Friday, May 30th, 2025 - TrickJarrett.com: Be excellent to each other.

#MTGxFINALFANTASY DogDog Updates

5/30/2025 7:03 am

So I teased yesterday that I would do a thread about my updates to my DogDog deck, and I literally was 80% done writing the Bluesky post thread when I realized that I was being dumb and that I should just make the update here.

[Obligatory disclaimer for those who stumble here and don't know who I am, I do work for Wizards of the Coast, makers of Magic: The Gathering.]

Introduction and Background

Okay, so DogDog is my mono-green spin-off of the "Forgetful Fish" DanDan variant of Magic. I've had this deck and modified it for the past few years. The new Final Fantasy set had a lot of cards worth considering.

The deck is shared between both players, and for what I am trying to do I have developed a few rules around the deck's construction which are helpful to know as it answers a lot of "why not card X?":

Green or colorless cards only
The only creature in the deck can be Wild Mongrel, so also no tokens
No equipment, (proved to be too powerful)
No searching

Cards I considered

This fits the spirit, and mechanically the ability to bounce a land that could then be discarded is a good synergy I am interested in. BUT I worry that "Bite" spells may be too strong. (Bite spells are ones where the creature dealing damage doesn't also potentially take damage, such as with "Fight" spells.)

Next up, Blitzball Shot. A pretty direct pump spell. It is up against Wildsize in the deck, which is one mana more for one less P/T, but importantly is a cantrip spell. Card draw is a big thing with this, so I'll tell you now that this one doesn't make the cut for me.

After that I looked at Tifa's Limit Break because Tiered is interesting to me the same way Spree was from OTJ. 3 mana to double is pretty potent, but I think it plays into the deck's design because it still relies on having the dog. Plus the deck has answers that work regardless of power.

Next is a late addition, literally as I was writing this post. As mentioned, card draw is a big deal for the deck. Green's color identity makes card draw a unique challenge to try and capture some of the spirit which makes the DanDan format fun. This difficulty is such that we rely on things like Introduction to Prophecy. But, Instant Ramen is instant speed card draw, and a potential life boost. I haven't done a lot with life gain, instead opting for fog effects. So, we're going to give it a try.

After that, I am looking at Eden, Seat of the Sanctum. This one is super exciting for digging for another dog to play from the deck, but it also is another way to mess with the deck order in case your opponent scryed something on top. You can mill 2 and choose not to sacrifice (if you have the mana.)

I looked hard at Lifestream's Blessing. It is in a space I really like... theoretically. Early versions of the DogDog deck had Momentous Downfall, which is in this same space. Sadly, it got cut because it never did the thing it was supposed to do. So this sort of card ends up being a 'Magical Christmasland' dream. I want the deck to be entirely gas and this just falls too far into the speculative.

And the final card which I looked at from FF is Yuna's Whistle. I love it. It sidesteps the "no searching" deck rule, while guaranteeing a player gets a new (and improved!) dog. I have a small concern it may prove too good, but we're going to test it and see.

Deck Changes

So, with the seven cards from the set and Commander, what are we changing?

First, expanding the deck. I'm fairly happy with the size, I've only played three games (of hundreds?) which ended with an empty deck. But I also think the deck can grow some.

+/-	Card Name
+2	Yuna's Whistle
+2	Eden, Seat of the Sanctum
+2	Instant Ramen
+2	Tifa's Limit Break
+2	Chocobo Kick
+2	Wild Mongrel
+2	Forest

So the cards I discussed not being added: Lifestream's Blessing & Blitzball Shot. And since this is a deck expansion and not just swapping, I'm adding both Dogs and Forests to help with the ratios.

Cards being removed:

+/-	Card Name
-2	Smuggler's Surprise
-2	Bequeathal

Bequeathal is the weakest card in the deck but I like the play pattern it suggests, encouraging dog on dog violence. And I just had too many Smuggler's Surprises, so pulling that down.

As a result of these changes the deck becomes 100 cards which is a pleasing number and I can't wait to start playing it with these changes and see how it runs!

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| Tags: dogdog, magic: the gathering

Hank Green at MIT

5/30/2025 4:40 pm

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| Tags: hank green, mit (college)

Banksy with the wisdom

5/30/2025 7:54 pm

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| Tags: banksy, art

Daily Wikipedia Game

5/30/2025 10:19 pm

The Wikipedia mobile app has a new daily game where everyday it gives you five pairs of historic events from that day in history. Surprisingly difficult, I only got 2 of the 5 for today.

As far as I can tell it's only in the mobile app, there's no desktop implementation.

Here's an example from the 29th: