General Custom Cards: The Lab
- Thread starter anotak
- Start date
Totally agree. I'm probably trying to gas it up too much, I'd just prefer a MDFC that drafters get as excited about the front as much the back. I might pick Disciple of Freyalise pretty highly because I have a lot of sac synergies alongside cards like Monoist Sentry, or Stump Stomp or your Orzhov duel early because I want removal, and that helps pull me into those colors.
I think your WU duel you have falls into that same potential trap that I'm mostly just picking it as a land if I'm in those colors already, unless maybe there's some angel synergy to reward there too?
I still think that pattern is good enough for smoothing out 'non-games' of magic, and ensuring some fixing goes around later into packs, it just doesn't get me excited to draft it, you know?
I think most your other cards reward both sides pretty well though, and I like your use of official but oft unseen art to blend in well with the rest of the cube.
Thank you for catching this! That's definitely not what I want going on, but I also don't want to nerf the main appeal of the card which is popping off with your Hedge Shredder, Aftermath Analyst, or Lumra, Bellow of the Woods.
Here's a fixed version (I hope?)
I also changed up the art, if you don't mind weighing in with a preference!
I run out of room for the reminder text (which unfortunately happens with Earthbender Ascension too) but that's the point of bringing in enough cards that it isn't a one-off keyword.
Here's one other custom meant to support the archetype:
Not quite sure of the balance on this one either. It might be a little overstated and undercosted on it's ability, but it follows the formula of the actual Hedge Whisperer and Bitter Work to a T.
I could be talked out of the passive ability, and the 'Plant Boar' piece is mostly unnecessary, but I just love the flavor of making a 'Hedge Hog' and there's a universe where it actually matters with Insidious Roots and Nissa, Voice of Zendikar.
recent cards
I think I'll yoink this and retire Fiery Temper (or just run them both?)
I prefer the higher floor on this one though, so more than just the discard deck will run it.
Maybe you'll be interested in some alt art? (I can adjust the frames as desired)
You might also be interested in my Strangle variant
Cheeky way to turn on delirium (like Tarfire), and I have some customs that touch on vampires in the yard. Everything is Gwent art I'm trying to track down the actual artists for.
Onderzeeboot
Ecstatic Orb
Good, the lack of artist credit was bugging me
Damn. Those flaming skeleton arts are almost as bad ass as my flaming Hawaiian shirt,
I liked the original art on Adept because it ties it to Avatar. Adept has a lot of extra words on it as is to make it work how you want. What if it was Creaturefall instead? I dunno. Another thought, maybe swap the Vigilance ability for "If you control N+ lands, earthbend 2 instead"?
I liked the original art on Adept because it ties it to Avatar. Adept has a lot of extra words on it as is to make it work how you want. What if it was Creaturefall instead? I dunno. Another thought, maybe swap the Vigilance ability for "If you control N+ lands, earthbend 2 instead"?
You could go with something like:
Earthbending Adept -
Creature - Human Shaman
Landfall - Whenever a land enters the battle under your control, put a +1/+1 counter on a permanent you control that isn't this one. If this is the second time this ability was triggered this turn, earthbend 1 instead.
2/2
Going tall instead of wide lets you keep the excitement from racking up triggers by dumping a ton of lands on the battlefield without having to worry about looping or faffing around with templating too much. It does let you infinitely ramp off of a fetch once you've earthbent it once, but I feel like that's not actually that big of a problem because the effect's stapled to a 2/2 that can't grow itself.
...
I think they costed earthbending pretty well... with the caveat that they seem to have approached it as a pseudo-token mechanic first and a way to get cute with fetches and Wasteland and the like as a fun little side bonus.
Earthbending Adept -
Creature - Human Shaman
Landfall - Whenever a land enters the battle under your control, put a +1/+1 counter on a permanent you control that isn't this one. If this is the second time this ability was triggered this turn, earthbend 1 instead.
2/2
Going tall instead of wide lets you keep the excitement from racking up triggers by dumping a ton of lands on the battlefield without having to worry about looping or faffing around with templating too much. It does let you infinitely ramp off of a fetch once you've earthbent it once, but I feel like that's not actually that big of a problem because the effect's stapled to a 2/2 that can't grow itself.
...
I think they costed earthbending pretty well... with the caveat that they seem to have approached it as a pseudo-token mechanic first and a way to get cute with fetches and Wasteland and the like as a fun little side bonus.
Oh this is very clever! Having to hit double lands drops to earthbend is probably the right balance so it doesn't get totally out of hand.You could go with something like:
Earthbending Adept -
Creature - Human Shaman
Landfall - Whenever a land enters the battle under your control, put a +1/+1 counter on a permanent you control that isn't this one. If this is the second time this ability was triggered this turn, earthbend 1 instead.
