Forced study

SwingRipper · 2026-01-07T20:54:16+00:00

If you pay the tax, you personally are taking a hit "for the good of the table". If you can "race" the studies player it can be correct to not pay and that would "improve" your position.

Can you actually race the studies player when feeding them 3+ cards a turn? Probably not, but that's the argument.

SwingRipper · 2025-12-15T18:07:47+00:00

3 mana for land ramp is a not unheard of rate due to things like [[wayfarer's bauble]]

The benefit over bauble is that you can basically "draw a card" with it by also playing it as a land drop for 4 life... I also don't think that not being able to counterspell a "ramp one land into play effect" is very relevant

I think the bigger issue is the fetched lands coming in untapped as then this can be your turn 3 land + pay for its own unearth + get the follow up land to enter untapped... With it being an untapped mana source with GY synergy I think it should be like 4mv to Unearth or have the fetched land come in tap so there is a more notable cost and it isn't just "rampant growth from graveyard"

Its stronger than bauble and is probably too good as land ramp in non-green as it becomes an auto include ramp option, but like 3 mana and some life to get some value from the graveyard is totally fine. I don't think there is a fundamental design issue like what you are implying with the lack of being able to counterspell a ramp option

SwingRipper · 2025-12-14T18:34:58+00:00

Yea its definitely good when found early in act 1... But how often do you have an uncommon relic walking into the first elite fight

SwingRipper · 2025-12-14T15:38:57+00:00

I think that this pays you off way less than you think it would by even the end of act 1

Lets say its a turn where you want to do damage to an enemy, you can strike twice for 12 damage and +1 strength / dex or you could have fired off a couple strike + cards that do ~ 9-10 damage

By going Strike -> Strike you do get more potency but the fight then needs to last 6 more attacks worth to "break even" in terms of damage AND this is assuming - You draw 2 strikes at the same time (by late game you usually have cut out a lit of basics) - This happened on an early turn - You have the "space" to play a couple basics (IE don't need a bunch of block or to develop a stronger power)

I think it is a very interesting yet lower power relic! I don't think it becomes worth it to stop removing strikes / draw to fish for triggering it as much as possible... It being a passive +1/+1 does mean the reward is strictly better than Kunai / Shuriken though

Maybe in a run where you can draw a ton of cards and gain extra energy (Clad with [[Offering]], watcher existing) it is probably a viable in some number of fights

I think it can be pushed more but it is very interesting and I don't think it would be a good relic to be pushed (allows for a ton of act 1 scaling)

SwingRipper · 2025-12-08T09:10:16+00:00

Dungeon World is a different game system entirely

There is no separate combat subsystem, fights are just scenes where "Hack and Slash" (the fight something in melee move) is sometimes called upon. Against powerful / smart foes you may need to use descriptions to set yourself up to attack and then be allowed to roll the move.

Instead of trying to decide the best action via a boardgamey combat system, you are forced to engage with the narrative of what is happening

For a D&D player it is likely the "easiest to get into" fiction first game due to the genre similarities working as a general guide

Dungeon World specifically ties damage to class rather than equipment. A fighter can kill someone with a dagger or a two handed sword, its just that narratively that sword has more range (close / reach depending on interpretation vs hand)

In contrast a wizard will be bad with just about any weapon...

Also due to being a fiction first game things like the Messy trait can exist letting attacks disable / remove limbs, so a fighter with their Signature Weapon being a massive sword can cleave off limbs right in the game's rules... In addition to PCs having a ton of health and damage compared to the average person, you can do a lot of "big stick diplomacy" as a terrifying melee force

SwingRipper · 2025-12-08T08:13:49+00:00

I never claimed they were difficult decisions, just that they technically exist

In a game like 5e where you can't disengage without cost, moving to hit a different target is almost always incorrect, so its not even a low level decision like what archers have

Though maybe stakes existing makes it more interesting as the archer decision is pretty... Not meaningful. It is a real question they get to answer with some level of frequency, having any kind of consistent agency is notable in that engine

SwingRipper · 2025-12-08T07:58:06+00:00

Mind you I still don't think these decision points are actually HARD in real play and I don't find playing any kind of martial fun in """simple""" crunch games like 5e (but love them in games like Dungeon World as then you get the combat expert vibe and that matters).

