Moonlight Butterfly

Just a trans woman who writes about stuff and is more or less an open book. Always She/Sometimes They, and I'm over 40 so I'm too old to be puritanical about my posts.

[laurarolla]

Backlog Resolution Master Post

First things first! HRTCafe.net has valuable information for how to DIY your HRT if you feel so inclined or lack the option for medical access. Link will be up here for permanent, easy access.

This is a post to list links to my posts of youtube playlists for my gaming backlog playthroughs that I started this year. I'll also list what the next/current game is on this post.

Previously completed:

Titanfall 2

Hitman: Absolution + Sniper Challenge

Shovel Knight: King of Cards

Tomb Raider 1 Remastered / Unfinished Business

Lost Planet: Extreme Condition

Condemned: Criminal Origins

Saint's Row 2

Elden Ring

Strike Suit Zero: Director's Cut

Destiny 2: The Final Shape

Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree

Unreal Gold

Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel

Nightmare Kart

Pokemon White Version Nuzlocke

Abzu

Resident Evil Village / Shadows of Rose DLC

Armored Hunter Gunhound EX

Splendor (Board Game on PC)

Blood Rage (Board Game on PC)

Talisman Digital Edition (Board Game on PC)

Hexarchy

Prey (2017)

Batman: Arkham Origins / Cold Cold Heart DLC

Dishonored Death of the Outsider

Resident Evil 6 (Ada, Leon/Helena, Sherry/Jake, Chris/Piers)

Lies of P

Septerra Core (w/ commentary)

Yakuza 0

Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance

Into the Breach

FTL: Faster Than Light

Plague Inc.

Tales and Tactics

Valkyria Chronicles 4

Another Century's Episode 2 (PS2)

Zoeti

Lies of P Overture

Metro 2033 Redux

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33

Small World (Digital Board Game)

Unsighted

Upcoming game:

Pokemon White 2 Nuzlocke

Shovel Knight: Plague of Shadows

Unfinished games:

Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall Unity

Pathologic 3 Quarantine (demo of the full game)

Finished but not uploaded:

Bioshock (No spending ADAM, no vending machine, restricted hacking, no saving extra little sisters)

Steven Universe: Save the Light (CBF Badge vs. All Bosses, Fusions/Team Attacks restricted)

Extra game list:

Pathologic 2 (delayed)

Strike Suit Zero Director's Cut Heroes of the Fleet (bonus campaign)

Child of Light (requires Uplay account and I don't know if I have one)

Battlefield 1 (on my EA account, previously Origin)

RE4 Seperate Ways (Remake, DLC)

[r2x2]

The Amnesty International report that JK Rowling is trying to censor through legal threats.

It can also be found on Google Drive here and on Bluesky here.

[cbarc]

Please save and share this info where possible. This report has since been removed by Amnesty International due to legal threats of libel from JK Rowling. This information is no longer easily accessible.

[not-terezi-pyrope]

Been a while. Need to reward my loyal tumblr followers for putting up with my bullshit, lol

Fancy some nudes? ^_^

[not-terezi-pyrope]

Yours truly, girl who has a blog, at your service. 😘

[not-terezi-pyrope]

Previous sightings.

[not-terezi-pyrope]

Can you folks reblog my boobs so I can become one of those tumblr popular transfem blogs people thirst over?

I'd like that.

Artistic nudity also if you like! So don't worry about "wrong blog type", ay? :3c

[laurarolla]

You ever get the feeling that Bandai just doesn’t like Academy? I’ve been poking at some deck lists with the new cards since the full setlist was announced and I’m just getting absolutely run over. A lot of it looks really good and when it works it works really well. The new Calibarn in particular is a lot of fun to play with when you can get the effect going. But it still feels like something is missing, I’m not good enough at game strategy to say for sure what it is. I’d be willing to chock it up to me just being Bad at TCGs but the fact that I haven’t seen any of the bigger names I follow even mention Academy decklists makes me worry we’re being left to twist in the wind again.

