Apok the Combomancer

Come sit by the fire as I weave a tale of individual cards becoming part of a stronger whole through the unity that is combo

[markrosewater]

Happy International Men's Day! Do you know why there wasn't a secret lair for the occasion? Was it just too close to another charity lair, or no acceptable charity could be identified?

When you become a parent, you start celebrating Mother’s Day and Father’s Day with your kids. At some point you get asked the question, “When’s Kids’ Day?” The proper answer that most parents give is “Every day is Kids’ Day”. When you’re from a group that gets catered to every day, it’s not necessary to have your own special day to be catered to.

[jacebeleren]

Please don’t forget there are marginalized men who would benefit from being shown support on a day like this. Trans men, disabled men, gay and bi men, men of color, victims of abuse, men who struggle with their mental health, all kinds of men who are underrepresented. It’s easy to brush this kind of thing off, but marginalized men aren’t being supported enough. And it doesn’t hurt to show support to the men in your life who don’t fit into any of those categories I mentioned. Compassion goes a long way to fight toxic masculinity (and is good for everyone!) Please don’t forget about us. To all the men who need to hear it today– you matter. Sincerely, a disabled Asian trans man. 💙

[apok-the-combomancer]

Absolutely! The quickest way to continue the cycle of toxic masculinity is to try to ignore it. I agree men get way more representation than they should, but by saying you’re not going to recognize men at all ignores the ones that need attention too. Also, the toxic men are just going to lash out to get attention and not change their mentality.

[catchymemes]

The dog is supposed to run up in front of her and sit.

[jones-friend]

Print the Reserved List

Slivers are a more popular strategy and sliver queen is nearly $200. The reserved list has become this hoard for collectors who want to treat the game like stocks and bonds and it makes certain cards 100% inaccessible.

“But the reserved list is the backbone of the market!” Bruh are you serious? It’s a cardboard trading card game. It only holds value so long as people play it. It’s not the stock market. It’s a game people play over the kitchen table or at local tournaments.

“But then wizards can just reprint anything and damage the value of all the cards I hoarded!” Yes. That’s the point. Its your fault you looked at a card game and saw an investment opportunity instead of a card game. You played yourself.

“But the high end collectors are the backbone of the game! That’s who MTG should cater to!” We’re literally in a casual boom. Honestly, most high end collectors wheel store credit with standard legal cards to make their collection while casual players tend to flat out buy more product. High end collectors also tend to be spikier snd create an unfriendly, clubhouse like environment that discourages people from playing the game.

And in 2002 some cards were lifted from the reserved list, so clearly there can be some pick and choose element of what stays reserved if wotc decided to keep it. Otherwise y’all wouldn’t have access to Demonic Tutors under a few hundred dollars.

[moisellethefae]

Fuck the reserve list, let us play the card game.

[apok-the-combomancer]

Here, here!!! Absolve the reserve list and just reprint the damn cards! Sure you can get around it by slightly altering them, but keeping them there is only keeping the value because of the rarity. There are plenty of cards that cost what some reserved list cards do and they can be reprinted whenever. It's an entirely asinine business plan. Also, who the fuck cares about "wizards going back on their word"? They're human, they will in time if they haven't already (here's a hint, they have).

[poems-and-word]

[apok-the-combomancer]

Really needed to hear this today.

[magicjudge]

Combo Time!

I was retooling my Alesha commander deck last night when I realized that the deck had come into a cute little combo: 

As long as I have a creature card in hand and one in my graveyard, every black mana I spend nets me a bat token. It’s not the greatest combo ever, but it’s neat and efficient and I’ve never seen anyone mention it before. :D

[masterofwolfe]

Custom Build: HG 1/144 Wing Gundam Schuzrum

MODELER: Yozakura

[commandtower]

Sorin and the Angels of Innistrad ~ MTG fanart by .Less

See this artist’s ArtStation gallery here.

[chrishallbeck]

Parenting.

hallbeck.com

[sushinfood]

THANK YOU

[bentheechidna]

I love this one personally.

[guardgomabroa]

@flavoracle

[flavoracle]

When I was six years old, I asked my parents for a doll to play with because I loved holding babies and I wanted to grow up to be a dad someday. So we went to the toy store and picked out a doll for me.

There is nothing unmanly about practicing how to he gentle and nurturing.

[apok-the-combomancer]

If only I had learned this sooner.

