I've recently started at a new company as a M365 Engineer and the amount of automation they have in their environment for objects AD, AAD, and M365 is incredible. It wasn't really a surprise, given the company has over 30k users and over 25k M365 licenses; it'd be impossible to manage the environment without some level of automation.
We have jobs working in our IAM tool, runbooks in Azure Automation, scheduled flows working in Power Automate, a few sync jobs interacting with AAD that run on application servers, and I know there's one team in the department that has a few scripts they run manually that perform bulk actions in M365, though there are plans to schedule these. And there's undoubtedly more that I don't know about.
The problem is that there’s no real documentation of these scripts. To give an example, we have roughly 15 scheduled runbooks for objects in Exchange Online, and the only indication of what they do is in the name and comments of each runbook. Meanwhile, we have at least 5 scheduled tasks in our third-party developed IAM tool and nobody in the team is certain of when they run or exactly what we do.
To give another example, I recently asked members of the team where or when a certain property on newly created SharePoint sites was configured, and nobody really knew. After an afternoon of digging, I found a runbook in Azure Automation that had been created to perform Operation A and then, a years later, had a couple of lines added at the end to perform Operation B. That second operation was the one I was looking for. The name of and comments in the runbook gave no indication that it was performing this operation.
As a result of this, my boss has asked me to look for a way to document some of the automation we have running and, while I have a few ideas, I’d like to check here with other professionals first to see how this is done elsewhere.
My company prefers using OneNote for documentation, which is adequate; it’s how we documented stuff at my last two jobs. But the question is how to organise and present the documentation of our automation.
I was thinking I could present two views, one in terms of the scripts or flows we have running, explaining where they’re configured, when they run, and what they do (at a high or intermediate level, rather than detail), and a second from the perspective of the system or object, i.e. an M365 Group, Guest User in AAD, or SharePoint Site would be an object with its own view. And I figured that, to keep things consistent and visual, I’d use BPMN to present what the various scripts do and when they run.
Does this seem excessive? Or is there a better modelling language or notation I can use than BPMN for this?

Less than 2 years ago, at age 36, I had a $1 million net worth, making a profit of $30k/month in my business + my wife making $10k, and neither of us worked more than 20 hours/week.
Everything I touched seemed to turn to gold ($40k/month was substantially more than anyone I knew ever made). I got arrogant, and thought I couldn’t lose. It felt like our income and net worth would only go up. We made some big upgrades to our lifestyle.
And I took out a bunch of debt.
I wasn’t happy in my business, so I decided to start a completely different one and invested heavily into it. I was sure Bitcoin was going above $100k, and used leverage to invest as much as I could.
As I stopped nurturing and paying attention to my original business, it fell apart and died. My wife’s business suffered due to the economy, and you know what happened to Bitcoin - being leveraged, I was wiped out.
Meanwhile, I kept thinking my new business was incredibly close to breaking through. So much so, that I never changed my spending, not even cancelling the $1k/month cleaning service until a few months ago. Credit card debt had racked up a ton.
2 months ago, I finally had to meet with a bankruptcy attorney. The bills were overwhelming, and bankruptcy was a real option, but I still felt like my new business was so close to turning everything around - I had to give it some more time.
And then, last month, it happened… everything started clicking in my new business, and we did $100k. I’ve only collected half of that as profit so far, but everything is in place to continue growing this.
Current focus is just digging out of the hole, paying off debt. I’m in no rush to upgrade my lifestyle again, although I do dream of owning a second home in an area with better weather (too hot here - want a place in Montana or Idaho where I can summer and snow ski).
A few months from now, that could be a real option. And I will buy Bitcoin again.
The lessons I took away is not to stop taking risks, or to try and hold onto money as tightly as possible, that I should live in fear I could lose everything.
I never want to be an arrogant, greedy moron again, but I’m not going to stop living. Money in the bank or not, I’m enjoying the ride because that’s what it’s all about.
The possibility of losing everything does not scare me. Living a life I don’t wake up excited for is what scares me.

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Synopsis:
Juliette Contzen is a lazy, good-for-nothing princess. Overshadowed by her siblings, she's left with little to do but nap, read … and occasionally cut the falling raindrops with her sword. Spotted one day by an astonished adventurer, he insists on grading Juliette's swordsmanship, then promptly has a mental breakdown at the result.
Soon after, Juliette is given the news that her kingdom is on the brink of bankruptcy. At threat of being married off, the lazy princess vows to do whatever it takes to maintain her current lifestyle, and taking matters into her own hands, escapes in the middle of the night in order to restore her kingdom's finances.
Tags: Comedy, Adventure, Action, Fantasy, Copious Ohohohohos.
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Chapter 25: Daily Grind
I found Apple chewing at the door handle to the alchemy shop. He raised his head when he saw me, snorted, then went back to chewing the wood.
I shooed him away, then gave him the last apple from the saddlebags instead.
Today had been a productive day for the both of us. I'd done away with miscreants and mages both, and he'd done away with everything green in a large circle around where he was tied up. Given enough time, I was certain he would have chewed through the door handle as well, and then the door itself.
It would have been marvellously useful. We needed to go through it.
Coppelia and I had unfinished business here. Officially requisitioning Apple back into my employ as my noble, if rather slow steed was a must. But so was ensuring that any evidence of Marina Lainsfont's crimes was secured, as well as hints on where she could have gone.
Neither of us expected to find Marina in the shop itself. But it was the abode of a powerful mage. And that meant the possibility of unforeseen danger.
We'd need to be respectful of potential traps, and that meant discretion.
“[Coppelia Kick]!”
Prooowwph.
Thus, the door to her shop flew inside as Coppelia roundhouse kicked it with a smile.
“What happened to discretion?!” I said, aghast at the damage it could have caused Coppelia's shoes. They were the nicest things she owned. “You said you were going to check the door for traps!”
“I did check the door for traps!”
“Then why is it now on the floor?!”
“There are two ways to check for traps. The dumb way and the Coppelia way. Dumb people cast counterspells and fiddle with locks until eventually, their spells and fancy hands fail one time and they blow up. Poof! If I kick the door down, then there's nothing to open and nothing to trigger.”
“You don't need to say the Coppelia way. You can just say wanton violence.”
“It works, though!” Coppelia stuck her leg past the doorway, paused, then skipped inside while pretending she hadn't just waited to see if she blew up. “And besides, it was a door. What are doors for if not to kick down?”
I raised an eyebrow. I also didn't walk in after her.
“Your library doesn't have any doors, does it?”
“Not anymore, no,” she said cheerfully. “Coming in?”
I waited five seconds for any explosions to occur, then followed after her. If Marina Lainsfont had planted a trap to detonate after more than five seconds, then she deserved her victory.
Inside, I was now experiencing my first act of breaking and entering a private property. Regardless of the criminal status of the owner, this was still trespass.
Luckily, laws didn't apply to me!
As a princess, any property was my own should I deem it to be. I could name a bench in the middle of a city as my private abode and anyone who sat on it would be charged with lèse-majesté. But while the option was available to me, it was problematic since I was currently masterfully incognito.
Fortunately, that problem had just solved itself.
I wasn't just here as a princess. True, I was 99% here as a princess as anything less would make me irredeemable in my own eyes. But I was also here as a newly inducted adventurer. And while that 1% meant shame and disappointment on my family name and royal heritage, it did come with a useful advantage.
Namely, that if anyone asked me why I was committing a host of minor offences, I could direct all liability onto the Adventurer's Guild!
Ohohohoho! Those fools! I'd bleed them and their reputation dry! It wasn't often I had the opportunity to plan the demise of the Adventurer's Guild, but now that I did, I took it with gusto.
I would brazenly ignore the law as usual, but now it would be the guild and not my family that were the target of the peasantry's vitriol!
My carefully constructed plan to diminish the Adventurer's Guild in the eyes of the people was taking shape. And it'd start with the ruckus Coppelia and I caused as we made our way through the narrow shop.
“The odour has become more pungent,” I noted, wrinkling my nose as I eyed the ingredients on the walls. “I thought it would become more bearable without anything green or purple or skull shaped simmering in the background.”
“Actually, I think that simmering helped overpower our senses so much that everything just became warm and hazy. Without it, we get everything as it is. Natural and raw and full of wholesome goodness.”
“I think I preferred it when it was an alarming miasma.”
“Get used to it. Adventurers dig around all the worst smelling places. That's where all the lost cats are.”
And that's where all the lost cats will stay.
Ohoho … unfortunately for our feline friends, I wasn't a cat person. I was a me person. And I cherished myself and my sense of personal hygiene dearly!
“I'll remind you that I'm an adventurer in name alone. Rest assured that any task I complete is for my own benefit, and that the Adventure's Guild is merely a fund to draw from.”
“By finding lost cats, right? I mean, they must have a huge fund for that.”
“Then it simply means there will be plenty of wide-eyed adventurers who are willing to degrade themselves with such menial tasks.”
Coppelia ceased her stooping around just to grin at me.
“And I bet they'll climb the ranks way faster than you because of it. How terrible would that be, huh? You might be F-rank forever!”
I winced.
F-rank! The … The indignity of it! The sooner the Adventurer's Guild were removed as a force in this kingdom, the better! And it had nothing to do with the sheer absurdity of the rank I'd received!
“I have no care for the arbitrary ranking system of the Adventurer's Guild,” I said, valiantly keeping the shame at bay. “Both you and I have more pressing matters to attend to than rescuing cats.”
Why, even the thought of doing a single commission which wasn't related to saving the kingdom filled me with horror. I would rather shame myself by returning to the Royal Villa with my head cowed than do anything to risk normalising fetching lost pets. That was for people like … what was his name?
Something Oddwell. The strange adventurer who'd dropped on his knees to beg for my time.
Rising through the ranks concerned people like him, not me. I was no commoner who saw prestige in adventuring through the wilderness for plaudits. Rather, to be viewed as an adventurer was abject humiliation! Who would become a wanderer of cellars and sewers if they had the acumen to seek fame and fortune through wit and diplomacy?
“I'm almost a little jealous, you know?” said Coppelia, her hands ransacking through bags, drawers and shelves. She wasn't even looking at what she pulled out. “If I wasn't an assistant librarian, I'd definitely want to see what all the fuss concerning adventuring is about.”
“Only the unimaginative fuss about adventuring. For me, this is a financial transaction. Nothing more.”
“Ooh! Who's buying what?”
“I'll sell an iota of my time as I tear down a notice for solving a kingdom-wide calamity, and in return, the guild will spill out its coffers for my assistance.”
Coppelia let out a laugh. It stopped as soon as she pulled out the strangely shaped skull from a barrel. Then she put on a huge grin as she started playing with its eye sockets.
“A reluctant adventurer,” she mused. “First time I've heard about that. I thought every wealthy girl and boy wanted to become one. You know, to get away from your stifling duties and horrendous expectations?”
I hid my smile behind my hand.
Ohohoho … my fair clockwork maiden, how little she knew!
I was not my siblings, cursed to trade smiles with the firstborn sons of mere barons as though they were worth a morsel of our time! No, my responsibilities were far more important! And gratifying!
“If you must know, I happen to be extremely fond of my duties. My orchard is the pride of my life.”
“Okay, well, I don't know what your duties are, but I'm already pretty sure they're different to what most other people do. Even the rich ones.”
Well, naturally!
I was a princess. Only my sisters could compare to me. And even amongst ourselves, none of us shared the same passions. Clarise was enamoured with her inventions and her observatory, while Florella was joyfully causing strife wherever men gazed at her.
Neither of them were quite as normal or level-headed as I was. But I cherished them nonetheless.
Suddenly, Coppelia's expression took on a serious hue.
“I don't know what you're thinking, but I feel strongly that I disagree with it.”
“E-Excuse me! Please don't claim to know what I'm thinking! That's a realm of insight and constant philosophy which would beguile the minds of all others!”
She stood up, blew some dust and dead things from herself, then purposefully eyed my idle hands.
“Is it because your mind's busy that I'm the only one looking for stuff?”
“You barrel through belongings with such disregard and nonchalance. I was enamoured. I believe you have what it takes to become an adventurer, should you ever choose to adopt the profession.”
She laughed at that. I wasn't sure why. That wasn't a joke.
“Saving kingdoms sounds like a pain. But if I finished my reading list and was a bit bored, sure, I'll do what you're doing. You know, the super embarrassing F-ranked thing.”
I gave a flick of my hair in response, resolutely standing still and not helping to sweep my hands through all these … rotting objects.
“A means to an end. Nothing more.”
“It might actually be useful, though? As an adventurer, you get more than crowns. You get information, too. That's important. The Adventurer's Guild is a useful tool. It's one of the first places I asked around in when looking for my book.”
I turned to look at Coppelia, my mouth wide.
Of … Of course!
This is why she was my future handmaiden!
The Adventurer's Guild was more than a bag of crowns! They had assets at their disposal beyond merely coin. Why, they parasited themselves not just in Tirea, but almost every other nation as well—including our neighbours to the east and south.
That meant this was an opportunity to weed out every last drop of information I could about Granholtz, Weinstadt and the Sands. What courtly information could I glean about the Grand Duchess's designs? How lost was the Royal House of Carx to revolt? Where next did the Dune King turn his golden knights and golden eyes?
Knowing how indispensable I'd become, the guild would surely bend over backwards to accommodate my every request!
Indeed, I could make use of this!
“Zilch here,” said Coppelia. “Want to look in the back with me or just stare open mouthed at how graceful I look while tearing through stuff?”
She did a spin for fun, tossing up a bundle of dried petals and herbs as she did so. I closed my mouth, then remembered I still needed to reply.
“You may look. If you still can't find anything, then endeavour to retrieve anything rare and expensive and stuff it in Apple's saddlebags. We've a great deal of expenses to cover and little time to be picky.”
“Rob everything!” Coppelia pumped her fist in the air. “Indiscriminate looting! Fill our pockets! Let's gooo~!”
I went to the counter, then began scouring it for crowns.
Rifling through drawers to expand on my personal funds was certainly a novel experience. But despite Coppelia's assertions, this wasn't robbery or looting or pocket filling. No, no, not at all.
Ohohohoho …. why, this was merely adventuring.
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Holy Khajiit
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(PS4, PS5 EU server)
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We welcome players of all levels and abilities
LGBTQ+ friendly
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here's some of the things you can expect when joining, as well as some of the things we offer:-
No Fees!
Discord
PSN Party
Daily events, ranging from trials to world boss hunts
Monthly raffle
Free Vamp/WW bites
we have a number of master crafters in the guild who can craft you stuff- We have a guild house with various dps training dummies, merchant, banker, fence, vampire level up/ down, transmute station, crafting stations.23/74 full crafting set stations, etc. more sets added all the time.
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For guild invite: reply here or send me a in-game mail, my psn is: ninja_nanny_
you can also find us in the guild finder in-game, hope to see you all soon

