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elegantagent · 1 month ago

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Gunpla Review Journal!!

So. After building the Wing EW Ver Ka. I was finding myself really enjoying the design of the Wing Gundam, so I decided to pick up the

Wing TV Ver Real Grade

So, as you may see in the photo, I put a lot more effort into the build of this kit than i usually do.

I decided to brush down the entire inner frame with a brass metallic, in order to make it feel really regal, as the wing gundam should. and i tried my best to avoid stickers, even reverse washing the eyes with black enamel paint. The articulation on this thing is actually amazing to be honest. It's super solid, the super long skirts barely get in the way because they're on a hinge joint as well as a ball joint. The kit is just so multifaceted. especially with those updated wings. It really lives up to it's namesake. The gimmicks in the weapons are great too. the buster rifle with it's actual ammunition packs, and the shield with it's droop snoot ejecting beam saber with an awesome gimmick. The Bird mode does as well as it can with how the wing gundam is designed though. The buster rifle makes it really long, and the wings do a lot of the heavy lifting. the Talons on the arms are the only thing that kind of get in the way here though.

8/10

after having built quite a few complicated kits, I decided I should step back for a little bit and enjoy some simple builds. And since hobby lobby often does 40% off sales, I decided to pick up the cheapest thing in the store

2. The Entry Grade RX-78-2 Gundam

This kit is actually super simple and great for beginners, at least if they don't want to play with it. It's incredibly cheap and that shows in the joints. Usually in something like the Leo, or any 30MM or any Lfrith style kits, the tolerances on the plastic on plastic joints would be tight enough to hold up to some play. But in Entry Grades i've found, the plastic is so soft, and so loose in its tolerances, that the joints warp out and just become flaccid. Aesthetically, this kit isn't terrible. If you're planning to fully paint this kit, I'm sure it would tighten up, and I might to be honest. The one I got came with a whole lot of weapons and accessories. Which my mark ii is currently weilding the gundam hammer from. Not amazing, but it's nice that it's included.

5/10

I often check Target for any new or clearance transformers toys and I stumbled upon the HG Immortal Justice from the Seed Freedom movie, which I had just watched and absolutely loved (you guys should go watch it, you don't even need to watch seed destiny to really get it, it's literally a redo of destiny's plot but if it was good).

3. Immortal Justice

This kit is a masterpiece. I love the colors on this kit, I love the articulation and the silhouette is super muscular, more similar to a furai rather than a typical gundam, and its awesome. Being only 25 dollars with such amazing articulation and interesting gimmicks, it's a steal. I painted the grey parts with some vallejo gunmetal and I think I elevated the look a whole ton that way. It comes with a whole lot of beautiful effect parts for the shield rocket, the shin lasers and for the beam boomerangs. The rifle has a surprising amount of detail and color separation. I really really love how the pack kind of flares out with the wings. Much more than I liked the rising freedom gundam. Also the torso had a kind of weird ratcheting feeling to it that I love. The only things I don't super like about this kit are some little detail parts on the waist that tend to fall off, but if you have cement it's no problem. And I'm not a huge fan of the bulbous shape of the backpack and the shield. Strangely the backpack has a cockpit, but when it transforms its completely upside down?? That's about it though.

9/10

So I bought this one a while ago for a fully custom painting project, and because I love Chuck Keith in the OVA I got the

4. GM Cannon II

So this one is really cool. It's a bulky version of the gm custom with chobam armor and a gun cannon backpack. It's like all my favorite songs on one record. I expected this kit to share a lot more with the gm custom than it actually did. The only things that seem similar or identical are the limb joints, the shield and the guns, and that's it. The armor is completely new, the feet are new (which was surprising to me) a new head. The most welcome surprise was the movable rear skirts, which not even the gm custom had. So far its a great kit. There will be another update with a more in depth review in the future once I have painted it. Keith will be proud of me

6/10

Okay so this one is a purchase I'm not super proud of. I really like the witch from mercury line of model kits, and I've never purchased from p bandai before, but I was late to the races on the lfrith jiu. And the tiger fist was so cool, so I restored to aliexpress. I think it would be really funny if I just called this one 1/144 HG Model kit because that's what the box and the manual say but idk.

5. Gundam Lfrith Jiu

okay, so I've kind of learned my lesson with buying from China, the runners were full of voids and warped plastic, the runners said they were made of ABS and the manual said Polystyrene so I'm not sure which to trust. The stickers were kind of terrible. Unfortunately I already bought a bootleg SDEX hello kitty for a friend's Christmas present so.

Okay, enough dogging on the Chinese manufacturing. This design is so fucking cool. It's a lavender and white robot with a huge white and blue robot arm. The muted purple tones on the body make the design feel really premium and not toylike. I painted the inside of the body's shell unit with black enamels and then highlighted the grooves with chrome. I think it really makes the details pop out through the misty clear blue parts. Okay. So it's super cool, and it's a decently solid build, because it's mostly built on the base of the lfrith, but the attachment of the tiger fist a little bit awkward, the low quality molding on the parts lends the hard points for attaching the tiger fist aren't as tight or secure as I'd like them to be unfortunately, but the phalanges themselves on the tiger fist, are really decent, they don't have articulation on any of the distal phalanges, but it gets you most of the poses you could ask for.

7/10

#gundam #mobile suit gundam #gunpla #plamo #toy photography #the witch from mercury

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inventors-fair · 1 month ago

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Counterplay: Increment Commentary

There were a lot of mechanical variants this past week, and a lot of variations on the same mechanical aspects. Amassing, and card draw, and +1/+1 counters on green creatures... Yeah, there are only so many things you can increment in so many ways. I'm kind of surprised by the amount of variance even within those similarities, though, and it's clear that people liked forging their own paths!

Decades of mechanics and precedent allow us to select what designs work best, how they work best, and what kinds of aspects of MTG will show up when we need them to be bigger and better. I think the one suggestion I would give generally would be to consider the play patterns based not just on your own imaginations but also experiences from limited, from standard interactions, from the world in which everything is a little bit reliant on everything else. There were big swings between ambitions and precedent, mechanically and flavorfully.

There were also arguable differences between what I consider precedent for increments and what's technically incremented, so keep that in mind. Some of this—actually, all of this, because I'm the judge—is my opinion for what I was looking for in terms of direct increments. So keep that in mind: my opinions are totally fine to hand-wave on that front. I'd like to think you're still here because you care about the parts where I say what I think works and doesn't work otherwise, but that's ego speaking.

See a card marked JUDGE PICK? That meant that I liked it enough to either point out something super specific about it or it was in the running for the podium before paring for space. Read on until you're accumulated all that knowledge.

@bread-into-toast — Sprout of the Hate Seed (JUDGE PICK)

Calling combat triggers "incremental" is technically true, but not precisely what I was thinking of for this contest. That goes even more so for the optional trigger there. But maybe I'm being too narrow with my internal definition of "will happen every turn" versus "may perhaps happen every turn," because some of those example cards did kinda get there. I think part of my internal view was considering that you were the one in control of the increment. BTW, all of this is me waxing and musing, so for you and your card specifically, I'll say that this card really got me thinking about what I wanted to mean by increment and what was unspoken. Kinda on me for that.

I do love this card in general, though, although I'd change that trigger to: "Whenever this creature deals combat damage to a player, if it had a +1/+1 counter on it, create a token that's a copy of it. Otherwise, create a 1/1 green Saproling creature token." The reason is because it could be argued that the "it" in the second sentence could refer to the Saproling, or at least someone might be confused by it. Everything else is perfectly awesome for a Gruul design—swingy, big, potentially game-ending, and the kind of rare that would sway you in limited into these colors. Swell job!

@cthulhusaurusrex — Elvish Growthcaller / Embodiment of Growth

Big effects into bigger effects are incremental enough, sure. Transforming into Cathars' Crusade on a stick is pretty excellent, and with enough lords or other effects I think that this card could be absolutely powerful when it transforms. The design itself is fine and would be a snap-pick if you're anywhere near green and/or if you wanted to hate because you didn't have the right removal. Mechanics are fairly standard, and that's all good there. I suppose the world around it and the vibes are what I wanted more of, so let's talk about that.

What this card is depicting is the healing/lifegiving power of a young elf that transforms them into a leader amongst their people. This is one of those cases where I feel that "elves connecting to plants" could have used some kind of emotional crutch to separate it from... The word I'm going to use is "expected." This is all flavor talk, so feel free to skip it, because the only actual chance on the card I'd do is making the T in Trample lowercase. For flavor reasons, though, I don't yet feel that kind of surprise that I need to make these fairly straightforward mechanics feel fresh again. Is this an expected mutation among the culture, or a surprise gift of the world's magic? The flavor text isn't giving me anything new here, and its vague poetic styling needs to provide that sense of strangeness, transformation, or change.

