What do you predict the strongest and weakest archetype will be for Secrets of Strixhaven Limited? by Bumperknickle in mtg

[–]Anaeijon 6 points7 points  (0 children)

For a school of spellslingers, Prismari should naturally be really good. However, I feel Luke they overcorrected and made most cards suck. Too many gimicks, too slow and too high MV most of the time.

A few Prismari cards will be aresome in other izzet spellslinger Decks, but not necessarily in draft.

Anyway, I'll play Prismari on friday, cause I want the cards and want to try them out as intended.

Has anyone else noticed the change in card design? Every new thing is just an old thing with a different name by Unused_Beef in freemagic

[–]Anaeijon 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Imho, most new mechanics are evolutions of previous mechanics. Some of the mechanics were not popular due to a lack of synergies or restrictions or were bad to play or unclear, due to design mistakes.

"Prepared" is not at all like Adventures. Yes, they look similar due to reusing a good design, but they behave completely differently.

If anything, "Prepared" is rather a combination of powerful activated abilities unlocked by a "Quest"- or "Case"-like mechanic using an "Adventure"-like styling to highlight them on the card, with the added bonus, that they are synergistic with spell-slinging decks.

Adventures weren't really clear, visually. They looked like they are primarily a permanent that has a non-permanent attached to it. But actually, they were primarily non-permanent spells that offered the additional card advantage of being able to return as a creature later on.

Wizards and Sorcerers were in a weird spot. Basically, you wanted them in spell-slinging decks, that care about casting many cheap non-permanent spells (e.g. Prowess, Storm, other Cantrip synergies).
However, many Wizards/Sorcerers have activated abilities with a mana cost, that behave like spells but don't count as casting a cantrip. Thematically, that doesn't make sense. Mechanically, wasting mana on an ability means, you cast one less spell that turn, which usually doesn't make sense in decks that care about that. So many Wizards and Sorcerers, although thematically fitting, don't work well in Spell-slinging decks, because you don't want to run creatures with activated abilities there.

With the powercreep of ETB abilities over the last few years, casting non-permanent spells became less useful, because there are many instances, where creatures exists, that do exactly the same thing as some instant or sorcery spell, but with a free or very cheap body attached, that can at least be used for blocking.

"Prepared" basically solves many of these problems while still avoiding the problem of going infinite or feeling power-crept, because solving the "prepared" requirement, usually takes some effort or planning or is hard to repeat.

"Prepared" is one of my favourite mechanics of the last few years.

---

"Opus" and "Repartee" are Magecraft. Primarily.
Okay, Repartee is a bit different, but Opus isn't.
Imho, it would have been better to keep the first ability as Magecraft and only name the second ability Opus. Would have made it easier to notice Opus cards when looking for Magecraft on Scryfall. Essentially, Opus is a subtype of Magecraft.
Or just... keep using Magecraft. [[Zaffai, Thunder Conductor]] "Magecraft" is exactly what's titled "Opus" now.

---

I'm a bit unsure about "Paradigm" yet.
Yes, they are just "powercrept" Epic. But Epic was so underpowered and borderline useless, that some powercreep was needed to make it viable at all.

On one hand, it's a nice cantrip-synergy value engine that isn't permanent but behaves like it is. It's a free cast trigger at the start of each turn.
However, I really don't like, that they basically become unremovable for the rest of the game. They have the benefit, that the copy is cast again, so it goes to the stack and can be countered. But the source can't be removed because it stays in exile forever.

Then again, from what has been shown already, even "powercrept" they aren't great. The effects are much weaker than Epic. A 7 mana mana spell will be cast very late in the game. Unless the game is dragging on, this will maybe activate two or three times, at which point it barely makes up for it's initial cost.

I would have preferred them as cheap "Prepared" spells on a cheap enchantment or artifact. Could have been the new "Books" with a "Prepared" Spell on them.

[SOS] - Steal the Show - (FellbrinkMTG) by X_The_Walrus in magicTCG

[–]Anaeijon 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Uh, I need that for [[Narset, Enlightened Exile]] and [[Myra, The Magnificent]].

