#I'm just gonna submit myself to getting taken advantage of I just....

[sensitivegoblin]

Vent

Tw: sa, self harm

[inventors-fair]

Common-Typal Commentary: Matter over Mind

What did I want with this contest, really? Flavorful purpose. Communication of niche. Some weird stuff. I don't actually know what I wanted; perhaps there's this inner frustration that came out with how Bloomburrow drafts were treating me, and I wanted to express a world where typal didn't matter as heavily, where a world could run on its own merits. As I write this, I'm just finishing a draft of Lost Caverns, where I got some awesome artifact synergies going with splashes from other archetypes in the mix. That felt good! There wasn't the typal wonders, but there were pieces in between that folks used, little bits of revelatory connections. I wish it was easier to do typal. And it's not. On a week where the prompt was "typal that didn't care about typal as a theme," it becomes... Well, let's just say that the mess was justified.

There were some messy things that I want to call attention to, though. Firstly, please read and reread the prompt, because three separate people submitted uncommons. Secondly, when you're designing for common, keep complexity and power level in mind. Thirdly... There is no third point, and maybe that itself is the third point: that sometimes, I can only say what I know, and my communication should meet you halfway. If I ain't getting there, then that ain't nobody else's fault but my own. Simplify, revise, correct, and you know what, point four: your first idea isn't gonna be your best one 99% of the time. Reiterate upon yourself and you'll be taken to the stars.

I've got a few Judge Picks I wanted to point out, as you'll see, but this week was a little light so there might only be a couple. I'll go over everything in post. Speaking of post, here's what we have for commentary, posted below:

@bergdg — Aspect of Ruthlessness

From a Tarkir-oriented perspective, I think the flavor of having snakes add to their ruthless qualities with a bit of poison is pretty reasonable. Flashing it in seems a little...off? Hear me out, because this card's totally fine, but flash-deathtouch is one of those really cool combat tricks that Green's been out of for a while (see the whole Ambush Viper debate-thing that happened some time ago, I forget where/when), and if it's not granting that, then a three-mana +1/+1 feels pretty weak even with the surveil.

Flash as a keyword provides both timing-oriented tricks for responses and proactive EOT additions for turn advantage. The advantage here feels minimal on one side and maximal on the other for snakes. And maybe that answers the prompt just fine, yeah, but I still find myself asking: if I'm not playing snakes, would I play with this card at all? Honestly, no—having some snakes would be fine and having no snakes makes this card pretty dead in the water. Looking at the Step Through example, a double-Unsummon is still decent in a pinch, and the Wizardcycling makes it better just in case. I don't see the "just in case" side of this aura right now.

~

@bowtochris — Necrosis

I think that I can see some of the BTS of this card with "creatures" instead of "creature" there in the first sentence. Regardless... In a set that has incidental Zombies, this card would be totally fine, and a lot of sets and worlds do. Honestly the amount of sets that I remember as having more Zombies than they actually do is fairly high! But you can see how popular they are and how a necromancy/grave-style play system that has incidental zombies could use this as a removal spell with upside for sure. Pretty much the only place that it wouldn't fit the contest would be Innistrad, heh.

With that said, is there anything more to this card than that? Not that it doesn't work, but I feel that the type is kinda indicative of this card's lack of polish. What world is it supposed to be from? What does this flesh-eating disease/condition have to do with the Zombies' hunger contextually? I feel that this card is unfinished in a lot of ways and it's hard to commentate fully on it when there's not much given in that regard.

~

@bread-into-toast — Gift of Wings (JUDGE PICK)

I honestly thought this was a card already and I'm kinda gobsmacked that this name hasn't been used. As far as cards in general go, yeah, we're in a good spot. I see you're still using "enters the battlefield" instead of the shorthand, and lemme tell you, I'll be doing the same thing for a while as well. But all the same, yeah, mounts with evasion add to an aggressive deck and make a target for you. I like how 99% of mounts are of a higher-ish mana value, and so this card being cheap allows for more answers to follow.

