Lurker > pyresword

That card seems ok in a vacuum maybe but mono-red already has Faceless Haven which I think is just better. If there's a home for this I think more likely it's in 2-3 color aggro decks that can't as easily afford to run snow+colorless lands. Could also see coming in tapped being a big problem even in that case though, since you aren't always going to be able to play this in your first 2 turns.
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I didn't do guru this year but azuarc can be in my sig anyways.

I agree generally if the meta shakes out that way but like I'm pretty sure Jund Food and Mono-Black won some lower level events in the leadup to this one.

It is admittedly still true that if you look at those events the most played decks are Jeskai Control and Phoenix, but I'm not convinced other decks can't be viable.
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I didn't do guru this year but azuarc can be in my sig anyways.

I wouldn't mind a Time Warp ban. I don't think it needs to go right now purely from a strength argument, but it's not exactly the most fun card, and I think it's going to continue to be a potential problem for a while.
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I didn't do guru this year but azuarc can be in my sig anyways.

Having played the deck a ton on the ladder I'm convinced the pros just weren't prepared for it. It's good but doesn't feel dominant and has poor matchups against the other 2 top decks. Though, admittedly the version I was running had Chandra, Awakened Inferno rather than Nezahal, Primal Tide in the sideboard which might make the Jeskai Control matchup better.

I will say it runs over any deck that doesn't have interaction. I view this as a good thing for the meta if anything, but I guess I can see this maybe being a potential issue from a neutral standpoint. Even like red aggro decks can run Abrade and Fry both of which interrupt the combo though.

Edit: Guess I should clarify my characterization of the Phoenix vs. Turns matchup is closer to even. I do think the Phoenix deck is favored but not by much. Jeskai Turns has a noticeable advantage game 1 but then the Phoenix deck should be favored once it boards in more disruption
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I didn't do guru this year but azuarc can be in my sig anyways.

To be fair I'm pretty sure you could play Izzet Phoenix without Brainstorm and the deck would barely even notice. It doesn't feel much better than just "1 mana draw a card" in that particular deck to me.

It does feel like it helps the consistency of the Jeskai Turns deck a lot though, especially because it allows you to hide your key spells from Thoughtseize, etc.
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I didn't do guru this year but azuarc can be in my sig anyways.

Been playing Historic for the first time since the Mystical Archive cards released. Using Velomachus Lorehold to cast (effectively) infinite Time Warps good times. Deck is quite fun and actually has some really interesting decision points in the games where it can't just pop off on turn 4.

I also got to win a game by casting Perilous Voyage on someone's Jace, Wielder of Mysteries so that was hilarious.
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I didn't do guru this year but azuarc can be in my sig anyways.

Winota has always been a busted card itself--it's just been a matter of finding a critical mass of good non-humans paired with big human targets to hit into. And yeah the nature of the card definitely means that it's going to run way over you if it hits its draws and your deck stumbles a bit. You really need to hope they draw poorly (and to be fair this isn't the most consistent of decks) or have removal ready for their Winota.

I still don't think it's quite tier 1, but it's definitely closer than it's ever been because Strixhaven gave it really good new tools in Blade Historian and Elite Spellbinder.
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I didn't do guru this year but azuarc can be in my sig anyways.

Got to mythic in Limited for the first time nice. Did it with a Jeskai Control deck which is not an archetype I usually go for, but I had a ton of good cards for it. It was already looking good with stuff like Lightning Helix, Counterspell and several other good removal spells, and then I managed to find a Crackle With Power in the 3rd pack >.>
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I didn't do guru this year but azuarc can be in my sig anyways.

I suspect it might also matter that removing Jace at instant speed disrupts the combo and makes it so you lose instead.

Maybe, I'm not actually sure how much instant speed planeswalker removal there is available.
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I didn't do guru this year but azuarc can be in my sig anyways.

Man there is so much ridiculous stuff in Strixhaven limited. Currently on Channel+Crackle With Power. Honestly there's a good chance the deck is better without Channel since it isn't doing much otherwise and I can't exactly get the combo consistently, but I thought this was too silly not too run. Definitely enjoying this more than any of the other draft formats I've played, which is admittedly not too many.

