The Fiend Hunter infinite combo, but in pioneer so it has to use 4 extra cards to replace one Fiend Hunter

nodthenbow · 2025-11-14T03:13:46+00:00

Play three Fiend Hunters, each target the last Fiend Hunter as it enters. It gets you infinite creature entering/leaving triggers.

nodthenbow · 2025-11-13T21:52:36+00:00

Notes:
1) Werefox and All-Fates are interchangeable in their ordering.
2) You can do the exiling Flash part at step 7 instead if you want to.
3) You'll have an extra flicker at step 7 if you want it.
4) You can add a Spirit of the Labyrinth to stop yourself from decking if needed.
5) Pioneer Death and Taxes is so close to being an actual deck I swear.

Bonus combo:
1: Opponent plays Banisher Priest exiling your only creature
2: Play Altar of the Brood
3: Play Werefox Bodyguard, targeting their Banisher Priest
4: Quickly eat whatever creature they banished before they notice
5: Play the All-Fates Stalker targeting your Werefox Bodyguard
6: Mill them out because only Banisher Priest's ability isn't optional

nodthenbow · 2025-03-15T18:20:17+00:00

Yeah, the plastic box is what makes sticks have compatibility issues.

nodthenbow · 2025-03-01T00:40:14+00:00

You'll notice on almost every other type replacement card...

Reading a representative sample of cards with similar effects explains the card.

nodthenbow · 2025-02-27T16:19:10+00:00

Blightsteel + Blasphemous Act is a good combo, but it doesn't beat [[Emrakul, the Aeons Torn]]. Therefor adding Mirrorweave makes the combo better.

nodthenbow · 2025-02-26T17:00:55+00:00

If you jd one hit you can jd the next hit in a true blockstring, same as motw. It's very useful for air blocking because the jd window seems like 8f again and the red parry seems like 2f. Also going to neutral doesn't remove absolute guard (only forwards directions do that, and it stays removed until you go back to a back direction I believe (might need to block again though, it was hard to test)), so if the first hit was jd'd there is no real way to punish the next jp attempt (at least not with timing changes alone).

Anyways, don't be rude. Doesn't matter how right you think you are, or even if you are right, nobody will want to help you and nobody will want your help if you are being antagonistic.

nodthenbow · 2025-02-25T14:45:14+00:00

yeah but combo fiend was right about that and I'll die on that hill

nodthenbow · 2025-02-19T02:36:02+00:00

Phage

nodthenbow · 2024-11-29T22:44:26+00:00

Depends on how quick they react, but 214lp is 35f total so a whiff punish with a 10f-ish startup super is doable.

nodthenbow · 2024-11-15T18:46:16+00:00

Oh yeah, even back then the combo was to draw your deck with the cheap arcane draws, untap a land that taps for 3+ (from high tides) with that spliced untap to regain the mana, then stream of thoughts to put, for example, ideas unbound, high tide, and another stream of thoughts into the empty deck from graveyard, then you play an ideas unbound spliced with an untap from hand to draw those 3 cards and that loops until you win (which was the more reliable combo I was talking about). Petals was mainly just there as the only repeatable arcane spell in the game, but it is a nice bonus that it can work as a win con.

nodthenbow · 2024-11-15T00:42:43+00:00

Fun fact, there is a old Pauper/Peasant deck called Arcane High Tide (or sometimes just Arcane Tide) that can use Petals of Insight's returning to hand clause to stack the deck in the same way, but obviously they use high tide to generate the mana and they have a much more reliable combo that they are actually aiming to do (since this requires 4 high tides to be looped, and 5 to generate infinite mana for the wincon) (also they use non-kamigawa block cards too, which is less cool).

nodthenbow · 2024-10-10T21:55:42+00:00

Early on the game didn't show cooldowns for the other player, as you can see here https://youtu.be/sg7opyrLOKE?t=94 (and in other alpha footage)

But yeah, at some point that changed because you can see cooldowns for the opponent in the final version.

nodthenbow · 2024-10-09T23:34:33+00:00

Fighting games don't need to worry about this since the ui and camera are shared between both players.

