I won't promise that
General Custom Cards: The Lab
- Thread starter anotak
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If you put Magic art, frame and wording on the cards, I promise I will brainstorm both for you and with you
Eya!
I've been greatly enjoying the Cardconjurer website and I'm trying to design some cards for my active cubes. My first project is to make "White Great Again" in my vintage cube. I want to make cards in +/- Natural Order, Bribery, Sneak Attack power level. Here are some testprojects, the goal is to make first pickable white cards in a vintage cube.
I've been greatly enjoying the Cardconjurer website and I'm trying to design some cards for my active cubes. My first project is to make "White Great Again" in my vintage cube. I want to make cards in +/- Natural Order, Bribery, Sneak Attack power level. Here are some testprojects, the goal is to make first pickable white cards in a vintage cube.
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I like the second set much much more than the first.
The first one steals from other colors, why do that? The second one feels more in line with the color wheel.
What does white do?
1) answers to everything (but more expensive and has to jump through hoops for creature removal).
2) aggro
3) does not have card draw.
4) hatebears.
If white is underpowered do one of the following two:
1) lower the power of the rest.
2) up the power of white.
What you should not do:
3) make white do everything.
Wizards did 3) with blue. Jippikaye, best creatures, best answers and so on. Boring...
I think Portal Priest is pretty weak. Elvish Piper sucks.
Avacyn's Altar is a pretty white way of getting Nat Order, but is potentially risky if you're running some of the elite white creatures like Elesh or Iona or Serra's Emissary. I think it steps on green's toes a bit much, but I also think that about the "if you control less lands" style ramp.
I didn't read the walkers. I don't run em and can't offer as much help.
Northfell looks great to me if you're into that kind of effect.
Ingenious Artificer is SO much better than T___ Mage. Maybe it could do something similar but only hit up the graveyard?
Obedience doesn't need Ward, it's annoying enough as is. I'm also not sure what deck wants the card. My gut said aggro hatebears, but this blanks your own aggro. Control doesn't really want to play a boltable 3 drop, I don't think.
I might go design some hatebears myself...
Avacyn's Altar is a pretty white way of getting Nat Order, but is potentially risky if you're running some of the elite white creatures like Elesh or Iona or Serra's Emissary. I think it steps on green's toes a bit much, but I also think that about the "if you control less lands" style ramp.
I didn't read the walkers. I don't run em and can't offer as much help.
Northfell looks great to me if you're into that kind of effect.
Ingenious Artificer is SO much better than T___ Mage. Maybe it could do something similar but only hit up the graveyard?
Obedience doesn't need Ward, it's annoying enough as is. I'm also not sure what deck wants the card. My gut said aggro hatebears, but this blanks your own aggro. Control doesn't really want to play a boltable 3 drop, I don't think.
I might go design some hatebears myself...
Ingenious Artificer seems absolutely broken (it's a Rampant Growth with a 2/2 body that adds an additional storm count if you have any of the Moxen, and that's just the beginning) and I feel like Avacyn's Altar really just reads "2WW Sorcery: Search your library for a creature card and put it on the battlefield. Play only if your opponent controls more creatures than you," (meaning that the Enchantment type does very little) but overall these seem interesting color shifts. Portal Priest's ability might be a little bit overcosted, but that's just a balance thing.
Rusje and Brad really hit the nail on the head that White would be better served (IMO; your taste can differ) by leaning into its strengths than by giving it access to other colors' part of the color pie. Maybe another hatebear that has an Adventure that counters a spell and puts it two cards deep into a library? IDK, I don't really design cards.
edit: slapped together a White hatebear with an Adventure counterspell because I should actually contribute rather than just criticize. The flavor isn't perfect, but I think the idea works decently? And yeah, I know the art has been used on an official Magic card, but it's a Lair, so I just don't care about it the same way. It's definitely not printable in a normal set because a counterspell in the command zone would cause a lot of salt, but I think the rest works--right??
Rusje and Brad really hit the nail on the head that White would be better served (IMO; your taste can differ) by leaning into its strengths than by giving it access to other colors' part of the color pie. Maybe another hatebear that has an Adventure that counters a spell and puts it two cards deep into a library? IDK, I don't really design cards.
