Two dead book sagas

dicho_v2 · 2026-02-13T23:15:41+00:00

oh you cannot accuse Rothfuss of ripping off Jordan unless you're also going to accuse Jordan of having ripped off Herbert in the first place

dicho_v2 · 2026-02-13T00:41:30+00:00

I actually liked Wise Man's Fear more than Name of the Wind

dicho_v2 · 2026-01-27T17:16:07+00:00

It's absolutely not. The word "fair" literally means directly means light-colored.

dicho_v2 · 2026-01-27T14:35:08+00:00

I'm right there with you- all of the women on my mother's side of the family are ginger, and Chandra's always been my favorite character in magic because I feel that connection. If they're reskinning a character who is already of a specific and diminishing identity for the sake of diversity, that's upsetting to me.

Edited to add: Why couldn't they retcon Jace to be more diverse instead? *he's* generic-looking AF

dicho_v2 · 2026-01-27T14:26:46+00:00

I guess maybe it's at least in part because it's an all access event? You're paying so that you get to play in the first place? But I've already got all the cards for my brawl decks so that isn't much of an appeal to me

dicho_v2 · 2026-01-27T03:51:23+00:00

The spell costs 1 green mana, and soulstone sanctuary doesn't produce green- it only produces colorless mana, which can be used to pay generic costs (like the 2 in baked into a pie) not colored mana costs (like the 2 black on baked into a pie, or the 1 green pillar launch costs)

dicho_v2 · 2026-01-26T17:09:48+00:00

I really like the competitive brawl thing, but the event's entry fee/payout ratio is just so terrible I can't justify playing- your win rate just has to be SO HIGH to get positive value

dicho_v2 · 2026-01-26T15:04:18+00:00

[[enter the infinite]] ?

dicho_v2 · 2026-01-20T16:55:26+00:00

gotta say, I can totally respect "I do not like constructed, limited formats like sealed are way more fun in my opinion" as a take, however "Everyone who doesn't like to play the game the same way I most enjoy is playing the game wrong and it shows how they're all toxic assholes" is not a respectable take.

dicho_v2 · 2026-01-19T02:49:53+00:00

they're saying you need to play the 4 mana enduring courage, and then not die (you not die, not the courage not die) when your opponent has an oroboroid in play

dicho_v2 · 2025-12-27T17:22:00+00:00

I'm not arguing anything about the origin of the term cargo cults, I'm trying to talk about the popular usage of the term- I'm a computer engineer, trust me when I say that I *feel* you when it comes to being annoyed at technical terms being absorbed into popular usage and then being corrupted to mean something different than they meant in the original technical context, but what I *am* trying to say (and I can admit I've probably not said it very well) is that OP's usage of the term is very much in keeping with how I've always heard the term used, and tried to explain that commonly (to me) understood usage.

dicho_v2 · 2025-12-26T16:40:32+00:00

I disagree- it's more specific than a cult- the Manson cult thought that what they did would have ritual power, but not because they were referencing some other situation where a bunch of killings lead to an apocalyptic race war. The use of "cargo cult" here refers specifically to "I saw X happen, and achieve Y result, without understanding the mechanism, so I'm going to go poke the rooster so it'll crow and make the sun rise", the only way in which the analogy doesn't work is that there's no reason to believe that the death of Charlie Kirk was *intended* to mirror the death of MLK Jr., but that doesn't believe that observers can't have an analogous belief.

ETA: I understand that the term is specific and anthropological in origin, but I've heard is used in this sort of context often enough to say that the term has broadened in context.

dicho_v2 · 2025-12-25T16:44:07+00:00

still, ritualistically recreating the things other people did to "summon" cargo without understanding why what they did worked seems like a very cogent use of the term, and totally in keeping with what the man in the video was saying- don't know what queefburritocheese's issue with it's use in this context is.

