Please share what you come up with! I like hobgoblins in D&D and have always wanted more from those hints we got in Eventide.
Well, I didn’t have much luck with MtG Hobgoblins, if they are mentioned in the books I couldn’t find anyone who’d read them. But i looked into the real world folklore and pieced together a (rudimentary) understanding:
Hobgoblins are kinda lame tbh :’D they appear in old stories and poems as domestic helpers, who help/do chores in exchange for stuff like bowls of cream (lol). Occasionally mischievous, they are mostly harmless. If they turn bad they become Boggarts. A few examples came up, with cutesy old English Names (Robin Roundcap, Blue Burches, Lubbar Fend).
I took these concepts combined with the Lorwyn storyline and what I could see from the cards, and concocted a basic story in my head where Oona has expanded into Hobgoblin territory enough to cause an uprising, and who else to lead this than the infamous Lubbar Fend :’D
The card itself I can’t decide on. I wanted it to be Tokens commander for Boros in an EDH Cube, so took the ETB from Rise of the Hobgoblins added a combat buff and gave it 3 cmc. Any suggestions are very welcome though as the card has not tested well!
IKR :’D looks like they’re mainly farmers (flavor text on the dbl strike guy) but for some reason they ‘rise up’ presumably to fight Oona (based on the cicada guy) The books probably don’t go into it much either, and i’m not spending $100’s and Hours to find out :’D I best start making things up!
Has anyone read the books around Lorwyn / Shadowmoore, or know anything about the Hobgoblins in the plane? I’m making a custom card and would like it to be a good fit flavor wise. The new card is functionally similar to Rise of the Hobgoblins so I’d love if anyone knows a name, ie, who was the leader of the hobgoblins? But I can work with anything...
Ok that's a fair point. So I just had a search on gatherer to see what other walkers might have a similar effect on their color combinations, ie. opening up a different way of playing things from the norm. Honestly i struggled. Aside from Nahiri, all I could come up with is Sarkhan Unbroken (because Temur is traditionally the colors of combo: Animar + Riku being the main culprits) and also Angrath, the Flame-Chained (because surprisingly perhaps, there are no Rakdos Commanders that attack opponents hands, an obvious way to get card advantage)
But other than that you're right, I just want it for Boros (but because she looks interesting, i don't do pets )
Why won't you listen to the will of the people and make legendary enchantments legal commanders?!?! /sarcasm
I'm sensing some undue hostility, who hurt you bro?
I never said she'd fix all of Boros's problems, just that she'd help to shake things up. By your own examples we currently have only two non-aggro choices, Fire Song and Sunspeaker, and Depala, Pilot Exemplar. Compare that with any other color combo short of Rakdos and we're outnumbered 10 to 1 (figure of speach - dont judge me)
Anyway, I know an argument's gone too far when I have to re-read my original post. All i'm saying is it's worth giving walkers a try, where's the harm in that.
Ok, someone really needs to explain to me why Nahiri, the harbinger - a planeswalker with less play on edhrec than dovin baan (the original one? The one that sucks horribly and deserves no play at all?) - would be the savior that would save boros from suckitude. Her +2 is just a worse daretti ability. Her -2 is fine but much worse when it's predictable out of the command zone. And her ult is fine, but this isn't a format like modern where one eldrazi attack is going to shut someone out of the game forever. Honestly I'd go so far as to say her ult is one of the worst of all the walkers for this format.
What's so special about nahiri? Almost every other color combination has better walkers available for commanders. If anything it would probably make boros even worse.
If you want walkers as commanders then cool, ask your playgroup about it, but this "help boros" excuse is flimsy as all hell.
This is sort of exactly my point, Nahiri isn't brilliant, no-one is going to say wow that's OP it should be banned, which is why in her case at least, having a planeswalker commander would be totally fine, how could anyone complain?
The reason I personally think she'd be good for Boros, is just because she's completely different to what's out there. The 'problem' with Boros commanders at the moment is that they're all saying the same thing: Attack Attack Attack.
But Nahiri doesn't care about attacking, she opens up a door to a different kind of build. Her + for instance could go well with soem of the white reanimation, or the red artifact recursion, no other boros commander can do this. The - ability is versatile (but conditional) removal on a boros commander, again not OP, but again unheard of in Boros. And the ult... there's probably something really silly you could do with it, all I can think of is Blightsteel Colossus, but whatever you get, it's actually card advantage which again, is unheard of in Boros.
