General Custom Cards: The Lab

[Chris Taylor]

Ok, I want this to be a cantrip, but I don't want to feel the equipment part... tacked on. I did a pretty big redesign to make room for a different idea. No more life gain, and no more sacrificing the staff to cantrip. Instead you are now incentivized to equip for a repeat trigger, and you get a dash of green indestructibility.

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PS. I potentially want to put this at for my cube, because I don't really do card selection at 1 mv.

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This looks very dangerous as a way to push a lot of damage through? Maybe I should lower this to 2 damage?

Alternatively:

 

[Onderzeeboot]

Alternatively:

That is a cool design, but because I run a heroic archetype in Boros, I want the card to be able to target your own creatures in a pinch I'll try a 2 damage to any target version instead of what I had.

How about a "non-toxic" Smokestack that has a final punch? I'm currently running Doom Foretold, which is a bit iffy, I think? Mainly because it doesn't work with tokens.

 

[blacksmithy]

smokestack killing lands is the best part

that said, i do like this better than doom foretold. can it have extort?

 

[Brad]

I don't personally think it needs extort, but smokestack killing lands literally is the best part.

I think that the death trigger is a nice, small, bonus. Won't swing things too much, but makes you feel alright when you finally have to say goodbye. Also fits the "doom" vibe pretty well.

 

[Phone]

How about a "non-toxic" Smokestack that has a final punch? I'm currently running Doom Foretold, which is a bit iffy, I think? Mainly because it doesn't work with tokens.
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I love this design. Any chance I could steal the art from you? I'd love to have a version that hits lands for my cube because I'm a monster.

Also wondering if the Doom Engine should go off if it gets destroyed? Instead of just sacrificed. Seems like destroying a bomb would make it go off (not a bomb expert). Would love to playtest it a bit and see.

 

[Onderzeeboot]

I love this design. Any chance I could steal the art from you? I'd love to have a version that hits lands for my cube because I'm a monster.

Yes, feel free to steal that art.

Also wondering if the Doom Engine should go off if it gets destroyed? Instead of just sacrificed. Seems like destroying a bomb would make it go off (not a bomb expert). Would love to playtest it a bit and see.

Also yes, that's definitely an improvement!

smokestack killing lands is the best part

that said, i do like this better than doom foretold. can it have extort?

And yes, Smokestack killing lands is the best part, but Smokestack's also in my cube, and I don't want my custom to be just a straight upgrade if you happen to play the right colors for the Smokestack deck anyway. I also don't think extort really fits, but I did realize there's no reason why this should put doom counters on during your upkeep. We can add counters in the end step, so your opponent immediately has to sacrifice something on their next upkeep!

 

[Mown]

In practice, how appealing is a Sovereign's Bite (if even that) stapled to your stax piece? Seems like a lot of real estate to use on something relatively inconsequential.

 

[Velrun]

I don't personally think it needs extort, but smokestack killing lands literally is the best part.

I think that the death trigger is a nice, small, bonus. Won't swing things too much, but makes you feel alright when you finally have to say goodbye. Also fits the "doom" vibe pretty well.

Yes @Onderzeeboot I also like this doom vibe it has. And again killer art.

 

[Velrun]

Hm I actually think extort kind of fits flavor wise. Even though it is starting to be a full page of reading.

Bombs can do two things, right?
1. Blow up things.
2. Threaten to blow up things.

Extort fits #2 I would say.

 

[Onderzeeboot]

In practice, how appealing is a Sovereign's Bite (if even that) stapled to your stax piece? Seems like a lot of real estate to use on something relatively inconsequential.

This is a fair point, and one I considered myself. I contemplated using “X is twice the number of counters”, but that seems a bit too harsh. As is, the main effect is what this card is all about, and I don’t think I need to put something extra on there that can stand on its own. The life drain is simply a little rider to sweeten the deal, and make it feel . A 6 point life swing on top of a Smokestack-light sounded good enough to me!

Edit: Extort would work as well, but I can’t (read: don’t want to) use it, because it would be the only extort card in my cube.

Edit 2: Flexibility is nice, but you could lock out an opponent out of the game by setting the Doom Engine to one counter and having some kind of token generator in play. What if we made adding a counter mandatory?

 

[Rusje]

This is a fair point, and one I considered myself. I contemplated using “X is twice the number of counters”, but that seems a bit too harsh. As is, the main effect is what this card is all about, and I don’t think I need to put something extra on there that can stand on its own. The life drain is simply a little rider to sweeten the deal, and make it feel . A 6 point life swing on top of a Smokestack-light sounded good enough to me!

Edit: Extort would work as well, but I can’t (read: don’t want to) use it, because it would be the only extort card in my cube.

Edit 2: Flexibility is nice, but you could lock out an opponent out of the game by setting the Doom Engine to one counter and having some kind of token generator in play. What if we made adding a counter mandatory?

What if you made it to: sacrifice a non-token permanent for each doom counter. For each land sacrificed, that player creates a treasure token.

Makes locking out a tad harder (rancor) anyone?), and creates a puzzle for the player whether to sac a land or not.

 

[LadyMapi]

I feel like making it hard to lock people out with variant!Smokestack is kinda missing why people play the card. If you're going to be that nice about it, why not just spruce up Doom Foretold and call it a day?

