#Dredger Legacy

[reykablue]

cass has made some *choices*

its been a while since ive updated cass’ journal so here are some entries from his college years! After ending things with fiancé Gwen, Cas has been flaunting his noncommittal trait. 

He finally found a sim he really liked, and they had their first kiss at his sister’s age up party! but....she just didnt want anything serious and turned him down when he asked her to be his girlfriend. 

dont worry he’s not too too torn up. He celebrated by taking his baby twins out to shop for toys! 

he’s on his third semester of uni and he’s not doing too bad! He’s already got his eye on someone new, so hopefully we’ll meet our goal of getting married right after he graduates. 

Stay tuned for some more updates from Cas and fam!

[luminashdawnwing]

The Wages of Sin: Part III

(Part I here; Part II here)

“So the tormented soul the Accuser has been parading about…”

Luminash nodded in confirmation to Grigori’s question, “The last of the Sunstriders, yes. A face I had hardly expected to see again, after all these years.” 

He raised a delicate black teacup to his lips and took a long sip. It was scarcely a mortal beverage, but a pair of dredgers - Wubbins and Nubbins or something of the sort? - were insistent that he and Grigori have some while they caught up.

“House Dawnwing remained so close to the throne?” Grigori trailed off, taking a sip of his own tea. His gaze drifted out from under his parasol and out over the Light-seared chasms below. Despite all the activity - the Ember Court would soon be hosting guests in a celebration of Castle Nathria’s fall and Sire Denathrius’ imprisonment - Luminash and Grigori had found some measure of solitude on the terrace overlooking the Ember Ward, “I admit, my curiosity is getting the better of me, Luminash. Tell me, what became of the House in your time?”

“It is...” The magister drummed his fingers on the heavy wood of the table, “A bit of a sore point. The House, as it must have been at its foundation, is a shadow. My son and I are the last, by blood, of the noble line.”

“I will not pry further, then,” Grigori replied, noting the magister’s somber tone, “That said, I wish to extend a gesture of trust.” Reaching into his coat, the Venthyr pulled out a scroll, tightly bound, seal unbroken, “I have taken the liberty of transcribing my own sinstone. For you, my scion. You have heard Lanestrian’s, and if we are to hunt him, I would have you see mine, so you might not be surprised if he attempts to name the crimes that led me here.”

The magister reached out, taking the scroll gingerly, looking between it and its giver in bafflement, “Are you certain? If this falls into the wrong hands…”

“It will not. You had the power in your hands, remember. And you chose your ally over expediency. You can be trusted.”

Breaking the seal with the reverence due in such a moment, Luminash nodded, taking in the words on the page:

Senaril Dawnwing.

Devoted to his people, all his deeds furthered their cause. The wilds left uncharted were laid bare by the stroke of his pen, expanses of forest carved away for monuments of lasting stone. The soil was broken for his own glory in the end, not that of his people.

In exile, he led his House in pursuit of a new power to sustain them, lest they wither away. Power was wrung from the dark earth, and into their minds it seeped. Among few others did he make his escape.

In his final days, he became a weapon of his people, one wielded honorably. Weapons ought take no pleasure, yet rejoice he did in searing flesh from bone. To secure his legacy in his new kingdom, he built a monument to cruelty.

A man of duty; a hoarder of honors.

A caring patriarch; a boot on the neck of his own children.

Honorable; bloodstained.

For his devotion, drive to protect his people, and his service, he deserves redemption. For his avarice, cowardice, and cruelty, he has come to us. Let these be washed away and let him be made anew.

“There is a story behind those words, one not told on the stone, as well. My crimes were many, but one was my greatest source of guilt.”

                                        *****************************

Senaril Dawnwing stood, arms crossed behind his back, in the center of his father’s grand observatory in Zin’azshari. Underneath its darkened dome, images of Azeroth’s night skies glimmering in goldleaf upon it, one could almost forget the horrors raging just outside those walls but for the quaking as infernals rained down. Behind the closed lids of his eyes, Senaril could see the felfire, the crater left behind, and the stony forms of the Legion’s beasts rise. Why had Lanestrian not come? He thought for sure that his invitation - his taunts - would bring a man so vain running to defend what honor he thought he had left.

Another quake, and a muffled sound of fighting beyond the marble walls. Amidst those sounds came too the near-imperceptible thump of slippered feet on marble in the observatory’s entryway.

Turning, eyes opening to expose the arcane power Senaril held barely in check - he was prepared to do what had to be done - the younger Dawnwing greeted the newcomer, “So good of you to join me, father.”

“I always suspected you lacked the will to seize what our people deserve, Senaril,” Lanestrian replied, ignoring his son’s jab, “You would see those forest-dwellers and their peasant defectors tear down everything I have built!” The sound of his sword slipping from its sheath resounded off the marble surfaces of the observatory.

“You? While you stared up at the sky, I mapped our empire! Those forest-dwellers already owe me for my aid, and will owe me more when all is done here!” Senaril’s hands flared with flames, nearly white so great was their heat, filling the chamber’s doorway with an inferno, cutting off Lanestrian’s way back, “You will drag the House down with your demon-consort Queen, and I will not let everything I have done fall with you!” The next burst of flames flew from Senaril’s fingertips.

A flick of his sword, an arrogant smirk on his face, and Lanestrian slashed through the flames, the magic infusing his weapon - and himself - dispelling his son’s attack, “Oh please, Senaril! I would have expected more tact from you than such a sloppy attempt! Do try again!” He continued striding towards his son, seemingly unfazed.

With a shout of barely-contained fury, Senaril unleashed another gout of flame, and another, and another. Lanestrian, remaining cool, cut through each with ease, his head tilted to the side as if curious, that look on his face that had always driven his son to anger. He had always been so insufferably smug - he was never wrong, never the lesser man, always had the other Highborne eating from the palm of his blasted hand. Even now, on the eve of the Legion lapdogs’ downfall, one would never guess he was on the losing side.

“I trained you better, Senaril. Everything I did - and you know this - was for us, for our family. Do not throw it away!” As he drew near, Lanestrian lashed out with his blade, a thin silvery thing, but it was hardly a threat. The blade-like thrust of arcane power it sent forth, however, was.

Blinded by his anger, Senaril did not notice until too late that he was bleeding, a gash along his side. As he stumbled back, the floor of the observatory shook violently, sending both him and his father reeling. Pushing himself up, he realized that the entire building had shifted, and the sounds of fighting outside had grown more intense. Something was happening. His father had noticed too, eyes wide.

There was a great disturbance in their source of arcane power, as if what they both sought to hold in their hands was being forcibly torn away, and while it remained in their grip, every moment cut into their flesh ever further.

Leaping forward, a momentary advantage gained in Lanestrian’s shock, Senaril crashed into the elder man, knocking him to the floor and his mageblade out of reach. Magic would not be the weapon that saved the Dawnwing name this day. Fury welled in the son as his fists rained upon his father, ignoring cries for mercy. His mind was filled only with anger - his whole life, charted and constrained for the House, never for himself; a loving, kind father on the surface, but distant beneath, depths unseen by any around him; that insufferable arrogance when he just knew himself to be right.

In the end, as the resistance fled Zin’azshari, Senaril alone emerged from the ruined observatory, blood staining his robes, his knuckles, and his face, eyes cold and dead within, all the anger burned away, leaving an empty husk.

                                       *****************************

“I was once a cartographer, as you might have guessed,” Grigori laughed, “I looked to the earth while Lanestrian looked to the stars, and oh, how that earth could glorify me, make my name resound.”

“What of the rest?” Luminash rolled the scroll back up tightly, and with a few flicks of his finger, something shifted around the seal, and it was once more good as new - the very same as a moment before.

“I assume you know the history of the Highborne’s landing in what the humans named Tirisfal, yes?” The Venthyr’s face appeared pained, as if speaking of these deeds even without proclaiming them formally disrupted something vital within him, “The Highborne struggled without the Well, and so we reached deep into the earth in that dark place. What we found drove many to madness, and yet I drank deep. Experimented on those who had pledged themselves to the House. Abused their trust, only to run, a coward, when it all came crashing down.” 

Grigori twisted his lips, looking like he was about to spit in disdain, “And when the man I was fled with those few who remained in his care, he was shocked when they distanced themselves. He threw everything he had left into carving out a new homeland, and what joy he took in watching Amani corpses burn. By then…” He sighed, “He was hollowed out. Nothing was left that could feel remorse, for he had sacrificed everything to his own glory. And in the throes of his personal war he perished, and…” A theatrical wave of his hand, a pointed change of perspective, “Here I am.

“I felt no remorse, no regret when I arrived here. Only outrage that I must be subjected to the will of another. Outrage that the Venthyr dared accuse me of anything. I did not realize until the Inquisitors had spent who knows how long wringing manifestations from me that I had become everything I found unbearable in Lanestrian.”

“It is never too late, then, is it?” Luminash threw back the rest of his tea, some of the weight his worries pressed down upon him having lifted for now, “Thank you sharing this, Grigori. I may never understand fully what it means to give me that trust, but I can at least try.” He was about to say more, when he was interrupted by the approach of crunching boots grinding against the sand blown in from the Ember Ward.

“Ah, Nelyne! So good of you to join us! Please, do take a seat.” Grigori smiled broadly, motioning to another seat at the table, “The Mad Duke’s pet dredgers have been keeping us in a steady supply of liquid shadows while we await the main event.”

Nelyne, rather than sitting, or responding to Grigori’s invitation, rested her hips against the table, leaning a clawed hand on the surface and drumming her fingers as she spoke, “I am glad to have found the two of you, even if you aren’t making yourselves at all useful.”

Luminash opened his mouth to respond, then shook his head, reconsidering, “It is good to see you too, Nelyne. How is the turnout?” He jerked his head subtly in the direction of the Bridge of Banishment, the once-grand structure that connected Sinfall and the Castle Nathria, “Have many come to gawk at the Master’s vanquishers?”

She nodded grimly, lips pursed over her jagged teeth, “Oh yes. And among them, I suspect, are loyalist infiltrators. Once you lot have finished sipping tea, we’ve orders: patrol the perimeter and make sure any and all mirrors are secured. There have been disturbances in the network as of late, and while they seem to have been scoured, we cannot be sure.”

Grigori’s face nearly split in two from his toothy grin, “Infiltrators! In the Ember Court! Oh, this will be a delight! It has been so long since I’ve had a decent day of drama among the nobility.”

Nelyne rolled her amber eyes with a scoff, though to Luminash’s ear it seemed more playful than anything else, a quirk of her lips directed at Grigori before she pushed herself from the table and strode off, “You both performed admirably in Nathria. Let us not grow lax at home, now!”

The magister’s companion finished his tea and set the cup delicately on the table, grin still plastered on his face, “This should be good. Anyone who is anyone will be here today, and I suspect we may be able to tease out some lingering traitors to Revendreth while we are enjoying the festivities. But, you were saying, Luminash?”

The magister’s eyes drifted towards the tendrils of black in the distance, the Maw looming beyond the edges of Revendreth, and he shook his head, “Only that I ought to tell you of the good things as well, sometime.”

Grigori stood, a fluid movement that scarcely disturbed the chair he had been sitting in, “I would very much like that. It gives me hope, Luminash, that - while I may have found my lessons here - the legacy Senaril left may be some good after all.”

Luminash’s smile was warm and genuine, but his face quickly took on a look of resolve, “I am glad for it. But now, there is work to be done, is there not?”

“There certainly is, magister.”

[katieskarlette]

The Sire’s Legacy

I was going to make a meta post about why I think Denathrius created the venthyr as his children, and my headcanons about how he and Zovaal were close before the latter’s mysterious “betrayal,” but it turned into a short fic instead.

This is set long before Shadowlands, when Denathrius was still the compassionate, beloved ruler of Revendreth.  Renathal is having a minor existential crisis and turns to his sire for answers...

Word count:  826 Content warnings:  If anima wine counts as alcohol use, then that.  Otherwise, nothing in particular. Spoilers:  9.0 only

--------------------------------------------------------------------

A flock of oversized bats passed high above Darkwall Tower, and Renathal's eyes followed them idly while a dredger servant refilled his goblet.  The prince sat in a comfortable chair on a balcony overlooking the forestlands to the south of Castle Nathria, slightly reclined with his feet up on a cushioned stool.  A low table bearing trays of snacks separated his chair from another, identical chair currently occupied by Sire Denathrius.

The king of the venthyr swirled the red liquid in his goblet contemplatively and sniffed it.  “This is even more exquisite than you promised, Renathal,” he said before taking another sip.

“I knew you would appreciate it,” the prince said with a smile.  “Extracted just this morning from a genocidal tyrant's soul.”

Denathrius closed his eyes and savored a longer drink.  “You can actually taste the arrogance.”

Renathal nodded in agreement and shooed away the dredger, who had been standing nearby in case the royals needed anything else.

Once they were alone on the balcony, Denathrius set his goblet down on the table. “So, my dear prince, what troubles you?”

“Troubles me? What makes you think something is troubling me?”

“Not that inviting me over to try some particularly good anima is unprecedented, but I know you far too well to miss your preoccupation.  Something is on your mind.”

Renathal cast his gaze out over the spectacular vista of forests and mountains.  “Why do I exist?”

Denathrius raised an eyebrow.  “Why...do you exist?  Well, I...”  He shifted his weight in the chair.  “If we were mortals, I would have given you the talk about where babies come from long before this.”

“But we are not mortals,” Renathal said, still avoiding eye contact.  “And I know you created me and the other, first generation of venthyr out of nothing.”

“Not 'nothing,'” Denathrius corrected.  “Anima, energy, and a great deal of powerful magic.”

“Yes, but why? You're immortal, so you don't need to worry about leaving an heir. None of the other Eternal Ones have 'children.'  Why did you make us?”

Denathrius took another drink while choosing his next words.  “The work we do in Revendreth is vitally important--not just to the Shadowlands as a whole, but to every soul who crosses our threshold.  It involves confronting their darkest, most damaged aspects.  Doing so for too long, alone, can be...taxing on the mind.”

“You chose to spread out the burden.”

“Not only that.  I wanted companionship from someone who was not a soul I had broken down and rebuilt, who had not led a mortal existence that I could never fully understand, who could offer a fresh perspective, and...”  His voice trailed off as his gaze turned distant, staring into his goblet.  “As I said, our duties require us to face darkness head-on.  Having a family of sorts helps to counteract that, but also affords a layer of protection for Revendreth, in case...”

Renethal waited for him to finish with a curious frown.

Denathrius took another sip.  “In case I start down Zovaal's path,” he finished quietly.

Renethal sat up straighter.  “But that won't happen!  You are not your brother! You care about the souls under your guidance, and--”

“So did he. Right up until the end, I think he genuinely believed he was doing what was best.”

“But he wasn't!”

Denathrius sighed. “Irrelevant now.  The point is, we Eternal Ones are not infallible, nor invincible.  And if the day ever comes when I fall to either an enemy or my own hubris, well...I'd prefer to have personally trained my replacement.”  He raised his goblet in a toast to Renethal before draining the rest of the anima in a long gulp.

The prince considered this.  “It must have been difficult to depose and banish your own brother.”

“Probably the hardest thing I've ever had to do over the eons,” Denathrius said softly.

“I don't relish the thought of doing something similar to you,” Renathal said.

“Understandable. Regardless, I trust you to do the right thing, no matter the circumstances.  That's why you're my heir.”

