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starlit-mansion · 2 months

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It strikes me that part of the reason why "what if magic HURT YOU TO USE (head exploding gif)" takes annoy me is that. That was already part of the modern fantasy genre going to jolkein rolkien rolkien tolkein. Like. That was. A huge part of the trilogy, yeah? Frodo's nigh incapacitated by the ring for most of the journey. In constant pain. Everyone else knowing that he had the hardest task.

And there's so many takes about deciding you're annoyed at dnd healing being a matter of game resource management rather than breaking your own bones like deku in the beginning of mha that i can take now. as i have in fact. Tried and failed to portray that in a transformative way. And found that it does not gel with actual productive storytelling if you aren't actually making it a central theme of the story. I haven't gotten into dungeon meshi but as far as i can tell. That healing magic is so taxing for the reciever that you need to have immense calorie intake (which costs money) is one of the primary elements in the story. There's no need to force it into your ttrpg if it doesn't synergize, and you just don't want to be conventional and stupid like those dumb jock dnd players addicted to nat 20s.

There's also. The x-men effect. Which is to say. When you add (magic) powers to the situation. It can muddy the themes. The x-men are a metaphor for marginalized people but they're also living weapons so their persecution has textual justification. But also the power fantasy gets saccharine with no element of being grounded, and so the persecution is necessary for the reader to connect. But if the mutants all had dinky little powers or small cosmetic differences and the story was about that same level of persection, it would be about all that pain these people were feeling without it being anything more than a weirdly removed one-to-one metaphor for irl bigotry. And at that point. Very much not a superhero story.

Which is sort of how i feel about the genre twist take economy. If i wanted magic to be such a close metaphor for chronic pain or the adhd hyperfocus/burnout cycle that it literally is that with the occasional plot device. I personally would probably just go read literary fiction or contemporary romance with disabled protagonists already. I dont need a witch hat thrown on top. Especially if i go to a fantasy story for immersive worldbuilding and the interplay of power at a scale that's wide enough to feel epic but defined enough to be conceivable, solvable and satisfying. And you're pitching me a story about a contest of who can work through a migraine bestest of all.

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quirkwizard · 1 year

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Remember how you gave 1-A quirks from AFO? Can you do that with 1-B?

Kosei-Muscle Augmentation: Since none of the Quirks synergize with Kosei that well, might as well giving him a little extra bulk to help him out.

Kamakiri- Rivet: While Kamakiri has some good offense and mobility, he is seriously lacking in the defense department. Plus it could give his blades a non-lethal option.

Manga-Wings: Unrestricted flight could give Manga a lot more opportunities too apply "Comic", like dropping giant stones on someone, and gives him a good getaway option.

Hiryu-Springlike Limbs: While this could offer him some extra mobility, I think that the main drawback would be how well it works with "Scale", giving his scales extra puncturing power.

Reiko-Storage: As Reiko needs items around to control, why not let her carry around whatever she wants inside of herself to control later? You start fighting her and suddenly get hit by a sink.

Kendo-Air Walk: I think that this could have some fun applications with her martial arts skill, giving herself footholds to attack from wherever she wants and some much needed mobility.

Pony-Spearlike Bones: This could have some potential interactions with "Horn Cannon", like giving Pony's horns more cutting power, or giving her smaller horns for her to control.

Jurota-Absorb and Release: Since he already has a lot that bulk and a high pain tolerance, why not give him a Quirk that relies on both of those things and gives him some unique offensive options.

Sen-Shoulder Mounted Jets: Extra mobility is good and all, but I mostly picked this to turn Sen into a human missile. He could just launch himself at whatever he wants for maximum damage if he wanted.

Ibara: Shock Absorption: Not only could this protect Ibara from anyone who gets close to her, but it could help enhance her vines as well, giving them a greater resistance to attempts to break or cut them.

Awase-Hypertrophy: While any contact based Quirk user would benefit from this Quirk, I think it works with Awase the best since "Weld" release on making as much contact as possible, letting him apply it to larger targets.

Kodai-Overclock: Now that she can move at high speeds, she can rapidly change the size of whatever she wants without worry if she got too close. You wouldn't even knew if she touched something until she release the affect.

