Iirc I read somewhere (maybe the old mothership, maybe phyrexia) that in the early days the art style was anything goes. In other words: there was no world building. Along the way a rough guide book what things should look like came along. This guide was made by Pete Venters who oversaw the art to get one feel in a world, but with different styles. This second age was around ice age (at least rath block). It was a rough guide and allowed for individual styles while simultaneously have a cohesive world. How he did that is still impressive. Of course, wizards does what it is best at and “improved” the world book guide by making it too strict and individual styles got lost. This third era blended together with cgi/cai (or maybe the cai was a bit earlier).
General Custom Cards: The Lab
- Thread starter anotak
- Start date
I am on the road so cannot find pictures right now but I will challenge you to go to Scryfall and look up cards from Eldraine and match them with Zendikar or look up Lorwyn and match them with Ikoria. It’s wonderful to see the difference and that it is consistent across many expansions.
That’s fair.
However Dominaria is kind of an exception because it was made before Wizards decided we should go to new planes. Dominaria has everything basically and thus it also had many different art styles. Dominaria is 1/3 of Magic’s history.
I am no art expert but even on those examples there are clear styles on the respective planes. The depth of color. The symbolism they add. The light/dark they use. The actual depiction of races, buildings, full Moon etc. Although Dominaria is once again a bad example to draw conclusions from because it was a plane they made before they decided to make several planes. So it has it all.
Correct on both counts:Wording check:
, Pay 1 life, Sacrifice {cardname}: Search your library for a Plains card or a card named Wastes, put it onto the battlefield, then shuffle.
Not 100% on the italics.
I don't have pictures yet. Just considering some alternative (and additional) fetches. I don't even know how I'd get good pictures for this, as Wastes look very unique. I'll probably just use a monocolored looking art and that'll have to be good enough.
Not exactly, but it's sort of elegant to have it read as "fetch but Wastes." I think that will click really easily as a custom. I want to avoid the slippery slope of adding too original of custom designs... For now...
If it just taps for colorless, it lets you wait to crack it. This might be a good thing, but I think it adds decision points that are mostly irrelevant, which is generally a bad idea. That is to say that I like it fetching a Wastes, or just conjuring one wholesale so that you don't have to put a Wastes in your deck.
There must be a good reason for it to be able to fetch Wastes.
Both for the designer’s perspective and for the player.
The designer cannot include a card that specifically fetches Wastes unless there is a good reason to do so. There can be a colorless
theme. Or something else.
The player cannot fetch a Wastes unless there is a good reason to do so. This will require adding Wastes to the deck which is a downside. And there is no upside to doing so. There’s the conjure option like suggested above. But it will still be strictly better to fetch the colored mana.
So for both the designer and the player there must be a good reason. Brad tell us your secrets!
Both for the designer’s perspective and for the player.
The designer cannot include a card that specifically fetches Wastes unless there is a good reason to do so. There can be a colorless
theme. Or something else.The player cannot fetch a Wastes unless there is a good reason to do so. This will require adding Wastes to the deck which is a downside. And there is no upside to doing so. There’s the conjure option like suggested above. But it will still be strictly better to fetch the colored mana.
So for both the designer and the player there must be a good reason. Brad tell us your secrets!
If there is no good reason but you still want the fetch land to have two options and you are also hellbent on keeping the second option as something related to Wastes, you can also do the following:
Fetch Plains or wish for two Wastes and put them into your hand. You will have to balance test it. This will give the player a tempo loss (Stone Rain themself) for the upside of getting two mana sources for one card. It will also leave the lands in the deck thus making it a bit more likely to draw lands. And the two lands are colorless which will be a downside.
There are many ways to tweak this balance wise. You can let the land exile to get the two Wastes. You can up the life payment. You can add Stun counters as a part of the payment. You can let the land enters the battlefield tapped. You can let it fetch the colored land tapped. You can make it give life to opponent. You can make the sacrificing sorcery speed. Etc etc.
Fetch Plains or wish for two Wastes and put them into your hand. You will have to balance test it. This will give the player a tempo loss (Stone Rain themself) for the upside of getting two mana sources for one card. It will also leave the lands in the deck thus making it a bit more likely to draw lands. And the two lands are colorless which will be a downside.
There are many ways to tweak this balance wise. You can let the land exile to get the two Wastes. You can up the life payment. You can add Stun counters as a part of the payment. You can let the land enters the battlefield tapped. You can let it fetch the colored land tapped. You can make it give life to opponent. You can make the sacrificing sorcery speed. Etc etc.
It's for the Eldrazi cube, so I'm trying to add a bit of
Made a post about manabases in the Eldrazi thread in my signature.
Creating a Wastes token/bringing one from sideboard is an interesting option.
Then it is very interesting!
Do you run Pain lands eg Yavimaya Coast? They tap for 3 colors if you have
as a color. And the have the benefit of being one of the few dual lands that are actually also good for aggro decks besides also being good for control decks.If yes then maybe you could also word your Fetch lands in a way where they either fetch a Plains or a land card that can add
so they can fetch the Pain lands.
I liked the original very much in BRO. I also think it's a neat idea to have tension with either producing Mana or using the artifact otherwise, if your cube has artifact synergies.
Depending on your cube a 0/2 might be a bit anemic. At least a 1/2? Maybe a 1/3?
Depending on your cube a 0/2 might be a bit anemic. At least a 1/2? Maybe a 1/3?
Onderzeeboot
Ecstatic Orb
I mean, this exists
Not saying you should push this to a 2/1, but there's room to be more than a 0/2, I think. Design-wise this is cool though!
Onderzeeboot
Ecstatic Orb
I specifically don’t like 0/2 here because you want to do something with it if you can use the powerstone without filtering the mana. If this is just a 0/2, it’s not so interesting over something like Mind Stone.
To me it is. It makes power/toughness matter if not all creatures have 1 or higher power and not all low mana value creatures are 2/1 or 1/3. It is interesting that it is vulnerable to creature spot removal. It can block 1 power creatures infinite, it can block 8 power creatures once and it can attack to ninjutsu etc etc.
i'm so friggin serious about this. i play this card below. is it nutso? yes. is it a more interesting and satisfying game piece than Leaf Gilder absolutely also yes. the knight of the gardens puts you up while opponent falls behind, which is a microcosm in HP of the same thing happening in terms of mana development...there is so so SO much room for mana dorks that brawl sometimes once you don't need your sixth point of
or whatever. push your two mana mana dorks! push them even further than that!Attachments
Onderzeeboot
Ecstatic Orb
While I agree with the general sentiment, how far you can push your mana dorks depends a lot on the power curve of your cube. Knight of the Gardens is not a card I would want to run in my environment, for example.i'm so friggin serious about this. i play this card below. is it nutso? yes. is it a more interesting and satisfying game piece than Leaf Gilder absolutely also yes. the knight of the gardens puts you up while opponent falls behind, which is a microcosm in HP of the same thing happening in terms of mana development...there is so so SO much room for mana dorks that brawl sometimes once you don't need your sixth point of