#illusions of grandeur

[rabid-invertibrate]

Just a friendly reminder that Garmadon has every mental illness (for perfect viewer projection) welcome to my ted talk

(my actual hcs in comments lol)

[napunk-history]

U.X.A.

Illusions Of Grandeur (1981)

[holley4734]

Interview with . . . Illusions of Grandeur

@iogband #IOGband #Illusionsofgrandeur #TheSiren @roguepruk #interview #theatricalmetal #heavymetal @ITHERETWEETER1 #newmusic @musiccitymemo @MusicBlogRT #newmusicalert

Illusions of Grandeur will continue to bring the best of theatrical metal to the public while on the Siren Rises Tour this spring. The Siren herself, Maggie Carlton, has joined us for an interview. Please welcome The Siren of Illusions of Grandeur to the blog! Who is answering the questions? Maggie “The Siren” Carlton-Vocalist Illusions of Grandeur  Band/Artist Name: Illusions of Grandeur…

[beginagain--]

Band Interview Of The Day - Illusions OF Grandeur

If could introduce yourselves for us, who are you? Sure, here is a bit about the band Illusions of Grandeur “I.O.G.”, is a Theatrical Hard Rock/Fantasy Metal band based in York, PA. I.O.G. has been touring in both the United States as well as across the UK, Germany, France, and the Ukraine since 2015.   I.O.G. have made appearances at various festivals including Sav Fest, Dewey Beach Music…

[gbhbl]

Interview: Illusions of Grandeur (Written)

Games, Brrraaains & A Head-Banging Life bring you an interview with the theatrical hard rock/fantasy metal band, Illusions of Grandeur.

Games, Brrraaains & A Head-Banging Life bring you an interview with the theatrical hard rock/fantasy metal band, Illusions of Grandeur. 1. Hello! Thank you for taking the time to chat to us. First things first, tell us a little bit about yourself and how you got started. Illusions of Grandeur “I.O.G.”, is a Theatrical Hard Rock/Fantasy Metal band based in York, PA. I.O.G. has been touring in…

[edhwreck]

Another alt art, this time it's Zedruu, the Greathearted

Zedruu was the first EDH deck I threw together back in 2017! Didn't buy a precon or know any cards outside of the Kaladesh and Amonkhet blocks, so it was a doozy to make lol

Nowadays I really like handing my opponents enchantments, specifically removal spells like Oblivion Ring or the three other cards featured in the art, Nine Lives, Illusions of Grandeur, and Form of the Dragon.

Obviously I do not own the artwork used on either of those three cards, not do I create the background in this card (That's a land card called Rainbow Vale). Still learning anatomy and finding an art style that works for me. Might come back later and make this piece more "my own" than it is currently.

[loudunity]

Mixtape with Illusions of Grandeur, Seeking Tragedy, Aversja, Tag My Heart, Vermilia and Eleine

Six songs for your listening pleasure, today’s post is filled with new music varying from serene to evil, so check it out and support the bands. If available, the songs are added to the Loud Unity Spotify playlist. Make sure to follow as it is updated on an almost daily basis. Photo: Illusions of Grandeur Illusions of Grandeur dropped a new vid from the song Upon my Life taken from their 2021…

[themetalgodsmeltdownposts]

(The Metal Gods Meltdown)

[metalshockfinland]

ILLUSIONS OF GRANDEUR Release Video for Single 'Take Me Alive'

ILLUSIONS OF GRANDEUR Release Video for Single ‘Take Me Alive’

ILLUSIONS OF GRANDEUR “I.O.G.”, a Theatrical Hard Rock/Fantasy Metal band based in York, PA USA.  I.O.G. took the United States by storm, debuting “The Siren Saga” live show.  The Siren Saga is a story of the journeys, perils, and triumphs of the Siren and her warriors.  The story mixes facts and fiction combining Greek and Norse Mythology, Sirens, Gods, Archangels and Kharon “The…

[groovygrub]

[queenlua]

hey lua what decks do phoenix aceattorney and miles aceattorney play in magic

PHOENIX WRIGHT

once upon a time, a friend bullied me into going to a Pro Tour Qualifier, which was probably the largest Magic tournament i’d ever been to at that time, right?

i was happy to be bullied, to be clear, but the problem was… i hadn’t played standard-format Magic competitively in about 2-3 years.  so my knowledge of the current metagame, what deck archetypes were popular, and what the current cards even were, was staggeringly limited.

