wamyc, haven't seen you in forever! How have you been?
I also think Future Soon by Jonathan Coulton is a great song to symbolize the Izzet. Quirky people who just have a love for tinkering and inventing things. We're not really evil, but sometimes we do things for the good of our development.
How goes the first page update Surging Chaos? I hope it trumps this outdated one we have.
I have been both up and down; run ins with the law and encounters with entropic chaos have both assailed me. But I'm still here and that certainly counts for something.
I hear you on that. It's been about the same for me. I have three papers to write up, two expressive videos to sign for my ASL 2, and testing all next week....alongside work during the weeknights and weekends. (looks around) What is sleep?
So here's question. I work at a company where a couple of deaf people work but none of them are in my department. I could try to coordinate lunch and breaks with them to get my communication to a passable level. Should I I risk linguistic embarrassment as well as the regular kind?
Hey Pyromindiacs. Neat to check in here after so long and cool to see guys who were apprentices filling in the High Mage slots. Also, AI, I knew you were destined to lead this clan some day.
Jitte has "Remove a counter, gain 2 life" I have used that ability quite a bit. There was no logic behind it, the card Jitte has gain 2 life written on it.
I wouldnt call the gain life from Vampire Nightshade; Faiths Fetters; and Bottle Gnomes as incidental, as they are crucial aspects of why the card is run in the cube.
Oh, Jitte is definitely a lifegain card. I'm familiar with the text of the card. But the lifegain is pretty much a backup for something to do when they shatter it and there are no juicy targets to infect. Of course you are going to use it when you need to stay alive, but the lifegain on Jitte definitely fits the "lifegain as a peripheral effect" standard I proposed. It's always the last effect I want to have to use.
My point was to say that if you call the creature removal aspect lifegain, you might as well call the pump lifegain. It was somewhat tongue in cheek but I think a similar logical step leads you from lifegain to removal as from removal to creature pump.
The only argument I can feasibly accept as a strong point for not putting cards like Loam Lion and others into their respective multicolor sections is that the cube is easier to sort when you don't have to think about it. (I'm always finding Loam Lion in white when my drafters sort their pools after the draft is over.)
I do like that it's easier to sort. I have my friends help me sort and it saves me from making a ton of explanations of the exceptions of where to put things. I accept that Shackles is taking up an artifact spot and run erratic portal instead of crystal shard. And I don't much miss Loam lion, Kird Ape, or Desolation Angel, though I know there are big fans of those cards here. To me, it's just part of the definition of what qualifies as a cube card and I don't sweat it.
I have eight sections, WUBRGOAL, (colors, gold, artifact, land) because I see the Cube as kind of a Hall of fame that plays a living metagame out. So if things are unbalanced and I need to take out sweepers to make it better, I have to choose whether those sweepers come out of artifact, white, or wherever else. If I need more lifegain or aggro, I have to look across multiple sections. This has never bothered me.
Another thing that has helped is that I just don't run the Karoos or the signets any more due to size. Those two cycles are snags that you want to split up because they function differently in different colors.
People are mentioning that they "splash" for Khalni Garden or Halimar Depths. This is not splashing, since it does nothing to your mana base apart from losing your on-color basic land. Those lands have effects not related to their mana production.
I'd call it splashing. It cuts into your mana base for an off color effect. Even if only slightly.
Though there is a big difference for a colored card splash. I will almost never splash into a color without four cards that need that color. Then I run four mana sources for that color. That has kept me from diluting decks because of temptation and also ensures that I have a good chance of getting both that color mana and that color card.
I would never include a nonbasic fixing land in my deck that didn't actually serve a purpose in my deck. If I have no white activated abilities, or white cards, in my blue deck, I'm never playing Tundra, opening myself up to a Wasteland just for giggles. That's just bad deck design, IMHO. Therefore, I classify Tundra as a UW card because I would only play it in a deck that uses both colors it can produce.
Wasteland giggles aside, what about a tempt to get a misplay out of someone early on by playing tundra turn one in your red white aggro deck? They might mistake your deck and play against type for a turn or two. That could be palpable advantage, probably more advantage than the chance that they wasteland your tundra.