Mounts are an interesting one. How many Mounts in a set, would there be mMounts with vehicles, would Mounts be brought back as small batches...? Lots of questions being asked here. But I could tell even by the art that this would be a Theros set before double-checking your prompt, and I'm down for it. If this was before or after a more Mount-heavy set, I could see a few Mounts especially as legendary horses and/or their offspring. Pegasi, too! When they attack, they carry another creature with them. You know what, I'm not gonna lie—I almost wish this had been Horse instead of Mount, but I get why you chose to go this route. There are far more Pegasus creatures on Theros than Horses, and they already have flying. Maybe there are other possibilities, but you know what, this route works just fine. I'll hash out a more comprehensive thought process if you want later.

~

@dimestoretajic — Rockface Staff

This card falls right back into the Bloomburrow trap, I'm afraid. While Bloomburrow's color overlap was a pretty no-brainer design choice, that's really not what this contest was looking for, and as such I don't necessarily know how to judge it. Is the expectation that these creatures wouldn't be major parts in the set? I mean, I could, but what world is this on if not Bloomburrow? I don't want to make any assumptions here. I also don't think that this card was intended to be on different plane than the one where this type-batching has already been precedent.

This is the extent that I can give commentary on this card's application to the contest prompt. As an equipment in general, it's fine, and I get the hybrid cost down there is intended to be an every-color-but-best-here suggestion. But that's as far as I can go. There's just no way to interpret the typing otherwise.

~

@grornt — Smothering Spores (JUDGE PICK)

There were only about ten cards in Dominaria that cared about Saprolings, and that was quite an archetype, but my personal first introduction to them was in the Alara block, where only six cards across the whole block produced them—and looking back at DMU, there were only two. So how many Saprolings does it take to screw in a good draft common? Honestly, I'd say if there were...4-5 across a set, then this card could go from just plain decent to really funny really fast.

Saprolings are meant to be as expendable as they are delicious, and while regulating a token subtype to a cheeky one-off is a little questionable, I'm down for this being a good enough card. It's totally okay to have a derived card like this get a flavorful little twist, right? Depending on the sacrifice archetype (hint: probably B/G), you could have instances where you lean more into black, or you could have an overlap where there's enchantments on one side and Saprolings on the other, right? Maybe if there was a random rare that pumped out uncommons... But that's just extra brainstorming, because the thought of a fungal infection being made deadly via Saproling is good enough for me. Solid and thoughtful.

~

@izzet-always-r-versus-u — Lights in the Sky

I'm so sorry that I didn't get a chance to message you beforehand and remind you that this is a common contest. I'll read this card on its merits, but you're not the only one to submit an uncommon at first, so hey, that's all good.

The other thing is that I may just not be the right audience for this card as it stands. The only Aliens we've had so far are the ones from Unfinity and the Doctor Who—will there be any in the Death Race set? I forget. Anyway, there's currently no metric for what that might look like in an in-universe set, and the implications are...very sci-fi in a way that I can't critique in good faith. The card is fine, the mechanics are fine, and it could be a real painful beater in limited. You might want to put "this permanent" instead of "this enchantment," but I'm not sure. I'll be honest, comrade, I got nothin'. If MTG has a single sci-fi hater among them, it's me on top of this hill, dying from an alien death ray. We'll shoot for the stars next time.

~

@lich-of-the-golgari — A Good Boy's Rest

Let's back up for a second and talk about what this card is doing. From a purely flavorful perspective, this card makes sense. Pragmatically, it's asking for Shrines at common, perhaps additional shrines, legendary enchantments at common, and a new kind of role token, and a multicolor theme at common as well, and on an ambiguous world. Do you see where I might have some issues with this card design-wise?

Time and time again, I want to tell folks that unless we're asking for out-of-this-world weirdness, you don't have to reinvent the wheel for these contests. Most of the time, it's detrimental to good design sense. This prompt in particular is looking for starting keystones and the base beginnings for some designs that would suggest small pieces of an overarching set in a way that aren't main themes. In my opinion, this card goes against pretty much every one of those notions. Simplify, simplify, simplify. I know it's tempting to stick with an idea that resonates internally, but it's more important to learn when to go back to the drawing board.

