Thanks for the feedback. I'll probably scrap rapid petrification since it is a color pie break. I'm down with switching traverse to red. Maybe....
Traverse the Rooftops1R
Sorcery (C)
Up to two creatures you control can’t be blocked except by creatures with flying.
Create a Treasure token.
Recognize that this isn't exactly the same thing but this accomplishes some design and flavor goals simultaneously. Keeps this from just being a strictly better Seismic Stomp at common. Also makes sense, from a flavor perspective since two characters cross the rooftops in the opening sequence.
Glad you liked Wintry Rest and Frog Catching!
Wondering if Broken Strings might be okay. Don't really want to swap "and" for "or" here. Barrier Breach is pretty comparable at the same cost Hull Breach also provides most of this card's effect at sorcery speed for 2 mana. Bonds of Mortality backs up having the loss of hexproof/indestructible ability in green. The effect is also deeply tied to the story here. (Cleyra gets wiped off the map when the protective sandstorm fails).
Recently began building a peasant cube -- one large downside of not proxying and not having a consistent playgroup of people you know is fear of theft. Decided a peasant cube would be the way to accomplish multiple goals 1) Cube without fear 2) Acts as a stepping stone to establish trust and a playgroup for the main cube 3) Allows me to play with a brand new pool of cards/archetypes which has its own benefits ranging from keeping cube play fresh to identifying common/uncommon cards that play significantly better than I'd given them credit for.
I've started by pulling peasant legal cards from my main cube, naturally those tend to appear in power focused peasant lists as well. Then I looked at the cards I owned and pulled out those I found to be high performers. Then I began to look at some lists for inspiration - so far MatEffect and JankDiver, but there will be others I reference as well -- I was surprised at how many pauper/peasant format cards and even archetypes I was able to self-identify even before looking at lists.
Sidenote: If others don't know this JankDiver appears to have a historic peasant cube client with the functionality to draft, export draft lists into arena, and then they use direct challenge to play cube games. Have found this system to be very innovative. Probably requires the cube players to have all of the commons/uncommon which are in the cube but at least obtaining those wild cards isn't so painful from what I remember of Arena.
The following are a handful of cards I designed from specific events/sidequests introduced in Disc 1 and 2 of FFIX.
Rapid Petrification1GG
Enchantment - Aura (U)
Flash
Enchant creature
Enchanted creature is a colorless forest land.
Went with what is mostly a downgrade to Song of the Dryads, but flash gives this some intriguing new applications while being flavorful.
Wintry Rest1UU
Sorcery (U)
Target player taps all creatures they control, except one. Those creatures don’t untap during that player’s next untap step.
Similar execution here - went with what is mostly a downgrade to Sleep again adding some new applications by switching up the cost and capturing the flavor of the Black Waltz 1's spell.
Traverse the Rooftops1G
Sorcery (C)
Target creature you control can’t be blocked except by creatures with flying or reach until end of turn.
Create a Treasure token.
A one-shot spire tracer ability with a ramp component. This is meant to evoke Vivi crossing the rooftops opening treasures along the way at the very beginning of the game.
Frog CatchingG
Enchantment (U) X: Put X frog counters on Frog Catching.
At the beginning of your upkeep if Frog Catching has at least 2 frog counters, gain 1 life. If it has at least 5 frog counters, create a 1/1 green Frog creature. If it has at least 9 frog counters, put a +1/+1 counter on each frog you control.
Meant to evoke the Frog Catching mini-game. The effects stack and the last two synergize. Gives green a fun limited mana sink.
Broken Strings2G
Instant (U)
Destroy up to one target artifact and up to one target enchantment.
Creatures your opponents control lose hexproof and indestructible until end of turn.
This depicts the harp strings breaking in Cleyra which in turn destroyed the sandstorm protecting the inhabitants of Cleyra.
What?! Are you seriously suggesting this is the first evidence we have of greed by WOTC? I don't even know where to begin.....
