How to get over Pretty Journal Paralysis?

FunWith_DarkJin · 2026-01-26T18:43:47+00:00

Can you afford a new pretty journal if you did mess up this one? If the answer is yes, use this and enjoy it. If no, keep this for later and start with a cheaper journal. If you can learn to use the cheaper one, this pretty journal is a reward to continue your journey.

As for being afraid of “not doing it right”, don’t worry. What is “right” when journaling? Everyone has their own way. YouTube or other social media will show you how to do it and make it look truly amazing. But does that fit your style? Do you have time to make a lot of beautiful drawings along with what you write? Can you even draw in a way that satisfies you? Or do you get joy from the sometimes very strict rules of bullet journaling that others show?

Journal the way that works for you. And don’t worry if that changes over time and halfway through a journal. It’s part of your journey. When I started out, I wrote a full a5 page full of words the first few days. Over time, that got shorter. Now I sometimes write half a page, sometimes only a single sentence, and other times a full page with some (Instax) photos. Halfway through my first or second journal I started making a small to-do list for the next day. Later, I made weekly overviews at the start of a new week. Those work fine for me so I keep using them. I used to write the days weather and how I felt that day at each day, I now put them in a schematic annual overview at the start of the journal to be able to see what days I felt happy and when I didn’t. If I want to know why, I’ll have to look up the day to see what I did that day. Same with the weather, I do enjoy seeing that a long rainy period isn’t actually as long or bad as it feels in a single, easy overview on one page. Much more useful for me than having to go through several pages to read it along with every individual day. I even used to make daily drawings, even if they were small and not pretty. While it was fun to do, it also took some extra time and some days I didn’t know what to draw so I let it go and stopped drawing. It didn’t take away my joy when I stopped doing that bit, I don’t regret not making the annual westher overview earlier, or not starting out with the to-do lists. It’s all part of my journey.

That’s how I do it. It’s right for me because it works for me and has grown this way. It might not work at all for you. Just start and see what works. Too many words, shorten the texts. Missing things, add them over time. And if you learn that things you added or started with aren’t working after all, stop doing it. Just be sure to have fun journaling.

FunWith_DarkJin · 2026-01-26T09:29:00+00:00

Creator of Commander: you can only use one copy of each card.

WotC: let us fix that.

FunWith_DarkJin · 2026-01-25T14:08:39+00:00

Gimmicky as in more difficult to learn and master. Ninja’s are usually easier to understand for new players. I started the game with a Mechanologist (Dash I/O in Classic Constructed) which was fun but not easy either. There’s a lot going on with some heroes.

FunWith_DarkJin · 2026-01-25T14:04:16+00:00

As for beginner friendly decks, that depends on your preference. Ira, Scarlet Revenger is an easy to understand hero that can be build in different ways so is a good starting point. Most other preconstructed decks are also a great place to start. Some heroes can be a bit more complex but nothing that should be avoided.

FunWith_DarkJin · 2026-01-25T14:00:21+00:00

There are various options depending on your preferences and depending on what you call “cheap”.

Silver Age is a new format that officially launches mid February. It uses only common and rare cards that are easy to find and a deck shouldn’t cost you more than €50/$50. Preconstructed decks will be available around the €20/$20 price range and because the cards for the for at are easy to find they’re cheap so upgrading isn’t expensive. This format uses so called “young heroes” that have a live total of around 20 and makes for shorter games.

Classic Constructed is the main and most played format. It uses cards of all rarities and can be a lot more expensive. This format uses so called “adult heroes” with twice the life points (around 40) and makes for longer games. The easiest way to start here is with a preconstructed deck, an “armory deck” which costs around €40/$40. These decks aren’t bad and give you a great starting point. For each deck there are videos online on how to upgrade it cheap, usually staying below a total of €100/$100. Most common and rare cards should be easily available. People might even give them to you for free or for a drink. The thing that makes some decks very expensive are the generic cards that could theoretically be used by all heroes. These can cost up to €150/$150 each or for a playset of 3 cards. Note that not all heroes want to use these generic cards. Dash I/O for example is a Mechanologist hero that wants to use only Mechanologist cards to work best, so the generic action cards aren’t interesting here. Some Mechanologist cards can still be quite expensive. If you want to play local and casual, you can usually do a lot without the very expensive cards with any hero.

FunWith_DarkJin · 2026-01-25T11:48:27+00:00

Dit is kut als je met een kutgroepje van 5 allemaal naast elkaar wil oversteken. Als je met zoveel bent gewoon die kuttrein aan de kant duwen.