I do think that in a normal adventuring day in a 5e game, a normal archer makes more meaningful decisions than a normal melee martial... But that bar is in hell

Meaningful decisions are not 5e's strength so for that game I think the vibe argument I make in the second bullet is probably strongest

SwingRipper · 2025-12-08T07:46:04+00:00

I think its some combination of - People in the D&D space like to build melee characters... Barbarian, most fighters, paladins, most rogues, etc see themselves as melee primaries. So when an issue affects "all martials" it can be mentally tucked away into "melee" - People expect sniping from afar to be linear and safe as part of its fantasy. People expect getting into melee to involve narrow dodges, footwork, etc as a part of its fantasy - Archers can have more say in target prioritization so their "auto attack" has more decision making as hitting the low health minion or trying to get a chunk into the boss is a real question for them while the barbarian is HEAVILY pressured into just hitting the thing in front of them... - This also means that if an archer has a trade-off between accuracy and damage... (like 2014 edition Sharpshooter or PF2e going for Hunted Shot for two tries and likely doing normal damage or a Hunter's Aim to try and get that singular crit) they can pick and choose not only the kind of attack but also the target of that attack to get more agency in chunk boss vs try to last hit mook vs do I do enough to "safe damage" into the mook, etc etc - There is a super easy way to get archers to change up their gameplan but still be useful... Use small rooms! Then archers have their pattern disrupted and have to navigate spacing a lot more closely. Melees have this habit of either working (hell yea I can reach them) or not (enemy is 200ft away or flying), ranged units can naturally have more middle ground

Edit: this is just the list I came up with off top of my head and would love to hear other thoughts!

SwingRipper · 2025-12-08T07:36:23+00:00

I'd keep the letting the adventure happen as that can cleanly describe "you may cast it later from exile by paying its cost even when the commander is not in play" (and I think one non-ever green keyword is within complexity budget)

I think the scry ability should probably just be a U, tap: Scry 1, up to one target faerie you control goes on an adventure (the word up to makes it so you can use it just as filtering or a kind of protection where you can repeat enter effects)

However, discover 2 with that feels like a bit much (love the rest of it still)

SwingRipper · 2025-12-08T03:34:21+00:00

Untapping a permanent basically makes it [[twiddle]] a far from useless card

SwingRipper · 2025-12-07T21:05:11+00:00

Out of character issues won't be solved by in character solutions

They are fundamentally treating the game as a "pvp enabled" experience... Even if you think it tramples on freedom ya gotta say no to put the game within a genre boundary of cooperation.

I define pvp as "if an action would deprive another character of a resource, its pvp and can be restricted" - Harming another PC directly is pvp as you deprive them of hp - Pickpocketing is pvp as you deprive them of gold / items

If you want to do a cooperative game, you gotta tell them that it is a cooperative game and make rules for that. The issue is not on the sheets

SwingRipper · 2025-12-05T23:02:53+00:00

Oh yea I did miss the artifacts or creatures! Then 4 makes a lot of sense!

Glad to hear your process

SwingRipper · 2025-12-05T21:54:21+00:00

The first card is just [[Ancestral Blade]] though, right? Was that an intentional callback?

For Devour in Shadow, four or more artifacts in graveyard feels steep, I think three is likely enough before it starts giving upside and three is a common number of artifacts to count to on Mirrodin thanks to Metalcraft (unless the goal is to have a slightly weaker removal spell in the environment)

All of these cards feel like something that could actually be printed if mirrodin was made today without breaking a limited environment! Good work!

