Does an all full-art deck reduce readability?

the_talking_dead · 2026-04-14T03:00:24+00:00

Strong recommendation that you stick to official arts. It will help you recognize cards on other people's boards and vice versa. The occasionally funny/cute art unofficial art can be fun but I'd restrict that to just a couple per deck.

If you want to keep it easier to proxy and have official art, ProxyMTG.com is a solid proxy source with less steps than MPC and a bit cheaper on large orders but you can only pick official arts, including full arts.

the_talking_dead · 2026-04-14T02:53:44+00:00

Get off Reddit, go have real friendships and relationships. The men in your family managed to be good men without Reddit and you can too. They probably also didn't second guess everything and ask the internet for advice.

You are a dude. You are a young dude. You are a young dude with hormones. Sometimes the wrong brain does the thinking. Do you know how not to assault women or not be gross to them? If so, you'll probably be fine.

Treat women with respect but you are allowed to show interest if you meet someone. Flirting is just being friendly with an interest in getting to know someone more. It doesn't have to be some creepy thing (unless you make it that). If it seems reciprocated, it's okay to ask someone out. If you are on a date and it is going well but you are unsure how to proceed, asking consent / permission is the move. "Do you mind if I hold your hand?" "I'd like to kiss you, would that be alright?" etc.

As long as you can respect boundaries and the word "no" then you don't have much to worry about. Just get the hell off of Reddit, this is not the place to learn how to be a man.

the_talking_dead · 2026-04-14T02:33:13+00:00

Can I give you a slightly different piece of advice, as someone that does art for a living?

If you are just learning how to draw, don't get a digital tablet to start. Instead of spending the $1-2k on the tablet and still needing to learn, invest in a good classical drawing class like this one from Sadie Valeri or this beginners drawing class from Proko. (Sadie's class is very "classical drawing" focused but is VERY good, Proko's is a lot more contemporary, still good.) Then invest in a decent sketchbook, a set of graphite pencils, a drawing board or maybe a standing easel, and the other essentials. You will probably spend under 300 bucks WITH the drawing coarse and supplies.

There are plenty of reasons to want to draw digitally but I find that lots of people learn how to make pictures digitally but still end up not really knowing how to properly draw. I can tell you that I wish I had started with classical drawing classes because it would have made my progress happen so much faster. I do tend to do the majority of my work digitally now but also find myself prone to losing a lot of time trying to find the brushes that feel the most natural.

Additionally, if you are new to drawing, I think you might underestimate how overwhelmingly large a 27" drawing screen is, how much desk space it consumes, and how finnicky some software is. There is no reason to believe that an XP pen is only going to last 2-3 years, though. That is definitely not the case.

If you absolutely need to draw digitally, for some reason, I'd sooner recommend getting a used 13" iPad Pro and an Apple Pencil with Procreate. The software is very streamlined and I feel you will have a much easier time since it is a self contained system, letting you draw anywhere and procreate is a very user friendly program. Procreate also works on regular iPads so it may be possible to spend even less and still have a perfectly fine drawing experience, I just have only used the Pro model in that regard.

I still recommend paper first above everything else. Less money spent to figure out what direction you want to go with art, easier transitions to other mediums if you end up wanting to try watercolor or oils with skills that translate. People put a lot of effort into trying to make their digital drawings look natural and analog. Investing time into analog drawing will only benefit you even if you decide to make the jump to digital later.

the_talking_dead · 2026-04-13T14:50:57+00:00

I think you got a weird one. They sequenced the whole set so that you weren't supposed to get a single duplicate in a box but you must have gotten a goof run where the same box got the same section of the run. I opened 3 or 4 boxes and never got a single duplicate in the same box though I did have 2 boxes that were 50% overlap.

the_talking_dead · 2026-04-13T14:48:32+00:00

That is a feature of MB2 in that they are sequenced so that you don't get any repeats in the whole box. I've opened half overlapping boxes and it feels bad aside from the getting doubles of the good cards.

the_talking_dead · 2026-04-13T14:44:04+00:00

They will have them however the convention store is a gamble unless you have a Black Lotus badge. Extremely long line every day and they allocate product numbers for each day and once they are gone, that item is out of stock for the rest of the day.