A couple weeks ago, I got second at my locals with an Academy deck. I got so lucky in drawing specific cards when needed and getting an early Wing Bird Mode to start the EX Resource chain that I managed to chain together green Suletta's effect, the Witches from Earth card, one EX resource, and the green Academy base that buffs you when you place an EX Resource to punish an opponent trying to use Kira to remove one of my units essentially for free. The potential is so there, but it's a Rube Goldberg machine of a deck in a game that, until next week, is still largely dominated by vanilla aggro vomit. Academy's best low cost card right now is Zowart. Lfrith isn't a faction card (it's Vanadis Institute but it does work with some Academy and Quiet Zero effects), and most of Academy's full on pilot cards are kinda just bad or too situational (how is Lauda Neil likely the best pilot in the faction). This is why I use a lot of the command pilots in the deck. Also I think the Demi Barding being a Command search card is going to be very important to the deck, perhaps moreso than Aerial Rebuild.

I don't really see the issues with Academy/G-Witch decks being the result of malice so much as trying to do something they haven't done before. Vulture and Vegan both introduced graveyard manipulation only for Shinn and friends to come in and do it ten times better. New UNE and Cyclops had massive token generation potential, and League Militaire gave the tokens something to do that pushed the deck into the top of the potential future meta. Very few factions had their act together right out of the gate (Tekkadan is very lucky), and there are still experiments being done. Academy has become a testbed for Command Pilots being useful and good, and what do you know, that's G Gundam's entire design ethos. Londo Bell and AGE are happening late enough or have enough future releases to make ramp more powerful than either Wing or Academy were able to do before reaching their current end. My hope is that over time, we'll see returns to these factions and their mechanics using the things we learn moving forward, and with Witch from Mercury still being well-loved by fans, I do hope they get a chance to be polished into the deck they should be.

Oh, and also there's the possibility of fundamental changes to the game rules to deal with the heavy favoring of aggro that might actually make some earlier factions much stronger someday. I just wish, like you I presume, that Academy/G-Witch wasn't being so overshadowed by factions who all get the full benefit of building on what worked before like G Gundam, Orb, and Londo Bell.

I'll definitely be brewing up some Academy magic in my cauldron when the set drops, though. I see the potential and I'm not giving up on these girls! Also I'm super interested to see how Phantom Pain can play, and I have my fingers crossed that we get Stargazer in set 6 or 7 because I can see some amazing potential for a faction that can manipulate your opponent's hand and discards. I also think Titans will be way more fun with even just adding the Asshimar and the loss of most vanilla 2/2 units, meaning they can be a Level 3 Pilot aggro deck using stuff like Ribo Colony and low cost links to blitz their foes. Sarah and Jared are gonna be a fun team to run in a couple weeks, for sure.

I'm hopeful for the future of the game. I just hope that the characters and stories I love that helped build the game don't get left behind.

[creekfiend]

gender essentialism is soooo funny bc it's like "this is what women are like" and you're like "I've met women and many of them, if not the majority, have not been like that" and it's like "well women SHOULD be like that" and you're like "why should women be like that" and its like "because that's what women are like"

[animperfectangelsblog]

[urie]

stop calling it a girl dinner and call it by its formal name: Fend For Yourself dinner in an ingredients household

[queer-reader-07]

[ruderubicante]

A Love for Ignorance

[unadulteratedhideouttrash]

[laurarolla]

Had a slightly rough night last night, but feeling better/cuter today. Also the clouds and rainbow on this shirt are in kind of a funny position.

Ignore the mess.

:3

[spin-the-wheel-polls]

you have won a lifetime supply of this

How do you feel?

good!

I CAN SELL THIS AND GET RICH

im drowning in my supply help

Eh it's okay

BAD. VERY BAD

results/other

Voting ended onJul 15

you would receive the supply once a month

the brand/type will vary so you could

you can sell the things you get/give them away but they will keep coming until you die

[laurarolla]

So the Gundam Card Game July banlist dropped...

Well, I did sort of call one card, although I didn't expect it exactly, but damn, they really brought down the hammer on aggro vomit decks with this list.

First, Anksha is banned. It does the same effect as Guntank, and due to another adjustment, they decided it needed to go to limit that powerful removal effect from being excessively present in the game right now. Honestly, a good decision. No other single card bans or limits, but that doesn't mean everyone got out clean.

