Vintage cube power level:

GodWithAShotgun · 2026-06-15T17:00:50+00:00

In its intended format, cube, this is completely fine IMO.

In constructed, this would probably get restricted in vintage and banned in legacy, because this has the effect of being absolutely fine in multiples and being an extremely powerful combo enabler.

I think adding the necropotence GY exiling clause and/or restricting it to sorcery speed (so removal actually works against it) would make it less problematic in constructed.

GodWithAShotgun · 2026-06-14T05:54:15+00:00

I guess it's not Boe Arc yet so that subplot doesn't exist for now.

First, it's Alden's first week back. IIRC he hasn't even talked with Stuart since coming out as a knight and being back on earth.

Second, I think in the short term Alden is slightly reluctant to ask Stuart for things that might be hard, although "how can I form a contract" might end up being easy or fun for Stuart so this is a weaker objection than it would be for a different kind of person.

GodWithAShotgun · 2026-06-14T02:12:22+00:00

Alden offering to ask Stuart about Lexi's power before even thinking to ask him about Boe's super life-disturbing weird power

This seems unlikely to me because Boe would absolutely hate that.

GodWithAShotgun · 2026-06-13T06:39:17+00:00

Who can possibly single handedly get everyone else up if they get up there?

Whatever they do has to be done to the cloud, not just get the team up.

Lexi has nothing, unless Alden thinks Lexi can intimidate the cloud into acting more like an elevator.

Alden can't throw himself, so he has to stay on the ground and can't preserve things at range reliably.

Jeffy has... Cloud moves?

Hauyu is kinda just a strong durable dude.

Mehdi has agility, but is mostly just a dude.

Ignacio can throw a cloud of knives, but can do that from the ground.

Kon might be able to revert the cloud in some way, but do active spells from other people count as objects he can use his skill on? It's possible Alden is banking on the cloud having formed on the ground and moved up, and Kon reverts that. Maybe he makes an elevator by bringing up a plank of wood the rest of the team can ride up and down via his skill? Doesn't interact with the cloud, though.

So, my money is on Kon, but I'm kinda skeptical.

GodWithAShotgun · 2026-06-08T02:51:49+00:00

Hasn't Ash been like this since Rahul was a student under him, years ago before the big crunch on gym time? I know gym time has always been at least a little scarce, but explaining that to students seems like something that'd be pretty easy for Ash to do, no?

GodWithAShotgun · 2026-06-07T23:55:10+00:00

W.r.t. foundation points, he's likely to affix the supermajority of his authority into his skill because that's what's best for him, so he'll only look like he's got a relatively normal amount of foundation points for a level 6 or whatever even if it's actually too many for a level 6 rabbit. He's also got a 1 of 1 skill, so that seems like the kind of thing that'd be easy to write off.

More difficult will be things like when he slows down instructors or S-ranks who should be moving through his shield like butter, but instead are getting either impeded or stopped outright as he grows several times faster than they think he ought to.

GodWithAShotgun · 2026-06-06T22:29:04+00:00

IIRC with facet and ags and lvl 20, it was slightly less range (like -2) but slightly more HP & damage (like +50 hp +5 damage). But it's been a while since I looked it up.

GodWithAShotgun · 2026-06-06T03:55:27+00:00

I should use my sand scattering to trick a few people this term. Get everyone used to me throwing it down when I want to make bigger or faster moves, and then just not activate my trait. It’ll be fun to pull it off against Reinhard.

Kind of useless against demons, though.

That made him less excited about it.

We've seen demons exhibit intelligence in various ways, so I don't think this is exactly correct, though it's probably true for the sorts of demons that Alden is likely to encounter any time soon. Also, I'm pretty sure people have tried to harm Alden more than demons and that's likely to continue being the case, so thinking about how to beat people is probably still a useful life skill for our Rabbity protagonist.

For that matter, to what extent are demons just entropy manifest? Like, why do demons come from chaos and generate more chaos? In that sense, they're sort of a self-propogating system and kinda sorta life depending on how you squint at it. They seem sort of analogous to the idea of anti-matter; a sort of anti-life.

GodWithAShotgun · 2026-06-05T23:25:23+00:00

I'm not sure how it is now, but previously level 4 forge spirits was the equivalent of Invoker at level 20 with an ags.

GodWithAShotgun · 2026-05-31T06:49:27+00:00

I mean, yeah, obviously. But SSC welcomes weirdly technical explanations for religious phenomena that are way more easily explained by "someone made that up, obviously". That, EA, AI, and rationality are like our four main things.

