KILL THE GODS

Posted on 2025/02/16 by mdewey

There is no free will.
There are no unique thoughts
All been planted inside you
By those deemed divine
Yet lost you wonder,
Alone and without hope,
Its better, you’ve been told,
To not cross the line.

You are a cell
In the organism of humanity.
You are a flicker
In the darkness of the abyss
You are an echo
That reverberates throughout time.
You are human.
kill the gods,

Pick this or that,
Vote yes or no.
Buy one or two.
Or smite your foe!
False profits of false prophets…
Kill the Gods.

Nothing is forever.
For every winter, a spring.
A spring in your step,
A new beginning.
Kill the Gods!

All that you have known
All that you have been
All that you can see
Has been framed as you have been.
All that there is
All that there was
All that can be.
Kill the Gods!!

Let’s spawn a new era
A wildfire so bold,
And let’s clash with the darkness
And slip free from its endless hold.
So lets fire the cannons
And ready our guns,
A new world awaits us
When We Kill the Gods…

2/16/25

Pokémon TCG Pocket Review & Overview

Posted on 2025/01/05 - 2025/01/05 by mdewey

On October 30th 2024, Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket Edition was developed by Creatures Inc. and DeNA, and produced by The Pokémon Company as a new take on the classic Pokémon TCG.
The game had surpassed 60 million downloads as of December 12, 2024.

My attention was brought to the game when a friend on Bluesky started posting about it. I have been out of the ‘Pokémon loop’ for several years, but in the past, I competed in regional and national PTCG tournaments, streamed the original Pokémon TCG Desktop game on Twitch, and grew a small but dedicated following. My best personal result was a Top 16 in US Nationals, so not a ‘star’ but I knew the game inside and out.

My initial hesitation to get back into Pokémon was primarily the cost. When I was competing nearly full-time the expenses for decks, travel, and the costs associated with it would accumulate to an embarrassing level. (Several Thousand USD per year). Luckily, Pocket has a very generous collection model in which players get two free booster packs of five cards, per day, in addition to any events that offer free packs, bonuses, and free Wonder Picks.

Is Pokémon TCG Pocket “Pay-to-win”?

As of now, I have almost completed both collections and have spent less than $50, and realistically the ‘advantage’ of buying packs is really just getting the initial power cards. If you log in at least twice daily for your free packs, you will eventually get the vast majority of unique cards. Paying is mostly for cosmetics, and better chances at hitting the full art ultra-rares. The gameplay between the FAURs and the ‘normal’ card are exactly the same.

Paying doesn’t give you a power boost, except really early on as you build the collection, but I see this more as a “Pay-to-Advance” rather than a “Pay-to-Win” because there is no ranked competitive mode, as of now. Each game is standalone match, outside of events but even then, its a negligible advantage as the only thing you ‘win’ is that specific match.

There is also a very optional Premium Pass for $13.99 CA/mo. Being a Premium sub allows you to open an additional pack each day and gives you more missions to do for exclusive cosmetic rewards.

Packs

Each main expansion pack includes 5 cards each. There are currently two expansions, Genetic Apex (A1) and a mini-set Mythical Island (A1A).

Genetic Apex

Genetic Apex is the main launch set and includes classic ‘mon like Mewtwo, Pikachu and Charizard, who also happen to be the set’s mascots.
Genetic Apex is split into three unique packs that have different cards in each pack. Mewtwo (M) Pikachu (P) and Charizard (C)
There are a total of 226 unique cards with 60 short print/full art variations in the set and includes chase cards such as Mewtwo EX, Pikachu EX, Articuno EX, Gardevoir.

Best Cards from each Energy Type
Grass: Venusaur EX (P)
Fire: Charizard EX (C)
Water: Articuno EX (M)
Lightning: Pikachu EX (P)
Psychic: Gardevoir (M)
Fighting: Machamp EX (C)
Darkness: Weezing (P)
Metal: Melmetal (C)
Dragon: Dragonite (M)
Colorless: Pigeot (M) or Kangaskhan (C)
Item: Old Amber
Trainer: Sabrina

Mythical Island

Mythical Island’s mascot is Mew, and includes chase cards Celebi EX and Aerodactyl EX.