Lili wouldn't allow me to exit the manor unless I showed her every bit of evil that laid inside my head. I didn't get why but I did as she wanted and almost ended up as a meal for this three-armed creature that I didn't want to see. I didn't even bother to look for any clues or reasons to leave anymore, knowing it would have been for nothing. It was at this point that I headed back to the main floor and went to a window. "I won't let you go just yet, and you know why." said Lili when I turned and seen her on the stairs.
"I did this, didn't I?" I asked with a bit of fear in my voice. She only looked as Butcher bursted from under me and threw me through the wall. A black void swallowed me then vanished as I landed on a ledge, flat on my stomach. Looking around and in some pain, I could see at least three creatures that were as tall as the maze walls. One of them had four arms, another had twelve eyes and the last one I seen had three mouths which each had teeth like sharks.
Slowly rising to my feet, I got a glimpse of a fourth. This one was completely different from the others. Hard skin that was a brownish grey, two inch teeth that were razer sharp, claws that look like they could rip a black hole in half and eyes that resembled a dead, man eating forest. I was about to Nope right out of there but quickly realized how far down I was. Another glance at the maze and I seen an elevator that the center of the maze that went further down. I felt every ounce of luck drain from my heart and soul as these things walked slowly around, looking for another meal.
I.. I don't fully remember but I had jumped down, I think. The landing was nothing when I heard the dreaming roar of a boulder I landed on. It felt a bit soft but then got really hard as an eye looked at me, trying to figure out what I was. I got down from it's back and locked eyes as it screeched "Run, Now! They come!" That's when another butcher bursted through the wall to my left, making a quick path to the elevator. I gave my thanks as I started to run when I heard it. This low bellow of words that sounded heartbroken. I looked back after getting to the elevator and seen it cry as it was ripped apart by the four creatures.
At this point, going farther down, I had no fears or reasons to keep quiet anymore. I was about to yell out when I reached the lowest level that looked similar to the top floor. All the doors were black with numbers above them, every third one chained tight. Then I came across another red door but this one was different. It held an insignia of a clan. Even now I still don't know what it was but it was the first time I regretted what I did and what I was about to do. I pressed my ear to the door and heard crying and tried to open it and shockingly, it opened easily. There she was, Lili.
Memories came flooding into my mind as we locked eye contact. The first time I actually questioned myself and the only time it made perfect sense. "I did this to you, didn't I?" I asked. She nodded with a sigh. "I am to blame for your torture here, and for these abominations, right?" I questioned. Again, she nodded. That's when I realized it, I had trapped my own in a nightmare that she now controlled. With a tear falling I apologized and turned away. She hugged me as if she knew I was sorry for all of this. We fused together as I was teleported to another dream realm.
I awoke to a desert with very little to offer except a few trailers, some damaged cars and a mini mart. A group of people came close and was about to chain me up when they seen that very insignia on my left cheek. "It's really him!" said the leader. I nodded then got to my feet. "Yeah, it's me." I said quietly. They stopped grabbing at me and handed me a beer as they told me a few stories. Apparently they too were trapped here and from what I gathered, it wasn't by Lili.
Hours passed as I got things ready to go when this dark grey blob formed across what used to be a road. We stood for a bit when I yelled "Grab only what you can carry and run! That's not a friendly!" We all shuffled and even lost two guys but managed to head what I thought was north. "The theater!" I bellowed as we kept running. One by one the people fell victim to this thing as I finally seen fields of corn and wheat. Sarah had become the blob's last meal before the last of us made it to where a cab usually dropped me off, which was right in front of the theater. "Inside, Now!" I demanded as we shuffled inside.
That's when things got out of control. As we entered another dream, we ended up two people short. I looked back and seen two guys cut in half as the portal closed up. "You two ok?" I asked, looking at the last two survivers left. Shakingly they nodded. We walked for what seemed like hours but I ended up feeling something had gone wrong. I motioned the two to follow closely as I peaked around a bus. "Shit! It's right there!" I quietly said, pointing at the blob which had become a humanoid figure. We got inside the bus and sat for what felt like days.
Suddenly day came and we looked to see if it was still around. I pointed in it's direction and motioned them to exit through the back doors. Quietly we made our escape, hoping it wouldn't follow. "Comer O'Dons!" it hissed, "I smell your fears!" We bolted as fast as we could before coming across a boat. It was sitting in a river and tied to a pole. "You two get on and start it up, I'll untie it so you can escape!" I barked. They did just that. A quick rev of the engine and they disappeared from view as I ran to the next place.
Without knowing it, I ran into another red door but this time I fell as the creature stopped then closed it. I landed on my back with a gasp as one of the butcher's grabbed me and tried to run me through another wall. "No!" demanded Lili. The butcher put me down and gave her a hug when I seen it, the other butcher. There were two now, one green and one grey. Somehow I fused with the grey one and became far stronger but that's when we heard a massive yelp of excitement. Underneath us I could feel something trying to dig upwards. "Run, now!" I demanded. The green butcher took Lili and ran as I went the opposite direction. "What ever it is, it's on my ass." I thought quietly as I came to another elevator.
(I apologize but I have to stop here for now. Remembering all of this makes my head hurt so I can only give small bits at a time. Sorry for the inconveniences.)

Currently WARNO is unlikely to have any significant mechanics redesign, but it would still be beneficial to discuss how the current artillery mechanics can be improved for a hypothetical redesign.

Motivation

IMO, the current artillery mechanics has the following problems:

1. [Realism problem] Artillery comes with an arbitrary fixed "salvo length", which does not exist in reality (yeah, burst shots, but we do not see burst on the more relevant tank guns). This is in direct contrast with Broken Arrow where fire duration can be customized.
2. [Realism problem] Firing at the same target again / adjusting coordinate requires a full duration of aiming as a fresh target.
3. [Realism problem] Strange concept of a "reload time". This is fine for MLRS, but lacks any real-life analogy for tube artillery. Tube artillery just fires until the reloader or the crew tires out.
4. [Balance problem] (Result from problem 1~3) No real benefit of NOT shoot-and-scoot. Since re-aim and reload take so long, you should just re-position in the mean time.
5. [Balance problem] (Result from problem 4) Given that aiming took significantly longer time than a salvo duration (otherwise it would be counter-battery massacre), counter-battery becomes useless. The only thing you can ever hit are easy AIs, auto counter-batteries (which is still a very easy AI) or truly terrible players.
6. [Balance problem] (Result from problem 4 & 5) No countermeasure and no diversity in strategy means that the artillery gameplay is decoupled from the rest of the players. Unless the enemy breaches the front (which is not quite likely), the artillery just fires as-is under the same strategy across PvE, 10v10, multiplayer, and rank. This will be very difficult to balance, since you are balancing something without any active, in-game feedback loop. Any slight off-balance will be amplified to the maximum.

This is manifested with the FOB update. Even something as innocent as extra supplies from FOBs can cause a massive MLRS spam hype in recent 10v10 games.
And the fundamental difference in 10v10 and solo means you can't balance both game modes at the same time without some dynamic in-game feedbacks. Artillery becomes a complete trash in rank after the big arty nerf, while I think that big nerf is somewhat reasonable for Iron Waters 10v10.

1. [Balance problem] (Result from problem 5) Range system is almost useless since anyone dare enough can happily place their artillery at the frontline with impunity. But since counter-battery is so weak, there is few interesting deep targets to begin with.
   
2. [Balance/Realism problem] From my experience, towed artillery is as good as SPG if not better (same firepower, faster retreat by truck, cheaper). They just consumes way more micro, which is fine if you get used to it. In real life, this is never the case. Towed should be never ever comparable to SPGs.
   

Design

I propose a small modification on game mechanics to solve most of the above problems, by introducing a single concept of "securing ground". It works as follows:

1. Artillery units not moving will automatically start an operation called "securing ground". The time to finish is different for each type of artillery, and can be vetted. SPGs will have shorter time while towed have significantly longer time. The real-life analogy is artillerymen deploying their towed arty and SPGs deploying spade and measuring baseline. Say 16s for SPGs and 80s for towed.
2. Artillery can only start aiming after securing ground is completed. Aiming time will be relatively short. Say 10s. (16s + 10s = 26s, the original SPG aiming time)
3. As long as the artillery does not move, it can keep enjoying the short aiming time. Once it moves, it needs to secure the ground again.
4. The MLRS RoF needs to be increased to survive the now-rapid counter-battery.
5. The reloading time on tube artillerys should be removed as being useless.
6. The towed artillery should be massively cheaper (such as 4~5 times cheaper than SPGs). This put them on the same price tag as other PACT cheap towed guns under the infantry tab and the tank tab. Eliminating this price discrepancy.
7. Other than above, the salvo length mechanism can still exist and nothing else needs to be modified.

Effect of the Design

Now the artillery system works like follows:

1. Rapid and dangerous counter-battery fire. Now firing artillery is not with impunity. In close range, even shoot-and-scoot is not enough to keep you safe. Out-range, or at least moving further away to delay enemy shells, becomes a real strategy. High value artillery will stay behind at max range and somewhat conserve fire.
2. MLRS will pick up its counter-battery job as in reality. In reality MLRS excels due to its massive range.
3. 10v10 game will see less across-the-map artillery support since now they stay very deep behind with limited coverage, and prefer to conserve fire. This improves frontline gameplay experience by avoiding sudden rain of firepower from all over the map due to a few units being spotted.
4. There is a valid reason to not shoot-and-scoot. It will be worthwhile to let towed keeps firing until death since repositioning is too costly for them. In return, you get nearly continuous and timely firepower from those fodders before they die.
5. There is a valid reason to counter-battery. Now there are easy prey to hunt. Moreover, they will be a real headache if you ignore them.
6. There will be variations in strategies.
   1. (In contrast to backline artillerys) Suicidal frontline artillery can perfrom counter-battery and burst fire support, but they have short life-expectancy.
   2. (In contrast to digged-in towed) Cheap shoot-and-scoot towed can trick enemy counter-battery in to firing, but each repositioning is costly.
   3. (In contrast to counter-battery MLRS) Frontline bombarding MLRS is safe and effective, but you are also librating enemy artillery.
   4. If one side lacks counter-battery, then digged-in artilleries will be the king of battle. If both sides have too much artillery, then strong counter-battery reduces the artillery life-expectancy on both sides, lowering the RoI of artillery. This is a feedback loop which naturally converges.
7. WARNO games and streams will have more eyecandies. Instead of constant shoot-and-scoot, now we can see the heroic rain of fire from a single arty crew, or intricate schemes on counter-battery, while arty will make a sure but temperate appearance in any kind of games.

Future Extensions

Beside the artillery system, "securing ground" can also be easily extended to other uses.

1. No hunting 12.7mm HMGs. Two guys pushing M2HB and attack is just ridiculous. Heavy infantry weapons need setup before use. Also applies to TOWs/Konkurs/Ground-surveillance radars
2. Better LoS system accounting for distractions during movement. No unit should achieve their full optical potential when they are moving. They need to stop, calm down, evaluate their surroundings before they can do proper recon. In this way a digged in sniper will silently kill a moving sniper, rather than a mutal spotting and sniping.

3. Infantry trenches. Infantry digged in receives HE reduction after a long time of dig work. Though this may be out of scope for the time span of a game.

I consider myself as a good 10v10 artillery player. Anyone, modder or Eugen, is more than welcome to try out the design.

