The Dandy Cube (Chris Taylor's Cube)
- Thread starter Chris Taylor
- Start date
Chris Taylor
Contributor
My order from MakePlayingCards came in this week
Thank you to the great people at https://mpcautofill.com/ for making this not a pain in the ass to use. I'd recommend the S33 card stock like they recommend, these were a touch thin.
Here's the full scan of the forest:
So all the aesthetics of magic's best basics without paying 8$ per
Chris Taylor
Contributor
More "Alters"
I really like this design. Very neat!
A friend of mine suggested this to me (I almost named it lava darter, as I'm sure it was playtested as such). I don't have designer credit at the moment, as I don't think it was hers, but I was about to add grim initiate, and I think this is a lot more in line with the power level I'm working on.
Chris Taylor
Contributor
Ah fuck where's my cube thread on this site again? *scrolls down*
*Scrolls further*
*Man it would have been much easier to just find on of my own posts and click the link but I'm comitted now*
Our dear host's podcast has had me thinking about a few recent strixhaven cards I was excited about, but for various reasons I now wish were different
Thankfully, I wish things were different all the time, and just change them. That's how I got into this whole mess in the first place, and I'm not about to stop!
This card is actually somewhat interesting. Vigilance I think is actually good here as this is the kind of card where under most circumstances getting to swing with it just leads to better sequencing, rather than the Brimaz effect where it removes all the decisions about the card.
But I do not need the other side in the slightest, and it would only confuse and distract. So much so I'm not posting it, look up the other half yourself if you want, it's a 4 mana black pinger -_-
Anyways:
Simpler, not a legend, and plus I get to put more Peter Morbacher art on a card.
I already bought a mousepad from the man, might as well keep going.
Also also:
Love this thing. Dom brings up a good point in that having a relavant body on it's own really does help spellslinger cards, softening the fail case where it gets drawn late or even slightly in the wrong order.
But black prowess is a dubious prospect in cube, (Believe me, I've tried).
Basically your draws are thoughtseize effects which I don't love running in the first place for reasons I'm sure Grillo explained better than I can, and Unearth does this sort of La Croix impression of a protection spell (That is to say, not a strong impression)
So I ported it:
And now it's a turtle because that's the cool art I found
It is in most ways actually worse: not gaining life off tokens, ward technically being better in some edge cases than this ability would be, and also the copy clause from Magecraft which I feel is too many words to be worth its use.
Magecraft's presence in the set leads to bullshit like this:
A card I maintain I would be (rightly) ridiculed for making myself, but gets a pass because all of R&D decided "Yes this card is dumb, but it makes sense in the context of the other bad decisions we've made"
More to follow I'm sure
*Scrolls further*
*Man it would have been much easier to just find on of my own posts and click the link but I'm comitted now*
Our dear host's podcast has had me thinking about a few recent strixhaven cards I was excited about, but for various reasons I now wish were different
Thankfully, I wish things were different all the time, and just change them. That's how I got into this whole mess in the first place, and I'm not about to stop!
This card is actually somewhat interesting. Vigilance I think is actually good here as this is the kind of card where under most circumstances getting to swing with it just leads to better sequencing, rather than the Brimaz effect where it removes all the decisions about the card.
But I do not need the other side in the slightest, and it would only confuse and distract. So much so I'm not posting it, look up the other half yourself if you want, it's a 4 mana black pinger -_-
Anyways:
Simpler, not a legend, and plus I get to put more Peter Morbacher art on a card.
I already bought a mousepad from the man, might as well keep going.
Also also:
Love this thing. Dom brings up a good point in that having a relavant body on it's own really does help spellslinger cards, softening the fail case where it gets drawn late or even slightly in the wrong order.
But black prowess is a dubious prospect in cube, (Believe me, I've tried).
Basically your draws are thoughtseize effects which I don't love running in the first place for reasons I'm sure Grillo explained better than I can, and Unearth does this sort of La Croix impression of a protection spell (That is to say, not a strong impression)
So I ported it:
And now it's a turtle because that's the cool art I found
It is in most ways actually worse: not gaining life off tokens, ward technically being better in some edge cases than this ability would be, and also the copy clause from Magecraft which I feel is too many words to be worth its use.
