filed by O
audio version
Welcome to Season 18, Agents.
It seems that Birds+ – a renovation we got last time mostly just because none of our other renovations looked good – may well prove useful after all. This is part of The Plan because we have won 7 games, lost 4, and Comfort Septemberish was Shelled.
The Way It Didn’t Happen
Reportedly, Peanutiel Duffy reached towards the sky, then slammed a peanut down on the field. The peanut wobbled and fell to the ground, rolling back and forth, punctuated by muffled banging from inside.
“DEEP CLEANING MADE DIFFICULT?” the fans shouted in dismay. Immediately afterwards, the Spies scored five runs. “CLEAN IT FOR COMFY!” is the new chant.
And all this just a few days after Tamara Crankit of the Jazz Hands, an original member and thus one of Comfort’s earliest friends, was incinerated. I remember when Denzel’s shelling nearly broke me, and now – well, it sure happened again. I’m getting used to this. How am I getting used to this? Is getting used to this even a good thing?
…I think Denzel sits next to the shell every night and recounts the day’s events. Just like Son probably did for them, before.
New Information
Though official sources are never quite to be trusted, for obvious reasons, they’re worth at least a look. The Blaseball Beat – the official ILB newsletter – had some interesting words this week about two topics. Firstly, it opines on the oddness of the last Tarot Reading: apparently the Crates’ interjection was “harsh words [that] accused the Reader of inserting themself into the text and plagiarizing other sources.” This verifies that the Reader is a distinct entity. It also mentions that Nagomi McDaniel and York Silk are being “Preserved in perpetuity in order to be shared with Fans everywhere.” Shared?
At the beginning of the season, the Coin told us that Chorby Soul has been Preserved – given Legendary status and no longer Idolable. Thanks, Coin? Probably for the best, really. Soul-related idol shenanigans have caused enough problems.
We have a search bar now! You can put any name in it, and it’ll bring up that player’s stat card. But Search comes with a few mysterious players who have never been seen anywhere else. Who is Simon Peck? Hiroto Poole? Current theory is that it probably has to do with how the first election ran three times simultaneously. Still weird that nothing else has ever been done with them, though.
Library
Found under the “Info” section of the website menu, there is the promised mysterious Library. Almost all of it is Redacted, but there is a single entry on Pre-History 1 that is visible. It reads “The First Day, 1st Edition”.
Sun 1 was Forged by Namerifeht.
Fives [sic] Bases were Placed.
“Accretion.”
The Alaskan Immortals joined Ultra League Blaseball!
[several redacted lines, likely other teams joining Ultra League Blaseball]
An Umpire Appeared.
Rejoice!
Play Ball!
But though almost all of these are listed as having happened in Season A, “Accretion.” is instead listed as a proclamation made by Crates at the beginning of Season 18. For all Crates complained about the Reader interjecting onto the text, it seems to be interposing itself between us and the text here!
Incidentally, I know there are many young and budding codebreakers in my audience: and for them I will point out that the meaning of the name of the individual who forged Sun 1 is a very simple puzzle.
Strategically Speaking
Because of our strategy being to actively avoid having single star players, instead focusing on having as many players being good as possible, Septemberish being shelled is unlikely to seriously dent our chances. Spies are on track to win regardless.
Wills have changed again – Plunder is gone, instead of Infusion or Transfusion we have Shadow Infuse, Revoke now works on Shadowed players, and there’s a Will that allows us to move items to a different player. Furious discussions have been taking place as to what optimal strategies might look like.
One particularly interesting Wills strategy, made public by the Kansas City Breath Mints some time ago, is to spread votes equally across a large number of Wills that don’t actively interfere with each other, so as to mitigate the chance of an undesired outcome. This is because whenever a Will is selected, all other Wills of the same type are removed from consideration. I have no idea if we’re doing this, but I wanted it on record for people who don’t keep close tabs on stratchat.
Meanwhile, SIBR informs us that Fitzgerald Blackburn is now one of the optimal idols, thanks to that Super Idol necklace. We would have been more concerned about this before, but since Plunder no longer exists, their position on the board is now less of a concern. And even if it was, Item Move exists now. The Plan provides.