Best Cards from each Type
Grass: Celebi EX
Fire: Rapidash
Water: Gyrados EX
Lightning: Dedenne
Psychic: Mew EX
Fighting: Marshadow
Darkness: Scolipede
Metal: (No Metal Cards in A1A)
Dragon: Druddigon
Colorless: Pigeot EX or Eevee
Item: Mythical Slab
Trainer: Leaf

Wonder Picks

Wonder Picks allow the player to see packs that people on their friends list recently opened, and allows the player to spend the Stamina currency to get one of the five cards in their friend’s packs. This system enables players to target specific cards, without having to use their two free daily packs. Players get a 1/5 chance at hitting the targeted card, but as a new player, Wonder Picks allow for you to fill out your collection very quickly. This is just a fun addition that really doesn’t need to be there, but it adds another system for players to get engaged in.

Gameplay

Stepping into the PTCGP world was a learning experience as the game tempo, was significantly faster despite the relatively underpowered cards, compared against the original TCG. If you are familiar with the standard Pokémon TCG rules of a 60 card deck and 6 prizes. Pocket cuts it down to a 20 card deck and a point system replacing the prize system due to the smaller deck size. Non-EX mon knockouts award 1 point and EX knockouts award 2 points, the first player to get 3 points wins. A player can also win by knocking out (or removing, Aerodactyl basic) their opponent’s last mon. The average game takes around 5-7 minutes.

Energy is also no longer included in your deck. During deckbuilding you select which energy you want to be able to play with. Each turn you get one energy. The starting player cannot equip energy (except through Misty on a Water mon). Players can see their current, and upcoming energy, but because of the faster tempo, any energy accelerators are significantly overpowered. The quicker pace makes two-colour decks mostly unviable due to the risks of not getting the right energy when you need it, and with only 3 points needed, control style decks are too slow with not enough tools to support them.

Pokémon TCG Pocket significantly streamlines the original Trading Card Game rules, making it more accessible and faster-paced. These simplifications make the game more approachable for newcomers while still retaining strategic depth for experienced players. The faster pace and smaller deck size also make it more suitable for mobile play sessions.

Essentially all of the current Meta decks involve energy acceleration or magnification.

The best deck currently is Celebi EX/Serperior. Serperior makes your Grass energy on Grass mons count as 2 for each. Celebi flips a coin and does 50 per energy. Its not uncommon for a Celebi to flip 8-12 times, and with 180hp currently being the most any mon has, the only real option is to knockout the Serperior before it evolves.

Mewtwo/Gardevoir relies on Garde’s Psy Shadow which allows you to place an extra energy on your active mon each turn.

Charizard relies on Moltres’ Inferno Dance to ramp through flipping 3 coins each attack and for each heads getting a free energy.

Articuno decks rely on Misty (which is basically Inferno Dance, but you must flip the first coin heads to get any energy at all) to eliminate smaller basics and stage 1s. This combo is also the only Turn 1 win possible at the moment.. This knocks out most but not all basics, but is balanced by needing two specific cards in an opening hand, your opponent only having one starter mon, and hitting 3 heads in a row on Misty. Starting first, with an Articuno and a Misty, Articuno to active, Misty hits 3 heads in a row, and you can do 80 damage before the other player even gets a turn.

Then some lightning decks will run Magneton/Lt. Surge/Raichu. Magneton allows you to store an energy each turn, like Garde, but only onto Magneton, Raichu can one shot most mons but his downside is that you have to discard all energy on him after he attacks. Lt Surge allows you to use Magneton as a battery for Raichu and burst down EX’s.

