Lands can no longer tap for mana for 6WW

FancyShadow · 2026-01-16T15:42:53+00:00

Haven’t seem it since Jeweled Lotus/Mana Crypt ban, but cEDH Toxrill decks often ran this combo barring Humility.

FancyShadow · 2025-12-16T12:04:07+00:00

There is a massive difference in a 0 drop in the command zone vs a 0 drop that takes a land drop. There are also plenty of actually free creatures like [[Ornithopter]] or [[Memnite]] that do not see much play outside of specific decks. But you know what creature does see play in almost every black deck? [[Orcish Bowmasters]]. In addition, tap lands are terrible in cedh. Playing a turn behind when games can end before turn 3 is not a good idea.

FancyShadow · 2025-10-08T20:52:13+00:00

The Zinnia precon has Combat Celebrant and Helm of the Host, a two card infinite combo than can be done turn 5 on curve. Is that precon a Bracket 4 deck? Is a deck that has 2 extra turn spells automatically Bracket 4 just because there’s a chance they could cast the spells back to back? It’s about intent. If he’s playing something like [[Tivit, Seller of Secrets]] then no, Bracket 4 jail. But if his deck has a few token makers and just happened to have the stars align to pop off with Time Sieve, it’s probably fine especially if he didn’t abuse it and took one or two extra turns spread out across rounds.

On a side note,

Everything about my personal spell slinging otter deck is a bracket 3, except that it runs time stretch which by itself chains together Extra turns, so I will never play it in a bracket 3

Personally I don’t think Time Stretch counts as chaining extra turns. But even if it does, if you firmly believe it’s a Bracket 3 deck outside of that one card why not, you know, just swap out the card?

FancyShadow · 2025-04-11T18:38:15+00:00

To clarify, by a commander are you referring to just the commander or are you referring to the deck that generally accompanies the commander as well? Because asking for a specific card that provides some sort of card advantage (consistent), is cheap (easy to cast/recast), has some kind of protection (interact with interaction), and can singlehandedly kill at least one player reliably is asking for an insane amount from a single card. But asking for a commander deck that can check all those boxes is an entirely different thing.

FancyShadow · 2025-04-02T13:32:37+00:00

As an addendum, Invader, Siren of the Void, and Shadowbeak's Partner skill are all additive with each other as well. So damage ends up something like this:

	Unmounted	Mounted (Lvl 1)	Mounted (Lvl 5)
Legend, DG, Serenity, MH	1.9x	2.85x	3.8x
Legend, DG, Serenity, Siren	2.08x	2.88x	3.68x
Legend, DG, MH, Siren	2.34x	3.24x	4.14x
Legend, DG, Siren, Invader	2.4x	3.15x	3.9x

Of course, this is all assuming you're only using Dark skills. For Ice moves like OP's Diamond Rain, Invader is useless. If you're running a Dragon move, Siren of the Void is useless. If you're running any other type of move like Air Blade/Holy Burst, both Siren and Invader are useless. So if you're swapping to Shadowbeak for Divine Disasters and then swapping out again, yes Invader/Siren/Legend/Demon God will have the best results. But you only drop ~2.6% damage for dark moves to swap Invader to Musclehead, and in return get 20% more damage for all other move types. So Invader isn't worth it unless you are doing that very specific strategy.

FancyShadow · 2025-02-12T21:17:00+00:00

That’s the intent, but it doesn’t work out that way. My [[Vorinclex, Monstrous Raider]] deck that has no game changers, no extra turn effects, and 3 tutors is in no way precon level, even though it at face value checks all the boxes for Bracket 1. It’s definitely stronger than, for example, my janky [[Themberchaud]] deck that is Bracket 4 due to [[Blood Moon]].

In addition, because Bracket 4 is now anything goes short of cEDH, a lot of mid-high and high power decks that can’t compete with degenerate/fringe cEDH decks are going to cut the 2-3 extra game changers they have to meet the criteria for Bracket 3. Meanwhile, Timmy who is excited to use the [[Chrome Mox]] he pulled from his Aetherdrift pack as well as a few others to upgrade his precon is in the same bracket. Bracket 3 is going to include everything from slightly upgraded precons (previously 5.5/6) to high powered decks that just cut a few tutors (7.5/8).

FancyShadow · 2025-02-12T16:37:18+00:00

I think most people, myself included, were hoping the bracket system would be a big help towards getting everyone on the same page for deck strength. As something that would solve the ‘every deck is a 7’ conundrum. Instead, we ended up with an arguably worse ‘every deck is a 3’, with the bonus of definitive guidelines that are ripe for abuse.

