#which is really. really important for countermagics

[jojossillywalk]

the problem with my ocs is that the worldbuilding isnt a vehicle for them,,they are a vehicle for the 90 year economic agricultural decline of a fantasy nation due to a rock shortage. there is 5 sentences worth of some gay people and their very unique armor. back to rocks-

[samueldays]

@brazenautomaton something which seems like partly my own problem with winging it for Princess, partly system mismatch, I'm thinking out loud and not really expecting you to 'fix' this but I'd like to hear your thoughts.

I had an antagonist who was doing ritual magic that needed mostly time, with a background roll to start it up and then no further rolls needed, instead it produces effects for every full hour spent on it, and the caster probably doesn't get an hour because the Darkness Spike of starting it summons the magical girl squad.

When one of the Princesses asked "can I neutralize the magic?", meaning in ways other than shooting the caster (they were trying to be discreet), I stumbled a bit before ruling on the fly that Magic Ward was an appropriate charm to counterspell with this time.

This felt like a hack because Magic Ward is written to impose a dice penalty, it doesn't really feel like a dispel/counterspell effect, especially not to long-term effects, and I'd like something better than the ad hoc ruling of that session.

To some extent this is my own fault for time-costing something as an ad hoc enemy mechanic in the first place, looking back I realize that Chronicles of Darkness core mechanics are more about rolls and the importance of a 0/1 success difference. But even so, CoD still has some things where the caster rolls for effect at start, and then Magic Ward is a bit clunky to apply dice penalty a long time after successes have been counted. If the GM has written down "3 succcesses" of magic cast with 8 dice, there's no clean way to reduce that to being calculated as if cast with 4 dice. Simply rerolling risks getting more successes which is stupid.

There's no dedicated Dispel Charm and there probably shouldn't be, because that effect is too narrow, it can't have enough upgrades and variations to justify it being a full Charm. At the same time, countermagic seems too general for merely one upgrade: Anthem has a type-limited counter (sonic, emotional), Restoration has healing magic that 'counters' injuries and debuffs, Plea can remove some mental conditions. The system feels like it has the wrong 'granularity' for a D&D-like Dispel Magic effect of moderate applicability for countering something that doesn't fit those categories, so I'm not sure what to put in for next time.

[fellwar-finch]

Made a new war crime!

It's a fun little esper brew about just not dying, but I haven't figured out how to make it resilient to mill besides just tossing in an eldrazi titan, which otherwise doesn't fit well in the deck at all.

I'll be getting a rhystic study from a friend soon, so that's absolutely going in, and I'm thinking about taking tainted field out for reliquary tower, I think having no hand limit is kinda important in a deck that regularly gets necropotence.

Do y'all think it's a good idea to toss armageddon in here? My reasoning is that I really don't need my lands, as long as I get my commander out and keep him safe. And mass land destruction could be a good way to inoculate the deck against a whole bunch of removal coming my way. Plus, armageddon + desolation sounds simply delicious.

Also *considering* contamination + bitterblossom to turn everything into swamps, but that would cut me off my countermagic and add two cards that really don't help otherwise. Is it worth it?

[febrainrot]

@seven-rats-in-trenchcoat

So Oboro is probably the most "balanced" unit in the game, as 5 out of 8 of her individual growths are at 40. When you recruit her she'll be level 10 and it'll be at a time the shops are at level 1, so you can immediately promote her if you wanna keep her on her spear fighter road, that's a fine choice, she will do her job there. Her speed and strength are at 55% and her defence at 50% growth in that class, so she can go in a few directions: fast, strong, sturdy, a mix of these or even all three (I got lucky in my last playthrough and she was an absolute beast in all three). Give her Hinoka's guard naginata and she's gonna be the closest thing you'll have to a physical wall in Birthright, and in Rev she can be a unique mix of speed and def tank, taking little damage and dodging some more, along with good retaliation, that few other characters can bring to the table. Basara uses her somewhat salvageable magic growth, but she starts with literally 0 magic and will only get a point of magic every 3 levels or so, even if she'll gain some from changing classes. It's still stronger than Hinoka though, who in game ends up as a falcon knight, so there's some hope!

