iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

IvoryTower @1vorytower.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

This is also a person who has never worked in news journalism, and who used his first months in the role to try to rehabilitate his friend Olivia Nuzzi. It’s almost more surprising that he would even claim the mantle of “journalism” than that he would see his project as the stenography of power.

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IvoryTower @1vorytower.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Good god, I slept with a pillow behind my back because of the troll that pops up in the kid’s bed in “Ernest Scared Stupid” for so long that I actually forgot that that’s why I started doing it.

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IvoryTower @1vorytower.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

I have never had more fun in my Magic life than ult-ing Jace, Reality Sculptor in limited. You’re right, Start Your Engines should’ve been something that let you actually race towards a win: make it like a shared Initiative or something where whoever crosses first reaps more rewards.

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IvoryTower @1vorytower.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Though its success does kind of show that they were onto something in the Hat Set era. People might have been down to have Marchesa in a cowboy hat if they’d done more to motivate it and cut like 50% of the jokes.

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IvoryTower @1vorytower.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

I literally just put this copy into my Sam and Frodo deck. I’d been trying to keep it as LOTR as possible, down to universe appropriate creature types… and it hadn’t dawned on me that *technically* nothing in Sorin’s typing makes him a vampire. He’s just a hungry little boy! Like a baby Denethor!

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IvoryTower @1vorytower.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

That right there is a real Echoverse Dack Fayden all star. Sheeesh.

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IvoryTower @1vorytower.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

I gave away this deck years ago in a white elephant so that I would no longer inflict it on others, and I’m reasonably confident that it would only be worse even if I reworked its budget with 2026 cards. moxfield.com/decks/21cyyd...

moxfield.com

[Kylox] Is that Rakdos the Muscle? No, it's Just a Raptor with Hussle - Commander (Kylox, Visionary Inventor)

A Commander deck featuring Kylox, Visionary Inventor by IvoryTower • View on Moxfield

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Reposted by IvoryTower

Keithulhu @keithulhucards.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Did someone leave their goblin in the art department again? -- Sanar, Unfinished Genius (Commission, Not For Sale)

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IvoryTower @1vorytower.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

It’s pretty bad! But made worse by the fact that Substack and X not only recommend what is effectively Nazi agitprop: because of their business models, they directly monetize the production of that content in exchange for more eyeballs.

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IvoryTower @1vorytower.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

It does feel like there’s a difference between “ownership/management of this platform is as bad as anywhere” and “my feed is being manipulated to lift up right-wing talking points to make them seem more mainstream,” which is unfortunately the case of both X and Substack.

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IvoryTower @1vorytower.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Obviously this will produce mainstream US-centric choices. But I imagine it also explains “True Detective, Season 1” — people likely actually wrote that in on their ballots often enough (when you wouldn’t necessarily think to do that for other shows) that they decided to score it separately.

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IvoryTower @1vorytower.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

It’s the methodology that produces these results: the list was generated by asking 500 actors and showrunners and people from inside existing US-centric media to name their top 10, unnranked, and the list is simply a count of what came up most often.

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IvoryTower @1vorytower.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

I know that development cycles are too long to tap into the cultural zeitgeist of the Henson partnership, but it would’ve been great to have legendaries where Echoverse Squen was simply Cragg and vice versa.

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IvoryTower @1vorytower.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

(Weirdly I think this switcheroo is what the flavor of the card and art is supposed to be *about* — but it’s not at all intuitive that that’s what’s happening. Which I guess is maybe also flavorful.)

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IvoryTower @1vorytower.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Illicit Masquerade suffers from opaque rules text — and the fact that it’s easy to miss that it doesn’t have the usual “if you do” clause. With 4 things on board, you can thus do a little shell game where each of the things that died targets another thing that also died, returning 3 to the board.

Illicit Masquerade
{3}{B}
Enchantment
Flash
When this enchantment enters, put an impostor counter on each creature you control.
Whenever a creature you control with an impostor counter on it dies, exile it. Return up to one other target creature card from your graveyard to the battlefield.
Illustrated by Valera Lutfullina

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IvoryTower @1vorytower.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

But for 2x the mana and you can whiff and still have to sac the creature. It’s possible that they both have their place: Industrial Advancement’s downside is negated if you have copy tokens (so they maintain their CMC) that would otherwise sac or exile at end of turn anyways. Maybe potato potato.

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IvoryTower @1vorytower.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

I’d never read the rules text of this carefully enough to work out what the mechanical connection is supposed to be, but is the joke here that Parley mirrors the “And then what happened?” of a certain stereotype of psychoanalysis? Because if it’s not that, you’ve gotta help me out here.

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IvoryTower @1vorytower.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

If you ever find yourself coming up short in the willpower department, I’ve found Brick to be useful for inserting the slightest bit of additional friction. It seems dumb, but making the unlock trigger a physical action rather than on-screen does make a difference. getbrick.com?srsltid=AU7g...

getbrick.com

Brick — Take Back Control of Your Screen Time

Brick helps you focus and live intentionally. One tap locks your phone so you can reclaim time for what matters most. Works with iPhone & Android.

