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  • posted a message on The Commander's Tools Game
    Midsummer's Envoy XRR
    Creature - Faerie
    Flying
    When Midsummer's Envoy enters the battlefield, you may untap X target creatures. For each creature you do not control untapped this way, put a +1/+1 counter on Midsummer's Envoy.
    2/1

    ---

    Next: Ayula, Queen among Bears
    Posted in: Custom Card Contests and Games
  • posted a message on Salvation's SCCT/OCaaT - Single Card Ideas By YOU!
    Hand Mine has a bit of a problem in that it's too bad to cast it. Such a card needs to be more like Gaea's Blessing, where it's well worth casting while harshly punishing a mechanic if it would fall victim to it. Perhaps make it a conditional cantrip, where it has some way of being cast for one and drawing a card, so that it's sometimes a better Shock. Or just up the damage to 4 so it's a useful burn spell, albeit overcosted.

    On the other side of the mill spectrum, have a bit of an odd mill idea:

    Fleeting Insight 1UUB
    Instant
    Target player draws three cards, then discards four cards.

    ---

    The balance on this is entirely spitballed, but the idea is that it mitigates all the "unfun" aspects of mill by framing it as disadvantageous hand replacement. It doesn't just cut you out of the game, it accelerates the clock to decking out and leaves you at card disadvantage without removing your ability to play outright. Control and combo decks that need high deck redundancy to function are screwed over by this, because they can't afford to discard four cards all that often (unless they get "lucky" with excess lands or something that would otherwise be dead weight, or have drawn in considerable excess), but against a more straightforward deck, it gives a chance to get something much better, without the opponent knowing. Especially if you're packing discard synergy like Madness costs.

    So, good idea to make mill less painful to play against? Or is mill just inherently too bad for playing the game? This particular style of mill also helps combo decks by cashing in hand redundancy for deck fishing, which I think helps with the playability of the cards in general by making them usable when the counter-cards show up, but in a different context.
    Posted in: Custom Card Contests and Games
  • posted a message on Enemy Color Set
    To get Green/Black away from graveyard recursion, how about having Green focus on mana-ramp in both factions, but use it to feed Suicide Black mechanics on Green/Black? Using mana dorks as the method of ramp in Green/Black and bonus land mechanics in Blue/Green? Red already focuses on Artifacts in both Red/Blue and White/Red, maybe have Red/Blue focus more particularly on combos so Blue stays focused on card draw? Then White's already focused on wide boards in both White/Red, using a field of Artifacts, and Black/White, using them as a disposable sacrifice outlet.

    To break down the above paragraph, I'm thinking each mono-color has a general mechanic it focuses on, used in synergy with its enemies to define the factions:

    White: Weenies. Small, cheap creatures that synergise together defensively, only being game-ending with large masses of them.
    Blue: Draw/Tutor. Getting through the deck quickly to get... Whatever it is you're looking for. Normally control cards, historically.
    Black: Suicide. Burning up every resource you have to burn out every resource the enemy has. Life costs, sacrifices, discards, symmetric hate(?).
    Red: Artifacts. More specifically artifact aggro, with various counter-dependent Artifacts and the standard high-P, low-T creatures.
    Green: Mana-ramp. Get a lot of mana, play expensive things, beat the enemy's face in with those expensive things. Very touchy to design for.

    Other color-typcial mechanics would be present, but usually below the par with riders focused on the theme. For instance, Blue's evasive and delaying creatures would have some variety of cantripping, perhaps having a colorshifted Squadron Hawk for one of the commons, while Black's graveyard interaction would mostly emphasize the graveyard-spending of exile-for-Zombies rather than proper reanimation.
    Posted in: Custom Set Creation and Discussion
  • posted a message on The Mechanic Game
    Foreign Plague 3BB
    Sorcery
    Emerge 2UB
    All creatures get -1/-1 for each color used to cast Foreign Plague they do not share. When Foreign Plague is cast for its Emerge cost, each creature gets -1/-1 for each creature type the sacrificed creature has that they do not share.

    ---

    Instant board wipe when sacrificing a Changeling. Emerge, as a cost reduction, does NOT count the colors of the sacrificed creature for its base effect.

