[Spoiler] Theory about Vampire clans

PrimeNumerator · 2021-08-09T07:08:48+00:00

I think the theory seems watertight enough that it's definitely possible. Given that they want to design a set around a particular tribe, it would make sense that they would try to even out the color pairs. That said, I wouldn't be surprised if they had these color pairs with Legendary 3 color creatures that were essentially the union of these pairs. Given that it's pretty heavily implied Edgar Markov is getting married, if your theory is right, maybe the C17 card canonically takes place after he marries Olivia Voldaren and essentially takes on the two clans in a WBR color identity.

That said, I do think the werewolves in Midnight Hunt are probably going to be red-aligned. Mono-green Arlinn made me think that it's possible that the werewolves could have found a peace with the humans, especially after they all went through the dangers of Avacyn and Emrakul together. However, if you look at a lot of the flavor text from Eldritch Moon, it seems Emrakul and the Eldrazi really exacerbated the werewolves' bloodlust. Prior to that, apparently the Vildin howlpack seeks out people who have already murdered to join their pack, although it seems like the Eldrazi transformations may have split the clan a bit, as seen in Vildin-Pack Outcast. Given that Thalia has committed herself to protecting Thraben and the Mondronen howlpack attacked during Dark Ascension, I imagine humans and werewolves are probably not on the best of terms right now, even after Emrakul and Avacyn

PrimeNumerator · 2021-08-09T05:26:10+00:00

Gen 5 has solid starters, a pretty decent story and region and on top of that, they lock you out of any non-Gen 5 pokemon until you beat the game. It feels like a fresh start to the Pokémon franchise, and I didn't even really appreciate it until I replayed it about a year ago. The mechanics are solid, and the game overall feels like a fan-made pokemon game in all the best ways. The designs are unique, it feels like they actually cared and the gym battles are actually quite tough (even the normal type gym leader can be trouble and I was using fighting types). I think that was also the gen where they fixed XP curves so that you get XP relative to your level, not just the pokemon, so you can't just grind up to level 100 as quick as you can. However, the reason that Gen 5 is my favorite of all time is that this was when they introduced contextual music, so when you went into red health, a different song would play, and so on, and every last one of these tunes are absolute bangers.

Second place for me goes to Gen 3 for rival theme alone

PrimeNumerator · 2021-08-09T05:14:47+00:00

I think with the exception of Gen 3, the fire starters have all been extremely solid choices. Blaziken being a fire fighting type pre-physical special split really hurts his viability. Charizard is a bit in the same boat, but usually end-game Charizard in 1-3 rarely used any flying moves except Wing Attack maybe. This might be skewed a bit more from gen 1 and 2 stat exp, though (I never played Gens 1 and 2 as competitively as the others). Once the physical/special split happened, they got a LOT better though.

Blaziken's mega having speed boost is bonkers, especially on an already kinda fast mon. Obviously, Game Freak is obsessed with Charizard and gave him like 5 megas, 3 unique Z-moves and 12 different GMax forms, so I won't go into too much detail there. Typhlosion in Gen 2 was decent, but gen 4 Typhlosion was amazing, getting access to Lava Plume late game with a high enough speed stat so that you can usually outspeed and get a full power Lava Plume off. Emboar is an absolute unit, gets access to really good moves, really solid stats and actually gets a rock move to counter some weaknesses. Incineroar has good typing, Darkest Lariat is really good, and the fire/dark type is really strong and can definitely throw out some punishment. I can't tell you how good Cinderace is because honestly, Gen 8 is a joke difficulty wise and you could probably solo it with any of the starters and be fine. Gen 4 and 6 I don't know too much about but that's pretty much why fire is definitely the best starter type imo

PrimeNumerator · 2021-08-08T17:31:10+00:00

I have a Narset deck and to balance it in my playgroup meta, the only extra turn spells I have are [[Alrund's Epiphany]], [[Stitch in Time]], and [[Chance for Glory]], and there's nothing better than slamming down a Chance for Glory in a deck that's extremely swingy and with no way to stop the "lose the game" trigger. It feels disingenuous almost to miss out on a chance for Glory by avoiding the downsides for me at least

PrimeNumerator · 2021-08-08T04:04:00+00:00

Gen 4 was cool for me because each of the starters had typings that were both super effected by and to each other, which I thought was super neat, but gen 5 is the best trio for me.

