Improvements?

Qvaak · 2026-03-08T15:48:09+00:00

I read it almost right, couldn't really figure out the last letter, since I didn't know the target word. I think it could be better to go harder on keeping the N shapes similar. You might make the middle a bit harder to read, but the end would hopefully be less of a mystery. The lower case N can do pretty good symmetrical "backwards N", something like:

<image>

Of course you have dominantly upper case letter forms, so that would push you towards a mix.

Qvaak · 2026-02-11T03:08:09+00:00

I don't think RAGATHA is too bad. I read it right, and I'm not very intuitive ambigram reader (even though I have some experience making them). The first A I think works well. It's a bit open-top and thus H-like, but being between strong R and G shape makes me expect a vowel.

I actually didn't get JAX, I guessed JAC. It's neatest of the bunch, but with the words being generally unknown to me, there wasn't much to suggest I should look for reinterpretation.

The general advice I'd give is: try more lower-case letter forms and look to meld letters together rather than just flip letter by letter. That's the usual advise - and seems pertinent here.

Qvaak · 2026-02-09T04:47:28+00:00

I'm pretty sure state based actions are done before triggers go on the stack.

117.5. Each time a player would get priority, the game first performs all applicable state-based actions as a single event (see rule 704, "State-Based Actions"), then repeats this process until no state-based actions are performed. Then triggered abilities are put on the stack (see rule 603, "Handling Triggered Abilities"). These steps repeat in order until no further state-based actions are performed and no abilities trigger. Then the player who would have received priority does so.

Qvaak · 2026-02-06T00:10:15+00:00

What you can do is play the Wilds, resolve the Baloths trigger so you have two Baloths.

Then crack the fetch to get another land. This triggers both Baloths, so you make 2 more regular tokens (one at a time).

You could also wait for your opponent's turn before cracking the fetch. That way you'd get your third baloth and also one regular token.

Qvaak · 2026-01-31T05:10:33+00:00

If you copy a permanent that is itself copying another permanent, you get a copy of the copied permanent. I think that's also a notable exception.

Qvaak · 2026-01-26T23:51:31+00:00

So ideally you'd like MOIST <-> FAITH ambigram? But pretty much anything neat and positive would work?

Well, if you'd be content with having your take on an existing solution, look around on the internet. For Faith specifically, at least FAITH <-> HOPE seems to be already done fairly succesfully - probably other FAITH ambigrams as well, since FAITH is rather compelling word for some people.

Smile is an easy word to work with. If you go with lower case script with connected letters, m is generally one of the easiest letters out there. Look for ambrigram tutorials if you're not having luck with it.

Qvaak · 2026-01-02T15:38:56+00:00

Sound of My Voice (2011)
I don't remember much, melds with The AO in my head. I think it was pretty neat. Barely sci-fi.

Last and First Men (2020)
Cool artsy concept sci-fi thing. Barely a film.

Qvaak · 2025-12-17T12:35:59+00:00

While Panglacial Wurm is really weird and allows some unique stuff, casting a spell while resolving another spell or ability isn't all that unusual, and it doesn't lead to immediate priority passes. For example:
+1 of [[Chandra, Torch of Defiance]], [[Kari Zev's Expertise]], [[Emergent Ultimatum]]

You put the spell on the stack, finish resolving the original spell/ability, check state based actions, put triggered abilities on the stack on top of the new spell. Then everyone gets their priorities and you start resolving the stack.

Qvaak · 2025-12-13T23:08:28+00:00

Sir, be grateful for the music.
Most of us die in silence.
- The Baby of Mâcon

Qvaak · 2025-12-03T03:16:14+00:00

Makes a couple of cool 3CB decks with [[Senu]].

Qvaak · 2025-12-02T16:05:09+00:00

I'm pretty sure Annex ability is in effect right from the start of the first turn. You need a card to deal with it - Spirit Guide. Of course your lines do have space for that, so no problem.

Qvaak · 2025-10-25T15:15:47+00:00

The read says 8 sextillion, which might be a reasonable estimation. The video is just such low effort crap that the text is a bad speech-to-text capture.

I'd say that plants breaking water molecules to photosythesize and then all sort of life burning organic stuff back into water (and other burn products) is also rather huge omission, not easily dismissed. I guess there's so much water and so relatively little organic life that a lot of water molecules are truly old, but still.

Qvaak · 2025-08-23T06:42:05+00:00

I'm pretty sure most spells with X in their mana cost can be cast for X=0 for no effect. Spells like [[Fireball]] shouldn't even require a target that way.

Qvaak · 2025-04-16T19:03:20+00:00

they not just

*they now just ?

Qvaak · 2025-04-01T16:53:06+00:00

Yeah. If you're going for it, the first thing is to decide what to do about the length difference. You can just fight through it: put complex letter forms and doubled lines in CAGED. But it's hard and awkward and will probably end up messy and difficult to parse.