Turin, gojid Cradle ecologist.
Date [standardised human time]: May 5th, 2120
(16 years, 4 months before the invasion of the gojid Cradle).
Turin was pacing rapidly. She had checked, unpacked, and re-checked their first aid supplies. She had cleared the house of clutter and gone over their contingencies. But all the busy work had been done, and now Turin had to face it. This was it; this was the trap that Juran had set.
Braq’s voice had been curt and desperate on the radio having signaled her from Ki-yu’s den. A pair of children had been spotted on the mountain pass cameras, right where the roht tracks had been found. He had warned her to keep back, be ready to call assistance. It made sense, and without a second buggy she would not reach them for hours on foot anyway. But that left her and Imdi to sit and wait. Turin could not allow her fear to rule her, it would only distress her son.
Turin made two shaky cups of tea, trying to distract them with his homework. It was a simple short essay, but the lad struggled with his letters at the best of times. Just sitting beside him, she reflected on how much Imdi had grown. He was still a little boy, helpless in his own way, but clearly a person besides. What a strange symbiosis parenthood is; we need our children as much as they need us. Her mind wandered to the two youths on the trail camera. It could only have been Yotun and Callio, they were the closest, and the most likely to go wandering.
Juran’s played us, she realised. Either we call for help and acknowledge that there are dangerous predators here, or we feign ignorance and become complicit. Either way…
“Why…?” she whispered absentmindedly.
“Why what, Mama?” Imdi asked beside her. She shook her head, giving him a casual pat.
“Sorry sweetheart, I got distracted.” If we call for help we damn ourselves, if we don’t we damn ourselves again. We can hide Ki-yu, but we can’t hide this…
Turin snatched up the radio when it burst into static. It was something of a relief, even if it was short-lived. The mountainous terrain interfered with the signal, but Braq’s broken voice told her enough. The girl is dead, all others injured. She stood there with the silent handheld pressed to her ear. She heard the ocean roar about her mind, crashing white water above a darkened abyss. Braq and Ki-yu are still alive. She took the thought and lit it as a lamp to light her cabin.
"No,” she whispered. He can play his game, but I won't.
Turin called the ambulance right away. It would be at least two hours before a first responder reached them from the city. At the very least that gave them plenty of time to hide their daughter away. She was shaking as she made the last of three calls, the ringing signal grating against her quills.
“What’s happening Mama?” Imdi asked, still sitting at the table. With a heavy breath, she sat beside him once more. He looked at her quizzically as she pulled him away from his homework.
“It, uh, it seems that Callio and Yotun wandered onto the property. They’ve been hurt.”
“Hurt?” he squeaked. “Hurt bad?” She nodded, trying to keep her expression calm rather than crestfallen.
“Oh, sweetheart… I’m so sorry…”
~*~
They heard the buggy coming before they saw it, the roar of its engine waking Turin from the windowsill with a start. Imdi awoke in her lap as she moved to her feet, rubbing his raw eyes groggily. A quick glance at the clock told her it had been about an hour. She updated the silent countdown in her head, a sliver of worry that she had called for help too soon.
“Oh,” Imdi whimpered, looking up at her with a tear-dried face.
“Shh…” she coddled him. “Don’t worry.”
The buggy came screeching to a halt outside, and Turin took a breath to steady herself. We just have to keep moving, crest one wave and then the next.
Braq’s silhouette was already exiting the vehicle as she charged out the front door and toward the buggy. The afternoon sun had crashed into a meagre pale sundown, the lightest of yellows across the western sky.
“Braq!” she called out, blinded by the vehicle’s headlights. She almost stopped before she reached them, the smell of blood was frightfully strong. “Wha-?!”
“Keep him back!” Braq barked, cutting off the engine and the lights before he leaned into the backseat. Turin set down their son with a quick kiss. She hurried forward as Braq pulled back. Their daughter hung limply in his arms. A strip of pale fabric had been tied tight about her tail, slowly staining scarlet.
“Oh, Protector…” Turin moaned, reaching for the girl. Her endarkened eyelids fluttered at her voice, lips drawing into a pained smile as she felt Turin’s paw on her face.
“Mama…” she mumbled.
“It’s okay,” Turin whispered, “you’re home now.” Yotun was sitting idly in the passenger seat, watching them intensely. The look on his tear-marked face was one Turin thought belonged on war veterans and cattle victims.
“Th-the girl?” she asked weakly.
“She’s on the backseat,” Braq said hoarsely, blocking her path as she tried to look around him. “D-don’t,” he groaned. “Just don’t.” Yotun slid out of his seat. Turin glanced over at her son who was fretting with his claws nearby. “Imdi go help Yotun inside.”
“O-okay,” he mumbled. His eyes went wide at the long gashes in the approaching boy’s forearm, but he just swallowed hard and took his other paw. “Is Ku going to be okay?” he asked worriedly.
“Ku…” Yotun wheezed, almost a laugh.
“Don’t worry, sweetheart,” she murmured, nodding to the lodge. “Go on.” She looked up at her partner's haggard face, silently asking the same.
“Broken tail,” he said, “cr-cracked ribs I’d suspect.”
“Internal damage? A haemorrhage?”
“N-no I don’t think so,” he panted, hobbling past her toward the house. The breath left her at the sight of her beloved’s back.
“Braq!” she gasped. A pair of long diagonal slashes had been cut from shoulder blade to pelvis, broken spines hanging loosely. Whilst the bleeding had stopped, the exposed tissue was shifting and raw beneath his torn hide. He was also limping, she saw, a fearful bitemark around his right ankle. Turin wanted to scream as she started after him.
“I’m okay,” he grunted, shifting all his weight onto his left leg as he walked. No, no you’re not! “Looks worse than it is. You called the parents?” he continued, ignoring their torment.
“Y-yeah,” she mumbled as they hurried through the threshold. Imdi had sat Yotun on the couch and was carefully setting out one of the first aid kits. The skinny boy looked up stiffly as they entered. “At least Laenar and Arrut. They’ll be here soon. Teraka didn’t answer.” Braq let out a shuddering sigh.
“W-we need to get her sorted before they arrive,” he said. With a short yip of pain, Ki-yu reached out for the couch. Her dark paw gripped Yotun’s shoulder stopping them from passing, the boy wide-eyed and slack-jawed at the contact. Ki-yu’s voice was slurred and lethargic, each breath heavy and deliberate.
“Pretty… drawings…” she wheezed. “Remember… burn… the forest…” Yotun bristled. Turin reached down and gently unhooked her claws, taking some comfort in their strength still despite her injuries.
“Hide her,” she told Braq. He shook his head.
“I n-need to get Callio from the buggy.”
“No, you look after Ki-yu,” she said firmly. “I’ll go get her.”
“N-no, it’s bad, I ca-”
“Braq, beloved. Look after her.” Braq looked quickly from Turin to the girl in his arms, before reluctantly nodding. Ki-yu was still mumbling as Braq walked with her down to her hidden bedding room.
“W-woods… stars…” Turin heard her say.
“It’s okay, sweetheart,” Braq whispered to her. “Try and rest.” Imdi tugged at Turin’s leg.
“Baba’s hurt…” her son mumbled.
“I know,” she said, rubbing his scalp. “He’s just got to look after Ki-yu for a little while. Okay?”
“O-okay…” He looked at her more insistently. “Mama, is Ku gonna be alright?”
“I…” He should not have to see any of this. The words caught in her throat, so she just nodded. “Why don’t you go help Baba, hm?”
“Okay…” he mumbled, doddering down the gloomy hall after them. Turin wished she could join them, to hold them all close and whisper sweet nothings.
If I stop now, I’ll drown.
Turin moved to where Imdi had studiously spread out the first aid kit and crouched down.
“Hey,” she said as softly as possible. “I need to take a look at that.”
Yotun flinched as she touched him, from fear or pain she knew not which. Turin pulled the arm straight as tenderly as she could. Yotun whimpered as she washed out the wound but otherwise said nothing. He just sat there, numb, quiet, and broken. The mother in her wailed. I can mend his arm at least. She bandaged it carefully, gave him some painkillers, and told him to try and rest.
Still, even that task was preferable to what Turin had to do next. She retrieved some white sheets from the laundry. They were not true funerary shrouds, specially thickened to prevent the dead’s quills from piercing the fabric, but they would do.
The pre-night gloom was setting in as Turin stepped outside again. The cool air carried a crying choir of forest creatures, making Turin feel like she was standing in a dream. She walked stiffly out to the buggy, stopping before she had the chance to look inside. The smell had only grown, but it was more than mere disgust; a bubble of terror encircled the vehicle. Crushing down the thundering panic before it built, Turin peered into the buggy. On one backseat was a small body, partially obscured by a bloodied poncho. Callio’s creamy fur peaked from beneath the fabric in places, tinged a dark blue. A tide of azure had flowed down into the seats, building a dried pattern in the footwell.
Turin turned away, stifling a keen. She remembered their first meeting, how that harrowing confrontation had become a cheerful moment of play by the seaside. She was so happy, Turin recalled. So bright. No more… Collecting herself, she retrieved the rifle, wedged haphazardly into the driver’s door, noting how the metalwork had buckled around the central chamber. She shrugged the strap over her shoulder and turned back to the body. I will not flinch, she told herself as she pulled back the covering. We owe her that much.
She did not balk, but it hurt her not to.
Callio lay on her side with closed eyes, curled up as if asleep. She was as at peace as she could be. Turin spread the sheet across the ground and moved to lay the girl to rest. She shuddered and stopped when shifting the torso made the head turn unnaturally, biting into the back of her own paw to stop herself from screaming. This could have been Braq… or Ki-yu… or even Imdi… Oh, Protector… With a shaky sigh, she laid her down on the sheet and, as respectfully as she could, Turin enwrapped the girl in white. The death of her aunt had been the first time Turin had seen loss, felt grief. To see that plump woman, full of raucous laughter, fond of gaiety and song, reduced to a body enwrapped and entombed…
Turin decided that she hated pale sheets as she carried Callio inside.
She laid the body on the table, then placed the broken weapon on the counter. Yotun still sat stiffly on the couch, as unmoving as a statue. Turin covered the first shawl with a thicker sheet, the form appearing less and less like a person. Looking down she saw blood had soaked onto her overalls, all over her paws. The clothing was ruined, but Turin would never want to wear it again anyway. She stripped and tossed her clothing into the bin. It felt as though the smell had sunk through her skin. She moved to the sink, trying to scrub the blood from herself, but the sponge just came away blue. She turned on the hot water until it was near scalding, trying to clean beneath her claws. It sloughed off her, falling into the inky depths. Turin made a quiet sob, shaking her head to try and will away her wet eyes.
“Mama?” Imdi squeaked behind her. Turin coughed, drying her hands.
“Yes, sweetheart?” she said, quickly wiping her tears. The boy was looking at the body with tearful eyes.
“Wh-what’s happening?” Falling to one knee, she pulled him to her breast.
“Something terrible, love.” She kissed his forehead, the smell of him like a prescient memory, cleansing the nauseating tones of death.
“Mama… I’m scared.”
“I know, it’ll be okay,” she whispered, swallowing to stop her voice from breaking.
“I d-don’t want to be scared,” he whispered. “I wanna be fearless, like you.” Turin let out a tearful chuckle. She leaned back against the cabinet, holding her son’s head gently in her paws.
“I’m not fearless,” she told him. His dark brown eyes were searching her own, the scar on his lip twitching. “Wanna know a secret? Everyone feels scared from time to time.”
“Even Ku?”
“Aheh… maybe a little.” She smiled as she flattened his spines. My handsome little man. “Listen. There’ll be many times in your life when you feel afraid.” She curled a knuckle on his breast. “Where you feel it ball up, right here, and you want to run away and hide. That fear will always be there. But you don’t have to run and hide. That fear can make you strong and brave if you let it push you. And the only way to do that is to try. So,” she rubbed his cheeks with the balls of her thumbs, ”will you be brave?” He snuffled, his tiny face pulling into a fretted smile.
“Okay,” he whispered. “I’ll try.” She brought her forehead to his.
“Good boy.” The soft fur of his face tickled her nose.
If I stop now I’ll drown.
“We’ll, uh, be having visitors soon,” she rasped, pulling back. “I… need to get ready… Why don’t you try and get ready for bed, hm?” The boy nodded a little reluctantly, disappearing down the hall once more.
Turin tried to distract herself by scrubbing through the security footage again, focusing her efforts on the hills around the attack. All trace of her needed to be cleared. But in the corner of her eye, she saw Imdi come toddling back. He sat on the couch beside the thinner boy.
“Hey,” he said quietly.
“Hey,” Yotun replied, his eyes foggy and distant.
“Your arm…” Imdi mumbled, glancing cagily at him. “Does it hurt?”
“Yeah.” Yotun sniffed. He looked at the table, as though seeing it for the first time. The white cloth was a shroud over too small a body. “Your… ‘sister’… an arxur?”
“My sister,” Imdi said dryly, his gaze also lingering on the dead girl. “The arxur.” He sniffed. Then he sniffled. Very quickly he was crying, the quiet sound breaking Yotun from his stupor. An instant later the older boy was sobbing too and, in a moment that broke Turin’s heart, he put his working arm around the younger boy. The two leaned on each other for strength and cried.
Turin did what she could. She lit the fire, gave them blankets, and made some more tea. When she brought it to them, she found they had fallen into an exhausted sleep.
Soon thereafter, Braq hobbled back into the room. Her beloved wore a weary, complex expression as he looked at the sleeping boys, but she could see him take note of, then close off the sight of the girl on the table.
“Passed out,” he reported, moving to her side. “She was in a lot of pain. I’ve, uh, put some ice on her ribs, best we can do is to keep her still for a bit.”
“Oh, she’ll hate that,” Turin mumbled. She nodded to the boys. “This one should be okay, at least in the arm.”
“He, uh… was brave.” Braq conferred quietly. “I think he tried to lure it away from… from her, but…” He shook his head. “Stupid boy… What about the cameras?”
“Just going over the more recent stuff,” Turin said. Braq groaned deeply, then hissed at the twisting broken skin of his back as he leaned forward. Turin stood and pulled him toward the better-lit kitchen.
“Come here, let me sort you out.” Grumbling, her partner begrudgingly followed her.
His ankle had started to swell, the skin a deep purple. They applied some ice to bring down the swelling, but it would need to be thoroughly washed as well. Making him swallow some painkillers, she laid him face down on the countertop to clean his back.
“What happened?” she asked as she brought some hot water and cloth.
“She’d caught scent of it, found a path it was using regularly. We set up the bait, had headed back to her den to check the cameras.” He hissed as she layered on the first cloth. “That’s when we saw them. They were heading –ah!– right for it. I-I drove as fast as I could but…” His paws shook with anxious energy. “I told her to stay back, stay hidden but she didn’t listen. Heh,” he snorted sardonically. “Good thing too.” He looked her dead in the eye over his shoulder. “She killed it. Damn near ripped its head off.” Turin focused hard on the cleaning, trying not to mull over the implications. The disinfectant stung more than the water, Braq’s back taught from stress, fatigue, and pain. Turin kept talking to distract him.
“If, um, someone finds it, they’ll see her teeth marks…”
“I hid that,” he said. “Gun nearly blew apart, but I shot it point blank. Should look like I got it.” Yes… that could work… She took the opportunity to wash the wound in his ankle, the mucky, bloodied fluid staining the floor.
“I’ll have to clean that up,” Braq groaned, his face pressing into the countertop. Turin chuckled, tossing down a towel.
“You better,” she said glibly. Now cleaned, she could see the clear paired punctures where the roht’s canines had dug in, one tooth piercing to the bone. She wrapped it up tightly.
“Lover… the paramedics will have to have a look at this.”
“Figured,” he grumbled. Now clean, she sutured shut the broken hide of her beloved’s broad back. It would scar, and he may even lose quills, but it would heal. Braq got up almost before the last suture went in.
“You should sit and rest,” she told him, grabbing his wrist.
“So should you,” he said without spite. His paw came up beneath her chin, and she saw in his eyes the same wailing despair she felt. If I stop now I’ll drown. Braq made to hug her, but she stopped him with a palm on his chest.
“Please don’t…” she pleaded. She needed to stay strong for now. He took her paw and rubbed it absently but nodded. With a shaky sniff, he gestured to the sleeping boys.
“One of us needs to talk to him,” he said. “Which one do you want?”
“I-I’ll do it. Go keep an eye on the kids.” She squeezed his paw and kissed it. “We’ll be okay.”
“I know.” he said, leaving her leaning against the counter. He at least seemed to believe it. Braq leaned over the couch and lifted his son as carefully as he could, wincing at the pain in his foot. He nestled him in the crook of his massive arms, and walked down to his room.
With a heavy sigh, Turin sat down on the couch beside Yotun, still curled up in sleep.
“Yotun?” She tapped his knee. He stirred quickly with a frantic, panicked breath, crawling across the cushions. “Sorry! I didn’t mean to startle you.”
“Y-you didn’t,” he mumbled, drawing the blanket about him.
“Is your arm still hurting?” The boy nodded weakly, not meeting her eyes.
“Here,” she gave him his lukewarm cup of tea, noticing how his paws twitched and shuddered. Turin wished she could give him some time to recover, to reconcile, but they only had minutes now at best.
“I’m… so very sorry, sweetie,” she said softly, “but we need to talk before your parents get here.” Yotun swallowed hard.
“What’d y-you tell them?”
“That you’ve been hurt, and that a predator did it.” Turin sighed. “But we’re not talking about that, are we? We’re talking about Ki-yu.” Yotun looked at her like she had grown antlers, but the expression passed quickly.
“I k-kinda guessed,” he whispered. “But it didn’t make sense. You’ve been keeping her here? This whole time?”
“Yes,” she said. “I wish you could get the chance to know her properly.”
“She… left me…” he mumbled. “Alone… in the dark…”
“Yes. And afterward she turned up here in the middle of the night, a shivering, broken wreck. I’ve never seen her cry so much.” The boy looked up at her mistily.
