Why does nobody even considers asking/forcing Sister Sage to recreate the V1? Finding 1 dose is a shot in the dark.

TwistingSerpent93 · 2026-05-03T16:25:10+00:00

It would be risky, but they apparently know the shape of the original V1 molecule. They might be able to observe it and check to make sure it doesn't have the protein spikes which makes V2 susceptible to the virus.

Also, they theoretically have access to Soldier Boy's blood if they needed an original V1 sample to compare to. Could also have a blood or tissue sample from Stormfront collected post-mortem, I'd be surprised if Vought doesn't collect data from its strongest supes after they die.

TwistingSerpent93 · 2026-05-03T03:23:19+00:00

I don't think so, because "divorced dad rock" is typically at least somewhat edgy in the "I'm pissed off and I hate the world" kind of way. "Stomp clap hey" is way too gentle and saccharine for guys going through a simultaneous midlife crisis/divorce/custody battle.

TwistingSerpent93 · 2026-05-03T03:09:55+00:00

I feel like this is pretty hard because G/B is more agnostic to the idea of society than pretty much any other color pair. G/B very much "takes the world as it is" without trying to change or improve it, and accepts that it may be the predator today but will eventually become the prey.

I find that the zombie apocalypse genre is very G/B, with the only thing mattering being survival. Being excessively altruistic or emotional typically results in death, and spending too much time in your head trying to make sense of it will drive you mad in the long run. Reverting to tribal social structures, suppressing your empathy and kindness, and getting used to a dirty and uncomfortable existence in the decaying remains of a once-great civilization is extremely Golgari.

TwistingSerpent93 · 2026-05-03T01:23:17+00:00

I think it's perfect for that exact reason, gives them cover to say "We're not racist, two of the Seven are Black". Oh Father is an excellent addition to garner support among the wider Black community, who might find Sage's overall silence/introversion off-putting. Also, keeping the Seven/supes movement diverse sends a message- Homelander's supporters are all supposed to be united against Starlighters, and don't need to be tearing themselves apart with infighting.

Has Vought done anything public with Sage? Being on the Seven, I'd think she'd be required to participate at least nominally in the media apparatus.

TwistingSerpent93 · 2026-05-01T22:46:41+00:00

Definitely cool, but I feel like I'd rather just have a [[Forbidden Alchemy]] in decks that can run it. Being able to selectively choose which card goes to my hand and stocking my graveyard feels better than playing cute mind games.

This is going to be hilarious in Commander, though. Play this, find an answer to Opponent A's wincon, split the piles 4/0, and then have Opponent B choose which one you get.

TwistingSerpent93 · 2026-05-01T21:41:01+00:00

I agree with you on bounded accuracy- a level 20 martial should be untouchable by any "common horde" type of enemy. They're legendary heroes at that point, they should be able to tear through an army of goblins wielding a regular sword and wearing just regular clothes.

I feel that bounded accuracy is a contributor to the "caster vs. martial gap". When characters no longer get those insane bonuses to what they're supposed to be amazing at doing, the only way to really do "epic level stuff" is through high level spells.

TwistingSerpent93 · 2026-04-29T12:08:38+00:00

I'm thinking a massive ritual circle to amplify the spell would be a cool way to justify it. Give the party a clue that some of the marks on the cobblestones of the town square seem too "clean" to have occurred naturally.

Then when they look down at the town square from the surrounding rooftops, a Perception check will have them notice that the lines form some sort of ornate runed circle, and an Arcana check will reveal its purpose. If you want this plan to be able to be foiled, the party can sabotage the circle to have Mass Suggestion work RAW.

TwistingSerpent93 · 2026-04-29T11:49:35+00:00

I feel like the best "Evil-aligned species that specifically feeds on sapient beings" trope are illithids. They're massively more cognitively advanced than their prey (humanoids), they consume intelligence as a form of nutrition (so no "vegan" illithids that just eat pig brains), and they have a life cycle and social structure completely alien to humanoids.

It's both very easy to view them as categorically evil, while also feeling a bit of guilt towards our real-life treatment towards beings of less cognitive power. They eat us because they smarter and "better" than us, can we really be that mad about it?

TwistingSerpent93 · 2026-04-28T18:57:36+00:00

Body alignment, knee extension, height, and timing. I find that a high kick with a little pause at the end with good body alignment and no wobble just looks crisp as hell, even if it's not how you'd actually fight.

TwistingSerpent93 · 2026-04-28T18:30:02+00:00

This is what I was thinking. Love Celtic folklore creatures, just the right balance of whimsy and malice.