~

@melancholia-ennui — Haunted Crypt

It's really, really hard not to see this card as a derivative of Step Through. The only question is whether or not the role it would have in the set would be that of a cycle or that of a one-off. As a one-off, it would be one of the more powerful ones, presumably, if there are any half-decent Spirits in this set at all. Never underestimate the power of landcycling. The reason that Step Through could be at common is because it's a steepish cost for a half-decent effect, and the discarding (even with no Wizard) was part of the possible pieced-together archetypes. What would the archetypes be here?

This card highly suggests something to do with discarding or BW graveyard shenanigans, but also with the typal component; a reasonable player would assume that this draft archetype would be a BW spirit typal shell. Do you see what I mean? It's hard to get away from that specifically because it's a land. Now, if there was a typal archetype, then this card would be bananas, and I think that it's certainly well-designed as it is. For this contest, it's a little too specific for what we were looking for. I'll still commend the general chops, even if, like I said, it's a bit on-the-nose given our examples.

~

@piccadilly-blue — Sonorous Hum

NB: "Deck is 22 cards, all major arcana, not magic cards (in the same way that a d20 is not a magic card), no rules text. // You choose whether or not you run a tarot deck as the game begins. If you don't, you ignore all instructions relating to the tarot deck. // If you're using a tarot deck, after all mulligans have been taken, you shuffle your tarot deck and then the top three cards are turned face-up as your spread."

When you submit a card like this, not only are you asking us to evaluate the card in its relation to the contest, but also evaluating a new mechanic with a series of highly complex rules interactions. And you're also asking us to evaluate a deck with card that each would have a series of as-of-yet unknown rules interactions that have not, to our knowledge, been designed or submitted. So with that said? I can't evaluate this card. I literally, actually cannot, because it's asking knowledge of me that doesn't exist.

I want to love it, of course, and not in the way that I want to love all submissions. I want to be able to love what you've done. I do not have the means or the tools to give you the feedback I want to give in this position, and that's because of the choices you've made by submitting this kind of card. There's nothing wrong with going off the beaten path, but in order for us to judge properly, we gotta use the tools of the collective. I don't have those tools at the moment and I don't really have the time/energy that this idea would both require and deserve. One of my partners does love him some tarot, so just imagine we're giving this a thumbs-up in an alternate universe.

~

@wildcardgamez — Tuskeran Axe (JUDGE PICK)

Berserker is a heavily underutilized creature type, in my opinion. On Kaldheim, there were all those zombie berserker thingies, IIRC, but also a few in the general BR shell. Still, what if you wanted warrior/equipment blends, or you wanted a Giant Berserker to go out there? This card, upon reflection, is a sheepish reminder for me of how I should've made this contest out to be. I'm writing this before I get to the grand reflection, but seeing this card as a unique and funky draft-archetype hybrid is certainly interesting on a design scale, but it's not exactly "weird." It's good! Don't get me wrong, it's quite good.

Was I looking for that weirdness more so than cohesion? It's possible. World flavor is a strange thing. Sometimes, everyone is a berserker. Sometimes the colorless-ness matters, especially for equipment, like that artificer example from earlier. Actually, what I like about this card is that it assumes you're playing red if you're playing berserkers, but if you manage a mono-black berserker deck or whatever, then you're just getting some cool color advantages. I dunno, this card's pushing all the right buttons for me. Am I just jaded with myself, or is this closer to the prompt than I imagined? This is good self-reflection but probably not the best critique. Well, you've already got a seal of approval, so I'll axe the rest of this before I start rambling even more.

~

@xenobladexfan — Death's Finality

When making this prompt, I feel that there was more of a typal-payoff kinda vibe than a draft-answer kinda vibe. As we have it here, Thraben Exorcism is already a card that exists, and this card more or less goes a little farther than that. I want to say that there's nothing wrong with that—and in a vacuum, there isn't. But when there's already such a specific card, and when that card itself wouldn't be what the prompt is after, it makes this kind of judgment a little more difficult than it would be otherwise.