“She… cried?” He shook his head morosely. “It doesn’t matter. It’s all over now…”
“Is it?” Turin asked, willing fire into her voice. “She certainly doesn’t seem to think so. ‘Burn the forest?’” He flinched. “She knows the risks of her discovery, far better than anyone. She knows that if it comes to it…” Turin stopped before she broke down. “And yet, she risked it all for you. In a heartbeat. She put her trust in you, Yotun.”
“Sh-she sh-shouldn’t have… I-I’m just a st-stupid kid!”
“I-” The alarm wailed for a split-second before Turin turned reached over and turned it all off, hiding their security system.
“Wh-what was that?”
“Proximity alert. Someone’s coming.”
“My parents?”
“Most likely.” Yotun drew himself down. This isn’t working…
Braq came limping up the hall.
“She’s still asleep, secure,” he said.
“Okay,” Turin breathed. “Then sit down, for Kay-ut’s sake, before you make that worse.” He settled into the windowsill seat. Turin placed a paw on Yotun’s uninjured arm.
“They’ll kill her,” she said firmly. “If you mention her at all, to anyone, they’ll kill her.”
“M-my p-parents wouldn’t-”
“Yes,” Turin said with a sad smile, knowing as all parents do. “They absolutely would.”
”They’d tell someone else at the very least,” Braq sighed. “And then they’d come for us all.”
“A-and they’d burn it all down to find her,” the boy shuddered.
The hovercar’s thwopping was now audible.
“We shouldn’t have to ask this of you, lad.” Braq said. “You’ve suffered too much already. But I think you know we’d both be dead right now without her.” Turin’s stomach rolled. Yotun looked fearfully between the two of them.
“Y-you’re asking me to lie?!”
“From what she’s told us, you’re the closest thing Ki-yu’s ever had to a real friend.” Turin implored him. “We’re asking you to save her.” Braq looked out of the window as she said it.
“They’re here.”
A door slammed outside. If I stop now I’ll drown. Turin gave his arm one last squeeze.
“Our lives are in your paws, Yotun.”
Please, please, please save her…
“Yotun!” Laenar cried out desperately, the front door thrown open as they charged in. Turin backed off as quickly as she could, knowing better than to come between them now.
“Oh, my boy!” The mother fell to her knees beside him. “Thank The Protector! Oh, your arm! Gods!” Stopping in the middle of the room, Arrut drew a quick sharp breath, his eyes on the table.
“Mercy…” he said simply, the light from the fireplace casting long shadows across the room. Laenar made a muted gasp, pulling Yotun tight against her. “The girl…?”
“Callio.” Braq said quietly. It was almost a whimper. There was a long silence, the only sound Laenar’s muted breathing.
“Wh-where’s the ambulance?” Arrut asked weakly. “Why didn’t you call an ambulance?”
“Too late,” Braq murmured mournfully. “It… it all happened too fast.”
“There’s one coming now,” Turin said, rubbing her forehead. “To… collect the body.”
“That’s not an ambulance,” Laenar said weakly. Arrut pulled his eyes away from the table, falling heavily into the chair beside Braq.
“My… stars man,” he murmured. “The state of your back…”
“Think of your son, you idiot!” Laenar gasped. Arrut shot her an incredulous look back.
“The wounds clean. H-he should be alright physically-” Turin started.
“Alright?! He’s been mauled!” She pulled her son’s face up to her. “What h-happened? Why were you out there?” His expression crumpled.
“We wanted to see the woods,” he said quietly.
“Wha- Why…?” The pudgy woman suddenly glared at Turin. “You did this! You perverted pair of-!”
“Laenar!” Arrut yelled. “That’s enough!”
“No, I’m sick of these people! Sick of this place! Why don’t you just-!”
“Shut up, Mother, shut up!” Yotun started yelling. “I did this, this’s my fault!” He winced as he jerked his slashed arm at them. “Braq saved me!”
”You’ve been through a lot, you don’t-!”
“M-my fau-lt! My-!” His words became incoherent, a violent sorrowful wailing. Laenar relented, looking as broken as her son. The boy was inconsolable, unable to speak, so Braq recounted what had happened. The parents listened intently, not saying a word. He told them how they had suspected something was not right in the Brackwood, carefully leaving out the signs of roht they had kept to themselves. He told them that he had found a dead vyrryn and tracks in the snow and had been watching the cameras when he had spotted the children. Braq’s voice broke when he explained how he had not got there in time. As his voice trailed off Turin knew that he was replaying those dreadful moments over and over again in his head.
Arrut stood, rubbing his mouth.
“Why didn’t you call the authorities?” he asked. “If you suspected there was this roht creature about, why didn’t you call for help?” Turin and Braq shared a glance.
“Because it doesn’t make sense,” she said. “Roht were never found here. They’re practically extinct.”
“So, what?” Laenar grunted. “You based your safety, all our safety, on your intuition?”
“No,” Braq said. “We’ve found… plasma wounds on animals, many fatal. Someone else has been in our woods.” He rubbed his face with both paws. “We don’t know who to trust.”
“And you think, what they’re trying to scare you off?” She scoffed. “I find that hard to believe.”
“Believe what you want,” Turin snapped. “We’ve got the photos to prove that someone’s been shooting our animals.”
“But… who would go wandering out here?” Arrut asked. “Most people are terrified of this place.”
Before anyone could answer, the sound of another arriving vehicle drew their attention, Braq glancing out the window. He leaned forward.
“Well… you were right,” he said. “It’s not an ambulance.” A quiet stillness came over them as the engine died; the gravel outside crunched beneath approaching steps. Moonlight filtered through the front window; the shadow of an impossibly tall man descended across their home. The phantom coalesced by the threshold, the figure looming for a moment. Then he straightened and knocked. Nobody moved. He knocked again, the noise rattling about Turin’s skull. She looked over at Braq and saw ire and worry warring in his eyes. A third knock, more insistent. Fuck…
Turin walked over and opened the door.
“Good evening Turin,” Juran said, giving her the slightest bow. His pale eyes hovered like pinpricks in the night.
“Juran. What’re you… doing… here…” Her voice left her as she saw who stood behind him. Juran strode past her as she struggled to form a thought.
“We were forwarded a rather desperate-sounding emergency call. Needless to say, we came as soon as we could.” There was a crashing, thundering sound in Turin’s ears. The other just stood there, looking at her expectantly. “Oh dear, nasty business this,” Juran was saying, stepping closer to the body. He clicked his tongue, as though examining shoddy craftmanship. “Very nasty business.” Juran looked quickly around the room, his eyes devouring all they saw. “And two survivors?” He clapped his paws together. “We were worried.”
“We?” Braq asked hoarsely.
“Oh, yes, I was meeting with an old friend.”
He strode in with the same confidence as the extermination officer.
“Teraka…” Arrut gasped. Juran stopped. Everyone stopped. They all just looked at him. Teraka looked nonplussed for a moment, but then he noticed the other parents’ gaze. His eyes passed over them questioningly.
“T-Teraka,” Turin gulped. “I couldn’t reach you… you didn’t…” The man looked at the body, then at Yotun. The lad was shaking, sobbing again in his mother’s arms.
“What is this?” Teraka hissed, his suave exterior melting away. Juran’s pale eyes narrowed, his head moving in a steady glacial turn to Turin. For the first time, she felt like she was actually looking at him. A long time ago, she would have called his expression predatory; now she would simply call it cruel.
“No…” Teraka gasped, pushing Juran aside as he staggered forward. He moved around the table like he feared it would cut him. Tenderly, he pulled back the sheets. It was… disturbing, how little the man reacted. He stilled, all that constant movement, those ceaseless platitudes quieted. He just stood there and looked.
“I suppose we’ve found what killed that brynn foal,” Juran said thinly. The chair squealed as Braq stood, her husband’s face contorting from the pain in his leg. Juran might have been taller, but Braq was undoubtedly the bigger man.
“Really?” he said, looking up at him. “’Cause I’d say that roht was only two or three years old. It would have been an infant when that brynn was killed.”
“Ah, quite right you are,” Juran said with a flash of teeth. “There must have been others.” Her beloved’s fists were held so tight the claws bit into his palms. “Well, regardless this will have to be thoroughly investigated. And of-” Juran was interrupted as Teraka strode over and struck him across the face. The tall man toppled into the bookshelf, clutching at his snout as their small library came tumbling down around him.
“Bastard!” Teraka snarled, his claws digging into Juran’s throat. A shout went out, Turin knew not from who, as the two men struggled. Laenar was gasping noisily trying to shield her son; Arrut and Braq trying to pull the raging father back but finding Teraka’s quills before them. Juran’s paws sinched tight around the smaller man’s wrists, and with a ferocious roar, he stood as quickly as he could, headbutting Teraka under the chin. Teraka staggered backward into the table, the legs screaming murder against the woodwork, Turin only barely stopping Callio’s body from sliding from it. The others were yelling at them, but the two men did not care as they traded blows like trained fighters. They fought viciously, reminding Turin of how Ki-yu hunted; no movement was wasted, no moment savoured. Teraka ducked under a wide backhand, jabbing with his claws for Juran’s chest. Juran blocked with his offhand, using his greater reach to keep Teraka at bay. He threw a brutal left hook that Teraka countered, then trapped. Growling in pain, Juran blocked Teraka’s follow-up, snatching a firm grip on the smaller man’s throat. His grip was so tight Turin saw his claws draw blood. Choking, Teraka kneed him in the groin, then palm struck him in the gullet. The two fell back wheezing, circling one another with quills out and eyes wide with rage.
“You’ve taken everything from me!” Teraka howled. Juran glared at him with his pale eyes, blood flowing down from his snout. “My job! My decency! My daughter!”
“You knew the cost!” he spat back. “It’s you who’ve betrayed my trust. I thought better of you…”
Surging in, Braq gripped Teraka’s left arm, trying to twist it around his back before the fight could resume. But the enraged father kicked the other man’s weakened leg out from under him, dropping him unceremoniously to the floor. With a bellowing cry, Arrut tackled Juran around the middle, the two crashing into the kitchen tiles. Teraka moved to make after them, but Braq took the opportunity to swipe out Teraka’s legs from the floor, evening the score. Growling like an animal, Braq pinned him on his back. Wrestling free of Arrut, Juran rose forward with murderous intent in his pale eyes. Fuck this! Turin snatched up the rifle where it still lay on the counter.
“Hey!” she snarled, the sound of her ratcheting the lever stalling the melee. The weapon had been damaged by the roht; Turin doubted it would fire at all, but the threat was sufficient. “I will not have any more blood spilled in my house!” Teraka struggled in Braq’s grapple.
“There is more at stake than this little shack!” the man hissed.
“Mind your words, Teraka,” Juran’s voice was as thin and sharp as a needle. “Or the cost will be far greater than one little girl.”
“Enough!” Turin roared. “Juran, we’ll cooperate with whatever investigation you deem necessary,” she barked, hiding the fearful lie behind the fire in her voice. “But for now, you’re leaving. I suggest you get that nose looked at.” There was a long and painful silence. The tall man regained his posture, wiping his nose.
“Thank you,” he said with a sickly-sweet smile. There was blood in his teeth. “My apologies for the disturbance, that was most unprofessional. I’ll be in touch.” With one last icy look at them all, he strode out into the night. Teraka struggled beneath Braq as his car shot up into the sky.
“Why’d you do that?!” he spat when he finally released him. “Why’d you do that, wh-why?!” And then he was crying, a pitiful, ruined wailing as he almost fell over the body of his little girl. They could not pull him away; he just kept crying. He was crying when Yotun left with his parents, and he was still crying when the ambulance finally arrived to take her away.
~*~
Ki-yu’s breathing had steadied, ice and a pillow across her chest seeming to help her sleep. Arxur were strong, and the bone had not shifted. The tail required more work —a splint and sutures— but the girl had slept through their treatment. With enough time, they were confident she would suffer no more than a new scar.
Turin's paw brushed across Ki-yu’s sheets, bloodied a fiery crimson. The mother swallowed a sob as she thought of Callio again. Ki-yu made a groaning sound, shifting slightly as her dark eyes flickered open. She peered up at Turin curiously, and for a second she almost seemed bemused. But then she felt her ribs, the ache making her whine.
“Hey,” Turin cooed, feeling the warmth of her scalp. “How do you feel?”
“Thirsty,” she rasped. Turin reached back for the cup of water she had brought.
“Here,” she whispered, bringing it to her scaly lips. “We’ll get you something to eat tomorrow.” Ki-yu gulped it down, then coughed slightly.
“I’ll be okay-”
“No, you’ll eat tomorrow,” Turin said, looking at her sharply. Ki-yu rattled a small huff but nodded.
“Wh-what happened?” she asked. “I thought I heard shouting…” Turin rubbed her paws on her knees.
“Teraka… I don’t think anyone would ever take that well…” Ki-yu scrunched up her face. A moment later recollection returned.
“Oh… I-” She started panting quickly, snorting out wet sobs. The girl dropped her head heavily onto her pillow, wet tears welling in her eyes. Snuffling, she started beating her snout against her bedding.
“Hey… sweetheart…” Turin purred, rubbing her shoulder. “Talk to me…” Ki-yu swallowed, a sound that was almost an Umph!
“I-I w-wasn’t f-fast enough, wa-sn’t good enough-!” The mother pushed her way onto the bed, laying her head on the damp pillow as she pulled her as tightly against her as she could.
“Shhh… You were superb.”
“B-but she-!” Ki-yu sniffled against her.
“You gave her a fighting chance, sweetie. You couldn’t have done any more.” Ki-yu was silent for a short moment, snuggling against her fuzzy chest. Turin hoped it gave the girl the same comfort as her.
“Yotun?”
“He’s gone home with his parents. So far, he hasn’t told them about you at all.”
“Wh-what happens now?” she asked weakly.
“We’ll sort that out,” Turin sighed. “Don’t you worry.” Turin sat up as a tiny figure draped in a long blanket waddled through the doorframe.
“Hey Ku,” Imdi squeaked.
“Hey dingus,” Ki-yu sniffled, making the little boy smile meekly.
“How’re you feeling?” he asked.
“Better,” she said, stretching out as she kept her eyes on the little gojid. “How about you?”
“Okay,” he mumbled, looking at her abashedly. “I, uh, just wanted to say i-it’s okay if you feel scared. I f-feel scared too, but…” He fidgeted with his claws. My brave little man. Ki-yu made a tired keen.
“Wanna stay here tonight?” she asked. He nodded fervently. Ki-yu smiled, spreading out the bedsheets. Imdi wriggled in beside her, the girl wrapping her long arms around him as she brushed down his spines.
“How about a song?” Ki-yu said with a wry smile. Turin sighed out a tired laugh.
“What do you think, Imdi?” she asked.
“All-mother’s prayer?” he replied. Turin always liked that one. It made her smile.
“Okay,” she said. “Just the one. Close your eyes.” The children settled in snugly, Turin singing as sweetly as she could.
“Kay-ut, All-mother, hear my prayer.
Hush, keep it quiet, simple, and fair.
Ki-ra hold your notes, Ki-yu stop your games.
And listen to children in their bedding frames.
A prayer for mummy, I know that’s right.
We played in the tunnels by candlelight.
The soft was clay, and the hard was rock.
Oh, All-mother save daddy, I almost forgot!
A wish for my sister whom I know the best.
I tell her I love her, and she gets the rest.
One more for brother, he lay next to me.
I’ve never adored another like he.
Oh, thank you Kay-ut for a lovely day.
For lighting your pyre to show me the way.
I’m forgetting someone, now who could that be?
Oh, of course! How silly! All-mother bless me.”
Her children were fast asleep as she finished the melody. Their peaceful stillness caused an ache in her heart.
“Goodnight sweethearts,” she whispered as she kissed their foreheads. “I’ll see you tomorrow.” She rose and shut the door as quietly as she could.
Her beloved was sitting in bed with a wan expression. The paramedics had given both Braq and Yotun a once over and thoroughly chastised the man for staying on his feet. Her husband had denied being taken to hospital immediately, so had been ordered to remain bedridden until he would be collected in the morning.
“Can’t you sleep?” Turin said softly, Braq shaking his head stiffly. “No,” she said breathily. “I don’t think I can either. Th-the kids seem a little better. They help each other, I guess.”
“It’s Yotun I’d worry about,” Braq said numbly. “The lad… he’s been through a lot.” He drew in a deep breath. “And Teraka, thinking about it. No telling what he’ll do now. Goddess… that poor girl…” Turin scrubbed her paws in the basin, then threw some water on her face.
“What do you suppose he meant? ‘There’s more at stake than this little shack?’” Braq just shrugged absently. “I’ve been thinking, mutilating the roht was the right decision, but we also need to go over the house again.” She started pacing. “We should be as truthful as we can, go public with everything except Ki-yu. We knew there was something in the woods but couldn’t be sure. We also knew that Juran and Teraka had been killing our animals, we got some photos of their kills. We can use all that to make a case, bring it to the inquest.”
“Turin.” Braq mumbled.
“We’ll have to hide her as soon as possible, somewhere more remote,” she continued. “Deeper into the woods perhaps? Or find a den far across the valleys. But she can’t be too far removed so that we can keep an eye on her. She needs to be fed, so we’ll have to go stash her something…”
“Turin.”
“I think we should assume from now on that all our actions are being monitored, so that way-”
“Beloved…” Braq’s rough paw caught her wrist. He looked up at her earnestly. “It’s okay… you can stop now.”
“I…” The water flows in around her. “Every moment counts, we’ve got-“
“Tomorrow,” he said. “We’ll start early. But… please… you need to stop.” Turin shook her head.
“N-no, I- if I stop-!” Braq’s eyes grew teary, and she felt her fear ball in her chest. She hugged his head close where she stood, her lover's tears wetting her navel. “I-I-” Braq lovingly pulled her down into a tight hug. She felt castaway; her boat beached on some forgotten shore.
“Oh stars, Braq…” she whispered, exhausted as the surf crashed about her mind. “I’m s-so scared…”
“It’ll be okay,” he said. “It’ll be okay.”
Together, on that little island, they sobbed themselves to sleep.
---
“Men at some times are makers of their fates:
The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars,
But in ourselves, that we are underlings.”
– Cassius, in Julius Caesar, Act I Scene 2. Written by W. Shakespeare, 1599.
[Cover] - René Magritte
Links in comment.