but I think that a fun build for her would be one of the classes that use both magic and physical weapons outside of Basara. That leaves us with Oni Chieftain, Malig Knight, and the special class dark falcon. With a few level ups and a bit of spirit dust here and there she can function as a 70 physical 30 magical. Only one of these use lances but she'll have to learn magic as well anyway so why not start from scratch

She can get Oni Chieftain from befriending Rinkah and I think it really suits her: she gets to 60% str and defence which is higher than the spear master, even if she sacrifices skill and speed along with a bit of HP and luck, but she pretty much gets the most important parts of the spear master (strong and sturdy) with the magic use of the basara. If you managed to grab rend heaven from basara before the switch, it'll let her have a very solid damage output against physical units and a good help against some magical ones. I'd say it's probably better to level her up as a spear fighter/spear master before switching, as it'll give her some useful accuracy. Oni chieftain has some of the best skills in the game as well: death blow grants +20 crit when initiating combat, while clubs already have an innate 5. If she got enough skill stat in her previous class, she's gonna crit relatively often. And let's not forget the one an only: counter. Mixed with Rend Heaven, this is makes her a quite deadly bait for strong physical units. If you feel like farming her a bit, you can marry her to Azama and get her renewal as a priestess (and, if you REALLY like to grind like me, countermagic): strong enemies deal some damage against her that is shaved off by her defence, it backfires against them, she uses their strength, and she heals the damage on her turn.

For Malig Knight, she'll need to befriend Beruka, so it's a Rev build unless you want to marry her to your wyvern rider Corrin. Malig has even less speed than oni, but it does bring her resistance up a bit which is always nice. The main interest of that class (after the mobility) is probably Savage Blow, which damages every enemy in a 2 tiles area around your unit. That sends her down a pretty offensive path rather than defensive one, but that can work fine. Again rend heaven is a useful skill in this situation, especially since malig knights have a better skill stat than the oni chieftain, and the increased resistance makes mages a bit less threatening to her. Trample is a pretty good skill for Oboro, as most Hoshidan are not mounted: meaning that in rev, she effectively gets a damage bonus against both Hoshidan and Nohrian units (though by the time you get trample, you will likely be fighting Vallite units instead, making her personal skill useless). Lunge also works well with magic, as it basically lets Oboro teleport in the middle of group and, in pair with savage blow, act as a grenade that does chip damage all around. She however suffers from a decreased HP growth, but if you marry her to Hinata and spend a little time in a class coming from samurai (like master of arms in this case, letting you use her lances or train her with axes) to get vantage, you can make it safer for her. That's not the only skill from samurai she can grab, duelist's blow can help her avoid getting hit on your turn, again furthering her durability. Still, she would mostly be an offensive unit in that role as her HP growth is LOW.

Dark Falcon is where her resistance is the best out of the at 50. She won't need to get too much proficiency because she already uses lances, which is also a nice change. However...that's pretty much it. While her speed cap will be high, she'll have even lower HP than a malig knight and her strength will cap at 28, while her magic doesn't really allow her to rely entirely on it either. Galeforce IS good...if you can kill a unit, which, might get more and more difficult as the game goes on, and since galeforce is the last skill of that class, it will probably not be viable. The other classes are gimmicky and kind of a stretch but can work well enough, but I'm not sure a dark falcon Oboro is as viable. Her def is gonna take a toll as well, so overall, not the best character for it

So yeah, those are the builds I'm thinking of for her in my next rev playthrough, I'll probably go for oni chieftain tbh

I am in such a Fates withdrawal that I just want to be asked what stupid build I want to put a character in. Just give me the name of a character and as long as it's not Hisame I can tell you about a build I want to try with them

[wiresandstarlings]

where would you go to lose all your angles? how would you make it complete?

Last weekend, Oliver Tomajko polled his Twitter followers on whether they lean more on intuition or logic when playing Magic. Oliver's question got me thinking, because both processes are so important. I ultimately voted for intuition. This surprised my friends, since in conversation I reject arguments without sound logical justification out of hand. However, while I distrust my intuition, playing Magic without it would be impossible. 

