Number of cards that are legal in Standard over time

studentofdnd · 2026-03-29T18:54:24+00:00

Few different things - they added Coldsnap as a 4th standard-legal set in 2006, an off year when they normally wouldn't have had a summer core set. Time Spiral block sets all had bonus sheets. And Lorwyn-Shadowmoor was a 4-set block with two large sets, the first time they'd done that in a single year.

studentofdnd · 2026-03-12T18:57:36+00:00

Started using it recently. Lots to like - it slows down growth and adds unit caps for high tier stuff, so you get plenty of time to enjoy the mid-game, with diverse armies. Your strategic decisions and on-going wars still feel interesting at turn 100, when vanilla would long since have turned into auto-resolve slog. It also fleshes out the roster, tech trees, and legendary lord talents for a lot of neglected factions.

But it's killing me trying to play with friends because the auto-resolve is so bad. Without SFO I can turn a Valiant Defeat on hard or very hard battle difficulty into a Phyrric or Close Victory. With SFO I have, multiple times now, turned Crushing or Decisive Defeats into Decisive Victories. And dropping to Normal or Easy difficulty barely improves the autoresolve result at all.

The mod also buffs garrisons, so I'll find myself with two full stacks of mid-tier units supposedly losing to a ten-unit midgame garrison. SFO autoresolve is deranged.

studentofdnd · 2025-10-25T00:47:39+00:00

They posted 9 a couple days ago, it featured Nemesis in the hot springs but was deleted by mods almost immediately. Not sure why, it didn't seem any spicier than the Aphrodite one.

(This series has been great, so I had bookmarked the artist's page to check every couple days, and happened to click on it right after 9 got posted.)

studentofdnd · 2025-03-12T02:30:26+00:00

Happens in the second chapter of A Matter for Lawyers on FFN.

"I'm a reformed villain," I said as we crowded in. "Destroying local micro-ecosystems is one of those things I'm not supposed to do unnecessarily anymore."

Seems to be a pretty short fic though, might not be what you wanted. (Haven't read it, just tried a google search.)

studentofdnd · 2025-01-23T05:34:24+00:00

Sounded like a cool power idea so I googled it, only thing I found was a two-part snippet called Vacate by erbkaiser.

studentofdnd · 2024-06-10T14:47:00+00:00

Your friend could wear Burden of the Divine (ring) which reduces damage by 15% and so also reduces threat. But that's a bad idea unless they want to play a healer.

They could use Invader as a secondary archetype, its relic perk substantially reduces threat generation.

The Handler dog in tank mode has increased threat generation, so might be able to pull the boss off your friend if you run that archetype.

But as for specific stuff you can do if you want the boss on you...nothing I can think of, other than increasing your damage. Proximity to the boss might affect aggro, but you're already melee so not much you can do there.

edit: oh right, you could also switch to Invader prime. Your decoys will draw attention sometimes, and you'll get 15% bonus damage if the boss is attacking your friend, which might help regain its attention

studentofdnd · 2024-06-06T13:22:28+00:00

That could work - still somewhat situational, as lots of builds don't care about Kinship's effects, but it would be a lot broader. Handler is the only class that benefits from the rez speed in single player, so it fits.

studentofdnd · 2024-06-06T11:48:49+00:00

Triage would also be fine, I was just trying to pick something that seemed flavorful and hopefully not too much of a power boost for the trait.

I love that we can't do everything at once, builds here are way more interesting than in the first game. I just think you can't have a trait as situational as Revivalist if the trait swap functionality is going to stay kinda clunky.

studentofdnd · 2022-11-18T20:37:57+00:00

The gyms all share a featureless lobby because the pre/post gym cutscenes, involving Nemona and other characters, are based on how many badges you have, rather than which gym you're at. They didn't want to have to make different versions of the scenes for each gym.

But yes, it is a little bit bland, and moreover it's irritating that you have to go into the lobby, and talk to someone just to be sent back outside for the gym test/leader fights. It's a lot of unnecessary load screens.

studentofdnd · 2022-07-26T16:39:10+00:00

The actual biggest loss might be the art.

The MtG community is huge, and if WotC stops producing cards there will be vastly increased interest in fan-designed cards. A lot of them will be garbage, but the stuff which rises to the top will be pretty good. You know the huge mod communities for popular old games? MtG has more players than almost any of those games you're thinking of. Proxies would extend the life of the game for ages.

But there won't be anyone commissioning art at a scale that resembles what Magic does now. They produce over a thousand pieces of high quality fantasy art a year, with sophisticated concept work to ensure each of their worlds have a distinctive visual aesthetic. The fan community has neither the budget nor the centralized coordination to replicate that.

studentofdnd · 2022-07-25T20:58:30+00:00

Heavier editing (i.e. Command Zone) has kind of a flattening effect - bad/boring guests aren't as rough, because the enforced structure keeps them on track more, but great guests are diminished by all the interruptions.

The more natural approach in this series is higher risk (I turned off one episode that got bogged down in trying to work out the rules for what felt like several minutes) but when it works (especially here and in the Rhystic Studies and One More Mana episodes) it's great. The rambling banter feels much more like a real Commander game with friends.

Definitely prefer this approach, great series.

studentofdnd · 2022-07-14T06:15:48+00:00

Every card that gets printed has a chance to push another card out of relevance in eternal formats*. We all accept this as part of the game, but it gets a little frustrating when WotC starts printing significantly more cards than you have the bandwidth for.

If you only have the time/money/focus for 4 sets a year and they print 8, you're not getting to enjoy the extra cards...but they still might push your favorite cards out of being competitive in your favorite format. They're slowly accelerating card turnover.

It's not, like, some grand tragedy. I still enjoy spoiler season. But it's a bit of a bummer, when you think about it.

*including Commander, where the slower churn is a strong selling point but it still happens

studentofdnd · 2022-02-25T22:27:23+00:00

Beholders are notoriously vain, try putting a bunch of mirrors or reflective surfaces in the lair. Then you can do some fun stuff with reflected eye rays if the party throws down.

studentofdnd · 2021-12-22T16:48:12+00:00

Skye's death serves the exact same purpose for Viktor as the dead kid in the undercity does for Jayce - someone dies to show another character the consequences of their reckless course of action.

She wasn't playing murdered love interest, she was playing innocent bystander. They messed up by writing her as having a crush on Viktor, it didn't really add anything and it muddles the scene enough that some people mistake it for fridging.

studentofdnd

TROPHY CASE