On the subject of Tainted Pact, my understanding is you can set it up so that you win even if you rope out--as long as you play Thassa's Oracle first and then respond to the ETB trigger with Tainted Pact. If you do that and rope out mid-Tainted Pact, I think what happens is that it auto-declines every card and then you just win once the Oracle ETB effect resolves.
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I didn't do guru this year but azuarc can be in my sig anyways.

So uh...I have no idea if this deck is actually good, but it is 1-1 and is some of the most silly/fun times I've had on Arena draft ever.

https://i.imgur.com/fK2uvuQ.png

ChichiriMuyo posted...

I think it might even be worse against mono white since the white deck has such resilient threats. 3/4 and 4/4 dragons aren't that great if the opponent has a bigger first striking flier with alseid/savior backup.

I didn't actually think about this but you're probably right here. Seems like it might really struggle as long as they get down the Savior/Alseid early
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I didn't do guru this year but azuarc can be in my sig anyways.

I am all for dunking on Wizards of the Coast but in this case I find it hard to justify expecting more than what they gave us. It's a qualifier that we all got free entry to anyways, so it's not like we got screwed out of an entry fee. Tbh this is more than I was expecting since I thought they were just going to give us gems or something. (Which we also got, which actually probably has some indirect cost to them)

Of course the fact that this happened at all is still kind of ridiculous.

I'm still not particularly a believer in the Izzet Tempo deck in general tbh, but it is the sort of thing I can see performing well in the right meta. Though the question my gut is asking is "can it handle mono-red/decks with Embercleave?" which is not a matchup I have experience in from either side. And if that matchup is doable then it's probably fine, especially for a meta clogged to the brim with Sultai Ramp
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I didn't do guru this year but azuarc can be in my sig anyways.

Yep! They did compensate us by giving us auto entry into the next 3 qualifier weekends (instead of next 1 which we already had by making day 2 at all), which is good for me at least. Thank god I didn't have something else going on today though.

Thought I posted how I did in day 2 but apparently not--I ended 2-3. I was 2-0 before the reset so that kinda sucked, but at least the difference wasn't enough that it really would have mattered. Some people on Twitter were complaining because they had 4 or 5 wins by the time they reset the event.

Can't remember what my records were, but I think I played against 3 Izzet Tempo, 1 Sultai Ultimatum, and 1 Cycling. Losses were to 2 of the Izzet players and the Cycling player.
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I didn't do guru this year but azuarc can be in my sig anyways.

Lmao I don't what I was expecting from day 2 of the qualifier but it certainly wasn't "Wizards of the Coast accidentally makes the event Historic instead of Standard and then resets the whole event 3 hours in".

To be entirely fair, it is probably true that a total reset is the right call after the first mistake, which was likely just "some employee pushed the wrong button". Still very frustrating though.
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I didn't do guru this year but azuarc can be in my sig anyways.

Nice. Went 7-2 and qualified for day 2 of the Qualifier Weekend tournament. This is also means no matter what I'm entered into next month's qualifier weekend which means I won't have to do the mythic grind this month >.>

Don't know how much people here care about standard but just in case anyone was curious:

Deck: Dimir Rogues (idk if people have used my exact list online but it's basically the same as every other rogues list you can find with maybe a few numbers tweaked)

Round 1: W 2-1 vs a non-meta W/G midrange deck with some seemingly suboptimal card choices
Round 2: W 2-1 vs Izzet Tempo
Round 3: W 2-1 vs Sultai Ultimatum (including a win on a mull to 5 which was neat)
Round 4: W 2-0 vs Mono-red Aggro
Round 5: L 1-2 vs Mono-red Aggro
Round 6: W 2-0 vs Naya Adventures/Tokens
Round 7: L 1-2 vs Mono-white Aggro
Round 8: W 2-0 vs Sultai Ultimatum
Round 9: W 2-0 vs Sultai Titan's Nest
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I didn't do guru this year but azuarc can be in my sig anyways.

The Mana Sword posted...

I keep thinking about taking a shot at it, but 4.5k gems is a lot and I don't really like sealed all that much, so ehhhh.

Yeah this is the same boat I'm in. I was planning on grinding Standard Events for a while so that I could get enough coins and/or gems without paying anything, but then I got distracted by New Pokemon Snap and haven't been playing much MTGA lately.

