General Print this Wizards! (So I can put it in my cube)

[Lucre]

Man someone really wants voidmage to work eh?
I'm more interested in riptide lab style interactions with wizardz.

I'm still wracking the old noggin for this one.
I'm using sorta low commitment build around me cards that tend to be enabling in a variety of things you might already be doing sorta cards as my premise. Things that make simple decisions more complicated too. Tribal Flames is guiding more more than crawler is but I'm running up against a block.

 

[Lucre]

I had an idea that might not qualify but I think people will like anyway

Dark Prayer
Instant
Target player loses 1 life.
Draw a card.
Flashback - Sacrifice a creature

 

[Chris Taylor]

kinda a reverse cabal therapy. I'm not sure cantripping is as good as duressing though

 

[CML]

Wadds:

Transgender Courier
1 and a phyrexian colorless
Creature -- Brushwagg Weird
2/1
~ is all colors and all creature types

 

[Chris Taylor]

A lot of people here don't really like Armageddon, how does this sound as a more interactive alternative?

Ban of Equality (Suggestions on name welcome)
Enchantment
Whenever a player casts a spell, counter it unless that player pays

A colorshifted nether void that isn't 160$ and actually feels right in the color it's in. Thoughts?

 

[Jason Waddell]

I never really thought that Nether Void was functionally very different from Armageddon. They both have extraordinarily similar effects on the board state. Anybody care to make a case for one being good design and the other not?

 

[Chris Taylor]

Nether Void can be destroyed? it encourages people to play lands instead of the opposite?
Also sometimes you draw it late and it isn't effective? Wrath that costs 7 is still castable

 

[FlowerSunRain]

On the board effects that use mana are safe from Nether Void. You can still pump your Nantuko Shade, make tokens with Sacred Mesa or Heliod, pay echo on Crater Hellion or Deranged Hermit, get double mana from Mirari's Wake, etc.

Lands that have effects (manlands, mainly) aren't destroyed by Nether Void and the mana used to activate them stays the same.

 

[Jason Waddell]

Good answers!

 

[Dom Harvey]

Nether Void counts towards devotion meshes well with the curve of black aggro decks, as you can still play 1- and 2-mana spells the turn after; this is often true of Armageddon too, but Void doesn't lock out the game automatically the way Armageddon sometimes does.

 

[Jason Waddell]

Yes, I agree with all of these, but still imagine that in a large percentage of use cases the two cards produce functionally similar game states. I've only actually cast the card a few times and every time it was just a straight up Armageddon that locked up mana while the attacking player closed out the game.

Some of the corner cases are true and possible, but you're probably not drafting the card and including them in your deck for the sake of activating manlands. That difference in demand means that the card will still end up in the aggro player's hands the large majority of the time anyways.

 

[Dom Harvey]

One big difference is that I play Armageddon in close to 100% of my control decks, whereas I can't imagine doing that with Nether Void. If you want that kind of effect to push aggro but don't want other decks fighting over it, Void might be a better choice.

 

[CML]

I'll take the "Geddon is sweet and Void is stupid side": Geddon is trickier to set up, and, when it does work, often leads to exciting game states where things go long but both players are low on resources. I also like Geddon decks (W/x/x aggro) more than Void decks. Void, on the other hand, just makes every other card suck for the rest of the game

 

[Chris Taylor]

I'm not particularly worried, since it can only ever be more interactive than armageddon, an effect I'm mostly happy with.
CML: Also since my Nether Void will be white, no need to worry about which decks it goes in.

Should it be WW2? I've heard a lot of talk that geddon would be a worse card but probably better designed if it were a heavier white commitment

 

[DreamPaint]

Some of the black cards I made for my custom cube in progress. If the images violate any compliance or anything feel free to take them down, I made them on my computer solely to try my hand at design, nothing more.

