Rosalia Rambles

Tag: MTG

  • Redundancy Review: Day 107-109, “Disillusionment”

    (for context on what this series is, please see my Day 1 post here: Redundancy Review: Day 1, “A New Beginning” – Rosalia Rambles)

    Good morning illusionists and conjurers, welcome to Day 107 to 109 of Rosalia Rambles Redundancy Review.

    Been a few days since posting something, and that mainly is because my day job ramped up massively in the two days I had left of the working week. Usually I am able to write the majority of a day’s article during my lunch along with bits here and there as downtime between things loading or processing, but things got so hectic that I had no time during my rest periods, which led into wanting to prioritise rest after work.

    But now it is Saturday, and after a long period of sleeping in this morning, I feel considerably better in the energy department…

    …the mental department is a different story.

    The title of today’s review reflects how I am feeling in recent days, though I was also considering the title “Broken Reverie” to describe my feelings in a more accurate way. Much like previous posts, it is hard for me to fully nail down how I am feeling on a given day leading to me using my almost-daily writing practice as a rubber-ducking exercise on myself.

    Disillusionment sums up a lot of this year for me, in both my career and, given some of the events of last night, my hobbies as well.

    For my career, it is obvious. The collapse of my previous company almost right from under me shattered a lot of how I felt towards my relationship with work, even persisting into my current contract work. I still come in every day, and I am not half-assing what I do to keep my skills sharp… along with the fact I bleed QA even outside of work, finding bugs comes as naturally to me as breathing.

    Though something has changed, a very multifaceted change mind, but I will try break it down as best as possible.

    There is the loss of community. I loved the team I worked with prior to things falling apart, they were genuinely some of the most skilled individuals I had the pleasure of working with each morning, and the fact we could come together each day to make beautiful applications, striving for new advancements with each project, meant a lot to me. 

    There is the change in structure. Whilst my career is advancing within this new-but-similar venture, specifically in that I have ownership over a key part of the pipeline within the business model, the smaller structure is still something to get used to. This is not to say I do not get on with my current colleagues, in fact I like to consider myself fairly easy to work alongside – even with my somewhat neurotic approach to quality.

    And finally, there is the fact that redundancy/being laid off is a massive psychological wound that influences how I see the world of work now, especially during this time of trying to add AI into everything before the bubble bursts.

    Part of why I write the Redundancy Review is because I would not mind finding a career away from the tech industry as a whole. This is not to say I want to leave behind the industry entirely, as I do indeed have the skills to pay the bills when considering my half a decade in quality assurance right now, and there is no denying that manual, human QA will still have its place in the industry even with the prevalence of AI right now.

    But I know I can do things outside of the greater tech space, and as much as it feels like a pipe dream, I want to find something where I am not ultimately just doing it for the money. Something that I believe in, and feel comfortable putting my heart & soul into on a day-to-day basis, to try make my career make a difference to the world.

    For now, I can keep things going under the current status quo, but I know I can make things change in my future – for the better.

    That part of today’s story went a little longer than I anticipated, especially because I have not told the second part about disillusionment with hobbies yet.

    Specifically, Magic: the Gathering had their big MagicCon Atlanta event yesterday, which included a lot of reveals and previews of stuff coming in the next year, including more “Universes Beyond” content than initially stated.

    For context, Universes Beyond is MTGs name for when they introduce crossover content into the game, and for the first few instances of it I was either completely indifferent or actually excited for the product they were bringing out. Warhammer 40K & Fallout Commander decks specifically were two products I actually really liked and still appreciate today.

    But, over time they have been introducing more Universe Beyond content into the release schedule, with this current year having three Standard-legal sets and next year having four Standard-legal sets… and with each reveal, I found myself disconnecting further, my indifference turning into outright exhaustion over the properties being introduced.

    The Hobbit, Marvel Super Heroes (they are not even having the decency to port a full comic arc over as a proper story, just a collection of characters thrown into a set) and Star Trek, along with an unannounced set that is theorised to be the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. 

