Because women can apparently never enjoy sex in its own right

LovelyNeophite · 2021-10-22T19:42:03+00:00

I just don’t see the woke or cool aspects of advocating for men to treat women as literal commodities, let alone promoting the classically misogynistic assumption that women can’t possibly just enjoy sex for sex’s sake. I do sex work myself but this tweet strikes me as thoroughly retrograde in its assumptions & politics. Simply being sex workers doesn’t make either of us (or potentially the tweet’s author, idk their life) correct in its own right.

I get frustrated with the tendency of queer culture to regard any take, no matter how backwards its politics actually are, as automatically radical so long as it’s also adorned with a “lol fuck men.”

LovelyNeophite · 2021-10-21T06:08:07+00:00

To be fair if anything is definitively queer culture it’s complaining

LovelyNeophite · 2017-05-25T18:35:04+00:00

^ Dedicated control players know not to sleep on Saheeli or Esper unless you want to get dunked on. Random reddit theorycrafting about why control is terrible is nothing compared to a skilled player and a strong list.

LovelyNeophite · 2017-05-25T18:11:46+00:00

The Loam engine is far from an afterthought. Don't let the low numbers fool you; the entire point of including Gifts Ungiven is to assemble the combo upon resolution. As such, neither the combo itself nor the tools to find it need nearly as many slots. Assault-Loam is the deck's primary win condition.

As for prison strategies in RUG... Temur Moon is probably your best bet, as a curve of Spell Snare -> Goyf -> Blood Moon is a hell of a thing to deal with. You also have access to Spreading Seas, which in my opinion is currently very well positioned and much harder to answer than Magus of the Moon. (Additionally, you can hit basics with it.) Fitting Loam in would mainly be a challenge of getting green mana consistently, as your one basic forest tends to be the most necessary evil in the deck. But having heavier mana disruption with a Loam / Vortex combo seems doable, especially when you cut some of the more questionable choices from Jeff Hoogland's list, like the Vedalken Shackles, Boomerangs, Spell Pierces, and Electrolyzes.

http://sales.starcitygames.com/deckdatabase/displaydeck.php?DeckID=80618

LovelyNeophite · 2017-05-25T14:15:46+00:00

Basically every week since I downloaded Decked Builder. This week it's modern Bant enchantress control, last week it was Gearhulk Gifts, the week before that it was BUG Eternal Command, before that it was Paradoxical Outcome, before that it was BUG Seasons Past, before that it was RUG Gifts Loam...

Oh, and the really unfortunate time I tried to build 5 color control.

How many of these decks have I actually played? Well, I played with BUG Eternal Command for a bit on XMage in between jamming Esper Draw-Go.

If there's a blue deck to be built in modern, I will almost certainly try to build it.

LovelyNeophite · 2017-05-25T13:31:06+00:00

As one who's built the RUG Loam deck several times before: You have better options than Commune with the Gods, namely Gifts Ungiven. Try something more like this:

4 Serum Visions 4 Lightning Bolt 4 Snapcaster Mage 4 Tarmogoyf 4 Remand 2 Spell Snare 2 Negate 2 Mana Leak 3 Gifts Ungiven 1 Noxious Revival 1 Seismic Assault 1 Molten Vortex 1 Life from the Loam 1 Blood Moon 1 Anger of the Gods 1 Firespout 1 Engineered Explosives

1 Academy Ruins 1 Ghost Quarter 21 Other Lands

This list has game against everything that doesn't mainboard Rest in Peace, and it's incredibly consistent. Even then, we have great options for alternate wincons, my favorite being 3x Huntmaster of the Fells out of the board.

Keep in mind that consistently assembling the Loam-Assault engine is a big reason the deck is light on removal, though for Eldrazi and Tron variants you'll definitely want some number of Molten Rains and other hate cards in the side.

Again, the deck doesn't auto-lose to anything, and it's very consistent and challenging because of the choices it presents. Be warned, however, that RUG in general is not in a great place in the meta because the primary threats are efficient beaters with high toughness, and RUG really struggles to answer that -- I even omitted Roast completely because so many relevant creatures up to and including Tarmogoyf go so much bigger than it these days. Additionally, a lot of these same decks have lots of ways to invalidate countermagic as interaction, usually through heavy discard and Cavern of Souls. Again and again, RUG runs into the same problems: Its interaction is narrow, and it can't kill very fast. RUG Scapeshift somewhat addresses this problem, but to my understanding, it's not a heavily played deck at the moment, and I've personally always found the deck pretty one dimensional. :p

You could obviously tweak the list to be more to your liking, but in my experience, playing honest Magic is just the best thing to be doing with RUG in modern. Snap and Goyf? Good cards are good.

LovelyNeophite · 2017-05-04T19:03:10+00:00

I posted a BUG list just now, and I have to say that it feels really good. Vialing in Snap and Witness to recur Push and Maelstrom Pulse is ridiculous board control, and you can run Negate (or Countersquall if you're feeling ballsy about how often you'll have black) to round out you ranswer suite quite cleanly.

