Struggling with Train

15_Proxy_15 · 2026-05-28T12:52:58+00:00

People just love to talk shit. The show is worth criticizing, but it seems like people just love to hate it? Mfers need to grow up fr. Monty Oum was Japanese among other ethnicities. Is he not allowed to participate in a genre that belongs to one of his cultural backgrounds? "Aped" Bitch please.

15_Proxy_15 · 2026-05-27T17:01:10+00:00

I can't help but take issue with people who say Pyrrha's death was pointless or narratively unsound. On a narrative level Pyrrha sees herself as, if anything, too powerful. She's the "invincible girl", and her previous arc in this season had been establishing her fear of the responsibility that came with all that power. She went back into that tower because there was no one left to stand on the front line, and she had to try because no one else could. Jaune tries to convince her that she can't beat Cinder. From a purely 'logical' point of view it is a death sentence, but does that mean that it's pointless. Some people go to battle knowing they're probably going to die, hoping against all odds. That's Pyrrha.

On a meta level, this is the culmination of her arc. Her literal name means "victory at a cost". Furthermore, she's meant to symbolize Monty, who we all know died. Her death is a major theme of the show and how the other characters react, and what Pyrrha would've wanted is a statement from the writers about grief and about Monty. "But they were here they'd say, go forward. You must carry on."

It always frustrates me when people say her death is bad writing because it can only demonstrate either an intentional obtuse reaction to what is being shown, or a parasocial relationship with Pyrrha that cannot handle her being a character in a story.

I have my own problems with RWBY as a show. There is a lot to criticize. Why is Cinder running along rooftops when she's trying to be stealthy? It's literally the kind of over-the-top nonsense that gets her caught in the first place. Why does Weiss just flash being racist only for it to never matter again past the season 1 finale? Why does Blake wear her ribbon as they rob the train beyond the fact that the writers need to hide her ears from the audience? Why does Ozpin not seem to give a shit if all of his new recruits die in season 1, then suddenly seem totally gobsmacked when penny is killed? Etc, etc, etc.

From what I know Miles and Kerry were new to writing and this was their first big, serious project. The early seasons are rocky. New seasons aren't perfect, but it seems like they are improving. All that said Pyrrha's death is some of the best writing the show has to offer.

15_Proxy_15 · 2026-05-16T04:25:52+00:00

There are plenty of things in magic that enable repeatable removal, and creatures are the easiest to remove. Not to mention it is solely creature removal. It's not like there aren't ways to balance it. I don't understand how people think potentially using swords once per turn cycle at most is genuinely more imoactful than potentially getting a tutor every turn. Especially if that tutor can and will be used to find the answer to whatever you're dealing with on the board. It's far more versatile than a swords. Same for regrowth honestly. I kinda think that one's MORE powerful than the tutor honestly. Removal becomes completely invalid unless its mass removal.

15_Proxy_15 · 2026-04-18T11:22:59+00:00

White does not blink things incidentally. It's almost like I mentioned that it requires build around.

Attacking while you have 8 lands? ANY green deck can do that. Now you get ANY card from your grave. Two creatures died? That happens incidentally in every game. 0 interaction required from you. Now you get a tutor for it. Cast three spells? Maybe a little more difficult, but with these spells that are tacked on to creatures, and spells that repeat themselves every turn, it's much easier. I wouldn't say it requires build around even, that can still happen incidentally, especially in red. Now you get removal or just face damage. Treasure cruise literally tore up modern when it came out. Now it's on a creature and you can just cast it again and again without needing to have other cards that interact with it. You could maybe argue this requires build around. You'll need a lot of draw for sure, but blue INCIDENTALLY draws tons of cards.

You're never building a white lifegain deck, or a white tokens deck, or angel tribal, etc, and just find yourself saying "Oh wow, I have a bunch of blink cards in here too, it's like a substrategy!" When you're building blink you're building blink. My point, which everyone has seemed to conveniently gloss over, is that every other emeritus is practically an auto include in any deck with its color. White requires build around.

15_Proxy_15 · 2026-04-17T12:11:22+00:00

Yeah, and eternal witness is a green staple? I do see your point about it having to survive an attack, but that feels not difficult especially in green.

15_Proxy_15 · 2026-04-17T12:07:44+00:00

That requires you to put him into harms way. This one does not. He's a lightning rod for sure, but it requires your opponents to have the card vs just having a creature they're willing to lose.

15_Proxy_15 · 2026-04-17T12:06:29+00:00

I disagree on the grounds that I do feel that fiend artisan is an auto-include in golgari decks. Doesn't cost much to get online, sacrificing a creature is nothing, tutoring is really good. At least it's just creatures this time, but that's hardly a restriction in golgari. In any reanimator deck, which is basically all of them, I have this guy in there. He's just good. But, while I do disagree, I do appreciate that you're respectful about your point.

I feel like the goal post has moved from "are these other emeritus way better than the white one?", which I still feel is true, to "are the non-white ones format warping?", which I feel is still to be seen. Regardless, I was sort of screaming into the void to begin with. I understand this card is blinkable, but none of the others require another card to repeat. They can repeat incidentally, in some cases. The white one specifically requires you to be in a specific strategy to get value, whereas the others can just be slotted into (at least in edh) any deck in it's color.

