#we passed my twitter follower count which means i can permanently move in to tumblr

[gremnda]

also hii thank you for 20 followers wow that's a lot of people

[panchams]

long time, no see

happy 2024! the website layout on here has changed so dramatically that i can barely recognize it. i hate to admit that it took me a couple of minutes to find my followers...

anyways, hey! it's been a while. i jumped ship off of here... god... who knows how long that was? i genuinely feel like it was a permanent move circa 2015. but that's not what im here to talk about.

after the loss of twitter circles, i've struggled finding a place to put my thoughts. don't worry, this blog definitely won't be it but i thought it would be fun to put a little reflection on here as my final post (probably forever?) on this funny blogging website that i decided to use back in 2009 (I'm pretty sure my archives go that far back.... which is certainly something i cherish to see how much I've changed)

so many of you either have known me as eddie, edward, mukuro, bajime, hajime..... lord knows this list goes on. im eddie! or if you want to use my online user, i go by haunter now. a lot has changed since i stopped using this platform regularly! i think i hard quit tumblr maybe around 2016? you can see on my profile that i came back and reblogged some things, but i think it was around the time of my twitter bot's birth (@nintendoqt) when i really stopped using it permanently.

i'm writing this as a reflection of where i've been and where i came from when i first started using this funny website. im officially a couple of months away from graduating college with a bachelors in computer science! that means I'll be a real deal certified software engineer this coming may.

but don't you worry! i got some real time experience as a software engineer last year, right before my senior year began. i worked as a software engineer for the military/government! yeah, that's right... tumblr user Panchams was a military scientist (intern, but it counts). crazy right? and in just a couple of months i'll be hitting the biggest milestone of my life so far which is college graduation.

back when i began this blog, it was towards the end of 2009 and my myspace girlfriend at the time karina recommended i join because the community from our beloved myspace was jumping ship. i jumped in and well, the rest is history.

2009 eddie was a fidgity, undiagnosed autistic relentless kid. it's kind of crazy looking back on that era because i'm so proud of kid me going out of my way to socialize by going to conventions at every possible event he could go to. i would even wear cosplay and force myself out of my comfort zone to talk and take pictures with complete strangers.

to summarize my academic journey to save some space here, i really sucked at math. my math classes were so horrible, i actually got placed senior year in high school in the lowest math possible for seniors (something like college math help course or something, while the other kids were doing calc 1 or 2). but look at me now, baby! i went from pre-algebra all the way to calculus 2 in college, as well as discrete mathematics (possibly the hardest math class anyone outside of a math degree could ever take). i passed them all! it wasn't easy. i failed calculus 1 on my first try. my community college professor even told our entire class in a very vague way that we should commit suicide via bullet if we didn't pass it cuz we would never pass if we couldn't pass his class lol.

caught myself yapping there for a second. anyways, i really just wanted to say that i was a fidgety autistic child with such huge dreams and wonders. you can see throughout my entire blog's lifecycle that i've felt a special connection to characters like pokemon's red, sasuke from naruto, mukuro from katekyo, cloud from final fantasy 7 et etc.... you get it!

i think my life could've easily been one of complacency and laziness. after all, i am the only one in my immediate family to have attended college or even be in STEM whatsoever. my father was a horse trainer and my mom did random odd jobs/cleaning jobs as a kid. i could've easily been stuck forever in poverty and never aspired to do anything with my life. outlets like tumblr, gaia, twitter, youtube, the list goes on but these shaped me in ways that i am beyond thankful for.

as well as pokemon and the other games i mentioned, they gave me a lifeline. those characters i hooked onto as a kid which basically shaped how my personality is... i genuinely wouldn't have it any other way.

what is blud yapping about!!!! i end this weird ramble yapping session to update where my life is and where im headed. I've mentioned graduation (LETS FUCKING GOOO!) but i am beyond excited to be a big boy software engineer (no intern in the title!)

i'm pining for the bay area after graduation. i know, i sound like a lunatic going straight to san francisco as a new grad but.... you only live once! how cliche right, a new software dev moving to san francisco... the story writes itself.

don't worry, i have backup plans! if i can't make enough I'll be sure to live amongst the cows in arkansas (maybe oregon?! who knows.) big things are coming into my life, an entire chapter of my life finishing (the college years? academy saga?) and i'm just happy that i kept pushing. i'm glad i kept trucking on and will have some form of a tangible life that i will create with my own two hands.

