General Custom Cards: Perception

[blacksmithy]

Hey gang, wanted to get a quick read on this from everyone: How are custom cards, as part of a cube, perceived in your local MTG scene? Are people generally accepting of them these days? Or is there resistance to “fake cards?”
This could be within your playgroup, extended to the LGS as a whole, or however you want to define your “scene.”
Thanks!

 

[sigh]

I have never seen a custom card IRL*. I just think it's not a big "thing" with my groups, positive or negative. Just. not a thing.


*Except for cards I accidentally made 'custom' by leaving something out when printing it. Oops.

 

[shamizy]

The only "customs" I've used are my duplicate voucher in my cube. I'm just not a fan of using customs to fill in holes, it's just not my thing. I feel like most players would be mostly indifferent unless there was something really off about the individual cards.

 

[TrainmasterGT]

Hey gang, wanted to get a quick read on this from everyone: How are custom cards, as part of a cube, perceived in your local MTG scene? Are people generally accepting of them these days? Or is there resistance to “fake cards?”
This could be within your playgroup, extended to the LGS as a whole, or however you want to define your “scene.”
Thanks!

I know that my playgroup loves the custom cards I make. I don't use them every draft, but when I have, my players have enjoyed them. I don't know how random people would feel about customs, but I doubt they would have a problem with it since you're still giving them access to free Magic via Cube.

 

[Sheltem]

I can’t even run all the cards I want of the existing card pool. With more than 20000 „real“ ones to choose from we never even considered the need for customs.
On the other hand some of these might have seen more playtesting than recent sets…

 

[blacksmithy]

I can’t even run all the cards I want of the existing card pool. With more than 20000 „real“ ones to choose from we never even considered the need for customs.
On the other hand some of these might have seen more playtesting than recent sets…

i am finding a lot of design gaps for my specific power level/archetype spread needs as i ponder upsizing to handle 6 players.
also,

 

[Onderzeeboot]

None of the over 20 unique players that have played have ever objected to custom cards in general. I've had one complaint over a specific design someone thought was too strong (a 1/2 Scroll Thief with deathtouch for ), and a number of compliments over other designs. In general, though, the cards don't attract too much attention. I consciously design them to sit below the upper limits of my power band, so it's always the 'real' cards that hog the spotlight. Like Brad, I mostly use them to fill perceived design gaps (including unfinished land cycles), and I try to fill them with role players. At the time of writing (though my cube hasn't seen an update in six months), I run only nine unique nonland customs, and I'm pretty content with how the cube playtested. I would love for COVID to go away and die in a fire, thank you, so I can organize a proper draft again. Mayhaps that would inspire me to start updating my cube again. As is, I've got hobbies that provide more immediate gratification...

Now, that's my main cube. Just before the pandemic started, I finished my second cube, and the whole gimmick of that cube is that players create their own custom cards by applying 'stickers' with modifiers to existing cards. It is an absolute blast to play, and the experience got my players really excited It's chock full of regular cards (and power uncommons) elevated to mythic power level by various upgrades. I love that cube more than my main cube, to be honest!

 

[Velrun]

@Onderzeeboot
Can’t wait to hear more about that cube once you get some more tournaments under it’s belt!

 

[Chris Taylor]

So, here's my experience

My cube is about 25% custom cards, but for the most part (with a few specific exceptions) most cards aren't that out there. A lot of them are slight edits of existing cards, or ideas close to existing cards.

People certainly come in worried about specific things:

Custom cards they "need to play around or lose". A zero mana fog, or extreme colorshifts like a green settle the wreckage feel like bullshit if you don't even consider the possibility of them existing. Something to be aware of, but my predilection for fair non-combo magic means a lot of the cards I'm interested in making don't fall into this category.

Power outliers: these are an inevitable part of making cards; you're not going to get everything right on the first try. As long as you take feedback and iterate your designs, they'll land somewhere people end up being fine with.
A note here: it's much easier to adjust cards down than up. In the dark, start with a more powerful version of a card, you'll get more playtest data that way.

The last piece of advice is know what your goals are. I've had a lot of people give me feedback about improving a card in a way I was actively trying to avoid (Eg: this would make it a much better combo card, or why have you blocked off this soft lock, etc), or expanding archetypes into colors I'm not trying for. Check that you're making cards for a reason. (And remember that "This is too cool to not make" is a valid reason too.)

 

[Sheltem]

I was talking to a friend yesterday about this topic. He raised a valid point.
Even with over 20.000 Magic cards in existence you can predict what a color is able to do. So if custom designs break the color wheel, changing what a color can do, that would be a problem for him. So as long as the 5 colors of Magic keep their distinct color identity he wouldn’t have a problem playing with customs.

 

[Onderzeeboot]

I was talking to a friend yesterday about this topic. He raised a valid point.
Even with over 20.000 Magic cards in existence you can predict what a color is able to do. So if custom designs break the color wheel, changing what a color can do, that would be a problem for him. So as long as the 5 colors of Magic keep their distinct color identity he wouldn’t have a problem playing with customs.

Yep, I think this is pretty core to including customs.

 

[Velrun]

At least if you’re including custom cards into an environment where those rules already apply to the rest of the cards

 

[Chris Taylor]

I was talking to a friend yesterday about this topic. He raised a valid point.
Even with over 20.000 Magic cards in existence you can predict what a color is able to do. So if custom designs break the color wheel, changing what a color can do, that would be a problem for him. So as long as the 5 colors of Magic keep their distinct color identity he wouldn’t have a problem playing with customs.

For reference, I do fuck with the color pie a lot (Green removal, white cantrips), and while I've gotten pushback, you can get away with a lot if you can explain how it makes your cube better.

If that is what you want to do.