Landscape - The Sun Sets Red

Some fanart of TheLoadingCrew's character "Princess Hime" from The Complete Waifu Handbook.

Cave-woman pinup.

More of me trying to get skin hi-lights and shadows right.

"Lurking in the water, brush or darkness doesn't matter as long as it gives you the advantage. But got to beware what else is lurking in there with you."

MTG Ramblings Echo & Pact

When is a cost worse than it's actual face value? when you have to pay tax on it.

Additional Costs are a gripe in the MTG community, usually because they are not worth it in any circumstance, or they are way too good on the card they are on. But that is a ramble for another day, today I will be trying to use the long lamented mechanic of Echo to make better cards & talking about the Pact cycle.

Additional costs are what they say on the tin, an additional cost to cast a spell, this can come in several ways, such as Discarding a Card, Sacrificing Creatures or Lands, or paying life. Why does this happen, as it says its an additional cost so that way your powerful spell can cost less mana & people will actually want to play the card/not have a high cost card stuck in there hand, these costs are good as they can have synergy with other cards in your deck. Have to discard a card, Does it have Madness? Some sort of Flashback effect that you don't need right now but later? Does your sacrificed creatures have a Triger on death effect? Do they want to be sacrificed in the first place? Does an effect come on line when you have lost & gained life this turn?

We are not taking about that, we are taking about the black sheep of the additional costs, Echo. Echo is a mechanic that exists mostly in Red & Green that has you pay an additional cost, usually the Casting cost of the card, at the beginning of the Next Upkeep or sacrifice it. It is not a good mechanic, the only technique it may have is if you have a way of switching control of a creature you control with Echo & an opponent creature & they cannot pay the upkeep cost of the swapped creature. It generally doesn't lead itself to doing anything useful, some cards have tried to get around this by giving the creature Hast, and later the Dash mechanic came about which is much better than Echo.

Once again we go to Future Sight to see how this mechanic was used in other ways, this being giving alternative costs to Echo, "Shah of Naar Isle" has your opponents gaining way to much card advantage for a Cost, "Skizzik Surger" is a large body and the sacrifice of two lands is meant for late game and nothing else. Of course the Modern Horizons sets had there own take on it, that being Rakdos Headliner needing you to Discard a card, it's name alluding to you to use cards with Madness. Yet there is another cycle in Future Sight that we may take inspiration from, The Pact Cycle. (Also obligatory shout out to Rocket-Powered Turbo Slug, as this is basically a Pact card + a Dash mechanic.)

The Pact Cycle are a series of cards that are Zero Mana but require you to pay mana at the beginning your next Upkeep or you loose the Game. Its just an Echo cost on a Instant card. So why cant we do something with these? Having no or low cost creatures that have pushed stats, but require a High Echo cost? Such as having to discard you entire hand, or sacrificing permanents besides itself? The problem is that it can be abused, there are cards out there that make creatures lose all abilities, such as Mystic Subdual. This is a minimal problem as these types of cards also change the Creature's base stats and makes it so they cant attack or untap, but there is always the possibility WotC decides to make a card that shuts down your own Abilities as an upside.

So let me make an examples:

"Keldon Demolition Squad" {1}{R} 4/1 Creature - Human Barbarian (w) - When [Creature] enters, destroy target artifact. Echo - Sacrifice a Artifact you control. (Simple effect, destroys an artifact & leaves you if you decide to not pay them, that is if you haven't used them to Chump block a larger creature.)

"Multani's Acolyte's Acolyte" {G} 2/2 Creature - Elf Druid (w) - When [Creature] enters, draw a card. Echo - An opponent Draws a Card. (Simple, clean, can play politics with others & don't need some cost to untap it when it doesn't untap naturally.)

Some fanart of TheLoadingCrew's character "Bright Luster" from The Complete Waifu Handbook.

"You ever just ever stop and take a moment to listen to the wind rushing threw the grass & trees? That melodic whistling sound, sort of weird ain't it?"

SO, I did a picture of Kazemon waiting at a train station a month back, I immediately started working on this but got side tracked & lost interest. This is not finished but if I don't put it out here now I never will. &  Both of my Digimon Train station Artworks combined, yes you can tell that one side was started before the other & the seem where it is unfinished. Its over & I probably wont do things like this again in the future.

