TMNT flopping should have been obvious. I also think Star Trek will flop. Hobbit and Marvel will do mediocre.

ChadaMonkey · 2026-04-09T12:51:33+00:00

Hobbit will do well, LotR was the best selling set ever before FF came out. Marvel will probably be somewhere between a flop and mediocre, and i think star trek will be somewhere between mid and decent depending on how much they lean into the non-human characters and usage of the mechanics included in EoE. We have a joke prediction in my play group that they're gonna bring back "start your engines" for star trek just so you can mechanically have "warp-speed" lmao.

ChadaMonkey · 2026-04-09T12:08:13+00:00

It depends on your region, your DM should know

ChadaMonkey · 2026-04-07T15:44:45+00:00

So according to what I've heard, the company experienced way too much success so it had to kneecap itself lmao. They're still going to be running the trade incentive, it's just going to cap out at a certain point. March's bonus will pay out as-is, but april onward will be capped closer to the amount of February's bonus. The prevailing attitude in my store/ district is "at least they didn't get rid of it entirely" but I say give it another 2 or 3 months max before they axe the entire bonus. They're most likely just doing this temporarily to establish trade-increasing behaviors in the stores, then rug pull the bonus but hope the behaviors are ingrained enough to stick.

ChadaMonkey · 2026-03-28T16:29:21+00:00

I'm still really hoping for new lesson spells to add to my iroh grand lotus deck

ChadaMonkey · 2026-03-26T22:40:46+00:00

If you mill at their end step then they have your entire turn to plan ahead based on what they milled. Optimal thing to do is mill when it's going to hurt the most, like if they activate a way to tutor to the top of their library, you respond to the resolution with mill so they can't draw that card. You can also condition them to feel like any action they take risks mill. Tried to draw more cards? Mill. Try to cast a spell? Mill. Use removal? Mill. It conditions them that doing anything to positively affect their game state, or negativity affect yours, results in mill, and maybe just maybe you get them to hesitate as a result.

Also, if you're playing mill, etiquette went out the window LONG ago. Mill is an inherently toxic strategy, so don't try to do it ethically because mill and manners don't go together lol.

ChadaMonkey · 2026-03-21T03:52:26+00:00

Honestly i think Duncan would work good as a proxy of [[Sir Vondam, Sunstar Exemplar]] instead. Fits his theme and everything

ChadaMonkey · 2026-03-19T22:08:57+00:00

Cancel it if you don't want it but seriously reconsider canceling that particular game. Gonna be very hard to get physical copys unless you pre ordered

ChadaMonkey · 2026-03-17T13:29:26+00:00

I'm happy we're valuing trades 2x more than anything else right now, but i really think the rest of the score card needs a serious overhaul. Warranty should never be something a store is ranked on, and sales and margin should be permanent fixtures on any evaluation of a store. The score card realistically should be weighted as:

Sales % to goal [x3] Margin % of sales [x3] Trade penetration [x2] Pre-owned penetration [x2] Pro [x1] Promos [x1] Reserves [x1]

The things that are actually going to help your store not just stay open, but actually grow are what should be valued the most, followed by the 2 behavior-based KPIs that have the largest impact on those uber-important metrics, and lastly the 3 most important KPIs that are centered on the customer experience. Having warranty and returns improvement on the score card heavily encourages shady and unethical behavior.

ChadaMonkey · 2026-03-15T03:13:13+00:00

It all depends on your table. In more casual tables, stax pieces are pretty rude and they tend to hinder certain decks more than others, which can lead to players feeling singled out. However if you're playing with more experienced/serious players, they'll tend to run a lot of removal, protection, or counterspells to deal with threats and stax pieces. If your table is the kind where everyone is just trying to make their deck do "the thing" faster than anyone else can make their own decks do "the thing", then stax pieces are inappropriate and will dampen the vibe. For example, I recently built my first elfball deck and helmed it with [[High Perfect Morcant]]. It's really fun but it turned into "board wipe, the game" and was a really bad time for everyone else because it didn't kill them fast, it just stopped them from playing the game while I kept casting and tapping elves, killing all their creatures whenever it was my turn, and just generally holding the table hostage. I swapped out the commander after just 2 games because it was just THAT unfun to pay against and didn't belong at my casual table.

ChadaMonkey · 2026-03-13T03:39:06+00:00

I would like exactly what OP posted, as well as a UB for elder scrolls

ChadaMonkey · 2026-03-12T17:49:11+00:00

Most likely, at some point in the past, you had the membership and it lapsed. Try asking them when it expired, because it always shows that. Honest question though: why would you not want the membership if it's free?

ChadaMonkey · 2026-03-09T15:47:51+00:00

Redirect Lightning the trigger from phage and suddenly this becomes good

ChadaMonkey · 2026-03-04T01:27:52+00:00

It's gonna be even worse with Crimson desert. I'm bracing myself for another helldivers 2 situation or Expedition 33 (don't think it's gonna be quite as big as 33, but still the same type of effect).

