#like not even getting into the conspiracy stuff. because that feels like a slippery slope and i am not well educated enough on the american
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tryna figure out what makes us intrinsically human since it isn't love, fear, empathy, intelligence, capacity for learning etc, and have come to the conclusion that actually maybe there is nothing special about us and that is ok. and really it is that or 9/11 jokes so .
#i have a lot of thoughts about 9/11 jokes#and also the human condition#because for all the things ppl tote as what makes us unique it is just. not true#'love' WRONG animals can love + also aroace people. next#'empathy!!!!' there are people with various disorders that means they do not experience empathy. i trust i do not need to explain why sayin#that they're not human is AWFUL#fear? guess what. have you listened to the magnus archives. most things that exist feel fear.#but you can bet your fucking ASS that NOTHIGN else in the known universe makes 9/11 jokes#anyway 9/11 is very interesting to me as a non-american because it means i have learnt about it quite objectively#like not even getting into the conspiracy stuff. because that feels like a slippery slope and i am not well educated enough on the american#politcal state at the time and bush etc etc#HOWEVER 9/11 screams propaganda to me as someone on the outside#and yes. undeniably it was a tragedy. however it was also used to justify huge amounts of violence against brown and muslim people#see . the war in iraq and also the horrific islamophobia that still exists in the states and world wide#and also. so many much worse things have happened in usamerica since then#but for some reason this is still held up as The Tragedy To End All Tragedies#idk it's interesting
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Honestly, I think the ONLY reason hardcore hetlor truthering is because of the hardcore gaylorism that exists. Pretty much the only other sub-fandom group that exists that is THIS invested in proving their fave is secretly gay and hid a gay relationship for years and also THIS well known on different corners of the internet (because hardcore gaylorism and kaylorism has become insanely popular the past years) are Larries and within Harryâs fandom thereâs also a group of super loud Antis that constantly fight them and go hardcore against them. With Taylor, gaylorism is often much more than just believing in Kaylor, it also extends to believing in other wlw relationships AND believing many of her straight relationships were fake, including Toe. We also see the same opposite reaction as with Larries and Antis, except in this case people that Anti it go against EVERYTHING Gaylors believe, which is why they seem so against even the smallest mention that Taylor could be fruity- they immediately assume that if you believe that, you also believe Taylor broke up with Karlie in 2019, isnât really dating Joe, etc. And by extension, thatâs why they ride SO hard for Taylor being straight. Of course that doesnât automatically make it okay, but it is a very âlogicalâ anti-reaction (as in, it makes sense thatâs what happened) because of course thereâs always two opposite sides with this stuff so of course hardcore hetlor truthers exist ever since hardcore gaylor truthers exist (which really didnât exist before folklore tbh, before that everyone was just a Kaylor who sometimes believed in Swiftgron and sometimes not). Anyway this is a LOT longer than it couldâve been because I ramble a lot lmao but yeah hardcore hetlorism really only exists since the Vogue interview (because in their minds she then confirmed she was straight and they feel the need to defend that) and since *hardcore* gaylorism became really popular, as a reaction to that movement. So in short, hetlorism is in my experience barely about Taylor herself: itâs much more about going against gaylors because they see that entire group as inherently invasive and offensive because they generalise the most extreme behaviour seen in said group (which is wrong obviously).
Yeah idk itâs still just weird to me because I get being a Kaylor anti but I struggle with the Gaylor antiâing, even where itâs blatantly not true lol like with the âthey broke up in 2019 Karlieâs the Celia to Tayâs Evelynâ you know? Like thatâs not really a conspiracy itâs just⌠untrue. And it seems weird to me to invest your time in antiâing that because itâs very⌠difficult to do idk. You can debunk wacky Kaylor shit (or any other wlw ship or tbh late stage Haylor and shit) as much as you want because you feel that itâs fucking stupid and itâs a slippery slope to believing other cracked out shit but if some people like to believe a fanfic like who fucking cares?
I also think youâre wrong about when Hetlor truthers were born, they were around in 2014-2015 too and they werenât like⌠Kay konspiracy antis at that point, because Kaylor legit were besties who hung out a bunch and Taylor did like gay shit on Tumblr a lot, like that was happening. They were bothered by and pressed by the speculation around Taylorâs sexuality.
Which again is just so weird to me because Taylor herself has like⌠continuously encouraged it. I donât think the likes ~mean anything but itâs not bizarre to me that people saw her liking shit that was like âI can make the straight girls gay for the weekendâ and were like đ especially since she was publicly single at the time and mostly surrounded by women.
Anti crack ships as much as you want, but if you wind up hetty truthering youâre fucking out of line and⌠need to calm down.
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Three Cheese Commentary: An exercise in utility
I really shouldnât complain about contests being popular with people.
Still, what a way for the yearâs contests to start. A heckuva lot of entries for a very hard prompt makes me feel good, in an odd way. I have a hypothesis that the clarity of directions and the examples provided were enough to make it feel as though there was a low barrier to entry. Itâs interesting and kind of my fault that a lot of mythic legendary creatures found their way in. Ah well. Lessons learned.
If youâre reading this, I want to give you a little hint: we love hard decisions. If your cards really are brilliant, if you do your best to improve with each and every entry, if you listen to the commentary and submit the best possible card, then our jobs as judges would be nail-bitingly hard. And I love that. I love having to sigh wistfully and move a card from âwinnersâ to ârunners-up.â I love praising cards that contest for coolness in their spaces. In short: you donât have to listen to us specifically because, well, weâre not professionals, but if you tweak the tweaks and polish on your polish, thenâwell, the goal is that you grow as designers and in your understanding of the game. And that youâll have fun along the way.Â
For every card, Iâm going to converse with the intent, talk about where improvements can be made and what might have gone wrong, and then go through wording nitpicks (another part of what makes cards hard, heh. You gotta do design AND cost AND flavor without committee). Cards with JUDGE PICK are personal favorites that for whatever reason either didnât meet the criteria for winners or just tickled my fancy despite being some kind of not-there-in-certain-ways. Or maybe they just got pushed out of runners-up because of space. See? Hard decisions.
Letâs talk about some cards:
@aethernalstars â Anurid Matriarch
Intent: The Matriarch feels like a casual build-around-me keyword card with some connection to the Anurids of Dominaria. There are only two frogs with reach (and none with first strike) to date but this isnât supposed to be a tribal card, is it. Not like that, anyway. Giving keywords those ups makes sense. Token generation is pretty solidly GW, giving them flying is WU, sure. First strike to double feels distinctly white. I imagine this card as a casual build-around-me or a token generator. Five mana for a 1/1 token ainât bad.
Improvement: I have no idea what this card really wants to be. First strike doesnât see anything outside of white, and reach doesnât see much inside white. Or blue, for that matter. The flying makes sense for blue but this whole card doesnât feel cohesive in terms of colors or identity. I did my Anurid research and I donât see any precedent for this. Frog beasts are cool but⌠Well, this card answers the question of âwhyâ with âjust because.â I donât fully understand the niche itâs trying to fill or the environment in which it wants to exist. If youâre gonna make a Frog build-around-me, lean into that. If youâre gonna make a keyword tribal card, focus on just one. If you want to make it color-balanced, look at what everything could do together for a flavorful feel.
Nitpicks: Flying comes before double strike.
Amarinthe â Rashmi, Enlivened Artificer
Intent: Temur has a pseudo-foothold in Kaladesh mechanically, so Iâm not surprised that Rashmiâs here doing her thing. Giving your cards Jump-start is interesting, as UR has a sort of flashback mechanic, plus the lands from the graveyard work into green quite well. What I really like is the way that the Crucible effect interacts with jump-start. Thatâs pretty cool design chops. I can see this in a supplemental Commander sphere or even as a Standard mythic for a three-color archetype. It doesnât seem exceptionally broken on either front. From a purely mechanical perspective, I think you made an awesome card.
Improvement: This card perhaps feels RUG, but it 100% doesnât feel like Rashmi or a druid. Elves can be artificers on Kaladesh, and thatâs not an issue, but you call her an artificer, you type her as a druid (which yes, was her original type when she was more druidic), and you give her a primary ability thatâs got basically nothing to do with artifacts or druidic principles. The lands work great with the druid part, but the flavor could be sorted out. I would take out âjump-startâ as a keyword and just work in the wording âyou may cast from your graveyardâ etc., make a new character, and flavor them appropriately. The flavor text should complement the mechanics; as it is, Iâm not certain.
Nitpicks: âjump-startâ should be lowercase, but it doesnât really matter if you do end up taking it out.Â
@arashisann â Yurlokâs Conflux
Intent: With Yurlok being a new commander hotness, I can see the intent of this card as a Jundian standard/supplemental addendum. The lava flow makes mountains, then the second ability...represents something predatory? And the last is Jund destruction. The R>B>G makes sense there.