Maybe it's because it's Die Hard season, but the only understanding of this word my brain can begin to attempt is as a transliteration of "Yippee-ki-yay." Am I missing something? Or is John McClane suddenly in Blue's slice of the color pie? Personally, I think of him as Naya and Hans Gruber as either Dimir or Grixis, but that's a thread unto itself . . .
edit: slapped together a White hatebear with an Adventure counterspell because I should actually contribute rather than just criticize. The flavor isn't perfect, but I think the idea works decently? And yeah, I know the art has been used on an official Magic card, but it's a Lair, so I just don't care about it the same way. It's definitely not printable in a normal set because a counterspell in the command zone would cause a lot of salt, but I think the rest works--right??
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Onderzeeboot
Ecstatic Orb
For flavor and power reasons I would make that 'noncreature spell' on both ends of the deal. I wish they would do more white countermagic. The funny thing is, I opened this thread to suggest an aggro card with a Mana Tithe for noncreature spells as the adventure part. Adventures are a very elegant way to branch card advantage into white.
Onderzeeboot
Ecstatic Orb
I suddenly remembered Caleb Gannon expressing similar wishes. I believe he has some videos you could draw inspiration from for your white 1st pick cards for vintage. This one has some cute designs.
This one, specifically, delves into the topic of creating custom cards on the level of Time Walk and Ancestral Recall in colors other than blue.
Yes, that was the joke. It was partly sarcastic but also blue got everything, including John McClane.
Onderzeeboot
Ecstatic Orb
Going into your customs, I feel like the first batch is threading out of white's pie with no real payoff. White isn't the "cheat out fatties" color, and you'ld need to include multiple customs to remedy this if you do want white to be about that. I don't think it's really worth doing that. Instead, I think it's more fruitful to play into white's strengths. That's why I think your second batch is a lot stronger conceptually. Unlike others, I don't even think you missed the mark on power level!
Archon of Northfell seems strong, and all about what white wants to do. An evasive and more cost efficient Hokori, Dust Drinker is definitely desirable in a white aggro deck.
I don't think Ingenious Artificer is broken, but it is pushed. There's room for Trinket Mage variants to be pushed though, considering that those are uncommons (originally even a common, in the case of Trinket Mage). It will definitely be very good though, depending on your options in the cube. I get what @Zoss means with his argument that this can be a Rampant Growth on a decent stick, but let's not blame the stick for that. Moxen are the real problem here, and if you're playing with power, having Trinket Mage-variants turn into mana acceleration is what you're signing up for (among other things). I like moving this ability into white, actually, particularly if you run good equipments that can be fetched.
Archon of Obedience is the odd duck out, I feel. It's definitely a strong package of abilities, but I agree with Brad that the combination of abilities makes it not a great fit for any of the decks that would be interested in some of the abilities.
If you want more inspiration, you can look at expensive rule-setting artifacts or enchantments. White has a history of 'making the laws', so to speak, and there's a lot of stuff that would be fitting for the 'turn it into a white creature' treatment. In fact, Wizards have done this themselves, in the past, turning Winter Orb into the aforementioned Hokori, Dust Drinker, for example. The nice thing is that creatures are easier to deal with than artifacts, so if you want to, you can push these quite a bit.
Ward of Bones:
Artist: Camille Kuo
Conquerer's Flail:
Artist: Iosif Chesan
No. It's not even a trigger to begin with, those need a when/whenever/at. You'd need a "when you do", although I'd probably go for the full "when you cast it this way" for clarity.
I agree that using moxen to justify why a card is overpowered is pretty questionable, but the rarity of the TMage cycle is equally irrelevant. None of the premium blue cantrips are rare, that doesn't mean they have a lot of room for being pushed further.
I also prefer the second batch to the first, but when your context is "vintage cube first pick" you can theoretically do whatever you want. You've probably already conceded that a reasonable adherence to power level of the color pie is secondary priority at best.