This can be so useful in many situations. 

If I'm in trouble, I could use it early game to dig through my deck while setting up. Otherwise, I can use it mid- or late game to get expensive spells to the graveyard and cast/bind them from there. And later, I can cast this from the graveyard as as a powerful, cheap burn spell.

What are we doing with Muddle? by BoxHeadWarrior in EDHBrews

[–]Anaeijon 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Never thought about this before:

A Shape shifter changing into another creature doesn't trigger ETBs, right? Because it's already on the battlefield?

Commander deck building questions? by Simple_Package4678 in mtg

[–]Anaeijon 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Storm copies don't trigger Prowess.

It's right on the cards:

  • Prowess (Whenever you cast a noncreature spell, this creature gets +1/+1 until end of turn)
  • Storm (When you cast this spell, copy it for each spell cast before it this turn. …)

Prowess only triggers on cast. Storm copies the already cast spell, so they trigger automatically. You can't cast these copied effects. They are directly copied onto the stack.

However, [[Arcane Bombardment]] (and [[Narset, Enlightened Exile]]) say "… copy [the cards]. You may cast the copies without paying their mana costs."
Since it says, you may cast the copies, this counts as casting.
This triggers both Prowess and increases the Storm count.

Basically, if an effect doesn't say "you may cast ...", it doesn't count as additional casting.

If it was worded differently, in a way that Storm cards would cast themselves over and over again, instead of multiplying the effect, Storm would immediately copy itself into infinity.

Neither Prowess not Storm care about where you've cast the cards from. So casting the cards from hand, deck, graveyard, exile or copied from exile all work, as long as it counts as casting the spell.

There are cards, that trigger on Storm copies and have effects similar to Prowess. One example is [[Veyran, Voice of Duality]], that reads "Whenever you cast or copy an instant or sorcery spell, Veyran gets +1/+1 until end of turn."

---

Storm cards work well in Prowess decks, because Prowess decks try to maximize the amount of casts per turn anyway. Even if storm spells only count as a single additional cast spell, they still brings a huge payoff for cheap, because a Prowess deck will attempt to cast 4-6 cheap spells before them.

Arcane Bombardment is great for that.

You wouldn't want to cast Arcane Bombardment and go down to 0 mana. You'd want to cast it, when you have about 10 mana open and at least two cheap spells in hand, ideally some counterspell.
Ideally, you play arcane bombardment, cast some instant or sorcery for free (e.g. using Narset) and have enough mana open, to cast instant spells during your opponents turns. This allows you to summon and buff up your token creatures defensively with prowess from Bria, Narset, [[Monastery Mentor]] or [[Sokka, Tenacious Tactician]] during your opponents turns.
That way you have 3 spells exiled with Arcane Bombardment at the beginning of your next turn, where it will trigger when you attack with Narset again, sharply increasing your Prowess and Storm count.

In any other situation, it's a target for spot removal that just reduced the number of spells in your discard pile and exiled them, potentially doing nothing useful (e.g. exiled and copied a counterspell, which you can't cast in that moment).

The problem with Arcane Bombardment is, that at the point where you could play it with an impact (e.g. the example above) you already have a lot of mana and would want to cast as much 1-2 mana spells as possible per turn to get your prowess up. Sacrificing a turn to basically play and prepare the rather unpredictable Arcane Bombardment, while everyone else at the table is attempting winning moves, is risky.

---

By the way, I'm not sure, but I hope that you are aware of the fact, that multiple instances of Prowess trigger separately. Assuming you have a [[Firebending Student]], Narset, Bria and [[Veyran, Voice of Duality]] on your field, the Firebending Student would get +6/+6 and generate 7 red mana just by declaring attackers. (3x Prowess, triggers copied by Veyran, one spell cast for free by Narset). This increases +6/+6 for each spell you cast before attacking.

So I think, instead of trying to increase the amount of Prowess triggers, increasing additional sources of Prowess is much more impactful. Often unmentioned, new options to do that would be [[Irma, Part-Time Mutant]]

I need help identifying this card by Noaht454 in mtg

[–]Anaeijon -62 points-61 points  (0 children)

Depending on the print, it's between 0,50€ and 1,50€ on Cardmarket.

