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R.T., Lilac Skies of Alexandria

@rakath.bsky.social

56 followers 110 following 1.2K posts

Him/Her and very Autism. I'm very tired. Mostly Magic: the Gathering content. Sometimes writing stuff. Sometimes it is 1 AM and I am at work and on break. Generally chaotic and about my current special interest.

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R.T., Lilac Skies of Alexandria @rakath.bsky.social · Oct 22

Chaotic nonbinary recluse. Autistic and bad at hiding it. Perpetually Headphones On.

bsky is pronounced Bisque.

This bisque contains:
- Magic: the Gathering
- Marvel Comics
- Teen Drama shows
- Writing Commentary
- Sci-Fi, Fantasy, generally weird genre things
- Whatever else I'm hyperfixating on

R.T., Lilac Skies of Alexandria @rakath.bsky.social · 1d

My viewership/listening practices for podcasts and set reviews is down, but that's because I'm tired of the general air of negativity toward UB, not the UB content itself.

Because a lot of creators are getting close to sentiments of 'pigs in slop' and I'm done with that.

R.T., Lilac Skies of Alexandria @rakath.bsky.social · 1d

As someone locked out of cards only in oldborder due to how hard to read decades old worn inks on poor accessibility frames are for my eyes, I'm not locking myself out of further cards to placate some gatekeepy nonsense.

I find the designs interesting and weird enough to poke at.

R.T., Lilac Skies of Alexandria @rakath.bsky.social · 1d

That horrible moment you go to your giant stack of a thousand inner sleeves and somehow you have seven left.

R.T., Lilac Skies of Alexandria @rakath.bsky.social · 2d

The reason I feel their argument is disingenuous is they're inflating their complaint with numbers that don't actually match the set proper, and requires arguing that the 2/2 Pig is easily confused with every other Spider-Man.

If they said "A lot of the cards look the same" I'd agree. They didn't.

R.T., Lilac Skies of Alexandria @rakath.bsky.social · 2d

Yes, all of them are the one and only Spider-Man, even the girls and the T-Rex are the one and only Spider-Man. You're really effectively making your case.

Peter having seven versions to cover some fairly iconic parts of a 60+ year story doesn't seem that overdone.

R.T., Lilac Skies of Alexandria @rakath.bsky.social · 2d

Yes, Peter (7), Eddie (4), Gwen (3), Miles (2), and Ock (2) appear multiple times. The others are different characters. Like- fully different characters.

So saying 'there are 44 Spider-Mans' is basically complaining about the number of Detectives in MKM, Dragons in TDS, or Artifacts on Mirrodin.

R.T., Lilac Skies of Alexandria @rakath.bsky.social · 2d

They wanted Peter, Gwen, Miles, Eddie, and Ock at multiple rarities so they appeared more in the asfan. A thing they did in EoE to ZERO COMPLAINTS. I know, two months ago is a long time to remember.

Also your math is disingenuous to the point of basically lying.

R.T., Lilac Skies of Alexandria @rakath.bsky.social · 2d

OUR creatures, comrade.

R.T., Lilac Skies of Alexandria @rakath.bsky.social · 2d

MaRo has said Spider-Man's set size isn't due to a lack of ideas but a lack of work time, which if you look at the (publicly known info) on the timeline for the set makes sense with 'how many more cards can you add knowing you have to double the art budget for TTO.'

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R.T., Lilac Skies of Alexandria @rakath.bsky.social · 2d

I assume it's a little bit like Abe Lincoln, Vampire Hunter in that the known names are a shorthand to get your head into the right space for the tone to push you out of that same space?

A Victorian Regency Zombie Apocalypse will hit differently from Pride & Prejudice & Zombies.

R.T., Lilac Skies of Alexandria @rakath.bsky.social · 3d

If the movie opens up with a masked man murdering a college co-ed, it feels disingenuous to complain about all the blood in a slasher film.

The show cleanly stated its nature. It's not subtle, the narrator is anything but subtle. It points to how its gone off the history books early in Ep 1.

R.T., Lilac Skies of Alexandria @rakath.bsky.social · 3d

That's not really a thing you can say about A Knight's Tale. Ulrich von Liechtenstein was a real person (well, he was a real joust personality, he was kind of a weird gimmick wrestler for knights). So if you ignore the main character took the name of a real person and traveled with a real person...