Renathal looked down modestly.  “I hope I live up to your expectations.”

“You do, my prince.  Every day.”

“I would have big shoes to fill.”  He glanced at the Sire's hoofed feet ensconced in crimson boots trimmed with ostentatious gold ornaments.  “Literally.”

Denathrius laughed, immediately breaking the tension.  “Be glad when I created you in my image I took some liberties below the knees.”

“Why don't the other Eternal Ones have hooves?”

He gave a sly look. “Why are you so sure they don't?  Have you ever seen the Winter Queen without a floor-length skirt?  Or the Primus without his robes? Perhaps Kyrestia and Zovaal are the odd ones out.”

“No, but surely...”

Denathrius shrugged.  “Now, I would love another glass of that anima...”

Renathal shook his head fondly and called for a servant.

[aion-rsa]

World of Warcraft 9.0.5 Patch Notes Pave the Way for the 9.1 Chains of Domination Update

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

As revealed at BlizzCon a few weeks ago, there are quite a few new things coming to World of Warcraft this year. Not only is The Burning Crusade getting the Classic treatment, which brings the classic game’s first expansion back to its roots (with a few modern tweaks), but Shadowlands is set to get its first major update in the coming months.

While Blizzard hasn’t announced a release date for Update 9.1: Chains of Domination just yet, the latest 9.0.5 patch, which is set to release on March 9 in North America and March 10 in Europe, does begin to pave away for the much bigger update. Quality of life changes, tweaks to Covenants and Legendary items, bug fixes, and some cosmetic flourishes are the focus of 9.0.5, a bit of of housekeeping before Blizzard drops Chains of Domination later this year.

Chains of Domination will introduce a new subzone called Korthia, City of Secrets, located in The Maw. A new raid, the Sanctum of Domination, is also coming to the MMO, featuring a gauntlet of 10 bosses, including Sylvanas Windrunner. Then there’s Tazavesh, the Veiled Market, a new dungeon that revolves around the Brokers, a merchant faction that operates in the Shadowlands.

You can check out the trailer below for an introduction to the story of Chains of Domination:

Below, you can find some of the most important updates included in the 9.0.5 update:

ADVENTURES

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Kyrian Covenant Companions

Kyrian Phalanx health increased by 16%.

Developers’ note: Phalanxes still feel underpowered relative to Halberdiers, so giving them some additional durability to allow them to fill the tank role before players have maxed out their roster.

Necrolord Covenant Companions

Fixed an issue where Bonesmith Heirmir Serrated Shoulder Blades weren’t inflicting damage back to the enemy.

Maldraxxus Plaguesinger’s Plague Song has been redesigned – Plague Song now deals damage to ranged enemies every round.

Rencissa the Dynamo spell effectiveness increased by 40%.

Assembler Xertora spell effectiveness increased by 10%.

Rattlebag spell effectiveness increased by 20%.

Developers’ note: We fixed a few issues where some Necrolord Covenant Companions weren’t dealing damage reliably. Additionally, a few companions have received an improvement that fits with their purpose.

Night Fae Covenant Companions

Qadarin spell effectiveness increased by 24%.

Blisswing’s damage reduction now correctly applies to enemies.

Yira’liya health increased by 16% and spell effectiveness increased by 50%.

Duskleaf health increased by 20% and spell effectiveness increased by 25%.

Lloth’wellyn health increased by 33% and ability damage increased by 25%.

Developers’ note: A few Night Fae Covenant Companions were not as well established in their different roles as we hoped, to address this we’ve improved many abilities and decreased some Companions’ overall fragility.

Venthyr Covenant Companions

Venthyr Nightblade attack increased by 25%.

Developers’ note: We’re generally happy with how the changes to Venthyr in the 9.0.2 landed, but wanted to offer some additional help for players using Nightblades to fill out their compositions.

CHARACTERS

Undead cloaks will now be as tattered as the forsaken wearing them. Your character customization settings will now inform the appearance of your cloak for Undead characters.

COVENANTS

Necrolord

Covenant Ability

Fleshcraft has been redesigned – Form a shield of flesh and bone over 3 seconds (was 4 seconds) that absorbs damage equal to 40% of your maximum health for 2 minutes. While channeling, your damage taken is reduced by 20%. Passive effect – Moving near an enemy’s corpse consumes their essence to reduce Fleshcraft’s cooldown by 1 second.

The slime creatures within the Plaguefall dungeon will now grant their buffs when their corpses are consumed by Fleshcraft’s passive effect (was when Fleshcraft was used on their corpses).

Soulbinds

Volatile Solvent (Plague Deviser Marileth) now triggers when Fleshcraft’s passive effect consumes a corpse’s essence (was when Fleshcraft is cast).

Resourceful Fleshcrafting (Bonesmith Heirmir) has been redesigned – When Fleshcraft’s passive effect consumes a corpse, the cooldown of Fleshcraft is reduced by an additional 1 second.

Anima Conductor: Flowing Power – House of Rituals

Skeleton Command now summons a skeleton when Fleshcraft’s passive effect consumes a corpse. This effect has a 5 second cooldown between summoning skeletons.

Night Fae

Spirits within The Queen’s Conservatory are eager to return to life and will now automatically provide players with their reward without having to speak to them first.

Soulbinds

Fixed an issue that sometimes caused players to die through Podtender (Dreamweaver) if the lethal blow had a large overkill.

Venthyr

The Ember Court

Permanent RSVPs

Guests who you have reached Best Friend status with now give you a permanent RSVP.

The Permanent RSVP will allow all characters on your account to invite that guest to future Ember Courts without completing their RSVP quest again.

Temel in Sinfall now sells a Bind on Account book at Exalted with the Ember Court. The book will teach your Dredger Butler how to handle the Cleanup and Restocking quests that follow the Ember Courts.

One-time reputation items from Temel and Lady Ilinca will no longer appear once learned.

Droman Aliothe’s RSVP no longer requires players to venture to Bastion and Maldraxxus for items.

Soulbinds

Fixed an issue that allowed Service in Stone (General Draven) to be parried.

RUNECARVING LEGENDARY ITEMS

DEATH KNIGHT

Blood

Phearomones now grants 10% Haste while inside your Death and Decay (was 8%).

Crimson Rune Weapon now causes Dancing Rune Weapon to generate 5 Bone Shield charges and reduces the cooldown of Dancing Rune Weapon by 5 seconds (was 3 seconds).

Vampiric Aura now increases the duration of Vampiric Blood by 3 seconds and grants 5% Leech for the duration.

Gorefiend’s Domination now also grants 45 Runic Power when Vampiric Blood is used.

Unholy

Reanimated Shambler explosion damage increased by 5% and now procs approximately every 1.75 minutes (was 1.5).

DEMON HUNTER

Fel Bombardment’s buff duration has been increased to 40 seconds (was 30 seconds) and the chance to trigger increased by 5%.

Darkglare Medallion’s chance to trigger increased to 40% (was 20%) and now also refunds the Fury of the casted Eye Beam or Fel Devastation.

Havoc

Burning Wound damage over time damage increased 100% and Immolation Aura damage increased by 65% (was 50%).

Vengeance

The casted Eye Beam from Collective Anguish’s summoned ally now always deals critical strikes.

Spirit of the Darkness Flame’s Fiery Brand instant damage increased by 20% (was 15%).

DRUID

Feral

Cat-Eye Curio now restores 30% Energy (was 25%).

Frenzyband now reduces the cooldown of Berserk by .3 seconds per combo point-generating ability (was .2 seconds). During Berserk, combo point-generating abilities cause the target to bleed for 150% of their damage (was 100%).

Guardian

Legacy of the Sleeper’s Berserk description now notes that the Druid is immune to crowd-control while active.

Restoration

Verdant Infusion extends the duration of your heal over time effects on the Swiftmend target by 10 seconds (was 8 seconds).

HUNTER

Beast Mastery

Dire Command now has a 30% chance to trigger (was 20%).

Rylakstalker’s Piercing Fangs critical damage increased to 35% (was 20%).

Flamewaker’s Cobra Sting now has a 50% chance to trigger (was 25%).

Qa’pla, Eredun War Order now resets the cooldown of Kill Command (was reduces the cooldown by 5 seconds) and has an additional passive effect – Barbed Shot deals 10% increased damage.

Marksmanship

Surging Shots now causes Rapid Fire to deal 35% additional damage (was 25%).

Eagletalon’s True Focus now also increases the duration of Trueshot by 3 seconds and reduces all Focus costs by 25% (was 50%).

Serpentstalker’s Trickery no longer triggers Wild Spirits (Night Fae Ability) twice.

Survival

Latent Poison Injectors damage increased by 15%.

MAGE

Disciplinary Command increases Critical Strike damage by 20% (was 15%).

Expanded Potential procs per minute increased to 2 (was 1.66).

Arcane

Arcane Harmony damage per stack increased to 8% (was 7%) and the effect stacks up to 18 times (was 15).

Fire

Molten Skyfall now calls down a Meteor after casting 18 Fireballs or Pyroblasts (was 25).

Sun King’s Blessing now requires consuming 8 Hot Streaks (was 12) and grants Combustion for 6 seconds (was 5 seconds)

Frost

Cold Front now calls down a Frozen Orb after casting 30 Frostbolts or Flurries (was 60).

Freezing Winds now triggers Fingers of Frost every 2 seconds (was 3 seconds).

MONK

Shaohao’s Might now causes Tiger Palm to have a 40% chance (was 10%) to deal 300% of normal damage (was 250%) and reduce the remaining cooldown of your Brews by 2 additional seconds (was 1 second).

Brewmaster

Mighty Pour now causes Celestial Brew to increase your Armor by 50% (was 25%) for 8 seconds (was 7 seconds), and causes Purifying Brew to have a 35% chance to not consume a charge (was 25%).

Mistweaver

Clouded Focus healing increased by 20% (was 15%) and mana cost reduced by 20% (was 15%).

Windwalker

Xuen’s Battlegear critical strike chance increased by 50% (was 30%) and Fists of Fury cooldown reduced by 5 seconds (was 2.5 seconds).

PALADIN

Vanguard’s Momentum increases Holy damage done by 4% (was 3%) for 10 seconds (was 8 seconds).

Of Dusk and Dawn buff duration increased to 12 seconds (was 8 seconds) and Blessing of Dusk damage reduction increased to 4% (was 3%).

Holy

Inflorescence of the Sunwell increases Infusion of Light effects by 30% (was 20%).

Shadowbreaker, Dawn of the Sun buff duration increased to 8 seconds (was 6 seconds).

Maraad’s Dying Breath’s healing bonus to Light of the Martyr no longer increases self-damage taken. Additionally, Maraad’s Dying Breath now causes all Light of the Martyr self-damage to be dealt over 5 seconds

Protection

The Ardent Protector’s Sanctum has been redesigned – When Ardent Defender saves you from death, it restores 40% additional health. When Ardent Defender expires without saving you from death, its remaining cooldown is reduced by 40%.

Fixed an issue with The Ardent Protector’s Sanctum that caused Ardent Defender casts to put nearby Protection Paladin’s Ardent Defender on cooldown.

Fixed an issue that caused The Magistrate’s Judgment to be consumed when casting a free Word of Glory through Shining Light.

Retribution

Final Verdict damage has been increased by 15%.

The Magistrate’s Judgment now grants the proper amount of Crusade stacks when Holy Power is spent while under its effect.

PRIEST

Cauterizing Shadows’ healing increased by 36% and can now critically strike.

Discipline

Cauterizing Shadows now functions with Mastery: Grace.

Kiss of Death reduces the cooldown of Shadow Word: Death by 12 seconds (was 8 seconds).

Holy

Divine Image now casts Searing Light when Shadow Word: Pain or Mindgames (Venthyr Ability) are used, and casts Holy Nova when Unholy Nova (Necrolord Ability) is used. Additionally, if the Priest is crowd controlled while Divine Image is active, the image will cast single target healing spells on nearby low-hp allies.

Divine Image spell-mirroring cooldown removed (e.g. queueing a Shadow Word: Death after a Holy Fire will now trigger 2 Searing Lights).

Flash Concentration buff duration increased to 20 seconds (was 15 seconds).

Measured Contemplation is now cleared upon starting an Arena match.

Shadow

Painbreaker Psalm generates up to 30 Insanity (was 20) and now functions with Death and Madness (Talent).

Painbreaker Psalm will now grant Insanity if Shadow Word: Death kills the target.

Shadowflame Rift’s damage has been increased by 40%.

ROGUE

Mark of the Master Assassin now only affects auto-attack and Rogue abilities’ critical strike chance.

Tiny Toxic Blade now causes Shiv to deal 500% increased damage (was 350%).

Essence of Bloodfang damage increased by 30%.

Assassination

Doomblade now deals an additional 45% Bleed damage (was 30%).

Fixed an issue that was causing Doomblade’s bleed effect to incorrectly be affected by Armor.

Duskwalker’s Patch reduces Vendetta’s cooldown for every 30 Energy you expend (was 50 Energy).

Outlaw

Guile Charm increases your damage dealt by up to 15% (was 10%) and lasts up to 12 seconds (was 10 seconds).

Greenskin’s Wickers increases the damage of your next Pistol Shot by 300% (was 200%).

Concealed Blunderbuss now has a chance to fire your next Pistol Shot 3 additional times (was 2).

Subtlety

The Rotten now causes Backstab to deal 50% increased damage (was 30%).

Deathly Shadows increases all damage dealt by 20% (was 15%) for 15 seconds (was 12 seconds).

SHAMAN

Elemental

Echoes of Great Sundering now causes Earthquake to deal 120% additional damage (was 175%).

Enhancement

Legacy of the Frost Witch now causes Stormstrike to deal 30% increased damage (was 15%).

The debuff from Doom Winds now persists through death.

Restoration

Jonat’s Natural Focus now increases the next Chain Heal by 20% (was 10%).

Spiritwalker’s Tidal Totem now reduces mana cost of Healing Wave and Chain Heal by 40% (was 25%).

WARLOCK

Affliction

Malefic Wrath duration increased to 10 seconds (was 8 seconds) and damage per stack increased to 35% (was 25%).

Wrath of Consumption duration increased to 30 seconds (was 20 seconds) and periodic damage increased to 6% (was 5%).

Wrath of Consumption now properly increases the damage of Scouring Tithe’s (Kyrian) periodic effects.

Demonology

Implosive Potential’s Haste buff duration increased to 12 seconds (was 8 seconds).

Balespider’s Burning Core increases the damage of Demonbolt by 15% per stack (was 8% per stack).

Grim Inquisitor’s Dread Calling increased to 4% per stack (was 3% per stack).

Destruction

Madness of the Azj’aqir duration increased to 4 seconds (was 3 seconds).

Embers of the Diabolic Raiment now properly generate 6 Soul Shard Fragments when dealing a critical strike with Incinerate.

WARRIOR

Arms

Enduring Blow’s chance to apply the Colossus Smash effect increased to 25% (was 15%) and duration increased to 6 seconds (was 5 seconds).

Battlelord now triggers from Overpower (was Slam) and reduces the Rage cost of your next Mortal Strike by 15 Rage (was 12).

Exploiter’s Mortal Strike damage bonus increased to 50% (was 25%) and the damage bonus for Venthyr Warriors increased to 36% (was 18%).

Fury

Cadence of Fujieda duration increased to 12 seconds (was 8 seconds).