Komori-Air Cannon: Considering that you can shape the air blasts and their long range, this could give Komori a great way to spread and focus how and where her spores move, countering some of her biggest weaknesses.

Bondo-Hardflame Fan: This does help his role in defense and gives him some extra offense, but I'm mostly giving this too him because of how it could combine with "Cemendine". Imagine a massive wave of burning, sticky glue.

Tetsutetsu: Tool Arms: This could give Tetstetsu a better range and greater suite of options in a fight while the normally vulnerable arms are protected in his steel coating. Plus it would make him look like a killer robot.

Shoda-Impact Recoil: As these are both based around kinetic attacks, there could be a lot of synergy between the two and how they can work around attacks, like empowering any attack he happens to counter. If nothing else, it can work to shore up Shoda's defenses.

Tokage: Super Regeneration: This has the most obvious interact. If Tokage can heal herself faster, it makes sending out the parts less of a risk, lets them stay away from her for longer periods, and would let her develop body parts at a extremely rapid rate for greater coverage.

Kuroiro-Rivet Stab: This could have a lot of synergy with "Black", letting Kuroiro sneak around and attack whomever he wishes from the safety of shadows. What's more is that it could work to give him a dark spot anywhere, sending them out to travel along them.

Juzo-Transforming Arms: I did consider giving him "Infrared" to see through his own mud, but I think giving him something more varied like “Transforming Arms” could make up for the one note nature of his Quirk and would be more useful for him given his intelligence.

Monoma-Warping: While I was tempted to give him "Overclock", I think this works better. By letting him teleport his allies and enemies, it could let him flex his strategic skills by moving people around, but it could bring people close to him to copy their Quirks if he needs to.

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transformers-synergize · 5 months

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This was made for a fan community I am working on. If you would like to apply these as headcanons to your own work, go right ahead

All the human stuff is real btw, I have a source linked below that goes into much more detail on the topic.

I was planning on doing the cybertronians body language or anatomy post first but decided to go with this because the info it provides helps with the other two. its also a lot shorter than the other two so I knew I could get it done a lil faster.

Sources I used while making this lore below

Sources I used while making this lore

https://www.heartmath.org/research/science-of-the-heart/energetic-communication/■ (had to break the link because tumblr would blacklist my post just remove the cube)

Several Wikipedia Articles about em fields and magnetoreception

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elphael · 2 years

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SOFT SWAPPING DAMAGE

I've brought up the concept of soft swapping damage types at least a couple of times and I keep meaning to actually explain what I mean by that because I don't know if I've actually done it. Anyways I'm borrowing the name I've seen used in the Souls community for swapping to a secondary ability briefly in the middle of combat as part of your strategy. So let me explain:

What is it?

Soft swapping damage in D&D is being able to semi-spontaneously change the type of damage an ability should do with another ie. switching fire to cold damage. There are also a few ways in D&D to have damage versatility adjacent to soft swapping that I'll talk about too but aren't really the same thing because it's being able to choose your damage type, not a specific replacement.

Why?

Soft swapping damage is great for flavor, to synergize with another ability your character has, or to overcome resistance/immunity or capitalize on damage vulnerability.

How do I do it?

The ways you can specifically do what I would call 'soft swapping' are a Sorcerer's Metamagic option Transmuted Spell, Horizon Walker Ranger's Planar Warrior, Undead Warlock's Grave Touched, or Scribes Wizard's Awakened Spellbook.

Transmuted Spell lets you switch between six damage types: acid, fire, cold, lightning, poison, & thunder, exchanging damage types within those listed.

Horizon Walker lets you turn "all damage dealt" into force damage, letting you stack it with spells like searing smite or even hypothetically divine smite in the case of a Paladin multiclass.

Grave Touched lets you do something similar but states "you can replace the damage type" not all, however I would interpret them the same way in the hypothetical of there being multiple damage types, like with Hex or Eldritch Smite or any other multiclass shenanigans.