 

[anotak]

braincull barely does anything. and shuffling every time you splice is going to be sooo slow. also splicing onto creatures, like, doesn't work.
descent is really conditional, in the right deck it might be just too insane (edit this is probably fine just be careful with the rest of the cards if this is around)
naze looks.... absolutely bonkers? i would at least consider putting some kind of cost so he cant just avoid stp 100% of the time
i dont like the art on queen of pain. how does flying work with the rest of the design?
shadow servant is neat
soulhoof is neat, i dont like the lifelink on it though. imo it should have 'can't block', recurring black threats generally have that because it makes for less board-cloggy slow annoying gamestates
take it to the grave is absolutely absurdly broken, that would see a ton of legacy play (and probably vintage but i know approximately 0 about that format)
thoughtpick feels bad (fun-wise) to me, i wouldnt want to play that card. it doesn't feel like a skill intensive kind of choice like cabal therapy or void, but that's just my gut feeling
the planeswalker is... i get the impression that he would be terrible against a blue-based control deck, but then you play against a graveyard deck or an aggro deck and its like 'welp'
archfiend is interesting and potentially broken or potentially terrible, i'm not sure. probably closer to good, thinking of liliana. again i should mention the "can't block" clause

 

[Lucre]

Cool cards! Lots of great direction but a lot of them seem sorta game warping, which is a big or small deal depending on the environment. I'd love to see more. As I said I like some of the ideas and it gets my juices cooking! Love to see the set! Can you cube tutor with custom cards yet?

Anyway I have more awful ideas for all my innernet friends.

Lichfire
Instant (U)
Lichfire deals 2 damage to target creature or player.
You may return a creature card from your graveyard to your hand.

Homewrecker
Creature - Dragon (R)
Flying
When Homewrecker enters the battlefield each player sacrifices a land.
4/4?

Mirrorback Anurid /
Creature - Beast (R)
When Mirrorback Anurid becomes the target of a spell or ability an opponent controls you may draw a card.
3/3

Old Road
Land - Plains (U)
When Old Road enters the battlefield return target land you control to it's owner's hand.
Old Road Enters the battlefield tapped.
: Add to your mana pool.
(You know this isn't the end)

Buried Metropolis
Land (R)
: Add to your mana pool.
When Buried Metropolis is in your graveyard land cards in your hand have "Cycling ".
(Very interested in messing with this one, at first it was a mountain.)

Ancient Battlefield
Land - Mountain (R)
Whenever Ancient Battlefield is tapped it deals 1 damage to you.
Exile Ancient Battlefield from your graveyard: Deal 1 damage to target creature or player.
(Costing? Should it deal more damage? Do I have to tell you how exciting I find this idea?)

Whispering Crown
Artifact (U)
: Add to your mana pool.
, , Discard a card from your hand: Draw a card.

Terrible Toll
Enchantment (R)
When Terrible Toll enters the battlefield remove target permanent from the game.
Extort

 

[anotak]

love lichfire. multicolor cards that are 2 different color effects stapled together are so basic yet when they are efficient i absolutely love them. good name for it too
homewrecker feels like it should be flavorfully a giant or something not a dragon. im not sure im down with this design the way it is atm
mirrorback: at first i thought this costed instead of . obviously the latter makes waayy more sense. i want it to do something extra but maybe thats the overcomplicating bad designer in me
old road: sweet, but why does it target vs ravnica bounceland wording?
buried metropolis: GOOD
ancient battlefield: i love this idea a lot but it needs some refining, its missing something. costing? i dont know.
whispering crown: is cool but that might be kind of bonkers, which is okay as long as you are aware of it
terrible toll: i was surprised something like this didnt exist in gtc/dgm, as soon as i saw extort my first thought was "oblivion ring with extort". that block felt like it had a lot of missed potential honestly

 

[Chris Taylor]

Lichfire
Instant (U)
Lichfire deals 2 damage to target creature or player.
You may return a creature card from your graveyard to your hand.

Love it! It might be able to be Hybrid Hybrid. Maybe. And man I want it to be

Homewrecker
Creature - Dragon (R)
Flying
When Homewrecker enters the battlefield each player sacrifices a land.
4/4?