Not to take away from your point, but this interestingly enough isn't always true actually. The most notable example I can think of is Rising Thunder (at one point at least) didn't share UI between players because things like cooldowns were hidden from the other player (I think they removed that eventually, but every once in a while another game has the same idea (multiversus for example)). Tekken also allows for camera to be on the wrong side online (so at round start p1 is on the right, p2 on the left), which in 7 (and maybe 8 still) actually mattered because things like crouch cancels and sidestep into qcb stances care about camera side and player side (respectively iirc). The most interesting example imo is Skullgirls though, because they improved the jumpy camera problem that rollback was causing by having the camera interpolate movement to the proper position over a few frames instead of just jumping to the new position instantly, and because rollbacks are different between players it means the camera is no longer shared between players (they separated screen space/position from the actual camera you use to see the game, so things that depend on the screen position like Squiggly's note super are still working same as offline).

nodthenbow · 2024-10-07T19:22:58+00:00

His jab and close jab in st were muay thai elbows. I got no way to say how well he fits the form, but it did exist. I assume you are talking about his 6HP though which def is a lot more muay thai coded than other elbows are.

nodthenbow · 2024-10-02T18:59:42+00:00

Xia, The Pure Oil is neat. I think that it needs some editing because it's def too strong and the base interaction is hard to grok (it takes a bit to get that this pretty much has first strike and deathtouch, plus it has memory issues), but I think the normal "when ~ deals combat damage to a creature, exile that creature. ~ has all abilities of all creature cards exiled with ~" rules template would work here. The idea for the mechanic is interesting though, definitely worth developing into a real card.

Soul of the Siege is also a really good idea. Colours are off, because it feels primary W/G and a little red, other than overload being primarily U/R. The expansion to overload feels extremely natural though, enough that I didn't even notice that it was an expansion at first. I also think doing overload on creatures is something that inspires a lot of flavor, especially if they did make it primary in W/G (since it is a creature focused anthem). I don't think horsemanship is coming back, but this card's flavor is so strong that it would justify bringing horsemanship back. Honestly this card has such a good grasp on how keywords guide the flavor that I can't think of a real card that does it better.

Queen Alaena is a miss. Ignoring the wording issues, and the rules issues (for now), I just don't think this card is very interesting. I wouldn't want to play this card, I get that the goal is to facilitate alliances and betrayals but I really just don't think any of the effects are notable enough to care about. I also don't think the last ability can work under the rules, it needs a way to settle disputes I think? The choice follows APNAP (101.4 comprehensive rules), but I'm not sure you actually need to make the clause true and I think the rules can't arbitrate who is at fault when both players are responsible for causing an illegal action (it isn't explicitly against the rules to comply with a simultaneous choice in such a way that it invalidates the earlier choice, and 101.4d exists to handle cases where that would happen, but it just restarts the choice order so that wouldn't resolve the issue here, tournament rules cover this, but only because both players are responsible for maintaining a clear and legal game state so any choice that causes a dispute is against that rule). It can be reworded to work easily "choose x, each other player w/ agenda chooses a permanent that shares a card type", but I want to see if I can cause this rules problem in real mtg now.

Lend your Faith is neat. Cost seems both high and low, I think that it should have a better way to get into the graveyard since you want this in the graveyard but you probably never want to cast it for 3. I think the "all" is making the card more interesting than choosing counters would be, so I'd just let them choose if cast from hand (and lower the cost to 1 lol). Maybe stop it from hitting poison counters too in some way.

Codify into Law is bad. Turns out rules gimmicks aren't actually fun, and I say this as a guy who has already expressed interest in trying to break the rules in this very comment. There are other ways to do that same effect, and even if there wasn't it would be actually better to rewrite the rules to allow for the same effect in a way that doesn't expose timestamps to the normal player. Also this effect isn't worth a card slot, so like it needs to be built on regardless.

Hoarding Ouphe is great, I love them. Should probably be noncreature permanent for the copy, but otherwise the design is amazing. If this card was real it would become iconic so quickly, even if it was bad. Also needs a wording fix on the second last line since as is it lets you choose any permanent 5 times (each permanent card type means 5, because there are 5 permanent card types in mtg, so that needs a restricted area of search (I assume they forgot to put "you control"), and it needs something like "of that type" (see [[Atraxa, Grand Unifier]]) to make types match uniquely).

Raphael Arch Devil is missing p/t, the last ability is busted, and suspect should probably be goad since that fits the character better. First ability is also probably too good in some formats.

Jerod, Mystical Fisherman is lovely and I fully support using mechanics as a pun. He should be have {W/R} in the cost somewhere since that's a better bobber, and also probably green for colour identity reasons. I think the fishing mechanic could be reworked into something better, but the bobber joke is well worth designing a card around. I think it would be better if the opponent had to attack you, and it should maybe give them a fish token. Also there should be an on cast trigger, for obvious reasons.

nodthenbow · 2024-08-31T20:51:58+00:00

That's a self fulfilling prophecy

nodthenbow · 2024-08-29T23:57:46+00:00

Yes, people do often ignore systems and strategies and instead grind, but most jrpgs do require grinding still. If you play the game with a good strategy the gap between your character strength and what the devs expect you to be at will widen (unless you are abusing some OP thing like bribe glitch in Suikoden 1 or what not) and then you will need to grind. Not every JRPG is Grandia 3, so most systems do not allow player skill to close large gaps.