    Chainbreaking X {cost} (This creature comes into play with X -1/-1 counters on it. You may pay {cost} to remove a -1/–1 counter from it)

    Intercept {cost} (You may cast this creature for it's Intercept cost during an opponent's combat step, before blockers are declared. If you do, put it into play blocking target creature and return it to its owner's hand at the end of the combat step)

    Swoop X (When this creature blocks a creature without Flying, it gains +x/+x until end of turn)

    Arcana (When this Aura comes into play, you may have it come into play enchanting a 0/0 Spirit creature token)

    Bloodlust X (Whenever this creature destroys a creature by combat, put X +1/+1 counters on it)

    Upgrade {cost} (If this Artifact is cast for it's Upgrade cost, it comes into play as an Equipment attached to target Artifact Creature. If the equipped creature leaves play, this Artifact goes to the same zone.)

    Empower X/Y {cost} (Pay {cost}: {cardname} gets X/Y until end of turn)

    Lifesteal X (whenever this creature/spell deals damage, you gain X life)

    Champion a [type] (When this enters the battlefield, sacrifice it unless you exile another [type] you control. When this leaves the battlefield, that card returns to the battlefield.)
    Posted in: Custom Card Contests and Games
  • posted a message on Salvation's SCCT/OCaaT - Single Card Ideas By YOU!
    It's good that it's Legendary (though it lacks sufficient specificity of nature to quite fit the label, the same holds true of Aetherworks Marvel), otherwise it'd be spammed in any token deck with a reliable Enchantment killer to get attacks going. Convoke or Conspire to get everything tapped, this for mana, then Fireball deals as much damage as you have creatures.

    I think this works much better by requiring all your creatures be untapped, then tapping all of them to get mana equal to the number tapped. This disables access to actual tap effects the same turn... But conversely gives you access to untap effects. As-is, it's too good for some decks that'd get stupidly out of hand, like Slivers.

    My own card is, somewhat rarely for me, a non-crosspost:

    Mind Echo 1(U/B)(U/B)
    Instant
    Exile target card in a graveyard. Until end of turn, you may play it for its normal cost.
    Flashback UB

    ---

    The thought is to be something akin to Scavenging Ooze, where it's effective at countering Graveyard play, while still having use outside of it and not outright hosing graveyard play entirely (as it can be countered pretty reliably by some staples). While not as recurring as Scavenging Ooze is, the ability to recast your own spells makes me think it's worth it in non-graveyard decks. Of course, then mana screw counters can result in you Exiling an important spell, so it has answers to a particularly degenerate use. Also, this can actually be used to steal/recover lands from graveyards. A good consistency boost, as it means you can steal an enemy fetch land to mana-fix for yourself.

    Very versatile, both helping and hindering the same archetype, while having a role outside of it in decks with no interest in graveyard plays beyond just extra uses of what they already have. As it can be played once in decks that aren't blue/black, it can work in red/blue control decks or nonblue reanimator decks as, primarily, an extra few copies of whatever you need (similarly to a certain pro's use of Tidehollow Sculler, where it was used mostly as extra Thoughtseizes, in the form of a sub-par substitution. This does that for Reanimator. Or it can let you just reuse one of the better reanimate cards if you have them in the graveyard... Like Reanimate. And you can use it to recover buybacks that got in the graveyard, too... Lots of recursion bits to open up). Or you can be a jerk and use it on a Wasteland for decent, fast, land hate, because it doesn't have a nonland clause.

    This is probably overpowered, on its own, and overly synergistic with too many deck types. But answers do exist, and the worst abuses are still subject to the obtrusive graveyard hosing it's intended to be a substitute for.
    Posted in: Custom Card Contests and Games
  • posted a message on Salvation's SCCT/OCaaT - Single Card Ideas By YOU!
    First off, Burn Out needs to specify Sorceries and Instants, as creatures and enchantments are spells. To reword the current text: "Each Instant and Sorcery you cast this turn gains Storm and "As an additional cost to cast this spell, pay 1 life". This particular version of rewording would also let it be put in black/red quite nicely, which helps keep it away from Lightning Helix, which'd more than negate the cost and deal assloads of damage. It's way too easy to turn into a win condition in burn decks.

