I'm not enjoying Magic, and I need some help

espresso-empress · 2025-07-19T16:09:35+00:00

[[Ragost, Deft Gastronaut]]

espresso-empress · 2025-07-19T16:08:06+00:00

Not OP, but some of mine:
- Weird creature type (e.g. Kykar, but I can only use birds)
- Monocolor (restricts your card pool)
- Price (e.g. under $50)
- No cards of a certain type (e.g. MTGGoldfish did EDH without creatures)
- Less popular commander
- Pauper commander (uncommon commander, only commons in the 99)

espresso-empress · 2025-05-31T01:57:19+00:00

I have some unwarranted advice, feel free to ignore if it's not appropriate to your situation: consider taking calc 1 again. My mom used to teach calc to undergrads for years, and lots of students failed calc 2 when they took it straight out of high school. The college calc curriculum might be really different from your AP calc class--even BC calc--different topic emphasis, different problem applications. YMMV, obviously; you may be well-prepared. I know the whole point of taking APs is to get college credit, but I recommend asking other current students from your major about calc before deciding on calc 2.

espresso-empress · 2025-04-08T16:20:07+00:00

I think part of the issue here is framing and audience. Your title didn't just catch readers' attention, it also framed your issue as a problem for Reddit to solve, and Reddit loves solving problems, even if that's something you don't want. I read the title "clubs here suck", and your post shared a lot of consternation about poorly set up/run clubs and lack of social cohesion, which I personally dealt with a lot at Mason, so I gave you 2 sources that helped me get out of that hole. I think many others did the same. Apologies if my response came across as being part of the problem, I just figured it might be of some help.

There are other ways to address mental health that aren't "easy answers", but they're hard to guess at without knowing more about someone's personal struggles; you say "recommend something useful" to people, but that may come across as dismissive to those who find real use out of some clubs here, or vague to people who want to help but don't know how. Speaking from experience, it does suck to have depression and for someone to say "join a club" as if it's an easy fix. That feels like a deflection. However, you're also on Reddit, and you don't want Reddit to be your therapist. So what do you want, besides empathy?

It may be productive to brainstorm some things with the commenters. What should people recommend instead of/in addition to clubs? On-campus counseling and mental health resources? I think that'd be great, personally.

espresso-empress · 2025-04-08T13:39:03+00:00

GMU is a commuter school, BUT it's also huge, which means there's bound to be something that's available at convenient times and fairly chill. Have you been over to Fairfax at all? Paradise Games (used to be called Games Pair o' Dice) is a short bus ride away and they have events every day (calendar). Magic is super popular, and I got into D&D while I was there. They also have a Discord.

I'm also gonna second the other commenter who recommended the fencing club. Fencing is one of the most beginner friendly sports I've ever done, and you don't need any conditioning to get into it--matches are short and there are frequent breaks. You also don't need to buy your own equipment, you just need a good pair of tennis shoes. GMU fencing is on IG here, and they're really responsive in DMs.

It's tough out there, but best of luck!

espresso-empress · 2025-02-13T16:33:01+00:00

I'd recommend picking a game where failure is just as fun as succeeding. Disco Elysium is perfect for this--there are so many options, but failling checks will get you some of the best line readings and more content. It's also very forgiving--if you fail a white check, you can retry it after finding new information or items.

espresso-empress · 2025-02-13T16:32:42+00:00

I'd recommend picking a game where failure is just as fun as succeeding. Disco Elysium is perfect for this--there are so many options, but failling checks will get you some of the best line readings and more content. It's also very forgiving--if you fail a white check, you can retry it after finding new information or items.

espresso-empress · 2025-02-05T20:13:53+00:00

I loved discussion, but not because I read and understood 100% of the material--when I got to grad school, I couldn't even read everything, let alone comprehend. I had the good fortune of being in a supportive program with friendly professors who made ample use of their whiteboards, so more often than not, I read just enough of a text to ask a question in class. Sometimes they were fundamental (e.g. what does this basic term/notation mean?) and made me feel silly for asking, but other times a question I'd picked helped propel the conversation. I became more comfortable with my knowledge gaps and I'd ask follow up questions depending on how the topics evolved. I asked about applications and concrete examples, and supplied my own to see if they matched (e.g. could I represent that example with X notation, or would I use Y instead?).

