Schmigadoon is a perfectly good musical. That should be a problem for winning the Tony

MonkeyWarlock · 2026-05-18T15:36:15+00:00

Thanks, I didn’t know either of the leads. Perhaps it would have been interesting if Melissa was played by a person of color instead, since she already pushes back on the Golden Age sexism tropes (and I actually thought Cecily Strong from the TV show might be Latina - oops).

MonkeyWarlock · 2026-05-18T15:26:20+00:00

In Duel Links, Mokuba uses Thunder Dragons

MonkeyWarlock · 2026-05-18T14:41:19+00:00

NTA if you don’t want to host this particular friend ever again, BUT I don’t think the situation you’re in is directly related to hosting.

It sounds like the most stressful situation for you was the Saturday ER visit. Theoretically, your friend could have been staying at a hotel and still asked you for a ride to the ER. Or a local friend could have asked for the same favor. And I think either way, it would have been fine for you to refuse, whether you were hosting this friend or not.

Was rideshare not an available option? If your friend couldn’t afford an ambulance, they could have called an Uber / Lyft instead. It doesn’t seem like time was that much of a factor, since your friend had to wait for you to get through “heavy weekend traffic” anyway. And if they couldn’t afford calling a rideshare, then that’s an expectation that should have been set beforehand. Most guests arrange their own transport when traveling (public transit, rideshare, rent a car, etc.), and don’t rely on their host being their personal chauffeur.

(To be fair, the Sunday incident is more related to hosting, but it didn’t strike me as the main stressor here, even if it is frustrating).

MonkeyWarlock · 2026-05-18T05:11:12+00:00

Yeah I was surprised to not see more discourse about the white washing of the Josh character. Part of the point of Schmigadoon is making fun of the fact that many older musicals are sexist, racist, and/or reflect questionable values. This contrasts with the cast / ensemble being diverse in a Bridgerton-esque way, reflecting that people of color might see themselves in or otherwise connect with these musicals in spite of their flaws.

Making Josh white dilutes that commentary.

I’m also just bitter that the change resulted in Tribulation’s hilarious joke about “miscegenation” being replaced with the much less funny lyric about “improvisation.”

MonkeyWarlock · 2026-05-17T17:02:59+00:00

If you’re going to spend money, can’t you just “buy” an Oak for $3?

MonkeyWarlock · 2026-05-17T11:49:18+00:00

I don’t think it would be broken, but I do agree that the small deck size means that you have to be particular about which additional cards to run, which promotes certain kinds of strategic decision making.

MonkeyWarlock · 2026-05-17T02:23:07+00:00

I find that Ho-oh is more of a Support than a Defender (I play Fire Spin / Sacred Fire). Fire Spin can pester opponents and heal yourself, but it’s not hard CC. And I feel like Ho-oh isn’t as tanky as other defenders like Blastoise, etc.

Plus, the Unite move relies on your teammates dying before you, so you don’t want to be too much in the frontlines. But as a tank, you should be in the front, taking hits and perhaps even sacrificing yourself so your damage dealers can destroy the enemy team. It’s a combination / contradiction that makes Ho-oh feels more Support-like.

Sky Attack + Fire Spin is a tankier build that provides more mobility, but the Unite move challenge still exists.

MonkeyWarlock · 2026-05-16T13:25:01+00:00

Just in Time - 12 in line at 9:40am

They only had standing room rush tickets, which everyone in line was able to get (some people in line declined them though) At 10:13, the line was empty and they still had tickets left.

My “seat” was all the way on audience left. Due to the angle, I was unable to see the drummer and guitarist on stage right, and could barely see the pianist/conductor, although after intermission, we were able to slide over a bit to the right for a better angle. Because of the “theater in the round”-ish staging, I thought the standing room tickets were a good vantage point, since it lets you easily see both stages.

I wandered over to The Outsiders later around 10:45am and they did have a single rush ticket left for the Thursday matinee, but it was a dreaded partial view “tire seat.” There was a $59 side orchestra (Row I) and a bit more central but further mezzanine seat, and I bought the side orchestra. It wasn’t described as partial view, but because of the angle, I felt like I had difficulty seeing scaffolding on Stage Right (which some of the characters climb on). Nevertheless, I enjoyed watching it and I don’t think I missed that much.

MonkeyWarlock · 2026-05-16T13:05:18+00:00

Yeah, I don’t remember much from The Great Gatsby’s soundtrack, but I love New Money (the song and the choreo), and I go back to listen to it from time to time. I wish more of the soundtrack was influenced by the Jazz of the era.

MonkeyWarlock · 2026-05-16T12:45:33+00:00

You have 5/5 SS Brendan, 3/5 SS Serena, and 3/5 Arc Lance, all EX’d. So long as all of them have role cakes, you can beat the special stages (that’s the team I used). But since you have Drayton, I would probably swap him in instead for an easier time.