“it will be fine,” said my friend.  “here, take this spare deck i built.  it’s super-straightforward and easy,” he lied.

he said this to me approx. 8 seconds before the first round began, so uhhhhh, i sure was playing a game of magical cards without ever having even looked at the damn deck before!

so, lo, literally in the course of playing the deck, i was learning how this shit was supposed to work.  “oh!” i’d exclaim with delight, halfway through my turn.  “THAT’S how those two cards are supposed to interact.  oh that’s super clever.  what a neat combo.”  and then i’d proceed to shiftily look at my opponent over my cards, riffle those cards a lil bit, and then say “pass” with as much of an enigmatic vibe as i could muster.

meanwhile, my opponent was Actually Prepared, and they were Trying To Win, and they were pissed.  they threatened to call Slow Play on me because i was taking so fucking long reading all the cards.  as in, he literally called a judge over, who stood there watching me the whole time, in order to determine if i was being Criminally Bad At Magic versus just A Regular Amount Of Bad At Magic, and i was sweating bullets the whole time because i didn’t know this deck or their deck or any of those cards and AHHHH why is the judge staring at me!!!

….which only served to make it EXTRA-humiliating for this poor fuck when i proceeded to eviscerate them 2-0.  hahahah get dunked onnnnnnnn nerd!!!

and then i also proceeded to eviscerate my next opponent???

sheer dumb luck.  i cannot overstate how ill-prepared i was for this tournament.  i absolutely did not deserve these wins.

meanwhile the friend who gave me the deck was having a much worse time with their deck, and they were like “what the fuck. you weren’t supposed to win. how are you winning with that shit, my deck’s so much better than yours”

anyway.  i think that’s the kind of scenario Phoenix would get into if he were an MtG player.  dude Gets Himself Into Situations And Then Uses Cleverness + Bullshit + Luck To Get Out Again.

(AA4-era Phoenix seems like he’s doing the same thing… but, in reality, he’s actually been meticulously crafting his deck in secret for the past six months.  he’s not even aiming to win the tournament, he’s just exploiting a known weakness in the opponent-matching system that lets him know with certainty who he’s going to get matched up against (spoiler: first round is Kristoph), and he’s hyper-optimizing his deck to beat Literally Only Those People.  meanwhile, Apollo, who built a tryhard hyper-optimized variant of Red Deck Wins, is lowkey annoyed that Phoenix's seemingly-random pile keeps vaulting him just one table above him in the standings, because Apollo knows his deck is better. he knows it!!!! just let him go 1v1 and prove it aaaaughhhh!!!)

((also, in case you want Actual Concrete Cards And Colors And Stuff: in general i think Phoenix prefers limited play (draft, sealed, "anything where you open booster packs on the spot & throw a deck together") to constructed play, because he doesn't like being tied down to any one game plan. when he does play constructed, i think he's less attached to a specific colors and more attached to specific mechanics. in particular: he's not a combo player exactly, but he likes mechanics that feel like bullshit. dude saw Madness for the first time & his eyes lit up & he was in LOVE, "you mean i'm discarding the card but then i can cast it for free??? hell YES." he absolutely ran a poison counter deck during New Phyrexia. ah fuck i just realized he was probably a huge stan for noted awful expansion Battle for Zendikar, i think i gotta cancel him now, sorry))

((and i think Phoenix also has a touch of Timmy in him! like, i went to a huge state tournament once with a bunch of really skilled players, and there was this one dude in our car who had a really solid deck, clearly adhered to a lot of the trends in the meta at the time... but his win condition was a Shivan Dragon. which wasn't a bad card at the time, it was a reasonable win condition, but it was... slightly suboptimal? not at all the obvious pick? sort of random? and multiple people asked him "why is that your win condition" & he shrugged and said "i like dragons." so the dragon stayed & that dude ended up getting second place in the whole tournament so FUCK optimal play, bring a dragon. i think Phoenix would sneak in a dragon now and again. just 'cause))

MILES EDGEWORTH

this one is trickier!!!

young!Miles is just going to play Whatever The Meta Deems To Be The Best Deck, right. the von Karma perfection thing and all. it's all very boring & micro-optimized to be the Best Deck Of Its Kind & he pours over the results of the big name tournaments week after week & does some math or whatever to hyper-optimize his own build of the Obviously Correct Deck. there is no soul in any of this, purely Executing On A Formula.

