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submitted by PatrickBloom to u/PatrickBloom [link] [comments]

This Week At Bungie 1/28/2021

Source: https://www.bungie.net/en/News/Article/50040
This week at Bungie, we introduce Seasonal Challenges.
Welcome to the second-to-last TWAB of Season of the Hunt. Many of you have been navigating the secrets of the Harbinger mission, uncovering randomly rolled Hawkmoons and earning the Radiant Accipiter Exotic ship. Content-wise, we’re coming to a close for the Season, and we’re incredibly excited for what’s to come in just a few short weeks. We’ve been covering some upcoming quality of life changes to Destiny 2, like the return of Umbral Engrams, but it’s almost time to take a peek at fresh content.
Season of the [REDACTED] trailer goes live on February 2, 2021.
Before we get there, we have a new feature to cover, Seasonal Challenges, and a round of weapon-focused sandbox changes to walk through. As a warning, this is a pretty large amount of information in a small space. We've joked about "meaty" TWAB's before, but this one may feel a bit overwhelming if you rush through it. Let's take it slow, step by step, and get through it together in one piece.

Introducing: Seasonal Challenges

Over the last year, we’ve been looking at ways in which we can reduce the amount of FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) in Destiny 2. We’ve recently made some changes to Seasons and how Seasonal content is available throughout a given year of Destiny 2. This week, we’re looking to bounties and Bright Dust, introducing a new system not only to remove FOMO, but give fresh ways to earn XP and alternate rewards. To walk us through the ins and outs of Seasonal Challenges, we pass the mic to the Development team.
Dev team: During production of Beyond Light, we started looking at the problems of bounty fatigue and FOMO, as well as Seasonal legibility (i.e., “What is in a Season?” and “How to I engage with it when I log in?”). We created a few goals which we believe will improve the experience:
  • Provide a guide to new, returning, and veteran players for what to do today/this week.
  • Guide the player through the Seasonal content, week-over-week.
  • Encourage players to engage with complexities and nuances of the Seasonal activity and rituals.
  • Reduce the penalties on XP and Bright Dust for missing a given week.
To solve these goals, we are introducing a new pursuit type for players – Seasonal Challenges. The Seasonal Challenges live on their own page, are accessed through the Quest Log or Season Pass, and are separated by week.
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Here’s a quick breakdown of how this feature works:
  • Every week, for the first 10 weeks of a Season, between 3 and 10 new Challenges appear automatically for players.
    • Some of the Challenges deal with the Seasonal content.
    • Others push players to complete strikes, Gambit, and the Crucible, or to focus on non-activity focused Destiny rituals, like gaining Power, unlocking Seasonal Artifact mods, or improving guns and armor.
  • These Challenges can only be completed once per account, but once they become available, these Challenges can be completed at any time before the end of the Season, and do not need to be started or picked up from a vendor.
    • As an example, if a player doesn’t play for weeks 2 through 4, they can return on week 5 and have all of those Challenges waiting for them!
  • Completing each Challenge awards XP, contributing to your Season Pass ranks.
    • Other rewards could be Bright Dust, Seasonal currency, or other interesting items!
In moving away from weekly bounties, which were restricted to broad objectives tied to ritual activities, we have taken more leeway with creating some interesting or more difficult Challenges. These may be things you are already doing, or things that test your ability. Some examples include:
  • Defeating Primeval Envoys in Gambit
  • Defeating enemies in Nightfall: The Ordeal with Seasonal weapons
  • Gaining Infamy or Valor ranks
  • Acquiring the ritual weapon and its cosmetic ornaments
  • Winning rounds in Trials of Osiris
  • Completing a Grandmaster Nightfall
Not all the Challenges will require that level of accomplishment, but the harder or longer the Challenge is, the more experience it rewards. Challenges that focus on the Seasonal activity and ritual mostly need the Season Pass to complete, but most of the ritual focused Challenges can be completed without the Season Pass. Overall, roughly 60% of the Seasonal Challenges do not require the Season Pass.
With the changes above, we are removing weekly bounties from the three ritual vendors (Zavala, Shaxx, and Drifter), Banshee-44, and the Seasonal vendor. These vendors will still have daily bounties which reward XP, and the three ritual vendors will still have repeatable bounties for those of you who want to pursue additional XP and Bright Dust.
Lastly – most of the Challenges disappear after the Season they were introduced, and anything that isn’t claimed will be lost. We don’t add any new Challenges after Week 10 – which should give everyone a few weeks to clean up any Challenges they didn’t finish. Any Challenge that rewards unique or Seasonal items (currencies, lore books, Seasonal weapons, etc.) – can be completed as long as the Seasonal activity is in the game, but XP awarded for completing the challenge will only be available during the season it was introduced.
Let’s Talk Bright Dust
Back before Beyond Light launched, we discussed some of the goals around the changes to Bright Dust. As a refresher, we wanted to change the way you earn Bright Dust and move more towards account-specific paths to give players with only one character significantly more Bright Dust than they've been earning over the last year. In Season 13, we’ll be continuing to move toward these goals by adding Bright Dust onto Seasonal Challenges.
Since you no longer have to purchase weekly ritual bounties, each of the strike, Crucible, and Gambit Seasonal Challenges will award between 75 and 300 Bright Dust. We are also introducing an end-of-Season Bright Dust bonus – if you complete (nearly) all of the Seasonal Challenges, we are awarding a single 4,000 Bright Dust pile.
Additionally, each ritual vendor challenge (“Complete 8 bounties”) awards 120 Bright Dust for each character who completes it each week. And because this is prompted by the removal of weekly bounties, the only Seasonal Challenges that will be awarding Bright Dust are the ones that both Season Pass owners and free players can complete. Here’s a quick breakdown of how much Bright Dust you should expect to earn over the course of Season 13.

Seasonal Challenges Bright Dust (All Players)
  • Free Seasonal Activities – 6,000
  • Seasonal Extra – 4,000
  • Total – 10,000 Bright Dust
Season Pass Bright Dust
  • Free Path – 7,500 (All Players)
  • Paid Path – 3,000 (Players who own Season Pass)
  • Total – 10,500 Bright Dust
Weekly Ritual Vendor Challenge Bright Dust (All Players)
  • 120 Bright Dust per ritual vendor, per character, per week
    • 14,040 total if completing all required weekly Challenges over the course of Season 13
Additionally, we still plan to offer weekly and repeatable Bright Dust bounties for Seasonal events, giving you a bit more Bright Dust towards desired rewards.
As a final note, please be sure to claim all Seasonal Challenges that award Bright Dust prior to the end of a Season. Once a Season ends, associated Challenges and their Bright Dust rewards will expire and can no longer be claimed.
It’s always exciting when we bring a new feature online for Destiny 2. We hope that the changes detailed above make it easier to create goals to complete each week. As always, we’re eager to hear your feedback once you start finishing your first Seasonal Challenges, so please sound off with your thoughts!

Back to the Sandbox

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Every Season, we have a collection of changes to the Destiny 2 sandbox to spice things up a bit. This Season, we’re making some targeted changes to weapon archetypes that need some love as well as beginning some preparations for crossplay.
Dev team: In preparation for crossplay, coming later this year, we’re making some changes to the Recoil stat.
Currently, several weapon archetypes have their Recoil reduced by around 40% (dependent on archetype) when using mouse and keyboard. This results in an issue where players on mouse and keyboard are able to largely ignore the stability weapon stat, creating unintended discrepancies in weapon performance between controllers and mouse and keyboard.
The following weapon archetypes will have their mouse and keyboard Recoil adjusted closer to controller (reduced the difference from ~40% to ~20%).
  • Auto Rifle
  • Scout Rifle
  • Pulse Rifle
  • Submachine Gun
  • Hand Cannon
  • Machine Gun
In the case of Pulse Rifle, Submachine Gun, and Machine Gun, we will also be introducing some buffs. In some cases, these weapons will have less Recoil across both Controller and mouse and keyboard input methods compared to what’s in the game today.
  • Submachine Guns are largely outclassed by Auto Rifles at medium range, and by Sidearms at short range, with player feedback often mentioning how hard they are to control. To address this feedback, we’re introducing the following change:
    • Reduced camera movement from firing a Submachine Gun by 24%.
  • Pulse Rifles with the mouse and keyboard changes were kicking a little too much.
    • Reduced camera movement from firing a Pulse Rifle by 7%.
  • Machine Guns with the mouse and keyboard changes were kicking a little too much.
    • Reduced camera movement from firing a Machine Gun by 9.5%.
We will pay close attention to how these changes play out when they go live, and plan to revisit individual archetypes in a future update as needed.
Outside of Recoil adjustments, we will also be tuning a few weapon archetypes in Season 13. Looking through backend data and community feedback, we landed on the following:
Buffs
  • Rocket Launchers have fallen behind other Heavy weapons in most measures of effectiveness, we’re pushing them more into a burst damage role.
    • Increased Rocket Launcher damage by 30%.
    • Exotic Rocket Launchers have been adjusted individually and are affected by this change to different degrees.
    • Paired with the buffs to reserves from last Season, we’re hoping you’ll explode many more things in Season 13!
  • Fusion Rifle usage is very low, and they feel like an unreliable choice in Crucible compared to Shotguns.
    • Increased Fusion Rifle damage falloff start distance based on Range stat. (6% with 0 Range, 16% with 100 Range)
    • Reduced camera movement from firing a Fusion Rifle by 9.5%.
  • Breech Grenade Launcher usage is very low (outside of Mountaintop). We believe part of the reason is that the loop of "hold the trigger to arm, then release to detonate” is challenging to execute, particularly since projectiles can bounce off targets if the trigger is held
    • Breech Grenade Launcher projectiles will now detonate on impact with a character, even if holding the trigger.
Nerfs
  • While Sniper Rifle usage has dropped in Crucible, we’ve observed that it’s hard to challenge someone with a Sniper Rifle – even if you get the first shot on an enemy, they can often respond and win the fight.
    • Increased ADS flinch to Snipers when taking damage from other players
  • Swords are extremely dominant in PvE. At this time, 65% of players are using Swords for the majority of gameplay encounters in Destiny 2. While we are introducing a buff to Rocket Launchers to make them a bit more enticing, we feel that Swords do too much damage compared to other options.
    • Reduced Sword damage by 15%.
Exotic Changes and Bug Fixes
  • Some Exotic weapons lose their buffs when you switch weapons, which is intended. They would also lose their buffs when pulling out your Ghost Shell, which is not intended. Fixed that issue on these weapons:
    • Ace of Spades
    • Tarrabah
    • Hawkmoon
  • Borealis and Hard Light now have a custom (quite short) animation for switching damage type.
  • Duality
    • Increased damage falloff distance by 1.25m (while both firing from the hip and aiming down sights).
    • Reduced maximum buff stacks from 7 to 5, each stack now grants more of a damage bonus, extended buff duration slightly.
  • Sturm will once again reload any equipped Special slot weapon on kill provided the Special weapon's clip isn't full already and there's available reserve ammo.
  • Fixed an issue that was preventing Merciless from increasing its charge rate on non-lethal hits.
Ah, and before we go – we are planning to take a quick tuning pass on Arbalest. This won’t be ready in time for February 9, but we are expecting to have this touched later in Season 13!
Now, we know it can be difficult to understand the scale of buffs and nerfs without having these changes in your hands. Not to mention, there will be some new perks for you to hunt as you start navigating content in Season of the [REDACTED]. As always, we’re excited to see these changes out in the wild on February 9, and will be eager to hear your feedback.

Crimson Days

Each year, we look to February as a time to celebrate bonds of friendship throughout the community. Guardians have come to know this celebration as Crimson Days. It was one of our first “Seasonal” events in Destiny 1, a tradition that we carried to Destiny 2. While there was great enjoyment of Crimson Days, we feel that it’s been missing the mark in terms of quality over the last few years.
As such, we have made the decision to discontinue Crimson Days moving forward. While we’ll miss the event, this move will allow us to maintain focus for alternate Seasonal offerings, ranging from quests to activities and more. We have quite a bit planned for Season of the [REDACTED] and our hope is that we’ve maintained, or even improved, the quality you’ve come to expect from this upcoming release.
Some of you may be asking about the fate of Crimson Doubles, our once-a-year Crimson Days playlist. This mode is currently being shifted to the Destiny Content Vault but may return in the future.
Many thanks to every Guardian who has joined us over the years for this event. Crimson decorations may not be hung in the Tower, but we have no doubts that you’ll continue to form Crimson Bonds over the years to come.

