Honestly, this starts out strong. Have a conversation - do you have mass land denial, extra turns, or fast/2 card infinite combos? But then we get to the game changers section, and it feels like they kinda ran out of steam and just said “we don’t like these cards”. I don’t specifically disagree with the list, but there’s too many similar cards that aren’t listed, because - well, where do you draw the line? It would make more sense to focus on function (Fast mana, Tutors, etc.), and THEN provide examples for guidance. And they do sort-of do this at the bottom of the article, but it gets muddy fast. Which is why everyone is looking at the list of “game changer” cards instead. And already mapping out the next best in slot replacements.

Also, ‘Sol Ring should be on this list, but it isn’t, because dad said so’ is not the wining argument they think it is.

Kept the left over floor tiles. Nearly 30 years later I needed to replace one, had a box ready to go.

Toe Jam & Earl. As a kid, it seemed just endlessly creative, you could just explore & explore forever. And the shit humor - I was the exact right age where every joke was a banger. Although the game itself would be badly dated today, I bet the music holds up well, albeit in short bursts. I still get snippets stuck in my head.

Model Railroading.

It’s not the worst, but it requires all the key ingredients - you need to own a home large enough to have a ‘spare’ room, which means you’ve got disposable income. And displaying the trains is almost as much fun as running them, so you end building shelves and shelves, which then sprawl out to the rest of the house. Only to realize you’re missing the ‘key’ one from that set, got to go find that, obviously.

And then of course you can’t throw away the boxes, because that would lower the resale value, so you need to rent a second storage unit. Not that you would ever sell them of course. But your kids will be sitting on a goldmine!

And that’s just the collection portion. It’s a crafty hobby, from making scenery & waterfalls & little trees all the way to the special paints to make the engines look aged. That will need a room as well.

And now that we’ve got the train shelves in the kitchen, you know, I could put a food themed railroad on the table there. Yes I already have the desert themed one in the train room and the prairie themed one in the living room and the snow theme layout in the hallway, but I don’t have a silly one. No of course the Halloween theme one doesn’t count.

I was banned from Reddit for the crime of using a different computer to login. Fun fact - there’s no appeal for that one. So I decided I had enough of that particular shit show, did some Googling for something similar to the older Reddit from years ago.

I used to carry a universal TV remote control with me. It’s simply staggering how often it was useful.

“YOU DRIVE VERY FAST”. Screamed at me out her minivan window by a middle aged Indian woman making a left across traffic in front of me. Still cracks me up.

Not a direct answer, but if you ever get a chance - go walk around a self-serve junkyard. This is where cars go when they finally just aren’t worth fixing anymore. It is eye opening. There are cars that you will still consider ‘new’ that have already given up the ghost (mainly Dodge/Chrysler, Hyundai/Kia, & Nissan). And you can’t help but think - WTF are these cars doing here, aren’t these still for sale at the dealership?

Conversely, there are also cars there so old you hardly recognize them (usually Honda, Toyota, and full size pickups from Ford/GM).

I’m super-out of date, so talking about the originals here.

For the Decepticons, I have to go with Devastator / the Constructicons. Something about “We build for EviL” is just so cartoon villian-y that I’ve always loved them. Plus, neon green & purple.

For the Autobots - my first transformers ever were Gears and Cliffjumper - two relative no-name minis, but they have a special place in my heart.

Witcher 3.

Have Red cards in general come down in price since the ban? There’s a view in my group that Red was already the weakest of the 5 colors. And with Dockside gone, now Red is even further disadvantaged. So, we’re expecting to see even fewer Red decks, which ought to mean that the price of other good Red staples would slide.

Now, this is working out great for me - we sometimes play a Commander variant we call Crapmander, where no single card can be worth more than $5. I was just able to build a Crapmander mono Red deck that I’m quite excited about. From my little world, it sure seems like there’s some REALLY undervalued red cards below the $5 point. Just curious if that’s just a ‘me’ thing, or if the whole community sees it too.

Landing my job. I had experience with a relatively obscure piece of software. Turns out the company had been looking for weeks and couldn’t find anyone. The guy I was replacing had a new job lined up, so they needed someone ASAP.