General Custom Cards: The Lab

I am pretty sure they have changed how they word this effect from “When” to “As” to avoid any shenanigans upon entering the battlefield. Not errata because that would lead to too many changes to non-imprint cards but only for future imprint designs.
 
The single letter difference in some card names comes across more as a typo than a deliberate alteration - Frazzle, Render Silent and Muddle the Mixture vs Frazzled, Rendered and Meddle. I think it worked better with Sinister Subversion and Frilled Mage, as that's a larger difference in name while still being clearly referential. Love the use of the promo art where applicable, I'd definitely continue that trend.
Other than that, love them.
 
This is cursed:
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The centered rules text looks nice, but this frame is not conducive to a centered name or type line, in my opinion.
 
This is cursed:
The centered rules text looks nice, but this frame is not conducive to a centered name or type line, in my opinion.
Alright lol. I get bored making normal frames.

Any opinion on the recycling of art? I'm mainly worried that people who recognize the art will assume it's the original card.



Is there a good resource for finding non-card MtG art?
 
The single letter difference in some card names comes across more as a typo than a deliberate alteration - Frazzle, Render Silent and Muddle the Mixture vs Frazzled, Rendered and Meddle.

Meddle the Mixture also really stands out as a typo, since you would "muddle a mixture" (aka screw it up), but you would "meddle with a mixture" (aka tamper with it).

The other two don't work very well because non-permanent spells that have verbs for names generally use the root form of the verb (to frazzle, to render). "Frazzled" just sounds off, while "Rendered Silent" sounds like it should be an Aura.

I honestly think your best solution would be to do something like what the Alchemy cards do and just have a big "HEY, THIS IS AN ALTERNATE VERSION OF THE CARD — READ IT AGAIN" symbol next to the name.
 
I honestly think your best solution would be to do something like what the Alchemy cards do and just have a big "HEY, THIS IS AN ALTERNATE VERSION OF THE CARD — READ IT AGAIN" symbol next to the name.
That's a good idea. Having to thesaurus search a synonym for every name I want to tweak is time consuming.

Anyone know if I can put some sort of special symbol into the names?



Other than issues with the names, they look good to you?
 
I don't see any reason why you'd have Essence Drain ("counter target creature spell" + steal the mana used to cast it) and Mana Drain ("counter target spell" + steal the mana used to cast it) in the same card pool at the same cost. That seems... off.

Mental Static is kinda cool.

Frilled Mage seems rather strong. Like, it and your version of Mana Drain are basically the only "strictly better" counterspells in the pile, and it kinda stands out.
 
I don't see any reason why you'd have Essence Drain ("counter target creature spell" + steal the mana used to cast it) and Mana Drain ("counter target spell" + steal the mana used to cast it) in the same card pool at the same cost. That seems... off.
Cus it's still super good lol
Mental Static is kinda cool.
I wanted Mental Misstep but can't use Phyrexian mana in Ravnica and then I came up with that.


Frilled Mage seems rather strong. Like, it and your version of Mana Drain are basically the only "strictly better" counterspells in the pile, and it kinda stands out.
That's oracle text Mana Drain. It is for a powered cube, after all.



Mostly interested if the cards feel like they're working thematically. I don't want the recycled art and tweaked versions of old cards to be confusing. I think there's a lot of potential in powered cube to use some of these Ravnican mechanics.
 
I'm more questioning the fact that you made a Mana Drain version of Essence Scatter and then threw in real Mana Drain instead of a Mana Drain version of Negate. That feels aesthetically wrong to me. And... yeah, it's a powered cube, but I don't see why you're planning on including so many cards that are strictly better than other cards you're running. That just makes it feel like you don't know what power band you're aiming for.

Granted, I'm also one of those people who gets kinda annoyed when I see a cube that runs OG untapped duals alongside shocklands, so maybe I'm not the person to ask. :p
 
I'm more questioning the fact that you made a Mana Drain version of Essence Scatter and then threw in real Mana Drain instead of a Mana Drain version of Negate. That feels aesthetically wrong to me. And... yeah, it's a powered cube, but I don't see why you're planning on including so many cards that are strictly better than other cards you're running. That just makes it feel like you don't know what power band you're aiming for.

