To be fair, unless you know who that character is, it is a fairly common fantasty/sci-fi trope!
Also, love these updates! And I'm really happy that you're vocal about how pleasing your play group informs card choices. I feel like a lot of Cubists feel that there is only one "right" choice and anything else is just bad. I mean, if your group never plays reanimation style cards, then it might be time to move on. Or if Morphling is always picked and played, then why remove it?!
Battered Grotto
Land (R)
Battered Grotto enters the battlefield tapped unless you discard a card. T: Add U or B to your mana pool. T, Exile a creature card from your graveyard: Add UB to your mana pool.
Battered Hilltop
Land (R)
Battered Haven enters the battlefield tapped unless you discard a card. T: Add G or R to your mana pool. T, Exile a creature card from your graveyard: Add GR to your mana pool.
First, I started this before I actually played with the set because I really didn't like how Battle for Zendikar looked. My criticisms was never that it played terribly, but that it just really didn't feel like Zendikar.
After the prerelease, I feel like my initial assumptions were overall correct. I did not drastically change everything about the original set, a lot will look very familiar. However, I just wanted to see what my version would have been with mechanics that I think are better and more flavorful.
So here we go, you can view it here. Obviously, this was just for fun, and nowhere near perfect - I still have complaints, but I wanted to see what I could do.
I'd like to also note that since I forced myself to use the same art, I couldn't really change the numbers of many different things. I worked with that constraint.
First Major Change: The Eldrazi
The Eldrazi in the initial set had three major mechanics; ingest, devoid, and processors.
INGEST
Before playing with ingest, I didn't like it. I felt that having the Eldrazi mill occassionally felt underwhelming. Here are these otherwordly things, and they have to deal damage to exile a card? I made ingest an attack trigger and I think it changes a lot:
The Eldrazi now feel cohesive. All of my Eldrazi besides the Scions have ingest. This creates a real feel throughout the set. (Now, there might be too much, but I couldn't really change the numbers.) Also, I like that there is a parellel with this being an attract trigger and annihilator being an attack trigger. There is a thread in this ability now that connects with the older Eldrazi that we just didn't have with the older version of ingest.
The Eldrazi now seem like they're consuming something and that there is a purpose to it. Ingest now will kill you even if you block. That's scary. Previously, you could ignore it would rarely result in decking yourself and usually just enabled a processor or two. But this makes them have an alternative win condition that will slowly (even slower than poison!) kill you.
DEVOID
I removed devoid. I felt it was a keyword's worth of text that ultimately didn't add anything to the cards or set. It unified them and helped thematically, but I don't think in a way that was worth the space because, ultimately, it really doesn't do anything interesting.
To replace devoid, I keyworded “putting an Eldrazi Scion into play” as spew. This keyword is on every single Eldrazi spell and every single drone. I feel that this really creates a sense that the Eldrazi are overwhelming Zendikar and helps in a more concrete way to unify the spells.
PROCESSORS
Actually, I kind of liked the previous versions of processors, and I liked how they played to a certain extent. But part of me didn't like how they all triggered and activated at different times and used a varying amount of exiled cards. By having them trigger at the end of each of your turns and also being able to feed themselves, these new Processors really feel like they're part of an engine and something bigger. Something scary. Something alien.
Second Major Change: Allies
Rally triggers now affect all your creatures. This tells me that R&D decided that Allies were okay with working with non-allies. This is what inspired me for my these abilities.
I got rid of Rally because I felt it wasn't doing much. Despite them still allowing it to operate with creatures other than Allies, they still felt slightly parasitic. Additionally, one of the largest and most consistent complaints against Battle for Zendikar is what makes an Ally an Ally. Not all Allies have Rally in this set, and that distinction seems random and confusing.
So, I added two abilities, first is an original, Unity, and the other is a returning mechanic from Mirrodin Besieged, Battle cry.
Unity, "this creature gets a +1/+1 counter at the beginning of your upkeep if you control another creature that shares a type with it," was made because it did several things for me. It thematically tied the Allies together in the same way Rally did; these creatures help each other out by making each other bigger and bigger. Also, they have a similar feel to the Level up creature of Rise of the Eldrazi. Your allies will, given time, get huge and be able to take down 10/10 creature!
I put Battle cry into this set because I initially tried to have all the Allies have Unity, but it was too much. It didn't look or feel right. But I feel that besides Battle cry being a thematic home run, it creates another limited archetype by comboing with the Scions.
