The Willow Wisp
LightNews LightNews
banner
willow0wisp.bsky.social
The Willow Wisp
@willow0wisp.bsky.social
81 followers 370 following 130 posts
(he/they) Writing. Magic: The Gathering (#MTG), video games, video essays, and general geekery. Neurodiverging every day.
Posts Replies Media Videos
willow0wisp.bsky.social
Me whenever I feel like I don't have any control of my life and the only time I had a sense of definite progress, accomplishment, and direction was in school.
A screenshot from the video game Deltarune: Chapter 1. Lancer, a blue spade themed character is shown sticking out his tongue in a text box. He is saying "Hoho! Yes! Earn a second doctorate, Smart Genius!"
October 22, 2025 at 6:09 AM
willow0wisp.bsky.social
With the revival of lifegain decks, I think there's still an interesting design space open to "Whenever an opponent gains life" triggers. Albeit, it probably makes more sense in red or than it does in green.

Signed, a Phelddagrif enjoyer.

#MTG #Magicthegathering #Kavupredator
The scryfall image of the Magic card Kavu Predator, a three clawed beast with sharp fangs, coming out of a blasted tree. (https://scryfall.com/card/a25/176/kavu-predator) The scryfall image of the Magic card Punishing Fire showing an action shot of a person throwing three hammers made of fire. (https://scryfall.com/card/cmd/131/punishing-fire)
September 25, 2025 at 3:15 AM
willow0wisp.bsky.social
My father just sent me this... #Enshrouded
A screenshot of a text message that reads: "You will have to repair our Enshrouded main lodge ..... a grenade might have hit the flower bed while I was trying to pet a dog."
September 3, 2025 at 4:49 PM
willow0wisp.bsky.social
A screenshot from Deltarune, Chapter 2. A Plug person in a bowler hat is talking to the party saying "If you didn't know, an evil ruler is taking over this world. A screenshot from Deltarune, Chapter 2. A Plug person in a bowler hat is talking to the party saying "I don't really like politics, so I have no opinion on this."
July 20, 2025 at 6:52 PM
willow0wisp.bsky.social
Feel like I have to play as a Mournwatch character just so I can tell Manfred that he's precious... every time.
A screenshot from the game Dragon Age: Veilguard. They player character, a purple haired elf stands to the left of the image. Emmeric, the necromancer, is kind of cut off in this view owing to the player character's height. His text reads: "At least! The implication of what Rook's witnessed are--- ah, thank you Manfred!" There is a special Mournwatch dialogue option to say "He's precious," about Manfred the skeleton.
June 30, 2025 at 12:34 PM
willow0wisp.bsky.social
Playing around with making proxies for a #Phelddagrif group hug deck.
A modified beast token with art by Jeremy Carver. It is a 3/3 creature. The image is of a flying purple hippopotamus with teal wings. It is very chonky, with piercing blue eyes. The falvour text is from The Hippopotamus Song by Flander's and Swann. It reads: "They dived all at once / with an ear-splitting splosh, / Then rose to the surface again. A regular army of hippopotarym, / All singing this haunting refrain.." A modified Phelddagrif with art by Oscar Valverde. ( https://scryfall.com/card/me1/150/phelddagrif ). A smiling purple hippopotamus with greenish wings outstretched. It is on the savanna. Two smaller hippopotamuses are sheltered beneath its wings. A modified hippo token with art by Jeremy Carver. It is a 1/1 creature. The image is of a purple hippopotamus with teal wings. It is sitting in a pool of water. It is very chonky, with piercing blue eyes, but less chonky than the beast token. The falvour text is from The Hippopotamus Song by Flander's and Swann. It reads: "Mud, mud, glorious mud, / Nothing quite like it for cooling the blood. / So follow me, follow, / Down to the hollow, And there let us wallow in glorious mud!"