@dabudder — The Hype

I get this card, for sure. Totally do. It's absolutely not what I was looking for for increments, as it relies on a lot of non-deterministic factors to do...well, anything. But man. The first thing that comes into my head is Throes of Chaos, but much different. I suppose you could search for The Hypes, get them into the graveyard or whatever, but once they're in the graveyard then you need at least one to get it going... And then, to what end? The hype feels kinda let down by having only one extra copy, but having too many would be way too wild. Chain together The Hype until you hit two five-mana-or-less combo pieces, what a deck. Isn't that basically how this deck would work? Geological Appraiser got banned in Pioneer for a reason.

The main point is that this card can only get so big before the hype dies down, unless you're using The Hype to win on the spot. Limited probably wouldn't use this card (although not every card is designed for it, so that's aight) except as a maybe one-off ramp. "Find your combo piece" is effectively all that you'd be doing in constructed effectively. Maybe the randomness being let down by The Hype copying multiple pieces is okay, but even then, this isn't the kind of scaling that's right for an increment contest. What happens at the top? Via the card itself, nothing much. It's hard to evaluate a card that effectively is designed around only itself without assuming the most broken intentions.

@feyd-rautha-apologist — Grassy Gnoll (JUDGE PICK)

I imagined this card to be a build-around sleeper hit for constructed. Pinging your opponents' creatures doesn't have to be massive to be effective, right? And if there are two of these things, well, you're in for a treat. It's the return of Temur Staticaster combo! That's all just hype, though. The narrowness of this card at uncommon meant that it wasn't exactly slated for a podium spot given the fact that we had an immense number of awesome cards. Still, despite the name being something that perhaps wouldn't pass the marketing team, I think this card's pretty wonderful.

And aside from that, there's not much of a second paragraph to add here. The "W" in "Ward" should be lowercase, so jot that down. I do want to say: I think that the shortening of a card name to "this creature" was a mistake on WotC's part. Later pronouns can increase text to decrease the following confusion, although this card clears it up enough with the "that" later on. All the same... Look, this card feels great—it eats, shoots, and leaves. Leaves you with an arrow in the back, anyway. I love hyenas and I love the vibes. What more can I say?

@frognarch — Avalanche Elemental (JUDGE PICK)

Conversely to the previous card, you could use "this creature" here and I'd be none the wiser. But! This is one of those copying effects that distinctly feels incremental, and by far stronger in limited for it. Evasion and copying and snowballing, well, that's pretty wild. The only question I have for limited power is whether or not the fact that it can get exponential is too much. Blocking the token copy can wear it down for the moment, but if you get a single copy to stay, the board's basically done for. Every turn, swing and swing and swing again. These days, though, a five-mana 3/3 is pretty low. Maybe the environment would redefine it? Hard to say.

I do really love this design, though. I'd replace the "and" with a "then," or just remove the comma from behind the word "combat." Those are the minor potatoes. As for the flavor text, I'm iffy on a couple counts. Firstly, that's not how avalanches happen so jot that down for your nerd notes. Secondly, though, that line of just "the snow fell" doesn't carry much weight with it for me. The card's intent is that these elementals are rising from the alpine and barreling down uncontrollably, but the flavor text makes it seem like the army just got buried in a particularly heavy storm. It speaks to the aftermath rather than the moment, and the card's energy is carried with that moment. Y'know? Gotta match the energy to the action.

@grornt — Mangrove Stalker

I'll start off by saying that it's a generally phenomenal design and you should keep this in the files. No notes there. I'll follow that up with the unfortunate part that it doesn't feel quite as incremental to what I was looking for for the contest. As soon as this comes out, you can pop it and get your benefit if you have enough creatures in the graveyard. Inversely, I was looking for a card that started the buildup itself and used itself as a requirement for bigger effects. There's the technical argument, and then the vibe argument.

I guess that this is a design lesson for me for contests. Most of the vibes were totally met, but this is a card that just doesn't hit that specificity for me. All of the values are subtle and I was actually hoping that people would be less subtle this week. I know, shocker! But if this creature got 'stalking counters' whenever you milled a creature or whatever, then drew for each stalking counter, that would be more in-line with the intended increment. And that would, in my opinion, make for a worse card. What happens when a good design clashes with the bespoke niche? I mean, you get me waffling for two paragraphs, that's what.

@helloijustreadyourpost — The Book of Grudges

Multiplying your power as a punishing effect for attacking hurts a lot. Even though your creatures can't block, a single attack from your opponent the turn after you play this will create an additional four power on board, and then six the next turn, and so on and so forth. Yeah, it's a three-mana can't-block token. But we've all heard the adage "math is for blockers," and that really makes this card feel like it's doing more than it should be able to. Landing this early in limited is a game-ender without removal. Landing it late can change the parity immensely—if you have parity. I will say that the can't-block addition is the best choice for ability balance. (Or in this case, cannot-block. You should change that to the contraction.)

Personally, I'd do one of two things: either I'd limit the number of counters that can be placed on the book (which would be okay but not great for the contest, and would add a lot of text), or I'd make the creatures 1/1s. I am also curious about the flavor here, because I want to praise the subtle humor and the cool worldbuilding piece you've made here. Presumably, you have a group of dwarves on whatever world (I'm thinking Eldraine or Kaldheim) with a massive tome of their wrongs that incenses them to combat in a way that's more aggressive than thoughtful. Shortsighted and grumpy! That's a great way to use names and abilities together to create a sense of grounding without even needing art direction.

@horsecrash — Bubbling Brew

The design: super cool. The flavor: perfect use of those counters. The math: weird. Too weird. Hold on, I'm actually going to get out a deck and muck around and see how it feels. ... So, I just tried this in a Sultai midrange kind of deck. Played it on turn three. Turn four: basically no hand, played out a card. Turn five: lost a lot of life, but drew cards. Didn't want to play anything because of the life loss. Turn six: draw a lot, lost a lot. I basically didn't want to play any of the cards that I drew because that meant the next turn I'd be incrementally losing all of the other resources.

Quite frankly, I want this effect to be symmetrical. Smokestack-style. Standard can handle it. Or there has to be some other kind of way to mitigate the life loss, because you're discarding so many cards that you're losing basically everything you get at the cost of your life and eventually there's no way to play out all that you have so you just mill yourself or drain yourself. I think this was the first time I've actively played a card in a deck that it was probably intended for, and lemme tell you, it's worth for anyone to do for a card this ambitious. Pros: ambition, flavor, uniqueness. Cons: my life total :(

@hypexion — Ignition, Errant Arson / Cataclysm, Vengeant Inferno

The design is decent, but I'm left with a lot more questions than answers. Let's go through those first, because the second paragraph here is for sure going to be talking about the cool stuff you're doing. I feel that the increment-specific design is intended to be like Animar, in that your costs go down with the incremental uptick, so that's understandable. But it feels so localized, and this is a personal thing, but I think the intent of the contest was more universal to the board? Still, out of the technicalities, it makes a lot of sense to me with the buildup. The names are baffling me, though, because I can't place them at all. I assume these are chosen names, but they're... I don't want to say that they're "obvious" for the archetype. "Telling" is the closest adjective I have.

Mechanics are surprisingly in-depth, though, so let's have some fun. Firstly, menace plus potentially killing a small blocker is a great combo, and depending on how much an opponent is forced to block, that may be a perfect way to get those counters, discounting burn/combat tricks. Could even be worth making the front side a 3/3. "Non-player target" is also a great choice on the backside—accounting for Battles, I assume? The only wording choice on the back side I'd change would be to switch first strike and menace (see Kari Zev et. al); I thought "they" should be "that player" but I guess your wording is accurate as well! Both work even if I prefer "that player." The bombiness and dedication to the theme is on point, even if some of the details are evading me.

@izzet-always-r-versus-u — Tyvar, Hero in the Dark

Sorry about not saving this one the first time—I definitely saw it, and I went through the inbox a second time, and it just flew under the radar. So let's talk about it now! And part of that is me wanting to hear the thought process for this card, because as a mythic, it's possible that it's really good, but I'm not entirely convinced. Omen Hawker was the first card to come to mind, although this one is distinctly more powerful—but just as narrow. Here's the question I'm left with: in what environment would this be considered a mythic in terms of gameplay versatility? Where are the most activated abilities that one would want to do postcombat or during combat?

Maybe it's just me, but I feel that this would've been a fine rare instead of a mythic. The general design is fantastic, though, and it works quite well with the other Tyvar. And, I can see from the past precedent that Tyvar has a little bit of "activated abilities matter" from the past. Everything shows that you've done your homework here. I feel 'whelmed' by the overall effect, though. Attack, counter, make mana—that's all fine. Where do we go from here? Boasting is potentially valid, I suppose, but again, I would liked to know a little bit more about your vision. I'm imagine there was a lot build up in the process that maybe didn't translate into demonstrating this card's utilitarian strength. (Also: love the name, 10/10)

@melancholia-ennui — Creeping Misery (JUDGE PICK)

Yep, that's an alternate wincon for black, very much in the spirit of the contest. Once more we're delving into the world of black enchantments. Was there a particular reason we had six mono-black enchantments this week? I'm not creeping on anyone's misery here, but I find it fascinating. Anyway! Underworld Dreams is one of the first cards that come to mind when people think about BBB punishing enchantments, but this card's more along the lines of... Well, it's got quite a pedigree! Bloodchief Ascension, Fraying Sanity, and more... And yet it's not until you start to pick apart the card that you see how all these influences turn into something original. I think that it's reasonable to call this card more of a constructed build-around but the limited potential is there.