BugTrax

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For those who may be new to the TWAB, welcome to the Player Support Report. This section is dedicated to known issues, active investigations, and pending updates for Destiny 2. Our Player Support team navigates the Help forum daily, collecting info on new issues and dishing out help articles.
This is their report on the most frequently reported issues of the last week.
CRUCIBLE TOKENS AND FRAGMENT QUESTS
Due to the updates to the vendor progression system, Crucible Tokens and Crucible Token Gifts are no longer needed and will be deprecated into Junk that will delete as a full stack starting in Season 13. Additionally, current Stasis Fragment Quests will be deprecated at the end of Season of the Hunt. Players are advised to turn in all Crucible Tokens and Crucible Token Gifts and finish all available Stasis Fragment Quests before Season 13 starts.
KNOWN ISSUES
While we continue investigating various known issues, here is a list of the latest issues that were reported to us in our #Help forum:
  • Stasis abilities can be difficult to distinguish between enemy and friendly for colorblind players.
  • The Double Trouble Triumph is unobtainable.
  • In the Deep Stone Crypt raid, the augment lockout timer occasionally resets during the final encounter against Taniks.
  • During the final fight against the Sanctified Mind in the Garden of Salvation raid, sometimes a shielded tether box can become tethered instead of the correct glowing tether box.
  • Hunter legs clip through the Ten-Grasp Sword Sparrow.
  • In the Last Wish raid, the Shuro Chi puzzle room plates don't work if a Titan bubble or Warlock well are placed on them.
  • The Titan Phenotype Plasticity Helm eye clusters no longer glow red.
  • Weekly and daily elemental kill bounties have stopped rotating off of Void.
  • When overcharging grenades while using the Voidwalker top tree subclass as a Warlock, Super energy stops charging.
For a full list of emergent issues in Destiny 2, players can review our Known Issues article. Players who observe other issues should report them to our #Help forum.

[Bird Noises Intensify]

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It’s been fun watching Hawkmoon clips and montages throughout the Season. With recently introduced random rolls, players have been pushing the limits of this Exotic, taking on 1v1 encounters in the Crucible that they may have otherwise avoided. This week, our top pick not only got a sweet roll on perks, but a killer roll on audio, too!
Movie of the Week: Ting Ting Ting Ting
Video Link
Movie of the Week: Deep Stone Lullaby Violin/Piano Cover
Video Link
Movie of the Week: …That’s a lot of Hawkmoon
Video Link
As always, if you'd like to submit your creation to be featured in a future TWAB, make sure to create a post on the Community Creations portal of Bungie.net.

Credit Where It’s Due

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Every day, we take a moment to scroll through various social media apps to take a look at community artwork. We’re always awestruck by the talents that many of you possess, and eager to share your works with a wider audience.
Here’s a quick roundup of some sweet art, and direct links to their authors. Give them a follow if you want to see more of their stuff!
Art of the Week: Art Sharing
destiny art share!!! spread the positivity, doesn't matter how frequently you do art or how many pieces you've made - post your favorites!! #Destiny2Art #DestinyArtShare pic.twitter.com/bq6hHJrCLD
— 🥀alex🥀🏳️‍🌈 (@miyagiie) January 25, 2021
Art of the Week: Eris
나는야 내일부터 월급쟁이 #냙서 pic.twitter.com/MI6Y6Gi1LY
— 🧅김냘본™🍺 (@NyarNyarbon) January 17, 2021
Cheers, and make sure to tag your content with some form of #Destiny2Art so we can find you easily!
That’s it for this week, folks. Season of the [REDACTED] is almost here. We’ll have some patch previews to cover in the TWAB next week, so stop by if you’re interested!
If this gets 7 likes we'll add a new LZ on Europa next Season.
— Destiny 2 (@DestinyTheGame) January 27, 2021
We’ll see you again next week, bright and early on Tuesday morning.
Cheers,
dmg04
submitted by DTG_Bot to DestinyTheGame [link] [comments]

I built a decent Gaming PC for $206 using used parts from my local area...

***WOW this post really blew up. I'm really grateful for all the great comments and awards. Thank you everyone. This was my second PC but I have been really getting more into the budget build route and so I'm glad other people are into that! Happy deal hunting :)
DISCLAIMER: I sourced these used components over the last few weeks in my local area (SF Bay CA). Where I live, there's a pretty good selection of used PC parts so your mileage will vary depending on where you live. But I just wanted to put it out there that many of you can definitely build a decent gaming PC for $200-400 if you are willing to spend the time to hunt for deals in your local area, especially if you live in/near a metropolitan area.
pics
Parts List
CPU: Intel Xeon e5 2620 v3 6 core/12 thread - $16 eBay
Motherboard: Asus Sabertooth X99 - $85 Craigslist
CPU Cooler: CoolerMaster Hyper 212 - $20 OfferUp
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 16GB DDR4 2400 MHz (CPU reads a max of 1866) - $40 OfferUp
Storage: WD 640GB HDD 7200 rpm - $10 Craigslist
GPU: EVGA GTX 960 SC 4GB (I actually bought 2 at once for $75 on Facebook Marketplace, sold one on eBay for $100 essentially GIVING me $15 (after eBay/PayPal fees) and a free GPU)
Case: Phanteks prebuild case w/ 3 RGB Apevia fans - $30 Craigslist
PSU: Corsair CX600 - $20 Facebook Marketplace
Total (including the $15 I gained from selling the extra GPU): $206
I can happily play CS:GO, Apex Legends, Fortnite, GTA V and many other games at 1080p at medium settings or better and get 60+ fps. With a better GPU and a little more money, you wouldn't have any issues getting much higher FPS.
So let's break down these components a little bit more and talk about which deals will be harder to replicate if you plan on doing something like this.
Firstly, the CPU is actually the easiest part to attain on this list. These can regularly be had for $20 off eBay. This particular X99 motherboard is VERY NICE for $85 (I actually got it for $70 but paid $15 for the OEM IO shield off eBay because it didn't come with one). It's a quality mobo with 8 slots for RAM so upgrading RAM on this will be as easy as buying another kit of the same capacity and as time goes by and RAM gets cheaper, you could just keep doing that if you wanted without having to get rid of your previous RAM. But finding this exact motherboard for the price may be difficult.
Luckily there are X99 motherboards being made out of China right now using recycled chipsets for about $60-120 depending on the particular models (available from AliExpress). Some of these motherboards are actually pretty good quality, but definitely do your research first. I recommend checking out Miyconst on YouTube. This Xeon/X99 setup is pretty popular in Russia and Brazil because of hardware prices and availability so this is a Russian Ukrainian guy who reviews all of these Chinese motherboards in great detail.
The CPU cooler will be easy to find for about that price. Even new, the Hyper 212 is only $35 but if you buy used just make sure you get the LGA2011-3 hardware necessary for securing it to the motherboard. $40 for 16GB of DDR4 is a good deal but I've seen this same deal pop up a few times but more often at $50. Finding used but working 500-1000GB HDD's for $10-20 is quite easy but I recommend only using this as a storage for games and re-downloadable files. I planned on having a m.2 SSD in this rig but accidentally bought a SATA m.2 drive instead of NVMe (SATA m.2 not supported by this motherboard) so I will still need to upgrade that. But any SSD for your OS and important files will do and you can find these for around $30-40 for a 256 GB SSD new, maybe $10-20 more for an NVMe.
The GPU of course is where the real bargain hunt will be. In 2021, GPU's are super overpriced but I had seen another 960 4GB for $40 in my area after purchasing 2 of them for $75 total, so getting one around $40-60 is definitely possible. This is where I'd upgrade first (after an SSD). Other higher performing options would be the R9 390 8GB (recently purchased one for $80 and another for $100), the RX 580 8GB (recently purchased one for $125 but seen them locally for $150) or even a 1080 (purchased one for $200 but have seen them go for $260 locally). Really, any decent GPU you can find for around $50-200 would be great with this build. I recommend referring to this Tom's Hardware List to see where GPU's rank overall when you're shopping for a used GPU. This part will be where you'll spend most of your time hunting, but those elusive GPU deals are out there!
This case was a good find but I had also received a FREE CoolerMaster ATX case not too long ago, with 3 140mm fans included, in great condition. People often give away or sell their cases for cheap because they take up a lot of space. Look for one with fans included and even better if it comes with screws/standoffs.
Finding a 500-700W PSU for $20-40 is not difficult but this is a component that many people would just prefer to buy new and I don't blame them. At least by 80+ Bronze if you go used. But honestly, I think I'd rather buy a used PSU from a reputable brand than a cheap, new PSU from some brand I never heard of.
Overall, this was a fun build to make and I love reducing e-waste so buying used is good for me. I highly recommend though that you have all the appropriate screws/hardware when buying used parts so ask about that stuff when you purchase something and if it's not included, buy that replacement hardware online before you start your build because it's frustrating to start putting your PC together and then realize you don't have enough screws, etc. It's a little more of a hassle but you can save a lot of money!
Feel free to ask any questions, this is only my second PC build (just started last month but have been diving DEEP into PC building rabbit holes online). But I hate when people on this sub instantly shoot people down asking about $200-400 PC's saying it's not possible. IT IS POSSIBLE, but you have to get creative and it also helps to live in certain areas I won't deny that.
submitted by Mattdehaven to buildapc [link] [comments]

£400* budget build for my son, we're both pretty happy with it!

Photos here: https://imgur.com/a/67P8dz5 First build in ~20 years...I decided to get the best gaming PC little money can buy, for Christmas for my 11yo son -- and, in all honesty, for myself too :)
He was playing the likes of Minecraft, Roblox, and various Flash games online, on an old laptop.
The guideline for the build was: budget £400, best bang for the buck, cut corners where possible.
I got to have fun researching and building. The kid got a gaming computer, an understanding of what's inside the black box, and hands-on experience. We both had a great time together!
TL;DR:
AMD Radeon RX 580 (SH): £125 Intel Core i3 10100F: £76 Gigabyte mobo: £58 Seasonic S12 III 550W: £50 256GB SSD + 2TB HDD: £0 (see below) Crucial 2x8GB, 2666 MHz: £40 CiT Flash case + extras: £40 Mechanical keyboard: £22
\* Grand total: £411. Close enough!
Do you think there's anything obviously wrong?
The long story, piece by piece.
Case: CiT Flash: £35
Could have saved £5 on something even cheaper, but it's a really small price to pay for side and front tempered glass panels and 4 oh, so bling fans! The kid loved it.The metallic walls are super thin, as expected. It's fine, just don't use it to hammer nails.
For the price, it turned out to be great: adequate hidden space behind the right panel for "cable management" (euphemism for the jumble of cables, but hey, they're out of sight), 4 very RGB fans (but not addressable, they just connect to a SATA power cable and there's a button to change modes)Unexpectedly, even the wife loved liked it!
The 3 front intake fans were place very close to the front panel, but were easy to move further back inside the case for more adequate air flow. One exhaust fan in the back. Positive pressure FTW!
It even has metallic mesh dust filters on top (magnetic) and bottom (not).The one thing it does not have is a dust filter where it actually matters - the front panel, which brings me to...
Ghetto dust filters: £5
I ordered a pack of dryer sheets and a strip of magnetic tape to hold them in place, and covered the front fans. Sorted, and I tell myself it doesn't look too bad!
CPU & Mobo: Intel 10100F: £76, Gigabyte H410M S2H: £58
I was sure it will be an AMD system (Ryzen 3100) for the longest time, but was swayed to the blue side by lack of availability or price hikes. The cheapest Intel motherboards were also a bit cheaper than the cheapest AMD counterparts.
It had to be a gen 10 Intel, to have some chance of upgradability later, without replacing the motherboard too.
The motherboard was the winner of the race to the bottom. No frills. 2 RAM slots (but hey, no way to install the RAM in the wrong slots!).
I assume it will support the current line-up of gen10 CPUs and future gen11's.In a couple years it will be time to look at the SH market for CPUs. [EDIT: It appears I was wrong. Bummer.]
Also, "BONUS"! - cheaper memory, since this combo only supports RAM < 2666 MHz. Thanks, Intel! \s
RAM: Crucial 2x8 GB, 2666 MHz: £40
Again, cheapest one that fit the bill. Black friday-ish price drop. No XMP. Oh well, Intel won't let me use faster RAM anyway.
PSU: Seasonic S12 III 550W 80+ Bronze: £50
Could have gotten something cheaper, but remembered the advice of our forebears:don't skimp on the PSU, don't meet the fire brigade.Seasonics are widely regarded as some of the more trustworthy PSUs, and this had enough power for the GPUs that would fit the budget.
Of course it's not modular. Why pay extra for modular when I can spend 5 minutes of my life to secure the unused cables to the case?
At some point I could have bought the 650W version for the same price, but I had already bought this one and had opened the package.
Storage: Micron 256GB SSD + Seagate Desktop SSHD 2TB SSHD, £0!!
Gutted an old laptop for the SSD.
Remembered I had a box of PC parts laying around, unused for years. There were a bunch of hard drives, one of which I was thrilled to discover had a quite decent 2TB capacity, and it's a SSHD! (is that even still a thing?)
GPU: Sapphire AMD Radeon RX 580 Pulse 4GB: £125 + blood, sweat and tears
I didn't expect it to run an eye-candy game like Forza Horizon 4 at 3440x1440, everything maxed out, at ~55 FPS. I'm impressed. So far, of all Xbox Game Pass games we tried, the only one that gets choppy is MS Flight Simulator.
The GPU saga
I started looking at GPUs in November. Was considering a GTX 1650 Super (new) or a GTX 980 Ti (SH), each going for about £140 and wondering if that's a good enough deal.
Then December 1st came and the global GPU drama kicked in!"You thought £140 was too much for a GTX 980 Ti? How does £210 sound? HA!"
For weeks, I couldn't find anything half-decent within the budget. I saw "recently sold" cards at decent prices, but they were getting sold so fast I didn't stand a chance. Xmas was getting closer and I was getting desperate.
So I wrote a bot.
It scours eBay and messages me when cheaper cards show up. The 'buying' part is manual.There are definitely other people out there that have automated the process, because the time to react for a deal seems to be 1-3 MINUTES!
That's how I could get my hands on the RX 580 for an acceptable £125! Xmas was saved!
Peripherals
Dell ultra-wide monitor, 3440x1440, 60 Hz: £0
I happened to have one around.
Keyboard: Aula Assault RGB, mechanical, £22
This one was firmly in "splurge" territory, but the kid was chuffed with the crazy lighting patterns and the (way too) clicky blue (probably knock-off - but still) switches.At the end of the day, £22 for a new mechanical keyboard (that turns out to be built like a tank) is not a bad price.
submitted by WharnBam to buildapc [link] [comments]

Lockdown 3.0 Things to do, plus help and support.