1. Elimination of MSRP
2. Secret Lairs (Related: Claims that they don't recognize the secondary market, but pricing of this product says they very much do)
3. Profit doubling in 1 year
Those are just off the top of my head.
Also, to the extreme few contrarians who are trying to spin this product as a win because it's "a step towards eliminating the reserved list". No it's not. It's a very delicate threading of the needle purposefully designed to allow WOTC to cash in on reserved list demand while also creating enough caveats to make it legally defensible in the event someone would attempt to sue under the doctrine of promissory estoppel. There is nothing to suggest this is a step towards anything but making money.
There's a lot of good here followed by arguably the worst mistake in Magic history.
- Lots of great 30th anniversary promotional card picks here. Surprised Wizards was willing to include so many value cards among these.
- Decent pro-tour promo choices. A little underwhelming on the value side unless you get the Snapcaster though.
- Mishra looks solid - love that it has parallel play patterns to Urza (T3, T4, Meld).
- Dominaria Remastered looks great. Excited to pick up some full arts of some classics.
- May very well buy the SL - As many posters have already stated, much of the value is already there in what has been shown. Unless the remaining 23 cards are just absolute garbage, this seems like a good pickup.
- And finally....what?! What is this hot garbage final announcement? In my opinion, this is the pinnacle of WOTC greed and hypocrisy. I guess WOTC couldn't do a 30th anniversary without a representation of its own recurring role - giving the middle finger to its players. I sincerely hope the backlash to this product is severe enough to trigger a course correction.
Created one I think I'd give a go in my own cube. Renown came around before PW's started having static abilities. I think this is a really fun static for a Selesnya walker - makes letting any small attacker get by into a big problem.
Name 1WG
Planeswalker (M)
Creatures you control have Renown 1.
+1: Put a +1/+1 counter on up to one target creature with a +1/+1 counter on it. Gain life equal to the number of +1/+1 counters on that creature.
-2: Create a 2/2 White and Green knight token with first strike and lifelink
-5: Draw cards equal to the power of target renowned creature you control.
(3)
I think a lot of this design is borrowing too heavily from Minsc and Boo and not establishing its own unique identity that falls inline with Selesnya decks. I see some Selesnya ideas here, tokens, buffing small creatures, toughness matters, but right now the first two abilities feel like Selesnya Minsc and Boo and the final ability feels very disjointed with the rest of the card.
Also, I know a lot of Selesnya PW wishlists would favor a 3CC walker so they can play it turn 2 off of an elf. If this is to be cube focused, I think that is the cost sweet spot.
This set just came to plug commonly complained about cube holes.
Is your Gruul section a mediocre smattering of 4CC options - try Mawloc!
Looking for a Rakdos game closer - try Chaos Defiler!
Do you struggle with finding adequate green 6CC creatures outside of Primeval Titan? Enter Old One Eye.
Are Shriekmaw and Doom Whisperer not bringing joy? How about Royal Warden? No? Necron Deathmark? Primaris Eliminator?
Thanks for the wording feedback. While I definitely design with a cube power level in mind since that is my primary format, I don't think this is too powerful. This is very narrow removal unless kicked and even then it is sorcery speed reprisal and a 2/1 for 1WW. This has the benefits of also being a great aggro role player with an overcosted sorcery speed combat trick. The flexibility is what makes this fantastic.
Specifying that expectation up front will be helpful next time. A card can come to cubes by being in commander products, horizon sets or something like commander legends/conspiracy without ever being in Standard, and most people use standard as their baseline for power level evaluation unless told otherwise.
That said, this would be very strong. Giant killer wasnt a 2/1, nor could it pump one of your creatures, and this gets you the creature and removal together for 2 less mana on larger targets. It definitely wouldn't be in standard and might be a rare in horizons. It would be fine in a higher power level cube.
I can design with cube in mind and also believe that this card would not be standard warping. These aren't mutually exclusive ideas. The pump and the removal are both either inefficient or narrow which I believe does sufficiently balance the card to being printable in a standard environment. We can both tell each other we're wrong, but the answer either way lies in extensive playtesting which neither of us have done. Giant Killer wasn't anywhere near the line of too strong, and a p/t switch and swapping out being able to act as a tapper for an inefficient pump spell doesn't change that from my point of view.