Improvement: I donât know if this card is necessary salvageable as-is; you might be better off making two or three separate cards if you want to show this character. When making a saga, you have to tell a story in a limited form, and itâs hard, absolutely! You represented the lava flow in the first ability quite well, and I do like that a lot. The creature and artifact sacrifice isnât indicative of anything that I can follow story-wise. Reading the wiki I understand the way that you might want to represent the Thrash dying or Esper being invaded. I donât believe this is the way to do it. With the very last sentence not doing anything when youâre sacrificing anyway, I donât believe the best card for you is a saga at all. How could you tell this in an instant or sorcery card, perhaps? The moment that Yurlok comes over the Esper border?
Nitpicks: ânon-Mountain;â the land type should be capitalized in both parts, see Quicksilver Fountain. The ability should also be one word. As I mentioned, removing the counters doesnât do anything mechanically because itâs sacrificed after resolution. Check the MSE Discord if you want to get your text fixed, BTW. I know how frustrating that can be.
@askkrenko â Etherium Restoration
Intent: You know, even without Ed being there, Iâm getting a Bruna-ish feel. Thatâs not a bad thing, itâs just that UW expensive returning stuff kinda has those associations. The fact that the creature is being restored with etherium though is pretty awesome, and you know what, that alone (the return plus the re-artifacting) is a great way to convey what Esper does and wants to do.Â
Improvement: The aura and equipment stuff doesnât grab me, honestly. What do auras have to do with Esper? And the only equipment that I could find that fit was Mask of Riddles. So Iâm going to stop here because the obvious answer is that youâre exploring new story design space for what Esper might be. I respect that. With the information we have now, itâs middle-of-the-road. My vote would be to make this (3)(B/W)(U) and make an argument for UW reanimation to artifice overall, then completely drop the aura/equipment part. Plus, gotta say, I know the flavor text is a pop culture thing but youâre messinâ with my favorite plane! Show some respect! /j
Nitpicks: If you do keep that second part, âAuraâ and âEquipmentâ should be capitalized.
@bread-into-toast â Krofor, Corpse Hauler
Intent: Itâs a nightmare insect? Iâm down. Even without that particular piece of art I can see how people might be afraid of a giant bug. This is pretty evidently a Commander-geared card although I can see how casual brewers might want to throw it down in a combo match and do some graveyard hate. GW graveyard exile and black ability scavaging is pretty cool, so I can see where your intent was with that. Good catch putting âNightmareâ first, too. I almost suggested mixing it around. I like how aggressive this card can be.
Improvement: Firstly, Corpse Hauler is literally another card which already had a self-evident mechanical ability to get creatures back to the hand. Even if itâs an homage, I would distinguish it; besides, itâs not so much âhaulingâ corpses as it is eating them. Presumably. âAll abilitiesâ is a bit of a slippery slope, too. Activated abilities is one thing, but all abilities whatsoever? Iâm uncertain if thatâs design space you want to tap into, but donât pull the trigger. My main issue is that you have the activated ability cost âX and W, B or G.â I understand what you were trying to do but that that point you might as well just have it be â1X.â There wouldnât be anything stopping you from making that mana already. In short, rectify the name to fit flavor, change the ability cost, and be wary of weird interactions with abilities.
Nitpicks: âLifelinkâ and âVigilanceâ should be lowercase âlâ and âvâ respectively. The X in the rules text of the activated ability should also be spelled out and not a mana symbol. You can change this in MSE by highlighting, then going to the star next to the bold/italic toggle and turning it off.
@col-seaker-of-the-memiest-legion â Sevala, Exiled Naturalist
Intent: I read up on what happened with Selvala after the events of the first Conspiracy set, and I see how you set off to mimic that, but then I saw the note about the Timeshifting, and yeah, I guess that works.. The green landfall, the red flashback and the white Path come across well. I suppose this is more of an eternal-themed card, although I could be wrong.
Improvement: Yeah, technically thereâs nothing stopping you from having a noncreature card as a partnerable card. Iâm trying to be diplomatic about the implications, though. Okay. So Selvalaâs white aspect was introduced in the first Conspiracy set as she was heavily connected to the citizens of Paliano and worked as a community diplomat against the establishment. She forged a stronger connection to nature and thus became more green in her overhaul of the city. Path to Exile is not in her wheelhouse. She does not exile; she parlays, communes with creatures, seeks out new futures. What exiling magic does she have? What judgement? It doesnât exist in her character, nor does the redness. Frankly landfall doesnât really fit her character as well. The point is that even if a character could have a partner thatâs a concept (which is antithetical to the mechanic as a whole), the spell you have chosen contrasts with Selvala instead of complementing her. And what does she have to do with flashback anyway? To improve this card, completely restart the conceptual process.
Nitpicks: The characterâs name is misspelled.Â
@deafeningsandwichpeach â Ilharg, the Craze-Boar
Intent: Ha, I get it. Iâm going to go out on a huge limb here, because I mean as much as I like all of this I get the feeling that either the name or art came before the full concept. Nothing wrong with that, because ultimately the card is good. SO. Either this is designed for a Timeshifted set where something really awful happens to our poor Boar God, or, well, something really bad DID happen to him somehow. Iâm not sure what the land return represents flavorfully but itâs fine mechanically. The creature return as well is BR and Iâm down for that, strong as it is. This card evokes the colors in a way that makes it slightly different than Jund; maybe itâs the art but Iâm getting Innistrad vibes from him, the madness returning, the pain going on inside his head. Itâs neat. Again, massive stretch though, letâs be real.
Improvement: And with that in mind, I wouldnât have made him Ilharg. Honestly, this shouldâve been a new character, and I would have been a lot more generous. I donât really get what Ilharg as a whole even in an alternate timeline has to do with lands returning considering that heâs a big olâ nasty city destroyer. Mechanically, this card needs to cost like EIGHT mana. The card you return from your graveyard to the battlefield stays there, and with a big enough graveyard you donât have to worry about getting things from your hand anymore. Turns 1-4 dump all your creatures, turn five get the best of them if not earlier? Pretty busted in any format. For eight mana I wouldnât complain.
Nitpicks: âup to two land cards,â not âlands.â Question: why isnât he a God?
@deg99 â Radiant Return (JUDGE PICK)
Intent: Black reanimation, white attachment, red hastiness. All the colors are definitely there! Thereâs something Mardu-not-Mardu about this RWB card, and I think I like it. I could see it as a standard card, definitely, or as a commander staple for a really interesting commander. Iâm honestly not sure exactly what kind of deck would really appreciate this card right now! Keskit/Akiri? The Auras part is a little more interesting. Ardenn/Vial...Smasher? The fact that it defies current archetypes but still makes sense is very cool to me. I also wonder what a standard expansion in which RWB auraquipment is an archetype would look like now.
Improvement: A little flavor text could make this work one degree better. Itâs really on me that you went into the future with this card, isnât it. Thereâs no major improvement to be made besides that. Consider contextualizing for future contests, perhaps? When necessary, anyway.
Nitpicks: âReturn target...to the battlefield, then attach any number of Auras and/or Equipment you control to it...etc.â Donât need the trigger.
@demimonde-semigoddess â Seaglide Whaler
Intent: A pirateâs life for me! So we got an aggressive tempo-y pirate person with a decent couple of sharpshooter abilities. Blue sirens are certainly reasonable, as are Grixis pirates. I like the notion that it has to attack to âsurveyâ and then take whatever shots it makes. I donât think Ixalan could have had this card but honestly the future is a place where anything could happen.
Improvement: The problem with these colors is that in practical terms, the second mode is strictly black and yet can be played in an Izzet deck. Hybrid is a weird mistress. As much as these abilities might neatly tie into the three colors, hybrid makes deck construction nearly impossible. You can have a pinger in UB or a Fatal Blow in UR, both of which are either severe bends or breaks. Making this a straight UBR 3/1 flier could have been okay, perhaps, or having on-color activations, but as it is now, hybrid makes things hard. Consider looking at a Venn diagram between UB and UR to consider more appropriate abilities?
Nitpicks: Kathari Bomber implies the second mode to be â...damage this turn and sacrifice Seaglide Whaler.â
@dimestoretajic â The Dark Tendril
Intent: Sultai skulk-lord could be a fun card to open and build around in limited, and a BUG defender-y deck could have some fun application. I like how youâve made the new character and sort of done another take on treefolk.
Improvement: For this contest, I donât feel a strong color balance in this card. Skulk was a weird black/blue centered mechanic, sure, and green assigns the toughness, but⌠This feels like itâs trying to make skulk look cool rather than address the issue that skulk was just plain not a good mechanic. I get where the color weight is supposed to be but the whole thing is shadowed by that underlying desire. If this card had just been âCreatures you control canât be blocked by creatures with greater powerâ and the other stuff, on a name/type that was more resonant, then I think it could have been a stronger contender. I donât understand the world in which âThe Dark Tendrilâ lives. I donât understand why itâs a treefolk. I would get rid of naming skulk, make the type more apparent, and give the character some character.