And in limited, you're going to have a lot fewer chances to save yourself and find answers if this hits the board, because things will be trading all the time. You only need one copy to lock someone out of the game, because everyone's going to be getting rid of creatures, especially you. Having that BBB restriction to prevent this from being even remotely splashable ensures that only dedicated decks can make it work. Obviously it's a pain in the butt to deal with for limited, but some cards are just like that. With our limited space this week, I still wanted to showcase this card for being overall just plain good. Pedigree matters sometimes, and this is a well-worded well-executed enchantment. Thumbs up!

@nine-effing-hells — Exponential Grower

I completely forgot what expend was for a moment there. For anyone reading this who also happened to forget, expending was the raccoon-themed mechanic of Bloomburrow where you expended X as you spend your Xth mana to cast a spell in a single turn. I think I understand expending as a mechanic that would be reasonable for Strixhaven! You have these students who are putting a lot of mana into casting bigger and better spells, so that's fair, or maybe Quandrix could just be that home, as they're a growth-themed school. I think reminder text might've been appropriate, though, because let's be real, expend was...not a memorable mechanic.

As for how this card works, I think incremental growth is a little bit problematic, because it essentially tops out at eight unless you're playing a massive EDH game, and this card isn't especially playable except in those unworldly dedicated decks, which have other and better options. Having a 16/16 trampler isn't bad by any means, of course, but in terms of incremental cards... Well, maybe I'm being too strict with the definition, because getting that 16/16 is pretty rad. I guess between the top-off and the expend stuff, this card feels decent—but that's about the limit. I'd like to see this card in a Quandrix-expend-Strixhaven world, and it's a fair design. Having the limit be pragmatic instead of mechanical doesn't feel great for this contest, but I wouldn't really change the design.

@piccadilly-blue — Press Gang

You said it yourself in your submission, so I'm not gonna go gushing over this card as a paramount of progress. It's good, though so liiiiiike... Anyway. Getting more and more power with your Pirate Army is going to get out of hand pretty fast, but not in a way that's not deal-with-able, considering, like... They're two creatures that can be fought against with the various tricks in black and white via combat and in green via big stuff. But, you have extra help with evasion to get your Treasures in these colors, so you're gonna have that going for you. Is it any surprise that this card's pretty much exactly what's reasonable for a set that would call for it?

The flavor text is good as well. I can see the head of a gang walking down the port with a sword in hand, smirking as they lead a hooting and hollering band of miscreants. It feels a little off that there's no Threaten effect with this card, though, and considering that there were other effects like that in the Ixalan era of piracy, I wonder if there was an opportunity to have that come up here? Maybe the flavor text could've been more in reference to bigger crews having more fun or whatever. I guess that's not the point, though, and again, not bad at all. Take a pat on the shoulder and don't check your pockets until your wallet and I are at least two states away.

@real-aspen-hours — Incremental Research (JUDGE PICK)

Remember to get your rarity on if you're doing text submissions, folks. But that's neither here nor there, because I imagined and hoped that this would be a rare card. Plenty of research goes into making this work for sure, and it's one of those things with high risk and high reward. After a certain point, there aren't going to be many spells left unless you're doing X spells. Where I really see this popping off is with extra turn spells. From mana values 5-10, there are a number of excellent ones. I guess that's if you're playing solitaire, though; normal burn/control/value stuff is fine too.

I think this card significantly rewards strong deckbuilding. It's possible for this to be playable in limited if you really work for it, even if it becomes not very useful after a certain point. But isn't that part of the flavor? You have to do your research, you have to really make it work, you have to use your knowledge. It wouldn't fit this contest, but I think this card could've been even stronger if you were forced to either add OR remove a counter from the enchantment. Still, that's messing with other powers, and doesn't help for this card for this specific contest. It's pretty good overall, and I like the choice of skill intensity.

@roxbot — Furnace, Fierce Protector

This card could be perfectly fine in the right environment. The major issue is that, for all intents and purposes, it's a french vanilla mythic that doesn't do anything but get bigger. It doesn't necessarily affect the board, but it plays into a couple of specific strategies, perhaps. Looking at what's in Standard right now, there's not a great comparison. The question of what this card does hangs over it. As I was reading it, I actually thought that these were oil counters and not charge counters at the beginning, and that's a whole other thing—what kind of deck do you have to build to make this work, really, and is it worth it just for this kind of body? I'm not entirely convinced, even in a set that would use an immense amount of charge counters.

Couple of wording changes, by the by. Names are usually replaced by "this creature" as of Foundations, and that would work best here. The "on permanents" should be "among permanents" in the first line. Rules things: if you have no charge counters out when you play this card, it'll actually die as a state-based action, because when the spell itself resolves the P/T check will see it as a 0/0 before the trigger goes on the stack. That's why cards like The Mimeoplasm are worded the way they are. Last note, "start" should be "beginning" there. Overall, I think there were a few tweaks, but the base judgement is that I feel the power level is too low and too narrow for the impact it needs.

@sparkyyoungupstart — Detesting Beast

I think that this card would be awesome in a multiplayer set or in a Commander precon! I also think that introducing the monarch mechanic in 1v1, for which you are designing, has led to several problems and I'm not gonna wax poetic about an issue that everyone and their cat has been talking about for the last thousand years. Anyway. Let's look at the design choices from THAT perspective. The general take: this card's fun and you're gonna be pretty detested by the end of the game assuming that nobody has removal for it. Nobody wants to be hit by this, and nobody wants to give you the monarch for sure. Everyone suffers. I like that. Puts a good threat out there.

All these synergies makes me really wish that you had actually gone and done a Questing Beast variant with three different mostly unrelated takes like how the original QB had done, though. I think part of QB's strength is the fact that it's just a pain in the butt for different reasons, as opposed to this card with has many reasons but one specific track for it to be awful. The only wording change is to change the 7s to "seven"s. I also like how damage to ANY opponent will yoink the monarch back, BTW, very subtle. I hate this card! I would love to play with this card.

@tanknspank — Rats' Nest (JUDGE PICK)

Very curious if you were going for Eldraine or Ravnica here, but either way it's a great use of the name and of the typal agenda. I think Army technology makes a lot of sense for increments overall as well, so I'm glad that folks were using that a lot this week. I'm okay with it being used here not just because having "amass rats" is an awesome thing to see on a card, but also because, yeah, it's just what this contest could want. Get a big enough rat and you're forcing your opponent to make the rat bigger. That's pretty great!

There's just no guarantee that this card's going to get going, and for that reason I wouldn't make a P1P1 out of this in limited. Not that you'll never have rats or that things won't die, but with the right kind of evasion and alternative removal, it makes it difficult for you to 100% guarantee that you'll find a large enough rat to make this card really pop off. It's not a bad rare; it's a slow rare for sure, but eh, what're you going to do. The general vibes are exact, the card's going to do what you want it to in a dedicated rat deck that's not one of the gimmick decks, and so we're all happy with what we see here. I'm really feeling more sewer-y Ravnican rat nonsense with this, but I couldn't tell you why.

@wildcardgamez — Benevolent Scalelord

Cumulative upkeep and bolster are two mechanics that I really don't see being that great together, even with the things that you use to make it...well, this. The reality is that cumulative upkeep isn't a great mechanic and wasn't that good even in its heyday; it's a 10 on the storm scale for a reason. Bolster is also one of those mechanics where you're stuck in a strange spot with the kind of creatures that you're able to put counters on, but that's one where I'm more of a personal meh-sayer. As it is, though...why is this a dragon hydra? What kind of weirdness justifies that? A dragon without flying could have hydra-ness in it, but if the two are coming together you bet I'd rather see a flying hydra than a grounded dragon.

The idea of big counters that transfer over to another creature upon death isn't a bad idea at its core. This particular card has a mishmash of strangeness that leads me to wonder why they'd ever be together for a premier set. I feel that the lesson to be learned here is to focus the backwards-looking lens on what should be returning rather than what would be good for a contest. On top of that, the excitement of ideas should reflect the best of both worlds rather than a compromise. Did this need to be a dragon at all? Could you have brought bolster to another creature type?

@xenobladexfan — Bloody Knowledge

"If you would draw one or more cards during each of your draw steps, instead put two deal counters on this enchantment. Then you draw X cards and lose X life, where X is the number of deal counters on this enchantment." is how I would word it. There are a few precedent-y cards to go with that, but this is a pretty convoluted card as it is. Drawing two and losing two, then four, then six, then eight... I mean, hey, that late in the game, you better be ready to make some sacrifices. I think that the addition makes some really rough deals out of this spell, but it's a mythic black card draw thing, so for standard sets it's as powerful as you're gonna get. Maybe 2BB would be fine, but that's pushing it just to keep things even.

