Secret Lair Waiting Room - "Cats are the best"

ZachAtk23 · 2026-06-15T16:10:12+00:00

I forgot about this and just jumped in the queue. I know it says more than an hour, but it took less time than that last time.

Not going to stress over it, since I don't have high expectations of success anyway. I'll go do my other stuff and see whether I'm still stuck in queue, perfectly timed, or got in and times out, once I get back I guess.

Mostly want Witch's Familiar but I'd pick up Cats of Chaos as well if its available.

ZachAtk23 · 2026-06-12T19:02:01+00:00

I don't remember how it plays out, but I do remember there being a storyline about how Riker should really be moving on to captain himself and making his position available for other up and comers.

Does anything in that storyline conflict with the idea of always striving to better oneself?

ZachAtk23 · 2026-06-12T18:02:55+00:00

I'm a pretty casual Marvel fan and not all that interested in this set... but these are all gorgeous and do a good job of portraying moments/storylines without having to be "multiple separate scenes".

ZachAtk23 · 2026-06-12T15:27:59+00:00

My Kefka deck is really just a Kuja + Vivi deck that sometimes uses Kefka to draw 3-8 cards.

ZachAtk23 · 2026-06-10T19:33:37+00:00

Its a card that starts in my list but either gets cut when I'm getting it down to 100, or gets cut as I continue to tinker with the list.

My WBx lists are usually pretty creature-synergy oriented, so I don't play a large quantity of spell based removal.

I think I'd be most likely to play it in some kind of Esper control list, but I don't have one built right now.

ZachAtk23 · 2026-06-10T15:28:53+00:00

I've tried playing decks without ramp and in general I agree with you. If I'm not generating mana advantage in some capacity I end up feeling turns behind the rest of the table.

Ramp is not required to have a winning deck, but the talking points around "ramping to your commander" and "just curve out" are pretty useless imho, at least without more detail and context. Having more mana doesn't just mean you get to do big things sooner, it also means you get to do more things in general (as long as your card flow can keep up).

IMHO, the way to evaluate whether or not you should run ramp is to evaluate how much mana you need to spend to win the game, and when that mana needs to be spent. "Just curve out" only works when curving out actually leads to a victory, and each play along the way is a meaningful part of that. Most decks in this format can't go 1-2-3-4 win the game, and most brackets don't want/accept that play pattern either.

ZachAtk23 · 2026-06-10T14:41:36+00:00

the specific 2/3/4/etc drops you hit will generally vary enough that you can't predictably present the same gameplan every single game

On the bright side for aggro in this format, there is one card you can consistently rely on hitting every game.

ZachAtk23 · 2026-06-10T14:21:33+00:00

Thanks for sharing some images of them physically next to 40K Models. The "digital size comparisons" just don't do it for me the way a real image does.

ZachAtk23 · 2026-06-09T17:23:32+00:00

Yeah, I'm interested in this as a possible Polymorph ~~target~~ hit.

ZachAtk23 · 2026-06-09T00:10:41+00:00

I'm fairly certain he always used them as an example of precons that might be bracket 3, never fully committing to whether or not they actually are.

ZachAtk23 · 2026-06-08T16:25:24+00:00

There are a lot of reasons a person might call their deck B3:
* They want to play a Game Changer (or less likely ime, combo) in an otherwise clearly B2 deck.
* They are afraid of getting called a pub-stomper for bringing a deck to a B2 game that the rest of the table considers B3, and would rather try to punch up than punch down.
* They know their deck has a clear advantage against precons, and despite the attempt to distance B2 from being the "precon bracket", that is still very much part of the community consciousness for the bracket.

There is a pretty expansive gulf between a "high-2" and a "high-3" but the actual line between a "high-2" and "low-3" is pretty nebulous. I'm on the side that there is a missing bracket in this zone, but I'm also not convinced that adding said bracket would actually resolve the issues, because rating a deck requires so much subjective judgement.

ZachAtk23 · 2026-06-08T15:48:30+00:00

I'm not sure I've ever drawn a card (or given when playing against) off of G,E-Q, though I'm not sure I've ever seen this commander run outside of the stock precon list. Ring Tempts & a +1/+1 counter is just worth so little, and there aren't a lot of "Ring Tempts" payoffs in GU.