Will of the Berserker duration increased to 12 seconds (was 8 seconds).

Reckless Defense now triggers from all Rampage hits (was Rampage critical strikes) and reduces the remaining cooldown of Recklessness and Enraged Regeneration by 1 second (was 3 seconds).

Protection

Reprisal has been redesigned – Charge and Intervene grant you Shield Block for 4 seconds, Revenge!, and generates 20 Rage.

Unbreakable Will now also grants an additional charge of Shield Wall.

Seismic Reverberation damage increased to 75% (was 40%).

You can find the full patch notes here.

The post World of Warcraft 9.0.5 Patch Notes Pave the Way for the 9.1 Chains of Domination Update appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/3emYJko

[badriano11]

How the Suez Canal changed the world?

In March 2021, fierce winds blew a container ship off course. In most places, this would have caused a minor incident. But in the Suez Canal, it was a global crisis. This vessel wasn’t just blocking other ships— It was obstructing the flow of international trade through one of the world’s most important waterways.

The site of the Suez Canal has been of interest to rulers of this region as far back as the second millennium BCE. To move goods between Asia and the Mediterranean basin, traders had to traverse the narrow isthmus separating the Red Sea and the Nile, journeying in camel-bound caravans through the unforgiving desert. A maritime passage between the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea would bypass this trip altogether. And throughout the 16th century, multiple powers attempted to construct such a canal. But their plans were obstructed by cost, political strife, and the ever-shifting sands.

In 1798, interest in building a canal was rekindled, this time attracting attention from across Europe. Over the following decades, individuals from Austria, Italy, Britain, and France pitched their plans to Egypt’s rulers. At the time, Egypt was a territory of the Ottoman Empire, which was resistant to these proposals. But Egypt's political and economic autonomy was gradually increasing, and its government was eager to pursue the project. When Sa’id Pasha came into power in 1854, he approved a plan from the enterprising and manipulative French diplomat Ferdinand de Lesseps.

Signed in 1854 and 1856, a pair of concessions gave de Lesseps authority to establish the Suez Canal Company and finance it by selling shares to “capitalists of all nations.” The contracts between Sa’id Pasha and the Canal Company also promised a workforce of hundreds of thousands of Egyptian workers. Beginning in 1862, about 20,000 laborers were forcibly recruited every month, digging the canal in harsh desert conditions without easy access to food or water. Diseases like cholera ran rampant and workers toiled under the threat of whips. The estimates of those who died during construction range into the thousands.

In 1864, the new Egyptian ruler, Isma’il Pasha, put an end to the coerced Egyptian labor, but he still pressed forward with construction. Foreign workers from all over Europe and the Middle East labored alongside dredgers and bucket excavators to remove 74 million cubic meters of dirt. This massive population of workers required infrastructure to deliver drinking water and other supplies, giving rise to a flourishing economy of restaurants, brothels, and smuggled goods. Amidst the bustle were born three new cities with multi-ethnic populations: Port Said on the northern Mediterranean shore, Ismailia on the canal's middle tract, and Port Tewfiq, at the southern edge of the canal.

The construction site bypassed the Nile and ran directly from Port Said to Suez. And after years of work, the streams of the two seas finally began merging in the mid-1860s. The finished canal was 164 kilometers long, with a width of 56 meters at the surface, and it was officially inaugurated on November 17th, 1869. While it struggled financially during its first few years, the canal ended up dramatically accelerating global trade. It also facilitated the migration of numerous marine species, dramatically changing local ecosystems and cuisine.

Over the decades, traffic through the canal grew. But in 1875, financial issues forced Egypt to sell much of its stock in the Canal Company, allowing Britain to take over. It was only in 1956 that control of the canal fully reverted to Egypt when it was nationalized by President Gamal Abdel Nasser. This move sparked a military standoff between Egypt and Britain, France, and Israel. But once resolved, it transformed the canal into a major source of Egypt's national revenue and helped redeem the canal's imperialist legacy. Today, nearly 30% of all global ship traffic passes through the Suez Canal, totaling over 20,000 ships in 2021. However, the incident of the Ever Given is a stark reminder of just how fragile our manmade systems can be.

[hudsonespie]

How Ports Are Being Reinvented for the Green Transition

When it comes to launching the energy transition, maritime policy is one of the key battlegrounds. But many ports, aware of their ecological and economic vulnerability, have committed to sustainable development strategies.

According to the latest research, sea levels will rise considerably (from 1.1 to 2 metres, on average) by 2100, putting about 14 per cent of the world’s major maritime ports at risk of coastal flooding and erosion. Ports in France, including 66 that are used for maritime trade, are also under threat, and will have to adapt their infrastructure.

Maritime transport accounts for about 80 per cent of global merchandise trade by volume. Shipping is responsible for three per cent of global CO2 emissions, which have increased 32 per cent over the past 20 years. If nothing is done, shipping emissions could climb to 17 per cent of global emissions by 2050.

Enter the “ports of the future.” Ports govern globalized economic activity and are true “energy hubs,” bringing together all kinds of transport (maritime, land-based, waterway and aeronautic). Now, they’re aiming to cut back on real estate, be more respectful of the environment and better integrated into cities, particularly through the concept of “urban ports.”

Freedom from oil

At least US$1 trillion will have to be invested between 2030 and 2050 to reduce shipping’s carbon footprint by 50 per cent by 2050. As of last year, oil-derived fuels accounted for 95 per cent energy consumption in transportation. Meanwhile, maritime traffic is predicted to increase by 35 to 40 per cent over the same period.

This dependence on hydrocarbons also represents an economic vulnerability for the maritime shipping sector due to new environmental standards.

In France, liquid bulk transport has been in decline since 2009 (decreasing three per cent on average since 2016), despite a slight uptick in 2017 (2.1 per cent). Fuel shipping (50 per cent of shipping by weight in major maritime ports) has also decreased by 25 per cent since 2008.

The golden age of oil cannot will not hold for much longer, given its environmental impact and increasing scarcity. As the consumption of hydrocarbons and coal drops, we should also see a steady decrease in fuel shipping.

The French government’s National Low-Carbon Strategy (“Stratégie nationale bas carbone,” or SNBC) aims to reduce emissions from the industrial sector by 35 per cent by 2030 and 81 per cent by 2050. This will mean a nearly complete decarbonization of maritime transport, creating a real technological challenge for the sector.

To meet these targets, ports are working to become carbon-neutral by redesigning their logistical operations (flow management) and means of production (value creation), as part of an industrial reconversion approach. They’re banking on new environmental technologies to generate a double dividend, both environmental and economic.

Three approaches could be used to achieve these goals: energy efficiency, renewable energy production and industrial ecology.

Building the ships of tomorrow

A 2021 study by the Getting to Zero coalition found that zero-carbon fuels had to represent at least five per cent of the fuel mix by 2030 for international shipping to comply with the Paris Agreement. Around 100,000 commercial vessels will be affected by this energy transition, according to GTT, a company specializing in the transportation and storage of liquefied natural gas (LNG).

In this vein, an ambitious environmental certification program, Green Marine Europe, launched in 2020 in order to create the European maritime industry of tomorrow.

New fuels with smaller carbon footprints, such as liquefied natural gas, ammonia and ethanol, and the accelerated adoption of alternative propulsion systems will be needed for the sector to become greener.

In 2020, Bordeaux’s port was fitted out with an LNG-powered dredger, which requires less energy and is more environmentally friendly, thanks to its water injection-dredging mechanism. (Delphine Trentacosta), Author provided

Hydrogen fuel (initially “grey,” now increasingly “green”) represents another viable alternative in the medium-term for fleets subjected to heavy rotation. Although the project is currently in its early stages (involving small vessels of 60-80 seats), more ambitious initiatives have been launched, such as the Hydrotug boat in construction for the port of Antwerp.

The arrival of steam-powered engines put an end to the use of large wind-propelled clippers in the late 1800s. But technologies that harness the wind could make a major comeback, with ships using sails and kites to reduce fuel use.

Offshore wind turbines, a promising solution

Developing electric facilities and technology is also essential to the energy transition, whether through electrified wharfs, turning port seawalls into energy producers, or developing electric ferries that use solar power, bioenergy or marine power.

As the energy transition progresses, we will see ports go from consuming large quantities of a single energy source to using multiple energy sources and becoming electricity producers.

On that note, offshore wind turbines will profoundly change French coasts over the coming years. The first sites will be near ports (with the first French offshore 80-turbine wind farm due to launch in Saint-Nazaire in 2022). In the medium term, the objective is to reach a capacity of 5.2 to 6.5 Gigawatts of offshore wind energy in France by 2028.

This technology brings a new vibrancy to port areas in search of industrial diversification, optimized real estate revenue and local expertise (construction and maintenance operations).

The forthcoming offshore wind farm near Quai Hermann du Pasquier in the city of Le Havre, which will launch in 2022, is being presented as the “biggest industrial renewable energy project in France,” and symbolizes the port’s industrial and energetic transition. What’s more, after 53 years of service, the thermal power station in this area, which used 220 tonnes of coal daily, closed down on 31 March 2021.

Finally, it should be noted that offshore wind farms represent an opportunity for ports to produce their own hydrogen by electrolysing seawater.

Bringing city and port closer together

The energy transition forces governments to reconsider the connections between city and port. Development projects based on an entirely oil-based economy and the globalized boom in shipping container transport in the second half of the 20th century disconnected city and port at every level. Ports were removed from urban settings due to a lack of space, with huge industrial port zones created on the city’s outskirts.

Now this separation is being questioned, marking the return of the port as a space that’s open to the rest of the city.

For port cities, where ships coexist with residents, industry, businesses and tourism, pollution has motivated citizens into action. Local environmentalism has pushed ports to become open to cities, by promoting the development of circular economies and industrial ecology.

Many ports have launched energy transition projects, aiming to transform city-port relations. The port area is turning out to be an excellent setting to try out new practices founded on greater co-operation between local players.

In La Rochelle, for example, environmental and energy-based issues provided an opportunity to start a shared, collaborative discussion about the future of the metropolitan area. The La Rochelle Zero Carbon Territory project, where the greater urban area aims to become carbon neutral by 2040, the energy transition is being undertaken through concerted planning between the city and its port. The port has committed to initiatives that limit its environmental and energy-related impact, while providing benefits to the local economy.

The roof of the submarine base in the La Rochelle port was fitted out with 7,580 solar panels in 2018. (Olivier Benoît), Author provided

In Le Havre, as in Bordeaux and elsewhere, this city-port interconnection is being strengthened by combining energy-related challenges and digital opportunities.

In time, this should lead to the birth of “smart port cities” (connecting “smart cities” with the “ports of the future”), for a “new model for urban and industrial port areas, blended together by innovation.”

Making ports the site of modern energy

Although the environmental challenge is clearly huge and complicated, this energy transition gives us the opportunity to reinterpret ports as laboratories, and to test new practices and technologies. Case in point: the Port of Rotterdam decreased its CO2 emissions by 27 per cent between 2016 and 2020.

Ports have always been showcases of industrial revolution, with the arrival of steam, propellers and then metal hulls. They often feature the most recent energy-related technology, as shown by the painting of the port of Le Havre, by Camille Pissarro.

Now it’s up to them to keep this legacy alive, as true gateways to a more durable and resilient economy.

Sylvain Roche is an associate researcher focused on energy and territorial transition at Sciences Po Bordeaux.

Translated from French by Rosie Marsland for Fast ForWord.

This article appears courtesy of The Conversation and may be found in its original form here.

from Storage Containers https://maritime-executive.com/article/how-ports-are-being-reinvented-for-the-green-transition via http://www.rssmix.com/

[ricardosgamingchannel]

Elite Dangerous The Hesperus Legacy - Salvation Speaks The Hesperus is a Lowell Class Science Vessel megaship that was owned and operated by Azimuth Biochemicals in the early 32nd century. It was the sister ship of the Adamastor. After departing the Li Chul system on an expedition in 3113, it was hijacked by Pharmasapien sleeper agents among the crew and lost for almost two centuries. The Hesperus was finally discovered by The Scriveners Clan Dredger on April 8, 3307, causing it to automatically transmit an emergency signal that was picked up by nearby Azimuth comms beacons and relayed to another beacon aboard the Adamastor. With the help of an individual who called himself Salvation, independent pilots traced the source of the signal to the Perseus Dark Region KC-V c2-2 system on April 10, 3307. Elite Dangerous Hesperus Lore (https://ift.tt/3vj3ZKL) [https://forums.frontier.co.uk/threads/mysterys-continuation-new-message-from-salvation.581536/](https://forums.frontier.co.uk/threads/mysterys-continuation-new-message-from-salvation.581536/) This Video : ➤Link: https://youtu.be/awngB2g8Hpk ➤SUBSCRIBE FOR MORE LIKE THIS : https://bit.ly/2WItPIY :) ➤Website : https://ift.tt/38Xt2eC ➤ LinkTree https://ift.tt/2OYWFF0 Pages: Elite Dangerous: https://ift.tt/2UyRPxh BSG Deadlock : https://ift.tt/32NaBpl Throw a coin to Ricardo : https://ift.tt/38TouWK Wanna Chat? ************** Join the discussion on Discord https://ift.tt/300TsEX WAYS TO SUPPORT THE CHANNEL ************************************ ✔️LIKE THE VIDEO ✔️SUBSCRIBE TO THE CHANNEL ✔️WATCHING THE STREAM ☕Buy me a Kofi☕ ☕☕☕☕☕☕☕☕☕☕☕☕☕☕ https://ift.tt/2XEp19P Affiliate Links: *************** **Miguel Johnson Ambient and Immersive Music** ***************************************************** https://ift.tt/2X8JejH Miguel's new Album The Explorers - Available Now! **************************************************** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDEFiRZegs4&feature=youtu.be ---⏱️Timestamps⏱️--- 00:00 Introduction to the Hesperus mystery 02:17 Salvations new Hesperus Message 03:33 Hesperus Starting location Li Chul 04:08 Finding trapezium sector yu-x c1-2 04:49 Finding the Proteus Escape ship Hesperus survivors 05:13 Hesperus survivors log of the Proteus 07:42 Hesperus survivors log 2 Proteus About Elite Dangerous Odyssey Elite: Dangerous or Elite 4 is a space adventure, trading, and combat simulation video game developed and published by Frontier Developments played on PC, Mac and Xbox one and is the fourth release in the Elite video game series Piloting a spaceship, the player explores a realistic 1:1 scale open world galaxy based on the real Milky Way, with the gameplay being open-ended. The game is the first in the series to attempt to feature massively multiplayer gameplay, with players' actions affecting the narrative story of the game's persistent universe, while also retaining single player options. Elite Dangerous Odyssey is due in 2021 but the latter part of 2020 saw Elite dangerous embrace community goals and more player involvement. Check out the weekend stream every Saturday and Sunday on Youtube, Twitch and Facebook #EliteDangerous #Hesperus #EliteDangerousOdyssey by Ricardos Gaming

[orbemnews]

