El Goonish Shive X: Please Don't Feel Bad

[Maat Mons]

Anyone want to speculate on what AJ's full name is? I'm going to go with "Ass Jack," myself.

[DavidSh]

I think Andrew Jackson is the usual value of AJ, at least in the US.

[Beelzebub1111]

Abraham Joshuah.
Alexander Justinian.
Archibald James

It could also just be Aj. and schools not knowing better teachers called him A.J. and it stuck.

[WanderingMist]

I think Andrew Jackson is the usual value of AJ, at least in the US.

I'm from the US and pretty much every AJ I knew was Alexander James.

[Yuki Akuma]

What an absolutely useless spell.

Sure, it lets you cheat in sealed tournaments and Friday Night Magic tournies that aren't taken very seriously, but deck lists are public information in any high end, officially sanctioned tournament.

[Manga Shoggoth]

Functionally useless it may be, but it does appear to be exactly how spells get "assigned" - especially if he is one of Pandora's protegees. It seems to be completely based around his interests and his nature.

[KillianHawkeye]

I have to assume that it does more than reveal someone's deck of cards, that's probably just what he's most comfortable using it for.

The first thing I thought of was actually that he had Seer eyes....

[Yuki Akuma]

I have to assume that it does more than reveal someone's deck of cards, that's probably just what he's most comfortable using it for.

The first thing I thought of was actually that he had Seer eyes....

If it works on any deck of cards, or even better card games in general, it's actually a very good spell (because it lets you cheat at blackjack and/or poker). But if it's just specifically to read the contents of Magical Gatherings decks... wow, that's an incredibly niche spell.

[Errorname]

I find it hilarious how the spell presents the relevant data in the form of an anthropomorphized representation instead of like, just showing him the deck. It's such a terrible way of presenting the information that I kind of love it? It seems like AJ intuitively understands what it means, but I'm imagining a character getting a spell like this and having no idea what the actual language is and becoming extremely frustrated.

Like that'd be a great low level D&D spell, being able to scan something and get potentially useful information in an extremely vague abstract representation.

If it works on any deck of cards, or even better card games in general, it's actually a very good spell (because it lets you cheat at blackjack and/or poker). But if it's just specifically to read the contents of Magical Gatherings decks... wow, that's an incredibly niche spell.

I would assume it works on any hand of cards. EGS has some pretty niche spells but nothing that comes close to being that niche.

[tyckspoon]

I find it hilarious how the spell presents the relevant data in the form of an anthropomorphized representation instead of like, just showing him the deck. It's such a terrible way of presenting the information that I kind of love it? It seems like AJ intuitively understands what it means, but I'm imagining a character getting a spell like this and having no idea what the actual language is and becoming extremely frustrated.

Magic gives people spells that represent their interests and personalities. EGS being EGS, it just happens that Literally Everybody has some kind of transformation fetish <,<

[Fyraltari]

I find it hilarious how the spell presents the relevant data in the form of an anthropomorphized representation instead of like, just showing him the deck. It's such a terrible way of presenting the information that I kind of love it? It seems like AJ intuitively understands what it means, but I'm imagining a character getting a spell like this and having no idea what the actual language is and becoming extremely frustrated.

Knowing Dan (which I do not), I assume this is Guy's fantasy self.

[Kish]

I think Andrew Jackson is the usual value of AJ, at least in the US.

That is so totally not how initials work. (If it was, you'd be Daniel Smith.)

If Dan was a different kind of author, I'd expect AJ to walk away from the tournament a winner as a setup for a nasty comedown later, probably involving his magic being stolen by the uryuom revolutionaries. But he's not so I will be amazed if he hasn't been stopped from doing what he's doing before the end of the third game.

[InvisibleBison]

That is so totally not how initials work. (If it was, you'd be Daniel Smith.)

If Dan was a different kind of author, I'd expect AJ to walk away from the tournament a winner as a setup for a nasty comedown later, probably involving his magic being stolen by the uryuom revolutionaries. But he's not so I will be amazed if he hasn't been stopped from doing what he's doing before the end of the third game.

I'd say there's a good chance that AJ ends up facing Tedd in the next round, whose deck turns out to be a hard counter to AJ's. Or maybe Tensaided or George, but Tedd as a seer seems most suited to deliver a comeuppance to AJ, since he'll know what AJ is up to.

[Maat Mons]

AJ would probably just fail to glean any information about Tedd from his spell. We already know Tedd has enough magic resistance to just "nope" some types of magical snoopery, like that magic detector his parents tried to use on him as a baby. I'd actually be a little concerned that AJ might hurt himself trying to push his spell too hard, while Tedd might not even notice the magic glancing harmlessly off him.

[Anonymouswizard]

An alternative theory: it's not going to matter because it'll turn out that even with his spell AJ is just really bad at Magickal Gatherings.

[Manga Shoggoth]

I'd say there's a good chance that AJ ends up facing Tedd in the next round, whose deck turns out to be a hard counter to AJ's. Or maybe Tensaided or George, but Tedd as a seer seems most suited to deliver a comeuppance to AJ, since he'll know what AJ is up to.

