General Custom Cards: The Lab

here's some cards that care about dragons and also some set-dressing for my version of Tarkir

I really love Scale-Shimmer and Fate Reforged!!

Also for Crux of Fate and a few other cards I've seen from your cube, are you putting the Elementals 'on the same side' as the Dragons to help alleviate that the Dragons only show up at higher cmcs?

I also have a few Dragon-centric cards in the constructed segment of my cube ^,..,^

KaONVUK.png
aV6xpIP.png
gOHWWLq.png
 

Onderzeeboot

Ecstatic Orb
oh wow, I kinda hate how good that looks :D
And yeah... it's often not easy to generate the art you envision. Humans are far superior at creating the art you want, but... and I say this as a person with limited disposable income, MidJourney does enable me to generate a bunch of decent to good art for Magic customs without me going bankrupt. I still order my D&D character portraits from human beings though, and I would encourage others with sufficient funds to support human artists as well :)
 

Chris Taylor

Contributor
So I have an interesting question for you all:

How would you make this card playable?
As part of my invitational program (Drafters who either 3-0 or 0-3 my cube get to add a custom card to the cube) I often get more open ended submissions from those who don't do as much design work as I do. "I like sphinx's revalation, something like that" or "A defensive black 2 drop, I'll pitch some ideas", "Earl of Squirrel inspired", to name a few.

Clockspinning is my roommate's favorite card, no matter how many times we explain how bad it is. His submission, 3 drafts ago, was "a playable clockspinning", and this was my initial attempt:
144 - Overclockspinning.jpg
Sure. Take the buyback down to 1, see how it goes.

And yeah, it's cheaper now. It's got a decent tenure as how to keep an izzet mage busy, for all that's worth, but being limited to enhancing one permanent you control (or pinging off +1/+1 or loyalty counters from your opponent's stuff) just isn't really a winning card to make, no matter what it costs.

I could drastically change the cards in my cube to make this better, but that doesn't seem good or worth it. I can now remove "or suspended card" now that epochrasite has left my cube, but I'm unsure of what to try next.

I could make it one of the modes on a charm, I suppose. I could make it a one shot effect that is far stronger, doubling down on the niche-ness of it but offering something maybe powerful enough to entice.
Here's a link to my current list in case you want to check what cards this might combine with

I want to give it a fair shake before I give up. What would you do?
 

Onderzeeboot

Ecstatic Orb
I want to give it a fair shake before I give up. What would you do?
I think you can tweak this in a number of ways. The most straightforward one is to extend the effect to any number of permanents. Proliferate is already an option on some one mana spells (e.g. Thirsting Roots and Whisper of the Dross), so I think this should be more than okay.

Choose any number of permanents, then for each of those permanents give it a counter of a kind already there, or remove a counter from that permanent.

Alternatively, you could make it a charm with some additional options, e.g.

* Proliferate
* Populate
* Remove all counters from target permanent

Or you could marry both options and invent an inverse of Proliferate... say Dwindle.

Choose one or both —
• Dwindle. (Choose any number of permanents and/or players, then remove a counter from each of each kind already there.)
• Proliferate. (Choose any number of permanents and/or players, then give each another counter of each kind already there.)
 

Chris Taylor

Contributor
The problem I'm having is: under what circumstances are you running a proliferate spell (or a dwindle spell, that is cute :p) in a cube that isn't built around it?
 

Onderzeeboot

Ecstatic Orb
The problem I'm having is: under what circumstances are you running a proliferate spell (or a dwindle spell, that is cute :p) in a cube that isn't built around it?
So, currently you have...

Elusive Otter, Sleep-Cursed Faerie, Toymaker's Apprentice, Night Hag, Rimewielder, Ledger Shredder (times two), Mercurial Spelldancer, Petalskimmer, Thing in the Ice, Chrome Host Seedshark, Winter Spirit, Subtlety, Jace, the Mind Sculptor, Slip Out the Back, Force of Will, Shark Typhoon, Arcbound Ravager, Steel Overseer, Syr Ginger, the Meal Ender, Karn, Scion of Urza, Hall of Oracles, and Urza's Saga as cards that do something with Clockspinning in monoblue alone. What do you mean "a cube that isn't built around it"? There's plenty of interactions to be found if you go looking for it :) Sure, not all of them are worthwhile, but most are! Making the card cheap (as you did) or more broad in effect (dwindle/proliferate) would definitely go a long way. Like, "{1}{U}: Add a +1/+1 counter to Arcbound Ravager and tap target creature with Winter Spirit" is a pretty powerful repeatable effect.
 
