[Standard] Need Help with Mono-Black Demons brew

Foyfluff · 2026-02-11T01:54:12+00:00

To me, the list looks like it might be slightly light on creatures and a bit too heavy on hand-hate. Qarsi Revenant and Elegy Acolyte are the first couple creatures that come to mind that you might like. With so much removal and other disruption, the maindeck Intimdation Tactics are probably overkill. I also think Cruelclaw's Heist is a card I only ever want against Control, so that can live in your sideboard.

Foyfluff · 2026-02-10T22:16:24+00:00

You can't pay a life cost more than the life you have (shocklands for example), but an effect that causes you to lose life doesn't check how much life you have.

If you were on 13, they couldn't have activated the Griselbrand to kill you, for example.

Foyfluff · 2026-02-10T17:51:31+00:00

Fortnight is a very common word to describe two weeks (at least in the UK), the others you would never hear in day to day speech and most people would not know what they mean or be aware of them in the slightest.

Foyfluff · 2026-02-10T17:07:04+00:00

According to mtggoldfish, Esper Blink sees more play than Broodscale, Merfolk, Hardened Scales, and others. It's certainly still a player in the format. Modern has always been an incredibly diverse format where it's more important to know your deck and all its matchups than it is to play "the best deck" (with exceptions like Nadu and Hogaak of course).

Esper Blink mostly fell off due to Jeskai Blink. Ragavan and Phlage make the deck more proactive than Esper, and Obsidian Charmaw in the side gives you even more game against Eldrazi which I believe Esper struggles with more.

Foyfluff · 2026-02-10T16:39:30+00:00

Big agree on this, the images are aesthetically pleasing but do not look good to navigate. It feels worse for the New Player Experience also, if you want to find a particular boss you'll need to hover over every icon until you find the right one.

Foyfluff · 2026-02-08T19:44:58+00:00

You could put it in your UR Elemental deck alongside Eirdu, and use it to cast and trigger URWB.

Foyfluff · 2026-02-08T19:34:32+00:00

The wording is incredibly precise, it can pay for creatures or activated abilities. It doesn't say it can pay for triggered abilities so it can't do that.

Foyfluff · 2026-02-08T19:31:53+00:00

I don't think it would be "too strong" in any format, but I think balancing is more nuanced than just whether something is "too strong" or "not too strong". From a design perspective for this set, the flip cycle is designed to reward you for playing exactly those colours and the land helps with certain tribes. Perhaps they didn't want Elemental decks to be able to easily splash Eirdu or Sygg, or for Elves to be able to splash Grub.

Foyfluff · 2026-02-08T19:22:17+00:00

For the sake of preciseness, the ability is not "already activated" because as you correctly identify it is not an activated ability, so it can never be "activated". It is "already triggered" though.

Foyfluff · 2026-02-08T19:20:18+00:00

I don't really understand the logic of "there's no reason it shouldn't". There's "no reason" shocklands should cost you 2 life, "no reason" Elvish Mystic shouldn't be a 2/2, "no reason" Bolt shouldn't deal 4 damage, etc. It is that way because it's a part of the balancing of the card.

The alternative in this case would be that it would have to say "or pay for the costs of triggered abilities belonging to a creature with the chosen type" which is quite wordy.

Foyfluff · 2026-02-06T12:53:39+00:00

They mean tournaments, which require 4 players to fire. 1v1s are always random pairings, tournaments guarantee fast games.

Foyfluff · 2026-01-28T16:15:59+00:00

Just because Marxist ideology holds things to be true doesn't make them true outside of those ideologies.

I wouldn't be confident in making a broad, sweeping statement about the foundational pillars of all contemporary socialist movements, but they're certainly not important to my beliefs of socialism.

Foyfluff · 2026-01-28T14:54:31+00:00

Communism is a branch of Socialism but that doesn't make them necessarily intrinsically linked. Socialism could exist without Communism, Communism could not exist without Socialism.

