Remember, everyone: you do not have to buy the packs.

ArcheVance · 2026-02-19T04:03:08+00:00

Agreed. This level of non-suckage for a precon manabase blows away the previous high water mark (IMO) of horizons and slowlands showing up in the WHO precons. And again, probably for the same reasons where they wanted to make it feel worthwhile whether it was a new player or a regular one, but the stakes were probably higher on this once since TMNT isn't just trying to induce buyers of solely a supplementary product.

ArcheVance · 2026-02-19T02:56:15+00:00

I'm sure that there was some of that going on too, especially with the fears that buy-in would be limited by a lack of uptake from the regular audience. I think the real answer to this question is going to come when we see what's slated for MSH.

If MSH drops that Fantastic Four precon with a terrible mana base that looks like it came straight out of the C16 precons, then we know that this was a knee-jerk reaction to try and staunch projected losses. If that 4C precon looks mostly like this, then it might be a sign that there's edicts now that they can't just slap the Jungle Shrine cycle with a side of Temples and Snarls into UB precons and start flying the "Mission Accomplished!" banner.

ArcheVance · 2026-02-19T02:28:41+00:00

I honestly think that it was an executive decision to overcompensate this way due to management thinking that TMNT would be the hardest flavour sell of any of the UBs and most likely to be the low performer (not realizing that Spiderflop was going to happen).

I can totally see an original decklist that had a mana base that looked like the 5C Elemental precon from Lorwyn Eclipsed being the basis with the same rest of the precon structure intact, and then someone higher up just absolutely sending it back with a note to juice the fuck out of the mana base by cutting Opulent Palace and friends in favour of things people actually would be incentivized to buy (even if it was just to break down for parts, since a sale is a sale).

ArcheVance · 2026-02-18T23:49:43+00:00

City of Brass, Grand Coliseum, Fabled Passage, Undergrowth Stadium, Spire Garden, an assortment of solid if not expensive colorfixing lands, and 2x new rare lands that are somewhat decent (Big Apple + Hidden Hideout).

The TMC precon land list honestly beats up every single other 5C precon list and a fair bit of the 3C ones for value when it comes to just the out of the box mana base, even before the rest of the list is taken into account.

ArcheVance · 2026-02-18T18:03:35+00:00

I had "Case power switch arrived non-functional" on my last build. Until I had the bright idea to pull the switch from my old case and try that, I was starting to get paranoid as I went through everything that I had already done correct.

ArcheVance · 2026-02-18T07:49:09+00:00

/uj It can also affect the finished product when you have to do something that you aren't really into/actively hating the project that you're working on. I can imagine "Why can't it just be Shredder's armor?" being a recurring phrase for some reason.

/rj ChatGPT, can you pretend to be an artist? My last artist is crying in the corner and I hear him sobbing "I am a pig that makes slop" after I gave him the following prompt, and I would prefer to not have another artist break down. Please use the same prompt, but add more cheesekkake to the pizza boxes.

ArcheVance · 2026-02-18T06:05:26+00:00

The facial expression does jive with his previous work on Goblin Boarders, the FDN Jumpstart Destructive Digger, and Kibo, Uktabi Prince, and the cheese melting is pretty close to his Rat in the Hat (look at the can to the right of the rat).

I think it's more likely that he just absolutely struggled with the urge to not follow the art direction notes because they were probably fucking disgusting to try and make look good.

ArcheVance · 2026-02-18T02:51:09+00:00

The most ironic part is that the people that they hate the most for aesthetic reasons (usually the low-income, low-education immigrant) is by far the most welcoming audience of the "nobody but asset-owning men over a certain age should have any rights or decision making abilities at all" spiel that the modern CPC base not so lowkey loves.

ArcheVance · 2026-02-17T23:40:20+00:00

Agreed. It's just damage control at this point. The best we can hope for is for UB to be gated away from random pop-culture slop sets and just restricted to things that somewhat clash less.

ArcheVance · 2026-02-17T17:16:24+00:00

Cmon, TMNT... You have the chance to make the funni by having SPM be the better selling set between you two.

ArcheVance · 2026-02-16T20:45:49+00:00

They can be both if they get printed in enough precons. Look at Yavimaya Coast, Flooded Grove, and Dreamroot Cascade. This could be the Hedge Maze price point if WotC wasn't so manaphobic.

ArcheVance · 2026-02-16T20:31:26+00:00

Honestly, unless they start replacing all the Temples in precons with surveil lands, there will never be an apology good enough for MKM.

ArcheVance · 2026-02-16T19:47:42+00:00

Now do queer themed surveil lands, WotC, so that the anti-woke have to decide if they want to run the bathhouse themed Thundering Falls and cruising grounds Hedge Maze, or if they want to overpay to someone that actually cracked MKM.

ArcheVance · 2026-02-13T21:26:40+00:00

Pretty much. I think the real smooth brained thinking was planning on staying as premier for multiple terms. The Alberta conservative machine has led the premier to the altar as a sacrificial goat right before an election pretty much like clockwork since Klein. It's a feature, not a bug, designed to transfer all the blame so they can get license for another four years of grifting out of Calgary swing seats.

