General Custom Cards: The Lab

[anotak]

oh yea

that flying is absurd

 

[safra]

Flying is what we play it in 40s for here lmao. Cute with double strike also

 

[Chris Taylor]

Would you believe it originally made the creature a 4/4?

 

[anotak]

i feel like that'd still be quite playable in most mid-high power level cubes w like trample instead

 

[Chris Taylor]

A friend suggested just cutting the flying and renaming it "Komodo Dragon ruby"

Anyways, from my 3am Delirium comes the following white cantrip:

Crack the case
Instant?
Scry 1, then investigate.
Activated abilities of clues you control cost less to activate this turn

So it's opt at base (a little below what I'd like in my cube) but if youve got more clues than time you have time you can bust em all open.

My idea is there's not a ton of ways to generate clues here, more like the odd card, and maybe this wombo combos with Tireless tracker

 

[Velrun]

That’s cool.

I feel like it is a little too impactful for mere 1 mana.
I also feel like white should not get a card like Opt without either paying more mana or having something else attached. White cantrips are not about filtering your draws but about giving a creature a protection + cantrip or whatever.

That being said I would accept the card in my cube and I like your design

 

[Onderzeeboot]

The worst case is Opt, an unexciting but playable card. The best case is more busted than the already broken beyond belief Ancestral Recall.

 

[Chris Taylor]

That’s cool.

I feel like it is a little too impactful for mere 1 mana.
I also feel like white should not get a card like Opt without either paying more mana or having something else attached. White cantrips are not about filtering your draws but about giving a creature a protection + cantrip or whatever.

That being said I would accept the card in my cube and I like your design

Blue is the color of playing good magic, no other color should get anything even a tenth this powerful. But thats always been my starting point.

White cant draw cards ever, as much as red can't kill enchantments. Everything white that either improves your card quality or draws you cards is a bend.
But that's kinda shit in situations like limited where you just have to play the cards you're dealt. You can't just put blue cards in your deck, and (often) you just aren't in the seat where it's feasible to draft blue. So I often take the color pie with a hefty grain of salt, where any color can do anything if it feels right. I've got green removal spells after all.

As for the recall defense, you're probably right. I could make it "costs 1 less" but at that point it's not even helping you, as 2 mana cantrips are so different (compare even impulse to serum visions, and the comparison can get a LOT more unfavorable than that)

Maybe if it's an enchantment that provides the clue activation bonus?

 

[anotak]

so i misread that as all activated abilities at first
which is clearly broken in many environments with those numbers but,
it seems like an interesting direction to try to go with it

i do know that it's not typically in white's color pie but it's also a bit underexplored and it doesn't feel that far outside of it to me

 

[Chris Taylor]

Maybe the way to go about this is instead of "Crack all your clues for free" you get "Crack 2 clues for free", like this and one other.

Probably best to just word is as "You may sacrifice up to two Clues. If you do, draw that many cards." rather than making activations cheaper.

 

[sigh]

If you go with the enchantment route, you could do something like 'the first clue you sac each turn costs 2 less to sac'

 

[Onderzeeboot]

If you go with the enchantment route, you could do something like 'the first clue you sac each turn costs 2 less to sac'

Or, "The first time you activate an ability each turn, it costs up to less to activate."

Stick it on a 1/1 for with ", : Tap target creature." and you've got yourself a nice little tapper.

The "up to" wording is stolen from Training Grounds.

Alternatively you could go with something like "Activated abilities you activate cost up to less to activate. Activated abilities your opponents activate cost more to activate." to broaden its scope. Obviously you need another ability than the tap ability if you were to put this variant on a creature.

 

[Chris Taylor]

I had a clue making creature that made all artifacts 1 cheaper to activate, I'd probably go with that.

However I I'm leaning towards 1 mana, "You may sacrifice up to two Clues. If you do, draw that many cards."

There are currently a few reasons in my cube for this not to just draw a card, but I wanna keep an eye on that. If there's like two cards that care if an artifact etbs/dies/a token is created, etc I might have to reconsider. Since if I just actually give this opt's wording it's a blue card.

I probably don't wanna go full Graf Mole, but


Are all ideas, as well as a few customs I've got

Edit: fuckit, might as well post my proof of concept:

 

[Velrun]

Blue is the color of playing good magic, no other color should get anything even a tenth this powerful. But thats always been my starting point.

White cant draw cards ever, as much as red can't kill enchantments. Everything white that either improves your card quality or draws you cards is a bend.
But that's kinda shit in situations like limited where you just have to play the cards you're dealt. You can't just put blue cards in your deck, and (often) you just aren't in the seat where it's feasible to draft blue. So I often take the color pie with a hefty grain of salt, where any color can do anything if it feels right. I've got green removal spells after all.

As for the recall defense, you're probably right. I could make it "costs 1 less" but at that point it's not even helping you, as 2 mana cantrips are so different (compare even impulse to serum visions, and the comparison can get a LOT more unfavorable than that)

Maybe if it's an enchantment that provides the clue activation bonus?

White are plenty good at drawing cards according to the color pie. As long as it is a cantrip and not several cards.

It could make the next clue token free to sacrifice? Instead of all of them.

Edit: I see now that you had the same idea. I would feel very fine with 2 clues as well.

 

[Onderzeeboot]

I'm annoyed at the lack of 5 cmc black wrath effects

 

[Chris Taylor]

Got any specific mechanical demands? I've been doubling up damnation for so long I've kinda forgotten

 

[Onderzeeboot]

Got any specific mechanical demands? I've been doubling up damnation for so long I've kinda forgotten

I run Crux of Fate at the moment, and there simply isn't any other black 5 cmc wrath effect that unconditionally destroys every creature with a small bonus. I don't run any 4 cmc wraths on purpose, so Damnation is out, and the 6 cmc options aren't really enticing plus a bit too slow. Really, something with a bit of upside. Maybe I just want to shift Rout, and switch Rout over to that new wrath... Cleansing Nova! Hmm... That might be worth testing, an instant wrath is much more useful in than it is in or !

 

[Velrun]

Do you have a lot of regeneration in your cube?

 

[Onderzeeboot]

Do you have a lot of regeneration in your cube?

Only three creatures.

 

[Chris Taylor]

3BB
Choose one:
-Destroy all creatures
-Destroy all creatures and planeswalkers

 

[Velrun]

Only three creatures.

That is enough I really like it when a card can sometimes have an upside/downside against a few other cards.

 

[Velrun]

I run this one.

 

[Onderzeeboot]

Oof, that's really powerful!

I'm now testing , choose one:

 

[Velrun]

Yeah it is but it doesn’t take down insanely big dudes. I kind of dislike when most Wraths kill huge M11 Titans, Eldrazies, Griselbrands, Ionas, etc. I feel like some Wrath effects should have other up- and downsides than just “Clear the board + small effect.” I like diversity.

This one has a lot more tactical implications and decision makings to consider. The rebound really gives the spell some depths over the no-brainers ‘Destroy all.’ Some people throw this one out there preemptively like a Doomsayer in order to regain initiative.

Also my cube is a lot more powerful than yours. The lower powered threats = the lower powered removal spells are required. Often. In my opinion.

If you want to steal my design but feel like it is way too strong you can always tone it down (-4/-4 or CMC 6).

 

[anotak]

i think that 5 mana choose wrath/zombify is actually possibly the most powerful 5 mana wrath ive seen? it's not obvious bc 5 mana wrath is well, 5 mana wrath, and 5 mana zombify seems way below par. but it's important to consider how much having the other side be a zombify resolves the drawbacks of putting a wrath in your deck and drawing one in situations where the wrath isnt good.