General Custom Cards: The Lab

Onderzeeboot

Ecstatic Orb
Sorry, then it didn't happen. Looking for good art that fits specific card ideas is often super time consuming, and these aren't designs I am ever going to be able to use myself given the parameters of my cube.
 

Chris Taylor

Contributor
Are you worries about this feeding itself better than anax does? Tokens are going to count for this card's power, but wouldn't for devotion
I figure it's not wildly out of scope, but I thought I'd mention it

Love the art, also I was today years old when I noticed Anax counts the dead creature's power, not his own
 

Onderzeeboot

Ecstatic Orb
Are you worries about this feeding itself better than anax does? Tokens are going to count for this card's power, but wouldn't for devotion
I figure it's not wildly out of scope, but I thought I'd mention it
Good catch. This is something I hadn't considered. You can actually shrink Anax by shooting a red creature, whereas you can't shrink Burning Legion this way. Maybe this should count the number of nontoken creatures?

Burning Legion.full.jpg

Hmmm... This reads well, but the downside is that Anax is a lot easier to pump, and starts out as a 2/3. This looks relatively aenemic in comparison, and is much harder to pump to 4 power.



There's this uncommon which never saw play, basically. I think there's room for this effect to be pushed a bit? If anything needs to be changed, I feel it has to be the token generating ability.
 
Sooo... Anax, Hardened in the Forge is my only devotion card. And I run a cube with an emphasis on multicolor...

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Isn't the Burning Legion an expansion for World of Warcraft? I haven't really played WoW, but even still it's a little jarring to read this and think that. May I suggest Infernal Legion instead? Great art, and I like drawing Skeletons into red. You could also reflavour it as spreading flames or fire elementals, though, which might work really well if you're not quite as hot on the skeletons, pun not intended--the main elemental spits off smaller elementals that make it larger by spreading the fire, etc.
 

Chris Taylor

Contributor
Isn't the Burning Legion an expansion for World of Warcraft? I haven't really played WoW, but even still it's a little jarring to read this and think that. May I suggest Infernal Legion instead? Great art, and I like drawing Skeletons into red. You could also reflavour it as spreading flames or fire elementals, though, which might work really well if you're not quite as hot on the skeletons, pun not intended--the main elemental spits off smaller elementals that make it larger by spreading the fire, etc.
Burning Crusade is a WoW expansion name. The Burning Legion are a faction in the game, but I think dodging that level of reference will have you with VERY few options.

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There's this uncommon which never saw play, basically. I think there's room for this effect to be pushed a bit? If anything needs to be changed, I feel it has to be the token generating ability.
Good call. The token generating ability also makes this a lot cleaner as well!
Deff test it as you've printed it above, and this sounds like a good change to have on hand if it does prove too powerful
 

Onderzeeboot

Ecstatic Orb
Isn't the Burning Legion an expansion for World of Warcraft? I haven't really played WoW, but even still it's a little jarring to read this and think that. May I suggest Infernal Legion instead?
Burning Crusade is a WoW expansion name. The Burning Legion are a faction in the game, but I think dodging that level of reference will have you with VERY few options.
Blazing Legion, Burning Horde, Emberheart Legion, Cinder Host, Virulent Fire, Incendiary Host. Any of these you like?
Great art, and I like drawing Skeletons into red. You could also reflavour it as spreading flames or fire elementals, though, which might work really well if you're not quite as hot on the skeletons, pun not intended--the main elemental spits off smaller elementals that make it larger by spreading the fire, etc.
Yeah, I like working from the art. It's always hard to find artwork that perfectly matches a fully designed and defined card, so I try to remain a bit flexible when I'm looking for art. I ended up with this one because it fits the flavor of something that ends up creating a lot of the same tokens. Your Elemental concept works very well, but would require me to hunt for new art that fits that concept exactly. I think I'm going to stick with this art :)
 
Oh, it's a great name, I just wanted to be sure you were doing it consciously! There's nothing worse than coming up with something cool and realizing six months down the road that you accidentally cribbed it from someone else. But if it's an intentional non-reference, have at it.
 

Onderzeeboot

Ecstatic Orb
Oh, it's a great name, I just wanted to be sure you were doing it consciously! There's nothing worse than coming up with something cool and realizing six months down the road that you accidentally cribbed it from someone else. But if it's an intentional non-reference, have at it.
As an aside, I was aware the Burning Legion are the big bad evil guys in the Warcraft universe :) Anyway, I picked a new art and a new name regardless :D
 

Onderzeeboot

Ecstatic Orb
I've been running Hero of the Games for the longest time, just because I wanted one extra heroic card (without the heroic keyword). Compared to Hero of the Pride (which is cheaper) and Hero of the Nyxborn (which brings along a friend), it's slightly underwhelming though. It doesn't need much to be relevant, and I think ward actually makes sense here for something that you want to target yourself, but want to discourage your opponent from targeting.

Hero of Ravens Bluff.full.jpg
 
Is this weird?
The wording is, I'd expect a trigger. I also kind of don't get the flavor of it unless I try really hard to.
Lurrus of the Dream-Den has another one of those keywords I dislike. The fact that the reminder text is wrong on the card is even worse. The effect, however, is super interesting! This custom will nicely replace Priest of Fell Rites (cutting the only card with unearth in my cube). Also, look! More opportunities for including ward!
I don't really think Lurrus needed a better main-body. It's already a must-answer card, you don't need to force your opponent into a 3-for-1 to deal with it.
 

Onderzeeboot

Ecstatic Orb
I didn't really have a problem with lifelink, it just seems like ward fits the art and concept of this custom better. It's also a much more useful ability for a card that wants to stay on the battlefield. Maybe the ward ability I chose was a bit too punishing though.

Spirit of Defiance.full.jpg

Now you just pay extra mana. I could go to Ward {1} if this turns out to be still too punishing, but you can start strong, then dial back if it proves a bit too much, right? I like that the ward amount matches with what she can return from your graveyard.
 
Cinderskull Captain could have power equal to greatest power among other creatures you control to pair with amass.

Lurrus effect is so good that it could probably be run without any additional effect on the card and could cost 1WB to make it harder to cast. I dislike early lifelink on a card like that because it will totally ruin aggro.
 

Onderzeeboot

Ecstatic Orb
Cinderskull Captain could have power equal to greatest power among other creatures you control to pair with amass.

Lurrus effect is so good that it could probably be run without any additional effect on the card and could cost 1WB to make it harder to cast. I dislike early lifelink on a card like that because it will totally ruin aggro.
Yeah, I prefer the ward ability over lifelink on this particular card, though a 3/2 should not be that hard for an aggro deck to deal with.

Your Cinderskull Suggestion is quite intriguing, but I have a feeling it will make the card a lot less good, because most aggro decks don't get that high a power. Though... it's really saucy with Bonesplitter (of which I run two) :D
 
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