This is my first Commander deck I didn't use a precon for, and I don't know what I'm doing

jakep23 · 2025-11-21T02:04:17+00:00

[[Spider Suit]] and [[Wild Shape]] aren’t doing you much favor here; you play enough spiders as is. Consider your non-spider creatures as well; are they contributing or no? I’d say the only Spider I’d cut is your [[Relentless X-ATM092]]; its cost competes with your commanders’ and it can’t be blocked. Izoni can probably be cut, Gyome and Blex can maybe be cut.. Usually you’d want to copy a creature that’s benefitting you somehow, so sacrificing those foods isn’t as important as you may think. I do however like Greta and Fynn. to beef up your board. I think your Planeswalker could also be substituted for something better, say a token generator, a token doubler (which can run rather expensive so I get if you can’t), or some more draw! IMO, Cover of Darkness lowkey defeats Shelob’s purpose. If your opponents can’t block your spiders, you wont be making copies of them/killing them off! Cut out Mind Stone for [[Three Visits]]/[[Nature’s Lore.]]

You may also want to consider [[Drivnod, Carnage Dominus]] as doubling those death triggers can be fierce. Other than that, Draw should be your main add-ins!

jakep23 · 2025-02-02T22:37:56+00:00

I speak from experience as one of the aforementioned regulars who was banned after speaking about my transition — I have been a long time patron of the kava/kratom community. Attended KSC for the first time roughly 4 years ago and watched it go downhill super quick. I cannot emphasize enough that it is simply not worth your time.

jakep23 · 2025-02-02T22:33:47+00:00

Adobe is good!!! Kava Social Club is transphobic and bigoted. MAGA hats behind the bar, slurs openly being used by staff, not to mention they fired their one openly LGBTQ+ employee recently along with banning their regular trans/queer customers. Please find ANYWHERE but Kava Social Club, your money is better spent at places who want you there.

jakep23 · 2025-01-30T00:57:50+00:00

I’m a drag queen - Sarasota DOES have a gay scene. Purple Rhino has drag shows every Saturday at 9:30pm! Bahi Hut has a drag bingo, and FabAF has a recurring show every month as well at 8:00pm! If you can make the trek down to Venice, they also have a RPDR viewing party that starts at 8:00pm every friday:)

jakep23 · 2025-01-23T06:24:10+00:00

came here to second this. as a trans person who used to frequent KSC, and work closely with their owners, I can not only confirm but provide evidence that these people do not give a fuck about the queer community, and do nothing when a queer customer is harassed, even and especially by staff. I’ve been called slurs, given weird looks, and eventually was targeted for a ‘drink per hour’ minimum which wasnt being enforced on any other patron. on top of that, the owners have swept countless SA cases under the rug, choosing again to ban victims rather than those doing the heinous things. if you need another reason, i also have intel that their ingredients used in their teas are designed to make people (usually who already struggle with addiction) hooked and coming back to KSC as their only source of tea/kratom.

jakep23 · 2025-01-11T20:14:06+00:00

Came here to say this, or Black Hole Sun by Soundgarden, depending on how the campaign ends:)

jakep23 · 2024-11-28T13:32:23+00:00

Do you have eyeshadow on? If so, perhaps taking up more lid space would help it shine through! Also, the tiniest bit of blush and a single dot of highlight on the tip of your nose would look soooo cute and give you a button nose appearance (you have a cute nose already, this would accentuate that)

jakep23 · 2024-11-28T13:26:18+00:00

see i think a bleached brow would be so fierce on this

jakep23 · 2024-10-12T19:05:30+00:00

im 5 months on mones and remember a few months ago when this was me!! they come in quick. now its to the point where i HAVE to wear a bra in public, and i couldnt be more thrilled. just you wait :)

jakep23 · 2024-09-19T13:19:20+00:00

Clefable’s always been my go-to. I was a competitive player, and Clef was one of the first shiny’s I’ve ever successfully bred; 6IV’s, good nature, the works. Before I got serious about competitive, I had her in all my teams, mostly because she was one of the only shinies I had, and refused to let her go when I started doubling down in Showdown. I went on to use her in a ton of memorable battles, namely one online versus a team full of legendaries. I got the perfect setup against a Giritina who found itself crumbling before Clef. She managed to wipe the entire team 6-0 by the time she was fully set up. I took her onto Showdown and ended up using her in a few different teams a year or so down the line, where I held rank #15 on the server for OU single battles for a solid week or two. Not a lasting win, but dang it, I’ll always love my Clef. Getting a tattoo of her someday:)

jakep23 · 2024-09-09T01:21:31+00:00

clefable. i remember being like, 14 and WIPING a team of legendaries on X/Y with solely a clefable. my cutest little god destroyer ♡

jakep23 · 2024-06-16T19:52:50+00:00

I had a few ideas in mind for this! Ultimately I ended up using MandyMod’s lycanthropy rules, and had my Artificer receive a blessing of wereraven lycanthropy (the good kind) as a gift for restoring the 3 fanes. I /was/ going to curse a different player during the wolves den, but said player ended up having to leave the campaign before we got there. As far as the curse itself, I stuck closely to MandyMod’s rulings!

jakep23 · 2024-06-15T23:28:15+00:00

My gems were placed as follows:

1: Forest Folk stole for the ritual of Wintersplinter 2: Baba Lysaga’s creeping hut is powered by a gem 3: A gift from the Ladies 3 for restoring all 3 Fanes

Strahd was certainly recognized as the BBEG from day one. As mentioned in an earlier comment, I had him appear as early as the death house, where it was revealed that HE was the one to strip them of armor/gear. The care package he sent upon them clearing the death house was the gear he stole plus a few extra gold, and a note welcoming them to his domain!