...but then he experiences Character Growth & has his big gay crisis & now he has to pick up the game again. he opens the latest tournament results... clicks around some win % stats for various cards in a desultory kinda way, and... his heart's just not in it, right?

enter 2-4 era Miles. 2-4 era Miles is playing some utterly unhinged Five Color Good Stuff thing. there's a lot of Planar Chaos cards in there, because that whole set was about Weird Shit & cards doing Stuff You're Familiar With (But In The Utterly Wrong Color!!!) & all that is resonating with Miles more than he'd care to admit. he cannot possibly talk about his unnecessary feelings but he can make a weird noise rock album about them. and by noise rock album i mean this fucking Magic deck.

and he's playing this deck with a 100% straight face, as though this is the exact same behavior that won him the Junior Super Series five years in a row & not a desperate cry for help from a madman. everyone else is like Miles... are you playing fucking singletons... in a fucking standard deck... you know your deck will be more consistent with four-ofs right... and then he gives a cool fish-eyed stare & taps out to cast some arcane bullshit legendary creature & gives a single rap of his knuckles against the table to indicate that he's passing the turn.

and it works, is the thing! all those years of training to be the Spikiest Spike Ever have paid off; this Five Color Good Stuff thing relies on some pretty clever insights to make the mana base work, and parts of what he's doing eventually get adopted by the larger metagame to become an Actual Serious Deck. but, like. it's still a monstrosity. any skilled players watching are still definitely wondering Are You Okay, Dude.

after 2-4, i think Miles settles back into playing something more normal. he still cares about winning, but he's going to do it with a touch of class. he wants a game that involves dialogue, some actual back-and-forth, because just trying to combo off is lame coward behavior.

aw yeah baby we're talking counterspells!!!

he's a blue player at heart & he's happiest when he's updating the autopsy report shutting down whatever his opponent's plan is. he'll splash other colors as the occasion calls for it, but he'd be happy running mono-blue the rest of his life. like, i ran a pretty fun Legacy deck back in the day which consisted of:

every kind of counterspell i could get my hands on,

propaganda because FUCK creatures,

thieving magpies for the card draw,

and a few silver wyverns to, y'know, actually win the game

...and i think Miles would appreciate that deck. just play counterspells until the opponent runs out of steam & then cruise your way to victory with a couple birds. simple. elegant. classic. doesn't involve any of this modern Planeswalker bullshit (Miles regards most developments that happened to MtG post-Time Spiral block or so as affronts to game design).

(i do think Miles has a secret fondness for sagas as a card type, however. they remind him of all that Character Growth, but in an abstract/subconscious/nonthreatening way. too bad most of them are a bit of poor match for the kinds of decks he likes to play)

FINALLY: i think Miles hates playing Commander with every fiber of his being & Phoenix loves it & this is a pretty serious point of contention in their relationship. poor dudes

[dykedvonte]

thinking abt what you said with house viewing Benny as a son and I’m obsessed. Like. The man spent most of his life before the war presumably alone, and then after the bombs fell he was alone again, save for AI he himself devised. Then he decides to pull in some Tribes, and one kid shows promise! So sure, treat him well, train him, groom him to be his protege, then next thing you know UH OH he’s got developing paternal feelings towards this guy. Wanting some semblance of a family when the time has long since passed, yet fostering that feeling all the same seems so accurate for him. Benny meanwhile only views him as a boss, and not a particularly good one at that. makes me wonder how House must’ve felt when he found out about Bennys plans

I view it as House blames only himself for this, cause he kind of does in canon (strap in this is a long one).

When reflecting on the issue of Benny, House chastises himself first and foremost for not acting quickly enough when it comes to priming Benny. He describes Benny as being ambitious, ruthless and capable; compliments coming from a man like House. House has an ego and while he is logical enough to understand there was never any evidence Benny saw him as a father-figure, he lacks the humility to admit he let his own views on his relationship with Benny blind him to the activities happening behind the scenes.

I doubt that House was as aware as he makes out about what Benny was doing, he knew early on but certainly not early enough to stop Benny from hacking and obtaining a securitron along with getting the chip in the first place. I take it he was distracted by all the possibilities he was calculating of Vegas' success and growth with him steering and Benny as the new figure head, not because of any normal affection for Benny but the admiration of his capabilities. It's to be noted that House believed menial incentives (likely caps, booze, basic needs, etc..) were enough to keep Benny tame like the other Chairmen but, as evidenced by the Omertas and Mortimer in the WGS, this is not enough when it comes to more driven Vegas citizens. This implies he still undervalued Benny and created a space in which Benny felt the need to rebel.

