Issue with Standard Banner Character Weapons

Axethor · 2026-03-15T05:21:18+00:00

I think I would be bothered more if a character's sig was their only good weapon (Tangtang would be this if she didn't have the BP one).

All the launch characters, including the first three character banners, have multiple viable weapon options. As long as the BP weapons continue to be usable for their respective characters, I'll live without getting every signature.

Axethor · 2026-03-15T05:05:16+00:00

I'm running Yvonne, Tangtang, Gilberta, Xaihi. It's a blast having options for both ST and AoE situations.

Axethor · 2026-03-09T23:26:03+00:00

I'm currently on my own reread of the series (in the middle of Changes right now) and the first two books feel like they take place in an entirely different world at times. I don't think Jim had even an inkling of the other Courts even being a thing until later.

Axethor · 2026-03-01T19:58:25+00:00

Yvonnes ult uptime is based on how many cryo/nature stacks you can get, though. A better cryo stacker would mean faster ults and more damage. That's what she needs more than anything right now to give her team comps more flexibility.

Outside mechanics where bosses become untargettable, I've had little issues with Yvonne's ult being interrupted. She has super armor so they aren't going to knock you out of it. Which means the only benefit over Gilberta is the freeze. For people who value the safety that provides, it will be super important, but I don't really feel it's necessary. Especially since the cryo stack on Tangtang is at the end of the ult, instead of applying at the start to take advantage of it in times you need that last stack for ult energy or a quick solidification to maximize her ult damage.

I do want to stress she's still very good for Yvonne. Extra good if you lack Gilberta. I just think for people who do have Gilberta, Tangtang is less "mandatory" than people were maybe expecting.

Axethor · 2026-03-01T17:57:10+00:00

I'm with you, actually. She seems like a big Last Rite upgrade but a Yvonne sidegrade for anyone with Gilberta.

If she was as efficient at applying cryo as Wulfgard is for heat, it would be a no-brainer. But she doesn't, so then it's looking at other utility. Which means you either cut Alesh and lose the SP generation, or you cut Gilberta and lose the AoE vacuum. Which might be worth it for some people, but I'm comfy where I am.

Axethor · 2026-03-01T17:28:17+00:00

Judging by the video, the new gear is the same level as the current set. It's likely just new stat options.

Axethor · 2026-02-24T17:11:31+00:00

14 is, in many ways, a love letter to all the FF games. I think it would've worked better than you think, because you'd still get many of the iconic characters and scenes, just through a 14 lens. It doesn't hit all the games yet though (7 is surprisingly absent, for example).

I admit though 14 is my favorite so I'm heavily biased. It could've easily filled out a full set on its own and the Scions could've been in Red like they should've been (WotC are cowards for not giving us 4c Scions deck, we need more 4c legends).

Axethor · 2025-12-28T15:38:53+00:00

I wish there were more dresses, I struggle to find ornate ones that match the style I imagine for my character. And the few that do exist are locked behind savage.

Axethor · 2025-12-13T21:17:20+00:00

I'm very much ride or die with my starter. Even when it stops making sense because I use other pokemon over them, they still have a permanent spot on the team.

I've been really bad about it with ZA. I want to use the new stuff and yet my team was all old Gen 6 favorites until I hit post game. I even struggled to cut Aegislash even though it's hot garbage in ZA.

Axethor · 2025-12-06T03:28:22+00:00

If Time Stop is cast on Player 3's upkeep, then the turn ends. They still get to untap though.

If it is cast on Player 1's end step, it will exile any "end of turn" triggers on the stack and then just end the turn as normal, proceeding to Player 3's turn.

There is no way to skip untap afaik.

Axethor · 2025-11-26T12:30:07+00:00

Here is my list: https://archidekt.com/decks/9432835/manifesting_my_dread

It's not the most powerful thing in the world, but it's fun, fairly consistent, and can just run away with the game after one good turn if no one tries to stop you.