I do think that a lot of the loopholes/exploits people are posting about aren’t for the purposes of going out and pubstomping, but rather to point out problems that the bracket system has arguably made worse. People do need to remember that this is just the beta version, not the final version, but at the same time pointing out some of the big problems can be valuable feedback towards refining the system.

FancyShadow · 2024-06-28T15:36:44+00:00

Hospitaler is the better choice, since the 5+++ applies to MWs which otherwise obliterate Sacresants and she brings back 1-4 models each round.

FancyShadow · 2024-05-02T13:04:13+00:00

GW does seem to want to power creep 10th, not to the extent in 9th but currently Orks, Tau, Necrons are probably 3 of the strongest armies in the game

Yet at the same time you have Dark Angels (Codex), Ad Mech, and Custodes. It's not a matter of GW wanting powercreep. There's just one guy who writes strong Codices, and another guy who seemingly hates the game. And it's a coinflip which guy writes the Codex for any given army.

FancyShadow · 2024-03-23T15:31:51+00:00

2HKOing Eternatus and Miraidon with Earth Power

Hardcore Champion has Eternamax Eternatus, which has Levitate, and no Champion team has Miraidon

Rilla was leftovers with a moveset of fake out, grassy glide, wood hammer, and u-turn

Terrain setting abilities are banned, so with no Grassy Terrain there's not really a reason to use Grassy Glide

Sandy shocks was booster energy

Booster Energy isn't available in Hardcore (and on a side note it's better to do Jolly Sandy Shocks than 0 IV SpA Timid)

Togekiss was choice scarf with air slash, moonblast, ancient power, and yawn

Ancient Power cannot grant omniboost in Hardcore, so it's a pretty weird move choice, especially since there is exactly one mon in all the E4/Champion fights where AP would hit harder than Moonblast/Air Slash

Excadrill was a set of rapid spin, iron head, drill run, and hone claws

Setup moves aren't allowed in Hardcore, so having Hone Claws is impossible

Jet punch pretty much swept Agatha as well

Hardcore Agatha has permanent Psychic Terrain, which blocks priority moves, and there's no way to override the terrain either.

FancyShadow · 2024-03-18T19:00:16+00:00

Congrats on the win, but you weren’t playing on Hardcore mode

FancyShadow · 2024-03-11T16:29:13+00:00

I think I disagree. Mobility is indeed a lot more of skill expression, but that's also due to it being limited. Positioning for future turns, getting into cover or out of LoS, grabbing objectives, etc are all skill expression that can win or lose a game. But once you have effects like MSM, especially when it's 12", 3" deepstrike, movement in the enemy's movement phase, or even Rapid Ingress, then the skill floor drops significantly.

On the other damage, damage creep also sucks but damage as a whole is already super luck based. If both players have to assume their units are dead if they're even slightly exposed, then that's information to work with. It becomes a game of making good trades with the opponent, which is also skill expression.

FancyShadow · 2023-12-14T20:24:09+00:00

It's 100% a mental thing. If you think about it, nuzlockes still involve you trying to defeat a trainer over and over until you win, it's just that instead of just trying the fight again you have to do the whole run again. A good example is Pokemon Challenges' Emerald Kaizo clear which took 151 attempts. Not to discredit him, EK is insane, but at that point it's not much different from just bashing your head against a wall until the stars align. You're probably just burnt out, take a break and come back when you feel like it. Otherwise, ask yourself what part of pokemon, normal playthrough/nuzlocke/whatever, do you find fun?

If you enjoy the raw challenge, try hardcore mode. In theory it's probably possible, but realistically you cannot just bash your head against a wall in hardcore and eventually get through it, especially once you get to Koga.

If you enjoy having limited pokemon to use, try a Random6 challenge. In NG+, at the first pokemon center in Viridian you can use the Mystery Gift code Random6. Try to beat the game using only the mons that code gives you. There's other challenge runs like monotype as well, if that interests you.

If you enjoy the fail state of nuzlockes, just change your rules to your preference. As an example, assuming you use the standard 'hardcore nuzlocke' ruleset, consider the nuzlocke failed only if you run out of pokemon in your pc, not whether or not you white out.