Rare Cube: Maybe I'm spoiled by thundermaw, but he almost wants another keyword for me (I'd love haste, but maybe firebreathing?)
Pauper Cube: As an uncommon or something he makes more sense, and seems fine.
Real Limited: In terms of real limited I know he's really strong. Air elemental is strong, and he's a better flier with a more splashable mana cost, but I think he's okay strong. Serra Angel exists as always, but red is way less likely to get good fliers.

Mirrorback Anurid /
Creature - Beast (R)
When Mirrorback Anurid becomes the target of a spell or ability an opponent controls you may draw a card.
3/3

I like this version of hexproof waaaaay better than actual hexproof. Love the creature.

Old Road
Land - Plains (U)
When Old Road enters the battlefield return target land you control to it's owner's hand.
Old Road Enters the battlefield tapped.
: Add to your mana pool.
(You know this isn't the end)

This could probably be common since the bouncelands are and this doesn't fix mana. Personally I don't need more karoos, but it seems sweet for anyone who does.

Buried Metropolis
Land (R)
: Add to your mana pool.
When Buried Metropolis is in your graveyard land cards in your hand have "Cycling ".
(Very interested in messing with this one, at first it was a mountain.)

This card seems SO AWESOME I don't know how to make it work, but it seems sweet if you can. I think there's a little bit of a memory issue, as it's a pretty relavant card just sitting in your graveyard. The incarnations at least hit play as creatures first (usually).
It's possible you should have to control a mountain to do the land looting, I'm not sure.

Ancient Battlefield
Land - Mountain (R)
Whenever Ancient Battlefield is tapped it deals 1 damage to you.
Exile Ancient Battlefield from your graveyard: Deal 1 damage to target creature or player.
(Costing? Should it deal more damage? Do I have to tell you how exciting I find this idea?)

I'm always a little worried about 0 mana stuff you can do from your graveyard, but modeling it after gut shot is probably a good way to go. Just don't make a gitaxian probe one for constructed okay?
For cube it's probably fine, adding nice value to Raze or Looting.

Whispering Crown
Artifact (U)
: Add to your mana pool.
, , Discard a card from your hand: Draw a card.

This is probably REALLY good since 2 cost manarocks are at such a premium and it also loots which essentially every deck wants. I feel like in wotc this would loot for or something, but it seems fine here.

Terrible Toll
Enchantment (R)
When Terrible Toll enters the battlefield remove target permanent from the game.
Extort

Can we make it 3 mana but O-Ring as opposed to vindicate? Maybe it's just me, but I don't like this being so abusable with bounce.
5 stars other than that small change though

 

[Chris Taylor]

