Jose, Author at Thumb Culture

10 Premium MTG Commander Upgrades to Give This Christmas

23Dec

By JoseNo Comments

10 Premium MTG Commander Upgrades to Give This Christmas

If you're looking for a last-minute Christmas gift for a friend or loved one who plays Magic: The Gathering, I've got a list for you. In the last piece, we talked about budget upgrades for Commander decks. Here, I'll be going over some not-so-budget upgrades for your Commander bestie. Let's dig right in! Flashy, Full-Art, Foils Commander players simply love to bling out their favorite decks. We know this to be true because of the secondary market on websites such as tcgplayer and cardmarket, where the price difference between foils and non-foils is substantial. The rarer the card, the prettier the art, the flashier the foiling shines, the more players and collectors are willing to pay for it. A prime example of this is the recent Final Fantasy set. Now, without further ado, I give you...

11Dec

By JoseNo Comments

PC Reviews

Marvel Cosmic Invasion – PC Review

MARVEL Cosmic Invasion is a pixel-art beat'em up developed by Tribute Games Inc. and published by Dotemu. Playable solo or with up to four players in local or online co-op, the game delivers fun and fast-paced combat where players will visit some of the best-known locations of the Marvel Universe. Retro Pixel Arcade Action Galore After the success of 2022's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge, game developers Tribute Games have come up with another excellent retro, pixel-art, arcade-style beat-'em-up game. Marvel Cosmic Invasion uses the same action-filled formula as its predecessor but enhances it with a larger hero roster and adds another layer of complexity through its swap mechanic. This game is a deep cut to 90s pop culture, when home PCs and consoles weren't as ...

10 Budget MTG Commander Upgrades to Give This Christmas

10Dec

By JoseNo Comments

Features

10 Budget MTG Commander Upgrades to Give This Christmas

In the last decade or so, the Commander format has completely taken over Magic: The Gathering. It has, without a doubt, become the most popular format among players, new and old. It is therefore safe to assume that your MTG-playing friend, whom you want to gift some Magic stuff this Christmas, plays Commander. Budget All-Stars Your MTG Friend Will Love This list is meant for those who want to buy Magic: The Gathering cards for their friend or loved one but haven't got a clue. You could always just ask them which format they play, but that would risk ruining the surprise. If you don't know where to buy singles from, look for trade card gaming shops or comic book shops near you. Chances are, they have some of this stuff. If you really can't shop locally, or it's too time-consuming, then...

5 Budget MTG Commander Precons To Give Away This Christmas

10Dec

By JoseNo Comments

Features

5 Budget MTG Commander Precons To Give Away This Christmas

Over the last decade or so, Magic: The Gathering has released a plethora of preconstructed commander decks. Once an occasional release, these fully constructed and ready-out-of-the-box decks have become expected by-products of every new set. These "precons", as they are known among MTG players, are a great Christmas gift for your trade card gaming addicted friend or for yourself. But which one should you choose from the hundreds of preconstructed commander decks that have come out over the years? Fear not, this short list is here to help. Let's delve in. Draw, Untap, Unleash Hell This list is intended for people who want to get their special one a great (and somewhat within budget) Christmas gift, but are completely clueless about Magic: The Gathering. Commander decks are made of 100 ...

8Dec

By JoseNo Comments

PC Reviews

Death Howl – PC Review

Death Howl invites players into a sorrow-soaked spirit realm where grief becomes both a weapon and a burden. Developed by The Outer Zone and published by 11 bit studios, this indie title blends three genres that have never been combined like this before. It plays like a soulslike with an integrated deck-building system and grid-based combat. You craft combat cards, collect totems, and face corrupted animal spirits as you guide a grieving mother on a desperate journey to challenge death itself and save her son. Enter the Pixelated Underworld I've never been the biggest fan of soulslike games, often preferring the more forgiving variant, soulslite. Death Howl reminds me of one of my favorite games, Blasphemous. Both games have the high difficulty of soulslikes, with a cryptic world to ...