Disclaimer I want to thank everyone for the gilds, replies and suggestions. I just do not have time to reply to everyone, but I am reading everything. I am not sure how much bigger the thread can be, I already typed this but it vanished so I think I'm at the limit. I will try to keep updating, but I don't expect the thread to be up top for much longer and will likely vanish soon, so if you need anything save it.
Yes, it's hard, it sucks, it's depressing. It is something we all have to do if you want to see this virus go. Everyone knows the deal, too many think they're the exception but no one is. However, staying home is hard so maybe I can help at least one or two people with some incentives. I'll try to give links to some things that can help cure the boredom, and some support if you need it.
Most of this might be obvious to some, some might not even have internet and of course, money is a big issue, so I'll try to give some suggestions:
For streaming and on demand things such as Netflix et al, don't forget you can subscribe for free for your first month. This goes for most things in the list. If you are worried about putting in your payment details and forgetting to cancel a month later, don't worry! You can sign up and immediately cancel and you still get your free month!
For people who don't have a smart TV, you can buy a cheap Amazon Fire TV stick or a Roku box. The Fire stick can go as low as £20 often for 1080p. It will drop to £30 for 4k.
I picked up a 4k Roku device for £18 on Amazon once. It's fast and snappy. currently it's going for £33 for the 4k version. Having both, there is little difference between the devices. NowTV also do their own roku powered device.
Subscription based streaming sites that all offer 2-4 weeks free for first timers
  • Netflix *According to comments the second month is free.
  • Amazon Prime You can either get Amazon video on its own, or take prime with other benefits. I strongly urge those who use Amazon for buying off their store front to use [https://smile.amazon.co.uk/] as there is literally no difference except everything you buy amazon donates to a charity of your choice.
  • Now TV (I believe it's 7 days)
  • Disney+
  • Britbox
  • Amazon channels. I believe you can get all these individually but Amazon offers them as channels bound to your prime account, and they are again either free for a couple weeks (again, take them, cancel instantly) or very cheap. I recently subscribed to Starzplay for £1 for 3 months. It has some good shows on it like Fringe, doom patrol. It also has channels like Curiosity stream and shudder
If you have not subscribed to the any of the above, you can get a few months of free TV by signing up and cancelling instantly. I suggest waiting at least 5 minutes just to let it go through the system.
Some tips for Now TV. IF you already have a subscription, I've noticed you can get it cheaper by cancelling. When you cancel they will beg you to stay. Select "I can not afford it this month" and they should beg again, telling you what shows they have. If you say you still want to cancel, they'll beg one last time and offer you the subscription for cheaper. This won't work every month, but I've noticed they'll always offer it the first time, then again after a couple months. If you're subscribed to both films and entertainment do the most expensive one as it may not work both times (but it might!). You can also pick up passes from storefronts a lot cheaper sometimes, before I could pick one up on Amazon for £3 but, they seem to have cracked down on it. If you shop around (or if anyone knows of a legitimate store please let me know) you might be able to pick it up cheaper. Lastly, check their website and under your account they should have an "offers for you" section.
Completely free TV
If you do have a smart TV and/or device, there are some good free streaming apps. One I really love is called PlutoTV. I know this is on both Roku and the fire stick, as well as Ps4/Ps5 and xbox.
Pluto offers a bunch of live channels and now an on demand section, all for free. It has adverts but they are actually short (shorter than regular TV and fewer of them). Some of the channels are just streaming certain shows like Mythbusters 24/7 or Dog the bounty hunter, but it has a lot of old movie channels as well as 24/7 kickboxing and MMA. It also has a 24/7 poker channel I quite like.
Another one I like is Rakuten Viki however, I haven't watched it for a while as my fire stick is only 1080p and I have too many other devices attached. I believe it is on Roku but you have to jump through some hoops and have an account. The last I checked on the fire stick you did not. Viki offers a metric ton of Asian shows, mainly from Japan and South Korea but it does have chinese, Malaysian etc. It has subtitles. Some Japanese shows are hysterical, albeit weird.
Roku also do their own channels with free shows if you own a device.
For those who don't have a smart TV or a Streaming device, you can set up your own computer as a dedicated streaming device with Plex. It's been a while since I used it but I believe it now also offers free movies and TV.
Anime
If you are into Anime there is
The first 2 are free to watch, or offer premium without ads which you can have a trial with. Crunchyroll is the better of the two with more original choice for Japanese voice and subs, while Funimation has more Dubs. I don't believe HiDive is free to watch but you do get a 2 week trial. These are more exclusives than the previous two.
PC Centric software
If you are a gamer or like Audiobooks or anything that uses computers for things like music making, programming or graphic design
Humble Bundle offers, as per the name, bundles. A long running site that got bought out by IGN. It offers both single items and bundles you can buy individually/as a pack while also offering a separate monthly subscription for around £8-9. The subscription gives you 12 games on average per month. That's the simplest explanation but it changes somewhat as sometimes you get to pick 10 out of 14 games, or get all 12.
Humble bundle offers more than just games though. Every Tuesday they bring a new bundle of games, while Thursday (I "think) a new bundle of books. They very often have books from the Black Library giving you a ton of Warhammer books. Sometimes it's standard E-books, other times it's audiobooks. A few times a year they do bundles for graphic design, a typical bundle would include programs like Paintshop Pro Corel Painter etc, They usually go for £0.76 for tier 1 up to around £18 for tier 3, which would include 4-6 full titles with 10+ addons. They also often have Music making bundles or video editing software as well as Programming or video game development.
The bundles change often, they usually have around 11 bundles at a time that last for 20 days. Sometimes it's trash but they do often have some very good deals.
Fanatical offers the same as humble bundle except usually not as high quality, but sometimes they do have some incredible deals, and they are very very cheap.
Both humble and fanatical are safe, trusted and been around a long time, and they are NOT grey market key sites. They work with the publishers and developers. You can buy games both old and new for a lot cheaper than you would most other places. Unless it states otherwise, keys are usually for steam.
**BOTH HB and Fanatical (HB much more common) offer free games fairly often. The catch is linking your steam account to them (at least HB). It is safe however.
IndieGala is another site like above. Except, these are much much lower quality. However, they offer a metric ton of free games. Quality is low but it is legitimate, and a lot of free stuff.
Game Store Fronts
  • Steam This one is so obvious I didn't add it, but apparently many want me to. It is the best out there, and you can find almost everything, with fantastic deals.
  • Greenmangaming offers games cheaply. Again, not a grey market site (which are legal but unethical) and they sometimes do bundles.
  • GoG (Good old games) is a DRM free site run by CDPR, the makers of the Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk. They offer you games quite cheap and not needing DRM (such as Steam, Uplay etc which is less invasive versions of dodgy DRM from the olden days).
  • Epic Games Despite the controversy whether you care about their rivalry with valve, they offer free games ever week. Without ever having bought anything I have gained over 170 games. literally. Good games for the most part. They often give you £10 coupons as well.
  • Twitch Everyone knows twitch, but if you don't, it's a streaming service for watching gamers and girls with low cut tops accidentally bending over in front of the game. However, if you're signed up to prime, you get free games each month (and randomly between the set bunch).
  • Playstation Store Currently has January sales. Currently the free games for PS+ are for PS4: Shadow of the Tomb Raider and Greedfall. For the Ps5 it is Maneater
  • Games with Gold Bleed 2 and the King of Fighters XIII is available until Janurary 15th whilst little Nightmares is available until January 31st.
Gaming Subscriptions
Like the TV versions, you can sign up to these for a free trial (or very cheap). If you do sign up to only one at a time, it should keep you busy for a few months
  • Xbox Game Pass You can do this on both/either an Xbox or PC. If you sign up to the regular one, you can get a month (maybe three!) for £1. After you have done that, you can sign up to the premium version for 3 months at £1 a month. Most people know game pass, but you can download a large selection of games for free. The premium version gives you games with gold, allowing you to keep the games forever (but can only play with a subscription)
  • Ubisoft+ I'm not 100% sure if you get a trial or not. This allows a large collection of Ubisoft titles to play for £12.99 a month. Quite expensive but good if you like Ubisoft titles I guess.
  • EA Play EA's version. Goes by a ton of names I think, EA Access, EA Play, Origin Access etc etc. There's a couple of versions of this, and it is across all platforms (PS4/5, Xbox, PC) but not sure about the switch. I "think" the premium allows you to play on all platforms, while the cheaper one on a single platform, but I may be mistaken.
  • PS Now a once terrible service that is now actually very good. Allows you to download some Ps4 games to your PS4/5 and lets you stream a massive amount of Ps2/3/4 to your PC or playstation.
There's more like nvidia's service but you need the Shield device which is quite expensive. I'll leave it at that.
Audiobooks & Ebooks
  • Audible Not sure what the current deal is but if you are a prime member you can sign up for a trial and get a free Audiobook each month for 3 months. Some warhammer books are 48 hours long, 3 of those gives you a good 100+ hours of listening!
  • Comixology Another Amazon company, but lets you download some free comics I believe.
  • Marvel Unlimited No experience with this. ItFuckingWont wanted me to add it. A subscription service for Marvel.
Education
  • Sign Language BSL here No experience myself, suggested by n21brown and asked for a few times. Didn't know SL was so popular! Listed as "Pay what you can"
  • BBC's Bitesize here is apparently good for home learning. Again, no personal experience.
If you need some spare change
Okay, I don't generally bother with it, but maybe some of this could be useful to you. These are NOT a quick way to make a fortune. These are small things you can do over time for a bit of pocket change
  • If you have prime you can get a FREE FIVE POUND GIFT CARD by literally just streaming a song from Amazon music (which is included in prime) here is the details According to the comments it's only for select people, but it's worth trying If the link doesn't work for you just google "Amazon £5 coupon music"
  • Now, these sorts of sites have been around for years, I haven't used any other than talkInsights which I must have signed up to 10-15 years ago. Basically they send you surveys and you answer them. They are confidential and don't ask for personal details in the survey. You need 2000 points and you get £20. During the pandemic they've slowed down but I probably get around £40 a year. Not much I know, but it's an email followed by a quick survey ticking boxes. Depending on your answer sometimes you get screened out, I'm not telling you to lie but just be consistent with your answers and you should be able to work out how to not get screened. Some emails are only worth 20 points, others 200. It's slow to get to the 2000 but very quick to just answer a few questions.
  • Apparently beermoneyuk is a good sub to make some pocket change with.
  • There is also matched betting. I have never done this, I don't have the patience but from what I've read, it's legitimate, it works and you can make a fair amount of cash from it so long as you do it correctly, and there's a ton of guides. I mention this because people stuck at home could get into it and as long as you're careful (I.E not entering in the wrong numbers) it's risk free AND it pisses off the betting shops. It seems people in comments have had success with it. Disclaimer A couple have complained about gambling. This arguably is not gambling. If you are susceptible to addiction do not do it. However, it's argued that there is no fun or buzz in this, and it's a very tedious and time consuming thing. Others argue you can't make the same money anymore (People were making thousands, now only hundreds if that). It's risk free providing you know what you're doing, the risks are user error, such as entering the wrong numbers. Someone pointed out that due to the lockdown, bets could potentially be cancelled due to sport stopping. So use on a side of caution. We're (mainly) adults so I'll leave it up just because this doesn't have the excitement of regular gambling.
  • Microsoft Rewards This is an easy way to make pocket change doing very little. Most people have a MS account. The rewards program offers you numerous ways to grab points, by playing free to play games, answering small questions (you don't even need to answer most of the time, just open the link and shut it) and by using bing and searching on it. I've gotten 20k points JUST by answering questions over a couple months. There are many rewards but you can grab a £5 gift card for 6k for example, or a month of game pass (and AFAIK you can make points playing the games)
  • Google rewards Someone mentioned this in the comments. I have not used it, so can not give any input on it. Sounds similar to TalkInsights which I linked. Google states "Complete short surveys while standing in line, or waiting for a subway. Get rewarded with Google Play or PayPal credit for each one you complete. Topics include everything from opinion polls, to hotel reviews, to merchant satisfaction surveys. We’ll notify you when a survey is waiting."
That's it for now. I will try to update as I go along. A long post but I hope that it can help some of you with finding something good to do that's free, cheap or a bargain. I do suggest getting prime, especially since you get free music, free delivery, free TV and music and free video games each month. In fact, there's a ton of perks and I feel I've gotten way over the cost investment.
Hope it helps someone at least
PartTimeCrazy said if you bought an Apple product you get 3 free months of Apple Arcade and Apple TV free for a year
fakehunted is upset I didn't mention wanking. Tesco have 225 sheets of Tissue for £0.75!
tale_lost suggested Project Gutenberg for a collection of free E-Books
Learning Language
Unfortunately, I don't have time to check every link listed so I will link the comments:
Togtogtog Gives a lot of links for Spanish
Board & Tabletop games
Corporal_Anaesthetic has made a list of Board games
ilyemco suggested these
HEALTH
I'm not a doctor! But if you're a smoker, something I strongly suggest is to quit. I struggled for years but in the first lockdown I quit, technically. I haven't had a cigarette since, however, I do that silly thing millennials do. I vape, but, it made quitting extremely easy. I would not have been able to do it if it wasn't for 88Vape They sell extremely cheap liquids at £1 each. You can find these in B&M but you can pick up 25 for £20 or buy your own mix.
Vitamin D deficiency has been said to be a big problem for the virus. I'd suggest (again, not a doctor!) that you pick some up. Tesco do a 3 for 2 deal. So you can pick up 270 tablets for £7.
If you are vulnerable you MIGHT be able to phone tesco and get put on their delivery saver list (currently it's paused but phoning may help. At the very least they might give you a priority slot. I did this for my mum, we didn't shop at Tesco but I phoned for her, and they put her on with no hassle, so she can always get a delivery.
HELP & ADVICE
The lockdown Rules.
Reasons to leave home include:
  • Work or volunteering where it is "unreasonable" to work from home. This includes work in someone else's home, such as that carried out by social workers, nannies, cleaners and tradespeople
  • Education, training, childcare and medical appointments and emergencies
  • Exercise outdoors (limited to once a day). This includes meeting one other person from another household in an open public space to exercise
  • Shopping for essentials such as food and medicine
  • Communal religious worship
  • Meeting your support or childcare bubble. Children can also move between separated parents Activities related to moving house
I want to add, if you are in danger you are also allowed (and must!) to get away from the situation for some reason, BBC seems to have missed this very important thing (or I am blind)
Support
FOR THOSE SHIELDING YOU CAN CONTACT THE ROYAL VOLUNTARY SERVICE. These people helped my mother with picking up her medicine from the chemist. They were very helpful and went out their way to keep in touch and do it immediately. (It's the only experience I have with them though)
_riotingpacifist wanted these links added, but I simply just don't have the time to vet and check all the suggestions here, so I will link as is:
Update:
Digital Art
These are Free
  • Krita Arguably the best in my opinion. It has a load of options, brushes and a decent UI. It works fantastic with a tablet.
  • Gimp This is a decent program but last I used, the UI was a pain, and it isn't so user friendly while misses features, but it works, and it is possible to do some incredible creations on it.
  • Medibang Paint This is slightly geared towards Comics and Manga. I really enjoy using this with my drawing Tablet. As far as I know, it also for regular tablets for Android/Ipad and is free.
You can pick up a drawing tablet on Amazon quite cheap these days! Small ones that are just a black slate such as the wacom ones are good but takes some practice to get use to, but very worth it if you can't afford a dedicated drawing tablet with a screen.
Office suit software
A couple of free applications for word processing, spreadsheets etc.
  • LibreOffice This has most the average user would need to write their own books or to work from home. There's not a huge amount of difference between the two I'm linking (since I last used anyway) so it's more for preference.
  • Open Office You can pick this up here and again, like above it's just preference.
Music Making
I'm going to direct to matthewharris806 for some links as all the programs I've used like Reason are expensive, or cheaper stuff in bundles such as Magix software.
Games development
D_Dad_Default gives some links for that here
submitted by MrSoapbox to unitedkingdom [link] [comments]