I guess that the most important thing about this card to critique is the fact that it's pretty much a stripped-down flavor for bargaining, to the point where there's little meat left on the bones. Bare bones are good for chewing, but there ain't much blood in them any longer. Sometimes the basics are important, but there's zero context for what's happening beyond all the "give up blood for knowledge and power" spells that we've seen before. I think that this card needed a little bit more of a personal story touch for me to feel something beyond the good-mechanics. Again, there's nothing inherently wrong with the tropes—it's me personally that's wanting more.

@yd12k — Sphinx's Grasp

I'm ashamed to say that I'd build around this card. It's a looping wincon, where you can play one, counter a spell, then hold up counterspells in your hand for the rest of the game and then just loop them once or twice a turn until you have literally all the power you could possibly need to strip them of their resources. As a limited card, nobody would play this. Constructed? Absolutely revolting as a wincon and I'd play four of them in a bounce-control deck. The gist is that this just isn't a good play pattern for constructed at all.

Even an uncounterable meta would have a difficult time if this were combined with literally any other aspect. Oddly enough, I'm reminded of Lullmage Mentor, although the ceiling for that card was significantly higher than here. But for that, it's a once-a-turn possible lock. This card is an active wincon that permanently removes further resources. I don't think that there's a world where I can really justify this card, as much as I like it.

@yourrightfulking — Invasive Briar

The give-and-take is interesting as a card. It's definitely not what we're looking for for increments. What's increasing, exactly, and by what? The lands that you get to put on the plants can be replayed if you draw into them, but nothing gets bigger the more that something happens. The more lands you play doesn't necessarily correlate to the increase in plants, and the growth of the plants isn't necessarily tied to the fact that you're playing the lands. Give-and-take is a different kind of technology here. I do like this card, though, so take that for whatever you will.

I actually really like this as a limited bomb, to be honest. You can drop this and then do absolutely nothing but play out the rest of the game until you can get a plant army going to annihilate your opponent with your spare lands. Like, that's a fine game plan that requires forethought and survival without being a brainless exercise in abundance. Multiples are a pain and can get overbearing quickly, but there are far more answers in constructed. I think that there are other ways to flavor this to make it a little bit scarier or funnier or more immersive, but that doesn't take away from the mechanical cohesion. Good card...for a different contest.

Have fun with myths this week! @abelzumi

#mtg #magic the gathering #custom magic card #inventor's fair #commentary #increment contest

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davyjoneslockr · 11 months ago

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3, 7, and 12, mista and fugo :3

TONY UNSHADOWBANNED PARTY I know this was from a month ago but I'm gonna answer it anyhow lmfao

(For this ask game)

3. Least favorite canon thing about this character?

For Mista, the Trish cleavage scene. You know the one. I don't think I have to explain this much. Boy Why Did You Do That. The only good thing to come out of that scene was jaunty jigglesacks + overeager horndog insane psychic damage combo of lines in the dub.

I could take this a lot of ways for Fugo tbh. Because there's a lot of things that drive me insane about him as a person, but looking at him as a character, I LOVE that he's rash and hurts his friends and his defining character moment is him making a selfish, cowardly decision. I guess I'd say his misogyny in Purple Haze Feedback? I'm admittedly a believer that, yes, he would fucking say that, but it sucks that he would. At least he gets better by the end lol. Fugo voice I'm sorry women Sheila E is me

7. What's something the fandom does when it comes to this character that you like?

I love that Mista has been designated Beautiful Brown-Eyed Bisexual Man by literally the entire fandom. Bi Mista brings us all together. And I do like the idea that his queerness is something he discovered much more slowly, and as a direct result of the gang. Something about that really ties in with the idea of the Bucci Gang as less of a realistic gang, more akin to a drag house or similar queer pseudo-family. Credit to that concept to Fox figcookie01 btw this is one of my favorite Vento Aureo analyses ever and it really informs how I conceptualize the Bucci Gang. Anyhow.

I also really like when people actually take care to explore his character and make him a very distinct, smarter-than-he-looks, older brother-type figure. It's really interesting when people explore his spirituality, too, whatever religion that may be, because that's a pretty important part of him. AND also OCD Mista truthers who know when to treat his superstitions and compulsions with some weight I love you forever. I think he's a character that gets watered down in fanworks a lot, but when his characterization's good, it's really good. There's plenty of artists and writers that have really blown me away with their Mista (and I say this as someone who's picky about characterization lol)

With Fugo, first of all. The PHF scars. Another thing that Mandela Effected the PHF fandom, but it's so so important to me. I love you physical, tangible, blatantly visible proof that Fugo has grown as a person since the day he abandoned the gang. Awesome. I also like that people mix and match his manga/anime colors, and every artist kinda draws him in a different way.

My favorite thing is probably the Fugo-Abbacchio stepkid and stepparent/siblings/Big Goth and Baby Emo Who Secretly Looks Up To Them dynamic. It’s awesome when it’s cartoonishly antagonistic and it’s awesome when it’s actually very sweet and heartfelt. Out of all the Bucci Gang dynamic interpretations the fandom’s produced, theirs is one of my favorites <3

12. What's a headcanon you have for this character?

SO MANY FOR BOTH OF THEM LOL. But I’ll try to list some I don’t talk about as much.

Besides The Carpenters, Mista’s a big fan of folk, acoustic singer-songwriter pop, and soft classic R&B/gospel. Artists with really strong voices tend to catch his attention. The Mamas and the Papas, Sam Cooke, Marvin Gaye, Simon and Garfunkel, The Seekers, and Gordon Lightfoot are some of his favorites. He’s also just a big sucker for love songs in general, and the hopeless romantic in him loves old girl groups like The Ronettes and The Shirelles. He’s also very much Schrödinger’s Guy to me. Cis? Trans? Who knows. Depends on what the situation calls for (though more often trans to me as of late). He’s just Some Dude.

Fugo’s a surprisingly good singer, but he’ll rarely do it if he knows other people are listening. A lot of times, he’ll sing in the shower, or when he’s alone in the car. As he gets older, he gets less self-conscious about it, and he’ll sing around the house when he’s with Giorno, or do duets with Mista for fun. There are also very much timelines in the Vento Aureo Multiverse in my brain where Fugo’s transfem. This also tends to coincide with transfem Abbacchio timelines, so there’s another layer added to Fugo looking up to Abbacchio, and I think Giorno (always transmasc to me) is really instrumental in helping her work through things and take pride in her transness. Maybe a little bit of a self-indulgent fluffy comfort hc that helps me work though my own genderisms lol

#ohh i missed my guys <- thinks about them every day #i need to talk about mista fugos more. blog policy everyone can send me mista fugos asks anytime btw.#jjba #jjba headcanons #pannacotta fugo #guido mista

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primeconvoy1 · 1 year ago

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In action today is the Titanic Creations Gorgo figure set, based on the 1961 kaiju movie Gorgo, which I enjoyed watching on a Saturday afternoon as a kid.

This was a crowdfunded project that met all its goals to get produced, and I believe this is the first time we have gotten an articulated Gorgo in plastic form.

Sidenote: I know the larger figure (Gorgo's mother) in this set was called Ogra in the movie, but I'll be referencing it as Gorgo and the smaller one as Baby Gorgo.

The Gorgo set comes in a deluxe see through display package designed and illustrated by Matt Frank .

I love the presentation with the packaging, including the awesome illustration of the monster on the back. The art also shows a burning city backdrop with some nice art references of Dorkins circus that held the baby captive in the movie

You can also see all the content of the set, since the packaging is clear plastic.

Be mindful that some of the accessories can come loose inside the package. The small jet plane accessories sometimes fell behind the larger figure if the interior plastic clamshell is not closed properly.

The main Gorgo figure was sculpted by @d0pep0pe and does an amazing job representing this kaiju.

Gorgo has ton of nice details including sculpted scales, wrinkled skin, and very crocodile like features going from its head down to the tail.

The face sculpt captures the beast well with its ferocious looking design. I especially like the detailing with the ear fins.

Gorgo stands a little under six inches tall when fully posed.

Titanic Creations suggested the figure had 26 points of articulation, but after fiddling with it, I found 39 points, if you count the 11 segments in the articulated tail. That's a bold amount for a company that is putting out a posable figure like this for the first time. Well done!

Gorgo can get into some decent poses, but the toe articulation isn't that strong to hold up the figure, if you're trying to get Gorgo in more dynamic poses. (Recommend squeezing the the front toes together where it plugs into the rest of the foot to help with a tighter joint.)

Gorgo also come with an alternate head that is the same sculpt as the default head but with brighter red glow-in-the-dark eyes! The feature does work, but the glow effect only lasts for a brief time after placing it in direct light.

I use this head as my default head, as the eyes pop more in my display.

Gorgo is done in a dark green color with beige paint going down to the front of the figure, it's underbelly, and underneath the tail.