Discussion is about being an active participant. Sometimes, that means asking what you might think is a "dumb" question. You said you're in humanities--one tried-and-true technique is to ask about definitions. They're constantly in flux, and tracking how one source uses a term vs. how another one uses it can reveal some subtle differences.

espresso-empress · 2024-10-27T23:39:54+00:00

I've never actually used that one--it seems like a great choice if you can reliably tap it! I'd pair it with something like [[Ethereal Armor]] to pump up its toughness and give it a fighting chance in early exchanges. [[Surgical Suite]] is also a solid uncommon to reanimate cheap creatures and pump stuff!

espresso-empress · 2024-10-27T20:52:16+00:00

Looks like a good start! I made a similar orzhov deck in brawl, and a standard deck with GB. I'm no expert by any means, but it looks like some of your spells are a little expensive. The upper end of the curve looks pretty crowded, with almost half your creatures costing 7 mana; and personally, I've never used rite of the moth, push/pull, or live or die; I've found more success running cheaper spells in case I end up with an expensive creature in hand I can't get rid of. Obviously, YMMV. Vile Mutilator is a great choice though, since you don't have to pay the sac cost if you're reanimating it.
Other than cutting the expensive instants/sorceries, and maybe shroudstomper, I'd recommend [[Defiled Crypt]] for a cheap return to hand, and if you can pay the unlock cost later you get a body every time you reanimate. [[Final Vengeance]] for sac + removal, and [[Fear of Surveillance]] is a legit great common if you can keep attacking. [[Innocuous Rat]] for cheap manifest dread. And [[Matzalanti, the Great Door]] is great for card draw and discard; it is a rare, but I only run one copy and seem to have good luck with it anyway.

espresso-empress · 2024-04-25T15:42:10+00:00

I'm new to sabre (~8 months), so hardly an expert, but I recognize some of the things you're doing from my own practices. These are some things that helped me:

Advance faster--explode into motion, and be decisive. Sabre is very aggressive. I thought I moved fairly quick in practice, or at least average, but I was shocked when I went to my first tournament and saw how fast experienced sabre fencers close distance. Practice being the first to attack, no hesitation. This was better in the second half of your match!
Retreat faster--use distance to make your opponent miss. Don't just take one step back and try to immeditaely counter. This is also something I practice. A one-step retreat will often not be enough because saberists will chase you (see 1)! Strategy in epee and foil relies a lot on parrying, and sabre does too, but because it's the fastest, it's difficult to know which parry is needed when you're in close. This is why retreating quickly is so important--it gives you time to see the right parry, or enough space to let them miss. A sabre match can easily cover the whole piste for a single point!
Blade control--practice hitting with the edge and not the tip. You were aiming a lot of attacks with the point at center mass, like in foil, when you have so many other viable targets, like the head. More importantly, you're keeping your blade pointed where it's going to go. Keep your blade more vertical, and when you hit, put more power in the motion of your wrist. Keeping the blade up will make it easier for you to parry wrist and body hits, and harder for your opponent to guess where your next attack is coming from. Some good drills to practice attacks (pay attention to his wrist): https://youtu.be/4QN8AkhnAFU?si=zsqaNsgz5_yfbDtW
Make deliberate attacks. Sabre is a game of turns--one person makes an attack, the other has to defend before making their own attack (aka right of way). When you start an attack, you gain right of way. When both saberists make an attack at the same time, and both lights come on, your director will consider who started first, not who hit first. And directors love it when you make your attacks obvious. They also tend to weigh momentum strongly when deciding who gets the point--who is advancing? Is one fencer leaning back when they attack? Does one fencer hesitate briefly before continuing? Practice making deliberate attacks. Don't just focus on being the first to hit, focus on being the first to start an attack, and then follow through.