Character Scramble Season 14 Signups

Signups are now closed! Click here to go to Tribunal.

If you haven't already, please fill out this form to finish signing up for Season 14. If you don't fill out the form, you won't be counted!

The Character Scramble is a writing prompt tournament where people compete to write the best story they can. At the beginning, everyone submits characters that meet specified guidelines. Then, the submitted characters are randomized and distributed evenly to all participants.
After each participant receives their team, the participants are slotted into a single-elimination bracket. Writing prompts are assigned and participants write a story that features their team fighting against their opponent's team. Afterward, everyone votes for whichever story they prefer, and the participant of each match with the most votes moves on to the next round. The pattern continues until only one participant remains: the new Character Scramble champion!
The champion chooses the theme, tier, and rules of the next Character Scramble. They also receive a temporary custom flair as their reward.
Click here to join the email list. If you join the email list, you'll receive an email for every Scramble post that is made.
Join the official Discord channel if you want to be part of a large, vibrant community of Scramble participants, or if you just want a quick analysis of your characters and tips for competing. The majority of Scramble discussion takes place on the Discord and we also make announcements and post links there first, so it's the best way to keep up to date on what's going on in Scramble.

Frequently Asked Questions

Character Submission List

Basic Rules / Scramble Process

  • Sign-ups will be from Friday, January 8 to Friday, January 29.
    • PLEASE NOTE: Signups will close at 7pm PST on January 29, and Tribunal will go up. Anyone who isn’t done when Tribunal goes up will have their incomplete submissions removed or will be DQed if they don’t have enough submissions after removal. GET YOUR STUFF DONE WELL BEFORE THE DEADLINE!
  • Each user who wishes to participate must submit THREE (3) characters that adhere to the rules listed in the Submission Rules section.
  • Users may also submit up to TWO (2) back-up characters that adhere to the same set of rules.
    • Users must specify in the submission that the character is a back-up.
    • If a main submission is deemed out-of-tier in Tribunal, the submission will be replaced by an entry from the back-up pool.
  • Users must also submit ONE (1) Devil Fruit as specified in the FAQ and may submit an additional backup Devil Fruit if they so desire.
  • Each character must be submitted in their own parent comment in this thread. Don't reply to your own submission comment with another submission; make a separate comment thread for each individual submission.
  • After you complete your submission posts for all of your main submissions and any back-up submissions, fill out and submit the submission form linked at the very top of this post.
    • If you need to make a change, just resubmit the submission form with the same name and new info. We'll use whichever version is newest.
    • DO NOT resubmit after Tribunal; we'll account for any Tribunal changes to rosters.
  • After Sign-ups is the Tribunal, a community-regulated place for users to point out characters they feel are over- or underpowered.
  • After Tribunal, the characters are scrambled so that every participant receives three characters.
    • In Season 14, each participant is guaranteed to receive one of their own submissions, but they will not receive more than one.
    • Participants also have the option to opt out of NSFW submissions and veto ONE submission out of the list of total submissions. (Users cannot veto their own submission.)
    • Links to a form for opt-out and veto will be provided after Tribunal ends and before the scrambling happens.
  • Every round, a prompt is posted. Players are expected to write about how their characters would defeat their opponents based on the prompt.
  • At the end of the round, the thread is locked and the voting thread is posted. Voting is done using Google forms.
    • Voting is mandatory; failing to vote in any round will result in disqualification.
    • If you cannot vote due to time constraints, message u/FreestyleKneepad and we can work around that.
  • After results are posted, the brackets are updated and the next round begins.

Theme & Tier / Submission Rules

The theme of Scramble 14 is One Piece, based on the manga/anime series about the Golden Age of Piracy. Your team will set sail on a globe-spanning adventure, from island to island, searching for the greatest treasure of all time. For more info, check out the Hype Post.
The tier benchmark for this season is Luke Cage (616), using a modified RT we have built specifically for this season's tier.Your submissions must score between a Likely and an Unlikely Victory versus Luke. For more information about what that means, check the FAQ.
The tier benchmark for Devil Fruit submissions is the following: Scramble Luke Cage (as defined above) with the abilities granted by your Devil Fruit must be able to achieve a Draw or Likely Victory against Scramble Luke Cage with the Punch-Punch Fruit, meaning he can launch fist-sized shockwaves at bullet speed that are equal in power to his own punches. For more details on the Devil Fruit submission process, check the FAQ.
You get ONE (1) major change for any character submissions and NO major changes for Devil Fruit submissions. However, we’ll allow you to remove a bunch of out-of-tier powers from a Devil Fruit submission without counting so many changes as a major change like we typically would, so don’t worry about that. Refer to the FAQ for more info.
  • If you aren’t competing and only submitting backups, you may submit 3 backup characters and 2 backup Devil Fruits. You must do the writing prompt for all character submissions.

Additionally, please adhere to the following guidelines:

  • Characters must be in tier.
  • Characters must be researchable.
    • The show, video game, movie, or other media from which your character originates must be accessible in some way, ideally online.
    • Your character must have a functional Respect Thread, so that people can understand your character's stats and abilities at a glance. It is preferable that your character's Respect Thread is hosted on the Respect Threads subreddit, but CharacteTeam of the Week posts or any real repository of cited feats are acceptable.
    • If your character does not have a Respect Thread of any kind, please at the minimum include a Mini-RT in the sign-up post with at least five combat-related feats that completely cover the character's stats and abilities.
    • VSBattlesWiki pages or similar sources are not acceptable Respect Threads.
  • You cannot submit characters that you have created, helped to create, or in any way developed.
    • If the GMs believe you have asked someone else to submit a character you created, we might ban that as well.
  • You cannot submit a character with feats based on a previous Scramble story. This rule prevents Scramble writers from tailoring characters to be submitted to future tiers.
  • You cannot submit controversial real life figures. No Trump, no Putin, no Kanye, none of that. The GMs reserve the right to decide what qualifies as "controversial."
  • While you can submit characters from NSFW series with risqué material (such as an ecchi anime), you cannot submit characters from actual pornography.
  • The GMs reserve the right to veto specific submissions under the "Dude, come on" reasoning. This clause may sound extremely abusable, but honestly we'll only use it for submissions we feel violate the spirit of the above guidelines or are otherwise deemed unusable, like "disaster movie lava" or "a swarm of bees with the consciousness of Steve Buscemi."
  • Characters from ongoing series remain at the balance level from when they were submitted.
    • If you get Goku on your team and Goku unlocks Super Saiyan Ultra Mega Deluxe with Curly Fries in the anime after the Scramble season starts, you don't get to add that power to your character. This rule applies to new feats, new weapons, new powers, and so on.
Not exactly rules, but some suggestions:
  • Because you are guaranteed to receive one of your own submissions at random, submit characters you actually want to write yourself.
    • Ask yourself: Will your hilarious meme submission idea actually be hilarious over the course of an entire writing contest, or will the joke get old immediately?
    • If you're only submitting a character because the act of submitting them is funny, don't submit them.
    • Along these lines, while some less controversial personalities like Jerma or Adam Sandler might be submittable, we’d just like to mention that these typically aren’t well-received submissions, as they tend to require deep-diving a Youtuber’s video library or actor’s interviews and movies, which balloons research by a lot.
  • If you don't have any ideas for submissions, it's recommended that you try submitting one of the many back-ups we're likely to have.
  • Sometimes people like different things, and that's okay. Don't hate on a submission just because you personally don't like the character or the series. And on the other end, you don't have to withdraw a submission just because someone else doesn't like them.
  • You are allowed to make changes to a character for the purpose of making sure they're in tier or otherwise clarifying what gear they have available.
    • There are limits to the number and magnitude of changes you can make; check the FAQ for more information.
    • In general, avoid submissions with changes that radically change the character, such as "Ferris Bueller with Iron Man's armor" or "Goku with the stats of Captain America."
  • Duplicate submissions aren't prohibited, but try to avoid submitting the fifth Spider-Man submission this Scramble. Check to see if someone else has already submitted your character before you.
  • Listen to feedback. You don't have to follow it, but if a lot of people are saying the same thing, at least humor the idea that they have a point.

Submission Forms

To submit a character, fill out the following form in a comment to this thread. Include either the writing or non-writing prompt. As long as all of the below information is included, you can reformat your submission post however you want for maximum aesthetic.
All three of your main submissions MUST use the writing prompt to count. Back-up submissions may use the non-writing prompt.
If you're not competing and only submitting one or more back-ups, you must use the writing prompt.
The form has changed since last Scramble, so be sure to actually read it.

Character Submissions

Name: The character's name.
Series: The name of the piece of media your character is from. You can add specifications necessary.
Biography: A quick summary of your character. Who are they? What can they do? Where are they from? What are they like? It doesn't need to be a novel, but a good paragraph of information is appreciated.
Research: A link to your RT or RT-substitute, as well as any other links that might help someone understand your character quickly. You may also suggest how much of the series someone needs to read/watch to get a good idea of the character.
Justification: Briefly outline why you think your character is in tier, and where in the tier they fall (Unlikely Victory, Draw, or Likely Victory—See the FAQ for more information). The non-writing prompt already covers some of this information, but to expedite the Tribunal process, at least give a sentence or two.
Motivation: Why has your character set sail for adventure? What great desire calls them to the sea and beyond? This is where you describe what your character is fighting for. Are they a pirate seeking might, fame, or riches? Do they have a deeper desire they seek to fulfill somewhere out there in the world? Perhaps, they don’t call themselves a pirate at all. Basically, why are they here?
Major Changes: Check the FAQ for what to put here. You only get one!
Minor Changes: Check the FAQ for what to put here. You get as many of these as you need, but don't go overboard.