With these two mechanics, Allies now are much more thematically tighter (they all either have Unity or Battle cry) and they can build up with Unity and/or build wide with Battle cry.
Third Major Change: Zendikar Abilities
I wasn't a huge fan of awaken. It seemed really complicated - not for me, but just overall. It's an alternate casting cost that makes a land a creature. It does wonderful things for better players because it makes the cards do vastly different things, but I don't know if it was worth the space or confusion.
Also, Converge didn't really work well for me. It always seemed like too much work for next to no upside. Only a couple of the cards seemed fun or powerful. I wasn't a huge fan.
I replaced Awaken and Converge with an ability word, Hedronize. It has an effect that increases with the number of lands you control. This, like Awaken and Landfall do, makes your extra lands seem more useful. The name really invokes the feeling of Zendikar to me; it is the collective land empowering the spell and fighting the Eldrazi. I think these play well and aren't too complicated. This is my definite replacement for Converge.
Awaken is mostly gone, but some abilities still "awaken" lands. It is a very minor remnant.
I also changed Landfall a bit. I really liked what they did with the rare cycle of Landfall creatures - the abilities became more powerful if it was a basic land of the same color of the card that entered play. I used that a lot. Not sure if it was worth it for the more complex interactions, but I think it's cool.
Thanks for Reading
Look at the spoiler and let me know what you think. I changed up almost every card, specifically the awfully designed Ulamog. (Seriously. That is less interactive than Emrakul. Okay, maybe not, but sheesh.) If you have any comments or criticisms, I want to hear them. Is this version of ingest just not fun? Is it too prevalent? Is Hedronize too confusing? Is the new Landfall too confusing? Does Unity require too many upkeep triggers?
PS: All the artists names are the same ones their corresponding Battle for Zendikar card. The only card's name I changed was Sylvan Scrying, and the new name has the artist credited.
Well, I think you have to decide if you want combat to be part of your Cube. I do. I try to include combat tricks and am actively trying to make that a more central part of my Cube games. But if your removal is just really highly tiered, then combat tricks are going to 2-1 yourself more than your opponent.
This is a remake of a set I kind of attempted to make a while back. I lost all my files regarding that, which was sad. But I decided to start again!
So I'm going to introduce it with the story and major players. NOTE: I have the link for all art at in the artist credits of the cards because I couldn't find names. If that's not enough, let me know!
Enjoy.
Jugarsha is a simple land. There are many different factions all working somewhat peacefully. On Jugarsha though, there are routine battles to distinguish the ownership of different land across the plane. The factions are okay with this. It leaves no room for backstabbing as everyone is very open with their tactics. This has to do with a treaty that was signed long ago. Why? Few remember.
But these routine battles have kept everyone happy. For now.
This is Verojj Regait XII.
He's power hungry. He is the leader of the Regait tribe. It's composed of elf and goblin hybrids. They worship at this, the Firetree.
Lately, he's been hearing something. A voice. Telling him that a chance at planar domination is soon. He wants it. His seers tell him that a being from another world will help him. He waits.
This is Marla.
She is the queen of the Majorn, a very large group of people in northern Jugarsha that have huge fortresses and castles. Their people live good lives, and that is mainly due to Marla's prowess in battle. Her people want more land, and she listens. She is possibly short-sighted and not seeing how this is affecting the people and beings no part of the Majorn, but she is doing her royal duty. And she is fine with that.
Another group is the Asaya. They are a tribe of wise flying beings in the skies above. They are the creators of many religion. Beings all around Jugarsha go to them for guidance.
They watch over Jugarsha, but right now are sensing an unpreventable upheaval of power that will change the world forever. These three are original signers of the pact, and they see it becoming undone... And unleashing the horrors that the pact hid away many years ago.
The Kardoom leaders, Rajika and Kelkij, are also two signers of the pact. Here they are:
Rajika reluctantly signed the pact, but did it for her husband. She enjoyed the chaos and insanity but he saw the wealth he could accumulate. As their own shamans foresee the pact becoming undone, she rejoices while he sighs. "Well, I've had my fun. It's your turn now," Kelkij tells his wife. She can't wait,
The Kardoom don't just have their two leaders. Years ago, a planeswalker came to Jugarsha and felt a great sense of home with the demonic overseeing of Rajika and Kelkij. Let's meet Mikurro Kadar.