Onderzeeboot
Ecstatic Orb
I mean, it's not completely irrelevant. You are right that not every common or uncommon has room for pushing the numbers, but most do. Trinket Mage sees less and less play in Vintage. mtgtop8.com lists only two Vintage decks that finished in the t8 of an event after 2019. Preordain, meanwhile, is featured in multiple pages worth of t8 decks per month in 2021. The less a card sees play in Vintage, the more room there likely is for pushing it. That doesn't mean I'm counting on WotC to try out the pushed version, just because it can be done doesn't mean it's healthy for the game after all, but for the purpose of introducing a custom first-pickable white card to a Vintage cube, I think it's within a reasonable power band.
Sorry, my point there is that the rate at which you'd be able to get access to this ability would make this a color pie break, same as the other cards listed. Fetching an artifact is fine for me, but I think that reducing the CMC isn't the appropriate solution. Maybe make it a 1/1 for 3 with Fabricate 2 if you want to push it, for example, or give it some keywords--a 2/2 with indestructible seems pretty okay, and you can even flavor it as a Darksteel something and make it an artifact creature to push artifact things. Something along those lines wouldn't step on another color's toes, which was my main objection to the other cards, and so letting this one slide because it broke the color pie in a different way felt disingenuous.
At the end it's a difficult puzzle. And what I'm looking for even more. I'm looking for an additional playstyle for white in my cube and without making the cube bigger. I prefer a focus on creatures. The rest of the colours have a fattie cheat option: Black-reanimate, Green-natural order effects, blue bribery, show, red sneak and breach. What results in enough fatties in the cube, which makes it pretty easy to give white this option without have to include a great number of cards. This doesn't mean I'm married to this idea. And I really appreciate your feedback.
Most of you prefer the other option, the taxing-style white cards. This style is easy to fit in my cube and there is enough room to be creative without breaking the pie. I'm going to focus this style. Thanks!
Most of you prefer the other option, the taxing-style white cards. This style is easy to fit in my cube and there is enough room to be creative without breaking the pie. I'm going to focus this style. Thanks!
I really like the Warden of Bones, I would prob. fit a vintage cube power level.
Onderzeeboot
Ecstatic Orb
Feel free to "steal" the idea if you like it for your cube, that's why I made the suggestion!
White has reanimate. Why don't you use instant reanimate and let black focus on reanimate from any graveyard?
Alternatively, create creatures for white which have cheaper conditions like the avatar of cycle from prophecy. Or create a white sensei's divining top and white miracle cards..
Those seem to do the trick. Mass reanimation, instant reanimation, and hatebears. These are through the roof strong. Since you want it for a vintage cube, why not something that hoses artifacts but stronger than white currently has?
Humility Reanimate - W
Sorcery or Instant
Reanimate a guy from your yard, except it's a 1/1.
Or the same thing but as a mass reanimate for some more mana, but that gets a little annoying having to remember or mark a bunch of creatures as 1/1.
To go with white reanimate, you could add some discard costs to white
Discard a card: investigate or +1/+1 or protection ability or gain a life or two etc. Could toss on any small, white effect to a creature and I'd probably buy it.
Sorcery or Instant
Reanimate a guy from your yard, except it's a 1/1.
Or the same thing but as a mass reanimate for some more mana, but that gets a little annoying having to remember or mark a bunch of creatures as 1/1.
To go with white reanimate, you could add some discard costs to white
Discard a card: investigate or +1/+1 or protection ability or gain a life or two etc. Could toss on any small, white effect to a creature and I'd probably buy it.
Kataki, War's Wage is pretty gnarly.
Even if the deck just tried to exploit Serra's Sanctum, that'd be a new angle. Maybe a GW guy with "tap an enchantment: add g" or something?
Am I missing something, or can you evoke Angel of the Final Seal and return itself if you stack the triggers right? Apart from that, I like a lot of these conceptually.
If you want to buff something further (especially for tempo or control!) I'd recommend adding flash. It's just rude on taxing and reanimating bodies. But I'm a big fan of all of these, at least in theory! Definitely some first-pick candidates.
Oh, and maybe make Archon of Forlorn Hope "White spells cost 1 less to cast. Non-White spells cost 1 more to cast?" No great reason, just my personal taste
And thanks for sharing!