    Roving Soothsayer... Lacks anything to do with the scrying, like it could if it were a variant of Delver of Secrets, so I'll instead critique the idea of Scry Strike. Up front, it's a rather niche keyword, as it's a variant of another with extra constraints, rather than differing mechanics. Having it be present on mono-Blue cards is a bit of a problem, as it slots into multicolor equipment and aura boosts far too easily, allowing for numerous instances of Scrying by way of equipment-pings. Unless you have very granular draw power, it ends up being nothing but a single overlapping scrap of deck info, because you have to scry in a highly-granular manner.

    It really only works if the number is two or more, as you can then keep a card without shutting down further Scrying. This lets you actually get through your deck with it, which... Can be a problem, if you're running Rite of Replication. The key thing is that you're essentially giving a ticket to stack the top N cards of your deck, where N is the Scry Strike number, because Blue also has most of the cloning.

    My own card is, yet again, a crosspost, this time from The Mechanic Game:

    Prizewinning Experiment GU
    Creature - Drake Mutant
    Evolve, Scale 4 (whenever this creature would deal more than 4 damage, reduce the damage dealt to 4)
    As long as Prizewinning Experiment has a +1/+1 counter on it, it has Flight and Shroud
    3/2
    While it handily won the long-standing prize for a griffin-superior krasis, many members of the Simic Combine feel it to be a crude intermediary step due to complex maturation needs and stark limitations with its design

    -

    To be more concise (or at least straightforwards) with the idea than I was in the mechanic thread, this is the "answer" to Assault Griffin's flavor text, being utterly superior in raw combat once it Evolves once... Then Shroud guts your ability to buff it further, while Scale (the mechanic from the "game") makes it so it will never deal more than 4 damage at a time. Thus, it is better than a Griffin with fairly easy steps, but can't become massively better thanks to Shroud targeting prevention and a flat cap on per-hit damage (may or may not allow Trample overflow, definitely allows Double Strike workaround. Must bypass Shroud to get them on it)
    Posted in: Custom Card Contests and Games
  • posted a message on Build A Card *Salvation Version*
    Treasure Chest 4
    Artifact
    Treasure Chest comes into play with four Gold counters on it
    Posted in: Custom Card Contests and Games
  • posted a message on Build A Card *Salvation Version*
    Treasure Chest 4 mana
    Posted in: Custom Card Contests and Games
  • posted a message on The Mechanic Game
    I'll reword the keywords for clarity of what I think they do, and to add a touch more user-friendliness and design space:

    Overdraw X mana (You may have this spell cost X mana less to cast and add X overdraw counters to it. At the beginning of each of your upkeeps, remove an overdraw counter and pay 1 mana or lose the game)
    -the adjustment makes it so that if you have Platinum Angel, you can't just ignore it, as the counters stay put. The counters themselves also make tracking it easier, while making it subject to penalizing via Proliferate and boosting via counter-removal. However, it also means that the card has to stay "in play" in some way (Suspend might work), so it excludes previously-usable Instants and Sorceries. Also, by having it be counters, you can actually have the Overdraw give diminishing penalties/benefits for using it. This does mean your opponent may enter a catch 22 where they need to destroy/counter a permanent, but if they don't, you lose to Overdraw, and you can get out of the penalty by destroying the permanent yourself.
    Fury <cost> (Whenever this creature dies, you may pay <cost>. If you do, this creature deals X damage {X is base power} to target creature or player
    -the adjustment is because specifying damage to Planeswalkers is really, really rare (I actually think it doesn't exist yet...) and quite narrow in use. Damage to players always can be shifted to Planeswalkers and damage to Planeswalkers is, generally, more useful than to players early on. As it's already base power, there's little issue to be had because you can't boost the damage.
    Scale X (whenever this would deal more than X damage, reduce the damage dealt to X)
    -the adjustment should be purely rewording to fit the way Magic works better and clarifying what it actually does.

