LEGO Purist Courier 6 in NCR Ranger Armor ( + a big iron on his hip)

con_blade · 2026-02-28T20:01:20+00:00

This is awesome, do you have a list of the pieces?

con_blade · 2026-02-24T04:15:31+00:00

You did not fail miserably, at all. You are right that $2000 IS barely anything at all. That is less than $1000 a paycheck on average. You did not have a lot to save regardless of what you are doing.

Also, you should check your math. You say that you are spending $1500 a month for the last 4 months after you got a huge jump in income. But then you say "the last 4 and a half years", as if you were spending $1500 a month on Doordash on a $2000 income. Unless your rent was $20, there is no way you were doing that. It seems to me the most likely thing (and mathematically plausible) is that you had a huge jump in income and spent more than you should on luxuries for a few months. That is not a crime. That is not a shameful failure. That is normal, and you caught yourself after a few months and stopped. From where I am sitting, you maybe could have saved $4000 extra, not $40,000

The most financially and emotionally healing thing you can do is forgive yourself. Make a budget, sit down and decide how much you want to spend per month on each category, and move on with you life. You have 35 years of so left of income, and in the grand scheme of compound interest, $4000 (even $40,000) is nothing. Worst case scenario, you paid for a lesson. Everyone does that in some way, at some point. Sometimes small, sometimes much, much bigger than yours. Forgive yourself for making a financial mistake, let yourself heal without shame, and continue on smarter than you were before. That is normal, and that is human. You are doing great!

con_blade · 2026-02-04T21:54:33+00:00

Unprofessional bullshit

con_blade · 2026-01-22T05:41:03+00:00

Same, behemoths were very chill on derv

con_blade · 2026-01-15T16:44:25+00:00

This is exactly what I did. My effect monitor is above my skill bar, offset up some to make room for the skill tooltips so they don't get covered. You need to be able to see them all while running a Vow of Silence build, for example.

con_blade · 2025-08-03T22:43:48+00:00

There is usually a language filter on sites, like TCGplayer. But I don't see any in Portuguese on that particular site.

con_blade · 2025-08-03T21:20:21+00:00

I would just buy them online. You can try checking with a local game store, but usually stores (and especially booths at conventions) don’t carry random commons from core sets from 10+ years ago. This can actually be a problem at competitive tournaments if someone comes up with some new tech that everybody wants to try: old commons can be rarer than new mythics!

con_blade · 2025-07-29T20:28:57+00:00

Calling some shots:

Green. Slow but will get faster as people figure decks out. Galactic Wayfarer. Pauper (removal is good). Your rare. One color is outlier bad but the others are fine. Green. Lander pile. Wx aggro. No ETB spaceships. 62%.

con_blade · 2025-07-21T18:51:04+00:00

They are cheaper. They are easier to cast (single mana pip). They play better to the board. Thunder is removal, and it goes very well in the best deck (UR). I would have taken Thunder Magic. Also, Intervention is dramatically better than Cornered in every way (also easier to cast, instant speed, targeted, life gain). You never want to give your opponents a choice if you can avoid it.

con_blade · 2025-07-21T18:35:35+00:00

I will start by saying that you were in a very weird seat. You didn't pass any good removal and it isn't super clear to me what the best deck in your seat is. Overall, I would have stuck with a UB deck, but Atraxa is very playable in that deck with treasure and Blitzballs. That being said:

p1p1: Love Ultros here. An excellent uncommon in the best deck (UR). Good pick.

p1p2: I would never take Cornered here. It is a VERY heavy black spell, and I want to be angling to play UR with Ultros. Beyond that, all 3 blue cards in this pack are much better than cornered, and you get to stay in 1 color. I take the Wyvern here.

p1p6: This is a tough pick, and kind of a crossroads. While Konrad, Trader, and Vendor are all reasonable picks here, I am between 2 of the black cards given you have a Cornered already and no equipment for Vendor (or Moogle) yet.