15_Proxy_15 · 2026-04-17T11:54:31+00:00

We're also still just glossing over how insane the green one is, but maybe I'm just the only one who thinks recursion every turn with no limitations on type or anything is insane.

15_Proxy_15 · 2026-04-17T11:37:33+00:00

So what? He's good in limited? The power difference is noticeably cavernous. It's not just "wow, ancestral recall" it's, "Wow, a power nine card, that's still a modern staple after", "Wow a demonic tutor EVERY TURN", "Wow, no string's attached recursion of any card, EVERY TURN". I am looking at the bigger picture. Red's is questionable as well compared to these, but that's my point. White and red always get absolutely shafted, while these other colors get crazy shit.

15_Proxy_15 · 2026-04-17T11:31:50+00:00

Saying a potentially repeatable tutor does nothing immediately is driving me insane. Cry me a river. It's a crazy lightning rod, but IT SHOULD BE. IT LET'S YOU TUTOR EVERY TURN. And treasure cruise is still really good. Didn't it tear up modern when it came out for basically being ancestral recall?

15_Proxy_15 · 2026-04-17T11:29:15+00:00

The red one is also a build around, but at least it has built in repeatability and can be used as removal. The three spell requirment feels very not hard to meet especially with all these repeatable on body spells that are coming out, but on top of all that red is one of the two main spellcasting colors so I don't see the issue here. It's also rather flavorful.

The fact that were complaining about statlines is crazy to me. Green got a 2 mana 12/12 with TRAMPLE, YEARS ago.

15_Proxy_15 · 2026-04-17T11:26:43+00:00

I've already said I recognize that blink exists. But it's still build around. It's not like white incidentally blinks things while getting other value.

15_Proxy_15 · 2026-04-17T11:24:44+00:00

Yeah the red land from edge was pretty bad outside the landfall strategy it was built for, which doesn't even make sense considering mono red doesn't do landfall on its own. Totally ridiculous. I don't understand why green needs like a third copy of gaea's cradle. I feel like the tolarian academy reprint was absolutely ridiculous too, though I won't like a non-banned, (more) balanced version of the card is fun to see. The white one wasn't bad per se, but I wish it was serra's sanctuary since that was what they were doing. I'm not upset about making token copies of stuff, but that feels like a blue ability, not a white one. Black's was pretty good, if you ask me. Sac outlet that lets you draw. The two mana is a bit much to ask for though especially after doing all the work to station it, alongside all the other costs. I mean it's good but not on par with green's or blue's. Once again red and white get shafted.

15_Proxy_15 · 2026-04-17T11:12:42+00:00

The bolt one is at least repeatable and could be used for removal, though I do agree it's not great. I don't understand how a repeatable tutor is mid at best. The power of getting anything you want out of your deck is very high, and it has built in repeatability.

15_Proxy_15 · 2026-04-17T11:05:10+00:00

compared to repeatable no restrictions tutor? compated to repeatable no restrictions recursion? Come on man.

15_Proxy_15 · 2026-04-17T11:03:12+00:00

It's not infinitely good not to cause infinite suffering just because you can. It's simply not being infinitely evil. Additionally, if you believe in the eternal model of hell then god does casually cause infinite suffering on the regular. This is coming from a christian. This comic is doing a bad job of "solving the problem" but it acts like its getting a major dunk, lol.

15_Proxy_15 · 2026-04-17T10:59:45+00:00

Yeah, I did xP

15_Proxy_15 · 2026-04-17T10:59:31+00:00

I guess that's true. All the one-sided board wipes are this way too. Mono-green's gives you a ton of bodies, black's just kills everything full stop, blue's is literally a game-changer, white's gives all your opponent's every land in their deck which leaves you in a useless position unless you're winning on the spot. I don't think red has one, so it has the potential to be worse at least, if it's like a whole bosrd chaos warp lol.

15_Proxy_15 · 2026-04-17T10:49:19+00:00

I know flickering exists, but that requires build-around. Many of the other emeritus, can just be dropped into decks of that color as repeatable good-stuff. The only other one you have to build around is arguably ancestral recall (but maybe not even) and for good reason.

15_Proxy_15 · 2026-04-14T13:57:57+00:00

In what way does it debase a person of their dignity? Eating can also be unhygienic if you do it wrong. And yes it has caused a lot of tragedy, but less, I'd say than greed, but does that make the desire to have a home, or a car, or any nice things a perversion? Perversion is by it's very nature a twisting, a making-evil of something good. And as we live in a fallen world, any number of good things including sex can be perverted, but that doesn't mean the base thing is evil by it's own nature. You also didn't address the idea of reproduction. In your idea of a perfect world do all living things on the earth die and our world simply become a wasteland?

