I'm looking to add custom cards to my graveyard themed cube. I'm curious if anyone has any custom graveyard-centric cards to share. Anything in the graveyard, discard-matters, dredge, madness, cycling, etc. space is great; just as long as it interacts with the graveyard in some way.
General [Custom Cards] Custom Graveyard Cards
- Thread starter Spiderdoofus
- Start date
These are exactly what I was looking for, thank you. We independently came up with Dryad of Masks, and I like a bunch of these.
Onderzeeboot
Ecstatic Orb
Onderzeeboot
Ecstatic Orb
Chris Taylor
Contributor
Okay I did some digging of my own.
Caution: power level may vary, some of these designs are 10+ years old:
Caution: power level may vary, some of these designs are 10+ years old:
Chris Taylor
Contributor
Continued:
My friends, these are awesome.
Ravenous Assimileech is really cool!
I thought I'd unearth this thread, as I spent some time looking around the internet and this is what best fit my goals. I have a 360 cube with heavy emphasis on all things graveyards (and maybe artifacts) and might be interested in filling some holes with custom cards.
For this installment I was looking into ways to strengthen the aggressive gruul (+ maybe golgari or really any) self discard decks. They rely on outlets like Wild Mongrel and soon enough Inti, Seneschal of the Sun and having some cheap madness creatures is a neat and powerful way to capizalize on the discard effects.
Sadly these two worms don't cut it anymore in my environment, although I love their simple design (and worms will always have a special place in my heart):
.
The baseline of a 5 mana 4/4 trample is too inefficient and the madness cost is manageable with free outlets but makes it relatively difficult to use with things like Faithless Looting, Fauna Shaman or more expensive discard effects.
Basking Rootwalla, Blazing Rootwalla and Anje's Ravager are still very relevant but there is just not enough to make madness more than an incidental gimmick in the cube.
So as an homage to the wurms I decided to make some custom madness cards, in the hopes that the bright riptide minds can help me refine them into something that fits into my cube. Powerwise I'm aiming between Arrogant Wurm and Shadowgrange Archfiend who was making players cry in conjunction with Lion's Eye Diamond and Hogaak, Arisen Necropolis and was subsequently removed from the cube.
Here are my first designs, that I'm very happy to get feedback/criticism on. Also feel free to offer your own takes/designs that you think might fit the goals! I tried to keep them relatively simple (as simple as madness can be for newer players), but if you have ideas to let them intersect multiple archetypes in the cube that would be even better!
These two try to capture the original wurm design while being relatively tame. Reasonable floor with cheap enough madness costs that would make them appealing. I found it a bit difficult to find the right numbers, as the difference between Madness
and is so big that a madness shouldn't just be a 3/3. I like the option of both to have 4 power as I'm thinking of putting Flamewake Phoenix back in.
For the first one I thought that a combination of Madness and Delve would be cool but didn't anticipate how they work against each other. Madness is mostly agressive/tempo in green whereas Delve needs setup. The resulting card is kind of a Murktide Regent with Madness. The floor of the card is anemic but the ceiling can be very high. By making the Madness cost only the maximum is a 4/4 trampler, which to be honest is probably too much.... If we go down one mana then it's a 3/3 for one with setup, which might be fine. But Delve , why bother? Maybe Delve and Madness are destined to stay apart.
On the other side we have a colorshifted (and less restrictive) Gorex, the Tombshell (which I cut from the cube a while back). This design seems ok to me?
Finally I was thinking about the archetype as a whole and had an idea for a discard matters card in green. Three different versions increasing in powerlevel, not sure which would be the most appropriate, as the effect can be strong (free discard + explore a land = rinse and repeat!).
Well, there you have it, my first attempt at wurmifying my cube (I'd be happy for some art-ninjitsu as well, my skills are still lacking there).
For reference: Synergy Graveyard Cube
It started as a 2-player graveyard cube, became a clone of Inscho's Graveyard Combo Cube and is slowly performing a diverging evolution into it's own species of cube.