House in my eyes is not sentimental in the traditional sense. I can imagine his pride was severely scorned as someone he certainly deemed dumber than him was, albeit only for a little, able to out-gambit him. It would definitely hit home seeing how his brother also betrayed him but I feel like that's why he's so apathetic when he tells the Courier to do as they see fit with Benny. I doubt the way he terrorized his brother brought him any emotional satisfaction other than a "Now who's in charge!" ego boost. Putting that same emotional intensity towards Benny isn't worth it because who does it benefit? Wasted time, wasted planning, and most importantly wasted potential are all he gets from continuing to be hands-on with Benny. I say the closest example is not being able to throw out old toys due to the memories attached but knowing it's necessary as they are broken or just taking up space for new ones, and then asking someone else to do it so you don't need to get caught up in the feelings of throwing something you put so much effort into. It's not Benny House cares about in my mind, not in a way that sounds healthy to any non-emotionally constipated individual, but what he could've represented for him, which is why he so quickly offers the same position to the Courier.

As for Benny's view on all of this, it was a long time coming. Benny didn't and doesn't believe House is a completely shitty boss. He admires what he's been shown and admits House knows how to run the strip, but disagrees with the directions. Ideologically, House is an anarcho-capitalist while Benny is just an anarchist. House wants to run the strip to profit, though money is not what he's concerned with being rich with anymore. Benny wants a free state that he wishes to become a place for the people, except for the Chairmen who would be on top (I like to remind people that Benny's motives were selfish but not for personal gain/power as was it for the people he actually saw as family). Benny was never looking for a father but a future. He was not interested in being adopted, or having the chairmen adopted, as bigger names still overshadowed in House's legacy.

Truly, it's easiest to summarize as House feeling strongly and thinking positively enough of Benny to start incorporating him into the future of Vegas (a huge honor actually) while Benny was so disillusioned by House's ego and indifference that he thought the only way Vegas could be the future is with House gone.

[kent-farm]

—Lois & Clark, “Illusions of Grandeur”

[izvmimi]

i think i’m shigaraki kin. more at 10.

[transingthoseformers]

Valveplug thought.

Thunderclash has an adjustable valve that fits his partners, and he can "save" settings. He finally gets Rodimus to frag him and dazed saves the setting for Rodimus and never resets it.

Rodimus has a thing about this once he realizes, and Thunderclash is living his best life because he likes Rodimus being a little mean and pushy with him, and Rodimus likes how much Thunderclash likes it and praises him.

Rodimus, of course, can't let this go and has to be the absolute best at this because Thunderclash can not win at sex too. So he mods his spike to make it feel better for Thunderclash, gets Thunderclash's schematics to make sure he knows everything about him, and puts an intense amount of planning and prepping to make sure Thunderclash's "impossible fantasy" actually happens researching so much and kink and new sex stuff he voluntarily goes to Rung to make sure he doesn't suck.

He's got this.

Thunderclash is suddenly walking around on cloud nine and slightly wobbly and Rodimus is strutting constantly in an absolutely suspicious happy mood that always turns weirdly intense and smug when Thunderclash is in the room.

Only a few people immediately clock what happened because they are not making the connection. Ratchet, who is ignoring it and hoping it goes away; Whirl; and MiniMegs though Minimus is being willfully onlivious refusing to acknowledge it and Megs is hating the sexual tension.

Okay yes that's so interesting

Also more valve mods ftw

Just. Imagine accidentally hitting reset on your pussy and having to go to settings to fix it. Imagine someone who still isn't over their ex keeping their ex's favorite specs because they know. They know they'll come back (and they do). I am not taking this seriously.

Thunderclash is in pure fucking (pun was initially unintented but now it's intentional) heaven, and Rodimus is Having A Thing About This All. Because as he's seeing this, this is the one thing he is determined to be Better Than Thunderclash at.

Thunderclash cannot win at sex too

Exactly Rodimus exactly sfghl.

Rodimus: how do i win at sex

Rung: well there is a lot to unpack in that question but at this point I'm just glad you're finally coming to therapy

Rodimus:

Rung: even Megatron and Whirl have been coming more often than you do, and Whirl only comes to threaten my model ships.

I may distrust therapy but Rung is the second best therapist I've ever heard of and Roddie boy do you have issues to work through

But also cool that Rodimus might learn some unexpected things about himself in his research and stuff he might be able to bring up with Thunderclash (my mind first went to robots in clothes and temperature play sue me)

Slightly wobbly

Ratchet looks like Thunderclash and feels like it's med school all over again.

This is why i love the idea of em fields being able to convey emotion because I'm imagining that when Thunders enters the room Roddie's field just whooshes like a fire flaring brighter (if that's any explanation)

Minimus playing purposefully dense has gotta be funny

Megatron has opinions about this and Minimus is metaphorically (if not literally) holding his arm like "don't, not our business"