    This is not including what was announced as part of Secret Lair, Wizards’ limited run set of cards with exclusive art, including crossovers with Iron Maiden, Jaws, The Office, FURBY. All of which has got their selection of fans to be excited, and I am glad for them to be excited by these things.

    But I do not feel good about the direction this game is going now. There are so many products all coming out at once, so many properties being slammed into the game in the hope of making the line go up even further.

    It says something that after all the reveals were said and done, one of the first things out of my mouth was:

    “Well, at least it will be easier to save money next year.”

    I have genuinely started to fall out of love with a game that I have been engaging with regularly for over eight years now, and… whilst that genuinely sucks hard, I am trying to maintain some level of optimism.

    The first set of the year, Lorwyn Eclipsed, looks genuinely beautiful, and given the history of the plane it will likely feature my favourite creature type. I still intend to play the game with my small group as well, but next year I want to try use the reduced focus on MTG to try other things out.

    I want to engage with the Hololive TCG community in the UK, playing in more events and getting more to grips with the game on a serious level. Additionally I am considering making more investments into my food production-related hobbies, increasing my amount of baking equipment along with getting stuffed that will let me explore pickling, preserves, and more.

    Disillusionment can suck, especially when it shakes the very core of what we know is familiar. But it can also open doors, as once you snap out of the reverie, things appear more clearly before you, allowing new opportunities to be visible when they might not have been before. 

    …surprisingly profound statement to end the story today, even more so when I consider I am currently sitting in a dressing gown having done nothing today but vibe, play games, and write.

    I am actually going to post this one wholesale, as I think it deserves to stand on its own, and totally not because I have nothing to review because I am skint slash running out of ideas some days, nope, not at all.

    That said, I do need a thumbnail…

    …yeah, that will do. I guess. 

    Anyway, thank you for reading today’s edition of the Redundancy Review. I am actually extremely proud in how this one turned out, so I hope you enjoyed reading it. Wherever you are I hope you are able to have an easy Saturday and can relax before the spectre of Monday looms once more.

  • Redundancy Review: Day 81 & 82, “Improvisin’, Helldivin’, and Survivin’”

    (for context on what this series is, please see my Day 1 post here: Redundancy Review: Day 1, “A New Beginning” – Rosalia’s Rambles)

    Good morning fixers and repairers, welcome to a double feature for Day 81 & 82 of Rosalia Rambles Redundancy Review.

    Did I miss a day out of my commitment for writing every day before my convention trip? Yes I did. Do I have a good reason for it? Yes I do.

    I have been enjoying myself and relaxing. I had a friend over for a roast dinner yesterday which took up a lot of my energy in terms of preparation and then I played a lot of Helldivers 2 to continue unlocking stuff from the Halo warbond.

    That said, I did make a marginal improvement to Rambles as a whole by upgrading the top navigation bar: adding in a dedicated Redundancy Review button to navigate to all of these articles, and adding in both my fiction & commissions right at the top bar to advertise that part of the website.

    Taking several factors into consideration, the primary factor of which is my rent going up by £40 at the start of October, I definitely want to put more effort into advertising the fact I am available for writing commissions or quality assurance contracts. Part of me realises that returning to the stable corporate structure might not be in my foreseeable future, and as much as the freelance life unsettles me a little bit; there are a fair few benefits that come with it as well.

    Specifically, freelancing gives me a higher chance of remaining remote in my work lifestyle, which I would very much like to do for the foreseeable, both for personal preference and to help try to maintain the idea of remote work becoming the norm in the coming years.

    For those who might not be aware, I consider myself a “remote work advocate”, to put it in LinkedIn speech. I believe remote work is the ideal way for people to work and whilst there are definitely going to be a fair few exceptions within that statement, I feel remote work needs to be more widely adopted across different industries – especially in the increasingly volatile tech industry.