    So, have a card for each:

    Consulate Riot Carriage 5 mana
    Artifact - Vehicle
    Overdraw 3 mana (You may have this spell cost 3 mana less to cast and add 3 overdraw counters to it. At the beginning of each of your upkeeps, remove an overdraw counter and pay 1 mana or lose the game)
    Consulate Riot Carriage and creatures currently tapped to crew it have Shroud.
    Crew 3 (Tap any number of creatures you control with total power 3 or more: This Vehicle becomes an artifact creature until end of turn.)
    3/5

    -

    The point of this is to be able to "cheat out" a reusable Shroud provider for anti-removal purposes early on, or wait a lengthy time to do so. As the creature has to Crew to get Shroud, it interferes with tap abilities and combat tricks. The primary purpose is, ultimately, to have a reusable, ultra-efficient targetting denial. Of course, then they can break out the untargetted damage to nuke the Carriage itself. Being Shroud, you can't target the creatures yourself, and the line for giving Shroud to crewing creatures removes it when they untap for any reason.

    ---

    Vindictive Goblin 1R
    Creature - Goblin
    Fury red mana (Whenever this creature dies, you may pay red mana . If you do, this creature deals 2 damage to target creature or player
    2/1

    -

    I was tempted to add a second ability, like having it get Double Strike or a Power bonus when blocked by a creature that deals First Strike damage, but the idea of retaliatory damage (vindication) is what Fury's there for.

    ---

    Prizewinning Experiment GU
    Creature - Drake Mutant
    Evolve, Scale 4 (whenever this creature would deal more than 4 damage, reduce the damage dealt to 4)
    As long as Prizewinning Experiment has a +1/+1 counter on it, it has Flight and Shroud
    3/2
    While it handily won the long-standing prize for a griffin-superior krasis, many members of the Simic Combine feel it to be a crude intermediary step due to complex maturation needs and stark limitations with its design

    -

    This card is, mostly, a matter of flavor. It starts with one less toughness than Harrier Griffin, which has the highest raw stats of any griffin in the Ravnica blocks, but requires a +1/+1 counter for Flight and then gets the double-edged sword of Shroud. Which makes it have an unarguably better body than any griffin in Ravnica. Assault Griffin's flavor text reads that there's a prize for any Biomancer who makes a Krasis better at aerial combat than a griffin. So while it trivially surpasses a Griffon, it's pretty starkly limited in damage output, and because of that limit to 4 damage at a time and becoming untargettable once it gets its first +1/+1 counter, it gets a premium statline. Even before Shroud activates, you still can't get it to deal more than 4 damage at a time with Equipment or Auras.


    Chainbreaking X {cost} (This creature comes into play with X -1/-1 counters on it. You may pay {cost} to remove a -1/–1 counter from it)

    Intercept {cost} (You may cast this creature for it's Intercept cost during an opponent's combat step, before blockers are declared. If you do, put it into play blocking target creature and return it to its owner's hand at the end of the combat step)

    Swoop X (When this creature blocks a creature without Flying, it gains +x/+x until end of turn)

    Arcana (When this Aura comes into play, you may have it come into play enchanting a 0/0 Spirit creature token)

    Bloodlust X (Whenever this creature destroys a creature by combat, put X +1/+1 counters on it)

    Upgrade {cost} (If this Artifact is cast for it's Upgrade cost, it comes into play as an Equipment attached to target Artifact Creature. If the equipped creature leaves play, this Artifact goes to the same zone.)

    Empower X/Y {cost} (Pay {cost}: {cardname} gets X/Y until end of turn)

    Lifesteal X (whenever this creature/spell deals damage, you gain X life)

    Amplify X (As this creature enters the battlefield, put X +1/+1 counters on it for each card that shares a creature type with this you reveal in your hand.)
    -old, old keyword, the reminder text actually specified the types on the cards
    Posted in: Custom Card Contests and Games
  • posted a message on Power Creep: The Game
    ...In case you couldn't tell, name switching isn't needed.

