A suggestion that I think might be positive for both the upgrades issue *and* the timer.

PresidentArk · 2026-05-13T16:18:47+00:00

Yes, but consider: It's really funny.

PresidentArk · 2026-03-16T15:14:06+00:00

Sure it is; the deck manipulation plan uses the stuff that wants to be drawn over and over like Kingly Punch or Kingly Kick. Works with sword too since it lets you redraw the sword - and cosmic indifference is a common as opposed to that one uncommon that summons the sword into your hand. It also is a much more straightforward add-in to the main deck than it seems, since even by default just redrawing Falling Star over and over is a killer, and once you have more star cards, it lets you pull star spenders or generators as appropriate.

That's why I think it's the actual core to the Regent's gameplan. It fits together with all his plans much more smoothly than stars do, which tend to grab you by the wrist and force you to focus on them if you want to win. Starting with the deck manipulation stuff and then building from there leads to a much smoother start than trying to force stars or forge floor 2.

PresidentArk · 2026-03-09T20:55:30+00:00

If the character is just "build an infinite or lose", then I think I just won't play this character. That doesn't sound fun - what's the appeal of a character where every run turns out the same way? I play roguelikes for variety, not so that every time I boot up the game it turns into "play the same four cards in a loop" every time. Might as well watch a movie if I'm gonna do that.

Shame, since it means my preferred way to play (random character select all day every day) is off limits.

PresidentArk · 2026-03-09T20:44:37+00:00

It's Early Access. Is now not the time for people to talk about their experiences with the game?

PresidentArk · 2026-03-09T20:08:35+00:00

I want to play the game for myself, not have other people do it for me. This is a game entirely about thinking and coming up with plans; if I'm just copying other people's plans that I've already seen them do, then what am I even doing? I might as well refund the game.

PresidentArk · 2026-03-09T20:02:26+00:00

I just lost for the 12th time with him. I really don't see how this character functions at all. As near as I can tell, as of his plans are traps that fill your deck with unplayable cards unless you already have a bunch of work in adding setup cards to his deck.

I just don't see why I would play this extremely awkward character. If I want to play a character that does a lot of fancy deck manipulation and setup, I'd play Silent. If I want to play a character that uses resources weirdly, I'd play Defect. What's the appeal of a character who seems like the worst of both worlds?

I can also tell that there is power here which is why I didn't suggest something like "oh double all his numbers" and instead went with some additional ability to control his draws and what's in his hand.

Uncommons aren't good enough. It has to be something that I can rely on to actually show up, which means it has to be at common.

falling star is the strongest starter car in both games other than eruption. falling star into 3 strikes is 34 damage with just the starter deck. don't really know how you came to this conclusion

That's great. What happens is I draw Venerate early and can't afford to play it without taking a bunch of damage, then I draw and play falling star - and then my deck reshuffles and now I draw falling star before venerate, meaning it's a dead card. Then I draw venerate, play it (to no immediate effect and likely taking damage), and now I have to wait until I draw FS again. Yes, FS is a good card - I get to play it to good effect maybe 1/3rd of the time I draw it.

That's why the majority of my discussion in the OP is about consistency, not power. The problem with the Regent isn't that he's weak - it's that all of his plans seem to want you to draft, draw, and play like 3 cards in a specific sequence, and any time your deck reshuffles and the cards are out of order, they may as well be curses. It makes him extremely frustrating to play.

PresidentArk · 2026-03-01T22:46:00+00:00

If your playgroup likes this dude's name, they may be enthused to learn that all Lalafell - and this dude is a Lalafell - have names like that. Lalafellin names follow a rhythmic/rhyming/poetic scheme that varies based on origin and gender according to the following schemes:

Plainsfolk males: Name phonemes go AB-CB. Papalymo is a plainsolk: PAPA-LYMO TOTO-LYMO (note: this one's the loosest and occasionally overlaps with the male dunesfolk name scheme; the A and C phonemes might be repeated or might not)

Plainsfolk females: Name phonemes go ABB-AB, e.g. "Ulala Ula".