Why the Suez Canal Is So Important The 120-mile-long artificial waterway known as the Suez Canal has been a potential flash point for geopolitical conflict since it opened in 1869. Now the canal, a vital international shipping passage, is in the news for a different reason: A quarter-mile-long, Japanese-owned container ship en route from China to Europe has been grounded in the canal for days, blocking more than 100 vessels and sending tremors through the world of maritime commerce. Here are some basics on the history of the canal, how it operates, how the vessel got stuck and what it means. Where is the Suez Canal? The canal is in Egypt, connecting Port Said on the Mediterranean Sea to the Indian Ocean via the southern Egyptian city of Suez on the Red Sea. The passage enables more direct shipping between Europe and Asia, eliminating the need to circumnavigate Africa and cutting voyage times by days or weeks. The canal is the world’s longest without locks, which connect bodies of water at differing altitudes. With no locks to interrupt traffic, the transit time from end to end averages about 13 to 15 hours, according to a description of the canal by GlobalSecurity.org. Who built the Suez Canal and when? The canal, originally owned by French investors, was conceived when Egypt was under the control of the Ottoman Empire in the mid-19th century. Construction began at the Port Said end in early 1859, the excavation took 10 years, and the project required an estimated 1.5 million workers. According to the Suez Canal Authority, the Egyptian government agency that operates the waterway, 20,000 peasants were drafted every 10 months to help construct the project with “excruciating and poorly compensated labor.” Many workers died of cholera and other diseases. Political tumult in Egypt against the colonial powers of Britain and France slowed progress on the canal, and the final cost was roughly double the initial $50 million projected. Which country controls the canal now? The British powers that controlled the canal through the first two world wars withdrew forces there in 1956 after years of negotiations with Egypt, effectively relinquishing authority to the Egyptian government led by President Gamal Abdel Nasser. What was the ‘Suez Crisis’ that nearly led to war? The crisis began in 1956 when Egypt’s president nationalized the canal after the British had departed. He took other steps that were deemed security threats by Israel and its Western allies, leading to a military intervention by Israeli, British and French forces. The crisis briefly closed the canal and raised the risk of entangling the Soviet Union and the United States. It ended in early 1957 under an agreement supervised by the United Nations, which sent its first-ever peacekeeping force to the area. The outcome was seen as a triumph for Egyptian nationalism, but its legacy was an undercurrent in the Cold War. The Suez crisis was also a theme in Season 2, Episode 1 of “The Crown,” the acclaimed Netflix series about Britain’s royals, as the British prime minister at the time, Anthony Eden, struggled over how to respond. Has the canal ever been closed since then? Egypt closed the canal for nearly a decade after the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, when the waterway was basically a front line between Israeli and Egyptian military forces. Fifteen cargo ships, which became known as the “Yellow Fleet,” were trapped in the canal until it was reopened in 1975 by Mr. Nasser’s successor, Anwar el-Sadat. A few accidental groundings of vessels have closed the canal since then. The most notable, until this week, was a three-day shutdown in 2004 when a Russian oil tanker ran aground. Was the Suez Canal designed to handle the huge vessel that grounded? The beached vessel, the Ever Given, which is operated by the Evergreen Shipping line, is one of the world’s largest container ships, about the length of the Empire State Building. Although the canal was originally engineered to handle much smaller vessels, its channels have been widened and deepened several times, most recently six years ago at a cost of more than $8 billion. What led to the vessel’s grounding, and what’s being done about it now? Poor visibility and high winds, which made the Ever Given’s stacked containers act like sails, are believed to have pushed it off course and led to its grounding. Salvagers have tried a number of remedies: pulling it with tugboats, dredging underneath the hull and using a front-end loader to excavate the eastern embankment, where the bow is stuck. But the vessel’s size and weight, 200,000 metric tons, had frustrated salvagers as of Thursday night. Some marine salvage experts have said nature might succeed where tugs and dredgers have failed. A seasonal high tide on Sunday or Monday could add roughly 18 inches of depth to the canal, perhaps floating the ship. What are the ramifications if the Ever Given remains stuck? That depends on how long the canal, which is believed to handle about 10 percent of global maritime commercial traffic, is closed. TradeWinds, a maritime industry news publication, said that with more than 100 ships waiting to traverse the canal, it could take more than a week just for that backlog to clear. A prolonged closure could be hugely expensive for the owners of ships waiting to transit the canal. Some may decide to cut their losses and reroute their vessels around Africa. The owner of the Ever Given is already facing millions of dollars in insurance claims and the cost of emergency salvage services. Egypt’s government, which received $5.61 billion in revenue from canal tolls in 2020, also has a vital interest in refloating the Ever Given and reopening the waterway. Source link Orbem News #canal #important #Suez

[reykablue]

The Dredger Legacy {a legacy flashback}

Cass comes home after getting engaged to his pregnant girlfriend on the second day at uni. His Dad isn’t upset, or angry. He says ‘Cass, you’ve always been the most responsible person in this family. I don’t think I’ve ever told you about your grandparents.’ This is the story of Harlyn Dredger, Legacy Founder. 

Harlyn started out looking for love in all the wrong places. She never wanted to settle down, and had a goal to have 100 boyfriends or girlfriends. She had no money, and no house. She slept where ever she could, and when someone offered to pay her for her time...she didn’t say no. 

Harlyn met Johnny Zest at a rave in the Bluffs. She thought he would be just another number to check off, and didnt ever intended to see him again. But around the fire that night, Johnny told her about his mom- Nancy Landgraab, and how his family disowned him for following his dreams. They felt an instant, and unshakeable connection. 

Johnny and Harlyn became these weird little allies to each other. They made a plan to take over Nancy’s crime syndicate. But when Harlyn went to go infiltrate the growing drug ring, she got dragged down by addiction. It became a dark hole in their lives. Johnny kept bringing home trophy girlfriends to rival Harlyn and her string of clients. Johnny actually MARRIED Eva Capricciosa while Harlyn was still living in the house, and the newlyweds quickly had first born daughter Tiffany. (Don’t worry, it gets worse.) Johnny had an affair with potential nanny - Sofia Bjergsen - and had second baby, Krystal, around the same time. 

Eva thought that it was true love, and when she learned how mistaken she was, she overdosed while Tiffany was still a baby. Haryln stepped in, and raised both girls like they were her own. They softened her heart, making her wonder if this life was really all there was. When she fell pregnant from the job, she chose to welcome son Zion with open arms.

Love is a funny thing sometimes. It doesn’t always work the way we think it does. As they faced adulthood, with three babies relying on them...The pair finally stopped running from the truth. They were soulmates. 

That's not to say things got easier. Harlyn visited rehab and got clean. But Sofia couldn't make it stick. Harlyn couldnt have the drugs around the toddlers and kicked her out. Maybe that’s why she passed away before ever telling Johnny she had given birth to a second daughter by him. {no really, I only found Willow while searching for Sofia's grave.}

Johnny and Harlyn took it upon themselves to clean up their lives. Between his life as a Comedian, and her nightly pursuits, they had amassed a pretty good fortune. They demolished their drug cave and built a mansion, with room for the “twin” girls, Zion, and toddler Willow and their new baby Gideon. 

Johnny and Harlyn dedicated their lives to their children. They were understanding and kind, even when the kids made mistakes. When Krystal became a teen mom, they didn’t reject her. Instead they helped raise Amethyst so that Krystal could continue school and build her career. 

Johnny died of old age in his home, with his wife close by. Harlyn remarried to long time client and bridge that wouldn't burn - Jade Rosa - and passed away peacefully. Their kids have gone on to live successful lives, free of the mods that tormented Gen 1. 

[transmogwow]

Ламбомбина - Soulflayer (eu) head: Hardened Greathelm neck: Heart of Azeroth shoulder: Pauldrons of Guiding Light back: Sporecaller's Shroud chest: Battleplate of Guiding Light wrist: Ri'mok's Shattered Scale hands: Gauntlets of Guiding Light waist: Sewer Grate Girdle legs: Leadplate Legguards feet: Sabatons of Rampaging Elements finger1: Jade Ophidian Band finger2: Band of the Ancient Dredger trinket1: Luminous Jellyweed trinket2: Balefire Branch mainHand: Shatterskull Bonecrusher offHand: Aldori Legacy Defender

[blogging-phelddagrif]

Legacy Deck Tech: Manaless Dredge

[you can see every deck tech here]

Hello & welcome to this weekly deck tech! This week we’re exploring the legacy format with a deck that I like very much & that I’m not sure why I haven’t talked about it yet; Dredge. More specifically, Manaless Dredge. You might be familiar with the modern version of the deck, and I’ll briefly talk about that one at the end of the article, but the legacy version is even spicier and is one of the cheapest deck in legacy, at around 250$ including the sideboard. The reason why it’s so cheap is that A) it doesn’t play any lands, so you’re cutting all those dual lands money, and B) the deck is fragile to graveyard hate, so not that many people play it. If you ask any dredge player, they will all tell you that usually, on the first game they will win. No one has sideboard hate in the mainboard and this deck is very aggressive and very strong. Then all the sideboard that you have is to protect you from any graveyard hate so that you have a chance to win on game 2 or 3. It’s a really fun deck and I highly recommend it for anyone wanting to get into legacy! Let’s get into it.

Name of the Deck

Obviously since the deck is called Manaless Dredge you need two things; first of all you need to play no lands, fairly easy right? Second, you need dredgers. The best one by far is Grave-Troll since it dredges 6, but you also play some full playsets of Stinkweed Imp, Golgari Thug & Shambling Shell for the maximum amount of dredging. You want to mill yourself as fast as possible.

Big Dredge

Technically this card doesn’t have dredge but if you can get it on the battlefield you will mill your entire deck, so that’s sort of like one big dredge. We’ll see a bit later how you’ll play this since you don’t have any lands, but don’t worry, it’s fairly simple. Sort of.

Dredging your Hand

This card is really good. You will for sure mill at least one on those while dredging, then you can discard 3 cards to bring it back to your hand; the cards you discarded are most likely some dredgers or other spells you want in your graveyard so this is a great way to fuel your grave and make sure that you have everything you need.

Dredge Enabler

To trigger dredge you need to draw a card, so we have a few ways o do that. One of he most obvious one is Street Wraith as it’s free to card and puts a creature in your graveyard on top of that. Gitaxian Probe is also very good in the deck since it’s free and you also get to know what your opponent has going in their hand.

Free Creatures

The deck plays a nice array of free creatures like Narcomoeba who goes into play if you mill it (spoiler alert: you will). You also play some Nether Shadow who comes back from the graveyard into play at your upkeep if you have 3 other creatures in your graveyard; Ichorid who can come into play from your graveyard if you exile another creature from said graveyard; as well as Prized Amalgam who will come back from the dead if any other creature does so. With all those creatures you’ll get a very nice board state without even paying a single mana!

Endless Horde

I really love this card and how it goes so well with the deck. If you don’t know this card, what it does is that it only has an effect if it’s in your graveyard; when a non-token creature you control dies you make a 2/2 zombie and if a creature an opponent control dies you exile this card from your graveyard. So let’s say I’ve milled my entire deck with Balustrad Spy, then I’ll have 4 of these in the graveyard, so for every creature I control that dies I’ll get 4 zombie tokens, which is amazing.

Sacrificing Those Creatures

This card serves to protect what you’ve got going on or to get the coast clear for your plans; getting rid of pesky Force of Wills & Daze while also getting you some sweet zombie tokens because of your Bridges.

Actually Playing a Creature

So now we’ve seen how to fill your graveyard and get some small creatures on the battlefield, but surely there’s an end-game, and also how to play the Balustrad Spy? Well this is how. You will always have 3 creatures to sacrifice with all your free creatures and you’ll be able to flashback this card to reanimate your win condition, while also generating around 12 zombie tokens out of the deal, which is pretty cool, right?

Going Wide

This is one of your win condition. You reanimate this and make all of your small creatures (including the metric ton of tokens you just made) bigger and you can smash in for the win since now they all have haste! Most of the time you’ll win via this card since most decks can’t answer this; except if you’re playing against a deck with Ensnaring Bridge, which is rare.

Grinding them Out

This is your secondary win condition, which is a tad slower sometimes but still gets the job done. Any time you reanimate a creature you get to ping your opponent for the creatures power, by itself it already deals some damage too. But by dredging, bringing back some Narcomoebas, Nether Shadow, Prized Amalgam & Ichorids it won’t be too long before you kill your opponent. It’s not as explosive as the other way, but it still works very well!

Modern Dredge

As for the modern version of the deck, well first of all it plays lands and a lot of the cards in here are not legal in the format. The deck is very combo-ish and tries to go wide. It usually plays cards like Insolent Neonate, Faithless Looting, Catharthic Reunion & Collective Brutality to discard their hand, as well as Golgari Grave-Troll, Golgari Thug & Stinkweed Imp, with the addition of Life from the Loam. They also play Narcomoeba & Prized Amalgam for the “free creatures”, as well as Bloodghast. For their win condition it’s usually a single Scourge Devil and a couple of Conflagrate. The deck ravaged through the modern scene when Grave-Troll was unbanned but now doesn’t see much play. To be honest I much prefer the legacy version as it plays smoother and feels more fun.

Wrap-Up

That’s it for this week! I hope you enjoyed this deck tech as much as I did. If I missed anything let me know. I’ll see you guys next week for an EDH deck tech!

[redantsunderneath]

Critical Accommodation

The first forum thread I ever started, on some televisionwithoutpity-type forum, was on the topic of simultaneously overrated and underrated art/artists.  Now, I don’t know if I expressed my ideas clearly or not, but in the email exchange subsequent to a strangely angry moderator deleting the post, clarity didn’t seem to be the issue as much as a failure on his part to admit to the idea that the relationship between quality and popularity could somehow be multivalent.  At the time, I probably used Radiohead or something as an example – underrated by any sort of mass audience but overrated by what you might a few years later have call pitcthforkers – but maybe Serial is a good modern equivalent.  I doesn’t hold enough interest for anyone who has seen more than 3 Datelines and thinks the idea of NPRing the concept up is boring, but elicits a little too much ado from the Slate reading contingent who, maybe, believe True Crime as a genre just got invented.

 I kind of lost interest in this as a concept as, after a while, all you can see are the social signaling aspects of this multi-audience interaction, maybe thanks to hipsters turning countersignaling into a game of chicken where they threw their steering wheel out the window. But it seems that multiple axes of “is it good” that coexist have become more obvious lately, and not just because people are starting to notice that everyone lives in a bubble. Case in point: I was involved in an exchange recently about the movie Suicide Squad, with a poster claiming that the response to the movie showed how pronounced the divide was between critics and the casual audience.  I had to ask what this meant because the critics I pay attention to have been very positive about Suicide Squad and the DC movies in general (in relation to the Marvel movies especially) and dismissive of the sea of internet opinions that call the films garbage.  The person bringing it up was talking about the actual moviegoing audience which made the movie immensely profitable because they weren’t told they were supposed to hate it vs. the majority of internet based and payed critics who poo-pooed the movie as you would expect.  Both of these critical-mass divides were true at the same time, but each of us preferentially saw one.

 I’ve written a lot about textual story and subliminal story in an effort to pick at the meaning of entertainments of all kinds.  But all this is making me think about the fact that there are more levels than just above and below and various audiences are habituated to look for satisfaction at a certain level. One problem is that no matter how smart and attentive the audience member is, they tend to privilege this one layer and, as a result, this strata is optimized for by producers (via a complex Darwinian system) if they are viewed as the primary audience.  So the actual most complicated and interesting multilayered stuff is going to suffer for any specific audience in that it will not be “the best possible thing” at the level they are trained to value the most.  The funny thing is, this system more and more doesn’t favor people who focus on depth and complexity in producing a serious work, but artists who are profoundly unhinged at some level who are willing to operate at the most superficial levels primarily with the deep stuff inadvertently spilling out like piñata guts.  These movies often don’t make intellectual sense.

