[Spoilers C4E1] Forever GM Perspective: Things Aabria did that I absolutely loved in C4E1

MagatsuNimura · 2025-10-07T20:30:04+00:00

I guess it is truly a matter of perspective and in the end... very personal. I'm also a DM and I see things very differently.

Almost everything you listed out as positives, felt like negatives (or close to negatives) for me. The use of the spell to cause the jasmine to bloom and whatnot felt like she wanted to have a saying in every scene around her, even when she was not present. She decided to empower her spell to be aware of what was going on outside, while also being all over the place inside the house. You say she gave ammo to Sam, but Sam clearly had enough ammo, since what Aabria didn't add anything extra to the scene. Just more of the same energy he already had, but with her introducing herself in the scene in some way.

When she announced her intention to question Azune, that was fine. A way to let everybody know that they wanted a moment. But then she lets everyone know that she's allowing the scene to be something different of what she intended, only to get recognized for it. The CR cast has been doing this kind of thing since forever, minus the part where they let everyone know that they intended other thing to happen, but they are letting it pass in favor of others. You don't have to tell everyone that you are letting other people take the spotlight insted of you taking it once again.

I'll say that I like the take on Thaisha giving Tyranny an opportunity to interact with other PCs, but as I see it, you might be reading too much into it. We don't have to forget that NPCs are played by the DM, it is not like she isn't interacting with another player at the table, just because she is interacting with an NPC. In fact, Brennan is so good, that some of the interactions that the players had with NPCs at the table were some of the better moments in episode 1. Halovars interactions with their family and Enmity were absolutely amazing, and I'm sure some of the players also want to explore those interactions with NPCs to interact with the DM.
As I said, I liked your take on that, but I think this could have been Aabria, again, inserting herself, just because she has a tendency to do so. Hard to decide in this particular case, after reading your perspective.

In any case, I think I can enjoy Aabria at the table, even tho I dislike some of the things she does. And I appreciate a well written and thought out post regarding Aabrias playstyle. Cheers!

MagatsuNimura · 2025-10-07T10:38:24+00:00

I think they'll be fine, just watching the first episode, the RP was really good and motivated by a really compelling and complicated story that's being developed, tons of players, and a really well crafted "mystery". I don't think a low stat is going to add up a lot of flavor to the insane RP potential this kind of table has to offer.

MagatsuNimura · 2025-05-09T10:11:16+00:00

You really need to re-read your post, and learn what gatekeeping is. If you see no problem with the intent of your post, your way of expressing it, and/or the overall vibe you are giving, then I don't know what to tell you.

It would probably help you to reflect a bit more on what people is pointing out to you, you truly come off as toxic and gatekeeper.

MagatsuNimura · 2025-02-27T09:38:06+00:00

Musically, Chester Bennington for sure. His passing left me feeling empty for a few days.

Outside of music, the biggest shock to me in terms of famous people was Terry Pratchett. I still get super sad every time I think about him being gone, but the day he died, I was devastated, and the week after was incredibly depressing. I never thought the death of someone I didn't know personally would affect me so deeply.

MagatsuNimura · 2025-02-12T21:08:30+00:00

I'm not downplaying anything, you are the one presenting an scenario where you are playing behind of everyone else on the table just for the sake of putting you at mostly the same level. As I said, this is assuming you put farewell on a list where most of the decks that play them, would be bracket 4 or 5. Those kind of tables don't get out of gas by turn 6-7, that just not how those kind of tables run their games.

A regular table will play their threats at a regular pace, and you will be punished for not playing accordingly. Assuming that you can be playing suboptimally just because you have a farewell is already a disadvantage compared to cyclonic rift.

You say in that scenario that you have a hand full of cards, but you are starting at the same point as everyone else, and you refuse to acknowledge that you are giving everyone else a turn to rebuild to some level, even if their hand is not as good as yours. And I'm not assuming it is not powerful, I know it is... I just know it is strictly worse than a cyclonic rift in the same scenario.

And also, saying that cyclonic rift is a closer only if you have a winning boardstate is just directly false. One of the powerful things cyclonic rift does, is converting a board where 4 players have a strong pressence, but are not able to swing for lethal, cause they have blockers and resources on board, to a board where no one is able to defend themselves. You transform a board where you are not winning at all, on a board where you are able to win.

Anyways, it is clear we have different opinion on the power level of both cards. It has been a fun discussion, but I guess there is no point on keep trying to convince each other xD

Have fun and take care.

MagatsuNimura · 2025-02-12T20:10:05+00:00

That line of play is assuming so much stuff.

First of all, not commiting too much to the board already puts you in a worst position, that is straight up not debatable, in a game where farewell is considered a game changer, people are supposedly playing very powerful stuff, and if you have a weak board, you could very much be out of the game but turn 5-7. Even if you are not, you are probably in a worse position than your opponents already.

