aeolitus's recent activity

  1. Comment on Magic: The Gathering ban and restricted announcement in ~games.tabletop

    aeolitus
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    I think ultimately a kitchen table game with a stable group of players that know each other and make sure to keep decks compatible is neither what the ban list targets nor where it needs to apply....

    I think ultimately a kitchen table game with a stable group of players that know each other and make sure to keep decks compatible is neither what the ban list targets nor where it needs to apply. Your group sounds lovely, and your decks sound fun and not oppressive! I wouldnt be surprised if your friends agree to just let you keep playing those cards, given that you have good data to back up your decks not being op?

    When I play, I usually play with randoms at a LGS. While this rarely has happened to me, I have sat down with a deck on a power level of upgraded precon, communicated with the table that this was the power level we all wanted to play, and found myself facing a deck that was very much not that power level - fastmana, free interaction, the whole deal. And that sucked. It was not a fun game, it's an awkward social interaction to then kick a player off the table afterwards, nobody left happy.

    To me, the commander banlist seems to be aimed at this kind of situation: an attempt at making a bit of a rule zero that applies by default. I don't think it's perfect at that, but I would say most cards on the list fall in this kind of category - so unfun when somebody just plays them out of nowhere that unless it's agreed to by the players, it's safer to ban the cards by default.

    Now, these three cards (nadu is a different story as just a design mistake) are not exactly the kind of "I win in an unfun way" cards like Iona, Flash or Biorhythm. But I believe they represent something I wholeheartedly agree with targeting: the idea of expensive staples that are so good, so expensive and so bland, you kind of would want them in any deck - and if you don't play them, it's often for budget reasons (unless your group explicitly banned them, which most didn't until yesterday). I don't think that adds any fun, complexity or spice to the format - it makes it more explosive, more homogeneous and raises the barrier of entry. And I am happy to see some movement to address that.

    Besides, has this impacted your snakes on a plane deck that badly? If no, is the ban really a problem? If yes, isn't that indicative that maybe these cards were a bit too much?

    7 votes
  2. Comment on Magic: The Gathering ban and restricted announcement in ~games.tabletop

    aeolitus
    Link Parent
    Is that a very casual view though? Those three cards are all decidedly non-casual in my view - I have a single deck I'd even consider playing at the same table as a deck running any of these,...

    Is that a very casual view though? Those three cards are all decidedly non-casual in my view - I have a single deck I'd even consider playing at the same table as a deck running any of these, because I can't possibly match the explosiveness otherwise and refuse to invest hundreds in must-plays to keep up otherwise... If dockside is an auto include for you, I'd take that to directly mean that you play high power to fringe already - do you disagree? Does everybody in your playgroups play these cards?

    14 votes
  3. Comment on How the hell do I clean a wok? in ~food

    aeolitus
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    You can use soap just fine. The concern comes from older soap that uses Lye, which can damage the coating. Normal dish soap nowadays does not contain any, so it's fine to use. Generally, the best...

    You can use soap just fine. The concern comes from older soap that uses Lye, which can damage the coating. Normal dish soap nowadays does not contain any, so it's fine to use.

    Generally, the best way I find is to clean it right after use when it's still hot with water, but stubborn residue can absolutely be scrubbed off with some dish soap and elbow grease. Just make sure to dry the wok well afterwards, and potentially oil it a little.

    26 votes
  4. Comment on Moviegoing is a Latino family thing — and it's been the key to US summer box office successes in ~movies

    aeolitus
    Link Parent
    A solid mix of noisy people, tons of ads, uncomfortable seats and overpriced concessions, of course :) Jokes aside, there are a few cinemas that still deliver great experiences - but the average...

    A solid mix of noisy people, tons of ads, uncomfortable seats and overpriced concessions, of course :)

    Jokes aside, there are a few cinemas that still deliver great experiences - but the average chain cinema can just go die already, I don't see why I would ever want to go to one again.

    6 votes
  5. Comment on Neutrinos: The inscrutable “ghost particles” driving scientists crazy in ~science

    aeolitus
    Link Parent
    Correct, they were a prediction first, like most things in physics. Just another case of a science journalist not being familiar enough with the subject matter trying to spice up the article...

    Correct, they were a prediction first, like most things in physics. Just another case of a science journalist not being familiar enough with the subject matter trying to spice up the article...

    12 votes
  6. Comment on Embezzlers are nice people in ~finance

    aeolitus
    Link Parent
    Thank you so much for pointing that out - I spent all of today glued to my phone reading #9, which is really more of a novel than anything else. Not sure how this came to be on some random law...

    Thank you so much for pointing that out - I spent all of today glued to my phone reading #9, which is really more of a novel than anything else. Not sure how this came to be on some random law page, but my week has been improved considerably for it! What a touching story of age, guilt, responsibility and closure.

    3 votes
  7. Comment on I’m a microbiologist and here is what (and where) I never eat in ~food

    aeolitus
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    The statement "Do not eat meat if its internal temperature is less than 70℃ (158ºF)." already lost me... Sure, if your primary goal in life is to avoid food poisoning, that might be justifiable....

    The statement "Do not eat meat if its internal temperature is less than 70℃ (158ºF)." already lost me... Sure, if your primary goal in life is to avoid food poisoning, that might be justifiable. But otherwise, people do tend to eat for pleasure, and cooking meat to that temperature ruins most meats.

    So the question is, am I to interpret this as an insightful look into a germaphobes head, or as advice? Because if it's the latter, the authors priorities seem far out from what I'd consider normal, and it overshadows all other advice for me for the remainder of the text - how serious should I take their other advice if this simple tidbit is already so far from what I'd consider reasonable? I guess it ultimately depends on where in the safety vs pleasure scale one falls, and the beginning already signals to me that the author is very far away from me.

    As an aside, the authors position also also just seems wasteful to me - advocating to never take home leftovers might be safer, but it's also a very unsustainable position in a country with massive portion sizes and an unfathomable amount of food waste.

    31 votes