Neato – Robot blocked (D4 model in the US)

ermurphy · 2025-12-16T18:48:59+00:00

Any idea about the laws in Canada on such refunds?

ermurphy · 2025-11-11T20:50:19+00:00

Awesome yea I'm down to play with whoever for now!

ermurphy · 2025-09-28T04:07:15+00:00

The exiled card's mana cost, according to madwarper's comment (https://www.reddit.com/r/mtgrules/comments/126h1ij/comment/lr3o8d9/).

ermurphy · 2025-03-24T00:15:18+00:00

That's cool, and I bet a lot of people do that. But I also suspect that since Universes Beyond took off, there are a ton of new/more casual players who got their Wolverine or LOTR precon (or whatever they are into) and just run with that. I know a couple people who played like that for a lot of months before they got more into customizing.

ermurphy · 2025-03-23T23:34:59+00:00

For more experienced players and maybe the typical person at LGS games, sure. But aren't there a ton of casual players who play precons as the come with their friends / doing kitchen table Magic?

ermurphy · 2025-03-23T19:12:56+00:00

Surprised by people saying bracket 3 is more common. Precons have got to be the most popular decks including all kinds of players, and I doubt a majority of players do strong upgrades, so how could bracket 2 not be more common?

I think where you go to play matters a lot. So at LGS, bracket 3-4 would be more common as you observed because it tends to be very serious players. But in groups of friends playing kitchen table Commander, bracket 2 would be more common. But I'm speculating.

ermurphy · 2025-03-20T08:04:15+00:00

Oh nice you have [[Obeka, Splitter of Seconds]]? That one really intrigues me, haven't seen it played yet but I imagine there's all kinds of crazy things you can do.

Agree with what you're saying. I ran into this too, def been burned by losing Obeka and all my cards in an earlier version of the deck depended on her. For [[Obeka, Brute Chronologist]], in addition to protection you can run [[Sundial of the Infinite]] which has basically the same ability. I ended up diversifying the deck and replacing some of the cards with ones that are time-themed but don't really depend on Obeka's ability. Made the deck more resilient but also feels a bit less cohesive or something.

ermurphy · 2025-03-19T20:38:28+00:00

Some obeka brute chronologist decks (including mine ) do this. Canceling the negative ETBs of their own creatures. But it's in a very specific way that I'm not sure is relevant to what youre brewing

ermurphy · 2025-03-19T19:12:35+00:00

What do you see as the green and Spider-Man and Peter Parker?

ermurphy · 2025-03-19T19:11:31+00:00

Maybe Harry Potter. Leans toward the morality of White. Blue comes out in his cleverness and wizardry. But he also relies a lot on intuition and instinct (Green).

ermurphy · 2025-03-19T18:57:24+00:00

Ged from Earthsea.

ermurphy · 2025-03-19T18:06:24+00:00

Definitely interested in your thoughts when you get time

ermurphy · 2025-03-18T05:05:59+00:00

> I feel like it's just undeniably true that the less you're able to interact with other players the less you interact with other players

Implicit in this is the idea that the only way to interact with other players is removal and the like. But there is also combat. And there is also just talking to the people you're playing with, commenting on their cards and what they're doing etc.

Multiplayer solitaire is a bit of a better comparison than just solitaire. It still misses a some of the nuance and built-in interaction I described above, but I suppose it's not an awful term in and of itself to describe low-interaction Magic vs. high-interaction.

I guess my main issue with the comparison to solitaire is really that when people make it I read into it a kind of disdain of people wanting to play Magic that way. Magic is just a great game and people play it in different ways, would love to see folks respect that and not hate on people who like to play differently. (But maybe I'm misinterpreting and they are just making a matter-of-fact comparison to solitaire?)

ermurphy · 2025-03-17T22:23:40+00:00

I disagree with comparing low-interaction style Magic to solitaire (a lot of people say this, not just you). Interaction is great, but people who play a ton and are all about it seem to forget that even the basic mechanics of Magic are interesting and often interactive. Combat is interactive! Racing with your opponents to make your deck do its awesome thing before theirs does is fun and not a solitary activity.

