General CBS

I don't know much about the situation involving her, but if true I would say it's technically been distasteful for a long time now. I suppose excluding it would raise fewer eyebrows now that WotC has taken some sort of stance.
 

Chris Taylor

Contributor
So I have a Fact or Fiction signed by Terese Nielsen. Precisely how gauche would it be to include in a cube at this point?

Gauche or not, how much is a copy of the Matt Covatta art?
Sure we've got our misgivings about jace as a character, but they kinda pale.

Edit: Having looked, I've got 2 cards with her art on them: Swords to Plowshares and Eternal Witness, and I've got this in the digital version of the cube anyways:
Eternal Witness.png
Wouldn't be hard to just not run her art
 
I'm not going to remove stuff of Nielsen's that I already have, but I'm not buying anything going forward if I can avoid it. Same with Noah Bradley stuff.
 

Chris Taylor

Contributor
What is happening?

https://twitter.com/noahbradley/status/1274670378296774658

At least for custom cards, If I'm not going to be using Tsabo6's art at their request, I figure the least I can do is swap out anyone shitty I'm using on my custom cards.

Edit: figured I might as well explain Neilson as well: https://www.hipstersofthecoast.com/2020/06/wizards-ends-their-relationship-with-terese-nielsen/
Technically old news, the original twitter blowup was in April 2019 (I think), but the statement of WotC putting their foot down is recent.
 
From a cube-card standpoint, I'm mad about Bradley because History of Benalia has no other art. Every Nielsen card I'm running (Eternal Witness, Natural Order, and the promo Chandra, Torch of Defiance) has alternatives that I can buy once this pandemic's over (I'm not running Fact or Fiction, Life from the Loam, new art Mother of Runes, new art Swords to Plowshares, or Nature's Lore but those have options as well.) Mostly just making this post so everyone can get them on their respective swap lists if they want to.
 

Chris Taylor

Contributor
From a cube-card standpoint, I'm mad about Bradley because History of Benalia has no other art. Every Nielsen card I'm running (Eternal Witness, Natural Order, and the promo Chandra, Torch of Defiance) has alternatives that I can buy once this pandemic's over (I'm not running Fact or Fiction, Life from the Loam, new art Mother of Runes, new art Swords to Plowshares, or Nature's Lore but those have options as well.) Mostly just making this post so everyone can get them on their respective swap lists if they want to.

Essentially same, I'm probably not shopping up my own alters to Winds of Abandon or Mizzium Mortars (Funny how he got both of those), but The art I was using for my baseline red filter spell was by noah, and that's an easy swap:
Ancient Mantra.png

Plus hey I previously ran a custom version of History anyways because I don't really have any enchantment or knight synergies but I do have cast triggers:
I mostly added history as shorthand.
Scouting Patrol.png
Done and done
 

Onderzeeboot

Ecstatic Orb
As for these artists. Currently I'm running Dusk // Dawn and History of Benalia by Bradley, and Nature's Lore by Nielsen. I'm trying to keep everything in the most recent frame possible, so I won't be replacing my Duel Deck Anthology Garruk vs Liliana Nature's Lore at the moment, but I might if Lubov's or Rabinowitz's art gets a reprint. I do think it's a bit of a moot point, since replacing cards with their art just costs us extra money, but the artists in question have already been paid for their commissioned art and won't notice. Being politically correct at your own expense if it doesn't hurt the actual wrongdoers feels ineffective.

Anyway, I'm happy that WotC chose to cut ties with Noah Bradley, as that's the actual solution to this problem. By all accounts he was a sexual predator and a scummy human being. I hope his apology was heart-felt, and that he'll better his life, but considering this tweet, I very much doubt it. His love for the 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene was apparently big enough to turn the laws into a slideshow and put them on his own desktop. That book contains such gems as...
  • Law 3. Conceal your intentions
  • Law 5. So much depends on your reputation, guard it with your life
  • Law 12. Use selective honesty and generosity to disarm your victim
  • Law 22. Use the surrender tactic: transform weakness into power
  • Law 45. Preach the need to change, but never reform too much at once
Anyone praising this book automatically gets flagged as a total scumbag in my mind. These might be effective ways to grab (and hold) power in a capitalist society, but following these "laws" also turns you into a complete insincere asshole of a human being.
Now Nielsen I'm less sure on. The more I try to read about it, the less I think she got a fair shake. She's undeniably conservative, and while I certainly don't subscribe to the right-wing fantasies of the fanatics whose channels she liked, is it okay to exclude someone for having different political beliefs? Even the terf arguments are pretty tenuous, as far as I gathered.
 