As is, I don't like Sealed enough nor trust my ability to get a good reward enough to want to buy in.
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I didn't do guru this year but azuarc can be in my sig anyways.

Are there more 80%+ spell decks in this format than I realize? In a generic draft format I'm pretty confident saying that the effect of Reject is reasonable albeit not great. But obviously if there's format specific things making it bad here that's another story. (This is only my third time playing Strixhaven limited)

Cutting Spectacle Mage and Elemental Masterpiece is reasonable and in fact those already would have been the first things I would cut.

I definitely don't agree with cutting Crackle in Power for the reason that I don't know how my deck consistently wins without it. I think my deck is weak in the early game and solid but not great in the middlegame, but without red I don't really think it has much lategame strength either. Obviously the deck will be more "consistent" but I think it would have to be so close to its peak power level in order to have a fighting chance that it just doesn't matter. I think Crackle in Power at least gives me something to play for other than what I see as a poor deck with a very narrow window to press any advantage. (ie. Consistency improves the strength/frequency of your average draws but if your average draws aren't good enough than it doesn't matter. My impression is that with Crackle in Power my average draws are good enough but without it they aren't. Again I could be misevaluating the strength of just the blue/green core though)
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I didn't do guru this year but azuarc can be in my sig anyways.

I'm not particularly happy to play 2 Reject (or 2 Soothsayer Adept for that matter...), but my on-color alternatives are like--Strategic Planning, Devouring Tendrils, and Witherbloom Pledgemage.

Strategic Planning is fine but I felt the way the deck loses is by falling too behind in the early game, and the presence of Reject specifically was intended to mitigate that.

Devouring Tendrils is also fine but I felt I was already toeing the line of having too many fight-like effects for the number of creatures I have. This could be a misevaluation.

Witherbloom Pledgemage is not much better than a 5 mana 5/5 in this deck which I guess is passable but also doesn't seem great.

The draft phase itself did not go that well for me I think. Might have tried to go into an archetype that wasn't as open as it seemed originally. I should mention there was a long period in pack 2 where I just wasn't seeing strong Quandrix cards at all and was hedging my bets by picking up some good Witherbloom cards over mediocre blue/green cards.
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I didn't do guru this year but azuarc can be in my sig anyways.

Curious what people with more experience than I think of this draft deck:

https://i.imgur.com/2Z2RTZn.png

The lessons on the right are not actually in the main deck itself but I moved them in for the sake of including everything relevant easily in an image.

My general take is that overall the deck is not quite there. However the presence specifically of Crackle in Power (which I picked up like...Pack 3 Pick 5???) allows me to "cheese" games with somewhat more consistency than that terms suggests by stalling out the game and eventually casting a huge Crackle in Power.

That said I also just won a game with relative ease against what was apparently another 3-0 deck without ever drawing Crackle in Power by just playing straight Quandrix tempo, and I've been somewhat bad at evaluating deck power level in this format before.
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I didn't do guru this year but azuarc can be in my sig anyways.

masterplum posted...

Oh well. Was pretty meh about practicing standard anyways

Yeah I can see this. I've never really gone out of my way to practice for these qualifier events, but on the other hand I'm also mostly playing constructed anyways just because I enjoy it much more than limited.
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I didn't do guru this year but azuarc can be in my sig anyways.

Although I will also say I would watch your rank carefully on the final day. In constructed you'd drop a lot more on the final day than on previous days and #766 with 2 days left probably wouldn't be safe, though again I have no idea how limited compares
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I didn't do guru this year but azuarc can be in my sig anyways.

Imo the best standard decks right now are Sultai Ramp, Temur Adventures, and Dimir Rogues. Cycling, mono red, and mono white are also definitely playable, although I'd put them below the other 3.

Personally I think rogues is the strongest deck, but it's also probably the hardest one to play and definitely requires a solid understanding of the meta as a whole. (You need to know what spells in each of the top decks you need to counter) Temur is probably the easiest to pick up of the top 3. Never played mono red but I'd guess they're in a similar category in terms of difficulty. Cycling might also be worth looking into. I know sometimes it just wins by cycling a bunch and casting Zenith Flare which is pretty easy, but overall I don't really know where it falls in terms of difficulty since sometimes you'll have to make decisions between using your mana to cycle or to put out threats.