She also sports some dark grey washes on the faces as well as the scales on the back of the figure. I really like how this fleshes out those sculpted details!

Gorgo comes with some sweet accessories that were unlocked tiers during the crowdfunding campaign.

First up is the Big Ben clock tower accessory to help recreate the iconic scene the movie.

Big Ben is painted mainly in gold which brings out those sharp lines on the building. The accessory also has some claw mark scratches sculpted into it.

Big Ben also has a break away feature, so the top of the tower can be removed.

The next accessory is the small bell sub, which appears to be painted brown and has a few sculpted details.

Next up are the jets and stand. The set comes with 3 jets sculpted in either soft grey plastic or rubber. The cockpits are painted black, which is a nice detail.

To display the jets, while fighting Gorgo, the jets come with a single round base and three black bendy wires that plug into the base and the bottom of the jets.

This was probably the weakest part of the set, as the wires don't plug into the base well and not much better into the jets.

There's also a bit of balancing act to keep them stable, once you do get them on the stand.

The final accessory is the Baby Gorgo figure, which stands a little under 2 inches. It's a static figure with no articulation. Sculpt is well done with similar paint apps to the larger Gorgo figure, just not as extensive. Even the red eyes turned out great, which is impressive for such a small figure.

Overall, I'm really pleased with this figure, and give kudos to the creative team that worked on this!

I look forward to your next kaiju endeavor!

On to pics, Primers! Will post more pics shortly.

#gorgo #titanic creations #Godzilla #kaiju #toy photography #actionfigures #toy artistry #toy photoshoot #action figure #action figure photography #toy photos #gojira #ultraman #articulated figure

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silurisanguine · 7 months ago

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OC Questions tag game (a-cosmic-elf questions answered)

I was tagged by @a-cosmic-elf in the oc questions tag game (answer 3 questions given in style of your OC then give three new questions to tagged people) I'm going to answer the three given me in with all 4 of my ocs as they are a really great way to develop them! - Seren Jones, Aeryn Ryder, Zofie Orel and Kiara Black

Since this is going to be a long post, answers behind a cut!

And I'll tag @vorchagirl @despicablediet and @bearlytolerant @staticpallour @fangbangerghoul @a-cosmic-elf @atonalginger @eridanidreams @toxiclizardwrites @therealgchu @aro-pancake with these three new questions to answer, no pressure though!

-Is there anyone famous you'd love to meet? -What is your favourite season (or weather if you don't have seasons)? -Is there anything physical you'd change about yourself?

First up Seren Jones (My Starfield Coemancer Starborn)

If you had a YouTube channel, what would you make? "Youtube? Oh viddocs? I dont think I'd have a 'make' channel. Mine would probably be a vlog of my exploration. I see so many incredible things when I'm exploring places I'd want to share that. I already take so many photos, so I think yeah, think I'd like to do something like that." Have you ever dyed your hair, or got a radical haircut? "Before I became Starborn, my signature color and cut was a silver pixie hairstyle. But after a few universe jumps I wanted to get away from that look and find a new one as I'd kinda let myself go and it seems hair just keeps growing no matter what. So I went to Enhance and I got it dyed this bright teal blue in a sort of short bob. Don't know how long I'll keep it, who knows. I know a version of me had much longer hair similar in style to Andreja's and it looked good, so maybe I'll try that when I finally settle down again." What’s the worst book you’ve ever read? "Carrie of the Cosmos. I'd read everything at a mining dig on some backwater moon I can't even remember the name of now and that was left. It's so cliched and predictable." Next - Aeryn Ryder ( My Mass Effect Reyes Vidal romancing Pathfinder)

If you had a YouTube channel, what would you make? "Video documentaries huh? Not sure what I'd be allowed to do considering how Tann rode Keri's ass on her documentary. Maybe 'how to maintain your armour, no matter the environment' type thing or... 'The beauty of Kadara for non exiles who want to visit'....Maybe I do want to piss Tann off." Have you ever dyed your hair, or got a radical haircut? "My hair is bright highlighted blue and purple already! Had that since I was blacklisted by the Alliance and thought fuck it, let's do what I always wanted but never could before. Luckily I can keep it like this as the angara have these awesome dyes that Lexi found are safe to use on human hair!" What’s the worst book you’ve ever read? "I actually don't really read books...not novels anyway. I never have time to really focus on one for long. I liked some of the asari mythology books I used to read, so I guess those."

Next Zofie Orel ( Deus Ex/Assassin's Creed OC)

If you had a YouTube channel, what would you make? "Oooh in another life, one where I don't have to not make myself too known, I could do one of those hands visible only jewellery making shows. The camera would be on my worktop and I could show the intricacies of working with silver and gold." Have you ever dyed your hair, or got a radical haircut? "When I got augmented, they had to shave my head to install the brain implants and I decided then to change up my look as my mousey brown hair was just too boring. I love red so picked the brightest I could find and have had this colour ever since and no damn Templar Hunter is going to get me to change it!" What’s the worst book you’ve ever read? "I read this trite publication about Hatshepsut, that was obviously written by a historian who didn't like his theories being proved false by new evidence. A common thing with historians I've found. 'Cant possibly agree with that, my book says otherwise.' Thankfully the new evidence that was found proved he was talking out of his arse." Lastly Kiara Black (My Thief/ Dishonored OC)

If you had a YouTube channel, what would you make? "What is a You...tube... channel? Huh... I wouldn't want to ever appear on a recording, thanks." Have you ever dyed your hair, or got a radical haircut? "Oh I once cut my long...long hair short with a pair of my father's sheers and nearly gave my mother a heart attack. All because I wanted shorter hair and she told me no. After that she took me to a barber and made him cut it into something 'feminine'. I watched that man like a hawk and since taught myself how to cut hair properly I've let it grow since then, but I mostly keep it braided back. With what I wear now, I might cut it again as the braid sometimes gets itchy against my neck. But dyeing it? My hair is black, almost blue-black, so no way would I dye it." What’s the worst book you’ve ever read? "The Seven Strictures...Militant religious doctrine masquerading as guidance."

#Seren Jones #Aeryn Ryder #Zofie Orel #Kiara Black #oc questions tag #Siluri writes

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lookinghalfacorpse · 2 years ago

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i've been stuck in bed for a while with a perennial fatigue issue and it's nice to have your fics to read. not a lot of fic out there where the main character's stuck in bed a lot of the time. i really appreciate it <3 (ps if you have any fic recs... especially for stuff like you write... eyes emoji)

thanks, and best wishes to you :) i'm glad to hear that. sometimes it helps to read about characters who are in recovery, esp characters who are struggling to recover or are deemed "unworthy" of recovery (whether others have deemed that, or they've deemed it themselves. or both). you're always worthy of recovery, and of being patient with yourself as you do pursue it.

honestly, most of my biggest fic inspirations are outside of the dsmp fandom..... i brought a lot of the tropes that i loved from my past fandoms and applied them here. i had some other ppl ask me for those fic titles regardless, so i'll put them under a cut if anyone is interested. some are dsmp, some are not.

raise me up and pray for forgiveness by caydiink (dsmp): i love fics that contemplate severe medical situations, and here's one where cdream is immortal and has been drowning for 15 years. reading this in the middle of planning veteri-mycosis convinced me to go further with the body horror.

awakening by jr_filiux (devilman): this is literally just my own fic i'm sorry ;-; it was pretty successful and i carried some ideas from it into itwall. basically, a character sprouts wings overnight and it's painful and terrible, and just when they think it's over, more keep growing.

the color red by rifa (dragon age 2): cdream enjoyers (and prison arc enjoyers specifically) would like fenris, and i will die on that hill. red lyrium is an infectious, crystal-like material, and this fic is a cool look at how it functions, how a major infection would effect someone, and what recovery might look like for them. you would notice some similarities with veteri-mycosis.

the phantom's curse by gen (ace attorney): lawyers in a pirate au. awesome plotwork, and i was OBSESSED with the last few chapters. almost wrote a fic inspired by it where i went into more detail. if you read it, you'll see what i mean.

#asks #sorry anon this probably isn't what you were looking for as far as fic recs #i also have a fic rec tag if you want to check there for more dsmp stuff #i emphasize the Worthiness bit bc it's something i struggle with LOL

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dogtoling · 2 years ago

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Yay more ink questions. 1. If enemy ink hurts you, why doesn't ally ink? Technically, they are both foreign ink and could be harmful.

2. Why do you regenerate ink faster in your ink? Is your ink tank like a sponge?

3. Why does walking in enemy ink damage you? Why doesn't it splat you?

4. Why doesn't the Slosher use more ink? The bucket needs a lot of ink to fill and you more or less empty it when you attack.

5. On a related note, how does the Splattershot Jr. have a bigger ink tank? Is it literally just a bigger ink tank?

And finally, unrelated to ink...

6. DLC thoughts?

As usual, thanks. You're awesome.