    I see a lot of techbros talk against remote work, saying that nothing beats the in-person energy of experimentation and bouncing ideas off of each other… and to some extent, I agree.

    Brainstorming ideas in-person can lead to more off-the-cuff suggestions, but I feel it should skew more towards regular team days that focus on both work and relaxation. Gather people together for meetings where they can discuss how things have gone in recent months, where improvements can be made, and then follow it up with an evening of relaxation together, either going out for a meal or engaging in an activity.

    Remote work leads to healthier people and higher productivity. At least in my case, the fact I am working in my own space without the distraction of people talking to me or coming by my desk for a chat leads to me getting my work done a lot quicker, especially when taking into consideration that one of my (many) neuroses is that I really struggle to work when I am aware of someone looking over my shoulder or perceiving my work in any way.

    I am working, you do not need to stand over my shoulder and assure yourself that I am doing so. It will get done, so leave me alone and let me work…

    …god help me if I end up getting an in-person role in the future, in my now almost five-year career as a QA I have worked a grand total of seven days in an in-person setting, and of those seven days only three of them could be classed as actually doing my job since one of them was getting to the office for the first time and being toured round with the remaining three being in-person meetings where I spent more time commuting than I actually did contributing.

    It would be one hell of a socialisation experiment, but ultimately, even if I am not the most social person at work, I still get the job done.

    Want to hire me and watch me prove that? Get in touch! Quality assurance, fiction writing, technical writing? I will do it all and am more than happy to work within your budget to find a solution that benefits both of us.

    Time to head into the review, and considering a well-known card game accessory manufacturer is currently going through a lot of bad publicity due to stupid decisions regarding AI usage and Harry Potter licensing deals, I think it will be good to review a deck box from what is quickly becoming my favourite manufacturer.

    An aside, fuck you Ultimate Guard. Your Katana sleeves were actually some of the best on the market but I cannot in good conscious support you given the decisions you have made over the past weeks.

    Anyway, here is the Gamegenic Squire Plus 100+ XL Deck Box, in the Teal/Pink colour scheme because the trans vibes must be immaculate.

    I am not entirely sure when this particular deck box was released, but I definitely think it was at least in the last year or so, and if we go by how little stock of these exist within UK stores currently, it is reasonable to assume they are quite popular – a sentiment I fully understand now that I have my hands on one.

    The headline feature of the Squire Plus over the regular Squire is the addition of the transparent hard plastic card case that can store a single standard-sized trading card. This is specifically designed around the immensely popular Magic: the Gathering format “Commander”, which features a single card chosen to be your commander.

    It presents an extremely novel solution to the eternal problem that many Magic: the Gathering players face: remembering what deck is stored in what box. With your commander displayed prominently on the outside of the deck box, it not only allows for finding the deck easier but it also allows your decks to become display pieces themselves, proudly showing off your favourite creations on your shelf.

    Additionally, the magnets on the lid of the deck box are extremely discrete compared to other magnetic deck boxes I own, barely being visible on the box or the lid itself leading to a very slim look when all put together.

    The MSRP of these deck boxes is listed at $27.99, which converts to roughly £20.78 as of time of writing. I got this a little cheaper than that from chaoscards.co.uk (not sponsored, but a big fan) at £17.95, which I consider a more than worth it price point for the quality you get in exchange.

    Now to figure out which deck I want to put in this thing.

    That will do it for today, thank you for reading this double feature of the Redundancy Review. Wherever you are, I hope you have had a very good weekend with plenty of relaxation, and that the Monday blues do not get to you too much tomorrow.

    For more information on the Gamegenic Squire Plus, visit the product page here: SQUIRE PLUS 100+ XL CONVERTIBLE – Gamegenic

  • Redundancy Review: Day 76, “A Good Day”

    (for context on what this series is, please see my Day 1 post here: Redundancy Review: Day 1, “A New Beginning” – Rosalia’s Rambles)

    Good morning painters and lovers, welcome to Day 76 of Rosalia Rambles Redundancy Review.