For example, when I’m deciding whether to play around a combat trick, I can quantify how likely my opponent is to have the trick, how much damage I’m taking to play around it, and so on. But what is 2 life really worth? And what’s my plan for dealing with the trick down the line? No collection of numbers tells the whole story.

I see math as a guide for my intuition. While I can’t work out complicated probabilities inside of games, checking my intuition in retrospect keeps it in line. The more decision trees I solve and hypergeometric probabilities I calculate ahead of sitting down to play, the less likely I am to make mistakes. But no matter how much math I’ve done, my intuition is ultimately at the helm when I make a practical decision. 

To illustrate this paradigm, I want to walk through 2 interesting spots from my games at Dreamhack Anaheim. The first is from my match against Jim Davis at 4-0 on day 1. To introduce the game state, I played Narset on turn 4 with Mystical Dispute up and Narset instantly resolved, meaning that Jim had no instants. He played his own Narset into my Dispute, I played Teferi to force Elspeth Conquers Death, he played Elspeth Conquers Death on Teferi, I played Dream Trawler, he played a second Elspeth Conquers Death on my Narset. (I should have -3'd my Teferi and cannot explain why I didn't, but that’s outside this discussion.) Now it's my turn and I've drawn my 2nd Dream Trawler and an Omen of the Sea off the 1st Trawler attacking. I need to decide whether to cast my 2nd Trawler or to pass with countermagic. 

I know that on turn 6, Jim did not have Shatter the Sky, since he would have killed my Dream Trawler with it. With a draw step and his Narset coming back from Elspeth Conquers Death, he has a 20.4% chance of finding a Shatter with 2 Shatters in his deck. With 1 Shatter, he has a 10.6% chance of hitting. If I play the Trawler and Jim doesn't immediately find and play a Shatter, I'm almost 100% to win. I'll attack him down to 7 with my 2 Trawlers and then he'll have to find and resolve a Shatter through 2 counterspells, since his ECD taxes will have expired. If I play Trawler and he hits a Shatter, then I almost certainly lose. All in all, by playing the Trawler, I lock in an 80+% chance to win. So I need to figure out whether I'm more or less than 80% to win the longer game when I hold the second Trawler.  

To start, I can ask how the game will play out if I stay on 1 Trawler. Jim will get Narset back on his turn and minus it. And then maybe he’ll play another Narset, or a Teferi, or his own Dream Trawler? I know he has at least one threat in hand since he had no instants on turn 4 with 6 cards in hand and has played 2 lands, 3 threats, and missed a land drop since then. And if he plays a threat, I have to let it resolve because he still has the last chapter on his second ECD coming and currently has no targets for it. So if Jim has a Teferi, and that’s his most likely threat, then my countermagic is no good anyway. 

Even if his last threat is a third ECD and he doesn’t find Teferi off of Narset, what do I do? I’ll attack him to 11, then kill his Narset, and then kill him over the next two turns? In the meantime, he’ll get another minus off his Narset, which maybe finds a Teferi, which would force my Absorb with a 6th land, and then maybe Jim wins the fight over Shatter anyway. 

Further, will I even be able to even resolve the 2nd Dream Trawler after Jim Shatters? My hand isn't very good and Jim will have all spells and an active Narset, so probably not. 

Even after all that reasoning, I couldn’t tell you with certainty whether I'm more or less than 80% to win when I hold the Trawler. But when I think about how the game will play out after holding, I feel this total lack of control. So many things can go wrong, it’s hard for the 2nd Trawler to even matter when Shatter resolves, my hand is so bad against Jim’s likely holdings and it’s not going to improve. Knowing how high the number I’m locking in by jamming is, I have this strong sense that holding cannot possibly be right. 

The second spot is from my match against Aaron Gertler, the eventual winner, in the top 4 of the winner's bracket. This is an example of my intuition going astray. 

I navigated the game to a position where I have a Teferi on 5 loyalty and a Dream Trawler and Dovin's Veto in hand to Aaron's 2 random draws, 1 from Shatter the Sky. He casts Incubation, and I have to decide whether or not to Veto it. 