Nitpicks: Three-colored cards really should have a gold border, not a hybrid one. Also, promo frames tend not to have flavor text (with exceptions for cards with no rules text like Memnite).
@driftingthruthecosmos â Ulti, Sudden Conjurer
Intent: I like that triggered ability because itâs got some smooth flow over it. GU has its flash aspect, but black also likes destructive instants, and then the Disentomb-effect fits nicely into a payoff that feels black for sure. I also like how youâre using the three colors to push the card into a really neat 3/3 aggressive creature. Flash and deathtouch literally only show up together in these three colors but not togetherâand here you are changing that on a powerful legend!
Improvement: But the fact that she can only return creatures with flash is kind of a bummer. Sure there are plenty of cards that could work with her, and having some Ambush Viper casual tribal wouldnât be too bad, but itâs still limiting. I would have implied that she works with flash, or let players work with flash, without being so specific about it, and I feel that the card would be improved with implied flash tribal over explicit in this case. Additionally, what on earth is that last ability doing? Each end step, you have to sacrifice a creature or lose one of your potential targets for her trigger? I have the feeling that you may have been too cautious to push power levels here. If you want to limit her, have it be âWhenever you cast your first spell during each opponentâs turnâŚâ or something, and axe that last part.
Nitpicks: âunless you sacrifice a nontoken creature.��� Full stop, you can never sacrifice creatures you donât control so adding âyou controlâ is redundant.
@dumbellsndragons â Gorvax, Lich of the Horde
Intent: Itâs a Mardu zombie orc wizard. At this point, youâre already doing something right for the Timmies out there. The first ability has Tainted Remedy plus some crazy draw after that, and oh man, itâs begging to be punishing. âIâm gonna Heliodâs Intervention you. Deck yourself. Runeflare Trap. Molten Psyche.â But also, that second ability? You can Bolt during an opponentâs turn and turn it into a one-red-mana Ancient Craving. For mythic, to build around? I honestly think that thatâs perfectly fine. And insanely powerful.
Improvement: Thereâs weird stuff going on, but the hard part is that I donât know if thereâs things to improve. Giving your spells lifelink has Jeskai precedent, but itâs not NOT black. Doing a little digging, I can see that there are indeed zombies and even liches on Tarkir, but only in Sultai⌠But thereâs no reason that the Mardu wouldnât have them, right? Hm, maybe âVictory or Deathâ gets muddled here. Wizard, though, thatâs a sticking point. And frankly, the whole âLichâ thing. I donât see the lichiness in the abilities or the wizardry in the Mardu. You know what would be dumb fun? Ditching the Mardu aspect and making this WUBR. Wouldnât fit the contest but what a frigginâ commander.
Nitpicks: None!
@emmypupcake â Knight of Summerâs Vigor
Intent: I was surprised to see that there are actually quite a few green Knights. It makes sense, of course, considering both Eldraine and Bant and Selesnya. So yeah, an elf knight who makes more knights? This is a powerful card with some crazy abilities if it gets out of control at all, but the color restrictions and the lack of substantial evasion ensure that itâs not busted out of the gate. The nameâs pretty good, too! Oh, Knight of New Alara...
Improvement: For this contest, I donât feel color blending as much. Tokens with GW and knights with R(W) are fine, yeah, but aside from that, the colors of the tokens and the general feeling of the card isnât enough to really excite me. I do want to see a set in which this card could exist, perhaps, with multicolored knights and elves and whatnot. I donât have any real improvements for this card; I just donât think it stands out against some of the weirdness. Keep it around and add some flavor text. Consider: what would you like for this set to be? In what world would these knights exist? Why is summer important?
Nitpicks: âWhenever,â not âwhen.â See Pollenbright Wings
@evscfa1 â Estrid, the Unmasker
Intent: The Commander sets with shard Planeswalkers did give us a lot to work with but not a lot of extra stuff, so it makes sense that people might pick up on them for the contest. White auras, exile, and taxing all make sense mechanically. I feel that this is more standard than supplemental, a little weirdness for the way that the specific tokens and all would want to work. I donât mind that part, honestly. Bringing Estrid back would be fine by me, even as monocolored.Â
Improvement: Because, well, this is a mono-white card. The +1 creates white Auras (that donât do anything, so thatâs an issue), the -2 is close to Generous Gift, and the -8 is an enchantment-oriented Hum of the Radix, like a twist between Sphere of Safety and Aura of Silence. None of these abilities feel anything but white. The emblem is arguably UW, but not by much. With Auras that donât do anything and a color identity that doesnât mechanically contribute to the card, I feel that you can either keep her and buff some of the abilities or try to make her feel more in line with the contest, which you donât really have to do at this point. Iâm also worried about the name and the ability tie-ins. Estrid doesnât âunmaskâ at all, does she? Sheâs a mask user, not a revealer of truth or any of the things âunmaskingâ would imply. Why would she make a False Mask? Is this some alternate storyline? If so, I donât really understand what changed, or why.
Nitpicks: â*Its controllerâ in the -2, â*get an emblemâ in the -8.
@fractured-infinity â Rhythm of Death (rare)
Intent: Red (/black) gains first strike, black (/green) has deathtouch, green (/red kind of) has lure. Everythingâs coming together in a kind of keyword soup, so thatâs all well and good! In limited someone who opens this will be very, very happy to make people cry. In casual Commander, itâs sure to help make negotiations.
Improvement: In terms of this contest, yeah, this isnât really buttering my radishes. Itâs there, itâs pretty standard, and it makes sense. There are two cards that have first strike and deathtouch and four more that can gain it naturally and all but one are in those colors. And that wouldnât be a problem if this card was presented differently. Iâm ignoring the art for now because itâs actually distracting here. What is the ârhythm?â Is something being given the rhythm? Whatâs repeating, cycled, constant? What about a rhythm gives the creature these abilities? Change the name, flavor it up, get some text in there, and use blank art.Â
Nitpicks: âEnchant creature (lowercase) >> Enchanted creature has first strike and deathtouch, and must be blocked if able.â Take that with a grain of salt, though. Protective Bubble might have it say âEnchanted creature must be blocked if able and has first strike and deathtouch.â Or you can cut the middleman and make it two lines: âEnchanted creature has first strike and deathtouch. // Enchanted creature must be blocked if able.â
@gollumni â Exotic Wings
Intent: Itâs interesting that we have two back-to-back âmust be blockedâ cards (hm, no shorthand?) in a row, both Auras no less, but very different. I like your flavor use with the wings being a status symbol, bright and glittery, and therefore turning the creature into irresistible prey of sorts. Aura colors are good, and the solid green effect is in there as well. The mechanics fit a pretty standard-ly powerful draft uncommon that can be used for beating down when necessary.Â
Improvement: Iâm 90% sure that right now GW doesnât get flying by itself anymore, or at least very rarely. Pollenbright Wings and Shield of the Oversoul exist, so Iâm on the fence. Maybe Iâm biased with recent printings, but for two mana Iâm not sure itâs what GW would need. That said, Iâm sure thereâs dissent and arguments to be made, and yes, I know its full color identity includes blue; this is pragmatic. I think this could have been solidly WUG with another buff, perhaps, but that just would have made it favorable for this contest and honestly itâs up to playtesting to see if those colors need a cheap flying aura. But the wings. The flavor. I⌠So these wings belong to birds, naturally? Who is summing this enchantment for mating? This is some kind of buff or boon that most any creature could have so in what world is some enchant-o-mancer giving âdo meâ wings to Mx. Passerby?? But, this may be just a quirk of the game, yeh?
Nitpicks: None!
@hiygamer â Etherium Replicator (JUDGE PICK)
Intent: Major kudos for making my look up Prototype Portal and seeing that my gut was wrong and that you DID use the right wording! This is a super-Esper card, more than any of the imprinted cards and honestly a great use of the art. Thopter Foundry is a great card but this one isnât a bad use and would kind of make sense. Now, Iâm not going to put this in improvements, because I want to ask a question: could this card be just plain UW? Possibly, but also consider: this card could be just a straight-up artifact as well, and it feels better how it is now. Why? Because the black invokes a different feeling. It invokes consumption, recycling, progress, larceny, calculation. Itâs a very blue side of black. And it also feels, well, Esper! Its an established use of theme!... Honestly itâs probably more that. But I like it anyway. Iâd say my bias was showing but none of the winners necessarily invoked Alara straight-up so thpt.