May 20, 2025 at 2:47 AM
willow0wisp.bsky.social
I think one of the interesting things about the legacy of Fallen Empires is how Magic's designers never fully gave up on trying to find ways to represent the rising and falling of waters (whether of the tides or of the regular flooding of the Luxa, Magic's in-universe Nile) in its game mechanics.
A image of the Card "Homarid" from the Magic set Fallen Empires. It depicts two humanoid crab people. The one on the left's face is much closer to the viewer. https://scryfall.com/card/fem/19c/homarid A image of the Card "Tidal Influence" from the Magic set Fallen Empires. It depicts a dramatic ocean scene with a large moon in the top left of the image, a rocky shoreline to the top right. A brain-like jelly fish swims in the churning ocean waves. https://scryfall.com/card/fem/28/tidal-influence A image of the card "Bounty of the Luxa" originally from the Magic set Amonkhet. It depicts a sort of Ancient Egyptian inspired cityscape, except the pyramids go up at sharper incline and all have flattened tops. Floodwaters and greenery run between all the buildings. https://scryfall.com/card/akh/196/bounty-of-the-luxa A image of the card "Sab-Sunen, Luxa Embodied" from the Magic set Atherdrift. It depicts a a procession of Amonkhet worshippers, arms raised. They stand on either side of the image facing the god Sab-Sunen, who stands larger than life in the centre of the image. Sab-Sunen is a giant frog woman with rather snug form fitting armor (and frog breasts, can't have a frog goddess without frog breasts these days it seems). She holds a staff in her right hand that looks like it's skewering a symbolic fish. She is standing in front of the Luxa river, water splashing around her, with a rainbow encircling her.
April 23, 2025 at 3:56 AM
willow0wisp.bsky.social
It's not identical, but I get big "Isle of the Dead" by Arnold Böcklin energy from Kishla Village by Bruce Brenneise in Tarkir: Dragonstorm.
March 26, 2025 at 10:31 PM
willow0wisp.bsky.social
Just got this in the local LGS Discord Server. Sad news for Tarkir:
A notice with signs in different colours reading "Tariff": "We received the unfortunate news today that tariffs have started on all trading card products. We're already seeing the increases from distributors. Many know that, as it is, we have a 20-25% markup on MTG products. We're now seeing a 25% increase to our wholesale costs. We'll absorb what we can but prices will definitely be going up. Tarkir is the first to be hit with these, and we're still being told that the price could change again before they arrive. As of right now, it looks like the pre release event will go up to $65."
March 22, 2025 at 3:42 AM
willow0wisp.bsky.social
It's probably fine that all AI seems to be using the colourless mana symbol that has become deeply associated with cosmic horrors.
A screen grab of the AI symbol in Gmail, looking like the colourless mana symbol from Magic: The Gathering. It is a vertical diamond with sharply curved sides.
March 5, 2025 at 7:29 PM
willow0wisp.bsky.social
Adventure's in translation, Terranigma (SNES, 1995)
A screenshot from the game Terranigma. A man with green hair and a moustache has just emerged from a kind of pod. He is standing in front of a conventionally spiky haired anime protagonist. They are in a lab setting with vats of green liquid. His text reads: "I have no idea who you are, but I thank you for arousing me."
February 16, 2025 at 7:00 PM
willow0wisp.bsky.social
An image of the Magic: The Gathering card Hermetic Study. It shows a fantasy researcher surrounded by observational equipment attaching some kind of red and green crystal and brassy device to the back of a horseshoe crab. The flavour text reads: "At last! I have discovered a way to weaponize one of Tolaria's most abundant resources: horseshoe crabs."
January 28, 2025 at 9:28 PM
willow0wisp.bsky.social
Undead batching when?
The card Accursed Duneyard from the upcoming Magic: The Gathering set Aetherdrift. It features an ominous sand swept view of an impossible pyramid in the distance. Obelisks float in a path towards it. The top of the pyramid is floating above the base. In the forefront an Egyptian style sarcophagus lays partially submerged in the sand. Large blue scarab beetles with gold trim wander at the edges of the path. The card's ability of note is that you can pay to mana and tap it to "Regenerate target Shade, Skeleton, Spectre, Spirit, Vampire, Wraith, or Zombie."
