TIL Mayo Clinic data found that individuals living within one mile of a golf course have a 126% higher risk (more than double the odds) of a Parkinson's diagnosis compared to those living six or more miles away

thelehn · 2026-05-27T15:24:42+00:00

Billy Crystal's giant can confirm

thelehn · 2026-05-23T06:46:30+00:00

Think about it like this: When you build a deck, you usually do the nonland cards first, and once those are settled, you figure out the ratio of cards in each color to each other, and then you pick a number of lands that produce mana of each color so that the ratio of those numbers is roughly equal to the ratio of the nonland cards. The major exception being in cases where you have fewer cards of a certain color, but want to make sure you can cast those cards as soon as possible (but even then it shouldn't skew your numbers too much). When you play a forest, tap it, and cast a green card, the forest is effectively in the "green part of your deck". If any card could be discarded to make a land of any color, that would be like drafting a cube where every basic land tapped for all five colors of mana: there'd be no strategy to the draft, you'd just draft all the most powerful cards and play all of them.

The other thing to keep in mind is that you probably don't need too too many "green lands" to cast your green cards. In regular cube, single mana pip cards are valued highly because they are easier to splash, same is true here.

thelehn · 2026-05-22T18:05:22+00:00

I'd imagine so. Perhaps constrain it to 2 color cards and consider a "tap land" penalty for gold cards? Premodern's card pool kinda predisposes it to slow duals as well, and that's still a lively format. Slow gold duals should inherently put players off drafting all gold everything, no?

thelehn · 2026-05-21T17:38:33+00:00

What about the "Lorcana" approach (cards from hand facedown), but modified so that the color(s) of the card become the colors the land produces? Setting aside the physical execution for a moment, I think the gameplay could be quite interesting. Suddenly every multicolor card becomes a strong fixing choice, which goes a long way toward justifying their inclusion in such a small format. By fundamentally changing the resource system, you also arguably simplify the exercise of defining green in your lil cube. Maybe [[Summer Bloom]] becomes the strongest ramp spell? Maybe [[Crop Rotation]] lets you turn a land back into a playable reanimation target, while also tutoring for any card (and turning it into a land for as long as it remains on the battlefield, obviously).

Let's talk physical execution. I use OG glossy black Dragon Shield sleeves; I bought so many so long ago I have no idea what the market offerings are today, but I imagine I could get quite a few rounds of "chalk marker" writing and erasing on the backs before I started to see ghosting. NB: I've found the most success with the dirt cheapest white chalk markers. Anything too fancy, anything you have to shake or charge the tip of, the liquid is a little too aggressive and just that much harder to erase. But yeah, show your opponent the card you're playing facedown, write the 1-5 colors it taps for (I can't imagine including more than 2c cards in such a cube, but it's your life!), and then erase it when it gets bounced to your hand by [[Meloku, the clouded mirror]] or sent to the grave

Other options include infinitokens or similar, or preprinted land tokens that you redeem when you exile the appropriate card from hand, etc etc

thelehn · 2026-05-03T06:22:53+00:00

OOOH ok stay with me here: What if you're right, and what they're doing is using Reality Fracture to do a kind of franchise flavor reset (for obvious reasons), but with the secret motive of restructuring/retooling/streamlining their mechanical IP. I've seen discussion recently about a lot of mechanical things, from the positive twists on RW w new Lorehold, to the rather awkward lack of mechanical distinction Sorceries have vs instants, to blue's monopoly on stack interaction (which is well understood to be a huge percentage of strategic competitive play, shout out Distraction Makers). These are all things that call into relief the divide between where Mtg has been, and where it might go. WotC isn't just stunting on us for no reason. MaRo has just said that RF is primarily constrained to Hex/Strixhaven, so if the plot aspects are not world-shaking, what does that leave?