As with previous Bandai card games, they've brought pair bans to Gundam, with blue Amuro Ray and Mikazuki Augus not allowed to be in the same deck with each other anymore. Like I said, Mika didn't need to be banned, and while restricting Amuro a bit more would have been fine, I think this change addresses the biggest issue with him in the current meta. However, the other pair/combo bans are where things get really interesting. First off, Guntank and M1 Astray Shrike are not allowed to be used together, and oddly they also can't be mix and matched to have 4 total between the two. It's one or the other, which will make M1 Shrike more popular with newer players most likely due to limited reprints of the GD01 Guntank. Overall, these are powerful aggro and control cards and this restriction is a huge win. However, it's not the biggest win for people who want to actually run something other than aggro at tournaments.

Starting soon, all vanilla 2/2 units will be essentially capped to one type per deck, 4 copies per deck. In other words, if you include the vanilla 2/2 GM from Starter Deck 1, you can't include the upcoming Javelin vanilla 2/2 from GD05. The point behind having these cards in the game is to provide an early tool for decks with a variety of faction keywords to activate other effects. By restricting these to one set per deck, the game basically pushes a more faction-oriented style of deckbuilding. This is a good thing for the games health in dealing with aggro vomit decks while also allowing some other cards to shine with players who still want to run aggressive and early game options. For example, all the vanilla 1/2 units are still legal and only cost 1 to play, and the Zaku II from Starter Deck 3 is still allowed in a green aggro deck. Aggro isn't going away, but it's changing, and I'm interested to see how it shifts when it loses some of the more powerful 1 cost units in the game.

However, the most interesting thing to come out of this banlist announcement was an admission of a mistake. The Gundam Card Game's current rules encourage aggressive play far more than intended, and Bandai is looking into making changes to the core rules of the game to balance this issue. However, a full on rule change after a year of the game is something they are handling carefully, so the vanilla 2/2 restrictions are a stopgap to promote a healthier gameplay environment while they take a look under the hood and see what needs to be tweaked. As such, I'm looking forward to seeing how the game shifts in the near future, but in the meantime, get ready for Blocker supremacy and, by extension, Breach supremacy. Yes, yes... my regional deck wasn't bad, it was just ahead of its time. X3

[biblicallyaccuratemoth]

If you are a trans woman you should consider learning a martial art

Parties comprised of trans women tend to lack consistent dps since most trans women are tanks or healers

[newtype-lila]

i don't think yosuke was the problem when you want to talk about the game being insensitive. how about the internalized homophobia and transphobia dungeons that both actually mean nothing because the characters who spawned them 'accept their true selves' as straight and cis. a teenage boy in 2008 being weird about the implication of being gay doesn't really hit the same notes.

i'm sure it's because yosuke's easier to change - he's just abrasive, which is easier to sand down and soften. they'd have to fully rewrite kanji and naoto's stories, and there's no way that would happen, but having yosuke be slightly more woke doesn't really fix. anything

[laurarolla]

This is part of why Persona 4 Arena (the first one) has some of my favorite Persona stories. Naoto in particular stands out in that game (not the sequel) as being unsure of their gender identity, and the antagonist of the game tries to use that against them. It doesn't work.

Also Labrys... I mean, it's kinda in her name, but the androids in P3 have always been some of the most queer coded characters in that story, and also one of the only gay options in any game with P3P and Aigis. But yeah, P4 Arena benefitted from being in a version of the P4 story where the characters haven't figured themselves out entirely, and are still dealing with internal questions of self (that's why they don't have the upgraded personas).

On the negative side, it certainly looks like they are altering Kanji's story based on the boss fight design... and they're changing it in the wrong direction. So, yeah, probably not gonna be good stuff. This is why P4 on PS2 is the best story for P4: because there's still an air of uncertainty to the characters when everything is over, and they can still have time to figure their shit out someday. Golden went out of the way to squash the idea of the more queer cast members actually being queer in the future and I fucking hate it for that.