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IvoryTower @1vorytower.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

It feels like we can conclude that the source here — which wasn’t Eggers or the studio — simply had no idea what they were talking about based on the spelling of “Olde” alone.

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IvoryTower @1vorytower.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

AI has taken many things from us, but it will never take my not-fully-grammatical emdash!

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IvoryTower @1vorytower.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

So incredible to see this — both for purely personal reasons and as a wonderful demonstration of the technique!

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Reposted by IvoryTower

Keithulhu @keithulhucards.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

The evil is defeated (this layering was such a nightmare)

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IvoryTower @1vorytower.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

As someone with a lit crit PhD, the OP has me worried that Teaching Things About Books has done more to kill imagination than enhance it. Is it truly inconceivable that kids could just visit an eccentric relative? Maybe their parents are getting divorced and need space? I bet we can workshop this.

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IvoryTower @1vorytower.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

But look on the bright side: this confirms that every goblin’s nature is immutable across every version of reality, because they are all perfect just the way they are.

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IvoryTower @1vorytower.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

And here I was just about to build a lifegain deck that gives out copies of Wedding Ring and then slaps down Tainted Remedy… but then you introduce me to Arbiter of Knollridge? Now we’re cookin’! What else have we got??

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IvoryTower @1vorytower.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Hot take (even if I’m largely into it): Reality Fracture is a hat set. Send skeet.

MagicCon hipster hat with the old Expert Level icon

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Reposted by IvoryTower

Shivam Bhatt @shivambhatt.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Now this is the "digging through forgotten bins of musty old cards" edh i live for

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IvoryTower @1vorytower.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

You know, I had this same concern and thought very carefully about my phrasing. 😅

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IvoryTower @1vorytower.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

You’re no doubt right, but I think the Bureau’s (and Patel’s personal) fondness for polygraphs means that there’s another point where someone could plausibly trigger a flag.

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IvoryTower @1vorytower.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

I hope that someone at WOTC notices that Sam is putting in real work on these. Vertical video friendly to other socials? Check. Drum beat of content? Check. A pinch of lore context /alongside/ gameplay recommendations? Double check. I actually don’t know that I’ve seen any ambassador more active.

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IvoryTower @1vorytower.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Or maybe I’m off base, and folks are more attached to mechanical methods of tracking information than I personally see in the wild? But it truly doesn’t have to be this way! We have the technology! bsky.app/profile/unsu...

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IvoryTower @1vorytower.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Especially in the modern era, where most life totals are expressed via Lifetap or similar phone apps (alongside, if you want to, turn order and monarchy and poison and…) I’m not even sure I see the logic of it being difficult to track.

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IvoryTower @1vorytower.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

Jokes aside, I saw someone today make the case that mill strategies require you to constantly count the cards in your opponents’ libraries… But you could simply not? It has genuinely never occurred to me to care about any middle ground between “is pile big” and “is pile empty.”

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IvoryTower @1vorytower.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

I’m actually not sure what they intend to do with these cards that actually predate Alchemy, and so weren’t designed to be digital-friendly, just Arena-exclusive.

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IvoryTower @1vorytower.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

Benji in his Gruul card frame is a good look!

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IvoryTower @1vorytower.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

When Tiafoe started walking around with a limp like me after my toddler orchestrates a cannonball from the couch directly onto the small of my back, I figured he was cooked — and he was, but he still put on a pretty solid show.

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IvoryTower @1vorytower.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Enough of a thing that you could do Alesha, Gev, or The Great Goblin as Rakdos modified and run much of the same list!

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IvoryTower @1vorytower.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

lol don’t worry, I hadn’t even thought through what combination would be the most broken yet. I think I maybe just want the Tinyboneses to kiss?

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IvoryTower @1vorytower.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

I’m considering this an official sanction for local pod play.

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IvoryTower @1vorytower.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

I will concede, however, that it’s a nice bit of ludonarrative world building that the Phyrexian proliferate mechanic from ONE plays directly into the empower fantasy of Reality Fracture Jace, down to the color identity.

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IvoryTower @1vorytower.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

Even if we don’t, one other fun conceit of this set is simply the amount of storytelling about the Echoverse that is done almost solely through flavor text. It takes me back to how I’d first experienced the Magic world as a kid, simply from what the cards told me.

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IvoryTower @1vorytower.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Should you “trust someone” with it? I surely don’t trust someone with a Korvold or an Azula on the battlefield. But neither of those need to be banned. And getting two other players to recognize the Giant Obvious Threat as an obvious threat is among the lowest effort pieces of table politics.

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IvoryTower @1vorytower.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

There are any number of threats that can’t be allowed to stick around for more than one turn, many from the command zone. The reason Prime Time is banned is because it can, in many cases, just be the ballgame when it enters. But here you can clearly wait more than one turn: even in theory up to 20!

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IvoryTower @1vorytower.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

You are completely correct, but to be fair, this having vigilance does give it an edge over Obliterator, which either gets to go on offense or play defense, and that’s it.

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