs 1 less, so same net mana gain when played.
Also, do not overlook Fire diamond and Sky diamond
Also, for storm count, do you have a Frantic Search? -
Aug 22, 2011bobthefunny posted a message on Being a substitute teacher is no substitute to teachingTeachers have been cut, this means there are less teachers that are teaching to get sick; this also means there are more teachers now looking for work, and thereby more substitutes looking for work.Posted in: Stoogeslap Blog
A full time teacher's resume will look better when a school is looking for a sub, so they'll be called in first. - To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
Regarding Birgi, God of Storytelling vs Kykar, Wind's Fury, I think there are enough differences that they don't preculde each other from being played - that said, there's a lot of overlap between them. As far as storm combos go, I think the advantage has to go to Kykar - both have the ability to essentially "refund" 1 mana from spells, but aside from the extra colors, the ability to stockpile spirits in prior turns can give Kykar a significant head start on preparing a combo turn. This can also be achieved with other sources of spirit generation prior to dropping Kykar, as well as the creatures being a threat in their own right, offering more win conditions. Creatures also offer alternate use cases with other sac outlets or value engines. Overall there's just a lot more flexibility.
Where Birgi, God of Storytelling really shines though is her back face. Having both options of mana 'reduction' OR card draw in the command zone lets her fill either half of the equation depending on what's missing. That is insanely powerful as an ability.
Honestly though, considering that any UR commander is storm-viable, and how much Birgi adds to any such deck, I expect to see Birgi in the 99 considerably more than in the Command Zone.
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For Cosima, God of the Voyage, I think both faces are great. Early in the game she can ensure you hit early land drops. You can drop the boat on turn 2, then a 2 drop creature on 3 (such as Ghostly Pilferer), crew and attack, even if you didn't have a third land.
As far as her main face with the card draw, Tireless Tracker is a highly popular card. Part of this is that he gives green some extra card draw, especially some that is not tied to creatures (other than the tracker himself being one). Green also ramps more, so can make more clues...
However... it still costs 2 mana per clue that you crack for card draw. Cosima is a similar effect - Land = Draw, except that she's free.
Again though, as with Birgi, being able to fix early lands, or late game draw, is a powerful ability to have in the Command Zone. I think that flexibility is what will really make Cosima interesting.
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I hope you have a sac outlet out or some other way to interrupt that Maja, Bretagard Protector combo, otherwise you just drew the game... =D
As always, you can read the official announcement on the Rules' Committee's mtgcommander.net site:
https://mtgcommander.net/index.php/2021/01/25/2021-january-update/
Aside from just Blasphemous Act and Chain Reaction shenanigans, you're overlooking another Red signature: Furnace of Rath effects.
If you have Furnace out, Toralf starts murdering people. Let's say an opponent has 3 1/1 goblins out. You lightning bolt one, doubled, for 6 damage. 5 excess means Toralf doubles to 10 damage to the next. That leaves 9 excess, doubling to 18 on the third. Finally, that 17 excess damage can now go to anyone's face for 34 damage.
This is not going to be a super consistent combo... nor high amounts of play; but this is not relegated to simply being a spellslinger commander.
If you have concerns about the site's directions, or have ideas for improvements, please let us know in the staff inbox. We would love to hear your feedback as to how to make the site a more welcoming experience.
This is not the thread for that though. Thanks.
https://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/community-forums/community-discussion/staff-inbox
Not only that, but one reason they could all (mostly) be white is to keep the numbers closer together. Right now the four white cards are set at numbers 22, 24, 26, and 29... all with titles starting with R or S. that means that 23, 25, 27, and 28 all also start with R or S. That's a lot of R's. I could see a few "Runeforged" getting repeated. But that's still intriguing as well.
If you, or anyone else, finds comments they feel are unsafe, harmful, or go beyond the bounds of our community, we urge you to bring these comments to our attention with the Report feature, and include why you feel the comment is inappropriate.
Our moderators are volunteers, and are only human as well. Sometimes we make mistakes, or simply do not have the knowledge on certain matters. I once received a report based on a derogatory word which I had been previously unaware of, but was able to understand the context of from the explanation of the reporter as well as a bit of research. More explanation is always good.
If a person take issue about a character being in the set because of their race. That is racism. There is no other word for it. It's literally the issue being discussed. Her race.
This is a fictional game, where Planeswalkers are travelers. They are foreign elements into ANY of these worlds they visit. That's the whole point of Magic. Jace can visit Ixalan, Sorin can visit Zendikar, Arlinn can visit Ravnica. To say that a foreign tourist ruins the immersion or historical accuracy of a world? Because of their RACE?
No. Those statements are not acceptable. It is literally an argument about exclusion based on race, which is the literal definition of racism.
