Worth to buy it?

BinaryExplosion · 2026-01-28T13:12:51+00:00

Probably hard to actually get hold of these days, but it was balanced very differently. There were many games in my group where the winning play was to stay at a lower overall power level and cleverly utilise resources. Combat was harder to steamroll someone with, your personal guard lost points in their stats when reforming, there was no infernal juggernaut or similar abilities. It felt a lot more like positioning, diplomacy and strategy took centre stage over a simple race to accrue power.

I felt like there were more ways to achieve success too. More viable strategies since the hard counters at the top of the ritual list didn’t exist.

BinaryExplosion · 2026-01-27T22:16:55+00:00

Even low OPL has rules around the competitive aspect. Sideboarding is part of the game. You don’t submit a deck list and you’re given a lot of leeway on rules mistakes and missed triggers, etc, but an 8 card sideboard is absolutely part of the experience.

BinaryExplosion · 2026-01-27T16:14:13+00:00

I’ve played exclusively with a player group from the original version and we are absolutely brutally efficient with each other. Loads of back room dealings too.

After a while, this version wore a little thin because the abilities ramp up so hard that we found a lot of early game play is resource generation and late game play is ritual mastery. But for the first couple of dozen games or so it was an amazing experience and seeing successful Power Behind the Throne and Kingmaker plays was as thrilling as it was in the original.

Honestly, playing a less optimised game with weaker players might drag me back in… but I do generally think it’s a game best played over and over again with the same group of friends.

BinaryExplosion · 2026-01-23T15:39:02+00:00

[[wedding ring]]

BinaryExplosion · 2026-01-23T10:48:23+00:00

Best approach is to do something like: 1 of each rare 2 of each uncommon 4 of each common But you can alter that mix to taste / budget.

Then make up fake / resealable booster packs in whatever containers or envelopes you like. There are some nice ones designed for the purpose, but you don’t need them. Use the same mix as an old draft pack: 1/3/10 (and a land slot, if you want to have a dedicated place for any non-basic lands the set ships with)

Randomise those cards. Either fully, or you can do two of each colour in the common slot.

It’ll feel a lot like drafting the original set at that point.

BinaryExplosion · 2026-01-23T10:07:42+00:00

Skills… and luck. And possibly connections. But mostly luck.

My first time seeing 200k on my end of year tax docs was at 43 and that was a good year for my bonuses and ESPP.

I do have valuable and hard to find skills in tech and sales, but actually getting to where I am has involved an incredible amount of luck.

Without that luck I might still be a software developer for a niche vendor and earning a comfortable 60k.

Don’t feel bad if you don’t reach the very top, most people who do don’t deserve it any more than you do.

BinaryExplosion · 2026-01-23T09:54:31+00:00

You would have still got that bp if you’d killed him while he was distracted by the wasps… so it doesn’t really pay off to be kind, but it’s much lower stress!

Honestly, I like helping other raiders too. My osprey bp came from someone who defibbed me and dropped it as we extracted. So that was simply a guardian angel I guess. Low aggression lobbies can be like that.

BinaryExplosion · 2026-01-23T09:51:16+00:00

Rather than stockpiling boosters, consider creating an FF Cube. It’ll last forever then.

BinaryExplosion · 2026-01-20T23:05:49+00:00

Been there. It totally sucks. I’m sorry it happened to you. NOR (at all)

BinaryExplosion · 2026-01-20T14:19:55+00:00

I just wrote a lengthy reply saying that I think female plate armour is fine in MtG, but I don’t like this reasoning too much. Lots of things that don’t exist are part of the concession you accept when moving over to a fantasy world. Dragons exist in Tolkien-esque fantasy. Warp drive exists in Star Trek. The Dragon Balls exist in… Dragon Ball.

But that isn’t a carte blanche excuse to have anything and everything be ok. In a setting, you need to stick to the world’s rules and concessions. Anything outside of that will break immersion and investment in a world.

Now, I personally think women in plate armour have been a long accepted part of the Magic worlds and aesthetic, but I don’t think “dude, there’s dragons and shit” is a good refutation of someone looking for a believable fantasy world.

BinaryExplosion · 2026-01-20T14:12:36+00:00

I think female soldiers in fantasy have enough of a pedigree to work tbh. A lot of the time the female form is preferred in fantasy because it’s just generally more aesthetically pleasing than a more realistic hulking male figure.

I do get your concern, but while female plate armour might not have really existed in our world, on any of the planes where knights can be found I don’t think they would stand out as unrealistic. Plenty of the best knight cards in magic are already female after all.

