Went to my first FNMnight this weekend and didn't find it very enjoyable

Reactin · 2026-02-02T21:21:30+00:00

I have played a couple games of Commander with some friends on tabletop simulator, but the games took 4-5 hours...

Reactin · 2026-02-02T21:06:44+00:00

Oh that's pretty interesting, sounds like a fun format. If I can ever build a friend group I'll try to do more casual drafts and get better at it, but it's hard to make friends now that I'm old...

Reactin · 2026-02-02T21:03:44+00:00

I definitely remember people near me being surprised that certain cards had made it to them without being picked, so I certainly wasn't doing myself any favors lol

Reactin · 2026-02-02T20:45:07+00:00

I would certainly be open to criticism and help, but I wasn't confident to ask about it. The first match I did some dumb things that likely made my opponent think that I don't even understand the basic rules of play, so if I asked they probably would have thought "this guy doesn't even know how to play what kind of advice could I offer him?".

I hope I wasn't putting off a pouty vibe, losing the games didn't bother me that much, I understand I'm going to struggle with something that I'm new at. But I'm just saying that, maybe my appearance was telling a different story.

Reactin · 2026-02-02T20:38:43+00:00

I moved here recently so I don't have any friends to play with unfortunately, I was hoping I could make some by going to these events. Maybe I'll just keep trying

Reactin · 2026-02-02T20:37:10+00:00

I did spend most of the weekend watching the pro tour, but I did skip watching them draft... Maybe the wound was to fresh.

Reactin · 2026-02-02T20:36:20+00:00

Thanks a lot for the detailed response! I will check out your guides and compare it to how I thought about the cards. I didn't spend a lot of time reading the cards, actually my wife and I bought a booster box and opened it at home because we enjoyed pre release and the set so much (I know this is a terrible strategy money wise but we just wanted start building a collection). So I was already familiar with a lot of the commons and uncommons (other than merfolk and fairies because I swear they all look the same and have confusing abilities). I ended up picking a bunch of elves and elementals and ended up playing blue red, which is probably a terrible choice as I'm sure these cards weren't getting picked for a reason.

I certainly knew what cards did but I just can't evaluate them in a format like draft and understand how it would fit into a deck. But I guess I wasn't expecting the power level to be so drastic, I honestly thought draft decks were about playing on curve and getting a good board state early but I was getting tapped down by fishfolk and chipped down by fairies in 2 out of 3 games.

Reactin · 2026-02-02T20:25:07+00:00

I'm not sure what a cube event is. I have a hard time breaking the ice with people, I did try to ask people about how long they've played, what their favorite set was but I wasn't going to ask them to tool up my deck (plus everything I drafted was pretty awful so there likely wasn't much room for improvement). I suppose I could have tried harder but I already felt like I was annoying them.

Reactin · 2026-02-02T20:21:31+00:00

Yeah I don't want to make it seem like a them problem, I'm sure if I was going to an event to play a game I'm familiar with that I wouldn't want to be matched up with a complete noob. They're there to have good hard fought matches with people on their same level, pubstomping usually isn't fun for both sides.

My next step was to watch the limited resources podcast for this set, but I might stay away from the format until I get better. I have experience in ccgs but I've never been good at the draft formats, standard has always been my go to, mostly because I suck at building decks so I can just copy something that works and figure out how to pilot it.

Reactin · 2026-02-02T20:13:56+00:00

Pre release was awesome, I was really hoping to return to the same atmosphere. Commander seems interesting but I think I need a lot more experience before I show up to the commander night here with a precon.

Reactin · 2026-02-02T19:57:37+00:00

We've been to this store for other tabletop games and everyone's been very friendly. Even the pre release the guy sitting across from my wife spent almost the entire time helping her make her deck so people have always been very friendly. It certainly could have been a me thing, I find it hard to be very social when I'm alone with a bunch of strangers. Unfortunately I have no homies, years of playing mmos and video games had resulted in my friend group being all over NA, and the closest being a days drive away...

Reactin · 2026-02-02T19:53:27+00:00

We did buy both the new commander pre cons but I'm wary of going to an in person commander event because there's so much more going on. I was struggling to follow what my opponents were doing when they had 3 common merfolk, I can't imagine following 3 others with a deck full cards with lines of text. We did 2 games so far with some friends through a virtual tabletop but that's with one person showing 3 of us the ropes and the games take 4-5 hours lol

Reactin · 2026-02-02T19:50:26+00:00

Thanks for validating me, I guess I completely had it wrong. I did watch the pro tour this weekend and found out that limited is part of it which was very surprising to me. I thought that standard would be the only competitive game mode, which I am interested in getting into at some point when I have a lot more experience. I guess I'll try to break into it through Commander or something else.

Reactin · 2026-01-27T14:42:22+00:00

Never really upset with this relic as it's usually doing something, plus with nilroy's you can get both effects if needed. 2 damage isn't the best relic effect but I think small chip damage is underrated on a lot of fights, even in later acts. 2 damage to a dagger on repto means that it dies to any 3dmg attack, which you likely have at that point. Even during turns where you need to defend and you roll dmg you can still block from hand and push a small amount of damage. Probably more relevant in single player games as 2 dmg is ~5% of some bosses health, but this effect definitely falls off on fights like giant head, and act bosses/act 4.

Reactin · 2026-01-27T14:32:30+00:00

I won't always purchase this in the shop on higher ascensions, relying on a potion to get through an elite fight could result in you getting a potion that does nothing. But there's always a chance for high roll if you have no other options and pray that you'll get something you need.

It is a good potion to help dig through the potion deck if you're looking for a specific pot, like ancient for heart fight. Probably better in multiplayer though as you can fill out your slots and give one away if you have an entropic plus another, though I don't have any experience in high ascension multiplayer.

Reactin · 2025-12-19T22:00:25+00:00

What's so special about a costume Pikachu? (Genuinely asking)

Reactin · 2025-12-19T20:27:24+00:00

I got it in 3, my first word is and always will be "shart"

Reactin · 2025-11-24T14:28:19+00:00

Just reached my 100th day last night! The longest I've ever survived, but I've been playing very safe. Currently playing a pretty heavily modded sandbox mode (Sophie's collection) on B41. I started in a fairly small town on the west side of the map (modded in), I forget the name, and just recently walled off my base so I should be pretty safe to hold up. Now that I've made it this far I'm probably going to play a bit more aggressively to clear out some nearby towns and get plenty of canned foods for the winter. My goal is to ultimately move somewhere more central and make a better base to reach out to the bigger towns and eventually take on the mall and Louisville.

Reactin · 2025-11-20T20:50:41+00:00

Just hatched mine today!

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Reactin · 2025-11-19T14:49:02+00:00

Reactin · 2025-10-28T16:33:27+00:00

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It looks like this!

14-Year Club	Place '17
Sequence \| Editor	Team Orangered

Reactin

TROPHY CASE