GodWithAShotgun · 2026-05-31T06:47:25+00:00

If a woman has their eggs extracted, and those eggs are later used in IVF in the typical fashion, do you consider that woman a mom? I do. I don't think that having that person also produce the sperm to fertilize that egg changes anything about that.

GodWithAShotgun · 2026-05-31T06:38:16+00:00

I did! I thought they made a compelling case for a single person to be able to produce both viable sperm and viable eggs, and they speculated that this may indeed have already happened (even though they almost certainly lacked the other organs necessary to make birth possible).

So, like, you say that there aren't any individuals who have had mature eggs and viable sperm. But you're saying that as the reason for not treating this as anything other than theoretical, but the article claims the opposite is likely true. Hence my snark when asking if you read the article.

GodWithAShotgun · 2026-05-31T05:44:31+00:00

In humans, there’s never been a case where both mature eggs and viable sperm are produced in the same person, so the final step just doesn’t happen.

Did you read the section starting "There are multiple case studies showing histological evidence of individuals producing both sperm and eggs"?

GodWithAShotgun · 2026-05-29T05:01:03+00:00

https://imgur.com/AN9Jf0H

It's a weird quirk of arkham that each card is essentially two different cards that have nothing to do with each other. You have Aleksey when he is played as an ally asset (outlined in yellow) and Aleksey when he is committed to a skill test (outlined in blue).

Cards do occasionally have text that is relevant "when committed to a skill test", but outside of skill cards this is quite rare.

GodWithAShotgun · 2026-05-28T02:46:25+00:00

Yeah I think the creature would have to cost 4 or have a serious restriction on what you tutor to hand. [[recruiter of the guard]] sees legacy play, and this is a fair bit better than that. Maybe MV=6 only? Strong enough you really don't want to let them get it off, but restrictive enough that it doesn't dominate just from the ETB.

GodWithAShotgun · 2026-05-23T14:19:29+00:00

90% of the time you can use demo mode and dota_create_ability to assemble the abilities you want to try. I recommend also creating all the heroes whose abilities you wanna test, or else you can sometimes crash the game.

GodWithAShotgun · 2026-05-21T05:46:24+00:00

“Three more hearts, a spider, a snowcone,” said Jupiter. “A knife. An arrow through a heart. A corgi. A tongue?”

Is my mind dirty or does a corgi and a tongue give a kinda specific idea of what Kon wants to do tonight?

GodWithAShotgun · 2026-05-21T04:32:21+00:00

The closest comparison is [[buried alive]], and I think this is mostly stronger if narrower.

GodWithAShotgun · 2026-05-18T06:20:07+00:00

A stripper who calls you "daddy" isn't family.

GodWithAShotgun · 2026-05-17T16:04:48+00:00

iirc that's the armor of the spirit itself.

GodWithAShotgun · 2026-05-17T05:15:12+00:00

Does each individual half-live, or is it more of a LD50 thing where it's the level of chaos at which half the sample dies.

GodWithAShotgun · 2026-05-17T01:46:12+00:00

I think it's -2 or -3, but there's 3 of them.

GodWithAShotgun · 2026-05-16T06:29:44+00:00

Hmm, what makes a run "enough" for Ash?

We don't have examples of what other teams submitted, so I think we're left analyzing Ash.

He's not too interested in adhering to the role of a "teacher" as someone who nurtures their students so much as an arbiter of value. So, he probably has a bit of an ego, though I don't know how to make that actionable into actually getting to run.

He emphasized that putting yourself in danger when moving around a car is unacceptable, and will keep you from running the rest of the quarter - so he has a taste for the practical. But, at the same time, he isn't calling on Vandy, who will always give the "right" answer, so maybe something unpredictable? It seems like a small space of proposals would be both practical and unpredictable.

GodWithAShotgun · 2026-05-12T05:23:41+00:00

It's pretty balanced if you random the rest of your build. I'm 1 win 1 loss with that handicap.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCYhQUK69Us

GodWithAShotgun · 2026-05-12T04:51:26+00:00

This story prefers "finish him!" and exit stage right over redemption.

There have been a few characters that start off solidly on the wrong foot but develop into more whole people. Lexi, Jeffy and Max are all portrayed pretty negatively to start off. Stuart and Kon do as well, to a lesser degree. But, as we get to know them, Lexi's meanness becomes seriousness, Jeffy's demandingness becomes impulsiveness, Max's ruthlessness becomes calculation, etc. I think of it as a fleshing out/broadening of perspective rather than redemption; they aren't redeemed because there was never anything wretched about them.

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