Whether or not you saw Thraben Exorcism before this, well, I have no idea. Exiling zombies and cards from graveyards is also a little beyond the initial scope, so there's that. The similarity is just too much for me to buckle down and say that this card stands on its own merits. If nothing else, though, I hope that this is some kind of learning experience. One, it's a good idea to double-check your cards to see if some maniac at WotC has printed the effect before. Two, feel free to lean into the more proactive side of payoffs rather than answers; answers come to the board when they need to. Right now is the time for asking questions.

Tomorrow's another day. Be well! @abelzumi

[sweet-xoxo-thatcares]

Be A Nice Human

I know why my Grandma kept all those pictures of her and her abusive ex, Kevin. They still stayed friends for many years after they squashed it out and got over what happened after they broke up. He would still come by every so often (even though he was a drunkard and he also cheated on her too) she knew she could never really cut him out of her life. But she learned to love him from a distance, and they stayed friends after. He would come by to help fix her car, built a counter for her in her kitchen when she bought a new house, and brought her weed to smoke to help relieve her pain.

Its crazy, but love is so damn hard to get rid of. Its like a child. And you can't throw away something as pure of an emotion as love is.

Im finally accepting that its ok to not go back to them and still appreciate what I learned from them. I dont need to hurt anyone anymore because of all the pain I was from dealing with them during, before, and after each especially traumatizing breakup.

I can still find love who is right for me to choose. Trans or not. I cant give up just because of one person. My mtb person will come and we'll sing to each other at our wedding party. Imma wait for the right person, before I open up my heart to them next time.

I'll be patient in love, accepting and giving, and learn how to let go properly without trying to burn a cord so quickly just because there's a soul tie I want to stop thinking about immediately after breaking up with them, and not wanting to be jealous anymore.

However, I was right. Jay and Ayunna both did mentally and emotionally scar me and they took advantage of my kindness and love towards them. So there's still a thin line between love and hate that they still need to remember. You cant treat anybody any kind of way, call them out their name, disrespect them, leave, abandon them for revealing their emotions, and then just come back when you say so. Humans don't interact like that and shouldn't try to control somebody's mind, heart, feelings, or attention from somebody else just because you still want to play them for sex later.....and this person actually wanted something you didn't with them.....love and commitment.

They both looked at me and made fun of me like Rudolph the Red nosed reindeer. I was so different to them, that I got teased, mocked, and made fun of a lot by both Jay and Ayunna individually. But what happened, happened and I learned my lesson about ghosters and abusers, and how to be more careful with crazy people.

Especially to be even more caring and patient and sensitive to my needs and not to just go along with what somebody wants me to do to please them. I can't take back the harsh negative words I chose to say, but things happen for a reason. And I am hurting again. Because I was feeling regretful about leaving, but I don't wanna be somebody's #2 choice replacement, nor do I deserve lack of respect just because I am classified a woman. There was some sexist crap Jay and Ayunna would follow just because I was more feminine than them, doesn't mean I shouldn't be allowed to be dominant. I am Dom. Most definitely. And I choose who I am too. Im allowed to call myself Dom. I can be harsh and cruel just like they were. But now they hate me for being this way towards them, because i knew where their soft spots were, but i honor and respect people's feelings 1st to never hit their vulnerable insecurities until they fuck with my own on purpose, full shot on, and multiple repeated actions that weren't corrected on their behalf.

Jay acts like a subby brat, but switched to Dom whenever they wanted to make me submit. Im glad I got my power back though. Knowing that you can call your own title without their approval really made me feel better about standing my ground. I didn't need to be called a sub, just cause they wanted me to weaken myself down to a more pleasing, controllable level. Cause I am smarter and stronger than them, it just took them too long to figure that out, that I do have a dominant, fair, but yet firm standard of belief systems. I do have morals I tend to stand by. And watching Ayunna get hurt by them too, pissed me the fuck off.

Cause how could you repeatedly choose her over me, then go as far to ask to flirt or sleep with more women than you already had right in front of you? If you couldn't make sure us 2 was already taken care of and pleased with this relationship...why tf could you be so greedy and so rude and cruel to think that it would be ok to ask for more girls to flirt with you, when we were already giving you the attention you asked for?