January 24, 2025 at 6:35 PM
willow0wisp.bsky.social
The Bernie Sanders "I am once again asking" meme with text: "I am once again asking for a compelling G/U/R X matters commander.
January 9, 2025 at 7:54 PM
willow0wisp.bsky.social
I don't know if it has something to do with my personal flavour of autism, but I find I still do like the older borders. Having thicker, more solid colour borders makes the things inside them easier for me to parse.
An image of the card Liesa, Forgotten Archangel from the Magic: The Gathering set Innistrad Remastered. It features an angelic being with long dark hair, their gaze downcast and shadowed. They carry an angelic... pitchfork? They are suspended in the air. Scryfall: https://scryfall.com/card/mid/232/liesa-forgotten-archangel
January 9, 2025 at 2:43 PM
willow0wisp.bsky.social
A Screenshot of a fan translation of the video game Mother 3 (Earthbound 3). It depicts the character Lucas and his dog in a jail house. He is talking to a cop, the cop says: "Please don't stare directly at me. It might make me want to arrest you." A person with sunglasses stands beside a dog in a jail cell next to them.
December 18, 2024 at 4:06 PM
willow0wisp.bsky.social
A copy of the card "Lightning Graves" from Magic: The Gathering (https://scryfall.com/card/dsc/93/lightning-greaves). Instead of the regular art, it shows a pair of blue crocks in a cosmic landscape. Lighting crackles around them. An image posted by Tank Magallanes on Facebook.
December 17, 2024 at 5:35 PM
willow0wisp.bsky.social
A screenshot of a twitter post (I think?). User Dextero posts: "Elon Musk is considering buying Hasbro to secure the rights to D&D." Below it is a four panel comic. The first panel is a blue finger pointing to a rule in a book that reads: "Rule 1 When playing with Sir Elon of Musk, he and He Alone (underlined) shall be permitted to use le epic die." The second panel is three simplified people on a plain background, one is yellow, one blue, one magenta. Character sheets and pencils are on the table. The blue person in the centre was the one reading the book. They are looking at the viewing with deeply unimpressed expressions. In the third panel you see that they are looking at a slightly more realistic Elon Musk with a cartoonishly trollish expression on his face. He smiles as he reaches into a dice bag. The fourth panel is a closeup of Elon's fingers holding up a 20 sided dice, but all the faces read 20. Below the cartoon in a Twitter community note which reads: "Elon Musk does not have 3 friends to play D&D with." and it cites Wikipedia.
December 1, 2024 at 5:15 PM
willow0wisp.bsky.social
Crutcher, Paul A. 2017. “Magic: The Gathering, A Literary Text.” Americana: The Journal of American Popular Culture (1900-Present) 16 (1). #MTG #Magicthegathering
A version of the "Tuxedo Winnie the Pooh Meme." Winnie the Pooh is an illustrated anthropomorphic bear with a orangy-red shirt. On the top image is a regular closeup picture of Winnie the Pooh sitting on a blob-like chair, looking off to the right with a tired or unimpressed expression on his face. Beside the image are the words "Magic: The Gathering." The bottom image is an edited version of the first image that puts Pooh in a tuxedo and gives him a smarmy expression. Beside that image reads: "Magic: The Gathering, A Literary Text.
November 30, 2024 at 5:15 PM
willow0wisp.bsky.social
Jake has to confront his toxic gamer past in Adventure Time S08 E11 - Daddy-Daughter Card Wars
A screenshot from the series Adventure Time featuring Jake the Dog in a toxic gamer form. In this form he is yellow with straight triangular horns, pony tail, and a jacket made out of him. He has an impish/smugly grin on his face. He is in a sort of warehouse that it serving as a gaming convention. Turtle people in the background look on at him in concern.
