General Custom Cards: The Lab

negativeview

negativeview

Oooh, there's a custom card place here, too? Awesome! Random cards in my design file! Power level is likely all over the place.

Flash Mom {1}{W}{W}
Creature - Bodyguard
Flash, haste
{T}: Target creature gains protection from the color of your choice until the end of turn.
2/1

Elf Buddy {G}
Creature - Elf Shaman
{T}: Add {G} to your mana pool for each Goblin you control.
1/1

Goblin Buddy {R}
Creature - Goblin
Goblin Buddy gets +1/+0 for each Elf you control.
1/1

Mirror Glade
Land
Mirror Glade enters the battlefield as a copy of target basic land.
 
anotak

anotak

1st one is interesting, what about as an ETB though?

idk about the middle two, they seem too parasitic mechanically

that land shouldn't target, see clone
 
negativeview

negativeview

As an ETB new-mom would be considerably weaker. ETB would probably be a Standard power card, while as an activated ability it's closer to cube power.

I tried to avoid the buddies being too parasitic by allowing them to work with any elves and/or goblins in all of Magic history. It does definitely guide you toward a specific deck though.

Clone mostly doesn't target mostly as a node to the original, there's no reason why it has to or necessarily should be that way. Thespian's Stage targets, for instance. But Vesuva doesn't... and I just noticed that Vesuva is a strictly better version of Mirror Glade. This is like time #100 that I've independently invented a real card that I wasn't aware of before. Sadness.
 
anotak

anotak

its not about being a nod, the reason they dont target is that things that dont go on the stack can't target. entering the battlefield as a copy of something doesn't use the stack and therefore doesn't target. on the other hand, thespian's stage is an activated ability, which does use the stack.
 
negativeview

negativeview

Hmm. I could have sworn I had seen Maro say that non-targetting was just a nod and not a requirement. If you know offhand, what part of the rules would I look at for that? I looked at 114 (Targets) and didn't see it.
 
anotak

anotak

only spells, activated abilities, or triggered abilities go on the stack and can have targets. that is a static ability

as a triggered ability it would be worded as "When Mirror Glade enters the battlefield, it becomes a copy of target basic land."
which is actually fine, but I didn't think that was your intent

some of the relevant rules:
114.1. Some spells and abilities require their controller to choose one or more targets for them. The
targets are object(s), player(s), and/or zone(s) the spell or ability will affect. These targets are
declared as part of the process of putting the spell or ability on the stack. The targets can’t be
changed except by another spell or ability that explicitly says it can do so.
Click to expand...
112.3d Static abilities are written as statements. They’re simply true. Static abilities create
continuous effects which are active while the permanent with the ability is on the battlefield and
has the ability, or while the object with the ability is in the appropriate zone. See rule 604,
“Handling Static Abilities.”
Click to expand...
603.6e Some permanents have text that reads “[This permanent] enters the battlefield with . . . ,”
“As [this permanent] enters the battlefield . . . ,” “[This permanent] enters the battlefield as . . .
,” or “[This permanent] enters the battlefield tapped.” Such text is a static ability—not a
triggered ability—whose effect occurs as part of the event that puts the permanent onto the
battlefield.
Click to expand...
 
Chris Taylor

Chris Taylor

Contributor
negativeview said:
Oooh, there's a custom card place here, too? Awesome! Random cards in my design file! Power level is likely all over the place.

Flash Mom {1}{W}{W}
Creature - Bodyguard
Flash, haste
{T}: Target creature gains protection from the color of your choice until the end of turn.
2/1

Elf Buddy {G}
Creature - Elf Shaman
{T}: Add {G} to your mana pool for each Goblin you control.
1/1

Goblin Buddy {R}
Creature - Goblin
Goblin Buddy gets +1/+0 for each Elf you control.
1/1

Mirror Glade
Land
Mirror Glade enters the battlefield as a copy of target basic land.
Click to expand...

