Transcript
Zachary Jeblonski: Hello, hello, welcome to another episode of Midlife's Crisis. I'm Zach. I'm joined again by Charles.
Zachary Jeblonski: Oh, Lizzy Charles.
Zachary Jeblonski: Oh no!
Zachary Jeblonski: Let's see. One sec, folks. That's great. So we cut out an editing. Huh? Doo -doo -doo. let's give him a quick message
ciderspence: I'm here, sorry about that. How's it going, Zach?
Zachary Jeblonski: Oh, it's going fine. It's fine. Do you need a minute?
ciderspence: No, I just... i tried to separate tabs to be able to fill in card of the week and Then lost this one because I'm not as familiar with the Mac as I should be.
Zachary Jeblonski: No, it's fine. I am still learning the Mac, even though. I've had this laptop since I started school last year. But it's I didn't grow up with Max. i you know So.
ciderspence: I think. Yeah, I think I mainly used a Mac. uh at like a college program I was at like like one of those summer school things. Like we use max that whole summer.
ciderspence: I was like, oh, this is interesting, and then basically didn't use them again.
Zachary Jeblonski: yes Sorry, excuse me. my My favorite experience so far, my favorite point of confusion. is when I first got this Mac. I want to install program.
Zachary Jeblonski: And I still don't know how exactly this works, but sometimes on Macs, when your software, a little window comes up.
ciderspence: yeah
Zachary Jeblonski: And it's got like these three icons that I did not make any sense to me. It's like. the icon of the program, an arrow to the right. and then a folder And I remember like double clicking the icon and just like doing all these things. I couldn't figure out what it wanted for me.
Zachary Jeblonski: I didn't look like Googling it. And apparently you're supposed to drag the icon. into the folder. And I guess it's Mac's way of making sure that. you're installing a program that you want to install.
Zachary Jeblonski: and i else was like wow i did not grow up with this sir
ciderspence: Yeah, it's very different. i I think one other random difference is that the scroll direction for the mouse...
Zachary Jeblonski: Yes.
ciderspence: Pad is different.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yes.
ciderspence: which I think is just... i think that's just them trying too hard to differentiate themselves i i mean i guess Maybe if you use Macs all your life and you experience the Windows computer, you would say the same thing, but like...
ciderspence: I don't know. I think Windows has just been around longer and has just been used by more people, despite the fact that Apple is pretty popular these days. so like it It was just like... it's one of those things that you forget and Sometimes it just really matters that you're like fumbling around to get to something when you're trying to do something quickly so Yeah.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah. I do. I actually just tested it. Because I couldn't remember which was which. And I was like, yeah, Mac is like... Airplane Controls you know you go down to go up and you go up to go down kind of thing I think I can hear.
Zachary Jeblonski: Like, I'm not... Hmm. I can hear a Mac designer right now being like. it's like simulating moving to a page where you pull the page down to Outta. I can just i could see a Johnny Ive type. like explaining that.
ciderspence: Yeah, having recently disabled it on Mac, I think they call it natural scrolling.
Zachary Jeblonski: oh
ciderspence: like to to make it seem like the other thing is unnatural and it's like all right i mean maybe it's unnatural but i've been doing the unnatural thing for 40 something years like i'm it's you know. It's what I'm used to.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yep, yep, yep. Yep, I agree. But, you know. They do make fantastic laptops and I am very, you know. For the record, I am happy with this purchase. is It served me well in school. so i'm going to be fair to this multi -trillion dollar company which i guess I don't have any obligation to.
Zachary Jeblonski: To be fair.
ciderspence: Yes. please Please be fair to them. They could use some help, I guess.
Zachary Jeblonski: I guess I could use some help, you know? Sure. Thanks. You all can use some help. is magic i don't know that's just a weird segue i was gonna do
Zachary Jeblonski: Are you ready to get into the games we played?
ciderspence: I'm ready.
Zachary Jeblonski: All right, I'm going to kick us off because I played zero. So. Unfortunately, this is my second week in a row. This is might be my longest stint. I'm not playing Magic. i had since I started playing Magic.
Zachary Jeblonski: maybe if you took into account some vacations but even on vacations i try to like find a car shop wherever i'm at just to Check it out kind of thing. But I've been battling. but i think it's like a cold i don't think it's the flu And I was really doing good last week. or this week.
Zachary Jeblonski: And Tuesday came around and I... I packed my game case. I brought it with me to school because I go from school to the to the shop. And about midway through the day, My entire head clogged up to the point where I couldn't even hear out of one of my ears.
Zachary Jeblonski: And then you know that ear pressure turned into ear pain. And I was like, all right, well, I guess I'm not going to magic. So I didn't go to magic. And I'm glad I didn't because. The ear situation did not get better until...
Zachary Jeblonski: the next day so i wouldn't have been Great. but i am very excited to play magic i've got decks on deck and stuff like that coming So. The next time I show up at the store, it's going to be a whole lot of new stuff, I think.
Zachary Jeblonski: But. With that being said, tell me what you got up to this week.
ciderspence: I mean, first, is this all like one thing? have you been sick with the same thing that's kind of ebbed and flowed or do you think you are Like not quite recovered from the first thing and got something else like the ear The ear thing sounds...
ciderspence: new hopefully it's gone now but that i mean that doesn't sound like it was connected to the rest of the stuff
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah, so I think it's all the same thing. i it's I feel like I've had these kind of illnesses in the past where like, you have like waves of symptoms but it's all the same illness where like Oh, it starts off with sore throat and the sore throat goes away and then it gets a running nose and then running nose. It goes away and then this happens, right?
Zachary Jeblonski: it's Now, I ain't know. Doctor Man. So I could be entirely mistaken, but I think it's all the same illness. It would probably make me feel better if it wasn't.
Zachary Jeblonski: And, you know, the ear thing I probably. Would have made it to Magic that day. Bye. i you know me i'm sitting in class and i want to be able to hear things So I do whatever that maneuver is where you hold your nostrils closed and you blow to try to open up your ear canals.
ciderspence: Oh. yeah the thing that you know you really shouldn't do but it works most of the time so it's kind of worth the gamble
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah, so... i you know I tried to be gentle with it, but then I got frustrated and I pushed myself to the edge. And I don't think I didn't rupture Neodrum or anything. But I definitely did some damage. So even right now, as I'm talking to you, I've got a nice ringing going on my left side.
ciderspence: Oh man.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah, so I'm just i'm just a mess, guys. I'm doing my best here. Awesome.
ciderspence: Get well soon, man.
Zachary Jeblonski: but then then the cloth was a little persistent too so
ciderspence: Toot. Does it feel like this this talking is not helping?
Zachary Jeblonski: You know... Probably not. but i want to do it because if i can't play magic i want to at least talk about it
ciderspence: Okay. Fair enough.
Zachary Jeblonski: But if i I am going to do my best to turn my head when I call. But sometimes they'll they'll they'll come out faster than I i can catch them. so
ciderspence: Guys, this is midlife's crisis. This is the midlife part
Zachary Jeblonski: Look, look we we we suffer for your enjoyment.
Zachary Jeblonski: That silence was so good.
ciderspence: I mean, that's that's that's just that's just true. That's just true. I don't even know. Like, is that a joke?
Zachary Jeblonski: Okay.
ciderspence: I don't know. It's a...
Zachary Jeblonski: that's That silence was so good.
ciderspence: I feel like playing Magic feels like that a lot of the time.
Zachary Jeblonski: Oh, it can for sure. we We've all been there. I mean... Boy, howdy. So let's let's lighten the mood. what did what yeah What kind of games did you get out to?
ciderspence: So. I played some pretty fun games this week.