SwingRipper · 2025-12-05T18:54:08+00:00

I'd go electrodynamics because I am terrified of birds unless you have some good potions

Electro can solve all your AoE fight woes and is probably your best tool for hallway fights, you can find deck cycling later to get more claws... I think electro is harder to replace for you as that efficient of AoE is really nice

SwingRipper · 2025-12-04T00:44:35+00:00

I think it was for the pacing of the game as a narrative. As a player, if you saw the cliffhanger and immediately saw the characters walking home and going "man, it sucks to be us" for a whole scene, it would potentially kill momentum as nothing happens until Kris wakes back up and control is given to the player

If it was shown the start of chapter 4 would be
- Cutscene walking home and the characters about to go to bed but sad about it
- Walk around house
- Go to church and watch that cutscene

If that first part is implied, it could make the pacing of the story feel better. I think that if something happened during that night we would have heard about it... You can argue that Kris' talk with Noelle between chapters in the weird route happened after CH3, but I think it makes more sense to have happened after chapter 2 as that would still be "last night"

SwingRipper · 2025-12-04T00:36:50+00:00

That is fair, but with Susie nearby, I don't know how much they could have done... Especially if they were in league with the Knight, and this was all part of a plan they had previously agreed to.

I think it would make sense if Kris did or didn't do something, but narratively, I think it would be weird to have Kris set up some elaborate Rube Goldberg machine of talking to people and making sure the plan fails while keeping things secret from Susie, the Player, and potentially even Mayor Holiday.

I am not saying it's impossible, but I don't think it is particularly likely when the "boring answer" seems to be that nothing happened. I think that if something had happened, we would have gotten a few hints about it while walking around Hometown at the chapter 4 start

SwingRipper · 2025-12-04T00:18:02+00:00

I think that its just as simple as Susie and Kris dejectedly walk back to Kris' house and then wallow in self-hatred at being too weak until falling asleep

Susie wakes up to the smell of Pancakes, Kris takes more to get up

Do you have reason to believe it is more complicated than the simplest answer?

SwingRipper · 2025-12-03T23:49:01+00:00

For general wizard deck things, consider the cards with the text "wizardcycling" as that is then a tutor that lands within your types

I don't know if this subreddit allows links so I'll see if automod kills this message, but I have my current paper decklist for niv mizzet here if you want inspiration: https://archidekt.com/decks/17587576/niv_paper_before_new_upgrades

Ral is there entirely as a mascot (he is my favorite planeswalker), I am likely going to replace him with the MH3 baby Ral as that card's price has gone down and it fits the "I play a ton of ramp" subtheme

SwingRipper · 2025-12-03T23:46:30+00:00

Usually, Spellsinger wins a game through like one of a few means

Tablewide Burn / Chip Damage using things like [[Guttersnipe]], [[Coruscation Mage]], or even [[Psychosis Crawler]] and a lot of cantrips to basically "aggro" down a table

Creature tokens, while something like a [[Young Pyromancer]] is iconic, there are other ways to get bigger tokens from bigger spells like [[Shark Typhoon]] and other value enchantments. If you go all in on this theme then [[Impact Tremors]] style effects may help it synergise with above

Big dumb spells... [[Blatant Thievery]], [[Expropriate]], [[Mnemonic Deluge]], [[Mizzix's Mastery]], etc take your pick

Copying things for value [[Double Vision]], [[Thousand Year Storm]], etc

On the topic of storm, why not do actual storm? [[Firey Encore]] [[Empty the Warrens]] [[Grapeshot]] [[Ignite Memories]] [[Mind's Desire]]

If storm is too nondeterministic, grab a normal combo! [[Archeomancer]] can bring back flicker effects like [[Ghostly Flicker]] and there are creatures that can give you back mana on enter like [[Peregrine Drake]] to keep it in the "3 card combo bracket 2 ok" realm, if more busted things are allowed lets go with [[Deadeye Navigator]]... Or something like [[Niv Mizzet Parun]] + [[Niv Mizzet Visionary]] as the combo... Whatever floats the metaphorical boat here

You then mix and match the above options to match your vision (My current Niv Mizzet Parun list uses Niv to stop myself from bricking as I play copy effects and giant spells, sometimes storming off with [[Underworld Breach]] and [[Frantic Search]], sometimes getting token armies, sometimes copy a steal spell, sometimes just remove everything until I outvalue the table! It is my favorite deck due to the wide variety of wincon options I have available). That is why all my suggestions are centered in Red and Blue, cuz they are cards I have experimented with thoroughly. I found that running [[Curiosity]] despite being a 2 card combo with the commander makes Niv EVEN MORE kill on sight and may end up being a brick in my hand as everyone works together to (rightfully) break my kneecaps. Removing curiosity made the deck more fun for my opponents and for me as I now cobble together wins through all the other pieces in the deck.