Thanks for the questions! most of these are agonizing. Several of them are things i've been wondering about for literally years and they may be solvable, but you literally need to understand sciences to make some kind of good conclusions, likely chemistry... which I don't, lol.

If enemy ink hurts you, why doesn't ally ink? Technically, they are both foreign ink and could be harmful.

yeah. This is something that's genuinely annoying, lol. I think in the manga there actually is an instance of ally ink splatting somebody, but the manga also isn't canon-aligning (Inklings don't dissolve in water, for example), so it can't really be used as reputable reference in a lot of cases. If a liquid being "foreign" is enough to make it harmful, that SHOULD also make octolings and inklings incompatible with each other's inks BY DEFAULT given that they are completely different species and there's no way their inks are literally identical. but you know, game's got to work.

So we don't have an answer to how the ink even changes color in the first place. It's probably either chemical-based, OR it's chromatophore-based, like the Inklings' skin (which i have no clue how the hell that would work in a liquid that isn't really part of the body, and shouldn't be directly nervous system controlled like an organ). With it being chromatophore-based, it also makes very little sense that different colors of ink would be harmful to Inklings with other colors.

I had a stand-in theory for it before in which the reason being covered in enemy ink made you unable to battle was because the body automatically adjusts to whatever color of ink it's surrounded or coated in, which would make you the enemy color and obviously then you couldn't fight. But it's a flawed theory that not only doesn't take into account the actual physical effects being splatted has (although they could be worked in), but also ignores some holes in it like... a lot of other game mechanics that work around splatting in which a color change wouldn't really matter at all, not to mention it wouldn't explain why a teammate couldn't just shoot you again to get you back in action immediately. (Granted, my current theory shares some of these same problems, but there's a limit to how much sense you can make of splatting without it becoming paranormal.)

The more sensible answer would be that the ink color changes are chemical-based, which would make all ink colors roughly the same chemical makeup based on which color-aligned chemicals and bits are metabolically smart to manufacture by a cephalopod en masse. Of course, I have zero ideas on what those chemicals would be, and it's most likely that the ink colors would be mixed from different quantities of a few separate colors, much like a printer. Different chemical makeups would make sense for why enemy ink is a foreign liquid as opposed to ally ink, which in being the same (or an extremely similar) color would be extremely similar to your own ink. I'd like to think ink colors that are further from each other would have a much stronger reaction against others, which is one of the reasons turf war team colors tend to be starkly different. If you had a fight between Light Blue and Cyan, for example, the colors might be so similar that no one ever got splatted unless hit REALLY HARD with a ton of ink at once.

(The most sensible explanation for the colors and effects would be that different colors are in very different parts on a pH scale, but that would mean some ink colors would be a biohazard and others would be highly corrosive acids that would just obliterate everything and ink is clearly neither of those. It has been stated to be safe to even drink, which pH 2> acid usually isn't.)

So basically this part of the ask got really long without answering much of anything yet. I honestly don't have any solid answers for this question, lol. I wish we got word on it! Moving on...

2. Why do you regenerate ink faster in your ink? I think this one goes hand in hand with my reasoning on why Inklings have very porous skin. The short answer is that they're able to absorb ink from their environment back into their bodies while in swim form, and in this case the environment is of course the floor. So their bodies are basically a sponge, and it is very likely that being in swim form, especially being IN ink, stimulates their bodies to produce ink faster. Of course, the layer of ink on the ground is typically not much, but ink is thick enough that there will be some color left even if you pass by and absorb half of it back.

3. Why does walking in enemy ink damage you? Why doesn't it splat you?

Okay this has always been really annoying. Your player inkling really hates being in enemy ink. LOATHES it even, they are literally in Physical Pain TRUDGING through that ink. The ink is STICKY and it HURTS and it's like you're going across a fucking swamp. How much of that is gameplay and how much of that is real?

Bestie, you literally have SHOES ON in the game. Point 1 of why it has always frustrated and confused me that you take damage in enemy ink. You literally have shoes on, it's not in contact with your BODY. The best assumption I've been able to make is that different colors of ink stick to each other, whereas similar ink colors mesh with each other and have no such issue. Which is why you're able to slide on ink of your own color, but not enemy ink - it just trips you up because your body is coated in ANOTHER ink color, which sticks like glue.

As for why walking through enemy ink sucks? My best guess is that your character's shoes are usually coated in your team's ink, so when you walk onto enemy ink it's like you just walked into a vat of glue. The downside is that logically, walking back from enemy ink to your own ink should then have the same effect, but I'm not going to be too much of a stickler about it because this is just trying to make in-universe sense of nonsense game mechanics right now.

Still haven't touched on the ink literally damaging you though. I'm just ignoring that as being a game mechanic, because again, your BODY is not in physical contact with the ink - just your shoes are (unless you're not wearing any). Running around in enemy ink you might get tiny splatters on yourself but that shouldn't really add up unless you're doing so for a really long time. If anything, Inklings might just become very distressed in enemy ink as they've just entered Glue Zone and that's something that heavily limits your movement options (which is scary). So that might make them less stable overall, making them easier to splat?

4. Why doesn't the Slosher use more ink?

Okay but this one. seriously, this leads into a discussion about the ink economics of a lot of weapons being COMPLETELY unsustainable, lol.

This is the Slosher. Look at the size of that thing and how much ink is hurled out in ONE SINGLE SWING. If we were being real, with a container that's like the same volume as an Inkling's whole torso, that should be at least half the ink sac GONE in like one swing and that's assuming the ink in the ink sac is extremely pressurized.

But this is a game and their ink producing abilities being grossly unrealistic is something that's necessary for gameplay so there's like not much you can do about it. My best justification for weapons that take up way too much ink (mostly heavy weapons, ESPECIALLY the Hydra and E-Liter) is that the ink is insanely compressed in the ink sac of an Inkling, and weapons have technology that thins the ink out by a LOT, so whenever bullets are fired it's actually a very small amount of ink stretched out to achieve a lot more than it normally would. We know that ink oxidizes, expands and even explodes in contact to air (bombs, Blasters), so using ink to thin it out and still end up with a lot of usable bullets could work.

Also, in terms of some weapons, I think some of their balancing wouldn't exist in the game world. For example, the slosher is a 2-shot-splat, but in-universe you CANNOT tell me that just one swing wouldn't be enough to splat like 80% of the time. A lot of the balancing definitely doesn't exist in-universe with the battles itself also having a lot more chaos and other elements going on, such as weather conditions, wind, shot deviation, inherent changes in weapon performance based on how beat up it is (Inkbrush is a very good example with the tube that needs to be replaced often). Basically the Slosher might realistically consume way more ink than it does in the game, but it would also be stronger as a result...

Oh, or the devs could drop the info that the Splatoon world is using infinite ink technology in some of the gear and that's how there's so much ink everywhere all the time, like how the Ink Tank magically refills from the bottom and Steel Eels have infinite fish slime fountains or Flooders have infinite ink or Spreaders have infinite ink or Spawn Points... you get the picture. Probably not, I honestly HOPE NOT because that would result in a lot more questions about why the Splatoon world is so archaic (ON OUR LEVEL PRETTY MUCH) if they have insane world and physics-defying science. But it WOULD make my job a whole lot easier when trying to justify how you'd even produce enough ink in 6 seconds to swing a Dynamo Again.

5. On a related note, how does the Splattershot Jr. have a bigger ink tank? Is it literally just a bigger ink tank?

....yes! Well, it wasn't in the beginning of Splatoon 2's life cycle, and I honestly don't know (or really care) if it still has an increased ink tank. But some time throughout Splatoon 2's life, when Splattershot Jr was given a bigger ink tank, it literally WAS GIVEN A BIGGER TANK.

To my knowledge, it doesn't have this baby bottle tank anymore, but yes, the change is literally physical. And yes I think from a gameplay perspective this was like the dumbest thing they ever did because it gave birth to some of the most annoying weapon gimmicks ever to exist on this planet and if it was intended to help new players, they should've just made this tank something that's exclusive to like, players from Level 1 to Level 10, applied regardless of weapon... or something. Instead of giving one weapon infinite freaking bombs.

But TL;DR yes, the Splattershot Jr. has a bigger ink tank, physically!

Bonus question time!

6. DLC thoughts?

...I started writing this out and it was going to be like 10+ paragraphs, so I'll make a separate post about it after this one, I think! So stay tuned for that I guess!

#mailbox #squidthoughts #thanks for the ask! i love an excuse to ramble forever #archive

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headingalaxys-spicy · 2 years ago

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Can we get a cardverse scenario where the reader is the white queen of a kingdom based on chess who rules over the white pawns, she suddenly got ambushed and somehow ends up into one of the card based kingdoms befriends the king and decided to stay there until she recovers and is deemed safe to go again.

Her stay caused the king to fall in love with her, to which she rejected and offered friendship instead. Her reason? She's engaged to the dark king of the black pawns, someone who she truly loves and looked forward to marrying in order to finally unite their kingdoms and end their rivalry.

