General Custom Cards: The Lab

[Brad]

I kinda looked and they seemed cool but I'm deep in two projects as it is... I might circle back around to that post later.

Is there an "opponent gains life" version of "pay X life"? Where it's a cost. I want the opposite of Phyrexian mana, basically. I have "(N can be paid with either M or having an opponent gain 4 life.)" but wonder if there's something better. Can't think of a card to check the wording against.

 

[Bumibu]

The Elder Relic is indeed a fun card to play with.

The two Abzan Removal Spells are more or less a reference to Vindicate and Maelstrom Pulse. WB can do everything, so that makes it easy. BG can destroy everything but lands. An G can sometimes kill noncreature permanent, so I thought it would be fine for GW.



Zophiel is indeed a boring card. I liked the effect of Confounding Conundrum because I play quite a lot of Fetchlands in my cube (a custom fetchlands cycle), so I hoped it would be a nice hate bear, but it is not. It is definitely a card I am looking to replace.

I trie to find new ideas for:
Br/w, because it is a tiny bit to powerful and it slows down game play.
Wu/b does not see mutch play.
Ru/b: I not mutch more than a wheel. If you want a wheel and built a deck around it, you do not want to pay 1 mana more for the marginal bonus.
Ru/g: does not feel RG to me.
Wr/b: sadly does not see much play. You want a true wrath most of the time.
Ur/g: Does not see mutch play and is a little too vanilla.

 

[alvoi]

I kinda looked and they seemed cool but I'm deep in two projects as it is... I might circle back around to that post later.

Is there an "opponent gains life" version of "pay X life"? Where it's a cost. I want the opposite of Phyrexian mana, basically. I have "(N can be paid with either M or having an opponent gain 4 life.)" but wonder if there's something better. Can't think of a card to check the wording against.

Invigorate maybe?

Otherwise you can do something like “as an additional cost to cast this spell, you can pay . If you don’t, each opponent gains 4 life”

 

[Brad]

It's pretty comparably worded to Invigorate! Might be right. The fact that both verbs are "have" is a good sign. If anyone knows for sure, let me know.

I can't do the latter because I want it as a mana symbol. Let me know what you guys think the "opponent gains X life" equivalent is of "pay 2 life."

 

[alvoi]

In my opinion, X=3. But it could even be 2 if you want it symmetrical (Karplusan Forest vs Grove of the Burnwillows is a 1-to-1 trade)

 

[Onderzeeboot]

I kinda looked and they seemed cool but I'm deep in two projects as it is... I might circle back around to that post later.

Is there an "opponent gains life" version of "pay X life"? Where it's a cost. I want the opposite of Phyrexian mana, basically. I have "(N can be paid with either M or having an opponent gain 4 life.)" but wonder if there's something better. Can't think of a card to check the wording against.

Oof... that's a tough nut to crack! Maybe Charmed Pendant can give some inspiration?

Ingratiate (For each colored mana symbol in this card’s mana cost, you may have an opponent gain 4 life rather than pay mana for that cost.)

 

[Velrun]

Elder Relic is tight!

 

[Onderzeeboot]

The Elder Relic is indeed a fun card to play with.

The two Abzan Removal Spells are more or less a reference to Vindicate and Maelstrom Pulse. WB can do everything, so that makes it easy. BG can destroy everything but lands. An G can sometimes kill noncreature permanent, so I thought it would be fine for GW.



Zophiel is indeed a boring card. I liked the effect of Confounding Conundrum because I play quite a lot of Fetchlands in my cube (a custom fetchlands cycle), so I hoped it would be a nice hate bear, but it is not. It is definitely a card I am looking to replace.

I trie to find new ideas for:
Br/w, because it is a tiny bit to powerful and it slows down game play.
Wu/b does not see mutch play.
Ru/b: I not mutch more than a wheel. If you want a wheel and built a deck around it, you do not want to pay 1 mana more for the marginal bonus.
Ru/g: does not feel RG to me.
Wr/b: sadly does not see much play. You want a true wrath most of the time.
Ur/g: Does not see mutch play and is a little too vanilla.

