#syr for typos

[mothlady-garden]

Something that really bugs me about the old translation

DH translation of Ch.33 of Trimax

New OH translation of this chapter

Different translations can shift the soul of a scene, in the old DH translation it reads: “If I save one life… will it be as though I was born alone?” In the new OH version, it’s “If I could save a single life… If I could do just a little… would that… be good enough?” One is existential, questioning if a single act of good could justify his painful existence. As if he's trying to compensate his and his brothers effected harm. He needs therapy so bad

The different variants symbolise the different iterations lol. Ow shit, now I wanna draw that scene for Trigun help

The new version is more personal, filled with doubt about whether his efforts will ever be enough. my favourite

But both are Vash.

Despite everything Knives has done to him, Vash still loves him. Many would see that as weakness, but it’s actually his greatest strength. Most protagonists fight out of revenge, ambitions, survival, or duty. Vash moved forward in the last 150 years on this god forsaken planet because he cares. And that makes him fascinating. Nothing Knives does will make him stop caring. No amount of cruelty can erase his choice to keep attaching his heart onto us short lived/fragile humans.

Reminds be of this one DW line: "Never be cruel. Never be cowardly. Hate is always foolish, and love is always wise.”

End game Spoiler below just in case:

(I wonder, in the end of the manga if he was happy to age and get old like your regular Joe Schmo, since Independent Plants are most likely built to last for roughly 500 years minimum -if they aren’t draining themselves like crazy; so he would die at a very young age. I really hope that he was happy)

In general, the old translation doesn’t bother me too much and I can overlook small things or chuckle at them. But this part is so important for his character that it really bothers me, and I’m sad it stayed unchanged

[inventors-fair]

Tightrope Walkers - Balancing Act Commentary

It’s that time again, folks! Here for your perusal and amusal are all the cards you’ve submitted this week, with my thoughts and musings attached. As always, feel free to give me a shout if you have any questions, comments, discussion points, bad puns, anything. Here we go!

Lightning Compressor by @dimestoretajic​

art prompt - an Izzet goblin with an impressive electric hat is throwing the switch on a large glass tank with a nightmarish face resembling the M10 art for Ball Lightning pressed to the glass inside it

Ball Lightning tribal support crops up in the fair every so often, and this is a pretty cool take on it. No fancy, flashy buffs or ways to mitigate the downside, just making a bunch of Ball Lightning tokens. Like... a bunch. I do like this card, but as a general rule of thumb, a repeatable effect should cost more than the same effect as a one-off. This costs the exact same as Ball Lightning, lets you make multiple per turn, and doesn’t cost you any cards to do so. It should either be more expensive, or maybe have an additional cost associated with it like discarding X cards. Alternatively, you could make the tokens smaller, though I know that loses some of the connection to the flavor. The flavor text is not bad, but it does feel like it runs on a little and the punchline deserves a bit more attention. Still a very solid card though!

Repeated Repetition by @little-red-rabbit

At first, I thought this card fell into the same trap as the previous one- of having a really good rate. Then I realized, this doesn’t actually do anything unless you spend UURR, which means it’s actually sitting at a fairly poor rate. The golden spot would be somewhere in between, I think? The effect is super cool, and I’m surprised we haven’t seen something like this yet. The choice to hit just instants and not sorceries is interesting, and I think some players might be confused by that. It’s a very clever base idea, but the lesson to be learned is that designs should be double, triple, and even quadruple-checked for all those tiny fiddly bits- things like adding “instant spell”, and checking over the flavor text for typos and grammatical errors. I do like where your head's at, though!

Jabberwock by @evscfa1

Eugh, you’ve successfully dredged up memories of my grade 10 drama class, which is... blech. Hated that poem. But the card! The card is cool! Based on the fairy-tale creature inspiration and the “Syr” in the quote, this is likely meant to be set on Eldraine, which... neat. I honestly could see us getting a Jabberwock-inspired card when we return to Eldraine. In terms of a design contest though, I did mention that french vanilla creatures may not be the best submissions for this week. Beyond that, I’m not sure I understand why you chose the keywords you did? Obvious one for each color, but deathtouch on a big creature seems strange- and you could easily convey the creepy evil flavor with menace instead, which would make this thing even more of a powerhouse. Finally, I don’t fully understand what the flavor text is trying to get at- implying that there’s multiple of these things, but there’s only one on the card? If it had some sort of self-replicating or self-recurring ability, I could definitely make more sense of the flavor text.