None of this is unusual for Persona team, though. Remember both versions of Catherine? I mean, Full Body is a great example of taking a step or two forward and then backflipping across the room and into the bigot convention next door with certain elements of the story. The saddest element is that you can see the real potential that exists and then they just can't even leave well enough alone and have to remind us that they don't like queer people. I'm not going on a rant right now about the Cathy Time Travel ending, I've vented about how fucking transphobic and vile that ending is to enough people recently, but yeah, it's a game with some bad shit in it and it could have been so much better.

...still really looking forward to P6 though. I mean, it's not like they'll pull the football away again, right? They haven't even set the football up for us to run at, yet.

[princesssarisa]

Where did your first name come from?

I was named after one of my parents

I was named after a dead relative or family friend

I was named after a living relative or family friend

I was named after a religious figure

I was named after a historical figure

I was named after a fictional character

I was named after a place

My parents just chose a name they liked

Other

Voting ended onJul 13

Having been named after a character in The Great Gatsby by my English-major dad, I thought I would ask about this.

[laurarolla]

Gundam Card Game Banlist Predictions: July 2026

So, it's technically a bit early for the scheduled Banlist changes, but Bamco has decided to make an announcement that they are looking at making changes this week. Funny enough, this is about 2 weeks before the 1 year anniversary set gets released, so a lot of people are speculating on whether something in the set is going to cause problems or if they just decided that the game needs the adjustments because of complaints about the current meta. So, time to guess what might get removed or restricted based on the current state of the game.

Okay, so let's take a second to look at the meta and see what's going on. Basically, there are two kinds of decks that tend to do well in major tournaments: low-cost blue aggro decks using either green's unit production and defense avoidance or purple's increased removal and low-level control abilities, and white decks stacked with defensive tools like blockers and bounce cards to maximize trade efficiency and get to the late game for their chosen win condition. Blue Red and Purple Red control decks are also quite strong, but not really in a way that feels as oppressive due to their slightly less reliable playstyle, and green red faction decks from Zeon, Clan, and Celestial Being are also strong and fun but lack the full control and speed needed for aggro decks or the late game boss potential that can finish the game once your opponent has run out of gas. In a Best of 3 gameplay format (which is likely coming soon to some official events), these decks have a better chance to adjust, and would be stronger compared to aggro decks that rely on high speed and brute force to win. By the way, there are some strong Blue aggressive decks that are actually pretty fun, like a pure Earth Federation deck using cards like Christina Mackenzie and Gundam NT-1 Full Armor to put a very high stat card on the board for turn 2 or 3 with only 2 resources, or the League Militaire deck that applies pressure though tokens that can't attack the player directly but serve as fuel for abilities that require resting a unit to activate them. The truth it that there are a ton of fun and powerful decks that exist in the Gundam Card Game, but the best of 1 format heavily favors high speed aggression and hoping not to brick on the opening draw due to the kind of bad mulligan mechanic of the game. Personally, they should adopt the Lorcana or Riftbound mulligan mechanic to improve the quality of the opening hands of the game, but that's just my opinion.

So what should be banned/restricted? Well, I can think of one card that absolutely needs to be limited to max 2 per deck, and one more that probably should be limited:

My issues with Barbatos Adapt are something I think I brought up in the last post about bans: It's a strong cost 2 removal and activator card for the Tekkadan self-damage playstyle, giving Mikazuki's strong but not overly oppressive ability to a 2/4 body with health to spare. It's a key element of the Blurple aggro/control style of gameplay, and grants just a bit too much power to decks to have 4 copies at 2 cost each. It's worth pointing out that I don't feel like Gusion Rebake, a level 5 blocker with the same ability, is nearly as oppressive because you need to be at level 5 to play it, and level 4 is the golden turn for aggro players to push hard enough into an opponent to make the strong stuff they can play after turn 4 too little, too late. However, the most toxic turn 4 card and pilot combo is the Starter Deck Gundam and Amuro Ray.