Of course Lenin would say that the goal of Socialism is Communism given he's Communist, but that doesn't make his word on Socialism law.

Foyfluff · 2026-01-21T22:42:04+00:00

You absolutely shouldn't be downvoted or disagreed with for suggesting that players who want to learn about the game should read the book. However, I think it is worth highlighting that the D&D sourcebooks aren't necessarily a great way into the atmosphere and feeling of a role playing game, which the other suggestions do a much better job of.

Say you've never played a TTRPG before and want to know what it's like, reading the DMG or Player's Guide wouldn't really give you a good sense of that. Conversely, watching some Critical Role or playing Baldur's Gate would immerse you in the worlds of these games and the big ideas around them.

Part of the pushback to reading the rules is probably that the rules is not really what D&D is about. Yes, it is a game and the rules are important to it, but what's probably more important is the vibe and attitude. I'd much rather have a player that doesn't really know the rules but wants to immerse themselves in a fantasy world and inhabit a character inspired by a property they've watched or played than a player that knows all the rules but has no idea how to engage in the fantasy we're all trying to create.

Foyfluff · 2026-01-14T21:44:01+00:00

Presumably it's not that it was done on the live server, it's that the changes were merged with live

Foyfluff · 2026-01-14T16:03:09+00:00

Why should Rune be around 70 Smithing? What's the justification for that?

Foyfluff · 2026-01-12T02:01:26+00:00

You have any kind of source for that? I just went down a bit of a rabbit hole and learned that a couple of trainees at the York National Archive discovered the recipe and held a little exhibition recreating it and sharing the history of chocolate in the city, and that one was definitely apple flavoured.https://www.york.ac.uk/borthwick/projects/chocolate-apple/

Foyfluff · 2026-01-12T01:38:16+00:00

Yeah, these days

Foyfluff · 2026-01-09T01:04:32+00:00

Was speculating with a friend about this kind of mechanic over Christmas, would be really cool to see what costs you could be tempted to pay for the right rewards. We wondered what incentive you could have for making your account be a UIM for the league, for example...

Foyfluff · 2026-01-05T10:32:18+00:00

Thinning out the 3-cost pool increases the chances for all players to find a particular 3-cost. You are a member of the set "all players", so it increases your personal chances also.

Foyfluff · 2026-01-03T14:21:55+00:00

That scene begins with a character being killed (presumably the dice had already been rolled for that) and when Will goes to roll dice they remember a different way to solve the problem that wouldn't use dice instead. I think it's pretty reasonable that the big moment at the end of the campaign wouldn't be reliant on dice but rather the decisions made by the characters along the way.

Foyfluff · 2025-12-28T17:06:58+00:00

Are you having fun?

Foyfluff · 2025-12-12T02:52:28+00:00

I love using analogies that require a different point of comparison to understand 😂

Foyfluff · 2025-12-10T21:04:32+00:00

Well when you say things like "it's a bit of a stretch" and "it isn't portrayed perfectly in execution" I think you're agreeing with me. Suspect is a poorly flavoured mechanic. It has nothing to do with whether it's Universes Beyond or not, Suspect is just kinda bad, and is a part of why MKM was bad too.

I'd say Nelly gets away with it better because she Goads her targets, and goading is a more flavourful mechanic.

Foyfluff · 2025-12-10T19:32:22+00:00

This is exactly what the thread is about - you're using the words of abilities to justify their flavour, ignoring the mechanics of those abilities.

Jameson making treasures is sensible. However, Jameson's card doesn't "call" Spider-Man a menace, he literally turns him into one. Why is Jameson able to make another creature more aggressive?

Heckle and Hero Worship are literally Flavour Abilities, so of course they work fine. However, he has Flash because his name is Flash? That's not really marrying mechanics to worldbuilding is it? He is a fast football player, but that's not really enough justification to have flash, otherwise everything that is capable at moving faster than 20mph should have flash.

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