For this installment I was looking into ways to strengthen the aggressive gruul (+ maybe golgari or really any) self discard decks. They rely on outlets like Wild Mongrel and soon enough Inti, Seneschal of the Sun and having some cheap madness creatures is a neat and powerful way to capizalize on the discard effects.
Sadly these two worms don't cut it anymore in my environment, although I love their simple design (and worms will always have a special place in my heart):
.The baseline of a 5 mana 4/4 trample is too inefficient and the madness cost is manageable with free outlets but makes it relatively difficult to use with things like Faithless Looting, Fauna Shaman or more expensive discard effects.
Basking Rootwalla, Blazing Rootwalla and Anje's Ravager are still very relevant but there is just not enough to make madness more than an incidental gimmick in the cube.
So as an homage to the wurms I decided to make some custom madness cards, in the hopes that the bright riptide minds can help me refine them into something that fits into my cube. Powerwise I'm aiming between Arrogant Wurm and Shadowgrange Archfiend who was making players cry in conjunction with Lion's Eye Diamond and Hogaak, Arisen Necropolis and was subsequently removed from the cube.
Here are my first designs, that I'm very happy to get feedback/criticism on. Also feel free to offer your own takes/designs that you think might fit the goals! I tried to keep them relatively simple (as simple as madness can be for newer players), but if you have ideas to let them intersect multiple archetypes in the cube that would be even better!
These two try to capture the original wurm design while being relatively tame. Reasonable floor with cheap enough madness costs that would make them appealing. I found it a bit difficult to find the right numbers, as the difference between Madness
and is so big that a madness shouldn't just be a 3/3. I like the option of both to have 4 power as I'm thinking of putting Flamewake Phoenix back in.For the first one I thought that a combination of Madness and Delve would be cool but didn't anticipate how they work against each other. Madness is mostly agressive/tempo in green whereas Delve needs setup. The resulting card is kind of a Murktide Regent with Madness. The floor of the card is anemic but the ceiling can be very high. By making the Madness cost only
the maximum is a 4/4 trampler, which to be honest is probably too much.... If we go down one mana then it's a 3/3 for one with setup, which might be fine. But Delve , why bother? Maybe Delve and Madness are destined to stay apart.On the other side we have a colorshifted (and less restrictive) Gorex, the Tombshell (which I cut from the cube a while back). This design seems ok to me?
Finally I was thinking about the archetype as a whole and had an idea for a discard matters card in green. Three different versions increasing in powerlevel, not sure which would be the most appropriate, as the effect can be strong (free discard + explore a land = rinse and repeat!).
Well, there you have it, my first attempt at wurmifying my cube (I'd be happy for some art-ninjitsu as well, my skills are still lacking there).
For reference: Synergy Graveyard Cube
It started as a 2-player graveyard cube, became a clone of Inscho's Graveyard Combo Cube and is slowly performing a diverging evolution into it's own species of cube.
Onderzeeboot
Ecstatic Orb
Woodland Devourer and Seasons Wurm (Season's?) are super sweet.
Chris Taylor
Contributor
I do want reminder text for explore on bane though
These all seem great to me! Here are some thoughts:
- Ambush Wurm/Arrogant Whiptail - perfect imo
- Woodland Devourer - too much going on in this card; delve, madness alternate casting, card types. It's just not as clean as your other cards here. For all the hoops that you need to jump through, a 4/4 for G seems unexciting. Could still be good, it just doesn't make me super excited to play, which is where I think you want the custom cards to be. The delve/madness combo could be interesting, but I don't have any better ideas right now.
- Season's Wurm - It's also a blue Ethereal Forager! As such, I think it would still be good if it only returned permanent cards. I would prefer trample over deathtouch. I also think you could do something cool with the flavor of something regurgitated or some sort of life cycle.
- I think even the lowest power on Explorer's Bane is good.