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Detective Smith had been working on the case for months, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't seem to find a lead. The case involved a missing person, a wealthy businessman who had vanished without a trace.
Smith had interviewed dozens of people, from the victim's family to his business associates, but none of them had any idea what had happened to him. There was no ransom demand, no sign of a struggle, and no indication that the victim had planned to disappear.
As Smith sat in his office, staring at the pile of case files on his desk, he received a phone call. It was a woman who claimed to have information about the missing person. She refused to identify herself, but she told Smith to meet her at a secluded location outside of town.
Smith arrived at the location and waited, but no one showed up. As he was about to leave, he noticed a piece of paper on the ground. It was a note, written in a shaky hand, that read, "He's not missing. He's gone."
Smith was puzzled by the note. Who had written it, and what did it mean? Was the missing person dead, or had he chosen to disappear on his own? And why had someone gone through the trouble of luring Smith to the location just to leave a cryptic note?
As Smith drove back to his office, he knew that the case was far from over. The note had raised more questions than answers, and he couldn't shake the feeling that there was something he was missing. But for now, he had to keep digging, keep searching, and keep trying to unravel the mystery of the missing person.

Tl;dr - in financial hell after partners suicide, financially naive and immature single mom needs help adulting and brainstorming.
Hi. This will be long, but I need advice on how to proceed from here on out. This is not a beg for anything other than info so please no scammers. The ask subs have been scam city full of fake checks and Temu all night long and I’m exhausted by it lol I’m just looking for advice to fix my situation, not make it worse lol. My story in its entirety can be found in my post history but I don’t want to dwell on it too much here since it’s a trigger for some and not a grief subreddit. This group as well as the subreddit assistance were both recommended to me as a good advice source so here I am.
A few months ago my partner completed suicide. He was our main breadwinner for the duration of our relationship. I’ve always worked retail but he handled the finances. I cashed my check and he paid bills with it and gave me money for an incidentals or emergencies. It wasn’t that smart in hindsight, but we got along great and he seemed to be the perfect provider.
Well, it came out in time that he had been fired and we were actually getting evicted right before he made his decision. I was blind sided, he had been working MORE hours by his actions and words in the recent past.
Rent, 3 mos. Utilities, 3-6 mos behind. Car insurance on the verge of lapsing. Phones, stuff like that all set to be shut off or on payment extensions. Just a whole mess I was blissfully unaware of. I have pared down any additional expenses on the truly necessary bills to the very bare minimum.
I’ve worked through every workable option from various calls to 211 and received help with the rent/pledges to take care of most of it so that was great! But it’s still an overwhelming avalanche because in using all these programs I’ll be ineligible for help for a time period from that church or not for profit. I’ve called them all, the traditional churches for small town America and also the Mormon, lutheran, Unitarian churches. That’s how I got as far as I did. My state was long depleted their Covid rental assistance. Beyond 211 for community action centers and church, are there other avenues or types of groups you’re aware of that might help one time or short term that 211 isn’t aware of, an untapped resource or hidden gem?
I have started a second job, working for McDonald’s and dollar general now since neither are great about 40 hours and they both are low paying but close to home (I’m not in a large town). I donate plasma but CSL isn’t being great $$ wise and it’s the only center close enough to use. I’m considering trying out door dashing or Uber eats or anything where my kids might be able to come along as I don’t have a sitter for night times and can’t leave them alone.
I understand I can’t fix all this overnight, but I’m hoping others who have struggled or are struggling might be able to think out of the box and tell their ideas for earning income in a way that I can still have my kids around/ kid friendly or something that might work when you don’t have a lot of options as a parent or in jobs. I have attempted to find side jobs on Nextdoor but the babysitting and housekeeping market at least seems to be pretty saturated. I’m not afraid to work hard on my off hours, just don’t know what to offer or ways to do it. I’m hoping you can think outside the box for me and tell me what worked for you to raise the funds.
It has been an absolute struggle to provide but I was able to do a meeting for food stamps and Medicaid for my kids. My social worker is going to try to get me benefits within a week she says. There’s a light at the end of the tunnel there and not a moment too soon bc it had gotten to the point where I couldn’t personally eat for days at a time. To know we are all close to regular nourishment is a blessing. Never in my life did I imagine at 40 I’d be struggling so hard that basic necessities like toiletries and sanitary/hygiene items, food, etc would become impossible to attain. This has been hell, and humiliating.
I’m also going to look into social security for my daughter with this partner (one was his) bc if I understand right she should qualify for benefits. We weren’t married but he is on her birth certificate. I don’t live in a common law state. The situation with his mom who is his next of kin is complicated so hopefully this will go smoothly.
If you’ve had this experience yourself as a young child or your children have I will gladly take ANY advice you have on helping my children hell. Our daughter together is just absolutely lost and desperate to go to heaven too. I can’t answer their questions bc I have many myself. I’m trying to support them the best I can, but I’ll take any advice. Parenting is hard. Parenting when you’re broken is the most difficult thing I’ve ever lived.
Also, does Medicaid cover counseling/therapy for children, or is it something you just have to find on your own? I feel the kids might benefit from this. They have seen and felt things a kid never should from that day forward.
Please give me alllll the advice. I will accept it with an open mind and heart. My goal is just to dig out of this mess, but I can’t see the big picture when all the little ones are flashing by like this. Hopefully this made sense. If you read this far, thank you.

