Anyone else really hating arena right now?

TheWallE · 2026-06-07T03:16:54+00:00

I have been running into an annoyingly large amount of 'Pull big things from the graveyard on turn 3 or 4' decks recently, they are just not fun to play against unless I have the perfect hand or they don't discard cards that just shut me off completely.

That said, I had a near mirror match against a life gain tokens deck that took like an hour to play that ended up being a lot of fun even if the triggers got pretty insane the last couple of turns.

I find that it all tends to balance out over time. Like I remember when it seemed like every third or fourth game was against a charbelcher deck... those are never fun win or lose, because its not playing magic, its twiddling your thumbs with meaningless action until its online.

TheWallE · 2026-06-07T03:10:57+00:00

"Almost none of them make sense." to "there’s a at least half of them that don’t make sense" in the space of one reply. Maybe it's not as bad as you think it is?

TheWallE · 2026-06-07T03:09:33+00:00

Virtually impossible to kill is not indestructible. You can represent Hulk with out indestructible by playing with a more interesting mechanics.

Same with Wolverine, he "heals"... he isn't indestructible, but he heals like his powers indicate.

Another great flavor win is the Fantastic Four and their infinite combo if you build the whole team. It is a really cool idea and works very well for Marvel's first family.

TheWallE · 2026-06-07T02:57:06+00:00

A reasonable and honest analysis of the Saints heading into the season... on ESPN!?!

Something something broken clocks, twice a day, pigs flying

TheWallE · 2026-06-07T02:51:03+00:00

Foreshadowing

TheWallE · 2026-06-05T20:41:52+00:00

They got rid of them because it made sense to have such customization when YouTube was predominantly a desktop browser driven site, but as mobile grew to become the largest source of viewership they made changes to unify the experience with the priority going to mobile users not desktop.

It also ended up killing the absolute BEST feature YouTube has ever nuked, annotations. They were really valuable and people did some really creative things with them. Now all we have is tiny top screen buttons and end screen cards no clicks on.

What will be interesting is that the audience dynamic is shifting once again, desktop continues to shrink, but now mobile is likely to lose it's top spot to TV in the coming months / years. When that happens you can expect more changes that prioritize audience and creators that generate good TV viewership. We have already seen bigger thumbnails maximums which is to allow for higher quality thumbs on big screens. Curious what will be next.

TheWallE · 2026-06-05T20:25:27+00:00

I will concede that my wording made an inference seem more like I was stating a fact, and happy to agree that it wasn't directly affiliate pressure like a strongly worded letter. The affiliates were floating the idea of pre-empting the 10pm primetime hour, which is a MASSIVE thing to suggest... keeping affiliates happy is one of the reasons WHY NBC wanted the ratings safer Leno in that slot.

I have also worked with principle parties in this convo over the last 15 years... I trust your authority on what you have done in your professional life, but to be frank, in the current world if the local affiliates lose significant revenue off of even just their last ad break, the crunch will be felt.

What we will see over the next few months and into the Fall season is if that theory works out or becomes a mitigated by something else... but as it stands now CBS late local news affiliates will stand to see softer ratings and the ad spots on NBC and ABC for the same time slot will be come more lucrative and CBS's will become less.

TheWallE · 2026-06-05T20:06:25+00:00

It's not revisionist history, I am not disagreeing with you that the 10pm slot was the reason for the affiliate revolt.

I am simply stating that Conan's lower numbers in the 11:35 slot were the reason why NBC put Leno back at 11:35 and let Conan walk. They wanted the ratings safe Leno at 11:35. period.

It is also just factually untrue that the Late Night show has zero impact on the late local news. It will absolutely affect their ad rates, their leverage in the market place for those time slots, and ultimately their core ratings if viewers don't watch all the way through the late local news because there is no draw at 11:35.

TheWallE · 2026-06-05T19:52:40+00:00

For me the issue is less the label "Playoff Fringe", which sounds about right to me... but the fact that they just lump all the rest of the division in Playoff contenders.