Crop Failure by @piccadilly-blue

Gonna get this out of the way- flavor text? Simple. Strong. Punchy. Informs the world around it. Everything I’m looking for this week. It’s cool as hell! The ETB is solid, and it hits you too so it’s not really too brutal, it just sets everyone back a turn. The static hate ability is... a little weak? I totally understand the flavor you were going for here, and I think it’s awesome, but I think that flavor would have absolutely held up if you broadened it to, say “players can’t create noncreature tokens”? Or “players can’t gain life”? Cause you’re not just denying them food, you’re denying them resources, and I think this is an instance where you can sacrifice just a bit of the obvious flavor for some better mechanical impact.

Tal Inquisitor by @wolkemesser

Okay, so we’re looking at devotion that isn’t on Theros, but still tied to the concept of gods and prayer. The worldbuilding you’ve done in the flavor text is fantastic, and I love the questions it raises about this world, but it’s very exposition-y. I think it could have been cut down, or maybe made into a quote? If someone is saying it, then you could adjust the text to be a bit more active, and draw the reader in more. Heck, you could make the inquisitor himself be saying it! The card itself seems... pretty strong for a one-mana uncommon? I dunno, maybe I’m just a little skittish. At base, it’s a 1/2, but it has the potential to get a lot bigger, so I dunno. Probably woulda made it two, maybe three mana, just to be safe. 

Sudden Realization by @yd12k

Art: A young man is standing over a scrying pool, shocked backwards by the vision within it. Within the pool there is an upside-down image of a girl with similar hair sitting in a forest clearing.

You shared a lot of backstory alongside the submission to flesh out this fanwalker character, and it was awesome! We always need more trans characters in magic, and Nifah seems pretty cool. The card on its own is fairly good. As it stands, you’re essentially spending one mana to draw a card, and another to make your next spell uninteractable, since the X is you “paying” for the creature. I do suppose it lets you color fix as well. The other minor issue is that you need to define X before you get to draw the card, which would lead to some feelsbad moments of being only one or two mana shy of dropping the creature you just drew. It’s still a cool card, and I like the flavor text, but maybe there’s a different way to scale it? Also, congrats on making a hybrid card with no bends or breaks- that’s no small feat.

Aelius, Sunchase Heartstoker by @reaperfromtheabyss

Art Direction: An older Therosian resembling the impetuous sunchaser is helping a younger man put on a pair of wings. The background is an open sky filled with a warm golden sun

Okay, so until I read the art direction, I didn’t realize this was meant to be Daedalus, and that’s a very cool concept. Daedalus was known for not exactly... respecting the gods, so having his Magic version basically be trying to dethrone Heliod in favor of this other (real???) sun god? Very cool. I did read the name as “Heartstroker” at first, but that’s more a me problem. Flavor text is A+, and I like the abilities- stoking the fire in other creatures and encouraging them to attack. Based on the flavor text of Wings of Hubris, it does seem like we already have a 1:1 Daedalus, but that’s also a pretty minor complaint. All in all, very solid card, and was very close to making it into the runners-up.

Bank Shot by @hiygamer

Rebound being a literal rebound shot is hilarious, and I love how this works with the combat-trick heavy environment of battlebond. “Cast from a hand” feels super weird to read, but I’m not sure what the alternative is. A player’s hand? Maybe? Yeah, I don’t really have much to say about this other than it’s very solid. For three mana, you more or less get to “copy” two of your other spells over three turns. I’m not sure if this is exciting enough to be a rare, but I’m also not sure if it’s too strong for uncommon. This card occupies a very interesting liminal space, and I would like to see how it plays. The flavor text is okay. The first sentence as a setup is great, but the delivery of the second is a bit dull. Instead of “so much more”, maybe inference how skilled players use it for not-intended purposes? “So much more” kind of implies that they... protect the players as well as the audience? I dunno, something’s just not quite jamming with me, but the bones are good.

Plow the Earth by @i-am-the-one-who-wololoes

The invocation of these flavor text is POWERFUL. I can feel a character crying this out as they’re surrounded by whipping winds, and plants explode out of the ground around them. It’s very appropriately epic. The inverse of Zendikar’s Roil for sure makes for some interesting play- obviously the tokens are bigger and the enchantment is cheaper, but it’s a lot harder to put lands in grave than it is to just play them. This still plays very nicely with fetch lands, or any of those many green cards that let you sac lands for various benefits. This is very much a solid design, and was one of the toughest ones to cut from the running. I would love to see this one get printed, because I have several decks I would put it in. 