4Dec

By JoseNo Comments

Previews & Early Access

Comic Book Store Simulator – PC Preview

Comic Book Store Simulator is a small shop-management game where you step into the shoes of a comic shop owner trying to keep a niche business alive. Developed by Akhir Pekan Studio and published by PlayWay S.A., the game tasks you with organizing your store, dealing with thieves, and juggling the constant flow of sales and restocks. I played it on PC, and overall, the game runs rather smoothly with only a couple of minor wrinkles. Organizing the Chaos Running a comic book store might at first sound a bit dull, but as anyone who has spent some considerable amount of time in these nerd dungeons will tell you, it is anything but. As a comic book store crawler myself, I found it intriguing to see the store from the other side of the counter. Let's explore the magic behind running a geek lai...

21Nov

By JoseNo Comments

PC Reviews

Coffee Bar Simulator – PC Review

Coffee Bar Simulator is a cosy café-management game, developed by Digital Melody and published by Games Incubator and PlayWay S.A. The premise is simple enough. Open up your own coffee shop, serve customers, and try to keep your tiny business running smoothly as rush hour hits. I played it on PC, and the game runs well with stable performance and quick loading times. A Relaxing Cup of Boredom As a newcomer to simulation games and someone with actual experience working in coffee shops and restaurants in the past, I really looked forward to playing Coffee Bar Simulator. Unfortunately, the game quickly became a monotonous stream of mouse clicks that didn't demand much brain power. It is only after I reached level three and the prompts stopped telling me what to do that things got a littl...

Vivi Gets The Ban Hammer in MTG Standard

10Nov

By JoseNo Comments

Features, News & Updates

Vivi Gets The Ban Hammer in MTG Standard

Wizards of the Coast announced new cards to be added to the ban list of several formats today. Most anticipated were the bans of Vivi Ornitier, Screaming Nemesis, and Proft's Eidetic Memory from Standard. For the last few months, Izzet Cauldron has been bending the Standard format to its image. After its omnipresence in most major Standard tournaments, it became clear that the Izzet Cauldron deck had to go for the sake of the meta. It is simply too fast, too powerful, and most importantly, too many people play it, hence warping the entire format around it. Izzet Cauldron Takes Over Standard Meta Instead of an emergency ban, as they used to call them, Wizards of the Coast moved up their ban schedule from November 24th to Monday, November 10th. This announcement was made shortly after the ...

Halo Fans Are Mad About a Missing Boulder

8Nov

By JoseNo Comments

Features, News & Updates

Halo Fans Are Mad About a Missing Boulder

The crown jewel of Microsoft Xbox games is officially going to cross enemy lines in 2026. Halo: Campaign Evolved will release next year on PlayStation 5. The news on the remake has been so excessively anticipated that it could barely even pass as actual news by the time the Gameplay Demo video dropped. The trailer looks impressive with re-worked lighting, stunning graphics, and sharp textures. The Warthog has a metallic shine to it, the plasma rifle fire glows, and Master Chief's visor glints. But, according to Halo fans on Reddit, these are actually all bad things. Most significantly, there is a large boulder missing on the beach in 'The Silent Cartographer' mission. Let's dig deeper into all the things that are seemingly wrong with a game that hasn't even been released yet. Gameplay ...

13Oct

By Jose2 Comments

Features

The State of Magic: The Gathering

Wizards of the Coast may finally have found out when it is just too much. Overwhelmed fans and viewers were left mouth-opened when Blake Rasmussen, Mark Rosewater, Gavin Verhey, and company took the stage at MagicCon in Atlanta and shared a series of new products and announcements. The Magic: The Gathering community has now had some days to digest the information, and many content creators have come out with statements of their own. Let's dig in, shall we? Good News First What were the announcements made during MagicCon Atlanta? Let's start from the top, in January 2026, Magic players will at long last revisit the enchanting plane of Lorwyn. A beautiful, lush, and vibrant world full of Magic's very own IP. Kithkins, hybrid mana, the evoke mechanic, and many other things that made this fa...