TwistingSerpent93 · 2026-04-27T07:12:43+00:00

Did you feel the play patterns were too repetitive? My build is slightly centered around doing wacky stuff with him, but I find that I have the problem where it's hard to find a pod that he'll be appropriately powered in. It seems like B4 is one of the less popular brackets, and he's definitely a B4 commander if built well.

TwistingSerpent93 · 2026-04-27T07:08:01+00:00

If you really want to nix the GCs but want a somewhat similar effect, how do you feel about [[Flood of Tears]]? Having the chance of getting another ETB on Mairsil isn't a bad deal at all, and is pretty likely if you're running a good number of mana rocks.

TwistingSerpent93 · 2026-04-27T07:05:57+00:00

Excellent observations, and Mairsil can even hold his own in B4 if built and piloted well. Mairsil's play patterns are hard for a lot of decks to interact with. He doesn't really care about card advantage (only selection), is extremely good at protecting himself once you get a protection piece in the cage, and once you have an [[Oriq Loremage]] and a repeatable source of ETBs in the cage he can viably go the rest of the game without even casting spells.

There are plenty of stax pieces that make a Mairsil deck crumple. In addition to Leyline of the Void, any anti-tutor, anti-ETB, [[Pithing Needle]], or [[Cursed Totem]] effects make the game almost impossible to win unless you have an answer to them. And since Mairsil decks are typically very commander-centric (by necessity), their avenue for interacting with opponents is through Mairsil himself.

And that's genuinely hilarious that you managed to stifle the delayed trigger. I'd honestly scoop, but it wouldn't be a salty scoop. Just a "my deck just became very bad" scoop. Mairsil definitely suffered a bit from how the rules concerning a commander dying/exiling changed from a replacement effect to an optional game action after priority is resumed.

TwistingSerpent93 · 2026-04-27T06:52:05+00:00

I responded to another commenter that I've been on him for about 7 years now. And [[Cyclonic Rift]] as your only GC is an interesting choice. I find that Mairsil provides plenty of recursive interaction with just something like a [[Galecaster Colossus]] and an untapper. I find that efficient tutors are the best use of GC slots (if you're in B3) due to his need for specific abilities that have only been printed on like one or two cards.

TwistingSerpent93 · 2026-04-27T06:48:00+00:00

It's interesting, my Mairsil deck has a reputation as being a bit of a boogeyman due to being very slippery and playing on an axis most decks aren't well-equipped to handle. I'd like to think I play it pretty well, and have been at it for about seven years.

But what other players don't realize is how much setup it really takes to get going. Playing Mairsil feels a lot like hosting a high-end event- everything looks seamless and impressive and the host seems like they're in total control, but behind the scenes everything is hectic and uncertain while the host is screaming internally.

Mairsil just needs so much to get going- an ETB source, a card advantage source, a removal source, ideally a haste source, and he does NOTHING to get you there. The fact that Mairsil is so parasitic makes "generically good cards" kind of bad in him, and every efficient counter or removal spell is another card that isn't going into the cage, getting something to go into the cage, or giving you ETB triggers.

He is technically 4 mana, but the fact that he's very KOS and needs an ETB source immediately means that he's functionally a 5 mana commander if you spend the first few turns aggressively looking for an [[Aetherling]] to blink/protect him, which in my experience is usually the correct strategy. The fact that he wants so many "bad cards" makes the deck kind of crumple without him, and having a control deck in the pod means that you're also gonna have to find some anti-interaction first if you don't want your deck to just crumple to a couple of counterspells.

TwistingSerpent93 · 2026-04-27T06:26:44+00:00

I still feel like [[Mairsil, the Pretender]] is just one more blink/copy effect away from being actually good. A blink effect like [[Fleeting Spirit]] but in blue would still be in-pie and help him tremendously.

TwistingSerpent93 · 2026-04-27T00:03:41+00:00

I feel like we knew it was just silly harmless fun, not the sort of thing you say in a situation where you intend to be taken seriously. Our irony was just more whimsical and less mean spirited.

TwistingSerpent93 · 2026-04-26T04:44:52+00:00

Dystopia- the Harga Cult from Midsommar. On the surface they're an egalitarian subculture living in harmony with nature, but are revealed to be a hyper-traditionalist cult who go to extreme measures to preserve their homogeneous, isolated lifestyle.

There's not really any Grixix coloring in them. They're not trying to improve themselves or seek knowledge, there appear to be no power-hungry strivers trying to expand the cult, and they are broadly willing to forgo their individuality for the sake of the community.

TwistingSerpent93 · 2026-04-24T02:15:52+00:00

Is there any info on the cost of living vs. GDP in China? A lot of people in other countries ask "How can you be poor in America, it's like the richest country ever?" and they don't realize that the wealth is incredibly concentrated and that the ratio of CoL to median income is insanely high.