Magecraft's presence in the set leads to bullshit like this:
A card I maintain I would be (rightly) ridiculed for making myself, but gets a pass because all of R&D decided "Yes this card is dumb, but it makes sense in the context of the other bad decisions we've made"
More to follow I'm sure
Chris Taylor
Contributor
Okay yeah sleep is for the week here's a bunch of other simplified versions of existing cards in the vein of above.
Not all new, but hey
Not all new, but hey
Onderzeeboot
Ecstatic Orb
I went over the customs currently in your CubeCobra list completely unsolicited to see if I could be a tedious ass and spot some of those errors I was talking about for you
Crowd Favorite - There's nothing wrong with this card! Just thought I'ld mention that, if you have the latest mainframe template, if you go to Style, there's a setting 'Use holofoil stamps' that you can set to No. If you do that, the holofoil stamp will be hidden. See the image a few cards below for an example. Personally I prefer it this way, because a) the holofoil stamp actually sometimes overlaps with the text, b) I'm using proxies, so the primary goal of the holofoil is kind of moot, and c) it looks ugly. YMMV though
Radiant Mage - All scrolls should have the period on the left side of the closing quotation marks. See e.g. Rekindling Phoenix. So in this case it should be: ... with cost and "Tap target creature."
Icarus Mark II - It should be 'Living weapon', with a lower case w.
Purging Light - Not an error, but you can force MSE to center the text of a card. If you go to Style, you can change the setting Center text to the option Always. Just make sure you check 'Options specific to this card' first or your entire cube will look weird
Crack the Case - This was the card that triggered me, actually, because there's a few things odd about this card. Currently there is no instant or sorcery that investigates and uses this pattern of "do something then investigate." I know, I use the exact same pattern on my custom Reevaluate, and I don't think it's wrong, except that investigate should definitely be with a lower case i if you decide to write it like this. There is a way to rewrite this card though, which I will come to shortly. Another thing is that the second part contains a superfluous 'may'. When you are sacrificing up to two Clue tokens, it's perfectly legal to choose 0 after all. Combining these two remarks, how I actually would word this card is like this: Investigate, then sacrifice up to two Clues. Draw a card for each Clue sacrificed this way.
Edit2: I added in the correct image. Look at that, doesn't it look clean?!
Do note that there should be a period after the Scry 1.
Time Lost Scrollkeeper - If you have the latest mainframe template, there is a way to fit the text neatly into the textbox without having it overlap with the P/T box. If you go to Style, you can enter a value for the setting Chop bottom (it's the second setting). When you do this, the text box will be made a bit smaller from the bottom. Again don't forget to check 'Options specific to this card' first.
Also, I think it should be 'Time-Lost Scrollkeeper' with a hyphen between Time and Lost?
Tormenting Phantom - Keyword update! Also, that 4 should be typed out, you lazy ass This card should now read "When Tormenting Phantom enters the battlefield, mill four cards."
Lineage Scholar - This card should read "each instant and sorcery card", not "each instant or sorcery card". See e.g. Rielle, the Everwise.
Dreamsower - Quick aside, I love Julie Dillon's art! Anyway, prowess should be with a lower case p.
Urza, High Artificer - Time to use that Chop bottom trick again!
Fluttersloth - Again, flash should be with a lower case f.
Wheat from Chaff - Ooh! Here you can use the Chop top and Chop bottom together. If you set both to 6 the text will fit ever so slightly better.
Idea Plant - This card doesn't entirely use the correct wording, see Vendilion Clique. If you want to use the same wording, it should end with "If you do, that player reveals the chosen card, puts it on the bottom of their library, then draws a card." You can of course skip the reveal part, since you're using this in a two player game anyway, in which case it should end with "If you do, that player puts it on the bottom of their library, then draws a card."
Analyze - This cantrip also contains a small error. It should be draw with a lower case d.
Refine the Mind - Since Refine the Mind is in your graveyard, this should read "... up to two other cards ..."