Awakened Spellbook lets you swap the damage type of a leveled spell with the damage type dealt by another spell in your spellbook of the same level. So theoretically, any damage type is up for grabs depending on what you do.

Any of these abilities lets you specifically control the type of damage you're dealing in a case by case instance which is specifically useful for certain gimmicks in combat or general damage coverage. One of my favorites is picking up either the Tempest Domain or Zeal Domain channel divinity and getting to either change the damage type (Transmuted Spell & Awakened Spellbook) then incur max damage or incur max damage and transform the damage type when the hit lands (Planar Warrior & Grave Touched), either of these can create huge bursts of damage in unexpected ways.

Other than that It's just a generally useful function to have in a build.

There are also spells and abilities that specifically let you pick a different damage type every type you do damage. For example (and this is not an exhaustive list as far as I know): Ascendant Dragon Monks can change their unarmed strikes between: acid, bludgeoning, cold, fire, lightning or poison damage. Drakewarden's can use their Drake Companion's infusion to deal additional damage of their choice, as well as later gain resistance to that damage type on a case by case basis. The same applies to spells like Summon Draconic Spirit, Chromatic Orb, or Elemental Weapon, and feats like Gift of the Chromatic Dragon.

I don't think I would consider any of these soft swapping in the same way I consider the above (sub)class abilities to be, but it's interesting to note when discussing options in damage versatility and ease of gaining alternate damage types.

Anyways, that's all, send post.

#d&d mechanical information #d&d commentary #d&d advice #SURE #i guess that works #yeah that's all #soft swapping fun #it's how i made a triple-stat caster build #liza.txt #d&d #my d&d posts

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hazydaisyislazy · 6 months

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POV You're a Decepticon cassette in the Ark, and you've mildly inconvenienced the janitorial staff.

Gears design by @transformers-synergize

#digital art #transformers #transformers synergize #gears #transformers gears

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anim-ttrpgs · 9 months

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Eureka: A lot of bang for your buck!

As mentioned in an earlier post, the rulebook for Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy is on the longer side of the indie-TTRPG spectrum, coming in at about 230 pages at the time of writing this.

The rulebook dedicates about the first 90 pages to what we would probably call the “core gameplay”: That is, looking for clues, gathering evidence, drawing conclusions, talking to people, making plans, etc. as well as what each Skill and Trait does and how to create a normal player character.

The next 75 or so pages are dedicated entirely to combat.

Characters are fairly fragile in Eureka compared to most TTRPG PCs—they might even be more fragile than Call of Cthulhu PCs—and this serves to realistically and organically discourage a shoot-first-question-later style of play. However, we knew that making the PCs this easy to kill meant that we had to give the combat systems within the game a lot of depth to match, to give the PCs and their players a good degree of agency in the fight, or else they’d just be going along until wham the party is dead after one bad roll and it’s game over before they know it.

The combat rules in Eureka are deep but not overly complex. It’s less about determining the exact right turn to utilize a special ability that synergizes with the rest of the party’s special abilities, and more about positioning, planning around the environment, and striking first. This still uses the same 2D6 system as everything else—except for when automatic firearms come into play, then it’s D12s for a little extra randomness and because it’s easier to roll 10 D12s than 10 pairs of D6s—so you won’t need to really learn a whole new set of rules just to have a fight. Just keep track of the effective range of each category of firearm and how many bullets your character has left!

I’m actually personally very proud of Eureka’s firearm combat rules. They manage to create a very realistic simulation of a real shootout, organically encouraging realistic tactics and strategy without devolving into a slow grind where every character’s turn takes five minutes of math and re-checking the rulebook to resolve. After that, there’s a brief set of instructions on how to convert an adventure module not originally made for it to work well with the Eureka system. This chapter is only a few pages long because it really is that simple!

And then the last section in the book is dedicated to making and handling PCs that are a bit...less normal. This is about 60 pages, and covers the bulk of Eureka’s actual supernatural lore, and instructions on how to use that lore to create supernatural player characters that fit into that lore.