Turn 4 has a number of unit/pilot combos that do 3 things: Put 5/5 stats on the board, allow an efficient trade with an opponent's lower power units by way of repair, first strike, and AP reduction, and some 3rd thing, like, say, resting a unit, drawing a card, or brawling to take out an active unit instead of a rested one. Grandpa does a 4th thing: he makes all of your units stronger on your turn when paired. No other unit in the game has a generic +1 AP effect over the course of 10 starter decks and 6 booster sets. Other "anthem" effects exist, like Marbet for League Militaire tokens, or the Gundam X for Vulture units, or the Penelope Flight Form for Earth Federation. Heck, there are command cards that can provide similar one-turn boosts, like Citizens Take a Stand or Warped Intent. However, no other unit grants the generic buff to everyone, and it makes aggro so much more efficient and threatening. Suddenly, all the Guntanks are hitting for 2, the GMs for 3, the Zakus from Starter Deck 3 are slamming your for a big 4 damage on the swing. It's just too generically powerful and swings the game balance in a way that doesn't read as strong on paper as it plays on the table. HOWEVER, while I would be 1000% fine with a full on ban (at least in Best of 1 events), there's no way they will because they're literally reprinting the card in their Deck Build Box, a new player onboarding item that reprints a number of useful old cards, including a strong unit from each of the first 5 Starter Decks. As such, I am now hoping for a restriction of 2 copies per deck, similar to Corsica Base, another card that did too much for it's cost and is much healthier at 2 per deck than it used to be.

Other cards I would accept at a limit of 2 per deck even though they aren't really that bad compared the Gundam and Adapt are: Zeong (this is the Blue/Green top-end card and it's a lot to deal with, but it's not really broken by itself for now) Kyrios LR (native First Strike is extremely strong, and a baseline attack of 4 or 5 with swinging solo with a pilot is a severe threat, but I don't think this is too strong at the moment) Aile Strike Gundam/Silver Bullet/Gusion Rebake (all strong blockers that feel like they should take a bit of time off but won't) Guntank (They're making another one of this card, so it's probably not going anywhere unless they are getting rid of it for the Seed Destiny version) Anksha (Similar power to the Guntank, but costs a more appropiate amount and is harder to spam early) Show of Resolve (3 resources to draw 2 cards with no downsides is maybe a bit undercosted, and they did just release Unlocking the Development Diagram which is a 4 cost version with a G Generation specific alternate effect that doesn't hurt the value of the card in non-GGen decks)

Now for the cards they will not ban... but might limit somehow due to new versions being available:

Mikazuki isn't likely to go anywhere, so unless they impliment Digimon Card Game style pair-banning, he's getting out of here perfectly fine (as he should, he's not broken and he's basically the only useful Tekkadan pilot right now). However, both Amuro Ray and Kira Yamato are getting new versions, from Char's Counterattack and Seed Destiny respectively. We don't know what Londo Bell Amuro does yet, but New Kira is similar to Green Suletta in that he provides a stronger faction-specific ability while having a 2/2 statline at level 5. Amuro is also level 5 and 2/2 I think, so probably adding something to Londo Bell or maybe has an effect related to breach, ramp, or even brawling (which pairs well with breach). The main thing worth noting is that these powerful pilots are no longer the only way to link a number of units, like the various RX-78 Gundams and Strikes or Freedoms. They certainly shouldn't be banned, as they are interesting and, aside from white Kira, honestly not as unhealthy as people say. However, having 4 blue Amuros and being extremely likely to get him every game is a bit much. I might be open to seeing similar restrictions on the recently announced white Quatre, as he also has a strong generic rest effect (which is funny consider he had the same english VA as Amuro in the Ocean Studios dubs). I'm not expecting any pilot hits, but the option now feels like it exists, so I wouldn't recommend any chicken counting while they're still eggs.

Speaking of "eggs," we are getting Gundam ZZ in set 6 and I am happy to see my little crew of troubled teens from Shangri La join the game soon. God, I hope there's an Iino card to build my Judau/Iino boy(girl)friends deck. Also, when are we getting the dang dress alt-arts for Loran and Tieria? The people demand pretty boys in dresses, dang it! Anyway, that's not part of the banlist discussion, I just wanted to point out what's in my queer little Gundam fangirl heart. I mean, we're getting another gorgeous Sulemio alt-art this set, so the yuri fans are at least getting fed a bit, but where is the love for the yaoi fans and the gender goofy crowd? Come on, Bandai, give us the goods!

[sugarsylvie]

Eevee finally accepts the cone!

[eggtempest]

[sleepyagent]

@demilypyro