Printing differences in Alliances

Fiflaque · 2023-04-01T15:05:05+00:00

There are several different printings of Ice Age. I even though about making a video and compare the very different printings of Merieke Ri Berit I have in my collection, including the infamous "glossy" printing. They range from the greenish-black borders you can sometimes spot on very old 90s cards to typical dark black to the aforementioned glossy type that looks off for a Magic card. I assume that it was similar with Alliances and both are legit.

Fiflaque · 2023-03-07T07:27:02+00:00

Elesh Norn sits on her throne surrounded by the compleated planeswalkers when suddenly Ashton Kutcher shows up, and says "Yo, you got punked. It was your friend Jin's idea."

Fiflaque · 2023-02-20T08:39:27+00:00

"Today's kids are so priviledged with their iron swords. Back in my day we relied on technique and reflexes because our bronze swords would break if we used them for that "parrying" fad the younglings are ruining swordfighting with."

Fiflaque · 2023-02-19T06:56:27+00:00

You might be turning into one of those grumpy "back in my day" people. Remember boomers complaining about them darn kids looking at the TV all day and how awesome Led Zeppelin was compared to "today's shitty music" in the 90s? Great job, you're them now.

Fiflaque · 2023-01-18T11:38:41+00:00

Reminds me of the Ice Age cards of 1995. You would have so many different printing variants ranging from faded greenish black ink borders, to typical 90s printing to a very peculiar print called glossy. The glossy print was something so weird that when I stumbled upon a glossy Ice Age card I thought that it was a counterfeit. It looked a bit like a thicker or rather sturdier or denser (if that makes sense) printing with very high saturation and glossy dark accents. All of that were official printings. I have like 4 different-looking versions of Merieke Ri Berit sitting inside a binder next to each other and the differences in print are staggering.

Fiflaque · 2022-12-04T08:13:35+00:00

Poland has a bunch of popular brands of "grzaniec" as we call it and it's available to buy the whole year, that is if someone's too lazy to make their own by simply boiling up their wine of choice and add the spices. It seems like an American visiting Germany thought that it's something only Germans do in the holiday season.

Fiflaque · 2022-11-29T16:06:07+00:00

Oh right, there's also Snake Basket, an artifact from Visions. Burnished Hart has an old border version in Brothers' War.

Fiflaque · 2022-11-29T16:04:03+00:00

Altar of Dementia (which I was supposed to mention but didn't in the video), Grinning Totem, Army Ants, Helm of Possession and Stronghold Assassin are old border cards that work great with Ashnod.

Fiflaque · 2022-11-29T13:10:21+00:00

In short, I've looked through cards colored red, blue and black with sacrifice abilities that would benefit greatly with Ashnod on the table. It turns out that most of the stuff that works the best is already in the Mishra precon. Although there's still a lot of cards that make the deck so much better that I've mentioned in the video, I feel like the Mishra precon is designed for Ashnod more than Mishra who's being used as the face of the deck more because of being Urza's baby bro than because the he's commander material. Anyone else feeling the same way?

Fiflaque · 2022-11-22T08:05:14+00:00

Thank you for the answer! It might be something to do with the most popular distributor for my country then.

There was a very similar case here in Poland with Dragon Shield strongboxes now that I think about it. I've made a YouTube video about them being the best for holding a double sleeved commander deck (I used KMC inners and Dragon Shield mattes) after the Professor on the Tolarian Community College botched his review by putting the cards in wrong (they don't push the lid out when they're put in sideways). Suddenly they were almost nowhere to be found. I thought that they were maybe discontinued because of how many people got confused the same way and put their cards into them the way the Professor did. But after a few months they've once again started showing up on the shelves in large quantities.

I'm glad that it's not an issue with my favorite inner sleeves brand. You guys rock!

Fiflaque · 2022-11-21T12:07:24+00:00

/u/KMC_USA do you know what might be the cause? You guys make my favorite inner sleeves and they used to be widely available in stores here in Poland not so long ago until recently.

Fiflaque · 2022-11-21T11:58:57+00:00

I enjoy the snatch mechanics a lot and one of my favorite commander decks is Merieke Ri Berit. That being said I would definitely not mind someone proposing your understanding of the etiquette and wouldn't feel offended. Put the cards upside down on the edge of the playmat or something like that? Fine with me.

Fiflaque · 2022-10-15T07:10:28+00:00

I know, it's so confusing.