 I think in order to consider this, text and subliminal aren’t going to cut it.  There is a superficial or visceral level of engagement – incident, big emotion… the action movie thing, but also at a different pitch the romantic comedy thing.  Crowd pleasers that satisfy the lower levels of Maslow’s pyramid – oral (safety, threat, need, good/bad) and anal (dominance, desire, will).  Then you have the mid level engagement of the genital (intricacy, complex relational, intellectual satisfaction) and basic social consciousness (mid to upper Maslow) which is common internet aesthete and print critic land.  If there is talk of screenplay structure or complex characters or representation, it is in this middlebrow-that-thinks-it’s-highbrow area. The Oscar zone.  

 There is another level, though, which me might call the ineffable, the preconscious, the deep structural, the semiotic, the transcendent, or the sublime.  People who I usually pay attention to are focused on this later level to some degree. The thing that ties these people together is an emphasis on visual storytelling (or poetics if we are talking about print) and a philosophical bent.  The escape of conscious forms, of spoken language and structure, receiving symbolic content and using that to construct meaning.  There is a lot of theory in this zone… it is not not intellectual, but rather senses something hidden or unintentional and wrestles that into the zone of language and reason.  This includes primal unexamined societal impulses where the motivations for politics and hatred lie.  

 So group 1 are the conscious experiencers (popcorn moviegoer).  Group 2 are the social intellectualizers (the maven or critic).  Group 3 have found some way to touch an unmediated submerged experience and bring it up to examine, which oddly gives them more in common with group 1 (the dredgers and deep divers).  Everybody at a higher number level has some experience with the lower numbers but what I have noticed is that most people in this hierarchy tend to limit focus to their preferred layer and stick there, losing the ability to really engage at the other levels with something that doesn’t satisfy on theirs.  I do run into more people who are able to put a foot on 1 and a foot on 3, people who go deep on trash cinema for instance, but these people usually take a shit on level 2.  Many of these people hate prestige TV very viscerally.  Others stick to 3 and tend to close read based on one particular “deep topic” like capitalism or gender.

 This leads to extremely insightful people who have a fixed level of focus.  I almost said “myopia” but a better ophthalmologic analogy is loss of lens accommodation, a common problem of age (the need for reading glasses after you turn 47 is this).  With this condition you can be nearsighted or farsighted or have 20/20, but you can’t focus very well outside of a narrow range of your focal length.  My very favorite writers on narrative art are able to focus up and down the scale and, importantly, experience the piece as a blank slate, so the reading can be guided by the piece and not a bias as to level of engagement.  Zizek is great, but I’d prefer it if he seemed to be able to be exhilarated, have fun, recognize bad pacing, or appreciate an actor/actress performance without making these a function of some Marxist/Lacanian equation.

 The good reviews of Batman vs. Superman I have seen dwell on the visual composition and fuck off attitude, but also focus on the movie as a critique of a kind of moral simplicity implicit in nerd/internet culture who can’t see what these characters are really up to.  The film is deliberately provoking the group that generates all the reviews.  Superman is an alien who is hyper aware of the conflict between humanity’s potential and its reality. His choice to act for the good in Man of Steel is that of a god in absolute agony as he has to take the war into himself, killing because moral choices are horrific and don’t have the external consequences they should in a just universe. Superman knows he chooses his path to suffer and serve the good and the universe could care less (Nietzsche’s Ubermench, anyone?). His suffering imposes a moral order on the universe.  In BvS he confronts the prospect of progressive inaction, the Obama path, do no harm because everyone seems to want you to be blamed, shamed into will-less-ness… one of the failure modes of the current American (masculine) spirit. Batman represents the other failure mode, the wallowing in the anger at traditional American values violated by the rise of selfishness and me first mentality.  Of course they need to fight – they are primal opposites: deflated optimism vs. pessimism on steroids, past vs. future, sun vs. void, naturally gifted immigrant vs. driven legacy born on third base.  

 These are gods, and are presented like gods, in a series of mise-en-scene straight ripped from renaissance paintings. It is wrong to speak of subtlety, because subtlety is the opposite of the point.  Look at those (Turin?) horses, gaudy symbols like oranges in the Godfather! The structure of the story is a mess by normal metrics, but there is a shape there, and that is enough when you are dealing with art film rules.  The collision of two celestial objects, awaiting the feminine to mediate their Hegelian synthesis and convert their masculine valances to the positive.  Dwelling on act structure is stupid.  Recognizing that they failed to make this a conventional narrative is useless.  Citing plot inconsistencies, “X wouldn’t do that,” and calling it emptyheaded and over the top mean you are watching a movie you can’t handle.  This is a skilled, smart but “off,” bodily centered outsider artist grappling with shit that is really, really big and deep.  It isn’t perfect, but no one should want that out of this (there are countless clockwork left brain things to watch)… you should come to this wanting a mess, gods of ideas punching your midbrain, opening you to experience the catharsis of basic archetypal struggles in the world.  You know, like superheroes work.  It is wrong to privilege level 2 which, remember, is where mass of expressed “learned” opinion is.  This is where the DC Verse lives.  Marvel is centered in DC’s hole, and it is right to talk of story as structure.

 My point is that the best thing you can do is learn to focus where the thing is most ready to connect with you and be flexible enough to let the thing tell you how to read it.  There is a lot of crap, but there is a lot of good stuff that gets critically ignored because too few are focusing in the right areas.  If you like more stuff, if you find everything more interesting and complex, you win. Not everything is good, but you can almost always find a way to engage it at its best.  You can say many bad things about the book Twilight, but damn if there isn’t something there about the subject/object struggle of being desired as a young woman, the disconnect of inner and outer experience, and the consideration of the choice of traditional-relationship-as-road-to-marriage in a modern context.  If you smirk and say Mary Sue, you have failed.  

 This three cluster model isn’t perfect, but explains a lot why I see lumpy, weird high budget stuff with the high viewership (mass audience), pissed off forums and think pieces (critical consensus/perceived audience if you live online), and elated jaded curmudgeons (deep critics) troika so often.  I think this is more than just a status economy (though that is clearly involved) but the production system has adjusted so that the qualities of the output levels align to the audience expectations.  The most interesting stuff is that which crosses levels, which requires risking a product that will probably seem suboptimal to everyone.  So, let’s have a toast for the auteurs who don’t fit, making movies that are a scrum of potential meanings that require you to get dirty and renounce the tyranny of “the way it should be done.” And I mean Michael Bay as well as David Lynch.  If they seem insane, it’s a feature not a bug.

[aye-calypso]

Literature #2

Prayers For Sale by Sandra Dallas

Reading Group Questions

1. Hennie Comfort’s sign outside her house says PRAYERS FOR SALE and yet she doesn’t sell prayers. Why does Hennie keep the sign?

Hennie keeps the sign for two reasons. The first reason is related to Hennie’s late husband, Jack. He made the sign for her, and she has fond memories of him with the sign. The second reason has to do with Hennie being such a prominent figure in Middle Swan. She resided there for decades and met many people from such different walks of life. That sign is a testament that Hennie is there for anyone, for any reason.

2. As Hennie begins her story for Nit, she says, “Back then, I wasn’t Hennie Comfort. In those days, I was called by the name Ila Mae Stubbs.” What else has changed about Hennie from her teenaged self to her eighty-six-year-old self? Most importantly, what has stayed the same?

Ila Mae Stubbs was a young, naive girl. She believed she was strong-minded and willful, but reality was people walked all over her. Abram Fletcher and his father took Ila Mae’s livelihood once her parents had perished. She learned to live on little with Billy, her late husband, whom she loved dearly. The death of her baby, Sarah, began a change in Ila Mae. Ultimately, the death of Billy sent Ila Mae over the edge. She became severely depressed, but she still managed to survive on her own. Once she moved to Colorado for a fresh start, Hennie fully began coming into her own. Marrying Jack and planting roots in Middle Swan seemed to heal Ila Mae’s wounds, or at least help bury them deep inside. This allowed Hennie Comfort to shine through. Hennie Comfort was strong-minded and willful, everything Ila Mae Stubbs aspired to be. Hennie’s downfall was that she buried her naivety deep down inside when she refused to forgive Abram for his sins - that’s where Hennie and Ila Mae stayed the same through the years.

3. One of the themes of this book is surviving the “unsurvivable.” What would you consider “unsurvivable?”

I would describe most of the tragic stories in this book to be “unsurvivable.” The story that truly seemed unsurvivable would be Maudie’s, the biological mother of Mae. Hennie painted the picture that Maudie was strong for giving up Mae to appease her husband. However, that sort of situation and everything Maudie was put through - that is the true definition of unsurvivable. 

4. Another theme is forgiveness. Is there ever a time when forgiveness isn’t possible? Can you relate to the way Hennie forgives at the end of the book--- and whom she forgives? In Hennie’s shoes, would you have forgiven? Would Hennie’s life have been different if she had forgiven earlier?

Understandably, there are times when forgiveness isn’t possible. Sins such as infidelity and murder are two examples of these such times. Hennie was unable to forgive Abram for decades because he was responsible for the death of her daughter, Sarah. I cannot fully relate to the way Hennie forgives Abram in the end; it was not an easy task for her to do. If I were in Hennie’s shoes, I would not have forgiven Abram. I understand why Hennie ultimately forgave Abram; however, after everything he put Hennie through, I wouldn't have had the strength to forgive him. If Hennie had been able to forgive Abram earlier, her life would have been drastically different. She would have been able to move on with her life sooner, and who knows, she could have grown to be friends with Abram.

5. What are some of the qualities you see in the women of Middle Swan that help them survive life there? What is the most important quality?

Perseverance, shallowness, and loyalty are qualities I see in the women of Middle Swan that help them survive there. The most important quality for a woman living in the mountains is perseverance; without the stamina to keep going when life gets rough, most of the women would not have been able to survive.

6. Maudie Sarsfield says, “quilting keeps me from going queer,” meaning “insane.” Why would this be so? What is the significance of Maudie adding her initials to her quilts? And what role do quilts and quilting play in the lives of the characters?

Maudie Sarsfield lived a traumatic life. Her husband was extremely abusive; he beat her, left Mae to die, and killed their other daughter. When she said, “quilting keeps me from going queer,” she meant that her hobby was the only thing that kept her going. Without quilting, Maudie may have attempted suicide. Maudie added her initials to her quilts to leave a legacy of sorts. She did not have much to be proud of, but she was definitely proud of her quilts. Much like the stitches bind fabric to a quilt, quilting brings the women together and forms a lifelong bond. For women like Hennie and Maudie, it allows them to focus on something other than the memories that haunt them.

7. What is the most tragic aspect of Maudie’s life?

The most tragic aspect of Maudie’s life is her loss of motherhood. She was forced to abandon Mae, for fear her husband would find an excuse to kill her. Her husband then murdered their second baby girl, because he wanted a son. Maudie had no control over her husband’s actions and feared for her own life. It was a miracle she carried both pregnancies to term; but to give up both children for the sake of her husband seems unbearable.

8. What is the most important lesson Hennie teaches Nit?

Forgiveness is the most important lesson Hennie teaches Nit. When Nit appeared at Hennie’s doorstep, she was racked with grief. Hennie was able to help Nit move on from the death of her baby through the stories of other women who faced similar struggles in Middle Swan. 

9. Is it ever too late to find true love? How do you define true love?

It is never too late to find true love. Hennie was able to find three true loves in her lifetime. I define true love as finding the person that you want to spend the rest of your life with. 

10. Discuss the phrase “deep enough.” What does it mean in the story? What would it mean to you in your own life?

The phrase “deep enough” is used when someone passes away, typically a miner or dredger. In my own life, I would use the phrase “deep enough” to state that I had enough; that I have gone as far as I was able to go. 

11. Middle Swan is a cold, harsh town. What makes Hennie love it, and why has she stayed all these years? What draws people together in such an environment?

Hennie loves Middle Swan for many reasons. She left her home in the South to be with Jake and start a new life. It was not easy for Hennie to begin her life there, and she soon learned it was a completely different way of life than what she was accustomed to back home. She stayed in Middle Swan, because she just couldn't find the will to leave. Jake had a good job at the mine, she was raising Mae, and she grew to have an amazing friend ground. Because Middle Swan is a cold, harsh town, it naturally draws people together. In order to survive, you have to learn to lean on others for support.

[hashtagtorturedartist-blog]

Potential Context-Supportive Format-Diversity-Oriented MTG Commander Ban List Additions and Assessments

Cards banned from any format were banned for reasons. Commander gets to play with more cards than most, because 40 life and multiple players provides a lot of buffers. The sheer number of turns that pass is the main intended increase to diversity in the format—in no other format can you ever expect to hard-cast 9-drop rares without being a dedicated ramp deck. However, in order to allow that format diversity to exist, there is still a ban list. Unfortunately, I believe that ban list to err too far on the side of allowing players to play with cards the non-Wizards affiliated players who run the Commander ban list like and founded the format to be able to play casually, but which reduce the diversity of the format—which Wizards has always considered a top priority, and I believe is even more important for Commander, a format founded to be almost chaotic in its diversity.

I believe a few more bans would allow even budget players to compete almost evenly with almost any deck in a multiplayer format. However, at present there are a few cards that provide enough power and enough consistency that nothing can be done if you’re the opponent and aren’t doing comparably broken things.

There are a few cards that have never been banned in a format which I believe could helpfully be banned in Commander, but I consider those lower priority than those on this list, and I’m sticking to cards that have already been banned somewhere so that I don’t overstep. I believe, in fact, that far from overbanning I’m still being cautious and openminded with this list. I just believe that at present, there’s a lot that just a few bannings could do for the format.

The bulk of this document is a list of every card not already banned in Commander which have ever been banned in a format. I go through individually and give context, and why I would ban them in Commander or not—just the rulings are listed immediately below, the explanations beyond.

I would ban from Commander: Gitaxian Probe, Jace the Mind Sculptor, Sensei’s Divining Top, Demonic Consultation, Demonic Tutor, Earthcraft, Flash, Imperial Seal, Mana Crypt, Mana Drain, Mana Vault, Necropotence, Sol Ring, Survival of the Fittest, Vampiric Tutor, Gaea’s Cradle, Candelabra of Tawnos, Dream Halls, Grim Monolith, Ancient Tomb.

I would situationally ban (see each card’s individual descriptions): Blazing Shoal, Chrome Mox, Green Sun’s Zenith, Splinter Twin, Mystical Tutor, Strip Mine, Mox Diamond, Personal Tutor.

Watch-list cards (cards that, depending on the future or even a particular build of Commander deck, might end up being powerful enough to recommend banning): Emrakul, the Promised End, Eye of Ugin, Ponder, Preordain, Skullclamp, Stoneforge Mystic, Hermit Druid, Lion’s Eye Diamond, Mind’s Desire, Squandered Resources, Enlightened Tutor, Gauntlet of Might, Dark Ritual, Metalworker, Doomsday, Sword of the Meek.