Improvement: There are mostly just wording errors. To be honest, if youâre getting something big, could this card be three mana? Thatâs probably pushing it, but worth testing. Multicolor custom cube time.
Nitpicks: âenterS the battlefieldâ (tense), âartifact or creatureâ (instead of the other way around), and most importantly: âCreate a token thatâs a copy of A CARD exiled with Etherium Replicatorâ etc. Because you can copy the ETB trigger and/or use shenanigans to exile other cards.
@hypexion â Ferrari, Sharp Scrapper
Intent: Well if my eyes donât deceive me, itâs another Esper card! And an artifact-y card? Hm, artifact-enchant-y card. Itâs easy to see the designation between colors, with self-mill and the lifegain going into black but leaning towards all three colors, the second ability being straight Disenchant, and the last one being an interesting UB pseudo-reanimation on the cheap, which is super interesting and aggressive. I can see this card intended as either a standard staple or being used as a supplemental planeswalker face card. Thereâd be a heavy amount of artifacts and enchantments for sure, probably artifact creatures.
Improvement: Did I miss something? When did WUB start caring about enchantments as a multicolor wedge identity? Alela and Zur have their thing, sure, but are those the baseline now? Iâm more head-scratching and 0% mad, honestly. As a flavorful card, though, Iâm not sure what youâre conveying exactly. So they get rid of stuff and theyâre happy when they find garbage, but sometimes they want to scrap things they donât like, but then they can recreate some of your garbage? Letâs back up and say that this card isnât a Scrapper and that theyâre an artifact/enchantment person. In the most general sense, I donât really feel a harmony of ideas. The card feels one-note, like thereâs very little to do besides abuse the -2 ability and maybe the -1 to get rid of some big thing on the table. The +1 exists to serve the -2, and the -1 feels like itâs trying to be protective for protectionâs sake. I donât know why this character does the things they do through the card. As utility planeswalkers become more abundant, the things they do have to be more resonant; imagine a fully-built world and put your card in the middle. No card is a metaphorical island.
Nitpicks: I think (maybe) that the +1 could be: âMill up to three cards, then you gain 3 life for each artifact and/or enchantment card milled this way.â
@i-am-the-one-who-wololoes â Corpse Spell
Intent: I think you made this very apparent. As a counterspell, it does the job well, and then it lets you get an idea for free! The choice of casting a noncreature spell is particularly interesting, as it plays into this weird and not-really-that-common theme of transfiguration. Obviously polymorphing appears in blue and red but it feels black because of the flavor youâve chosen to convey. Thatâs a great job.
Improvement: The big mechanical thing is that I would 100% make this let you case an instant, sorcery or creature instead of just a ânoncreature spell.â These colors donât really feel like they could transmute a creature into something thatâs not an idea or, well, a corpse, and it really seems as though thatâs the idea youâre going for. The big flavor thing, though, is the name. I really and truly donât know what youâre trying to convey. Now, Iâm aware that English isnât your first language, and thatâs a barrier that Iâm not sure how to cross for this kind of criticism. âCorpse Spellâ seems like a playtest name. As a concept, this card is great. As a submission, Iâm still having to extrapolate a lot; most importantly, it doesnât tell me how the caster is using the magic to turn a creature into something else. Work on telling that story, and when possible, use native speakers to help get ideas across.
Nitpicks: I think the wording would be: âCounter target creature spell. You may cast target noncreature card with converted mana cost less than or equal to that spellâs converted mana cost from your graveyard without paying its mana cost, and if that card would be put into your graveyard this turn, exile it instead.â Because if you exile it as it resolves and itâs, like, an artifact or planeswalker, whatâs the point? Hence my note about instants/sorceries and maybe other creatures.
@ignorantturtlegaming â Draxys, Scourge Eternal
Intent: This card absolutely fits the elemental shell. It feels to me like a standard or CMR-style bomb mythic that hits the table and kinda goes nuts. I mean, it wouldnât be your commander probably, but in Conspiracy-style? Man. Multiplayer draft, thatâs what I mean. It gets cards, it gets counters, it deals damage, then Blitz Hellion-s away. It does indeed feel like a blend of all the crazy things that come in these colors, and you did that much very well. Itâs not broken, but itâs powerful, and itâs repeatedly monstrous (not the mechanic, lol) with the fear that itâll return (until someone Doom Blades it, but thatâs the game for ya). Great feeling of a massive beautiful monster.
Improvement: Really, the one thing I would do to improve it would be to consolidate the second and third triggers into âWhen Draxys enters the battlefield, draw four cards, put four +1/+1 counters on it, then it deals 4 damage divided as you choose among any number of creatures and/or planeswalkers.â No, waitâwhy not make it an 8/8 and just have it draw cards and deal damage? Because of its massive cost, youâre not gonna play it and then activate Wheel of Fortune in the same turn unless youâre playing some crazy massive game, and then it just shuffles away anyway! So, my suggestion would be to make this one massive bomb when it hits and really get the Timmy out of it.
Nitpicks: None!
@jsands84 â Quarrel, Tariff Enforcer
Intent: The colors are obvious enough, right? A sphinx (blue) based on taxing and punishing (white) to make your opponents lose life (black). Couldnât be simpler. The color weight is reminiscent of standard cards like Ultimatum cycles but heck, weâve seen weirder commander cards in the past. I like the fact that even though the color weight is really heavy, the keywords support that kind of aggression without being too overbearing like weâve seen in other chase rares and mythics.
Improvement: That said, I donât think it needs that weight at all. 3WUB would have done the exact same and it wouldnât have looked awkward. Why would it need that weight in the first place? Well, perhaps if it entered the battlefield with an amazing immediate effect. And this card, well, it doesnât. You have a great eye for flavor and the fact that a legendary (read:uniquely adept) sphinx is enforcing the tax laws of the universe? 10/10. But it doesnât need that kind of punishment, especially considering, like, the effect really doesnât come up outside of vintage. So yeah, reduce the weight.
Nitpicks: In the flavor text, âtheirâ referring to the universe is kind of an odd pronoun. With most cases IIRC the concept is objectified instead of personalized, see Aether Adept. (Also there arenât many cards with âuniverseâ in the flavor text, surprisingly.)
@justincase-1012 â Startling Wisp
Intent: Illusions are almost entirely blue (and one of only two illusions with zero blue in its box is Esper-centric, funnily enough) so thatâs all interesting, but this is definitely breaking from the artifact theme and going for color flavor. The fact that it is the one doing the startling is somewhat black, but the discard definitely is. Because of the narrowness of this ability, I feel that itâs intended to be a draft/standard oriented card as opposed to eternal breadth. A 1/1 flying indestructible spirit in these colors is honestly pretty fair and ghostly!
Improvement: This card is too narrow to be common but definitely too specific to be rare, and that narrowness really is...weird. It doesnât just require noncombat damage, but it requires noncombat damage from creatures. Why? âThe next time a source would deal noncombat damage to you or another creature you control this turnâ would be perfectly reasonable. Also, why the next phase? Just have it say âThen, if ~ is on the battlefield, return it to its ownerâs hand.â The timing doesnât feel necessary. And honestly, I donât find this card âstartlingâ much. Itâs alluring, certainly, but not startling. Consider renaming and tightening the focus. Too narrow and things just get ugly.
Nitpicks: So you do need âthis turnâ as I said above, and then looking at other printed oracle text: âthat damage is dealt to ~ insteadâ etc. etc.Â
@kytheon4-4 â Surrak of New Atarka
Intent: Surrak was a three-color monster the last time we saw him, and heâs back in action now and reclaiming his colors. This is definitely meant to be a commander of sorts, hyper-aggressive with some awesome combat to boot. The first abilityâs Gleam of Battle is really aggressively costed here but it makes sense in a timeline when heâs reclaimed some kind of new unity. And of course, the callbacks to both Tarkir timelines is there and well and good. Color-wise, your choice to then go ahead and make a future new timeline is really interesting and I can feel that sort of ânew âNayaââ blood pumping in Surrakâs veins.
Improvement: The first damage trigger is great, if pretty pushed for Naya colors. The second clause is⌠Well, call it a âwinmoreâ if you want, but it really is a winmore. Big creatures are big and thatâs okay, but if theyâre that big and dealing damage, then an indestructible counter is kind of adding insult to injury. And frankly, why not combine these all into one trigger, so that the Gleam ability is just a little less pushed? Whenever the creature deals damage, THEN it gets a counter, and IF itâs four or greater THEN you draw a card, and THEN if itâs eight or greater, something weird happens.
Nitpicks: None!
@mardu-lesbian â Contentious Pair
Intent: A white Soldier, a red Goblin, and a deathtouch counter, and yep, the gangâs all here. Token-making in red and white is pretty standard, a little less for BR and more heavily in the white part of WB, but all the same thereâs nothing wrong with that appearing in the three-color combo. Itâs interesting you went for a post-Conflux kind of deal with Alara...wedges? Really unique. This is most definitely designed to be a common card for a standard expansion, meant to be drafted and whatnot. It implies a lot about the potential future!