Visshox’ Gaze by @ghoulcaclulator64

I’ll admit, I thought a Visshox was a creature until the flavor text corrected me on that. The menacing glare being interpreted as forcing someone to reveal their hand is inspired, and I love how it captures that intimidation aspect. Menace tribal is interesting for sure, and the two different modes have an interesting tension between them. Even if you do control a creature with menace, there still are situations where you want them to discard lands. As for the flavor text, I’m not sure what it is, but it reads a bit awkward to me- “years since I just barely escaped” seems a bit too... straightforward, I guess? I’m not sure what I’m trying to say here, I just think that this character, whoever they are, needs more of a defined voice. As it is, it feels a bit like exposition with quotes slapped onto it.

Maniacal Scheme by @deg99

You know, as specific as this flavor text is, I was almost certain someone would do exactly this- after all, a villain monologue is pretty much exactly what I was asking for this week. The card is reminiscent of the Benalish Commander cycle, and it has a really solid amount of diversity to it. You can either slam it down after an alpha strike to be a straight boardwipe, or use it to keep your opponents’ boards locked down for a while. So far, we’ve only seen this effect in white, which is interesting. I’m not sure if that means black doesn’t get it, or they just haven’t done it yet, but anyways. My other issue is that the base cost might be a bit too cheap- this has a lot of versatility, and 5 mana for what is likely a mostly-unconditional boardwipe (since you’re the only player who will have all their stuff untapped when you play this), might be a bit too strong. Then again, maybe not. It’s the kinda thing that would show up in playtesting.

Grind of Eons by @real-aspen-hours

Art direction: location, desert: both the moon and sun in the sky, both day and night to show the rapid passage of time, day on the left, night on the right, with stars stretched out into lines like on a long period exposure photo on the night side. In the foreground, a monument to a figure is turning to sand and blowing away on the wind. The figures identity is obscured by age, and the aging becomes more pronounced the further right in the drawing.

Mood: the rapid passage of time

That is some FANTASTIC art direction. I can clearly picture it in my mind, and it looks amazing. The card itself is one of the fairly typical “big expensive boardwipes with upside”, the upside in this case being a strange mill variant. I’m not sure what situations this card will be in where exiling ten cards from libraries becomes relevant, but it does a lot to help support the flavor, so it’s not a bad choice. Also, I like how the flavor text, while strongly invoking decay, also subtly references rebirth- as one kingdom was built on the dust of the previous one, so too will a new one come from this one. I like that! A small glimmer of hope! One issue- there is nothing wrong with submitting cards in a text-based format- we totally understand that not everyone has easy access to a card creator- but please make sure you have all the card information clear and visible. Your submission didn’t have a rarity, which does make it difficult to judge- I have different opinions on this based on whether it’s a rare or mythic. Please double check submissions for the little details!

Resonant Echo by @izzet-always-r-versus-u

Y’know what’s funny? I made this exact card about a year back- like exactly. Mine was called Resounding Echo. I love it when that happens- shows that Magic players really are all the same, in the end. It’s a very fun card, though it can get pretty crazy. Spells without targets tend to be more big, flashy, and expensive, and doubling all of them can get real scary, real fast. I’m not totally sure how I feel about the flavor text? I do like Zaffai, and this seems very fitting as a Prismari card, but “Echoes” and “Harmonies” are two different things to me, so I don’t get what this card is meant to represent flavorfully. I think some more specificity here would help a lot, maybe referring to exactly what the students are doing to produce this echo? Still a very cool card tho!

Suffocating Smog by @misterstingyjack

Definitely a topical card, given the events of the current and future sets. In fact, I could see this exact thing getting printed in The Brothers’ War, maybe with some different flavor text. Anyways, this has the potential to be a super nasty asymmetrical boardwipe, especially given how easy it is to make a bunch of artifact tokens and whatnot. I think it might still be fine at 4 mana? I dunno, it’s treading dangerous waters for sure. Let’s talk about that flavor text. I love the imagery you’ve got going on there, and “it is their subtler horrors that breaks a world” is GOLDEN. This really feels like someone speaking, so I think it definitely deserves quotes and maybe an attribution. Also, the starting bit could afford to be tightened up a bit. Very solid card all around.

Triskaidekavore by @gollumni

So it... eats bad luck? I think I love this guy, he’s so adorable. I have no idea what eating bad luck would entail, but I support him. It is a little funny that it’s bad-luck-themed, but you can only easily play it if you’re having good luck (ie drawing lots of cards). It is a big, splashy mythic, which is what I love to see. I think maybe it could get a keyword as a treat? Also, I may be blind but I only count six 13s? Is there supposed to be 7? Or 13? Regardless, fun little card, solid flavor text, A+ all around.