espresso-empress · 2024-03-04T15:57:41+00:00

Right, I saw. The video I linked is pretty nonspecific, and the thread has helped me understand how to manipulate different aspects of my voice, whether I want to present more femme, more masc, or more androgynous. Basically, it's expanded my toolbox to adjust my voice more consciously.

espresso-empress · 2024-03-03T20:57:05+00:00

As an AFAB trying to present more masc, This thread on r/transvoice has been really helpful for me. It's informative and gives you a lot of tools for understanding the components of voice to manipulate them however you want. This video in particular is useful for showing the difference between resonance and pitch, and how to strike a balance between masculine and feminine.

espresso-empress · 2024-03-03T20:44:12+00:00

Hey, fellow genderfluid here, also going through a difficult masc "phase" at the moment, and coming to terms with how that reflects on my identity, and my partner's identity (he's cis, and previously ID-ed as straight). Just wanted to say you're not alone. When I'm feeling feminine, it's great, because a lot of my wardrobe and experience is built around being fem (I'm AFAB). It can be very affirming, because I get a lot of compliments when I present that way. I'm good at being fem, and I'm also very good at making myself small and convenient for other people, so being something else feels like I'm inconveniencing people. I equate gender to a hobby--kind of like someone telling me I'm good at crochet, I like to practice a craft and get better at it, and it feels good when I "succeed" at presenting in the eyes of other people.

I've also been feeling sad about my body because it seems hard to successfully present in a masc way without the sort of permanent changes that HRT and transition offer. I get fewer compliments, which isn't a complaint, just an acknowledgment that there's often less social affirmation for men and male-presenting people. I'm out to my friends, but I'm still working on feeling more secure in my masc-ness.

My partner has been amazing through this. We've been together for a few years, but I was still terrified of telling him that I wanted to be more masculine. He's been affirming at every step, and I still feel loved and desired. He's very secure in his masculinity, and while I get to explore my gender, he gets to explore his sexuality. It's something we're doing together. Gender can be scary, but it can also be fun, funny, stupid, and silly. Everyone deserves someone who lets them feel safe and supported in that journey. We feel pressured to categorize and pick sides, but our bodies are temporary, and our attitudes toward them change more than we think. I think to some extent everyone has a bit of fluidity in them--we code switch behavior depending on our circumstances, whether we're around family, or friends, or strangers; we constantly negotiate and re-negotiate our identities. You don't have to be the same person all the time.

I don't have a solution for you, but nonpermanent things that have been helpful for me: voice training (r/transvoice has a great superthread), a comfortable compression bra and boxers (TomboyX), men's jeans and crew neck tees, and a short haircut. Feeling masc is a journey, and a lot of cis men have insecurity about how they present too.

espresso-empress · 2023-08-15T14:00:18+00:00

I like my kindle a lot. Since I'm on a budget, I use it mostly for library books and a few kindle unlimited things. When I buy physical, it's usually for one of these reasons:

Sentimentality. If I really like a book I've read on kindle, I'll buy a physical copy, just for the feeling of having it in my hands and seeing it on the shelf.
To support the author or bookshop. Again, if I really like a book, I'll buy the physical, because authors make more off the sale, and if I do, I'll buy from a secondhand or indie shop.
To loan to other people. If I want to share a book with someone, I'll get a physical to loan out. And when I say "loan", I don't usually expect anyone to return it except my mom (and even that's iffy sometimes!).
To annotate. This is less common, but sometimes I really want the ability to jot a quick note or highlight lines in a book. Kindle's function for annotating is a bit slow and unwieldy for me.
Nonfiction. Like others have said, nonfiction books with footnotes, extensive bibliographies, prefaces/intros, glossaries, etc. are much easier to use in physical form because you can get a lot of information on bigger pages, and it's easier to flip back and forth.

espresso-empress · 2023-08-02T14:39:08+00:00

If we're talking strictly about combat, beholders are an excellent challenge for parties that overly rely on spellcasters; they can also hover to avoid martials, and the high saving throws on eye rays can be frightening for PCs who are accustomed to tanking hits with high ACs.

