#themed deck

[themissingmango]

[inkyami]

A poster I did for "Heroic epics of the peoples of Russia" project by Nikolay Rastorguev Foundation and the Moscow's Department of Culture

Rus Byliny (plural) — oral epic poems in Kyivan and Novgorod Rus, counting more than 400 poems and mostly focusing on the semi-historic deeds of bogatyrs ("great warrior"). Despite common traits, they show a variety of themes, structure and dates of origin. The centerpiece is the most famous bogatyr trio — Ilya of Murom, Dobrynya Nikitich and Alyosha Popovitch with their respective antagonists, while the foreground focuses on much more archaic heroes — Svyatogor and Mikula Selyaninovitch. Heroes of that period inhabit almost a mythological world, and often posses chthonic traits themselves. Even by the time of the Boratyr Trio their stories centered on no longer belonging to the "modern" world.

Twitter | VK | INPRNT | Leave a tip

[the-elder-polls]

dunno if i've mentioned this yet but i particularly do not like the official elder scrolls tarot deck and it makes me so sad :(

[mtg-cards-hourly]

Brainstorm

"I reeled from the blow, and then suddenly, I knew exactly what to do. Within moments, victory was mine." —Gustha Ebbasdotter, Kjeldoran royal mage

Artist: Christopher Rush TCG Player Link Scryfall Link EDHREC Link

[mcspirkevents]

Here are the sign-ups for the Star Trek Polyship Calendar

Rules are listed in the calendar! Here are some quick things though.

All poly ships are welcomed in the calendar. While the host is a Mcspirk blog, you do not have to draw just Mcspirk! So long as it's a Star Trek poly ship, it's allowed. QPRs are welcomed!

The goal is to have the calendar done in time for 2025, however if it's not then everything will be pushed back, and the new goal will be 2026.

All fanart must be sfw.

More information will be given after each month is taken.

Other than that please reblog so plenty of people see it! This event is to cheer on all of the star trek poly ships!

[jolyneart]

I got this playmat made for myself and a lot of folks have asked me about getting one

So I'll be making these available next time I open my shop in a few weeks, keep an eye out!

[glimblshanks]

Maybe it's just the Futurama fan in me speaking, but I have a hard time believing that we'll never get a Lower Decks reboot of some kind

[sir-qwillian-ferne]

One sitting babyyyy

[bleachbleachbleach]

Bleach is great because when you tell people (through both oral and written communication) to include their slides in the slide deck, and that they should be able to copy/paste them directly in from either Google Slides or PPT—or, if they prefer, they can compose them directly in the group slides—and you still get multiple people emailing you with PDFs… of their slides… instead of thinking “I cannot fathom a reason on earth why you’d think this was the best way to do this” you can think

“Which shinigami definitely do it like this”

[liauditore]

smooshing together my interests like making two plushies kiss. some random nonsense under the cut (horror themes).

<RETRIEVED FILE. CODE: HCS7DO.>

DECKED OUT 1.0: The newest and only one of her kind! We have no idea how Tango managed it, but, and I don't say this lightly, she's the best we have. Equipped with the latest redstone technology and standing at a whopping 70 metres tall (Tango was always known for not being particularly subtle...), it's no wonder Tango and her are inseparable.

TANGO TEK: One of the greatest engineers I know. There's.. really no reason for him to be out in the caverns, but his heart seems to belong to piloting. There's no talking that guy down, if anything he seems to take any sign of doubt or worry as a challenge. I hope he knows guys around our age usually grew out of that sort of bravado half a decade ago, but who am I to stop him?

<END LOG>

<RETRIEVED AUDIO. CODE: HCS8DO.>

[shrill, sharp inhales are heard, piercing through the microphone.]

[???]: H-Hey! This is [INTELLIGIBLE]. Do you copy?! Do you copy?! We. We're in a situation o'er here! T-Tango, he--!

[An inhuman screech echoes from afar.]

[Heavy footsteps are heard, getting louder and louder]

[???]: [INTELLIGIBLE]

[???]: We need [INTELLIGIBLE] rescue, stat! Send everyone you can! We're deep down, at the-- [INTELLIGIBLE]! Please, it was the mech, it--!