I love Plumeveil. I don't even think of it as a wall. I think of it as removal that then makes one of the best wall bodies ever. 4/4 flying? Yes, please! I love that it kills a lot of aggro attackers, making the math even worse for anything but an alpha strike even once it's sitting in play.
Re: Jitte as lifegain. It's funny that yes, Jitte is gaining you more life by removing creatures. That means that not allowing creatures in play is roughly equivalent to a kind of life gain. You could go further and say that it gains you more life by preventing them casting creatures by you killing them with its pump ability. By that logic a card like Fireblast is lifegain.
Joking aside I think the point here is that life gain is only ever going to be good when it's incidental. The only exception I can think of is Zuran Orb. I guess walls that gain you life might count too, since defensiveness is so much like lifegain in the first place.
The lower color requirements and casting cost might be a better card in the cube, or is this not a good idea? It's a 5cc sorcery speed removal + beating spell all in one. I know Nicol Bolas is better, but he's eight mana which is a lot more.
I cut slave to run the walker. This was after some moderately good performance by slave of bolas. But it was never tempting enough to make you want to go into another color, which is what I look for in gold cards. The planeswalker is definitely a card that is going to make you rethink your deck whereas slave is just probably going to be one of the spells that won't make the deck most of the time, even in color. Too many other good cards. Which is not to say that it's a bad card: it's just very costly for removal.
I would early pick strip mine, but not first pick it under many circumstances. Wastelands has yet to prove itself as an early pick but time will tell as we have yet to play a lot with some of the new awesome nonbasics, such as library.
Adding that you have no citations and that you're "happy with it" doesn't add much either.
it was an expression of my personal satisfaction with my pursuit of truth. Nothing else. Rigor is odd in that every person has to have their own standard and that it transfers poorly from person to person due to anti-bias forces.
Even if there atheists were statistically smarter and more successful as a group at this time, that doesn't doesnt make YOU smarter than any given Christian, nor your ideology more correct. I'm fairly sure that in 1941, you could make a good case for National Socialism being associated with success.
Wat.
Are you going subtle godwin here or do you really think I'm a Nazi? Atheistst are smarter for the reverse reason that smarter persons are more likely to be atheists and more likely to be successful because our system rewards educated intellectuals who don't succumb to fear about the world.
Heck, I'll bet Mormons and Scientologists can probably cite some pretty good group success. Does this mean that Scientologists and Mormons are more right than atheists?
I may have already stated this: and I think I have, but I think prayer's usefulness is limited to meditative benefits.
There is no actual God to magic your lives better. What it does is give you a chance to refocus your thoughts and get your priorities straight with the forcefulness of an objectively existing superego. It doesn't matter if the superego doesn't really exist if you truly think it does - from the perspective of efficacy.
I really like to take pride in actually owning the cards. I half think I would just never buy cards again if I started to proxy in order to play the perfect cube. And I really like owning cards so that might stink. Still, I would save a lot of money.
But having a proxy cube for tournaments and travel might be a cool idea. A slippery slope, though.
I have been both up and down; run ins with the law and encounters with entropic chaos have both assailed me. But I'm still here and that certainly counts for something.
Also: Futore Sight is awesome.
As an official Izzet Alumnus (who is too lazy to update his sig) I can tell you that well told lies are as close to truth as the well-sold truths.
So here's question. I work at a company where a couple of deaf people work but none of them are in my department. I could try to coordinate lunch and breaks with them to get my communication to a passable level. Should I I risk linguistic embarrassment as well as the regular kind?
Yeah, you heard me right.
Now listening to Harder, Faster, Stronger....
Oh, Jitte is definitely a lifegain card. I'm familiar with the text of the card. But the lifegain is pretty much a backup for something to do when they shatter it and there are no juicy targets to infect. Of course you are going to use it when you need to stay alive, but the lifegain on Jitte definitely fits the "lifegain as a peripheral effect" standard I proposed. It's always the last effect I want to have to use.
