Alex, Who Embraces the World @storycircle@wubrg.social

@ajanionthespot related: the oracle text for [[R&D's Secret Lair]] has a reminder that the mana it generates still goes to your mana pool

so apparently with the release of Strixhaven, converted mana cost will become mana value

I don't think it's an upgrade, but that's probably just me being Old and the only consequence to me will be a few months of culture shock when I can start playing Magic in person again

https://twitter.com/TeferiMagic/status/1363344967469465601?s=19

Twitter link to amazing Teferi cosplayer
(and someone in the replies put this picture on a card)

@SliverQueen what are you playing?

ah yes, the ten genders

@ajanionthespot the Wikipedia page has nothing about deck construction

TIL about an obscure format called King, which is basically Bang but for Magic

You randomly assign roles: a king, a guard, two assassins, and a rogue.
The king (the only public role) wins if they make it to the end of the game.
The guard's goal is to protect the king, and any player can block on the king's behalf.
The assassins win if the king is defeated.
The rogue wants to be the last person standing.

I would like to try this once.

@ajanionthespot @SliverQueen @lorxus I do still think tho that I need reassurance about what this WB faction is going to be like
It feels like "we've taken this thing that you identify with and assigned it to an identity you want to avoid"

@ajanionthespot @SliverQueen @lorxus non-blue vedalken?

@ajanionthespot I have though been thinking a lot about this kind of color balance in the context of our D&D game. Like Ariel is definitely using blue to pursue green and white goals.

@ajanionthespot that makes sense. And I appreciate them increasing the diversity of philosophies within each color pair.

But I don't appreciate that this new system puts me in the WB faction. Honestly, if I went to this school I'd've become a math major based entirely on departmental culture.

RU is usually the math nerd faction, but in Strixhaven it's UG. And I think it's because these color pairs think about math differently.

RU says "Math is a thing we invented."
UG says "Math is a thing we discovered."

https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/feature/first-lesson-introduction-strixhaven-2021-02-18

It's an enemy color set, and they're finishing the Command cycle from Dragons of Tarkir

Also the factions sound a lot like real high school cliques

https://twitter.com/flavorjudgedraw/status/1359930505597132802?s=09

Flavor Judge Drawings is my new favorite Twitter account

@ajanionthespot yeah, we do have a date planned ish

We compared notes when we woke up, and Venqwyn realized that both that monster and the Old Thin One (who I'd seen in a different part of the dream) were probably Eldrazi.

So now we have a reasonable suspicion that Onumbrica's gods were related to protect the plane from Eldrazi. Shit just got real.

Also that means we have to bring all the gods back, even the shitty ones, and that means Tebasha is going to have to be on point about redefining their natures through the masks.

side note to @ajanionthespot : were we on first-name terms with Miss Chaplet at the end of last season? I remember she was particular about that.

But, given the chance, Ariel *will* start calling her Theo.

but also doesn't want to miss out on going up to the glacier with Ariel and Venqwyn to talk to Arcoreas. So he asked me if I could do some kind of psychic link thing for us, and that's about the most romantic thing Ariel has ever heard. (Also Venqwyn and I just worked out how to cast [[Huddle Up]] , so I can actually do that.)

All 4 of us planeswalkers had the same extremely creepy dream about a dead world and a bizarre monster, and Miss Chaplet was there for some reason.

In tonight's session:

We've sent Seth to organize a Wayside Parliament for the gods, because they've all been avoiding each other and we want them to give us a consensus on who the Second Wave are and who we need them to be.

Firiel has invited Tebasha to a manufacturer's conference, to start working on masks for embodying the Second Wave gods. So we're splitting the party.

Tarjuk will be going to Lest We Forget to try his spirit quest thing again. Tigris is staying with Tarjuk,