Zachary Jeblonski: Okay.
ciderspence: It was interesting. So on Sunday. I went to a shop that I'd been going to. i I'd been on a Sunday. during pre -release and they they were basically full with pre -release so they weren't really having commander that sunday So I was a little.
ciderspence: Torn on whether to try them out again, but at this time I called in advance. They said they were having it so I went So I brought a few decks. My intent was to play... as many of the reality fracture decks that I've built. as possible. So I brought My Mono White Koth deck.
ciderspence: I brought my... mono blue lyra deck which i'd already played had had a good showing with. So I didn't really want to play that one, but I had it on me. And I also just kind of randomly brought my Mr.
Zachary Jeblonski: Okay.
ciderspence: Negative deck. Because I, you know, I...
Zachary Jeblonski: Oh yeah, I was just... i was just thinking about mr negative at school today randomly i just thought of him
ciderspence: Yeah, he... I don't... like I guess when I go to a shop, I like to bring... something with all four colors. Sorry, something with representing all five colors. I build my decks around it. I touched on this a little bit last week, but I don't think I did a great job explaining it.
ciderspence: I like to feature diverse characters from Magic's landscape. as my commanders. So I... I roughly have like... I consider them four factions. I try to.
ciderspence: have decks that are helmed by Uh... Black men. black women. asian man or Asian women, and then any kind of subset. But I try to have at least one representative from each of those. I consider them factions in my head when I'm like.
ciderspence: sorting my decks. So I try to represent each color. in each faction. with each collection of decks I bring to each game night.
Zachary Jeblonski: Let's see. What's the fifth action?
ciderspence: yeah Nope, there's just the four factions. It's four factions and the five colors.
Zachary Jeblonski: Four factions can have colors.
ciderspence: Yeah.
Zachary Jeblonski: Catching.
ciderspence: So, you know. you sometimes i mean i went through a monocolor phase so you know that was like three mono colors and one dual color uh but these days it's more like just make sure that every color is represented at least once. and try to represent each of the factions. i I will seldom bring fewer than four decks to a game night.
ciderspence: And I try to bring no more than eight because that's ridiculous. But... So this time, i was I think I was searching for a deck. to represent Black. And so I chose my Mr. Negative deck.
ciderspence: along with the cost deck Like I said, the Lyra deck. And I brought my Jiang Yanggu Alone deck for... to represent red.
Zachary Jeblonski: them
ciderspence: But anyway, so We get there. There's four of us. And this guy says, Hey, I want to play my Ulelec deck. And I hadn't played against Ulawek.
Zachary Jeblonski: Oh boy.
ciderspence: maybe ever, or maybe just in a while. But I kind of remembered that Ulelec was like... super busted. And so he's like, oh, it's like. He like had a conversation with the shop owner about how he should caveat it before he even started playing.
ciderspence: And I was like, this is going to be.
Zachary Jeblonski: Oh my gosh.
ciderspence: and adventure. so anyway he comes back he's like hey i am probably not going to go off before like turn seven But then I'm going to. probably combo off and win.
Zachary Jeblonski: and i Can I interject with a quick note about Ululek?
ciderspence: Uh,
ciderspence: Yeah, go for it.
Zachary Jeblonski: So I had a somewhat fair amount of experience playing Lulu like when onwa Modern Horizons 3 came out. I played it against several Uleks. And the only thing I'll say about that is. i'm less concerned about the power level who like I'm more concerned about my opponents.
Zachary Jeblonski: mental state as he tries to figure out how all the triggers work. Because the way ULX triggers work can get a little out of hand. especially if you have like an Echoes of Eternity on the battlefield.
Zachary Jeblonski: so but i've seen many players just kind of get completely dumbfounded with how it all layers out. But i'm I'm sorry, I just wanted to get that out there before. You tell your story and I'll throw it back to you.
ciderspence: No, I mean, I think... I think that's... I mean that. That sentiment. bore a lot of representation for like what the game was like. It reminds me of people saying that they like...
ciderspence: or excited that Dockside got banned because at some point Dockside was just like Dockside just get loops and once... gets looped and copied by other players or whatever. And it's like, The game just becomes about.
ciderspence: how many times you can represent dockside with your board state.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yep. Yep.
ciderspence: People will say that same thing about like consecrated Sphinx, right? Like, I guess they said the reason that they made it a game changer is like. Once it hits the board, it's like it's such a huge value piece that...
ciderspence: the game kind of becomes, can you copy it? And if so, two people are drawing their whole deck and then like... The other two people shouldn't even be there. And it... it just kind of felt like that was that was where this game ended up.
ciderspence: But so. I guess going into it, we knew that this was going to be a kind of... that that deck was going to be kind of high powered. So. The rest of the pod was. I chose to play Mr. Negative. this turn I was like, well, maybe I can just drain the zero and we don't have to think about it anymore.
ciderspence: One of the other guys was playing I think a pre -con. from Marvel superheroes or close to pre -con level it was either pre -con or pre -con level featuring Flip Tony Stark.
Zachary Jeblonski: that
ciderspence: And the other guy was playing... I think Mimeoplasm. Is that the one that comes in with a number of counters and power and toughness equal to something from the graveyard?
Zachary Jeblonski: i believe so that that's actually like a 2015 pre -con commander like mimeoplasm It goes back. So i'm I'm always kind of like... When something brings out mimeoplasm, I'm always like...
Zachary Jeblonski: respect, you know, like that you're still rocking that commander.
ciderspence: Well, and I think that also kind of... had some weight in terms of how the game played out because I think I haven't been playing Magic for that long compared to other people who've played Magic for a long time, right? But I've been playing Magic...
ciderspence: a long time for brand new players. And so it seemed like the Tony Stark player was closer to brand new. It seemed like the Mimeoplasm player was... closer to had played a lot. So I think we both were kind of.
ciderspence: I am the Ululek player. I like... Hi. I don't know, that's a fairly recent commander, but it's also like... like I'm sure there are some people who play a deck like that with... what you one would consider the right intentions i just feel like it's a type of deck that makes me suspicious of the player until the game is over.
ciderspence: And then I can. kind of go back over my thoughts. so
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah.
ciderspence: that was kind of the tone set for the game right So... We get through five or six turns, and Mimeoplasm player... does a pretty good job of handling Ulelec. He hits the board the first time.
ciderspence: And he either kills him or like... bounces him or something. So. My day. takes a while to kind of get going. and doesn't play it's it's like a It's kind of a meme deck, so it doesn't play...
ciderspence: adequate removal but i did have some and i spent some removal also trying to basically wipe the little x players board but nobody took the artifacts out of play. So basically, even when Ululek went away...
ciderspence: we were aware that he just had the man to recast him basically at any time. So it's kind of a ticking time bomb. But I guess we got to a point where. I had already cast... uh,
ciderspence: All right, i so... I cast. So let me just read what... uh my commander does Because at some point, I think we were all kind of eyeing the Ulek player, but at some point, Mr. Negative...
ciderspence: did his thing. And when he does the thing, it is pretty terrifying. So he's a 5 '5 human villain with vigilance lifelink for five white...
Zachary Jeblonski: oh it is it is
ciderspence: black. and he's got Dark Force Inversion. When he enters, you may exchange life totals with target opponent. If you lost life this way, draw that many cards. So.
ciderspence: i I guess I had been gaining life and before I cast my commander. and Nobody was really swinging. We were all kind of using our interaction to slow down the Ulelec player. So. When I...
ciderspence: Cast my commander for the first time. I had over 40 life. And I swapped with somebody who had like 30 life. but Anyway, I drew like 14 or 15 cards. And I think, you know, anytime you draw that many cards, everybody correctly looks at you like you're the threat.
ciderspence: I was like, I definitely drew the cards.