 From the Standard Banlist: 

Emrakul, the Promised End: Cheating her into play on turn 4 with Aetherworks Marvel or reliably cost-reducing her to 6 or 7 mana on curve every game is the reason this card is banned in Standard, likely harder tasks in Commander. Emrakul the Aeons Torn is banned from Commander for good reason and certainly the Promised End was made with slight emulation of Aeons Torn in mind, but the targeting nature of the Promised End’s effect does nerf its capabilities slightly. It is considerably more reanimatable than Aeons Torn ever was for obvious reasons, and it is one of the best possible reanimation targets. I would not recommend banning from Commander at present, but if more colorless cards of diverse card types were printed (or if reanimation were generally available for less mana more reliably, though that’s less likely, as will be expounded upon later), I likely would, making this a card to put on a watchlist of cards that, while not currently found to be broken, could easily pass over the line, with an interaction discovery or a new printing.

Reflector Mage: This card is in contention for the least powerful card ever banned from a format (Orcish Oriflamme likely wins that race though), though if anyone’s counting, I believe it was a good ban anyway. Nonetheless, there’s no way this is a problem card in Commander. The deck it’s too powerful in is a cheap, highly consistent aggressive tempo deck that could never even remotely exist anywhere near the form or strength it is in standard, in Commander. I do not recommend banning.

Smuggler’s Copter: This is more or less the average Standard banning, if there is such a thing—definitely powerful enough as an aggressive 4-of to be problematic in Standard, but likely in no other format, especially not Commander. Not that turn 2 Copter, turn 3 Commander Depala sounds weak, but Isamaru, for example, is likely comparable or better. I do not recommend banning.

 From the Modern banlist:

Ancient Den (and Great Furnace, and Seat of the Synod, and Tree of Tales, and Vault of Whispers): These lands are only actually broken if you can play only artifact lands and then make all of your affinity spells free and all other artifact-counters absurd. Considering the singleton and 100-card nature of the format, as well as being unable to play any more of these than you have colors in your deck, these concerns seem less important. I do not recommend banning.

Birthing Pod: Grinding one- two- and three-mana death-triggering creatures into etb-effect 3- and 4-mana creatures for free is extremely powerful in Modern, which is where it was banned. Not so much in a format where the mana costs of things are spread out a lot more. It’s still powerful if your deck can take advantage of it, but it won’t be particularly more powerful than, say, Daretti, Scrap Savant, a powerful but fair commander. I do not recommend banning. 

Blazing Shoal: Was banned in Modern for the combo of turn-one or –two infect creature, next turn Blazing Shoal discarding 9-mana red spell to Blazing Shoal. I would ban Blazing Shoal in Commander decks that also play infect creatures that cost three or less.

Bloodbraid Elf: Was banned in Standard and Modern for small-mana aggressive strategies being given card advantage they normally don’t have without interrupting their speed. In Commander, where aggressive decks have to count to commander damage or 40, this is much less of a problem. I do not recommend banning. 

Chrome Mox: Was banned in Modern for being fast mana. However, requiring you to exile a card from your hand definitely does matter in Commander, and I don’t regard this as quite as reliable and powerful as something like Sol Ring. Chrome Mox is mostly powerful in turn-one combo-kill strategies, which is exactly what I recommend contextual banning for here. I would ban Chrome Mox in Commander decks with turn 5 or faster combo-kills in it. 

Cloudpost: This card requires a 4-of it and Glimmerpost to even begin to work, and even playing a Vesuva and a Thespian’s stage to support it won’t particularly break this card in Commander. I do not recommend banning.

Deathrite Shaman: Was banned in Modern for a: providing black decks with mana acceleration in a format floating in fetch-lands and b: providing too much reach-value in being able to deal the last 2-6 damage to opponents in fast decks, again in colors that otherwise wouldn’t have access to that kind of effect. Neither of those concerns matter in Commander. In fact the graveyard disruption effect probably helps slow down decks trying to combo out uninteractively. I do not recommend banning.

Dig Through Time: Was banned from Modern, Legacy, and restricted in Vintage for high-mana, high-value decks. While that’s quite a resume to consider for banning in Commander, I wouldn’t ban it. Dig Through Time thrives on consistency and reliably having lots of fetch-lands to burn in the graveyard. The singleton nature of the format removes several of the pieces Dig needs to be broken, including the ability to always find what you’re looking for or another Dig Through Time. I do not recommend banning.

Dread Return: Was banned in Modern specifically to prevent Dredge from singly dominating Modern through the combo of dredgers with Narcomoeba and reanimating something silly powerful. The lack of ability in Commander to play 4 Narcomoebas and sufficient dredgers fast enough to make the Modern effect occur sufficiently nerfs this capability. I do not recommend banning.

Eye of Ugin: Eye of Ugin was banned in Modern only after literal years of it being considered almost trash. What broke the card such that Wizards banned it was access to many cheap, powerful cards with the creature type “Eldrazi”. It should be noted that a singleton copy of Eye of Ugin made the Modern archetype of Tron a heavy favorite against all controlling strategies by providing an infinite stream of Eldrazi in the late game, so I’d call it a watch-card, but for now I would not recommend banning.

Gitaxian Probe: While this card is not generally played a great deal in Commander due to its low price-low-impact style, it was banned for effectively reducing the number of cards you have to play in your deck by as many copies, due to being a free cantrip that provides further value. Due to its free nature in both cards and mana, generally speaking, Gitaxian Probe is more or less a better card than the average card in your deck, literally whatever the rest of your deck contains. If the rest of your deck is stuffed with as many absurdly powerful cards as you can play, Gitaxian Probe is still generally a bit better than drawing any of them, because it draws you towards them while putting information in your head and a card in your graveyard, without costing you a slot in the deck for a card that costs you anything particularly relevant (certainly once in several blue moon you need to have one more card in your library or two more life, but Probe will definitely provide you more than enough value to make up for it). Again, this is not a popular card in Commander at present, and the inability to play more than one Probe in Commander screens the impact of the already difficult-to-read card, but I in fact do believe Probe to be a card that any deck that can cast it would be improved by, thus reducing the diversity of the format. I recommend banning Gitaxian Probe. 

Glimpse of Nature: This card was banned from Modern for making Elves too fast, powerful, and consistent. While you could assemble a turn sequence and opening hand where Glimpse of Nature creates an unbeatable board state in two to four turns, it would be incredibly uncommon in a 100 card singleton format. I’m not quite concerned enough about this card to even call it a watch-card. I do not recommend banning.

Golgari Grave Troll: Also banned in Modern to avoid Dredge being too consistent. There just aren’t enough powerful dredgers to make the broken, fast interaction work that way in Commander. I do not recommend banning.

Green Sun’s Zenith: Banned for making Modern Jund- and Elves-style decks too consistent. Being a tutor, it is still incredibly powerful in a 100-card singleton format for its consistency, but being out of color with black and blue, and only being able to target creatures, reduces its scope and consistency. Nonetheless, there are still way more than enough tutors in a format that’s at its best with high diversity and inconsistency. I would recommend banning in decks with more than 1 other card in the deck that can search up any creature from your deck.

Hypergenesis: Banned from Modern for being able to cascade into it, Living End style, and fill out the rest of your deck with absurd high-cost cards to put into play for free. Considering there are only really a few cheap cascaders and everyone in Commander usually has absurd high-cost cards, this seems like not a problem for the same reason Eureka, the card it was intended as a strictly worse version to, isn’t a problem in Commander. I do not recommend banning.

Jace, the Mind Sculptor: It’s been said that an unanswered Jace, the Mind Sculptor ends the game on turn 4 as surely as a Deciever Exarch/Splinter Twin does, it’s just that in one case the game ends immediately and in the other the game ends 10 turns later. The Mind Sculptor’s extraordinarily high versatility and power for such low price makes him a card that almost any blue Commander deck should play on power level alone, regardless of synergy. It does become a little less powerful in Commander due to the single-target nature of the fateseal +2 and the single-target ultimate and bounce -1, but the fact that none of these factors actually nerf the card enough that the vast majority of blue commander deck wouldn’t play it, which shows the absurd power of the card. I recommend banning.

Mental Misstep: This card is banned or restricted in every 60 card format it can be played in, but that’s mostly because 60 card Eternal formats are replete with 1 mana spells. Commander is not, explaining successfully why you rarely see anyone playing this card in Commander. I would not recommend banning.

Ponder and Preordain: These cards are the best there are that provide 1 mana blue card filtering with a cantrip, though not the only ones, and the only ones to be banned. They are banned in Modern in order to avoid blue control decks with a ton of this effect being able to set up unbeatable hands with all the right answers too quickly, but in Commander, the strength of the cards is reduced sufficiently that I don’t see a need to ban them, though I would consider them on a watch list because a huge number of blue decks do want them, reducing diversity and increasing consistency a bit. If too many more 1 mana card-filtering cantrips are printed, it could become a problem, but Wizards has already stated they don’t plan on printing more, so it’s likely not. I do not recommend banning.

Punishing Fire: This card is banned in Modern due to the combo with Grove of the Burnwillows, which is very powerful in a 20-life, 60 card, 4-of format full of 2-or-less-toughness creatures. There is zero cause in my mind to be concerned with this card in this format. I would not recommend banning. 

Rite of Flame: This card is banned in Modern to prevent Storm from having too much cheap mana, but there’s nowhere near enough of the effect in Commander for that to be a problem effect, especially since most of the power is in having 4 Rites in a 60 card deck with high card draw/filter. I do not recommend banning. 

Second Sunrise: Banned in order to prevent Modern Eggs from having too many redundant effects, but there are nowhere near enough redundant effects of this kind to make Eggs in Commander. I do not recommend banning.

Seething Song: Similarly to Rite of Flame, this card was banned to nerf Storm’s mana production, but again, Storming out for the combo win doesn’t work nearly as well in Commander for many clear reasons. I do not recommend banning.

Sensei’s Divining Top: This card was banned in Modern for two very different reasons: one, because it was too powerful with Counterbalance as a combo (a combo that is still powerful, though less so, than it is in 60 card), but also because it slows games down enormously—in terms of time spent, literally. The card is very strong regardless, though, especially with a good number of shuffle effects, giving you nearly a permanent extra hand of three cards, essentially, while costing everyone else in the game a not-insignificant amount of time in a game that could already use a little speeding up at times. Assembling enough shuffle effects to make this card as broken as it can be even without a Counterbalance just isn’t particularly difficult. I recommend banning.

Skullclamp: This card was banned in Modern to prevent low-mana, low-to-the-ground decks from having insurmountable card draw. While still an extraordinarily powerful card, really what it ends up doing in Commander is providing token-based and small-creature sacrifice decks that generally don’t draw a lot of cards a powerful, though not necessarily broken, target on the board. It’s definitely a card that on its own is too powerful, but in the format of Commander, the decks it’s good in are not the decks pushing having too much card draw already. This is definitely a watch-list card, but I would not recommend banning.

Splinter Twin: Splinter Twin can be a fun card without its infinite combo-kill, but it would be too easy to assemble a deck that, whenever it draws an opening hand with Splinter Twin, just wins the game on turn 4, and can even just take a bit longer to hold up some counterspells and power the combo out anyway, dealing infinite damage to everyone without them being able to do much about it. Neither of those circumstances is remotely in the spirit of the format. However, it is quite possible to play Splinter Twin simply as a powerful etb-effect grinder without the combo kill, as a fair card. I recommend banning Splinter Twin in decks that also contain Deceiver Exarch, Pestermite, or any other card that creates an army of infinite hasty attackers with Twin.

Stoneforge Mystic: In Modern, Stoneforge Mystic’s fragility wasn’t enough to counteract the fact that she created a very fast kill with almost any powerful equipment and almost any support against a single 20-life opponent. In Commander, that ability becomes less powerful, and her fragility becomes more meaningful, but there are still ways to abuse her through blinks and the right suite of equipment to search up and cheat into play. This is a watchlist card, and if you play this card in this format with this banlist I would recommend not trying to break it or build around it, because it is very much on a hair trigger between watchlist and a ban. Nonetheless I don’t recommend banning at present.

Summer Bloom: This card was always interesting but not overpowered until the Amulet Bloom Titan deck was constructed. Amulet Bloom Titan was a combo deck in Modern very reliant on having multiple bouncelands, multiple land drops from Summer Bloom or Azuza, Lost But Seeking, and Primeval Titan, a 0 cost creature tutor, or Hivemind and Hivemind combo pieces in hand. In other words, the consistency required to make this combo oppressive is enormous, and probably far beyond the capabilities of Commander. That doesn’t remove the fact that Summer Bloom is easily the most powerful version of this effect, and I wouldn’t be surprised if, like Modern, it just took a while to find the right Summer Bloom build to break it. Until then, however, I don’t recommend banning.

Treasure Cruise: This is an extremely powerful card, but like Dig Through Time, it’s mostly good when you can build your deck with extreme consistency, although the decks Treasure Cruise is best in (aggressive/tempo decks) are significantly harder to make consistent in Commander than the decks Dig Through Time is best in. Considering I don’t recommend banning Dig, I don’t recommend banning Cruise. 

Umezawa’s Jitte: Banned in Modern for making small creature mirrors unwinnable against the Jitte player. This is still true—there are archetypes in Commander that almost fold to a Jitte, so some playgroups in which those archetypes are extremely common might want to ban Jitte. However, I don’t believe the card is remotely unbeatable in Commander, where a lot more artifact hate tends to get played than 60 card and there are plenty of big-creature decks that can even compete in combat with Jitte sometimes. I do not recommend banning.

  From the Legacy Banlist:

Bazaar of Baghdad: Banned in Legacy to nerf Dredge. While Bazaar is an incredibly powerful card, it is definitely a card that requires a good deal of consistency to meet its potential, or even to break even. The potential to play Dredge very competitively in Commander is likely almost singlehandedly in playing or searching up a quick Bazaar of Baghdad, and even then it would be quite the draw indeed to be oppressive. There could definitely be opening hands that would be nigh unbeatable, but in a 100 card singleton format, once in a blue moon drawing a god hand and winning should be an acceptable possibility. I do not recommend banning.

Demonic Consultation: The purpose of this card is clear and simple: find my combo piece, now. The downside on the card, especially in Commander, is such that any use of this card for any purpose other than finding a fast win combo seems highly suspect, so while I’m tempted to make a situational ban, other uses of the card literally are so bad I can’t imagine anyone actually playing this for anything other than trying to break it. I recommend banning.

Demonic Tutor: This is likely one of the big sticking points, but it’s important. Players who play this card can and will get what they need to survive and win with their decks significantly more consistently than players who don’t. There probably isn’t a black Commander deck that shouldn’t play this card. There’s a reason Tutors are so popular in Commander—they break the fundamental concept of a 100 card singleton format. They might be incredibly fun to draw, and not feel as obviously oppressive to play against as something like Emrakul the Aeons Torn, but make no mistake, this card—nay, this effect—is just as powerful in Commander when used properly in a deck that can abuse it. I recommend banning.

Earthcraft: Much like Glimpse of Nature, this card can be played quite fairly in Commander for entirely reasonable use. The reason it was banned in Legacy is consistency-of-format based. However, it is still not particularly hard to produce infinite mana (or squirrel tokens, or power, or…) with this card, and any deck that plays it to its maximum potential in Commander is likely to go infinite most times you draw it—and most of the combos with Earthcraft are incredibly cheap and very hard to interact with. One could try situationally banning this card, but the ease and temptation of playing unfair, uninteractible, non-Commander-like combos with this card are too many and too easy. I recommend banning.