You made us 2 feel like we weren't good enough to satisfy you, when truth is no one can until you learn how to do it yourself and love yourself, respect yourself better and stop calling yourself an asshole and treating your body, your face, and your heart like shit just because you're a miserable little fuck. Just because you have an attitude doesn't mean me, Ayunna, and whoever new you decide to replace my presence with....isn't gonna tolerate it.

That's why I left too. But there's multiple reasons. I'm choosing the positive choice to love you from afar and to find me another transman, nonbinary, tranfemale to love who isn't going to reject me, use me, or hurt me the way you did.

Because people are individuals, doesn't mean all trans people are alike and not all think its ok to hurt other women sadistically or for their own game play for "enter-painment". Yes, I said it.

Good Day.

-Darth Vader, Out.

[survivorinternational]

Episode 5 - "I'm on a tribe full of fat flops." - Randy

Sooo breaking news of the day: Michael just approached me about working together with Emily I think the Veni boot made him spooked as well because he's been doing well in challenges too But Michael and Emily are the two I've been getting along the most with on this new tribe so I'm definitely not opposed to that He asked if I wanted to include someone else and I said, well, obviously I have a good relationship with Ginger since we started out on the same tribe But we shall see what happens The Ginger-Tyler connection could possibly complicate things Plus I predict Michael has an alliance with the og Ala Mai as well He's probably trying to secure his spot at merge right now But I'm open to any plans, and Michael would definitely be a good shield for me so I don't want to get rid of him anytime soon I could see us working together well Update: Talked to Ginger and as I predicted, he was not as ecstatic about the thought of working with Michael as he would've been about working with Tyler + Emily. But we agreed that it is always good to have as many allies as possible and we shouldn't turn this opportunity down. Michael should be doing the chat later tonight. Kinda hope we would've won reward, since none of the advantages seem to be on my good side as of now, and that's going to become a problem later in the game. But I can't really complain since there was no way I was going to step up and do the comp, I don't need any more attention drawn towards myself. My plan of laying lower has now put into action. I gave the immunity challenge my good 80% in hopes of avoiding tribal while not being the top scorer for my tribe. Plus I feel I am naturally bad at this type of challenge where you have to think and type really fast. I just hope I didn't flop ENTIRELY. I know my capitals and survivor seasons but the rest of the categories were not my jam at all. Also, according to Andreas 'Fuck' is a movie???? Who would've thought. Scored me a point so not complaining in the slightest. My social game is still kinda lacking, been feeling lazy to start conversations lately so I haven't talked to some of these people in a while. Ugh. I should fix that.  Emphasis on SHOULD. Not sure if I will. 

Man it really sucks that all it took was 5 points from anyone of us to win that challenge and it frustrates me that I scored a pretty good score, not the highest but I'm in danger of going home. I wasted my idol last tribal council and I have no more spare protection on me so it's like the game has taken a whole new life for me and it's all about social manoeuvring now. But the way I see it, if the tribe was playing long term, they would take out either Stephen or me because there's still 5 OG ala mai left compared to the 4 of the two other tribes, so I need to make myself useful to clash and allan and goat for them to save my butt because I need to M A K E  M E R G E. 

i’m drunk but we won we won we won baby boy we won boy i am happy i don’t have to vote off anyone i am drhnk 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1nt5bJDsUcCzUm-0tWRCtDbr6NRD78ntq/view?usp=drivesdk