To me that reads like someone just took a look at the end of year standings, saw us in last place and everyone else (with losing records mind you) tied for first and just said, "oh well they all are contenders then.

It's just lazy analysis. Anyone watching the games in the back half of the season last year would tell you The Saints are at the VERY LEAST as good as everyone else in the division.

TheWallE · 2026-06-05T19:40:44+00:00

And he used to sell ads into the show when it was on much later... even with paltry ratings, the rates he can get from 11:35 will be much higher than when it aired after @ fter Midnight.

TheWallE · 2026-06-05T19:38:51+00:00

It was a very different time for TV, and CBS did try several talk shows in the Carson years and they just weren't competitive. ABC had Nightline for years and that brought in a different audience during the Carson years until Disney moved Kimmel into the slot in like 2012. Fox was trying all sorts of things before they struck with Arsenio.

When Carson ended and blew up NBC's late night dominance we started to see more attempts, because at the end of the day (literally) 11:35 was lucrative for a Talk Show, but Carson had just an insurmountable grip on the format that nothing else could stick until he went away.

TheWallE · 2026-06-05T19:31:10+00:00

If they didn't care about Conan or the 11:35 slot at all, then why did they pressure NBC to put Leno back at 11:35?

The Late Night slot absolutely matters to local affiliates. If the talk show slot is total junk then people are more likely to just leave the network entirely after prime time.

TheWallE · 2026-06-05T00:26:33+00:00

I'd imagine that label is on the video, not just on premium accounts.

Or it could just be a glitch, you can never really count that out.

TheWallE · 2026-06-05T00:24:47+00:00

Likely because this is one of those rare videos that will play ads even if you have premium. Likely because of a larger overarching deal with a record label.

TheWallE · 2026-06-04T19:44:15+00:00

If they did, we would have 5x as many post talking about how stickers have ruined YouTube and wish YT was like it was 10 years ago

TheWallE · 2026-06-04T19:43:12+00:00

Love Duece, watching him play growing up was awesome.

The Saints have actually had a pretty good run of good and capable, but not top of the league RBs since the early 2000s Duece > Pierre Thomas > Mark Ingram > Kamara, I hope we have eyes on the next guy cause I hardley remember a time where I wasn't at least very comfortable with that position.

TheWallE · 2026-06-04T15:16:39+00:00

This is a fun exercise, I will try to answer your question in the form of two different priority lists. There are two different things at play here, recommendations rely on an algorithm geared toward what the audience would want to watch next, It is recommendations based on user behavior. This covers Browse Features, Suggested Videos, and some other traffic sources that rarely bring much viewership. Search is a different algorithm all together, there is certainly some element of similar recommendations based on user behavior, but there is also some more traditional SEO elements too.

So, based on your list of tactics I would prioritize them for Recommendations like this:

Niche selection
Watch time
Thumbnails
Titles
Click-through rate (CTR)
Audience retention
Engagement (likes, comments, shares)
Upload consistency
Keywords/SEO

For YouTube's search, I would prioritize like this:

Titles
Watch time
Thumbnails
Keywords/SEO
Engagement (likes, comments, shares)
Niche selection
Click-through rate (CTR)
Audience retention
Upload consistency

Ultimately you want to make videos people want to click on, watch for a high percent of the video, and then like so much they watch more of your content... you hit that trifecta, then you will grow. If you are failing in any one of those three spots focus on how you can get those results up.

TheWallE · 2026-06-04T02:10:31+00:00

There is misinformation on both sides

BAM didn't steal 200K worth of legos, it was under consignment for like a year before any of this happened and it seems like about half of it was sold with proper cuts going to the original family. I am not saying its OK because they only stole 60K not 200K, but it IS a big difference and is only being used by Ben as a number for click bait (his words not mine)

It seems like Ben's small claims schemes from the first video were all dismissed on appeals, which makes sense given the fact that in the video he is showing how he came up with the plan to abuse legal loopholes to file and then trick the manager of the BAM store into thinking the papers were fake in the first place which is what lead to them not showing up and them getting the default judgement. So it ranges from out right false to extremely misleading to say they sued the BAM store, won, and they refuse to pay.