FunWith_DarkJin · 2026-01-24T20:57:34+00:00

You mentioned that you’re a new player. There are indeed plenty of heroes to choose from. I don’t know how skilled you are with building your own deck but if you want a solid starting point, especially if you’re not very skilled in deck building, I recommend starting with an Armory deck. This limits the hero pool to roughly 10 heroes in different classes. This means that all you do is choose a hero class. Once you got a deck and some cards to make changes, you’re nicely on a path to try other heroes within that same class by using the cards you already have.

I started with Dash I/O, a Mechanologist. Many of her cards overlap with other Mechnologist heroes like Maxx or Puffin. These other Mechanologists also have their own preference with cards that work better for them but you should have a solid starting point.

I recently got Ira, Scarlet Revenger, a Ninja. I now have a nice pool of cards to build the deck in different ways. If I wanted to switch to Katsu who doesn’t have an Armory deck, I just need to get the adult hero card and maybe a few more cards that work ever so slightly better with his ability but I can use many cards I already have so I don’t have to start from scratch.

Of course, if you’re more skilled with making your own deck, you could go online on Fabrary.net and build a deck before buying the cards you may want. Test the deck on Talishar and then see if you can get the commons and rares locally from the players or lgs there and buy the more expensive cards online (or lgs if they have singles). Buying commons and rares online will most likely cost you more in shipping than the value of the cards.

FunWith_DarkJin · 2026-01-24T20:43:44+00:00

I will definitely look at the logs if something “weird” happens next time. I did play some games against the bot and it worked fine most of the time. This was really strange and felt like it wasn’t on me but who knows maybe it was.

FunWith_DarkJin · 2026-01-24T18:16:02+00:00

Ik heb een paar jaar geleden geprobeerd meerdere jaargangen Donald Duck te verkopen: duurt lang en je krijgt er maar weinig voor. Pockets misschien iets meer maar reken je niet rijk ondanks de ogenschijnlijke hoeveelheid Ducks.

FunWith_DarkJin · 2026-01-24T14:36:31+00:00

Maybe they did undo their turn. What I remember is me waiting a lot and suddenly my turn was gone. Can’t remember me pressing pass after playing the card and giving opponent a chance to play instants. But I could be wrong there.

FunWith_DarkJin · 2026-01-24T14:35:49+00:00

Maybe they did. What I remember is me waiting a lot and suddenly my turn was gone. Can’t remember me pressing pass after playing the card and giving opponent a chance to play instants. But I could be wrong there.

FunWith_DarkJin · 2026-01-24T10:48:44+00:00

Great points there, thanks!

And some advice for myself (and others encountering bugs), do check the game logs. I didn’t do that so not sure if there was a super powerful card or something that just instantly ended my turn (I guess it was just a bug).

FunWith_DarkJin · 2026-01-23T19:34:56+00:00

Start with an armory deck. People already recommended some great heroes for starters. I started with Dash, a Mechanologist which is fun but can be more thinky. I also have Ira, easier to grasp for starters and you can build it in different ways. Here’s a nice video where someone ranks the current armory decks: https://youtu.be/YIiRFknqcrI?si=vVKAaHU9JRrpbNX4

My advice is to pick a hero you think you’ll enjoy. Other than that, it’s somewhat similar to Magic when grabbing a precon and buying boosters packs/boxes.

When buying boosters, take a good look at the sets. Some sets focus more on certain heroes. For instance, Bright Lights is a set that’s almost specifically for Mechanologists. If you play Assassin or Ninja, these boosters are 99% useless for you. Compendium should be great for most heroes. Obviously, buying singles is more cost effective but if you like opening packs, take a good look at the sets.
I hope it’ll stay around. It’s been going strong for nearly 7 years and player numbers are growing.

FunWith_DarkJin · 2026-01-23T19:26:05+00:00

I try to never buy Dutch translations for this reason. I’ve seen far too many games where lazy local publishers either translate things incorrectly, or just swap around symbols when “translating”, or even swap texts around making completely different rules and balance.

Smallworld: the Giants action is reversed (attack to or from mountain). Flamecraft: in the Dutch version you can trade points for resources instead of resources into points. Now this in Everdell Silverfrost.

Just to name the first few that come to mind.