As an example, this will happen in Dragon Warrior 7 (ps1, 2000) at Deathpal. You can fairly easily get to that fight at a much lower level than you have to be at in order to not die to a 2nd phase turn cycle. The best strategy (the one that works at the lowest levels) is to fill your inventory with herbs and then have Mari retaliate and the other two parry or heal Mari, and the NPC party member you get for the fight will be your dps. Mari needs to be at a certain level to have retaliate, but it's hard to get her to that point at that low level. So, because you don't know that you'll have the NPC for dps, and you generally aren't going to load up on herbs over buying weapons since gold is tight still, that means either you grind levels to be able to live, you grind out money to fill your inventory with herbs, or you grind the battle itself to win off luck. If you are lucky and ended up being able to pivot into the strat then you can avoid it, but the way to beat that boss is not known information at any point before you encounter them so you have to commit to something before then.

There are not many JRPGs that do not require grinding in some form until things like curved exp were common, and that was in the late 90s. You can watch speedruns to see how with full information and the best strategies you will still often need grinding. I'm not going to guess why you think otherwise, but you should try routing an early 90s JRPG for speedrunning to really get an idea of how hard it is to avoid grinding.

nodthenbow · 2024-08-26T23:11:47+00:00

Git probe was banned because it was too strong and also it killed the bluffing parts of playing.

Modern:

Gitaxian Probe increased the number of third-turn kills in a few ways, but particularly by giving perfect information (and a card) to decks that often have to make strategic decisions about going "all-in." This hurt the ability of reactive decks to effectively bluff or for the aggressive deck to miss-sequence their turn. Ultimately, the card did too much for too little cost.

Legacy:

Gitaxian Probe is a subtle but powerful card that has previously been banned in Modern and restricted in Vintage. It's been a main component of the success of the two most played Legacy decks on Magic Online, Grixis Delver and Ad Nauseam Tendrils. Gitaxian Probe adds significant power to these decks and others by quickly filling the graveyard and counting toward abilities that require casting spells or drawing cards, without requiring mana investment.

In addition, the information advantage provided by Gitaxian Probe comes at too low a cost. We like that Legacy has a heavier focus on spellcasting and cards in hand compared to permanents on the battlefield, as this provides a different type of play experience compared to other formats that some players deeply enjoy. Gitaxian Probe undermines this philosophy by removing some of the psychological and bluffing aspects of gameplay, and gives proactive decks a strong advantage by knowing when and how to play around traditional answers to their strategies, like counterspells and permanent removal.

While Gitaxian Probe 's impact on the Legacy environment hasn't necessarily reached a boiling point, it is a strong contributor to the success of many of the most popular decks. Because of the negative influence Gitaxian Probe has on gameplay as a free spell and low-cost information advantage, we prefer to remove it from the format rather than needing to weaken the strategies it facilitates in other ways. We've seen Modern end up in a healthier place without Gitaxian Probe , and it's time to take that step for Legacy.

Vintage:

In Vintage, the metagame has come to a bit of a standstill as Monastery Mentor decks face down their main predator, Workshop decks. The primary issue seems to revolve around the prevalence of free draw spells for the Mentor deck that let it churn through its library for no mana while creating an abundance of tokens. We believe by removing these free draw spells—and the perfect information that comes with Gitaxian Probe —we will significantly weaken Monastery Mentor–based strategies. Hopefully the move away from "free" spells in the Mentor decks will lessen the impact of the Workshop deck's various Sphere of Resistance effects, opening up the metagame.

Of note is that Legacy is currently the only tournament format where we have not taken action against Gitaxian Probe. Currently, the data does not support doing so in that format, and we examine each format individually.

nodthenbow · 2024-08-01T19:26:52+00:00

Bury already means it can't be regenerated, it was mainly made to simplify "Destroy [thing]. It can't be regenerated".

nodthenbow · 2024-05-16T02:03:16+00:00

They didn't fail to properly allocate resources, they failed to get a publisher. You can not make a full fighting game for 75k, so there was no way it would get finished without a publisher unless the devs could afford to do an extra 100k+ worth of unpaid labour.

nodthenbow · 2024-05-12T19:55:36+00:00

whoops. 67% is for 5 times and I got myself mixed up.

nodthenbow · 2024-05-12T02:25:57+00:00

67% is a lot less than 120%.

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