"While sometimes it is hard to pin down their theme, planeswalkers are never just three good abilities in the appropriate colors. Which is what this card is."
First, more planeswalkers then I have the time to list have three abilities which don't have a thematic tie. Also, you have already stated you don't know the character, so it stands to reason that you may not appreciate the theming that is present based upon that. I think you read that I based the abilities on Zidane's FFIX commands and assumed I stapled them together without thought as to how they interrelate or reflect the overall character. Notice that two of the abilities are tied to Zidane's loyalty value, that is partially a theming choice - since loyalty is a defining trait of the character.
Again, I think your power level evaluations here are inflated. Being the flagship mythic of this custom set, it is absolutely and intentionally pushed, but this isn't a vintage exclusive power level. Sometimes I wish I could view and post real standard MTG designs just before they are actually printed in this forum as a "custom card" so I could read people tell me why those card could never see print and then watch in amusement.
Traverse the Rooftops 1R
Sorcery (C)
Up to two creatures you control can’t be blocked except by creatures with flying.
Create a Treasure token.
Recognize that this isn't exactly the same thing but this accomplishes some design and flavor goals simultaneously. Keeps this from just being a strictly better Seismic Stomp at common. Also makes sense, from a flavor perspective since two characters cross the rooftops in the opening sequence.
Glad you liked Wintry Rest and Frog Catching!
Wondering if Broken Strings might be okay. Don't really want to swap "and" for "or" here. Barrier Breach is pretty comparable at the same cost Hull Breach also provides most of this card's effect at sorcery speed for 2 mana. Bonds of Mortality backs up having the loss of hexproof/indestructible ability in green. The effect is also deeply tied to the story here. (Cleyra gets wiped off the map when the protective sandstorm fails).
I've started by pulling peasant legal cards from my main cube, naturally those tend to appear in power focused peasant lists as well. Then I looked at the cards I owned and pulled out those I found to be high performers. Then I began to look at some lists for inspiration - so far MatEffect and JankDiver, but there will be others I reference as well -- I was surprised at how many pauper/peasant format cards and even archetypes I was able to self-identify even before looking at lists.
Sidenote: If others don't know this JankDiver appears to have a historic peasant cube client with the functionality to draft, export draft lists into arena, and then they use direct challenge to play cube games. Have found this system to be very innovative. Probably requires the cube players to have all of the commons/uncommon which are in the cube but at least obtaining those wild cards isn't so painful from what I remember of Arena.
Rapid Petrification 1GG
Enchantment - Aura (U)
Flash
Enchant creature
Enchanted creature is a colorless forest land.
Went with what is mostly a downgrade to Song of the Dryads, but flash gives this some intriguing new applications while being flavorful.
Wintry Rest 1UU
Sorcery (U)
Target player taps all creatures they control, except one. Those creatures don’t untap during that player’s next untap step.
Similar execution here - went with what is mostly a downgrade to Sleep again adding some new applications by switching up the cost and capturing the flavor of the Black Waltz 1's spell.
Traverse the Rooftops 1G
Sorcery (C)
Target creature you control can’t be blocked except by creatures with flying or reach until end of turn.
Create a Treasure token.
A one-shot spire tracer ability with a ramp component. This is meant to evoke Vivi crossing the rooftops opening treasures along the way at the very beginning of the game.
Frog Catching G
Enchantment (U)
X: Put X frog counters on Frog Catching.
At the beginning of your upkeep if Frog Catching has at least 2 frog counters, gain 1 life. If it has at least 5 frog counters, create a 1/1 green Frog creature. If it has at least 9 frog counters, put a +1/+1 counter on each frog you control.
Meant to evoke the Frog Catching mini-game. The effects stack and the last two synergize. Gives green a fun limited mana sink.
Broken Strings 2G
Instant (U)
Destroy up to one target artifact and up to one target enchantment.