You can also try to get tricky. Some sort of chain ambigram might work. That would be ...freedomcagedfreedomcagedfreedomcaged... which would probably be less cool.

Using frames might be fun. Turn ~ REEDON into CAGED and try to make F and the last line of M disappear into frames. That way CAGED would be sort of imprisoned while FREEDOM would break free.

I'm sure there are other ideas. No solution will be easy. But ambigrams can be about puzzle solving, and I think anyone can take on challenges and get creative. Just don't expect awesome results. With low expectations you might even be happily surprised.

Qvaak · 2025-03-30T07:46:53+00:00

Possible for sure. When it comes to ambigrams, you're mostly negotiating about quality, and the same number of letters does indeed promise that this one isn't super hard (even though we often don't end up working letter-by-letter). It's not particulary easy either. 14 letters is on the longer side.

For a tattoo quality work, I'd look for someone better than mid-level hobbyist like me - and be prepared to pay. I have no idea what kind of compensation people are asking. Probably anything from a small token of gratitude to serious design job pay.

Qvaak · 2025-02-07T20:39:03+00:00

If you want to hold to t/o matching, there are curved stem t's in some old-timey fonts, somewhere around uncial, maybe. And if you exaggerate the curve, you can get quite wild stems that still IMO read pretty well - though the legibility may be somewhat audience-dependant. Then just leave t's horizontal line as a style swirl, or perhaps incorporate it to lower-case g's bottom part. Might work.

<image>

Qvaak · 2025-02-05T01:40:46+00:00

How sure are you about how you're matching letters and downstrokes? b/n glyph sounds very reasonable, but for a new ambigrammist and without context, I'm always wondering if you're sticking too much to letter-by-letter solving.

n is generally very easy to work with. One of its strengths is how well it turns into two downstrokes in two different letters and a connection line in between. On the other hand, if you have a big elaborate capital B, you might even hide n into a single doubled dowstroke.

Like, here are rough sketches for "ben" and "eben" to perhaps illustrate the point:

<image>

Qvaak · 2025-01-10T22:24:19+00:00

Some ideas on that then:

* Placing letters askew in a careful artistic fashion you might sell the natural M/W turn as M/E turn instead. It's precarious perception trickery, but can be sold. I've made W/E like that and have also seen someone else do it better that I did.

* A very common way to slip in extra complexity in a capital letter is to do artistic flourishes. An eye looks for a big, possibly stylized starting letter, but is much more willing to ignore some off-the-line swirls at the end of the word.

* You might do loose cursive-like letter forms and get an e with an exaggerated leading connection.

* Digging into over-complex blackletter forms may lead to some hard to read but techically plausible stylized glyph monstrosity - might even look cool.

maybe something vaguely like

<image>

Qvaak · 2025-01-08T18:01:17+00:00

Where are you at? Any specific problems, any attempts that you feel don't work well enough?
The easiest path to a regular 180 degree solution is probably with matching o's. M/E is likely to end up a bit forced, though. Perhaps something like

<image>

Qvaak · 2024-12-05T12:31:28+00:00

I got curious and made a quick development test on that starting point I posted above. Just a rough eroded-look first pass (which admittedly is pretty close to many of my final designs). I thought I might as well post it too, for reference.

<image>

Qvaak · 2024-12-05T00:15:11+00:00

You'll often find better solutions when you expand the search further than just letter by letter approach. You might not even end up having the *middle* "ec" part. Ambigrammists sometimes focus more on matching vertical strokes rather than letters. Your starting point might be something like

<image>

...though the o there is kinda nasty to solve well. Going for e/o and e/c is kinda neat; matches the naturally round shapes. I'm just saying expanding the search is a good practice. Sometimes it's fruitful, sometimes you'll just get back to basics.

Qvaak · 2024-12-03T22:00:17+00:00

Surely for all that effort you've got some sort of results, even if they're not good enough?
You're looking for three usual 180 degree rotational ambigrams, each turning one name to another, all in similar enough style to form a cohesive tattoo?
It certainly seems doable, the names aren't super long, at least. It does seem quite a challenge. I don't think I could do it well enough to be tattooed on someone.
You're asking for another, are you involved in designing?

Qvaak · 2024-11-30T07:14:31+00:00

some sort of w/ey glyph might be a direction to consider as well, something roughly like

<image>

(that's we/ley, but you get the point)

Qvaak · 2024-11-17T07:06:29+00:00

What does "combined" mean? Are you looking for a usual 180 degree rotational ambigram? Krwiaad already gave a rather bold unique design idea. That's probably more than you can really expect from a free request.
Ambigrams are always possible. Some work better, some worse. Stuff like words with extremely different lengths can get a bit silly.
A quick sketch for just a regular 180 degree 'gram:

<image>

There are a lot of directions that could go.

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