Some random ideas (inspired by your designs where possible):

: double strike; whenever Darkren, the Cruel deals combat damage, defending player sacrifices a blocking creature.
: see my previous post Wait, let me repost: Flying; Whenever a land enters the battlefield under an opponent's control, they may put a card from their hand on top of their library. If they don't, you draw a card.
: You could try to add a touch of Treacherous Urge/Mind Control to the card? How about... ; sorcery; Each player discards their hand, then draws seven cards. Then target opponent reveals their hand. You may put a creature card from it onto the battlefield under your control.
: ~ deals 2 damage to any target. If that creature would die this turn, exile it instead and create a token copy of that card. (precedence for using 'that creature': Scorching Lava)
: The upside is just a little bit too weak, plus it could just be mono white. I mean, Lifelink + Wave of Reckoning. The self-damage definitely crops up in red as well, from time to time, but black only has Kiku, Night's Flower and her shadow with that effect. I always thought Backlash was a cool card that looked a bit out of color because of the tapping. Maybe you can staple it onto a Territorial Hammerskull? ; Whenever ~ attacks, tap target untapped creature defending player controls. That creature deals damage equal to its power to its controller.; 2/3
Might need some tweaking in the casting cost and P/T department
: This is a strong card already, I feel, but if you feel the need to push it, simply adding 1 power might do the trick. As a 3/2 this kicks tempo's ass!

 

[Bumibu]

I thought Darkren could be a Vampire with the sengir Vampire ability and double strike. But I was not sure about the cost and stats.

Your suggestion for Zophiel just sounds anoylingly strong to me. As it is right now, it punishes ramp and Fetchlands, with your suggestion, it is just extremely strong. Maybe it could let you investigate for each opposing land drop.

Your suggestion for looks nice. I might tweak that a little bit. Habe to think some situations through. Because it could get too strong easily. Maybe it has to be a sorcery then?

Your Idea for sounds really nice. I think about the power level.

As for the Bounce creature: Yeah, I do not think this is a power level issue, it's just more a matter of my cube. Blue Tempo decks are rare and the card ist just not universally powerful enough. There are often just universally better cards to pick. I think 3/2 would push it too far. Would need to cost then.
I thought about something with cascade as an alternative. Maybe just Blood braid Elve with more flexible casting cost?

---

 

[Brad]

@Bumibu
First, how did you make the customs?
Second, let's look... I have't looked at other comments, so sorry if there's repeats.
Gub: Great effect. Perfect colors. Surveil doesn't need to be capitalized. If it proves slightly too strong, slap the effect onto a body so it's a bit more vulnerable.
Rgw: There's 0 white creatures with Undying. This should be any mix of colors other than what it is.
1Rgb: Is this supposed to monarch them and you try to immediately steal it? Needs more stats or something and doesn't feel very intuitive. As far as the colors go, I'm not sure who would give away monarch. Colors received monarch fairly evenly, so RB being reckless is about right. Feels Wrb to me?
1wbU: Change the name, fuck that release. Otherwise, feels right.
1ururW: Seems good. Could add haste or a toughness if it needs it.
Grw: Looks right to me.

1Rwu: Seems good if Sprite Dragon is a good fit.
1Wrb: Perfect mix of Wr double strike and Wb hate.
3Gwu: Can't help but feel this one is a little weaker. 5 is a lot of mana. That said, it's a lot stronger than Tatyova, so maybe I'm wrong. I don't know how I'd change it, either.
1gwB: Make this cost 2 and make Veil of Mold exile noncreature for 3 imo.
1Gur: This one's weird. There's nothing Gu or Gr about it. Maybe landfall for a ++ counter instead of the rummage?
1bwG: Fuck hitting lands for 3.

3Brg: Artifact doesn't need caps. Maybe he just makes a zombie, considering he's base black?
1wbR: This is weird to hit a historic permanent, wording-wise, but it's kind of just a Vandal. Seems ok, but unexciting. I'd want my R based Mardu card to SMASH.
rbrbG: Sweet.
Bur: No. No. No Skullclamp 2. Pass.
bgW: There's no green cards that care about historic. This doesn't make sense. Could be Esper in any ordering of mana, but not Abzan. Also, the wording is outdated.
Ubr: Some capitalization and wording issues, but this is awesome.