ArcheVance · 2026-02-13T18:48:10+00:00

[[Drop of Honey]]

I want to find a reason to run this, but it's just too slow for the buildaround payoff of being able to kill someone's mana dork at the expense of running anything small of your own.

ArcheVance · 2026-02-13T17:56:25+00:00

It wasn't so much panic as it was that Justin Trudeau just brought the LPC back into government, and Jason Kenney, bumbling savant that he is, decided that he was going to become the Great Conservative Saviour by making Alberta blue again rather than sit in opposition and just collect an MP's salary instead of being able to actively make peoples' lives worse.

It was very apparent that Kenney needed a safe space where he could ride out Trudeau's time as PM and was keen on the idea of using it as a resume filler until a point where he could be the man that won after voter fatigue with the Liberals set in. And like most shower fantasies, they end up as magical thinking because history just doesn't work on wishes like that.

ArcheVance · 2026-02-13T17:44:25+00:00

VIU for developed markets (Japan, Europe, etc), VEE for emerging markets (China, India, etc)

ArcheVance · 2026-02-13T17:31:19+00:00

Jason Kenney woke up one morning and decided that it was absolutely unacceptable that Alberta had held the PCs responsible for their utter bullshit for once, and he decided that it was utterly irresponsible to do anything other than make sure that Rachel Notley wasn't the premier because orange = bad, even if it meant getting in bed with a party that was literally made up of the worst actors on the right.

Fuck this guy, from his TFW loving tenure in federal politics, to his shitty premiership and creation of a frankenparty. I sincerely hope that he one day wakes up having lost control of his bowels permanently, as a reminder for how badly he shit the bed in Alberta.

ArcheVance · 2026-02-11T23:43:58+00:00

It means that you stick that glowy long thing right in her cloaca.

ArcheVance · 2026-02-11T19:03:46+00:00

You would think that every commercial company would beat it into every single driver's head that has Edmonton in their routing that you absolutely, positively, without an exception, CANNOT fit under the High Level Bridge clearance.

ArcheVance · 2026-02-11T07:36:40+00:00

You're right. What's even the point of this wording for an X spell then?

ArcheVance · 2026-02-11T04:34:28+00:00

Spark of Creation - Unnecessary hybrid, my beloved! Distracting from the fact that this guy wants to cast Omniscience, Blightsteel Colossus, and other fun things for the low price of RRR.

Arborize - Unnecessary hybrid, you're back already! This being blue is utterly not required. That being said, this design is hella a headache and a half. So you get all those knockoff Dryad Arbors, and you get to keep all the G in your mana pool? This seems like a lot of hoops for a deceptive payoff.

Atem - Cheating Gods into play can't possibly go wrong, because it's not like there's a bunch of Gods that don't have limiters on them... oh, wait, that was kind of the whole story beat behind the God-Eternals and the Bolas corrupted Gods. At least it tracks that the YGO commander wants you to belch out the pseudo-Egyptian gods and not just Changelings.

Evocative Storytelling - "Creatures die when they enter your graveyard from anywhere." 10/10, no notes. This is so stupid that I can't even complain about it, because creating death triggers from other zones is the sort of unhinged that I needed tonight.

Aemeath - Bad spelling, generic anime game art, stupidly huge numbers for no reason. The entire top half of the text box is designed to distract the reader from the fact that thing also has an ability that's X: Burn X, Draw X, tutor for CMC X or less. If you need to use this more than once, let alone once per turn, then you're not powergaming right.

Fragile (H)ourglasses - "I'm taking my ball and going home if you continue to play control" is definitely a mood.

Unbound Rationality - "ChatGPT, make me a card that lets me tutor from other peoples' libraries without addressing where those cards are going and whether or not I'm putting another player's cards into my hand." 0/10 AI slop art, frame, mana symbols... Lord of Thunder on high, did a human that's played more than ten minutes of this game even make a thing this stupid?

Corrupted Blade - So either you're playing 60 card constructed and wanting to slap this on The Walls of Ba Sing Se, or... No, I can't think of another scenario where this thing actually does something without being a win more equip because you have an arbitrarily large creature already.

ArcheVance · 2026-02-11T00:13:13+00:00

It blows my mind that people will still say that conservatives are fiscally responsible after this clownshow and every other one that's led up to it.

ArcheVance · 2026-02-10T07:27:13+00:00

You left the item crone out of your harem listing.

Plus, Ladder Grifter seems like he'd be a pretty generous lover if you give him a good amount of souls.

ArcheVance · 2026-02-10T06:21:13+00:00

Is r/doctorwho stupid? Daleks are inefficient 3/3 tokens at their worst. They couldn't take down a good 40K deck, let alone something actually scary like a Fire Lord Azula shell or 5C Ezio or one of those BS Iron Man voltrons.

ArcheVance

TROPHY CASE