Flash: This card is, to my perception, never played for the intended, fair value of giving a creature flash for one and a blue. There are even still perfectly reasonable “unfair” uses on creatures with powerful, but not gamebreaking etb effects or death triggers on turn two. However, consider Flashing in a turn two Myojin of Night’s Reach, removing emblem in response to the sacrifice trigger to force all other players to discard their hands, and then letting it die. That’s somewhere around middling for what this card is capable of. It’s impossible to situationally ban this card, because the things it does are on a sliding scale from fair to broken. I’d rather a playgroup house-rule this card in than have this card simply allowed to win the game on turn two every time it’s in an opening hand. I recommend banning.

Frantic Search: Without the ability to play a large percentage of your deck as cheap or free card-filtering effects, like Preordain and Ponder, Frantic Search is powerful in the right deck but fair, and the untap ability isn’t anywhere near as powerful as others in the format. I do not recommend banning.

Goblin Recruiter: Putting infinite Goblins on top of your deck on turn two is extraordinarily powerful in a deck that can expect to win with two lands and no more by attacking with creatures that cost two or less. In Commander, the effect remains powerful but not broken. I do not recommend banning.

Gush: This is exactly the kind of card Commander should allow that most don’t. It’s powerful when used properly, but without the consistency of 4-ofs and 60 cards, this is a perfectly fair effect. I do not recommend banning.

Hermit Druid: While being absolutely absurd in the right deck, without the consistency of Dredge or various reanimator deck 4 ofs, Hermit Druid would be hard to break. This is a watch list card, but I do not recommend banning.

Imperial Seal: This card costs one mana less than Demonic Tutor but requires you to draw a card to get what you’re looking for. The life loss is utterly unimportant. In the end, the consistency provided here is just as powerful as Demonic Tutor, therefore I recommend banning.

Mana Crypt: This card does what Sol Ring does but worse because it’s free to cast—see Sol Ring below. The life loss is irrelevant. I recommend banning.

Mana Drain: While this card isn’t an early game non-interactive win enabler like most of the cards I recommend banning, a well-timed Mana Drain does so significantly increase your odds of winning that I recommend banning it. This isn’t something that can be situationally banned, because the situation in which it’s broken is that you counter a big spell for too little mana and then have a god turn. The fact of the matter is, every blue deck that would even consider running any counterspell ever should play this card, strictly. That’s severe lack of format diversity.

Mana Vault: This is a great example of a card the arguments for which are always that it’s fair, to which the only response is, how often do you see the untap cost of this card paid? With untaps being either irrelevant, free, or accelerated through a Key or other untap effect, this is a better Sol Ring. See Sol Ring below. I recommend banning.

Memory Jar: This is an even better example than Gush of what Commander can and should let shine. Timetwister (I think correctly, see below) isn’t even banned in this format, so even though Memory Jar is colorless, it shouldn’t either. I do not recommend banning.

Mind Twist: Harsh as it may feel to be on the receiving end of this, I in fact believe Mind Twist to be good for format diversity in Commander. If a playgroup has a Mind Twist floating around, everyone will have to be aware that playing the most common Commander archetype of big mana, big card draw, big hand, has a weak spot. I do not recommend banning.

Mind’s Desire: Once again—this is exactly the kind of madness Commander is for. It’s an absurdly strong effect but it’s expensive enough to be counterable (as long as things like Sol Ring, Mana Vault, Mana Crypt, etc aren’t around to supercharge it out). This is a watchlist card, because this card doesn’t get played to be played fair, but I do not recommend banning.

Mishra’s Workshop: Without absurdly overpowered mana rocks, this card becomes a powerful but not overpowered bonus to artifact decks, somewhat akin to a differently structured Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx for artifact decks. If the artifact mana on this list that I recommend banning is banned, I do not recommend banning Mishra’s Workshop.

Mystical Tutor: This is for blue instants and sorceries what Green Sun’s Zenith is to green creatures—comparable strengths—but Mystical Tutor puts the instant on top of your library, meaning you pay the X in Green Sun’s Zenith next turn rather than this one for Mystical Tutor. Just as with Green Sun’s Zenith then, would recommend banning in decks with more than 1 other cards in the deck that can search up any instant or sorcery from your deck.

Necropotence: Yawgmoth’s Bargain is banned in Commander already, so we can only discuss Necropotence in terms of whether it’s as good as Yawgmoth’s Bargain. Necropotence is better only in terms of mana—it only costs three for Bargain at six, and that matters a great deal. Turn three, your opponents can’t be expected to be able to interact with you in Commander in most playgroups, turn six they can. However, Necropotence tacitly limits you to seven cards if you expect the game to continue, where Yawgmoth’s Bargain only limits you to your life total and the cards in your deck (barring Angel’s Grace effects etc). Necropotence also makes you wait to get the cards until your end step, giving your opponents a turn to deal with the fact that you may well have just drawn a win-the-game combo, or at the very least card advantage that literally no remotely fair deck can keep up with. In the end, those downsides simply aren’t enough. Either card can and likely will be used in commander to simply draw as much of your deck as you can pay life for in order to attempt to win the game either on the spot, in the case of Yawgmoth’s Bargain, or next turn or at instant speed on your end step in the case of Necropotence. Frankly, I expect Necropotence isn’t banned because it bears nostalgia factor. That doesn’t make it any less broken. I recommend banning.

Oath of Druids: This is a bit like Show and Tell, where it’s not that this isn’t a truly broken card, but an oddity of the structure of how Commander works means that every player, or at least most, will have broken things to Oath into, so this becomes a more fair effect. I do not recommend banning.

Sol Ring: I believe the card sold with every prefabricated Commander deck should be banned from it. Consider just for a moment why: every time you have turn one, Sol Ring, it feels great. Every time an opponent has turn one, Sol Ring and you don’t, it feels comparatively bad. The majority of people will be in the latter category every game. Turn one Sol Ring feels bad to be on the other end of in a way that other cards opponents could play don’t. It doesn’t feel bad when an opponent plays a mana rock that taps for less than it costs. They’re doing something fair. Sol Ring breaks the rules of Magic, encouraging broken starts that significantly increase the likelihood of the turn-one Sol Ring player of winning from the start. “Everyone” having it doesn’t even make it fair—not everyone gets it on turn one, and no, not everyone plays the card. Even if we were to accept the argument that everyone has it so it’s okay—which I definitely don’t, on multiple levels—the larger problem comes back to format diversity. Every deck, barring maybe a few color-hungry four- or five-color decks, objectively should play Sol Ring. It’s not even bad enough in the mid-to-late game that any late-game deck would ever consider cutting it for the fear of drawing it late, because it’s better than a basic land at that point. This all implies that the power level of Sol Ring is off the charts, first of all, but the important thing is this: how many cards per Commander deck of yours do you want a lax ban list to rob you of? If you play Sol Ring in all your Commander decks, you could have played something more interesting, synergistic, meaningful for your deck in those slots, but you had to play Sol Ring instead. How many cards would it have to be before you’d lose interest in Commander? Five? Ten? We know if it was 100, Commander would completely lose its intended purpose, a format where uniqueness is literally a rule in the form of “singleton”. We shouldn’t allow a lax ban list to rob us of even one card. Sol Ring is currently the card robbing us all of a card slot. As such, I recommend banning.

Strip Mine: This card can be, and is, played fairly the vast majority of the time it’s played in Commander. It’s very strong every time it’s played, better than a basic land almost every time, which is something Wizards generally bans things for and for good reason. But having access to a good way to snipe out a problem land is entirely within the realm of reasonable play in Commander, not even remotely approaching problematic. In 60 card 4-of formats, it becomes harsh. But as a singleton, it’s not a problem with anything other than Crucible of Worlds. That interaction, especially since most decks that would play that combination would be seeking multiple land drops, is in fact easily powerful enough to be broken even in multiplayer. There are certainly draws that a Strip Mine/Crucible of Worlds player in Commander could have that would be fair and give time to opponents to find artifact removal, but if the Strip Mine/Crucible of Worlds player simply decides to target an opponent they know has no artifact hate first, at the very least that’s one player who simply got uninteractively combo’d out, even if it takes a few turns for the kill to occur. As such, I recommend banning Strip Mine in any deck that plays Crucible of Worlds. 

Survival of the Fittest: If Green Sun’s Zenith should only be allowed in decks without more than one other way to search up specific creatures, Survival of the Fittest breaks that rule all on its own, effectively allowing you to Green Sun’s Zenith infinite times, at the simple, largely irrelevant, cost of discarding the worst creature in your hand—which can be and is often turned into an additional upside. I recommend banning.

Timetwister: If you happen to have this Power Nine representative lying around, I warmly encourage you to play it in commander. It’s easily possible to play this card as a way to search up uninteractible combo pieces, but with 100 cards to sort through and a singleton format, it gets a lot harder and pricier in mana to do that. The intent of this list is not in fact to eliminate non-interactive fast combos from Commander—merely to weaken them from the place they’re in, which is too strong. Meanwhile the card has plenty of fair applications, as evidenced by all the many, many copycats such as Windfall and Day’s Undoing that are powerful but not so much in Commander that there isn’t a prefabricated deck straight from Wizards based on the effect. I do not recommend banning.

Vampiric Tutor: Strictly better than Imperial Seal, see Imperial Seal. I recommend banning.

Wheel of Fortune: Generally not more powerful than Timetwister, sometimes more, but not so much that it’s a problem. I do not recommend banning.

Windfall: See Wheel of Fortune. I do not recommend banning. 

Yawgmoth’s Will: This is another case where the card was correctly banned in 60-card 4-of as a nerf to fast, consistent, uninteractive spell-based combo decks, and the power level of the card is through the roof, but it’s not unbeatable at all in Commander. I wouldn’t recommend banning.

 From the Block Constructed Banlists:

Intangible Virtue and Lingering Souls: This is a two-card combo that was banned in Innistrad/Avacyn Restored block constructed, but has never been too strong anywhere else. I would not recommend banning.

Aether Vial: The card’s strength lies in aggressive creature decks whose converted mana costs never run above 4 or so. Certainly such decks exist in Commander, but with 40 life to get through rather than 20 and Wrath effects aplenty, that strength seems highly counterable. I would not recommend banning.

Arcbound Ravager: I would say almost the exact same thing for Ravager as for Vial, but Ravager is even more limited in scope to only artifact decks. I would not recommend banning.

Darksteel Citadel: See the colored artifact lands, and the indestructible rarely matters on this card unless you’re playing Obliterate or Ensoul Artifact effects. I would not recommend banning.

Disciple of the Vault: Banned from Mirrodin block for the combo with Ravager and other artifact sacrifice effects. If you can deal 40 with this to even one player in Commander, you should get an award. I would not recommend banning.

Lin Sivvi, Defiant Hero: This is an interesting case in that there’s definitely a world in which this card becomes too consistent for Commander. She was banned for finding too many and too specific of Rebels in Masques block to play much else, and if too many more white Rebels or Changelings get printed that are Commander-worthy, this will be comparable to a Survival of the Fittest without the discard. Until then, though, the pieces seem fair. I would not recommend banning. 

Rishaden Port: Rishaden Port is a generally, though not strictly worse Strip Mine without the combo with Crucible of Worlds. I would not recommend banning.

Gaea’s Cradle: Other than being terrible on turn one, this card is broken through and through, and Commander only makes it more so. I can only assume the only reason this card hasn’t been banned already is nostalgia and the fact that most people never have to play against it, given its Reserved List status. In case the reason isn’t obvious, Tolarian Academy is banned and that’s just artifacts. There are even more decks that can abuse Gaea’s Cradle—almost every deck with green in it. I recommend banning.

Serra’s Sanctum: Unlike the two obviously broken cards in this cycle, Cradle and Academy, the Sanctum requires a lot more work to make produce much mana at all, fitting it more into the Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx or Mishra’s Workshop category. I would not recommend banning.

Time Spiral: See Timetwister. I would not recommend banning.

Voltaic Key: Most of what this is broken with has already been banned or is on this list as recommended bans. As long as the thing you untap with Voltaic Key cost more mana to play than it taps for, it’s generally strong but fair. I would not recommend banning. 

Cursed Scroll: This was mostly strong in a very slow format where good burn was hard to come by. Much like Disciple of the Vault, if you kill even one opponent with this card in Commander, you should win a prize. I would not recommend banning.

Squandered Resources: Mostly powerful in Commander as a mid-game all-in play, there are definitely cards like Exsanguinate that this card is very powerful with, but the win is nowhere near guaranteed, and there are other, probably more reliable and less dangerous ways to get tons of mana out of nowhere for big Exsanguinate-esque wins. I would watchlist this card but not recommend banning it.

Thawing Glaciers: A ban from a much slower Standard than we know today where mana advantage was harder to come by. Certainly the strength of the card lies in exactly the kind of format that Commander is, but it’s likely had it’s time to show if it was broken in the format, and it hasn’t. I would not recommend banning it.

Zuran Orb: This card was banned from a time in Standard where Thawing Glaciers plus Zuran Orb was the sick combo of the day for control decks, if you can believe it. Please, please play this with Sanguine Bond for the sick combos in Commander. I will buy you the prize myself if you sacrifice the lands for that. I would not recommend banning it.

 From the Vintage Restricted List:

Brainstorm: Mostly too good with high quantities of shuffling (multiple per turn, every turn, starting turn 1, is the quantities we’re talking about) combined with highly consistent combo decks. The fact that it’s only restricted in Vintage, not banned in anything, is the tip-off to how incredibly good the decks have to be before Brainstorm is too good. I would not recommend banning.

Chalice of the Void: Mostly too good against decks with almost all 1 or 0 mana spells. I would not recommend banning.

Lion’s Eye Diamond: Lion’s Eye Diamond is literally a Black Lotus in 4-of Storm, but other than that, it’s not proven to be a lot. Nonetheless, there are extremely powerful plays that graveyard decks can pull off with this, and as time and deck experimentation goes on, I wouldn’t be surprised to see this card become oppressive in Commander when it works, especially if it can be recurred, and as such I’d consider it a watch list card. I would not recommend banning.

Lodestone Golem: This restriction was very specifically a nerf to the Vintage Shops deck at a time when that deck was too strong. While this card is definitely playable in Commander as well, it’s not nearly the oppressive top end it is in the specific context of the Vintage metagame. I do not recommend banning.

Lotus Petal: As far as I can tell, this card is and only ever has been used to power out a fast combo before the opponents can do anything about it. However, with the banning of the fast-mana artifacts, more creative ways to do that, utilizing Lotus Petal, will become far more interesting, and making fast-setup decks unreliable, though still possible, is the preferred spot for such decks to be in in every other format, and Lotus petal fits that paradigm just fine. I do not recommend banning. 

Merchant Scroll: Mystical Tutor puts the card on top of your library rather than your hand, but Scroll is limited to blue instants and costs one more. Nonetheless, they are comparable effects and in a singleton format, quickly become oppressive in multiples. I recommend banning Merchant Scroll if you have more than 1 other card in your deck that can search for any blue instant.

Trinisphere: The vast majority of this card’s value lies in a format where basically everything costs zero or one mana. I do not recommend banning.

 Removed from a Banned or Restricted List:

A note on this list first, because it doesn’t look like the rest: There are a large number of cards on this list, so I’ll only give full explanations for cards I recommend banning, situationally banning, and watching. The rest, I will at least provide the category of why it was at one point banned or restricted, sometimes more.

