If you care about story, I’d recommend going 0, Kiwami, Kiwami 2, 3,4, 5, 6, 7 (Like a Dragon), Man Who Erased His Name, and then Infinite Wealth (8).

If you specifically want turn-based combat, you can start on 7 and honestly be pretty OK.

If you just want to have an enjoyable time, you can jump in on any side entry, like Judgment/Lost Judgment, Isshin, or this new Pirate one.

Overall, the mainline Yakuza games have an earnest and serious plot, with moments that take it over the top. But all of it is interspersed with moments of random goofiness and levity. My cousins have spent months on Yakuza 0 because they got really into learning Japanese Mah Jong and enjoyed the slot car racing.

The Chromecast with Google TV^™

It seems like most of your issues are not with the Magic Arena client, but with the formats being played on Arena (namely Historic and possibly Timeless?).

If you’re into a slower, more methodical format, look into playing bo3 Standard and Explorer. Decks can still be explosive, but not as ridiculous, and typically the level of threats is about equal to the level of answers available in the format.

Alternatively, lean into limited formats. Draft decks will always require some personal thinking, every set is like a brand new format, and in limited, Tempo is key. Card advantage is key. Threats are key. Answers are key. Everything matters, and most people aren’t going to even have 4-ofs in their deck, so there’s a wider variance in cards seen. Plus, it’s a place where commons and uncommons can shine!

Also, I don’t mind when people copy decks. Some people are trying to learn how to play well and efficiently, rather than express themselves with deck building. One Standard deck I was playing last year was based on a Gruul Haste deck I saw on YouTube, and then I made it and modified it based on what I had and how many wildcards I wanted to spend. I ended up doing the same for a different deck I built in paper: start with a deck list, modify it based on what I have and how expensive buying the remaining pieces would be. I still brew my own silly decks, but there’s a reason that a meta can exist. Fine-tuned competitive decks are typically more consistent at winning than random brews.

As for my personal dislikes…

• The timer should exist in best of 1

Not just the rope system, but the chess clock. Maybe have it set to 20 minutes per player or something. It drives me nuts when I touch bo1 and realize that I’m spending so much time waiting, but I can’t quantify it. In bo3, I can hover over the timer and see that I’ve used up 3 minutes while my opponent has used 7, and at least feel justified in my impatience.

• Better deckbuilding and deck categorization options

Deckbuilding is frustrating. When I want cards that are green, it gives me all cards with green in their color identity, which I wouldn’t play in a mono-G deck. The search feature is slow and makes me wonder if my game froze up each time. Trying to move multiple of a card into the sideboard is multiple click-drags. The crafting interface feels barely slapped on, and makes it too easy for new players to accidentally spend their wildcards. And overall, while we have space for tons of decks, I really wish I could just save all of my decks, or at least a revision history of each deck so I didn’t feel the need to duplicate it along the way to have something to turn back to if my tweaks are bad. I turn to third party trackers for this functionality, but it should really just be part of the client.

• As a newer player, Draft was intimidating because it required a gem (money) investment every single time

I know this is how it works in paper Magic, but I really wish there was a way to draft and practice for free in the client. I know there’s DraftSim and you can get a group together on Discord, but that’s too much to ask of a new player. I don’t mind dropping a few bucks now and then, but the “stakes” of it all get me anxious and pushed me away from even trying it for the first year.

I think if I hadn’t jumped the gun and bought a metal one, I would have gone for this (and been happier about it).

Bought it, gonna give it a shot tonight. I remember hearing about this while on a bus to class maybe 7 years ago, and even though I wasn’t a Spelunky guy, I wanted this thing immediately. Derek Yu seems to have a pretty good handle on how to make a compelling game, so I’m looking forward to seeing this collaborative project.

I believe Erdogan (and Turkey in general) were big players in getting the wheat trade deal settled, as well as the prisoner exchange, though I could be misremembering. It’s just a weird situation of Erdogan having a history of centralizing power, but also making moves to be more relevant on the global stage.

For a Master of Keys, he doesn’t really help with unlocking doors or playing rooms, huh?

Title drop card

Plus it synergizes with the Survivor archetype in green/white this set.

Is it covert if you know it’s happening and have agreed to it?

I agree, this feels like the worst of the leylines shown so far this set. Does literally nothing until maybe turn 3 or 4, depending on format, and hitting WUBRG is fairly difficult in Standard, Pioneer, and Pauper. It’s unusable in Mono-G Commander decks due to color identity.

There’s a reason Jodah, Archmage Eternal isn’t a factor in competitive formats.

That’s true of a majority of commons.

I was trying to see if this could fit into Insidious Roots, but it’s 2 mana instead of the 1 mana that helps the combo go off, and its power is too high to trigger Gorehound. The fact that they haven’t already slotted Thespian into those decks means this won’t fit either.

Why is this a news article? Why is this posted to this community? It’s a well written article, but it carries no new news, and is just an article by the author of a book that’s about to go on sale.

Aw dang, Special Guest. For a second I thought it was coming to Standard.

So… This allows you to get some attack triggers without risking getting killed by blockers?

For deck building purposes, I always have Scryfall up, and if I’m doing EDH, EDHRec is something I like to reference to see if I’m missing something obvious.

I want to build a deck largely out of cards I have, and I want it to be my deck, not just what people consider to be the best shell for my commander. But, I can always use a very powerful search tool, and sometimes my knowledge of cards is pretty limited, so seeing what other people are doing can help inspire me to look for similar lines or concepts in my own deckbuilding.

This game gave me my first real experience of melancholy. A sort of bittersweet sadness, born of what was and what could have been.

I’m digging the Lowlands a ton, but I actually didn’t spend too much time in Grothmar. I’ve done the cycle of meta events there maybe 2-3 times total. They’re fun and interesting, but when they’re not active, I feel 0 compulsion to do anything on that map.

To the Moon is an awesome little narrative. One of the games that reminded me that there’s room to feel feelings in games. And the main theme song (I think performed by Laura Shigihara?) is one of my favorite pieces of music to come from a game.

I probably won’t end up playing this, as I’m bad at this kind of game, but man does it have styleeeeee.