If Aaron misses on Incubation, his unknown card is a brick, and he has nothing on top, then I'll win no matter what I do. Similarly, if Aaron ever has 2 pieces of action, via Incubation or the top of his deck, then I lose no matter what I do. So the key scenarios are when Aaron hits off Incubation and his 2 random draws are bad and when Aaron misses on Incubation but has action in hand or on top (but not both). 

With 40 cards in deck, Aaron's unknown card and top card each have a 17.5% chance of being Escape to the Wilds or Fae of Wishes. (I don't know the exact size of Aaron's deck at this point and I'm not going to count.) So if I Veto the Incubation, I win 67.7% of the time, when Aaron has nothing and draws nothing. On the other hand, Incubation has a 42.7% chance of hitting Fae of Wishes if all 4 Fae are still in his deck. Because I have Teferi in play, Fae of Wishes is the only creature in Aaron's deck that I care about. But when Aaron hits Fae, I basically just lose because of his Clover. 

The upshot of holding the Veto is that if Aaron bricks on Incubation and his last card is exactly Escape (since I lose to Fae in hand no matter what I do) or if Aaron's top card is Fae or Escape (since Granted is too slow with the Trawler already in play), then I win. However, since I always lose when Incubation hits Fae, I have at most a 57.3% chance of winning when I let Incubation resolve, and I lose some of the time even when he bricks. 

This is a spot where my intuition misguided me and doing the math reveals the severity of my error. At the time, my instinct was that Aaron had around a 30% chance of hitting a Fae, from doing similar calculations in the past. If that's true, then the decision is close. But not only is Aaron much more likely to find Fae than I thought, I also just wasn't thinking about how few true haymakers Aaron had in deck. If Aaron had 6 Escape-type cards (noncreature must-counters), then I'd only have a 55.8% chance of winning by countering Incubation, and it's again a close decision. But as is, I incorrectly estimated both probabilities and made a clear mistake. 

I obviously won't be able to repeat all this reasoning inside an actual game of Magic. But by doing the math now, I’ll hopefully be able to intuit the correct play the next time I’m in a similar position. 

(As a bonus mistake from that game, I should have used Teferi to bounce my Banishing Light before casting Shatter the Sky on the previous turn. That line I just missed.)

Thanks for reading, as always. I'm planning to write more soon, maybe about topics outside of Magic again, but I'm always planning that. 

[askkrenko]

Lets say you were in control of Magic and could replace a color. Which color would you eliminate and what would you replace it with? (like, I would take out the philosophy of white and replace it with something that was more community and peace, and less oppressive law)

I mean, this starts with the assumption that I think the color pie is inherently flawed, and I don’t. I think it could use a bit of redrawing and clarifying, but I don’t think there’s anything wrong with it...

And I don’t think your view of White is accurate. White is about community and peace and oppressive law. Every color is about a good concept that is dangerous when taken to extremes. Black is about self-betterment, red is about emotional fulfillment, green is about natural connection, white is about order, and blue is about knowledge.  White has plenty of cards that are about oppressive law, sure, but it also has plenty of cards like Pacifism and Holy Day that are just about how fighting is bad and lets not do it.

After twenty five years, basically anything that could be in the color pie has been assigned to one of the five colors, and it usually fits pretty well. Replacing a color with a new one would really require changing the other colors as well, in order to find them an appropriate part of the pie.

But you want an answer. So if one color had to go, I’d say Black. This isn’t a dislike of black, but that Black’s unique effects and particular portion of the color pie seem the least necesarry to the game. Red and White both have lots of creature removal, white has reanimation. Any color can spend life for added effect, even if Black is the one that does it the most. It’s really just the hand disruption. As far as a philosophy, having one color be ‘self interest” seems like it could be the most easy to remove, as every color has that already. Red, White, Blue, and Green all want to do what’s best for themselves, they just believe in different bests. Red believes what’s best for themselves is fulfilling their emotions, Green believes it’s being at one with the world, Blue believes knowledge is power, and White wants to create a strong, healthy society. Having a color of “I want to do what’s best for me” and “I will make sacrifices to win” isn’t as necessary for a system.