R.T., Lilac Skies of Alexandria @rakath.bsky.social · 3d

...I mean, I am going to disagree because Ep 1 kind of tells you exactly how it felt about historical accuracy pretty cleanly. Same way that A Knight's Tale or Galavant does? The first ten minutes or so makes it clear what it is, and what its doing.

R.T., Lilac Skies of Alexandria @rakath.bsky.social · 3d

(There are some factual errors in it. ACR was bigger than Aftermath, and more cards per pack but not a full 14 card product. Spider-Man started as a 100 card Beyond Boostie for Leg/Vin, etc. None of these are anything that kills Kess's point.)

R.T., Lilac Skies of Alexandria @rakath.bsky.social · 3d

And that an undercurrent of crit when LTR and ACR were announced for Modern was 'it's too confusing to have sets vary in legality.' (Which I know anti UB wanted to mean 'locked in Legacy Jail' but as Kess hits, that's even less accessible than Modern, so Standard it is!) 2/2

The cascading failure of Magic the Gathering Aftermath #mtgcards #magicthegathering #mtgxspiderman

YouTube video by Kesswylie

www.youtube.com

R.T., Lilac Skies of Alexandria @rakath.bsky.social · 3d

@kesswylie.kess.co 's two videos on why Aftermath is a key moment in why 2025 and 2026 Magic is like this™️ is pretty on the mark. The main thing it misses is the consistent waning performance on non-standard set releases (except MH, which is its own beast), that kills those lines dead. 1/2

How Aftermath Failing caused so many issues part 1 #magicthegathering #universesbeyond

YouTube video by Kesswylie

www.youtube.com

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R.T., Lilac Skies of Alexandria @rakath.bsky.social · 5d

For my finances I am glad to never have this dream.

For me to own an ABUR Dual it'd have to be from 30th Anniversary and at that point I might as well print my own.

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R.T., Lilac Skies of Alexandria @rakath.bsky.social · 5d

He made life choices befitting someone whose bloodstream is more coffee than blood at this point.

R.T., Lilac Skies of Alexandria @rakath.bsky.social · 5d

P.S. I feel like moving Lorwyn to start of 2026 was to make it so the earliest set in the new rotation system is a UW set.

Like- I assume part of the bump is that the pivot to all standard releases, but this or next year would have seven sets. Might as well start standard with a UW release.

R.T., Lilac Skies of Alexandria @rakath.bsky.social · 5d

(For the record I used it on the Walking Dead lair, then quickly realized I just found the art bad and went on with my life.)

All of Magic's Pivots are based on audience feedback (both verbal and spending), and we got here over it. We can't really change the direction if we don't accept that part.

R.T., Lilac Skies of Alexandria @rakath.bsky.social · 5d

As P3K and Masques exist. The 'this doesn't feel like magic' was also applied to changing Hounds to Dogs, the entire plane of Avishkar, more POC people in art for Innistrad, Trans rep in Tarkir, and anything else people wanna whine about.

Magic has always been a little bit everything.

R.T., Lilac Skies of Alexandria @rakath.bsky.social · 5d

My only other real dissent with Kibler is on 'this doesn't feel like Magic' because that's a line that's been used so often I basically have zero respect for it. 'that isn't Magic' mostly applies as a 'I don't like this' (even when I've used it).

I don't think it's a fair criticism to the game.

R.T., Lilac Skies of Alexandria @rakath.bsky.social · 5d

Spider-Man (and the other Marvel sets caught in this mess) are an anomaly of the harsh pivot that happens when you try to turn an oil tanker like a jet ski.

It's an anomalous sort of bad, but it is very bad. And it is a direct result of people complaining about UB.

R.T., Lilac Skies of Alexandria @rakath.bsky.social · 5d

Put together we get the new state of things: all UB is standard, because people whined about modern legal LTR, and people legitimately recognized TOR as a problem.

Now Spider-Man.

R.T., Lilac Skies of Alexandria @rakath.bsky.social · 5d

The other shoe is because the set 'was not designed for Standard' and didn't go through the playtesting a Standard set gets two cards were printed that should never have been okay. The One Ring and Bowmasters.