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- Thread starter James Stevenson
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@Onderzeeboot
What program are you using to generate AI art? I like Midjourney.
What program are you using to generate AI art? I like Midjourney.
Onderzeeboot
Ecstatic Orb
I use MidJourney as well.
What would happen if you asked an AI art generator to draw Jesus Hands?
Onderzeeboot
Ecstatic Orb
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Well now I know. Classic AI hands top right; bottom right is giving me strong M C Escher vibes.
Thank you!
Thank you!
Onderzeeboot
Ecstatic Orb
good lord that black and white one is horrifying lmao
How do you decide when to run a custom and when to run a real card? I have a hard time slowing myself down once I start considering any custom cards.
Onderzeeboot
Ecstatic Orb
I ask myself the question: is this custom supporting the intended archetype(s) significantly better than any real card and/or is it just plain super fun to play?
Depends on your audience.
Do you have a play group that wants custom cards then go for it.
Otherwise I would stick to finishing cycles (Canopy Vista).
Chris Taylor
Contributor
Literally every time I draft my cube, the 3-0 and the 0-3 players both get to submit a custom card I work with them and add, a la the invitational system from back in the day.
If a card is bad or doesn't fit my goals, I'll cut it. If it's good and does, I'll add it. No point in differentiating customs from real cards there, just make your cube good.
Though in general, if two cards are similar I will try and play non-custom cards where I can, to reign in my complexity budget.
Exceptions to that rule are:
1) Is the custom card I'm adding actually less complex than it's real counterpart (I run a custom Laelia with about half the text, for eg)
2) Do I need the specific changes for archetype reasons (Oh hey this is really similar to an existing card, but it's an enchantment, and I need that)
3) Does this custom card cut down on the number of unique tokens in my token box? (Look my Esika's Chariot makes Wolves and I stand by it)
can't believe you both added Master of the Hunt to your cube and then decided you needed more Bands With Other Wolves
this joke didn't really work but I'm making it anyway
Madness is obvious, I assume you already have that. There's also more than enough artifact support, although I don't personally support it.
Black and Red are both good storm colors, you can tweak both the enablers and payoffs to support it at varying levels.
Not really an archetype, but No One Left Behind is very cool if you copy it.
Black and Red are both good storm colors, you can tweak both the enablers and payoffs to support it at varying levels.
Not really an archetype, but No One Left Behind is very cool if you copy it.
Chris Taylor
Contributor
Full disclosure: I mostly do this because I'm priced into all my archetypes being 3 color, and I do lean on custom cards here a decent amount, but I run BR Prowess as part of Grixis Prowess
If you're going to be jamming your deck full of non-threats (ie instants/sorceries) theres a few ways you can go about it. You can jam a ton of air (cantrips) and lean hard on the few threats in your deck to affect the board enough to get you there, you can jam instants/sorceries that are threats like lingering souls, or you can thoughtseize your opponent
Red Prowess cards are mostly obvious at this point, that's well trodden ground, so I'll focus on black cards I like for this deck:
Big Draws:
I double up on Bob, and it's the ultimate card in an aggressive deck like this that wants to trade cardboard for cardboard while beating down.
Sedgemoor Witch is really good, the lifegain on the tokens is non-negligible, she's got a real body you can attack with, and the ward is exactly what you'd want it to be.
Knight is a generically strong card, but we get the added benefit here where if you're running shocklands, you can grow this guy without attacking by paying 2 life to both your land and a thoughtseize. You are gonna want some cheap threats you can ride to victory almost alone (see delver of secrets) and this guy fits the bill quite well
I run some custom criminals as well, but this guy has been really solid. It may look like a gravecrawler, but since you can trigger it with near enough anything, it's less about putting loops together and loading the same creature into goblin bombardment 12 times and more about a consistent threat that can net you an extra card every now and again as you keep throwing removal spells around to keep your opponent on the back foot.
I'm currently on these 4 as a spread @450 cards, so I'm likely due for a 5th and 6th at some point, as most black decks want them.
I really do think the universality of targets these cards provide is crucial, duress and ostracize really do whiff a lot or present some hands where you get a card, but it's a non-decision where you didn't really gain anything, might as well have played Raven's Crime (A card I did cut for similar reasons, retrace be damned)
You are going to want cheap removal. Dial that down to what your cube wants, but if all your 1-for-1s cost 3 mana this deck aint gonna work. Other hits include Vendetta, Snuff Out, Dismember (though more technically, this is way more of a green card than it plays here).
As a last note: Hymn to Tourach would be good here, but I don't run it at the moment. Every other 2 mana mind rot I've ever tried has been really bad, so sadly I do think the feel-bads do provide function here. Take it or leave it.
If you're going to be jamming your deck full of non-threats (ie instants/sorceries) theres a few ways you can go about it. You can jam a ton of air (cantrips) and lean hard on the few threats in your deck to affect the board enough to get you there, you can jam instants/sorceries that are threats like lingering souls, or you can thoughtseize your opponent
Red Prowess cards are mostly obvious at this point, that's well trodden ground, so I'll focus on black cards I like for this deck:
Big Draws:
I double up on Bob, and it's the ultimate card in an aggressive deck like this that wants to trade cardboard for cardboard while beating down.
Sedgemoor Witch is really good, the lifegain on the tokens is non-negligible, she's got a real body you can attack with, and the ward is exactly what you'd want it to be.
Knight is a generically strong card, but we get the added benefit here where if you're running shocklands, you can grow this guy without attacking by paying 2 life to both your land and a thoughtseize. You are gonna want some cheap threats you can ride to victory almost alone (see delver of secrets) and this guy fits the bill quite well
I run some custom criminals as well, but this guy has been really solid. It may look like a gravecrawler, but since you can trigger it with near enough anything, it's less about putting loops together and loading the same creature into goblin bombardment 12 times and more about a consistent threat that can net you an extra card every now and again as you keep throwing removal spells around to keep your opponent on the back foot.
