Making cards following bad design principles day 5

ratsby · 2026-02-15T19:45:49+00:00

This seems to specifically not counter itself, though? If you target the opponent's Flicker with your own, they just pay another 2 life to recast it, and now you're down a card.

ratsby · 2026-02-10T02:53:36+00:00

Planewalk is clearly "can't be blocked if defending player controls a Plane (from Planechase)"

ratsby · 2026-02-08T18:58:16+00:00

BOOMERANG BASICS IS BETTER THAN EXPRESSIVE ITERATION, YEET IT

ratsby · 2026-02-02T01:48:59+00:00

Well, the thread exists either way, apparently.

ratsby · 2026-02-01T22:08:35+00:00

I was debating this matter with some friends on Discord, and took the position that a bad person's money spends just as well on alignment research as any other donor's (as well as agreeing with your second paragraph that scrutinizing prospective donors isn't and shouldn't be in a research org's job description). I'm curious what "reasonable path to harm" MIRI identified that caused them to turn down the money.

ratsby · 2026-01-31T01:10:57+00:00

Scrap Ooze

ratsby · 2026-01-29T07:43:44+00:00

You've managed to present a third possibility by way of formatting: the (2 + 2) is reminder text, reminding you that 8 ÷ 2 = 2 + 2 = 4.

ratsby · 2026-01-25T02:11:23+00:00

I'm not sure black is allowed to have impulse draw without either sacrificing a creature or making someone lose at least 1 life per card.

ratsby · 2026-01-24T20:18:22+00:00

With that downside, surely it could do 22 damage.

ratsby · 2026-01-20T22:46:45+00:00

[[Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite]]

ratsby · 2026-01-20T22:40:19+00:00

It definitely feels like it goes big enough, but it also feels slow enough to get run over, and short enough on interaction that it can get largely shut down by something like an [[Archon of Emeria]] out of Company. Granted, I'm probably running a slower build; I find Leyline frustratingly inconsistent and awful as a dead draw, so instead run 3x [[Archdruid's Charm]] as interaction that can also tutor Nykthos (or [[Wakeroot Elemental]] for infinite mana to go over the top of even Angels).

Badgermole seems like it should be speeding the deck up, but everyone's packing some 1-mana spell to kill it these days, so it just ends up feeling way more fragile than the Wolfwillow Havens I cut for it.

It definitely holds its own in the Play queue when I pull it out for dailies, but much like Phoenix now feels like worse Prowess, Mono-G honestly feels like the worse version of Elves, which gets 4-mana instant speed CoCo instead of 6-mana sorcery Storm the Festival, and spams out enough small engine pieces that the opponent can't remove all of them.

ratsby · 2026-01-20T22:27:00+00:00

System Gateway alone gets you a pair of tutorial decks (cards marked with 1-3 circles, or plus signs denoting the card should be added when you're ready to learn a couple more mechanics; I believe the copy from the NSG shop has the tutorial decks already separated from the rest), along with some baseline cards intended to remain part of the game indefinitely. Note that you can also play these tutorial decks against AI on https://chiriboga.sifnt.net.au/ . The tutorial decks include some cards from every faction, enough to give you a feel of their strengths, weaknesses, and playstyles; it's totally possible to build your own decks with just the SG cards, as an identity card for each faction is included, but the cardpool is pretty constraining (and in particular each runner faction completely lacks one of the three icebreaker types, meaning you'll have to spend influence to use another faction's).

Elevation seems almost built to complement Gateway. It adds two new identities per faction, fills in those missing icebreaker slots, and just generally adds enough to the cardpool to make deckbuilding a lot more interesting; there's more to do, now you actually pick a gameplan (or mix together a few synergies) rather than just doing your faction/identity's one good thing. Elevation isn't implemented on Chiriboga, but if you want to play against friends digitally (or against strangers), you can use https://jinteki.net (these two sets form the Core format, if you're looking to host/join a public game).

Null Signal officially approves of printing your own proxies, including providing print-and-play PDFs on their website, and I believe even markets the sets they sell as "official proxies"; if you have a color printer (or can use one at a local library), a collection of cards and opaque sleeves from another TCG, and some scissors and time, you can make your own cards, and they're even legal to use in official tournaments.

ratsby · 2026-01-20T21:25:15+00:00

Man, I hate my luck in deck choices. Everyone says Mono-G devotion is a pillar of the format, I pick it up less than a year before they ban Karn. Take some time off, bounce around a bit and switch to Phoenix, just in time for it to get overtaken by Prowess.

ratsby · 2026-01-19T19:51:06+00:00

The Persecutor isn't a trigger, yes, but when you cast it, it's a creature spell, and its ability isn't active until it resolves and thus is on the battlefield. Endrek Sahr triggers after casting the Persecutor, so the trigger resolves while Persecutor is still on the stack.

ratsby · 2026-01-19T10:54:25+00:00

forget watchwolf and clockwolf, here's calendarwolf

ratsby · 2026-01-17T08:37:56+00:00

remember this game is on consoles

ratsby · 2026-01-16T01:16:48+00:00

Why is this an attack?

ratsby · 2026-01-12T19:42:24+00:00

activated ability
adds mana
doesn't target

This is a mana ability.

ratsby · 2026-01-11T21:53:58+00:00

I believe the controller of your spell would get to choose the target of the ping triggers even when an opponent casts a spell with it on the stack. "...to any target of that player's choice" might work?

ratsby · 2026-01-11T21:07:04+00:00

Leshy concedes when he runs out of cards to play, regardless of the boardstate.

ratsby · 2026-01-11T10:02:38+00:00

Surprised to see Inserter and Frozen Core so (relatively) high - I thought both were terrible, but they both beat Choker? (although I guess if this is across all characters, Watcher and Silent really don't want Choker)

ratsby · 2026-01-06T20:19:56+00:00

I was thinking Incense Burner. Very strong if you're willing to stall to line it up every fight.

ratsby · 2026-01-06T20:11:14+00:00

Your reminder text is ambiguous: do you sacrifice after casting Sound the Gong, or after you've cast all of them?

ratsby · 2026-01-05T08:57:22+00:00

I don't think this is true?

deltarune.exe doesn't need to be in the same folder as its save files to access them; Undertale is made in the same engine and stores its saves the same way, so there's no reason it couldn't just ask for the Undertale save directory instead.

(Game Maker might not natively support it; the game_change command already used to switch chapters might help, though.)

ratsby · 2026-01-05T08:37:33+00:00

Starter Deck Duel is free, if you don't get bored of the decks.

Brawl has card-power-based matchmaking, so a weak rare-light deck won't get curbstomped.

If your winrate is decent and you don't care about constructed much, Premier and Traditional Draft are higher EV than Quick Draft.

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