- Ambush Wurm/Arrogant Whiptail - perfect imo
- Woodland Devourer - too much going on in this card; delve, madness alternate casting, card types. It's just not as clean as your other cards here. For all the hoops that you need to jump through, a 4/4 for G seems unexciting. Could still be good, it just doesn't make me super excited to play, which is where I think you want the custom cards to be. The delve/madness combo could be interesting, but I don't have any better ideas right now.
- Season's Wurm - It's also a blue Ethereal Forager! As such, I think it would still be good if it only returned permanent cards. I would prefer trample over deathtouch. I also think you could do something cool with the flavor of something regurgitated or some sort of life cycle.
- I think even the lowest power on Explorer's Bane is good.
Thanks for the feedback!
Really like the flavor/art Suggestion for Season's Wyrm! The permanent clause is another possible knob to turn, definitely. I like the idea of rebuying a Berserk or Become Immense though..
Thanks again! I'll come back with updated designs and hopefully new ones, once I had some time to think about it!
EDIT: typos
At first I didn't like the once per turn restriction either (everyone was mad about Morbid Opportunist) but I've grown on it as a design knob. I think you're right though that the first version might be better suited, especially in proactive Decks.
And you shall receive it. I kinda forgot.
I had a similar inkling with the Devourer, it's just so many words for something not that exciting. I do still like the idea of combining madness with delve, maybe I'll come up with something. Or I'll find something else to make a more exciting madness creature with.
Really like the flavor/art Suggestion for Season's Wyrm! The permanent clause is another possible knob to turn, definitely. I like the idea of rebuying a Berserk or Become Immense though..
Thanks again! I'll come back with updated designs and hopefully new ones, once I had some time to think about it!
EDIT: typos
I don't agree. I think "the first time [this turn]" is actually way more computationally complex ("inelegant") and feels worse. Most instances of either gating condition are on activated abilities (most of which don't cost mana and therefore need a limiting condition), neatly solving the issue I'm about to mention, but consider this example:
We're playing Innistrad Crimson Vow draft. I drafted some dumb BUG value pile because i'm a tryhard, but you were in the perfect seat for a really sick R/B vampires deck. You're going off with blood tokens, your ability to do card selection is a lot better than mine. It's turn seven, I have 5 life, and you have two blood tokens, two attackers, and five lands. You're just shy of lethal damage. You draw your card for the turn - it's a basic swamp. You pay one and sacrifice a Blood token, discarding the swamp, and you draw the perfect card for the situation - go you!
You tap three to make a Blood Hypnotist. You swing with your Falkenrath Forebear and a Bloodcrazed Socialite. The attack trigger of the Socialite goes on the stack; you sacrifice the artifact, and then Blood Hypnotist's triggered ability goes onto the stack. You target my second chump blocker, who now isn't my chump blocker, I can't block your 5/5 menace, and I die. A thrilling and really exciting game where all your synergy pieces had a gestalt effect better than my raw value pile.
Now, consider a Blood Hypnotist who says "the first time each turn you sacrifice a Blood token" - in that universe, I probably end up killing you with some really inevitable Grolnok beats. AND your permanent's ability, your win this turn button, is no longer something you can dig for and profit from the same turn. This stuff really matters, and "the first time each turn" decreases fun more than it increases elegance. IMO.
Chris Taylor
Contributor
"Once each turn" also helps over "the first time each turn" as the latter counts events that happen before you played the creature
for eg: Gain Life > Play Cleric of Life's Bond > Gain a life Doesn't Work the way you want it to, whereas "triggers once" would.
for eg: Gain Life > Play Cleric of Life's Bond > Gain a life Doesn't Work the way you want it to, whereas "triggers once" would.
Bladewing's Thrall - Simple, powerful, zombie creature type...what's not to love? I also really like the idea of 3-4 mana recursive creatures for more midrange decks. 10/10
Read the Stars - So clean it's surprising it hasn't been printed already.
Force of Necromancy - I personally don't love this. To me, reanimator is the purest embodiment of the black slice of the color pie. You trade everything for great power. Reanimate, despite being broken, is a fun card for me because of that. I think Force of Necromancy asks too little of the black mage to touch the divine. Just my .02. This card would probably be fine on power level in a lot of cubes because reanimator is often an A + B + C combo and so inherently weak.