Hey folks, I won a local RCQ playing Yorion Enigmatic Fires. Then I wrote almost 4,000 words about the deck and the day and I thought you might be curious to read them! Feel free to ask me any questions you like.
Decklist: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/5521211#online
Deck Choice:
I don’t necessarily believe Enigmatic Fires is the best deck in the Pioneer format, but it is definitely the most fun deck for me to play. There are a lot of extremely powerful interactions in the deck and it does represent pretty much a free win for any deck that can’t remove enchantments, like Rakdos. The deck is almost entirely Explorer legal too (WoTC can we have Chained to the Rocks pls?) so I’ve had a lot of practice with the deck with easily over 300 matches online. That familiarity with the deck and its lines definitely paid off during the day, and I was able to find some pretty great winning moves that I probably wouldn’t have found without that experience.
Card Choices:
Okay, first off, that manabase will look very weird. I could write all day about the intricacies of the 5c Fires manabase, but suffice it to say that there’s a mix of “here’s the triomes and checklands I own / could borrow” and “actually some of these decisions might reflect specific choices I’ve made in deckbuilding.” The mana actually felt incredibly smooth though, there was only one game the entire tournament during which I had to make difficult choices regarding what I was able to cast due to mana constraints (and it was during the finals) which I would consider incredibly good for an 80 card, 5-colour deck in Pioneer.
When it comes to 1-of creatures, lists are fairly settled. My most notable decisions there are playing Gloomshrieker over Shigeki, Jukai Visionary (Gloomshrieker is the better tutor target) and playing Atraxa where some lists choose not to. I can’t believe I’m having to try and convince people to play Atraxa, but play Atraxa! She draws 3 cards and doesn’t afraid of anything.
For enchantments, I’m completely sold on Bitter Reunion as the card advantage spell of choice (over Omen of the Sea). The activated ability can be very relevant, especially to give Refliki of Kiki-Jiki hastiki to criki a tiki of aniki nonlegiki criki we contriki. There tends to be 3 spots left in the enchantments for some kind of removal spell, with popular choices including Oath of Chandra, Omen of the Forge, and Trial of Ambition. While I used to be a big fan of Trial, it does put considerable pressure on the manabase, so I decided to cut them. Omen can go upstairs, but 2 damage just isn’t enough in the format. I think Oath of Chandra is the best choice as 3 kills most early drops and doubling it with Elesh Norn or Yorion can kill most later game threats in the format. However, I didn’t own any Oath of Chandra in paper, and also wanted to respect Greasfang and Creativity, so I chose Touch the Spirit Realm which has a tonne of synergies with the deck as both an O-Ring and a Cloudshift (that can target your opponent’s creatures). However, I found I didn’t own 3 Touch the Spirit Realms, so I went for 2 and an Omen of the Sea. #justpaperthings
Rending Volleys and Radiant Flames are must-haves in the sideboard for me (WoTC can we pls have Radiant Flames in Arena?) for Spirits and Humans. Mystical Disputes are also very good against Spirits and are great for Control and Creativity too. Rest in Peace is a pretty good card for the meta generally, though if you’re not seeing much Greasefang then I don’t think they’re necessary (we have tools to beat other graveyard decks in the main, like Callous Bloodmage and a bunch of exile-based removal). I knew I would be seeing some Greasefang, so I wanted the RIPs. That just leaves a few slots for tutor targets. Koma is my choice for extra 7 drop in the side (over Dragonlord Atarka), Nimble Larcenist is great in any slower matchup. After getting to the venue, it seemed like there were a good number of Creativity and Lotus Field players, so I cut a Rending Volley for Reidane, God of the Worthy. In retrospect, I think I should have cut a Radiant Flames instead (early removal is so much more important in the aggressive matchups than Sweepers) but I was still happy with this meta call.
The decklist is heavily inspired by NJAMTG and the Enigmanifesto, and the sideboard guide as well as matchup tips therein was an incredibly useful resource for me and reduced the mental load of sideboarding massively (which is very useful for a deck that already has hundreds of interactions). I sent them $10 through PayPal for the help that this doc provided me.
The Day:
6 of us from the Patriot Games Sheffield massive traveled to Manchester to show them how Magic is played. Between us we represented Enigmatic Fires, Abzan Greasefang, MonoU Spirits, UW Spirits, Rakrifice Sacrifice, and Izzet Phoenix. I trusted all of these players to do well, and that definitely influenced my decision to run this deck in the first place (over what I would have otherwise played, MonoG Devotion) and also influenced my decision to run Touch the Spirit Realm. Having such a large group was amazing for morale and having people to chat with and decompress with between rounds, as well as having a very good understanding of what decks were being played in the room after only a couple of rounds.
It became very clear very quickly that the meta was aggressive. There were a lot of Spirits players, Control was almost nowhere to be seen, Mono Green was underrepresented, and even Rakdos Mid wasn’t making much of a showing with RakSac being more popular.
This did not bode well for me. There’s a reason our sideboard has 10 cards for MonoU Spirits and it’s not because we’re trying to make a good matchup better. Registering 5c Enigmatic Fires, I’d already decided I was happy to lose some games and just have a fun time, doing my best to cheer on the rest of my team, and seeing a bunch of Spirits players did nothing to raise my ambitions higher than that.
The Matches:
Round 1 - Sam on MonoU Spirits
Sam was one of the Sheffielders I’d brought in the car and is a good Spirits player, so I was very much prepared to lose Game 1 and have to battle it out in the sideboard games, still expecting to lose.
In Game 1, after managing to resolve a Fires by forcing a counterspell on a Chained to the Rocks and then using a Treasure from Fable of the Mirror Breaker to cast the Fires, I was fortunate enough to draw my Kenrith and Knight of Autumn, allowing me to cast Kenrith, cast Knight gaining 4, use Kenrith to give Refliki haste, copy Knight for another 4, then use Kenrith’s ability to gain 5. Gaining 13 life a turn is a great way to stem the bleeding, allowing me to quickly stabilize and crack back for the win.
In Game 2, I was able to land a Fires and Enigmatic on Turn 4 after playing a bunch of removal early, picking up Tolsimir which cleaned up the board pretty quick with Yorion to double the trigger.
Result: A very surprising 2-0
Round 2 - Charlie on MonoU Spirits
High off a victory on an unfavoured matchup, seeing a Snow-Covered Island was simultaneously horrifying and exciting. Maybe I’d learned how to crack the matchup? Maybe I’d ran hot and was about to have my dreams crushed.
I can’t entirely remember what happened in the match, but I can see on my lifepad that my life total went from 4 > 8 > 12 > 16, so I’m assuming I managed to make some copies of Knight of Autumn again.
Game 2 the Spirits trounced me.
Game 3 my opponent mulliganed down to 5, had their Spirits removed, cast a couple of counters, but then only drew lands, leaving me to beat down with Yorion and a 4/3 Knight of Autumn. So Magic goes sometimes.
Result: A continually surprising 2-1. I’m 2-0 in matches.
Round 3 - Alfie on MonoB Zombies
Enigmatic Fires is generally very happy to see a deck that has no way of removing enchantments outside of discard spells, and this was no different. I was slightly surprised to see this relatively budget brew in the 2-0 bracket. Alfie said he’d so far beaten Greasefang and a BW Midrange deck, both of which surprised me. He finished the day 4-2 though so clearly there’s something cooking here.
Anyway, if there’s one thing a Zombie hates, it’s being exiled, and we did a lot of that to win 2-0 very safely.
Result: 2-0, I’m 3-0 in matches.
Round 4 - Andy on Izzet Creativity
Andy is a lovely man that I’ve seen at almost every RCQ I played in this season, and we’ve been paired together a couple times too. While I ultimately lost the match, I was not sad to lose to him at all as he’s a strong and friendly player, which truly is the best combo in Magic.
A slightly less good combo is Izzet Creativity, which I should have known he was on. While shuffling, he accidentally dropped a Stormcarved Coast, and I knew he knew better than to play Izzet Phoenix in Sheoldred’s Meta. In this matchup, the only card that matters in our deck is Leyline Binding (and Touch the Spirit Realm too) to break up the combo at Instant speed. I should have mulliganed aggressively for that in G1, but I chose to just keep a pretty decent hand as though I was blindly queuing into him. He combo’d off on Turn 5 like the deck wants to do and I felt very silly for my decisions.
In Game 2 I was able to land a Koma onto the battlefield, which shuts off his combo and is extremely difficult to remove, so I won.
In Game 3, he did manage to combo off but I got to channel the Touch the Spirit Realm to avoid taking damage, giving me an extra turn to find an answer. After a lot of deliberation on a Fable discard/draw trigger, the best I could get to stick was a Deputy of Detention on the Wurm, he revealed Fire Prophecy in his hand and I shook it (the hand, not the Prophecy).
Result: A sore 1-2, I’m 3-1 in matches.
Round 5 - Ray on MonoU Spirits
As we sat down, my opponent said to their friend “I really hope this guy’s not on Spirits”. My opening hand had 2 Chained to the Rocks, 2 Leyline Bindings, and the lands to cast those spells. I prayed that my opponent wasn’t on Control or Lotus Field and hoped for the best.
Then I proceeded to remove every threat they played and make an Atraxa on Turn 4.
I don’t remember Game 2 very clearly, but the lifepad shows that it went similarly.
After the games, my opponent said they absolutely hated playing against my deck and they always lose to it. I wonder if Spirits players are misunderstanding this matchup? Because it feels absolutely awful on my end, and yet I’ve now beaten it 3 times.
Result: I’m not sure whether or not it’s still surprising, but 2-0 to put me on 4-1 in matches.
At this point, the ID maths starts. After a lot of inevitably pointless discussion, as we sit down it becomes clear that the Top 6 can ID and lock themselves in, but that Tables 4 and 5 would have to fight for it.
Round 6 - Ben on Izzet Phoenix
Upsettingly for both of us, we’re on Table 4. Ben is another of the Sheffield massive, and is playing my Phoenix deck which he has borrowed from me. Ben first played this deck last week at WNM and has gone on an insane 4-1 streak playing one of the most complex (and not very well-positioned) decks in the format. Man’s just good at Magic and loves drawing 3 cards.
We have a little chat and Ben tells me he’s leaning towards conceding to me because he feels I have a better chance at going on to win the tournament and, being his first RCQ in years, he’s not in a great position to start gearing up for an RC in a format he’s barely played.
We decide to start playing our games anyway though and see how things go before we make any further decisions. I land an early Atraxa, which he is able to remove with a Galvanic Iteration and a Lightning Axe, but his draws haven’t been very kind and he has to Temporal Trespass with only a 2/4 Ledger Shredder on the board. I remove it and win.
We realise that if I win, I’ll be the top seed, giving me the ability to start on the play every round of the Top 8. That information pushes Ben to concede the match and save us both the bother of sideboarding.
Result: I’m 5-1 and locked as Top Seed of the Top 8. Out of the 6 of us from Sheffield, we’ve put 3 into the Top 8. That’s in a 50-player tournament. Sheffield showing the North how it’s done.
Out of the three of us, Ian isn’t interested in the invite to Athens because he’s at an Arctic Monkeys concert that night and Sheffield does revoke your citizenship if you decline to go to an Arctic Monkeys concert for any non-life-or-death reason. He is, however, interested in the £250 that goes to first place. The three of us agree to split all of our prizes evenly no matter what happens to give us the best chances of getting what we each want.
Top 8
Quarterfinals - Lewis on Abzan Greasefang
Unfortunately, Lewis is one of the 3 from Sheffield we’ve put into the Top 8 and isn’t Ian, so is looking for the invite too. Unfortunately for me, Greasefang is a pretty difficult matchup also.
At this point, we’ve mapped out the Top 8 and know these are the decks involved:
Enigmatic Fires Abzan Greasefang
RakSac x2
Creativity x2
UW Control
Humans
It’s not clear which of us would be better into the rest of the field, so there’s no clear concession decision. We also both want the invite, so we wouldn’t feel good choosing to pass it up when there’s no guarantee the other person will get it.
In Game 1, Lewis manages to assemble his combo on Turn 4, but I have a Leyline Binding to stop it. He plays another Greasefang on Turn 5, and after a while I remember the Legend Rule, playing Yorion to flicker my own Leyline Binding, making him sacrifice one Greasefang and I exile the other. That’s enough of a hit to his plan that I run away with the rest of the game.
In Game 2, I’m able to stick an Elesh Norn but he assembles the combo and hits me down to 2. I use Enigmatic to get Tolsimir and wipe his board, except for the angels, and gain 12 life. The Angels continue to hit me down to 6 and I’m left with the difficult decision between either cycling a Triome to dig for a 2cmc enchantment that I can Enigmatic into an exile effect for the angels, or casting Yorion and blocking one angel to go down to 2, dead to a Witherbloom Command. I opt for the Yorion line, he has Witherbloom, we go to Game 3.
In Game 3, I keep a 2 lander with Enigmatic and Fires and a Bitter Renunion to find the other lands I need or hate for the Greasefang. I get T1 Thoughtseized and he takes the Reunion which is controversial but I think correct. I manage to just draw the lands that I need and land a Fires plus Enigmatic, getting an Elesh Norn and later a Tolsimir, while his Salvage only finds a Skysovereign which I just take the hit of and I snowball away with the game.
Sucks to knock out a friend, but we played some really fun and interesting games.
Semifinals - Ian on RakSac
With our prize split already agreed, for Ian and I the main decision is who we think has the best chance to win the tournament. The other semifinal match is RakSac vs Humans, which we’d expect RakSac to win. If that’s the case, I’m better off going into the finals as RakSac cannot remove Enchantments so it’s generally a good matchup, especially compared to the mirror which is inherently a bit more of a coinflip. Ian had already played and beaten that same opponent in the Swiss though and felt like he understood the mirror better than his opponent did, so it wasn’t completely cut and dry.
We started to play out our match. On Turn 3, Ian discards a Mayhem Devil to a Blood token, which initially I see as quite a positive for me. Of course I should have realised what that telegraphs, which is that he had 3 more in his hand. 3 Mayhem Devils is very strong as it turns out, and even though I manage to remove two with Skyclave Apparition and Tolsimir, by this point the damage is already done and I lose.
I’m not necessarily deterred though. I’ve played XCom. It’s very possible to miss a 90% shot and it’s very easy to lose a 90-10 matchup, doesn’t mean you’re any less favoured.
By the time we finish sideboarding, the other semifinals match has finished with Rakdos Sacrifice predictably coming out on top. Ian extends his hand and tells me to go get ‘em (after his best efforts to knock my confidence on the matchup).
Finals - Jeremy on Rakdos Sacrifice
I’m not entirely sure, but I think this might have been Jeremy’s first time in an RCQ Top 8. He’d had a very strong run; meanwhile this is the first time in 4 rounds that I hadn’t played against a friend. Even though I played out some of those games and this likely would have been the outcome, I do feel like a bit of a Nepo Baby coming into the match.
We take a quick snack break and I eat some of the best mango I’ve ever consumed. Tesco Meal Deal really coming in clutch there. Ian gives me a bit of advice on his perspective on the RakSac matchup, saying “When you have a Yorion turn, you win.”
In Game 1, I Chained to the Rocks a Bloodtithe Harvester, Leyline Binding a Mayhem Devil, then drop an Enigmatic, make an Atraxa, which finds another Binding to rebind the Devil. He hardcasts Eaten Alive to remove Atraxa, and next turn I play Yorion, he scoops. Ian pats me on the back.
In Game 2 I suffer the only manabase difficulty of the day. My 7 has only 2 lands and a lot of one-of creatures instead of impactful spells. My 6 has 2 lands, Chained to the Rocks, Rest in Peace, Radiant Flames, and a Bitter Reunion, but no white mana. I figure the Bitter Reunion will do enough to fix the mana, but he Thoughtseizes it away from me and follows up with a Bloodtithe Harvester. I play out my lands and he casts Go Blank on me. I discard a land and the Chained to the Rocks (a mistake, Rest in Peace should have gone over one of those cards), and I’m immediately punished by drawing Nylea’s Presence which could have cast the Chained. I have to Radiant Flames to stop the Bloodtithe Harvester from beating me down, but at this point he’s got the lands to animate Den of the Bugbear and there’s nothing I can do about it. We go to Game 3 and things get tense.
By Game 3, fatigue is definitely setting in, possibly also nerves. I start to think that Chained to the Rocks has the mana value restriction of Portable Hole (crossed wires from playing Arena, where we have to play Portable Hole instead of Chained, WoTC pls) and almost Chained to the Rocks an Unlucky Witness instead of Mayhem Devil. Fortunately, my opponent asks me what the Chained is targeting and that prompts me to remember that it can target the Devil.
I Chained 2 Devils and each time he sacrificed them to the Oven, but this allows me to cast Yorion and bounce my Chains to pick up new targets. Yorion is also bouncing a Nyleas’s Presence and a Bitter Reunion, so gets me a lot of value. I Glasspool Mimic my Yorion for another round of triggers, keeping the old Yorion and using the new Yorion’s trigger to flicker it, giving me a third round of triggers also. However, despite drawing 12 cards, I can’t find an Enigmatic or another creature to save my life and he’s able to whittle me down with a Hive of the Eye Tyrant and a Ramunap Ruins until I’m at 4. I manage to drop a Callous Bloodmage and make a Pest as a blocker and hopefully a source of life, while continually holding up a Leyline Binding in case he finds Bloody Betrayal for Yorion. 4 per turn from Yorion is enough to eventually get him down, and I close out the match with an attack all for 7 (Yorion, Callous Bloodmage, and 2 Pests from Touch the Spirit Realming the Bloodmage) when he’s at 6.
Fantastic games all around.
Closing Thoughts:
During the car journey back we discussed how this was a very strange meta for the tournament. MonoU Spirits was the most popular deck and that probably reflects its low cost. The store owner was very pleased to see 51 people turn up for an event, and that’s largely due to how accessible Pioneer is as a format. This had two huge effects for me. Firstly, the Spirits players that I played against had a lot less experience in the matchup than I had. That’s the benefit of playing an off-meta deck into a bunch of meta decks. Through experience and my opponents’ inexperience, I was able to find lines that flipped an unfavourable matchup 3 times in the same day. Secondly, the Spirits players were very weak to the Rakdos Sacrifice players, allowing them to get into the Top 8 where I could prey on them, efficiently rock-paper-scissoring the win into my hands.
While I played pretty tightly all day, and this was my third Top 8 of the season so I’d somewhat proven my ability to get there, there was also a lol of luck involved in my win as there is with any Magic tournament.
Having a team of 6 people was also an insane boon. I’ve worked hard to help build this community of competitive Magic players in Sheffield and even just having friends around for morale and (OUTSIDE OF MATCHES) advice is an incredible help. I’m sure there’s some conflicting opinions about how fair the team advantage is, but I think it’s only fitting that in Magic: the Gathering, working alongside people to improve as a player is a valid path to victory.

