What are some QoL stuff that should be highlighted more from Gen V?

Coming back to Pokemon after like... a decade? Started with this one because the region focusing on its own Pokemons instead of revisiting existing ones.

Mostly wondering if there's non-obvious QoL I should probably appreciate more.

I like that Ability Triggers show-off but I kinda wish they also did some explanation of what they do instead of me taking a second to look up what some of these do in terms of actual values.

Not having to go back to the item screen each use of a consumable is great too but IDK if thay's a Gen V thing.

Infinite TMs is amazing. As someone who likes tweaking movesets it's just great, the Learn It or Lose It part of Pokemon genuinely bums me... I wish I can experiment more with stuff in terms of curating moves (Coming from someone who was playing SMT beforehand)... though I hear Gen 8 onwards addresses this

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u/jethawkings — 2 days ago

How do you do actually do the TimeDude PirateDude Fedora Combo?

I keep seeing people post about this broken strat and I keep trying to make it work and... I just don't have enough survivability to get to critical mass for Fedora to work.

My other dudes are Paladin Dude, Quantum Dude, and Samurai Dude

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u/jethawkings — 10 days ago

3 years in. Battery Bloat... does mine just suck?

This is my first flagship phone so genuinely surprised how quickly this gave up in contrast to my old A30 which took like... 5? around 5 years before the Lock Button gave up and the Battery busted out... I guess granted that one the casing also gave out.

Is this just how phones are?

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u/jethawkings — 12 days ago

Unwarranted Thoughts on Red Pearls of Borneo; No Context/Consent

Just finished it up... it was fine~

Well I liked it, I thought the problem solving was neat but I think it kinda lacked real brain bashers

I will say it took a good while for me to connect who's who on Cynthia's epilogue but I got there. I didn't realize they were brothers

The Bone's Room Red Herring was devious >:(

Same with hiding Charles Brooke was, who at that point while I remember the Brooke family being mentioned earlier... my brain was soup and didn't bother to check the Glossary.

~

Not sure if I missed anything but I was sorta waiting for something like the other shoe to drop but the twist with the Red Pearls was fun, more grounded. It's no Type Help or What Happened to the Crew in terms of reveals though... was I the only one waiting for something to be done with the Biohazard Material?

I thought the end-end-ending on London was... ok. IDK I do enjoy these types of endings where the game bends itself to accommodate what you want to be canon.

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u/jethawkings — 18 days ago

Is this shit normal?

8 Consecutive on the Plays?

I wonder which poor loser Arena gave my on the Draws for that particular stretch of gaming time ammaright?

u/jethawkings — 24 days ago

Management Sims on the Switch with some form of narratives?

I just learned I apparently like this genre. Would be great too if there's actual campaigns / story-lite stuff like ~ but even something similar to just WWE 2K's MyGM Mode?

Something like the below ones?

Above the Snow

The Pale Beyond

This War of Mine

~

Some other stuff I sorta would include here are

Sovereign Tower's Demo

The Management Parts of Dispatch (Which I wish affected the main game more)

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u/jethawkings — 24 days ago
▲ 8 r/lrcast

Finally got to Diamond for the first time! Marvel Superheroes Draft

Not sure if I can still call myself a casual drafter~ maybe in the sense I'm only on for drafting specific sets and apparently the specific sets seem to be... specifically Universe Beyond... my last drafts were Final Fantasy, Omenpaths (With a Visual Mod to make it Spider-Man), Avatar, Turtles, and now Marvel*...* I would say it's more so just bad timing on Lorwyn and Strixhaven releasing on periods where I had other stuff I'm more interested in... and Lorwyn being a Kindred Draft Format... Edge... IDK I think I'm also not a big Space Guy so its aesthetic wasn't just for me I guess?

I've done 46 events total for MSH (5 of those being Sealed, 11 being Premier, and 30 Pick Two Drafts)

Unsure if I could go for the push to Mythic before the end of the week~

https://www.17lands.com/user_history/bdb9c0b410104b328e77a6666f38d541?start=2019-01-01

64% Win Rate~

-

I will say, game knowledge / sense definitely helped was a difference maker. Knowing all the White tricks has done wonders for me. Even doing something like missing T3 damage to avoid a Red Guardian is so crucial... as well as missing damage to enable Spider-Man's protection has been crucial too.

There's lots of neat micro decisions during gameplay that I feel does get rewarded...

But of course the elephant in the room, The Deck... is really fucking good. White and Blue are the best colors in the format it's no contest. It has the best removal and best 2 for 1s and has the most evasive creatures... but it's actually pretty wild how often I still see either White or Blue open during Premier Draft (Which is like why I moved on to it once I got to Plat... mediocre decks can only get you so far in Pick 2)

-

I think my favorite colors has to be Green, G is the color I've trophied with the most followed by U then tied between R and W with B being the color I've done the worse with unless it's paired with U, UB I've done fairly well in, it's xB anything else I've done bad in... GW is also color I've sucked at to the point I don't thnk I want to ever be in that seat... even more than RB because RB I've only flopped at once, GW I've thrown MULTIPLE TIMES.

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u/jethawkings — 25 days ago

Where's Kenan?