    Today was a good day for me. It is a bank holiday in the UK, and even though I am a freelance contractor who would not normally get public holidays, I decided to take it off anyway. Partially because of appreciating keeping some semblance of my old schedule as a tech worker, and partially because the events of the weekend left me thoroughly demoralised.

    Thankfully though, two of my closest friends (who coincidentally live upstairs from me) had the day off today, which made it a good time to play Magic: the Gathering together especially considering it is very rare we get the chance to start playing in the early afternoon rather than early evening due to mine and my partner’s work schedule.

    And despite the fact I was not the victor in either game, it was exactly what I needed today. Hanging out with good company, playing a game we all love, and ending it off by sharing a home cooked meal together. 

    Cooking is definitely how I show love to others, being stronger than actual physical affection in my eyes at least. Making a meal is one of the best things I can do for someone, and it is something I massively enjoy in trying to hone my skills in the kitchen and infinitely trying to get better with what I am making.

    Which y’know, ties into how often food reviews feature on the website. Whether I am making it or whether I am eating out, good food with good people is a cornerstone of my life, leading us very nicely into…

    Rosa Eats Her Way Around Shrewsbury!

    I mentioned in yesterday’s review that I had got another one prepared ready for today, partially out of feeling intensely on Sunday and wanting to find somewhere to have a treat lunch, realising I could make another food review out of it and capitalise on how easy they come to me.

    And when it comes to comfort food, pizza is the be-all and end-all for me, with myself having a soft spot for a local joint known as “Dough & Oil”.

    Dough & Oil is definitely more… hipster than other pizza places would be. WIth a small menu of pizzas along with minimal sides, the focus is more on quality ingredients and pillowy crusts than anything else. My pizza of choice? One known as “The Philipo”.

    The Philipo is the standard tomato sauce and mozzarella base, topped with spicy nduja salami and piquante peppers before being sprinkled with fresh pieces of rocket. The price point of this pizza is where the hipster element of the venue comes in, with this lovely pizza pie clocking in at a steep £15.

    On one hand, I can recognise this is extremely unaffordable, especially when it comes to pizza – the same amount of money can pay for a larger takeaway pizza that can become multiple meals or pay for several supermarket pizzas that can be stored for longer and make even more meals beyond that.

    But on the other hand, as a very infrequent treat, this pizza hit the exact spot I was looking for. Spicy toppings, an incredibly soft and flavorful dough, and hitting the craving for a slightly more luxury pizza. Specifically the nduja salami on this one hit my usual craving for spicy food perfectly, warming my mouth perfectly and waking me up sufficiently for the rest of the day.

    Somewhat related, I really wish there were more places to buy pizza-by-the-slice in the UK. When it comes to craving the comfort of a pizza at lunchtime, I find myself very thin on the ground for options. I am either committing to something like I did yesterday, sitting down for a proper lunch and a large-sized pizza, or I am scrolling the menu of the local Dominos to get a small personal pizza that hits the spot, but feels a little overkill for a lunch.

    And before anyone chimes in: no, Greggs does not count as pizza by the slice. It barely counts as pizza if you ask me.

    A venue like Dough and Oil I think would be ripe for such a business venture, serving delicious slices of specialty pizzas for a reasonable price to anyone who might be walking by.

    Side tangent over, finishing things off.

    Thank you for reading today’s edition of the Redundancy Review. If you are in the UK I hope you have been able to enjoy your bank holiday, and if you are someone who has been working today, I hope things have not been too difficult for you.

    For more information on Dough & Oil, visit their website here: Dough & Oil

  • Redundancy Review: Day 53, “Chill Time”

    Redundancy Review: Day 53, “Chill Time”

    (for context on what this series is, please see my Day 1 post here: Redundancy Review: Day 1, “A New Beginning” – Rosalia’s Rambles)

    Good morning hyperboreans and ice climbers, welcome to Day 53 of Rosalia Rambles Redundancy Review.

