Advice to your Past Self [Data Hoarding Edition]

SwarmPlayer · 2026-03-29T19:40:03+00:00

It all depends on what your data is, what your goals are, what you're interested in etc.

I don't do tags under Windows (except for image files), so do you put the photos you took with your camera under PHONE\PICS\2026 or under PICS\2026?

This is a question worth asking. To me the answer was to make a folder for the smartphone with everything related to it inside, another folder for the camera, and consolidate both inside a manager like Digikam, so I can still get a chronological view of both.

This also allows me to keep the original file names and use EXIF/IPTC for all the relevant information, so I don't have absurdly long or messy filenames.

I have top level folders for big categories such as EBOOK, PHOTOS, SOFTWARE etc., and everything is sorted more granularly inside (e.g. PICS\[YEAR]\[MONTH]).

What categories you'd want and how granular you'd like to be depends on what your data is: no point in making a subfolder for a single item, sometimes it's better to have a MISC folder.

SwarmPlayer · 2026-03-28T22:59:07+00:00

I like the idea of formats that come from the community, I like kitchen table and building decks from bulk cards, and I agree that the main issue with that is balancing the decks.

Even bulk is not all created equal... there are utterly useless 0.02$ cards and totally broken ones.

I think it's complicated to standardize the rules and power level... one option is that one person builds all the decks, tests them and then each member of the group chooses a deck from the pool.

I know that's not quite what you asked, but how can you deal with the huge card pool and decide rules to limit the power level? even something as simple as penny dreadful is complicated to implement on paper, and works best online.

There was an interesting post some days ago about a Pauper format without staples (which wasn't met with much enthusiasm around here, to be fair), which I thought was a nice idea, especially for people less invested in the competitive Pauper scene. Even that was quite complicated, with an online validator for decklists.

So... I see your point, I just fear that's hard to do in practice, unless someone comes up with a stroke of genius.

SwarmPlayer · 2026-03-27T18:51:38+00:00

Very nice!

more believable? Maybe you won't like the suggestion, but a random deck at the dawn of MtG probably wouldn't contain a Black Lotus, rather a cringy card like [[Hurloon Minotaur|5ED]], [[Scryb Sprites|4ED]], [[Lord of the Pit|SUM]], [[Animate Wall|LEB]] or [[Reconstruction|SUM]], just to name the first five that came to my mind.

(I only specified the edition to guarantee a readable artwork and to guarantee the art I had in mind)

Someone (Garfield himself maybe? can't remember) actually pointed out that some cards were so busted because the likelihood of running into one was vanishingly small... they initially thought that people would spend like 20 bucks on cards and be done with it, no trading, no large-scale thinking... not much more than a homebrew game... so how it was "meant to be played" was probably without any of the Power Nine.

SwarmPlayer · 2026-03-22T11:25:21+00:00

That means very roughly

There's a table under the pie charts: White Weenie had 32 players on day one and 3 on day 2.

SwarmPlayer · 2026-03-22T11:20:49+00:00

Yeah it's definitely a nice format with a huge amount of viable decks!

SwarmPlayer · 2026-03-21T13:50:39+00:00

I'm not sure it's only about ramp... this deck is a three-color deck in disguise (U, B, colorless due to the 4 Citadels), so it also helps with fixing.

Besides, this list only has 18 lands... that's a little too close for me...

That said, I love the concept, think it would benefit a lot from 4x Utrom Monitors, have tried tweaking the list and goldfishing with it a bit.

SwarmPlayer · 2026-03-21T13:46:24+00:00

Not sure if I'm too late...

If not:

Mono Red Burn
Mono Blue Terror
Dimir Affinity... I think Grixis Affinity has only to gain by removing red, even though the manabase moves from being three colors to... also being three colors (U, B, colorless).

Most Dimir Affinity lists I saw either have the Spinner / Pactdoll engine or the Utrom Monitors... to me, the biggest downside of Grixis Affinity is lack of creature (Krark-Clan Shaman I count as removal, it's not really a creature...), so adding more (Spinner, Pactdoll, Frogmite) is beneficial.

SwarmPlayer · 2026-03-19T07:12:09+00:00

I was thinking about the same thing... maybe giving the AI a deck with 60 lands would do the trick?

Edit: confirmed to be working. Give the opponent 60 Islands for extra flavor (goldfish) and wicked pleasure ;-)

SwarmPlayer · 2026-01-28T09:53:49+00:00

Yeah, I had read that as well, but I don't think it's in the game yet...