[apok-the-combomancer]

Need some advice

Hey all. So I just started taking antidepressants a week ago. I come from a family that deals with emotions by pushing them down or getting angry. So this whole ordeal of acknowledging I have depression and dealin with it, let alone actually dealing with any feelings in a positive manner, is brand new territory to me. I have never taken an antidepressant before, so I have no idea what I'm supposed to be looking for. A google search comes up with all the reasons I should stop taking it because it's making me worse. I couldn't find a single source explaining how I know it's working positively. Any help/advice would be deeply appreciated.

[quite-likely-valentine]

I know there’s a lot of tension after Tumblr’s new policy annouced for December 17th, but reblog this if you aren’t leaving Tumblr so that other blogs can know they aren’t going to be completely alone!

[stillglowinstillcrowin-deactiva]

Can you imagine if all of us were free of the notion that our lives have to be Important And We Must Leave A Mark On Humanity and we just viewed our lives as a special experience that each of us gets to have for ourselves. I feel like there’s a weird notion that we all have to be Big Time Important People for our lives to have value. But there are so many people in the world it’s so impractical and bad for the heart.

[flavoracle]

Here’s the mark on humanity I want to have: I have a wife and three kids, and I tell them every day that I love them. I give them hugs and praise before I leave the house every day. Because at any time, I could step out the door and get hit by a car, or die any number of ways, and I want them to know they are loved and important.

I have parents who did their genuine best to raise me and give me the best start in life they could. So I try to tell them every chance I get how grateful I am for them, and how lucky I am to be their son. I share memories of valuable lessons they taught me, and how much impact their own personal examples have had on me. I never know how many more days I have with them, so I want to share these moments of gratitude as often as I can.

I have friends and co-workers who face new challenges every day, and I try to be the kind of friend who always has something positive and encouraging to say. I want to be someone who cheers them on and helps them see that other people care about what they’re doing, and want to see them succeed.

Those are the kinds of impacts I want to have on humanity. They aren’t going to make me famous. They aren’t going to get any buildings named after me. But they do have an impact. They leave traces of positivity by passing from one person to another like ripples in a pond. They leave a legacy of kindness and mindfulness that will continue on after I’m gone. They make the world a better place, even just a little bit.

That’s what I think it means to leave a mark on humanity. It’s not about how many people know you. It’s about how deeply you care for the people you know, and how you show them you care. You don’t have to make the whole world a better place. Just try to make wherever you are right now a little brighter. It has a bigger impact than you think.

[apok-the-combomancer]

I always think of a line from Gladiator: what we do in life echoes into eternity. That's not saying you have to be a genius or billionaire, just live the best life you can and remember that your actions will effect people for generations directly and forever indirectly. It may sound like some huge burden, but to me that sounds like an opportunity to impact someone's life positively.

I'm gonna share with y'all something only a few know. My wife and I recently separated because of my anger issues. I learned those issues from my father, who learned from his father, etc. So for at least four generations men in my family, that I know of, have had anger issues riding the line of abuse. So now I have an opportunity to change that, not only for myself, but for my wife so she has a supportive and loving husband that she can trust, and for my two daughters who want to look up to their father for guidance and love and care, and for any grandchildren or son-in-laws/daughter-in-laws I may be blessed with because how I raise my daughters will contribute to the people they become.

In the end, our status and possessions will mean nothing to us once we die no matter what you believe. We also don't have to purposefully try to change lives or be remembered for how amazing we might have been. All we have to do is be our best selves and that alone will leave a mark on humanity.

[markrosewater]

Please don't print more, "target player looses the game", for multiplayer. While winning the game makes you a target, it sets a goal for you to reach. Making one player lose in a 4-5 person game just means they have to sit an wait for 2-3 hours for everyone else to finish. I think the best multiplayer games end all-at-once, not piece-by-piece.

What do others of you that play multiplayer think?

[oldtumblhurgoyf]

Depends on the play group and how difficult the loss is to make happen. The current default of individual life totals and damage means that situation happens anyway. My vote is keep doing them/do more of them.

[sphinxwalker-when]

While I agree that killing everyone at once is more polite and reasonable, I think most of the single-player-killing cards are fair in that they take too long/too much investment to be a random hat trick, so at least it’s not like “dude where did that come from.”

[oldtumblhurgoyf]

Agreed. I can only think of the uncard that counts down from 5 right now but that’s a pretty fair representation of such cards in my experience. And that’s fine.