 

[Onderzeeboot]

I feel like making it hard to lock people out with variant!Smokestack is kinda missing why people play the card. If you're going to be that nice about it, why not just spruce up Doom Foretold and call it a day?

All right, all right... What about this?



Increasing the doom counters now is mandatory, and happens in your end step, so the opponent has to immediately sacrifice something. This lets you nuke up lands (the admittedly best part of Smokestack), and it should let you rack up more doom counters for that final oomph to drain 4 or even 5 life, making for a bigger life swing. I think that the different timing together with the mandatory uptick of doom counters make the base effect feel different enough from Smokestack that I'm comfortable putting it in my cube besides that card. It also feel more Doom-y with that guaranteed uptick

 

[Phone]

All right, all right... What about this?

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Increasing the doom counters now is mandatory, and happens in your end step, so the opponent has to immediately sacrifice something. This lets you nuke up lands (the admittedly best part of Smokestack), and it should let you rack up more doom counters for that final oomph to drain 4 or even 5 life, making for a bigger life swing. I think that the different timing together with the mandatory uptick of doom counters make the base effect feel different enough from Smokestack that I'm comfortable putting it in my cube besides that card. It also feel more Doom-y with that guaranteed uptick

I was initially against it because it loses a lot of the flexibility and power of Smokestack (i.e. Setting it to the exact number of permanents you can handle each turn). I'm kind of liking the bomb-ticking-up feel of the card. I'm not sure this iteration gets there for me on a power level but is definitely very flavourful.

 

[Brad]

I hate the forced ticking-up, but I played stax in vintage like 15 years ago, so that may be nostalgia talking. It's more "Doom" to force the counter up.

I think it's ok for a two color Smokestack to be better than the colorless one. This doesn't need to have a drawback compared to the OG.

I like the little bit of life gain. It's not going to make a big impact, but it just might be the little bit of life you need to grind a game out.

You don't need the comma after "loses X life"

 

[Chris Taylor]

You know the real way to upgrade smokestak

Etb edict

 

[Velrun]

Okay @Onderzeeboot final change to your card: Remove the life gain. Let it only lose life for opponent.

 

[Rusje]

You know the real way to upgrade smokestak

Etb edict

Or you may add counter add the end of your turn instead of upkeep. Makes it come online one turn earlier.

 

[Velrun]

Or you may add counter add the end of your turn instead of upkeep. Makes it come online one turn earlier.

You mean like it already is and has been for the last few iterations of Onde’s custom card?

 

[Rusje]

You mean like it already is and has been for the last few iterations of Onde’s custom card?

No, Submarine doom lock is mandatory uptick. That's a huge difference.

 

[Onderzeeboot]

Okay @Onderzeeboot final change to your card: Remove the life gain. Let it only lose life for opponent.

I get what you’re going for, but I’m looking for a design, and that’s a design. For flavor’s sake, let’s say this machine annihilates everything to harvest life essence and return that essence to its creator Personally I’m happy with how the current version looks, and that’s the one I intend to playtest.

No, Submarine doom lock is mandatory uptick. That's a huge difference.

The way you phrased that stressed the difference between adding the counter at end of turn instead of during the upkeep. I had already changed it to add a doom counter at the beginning of the end step in my last version. In other words, it didn't look like you were advocating for making the trigger optional specifically, so I think that's what caused the confusion. We talked about making it optional (and I have an image of that version saved locally), but I want to try it out with a mandatory trigger to differentiate it a bit from Smokestack, and because it feels more like a "doom" engine that way.

Anyway, thanks everyone for thinking along! Definitely finetuned a few designs to better versions of themselves that I'm excited to test!

 

[Velrun]

No, Submarine doom lock is mandatory uptick. That's a huge difference.

What does that have to do with anything? You wrote “Makes it come online a turn earlier.”

Do you mean like Onde wrote here and here?

I did realize there's no reason why this should put doom counters on during your upkeep. We can add counters in the end step, so your opponent immediately has to sacrifice something on their next upkeep!

Increasing the doom counters now is mandatory, and happens in your end step, so the opponent has to immediately sacrifice something. This lets you nuke up lands (the admittedly best part of Smokestack), and it should let you rack up more doom counters for that final oomph to drain 4 or even 5 life, making for a bigger life swing.

 

[Rusje]

I specifically quoted Chris who said you know how to upgrade smokestack. I was referring to that comment. Chris proposed to add edict. I changed that to change the timing of the counter adding of smokestack.


I think the card Onderzeeboot made is really different due to one turn earlier effect and the mandatory uptick. It is probably a much fairer card for these changes and indeed feels much more like a doom clock than smokestack, which is more a lock piece.

 

[Onderzeeboot]

So, I had been itching to add Mawloc to my cube, and initially thought Aberrant had square stats (P/T = MV) as well, but during testing I discovered it's a 2 mana 0/0 Considering Trygon Predator is also in my cube, what is the correct P/T to put on a custom Aberrant, such that it is playable but not overpowered? I honestly might add some custom Ravenous creatures to the cube, since they are fun to play with, and Temur has a ramp theme that loves flexible cards! I did add Mawloc and The Goose Mother in the most recent update, so I probably want to be at least a bit careful... Then again, last time we played this cube the finals was a Boros 15 land mirror match XD

 

[blacksmithy]

if you want this and trygon to both be playable, try knocking this down by 1 mana. (i would also add at least 1/1 to the base body but i doubt you need that)