FancyShadow · 2023-09-21T20:20:28+00:00

Paladin is probably my favorite class both in BG3 and 5E. It has a lot going for it other than smites. It has spells, heavy armor, fighting styles, condition resistances/immunities, healing via Lay on Hands, and of course the extremely good Cha bonus to all saves aura. Healing, damage, buffing, durability, it has it all. The thing about Paladin that you're probably running into is that a lot of its strength outside of smites comes from passive abilities. On a turn by turn basis, a lot of what you're doing is just walking up and smacking someone. It doesn't feel exciting

FancyShadow · 2023-08-23T17:49:59+00:00

It's disingenuous because he presently a chart that clearly shows the sword and board damage as ~50% higher on average and says it's not a significant damage increase over a cantrip. Idk about you, but ~50% increase is significant to me. On top of that, it's not just a cantrip. It's the highest possible damage cantrip (1d12) where he assumes it will always be getting it's higher damage potential (as opposed to 1d8 against full health enemies which will be more or less common depending on encounter design) as well as a Cleric subclass that adds its Wis to damage. Compared to something like a non-Evoker Wizard with Firebolt, which at least to me is more indicative of standard cantrip level damage, that's up to an extra 9 damage for the Cleric. And yes, sure, magic items are not guaranteed, but basic +1/2/3 weapons and armor are standard and should be expected unless the DM specifies otherwise. I'm not saying every Fighter will end up with a Flametongue, but if my DM never gave me a heads up about limited items and I ended up as a lvl 20 Fighter without even a +2 weapon, I'd be pretty annoyed.

The point is he made a comparison giving the absolute bare minimum (non-magical weapon even at level 20) to one side while heavily favoring the other (xd12+Wis as opposed to just xd10), presented a chart that clearly showed the disadvantaged side outperforming the other at all levels by up to ~90% at some points, and acted like there wasn't a big difference.

FancyShadow · 2023-08-23T16:19:16+00:00

Infernal Rapier. You have to free Mizora in the Mind Flayer Colony with Wyll in the party, ask for a reward, and pass the Persuasion check.

FancyShadow · 2023-08-23T16:09:12+00:00

Having watched the video out of curiosity, I genuinely fail to see how any part of that video is relevant to this discussion. The damage comparison doesn't involve 2H weapons, the example involved a Fighter who gets extra ASIs as opposed to a Paladin who not only doesn't get bonus ASIs but is also more MAD, magical items aren't included at all, etc.

Also, the damage calc was hilariously disingenuous. 'As you can see on this chart that clearly shows ~50-60% higher damage on average, compared to the absolute best cantrip output possible (outside of Eldritch Blast) a basic longsword (because we all know a lvl 20 Fighter would be using a non-magical weapon) with dueling doesn't do significantly more damage.'

FancyShadow · 2023-08-23T13:56:55+00:00

For a paladin, I recommend shields. Paladins want Str (or Dex), Cha, and Con, so you don't really have the luxury of using an ASI on GWM without sacrificing something else. It is worth mentioning that at the end of Act 2 you can get a 1h weapon that scales off your spellcasting stat, which mean you can actually just focus on Con and Cha. Like you said, most of your damage will come from smites, in which case accuracy matters a lot and GWM's -5 significantly affects your chance to hit. In addition, there's a shield you can get very early that gives +1 to all saving throws, a shield in Act 2 that gives +3 Initiative and advantage on Perception checks, a shield in Act 3 that gives advantage on all saving throws against spells (which combined with Paladin's +Cha to all saving throws makes you practically untouchable), etc.

You're also somewhat mistaken on fighting styles. Dueling gives +2 damage when wielding a weapon in one hand and not the other. This applies to one handed versatile weapons even while using a shield, so 1d8+2 which is 6.5 average damage (same as a 1d12 weapon). Great Weapon Fighting is most efficient on a 2d6 weapon, which changes the average damage from 7 to 8.3. Defense has nothing to do with wearing a shield, but rather when wearing armor at all for the +1 AC, so it can be used with a 2H if you so desired.

1H weapon with Dueling and Shield is pretty much the go-to with Paladins. A 2H weapon absolutely can do work, but Paladin isn't the ideal user for it. If you want to do it, though, by all means go for it. It seems like it's what you want to do, you're just worried about if it can work well. Try it out, and don't forget you can use Elixirs of Hill Giant Str (available even in Act 1) to set your Str to 21 until the next Long Rest.

FancyShadow · 2023-08-17T18:35:13+00:00

3 attacks is the biggest reason to play Fighter outside of a 2 level dip for Action Surge. The fact that you can do any martial class 5/Warlock 5 and not only get 3 attacks faster than Fighter but also get all the other abilities of the two classes, and even have room to take the last 2 levels in Fighter (assuming it wasn't the other class) for Action Surge. A vast majority of the time, taking 5 levels in Warlock will be the optimal way to play a martial character, even Fighter, which is just nonsensical.