Zachary Jeblonski: yeah
ciderspence: I'm going to use them, but... I... I still... I'm kind of. focused over there but then you know the other two players were like yeah i mean we get that we also don't want him to win but I mean, you You definitely.
ciderspence: you see what's happening i was like yeah and i mean i'm looking at my cards i definitely Yeah, so I get it. But anyway. So. Basically, as soon as the table got kind of divided.
ciderspence: I had like a narrow lane to maybe win, and the Ulek player actually countered. One of my... when you gain life. target player loses that much life spells, which would have...
Zachary Jeblonski: and
ciderspence: killed him. So that was a good choice on his part. But then basically we got to a point where we were kind of like. We had used most of the interaction we had. This is like turn 13, 14 or something.
ciderspence: Uh... But... The ending of the game was just like, the Oolac player... Got through a rotation with their commander out And then was just like. Okay, I think I win here. And we spent like 10...
ciderspence: 10 minutes going over it and like whether it worked and whether there was any point to interact. And I guess we came up with there wasn't.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah.
ciderspence: because and You mentioned Echoes of Eternity. I don't remember what it was, but he had something that makes... Scion tokens whenever something happens.
Zachary Jeblonski: okay
ciderspence: And then, so Ululek's thing is he can copy the stack. when you cast an Eldrazi spell or something.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah, so I... I'll read it just so that people know. it's Ooh, like his, He's got hybrid pips, all five colors and then each color. But, all right, whenever you cast an Eldrazi spell.
Zachary Jeblonski: You may pay colorless, colorless. If you do, copy all spells that you control, then copy all other triggered and activ and trigger or activated you control. You may choose entire to the copy.
Zachary Jeblonski: He is a mess to try to resolve. If you have any kind of... trigger doubling effects going on. but i'm sorry go back to you over there
ciderspence: No, I mean, that that basically was it. like I would say this game lasted maybe an hour. but the last quarter of it. but Maybe the last 10 % to a quarter of it. was like, I was trying to figure out if he won.
ciderspence: once he got to his like once he did the thing he was doing on his turn. And it was like. Da... Mimiplasm player. had some interaction in hand. He was like, But I guess I can't use it here. Also, the Ulek player...
ciderspence: was kind of doing the thing where... Once he heard what... once he heard that there was interaction he was like wait wait okay well then i would do this and it's like i'd
Zachary Jeblonski: No, hold on hold on
ciderspence: Well... It was. It was a pretty chill, casual game. I will say it didn't seem too out of bounds. Although I don't think anybody else made that big a use of. takes these backseats.
ciderspence: But it was just the type of thing where like...
ciderspence: I'm not sure I even have grounds to complain. It definitely went like 13 or 14 turns. It was a game that lasted about an hour. It's just that like... The last 10 minutes being a person just like...
ciderspence: playing themselves into a loop to win.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yep.
ciderspence: I don't know, maybe it's just not that satisfying of a win condition. Now... Full disclosure, I got a lot of decks that basically win in a similar -ish fashion, but with Storm. I would. imagine that the players I play against don't think that that's all that great either. So maybe it's just a thing where like...
ciderspence: Maybe we can't be too picky about how people win games. like It feels... a little restricted to say there's only one appropriate way to win a game.
Zachary Jeblonski: I think.
ciderspence: So. I don't know he definitely got there.
Zachary Jeblonski: I think it's
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah, I mean, I think I think I know what you mean, though, because like I think I might have described this game. I think I breezed through this game a little bit last week. Because I was even sicker then than I am now. but but i lost to that player who's playing the flip paleod that gives us spells flash that makes it spells cost less when those opponents have drawn cards that turn.
Zachary Jeblonski: and he did a very similar thing to what you're describing with this ula player where like he just we were able to keep him down for a while and then he kept the commander for just long enough. where he had that ridiculous turn and he spent like 15 minutes like basically winning the game But if we had to go through all the steps.
ciderspence: right
Zachary Jeblonski: i think i think that's just less satisfying than like in in a case of like a book like when you burn us out with storm or something like that because you can kind of see the pieces develop. and you can see your impending doom coming.
Zachary Jeblonski: where it can feel a little different with like an ulelec or this heliod where it's just like Well, they just got one piece and that was enough. And now we're. Now we're dead, I guess, you know. I don't know if that...
ciderspence: I guess that's one of the...
Zachary Jeblonski: Explains it.
ciderspence: i think that's one of the interesting things about commander right is that This is the format where one of your cards is public knowledge. and you know you get to hide the rest of your hand but sometimes what that one card does is so much.
ciderspence: That. You can't. feel good even if their commander stays on the board for a rotation right like sometimes you can make the commander so expensive that you think that it takes so many resources that having to cast it and then do the thing.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah.
ciderspence: is prohibited. and you you think the player won't win on that turn. But... there There are just some commanders that you you kind of feel like if it gets if it gets back around to them with the commander out, it's basically over.
ciderspence: I kind of felt like.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yep.
ciderspence: Ciao. this game and in fairness i had made myself enough of a target that I drew some fire. But I feel like the fact that. There was one rotation where... That player didn't draw all the fire.
ciderspence: basically won them the game. Bye. Again, like i like I don't know how to feel about it. i I will say I didn't think it was a very fun way to lose the game. All right. I haven't lost many games that I thought were super fun, I guess, although I will talk about another one in a few minutes.
Zachary Jeblonski: No, I mean, I...
Zachary Jeblonski: I do want to like, I think if you This might be a butter side toast thing. I don't know if I've ever used that analogy on this podcast before, but. you know
ciderspence: I love that book. So please continue.
Zachary Jeblonski: I'm not sure it was a book, but I just know that. you know we when we think about when we drop toast with butter on it we always we always think it drops butter side down scientifically though it has an equal chance of dropping on either side it's just that we remember the butter side down situations more right so we you know We remember the bad games of Magic more than we remember the good ones.
Zachary Jeblonski: And if i when I really think about it, Bye. Often when I lose, I'm pretty happy about it in a lot of ways, just because usually the game that got me to that point was a good game. And even if it didn't work out for me in the end.
Zachary Jeblonski: I had a good time. which I think is key in Commander because you're only going to win, hopefully, 25 % of the time. But I know what you mean, though. like When you have a loss like the one in Oolac, it just...
Zachary Jeblonski: you know the i don know, the best example I can always think of is it it feels like a wet fart. where it's like the entire game leading up to this point almost seemed pointless or the entire game lead up to this point. was just us keeping you down and the second we didn't keep you down you went And it's like that's.
Zachary Jeblonski: i don't know which is not fun in a way, right?
ciderspence: Yeah, I think that... very well encapsulates kind of how it felt. It's like. There's not much fun in a game where... The only decision point at any given time is. Can I afford to do something proactive? Or do I have to hold back everything? to deal with this one player.
ciderspence: And I guess that's basically what Arch Enemy is. So maybe I'm just saying that Arch Enemy isn't fun. especially if you're not Actively calling it arch enemy Bye.
Zachary Jeblonski: But he... you know when arch enemy is fun though arch enemy is fun when arch enemy is moving around Right. so like when you're the arch enemy for a couple turns and then they put you down and then somebody else becomes arch enemy and then they get put down like to me that's a fun magic experience when like The archenemy is shifting all throughout the game.
Zachary Jeblonski: This guy sounds like he was arch enemy the whole way. all the way through.
ciderspence: Yeah. Yeah, I guess... I don't know. I feel like I've said enough about it. It it wasn't like especially fun. But, you know, I mean, not all games of Magic are equally fun. It was fine. Like, I didn't think that he was...
ciderspence: and especially salt inducing player overall.
