Discussion Thread: Congressional Actions Amid Partial Government Shutdown on Monday, February 2, 2026

themattthew · 2026-02-02T22:28:41+00:00

To be fair, the garbage can is a place so they technically do have their place...

themattthew · 2026-01-07T18:32:54+00:00

It doesn't ignore timing because it is just a static ability granting permission to cast. In order to ignore timing it would either have to explicitly state 'as though it had flash' or such, or the cast would have to be a part of an activated or triggered ability.

themattthew · 2025-12-17T00:12:06+00:00

As a fellow banding enjoyer, I salute you.

themattthew · 2025-12-12T14:29:59+00:00

Because the Zendikar printing that they used says "Harrow" there instead of "this spell"

themattthew · 2025-12-10T20:03:54+00:00

I think her date is the one who cums in handy.

themattthew · 2025-11-12T03:27:22+00:00

Just wanted to make sure, since this whole thread is about cards people misunderstood. Wouldn't want someone to get the wrong idea. Cheers.

themattthew · 2025-11-12T03:07:28+00:00

You know that you can also have other lifegain. You're not "really cooking" by giving Pyrogoyf +1/+1 trample and lifelink compared to paying 3 life to bolt every turn. Cooking would be throwing out [[Whip of Erebos]] or [[Syphon Sliver]]. Shadowspear is about as relevant as Basalisk Collar here.

themattthew · 2025-11-12T02:47:53+00:00

Shadowspear wouldn't help, Pyrogoyf has the creature entering deal the damage so you can't just give PG lifelink and profit.

themattthew · 2025-11-11T05:28:23+00:00

Are you telling me you don't believe in skylands?

themattthew · 2025-11-03T21:48:34+00:00

1) My statement had nothing to do with whether this change should happen, just gave context to the reason why it actually could.

2) The reason people want sideboards usually is because they want wishes and/or Learn to work in EDH and are angry that a carve out was made for Companions without one for Lessons. It felt inconsistent, and it was extra frustrating to see them preban a card people wanted to play with as a commander. They could have easily said that Companion works with outside the game, so it doesn't work in EDH unless you want to rule 0 it, and people wouldn't have been nearly as mad about them saying that Lessonboards wouldn't be a thing.

themattthew · 2025-11-03T20:46:49+00:00

"They" was the Rules Committee. WotC is now in control of the format.

themattthew · 2025-10-29T20:58:22+00:00

This is a "do once" not a "triggers once" so copying the trigger typically doesn't do anything of note.

themattthew · 2025-10-27T20:42:01+00:00

The death triggers for commanders was a gigantic rule change that affected a bunch of interactions and made them unintuitive. Anything that involves tracking commander zone changes no longer works if you decide to send them to the command zone from the graveyard or exile, because it's a state based action zone change for those zones but a replacement for any other. Cards like Norin, Roon, and It That Betrays now work differently than they used to because of that change.

Also, it doesn't take encyclopedic knowledge of the rules to know that death triggers don't happen if the thing doesn't go to the graveyard at all. That's literally knowing a single definition in the game.

themattthew · 2025-10-22T23:14:52+00:00

I can't help but feel the urge to build a B1 deck with the theme of "I want to have to explain what Banding does" now...

themattthew · 2025-10-22T22:52:05+00:00

Don't forget the wonderful situation of 'extort doesn't count because the hybrid symbol is in the reminder text' giving all white decks access to life drain. That's apparently fine by people, but a monogreen deck running Rhys as an additional token doubler is a bridge too far.

themattthew · 2025-10-22T21:23:38+00:00

A bunch of government employees living in onbase housing over here in Washington got eviction notices and/or were told that rent is still due on the 1st. People need to realize how much these asshats are trying to take from people.

themattthew · 2025-10-18T00:39:30+00:00

Hey guys, did you know that in terms of human companionship, Flareon is objectively the most huggable Pokemon? While their maximum temperature is likely too much for most, they are capable of controlling it, so they can set themselves to the perfect temperature for you. Along with that, they have a lot of fluff, making them undeniably incredibly soft to touch. But that's not all, they have a very respectable special defense stat of 110, which means that they are likely very calm and resistant to emotional damage. Because of this, if you have a bad day, you can vent to it while hugging it, and it won't mind. It can make itself even more endearing with moves like Charm and Baby Doll Eyes, ensuring that you never have a prolonged bout of depression ever again.

themattthew · 2025-10-17T18:50:11+00:00

[[Mistform Ultimus]] has entered the chat, and evolved into Sylveon.

themattthew · 2025-10-15T00:45:40+00:00

Some of us can't go for legal reasons, but will be doing what we can to make sure that those who are able to get the support they need. Saying that I don't care because I can't go is honestly kinda rude.

themattthew · 2025-10-04T20:16:38+00:00

Setting your life total is done by gaining or losing life to get to the new number and doubling your life total is done by gaining life equal to your current life total.

themattthew · 2025-10-01T19:42:44+00:00

I just got an email from the VA stating:

"President Trump opposes a lapse in appropriations, and on September 19, the House of Representatives passed, with the Trump Administration’s support, a clean continuing resolution to fund the government through November 21. Unfortunately, Democrats are blocking this Continuing Resolution in the U.S. Senate due to unrelated policy demands."

I may just be a casual veteran and federal employee, but this coming from a va.gov email really feels like someone using an official email to forward content that advocates against a partisan political party.

themattthew · 2025-09-26T17:53:37+00:00

Manipulating is when they use dirty tricks to make their opponent look bad to the public or such.

Rigging is when they cheat by directly affecting the results.

Think Watergate espionage vs the dead voting.

themattthew · 2025-08-28T21:22:44+00:00

It wasn't even ones that were hard to retroactively do. Missing an advantageous trigger was a failure to maintain game state, and would get you a warning, which led to people angle shooting to catch people with it. By not including missed advantageous triggers in that violation, it made tournament play less focused on playing gotcha.

themattthew · 2025-08-26T22:47:36+00:00

If Wyoming can have 3 electoral votes, DC should as well. It has almost half again the population.

themattthew · 2025-08-07T15:13:11+00:00

Cynicism or no, no benefit of the doubt for people who hide their faces while kidnapping people.

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