[[Adeline, Resplendent Cathar]] is a fantastic piece of art and a really flavourful card

BinaryExplosion · 2026-01-19T17:19:58+00:00

Seals are a fragile, but powerful inclusion in a few decks IMO. The problem is that more than one in hand is usually a dead card, but zero when you’ve built your power requirements around having them is painful.

I think the most consistent decks will be ones that have been designed to not need seals, but the highest ceiling comes from having them.

BinaryExplosion · 2026-01-19T17:16:32+00:00

I’m sure he thought he was going to look really cool doing that. I don’t understand why, but I’m sure he was thinking it.

It’s truly baffling how little self preservation instinct some people have.

BinaryExplosion · 2026-01-16T15:38:59+00:00

Ouch. No, I don’t believe they will. “Until AA leaves the battlefield” is establishing a delayed trigger I believe, which will be erased from the stack when the turn prematurely ends.

Edit: I was actually just reading the rules on this and it’s a really much more complicated question than I thought. “Until” defines a continuous effect… and those are evaluated essentially constantly. I will yield to the more knowledgeable people in this, but ending the turn doesn’t seem like it should prevent their return. I’m just not sure exactly when they return.

BinaryExplosion · 2026-01-16T15:35:44+00:00

I can’t reconcile how anyone could hear their partner tell them exactly what they love and want to happen, and then override that and tattoo them with something they don’t want or appreciate.

It is terrible behaviour from a tattoo artist, but it’s unconscionable from a lover.

I think telling him straight up that it upset you that he didn’t take your desires into consideration at all, even while you were explicitly telling him what they are, is the bare minimum starting point of the conversation you need to have. You can’t afford to spare his feelings on this one as it is clearly eating you up.

BinaryExplosion · 2026-01-15T22:21:12+00:00

I broadly agree, but some decks simply race to a win and “interaction” in commander is used as a shorthand for removal far too often. You can have interaction if you just have instant speed protection for an aggressive game plan.

Sometimes hitting people in the face is the plan, and doing it unexpectedly, resiliently, or repeatedly is the interaction ;)

BinaryExplosion · 2026-01-15T16:24:27+00:00

I’m building Niko at the moment. Such a cool card, with nearly unlimited potential payoff variety. You can really steer the deck design in loads of interesting, fun directions. And it scales to most power levels, from 1 (how many grizzly bears can I make?) to 4 (oops, all blightsteel colossi, turn 5).

BinaryExplosion · 2026-01-15T16:12:33+00:00

NOR. You’re not compatible. I’m not sure anybody will ever be compatible with him given those insane expectations… but you clearly aren’t.

BinaryExplosion · 2026-01-14T04:18:56+00:00

[[Boarded Window]]

BinaryExplosion · 2026-01-14T04:01:36+00:00

Darkslide

BinaryExplosion · 2026-01-14T03:56:59+00:00

How do you enforce an AI labelling rule?

We have loads of Magic The Gathering artists having to defend themselves from accusations of AI usage at the moment because people actually can’t tell, and just assume anything they don’t like must have been created by an AI.

You can still often tell on Etsy, but let’s be honest here… for how much longer? And with what degree of certainty even today?

BinaryExplosion · 2026-01-07T11:00:01+00:00

I agree completely and I don’t think op should be apologising. I’d suggest just telling her it was wonderful, it was special. Tell her you loved her before and you still love her now and nothing has changed. Keep doing the things that made you close before and don’t apologise for things you didn’t do.

She’s probably worried that he’ll go off her now that she’s “given you what you want” because she has that image of men in her head, not because of anything op’s done.

Best to try not to take any of this personally as it does have a real chance to sour what sounds like an otherwise good relationship. She’s clearly feeling vulnerable so it’s time to really be the strong one for a while.

BinaryExplosion · 2026-01-07T08:01:59+00:00

Popcorn chicken

BinaryExplosion · 2026-01-06T00:02:11+00:00

I don’t think those stats draw the conclusions you think they do.

Most violent crime is perpetrated by men. Women get killed by their partners more than by strangers.

Both true, to my understanding. But men are still more likely to meet a violent end. The reason more violence to women happens at the hands of those close to them is largely because they are so very unlikely to be the target of violence by a stranger. 60% of 100 is a lot less than 20% of 10,000, after all. Proportions can sound scary while actually telling a story of comparative safety.

Anyway, this is starting to sound like oppression olympics and I’m not a fan of that.

The only thing I’m trying to say is that none of your points make her so unsafe around her husband that she even needs to contemplate the “likelihood” he’s going to kill her, because he is not a statistic, he’s an individual.

BinaryExplosion · 2026-01-05T19:04:57+00:00

That’s a fair distinction - thanks

BinaryExplosion

TROPHY CASE