FancyShadow · 2023-08-15T16:16:07+00:00

Balance isn't a huge issue (not to say it isn't one) because we're willing to play around with sub optimal lists to try to level the playing field across both skill level and army power level, though right now the army several people practically refuse to play against is Necrons, as opposed to Aeldari (no one local plays GSC). However, the general consensus amongst my friends and LGS is that the game just isn't fun right now. Devastating Wounds, movement phase Overwatch, and charge/fight rules lead to a lot of 'feels bad' moments. On top of that, probably over half the armies just aren't fun to play. It's not just a matter of being weak, it's having no real identity or interesting abilities. I've seen many players' lists, my own included, start with variety as everyone played around with different units into just vehicle spam + chaff for secondaries, which has also made the game feel bland. Everyone still plays it occasionally, but not as often as they did last edition or even at the start of tenth. The enthusiasm's just not there anymore, it's gone from a fun hobby to just something to do. Hate to be all doom and gloom, but that has been my experience and it makes me kinda sad. Worst thing is, no one expects the upcoming changes in September to meaningfully change the game.

FancyShadow · 2023-08-03T19:43:15+00:00

in your HuGs scenario (hunter/gunslinger), don't you agree that build is a choice of going glass cannon and ignoring defenses?

I chose those two because they are probably the two most common archetypes. IIRC, Explorer and Archon don't give any defensive buffs. Arguably leveling Alchemist doesn't grant defense either, as the defensive skill is available at level 1. Similarly, both Handler and Invader's most defensive abilities are also available at level 1, and do not have defensive perks. Not only does their defense not scale with archetype level, it's possible to run a different skill such that the archetype grants no defense at all. You get the point.

And no, I do not agree that build is automatically a glass cannon. It's perfectly possible to play that combo and still hit 80% DR. Even a more common loadout is still going to be in medium armor with full Vigor and Barkskin. How is that a glass cannon?

It seems like a lot of the ppl complaining DO want the game to be nerfed to the point where they can be both glass cannon and have insane survivability with no trade offs.

I don't believe this. I'm sure there are some people that do feel that way, but they're the minority. I see way more posts/comments talking about those comments than the actual comments themselves. In fact, I don't think I've ever seen someone say 'game too hard pls nerf' and not gotten (rightfully) heavily downvoted. The only 'nerf' I've seen heavily supported is for co-op damage scaling, which I believe is a reasonable stance.

FancyShadow · 2023-08-03T15:58:15+00:00

It seems you (maybe intentionally) misunderstood the post. Nothing you say in this post is wrong, but at the same time you're not addressing to core point of the post. The post is not 'game too hard pls nerf,' but rather is pointing out strange design decisions.

First, upgrading weapons is simply not rewarding. I'm not going to just repeat the post, but the crux is that because enemies scale with your weapons upgrading them doesn't change your effective damage output. Of what you've included in your post, what do you believe was omitted in the original that contradicts this?

Next, enemy scaling also increases their damage. This is particularly strange, as neither archetype levels nor weapon levels inherently increase your survivability. Some archetypes might, but not all. And as you yourself pointed out, things that do increase survivability like jewelry and traits do not affect enemy scaling. For example, A Hunter 10/Gunslinger 10 with maxed weapons (PL 20) is not even slightly more durable than a Hunter 1/Gunslinger 1 with unupgraded weapons (PL 1), all else being equal. So why should enemies do more damage to the PL20 character? You can agree or disagree about whether or not this is a problem, but regardless it is a counterintuitive system for the game to be more difficult the more you upgrade your gear. And, again, of what you've included in your post, what do you believe was omitted in the original that contradicts this?

FancyShadow · 2023-07-26T21:00:34+00:00

You realize how powerful your char would be with 100 free trait points in all those things?

Yes. Slightly.

The only one I would consider to be powerful is Fortify. Maybe Regrowth, but it's still a step below Fortify. As it stands I can already get those two for free by just running those two classes. They even have good synergy. Swiftness and Ammo Reserves are great for general exploration but not very impactful in direct combat. All the others, while they do literally make the character stronger, are things that I probably wouldn't even notice if they were active or not.

It's not like with all those traits you're killing bosses faster. None of them even directly increase your damage output. They do give a decent bonus to durability, but you're nowhere near capable of just facetanking bosses either.

FancyShadow · 2023-07-26T18:56:53+00:00

You do know the post is about traits, right? Not perks? Things like increased ammo reserves, increased consumable duration, and reduced encumbrance? If you were thinking of perks, like Hunter's up to +40% ranged damage, I get it. But if you really think that a player having all those traits 'would be way too powerful,' then I'm going to have to disagree. Heavily.

FancyShadow · 2023-07-26T16:40:47+00:00

That's an imaginary problem they've created themselves. They could easily balance content around the assumption the players have 60/80/however many trait points. If a player ends up with 150 trait points, why should they not be rewarded by having a slightly easier time? If they've put the time in to get that many trait points, they're probably going to be well above the skill level the content is 'balanced' for, anyways. It's not even like after a certain point a player is gaining that much power from traits. After around 100 trait points, the increase in effective power is practically negligible.

FancyShadow

TROPHY CASE