[askkrenko]

…I do most of my multiplayer winning one target at a time. Suggesting that you have to kill all enemies at once is kind of silly. If anything give us MORE target player loses the game cards so we can run a deck full of them and kill every enemy in a different extravagant style.

[oldtumblhurgoyf]

Now we are talking. Drake meme this or something because heck yeah.

[apok-the-combomancer]

I'm actually building a group hug deck that does this using Karona as the commander. I figure the group hug part will draw less hate because who knows if I pull one of the target player loses game cards. That way I won't have an instant target any time I play it after the first.

[oldtumblhurgoyf]

Anybody know of any mega board games that are all about finances/business?

like Monopoly meets Mega Civilization?

[oldtumblhurgoyf]

sunshine-dinosaur

Maybe Twilight Imperium? It’s not entirely just business, it’s strategy, but it’s a huge long game with economics and trading certainly being part of it

Thanks for the suggestion but I explicitly don’t want combat in this experience. Maybe a better way of expressing it is like if you had Catan but the theme and mechanics revolved around more modern business and then it took like 6+ hours to play

Actually I have a game called Imperial that might be something close to what I want though it still has combat and, the bigger hurdle, my friends and I tried to play it before but weren’t super clear on what we were doing and everyone hated it. I don’t think we gave it a fair shake but I also doubt I’d ever be able to convince them to try it again. and again, I don’t actually want combat here.

[bass-borot]

Power Grid, Splendor?

[oldtumblhurgoyf]

both closer, absolutely, but not epic games. Like that’s the thing I’m finding, there are games that exist that come close to it, but nothing you would spend 6 hours playing which would remain fun and engaging that whole time (like you could do a bunch of games of Splendor or something, but why?)

I’ll post the shoestring mechanical outline I have sometime over at @moranmagic but if you know of the game Monopoly Tycoon, imagine that but as a huge board game instead of a computer game.

[apok-the-combomancer]

Based on our friends and us play, Firefly by Fantasy Flight I would consider an epic game. We easily play 4-5hrs for one game and always have a blast. Make sure to get the expansions though, that's where it get epic both in size and interaction.

[iridessence]

Hello, world! I’m fat. I look good. That’s all, thank you.

[iridessence]

Greetings, friends. If you are fat, you also look good. Okay, good bye.

[iridessence]

Thin people, you are welcome to reblog this to let your fat friends know they are phenomenal

[flavoracle]

I am not fat, and I look good. My wife is fat and she is the most beautiful woman I’ve ever known.

P.S. Thank you OP for starting this excellent, positive thread. 10/10 would reblog again.

[iridessence]

Mmkay cool but if you’re about uplifting your wife then why did you start off making it about your not fat self when virtually everything is already about that?

[flavoracle]

My apologies, I see your point and that’s my bad.

I’ve observed a trend in our culture that some people are fine with body positivity towards people who are fat, as long as they are in relationships with other people who are fat. But they treat the idea of a fat person in a relationship with a thin person as a joke, or think that the thin person must be ugly or that they could do better or something, and that idea is total bullshit.

My intention wasn’t to draw attention to my thin self (though I can totally understand how it came across that way, and I’m sincerely sorry for it.) My intention was to say that people of mixed body types can be happy and confident in how they look, and still be happy and confident together.

[apok-the-combomancer]

I'm fat and I look damn good. I took your statement about your body as an "all body type positivity" statement. OP started to sound like they were shaming thin people. So I was glad to see you defending other body types as well.

[apok-the-combomancer]

Mardu Politics Package - $10.90

request by @trophyhusban

Specifically requested for Queen Marchesa, politics plays a big role in EDH regardless of the colors or deck type. It’s a fine balance of making alliances and breaking them when needed. Here are some tools that can help aid you in playing the political game.

Benevolent Offering - $0.35 The key to this one is that it’s Instant speed. This is important because then you can save the one person that you need the most to stay in the game. You will have that person’s allegiance the rest of the game until it’s just the two of you nearly every time.

Infernal Offering - $0.23 Everyone wants to draw and bring back they’re favorite/best creature. You get to decide who gets those boons and can help decide what the reanimated creature you don’t control is.

Magister of Worth - $0.29 The Conspiracy mechanics are great for EDH. This is either a Twilight’s Call or a boardwipe. Unless you have made yourself the Archenemy, I have found that your choice sways the voting pretty well.

