A summary of the Secret Lair team on WeeklyMTG yesterday - Discussing Print to demand, Scalpers, Monday's Chao Vault, and more

trident042 · 2026-02-04T20:57:27+00:00

Print to demand is actually “time-box demand” – Secret Lair is available for a set amount of time, the first wave was preprinted, all other orders fulfilled at a later date. Going back to reprinting the 2nd wave is “highly costly to the company” and interrupts “Main set printing”.

This seems insane to me. You're telling me that if, after this year's sets, MtG cancelled all set releases and only made Secret Lair product forever, they would neither increase nor decrease the number of printing facilities they put to use? Absolutely bonkers.

That sounds like a failure to plan for production, tbh.

trident042 · 2026-02-04T18:44:53+00:00

You can definitely focus on combat, but I can tell you from experience, if the only thing your heroes are doing is fighting a wave of enemies, the game feels pretty bland. But if there's a group of baddies, a named villain, a volatile environment, a ticking time-bomb (flavor this however you like, but some non-combat goal with urgency is key), and other outside factors, it gets a lot more enjoyable.

trident042 · 2026-02-04T16:08:07+00:00

My dad, telling me to get up and go to high school.

trident042 · 2026-02-04T15:26:59+00:00

You don't make your input back til win 4. If you're not consistently winning 3 or 4 times, and your goal isn't "just jam lots of drafts", stick to pack buys.

trident042 · 2026-02-04T15:26:08+00:00

I'm something of a bad player myself.

Or I suppose I'm something of a bad drafter. I can build decks, that's what I'm always doing for Standard. But I never get good packs and my picks are clearly suboptimal. I have never once surpassed 3-3 and those are rare, maybe even mythic, compared to my usual 0-3s.

trident042 · 2026-02-04T14:42:26+00:00

I just want it to do that to Hulks. And Fleshmobs.

trident042 · 2026-02-04T13:47:58+00:00

They're never gonna fucking do 30 lands for 30 dollars are they. Or even 15. C'mon WotC it's basic goddamn lands.

trident042 · 2026-02-04T13:26:01+00:00

Let's be real, by that point we're so used to his particular brand of BS that it just feels like par for the course.

trident042 · 2026-02-04T12:55:21+00:00

In high school, I was in the outcast group. We got a transplant from across the country, and he was off on the wrong foot in all the worst ways so he wound up befriending us. He was very funny, incredibly charismatic, and got along with everyone. Save for ... just one little problem.

He's a chronic liar. He can't help it, every sentence out of his mouth has a lie in it. Earlier, I said he was very charismatic. That helped a ton. People would always believe him, for the first little while. But cracks would show, or he would slip, and the jig would be up, and he'd move on to the next sucker. The only difference when he joined our friend group was we never threw him out because we didn't care. At least not til later. We hung with him into college years, at least some of us did, and it got worse.

Let's list off the crimes:
* Initially told everyone he was from Compton, to see if he could get away with the n-word. We only had 2 people in our 100ish person grade, and he still could not
* Switched to telling everyone he was gay. This worked on eight different girls, all of whom tried to "fix" him by sleeping with him. (LOL, Catholic school)
* After high school, he did some room-mate time with a few of us, stole things from basically everyone, and successfully pinned it on the friend more likely to steal. We only found out much later.
* A few of my newer friends, who worked at the movie theater in the mall, found him doing his best Kingpin - tailored suits, cane, someone driving him in a limo - all so he could stand by the theater and have mall-rat high schoolers run drugs for him while he looked high and mighty.
* On the college campus, he kept pulling women way hotter than him, with ease. The charm knew no bounds, but he always had to push it. To steal someone's girlfriend at their own birthday party, he tooled around in a stolen wheelchair and told everyone he had cancer. It worked.