    Birthday party for my friend went extremely well yesterday, and I am going to include a picture of the picnic-ish spread I put together below.

    So the bread and coleslaw are homemade with everything else being from the three for £8 deli/picnic section of M&S which made for a pretty diverse range of items included on the table. The bread went down an absolute treat as well, pairing perfectly with a bit of salted butter or a splash of my special “bread dipper” oil, vinegar, and oregano mixture.

    The Magic: the Gathering section of the night went by incredibly fun as well, despite the bodge job format we created being a little jank with good pulls opened by all – even if the main hangout bit only lasted three hours due to my energy levels plummeting off a cliff the moment the game ended.

    Which leads into how I am feeling today, that being extraordinarily relaxed without having imbibed any of my CBD gummies to reach this state of zen, and I honestly do not know what specifically to attribute it to.

    Is it the fact I exhausted my social energy after a somewhat hectic week?

    Is it me being comfy in my own space when a week ago I was up in Scotland?

    Is it just my mind finally giving me a break and letting me rest without feeling guilty about it?

    It could be any of those factors, but the main point is feeling relaxed and not having any major stresses coming in my direction currently.

    Times like these do give me a chance to think though, and in something that feels hard to do in today’s climate, think towards the future. The world is in a fucked up place for a lot of different reasons, which makes it hard to make plans for the future when everything feels hopeless.

    But even as it does, I still find myself wanting to move forward. To find a better tomorrow and work towards it, especially as a trans person in the UK. It seems like every day the ruling class wants to fuck us specifically, and every day I will find a way to continue living my truth and my best life – be it through pushing myself further into social deviance, looking for ways to support those who need it, or even just stubbornly refusing to bow to pressure and keep existing out of sheer spite alone.

    As someone who once did not think she would find happiness and had a limited life expectancy beyond the age of twenty, I consider each day of life I have lived past the point I thought I was done a gift. Through hardship, doubt, and pain, I will keep moving on and writing this story.

    No matter what.

    But, now it is time to come to the review, and this time we return to one of my favourite topics. That is right, it is time for another exciting episode of:

    Rosa Eats Her Way Around Shrewsbury!

    When it comes to my food reviews, I have gone here, there, and everywhere thus far but one of the most common threads between all of my food reviews is the humble burger. I have had cafe burgers, restaurant burgers, and fast food burgers, but there is one place in town that I have a particular soft spot for that I have not talked about until today.

    Yup, I am talking about Wimpy today.

    Wimpy is a well-established fast food burger chain in the UK, claiming that they were the first to serve hamburger based meals all the way back in 1954,having celebrated their 70th anniversary last year as part of this history. It was only fairly recently that I have started going to Wimpy, and in the beginning I did initially have misgivings over the prices. 

    It eventually found a spot in my heart, and it is a place I return to for simple comfort whenever I need it.

    Went out to Wimpy today for an early burger breakfast/brunch as I had found myself craving their specific brand of food, with me ordering a meal of Double Original Quarterpounder Cheese with chips and a coffee thick shake. 

    The thick shakes I have a particular fondness for, as the price of £4.50 for the amount you get in a glass and how incredibly dense they are, lasting well into my meal and beyond. The hit of coffee in this particular one is also fantastic, providing a much-needed burst of caffeine into my system early in the morning.

    Shortly after ordering, my food came out.

    Now, you might be wondering, why does this plate scratch an itch for me? On the surface it does not look anything spectacular, and in all honesty, there is not much glitz or glamour here. The chips are your standard fast food fries, crispy with a little hit of salt, and the burger is two patties with a processed cheese slice each, shredded onions & lettuce, and the special sauce in a floury bap.

    But that is exactly why it satisfies me so much, because it evokes so much simplicity. It reminds me of food from a burger van at a local fun fair or school fete BBQ, the most no-frills meat imaginable prepared plainly brings me an immense amount of comfort due to that oddly nostalgic feeling.

