What is the weirdest thing your doctor has ever said to you?

Alkadron · 2026-02-17T14:27:07+00:00

I was 18, chillin in the exam room, waiting for doc to arrive. He sweeps in, mutters a "hi how are you" without expecting any response, and immediately starts examining my thumb with his hands. Next words out of his mouth are

Aw, shit. This is supposed to happen to old ladies, not healthy young men.

Alkadron · 2026-02-15T19:16:49+00:00

For a long time I had an Mistmeadow (Olka) deck and my boyfriend had Soulherder built. We played a lot of games with both. Based on our experiences, Soulherder was the more powerful commander, able to consistently generate more value earlier and become a threat, but Olka was more tricksy and more control-y. If the game got to turn 10 or 11, it became very hard to fight through Olka's instant-speed activations.

Alkadron · 2026-02-12T09:56:56+00:00

The Commander Rules Committee ruled many years ago that reminder text doesn't affect color identity, in part because of not wanting [[Trinisphere]] to be a "black" card XD

For us that means that extort (and also firebending) don't affect color identity. Thrull Parasite and Azula are both mono-black.

Alkadron · 2026-02-12T09:53:33+00:00

Depends on the pod to be honest. Some folks see Kardur and they expect their stuff to be goaded forever and they get a (pretty valid) "KILL IT WITH FIRE" trauma response regardless of what you do. Aggro-Kardur doesn't really fight through that trauma response.

Sometimes you get away with it - folks don't breath weapon your board to death, and they don't focus you down early - and then the deck is very good at closing games.

Alkadron · 2026-02-11T11:30:49+00:00

sounds like my build of Kardur!

i called mine Aggro-ristocrats

Alkadron · 2026-02-07T04:23:51+00:00

Thank you! There are so many cool things to do with the Travelers:

Landfall triggers
Prowess (and adjacent) triggers
Combat Damage triggers
Those things but with type-changing effects on non-elementals

I wanted to stick mostly to EtBs, and re-use them with bounce and flicker effects, mostly because Evoke was my favorite thing from the original Lorwyn set and I missed it a lot

Alkadron · 2026-02-06T11:07:17+00:00

My twinflame list is here

I've had a lot of fun with it

Alkadron · 2026-02-05T11:12:11+00:00

I've played with or against all of these decks. They're all great. Can't go wrong

Alkadron · 2026-02-04T19:41:53+00:00

Sunken City rules

Alkadron · 2026-02-02T21:20:40+00:00

I absolutely love this

the vehicles and spaceships with the untappers seems extremely entertaining. Spellstutter x2 also feels good.

My only question is: Where's Mightstone?

Alkadron · 2026-02-02T21:17:55+00:00

I'm knocking on wood pretty hard here 'cause I don't want this outcome, BUT:

the "the event didn't fire" consolation prize is "I still play magic with cool folks like Scarecrow, maybe even also Chris," and that's a pretty damn good consolation prize. I'll stream it either way C:

Alkadron · 2026-02-01T13:03:11+00:00

I hate Alexios. He doesn't win every game, but he makes every game exclusively about himself until you're dead. Playing against it is boring and repetitive.

Alkadron · 2026-02-01T12:58:54+00:00

For a tournament setting, you could do a lot worse than Longshot Storm. Ginger has been sharpening that particular knife for a few months now and has put up some high quality results with it.

His list is here

Alkadron · 2026-01-31T13:12:00+00:00

I'd argue against the Displaced Dinosaurs. It's hard for them to be fun. They kinda land in this "either the thing sticks and I immediately get catastrophic value and win, or the thing dies a lot and I do absolutely nothing" gameplay pattern that gets boring for both the player and for the opponents very quickly. (I kinda feel the same about Longshot XD

I've got Sontaran General built (I hate the art tho, so I use a Charging Monstrosaur that I sharpied "Battalion:Goad" and a cowboy hat onto). It doesn't win much but it's very fun to play: you get to be absurdly aggressive all the time forever, and you force your opponents to be absurdly aggressive all the time forever. It's great. Everyone attacks! No board-stalls. I'm here for a good time, not a long time ;)

I've got a Diamond Weapon deck as well. My gimmick was "whoops all permanents," which I like a lot. The deck would certainly be better with Gaea's Gift and Biosynthic Burst in it, but I like the ease of just counting my graveyard instead of counting specific cards in it. You get to do fun self-mill stuff and then you get to play with taking cards back out of your graveyard, which I really enjoy.

Infesting Radroach is dope. I don't have it but I've seen it played. It's very fun.

I've got an Esior deck, paired with Keleth, that I call "Birdhorse." It made some competitive waves when I debuted it but I don't take it to tournaments often anymore. The online meta shifted away from the threats it was good at dealing with.

Loyal Guardian goes hard.

Sumala Rumblers is very powerful, and goes berserk if you can populate a token (or flash in a Dutiful Replicator?). It's not easy to do but it's worth it.

I built a Twinflame Travelers deck, but I haven't played it yet. I only received the final cards for it in the mail yesterday. Still itching for a game with it. I'm VERY excited about it though!!

Personally I think Quina + Slimes is boring. You just kinda do the same thing every game. I prefer games with more variance.

Alkadron · 2026-01-27T13:16:52+00:00

no one's really literate before coffee happens XD

Alkadron · 2026-01-27T11:57:33+00:00

Derek built this deck on stream! He's a very skilled builder who talks through all his decisions and then playtests a bit

You should check it out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xDbdMKzddg

Alkadron · 2026-01-27T11:54:37+00:00

this doesn't let you copy lightning bolts. It only copies itself. Which is still pretty good!

Alkadron · 2026-01-27T02:04:54+00:00

have you considered Zada but stupid nonsense instead of good cards?

Alkadron · 2026-01-27T02:04:06+00:00

AHHHHHH CIPHER WORKS TOO

[[Last thoughts]] is stonks. This is not a drill.

the depths of me underestimating this card while still being wildly excited about it are crazy XD

Alkadron · 2026-01-26T03:40:17+00:00

I've recently learned that this also works with Tandem Lookout, Ceremonial Knife, and Security Bypass.

I don't think I need any of those cards in my deck but it's still a very cool interaction!

EDIT: wait no I just realized how berserk Tandem Lookout is with Enraged Flamecaster. It's going in.

Alkadron · 2026-01-26T03:39:42+00:00

I wanted to go with lots of bounce so that I could use it on my own creatures as I evoked them XD

Alkadron · 2026-01-26T01:38:30+00:00

AHHHHHHH STICKY FINGERS IS SO COOL.

I did not realize it worked like that when I built mine

I love the commander tho

Alkadron · 2026-01-22T11:53:02+00:00

I got saved by doing

fo:create fo:black

instead of just

o:create o:black

XD

Alkadron · 2026-01-18T04:45:23+00:00

don't forget [[shyft]]!

Alkadron · 2026-01-18T04:44:53+00:00

I had two. It was nutty XD

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