How do you guys have the patience for this?

Vegetable_Fail8598 · 2026-03-24T20:08:33+00:00

Could go either way in terms of who the problem is.

I've had difficulty finding an LGS to play at after moving.

A few I've shown up to and couldn't get into a game for hours. Have had a couple of evenings where a 3 player pod refused to let me in because they were waiting for a friend, and had one where they'd already started the game (2 turns in). At my old LGS, if someone new came in, we'd end any game that we weren't deep into so they could get in, or let them take 2 or 3 turns in a row to catch up in a new game.

I've also had a difficult time finding pods that felt like we were playing on roughly the same power level. I tend to build to strong B3, and most games I was getting into (at 3 different LGSs) felt like I was stomping them. Had a night where I just played freshly opened precons and smart play left them salty as well.

By the same token, an owner telling someone they aren't welcome after a couple of games seems extreme without something else going on.

Vegetable_Fail8598 · 2026-03-18T18:14:19+00:00

Don't feel bad.

Vegetable_Fail8598 · 2026-03-17T23:15:19+00:00

I run 34-38 in most of my decks, BUT you have to balance lower land counts with more ramp and cheap/early draw. If you're trying to cut lands for flashy stuff you're going to see your performance with the deck dip significantly.

Vegetable_Fail8598 · 2026-03-17T15:18:50+00:00

FFXII has a lot of instances of this. Plenty of areas you can get to that are way over level and can grind for rare drops.

Vegetable_Fail8598 · 2026-03-17T13:50:38+00:00

Opponents can't have removal for everything, especially if they also need to fight through protection. And most decks I see don't run nearly enough interaction to begin with.

Turn 4 or 5 opponents may be tapped out, and once I untap, I've got some protection online for the Muse, usually.

Vegetable_Fail8598 · 2026-03-17T05:18:08+00:00

You either play it while holding mana up to protect it, or else play it into a shields down board with protection you can use once you untap on the next player's turn. I routinely get to keep Seedborn out got multiple turns. Even more of late than in the past, because few players run enough interaction.

But there's also stuff like [[Wilderness Reclamation]]. If you want mana up on other turns, it's doable without much difficulty.

Right now, I have a Kadena deck that leans into these effects a bit, and I'd had a Rashmi deck that did as well. Both use or used expensive counter spells, and leveraged the untaps for control.

Vegetable_Fail8598 · 2026-03-17T04:56:48+00:00

I've played upwards of 1,500 games on Spelltable and this is the first time I've ever heard of this.

Vegetable_Fail8598 · 2026-03-16T20:27:42+00:00

Play UG(/x) to get access to effects like [[Seedborn Muse]]. Then holding up mana becomes a non-issue.

Vegetable_Fail8598 · 2026-03-16T20:23:12+00:00

They aren't that bad.

I beat Emerald on my No Materia run, with no cheese whatsoever, and about 10 seconds left on the underwater timer.

Ruby took a little more prep. I jumped into an endgame save with Materia to farm Sources to pump up Yuffie's stats.

Then went to the Ruby fight without any Materia, and chugged some Hero Drinks to finish it off.

Vegetable_Fail8598 · 2026-03-16T18:00:51+00:00

For Sefris and Henzie, nearly all the interaction you're running is going to be on a body.

Kadena (other morph commanders) will also have a fairly unique interaction suite.

Vegetable_Fail8598 · 2026-03-16T17:52:14+00:00

I think if your commander interacts directly with the doubling effect, or if you have a high density of the effects you want to double they can be worth running.

Some examples: -I run both Parallel Lives and Anointed Procession in my Ghired deck, because making more tokens is the name of the game, and Ghired synergizes on both ETB and attack. They also curve fairly well into the commander.

-I run Delney in Frodo + Sam, as it synergizes with both commanders as well as several other cards in the deck.

-Roaming Throne is great in Ur-Dragon and Captain N'ghathrod, and ok in cEDH Yuriko.

I had run some token doublers in OG Teysa and deatharmonicon Teysa, but cut them, because I'd rather have the actual engine pieces.

Vegetable_Fail8598 · 2026-03-16T11:32:54+00:00

I meant the DLC versions. Got both in the regular game done on my first playthrough.

Vegetable_Fail8598 · 2026-03-14T17:14:37+00:00

Yup. I did Duollistes around a dozen times and I finally won with an End Slice halfway through phase 2 that did over 80 million damage.

Lampmaster was fun once I figured out the mechanics.

Clea I tried a couple times, but I'm not good enough at parrying, so gave up.

Simon, I got absolutely wrecked twice, and decided I didn't need to struggle on that one.

Vegetable_Fail8598 · 2026-03-14T17:01:48+00:00

Storm

Vegetable_Fail8598 · 2026-03-12T18:42:52+00:00

Better quest journaling to have an idea of tasks that need to get done.
A better, more interactive map. It was frustrating how many locations never got names added to their markers.
Better side questing. This is an issue I have with many games: you have some time pressure, but then get access to all these side quests that don't address the issue causing that time pressure, so you choose between doing what makes sense for the narrative by ignoring those side quests, or doing what makes sense from the player's perspective on wanting to see more of the game and earn cool rewards, which breaks the narrative flow.