We’ve gone into this more in-depth in another earlier post, but let me give a simple rundown anyway: There is no “masquerade” in the world of Eureka, no grand conspiracy by either the mundane government nor a secret supernatural government to cover up the existence of vampires and werewolves and fairies and the like, in fact there is no secret supernatural government. Supernatural creatures are simply so rare as to mainly just fly right under the radar of most modern science, with actual sightings being considered the stuff of tabloid trash and unscientific sensationalism by most academic minds. So obscure are these instances of the supernatural that a vampire might not even believe in werewolves, or a werewolf in vampires. They may have even never met another one of their kind in-person. As for why these individuals don’t just get on camera and tell the world that they exist... well, the ones they have the less dangerous magical powers could usually be shown-up by a mundane stage magician in Vegas. Yeah right you can start fires with your mind, I bet you just have a remote ignition switch in your pocket!

And then the ones that have more impressive magical powers, like literally transforming completely into a bat, well, those guys tend to also eat people, so it’s really in their best interest to keep that to themselves, in case anyone comes asking questions about what happened to the neighbors and all those delivery guys....

Perhaps one of the most interesting mechanics here is how supernatural characters like these must not only keep their secrets from the world at large, but the rest of the party too! These PCs’ supernatural status is a secret from everyone except their player and the game master, and they must find ways to dodge their supernatural weaknesses, exert their powers, and take a few bites out of a victim all without alerting anyone else in the party or at the table to their true nature.

Follow @anim-ttrpgs for updates and look for Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy on Kickstarter later this year!

#eureka: investigative urban fantasy #eureka #monsters #vampires #rpg #ttrpg #indie games #indie ttrpg #indie rpg #magic #kickstarter #combat #firearms #guns #rulebook #roleplaying #tabletop role-playing game

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blueikeproductions · 1 day

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youtube

So here’s the thing.

Looooong before we even knew the Quintessons were going to be the main threat in ONE, most people had already assumed EarthSpark was going to use the Quintessons due to the Emberstone and Quintus Prime’s roles here.

…The problem is we still don’t actually know, as of typing, if they WILL. The first season completely botched its primary ideas and wasted its two main villains. Whatever was bring set up was often tossed aside for more butterfly chasing, so if they were setting up the Quintessons, I don’t trust them to go through with it due to poor story editing and if they do, they’ll likely be poorly utilized like Mandroid and Croft.

Considering one alleged leak is another “after school special” pause in the momentum about Hashtag being gay like they did to stop and explain Nightshade being non-binary, I still think this stuff will still be more important than the actual plot, whatever that intends to be. The problem remains performative diversity first, story second, when it always should be cool story with a few fun characters who do cool things who happen to be gay & what have you. If younger generations are calling this performative diversity stupid now, you know it’s coming to an end. Which means we can get Nightshade to be seen as a fun character and not a shield as they tend to be unfortunately.

Some of the modern plots lately have been the Autobots & Decepticons working together to fight a common enemy: D-Void & Unicron in IDW, Exharcon in IDW2, most… everyone in Cyberverse frankly but the Quintessons in particular, so having both factions fight against something in the final season sounds about right. I don’t really count Mandroid because most of the time he was fought by the Autobots anyway (and yes I include Megatron as an Autobot).

While he’s right there has been brand synergy (kinda) with other projects in the past, most notably the Rescue Bots becoming Dinobots and Grimlock’s inclusion in RiD15 were influenced by Age of Extinction, with The Last Knight having RiD15 synergy with Cade and the Autobots living in a junkyard at the start of the film, I’m not sure I believe EarthSpark is intended to have synergy with ONE anyway.

For starters, I believe One has been in development SINCE RiD15, if it came out then instead it would’ve made more sense for Bumblebee and crew to fight the Quintessons over a special relic then; RiD was loose enough it could’ve pulled that off. Cyberverse included Quintessons late in its run, but they were visually so far removed from the OGs, closer to the machines in The Matrix and more like trans dimensional Dr. Who villains, that they didn’t really synergize at all with WFC’s toy line which used the G1 designs (and used the Quints worse somehow).

The One designs go for an original look for the Quintessons again, but skewing more closer to G1 and Aligned versions with a mix of the techno organic look of G2 Liege Maximo which is curious, but more visually striking than Cyberverse just copying The Matrix.

