GBS

[tomchaps]

Yeah, this sort of junky discussion.

I have to say, categorization arguments in cube tend to be the least informative, least interesting discussions I've run across. People find a system that works well enough for them, and that's fine. If someone is actively shopping for a new system, there are a bazillion places to find the argument hashed out. Personally, I'd not broach the subject for a while on Channelfireball, since the only people interested will be the most serious cube managers, and most of those already have a fixed opinion about it. I figure most people are likely to click on a cube article because they want to read about the awesome, not about the minutae. (Cube! Come for the fun, stay for the spreadsheets!)

Actually, rereading your original comment, I can't tell if you're joking about writing a classification article...

 

[Chris Taylor]

I'm all happy for another article if it convinces people to be a little more flexible with their cube. I secretly think that everyone who has kird ape in their red section just wants another Red/Green card and can't bring themselves to just break their own rules.

That comment about blue is really interesting CML, I gotta think about that. I've been wondering what to do with my blue red and blue black sections for ages now, and you might have just solved the problem (Yeah there's a million good cards, but I want the pair to have a bit of direction, which doesn't happen when you add 5 value burn spells: Prophetic Bolt, Fire // Ice, Electrolyze, Izzet Charm, Jilt)

 

[Jason Waddell]

Well, I'm not actually proposing a new system, just trying to reveal the underlying mechanics behind competition for cards at a draft table and what you should really be thinking about when designing these things, as well as a case-study at how these concepts have been applied in retail draft sets. I'm not here to suggest the nth new system.

 

[CML]

my suggestions:

UR: new Niv-Mizzet
UB: havengul lich

 

[Jason Waddell]

my suggestions:

UR: new Niv-Mizzet
UB: havengul lich

Welp, CML's cracked the case. No need for an article after all.

 

[Chris Taylor]

I kinda like New-Mizzet, the Firemind, but he seems like such a throwback. IMO masticore hasn't been good for a long time, and making him 2 colors instead of 0 isn't doing him any favors. I'm also kinda suspicious that he fails the vindicate test, one of the main reasons I disliked Oona.

UR wildfire is one of the decks that color pair produces with relative frequency. Maybe a strange wildfire variant?

UR4
Sorcery
Each player Shuffles 4 lands they control and all creatures with toughness 4 or less into their library.

I dunno. I'm not as confident in Izzet's identity as I am in the other pairs

 

[CML]

no no no!! niv-mizzet, dracogenius

lich is great for gy stuff. also you can use a shriekmaw to machine gun your opponent's dudes for 2b/pop if you're into that sorta thing. the applications are limitless

 

[Chris Taylor]

No lich I'm probably sold on, Wile-E Mizzet, Super-Genius I'm more skeptical about

 

[CML]

call the skybreaker?

 

[Chris Taylor]

Maybe. Gah I am so hard to please

 

[VibeBox]

anyone into fantasy football?
cause i would totally volunteer to manage a riptide lab fantasy football league

 

[Jason Waddell]

Am I going crazy or is it way too early for spoiler season? Dragon's Maze has been out, what, two weeks? Is it always like this?

 

[Eric Chan]

Confession: I'm avoiding the M14 spoilers thread on here, as well as the nice, meaty article you wrote on the main page. Sorry, Jason. The only thing I know about so far are the slivers, which came from the mouths of Wizards themselves.

I assume the M14 stuff we've been getting is an unintentional leak, because Modern Masters previews are only beginning today. So M14 previews normally wouldn't happen until well after that.

 

[CML]

today my cousin (my age) unfriended me on facebook because she made a post in favor of 'abstinence-only sex education' (lol) so i said 'don't knock it [up] 'til you've tried it!' what was i supposed to do, not ridicule her?! if i was shitty family i mighta taken it seriously. anyway i dunno what to do now. help me out cube forum

 

[VibeBox]

i could provide you a couple dozen links about why abstinence only education is toxic and dangerous to people, costs everyone more money, doesn't work...ect.
i don't think that's gonna help though

 

[Jason Waddell]

As Eric can personally attest to, trying to discuss an opposing viewpoint in a public venue can be particularly unfruitful, even if you are especially diplomatic (which you may not have been, lol).

The very existence of this website is the realization of the first panel this comic:

http://penny-arcade.com/comic/2012/01/06

 

[CML]

haha oh man. the PAX nightmare from here was only a couple weeks ago.

it's funny cuz (according to family lore) without our friend the one-night stand she wouldn't exist! ho ho ho

 

[Jason Waddell]

I still don't know exactly what you are talking about. Am I stupid or are you exceptionally cryptic?
EDIT: Wait, I think I see your meaning now.

 

[Jason Waddell]

"If a certain belief - call it 'Belief A' - makes the life of that man or this woman appear to be something of deep meaning, then for them Belief A is the truth. If Belief B makes their lives appear to be powerless and puny, then Belief B turns out to be a falsehood. The distinction is quite clear. If someone insists that Belief B is the truth, people will probably hate him, ignore him, or in some cases, attack him. It means nothing to them that Belief B might be logical or provable. Most people barely manage to preserve their sanity by denying and rejecting images of themselves as powerless and puny."
- Haruki Murakami, 1Q84

 

[Chris Taylor]

Okay complain time: Next step is getting two versions of my cube spreadsheet easily workable: a macro enabled one (Not phone compatible, but sweet), and a regular one (For the phone)

So in my hubris, I added the following code:

When Workbook Saves:
    Save as (Macro enabled) -noWarning
    Save as (Macro disabled) -noWarning
end

thinking it would only trigger when I hit the save button. So instead, the macro triggers itself over and over, and I have to end excel to get it to stop.
But I can't change it back, since if I try and save the corrections, it operates off the above code and breaks again.

I cut/paste my code into notepad and delete the file, ready to go get it off google docs once I get home:

WHICH HAS SYNCED MY CHANGES OF NO LONGER HAVING A CUBE SPREADSHEET. FML. (Also, version control? Not enabled on this file/folder apparently)

Now I gotta re-do the whole thing from scratch
New Motto: DON'T TRUST THE CLOUD

 

[CML]

you know, i think she (along with most others) cleaves to religion because she wants to feel powerless and puny. she can either admit that she's powerful enough to have deluded herself into thinking the church anything other than the orzhov and grown-up enough to make her own meaning, or she can just continue to pretend theology isn't as goofy as alchemy or astrology.

i'm a big fan of murakami (hard-boiled wonderland in particular) and i love the 'barely manage to preserve their sanity' turn of phrase, but it surprises me that he'd write that people 'reject' these images of powerlessness and puniness, when many of his characters are pretty in touch with it and trying to surmount it. for example, the hbw protagonist looking forward to a life of 'greek and cello,' which he kinda gets by disappearing into himself at the end.

 

[Jason Waddell]

Well, the quote is spoken by a leader of a cult, so take from that what you will.

I also think that he (like many authors) makes some implicit distinction between his unique protagonist and the nameless others that form society.

 

[CML]

ahhhh ok, so murakami doing his best 'leader of a cult' impression. quite convincing, since in order to live with themselves they've gotta be extraordinarily delusional.

see, what i like about murakami's protagonists is that they're not unique, though

 

[Jason Waddell]

Well, the last Murakami book I read had a protagonist that was mentally retarded and could speak to cats. That was at least a little unique.

 

[CML]

oh geez, that is unique. i guess i'm accustomed to the 'bored japanese salaryman in dystopic future' archetype.

which book was this? worth reading?