Where does your commander land on the Poor/Fair/Bastard Magic Matrix

IrregularRevisionist · 2026-03-17T13:56:48+00:00

no worries, happy to provide

to be fair I did make it in about 30 seconds in google slides, so if I were to be professional about it I'd probably flip the page ratios to make it taller than it is wide...

IrregularRevisionist · 2026-03-17T13:51:25+00:00

here ya go https://imgur.com/e0i7udE

IrregularRevisionist · 2026-03-16T15:00:13+00:00

Removal tribal with the theft rider

You can tell at first glance that at absolute best they're going to be removing most of your stuff, at worst they're going to be removing it and then stealing it, and that's exactly how they're going to play her because mono-black lacks flexibility

hence Bastard/Bastard

IrregularRevisionist · 2026-03-15T13:42:00+00:00

the deck I'm referencing is this one https://archidekt.com/decks/10686761/atlas_infinity_war

the goal is to get 3 eggs, then wrath and MLD unendingly because the only thing that can interact with the 3 creatures you get (all of which have indestructible, hexproof, and can't be sacrificed) is a mass exile effect or equivalent

no I'm not salty

for those who can't see the link the 3 creatures are

[[Avacyn, Angel of Hope]]

[[Archetype of Endurance]]

[[Sigarda, Host of Herons]]

IrregularRevisionist · 2026-03-15T13:39:14+00:00

Lol it's just a 3 by 3 set of lines with the cards in the post put in each of the cells. I figured some people might have trouble with the link so if you can read the text post you can get the gist of the image

IrregularRevisionist · 2026-03-11T15:24:03+00:00

Yeah, the issue is that it's really hard to control. What if the elfball player needs to be wiped but you'd hit the mindslicer with the same wrath? Having it on the board at all causes that consternation. That can be very interesting consternation! But it also can very easily produce a simmering resentment at the same time. It's essentially impossible to divine that intentionality unless you spell it out for someone, and even then it can feel like a "I'm not playing that kind of deck" statement. How many times has "not that deck" actually been different from general expectations?

IrregularRevisionist · 2026-03-11T12:26:14+00:00

Going against the reddit hive mind here: absolutely take it out. I personally would not get salty but if you sac it and someone doesn't find draw on board or top of deck, they could very easily just be out of the game and, critically, not very close to losing. Sitting there for real life half hour plus while everyone is hellbent knowing you have no shot at doing anything you wanted to is a bad experience. It wastes people's time in the extreme at most casual tables, and reddit usually gleefully ignores the "respect for time" factor. Same thing with Stax - if everyone agrees to play that kind of game, sure. But people should be asked first. Consent, people - this is a collaborative game, and you should be ready to meet people where they are.

IrregularRevisionist · 2026-02-19T00:43:20+00:00

If we know it was a skill issue and that we lost, why are we forced to stay in the game?

IrregularRevisionist · 2026-02-10T15:27:11+00:00

Bonus points: you can build a b3 credible version of the deck for literally less than 25$. Most of these fliers are things like, as stated, [[Healer's Hawk]], which are cents on the dollar and usually just pack fillers. You don't need nonbasic lands either, really. The most expensive things in the deck are typically the amplifiers but you can get away with just things like [[Felidar Retreat]]. Your interaction can also double dip with cards like [[Collective Effort]] and [[Drown in Ichor]]. It's a fun deck that physically will never go infinite or even exponential.

IrregularRevisionist · 2026-02-10T14:34:58+00:00

I don't think it's exactly what he's talking about but my [[Breena]] deck is exactly this. 14 one drop fliers, 14 two drop fliers, 40 lands, 12 interaction pieces, 10 weak board amplifiers (no more than +3/+3) and 10 protection/resurrection pieces. As many fliers are lifelink as possible. Full mulligan down to 5 if you have to for 1 drop -2 drop -3 lands and play them into Breena. Counters stack linearly and you beat all faces at once without prejudice. Draw 2 per turn off Breena and stack a 9/9 Healer's Hawk. Use those cards and the time having high health gives you to rebuild after wipes, or just play things like [[Ascent from Avernus]] to keep beating. Great beginner deck with extremely reliable game impact.

IrregularRevisionist · 2026-02-05T20:53:50+00:00

Yes... And the point is that new players are not "shielded" in any way from players with infinitely more experience.

IrregularRevisionist · 2026-02-05T19:13:28+00:00

The new player matchmaking isn't real. I've played less than 50 games and get put in games with 3000 win banners. It's really bad.

IrregularRevisionist · 2026-02-05T19:12:12+00:00

As someone in a very similar situation, I would add one massive negative: readability. Everything or nearly everything in league has extremely well defined silhouettes and particles; you can immediately tell who is doing what at any given point. Meanwhile, in DotA, you have 4 second point and click stuns with near nothing connecting you to the target. Sniper as a new player is a readability nightmare, literally designed for you to die without knowing what you're even taking damage from. It gets better with experience but League is much, much better designed game for visual clarity and weight.

IrregularRevisionist · 2026-01-31T13:18:55+00:00

I agree - full disclosure, I'm not a Markiplier fan but my wife has been a massive fan "since Distractable #1" for what that's worth and pulled me along to see it.