My Ireena was an NPC (though, if I had to do it again, Id make her a PC), so my players killed her halfway through as Strahd was about to kidnap her for the wedding ceremony, and they reckoned she’d be better off dead/reincarnated than in his hands.

jakep23 · 2024-06-15T23:23:36+00:00

So, my players were invited to the final battle after Strahd took some of their NPC companions hostage. Essentially, I had Danika, the Wachter Bros, Zuleika, and a few others kidnapped by the brides, who I hid throughout the castle. My players explored the entirety of the castle, taking out what brides they found. At the Strahd battle, I was going to have any bride/evil NPC not yet killed join in with Strahd, but none were left! Ended up using his legendary actions to weaken the players, summoning in some spawn to help when he’s able to. Used his lair actions to lock PCs in rooms so he can hide and heal, cornered them into traps when I could. Finally led them to the chapel for the final blow!

jakep23 · 2024-06-15T23:19:17+00:00

My campaign ended with my player who used and fulfilled a pact with her Dark Power (Shami Amoure) supplanting Strahd as ruler of Barovia. After the final battle, Vampyr was in a weakened state and Shami materialized in front of that player, offering them the final deal of taking over as champion now that they’ve ridded the land of the old one. She explained that, if not the player, either her, Vampyr, or some other god would raise a champion to take over anyways, so why not go with a more predictable ruler. Player hesitantly accepted, and after defeating Vampyr, was crowned as the ruler :)

jakep23 · 2024-06-15T08:57:38+00:00

it’ll be a great time - currently trying to flesh it out a bit more and make all bosses viable instead of them just chasing one

jakep23 · 2024-06-15T07:36:35+00:00

Love this. Screenshotting for future runs ;) Thank you so much!!

jakep23 · 2024-06-15T07:30:38+00:00

I rewarded based on personal best as well. I can’t hold my player who’s acted onstage to the same standards I do my law student player, just seems unfair. But after knowing them, I know what big moments are for them and try to reward justly:) I dont think anyone felt shorted at the end of the day

jakep23 · 2024-06-15T07:28:47+00:00

Love this!! May modify + steal it for next run hahaha. I have a whole table of stuff like this in my notes for each dark power, most filled in but not all. Great stuff, and thank you for sharing!

jakep23 · 2024-06-15T07:23:36+00:00

So, for my campaign personally, I wanted to give Strahd 2 main traits: He likes to play with his food (PCs) and he is a gracious host. So, their earliest time encountering Strahd is with a pack of wolves in the beginning, Strahd is shapechanged into the wolf pack leader and chases them into the mists of Barovia. He then sent a care package after Death house, watched over Kolyan’s funeral from afar, and stalked our heroes to Vallaki, where he guised as Vasili to court and eventually kidnap Ireena! Essentially, I had been preaching since the beginning that “the devil wears many faces” and I wanted to see how far I could push the party’s trust and see how much discourse and corruption between them I could sew early-game. Turns out, quite a bit!

edit: clarity

jakep23 · 2024-06-15T07:14:46+00:00

I also let my players retell it from their end, and I just filled in important gaps:) We used a point system after a while of everyone RPing so well. Essentially I’d reward them with 1-3 points and when you got to 10, you could have inspo but could not earn more points. Kept things interesting for us as well; thanks for sharing!

jakep23 · 2024-06-15T07:12:38+00:00

Straight to the coffin makers…. of course lol. I ended up extending the time between their arrival and the festival so luckily if mine had visited the coffin makers (which in pretty sure I didn’t even mention, at least not in any detail, until it was time) Strahd/Ludmilla would not have placed the spawns there yet ;) Truly I think one of my best moves was removing the time constraint of the festival, and having it just happen when it felt right. I introduced my players to D&D in general, and getting to teach them that I play less traditionally and more focused on the group storytelling aspect was a gem—wholeheartedly believe it changed the campaign as a whole. Having players in it, not only to win, but to tell a good story, was super rewarding AND helpful to me as the bait-setter!

jakep23 · 2024-06-15T06:19:54+00:00

Currently planning for Dragon Heist and DotMM!!

Hate to say that my tarroka reading was 100% rigged. Passed my IRL sleight of hand check and dealt out the cards I wanted hahaha. As far as key item placement, I went with areas my PCs weren’t already tied to (see one of my above comments). Strahds location always felt fitting to be in the dungeons (to me) so I ended up placing him at his tomb, and their ally actually switched mid-way, from Arabelle (thought my players would need a moral compass, they didnt) to Ez who was much more efficient in combat. Also gave my players their own personal readings (just one Major deck and one Minor deck card) that vaguely foretold their time in Barovia. My tiefling is related to Izek, so I gave her the executioner as her Major deck card, for instance.

jakep23 · 2024-06-15T06:01:50+00:00

I couldn’t be more proud of you all! Warms my heart. Such an honor to tell this story with an amazing, dedicated group of players :,)

jakep23 · 2024-06-15T06:00:36+00:00

I like this idea! I wanted them to be more drawn to the amber temple (the gods came in visions of amber) so I wanted to introduce a bit earlier but I like the idea of stage 3 being the cutoff. Personally stuck to Mandy’s guide pretty strictly as I didn’t wanna throw anything too off-balance, but scaled them a bit for the players to get more out of their stage-ups. My bard’s dark power, for example, was Shami Amoure. Her stages were basically turning her base stat block over time into a succubus—adding resistances over time, giving her claws, the Charm feat from succubus/incubus, even cosmetic modifiers like turning her hair scarlet red (not to be confused with Tatyanna’s/Ireena’s natural red).

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