    It is a vibe I get whenever I visit Wimpy’s, especially later in the day when they turned the music on and it is a nonstop roll of hits from the 80s whilst I eat food that reminds me of simpler times, the perfect mood to set up for the day of relaxation I have had today.

    That will cover everything for today. Thank you for reading this edition of the Redundancy Review, I hope you have a good day wherever you are and can take it easy this weekend.

    For more information on Wimpy, visit their website here: https://wimpy.uk.com/ 

  • Redundancy ‘Review’: Day 52, “Party Time!”

    Redundancy ‘Review’: Day 52, “Party Time!”

    (for context on what this series is, please see my Day 1 post here: Redundancy Review: Day 1, “A New Beginning” – Rosalia’s Rambles)

    Good morning revellers and ravers, welcome to Day 52 of Rosalia Rambles Redundancy Review.

    It is a good friend of mine’s birthday today, and considering the last two years I have not been able to celebrate their birthday properly with them, I am putting a fair bit of effort into hosting a party of sorts for them.

    Went out and bought a bunch of picnic snacky bits, got plenty of drinks, and even made a loaf of bread which is going to be the subject of today’s review… yes I am reviewing something I baked myself, I have thoughts on how it went and also it is my website I can blow my own trumpet if I want to.

    We are also going to be doing a small Magic: the Gathering event with some Edge of Eternity pre-release kits I picked up a week or so back. Considering the time we are starting it is not going to be a proper sealed event, so we are doing a sort of bodge job Commander sealed instead, which should be pretty fun.

    Sent off my first invoice for my contracting work yesterday as well, which gave me an idea of how much my labour is actually paying me and… being honest, so long as I can keep my stress levels in check, I can see myself comfortably seeing out the end of this contract which would give me plenty of time to see how life will change in the meantime.

    And at the very least, I now have a very decent nest egg to take with me to my convention trip in September, which considering that has been my goal for the majority of the year should be an extremely good time to relax, cut loose, and be a big nerd for a weekend.

    So, as mentioned previously, my review subject today is the loaf of bread I baked for my friend.

    On pure looks alone, this has honestly turned out incredibly sexy. It has a perfectly crunchy crust on top and whilst the bottom is a little craggly and overly coated in flour, for a first attempt I think it turned out pretty good.

    The basis that I used for making this loaf was a Basics With Babish video where he goes through Jim Lahey’s No-Knead bread technique, mixing together flour, water, yeast, and salt before leaving it to ferment for twenty-four hours to make a very inflated and sticky dough.

    Despite the fact it rose a lot within the bowl during the fermentation process, it did turn out flatter than I anticipated, which I am not sure to attribute to the technique I used, the overly long fermentation time, or not properly folding/proofing my dough after I had taken it out of the bowl.

    That said, after cutting a tiny piece off and sharing it with my partner, I suddenly understand why everyone says that homemade bread ruins all other breads for you – it was absolutely delicious for how simple of a technique it was to get together.

    It was definitely a good first foray into bread baking as well, and considering one of my goals this year is to make a ciabatta loaf, I think I made the right first step.

    Thank you for reading this bread-based edition of the Redundancy Review. Wherever you are I hope you are able to relax this weekend and enjoy some good food.

    Here’s the video I used for my bread loaf as well:

  • Redundancy Review: Day 32, “Siesta”

    Redundancy Review: Day 32, “Siesta”

    (for context on what this series is, please see my Day 1 post here: Redundancy Review: Day 1, “A New Beginning” – Rosalia’s Rambles)

    Good morning legends and planeswalkers, welcome to Day 32 of Rosalia Rambles Redundancy Review.

    Is it past morning in the UK? Yes.

    Am I still going to say good morning in each review? Yes.

    It is another day of peak temperatures in the UK, with the current heatwave expected to start tailing off tomorrow leading into cooler temperatures and hopefully some rain. Even just heading out for around an hour this morning was near unbearable due to the humidity retaining heat in the air and making it hard to move around, with me needing to douse myself in cold water shortly after returning home.