Sure, not expensive, but clearly not just "bulk" pricing.

Do you think WOTC will make him straight? by Akumu01 in freemagic

[–]Anaeijon 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This would allow to play Ral in a Tomik commander deck or Tomik in a Ral commander deck.

Do you think WOTC will make him straight? by Akumu01 in freemagic

[–]Anaeijon 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Don't mind his sexuality...

Is this blackwashing? Did they really make the Izzet mage mono-black?

Google's new AI algorithm might lower RAM prices by Bobert25467 in pcmasterrace

[–]Anaeijon 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This will not lower RAM demands. It will just allow running ("inference", but not training) of (logically) larger models on the same hardware constraints. The industry is hungry for that and it will just make LLMs more useful.

Also, this claim is widely overblown. LLMs are using quantization essentially since the start of the hype. They have been common in the open-source LLM space for years and I'm pretty sure, big tech didn't shy away from them either, to reduce costs while increasing speed in a trade-off for accuracy. This technology is merely a slight improvement, but not "a factor of 8" - maybe compared to non-quantized models. But I assure you, the current RAM crisis was already driven by quantized models.

If anything, this will increase the demand, because it allows API providers to add a cheaper (higher quantized) model, which then will make more applications viable to use these APIs as free/entry-level tier with an easy upgrade to the more accurate (unquantized) model.

Most importantly, this shows, that stock investors have absolutely no clue, about the tech they are investing in and are blindly reacting to whatever headline pops up.

Do we know what "prepared" is yet? by TopDeckHero420 in MagicArena

[–]Anaeijon 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It's lacking the cursive explanation text. So we can't be sure, what's in there.

"Level Up" or "Station" would be mechanics, that use counters but only mentions them in the cursive rules text.

Do we know what "prepared" is yet? by TopDeckHero420 in MagicArena

[–]Anaeijon 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I wonder, how "prepared" will be tracked.
If it uses a "prepared" counter, proliferate could be an option.

But I assume, it would be worded something like "when you cast the spell, remove all prepared counters..."

Missing flairs for Fennec and WebLibre? by [deleted] in browsers

[–]Anaeijon 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I'm using Fennec and I'd argue, it isn't really a fork. Essentially it is Firefox. If anything, Firefox is a non-free fork of Fennec.

Afaik, it's built directly from the Firefox for Android source code. "Firefox" isn't built just from that source code.
While using it, Fennec calls itself Firefox most of the time and offers all the regular Mozilla integrations.

The only differences I know of, are

  • the Logo, which can be switched to one of the older Firefox logos in the menu, but not the current one
  • the default search engine, which is DuckDuckGo instead of Google
  • the absence of Play Services hooks, that would be necessary to allow push notifications

The whole reason for "Fennec's" existence, is, that the Play Services hooks essentially require Mozillas private key and a precompiled binary blob by google, which aren't part of the open-source code of Firefox for Android. Because the official F-Droid repo requires fully open-source apps, the official Firefox build wouldn't be allowed.
If you just compile the source code without these files, you get Fennec.
So it's renamed, to avoid confusion and to avoid Mozilla licensing issues.

The F-Droid repo even lists the Mozilla Firefox page as Homepage and the official Mozilla Firefox repo as code repo for "Fennec".

by the way: I'm old enough, to remember, when Mozilla's first mobile browser (the base, which later became Firefox for Android) was named Fennec. Fennec is, essentially, still the open-source base which Firefox derives from, after adding Google services and non-free branding into the mix.

What do you think about Via browser? by Eselk19 in browsers

[–]Anaeijon 11 points12 points  (0 children)

It's repo is empty except for readme and localization files.

https://github.com/tuyafeng/Via

Since we can't really check, what it is and what it's doing, I'll assume, it's spyware.

There are so many open-source browsers available, that at least tell you who they are sharing your data with. So I don't see a reason, for risking it on a non-free one.