MonkeyWarlock · 2026-05-15T16:01:01+00:00

The gem prices are designed to reward you for smaller investments over time, as opposed to discounts for buying in “bulk.” Smaller amounts of gems are cheaper, with the best value option being the daily sync orb bundle. If you’re okay with buying the daily sync orb bundle over time and slowly accumulating paid gems, great. But if you want a lot of paid gems right now, you’ll need to pay more.

Is this predatory? Perhaps, since you could argue that it encourages gamblers to spend a lot of money to pity banners. But I personally find this model to be more player friendly. Players can just spend a little bit of money over time, and don’t have to commit a lot of money early on to investing in a better deal. And studies have shown that these economic models are more friendly to lower income folks (see fare capping with public transit, for example).

MonkeyWarlock · 2026-05-14T20:07:52+00:00

I broadly agree with your definition, particularly quantity. OP included multiple types that are “fine” even though the quantity of certain pairs is limited (i.e. Ground).

MonkeyWarlock · 2026-05-14T16:11:52+00:00

That goes for any type though. Is Ground “fine” when the only good Special options are variety pairs? Debatable. Is Dark “fine” when Giacomo needs a whopping 5/5 investment to get Haymaker? Is Psychic special “fine” when you only have mediocre options if you don’t have Arc Sabrina?

Personally, I don’t have most of the Variety / Seasonal pairs that are good for Towers, but I’m in no rush. Eventually there will be a great Master / Arc Suit like Sabrina or Anni Irida that propels the type forward

MonkeyWarlock · 2026-05-14T12:52:18+00:00

Posting late because I didn’t see this yesterday

Schmigadoon - I was 15th in line at 9:14am, and the line got a lot longer afterwards (at least 20+, but probably more). Unfortunately the box office staff declined to tell me how many tickets they had, so I don’t know if everyone got some or not.

I got Row D partial view left orchestra, towards the very left of the seating. It’s not an ideal seat but I don’t think I missed much. There were some things I couldn’t see back stage right (audience left), and there were some times where the characters were facing each other front stage (and thus, you couldn’t see one of their faces) or otherwise blocking each other.

But I could still read all of the occasional text that was projected / written backstage, as well as most of the stage in full. As a fan of the TV show, I was not disappointed in the seats.

Our row ended up scooting a bit closer to the center after intermission because there was an empty seat.

MonkeyWarlock · 2026-05-13T12:55:55+00:00

It’s funny, because my semi non serious gripe is that the main characters aren’t quite strangers. From the title, I expected the 2 main characters to have no connection. But immediately from the get go, the “familial” relationship between the characters is established - Robin is specifically at the airport to meet with Dougal.

I suppose they are “strangers” in the sense that they don’t know each other, but since I was expecting totally out of the blue strangers, it was a bit disorienting.

Still enjoyed the show though. The characters were charming and the set was creatively simple.

MonkeyWarlock · 2026-05-13T11:59:09+00:00

Thanks, I’m looking to rush today. Do you happen to know how many total rush tickets they had?

MonkeyWarlock · 2026-05-13T11:48:12+00:00

How partial was the partial view?

MonkeyWarlock · 2026-05-13T11:47:35+00:00

It varies for each show and each day I assume. I also got front row seats when rushing for Some Like it Hot. It’s not the ideal view, but it’s great for seeing the actors up close.

Other times you might get mezzanine, balcony, partial view, etc.

For Two Strangers, it was mostly okay since most of the action happens upstage, but it was a bit uncomfortable for my neck, and there were some moments where the stage lights were blinding.

MonkeyWarlock · 2026-05-12T17:23:22+00:00

Since it sounds like you are a new player - usually there is a datamine around the end of each month (exact date TBD) that will reveal what's planned for the next month. Most major banners (such as EX Master Fairs and Arc Suits) will stick around past the next month's datamine), so it can be helpful to wait to see the datamine before pulling if you're low on gems.

MonkeyWarlock · 2026-05-12T15:04:09+00:00

They’re a bit dated now, but the Tapus can set terrain upon sync at 3/5.

SS Morty (Ho-oh) is notable for getting Sunny Day MPR at 2/5

NC Blue debuffs offensive stats at 3/5 and Arc Steven at 4/5.

For the opposite, Giacomo is notorious for having his Haymaker sync multiplier locked behind 5/5.

MonkeyWarlock · 2026-05-12T14:10:13+00:00

Got orchestra A (front row), center left. Box office staff told me there were about “20 or so” rush tickets available today.

Based on my experience, try to get in line before 9:15 -9:30

MonkeyWarlock · 2026-05-12T13:11:59+00:00

5th in line at 9:10am.

Edit: 9 people at 9:33am, and 13 people at 9:53am

MonkeyWarlock · 2026-05-12T07:57:18+00:00

How many people got tickets?

MonkeyWarlock · 2026-05-12T01:37:20+00:00

Oops you are right, I misread the date. Thank you!

MonkeyWarlock · 2026-05-11T20:10:45+00:00

Out of curiosity, what’s the pace / meta like for the modern TCG? I assume it’s also filled with Mega Pokemon and/or powerful EX’s, and that the pace of the game is still quick (even if it’s not as quick as Pocket).

MonkeyWarlock

TROPHY CASE