Braincull: As mentioned, splice onto black is okay, splice onto instant or sorcery is better, and this card doesn't really do too much
Descend into the Catacombs: It seems weird to interplay the deck that has enough creatures to wrath and the deck that wants to wrath, and I'm not sure I like that tension.
Also I'm not so hot on the name, as it's a little too long. Catacomb Expidition or Crypt Descent fit a little better I think.
Naze the Eternal looks cool, but there should probably be a cost to return him, even if it's not just mana. At the moment he's just the best thing ever to entomb for, bar none. Otherwise he seems fine, though if released in real life he might just give legacy a skip and go straight to the vintage restricted list
Queen of Pain: Maybe it's just me, but this seems over the top. Nobody's calling out for phyrexian rebirth to be banned, but it didn't scale later, wasn't bounce/flickerable, and also didn't have flying
That being said, I'm pretty sure it's not better than grave titan, but that's just probably not a good place to be design wise.
Shadow Servant: I'm real close to playing bloodthrone vampire right now, so this basically hits the mark. It neednt be an assassin, since even throat slitter is just a rat ninja
Soulhoof Phantasm: I'm a little uncomfortable about a 3 power lifelinking creature which recurrs untapped, as it just strikes me as something aggro could never beat. Every human card in my yard turns into lighting helix? No thank you.
Different keyword or another toughness and subtract the phantasmal keyword (which doesn't feel too right here on this brave looking death defying knight guy) and it feels a lot better for me.
Take it to the grave: I've mixed feelings. While BB for demonic tutor is assuradly too good for legacy formats, Demonic Tutor feels quite fair in my cube since combo isn't a thing, so it plays like a slightly more juiced impulse.
Also, I have NO IDEA why you'd want to kick this. It really should be the other way around, entomb base or sac a creature to demonic tutor. I know Naze is a good card, but if he warps your cube enough to want to give up 2 cards to entomb (further losing a card) the cards you're entombing might be too strong.
Thoughtpick: Interesting card. I love interesting 1 mana discard spells, though this seems a little too pinpoint for my liking. Given sufficient knowledge of a format, this could very well just be painless thoughtseize, and that's deffinitly too good.
Ven'Gyr: I like the ultimate, but the rest of this planeswalker just say "YOU WIN THE CREATURE MATCHUP", which seems boring to me. I've basically given up on designing custom planeswalkers since it's so insanely hit or miss, and people rarely appreciate even if you come up with a perfect walker.
Archfiend of Insanity: Interesting design. This seems like the worst headache for a control deck ever, like a Liliana of the Viel that can never ever be dealt with (bar exiling stuff).
I hope to god you have some tools to fight this in your format, because if you don't the control player might as well give up now
It'd be like if Sulfuric Vortex was uncounterable and was an emblem

 

[anotak]

whoops
i thought take it to the grave had flashback not kicker

 

[DreamPaint]

Thanks for the feedback. Keep in mind I don't consider constructed formats when designing custom cube cards, I only consider the particular custom cube I am building. Black in this cube is quite graveyard/recursion based as you might have noticed. Because of this, there is substantial amounts of way in which to interact with the graveyard, for example Scavenging Ooze types of cards. So a couple things:

1: I would like to have a black Extract type of card in the format since I think its a unique part of black's identity. How can I make Braincull more playable?
2: I think the can't block clause on Soulhoof is a good idea.
3: Queen of Pain could trigger only on casting?
4: I don't really want Ven'Gyr to be insane in all matchups like Elspeth, Knight Errant or Ajani Vengeant. Is gaining 3 life a turn and not impacting the board really too good? Ajani Goldmane's +1 was a huge joke.
5: I could change Naze to say "sacrifice another permanent."

And here a just a few more from some other colors:

 

[Chris Taylor]

Thanks for the feedback. Keep in mind I don't consider constructed formats when designing custom cube cards, I only consider the particular custom cube I am building. Black in this cube is quite graveyard/recursion based as you might have noticed. Because of this, there is substantial amounts of way in which to interact with the graveyard, for example Scavenging Ooze types of cards. So a couple things:

1: I would like to have a black Extract type of card in the format since I think its a unique part of black's identity. How can I make Braincull more playable?
2: I think the can't block clause on Soulhoof is a good idea.
3: Queen of Pain could trigger only on casting?
4: I don't really want Ven'Gyr to be insane in all matchups like Elspeth, Knight Errant or Ajani Vengeant. Is gaining 3 life a turn and not impacting the board really too good? Ajani Goldmane's +1 was a huge joke.
5: I could change Naze to say "sacrifice another permanent."

1) Extracting has the same problem as milling, in that it doesnt affect the board or your clock. I like it as a rider on random spells, (Eg: Terror + extract, Raise Dead + extract, etc) but on it's own it seems too small. If Braincull did something small, like "target player discards a card" or "Target creature gets a -1/-1 counter" and you upped the splice cost a bit, I'd like it a lot more.
2) I'd agree. I'm going to take a wild stab and guess he has lifelink because black has a lot of life payment, and you want to offset that?
3) Probably only on casting. Are there flicker cards? Reanimation?
4) It's the 3 life instead of 2 and the relevant ultimate that make the difference. The turn he comes down he's 3 life a turn if they ignore him (which is a lot) or 8 total lost damge if they deal with him THAT TURN. That's a lot, considering Karn Liberated is 10.
5) I think i'd be better if he cost a few mana to come back or something, maybe during the upkeep. At the moment he's entomb for painless phyrexian area and a sac outlet which is super strong.

