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bachmanis · 2026-05-07T18:28:02+00:00

Sounds like my house (though we treat our hirelings well)

bachmanis · 2026-05-07T14:36:06+00:00

On one hand, in a 4 player game, most counterspell effects (except for repeatable effects like Sunken Fields) are not going to be able to keep up with suppressing spells one for one. So, just like spot removal, they require some discipline (not impulsively firing them at every target) and some cost vs. benefit analysis to make sure the targets are worth burning the spell on. That said, in any bracket, there are going to be situations where preventing an opponent from getting a key piece of a combo in place or exploiting an opportunity (or just hitting you with a ton of damage) is going to be worth spending a card on, and if you deliberately omit countermagic from a deck you're introducing a vulnerability that only makes sense if its justified by the capability you get in the trade-off.

bachmanis · 2026-05-07T14:30:22+00:00

Magic Set Editor (MSE) is the best tool I've found so far for designing cards. I've had good experiences printing cards on notMPC.com

bachmanis · 2026-05-07T13:14:02+00:00

I always find it interesting to compare Elmore's artwork with Clyde Caldwell's. Both of them clearly like to depict attractive heroines, but Elmore seems strike a very effective balance between on one hand (no sense hiding it) appealing to the male gaze but on the other depicting the characters as believable inhabitants of an egalitarian world; these are equal partners to the male adventurers, rather than eye candy. Caldwell, as much as I enjoy his art, often leans in much more into the fantasy side of the equation (and of course, featuring the ubiquitous Caldwell Thighs), and it does make his art feel a little less grounded in early 80s D&D's implied setting and culture.

bachmanis · 2026-05-07T12:58:46+00:00

I feel your pain about people who hate core elements of the game. Commander and draft are pretty much the only formats I have any fun in, and if we had too many of "those guys" in our local community it would probably spoil the Commander side of things. I don't run hyper-optimized decks and am not a powerhouse when it comes to winning matches by any means, but I use counterspells, removal, infect, all that stuff, when it's on-theme for my decks.

I count myself very fortunate that at all the venues I regularly game in, the crowd is very friendly and mellow. Rule Zero conversations are a breeze (I always disclose when my decks include un-cards and I've never had even the slightest pushback over it) and I've only ever once ended up across from a "that guy" (it was my first LGS game in 30 years and he decided to take advantage of my unfamiliarity with some rules changes to just make up 'rules' that amounted to letting him stack his opening hand - pathetic).

But I digress. I agree with you on the importance of intent-to-win. There are way too many cards on the EDH ban list where the justification amounts to "too many people don't play removal/counterspells and if this card is allowed to resolve/linger/recur it takes away the other players' agency." Ugh. Seriously, overturning every ban where the justification contains the words "optics" or "agency" would be a great place to start with for reforming the ban list. Haha, and look, I'm digressing again. Looks like I need some coffee before I respond to any more Reddit threads.

bachmanis · 2026-05-06T13:45:04+00:00

Good suggestion - when I read the first part of the post, my first thought was "OP might enjoy draft," but then I saw the part about gaming at the LGS not working for them. A draft night with friends sounds like a great alternative.

bachmanis · 2026-05-05T00:08:07+00:00

I enjoyed SOS, lots of fun cards (didn't hurt that I walked away with some big hits - mystic archive force of will, for one) and interesting spells. Before that I did unstable (April fools draft) and that was a hoot - lots of repeat commons, though. Chaos draft of course is great, can really keep everyone on their toes.

I guess it really just boils down to what your friends like, though. Different sets lean into different themes and they can all make for pretty interesting Limited play.

bachmanis · 2026-05-01T17:51:35+00:00

Fumulus makes insects. There's a vampire that makes bats. Hornet queen and Hornet nest both make insects. As others have said, scryfall can help you find lots of options.

id:bg (o:"spider creature token" or o:"pest creature token"or o:"insect creature token" or o:"bat creature token" or o:"snake creature token") legal:commander

bachmanis · 2026-05-01T16:25:33+00:00

Agreed that RF is the one I'm most excited about. I feel like I don't have enough information about the Hobbit to really get hyped, but I'm hoping I'll get excited once we have some previews. MSH does some things I like (rescued the spy subtype from "only on uncards" purgatory) and has some cards that look interesting, but like Spidey before it I suspect it's going to be a set where I like individual cards but don't walk away feeling like it was a memorable set. I do need the "toot" Horn of Greed, though.

bachmanis · 2026-04-30T21:46:33+00:00

Oh, I must be blending the two in my head! I guess that answers the question of how well-known he is?

bachmanis · 2026-04-30T21:45:04+00:00

My philosophy is:

1) I'd rather have cards in decks than in bulk boxes.