Edit: You're right Chris. Your wording is, in fact, correct, as Serene Remembrance proves. I thought your card might need different wording because it has retrace, but the first step in casting a spell is moving it to the stack, and an instant or sorcery spell is only put back into your graveyard as the very final step of resolving it. So, by the time you have to choose which other cards to shuffle back, Refine the Mind has already left your graveyard, and has not yet returned to it.
Note that you can technically shuffle back the land you discard to pay for the retrace cost as well. Not that you would want that, usually, but I thought it was funny.
Opportunism - There's a period missing at the end of the first line. It should be "Draw a card."
Phyrexian Missionary - Another capital error In this case surveil should be written with a lower case s.
Bumbling Familiars - Another good use case for Crop top and Crop bottom, both at 6.
Smoldering Fiend - Here trample should be written with a lower case t.
Also, it should be 'then put those cards', not 'then puts those cards'.
Karn the Corrupted - This may be a conscious decision on your part, but typically WotC uses a comma after the name in card names of planeswalkers that follow a similar pattern, see e.g. Karn, the Great Creator. Of course there are exceptions, like Sarkhan the Mad.
Also, as pointed out, it should be "Whenever an artifact you control is put into a graveyard from the battlefield, each opponent loses 1 life." See Marionette Master.
Also also, this card and the previous one are good examples of the holofoil getting too close to the text.
Also also also, Why not use the Investigate keyword for the second ability? Makes shortcutting for players easier.
Tomb Pillage - Keyword update! "Mill three cards, then you may return a creature or land card from your graveyard to your hand."
Disinter - Magic terminology update! "Return target creature card with mana value 3 or less from your graveyard to the battlefield."
Whispersmoke - Terminology update and slight templating error. Believe it or not, it should be "..., search your library for a card, put that card into your hand, then shuffle."
Orzhov Psychopomp - I know what you're thinking, he's going to whine about lower case letters again! But no! Extort should be put on its own line because it's a triggered ability, see e.g. Basilica Screecher and Tithe Drinker.
Also, simple keyword abilities actually go above Echo, see e.g. Basalt Gargoyle and Keldon Champion.
It's time to go to bed, I'll have to do the rest another time if you appreciate it.
Crowd Favorite - There's nothing wrong with this card! Just thought I'ld mention that, if you have the latest mainframe template, if you go to Style, there's a setting 'Use holofoil stamps' that you can set to No. If you do that, the holofoil stamp will be hidden. See the image a few cards below for an example. Personally I prefer it this way, because a) the holofoil stamp actually sometimes overlaps with the text, b) I'm using proxies, so the primary goal of the holofoil is kind of moot, and c) it looks ugly. YMMV though
Radiant Mage - All scrolls should have the period on the left side of the closing quotation marks. See e.g. Rekindling Phoenix. So in this case it should be: ... with cost
and "Tap target creature."Icarus Mark II - It should be 'Living weapon', with a lower case w.
Purging Light - Not an error, but you can force MSE to center the text of a card. If you go to Style, you can change the setting Center text to the option Always. Just make sure you check 'Options specific to this card' first or your entire cube will look weird
Crack the Case - This was the card that triggered me, actually, because there's a few things odd about this card. Currently there is no instant or sorcery that investigates and uses this pattern of "do something then investigate." I know, I use the exact same pattern on my custom Reevaluate, and I don't think it's wrong, except that investigate should definitely be with a lower case i if you decide to write it like this. There is a way to rewrite this card though, which I will come to shortly. Another thing is that the second part contains a superfluous 'may'. When you are sacrificing up to two Clue tokens, it's perfectly legal to choose 0 after all. Combining these two remarks, how I actually would word this card is like this: Investigate, then sacrifice up to two Clues. Draw a card for each Clue sacrificed this way.
Edit2: I added in the correct image. Look at that, doesn't it look clean?!
Do note that there should be a period after the Scry 1.
Time Lost Scrollkeeper - If you have the latest mainframe template, there is a way to fit the text neatly into the textbox without having it overlap with the P/T box. If you go to Style, you can enter a value for the setting Chop bottom (it's the second setting). When you do this, the text box will be made a bit smaller from the bottom. Again don't forget to check 'Options specific to this card' first.