Zachary Jeblonski: Good.
ciderspence: Uh... Again, I i think you know i kind of said already like It seemed like the type of deck where... you're kind of on edge the whole game. And then afterwards you can kind of reflect, was I right to feel that way? Or did I learn something today?
ciderspence: And I kind of felt like, no, I was basically right. like Right. i feel like i saw something weird coming something weird happened and it's funny like after the game ended We kept talking about it for like 10 minutes about like were there any other decision points where and I was like guys I feel like we're still playing the game because we're still talking about it. Let's try to get another game in
Zachary Jeblonski: Huh.
ciderspence: and just see how that goes. So the second game, I did play one of my... Reality Fractured X. I played the Mono White Coff deck. It was pretty fun.
ciderspence: One of the players played... the The Vorinclex that doubles their counters and halves your counters.
Zachary Jeblonski: Oh, boy.
ciderspence: which shut down. The Ululek player was playing... In spirit. the the spaceship that gives your other artifacts it indestructible and hexproof.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah, the spaceship
ciderspence: Tony Stark player was playing that Tony Stark deck again. And, uh... He was playing a horror or something, right? But I guess it had to have green in it. I don't know. I forget what the... what the Vorinclex player was playing.
ciderspence: But he was playing something that... did some oppressive graveyard stuff. But. amusingly in that game. He and the inspirate player. fought so hard that In the end. Inspirit. took out that player but Tony Stark was able to win because he like depleted his resources and he tapped him down so I got knocked out pretty early.
ciderspence: But. I was I was glad to see somebody else win just because, you know, we we talk about this all the time. Like Zach is much more of a. Each game has its own unique snowflake type of person.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah, that's me.
ciderspence: And I think a lot more about the the narrative of the night. And I hate it when the narrative of the night is. One player just had all the fun and... Everybody else was just there. So I was glad to see Tony Stark player.
ciderspence: uh Get that W. So those are my...
Zachary Jeblonski: that's good yeah
ciderspence: Those are my Sunday games.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah, yeah, I mean, like... Yes, I do. I do think every game in its unique in box. but yes i am happy also i i can also maintain the happiness that i like It's nice when like... multiple people get a win in, right?
Zachary Jeblonski: And it's also why like, if I win a game, I intentionally pick... the the next deck I intentionally pick. is one that I think will perform not as strongly right you know You know, I always and I never play the same deck more than once if I've won with it, for sure.
Zachary Jeblonski: and i i you know And she's like, you can take. little steps like that to like kind of not Not to be like, give other people a chance, like like you're handing it to them. but just make sure that like the power level is being maintained in a way, right? you know
ciderspence: Yeah, I feel like that The power level thing is... i don't know if you feel the same way but like When you sit down. at a pod you kind of do your best or you feel like you all Hopefully you're all doing your best.
ciderspence: to assert that you're on the same level in the first game.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah.
ciderspence: And sometimes... When you win, you're like, okay.
ciderspence: There's like some There's some distribution of what what happened here. There's a possibility that my deck was just stronger than everybody else's decks, and if we played this pod 100 times, I win 80 of the games or something.
ciderspence: There's some probability that our decks were all equal and I had a 25 % chance of winning and I won But I think the fact that you don't know, and it's possible that your deck was... a little too strong. makes it also more likely.
ciderspence: For me, when I play it, if I win the first game, I also kind of dial it down a little bit for the second game, just because you're kind of trying to play to all of the possibilities, right? like
Zachary Jeblonski: Yes.
ciderspence: unless Unless the whole table says they're going up, you don't want to go up from there because it's possible that you brought stronger stuff than everybody else.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah.
ciderspence: and then if you beat them once and you pub stomps in the game too again some people might think that that's fun but i don't I think that leads to. especially positive experience. So yeah, that's that's my inclination too.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah, I mean, like... One of the things I've been trying to be cognizant of. And I've gotten better as I've matured as a Magic player. is that when you play with new people and like say another player kind of runs away with the game.
Zachary Jeblonski: and wins. You sometimes you have to like ask yourself did that player just get the nut draw on a on a comparably powered deck Or was that deck actually stronger than yours?
Zachary Jeblonski: Because sometimes what I found is like, if I really played back what happened, oh, he just happened to draw the soul ring into the arcane scene, into this, into this, into this. And of this and he won all of it. And.
Zachary Jeblonski: it's likely if that deck played again it would likely not go that same way. So I tried to ask questions related to that. I'm like, you know, hey, was that out of the ordinary for what your deck normally does? or something like that And you can kind of, I feel like you can tell sometimes when like.
Zachary Jeblonski: Oh, you just got lucky with that deck. I'm not going to like. Take out my pub stompy deck now because I think you're at that level I might go up a little bit in power. but i don't think you know you brought a high -powered deck just because your deck happened to have the exact draws you needed
Zachary Jeblonski: There's like a distinction there that I try to maintain when I'm especially when I'm playing with new players. It's a lot easier when you're playing with new. with people you're familiar with because you can have a frank discussion with them about like hey man What was that? But for newer players, I try to give people the benefit of the doubt, you know.
ciderspence: Yeah, I think. As I... as I find myself. playing more at tables with... with kind of players I haven't played with. it's I consider that almost a positive part of the experience is like,
ciderspence: navigating the the cycle of the night right it's like
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah.
ciderspence: do you Do you lose game one so hard that you want to... play your best deck in game two to just feel better about how you play magic. That happens sometimes. Do you stomp so hard in game one that you... Have to play your bracket one. that the rest of the night just because you You want everybody to feel like.
ciderspence: you didn't show up with their names on a list or something. Or do you have a good time like playing even though you didn't win? and you felt good about your choices and you feel like it was just random or even if it wasn't random.
ciderspence: you wouldn't have had it any other way, which is kind of... how I felt about the games I played on Tuesday. So on Tuesday, I got in three games.
Zachary Jeblonski: Nice segue, by the way.
ciderspence: Yeah, thank you. So this is at a different shop. A place that I've been playing at on Tuesdays kind of off and on for a couple years now. This place organizes now by the bracket system. So I was at a table with people who wanted to play bracket three. So again, I was still kind of hoping to play the Reality Fracture decks. So I remembered from the last time I played the Model Blue Lyra deck.
ciderspence: that it performed pretty well at a bracket two table and i'd made a few upgrades so i said okay I'm going to i'm going to run this as my bracket three deck. i think I don't think there are any game changes in it. It's not one of those things. But it definitely has the potential to kind of...
ciderspence: snowball and it's got some protection in there are no free spells but like I don't know Stuff that I... I could feel bad about uh, saying was bracket two, I guess, or like. I kind of talked before about how when you win a game.
ciderspence: there's some probability that the deck was overpowered for the table and there's some probability that it was equally powered and you got lucky or you played well or whatever.
Zachary Jeblonski: Exactly.
ciderspence: So having won the last time I played with that deck, I was like, all right, look.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yep.
ciderspence: I don't know whether it's bracket three and I... Pup stomped a bracket two table unintentionally. or if it is truly bracket two and it might be underpowered at this table but i had fun with it i've been gold fishing it a lot i was like okay this is a deck So.
ciderspence: I was playing that Mono Blue Lyra deck. Uh... One of the players was playing Gen Arcanum Weaver. which is a deck that I've... run a lot and never quite gotten to work.
ciderspence: Seeing seeing him pilot it.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah, I've always wondered about that guy.
ciderspence: Yeah, seeing him pilot it. was kind of illuminating about how it could work out well. And then there was a... Who's the... esper
ciderspence: double strike or unblockable guy. His name escapes me.
