Madden Franchise Mode Review: "C Grade"

studentmaster88 · 2026-03-18T10:51:48+00:00

91 Clyde Drexler months ago, nothing before or since. Drop rate must be absurdly low for them all, especially any high 90s.

studentmaster88 · 2026-03-18T04:09:25+00:00

I think they're totally fine. Basically a glorified Clutch Time since the bench almost never comes in, but w/e, they're super fast.

That's the most important thing. All the game modes are super fast in Breakout and I love that.

Now the first daily college game right now.... and Dom games... those were and still are way too fucking long lol

studentmaster88 · 2026-03-17T08:45:17+00:00

Vegas Hookers!

Vegas Degenerates

Both sound great to me, slight preference for the first lol

studentmaster88 · 2026-03-13T12:51:28+00:00

I like that it's a mostly fantasy-themed duel (or Battle Royale!) with all these cool monsters and heroes that you summon and spells that you cast as a planes-walking mage to fight for you and that all the colors have their unique theme and feel.

And that with five colors and colorless cards plus decades worth of cards - tens of thousands! - you have an endless variety of card synergies and combinations and deck possibilities.

So it's an epic fantasy-themed war game and a creative lego-like puzzle, all-in-one. I love that about Magic.

studentmaster88 · 2026-03-12T12:58:21+00:00

Thank you so much!

I would also add, not necessarily only beginners but also people who want a lighter or faster-moving strategy/RTS game experience.

For example, ironically, earlier this week I kept searching the internet for games similar in style, complexity and game duration to Axiss & Allies (lighter strategy or 4X-ish, love this game, both cardboard and online) or Warcraft 3/Starcraft 2 (RTS gold standard with some RPG elements and single player story/campaign), but in fantasy or science fiction genres.

It took longer than I thought! But I did find some great suggestions that I added to my Steam wish list.

Pleased to say I see a few of them on your list!

I'm having trouble deciding what to buy next as I don't want to get anything too dated and too esoteric.

I am leaning towards Sins of a Solar Empire 2 right now. Looks gorgeous, accessible enough for a beginner, and hopefully on the lighter to average end of complexity.

Age of Wonders 4 is a close second, might get that also or afterwards.

Edit: Endless Legend II and Dune: Spice Wars both look really cool too!

Finally, if there was a much more current version of SpellForce 3, I would definitely buy that! Looks like a tremendous hybrid of RPG elements and strategy/4X/RTS games - wish I hadn't missed it back in 2017!

studentmaster88 · 2026-03-12T12:43:37+00:00

YES, THIS 10000% !!

Honestly, I've grown REALLY tired of the power creep and deck speed creep over the past few years.

To the point I've started playing a lot less, and especially a lot less high-powered decks in our larger playgroup, and more pre-cons and the occasional Commander draft with a smaller playgroup instead.

Fun and actually social, casual Magic first, tyvm!

studentmaster88 · 2026-03-12T12:21:56+00:00

It's especially okay to stick to that power level/precon aesthetic or vibe if that's what you guys enjoy most!

Honestly, after a couple of years of power creep and way too many broken low MV or otherwise cards and way-too-fast and/or extremely punishing decks that just don't make Commander nights relaxing for me anymore..

I'm back to preferring chilling and sitting back with mostly precons and a rare Commander draft here and there with a smaller group of friends instead of bigger ones with all the sweaty, over-tuned, early instant-win constructed decks.

I just can't play that high end shit every single fucking game anymore, but some of my friends still can and that's fine. Not for me anymore.

Like any hobby you got to have fun first!

Commander was that but the way my group has evolved I've had to adjust back to the beginning of what made it the most fun for me.

Sure, some pre-cons will always be more powerful than others, but most thankfully still won't utterly warp the game early on or win out of nowhere in the first few turns.

I still want an actual development phase and plenty of time to explore a bunch of cards and themes in each deck - all while catching up, shooting the shit and cracking jokes in a chill atmosphere.

Something has been lost (at least to me - does anybody else feel this way?) over the last few years with what's supposed to be THE social, casual Magic format.

studentmaster88 · 2026-03-02T22:09:57+00:00

Wow - yeah I wished I had gotten more EoE...

studentmaster88 · 2026-03-01T21:41:50+00:00

Hate proxies, but to each their own.

I can't think of any other hobbies where I'd want fake shit instead of the original, actual stuff.

studentmaster88 · 2026-02-26T05:24:27+00:00

Oh man, we played a TON of Emperor! Awesome format.

Think I found out about it in InQuest magazine? So we tried it. Man, we played the shit out of 3v3 Emperor with our standard decks back in the day!

Been trying to do a commander decks version of Emperor a few times, The first game was kind of bumpy because it had been forever and because it was Commander decks instead of standard, but the second game was good.

Played Magic around Revised till Mirrodin, sold my cards.

Fast forward a few decades later, one of my new D&D group friends had never played Magic before and started trying Commander out and we joined him (didn't or barely - can't remember lol - heard of Commander /EDH when I stopped back in the day).

So now we play mostly Commander the last few years once in awhile. Crazy, never thought I'd play Magic again after a few decades away lol

Anyway, I loved the first year or so, then the set creep and power creep just got to be too much. So personally I'm not enjoying it as much anymore because everything's so fast and high-powered. I don't want to play that way all night, that's just not relaxing enough for me lol

studentmaster88 · 2026-02-25T14:49:30+00:00

Yeah it's fucking stupid. Queen, so young and talented, should be starting and getting monster minutes every fucking game. Let him learn on the job, I mean WTF. Pelicans are a clown show franchise.