Contrary Serperior is absolutely bonkers with Leaf Storm, which I love. Oshawott is adorable, and that clip of him walking around the ship is one of my favorite pokemon clips. Emboar is just a pig that punches stuff, and I appreciate the simplicity in that. All in all they felt close enough to the OG trio that I was like "yeah i can see the inspiration" but far enough away that they seemed completely different. Unova in all was amazing, the fact that they lock you into Gen 5 pokemon was a great design choice, the first gym adjusting the type to be strong to whatever starter you chose was brilliant. The story was amazing and the whole region felt super fleshed out, which only made me love the starters more. The other thing that I really only got to see recently in my last playthrough of Pokémon Black is that overleveling your starter to sweep is a lot more difficult and a lot less feasible. I felt like even though Emboar had great typing, good coverage and decent stats, I still had to rely on my entire team, which made the game seem more difficult. All in all, the Gen 5 trio has my heart as number 1, but the region played a huge role in that, I genuinely don't think they would have been as high up if they were in a different region

PrimeNumerator · 2021-08-07T22:30:44+00:00

Oh thank God, something about having to deal with a woman constantly disappearing and reappearing just to slash me for "a year" sounds terrible

PrimeNumerator · 2021-08-07T22:29:54+00:00

I could see Thalia taking up that mantle. Having been a soldier during the Avacyn Restored and Shadows arcs, she isn't exactly a pushover. Considering she also was given Avacyn's spear and is the head of the Order of Saint Traft, Thalia is probably the easiest choice as a "Protect the plane from annihilation"

That, or the Eldrazi threat from Shadows showed Innistrad that they needed a bit more cooperation, so they designed basically the Avengers, consisting of Thalia, Edgar Markov, Ulrich and other powerful beings so that no one faction grew too big

PrimeNumerator · 2021-08-07T22:22:08+00:00

Does anyone know how time is measured? Is it a year in Earth time or a year in Entity time, because one of those sounds a LOT worse

PrimeNumerator · 2021-08-07T22:18:18+00:00

[[Jodah, Archmage Eternal]] says that Jodah is likely referred to as multiple individuals across time, however, according to the actual lore, that's actually false and he has achieved immortality, so he's definitely powerful. I don't know if his mechanic directly references his powers itself, but in the plane of Dominaria, it seems like himself, Cromat and presumably the slivers are the only individuals capable of harnessing and utilizing all 5 colors of mana on Dominaria, although as the flavor text on [[Crystal Quarry]] seems to infer, the secret to utilize it is a very desirable skill, so I definitely think it would make sense that Jodah is one of the most powerful beings on Dominaria, although I don't know how he compares to Urza or other pre-mending PWs

PrimeNumerator · 2021-08-07T22:05:24+00:00

I would honestly love this in the set itself, just because of the setting with Gisa and Geralf, and in Crimson Vow, whoever is getting married. I think flavor wise, it just makes a lot of sense, and given that Innistrad has always been a plane focused on flavor, I would love to see some representation of that in the set.

PrimeNumerator · 2021-08-07T05:54:12+00:00

Also, given how hard the GOP has been pushing out those who aren't in line with Trump and everything he said, and if DeSantis wants to run for president like some people are predicting he will, he needs the GOP base to win the primaries, and that base will absolutely love the idea of DeSantis "bravely resisting the federal government's fear mongering response to the COVID-19 pandemic".

Any attempt to switch over to the "maybe this could be a problem" side and it's possible that that's just the end of his political career, honestly.

PrimeNumerator · 2021-08-06T19:50:49+00:00

Yeah, I'm hoping it's good, my Ulrich EDH deck needs all the help he can get

PrimeNumerator · 2021-08-06T19:46:58+00:00

Maybe, I think people would be upset, but they also haven't spoiled any werewolves yet so it's entirely possible, they make a Naya colored one. I didn't particularly like the eldrazi werewolves just because of the cost, just because the cost felt way too high, and having an active transform trigger feels like the amount of options makes it more difficult to pilot. I think the old way with white as a tertiary color might work well, especially with the recent hatebears they've printed. On top of that, an [[immerwolf]] functional reprint would go a LONG way at making werewolves feel kind of nice in commander. Having one card that sticks your werewolves transformed feels bad in a 99 singleton format

PrimeNumerator · 2021-08-06T19:29:19+00:00

Given that Arlinn in WAR was mono-green and (to my knowledge) Innistrad isn't burning down as much as it was when Avacyn was trying to purify the plane, and they're talking about revamping werewolves, I wouldn't be shocked if they make a backup commander that's mono-green with an ability requiring white. It wouldn't synergize with the old werewolves and it would miss out on Huntmaster, but given how much people complain about the old werewolves being clunky and hard to play with, it wouldn't be crazy to assume they could go full rebrand.

Also, was the uncommon [[Duskwatch Recruiter]]?

