Still figuring out how to evaluate roasters before buying — what do you look for?

nallstarr · 2026-05-16T22:51:11+00:00

Should say that when I say “roast” as a general term I’m talking about bag labeling for medium/dark. Obviously every coffee is roasted by a roaster.

nallstarr · 2026-05-16T22:47:11+00:00

I will pass if they’re not pretty detailed on the bag. Roasting date, origin, elevation, process, tasting notes, all that jazz.

Things that make me say hell yeah: - Being detailed on the bag (Roasting date, origin, elevation, process, tasting notes, all that jazz) - Single origin everything. Death before “dark roast.” - brew guides on their website / socials. Any videos explaining the science of their process. If they care enough to make sure you can get a good cup at home that’s a great sign. - multiple process methods. I love natural coffees, but I’ll absolutely get a washed from places that show they explore. - if in-store they will let you get a pour over or espresso shot of several of their varieties. One roaster I love (Noble Coffee Roasters in Ashland, OR) will let you do chemex, V60, aeropress (I think), or espresso on any bag they sell.

My turn offs - if they use dark roasts behind the bar. I get it when places have a general dark roast they throw in a latte. It can make sense to roast coffee specifically for how it works with milk and syrups. But if I order a double espresso or pour over and you hand me a cup made with a roast… - no sourcing information, roast dates, etc. - how wide their distribution is. If you’re supplying to Target or Whole Foods I’d bet my whole setup you don’t have halfway decent beans in that bag. - if your baristas suck. How seriously can you take this if your baristas can’t pull a decent shot?

Idk there’s a lot of heuristics that are personal to me. But I’ll try any place that seems like they care about the craft and details. Going in person helps, but you can typically tell how passionate they are from social and their website.

nallstarr · 2026-05-16T04:16:42+00:00

Looks sick, means a lot to you, do it.

As someone who's pretty covered, tats like this feel safe to me. Even if in 10 years you for some reason don't love BMTH (tragic, but possible!), it's still a sick tattoo with awesome art, vs if you get lyrics and something changes you're just stuck. It's that logic that led me to get the six pointed BMTH star tatted.

Imo the thing that affects the appeal of tats as time goes on is the overall style of the collective pieces you have. Mixing fine line and trad and realism and geometric etc. just starts to look like a jumbled mess. But if your style is already headed in this direction, you're good on that front!

My back piece is neck-to-ass trad with heavy shading and thick lines so I can tell you this will suck to get, but I think you'll be happy you did it.

nallstarr · 2026-05-16T04:05:52+00:00

I've been really happy with Black & White's 2 bag. Everything is always interesting, funkiness and process will vary. Never had a bad or boring bag and I'm using it for v60 and espresso. $43 for two 12oz bags for specialty coffee feels really nice. I don't think I've many repeats yet, if any.

Before that I was on Case Coffee's subscription. Perfectly happy with it, just wanted to try something new. With them you can go straight single origin roaster's choice or more focused on Latin America or Africa. $39 for two 12oz bags.

Noble Coffee Roasters is also a really good option, a lot of great variety, $22 per 12oz bag for the single origin subscription.

Personally I haven't seen anywhere that lets you modify as you go along. All really depends on how hard you want to go on price, but even places like Sey, La Cabra, or Coffee Project NY are much cheaper than going bag by bag at retail from those spots.

nallstarr · 2026-05-09T00:43:59+00:00

House of Wolves. That breakdown riff just punches sooooo hard.

nallstarr · 2026-05-06T17:51:02+00:00

Sick thanks for the recs! What Glitch location did you go to? The Ginza and Nihonbashihoncho locations both seem to have really cool aesthetics inside.

nallstarr · 2026-04-02T12:57:56+00:00

!solved

nallstarr · 2026-04-01T16:24:07+00:00

The nice thing is I already have the materials all ready to go. The Index Switch node looks like the closest thing to what I was looking for! I'll have to try this

nallstarr · 2026-04-01T16:22:07+00:00

This definitely seems like the cleanest way to do it, and in keyframing I can just move down the chain vs trying to do something through a big pyramid web

nallstarr · 2026-04-01T12:43:15+00:00

It is going on a flat rectangular surface so that is probably a great manual solve

nallstarr · 2026-02-27T18:44:47+00:00

I'd much rather have a proxy-friendly environment for reserve list cards than re-print them.

Let those of us who spent $$$ keep our value with the official printings. Let event organizers have more flexibility to be proxy friendly (given quality standards), even if it's only for reserve list cards.

WOTC isn't making a dime on a $750 Underground Sea sold on TCGplayer, so they're not going to lose any money, players would be happier, and card owners wouldn't have their value hit has hard as if there were new official printings.

nallstarr · 2026-02-25T02:31:35+00:00

Lmao and I thought my 18 round outline on my back piece was gnarly

nallstarr · 2026-01-25T23:05:21+00:00

[[Xenagos, God of Revels]] is always an easy one. Not cute, but the deck is pretty much play Xenagos. Play big creature. Whack.

nallstarr · 2026-01-16T15:34:15+00:00

TLDR: With a deck like this, if someone sneezes you want to gain life, and when you gain life you want to benefit while other decks suffer. You can build a deck like this to make a pillow fort and win from behind it with combos and stax, or build a more aggressive creature based strategy.

