@OrigamiRobot also consider clone type creatures

@murgatroid99 CLONES DON'T TYPICALLY HAVE MULTIPLE POTENTIAL STATES THAT WILL CHANGE WITH NO REMINDER

YOU ARE TOLD WHAT IT IS AND IT STAYS THAT AS LONG AS IT'S ON THE BATTLEFIELD

@OrigamiRobot the original card we were talking about had 3 pre-defined states. That's not too much to keep track of

I'M GLARING AT YOU, SAKASHIMA

3 IS THREE TIMES AS MANY AS 1

But what if there are 4 clones? WHAT THEN?

I'M NOT SAYING IT'S GOING TO BE IMPOSSIBLE TO PLAY WITH OR THAT IT'S THE WORST OFFENDER, I'M JUST SAYING IT'S CLUNKY

@Sterno Or a clone of a clone

AND IT'S FUNNY THAT THEY'RE GOING BACK TO A STYLE THAT THEY HAVE SAID THEMSELVES WAS CLUNKY AND THAT LEVEL UP WAS INTENDED TO BE A CLEANER VERSION OF

"THEY" BEING MARO

@OrigamiRobot And I'm saying that you're unreasonably dismissing a whole set of cards because you don't want to keep track of certain kinds of continuous effects

HOW AM I DISMISSING IT?

♫ I think I'm a clone now... there's always two of me just hanging around ♫

Oh, Weird Al, your music never gets old and boring.

The best MTG combo was documented in their weekly rules column ages ago.. A unglued/unhinged combo. Ashnods coupon, a zero cost artifact where target player buys you target drink (you must pay the costs and as per oracle errata, you just be legal age for target drink). You find a mechanical way to pass this to your opponent and leave it untapped. Then you use mindslaver. You make all decisions and choices for target player.

On their turn, you pull out a soda, set it on the table, then act out their turn. You make them use ashnods coupon to buy your soda for whatever money they have on them.

And that is how you win MTG.

That seems like how you win the $1.20 in their wallet.

@MadMAxJr It's not actually that great. Using Mindslaver to force the opponent to concede is pretty par for the course anyway

I wasn't aware it could do that. Hah.

I don't mean like that

YOU CAN'T DO THAT

I mean put them in a game state where they are going to lose anyway because you make all of their in-game decisions

HE MEANS USING MINDSLAVER TO PUT THE OPPONENT IN A SITUATION WHERE THEY CONCEDE

EXCEPT HE TYPES FASTER

@OrigamiRobot Right

@OrigamiRobot In elite, when you take a bounty mission that's "Hey, go kill this guy who is in one of these three systems", how the hell do you find him? Or do you just not take those missions

The Ashnod's Coupon/Donate/Mindslaver combo is just a somewhat complicated way of doing that

@Sterno FIRST OF ALL, HE'S GONNA BE IN AN ELITE ANACONDA

SECOND, GO TO UNIDENTIFIED SIGNAL SOURCES IN THOSE SYSTEMS

His anaconda don't want none

So many goodies in unglued. 'Denimwalk'

If your opponent is wearing jeans, they may not block this creature.

@MadMAxJr I think that they decided afterwards that encouraging players to take off their clothes in the middle of a game was not a good idea

A better question is does removing your pants count as an action on the stack?

On the other hand, they still printed Ladies' Knight

@MadMAxJr No, but it's an Un set, so the rules don't apply

@murgatroid99 CAPTAIN SISAY, MINDSLAVER, MISTVIEL PLAINS

The Cheese Stands Alone is still great simply because of the various ways people have come up with ways to fufil it's win condition.

OR BOW OF NYLEA

@OrigamiRobot Mindslaver, Academy Ruins

@murgatroid99 Ew.

I had fun in mirrodin block with my Shared Fate / Parallel Thoughts / Leveler deck. :D

@murgatroid99 YEA BUT IT'S MORE RELIABLE WITH SISAY

Build mini deck of 7 cards, remove my library, start drawing from my foes library or my mini library while they draw nothing (sadly this is draw replacement, does not kill them)

LESS RESILIENT THOUGH

Too much mana to do reliably, but fun.