Really just play what you want though I think because there isn't a clear best deck and there's tons of things (even some I didn't mention like Naya) that are in the category where it wouldn't really be surprising to see them do well in a tournament setting,
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I didn't do guru this year but azuarc can be in my sig anyways.

Man I absolutely love beating Sultai Ultimatum decks by sideboarding in Lullmage's Domination and I don't know why.

Nice Koma you brought in. Would be a shame if something happened to it. (Usually it's meant for Polukranos, but whatever I'll take it...)
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I didn't do guru this year but azuarc can be in my sig anyways.

I still don't know much about Strixhaven limited, but I felt Broken Wings was able to be maindecked in both Zendikar Rising and Kaldheim.

3 in the maindeck is...quite suspect though I would think.
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I didn't do guru this year but azuarc can be in my sig anyways.

The stakes are the exact same but this one is constructed (Standard) and not Sealed. I could potentially see that more limited players were shooting for mythic during the month when the qualifier was a limited event, but that's just speculation and I don't have any experience with getting to mythic in limited.

I have gotten top 1200 mythic several times in constructed, and at least there it's definitely true that rank decreases a lot* especially during the final couple of days. I kept track of it a few times and if I'm remembering right I think I dropped like 400 places in the final 24 hours once. 400 this far out probably wouldn't be safe in constructed. I'd probably want like 200 or something, and even then I'd be watching my rank pretty closely as the season end came nearer. But again I expect there's less people competing for limited and I don't know how it would work there.

*I should mention that my understanding is that there's nothing like ELO decay or anything. I believe all that happens is that other people are playing and passing you to get to a higher rating than you, which makes it look like you're dropping when you look at your rank.
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I didn't do guru this year but azuarc can be in my sig anyways.

Also as far Arcane Subtraction goes--I don't know the format very well yet, but I feel pretty confident in the assessment that any cheap spell that says Learn on it and does anything is already quite good. The mechanic seems really good in limited especially when some of the lesson cards just give you relatively on-curve creature tokens.
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I didn't do guru this year but azuarc can be in my sig anyways.

Based on what I've heard from others, I wouldn't be surprised if just getting to mythic at all in limited is enough to be in top 1200, since the number of players getting to mythic in limited is much less than in constructed. (ie. If there are less than 1200 players who get to mythic in limited it doesn't matter how much you play now since you can't drop out of mythic)

The only meaning the numbers have right now beyond bragging rights though is just that 1200 is the cutoff for entry to that one (constructed) tournament, so if you don't care about that then just play as much as you want. (It is free entry though, and if nothing else you'll get gems if you win a match)
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I didn't do guru this year but azuarc can be in my sig anyways.

masterplum posted...

That's a constructed tournament though right?

Yeah it's Standard if I'm remembering correctly.
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I didn't do guru this year but azuarc can be in my sig anyways.

Well top 1200 in Mythic for limited will qualify you for the Strixhaven May Qualifier tournament if you're into that. Other than that really the only thing I know of is an extra booster pack at the end of the month which I can't imagine means anything.
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I didn't do guru this year but azuarc can be in my sig anyways.

Currently doing one draft because I did have enough gold to enter 1 that way. I'm 3-2 right now though I don't expect to get too many more wins because I feel like my deck isn't that strong.

Playing Witherbloom. My last win was a really weird game that I kind of cheesed out. My opponent decked out despite being "ahead" by pretty much any measure other than cards in library, but I had Lisette, Dean of the Root which could give my entire board +1/+1 counters every time a pest token chump blocked. My opponent was still ahead in terms of board presence but this was enough to make it so my opponent was never able to profitably attack, and eventually I just won since he'd been very aggressively drawing cards in the early game and apparently didn't have removal (he was blue/green to be fair).

Think I like this format so far though. There's lots of cool looking synergies, and Learn seems like a pretty neat mechanic for for limited.
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I didn't do guru this year but azuarc can be in my sig anyways.

I burned all my saved gems to get wildcards for the last qualifier weekend. Which I went like 2-3 in anyways RIP. Also who even knows if the deck I got is going to continue to be relevant now that Historic is getting the mystic archives or whatever it's called...