Hey folks, I won a local RCQ playing Yorion Enigmatic Fires. Then I wrote almost 4,000 words about the deck and the day and I thought you might be curious to read them! Feel free to ask me any questions you like.
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Decklist: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/5521211#online
Deck Choice:
I don’t necessarily believe Enigmatic Fires is the best deck in the Pioneer format, but it is definitely the most fun deck for me to play. There are a lot of extremely powerful interactions in the deck and it does represent pretty much a free win for any deck that can’t remove enchantments, like Rakdos. The deck is almost entirely Explorer legal too (WoTC can we have Chained to the Rocks pls?) so I’ve had a lot of practice with the deck with easily over 300 matches online. That familiarity with the deck and its lines definitely paid off during the day, and I was able to find some pretty great winning moves that I probably wouldn’t have found without that experience.
Card Choices:
Okay, first off, that manabase will look very weird. I could write all day about the intricacies of the 5c Fires manabase, but suffice it to say that there’s a mix of “here’s the triomes and checklands I own / could borrow” and “actually some of these decisions might reflect specific choices I’ve made in deckbuilding.” The mana actually felt incredibly smooth though, there was only one game the entire tournament during which I had to make difficult choices regarding what I was able to cast due to mana constraints (and it was during the finals) which I would consider incredibly good for an 80 card, 5-colour deck in Pioneer.
When it comes to 1-of creatures, lists are fairly settled. My most notable decisions there are playing Gloomshrieker over Shigeki, Jukai Visionary (Gloomshrieker is the better tutor target) and playing Atraxa where some lists choose not to. I can’t believe I’m having to try and convince people to play Atraxa, but play Atraxa! She draws 3 cards and doesn’t afraid of anything.
For enchantments, I’m completely sold on Bitter Reunion as the card advantage spell of choice (over Omen of the Sea). The activated ability can be very relevant, especially to give Refliki of Kiki-Jiki hastiki to criki a tiki of aniki nonlegiki criki we contriki. There tends to be 3 spots left in the enchantments for some kind of removal spell, with popular choices including Oath of Chandra, Omen of the Forge, and Trial of Ambition. While I used to be a big fan of Trial, it does put considerable pressure on the manabase, so I decided to cut them. Omen can go upstairs, but 2 damage just isn’t enough in the format. I think Oath of Chandra is the best choice as 3 kills most early drops and doubling it with Elesh Norn or Yorion can kill most later game threats in the format. However, I didn’t own any Oath of Chandra in paper, and also wanted to respect Greasfang and Creativity, so I chose Touch the Spirit Realm which has a tonne of synergies with the deck as both an O-Ring and a Cloudshift (that can target your opponent’s creatures). However, I found I didn’t own 3 Touch the Spirit Realms, so I went for 2 and an Omen of the Sea. #justpaperthings
Rending Volleys and Radiant Flames are must-haves in the sideboard for me (WoTC can we pls have Radiant Flames in Arena?) for Spirits and Humans. Mystical Disputes are also very good against Spirits and are great for Control and Creativity too. Rest in Peace is a pretty good card for the meta generally, though if you’re not seeing much Greasefang then I don’t think they’re necessary (we have tools to beat other graveyard decks in the main, like Callous Bloodmage and a bunch of exile-based removal). I knew I would be seeing some Greasefang, so I wanted the RIPs. That just leaves a few slots for tutor targets. Koma is my choice for extra 7 drop in the side (over Dragonlord Atarka), Nimble Larcenist is great in any slower matchup. After getting to the venue, it seemed like there were a good number of Creativity and Lotus Field players, so I cut a Rending Volley for Reidane, God of the Worthy. In retrospect, I think I should have cut a Radiant Flames instead (early removal is so much more important in the aggressive matchups than Sweepers) but I was still happy with this meta call.
The decklist is heavily inspired by NJAMTG and the Enigmanifesto, and the sideboard guide as well as matchup tips therein was an incredibly useful resource for me and reduced the mental load of sideboarding massively (which is very useful for a deck that already has hundreds of interactions). I sent them $10 through PayPal for the help that this doc provided me.
The Day:
6 of us from the Patriot Games Sheffield massive traveled to Manchester to show them how Magic is played. Between us we represented Enigmatic Fires, Abzan Greasefang, MonoU Spirits, UW Spirits, Rakrifice Sacrifice, and Izzet Phoenix. I trusted all of these players to do well, and that definitely influenced my decision to run this deck in the first place (over what I would have otherwise played, MonoG Devotion) and also influenced my decision to run Touch the Spirit Realm. Having such a large group was amazing for morale and having people to chat with and decompress with between rounds, as well as having a very good understanding of what decks were being played in the room after only a couple of rounds.
It became very clear very quickly that the meta was aggressive. There were a lot of Spirits players, Control was almost nowhere to be seen, Mono Green was underrepresented, and even Rakdos Mid wasn’t making much of a showing with RakSac being more popular.
This did not bode well for me. There’s a reason our sideboard has 10 cards for MonoU Spirits and it’s not because we’re trying to make a good matchup better. Registering 5c Enigmatic Fires, I’d already decided I was happy to lose some games and just have a fun time, doing my best to cheer on the rest of my team, and seeing a bunch of Spirits players did nothing to raise my ambitions higher than that.
The Matches:
Round 1 - Sam on MonoU Spirits
Sam was one of the Sheffielders I’d brought in the car and is a good Spirits player, so I was very much prepared to lose Game 1 and have to battle it out in the sideboard games, still expecting to lose.
In Game 1, after managing to resolve a Fires by forcing a counterspell on a Chained to the Rocks and then using a Treasure from Fable of the Mirror Breaker to cast the Fires, I was fortunate enough to draw my Kenrith and Knight of Autumn, allowing me to cast Kenrith, cast Knight gaining 4, use Kenrith to give Refliki haste, copy Knight for another 4, then use Kenrith’s ability to gain 5. Gaining 13 life a turn is a great way to stem the bleeding, allowing me to quickly stabilize and crack back for the win.
In Game 2, I was able to land a Fires and Enigmatic on Turn 4 after playing a bunch of removal early, picking up Tolsimir which cleaned up the board pretty quick with Yorion to double the trigger.
Result: A very surprising 2-0
Round 2 - Charlie on MonoU Spirits
High off a victory on an unfavoured matchup, seeing a Snow-Covered Island was simultaneously horrifying and exciting. Maybe I’d learned how to crack the matchup? Maybe I’d ran hot and was about to have my dreams crushed.
I can’t entirely remember what happened in the match, but I can see on my lifepad that my life total went from 4 > 8 > 12 > 16, so I’m assuming I managed to make some copies of Knight of Autumn again.
Game 2 the Spirits trounced me.
Game 3 my opponent mulliganed down to 5, had their Spirits removed, cast a couple of counters, but then only drew lands, leaving me to beat down with Yorion and a 4/3 Knight of Autumn. So Magic goes sometimes.
Result: A continually surprising 2-1. I’m 2-0 in matches.
Round 3 - Alfie on MonoB Zombies
Enigmatic Fires is generally very happy to see a deck that has no way of removing enchantments outside of discard spells, and this was no different. I was slightly surprised to see this relatively budget brew in the 2-0 bracket. Alfie said he’d so far beaten Greasefang and a BW Midrange deck, both of which surprised me. He finished the day 4-2 though so clearly there’s something cooking here.
Anyway, if there’s one thing a Zombie hates, it’s being exiled, and we did a lot of that to win 2-0 very safely.
Result: 2-0, I’m 3-0 in matches.
Round 4 - Andy on Izzet Creativity
Andy is a lovely man that I’ve seen at almost every RCQ I played in this season, and we’ve been paired together a couple times too. While I ultimately lost the match, I was not sad to lose to him at all as he’s a strong and friendly player, which truly is the best combo in Magic.
A slightly less good combo is Izzet Creativity, which I should have known he was on. While shuffling, he accidentally dropped a Stormcarved Coast, and I knew he knew better than to play Izzet Phoenix in Sheoldred’s Meta. In this matchup, the only card that matters in our deck is Leyline Binding (and Touch the Spirit Realm too) to break up the combo at Instant speed. I should have mulliganed aggressively for that in G1, but I chose to just keep a pretty decent hand as though I was blindly queuing into him. He combo’d off on Turn 5 like the deck wants to do and I felt very silly for my decisions.
In Game 2 I was able to land a Koma onto the battlefield, which shuts off his combo and is extremely difficult to remove, so I won.
In Game 3, he did manage to combo off but I got to channel the Touch the Spirit Realm to avoid taking damage, giving me an extra turn to find an answer. After a lot of deliberation on a Fable discard/draw trigger, the best I could get to stick was a Deputy of Detention on the Wurm, he revealed Fire Prophecy in his hand and I shook it (the hand, not the Prophecy).
Result: A sore 1-2, I’m 3-1 in matches.
Round 5 - Ray on MonoU Spirits
As we sat down, my opponent said to their friend “I really hope this guy’s not on Spirits”. My opening hand had 2 Chained to the Rocks, 2 Leyline Bindings, and the lands to cast those spells. I prayed that my opponent wasn’t on Control or Lotus Field and hoped for the best.
Then I proceeded to remove every threat they played and make an Atraxa on Turn 4.
I don’t remember Game 2 very clearly, but the lifepad shows that it went similarly.
After the games, my opponent said they absolutely hated playing against my deck and they always lose to it. I wonder if Spirits players are misunderstanding this matchup? Because it feels absolutely awful on my end, and yet I’ve now beaten it 3 times.
Result: I’m not sure whether or not it’s still surprising, but 2-0 to put me on 4-1 in matches.
At this point, the ID maths starts. After a lot of inevitably pointless discussion, as we sit down it becomes clear that the Top 6 can ID and lock themselves in, but that Tables 4 and 5 would have to fight for it.
Round 6 - Ben on Izzet Phoenix
Upsettingly for both of us, we’re on Table 4. Ben is another of the Sheffield massive, and is playing my Phoenix deck which he has borrowed from me. Ben first played this deck last week at WNM and has gone on an insane 4-1 streak playing one of the most complex (and not very well-positioned) decks in the format. Man’s just good at Magic and loves drawing 3 cards.
We have a little chat and Ben tells me he’s leaning towards conceding to me because he feels I have a better chance at going on to win the tournament and, being his first RCQ in years, he’s not in a great position to start gearing up for an RC in a format he’s barely played.
We decide to start playing our games anyway though and see how things go before we make any further decisions. I land an early Atraxa, which he is able to remove with a Galvanic Iteration and a Lightning Axe, but his draws haven’t been very kind and he has to Temporal Trespass with only a 2/4 Ledger Shredder on the board. I remove it and win.
We realise that if I win, I’ll be the top seed, giving me the ability to start on the play every round of the Top 8. That information pushes Ben to concede the match and save us both the bother of sideboarding.
Result: I’m 5-1 and locked as Top Seed of the Top 8. Out of the 6 of us from Sheffield, we’ve put 3 into the Top 8. That’s in a 50-player tournament. Sheffield showing the North how it’s done.
Out of the three of us, Ian isn’t interested in the invite to Athens because he’s at an Arctic Monkeys concert that night and Sheffield does revoke your citizenship if you decline to go to an Arctic Monkeys concert for any non-life-or-death reason. He is, however, interested in the £250 that goes to first place. The three of us agree to split all of our prizes evenly no matter what happens to give us the best chances of getting what we each want.
Top 8
Quarterfinals - Lewis on Abzan Greasefang
Unfortunately, Lewis is one of the 3 from Sheffield we’ve put into the Top 8 and isn’t Ian, so is looking for the invite too. Unfortunately for me, Greasefang is a pretty difficult matchup also.
At this point, we’ve mapped out the Top 8 and know these are the decks involved:
Enigmatic Fires Abzan Greasefang
RakSac x2
Creativity x2
UW Control
Humans
It’s not clear which of us would be better into the rest of the field, so there’s no clear concession decision. We also both want the invite, so we wouldn’t feel good choosing to pass it up when there’s no guarantee the other person will get it.
In Game 1, Lewis manages to assemble his combo on Turn 4, but I have a Leyline Binding to stop it. He plays another Greasefang on Turn 5, and after a while I remember the Legend Rule, playing Yorion to flicker my own Leyline Binding, making him sacrifice one Greasefang and I exile the other. That’s enough of a hit to his plan that I run away with the rest of the game.
In Game 2, I’m able to stick an Elesh Norn but he assembles the combo and hits me down to 2. I use Enigmatic to get Tolsimir and wipe his board, except for the angels, and gain 12 life. The Angels continue to hit me down to 6 and I’m left with the difficult decision between either cycling a Triome to dig for a 2cmc enchantment that I can Enigmatic into an exile effect for the angels, or casting Yorion and blocking one angel to go down to 2, dead to a Witherbloom Command. I opt for the Yorion line, he has Witherbloom, we go to Game 3.
In Game 3, I keep a 2 lander with Enigmatic and Fires and a Bitter Renunion to find the other lands I need or hate for the Greasefang. I get T1 Thoughtseized and he takes the Reunion which is controversial but I think correct. I manage to just draw the lands that I need and land a Fires plus Enigmatic, getting an Elesh Norn and later a Tolsimir, while his Salvage only finds a Skysovereign which I just take the hit of and I snowball away with the game.
Sucks to knock out a friend, but we played some really fun and interesting games.
Semifinals - Ian on RakSac
With our prize split already agreed, for Ian and I the main decision is who we think has the best chance to win the tournament. The other semifinal match is RakSac vs Humans, which we’d expect RakSac to win. If that’s the case, I’m better off going into the finals as RakSac cannot remove Enchantments so it’s generally a good matchup, especially compared to the mirror which is inherently a bit more of a coinflip. Ian had already played and beaten that same opponent in the Swiss though and felt like he understood the mirror better than his opponent did, so it wasn’t completely cut and dry.
We started to play out our match. On Turn 3, Ian discards a Mayhem Devil to a Blood token, which initially I see as quite a positive for me. Of course I should have realised what that telegraphs, which is that he had 3 more in his hand. 3 Mayhem Devils is very strong as it turns out, and even though I manage to remove two with Skyclave Apparition and Tolsimir, by this point the damage is already done and I lose.
I’m not necessarily deterred though. I’ve played XCom. It’s very possible to miss a 90% shot and it’s very easy to lose a 90-10 matchup, doesn’t mean you’re any less favoured.
By the time we finish sideboarding, the other semifinals match has finished with Rakdos Sacrifice predictably coming out on top. Ian extends his hand and tells me to go get ‘em (after his best efforts to knock my confidence on the matchup).
Finals - Jeremy on Rakdos Sacrifice
I’m not entirely sure, but I think this might have been Jeremy’s first time in an RCQ Top 8. He’d had a very strong run; meanwhile this is the first time in 4 rounds that I hadn’t played against a friend. Even though I played out some of those games and this likely would have been the outcome, I do feel like a bit of a Nepo Baby coming into the match.
We take a quick snack break and I eat some of the best mango I’ve ever consumed. Tesco Meal Deal really coming in clutch there. Ian gives me a bit of advice on his perspective on the RakSac matchup, saying “When you have a Yorion turn, you win.”
In Game 1, I Chained to the Rocks a Bloodtithe Harvester, Leyline Binding a Mayhem Devil, then drop an Enigmatic, make an Atraxa, which finds another Binding to rebind the Devil. He hardcasts Eaten Alive to remove Atraxa, and next turn I play Yorion, he scoops. Ian pats me on the back.
In Game 2 I suffer the only manabase difficulty of the day. My 7 has only 2 lands and a lot of one-of creatures instead of impactful spells. My 6 has 2 lands, Chained to the Rocks, Rest in Peace, Radiant Flames, and a Bitter Reunion, but no white mana. I figure the Bitter Reunion will do enough to fix the mana, but he Thoughtseizes it away from me and follows up with a Bloodtithe Harvester. I play out my lands and he casts Go Blank on me. I discard a land and the Chained to the Rocks (a mistake, Rest in Peace should have gone over one of those cards), and I’m immediately punished by drawing Nylea’s Presence which could have cast the Chained. I have to Radiant Flames to stop the Bloodtithe Harvester from beating me down, but at this point he’s got the lands to animate Den of the Bugbear and there’s nothing I can do about it. We go to Game 3 and things get tense.
By Game 3, fatigue is definitely setting in, possibly also nerves. I start to think that Chained to the Rocks has the mana value restriction of Portable Hole (crossed wires from playing Arena, where we have to play Portable Hole instead of Chained, WoTC pls) and almost Chained to the Rocks an Unlucky Witness instead of Mayhem Devil. Fortunately, my opponent asks me what the Chained is targeting and that prompts me to remember that it can target the Devil.
I Chained 2 Devils and each time he sacrificed them to the Oven, but this allows me to cast Yorion and bounce my Chains to pick up new targets. Yorion is also bouncing a Nyleas’s Presence and a Bitter Reunion, so gets me a lot of value. I Glasspool Mimic my Yorion for another round of triggers, keeping the old Yorion and using the new Yorion’s trigger to flicker it, giving me a third round of triggers also. However, despite drawing 12 cards, I can’t find an Enigmatic or another creature to save my life and he’s able to whittle me down with a Hive of the Eye Tyrant and a Ramunap Ruins until I’m at 4. I manage to drop a Callous Bloodmage and make a Pest as a blocker and hopefully a source of life, while continually holding up a Leyline Binding in case he finds Bloody Betrayal for Yorion. 4 per turn from Yorion is enough to eventually get him down, and I close out the match with an attack all for 7 (Yorion, Callous Bloodmage, and 2 Pests from Touch the Spirit Realming the Bloodmage) when he’s at 6.
Fantastic games all around.
Closing Thoughts:
During the car journey back we discussed how this was a very strange meta for the tournament. MonoU Spirits was the most popular deck and that probably reflects its low cost. The store owner was very pleased to see 51 people turn up for an event, and that’s largely due to how accessible Pioneer is as a format. This had two huge effects for me. Firstly, the Spirits players that I played against had a lot less experience in the matchup than I had. That’s the benefit of playing an off-meta deck into a bunch of meta decks. Through experience and my opponents’ inexperience, I was able to find lines that flipped an unfavourable matchup 3 times in the same day. Secondly, the Spirits players were very weak to the Rakdos Sacrifice players, allowing them to get into the Top 8 where I could prey on them, efficiently rock-paper-scissoring the win into my hands.
While I played pretty tightly all day, and this was my third Top 8 of the season so I’d somewhat proven my ability to get there, there was also a lol of luck involved in my win as there is with any Magic tournament.
Having a team of 6 people was also an insane boon. I’ve worked hard to help build this community of competitive Magic players in Sheffield and even just having friends around for morale and (OUTSIDE OF MATCHES) advice is an incredible help. I’m sure there’s some conflicting opinions about how fair the team advantage is, but I think it’s only fitting that in Magic: the Gathering, working alongside people to improve as a player is a valid path to victory.