Wooooohoooo we won the challenge, so no tribal once again! And I didn't even overperform this time, so that's just great. I hope to keep this going. I bet the Faatasi are sad they voted Veni out now, some of them tried their absolute hardest and they would've destroyed us if Veni was included in that group haha. But that's what you get, now you gotta vote someone out again! I hope to see some more idols or advantages being used so they can't be used against me later in the game haha. I'm gonna be really fucked if I don't find anything!!! I'm gonna get idoled out again fuck yesssss I can feel it. If Sluggy didn't perform so well in the challenge I would definitely predict he's going tonight, but I'm not as sure anymore. I kinda have a feeling Clash has the Faatasi idol because he stopped sharing me his idol guesses pretty early.... But that's simply a guess, literally anyone but me could have it haha. Anyhow I hope someone from og Ala Mai or Saolotoga is going tonight, just for numbers' sake. I haven't had a chance to meet them yet and it would be more difficult to start bonding at merge when there's so much tension and power shifts happening! It'll be interesting to see how their tribal turns out since the og tribes are split 2-2-2 on their side right now. Ginger is definitely not a huge fan of Michael, but we both agreed it's great for us if we let him run the show on our side right now. If we manage to work from his shadows, hopefully people will come at him come merge instead of us. 

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Wait a minute the hosts want us to be around tonight after tribal council Are we merging???? Please no not yet I'm not ready!!!! It's a busy weekend for me

Doing this before i get in trouble. Why must they always remind me of confessionals when im at work or bed. Veni deserved better Its a bit Quiet in the Ala Mai alliance chat. Made new Alliance with Vilma, Ginger and Emily Immunity Challenge: Not happy with scores... could have done much bettee. Got scores back... 2nd best in tri e and the tribe won... huh... Safe for another day. Still no idol. Merge is being suggested... please not yet... i need more time

Lemme just say I don't feel so good about this tribal council. No one seems to be anywhere which makes me believe that I'm the target. All I can do is pray to God, but if He wants me gone now He'll send me home now. If He wants me to stay He will make a way and I just gotta trust Him. 

um so this round has been very tough because we lost again but I genuinely don't want to keep Stephen in the dark the reason I told him, if that bites me in the ass its my own fault but I am thinking for long term and I really hope sludgy goes by a unanimous vote here and everything will be perfect 

I'm so glad we won again! It is so nice to be on such a winning tribe. 

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Did I submit? I dont remember. The bad thing about not going to tribal is that idk who I can work with.

So obvious the four of me Allan and randy are staying together. Stephen pulled me and clash into an alliance and that saved him and now sluggy is hopefully going to go home. I’m super pissed we lost by 4 points but it’s all based on loyalty for me this round, challenge abilities are out the window tbh 

Hopefully merge is not THAT soon ! If it is I will lay low at the beginning because I suck at taking control when the numbers are so big and messy . Also I hope an ala Mai member will get evicted tonight so it will be 4-4-4 tribal division 

i’m in an alliance with vilma, ginger, and michael! i’m happy with where i’m at in this game tbh. very content. and i think merge is next too gurl!!!!!!! i’m excited very very excited

We won the challenge again which is good, but knowing that Sluggy felt unsafe enough to play an idol, it is a slight worry for Stephen and Stephen, hopefully they vote off Randy or someone, but there's a good possibility won of them goes. The upcoming rumoured merge is slightly worrying, I have talked a bit to Vilma and Emily but Ginger and Liana haven't spoken much to me, and reply with very little substance. Coming into a merge I would love to keep everyone who is willing to speak to me in as long as possible. It might be best for me to "throw" a few of the first merge challenges to keep a target off of my back. After what happened to Veni, I don't trust that the threats wont go early.

Hi the power four which are me clash pay and allan are deciding to evict sluggy ive been building bonds with stephen, and trying to like mist sluggy but idk. If sluggy has an idol im afraid I'll go. But I scored the highest on the tribe so at least i didnt lose us the challenge so <<33 im on a tribe full of fat flops

Uhhh, everyone is really quiet, am I getting blindsided? This isn’t my time man I have so much more to put in to this game. If I get voted out I want everyone to know its Crash’s fault.

Okay so I was quite inactive this round but thank god clash really looked out for me this round and (to my knowledge) kept my name out of his mouth. All I have to do now is keep my head down and hopefully the 4 we’ve established can work together to get through this double.

So here I am, loving life, living it to the fullest. Getting drunk and also having a good time with no reception. So what I didn’t do was talk to anyone hehe awks. Anyway thriving. I’m now a close alliance with ginger hehe cheeky. Working hard on the challenge absolutely thriving