Board and Card Games

I just read through that MTG Salvation article on him. That sentence about needing the complete destruction of Zendikar isn't cited (so ??? don't know what it's founded in or what the authors actually wrote), and Checking in on the Planeswalkers has promising take on him getting his spark back for a much lesser cost:

> The Lithomancer imprisoned Ob Nixilis beneath the earth and embedded a hedron into his skull, extinguishing his spark and suppressing his magic. [...] With the hedron removed [by Jace], Ob Nixilis has been unshackled. At last he can feel his power returning, and he eagerly awaits the opportunity to regain his spark . . . and take his revenge.

murgatroid99

Yeah, that one was kind of vague about that

doppelgreener

Oh, here we are: Dreams of the Damned, penned by Ob Nixilis himself.

> The power is returning to me. I felt this world shudder when Bala Ged was destroyed. In that moment, I could smell the Multiverse again. My spark is within reach. I know what I must do. And that the only cost to regaining my spark will be the complete obliteration of the world I hate most among them all?

He may be being a bit overdramatic here.

So, theory: Ob Nixilis had to free the Eldrazi to regain his spark. He did so. He has his spark back or is getting it back. And now the Eldrazi are here, which he considers as good as Zendikar's complete obliteration.

(which is a pretty reasonable way to consider it)

murgatroid99

12:43 AM

But Ob Nixilis wasn't responsible for releasing the Eldrazi, as far as I can tell

That was Nicol Bolas

@doppelgreener And since he only felt a sliver of power returning after the already freed Eldrazi destroyed Bala Ged, I don't think the thing about destroying the world is an exaggeration

doppelgreener

Hm. He did get his original spark ignited through absolutely everyone in his home plane dropping dead simultaneously via terrible rituals.

murgatroid99

Anyway, my point was that the paragraph you quoted is describing things that happened after the Eldrazi were released, so "I know what I must do" is not referring to releasing the Eldrazi

doppelgreener

Oh, right. That changes things.

murgatroid99

Most likely, he's going to try to help the Eldrazi kill the plane

doppelgreener

I'd theorise he might be helping with whatever Kozilek's doing underneath, but that might be like suggesting an ant might help a human construct a bulldozer.

murgatroid99

12:52 AM

@doppelgreener Well, it does describe him digging and finding something, so that's reasonable. And he is much more powerful than a mere mortal

doppelgreener

Oooo, fun. Then he might still be an ant, but he might be a useful ant who can do something Kozilek can't.

murgatroid99

He probably doesn't have the power level of an Eldrazi Titan, but I think that providing substantial assistance to one isn't beyond his abilities

doppelgreener

is or isn't?

murgatroid99

*isn't

doppelgreener

Yeah, he could be doing something handy. I'm interested to see what. :D

murgatroid99

12:54 AM

The Chain Veil probably granted him extra power when it transformed him

You know, it's actually looking like that Chain Veil is getting quite important to the story

It's currently in possession of Liliana, who used it to cause Garruk's current transformation. Garruk, who is now weakened by the very hedron that used to bind Ob Nixilis. And Liliana's story involves this mysterious planeswalker "The Raven Man", who I expect to become relevant at some point

Since Liliana is the only Origins walker not involved in this block, I expect that she'll be important in the next one

In other news, the Battle for Zendikar Prerelease Box will be an actual deckbox

doppelgreener

1:09 AM

But no seed pack ;_;

Still, that is fantastic.

murgatroid99

I haven't had the best experience with seed packs. I'm happy to go without

My Origins seed pack had Noble Hierarch

doppelgreener

Honored Hierarch?

And yeah that is underwhelming :(

murgatroid99

I didn't play it in my deck

0

Q: Zendikra vs Eldrazi

Is the new duel deck zendikra vs eldrazi consider standard until the battle of zendikra comes out? I have been playing it for a few days and I don't want to waste money buy more of those cards if I can not play in standard.

magic-the-gathering

Is the duel deck even out yet?

diego

1:26 AM

I think it came out last Friday

doppelgreener

@murgatroid99 Yes.

murgatroid99

OK, I'm pretty sure the general answer to that question is "No". Those decks have cards that were last printed in Zendikar and definitely won't be reprinted

Oh, there's a dupe. That makes it simpler. But I would feel a little dirty almost-unilaterally closing it as a duplicate of a question I asked and answered

doppelgreener

2:53 AM

@murgatroid99 I don't think it's a dupe.

murgatroid99

Why not?

doppelgreener

Is the new question the same question, and do our answers look alike?