Improvement: Iâm unsure how you came up with these colors and creature types. Bant, the shard of soldiers, and Jund, of Goblins, do have one shared color: green. But then this card would have been what, white-green-red? And thatâs problematic in another way, and I get that. As it stands, though, this feels heavily weighted towards BR and less towards white, and honestly, this feels definitely uncommon. You get two bodies at instant speed, one of which will most likely destroy an attacking creature. Instant deathtouch isnât necessarily a bad thing, and itâs been in standard for a bit. The bodies and potential permanent deathtouch when you have an empty board is what raises the complexity. My flavor question: why are they contentious? Makes me feel like weâre seeing the start of the story more than a split-second moment; this card might feel better as an uncommon sorcery.
(Also, Iâm just imagining them coming over a mountain at instant-speed during combat, and the soldier and the goblin are just talking about their differences and the goblin is showing off their poison dagger when a beast just WHAMS into them and they both instantly die as the soldier looks on in shock and horror. I do love it when cards tell weird stories.)
Nitpicks: None, I donât think.
@misterstingyjack â Galtiber, Segovian Titan
Intent: Ah, the memes. Well, still, 1/1 tribal is an interesting take on the whole build-around-me dealio. I can honestly say Iâm unsure where this card would fit, but thatâs not a bad thing. It feels build-around me, but could it work in a limited environment? Youâd need a higher as-fan of 1/1s or tokens, and thatâs not a bad thing. Honestly, this card doesnât feel too bad. Heâs a protector and he makes them all work together. Itâs a neat little design that captures the diligence, unity and edification of these citizens.
Improvement: I really canât think of a place where this card would see play, though, and the issue is? Thereâs no real way to improve that past putting this in a pretty bonkers set where it can either go nuts or be mediocre. There are a lot of cool things you can do with this card, but where does he fit? Segovia is a weird plane and designing for it is hard. I love this card and would love to build with it but the fact is that itâs just going to be weird. Iâll put this in nitpicks, but thereâs wording issues. Additionally, talking about the character by name in the flavor text is a little off-putting to me. Iâm sure itâs happened before but the story feels like a moment being described more than a character.
Nitpicks: âCreatures you control with base power and toughness 1/1â is the correct way to word these things, Iiii think.
@morbidlyqueerious â Ricantha, Ribbon-Dancer (mythic) (JUDGE PICK)
Intent: As much as this technically could be someoneâs general, I like this card as a standard-legal mythic, like Kethis or Yarok. Itâs surprisingly easy to understand while being quite powerful in its own way. I wouldnât call it a Voltron card so much as I would call it a control bomb, certainly for limited. The white-blue deals with the tapping, more the blue with the freezing, and the alluring aspect and keywords fill in the green. It brings a lot of the multicolored feel even with a monocolor activated ability.Â
Improvement: You know, the flavor almost outshines the color aspect. Looking back I do see the intent, but Iâm also mostly seeing an interesting take on the dancing and the enchanting aspect. Theyâre vigilant, they âtie downâ the creatures, and they make other creatures follow them. Honestly, this is a case of âright card wrong contest,â where you made a great card to convey the specific act of ribbon-dancing and a dance leader so much that it overtakes the intent of color. The jokingly biting way of saying this is that you didnât pander to me as a judge enough (/s). I donât know about reach; first strike, maybe, to show their agility?
Nitpicks: The combat trigger should be one sentence, see the oracle on Kamigawa snakes.
@mtg-ds â Majak, Revival Instigator (JUDGE PICK)
Intent: Now I wouldnât call this a gimmick card but I would say that thereâs a lot going on here, again, with the flavor. Sacrificing each other creature actually feels white in a Cataclysmic way but with a black edge of making all the zombies. Hasty zombies fills in the red and plays into the instigative aspect, and man, getting everyone out onto the dance floor? Iâll admit that this card is kind of silly with the art, but thereâs something unusually cathartic about it. He enters, turns them all into zombies, makes them dance, then whenever someone else dies they join the dance, and when he leaves the music stops. Like, itâs kind of brilliant, how the zombies canât dance without him. As a flavorful card for a supplemental set I think that you did a fantastic job.
Improvement: My first small note is that the art is again really distracting, and like, I understand that that mightâve been the purpose but âzombie dance partyâ out of context feels a little unusual, and the name âRevival Instigatorâ is a touch on the nose. But those are small concerns next to the fact that this card really could have been black/red and wouldnât have made that much of a difference. Couldâve even kept the Cleric typing. Again, I need to also say that this card is downright fantastic mechanically, but just not quite white there for the purposes of this contest. Keep this card as-is, maybe make him a Human IMO. I donât have any significant improvements.
Nitpicks: None!
@naban-dean-of-irritation â Tamakoma, Spectral Shiver (JUDGE PICK)
Intent: Clever clogs, I looked up that name and it is indeed fitting! Very clever you are, just as clever as giving the UB flash ninja ETB feeling that strikes fear into the heart of those who donât know sheâs coming. Whiteâs got the spirit flash and indestructible, blackâs got deathtouch, flash, AND indestructible, and blueâs got the ninja feeling. Something tells me this would totally be a supplemental card unless Kamigawa goes three-colors, but to be honest I get a MH1 vibe more, and thatâs okay too. Major kudos for making me double-check cards like Ambuscade Shaman for this weird wording.
Improvement: I can see how this card would be white flavorfully; I think its just precedent working against you. Because of the way that black has been encroaching upon indestructible in the past couple years, this card could just be blue-black and fit into the ninja feeling just as well. I personally like the white spirit aspect. Itâs just not as present here as I would have liked for this contest. Great card, no mechanical improvements.
Nitpicks: I donât know if âthe hollows of the nightâ are, like, a thing? I donât know, just as a writer it reads weird to me. One day Iâll be accredited and that wonât seem like such a jackass comment too.
@nine-effing-hells â Llanlaia Rywh, the Inmost Eye
Intent: I like your take on elves here, using the focus and mood to turn the ordinarily green elves into some warrior monastery funky stuff. Iâm getting the sense of a cave world, or some kind of twisted plane where expectations are thwarted and the different races of Magic have to find their own kind of way around. Definitely a face card for the tribe in whatever set itâs based in.Â
Improvement: Thereâs no blue and black here, or at least Iâm not feeling it mechanically, and for this contest thatâs the most important thing. Giving a Runed Halo effect on a pump is really darn powerful, and to have this dismiss any damage or removal at instant speed is definitely powerful and definitely white. The concept of looking within for meditation is a bit blue, sure, but I donât see that expressed on this card as much. I do have some major presentation issues. The name is almost completely unpronounceable, so consider shortening it and cleaning it significantly. The flavor text is also in need of shortening and edits. âLook within to look around.â With a hint that the elves are blind, boom, youâre golden. So: name change, flavor paring, and consider that this card feels overall white. That said, for flavor and balance reasons for this card, keeping those colors is fine. Also consider that this is a really damn powerful beater.
Nitpicks: None that I can tell.
@partlycloudy-partlyfuckoff â Everlasting Forefather
Intent: Hereâs the thing: Iâll get to stuff in the âimprovementsâ section but mechanically, this card is really interesting for a number of flavorful reasons. Three-mana 4/3 with mentor is perfectly powerful in these colors, thatâs great, flavorfully fine as a forefather. Creating two spirits upon death, awesome, those are the embodiments of his students and ideals, and most importantly, play into the embalm, where his zombie can teach the spirits after death and makes for great flying beaters, AND that Zombie token will make more spirits in remembrance. The use of flavorful mechanics gives it an interesting edge even if all these individual mechanics could be in mono-white.
Improvement: One, I would personally make this a warrior, but thatâs super minor. Two⌠I canât think of any reason outside a custom set where youâd have three non-evergreen mechanics from three different sets and two different planes on the same card. It feels like a custom card, not in the sense that itâs at all thoughtless or amateurish, because itâs not, but because thereâs no way of making these pieces come together in a meaningful way; it feels like youâre removing the restrictions on what can go together for the sake of it. MH1 did have some mechanical mashups and weâve explored that before. This feels like a bit too much for what weâre looking for. Honestly, for a custom multicolor cube or w/e, keep this card. But you might also want to consider MSE or having someone render for you, because with the VERY necessary rules text, this one takes up a lot of text; no room for flavor, and no need, âcause you do it all naturally anyway.
Nitpicks: Mm, none, I donât think!