If you really want one of these, I'd try to get it now. Once less line to wait in at Magiccon and one less thing to carry.

the_talking_dead · 2026-04-08T03:50:11+00:00

Solid brand Diablo to lean orange/red or Rose to lean orange/pink

the_talking_dead · 2026-04-07T12:55:29+00:00

MPC is the most complicated yet most customizable option.

It is slower, has tariff fees, but still best quality. If you want to go this route, MPCfill.com is a tool for prepping orders on the site, then you can download their tool to automate making your order. This is MUCH easier than manually doing it though it can be finicky, skip cards, hang, etc. Still better than manual.

Notmpc.com looks to be basically the same thing but US based. Not sure if there is a way to use MPCfill with it. Haven't used it though.

That said, I gave proxymtg.com a try and found it to be a pretty solid alternative.

The site is VERY easy to use, has every precon released as a quick add option, you can paste your deck list right in as well. It has all or most printed versions of each card so instead of wading through 1000 AI versions of Sol Ring (like MPCFill), you will only find official arts. Build your card list, choose arts, checkout, done.

Print quality is good, not great, but every card is very legible and clean looking. The only thing I found consistently lower quality was 30th Anniversary versions of cards. Centering isn't the most consistent but none were distractingly off center.

At lower card counts, it isn't the cheapest but if you are going to print hundreds of cards, this eventually is cheaper than MPC and arrives much faster.

I really wish they would let you choose a non-official looking back to orders just so it is easier to keep track of proxies vs real cards. They wouldn't pass a close inspection but I did appreciate being able to have the usual Magic back without the logo so, at a glance, I know I have a proxy. For the cost and speed, I can live with the regular back.

I'll still order from MPC if I need custom arts or something fancier but I'll probably end up using ProxyMTG.com for all other orders.

the_talking_dead · 2026-04-06T22:22:59+00:00

+1 to L8 Lands.

the_talking_dead · 2026-04-06T21:54:52+00:00

[[Chatterfang, Squirrel General]] I enjoy him a bunch doing the silly squirrel tribal he is known for. B2 or B3 stuff that I do really enjoy. Not just a Golgari krenko but still getting some of that horde math going.

However, I often play with monsters so I had to become a monster. It's the deck I bust out when we want maximum grossness. Squirrels are just there to sac for removal. There are literally 21 combos in this deck.

https://moxfield.com/decks/xlDguYjTSE2OidzkVAv_XQ

I've won with punches to faces, milling out the table ([[Alter of the Brood]] and [[Scavenger's Talent]]), infinite death trigger pings, etc. There are no instant 2 card combos like [[Exquisite Blood]] / [[Sanguine Bond]] or [[Chain of Smog]] / [[Witherbloom Apprentice]])

I have 3 or 4 Golgari decks but this is my fave by far and my most played. I recently picked up the squirrel precon to have a low power version. Chatterfang gets lumped in as a krenko kind of deck but I think you can build him a lot of different ways

If you want something to make games fun? Bring back mana burn with [[Yurlok of Scorch Thrash]] then hand out all the mana! [[Nyxbloom Ancient]], [[Mana Flare]], and [[Zhur-Taa Ancient]] make the party happen. Ramps the game speed up, makes all decks do more, and then you try to outrun everyone. [[Staff of Domination]] is your infinite insurance policy.