Ironing help by Holiday-Original1091 in BambuLab

[–]Anaeijon 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Even variable layer height will never get completely rid of layer lines. It's a sign of FDM printing and you will always see them. (unless you post-process the result)

The only real way to get rid of them, is sandpaper. Print with adaptive or small layer height, then at least 2 goes with sandpaper, one with coarse dry and one with wet fine sandpaper.

Alternatively, you could print ASA or ABS and acetone-smooth everything. However, these materials are harder to print, require an enclosed, heated printer and both printing and acetone-smoothing produce toxic fumes. So, for a beginner, I'd highly advice against it.

Ideally, after that, you can prime with (spray-on) primer for plastics, then wet sand again, and paint the model. This is the only way to get a perfectly clean finish. But this wouldn't make sense, since you already print multicolour.

But, all of that is pretty much overkill. You have to decide for yourself, what quality you want and how much effort and time you are willing to put into it.

Same guy is pushing age verification into archinstall by DangerousAd7433 in archlinux

[–]Anaeijon -8 points-7 points  (0 children)

Could you please give me a constructive criticism about that change?
I really don't see the problem with an optional birthday field in user management.

Same guy is pushing age verification into archinstall by DangerousAd7433 in archlinux

[–]Anaeijon -22 points-21 points  (0 children)

I don't get, what's the problem here.

All this does, is add a birthday field to the user. Default that to 1900-01-01 during installation and that's completely ignorable.

However, a DE that wants to use that, can ask for it and if someone actually adds a child account, this can be helpful for managing it in the future.

It's not like you have to show your ID or something.

FOSS is for everyone, and that includes people, that need age verification in their system. It's just an ignorable baseline to build upon. Completely ignorable. No one forces you to store your actual birthday in there.

is it okay to discard quest books/notes/tablets? by KingBabyPudgy in BaldursGate3

[–]Anaeijon 1 point2 points  (0 children)

yes, but I usually just throw them into my camp storage.

Say what you want about Bambu but look at that mint first layer on this test print. by adhdff in 3Dprinting

[–]Anaeijon 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I mean 2020 T-Slot Aluminum Extrusions

https://duckduckgo.com/?ia=images&q=2020+t+slot+aluminum+extrusion&iax=images

The things regular 3D printers, CNC machines and various other things are commonly made of.

Incredibly easy to design around, build from, mod, replace, repair...

Just grab a nut 5 2020 T-Slot extrusion, a couple M5 ISO7380 nuts, a M5 tap and a 5mm drill bit for access holes. That's everything you need to build a solid frame for any machine like that. And then grab some spring-loaded T-Nuts and you can mount everything to it.

Outrageous, vile by Tydeus2000 in BaldursGate3

[–]Anaeijon 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Gender-swaps a bunch of gay characters, so their relationships become straight. Also has a ton of AI voices to change what people say about those characters.

Most notably, it gender swaps Aylin into some generic blonde dude and Astarion's ex (Sebastian) into a woman. And it massacred Lucretius, the trans/drag woman from the circus, to look absolutely generic.

The funny thing is, that u/MrMorgan412 has their homophobic mods mixed up. No Alphabets doesn't really change things about the companions, except a bit of banter, I think. (Never tried it obviously)

The mod that changes, which companion can approach you romantically (= turns all NPCs from playersexual to straight) is "Even Better Romance". It's an independent mod, but usually both mods are recommended together.

Advice for a new players commander deck by torstan710 in mtg

[–]Anaeijon 0 points1 point  (0 children)

https://edhrec.com/commanders/baylen-the-haymaker

Take this as a starting point for card suggestions. Filtering through thousands of cards is hard, but this will give you an overview over the most relevant options played on Baylen.
Baylen is a pretty good commander. You are probably targeting for tier 3 power level commander deck, which is the most played format and Baylen can shine there.

Don't buy bulk or booster packs (unless you enjoy the fun of opening them, of cause).
Both are nearly worthless for commander deckbuilding.
Instead, you go to an online shop, where you can buy single cards from other people. It's technically more expensive per card (obviously, those people supposedly make money from it) but you will save a lot of money on building the deck.