2?wUU: I can't see it well, but if that's a gw symbol, this is great.
3uwuwBB: Crazy mix of effects and very high mana cost. I can't tell if it's OP or slow or what. That makes it interesting, for sure.
Wgu: WotC wouldn't print this, but it seems strong and fine if there's only a single copy.
XUUbg: This is a really fun mix of effects!
1Urw: Having trouble assessing the power level, but it's intriguing, for sure. I'd leave it as is.
Bgu: Seems more like it should br Ubg as a mix of Strix and... that ice snake. Otherwise, we already know this card is strong and fine.

2ubR: Neat way to screw with a wheel. I like that the fateseal and scry are mild, as wheels are very strong.
1guR: Clean. I wouldn't be too mad if it were an instant, but sorcery is fine as well.
1Ugr: I personally hate tempo ETBs, but this is a cool one if you don't.
Wub: Is this just anti ramp? And makes fetches slow? I dunno. The trigger might be underwhelming, but it's on a good body, so that may cancel out.
1Brwrw: Feels a little RNG to me? Could feel really bad. I like the idea, but I'd hate to play with or against it. I dunno what else to suggest. It's possibly fine.
2brW: This heals the opponent if you try to remove their guy, ya? I'm sure someone pointed this out by now.

If you post these again, I'd love to have them color grouped like wuB wbU and Wub in a row.

Hope that was helpful. I only critiqued because I don't know what you're looking to add and it's way harder to design a card than critique one. Overall, I liked them. Even if I critiqued almost all of them.

 

[Brad]

Some random ideas (inspired by your designs where possible):

: double strike; whenever Darkren, the Cruel deals combat damage to a player?, defending player sacrifices a blocking creature.

Edit in bold.

: see my previous post Wait, let me repost: Flying; Whenever a land enters the battlefield under an opponent's control, they lose 1 life and you gain 1 life.

This one seemed off to me, too. What if it was my edit? Less irritating.

: You could try to add a touch of Treacherous Urge/Mind Control to the card? How about... ; sorcery; Each player discards their hand, then draws seven cards. Then target opponent reveals their hand. You may put a creature card from it onto the battlefield under your control.

If this is the fateseal scry wheel, I loved it as it was.

: ~ deals 2 damage to any target. If that creature would die this turn, exile it instead and create a token copy of that card. (precedence for using 'that creature': Scorching Lava)

Gnarly. What if it made a 1/1 or 2/2 copy?

: The upside is just a little bit too weak, plus it could just be mono white. I mean, Lifelink + Wave of Reckoning. The self-damage definitely crops up in red as well, from time to time, but black only has Kiku, Night's Flower and her shadow with that effect. I always thought Backlash was a cool card that looked a bit out of color because of the tapping. Maybe you can staple it onto a Territorial Hammerskull? ; Whenever ~ attacks, tap target untapped creature defending player controls. That creature deals damage equal to its power to its controller.; 2/3
Might need some tweaking in the casting cost and P/T department

I like this idea quite a bit.

: This is a strong card already, I feel, but if you feel the need to push it, simply adding 1 power might do the trick. As a 3/2 this kicks tempo's ass!

Naa.

I thought Darkren could be a Vampire with the sengir Vampire ability and double strike. But I was not sure about the cost and stats.

That's pretty cool.

Your suggestion for Zophiel just sounds anoylingly strong to me. As it is right now, it punishes ramp and Fetchlands, with your suggestion, it is just extremely strong. Maybe it could let you investigate for each opposing land drop.

This is pretty decent idea as well for Zoph edit.

As for the Bounce creature: Yeah, I do not think this is a power level issue, it's just more a matter of my cube. Blue Tempo decks are rare and the card ist just not universally powerful enough. There are often just universally better cards to pick. I think 3/2 would push it too far. Would need to cost then.
I thought about something with cascade as an alternative. Maybe just Blood braid Elve with more flexible casting cost?

Cascade is kind of an annoying RNG 50 word reminder text mechanic, but that seems appropriate. Maybe a 3/3 rgrgU with cascade and no haste? BBE is super strong, but cascade is a mechanic that gets weaker when the MV decreases. Maybe 3/1 haste cascade rgrgU?

 

[Onderzeeboot]

Edit in bold.

If you trigger it on damaging a player, the weak body just gets body-slammed in combat. By making it a combat damage trigger, you play into Darkren's strengths much better. Firstly, there's the double strike, so if they block with only one creature, they have to sac that creature before it gets to deal damage back. That means they have to double block, but they're going to lose two creatures in the process, and if they block with the wrong creatures, you can snipe one with the first strike damage, and they're required to sac the other.

