u/Douradinhooo

Personally, I'm kinda scared of the cards announced yesterday being standard-legal (i know they only released in mid September), and it's not because they are too strong or anything like that, it's more because of how this hobby is infested with scalpers and the like, unfortunately.

I know not a lot is known (correct me if I'm wrong), from what I've read they are calling it a "set" and "expansion" so if it's something similar to 151, Prismatic or Ascended Heroes, it shouldn't be that bad, if they print enough. But if it's something smaller, smaller than the sets we've been getting (which I am fine with, mind you) then I think we should be concerned.

I guess what I'm getting at is that this set feels like the usual special sets but on steroids, and if they lean into the "promo" side of things and don't print enough, because its celebrating 30 years of Pokémon, we might end up in a worse situation than Mew ex from 151 costing almost as much as the average deck or Pokepad running for 5-10€ before Perfect Order came out

I've been looking to play N's Zoroark (finally giving up on Lucario) and I've been testing some lists and seeing some people talk about the deck and, particularly, what ace specs are better between Unfair Stamp, Hero's Cape and Scoop Up Cyclone.

Personally I think Hero's Cape seems to be the better option, having 380HP allows Munkidori to move counters more often without only relying on poison and also makes using Reshiram more reliable, but most lists I see are defaulting to Stamp, and the very few that use Hero's Cape tend to also use Mega Lopunny, which I haven't come around to yet, honestly.

Would taking the list I've been using with Unfair Stamp and simply change the ace spec to Cape, without messing with the rest of the list, make sense or does Cape ask for different cards to support it that Stamp doesn't?

For context I am currently writing an aria (a small operatic moment/a song with dramatic action) about Pinocchio (a mid teen) and his desire to be a real boy, and I'm using it as a trans allegory.

I've been writing some drafts of the text and trying to draw as much as I can from my own experience when I was first becoming aware of my "trans thoughts" but I am MtF, so the way I'm going at it is trying to think about why I want to transition, like how do I wanna be seen in social dynamics, what I want to do that is typical seen as "girl activities" and then try to think what the equivalent would be for "boy activities" (ignoring the fact that there really aren't strictly "girl" and "boy" activities, because not only do I think it was a factor when I was 15-16yo but those labels, even if harmful, can help with the validation of ones identity in a way).

Another way I'm thinking about this is turning body features that I don't like in myself, like body/facial hair, and muscle mass, into something that someone going through ftm transition would probably find desirable, as well as something like (mainly) straight relationship dynamics, that I became much more aware after realising that I was trans and gave me dysphoria, and again, try to turn them into something desirable for someone in the "opposite" side.

The issue I am finding, tho, is that the text is coming out as vague or underexplored in some parts, so I wanted to have more insight into these desires and thoughts so that I could possibly craft something that feels more real and satisfying, both for me as a trans artist representing some form of the trans experience, and for the people in the audience that might resonate with it and see it as more than just another retelling of Pinocchio.

If you are comfortable with sharing something that you feel might help, I am more than thankful and happy to read it

Before rotation happened on this side of the world Mega Lucario was being considered like top 2 or top 3 decks post rotation with like 3 different ways you could play it, but rotation comes and I barely see anyone talking about it or when I do, people have very little nice things to say and have even put it on fraud watch.

I have played it a fair bit on the ladder and had cool results, but I feel like you can make almost anything work on the ladder up to a certain point so it doesn't tell me much. I have also played a couple of locals and a challenge with it and going against TR Mewtwo and Alakazam back to back certainly wasn't easy, but I also made Gholdengo look like a rogue deck earlier this year, going 0-2-2 or worse consistently, so I don't think it tells me much either.

My guess is that all the new single prize decks complicate the decks viability a little and decks like TR Mewtwo just straight up overpower it, but I wanted to see what people far more knowledgeable have to say