Zachary Jeblonski: So from NukaPana.
ciderspence: No, it's from from Final Fantasy or something, from a secret lair.
Zachary Jeblonski: Oh, from The Secret Lair. That's...
ciderspence: Yeah.
Zachary Jeblonski: the I know what, yeah, I don't know his name. It's from Ghost of Tsushima.
ciderspence: Yes. Jin Sakai.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah.
ciderspence: Jin Sakai was that player. And then the other player was playing...
ciderspence: Oh, was playing. Ractospalgaboth. The one that when you lose life for the first time on your turn, he gets a counter.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah.
ciderspence: and draws a card. And he's got war and pay to life. So even if you target his commander, he draws a card off it.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yep.
ciderspence: This game was a banger. It was pretty back and forth the whole game. so I just want to like. note some highlights of what each player was able to do.
ciderspence: Val Gavoth guy got out some card draw punishers. So he had underworld dreams or is that the one? No, there's something that like.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yep, Underworld Dreams is one.
ciderspence: and and Is that whenever an opponent draws a card, they lose a life?
Zachary Jeblonski: Yep.
ciderspence: So we had that one out. And he had a creature that also punished card draw out or something.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah, it's either cataract, parasite or...
Zachary Jeblonski: Nice. Exactly.
ciderspence: it must have maybe it was something else but he he basically had out a few things that don't mean for drawing cards that that especially i mean that's bad for everybody everybody's trying to draw cards but my deck runs around drawing multiple cards per turn So I was like, okay, this is...
Zachary Jeblonski: Yep.
ciderspence: Bad for me But... Interestingly, it didn't work out so bad for me. Especially once we were able to like... get it down to just one damage per card draw.
ciderspence: because i one of my card draw pieces was... What's it called? There's a five -mana artifact that says, oh, Farsight Mask.
ciderspence: When a source deals damage to you, you may draw a card. So my commander triggers when I draw my third card each turn. And I think I realized a couple of turns in, hey, if I...
ciderspence: I'm kind of in a situation now where I can choose to trigger my commander. on any end step is if I draw a single card that turn. And so i I definitely use that a few times.
ciderspence: in the rotation just to kind of get more angels out. The... Again, our Cannon Weaver player. played Parallax Wave. And that was his big hit. So this is an enchantment that enters with five counters. I forget what they're called.
ciderspence: But. You can remove a counter to exile a card under Parallax Wave. And it's got Vanishing Five. So every upkeep you remove a counter. When you can't remove a counter, you sacrifice Parallax Wave.
ciderspence: and all the creatures go back. So his commander says. He can pay... white black uh red and sacrifice it. an enchantment. to return an enchantment.
ciderspence: from its graveyard to the battlefield. So basically he. Yeah, he hid one of the... one of the card draw punishers from Val 'gavoth.
Zachary Jeblonski: okay
ciderspence: under there and then When it was about to go back. He... let it go to the graveyard, and then... before passing priority. sacrifice something else to get it back. So he was basically in a position to. you know, kind of. Kind of.
ciderspence: indefinitely detain whatever creature he wanted.
Zachary Jeblonski: okay
ciderspence: so it's interesting like The basketball player was definitely kind of set back by that, like he couldn't rely on his pieces. being available. But I was also in a position where I didn't want my commander to go off too hard because I didn't want my commander to get trapped under there. especially because it was the case that he could he could do it at instant speed and he could do it more than once. So it's like...
ciderspence: Even if you choose. to put your commander back in the command zone, and he could just exile it again. And I definitely wasn't in a position man -wise to be able to cast it two or three times in a turn. And the Jin Sakai player played some unblockable creatures that he gave double strike and he had like car draw on damage and it like it was a pretty like one turn you just don't like somebody for 16 and somebody for 12 just kind of out of nowhere not not out of nowhere just kind of like
ciderspence: by doing nothing just like the way that his commander works and the way that he played unblockable creatures it's like Look, I can basically hit you for as much as I want. whatever i want and it was but it was it was a great dynamic where like We kind of had the Gen guy doing controlly stuff. We had the... the burn guy kind of doing burn punishy stuff.
ciderspence: I'm over here making angels and drawing cards, so yeah know I'm like a big wild card. like You don't know what I'm doing. And then... Jin Sakai players like I It's holding guns to everybody's head. So it's it just kind of felt like the thing where like we were all.
ciderspence: We were all kind of... popping off or a threat to pop off at any a given moment.
Zachary Jeblonski: Nice.
ciderspence: We got to a point where I thought I... was in a position to win. And I... I said to myself and to the table, hey, well, I said to the Gen player, look, if you can deal with the Jin Sakai player.
ciderspence: I can deal with The... Balgaboth player. And I was like, look, you don't have to consider this a deal or anything, but that's what I'm going to try to do. If you want to aim over there, I'll aim over here. And this was.
ciderspence: this was a bit duplicitous right like he definitely was a threat to me But...
ciderspence: Mostly because I had a lot of... I could make a lot of angels. And I had some interaction that I wanted to be able to. you know use against the other two players, but I couldn't really go off drawing cards while I was getting pinged for each card draw.
ciderspence: I think I was below 10 life at this point. I think everybody was around 10 life or something. the the damn The punishment had worked out. We we definitely had taken the Val 'Galoth beats.
Zachary Jeblonski: okay
ciderspence: So basically I just, I stomped him out with angels and he had no flyers aside from his, I guess his commander had just been exiled with parallax wave. So he's out of the game. Okay, great. It's free to draw cards now.
ciderspence: On my end step, I had drawn enough cards to make angels, and then Game player says, okay. It is clear now that you are. i I think I played wizard staff so that I would have made two angels on my own stuff. He's like, all right, I have to exile your commander now.
ciderspence: I can't let you get two more angels. I said, valid. I understood. He exiled my commander. I was like, that's tough. But. You know, i'm I got a pretty good board state out here. Play goes back around. I forget. Jin Sakai swung it.
ciderspence: One or both of us. I don't know. like I think I didn't. take the hit because i made it to my next turn like i think he could have killed either of us but something happened I don't remember. whose interaction it was.
ciderspence: But it gets to Gen Player. I feel like he... Had a setup -y type turn. I guess he wasn't in position to swing on either of us because I had a bunch of creatures. And Jin Sakai Player had...
ciderspence: a lot of mana open. Okay, it gets to my turn. I'm like, all right, I think I think i can swing out on Jin Sakai player.
Zachary Jeblonski: okay
ciderspence: I... Swing out on Jen Sakai player. And he casts... and chill.
Zachary Jeblonski: oh
ciderspence: I'm holding a counter. That took all his mana? I... mental misstep or something. i i Maybe just misstep. i don't know i cast some one mana blue counter spell i was like i think i did it And then he casts Force of Will, or one of the things where you pitch cards from your hand.
Zachary Jeblonski: oh
ciderspence: And look. Hi. ordinarily like there's some games where i think we talked a few episodes ago i played i played a free spell in one of our kitchen table games and i felt like it wasn't well received and i think i don't run those anymore because that I've found that like in my local play group, that's not.
ciderspence: I don't know that just isn't the spirit of what we're trying to do. But in this game... It was actually pretty baller. like He pitched two cards. I felt like it was earned. Like it wasn't. super duper free and it made me think to myself maybe i should reevaluate like the flares at least Because those, I mean, we all had a chance to get those. Those were in like Modern Horizons 3.
ciderspence: And sacrificing a non -token creature is like a real cost. But anyway, that's a separate discussion. Anyway, he counters it. he He doesn't take any damage. I do hit the Gen player for a little bit, but not enough to kill him.
ciderspence: Okay, this is tough. So now we're basically both staring down Lethal. from these Inklings. But. These inklings are 2 -1 flyers.
ciderspence: And this is where... My beautiful card of the week came in. he swung for lethal using only the inklings and i guess his commander which has two power
Zachary Jeblonski: okay
ciderspence: And I cast... Bane Vale. which is maybe one of the worst MDFCs. but it's an instant for one and a blue that says creatures your opponents control Get minus 2, minus 0 until end of turn.
