Hello Thursday!

Way back in the mid-1990s, this new game called Magic: the Gathering came along and took the gaming world by storm. I played for about a year, and then Rose was born and I didn’t have time or money to play anymore. In all the time since then, I’d been aware that Magic was still going on, but I didn’t start playing again until last fall when I learned about a variant called Commander that I could play at my FLGS (friendly local gaming shop) without bankrupting myself buying cards. So I starting playing Commander most Saturday evenings, and last night, about eight months after I started, I won a game for the first time!

You may be expecting me to say that it was a strategic tour de force where I absolutely slaughtered my opponents, but it absolutely wasn’t, and that’s what made it great. You see, Commander, is a more social version of Magic than the standard version. Rather than being played one-on-one, it’s played in a “pod” of 3-5 players (usually 4), with the winner being the last one standing. There’s an element of diplomacy involved in the gameplay (”She’s the threat right now, so if you don’t attack me, I’ll attack her rather than you”) and also a lot of the players helping each other: If you’re unclear on the meaning of a card, you can ask and (at least at my FLGS) feel confident that the other players will give you an honest, complete, and helpful answer, even if it hurts them. 

So back to last night’s game. It was me, two senior players (let’s call them SP1 and SP2), and one Other Newish Player (henceforth given the acronym ONP). SP1 was eliminated about halfway through the game, so it came down to me, ONP, and SP2. The game was nearing the end. I had managed to substantially weaken ONP and SP2; I was in a good position as far as cards on the table, but I was weak as far as life points remaining. It was still anybody’s game. It was ONP’s turn. He starts using the cards he has in his hand (he has nothing but land on the table) to formulate an attack against me. With a little bit of guidance from SP2, he’s able to set up an attack that would hit me for exactly as many life points as I have remaining, thus knocking me out of the game. For a moment, I think my game is over. Then SP2 — who had just moments before been helping ONP! — points out that I have a response available in my cards on the table. I start playing out this response, which hits ONP for exactly as many life points as he has remaining, thus killing him and preventing his attack from hitting me. It also incidentally — and unexpectedly to all of us —  triggers another attack from one of my creatures that hits SP2 (as the only possible target) for exactly as many life points as he has remaining. And so, much to my surprise, I found myself sitting there with 3 life points remaining, having won my first game of Commander.

And yes, I was happy to have won, but during the last turn, I was really impressed with how SP2 helped both me and ONP, because everyone would have a good game if everyone did well, regardless of who won. I think that’s what’s really going to stick with me from this game, much more than the victory.

What I’ve been watching:

Recently Grace and I have started watching The Recruit on Netflix. We’ve really been enjoying it. I’ve especially enjoyed watching it at the same time as I’ve been reading Careless People, because the CIA as presented in The Recruit really seems similar to Facebook as presented in Careless People. There’s the same sort of back-stabbing, power-hunger, throwing people into situations they’re unprepared for, and not thinking about the real-world consequences of one’s actions. I’d like to believe that the actual CIA bears little resemblance to the one depicted in The Recruit, but I’m inclined to believe that there’s probably much more resemblance than I’d be comfortable with. (To be honest, the amount of resemblance I’d be comfortable with is “none,” so even if the amount is “a little bit,” that’s still more than I’d be comfortable with, and I’m almost certain it’s more than that — I’d say it’s probably somewhere in the region of “quite a bit,” possibly even as much as “some,” though hopefully not so much as “a lot.”)

What I’ve been reading:

Since last week I’ve finished reading

• Laid-back Camp, vol. 17 (Afro) — I deliberately delayed finishing reading this one because once I finished it, there’s no more Laid-back Camp for me to read until volume 18 comes out on 24 December 2026. This is, I feel it should be noted, over a year after the Japanese version of volume 18. I know that translation takes time, but I don’t feel that it should take that much time. For one thing, Yen Press could begin the translation based on the magazine printing of the manga, so that the English text is ready to paste into the tankobon volume with minimal delay. This is why I want to learn foreign languages, and also why I learn them in the particular way that I do — I don’t expect to have time or money to travel to foreign countries often (if at all), so learning to speak a foreign language isn’t really a priority for me, but learning to read the language is what I’m all about, because I want to be able to read non-English language books and magazines without being at the mercy of translators and publishers.

• Looking for Group (Alexis J. Hall) — This had a very nice, satisfying ending. There was a bonus scene after the ending, which I also enjoyed, but even without it, the book ended well. It was one of those “the book ended well, but I want to read more about the characters” situations that inspires fanfics, though.

• Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism (Sarah Wynn-Williams) — The ending of this played out exactly as you’d expecting if you’d followed the news: Rich Facebook executives get richer, become even worse people than they were at the start of the book. (Or possibly just have the freedom, now shielded by their unthinkable amounts of money, to fully act like the horrible people they were all along. Take your pick.) As Wynn-Williams neared the end of her time at Facebook, a second theme came up which will be familiar to anyone who’s ever lived in the US: The US institution of tying your health insurance to your job. Wynn-Williams wanted to leave Facebook long before they fired her, but one of the factors preventing her from doing so was her need to maintain her health insurance. (FUN FACT: In the United States “Health care spending, both per person and as a share of GDP, continues to be far higher in the United States than in other high-income countries. Yet the U.S. is the only country that doesn’t have universal health coverage.”

I’ve continued reading

• Ingredients for Revolution: A History of American Feminist Restaurants, Cafes, and Coffeehouses (Alex D. Ketchum) — This continues to impress with how well-researched and well-written it is. You’d be surprised (or maybe you wouldn’t) how many history books manage to nail one of those while totally failing at the other.

• Art in America, Winter 2025 — Lots of interesting things in this issue — expect me to come back to it in future Thursdays.

• Inkpot Gods (Seanan McGuire) — One thing that Seanan does extremely well that I’m trying to learn from as a writer is write villains. Her villains are engaging and interesting, while at the same time never letting you forget that they are the villain and you forget that at your peril. 

• Food Wars!: Shokugeki no Soma, vol. 19 (Yuto Tsukuda) — The conflict just keeps intensifying and I am here for it! (One of these days I’m going to try making one of the recipes in this manga; they sound good.)

and I’ve started reading

• Doughnuts Under a Crescent Moon, vol. 1 (Shio Usui) — A slow burn workplace lesbian romance manga. Like, super-duper slow burn. How slow? Two chapters (70 pages) in, the main viewpoint character doesn’t know she’s gay and the other main character (based on the cover art) is 100% closeted. It’s going to be a fun ride.

• Cozy Companion, vol. 25 — A monthly magazine covering cozy gaming in all formats. Each issue comes with a Steam code to download a game. Each issue includes reviews of board games, TTRPGs, and computer games; interviews with artists and game creators; craft projects; recipes; artist profiles; original fiction; and more.

• Artforum, Summer 2026. 

• Cells at Work! Baby, vol. 1 — I finished a couple of manga series recently, so I had to start another one. (Had to! You understand!) (You do understand, don’t you?) Anyway, I looked back over my manga reading log and saw that there was one Cells at Work! series that I hadn’t read because my local library system didn’t own volume 1. Fortunately, I was able to get it through interlibrary loan.

And as always, THIS NEWSLETTER CONTAINS 100% HUMAN-CREATED WORDS.

Have a great week, and I’ll see you next Thursday,

Jason