Curse of Yargle’s Spawn by @squeezyboi

Okay, so taking this flavor text in conjunction with Yargle, Glutton of Urborg... Dominaria’s about to have a real problem with overgrown wildlife, huh? I like the flavor text a lot, but I don’t get the “always satisfied” bit. Why would it be satisfied if it’s constantly eating? The trademark of big gluttonous monsters is that they’re never satisfied. The card itself is another matter. Giving a massive power buff like that is awesome, and feels very yargle-y, but even in exchange for a big body, black doesn’t get to wipe a creature’s abilities like that. That’s a pretty strictly blue-and-white thing to do, even if you’d mostly be putting this on your own creatures. Still a neat card with devastating implications for Urborg’s ecology.

Forlorned Lover by @beandrea99

Spoooooky. I like how this spirit would work in limited- drop it and start swinging to try and keep your opponent’s big threat down, or to make room for your other attackers. But you need to have other answers on hand for any potential flying blockers, or this gets eaten. It’s solid, simple, and I think would play really well. I’m not totally sold on 1UU as opposed to 2U, but that might be a matter of preference.The flavor text is decent, though the ending feels like it’s trying a bit too hard to up the creep factor, and it ends up just sounding cheesy. I think subverting the expectations there and using different language could really help that bit along.

Spectrum Purge by @hypexion

Very hard not to compare to Vanishing Verse on this one. Obviously there are some small differences here and there (destroy vs exile, sorcery vs instant), but I’m just not sure this would be much fun to play unless it was in a very multicolor-heavy limited environment. Not to say that’s impossible- after all, we just had New Capenna. But in that instance, it becomes likely the best removal in the format, and would be highly prized. I’m not sure there’s a middle ground for this card- or if there is, I’m just not seeing it. The flavor text is good, if a bit dry. I really like what it’s going for, but I don’t fully understand what it’s going for- is this like a “anything different from me must die” kind of vibe? And what does “finding purity in death” mean? It sounds nice, for sure, but I don’t quite grok it.

Four-Point Urstag by @horsecrash

Like some of the other submissions this week, this card does fall into a trap that I tried to warn against- near-vanilla creatures don’t really show off the submitter’s design skills, unless it’s something wildly out-of-the-box creative. This is fine, it’s a good card that would probably have been great support for Ikoria limited, but it’s not something I can judge very easily, since there’s not much to it. That being said, the one thing I can comment on is the flavor text- it’s pretty solid. I do like the idea of “green character who hates nature”. Even though it would be tricky to pull off, I think it could certainly be done. Besides, any sane person would look at Ikoria and immediately planeswalk the other way. I’m not sure I agree with Ikoria’s people being “tree-huggers”, since most of them seem very murderous towards local flora and fauna? But maybe that’s one of those differences between the cards and the lore, so who knows. I like the flavor text a lot, I just wish it was on a more interesting card.

That’s that for this week, folks! Reminder that the week after next (when I’m back in rotation), I will be running a contest from our lovely folks over in our #contest-suggestions channel in Discord! If you have an idea you want to not-so-subtly suggest, throw it in that channel in the next few weeks!

Au revoir, 

~judge @naban-dean-of-irritation​

[danco110]

“Everyone, positions! The drawbridge! The enemy is about to charge!”

The knight and soldiers besieging the keep assumed a defensive formation in anticipation of an attack. Mages lit the arrows of the nearby archers before preparing their own spells to fling at anything that crossed the moat.

“On my command!”

With a long, shuddering creak, the drawbridge began to lower. Before it could complete its descent, however, the drawbridge - along with the entire section of wall surrounding it - crumbled as a massive figure stomped out of the keep.

“Giant! Giant!”

The towering knight charged forward, easily clearing the moat with a single step. He swatted aside siege towers and battering rams as though they weighed nothing, and soon the enemy army was sent fleeing into the forest. The giant looked down at his feet to see a minuscule knight shouting up at him.

“Good work, Syr Kanello!”

The giant laughed warmly, a sound which shook the walls of the keep with its volume. “Aw, you’re making me blush, Faren!”

[What with the tower in the background, it kinda looks like Rampart Smasher is breaking out of the castle grounds!

Also, the excerpt from Legend of the Gilded Knights has a typo. It should actually read “the knight charged out.” Singular knight.]