happy new years! i don't think anyone will read this but... thank you! thanks tumblr for everything. maybe one day I'll go through and read my #priv or whatever i used to signify as my private posts here eventually. that day won't be today, but maybe when im in my SF apartment?!

have a great year, a great life, and so on. i don't think I'll ever update this blog again. thanks for everything and much love from me!

linktr.ee/haunterz

[pauper-planes]

Yet Another Throne of Eldraine Review

I’m sure by now you’ve read a bunch of articles about the impact of Throne of Eldraine on pauper. Well, I’d be remiss if I didn’t add my voice to the mix. This isn’t necessarily a top X list of cards I think will break into the format, rather some cards that caught my interest that I’d like to talk about.

Let's start off by looking at the new mechanics.

Adamant 

Adamant rewards you for paying 3 mana of the same colour on a spell. By necessity, this means that all of the Adamant spells will cost at least 3 mana. Pauper isn’t short on mono-coloured decks, so it’s possible that there are some cards that provide useful effects.

Adventure 

Adventure is a mechanic that can be found on creatures. These cards will have a unique book-like text box. On one side is the normal creature text and abilities, the other side is the adventure. The adventure is either an instant or sorcery and you can cast the adventure at any time you could cast the spell. If you cast the creature’s adventure, you put the creature into exile. You can then cast the creature from exile later. Alternatively, you can just cast the creature. Most of the adventure payoffs in Throne of Eldraine are at uncommon, so we’ll just be looking at whether the combination of spell and creature make them worth it.

Food Tokens 

The final mechanic is Food Tokens. Many cards in the set will instruct you to create a food token. Food tokens are artifacts, you can pay 2 generic mana, tap and sacrifice the food to gain 3 life. As with Adventures most of the food token payoffs are at uncommon so we’ll just be looking at the value of the food token in its own right. The immediate comparison is to Clues from Shadows Over Innistrad. A Clue Token is also an artifact, you pay 2 generic mana and sacrifice it to draw a card. Drawing a card is definitely a more powerful effect than gaining 3 life, but food tokens seem to be a little easier to create. It’s entirely possible that decks such as Mono-Block that typically lack lifegain and often spend a lot of life to draw cards would like to have a few of these lying around. However, given the current prevalence of Snow lands and Arcum’s Astrolabe, a lot of decks are simply splashing green in the sideboard for Weather The Storm. However, these end up working out, I’ve definitely got my eye on a couple of cards to experiment with and that’s half the fun.

Right. Now that’s done, onto the cards!

Mystic Sanctuary

 Let’s start with the card that I think is the most likely to see play in the format. Mystic Sanctuary is an easy include in mono-blue decks and provides another way to recur instants and sorceries from the graveyard. The Island subtype is also very useful as it still counts for the affinity cost on Spire Golem. At the moment Mono-Blue strategies have waned since the banning of Gush, Daze and Gitaxian Probe, but this could be a useful tool for them going forward.

Idyllic Grange 

Idyllic Grange is the other land from this cycle that I’m interested in trying out. I think this could be a useful one or two of in Mono-White Heroic. In that deck, this entering tapped on early turns is a huge downside, but late in the game that +1/+1 counter could really matter. It’s important to note that Heroic only triggers off spells and not abilities, but a free +1/+1 counter from a land drop could be worth the include.

Faerie Guidemother

Faerie Guidemother is another possible include for Mono-White Heroic. The adventure is essentially a Mighty Leap, which doesn’t see play in the deck, but the possibility of being able to cast a 1/1 flyer later in the game to rebuild your board could actually sway the card into useful territory. Well worth an experiment.

Flutterfox

When I first saw this card I immediately thought of some sort of White-based artifacts deck. Ancient Den helps cast this as well as granting it flying. But in comparison to Glint Hawk and Kor Skyfisher this ends up being on the low end of the power spectrum. It’s a curious card and if nothing else I’m excited to try to brew some sort of terrible deck around this just to see how good it might be.

Mantle of Tides

Mantle of Tides intrigues me. Blue decks are not short on card draw, so getting the free equip should be relatively easy. Imagine on your opponent’s turn, letting them declare attackers and casting Brainstorm in response to move the Mantle onto your blocker and set up a profitable block. That being said, I don’t see exactly where it fits, but again I want to try to experiment with this

Queen of Ice

In Limited I keep being amazed that this card is common. The adventure is a good rate to lock down a creature, and the body that you get the following turn is also very useful. The ability to tap down a creature she does damage to is also pretty relevant. It makes attacks awkward for your opponent. That being said, this is a constructed format, but I still think there’s a possibility that Elsa here could be a real role player. When you finally cash her in as a chump blocker she stops that creature attacking next turn too.