New Cards:
Aftermath Rider: I like him a little more as an 0/1, since there's a short SHORT list of 4 power two drops, even if bloodthirst is involved (link). Also, due to his lack of evasion, the extra toughness would help a lot, like Dread Reveler in ravnica limited.
Carmilla: I like it. Really fragile, but really strong.
Flashfrosts: a big part of Fire//Ice was that it could also be a really solid burn spell if needed. Keep an eye on this one, I'm not sure what yet
Jotun Wanderer (Screw you and your Umlouts): a sweet take on scavenging ooze. He might actually be fine as a 2/2, since he doesn't gain life and has a cap on size.
Praetor of Nil: the memory issues with pithing needle are already a little annoying IRL, and this one happens in your graveyard? Might be better if it exiles itself so you can have it in front of your or something, I dunno. I've never been a fan of pithing needle in singleton formats anyways, but that might just be me.
Secrets of the Story Tree: all I can tell about this is the name (which seems a little overblown) and the color, since the image won't load.

If possible, could you include text summaries of the cards? It's way easier to quote you that way, and we don't get the broken link problem

 

[anotak]

the problem with the extra is that constant shuffling is problematic because it interrupts the flow of the game. you want your players to spend the most time possible actually playing your game. think of shuffling as a loading screen, they are usually needed but they should really be minimized and avoided if possible. i like the idea of it just being a rider on a good spell as a one time. some shuffling is a good thing for the game but you have to be very careful not to overdo it especially if you're just shuffling the opponent's deck. forcing your opponent to shuffle their deck twice per turn is likely to get pretty tedious.

also me mentioning vintage/legacy was just a comparison of how strong i thought that card was when i thought it was flashback. its not as broken as i thought because theres no flashback

aftermath rider: idk if making him a 0/1 is a good solution, dead reveler cant block if it is a 3/4, so thats not a good comparison because a 3/4 blocker can really clog things up depending on the environment
carmilla: falkenrath blood artist aristocrat, i like
flashfrosts: im not sure if this is worth playing. also the name is so close to flashfreeze, that's awkward
jotun wanderer: if you're okay with doing things with the exile zone then this is ok. this should probably say 'face up cards in exile', for the reason of information in hidden zones cant be used. mark rosewater wouldnt like this but we dont have to judge things based on that entirely. however i would be pretty careful about effects that do stuff like this. i also just dont see why this isn't green, which i guess would make this a goyf/ooze mashup, which is unfortunate. but hey, you're the designer.
praetor of nil: people will forget about this which is awkward. its not as big a deal because you explicitly have a ton of graveyard stuff.
secrets of the story tree: this thing is very pushed. are you trying to make green control possible? this is like if primal command and harmonize had a baby that brutally murdered its parents as a teenager. or something. its one thing that harmonize draws 3 cards, but 2GG for 'draw two cards destroy target planeswalker' is already nuts, but i have the choice of other modes too? compare cryptic command that 1-for-1s and draws a card. or hero's downfall being 1 mana less and not drawing any cards. or bramblecrush. or acidic slime. this can be okay but you have be aware of how nuts this is

btw you should probably credit the artists

 

[Chris Taylor]

One solution to creating custom planeswalkers that nobody appreciates is to use existing lore to base the character off of. This can come across as a little trite as someone's favorite legend gets a mary sue spark, but how do we feel about this alternative gideon?

Gideon, Justicesomething
+1: Detain target permanent
-3: Put target artifact or creature on the bottom of it's owners library
0: Gideon, Prime Enforcer becomes a 6/6 Human Soldier creature that’s still a planeswalker. Prevent all damage that would be dealt to him this turn.


I like about 1/3 of Gideon Jura, and I think this fellow would be a little more interesting. He might need to start at 4 loyalty, since his +1 put's him not far from tamiyo.

Thoughts?