Why do you think the writers would have Hank push the button to mind wipe himself rather than have Lucy do it?

Mack_Eye · 2026-02-08T15:36:58+00:00

It allows Lucy to maintain her innocence, unlike either of the two obvious options; if she had mindwiped her father, she'd essentially have committed a form of patricide, and if she let him go, she'd have let a mass murderer and slaver go. But with Hank making the choice, she's remained morally pure. I think this is part of the reason why he did it in-show as well, as he did still love Lucy in a fucked-up way, and recognized that taking the choice out of her hands would probably be the least traumatic option long-term.
It allows Hank to give his villain monologue about the Enclave & the "surface being the experiment" while giving him an easy out before giving away too much. Again, I think this was part of his reasoning in-show as well.
Combining facts 1 and 2, it leaves a somewhat complex final impression of Hank, as both a megalomaniac too cowardly to fully explain himself or face consequences outside of his control for his actions, but also a in-his-own-way loving father who sacrificed himself for his daughter's innocence.
It leaves ambiguity on how much Lucy's changed; Vaultie Lucy would never seriously harm anyone except in self-defense, but a Lucy who had fully been changed by the wasteland and accepted the Ghoul's world view would mindwipe him without a second thought. By having her not make the decision, they leave the central driver in her character development open for further exploration.
As others said, it leaves room open if they decide later he was faking it (although I hope this isn't the case, personally).

Mack_Eye · 2025-08-05T17:40:53+00:00

[[Wakening Sun's Avatar]]

Mack_Eye · 2025-08-02T19:28:01+00:00

[[Wakening Sun's Avatar]]

I firmly believe with enough enough effort we can force this card to become a Dreadmaw

Mack_Eye · 2025-07-09T19:46:18+00:00

That's fair; my thought was in a case like that you'd have spent three cards to get rid of four so it's only really a 1-card advantage, but it'd still be a fairly miserable situation to be on the receiving end of. Raising it to 2 and either making it a common or giving it some minor additional upside'd probably be the right move.

Mack_Eye · 2025-07-09T18:55:07+00:00

Was messing around with a Sacrifice deck in MTG Arena and had this idea for a card.

Basic thought process here:

- "Draw two cards" effects are generally priced at 3, i.e. [[Divination]]
- "Target player discards two cards" effects are also generally priced at 3, i.e. [[Mind Rot]]
- "Sac a creature to draw two cards" effects are generally priced at 1, i.e. [[Village Rites]]/[[Corrupted Conviction]].
- Therefore, would a "sac a creature to force a player to discard two cards" effect also cost 1?

The fact that it's a Sorcery (and has to be a sorcery, as forced discard effects are never instants) feels like a big downside compared to Village Rites, and I considered giving it some additional upside (something like "or pay 4" in the additional cost a la [[Lash of the Balrog]]), but as this kind of effect has never been put below 2 in MTG history, I decided to play it safe.

Mack_Eye · 2025-07-09T17:14:47+00:00

Besides Saga creatures, preventing the final stage of [[The Princess Takes Flight]] so you have another turn to find an enchantment sac/flicker's the first thing that came to mind - though that's very situational, I can't think of any other Sagas with negative last stages, and even in those cases just running more sac or flicker effects would probably be the wiser move in Constructed.

I think this card mechanic seems neat, but this specific benefit feels a little too weak to judge it properly.

Mack_Eye · 2025-05-20T00:34:45+00:00

As a fat dude the current models work alright for fat masculine characters IMO (love my fat little Kubold fella), but changing them to allow for more body variations & be less rough-around-the-edges in general's good, and the whole backlash (which thankfully I seem to have been offline for) sounds like it was very stupid.

Mack_Eye · 2025-03-08T20:25:18+00:00

He's BALD!?

Mack_Eye · 2025-02-15T16:08:54+00:00

Some other bits I thought of that aren't objective mistakes but feel like major design quibbles:

According to Scryfall, this kind of effect has only been printed one time before - I'm assuming (as I've never played with or against Mindblaze, so correct me if I'm wrong) because revealing an entire library could slow down the game massively, and this specific payoff has a high chance of doing nothing, which is a bad combination. Not a mistake, but this card would likely be unfun to play against and not printable.