Anyone have any experience on dealing with third party contractors? We have one who's performance has been super lackluster, and their communication sucks.

Off shore or in house?

@Frank I am a 3rd party contractor!

Dealing with me is pretty awesome.

I too am a 3rd party contractor.

@Sterno If I emailed you asking for a project update, would I get one?

I'm just a party....

If anybody is a 4th party contractor, I would like to know about your hypercubicle

Or would I have to have my accounting department cut off payments in order to get you to talk to me?

It's reasonable to ask for project updates on a weekly basis.

@MadMAxJr This specific one was due a month ago.

And I only get updates when I directly call the company.

You should get a list of work done, known issues, work stops, and information requests.

If they're past due, probably grounds to terminate the project and demand they turn over any work produced so far.

er, terminate their contract. not the project

@MadMAxJr terminate them you say?

@KevinvanderVelden EX-terminate

@Batophobia I dunno, terminate: verb: 1) bring to an end

I don't much care for how it's done

Maybe Frank should ask lifehacks...

@Frank Yes, though it might take a few hours

Maybe even a day if I wasn't at work!

@Sterno And this is acceptable.

I honestly think this contractor is ducking me.

@Frank We have to do this to our clients sometimes when they don't pay us in a timely manner. "So, that website we're running for you? Yeah, that shuts down in 2 days if you don't get off your butt and pay us"

Our entire department has bad luck getting this guy to talk to us.

They had plenty of warnings up until then, but until you are actually like "Here's you're notice we're turning it off.", they don't pay

@Sterno I might have to resort to that in the event I don't get a response to this request for a status update.

Monty Python taught me how not to be seen

@Frank Is a phone call rather than email out of the question?

@Frank should blow up the contractor, only logical solution

@Sterno Tried that one. I think he's screening my calls, too.

@Frank Have a female co-worker try calling

@Sterno Also tried. Same thing.

I keep tuning at random moments to AGDQ and it's always racing or sanic games

Then try pretending you're Dominos and you need to talk to him about all these free pizzas that you need an address for

@badp Well for AGDQ you gotta go fast

Oh, I'm sorry. You're Canadian. Douminous.

@badp You missed the TAS block?

They did two things that were both stupid amazing.

@StrixVaria I did. I caught up this morning.

Left a voicemail. We'll see if I get a response.

@Sterno I get it. That's funny.

@badp Good. I couldn't even yesterday as it was happening.

I linked to the VOD download links earlier

Those downloads are ~1.5 GB but... the spectacular part is spectacular.

and the Twitch VOD servers are awful for seeking.

@Wipqozn STOP BUSTING MY RHYMES

NOW IT'S DOUBLE-ON

There's an article about it on Ars Technica but... it isn't the same.

Today's Listening:

A good dose of wat for a Monday

Does anyone here ever actually click on any of the "Today's Listening" links?

Only if they are provided by @Arperum

@Sterno I do sometimes

@KevinvanderVelden Yay!

Well, then. I've got Friday's listening all lined up for you.

I usually click on the link, realize I don't like it and find something in my playlist to remedy that

@KevinvanderVelden are you going to Delain, Battle Beast and Sabaton this weekend?

@Arperum no =[

@KevinvanderVelden aw :( Too late for a ticket?

I think there are still tickets for the show in antwerp in February.

@Arperum that and I forgot that that is a thing that exists

ON A RELATED NOTE, WHEN YOU GUYS SAY "FESTIVAL" DO YOU JUST MEAN CONCERT?

I'm doing both shows.

@Sterno I know I don't

I just feel it necessary to foist my questionable tastes on others.

@RedRiderX Neither do I.

The next 5 minute listening:

@OrigamiRobot Festival is generally multiple days, outside (some are inside though) and more then 3-4 bands.

