Carson Sinclair

Please find my parody song and short guide on how Carsons ability can ironically lead to quarterbacking, or indeed how to slowly coerce your friends into buttlering for you, at this link: .

arkhamdb.com

Not my best. It has been a few years and im clearly a bit rusty. I have moved it to this link as some people were frustrated when scrolling past it due to length:

.

Please don’t add to the comments. They are also already on the long side and making the matter worse. Happy to take thoughts by DM on discord. Meanwhile – back to adb retirement for me I think.

StartWithTheName · 69391
Huge thanks to @Jaxtrasi for bringing me out of parody song retirement with his review of Call of the unknown (https://arkhamdb.com/card/04009#review-5247). I forgot how much fun these were to write. — StartWithTheName · 69391
Lame. — MrGoldbee · 1451
Annnnd less than 24hrs before a lazy insult. Now I remember why I gave up on Arkhamdb. Too many vocal toxic players to wade through to get to talk to the much larger group of nice folk. @McGoldbee. If people like you can put someone as engaged in the community as I am off the game, imagine what it does to newcomers. Its not exactly the best image for the hobby. — StartWithTheName · 69391
Your song parody is annoying to scroll past, repeating the last line a 16 full times. Rage Against the Machine rules and this parody is lame. If you want more time before an insult I can repeat my critique in a year. — MrGoldbee · 1451
Your first line doesn’t have the same syllables. The original has 14, your version has 15. The poetic foot is also wrong. The original phrase, “some of those who work forces” goes stressed unstressed stressed un stressed, double stressed (For Sez). Yours, “some fighting occult forces” is stressed stressed stressed, unstressed (o CULT) double stressed. — MrGoldbee · 1451
This is also taking a parody of one of the most popular anti-police protest songs of all time, and using it to say “Carson can give people actions and is a Butler.” Many song parodies are good, and there are even ones on this site that are good (once that hyperlink specific cards as punch lines, for example.) but now that I have shown you the amount of effort I’m going to put in, I have come to the conclusion: if you want community, it’s streaming on Peacock. This is a card review website. — MrGoldbee · 1451
As someone @MrGoldbee got into the game, I gotta say; maybe it's a case of 'You could have picked a way better song'? Scrolling past it was a tad annoying and the next song was half the length. Also, you @'d him wrong. — MrNerdyGeeky · 1
@MrGoldbee why so serious?? "Annoying to scroll past", like... seriously? If you don't like it, is it so hard to ignore it for a week and never see it ever again? We like your reviews of cards, but sometimes a fun review with a song that makes some people smile is also what makes this community such a unique place. This place belongs to the diversity of people who play this game, it was made inclusive, and I personally love it this way. — Valentin1331 · 69035
I don't care for these song 'reviews' at all. At least the reviews that ask questions are short and quick to scroll past, and are sometimes useful. These are just an exercise in vanity. — jemwong · 95
Listen guys, im not looking to start a fight here. Or really call someone out or anything. Rudeness (accidental or otherwise) always warrants a response. Mainly to give people an idea of how they are coming across and the option to adapt/rephrase things, particularly if they are unaware. I was at least partly trying to explain that things like these have wider consequences than might be apparent. This sort of thing genuinely put me off the game about a year and a half ago, and I’m a middle aged man with pretty comfortable life I guess. There are vulnerable people in our community for whom it can be much worse. Again explaining not shaming here, but we do need to be careful about these things. I do now see what you mean about it being a long song. Apologies for the scrolling, it’s the same lines as the lyrics listed ofc. It’s clearly a longer song on paper than it is in my head. Theres a lot of repetition with the difference in lines reflected in inflection I guess. This is hard to portray in text. I did at least do a little staging on the earlier bits. Anyway. These arnt meant to be perfect revisions of the original. Im just not that musically talented. I was just looking to share some analogies and puns that amused me with those who might enjoy them. Lighten their day a bit. And in this context, its often worth occasionally sacrificing syllable/inflection matching in places imo. Its meant to be silly, or I suppose “lame” as you put it, rather than “good”. No one thinks their song is publishable. I have no plans to release an album. These songs are easter eggs for the site really. That all said, if you read them carefully, (I think) all of my songs have a point and provide a review of sorts or tips built in. Maybe not the very first ones? Anyway, in this case its not exactly subtle or intended to be, but the whole point is to show how his ability can slowly creep into authorised quarterbacking. The irony that this reverses the bultering theme is interesting to me. As are the analogies with the themes of indoctrination and obedience in the original song being reversed… and how in doing so you change from phrases that I imaging a moderate would ask me to remove, to ones that are at least still sinister if coercive rather than overtly defiant (a very upper class alternative). It looks like we do all at least agree it’s beast of a song (the original, not mine). As a man feeling his age having learned yesterday that some of the younger players didn’t know what song it was, it is at least nice to hear that is still precious to others. I don’t think ive chosen to parody a song I didn’t think was a legend. — StartWithTheName · 69391
A compromise would be to not "like" reviews like these so that they stay at the bottom of the page where you don't really have to scroll past them. Might be counterintuitive to people who actually like the review, though ;) — AlderSign · 284
It's funny how defensive we're getting about someone posting their random off topic parody review when no one at all stands up for people who ask questions about the card as a review and get directed to go elsewhere. — Spamamdorf · 5
I didn’t realise that sort of thing happened @spamamdorf, at least commonly. Im more active (or used to be) on the decklist/guide side. Unprovoked attacks against someone trying to do something nice are probably directed at a someone who knows the wider community (discords and whatnot) arnt like that. People posting questions are more likely casual/new players. If they are being aggressively chased off (rather than politely redirected if that’s the sites rules), then I agree thats much worse. Few people would consider getting deeper into a hobby if they expect to have interactions like that later on. This post will have had more attention because I sent it to a few friends/groups before the drama started, but understandably people generally avoiding arguments they are not directly involved in (I certainly do). So I can see why rules questions might not get the same defence, certainly not quickly enough. — StartWithTheName · 69391
Your two-page off-topic parady review of questionable taste was criticized, so you feel justified in raising a huge fuss about toxicity and inclusiveness and tone-policing, write multi-paragraph text-block defenses of your parody song, and portray the criticism as a personal attack turning you off the game. MrGoldbee was rude, but I don't like your reaction any much more. — suika · 9413
You make some fair points Suika, I guess im not known for being concise. My first reply was true but indeed tempered by frustration. An old friend reached out to me so I pop back on to give it a bash again and problems start so quickly. My second reply was me trying to explain this, how similar things had affected me in the past, and offer opportunities to make amends and find common ground (please read it in a neutral tone, and read to the end if you have doubts). If you read between the lines on it, I was also trying to make sure others don’t pile on. As soon as I posted it (ie before the drama) I had sent this to a few public places where old friends from my deck listing days still hang out. Some of them know what I went through when I first gave up on the site and had expressed concern/comradery. I didn’t want them (or anyone else) trying to help me out here and inadvertently making things worse. — StartWithTheName · 69391
Anyway, you cant edit comments on here. But I can edit the original post. I have moved it to a link to make things shorter to scroll past. Apologies again for the unexpected length on the original. I suggest we just let this feed die and move on with life. — StartWithTheName · 69391
Call of the Unknown