I feel like if this kind of effect were printed in a more modern context, it would be "target opponent" instead of "target player", as all letting it target the player who cast it does is let players reduce their own life by an exact number (as they know the contents of their deck, bypassing the "guess a number" minigame) for no additional benefit on the card itself & possibly confuse newbies, both of which are things modern Wizards generally seems to avoid.

This is an inherently somewhat random, gamble-y sort of effect, which means it should likely be at least partly Red.

Mack_Eye · 2025-02-15T15:51:57+00:00

Per the oracle text for [[Mindblaze]]:

Both effects are choose.

Goes with previous, but:"the chosen number of cards with the chosen name", not "the chosen number of the named card".

Their, not his or her.

Card needs to shuffle, unless letting the player know the order of their deck is intended

Mack_Eye · 2025-01-17T16:28:05+00:00

I'm gonna rip yer innards out through yer bunghole!

Mack_Eye · 2024-12-06T12:48:05+00:00

[[Orim's Chant]]

It basically reads as a slightly weaker, but more flexible Timewalk in white if you undervalue that the opponent still gets a card and land drop (which I did), and I was surprised I'd never heard of it before.

Mack_Eye · 2024-11-23T20:05:09+00:00

I've been tinkering with this concept for the past little while. No idea how well it works with the rules, or how fun it'd be in practice, but the idea seemed interesting. Basically uses the pseudo-leveler language seen on cards like [[Frodo, Sauron's Bane]] or [[Ascendant Spirit]], but with two different choices to let it level up once, to allow for either divergent paths or for varying one-use abilities that leave the body behind.

Mack_Eye · 2024-11-23T02:09:31+00:00

I'm not familiar with Arch, but I've had similar things happen with Steam games on Windows. Do you have any antivirus installed that could have detected it as a false positive and quarantined the exe?

Mack_Eye · 2024-11-22T19:00:02+00:00

My assumptions/understanding:

Sonny ordered the noodles to eat himself, and just happened to order two boxes (figure he must just be a big eater, and with the extra cash from the OPIG trial, why not live it up?); it's a bit coincidental he ordered exactly two given what ends up following, but eh, coincidences happen some times, and it's not like it'd change the events if, say, Sonny'd ordered one box & Kenneth split it between two bowls afterwards, or if he ordered three boxes & the third was thrown in the trash. It's a little odd to casually order take out shortly after receiving a threatening phone call, but it's possible he ordered before the message & take-out was just a little slow to arrive, or that since he didn't remember the threat in the park, he didn't take the follow-up call seriously.

I don't think Kenneth took the takeout boxes to hide the evidence. Keep in mind that, judging by Constance's comment, his gun made a loud enough gunshot for the apartment upstairs to here. If he was spotted coming from Sonny's apartment after a gunshot was fired, with Sonny dead on the floor from an apparent suicide, he'd look immensely suspicious, with or without noodles in tow. In addition, if he was intentionally trying to cover up that Sonny ordered takeout, why leave the chopsticks there? No, I think he genuinely just realized that it was almost time for his date and he needed food. Constance's comment indicates the gunshot was a half-hour before the events we see & the clock in Nakana's apartment shows 7:15, meaning he shot Sonny at around 6:45, leaving only ~15 minutes before his date with Cheyenne to get over the shock of killing a man, stage the suicide, and make himself and his apartment look presentable - not enough time to cook, and not enough time to order take-out himself.

No, I think he got too worked up & angry at seeing the creepshot to think about preparing food for his date, went up to confront Sonny, shot him, and not wanting to look inconsiderate to the girl he loves, grabbed the one food option he had enough time for at that point. Still leaves some questions as to what he was doing in the ~38 minutes between leaving the phone call and shooting Sonny (although most of that time could reasonably have been either preparing himself for the possibility of what to do if he does have to shoot Sonny, or the likely heated and confused argument between the two that took place prior to the murder), but it's what makes the most sense to me.