Edit: She'd also let you build a deck that isn't creature dependant (which far as I know isn't a thing in Boros?) Meaning you could run more board wipes more often, and claw back the value that way.
I can definitely see the (a bit) theme though, but not enough to offset the "you're a planeswalker, and have a pet...planeswalker as your trusty sidekick to whoop butt" disconnect that occurs. Having a pet dragon as your familiar makes more sense. But maybe ill run this by my group to test some of the more potentially problematic walkers to see how broken they really are.
@schweinefett is that what it's supposed to be? I always just sort of imagined we were playing as the commander (Like the old pc game Total Annihilation lol)
I hope your playtesting goes well, I can't imagine you'd even notice a difference in the long term
A friend of mine suggested this should have been the card they printed instead of the latest uncommon Nahiri Walker
Obviously it's a tad much, but the point was certain color combinations (mainly the worst color combination in EDH, Boros) could really benefit from having walkers as commanders. So one or two might be a bit busted, looking at you Tezzeret... but if it's busted, ban the card, not the entire Card Type!
And I know... the RC don't want to have two seperate ban lists for Commanders and the 99, but are we really so unintelligent that we can't work out which is which? I think we deserve a little more credit than that.
With War of the Spark, Wizards has gone to a lot of effort to make sure Walkers are accessible and thought-through, so isn't it time we give Planeswalker Commanders a chance?
Magus of the StoriesWW Creature - Human Magus (MR)
When ~ enters the battlefield, players play a Magic subgame, using their libraries as their decks. Each player who doesn't win the subgame loses half their life, rounded up. 2/2
Should say lose half rounded down, that way I can flicker it infinitely and not let anyone leave
VetraWUR Legendary Creature - Sphinx Avatar (MR)
When ~ enters the battlefield, secretly choose the name of a card that is a permanent.
Flying, haste
When the named card would enter the battlefield, you may reveal the name. If you do, it enters the battlefield under your control instead. 3/3 "What do you use every single day, but never pay for? What is truly yours but came from somewhere else? What is very personal but shared with everyone?"
I would love this, but the rage on the table every time you steal that guy's commander...
I name "island"!
....wait a minute..
Ok good point, still with some minor tweaks it would be fine, add non-land, or only 'the next time...' it should probably also cost an addition generic mana or something... I just like that it would be a Jeskai commander that isn't combo and/or sucks
hey man... suicide decks are definitely not only a 'I'm here for funsies' ...
This made me chuckle. My apologies, it's just I've never seen one in action, and on the face of it 'suicide' doens't sound like an aggressive thing, but i get your point, and i retract my statement
...tempo as i understand it, is upping my board presence and disrupting your board presence (and ignoring other resources). imagine sort of aggro-control, but it can be a very temporary sort of control. Up tempo as you used it means cheating on mana, and they're not really the same thing. I'd rename it to just cheating on mana, or curve-jumping maybe? or sneak and show? or cast cheating (as darrenhabib suggested).
By the way. Any distinction in your mind between stax and prison? stax as in smokestack, prison as in tangle wire?
Sneak and Tell works for me, will tweak the name.
You're right Stompy is a Legacy term meaning something else. I will ammend that to 'RG Monsters' (or xy as it may be)
Stax and Prison are basically cousins, right? Added it to the list ^^
VetraWUR Legendary Creature - Sphinx Avatar (MR)
When ~ enters the battlefield, secretly choose the name of a card that is a permanent.
Flying, haste
When the named card would enter the battlefield, you may reveal the name. If you do, it enters the battlefield under your control instead. 3/3 "What do you use every single day, but never pay for? What is truly yours but came from somewhere else? What is very personal but shared with everyone?"
I would love this, but the rage on the table every time you steal that guy's commander...
I would avoid listing all the mechanics as themes. It is true that you could list them but my counter argument is that yes, you could list all of them as themes. Most of those themes are barely fringe playable and it opens a lot of well if theme X which is a mechanic is listed then why not mechanic Y.
Got an issue with any particular themes?
I know what you're saying, it's hard because it's subjective so you're not wrong. I've been working roughly on the basis that if you can build it in at least two or three different ways, then it's broad enough to count as a 'theme', and I'm not against listening to people's arguments coz who am I to call anyone wrong ^^
The aim is to list only the most popular and recurring mechanics. Obviously we could go too far and say things like: well 'Dredge' is a theme, 'Myriad' is a theme, but to that person I'd say 9 out of 10 times it fits into another category better, and the community at large doesn't use it as a term, and there aren't many cards that actually do that thing! But more importantly, if it isn't on the list, it's because nobody asked me to add it yet
I guess those decks would count as 'other' (or maybe weird/janky)?