So I've always found stuff like this genuinely absurd. I've known a few people that accept others being homosexual, yet fully believe it is impossible to be bi sexual. How does that make any sense? Like I could understand having confusion about the difference pansexual and bi sexual, but to just fully dismiss the idea as impossible. "You can only be straight or gay, no in-between." What is the logic behind ideas like this? On a side note, anybody else bothered by the worryingly large group of people who don't like bi people because they see them as fence sitters?

I've played noita for a while and read a lot about it and from what I understand, exploring it requires you to dig through MANY layers of straight up "no you don't" blocks.
I saw a guy on the internet talking about infinite black holes. I thought that it's great because that's exactly what I needed. So I spent a few days on trying to brutally murder the pyramid boss so that I can unlock the "Copy Random Spell" spell only to realize that they freaking patched it
How is it possible to explore this game if you need many casts VERY limited spells to even get back to the surface after getting a decent wand, let alone to get anywhere meaningful?
Also how tf are you guys getting wands so good when I am happy to get a shield and damage+ on my bouncing bolt wand while having? I feel like I don't understand something and guides on the internet are like "Try to understand how wands work so that you can bulid them better!". Thank you Internet, that was exactly what I needed

Hi folks!
I'm trying to understand if I should buy a MacBook Air (M1 or M2) for web development. I'm currently digging into vanilla js with html and css. Then I programmed to go with React, Node and Mongo or MySQL. I use vscode and gitbash at the moment.Given that, until now, I checked no-mac laptop with 32GB RAM and 512GB SSD (because I wanted to use a virtual machine), when I see those 8GB RAM and 256GB SSD in the MacBook Air I wonder "will these specifics be enough?". Of course, I wouldn't dream to run a vm on a MacBoook Air with these specifications. I just wonder if it will be enough without virtualization, using just the native Mac OS.
What do you say? Can you tell me if you use it professionally? If yes, which tools, libraries, frameworks, languages and so on do you use? Have you ever had problems (maybe slowing down or something else)? Any advice is well accepted!
Thank you all!