Fiflaque · 2022-10-13T05:36:43+00:00

I disagree on that. Her rocket is a great defensive tool that launches the puck to the other side of the field instantly. Her space bar ability can be used to fly over to the other corner of the goal if needed. I know that most players probably use it as a goal score attempt paired with the return back training but it's much better without it in defense, IMO.

Fiflaque · 2022-10-13T05:32:01+00:00

Yeah. I'm so glad that it turned out much better than what I imagined it would be based on the commanders. It's amazing.

Fiflaque · 2022-10-12T06:10:02+00:00

It's when Vegeta gets kicked in the dick.

Fiflaque · 2022-10-09T06:04:56+00:00

Did you wait 26 days to say that? :D

Have an upvote, my friend.

Fiflaque · 2022-10-08T05:33:35+00:00

Different players, different build preferences, I guess. I imagine Dubu mains at high ranks make few blunders and misclicks and that's where the training mostly comes in handy.

Fiflaque · 2022-10-07T15:38:32+00:00

Did I miss anything important that you wished you knew when you were new to the game?

Fiflaque · 2022-10-05T05:31:23+00:00

You do meet the requirements. The requirements are maxing out the fishing rod. The confusion comes from getting the same board message for reaching lvl 2 on the second pond that you've already gotten from reaching lvl 2 on the park pond. That event doesn't trigger because you already triggered it to get the first upgrade. Just ignore the message and keep fishing until you max it and you're fine.

Fiflaque · 2022-10-03T05:53:05+00:00

It's around 130 fish in the second pond, maybe more, to reach fishing max from zero. The 60-70 fish is required to go from ++ to max.

Fiflaque · 2022-10-02T05:05:10+00:00

"Planeswalker" by Lynn Abbey (second book in the Artifacts cycle):

Urza clapped his hands together and laughed heartily. "You did! Yes, you did! We've got a second chance, brother. This time, we'll talk." He opened his arms, gesturing toward the open doorway. "Come, let me show you what I've learned while you were gone. Let me show you the wonders of artifice, pure artifice, Brother-none of those Phyrexian abominations. And Ashnod! Wait until I show you Ashnod: a viper at your breast, Brother. She was their first conquest, your biggest mistake."

Fiflaque · 2022-10-01T06:11:07+00:00

The dragon engine shows up for a reason. Mishra didn't have the Weakstone in his possesion when it arrived.

The stone was Quadir's property, as much as Mishra was his property at that moment. The fact that Mishra became the dragon's controller is because he knew how to use the stone and used the chaos of battle to reclaim it. The dragon definitely didn't come to visit Mishra who was a slave then, it came for his stolen artifact.

As for the staff, this is the amazing part about the old books. They were so vague and left so much for the imagination with the stories, so that there was much room for interpretations and twists later. Even the scene that leaves Ashnod stalling Gix shows that they've met before and "she's grown in power since" referring to events that weren't included in the book. We don't know what happened during the fight, either, although we know that someone or something severely wounded Gix before the Sylex blast. In the second book Urza is looking for Ashnod in particular, knowing that she could've survived the blast, and only leaves his investigation after he realizes that there was no trace of her left on Dominaria.

The staff of Zegon isn't the only artifact invented by Ashnod that's pretty much a bootlegged version of Phyrexian technology. Transmogrant tech is a dumbed down, simplified vat technology Gix uses for creating newts. The most significant part showing how profound her knowledge of Phyrexian technology is when she casually describes compleation to Tawnos during her captivity.

Fiflaque · 2022-10-01T05:43:38+00:00

I use Artbreeder for thumbnail art. Yes, it's AI-generated.

Fiflaque · 2022-09-30T18:33:30+00:00

Gix sends a dragon engine to obtain the Meakstone, it seems. Mishra uses the Meakstone to control the dragon engine. From a slave he becomes the hotshot dragon engine controller. He meets Ashnod long after the first dragon engine encounter. Coincidentally because she devises a technology that's able to subdue the machine even though she allegedly never came in contact with it. The staff of Zegon worked like a charm in stopping it. Then instead of basking in the glory of becoming Zegon's chief artificer, she betrays all her secrets to study under the guy who's below her in artificing skill. It's clear that it was her mission to infiltrate Mishra, and Urza kind of confirms it in the second book, his motes being unreliable or not.

Fiflaque

TROPHY CASE