*I've added Life Drain. In my opinion it rarely makes up the soul (or even main) wincon, but it's still a re-ocurring sight in EDH.
*Eggs sounds like a subdivision of artifacts, unless it's used for explosive mana or card draw, in which case it fits into one of the other categories?
*Corrected group 'slag' - must of had someone on my mind...
*I don't think there's a good short term for 'cheating the mana costs' yet, but Play for Free doesn't apply to all of the examples, is it worth breaking up the category? Could have one 'Play for Free' and another like 'Play for Less...' it's still messy
*I've seen 'political' come up a few times across posts, and I don't know... it feels more like a playstyle connected to the person than the deck (I guess it comes down to definitions?). Personally I can't think of a cards I'd call 'political' that couldn't also be called 'Control' or 'Group Hug'/'Slug'. But what do you think?
I almost want to split these into mainstream and 'fringe', but the grey area would be so large we'd be arguing for weeks
I think I'll break off the 'Tribal' sub-categories as this has already come up once. On reflection I'm not sure what I thought it would achieve by grouping them together. Tribal means creatures, right? Other stuff is other stuff... so consider it done ^^
Battlecruiser - Play big threats every turn. This is a step up from Good-Stuff / Mid-Range in spell sizes, defines the casual format for Timmies.
Never really been convinced by the term battlecruiser... In my experience its just a word used to describe decks with terrible curves But I agree it's a term well known amongst Timmies, so who am I to ignore it? Added.
I don't like the term "Up-Tempo Decks"
Me neither! Can we come up with a good term for these decks that cheat the mana costs? How about Sneak Attack (or Show and Tell)? I know those cards aren't necesarily played with the above commanders, but they encapsulate the idea of the decks, and are infamous enough that most people will get the rough idea...
*
Added Cylcing, and Cascade.
Added XY Stompy (typically RG but i don't see color yo )
Overrun usually is Swarm (i forgot the term)
Tweaked 'Counters'
P.s. Thanks for all the awesome feedback, this is much much better than actual work
Well, I didn’t have much luck with MtG Hobgoblins, if they are mentioned in the books I couldn’t find anyone who’d read them. But i looked into the real world folklore and pieced together a (rudimentary) understanding:
Hobgoblins are kinda lame tbh :’D they appear in old stories and poems as domestic helpers, who help/do chores in exchange for stuff like bowls of cream (lol). Occasionally mischievous, they are mostly harmless. If they turn bad they become Boggarts. A few examples came up, with cutesy old English Names (Robin Roundcap, Blue Burches, Lubbar Fend).
I took these concepts combined with the Lorwyn storyline and what I could see from the cards, and concocted a basic story in my head where Oona has expanded into Hobgoblin territory enough to cause an uprising, and who else to lead this than the infamous Lubbar Fend :’D
The card itself I can’t decide on. I wanted it to be Tokens commander for Boros in an EDH Cube, so took the ETB from Rise of the Hobgoblins added a combat buff and gave it 3 cmc. Any suggestions are very welcome though as the card has not tested well!
Yes I did search the wikis haha - figured they’re mostly farmers but not a lot beyond that.
Has anyone read the books around Lorwyn / Shadowmoore, or know anything about the Hobgoblins in the plane? I’m making a custom card and would like it to be a good fit flavor wise. The new card is functionally similar to Rise of the Hobgoblins so I’d love if anyone knows a name, ie, who was the leader of the hobgoblins? But I can work with anything...
Tell me everything you know ^^
Thnx
But other than that you're right, I just want it for Boros
I'm sensing some undue hostility, who hurt you bro?
I never said she'd fix all of Boros's problems, just that she'd help to shake things up. By your own examples we currently have only two non-aggro choices, Fire Song and Sunspeaker, and Depala, Pilot Exemplar. Compare that with any other color combo short of Rakdos and we're outnumbered 10 to 1 (figure of speach - dont judge me)
Anyway, I know an argument's gone too far when I have to re-read my original post. All i'm saying is it's worth giving walkers a try, where's the harm in that.
This is sort of exactly my point, Nahiri isn't brilliant, no-one is going to say wow that's OP it should be banned, which is why in her case at least, having a planeswalker commander would be totally fine, how could anyone complain?
The reason I personally think she'd be good for Boros, is just because she's completely different to what's out there. The 'problem' with Boros commanders at the moment is that they're all saying the same thing: Attack Attack Attack.