Also, I think it should be 'Time-Lost Scrollkeeper' with a hyphen between Time and Lost?
Tormenting Phantom - Keyword update! Also, that 4 should be typed out, you lazy ass
This card should now read "When Tormenting Phantom enters the battlefield, mill four cards."Lineage Scholar - This card should read "each instant and sorcery card", not "each instant or sorcery card". See e.g. Rielle, the Everwise.
Dreamsower - Quick aside, I love Julie Dillon's art! Anyway, prowess should be with a lower case p.
Urza, High Artificer - Time to use that Chop bottom trick again!
Fluttersloth - Again, flash should be with a lower case f.
Wheat from Chaff - Ooh! Here you can use the Chop top and Chop bottom together. If you set both to 6 the text will fit ever so slightly better.
Idea Plant - This card doesn't entirely use the correct wording, see Vendilion Clique. If you want to use the same wording, it should end with "If you do, that player reveals the chosen card, puts it on the bottom of their library, then draws a card." You can of course skip the reveal part, since you're using this in a two player game anyway, in which case it should end with "If you do, that player puts it on the bottom of their library, then draws a card."
Analyze - This cantrip also contains a small error. It should be draw with a lower case d.
Edit: You're right Chris. Your wording is, in fact, correct, as Serene Remembrance proves. I thought your card might need different wording because it has retrace, but the first step in casting a spell is moving it to the stack, and an instant or sorcery spell is only put back into your graveyard as the very final step of resolving it. So, by the time you have to choose which other cards to shuffle back, Refine the Mind has already left your graveyard, and has not yet returned to it.
Note that you can technically shuffle back the land you discard to pay for the retrace cost as well. Not that you would want that, usually, but I thought it was funny.
Opportunism - There's a period missing at the end of the first line. It should be "Draw a card."
Phyrexian Missionary - Another capital error
In this case surveil should be written with a lower case s.Bumbling Familiars - Another good use case for Crop top and Crop bottom, both at 6.
Smoldering Fiend - Here trample should be written with a lower case t.
Also, it should be 'then put those cards', not 'then puts those cards'.
Karn the Corrupted - This may be a conscious decision on your part, but typically WotC uses a comma after the name in card names of planeswalkers that follow a similar pattern, see e.g. Karn, the Great Creator. Of course there are exceptions, like Sarkhan the Mad.
Also, as pointed out, it should be "Whenever an artifact you control is put into a graveyard from the battlefield, each opponent loses 1 life." See Marionette Master.
Also also, this card and the previous one are good examples of the holofoil getting too close to the text.
Also also also, Why not use the Investigate keyword for the second ability? Makes shortcutting for players easier.
Tomb Pillage - Keyword update! "Mill three cards, then you may return a creature or land card from your graveyard to your hand."
Disinter - Magic terminology update! "Return target creature card with mana value 3 or less from your graveyard to the battlefield."
Whispersmoke - Terminology update and slight templating error. Believe it or not, it should be "..., search your library for a card, put that card into your hand, then shuffle."
Orzhov Psychopomp - I know what you're thinking, he's going to whine about lower case letters again! But no! Extort should be put on its own line because it's a triggered ability, see e.g. Basilica Screecher and Tithe Drinker.
Also, simple keyword abilities actually go above Echo, see e.g. Basalt Gargoyle and Keldon Champion.
It's time to go to bed, I'll have to do the rest another time if you appreciate it.
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Chris Taylor
Contributor
Actually I think this is incorrect:
I think the spell is on the stack while you're doing the shuffling in, so it never hits the graveyard
Love these, I will go over more thoroughly once I'm done work!
Edit: I've got to re-examine my political leanings if I love capitols this much, I might be a capitolist
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Onderzeeboot
Ecstatic Orb
You are right! Scratch that oneActually I think this is incorrect:
I think the spell is on the stack while you're doing the shuffling in, so it never hits the graveyard
Love these, I will go over more thoroughly once I'm done work!
I made another error but edited the text. I'll go over the other half of your cube then when I have so,e more time to kill. Might be a few days
Chris Taylor
Contributor
oh dear it stills says 3 cards! I've nerfed it since then. Good catch, and now it's got a good amount of room for flavor text!