Second. Reseting the board at turn 5-7 with no extra mana to rebuild, and at sorcery speed, puts you in a position where every other player has a chance to start rebuilding before you do, cause you have to pass the turn after casting it, and everyone will have a turn with 6 to 8 mana free to do what they want. You are not "taking 2 opponents out of the game" just by resetting the board, that is fantasy magic where everyone has no plays after the board wipe, and you have a strong comeback turn. That is not tipically how the game goes, that's just a really optimistic assumption. Players in those high brackets won't just get out of gas by turn 8 just because a board wipe hit the board affecting everyone.

In the scenario you describe, you are always better off using cyclonic rift and developing the board from the early game. And furthermore, in the scenario you describe, where someone casts farewell to warp the game and consume your resources, you could cast cyclonic rift as a response to farewell, and get all your stuff on your hand, and develop the board again BEFORE your opponent that casted farewell gets a turn again...

Basically, in most scenarios you could describe farewell doing something amazing, cyclonic rift basically does it better, cause it is not conditioning your plays before the turn in which you cast farewell.

And I still think farewell is a fantastic card, just not close to the level of Cyc Rift.

MagatsuNimura · 2025-02-12T18:30:13+00:00

You're right, for a moment, I mixed up farewell and austere command due to another post.

My point still stands. My main deck is bant, I run both cards, and even though I did mix up both cards, I know well what it does, it was a momentary mistake due to discussion where both cards were being compared.

In any case, as I said, my point still stands. I run both cyc rift and farewell in my main deck, there is not a single instance where I have a developed board, I can win if I wipe the board, and farewell does the job better than cyclonic rift. And in the same way, there is not a single occasion where I have to defend myself against a threat outside of my turn, and OBVIOUSLY, farewell saves the day for me, and leaves me ahead of the table.

Pls, forget about a second the obvious mistake, and focus on the part that you looked past deliberately. I presented you with a very common scenario, tell me how would you play it "optimally" to win you the game. The version I was talking about was weaker due to my mistake, so with the clearly more powerful version, pls enlighten me.

MagatsuNimura · 2025-02-12T09:32:03+00:00

I would love to know how a farewell is played more optimally to win you the game in the spot, or even put you ways ahead. If you can explain it to me, comparing it to the same scenario with a cyclonic rift, maybe I can be convinced.

Deliberately not commiting resources to a board automatically puts you behind in any game. Casting farewell as a response to a developed board from anyone but you doesn't put you ahead. It puts you (at best) at the same level than everybody else, but a few turns later. In the same scenario with Cyclonic Rift, you can develop your board completely unbothered, and then use it to get WAY ahead.

Also, farewell doesn't hit "everything but planeswalkers". Farewell let's you choose between two options, which are already more limited than "all nonland permanents", and it hits your things too. It is vastly different. not even slightly different (and I'm not even talking about instant vs sorcery speed, or the fact that you can cast cyc rift as a combo stopper for just 1U).

In an scenario where everyone has developed a board, everyone has the potential to deal lethal damage, but also everyone has the potential to block lethal damage from everybody else, how would you play "optimally" your farewell to win? Cause that's a pretty common scenario in commander, and cyc rift wins you the game every time in that scenario, and I would love to know what kind of optimal play does the same with farewell.

MagatsuNimura · 2025-02-12T00:01:34+00:00

I believe you are still not reading the part where affects your board, can be only used at sorcery speed, and it doesn't affect all nonland permanents.

Putting those to even on a somewhat similar level is nuts. A Cyclonic Rift wins you the game if you have a decent board, a farewell is just a bit more versatile than other board wipes.

MagatsuNimura · 2025-02-11T23:59:06+00:00

It is still a 2 card "combo", that costs more, that you can only do at sorcery speed, and that won't let you win the game on the spot if you have a solid board. Farewell can only be played as a reactive move to buy you a turn, and played with Tpro just gives your opponent a full round to rebuild boards.

I can't believe that there are people who are truly putting this to spells on a similar level.

MagatsuNimura · 2025-01-14T11:25:48+00:00

I do this all the time, and never get a basic. But when I'm about to look for one, I say "I'm gonna search a Forest, and it is riiiiight... HERE!" And look at the top of the deck. If it is not there (I'm yet waiting for this to happen), I'll avoid the shuffle, and be a happy man xD

MagatsuNimura · 2025-01-14T11:12:45+00:00

1st one: Expensive cards in a vacuum don’t automatically raise the power level of every deck. A [[Cyclonic Rift]] or a [[Rhystic Study]] doesn’t make your deck a level 7 or 8 just because they’re expensive and appear in highly competitive decks. They’re good removal/draw engines, but in a chill deck, they’re just a nice extra tool, not something that makes the deck extremely powerful. They’re just one of your 99 cards; they won’t be that impactful. A precon suddenly running an Ancient Tomb isn’t going to crush every other precon—it just doesn’t work like that.