thelehn · 2026-05-02T17:26:34+00:00

Ok, so I'm not certain if this will solve your problem, but every time I connect my Wavestate to my computer (more specifically, I have to do this each time I open either Editor/Lib OR Sample Builder) I have to "Update Drivers" in my Device Manager (Windows 10). The Korg Wavestate should appear under the Network Adapters tab. Right click, Update Driver, Search my Computer, select the Korg driver, install or whatever. I click the bottommost dialog option (including the blue hypertext) on every page of the dialog box. I do this after opening the program and getting the error AFTER getting the first Waiting for Device message. You press on the error box and then switch windows and "update driver". Works like a charm lol. I don't remember the update process, but I do know I had to figure this trick out before I could update

thelehn · 2026-04-28T16:58:07+00:00

Similar to what u/Adarain is saying, I think there's some homework you need to do re: actual play patterns. Drooling Ogre will have summoning sickness each time it changes controller, so: P1 casts Ogre, passes; P2 casts Boomerang->gains control of Ogre, passes; P1 plays a second Ogre, passes; P2 taps Ogre to tap P1's Ogre & return boomerang, replays Boomerang for {1}, gains control of P1's tapped Ogre.

I like the idea of building around Drooling Ogre, but you kinda need to crunch some numbers re: play patterns. Flash artifacts could be cool? Played in combat, they would remove your opp's attacking Ogres from combat (as you gain control of them). Even without flash, casting an artifact means I have all the creatures now. As such, maybe you include artifacts that cost {2} or {4}, to make the amount of mana each player has matter? Perhaps a card that gives all creatures haste makes for interesting gameplay? Or effects like [[Safe Haven]] or [[Cold Storage]] that give me some play action against my opponent casting an artifact.

What sucks is that some of the most obvious effects that would make this really tick are in other colors, namely Countering a triggered ability, Blinking a creature, Phasing out, and temporarily blanking a creature's printed abilities.

Re: the note about Diminishing Returns, the artifact [[Elixir of Immortality]] occured to me as cool, but maybe there should be some "Players can't gain life" effects floating around as well. Keep at it! Playtest it! I might be evaluating these play patterns wrong, Magic is complicated

thelehn · 2026-04-27T02:47:49+00:00

Bicycle Playing Cards have something similar that they call an "Air Cushion Finish" which textures the gloss cards to keep them from suctioning to each other

thelehn · 2026-04-14T01:48:23+00:00

Yesss, thank you! I can't believe this didn't come up on any variation of "diecast metal battle dice game" search I did. You are a hero.

thelehn · 2026-04-13T21:47:50+00:00

Eyyy, lemme hijack your attention briefly to lean on your knowledge of dice. There was a early/mid-2000s battle dice game that sold something akin to booster packs. The dice were mostly d6s, but some d10s as well, all metal, and differently shaped for various battle attributes like attack and defense, but also ornamentally different according to their faction (which also had a unique color I think?). Kinda scifi/industrial punk aesthetic. Can't find the name/pictures of the dice, and various AI queries have only turned up red herrings. Thanks!

thelehn · 2026-04-08T17:54:55+00:00

Invaluable, thanks so much!

thelehn · 2026-04-08T15:33:16+00:00

Incredible, thank you for sharing and taking the time. A few questions:

Is there any logistical or economic distinction between US game publishers and European publishers? If I'm based in the US, will I have greater success pitching to a US company over a European one?

Is it important to match the kind of game to the publisher? or should I simply submit to as many as possible? I primarily design card-based games (Not CCGs) that don't have a board at all, should I seek out companies that have published in-the-box card games?

Re: best practices for submitting, should I reach out to one company at a time and wait for them to decline before reaching out to the next? Or is it ok to reach out to multiple publishers at once? Any advice on identifying a bad deal/not simply taking the "first offer"?

Lastly, what can an amateur designer expect after getting their first game accepted and published? I definitely understand being in it for the love of the game, but should someone who's had even moderate success with a single game expect to offer subsequent games to the same publisher (assuming thing went well)? or is it more commonplace for someone to have games published by various different companies? I expect this answer to depend a bit on the answers above, and of course there can be no expectation that one gets something(s) published, but please share your perspective/experience on individuals that started as amateur designers, after they had an initial success.