Which made the king of (spades, diamond, hearts, clubs) do something drastic in order to have her as his queen.

Queen (Y/N) leader of the ivory natives of the chess realm. There were many others who were similar to her in all different colors and hues. All ruling over their microcosms within the vast space of the playfully colored checkered realm. All was well until the Queen of Spades decided to try and mess around with an interdimensional spell. While being careless Arthur forgot to close one of the numerous portals that he opened and a beast from a dark matter dimension started to wreak havoc on her and her palace. While trying to make sure some of her ill subjects were able to escape she was swept up by the daunting beast. It dragged her to the Cardverse realm in its rampage. At some point it abandons her with wounds from being tossed around like a rag doll.

Y/N passes out from the amount of blood loss her golden blood spilled from her veins onto the royal bluegrass. When she came to, she was met with two curious royals that were adorned with spades and coated with sapphire.

“I’m sorry love. I didn't mean to wreak havoc in your realm. I was only trying to improve a spell of mine so that I may be able to dimension hop.” The shorter of the two apologizes. His emerald eyes were a sharp contrast to a world that seemed to only live under the hues of blue. Save for some of the white that helped outline the brilliant sea azures. You were in a posh infirmary complete with fancy luxuries as floor to ceiling windows that allowed the viewer to see the four separated lands that also lived under their own individual color. Yellow, Green, Red, and where you currently were blue.

“Where am I?” Was the only thing you could think of to say since your head was still spinning and you couldn’t really move.

“The Kingdom of Spades Doll!” The other one taller said with absolute cheer. His grin was wide, he had a strand of hair that stood tall, and his cerulean eyes had a different effect on you than all of the other blue in the land. But it still didn’t compare to the shiny onyx eyes of her fiance.

“Oh, okay well. How do I get back to my realm? I do have my duties.” You tried to move but your body buckled at the slight movement of your arm. It was broken in two. You finally had a moment to become aware of yourself and you were troubled by what you saw. Both of your legs had been bandaged and your other arm did have a bruise or two. It felt like someone had taken a hammer to your skull. They swung with the fury of a baseball player trying to hit a home run. At least that’s what it felt like. You were still lightheaded and dazed. It wouldn’t have been a good idea for you to leave, right then, anyways.

“You’ll have to stay awhile love your severely injured and … I still have to tweak that spell to not be so dangerous. In the meantime you can heal and maybe explore the palace when you feel better. But for now have some supper with us.”

During your healing time is where Alfred and Arthur will have time to catch feelings for you even though the both of them may not say it. It will begin to show in their eyes, then it will move to their expressions, then slowly they will begin to test the waters.

“Hey Y/N do you want to uh, go see those stars that I was telling you about. This time of year they're pretty awesome and you can even see your realm. I think I’d like to go see it sometime.”

This is where the more interpersonal interaction becomes more intimate and it will draw them in emotionally to the idea that you could be the new royal of the Spades. They love simply hearing you talk about your Kingdom and how it could be a great little addition to theirs.

‘Having a completely different realm under our control could also possibly lead us to end these constant wars that we have all the time. We’d have the manpower, we’d have more access to magic, and we have the perfect bride. Who is a total sweetheart. We’d be dumb not to ask Y/N to join together in a sacred union. The three of us ruling. How fun.’ Arthur would be musing to himself as he watched Alfred continue to tend to the blossoming rosebuds in his heart. An amused smirk is on Arthur’s face as he watches them through one of his mirrors.

“He’s lucky it’s night time or that blush on his face would be a dead give away to how he feels.” He chuckles to himself as he sips some tea. “We should simply just ask tomorrow to be wed, I mean after all I am done fixing my delightful little spell.”

When they present the idea of course you’re revolted at the idea. However, you reject them as politely as you could and make it clear that you already belonged to another.

“I love Sable and he loves me too. There are just things in my kingdom that I have to do. Like his and ours. If we don't, the population will still be restless about wars…” You couldn’t really stand to look up in their eyes at the moment but you did . You alternated your head slowly to acknowledge both of them. You wanted to be as gentle as you could with their now bruised egos. You had to admit though the sharp shadows that cloud in their eyes were horribly off putting. You felt as though you had just awakened two dragons from their slumber.

And you were going to feel their fury.

But first they did take a moment to laugh at your cute defiance.

“How dare you think you actually had a say if your answer was ‘no’? ”

“That’s cute dollface the only finance you have are Arthur and I.”

5 minutes. 5 minutes was all it took for the two of them to destroy the future you once held in your mind for a good chunk of your life.

Minute 1. Arthur opened the portal to your world and cast a powerful binding spell over all of the Chess realm. That included your now dead love Sable.

Minute 2. Alfred yelled over the loudspeaker that all the servants should prepare for a wedding. He did this as he ran through the halls activating all the magical guards that Arthur keeps lined in the halls. Let’s also get ready for an all out war! War to win over Y/N! Let’s kill them all!”

Minute 3. An evil aura of sorts filled the galaxy of where you presided. This was a supreme type of yandere love that won’t cease to be violent until you give into their demands. Marry them and help them expand their kingdom in more ways than one.

Minute 4. The kings will bring you to your knees as they bring up the proposal again.

Minute 5. You are forced to give your answer.

#hetalia #yandere hetalia #hetalia cardverse #hws arthur kirkland #hws alfred f jones #hws #hws america #hetalia fandom #headingalaxys writes stuff #headingalaxys #alfred f jones #headingalaxys spicy #headingalaxys writes headcannons #hetalia fanfiction writer #hetalia fanfiction #answered

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onehunnit · 1 year ago

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Cinema Studies Minor Gets Super Into Analyzing K-Pop Videos 2.1

Disclaimer: I'm still a student, no where near an expert, I will be wrong in some technical aspects. Also my interpretations are my opinion which means you may disagree and that's okay. Awesome even! Just be normal about it fr. This is also very out of order bc that's how my brain works. Also I am but a baby loretiny, which means my interpretations are shaky at best compared to what's been established. But the lore is confusing anyway so....

The World EP.FIN: Trailer Analysis pt 1: Sections

Why Not Film?

K-Pop's Obsession with Wong Kar-Wai

Ateez and Metropolis

Why Not Film?

I mean like filming on film stock. Because there is a film grain/noise... (overlay? mask? idk man i'm not an editor I forgot my terms) texture to parts of the video that I think is supposed to evoke the idea of a security camera (I would have LOVED some high-angle shots to drive this home but oh well) BUT could also just be representing that it's old/in the past because it is also in black and white.

the texture is especially evident on San's face. I think they just put a noise filter over this part, which creates grain that you'd find on old film

So why not just film on film stock? It's expensive and cumbersome my guy. they filmed this between schedules like.... digital editing and stuff is just so much easier.

Which leads me to the next section:

K-Pop's Obsession with Wong Kar-Wai

STEP PRINTING!!!! 8/10FPS!!!!! STREAKS!!!! WE! LOVE! IT!

I fucking love this effect which WKW first did by filming (on stock) at 8 frames per second (fps) and then repeating the same frame 3 times to create that streakiness. Filming at a low frame rate then playing it at a higher one (usually 24 fps, which I'm guessing is also what they used for this trailer, 24-32(ish) fps is the cinematic standard) creates fast motion. This process is called step-printing.

The subject(s) would stay still/ move very slowly while filming to give the effect that everything is moving fast around them while they're normal speed. Super cool, gives sense that time is passing around them and/or isolation from others, which is what I think is intended here since HJ and the teezers are isolated from society as they're trying to fight against the government. sweet sweet storytelling through style. OBSESSED!

Here is an example from Chungking Express:

But also: K-Pop in general is OBSESSED with WKW's style. I will make a list of MVs that rep that eventually, but off the top my head, Mamamoo's mv for wind flower is inspired by Fallen Angels. The color grading, cinematography, the scene references etc.

Ateez and Metropolis

Now for something completely different: Before I get into it I really want to emphasize how fucking instrumental cinema was in globalization, because when cinema first became an industry it TRAVELED like TRAVELED. and resulted in a mix of styles since the fucking like 1920s. AMAZING

Okay so speaking of 1920s, let's get into IT! German Expressionism was a film movement that was born out of post-WW1 Germany and society's need to express (ha) the horrors of war they went through and since hyperinflation fucked up the economy so much, film companies were like "spend whatever" and blew budget on super elaborate film sets and facilities.

Expressionism is focused on the physical and really emphasizing features and such. It's hyperbolic as show in the screen shot from The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari:

The subject's face is deepened by the make-up and lighting and shows their state of mind, a mindless corpse being controlled by another power (think Master/Puppet, but we don't have time to rly get into post WW1 Ger's anxieties)

It's also hyperbolic, as I said, which sometimes takes form in the sets. Specifically the establishing shots. These would traditionally be miniatures or painted, as they are easy and you can see how they're similar:

1- Metropolis & 2- The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari

Notice anything? The lines maybe? Perspective? Symmetry? These are all qualities seen in German Expressionism which I will get into in a momement but first. Let me explain why I use Metropolis as an example. In short, they already referenced it in Guerrilla:

click to get the whole picture! Guerrilla MV and the film poster for Metropolis, the book cover is similar.