The new question's motivated by confusion about the relationship of duel decks to standard decks, especially when they're previewing soon-to-be-standard cards.

That's not answered by a "here's how to check if your cards are legal," it's answered by "here, let me explain the situation around duel decks to you."

murgatroid99

@doppelgreener That's not exactly what "duplicate" means, though. A question is a duplicate of another if it is covered by the other

@doppelgreener But I see your point here

doppelgreener

Mm, I don't think they're close enough in this case to consider this one covered.

Or rather "you can maybe find the answer somewhere inside this one if you understand the subject enough to know how you're meant to find the answer in there".

which doesn't cut it for newbies :(

murgatroid99

The thing is that the reason that older question exists is so that we can avoid "Is [list of cards] legal in [format]?" And in some ways, this is a subset of that. But I guess this is specifically focusing on the fact some new "sets" don't count for standard, which is somewhat orthogonal to the other question

doppelgreener

3:01 AM

Oh yeah, this is radically different to that question archetype.

I mean part of it is ("are these cards standard / going to be?") but.... we'd be doing a disservice to them to pretend that "here's how to check your cards are standard" fully answers the problem they're facing, as I mentioned.

Rainbolt

1:10 PM

@doppelgreener They didn't ask "going to be". You made that up.

doppelgreener

@Rainbolt ok.

Rainbolt

1:26 PM

Is there a site that has more spoilers more quickly than MythicSpoiler?

I know they were added within an hour of the announcements at PAX because I was watching it live

I think that would be the best place to go if you want the latest information on what is "going to be" in standard

I say standard, but they have spoilers for non standard legal sets too. That would be important to note

doppelgreener

WotC does hosts a thing in PAX? They don't do that in Aus. D:

Rainbolt

I think it was PAX...

Now I'm not sure. Roommate shoved the laptop in my face and made me watch

Mark Rosewater spoke, and Doug whatshisname

They also announced an art book. You can buy an art book for this set and it is pretty thick

It has sketches and finished pieces from the old zendikar and the new one

doppelgreener

I saw that! They had a news article on it a couple of days ago.

It does look super pretty.

Waterseas

4:40 PM

To invest in Zendikar Expeditions or not to. That is the question.

murgatroid99

This is the first set where I bought a box. Though "investment" is probably the wrong word for me, because I likely won't sell anything I open

Waterseas

Well also tis actually a low chance of getting a Zendikar Expedition in a single box XD I mean, actually specifically buying the single.

With intents to resell at a later time for a higher value

murgatroid99

Oh, right, I misread that part

Waterseas

I figured XD

murgatroid99

From what I read, there's actually a fairly good chance of getting an Expedition card in a box

Waterseas

4:45 PM

Really? Tis slightly less chance than getting a foil mythic. It's currently estimated at 1/200 per pack.

mtggoldfish.com/articles/…

murgatroid99

Oh right, one per case, not one per box

Which means that you have about a 1/6 chance of opening one in a box

Waterseas

5:39 PM

Mmhmm

Rainbolt

6:57 PM

NSFW: This needs deletion votes.

murgatroid99

7:10 PM

I was too late

Rainbolt

Haha

You didn't miss anything

diego

Sorry, I'll try to be slower next time :)

Rainbolt

Just the old "spam as many offensive things as I can think of in a two sentence post" deal

murgatroid99

Oh, I can see the answer. I was just expressing my disappointment that I didn't get to delete it myself

Rainbolt

Oh, right. I forgot that it remains

I momentarily forgot that delete doesn't mean delete

murgatroid99

7:29 PM

Yeah, pretty much nothing on this site is ever permanently deleted. Though I think there is (or at least used to be) some irreversible information loss when an account is deleted

Aequitas

10:56 PM

Hi everyone, would asking for a chess download recommendation be on topic for this site?

murgatroid99

Are you talking about the game of chess as a program?