@reaperfromtheabyss â Glorified Minddrinker (JUDGE PICK)
Intent: This is definitely asking to be in a standard/draftable set as a tribal beater. You give it evasion, you use other vampires/warlocks to mess stuff up, you get in, and you drink. BW vampire lifegain meets the milling, and there you have it. What I really like is the fact that itâs âany card,â like Bloodchief Ascension, but that feels blue, because theyâre drinking from the mind and not just the body, and I dunno, I REALLY like that kind of neat flavor niche. I also love how this makes a really roundabout already-exploited infinite combo with Sanguine Bond and Mindcrank, both of which are halves of other better combos.
Improvement: Mechanically, thereâs nothing to improve here, except you might want to consider some kind of evasion. I think thereâs just the nitpick of having âGlorifiedâ in there without any understanding of what makes this creature glorified or why. A snippet of flavor could have helped with that, and with only two abilities. I donât know, this one just didnât pop to me for some reason. Itâs a perfectly fine submission, and it just needs a little more pop.
Nitpicks: None! Nice and clear.
@shootingstarhunter â Storm Key
Intent: I find it interesting that the mana made from sacrificing is red but the abilities have a central Riku-like fascination. This feels like a supplemental card for sure, although Iâm sure there are standard shenanigans. It would require a set in which RUG/Temur has an artifact theme and in which giving things storm is on the table. I have the feeling that in a genuinely competitive Maelstrom Wanderer deck that this card could turn a possible win into a guaranteed win. Itâs there to help big things be bigger, but without a win-more feel, and I like that.
Improvement: In terms of this contest, it lacks elegance in its cohesion. The flavors donât necessarily blend as well as they could. Thereâs a lot of rules text that emphasizes the separation rather than blending it together. My suggestions: Make it just cost RUG, no generic, reword the first ability to be: âWhen ~ is put into a graveyard from the battlefield, add R for each spell youâve cast this turn,â and the second ability to â5, T, Sacrifice ~: When you cast your next instant, sorcery or creature spell this turn, copy it for each spell youâve cast before it this turn.â And then add reminder text about targets and permanents. A tiny bit more flexible and less text, and you can add in some flavor. Personally I donât really get the âKeyâ aspect. It feels more like a big machine of sorts.
Nitpicks: Remember to capitalize âSacrificeâ in the ability costs. Second reminder text should be âYou donât choose new targets for the copies.â I think, thereâs not much precedent. Check the MSE Discord for tech help in getting your name/type text straightened out if youâd like.
@snugz â Erratic Polymorph (JUDGE PICK)
Intent: This does feel very wild, more of the Temur frontier or even the Ketria triome. Either one of those sets getting a return could have this, or a supplemental draft set on that world, or a commander product aimed at those timelines. This cardâs pretty flexible in that sense! The red lack of control over twisty magic is definitely evident, with the green bear and the blue otters as representative of those sides of the wild. I like how you took blueâs natural sense and made it river/forest oriented. Big boys and little boys do different kinds of cool damage. I can dig it! (Although Iâm more inclined to bears than otters myselfâŚ)
Improvement: I wouldnât call this âelegantâ as a primary adjective for its color balance, even though itâs very neat still overall. The obviousness of green being bears and blue being otters doesnât take away from the fact that both of them make sense. The long and short is that I donât have card improvements, and this cardâs just for a different contest.
Nitpicks: None-zo
@starch255 â Dopplicant
Intent: Very clever, I see. You used whiteâs enchantment base for the card type even though itâs a strictly red and blue ability. Copying any spells is on the table now with Lithoform Engine so that makes sense. This could be in just about any set with these colors, and you know what, thatâs perfectly fine. Jeskai, Raugrin (ugh), or otherwise, thereâs cool stuff happening.
Improvement: With a vague name and flavor, itâs easy to have this card be a thumbs-up mechanically, but what...exactly is it? Itâs name makes me think of the creature Duplicant, which is fine, makes sense, although itâs not a creature here like any of the other â-cantâ cards. I just canât place it, which is obviously a presentation thing over a mechanical issue. For the Fair, presentation is somewhat important, and also contextualizes your cards. It might just be a âmeâ thing to keep in mind for when Iâm judging, so donât take it personally at all. I think the idea is sound and all we need is polish.
Nitpicks: None~
@stormtide-leviathan â Jeskai Confluence
Intent: Like the confluences of C15, this is a charm-like modal spell with three pretty standard modes for the colors: blue draw, red damage, white erase. I can see this being part of either a standard return to that other timeline or as part of a âclan clashâ supplemental set for sure.Â
Improvement: In the main post, there were examples like Shattergang Brothers that were posted as technically fine but not elegant. Totally separating your colors and abilities was part of that, breaking the cohesion. Unfortunately, charm effects were most definitely part of that area. I know that Magic design space isnât eternally open, and I hate to say this, but because this card uses 2/3 abilities already found on the printed confluences and only minorly changes the damage, this feels somewhat derivative. I would go back to the drawing board and look at overlap rather than individualization, what the colors could have done together to make a card that creates something unique.
Nitpicks: There should be a period after âonceâ instead of an emdash.
@thedirtside â Twisted Design
Intent: I think that with Tezzeret being who he is and with the cool trend of colored artifacts, this card could absolutely find play in a variety of places. It feels almost like a story card, someoneâs terrible (well, twisted) creation. That much is absolutely apparent. The counter/exile is definitely blue and black-ish but I like how the theft kind of ends up being red as well and the artifact typing helps with that. Flavor text is pretty okay too. Short, simple.
Improvement: That...second ability. Are you choose a card as part of a cost? Iâm no rules guru but Iâm almost certain that you canât do that. And it doesnât specify the speed, so you can basically pay the (very fair) cost to exile the spell, but then very unfairly get it back anytime you want. Why random, too? What if that spell has other random restrictions or no legal targets? Thereâs a lot to unpack from that with no printed precedent because, to put it bluntly, it doesnât work within the rules. I really like the idea of having a card where you can somehow steal, twist, or morph their spells into new nightmares or futures. Work with that idea to make something URBy that, well, works rules-wise.
Nitpicks: It took me a bit to find your source photo with your source link (X), and I donât even think that blogâs using proper permission. Hereâs the gist: if you canât find the original photographer, either go stock or donât use art, OR find a source thatâs more easily traceable. Pretend that youâre someone who has to find the source working backwards.
@walker-of-the-yellow-path â Ziziphus, the Lotus Eater
Intent: I could never be like him, I could never talk like that. Also, thank you for making this explicitly commander-based, heh. Food tokens are interesting, and I can see the token art already as well as the kind of person you might imagine Ziziphus to be. Oddly enough, they feel Therosian, considering the âlotus eatersâ in the Odyssey, and thatâs not a bad thing I suppose. Foodâs sort of in the green area, with blue-white profiteering, and the general combat lull sort of encapsulating the whole GWU-ish control feeling. Turbo-fog ahoy.
Improvement: Competitive commander gets shut down pretty easily and casual commander becomes almost instantly unfun. Itâs an instant-speed everyone-gets-it nigh-uncounterable Pacifism array thatâs flavorfully understandable but puts a target on you as the one person to kill if anyone wants this game to ever end. I understand the top-down design but itâs impractical and I donât see a game where this being your commander would make the gameplay better. So like Gwafa Hazid, consider your design: what would entice people to take the food? Whatâs the payoff? How often do you want this to happen to improve gameplay without causing staleness? Is food where you want to go, using lifegain to then further prolong the game?... Oh. Oh, someone can also just lorus-ify Ziziphus itself and then nothing happens in this version. Thatâs something to consider.
Nitpicks: The nameâs really similar to âSisyphusâ in pronunciation. I was distracted.
@whuh-oh â Tainted Lightninghorn
Intent: Some day, I think weâre gonna get a five-color Lightning Blankemental kind of card, and I canât wait for it. So yeah, itâs an aggressive predatory insect elemental with nasty sauce, and I feel this in a supplemental set for sure.Â
Improvement: So as an uncommon, itâs already pretty pushed, too much so. Ball Lightning set a precedent, and itâs a rare for a reason, honestly. That much power even for four mana with the abilities youâve given it is a but much. For this card, most importantly, I need to be as clear as I can: The interaction between deathtouch and trample is an unintuitive quirk of the game. They do not belong on the same card with zero restrictions, especially not on an uncommon. Sometimes itâs okay to just make a cool card because itâs cool. I like my weird cards, I like my weird interactions. Forcing them feels like choosing indulgence over good design. Iâm not feeling the uniqueness of the colors, Iâm not feeling the flavor (why does lightning leave decay?), and Iâm not feeling the gameplay. Where do we go from here? I think this general concept is fine for a personal set or a supplemental concept. Contextualize it for that area, look at environmental answers, and then see if you want to play with what the colors do.
Nitpicks: Iâm 90% sure itâd go âDeathtouch, haste, menace, trample.â Also, Iâm sure someone pointed out the whole flying-without-flying thing for the art, thatâs very mildly distracting.