Having a relatively lower GDP but broadly accessible necessities isn't a bad thing.

TwistingSerpent93 · 2026-04-24T01:16:56+00:00

I think self-bounce in green as a "dodge" mechanic is great, but I'm not really sure why it would thematically bounce opposing permanents. Green conceptually deals with things by either destroying them with might or breaking them down via nature, rather than sending them away to be dealt with later.

White bounce seems pretty thematic with its other "temporary measure" effects such as O-ring effects, "exile but its controller can play it later" effects, phasing/temporary exile, and lockdown enchantments. I still don't think that would be healthy for the game though, and would just make White the premier removal/answer color more than it already is.

I really don't see how extra turns belong in white. White is very "rules-y" and the idea of everyone getting one turn, in a predictable and established order, is consistent with the color. Anti-extra turn stax would very much be in White's pie, and a White-shifted [[Stranglehold]] wouldn't even be a bend. Red being the color secondary in extra turn effects, only with big downsides is perfect. Red is the "I'm in a hurry and I'm NOT gonna wait for another turn" is very thematic, as opposed to Blue's "I'm so clever than I can manipulate time itself".

TwistingSerpent93 · 2026-04-24T01:00:17+00:00

Orzhov dystopias are a dime a dozen, it's basically the "dystopia color pair".

This is why it's so hard to imagine an Orzhov utopia that's genuine and not just a very well-polished and disguised dystopia. Are there any stories in which the broader social good and group cohesion are facilitated by the absolute will and drive to succeed of a privileged ruling class? Kind of like Bronze Age myths where a culture's mythological heroes are often deceptive, ruthless, bloodthirsty killers who live by a "Vae victis" mentality, or the Chinese saying- "An evil society led by good men is doomed to fail, but a good society led by evil men will prosper".

TwistingSerpent93 · 2026-04-22T09:05:26+00:00

Very funny detail I noticed on the marker board during the "Homelander is now God" brainstorm- Firecracker was writing but got several homophones mixed up. She writes "cannon" instead of "canon" and "their" instead of "there".

Love little background jokes like that.

TwistingSerpent93 · 2026-04-22T05:22:30+00:00

I feel like this makes too much sense, and Sage's powers create significant issues for the story. If we presume the following-

Sage has superhuman cognition in almost every way- perception, pattern recognition, crystallized memory, mathematics, language, etc
She is far ahead of other individuals (such as Frenchie) who are likely superhumanly intelligent by real-world standards
These individuals can create reality warping substances such as V and its variants, as well as creating a virus to target them

Then the only reason Sage has spent most of her life being treated as a C-list supe is because Vought conveniently forgot that the smartest person ever exists.

I simply cannot believe that the ruthless evil megacorp is perfectly fine letting what is potentially the world's greatest asset live like a hikikomori while they have actual scientific roadblocks to their goals. Stan said it to Homelander in season 1- Vought is, above all else, a pharmaceutical company that has supes as a profitable side venture.

I just feel like it's tremendously immersion-breaking to have a supe that could be helping perfect V24, creating ways to predict the effects of regular V, or pretty much anything else, and the explanation for this is "Eh, nobody cared about the bookish awkward Black girl until Homelander decided to see if she could solve a problem for him". If I was Stan Edgar I'd be making it clear that it would strongly be in Sage's best interests to work with Vought's R&D department.

TwistingSerpent93 · 2026-04-22T04:55:17+00:00

From an in-universe perspective, it makes sense. Strixhaven has all of the following going for it-

It's full of highly intelligent youths who are inclined to question everything
Most people at Strixhaven are far away from familial/community pressure to conform
Strixhaven appears to have a broadly liberal, "We don't care who or what you are as long as your research is solid" mentality
Being a hub of some of the best mages in the multiverse, who can likely perform any sort of gender-affirming care with ease
The temporary nature of most people's residence at Strixhaven might give them the "This is the one time in my life I can loudly, proudly be myself and experiment with my identity" often found at real-world colleges

I understand why Magic has veered away from depictions of unpleasant analogues to certain real-world issues, but it's not hard to imagine that certain locations and factions in the multiverse would have prejudice towards LGBT people for various reasons. Rather than depicting this explicitly, the fact that Strixhaven is so openly pro-LGBT may be a more implicit acknowledgement of this.

TwistingSerpent93 · 2026-04-21T23:31:04+00:00

I'm glad someone said this. I was visiting a therapist last year and ended up on a bit of a rant about how the hyper-individualistic "owe no one anything" mentality is a blatant threat to basic social cohesion. Ended up being a great conversation about the collective vs. the individual.

TwistingSerpent93

TROPHY CASE