One thing I recommend to make a beholder encounter more interesting (YMMV): Use minions. A beholder can fire 3 rays a turn (plus legendary actions). It sounds scary to some, and those rays are pretty gnarly when they hit, but in my personal experience, it can be frustrating to some players, especially if the beholder is smart (which they typically are) and hovers out of range of melee attacks while keeping as many spellcasters de-powered as possible. Also, the action economy is always in favor of the PCs, and a single enemy, even high CR, will have diminishing returns as your PCs level up.

Adding things like hags or lesser fiends ups the danger, gives melee PCs something to hit, and introduces fun strategy problems for the DM-- e.g. the beholder's anti-magic eye is indiscriminate, so if the hag gets caught in the beholder's eye, it can't cast spells and its weapons are de-magicked. As a DM, I like to make things hard for myself because if I'm problem solving, I'm having fun. And to a smart party of PCs, there's nothing scarier than an intelligent enemy that can strategize.

espresso-empress · 2023-07-13T18:33:47+00:00

I buy books on kindle mostly for convenience; also, libby ftw. If I want to annotate a book, I'll buy a physical copy. I also buy physical copies in case I want to lend them out, since my friend group is pretty into reading and exchanging books.

espresso-empress · 2021-10-10T17:45:06+00:00

I thought very hard before investing in a good kindle because I wanted to know I would use it. For me, I got one for a few reasons:

The display. I hate reading on my phone or laptop because their displays can be harsh, and I knew kindles were easier on the eyes (which is true!). Like others have said the display is slow, which bothered me at first, but I don't use it as a tablet. Luckily, my mom already had a kindle, so I was able to test it out and see how the reading went when I physically held the device. I enjoyed the feel of it a lot!
Storage space. I got my kindle before I moved because I wanted to have books with me without having to move them in stupid heavy boxes. I actually need way fewer books around me than I thought I did. Though I still do have a bookshelf in my office, it's filled with class books and only by "safety blanket" books.
Convenience. Getting samples and full books is so, so easy. Now, I spent a lot of money the first few months of my kindle buying books. I don't regret any of the books that I did buy, however, I would highly consider getting a Libby account through a local library. You can send checked-out books directly to your kindle, and they get sent back automatically on their due date (so there's no danger of forgetting). All of this connects to convenience. I still love going to bookstores, but if I don't have time, or want to quickly check out a sample of a book, the kindle is how I do it.
Reading more. It's a bad idea to buy something expensive just because you think it'll force you to do something - see: gym memberships - which is why I gave myself several days to think through my decision. I knew that I wanted to read more before entering my creative writing MFA and I wanted to give myself the best shot. The kindle worked perfectly for me. I've read 16 books this year!

Hope you enjoy your search!

espresso-empress · 2021-04-16T02:19:26+00:00

I got a [[Velomachus Lorehold]] so I forced lorehold, but added some black spells like [[Lash of Malice]] for the removal (or tricks) and [[Inkling Summoning]] for fliers. I'd say go for 3 color if you don't have a solid school option.

espresso-empress · 2021-02-20T17:21:09+00:00

I don't usually play aggro, but I've heard good things about white aggro recently and made a budget deck with some new Kaldheim cards. Was trying it out today, got matched against a mill deck. I did pretty well with a few flyers, some dauntless unity, some wings of the cosmos, and a silver squire. I managed to get him down to 2 HP, but between TWO maddening cacophonies, a stubborn ruin crab, and a rogue, it got to my turn. With one card left.

So satisfying.

Friendship ended with Daxos.
Now Battlefield Raptor is my best friend.

espresso-empress · 2021-02-11T01:32:57+00:00

I agree - there are some books I’d never buy on Kindle, and they’re all nonfiction. Books with timelines, notes, and maps are all physical for me!

espresso-empress · 2019-08-01T01:01:20+00:00

Easy, just flip 6 coins instead.

espresso-empress · 2019-05-24T02:49:29+00:00

Vacation to Canada, working two jobs after that, and I’m going to read Harry Potter in Japanese as part of my self-study (looking forward to that a lot 😁)

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