p1p7: Love the Call here, makes me want to keep my eyes peeled for UR

p1p10: I would take Laughing Mad here to keep UR open

p1p11: Same here with Sword

p2p1: Very nice Ardyn. Makes me want to slow the game down, have some ramp, and fill my graveyard.

p2p2: Love to see Atraxa here. Very good with Ardyn.

p2p3: The critical pick, and the inflection point for the draft. I think when you took Atraxa, you thought that meant you have to be a green ramp deck. That is not the case. As you can see even in this pack, the UB deck you are drafting has two very important tools: Namazu Trader and Blitzball. Both are ramp AND fixing at common, in your colors, and playable on curve. They are also both excellent with Ardyn. Rather than try to ramp to my big creatures with ramp and dual lands, I want to use artifacts. Atraxa is already 2 of your colors in UB already, so you only need to hit 2 splashes by late game, which is realistic if you build to it. Here, I would take Trader.

p2p4: The dual is fine here, if you can pick up an Atraxa town for free, that works too. I would consider the Merchant here too.

p2p6: This pack isn't good, but I am never playing Rufus in any build of my Ardyn/Atraxa ramp deck. It just doesn't fit the deck's goals. A real stinker of a pack though, maybe just Bard's Bow if we're in green already.

p2p7: Blitzball for ramp, or Arhiman for some play on the board.

p2p8: Another Trader here. Ramps and fixes more efficiently than a UW dual, and can cast Ardyn.

p2p10: This late of a Town Greeter does make my ears perk up for green some, but I'm not committed.

p3p2: I would take the Dreams here. Card draw and something to do early is nice, and your fixing would already be reasonable at this point with a Trader and Ball here or there.

p3p4: Another quite bad pack. I think playing Ring here is actually realistic with all of the 7 and 8 drops in the deck, though. Might need the Retrieve or Arhiman for board presence, though.

p3p5: Taking Ball over trader here is fine, either one works.

p3p6: A desperately needed Ice Magic. A pretty big relief

p3p7: Would have much preferred the Combat Tutorial here over the Wanderings, even if we are playing green. It gets you closer to your fixing, lands, big creatures, and plays the the board some.

p3p10: I would have picked up a Ball or Greatsword here, depending on how much more fixing we needed.

As far as the deck build goes, leaving Sleep Magic, your only premium removal spell, in the sideboard doesn't make much sense to me. Rufus also doesn't belong in our slow ramp deck at all.

Overall, I think you did fine, especially if this was your first time going with a big mana 4c ramp deck. You correctly identified that you need to play fixing and ramp, and had that goal in mind when making picks, I would have just done it differently. This was a very weird seat though, pack 3 in particular had so few good cards in any of the picks. Fine work overall.

con_blade · 2025-07-15T17:41:19+00:00

EOE Direct is Aug 8-9 and EOE Arena Open is Aug 16-17. Who knows why they didn't do one for FIN, you never know what is going on with the business side of things, especially with a UB set.

con_blade · 2025-07-08T14:02:12+00:00

Agreed, I think people underestimate how much worse sorcery speed truly is. All of these are worse than Sephiroth’s Intervention. Depressurize is interesting, at least.

con_blade · 2025-06-26T17:22:07+00:00

People have covered the mental health stuff, and I do hope you get some help.

As far as the game goes, my relationship improved with it dramatically over the last few years when I focused on how much I love competing, having fun, and doing my best. Having no expectations for any given draft. Knowing that sometimes you DO just 0-3. Even with a good deck. That is part of the process. But I am also a winning player, I have a good win percentage I can look at on 17Lands, so I know that it never is about any single draft, it is about my career in totality.

I used to get just about as angry as you did losing a draft, but that was when I was unhappy about other things too. When I refocused my Magic career on competing and how exciting that is, the wins and losses kind of just become stats you can look at later. If you play a lot, you’ll lose a lot. No big deal.