Nevermind historical realities that the Vikings sailed all the way into the Mediterranean, and traded with, and fought, in that region. Considering that Vikings dealt with, dealt in, and took slaves, having Black characters would even NOT be out of context, if we were going for historical accuracy.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swedish_slave_trade
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viking_expansion
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Calling someone a Nazi is Flaming, and will be infracted. If you see this behavior occur, please report it.
I disagree. Not every statement is equally correct, moral, or impactful. We are under no obligation, morally or otherwise, to allow a platform to every kind of speech or opinion. For example, outright hateful speech will never be permitted on this site. The question is thus not about "whether" we can or should moderate, but about "where."
Finding the line between allowing polite and insightful discussion can sometimes be tricky. Sometimes, such as with racism, it's not.
This is hyperbole. Of course not everyone will accept or connect with everything about every character. I have criticism on how many aspects of Magic have been handled, such as the retcon of Ugin, and how the Bolas arc ended.
However, when the critique of a character is based upon their race, or their gender, or their gender identity... That's not a critique. That's prejudice.
[card]Ideas Unbound[/card] = Ideas Unbound
As the question is answered, I'll just close this thread.
Some of this conversation seems to no longer be about site concerns. I will reiterate the following:
I hope to make my way through this thread and answer any concerns arisen, however, there are a number of open tickets, so it may take some time to get back to this.
Thank you,
-bobthfunny.
I'm shutting this down.
Unfortunately, the thread linked is one such example of that. It appears that the user and all their content was removed per those legal restrictions.
It feels to me that 'athlete' can fall into any of the five colors, depending on motivation. Green is probably most natural, given the physical 'natural' contest, and we see that with The First Iroan Games. However, red has the passion of athleticism (Hero of the Games), black has the competitiveness, and white has the teamwork and self-discipline. I can certainly see Blue getting in on it with rigidness and self improvement.
Physical study and excellence is certainly a newer spotlight for blue, but we have seen physically proficient characters in blue, such as the ninja - who achieve their physical excellence through training and study. Lu Xun, Scholar General and Sun Ce, Young Conquerer could be another? Zhou Yu, Chief Commander is no slouch either, as an 8/8. Or the representation of monks with Shu Yun, the Silent Tempest?
This also feels right at home on Theros, as the real world comparison - the Olympic Games, welcomed competitors of all walks of life - it makes sense that there would be athletes of all color alignments represented. This also aligns with some real world examples, such as Plato, who was a wrestler and wrestling coach. Socrates was a distinguished soldier.
Overall, we haven't seen a lot of sports at all in magic - The most athletic event would likely be the Coliseum in the Battlebond set, where we see a variety of charaters, from Green having the physically weakest contestant, to Will Kenrith being a Blue character with good physical prowess.
The third is perhaps a bit more unique, but everyone has their budget, and some card might represent a fair portion of that budget. Sometimes you want to be sure the card you're thinking of will work the way you hope before pulling the trigger on a significant investment.
We've been talking about opening up our proxy acceptance though, in order to try to even out the playing field between certain players, but nothing has come of that yet.
Riku of Two Reflections is no where near as popular now as he used to be, but when he came out I built a budget deck with him, and all I can say is that Chancellor of the Forge with Parallel Lives gets into mathy territory real fast. (With only Rikku and parallel lives out, Chancellor makes over 100 goblin tokens. Add 26 goblins per extra pre-existing creature you control). I had a birthing pod chain in the deck, and I was looking for a step on the way to Craterhoof Behemoth (which had just come out, and was budget at the time), I eschewed the standard Avenger of Zendikar for the cheaper Chancellor. I quickly discovered that I never made it to my 8 slot. Chancellor alone was a game ending slot. Other fun things to copy over included Hellrider (Ever attack someone with 6 hellriders? It's fun), and Kessig Cagebreakers (attacked with 3 cage breakers, with 7 creatures in grave, and parallel lives out). My greatest game though, was probably where I managed to bouce chancellor and recast a few times, for over a billion goblins, then dropped a tripled craterhoof to reach something like 3x10^23 damage - non-infinite. Took a short while on the calculator to figure out the rough ballpark of damage.
I have been wanting to build a Chainer, Nightmare Adept deck for a bit now, but just haven't quite gotten started on it. He doesn't seem to be the most popular commander from that set of decks.
Depending on your group, just about any UR or URx commander can pilot a storm deck adequately well. You can adjust the commander based upon your desired difficulty. Mizzix/Kykar being easy mode, Tibor and Lumia being no help from the command zone mode.
Different people have different expectations of this set, and are allowed to have different emotions as to whether or not their expectations are being set. That's no reason to belittle anyone, or get angry that people have different expectations.
Spoilers are still very lacking in details, let's be a bit patient before decrying whether or not the set fulfills our fantasies...
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I will say that I find the art on Lavaglide Pathway to be absolutely gorgeous. It reminds me a bit of Thawing Glaciers. Probably just because it's a glacier, but still.
Boulderloft Pathway's art is equally fascinating.
Shame that Glaciers is reserved. Would have been a sweet include in the set.