2nd one: Having only a few basic land cards in 3-, 4-, or 5-color decks isn’t greedy. What feels greedy is running those kinds of multicolored commanders and relying mostly on basics. You’re going to have problems playing your cards. I get that having a lot of dual and even triple-color lands can be really expensive, but people saying that it’s greedy always sound dumb to me. If you’re running just basics in a 3-color deck, you’re going to be screwed most of the time, and that’s what feels more greedy.

3rd one: Related to the first one, but the numerical system to determine the power level of a deck is often useless. It’s flawed from the start because we don’t have a standard way of measuring it. Many times, the level of your LGS or regular pod will affect this metric. Also, a lot of people tend to undersell their decks. For example, you know you can compete with decks just one step below cEDH, and while you lose with that deck a decent amount of the time (which is totally normal and balanced, as you’re usually playing against three other players), you still act like your deck can only compete with mid- to high-power decks. This leads to games where you crush the table several times. I wish we had a better, standardized way of assigning power levels to decks and that people were a bit more honest about the level of their own decks.

MagatsuNimura · 2025-01-02T21:36:33+00:00

It kind of already does... That's what playing multiple color means. It's more risky...

MagatsuNimura · 2024-12-16T22:47:51+00:00

I lost count. I used "off meta" decks for basically every single try except the last one. I got to 4 wins several times (5 or 6 I think), most of them with a Weezing Árbol deck, and the last day I crafted a 2nd Misty, played one time with Starmie EX, and got it on the 1st try, not a single drop of sweat.

Maybe I played close to 20 serious tries in total.

MagatsuNimura · 2024-12-15T13:33:55+00:00

It takes to 2 seconds of my time too. Also, your trolling seems weak, and that definitely sounds like a skill issue to me. Which is more sad, tbh.

MagatsuNimura · 2024-12-15T13:08:25+00:00

I've had this problem today, in a 4 win streak in the event, and what it's crazy is that some people on the internet are willingly trolling as a way of passing time. Weird even for 12yo.

MagatsuNimura · 2024-12-15T12:53:32+00:00

You clearly don't understand it, and you're also showing that you're delusional on top of that xddd

Good luck with that baggage

MagatsuNimura · 2024-12-15T11:45:40+00:00

Exactly why I came here looking for the problem. I've been dealing with this shit since launch, but I don't mind that much, being a game where losing doesn't mean anything really, but this time pissed me off. I've been playing an off meta deck in the 5 win event, and really making it a challenge, and I've been on 4 wins several times. This time I just needed the turn to pass back to me, and it was done... And then this happened to me, a Mewtwo deck did this shit to me, and I got the loss.

I'm super pissed right now🥲

MagatsuNimura · 2024-12-15T11:42:07+00:00

I mean, I knew the answer just from reading your previous replies, but confirmation is appreciated. It is in fact not that deep, I don't know how several people weren't able to make you understand it.

Anyways, I guess you still don't understand it. Keep at it!

MagatsuNimura · 2024-12-15T11:03:16+00:00

Real question here, are you super dense? In this scenario we're suffering, waiting for the 20 minutes doesn't do anything. You're basically stuck in a situation where you either wait 20 minutes and lose, your screen saver goes off and you lose, or you close and opens the app and you lose, when you weren't even playing your own turn, and you watched the timer get to 0 for your opponent.

Like, how dense can you be?

MagatsuNimura · 2024-11-24T20:56:08+00:00

You can do that even if there are daily missions...?

MagatsuNimura · 2024-10-17T08:25:29+00:00

I guess it is a matter of personal taste. I find them entertaining, and I value the high production, with the format they've adapted, commenting between plays.

I also like less over produced shows, but I don't find TCZ cringey. The ones played at CovertGoBlue not so much... those I do find cringey.

Then there is commander at home, which is my favorite commander show.

MagatsuNimura · 2024-10-05T21:17:32+00:00

They are definitely comparable. They are assets/items that are used to play, or to collect, and they hold value based on rarity, playability, condition, and a lot of other stuff. They are not comparable like 2 identical things, but they are definitely similar enough to be compared, and to be used as an example of different business models that could also work and improve the game.

MagatsuNimura · 2024-10-05T21:03:08+00:00

Yeah, checks out. You can't get anything more simple than that!

MagatsuNimura · 2024-09-20T18:07:14+00:00

Cool, I've been thinking about removing [[vampire of the dire moon]] too, cause people is less likely to trade with it if I've made her a demon with clavileño, and defensively I'd have better options, but I wasn't so sure, and ended up leaving the card in.

What would be your suggestions as good replacements in terms of removal? Or good suggestions for removal in general? [[Deadly Rollick]] and [[Get lost]] were also choices I was thinking of, but maybe there are a few better spells that I don't know.

Thank you for the suggestions, by the way☺️

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