Tome Raider

As a 1/1 flyer for 3 that draws a card Tome raider is below rate, even with the faerie subtype to power up your Spellstutter Sprites. My main reason for including it in this list is just to call out the amazing card name.

Witching Well

Witching Well is another potential blue card draw engine, it’s cheap to play and the scry 2 early in the game is very valuable. Being able to cash it in for cards later is also very powerful. Again this is another card that looks like it has real potential, but I just can’t see where it currently fits in the format.

Foreboding Fruit

I love playing Mono-Black Control. It’s a fantastic deck that is filled with similar cards to this. The immediate comparison is to Sign in Blood which costs 1 mana less. However, in Mono-Black you’re always going to be triggering Adamant, so the extra mana could be worth it for the food token. It allows you to regain the life lost to the card draw at some point in the future when you have the spare mana. This is something that black decks could find really useful especially in match-ups against aggressive or burn decks where hurting yourself to draw cards just accelerates their clock.

Lost Legion

Lost Legion might not be playable in the format, but as a 2/3 for 3 this is a decent body. The ability to Scry 2 on entering the battlefield seems like a nice bonus. I’m definitely going to be keeping this in mind in the future

Reaper of Night

I think Reaper of Night is too over costed for its own good. On face value a 4/5 sometimes flyer seems like it might be a good finisher, but 7 mana is a lot. The adventure could be impressive, turn 4 is when your opponent starts to have fewer options for discard so making them discard 2 could give you a small edge, but with so much card draw from blue decks, it might not even matter. I wanted this to be good, but I just don’t think it’s going to get there.

Smitten Swordmaster

This card might be what enables a new tribal deck. With the new cards from Throne of Eldraine, there are almost enough good Knights at common to enable a deck, making the adventure on Smitten Swordmaster a very good prospect, the 2/1 lifelink body also provides good value. This is probably going to be my first new brew for the set because I’m excited to see what’s possible.

Merchant of the Vale

We refer to Merchant of the Vale’s ability as rummage. It’s not as good as looting (draw then discard), but in an aggressive red deck if you’re flooding out, being able to spend some mana to ditch excess lands in your hand for new cards could be useful. It doesn’t have an obvious home, but there are decks that might be eyeing this up as a way to dig to your finishers.

Seven Dwarves

I don’t think a Seven Dwarves deck is playable, However, it is almost certainly going to get built as a meme deck but at least a few deck builders, so keep an eye on the League results that Wizards publish in case a list ever makes it to a magical 5-0.

Rosethorn Halberd

Mono-Green Stompy is currently a top tier deck, and in the current configuration, it doesn’t run any humans. If this ever becomes unattached it’s unlikely that you’re going to have the spare mana to equip it to a new creature, but a 1-mana way to give a creature a permanent +2/+1 buff is something that the deck could be interested in. Sadly this buff has to happen at sorcery speed which means you can’t use it as a combat trick. I’m currently struggling to figure out if the downsides outweigh the benefits. I want to start by trying at least two in a stompy build to see how it performs.

Gingerbrute

When I first saw this I fell in love with the flavour of the card. Then I started looking at how many haste creatures are in the format. I started trying to brew some sort of Voltron deck that let Gingerbrute get really big and attack freely. But then I remembered just how much artifact hate is currently running around in the format thanks to Astrolabe and my dreams of attacking with a giant Gingerbrute fell apart. Nevertheless, I wanted to mention it just for the sweet sweet flavour.

Summary

So there you have it, these are the cards from Throne of Eldraine that caught my eye. On a first pass I didn’t spot anything that jumped out as a must-play, but to be honest it tends to be supplemental products like Modern Masters or Modern Horizons that add the most cards to our format. But it’s nice to see that Wizards are continuing their new strategy of allowing commons to have a little more complexity and power than previous sets.

Something I’m hoping to do is to come back to this set in 6-months time and see what did or didn’t make it into the format.

Did I miss a card you’re excited for in the format? Did I get too excited for one of the cards on this list? Let me know either here on Tumblr or on twitter at http://twitter.com/PauperPlanes