[The audio abruptly cuts off]

~

Impulse finishes off the day the same way everyday. Review the paperwork, make sure all the mechs are fully powered off, lock up the compound, make tea, go to bed.

He's had the kettle for months now, yet it still feels brand new somehow. It lets out this high-pitched noise he can't stand and it takes so damn long. But he has no other option around these days.

He watches it boil, sitting on a dusty desk strewn with papers. Mostly business documents, most of those covered in scribbled drawings of future projects, a couple of handwritten recipes, an old sticky note from Bdubs that just read "HERE'S YOUR (crossed out) REDSTONE" that he found amusing and stuck to his desk, a birthday card with a cheesy message written inside signed off by "Your Rancher C:".

Impulse missed Tango.

He'd been missing for far too long.

[marimopup]

I just had a dream that Simon was still trying to cope with his loss of Betty so he turned to going to princess yard sales and buying all of the jewelry he could from them and pretending that he was buying it for Betty

Also there was some random confessional from Betty from inside of GOLB’s head like it was a reality tv show where she’s like “Simon seriously needs to get over me, he’s being so cringe right now” (not word for word but pretty much what she said)

[maybeasunflower]

Star Trek theme tunes: worst to best

Star Trek’s many TV series each have an opening sequence that attempts to set up the viewer for the show ahead. A good theme tune delivers a high-quality piece of music that encapsulates the show’s essence — and it is on this basis that I’ve ranked the themes. What isn’t included in my ranking is anything about the graphics that accompany the music, nor the show itself. Naturally, these are all purely my personal opinions, so there can be no argument.

Let’s get started!

11: Enterprise

“It’s been a long road…” are five words that launched a lot of strong feelings — and rightly so. The jarring mismatch between everything about this song and everything Enterprise was about relegates this theme to the bottom of the heap. The opening graphics are spot-on for the show’s premise — but I never got to watch them because I needed to skip the music, and that makes me madder.

If you want to know what could have been, search YouTube for “Star Trek: Enterprise Opening Credits with Archer’s Theme”. That music is perfect for the show: slow, dramatic, building up for the big reveal. Then finish weeping / gnashing your teeth and come back here.

This theme also meant that we can never have a Star Trek theme with words again, ever, because we have been all primed to hate such things because of Enterprise — and that’s sad.

Imagine if we’d had a good theme with words that we could all sing at appropriate and inappropriate occasions.

10: The Animated Series

You’d forgotten about this series, hadn’t you? I will confess I haven’t watched any episodes (unlike the other ST series), but that doesn’t me having an opinion about the theme music. The jaunty theme music. The theme music that speaks of hijinks and hilarious consequences. The theme with super precise drumming — the perfect accompaniment as we join our hero sipping a cocktail in his usual bar by the beach.

Wait, this show is about space exploration?

9: Discovery

Open with Those Four Notes (good), wistful hunting call horns (good), build up to a climax (good), and then… umm…

What follows musically reminds me of Fringe (a great show that also involved Alex Kurtzman and Robert Orci as creators). Fringe was a show about the discovery of new scientific things (and the consequences thereof)— but Discovery is not. The stories of Discovery revolve around battling against various things. The main theme (minimalist repeated eighth note patterns with a slow-moving melody) simply doesn’t speak to premise of the show. It ends with the ascending “Star Trek motif”, but it just feels like something bolted on to end things.

This is a theme based on the title, not on the events in the show.

8: The Original Series

I’m going to get some flak for this, but I don’t care. Yes, The Original Series is sacred. Yes, this theme gave us Those Four Notes right at the start. Yes, it gave us the classic opening words. Yes, we must remember TV was different back then when judging TOS. But I’m ranking the music, and so that’s all that matters.

This is a show about exploring strange new worlds and going boldly. The music is not that. The music is about going somewhere on holiday in your 1960s convertible, or possibly going home from work for the weekly comedic capers. It’s not going boldly anywhere, it’s not exploring new worlds, and that’s final.

… I am going to get so much flak for this.

7: Picard

This is a theme unlike any other, but this a series unlike other, so that’s OK. The wistful main melody on solo cello works for the show and its premise. The theme then gets musically developed by other instruments in a musically satisfyingly way.