Devil Fruit Submissions

Devil Fruit Name: The name of your fruit. Typical naming scheme is a repeating phrase (1-2 syllables) and then “Fruit” or “no mi”, depending on whether you're naming it in English or Japanese. Zoan-type fruits may have a broader classification, then have “Model: [Species]” at the end. Examples: Gum Gum Fruit, Mera Mera no mi, Ushi Ushi no mi, Model: Giraffe.
Devil Fruit Type: Paramecia? Logia? Zoan? Refer to the FAQ for an explanation of each. The actual function of the fruit only changes if you pick Zoan, which comes with specific parameters as well.
Character Name: The name of the character these powers are derived from.
Series: The name of the media this character is from. You can add specifications as necessary.
Description: What abilities does this Devil Fruit give? Outline them here. If this is a Zoan type, describe what is unique about this new form.
Research: A link to your RT or RT-substitute, as well as any other links that might help someone understand these powers quickly. Please specify which sections of the RT are being drawn from, and if it is not clear, please organize the feats in a comment below. You may also suggest how much of the series someone needs to read/watch to get a good idea of the powers, or what parts they can specifically watch.
Minor Changes: Check the FAQ for what to put here. You get as many of these as you need, but don't go overboard. Remember, you get NO major changes!
Analysis Versus Punch-Punch Luke Cage: What advantages does your fruit offer that can turn the tides in their favour? How does the tiersetting battle play out? What strategies can be used by someone with this fruit in battle? Delve into multiple outcomes, and different ways the powers can be applied. This section should be used as a space to demonstrate what your Devil Fruit can do in a combat setting.
Other Uses: There’s a lot more to life than just fighting. In the broader scope, how might this ability be used while not directly in combat? Perhaps it’s good for espionage, or surveillance, or maybe it’s just useful to turn into a dragon every once in a while. Be creative!
Best Case Scenario: What kind of character would benefit most by getting the powers of this fruit? Would it best benefit a tough bruiser with no ranged attacks of their own, or a flimsy spellcaster who could use the help protecting themselves? This might be helpful for the recipient to decide who to give the fruit to.

Prompts

All of your main character submissions MUST use the writing prompt to count. Back-up submissions may use the non-writing prompt. If you're not competing and only submitting a back-up, you must use the writing prompt.

Character Writing Prompt

Your character’s journey has begun, but there’s a slight issue with this whole thing: Navigation is really hard. Thus, they find themselves stopped in the quaint village of Orange Town, and in order to safely get anywhere else, they’ll need some help.
Luckily for them, if they can find a Log Pose, they won’t have to worry about this issue ever again! These babies make navigation a breeze by just pointing in the direction of nearby islands. How convenient! The only issue is that the only Log Pose on this island is in the possession of a fearsome pirate, and he doesn’t plan on giving it up without a fight.
Your character comes face-to-face with Captain Luke Cage, who’s just like Luke Cage but a pirate and mean and his feats are REALLY specific for some reason. If they want this Log Pose, they’re not going to be able to get it without a fight. Whether they lay down the challenge themselves or Cage decides he wants to make an example out of them, eventually the area clears out of any bystanders. You square off, and it’s time for the showdown.
After finally achieving their victory, your character is free to take the Log Pose for themselves and set off once again. Onwards, to another adventure!
Prompt Rules:
  • I’m Gonna Be King Of The Pirates!: There is no bad ending to this tale. For the purposes of Scramble, your story should always have your team or characters on the winning side. Let your story show how your victory is achieved! Even if the chances are slim to none, demonstrate how your crew is able to come out on top.
  • Cage Match With Captain Luke Cage (Cage Not Included): This fight is going to happen. Your character can’t talk their way out of it, or hightail it out of there before anything even goes down. No matter what your character is feeling about this whole thing, they better put up their dukes, or they’re gonna get rocked right into next Scramble. And they might not even be in tier for that one!
  • Luke Cage, More Like Colossus The Thing Power Man Mike Tyson of Mike Tyson Mysteries!: Maybe you wanna spice things up a little bit, hey, I feel ya. You can swap out someone for Luke Cage if you’d rather write them, but note that this change is purely cosmetic. The character will still have all of Cage’s stats and abilities.
  • Where’s Everybody Going? Bingo?: Sure, there may be other people on the island, but you’ll notice it said the area cleared out. For the purposes of tiering and simplicity, the only two around these parts are your character and ole’ Luke. Feel free to get wild; there’s no one else around to hurt.

Character Non-Writing Prompt

Analysis Versus Luke Cage: Go deeper into how your character fares against the benchmark. How their abilities match the tier's, how their stats counteract each other, specific instances that are likely to happen in a fight between them, and so on. Because this analysis serves as a replacement for a narrative, you need to communicate how your character fights (for instance, whether they rush in headlong or approach tactically and exploit weaknesses) and what that means for them fighting other characters.
Biggest Strength and Weakness: Discuss the best thing your character brings to the table in a fight (a tactical mind, unorthodox abilities, good stats, et cetera), and also what detriments or drawbacks they might have (a specific stat that's lower than the others, lack of ranged options, inability to work with others, et cetera.)
Character in Setting/with Team: Analyze the flavor of your submission. How does your character deal with other submissions? How does your character deal with the setting? Are they inclined to thrive in a world of piracy, or are their sensibilities suited to something else? How does your character deal with just being in a Scramble? Are they good at working on any kind of team, or will they just be a pain in the ass the whole way?
Role on Ship: This is just for fun, we're not separating the submissions by roles or anything, nor do you need to give a solid title or job to any character. That being said, what skills might your character bring to the table for their fellow crewmates? Are they a natural-born leader who gets the captain's hat, or do they just steer the damn boat? Are they doing that marksman thing? Maybe cooking? Perhaps even doctoring? Ya yo ya yo? You tell us.
submitted by FreestyleKneepad to whowouldwin [link] [comments]

Tactical Nuclear Warheads and You: A Neheb, The Eternal Decklist/Primer

Hey you. Yeah, you. You tired of playing the same Golos deck, playing two lands a turn, drawing into your combo pieces, and winning while the entire table finishes War and Peace on their phones? You bored with your Sultai landfall deck, where you play solitaire for three hours? Board police getting too much to bear?
Well, let me introduce you to your new best friend: [[Neheb, the Eternal]].
Now, if you've never seen Neheb before, I know what you're thinking. "Wow, that card looks absolutely absurd", and buddy, you're right. Neheb decks aren't as much EDH decks as they are high-score attempts, seeing how much damage they can dish out in a single turn. Damage doublers, triplers, pingers that only go face, and enough X spells to make Zaxara cry in a little Sultai corner.
You want infinite combats? Neheb. You want to [[Comet Storm]] for 80? Neheb. You want to burn that lifegain deck right back to the pit it crawled out of? YOU WANT TO PUT THE FEAR OF GOD INTO ANYONE WHO DARES CONTINUE TO LIVE? N E H E B.
STEP ONE: RAMP
While Neheb himself is both a beeftank of a man and creates mana like he's eighty mountains strapped to a rocket sled, Neheb works best when he's out, and five mana isn't exactly cheap. So, what do we need? The standard rocks and ramp, like [[Sol Ring]], [[Wayfarer's Bauble]], [[Mind Stone]], [[Arcane Signet]], [[Ruby Medallion]], you get it. We do, however, run a few interesting ramp cards.
[[Cryptolith Fragment]] comes in tapped, sure, but once we have our big Lazotep Lasher out, we can tap it for one mana in the main phase, and three (3!) mana in the 2nd main phase. The good news is that if it transformed, something has gone horribly wrong, so we're not even gonna talk about the back. If it does flip, though, nine mana in the 2nd main isn't bad at all.
[[Everflowing Chalice]] isn't a rock, it's a bank. If you have a ton of mana floating in the second main, and you will, Everflowing Chalice is a way to keep some of it and use it on turns going forward. You can replace this with [[Horizon Stone]], I guess, but Everflowing is just a bit faster, and remember: Horizon Stone is based on Kruphix, and he's Simic, and we blow Simic players into small chunks. Oh, also, we have better Horizon Stone.
THAT'S RIGHT WE HAVE [[Leyline Tyrant]] BABY. You want to float mana? Leyline Tyrant. You want an evasive beater? Leyline Tyrant. You want protection from removal in the form of Leyline Tyrant choosing violence and blowing up someone's face? Ley. Line. Tyrant.
You want mana? You want it NOW? Cool. We got [[Seething Song]] and [[Jeska's Will]] for all your mana needs. Turn 2 Neheb is always a bucket of fun. Black can keep [[Dark Ritual]], I bet they're casting single target removal with it, what a bunch of nerds.
Our mana doubler is [[Extraplanar Lens]] and [[Snow-Covered Mountains]]. We want mana. Not them. If they have snow-covered mountains, blow them up first. Cowards.
[[Chandra, Torch of Defiance]] has two +1 abilities: gain red red, or deal two damage to each opponent, draw a card, and get six red mana. She's here for her good +1.
Now that we have our mana online, let's talk about our two plans: Nukes and Dukes.
STEP TWO: DUKES
PART ONE: BOXING GLOVES
Neheb is a commander that likes to attack. Once he's out, we're going to want to have him swing probably ever turn, because even if he's blocked he goes right over the top. The issue, however, is that while he has 6 toughness, that's not a lot going into the late game. So, we've got some boxing gloves for our beeftank.
[[Darksteel Plate]] lets us not really worry about Neheb. Slap some darksteel on that lazotep and watch the haymakers fly.
[[Sword of War and Peace]] and [[Sword of Sinew and Steel]] give him protection from white and black, and also importantly, RED. We can use our X spells that also hit creatures with impunity once we give Neheb one of his twin blades.
[[Shadowspear]] gives Neheb trample, which lets him smack harder, and also, for two mana, you can remove indestructible and hexproof from an opponent's permanents. A glorious piece of tech. The lifelink can be nice, but it's, there to punch through. Speaking of punching through
[[Embercleave]] needs no introduction. If you're turning something sideways, Embercleave is always a great way to make sure it damn well hurts.
[[Swiftfoot Boots]] makes killing Neheb harder, and anything that makes Neheb stickier is good in my books. Haste is also an absolute plus. We don't have [[Lightning Greaves]] because we want to give Neheb more equipment than just lightning greaves, and shroud makes that harder than it needs to be.
PART TWO: SIDEWAYS CREATURES
If we're swinging more than once a turn, and we WILL be swinging more than once a turn, we want to swing with things that create effects that benefit from multiple combats. Enter our beaters:
[[Tectonic Giant]] swings once and deals three damage to everyone, or impulse draws. You swing multiple times with him and with Neheb in play, and boy howdy did you just draw and make a ton of mana. An absolute unit of a card.
[[Etali, Primal Storm]] is four free draws per swing. You swing multiple times with Stompy McCardsteal, and you've basically cast Villainous Wealth in red.
[[Neheb, Dreadhorde Champion]] is both real and not impulse draw and mana ramp. Swing, dump bad cards, get mana, repeat. EZ Clap.
PART THREE: TECHNICAL KNOCKOUT
[[World at War]] and [[Savage Beating]] gives us extra combats, with World At War having rebound to guarantee us extra combat the next turn and Savage Beating giving us double strike to combat trick like an absolute madman if we need to really add insult to injury.
[[Aggrivated Assault]] takes a small amount to explain. So, if we swing with Neheb, and he's unblocked, we get four mana. Tap a mountain, five mana, get an extra combat, swing with Neheb, go to the next main phase, EIGHT MANA, because Neheb cares about total damage of the turn, and checks every post-combat main phase, not your first one. That's right. We go infinite. Blow up the world, send out Neheb, and swing for infinite gaining infinite mana.
Also do not shout the names of the cards in this section because most of them are absolutely crimes and your pod will call the cops to stop you from beating their life totals into the dirt.
STEP THREE: NUKES
PART ONE: PRIMING FOR FISSION
Before we can bow up the world, we need to prime ourselves for it. To do this, we need to damage our opponents, and get our damage increasing abilities online.
[[Acidic Soil]] and [[Price of Progress]] are pretty much free damage. That guy who spent all game mana fixing? Yeah, he's getting shot for 16. The Golos deck? 30. Acidic Soil is there because it also counts basics, so the budget player who thought he was safe can get slapped for daring to play Magic as well.
[[Chandra's Ignition]] is 5 red mana for 12 red mana if you hit Neheb with it. It also board wipes. Slap it on Etali if you have protection for Neheb, and watch the world go down in fire.
[[Flame Rift]], [[Slagstorm]], and [[Fiery Confluence]] hit our opponents for dirt cheap costs. Three mana to get nine mana? two mana and four life for 12 mana? Treasonous Ogre is crying, he's been unemployed. Fiery Confluence is also a board wipe and a removal spell, which is super neato, as we're a mono-colored deck, so our toolbox isn't super diverse.
[[Combustible Gearhulk]] says "Give me draw or give me mana''. It's our Fact or Fiction, and much like Fact or Fiction, there are only bad answers. With an average CMC of 3, we're going to either draw three or get our mana back when someone takes 6 damage.
[[Pyrohemia]] says "pay one red mana: Gain three red mana". It's literally just Dark Ritual that is also removal. If you can't see why that's good I have no idea what you're doing in a red burn deck explanation.
[[Heartless Hidetsugu]] deals damage to each opponent equal to half their life total, rounded down. Deals damage. This isn't loss of life, this isn't 'becomes', Hidetsugu takes their life totals outside with a baseball bat and teaches it to fear the color red. Shadowspear on him makes you gain all the life they lost. If you have a damage doubler out, Hidetsugu says "Tap this creature, Win the Game." If he taps, and Neheb is out, one X spell almost guarantees a player death.
PART TWO: ROCKET FUEL
[[Torbran, Thane of Red Fell]] is not a damage doubler, but it does make our smaller pingers like Flame Rift, Fiery Confluence, and Pyrohemia absolutely backbreaking. Think of him as the initial charge.
[[Insult // Injury]] often time reads "Pay 3 mana: Your next spell kills a player". Injury is nice, but we're really here for the cheap damage double and to stop any damage prevention shenanigans. We're casting Insult when we know we can go off.
[[Fiery Emancipation]] Is here because, honestly, we make so much mana we'd be stupid not to run it. Six mana to triple damage when we make dozens of mana a turn is an incredible deal, and because it's one-sided, we don't have to worry about people killing us immediately with their tiny creatures. [[Furnace of Rath]] is two mana cheaper, yes, but importantly it doubles instead of triples, and also, uh, it doubles on US. We're trying not to self-destruct.
PART FOUR: DETONATION
[[Rolling Earthquake]] hits everything without horsemanship, so it hits everything. It's strictly better than Earthquake, because if we're casting an X spell, 80% of the time we're casting it because either A) We're about to lose or B) We're about to win.
[[Molten Disaster]] has split second, which makes it uncounterable, unreturnable, and uninteractable. It's our "YOU DARE PLAY BLUE?!" card.
[[Jaya's Immolating Inferno]] targets up to three targets. You will have three opponents in your pod. The math works.
[[Comet Storm]] is flexible, in that if you've already blown someone to kingdom come, it costs one less mana! So that's nice! It's also great target removal, and great with our newest card...
[[Toralf, God of Fury]]. Oh yeah. In this deck, a deck where we overkill everything, Toralf becomes an absolute monster. Earthquake everyone, and have the excess damage dealt to their creatures finish them off. The flip side of the card also goes mana-positive with Neheb, if we really need to get there and are just out of reach. This is a card this deck loves like your opponents love not being blown off the face of the earth by fireballs.
PART FIVE: CLUSTER MUNITIONS
[[Primal Amulet]] lets us copy our damage when it flips, and makes our damage spells cheaper before it does. It's easy to see why it's an all-star here.
[[Reverberate]] lets us copy something. Sometimes it'll be the counter that's trying to stop Jaya's Immolating Inferno. Sometimes it'll be the Immolating Inferno itself.
[[Reiterate]] is a multi-use reverberate, and we have the mana to use it.
STEP 4: THE REST OF THE DECK ThisIsn'tAStepButShhhhhh
HASTE
We want to give our creatures haste. [[Generator Servant]], [[Purphoros, Bronze-Blooded]], we can wheel away an [[Anger]] with ease, and [[Ogre Battledriver]] gives us a bit of oomph when our creatures enter the battlefield. Purphoros also functions as a sneak attack for when we want a creature to attack, but we don't have the mana to get it out.
DRAW
Look. We're in mono red, which means we have... one tutor that's halfway decent for our plan, and that's [[Gamble]]. We need draw. We're running a lot of it. [[Valakut Awakening]], [[Reforge the Soul]], [[Molten Psyche]], [[Magus of the Wheel]], [[Commune with Lava]], [[Cathartic Reunion]], [[Faithless Looting]] whatever we need to draw a whole ton, we have.
The real all-star draw card is [[Knollspine Dragon]]. Draw equal to damage to target opponent? In a burn deck? In a burn deck where our burn makes mana? Oh baby you best believe that when you slam this puppy down people are going to quake in their boots. From the dragon. And maybe from the Rolling Earthquake. Or the Molten Disaster. Whatever.
REMOVAL
We're not running much actual removal, because, well, A: Mono Red, and B: We're a player removal deck. If you want board control, or if you want a deck that doesn't feel like piloting a crashing roller coaster that is currently on fire, go play [[Zada, Hedron Grinder]]. We're here for the boom boom.
[[Vandalblast]] and [[Shattering Spree]] let us remove pesky artifacts, [[Blasphemous act]] removes board states for dirt cheap, and [[Chaos Warp]] lets us deal with one of anything.
[[Deflecting Swat]] is for anyone trying to touch our Lazotep Loverboy or for stack interaction when our [[Pyroblast]] fails to stop a counter.
LANDS
[[Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx]] is pure gas, [[Ancient Tomb]] gets Neheb out fast, and [[Rogue's passage]] gets us through chump blockers and deathtouchers if we need to swing with Neheb. Other than that, it's mountains, a [[Myriad Landscape]], and a [[Smoldering Crater]] to remind our opponents of the fate that awaits them and also some draw if we need it.
SIDEBOARD
For some, four X spells isn't enough. [[Fall of the Titans]] and [[Earthquake]] are easy to slot in, and for those who want more combat, [[Fury of the Horde]] is easy enough to get. [[Mana Geyser]] is great against landfall decks, [[Red Elemental Blast]] is good if your meta includes people who try to stop you from throwing the sun at them (Cowards.). If you want more draw, [[Apex of Power]] is a free draw 10 spell, and [[Dragon Mage]] is a [[Wheel of Fortune]] on a stick. Well, Magus of the Wheel is Wheel of Fortune on a stick ALRIGHT YOU GET IT.
UPGRADES
The easiest upgrade path for this deck is fast mana. [[Mana Crypt]], [[Grim Monolith]], [[Mana Vault]], [[Jeweled Lotus]] the faster you can pump out Neheb the better. They're not on this list because they're pretty goddamn expensive, and if you turn two Neheb people are going to focus you into the absolute dirt. [[Doubling Cube]] is neat, but honestly, it's just a but overkill.
Otherwise, upgrades include [[Wheel of Fortune]], your favorite Eldrazi Titan as a big ol' beater if you like the multiple combats, [[Sword of Fire and Ice]] is just the best damn sword we can get, and I'd say get [[Gauntlet of Might]] but for many people that card costs more than rent for the month, so just skip it.
GAMEPLAN
Step 1) Cast Neheb as fast as possible.
Step 2) Deal symmetrical damage, swing in.
Step 3) Go infinite with Aggressive Assault or cast a spell where X is, like, six trillion.
We're not interested in things like "Midrange" or "Control". No. We're Neheb. We're here to get high scores on the "How much damage can I make without going infinite" leaderboards. This is not a deck that does anything besides slam into people. It explodes. It goes absolutely haywire, totally off the rails, you'll need a calculator to check your mana.
This deck exists for one reason and one reason only: This deck is for Burn Timmies. Is it competitive? Eh. Does it win a lot? Eh. Does the fear in the eyes of your opponents make this deck worth it? Yes.
For your consideration, Nuclear Neheb: https://www.archidekt.com/decks/1072303#NUCLEAR_NEHEB
submitted by TheChowderhead to EDH [link] [comments]