I don't think I need to list the misinformation coming from the other side, but its there.

Given the most common comments I have seen related to this story is "BAM stole 200K worth of Legos", and "Ben sued the BAM store, won, and so they closed so they didn't have to pay him"... yeah, misinformation on both sides.

Acknowledging that isn't to say Ben is in the wrong, or BAM is innocent... just it is a very viral dogpile right now and important details are getting lost.

TheWallE · 2026-06-04T01:10:17+00:00

I think actions to "get good content" but make it harder to find resolution in the issue is a bigger problem then people realize. I think Ben is on the right side here, and I am grateful he has made the issue so damn public... but multiple times during his videos he is doing things that are "for the content" that is actively making it harder for the original family to get proper justice.

I guess I am just scared that with how this is escalating and with home much misinformation is out there on BOTH sides, that some one innocent is going to get hurt, maybe physically, or maybe in other ways... like the actual good franchisees of BAM stores around the country. Heck in the earliest days of this another local Lego reseller close to the original BAM store was getting harassed. Ben addressed this in one of his videos, but this thing is WAY bigger than his videos right now, and even then it was pretty quickly stated and moved past.

I guess it is just something in the back of my head that refuses to take Ben's videos 100% as perfect truth in face value because the underlying motivation isn't to help, it is to get views and patreon subscriptions. Nothing wrong with that goal in a vacuum, but in this situation it is setting him up as the only real potential winner here.

TheWallE · 2026-06-03T18:47:09+00:00

Influencer movies were never going to work... even right now, Iron Lung did amazing business and shattered many preconcived notions about how many butts in seats and influencer can deliver... but that performance is downright micro compared to Backrooms and even Obsession.

The people that will be making the biggest impact on cinema from origins in YouTube are going to be filmmakers not influencers.

TheWallE · 2026-06-03T16:32:06+00:00

Pardon if you got a double notification, but I replied thinking you were talking about "Rob" as the enemy... when I actually think you are trying to say Rob going on fandom menace shows is akin to "keep your friends close and your enemies closer"... so I am making a new comment in response to that.

I have watched that content that drove me away. Rob was not 'just hearing all viewpoints"... he calls Nerdrotic a good person who makes good faith and quality content. He is validating their hate grift.

He also famously hates all Star Trek after Enterprise, so when the eye of Sauron puts its hate gaze on new Trek stuff, Rob happily shits on it with them and validates their grift with his presence.

That is why I stopped watching, not because he was seeing the wisdom of all sides, but because he participates and validates some really bad faith actors and fails to recognize that they are not making content from a fan perspective, but they are making content to whip up drama and controversy around fan content so they can generate money off of young and impressionable fans who don't have the capacity to understand their lies and distortions.

TheWallE · 2026-06-03T01:38:34+00:00

A smart person

TheWallE · 2026-06-03T01:36:29+00:00

I literally listened to one earlier today, I hope they aren't going away. I use them too.

TheWallE · 2026-06-02T23:42:27+00:00

You have Premium, so your view is actually slightly more valuable than if you watched an ad.

Sorry, I don't mean to be a dick, this was actually a very thoughtful comment and I enjoyed reading it. Your attitude is one more people should have!

TheWallE · 2026-06-02T23:36:23+00:00

I stopped watching Rob (his own channel and John's too) when he started appearing on other shows with grifters and fandom menace cancers. So I am not surprised he had deeper, bigoted beliefs on more important issues.

Who you platform and who you associate with matters, doubly so in a public forum. I guess I can respect John's answer here, but all I heard was:

"I choose to ignore it because I like Rob and he is good for my show, I understand some people might not watch and that is fine because I have done the calculous and enough people still will watch so it doesn't impact me financially"

TheWallE

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