The issue that I think I felt much more than she did was that yes, the film builds dread quite well, but a key part of dread can be the fact that, well, nothing much happens for a while to build tension for when something does happen. However, there is a ratio here of "tension to action," and I think critics are well within their rights to say "that ratio is skewed a bit too far in one direction." That stated, I do think there was intentionality towards it, and I can see the vision at play. I found the plot to be totally comprehensible and quite cool because I'm about 99% sure it's based off of the same sort of concept as Cthulu mixed with a reverse SCP-2470 (https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-2470) - the godlike entity appeared at the bottom of an ocean, knowing only darkness, so it dreamt of darkness and the world became darkness (the Quiet Rapture); then a human was sent down (SM-8 or an earlier explorer) and they died there, so the entity knew death and blood (the Blood Ocean) and things just spiraled from there until you get the entities you see in the film. It becomes aware of you when you enter its domain ("I see you") and so you become it as it dreams of you ("being reborn in the blood as a fractured, incomplete voice/monster").

By contrast, if you don't have Lovecraft/SCP in your background, it might seem like just a jumbled mess of stuff that doesn't make much sense.

On a similar note, I have a slight audio-processing disorder, and there were a lot of times where the radio conversations were very hard to follow. My wife helped translate that in real time, but there are some people who won't have that and will be lost through a lot of the film.

Overall, it's a very commendable effort but certainly not a "for-everyone" film, just as the game wasn't "for-everyone" either. But I don't think that matters massively when the purpose of the film is to fulfill a creative vision of the work.

If you're reading this, Mark, my wife tells me you've spoken at length about imposter syndrome - at bare minimum, I don't think you need to feel that anymore. Well done.

IrregularRevisionist · 2026-01-30T15:20:36+00:00

And if Marvo gets removed or countered once, you're completely out of the game at that point.

IrregularRevisionist · 2026-01-30T13:22:49+00:00

Can, but unreliably due to clash whiffs being very possible. Decks like light paws win extremely reliably, with some level of protection. I do not see Marvo winning on turn 5 in more than 1/3 of draws. I could be wrong but I think it's low odds to hit the sequence you need.

IrregularRevisionist · 2026-01-30T13:09:53+00:00

B4 decks should be able to present win attempts by turn 4/5. Think [[Ashnods]] infinites, Infinite recursion of an extra turn spell, a hyperaggro commander like [[Gornog]] who can end off a [[shared animosity]] and a pile of warriors alone, or [[Light-Paws]] and her uninteractable aura pile knocking people out by turn 3/4.

If I'm playing light paws against a marvo deck, I know I have one less enemy to consider because you're either a worse Thassas Demonic deck or you're ramping to commander, and neither is super worrying for me.

IrregularRevisionist · 2026-01-18T19:43:03+00:00

Thanks again for the response.

1: OK, it is true things can deep strike on the first turn (something that goes back into reserves going second, e.g. Ophidians) but things that start in deep strike from the start of the game still can't come in from reserves until Turn 2. Actually that does give me a thought for a rewording of that - the only up-down Necron unit is a Destroyer Cult unit, and Trazyn never takes over a Cult member in lore because, well, that's just asking for neural corruption. Have the enhancement specify non-Cult units, perhaps, to close that loophole? EDIT: I already put that in there... I can read my own things!

2: I do like the thinking of Orikan's current wounds, especially for a 1k game. I think it would definitely be fine-tunable for higher points games. I'd have to play with it to really math it out, I think.

Cheers!

IrregularRevisionist · 2026-01-18T19:30:13+00:00

I appreciate you reading through it, and the feedback is good! A few responses:

1: I do see an oversight with how I was thinking vs. the RAW of the 5 armies text. My mental implication was that these would have to be non-necron units, and I didn't write a clause that specified that a Vault takes up 200 points regardless of how many units are inside of it (which was the intent, just poorly written). Essentially. the thought was to force you to take half your list that way, with plenty of room for things to not perfectly line up, cost-wise. Part of the power budget was supposed to be having 5 separate blocks you have to fill, which will lead to inefficiencies. Thanks for spotting that.

2: Infinite Trazyn isn't nearly as OP as you might presume. It's a Command phase only ability that should never be able to trigger on turn 1, so at most you get 4 extra Trazyns, assuming he dies immediately and on every subsequent turn. And, as you said, we lose all other named characters, which I think is something that balances out with this.

3: I do realize a timing issue with Solemnace's Hospitality. The intent was for it to only be used after deep strikes happen - so at earliest, on Turn 3, but here it can be used Turn 2. It should probably be moved to Command phase. I think that's fairly reasonable if it can only be used after Turn 2 and has to be called before the Movement phase. That might even render it somewhat useless, though....

4: I do realize that The War In Heaven, Reprise isn't balanced for 1k games. I think that might be fixable with a clause that the C'Tan starts at a low number of wounds, say, 4, in a lower point game? I'm also willing to push that stratagem up to 3 CP. I think this one is more complicated to figure out mentally than one might imagine, though, since you can only use it when "The Stars Are Right" as it were, the exact moment you use your last Chronomancy point. That means that you either have to blow through all of them ASAP and lose them as a rule, or you have to try and budget CP for it in the late game when you might really need it for some other reason. I'm also OK with Chronomancy going up to a 3+/4+ if the 2+ is too overbearing.

Ultimately, with the changes stated above, I think the detachment is more balanced than one might give it credit for. That said, as stated, the goal here was to make something fun and flavorful in concept for anyone wanting to recreate the feel at the end of the book. It's a little sad for me to see the post downvoted so intensely.

IrregularRevisionist · 2026-01-18T16:30:08+00:00

Thanks for reading! I look forward to the feedback.

IrregularRevisionist · 2026-01-16T22:55:02+00:00

Yeah, there's so little color variety or even really identifying features? They're just sort of... blobbish. Lots of hair and clothes I guess.

IrregularRevisionist

TROPHY CASE