Xantcha, Sleeper Agent - $3.49 Since this goes to one person, but everyone benefits from it, it makes a great political power. Give it to whoever the table sees as the biggest threat and let everyone sink their mana into it. A thousand cuts will bring down even the biggest tyrant.

Duelist’s Heritage - $1.87 Every single combat, you can decide if you want to aid the attacker. Now, this will take some cooperation and deliberation to either support the biggest creature for maximum damage or the smallest to help take out a threat or protect it from dying.

Brutal Hordechief - $0.49 This works similarly to Duelist’s Heritage. It’s a mana intense ability, but completely worth it when used at the right time. The only way out of this is for them to fog or mass sacrifice/boardwipe.

Coercive Portal - $3.19 Early game, this is usually a dead card as everyone will gladly lose their board now instead of later. Mid game, it is consistent card draw because people don’t want to lose all the work they put in. Late game, it’s 50/50 depending on if someone is leaps and bounds ahead of everyone else or if everyone seems equal.

Mana-Charged Dragon - $0.99 Another way for everyone to pool their mana against someone. The biggest decision is who to attack with it. Once that’s decided, it’s a round table of who is going to chip in.

There you go, folks. We can always find ways to manipulate and guide the game how we want. Things like pillowfort and Conspiracy mechanics are great ways to play politics. Also look to Commander specific mechanics from the early days as they can be quite useful. Keep the politics in your hands and...

Victory shall be yours

--- Jake, @apok-the-combomancer

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[apok-the-combomancer]

Two years gone

Today would be the second birthday of our second child. My wife lost her early in the first trimester. It crippled her emotionally for nearly six months. It still hurts for her. Only recently did I understand what losing a child meant and the pain that brings. My heart aches to hold her and see her smile. I long to see her face and watch as she grows into an adult. My body feels cold without the warmth of her love. It's all I can do to not burst into tears today.

I'm so incredibly grateful for my other two girls that I do get to spend this time on Earth with. I cherish them so much more because of losing a child. I'm also thankful as a father that Sunny (what my wife named our second) will never have to suffer or feel pain. I am a very protective person of my loved ones and I know there's no way I could have ever protected her from this world more than this did.

To commemorate her birthday and the loss of her, my wife and I decided to get tattoos in rememberance. We've been trying to find the perfect tattoo to get. We wanted to get them today, but it's more important to us that the tattoo is extremely meaningful and important to us instead of just a whim. We just need to come up with money to get them after that. That's going to be the hardest part.

I love you, Sunny. I hope when I die I am blessed enough to see you in heaven. We will never forget you, sweetheart.

[flavoracle]

Leggo My Ego

Obviously we all want to find balance in life and come to a point where we clearly see ourselves as we really are. Not better or worse, but accurate. And feeling at peace with what we see.

But…

That’s really hard to achieve, and even if we do achieve that kind of clarity of perception at times, it often comes and goes. Nobody has 100% clarity every single day.

So here’s my advice:

If you have to choose between a big ego and low self-esteem… choose the big ego. A little bit of cockiness or over-confidence isn’t the end of the world, and thinking you’re great at something you’re really mediocre at isn’t a crime.

A lot of really fun and educational experiences in my life happened because I tried to do something I wasn’t as good at as I expected, or wasn’t really qualified for. Sometimes I failed spectacularly. But I always learned a lot, and most people quickly forgot about my failures as long as I was able to let them go.

On the other hand, during the times in my life where I’ve been self-conscious or hesitant to appear as a fool or a showoff, I rarely experienced much growth. I mean sure, I may have experienced less failure then too, but I wasn’t exactly succeeding either.

Plus, at the end of the day, if I come across to some people as egotistical or full of myself, then those people have to deal with me for a few minutes or hours each day, AT THE MOST. But if I’m so worried about having a big head that I’m constantly doubting myself or berating myself, well… I have to live with myself all day, every day, so don’t I deserve to spend that time with someone I like and admire?

Look, if you’re at a stage in your life where you can choose to be full of yourself or balanaced in your self-image, then by all means choose a more balanced outlook.

But if you’re at a stage in your life where your choices are being full of yourself or beating up on yourself? Then I say fill ‘er up! (You just might find that the “real you” is actually a lot closer to that side of the spectrum than you think.)

[apok-the-combomancer]

Definitely needed to hear this right now. Reblog for any of my followers that aren't following Dave already.