[Discussion] Kaldheim Historic Overview & Top 10 Most Impactful Cards

Howdy folks! Zaalo here. I wanted to put a list together of what I think will be the most impactful cards in Historic as well as discuss the strategies that get better and some fringe/new decks that may get enabled. I’m really excited for the set and think the card flexibility of the MDFC Gods will allow for exciting games with multiple lines of play and a varied meta game, the likes of which we haven’t seen in Historic. There is also some mainboard Uro hate that slots perfectly into both popular existing archetypes and exciting new ones. Being impactful doesn’t necessarily equate to power. I considered the following criteria when evaluating these cards for Historic:
-How often it will see play. If it slots into multiple archetypes, I tended to rate it higher
-Whether or not it enables a new archetype and/or causes a fringe deck to become Tier 1-3
-How it interacts with the meta; if an archetype or card will have a heavy warping effect on the meta
-Flexibility & raw power
Lets jump in!
Honorable Mentions: Pathway Lands/Snow Basics
Smoother land bases for Simic, Azorius, Rakdos, and Golgari. 'Nuff said. While I don’t think we’ll see snow decks running rampant, there’ll be a few good ones in the meta, even if they only end up seeing fringe play. There is one snow deck that I expect to be VERY good.

10) [[Niko Aris]]

Tempo decks are coming back! All of Niko's abilities are solid. Their first -1 will have more relevant targets than people realize, and it'll be very easy to pop off a shard or get some other card draw to take out a creature. [[Paradoxical Outcome]] hasn't really seen any play since the release of Kaladesh Remastered, but I think Niko could make that happen. I like the idea of running [[Authority of the Consuls]] on 1, controlling the early game with [[Seal Away]] and [[Baffling End]], getting down Niko, and then casting Paradoxical Outcome to get your early removal and Niko back, wiping their board next turn. I think Niko will be much better in Pioneer where you can T3feri, Spell Queller, Niko durdle to lock your opponent out. Still, I think this does enough, pairs well with Kaya, and has lots of building potential to make some waves in new Azorius/Esper tempo archetypes. Of note: one thing that makes this card a huge liability is that it is the only Planeswalker with a triggered ability, which means your opponent can destroy it before you get to activate them. Additionally it can get blown out if you pop a shard to kill an x/3 or x/4, and then get targeted by removal before you can activate.

9) [[Cosima, God of the Voyage//The Omenkeel]]

This is one of the more difficult cards in the set to evaluate, but I think it will end up being really strong in addition to its flexibility. Firstly, the stats on this are good; having a 2/4 body on 3 can stall a good amount of decks, and a 3/3 is a clock against control decks. You're reliably going to be able to hit land with your Omenkeel attacks, and even when you don't, you've taken away their spells. Vehicles line up really well in the format already, since they dodge removal, and can leave you a blocker even if your other creature gets removed. The best ability here is clearly being able to exile Cosima and use her as an engine to go toe to toe in the long game. Like Niko, I think this card's natural home is a tempo deck where you've got powerful ETB creatures, but probably most naturally fits into Simic where you're ramping anyway.

8) [[Reidane, God of the Worthy//Valkmira, Protector’s Shield]]

Wizards did a brilliant job on the design of this card. I can’t think of a more flexible hate card in the history of Magic. The problem I see with it is that it’s not doing work a lot of the time. In the current meta, it’s only punishing 25-30% of decks, with Goblins, Sacrifice, Control, and Paradox Engine being the most commonly played strategies that it nerfs. That would probably relegate it to SB play, right? Probably, but the reason the design of this card is so great is because it serves to balance the meta game should particular strategies become popular; this card allows for a constantly shifting meta since it can become a frightening mainboard threat against some dominant and powerful strategies.
Some things to keep in mind that are keeping my expectations tempered:
-I can’t see this being played mainboard in non-aggressive strategies. A 2/3 isn’t what you want in a control deck. I’m not sure what a W/X midrange deck looks like in Historic, but maybe it would have a natural home in Orzhov Angels if that becomes a thing. Right now it only slots into G/W CoCo, and once Kaldheim gets released, I think a white weenies deck is viable.
-it begs you to hit it on curve. The tax on 4 CMC is the most relevant ability.
-Valkmira's target taxing effect will likely be largely irrelevant...the taxing effect doesn’t come down til T4 (or maybe T3 in CoCo). If you get it down on three it could do some work, but is taking a turn off for a marginal tax that your opponent can play around a good play? Probably not. And by T4 the effect is largely obsolete.
-the snow mana clause will likely be largely irrelevant. The Historic builds that will make use of snow are: Sultai/DimiTemuSimic, which will often already be online or have access to removal by the time Reidane gets down; Mono U Tempo is probably going to be the best snow deck and can easily counter or bounce her. The other potentially viable snow strategies are likely to be fringe: Mono B/Dimir Zombies and Big Red - both of which have some great support cards and ARE prone to getting punished by her snow hate ability.

7) [[Usher of the Fallen]]

WOTC has nerfed 1-drops the last few years, so seeing an above rate creature with upside that slots perfectly into White Weenies makes me think we’ll be seeing a lot of this card in any aggressive, go-wide strategy. Also, the Spirit and Warrior types matters and may enable some tribal or party decks down the line. We’ll see how far these strategies go in the format, but this lil guy can at least bring them to the brink.