He likes what he has helped create. While he does not know exactly what will happen if the pact is destroyed, he will do anything to make it stop.
Now, during a regularly scheduled battle between the Regait and Majorn, everything is going as expected. There is very minimal damage among both factions, but the Majorn in winning by a devastating amount. That is until Nissa Revane arrives. She planeswalked into the midst of battle and seeing her elven brethren being so savagely beaten, she attacks. She almost annihilates the Majorn army. Marla is awe stricken. She retreats with her people as soon as possible.
Nissa is returned to the Fire Tree and is celebrated as a hero. Verroj knows she will be a vital part of his plan. He asks her to stay, and she does. He wants to make her a formal part of the Regait nation, and she accepts.
And that's the story... For now!
I hope you enjoyed. And if I'm not supposed to put that many images in one post. I'm sorry! =(
Let me know what I should do, and I'll change it.
Thanks.
Also, comments, questions, and criticism are welcomed! (And I'll be editing it later to make it flow better.)
Golgari Grave-Troll is a totally safe unban, right? I mean, the only reason why it's banned is because of its dredge number, not because of the card itself. And it's only 1 more than Stinkweed Imp. I can't imagine adding another larger dredger would vastly improve dredge decks. Or maybe it would. But it definitely wouldn't be too powerful or quick, right?
I think Jace could definitely be unbanned. He does very little to stop the combo decks because he's probably a little too slow. And probably not that great against the hyper aggressive decks. He's obviously going to be powerful, but I think this format is a very bad spot to resolve a 4 mana brainstorm.
I think GGT would be a safe unban that will have less of an effect on the format than Nacatyl or Bitterblossom. I think Jace will have to find himself a deck to fit in. Maybe he'll make UW control a very strong tier 1 deck? Also, I think it's a good thing to add new cards to the format that doesn't fit well into a Pod shell.
I think this does have the benefit of being a "free" spell that people might have to take into account when playing. It could be like Fireblast in that way.
"Nonland permanent you don't control" which means it's always going to be the permanent you named unless your opponent wants to exile an additional one.
One of my big problems with this, is that we don't see it on a card.
Seriously, we get Deicide showing that awesome monumental moment, but nothing for this?
I've been wanting them to start reincorporating story for a long time. (Despite how awful it's been.) And I find it very terrible to not have this moment anywhere on the cards. Seems like a missed opportunity.
Also, love these updates! And I'm really happy that you're vocal about how pleasing your play group informs card choices. I feel like a lot of Cubists feel that there is only one "right" choice and anything else is just bad. I mean, if your group never plays reanimation style cards, then it might be time to move on. Or if Morphling is always picked and played, then why remove it?!
Land (R)
Battered Grotto enters the battlefield tapped unless you discard a card.
T: Add U or B to your mana pool.
T, Exile a creature card from your graveyard: Add UB to your mana pool.
Battered Hilltop
Land (R)
Battered Haven enters the battlefield tapped unless you discard a card.
T: Add G or R to your mana pool.
T, Exile a creature card from your graveyard: Add GR to your mana pool.
First, I started this before I actually played with the set because I really didn't like how Battle for Zendikar looked. My criticisms was never that it played terribly, but that it just really didn't feel like Zendikar.
After the prerelease, I feel like my initial assumptions were overall correct. I did not drastically change everything about the original set, a lot will look very familiar. However, I just wanted to see what my version would have been with mechanics that I think are better and more flavorful.
So here we go, you can view it here. Obviously, this was just for fun, and nowhere near perfect - I still have complaints, but I wanted to see what I could do.
I'd like to also note that since I forced myself to use the same art, I couldn't really change the numbers of many different things. I worked with that constraint.
The Eldrazi in the initial set had three major mechanics; ingest, devoid, and processors.
INGEST
Before playing with ingest, I didn't like it. I felt that having the Eldrazi mill occassionally felt underwhelming. Here are these otherwordly things, and they have to deal damage to exile a card? I made ingest an attack trigger and I think it changes a lot:
The Eldrazi now feel cohesive. All of my Eldrazi besides the Scions have ingest. This creates a real feel throughout the set. (Now, there might be too much, but I couldn't really change the numbers.) Also, I like that there is a parellel with this being an attract trigger and annihilator being an attack trigger. There is a thread in this ability now that connects with the older Eldrazi that we just didn't have with the older version of ingest.