But Nahiri doesn't care about attacking, she opens up a door to a different kind of build. Her + for instance could go well with soem of the white reanimation, or the red artifact recursion, no other boros commander can do this. The - ability is versatile (but conditional) removal on a boros commander, again not OP, but again unheard of in Boros. And the ult... there's probably something really silly you could do with it, all I can think of is Blightsteel Colossus, but whatever you get, it's actually card advantage which again, is unheard of in Boros.
Edit: She'd also let you build a deck that isn't creature dependant (which far as I know isn't a thing in Boros?) Meaning you could run more board wipes more often, and claw back the value that way.
@schweinefett is that what it's supposed to be? I always just sort of imagined we were playing as the commander (Like the old pc game Total Annihilation lol)
I hope your playtesting goes well, I can't imagine you'd even notice a difference in the long term
Obviously it's a tad much, but the point was certain color combinations (mainly the worst color combination in EDH, Boros) could really benefit from having walkers as commanders. So one or two might be a bit busted, looking at you Tezzeret... but if it's busted, ban the card, not the entire Card Type!
And I know... the RC don't want to have two seperate ban lists for Commanders and the 99, but are we really so unintelligent that we can't work out which is which? I think we deserve a little more credit than that.
With War of the Spark, Wizards has gone to a lot of effort to make sure Walkers are accessible and thought-through, so isn't it time we give Planeswalker Commanders a chance?
Should say lose half rounded down, that way I can flicker it infinitely and not let anyone leave
Ok good point, still with some minor tweaks it would be fine, add non-land, or only 'the next time...' it should probably also cost an addition generic mana or something... I just like that it would be a Jeskai commander that isn't combo and/or sucks
This made me chuckle. My apologies, it's just I've never seen one in action, and on the face of it 'suicide' doens't sound like an aggressive thing, but i get your point, and i retract my statement
Sneak and Tell works for me, will tweak the name.
You're right Stompy is a Legacy term meaning something else. I will ammend that to 'RG Monsters' (or xy as it may be)
Stax and Prison are basically cousins, right? Added it to the list ^^
I would love this, but the rage on the table every time you steal that guy's commander...
Got an issue with any particular themes?
I know what you're saying, it's hard because it's subjective so you're not wrong. I've been working roughly on the basis that if you can build it in at least two or three different ways, then it's broad enough to count as a 'theme', and I'm not against listening to people's arguments coz who am I to call anyone wrong ^^
The aim is to list only the most popular and recurring mechanics. Obviously we could go too far and say things like: well 'Dredge' is a theme, 'Myriad' is a theme, but to that person I'd say 9 out of 10 times it fits into another category better, and the community at large doesn't use it as a term, and there aren't many cards that actually do that thing! But more importantly, if it isn't on the list, it's because nobody asked me to add it yet
I guess those decks would count as 'other' (or maybe weird/janky)?
*I've added Life Drain. In my opinion it rarely makes up the soul (or even main) wincon, but it's still a re-ocurring sight in EDH.
*Eggs sounds like a subdivision of artifacts, unless it's used for explosive mana or card draw, in which case it fits into one of the other categories?
*Corrected group 'slag' - must of had someone on my mind...
*I don't think there's a good short term for 'cheating the mana costs' yet, but Play for Free doesn't apply to all of the examples, is it worth breaking up the category? Could have one 'Play for Free' and another like 'Play for Less...' it's still messy
*I've seen 'political' come up a few times across posts, and I don't know... it feels more like a playstyle connected to the person than the deck (I guess it comes down to definitions?). Personally I can't think of a cards I'd call 'political' that couldn't also be called 'Control' or 'Group Hug'/'Slug'. But what do you think?
I think I'll break off the 'Tribal' sub-categories as this has already come up once. On reflection I'm not sure what I thought it would achieve by grouping them together. Tribal means creatures, right? Other stuff is other stuff... so consider it done ^^
Never really been convinced by the term battlecruiser... In my experience its just a word used to describe decks with terrible curves
Me neither! Can we come up with a good term for these decks that cheat the mana costs? How about Sneak Attack (or Show and Tell)? I know those cards aren't necesarily played with the above commanders, but they encapsulate the idea of the decks, and are infamous enough that most people will get the rough idea...
*
Added Cylcing, and Cascade.
Added XY Stompy (typically RG but i don't see color yo
Overrun usually is Swarm (i forgot the term)
Tweaked 'Counters'
P.s. Thanks for all the awesome feedback, this is much much better than actual work