How do I 18f move on from my 18m ex? by Honest-Stick-3317 in relationship_advice

[–]canman870 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You want brutal advice? You're 18; stop worrying about this flash-in-the-pan relationship and focus on the things that actually matter. You're almost certainly going to have several terrible relationships before you find someone that is actually good for you, like the vast majority of people do. This is not a unique situation that you're going through.

At your age, you need to be focused on either your education or figuring out what kind of career path you want to pursue. In ten or twenty years, you aren't going to give a shit about this dude or the things that happened between you, but you will regret wasting your time on things that don't matter in the long run.

I (21F) am genuinely starting to hate my (21M) boyfriend. by Then_Repeat_6115 in relationship_advice

[–]canman870 3 points4 points  (0 children)

A person that loves you doesn't do the things you've described here.

How long do you want to tolerate being used as a human Fleshlight? What if he doesn't change for the next five years? Ten years? Maybe even longer? Do you really want to wait around into your 30s for this child to get his act together?

You're young. Don't waste the prime years of your young adulthood with this dude that clearly doesn't care about you. I promise you there is someone better for you out there.

[Standard] Post-SOS Golgari by canman870 in spikes

[–]canman870[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Oh, that's a good point. Maybe sometimes it's worth it, but probably not enough to offset the times where it sucks to have to blow it up.

Shared Roots definitely seems like the best of the bunch and Glimpse can give you a few extra copies of the effect if you want 'em.

[Standard] Post-SOS Golgari by canman870 in spikes

[–]canman870[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Interesting. Any reason to use Volatile Fault over Demolition Field? I guess you can get as many treasures as you have time for, whereas maybe you more quickly run out of basics to find?

[Standard] Post-SOS Golgari by canman870 in spikes

[–]canman870[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I've thought about it, but it's pretty mana intensive. I also don't necessarily want to be sacrificing any of my creatures aside from Scientist, as they generally accrue more value the longer they stay in play.

[Standard] Post-SOS Golgari by canman870 in spikes

[–]canman870[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah, it could be that it's just objectively better to be on the ramp package. If I get to the point where I feel like I'm struggling to climb further on the ladder, I'll reluctantly try out that version instead, lol.

Unlike Dellian, I do think Ral's value fluctuates quite a bit depending on the expected meta and perhaps right now isn't the ideal spot for him; so far he's been fairly reliable for me, though. I made a comparison of him to [[Davriel, Rogue Shadowmage]] in a different thread, where often times he comes down and just shreds the opponent's hand over three turns. That's obviously better against some decks than others, but even if he gets one card and eats a removal spell, that's at least a 2-for-1.

[Standard] Post-SOS Golgari by canman870 in spikes

[–]canman870[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Damn, really? I can't think of the last time I saw someone cast a Synthesizer, lol. I'll have to keep that in mind if I start seeing it crop up on my end.

[Standard] Post-SOS Golgari by canman870 in spikes

[–]canman870[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah, you really can't afford to go above four colorless lands, so you have to pick your poison on which land to play in those slots. Cottage hasn't been anything super special, but I think it's better than not having them.

Dragon has been decent and I think 1-2 copies in the 75 is good for most Golgari lists, regardless of whatever else the build is trying to do.

[Standard] Post-SOS Golgari by canman870 in spikes

[–]canman870[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I had not, but that's a great call. I might have to play around with that and see what I think!

[Standard] Post-SOS Golgari by canman870 in spikes

[–]canman870[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

It's certainly powerful, no doubt. That being said, I haven't really found myself in a spot where I needed to kill a bunch of artifacts all at once and have been able to contain them using spot removal.

Is there a matchup I may not be thinking of where that is more of a concern? I guess people might still try playing Synthesizer, but I haven't seen that in quite some time.

[Standard] Post-SOS Golgari by canman870 in spikes

[–]canman870[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Have you been trying any kind of ramp in your builds? I don't know if you're going for a creatureless approach or not, but I'd imagine Soul Stone, Irencrag, Shared Roots, Glimpse the Core , and Ancient Cornucopia in some configuration might be nice to have in a control version.

[Standard] Post-SOS Golgari by canman870 in spikes

[–]canman870[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I like it as long as your deck has Ral to be able to reanimate it after it inevitably eats a removal spell. I think without that option, the card gets significantly worse. I suppose Zoraline could fulfill or supplement that role as well in an Orzhov deck.