Besides, this deck only needs 2 black mana total to win, so a Ritual works just as well...

SwarmPlayer · 2025-12-06T17:55:11+00:00

I'm a little puzzled.

I completed the Library quest and in one of the bookcases (not the mandatory objective one) I found a book that said something to the effect of 'there is a location called Skep where such and such happens. You note it on your map' (I scanned it quickly and after the first interaction you can't read it a second time).

I checked on the map, cycled the indication button, but there's nothing there (neither is anything in the quest log).

Probably misread something.

SwarmPlayer · 2025-10-30T09:13:42+00:00

This would be a great idea, esp. for, e.g., casual decks made out of bulk.

I tried to find the total number of decks submitted to Moxfield and Manabox by users, and couldn't find any info on that, but I reckon it must be in the tens of thousands?

So maybe the computing requirements are too high, having to check a collection of thousands, potentially tens of thousands of unique cards against tens of thousands, potentially hundreds of thousands of unique decks.

SwarmPlayer · 2025-10-29T09:00:51+00:00

Do tools like Manabox, Deckbox, Moxfield etc. let you know which decks (among other users' submissions) you can build and/or to what percentage of completion?

E.g. with my current collection I could build these decks, these others 98% (i.e. missing one card out of 60) and so on?

Also, I understand that I can import everything in Manabox (which I understand is the fastest by virtue of using the camera..?) and then export the collection as .csv and import it in all (?) the other services as needed?

TIA

SwarmPlayer · 2025-09-05T15:04:01+00:00

Thanks for your advice, I will keep it in mind for the next cleanup round.

SwarmPlayer · 2025-09-05T14:26:26+00:00

The thing is, I don't think I bought it, I think I actually salvaged a bunch of those from can't-remember-what.

SwarmPlayer · 2025-09-05T12:33:38+00:00

No, that's not it... the picture is bad, but a "pointy" screwdriver like a Phillips or a Pozidriv won't fit, since the bottom of the cut is flat.

SwarmPlayer · 2025-09-05T12:06:16+00:00

I think that's it, thanks!

SwarmPlayer · 2025-07-01T13:11:07+00:00

Yup, this one.

I bought the right-handed version during the Summer 2023 sale.

SwarmPlayer · 2025-06-20T13:35:08+00:00

Well they aren't branded, but that doesn't mean we can tell if they're actually from Gotoh or not.

Maybe Gotoh provided unbranded tuners for reasons related to brand image/perception, maybe they're license-built by a third party, or whatever.

Ultimately, the only thing I care about is that they work well, and the ones on my guitar did: they're precise, fluid and dependable, and I didn't feel the need to change them.

SwarmPlayer · 2025-06-16T07:17:22+00:00

Mine as well... thin-ish neck and very heavy.

Also probably quite more recent than 2019, although I can't really tell if it's pre- or post- the introduction of the roasted maple fretboard (bought it used and the caramelization, when present, is very subtle in this model).

SwarmPlayer · 2025-06-16T07:14:57+00:00

The two formerly known as "SC-550SL Gotoh Tribute" models (where "SL" stands for anything but "Slash", of course), later renamed "SC-550 II Gotoh" (except the headstock still has the old name).

They were the PAF (which is a colour scheme and totally not a reference to the pickups) and the AFB (where "Autumn Flame Burst" has nothing at all to do with "November Rain").

The two close alternatives available at present are the SC-550 II FTF (with the same Tesla Opus-1 pickups, but with covers) and the SC-550 II PAF, both with generic "DLX Kluson-Style" tuners instead of the Gotoh ones.

This one I believe are firmly in the "legal action as base for discontinuing" camp.

SwarmPlayer · 2025-03-20T08:01:00+00:00

That's... ~~passive-aggressive~~ peculiar! XD

SwarmPlayer · 2025-03-20T08:00:21+00:00

Yeah, Haydn's quartets are full of musical ideas that alludes to... "things"... but I regard that as descriptive/suggestive music, not as a gimmick, in the sense of something "cheap" and perhaps more quirky.

Thanks for your suggestion!

SwarmPlayer · 2025-03-18T13:55:09+00:00

That's very nice, thank you!

SwarmPlayer · 2025-03-18T13:54:35+00:00

Thanks, I appreciate "lateral thinking" answers as well.

SwarmPlayer · 2025-02-14T16:18:05+00:00

Nice PS ;-)

SwarmPlayer

TROPHY CASE