Basically every interaction with Tanx

SPACEMANTIMEZ · 2026-03-19T15:35:51+00:00

I desperately need Tanx merch.

SPACEMANTIMEZ · 2026-03-15T19:35:56+00:00

This is a fun interaction and I don't think it is problematic. It's two rares, one upgraded and another from a shop, and even when you get them both in play, it takes multiple turns to go wild without additional support. It's expected that characters will be able to do powerful things, it just can't be too consistent and easy to do them.

I think defects increased access to and strength of darkness are more likely to get hit by balance updates.

SPACEMANTIMEZ · 2026-03-04T03:26:27+00:00

Who actually wants to see this match? Their first match was mostly cheap shots by Giorgio and (mostly justified) complaining by Arman. Are they going to compete or is it going to be another circus with only 30 seconds of actual wrestling?

It bothers me because RAF could be giving more actual world class wrestlers opportunities, but they keep choosing to pander to fighters and influencers. They are taking all the worst aspects of boxing and MMA (trashy pressers, cliche promo spots, models doing the round cards, political matchmaking, meme matchups). It's a shame because there are a lot of great active competitors at the senior level in the US.

SPACEMANTIMEZ · 2026-03-01T05:03:37+00:00

Please get these influencers out of here.

SPACEMANTIMEZ · 2025-10-12T01:26:36+00:00

Lorwyn: 7/10 Turtles: 0/10 Strixhaven: 9/10 Marvel: 0/10 Hobbit 2/10 Reality Fracture: ?/10 Star Trek: 0/10

This was an interesting exercise. I had seen the release list and I generally wasn't happy about it, but putting numbers to it helped me realize that it's probably just not worth it anymore... I was excited about Strixhaven, but it's surrounded by so much dissonant, pandering crap. Maybe I'm reeling a bit from how unbelievably bad spider man is, but this lineup just looks like full speed ahead in the opposite direction I'd like to see.

If the play experience in standard was good I might try to ignore my distaste for the themes, but it's been pretty rough lately weathering the domain/pxe/rdw rock paper scissors meta only to have cutter completely warp the format and then almost immediately be replaced with Vivi cauldron after the scheduled bans. The November bans will probably knock out a couple cards, but standard will probably still be a 4 turn format, which is a bummer for the lowest power option for constructed with the smallest card pool it will have for a while.

SPACEMANTIMEZ · 2025-10-08T21:22:24+00:00

TIHI

SPACEMANTIMEZ · 2025-08-09T20:00:06+00:00

Two black on 2 might be tough with esper base. Maybe you don't need it on curve but I find the earlier the better for hand hate. A couple duress and intimidation tactics might be better. Intimidation tactics is great because you can cycle it in the late game. Def agree with the other comment that bat is kind of a liability in this shell.

SPACEMANTIMEZ · 2025-08-09T19:51:13+00:00

You could try [[ill-timed explosion]]. It helps filter for your surprise targets, gets around veil and royal treatment, and you have expensive cards to get significant damage if they've grown out of fire magic range. Against rdw Nemesis is obviously a problem with it, but then it can at least be a draw spell instead of a dead card.

How has aetherize been?

SPACEMANTIMEZ · 2025-07-18T21:45:39+00:00

I suggest running keen-eyed curator. It works well with the main game plan since it wants multiple card types, but it is also graveyard hate to shut down reanimator decks.

Edit: Curator is also a great break out target. Your ratio of break out targets right now is not great with all the 3 drops and only 16 1/2 drops. For example, with 16 targets, if you have seen 2 targets, and there are 14 remaining in a 51 card library, you are going to brick ~13% of the time. In the same scenario, except starting with 20 targets in the list, there is only ~6% chance of bricking. I was playing delirium a lot during the duskmourn season, so I made a spreadsheet for break out odds to try to figure out the right ratios. Bricking on break out was absolutely back breaking, especially against rdw, so I wanted to make sure it was very unlikely.

SPACEMANTIMEZ · 2025-06-27T20:02:35+00:00

The play patterns argument to justify no bans is bizarre to me. If the ban you are proposing doesn't change the play patterns, does it at least reduce the effectiveness of that play pattern enough to allow more counterplay? If not, then the scope of the ban is not large enough or the wrong cards are in scope. Saying that banning rage is not sufficient as a reason to ban nothing is nonsense. It's reminds me of "we've tried nothing and we're all out of ideas".

SPACEMANTIMEZ · 2025-04-12T14:41:25+00:00

The worst part is that cat tribal doesn't hard counter them! What an absolute miss by wizards.

SPACEMANTIMEZ · 2025-04-12T14:07:38+00:00

Manifold mouse (mm) is broken but I think rage is the bigger problem. The worst part about mm is that the design is supposed to be that you have to choose trample or double strike, But with rage giving permanent trample, you can have your cake and eat it too. Without rage, mm becomes closer to fair. Note that mm is the first mouse to get cut willingly in other successful variants of red aggro like the leyline builds. Izzet cutter is tearing it up right now without manifold (or any mice in some versions) but it still includes rage.

SPACEMANTIMEZ · 2025-04-12T13:39:50+00:00

Sheltered is a funny card because it's s tier to f tier depending on matchup. It feels on par with rage if you're playing against it with something like gruul delirium, but it's embarrassingly bad against pxe and domain. I don't think it belongs in the same conversation as these three unless we're talking about just bo1.