However, two-thirds (!) of the title graphics are consumed by the 137 producers, supervising producers, co-executive producers, executive producers, and producing producers — and it feels the music had to be extended by a good 30 seconds to cover them all. Like Discovery, it ends with ends with the ascending “Star Trek motif”, but it (just about) feels musically connected to what came before.

Overall, I am left with a very neutral opinion. There’s nothing that bad about this music, but nothing that makes it stand out.

It’s boringly OK.

6: Strange New Worlds

After the classic opening words, the dramatic bass line/repetitive strings/drums kick in, the music builds, everything’s set up for the main melody…. and what’s that? Well, you can’t hear that melody because the orchestration that gives it insufficient body, and the sound mix gives the accompanying dramatic bass line/repetitive strings/drums far too much prominence.

The overall structure is good — repeat the main melody with some extra oomph, transition to the B melody, build to a climax with some block chords, then bring every down nicely with the hunting horn call. It ticks all the boxes on (manuscript) paper — but the orchestration and mix just means I can’t enjoy it properly.

Give the melody some more body, turn the volume down on the rhythm section, and this theme would jump up a lot of places.

5: Deep Space 9

DS9 isn’t about going boldly anywhere, but it is still about dealing with dramatic, important things. The music has a stately beauty that reflects both those things. The opening lonely horn illustrates the emptiness of space, before being joined by more horns to build drama. Then the main melody kicks in over a minimal accompaniment, raising the hairs on the back of my neck. There’s a pedal note that sustains through most of the opening — so that when the bass finally moves, it makes for a dramatic conclusion.

Later seasons brought a new version that tried to punch up the excitement a notch by increasing the speed of the main melody and adding some more texture to the accompaniment — but at the cost of the stately beauty that is this theme’s best feature. Let’s ignore it.

The title sequence is about 30 seconds too long, which means the beauty has faded somewhat by the end. (Yes, the opening for Strange New Worlds is a similar length, but the music doesn’t kick in until after 30+ seconds).

Overall, a solid piece of music that aligns well with the show’s premise.

4: Lower Decks

Lower Decks is a show that is both 100% serious and 100% affectionate parody. It does everything any other Star Trek TV series does, while turning it up 11 in order to skewer those things. Musically, that’s a tough premise for a theme tune.

So what happens? We open with Those Four Notes, followed by hunting horn calls, then a dramatic main theme on trumpet that’s repeated on all the strings — followed by gear-changing chords into the real main theme. A theme that gets a full-bore orchestra with a melody on brass that descends like someone resigned to not doing first contact (no hopeful ascending motifs here!). Then a solid build-up brings it to a satisfying conclusion.

Like the show, this theme works both seriously and as affectionate parody.

3: Voyager

The show has a tension between “let’s get home as soon as possible” and “ooh, new alien planet to explore” — and the music reflects that.

The theme opens with muted trumpets on a lonely motif (plus timpani) at the start to bring a sense of the dramatic, but without wanting to shout too loudly about it in this unknown part of the galaxy. The main theme on the horns is repeated with added texture and followed by a B melody on strings. Both bring a sense of the long journey ahead, with an ebb and flow throughout.

A slow build-up is then followed by a gentle climb back down — then a rapid (and musically seamless) build up to an emphatic restatement of the opening motif, ringing out to remind us this isn’t just about skulking back to Earth.

Voyager may be headed for home, but it’s still boldly going new places.

2: The Next Generation

Whatever you feel about Star Trek: The Motion Picture, we can all thank it for this music. TNG opens with Those Four Notes on something ethereal, followed by the best delivery of the classic opening words (sorry Anson Mount!) with a hunting call on horns underneath—then we’re into music about exploring strange new worlds and going boldly. It’s going on an adventure — journeying to places unknown to find things unknown.

Structurally, it’s simpler than other themes: after the main melody on brass, we get the string-heavy B melody twice, then back to a shortened version of the main melody to end. However, the post-words music only takes up half the opening, and those two melodies have enough going on to sustain our interest.

You’re left excited about what’s going to happen this week— because we’re exploring, damnit.