6) [[Tergrid, God of Fright//Tergrid's Lantern]]

This card is insanely powerful AND synergistic. The problem is that it costs 5 mana, so in order for it see play and not get blown out, you need to have free sacrifice and/or discard outlets (and ideally away to ramp into it). Rakdos builds will likely fall by the wayside, and give way to Jund Food and Jund Sacrifice, which will reliably be able to cast this and [[Immusturm Predator]]. These decks will be way more powered than the Rakdos builds and likely just as consistent. Tergrid breaks mirror matches wildly in your favor, punishing your opponent's game plan. Another place this could see play is Discard decks...[[Skull Raid]] is exactly what those decks were craving and I think we'll see Tier 3 [[Tinybones, Trinket Thief]] builds that use this as a payoff. Doom Foretold decks could also

5) [[Birgi, God of Tales//Harnfel, Horn of Abundance]]

Could we finally see a good storm deck in Historic? There’s already some decent burn decks that use Thermo-Alchemist — if they splash blue for Curiosity, that could be a house. It seems decent in Mono R without having to go all-in on cantrips. And those aren’t the only archetypes this could see play. Rakdos Midrange will love this card. If this survives T3, they’re able to have much more productive T4’s than they otherwise would — often times they’ll have to choose between dropping a Chandra, Torch of Defiance and having it die the next turn, or using a Fatal Push and falling behind on tempo. This allows those decks to double spell, stabilize the board (kill 2 creatures) AND have a Chandra, Torch of Defiance in play, ready to tick up. The back side will be amazing and help close out games in which it’s stabilized but doesn’t have any answers in hand. Graveyard decks can also maybe make use of this to; being able to multi-spell in the decks is really good. I’m thinking of dropping something like a Venture Deeper (Merfolk Secretkeeper) and Unburial Rites in the same turn. I think this will be a heavily played 2-3 of in a variety of decks.

4) [[Mystic Reflection]]

this is my favorite card in the set, and hell, probably my favorite blue spell ever printed. This does so much:
-turns an upcoming Elder Giant into a dork that can’t Escape its new destiny
-is an effective conditional counter spell against planeswalkers
-can upgrade your creatures/downgrade your opponent’s; this has all sorts of fun build around implications and can flip tempo on its head (I’m most excited to brew a donate style tempo Role Reversal deck in Pioneer with Firedrinker Satyr, Faerie Impostor, Bonecrusher Giant, Brazen Borrower, etc.)
-is an instant-kill combo piece (this + Terror of the Peaks + double token generation = 20 to the face)
-is affordably costed and can become even cheaper to set up your combo turns
Where it’ll see play:
u/x Combo Decks - the current Lukka deck is not good, but I think with the addition of Mystic Reflection, we’ll be seeing this all over Historic (and Standard)
Mono-U Tempo - functioning as a more flexible counterspell that can transform your weenies into beaters and your opponent’s beaters into 1/1’s that they won’t have much use for
Azorius Control/Esper Tempo - I think the control decks will want to move toward a more creature-laden tempo-oriented build. Mainboarding Skyclave Apparition is really good and being able to get them and other strong ETB back to your hand with Niko and Kaya can help you maintain control of the game.

3) [[Ascendant Spirit]]

I’ve spent too much time on Reddit trying to get people to see the light on this card
This is exactly what Mono U Tempo in Historic was missing. Having a mana sink on turns where you don't counter a spell or flash something in is really huge for that deck. It doesn't immediately pair well immediately with Curious Obsession, but it doesn’t need to since you’re still running your other evasive creature suite. This also allows you to lower the curve of the build.
Now let’s in to play pattern — if you play it out T1, your T2 you have the option to either cast a flashy boi, counter their spell, bluff a spell, play a non-flash flyer (likely the weakest option in most scenarios), or pump this. If you’re playing against Valki or another incredibly strong 2 drop, you can keep that mana open to counter it. If you’re playing against aggro you can leave it open to bluff blocking their T1 threat with a 2/3. If you’re playing against control or removal, you can drop an additional creature and bluff [[Spell Pierce]]. Now let’s look at what happens when you draw this card T3 (or later). Play it on 3 with two mana open, leaving up mana for a counter spell. If you don’t counter anything, you invest the mana to make it a 2/3. Your next turn: you can make it a [[Tempest Djinn]] on their turn (or yours if you really want to push through damage). So you’re turning this into a creature that’s going to have about the same stats as TJ most of the time and allowing yourself to stay on game plan by leaving up mana to counter problematic cards and win gain incremental value.
I've seen some people talking about this in Spirits or multi-color builds, but I'm skeptical that you could make the land base reliable enough to take advantage of the mana sink.

2) [[Doomskar]]

I think this just straight up replaces Wrath of God in control. Being able to cast this on T3 is a huge upgrade and gives the deck a fighting chance against aggressive decks, where it has been struggling lately. It also grants you a certain amount of bluff equity since most control decks will want to run [[Behold the Multiverse]] in conjunction. Being able to hold it up if your opponent doesn’t commit to the board and you have other answers in hand further lends to its flexibility. Having a solid control deck in the meta is a strong check on the other decks in the format.

1) [[Valki, God of Lies//Tibalt, Cosmic Impostor]]

I was initially pretty disappointed in the card. I thought it would have pretty narrow building restrictions because I believed that any deck that wants this has to care about casting the Tibalt side reliably (this still may be true). As a result, I had thought that Jund and ramp strategies were the only options. I’ve since come around and think that it’s completely busted and will see a lot of play in several archetypes. Here’s my overview on the card:
Unlike most legends, he’s rarely dead in multiples since you can have Valki permanently copy their creature and then drop another Valki.
While copying an Uro on T3 is great, how about casting Tibalt on T3?! [[Release to the Wind]] builds seem very real to me in both Historic and Pioneer, and will only continue to get more great targets with the MDFC’s abound in upcoming sets through the year. Adventure cards play really nicely with RttW as well and I could see a new type of Reanimator build with Merfolk SecretkeepeStitcher’s Supplier. Doom Foretold decks may also want to splash red for Tibalt/RttW. The best Grixis decks that include him, I think will want to focus on cheating him out rather than controlling the early game to cast him late. I believe that the best decks that make use of him will be the ones that try and ramp or cheat him into play as opposed to more classic control strategies.
There are so many ways to cheat Valki into play from your graveyard- Lurrus, Call of the Death-Dweller, Inscription of Ruin, Elspeth Conquer’s Death, Claim//Fame. It’ll be interesting to see how effective a reanimator deck is, and with all the GY fillers/and way to recur creatures, I think we’ll get a few decks with intersecting archetypes.
Play patterns: I think most people are a little too high on the Valki side. Playing this on T2 is what you want to be doing against a lot of decks. It’s too fragile to just about any removal spell and paying 2 just to see your opponent’s hand and draw out a removal spell doesn’t seem great. It seems much better as a midgame card, where you can activate the ability the same turn it comes down. The play pattern will likely change depending what you’re playing against, but I predict that more often than not, playing Valki on curve isn’t what you want to be doing.
I think Tibalt will boost the popularity of these fringe Jund Midrange, Grixis Control, and possiblyRakdos Midrange, and will likely give birth to a “Release the Adventures Reanimator” deck pairing Release to the Wind with DFCs.
Other Cards Worth Mentioning

[[In Search of Greatness]]

I was initially a sour-sport to the players who were bullish on this card. And while it’s been incredibly overrated, mostly because people seem to miss that the free cast only counts other permanents (so you can’t play a free 3-drop on T3), this does have some powerful implications, albeit incredibly narrow.
In order to effectively build-around it, you need to:
-have ways to keep refilling your hand and/or tutor cards; the enchantment asks A LOT to go off. Not only do you need to curve out and keep your permanents on the battlefield, but you have to have the right card in hand at the right time AND an additional good spell in hand to gain a tempo advantage.
-only play high CMC creatures (if at all); as payoffs. Taking a turn off to play ISOG and then curving into a three-drop creature only to have it die before your upkeep means you’ve probably already lost. To avoid this, I’d only be playing enchantments (which dodge most removal spells) and spells at the 1-4 CMC slots.
Thus, the only place I think this could see play is in Abzan, Bant, and 4-Color Doom Foretold decks or Selesneya Prison decks. It’s far more likely to succeed in a Doom Foretold deck, since there’s good card draw options in Omen of the Sea, though having access to Idyllic Tutor to get the Solemnity + Nine Lives lock online is pretty janky and if you HAD to play a 3-drop creature, Setessan Champion does what you want it to do. That said, I still think this card asks too much, and that it’ll be bad if you don’t play it early.

[[Skull Raid]]

This card is a major role-player that the Tinybones discard strategies were desperately missing. When testing Mono B, Dimir, and Grixis discard decks post-Jumpstart, I was usually losing because I wasn’t drawing enough discard when I needed it, had dead discard spells in hand, or was not able to draw into my finishers fast enough for my opponent to stabilize. This card is so flexible and plays great on curve. Foretelling this on 2 into Waste Not and Thoughtseize T3, and having a flexible spell on 4 can destroy a lot of more powered decks. Tergid is also a solid top-end for the deck. I think in order for this to be a tier deck, it’ll need a symmetrical draw effect that doesn’t punish or tax you too badly.

[[Immersturm Predator]]

A resilient flyer and free sac outlet that breaks the mirror match in your favor and snipes Elder Giants from GY's will definitely see play and keep sac decks in the top tier. Jund Food/Sacrifice will be the go-to builds.

[[Old-Growth Troll]]

There's no denying this card's power and it will definitely see play in the Mono G stompy (and possibly even G/b decks). The problem is that those decks are already really crowded at the 3-drop slot, so while slightly upgrading the deck, it doesn't really do anything to break new territory.
Tribes
It's hard to say how well tribes will fare in Historic, since we haven't really seen how well the new tribal payoffs play. Most of the decks don't seem to have enough support or be powerful enough to make the cut in Historic. Here's my breakdown of the Kaldheim tribes and their potential impact on Historic:
Elves: [[Elvish Warmaster]] seems underpowered - it fights for a slot with [[Dwynen's Elite]], but has no immediate impact. I could see the decks including 1-2 still, but its hardly an all-in card. [[Tyvar Kell]] is a sideboard card that can help play the long game against Midrange and Control. [[Realmwalker]] is crazy good ([[Experimental Frenzy]] on a stick) and what I like best for this deck. It'll be meta dependent, whether it's a mainboard or sideboard card, but if the deck sees any significant tier play, it will be because of this card. Golgari elves doesn't seem to make sense in Historic, since there's not any really payoff for doing so, and Mono G may also be able to make use of snow cards. Overall, I'm not all that impressed with the deck, but could see it bumping up to T3 on the back of Realmwalker.
Giants: I could maybe see an Izzet or Grixis Giant control deck being a thing. You don't need that many Giants in your deck for it to tick, but I think there's better and stronger things to be doing in the format, and a lot of the Giant payoffs you'd be in for are just prone to getting turned off before you get the benefit. Probably fringe play, but nothing special here.
Angels: Of all the tribes, I think Angels got the most best cards, but not synergistic for an Angel-tribal deck. That said, I think there are enough lifegain pieces for a Tier 2 or 3 deck to be viable. It would likely be very different than the [[Soul Warden]]/[[Heliod, Sun-Crowned]] decks floating around. The curve plays really strongly here with [[Speaker of the Heavens]] and [[Bishop of the Wings]] with [[Resplendent Marshal]], Reidane, and [[Righteous Valkyrie]] all viable options on turn 3. These decks will also have access to two really good anti-control cards in [[Glorious Protector]] and to a lesser degree Redaine, who can delay their board wipes. If any of the tribal decks get there, I think this will be the one.
Zombies: [[Narfi, Betrayer King]] is Death Baron’s best buddy: a lord that’s great fodder for [[Cryptbreaker]] and ETBs at instant speed. This is so powerful. Zombies may very well make some waves in Historic in a Mono B or Dimir build. There's still a few pieces missing for this to be a top tier deck, but I think it could see some play and will eventually get there (WOTC, I think Gravecrawler is acceptable for Historic Masters 4). The deck wants an additional discard outlet, another good 1 and/or 2 drop zombie, and could’ve benefited from an additional cheap snow card. The downsides of a Mono B vs a Dimir build is up for debate: on the one hand, Mono B has a consistent snow mana base so you can reliably cast him from the GY but get punished if you get him stuck in hand; on the other Dimir has more building options and a way to hard cast him (not what you want to be doing) but an unreliable snow base for recursion. If I were going to build this deck, I'd start with Mono B, but I'm likely going to wait until we get the things I mentioned.
Berserkers: While [[The Bloodsky Massacre]] is one of the best sagas on its face, there just isn't enough tribal support for Historic. In Standard and Pioneer though...
Warriors: There's some good Warriors in the set, but nothing strong enough that I'd choose it over another aggressive strategy.
Changelings: These are roleplayers to make other tribal strategies work. Not happening.
Dwarves: Magda's day in the sun will come, but there isn't enough support for her yet. I think she's the card to watch in anticipation of the D&D set.
Trolls: LOL...nope
Sagas
The Sagas are interesting in that the Uncommon cycle is likely to see more play than the rares. I think in general, most of the sagas won’t see play except occasionally in fringe archetypes. The only ones I think will see play in any tier decks are:
[[King Narfi’s Betrayal]] - This is a great enabler for graveyard strategies and feeds into your game plan right away as opposed to [[Battle for Bretagard]], for example. It’s second and third modes are also extremely powerful for three mana, and still does a lot of work if you only get one creature or PW out of the deal. Yes, it's slow, but it does everything a Reanimator deck wants to do for only 3 mana.
[[Showdown of the Skalds]] - Could very likely be a two of in the top end of some aggressive Boros strategies. I haven’t seen any decklists that would suggest a tier player here, but there may be enough in this set for some party decks to thrive…a Naya CoCo deck similar to the G/W lists we’ve seen could also makes use of a card draw beefer-upper like this.
[[The Trickster-God’s Heist]] - Switcheroo is a unique effect, and this is a great tempo flip in [[Doom Foretold]] lists against midrange decks that could also break the mirror; I’m here for swapping a [[Treacherous Blessing]] for an [[Elspeth Conquers Death]].
[[Arni Slays the Troll]] - I don’t see too many Gruul lists running [[Domri’s Ambush]] anymore, but depending on how the meta shakes out, this could be successful in a hyper-aggressive, weenie/mono R dominated format (which I think we’re unlike to see).
[[Kardur’s Vicious Return]] - This is likely too slow for the sacrifice decks, but with discard decks getting an upgrade in [[Skull Raid]] and Tegrid, I think this slots in wonderfully. Sacrificing a [[Burglar Rat]] to stabilize the board and then further fuel your game plan in the coming turns is solid.
A Beloved Archetype Gets Tools
Big Red snow gets a lot of things to bump this archetype up! Unfortunately, as long as Aether Gust is in the format, I don’t think this deck has a real shot. That said, it gets a lot of great cards that will almost certainly get better with the D&D set this fall. [[Goldspan Dragon]] is probably on par with [[Glorybringer]]; and in some situations, ramping will be the stronger option. [[Toralf, God of Fury]] can upgrade your board wipes out of the SB. [[Tundra Fumarole]] allows for some tempo blowouts, especially when paired with Chandras. [[Frost Bite]] is an amazing piece of early removal to help you control the early game before you go off. [[Birgi, God of Tales//Harnfel, Horn of Abundance]] is very powerful in helping you go off with two big spells in the same turn and get you a card advantage engine in the late game. It also has access to Demon Bolt (which is probably worse than Redcap Melee out of the SB). Magda is very good too, but doesn’t have enough support yet.
Sign-Off
While Kaldheim took a fairly big power dip overall compared to recent sets, I think there are some brilliantly designed/flexible cards that will give birth to a diverse and powerful metagame.
I also predict that Uro will NOT be banned, and think that may even be the right call (I hate the card as much as the next player). This set offers powerful maindeck answers that are part of your game plan in Valki, Mystic Reflection, and Immersturm Predator.
Let me know what y’all think! Did I overlook a card? Am I overrating certain strategies? What do your top 10 lists look like for the format?
submitted by BourgeoisMystics to spikes [link] [comments]