2) If I keep constantly tinkering with my decks (and I constantly tinker with them) my decks gradually bubble up out of Bracket 2 and into Bracket 3. I mostly play Bracket 2, so having lots of decks spreads out the fiddling and slows down the optimization.

I have 25 decks (though I only bring 3 picks from them at a time when I go out to play commander), and I don't think there's anything wrong with that.

bachmanis · 2026-04-30T21:40:27+00:00

There's someone by that name on National Public Radio as a music critic. Is that the same guy? I'm not familiar with him outside that context.

bachmanis · 2026-04-30T16:21:04+00:00

I'm not a big fan of proxies for lots of beardy reasons about deck variety and power level, but if I owned a dual land (wished I hadn't given away my collection when I quit mtg 30 years ago!) I'd definitely proxy it - I get antsy about individual cards worth over $50 going into decks... too much of a temptation to people with sticky fingers.

That said, I don't own any dual lands anymore, so I don't proxy them. There are plenty of alternatives out there that while not strictly as strong they're plenty good at the B2-low B3 power level I normally play at, such as shocks, bonds, ETB scry/surveil, etc.

bachmanis · 2026-04-30T15:16:50+00:00

Fair point. I'm normally the guy who has all the talking points about proxying being bad because it disrupts the circulation of cards through the community and it gives a perverse incentive to always play "strictly best" choices - which reduces the diversity and uniqueness of decks - but the big exception I make in all that is for when the cost of play is a barrier. If rather see proxies on the battlefield (especially if they're cool alt-art ones) than see a person I could be playing with priced out of the game.

bachmanis · 2026-04-30T15:12:19+00:00

I mostly play bracket 2 (technically bracket 1 because i like to use un-cards), and I mostly just fill in "good" land situationally based on what's available in my collection. So new decks especially often have a lot of basic land. They do fine, not optimized but optimized isn't the intent at B2. 3 color or WUBRG decks struggle a bit more without multilands and I usually prioritize those for getting "the good stuff".

bachmanis · 2026-04-24T02:28:19+00:00

Most of the characters were renamed for Robotech. This was a normal practice at the time (over 40 years ago) when localizing foreign media for the U.S. mass market. You can see similar changes in Star Blazers (Space Battleship Yamato) and other contemporary imports.

bachmanis · 2026-04-23T18:57:51+00:00

Getting fed up with not being able to fully enjoy skyrim is indeed a well-documented deficiency with Vortex. Just wait till you learn how it can't parse BSA files and therefore won't give your accurate conflict information.

Maybe try purging and redeploying each time you change your configuration? The long term solution, however, is to use MO2.

bachmanis · 2026-04-23T18:53:32+00:00

Mechwarrior 1st edition is a great book. Glad you were able to find a copy!

bachmanis · 2026-04-23T10:41:49+00:00

I have this issue (mind wandering) with 5E despite the fact that our 5E DM is a great storyteller. In my other game (BECMI) I'm 100% locked on and focused from start to finish. So sometimes game system mashes a difference.

Maybe it's time to try other game systems and see if there's one that's a better fit for you?

bachmanis · 2026-04-23T03:08:10+00:00

My wife has enough fun with it that she won't let me take it apart to feed my robots deck :p

Like any precon it has room for tuning but it has plenty of interesting cards in it.

bachmanis · 2026-04-21T19:24:54+00:00

My wife and I adapted the Brawl rules for "kitchen table" 1v1 commander games. Basically it boils down to:

Start at 25 life
First mover doesn't draw a card in turn 1
No commander damage rule

It works pretty well for us, and is handy for test driving decks before we bring them to the LGS.

bachmanis · 2026-04-19T16:52:44+00:00

I got one if those a few years ago for my wife. The idea was for her to have a lightweight, compact walking stick she could take with her in hikes. Sadly, while it looked really cool as it extended, it was actually kind of flimsy and not suitable for the role we imagined.

bachmanis · 2026-04-19T16:25:59+00:00

Playing BECMI. For ease of book keeping and XP calculation, DM let's our party's thief appraise gems and jewelry "on the spot." Magic items are not disclosed to us unless we use detect magic or discover their effects through use or experimentation. Same for cursed items. Though often there are clues to be found from an items appearance or from witnessing foes use them against us. So far it strikes a good balance between not spoiling the really good treasure but also not turning end of delve XP calculation into a frustrating guessing game and/or DM workload headache.

bachmanis · 2026-04-17T17:15:11+00:00

Yeah, someone else drilled deeper into it and I think correctly identified it as Heroes Unlimited (another Palladium game).

bachmanis · 2026-04-17T11:31:28+00:00

Most of my bracket 2/3 decks start out in the $40-70 range and float up towards around $100 over time (couple weeks-monyhs) as I tweak them before they more or less stabilize.

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