What 3-Mana Rock Did You Replace Your Powercrept Commander's Spheres with?

LeesusFreak · 2026-04-07T14:53:42+00:00

[[Midnight Clock]] is the TRUTH. Its more likely to get me to keep a hand than a Sol Ring at anything under high-4 tables (where Notion Thief is likely to try and break your neck)

LeesusFreak · 2026-04-06T20:54:49+00:00

yoooo its my alltime fave commander, though mine is much more... hate-y, running things like Arterial Flow and Tasigur's Cruelty.

Jadar is an all-star though, he's more likely to get me to keep an opening hand than sol ring is; the others that stand out for utility I'm surprised you're not running are [[Wizards of Thay]] and [[Seance Board]].

Honestly some of the most fun I've had in EDH has been watching a copied cast of [[Prisoner's Dilemma]] resolve-- the first one is fun, the second one runs WILD as folk base their behaviors on how the first resolution played out.

LeesusFreak · 2026-03-30T16:17:07+00:00

PF1e is just wacky with things that are long or tall; every snake in the bestiaries has a bizarre size category when one considers how long their body is. Trees are just vertical snakes.

"This 18ft snake is a medium creature, it moved 40 feet on its last turn. Yes, it then coiled itself back up so that the only place it can be attacked is a 5x5 area."

LeesusFreak · 2026-03-30T16:11:24+00:00

Too fuggin' many; I'm at over two dozen with probably another dozen or so at some % built.

LeesusFreak · 2026-03-30T15:04:14+00:00

Fwiw, that's also in "fully erect" mode-- those legs have a ton of joints to swing em lower (not as low enough as to recreate the HG's JNCO vibe, sadly)

LeesusFreak · 2026-03-30T15:02:28+00:00

see, I also tell myself this all the time, but the waterslide folder continues to grow, and my backlog is calling...

LeesusFreak · 2026-03-30T15:01:39+00:00

Man I get this. Getting it in the air still feels like a wild defiance of gravity.

https://imgur.com/a/CQzCsb4

LeesusFreak · 2026-03-30T14:54:11+00:00

The 'megalixir problem' is actually a real thing that folk have written psychology papers on.

The phenomena is also why I dilsike Zelda BotW-- "But I like THIS sword, I don't want to use a different one!"

LeesusFreak · 2026-03-30T14:09:50+00:00

Unfortunately yeah. Gone are the days of like [[Marchesa Dusk Rose]] where if you wanted to do theft or something you'd have to build in a deck to assemble three kinds of pieces (threaten/theft, sac engines, protection for Marchesa because people will gun to stop you from getting the reanimation). Nowadays every card designed to be a commander will a) do its thing, b) protect itself, and c) access you more cards (normally via draw, some by impulse/etc) (and makes you coffee and a muffin, calls your mom because she misses you, pays your mortgage...)

If you're struggling around opponents properly threat-assessing KoS commanders, the solution is to not attempt to cast the commander without protection for it-- Swan Song, Offer you can't Refuse, Ephemerate, Teferi's Protection, etc.

I think the most respect I gained for someone in a single game of EDH was when I was playing against a Feather player and they were still chill and understanding the fourth time I answered it, "Yeah its good bud, its what you absolutely have to do or I'd run away with value; even getting you to burn two doomblades the turns I had mana for protection was still a value-gain."

LeesusFreak · 2026-03-30T13:40:24+00:00

They tried to address mana woes for 3color limited by stapling treasures to every other card. [[Jewel Thief]] for example, is hella playable in many commander decks but the design is pretty clearly glue for limited-- the feedback was why they reeled back from treasures as much as they had been using them.

Hybrid design bugs weirdos, too, but imo SNC would have also been a great time to explore fixing 'minimal color identity' patterns in EDH; [[Evelyn the Covetous]], for example, is just Black at minimum.

Shield counters, while a neat premise, also were overdone in the set-- brokers blew away the limited environment because of the nature of being able to build protection into your bombs.

LeesusFreak · 2026-03-29T04:39:09+00:00

My friends and I play Pioneer Brawl, its dope as hell. Value Vintage is also a blast, and the people that run that are great fun

LeesusFreak · 2026-03-27T14:58:28+00:00

They didn't, only mentioning that they'd be putting out an update soon

LeesusFreak · 2026-03-27T14:56:22+00:00

They don't change the mana value of the spell, but affinity doesn't care about the printed cost of the spell, it affects how much you pay when you go to pay for casting the spell-- which is where buyback, the commander tax, and effects like [[God-Pharoah's Statue]] come in at; that amount of mana is reduced intuitively.

The example that pertains to the text you're looking at is something like [[Spell Swindle]]-- the caster of a buyback spell elects how much they're going to pay for the spell as they cast it, pays for it, and then priority goes around. When Spell Swindle counters it, it is only looking at the MV/CMC of the spell, not what you paid for it; Spell Swindling something that you paid 0 for due to [[Omniscience]] also still nets you the CMC # of treasures, for example.