I don’t see EarthSpark making the Quintessons dimensional beings like Cyberverse at all because that goes against the modern story they’re creations of Quintus Prime (not that Hasbro really utilizes it anyway since WFC and Skybound imply the 80’s cartoon Quintesson origins for the Transformers), as well as diluting their genetic relationship to the Terrans. It’s certainly not because Hasbro has disavowed the multiverse because Legacy is still chugging along, with its replacement set to continue the trend.

I remain convinced the original intention was for EarthSpark and ReActivate to be released together and have a similar concept in Autobots, Decepticons and humans brought together because of the Quintessons doing something stupid, but clearly that didn’t happen as intended. ReActivate is stuck in development hell still last I heard with toys trickling out but no one’s buying them. EarthSpark has been a commercial failure from the word go sadly and it’s only sticking around a bit longer to help celebrate the 40th anniversary. Had that not been the case, it would’ve been scrapped I wager going by all the other Paramount+ shows that got the axe. Heck it probably would’ve gotten the axe after Nightshade’s debut episode like Ridley Jones’ non-binary calf episode killed it. The difference here is Ridley got five seasons at least, but at the expensive of becoming a laughing stock by adults comparing it to their childhood cartoons… Hmm it’s not really a pretty picture either way tho’…

Still whatever synergy EarthSpark may have had is gone or was never there. I don’t really see the start of the war brought up in a satisfactory way, as I doubt the writers want to make Megatron look bad. It would dilute Megatron being friends with Dot among other things. Again not the flex the writers think it is. It’ll be another last gasp at IDW’s post war ideas at best, just written a bit more like a proper kids cartoon at best, second verse same as the first at worst. Either way the Terrans are in the rear view window, with TFONE as the next thing along with Skybound. That they’re moving forward with the GI Joe crossover tease from RotB also shows Hasbro having faith in the Energon Universe and wanting to use its ideas going forward in other things. I want Cobra-La to be where Movie Megatron is. Project Iceman but with a twist!

#blueike #maccadam #transformers #Youtube

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blitzy-blitzwing · 6 months

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https://www.tumblr.com/transformers-synergize/tagged/transformers

Ooooh, I’ve seen this on twitter!!! 😃😃 The designs are amazing!! 🤩🤩🤩🤩

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inventors-fair · 8 months

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Limited Experiences, Archetypes, and How a Little Madness will Get You Nowhere or Everywhere

Folks, I don't play Arena and I don't have a MODO account. I've drawn tokens and borrowed dice. My experiences in MTG have been weird to say the least and I've been playing since before I needed to shave regularly. Which I still don't.

But part of Magic's versatility is the ability to go hog wild with the card that you pick as long as you're doing something fun. I draft a lot with my students when we can, and I get to see the kinds of decks that they play as well. Back in Shadows over Innistrad, I was fascinated with a student's Jeskai Aggro build; he's still playing at the LGS whenever he can, with a real job and everything. When we drafted Streets of New Capenna, one student played BW Elspeth and another swung Temur, of all things. You don't have to be normal about anything.

I'm far from normal in my constructed designs, so I'll admit to being caught by the bug; my competitive Pioneer decks are a homebrew Mono-White Weenies deck that still runs Brimaz, and a Mono-Red Skredless Skred Karnfires pile of nonsense that baffles the Spikes right before they beat me (or get Glorybringer'd). And yet, when I draft, normalcy abounds. The big cards are big, and the other cards are... Well, sometimes control works. Sometimes.

I'm going to go through the four most recent standard sets and talk about their archetypes, my experiences, and whether or not weirdness is permitted. Hopefully this will encourage you to go back and find a bit of weirdness yourself. Or not. But whatever you make for this week, it has to capture something that'll make us feel again. Don't let me down—but how can you? You're an Inventor.

Let's start most recently...