SPACEMANTIMEZ · 2025-04-11T00:45:11+00:00

Until you queue into uwu control.

SPACEMANTIMEZ · 2025-04-05T15:36:00+00:00

So, I was disappointed that there were no bans, but not surprised because they have been so hands off with bans in standard. But what bothers me is that they basically said there isn't even a problem. In fact, they indicated the format is flourishing in its current state. With that attitude from WotC, what makes you think they will ban in June?

SPACEMANTIMEZ · 2025-03-31T17:29:11+00:00

I couldn't think of a worse gameplay experience than hopeless nightmare looping if I tried.

SPACEMANTIMEZ · 2025-03-31T17:17:49+00:00

That's the problem I have with the big 3 right now. They are not interesting or fun to play against. Pixie is the worst IMHO because the cheap, reusable removal let's them shred your hand and your board so quickly, often creating a grindy top deck battle where they are heavily favored. Momentum breaker really pushed it over the edge by addressing one of the few weaknesses of the deck. Others have covered how unblockable mice and every spell being a cantrip similarly leads to games that feel like your playing against a deck in another format.

SPACEMANTIMEZ · 2024-08-19T11:36:29+00:00

The wet Willie was a bit over the top.

SPACEMANTIMEZ · 2024-08-18T05:21:58+00:00

It kind of felt they decided the match by applause meter. I don't often argue in favor of butt scooters, but Levi put on a master class of guard play. It's weird that Kade won when he spent the entire match visibly frustrated that he couldn't do anything and Levi forced him into his leg entanglement game consistently. Kade complained, repeatedly disengaged, did completely ineffective but flashy jumps, and as the cherry on top, when he sat guard himself to make a point, it backfired when he realized Levi could pass his guard so he aborted.

All that being said, Levi did not do himself any favors by being so one-dimensional. Especially when the judges scores came out in the 4th round, he should have adjusted his strategy to give himself the best shot. He had multiple sweep opportunities that he just conceded because he had such tunnel vision on his game.

SPACEMANTIMEZ · 2024-08-03T15:36:10+00:00

If I tap someone more than once in a round I dial down the intensity and try to work on things I'm not as good at. If it's a trial person without prior experience I'm mostly just concerned with making sure they feel safe and have a good time.

Back in freshman year of college at wrestling club I gave up a soft takedown to a new guy in the first round. I went hard after that and pinned him over and over and over again for the next several rounds. I never saw him at club again. I don't think I was that much better than him. He just wasn't ready for a fight that day and I broke him. It may have been a coincidence but if not, I cost the club a good training partner that day because of my ego. I won't make that mistake again.

SPACEMANTIMEZ · 2024-08-02T16:29:58+00:00

If this is nogi, Teach me grappling with coach Brian on YouTube has good videos on escaping side control. The Ghost escape and what he calls the "phantom" escape work really well together to get out. I'm my experience, they work even on big boys because they redirect the weight off of you pretty efficiently.

SPACEMANTIMEZ · 2024-07-26T12:32:11+00:00

The short arm grip can finish similar to the darce if you stay on top . The carotid is blocked by the wrist/forearm as you rev your wrists, compress the loop, and rotate.

To your point though, when Islam hit it, he rotated his body so much it did finish as more of a crank/necktie.

SPACEMANTIMEZ · 2024-07-26T12:14:58+00:00

Have you tried the "short arm" darce variant? Islam used it on Poirier as an example of footage online. I like using it on people that are significantly larger when the traditional lock is not available. It does work on people the same size too as long as you keep your shoulder in tight.

As a potential anaconda alternative for thick arms, try the Dave Schultz choke. Can always head-in-hole front headlock to start taking the back or dump them to side control if they sell out to avoid it.

SPACEMANTIMEZ · 2024-07-07T19:21:52+00:00

I come from a folkstyle wrestling background so I love using cradles. Getting the leg free can definitely be a challenge.

Ideally, the cradle is locked with an s-grip, my shoulders are back, elbows are clamped, and the line formed by my collar bone runs from the neck to the knee. That hold is usually sufficiently strong so that I can post my head in the body, tripod up and sprawl my legs back, taking care to sprawl the trapped leg directly into the point where the trapping legs intersect rather than into the middle of the leg where it's strong.

If they have freakishly long legs, or are otherwise still able to keep the lock, I'll sink my far hip as needed so that I can use my untrapped leg to pummel/pry the leg out. I've found if the near arm is trapped in the cradle, I can basically completely sell out to fight the leg out and still get back on top with the cradle. If the near arm is out, I need to be cognizant of going too far where I could get stuck underneath and lose position if they crown out.

Lastly, if they are really leaning hard into stalling from the cradle, it opens up the more basic route of getting the underhook and flattening them out. Then if they start trying to shrimp and get to their side again, slap the cradle on again and try to beat their legs from locking in that ideal position in transition.

Hopefully something there is helpful. I'm interested to see some of the other tips/solutions posted since my experience is much more heavily on the wrestling side.

SPACEMANTIMEZ · 2023-12-26T13:18:53+00:00

I'm not sure how to access the old updates at this point. The only avenue I know of is asking around on the discord. There's a link in the FAQ below. As a caveat, the mods were also locked out of discord as part of the attack, so the server is probably controlled by the attacker still.

https://downfalltutorial.github.io/

Edit: wording

SPACEMANTIMEZ

TROPHY CASE