I'm conflicted on how we're not even pretending that he's in the Superman Family considering he made no goddamn appearances in the Anniversary Issue.

Nobody knew how to write him when they made the Extended Super-Family a thing and Yang made this back-up as to bridge the gap between him leaving the JLC (in bad terms BTW) and joining the Superfam.

Like yeah, great nobody is ruining Kenan like the way Waid made him THE SMART GUY to Conner's DUMB GUY but someone made a good point against me that 'Do we really just want to not feature any established POCs because white guys don't know how to write them"' and... yeah that sorta did made me think.

Don't even get me started on the AAPI Back-Ups with Kenan. He's not the mystical Superman, do you realize the fucking orientalism in that.

Is this what's it like being fans of other POC / Queer Characters? Hoping that the writer they get for them actually is familiar with the character when DC busts out the Writers Workshop Anthology Book?

u/jethawkings — 28 days ago

PSA: It's a few dollars cheaper to buy the Base Game + Individual DLCs on the Eshop for DD1

Not sure if this is just a miss from Red Hook.

I've been thinking of buying it for the Switch to play away from my PC/Laptop. I already have the 2nd game and rumours on an update (That RH seems to have subtly confirmed) kinda motivated me to buy it again for the Switch.

Pricing is also kinda eh like... this is... $7 on Steam IDK on other Console Storefronts though but RH somewhat deserves my money again considering I have more than 1000 hours logged for that first game... plus it'll be nice to try a full Vanilla Campaign with no mods to crutch me.

u/jethawkings — 1 month ago
▲ 6 r/deadpool+1 crossposts

Post-Mortem on Thompson's Deadpool run

I revisited it after being underwhelmed by Ziglar's opening arc.

I'm still v salty how this run went... I will say I drank the kool aid then and thought this run blew without giving it a real chance... because years later I reallllly like it.

It gives Wade that edge early on in the run that I hoped would be properly explored post-Duggan's run. That brief exchange with Cap was everything I wanted, post-Stevil. Wade giving Cap another one-two over Cap feeling morally righteous felt nice.

I think the Monster Island of Staten was a unique contrast to the Mutant Nation of Krakoa.

Thompson acknolwedging Roguepool was nice (Even having Rogue bat for him)

Fuck I really wish this run ran a bit longer.

~

Not that there aren't odd creative choices.

Gerard Sandoval drew Jeff with FIN APPENDAGES and not legs. It was harrowing.

Elsa X Wade is a ship that is only slightly less cursed than RoguePool.

And yes, this was Thompson using a Deadpool book to write an Elsa Bloodstone ongoing (Subtly lampshaded with Gwenpool leaving Jeff with Wade as an acknowledgement that maybe with Wade headlining the book

But still I learned to like the stupid characters in the book like Nightwolf and the other monsters... like idk... I miss Bellus even if he only was in that one issue. It just seems like a neat new direction to take Wade.

~

So IDK it kinda sucks jumping to Wong's run then Ziglar's run after all these years and seeing no they never really re-explored this. Wade kinda just... is back to being buds with everyone again and has no real complications with his relationship with Preston and Ellie... it's... kinda unearned?

Like IDK I do not believe they ever really reconciled in a way that rehabs their relationship to that level of teaming up.

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u/jethawkings — 1 month ago
▲ 2 r/lrcast

This 7-1 RG Aggro Win ; Trophying in Premier after an incredibly bad Lose Streak on Pick-Two

>inb4 Superhero Civil War

Pls, look at my pool. It needs that Civil War!

Reaching Plat has not been kind to my win-rates but this is the first set where I persevered playing at this Rank. (As opposed to TMT where I immediately quit after going 0-2 then 1-2)

It's kinda Cinema I guess that it took going back to RG (bar splash White for Civil War) for me to get back into the game.

I think having 3 losses to fall back to has been good psychology-wise (I will admit I got tilted hard the last couple Pick 2 games), I was able to pivot my deck after my first loss and removed the bad Hawkeye, Bow, Stark Exec, Hydra Bot, combo and leaned more into being aggressive.

I can see myself going back to Premier Draft once I reach Plat just because the quality of opponents have been to high for me and having a junky deck just can't get by with freak wins anymore.

u/jethawkings — 1 month ago

POV: You just checked the Main sub and someone asked Maro about Universe Beyond on Blogatog

THREE CONSECUTIVE MARO POSTS ON THE MAIN SUB

I don't even dislike Maro, in fact Maro feels very genuine about his passion for the game but jesus fucking christ

u/jethawkings — 1 month ago
▲ 0 r/lrcast

4-1 RG ~Good Stuff Ramp~ in Pick 2

Started with P1P1~2 Alien Invasion into Skrull and a dream. Is it carried by like 3 great rares and insane starts on the play? Yes. But... Op playing Alien Invasion T3 to me having no answer has happened to me a lot so it was nice being able to pull it off once.

https://www.17lands.com/deck/a4ab6a34d1c0477b8b3abec4080a1313/1?view=deck

I don't think is is the exact best way to build this in my pool but this is what I went with. Like there's definitely a part in me that wanted to put another Warrior over White Tiger to dig for my bombs. I'm also wondering if this was playable in Jund but going 3 colors has just burned me a few times and unless it's an insane busted card or I'm really lacking removal/interaction I just wouldn't do it.

