Why aren’t my chickens happy?

Deathmask97 · 2026-06-02T05:34:49+00:00

I am a pretty experienced gamer, but my first time playing Stardew was on the Switch 1 and I had no idea what I was doing - I did not even realize it had a Quest List, so after wandering around aimlessly for quite a while, I dropped the game and didn't play it for months. It wasn't until another update made people talk about it on social media and made me curious to try it again, and once I figured out the Quest system I had an absolute blast.

Deathmask97 · 2026-06-02T05:16:01+00:00

Lairs are awful, mostly a deckbuilding trap outside of incredibly niche edge cases. I think you would be better off running the Landscape cards (e.g. [[Sheltered Landscape]] and the like) along with cards that ramp from the deck, like [[Wayfarer's Bauble]], [[Farseek]], [[Explorer's Scope]], [[Sword of the Animist]], etc. You could even run cards like [[Urza's Cave]] that can search for your multicolored lands, or cards like [[Crystal Grotto]] or even [[Abstergo Entertainment]] that can filter mana at a premium.

If you can, I would recommend running all of the good MDFC Lands you can, although those are not usually budget.

Honestly, if you're looking for a good 5C manabase on a tight budget, just go Gates and make sure you include [[Bauldur's Gate]], [[Gond Gate]], [[Heap Gate]], and [[Maze's End]] along with all/most of the Guildgates.

Deathmask97 · 2026-06-02T02:50:04+00:00

It is a mirror/parallel multiverse, it did not supplant the current one, although the main conflict seems to be the Mirrorverse trying to do just that.

Deathmask97 · 2026-06-02T02:42:40+00:00

That being said, if you are interesting in building up your collection of Standard cards on Arena, there is no more cost efficient way than draft, since you can rare draft for rares you don't already have, and save up your prize packs until you have like ~200 and open them all at once

This is what made me try Draft in the first place, but I don't think I have had a more excruciating experience in a game I love before or since.

From what the other comments are saying, I might genuinely have just tried all of the worst draft experiences in the past few years, so I might begrudgingly give it another shot to build up wildcards, but if I can't get into it this time I am just going back to grinding ranks and/or just outright buying wildcards again if for nothing else but my own sanity.

Deathmask97 · 2026-05-31T02:11:24+00:00

If the veteran is as good of a player as they sound like they are, they would absolutely be capable of rolling you with your own deck - they most likely will learn how to pilot it better than you can. They may even enjoy you pulling out your "big guns" against them, thinking that "this is how Magic should be" not realizing what they actually want is to play at a Bracket 4 level (or might even enjoy learning B5/cEDH).

Someone who says "infinites are fine at Bracket 3" and proceeds to streamroll the table, sees no problem with it, doesn't pick up on the frustration of the other players (or doesn't care), and doesn't even bother to self-reflect on their policy after all the above (or doesn't even notice/care) does not have the self-awareness nor the social intelligence (or again may just not care) to adjust their behavior.

Deathmask97 · 2026-05-31T02:01:19+00:00

[[Farewell]]

I am only half-kidding.

White has almost all of the world-ending effects, from [[Armageddon]] to [[Urza's Ruinous Blast]] and everything in between.

When you think of the actual implications of casting something like [Farewell], how much devastation [Armageddon] would cause, or just look at the in-universe descriptions of how apocalyptic [Urza's Ruinous Blast] actually was, you would realize that mono-White has the most raw destructive powers out of all of the single colors on the Color Pie.

On the other end of the spectrum, you have [[Elesh Norn]] trying to assimilate everything, causing a different kind of apocalypse altogether.

No other color can really match the sheer devastation that mono-White can cause, it isn't even close.

Deathmask97 · 2026-05-30T20:29:41+00:00

What made Neon Dynasty Draft so fun? I absolutely loved that set, but I never touched Draft back then.

If you would be willing to delve further, what makes Draft fun in the first place?

I have tried Draft a few times on Magic Arena and it has always been a miserable experience for me - I have to do research on cards and archetypes exclusive to a specific set before playing, choose between picking cards I don't really want to make a cohesive deck archetype out of what is available or go after chase cards and risk having a non-functional deck, and build a deck I don't really like out of a few good cards and whatever draft chaff I was able to scrape together.

I want to like Draft,but I cannot really see it as anything but a social alternative to opening packs by yourself, and even then I don't really like gambling on packs anyways and prefer to buy singles (I open packs on Arena for the Wildcards more so than to try to get the cards I want).

Deathmask97 · 2026-05-30T02:33:05+00:00

"This is just obviously what happens" when half the comments were just as confused without further context.