AJ would probably just fail to glean any information about Tedd from his spell. We already know Tedd has enough magic resistance to just "nope" some types of magical snoopery, like that magic detector his parents tried to use on him as a baby. I'd actually be a little concerned that AJ might hurt himself trying to push his spell too hard, while Tedd might not even notice the magic glancing harmlessly off him.

I suspect that Tedd will be facing him much later - while he can ignore the spell when it is used on him, he is the one person in the playlist who will be able to identify it when it is used on him. On the other hand, him as an early opponent could bring the "he's using magic" message to Justin, at which point the various magic-aware players (at least, the ones Tedd knows) can start working together.

I don't know what will happen if he tries it on Hope, but even newly reset, Hope likely has more magic knowledge that anyone in the room.

[tyckspoon]

An alternative theory: it's not going to matter because it'll turn out that even with his spell AJ is just really bad at Magickal Gatherings.

Also that, at least as of currently shown, he hasn't gained any knowledge you wouldn't get by just knowing what the card pool is like and asking somebody what deck archetype they're playing or paying attention to like the first three cards they play. It's certainly possible his spell has other applications that are more egregious cheating, such as if it allows him to gain knowledge of his opponent's current hand. At the moment I actually kind of struggle to call this kind of general 'this is what the deck contains' knowledge "cheating".

(That is, assuming the player's decks are locked/they were required to submit a deck list. If they're permitted to sideboard/change cards or even entire decks before games then yeah AJ could get a significant advantage in being able to tailor his deck with specific answer cards to whatever his opponents are running.)

[Reboot]

(That is, assuming the player's decks are locked/they were required to submit a deck list. If they're permitted to sideboard/change cards or even entire decks before games then yeah AJ could get a significant advantage in being able to tailor his deck with specific answer cards to whatever his opponents are running.)

Given Justin's Beta Ox of Smelly Calamity warning, I'm pretty sure there's no submitted deck lists or anything like that.

[Qwertystop]

Huh. I was assuming that rather than explicitly being a cheat-at-cards spell, it was a shortcut-around-having-to-actually-understand-people-by-seeing-them-as-reductive-stereotypes spell, and then he was just cold-reading from there. Like the sort of thing you see in Yugioh or Pokemon, where you've got pretty good odds of being able to guess someone's deck/team from their name, appearance, and personality.

But also, yeah – knowing what cards someone else has in their deck is only going to help you so much.

[Reboot]

I would assume it works on any hand of cards. EGS has some pretty niche spells but nothing that comes close to being that niche.

Yeah, about that...

[Qwertystop]

Or not! Bleh. Guess it makes a point about Pandora, but I'm not sure it's one that needed making.

[WanderingMist]

An alternative theory: it's not going to matter because it'll turn out that even with his spell AJ is just really bad at Magickal Gatherings.

Well, that's why he got it, at least.

[Anonymouswizard]

In my experience 'frustrated at losing card games' and 'really likes anime women' would make this a shockingly common spell.

[Errorname]

Yeah, about that...

I stand by that this spell probably works on poker and other card games and doesn't just work for this one specific card game.

[Reboot]

Or not! Bleh. Guess it makes a point about Pandora, but I'm not sure it's one that needed making.

If it's making a point about her, I think the more significant point is about Hope's reaction to the memory than about Pandora herself.

[Maat Mons]

I stand by that this spell probably works on poker and other card games and doesn't just work for this one specific card game.

"All right, let's fire up the old spell and… yep, the deck is ace through king, four times over."

[DavidSh]

"All right, let's fire up the old spell and… yep, the deck is ace through king, four times over."

or: "Wait a minute, this deck has eight aces! Are you trying to pull a fast one?"
"We're playing pinochle."
"...Oh. Never mind."

[Celestia]

I'm sure the spell also works on hands, not just decks.

[Kish]

If it's making a point about her, I think the more significant point is about Hope's reaction to the memory than about Pandora herself.

Indeed. "Pandora was an awful person" is not a point that needs making, as long as it's not a point that needs making to Dan, which it apparently (and much to my relief) is not. "Hope is reacting in an actually sane fashion to this" is worth more emphasis.

[Errorname]

Indeed. "Pandora was an awful person" is not a point that needs making, as long as it's not a point that needs making to Dan, which it apparently (and much to my relief) is not. "Hope is reacting in an actually sane fashion to this" is worth more emphasis.

I think there is another angle of "Pandora marked some bad people who are going to cause problems". AJ's pretty small time, but he was a guy who wanted magic so he could cheat the rules for petty selfish reasons and Pandora's main objection was that he wasn't going to cause important enough problems. What happens if Pandora (who considered the possibility of Justin killing someone with magic desirable) ran into someone with some higher ambitions for wrongdoing? Really good odds that evil business guy who is about to run into the hybrid trio was marked by her, for example.