Posted on by Jed Fowler · 2 Comments

Coaching Dads

The Nettling Dad had a frustrating experience with what looked like a very solid UB deck. Aka the best color pair in the format. Trying to figure out what went “wrong” (or right) is one of my very favorite parts of Magic. Sometimes there are things outside of your control, e.g., mana screw/flood. Sometimes there are suboptimal plays that there is no one to blame but yourself. And then there’s murky middle ground, like the frustration of your opponent dropping a huge bomb. Feels outside of my control!!! Or did you blow your removal needlessly soon?

Anyway, teasing apart the circle of control vs. concern is just like life where we make nothing but decisions regarding the unknowable future with imperfect information. Way more fun doing this with zombies and dragons than figuring out the right school for our offspring. So let’s get to work!

deck

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Posted on by Jed Fowler · 1 Comment

Quick Post: 10-11-21

It’s time to delve into a what’s-the-play! I was so in the tank for this that I forgot to get a good screenshot, so here’s the 17lands summary:

interesting moments

Oppo is at 7, I’m at 6. They attack and flashed-back Rise of the Ants to get some blockers down. I’ve been stuck on 6-mana for several turns now, unable to flashback my Beasts or Seize the Storm for additional blockers. But I just drew a beautiful land! What do I do now? Okay, it’s pretty clear that I can’t just defend; they can swing out and two unblocked creatures kill me. By process of elimination: I attack. Work out the lines of play if they single-block or double-block.

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Posted on by Jed Fowler · 2 Comments

Quick Post: 10-10-21

Let’s briefly discuss the miracle of carpooling. With Lil Chandra and her friend Lil Nissa enrolled in the same Lil Kickers (actually called that) soccer lessons, this allows for the miracle of carpooling. One parent takes two kids. This leaves one couple with an empty house and leaves me with an hour to pound out a guilt-free draft. Or two. In my defense, I’m also running two loads of laundry.

draft

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Posted on by Jed Fowler · 1 Comment

Quick Post: 10-4-21

I’ve really been enjoying this format. I agree that the prevalence of Organ Hoarder and the Diregraf Horde is a bit much at common, but it’s a great contest between the flashback/disturb of the control decks versus the aggression of the other decks.

draft

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Posted on by Jed Fowler · 1 Comment

Nerd Parenting, Vol XXIV

On the way to daycare today, the FF6 song “Searching for Friends” came on. Since I like telling Lil Chandra the snippets of plot from the orchestrated video game music, I told her that this is all about a brave young woman named Celes travelling across the world trying to find her friends after a disaster. As we pulled into daycare she asked, “Did Celes find her friends?” And–choking up a little–I managed to get out, “Yes… yes she did!” /nerdparenting /takethatKefka

See the source image
Posted on by Jed Fowler · 1 Comment

Homework: Card Ratings

For the first time… (checks notes) ever, I tried to do card ratings without listening to several hours of LR/LoL. As mentioned during my rolling ratings, I have a newfound respect for how hard this is. It’s hard! Making sure you read every word on cards is hard! Thinking of the best (and worst) cases is hard! It was fun, but now I’m eager to delve into the podcasts and see how I did.

First, here are my ratings: Benalish Dad’s Card Ratings. Again, I’m using my somewhat simplified tier system

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Posted on by Jed Fowler

In-flight Infrastructure

It was that time again to make the pilgrimage to Grandma’s on the east coast. Lovely trip–obviously any break in routine during a pandemic is nice–with an unlimited supply of chocolate cupcakes. Thanks Grandma! But there is the small wrinkle of keeping a four-year old occupied during the trip (and not fussing about the mask, or bored, or whatever).

First and foremost, screentime! We are pretty minimal screentime household. Which means that when you need (e.g. 6-hour plane flight) Chandra can do 5 straight hours of Octonauts with a grin. You save it for when you need it.

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Posted on by Jed Fowler · 6 Comments

Rolling Ratings: 9-8-21

Six hours on an airplane is a pretty decent excuse I suppose. Was there also six straight hours of Octonauts for Lil Chandra? You know it!

Stuffed bear

First, that is one hell of a name and flavor win for Gothic Land. But is it any good? The activation cost is pretty burdensome if you’re paying it every turn to attack. However, if you get to sit back on defense and hold off a horde of smaller creatures with the threat of activation, THAT sounds appealing. I think this could end up being a common that defines aggressive decks, since they’re going to need an answer to a controlling deck that drops this early and passes the turn.

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