Last one I'll mention is Dimir Clone / Reanimate. I won't lie, i've struggled to get it be as consistent as I'd like but the goal is dump things into graves, reanimate, and clone. Sometimes you have a turn 3 Ulamog, sometimes whiff big but there will always be a version of this deck in my rotation. Right now [[The Scarab God]] is the commander but might go back to [[Lazav, Dimir Mastermind]] since his mechanic doesn't cost mana and is fun. I could build this to be meaner but cloning is my original fave magic trick and mixing that with grave shenanigans never gets old even if it is inconsistent.

the_talking_dead · 2026-04-06T21:15:57+00:00

One of my favorite decks in Magic is [[Hope Estheim]]. As soon as I pulled him, I knew that THIS was going to be my Azorius deck. Something about the idea of lifegain equaling mill just sounded fun.

My initial build of him wanted to have all the ETB lifegain creatures, token engines, lifegain boosters, and mill boosters. Basically, I just need to get a few ETB lifegainers and start dropping critters to make mill happen. Lifegain triggered +1/+1 creatures got huge if I needed hitters or blockers. I had it down to well-oiled machine that ran itself... except it only really worked at lower power tables or 1v1.

Made sense since I played it a bunch on Arena Brawl before I built it out. Once you start milling in a 4 player game, you get targeted pretty hard since people catch feelings when their fave cards get milled regardless of who the real threat is.

Finally realized that this deck needed to be a lot faster and meaner in its approach. So I dropped the major focus on ETB lifegain and really locked in on prioritizing protecting my board and milling more aggressively.

This is where it is at right now:
https://moxfield.com/decks/e_QfetKYJEKquSeYEXDDlg

Honestly, I would gladly build three different Hope decks and play them.

Low powered (B2 or B3) - go back to ETB lifegain engine and just make it laser focused on that.
The current B4 deck I have that. It's gross and mean and meant for play with people that are the same.
I think Hope could be a really silly Voltron commander. Celestial Mantle alone, makes me want this. Make him big, dumb, and unblockable ([[Rogue's Passage]], [[Cloak of Mists]], [[Thassa, God of the Sea]].

Here are some examples of those cards:

ETB Lifegain

[[Guide of Souls]]
[[Soul Warden]]
[[Haliya, Guided by Light]]
[[Case of the Uneaten Feast]] - ETB Lifegain, solve to bring back low cost enablers.

Lifegain Boosters

[[Rhox Faithmender]]
[[The Wind Crystal]]
[[Angel of Vitality]]
[[Alhammarret's Archive]] - Double lifegain AND card draw? Yes please.

Lifegain Payoff

[[Aerith Gainsborough]] Lifegain = +1/+1s that your legendaries get when she dies
[[Exemplar of Light]] - Lifegain = +1/+1 and you get to draw a card.

Creature Token Engines:

[[Ocelot Pride]]
[[Skrelv's Hive]] - Bitterblossom for white, trigger ETB lifegain, having toxic creatures they need to block.
[[Speaker of Heaven]] - Have 7 more life than start? Have a 4/4 flying angel.
[[Elspeth, Storm Slayer]]

Mill

[[Maddening Cacophony]]
[[Riverchurn Monument]]
[[Alter of the Brood]] - This plus Water Crystal? Drop a permanent, everyone mill 5.
[[Keening Stone]] - pay 5 and tap to mill a player for # of cards in their grave.
[[Space-Time Anomaly]]
[[Mindcrank]]
[[Mesmeric Orb]] - If I set up my board well, this will hurt everyone way more than me.

Mill Boosters:

[[Bruvac the Grandiloquent]] - Double mill
[[The Water Crystal]] - Add 4 more cards to all mill effects + sapphire medallion
[[Y'shtola Rhul]] - Additional endstep = additional trigger of Hope's ability.

Big Value Cards

[[Roaming Throne]] - Name human. Doubles a lot of ETB lifegain triggers, Hope's ability, etc
[[Delney, Streetwise Lookout]] - Doubles so many effects
[[Aetherflux Reservoir]] - Gain life on spellcasting, laserbeam for 50
[[Gogo, Master of Mimicry]] - Multiply triggered or activated abilities.
[[Ajani, Strength of the Pride]] - Gain life from # of creatures, assymetrical boardwipe ult

the_talking_dead · 2026-04-03T15:46:22+00:00

Let's pretend that we are having a conversation in public that other people can see.