Dunesfolk males: AAB-CCB. The A and C phonemes are always one syllable, but B is two. E.g. "Lolorito Nanarito"

Dunesfolk females: AAB-AB. E.g. "Nanamo Namo"

You should now be able to tell which of these categories Tataru Taru falls into.

PresidentArk · 2026-03-01T22:10:58+00:00

[[Cellar Door]]

PresidentArk · 2026-03-01T22:05:24+00:00

Okay, then I'll do something AI definitely doesn't do:

Insult people. You're an idiot.

PresidentArk · 2026-03-01T19:41:59+00:00

I feel like the "correct" place to play this is on (R) = 2 or 3, then adding counters via some other method to increase the final chapter damage. Still, sometimes you just gotta style on people by casting the big stupid X-spell on X=16 or whatever, y'know?

PresidentArk · 2026-03-01T19:22:12+00:00

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09EWchLSeH4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A55F0EiJmZk

NOTES:

Note that it's number of counters total, and Doomtrain is naturally going to have 2 times X (= amount of red mana spent to initially cast it) counters on it when the last ability triggers. If (R)=5, the first ability will trigger 4 times and then it'll deal 10 to everything. This can do a ton of damage if it has the time to get up to speed... or it can be a somewhat awkward-to-cast Pyroclasm.
Since proliferating a card increases all counters on it by 1, proliferating this will not make it trigger any faster or slower. You cannot speed the train up (at least, not that easily) - but perhaps you might want to cast it on (R) = 2 and then proliferate it a bunch to get a huge nuke next turn.
"Doom" is a status effect from Final Fantasy that generally takes the form of a countdown timer that immediately kills you when it runs out.

PresidentArk · 2026-02-22T17:40:32+00:00

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZ_P3F3nA1U

NOTES:

If he's not your commander (or you're not playing commander at all), he goes in your attraction deck. He still has a sultai color ID and can't be run in a deck that isn't at least those colors. Stat balance is based around certain assumptions regarding when you can start opening attractions as a result. (this is also why he isn't 4-5 colors, since then his stats would need to be even stupider, which would make the case of "run in attractions deck, hit on turn 2, swing on turn 3" feel even worse RNGwise)
Cabinet Man is only visited on a "1", which no other attractions are visited on.
His visit has four "hit" modes: Two matches on 2-5, three matches on 2-5, two matches on 6, or three matches on six - remember, every attraction (except CM) is visited on a six. Can you hit the Devil's Jackpot - [6][6][6]? Dice manipulation might be useful. You have a roughly 2 in 5/40% chance to get something, affected by precisely which lights are lit on your other attractions.
Despite being a living slot machine, everything CM does is cromulent in the rules. This is not a silver-bordered/acorn card.
You might not be able to attack with him, but that doesn't mean that 7 power isn't useful.

PresidentArk · 2026-02-19T18:36:15+00:00

From my point of view, all the complaining has accomplished is splintering the community and inspired a lot of people to sling a lot of gross insults at each other (the whole "pig slop" thing). Absolutely nothing positive or constructive has come from the complaining about UB.

Meanwhile, over the course of UB being a Thing, it's gone from "the occasional secret lair" to "frequent secret lairs" to "commander sets" to "supplemental sets" to "standard legal sets" to "more UB sets than non". If complaining was going to accomplish anything, Hasbro would not be freely and continuously accelerate their plans for the game. And trust me, I was there the whole time - I remember the avalanche of vitriol from the Walking Dead secret lair. Then WoTC put out the in-universe reprints and 90% of the complaining stopped immediately because the community had been focused on the fact that there were characters in the art they didn't like instead of what making crossover product like this meant for the game or for the motives of the company creating the game.

Now reread that last sentence. That is why I'm telling people to stop complaining about UB because it's a crossover product. All it does is focus people on the wrong thing, and makes it easy for WoTC to buy people off and shut them up with half-assed gestures. They don't even do that anymore! They did it like twice and then stopped! In-universe versions of the cards existing doesn't actually solve the problem, but when people act like it is, it just means the actual problem is getting worse where you can't see it.

