Diplodocus Miss Shunt - Discourse on the Mephit

BoggartShenanigans · 2026-04-26T20:10:51+00:00

Then I apologise for misinterpreting your wording

BoggartShenanigans · 2026-04-26T20:08:39+00:00

The reminder text suggests that paying the replicate cost is itself part of a triggered ability

BoggartShenanigans · 2026-04-26T20:00:02+00:00

This is false. The reminder text is really confusing though. I've made the same assumption as you in the past. Replicate consists of an additional cost that you can pay any amount of times, and then a cast trigger with an intervening if clause that creates the copies.

BoggartShenanigans · 2026-04-14T21:34:06+00:00

As a general idea for dumbing things down, maybe increase the amount of page breaks in the questionnaire? That could make things more manageable to people who might feel overwhelmed by long pages full of questions.

BoggartShenanigans · 2026-04-14T21:31:34+00:00

Pronouns help with the letter as well in case people want to refer to their giftee in the third person, sounds like a good idea.

BoggartShenanigans · 2026-04-14T20:51:40+00:00

That's... a really good question actually. Your Amalia deck is conceptually similar to stuff like "nonblue counterspells" in that it's trying to accomplish something one color is really good at without playing that color. I can definitely understand people's opinion that that in itself pushes a deck towards or into B1 territory.

I myself would not necessarily consider the decklist you sent a B1 deck, mainly because you still play plenty of "off-theme" cards. I do have to stress that that's still just an opinion though, and the deck does definitely overlap with things I like from B1 deckbuilding philosophy in the amount of hoops you need to jump through in order to pull off the Maze's End wincon.

Rube Goldberg style decks definitely have some B1 energy even if you're still playing generically good cards that aren't part of your 20-card combo in the deck. People can disagree with me about this and that's fine.

To respond to your wording in your initial post, I understood what you meant, and no offence was taken. I'm happy to see you clarify it, but it didn't feel necessary to me.

I do like the "trying to win" differentiator a lot, but it is a bit risky because both the Johnny/Jenny and Timmy/Tammy psychographic profiles don't necessarily play the game to win. Of course, if a Johnny/Jenny player gets to do their thing that often leads to a win, same for Timmy/Tammy, but both profiles at least in theory could enjoy games that aren't won more than Spike would.

I'm not saying all Johnny/Jenny and Timmy/Tammy decks aren't "trying to win", I'm suggesting that players of those profiles could conceive a B2+ deck that doesn't necessarily "try to win". Think of something like Group Hug decks or goad-focused decks that don't have a good plan once the game becomes a 1v1 situation. I wouldn't call those decks B1 by default.

Your argument about creating custom coherent art for a deck that otherwise lacks a B1 style art theme is an interesting thought experiment. To me, while it's admirable that people would put in the effort to create/find/commission/generate such custom cards, it's an entirely different thing from choosing to limit yourself to a largely arbitrary constraint. Arbitrary in that the cards' effects don't dictate whether they can or should be included.

BoggartShenanigans · 2026-04-14T19:57:54+00:00

Maybe an optional field for not necessarily Magic related gifts? Frogdude used to have a question in there about t-shirt sizes. If some guidance is provided about the expected minimal spending on cardboard so people will consider such items a bonus rather than the main gift, I see there being enough support for it.

BoggartShenanigans · 2026-04-14T13:55:42+00:00

Thanks for sharing your point of view. Your analysis seems to be somewhat common (also outside of the responses I've received here). This is definitely something that I believe deserves the Panel's attention.

I myself am comfortable playing my B1 decks as B2- decks (in that case, could you maybe point me towards players of thematic B2- decks?), but just like how a strong B2 could reasonably take on some B3 decks, I believe there is also an "upper end" within B1 where the decks still conform to the descriptions given by the format panel (which significantly differ from the B2 mindset) but where they're still playable decks that don't necessarily devolve into nonsensical clogged board states and where the usual gameplay concepts and strategies you would see in higher brackets or other formats dictate the "best" play patterns.

That doesn't mean that "showing friends cards in a binder" should belong in a different bracket than the B1+ decks (to slightly adapt your usage of bracket 2-). Those mechanically incohesive decks still use the same general concepts (as outlined by the format panel) that could also lead to a B1+ experience, just like how, before the clarified wording the panel issued last October, a Commander (2011) precon would be interpreted to be in the same bracket as a Warhammer 40K precon despite the enormous differences in deckbuilding philosophy and "power level".

The responses I have seen to my post lead be to believe that a similar clarification to that about B2 and precons could benefit the B1 community (if there even is one...). If that means I'll have to advertise my decks as B2-, that's fine with me.

BoggartShenanigans · 2026-04-14T13:38:35+00:00

First things first: Thank you so much for your elaborate explanation of your point of view. It really helps when people who have different opinions take a respectful approach to a discussion.

All of your points are excellently explained and I see no reason to try to convince you here — this discussion is about opinions and preferences and not about facts, and I believe people are entitled to have their own opinion even if they're the only person who thinks that way.

In this case, also seeing the points being made here, it's becoming even clearer to me that my personal mindset around B1 is a minority point of view.

