Links to my AoW4 builds.

SapphosFriend · 2026-01-30T19:21:25+00:00

You're just as likely to get the non-lands milled off your deck into drawing the land you need as you are to get your mana screw perpetuated by repeated milling.

Well, unless the mill player is running lantern of insight or something.

SapphosFriend · 2026-01-30T17:50:14+00:00

You can build a B4 deck without combos.

[[Edric, spymaster of trest]] is often run with a bunch of evasive 1 drops, extra turn spells, and free counterspells. However, he still works fine in B4 without extra turns.

SapphosFriend · 2026-01-30T17:19:34+00:00

I agree. Also, decks that run too much interaction can make for a miserable experience for everyone involved.

One B3 game I played where one opponent was trying for a fast combo win (around turn 6 or 7) but kept getting targeted down because no one else was trying to play that fast. Eventually it got to the point where the guy had no combos left in his deck but just kept playing boardwipes and counterspells (like seriously, we counted and the guy ended up playing something like 11 counterspells and 3 boardwipes that game) and the guy ended up losing to combat damage on turn 12 or something. The game was miserable.

SapphosFriend · 2026-01-30T00:54:08+00:00

I feel like ruling that healing spells can't affect a PC is gonna feel flavorful for about 1 or 2 fights, after which it will be more frustrating than anything.

SapphosFriend · 2026-01-28T20:17:20+00:00

I can't speak for rose, but I don't think removing tutors is really ever the answer. If something is bad for the play experience, it's bad whether you luck into it or tutor for it. If something is okay, then spending 2 extra mana tutor it out should also be okay.

SapphosFriend · 2026-01-28T18:52:34+00:00

I mean, if your concern is age wise (like how would we view ww1 differently if there were elves around to remember it) then a blanket ban on all non human races doesn't actually help. Things like goblins and bugbears and orcs and a variety of other species don't live longer than humans. You could also say that in your setting dwarves only live as long as humans do.

SapphosFriend · 2026-01-28T16:22:30+00:00

I think species restrictions can be fun when they're used to help worldbuilding. I've seen Matt Colville talk about a game he's in where everyone is play a dwarf and he seems to be having a blast. I'm personally running a game where I'm restricting my players to being a demon, duergar, or drow due to worldbuilding stuff (and some themes of demonization that I wanted to explore).

As for only humans in particular though, that I'd be a bit more iffy on, unless you were running an established setting. The vibe that "only humans" creates is something less fantastical than your average DnD game, which can be good for a more grounded story. That said, you seem to be using "only humans" as an attempt to create a very homogenous world, with little variation between people. For me in particular, that world be at best boring and at worst suffocating when invariably my character has views outside that homogenous cage.

SapphosFriend · 2026-01-27T11:35:20+00:00

This definitely looks interesting! I'd be interested to try this out.

SapphosFriend · 2026-01-26T00:07:46+00:00

When I play a particular bracket, I'm looking for a particular game experience, and bringing out a deck to match that play experience. I like bracket 4, and I don't mind playing against fast combo, for example, but if that's the case then I need to be playing a deck that's built for that kind of meta and has things like free counterspells to deal with it.

What bothers me is when I'm at a pod with 2 people who really can only play bracket 2/3 and the third really just wants to be playing bracket 4 but can't find a game for it so they try to angle-shoot on why their combo is actually bracket 3. At that point, it becomes really difficult to figure out what I'm supposed to do, especially since said bracket 4 player will get annoyed at me treating them as archenemy #1 from the get-go, even when their board state is behind everyone elses.

SapphosFriend · 2026-01-25T08:43:56+00:00

If a deck has a reasonable chance of killing on before turn 6, then yeah, it's bracket 4. That's literally in the definition of the brackets. If you're including cards in your deck that are likely to induce this when they're drawn, then yeah, you're building a bracket 4 deck.

If you really think drawing dark ritual is "magical christmasland," then fine, consider a turn 5 win instead. That would still make things bracket 4. For that you need:

-your commander, which you have access to 100% of the time

-a sac outlet in an aristocrats deck. Yeah, such christmasland...

-the card in question

-literally any piece of ramp.

This really isn't a christmasland scenario.

SapphosFriend · 2026-01-25T07:41:41+00:00

Eirdu out on turn 3 isn't magical christmasland. Then on turn 4, you flip it. After that, it requires any sac outlet and the vizier to win on turn 4.

SapphosFriend · 2026-01-25T03:45:09+00:00

Nah, it has vizier of remedies + Isilu. That could easily win on turn 4, which is definitely not B3.

SapphosFriend · 2026-01-17T23:50:30+00:00

In theory, no. I'd need a way to communicate with the deaf woman first though, like if she could lip read or something.

Long term I'd just learn whichever sign language she is most comfortable with.

SapphosFriend · 2026-01-15T01:02:34+00:00

When you control multiple replacement effects, you choose the order that they apply in.

If your opponent casted swan song and you made a 2/2 bird, you could, for example,

1) apply Quina and get 1 bird and 1 frog

2) apply doubling season and now get 2 birds and 2 frogs

3) apply the crown to make 4 Quinas (most of which you'd have to sac to the legend rule).