November 23, 2024 at 7:23 AM
willow0wisp.bsky.social
This is too specific to be accidental right? #StevenUniverse
#GustavVigeland #VigelandSculpturePark #Garnet
A screenshot from Season 01 Episode 34 of the animated series Steven Universe - Watermelon Steven. The character Garnet fends off a swarm of round, short, green and light green striped watermelon people, "Watermelon Stevens." She is positioned in the centre of the frame, standing on her left leg with her left elevated as she flings off the watermelon Stevens. Her fists are clenched and her arms are both raised high. One Steven is flying backwards behind her left fist, and two other are flying backwards horizontally from her right fist. Another is being flung off of her right foot. Stevens swarm all around her near the bottom of the image. Garnet has blocky square hair, sunglasses that obscure her eyes, and armour-like torso with a sideways explosion design on her torso, and is overall burgundy and black coloured. A photograph of the statute "man attacked by babies" by Norwegian sculptor Gustav Vigeland from the Vigeland Sculpture Park. The man is positioned in the centre of the frame, standing on his left leg with his right leg elevated as he flings off several babies. His fists are clenched and his arms are both raised high. One baby is flying backwards behind his left fist, and two other are flying backwards horizontally from his right fist. Another is being flung off near his right foot. The statue stands on an elevated dais. Trees and sky in the background.
November 20, 2024 at 10:38 AM
willow0wisp.bsky.social
The only awkward internet blue bird I recognize. #Undertale #UndertaleYellow #Martlet
A digital illustration of the character Martlet from the game Undertale Yellow by Deviantart user ArtKett1412. At the top left of the image there is the original pixel art version of Martlet as she appears in game. Martlet is an anthropomorphic bird person with large eyes, wing-like hands, and a bob cut. Her dominant colour pattern is blue, with a darker blue ruffle around her neck. She has a yellow beak and yellow pointed shoes. In the ArtKett1412 version she is standing with her right arm on her hip as she reads from her notebook which she is holding in her left arm. There are two red hearts floating on either side of her head.
November 19, 2024 at 1:33 AM
willow0wisp.bsky.social
I'm a fan of keyword ability kinship cards in Magic (counting mana ability here). There's not a lot of them in the larger scheme of things, but I think there's a lot of room to explore there.
A copy of Sonorus Howlbonder from Magic: The Gathering, with art by Kimonas Theodossiou. (https://scryfall.com/card/iko/230/sonorous-howlbonder). The image features a bearded white man and a large spiral horned wolf. They are both howling towards the top right of the image. The man wears what looks to be a horned skull on his head with horns that spiral just like the wolf's. His left arm is up to his face like he is projecting his voice. His left hand touches the wolf.
November 17, 2024 at 7:24 PM
willow0wisp.bsky.social
I don't even care if I die to crows. They deserve a little treat.

"Head and shoulders, knees and CROWS!"

Rendmaw EDH

tappedout.net/mtg-decks/he...
The image of Rendmaw, Creaking Nest, illustrated by Ryan Pancoast ( https://scryfall.com/card/dsc/5/rendmaw-creaking-nest ). The image shows a large creature looming over the viewer, a hit of wheat fields in the foreground, crows swarming overhead above the image. Rendmaw is on all fours, with its left arm raised with menacing claws. It's made of sticks and looks to have human bones stored in its forelimbs and rib cage-like chest cavity. It's head is large relative to its body, rounded face with narrow empty eye sockets, snubbed noes, and a large, dark maw filled with pointed wooden teeth.
November 15, 2024 at 4:25 AM
willow0wisp.bsky.social
A screenshot of a post of the card Urza, Prince of Kroog (https://scryfall.com/card/bro/226/urza-prince-of-kroog), except most of the text has been blacked out. It now reads "6: Create a token that's a copy of you, except it's happy."
November 14, 2024 at 4:36 AM