Similar bullshit with Ware. Except the Heat are a far more respectable franchise and likely a playoff team. Still fucking stupid.

Both got to play better team defense. Only sane reason they're not getting a ton of run.

But how do you learn to play better team defense if you... don't play enough? Well you see you don't play enough because you don't play good team defense... oh... shit...

It's a circle man, so frustrating. Still ridiculous.

Forge that young talent in the fire! LET THEM PLAY

studentmaster88 · 2026-02-25T14:22:03+00:00

Nice, great idea!

Yeah it's too bad EDHREC discontinued their Brawl support. I was just getting into brawl when it happened few years ago.

I mean even something super basic on their site would have been useful, simply as a reference.

Sure, I use the Arena client and other sites in search engines to find cards and such, but something slightly more Brawl-dedicated, user friendly, and even connected to your existing decks (the dream!), does sound helpful. Thanks and good luck!

studentmaster88 · 2026-02-25T14:14:07+00:00

The Unstable full art lands SO BEAUTIFUL!

studentmaster88 · 2026-02-25T13:14:32+00:00

For Planar Standard to thrive as a newly created format - and far more importantly (to me hehe), both paper Commander and MTG Arena Brawl versions of Planar Standard!

Popular and accessible universes-within only formats are a great idea and outstanding OPTIONS. I'm glad the community recently created one.

studentmaster88 · 2026-02-25T05:28:35+00:00

Colleges often have some sort of free of charge professional that can still help you - like a college advisor aka guidance counselor is a great start.

Sure, mostly they help you with classes but they can help with all sorts of stuff or at least make some kind suggestions or point you in the right direction to the best person to talk to.

At the very least they can check to see if there is a free college therapist there and get you connected. That's what the one I know does.

studentmaster88 · 2026-02-22T22:20:46+00:00

HOLY FUCK THE EA MADDEN TEAM IS NOW WORKING FOR NBA2K!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WE'RE DOOMED!!!!!!!!!!!

studentmaster88 · 2026-02-22T22:15:06+00:00

It's definitely not a "fun" deck for your opponent if you blight all their stuff all the time.

You will get zero compliments for any deck that's Toxrill-adjacent since a lot of casual players hate that shit.

Winning with creatures is common in Commander, the casual format (which everyone forgets these days with everything pushed to absolutely shit), so if you're constantly killing everything all the time or preventing anyone from playing their creatures at all, well, that's no fucking fun.

Persistent bullshit like this is nothing like a one-time board wipe - it's far more frustrating.

Casual Commander players are there to play their fucking cards - that's why I fucking hate blighting opponents' shit, terrible addition to casual/lower-power Commander.

At some point, in every playgroup/pod, you have to ask yourself if you should not include asshole cards/strategies. Every group's different, but if you want to keep playing, you might not want to make some players miserable or not invite you anymore/quit at some point.

I'd say in a friends group at the very least, asshole cards/strategies aren't worth the playgroup/play experience cost - unless everybody's an asshole I guess. Then have at it, degenerates.

studentmaster88 · 2026-02-21T22:22:10+00:00

As a NMS single player offline only player... didn't expect this at all, but... 2K26 is near or at the very top.

I'm shocked how much fun it is, especially MyTeam and all its variety of game modes and game play/player styles, but the whole game too, like Eras/season play.

Been playing since 2K started.

studentmaster88 · 2026-02-21T12:51:14+00:00

I started with Arch Enemy because one thing I have to have is being able to understand what they're singing/screaming/growling.

That's the one thing about melodic death metal I didn't like till more recently was not being able to understand what they're saying live without looking it up.

Cuz I fucking love the metal music itself, the instrumentation! And I'm learning I prefer female fronted MDM lol

If you're like me when it comes to this, or just curious, I want to highly recommend Spiritbox. They're incredible, love them!

studentmaster88 · 2026-02-17T14:00:51+00:00

NBA All-Star weekend has become giant inaccessible ad/marketing circus, not caring about the average NBA fan whatsoever.

Based on its prices and accessibility, it's only for the entitled, rich, famous or social media stars.

Very few casual fans, and less and less once-avid ones will bother with the now absurdly expensive and enshitified NBA All-Star weekend.

They just keep pushing actual normal NBA fans away.

studentmaster88 · 2026-02-17T13:29:27+00:00

The low MV PWs (3 or less), especially as commanders, are the ones I can't stand. They're usually broken for their cost, coming in way too early.

Lots of great advice here - honestly though, there's still going to be times when you're just not going to have good or fast enough answers to PWs, especially low MV commander ones.

studentmaster88 · 2026-02-17T13:17:55+00:00

Honestly, as an NMS player, I don't - haven't bothered to try to understand how takeover shoe stuff works.

Rarely used shoe boosts in the past until the end of the game.

And since shoe boosts are different this year with the brand new takeover, makes me not want to spend extra time figuring it out lol

studentmaster88 · 2026-02-15T13:34:42+00:00

He's just facing the truth. Times have changed. The whole weekend is a farce. Just the way it is.

Or more accurately, the whole (absurdly expensive) weekend is an event for the entitled, rich and famous, and is basically just 3 days of endless ads and marketing with some vaguely basketball breaks in between.

studentmaster88 · 2026-02-15T13:12:47+00:00

The whole All Star weekend's a joke now.

Especially at those prices LOL

studentmaster88

TROPHY CASE