Creatures your opponents control lose hexproof and indestructible until end of turn.
This depicts the harp strings breaking in Cleyra which in turn destroyed the sandstorm protecting the inhabitants of Cleyra.
What?! Are you seriously suggesting this is the first evidence we have of greed by WOTC? I don't even know where to begin.....
1. Elimination of MSRP
2. Secret Lairs (Related: Claims that they don't recognize the secondary market, but pricing of this product says they very much do)
3. Profit doubling in 1 year
Those are just off the top of my head.
Also, to the extreme few contrarians who are trying to spin this product as a win because it's "a step towards eliminating the reserved list". No it's not. It's a very delicate threading of the needle purposefully designed to allow WOTC to cash in on reserved list demand while also creating enough caveats to make it legally defensible in the event someone would attempt to sue under the doctrine of promissory estoppel. There is nothing to suggest this is a step towards anything but making money.
- Lots of great 30th anniversary promotional card picks here. Surprised Wizards was willing to include so many value cards among these.
- Decent pro-tour promo choices. A little underwhelming on the value side unless you get the Snapcaster though.
- Mishra looks solid - love that it has parallel play patterns to Urza (T3, T4, Meld).
- Dominaria Remastered looks great. Excited to pick up some full arts of some classics.
- May very well buy the SL - As many posters have already stated, much of the value is already there in what has been shown. Unless the remaining 23 cards are just absolute garbage, this seems like a good pickup.
- And finally....what?! What is this hot garbage final announcement? In my opinion, this is the pinnacle of WOTC greed and hypocrisy. I guess WOTC couldn't do a 30th anniversary without a representation of its own recurring role - giving the middle finger to its players. I sincerely hope the backlash to this product is severe enough to trigger a course correction.
Name 1WG
Planeswalker (M)
Creatures you control have Renown 1.
+1: Put a +1/+1 counter on up to one target creature with a +1/+1 counter on it. Gain life equal to the number of +1/+1 counters on that creature.
-2: Create a 2/2 White and Green knight token with first strike and lifelink
-5: Draw cards equal to the power of target renowned creature you control.
(3)
Also, I know a lot of Selesnya PW wishlists would favor a 3CC walker so they can play it turn 2 off of an elf. If this is to be cube focused, I think that is the cost sweet spot.
Is your Gruul section a mediocre smattering of 4CC options - try Mawloc!
Looking for a Rakdos game closer - try Chaos Defiler!
Do you struggle with finding adequate green 6CC creatures outside of Primeval Titan? Enter Old One Eye.
Are Shriekmaw and Doom Whisperer not bringing joy? How about Royal Warden? No? Necron Deathmark? Primaris Eliminator?
I can design with cube in mind and also believe that this card would not be standard warping. These aren't mutually exclusive ideas. The pump and the removal are both either inefficient or narrow which I believe does sufficiently balance the card to being printable in a standard environment. We can both tell each other we're wrong, but the answer either way lies in extensive playtesting which neither of us have done. Giant Killer wasn't anywhere near the line of too strong, and a p/t switch and swapping out being able to act as a tapper for an inefficient pump spell doesn't change that from my point of view.
Whoops, thanks! That was a typo from posting this late at night
First, more planeswalkers then I have the time to list have three abilities which don't have a thematic tie. Also, you have already stated you don't know the character, so it stands to reason that you may not appreciate the theming that is present based upon that. I think you read that I based the abilities on Zidane's FFIX commands and assumed I stapled them together without thought as to how they interrelate or reflect the overall character. Notice that two of the abilities are tied to Zidane's loyalty value, that is partially a theming choice - since loyalty is a defining trait of the character.
Again, I think your power level evaluations here are inflated. Being the flagship mythic of this custom set, it is absolutely and intentionally pushed, but this isn't a vintage exclusive power level. Sometimes I wish I could view and post real standard MTG designs just before they are actually printed in this forum as a "custom card" so I could read people tell me why those card could never see print and then watch in amusement.