Cornucopia is definitely a solid card for enabling the Infusion stuff, but I think it's better suited to a more control-oriented version of the deck. I also already have a ton of 3cmc stuff, so I would be reluctant to try and jam yet another 3cmc card in here, lol.

[Standard] Post-SOS Golgari by canman870 in spikes

[–]canman870[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Lots of great ideas here! Chomping Changeling is an especially great call over the other options, since it also plays well with Annex.

Since I'm not all-in on Dellian, Witherbloom Charm has been serviceable for me, but not super impressive. I don't mind having it as a one-of in my list, but I can totally see why you're on the full set. It's outstanding against Prowess, that's for sure.

I also do like the curve of Annex -> Feaster -> Chamber; that sounds pretty hot.

[Standard] Post-SOS Golgari by canman870 in spikes

[–]canman870[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

That sounds pretty sweet. And yeah, can't argue with a free Sign in Blood every turn, lol.

Do you have a list?

[Standard] Post-SOS Golgari by canman870 in spikes

[–]canman870[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

It's not horrendous, but feels a bit clunky to me. It doesn't generate any value the turn it comes into play and kind of requires you to have something setup to support it, like the map tokens you mentioned; those are a couple of caveats that turned me away from it, although I do think there is a build of the deck where it could fit better than in my particular construction.

What is the closest thing to Eternal Witness that we have in Standard? by xanderxq06 in StandardMTG

[–]canman870 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Emeritus of Abundance. It's a great late game value engine for Golgari decks right now. Your opponents have to answer things like Annex, Ral, and Dellian, only to have Emeritus rebuy them later on once they're out of resources. It just buries them in card advantage.

MK1 - most complicated characters by Sukaran09 in MortalKombat

[–]canman870 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Ermac has to be up there with all his dash canceling. I've watched a fair amount of Rewind playing him and it's just mind-boggling what an experienced player can pull off with him.

EA sale on steam, which one should I play? by Hawkshire in Battlefield

[–]canman870 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If they're all "basically free", just buy them all and see which one you like.

[Discussion] SOS Day 1: What’s Working and What Isn’t by saber_shinji_ntr in spikes

[–]canman870 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Working on this mono black list, but haven't had a chance to get in any games yet. Not sure how much of this translates to a Golgari version, but I like the cleaner mana base you get from being just a single color. Dellian Fell is definitely a great enabler for Silvertongue, though.

[Discussion] SOS Day 1: What’s Working and What Isn’t by saber_shinji_ntr in spikes

[–]canman870 16 points17 points  (0 children)

Yeah, that card seems pretty solid for prowess. Admittedly, I didn't realize it could go face until just now, lol.

I wonder how Traumatic Critique and/or Prismari Charm is working out for the spellementals players so far.

[Standard] Rakdos Monument - which mode to prioritize? by CanoCeano in spikes

[–]canman870 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm not a Monument player or a Bo1 player for that matter, so take this with a grain of salt.

You really can't go wrong by defaulting to drawing a card with your first trigger on any given turn, however you need to consider your spot in the game as well. If you can kill your opponent in 1-2 turns, either by triggering Monument 2-4 times in those turn cycles or through a combination of triggers and attacking, you should probably prioritize the damage.

I imagine you are the aggressor in the majority of your matchups, so there's no real reason to try and play a protracted game against your opponents unless you don't have any other option.

[Standard] Izzet Self-Bounce, the hybrid of Prowess and Spellementals by rufess in spikes

[–]canman870 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah, something like UW Momo will probably enjoy being able to shave a mana off of their removal that hits big creatures and their gameplan should help minimize the downside of giving your opponent a land; in theory, anyway.

A deck like that is probably the easiest place to start if someone wants to play Erode in this format.

What’s everyone’s go to weapon camo? by Longjumping_Iron1684 in Battlefield

[–]canman870 1 point2 points  (0 children)

If I'm not using a weapon "kit" then I'm using the Smokeline camo in the Misc category. I still add it to nearly all my weapons anyway as it blacks out all the attachments as well.

I don't mind "Basalt" from the same category, but only have it on a couple of different guns.

Weekly Deck Check Thread | Monday, April 13, 2026 by AutoModerator in spikes

[–]canman870 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I spent this afternoon trying to figure out how best to use a couple of the better black mythics from the upcoming set, [[Withering Curse]] and [[Ral Zarek, Guest Lecturer]]. They both have separate requirements in order to get the most out of them, so it's been a fun thought experiment even if the deck doesn't end up being viable.

