Algernone25

The Funniest Streamers you’ve ever seen are back at it again!

Probably close to 6, maybe a little below it, like 5.75. Better than average but haven’t gotten an RC Day2 or a PT invite yet.

The grind continues.

UR Spells and Gx Creatures are definitely the two best things to be doing in format RN! One gets good, the other adapts and crushes it, now it's good, the other adapts and crushes it.

Is it good for standard? Hardly. But it's at least not 1 deck to rule them all like cutter/vivi were. I'll take it!

It does still boil down to “are you pro-cub or anti-cub” but regardless of your answer there’s like 4-5 viable decks to fit your taste.

Guybrush Threepwood: “Never pay more than 2.0 gigabytes for a video game”

From Purdue Basketball to Notre Dame Football to Pacers Finals to Fever OT Semifinals to Colts Collapse you really wondered if the state was cursed. Insane that IU Football is the one to actually do it.

What a fucking madman for the call, what an absolute DOG for the effort!

CURT CIGNETTI YOU ABSOLUTE MADMAN #Hoosiers #IUFB

A plate of fettuccine alfredo with blackened shrimp, garnished with diced tomatoes and onions

Came out pretty decently! Didn’t want to discard the browned butter and folded it into the sauce which made it a lot darker than I expected, but it tasted pretty good still!

My mise en place for fettuccine Alfredo with blacked shrimp

Hold up, let him cook #FoodSky

A world class player can probably 5-4 with this into this standard format.

In a world where izzet lessons isn’t a known thing and the #1 deck in the room? 8-1 looks free.

For all the top cuts the Simic ouroboroid deck has been putting up lately it’s shocking to see it not even mentioned.

Do you figure it’s just most people are priced out of the deck (all cheapest printings still ~$800 TCGP Mid/300 tix) or is it just not as good as the results make it seem?

A crock pot full of chili I’m cooking

If you’re cold, they’re cold.

Eat them. #FoodSky

smight - Twitch Broadcasts every night at 8pm Eastern (except Tues/Thurs)!! I host a trivia & challenges gameshow every Sunday called Arcade Pit; it's on its 10th year now, and has been featured on GDQ & GiantBomb. T...

Live, not with GBL but Video Games on Arcade Pit, with @dantheenigma.bsky.social on Smight's Channel! Watch me play actual games!

twitch.tv/Smight

And sure, I’ll admit commander is still bigger. Standard isn’t what it used to be, but it’s infinitely bigger and better than it was 2 or 5 years ago, because to answer your question:
Why play standard? Because wizards needs them to - standard players buy new standard cards (and EDH players don’t!)

We were starting to see this in 2019-20 where product just didn’t move, then Covid froze things, but it became glaringly apparent in late 21-22. WotC had to either throw major support into 60 card constructed events, or relegate their releases to only quarterly precons. They chose the former. [2/3]

The simple answer is that the overwhelming majority commander players, by & large, buy a precon, maybe change 2-3 cards and they’re done. They don’t buy packs or boxes of the new set, maybe one or two singles. This means the LGS has less reason to break boxes, and revenue enters a death spiral [1/3]

If I had a nickel for every time the team captain for a Professional Sports Team from Indianapolis had a career year derailed by a torn Achilles knocking them out for a full season in 2025 I'd have two nickels.

Which isn't much but it sucks that it's happened twice.

13-0. Big 10 Champions. Beat Ohio State for the first time in my life. Heisman on the team.

I can't believe any of this. Hoo Hoo Hoo.

Hoping a #MTG historian can help.

We know Izzet decks are strong in standard. Been the best color pair for 8 months and got 7 cards banned in two waves.

But seriously, when’s the last time UR has been this good? Was there a STX/KHM control deck? Was it KLD/SOI energy?

Let me know what I missed!

Winning cube deck from the 100 Ornithopters Cube Decklist: Annul Crop Rotation Scale Up Tyvar’s Stand Sensei’s Divining Top Assault Formation Deglamer Military Intelligence Biomass Mutation Winged Portent Bow of Nylea Grafted Wargear Mindbreak Trap Ruinous Intrusion Force of Will Ornithopter #12 Ornithopter #30 - TAG TEAM Ornithopter & Thrumming Stone Ornithopter #33 Ornithopter #37 Ornithopter #39 - Biomass Mutant Ornithopter #49 Ornithopter #51 Ornithopter #57 Ornithopter #59 Ornithopter #82 Breeding Pool Gaea’s Cradle Inventor’s Fair The Mycosynth Gardens Three Tree City Island x5 Forest x5

This was the list I won with, decklist in alt text.

Biomass Mutation won me three games, two where I cast it for X=8 and once where it was pitched to force of will, protecting Bow of Nylea which won me the game in the end.

A picture of Ornithopter #39 from Andy Mangold’s 100 Ornithopters Cube altered by me as a prize for winning the cube draft. The spires broken off the tallest towers still fly below the Mutant Thopter.

@cubecon.org was generous enough to include Lucky Paper Radio’s 100 Ornithopters cube for open play.

It took two tries but I finally got a 3-0! This lets me name and doodle on any Ornithopter I drafted.

Presenting the newest addition to the ranks of the Named:

Ornithopter #39 - Biomass Mutant

Indiana if the tagger is to be believed - which was a surprise to me and I live here!

I’m not going to say these promos are good.

I am going to say there’s a pretty narrow band between “promos aren’t worth enough to attract players” and “promos are worth so much stores pocket them to flip for profit”

And WotC has to aim almost a year in advance.
What more can we expect?

Twitch Twitch is the world

Going live with more Go Battle League tonight! Getting my ELO and exploring Open Great League, maybe some Fantasy Cup as well.

twitch.tv/algernone25

I'm back streaming! Doing some Go Battle League tonight!

www.twitch.tv/algernone25

Pork chops, pan fried in cast iron with a dry spice rub and butter baste.

Chops.

That’s it, that’s the skeet.
#FoodSky

Ultra Pro’s eclipse sleeves are mid and dent easily. APEX sleeves are very good but overpriced. ($25/100 🤑) Gamegenic Prime are a good workhorse on a budget, my cube is in them but the shuffle feel can rub some the wrong way.

Currently trying KMC Hyper Phoenix, unsure how I feel on them yet.

If WotC didn’t care about standard, they would abandon itand just spit out commander decks/SLD drops a few times a year

We know they care, because they’re experimenting. Giving them feedback helps them experiment better. But we have to acknowledge that they’re trying

Eventually something will work

I know that it’s easy to say “just go back to how it was” but we have to understand that isn’t doable. Hasbro lives and dies by WotC’s (and more directly Magic’s) success so they have to do all these things to make Number Go Up.

Wizards is trying to make it work while bounded by those limits [2/3]