[Mobile Gaming] How the Nyan Cat led to the death knell for a popular mobile game- the downfall of RWBY Amity Arena.

Note: Many of the links are to the Amity Arena Library, a website devoted to the game which includes tracking the history of it through patchnotes and a running history of what cards entered and left the meta. Their website was a valuable resource for this post.
Mobile gaming has taken off like a wildfire since the advent of the smartphone boosted the average processing power a phone could carry. Initially it took the form of crossing over older, more easily runnable games onto the mobile market to... mixed success, but in recent years we've seen both the West and East use mobile gaming to replace the old fashioned movie tie in game. It's easily accessable, has a much wider reach than consoles or PC, you can take it on the go and standards are inherently lower for mobile games than they are a full 60 dollar game.
Since the 2010s, mobile gaming has shifted to what's called the "Freemium" module. The game itself is free to download and start playing, but is insideously designed with obnoxious paywalls or artificial limiters put in place to limit how much you can play each day. If the game is part of a pre-existing franchise, additional money can be made through a premium currency or a chance to obtain high-powered units by rolling a slot machine random chance mechanic. And thus, gacha gaming was born. This sub has had several threads in the past on high profile gacha games, such as the monolithic Fate Grand/Order, Pokemon Go or Genshin Impact. One of the more popular things to roll for in gachas as a consequence is wallpapers for your homescreen, especially for high-grade units as they're usually animated to move a little bit on the homescreen. Today we're looking a low to mid-tier gacha game that rose and fell with the advent of one catgirl. Let's talk RWBY.
RWBY is an online web anime made by Rooster Teeth focusing on four prospective monster hunters who get embroiled in a world-spanning shadow war. It's of debatable quality in matters of animation, combat, voice acting, story, worldbuilding, romance, and it's kind of a little racist if I'm being honest, but one of the major positives of RWBY is that the series tends to have good character design. Series creator Monty Oum set in the guidelines for the show while making it that most if not every design should be made to be cosplay friendly, hence why most of the outfits have things most costume designers haven't heard of like... pockets. And Rooster Teeth, above all else, likes making money. So they know people like RWBY's character designs, enough so that in 2017 plans were made to release a gacha game themed around RWBY called Amity Arena, which would be developed by Korean company NHN Entertainment.
Amity Arena is a PvP tower defense game. Each player controls two turrets and a tower and has three minutes to use units themed from the show to destroy the other player's structures. Whoever took out more wins, destroying a tower is an instant victory. When the game launched, it had three tiers for units- Common (generally held for mooks or low-tier characters in the show), Rare (roughly protagonist-level or elite mooks go here) and Epic (High tier characters usually with an active ability that did lots of damage or stopped enemies in their tracks). The game launched in October 2018 to generally positive reviews from both mobile game players and RWBY fans alike. Fans were happy to get a lot of new official art for the characters in the game and the base gameplay loop was fun. Criticism at the time was largely themed around the lack of content besides PVP matches and some issues with the meta but overall, the launch went well. Each month, the developers would add new units, including popular characters like Neopolitian, Cinder Fall, Zwei the dog, and more.
But everything changed with February 20th 2019, which introduced Neon Katt, the titular catgirl (RWBY characters are themed around fairytales, except for Neon, who is themed around Nyan Cat, and her partner Flynt Coal, who is themed off a potentially racist joke made by Rooster Teeth).
Neon is a character from RWBY Volume 3 who's part of a team that RWBY face during a tournament arc. Her partner, Flynt Coal, was part of the game at launch, and Neon would join him a few months later. Neon in the show is a cocky fighter who taunts the heroes and zips around on rollarskates, which in-game is represented by Neon skating towards the nearest enemy structure to her and hitting it, while all units within a radius of Neon are taunted and provoked into attacking her above all other targets unless they-selves are coded to hit structures. On its own, not a bad idea for a unit, but Neon came with four big caveats:
From the word go, Neon is an unpopular unit; she's clearly overbalanced and elements such as the Disco Bear glitch have players thinking she'll have to get knocked down in a nerf- she'll either be made slower, more expensive, or able to die pre-hitting a structure, right?
Neon doesn't show up in the next patch. Instead, before she's fixed, an entire new class of units called Legendaries are introduced, and this is where the game goes full gacha. Legendaries were meant to represent the highest tier characters in the game, the ones who were either the most popular characters or the highest-tier fighters in the show. Or in some cases, the popular ships such as combo cards for White Rose (Ruby/Weiss), Bumblebee (Blake/Yang) and Flower Power (Ren/Nora). Legendaries, representing their value, were impossibly rare and had an infinitely small chance of actually appearing (The most reliable method was to buy the premium chests and hope you'd roll a Legendary, which often cost tons of money), and if you did get one, there was no way to guess which Legendary you'd actually get. Some such as White Rose and Adam were high tier units, others like Hazel or Checkmate were... kinda broken at launch. The playerbase isn't happy at this, especially as free to play players are left out in the cold and reliant on the game giving them high tier units effectively out of pity.
Neon would get a small nerf in the April patch which lessened her taunt range and killed the Disco Bear meta, but her invincibility would be left untouched, even as players submitted feedback regarding how to make it more efficient. The official Amity Arena discord has a weekly feedback section on Tuesdays where players could submit up to four suggestions on how to nerf/buff units and general requests for quality of life such as "Can this character get a new skin from this part of the show," or "Can we have an option to lower music volume that's not just muting all music?" (they never did add that second request) Neon would then remain in this state until the November patch, despite constant weekly requests for a Neon rework, and all it would do is make Neon functionally mortal, in that she had a flat shield bar of 20 that would be lowered by one for each attack before the next hit would kill her. Neon could now die... but your chances of actually doing enough damage to stop her were slim, and regardless, you were now at a serious Aura defecit.
It took seven months for this one unit to get a substantial nerf, all while the game added new units every week and the number of units being affected by patches each month began to gradually sink. To round up some of the major issues people had with Amity that developed throughout 2019 alongside Neon's general existance making life hell:
Unfortunately, the Novemember patch did little to stop the problems with Neon, and a new problem would rear its head for Christmas: Jinn. This unit embodied many of the problems players had: She was a Legendary so it would be hard for free players to get her, and only added to the sheer number of Legendaries that were out there. She was another structure card, and she was horrifically broken. Stopping time for seven seconds in an area around any friendly units, Jinn broke the game overnight, with players horrified at how little playtesting she'd clearly had. Most chip units now couldn't damage structures as Jinn simply could stop time and freeze the turret for the duration of the attack. And to make matters worse? She cost two Aura, meaning it was very easy to cycle a deck and start Jinn spamming.
And yet at two aura she was still one of the only cost-efficient Neon counters... until they patched her to be worth three Aura instead. Talking of the feline menace, January saw Neon get a HP nerf that set her shield at 14. Finally, Neon could be realistically be taken out, still at an Aura defecit but at least it can be countered and now they just have to raise her Aura- why are you buffing her game?
Less than a month later, Neon got, of all things, a buff. Her HP shield was set at 20, and her attacks now did double damage. This is around the point where a lot of players begin to suspect the developers aren't listening to feedback and more long-term players dip out or drop the game. Neon got touched one more time in April, which slowed her down (which itself was a problem as Neon's lessened speed on spawn simply made her better at generating aggro), she dealt 10% less damage and made it somewhat easier to hit her enough to kill her, but a new problem was on the horizon. Because Neon was now no longer the game's White Whale for patches.
Meet the White Fang Gunner Barracks. Added in September 2019, the Barracks fell under many player's radar simply because they were horrifically undertuned. Their gimmick was that every few seconds, a White Fang Gunner would spawn, with three spawning on death. In April, as Neon got her last appearance in the patches, the Barracks got a huge buff and became the centerpiece of the meta; they now spawned two Gunners, which made them immensely valuable for just five Aura. You could overwhelm many anti-swarm units before they had a chance, and shred your way through turrets.
The Barracks would then go six months before this overtuning was rectified, barring one nerf in August that lowered their health to try and stem the tide of units. To sum up every other thing that went wrong during the year meta-wise:
As OctobeNovember comes in, the players are getting more and more furious. The weekly feedback includes a near constant demand for an acknowledgement from the developers given how often it feels like the feedback is being ignored. The social media team get caught several times hyping up how the coming patch would address player concerns, only for said patch to lack those units. The meta has been locked down to the Xiong Family, Flynt, Launcher Nora, Spider-Mines and the hell-cat herself in Neon. Everyone runs at least one of these, people run meta decks not because they want to, but because it's the only way to have a chance of victory.
And then in December, things implode. The patch for the month was set to launch on December 10th with the monthly event missions. But when the clock rolls around, the event missions (which usually take about two weeks to do if you're doing as many as you can a day)... has a six day timer. And the update doesn't come out. The art team doesn't release new unit art. The shop has no special timed bundles. There's no patch notes. And then the Twitter team who've been hard carrying the game through... actually talking to the players and acknowledging the grievances they have... admitted that they don't know what's going on either. The best guess is that the devs have come down with Covid, but no statements to confirm or deny this leave it as guesswork. The timer eventually got reset and people could do the event, but then on Christmas itself, another issue.
Ruby has appeared in the plaza on Halloween (her canonical birthday) and Christmas, and if you go talk to her you get free stuff. But on Christmas people, people discovered that Ruby was talking as if you'd already talked to her. Because they hadn't updated Ruby yet for 2020. She still thought it was 2019 so if you'd talked to her then for goodies, she had none now. They patched it eventually but a lot of people didn't see this fix before the timer ran out to get the free stuff.
Some have resorted to memes to cope with the fact that the game just seems to have died out of the blue. Others have been trying to desperately rally the players and find a way to save it. Some resorted to friendly mockery of the whales who'd spent thousands on a game that seems to be dying (seriously though gacha games need to curb this shit but they won't because whales are godsends for their bank balances).
If the game doesn't get an update in January then two months without new content will mark the end, and the already significant playercount drops will only increase. And it's hard to say if any one thing could have turned Amity Arena's fate around beyond just "Have a better balancing team who can respond better to feedback." Neon began the time of death, but by the time December rolled around the meta was in a horrifically toxic place where if you wanted to make any progession, you had to get down and dirty with the pigs. The team just constantly failed to balance problem units outside of their emergency hotfixes of Jinn, and more often then not they went after units and buffed or nerfed them at random going off playcounts to determine what needed fixing instead of the actual written feedback they were getting. It's clear from the references to the show and some of the attempts to reach out to the community that at least one person in the team genuinely wanted to make the good appealing to RWBY fans, but somewhere during the game's lifespan, they lost their way. Less focus needed to be put on how to milk the players, and instead focusing on making a game sustainable and enjoyable enough to warrant the cosmetics and emotes. The game's failure ultimately isn't on the playerbase. It's on the people who were actually making the game who chose to slack off because they thought it acceptable to do so.
Thanks for reading.
EDIT: HOT OFF THE PRESSES, I JUMPED THE GUN
Had I waited one more day, my story would have had a far more sudden ending, as the game just announced its shutdown for January.
RIP.
submitted by GoneRampant1 to HobbyDrama [link] [comments]

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