In any case I probably won't be able to do a huge amount of drafts for a bit since now I've also gotta save up for the mastery pass :(
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I didn't do guru this year but azuarc can be in my sig anyways.

I did like the Kaldheim limited format, though I only managed to get a little bit better at it as time went on. It felt to me like Temur Snow was the best deck. Really just green is the best color by far I think and any deck that's positioned to take advantage of that is in a good place, though I did also see reasonable success with red/white and red/black.

Not too excited for Strixhaven though tbh. Haven't thought much about how it plays in limited, but as far constructed goes it feels like a non-factor for Standard, whereas it's looking to shake up Historic in ways that terrify me. Really not looking forward to playing against Nissa+Time Warp decks or against black decks running 4x Thoughtseize and Inquisition. Granted, I wasn't the biggest Historic fan to begin with so maybe any change has the potential to be a good thing.
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I didn't do guru this year but azuarc can be in my sig anyways.

Anyone wanna help me out and tell me what good anime aired in the last 2 or so seasons? I'm already watching Wonder Egg Priority and I am aware of Jujutsu Kaisen, but that's really it.

Also were the new seasons of Log Horizon or That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime any good?
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I didn't do guru this year but azuarc can be in my sig anyways.

Welp, didnt make day 2. Actually think I played fine other than that one game though.

Worst match was the game 3 when my opponent drew 4 Mayhem Devils in their top 12 cards. I was prepared to answer the 1st 3 but I was just so sad when the other one hit the field.
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I didn't do guru this year but azuarc can be in my sig anyways.

The Mana Sword posted...

Any chance youd divulge your deck choices?

I'm a bit worried about that from this angle since the decklists are public:

I don't really want to tie this username to my IRL name

I will say I'm not playing anything super weird or out of the ordinary though.
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I didn't do guru this year but azuarc can be in my sig anyways.

So some people might remember I qualified for the Kaldheim champs in the last qualifier, so I'm playing in the event today. Not going to post too specifically how I'm doing just because I don't really want to tie this username to my IRL name and may not update again at all, but whatever.

That being said I think my nerves are getting to me a bit. Completely and utterly punted my last match vs a pro player. Fortunately my draw was good enough that it didn't matter and I did win that set, but hopefully I've gotten my misplays out of the way now >.> At least I'm not 0-X though I guess!
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I didn't do guru this year but azuarc can be in my sig anyways.

Watched episode 1 of Wonder Egg Priority.

It's interesting thematically, but I can't help but feel that this bizarre fantasy/mystery setting is the wrong way to explore those themes. But who knows maybe I'll be proven wrong later on.
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I didn't do guru this year but azuarc can be in my sig anyways.

NFUN posted...

You have one (1) week to nominate a song that I have not heard for me to rank

I don't think you were in the vgmgg I ran most recently, though if you were then you would have heard this.

Subarashiki Hibi Denpa Relay no Shousha
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzT7F95XlC0
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I didn't do guru this year but azuarc can be in my sig anyways.

I made a few card switches throughout the event and yeah many of the versions didn't have Old Growth Troll for that reason. Surprisingly that one never actually bit me though--the ways I lost due to mana issues were just not drawing one of my colors at all.

I should also say I guess that I was never really intending to cast that on turn 3 though. I intended more as just a mid/late game body that generates another body when it dies. It was also quite nice as a target for the reanimate part of Blood on the Snow since I don't actually have enough snow sources to hit any of my 5 or 6 drops.
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I didn't do guru this year but azuarc can be in my sig anyways.

I was probably exaggerating a bit but just that I've got really good rares all in the same archetype with really good common/uncommon support in those same colors. The mana is quite greedy which is mainly how I've lost so far, but yeah. Currently 6-2 so we'll see what happens.

https://i.imgur.com/dSwSAuC.png

Good removal and card draw overall, and Burning Rune Demon will basically close out any game where the opponent isn't already in an overwhelming position. Also I've won like 4 games just by playing Blood on the Snow and Rise of the Dread Marn on the same turn.
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I didn't do guru this year but azuarc can be in my sig anyways.