The Eldrazi now seem like they're consuming something and that there is a purpose to it. Ingest now will kill you even if you block. That's scary. Previously, you could ignore it would rarely result in decking yourself and usually just enabled a processor or two. But this makes them have an alternative win condition that will slowly (even slower than poison!) kill you.
DEVOID
I removed devoid. I felt it was a keyword's worth of text that ultimately didn't add anything to the cards or set. It unified them and helped thematically, but I don't think in a way that was worth the space because, ultimately, it really doesn't do anything interesting.
To replace devoid, I keyworded “putting an Eldrazi Scion into play” as spew. This keyword is on every single Eldrazi spell and every single drone. I feel that this really creates a sense that the Eldrazi are overwhelming Zendikar and helps in a more concrete way to unify the spells.
PROCESSORS
Actually, I kind of liked the previous versions of processors, and I liked how they played to a certain extent. But part of me didn't like how they all triggered and activated at different times and used a varying amount of exiled cards. By having them trigger at the end of each of your turns and also being able to feed themselves, these new Processors really feel like they're part of an engine and something bigger. Something scary. Something alien.
Rally triggers now affect all your creatures. This tells me that R&D decided that Allies were okay with working with non-allies. This is what inspired me for my these abilities.
I got rid of Rally because I felt it wasn't doing much. Despite them still allowing it to operate with creatures other than Allies, they still felt slightly parasitic. Additionally, one of the largest and most consistent complaints against Battle for Zendikar is what makes an Ally an Ally. Not all Allies have Rally in this set, and that distinction seems random and confusing.
So, I added two abilities, first is an original, Unity, and the other is a returning mechanic from Mirrodin Besieged, Battle cry.
Unity, "this creature gets a +1/+1 counter at the beginning of your upkeep if you control another creature that shares a type with it," was made because it did several things for me. It thematically tied the Allies together in the same way Rally did; these creatures help each other out by making each other bigger and bigger. Also, they have a similar feel to the Level up creature of Rise of the Eldrazi. Your allies will, given time, get huge and be able to take down 10/10 creature!
I put Battle cry into this set because I initially tried to have all the Allies have Unity, but it was too much. It didn't look or feel right. But I feel that besides Battle cry being a thematic home run, it creates another limited archetype by comboing with the Scions.
With these two mechanics, Allies now are much more thematically tighter (they all either have Unity or Battle cry) and they can build up with Unity and/or build wide with Battle cry.
I wasn't a huge fan of awaken. It seemed really complicated - not for me, but just overall. It's an alternate casting cost that makes a land a creature. It does wonderful things for better players because it makes the cards do vastly different things, but I don't know if it was worth the space or confusion.
Also, Converge didn't really work well for me. It always seemed like too much work for next to no upside. Only a couple of the cards seemed fun or powerful. I wasn't a huge fan.
I replaced Awaken and Converge with an ability word, Hedronize. It has an effect that increases with the number of lands you control. This, like Awaken and Landfall do, makes your extra lands seem more useful. The name really invokes the feeling of Zendikar to me; it is the collective land empowering the spell and fighting the Eldrazi. I think these play well and aren't too complicated. This is my definite replacement for Converge.
Awaken is mostly gone, but some abilities still "awaken" lands. It is a very minor remnant.
I also changed Landfall a bit. I really liked what they did with the rare cycle of Landfall creatures - the abilities became more powerful if it was a basic land of the same color of the card that entered play. I used that a lot. Not sure if it was worth it for the more complex interactions, but I think it's cool.
Look at the spoiler and let me know what you think. I changed up almost every card, specifically the awfully designed Ulamog. (Seriously. That is less interactive than Emrakul. Okay, maybe not, but sheesh.) If you have any comments or criticisms, I want to hear them. Is this version of ingest just not fun? Is it too prevalent? Is Hedronize too confusing? Is the new Landfall too confusing? Does Unity require too many upkeep triggers?
PS: All the artists names are the same ones their corresponding Battle for Zendikar card. The only card's name I changed was Sylvan Scrying, and the new name has the artist credited.
However, the name is probably one of the worsts in a long time. It sounds like a UR Goblin clone or something like that.
Example cards.