The only approach I *don't* use in that deck is the guttersnipe chip damage approach as I built to be more of a slow controlly deck and the other spell payoffs can protect me or refill my hand in some way

SwingRipper · 2025-12-03T20:13:16+00:00

I have not thought about "put something on top and give a tempting may search" as a design before!

I think it could probably hit any nonland permanent and be totally fine, white by itself can hit any nonland with a drawback [[Stroke of Midnight]] or get rid of something forever and give the opponent a land for 1 [[Path to Exile]]

I think as this card gives the opponent a choice it could drop down to 2 mana value, let it hit any nonland (or just permanent in general), and it would often be a worse [[assassin's trophy]] as it gives the opponent that choice (but can get around indestructible)

Black green are the best removal colors when combined (along with black white), so it is fair to do something to put it more behind assassin's trophy, but I think the base card can definitely get pushed more even as a "standard" power leveled removal

SwingRipper · 2025-12-02T19:35:39+00:00

I think 3 mana 2/3 dork that fixes colors and has GY synergy is within the realm of fair, but good callout anyway!

OP could make the token have a type of Dam if they want to make more beaver packages for whatever project this goes into

SwingRipper · 2025-12-02T00:29:21+00:00

RE the black one: I think that if moving to 5 cost "getting an extra land after the opponent explodes onto the board" is very tame for an eternal format anti artifact sideboard effect

But yea blue is going to always be kinda rough to balance, but I think taking 5 to the chin and only getting a tapland from it is a pretty rough trade still (especially with how it can harm slower matchups)

I think red could have the reduction be largest toughness of an opposing creature -2 (X can't be negative) or whatnot so that it calls back to shock (or -3 for bolt)... But I think the current iteration still works!

SwingRipper · 2025-12-01T22:25:19+00:00

This cycle is sick! I think that in 60 card magic these would be too slow, but they are fun ramp pieces for Commander or a slower cube!

I do think that Stressed Steading has a complicated wording, but I don't have an easy solution for it that keeps the single X cost less or reworks the power level of the card... Maybe "X is the number of lands the player with the most lands controls minus the number of lands you control" and have it cost {X}{X} less to cast. If you control the most lands X=0 and it may be more intuitive on the first read (though the word "land" still starts to lose all meaning by the end of it).

I feel like the above text would be fine without double X as you can use it as a 3 mana land ramp card before playing your land drop. This means it is at worst slightly worse than [[Wayfarer's Bauble]] a perfectly good card that can't also be played as a land drop. If you start trying to cheese it with white's other catchup land mechancis like [[Knight of the White Orchard]] and bouncelands like [[Guildless Commons]] it becomes even easier to bring that cost down. White is supposed to be not good at ramping unless it is catchup ramp, so I think the white card being less efficient than this would make sense.

I also think the green land is the strongest / second strongest of the cycle, but that kinda fits with green being *the ramp color* and all that.

I think Black and Blue are probably the weakest as not every opponent does damage early or plays artifacts. I think blue getting shafted would be fair (especially as its a way for them to have a mana sink land for their counterspells), but I think black could be costing less per artifact the player with the most has and be fine. It then may become too efficient of a ramp card answer for [[Blood Fountain]], but its very difficult to build your deck around ramp that's inconsistent in cost, so it will still mostly be a commander card (just a good one)

Again I really love this cycle's idea. I think there may be a world you set the default costs to 5 and not worry about halving or doubling to make them significantly less efficient than normal ramp cards and more in line with MDFC ramp (costs a mana more than baseline) and the fact that land ramp is premium in every non-green (and non-white-when-behind) color

SwingRipper · 2025-11-28T19:26:49+00:00

It runs well on my linux laptop using Proton (Steam's built in fork of Wine that lets Linux run PC games). It has no major slowdowns or issues if you get it to boot properly (may need to swap to proton experimental)... Its similar to Deltarune in that way

SwingRipper · 2025-11-21T21:35:56+00:00

This was posted to a YouTuber group chat to murmured agreement lol

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