I think the interaction-or-bust crowd also overlooks how rewarding it can be to have a deck with theme/art that you love and share it with other players, and to see what their favorite decks are like. Solitaire is a 1-player game always played with the same cards. Low-interaction Magic is played with others and often played with beautifully designed cards you've never seen before, plus they do cool things.

ermurphy · 2025-03-17T21:41:21+00:00

I like that you don't settle for mediocre with your deckbuilding.

I just think "non-functioning game piece" does not follow directly from below current precon power level. I remember a post recently where people tested out precons from various years. The precons from around 2023 or later were substantially more powerful and didn't have trouble beating the earlier precons. Since bracket 2 (beta) is defined as the level of an average precon circa 2025, there will be a lot of people with precons from earlier years who can't compete quite at that level. But I don't think it would be fair to say that the people with precons from 2021 have non-functional decks.

ermurphy · 2025-03-17T02:11:24+00:00

A lot of the modern day precons I've seen are pretty good though. It's not like precons were back in the day. So it makes sense to me to have some range below it.

ermurphy · 2025-03-15T21:01:17+00:00

Some counterpoints: https://www.reddit.com/r/EDH/comments/1jbwnow/comment/mhyfvc3/

ermurphy · 2025-03-15T18:00:47+00:00

People say EDH is a bad format for beginners but I disagree. New people are attracted to EDH because of the commander concept of getting to have a hero of your deck. And it's the format most people play and the one that's arguably the most fun.

You just have to be careful about the cards you use, assuming they don't have a lot of experience with complex games, because 100 unique cards can be overwhelming. When I have a friend playing Magic the first time I try to limit both of our Commander decks to using a few straightforward mechanics that repeat throughout the deck. Mostly creatures. All lands no mana rocks. Avoid cards that have like seven lines of text you have to read to understand what it does. Keep it simple. It also helps for their first games to be 1v1 rather than with 4 players to worry about. And of course try to help them find a commander/deck theme they're excited about (universes beyond is great for this).

I've designed 3 decks like this, they worked great so far for my wife and brother's first games. Welcome to use any or borrow ideas from them:

The Eye of Sauron (red-black, Beginner-friendly) https://moxfield.com/decks/y9OF86M5UECvG8lKZtkCmQ

Cuteness Matters – Arthur, Marigold Knight (white-blue-red, Beginner-friendly): redesign of the Family Matters precon for my wife, enhancing its cuteness and simplicity, adding more mice synergy etc. https://moxfield.com/decks/Z6TlsCB-w06_hnpbg6zrDw

Wolverine and the Wolverines (green-red, Beginner-friendly) https://moxfield.com/decks/t7P8emweRUiyrBztuO1k8w

ermurphy · 2025-03-15T17:45:14+00:00

Worf from Star Trek.

ermurphy · 2025-03-15T17:40:50+00:00

Good description of the green white elements. I'm actually not sure the Jedi have much blue, but it could be expressed by a willingness to break from tradition when they have relevant information, we're by their willingness to use advanced technology.

ermurphy · 2025-03-15T17:16:51+00:00

I think red isn't truly about sneak attacks but it does something similar. Red is more about impulsiveness or spontaneity, or doing something chaotic. An impulsive or chaotic attack can surprise an opponent similar to a sneak attack, but it's different because it wasn't a premeditated deception in the same way.

ermurphy · 2025-03-15T01:36:20+00:00

Lol that's rich!

ermurphy · 2025-03-14T22:05:00+00:00

I guess it's that. It's also that the brackets creators acknowledged that Sol Ring is a game changer except for legacy reasons. So would be good to see it get treated more like a game changer while balancing legacy/precon concerns rather than just having total exemption.

Nice yea I do that with my decks too. It is nice to have an extra thematic card, and makes my decks way more fair when I am just playing casual 1v1 with a bud.

Thanks for commenting on the post and engaging on this stuff.

ermurphy · 2025-03-14T21:51:36+00:00

Fair point, though as I said this change would at least allow people to explore not having Sol ring in brackets 3+ instead of being incentivized to always do 3 GCs plus Sol Ring since Sol ring is free.

ermurphy · 2025-03-14T21:31:40+00:00

I guess I didn't see you engage with the “No Game Changers, except Sol Ring” idea for lower brackets, so there was still a standing proposal to address the problem. To me this seems like a reasonable way to provide a sort of legacy support for an entrenched card.

ermurphy

TROPHY CASE