Distracting Blob U
Creature - Elemental
Flash
Trance
0/1
Mystical Merfolk 2UU
Creature - Merfolk Wizard
Trance
T: Gain control of target creature with power 1 or less for as long as you control this.
2/2
Hypnotizing Giant 5U
Creature - Giant
Trance
4/5
Confusing Wall 2UU
Creature - Wall
Trance
W: Confusing Wall can block an additional creature until end of turn.
Hypnotic Zombie UB
Creature - Zombie
Trance, deathtouch
1/1
So I'm going to introduce it with the story and major players. NOTE: I have the link for all art at in the artist credits of the cards because I couldn't find names. If that's not enough, let me know!
Enjoy.
Jugarsha is a simple land. There are many different factions all working somewhat peacefully. On Jugarsha though, there are routine battles to distinguish the ownership of different land across the plane. The factions are okay with this. It leaves no room for backstabbing as everyone is very open with their tactics. This has to do with a treaty that was signed long ago. Why? Few remember.
But these routine battles have kept everyone happy. For now.
This is Verojj Regait XII.
He's power hungry. He is the leader of the Regait tribe. It's composed of elf and goblin hybrids. They worship at this, the Firetree.
Lately, he's been hearing something. A voice. Telling him that a chance at planar domination is soon. He wants it. His seers tell him that a being from another world will help him. He waits.
This is Marla.
She is the queen of the Majorn, a very large group of people in northern Jugarsha that have huge fortresses and castles. Their people live good lives, and that is mainly due to Marla's prowess in battle. Her people want more land, and she listens. She is possibly short-sighted and not seeing how this is affecting the people and beings no part of the Majorn, but she is doing her royal duty. And she is fine with that.
Another group is the Asaya. They are a tribe of wise flying beings in the skies above. They are the creators of many religion. Beings all around Jugarsha go to them for guidance.
They watch over Jugarsha, but right now are sensing an unpreventable upheaval of power that will change the world forever. These three are original signers of the pact, and they see it becoming undone... And unleashing the horrors that the pact hid away many years ago.
The Kardoom leaders, Rajika and Kelkij, are also two signers of the pact. Here they are:
Rajika reluctantly signed the pact, but did it for her husband. She enjoyed the chaos and insanity but he saw the wealth he could accumulate. As their own shamans foresee the pact becoming undone, she rejoices while he sighs. "Well, I've had my fun. It's your turn now," Kelkij tells his wife. She can't wait,
The Kardoom don't just have their two leaders. Years ago, a planeswalker came to Jugarsha and felt a great sense of home with the demonic overseeing of Rajika and Kelkij. Let's meet Mikurro Kadar.
He likes what he has helped create. While he does not know exactly what will happen if the pact is destroyed, he will do anything to make it stop.
Now, during a regularly scheduled battle between the Regait and Majorn, everything is going as expected. There is very minimal damage among both factions, but the Majorn in winning by a devastating amount. That is until Nissa Revane arrives. She planeswalked into the midst of battle and seeing her elven brethren being so savagely beaten, she attacks. She almost annihilates the Majorn army. Marla is awe stricken. She retreats with her people as soon as possible.
Nissa is returned to the Fire Tree and is celebrated as a hero. Verroj knows she will be a vital part of his plan. He asks her to stay, and she does. He wants to make her a formal part of the Regait nation, and she accepts.
And that's the story... For now!
I hope you enjoyed. And if I'm not supposed to put that many images in one post. I'm sorry! =(
Let me know what I should do, and I'll change it.
Thanks.
Also, comments, questions, and criticism are welcomed! (And I'll be editing it later to make it flow better.)
I think Jace could definitely be unbanned. He does very little to stop the combo decks because he's probably a little too slow. And probably not that great against the hyper aggressive decks. He's obviously going to be powerful, but I think this format is a very bad spot to resolve a 4 mana brainstorm.
I think GGT would be a safe unban that will have less of an effect on the format than Nacatyl or Bitterblossom. I think Jace will have to find himself a deck to fit in. Maybe he'll make UW control a very strong tier 1 deck? Also, I think it's a good thing to add new cards to the format that doesn't fit well into a Pod shell.
Seriously, we get Deicide showing that awesome monumental moment, but nothing for this?
I've been wanting them to start reincorporating story for a long time. (Despite how awful it's been.) And I find it very terrible to not have this moment anywhere on the cards. Seems like a missed opportunity.