    After playing some games and doing some card sorting as the sun rises to the highest point in the sky I suddenly remembered I needed to write today, but surprisingly I feel a lot better writing the review later in the day than in my normal morning slot – plus it gives me a good excuse to sit still and just focus on a task that does not require much physical movement.

    My new contracting role officially starts on Monday, with me feeling… cautiously optimistic about it. One of the things that I am going to try do with this role is not taking things too personally when stressful situations are ongoing like I did with my last role, I am a contractor here to help but ultimately unless the position becomes permanent I do not want to feel much of a personal attachment to the work.

    That is something I do need to consider when it comes to looking for a full time role outside of the pipe dream of getting to do writing as my job every day, the desire to have passion for what I am working on. Whilst I can detach myself emotionally to some degree, I want to feel excited about what I am working on or what I am learning about, feeling enthusiasm for the skills I can develop.

    Regardless, not going to sneeze at an opportunity to build a safety runway further, especially as, outside of my convention trip in September, I have very few major birthdays and events coming up that I need to plan for/spend for, which means I can build a very good buffer of savings before Christmas hits and hopefully I can take a few unpaid days off as winter hits, ideally relaxing on my birthday.

    If you want to help me enable doing this day to day, consider hiring me/helping me out. Aside from when friends and family pay for meals, I fund every review topic myself, so commissioning some work or getting in touch to help provide funds for review topics would always help.

    And because my brain is actually functioning enough to write today, I do have a review topic!

    As part of my trip out today and as a portion of the greater organisation work I have been doing around my flat, I needed to get a new card binder. Sorting through almost eight years worth of Magic: the Gathering rares, mythics, and foils has led to my multicoloured binder specifically exceeding its capacity. Thankfully there is a very solid independent collectibles store in the main shopping centre in town who were more than happy to help me out.

    So rather than buying a standard binder/card album, what caught my eye today was a pack of Gamegenic 18-pocket ring binder pages, with the box stating that its contents could hold 900 cards total, being more than enough for what I currently need whilst also giving me a fair bit of future-proofing.

    The pages feel high quality, and with them being sideloaded instead of toploaded it means the cards are more secure to being shaken around. One of my main worries when I was buying the pages was that it would not fit the binder I had picked out to go alongside it, but upon closer inspection the pages have a wide variety of holes along their margin, making it almost impossible to find incompatibility.

    Gamegenic are newer on the scene compared to card storage & protection giants such as UltraPro, Ultimate Guard, and Dragon Shield, but each time I end up buying a Gamegenic product I find myself pleasantly surprised at the quality of it. 

    That said, the actual ring binder I got today is an UltraPro product, and as this shop specialises more in Pokemon cards than in any other product, my options were limited to Pokemon-themed ones, but that is no issue.

    I managed to get a pretty neat one anyway.

    Thank you for reading the Redundancy Review today, please keep yourself hydrated in this warm weather and do not exert yourself too much when it comes to physical activity.

    For more information on Gamegenic products, visit their website here: Home – Gamegenic

  • Redundancy Review: Day 13, “Document Everything”

    Redundancy Review: Day 13, “Document Everything”

    (for context on what this series is, please see my Day 1 post here: https://rosaliarambles.wordpress.com/2025/06/11/redundancy-review-day-1-a-new-beginning/)

    Good morning crumpets and teacakes, welcome to Day 13 of Rosalia Rambles Redundancy Review.

    Main activity on the agenda today is a meeting with the Jobcentre to discuss the change in my circumstances, along with highlighting an error with how the administration company handled the payroll situation which has actively caused me to lose out on getting some money.

    Thankfully though, I have always been the kind of person to maintain an extremely robust source of documentation in any situation. Back when I was dealing with problems with the electricity company, and getting ready for a complaint to either them or the ombudsman, I went to Citizen’s Advice to get some guidance.