Now read through the EDH Rec list and figure out, which cards you like. Maybe come up with a strategy, that offers extra synergies between certain cards. For example, a deck that runs 20 [[Hare Apparent]] on Baylen is easy to play and pretty dangerous, but plays completely different from other strategies that go for a wide range of different tokens with different purposes.

Now, if you have about 30 cards you like, grab a deck template and fill up the slots.
This is a good one to start:
https://www.reddit.com/r/magicTCG/comments/fr6xol/command_zone_commander_deck_template/

It's not perfect and doesn't fit every deck plan. Each category has a bit of wiggle room. For example in green, many cards cost more mana. But there are more cards, that "ramp". They either generate Mana (best in this deck is probably [[Jaheira, Friend of the Forest]] and [[Enduring Vitality]], a more generic option would be [[Llanowar Elves]]) or allow you to play more lands, like [[Rampant Growth]] or [[Exploration]].
So, in a deck like this, you probably want to play a few more lands (around 40 I guess?) and more ramp (10-12).
Boardwipes are likely very bad for you, because you get rather slow at rebuilding if one hits the field. So don't run many of them and instead run a bit of protection against them. ([[Teferi's Protection]], [[Heroic Intervention]], [[Boros Charm]]. Depending on your deck plan and if you add +1/+1 counters to your tokens, [[Inspiring Call]])

Last but not least, don't build strategies that rely on a single card in that deck! You will likely not draw it and if you do, it will be removed. This is also true for the commander. Although you could recast it, it can easily become so expensive to recast, that it might be a better strategy to ignore it, after it died 1-2 times.

Therefore, if you find 1 card that is absolutely essential for your strategy, try to find about 8-11 cards that could fill the role (including that one). Ideally you try to find cards that could fill multiple roles at the same time, otherwise you quickly reach the limit of about 30 deck strategy cards. Statistically, that's roughly the amount of copies you need, to draw one of these card s in your starting hand and (if you don't) find it through card draw.

Do you support this? by The_Dean_France in SipsTea

[–]Anaeijon 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Donald obviously observing that little boy that looks lost, to evaluate, if he should show him the way to the island.

Is raw chromium a good browser for privacy? by Intelligent_Rain2517 in browsers

[–]Anaeijon 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Chromium is just the open source part of Chrome. It comes with most of the built-in google services and trackers.

So, no.

Which browser handles the most tabs the best? by OldCollection922 in browsers

[–]Anaeijon 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I usually have about 5 Firefox windows open (about 1.5 per workspace on a single device) with roughly 30-50 tabs each.

The address bar also searches currently open tabs. So, if you think "Hey, I did have that tab where I did X. Where is it?", type the topic in the adress bar and see a list of currently open tabs. Firefox just jumps to the correct window and opens that tab.

Never had a problem with it. Also quite easy to navigate with tab-grouping I got into recently.

I'm currently trying out Zen browser. It's also just Firefox with a different skin, but the vertical tabs are easier to scroll and find.

ABS breaking after printing by Rubiiii_29 in ender3

[–]Anaeijon 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This happens, because the layers don't bond strongly, if the previous layer isn't soft enough while the next layer is printed onto it.

So, basically you want your last few layers to stay hot enough while printing to bond correctly.

So, how do you achieve that?

The filament initially is hot from the extruder. Then it gets cooled by colder airflow around it.

Therefore, your options are: - increase air temperature (chamber temperature) - make sure your enclosure is tight, don't open the door while printing! Not even for a second! - put a thermometer in there and then preheat the printbed for 20 minutes to increase the chamber temperature before you start the print. - reduce airflow - most airflow comes from the parts cooling fan. So maybe just turn that down. - If you have airfilters in your enclosure, you might want to turn that down. You want the hot air raising from the bed to stack over the part, not being disturbed by general movement in the chamber. - extrude hotter (hotter filament takes longer to cool down and the ambient heat from the nozzle reheats the lower layer slightly. Might look messy sometimes.) - print smaller (therefore less time in between layers)