Power creep has removed a great deal of power from these cards and nothing has brought them too far back: Ali from Cairo, Dingus Egg, Icy Manipulator, Orcish Oriflamme, Rukh Egg, Copy Artifact, Regrowth, Feldon’s Cane, Ivory Tower, Mirror Universe, Recall, Sword of the Ages, Fork, Land Tax, Juggernaut, Stroke of Genius, Mind Over Matter, Hurkyl’s Recall, Replenish, Fact or Fiction, Goblin Lackey, Thirst for Knowledge, Valakut the Molten Pinnacle, Wild Nacatl, Temporal Fissure.

These cards are still powerful in at least one format (though power creep has probably softened their top potential in order to get unbanned), but their true power very much does not particularly translate to 100-card-singleton-multiplayer-40-life with the alternate commander damage win-condition: Berserk, Underworld Dreams, Black Vise, Hymn to Tourach, Hypnotic Specter, Wild Nacatl, Bitterblossom. 

Candelabra of Tawnos: While this card is no longer broken specifically in Vintage and Legacy where it is legal, that is only the case because infinite mana combos don’t achieve a lot in formats where 1 and 0 mana cards can and will win you the game in just a couple of turns, and Force of Will effects, importantly including Mental Misstep, rule the day and running critical mass of the two-mana lands to make Candelabra work is too unreliable if you can’t stick the Candelabra. In Commander, however, this card creates infinite mana if you breathe on it too hard. The only reason this card isn’t played in every Commander deck is money, and that’s definitely not a reason to keep it off of a ban list. I recommend banning.

Crop Rotation: The power of this card really lies in the question of whether there’s a land worthy of the tutoring power of this card. Currently, arguably the only truly absurd powerful thing to search up with Crop Rotation is Dark Depths (or one of its enablers), but there are other cards situationally as powerful, and frankly, the price of Crop Rotation is far below its power level. In truth, it is dangerous to leave an enabler as powerful as Crop Rotation around—certainly the obvious comparison is Mystical Tutor and Personal Tutor, cards which earned situational bans. However, lands simply don’t have the volume of powerful effects that instants and sorceries do; by virtue of their nature as free plays, Wizards prints very few capable of such things. While the power level of this tutoring is very high, the targets simply are not there yet, and—again, arguably—likely never will be. The number of decks that use Crop Rotation currently is reasonably high—there are still plenty of great value targets—but not unreasonably high. For now there is insufficient cause for concern to consider banning. I do not recommend banning.

Gauntlet of Might: While this always has been and remains a very powerful tool for mono- and heavy-red decks, and Commander is probably the best place to make use of its power, the restriction to mono- and heavy-red decks (perhaps the least popular color in Commander for a variety of reasons) very much reduces the top potential of this card. I would consider it watchlist in case red gets enough efficient and powerful payoffs to make the mana resource imbalance insurmountable when the Gauntlet is played, but that’s among the more speculative watchlist cards on this list. I do not recommend banning.

Divine Intervention: The power of this card literally lies not in giving the player the means to win. While this card is very much out of spirit with the game of Commander, the power level in terms of ability to end the game (if not win it) is very high with combos, (Vampire Hexmage, anyone?) though a bit meager without, given how long it does take to go off. For that reason, while it doesn’t exactly fit my stated criteria for cards worthy of banning, this list can simply advise not to play this card. If ties ever become a powerful thing to push for in the rules of a theoretical future tournament, this could become a watchlist card, but as for now, to remain conservative, I do not recommend banning.

Dream Halls: Turn-5 Omnipotence, or whatever else you’re trying to win with, is frankly too strong. This card doesn’t need to be banned in the formats where it’s legal, of Vintage and Legacy, because there’s no reason to play a 5-drop in those formats, but there’s easily the time for that in Commander. There are far too many ways to turn this into a win if it resolves. It’s as strong as Necropotence, but the cards are comparable in the right deck with a lot of card draw. I recommend banning.

Enlightened Tutor: While there are fewer ways to break artifact and enchantment tutoring, especially if the fast artifact mana package is banned in Commander, the effect is no less game-breaking in multiples. This is a watch-list card, contingent on more artifact/enchantment tutoring creating archetypes that abuse the consistency and versatility of this card, but for now, I don’t recommend banning.

Maze of Ith: While this card can (and does) regularly prevent Commander damage from a single target functioning well as a win condition in Commander along with other more general damage- and on-combat-damage-to-player trigger prevention, the requirement of a tap limits this effect to one target per full turn cycle, effectively turning this card into insurance against a single extremely fast Commander-damage based deck from taking over the game. In that way, at its most powerful, Maze of Ith in fact increases format diversity. It is a card powerful enough to warrant consideration in many archetypes, but almost all of them very much defense-oriented, and it certainly doesn’t generally come with the capability to hate out multiple powerful threats per turn cycle, giving it built-in power checks which most decks which play Maze of Ith do not particularly seek to overcome—not least of which being, people can and do play nonbasic land removal. I do not recommend banning.

Grim Monolith: See Mana Vault. The fact that this costs two mana instead of one doesn’t much matter in Commander—cards that tap for more mana than they cost, especially with ways to untap, are simply far too powerful and especially in a singleton format serve only to unbalance otherwise balanced games. I recommend banning.

Mox Diamond: See Chrome Mox—discarding is generally better than exiling. Therefore I recommend banning Mox Diamond in any Commander deck with turn 5 or faster combo-kills in it, as well as banning it in any deck with Chrome Mox. There’s no reason to ban functional reprints when they aren’t pushing broken, but there’s no reason to treat near-functional reprints as separate, decreasing format diversity further, when they’re very, very strong.

Dark Ritual: This card has gone in and out historically of broken interactions, including in Commander. Historically a large number of uninteractive fast combo-kill decks, including the Braids, Cabal Minion one, have started with “Swamp, Dark Ritual”. Nonetheless, Dark Ritual being reliant on having specifically black mana to start with and being card disadvantage keep it narrowly out of being particularly broken—many black decks don’t play it, and correctly so. Therefore this is a watch list card, and I do not recommend banning.

Doomsday: This card is a bit of a philosophy turning point in terms of a banlist of this variety. Should cards whose purpose is to end the game for at least one person, by either enabling a win-the-game combo or coming short and killing the player in the process, be banned? (Ad Nauseum earns a nod here, but has never been banned in any format, but this assessment can and should be read into with regards to that card as well.) There is little reason to ban such cards whose consistency doesn’t particularly exceed the percentage of the game which that player partakes in. To specify, in a 4-player commander game, sitting down at the table should ideally provide each player about a 25% chance of winning the game. Note that in Commander, this percentage changes with the number of players, so ideally the cards under discussion should realistically either be lowballing that percentage, or be interactable enough that the increased number of players reliably increases the number of players capable of interacting with it. If a maximum-risk-maximum-reward card of this variety regularly proves to increase the win rate of the person playing it to even 10% or 15% above their sit-down likelihood, the card should be considered for banning, in my opinion, though—and this is really the crux of the matter—if the deckbuilding requirements are so onerous that this combo is most of what the deck has going for it, and the combo enabler cannot be slotted into more than a niche several archetypes, the increased likelihood of winning should push up to a much higher 20% or 25%. With the reduction in the most efficient tutoring to find the relevant combo enabler, I believe cards around the power level of Doomsday would not meet that threshold. This is certainly watchlist material, since literally the only purpose of a card like Doomsday is to end the game for the player one way or another, but for now, keeping in mind reduced consistency from the most efficient tutors, I do not recommend banning.

Ancient Tomb: The differences between this card and Mana Crypt is that Ancient Tomb will deal slightly more damage to you on average over the course of the game, but still not a relevant amount in Commander, Ancient Tomb costs a land drop, but Mana Crypt is destroyed by a few more effects. Mana Crypt is certainly the more powerful card, but Ancient Tomb is definitely still in the same vein. I recommend banning.

Personal Tutor: This is certainly weaker than most of the other tutors, but sorceries in Commander are still plenty strong enough and diverse enough to be oppressive with too many of this effect. I recommend banning in decks with more than one other way to search for any sorcery. 

Burning Wish: There are many things that separate Burning Wish from a card like Splinter Twin, though the similarity between the cards is important to consider. Burning Wish’s top power level lies in being able to complete a combo (most commonly in every format I know of, Tendrils of Agony). The reasons to include Burning Wish in a Commander deck, however, certainly extend beyond the 60-card purposes, some of them clearly seeking to break the format. Certainly the “fair” intention of getting back a sorcery that’s been exiled seems desirable to allow graveyard-based spells-matter decks as a fair effect, but there are theoretically two ways this card could become broken, and both are not incredibly far from being so: firstly, in a deck built of two-card combos with the sorcery as a payoff in the sideboard and as many means as possible to search up Burning Wish, and Storm. However, both of those possible decks (and other powerful uses), especially with the removal of the best tutors, reduces the most powerful uses of Burning Wish to a very few niches, which is an acceptable place for a card to be. Those archetypes could easily creep forward in power to the point of making this a watchlist card, or beyond to very much needing a ban, but that’s an acceptable bridge to cross when it comes, leaving this about in the same place as Glimpse of Nature. Currently I do not regard Burning Wish as a threat and currently I do not recommend banning. 

Metalworker: While this can and does produce more mana than any of the other mana rocks I recommend banning, Metalworker is a creature, and thus interactable by more spells, as well as restricting the player to an artifact-heavy build, like Mishra’s Factory, leaving it, without the fast-mana package, in a place like Skullclamp where it provides a powerful effect for a deck with little else comparable. Similar to Skullclamp, I would consider this a watch list card, but do not recommend banning.

Sword of the Meek: The combo with Thopter Foundry is certainly powerful in Commander, probably more so than in Modern, where that combo has yet to actually take off since becoming unbanned. The combo is hard enough to interact with and powerful enough that this is a watch-list card, however, I do not recommend banning.

Entomb: Certainly this is a powerful combo with Animate Dead and similar cards, and Wizards has stopped printing this effect as efficiently as this, but the fact that Wizards has done so in and of itself is a nerf to the strategy. Jarad’s Orders and even Buried Alive simply don’t quite match this for efficiency in the ways necessary to make Entomb a consistently fast enough plan to be reliably uninteractive resource-balance-breaking. At present, and likely for as long as Wizards continues their decision-making on this topic and the most efficient general tutors are off the list, I do not recommend banning.

Worldgorger Dragon: Certainly this is a two-card combo with Animate Dead capable of much. However, by themselves, the two cards don’t actually kill, requiring one of several possible enablers to kill, as well as a discard outlet ahead of time, making it at least a 4 card combo in truth. While sometimes a Worldgorger Dragon deck will find its pieces and combo-kill on turn 3, the statistics necessary to do so are likely acceptably difficult. Splinter Twin, by comparison, needs only find one of its several targets to be capable of a turn 4 (or even 3 with commonly available turn 1 acceleration) kill, with a much higher likelihood of finding its other piece in time for the early combo. This, and Entomb as well, should demonstrate a philosophy as well—this banlist does not seek to end all fast combo-kills, only to make them sufficiently difficult to pull off that they fit with the rest of Commander’s power level. I do not recommend banning.

[hudsonespie]

Pirate Attack Leaves 4 Dead & 3 Kidnapped Crew From Dredger Vessel

On 2nd January 2020, at around 2300hrs UTC, Trailer Suction Hopper Dredger was attacked by a group of pirates. Reporting indicates that the Oil Dredger AMBIKA has been attacked when operating 3nm from the mouths of the RAMOS river and 9nm east of the Forcados terminal.

It is understood that a firefight occurred between the embarked security personnel on the AMBIKA and the pirates. After a heavy exchange of fire, the pirates were able to board the vessel and abducted 3 crew members (2 Russians and 1 Indian) leaving behind 5 crew members.

It was reported that 4 military armed personnel have been killed during the attack with two injured.

Image Credits: dryadglobal.com

Dryad Analysis

This is the first offshore incident within this location since November 2018 when a vessel (also with embarked security personnel) was fired upon. Incidents within this general area occur with relative regularity however are commonly found within the creeks and rivers.

As such, the majority of legacy incidents in this area have focused upon the opportune kidnap of locals and personnel involved in the protection and manning of oil and gas infrastructure.

In addition to this, the hijacking and theft of passenger vessels within the creek areas is a common occurrence. These targets present a low-risk option for pirates and are a valuable source of income and resources for these groupings.

Offshore incidents remain uncommon and comparatively, with the wider Delta area, the areas around the Forcados Terminal have been a lower risk for offshore operations.

This latest incident indicates that PAG’s within this area have a preference for opportune targets and the prevalence of these within close proximity to shore and within the creeks and rivers is what could be said to have led to a low number of deep offshore incidents in this location.

Reference: dryadglobal.com

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[reykablue]

The Dredger Legacy {gen 3 takeover}

I couldn’t stay away from my girl Gwen-I mean, uh, my beloved Dredger family! Well actually, I snagged dsicover university during the black friday origin sale and Cass was about to age up...(ross geller voice) its all working out! 

We left the Dredger’s still reeling from the loss of Atticus. However, a new day is coming and things are starting to look up. Cass prepares to graduate high school and move out! Our boy is standing tall and completed his youth as a Master LLamacorn Scout & with the Good Manners trait! 

^ Cass’ Senior Picture! 

On the big age up night, he invited over his crush, Gwen, to celebrate since they have the same birthday! Also sharing the day was lil sis Millie. Always the good brother, Cass invited over some girls around her age so she can have a leg up in school. {check out millie’s elementary school portrait as well as her teen look under the cut}

Cass was more convinced than ever that Gwen might be the one. He walked her out the door and made his move! Unfortunately....Vladdy Daddy also was making his move. 

Yup. Thanks for that, my man. Over the next couple days, Cass got his acceptance letter to Britechester to study the Distinguished Degree of Communications. Cass has his sights set on civil service, so he packs up and heads to his new home of Drake Hall.

{theres a bit of a screenshot gap here because...i forgot to take screenshots. I have regrets}

Now, Cass moves in, and he’s finally away from the eyes of his parents. He thinks ‘hey, i’m an adult now! I should woohoo with my girlfriend! in the closet! on my first day in the dorm!’ Great idea, right??? Right. What could go wrong??

The next day is love day, and Cass is excited to spend his first love day as a couple. When Gwen calls him up and asks him on a date, he grabs the roses and heads over to the ruins of windenburg. I’m sure he was wondering if Gwen got him a gift, but boy was he surprised when his first ever love day gift was...a baby. 

His head is flooded with a million thoughts. But he is a gentleman, and he does what he knows in his heart is right. This is the girl of his dreams! And he’s so excited to be a dad. Sure, its not ideal. But he is committed to being the best man he can be. 

Life sure does move fast, huh? First day of young adulthood, haven't even been to class yet...BOOM! engaged and pregnant. Cass goes home, to ask for advice. Dad  says, ‘Cass...Maybe its time that you hear about your grandmother, Harlyn...’

Check out lil sis Millicent in her Elementary school portrait! 

aaaannd her teenage look! She’s got a rebelliousness to her...with frequent ‘mean streaks’ in childhood. The day she turned 16 she went out and got a piercing. Good thing her parents lean towards rebellion too! Cass’s morality is a little bit the black sheep of this legacy. 

yeah. shes adorable. Legacy challenges hurt my soul! I hate picking favorites. Sometimes you gotta pick a coin and throw the other sim in the pond, ya know? Sorry Atti! RIP my man...