Travis Norman

Incredible sideboard choices here.

A still from the Peanuts Christmas special, where Lucy mentions waiting on December snowflakes in favor of January ones.

It’s too early. I never share Spotify Wrapped in December. I always wait until January.

We now have a Facebook group with 9.8k members

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A Barred Owl, a brown and grey bird with a yellow beak, black eyes, and two round depressions circling their face.

Barred Owl?

A small pocket bird journal resting atop a bird field guide for North America

An entry into a bird sighting journal. 11/29/25 Bald Eagle (p.423) Tourist Park Cloudy, high teens, snow Flew overhead, headed SW

We are so back.

A hand holding up foil copies the Magic: The Gathering cards Captain Sisay and Embercleave.

Always there, always ready.

Captain Sisay {2}{G}{W} Legendary Creature — Human Soldier {T}: Search your library for a legendary card, reveal that card, put it into your hand, then shuffle. Her leadership forged the Weatherlight‘s finest crew. 2/2 Illustrated by Ray Lago

Embercleave {4}{R}{R} Legendary Artifact — Equipment Flash This spell costs {1} less to cast for each attacking creature you control. When Embercleave enters, attach it to target creature you control. Equipped creature gets +1/+1 and has double strike and trample. Equip {3} Illustrated by Joe Slucher

Gahiji, Honored One {2}{R}{G}{W} Legendary Creature — Beast Whenever a creature attacks one of your opponents or a planeswalker an opponent controls, that creature gets +2/+0 until end of turn. He can stir the gentlest spirit to wild ferocity. 4/4 Illustrated by Brynn Metheney

One of the cool things about free will is that you can run Captain Sisay in the 99 and have her go get Embercleave.

Akakichi no Eleven meme with the guy putting his hand on the speaker’s shoulder

@andrewmagrini.bsky.social and I in your replies

The homemade houseboat, which looks like a floating shipping container, pulling into an empty dock.

🔔 Update 🔔

Pulling into an empty marina 🫣

Preordered my copy a few weeks ago, I’ll be circling the mailbox until Spring.

Facebook screenshot of a homemade house boat passing under the Bluewater Bridge entering Lake Huron

A homemade houseboat, looking like a grey shipping container with windows, sits in the shallows as steady waves hit the shore.

A homemade houseboat, looking like a floating grey shipping container with windows, passes through the still waters of a canal.

Close up of a homemade house boat, resting on the beach. It has rows of blue drums as pontoons, with a wooden frame that’s comprising the deck. A man in street clothes stands next to it for scale.

There’s a wild story playing out on Great Lakes ship watching and coastal Facebook groups right now.

There’s a guy with a homemade house boat who’s attempting to traverse the lakes.

The boat is called Neverlanding and it set sail from Windsor, ON. It appears he has 1-2 50hp motors.

Raffine, Scheming Seer {W}{U}{B} Legendary Creature — Sphinx Demon Flying, ward {1} Whenever you attack, target attacking creature connives X, where X is the number of attacking creatures. (Draw X cards, then discard X cards. Put a +1/+1 counter on that creature for each nonland card discarded this way.) 1/4 Watermark: Obscura Illustrated by Johannes Voss

Wyrm's Crossing Patrol {W} Creature — Human Soldier Myriad (Whenever this creature attacks, for each opponent other than defending player, you may create a token copy that’s tapped and attacking that player or a planeswalker they control. Exile the tokens at end of combat.) 1/1 Illustrated by Edgar Sánchez Hidalgo

Living Death {3}{B}{B} Sorcery Each player exiles all creature cards from their graveyard, then sacrifices all creatures they control, then puts all cards they exiled this way onto the battlefield. Illustrated by Mark Winters

Dream Trawler {2}{W}{W}{U}{U} Creature — Sphinx Flying, lifelink Whenever you draw a card, this creature gets +1/+0 until end of turn. Whenever this creature attacks, draw a card. Discard a card: This creature gains hexproof until end of turn. Tap it. 3/5 Illustrated by Jesper Ejsing

This weekend I top 4’ed a $100 Budget cEDH event with a Raffine list I threw together hours before the start time.

Deck is good, pilot not so much.

Playmat with rounded corners featuring THE WAY OF KINGS. Description: A cloaked and armored figure raises his sword in salute to a tiny figure in the distance separated by a chasm of broken earth shrouded by mist. A massive storm cell winds gray and blue across the sky intersecting the tip of the extended sword. A bright line of blue runs across the clouds as if etched by the unusual half-hilted, wavy blade. The orange cloak covering most of the figure (as viewed from behind) is decorated with a mass of wild crustacean arms ending in crescent claws. The icon on the pennant, flying tall on a pole held offhand, depicts a crab-like creature. The sky to the right of the storm is tinted warm yellow as the sun peeks out. A sliver of moon can be seen in a blue-sky break between the clouds. In the background left forks of lightning strike at the distant mountains on the horizon.

For this week’s newsletter, we are pleased to announce the relaunch of our popular line of premium gaming accessories through a new partnership with Ultimate Custom Mousepads.