Granted, I'm also one of those people who gets kinda annoyed when I see a cube that runs OG untapped duals alongside shocklands, so maybe I'm not the person to ask. :p
Real powered cube has like Mana Leak and Mana Drain lol.

Maybe you're right. Could be Negate Drain. I'm not too concerned with the actual cards right now, just making sure the idea feels like it's working thematically/aesthetically.
Some original cards plus some more re-arts. I think that some of the Ravnivan mechanics have good potential to make some less-powered power. Transmute is especially cool to add some narrow tutors.

EDIT: There's another card in that imgur album, but it won't show on the embed.
Temporal Gambit - UUB
Instant
End the turn.
You life total becomes 1.
 
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Is there a good resource for finding non-card MtG art?
After a decent bit of Googling, I'm not seeing anything. I'm looking for a resource with promotional art, unused art, etc. Anything that can give me some real MtG art that wasn't used on cards. Specifically, I want Ravnica art right now.
 
Well, actually, Mana Drain is not strictly better than Mana Leak lol

Yeah, it's not like Counterspell, where the number of situations where having a Counterspell in your hand instead of a Mana Drain would be an improvement can be counted on one hand. Meanwhile, I can think of plenty of situations where I'd look at a Mana Drain in my hand and go "I wish this was a Mana Leak"... because {1}{U} is generally easier to cast than {U}{U} in anything other than a mono-blue deck (or a two-color deck with immaculate Legacy-tier fixing).
 
Yeah, it's not like Counterspell, where the number of situations where having a Counterspell in your hand instead of a Mana Drain would be an improvement can be counted on one hand. Meanwhile, I can think of plenty of situations where I'd look at a Mana Drain in my hand and go "I wish this was a Mana Leak"... because {1}{U} is generally easier to cast than {U}{U} in anything other than a mono-blue deck (or a two-color deck with immaculate Legacy-tier fixing).
I remember quite a few discussions on how this or that Vintage deck should run Mana Leak because being able to cast it from a single island was better than the added benefits from Mana Drain.
 

Onderzeeboot

Ecstatic Orb
So... I don't want to nitpick, but I'm doing it anyway :p

  • Adventures should have separate names from the cards they're on, which is slightly problematic, since you tried to fit both sides of the card to the name. In some cases this works (Duck) in others it doesn't (Wind, Sewer). Anyway, ask yourself if you're happy with players saying: "I cast Wind."
  • The reminder text on the adventure side of Extract, Match, and Object is wrong.
  • Wind feels disconnected.
  • Sewer feels weird and underpowered as a 0/2. Doomed Necromancer is a 2/2 for {2}{B} that is literally unplayable. I think you can get away with making it a 2/1 if you want to push it a bit.
  • Extract is cool.
  • Match (the enchantment) pulls all the lands from your deck with a single land drop.
  • Match's (the adventure) nonblue clause sticks out like a sore thumb, blue even is an enemy color of both red and green...
  • Suspect is cool.
  • Object is really cool, but also really wordy. It also seems really, really strong compared to the power level of the others.
  • Scale is cool.
  • Convert feels disjointed. You could easily make the creature an artifact creature to fit a bit better.
  • Duck is cool.
 
I actually find the polysemous names cute! They also helped me learn the word polysemous, so it's been educational too. Wizards wouldn't do it, but don't let that stop you.


As for balance, I mostly agree with Bootman. Other notes:

--Match should probably have at least one "basic" on it. As it stands, it's a busto T4 lands enabler that is also a removal spell from T1. R for 2 damage to a creature is very, very good value--see Spikefield Hazard.

--Extract seems crazy good for a control deck as a more different Pyrite Spellbomb combined with Check for Traps, both of which are playable on their own.

--Might some of these work better with higher mana costs on the adventures? Right now if I'm playing these cards, they're mostly gold cards that I'm looking to juice for maximal value, and by making some of the adventures the primary mode you might be able to spice things up a little.


But overall I really like these!
 
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