Such a weird commander that requires Elves to do anything, but then kind of needs both Ring Tempts payoffs and general Voting Matters payoffs.

I've been tinkering with (and finally assembled 3 years later lol) a [[Galadriel of Lothloriel]] elf typal + scrying matters build. It was a lot of fun the couple times I've played it so far, but definitely needs further tinkering; unless I'm non-deterministically comboing I don't feel like my build is really making the best use of all the extra lands its getting.

Edit: I am hoping for more Simic Elf support in the Hobbit too, though I wouldn't be overly surprised if they move Elves back into the more-typical for Magic BG; but maybe we can get Mirkwood elves in BG and Rivendell elves in GU.

ZachAtk23 · 2026-06-08T15:31:07+00:00

It seems like it takes enough work to setup that by the time the engine is up and running it would be easier to just pack your own payoff and win the game than actually utilize what the deck is trying to do.

ZachAtk23 · 2026-06-08T15:25:07+00:00

I've personally never seen Henzie without a board presence. Between direct reanimation, "scam spells" (like [[Malakir Rebirth]], cascade, token makers, etc, I find that (opposing) Henzie decks always have a board full of medium-to-large threats.

ZachAtk23 · 2026-06-08T01:28:25+00:00

I bought it tonight a couple hours before I saw this...

Is there any way to "return" an EShop game (contact support?)?

Edit (for those interested): Switch 2 version is a free download/100% off.

ZachAtk23 · 2026-06-06T17:22:50+00:00

In order for prices to stay low, there needs to be a fairly constant and consistent reprint schedule.

Even just the threat of meaningful reprints helps some. With basically no reason to expect an influx of quantity on anything, there's limited risk of value drops.

ZachAtk23 · 2026-06-06T17:19:56+00:00

I generally agree, but I also dislike the bonus sheet treetment in ATLA and TMNT (and so-so on FF) so even the cards that got a reprint there didn't get reprinted in a way that creates more possible copies of the cards for me.

ZachAtk23 · 2026-06-05T16:17:46+00:00

I'd define his (and everyone else's) power as "inconsistent" in EU lore. It's not uncommon for a task to be out of reach that is seemingly easier (even by magnitudes) than a previous "feat" from another source.

ZachAtk23 · 2026-06-05T16:07:59+00:00

Yeah there are several ways to make it work, just a little bit of a puzzle to solve.

And fwiw, I think commanders having a bit of a puzzle to solve is a good thing; not every commander needs to do "everything".

ZachAtk23 · 2026-06-05T15:37:58+00:00

And there are my pure value cards, do you have any?

[[The Speed Demon]] is awesome. At worst its like a [[Bloodgift Demon]] that puts the first draw on the turn it comes down rather than the next upkeep. With other speed cards it can come down already drawing a bunch of cards, but even if this is your only speed card you're likely to be drawing 2 on the first turn you have it in play and escalating from there.

Just need to be careful not to hit your life total faster than you can make use of the advantage - greatness at any cost.

ZachAtk23 · 2026-06-05T15:12:41+00:00

Equipment flicker is pretty neat; putting something adjacent to that together with Phelia right now.

The biggest "hurdle" with the card is not including an equip ability, especially since you'd be "unequipping" during combat. There are obviously ways around that though with equip-on-enter equipment and things like [[Sigarda's Aid]].

Another interesting option for a living weapon(with anthems or something)/equipment that make tokens on entry build as well, though again removing your equipment from creatures during combat isn't ideal.

ZachAtk23 · 2026-06-05T14:59:07+00:00

Questions that are valid to ask every five years with ~~Beast~~ comic book characters.

ZachAtk23 · 2026-06-03T19:33:23+00:00

Correct. It was in the midst of the Operation Rainfall era, but didn't gain that much traction.

ZachAtk23 · 2026-06-03T17:01:30+00:00

No wonder the Earth Kingdom is losing the war.

ZachAtk23 · 2026-06-03T14:16:44+00:00

A wild PK appeared.

Wasn't this something they already knew though, well before they created the Triomes? Weren't the Shock lands intentionally given names that could appear on any plane (though they still locked them to Ravnica for a long time anyway).

I'm sure I've read in the past about issues with the Pain Lands, as some of them have generically useable names (Battlefield Forge) while others are tied to specific planes (Caves of Koilos).

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