G4 I was dumb, I misread Robot Domination and thought it had 1 extra ping... should have waited for the Hulk Smash but ahhhh IDK. Still went 4-1 so I'm not too bummed about it.

u/jethawkings — 1 month ago
▲ 19 r/lrcast

Any good resources specific to Pick-2 Drafting?

I've mostly been jamming Pick-2 Drafts, I get the more serious streamers don't really bother with it too much unless it's a small set. Like I know Nummy did some Pick-2 Drafts for TMT and Lorwyn.

I have seen some videos like Upkeep Academy but they mostly just focus on Pick-2 having good EV and I don't think they ever really get into the weeds with how you should consider your strategy for it outside of 'Find the open seat, hope it's strong'

Even MtGGoldfish's Pick 2 Draft Video with Marvel was really more so Richard encouraging to force being UW (Not that it's not a winning strategy)

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u/jethawkings — 1 month ago

Are there any Web/Mobile Cube Draft Apps that allow this kind drafting?

I'm not sure how to succintly put these into words but basically you draft a card from a pack, turn off the app, then maybe in like an hour or so you check then someone else has passed you the packs for your next picks

Then like for the weekend everyone just needs to sleeve up and play.

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u/jethawkings — 1 month ago
▲ 20 r/spikes

[Standard] Is Big Red an actual thing or this just regularly scheduled "[X Set]'s Broken New Deck!?"

Considering building it. After drafting MSH I actually surprisingly have most of the deck (Mjolnirs, Thors, Avengers Disassembleds, Visions)

I matched against it enough times in the queue to think maybe I should actually have sideboard considerations against it (I am running the creature-heavy variant of Excruciator and... I tell you it wasn't pretty)... Granted I am only usually squatting around Gold~Plat

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u/jethawkings — 1 month ago

What Avengers run to read next?

The new Marvel MtG set honestly kinda makes me wanna do another dive on the Avengers again.

I perused the first Epic and~ it's not to my taste. The human drama and serialized storytelling isn't as strong there yet so I'm not sure which specific collection or series of issues to jump in~

I've read some loose material of this era in The Kree Skrull War but that's really it. After that my next experience with the Avengers chronologically is Busiek's run, ~some of Johns (I only really remember the Red Zone arc), then half of Bendis (I stopped after Siege), then Hickman, then No Surrender and No Way Home (Which I REALLLY loved), parts of Aaron (It was touch and go, I know I locked in during the Squadron-verse Arc), and then finally Mackay's run (Which I liked!).

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u/jethawkings — 2 months ago
▲ 19 r/lrcast

Hot Take (?) ; Casual Drafter~ I think I no-joke prefer TMNT Draft to Marvel Draft

Maybe because I've crushed more games of Turtles but I was decently happy to try out any of the 5 archetypes or colors for Turtles~ even with Green (Which I think was its weakest color funnily enough) it meant you had good room to splash for colors.

I don't get that same experience so far in MSH... granted I have played Sealed way more (Which I liked! Having to follow my pool instead of the meta is great) it feels like anytime I stray from UW is the wrong decision... unlike Turtles where if I do try to force Wx because the color wasn't that deep it could easily be a wrong decision... unlike just going UW/Ux/Wx where yeah maybe you don't get the good fliers but maybe you get the tapper, or the removal, or the other good 2-for-1s

I didn't play Lorwyn Draft (IDK Overly Kindred Draft Environments aren't my jam) aaaand I was playing other stuff when Strixhaven came out so I'm not the best judge of those sets buuuut I did like 17 Turtles Drafts (Which... for 1 month for me is a lot)

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u/jethawkings — 2 months ago
▲ 4 r/lrcast

My Least Unfair Sealed Pool - Merfolk Draw-2 Kindred goes nuts

NGL I was a bit underwhelmed at first as there were no obvious I Win Cards in this unlike my last pool

https://www.17lands.com/details/bb4ef7658cca4c1cba32ce250e3e5b5c

Also, why wasn't I running 3x Raft Officers with Loki?.... I don't know. I must've missed it but in hindsight those were probably better than the 2-of Doombots... but I think those being evasive also had some relevance and had way more upside later in the curve? And I thinking they could Improvise out an early Ironheart (never happened)

Having 4-of Atlantean Cavalry with a shitton of ways to draw your 2nd card each turn

The dream curve was T3 Cavalry -> T4 Attuma or Cavalry + Pym Particles

Loki obviously was nuts here. T2 Raft Officer, T3 Loki -> Tap, Draw, T4 Cavalry Tap -> Draw -> Grow repeat 2x is just a LOT of value.

Kang was fine, I powered-him up once. It was great.

Cap and Abs-Man comboed once, it was cool.

This is where I learned SHIELD Flying Car returns ENDSTEP, definitely had a bad exchange thinking a blinked Hero-in-Training was going to immediately draw a card.

Ironheart sucked here. Would not play her again.

u/jethawkings — 2 months ago