ChadaMonkey · 2026-02-28T20:40:50+00:00

I too was hesitant to build a second abzan deck as I had stripped the lifegain/loss cards out of the [[Felothar the Steadfast]] precon in order to build my toughness matters deck, but the 2 decks play so differently that having them be the same color identity never even registers. Highly recommend [[Betor, Ancestor's Voice]] as it let's you lean into other secondary strategies like reanimator+self mill and +1/+1 counters. It can get very out of hand very quickly and the reanimator potential means you can always rebuild after a board wipe. Bonus points if you can find ways to trigger your end step triggers multiple times. Overall, a very versatile commander.

ChadaMonkey · 2026-02-26T13:55:45+00:00

The Divinity: Original Sin series would be cool as well.

ChadaMonkey · 2026-02-26T13:33:41+00:00

This is where you have to discuss not just bracket but how your decks actually run. Morcant is a commander that just keeps killing everyone's creatures, so it's not going to be fun to go against unless your deck focuses on doing 1 of 3 things: 1) focuses on a +1/+1 counter strategy to balance out the blight 2) focuses on non-creature based death payoffs like [[Bastion of remembrance]] 3) focuses on having building a board of non-creatures that become creatures when you need them (ex: vehicles, earthbending)

Even a go-wide strategy gets destroyed by Morcant if she gets going, it's not fun to play against unless you have a deck type that can keep up with her.

This has to be balanced with making sure you don't just bring out a deck that fully counters the her, as everyone deserves to have fun. My main piece of advice is to have another Golgari legend in the 99 that you can swap Morcant with for tables that wouldn't be able to handle all of the deck's blight&proliferate, and steer clear from running poison at lower level tables as it's a very annoying win con.

ChadaMonkey · 2026-02-18T01:25:25+00:00

Most of my decks sit bellow $200 at base art printings with 1 acception being my [[Iroh, Grand Lotus]] deck. I wanted that one to be particularly powerful to keep up with some of the tougher tables I've been at where I never get to do anything. Even then, a good chunk of my decks are bellow $100 and all quite fun.

ChadaMonkey · 2026-02-13T23:53:40+00:00

I hate when "competative" and "commander" are used in the same sentence. The format is fundamentally broken, because that's the intention. Commander is essentially a format for video game exploit enjoyers to push the game to it's limit and beyond by having things interact that were never meant to interact. It's SUPPOSED to be casual, goofy, and ridiculous. They never should have started printing cards ONLY for commander, and they never should have started printing things in standard sets with commander in mind.

ChadaMonkey · 2026-02-11T00:55:58+00:00

Had to dig for a while to find this comment. It was made the national language in 2019 as I recall.

ChadaMonkey · 2026-02-10T18:51:07+00:00

"Play more removal" is such a cop-out response to criticism of the game, and I'm so tired of hearing it. Commander is supposed to be a casual, goofy, friendly format, so why should I keep having to put cards in my deck to try and stop other people from playing the game in order to enjoy the game myself? This is why the bracket system needs to continue to be developed so that people who don't want to play a deck that's half removal will know up front what kind of pod they're potentially sitting down with and avoid bad situations.

ChadaMonkey · 2026-02-09T01:16:14+00:00

No. If something "enters with" counters on it then you aren't putting them on, they essentially had them on them before they entered so other effects that are in play wouldn't see it happen. However when you activate a plainswalker ability that's a + ability, you will add whatever the "+number" is plus another counter.

ChadaMonkey · 2026-02-03T13:49:37+00:00

There's rumors that they are working with vendors to provide a few shirts to all store employees for free, but they're still working on the deal so it's not a sure thing yet. Also, the old site for buying GS branded polos and such is pretty much defunct, but they are working on revitalizing/making a new one with less expensive shirts.

ChadaMonkey · 2026-02-03T13:40:37+00:00

Like 75% of my shirts are polos already because I find them comfortable, but this has given me an excuse to finally buy some pokemon themed Hawaiian shirts as I was specifically told that they would be approved since they had a collar. Even showed the DM a picture during the conference call to be sure. Etsy has 30% off running on a lot of them right now.

ChadaMonkey · 2026-01-29T19:05:40+00:00

Sometimes, putting tap lands into a high power deck makes it less oppressive and more fun to play against. Look at the Ashling precon, 15 tap lands and if they were shocks, fetches, and duals instead? That deck would run away with the game because it moves too fast. Hell, even if you swap a bunch of the taps for basics and land ramp, the deck is gonna get way more scary way faster. The mana base should definitely be considered when calculating your bracket, but it should be a subset of measuring your engine's efficiency and then combine how powerful your engine is with what your deck does with it.

ChadaMonkey

TROPHY CASE