See the lines and perspective? The establishing shot at the beginning is the same, let's compare it to Metropolis again:

THE WORLD: EP.FIN Trailer & Metropolis

German expressionism is alive and well in film style and I'm so in love with how the director utilizes it.

Next, we're going to talk about structure and lines, along with style and how it helps the narrative.

[TO BE CONTINUED]

#x.txt #x.cinema analysis #ateez #I will reach image limit so I'll just do a pt 2

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loreholdlesbian · 2 years ago

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March of the Machines Draft Booster Challenger

Hello everyone! Every set I like to make a booster pack of custom cards, inspired by a challenge in the GDS3 to which all the links are broken from wotc’s dumb site change so im not gonna bother. But the goal is to match the distribution of cards you could expect to find in a booster of MOM, trying to make cards that wouldn’t feel odd mixed in with those of the set. I try to fit with the ways mechanics were used in the set, while also being innovative and finding new things to do, which can sometimes be conflicting goals. There are also a lot of stipulations I put on myself in addition to being innovative while natural to the set, like trying to have a good spread of card types, colors, and themes while not being too similar to any card in the set (or the booster). Now let’s get into it!

Long post ahead, click at your own risk.

Rare

Thoughtweft Vigilant 2W

Creature- Kithkin Knight

Vigilance

All noncreature spells cost 2 more to cast and have convoke.

3/3

This is trying to do something new with convoke. Rather than using convoke as a flat bonus, it uses it as a way to alleviate a downside. It affects everyone, but your deck is gonna be better equipped to take advantage. The aggressive stats and relevant typeline encourage a very creatureful deck, so you might even rather 2 extra mana but being able to convoke your noncreature spells, while your opponents probably will not.

Uncommons

Vraska, Heretic’s End 1B P/B

Legendary Planeswalker- Vraska

Compleated

Phyrexians you control have menace.

-2: Destroy target creature or planeswalker that was dealt damage this turn.

5 Loyalty

This set is the last time we’ll be seeing phyrexians for a while, so I wanted to give a last hurrah to the compleated mechanic (as well as to some of the characters who had it who died in this story, though vraska isn’t one). This is one member of a 5 card cycle of uncommon planeswalkers that all have a compleated, a static, and a minus ability. I think compleated is a neat mechanic on planeswalkers with no + ability, it’s using it in its simplest form to mean “you can cheap on the mana but you’ll get fewer uses of the ability, full stop”. Vraska tends to be a very removal-centric planeswalker, so her - needed to be removal, and this felt like the least problematic way to have repeatable removal that feels like her. If anything it feels too weak, we’ve seen this effect at one mana with a cantrip, but it synergizes really well with the menace she grants. This probably isn’t something wotc would have included in the set if im being honest, to differentiate it both from WAR and from ONE, but its something i think would be an awesome addition so I did it anyway.

Ikorian Behemoth 3GG

Creature- Dinosaur Rhino Beast

Haste

Trample over everything (This creature can deal excess combat damage to the player, battle, or planeswalker it’s attacking. Excess combat damage to a planeswalker or battle it’s attacking can be dealt to the defending player.)

5/4

“Trample over battles” felt like a cool bit of text we could have seen in this set but didn’t, which meant it was a perfect opportunity for this project. This went through a few iterations that ended with “Trample, trample over planeswalkers and battles” but i didn’t like how repetitive that sounded (I don’t like how repetitive [[Thrasta]] sounded either) so I came up with “trample over everything” which frankly is just an awesome-sounding bit of rules text, and definitely is a cool new thing to show off, which again, is perfect for this project and the kind of innovation I like to do.

Commons

Infuse with Halo 1W

Instant

Untap target creature and put a +1/+1 counter on it. It gains protection from Phyrexians until end of turn. (It can’t be blocked, damaged, or targeted by Phyrexians.)

This was originally a backup creature with protection from phyrexians, and I do think that’s a neat effect for a backup creature but I wanted to increase the number of noncreature cards in the pack plus I had another white backup creature i wanted so I went with this. I think protection from phyrexians would play pretty well in this set though.

Ranks of the Cathars W

Creature- Human Knight

Backup X, where X is the number of creatures you control named Ranks of the Cathars.

3: This creature gains double strike until end of turn.

0/1

This backup card is more about the +1/+1 counters than the ability, but backing something up turn 4 and then activating the ability is no joke, especially if you got another one down early.

Corrupted Sea

Land

~ enters the battlefield tapped.

T: Add U.

Cycling 1 P/U

Phyrexian mana cycling costs felt really cool, cause cycling is usually between 1 or 2 mana and isn’t a problem to the color pie, so it doesn’t bump up against phyrexian mana’s problems, plus the 2 life is hopefully gonna stop the ikoria problem of filling your deck with off-color cyclers despite being useable generically, cause all that life will add up fast. I put this on a land cycle, cause there was a cycle of landcycling spells at common i didn’t want this to compete with, plus having a land meant i had every nontribal card type covered in the pack.

Flock’s Protection 2U

Instant

Convoke

Counter target spell unless its controller pays 1 for each creature you control.

Since blue is one of the big convoke colors this set, it wants more of a go-wide strategy than usual so I thought a card like this that rewards that would be a good addition.

Podtender Perfect 3B

Creature- Phyrexian Elf

When ~ enters the battlefield, incubate 3. That token becomes a 0/0 Phyrexian artifact creature with haste until end of turn.

3/3

I had the idea for creating an incubator token and making it a copy of something until end of turn, so you could make use of the token before you transform it, but there was no good upper rarity slot for it but if i did a simpler implementation, I could do it at common, and the simplest was having it become the same thing you’re used to it becoming, a 0/0 Phyrexian.

Stinkcaller Shaman 1R

Creature- Goblin Shaman

When ~ enters the battlefield, exile the top card of your library. You may play that card this turn. A spell cast this way has convoke.

2/1

Here’s another cool new way I found to use convoke, tying it to red’s impulse draw. I put it as an ETB on a creature so you could make use of that creature for the convoke cost.

Repurpose Biomass 1G

Sorcery

Incubate 2, then put a +1/+1 counter on an artifact or creature you control.

Nothing too complicated here, it’s basically an incubate 3 that’s more flexible with where you can put the last counter.

Transguild Skytraveller 2

Artifact Creature- Bird

~ is all colors.

Flying, vigilance

1/1

I thought a [[Transguild Courier]] type card would be a neat addition with convoke in the set, so it can help fix for your convoke cards.

Battle

Invasion of Rabiah 5

Battle- Siege [rare]

~ enters the battlefield with one fewer defense counter for each color spent to cast it.

When ~ enters the battlefield, draw two cards.

7 defense

Lamp of Endless Realms

Artifact

You have no maximum hand size.

4, T: Choose a card you own from outside the game and put that card into your hand.

Battles are a whole new card type, and if im trying to show off innovative new things, this was the perfect spot. But wotc was very specific in making all the battles work the same here, so I couldn’t deviate far from that. Making one with a variable number of defense counters felt like the best middle ground I could find. Since I needed the variation to never make it enter with 0 defense, this felt like my best option.

DFC

Furnace Implant R

Enchantment- Aura [uncommon]

Enchant creature you control

Enchanted creature gets +1/+1 and has first strike.

4 P/W: Transform ~. Activate only as a sorcery.

Furnacestoker Firecat

[RW] Creature- Phyrexian Elemental Cat

First strike

4/2

Similarly to battles, the DFCs here all worked similarly which didn’t give me a lot of room to come up with something new. They all turn into phyrexians, but all the dfc cards start as creatures. So I thought doing another card type would be neat (though admittedly there are already incubator tokens in this space)

Bonus Sheet

Lyssa, Ancient Theologian 2RW

Legendary Creature- Human Cleric [uncommon]

Whenever Lyssa, Ancient Theologian attacks, mill two cards. Choose a card milled this way. You may play it from your graveyard this turn.

Whenever one or more cards leave your graveyard, you gain 2 life.

3/4

Bonus sheets are always hard since they’re all reprints, but ive settled on making new cards for them that wouldn’t have printed in the set they come with. Here, I went with something that could fit in strixhaven a) cause i had the frame for it and b) cause it lets me show off this new mill-based form of impulse draw that i think would be a really useful tool for red in graveyardy sets.

Art links:

Thoughtweft Vigilant

Vraska, Heretics’ End

Ikorian Behemoth

Infuse with Halo

Ranks of Cathars

Corrupted Sea

Flock’s Protection

Podtender Perfect

Stinkcaller Shaman

Repurpose Biomass

Tranguild Skytraveller

Invasion of Rabiah // Lamp of Endless Realms

Furnace Implant // Furnacestoker Firecat

Lyssa, Ancient Theologian

#original post #mtg #magic the gathering #custom magic card #booster challenge #march of the machines

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