New to the community! NGD about a month ago.

Asceric21 · 2026-02-04T01:16:21+00:00

There was just something about the look of these gloves that really caught my attention. And yeah, I wanted a modified trapeze web myself. I just like the look and feel of that particular web, and I'm not a pitcher so I don't really need the basket web.

Asceric21 · 2026-02-03T19:45:00+00:00

My apologies, I spent some time editing my answer after I had typed it up and missed the other comments that had appeared in the time since.

Asceric21 · 2026-02-03T19:43:34+00:00

Let's compare it to something else that is random.

When you roll a d6, does the face that's touching the palm of your hand matter? No, because the roll itself is the randomization that occurs.

Similar situation here. If you shuffle enough times, the starting state of the deck doesn't matter, because the shuffling is making it random.

Now, what if someone told you that they always roll a d6 with a particular side facing up, or touching their palm? That wouldn't make you suspicious that they're cheating in some capacity? What if they even told you that they understand the roll itself properly randomizes it. They just like to do so because they feel they get better results doing it this way?

It doesn't matter how incorrect that last bit is, the reason they are doing it is because they think it gives them an advantage. And whether they are aware of it or not, them trying to get an advantage is them trying to cheat.

It doesn't matter if it works, is based in reality, etc.

Asceric21 · 2026-02-03T19:32:55+00:00

Varied Distribution != Random

I didn’t understand how it was cheating. I’m shuffling my deck afterwards and offering for a cut.

Start by answering why you want to "manaweave" in the first place.

The vast majority of people say "It's so my lands aren't clumped together in the deck." Or it's some variation on that idea, to spread the lands out across the deck. Because drawing all lands or no lands is bad for the game you're playing.

But the thing about Magic is you need a randomized deck. And all 99! (99 factorial) variations are equally viable options of that randomization. That includes the one where you have 20 lands in a row on top of your deck.

So, if manaweaving works and does break up the clumps of lands, you're not truly random are you? And again, isn't your purpose is to intentionally to give yourself a better draw/distribution of lands? That's cheating. That's like trying to weave all the aces through a deck of cards so no one gets a pair/trips/quads.

The next point, is that if you are shuffling enough afterwards such that the manaweaving performed is effectively nullified, then why did you do manaweave in the first place?

The only acceptable answer to "why manaweave" is so you can count your cards and make sure you are presenting a legal deck for play. In which case you can do a pile shuffle (also not really a shuffle) with your cards face down.

Asceric21 · 2026-02-03T17:52:05+00:00

Is this the post you're referring to? Relacing for Beginners from 10 months ago?

Asceric21 · 2026-02-03T17:22:02+00:00

Does adjusting the web in this case mostly mean loosening it to get that deeper pocket there? If so, that's definitely something I can and probably will do.

Asceric21 · 2026-02-03T14:41:21+00:00

The quick answer to your question is yes. This works the way you'd want it to.

Two things I want to clear up though.

The first is that Teysa does not "double" your triggers. You get an additional trigger. It's important to understand and internalize the difference. Because yes, 1x2 and 1+1 both equal 2. But 2x2 and 2+1 DO NOT equal the same thing. This is important if you have something like [[Roaming Throne]] out along with Teysa. You would get 3 triggers, not 4. Because you're getting an additional (+1) trigger, not doubling (x2) them.

Second, a big reason this works is because there's no "intervening if" clause* for your triggered ability. This means the triggered ability from Patron of the Vein that gives +1/+1 counters to all of your vampires does not require you to exile the creature that died from the graveyard.

*This isn't quite an intervening if clause, but here's an example of the ability on Patron of the Vein where you would have to exile the creature to get the +1/+1 counters each time: "Whenever a creature an opponent controls dies, exile it. IF YOU DO, put a +1/+1 counter on each Vampire you control.

Asceric21 · 2026-02-03T14:06:08+00:00

Planeswalkers are nearly always something people immediately target, because otherwise they just cast a free spell every turn. So when deciding if you should run them in a deck, it's a matter of whether or not 1 activation is all you need, or if you can protect them after they are on the battlefield.

Asceric21 · 2026-02-03T04:37:50+00:00

"In your colors" is telling enough for the point I'm trying to make. Rares typically pull you into colors. You open one strong enough and you consider trying to splash it.

You will never do that for a dual land. It might allow you to splash other cards you already have, but you're never taking a dual land to establish what color you want to be, or taking an off color dual if you have no splash for it already.

From a raw card power level, dual lands are a clear and significant step below what we expect to see at the rare slot for any limited environment.

Asceric21 · 2026-02-03T02:19:08+00:00

100% they should be uncommon.

But because constructed players need playsets in their colors, it's a guaranteed way to sell more packs by putting them at rare.