So, what would I replace it with, to balance Emotion, Logic, Order, and Nature? Capability. Black already has shades of this, but my theoretical replacement here is less about getting ahead on the backs of others and more about the idea of a meritocracy, that while all may be born equal, skill and ability allows one to shine above the rest... And while Black would normally say “This means everyone should just do what they can with what they have,” my color here, Yellow, is about creating a system where everyone can become the most skilled they can possibly be, finding a proper job for everyone with means of advancement, and giving proper rewards for those who do well.  It falls between Blue and White on the color pie, allied with White when trying to uphold a system that puts the best atop (but at odds when it wants this to be based solely on capability) and with Blue in that it favors working hard for improvement (but at odds in that it believes that might and intuition can be as important as knowledge.)

Mechanically, it steals a significant portion of Blue’s Countermagic- flavored as being able to stop, block, or parry enemy attacks- while Blue gets a hold of Black’s old discard mechanics (now flavored as direct mental attacks.) Its creatures come in two major categories: Supports and finishers. Yellow does not favor a go wide strategy at all. It wants one big creature to win the game on its own, and other creatures are there to protect and improve that creature. Unlike Blue, though, its one game winning creature is relatively quick and aggressive. Mechanics like evergreen Exalted and the “loner” mechanic reward you for attacking with only one creature at a time. Its spell specializations are on combat tricks and auras, improving your creatures while they’re doing their thing in a way that none of the current colors particularly focus on. Creature auras are pretty bad overall, so Yellow would have very good ones. Further, Yellow would like Enchantments as much as Blue likes Artifacts. (Stealing a bit from White, but White very rarely goes ‘all in’ enchantment anyway.) Equipment would still be White’s wheelhouse; Yellow feels that a sword is just a tool, and that strong weaponry is a crutch, while enchantment magic is a permanent improvement to you or at least the casting of it is intrinsically part of you.  Ultimately, Yellow is a color of a tempo strategy; play one strong creature and use your other spells to prevent your opponent from stopping it or make it kill them faster.

With this change, Blue and Red become allies, and their overlap is the Selfishness that used to be core to Black. While Blue would rather use intelligence and Red would rather just do, both lean away from the idea of community and would rather make their own rules. Blue feels the rules should be made by whoever is capable of making them, while Red just doesn’t want there to be rules at all. A lot of formerly Black characters now become Red or Blue.

Reanimation magic moves to White here, now flavored as full heals, while Undead get pushed into Green, absorbing the Golgari idea that this is just part of the natural cycle. Green reanimation spells almost never bring back the creature itself- we don’t want to combine that with Green’s ginormous creatures- but instead make zombie tokens by exiling the original card. This often keeps power and toughness, but only keeps original abilities if the reanimation is part of the creature card rather than a spell. The idea of Necromancers is fundamentally changed in universe, meaning some formerly Black characters have a hard time adapting.

Notable fictional characters who are Yellow:

Goku and Vegeta (Their only care is about being strong for the sake of being strong; they almost never use this power for real benefit)

Ash Ketchum (Wants to be the very best like no one ever was, lives in a world where the most important people are the best at pokemon battling.)

Lex Luthor (Believes humanity needs to be led by the best and brightest humans, gets surly when aliens step in to help because he believes it undermines Humanity’s growth and accomplishments.)

Many religions, and in-game many cults, become Yellow here, as the idea of serving one powerful being so that they may save you is a Yellow one if the reason you’re worshipping them is because you respect their power and their ability to do the thing. Wanting to be on the ‘winning team’ is a Yellow ideal, and so Magic’s demons and demon worshipers are primarily Yellow (which lends itself to a deck of ‘summon one demon to win the game on its own.) If you follow the powerful being because you agree with other ideals, then that just pushes you into that color. This means Yellow characters wind up serving characters of all colors.

So, all in all, the new Yellow I came up with still has a lot of overlap with Black, because basically all options have been divided into the color pie by now, but I think it’s still distinct from Black in enough ways.

Good question, that was fun. I now posit that same question to everyone else: If you were going to cut a color and add a color, what would you do and how would that rearrange the color pie and what colors have what?