1: Prodigy

Four chords build tension, launching into drums+ostinato that tell you right away that exciting things will be Going Down.

Dramatic trombone and bells set up a musical cadence that gets resolved into the start of the heart-stirring main melody soaring out on horns clearly over the accompaniment (take note, SNW). The main melody repeats with added trumpets, and transitions into the drum-less B melody on lush strings that tells you it’s also about the journey. Then bridge into a repeat with everything turned up a notch.

Things get a little chaotic for a moment (what else do you expect with this crew?), but it’s OK, because we’re back to those dramatic trombone and bells (plus friends) to bookend things and lead us into a final resolution… that leaves just enough going on afterwards to accompany Those Four Notes, as though that was the plan all along. Then spike the ending so there’s no doubt we’re done.

Perfect.

[babylon-crashing]

Q: what do you think about the art of tarot? does the art motivate you to buy it?

Hmm, speaking only for myself, it has, in the past, made me want to try it myself.

My first deck dealt with Syssk, an alien xenomorph who finds herself stranded in medieval Japan. Later I started on a new project featuring a female Cthulhu-like character (I never really did come up with a name for her) and it was only when I was about halfway through that I realized it was Syssk 2.0, the only real difference being the setting and costumes (Syssk crash lands on Earth in her UFO and, O look, Tentacles also just crash landed in a slightly different looking UFO, huh).

So, I’m trying something different. Instead of having a main character that runs through the story I started working with a pantheon of sea heroes and gods. There are mermaid tarot decks but there has yet to be an ocean-themed deck working with water deities from around the world.

For the wands I decided to focus on Egypt and West Africa. This is a rough draft, but one that has the burden of potential, as they say.

ACE: Mbumba, rainbow serpent of terrestrial waters. [Bantu] TWO: Abena Mansa, sea goddess associated with gold. [Akan] THREE: Erzulie, goddess of sweet water, beauty and love. [Dahomey] FOUR: Mamba Muntu, goddesses of the deep waters and female sexuality. [Bantu] FIVE: Nephthys, goddess of salt water, discoballs and the night. [Egyptian] SIX: Nommo, one of many primordial ancestral spirits that live in the sea [Dogon] SEVEN: Mami Wata, a water loa. [Ewe/ Fon] EIGHT: Yemoja, in rage over the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, is the orisha of sea waves and follows her people across the Atlantic. [Yoruba] NINE: Dahomey Amazon warrior weeping over her fallen comrades. [Benin] TEN: Pregnant Oya, orisha of sea storms. [Yoruba] PAGE: La Sirene and her shark [Côte d'Ivoire.] KNIGHT: Sobek, crocodile goddess of the Nile river. [Egyptian.] CONSORT: Unnamed. EMPRESS: Bosompo, primordial embodiment of the oceans and her pet squid, Lil’ Squiggle [Akan]

[rabble-dabble]

OH MY GOD MY TWO FAVORITES GUYES WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN ?????

[sapphic-sith]

So Wizards of the Coast had a brief event last pride month where players could pair up any 2 commanders they liked regardless of if the had the Partner ability or not. (in the commander format, you normally only have 1 commander but you can have 2 if they both have the partner ability or say they partner with another specific card). And since my friends and I use proxies anyway we decided to build our own decks. I just finished a whole Xena Warrior Princess proxy deck with Xena and Gabrielle as the commanders. For Xena, I used Kassandra, Eagle Bearer because it was the obvious choice. For Gabrielle, Gylwain Casting Director seemed another good fit.

And since Kassandra gets you her signature weapon for free, I naturally had to make Xena's her chakram.

Bonus Argo token:

[amandaoftherosemire]

I really appreciate that Lower Decks takes the music seriously. Even though it's an animated series, the music is as beautifully composed and orchestrated as any other series. The main theme is evocative of The Next Generation theme, which makes sense since it's a TNG spinoff, but it's not derivative. And there are leitmotifs that make frequent appearances (triumphal theme, tendi's orion theme). They don't skimp and it makes me so happy.

I would kill for someone who actually knows what they're talking about to analyze this. Music theory side of tumblr? You guys got any Lower Deckers?