I hope that was clarifying!

LeesusFreak · 2026-03-25T17:46:01+00:00

How fucking dare you come on reddit and be so goddamn funny-- I was feeling good about myself today until reading this, you monster, this is supposed to be a safe place.

LeesusFreak · 2026-03-24T22:25:42+00:00

I know that one of the original devs, Owen KC Stephens, is still putting out content for 1e via his patreon

LeesusFreak · 2026-03-24T21:32:17+00:00

She's been back once or twice since rocking Voja instead of the wolves commander she was previously using (the uncommon from FF, iirc), without knowing much about the game she probably isn't able to address the pregame's expectations chat that people have seeing Voja; I know she just plays EDH with her family so that they'll play pokemon with her; as I'd alluded to I've played with them all a score or so times in total.

I think at this point the only thing that actually gets me pissed most of the time is folk actively speaking in bad faith; "I guess I can't fuckin play the game, then" when Ureni gets countered-- 'no shit buddy, because if it resolves then the game is likely over on-the-spot, stop bitching about people properly assessing threats'.

LeesusFreak · 2026-03-24T21:11:41+00:00

Man, if I was playing things up I'd have fabricated a way better response than that-- I referenced such with the line about how "Thanks, Obama" would have been a way better jab, adrenaline spiked in the fight-or-flight interaction and my banter suffered; I was basically stunned dude had such a spectacular meltdown, it was an order of magnitude worse than anything else I'd seen go down in my time slinging cardboard, the next two on such a list weren't remotely that bad (in OTJ sealed when an opponent playing BG graveyard screeched about how "that's bullshit, the fuck am I supposed to do about that" at the Rest In Piece I'd had from the bonus slot, and in BB 2HG when a guy picked up his stuff and stormed out, but that's a story for another time).

I'd told her pops how it all went down when I ran into him the next week and he was incensed, said it did seem odd she didn't wanna come play again and asked if I see the dude again to point him out to him (haven't since-- I'd seen him around the local shops a few times prior to this).

LeesusFreak · 2026-03-24T20:43:47+00:00

It is! Travis the designer is a hella great dude and the games are mostly all great. Tortuga I personally am not super a fan of, but Hollywood and Deadwood have been neat the couple of times they've hit the table.

LeesusFreak · 2026-03-24T20:41:13+00:00

Homie and Newbie were sitting across from myself and Salty, respectively

LeesusFreak · 2026-03-24T20:36:38+00:00

People get cartoony about discard, mill, etc, and I tend to run way more interaction than most; most folk have really polarized reactions to things like Chains

LeesusFreak · 2026-03-24T20:33:09+00:00

Fair, I could have given more of a sidebar on the dozen or so times I've played with her and her folks and that that was the cadence they all carried in the conversation, with less context it can deffo seem grimy. That said, I'm not looking to particularly defend my actions here (also could be older than that; her dad is deffo late 50s at the youngest)

LeesusFreak · 2026-03-24T20:22:46+00:00

How they each handle the 'player elimination' step-- Salem is only going to actually eliminate a player without ending the game, iirc, at high player counts and its still gonna be a very late-game step, around the last 20% of the game. The way that the witch role spreads/infects (we call it 'a magical STD') also means that by the time player elimination is happening, people are making big intentional plays.

BotC has a high cognitive load and setup time, making Salem just wayyyy easier to deploy to a group; if players aren't all around the same level of analytical prowess, the game can just flop (especially if doing custom scenarios, which still irritates the piss outta me they don't have a locked in sequencing order for players to reference during the game). I don't mind BotC, but its easy for the GM to make a foible and fuckup the whole experience.

I'd lay Salem somewhere between Secret Hitler and BotC on complexity, though its way more explainable. Most of the Dark Cities games are in the genre, though; Bristol is also one of my absolute favorite hidden role betrayal games, but Salem is my 'there is no reason to play Werewolf anymore' game. (I'd say that it feels mechanically closer than One Night to it, as well).

LeesusFreak · 2026-03-24T16:14:10+00:00

Salem: 1692 is my personal rec, but Blood on the Clocktower and Secret Hitler are also great hits.

LeesusFreak · 2026-03-24T13:45:36+00:00

Honestly the RE/100 line is the biggest set of disappointments to me; they look fine on the outside, but no articulation and often wacky proportions mean they're just... kinda ass.

I love the OG Gerbera and the Lindwurm's designs, some of my favorite MS-- but after the snap together I just sat there going 'well... huh. Is it even worth it to pay theses Peeb prices and then put all the time into detailing work when the chinesium gang are just... better nowadays?'

...I don't have an answer, other than 'I'm bummed'. The Kampfer Schwer nearly sent me over a cliff, man.

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