MARCH OF THE MACHINE

As many folks have heard me crow about already, I won our LGS's March of the Machine store championship. The deck was greedy, swingy, and the legends really tore the deck apart with their power level. Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite was and is a very powerful card. The limited archetypes were:

WU Knights

UB Instants/Sorceries/Recursion

BR Sacrifice

RG Battles

GW +1/+1 Counters

WB Incubate/Phyrexians

BG Incubate/Phyrexians

GU DFCs

UR Convoke

RW Backup

An abundance of mana-fixing ensured that the three/four/five-color decks could have fun on their own, and the wedge legends encouraged that as well if you could pick them up. The inclusion of Yarok and Atraxa were rare, but also pushed for a little bit of green-oriented power there.

As you can see, two archetypes (Battles & Backup) pushed for the newest set mechanics. Personally? I never tried them. Backup was best used wherever the aggro happened on its own, and Battles were better in the grindier colors and/or as bombs for other archetypes when necessary.

Grinding out fliers was usually the way to go. I don't have many fond memories of drafting this set, not in the same way I do with other sets. The mechanics were great, and Battles were surprisingly fun, but coming out on top felt less about who was the better player and more who could draw into the uninteractive over-the-top synergy first.

When things got good, things got GREAT. I stared down an amazing five-color Alara pile once that blew me out of the water, and knights had a heck of a time. But sealed... Sealed was amazing. Even the prerelease (which I missed winning by a hair) had amazing moments. The decks could pack all their iconic characteristics into one mashup and it felt like assembly of a monument, less haphazard and more genuinely epic. What does it say that a set feels more cohesive the less control you have over what you pick from it?

At least the Incubate mechanics were awesome all around. It synergized with Phyrexian typal, +1/+1 counters, and the transformation theme. I'd put Incubate as my favorite mechanic and archetype.

WEIRDNESS CONCLUSION: You had to get weird with this format, but even the weirdness didn't feel good because the biggest cards like Ghalta and Chandra performed regardless of their archetype. It was both cluttered and samey at the same time. Weirdness failed to find the good-feeling spot.

Best you could do was the five-color pile, and that relied on bomb support—not that you really had to ask for it.

PHYREXIA: ALL WILL BE ONE

This set was baller. It was fast. It was fun. It was interactive on the battlefield. Combat mattered immensely and topdecks felt radically tense. I had so much fun with this set. The archetypes were:

WU Artifacts Matter

UB Proliferate

BR Oil Sacrifice

RG Oil Aggro

GW Toxic Midrange

WB Mites/Tokens

BG Toxic Aggro

GU Proliferate

UR Noncreatures

RW Equipment

Out of all of these, the only archetype I saw eschewed was GW. My favorite deck I made was a four-color pile with Atraxa (hnnng, yet 2-1 overall) but I saw mono-red go undefeated one night as well. Two proliferate and two toxic archetypes meant there was a fair amount of love to be spread, yeah? But speed mattered a lot. Usually.

There was a night where I had the fastest BG deck possible, and only dropped a game where I missed four land drops in a row. But I won the match because the proliferation mattered when the toxic couldn't connect, and there was no way out. Battles were furious. People say that RB was the best archetype—or was it RG?—but just about everything could be done well. WU wasn't the most popular, and neither was UB, but both of them performed well.

Oil counters being the newest addition as do-nothing-but-synergize felt a little off at first, but when they worked, they worked immensely well, and they suited the environment in a way that I really didn't expect. You wanted to get them, use them, board them, and burn them. And don't get me started on the awesomeness of For Mirrodin! As a piece of noncreature-ish tech, the equipment archetype was more powerful than I had thought possible.

WEIRDNESS CONCLUSION: If you could do it right, you could do it well. 3-5 color decks had odd synergies but had stiff competition. This set didn't feel like it had quite the wiggle room for competitive oddities, but it felt good to perform with them all the same. Cunning mattered more.

Best you could do would probably be a control curve. A lack of sweepers meant true control was next to impossible, but you could eke it out.