Playmats, mousepads, and desk mats are now available in our shop!

theartofmichaelwhelan.substack.com/p/playmats-a...

The Encyclopedia of Magic: Souther Salazar’s Sol Ring From murals on brick to paintings on cardboard, Donny examines the work of Portland-based Souther Salazars.

Back to Back Articles, today on @hipstersofthecoast.com

I dig a little deeper into the brand new SLC Sol Ring by Southern Salazar - Check it out!

www.hipstersofthecoast.com/2025/11/the-...

a close up of the LinkedIn light bulb "insightful" react emoji

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A pair of toddler-sized Nike sneakers texted to a pair of adult-sized work boots.

Parenting is hard but seeing things like this in your house helps put it all in perspective.

These are excellent, well done!

For a Limited Time: Experimental Storytelling in Secret Lair Artist Series Ryan examines the role Secret Lairs have as storytelling mediums, across several different artist spotlights.

For @hipstersofthecoast.com today I wrote about the experimental storytelling and artistic possibilities that might linger in one of the most infamously commodified Magic products: Secret Lairs. Give it a read!

www.hipstersofthecoast.com/2025/11/for-...

A tiny cast iron skillet with a single gyoza being turned over by a pair of red chopsticks. The dumpling is browned atop the shimmering surface of the palm-sized pan. Hints of a blue flame are present in the burner below, which suggests either low heat, or none at all, since this is a product photo I pulled from Walmart.

Me using alt text to practice descriptive writing in small spaces.

Darkened, leafless trees at night, with a hazy green and purple sky behind them.

The phone saw this when my eyes could only justify some hazy light pollution. But it was also 12:30am with a toddler waking up in 6 hours, whilst clothed in a bathrobe and wet hair. You do what you gotta do ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Folks in the UP say you need 30-45 minutes of standing in the darkness in order for your eyes to fully adjust for the aurora. If you look at your phone then the timer resets. There’s a beauty in that.

Lightning Elemental {3}{R} Creature — Elemental Haste (This creature can attack and {T} as soon as it comes under your control.) A lightning elemental once killed an entire tribe of merfolk—simply by going for a swim. 4/1 Illustrated by D. Alexander Gregory

Shimmering Barrier {1}{W} Creature — Wall Defender (This creature can’t attack.) First strike Cycling {2} ({2}, Discard this card: Draw a card.) 1/3 Illustrated by D. Alexander Gregory

Add to Deck Willow Dryad {G} Creature — Dryad Forestwalk (This creature can’t be blocked as long as defending player controls a Forest.) Some think that dryads are the dreams of trees. 1/1 Illustrated by D. Alexander Gregory

Add to Deck Cursed Scroll {1} Artifact {3}, {T}: Choose a card name, then reveal a card at random from your hand. If that card has the chosen name, Cursed Scroll deals 2 damage to any target. Illustrated by D. Alexander Gregory

Jarl Vetreiði Elemental Guardian Hero Whenever you play an Ice card, create a Frostbite token in an opponent's exposed head, chest, arms, or legs zone. (A zone is exposed if there is nothing in or equipped to it.) Essence of Earth and Ice (You may have Earth and Ice cards in your deck.) Intellect: 4 Life: 40 Federico Musetti

Fyendal's Spring Tunic Generic Equipment - Chest At the start of your turn, if Fyendal's Spring Tunic has less than 3 energy counters on it, you may put an energy counter on it. Instant - Remove 3 energy counters from Fyendal's Spring Tunic: Gain [1 Resource] Blade Break (If you defend with Fyendal's Spring Tunic, destroy it when the combat chain closes.)

I love the idea of Jarl decks playing Fyendal's Spring Tunic because that means Jarl once tried on the tunic and blushed over how cute he looked.

Kor Skyfisher {1}{W} Creature — Kor Soldier Flying When this creature enters, return a permanent you control to its owner’s hand. “Sometimes I snare the unexpected, but I know its purpose will be revealed in time.” 2/3 Illustrated by Dan Murayama Scott

These choices are brutal but Cartographer is a strong choice to end with.

Printing Error Resulting in Second Half of “Infinite Jest” Being Blank Goes Unnoticed for Years University student Lisa Dempsey discovered the latter half of her boyfriend’s copy of David Foster Wallace’s titanic novel “Infinite Jest” to be completely blank due to a printing error.

thehardtimes.net/culture/prin...

One Battle Damage After Another Writing from a cold and sanitized chain hotel, Rob ponders the effect that wear (or lack thereof) has on the value of our items.

Babe wake up, new @trasgomorph.bsky.social piece just dropped.

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fan·​tod ˈfan-ˌtäd fantods plural : a state of irritability and tension : fidgets : an emotional outburst : fit

Every @trasgomorph.bsky.social piece I edit for Hipsters causes me to learn a new word.

This week: fantod

Heartwarming Redemption {2}{R}{W} Instant Discard all the cards in your hand, then draw that many cards plus one. You gain life equal to the number of cards in your hand. Kytheon had known war every day of his life. Now he finally knew peace. DailyMTG Story Spotlight Illustrated by Howard Lyon

Welcome, brother. We welcome you with open arms and bags under our eyes.