    The advisor said I had basically done their job for them, as they would be helping with gathering documentation and evidence. I walked in with a full month-long timeline of everything that had been happening, so all they really needed to do was give me the go ahead on what I was planning to do anyway.

    In a way as well, this series continues my habit. Every day I am creating something new that chronicles my journey through this next phase of my life, so there will always be a record of what I got up to, how I felt, and how the story unfolded.

    Beyond sorting out the situation with the Jobcentre and checking out job postings across the internet, it is mostly going to be having a day of connection with my partner. Over the weekend it was hard to do stuff together due to the heat getting to us and him experiencing PC issues, but with both of those things resolved now using his day off to spend time together seems like a good idea.

    I am still on the lookout for writing work though. The rhythm is now in full swing and each day makes me better at what I do. Food, games, music, all of them are in my repertoire fully now and I would love the opportunity to do paid work to explore my opinions on things.

    Today’s review will be a topic I considered briefly before ranting about Borderlands a few days back. One of my favourite Magic: the Gathering (MTG/Magic for short) cards, and how the deck around it took shape.

    Now, I know Magic is a very complicated card game. Being over thirty years old at this point in time and having a foundation of spaghetti code, it can be hard for outsiders to understand things – this is why I am going to write a short glossary on the terms to be discussed to hopefully minimise communication issues:

    • Colour – Magic has a system of five colours that determine what cards can do, similar to types in Pokemon. Colours do have a “philosophy” associated with them but that is a topic for another time
    • Commander – A format in Magic where you build a deck around a legendary creature (Commander), where all the cards need to stay in that colour identity, and you can only have one copy of each card
    • Spell – every nonland card in Magic is a spell, even creatures. The flavour of this is the players are dueling wizards, bringing forth powerful effectives each turn
    • Stack – similar to in programming, abilities in Magic work on a stack, operating on a “first in, last out” principle meaning whatever card is placed on the stack first resolves last

    Okay, preamble done, time to introduce the card.

    Momir Vig, Simic Visionary is a blue-green card initially released in the 2006 set “Dissension”, part of the original Ravnica block, with the version above being released in the 2019 “Ravnica Allegiance” Guild Kit decks, which is where I got my hands on it.

    The ability triggers whenever a creature spell of the respective colour is cast. Green lets you grab a creature and put it on top of your deck, blue lets you reveal the top card of your deck – if it’s a creature, you can put it into your hand.

    Hopefully the combo is pretty obvious here: play a green creature to get a card on top, and then follow up with a blue creature to get it into your hand. 

    However, there is a little something in Momir’s rules clarification that makes this card very interesting.

    If you play a creature that is both blue and green simultaneously, both abilities trigger. Due to how the stack works in Magic, the player triggering those abilities can choose to order them on the stack however they want. This means whenever a blue-green creature is cast, the player can essentially search their deck for any creature and put it into their hand.

    And if that creature is blue-green itself, then the process can continue ad nauseam… so obviously I built a deck around that entire concept.

    https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/6941266#paper

    Behold! Simic Slaw, named for the horrendous concoction made up for a LoadingReadyRun Friday Nights episode. It is a deck solely made up of blue-green creatures, but I went beyond that. Even though cards of other types have no synergy with Momir, every card (minus artifacts) is blue-green as well.

    Now, is this deck extremely fun? Yes. Is this deck very tiresome to run because of all the shuffling? Yes. Does this deck have a clear win condition? You bet your ass it… does not actually.

    Simic Slaw is one of my several meme decks built around a silly theme to have fun rather than anything else. I have decks I can bring out for being competitive or being scary at a gaming table, but the joy of Commander is making weird creations of cards that would have never got their time to shine otherwise- a gallery of cards from a specific colour pair definitely fits that vibe.

    Anyway, that was a page and a bit ramble around Magic, so I will end things off here.

    Thank you for reading the Redundancy Review today. Hopefully the Monday blues do not hit you too hard and you are able to relax at some point today. You are appreciated by both me and the world, so hang in there.