Ah-ah-ah-ah
Ah-ah-ah-ah
Ah-ah-ah-ah-oh-oh

I could soak you, but I won't
Or try to tank you, until I don't
That's two good reasons I should keep you here in play
And do your bidding in the designated way, oh-oh-oh
Ah-ah-ah-ah oh-oh
Ah-ah-ah-ah-oh

Choose a location
(Must be a different one to here)
And try to get there (if I can)
So go for one that's near

Investigate a zero clue location just to stall
It doesn't matter if I get a clue or not for Call
I'm on a big adventure, always moving somewhere new
I'm afraid of what will happen if I shuffle you

Call of the Unknown
Call of the Unknown
Call of the Unknow-ow-ow-own
Ah-ah-ah-ah
Ah-ah-ah-ah-oh

What do you want?
You're waiting for my will to break
You're the hungering weakness, with a thirst I never slake
Or are you my true purpose, the one who sets me free?
Who shows me when I'm not where I'm meant to be?

So I play my two Pathfinders, and my action tracker grows
So every turn I'm ready to move to and fro

Call of the Unknown
Call of the Unknown
Call of the Unknow-ow-ow-own
Ah-ah-ah-ah
Ah-ah-ah-ah

Oh oh oh
You're my weakness
You define me
And at least you're
Not Dark Memory

Ah-ah-ah-ah
Ah-ah-ah-ah
Ah-ah-ah-ah
Ah-ah-ah-ah
Ah-ah-ah-ah
Ah-ah-ah-ah
Ah-ah-ah-ah
Ah-ah-ah-ah

You are my signature
Jake can stay home
I will play Rook for you
Call of the Unknown!

Jaxtrasi · 33
Love it mate. nice one :) — StartWithTheName · 69391
Encyclopedia

My first (and so far only) experience with this deck was when I made a 50-card Support Mandy deck and, after putting together the core of the deck, decided to fill the rest of the deck with level 0 Seeker cards I'd never used before, and this was one of them. My teammate was Nathaniel Cho and when we got to the end of the scenario and found out that we needed to make important tests, wow did this card put in some serious work.

I think this card is actually more worth playing than the level 2 version. Sure, this version only has 5 uses, but I don't think I will need to boost someone's stats for more than 5 rounds anyway, and if I do, I'm probably screwed anyway, so I think I'll always save the 2 XP and play this version which is pretty much just as good.

yea the level 2 version really is for a pure support and tome specialist build, encyclopaedia is a really nice level 0 card for just solving random problems, the wild icon also makes it a safe card to include. — Zerogrim · 292
Flurry of Blows

For a 5xp card, the least they can do is "ignoring all costs" instead of the ridiculous "without paying its → cost", which will at least open up possible combos with Holy Spear or Sledgehammer.

FYI: Pushed to the Limit, a 0xp card which was released in the same expansion, "ignoring all costs".

ethereal64 · 505
To be fair, pushed to the limit activates an ability from a card in your discard. If it didn't ignore all costs, you couldn't use anything that required uses at all. — Champ · 1
First Watch

One important thing a friend of mine made me aware of: This card has a replacement effect for the whole framework step and does not specify the order in which the cards are drawn; it only says "one at a time", not "in player order" (like the step that just got replaced).

Already deeming it staple for at least most typical guardians, this new insight brings First Watch to a whole new power level. To be honest, I never read it in that way in my past plays and just assumed you would have to draw the cards in player order, but it does not actually tell you to.

This finding also makes sense to me, since, although a card that brings comfort and the feeling of safety when played, can whiff in a way, for example if the order the cards were in before playing First Watch was the one you would have chosen anyway - now also being able to choose the order in which the cards are drawn adds a whole new dimension to the impact.

AlderSign · 284