I am using internet explorer I was trying to get the url for that smiley but I gave up and just set it as my desktop background instead

Why don't you just quote my post and copy the URL that way?

Like, if it repeated its animation across the screen like a YtMND, that'd be one thing. But do you really want your desktop wallpaper to just be a guy holding a sniper rifle? I mean, really. What would the NSA think?

I fumbled around and got it eventually. I don't think anyone would be able to identify the wallpaper as being guy with a sniper rifle, it got kind of jumbled up when it became my background.

And on the topic of psychosis and/or religion and reality: I don't like to think too much about what is true and what is not, I think it is better just to live life. I know people who struggle with psychosis and they do not consider some elements of their thoughts as belonging to them. They ascribe them to a sickness. I know other people who's beliefs are too far detached from my own to understand them in their slightest, but seem to be finding their way in life. If you find value in your beliefs, any sort of value, then that justifies them on all of the important levels, I think.

Mental health is important though. I don't know the specifics of your situation but it sounds like you were in a pretty bad place. I'm glad to hear that you recovered, and hope you keep on moving forward.

This thread is getting more traffic then mine, and mine has cute flowers. So I guess I need to go into psychosis. No wait I'm already a sociopath, that might not be good.

Your wish is my command, sweet sister.

I'd be very surprised if they didn't finally print a cycle of four-colored generals in next years' Commander product. It's just the logical next step. Wizards knows we've been wanting them, and they've known that for quite a while. They always give the players what they ask for, within reason. MaRo knows that it's human nature to want every feasible option available. Now that they've finally done a wedge set, I think the time to fill the hole is now.

That said, four-color cards are notoriously difficult to design. I decided, primarily as a design exercise for myself, to make a cycle of four-colored generals, all with the following format:

Paragon of [quality present in all colors except the one that's missing] — ABCD
Legendary Creature — Avatar
Flying, protection from [the missing color]
Whenever ~ enters the battlefield or attacks, choose one —
4/4

For the names, it was important that I use a word that was a positive discriptor, not merely a negative prefix followed by the embodiment of the missing color. For example, it would have been lazy to call the one that lacks green "Paragon of Unnaturalness"—so I had to find the one thing common to each color except one. I actually put about as much effort into choosing the best five words as I did designing each Paragon's four abilities.

As for the abilities themselves, you'll notice I chose to do a pair of opposite effects between B/C and D/A, rather than A/C and B/D. This is because across the cycle, the effects would be bound to repeat themselves if every enemy pair were represented twice, rather than each of the 10 pairs represented once. I had to find 20 effects total: a pair of mirrored effects for each 2-color combination, none of which could repeat, and each of which was simple enough and weak enough to make sense on a common instant/sorcery @ 1 CMC.

Here's what I came up with under the parameters I just described:

Paragon of Obsession —
Legendary Creature — Avatar
Flying, protection from green
Whenever Paragon of Obsession enters the battlefield or attacks, choose one —
4/4

The most straightforward to design by far, and yet clearly the most powerful.

Paragon of Change —
Legendary Creature — Avatar
Flying, protection from white
Whenever Paragon of Change enters the battlefield or attacks, choose one —
4/4

The least straightforward to design by far. You have no idea how hard it was for me to come up with something for black/red. The only options were this and your dudes get +1/+0 / their dudes get -0/-1, and I wasn't satisfied with that one because I felt like I needed to save the pump/drain dichotomy for black / green. The repeatable Unsummon would probably be mad unfun to play against, but the cleverness of the fact that it counteracts the token is too delicious for me to pass up.

Paragon of Simplicity —
Legendary Creature — Avatar
Whenever Paragon of Simplicity enters the battlefield or attacks, choose one —
4/4

Demystify may be white, but green gets enchantment-specific removal more than you might expect. This is definitely the most underwhelming one to me.

Paragon of Resolve —
Legendary Creature — Avatar
Flying, protection from black
Whenever Paragon of Resolve enters the battlefield or attacks, choose one —
4/4

This is the one I'm most proud of. Can you imagine how many people would jump at the chance to play this as their Commander? Nothing better than an Anti-Voltron Voltron.

Paragon of Temperence —
Legendary Creature — Avatar
Flying, protection from red
Whenever Paragon of Temperence enters the battlefield, choose one —
4/4

Wizards never used +1/+1 counters and -1/-1 counters in the same block, much less card… But I think that's a total shame, because they often combine in the Standard environment, and I think players would be able to deal.

So, what do you guys think? How did I do?

I doubt the cycle would be anywhere near that tight in reality, and they wind up being really long and wordy, but neat idea.

Thinking about the ultimate intersection between Melvin and Timmy…

Metakarn, the Towering Sentinel —
Legendary Creature — Golem Avatar (M)
Indestructible, vigilance, reach
Sunburst
Metakarn, the Towering Sentinel enters the battlefield with two additional +1/+1 counters on it for each mana beyond 7 spent to cast it.
"Mirrodin has fallen; the battle is lost. But with this new body, I will never lose another plane again."
5/5

A 10/10 for , a 15/15 for , or a 20/20 for .

Where's the Melvin?

Nice, round numbers aren't Melvin to you?

Obsidian Mox —
Artifact
You can't win the game and your opponents can't lose the game.
: Add to your mana pool.
As the opal turned dark, Sheoldred laughed. Mirrodin's corruption was finally complete.

That is not what Melvin means to me. I am not sure that is what melvin means at all.

Please tell me what you think it means, then, besides things coming together in a mathematically interesting way.

I think Melvin cards are cards that appeal to a designer, more than a player. A lot of the cards that win Card of the Week are Melvin cards. Proteiform Brain being the best example in recent memory—that was too Melvin-y, even for us!

The problem, I guess, is that just because a card I designed appeals to me mathematically doesn't mean it's a Melvin card. It just means that I designed it for myself.

Mental Masturbation —
Instant (R)
Counter target spell you control. If it's countered this way, you may cast a nonland card from your hand without paying its mana cost.
"The self is a relation which relates itself to its own self, or it is that in the relation that the relation relates itself to its own self; the self is not the relation but that the relation relates itself to its own self."
—Søren Kierkegaard, The Sickness Unto Death

I think Melvin cards tend to win CotW more often simply because most of the designers on this board are Melvins.

Yeah, that's basically what I'm saying.

Sister of the Hidden Valley —
Creature — Dryad Mystic
Forestwalk, mountainwalk
Exile Sister of the Hidden Valley from your hand: Add or to your mana pool.
『谷神不死，是謂玄牝。』
2/2

What Goddess Unseen should have been.

I was just considering a mana gathering turn for a morph

Skyward Sight —
Enchantment — Aura
Split second
Enchanted creature gets +3/+3 and has flying, indestructible, and hexproof.
All the glory in the world could not have amounted to the joy she felt as she gazed into the silver sun.

Glimpse the Horizon —
Instant (U)
Target creature gains hexproof and indestructible until end of turn.
Kruphix's utopia is not a place one arrives at, but rather a state of mind to be maintained.

The Shrine of Seven Stars
Legendary Land (R)
The Shrine of Seven Shars enters the battlefield tapped.
: Add one mana of any color to your mana pool.