@wolkemesser â Murmurs of the Bosk
Intent: Yeah, this is very much a Lorwyn-inspired card, and Iâm happy for that. Both the treefolk flavor and the permanent return are green, returning to the battlefield is white and black, and the white enchantment plus toughness matters (also in green) gives this card a magnificent flow of feeling, the trees returning. I can see this in any set, but especially a standard return to Lorwyn, and yet it could have a home in several cool recursion decks! Itâs a nice little addition for both lovers of slow return and for treefolk fans.
Improvement: This card was going to be a runner-up or even a judge pick, but the severity of nitpicks grew until I realized that there were just too many problems to give it full commendation. Iâll put the revised wording in the ânitpicksâ bar and get to the big ones: the name, and the flavor text. The name is obviously an homage to Murmuring Bosk, right? Thatâs understandable, but the name is literally so close that I canât think of anything else. The difference between being honoring and being derivative is enigmatic at times. This particular case is more evident. And the flavor text is almost completely ripped off from Doranâs card itself. Literally, it keeps the order and adds four words that donât add sense or depth to the character. For future submissions, keep that in mind. As a mechanical suggestion, you could just have it be the greatest toughness without targeting, and it does need to target the card in the graveyard.
Nitpicks: âAt the beginning of your upkeep, you may return target permanent card with converted mana cost X or less from your graveyard to the battlefield, where X is the greatest toughness among creatures you control.â
Join us tomorrow, for a new contest, and a brush...with DEATH.
- @abelzumiâ
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I wish people were more careful about parasocial relationships. Like yeah you probably never will meet Chris Evans and feeling like you have a personal relationship with him and know way more about him than you possibly truly could doesnât make you bad or anything but like, itâs not great for you? And itâs a slippery slope in more ways than people even think about. Itâs dangerous to invest your own self in someone you donât know, for one. You see a lot of cult and hivemind mentalities with singers and actors and youtubers and podcasters, where even when like, a writer is outed as a child molester or active racist some people will write 4 page essays 14 times a day to defend their guilty conscience and their faveâs pride trying to convince everyone and their dad actually itâs a conspiracy or itâs ok somehow or itâs not a big deal. And you see a lot of people not only support terrible things and people, but actively become worse to make doing that okay to themself. If you delude yourself into thinking a person you never met is not only your best friend or loves you, but that you know them? It suddenly becomes very personal when you find out they did something that sucked or they do suck, and also itâs so easy to convince yourself everyone else is wrong bc you pretend you know them and kind of believe it to truly do. And start defending them like you would your childhood best friend you actually know would never commit murder or condone slavery or something: There is no part of that that is healthy or good for you.
But thatâs the side people talk about more. What people talk about less is that this is also a big problem within fandoms and for small content creators. While your parasocial relationship with Chris Evans is your problem and the people you harass on his behalfâs (note: I picked Chris bc I know of absolutely no scandal abt him so it seemed heâd be a clear âthis is not targeted at allâ choice but if it wasnât I like Evans; I know little abt him but he seems cool and this is not at all abt him or anything), because Chris is safely up in his huge house with his bodyguards and several levels of separation. Heâll probably never have to know you exist even if you try to stalk him. But in a fandom and with small content creators, thereâs an added layer, which is when you read a web comic or fic or see a small groupâs original animated series, a lot of people come up with a like parasocial-lite idea of who that person is, and bring it with them to meeting that person directly. Iâve seen a similar thing happen with people really big in fandoms, where theyâre so well known people expect them to be a certain way just because of their content. And sometimes that means you get the YouTube white man treatment and the âfandom momâ exerts really creepy hive mind influence (especially over smaller and very interconnected fandoms), and sometimes it means a popular artist or writer gets harassed because a fan meets the real person and realizes theyâre not the idealized version they already invented, and take that personally. Which is really not cool, and depressing at best to chilling at worst. It should be a simple concept that just because you read someoneâs web comic you donât know them, and that theyâre going to be a living breathing human with complexity and also existence and interest outside of that comic, and not everything about them will be the way you guess or want, and the idealized version of them you have in your head is not their responsibility or fault or problem, but most people donât seem to get it. Iâve met a lot of super cool people through various aspects of fandom stuff from fan, to artists, projects, games, to writer, and some are normal and great, even if they met me because of my work, but thereâs also been a disturbing number who approach me excitedly with this idea of me they made up, who are repulsed violently the second they see even a minute divergence from it, and seem to take that as some personal betrayal, or failure, and canât handle the fact that I am in fact not a celebrity, but just another person trying to make sense of life and do the right thing and look out for the people I love and the ones I donât know. Itâs. Something. Alienating maybe. How many people seem to handle even tiny content creators that way. Itâs certainly not pleasant.
Anyway, Iâm only writing this because Iâve seen more parasocial posts tonight than like, ever before, because of to the best of what I can gather something happened on YouTube? And I figure while itâs temporarily in the public consciousness, if you see this, please consider how you treat big name fandom members and small content creators, and think of us. Even positive dehumanizing (as in idealization) is still dehumanizing and not actually positive at all or enjoyable and it does hurt people. And we are...people. So. Yeah, thatâs all.
#parasocial relationships#parasocial#small content creators#fandom#you can reblogged but please donât clown on this. if you disagree go make your own post and blog that. I just lost a family member and Iâm#not doing great emotionally and I donât want to try and talk about a personal experience kindly and wake up tomorrow to an inbox full of#people who somehow took âpeople are /just/ peopleâplease treat them as such fullyâ personally and negatively and have beef for some#godforsaken reason over that#like please have one single ounce of basic decency and leave me alone
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Alt-Age: Designing Belief
May 19 2018
https://designmuseum.org/whats-on/talks-courses-and-workshops/alt-age-designing-belief
Thoughts: I found the first session on conspiracy theories fascinating (because I knew nothing about it beforehand, and the Trump analysis was very cool too), I liked Daniel Kellerâs crypto starter kit profiles (and he was super nice, I had a great conversation with him after his talk!), and I thought Timandra put an interesting perspective to data profiling.
Trumped Up: The President and Conspiracy Theories
DR CLARE BIRCHALL
which conspiratorial theories are successful and which fail at explaining contemporary ?
conspiracy theory: speculative story that fashions historical/contemporary events as outcome of a conspiratorial design. often sits at odds with official story. it asks who benefits, and points the finger.
Richard hofstadterâs paranoid style:
all of history is a conspiracy
perpetuates the idea that conspiracy theories are totally other and unhinged
clinical paranoia vs paranoid style
conspiracy theorists are naive people who canât really engage in the public sphere because theyâre so irrational and ??
fredric jameson: conspiracism is often a symptom of something else
marxist
narrative is a v flawed attempt to map out the ever elusive social totality
system of overwhelmingly subjugating and repressive landscape
conclusion is wrong - itâs the faceless system of capitalism that is to blame
doesnât take the form the left wants politics to take
lived experience of social injustice gets turned into a conspiratorial narrative
historical precedent informs the turn to conspiracy as explanation
justified fear that black people have about the way black bodies have been used and abused (ie. tuscany syphilis study) - institutional supported
ie. impotence, AIDS
â> tools of resistance used to galvanise a community - this is their social function or cultural work that they do  (tanya??)
example of popular knowledge that puts on display undecidable nature of all knowledge. exaggerated version of modes of knowing. so share a lot with legitimised forms. risks showing us how all knowledge is ever theory, and legitimacy is conferred by mystical constructions. so this binary is drawn to secure our own position.
Trump
what kind of conspiracist is trump? He seeks to target and delegitimize three targets:
particular political opponents
institutions (liberal media, federal reserve)
any knowledge that threatens his interest (climate change)
trumpâs style:
not as the sustained narrative that hofstader way, but uses conspiracist fragments to highlights gaps/doubts and dispenses with necessity of evidence.
never quite takes responsibility over theories, just repeats others.
âsome people sayâ, âmany people sayâ
meme friendly format
uses it as one tactic to disorientate and disarm
helpful ideas:
conspiracism can be employed for ideological reasons
conspiracism is often a symptom of something else
proliferation of conspiracy theories is due in part to fact that so many actual conspiracies have been uncovered during the 20th century
problematic ideas in age of trump
conspiracy theory is a pejorative term
identity of president, at white house, legitimises
conspiracy theories are tools of resistance for historically marginalised people
trump isnât a minority lol
arise because it is not possible to limit interpretation or safeguard knowledge
idkkkk post truth era stuff
concept of fully agential, sovereign, cartesian individual who believes with their whole body and soul
fragments enter upon a thoroughly networked sphere, so they circulate virally
belief becomes distributed and exists within the network through method of circulation
belief without believers?
for many trump supporters, believing the theory may be of little importance. what builds is the impression of a figure that isnât beholden to elitists, who says the unsayable. mode might be most important.
to understand role of trump here:
this isnât the first time conspiracy theories have been expressed from positions of power but the info environment is different
languages of disenfranchisement can be mimicked and appropriated
must think about trumpâs conspiracy fragments within whole range of post truth tactics
we might need to rethink the nature of belief in a digital, networked era
The Nouveaux Cryptoriche: A Consumer Profile
DANIEL KELLER
GINI coefficient - measurement of de/centralisation, all bitcoin and ethereum stuff is actually very centralised and unequal (wealth disparity of owner of wallets, etc)
within crypto: huge gender divide, white/male/millennials
all fairly libertarian and right wing in orientation - neo liberal logic that behaviour must be incentivised economically for anything altruistic to happen (ethereum, bitcoin, ripple)
motivation through economics = neoliberal + reactionary worldview
who are the cryptorich?
richest: white men, some asian men
starter kits: caleb, priscilla, andsprei, elijah, roger
PANEL DISCUSSION
With Daniel Keller and Michael Dieter. Chaired by Natalie Kane
spiritual/magical terminology in describing technology
manipulation as neglect (malice)?
no, intention in business model to maximise profits and attention, so no not neglect because its intentional
CA = great âaccidentâ of this business model
mindless logic that goes into all the platforms we use today, addictive nature (brains have been completely rewired in the last 15 years)
digital dependency
neglect - politics of care ?
history of the whole science and technology studies being ignored
digital mindfulness - theres a genealogy to it
cyber culture + counterculture new ageisms
subversive tactics ?
florian kramer - subversive media
angela nagel - think of alt right in terms of subcultures and critiques of subculture theory
thinking more about continuities
platform capitalism fosters these communities - reaction of no platforming them? can further radicalise + alienate them
legitimate claim at being the alt bc of the monopoly on liberal terminology Â
understanding truth is based on an understanding of what non truth is or are ?
forms of behavioural economics were embedded into platform design - promoting mode of behavioural design. tracking, nudges, in the context of business propositions.
tokenising all possible economic activity, market of IOT
politics of attention - extreme edgelord ism results on 4chan
critique of behavioural dimension on platforms as being very causal
by saying these mechanisms actually work and lead to addiction, there may be a chance to launch stronger critique against platform monopoly and get them to bear more responsibility for certain dynamics we associate with them
is this a mistake, bc do we really know to what extent these mechanisms actually work?
micro targeting
distracts us from thinking through what type of longer term social issues/conflicts/antagonisms are being manifest through these types of dynamics (algorithm is revealing something thatâs natural, given too much credit for this stuff)
these things work we need to regulate them vs ^
deemphasising determining role software may have in this (is ignoring the possible slippery slope tho, negligence)
targeting: sub culture of people who feel like youâre be targeted + tracked constantly by government, mental health, communities that reinforce mental illness
philosophical regulation (speculative design theory) being seen as against innovation
level of ignorance theyâre trying to preserve
reinvestment of desktop as focused productivity, minimise work dimensions of mobile devices (redesign of mobiles)?
people who arenât on social media right now arenât shaping the cultural discourse ? - national and international influence
foam space app - decentralised proof of location, micropayment constantly for that
steem it
conspiracy vs speculative design
hyperstition
epistemology of reductionism
Was It Big Data That Won It?
TIMANDRA HARKNESS
resources diverted by govt in targeting voters - 2 types of people, bc otherwise its a waste of time (ie. already have a strong affiliation + go out to vote)
daniel scarvaloni - obamas campaign
how politics ad targeting works now - tailor messages etc
profiling, data brokers, inferred data
easily misprofiled / inferring is not loads better than chance
weâre calling everyone else the âgullible foolsâ, weâre not the gullible fools
problem is this model of humanity - people that can be measured, predicted, nudged in ways (more complex lab rats) vs people with whom we have to engage
Beyond Belief: Being Converted in a Post-Truth Era
DR MICHAEL DIETER
digital well being strategies part of new behavioural design paradigm to deal with distraction, scandals
wellbeing.google
managing unconscious user and guiding them into habitual behaviours/habits even when it may actually be contradictory to their intentions
âconversionâ: language
obfuscation is part of the business model
sleepwalking into new forms of exploitation
targeted if you share traits with other fragments of users (segregating into segments) - dominant ??? of captivation
james bridle + youtube as the great radicaliser - targeting children on youtube
UX conversion
alt right conversion
like attracts like
center for humane technology (humane tech.com)
new design politics to be articulated? realignment of tech with humanityâs best interests. who decides on what these interests will be? these structures or dependant on this type of behaviouralism.
paternalistic rather than exploitative nudging
Detecting Fake News and Misinformation: Spotting the Common Themes
BARNEY JACKSON (FACTMATA)
fake news spreads faster than true news
creating a quality score for content, to serve to advertising platforms
creating community driven AI, automated algorithms for detecting 5 things
author credibility, publisher credibility, headline analysis, ad/media analysis, content analysis
^ how did you come up with the criteria?
âtoxic contentâ
hyperpartisanship
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Conspiracy unearthed - fruit-flavoured flavourings taste nothing like fruit, and everyone pretends not to notice.
The Sound of Music sucks. Everyone knows it, but everyone pretends itâs the best thing since sliced bread. Is sliced bread really that fantastic? Itâs convenient, for sure, but bread has probably found itself on a fairly slippery slope since the advent of pre-packaged slices. Clearly, the French are the masters of bread - go there and try it if you donât believe me - but you never see Jacques or Claudine whipping out a slice of bread and slapping on some ridiculously delicious French butter. No, theyâre just wandering around with an unsliced baguette in the basket of their chic bicycles, while they look bored but stylish in their berets and micro-moustaches.
What does that have to do with flavourings or The Sound of Music, you ask? Nothing, but it highlights a very important point. Just because something becomes a commonly used phrase, it doesnât make it true. For example, âdonât count your eggs before theyâre hatchedâ. Dumb. Just dumb. Regardless of how many chickens (or other birds, reptiles or monotremes) are hatched, you still had a countable number of eggs. Even if you had an astounding number of eggs, you could realistically just ask someone to help you count them. In fact, itâs harder to count them after the creature has hatched, because the shells get smashed. So never take that piece of advice.  âCount your eggs before they get brokenâ would be far more useful to anyone who knows itâs not just about the chickens. You have to enjoy the egg journey. Solid advice right there, folks.
So back to The Sound of Music. I should mention that Iâve never actually finished watching the movie. Once old mate sings âWhen youâre 16 going on 17âł I am so overcome with rage, Iâm not able to continue watching. Â
youtube
If you can stand to watch the misogynistic piece of crap, youâre a more tolerant - though possibly less discerning - human being than I am. It blows my mind that such drivel, such claptrap, such freaking twaddle, didnât end up on the cutting room floor. Not since Ethan Hawke kissed Winona Ryder have I seen something this repulsive. And thatâs saying something, because I once saw Shane Warne in leopard skin underpants.
So, why do so many people profess to love The Sound of Music when itâs so bad? Itâs clearly a conspiracy. I suspect that someone cool but judgemental - maybe Helen Mirren, maybe Michelle Obama, or even LL Cool J - once claimed to like TSOM, and everyone else just followed along. It probably happens in every generation, and all the non-cool kids just follow suit, hoping to become cool too. I have a theory that Millie Bobby Brown is probably tweating about how great TSOM is right now, and the myth is thus perpetuated for another generation.
I just googled âThe Sound of Music conspiracy theoryâ and found nothing. Hmmm.... very suspicious. Like itâs been redacted. Possibly when Barack Obama was in power? Yep. Think about it.
I did find out that apparently Avril Lavigne died in 2003 and was replaced by someone called Melissa. It seems her nose and handwriting have changed. When I compare photos of her from 2002 and now, she most certainly looks older... Â
So, I digress. Â
âFruit flavouringsâ donât taste anything like fruit. Fanta tastes nothing like an orange, and no one would eat a grape that tastes like grape Hubba Bubba. I could go on listing fruit for a while - particularly if I was to go into subcategories such as Granny Smith, Royal Gala, etc. - but I wonât. Instead Iâll just acknowledge this: I have nothing further to say about artificial fruit flavours. Theyâre just not like fruit. Itâs probably not a conspiracy. I will admit that pear Jelly Belly jellybeans are REMINISCENT of pear. Letâs leave it at that. Â
I thought maybe I could distract you with this picture of a cat running, which the internet claims is the best picture ever. Itâs probably top 10...
I feel a bit bad that I might have started a revolt against the artificial flavouring industry, who, letâs face it, never hurt anyone, but I got some stuff off my chest about The Sound of Music. And thatâs the real lesson today.
Adios.
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