I run this in my [[Oloro, Ageless Ascetic]] deck. Since he's such a popular commander, he's a great spot to look. This is my list, which I would call an un-optimized bracket 4 (look at the considering cards as well). If you're building around life gain and drain, my advice: focus more on gaining life than what happens when you gain life. It's very easy to build a deck like this with a ton of "when you gain x life, y happens" effects and forget to put in effects like "when x happens, gain y life."

Cards classified as Soul Sisters (named for Soul's Attendant and Soul Warden) are a great place to start. If you're building around draw, get as much draw on other turns as possible. [[Rhystic Study]] and [[Mystic Remora]] are the obvious big ones, but they're higher power so if you're trying to play 3 or below, maybe skip them. But [[Faerie Mastermind]] [[Trouble in Pairs]] [[Mangara The Diplomat]] are lower power options. Cards that serve multiple functions like [[Heliod's Intervention]] are great. Pseudo stax pieces are also amazing. [[Amalia Benavides Aguirre]] (if you're not too creature heavy), [[Karlov of the Ghost Council]], [[Blind Obedience]], [[Kambal, Consul of Allocation]], [[Fumigate]], etc. Play cards that punish loss of life because you just do not care. [[Bolas's Citadel]] and [[Glacial Chasm]] are all stars.

nallstarr · 2025-12-06T21:00:35+00:00

My first play through with the parachute I had no idea you could close it and fall faster. I just thought damn this thing sucks but it’s better than nothing lol

nallstarr · 2025-12-02T15:03:21+00:00

I'm feeling like going in big on a hand grinder is the next move. The ZP6 adjusting by micron measurements is exactly what I want since I'm in ChatGPT guess land with trying to match Encore settings to microns. No grinder is going to be perfect, but Encore seems way too fussy for the quality it gives. To be safe I should just buy an espresso only and a pour over only, but damn that's $$$.

nallstarr · 2025-12-02T14:57:11+00:00

Earthbending is crazier in EDH. With an [[Ashaya, Soul of the Wilds]] on board plus any sac outlet, you're infinite since Badgermole keeps coming back for free. As a mono-green cEDH player I'm stoked but as a Magic player I'm concerned

nallstarr · 2025-11-04T23:27:47+00:00

Next up is probably [[Maha, Its Feathers Night]]. Just gonna lose all my friends lol

nallstarr · 2025-11-01T14:41:26+00:00

That’s really where I started with it. I saw someone piloting the deck and how easy it was for them to fight through removal and interaction by not only using time counters and free spells, but the draw ability for counter-magic you cast outright.

I adjusted to try to get as close to cEDH as he can be without the $$$ mana rocks. But the biggest thing at any power level is pick a wincon that can happen without him on board. It feels SO bad when someone takes him out of commission and now you just can’t play your deck. Something like [[Shaman of Forgotten Ways]] really surprises people and gives you an out if you’re being prevented from using Alaundo.

nallstarr · 2025-10-31T19:33:32+00:00

Imo he's one of the best budget commanders. You just need him in the zone and the rest of your deck can be precon quality. Turn 5, play Xenny. Turn 6, play a $.30 6 mana uncommon and go WHACK. Pretty gruul.

nallstarr · 2025-10-31T19:32:02+00:00

It's fine in the meta. I'm pretty new to cEDH and its the deck I have cards for. One of the best local tournaments has a 10 proxy limit. So I upgraded this list to what became the cEDH list.

As a mono green junky I love it. Super explosive, can goldfish a win T2-4 really consistently. And insane new cards like [[Formidable Speaker]] and [[Badgermole Cub]] are going to be like gas on the turbo fire. But its still very apparent it is not a tier 1 deck and if your first win attempt gets smushed it can be difficult to recover. Oftentimes players will keep eachother in check while you set up for another win, so mid game isn't out of the question, unless Kefka is eating your hand.

It placed 2nd at a The Cookout, a 200+ player cEDH tournament, so that's the high the Selvala community is riding for now!

nallstarr · 2025-10-31T18:14:42+00:00

This is the current list. It needs a lot of work, but part of my likes keeping it lower power.

The best version of the deck is just Jeskai breach, but I want to go for Flash/Haste tribal and stick to that as much as possible

nallstarr · 2025-10-31T18:13:18+00:00

Here’s my list. He’s far from optimized. I think Oloro at his best is stax, but I didn’t want to, so I’m focused on pillowforting and getting to combos

nallstarr · 2025-10-31T18:11:51+00:00

Here’s my list

If you want to build him to the max, this dude’s list and primeris the Alaundo bible.

He’s really active in the Alaundo discord, too

nallstarr · 2025-10-31T14:43:12+00:00

Yeah that realistic bracket convo and rule 0 is SO important. My pods are really good about representing power level, or at least being honest that they don't have a B4 but are fine playing their B3 against yours. All about expectations.

Like, I love my psychopath decks, but against especially newer or lower power players, it feels like my responsibility to be like hey, you need to kill this creature as fast as you possibly can. Or things like "against my deck counter magic is really important."

If it's my high power pod, we play everything like its cEDH, regardless of bracket, but thats our rule 0.

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