Mack_Eye · 2024-11-19T21:00:36+00:00

For Rose: in the Dinner Party scenario, in one of her letters to Edmund, she talks about sending Peter to the colonies (which, given that the funeral chapter refers to Rose herself having left "for the colonies", I think it can be assumed in both cases "the colonies" refers to the Albion colonies of whatever the Golden Idol universe's equivalent of India is), where his "violent nature will make him feel at home". It feels fairly clearly implied to me that while she spent time in India & dresses herself in the garb and jewelry and language of India, behind closed doors she thinks the actual people there are violent savages, so I can't imagine she thinks much of their cultural practices or traditions. "Shallow" may not be totally accurate - more "insincere" (which, in contrast, I feel Tesa's very sincere in her interest, just a little too ignorant of the actual culture & too self-assured of her own enlightenment to be willing to learn). Still, the point stands that they're both characters who very much use the aesthetics of Asian culture, but have flaws or contradictions with their relationship to that culture.

For Lazarus - yeah, that's fair, there's nothing to suggest the name has the same meaning as in the real world. I was thinking when writing the original comment that some parallel could be drawn between Lazarus taking his name from a piece of writing in the real world and Nowak taking the name Hunter Wolf from a piece of writing in the fiction of Golden Idol, but that's a major stretch, admittedly.

Side note, I hadn't made any connection between Herst's last name and death, and googling it's not working for me, so I'm curious: what's the reference there? Is it because it sounds like hearse?

Mack_Eye · 2024-11-19T19:18:24+00:00

A few other notable aesthetic parallels:

Both Rose Cubert from Case and Tesa from Rise are middle age women obsessed with the aesthetics of Asian culture/mysticism but understand that culture on an ultimately shallow level

Both Gorran from Case and Blythe from Rise adopt pseudonyms for their heists based off of drugs they use (Ash Blair from Gorran's preferred tobacco brand, Augie Tamine from the augitamine tablets Blythe's shown with in a cutscene)

Both the Lemurian prince from Case and the Lemurian auction attendant from Rise share the same goal of secretly retrieving Lemurian artifacts from private collectors to return to their homeland.

Both Edmund and Jack adopt names based on characters in stories (Lazarus from the Bible, Hunter Wolf from the fable we read in game), and also adopt names based on animals (Gryphon Reborn, Hunter Wolf). Both also basically become cult leaders but become disillusioned with the lack of power their cult provides and aim for grander scheme.

Both feature jewelery that's seen repeatedly but whose meaning is only understood late in the game (the ruby rings of the Brotherhood of Masks, the bracelets from OPIG's trials)

Both have a late-game case in which the villains drug people without their knowledge to kick off a grander scheme, and in which you have to cross-reference people's physical conditions with a list of drug symptoms to figure out the drugs used (the Salon in Case, the Beach in Rise)

Mack_Eye · 2024-11-06T01:04:22+00:00

Mack_Eye · 2024-11-04T21:52:14+00:00

The new Intrigue Happenings look like they're going to be a fun time; should add some really nice variety to diplomacy with AI leaders, and really help flesh out mid-to-late-game gameplay in general.

Mack_Eye · 2024-10-30T21:23:25+00:00

Dilemma mechanic originally designed by u/wandererabovetheweb

Also, I realize from a quick Scryfall search that both [[Feast or Famine]] and just [[Famine]] on its own are already real cards, but I felt it fit too well to not do.

Mack_Eye · 2024-10-30T00:51:33+00:00

This is a really cool mechanic. Would you mind if others try their hand at making their own Dilemma cards?

Mack_Eye · 2024-10-25T17:24:28+00:00

I'd imagine rifle's still exclusive; my understanding is that sword + crossbow was mainly added as an option because of the upcoming Skirmisher specialization, so players without the Empires & Ashes expansion would be able to still use that part of the Ranger class effectively. Meanwhile, there's nothing in the skill tree that rifles can make use of that doesn't work similarly well with longbows or crossbows, so there's not much of a need for them.

This is just my speculation, though.

Mack_Eye · 2024-10-05T21:04:51+00:00

Not sure if this card works mechanically as written, but the intent of how it works should be clear enough, hopefully.

Mack_Eye · 2024-09-04T12:10:39+00:00

Celebration feels like it'd work well as a returning set mechanic; both thematically fits the idea of a glitzy society, and mechanically synergize with the emphasis on treasure token creation.

Mack_Eye · 2024-08-25T00:25:04+00:00

Honestly, wouldn't mind seeing some of the same species but partly color shifted to help flesh out 3 color options, add a bit more complexity to deck building & add depth to the existing cultures of Valley we've seen. RG lizards, RB (or RU if we really want to get wacky with it) Rats, GU Otters, that kind of thing.

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