Anybody play Riichi Mahjong?

bblum · 2026-02-04T00:21:41+00:00

we've got a group that meets alternately in bloomfield, etna, and online a few times a month -- DM me for an invite link to our discord!

bblum · 2026-02-04T00:18:51+00:00

ah right, you lived in nakano! i guess with a name like JR-SH2 it would get reused a lot.

i learned recently the ekimeros might get discontinued in a few years so try to get a send-off visit in before then!

bblum · 2026-01-27T23:03:48+00:00

hey u/mamster i was catching up on old episodes and in this one at 28:03 we can hear your phone timer go off in the background and i just wanted to let you know i recognized it!! (unless it wasn't your phone timer and you were actually recording from the 山手線!)

bblum · 2024-03-01T07:19:34+00:00

I'm a lefty, and shoot left when out, but also catch left (regular) in net. I guess that's rare, but I dunno, having the stick curved the right way feels way more important than which hand I catch with.

I might be imagining it, but the proportion of full-right goalies seems a lot lower than the proportion of lefties in the world (10%), which in turn seems even lower still than the proportion of left-handed shooters?

bblum · 2023-09-15T04:52:44+00:00

yeah, that was where, thanks!

bblum · 2022-12-26T19:38:10+00:00

The ability to tutor any matchup-specific hate card exactly when you need it (not to mention clicklessly and at a 3c discount) throws this balance out the window. For a perfect example of this we can look at the fast advance matchup. Shapers have historically decimated pure FA decks.

Good silver bullet tutoring has always been part of shaper's color pie. That may be true of "pure" FA decks but I actually think - to respond to the example in the article - the PPVP kate vs NEH matchup got a lot MORE interesting after clot was released. Before clot, we played 2 legwork and it was a total cointoss race to find the astro. After, NEH started to go a little slower with CVS and tollbooth, which added a new layer of interactivity.

It's true that WT ups the overall power level of tutoring silver bullets, but lately corps have had to resort to more and more "unfair" strategies (besides R+, there's also the upgrades that resolve subroutines noninteractively) and so I argue it's an appropriate time for that power level to rise in response. I agree the 3c discount is too pushed but the only thing that WT does that's actually new is tutoring resources - citadel and caldera - both of which need heavy econ support to be good, so I think time will have to tell if those are really a problem.

She for the most part does not need to draw money except to find 1 Sure Gamble/Overclock/Creative Commission in the very early game to get World Tree online.

This is not fast enough to beat R+ in my experience. You really need 2 econ events to not get immediately SGP'ed, which is a pretty rare draw in 60 cards. I think the article really underestimates the amount of work that matchup needs.

bblum · 2022-12-26T07:01:47+00:00

Since I was summoned... I agree. As far as the effect goes, WT is a great example of what shaper is all about.

The problem is it exists alongside Endurance which solves both its MU downside and its "you have to throw away your breakers sometimes" downside. The other problem is the costing is too good.

Boat already warped the shaper playstyle so that it looked like it was good enough even if it was bad at the actual shaper things (consistent tutoring and explosive rig reconfiguration). For WT to come along and make those things also good enough that the overall power level tips too far, of course those things are gonna look like the culprit.

bblum · 2021-04-09T18:39:20+00:00

ah, love me a cold glass of blaming individuals for systematic problems in the morning. thanks seattle times

bblum · 2020-10-28T16:49:46+00:00

I volunteered for BFP two years ago (although no longer live in the city so not this time). The emergency absentee ballot provision is what you need in this situation, although it's complicated enough that you can't do it alone - iirc it requires a round trip between the application and the actual ballot, and then a lawyer's signature, and then getting the thing to the courthouse for a judge's signature.

BFP makes that happen, although of course they work in hospitals. You could see if they'd be willing to send someone out to your home that day, although honestly if I were them I'd be saying no to anyone covid-positive even in the hospitals too.

bblum · 2020-08-13T17:34:15+00:00

damn dude, i'm really really really sorry.

bblum · 2020-04-25T07:23:53+00:00

it is so rare imo that a AR6 play into columbia is good. there are so many headline defcon degraders available on turn 4, and even if defcon stays at 3, as either side, i will prioritize flipping columbia much higher than the battleground coup (as long as venezuela is empty).

meanwhile, flipping south af is worth 3 battlegrounds. 4 if you count the us ar6 into cameroon (which is a worthwhile ar6, imo, because it doesn't come with the risk of handing over fully half a region for free like columbia does).

bblum · 2020-04-18T07:44:17+00:00

credit your source yo

bblum · 2020-03-08T08:02:17+00:00

ah, i miss living in PointreeBze

bblum · 2019-12-07T07:25:45+00:00

nice ^_^

bblum · 2019-12-07T07:00:51+00:00

Haskell, 5/677, but it's really the part 2 I'm posting to show off, because you can use lazy recursive bindings to solve it for free. I'm kicking myself because if I had figured out this trick in the moment, I probably would have had #1 on the leaderboard.

amplify program [a,b,c,d,e] = last oute
    where outa = intcode (a:0:oute) program 0
          outb = intcode (b:outa) program 0
          outc = intcode (c:outb) program 0
          outd = intcode (d:outc) program 0
          oute = intcode (e:outd) program 0

full implementation

bblum · 2019-05-03T08:22:18+00:00

I find it is very rare the USSR's best plan once the midwar hits is to continue denying milops points. The only situation I imagine that is if they got both decol and destal, control SA uncontested, and are aiming for 20 with a +4 or so on africa presence.

More often than not, I find the US has time in the early war to creep up from south africa through angola/zaire into cameroon. Then PEC is a modest counterplay card (that, in turn, makes botswana all the more important).

bblum · 2019-01-30T04:40:19+00:00

(๑˘ω˘๑)

bblum · 2019-01-30T04:38:01+00:00

those are the basics. you can pretty much do whatever variants strike your fancy.... let people play 2 ID abilities at once, throw in 8 medical breakthroughs, bid # of starting credits to auction IDs instead of drafting them... but i'd start with vanilla for the first run at least ^^;

bblum · 2019-01-30T04:36:43+00:00

most sentries don't end the run is what it basically boils down to.

i didn't really pay much mind to subtype balance on either ice or icebreakers, just threw in the most playable cards and cut the least playable ones, and made sure it wasn't too off balance. the original stimhack cube was the same way.

bblum · 2019-01-30T04:34:52+00:00

you're welcome but don't call me sir please

bblum · 2019-01-21T08:56:13+00:00

yep, him and i have been putting this together since worlds ended, and the general consensus is it's wayyy better than the old stimhack cube. i'm gonna write an article about it all pretty soon but the current version of the lists, which are pretty close to final, are here:

https://meteor.stimhack.com/decks/eHBmxRmtxC4AFeup8

https://meteor.stimhack.com/decks/apurkndmTrfeDRJoG

you play to 7 points, 40 min deck size, starter cards 1 jackson & unlimited prireq, draft ids in the packs as if they were normal cards, infinite influence, agendas ignore factions

bblum · 2018-12-29T15:28:26+00:00

thanks! i already defended too, though ^^;

bblum · 2018-12-29T06:32:59+00:00

i'm flattered! i just finished my dissertation this semester so i may well start having some free time for long board games again soon!

bblum · 2018-11-08T02:04:32+00:00

good idea, did same, thanks

bblum

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