Man my sealed pool in the Strixhaven mythic qualifier today is absolutely nutty. We'll see if it's good enough for 7 wins, but this could easily be the best limited deck I have ever had in the format. Especially for sealed where decks tend to be slower, since if I survive to turn 6 or so I don't see how I lose unless my opponent has a Koma or something. (Even that I can answer, but I would need to have it immediately when it hits the field)
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I didn't do guru this year but azuarc can be in my sig anyways.

Aw yes To the Distant Sky. (Which is the actual title according to vgmdb but I'm assuming I had it wrong when I nominated it)

Also would like to point that at the point I nominated it for this topic it had not been in a vgmc yet >.>. Which is also weird because I discovered the song through b8, but I guess it was probably through the old vgm youtube channel and not through vgmc itself.
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I didn't do guru this year but azuarc can be in my sig anyways.

I have low expectations for the anime itself, but maybe it will spark more interest in the series?
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I didn't do guru this year but azuarc can be in my sig anyways.

Hmm...I guess I would also say that Goldy Pond feels very important from a thematic standpoint even if it isn't as much from a literal "order of events" standpoint (not sure what to call this). That also potentially complicates skipping the arc since it means you have to somehow incorporate these ideas later on without seeming hamfisted about it or else you will lose something in the process.
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I didn't do guru this year but azuarc can be in my sig anyways.

Well I still maintain that you could take out this arc without damaging the cohesion of the narrative, which means there is a hypothetical version of an anime that skips the arc which I'm happy with. I don't know if season 2 actually accomplished it successfully, but I do think it's possible and not too farfetched. (Edit: I guess it also depends on whether or not some of these new characters have important roles in later arcs though, since if they do I'm sure all of their development will have been destroyed as a result of taking out this arc. It only really works if you can cut this set of characters entirely or nearly entirely.)

Though, my general feeling about the series as a whole is that it's notably weaker with its overall narrative than it is at character writing and with handling these closed-system battle-of-wits scenarios. I haven't really seen the endgame content yet, but based on manga readers' reactions I'm going to guess that doesn't change, which might also mean that skipping straight to the endgame content might be a recipe for mediocrity from the beginning. Who knows? (Obviously people who have read the entire manga are in a decent position to answer this, but I am not as of now)

Also I actually liked the first arc more still, though that might also be because the adaptation of the first arc was that good. I don't know. I'm also not done with Goldy Pond yet though.
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I didn't do guru this year but azuarc can be in my sig anyways.

Turns out the arc all the Promised Neverland manga fans said was really good is actually pretty good so far. Who could have seen this coming? :shocked_pikachu_face:

Also probably stands a lot more to be gained in an anime adaptation unfortunately, though I was basically floored by the directing in season 1 and how much it added to the atmosphere, so who knows. Love most of the new major characters though, and Leuvis is easily the best villain the series has had so far. Emma continues to be amazing which is as expected.
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I didn't do guru this year but azuarc can be in my sig anyways.

Yeah I mean if the anime is just a trainwreck on its own merits then there isn't much else to be said.
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I didn't do guru this year but azuarc can be in my sig anyways.

Been reading The Promised Neverland manga.

One thing I can say so far is that the story after the end of the anime season 1 is so different from the first arc of the series that I feel like it really doesn't matter if it was changed for the anime. If the content itself is just worse then that's one thing, but because of the way the story is set up and how heavy a factor mystery is I feel like you could follow the first arc up with basically anything and have it work about the same from a cohesion standpoint. And there's nothing so far about the story that has made me think "of course they were going in this direction all along", or anything, though I guess I am only 2 or 3 volumes after where season 1 ended?

Story is solid so far. Can't really comment too well though since it's been mostly setup and I haven't gotten to any of the (presumed) payoff.
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I didn't do guru this year but azuarc can be in my sig anyways.

The worst thing about blue coins is that every time you collect them it pauses the game and pops up a dialogue box. If not for that I probably wouldn't mind them at all.

It is true that they largely make trying to 100% Sunshine a recipe for hating the game, but I don't really see that as a problem.
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I didn't do guru this year but azuarc can be in my sig anyways.

Well the main thing is

All players who reach seven (7) wins will receive invitation to compete in the Kaldheim Championship, provided they are eligible to participate in the event upon verification

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I didn't do guru this year but azuarc can be in my sig anyways.