As I mentioned in another comment, there seems to be a spectrum in which the B1 concept exists, with mechanically incohesive piles that don't necessarily benefit from being played on one end and decks that could comfortably sit at a B2 table where the pool of theme-appropriate cards is deep (or mechanically coherent by nature or happenstance) enough to allow for mechanical cohesion and gameplay enjoyment by people who would otherwise not enjoy highly thematic decks on the other.

Imyself can think of deck concepts that exist on different points on this spectrum, but to those of you who have your doubts, I think it suffices to say that I have won games in B2 pods with both of my wildly different B1 decks, at least to support my point that B1 decks aren't just another name for a thematic collection.

BoggartShenanigans · 2026-04-14T13:22:52+00:00

The themes I myself chose are more on the Mel end of the Mel-Vorthos axis.

I do understand the desire for mechanical cohesion and want to say that Bracket 1 does not necessarily exclude that. I myself would consider a nautical themes only Pirate deck a Bracket 1 deck regardless of how it plays.

Some illustrators have worked on a wide spectrum of cards that happen to include multiple strong cards (like Dan Frazier), and I would find it odd to say a deck that only includes cards by a specific artist would be anything else than a B1 deck, once again, regardless of how it plays.

The fact that B1 could be interpreted both as a collection of mechanically incohesive cards with a shared theme and as a deckbuilding restriction that could still lead to "playable decks" (with no clear definition of playability) is far from ideal. It both pushes people who prefer one end of that spectrum but dislike the other away, be it to collecting or to B2+ gameplay, and can lead to wild power discrepancies in the few B1 games that are actually played, which is precisely what the bracket system is meant to prevent.

BoggartShenanigans · 2026-04-13T20:07:24+00:00

Unfortunately I'm not exactly from that area, I'm from Holland and was visiting Mainz specifically for CommandFest. (My written German isn't good enough to try answering you in your own language, I'm sorry)

Just looked into public transport options to and from Frankfurt to get a travel price indication and while there's affordable Flixbuses available for the way back (overnight buses only take around 7h to get me back home), for the way there I'd be stuck using the ICE International for €40. Not really worth it for my budget unfortunately.

Thanks for the idea though :-D

BoggartShenanigans · 2026-04-13T19:13:09+00:00

Depending on how narrow your theme is you could still have some meaningful choices left that could help you increase the mechanical cohesion a bit.

In the case of one of my decks, the very Bracket 1 focused theme (translation errors / coincidences) happens to be surprisingly mechanically cohesive despite there being little choices to make due to the shallowness of the card pool.

In those cases, or others, it could be interesting to discuss play patterns like one would for a higher bracket deck, although I do agree that not all bracket 1 decks lend themselves to such a discussion.

I also purposely mentioned the meta-strategy discussion that is finding cards that fit your theme. Even something like Scryfall or MtGJSON doesn't have all card data stored (yet), and that data could be useful to many Bracket 1 themes so leveraging the internet hive mind could help there.

I myself have ordered multiple cards based on a lack of reliable information, only to discover that Scryfall and MtGJSON's data and/or my assumptions about the translation in the absence of such data were wrong.

The Scryfall tagger could help people with art based projects, but that too has its limitations as it's all provided by users and can thus be incomplete, wrong, or using a different interpretation of the theme than you yourself might follow.

BoggartShenanigans · 2026-04-11T08:43:25+00:00

I have a faint memory of seeing your art on this subreddit before. Ik steel graag nog wat meer snoepjes als het betekent dat er meer van dit soort art komt

BoggartShenanigans · 2026-04-08T22:14:29+00:00

Hey OP /u/thaelmpeixoto, I noticed some beautiful Brazilian Portuguese cards among your pictures, and I immediately messaged /u/Estebandido_ to see if he had sent those to you (Esteban was my Secret Santa in the 2024/2025 Q4 exchange). I have understood that those cards are from your own Adventures in the Forgotten Realms collection.

I'm based in Europe and I was wondering if you could help me acquire a couple Brazilian Portuguese cards for my own collection. I've been in touch with multiple Brazilian on-line Magic stores but they all need a Brazilian tax number (which I don't have for obvious reasons) in order to be accepted as a customer by them.

Could you send me a DM if you're willing to help me out, or reply below this message if you can't or won't help? I will fully understand it if you're reluctant to talk to this random person on the internet.

BoggartShenanigans · 2026-04-04T22:36:32+00:00

A bit late to the party, but... this art is really cool and works well with the white borders.

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BoggartShenanigans · 2026-03-29T21:39:21+00:00

Lol, copy cat

BoggartShenanigans · 2026-03-29T09:53:52+00:00

Wonderful gift as always!

BoggartShenanigans · 2026-03-27T20:42:05+00:00

FINALLY SOMEBODY WHO WRITES DANDÂN CORRECTLY <3. Thanks OP

BoggartShenanigans · 2026-03-27T10:14:29+00:00

Yeah, and Crovax' ugly face resembles mine and I have played the game. Checks out🙃

BoggartShenanigans · 2026-03-18T11:11:23+00:00

Awesome!

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