Noah is undoubtedly a scumbag, Nielsen is a little more tenuous. I don't think it's just something as simple as different political beliefs, some of the stuff that she was retweeting was abhorrent:

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I just think there's a HUGE chasm between someone who is supporting conservative values (which I have no problem with) and retweeting pro white supremacy and real ignorant shit regarding protests (which can fuck right off) from a while back. It's just a horrible look, I can see why WoTC cut ties with her. You can't try to present yourselves as an inclusive game open to everyone and then keep deploying work from someone in stark contrast to your proposed ideals. I think they gave her a grace period to see what was actually up after stuff creeped up a while back and then just found out more unsavory stuff before calling it off. It didn't help that she topped it off by sending art a year back, personally, to some loony bin conspiracy YouTube channel that loves regurgitating bullshit and spreading misinformation. She may not have been outright stating that she was in favor of everything ignorant she was retweeting, but most of us weren't born yesterday. There's no subtlety here. Reading between the lines makes it pretty obvious where she is on the political spectrum.

People who bask in extreme ignorance harmful to others should absolutely be called out for it, especially those that proactively support denying the rights of others. She either believes or agrees with (and by extension promotes) anti-semitic, racist, and transphobic stuff based off what she's following and retweeting (there's more stuff, I'm just not gonna dig it up again).

It's a shame, but being a great artist doesn't give her a pass in supporting extremely ignorant bullshit without potential consequences. I'm not about to throw away the cards and prints that I have of her art, but I'm absolutely not buying anything going forward if I can avoid it.
 
Okay everyone, nice spoken!

Now, can we get back to cube-related topics? Which website do you guys use for purchase single cards?

I use www.cardmarket.com because I live in Europe. Anyone has good experiences with other sites?
 
Right, I'm not going to go out of my way to replace all the art in the cube. Plus, I love Nielsen's art and her political persuasion isn't going to change that (though I have no problem with WotC not providing her or Bradley new work based on their history). I just feel like the signed copy of the card is taking it a step too far. I've got the Duel Deck Jace FoF already anyway, so it's not a big financial hit. I just had sentimental value tied up in the signed copy and I'm bummed the actual human behind the wonderful art is... not ideal.
 
So, here’s a stumper hypothetical for you all:
You have fully embraced the philosophy of minimalism and are cutting down your cube. The new structure allows only THREE SLOTS in your colorless artifact section (you have a separate section for utility lands).
What three artifacts do you run?

EDIT: to answer velrun’s question, i use TCGplayer but have also been happy with SCG in the past. However, i always sell cards to a friendly LGS for store credit, then use that to buy board games and such.
 
So, here’s a stumper hypothetical for you all:
You have fully embraced the philosophy of minimalism and are cutting down your cube. The new structure allows only THREE SLOTS in your colorless artifact section (you have a separate section for utility lands).
What three artifacts do you run?

Only 3 artifacts total?

maybe...
 
I think many artist are and were assholes in the centuries long history of art. I totally agree with WotC no longer supporting these artists, but I still think the worlds not just black and white. I can totally appreciate her art without agreeing with any of her viewpoints. Her art is still among my favorites and I won't remove it from my cube.




Three artifacts you say? I guess I'd stick to the basics

 
I'd ask that person why they're limiting their artifact section to 3 artifacts and then tell them they're a hypothetical idiot no matter what they said because colorless cards are the most flexible slot in their whole cube.

That said, I don't like ravnic's list because I could replace it with Rampant Growth, maybe an aura (not really the same), and a variety of ETB draws. I think you'd want to go for three things that can't be replaced elsewhere or are necessary for redundancy. I like Smokestack for that reason and maybe Ballista. That said, I don't have any further suggestions at this time but might think on it at the gym.

Again, I don't know why the hypothetical idiot would do this.
 

Chris Taylor

Contributor
So, here’s a stumper hypothetical for you all:
You have fully embraced the philosophy of minimalism and are cutting down your cube. The new structure allows only THREE SLOTS in your colorless artifact section (you have a separate section for utility lands).
What three artifacts do you run?

EDIT: to answer velrun’s question, i use TCGplayer but have also been happy with SCG in the past. However, i always sell cards to a friendly LGS for store credit, then use that to buy board games and such.

What the Balduvian-Trading fuck is this?
 
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