Lincoln Davidson

Spirit stunting on Portland with an 89th minute Trin substitution

it was really sad when they stopped making them, thank god old bulk bins still exist to dig through

There's a reason it's called "the creature" and not "the monster". It is not the monster.

@phantooom.bsky.social if you liked Frankenstein earlier this year, this is well worth your time

To my point above about how effectively Ibsen uses foreshadowing here, I literally said to Savannah during intermission, "What if Gregers actually is delusional like Gina says?" Relling's "Damn you!" to close the play about sums up my feelings.

(spoilers ahead)

I was less impressed with Nick Westrate as Hjalmar. I saw him perform Prior Walter in Arena's staging of Angels in America a few years back and thought he was excellent in the role--but every part I've seen him in since, it feels like he's playing the same character.

The performances were excellent, particularly Alexander Hurt's portrayal of Gregers and Matthew Salvidar's portrayal of Dr. Relling.

STC continues to kill it on the set design and sound design fronts. Huge kudos to Lightning Designer Stacey Derosier, who managed to one up the amazing lightning she produced for Frankenstein earlier this year. Exquisite use of windows and simulated daylight in both shows.

This play is *heavy*--certainly the most heavy thing I've seen on the stage since Leopoldstadt, and that's literally about the Holocaust.

Also, can we say Ibsen was a Taoist? Relling says toward the end, "Life would be tolerable enough if only we the destitute and common could be left in peace by those who come knocking at the door with claims of the ideal." Feels like it comes straight from the Laozi.

There's a reason Ibsen is one of the greats--this play is a masterclass in foreshadowing, surprise, suspense, and dread. They really should call it Ibsen's Gun--where do people think Chekov learned it from?

Miniature theater review: The Wild Duck by Henrik Ibsen, presented by Shakespeare Theatre Company through November 16

An incredible play, a masterful cast, exquisite staging. Go see this show, but prepare to be shook.

Horrific. Idk how you go through a whole draft of this cube, seeing dozens of ornithopters that all have the same art, and then think this is just another one you can alter.

(is rofellos even in vintage cubes these days?)

More cubes with the stinky dude who killed rofellos less cubes with rofellos

In parallel with the announcement earlier today, the Cube Format Panel (it me!) is excited to announce the 2025 Beta for the Cube Bracket system! We've rigorously updated and refined our language to describe cube experiences, creating an unquestionably comprehensive tool for all designers.

capitalich.github.io/previews/ATC

If you have any feedback, happy to connect you to Nick (the designer), he would love to hear it!

Yep--low floor to inclusion in a deck, high ceiling of potential. A card like this is worse than Unearth in a vacuum because of the hand smoothing power of cycling... But if you can plan around it and build a way to abuse the overload, the ceiling is extremely high.

Yeah I'm honestly kind of shocked we don't have a Jackal Pup that sacs to loot already. Seems like such an intuitive design and totally fine at common. Falkenrath Pit Fighter and Greasewrench Goblin are both less elegant takes on this concept.

Literally never drew it 😅 but I love that card so much

And that's a wrap on CubeCon 2025! Thanks to all the judges, organizers, and fellow cube players for making this a success!

There are still cards that are not main deckable, a vanilla bear is great, Divination is great, fixing is nonexistent, cards are easily grokkable. It's not that card evaluation matters more or less than today--the texture of the format is just fundamentally different.

It's kind of wild how much limited has changed in just 5 years. I drafted DOM a TON, and still consider it one of the great formats of all time. But revisiting it today, it feels like a totally different era.

Final draft of CubeCon: Dominaria! We turned in our prize points for a box of this set. Ended up 1-2 with BW historic. The UR deck piloted by @mattmendoza.bsky.social took the 3-0.

Can't remember if I went 1-2 or 0-3 with this but it felt 2 counterspells and 2 creatures with some kind of finishing power short of being a good deck

Cube Cobra Overview: The Blink Cube >>> ### **The Blink Cube** <<< >>> First, foremost, and always - this is a Value-based cube. It's loaded with creatures with ETB abilities, ways to blink those creatures, and ways to recur those crea...

Cube 2: Jeremy's Blink Cube cubecobra.com/cube/overvie...
Big and splashy, really focused on haymakers

Some of my favorite designs:

Cubecon, day 4: playtesting Nick's custom Adventure Time cube! Went 2-1. Cube felt very cohesive and well designed! My main recommendation was to either make it more like a cube or more like a retail limited environment--it's in a bit of an in between state right now.

Cube 3: run back Tiny Axe! 2-0 with RW aggro. Would have faced Brian in the finals--we compared decks and decided the winner would probably depend on the die roll (I lost our pretend die roll lol).