The Phantom Menace is probably my favorite of the prequels, and maybe part of that is that it was kind of nuts to watch in theatres when it first came out, but I think the prequels in general have aged well even if they have their flaws. I mean, their better than Star Wars fanfic, which is a lot more than I can say for the Disney ones where I'd actually rather read archive of our own : )

I remember seeing The Phantom Menace for the first time, and I really didn't pay any attention to miticlorians or trade agreements or whatever really, mostly because what you left the theatre thinking was, wow, that's a lightsaber battle. I never saw a fast and acrobatic lightsaber fight until The Phantom Menace, and it was so cool to see the first time, and the music was great, and the layers to the fight were amazing, it was truly special.

Phantom Menace might be my favorite of the prequels just because it comes with the least bloat in the plot. It's pretty much a "heroes in the right place at the right time" story, and that's okay. I think as the prequels went on they really got bogged down by George Lucas having spent so much time drafting the story. After a while, so many little things become uncuttable in your mind, and Lucas wanted to also appeal to everyone, kids, adults, toy companies, old fans, new fans...I mean, the original movies were made in a bubble of, let's make the movie we want to, and the prequels were made in a much different bubble, and it shows.

The prequels could have been something really amazing, but they ended up just being, pretty goodish. Rogue One showed what you can do with a tight story, good special effects, and the star wars dry rub on it, and it was kinda great. If the prequels had done it similar and just told the story of Aniken, or just told the story of Palpetine, they would have been so much more directed. Palps is maybe the greatest movie villain and he gets very little time in the story. Like, the way he enacts his plan of, lets create a problem for the jedi but also give them an easy answer so that they don't even try to find their own answer, that's insanely good. That's like real life corporate villainy, and it's so scary to see a bad guy be that manipulative.

Maybe my view on the prequels is pretty simple, they have brief moments that are hands down the best in all of star wars, but there is so much filler and dry narrative, and odd choices. Like, we can sit down to talk about trade agreements, but we can't have a scene actually showing what Padme sees in Aniken, or a scene to explain that he is emotionally stunted from his training and is feeling things he can't deal with.

Also, and maybe a small nitpick, but lightsabering a village was way, way too far : ) We were supposed to get a crack in the door for Any, not an express elevator ride right to the dark side. Watching something like The Clone Wars was like, yeah, but this is the same guy who destroyed a village, so...

I overall really like the prequels, I kind of wish they could have had a better process, more people involved in the writing, but ultimately they have some super fun moments.

So, this might be a bad idea, but has anyone ever tried commander games where each player draws 2 or 3 at draw step? I've been thinking about this because there is so much card draw in decks and in most colors now, and I was wondering if each player was drawing more naturally if it would open up more space in decks for interaction and gas and lead to faster, more back and forth games.

I feel like there could be really big ways to exploit the system, but there things like Rhystic Study to exploit the game already, so not too sure if it would be crazy.

Either way, I think my group may try a few and see how it goes, but I was just wondering if anyone has tried it. We are always trying to find ways to have more going on in the first turns of the EDH game, and I played an old card game where you draw 3 per turn, and it used to add a ton of fun to a game because every turn you'd get a brand new game plan.

Might be a crazy idea, but my thought is just to make more going on in EDH rather than ramp-draw-eventually something big happens. 60 card has so much interaction on every turn and I think I miss that a bit in commander.

I think you hit the main ones for card advantage, and I really like Mask of Memory because you are running Karmic Guide and Bruna, the Fading Light  ^Meld and you can sometimes pitch a big creature to get reanimated. I have a Bruna deck and it's very fun to reanimate in mono white : )

Other equips you might consider in general are: Dowsing Dagger  ^Flip is great with flyers, and pays back 3 of it's 4 mana often on the turn it comes down.

Hedgewitch's Mask I really like this one, especially with flying creatures to limit who can block them even more.

Explorer's Scope might just be my all time favorite equip, but it might just be me : ) Most often it is just a more efficient Wayfarer's Bauble and even if it bricks, it's surprisingly valuable to know your next draw and plan your plays before you draw.

And one I really like in angels is Concerted Effort It can turn Mother of Runes into boardwipe protection, or give your whole team double strike, or just make your support creatures flyers.

Oh, and also, equip decks can have a lot of fun with Leonin Shikari that can give all creatures Lightning Greaves or add on more Sword of Fire and Ice triggers, more Sword of the Animist triggers, it's always pretty good.

Ha, I missed the plot part on railway brawler, it does seem way more flexible than I thought : ) Seems fun!

I haven't played with Railway Brawler, and it seems good, but I'm not sure it's suited for every deck. It's a very powerful effect to add counters and double creatures power, but at 5 cmc, you probably won't be casting a creature right after railway brawler, and then it has to stick around until next turn. Maybe it's great with flash enablers? Flash it in before your turn and then go to town sounds pretty good.

I mean, I think it's a really good card, but it's much less powerful than something like Voja, Jaws of the Conclave just because Voja works with haste enablers to get the value end on the turn it comes down.

I feel like Railway Brawler could absolutely run away with games, but I feel like it could also just get hit by Swords to Plowshares just as much of the time.