Rainbolt

I'm pretty sure that software recommendations are off topic almost everywhere. You might want to read Q&A is Hard, Let's Go Shopping!

murgatroid99

@Rainbolt That's mostly true, but it's subtler than that. There are some cases where certain kinds of recommendation questions are allowed, depending on the site

4

Q: Multi-Game Deck Building Tool

I play Magic: The Gathering, one of my son's plays Pokemon, and the other plays Yu-Gi-Oh! I got a deck building tool for my iPad to build Magic decks, but I am curious if there is an app for building decks for all three card games. Ideally one that knows the rules about different styles of decks...

deck-building online

For example

Aequitas

@murgatroid99 yup, a downloadble chess game

@Rainbolt that's why I asked in the chat before posting

murgatroid99

@Aequitas Yeah, that wouldn't work here. Questions about chess programs would properly belong on Arqade, and game recommendation questions are off topic there

in The Bridge, 18 mins ago, by Ashley Nunn

Now if it is a video game based on a board game, that would be okay

Aequitas

11:02 PM

@murgatroid99 must've missed that oops

Rainbolt

Wait, I thought questions about electronic MTG games were on topic, so why not electronic chess games?

Aequitas

would you happen to know of a chess game that's small in size (<10mb pref) and supports two players, preferrably has rules/tutorials and AI but not necessary?

murgatroid99

@Rainbolt Oh, wait, you're right

I didn't read the close reason carefully enough

Rainbolt

I don't want to be right. Questions about electronic games should go on the site for electronic games. But I don't make the rules :-/

murgatroid99

We do in fact allow questions about video versions of existing board and card games

Rainbolt

11:05 PM

Assuming they are otherwise on topic

murgatroid99

@Rainbolt of course

Though it seems like most questions about stuff like Duels of the Planeswalkers ends up on Arqade anyway

Rainbolt

I'd still vote to close this one because it looks like a shopping question. But luckily I'm only one guy, and you need five people to close a question.

Sounds like murg would leave it open, and he generally falls on the side of the majority of the community in my experience

murgatroid99

@Rainbolt Actually, no

It's borderline

Rainbolt

Did you know that we have a chess stack exchange? chess.stackexchange.com

Aequitas

@Rainbolt i do, i asked there too

Rainbolt

11:08 PM

What did they say?

Aequitas

no response

Rainbolt

They have nothing about software recommendations on their meta

murgatroid99

From the question I linked earlier, it looks like we allow questions asking for recommendations for tools that help with playing a game. It's a fine line between that and asking for an implementation of an existing game. But we also specifically don't allow questions asking for recommendations for a game

Rainbolt

So who knows what they would do

murgatroid99

@Rainbolt I don't think we do either

Rainbolt

11:10 PM

This is kind of similar but not quite: meta.boardgames.stackexchange.com/q/663/6692

Aequitas

well I won't post a question but would either of you two know of such a game?

Rainbolt

Are you looking for an engine or a game you can play by yourself?

or a game you can play with others?

Aequitas

with others but locally is enough

Rainbolt

Do you need it to be available offline, or would an online chess game work?

Aequitas

the main thing is it has to be small because internet is VERY limited

online won't work

murgatroid99

11:12 PM

@Aequitas Windows 7 comes with chess

Aequitas

@murgatroid99 ooh reals?

i'll check that out then

haha

@murgatroid99 is it good tho

Rainbolt

I've never downloaded a chess "game" before. I've used Houdini and a whole bunch of chess engines. Technically you can play against the chess engine, but it's a real pain to do and the interface sucks. It's meant for extreme chess engine testing.

I play on chess.com, and I love it. That's all of the chess stuff I know about.

murgatroid99

@Aequitas It's a relatively minimal implementation, but chess isn't a very complex game

It has AI, and I'm pretty sure it has local multiplayer

Aequitas

what's a chess engine? like an AI?

Rainbolt

Sorry, Houdini is the engine. Arena was the interface

A chess engine is an AI

Arena is a thing that can communicate with the engine

So you load the engine into the Arena program, and then you can simulate games

Aequitas

11:17 PM

ooh cool

Rainbolt

You can download Houdini 1.5 here. It is 1.1 MB large. Make sure you click on the right link (it says download houdini 1.5 free here) cruxis.com/chess/houdini.htm

Aequitas

and i'll need arena as well?

Rainbolt

You can download arena here: playwitharena.com/?Download:Arena_3.5

17 MB

Aequitas

@Rainbolt i'll prob try the win 7 one, thanks for your help tho

Rainbolt

You'll have to look around for instructions on loading the engine and as for the interface... just click all of the buttons and eventually stuff will happen. I remember having a headache with it

Yea no problem. I wouldn't do all of that because I can't even beat the windows 7 chess ai. Not even close.

Time for dinner. Gnight room.

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Board and Card Games