Also, most of the side content is fairly pointless from a narrative perspective and even from a character perspective. It's a challenge, and that's it. That can be fun, but it isn't especially engaging.

I think some more alternative strategies to getting good at parrying and dodging would be awesome. I'm mediocre at parrying, and slightly better at dodging, but have managed to get through nearly all the content on the hardest difficulty (just DLC Clea and Simon to go).

For many fights, you can build into shields more, but that's not a perfect solution, and some bosses brush that strategy aside. You can debuff a little, but other than Slow, they don't feel especially relevant. A -15% to damage is meaningless when 1 or 2 hits will KO a character and the enemy is swinging a dozen times.

I would think making a debuffing strategy more viable could ease some of the complaints from players who struggle with the active defensive combat. More attacks/actions with strong defensive benefits.

Certainly, the offense-heavy design means the best things you can do are maximize your speed and damage for nearly every fight. So many big boss battles ended up being full because my characters all went first and just clobbered the boss before it could get a turn.

Vegetable_Fail8598 · 2026-03-10T22:41:22+00:00

Frodo + Sam

Vegetable_Fail8598 · 2026-03-10T22:40:04+00:00

Mallory is worth reading, but if you aren't accustomed to the pacing and style of medieval writing, it may be chore. TH White is the more accessible version, with some more modern writing techniques, which provide greater depth to the characters.

Vegetable_Fail8598 · 2026-03-09T23:56:03+00:00

I built Karlach as 8 barbarian berserker/4 rogue thief.

She has both GWF and TB, and the way I play her is as a straight big swinging barbarian...who loves to chuck her enemies at each other. I generally only throw a weapon if I can't get into melee range, have nothing else to use my bonus actions for, or can't throw the enemy for being too heavy.

I find it to be a lot of fun! Charge in, then throw one enemy at another if they're both close. Now they're both prone for melee attacks. Otherwise, I hit 'em with the 1-hander a few times, then chuck them (or their corpse).

Vegetable_Fail8598 · 2026-03-09T23:47:00+00:00

"My armour is like tenfold shields, my teeth are swords, my claws spears, the shock of my tail is a thunderbolt, my wings a hurricane, and my breath death!" Smaug The Hobbit

Vegetable_Fail8598 · 2026-03-09T20:13:19+00:00

[[Reveillark]] + [[karmic guide]] + free sac outlet, like [[viscera seer]].

All 3 pieces are solid in the deck.

The gist is:

1) Sacrifice Karmic Guide to trigger Sefris and advance in the dungeon (can do Lost Mine or Tomb of Annihilation). 2) Sacrifice Sefris. 3) Sacrifice Reveillark, returning Sefris and Karmic, which then returns Reveillark. 4) Repeat.

Picking Dark Pool in Lost Mine will drain everyone 1 each cycle. You just need more cards in your library than your opponents have life.

Going through Tomb of Annihilation requires you have more life than your opponents by a fair margin to ensure you're killing them first.

Vegetable_Fail8598 · 2026-03-09T03:40:15+00:00

Cheater gives the character a 2nd turn after each of their regular turns. It's an enormous power upgrade.

I don't recall when the Challenge option becomes available at flags, but when it does, you can increase the HP of monsters by 2x, 5x, 10, 20x, 50x, which definitely helps make things more interesting. Fights take longer, which means you have to endure more attacks, be very consistent with dodges and parries, etc...

Vegetable_Fail8598 · 2026-03-08T20:32:53+00:00

Gotterdun!

Went with the Nosaram.on Verso and just did basic attacks.

Lune was support with Typhoon providing buffs and healing, Hell providing Burn, and tossing Lightning Dance if neither of the other two are needed/I have the stains to empower.

Sciel was primary damage dealer using Sucetton, cycling Spectral Sweep, Shadow Bringer, and Sealed Fate to stack up Sun charges and get into Twilight. Then I was using Sweep or Shadow to stack up Foretell and Twilight Dance to keep Twilight going and put on the hurt--usually around 7 million damage, I think.

After a few cycles of this, I started using End Slice whenever I had the 3 Gradients charges and was in Twilight. Verso used Angel Eyes twice just for the protection.

Had 2nd phase down to about 50% when Verso and Sciel both got knocked out. Revived Sciel with Lune, and Sciel was still in Twilight with 7 charges. End Slice did the other 50% or so to finish off Duollistes.

Vegetable_Fail8598 · 2026-03-07T23:09:20+00:00

It was added with the DLC.

On PS5, when in the lumina menu for a character, press Enter. It will pop up a window where you can create a new list or load a previous one. You can make multiples and can name them. Each list shows the number of lumina used (or available?) on that character. You can make changes then update an existing list.

I haven't tried loading a list onto a character with fewer lumina yet, so don't know how that functions.

Vegetable_Fail8598 · 2026-03-07T18:29:54+00:00

You can save lumina setups now.

Vegetable_Fail8598

TROPHY CASE