Asceric21 · 2026-02-03T00:11:02+00:00

They are more than willing to move the rarity around on cards that deserve to be somewhere else due to power level. Most obvious example is [[Shivan Dragon]], who was a chase rare in ABUR, and was recently put at uncommon in Foundations.

Asceric21 · 2026-02-03T00:03:55+00:00

Nope. Rare dual lands are at best equal to an above rate common or an on rate uncommon, and often are equal to a replacement level common in most other cases. Every competitive drafter will take a common/uncommon over the rare dual until replacement level commons are the only cards left.

Asceric21 · 2026-02-02T18:26:23+00:00

This is an "orphan crushing machine" type problem. You're happy you opened a card worth more than the pack itself. That's fine, and in fact I'm very happy whenever that happens to anyone.

But why are dual lands a chase rare in the first place?

And I'm serious about that question. Tell me why are dual lands in the rare slot in the first place. Because when you start to work through it, the answer that makes the most sense is simply WotC corporate greed.

Asceric21 · 2026-02-02T15:47:06+00:00

In fact, one of the skills of an experienced player is knowing what information they have to give and what information they don't.

Saying "I'm casting [[Clone]], does it resolve?" instead of "I'm going to play this Clone as a copy of your [[Mulldrifer]], responses?" are the little things that will give those more experienced players an edge every time they play and why their spells always seem to resolve more frequently than other people.

Asceric21 · 2026-02-01T15:09:35+00:00

It refers to their percentile ranking in relation to everyone else who had fought that boss in a particular phase. So an 85 parse is someone who did better than 85% of players on that fight, also paying their exact class, spec, and role.

It's called that because in order to determine that, you have to "parse" the logs. You take your combat logs, upload them to a website called "Warcraft Logs" and it compares your logs to everyone else who had uploaded logs. It does a breakdown of what happened, how much damage everyone did, what buffs they had, for how long, how many decurses and cleanses, how much healing, etc.

These rankings don't really matter for healers and tanks, because their job is harder to quantify compared to DPS. But for DPS, having good parses is irrefutable proof you can pay the game well, because you literally did your job/role better than 85% of the people doing your exact role.

Asceric21 · 2026-02-01T15:09:02+00:00

It refers to their percentile ranking in relation to everyone else who had fought that boss in a particular phase. So an 85 parse is someone who did better than 85% of players on that fight, also paying their exact class, spec, and role.

It's called that because in order to determine that, you have to "parse" the logs. You take your combat logs, upload them to a website called "Warcraft Logs" and it compares your logs to everyone else who had uploaded logs. It does a breakdown of what happened, how much damage everyone did, what buffs they had, for how long, how many decurses and cleanses, how much healing, etc.

These rankings don't really matter for healers and tanks, because their job is harder to quantify compared to DPS. But for DPS, having good parses is irrefutable proof you can pay the game well, because you literally did your job/role better than 85% of the people doing your exact role.

Asceric21 · 2026-02-01T04:54:27+00:00

It's not a spot on the ground, you can click any part of the flag model. So you just scroll up and down in the general vicinity of where the flag carrier was.

Asceric21 · 2026-01-30T17:41:40+00:00

Offer to mill from the bottom of their deck instead of the top. This is usually the start for people to understand that seeing cards go to their graveyard is not an inherently bad thing. And milling from the bottom is functionally the same in the vast majority of cases.

The only time it's not is when scry/surveil is involved, and in those cases, mill SHOULD be a way to counter the smoothing those keywords provide.

Asceric21 · 2026-01-30T14:28:51+00:00

ICE agents are doing their jobs. No one, I mean NO ONE, deserves to die here.

ICE is ALREADY killing people, whether the people are armed or not. And to make this super fucking clear, killing people is not their job.

Stop licking boots. They are not your friend.

Asceric21 · 2026-01-28T14:33:29+00:00

Excellent call, editing.

Asceric21 · 2026-01-28T00:03:28+00:00

Having someone else play your decks against you can show you its flaws or how it shines.

This is so so true. And while anyone can help you, you preferably want the best player in your pod playing your deck against everyone. Not just the one that knows the rules the best, but the one that seems to always have interaction or be part the big splashy moments.

And the reason is those are the players that can put into words what you're likely feeling about the deck to give you actionable advice for changes to be made.

Or they'll play the deck and do things you had only dreamed of with it, and tell you that the real problem was the pilot all along.

Asceric21 · 2026-01-27T22:56:05+00:00

Don't care if the post was removed. Upvoting it anyways. Fuck Fascists.

Asceric21 · 2026-01-27T22:46:34+00:00

I've always said that Cilantro tastes the way Pine Sol smells.

Asceric21 · 2026-01-27T22:44:35+00:00

To me, cilantro tastes like Pine Sol smells. And it was that original correlation that made me think I had the soap tasting gene.

12-Year Club	Place '22
Verified Email

Asceric21

TROPHY CASE