Zachary Jeblonski: wow
ciderspence: So he swung for lethal with a bunch of two ones. And a two X commander. None of that damage went through. So. we're We're like, I don't know, all of us thought this was hilarious.
ciderspence: So it goes to the game player. He had no response to it. uh So you know that just happens. So what we're all still alive. Then it goes to the game player's turn. And I think here he swung for lethal on.
ciderspence: I guess he swung for lethal. Not at me, but at... The Inkling player. But he had something. I think he was basically demonstrating on board that he could.
ciderspence: Burn or drain out. The Gen Player. So he was. He was trying to... do his like commander spinning wheel spinning thing to see what he could get up to that would keep him alive In the course of doing so...
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah.
ciderspence: He drew. a second card and on my board I had. Just put out the turn rotation before. Psychosis Crawler. And, uh... One of the cards from avatar that says when your opponent draws their second card you draw two cards.
Zachary Jeblonski: Oh, it's like a serpent or whatever.
ciderspence: Yeah. god the The Unagi of Kiyoshi Isle. So I had that out.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah.
ciderspence: I was like, oh no. And he was at two life, crucially. And I was like, oh no, I think actually when you cast that. Or when you draw that card, you lose because I've got Psychosis psychosis Crawler. And I'm going to draw two cards from the Unagi.
ciderspence: And this was enough. So I talked about how. that game there was some weird take backs but it was kind of a casual pod this was a similar thing where he's like okay sorry sorry sorry if you're gonna do that then i would just exile psychosis crawler before. that or whatever and this was actually like that was the end of a chain of things of us thinking about wait is there any way that i can react to this without dying to your stuff And we were all, we we were all, it was like one of those things where we're all kind of pulling for each other.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah.
ciderspence: We're like, oh yeah, you could do this, it's this, is this, this, and then you could do this.
ciderspence: it's we were We were all just kind of trying to see how it played out. And it turned out that there was no, so basically he killed me.
Zachary Jeblonski: That's awesome.
ciderspence: And the other... the The... Jin Sakai player. won the game because i think he was able to burn him out or something But that was just like a super duper fun game.
ciderspence: And it was a game I didn't win, but it felt like...
Zachary Jeblonski: That's awesome.
ciderspence: All right. And even the basketball player, I think, had a good time. Like, he got eliminated first, but... Not so far. in advance that he was waiting around for an hour. I felt like it was just really fun. We played another game, all four of us.
ciderspence: I played... What did I play in game two? I played my mono green Jiang Yangu, Never Alone.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah.
ciderspence: I built it mostly with stuff I just had lying around. It's basically like I try to make tokens. So Jang Yang -woo, Never Alone. says you can He makes a a Mowu token. when he enters And he says, untap all.
ciderspence: Tokens you control at the end of turn. So I have a few things that make land tokens I feel like that's how you could probably make it really good But then it's just... you know. I've got the Mowu token. I played something that made me two snake archer tokens. I don't know. I was just like trying to make tokens. and trying to swing with them.
ciderspence: And I basically got stopped. The the game player played a... At La Pallani deck. And just made some eggs. but mostly made a bunch of mana and then cast What's the really big red?
ciderspence: Ramp spell.
Zachary Jeblonski: Anika is here.
ciderspence: Mana geyser and then he had this thing that It's like. earthquake or mountain quake or something but it deals x damage to Each player and... each creature.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah earthquake.
ciderspence: earthquake And then he also had... the a mono -white enchantment that let him tap something to reduce all damage dealt to him from a single source. And he was just like, okay, I think I can just.
ciderspence: do this for x equals 30 or something and reduce the damage on me and burn you guys out. I was like, yep, that looks like it works. So that was game two. Game three, I played the other Jiangyangu, which I thought was funny. Jang Young -woo alone after his dog dies.
ciderspence: And that... that went. It was pretty fun. i I left that game thinking there's there are definitely some upgrades I can make here to make this. a more effective deck. But overall, just a really fun pod. like One of the guys left, so the last game was just three players. But it was that was that was a really fun night.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah, that is that is really cool. and Wow, I totally forgot what I was about to say. whale fiddlesticks. I was, well, I guess two things. is kind of reversing back to your Jin Sakai game.
Zachary Jeblonski: You mentioned... that mask where when you take damage you draw a card
ciderspence: Yeah, Farsight Mask, yeah.
Zachary Jeblonski: I'm like Well, you can keep it going right because you would draw a card scrolling color or whatever draw Punisher with trigger. Draw a card.
ciderspence: Yeah.
Zachary Jeblonski: You know?
ciderspence: So I think at the point that I stopped doing that. Well, okay, I was making this decision when I had already less than 15 life. So I think there was one there was one turn where like...
Zachary Jeblonski: That's it.
ciderspence: There was a forced draw, and then i I was at two cards already, so I was like, okay, I will go ahead and take the draw and take another damage. just to get to my three and make another angel. And those were the angels that I used to. to knock out the Vagabond player. and to present a lethal threat to the rest of the players. at the table because Vagabond had brought them all solo. that they were all kind of in that.
ciderspence: Like I said, they're like 10 to 20 range. where like one strike with all my flyers could have. Could have been lethal to anyone. before the Anchor, the InkShield guys.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah.
ciderspence: chairman but Yeah. Yeah, i i I definitely missed it the first couple of turns, but then I was like, oh yeah, I think I could just do that. And my commander wasn't the biggest threat at the table, so I...
ciderspence: I think at any point when I Did it. Twice I was probably going to... lose my commander. but like i said i did it at least once it definitely got me an angel that i was able to use But it was a cool onboard interaction that I. Could have taken more advantage of, but like I said, the Valkyrie... Guy was good at his job.
ciderspence: Life totals were pretty low.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah, that's, I mean, he he's right he's running the same car that I'm running. I'm running like... three draw punishers in my... my valuable tech as well. So. Wow, that's awesome. you Great series of games, it seems like, this week.
ciderspence: Yeah, it was yeah it was it was a really good time. Oh, the other funny thing I wanted to mention was that that the... The Ulelec guy also showed up to this game night. Totally different store. I hadn't seen him. Pat? this place before so we he was like oh yeah didn't i see you at thingy i was like yeah i was we were at uh we're at that other shop together
ciderspence: All right. I don't know remember if I asked him if he was playing Ulelec, but it turned out he was friends with somebody in my pod and he talked about... the Ula -like game that he wanted at this shop to. So I was just like i was like, well, I'm glad that that didn't happen. with me at the table again because I had my fill.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah. yeah Sometimes I see a commander and I see it played once or twice and I'm like, yep, that's never going to be mine. That's never what I'm going to do.
Zachary Jeblonski: okay I guess real quick before we move on to Dex on deck. I do have a car of the week because I did kind of. go into my memory banks and really dig deep. And i've surprisingly, I don't think I've ever actually talked about this card, at least as a card of the week.
Zachary Jeblonski: But I wanted to use a white card because I also notice I don't tend to talk about white cards very often. But every time I've played this card since I've started putting in decks, I've been happy with it. And it's the The Legend of Yang Chen, which is... three generic white whites to Saga.