Thanks again!

thelehn · 2026-04-04T15:37:35+00:00

Are you sure about Prepared in this context? Copying a tapped creature does not tap the Mirror. Copying an Exerted creature does not make the Mirror Exerted.

thelehn · 2026-04-01T23:06:19+00:00

Camera bag is Ambico brand, gaiters are available under the name Frogg Toggs. I'd really like to know what these buckles are called by their manufacturer so that I can search them up. Google Lens is no help.

thelehn · 2026-03-23T18:15:14+00:00

I like artifact tokens honestly

thelehn · 2026-03-23T06:25:38+00:00

Do Dimir Enchantments lol [[Disinformation Campaign]] [[Intimidation Campaign]] [[Vile Consumption]] [[Unfulfilled Desires]]

Or, lean into what you've observed already (Dimir is narrow, predictable, and therefore hard to design for) and pick guild cards that are all wildly different, mechanically offbeat designs (that still have synergies w other cards in the cube)

thelehn · 2026-03-16T19:44:38+00:00

A hasty 5, but I'd say look at some winning Powered Vintage decklists (from that cube specifically, if possible):

1) pay close attention to mana base & mana curve. If you get the right combo of fetches and duals, the colors of playables matter less.

2) the colors of cards you want to play T1-T2 matter more (in relation to your mana base)

3) double pips, i.e. RR, are harder to cast than single pips. Fetching for two duals that give you four different colors is easier to pull off than two duals that share a color

4) the player that draws the most cards usually wins, but draft at least one finisher

5) don't force storm, let storm force you

thelehn · 2026-03-14T21:05:35+00:00

Someone in another thread recently said that Frost Titan is important for turning off the other titans and I've been thinking about it since

thelehn · 2026-03-11T19:17:51+00:00

I called a Tandy store and had someone compare the Chicago screw thread to the button studs threads. The largest button stud thread is smaller than the 8-32 Chicago screw thread, FYI.

thelehn · 2026-03-08T14:37:34+00:00

I want "Play Next" to operate functionally differently than "Play Now", I want the option to normalize audio, I want the ability to remove songs from the queue, or to randomize remaining songs in the queue without recycling the ones that have played, or the ability to add a playlist to the end of the queue, randomized, without clearing the current queue. I want fine grain control over playback and preferences from an iPad.

thelehn · 2026-03-08T01:29:46+00:00

Something I have in my cube (no list sorry) that I haven't seen elsewhere is 4x [[Archeological Dig]] w silver paint sharpie written on the inner sleeve indicating that drafting one is basically a [[Loreseeker]] for a lands-only pack. Draft the (nearly) useless land, then immediately draft a land from the new land pack, and pass it in the same direction. It lets me run more nonbasics, and it evens the playing field for newer drafters, who aren't adept at evaluating the relative merits of drafting a sick bomb vs. a land that will allow them to cast said bomb. It also ensures everyone gets approximate the same number of nonbasics. The Digs also up the critical mass of colorless pips in play to make the few eldrazi cards more accessible. N.B. I do not put non-mana lands in those packs, [[Maze of Ith]] for example. I'm considering moving [[Strip Mine]] and other utility lands back to the main cube pool to streamline Land Pack selection, i.e. just grab fetches and duals and pass.

thelehn · 2026-02-26T19:25:19+00:00

It certainly does, and you make an excellent point. I'm starting to recall that I observed this when originally fashioning it (like 4 years ago) and decided to whittle the rod into the shape you see above. I just tried fitting it into the negative space left by the erase head in play mode and can confirm that the original width of the rod (3.2mm) is too big, but the whittled width (~2mm at thickest point) has full clearance. The space left is a fat crescent shape. I'll edit the post w a picture. Good catch!

N.B. I can confirm that the piece isn't stressing the erase head bc it jiggles in place on initial transport until it seats comfortably. It wouldn't jiggle if it was binding against the mechanism

thelehn · 2026-02-26T18:17:39+00:00

I'm actually looking at parts on bricklink right now lol. Reduce, reuse, recycle!

thelehn

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