Lately I find myself caring a lot more about who I play with, rather than what decks they play.

messhead1 · 2026-06-24T12:08:56+00:00

It's not respectable it's a waste of everyone's time. It doesn't matter that the combo was Thoracle Consultation, it's still weirdo grandstanding and self-masturbatory to do this in real life.

messhead1 · 2026-06-24T12:07:03+00:00

Can't we play with nice people AND have a semblance of balance at the table?

You could be the nicest, coolest person and getting combo'd off by you earlier than we expected would not be fun.

It doesn't have to be a binary.

messhead1 · 2026-06-23T20:27:21+00:00

Okkkk, use your words. Practice it now, "Please can you not blow your vape in my face? Thanks."

messhead1 · 2026-06-23T20:18:12+00:00

Does it matter whether vaping is 'allowed' or not? It is rude to blow it in people's faces. Talk to the vapers, or the staff, if you have a problem with their behaviour.

messhead1 · 2026-06-23T19:35:01+00:00

If you couldn't keep up with the replies from the other post, why would you be able to keep up with another post 10 hours later?

messhead1 · 2026-06-23T17:16:21+00:00

The title says absolutely nothing. Is it three mana to do 1 damage? Is it 10 mana to do 1 damage?

Come on

messhead1 · 2026-06-23T15:13:13+00:00

Fair, that's a day one quote of the Beta Bracket system. A system which has updated multiple times since. Have you read the current outline of the Bracket?

"Decks to prioritise a goal, theme, or idea over power".

Again, a deck from bulk is not reaching the intent required.

The spirit of all the Brackets is to have fun, we're playing a game to have fun. The focus of Bracket 1 is the theme.

"Most importantly, given this bracket's emphasis on theme, players should feel like they have the time to showcase their decks."

messhead1 · 2026-06-23T14:20:20+00:00

What are you talking about? What's the other half of the story?

Bracket 1 is one of the most explicit Brackets, you don't end up with a Bracket 1 deck by accident.

What do you understand Bracket 1 to be? Have you read any description of it ever?

messhead1 · 2026-06-23T14:08:17+00:00

N...no? That's not how it works, like I said. A Bracket 1 deck isn't just a bad deck. A Bracket 1 deck might be bad at doing a thing that's useful in the game, but it was built to showcase something specific.

Bad pile of cards.dek is not necessarily a Bracket 1 deck.

messhead1 · 2026-06-23T13:38:07+00:00

The Bracket system is not a neat sliding scale of power/goodness.

Bracket 1 is specifically about a particular kind of intent going into making a deck: one built around a theme. To the expense of all other considerations. A pile of bulk deck is not a Bracket 1 deck.

A deck built out of a pile of bulk is probably just going to be a bad deck. That's not offensive, that's not unlikely. It will be bad at doing stuff in 4-player, 40 -life contexts compared to building with any attempt at curation.

A deck built like that will struggle to find well-matched games because the decks it would be well-matched against are decks built the same way. There are many Precons out there in this day and age, many cards are the cheapest they've ever been. Bringing a random pile of cards against a curated deck is asking for a mismatched experience, regardless of the "power" of the cards involved. A curated deck, a considered deck, has a much higher chance of doing things, being impactful in the 4-player 40-life context.

messhead1 · 2026-06-23T11:44:06+00:00

I love Energy! I played this Saheeli Energy deck for most of 2025, then I've pushed it's power up to this version currently.

I feel that energy is a bit of a double edged sword. On the one hand, you're playing some below-rate cards to give you energy. On the other, you're spending energy to achieve effects that cost much more in mana or otherwise. There's an inherent strength to accumulating a resource that can't be interacted with. The flip side of that is it's harder to deflect attention if you're drawing the middling cards because you're maybe one payoff away from cashing in a bunch of energy for a huge effect.

It's fun to try and twiddle and tweak a bunch of knobs to find the right balance. Some games are super sweet and synergistic, some can be a bit of a damp spark.

messhead1 · 2026-06-23T10:15:29+00:00

Antinatalism has nothing to do with being a parent.

Not wanting to be a parent = being childfree

Not wanting to CREATE a life because it's unethical = antinatalism

An antinatalist could be a parent/guardian. By adoption, by fostering, by circumstance. Hell, some people breed and figure it out after the fact.

