What makes Valgavoth so compelling in reanimator is that the ward cost is generally unpayable within the first few turns of the game. Absent an edict effect like Sheoldred's Edict or Pick Your Poison, the game is basically over.
The length of this match got me thinking: even with Second Sun removed on turn 2, there's a certain kind of sadistic joy in playing a prison deck and making your opponents feel powerless. That's not my cup of tea, and I know Stax is very much hated in Commander, but it's ultimately just another way to play competitive Magic.
Not once did I cast Reanimate, because I knew this was going to be an endurance game. Even at 20 life, I was concerned that the blood price for reanimating Valgavoth or a Fleshgorger could cost me the game if things dragged on.
Why? Because I expected to see an artifact or enchantment that woud lock me out again. And I was right: my opponent played Phyrexian Vindicator, but not before a Chalice of the Void for X=2 in an attempt to stop me from removing the Vindicator. I then activate Boseiju from my hand to destroy the Chalice and cast Bitter Triumph on the Vindicator.
Val was then taken out with a board wipe, and I could not get Phyrexian Fleshgorger to stick, either. But I drew Demonic Tutor, and guess what I decided to fetch? Boseiju, Who Endures.
Opponent tries to stop that with a fog spell (Eerie Interference) as well as Orim's Chant. But with Valgavoth on the board, I was able to use the latter against my opponent, then remove that from the game with Surgical Extraction.
The game kept going, though, and it was basically draw-go for several turns before I managed to play Lumra. While that was removed the next turn, and the game stalled out again, I had enough mana to hard-cast Valgavoth later.
It helped that I was able to Thoughtseize my opponent for Approach of the Second Sun and follow up with Surgical Extraction on turn two, shutting down my opponent's primary win condition.
In another game today, I had a player Thoughtseize me on turn 1 and they picked Liliana of the Veil from a hand that also contained Thoughtseize, Valgavoth, and Dark Ritual. What was not expected was my drawing Reanimate the next turn.
It's easy to assume this is a mistake, especially when the MTG Arena client does not give a warning when you target yourself with it. But as a reanimator player, I can say that nine times out of ten, whenever I do this, it's an intentional choice, not a misplay.
Designing a processor to deliver high performance is far more than just increasing the clock rate. There are numerous other ways to increase performance, enabled through Moore's law and instrumental to the design of modern processors.
Clock rates can't increase indefinitely.
At first glance, i...
So... I recently got a clamp meter and found it odd that it did not have a user-replaceable cartridge fuse... turns out it uses two Polyfuses instead. That's the first DMM I've had that uses PPTCs rather than fuses for input protection.
Is it just me, or is an Arm Cortex-M0 overkill for a two-bay battery charger, even one that supports multiple Li-ion chemistries and NiMH, and allows user-adjustable charge rates?
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Designing a processor to deliver high performance is far more than just increasing the clock rate. There are numerous other ways to increase performance, enabled through Moore's law and instrumental to the design of modern processors.
Clock rates can't increase indefinitely.
At first glance, i...