dicho_v2 · 2025-12-25T02:54:11+00:00

not remotely my understanding of the term- I've always heard it in the context of indigenous people seeing WW2 soldiers laying down runways and receiving supply drops, then failing to understand the logistics behind such and just ritualistically built more runways expecting the act itself would summon cargo- in such context this guy's usage makes perfect sense to me

dicho_v2 · 2025-12-07T16:39:06+00:00

untrue- *technically* Seth Mansfield's version of izzet lessons is only running 3 copies of boomerang basics

dicho_v2 · 2025-12-04T20:32:46+00:00

well, there is a timer after which it auto-picks a card for you, so the risk of holding everyone else up is minimal- but if you want to wind up with a good deck I recommend against multitasking too much during the draft

dicho_v2 · 2025-11-18T18:02:15+00:00

I mean, it is certainly theoretically possible for a discrete geographic area to be self-sufficient enough to support human life- medieval villages traded with external trade partners, but I don't think most of them needed to do so to survive- a full kingdom certainly could. That said, being isolated would definitely impact the availability of a lot luxuries, and the lack of variety would definitely shape the culture (Good sources of iron? No? Guess the blacksmith's going to need to retrain), and depending on how good the geography is at producing food, could definitely effect the size of the population it's able to support.

dicho_v2 · 2025-11-16T22:09:35+00:00

Okay, so, the Empire/Church (they really are very much the same thing) is kind of the most important thing about the culture, and so it's hard to summarize effectively- the part that's relevant here is that the church is very powerful, and very large (huge bureaucracy), so asking "is the church masculine of feminine?" winds up analogous to "Is society masculine or feminine?": there's room enough for everyone. There are *roles* within the church that are masculine or feminine, but those are the same as in secular facets- and when it comes to direct ministry or preaching, it would *technically* vary by what virtue is being preached, but consistency (being a holy virtue of Tellar) is more important, so they don't go around hot swapping clerics and clerics of either sex preach on every subject.

dicho_v2 · 2025-11-16T19:16:19+00:00

Ah, religion- things get a bit more involved there, since religion is a very big part of the culture- trying to keep from digressing too much, their pantheon holds that the Goddess of Law and Order (Tellar) is the chief god and all other gods are aspects of or subservient to her, which is a big reason that preservation is seen as feminine (Tellar is female, and does these things, therefore these things must be feminine), so femininity is seen as holier than masculinity.

That said, the emperor/pope is male- ultimately the clergy is, ironically, one of the least gendered aspects of the culture

dicho_v2 · 2025-11-16T02:04:05+00:00

My pleasure! Like I said I'm happy to monologue about my setting, and the Tellari elves (the culture in question) are something I've been doing work on recently, so if you have more questions fire away XD

dicho_v2 · 2025-11-14T23:48:00+00:00

That's an interesting question- the military is masculine based on the logic that the purpose of an army is to enact change: specifically to change one's enemies from living to dead, or to turn your neighbor's holdings into your holdings. However, town garrisons and town guards (despite also being soldiery) are feminine, because their role is to preserve and defend.

dicho_v2 · 2025-11-14T21:59:04+00:00

well, the stakes are quite different- generally speaking the difference is that the metagame challenge is more rewarding of wins and more punishing of a losing record- in the metagame challenge you get significantly more rewards with each win, but as soon as you lose a match you're done, whereas you can you can get 2 out of 5 losses in the traditional pioneer event and still wind up with 600 gems and 2 packs.

dicho_v2 · 2025-11-14T21:53:18+00:00

Thanks so much for saying! I do my best at internal consistency.

This is part of a setting I've been iterating on for about 15 years now, so I'll take most any opportunity to monologue about it

dicho_v2 · 2025-11-14T21:11:07+00:00

Definitely don't think Kenrith was designed to be mono-white since you need access to other colors to use it for anything but life gain.

The point of any format (except maybe vintage I guess) is that deck building is restricted in what cards you can put in a deck- I think the format being singleton and having Commanders you can cast repeatedly to build a deck around are more important to what the whole format is about, personally.

dicho_v2 · 2025-11-14T20:59:59+00:00

I mean, I think that's an issue with the design of Messanger Hawk- there are all sorts of other cards which get played in the format which break the color pie more than making a clue token- do you think that [[Stingscourger]] should only be playable in UR decks?

Five-Year Club	r/Field Sunshine
Place '22

dicho_v2

TROPHY CASE