General Custom Cards: The Lab

[Chris Taylor]

Hey islands that are not islands are a time honored magic tradition

 

[Velrun]

Hey islands that are not islands are a time honored magic tradition

But they always have some kind of water on them.

 

[jerichoalar]

For dual lands I don’t think that’s at all true actually.

training center has neither water nor mountains for ex. (And that’s not even getting into all the lands that “cheat” by using Clouds or Ice.) If sea of clouds is white blue, {precarious span} can be Red Blue, imo.


for that matter I don’t think there’s a rule against people in land art (see also temple of the false god) or that art can’t be realistic. (secluded steppe desolate lighthouse)

edit: that’s the wrong secluded steppe, guess deckbox isn’t auto linking unreleased cards yet (it has the onslaught art again in Cmdr legends, although the horizons art is also a perfectly plausible “earth landscape” piece)

having seen all 4 side by side I think my favorite is still the lighthouse (although the title has overlap with BR now so that might take some considering, Deserted Lighthouse is an available title)

 

[Velrun]

But neither Training Center nor Sea of Clouds are Islands. And thus they do not need to have any watery feel to them.

You can’t have an Island with this art:



In other words I would either pick a new art for the card (I would choose the Aqueduct) or I would strip the Basic land types from the dual lands. If we’re striving for perfection that is Wizards aren’t perfect and we don’t have to be either <3

There is nothing ‘wrong’ with putting humans on land cards. But it is odd. Like ‘unusual’. And when it came to a Sahara-like card on Amonkhet (in the middle of a desert) then I just said it would be off lore wise if the card took place during the Amonkhet block storyline. However if it takes place now, then fine with humans in the desert.

 

[jerichoalar]

Oh yes, I mean my preferred iteration of these cards doesn't include the card type but it was specifically requested.

Even then though, I'd point to this version

Spoiler: Steam vents GRN

of steam vents. (While it has Steam in the title, there's no steam *or* vents on the card, it's like some kind of lightning generator)

and Tundra prior to VMA did the 'snow counts as water' cheat on a typed land too. Wizards has just *always* been bad about islands.

I guess for the typed ones I'll settle on whichever Blacksmithy likes most since they're mostly for him! the Untyped ones I'm doing is going to be the lighthouse I think. (I agree that Aqueduct is a good art, I just don't like the color palette and I'm not skilled enough at 'shop to mix it to red and blue from green and blue)

edit: if someone is skilled with image editing tools I’d love an aqueduct where the color palette was less green and more red ...

 

[Onderzeeboot]

Lands with adventures. When?

 

[blacksmithy]

Jericho, this is lovely. If you want to know what I think about the lands that have seen multiple versions...
-i like both arts of Choked River, but the one with the boat in it tells a funny story so that’s a winner for me.
-The UR land WOULD be the lighthouse for me except that i like the Ramshackle Slums art for the BR land. Can’t have 2 Ramshackle cards in 1 cycle, so Precarious Span is my second favorite here.

 

[jerichoalar]

How do you feel about the lighthouse art with a title change to {Deserted Lighthouse}? If you still prefer Span, then I think you’re set on finalized versions of that cycle with types?

I really Like the ship art for river too, Onderzeeboot hit it out of the park on that art suggestion.

I’ll get to work on creative for the bustling port cycle, anyone who has title or composition suggestions for the other 8 I’d love to hear them! (I’m thinking some interior spaces might work well this time, cycle theme is “places where you might need to ‘pay’ extra”)


adventure lands, I saw a reddit post with duals , but I wonder about the flavor of a “land” going on an “adventure”


has this forum produced any custom mechanics that plays around in the graveyard, discard, madness space? (On topic, Primal is amazing and I’m surprised Wizards hasn’t done something like it yet. It makes me think about Muraganda immediately)

 

[Onderzeeboot]

adventure lands, I saw a reddit post with duals , but I wonder about the flavor of a “land” going on an “adventure”

You switch the flavor around, it's not someone going on an adventure, it's somewhere you can go on an adventure. This is the perfect place for land art with people in them (you'll notice the small figure in the bottom right corner ).

has this forum produced any custom mechanics that plays around in the graveyard, discard, madness space? (On topic, Primal is amazing and I’m surprised Wizards hasn’t done something like it yet. It makes me think about Muraganda immediately)

I played around with alternative aftermath implementations. Like, the front side doesn't have to be an instant or sorcery. E.g.

 

[Velrun]

I'd point to this version

But Wizards also make mistakes every now and then. Allow me to quote myself from one post ago.

If we’re striving for perfection that is Wizards aren’t perfect and we don’t have to be either <3.

 

[Velrun]

That’s some very cool design space you’ve created there, Ondezeeboot!

The Deagonskull Caldera seems a little strong if you ask me but overall I like both adventure and Aftermath. And flavor makes sense too if you ask me.

Now you gotta come up with some cool names if you want aftermath The Amonkhet block used ‘to’ as the middle word.