2/2
I also like how if you have no other creatures you can at least store the counters on a land for later (kind of like Black Panther, Wakandan King, which as a side note is kinda busted with Earthbending)
I'm debating if it should specify 'whenever a land enters during your turn' to allow for some more counter-play, because otherwise 2 earthbent lands (even if they're just 1/1's) become a nightmare for your opponent to attack into, but I guess that just goes back to needing to remove the adept itself, which shouldn't be too hard to do.
VS 
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@KeithCubes I'd go with the version that works on villain's turn, personally.
To put things in perspective, setting that up with just Earthbending Adept would take four land drops across two turns if villain doesn't interact with you and you'd need to double-landfall again to "reset" the Chump Blocking Nightmare. That's not something you have to worry about unless testing shows that it comes up frequently.
Like, the following guy is better than Earthbending Adept at setting up nasty combat math, and it honestly looks pretty reasonable for a modern rare:
Highspire Cultivator -
Creature - Elf Artificer (R)
Vigilance
: Create a tapped 1/1 colorless Servo artifact creature token, then put a +1/+1 counter on target creature you control. Activate only if two or more lands entered the battlefield under your control this turn.
2/2
To put things in perspective, setting that up with just Earthbending Adept would take four land drops across two turns if villain doesn't interact with you and you'd need to double-landfall again to "reset" the Chump Blocking Nightmare. That's not something you have to worry about unless testing shows that it comes up frequently.
Like, the following guy is better than Earthbending Adept at setting up nasty combat math, and it honestly looks pretty reasonable for a modern rare:
Highspire Cultivator -
Creature - Elf Artificer (R)
Vigilance
: Create a tapped 1/1 colorless Servo artifact creature token, then put a +1/+1 counter on target creature you control. Activate only if two or more lands entered the battlefield under your control this turn.2/2
Thanks @LadyMapi for all your help on the last one! Super excited to get to play around with it, and I'm going to print with the version you suggested.
I did have one other crazy idea I'd love to get some other options on:
I love what Nissa of Shadowed Boughs does with the Golgari pair, but by 2025 standards she really suffers from not being able to protect herself, and having no real impact when she comes down on the board.
Note that I changed the +1 to a -1, so she can't just function as an Arbor Elf forever, but 'creating' a creature should more than make up for that. I don't run any crazy lands so the untap is mostly for defensive purposes, but it can still act as ramp in a pinch (while putting your guard down).
For offensive capability, the 3/3 land is now just a 2/2, but I really like the symmetry between the 2 +1/+1 counters on the land and the 2 +1/+1 counters on the -5 that the original card provides.
I could be talked into making this ability a -2, since the earthbent land dying basically refunds you its activation, and you get to go tall or wide with every down-tick. The land can still just get bounced though, and Nissa gets pecked by flyers like no tomorrow, so maybe it's not that bad. Either way the -5 becomes much more like an ult in that it will be harder to hit outside of lands matter strategies, which is actually where I'd like it to be.
I did have one other crazy idea I'd love to get some other options on:
I love what Nissa of Shadowed Boughs does with the Golgari pair, but by 2025 standards she really suffers from not being able to protect herself, and having no real impact when she comes down on the board.
Note that I changed the +1 to a -1, so she can't just function as an Arbor Elf forever, but 'creating' a creature should more than make up for that. I don't run any crazy lands so the untap is mostly for defensive purposes, but it can still act as ramp in a pinch (while putting your guard down).
For offensive capability, the 3/3 land is now just a 2/2, but I really like the symmetry between the 2 +1/+1 counters on the land and the 2 +1/+1 counters on the -5 that the original card provides.
I could be talked into making this ability a -2, since the earthbent land dying basically refunds you its activation, and you get to go tall or wide with every down-tick. The land can still just get bounced though, and Nissa gets pecked by flyers like no tomorrow, so maybe it's not that bad. Either way the -5 becomes much more like an ult in that it will be harder to hit outside of lands matter strategies, which is actually where I'd like it to be.
Chris Taylor
Contributor
Design wise I like this but is that a green flag offsetting her name?
It's the indicator I'm trying to use now for real cards that I've modified. I'm also starting to use a different font for where I've changed text, but for big changes like Nissa's I really don't want them to go unnoticed.
I've also played around with these 'doodle' and 'gem' style icons, but I think the flag stands out the most (for better or for worse)
If the change is anymore complex than this, I'll just make a 'new' card like you do (which I sometimes do anyway just for re-flavoring purposes), but for little tweaks I'd prefer to leverage what players know of the existing card to lessen the mental load in draft.
Like you I also have a Wandering Emperor that makes Knights, but I don't want players to pass it by thinking it's a totally different card (even if it's a little off lore wise).
For a change like that I'm on the fence about whether it's worth also flagging on top or not, but if it's just a type change and not a mechanical one I typically let it slide ... as I've done a lot of type changes throughout my cube and don't want to go marking everything up and freaking people out.
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