Concluding Thoughts for now

Pokémon TCG Pocket is a very good game. It is addictive but not in a way that feels forced. Its a very fun deckbuilding experience and the ease of collection is very welcome. Just because the card isn’t meta does not mean that you cannot win with them. Have fun collecting the various cards, finding different combinations and winning matches against friends or strangers. The game sorely needs ranked play or leaderboards for there to be a long term competitive environment. Trading is supposedly coming sometime this spring which should make completing the dex a bit easier. The game is not P2W and offers enough for free players to be competitive without any disadvantage whatsoever.

Overall 8.5/10

Download PTCG Pocket: Android iOS
Add me as a friend in game: 9946-9870-9178-8438

The Original Text

Posted on 2025/01/04 by mdewey

I believe that what the Kurdish Revolution has accomplished through the practice of Democratic Confederalism is something that should be learned from, iterated upon, and can help guide us towards a more equal, democratic future without wasting time with idealist escapades.

Here is the entire PDF from the official Free Ocalan website.

Ocalan-Democratic-Confederalism

Its a relatively quick read, just about 40 pages, and certainly worth your time, regardless of your political inclinations.

CUPW Strike Report | Winnipeg 12-16-2024

Posted on 2024/12/19 by mdewey

On December 16, 2024 two members of the 1919 Workers Collective-Worker Outreach Committee attended the CUPW picket line at Winnipeg’s Canada Post Distribution Centre. 1919 had been notified that there would be an announcement in response to the Labour Minister’s utilization of Section 107 of the Canada Labour Code to force the Posties back-to-work.

Under Division VII, Section 107, the Minister may, “where the Minister deems it expedient, may do such things as to the Minister seem likely to maintain or secure industrial peace and to promote conditions favourable to the settlement of industrial disputes or differences and to those ends the Minister may refer any question to the Board or direct the Board to do such things as the Minister deems necessary.” After Federal Labour Minister Steve MacKinnion invoked the clause, two Cabinet ministers resigned their positions, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, Chrystia Freeland, and Minister of Housing, Sean Fraser.

The constant refusal to abide by labour-industrial bargaining norms has exposed a vast weakness in the current government. The union is debating the optimal course of action to take in response to the apparent disunity of the government. All of the major political party leaders have also called for the Prime Minister to resign.

The announcement that was to be made was postponed because the National Committee’s debate and discussions were extended. The union is facing the question of whether or not to defy the orders to return to work.

Essentially, there are four potential options.

Abide by the orders, and return to work, with the strike being postponed until May.
Defy the orders nationally, and order the workers to remain on strike.
Delegate the decision to union locals on whether or not they will defy the order.
Take legal action to prevent the order from going forward.

As of the time of writing this report, the decision has not been made public, but the union has taken polls of workers across the country to gauge their appetite for the fight. Between 70-90% of those polled said that they wanted to defy the government orders, with only one of the major-city locals preferring to return to work.

Dave, who was the main speaker at the picket today, was making sound arguments for defiance. The offer of 5% and $1000 to return to work won’t even pay for the time the workers have been out on strike, 5 weeks. In addition, if an election is called, negotiating with a Conservative government will be even more difficult. Therefore, the best course of action is to take action now. Dave’s general line was added to by another worker who said that if the National Committee places the decision in the hands of the locals, that Winnipeg, or any city with a distribution facility, could be a spark to get the other less enthusiastic locals to also defy the orders and return to the picket lines.

There was almost unanimous agreement that if placed in the hands of the local, the workers of Winnipeg would take on the burden of defying Federal orders. Of the dissenters, it was almost entirely financial stress that was leading to the uncertainty through the threats of potential fines or job loss. Another worker voiced their opinion that the National Committee should stop getting bogged down and emotionally invested in the stories or situations of individual members and instead take broad action, ‘act more like generals’, to reject the back to work order.

There needs to be unity in action, the National Committee should defy the order and influence its membership to take on this fight. The workers are ready. They know that this might be their best (or only) opportunity to put pressure on the company, and the government.