THE BROTHER'S WAR

Out of all the disappointments, BRO was one of the most frustrating to contend with. Big stuff on top of big stuff only mattered when you could cheat it out or go fast enough that it hardly made a difference when you killed someone. Forgone conclusions were just that. The archetypes were:

WU Soldiers

UB "Draw Two"

BR Sacrifice

RG Powerstone Aggro

GW Artifact ETB

WB Small Soldiers

BG Self-Mill

GU Big Robots

UR Noncreatures

RW Aggro

Go fast or go home. When games got grindy, everyone went to time, and then everyone who drafted red got to sit around and watch them before winning the event. There were, on occasion, odd decks that managed to eke out victories, but the archetypes felt more or less directionless.

Soldiers had to be committed to so early that, if you didn't draw a bomb P1P1, you were done for. Powerstones felt good and versatile all around, but they were primarily sacrifice fodder and on occasion used in combat for tricks that would get lethal anyway. People would hate out the RB deck for that alone, and then whoever got the red bombs or the ramp would come out on top. Removal felt decent. Blue was a strange fiend where practically none of the archetypes felt supported, but WU worked if you just went for straight midrange. Urza's rare card in particular was stellar.

Drafting a curve was useless unless you built specifically to go against the decks that were going faster than you. The bonus sheet as well was...interesting. Quicksilver Amulet was particularly strong if you could find it. But even Wurmcoil Engine was slow. Sometimes you got to go nuts with Bone Saw. Most often, they slotted in, but didn't change much unless they hit the other singularly good card in your deck.

WEIRDNESS CONCLUSION: I watched my Students play with this one. One of them assembled the Workers in his deck and only lost one match. But RG aggro got there because the kids drafting RB weren't quite ready to go nuts. I was surprised at some of the expertise and not at all surprised at the others. With the LGS, nobody particularly liked the set because of the imbalance.

Best you could do probably WOULD be the Workers deck, unless you had some kind of combo. To get true jank, you'd have to board specifically against the best decks.

DOMINARIA UNITED

This is how you can make weirdness work. You know how in Khans of Tarkir, the lifegain lands made all the difference? But in March of the Machine, they muddled the waters? Well... Anyway, here are the archetypes:

WU Instants/Sorcery Midrange

UB Instant/Sorcery Control

BR Death/Sacrifice Aggro

RG Domain Beats

GW Tokens

WB Aristocrats

BG Graveyard Matters

GU Domain Ramp

UR Instant/Sorcery Aggro

RW Enlist Aggro

Fast and furious? It would seem so, but there was enough countermagic, removal, and interruption in this set to give it a strong back-and-forth. Even lifegain mattered immensely! My favorite deck I made was an incredible Sultai control build, but I got blown out on other nights with other fantastic decks, and in general? We had so much fun trying to be weird. That Sultai deck was splashing for the Domain lands, and that's where the fun happened.

The aggro was often offset by the other colors having big durdly butts and toughness that could match it, plus draw power on the side. Splashing was vital unless your game plan was tuned precisely. Equipment mattered, and every draw got you closer. Searching was fun and made for difficult choices. Domain was always relevant, always.

In every color combination, you could make something relevant, and if things went wrong, that was okay. Off-color kicker still felt great to build a powerful deck around. Removal felt like it had to be used at the right time, and it could turn the tide of battle with effort yet. Sometimes white felt a little weak, until it flew through the air and smacked the crap out of you. And if someone got a solid defenders deck, they were on cloud nine.

The format allowed for decks to slow down the field enough for interaction to happen, and the fast decks got their day in the sun all the time. Balance and options without too many cards and without a push towards bombastic setpieces meant that synergy could prosper. Yes, even with Sheoldred in the set.

WEIRDNESS FACTOR: If you could dream it, you could do it. The set punished spreading yourself too thin without support, but the support that it gave allowed for weird stuff to manifest quite well.

There's no limit to the best you could do: Abzan sacrifice, five-color goodstuff, Legendary typal, Jeskai spellslinging (that happened a fair amount actually), Bant control... It was awesome.

But these were just my experiences and my observations. On Arena, the same draft rules hardly apply. On MODO, the player base is much different. And of course, every LGS has its player base who plays differently.

What were your best limited experiences? What's the set where you felt the most powerful weirdness, and how do you want to bring that to your card this week?

With love, @abelzumi

#mtg #magic the gathering #monday blog #limited

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