"I ant your "Mommy", Your "Wifu" whatever the Yami that is, I Am Your 𝑮𝑶𝑫𝑬𝑺𝑺" (You can till It's been a while since I've Drawn here, Here thighs aren't thick enough! ;) (Y̶e̶s̶ ̶h̶e̶r̶ ̶m̶u̶s̶s̶e̶l̶ ̶i̶s̶ ̶w̶r̶o̶n̶g̶,̶ ̶I̶ ̶k̶n̶o̶w̶))

Superpower Ramblings: Speedsters 

 Just some ramblings and Ideas of a madman, this time Speedsters. 

Speedsters, known for their ludicrous running speed, quick thinking, and occasional enormous appetites, are a classic stable in any Setting. Usually, the jokesters of the group they, while having many badass and emotional moments, are often seen as the least of the group. I think that is mostly to how they are portrayed, usably as the least powerful of the groups they are a part of.  

Think about it. 

Usually in the group you have the 'Heroic leader' they may or may not be the 'Flying Brick' someone who is seemingly near invincible and willing to jump in front of nearly every attack for their teammates, who while not as fast as the speedster can both take and deal out more damage than the speedster. 

Then there’s your second in command/'lancer', usually the brains of the group, their skill set is tactical, be that regular smart or cybernetically enhanced. They are usually a "Normal Badass" as all their skills are enhanced from gadgets they have made, which usually elevates them above their powered teammates. 

The rest are an assortment of "Muscle", "Trained Fighter", and "Spellcaster" and/or "Psychic". Speedsters are a niece category and too numerus to count, and while some are more creative than others, they are really dumb. I mean that they, like most others, have not thought threw their power sets to the outer most limits. 

There are plenty of creative usages I have seen, such as thinking in superspeed to outwit Psychics, or having "Bullet Time" to investigate an area in the matter of moments, heck the flashes tornados are a particularly good example. 

I guess my gripe is that they are normal humans, with normal ways of thinking, that usually unless you are a "Normal Badass" you don't do any training. Think of it, all speedsters fight the same way, with superspeed 'Hit and Run' tack ticks, and with Supervillains that know how to fight (Usually the fastest Speedster among the pantheon) why have tactics not evolved?  

I want to blame lazy Wrighters and the status quo of this, which while true is not the entire point. People don't think outside of the Box. Just Imagen that you are a random civilian that has lived in a world with decades of Heroes & Villans, now you have superpowers and decide to join the game, what do you do differently? Absolutely nothing, oh sure you may have a gimmick tied directly to your powers, but that is it, you may have a 'Power Evolution' at some point, but you don’t actively go out of your way to change, and you wonder why you have such a hard time fighting. 

Now dear reader, if you had superspeed what would you do? Get dishes done in an instant, Clean all your rooms in record time? Well sure, but you usually have a dishwasher that automatically does that for over an hour or more, and how often do you actually clean your room? Well, what about practicing? Yes I know, people don’t want to, hell I very much don't want to, and without some music or something it can become tedious. But think of it, reps done in a secant, stretching exercises done in the mater of moments, that stupid jazzercise fitness routine done in a minute instead of an hour. Now lets push that forward to its most extreme, practicing a fighting style in the matter of weeks or months instead of decades, sure you need an expert to point out your flawed form when you begin, but as soon as you got it you can do a thousand punches, kicks, or whatever move in the matter of moments. 

Why shouldn't there be a Speedster that stands still in the middle of the street weighting for you to attack, and when you do that can Kickbox your ass at supersonic speed, that when you shoot at them with anti-speedster weapons they ‘Dempsey roll’ there way through laser weaponry? 

Yes this whole ramble is a plea for more "Boxing Lessens for Superman", so will the rest of my "Superpowers should be more Interesting" ramblings. 

Was a DND character I was working on trying to determine color pallet Right just before the shit went down with the "Open license", Going to try and resurrect them for Pathfinder or other games. There a Dullest Dex fighter with a Charlatan background.