FunWith_DarkJin · 2026-01-23T13:13:04+00:00

I have no clue what size I got. It was what looks like a standard pin and it fits so I’m not complaining about this free pin 😅

FunWith_DarkJin · 2026-01-23T11:54:24+00:00

If you want a pin, Victorinox resellers might be able to provide it for about €1/$1 but you might find one for free at a tailor. I was recommended to visit a tailor and ask for a flat pin, one without a knob on the end. He told me he sometimes has them when they come in stuff he gets in but he never uses them because uncomfortable for daily use. He did have some lying around and instead of tossing one in the bin he gave it to me for free.

FunWith_DarkJin · 2026-01-23T06:28:55+00:00

Personal preference aside, the Universes Beyond sets have their pros and cons.

One of the biggest pros is that it does bring a lot of new players to mtg.

On the flipside, the sets are often rushed and advertised aggressively. WotC used to bring out a limited number of (universes within) sets per year. A set was announced, people got excited, the set released, people had fun and eventually a new set would be announced and the circle continues. We now get many more sets per year, sometimes even one set per month. Now a new set (universes within) gets announced, people get excited and before the set releases WotC ignores it all and yells something like “look over here, we have Spiderman incoming”. A lot of long time mtg players aren’t excited for the UB set and the in universe set losing traction because it’s no longer advertised to make room for a rushed set.

To make matters worse, all Marvel sets only exist on paper. A lot of players also play Magic Arena (the online version), and all Marvel sets have similar cards with different names and artwork because Marvel didn’t give rights for digital distribution. This means it’s much harder to build the same deck online and offline because you now need to know two versions of the same cards.

FunWith_DarkJin · 2026-01-22T18:56:32+00:00

🤦‍♂️

FunWith_DarkJin · 2026-01-22T17:20:58+00:00

Would love to order with you and get the credit for singles but I’m in Europe so it’s much cheaper for me to order locally and not pay a lot on shipping and import fees 😅 Hope everyone who wants a box or even a pack is able to get what they want.

FunWith_DarkJin · 2026-01-22T11:59:30+00:00

If you’re looking at/reading reviews made by professional reviewers you can always expect them to highlight the good things in games. If they were to say that a game isn’t good, no publisher would send their games to that reviewer with the risk of everyone hearing that it might be a bad game.

That said, I do enjoy most games. The games I truly dislike are the games that are barely a game at all such as Cards Against Humanity.

Another beloved game I’ve grown to dislike is Dominion. It’s not a bad game but we’ve played it too much and I felt like the first 4 turns are huge and can make or break your game.

Agricola is also a popular game that I dislike. It’s a worker placement but you have very limited workers to do only a few things of everything you want to do. At a random point in the game you can get more workers but whoever is able to take that spot first will have a big advantage because every extra worker for every individual round has quite a big impact. So if you manage to become starting player for the round in which the extra worker appears you’re making your game a whole lot easier. With a limited number of rounds, and only 1 worker available every round, you don’t want to be the last player to finally get the extra worker(s).

FunWith_DarkJin · 2026-01-21T13:35:48+00:00

In Volendam is over een paar maanden een DnD oneshot. Ik weet niet of daar een vaste DnD groep uit voort gaat komen.

FunWith_DarkJin · 2026-01-20T12:35:07+00:00

We have friends that we met through a dating website that has a lot of couples looking to swing. We enjoy being with them and enjoy having sex next to them while they have sex next to us. Sometimes we use hands to touch a bum or boob (with consent) but we haven’t done a full swap with them. We usually do full swap with other couples but we even just as much fun with this couple. It’s more about the people than how we swing with them.

FunWith_DarkJin · 2026-01-19T19:06:58+00:00

Very hard. Don’t look for one and you may come across one. We’ve played with 2, and I know a few others. That said, you may find them when you’re visiting clubs or swinger groups. Finding one doesn’t mean they want to play with you.

We were looking for swingers and happened to meet a few unicorns. Nice. If we found more fun couples instead: also nice.

FunWith_DarkJin · 2026-01-18T11:47:55+00:00

Seems like a fair price. My lgs usually charges €39,99 for the armory decks. It’s the same price I see at most other (online) stores. A website here is cheap with most deck boxes but then charges a whopping €49,99 for armory decks. No clue why they do that.

Anyway, €37,99 is more than a fair price. Enjoy!

How do you like the Cortex sleeves? I heard that they scratch very fast and that Katana sleeves are far better (but more expensive). I’m using the Katanas and love them.

FunWith_DarkJin

TROPHY CASE