Transpose {U}
Instant
Move a counter from target permanent to another target permanent that shares a type with it.
Escape—{U}, Exile two other cards from your graveyard

Bit of a different approach, but you can use it to add or remove counters, or even both.
+1/+1 counters, lore counters, loyalty counters, should probably be pretty solid.
 
So I have an interesting question for you all:

How would you make this card playable?
As part of my invitational program (Drafters who either 3-0 or 0-3 my cube get to add a custom card to the cube) I often get more open ended submissions from those who don't do as much design work as I do. "I like sphinx's revalation, something like that" or "A defensive black 2 drop, I'll pitch some ideas", "Earl of Squirrel inspired", to name a few.

Clockspinning is my roommate's favorite card, no matter how many times we explain how bad it is. His submission, 3 drafts ago, was "a playable clockspinning", and this was my initial attempt:
View attachment 8791
Sure. Take the buyback down to 1, see how it goes.

And yeah, it's cheaper now. It's got a decent tenure as how to keep an izzet mage busy, for all that's worth, but being limited to enhancing one permanent you control (or pinging off +1/+1 or loyalty counters from your opponent's stuff) just isn't really a winning card to make, no matter what it costs.

I could drastically change the cards in my cube to make this better, but that doesn't seem good or worth it. I can now remove "or suspended card" now that epochrasite has left my cube, but I'm unsure of what to try next.

I could make it one of the modes on a charm, I suppose. I could make it a one shot effect that is far stronger, doubling down on the niche-ness of it but offering something maybe powerful enough to entice.
Here's a link to my current list in case you want to check what cards this might combine with

I want to give it a fair shake before I give up. What would you do?
Nature's Clock - g/u
Sorcery (or instant i guess)
(insert clockspinning text here)
Draw a card.
 

Onderzeeboot

Ecstatic Orb
The buyback is probably a large part of the attractiveness of the card, and draw a card with buyback... though I suppose Whispers of the Muse is really underwhelming nowadays. Yeah, I could see this, but I would make it an Izzet hybrid, since red plays a lot better with the buyback in this cube I think? Also, really shortened text:

Remove a counter from target permanent, or give it another counter of a kind already there. Draw a card.

Alternatively:

Choose any number of permanents. For each of them, remove a counter from that permanent, or give it another counter of a kind already there.
 
Last edited:
Why not make it
RU
Deal 1 damage to target creature/planeswalker
Choose a counter….
Buyback 2?

Yes it is only playable with both a creature you want to kill and remove/add a counter, but it does not seem to be op.
 
Overclock {U}
Sorcery
For each counter on target permanent, remove that counter or put another of those of those counters on that permanent.

Buyback if you want I guess, but this version kills their walkers and instantly ults your own so that might be a little frustrating? It's just Gilder Bairn meets Vampire Hexmage as a sorcery tho.
 
here's some cards that care about dragons and also some set-dressing for my version of Tarkir
Some really great designs here. I'd echo what @Onderzeeboo said. A couple of these look really ridiculously strong (Passion of Tarkir, which I know has its roots in Red Elemental Blast etc. but that feels like a time way past for me.). But overall some cool designs. Definitely going to steal Force of Heirophany from you. It looks so cool and I love the tension as a removal spell/weird pump effect. So cool! Thanks for sharing!
 
@Chris Taylor You may be interested one of my cards. The Cleaning Robot design I posted a while back. Does something similar to Clockspinning and has "buyback" because it's a permanent. Has been working well cards like The One Ring, Vanishing, Planeswalkers, etc. Can adjust to your powerlevel.


0rj25IN.png
 
I think I'm almost done with custom cards. Gotta change a couple broken designs into more interesting ones, but definitely in the closing stages of the custom card project. Check out the planeswalkers. They're supposed to be able to hang with Omnath, Locus of Creation on power level
 

Attachments

  • Narset Adrift in Time.png
    Narset Adrift in Time.png
    257.1 KB · Views: 28
  • Sarkhan final.png
    Sarkhan final.png
    267.6 KB · Views: 28

Onderzeeboot

Ecstatic Orb
Cool cards. Only thing that’s a bit weird to me, is that Narset can ramp with both her +1 and -X while being the nongreen walker.
 
Top