Pokémon: the Gathering - A Custom Cube
- Thread starter Brad
- Start date
Ha, I also designed one of my Rattatas as a 1-mana 2/1 vanilla. I guess it's just a good fit?
I like the references to famous rats of magic, but note that pack rat is really annoying when it creates copies of itself. Maybe you would rather have it be an X/X with X = number of rattata you control, but not with the ability to make more?
And how big is your cube going to be? Because for me for 360 having 4 versions of one Pokémon felt a little too much, which I opted in to max out at three. You also don't have to hit a certain number since you don't have my evolution ability. I still like it but it restrains what you can do.
I like the references to famous rats of magic, but note that pack rat is really annoying when it creates copies of itself. Maybe you would rather have it be an X/X with X = number of rattata you control, but not with the ability to make more?
And how big is your cube going to be? Because for me for 360 having 4 versions of one Pokémon felt a little too much, which I opted in to max out at three. You also don't have to hit a certain number since you don't have my evolution ability. I still like it but it restrains what you can do.
It's a kind of boring Pokemon and lends itself to a basic design.
It doesn't have the ability to make more.
360-405. There's only 4 copies of like 2-5 Pokemon. Pidgey, Rattata, and maybe Tentacool are the three I can think of immediately. And those are extremely common.
Bugs
Trying to not make every single one drop a 2/1...
EDIT: Gonna change Famished to "A graveyard" so it's like a mini ScOoze.
Think I've showed these. There's a fair argument to make 2 Metapods and 2 Kakunas, but I don't want an excess of strictly defensive bodies.
Also think I've showed these before.
Trying to not make every single one drop a 2/1...
EDIT: Gonna change Famished to "A graveyard" so it's like a mini ScOoze.
Think I've showed these. There's a fair argument to make 2 Metapods and 2 Kakunas, but I don't want an excess of strictly defensive bodies.
Also think I've showed these before.
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Nido Post
Rounded horn 2/2 and sharp horn trampler.
Inspired by some crow card from @Maldar. They're still pretty basic beaters, as the ability costs are high and slow, but have some long game potential, especially when they get together.
They also add general graveyard utility, which we love around these parts, make aggro vs aggro races more interesting with both the life gain and the life loss, and adds some reach to Fight/Grass aggro.
Rounded horn 2/2 and sharp horn trampler.
Inspired by some crow card from @Maldar. They're still pretty basic beaters, as the ability costs are high and slow, but have some long game potential, especially when they get together.
They also add general graveyard utility, which we love around these parts, make aggro vs aggro races more interesting with both the life gain and the life loss, and adds some reach to Fight/Grass aggro.
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I like the designs a ton, but I'm worried about the names being too similar. Would it be too much to make them something like Tilling Nidoran (M)/Harvesting Nidoran (F)? I can see myself confusing them very easily, especially since they show two halves of one art and include a bit of the other in that shot, lol.
This is a decent idea. I'll toy with that later. Makes a bit more sense to be harvesting, anyways, and I didn't consider the confusion aspect.
Should I reframe the arts a bit? I wanted them to be shown as pairs in the art because the effects of the cards operate in pairs, as well. I could get greater focus on the main Nido, though.
EDIT: Burrowing/Foraging and Tilling/Harvesting now describe the discard/return effects. Updated images in previous post. Really good suggestion. Thanks.
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Status Conditions
Poison 100% stolen from @ravnic
I haven't actually incorporated Poison onto a card yet, but it's coming. I do, however, have some Burn.
I offloaded some rules text onto the counter to save space on the card. Kinda went back and forth on the best way to do it. Let me know if any of it is unclear or doesn't work somehow. Definitely liking how succinct the text on the cards themselves is.
I may only use Burned and Poisoned as a two-sided status counter to keep it simple. A lot of the other status effects have RNG determining how long they last and I'm not interested in flipping coins or rolling die to determine a game's outcome.
Bonus ravnic Theft!
I added cool names to the top end starters.
Poison 100% stolen from @ravnic
I haven't actually incorporated Poison onto a card yet, but it's coming. I do, however, have some Burn.
I offloaded some rules text onto the counter to save space on the card. Kinda went back and forth on the best way to do it. Let me know if any of it is unclear or doesn't work somehow. Definitely liking how succinct the text on the cards themselves is.
I may only use Burned and Poisoned as a two-sided status counter to keep it simple. A lot of the other status effects have RNG determining how long they last and I'm not interested in flipping coins or rolling die to determine a game's outcome.
Bonus ravnic Theft!
I added cool names to the top end starters.
Misty's Psyduck seems very swingy, though I like the design. Might you want to make it "tap target permanent. It doesn't untap during its controller's next untap step" instead? This would prevent it from feeling like a must-kill while keeping the same general vibe, I think.
I'm probably also just getting hung up on something blue dealing damage, lol.
I'm probably also just getting hung up on something blue dealing damage, lol.
Chris Taylor
Contributor
Probably Cloud Nine
I feel like it's slow as hell as is. If three turns of leaving it alone earns a bolt... Seems fair enough?
Could be. Blue is a lot closer to white here, remember. Maybe it could just hit a creature as a little nerf and to be more white-ish.
I tried some larger art with it, but two of my players said they prefer the smaller one.
The flavor is that it's a loser Pokemon who got eclipsed by its pre-evolution. I dunno, it's trying to defend its river. It is a bit lame, to me. The design and the Pokemon itself.
Help Wanted!
Poliwag, Poliwhirl, Poliwrath
Machop, Machoke, Machamp
Psyduck, Golduck
Kind of delaying the Poli- and Mach- cycles for now and will likely use them as archetype filler later.
I think it's fine; it's only important to be able to remove things that are actually going to kill you if left unchecked. These trade with most of your one-drops, so while you can effectively put your opponent down a blocker every turn I don't see them doing too much more than that. Unless you're planning to reveal wraths, in which case that's a nasty combo.
Going back to Psyduck for a moment, my worry is that if you drop it on turn 1, you can just start stacking counters and nug Villain for half their life total on T10 for one mana. If you draw it late, it's still a Rift Bolt, which that means that it has an insane delta between best and worst case scenarios. Regardless, it seems very, very efficient. Maybe if you had to spend the counters when it got to three it'd be easier to deal with? Or somehow restricting the ability to either creatures or players would at least give some counterplay--either don't play small creatures or be a deck that has a way to sweep the board/remove a lot of threats.
Just started following this, and I'm sorry I had missed it before!! This is super cool, excited to see where it goes and potentially print it out or even make my own version
True. I'll reword it to 'Remove all counters: If three or more, deal 3'
I don't know how I missed all these notifications. Project's on pause because I'm kind of depressed right now and don't have interest in my usual hobbies.
Also NEO spoiler season, so I'm kind of watching that, but I'm still pretty low interest. Usually a new set gets me stirred up with every card and I just don't care that much right now.
Throw me onto the list of people who feel like this is a really cool project. I've always felt like a full-custom cube was, like, turbo hard mode.
(The heart I left on the previous post is a "I hope the depression clears up" heart — we don't have a "hug, if you want it" response or anything like that.)
(The heart I left on the previous post is a "I hope the depression clears up" heart — we don't have a "hug, if you want it" response or anything like that.)