robin

But if you're new to magic, it's also going to take you more time to get to a point you can purchase the entry fee for TMNT compared to Lorwyn. Swings and roundabouts

Prize structure is better, though you get more rounds in Lorwyn for a cheaper entry fee, and I value the gameplay more than the rewards. While TMNT has its moments, I found Lorwyn to be a far more enjoyable draft environment overall, especially with the price comparison

Someone who looks a lot like Spice, in all black standing arms outstretched holding a book (a bible) whilst police horses charge it. There's a crowd behind. They didn't run it down & the line was held.

Outnumbered the fascists.

Police failed to break our line.

They got bundled into taxis & fucked off home.

Got a pic that goes crazy hard out of the whole equation.

Lovely Saturday, over all.

Also to point out my biggest issue with UB small sets, in Arena, a Pick Two draft costs 6000 Gold/900 Gems, compared to the normal draft cost of 5000/750, despite having a much smaller pool than usual drafts.
Paying a premium tax on a less varied set just feels awful, and this is more true for Paper

After playing a fair amount of TMNT drafts in Arena, it's a fairly enjoyable draft environment but not one I feel bad about missing out on in person. The low variance small sets carry was very noticeable and Pick 2 draft just isn't my favourite format. Some great cards in the set though!

I was excited to hear I've been approved for progesterone but I just saw the price of it and I'm no longer excited

Still furious there's no Amass Snail however

Wick, the Whorled Mind 3B Legendary Creature — Rat Warlock Whenever Wick or another Rat you control enters, create a 1/1 black Snail creature token if you don't control a Snail. Otherwise, put a +1/+1 counter on a Snail you control. {U} {B} {R}, Sacrifice a Snail: Wick deals damage equal to the sacrificed creature's power to each opponent. Then draw cards equal to the sacrificed creature's power.

I was wondering how best I could use the counter synergies in TMNT and then I remembered this fantastic commander from Bloomburrow exists
(the many cool shapeshifters from Lorwyn are a big plus too/

jarvis, polyganize this man's balls

This is certainly subjective as Orzhov Ninjas are very strong - however from my experience Izzet artifacts/discard is an absolute powerhouse despite being the one archetype that cares more about pizza and Casey Jones than mutants, ninjas and/or turtles

I'm surprised that in a set about Mutants, Ninjas, and/or Turtles, the strongest archetype is... Artifacts?

Really sucks for the developers, but man...
The game was originally going to be shadowdropped, and despite 2 million total players they still fired the whole team. Complete mismanagement of a pretty cool foundation for a great game

Unfortunately now all I want to do is sleep all the time, so content won't be seen for a bit longer :/

Prereleases costing $50 is a bigger problem than ANY Universes Beyond set. Magic needs to be financially accessible, but especially prerelease.

Herald of Hoofbeats {3}{U} Creature — Human Knight Horsemanship (This creature can’t be blocked except by creatures with horsemanship.) Other Knights you control have horsemanship. Most dismissed her love of horses as a passing childhood fancy. Years later it saved their lives. 3/3 Illustrated by Randy Vargas

I love "Other knights you control have horsemanship" because, yeah I sure hope they do

Now that pre-release is done, how did people find TMNT? I didn't attend so interested to hear if the draft/sealed environment improved to SPM.
I'm specifically interested to know how replacing an uncommon slot with a Legendary Turtle (in most cases, a common) affected things too

Started a round of antidepressants, hopefully my content will be back and better than ever soon 🤞😚

Agent Bishop, Man in Black. 2W Legendary Creature — Human Soldier At the beginning of combat on your turn, put a +1/+1 counter on each of up to two target creatures.

Tayam, Luminous Enigma 1WBG Legendary Creature — Nightmare Beast Each other creature you control enters with an additional vigilance counter on it. {3}, Remove three counters from among creatures you control: Mill three cards, then return a permanent card with mana value 3 or less from your graveyard to the battlefield.

Picked up a single TMNT pack for a laugh and found the Rare super disappointing, but it also seems like a great excuse to finally build Tayam

Huge agree with the issue more being the case for rarity, and I feel this is one of the main issues for small sets specifically

Either way, as much as I hate small sets I think this is the worst complaint when this is an "issue" in even the highest regarded Universes Beyond sets

This is obviously more glaring in small sets, but I've seen the argument with TLA; a set which had less Legendaries than FIN and LTR, and the same, if not less duplicate characters than LTR - a set regarded as the best Universes Beyond set next to Final Fantasy

Not to be devil's advocate, but I'm always surprised to hear character/legendary saturation be the biggest complaint for "bad" Universes Beyond sets, when "good" Universes Beyond sets (Final Fantasy/Lord of the Rings) suffered the exact same problem, sometimes to a greater degree

Scream 7 comes out today. As much as I love Scream, I won't be seeing this movie. I urge you all to do the same.

Not only is Scream 7 tied to AI, but they fired Melissa Barerra because she called out the genocide in Gaza. Wes Craven would be disappointed at Spyglass' handling of his franchise.

THEY WONT STOP WITH TRANS PEOPLE
THINKING OTHERWISE WILL GET YOU OR A LOVED ONE KILLED
THEY WILL ROLL BACK ABORTION
THEY WILL STOP WOMEN FROM VOTING
THEY ARE FUCKING FASCISTS

This is what I need cis folks to understand.

It's been a decade.

Imagine living TEN FUCKING YEARS watching as a blatant, artificial campaign to erase your personhood, your identity and your safety chugs along, increasing in power every single day, and most people don't care or dismiss it

I am not excited for the Magic: The Gathering — Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles set, but it does have some good cards, and some great art. The amount of comments I've seen claiming most of it is AI is just awful, and I feel I see one almost every day

I'm gonna say it, the one thing I do actively hate more than AI art is the amount of people claiming real art "looks like AI", often without good reason. It's such an insult to artists

Treeplanter title screen. A bright green stands against a bright blue sky.

A photo of a tree being planted. The text below it reads, "Hey, I'm Henry, an artist, farmer and I used to be a teacher too! Treeplanter is about sharing the beauty of trees! Each copy sold helps fund the planting of real trees on local schools and farms. To make Treeplanter I worked with my students to provide them paid employment, and then worked with my friends to finish it!"

In-game menu showing several tree options to plant: birch, apple, field maple, conifer, and oak.

Treeplanter is a relaxing game where you build your own woodland sanctuary. The best part? For every copy sold, @henrydriver.bsky.social will partner with local communities to plant real trees, wildflowers, & meadows throughout the UK, restoring wildlife. 🌲

store.steampowered.com/app/4139840/...

I've really, really fallen out of creating content these past few months. Unfortunately stuck in a depressive rut because my job has become miserable, and it's been incredibly difficult to find another position worth leaving for.
Hopefully things turn around sooner than later though! 🤞

Hello! I'll be updating the print version of this today with a proper bleed and UK and US paper sizes. Apologies for being behind, my sinuses and my meds joined forces to send me to the shadow realm for most of the weekend.