Spirit of Qal Sisma - Interesting mid- to late-game card. I would probably cube this. Seems comparable to Murktide Regent.
Caldera Dragon - Seems fine on power; also would cube. It's kind of interesting that delve and escape are both combos and nonbos at the same time. That little twist makes me excited to see how this plays out.
Seraph of Suffering - This card seems pretty broken to me. Stuff like Timetwister could effectively gain a ton of life, and Gaea's Blessing makes you very hard to kill. Even so, you can still kill this, and the double black means it will be harder to splash. My biggest knock against this is that when it works, it potentially makes games go way longer. This is mostly practical in that I tend to draft cube on weeknights. Still, some version of this effect could be a cool enabler, and I would love to see this as a combo piece in a Laboratory Maniac deck.
The one iffy thing about the design is that it doesn't cost any cards to Escape. I know that that's because the Delve makes it so you have a customizable Escape cost, but I think I'd be happier with the card if it had "Escape -
, exile two other cards from your graveyard" or whatever.Thanks for those sweet designs! I especially like the Caldera Dragon, though as others pointed out the Escape/Delve cost feels a bit strange. If I feel like adding a custom red delve card to my cube this will definitely be the starting point! It's a bit like Phoenix of Ash minus the delve, but that card somehow often feels a bit weak and unbeatable in long games at the same time.
As promised I'm also here with some new and improved (?) designs, since I plan to put an MPCfill order in early next week. I would very much appreciate your thoughts and feedback (as well as any spelling mistakes/typos/rules mistakes or interactions I might have missed).
When I thought about the green cards from last time, I realized that I was also not really happy with my black madness cards. Shadowgrange Archfiend is a real monster but apart from that the other black madness cards are either costly or on the weaker side.
More Rootwallas!! Madness
is obviously very strong, a 1/1 for one that you can pump once should be ok as the ceiling though. Any other ideas for the activated ability (that are not regenerate..)?The picture does not look like a 1/3 unfortunately. I always liked Faith of the Devoted but it is a bit too clunky for the environment. I felt two life drain too much for a 1-2 drop, maybe this is ok for a defensive black card?
In a similar vein, cards like Tormod, the Desecrator and maybe even Skeleton Crew seem a bit slow but I would love to see that type of effect in action. At least to decide wether it makes sense in the cube or gluts up the board too much. I was debating about the type of token the card produces and am not sure yet what would fit my environment best. Three options I considered: 1/1 flying spirits (they happen to be white, e.g. Clarion Spirit), 2/2 Zombies or 1/1... rats/birds that cannot block?
This design is based on one of Caleb Gannon's customs in his powered synergy cube. I'm not 100% convinced this makes sense but I like the baseline of Flameblade Adept. I wanted something extra to make the card exciting (artifact synergies) and decided it should go to hand instead of battlefield (because the text was shorter and the card is already cluttered enough). Unfortunately Madness (and other) reminder text takes up a lot of space!
So... the Crafty Weaver... I like that the card tells a story but its just soo wordy. Maybe the mechanical tie-in is not necessary or even detracts from the real reason this card exists (=being a madness beater). Maybe it would be enough, if it were an improved Wild Mongrel.
Not much to say about wurm, except that it was a nice chance for an hommage to the old classic Arrogant Wurm.
These designs we already talked about but I wanted to show the (slightly altered) finished cards.
Most likely I will print 2-3 versions of all the custom cards with slightly different statlines/keywords/costs, to have some wiggle room.
One question for those Card Conjurer pros: somehow I can only add the artist but not other information on the bottom of the cards. Any ideas?
That's it for now. Keep the graveyard party going
!Attachments
@Schafkurai I'm no pro, but I'm guessing you could add more information to the artist section? It usually allows you to exceed the bounds on the text box. Not an elegant solution. Oh and the Artist text box may not work that way.... Sorry. Best guess.