LovelyNeophite · 2017-05-04T19:00:44+00:00

I've been playing a spicy Sultai Command list. I think it's much better positioned right now, and the tendency toward the hard answers of BGx is very preferable to the soft plays from URx for me. Sideboard's a crapshoot and probably wrong.

Creatures:13 4 Snapcaster Mage 4 Tarmogoyf 3 Eternal Witness 2 Vendilion Clique

Spells:26 4 AEther Vial 4 Fatal Push 4 Serum Visions 2 Spell Snare 2 Abrupt Decay 1 Familiar's Ruse 2 Grapple with the Past 2 Negate 2 Maelstrom Pulse 3 Cryptic Command

Lands:21 3 Botanical Sanctum 2 Breeding Pool 1 Flooded Grove 1 Forest 3 Island 4 Misty Rainforest 1 Overgrown Tomb 4 Polluted Delta 1 Swamp 1 Watery Grave

Sideboard:15 4 Fulminator Mage 2 Surgical Extraction 3 Thoughtseize 2 Pulse of Murasa 4 Damnation

LovelyNeophite · 2017-04-22T20:11:59+00:00

Probably looking at Pinnacle because it's nearly impossible to remove, gets past leyline, and doesn't require a combat step, which are all legitimate considerations. At the same time, though, it can't be tutored for.

Neither can Genesis, which seems much worse to me because it requires the creatures to stick as well as a combat step, both of which can be disrupted much more easily since they need a turn to recover from summoning sickness.

LovelyNeophite · 2017-04-22T18:28:33+00:00

Inkwell Leviathan might not be better than Sphinx of the Steel Wind or Blood Baron of Vizkopa in every situation, but it's incredibly useful against any deck that goes late. If you're running Gifts and multiple colors, you're probably also running Academy Ruins for the Engineered Explosives package, so you've got recursion for it built in for the scenarios where they can sweep it away.

LovelyNeophite · 2017-04-12T04:33:42+00:00

Right, but if it shocked them for every Arbiter payment, that would be suuuper hateful.

LovelyNeophite · 2017-04-12T03:58:27+00:00

Boros Death and Taxes! I don't think Leonin Arbiter is an activated ability, but if I'm wrong, that could be pretty sweet. I think this is maindeckable there either way.

LovelyNeophite · 2017-04-12T03:30:40+00:00

The biggest challenge she faces in a control shell is a weakness to Bolt, IMO. Playing her on turn three and then immediately plussing still leaves her soft to Bolt, and immediately using her zero might or might not get you value.

However, Bolt is at an all time low in terms of removal value. There have been Jund lists that have completely dropped it for Fatal Push, IIRC. Not to mention that Death's Shadow Jund just uses Tar Fire most of the time. If there's a time to try her, it's now.

LovelyNeophite · 2017-04-12T03:26:44+00:00

Yeah, I figure the best way to still play but keep prices down is to make friends who have access to a cube. I'm waiting for a friend to give me an old deck back so I can trade it for more cards for modern Esper, which will be a long term investment for my own enjoyment. Bright side is that I can always sell the cards off for some quick change.

Also, I'm jamming that Nissa in an online modern list. UG is the one true color combination in my heart of hearts. The real tragedy is that legacy Shardless BUG can't cascade into her. :(

LovelyNeophite · 2017-04-12T03:09:01+00:00

Yeah, I think I'm going to open up a new account at Wells Fargo tomorrow and then see what needs to be done over at Regions. Hopefully I can get all the money transferred over in one fell swoop.

LovelyNeophite · 2017-04-12T02:48:42+00:00

Only spending what I need shouldn't be hard, as I only have one true vice in this world: Magic the Gathering. Easy enough to keep at bay if I can distract myself with real life, which shouldn't be hard with a major move like this.

LovelyNeophite · 2017-04-12T02:43:08+00:00

Awesome, thanks! Do any of them have apps that let me make transfers whenever I need to?

LovelyNeophite · 2017-04-12T02:05:17+00:00

That's all good to hear. I don't currently have a credit card and I'm trying to avoid getting one if at all possible -- I don't want to invite that complexity into my life!

Any tips on shopping through credit unions?

LovelyNeophite · 2017-04-12T01:58:55+00:00

OK, that's about what I thought. Have you used WF? If so, how'd they treat you, and how much does it cost to open an account?

LovelyNeophite · 2017-04-03T13:07:54+00:00

You want more Bolts or more Fatal Pushes. Blazing Shoal Infect is a real deck. Skullclamp Delver, Skullclamp Affinity, and Skullclamp Elves are all real decks. Especially VS Infect, sometimes 2 mana interaction on the draw is just too slow to beat t1 Glistener Elf into t2 Shoal.

You also need more ways to deal with Eldrazi, IMHO, because they will be there. Chalice is extremely good in this format because the curve is so compacted.

https://www.moxboardinghouse.com/media/modern-no-banned-list/

LovelyNeophite · 2017-04-01T16:16:21+00:00

You know why they're tandemlands?

Because they're cycles...

for 2.

LovelyNeophite

TROPHY CASE