 

[Onderzeeboot]

Now you gotta come up with some cool names if you want aftermath The Amonkhet block used ‘to’ as the middle word.

That's a hopeless quest. There's only so many combinations you can use anyway, and the number of combinations that fit land + spell is going to be exceedingly small. I'm not going to shackle my creativity by adhering to strict naming conventions just for the sake of it

Also, who says only enchantments can be sagas? (The rules do, but we can get creative and ignore the rules a bit!)



Alterately, you could make this a green enchantment and it would work differently, but feel much closer to what is currently possible.

 

[blacksmithy]

How do you feel about the lighthouse art with a title change to {Deserted Lighthouse}? If you still prefer Span, then I think you’re set on finalized versions of that cycle with types?

I really Like the ship art for river too, Onderzeeboot hit it out of the park on that art suggestion.

I’ll get to work on creative for the bustling port cycle, anyone who has title or composition suggestions for the other 8 I’d love to hear them! (I’m thinking some interior spaces might work well this time, cycle theme is “places where you might need to ‘pay’ extra”)

Yeah Lighthouse change is fine.
For the discard lands, yeah i agree the concept of busy marketplaces is a cool theme. Just some off the cuff ideas:
WU: Company Harbor (like East India Company)
UB: Underground Speakeasy
BR: Bizarre Bazaar
RG: Trader’s Outpost
GW: Produce Market
...i’ll edit this once i think of some for enemy duals. again, just kind of brainstorming
EDIT:
WB: Seat of Commerce
BG: Scurrilous Shopwood (like a little forest full of Rogue Elf merchants)
GU: Remedy Emporium
UR: Curio of Curiosities
RW: Smithy’s Store

 

[Onderzeeboot]

I have too many ideas!

 

[Velrun]

I love the Saga land idea!

Ps my entire cube is based around Sagas that aren’t Sagas (but instead is your character Race card that you begin the tournament with.)

Yes I believe entering the battlefield tapped is more fair when it comes to adventure lands.

 

[Chris Taylor]

Those are dope ideas bootman!

 

[jerichoalar]

Spoiler: Last few Haakon

I'll do another set untyped (identical except for typeline) and add a sig linking all of these later.

 

[jerichoalar]

I have too many ideas!

I think Explore-Land-Land is my favorite so far. This seems like the sort of design where basically anything that could be a cantrip could be an adventure land? (if anything an adventure land might be slightly worse than an average cantrip except in your opening hand...) That's a ton of design space if so!

Spoiler: Bustling Port Cycle First Draft

Spoiler: Alt Creative

Things I couldn't really find but wanted to: an obviously magical university or library (for RU), a crowded bazaar (for RW or RG), an obviously fantasy bank (for BW), some kind of potion dealership (GU). That said, we made do.

I think the Atelier is awesome even if it's not an island, but that monastery is awesome too.

Yes, I know several of them have incorrect templating, I'll fix it tomorrow.

 

[blacksmithy]

Amen to the Atelier, great word choice and great art. Love me some airships!

 

[Velrun]

Do you have link for Grand Arena and Witch’s Cabin?
I want to steal those

 

[jerichoalar]

Sure:

Grand Arena: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/nLLXE
Witch's Cabin: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/XgKYl

(almost all of the art I've used has been from Artstation or Pixiv, generally "author credit artstation" will work but the pixiv ones might be hard to find due to mtg.design only accepting roman characters for the artist credit, so I had to romanize the names)

And yeah I love Atelier but it's not really a typed land look (as previously discussed) whereas that monastery obviously is.

Let me be the first to say I'm disappointed that

is a super disappointing use of that card title...

 

[whydirt]

I'm sure I'm not the first to think of this but...

Collected Company colorshifted into white

 

[jerichoalar]

Like this?

Spoiler: Colorshifted Company

I prefer the Remastered Art as you can tell.

ninja edit: signature!

real edit

Spoiler: on the topic of hybridization

 

[Velrun]

Sure:

Grand Arena: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/nLLXE
Witch's Cabin: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/XgKYl

(almost all of the art I've used has been from Artstation or Pixiv, generally "author credit artstation" will work but the pixiv ones might be hard to find due to mtg.design only accepting roman characters for the artist credit, so I had to romanize the names)

And yeah I love Atelier but it's not really a typed land look (as previously discussed) whereas that monastery obviously is.

Let me be the first to say I'm disappointed that

is a super disappointing use of that card title...

Thanks

And also
What are you talking about, man? The first thing that happens in my cube format (called ‘The Coliseum’) is that I hand out a Grand Coliseum to each player followed up by telling them only one player will survive the tournament because the win-condition of the tournament is to kick the other players out of the Coliseum.

 

[Chris Taylor]

Thanks

And also
What are you talking about, man? The first thing that happens in my cube format (called ‘The Coliseum’) is that I hand out a Grand Coliseum to each player followed up by telling them only one player will survive the tournament because the win-condition of the tournament is to kick the other players out of the Coliseum.

That is so cheesy and I love it