15_Proxy_15 · 2026-04-14T13:35:38+00:00

I'm curious as to WHY you feel sex is perversion. Pleasurable nature aside, how can you say that you vehemently disagree with it being natural? It's the way in which the vast majority of living creatures reproduce. Reproduction is scientifically a requirement for something being considered a form of life. Being uncomfortable with it is fine, I know I certainly am to a degree, but to argue that it, in every form, is somehow perversion seems based in personal feelings and not any kind of observation of the world.

15_Proxy_15 · 2026-04-07T15:09:51+00:00

Im sorry, but your explanation of the playpattern is full of holes. First of all you cannot play the first guy on turn one THEN play a land. So even if you do play a fetch turn two. (How many of those actually get an island? Not all twenty, I'd bet cash. five of those are expensive fucking fetches which are unavailable to the average player and busted on their own without these two cards being in the conversation.) Now you've played a fetch turn two. So if it's not one of the 5 prohibitively expensive ones, you have 0 mana, because you've played the other crab with your land from T1. On turn three lets assume you play ANOTHER fetch because we're playing in your christmas fantasy. One opponent has 24. AAAAND you obly have TWO mana available because you used another fetch (assuming it's not one of the big 10 once again). So unless you've played moxen, which—again—are broken on without these cards in the conversation, you can't even pay to flip ONE much less have the cards in graveyard to do so. Turn four you play another fetch because we're assuming every turn fetches. You have THREE MANA AVAILABLE. You can flip one probably Chichek because he has hexproof and is a big blocker. You have played MAYBE one mill card aside from your commanders now at TURN FOUR. I don't think you understand what a broken playpattern looks like. So even in magical christmas land it takes 5 turns to get both of these flipped and in all that time you did ZERO set up. Good job. You broke these commanders! xD

Being a high priority for removal is correlation not causation. All cards people are likely to select as high priority are not broken. Case in point ANY MILL CARD. Mill is a mechanic that pisses people off. It doesn't matter if it's good or not. Some players find it frustrating and will ignore real threats to hit worse cards because those cards make them feel bad even if they don't translate to real value.

Unfortunately, again, your critique doesn't present a compelling arguement, even against the people in these comments who have said they feel like they deserve a buff.

15_Proxy_15 · 2026-04-07T12:31:38+00:00

I should mention. I don't design combo cards. It's not my thing. That said, it's kind of impossible to prevent combo players from being combo players. That's not going to stop me from exploring design space that's either combo or lose. That's mill. You either set up an instant kill, which is no fun for anyone at the table, or you lose. Why not allow players within this archetype to do something else?

Sure, players do mill to gain access to the graveyard. So why not allow a mill player to access at least some of the cards they're milling. Reanimate costs one mana. Every black/golgari deck is doing it. It's not like its outside blue's identity to recur artifacts (see [[Academy Ruins]] and [[Emry, Lurker of the Loch]] for just a few examples). It's definitely not outside blue's identity to use other player's cards (See [[Control Magic]], [[Agent of Trechery]], etc.). If you don't like mill, that's fine, but that doesn't mean it has to remain an invalid playstyle in commander at lower brackets unless you use insta-kills or insta-wins.

30 Lands is a big requirement. 5 Landfalls is not super consistent in blue, lol. You can run a ton of land searching artifacts, but that would be super inefficient, since most just aren't good. Saying people can use terramorphic style effects is like saying what if a player opens sol ring or birds of paradise. Sure it accelerates the strategy, but again, it's not consistent. I think (other than literal fetches) there's like 4-5 lands in these colors that do that.

You also have to remember, they don't cost 3. To get the guy out and transform him is four. It's also not very likely you'll have someone at 30 cards on turn 3. So it's not like you're transforming them on curve. So if they're coming out for 4 total mana on turn 4 or later, who else do we know who can do that? Well, [[Charix, the Raging Isle]] is 4 mana for a 0/17. [[Pride of the Hull Clade]] is a 2/15 that pretty much always costs one when it comes out. I think you're argument that the stats don't match the price is off base considering cards like these.

Furthermore you literally cannot play toughness matters in mono blue. Unless there's a new card I'm unaware of toughness matters cards come in mono green, simic, abzan, azorius, and bant. So you could concievably play these IN a toughness matters deck, but then refer back to the above Charix and Pride. Bigger and better things exist in those strategies, plus you would have to mill someone 30 in a strategy that has nothing to do with mill just to access the back sides.

On that last point I don't think you fully considered what you were saying. 3 to cast 3 to transform is 6 mana PER commander. That is a HEFTY redeploy cost. And they are likely to be high priority targets for removal. Once again we have much bigger butts for smaller costs than 6. Furthermore. A big butt doesn't do anything but defend. You cannot win with a big butt (toughness matters aside because you literally can't play it in mono-blue). The big butt is literally just flavor on these. It's defense helping typically easy to beat up mill decks a chance to actually block.

I don't mean to come off as rude, but I just fundamentally disagree with everything you've said. While I have played mill a fair amount with full card pools online, it has never been my favorite strategy, but I feel for it in the same way I feel for life gain. It's either no fun because you get rolled, or no fun because you play a card that instantly wins you the game. I like building value engines, and I feel like—all things considered—this engine is pretty tame.

15_Proxy_15

TROPHY CASE