    Ritual Sliver (B/G)
    Creature - Sliver
    All Sliver creatures you control have "Sacrifice this creature: Add two mana of any color to your mana pool"
    1/1
    Posted in: Custom Card Contests and Games
  • posted a message on Salvation's SCCT/OCaaT - Single Card Ideas By YOU!
    I think it's severely wrongly costed. The closest equivalent, Blood Feud, is a six mana Sorcery, but a nearly-identical and usually better effect is found on Ancient Animus, a two-mana Instant. Either way, it's cost is wildly out of place, given other cards with the ability to cause Fights. As an Un-card, it works perfectly by using a silly targeting restriction that's gameable to use for a staggeringly large number of targets, thus making it effectively all-purpose

    Have a reworked mechanic, attached to the initial card:

    Cinder Spike 1(B/R)
    Instant
    Wither
    Deal 2 damage to target creature.
    Enchanted creature gets +3/-1 and Wither

    Infuse 1BR (You may cast this spell for it's Infuse cost. If you do, it's an Enchantment - Aura in addition to its other types enchanting a permanent targeted by another of it's effects)

    ---

    With this rework, the enchantment target must be targeted by the Instant/Sorcery/whatever. This means that this card's real Enchantment effect is giving Wither and +1/-3, because of the added counters. This makes the mechanic a bit more versatile and able to have better tradeoffs or benefits, as the target can be harmed or helped by the Instant/Sorcery (or even creature!), enhancing some potential effects (this, for example, gives -3 Toughness to trigger state-based kills for three mana) and reducing others (you now end up with +1/-3 due to the counters).

    Of note is that practical to use -1/-1 counter removal was present in Shadowmore block, alongside Wither, so you aren't unable to fix some of the downside. Matter of fact, there's a card in Shadowmoor that turns -1/-1 counters into health.
    Posted in: Custom Card Contests and Games
  • posted a message on Build A Card *Salvation Version*
    Tidal Bloom (G/U)
    Posted in: Custom Card Contests and Games
  • posted a message on Build A Card *Salvation Version*
    Mechanium Ascendant CWU
    Artifact Creature - Human Cleric
    Imprint - When ~ enters the battlefield, you may exile an artifact card from your hand.
    ~ has all activated abilities of artifact cards exiled with it.
    WU, t: Exile target artifact that dealt damage to you or a permanent you control this turn.
    1/3
    Posted in: Custom Card Contests and Games
  • posted a message on Power Creep: The Game
    Okay, to revive the "game", let's start over with another card:

    Basal Sliver 1B
    Creature - Sliver
    All Slivers have "Sacrifice this creature: Add BB to your mana pool:
    2/2
    Posted in: Custom Card Contests and Games
  • posted a message on The Mechanic Game
    Yamazaki-clan Retainer 1(R/W)
    Creature - Human Samurai
    Bushido 1, Bands with other Samurai
    If Yamazaki-clan Retainer is in a Band, it gains Haste.
    1/2

    Chainbreaking X {cost} (This creature comes into play with X -1/-1 counters on it. You may pay {cost} to remove a -1/–1 counter from it)

    Intercept {cost} (You may cast this creature for it's Intercept cost during an opponent's combat step, before blockers are declared. If you do, put it into play blocking target creature and return it to its owner's hand at the end of the combat step)

    Swoop X (When this creature blocks a creature without Flying, it gains +x/+x until end of turn)

    Arcana (When this Aura comes into play, you may have it come into play enchanting a 0/0 Spirit creature token)

    Bloodlust X (Whenever this creature destroys a creature by combat, put X +1/+1 counters on it)

    Upgrade {cost} (If this Artifact is cast for it's Upgrade cost, it comes into play as an Equipment attached to target Artifact Creature. If the equipped creature leaves play, this Artifact goes to the same zone.)

    Empower X/Y {cost} (Pay {cost}: {cardname} gets X/Y until end of turn)

    Lifesteal X (whenever this creature/spell deals damage, you gain X life)

    Devour {type} X (As this enters the battlefield, you may sacrifice/counter any number of {type} you control. This creature enters the battlefield with X times that many +1/+1 counters on it.)
    -can be Sorceries or Instants, which is why there's the sacrifice/counter and You Control added

    Amplify X (As this creature enters the battlefield, put X +1/+1 counters on it for each card that shares a creature type with this you reveal in your hand.)
    -old, old keyword, the reminder text actually specified the types on the cards
    It has returned. Pick one or more things from it.
    Posted in: Custom Card Contests and Games
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