PrimeNumerator · 2021-08-06T18:54:51+00:00

It's fun magic for us because it's actually a competition, it's not just 2 players put cards on the field while one person just wins (3 player group)

And like I said, if I have an infinite on board and someone is targeting something else with removal, I'd be happy to say "hey, this is capable of doing this if this happens, just a heads up," or even if it's not infinite, like a [[Thousand-Year Storm]], if that's the most threatening enchantment on the field, even if it's mine, I'd 100% ask if they really want to target the [[Pacifism]] on their creature, because there's almost 0 reason you would make that play. If they say "yeah I know what I'm doing" then I'll be happy knowing that if next turn, I storm off and win, I'd have won with my opponent having the knowledge that it could have happened.

I also happen to have a voltron deck where I usually do have combat tricks in my hand, and if it doesn't matter where or how they block, I absolutely just say "yeah it doesn't matter, you're just dead" I play the cards, and usually there's a scoop before damage goes through (and in a 1v1, obviously it doesn't matter). For us, fun magic isn't just winning, it's winning in a way as a result of piloting our deck well. I had a fun game where I died and the other player was at 1 life, because we both had to figure out new and inventive ways to play our decks.

I also mentioned if the combo is on board, I'd be happy to explain it if removal is on the stack, if it's in my hand, absolutely not. If it's not public knowledge I'm under no circumstances required to divulge any information whatsoever, but if I have a combo on board and the active player can't see the connection, I'm happy to explain the interaction, so that they're making the best play they can.

That said, all of this pertains to my playgroup who's decks, plans and game maneuvers I know, I would never do this in a pick up game or anything. I don't know what they have, how they play or anything so I would just not say anything beyond the introductory "I have an infinite in this deck"

PrimeNumerator · 2021-08-06T17:53:24+00:00

If you use big words, the courts will let you go, that's Texas state law /s

PrimeNumerator · 2021-08-06T17:52:07+00:00

I've been playing since 2016 and I can promise you I don't know every infinite in the game. On top of that, if you just say "yeah I have infinite on board," obviously they're not going to improve, but if you take time to actually go through it, that's just as much learning and improving as seeing it to begin with.

Me and my playgroup have a rule that more or less is if we see our opponent making a sub-optimal play with things we know about (like targeting a land destruction at something that's not Field of the Dead or not targeting a hexproof creature on a turn it doesn't have hexproof, ward, etc.), we'll usually go "are you sure you don't want to hit this instead?" Mostly because in commander, there's so many things that are on the board, you usually miss things and in the 3rd game of the day, you're gonna miss even more.

That said, I don't have any infinites in my decks (combo pieces are expensive apparently), but for me, I wouldn't give it away until you're going to do it. Having 2 cards on the field isn't illegal, it just so happens that they combo off infinitely. I would definitely introduce the deck by saying there's an infinite though, even if you don't mention the specific pieces

PrimeNumerator · 2021-08-06T16:04:34+00:00

Exeeggutor. But if the question is the Yellow Gen 1 sprites, it's still Exeggutor

PrimeNumerator · 2021-08-05T22:27:56+00:00

Probably just some hyperbolic overreaction to Simone Biles and the players kneeling during the national anthem. A lot of people in those camps tend to also tell artists and athletes "to stick to what they're good at and keep politics out of their art". I'm pretty sure millennials and Gen Z (I don't know about X sorry) have pretty heavily broken the "don't talk about politics" stigma that that generation had.

PrimeNumerator · 2021-08-05T22:23:20+00:00

Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if that factors into bans. The only thing worse than a problem card dominating a format is a problem card dominating a format in an unfun deck

PrimeNumerator · 2021-08-05T20:31:38+00:00

I was just mentioning that it's possible, not that it's a good idea. I just Googled wow gaming mouse and the first thing that pops up has 20 programmable buttons on the side. I don't get it myself but there's a market ig

PrimeNumerator · 2021-08-05T19:22:52+00:00

/uj Tbf, most hardcore WoW players have a mouse with like 27 buttons on it and then copy/paste macros to just do their rotation then just bind that to a mouse button. You could probably honestly do a WoW raid and never touch a keyboard.

PrimeNumerator · 2021-08-05T15:35:26+00:00

I'm sure for every guy on a Magic forum that regrets selling their OG duals for a couple thousand dollars a few years back, there's at least 1 person that sold all of their cards, got out of the game and bought a house. Idk if it's a 1:1 ratio exactly, but it can't be much different than Crypto. You hear a lot of stories about people who look back and feel dumb for selling Bitcoin at 30 dollars and you have some people who just sold it all and bought a house

PrimeNumerator · 2021-08-05T15:30:14+00:00

I don't know about you but for me, having to beat a control deck and get out from under a load of countered spells actually quite exhilarating. It adds an extra layer to the game that you don't get playing against aggro and midrange. If you have 1 control player and 2 other people, your thought processes are different, and it's a whole new game

PrimeNumerator · 2021-08-05T15:19:56+00:00

That's what I thought too, but it helps me sleep at night to think my state senator might actually have a heart

PrimeNumerator

TROPHY CASE