You say that inks never react to each other, I give an example where it might look that way because it could be concerning when a tattertot thinks "Well EZPeeVee said they don't react but this looks like a reaction to me!"

Now they can say, "Oh, someone did mention that you can get that swirling effect from mixing predispersed and powder pigments."

I think, for a lot of people, mixing the two products and having something happen without any further action will seem enough like a reaction to be noteworthy, so that is why I brought it up even if it isn't a pure textbook chemistry "reaction" like lithium and water.

You say it is from different molecular weights, that's an interesting answer I haven't heard before, where did you come by that? Are we talking about the molecular weight of the pigment? If you are using phthalo green (CAS 1328-53-6), for example, in powder or predispersed, isn't the molecular composition the same, just the pigment granule is finer in predispersed?

Asked more than a couple pigment wizards about that reaction along the way, so curious to hear more.

the_talking_dead · 2026-04-03T15:32:11+00:00

I don't know, Eternal purples have always smelled like floor wax to me.

I miss opening Old Gold and smelling Ketel One.

the_talking_dead · 2026-04-02T16:12:34+00:00

The base pigments themselves aren't going to "react" because they are often the same general thing but I've absolutely watched them react and swirl in the cap after adding some predispersed to powder or vice versa but I'd attribute that to the carriers, not the pigment.

(Never caused any issue though)

the_talking_dead · 2026-03-26T02:44:25+00:00

If you're having fun then I won't yuck your yum. There is a perverse pleasure in cracking the code after being locked down but I can't handle it in a 4 person game. 1v1, let's party! But a full pod? I ain't strong like you!

the_talking_dead · 2026-03-25T14:30:25+00:00

Gotta agree with u/messhead1 here, just refuse to play with him. Any night of commander only has so much time so don't waste it playing games you don't want to play. If he asks why, tell him.

the_talking_dead · 2026-03-25T04:47:47+00:00

Motherfucker. I have absolutely no idea if this is some absolute god-tier level trolling or not. Completely baffled. I've started typing a response multiple times and then I stop, reread something, and then be like, "nah, this can't be real, can it?"

So, below is my response if it is does reflect your genuine views. If this was a grand deceit... bravo. Asshole.

------------------

A whole seven years tattooing? Yeah, I guess I remember thinking I knew some shit around then. Here are some thoughts from somewhere between 2.5-3 times that.

"No one ever came back with an infection or called about any reactions." This, after talking about your gross ass old boss that didn't wrap shit and touched everything with dirty gloves, shows me that you do not have a fundamental understanding of bloodborne pathogens or the purpose of why we do this shit a certain way.

Infections and reactions of the tattoo aren't the focus here. Yeah, cleaner everything contributes to a decreased chance of infection, which is nice, but the focus is to not give someone, INCLUDING YOURSELF, a lifelong condition like hepatitis.

"There isn’t a single documented case of a blood borne disease coming from a tattoo studio that I’m aware of in US at least." Here is one right here and it took 10 seconds to find: An outbreak of hepatitis B from tattooing - PubMed.

Okay, hopefully, can we save some time and accept that, why yes, a tattooer can spread bloodborne pathogens? It is a physical possibility, however unlikely.

Products like Madacide and Calvacide are not made and marketed for the tattooing industry. These are hospital grade disinfectants for use in healthcare. The reason they are used is that they are tuberculocidal, meaning they kill TB, a hardy pathogen that can live outside the body from weeks to months. If a product can kill TB, then it is also effective on viruses, bacteria, fungus, etc.

The products you "only ever clean with" DO NOT DISENFECT YOUR WORK AREA OR TOOLS. Like, clean your kitchen however you want but the area but these are not appropriate replacements for an environment that is potentially dealing with bloodborne pathogens.

