I’m happy to see some reconsideration of old bans, but it really felt like they’re sweeping LTR’s issues under the rug while the set remains in print.

I guess it’s possible that the metagame will shift to deal with these new powerhouses, but the Ring could still remain overly ubiquitous, being colorless and generically useful. It’s hard to read WotC’s wait-and-see approach as anything other than handwaving, given their track record this decade.

Thank goodness that, twenty years later, we’re not paying $10 for chaff-filled precons with terrible mana bases. We’re paying $80.

Oblivion is cool, but I’m with everyone else that want to see Morrowind remade first. I’ve been personally holding out for the Skywind mod for several years now. I just checked up on it and, yeah, they’re still workin’ on it.

Some of the spoilers to come in yesterday were pretty great, not gonna lie. It’s still going to be miserable to open Zetalpa in your $20 pack, but I think now there’s a critical mass of desirable cards to make it worth the gamble.

And while I’ve been mixed on the full-arts, the new Smothering Tithe is delightful and reminds me of the border-breaking layouts from Unglued.

Haha, fair question. I set up the scenery to save time, but I don’t like to put monsters on the table until their fight/scene is imminent. The players never know quite what they’re gonna face until I pull it from the monster cabinet. 😈

I think this is most evident in the choice of legendary creatures, many of which hit the top of EDHrec years ago. Krenko, Omnath, Sidisi, Nekuzar, Mizzix, etc. Along with Land Tax, Commandeer, and Chromatic Lantern, the set seems to reflect the era when Commander was no more than an annual product.

There are so many new legendary creatures and EDH-playable cards released nowadays that, at least in my area, nobody is playing those old decks anymore.

Jumpstart is the product for you! It’s designed to help beginners get right into the game and try out a variety of play styles. Each Jumpstart pack contains half of a deck, lands and all. So you each open two packs, shuffle your cards together, and start playing.

There’s even a LotR Jumpstart edition, though the packs are a little more expensive than generic Jumpstart.

Mother 3 did it before it was cool. In the beginning of the game, money doesn’t exist and you can get whatever you need for free from the general store. Aways into the game, the pig army takes over, introducing money and ‘happy boxes,’ and everyone in town starts working industrial jobs to keep the pork machine running.

The Strixhaven archives knocked it out of the park, and I also thought the DMU stained glass showcase cards were comparable.

As for individual arts, I think my favorites are probably the Bruce Brenneise shock lands from UNF, namely Godless Shrine, Stomping Ground, and Breeding Pool.

I like seeing Spike and Vorthos hanging out.

I love token decks of all types. Squirrel tokens, copy tokens, whatever. My favorite is a mono-white deck that does nothing but create tokens and accrue value from them. I don’t usually like to attack with my tokens, so I generally wait until I can end the game with something like [[Starlight Spectacular]] or just dig for [[Halo Fountain]].

I hate that I agree with this. On the one hand, “lying about a pandemic during a pandemic” sure sounds a lot like “shouting fire in a crowded theater,” but things like the lab leak theory aren’t really a matter of public health. While there are times when the government can and should fight dangerous misinformation, this is the kind of executive power that needs to be kept in check by the courts for the executive’s own good.

This whole article is propaganda. If you want to see concern trolling, Millben is doing a ton of it by calling Obama’s remarks “arrogant” and “virtue-signaling.”

The fact is, religious nationalism is bad for any country that calls itself a democracy. Modi and his party should be taken to task both by Indians at home and by India’s fellow democracies.

The handheld/console hybrid has been Nintendo’s dream for a long time. They even merged their handheld and console development teams a few years back, so I can’t see them abandoning the formula.

The only way I can see iterating on the Switch design is by dropping the dock in favor of a tv dongle to connect and stream wirelessly. This could allow for asymmetrical gameplay much like the WiiU (and would open the door to WiiU ports).

Just buy it. Corporate malfeasance aside, the game is worth paying full price.

Sounds like backwards compatibility is a lock—not that it’s a huge hurdle for today’s machines—since most of the account features involve software and save data. The retro game archives will probably make the jump too, since keeping them locked behind a paid membership is probably more lucrative than the Virtual Console ever was.

Anyone who has ever transferred their account to a new Switch knows how easy it is, for the most part. The biggest chore is redownloading software data, so maybe Nintendo will allow full game data to transfer over via SD card this time.

I’m conflicted. I have no sympathy for Meta, but I think it would be a mistake to defed from all corporate-run servers axiomatically. Involvement from deep-pocket industries has its issues, but it also builds legitimacy and awareness.

You wouldn’t want your email provider to block all communication with Gmail, just because it’s Google-hosted, would you?

Ultimately, the strength of the decentralized model is to allow those who don’t want to see normie Meta content to move to a platform like Scicomm. But I worry for the drama and fallout when large instances make decisions that affect a huge number of users.

I’m always wary of basing campaigns around movies because there’s always the potential that the players will make radically different choices. Like, if the players decide not to stick around for the next fog, will that be okay?

To answer your question, campaign level is a function of the types of monsters you’re looking to include. Since these seem to be mostly humanoid soldier types, you probably want to stay low enough level for that kind of combat to be a danger.

Starting at level 2 or 3 would probably be appropriate to maintain the challenge. On the other hand, if you’re planning to pit the players against an army of dozens of soldiers, you may want to start at level 5 so they can mow them down properly.

I’m a huge proponent of physical media, but this is entirely unsurprising given Microsoft’s acquisition of Bethesda. Compared to Switch and especially Playstation, the Xbox has a much higher rate of digital game sales.

If Starfield were on PS5, it would get a disc release for sure, and Xbox would probably get one too for the sake of parity. But discs aren’t terribly important to the Xbox crowd, and that goes double for PC gamers.

Moreover, digital games are good for the publisher’s bottom line, so physical media is only going to exist as long as customers demand it. And PC and Xbox gamers simply don’t.

I remember when this comic used to be about swords.