My point was to say that if you call the creature removal aspect lifegain, you might as well call the pump lifegain. It was somewhat tongue in cheek but I think a similar logical step leads you from lifegain to removal as from removal to creature pump.
I do like that it's easier to sort. I have my friends help me sort and it saves me from making a ton of explanations of the exceptions of where to put things. I accept that Shackles is taking up an artifact spot and run erratic portal instead of crystal shard. And I don't much miss Loam lion, Kird Ape, or Desolation Angel, though I know there are big fans of those cards here. To me, it's just part of the definition of what qualifies as a cube card and I don't sweat it.
I have eight sections, WUBRGOAL, (colors, gold, artifact, land) because I see the Cube as kind of a Hall of fame that plays a living metagame out. So if things are unbalanced and I need to take out sweepers to make it better, I have to choose whether those sweepers come out of artifact, white, or wherever else. If I need more lifegain or aggro, I have to look across multiple sections. This has never bothered me.
Another thing that has helped is that I just don't run the Karoos or the signets any more due to size. Those two cycles are snags that you want to split up because they function differently in different colors.
I'd call it splashing. It cuts into your mana base for an off color effect. Even if only slightly.
Though there is a big difference for a colored card splash. I will almost never splash into a color without four cards that need that color. Then I run four mana sources for that color. That has kept me from diluting decks because of temptation and also ensures that I have a good chance of getting both that color mana and that color card.
Wasteland giggles aside, what about a tempt to get a misplay out of someone early on by playing tundra turn one in your red white aggro deck? They might mistake your deck and play against type for a turn or two. That could be palpable advantage, probably more advantage than the chance that they wasteland your tundra.
I love Plumeveil. I don't even think of it as a wall. I think of it as removal that then makes one of the best wall bodies ever. 4/4 flying? Yes, please! I love that it kills a lot of aggro attackers, making the math even worse for anything but an alpha strike even once it's sitting in play.
Re: Jitte as lifegain. It's funny that yes, Jitte is gaining you more life by removing creatures. That means that not allowing creatures in play is roughly equivalent to a kind of life gain. You could go further and say that it gains you more life by preventing them casting creatures by you killing them with its pump ability. By that logic a card like Fireblast is lifegain.
Joking aside I think the point here is that life gain is only ever going to be good when it's incidental. The only exception I can think of is Zuran Orb. I guess walls that gain you life might count too, since defensiveness is so much like lifegain in the first place.
I cut slave to run the walker. This was after some moderately good performance by slave of bolas. But it was never tempting enough to make you want to go into another color, which is what I look for in gold cards. The planeswalker is definitely a card that is going to make you rethink your deck whereas slave is just probably going to be one of the spells that won't make the deck most of the time, even in color. Too many other good cards. Which is not to say that it's a bad card: it's just very costly for removal.
I would early pick strip mine, but not first pick it under many circumstances. Wastelands has yet to prove itself as an early pick but time will tell as we have yet to play a lot with some of the new awesome nonbasics, such as library.
So you think that failing proper scientific rigor the defaut position is that atheism is the obvious choice? Well, I can sign onto that one.
it was an expression of my personal satisfaction with my pursuit of truth. Nothing else. Rigor is odd in that every person has to have their own standard and that it transfers poorly from person to person due to anti-bias forces.
Wat.
Are you going subtle godwin here or do you really think I'm a Nazi? Atheistst are smarter for the reverse reason that smarter persons are more likely to be atheists and more likely to be successful because our system rewards educated intellectuals who don't succumb to fear about the world.
Heck, I'll bet Mormons and Scientologists can probably cite some pretty good group success. Does this mean that Scientologists and Mormons are more right than atheists?
Usually smart people are right. That matters. That's what it means to be smart. Being smart means being right more often.
There is no actual God to magic your lives better. What it does is give you a chance to refocus your thoughts and get your priorities straight with the forcefulness of an objectively existing superego. It doesn't matter if the superego doesn't really exist if you truly think it does - from the perspective of efficacy.
But having a proxy cube for tournaments and travel might be a cool idea. A slippery slope, though.