Zachary Jeblonski: And. uh and the first step is for starting with you each player chooses one permanent amount of value three or greater among permanent your opponents control and you exhale those permanents. so right now we have a five mana remove three things potentially three things off the board, which is already pretty good.
Zachary Jeblonski: step two is you may have target opponent draw three cards if you do you draw three cards And. I pretty much always do that. And then the last step is it flips over to a 4 -5, and then when you cast your second spell each turn,
Zachary Jeblonski: you can air bend the target. creature So it's just a great card and I've i've really... all right It's really done work every time almost every time I've played it So just a little little highlight for a card even if I didn't have a game set. actively used it in the last week or so.
ciderspence: Yeah, I almost consider... That one. as well as the other, like. There are three. cards three of the sagas from avatar that I think are just Almost staple level bangers.
ciderspence: Legend of Yang Chan is probably the best one of them.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah, they're so good.
ciderspence: But also the green one, The Legend of Kiyoshi, is really good.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yep, Legend of Kiyoshi.
ciderspence: It draws you a bunch of cards. uh and the legend of roku exiles some cards from the top. with the first chapter and does something useful for the rest. So I think all of those are really good.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah.
ciderspence: But yeah, Yang Chen I think is the strongest.
Zachary Jeblonski: But all right, we're ready to move to Decks on Deck.
ciderspence: Yeah, let's do it.
Zachary Jeblonski: All right, so. i guess I guess I went on a little journey for myself. you know, my, my cameo, which I think I talked about this last week. I'm building the Boros Tamiyo from... Coyote Fracture, which is a Monarchs Matter deck.
Zachary Jeblonski: I'm taking apart Quintorius because... I'm tired of seeing him playing against Quintorius. I'm actually tired of seeing him. But anyway. So that's pretty much done. I'm just waiting for a few more cards in the mail. But then it was like.
Zachary Jeblonski: I keep finding myself being pulled to the new. Nyssa, the four color Nyssa. And. she I'll bring her up here. i think i When she got spoiled, I read it out in the podcast, but just to remind people.
Zachary Jeblonski: as Moxfield is slowly grinding to a halt. There it is. she's this is a ley line tamer three generic White, blue, black, red. So she has all the colors minus green.
Zachary Jeblonski: and she's got Death Touch, Vigilance, 5 -5, and whenever a land you control enters, draw a card. Then if this is the first time disability. as resolved this turn. Reveal cards on top of your library until you reveal a creature card. Put that card on the battlefield and the rest on the bottom in a random order.
Zachary Jeblonski: It's a very straightforward commander, and it's I guess it's like a four -color slot. commander, essentially. you know you put big creatures in there You put ways to get lands on the battlefield when it's not your turn, like fetch lands and stuff like that.
Zachary Jeblonski: Question mark, question mark, question mark, profit, right? And so I kind of built it out with like. you know kind of yoked out and you know whatever like really strong stuff. And I was like,
Zachary Jeblonski: You know what? I think I would actually have more fun with this. if I made a budget version of it. So I finished my budget version of it and it's not $55.
Zachary Jeblonski: and it plays pretty well actually i mean it's not going to be fast because it is she is seven mana So you're not doing much to start. But even at a budget level, it's definitely one of those commanders kind of like a little like a little bit.
Zachary Jeblonski: where you can't Let her stick around. but it's dissimilar than it'll like in that if you do let her sit around I just get a lot of value. I don justt don't i don't create like a... a ton of triggers or anything i just get a lot of value
Zachary Jeblonski: So I'm looking forward to trying that. And but because it's budget. I feel free to to try a lot of. creatures and cards that I wouldn't normally use.
Zachary Jeblonski: Like I i put Zetalpa in there, which is the... white dinosaur that's six fly white white And he's just a flying double strike vigilance trample indestructible 4 -8.
Zachary Jeblonski: You know, well, you just don't really see this as a topic much. but you know it's a great card to flip into especially if somebody's attacking me with much creature I could. Fetch a land out and then maybe I'll get us to solve as a blocker kind of thing.
Zachary Jeblonski: So yeah, I'm excited to try that out next.
ciderspence: Nice. Yeah, that sounds fun.
Zachary Jeblonski: I think I want to explore more budget taxes. I think I want. Yeah, I think I just want more options for like when somebody rolls up with a pre -con or something like that.
Zachary Jeblonski: So yeah, it's kind of, I think my, one of my goals is just to have a few more budget decks in my rotation. So right now I only have. i think like two but one of them i'm taking apart because i don't like it that much So I really only have one budget deck until I make this Nissa one. So I think I'm going to make a couple more past this one too.
ciderspence: Yeah, I think it it... It just is the case that... it's never been easier to make a competitive Budget debt?
Zachary Jeblonski: Oh yeah.
ciderspence: at least in brackets two and three. I mean, maybe that's always the case, right? like I guess they're never shrinking the card pool for a Commander, but it just feels like... So many effects have redundancy now. That there's like.
ciderspence: a best version of something but there's also something that is no longer the best and is no longer the thing that everybody playing that archetype wants. So it's cheap. And you just have options for those slots now.
ciderspence: which is kind of a cool place to be
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah.
Zachary Jeblonski: Oh, yeah. So I have this dumb card that I bought. for my Selesnya creature rolling deck that I did i took apart. Blazing Archon. It's six white, white, white, so nine mana.
Zachary Jeblonski: the five six flyer Creatures can attack you. That's it.
Zachary Jeblonski: And it's bad. It's just a fun card, yeah.
ciderspence: There you go. Yeah, I mean that definitely has a place
Zachary Jeblonski: It's nine mana. Creatures can't attack me. That's all it says. All right, cool. That's simple. But yeah, what and what do you have for Dex on that?
ciderspence: I am still... I don't know. i I'm maybe deciding not to build this Megatron. i I put... maybe 20 cards in it, but I just don't. I don't have the requisite energy to power through.
ciderspence: Maybe I will this weekend.
Zachary Jeblonski: All right.
ciderspence: But it seems like I probably won't. like I've already started thinking about a couple of other decks. I am. trying to come up with a Torwocky the Younger list. This is a deck that I've seen people play before, so...
Zachary Jeblonski: What was that? The Rakdos one?
ciderspence: Yeah, the Rakdos one. So Torwocky the Younger. three black red reach lifelink legendary creature human archer if another source you control would deal with non -combat damage to a permanent or player it deals that much damage plus one to that permanent player instead, and whenever I cast an ins instant or sorcery spell,
ciderspence: it deals two damage to any target so it doesn't pump itself which is a little silly but Just like, you know, I mean, I. I have a deck that does this that's mono -red.
ciderspence: So I'm trying to think of a way to keep this different from my long shot deck. which I love. So I like. The thought that someone would usurp him is ridiculous. But I also would like to build Torwocky. So I'm trying to think of what...
ciderspence: what I can add with. the addition of black. that makes it feel or play different. I've also seen A Game Nights game with... this commander so i know it can be built pretty strongly so i'm gonna try to stay away from at least most of the cards that I remember from that game or that are on the EDH rec page.
ciderspence: and see if I can come up with something that I think is fun or interesting to play. but i also just have like a lot of red cards sitting around so i'm excited to build another red deck
Zachary Jeblonski: yeah
ciderspence: And I also, oh yeah, the other ones I'm working on, I'm working on Captain America Wings of Freedom, which I i don't remember if I talked about last time. He's a 3 -1 for 3 mana, flying First Strike Ward 1.
ciderspence: Whenever he attacks, each other hero I control gets plus X plus X until end of turn, where X is his toughness. So... I think the game plan is pretty straightforward. Play heroes.
ciderspence: play equipment or other things that buff toughness. And then swing with flyers?
