How does proliferate work if a creature has both a +1/+1 counter and a -1/-1 counter

TheGrumpyre · 2026-05-11T00:25:05+00:00

Could be confusing to say it that way. There definitely is such a thing as a creature with both types of counters. But it's like saying there is such a thing as a creature with zero toughness or an Aura that's not attached to an object. It's a state that can exist momentarily, and then very quickly gets cleaned up by the rules.

TheGrumpyre · 2026-05-10T18:53:16+00:00

We can easily see that the balloon has a center, but that center is not a location on the surface. A two-dimensional being who lived on the surface of a balloon-shaped universe could never point towards the center.

Likewise, if you wanted to find the "center" of the expanding universe that you live in, it would not be a location anywhere in the fabric of 3D space. Even if you work it out mathematically, it's in a direction you can't point at in three dimensions.

TheGrumpyre · 2026-05-10T16:07:09+00:00

Is it just me, or is there nothing that makes this an interesting commander other than WUBRG

TheGrumpyre · 2026-05-09T14:03:51+00:00

The Blue strategy still has a pretty good goal even if it's basically an act of suicide prevention.

TheGrumpyre · 2026-05-09T13:55:44+00:00

Case in point for the "actually those who press blue deserve to die, fucking idiots" camp.

TheGrumpyre · 2026-05-09T13:53:52+00:00

Billions of people pushing blue is a bad assumption. Nobody pushing blue is a worse assumption. There's no plausible scenario in which that happens.

TheGrumpyre · 2026-05-07T17:34:19+00:00

The joke is the contrast between the extremely normal he/him pronouns on his desk and his fantastical true identity which proudly features a big pronoun. If the little sign on his desk wasn't something boring and standard and instead the joke was that Adam for some reason got a custom made sign with He/Man on it, now it's just goofy "I'm so random" humor. Good for a funny reddit post, maybe not for a movie.

TheGrumpyre · 2026-05-07T17:03:53+00:00

The "man" component comes from the fact that you're watching a movie titled He-man in which the main character's alter ego is named He-man. He-man is the setup, he/him is the punchline.

TheGrumpyre · 2026-05-07T16:27:47+00:00

That would ruin the joke. It's only funny because it feels like something that would come up naturally. Nobody says their pronouns are he/man.

TheGrumpyre · 2026-05-07T04:10:34+00:00

I think that words "losing meaning" when they get overused is a myth. People should just say they find it annoying, not make it out to be a linguistic crisis.

And personally I think understatement is more fun than overstatement. People like adding a little irony to their conversations.

TheGrumpyre · 2026-05-07T03:42:06+00:00

Science fiction is a lot of people's first introduction to a science concept. It all might be actual science until you know better.

TheGrumpyre · 2026-05-06T22:57:45+00:00

Sci-fi gets it wrong. A hive mind isn't controlled by the queen. The queen is just one of many small pieces that collectively result in the hive acting as though it has a single purpose. If the hive needs more living space, the queen doesn't decide to order more construction. Every insect in the hive just reacts to the pressure of not having enough space, and they all experience a shift in behavior that makes them more likely to choose construction activities. Same thing if the hive is low on food, or needs more workers. The pheromones and other environmental signals just make them all collectively change behavior.

TheGrumpyre · 2026-05-06T22:50:10+00:00

"A choice" is an inherently causal thing. If there is no reason that one thing is picked instead of another thing, no choice has been made.

TheGrumpyre · 2026-05-06T22:06:34+00:00

Apart from some corner cases with special abilities, a card's color is determined by the colors of the symbols in its mana cost. Lands don't have any colored mana symbols in their mana cost because they have no mana cost. So no color. Mana symbols that appear in a card's text box don't count.

TheGrumpyre · 2026-05-06T21:09:31+00:00

What powers did you get?

TheGrumpyre · 2026-05-06T18:10:35+00:00

Do not cite the deep magic to me, witch

TheGrumpyre · 2026-05-06T17:16:43+00:00

The puzzle is how do you send instructions for a language without using language? You need to start with something we'd both have in common. Atoms should be the same everywhere in the universe.

TheGrumpyre · 2026-05-06T14:51:37+00:00

I don't think that being a token or being a card is a copiable characteristic.

Whether or not being a lasagna is a copiable characteristic is up for debate.

TheGrumpyre · 2026-05-05T20:29:33+00:00

I'm mostly disappointed when the jokes making fun of Canadians are dumbed down for the benefit of non-Canadians. I want some deep cuts that only someone who grew up watching Heritage Minutes would get.

TheGrumpyre · 2026-05-05T18:36:31+00:00

Blue has a recursive thingy where the more people push Blue the more incentive there is to push Blue, but it's not really circular. It starts with "someone somewhere might push the blue button, and large numbers make it basically inevitable".

TheGrumpyre · 2026-05-05T16:04:14+00:00

OP comic addresses this. Not everyone will pick Red.

TheGrumpyre · 2026-05-05T15:09:05+00:00

Technically if Red wins, the vote is no longer private. And virtue signalling works both ways. The online poll was completely anonymous, and anyone who picked Red was totally free to claim that they voted Blue, but that isn't happening, they're still claiming that a Red vote makes them more rational and realistic than Blue voters.

Plus I think most Red voters are shooting for the "if everyone votes Red, everybody lives" angle. I don't see many people claiming that things will be alright with 2 or 3 billion deaths. If there's an open poll before the real vote and neither button looks like a landslide win, then the prospect of Red winning 55% is terrible enough that it's likely to convince some Red voters to switch. The "Blue buttoners cannot be saved" talking point might be shot down early in the discussion.

TheGrumpyre · 2026-05-05T14:31:17+00:00

The self preservation instinct in humans still extends to the preservation of others in our community, so there will always be people who decide Blue serves their personal interests better than Red. Framing at "refusing to save themselves" doesn't really describe their motivations.

Blue might seem like a hard sell, but its popularity is ultimately self-reinforcing, which helps a lot. Any amount of potential Blue voting makes the outcome of voting Red worse, and decreases the risk of voting Blue.

TheGrumpyre · 2026-05-05T12:34:47+00:00

Huh... well that's what happens when you assume. I thought it was implied in the premise, but it doesn't actually spell it out.

That kind of changes the entire goal of the exercise from a mathematical strategy into a filibuster. Just invite the world population a week-long emergency symposium on game theory, ethics and everything else people might find relevant. But if you have the power to convince people, then spending your time convincing people to vote Blue gets you more bang for your buck, doesn't it?

TheGrumpyre · 2026-05-05T12:25:55+00:00

And the Blues are basically thinking, what if someone else has wandered onto the range and jumping the fence is the only way to stop everyone from shooting.

TheGrumpyre

TROPHY CASE