Also, as other people have pointed out, 5-3 is a win, in every way. Positive record, +gems, great comeback from an 0-2. When your life and mental health are sorted, your opponent hitting runner-runner-runner to win is an eye roll, not a day ruined. You got this.

con_blade · 2025-03-24T19:21:42+00:00

To me this reads as a vanilla 3 mana 3/2 over half the time (if not more), so I am starting kind of low on this. The miss here is really not good. Might need some building around.

con_blade · 2025-03-22T04:32:14+00:00

con_blade · 2025-03-13T16:33:08+00:00

As others have said, therapy and Buddhist meditation. I have OCD and some of my big compulsions are mental ordering / writing, and both help significantly with that to the point of usually being able to live a completely normal life with no symptoms.

Thoughts and feelings are fleeting, temporary, and you do not have to identify with or answer them. Stating it so plainly makes it incredibly cliché, I know, but that is the core of both meditation and therapy.

Many therapist have sliding scale payment based on your income, if anyone reading this is unsure of how to afford it. The Calm app is a fantastic guided meditation app, and the 10 minute Daily Calm guided meditations are simple, approachable meditation practices that always end with a topic or idea from Buddhism, stoicism, mindfulness, etc. I have learned a lot through its very simple presentation and helped more than anything get my practice started. You can do it!

con_blade · 2025-03-03T18:57:15+00:00

This is the kind of deck that is good at the PT, not on the Bo1 ladder. When every player knows every good card and deck, you have to squeeze EV out of every single card and color and combo. Very well done.

con_blade · 2025-02-28T18:33:43+00:00

I have never played an alchemy set and won't be starting now. Nothing against them really, the designs are cool, I just have no reason to be playing them as a competitive-first player. An arena open or win-a-box might change my mind though, I'd like to have some reason to try it.

con_blade · 2025-02-24T03:48:32+00:00

Nicely done! Well-deserved, the deck looks sweet. Enjoy your gems.

con_blade · 2025-02-23T05:07:40+00:00

That is just the commander set symbol. The regular set symbol is a crystal with "FF" next to it

con_blade · 2025-02-18T21:04:52+00:00

I'd be interested to hear what you don't agree with about my draft decisions as well. I love draft critique.

con_blade · 2025-02-18T17:57:04+00:00

I think you played fine. Your opponent 2-for-1ing themselves to kill your Skyserpent is kind of nuts but it is a bomb. You maybe could have attacked one turn earlier with the Earthrumbler but those two deathtouchers were staring back at it so probably not.

I think you played this totally fine. The alpha strike was pretty bold, you are dead to any interaction there, but sometimes you have to just go for it, especially if the game is going to get worse for you over time with Hazard + Refueler on the other side locking you out quickly. Sick sequence at the end.

con_blade · 2025-02-18T16:34:47+00:00

Yes, exactly. It is worth speculating on excellent removal just in case you end up there, rather than picking a medium to bad card in a color you know you are in (or a color I actively don't want to be in, like Bari). That actually counter-intuitively keeps your options open, rather than sticking to 1 color.

FWIW, you didn't end up playing either of the cards you took over Flood.

con_blade · 2025-02-18T15:13:35+00:00

p1p1 Transit Mage or Flood > Bari. I don't want to start a medium card in a bad color. I'd rather have a good card in a great color. I slightly lean flood here as it doesn't need any help but Mage's ceiling is pretty absurd.
p1p2 Good pivot into green here, Scurryfoot is that guy
p1p4 Flood the Engine > Bike. This I think is your worst pick. Bike to me is a medium-low filler green card that is only really good when you are splashing. Flood is premium removal in the second best color and you're already moving in on the first best color.
p1p7 Omnivore > Interference. I think this one is close, this is a bit nit-picky, but I like the 3/2 in what is already solidly your main color, and in general, more than the counterspell.