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah.
ciderspence: So. It's funny, like I'm building this one mainly because I... Had it. I have lying around 100 Captain America sleeves. And I was like, I could put these on another deck, but why don't I just build an actual Captain America deck?
ciderspence: So I was like, yeah, I'll just do that. And there I think they're... is another better Captain in America. but I have this one. And rather than like, Search for another card to buy, which is going to lend me send me down a rabbit hole of buying 100 new cards that I have to find a spot for.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah.
ciderspence: I think I'd rather just build out. a card that i have here so Yeah, that's also on deck.
Zachary Jeblonski: okay Cool. Yeah, I think for me, I... In a more general sense, I think I'm moving away from... Kindred decks.
Zachary Jeblonski: I remember reading an article and it kind of stuck with me a little bit that like. Interdeck's kind of or they can, I guess, hamper creativity. Because, you know, for instance, I have a bird's deck, so it's just like, well, my creativity is basically...
Zachary Jeblonski: all Of the 50 available birds, which 20 am I moving in, right? or which 30 I'm going to have. as averse to a burn deck where it's like i'm like oh well here's hundreds of ways i can do burns how am i gonna How am I going to craft my my style?
Zachary Jeblonski: And so I think I'm. in the process of starting to move away from. Kindred decks in general. I think my next target may be.
Zachary Jeblonski: my Jeskai God's deck. And the reason is is because... Well, I just thought about the the kindred motivation. but motivation But the other part of it is,
Zachary Jeblonski: I think I want to mess around with the new Vraska. And this is the Vraska that's colored. Shifted. from reality fracture. Ciao. Normally she's a Golgari person. uh or gordon but she is now a brassica sort of stone or soul stone blue red white legendary creature gorgon wizard Artifact creatures you control have vigilance, and whenever you cast a non -creature spell, create a 1 -1 colorless Sculptor?
Zachary Jeblonski: TreasureArtifactCreature would tab -sacrifice this Adam out of color. So kind of a couple of things that kind of jump out immediately is, well, one, I like Vraska as a character. I think I have all of her planeswalkers and all that. So I'm kind of excited to see her in a different light.
ciderspence: Nice.
Zachary Jeblonski: Number two. You're making. It's not in creature spells, so it can be really a lot of different ways you can take her, but I'm going to take her the artifact route because I don't, I don't have an artifact deck right now.
Zachary Jeblonski: And then she makes these sculpture treasure tokens. which means that They are creatures, which means you can't activate immediately. So she's making. 1 -1 artifact treasures that you can't activate immediately.
Zachary Jeblonski: Which is a little bit of a downside, just something to keep in mind. but it does present a lot of interesting ways you can take her and i'm going to take her the artifact play and see how that goes i think it's gonna be It's gonna be good, you know. It's been a while since I've had an artifact tag.
Zachary Jeblonski: and in fact the only artifact that i have is the deck that my wife plays you know So the my only question are on a rules basis.
Zachary Jeblonski: is I assume that because they are sculpture treasures. that if you have like an academy manufacturer Does that mean you don't get the 1 -1 creatures you just get now you just get a treasure food and clue?
ciderspence: Yeah, I think when it replaces, it replaces with...
Zachary Jeblonski: you know, selected.
ciderspence: the generic version of the thing.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah, yeah So I'm like, do you not include an academy manufacturer because you want them to be creatures? Like, that's something interesting, I think. design space or maybe strategy space to think about.
Zachary Jeblonski: Amen.
ciderspence: Yeah. Uh... It depends. I guess you're trying to talk about the limitation of the main creatures and that you can't. Tap them right away So maybe... You kind of play with that like maybe that's a car you hold until You kind of let...
ciderspence: Let the table get used to the fact that you can't. activate them right away and then all of a sudden you play something it gives them haste and then you have access to more mana than they were counting on i don't know that could be a fun dynamic i don't know
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah. Yeah. It could be. Yeah. so we'll see i haven't even prototyped it out but it's probably the next deck i'll probably pro prototype out
Zachary Jeblonski: i have to be a little careful because i know artifact decks in general can just They're just one of those, like... so What's the word I'm looking for? Types of decks. for lack of a better term.
Zachary Jeblonski: That can... very quickly become overpowered. and so had we yeah i think Artifacts similar to... storm or a couple other different archetypes of decks can be very powerful if you doing them too much so I'll be trying to keep that in mind.
ciderspence: Yeah, I feel like... finding a corner. It's interesting. I guess I think A little differently than you about typodex, I agree that it kind of feels like... you're picking from a list of the...
ciderspence: Good creatures. when you're building a typo deck. But I kind of enjoy that. experience I remember one deck I built. that I was unsure. how to really focus was, Licia.
ciderspence: White. Red, black. She's the backup commander in the...
Zachary Jeblonski: Oh, yeah.
ciderspence: Precon with Edgar Markov.
Zachary Jeblonski: yeah
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah.
ciderspence: But I was like vampires are so good and she's kind of got a life gain ability So it's like there if you just want life life gain vampires. There's like a billion of them. So just picking from those.
ciderspence: was kind of hard. But it turns out that she is a vampire soldier. And if you filter for just vampire soldiers, they're like. exactly 20 something of them, maybe 30 of them now.
ciderspence: And so I was just like, great, I'm going to play all of those that I can find and then build support pieces around those. and i did and that deck is not good but it's pretty fun and i kind of enjoy
Zachary Jeblonski: look
ciderspence: I enjoy that it's like... super typal, you know? And so I like...
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah.
ciderspence: Just like I think... It sounds like you're going to be. trying to find a niche. in artifacts that is both satisfying to play and competitive. I enjoy finding that with typodex.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah, fair enough.
ciderspence: So.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah, not in... And I don't know't mean to disparage anybody that finds kindred. Enjoyable. It's just, I think I have. I think when I, when I, when I'm honest with myself and I think back on my decks.
Zachary Jeblonski: i find it can be difficult for me to like hold on to kindred decks i do tend to not stick with them for longer at a time. But that's not a hard and fast rule either, because my mono blue deck is a sphinx deck that I've always really enjoyed and I've kept around for years.
Zachary Jeblonski: And so it's on. it's not a hard and fast rule it's just a trend that i'm noticing within myself so But yeah, i don't I don't have anything else additional to add unless there's anything else you want to add before we kind of wrap it up here.
ciderspence: Yeah, I guess there's one other topic, but maybe we save it for next week.
Zachary Jeblonski: Okay.
ciderspence: just uh The idea that they're coming out with a Marvel set. next year that they're going to. Build out. From like, I think the magic. Wizards people are going to help them write a story.
ciderspence: That's going to involve Marvel characters, but it's not.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah, yeah.
ciderspence: them It's kind of like a hybrid that I think... it sounds like more enfranchised players are a little more excited about. where Wizards is going to help. Marvel tell a story. And from that story, they're going to Build a new set.
ciderspence: I forget what it's called. Darkhold something.
Zachary Jeblonski: yeah well we're Yeah, we're definitely going to cover that, yeah.
ciderspence: But yeah, i'm I'm excited to talk about that next week. But yeah.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah, let's talk about that next week. I'm interested on your take there.
ciderspence: Yes, I will withhold it.
Zachary Jeblonski: but down Yeah. Thanks for joining me for another episode, Charles.
ciderspence: and Of course, thanks for having me.
Zachary Jeblonski: Hey guys, we will talk to you again next week. Have a good weekend.
ciderspence: Take it easy. Get well soon, Zach.
Zachary Jeblonski: I'll take you.