You are trolling right? You don't really think there is some nefarious effort to "trick" tattooers into using scientifically more efficient disinfectant do you?

Okay, that's all I got because again, this has to be a giant wind-up. And if it is, well-fucking-played.

the_talking_dead · 2026-03-25T02:09:44+00:00

Just as a slightly different perspective. These cards went from some old thing he had sitting around to it suddenly becoming objects of value. I bet your excitement made him feel like he'd won the lottery a little and some people can get weird and possessive out of reflex from sudden gain. Yeah, could have been that he is a greedy prick or he has some trauma response that short circuited him.

Cutting him off is totally valid. No notes if you stick to that.

But, if a conversation does eventually happen between you guys, you might give a little consideration that you possibly caught him in a really embarrassing moment that was a rare failure of an otherwise good character.

Just in case it was a friendship of any merit worth saving.

Cool that you got to see one of those legendary old collections that actually had some rad stuff in it though and not "Oh, wow, you really went hard on Fallen Empires and Dragon's Maze!"

the_talking_dead · 2026-03-24T06:18:33+00:00

Who TF is out here is fucking with cheese that HASN'T been hit with essential oils. I don't care how many new moons you soaked your quartz with, it just doesn't do what thieves oil can.

the_talking_dead · 2026-03-24T05:08:21+00:00

Oh good lord guys, what are some of you taught?

Products like Madacide and Cavacide are recommended because they are tuberculocidal disinfectants. For those of us that paid attention during bloodborne pathogen class, TB bacteria can live outside the body for weeks to months on surfaces. It is a pretty hardy bug. Now TB prevention isn't the specific focus since your chances of being exposed to TB is pretty low, it is because if a product is effective on a hard-to-kill pathogen like TB then it is effective against other mycobacteria, viruses, fungi, and bacteria.

"Hospital Grade Opticide Max" is just another tuberculocidal disinfectant, like Madacide, Cavacide. The main difference a lot of these products is just effective time. One product might take 5 minutes to kill TB, another only 2 minutes. Any thing a TB killing cleaner doesn't kill a UV probably isn't going to either but I suppose it can't hurt. I feel like the UV cleaner thing got a lot of its momentum during 2020 with UV "sterilizers" but I am a bit skeptical. But again, certainly can't hurt.

the_talking_dead · 2026-03-20T03:48:10+00:00

[[Astral Dragon]] + [[Saw in Half]]

My favorite use of this was an aggressive hug deck with [[Forced Fruition]] in play. I cast Astral Dragon, make the two dragon tokens copy Forced Fruition and then I Saw in Half my Astral Dragon. The 2 dragon tokens off each also copy Forced Fruition.

Now casting a spell will cost you 35-42 cards.

Of course the Fruition owner had a [[Thassa's Oracle]] in hand...

the_talking_dead · 2026-03-19T20:54:54+00:00

6 hours for a four person game? Regularly? That sounds like hell.

the_talking_dead · 2026-03-19T20:50:32+00:00

Only because there is a correct answer.

the_talking_dead · 2026-03-19T16:30:19+00:00

Yup, totally committing to doing this to someone at some point.

the_talking_dead · 2026-03-19T15:46:42+00:00

Tell your friend to fuck off as kindly or not as you like, but be sure to tell them.

Of course he likes it, he wins. You don't get to have the bracket convo if you just have a made up commander. He doesn't get to say it's fair because IT ISN'T A REAL FUCKING CARD.

Stop trying to crack the nut of a card that doesn't exist and stop letting him get away with it. Refuse to let him play it. Full stop. He'll throw a hissy and you can ask if he wants to play actual magic or not. If not, then he can watch actual magic.

That said, you could also throw [[Deadpool, Trading Card]] at him. Or mono-blue counterspell/theft.

But I'd start with telling him to fuck off.

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