General Custom Cards: The Lab

Onderzeeboot

Ecstatic Orb
So, that art I used for Riches to Rubble inspired me to design something completely different. It's probably severely undercosted, but I don't exactly know what the right cost would be... Anyway, this is what happens when you let Beast Within and Alpha Brawl (sort of) have babies!

Swallow Whole.jpg

I'm tempted to add "If a creature dealt damage this way would die this turn, exile it instead." at the end there to better fit the flavor, but it does make the card a lot more wordy for only a small gain.
 
to elaborate my previous post: yes the numbers are off but what about the mechanical space itself of decks changing throughout the draft

is that worth even thinking about

have any of us explored anything like that?
it seems like it could have some potential to me to be interesting
but maybe it's just extra complexity that muddies card evaluation and forces ppl to spend extra time messing around with the sideboard


I like the idea of cards caring about the draft process itself as it feels like a sort of Un-set/Conspiracy design (which I'm a fan of) in an area which Wizards can't really venture into.

The specific designs you've posted are probably a bit too swingy, but something like:

Mindswapper {U}{B}{R}
Flying
When Mindswapper deals combat damage to an opponent, you and your opponent each exile the top card of your library face down. Then each card exiled this way is shuffled into the other library. (These cards become part of your respective draft pools permanently)

Booster Wish {R}
Sorcery
Open a sealed Magic Booster (or a cube booster) and choose a card from it. Put that card into your hand. (It becomes part of your draft pool permanently)
Remove Booster Wish from your draft pool.

Never Give Up
Conspiracy
Whenever you lose a game this draft, gain an advancement counter. (Advancement counters persist throughout the draft)
At the beginning of combat on your turn, target creature gets +X/+X where X is the number of advancement counters you have.
 
I really like that third one. Building in a catch-up mechanic seems like a great use of the draft/playing space.
 
Something like this might also be a good way to reintroduce ante. If you've listened to the latest episode of Limited Resources, it's a "set review" of Alpha and they talk about ante in that. The main problem is that losing an important card you own is a real feel bad moment, but when it's only a temporary part of the draft pool it's not so bad.

One problem with ante is that it makes the good decks better and the bad decks worse. There might be something you could do to reverse this so it's another catch up mechanic.
 
I have tried ante in tournament (3 matches) format and people still dislike it since it can potentially ruin their entire game plan.
 
That’s cool on paper but in reality it will be a card you always sideboard into your deck in game 2 or 3.

No? I could be wrong. I guess if the card would be on par at first and could be upgraded for a sleightly better version later.. Say original creates two tokens and the upgraded creates three?
 
ante doesnt work bc it feels bad for players in all the way that being milled feels bad* without any of the design upsides of mill. triggers all those loss aversion bells, it runs in direct counter to one of the main things that makes magic work, the sense of ownership over the deck and how it plays.
it also makes losing feel worse. we dont need to make losing feel worse, it already feels bad.

agree on my current designs being too swingy

*mill doesn't feel bad to me personally tbh, but i'm just commenting on my general experience of seeing other people be milled and their emotional response. there's seems to be this sensation of "oh my god they're taking my cards away"

You could easily make catch up mechanics on custom cards.
Come Back From Behind
im not sure if i would want this particular thing too commonly? but 1 or 2 cards could be fun
but i am sort of thinking about like, a lot of the interesting stuff in magic (and games in general) has to do with overlapping curves interfering with each other and how they create interesting emergent complexities from that
a simple example being "X is good on turn 1, bad on turn 5, but Y makes it better on turn 5 but worse on turn 1"
so another larger set of curves outside the individual games is part of why i'm interested in looking at this? especially bc it's something that's only possible in this cube environment. gives a much more specific & identifiable reason for folks to come play your cube. play to our strengths
another thing to consider here is that good experiences build toward a climactic intense finale, and so increasing the power as the cube goes on is a potentially good way to accomplish that

actually, weird thought:
what if we let people draft more between rounds somehow?
like you open a 15 card pack and put it on the table, and then all 8 people get to pick 1 card. people with less game wins go first.
too slow? too clunky?