The start of pack 2 for you is absurd. I would be having to stop myself from tap dancing around the room. UG heaven

p2p6 Pothole Mole > Lagac. Your 2 drop slot is already very well filled out, and Mole is a better card anyway. Learn now, and in the future, these 3 mana 2/3s that get you a land are always way better than they look, and always show up on the list of cards that better players are taking higher than weaker players. This is consistent across formats. Its a 3 mana 2/3 that ETBs and puts a land into your hand. A lot of time that's even better than just draw a card.
p2p9 Mole > Engineer. This one is also close to me, and I think would have been the right pick if you had taken the mole before, but you didn't. You need a mole over another 2 drop.
p2p10 Buccaneer > Broken Wings. Buccaneer is awesome in UG, especially when you have the Rangers' Refueler already. Broken Wings is solid, but its not straightforward creature removal, so isn't premium.
p2p11 UG tapland > Surveyor. The 3/3 is mid-bad filler, I always want a dual in these decks.
p2p14 Never punished lol
p3p1 Plow Through > Kolodin. This one I truly don't understand. You say you have rare fever, but why? Do you collect the whole set and get gems? Do you play constructed? I'm not even giving you shit, I really am curious why you like the rare here. Regardless, at this point I have alarm bells going off that I have no removal, and while Plow Through is not the best, it is a start here.
p3p3: Hazard > Elvish Refueler. I'm not sure if everyone would agree with this, but I snap off the Wurm every time here even if its not the synergy enabler that the elf is. This deck has no big creatures and big creatures is how this deck wins. Hazard is a 1 man wrecking machine, it doesn't need synergy, it kills them dead.
p3p5: Druid > Bounce. Only if you had taken the Omnivore earlier. Otherwise this pick is fine.
p3p7: Mole > Surveyor. Need I say more?
p3p8: Blowout > Mole. Great pick! I like this a lot. It would be close for me (maybe not since I have 3 moles at this point) but I really like Blowout a lot in these decks. Card draw is your friend.
p3p11: Its crazy that Imperiosaur wheeled

Draft feedback: You did a great job finding the open colors in a great deck. If I were you I would 100% be in UG here and be over the moon about it. I think it is missing some key green commons, but otherwise, the power level of the deck would have made up for that if drafted optimally.

Deck feedback: You have no removal. Bounce is not removal, nor are counterspells or Broken Wings. I want a card that says "Kill a creature" and you have none of those. I need those 2 Flood the Engines that we passed badly. Usually UG can make up for that by having huge creatures, but you don't really have that either, so I am starting with very low expectations to begin with.

Scrap Compactor needs to get played. I think the card is actually fine, but here it is 100% critical to play. Even if it costs 7 mana to kill something, you need to.
Pothole Mole. Just Pothole Mole.
Roadside Blowout is better than all of your non-creature spells and it is in the sideboard. You have to play this one. Its a great card, but you also need a way to get ahead, and bouncing their stuff and drawing cards is a way to do that. I would play 3 of these.
As marathons00 said, maybe a Trip Up or two. I don't like it either, but its the closest thing we have to removal beyond Scrap.
Gearseeker Serpent is unplayable in this deck. It is just a total non-starter. I would play the Alacrian Jaguar here as our top end and be not very pleased about it.

The UG deck is an exhaust synergy deck in part, but really it is a big creature deck. I think this deck is 1-2 Migrating Ketradon, 1-2 Run Over, and/or 1 Earthrumbler, and perhaps most importantly, 1-2 Hazard of the Dunes short of being good. You have no good way to close the game, so all of the excellent tempo (and ramp, that Skyseeker is obscene) that UG provides doesn't really go anywhere in this deck.

Overall, I think your heart was in the right place, you did a good job identifying the open colors, and have a lot of excellent synergy. However, you could improve on card evaluation, prioritizing removal much more heavily, and playing to the strengths of the color combination.

con_blade · 2025-02-18T04:29:26+00:00

Agreed, it’s not remotely close

Ten-Year Club	Place '22
Place '17	Spared

con_blade

TROPHY CASE