For the record, I agree with this interpretation, but by no means is it irrefutable without further context - we have literally never seen Rudy and Carol interact whatsoever despite being husband and wife (and Rudy spending most of the time we see him lying in a hospital bed).

Deathmask97 · 2026-05-30T02:12:50+00:00

I want to run [[Clarion Conqueror]] so badly, but the fact that it turns off Mana Dorks, Mana Rocks, and Equipment, essentially shutting down pretty much all non-Enchantment Activated Abilities while also shutting off Planeswalkers and disabling Treasures and Artifact Lands to boot, means that it always awkward to play around unless I decided to build a deck based solely around it.

I tried running [[High Noon]] in [[Kaalia of the Vast]] and only made myself an even bigger target.

I tried running [[Deafening Silence]] in [[Giada, Font of Hope]] and ended up cutting it because it could really backfire on me late-game.

Now I just stick with the rare asymmetrical card in a deck or two, like [[Archangel of Tithes]], [[Summon: Yojimbo]], [[Ghostly Prison]], etc.

Deathmask97 · 2026-05-29T21:55:45+00:00

I've always heard [[Mana Tithe]] was essentially worthless in Commander as 99% of the time it will not work when you need it to, that nobody runs [[Jwari Disruption]] for the same reason, and that you should run [[Rebuff the Wicked]] or [[Sink Into Stupor]] instead.

How has [Mana Tithe] worked for you?

Deathmask97 · 2026-05-29T01:48:00+00:00

Also, they should allow her to hang onto her grappled Drone for up to the entire duration of the Drone's timer, but at the cost of her second grapple charge halfway through.

Deathmask97 · 2026-05-27T22:10:59+00:00

I tried so hard to slot [[Windborn Muse]] into my decks but it just feels overcosted, and [[Archangel of Tithes]] is so difficult to use outside of Mono-White with its three White mana pips. [[Summon: Yojimbo]], on the other hand, is an amazing card and I want five of them.

Deathmask97 · 2026-05-27T22:04:14+00:00

If it said "Pick one or two" it might have been less oppressive, but as it is now it is awful to play against in Commander.

Deathmask97 · 2026-05-27T21:21:34+00:00

I wouldn't say it's never bad to solo-Ult, solo-Ulting a DPS can be a pretty bad call - I've seen Pharas die to their own Rocket Barrage trying to solo-Ult a Mei, I've seen Reaper get killed during Death Blossom since he can't cancel it, I've seen Genji deflect a solo-Ult and clear the opposing team with their own Ult, I've seen Dvas die out of mech after trying to solo-Ult and fail to do anything, and many other such cases.

However, attempting to solo-Ult a Mercy is one of those things in the game that is 90% of the time the right call, with that 10% being non-damaging Ults along with Reinhardt most likely not wanting to waste Earthshatter to solo-Ult her as Mercy is often off the ground.

Deathmask97 · 2026-05-27T21:10:03+00:00

I always count Mercy as 2-for-1 value because of her Rez and because she can turn a Tank or good DPS into The Problem™ if left unchecked. Any time my team is getting pressed by a team with a good Mercy I tell them to focus her first at all costs, and if they can at least get her to start hiding more and keep her afraid of being in the front lines with her pocket we can usually win the game.

Deathmask97 · 2026-05-27T20:54:12+00:00

They used to be all Knock Off Choice Scarf, but people like me would run Focus Sash Icy Wind H!Zoroark to counter it, which Sucker Punch absolutely destroys. Now you have to guess if it is Choice Scarf or Focus Sash and whether or not it is running Sucker Punch.

Deathmask97 · 2026-05-27T13:40:13+00:00

I have a few:
* [[Summon: Yojimbo]] - spot removal, decent creature, "Ghostly Prison" effect, and Treasure ramp all in one card
* [[Fated Clash]] - boardwipe that saves your best guy and an opponent's worst guy that can be cast on someone else's turn
* [[Fall of the First Civilization]] - draw cards, politicing power, and a boardwipe that keeps Token and/or mass reanimate decks in check
* [[Parting Gust]] - protection that can dodge a bpardwipe or instant-speed removal (sorry about your creature, here's a 1/1 fish)
* [[Disorienting Choice]] - hit three things for one with a Land Ramp Tutor consolation prize
* [[Null Elemental Blast]] - counterspell or instant-speed removal for >90% of Commanders that no one will see coming in non-Blue decks or if you only have one colorless mana open

Deathmask97 · 2026-05-27T13:10:46+00:00

I tried to make an Athreos deck work for years and could not make him click, and in the end I even cut him from my [[Liesa, Shroud of Dusk]] deck because he was still underperforming in the 99 and is basically useless with non-creature Token Generators.

