#so you (nonspecific) are absolutely valid if you have issue with this translation

[ueasking]

Unknown Language Notes

This post is inspired by @thisonelikesaliens 's post & @luthienmpl 's tags on the post. If you've ever taken a Mandarin class you probably know all of this already, but for those who don't speak any Mandarin, it might be helpful to familiarize your ear with these words✨

Note: all audio clips are from episode 2

小遠 xiǎo yuǎn [xiáo yuǎn] lit. Little Yuan

Here, 小 (xiǎo), which means small/little, is added in front of 遠 (yuǎn) as a diminutive term. It's pretty common for parents and older relatives to add a 小 in front of the last character of a child's name as an affectionate nickname. Note: In case you're wondering why I've included a second pronunciation in square brackets, it's because the first pronunciation is the one you'd find in a dictionary and the second one is the actual pronunciation of 小遠. This is due to the tone change rule known as "tone sandhi". Basically, when a third tone is followed by a third tone, the first one becomes a second tone.

魏之遠 wèi zhī yuǎn Yuan

魏 (wèi) is his surname. In episode 1, the gang boss says that Wei Xiaoyuan is a bad name and suggests 魏之遠 Wei Zhiyuan (literally Wei's Yuan, Yuan that belongs to Wei) instead. Note: While 小 (xiǎo) is often used in nicknames, it's no longer common in to have this character in one's legal name. You can still find people with names including this character in the older generation, but such names sound uncultured and uneducated to most native speakers (*cough* classism *cough*)

魏謙 wèi qiān Qian

弟弟 dì di younger brother

哥 gē older brother (akin to phi in Thai and hyung/oppa in Korean)

The first audio file is from the scene in which Yuan hands Qian a graduation bouquet, and if you speak Mandarin, you can probably tell that he sounds extremely soft here. I would upload a clip of the scene, but I haven't had much success uploading video clips in the past, so a gif will have to do.

#unknown #unknown the series #關於未知的我們 #taiwanese bl #*unknown #tbh i'm fine with the subber going with Qian instead of 哥 #because Ge could be mistaken as an actual name #the nuance isn't there either with bro/brother/older brother #and using hyung/phi in english subtitles for a mandarin show doesn't really make sense to me #that being said i speak mandarin so i don't need to rely on the subs to understand #and quite a bit of nuance is definitely lost in the subs #so you (nonspecific) are absolutely valid if you have issue with this translation

[radramblog]

Cube Philosophy- The Best Cards?

A common mistake I see with cube is the assumption that every cube has to be playing the best cards around unless it has some weirdo theme going on. I believe this is largely a result of most people being introduced to the format through the Arena or MTGO cubes, since they appear to be WoTC’s idea of what a cube should look like. It’s very tempting to just get all the best and coolest cards so you can play with them all- the “Hall of Fame of Magic” style of cube has been rather popular for a long time. It’s the default.

But there are a few very good reason not to just play the best cards around, and as a lover of both hipster shit and jank I’d like to go into that.

I guess there’s four main reasons to not be playing all the best cards all the time. This might not sound like much, but I think those reasons are both valid and relevant, as well as fairly all-encompassing.

Reason Number One: Good cards, are expensive. This one is fairly obvious, but if you aren’t doing proxies and you don’t have cards on hand then it’s often not worth spending a ridiculous amount of money on the hot new standard green four-drop frop the hot new set (looking at you, Questing Beast). Particularly when it’s a fairly nonspecific slot, such as, well, (X)-Drop (Colour) beater, even moreso when there are likely cheaper but still very solid alternatives.

A recent episode of the Legendary Creature Podcast (a very good Commander/EDH cast) discussed “Midmaxing”, where you use slightly lower-powered versions of common effects to save money to use on more powerful but more unique effects- such as playing a few worse wraths and draws so you can save money for something like Hatred. This idea is easily translatable to cube- certain archetype makers like Splinter Twin are irreplacable if you want to make that deck function, but maybe you don’t need Noble Hierarch if you’ve got a couple spare Llanowar Elves sitting around. I actually doubled up a couple mana dorks to avoid putting such absolute nonce cards in- though I did have a spare Birds of Paradise sitting around so that got in.

The second reason is, funnily enough, power level. This is somewhat less applicable for those trying the high-powered vintage/legacy type cube, but when you’re introducing new cards, sometimes the balance of power ends up shifting…uncomfortably. Now, this is often offset by the power of testing, and cube like many a limited format is somewhat self-correcting, but not everyone has the time to test or the data and consistent playgroup to self-correct. Power level is a funny thing, and balancing a game is fucking hard- especially in multiplayer. But that’s arguably the fun of it. Cube has so many dials and knobs to turn and alter- one for every card you play, and more in a meta sense as far as numbers of certain types or subcategories of cards- so nerfing or buffing certain archetypes and colours by playing stronger and weaker variants of certain effects.

Point three in this medium-length diatribe is a lesson taken from Canadian Highlander, or as some call it, Vintage/Legacy cube but constructed instead of limited. And that is, that “best in slot” is not always such an obvious thing to determine, and different people are going to have different opinions as to what’s the goodest option. The specific note I remember is from burn/red aggro decks in that format- because once you pick up Lightning Bolt and all the other Very Good burn spells, do you go lean and start playing Shocks (1 mana 2 damage), or bigger and start going Lightning Strikes (2 mana 3 damage)? Similarly, once you’re out of the Best Counterspells, do you play more limited 2 mana ones, more powerful 3 mana ones, more powerful ones like Cryptic Command or Mystic Confluence, or the expensive free ones? It’s going to depend on your cube, but it means that the “best” one isn’t always going to be the same depending on who you are and where you go. This also kinda ties into the numbers issue, where you’re going to want different versions of effects based on the mana costs of other cards you’re playing, et cetera, et cetera.

The final reasoning is the old appeal to personality. Because a cube is your baby, and you should definitely put cards you enjoy in it- even if they aren’t the greatest things in the planet. If every cube was just every best card, they would look very similar and shit would get boring very quickly. Look, I’m just coming as someone who’s cube is basically just a bunch of cards I like, but you’re here to have a good time, right? A recent MaRo quote that made some waves was this, “if your primary goal is having fun- you don’t have to maximally optimize your deck.”. This translates fairly effectively to cube, as it’s a format where there can be more room for more fun cards. Especially since you get to play so many of them. I’m an advocate for silly cards, and cards I’m nostalgic for, and so what if those are a bit weaker?

 And uhhh yeah that’s the lot of them. Ultimately, like with most things with cube, shit’s up to you, and if you’re not relatively new to it it’s probably fairly obvious. But it tends to help to get these things down on paper. Er, digital paper, I suppose.

It’s been frustratingly long since I’ve actually gotten to play my cube, let alone update it. Hopefully I’ll be able to change that sooner rather than later. For now, I suppose I’m going to stare at it lovingly for another few weeks. Until then?

#ramble #mtg #cube