I'm currently on these 4 as a spread @450 cards, so I'm likely due for a 5th and 6th at some point, as most black decks want them.
I really do think the universality of targets these cards provide is crucial, duress and ostracize really do whiff a lot or present some hands where you get a card, but it's a non-decision where you didn't really gain anything, might as well have played Raven's Crime (A card I did cut for similar reasons, retrace be damned)
You are going to want cheap removal. Dial that down to what your cube wants, but if all your 1-for-1s cost 3 mana this deck aint gonna work. Other hits include Vendetta, Snuff Out, Dismember (though more technically, this is way more of a green card than it plays here).
As a last note: Hymn to Tourach would be good here, but I don't run it at the moment. Every other 2 mana mind rot I've ever tried has been really bad, so sadly I do think the feel-bads do provide function here. Take it or leave it.
There is also the option of good old aggro with Sarcomancy and Jackal Pup...
I have some discard matter cards
Replace Inti with Conspiracy Theorist and you are good to go at your power level.
Some cheat packages
At your power level, the Red cards can stay, but you can experiment with stuff like Dread Return in Black. Adjust your artifact fatties accordingly!
Some spells matter combo
I would be eyeing Tor Wauki the Younger, Grapeshot, Yawgmoth's Will and such for your cube.
I don't support this anymore, but have at one point
Braids, mana rocks, Smallpox, Devastating Dreams, Firestorm these make for an unconventional control deck which I absolutely love.
If you support sacrifice, discard and GY, there is bound to be an artifact deck somewhere
I also like the idea of Prosper, Tome-Bound as a value + ramp engine that you can build around with a bunch of adventure, impluse draw in Red and stuff like Gonti, Lord of Luxury in Black.
That's all I've got so far. Maybe a few more will come to me!
Replace Inti with Conspiracy Theorist and you are good to go at your power level.
Some cheat packages
At your power level, the Red cards can stay, but you can experiment with stuff like Dread Return in Black. Adjust your artifact fatties accordingly!
Some spells matter combo
I would be eyeing Tor Wauki the Younger, Grapeshot, Yawgmoth's Will and such for your cube.
I don't support this anymore, but have at one point
Braids, mana rocks, Smallpox, Devastating Dreams, Firestorm these make for an unconventional control deck which I absolutely love.
If you support sacrifice, discard and GY, there is bound to be an artifact deck somewhere
I also like the idea of Prosper, Tome-Bound as a value + ramp engine that you can build around with a bunch of adventure, impluse draw in Red and stuff like Gonti, Lord of Luxury in Black.
That's all I've got so far. Maybe a few more will come to me!
I don't think there's enough cards for Jokulhaups.dec still, but it did just get a new best friend:
+
in addition to that there's the other stuff you likely already know about:
planeswalkers
indestructible things (even aggressive ones or combat tricks)
enchantments of various types
exile casting: suspend and plot and adventure and all the new red card draw spells
(special shoutout to Highway Robbery, which you might want to try even without 'haups support! it just works better when you're about to Armageddon yourself)
recursive threats
and the usual Upheaval support of "ramp" and "cheap threats to cast afterwards".
sadly, it doesn't go well with my beloved Goblin Guide, but that's okay, time has passed it by for all but grognards like me
(completely unrelated question: do the [ card] tags take set parameters somehow? I'd love to see actual Goblin Guide and not that new art)
+ in addition to that there's the other stuff you likely already know about:
planeswalkers
indestructible things (even aggressive ones or combat tricks)
enchantments of various types
exile casting: suspend and plot and adventure and all the new red card draw spells
(special shoutout to Highway Robbery, which you might want to try even without 'haups support! it just works better when you're about to Armageddon yourself)
recursive threats
and the usual Upheaval support of "ramp" and "cheap threats to cast afterwards".
sadly, it doesn't go well with my beloved Goblin Guide, but that's okay, time has passed it by for all but grognards like me
(completely unrelated question: do the [ card] tags take set parameters somehow? I'd love to see actual Goblin Guide and not that new art)
bad news for the Universes Beyond haters
(they will also be legal in "all formats" going forward, starting with Final Fantasy, so expect slightly lower power cause they're Standard-legal)
Entering through standard is extremely good. The marginal number of people it upsets is close to zero, because so few people play standard. And now, new players can enter standard tournaments with their mono-Spiderman decks and not completely have a bad time. Win-win for the format.
Win for everyone else, too, because it means fewer new UB cards are going to be designed purpose-made for eternal formats.
Win for everyone else, too, because it means fewer new UB cards are going to be designed purpose-made for eternal formats.
Not necessarily a hater, but it really is a sign of the times that we're so extremely deep in "thing you know" being a requirement for so much games and media being made
Pretty much kills any enthusiasm or hope of Constructed Magic coming back for me. Not interested in extra goofy shit when they go deeper and deeper as the UB well begins to run dry. I don't really think they even have a long term vision for the game with all these decisions in recent years.
Great for short term profits, but man their leadership is hacking off the game at its knees in regards to long term sustainability. Unfortunate.
Great for short term profits, but man their leadership is hacking off the game at its knees in regards to long term sustainability. Unfortunate.
I honestly think I'm done with Magic. I was starting to get back into things because one of my coworkers is getting into playing and I thought it might be fun to play in paper again for a change... but I just can't justify my emotional investment in Magic to myself anymore. It's been a good run (off-and-on interest since Lorwyn block and continuous interest from Kalidesh), but I think it's time for me to move on.