Mindswapper {U}{B}{R}
Flying
When Mindswapper deals combat damage to an opponent, you and your opponent each exile the top card of your library face down. Then each card exiled this way is shuffled into the other library. (These cards become part of your respective draft pools permanently)
this still feels bad in that same way as ante (or my previous mindswapper design) tbh for much the reasons i said

Booster Wish {R}
Sorcery
Open a sealed Magic Booster (or a cube booster) and choose a card from it. Put that card into your hand. (It becomes part of your draft pool permanently)
Remove Booster Wish from your draft pool.
this seems fine? maybe? i've never played with booster tutor so i dont know how strong it is

Never Give Up
Conspiracy
Whenever you lose a game this draft, gain an advancement counter. (Advancement counters persist throughout the draft)
At the beginning of combat on your turn, target creature gets +X/+X where X is the number of advancement counters you have.
do triggers work outside the game
do we need separate counters
this seems interesting, however conspiracies still seem clunky and weird to me

also
never give up

so.
Ideas Beyond Time {3}{U}{U}
Instant
Draw three cards.
Extratemporal (This spell costs {1} less to cast for each round of the cube draft you’ve finished.)


this mechanic name sucks
 

Onderzeeboot

Ecstatic Orb
That’s cool on paper but in reality it will be a card you always sideboard into your deck in game 2 or 3.

No? I could be wrong. I guess if the card would be on par at first and could be upgraded for a sleightly better version later.. Say original creates two tokens and the upgraded creates three?

Yeah, that's probably better. Make it cost {2}{W}. But yeah, you want a card that has a playable baseline, and an upgrade that isn't overwhelming. My example was probably undershooting the baseline and overshooting the bonus.

Bring it Back.jpg Invigorating Overgrowth.jpg
 

Onderzeeboot

Ecstatic Orb
I was at work and had like five minutes to find decent art and mock up a card, so I just picked an old one. You can find alternate versions of cards I made with the other two arts on this forum as well :p
 
Do you guys think the comeback mechanic should be limited to a single or few mono-colors or simply be allowed in any color-combinations?
 

Onderzeeboot

Ecstatic Orb
This clearly looks like a mechanic that should be in all colors to me.

Call from Beyond.jpg Spell Slink.jpg Blazing Breath.jpg

Blazing Breath is boring, but effective, and I would so play the heck out of Spell Slink! Also, I like the white design much better with the new name and effect ;)
 
However you would only play the heck out of that Spell Sink during Game2 and Game3.

I feel like the power-gap between original spell and sleightly upgraded spell has to be smaller. A whole +1 card advantage is too much if you ask me.

I am going to test a “comeback” card in each color and will report back to you. This happens in March.

I super dig Blazing Breath!

Edit: Does plucky means brave? Is it lame to cheesily call the mechanic “Comeback”?
 

Onderzeeboot

Ecstatic Orb
Plucky means "having or showing determined courage in the face of difficulties." :)

I agree that Spell Slink has a substantial upgrade, but Syncopate is certainly playable in limited, in part thanks to the exile clause.
 
I think the templating should read "if you lost the previous game this match" or "if you have lost more games than than your opponent in this match" as opposed to just having lost any games.
 

Onderzeeboot

Ecstatic Orb
The base effect should be designed such that it is serviceable but slightly subpar, then slightly above average when plucky kicks in. I don't like your second suggestion, as this means you won't turn on plucky in the third game when you win the first game but lose the second. If you play three games, I believe plucky should be "on" in at least one of those games so you don't get the subpar spell effect in all three games. Your first suggestion might be okay, but that wording means you will get at most one game with plucky turned on, meaning slightly less games where the card feels exciting to play. I think I still like the current wording better.

Anotak's suggestion I like though. "If you lost a game this round" is definitely better.
 
Don't most tournaments (at least in the U.S.) use the game & match terminology? Maybe it doesn't translate in other cultures/languages as well?
 
FYI we use Match (Best of 3 games) and Games in Denmark.

Sometimes less is more. If the exciting part of the card kicks in only 1/3 of the games = Even more exciting. If it kicks in relatively often = Less exciting.

That is something we learned from Game of Thrones ;)
 
in the usa many people use match / game interchangeably when speaking informally, even though when used formally and specifically they mean different things in the context of a 2 out of 3 setting. often people say "match" when they mean "game"

this leads to some confusion

"round" is not used that way with regard to MTG in particular

edit: regarding the "plucky" thing: it would be very dangerous to make the two versions very swingy compared to each other, you don't want people to feel like they're being punished for winning.

edit edit:
what if it's "if you've already finished a game this match", so it's not tied to win / lose
 
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