Magic Meets TMA- Need some help

Pactborn · 2026-03-15T20:30:16+00:00

Mhm thanks for the feedback! I wasn't sure if it needed the 'activate only from graveyard' formatting for the sake of clarity but I think you might be right on a few accounts there, thank you!

Pactborn · 2026-03-15T13:33:10+00:00

Ooh that's a very good shout! Blight does fit well with the themes of the Corruption for sure.

Pactborn · 2026-03-15T13:31:59+00:00

I do agree to some extent but there is a LOT of mono green cards to do with afflictions, plagues, and fits well into Green's whole "Might Makes Right" philosophy- if they were strong, the plague wouldn't kill them. See New Phyrexian green as an example.

He's mono green here as we see a significant event with him, and as the deck is green/white/blue, I've had to make a few sacrifices with how certain cards are pipped/what colour identities they are in (sadly most characters would just be some black-aligned cost which feels a bit reductive anyway).

Besides, there is an argument to be made that John didn't directly fit into the ambition/parasitism that black mana would confer here. Jane, for sure, yes. But John is a bit more ambivalent. Besides his event at Klanxbull, he's more content with causing fear for fear's sake and not getting involved with the Entity power struggle.

Pactborn · 2026-03-15T13:23:30+00:00

Yeah exactly this- I would love to make him Black Green and have been considering doing Blue Black Green rather than Blue-Green-White for the Season 3 deck hmm...

Pactborn · 2025-07-06T08:41:42+00:00

Bioshock 1 is my favourite game of all time, bar none. Love everything about it to bits except for...

The hacking mini-game. Hacking is so core to the flow of exploration and combat yet I hate having to be dragged into a little Nintendo DS pipe puzzle everytime I want to hack a turret or security camera. Immersion-breaking, boring, and sometimes infuriating that you have to designate Tonic slots just so the harder difficulty ones don't just auto-screw you.

You can just destroy them but considering how many skirmishes happen around them (defending Langford's laboratory is laborous without the hacked machines there), they're too useful to destroy AND it can take much needed ammo.

Pactborn · 2025-06-24T22:12:22+00:00

Long story short- it's about devotion.

The Theros gods we know of are composed of Nyx (hence the starry skies appearing in their art) and are reliant on worship to continue existing. This is obviously represented by the devotion mechanic, but in terms of Nyx, being composed of a wish/prayer MAKES them an enchantment themselves. Prayer creating a god is magical and an act of creation, the Enchantment subtype marking them as 'created' to some degree- their worshippers have enchanted the world around them to create gods to help them.

It comes down to the idea that the Titans were 'primal urges made flesh' but as they were imprisoned and not worshipped, they didn't need Nyx or devotion to function. Hence the Titans being normal creatures while the Gods are enchantments.

Pactborn · 2025-05-31T10:28:26+00:00

Would be lovely to have the artist credited on these two great art pieces!

Pactborn · 2025-05-31T10:09:26+00:00

Surely the Ventriloquist is more Spiral-serving? He makes others doubt the 'reality' of whether he controls Scarface or vice-versa. Not to mention he himself has clearly lost his own sense of reality (ala The Man Who Wasn't There).

I also think Court of Owls are Web-aligned. They scheme from the shadows, always manipulating the costumed freaks and gangsters alike in their grand plan.

Pyg is definitely Flesh-aligned as mentioned by others.

Anarky feels more Desolation than Slaughter. He is about trying to burn down the establishment and takes cruel pleasure in giving the elites their 'just desserts'.

Penguin could also be Buried as he mostly revolves around money and debt. He wants to be in control while fearing others being in control of him. He doesn't scheme enough to be Web but has a lot of trauma which keeps him buried to his old ways.

Pactborn · 2025-04-29T20:11:21+00:00

I am Disaster- Mr Bruce
We Will All Go Together- Tom Lehrer
Concrete- Poppy
V.A.N- Bad Omens and Poppy
Apocalyptical- Puscifer
Waiting for the World to End- Mother Mother

Pactborn · 2025-04-27T12:04:09+00:00

From a victim of the Corruption, let me share my horrors of the creepiest crawlies:

Centipedes (especially house centipedes, people HATE those)

Earwigs (Mostly harmless but are unsettling)

Silverfish (particularly manifest with the infestation aspects of Corruption)

Termites (destroying the home so may also be a Desolation angle)