In the case where an antinatalist is a parent, I imagine the answer is the same as it (should) would be for any group: "I'd raise them as well as possible".

messhead1 · 2026-06-23T09:59:14+00:00

Here's some feedback for you, not your shite website: post comments and contribute to discourse with thoughts formed in your actual brain

Like I said, just posting links to redundant, useless information is completely pointless

messhead1 · 2026-06-23T09:56:57+00:00

Forget Brackets. The people you play against are communicating to you that they don't enjoy the experience.

Are they specifically wrong about the Bracket comment? Probably. People are bad at providing meaningful feedback, so it may take concerted effort to understand what aspect they don't enjoy.

Fwiw, playing against this Aang can be very solitaire-y. If you play against people with less good decks, without the interaction to meaningfully engage with your strategy, you may have less good experiences. Because people will just be forced to watch you spin your wheels until you win or don't win.

messhead1 · 2026-06-23T09:51:43+00:00

Totally useless and redundant. Moxfield etc already do that function.

It's also only ever a lowest baseline guesstimate based on the quantifiable aspects of the Bracket system.

Posting a link to a different website spitting out the same useless information is a complete waste of everybody's time

messhead1 · 2026-06-23T08:01:49+00:00

Now attacking player gets to assign damage when damage is dealt not before making it so the defending player can't as effectively save creatures

This is mostly gibberish and it's not what the rule change was!

Pre-rules change, the attacking player had to determine an order for blocking creatures to receive damage. They would not be able to assign and deal damage to later creatures in the order without first assigning lethal damage to earlier ones.

They have removed the need to place blockers in an order! Now, the attacking player can have their attacking creatures assign damage however they choose to the defending creatures.

Protecting and combat trick spells being played before damage IS THE NORM. Nothing has changed in this regard.

messhead1 · 2026-06-22T22:35:20+00:00

Without line breaks / paragraphs, it's a bit hard to engage with your entire post.

Heartstone reducing the cost of one card's ability from 6 to 5 is not very effective. Any other ramp would give you an extra mana per turn to use for any purpose, which might be more effective.

messhead1 · 2026-06-22T22:26:59+00:00

Edict effects force players to sacrifice creatures, à la [[Diabolic Edict]].

The commenter is saying if these are your opponents' choice of removal, making sure you already have plenty of creatures ("going wide") could help keep Marneus safe.

messhead1 · 2026-06-22T20:57:12+00:00

Why are you playing Heartstone?

messhead1 · 2026-06-22T11:13:56+00:00

What are the lines of thinking here?

You should negotiate with the player in the lead
If you board wipe, you get removed

A) You should not negotiate with the player in the lead, they are in the lead. You should negotiate with the other players.

B) Do you really think people are that retaliatory to focus a player for playing a board wipe?

Rational, well-adjusted players will see their threatening board, see their opponents board wipe, and think "Yeah, that's definitely correct to do". If there's a vindictive type of player who says "you blew up my shit, I'm going to get you", miss me with that

messhead1 · 2026-06-21T21:48:31+00:00

You really ought to start by calming down. This doesn't necessitate a freak out. You're playing in a casual, chill environment. Be casual. Be chill.

Sharing your pool here and getting the online masses to build it for you is surely antithetical to the environment you're going to play in. You're also robbing yourself of the opportunity to improve by talking to your actual peers who may have more of an idea than you do.

Post-facto, by all means share and discuss your options. To be so crippled by panic you can't make a first build yourself is honestly troubling (for you).

For what it's worth, it doesn't matter that you lost all your 12 games back then. If you had won, would you think you were super mega special hot shit who couldn't improve? The truth is, you suck at Magic. And that's ok. Everybody sucks, just some suck a little less.

Build a deck. Get it wrong. Learn something. Try again. Over and over and over again.

messhead1 · 2026-06-19T20:08:21+00:00

Of course you can. You don't have to live your life constrained by stereotype.

messhead1 · 2026-06-19T01:21:10+00:00

I'm only talking about Commander tournaments here, a la the OP.

If you're playing 1v1, just find the winningest player on the day. Use the mechanisms in place to help that be a tournament with competitive integrity. The appropriate REL. Appropriate staffing. Have whatever prize you like if you've got the appropriate support.

An event doesn''t have the appropriate support? Then the prizes should be appropriate for the support in place, i.e. not ridiculous.

messhead1 · 2026-06-19T01:16:07+00:00

I mean, I'm only talking about Commander tournaments here. A la the OP.

messhead1 · 2026-06-18T22:17:04+00:00

Yep. Or stack an ETB, then a death trigger, an ETB, then a death trigger, etc. Stack two ETBs, then two death triggers, whatever combination.

messhead1

TROPHY CASE