@Sterno I'D BE MORE LIKELY TO IF THEY WEREN'T LABELLED "TODAYS' LISTENING"

@Arperum OK, WE ARE USING THE SAME TERMINOLOGY THEN

@Chippies this is also a thing I clicked

@KevinvanderVelden I'll take it as a compliment!

A concert is just one band with support acts. or at best a couple bands with support.

Burn

@Chippies I am gonna close the song if I ... yeah that

Queues grunt sounds

@OrigamiRobot Yay.

Not my thing

Hmmm... is anyone else having issues with Maven Central today?

@KevinvanderVelden well, it is doom metal, it's kinda signature for the genre

I WAS JUST CURIOUS

@Chippies yes, I am aware

they do have some songs with minimal grunting though

@KevinvanderVelden Listen to Ancient Bards, 90%+ female vocals. (One song with somle grunts in it, and that song is awesome.

@OrigamiRobot "What Yuuki's listening to right now"?

@Arperum I know, I have them in my playlist on your recommendation =p

@Chippies These vocals sound a bit like the vocals from Amon Amarth. It's confusing.

Hmm... It seems that my musical tastes are completely different from everyone else in this room.

@Arperum I find a lot of doom (and other) metal vocals use the same growling/grunting techniques, therefore sounding very similar

@Yuuki my musical taste is very broad

@Chippies Mine is fairly eclectic, but I don't really listen to doom metal.

@Chippies I haven't heard anyone this close to the vocals of AmonAmarth before. I like it. It's some kind of clearish grunts.

@Arperum yeah, you can actually tell what the lyrics are quite often

I'VE GIVEN UP TRYING TO CATEGORIZE MY MUSIC TASTES

@Chippies Although some people would have issues with that. I got confused when my mom said something about how the sabaton vocals were completely ununderstandable. I was like "uhm... no?"

SOME THINGS I LIKE, SOME THINGS I DON'T LIKE

Song with clear vocals by the same band. cc: @KevinvanderVelden

@Arperum wuuuh?

not very metal'ish tho

That is not an issue =p

@KevinvanderVelden Yup. Exactly what I thought too.

@Arperum Growling vocals are like another dialect of a language. When you first go to a place where everyone speaks the same language, but pronounces everything totally different, you won't be able to understand it at first either

you get used to it and you are able to pick out words eventually

OH WHOOPS, LUNCH WAS AN HOUR AGO.

@Chippies But Sabaton are clear vocals, like super clear. Not Hammerfall clear, but nothing ever remotely grunty.

@Arperum ah, well, maybe your mom just wasn't listening for the vocals at all :P

maybe the song was fast, maybe the guitars were loud

My parents english is probably in a state that can be described as "bad".

HERE IS A THING I LIKE CLICK IT TO SEE IF YOU DO TOO OR DON'T IF YOU DON'T CARE

@Arperum and I'm sure that plays a huge role as well

@Chippies Maybe my mom has the weirdest desriptions of metal.

I don't even hear words when I listen to music. The voice is just another piece of the aesthetic, but I don't notice or even want to know what they're saying.

She once described Rhapsody as "A drill in a church".

@OrigamiRobot This is not bad.

@StrixVaria I LIKE BEING ABLE TO SING ALONG

@StrixVaria Wow, I've never met anyone else who does that

Note: she barely ever goes to a church (she gets sick in them, and grew up non-religious)

@GnomeSlice IT'S BEAUTIFUL!

@Chippies I do that too

Well depends on the song

@GnomeSlice well, you usually listen to EDM

@StrixVaria I always end up singing along. Or at the very least produce sounds that go with the music.

Not lately.

HERE IS A DIFFERENT THING I LIKE

@OrigamiRobot that is oddly catchy

INORITE

Life sucks, then you die.

TheYetee just donated $14,000 to AGDQ.

None for the blindfolded OoT run :|

So much shit to do to get everything up and running, besides just my dev environment.

ONE MORE THING I LIKE THEN I'M DONE

AGDQ is dumb because everybody just picks the popular games, not ones that are actually good for speedrunning

like transistor

although sonic heroes was pretty good

lots of exploits in that