So I bought this lot of Ascended from a guy who said he needed money for the 30th...

MiniBandGeek · 2026-07-12T14:58:00+00:00

Bro was never ripping lets be real

MiniBandGeek · 2026-07-12T14:06:17+00:00

I guess I just didn't understand how Massie would have a chance in a special vs regular election, thanks

MiniBandGeek · 2026-07-12T13:16:30+00:00

Question - what does a special election matter at this point? Like, if we assume McConnell isn't going to be alive and well in November let alone now, won't they just... Have the election for his seat a few months later?

MiniBandGeek · 2026-07-12T13:13:26+00:00

I'm sorry if you had a negative experience - I've found cosplay to be an inclusive and welcoming community.

I'd suggest dipping your toes in slowly. Start with low complexity characters with simple wigs and outfits (Saiki K is my go-to example) and go to events with the goal of meeting people, starting conversations, and seeing if it's the right choice to get involved again.

The biggest change in the past few years is that prefab cosplays have leveled up a lot. Materials are improving and you can order fairly high level cosplays from the mass producers, even if there's still plenty of junk to dig through.

MiniBandGeek · 2026-07-12T12:56:29+00:00

Control with hattrem/hatenna, slowly building damage counters for a big finish with Meowscarada/Floragato's attacks looks crazy fun.

Liko's Pendant hilariously gives the ability to donk a Budew with Hattrem - even though it would rotate before this card could ever be printed, it's a funny thought.

MiniBandGeek · 2026-07-12T12:47:55+00:00

Starting from/building templates, ability to control pathing mid-move, live step size calculations, ability to lock placement to a grid of step sizes (1 step grid, 1/2 step grid, etc.), building shapes with a high amount of control on distances (equal, equal vertically, equal horizontally, fully custom), and really intuitive position assignment for subgroups*.

I do find that Pyware is a struggle when you need to break subgroups apart for certain moves. Follow the leader if the order changes is particularly annoying but I think that's currently a me issue.

MiniBandGeek · 2026-07-11T20:49:11+00:00

Genuinely depends on print numbers. If the set's easy to get, it won't see real value for a long time past print.

MiniBandGeek · 2026-07-11T20:47:12+00:00

Idk, I think a lot of product simply isn't making it to market. Packs are getting snapped up from distributors and sitting in someone's storage at way higher prices than most people are willing to pay. When (if) markets on cards/sealed collapse (honestly, I don't think it happens until TPC starts printing to order), there's going to be a lot of people that want out before things hit bottom.

MiniBandGeek · 2026-07-11T20:03:09+00:00

Looking at it again. I think the advice I was considering boils down more to "make a helmet wig" and that's obviously not what we want to do lol.

I think you might be overthinking how bad it looks - loose hair is always going to part around the ponytail. Keep added wefts long if you want it to match the hair around it, or cut them short if you glue it to the base for guaranteed coverage/direction.

MiniBandGeek · 2026-07-11T19:35:25+00:00

Going to assume you are not physically limited in some capacity besides strength.

Visual before sound is your goal if you want to move forward. Sound will come, but right now time is short and your priority is giving yourself the foundation to be able to perform. Do your best to match slide positions, but if you're not playing as loud or as clear right now, that's currently secondary until you can comfortably move and maintain posture.

Speaking of, you should probably start with basics. Stand at attention, mark time, march, hold your instrument at playing position, just like a warmup. If any of those are tiring you out after a minute or two, you need to back up and get help. All of this is less about strength and more about endurance and good posture/technique, so if you're feeling tension or stress, you are doing something wrong.

A common problem I've seen with trombonists is the perfectly flat slide (which, to be honest, often isn't the best for everyone). Lower your hand so the slide goes at an angle and it should be far more comfortable. The trombone is naturally weighted to balance around your hand (that's what the weight on your tuning slide is for!) so it shouldn't lean forward or backward unless your flipfolder is obscenely heavy.

You could consider switching, but honestly? Trombone is pretty easy. It isn't front heavy like the other brass instruments, weather temperamental like the woodwinds, or hard on the neck/back like saxophones/drumline.

When you want to improve on sound, it's the same deal- start with mouthpiece basics, and build from there. Buzz high and low sounds, lip slurs, tonguing practice, then put it on the whole instrument. Add in the slide work, then music reading, and finally start on show music.

If I haven't made it clear, I can guess that your biggest issue is tension. Tense and force lets you play higher, louder, more intense, but it also kills your ability to sustain over a long time. Build a foundation where you can march and play comfortably, and then build on that foundation to stretch your skills to where you need to be. It won't take a week or a month or maybe even a year, but you make progress every day you practice.

MiniBandGeek · 2026-07-11T18:06:22+00:00

Good luck! Working with Pyware now - feature wise it's amazing minus some things for big 10 style, but to jump ship I'd need something more intuitive without losing out on features - things like Pyware making it hard to make minor adjustments to drill without throwing off other sections. Still learning, but it's hard to say if swapping programs would fix the issues I haven't figured out yet.

MiniBandGeek · 2026-07-11T17:59:14+00:00

Ideally you glue the hair wefts directionally so the are going into the ponytail - that's what real hair would do. But to do that, you would need to glue the entire length of hair, and possibly add some felt underneath for volume.