Flash mom seems miserable to play against. At least mom has a 1 turn window where you can muck about. This just seems like the kind of card that should not have haste :(

Not only do the middle two seem parasitic, but their power level varies so wildly: A llanowar elves that either taps for 0 or is basically a gaea's cradle? Crusader of odrick for R, or mons goblin raiders?
I'm never a huge fan of cards with this wide a swath in power level because you KNOW that they will only ever see play when they're broken as hell. So basically, that downside doesn't exist. Nobody plays master of waves to make two tokens, nobody plays fanatic of mogis for 2 damage, nobody plays priest of titania when it taps for 2 mana (About the levels where they'd be fair, for reference).
That goblin is basically never going to be a 2/1, and that elf is probably never going to tap for just a green. And basically if they're doing anything more than that, they're too powerful.

As for the land, in addition to all the comprehensive rules stuff above, why does it need to target? Are you really going to be like "AH HA! MY LAND HAS SHROUD IN RESPONSE TO YOUR TRIGGER!!!!!"?
 
negativeview

negativeview

Mom in general seems miserable to play against. Flash Mom was aiming for roughly same power level (not on board for first activate, but costs an additional {1}{W}) but I may have missed there.

I definitely agree that the buddies are begging to be broken. The Elf one is probably going to be hard to break because goblins usually doesn't have a lot of colorless in its cost, so generating green in a goblin deck is probably not stupid broken. Best thing to do is probably use it as ramping into a fireball. That makes it worse than Nykthos. I can't immediately think of any other good abuses for that.

The Goblin is probably easier to abuse because if you put him into an almost-all-elf deck you have access to great color fixing (Mountains? who needs those!) and can fairly quickly get him to a size where one hit is lethal.

There's no reason Mirror Glade needs to target. I've already changed it in Magic Set Editor. I was just curious about the rules stuff because I hadn't heard that before. It just felt more natural to include the targetting phrase since almost everything in magic targets.

Another thing to keep in mind is that these are designed for limited, to go into my cube IF I ever take the plunge and start including custom cards. It'll be a lot harder to break the buddies in a cube context.
 
anotak

anotak

What's the Worst That Could Go Wrong
Enchantment Land
{T}: Add {1} to your mana pool. Activate this ability only if ~ is a land.
Enchanted creature has "{T}: Add {1} to your mana pool."
Bestow {3}

edit: i suspect this doesnt actually work under the rules in which case, the rules are now changed ok
 
Changling Bob

Changling Bob

Does this count as a land drop if you bestow it? If not, it's a free land drop waiting to be abused. I don't know what that abuse will look like, but it'll happen.

I mean, I guess you could set your cube up so that it wouldn't, but it rubs me all the wrong ways.
 
Chris Taylor

Chris Taylor

Contributor
Yeah I like to think of cultivate et al as more half accellerator half dinvination. Makes them a little more paletable.
Actually on that note:

{2}{G}
Sorcery
Reveal the top card of your library. If it's a land card, put it onto the battlefield, otherwise put it in your hand.
Draw a card.

Green Control?
 
negativeview

negativeview

I think it's pushed vs divination, but isn't straight up better.

Divination is in blue, which should be better at card draw. And divination is better at drawing gas. The green version requires a reveal. It's a marginal downside, to be sure, but it does keep it not technically as good. The green version is only better at ramping, which is something green is supposed to be good at.

Pushed, but not too far, IMO.
 
Chris Taylor

Chris Taylor

Contributor
negativeview said:
I think it's pushed vs divination, but isn't straight up better.

Divination is in blue, which should be better at card draw. And divination is better at drawing gas. The green version requires a reveal. It's a marginal downside, to be sure, but it does keep it not technically as good. The green version is only better at ramping, which is something green is supposed to be good at.

Pushed, but not too far, IMO.
Click to expand...

Reveal or not, you are still getting two cards :p
 
negativeview

negativeview

You are, but that only puts it on par with Divination, not better than. When it's better than Divination (which isn't always) it's better in a very green way, so I think it's fine. I'm not R&D though, so it's just an opinion in the end.
 
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