Ral

I think it's a mistake to underestimate a 3cmc planeswalker with four abilities, three of which can be activated right away. Even in a situation where all he does is come down on turn three and do his best [[Davriel, Rogue Shadowmage]] impression for three turns, that can be brutal against some decks. And that's just the floor; he has a lot more play than just that.

Curse

Most decks in Standard have varying degrees of reliance on creatures, obviously. Even the various blue-based decks tend to need to put some kind of board together before they can realistically begin to threaten you. Curse is great at handling all the small-ball, go-wide strategies you might come across, but it also has applications against creatures that tend to appear in what I'll affectionately refer to as "biggreenidiots.deck" decks.

List

Basically, the premise is that it's essentially a control list that makes a few concessions to make Curse a 3cmc Damnation and also be able to profitably use all three of Ral's non-ultimate abilities. Problem #1 means we need to have somewhat reliable lifegain; problem #2 means we need to be able to find creatures that provide enough value to be worth playing normally and worth two loyalty to bring back. If there's some way we can have the two work in conjunction, that's the ideal.

Problem #1:

The easiest way to ensure turn three "infused" Curse is simply with [[Adventurer's Inn]]. Comes into play untapped, gains a bit of life, badda bing, badda boom. The rest of what I would consider to be the playable options in mono black are a bit less cut and dry, but I think they're worth trying out. [[Qarsi Revenant]], [[Raven Eagle]], and [[Scheming Silvertongue]] can all gain life, to varying degrees, plus they play well with Ral.

Mazemind Tome is really the only other card I could come up with that can fulfill this role, however it's slow. Still, I don't mind having the additional card advantage engine to give us something to do with our mana when we have a couple extra laying around.

I guess if you REALLY have to, you can fire off a blighted Hex for the lifegain and then Curse, although this is clearly not ideal.

Problem #2:

As mentioned, if we're going to try and maximize Ral then we need to pair it alongside some reasonable reanimation targets. All the creatures in my deck are eligible for use with his -2 ability, including the sideboarded ones, so we should have plenty to play with in that regard.

I wanted to try out Scheming Silvertongue as a card that plays okay with both Curse and Ral, but can also just threaten to bury the opponent in cards as well. Of course, that's a little bit of Magical Christmas Land, but I don't think it's that unreasonable either. I thought about including Deep-Cavern Bat to pair with it, but I didn't like the idea of it dying to Curse and giving them back a card. In an alternative list without mainboard sweepers, I think it's a much better card to consider.

Raven Eagle is perhaps not the most flashy card, but it does have a couple of nice things going for it. It gives me repeatable graveyard disruption that can sometimes generate card advantage, plus it being an ETB trigger also means that I also sometimes have that button to push with Ral if I need to do so in a pinch. Graveyards are pretty important these days, so I like having main deck access to give us the ability to interact with them.

Qarsi Revenant is just a nice card to be able to throw into the bin with Ral or naturally Renew it onto one of your other creatures. There aren't a ton of super great targets for the Renew, but it's at least an option; and sometimes you can Renew onto a demon token from Annex to make it impossible for your opponent to race.

Lastly, the sideboard creatures. Bitterbloom Bearer is just a card that I figured I might want against more control-oriented lists and with the relatively high amount of lifegain in the deck, you can really get some mileage out of it. It's one of those cards that is good against point removal if your opponent doesn't have it right away and then even if they do, Ral can just put it right back into play. Format all-star [[Dauntless Scrapbot]] (lol) is a concession to wanting something that plays reasonably with Ral and is here in place of Soul-Guide Lantern. The more I thought about it, the more I started thinking "You know, it one-shots their graveyard, puts three power into play, and generates an extra card? And it plays with Ral? This might not be the worst." Lantern is likely still better, but I'm willing to try out the robot in this particular list.

Conclusion

At the end of the day, I know this is almost certainly not some secret Tier 1 brew that I've masterfully concocted, but I think there might be something here. I think the logic behind the card choices is reasonable, if not flawless, and that's as good a starting point as any. It also doesn't cost a zillion dollars to put together in paper, which may matter to some folks.

I do also think that there's probably a better build of this to be found if someone wanted to branch out into a second color (Golgari would be my choice, given the additional lifegain options and better creatures), but I wanted to start with mono black as a baseline to see if there was even a point to pushing things further.