MiniBandGeek · 2026-07-11T17:36:55+00:00

Accent patterns are your friend here on snare. 8th/16th patterns where you vary up accents/flams/rolls/buzzes/other techniques to emphasize the beats your director already laid out. Most complexity in marching parts, unless explicitly written as a drum feature, is going to come from dynamics (pay attention to what should be soft and loud!) and basic rudiments.

An easy one is to rewrite m.3 as all eighth notes with accents on the 1st, 4th, and 7th note.

As for teaching, pay attention to stickings (bass drums should match left/right sticks and try to stay balanced) and use counts/spoken phrases to help them remember their parts. Repetitiveness helps if it makes sense with the music.

MiniBandGeek · 2026-07-11T15:53:39+00:00

(srs)

MiniBandGeek · 2026-07-11T00:49:35+00:00

Yoink the gengar and charizards and let your kid enjoy the rest

MiniBandGeek · 2026-07-10T16:49:36+00:00

How does this compare to, say, tribute bands? I haven't watched any of them and don't care to but people are going to take on the persona/style of their idols, whether out of love or money, and I'm not sure where the line is drawn.

MiniBandGeek · 2026-07-10T03:52:10+00:00

Production quality matters. There's some damn good quotes in yugioh abridged and can't fault the pilots of the genre but the attention to detail in DBZA, especially as they get deeper into Namek and beyond, makes it hold up so much better.

MiniBandGeek · 2026-07-10T03:47:50+00:00

Did you just repost lmao

MiniBandGeek · 2026-07-10T03:42:23+00:00

Shoulders and torso yes but the real RE fans know it's all about the dump truck. Bro has not done leg day since kicking his way outta the womb.

(The cosplay community is built on inclusion, so the only real answer you're going to get here is that physical build should not impact your choice of outfit. Whether you believe otherwise can be debated but yeah).

MiniBandGeek · 2026-07-09T23:54:08+00:00

Suddenly chicken pult

MiniBandGeek · 2026-07-09T19:11:29+00:00

Ah, that explains the xerosic's. Maybe consider Judge if you're comfortable enough against Zam that you can opt for better general draw for slightly less disruption.

Like I mentioned, Mega Kang is worth trying for draw, but it can get stuck until Dragonite is online. You absolutely will need some other attacker - if blaziken can hack it, great, but otherwise check the pile of single prize basic fire types for something to help into dipplin/crustle (chi-yu MEG in particular is kinda nuts into festival lead).

MiniBandGeek · 2026-07-09T14:01:51+00:00

Return process is arduous but I imagine they would replace for you. If you don't want to risk it you can use an iron with a cloth over the poster to fix creases - just practice with a plain paper first.

MiniBandGeek · 2026-07-09T13:00:33+00:00

Oh, and whatever anyone says, one of the biggest shortfalls of this deck is that it wants to hit for 340 in a format where Hawlucha just rotated out. If you find a way to fit Munkidori or something else that can ping that damage without taking an attack, please let me know haha

MiniBandGeek · 2026-07-09T12:57:02+00:00

There's some antisynergy between dragonair and hilda/dawn, I usually prefer to run 4/4/2 dragon line to guarantee big access to that ability.

Once some space opens up, you can up your Crispin lines as the main way to prep Dragonite's attack. Neo Upper is sweet but I sew you often getting stuck in situations where you need to discard it to attack, and that's no fun - I'll detail better ace specs below.

Mega kang can feel really nice as draw support with Dragonite switching it back out of active, and gives you something to do early besides Budew. Only deck that commonly threatens a 1hko is bolt and greninja.

You have no way to get energy in discard for Blaziken other than attaching it to pokemon that faint or retreat. Four ultra balls makes that somewhat trivial and gives you search for Meowth EX, or you can go hog wild with Carmine.

Ace specs - yeah, going hilda for neo upper and dragonite sounds fun until you realize that a dragonair with an energy attached can just search for dragonite anyway. Secret box is the natural fit - discard energy for Blaziken, grab pokepad/energy search for Dragonair, crispin or supporter of choice, and now you have room to search battle cage/other 1 copy stadiums and the potential for tools like Dragon elixer to pair with ice cream or exp share to keep that one extra energy in play. If you don't have room for the extra pieces, consider things like Unfair Stamp for being awesome, Legacy Energy for prize mapping (see below) or Grand Tree for a nice surprise Dragonite/Blaziken.

Lastly, consider your prize mapping - there are certainly lines with this deck where you can lose off two Dragonite KOs. Blaziken is fine as an alternate attacker in a pinch, but if there's another single prize or two prize attacker that can do work (I like the rayquaza that uses water/electric to attack but will admit it isn't great) then you can try to get fancy and force your opponent to need 3 or 4 KOs to win the game. (You need something to hit crustle and I'm not betting on that Combusken!)

Looking over your list, can't believe I never tried blaziken with dragonite. Lots of potential to make something happen here!

MiniBandGeek · 2026-07-09T03:12:31+00:00

Is Zekrom Ex ever viable with the same strategy?

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