People will immediately figure out how to make porn or Elsagate-type shit and Disney will get a bunch of angry parents asking why little Timmy was able to make videos of Goofy butchering and eating Donald Duck while completely naked.

The nice thing is that Pauper is dirt-cheap and High Tides are still less than $1 lmao. It cannot be overstated how much they overprinted Fallen Empires.

Sad to see Entomb banned. It’s been a staple of the format for decades, but I’m not sure what else they could do. Was really hoping for a One Ring and Orcish Bowmasters ban so I don’t have to shell out $200 per playset of cards not on the reserve list, so I guess I’m in the reprint waiting room. It would be easier to get ahold of Revised duals and play other decks. Like I could trade $400 for getting both cards or just get a Tropical Island.

The Nadu ban was obvious. Power levels aside, it has the same problem as Sensei’s Divining Top of slowing games down and causing tournaments logistical issues. What a fuckup of a card.

What I’m really surprised on is no changes to Timeless. I’ve been enjoying playing decks with 4x Necropotence, 4x Memory Jar, or 4x Strip Mine, but to me it seems these cards should have been restricted from the get-go. I guess the data doesn’t support that, however.

Strip Mine is likely filling in where Wasteland would be similar to how it functions in '93/'94 format where there’s arguments for and against its restriction. But Jar and Necro? These are self-contained draw engines that will only grow stronger as more cards are added to Arena. All it takes is something like Hymn to Tourach or Snuff Out to really push Necropotence over the edge, for example, and there’s already turn 1 wins available for both.

The format’s power level is still too high so I think you’re right. The only way to fix Standard is to systemically and deliberately lower power levels similar to what was done after Urza’s block and Mirrodin block. R&D has doubled-down on FIRE design, however, with the philosophy of “If a card gets out of hand, we can just ban it.”

Really wish I could rub their faces in MaRo’s post-Affinity ban article from 20 years ago where he talks about why bans are bad, even when they’re necessary. There’s a reason no one is playing Standard anymore. I suspect WotC is juking their stats to maintain the lie Standard events are firing in order to appease shareholders.

I do not have the time nor energy to explain the entire Chinese Civil War, the White Terror, and the Century of Humiliation to people who think Winny the Pooh memes aren’t racist.

You can see it with how conservatives depict Obama, AOC, Biden, Hillary Clinton, or any number of liberals. They can be fervent anti-communists who literally kill or imprison actual communists, yet they’re depicted as if they’re Stalin reborn.

The people Mao killed outside of the 4 Pests Campaign deserved it, tbh.

Also insert quote from Engles “On Authority.”

Except it was intended to be racist because the meme was about Xi being Pooh and Obama being Tigger.

I wonder how much animals understand something is another animal vs. something mechanical? Like do bears know those are human noise contraptions or are they like “Holy shit a flying turtle-wasp hybrid!”

You can even schedule things at odd times. Nothing like saying you only have 12:27, 1:48, and 2:31 open in your schedule.

I think the problem is nobody likes UB until there’s one they do like, which they splurge on. WotC isn’t trying to get people to buy a little bit of every set because that’s too much work. Instead, they just need to get smaller groups to spend more. This makes sense why it seems no one likes UB but then stores can’t keep Warhammer 40k or Final Fantasy precons in stock. Or why FNM numbers are down but booster pack sales are the same or better.

AFAIK the founder of Wikipedia is a libertarian who believes the free market will solve all problems. He, of course, has to make a bunch of excuses for why Wikipedia itself isn’t being helped by the Free Market^tm , such as “We don’t have real capitalism bro just trust me bro please donate.”

That bit about Bighead in Silicon Valley getting paid to do nothing wasn’t made up?

“Hey I know! Let’s make a 2/5 Shock that makes a Mox Sapphire and a Mox Ruby when it enters!”

“Hmm…not good enough.”

“Give it super-prowess? Wait…no, give it super-prowess and Marwyn the Nurturer’s ability, but for any noncreature spell!”

“Dammit Gavin, you’re a genius! But we should probably make it a 0/3 for balance.”

“And lower its mana cost to 1UR, to make sure it still sees play.”

–R&D (probably)

This is Ravager Affinity -levels of format warping. Standard has always been limited in the number of decks due to the smaller card pool, but 12 out of 16 decks all being the same deck in an event is ridiculous. Even worse when it becomes 7 out of the top 8 and 4 decks in top 4. And it’s like this with every event.

There’s a reason people have stopped playing Standard. They don’t want to play $1,000 mirror matches for eight rounds and they especially don’t like having their cards banned, even when necessary. Instead, they will just quit the format or Magic altogether.

AFAIK both dogs and cats recognize pointing. Dogs will look in that direction, as if you gave them a command. Cats also realize you’re pointing at something in order to get their attention, they just don’t give a shit and will keep doing whatever they’re doing.

My mom’s primary e-mail account is AOL, which she actually pays for.

These policies inevitably end up being weaponized against LGBTQ+ people. Some of the games (like you said) I’m not losing any sleep over because they shouldn’t exist. The main concern is when something like homosexuality is equated with pedophilia. Or furries and beastiality. That kind of bad faith policy making has happened before and is happening now.

You can still throw them just fine, I’m sure.

You missed the comically big leap where all measuring instruments have been replaced by comically large spoons.