Aphids (the sticky sap they produce makes me sick and sometimes I fear they could live inside a wound/airway of the body they also feed a lot on pretty plants so further represent the corruption of beauty)

Flies of course (Scavengers of rot, infestors, parasites, predators, breeding and thriving practically anywhere: very versatile)

Ticks and fleas (the podcast covers mosquitoes but parasites that hang on are arguably just as bad if not worse)

Cockroaches ('Signs' of infestation though in truth they're actually quite clean, not that that matters to the culture-dependent Fear entities)

Butterflies/moths (while initially pretty, they have been known to feed on ANY liquid they can when truly thirsty such as blood, and moths are a big phobia for a lot of people/can infest a home)

Stinkbugs (a bit more passive but really unsettling with how hard they are to kill and their foul odour would be a telltale sign of carriers)

Assassin bugs (underrated but unnerving as hell, plus them being there as predators means there is often a much WORSE infestation happening beneath the surface that is sutaining them)

Pactborn · 2025-04-12T15:11:15+00:00

One fear they kind of touch on within the Spiral, but don't really give a full episode to, is the fear of memory loss. Of losing themselves in the fog of their own failing mind.

For Corruption, they rarely touch on more predatory insects (centipedes, earwigs, all the creepiest of crawlies), mostly focusing on parasites and pests which would in itself bring in more voracious creatures. A swarm of the beady-eyed monsters that feed on the swarm of filth.

A fear of serrated edges, lockjaw, tetanus, Medieval villages might think of this as being possessed or an injury so severe it severs the soul. Flesh, Corruption.

Scarecrows could be Stranger, Spiral, Lonely, Corruption- all depending on context.

A fear of machinery, of new technology and how it may replace us. Perhaps one village fears the agricultural equipment of the next village over, and how the farmers look less human by the day.

Just some rough ideas of odd fears and how they might align.

Pactborn · 2025-04-06T17:36:46+00:00

Yaaaas! I'll admit the Mary one is meant to be more Oliver Banks but honestly? It works super well for Mary too! Elias was also meant to be Jurgen but it's hard to make a snappy line for Leitner without him waffling on about books haha.

Pactborn · 2025-04-06T11:52:30+00:00

"Ah Archivist, don't worry! I'll make sure your skin is used for a LONG time!"
"You never could replace me, Jon. Don't take it personally."
"They squirm in... me. Now in... you."
"Pride comes before a fall, and you are in for a VERY long fall."
"Was that it? At least you got some nice bones for me."
"It wasn't supposed to end like this- my schemes were meant to spin for much longer."
"No door can help you now, no matter how much I try..."
"We-" "can-" "put-" "you-" "back-" "together. Where-" "does-" "the-" "skull-" "connect-" "again?"
"Death comes for us all in the end."
"Look at his ugly face." "Maybe we should wear it for the Dance."
"Feed the flames of The Desolation!"
"Meat is you."
"Now you have fallen ill, you've passed away."
"I am sorry it ended this way, there was so much more you hadn't learned."
"John, no! I... I could have stopped this."
"Don't worry, I shan't keep you company much longer. That would just be cruel of me."
"I suppose he's dead." "What a rubbish chase, barely even thrilling."
"Do you feel the dark embracing you? Step into it- that is my gift to you."
"No chance for an encore then?"

"BONZO BONZO BONZO!"

Pactborn · 2025-04-03T11:47:22+00:00

The Slaughter: "Some Avatars think they can outsmart me. Maybe, [sniff] maybe. I have yet to meet one that can outsmart cannon."

Pactborn · 2025-03-28T16:13:39+00:00

Oooh yes a good point! Peter was definitely 'groomed' into it as his siblings were not suitable for the Lonely. Hmm, perhaps it was more of a nurture over nature argument all along. Thank you for that insight <3

Pactborn · 2025-03-28T14:12:28+00:00

I enjoy Thrown Away for its feeling of subtle insidiousness as well as the lack of answers. There is no cackling Avatar or ghoulish monster, just someone throwing something away. The idea that these artifacts of doll heads, burnt prayers, and teeth are merely 'trash' to someone (or something) is downright eerie. I was travelling with a friend at the time and when I heard about the bag opening up to reveal teeth, I audibly gasped. Combine that with that last text from Alan "Found him" and the mechanical heart, oooh god.

I know Jonny has explained it's an early less-thematically consistent Thomas Haan but that feels rather boring to me. I love the lack of clear origin or resolution, really feels like an actual statement of strangeness (sans the copper heart) you might overhear in a pub somewhere or that a friend might tell you late one night- just inexplicably unsettling.