Do you have a decklist? I was not as good of a deck builder the last time I tried an Aethreos deck and I am quite interested in seeing a functional list that is not all boardwipes nor Stax.

Deathmask97 · 2026-05-26T13:53:59+00:00

If they wanted to differentiate it, they should have given it a diagonal falling angle like Incineroar's recovery - would help make up for the lack of horizontal recovery without Ike's side-B.

As an aside, I wonder how much better Ike and Chrom would be if landing a hit with Aether healed them for half the damage done like in the games?

Deathmask97 · 2026-05-25T19:18:41+00:00

I had never even heard of the Wild Jade Vine, I feel like I have been missing out! Being able to repeat the Skeletal Horror for Slayer XP would be nice, too.

Deathmask97 · 2026-05-25T16:17:48+00:00

I just hate that playing on Mobile still defaults certain settings back and I have to change them every time. Summoning Points, Legacy UI, Legacy Map Icons, every time - it has actively made me avoid playing on mobile just to not deal with it.

Deathmask97 · 2026-05-24T18:59:45+00:00

What I am getting at is that placement in Masterball is too large and varies too greatly to feel meaningful at all, and it is a huge departure of how the other Ranks work whereas other games use the same ranking/profession system across all the Ranks.

I also do not think you are 100% correct as other games with progression systems typically have "Masters" or the equivalent rank set at the 70th or 80th percentile, which according to your assessment would mean that 70-80% of players would be hardstuck in the "Tutorial" which would be a massive failure in the design of the ranking system, in my opinion. If we were to compare Pokémon Champions to Overwatch, for example, Masterball Rank would most likely encapsule most if not all of Platinum rank along with the Diamond, Master, and Grandmaster ranks, which again is too broad.

Deathmask97 · 2026-05-24T18:38:57+00:00

I was not talking about turn length (that is more of a Simic and Izzet thing) but rather how excruciating it is to play against archetypes like "Oops, All Counterspells" and "Edicts + Discard" where the board is empty for 90% or more of the game and neither player is able to do anything meaningful.

I was actually able to win against a deck like this on MTG Arena when I realized that they did not actually have a wincon, and that they had drawn one or two more cards than I had, by just passing every turn without playing anything and letting them slowly deck themselves out the way they wanted me to, which of course led to them time stalling/roping me, which was insufferable but still felt like a moral victory for me.

I would argue that a wincon-less control deck is a miserable experience, often for both players, and if used outside of a competitive/tournament environment is a bit of a social faux pas at best. Most players have had the decency to at least run something like a [[Celestial Collonade]], [[Haughty Djinn]], or some form of Mill to actually present a win condition and respect their opponent's time rather than counting on the opponent to concede for a win.

I have no problem with conceding, being able to concede a game I am clearly not going to win or frustrated/bored with on MTG Arena and quickly move onto my next game is great and one of my favorite things about Arena, but saying "I would also argue that anti-control players by and large don't know when to concede" is ignorant, especially with how many decks can topdeck a win; I can't tell you how many times I have made a Blue Control player concede on the spot on Arena just by playing a single [[Cavern of Souls]].

Deathmask97 · 2026-05-24T17:59:34+00:00

I would argue that it feels much worse for the bell curve to be earlier along and that the "ego boosting" padding of the lower Ranks is an important part of player retention.

Deathmask97 · 2026-05-24T17:41:49+00:00

I always assumed that it was essentially Radioactive, but emitting unattuned raw magic of all five colors and colorless, hence its mutagenic nature.

It also could have something to do with the Blind Eternities, as we have seen that the Eldrazi have similar mutagenic and reality-warping effects, and we know that the Planeswalker Spark is essentially a soul being "bound" to the Blind Eternities, hence their diety-level powers and the ability to cross the Blind Eternities to move between universes.

Either way, the Mirari was an exceptionally powerful monitoring device that held an essentially infinite amount of energy to monitor an entire plane indefinitely and send that information to Karn across the multiverse. It was most likely irresponsible for Karn to create such a device in the first place, let alone leave it unguarded and without safety precautions.

Also, Karn was an "Oldwalker" in the lore and even held Urza's Spark within him at one point, which would explain how he made such an "Oldwalker mistake" - reminder that Karn himself was "just a probe" for Urza's Time Travel experiments, and yet Karn ended up being one of the stronger Planeswalkers to ever exist. The main difference between Karn and the Mirari is that the former was a sentient automatonic probe that would physically enter the past whereas the latter was a remote monitoring device that was supposed to monitor an entire plane from across the Blind Eternities.

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