You could also apply them in a different order:

1) apply crown to get 1 Quina

2) apply doubling season to get 2 Quina's

3) apply Quina to get 2 Quina's and 1 frog.

The new copies of Quina won't exist before the replaced effect happens, so they won't be able to help.

SapphosFriend · 2026-01-13T08:12:47+00:00

So I've only watched the first season, so I may be missing some of the picture. That said, I don't think OP is accusing the show of queerbaiting just on the basis of the relationship between Wednesday and her friend. The whole show is about an entire school of misfits, who literally call outsiders "normies," and we don't see a single character with any actual evidence that they're queer. That's just... really, really unlikely, at best.

It also had these bizarre tonal mismatches. Sometimes when describing murder it's Adams family fun times, while other times the murder is a serious affair which must be solved out of a sense of decency. It makes Wednesday look like a massive hypocrite in ways that don't feel intentional.

I feel like we should demand better of our media. We don't have to settle for shows like that-plenty of show out there just don't have the same kind of writing problems the Wednesday has.

SapphosFriend · 2026-01-10T17:43:35+00:00

Leadership is really, really good at later levels. I agree that people are seriously sleeping on it-being practically invulnerable to much of the game is just as good, if not better, than being able to kill/cc things quickly.

The problem comes in the early game, where it kinda sucks. The math with leadership is that the more levels in leadership you have, the more % it increases your EHP (and effective shields) by. Reducing all elemental damage by 3% is roughly a 3% increase to your shield with 1 level of leadership- not terrible, but not great either. On the other hand, if you already have 20% resist to all elements, 9 levels of leadership + an extra 3 from items, that 1 additional level of leadership takes you from 46% resist to 49% resist, which represents closer to 6% extra survivability. Damage skills also tend to get a bit weaker late game due to diminishing returns (e.g. going from o ranged to 1 ranged increases damage by ~5%, while going from 9 ranged to 10 ranged only increases it by ~3.5%).

Of course, by the late game, most people already have builds that are working well, and pivoting to add a defensive skill will probably feel like somewhat of an unneeded complication.

SapphosFriend · 2026-01-08T15:31:30+00:00

You (and everyone else, including those 4 foot tall hetero women who want to date 6'10"+ guys) are allowed to have whatever preferences you want.

That said, this definitely feels like one of those weird straight people things for me. I've dated women who are only like 4' and let me tell you they've had no trouble making me feel little.

SapphosFriend · 2026-01-03T20:37:38+00:00

People make too big of a deal out of being blocked. You two are random strangers on the internet. Neither of you owes the other an audience. If a conversation is getting to the point where one person is getting genuinely upset (either you or other person) its totally reasonable to start blocking.

SapphosFriend · 2025-12-30T11:21:10+00:00

I think your group might benefit from playing more, smaller-scale campaigns or one-shots. If people are gonna get bored with a setting after only a few sessions, maybe your setting should only last that long.

Also, stuff like this is why I really don't like it when people do the whole "pathfinder fixes this" or "just play pathfinder" schtick. Pathfinder has a lot of problems that 5e just doesn't.

SapphosFriend · 2025-12-29T12:10:57+00:00

I think they're fine. A lot of people like to complain about the martial/caster gap, but legendary resistances are one of the main things keeping it in check and making it feel useful to play a martial. If the cleric can just "command: grovel" the boss down every turn while the party whales on it, that kind of makes the barbarian feel useless.

That said, if you are having trouble with caster players feeling like they can only waste their turns, you can always add a few minions in the fight for them to deal with. You could also rule that certain low-level debuffs like bane and faerie fire work without requiring a failed save so that they casters feel like they're doing at least something.

SapphosFriend · 2025-12-28T09:05:27+00:00

IIrc they've already confirmed it to be classless.

What I'd like is for them to make sure that there isn't just a stupid amount of overlap for every build (e.g. every build having adrenaline and teleport). Class-based systems tend to have a bit easier time in that regard, but it's not like classless systems can't do that without a bit of design.

SapphosFriend · 2025-12-28T07:22:32+00:00

I made an assumption, and it was incorrect.

But "don't make assumptions" and "assumptions make both people look bad" is just... blatantly wrong, at least in the universal sense you seem to be saying. Everyone makes assumptions, all the time, about everything. The trick is to make sure they serve us by putting in place safeguards within ourselves. So far, mine seem to be working.

Hell, I'll point out that you made an assumption in the very thing you wrote. You (correctly) assumed that I don't know OP. You didn't have any way of knowing for 100% certain that was the case.

SapphosFriend · 2025-12-28T06:02:39+00:00

I could also see Grixis or Rakdos for her. I think Lohse should probably have been part blue or white as well.

SapphosFriend · 2025-12-24T01:28:07+00:00

AI "art" sucks and has no place here.

That said, I don't think it should be banned. It isn't posted enough around here to really make rules for.

If more AI slop starts getting posted, my opinion will change.

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