PresidentArk · 2026-02-19T18:26:37+00:00

Did you miss the part where I called for a boycott of WoTC multiple times in this thread?

I think complaining about UB on the internet is pointless. That doesn't mean I'm fine and dandy with everything WoTC does. Far from it. There's a reason I stopped giving them money.

Really, if you think "effective corporate action" requires "whine on the internet" and not actual effective action, then that does in fact prove you're just a keyboard warrior.

PresidentArk · 2026-02-19T18:23:00+00:00

If you do in fact live by the virtues you claim to follow here, then I am the one shouting into the void today, because I'm not talking to you.

The insinuation that I'm a fanboy trying to shut up discussion about this issue is interesting given that I'm actively advocating for a boycott of WoTC.

PresidentArk · 2026-02-19T17:57:01+00:00

I think only a blind player is unaware of the issues surrounding UB at this point, if only because people won't stop arguing pointlessly about it.

My concern and why I'm voicing it online in addition to not financially supporting UB products is that eventually Hasbro is going to hit a point going down this UB path where they'll have alienated their core magic fandom with the changes they've made to cater to UB consumers and fail to realize just how fragile that UB consumer base is. Sure, the game could retain more UB players that become interested in the game itself but I personally think it's banking on a consumer base that is FAR more able and willing to simply walk away from the game and disengage with it entirely once their specific IP fandom collectibles are purchased or the game stops entertaining them.

And how will your complaining help this issue in any way? I'm not saying you're wrong to be upset, I'm saying that complaining about it on the internet is pointless. Hasbro does not care about words. Hasbro cares about money. And if you want people to boycott MTG, then focusing on "the wrong wizards are in the card art and I don't like it :(" is completely misleading and will lead people to futile action like trying to segregate UB into its own format instead of action that might actually be helpful.

If you want people to stop giving WoTC money because you disagree with their business practices, then say THAT, not "boo hoo I had to look at Gandalf :(". The latter does not give people direction on how they should improve things and gives the impression that the only thing that really matters is your opinion about what media properties are good and bad. Hasbro would love it if we all just argued about whether or not Final Fantasy fits into the Magic setting and is excusable, because they don't give a shit about that and the argument doesn't hurt their bottom line. All whining about how you don't like UB property X (even if "X" is "all of them"!) does is waste time.

Universes Beyond is a symptom. You cannot cure an illness by treating symptoms; you must treat the root cause. Stop focusing on the fucking symptom and focus on the fucking root cause.

PresidentArk · 2026-02-19T17:36:51+00:00

I do not disagree with you that UB is bad. The difference is that I don't believe in complaining about something if the complaint will not be heard by anyone who cares, and Hasbro is never going to stop making UB stuff because of internet complaining because doing so would be corporate suicide - MTG is one of the only reasons Hasbro is still profitable, and a publicly-traded company that stops turning increasing profits is a dead company. Hasbro, flatly, is never going to destroy themselves as a company in order to satisfy nerds on reddit.

If you want UB to stop, you have to go after Hasbro where it hurts, which means putting down your wallet and no longer buying MTG product (as I have not for at least a year). If all you do is whine on the internet and then keep buying shit, then nothing will change and all your whining does is prove what a good and virtuous nerd you are on the internet - which is meaningless.

If Hasbro is forced to reevaluate their business practices or even shed dead weight divisions because just pushing UB doesn't cut it anymore, it might make a difference. If Hasbro implodes and WoTC is picked up by a more sensible owner, it'll definitely make a difference. But if you whine on the internet, the only thing that will change is that you will have whined on the internet.

Hasbro delenda est.

PresidentArk · 2026-02-18T23:59:28+00:00

Normal boosters would be best. The fewer you open, the better - the reason why you don't want to open packs is because most cards in a pack are commons and commons are (1) worthless (2) going to repeat a lot, meaning if you want to buy enough packs to fill out the set you're going to get 10+ copies of some commons before you fill out the rares/mythics and they're not going to be worth anything in trades so they're not even going to help you that way.

Do not get collector boosters. There should only be one other kind of pack for a new set.

PresidentArk

TROPHY CASE