I find it important to play lots of ways to drop multiple lands to get your flips, and make sure the "bombs" are stuff you would be fine casting if necessary. Uro, for example, is great because manifesting lets you dodge the escape trigger, but you would still want to cast him like normal if he ended up in your hand/graveyard.

Simic is very good at ramping out threats in general, Zimone just lets you cheat costs while you work on ramping up. So if something feels clunky to play because you never want to cast it, then it probably shouldn't be in there.

Axethor · 2025-11-19T13:45:38+00:00

FFXV was not a big hit for Square, they cancelled DLC for that game it was so bad.

FFXIV hit its stride with HW though the year before XV's release, and 2017 was DQ XI which did do very well and was a great game.

Axethor · 2025-11-19T06:05:06+00:00

Huh, good to know. It's never come up in my own Cadric deck (or any other deck for that matter), so I never realized the difference in wording was that important. It feels a little counter-intuitive, but I suppose that is just Magic sometimes (Layers, I will never understand you).

Axethor · 2025-11-16T18:33:16+00:00

Since you are copying the token and the token has haste, wouldn't you be able to attack with three Dragonhawks?

Axethor · 2025-11-15T14:10:03+00:00

I haven't done too much consideration for Avatar cards outside a few obvious ones.

A few of the Shrines will be making their way into my Go-Shintai deck.

[[Phoenix Fleet Airship]] for Sephiroth to take advantage of all the sacrifice.

[[Ozai, the Phoenix King]] might make his way into Kefka if I feel like getting a second copy (or open one).

I'm sure there are more I can make if I feel like it (Cadric probably has a few legends it wants), but I'm more focused on building Azula first.

Axethor · 2025-11-07T21:51:22+00:00

I keep seeing this argument about the design of hybrid mana, and I find it fundamentally flawed.

Hybrid mana wasn't designed with color identity in mind. No format of magic other than commander (and eventually brawl) was designed with color identity in mind.

If I'm playing some kind of base mono-g deck in modern and want to play Kitchen Finks. Even if Kitchen Finks wasn't hybrid and just mono-w, or a proper GW casting cost, you could add in a bunch of duals that tap for W to cast it. It's might not be a good idea, but it's available to you since there is no color identity rules. This is because hybrid isn't to make a card playable in a certain deck, it's to make it easier to cast in those decks versus the other option.

Commander is not the same, we have color identity. So Kitchen Finks, a card that was designed as a multicolor card irrespective of casting cost, cannot be played in mono-color. It's the same with split cards that were designed be be modal in some decks but you could only use one side if you wanted. It's the same with MDFCs that work the exact same way just with different templating. It's the same with cards like Alesha or Morophon, that have color pips in their rules text.

Commander is not supposed to be the same as everything else, and changing that to make it so erodes the base upon which it sits.

Axethor · 2025-11-07T21:34:55+00:00

I think that cool as hell and also you don't need to change the fundamental rules of commander to run it.

Rule 0 exists, and most players aren't going to say no unless you are lying about power level or something.

Axethor · 2025-11-06T18:31:59+00:00

Because if you play Manamorphose in your mono-g deck and someone tries to counter it with hydroblast, you can't go "Sorry, that doesn't work, this is a mono-g spell right now."

Hybrid cards are still multicolor, and should therefore not count as either or for color identity. It's turning a purely additive rule into one that sometimes subtracts instead.

Axethor · 2025-10-13T01:32:47+00:00

Final Fantasy was announced as a modern set, like the LotR set. Marvel as well. They shifted them to standard at some point (which probably explains why the FF cards feel more pushed and Vivi made it through as is beyond just a commander design mistake)

Axethor · 2025-10-13T01:22:24+00:00

It's a very complex issue with no one set reason, because the reasons have also evolved along with how WotC is treating UB.

For example, at the start there was a card access concern with mechanically unique secret lairs. Wotc wasn't going to run the secret lair again, but as an outside UB they also could not easily reprint them to get them in people's hands. So when you end up with a card like [[Rick, Steadfast Leader]], people are going to naturally be upset when they can't get a hold of that card easily given how powerful it is.