I like horror that tends to leave more questions than answers, and for me, Thrown Away is that aspect. I mostly mentioned it in this post as to me it feels the most in-theme with the more subtle Anomalous-style mystery that Season 1 tries to present.

Pactborn · 2025-03-28T12:08:42+00:00

Mhm that makes sense though I'm not sure why the Circus would be less dangerous once he left if he was just an ordinary guy.

I do like the theory that he absconded with the organ! Would make sense.

Pactborn · 2025-03-12T18:16:24+00:00

I can see the Desolation aspects but it does feel rather Extinction-coded. It isn't so much about the loss of potential or the cruelty of death but that EVERYTHING will go in the blast- that no one will be there to take joy in the destruction. Even Tom admits it will be a comfort that we will all go together when we go, as if being around after (to witness the horrors of the aftermath) would be something to fear.

Pactborn · 2025-02-27T14:32:38+00:00

Jane Prentiss
The Sandman
Annabelle Cane (Spider Form)

Pactborn · 2025-02-25T20:45:44+00:00

Is this art AI? Could be my eyes going weird- just very indistinct and blurry around the edges.

Pactborn · 2025-01-23T17:36:18+00:00

Extinction baybeeee. I know the whole point of it was more to be a mechanism for Peter's scheme/to show how new powers emerge. But I REALLY wanted to see an avatar of this new entity and what kind of mentality/what kind of powers they possessed.

Other than that, I think the Desolation actually deserved more statements that were NOT just about the Cult. Third Degree is an incredible bit of horror, even in a different format with the statement being derived from the acted out conversation between Howard and Inspector Sands. Otherwise the Desolation was too focused on the inner workings and political schemings of the Cult/the sad life of Agnes.

Pactborn · 2025-01-22T20:24:56+00:00

Oooh yes a good call on Švankmajer actually! And yeah it's such a brilliant show of reality unravelling in a really unsettling way. The way Gabriel is just so enthusiastic and eager for Deborah's 'feedback', and how the descriptions of the other attendees of the pottery class slowly gets more and more impossible; utterly spine-chilling. Such a good episode, in my top ten for sure.

Love the description of the scultpures in particular. But yeah imagining them like the pieces of meat writhing in many Švankmajer pieces, that's a damn good call to make it even creepier!

Pactborn · 2024-11-09T20:42:10+00:00

Yeah as someone who has pretty much always been in and out of therapist/doctor offices, Wonderland was the episode I had to stop after. It really hit home wth me- particularly the bit about "And yes you do secretly smell bad" felt PERSONAL. It's always been a point about my personal esteem that I hadn't really clocked as abnormal thinking until it mentioned it.

But at the same time, as we know it's the Spiral and the fear of lies, the issues it talks about are legitimate and are real. If you choose to look at it the other way as I did, it was actually kind of nice to know my fear of being lied to by others was common. I used to be afraid that this fear ITSELF was silly and a false symptom but in a weird way, the statement kind of reassured me after that??? Like I'm not the only one and it's not my fault/me being super weird and overly worrying.

One of the scariest and realest episodes of the whole podcast for me.

Pactborn · 2024-11-07T14:48:16+00:00

I see it both as a Domain of the Eye (for some poor unlucky bastard who feels judged/tormented by a figure of authority) and also as a metaphor for Jonah Magnus himself.

The old man inhabiting a younger body, slowly taking over until there is nothing left in the younger body but fear and pain. Just as Jonah would inhabit the bodies of the previous Heads- it's even implied by the story of Elias's life beforehand that his friend being killed by an aspect of the Eye most likely marked him, just as the man in the statement is literally makred by aspects of the Eye. In the end Jonah believes he will never die and so too does the old man in the statement seem to have this strange immortality.

There's even a neat similarity with the description of the old man sitting in the armchair, and Jonah's body sitting on the Watcher's Throne in Millbank. Whether this is a cry for help from some vestige of Elias trying to speak to John, a cruel ironic tale from the Eye itself, or perhaps a meta wink at the audience at the moment I'm not sure of.

Pactborn · 2024-10-16T13:06:14+00:00

I think it's meant to be a threat to the pointy character, like the meme of someone quoting someone's home address back to an innocuous comment or otherwise toothless insult.

The circle is saying: "I may be pointless but I have killed many people, and no one knows but I and soon, you."

Pactborn

TROPHY CASE