This one seemed off to me, too. What if it was my edit? Less irritating.

Your suggestion ("Whenever a land enters the battlefield under an opponent's control, they lose 1 life and you gain 1 life.") is no longer a conundrum though This ability doesn't really fit the hybrid mana either.

Gnarly. What if it made a 1/1 or 2/2 copy?

What a great suggestion. A 2/2 copy sounds just right!

Naa.

Like I said, I feel the card was already plenty strong A flexible Bloodbraid Elf is kind of interesting though. It depends a bit on what Bumibu's and decks want. A Soulknife Spy with haste could also be strong enough, for example.

[...] but cascade is a mechanic that gets weaker when the MV decreases.

Also, you got it exactly wrong in my opinion Cascade gets stronger when the MV decreases, because it narrows down the options and you can better 'lock in' what you are going to cascade into. Sure, you can high roll a 6 mv cascade into a 5 mv cascade, but your odds of low rolling that 6 mv cascade into a 2 mv cascade are much higher, considering the typical curve of a cube deck. I do think the crazy high mv cascades are more memorable though. I cascaded Maelstrom Wanderer into Ruric Thar, the Unbowed and Inferno Titan in my very first cube. I mean, it doesn't really get more epic than that, does it?!

Re: Exoskull; For the record, I want to state that I love Exoskull's design. It's definitely not harmless, but comparing it to Skullclamp is problematic. While it is clearly inspired by that card, Skullclamp is way easier to abuse. First, Exoskull is a lot harder to cast. Not only is it more expensive, it also requires two colors of mana. Second, drawing two cards is infinitely more powerful than flooting plus Ravenous Ratting your opponent.

Re: Ancient Teachings; green actually pretty consistently has cared about 'tutoring' for legendary creatures and enchantments whenever a set's themes called for it, so I don't think having a green hybrid cost is that much of a stretch. I could easily see this as a straight up card. See, for example, Time of Need, Kolvori, God of Kinship, Kruphix's Insight, and Benefaction of Rhonas.

If you post these again, I'd love to have them color grouped like wuB wbU and Wub in a row.

Oh, great request! That would make these easier to parse for sure!

 

[Brad]

If you trigger it on damaging a player, the weak body just gets body-slammed in combat. By making it a combat damage trigger, you play into Darkren's strengths much better. Firstly, there's the double strike, so if they block with only one creature, they have to sac that creature before it gets to deal damage back. That means they have to double block, but they're going to lose two creatures in the process, and if they block with the wrong creatures, you can snipe one with the first strike damage, and they're required to sac the other.

True. I think some sort of sweet Sengir variant is cooler than either.

Your suggestion ("Whenever a land enters the battlefield under an opponent's control, they lose 1 life and you gain 1 life.") is no longer a conundrum though This ability doesn't really fit the hybrid mana either.

True. It can fit Esper, but more wuB than Wub, Maybe have your effect but it only triggers past X lands? It's really oppressive to go -1 on every land drop. Punishing past X lands is anti-ramp, which may have been the original idea?

Cascade gets stronger when the MV decreases, because it narrows down the options and you can better 'lock in' what you are going to cascade into.

What's better? 1-3 mana or 1-4 mana? 1-4 unless you're in a combo deck of some sort, because the average outcome is more value.

Re: Exoskull;

I read it wrong. Pretty cool as is.

Re: Ancient Teachings; green actually pretty consistently has cared about 'tutoring' for legendary creatures and enchantments whenever a set's themes called for it, so I don't think having a green hybrid cost is that much of a stretch. I could easily see this as a straight up card. See, for example, Time of Need, Kolvori, God of Kinship, Kruphix's Insight, and Benefaction of Rhonas.

True. It does care for Legends and enchantments, but "historic" isn't quite right. Searching for any creature or any enchantment feels like a better fit than getting an artifact with your Abzan card. It's also a larger pool of total cards to take.

Oh, great request! That would make these easier to parse for sure!

I found myself wondering if I could shuffle the mana on card A and B, replace C or something in some of the cycles that weren't quite right, but it was a bit messy.