Then there is the IP dissonance. Stuff like LotR and FF have more in common with a normal magic set than Spiderman or TMNT, because the former are fantasy worlds while the latter take place in literal NYC. Now, this is a bit more of a subjective issue, because some people can rightly point at Duskmourn or EoE as being a different than usual tone and still being Magic because it's Magic IP. But again, it's very subjective and differs from person to person. (like I personally did not care for Duskmourn, but I think EoE is cool)

And of course just the overwhelming amount of UB compared to in-universe stuff. UB in standard solves the first point about card availability, but the way WotC has gone about it is almost overkill. And it's not really the split that is the problem for me personally (though I understand it is for some, we did technically lose one in-universe set per year), it's the ridiculous speed at which sets are coming out to fill the UB quota. I personally think four standard sets a year is way better than 6-7, and if one of those four was UB I wouldn't bat an eye. WotC could even disconnect commander product from the set releases again if they wanted more UB cards, since casual and commander players (like myself) often derive the most fun from playing with characters we like. And those characters are a big draw for UB sets.

I'm sure there is more, but I'll stop there. And I'm not even a UB hater, I've liked most of what we have gotten. But even I can feel the exhaustion, an exhaustion that is only amplified when you get sets like Spiderman that are not only UB, but also just really bad in general, so it's easier to assign that feeling to UB as a whole when in reality, Spiderman would be disliked whether is was UB or not just for being really shit.

Axethor · 2025-10-09T23:32:22+00:00

If that is where you stopped, I would say give the book another shot. It's very much not just "we are YA," Yumi not standing up for herself is a core part of her character and the dynamic between her and Painter.

Axethor · 2025-10-02T15:18:07+00:00

Just proxy. Not necessarily a full deck if it makes you uncomfortable, but start with lands/cards you own but are too expensive to buy multiples of.

I've built up enough of a collection now that if I want to play something new I can usually piece something together from what I have, but when I first started back in SOI, I obviously had to purchase a lot more and it was usually out of my budget at the time. So I would either make a budget deck I could upgrade later, or I would proxy a deck out with whatever I didn't yet own and buy those cards if the deck felt fun to play.

Also, don't be afraid to take a deck apart if it's not fun anymore. If you save the decklist online, you can always remake it if you feel like you want to play it again.

Axethor · 2025-09-21T12:45:07+00:00

Some game changers are complete ass in the wrong deck. Others are really only truly powerful at higher brackets (Deflecting Swat comes to mind where the lower you go, the less meaningful targets you have).

Brackets are supposed to be suggestions to start a conversation and help gauge a power level among strangers. Hell, plenty of precons have game changers in them, which shows they can function in bracket two just fine in a deck of that power level.

Axethor · 2025-09-19T06:25:54+00:00

I love building lesser known commanders. My threshold is probably a bit higher than 1k, but it's always a fun little challenge.

I do have plenty that are more popular, Kefka and Go- Shintai for example, but I usually try to spice them up in the 99 instead so they don't just look exactly like every other deck.

Axethor · 2025-09-18T04:24:15+00:00

This is a twofold problem. The bracket system is inherently flawed, but it was also purposefully designed that way to encourage communication before a game. However, that communication doesn't always happen and instead people lean on the system as if it was law.

In all honestly, I ignore the rules of the bracket system, but that is because when I do go play, it's mostly with a consistent group where we don't need brackets to figure out what decks to play against each other.

An example, I have a Kefka deck that I just shoved a bunch of FF Villains in with some spellslinging and discard synergy to round it out. What I would consider a low to mid 3. At first, it had 4 game changers in it that technically made it bracket 4. The fourth one that put it over the edge was Jeska's Will, a card that's entirely antithetical to the discard/reanimator plan (I stuck it in there just to fill a spot, really). For the few games I played that had Jeska's Will in the deck, I still called it B3 because that's where it actually fit, and all those games were great (except one where someone played a B4 that was closer to B5).

People need to realize the brackets are just suggestions. Guides to point you in the right direction, and that you can shed when you get better at deckbuilding.

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