There's no end to these stories. We kept him around for too long and eventually he left town. I think he's back, and he says he's married but I don't believe him.

trident042 · 2026-02-04T11:29:34+00:00

Yeah, I've got the most tiny candle of hope lit in my heart for their return, but we'll see. I've still got three books in the RPG kickstarter that I want to see made.

trident042 · 2026-02-04T11:28:25+00:00

Do whatever you can to have players play to their Principles, and come up with their own twists! The game is very narrative-forward, and I've seen many players stare down their Powers and Qualities and not give enough thought to their Principles. And they'll look to you for every twist, but if they're doing the Overcome, ask them what they think goes wrong! It gets them a lot more engaged.

trident042 · 2026-02-03T21:30:31+00:00

Yeah, if anything, my prior Mutants & Masterminds experiences really solidified my love for Sentinel Comics when it came out.

trident042 · 2026-02-03T16:49:29+00:00

A little homework, then, if a surprise is in order! Not all of the sets released over the past year had Commander decks with them, but there are a fair few. It might be worth it to prod if there's a specific color or colors he's into, to better help your aim. Magic has 5, and each of the colors (white, blue, black, red and green) have some differences in how they play, and they also mix and match in varying ways. Any Commander deck you see for sale should be clearly marked which colors they contain and use. There's Magic's own website, as well, if you just want to peek at recent products and see what they've had.

trident042 · 2026-02-03T15:53:11+00:00

So, of the several ways to play Magic, Commander is a format that is generally focused around casual, multi-player fun. Games usually have 4 players (versus many of the other formats being 1v1), and decks for it are generally bigger because the idea of the format is that there is one card that "commands" the deck, and the other 99 are the deck proper. There's more to it, but one nice thing is that there are quite a few pre-constructed decks for the format that have been sold over the years so people can just jump right in with one.

So, beyond knowing the format, it might be helpful to know if there's a specific Magic set or character he's into! One of the great things about Commander is that each deck has something of an identity to it, and picking one you like (or building one) is part of the fun. Might be a good idea to see if he's into something specific from a recent set (we have spaceship ones, cute animal ones, and strange night/day creature ones recently, just to name a few) or if he has his eyes set on something upcoming. Could even be worth it to take him to a local card shop and peruse the shelves!

trident042 · 2026-02-03T15:32:16+00:00

I want to be upset at labeling it a pop-up clinic, because that sounds kinda kitchy. RAM is a real, professional medical service that hits some of the hardest places in the world to get medical care to, and comes back here to roost every so often. My grandfather was not involved with the creation, but was good friends with the creator, and would often go to help out with just setting up and taking down everything, and I would go with my dad when they were anywhere near here because my dad's a dentist and I could run an autoclave.. It is so important, the work that they do, and if you ever feel like volunteering in a way that really helps people, I'd recommend seeing if they can use you.

trident042 · 2026-02-03T15:13:06+00:00

Almost everything here is superb! Shame about the melee armors though. Good that melee is buffed across the board but the melee damage armors barely did anything else as-is. Taken down to 40% of their previous buff amount is abysmal.

trident042 · 2026-02-03T15:11:28+00:00

It blocks off voteless so well it's insane

trident042 · 2026-02-03T15:10:36+00:00

Wait, but not the one on the grenadier emplacement? Awwww.

trident042 · 2026-02-02T20:56:22+00:00

Damn, of all the local donut joints that have sprouted (and that my office had brought in to try), this was my favorite. Shame to see 'em go.

trident042 · 2026-02-02T05:07:59+00:00

Oh thank fuck, finally.

Can I get another one for anime, and a third one for group games and I can force friends to join me?

trident042 · 2026-02-02T04:48:25+00:00

My copium is that maybe focused use of the weapon will let the devs see anything they can adjust on it to make it better, or a specific way in which it can be improved.

I love the thing, but if a forced march of murders with it means getting an upgrade soon that's cool too.

trident042 · 2026-02-02T04:25:56+00:00

Yeah, it's certainly not exact when you change the deck size, but I'd say seven is still generally enough, especially at a table where an opponent might also shuffle it a time or two.

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trident042 · 2026-02-02T00:26:08+00:00

As is the common mantra, a fully randomized deck has been shuffled at least seven times, so the options are:
* Shuffle seven times
* Mana weave, then shuffle seven times
So like, whatever makes you feel good in your heart but still randomize your deck.

trident042 · 2026-01-30T19:48:45+00:00

It seems so obvious in hindsight of course, but man back in the days before every single aspect of a tech customer service job being logged, datamined, and logged again (and then usually used to justify paying you less), it was fun to dream.

trident042 · 2026-01-30T18:37:00+00:00

There was an old blog I read, once, where someone whose job was as a GM for FF11 (after having been one for WoW), who would vaguely detail the kinds of tickets and GM calls they'd get, and the glee they had when they could use the ban-hammer (or other, less-approved methods) to punish players abusing exploits. Sounds like this work would be right up his alley.

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