 

[Onderzeeboot]

True. I think some sort of sweet Sengir variant is cooler than either.

True. It can fit Esper, but more wuB than Wub, Maybe have your effect but it only triggers past X lands? It's really oppressive to go -1 on every land drop. Punishing past X lands is anti-ramp, which may have been the original idea?

I think the idea was it punishes fetches, except your opponent can play their fetch on their turn, and crack it on your, so that doesn't really work unless they need the fetched land immediately. Maybe "Whenever a land enters the battlefield from an opponent's library, that player may put a card from their hand on top of their library. If they don't, you draw a card." That does require a pretty heavy fetch density in the cube to be a worthwhile effect though!

True. It does care for Legends and enchantments, but "historic" isn't quite right. Searching for any creature or any enchantment feels like a better fit than getting an artifact with your Abzan card. It's also a larger pool of total cards to take.

White very much cares about historic, so I think it's perfectly fine as either or to tutor for a historic card. I guess we just have to agree to disagree on this one To be fair, I do agree this would make more sense as an Esper hybrid, I just think it's fine as an Abzan card as well

 

[Brad]

We'll see what Bumibu has to say about all of it. That's what matters. S/he has info about the playgroup and their design process that could influence things. Looking forward to seeing the reply.

 

[Bumibu]

Thank you guys for your feedback! It might take a while for me to process all this, but I will show you what I came up with.
I am overwhelmed, thanks!

 

[Onderzeeboot]

Thank you guys for your feedback! It might take a while for me to process all this, but I will show you what I came up with.
I am overwhelmed, thanks!

Cool! This was a really fun batch!

@Bumibu
First, how did you make the customs?

You didn't answer this question though These were pictures of sleeved cards, and they look a lot crisper than my home-printed MSE custom proxies. Photoshop to MCP?

 

[Brad]

https://www.reddit.com/r/custommagi...on_part_of_the_8_eeveelution_cycle_in_my_wip/
If anyone knows how to fix the transparency issue on my rarity symbol in MSE, let me know. Even the basic square it puts there doesn't have a transparent background. It's always chunky like that.

EDIT: Maybe upvote for visibility? I did make the error of posting at midnight West USA when everyone's asleep...

 

[Onderzeeboot]

i don't think anyone can help you unless you tell people what program you are using to create your customs.

 

[Brad]

Oh. Right. I assumed MSE was obvious lol.

 

[Onderzeeboot]

Oh. Right. I assumed MSE was obvious lol.

Regretfully, I don't think I can help you. I do know that most templates are way simpler than Magic's interconnected, multi-foldered structure, so if you're lucky the Pokémon script simply uses a background image for the rarity background, in which case you can replace that (square) image with a partly transparent image.

Alternatively, you could try what happens when you set the set symbol from MSE yourself. If that does lead to nice set symbols, you know there's something wrong with your own set symbol.

 

[Brad]

Everything I've done with the MSE set symbol always has that annoying square background to it. I've messed with all parts of the program that I can find related to the set symbol and nothing works.

I'm looking at the Pokemon MSE files and if there's a rarity symbol, it's going to be a png that will load in funky like all the others have.

 

[Onderzeeboot]

Everything I've done with the MSE set symbol always has that annoying square background to it. I've messed with all parts of the program that I can find related to the set symbol and nothing works.

I'm looking at the Pokemon MSE files and if there's a rarity symbol, it's going to be a png that will load in funky like all the others have.

You could try reinstalling MSE. I have never had that problem with the square background on any of the Magic cards I created in MSE.

 

[Bumibu]

Cool! This was a really fun batch!


You didn't answer this question though These were pictures of sleeved cards, and they look a lot crisper than my home-printed MSE custom proxies. Photoshop to MCP?

I found a download link for a high resolution update for MSE on reddit, but the link does not work anymore sadly. I can recomend mythicblackcore.It isonline and I did a lot of old border Proxies there.
I am not sure how the policy in this forum. Am I allowed to tell you in the forum how I mage physical Proxies?

Oh and I think about all your suggestions all the time but I have not enough time right now to answer. But I will.

 

[Onderzeeboot]

I am not sure how the policy in this forum. Am I allowed to tell you in the forum how I mage physical Proxies?

As long as you're not promoting counterfeiting, it's okay.