Onderzeeboot
Ecstatic Orb
You really like your capital letters don't you? Are you sure you're not secretly a capitalist?oh dear it stills says 3 cards! I've nerfed it since then. Good catch, and now it's got a good amount of room for flavor text!
View attachment 3985
'Rich' in the flavor text should be 'rich' with a lower case r. Also, you put quotation marks at the end of the sentenc, but not at the start. Great flavor text by the way
Onderzeeboot
Ecstatic Orb
Part two of my review! First, I updated the wording for Crack the Case in the post above. I see that you already uploaded a new proxy using my incorrect suggestion. Oops, sorry about that! Do note that you forgot to put a period after the Scry 1 in that image as well. Anyway, on to the red!
Emberheart Kami - In the Netherlands we call this 'ant fucking', but it looks like you have a space after the long hyphen, just before 'Sacrifice'. That space shouldn't be there, see e.g. Street Wraith.
Get 'Em Boys - These two abilities should just be on one line. See e.g. Heroic Reinforcements, though you don't need to invert the "until end of turn" like on that card, because you are only giving your creatures haste. See e.g. Scampering Scorcher.
Flameshell Mystic - Chop bottom time!
Arsonist Packleader - In the second ability, menace should be written with a lower case m (so '... base power has menace.').
Lingering Goblins - This is a first! Goblins in the 'Create two 1/1 red Goblin creature tokens.' should be with a capital G!
Also, there should be a period at the end of that sentence.
Also also, there should be a period at the end of the flavor text.
War Charm - Holy shit is this pushed! Anyway, you've committed your favorite sin again! In the flavor text, 'bashing' should be with a lower case b, and 'looting' should be with a lower case l.
Also, the distance between the lines seems really big here. It looks like you used enter instead of shift + enter to start a new line after the 'Choose one:'. Compare your custom to an actual charm, like Archmage's Charm, and you'll notice that the distance between the lines is much smaller on the real card. This can be achieved by using shift + enter.
Also also, it should read 'Choose one —', not 'Choose one:' (so with a space and a long hyphen after 'one' instead of a colon).
Deadwood Druid - Under the new Oracle wording, this should read: "When Deadwood Druid enters the battlefield, search your library or graveyard for a creature or land card, reveal it, then shuffle and put that card on top."
Experiment Two - That 'two' in 'with two counters' on the first line should be written out in full.
Also, the second ability should read '... onto another target creature.' as opposed to '... to another ...' See e.g. Combine Guildmage.
Also also, this is another good candidate for that Chop bottom 6 trick.
Primal Splicer - You got the order of P/T and color wrong. It should be '... a 3/3 colorless ...'
Harmony Charm - The distance between the lines seems really big here. It looks like you used enter instead of shift + enter to start a new line after the 'Choose one:'. Compare your custom to an actual charm, like Archmage's Charm, and you'll notice that the distance between the lines is much smaller on the real card. This can be achieved by using shift + enter.
Also, it should read 'Choose one —', not 'Choose one:' (so with a space and a long hyphen after 'one' instead of a colon).
Show Dominance - The distance between the lines seems really big here. It looks like you used enter instead of shift + enter to start a new line after the 'Choose one:'. Compare your custom to an actual charm, like Archmage's Charm, and you'll notice that the distance between the lines is much smaller on the real card. This can be achieved by using shift + enter.
Also, it should read 'Choose one —', not 'Choose one:' (so with a space and a long hyphen after 'one' instead of a colon).
Ancestor's Call - Wording update! This should now read 'Then shuffle.' as the final sentence
Also, any reason this isn't 'up to two creature cards'? See Jarad's Orders (which is hideously overpriced compared to this... or this is underpriced, probably).
Beastial Mask - According to Merriam-Webster, beastial is an obsolete variant of bestial, so I guess this should be called Bestial Mask?
Also, that second ability should read 'Equipped creature is a green Beast with base power and toughness 4/4.' (see Ichthyomorphosis), with a lower case g for 'green', and 'is' instead of 'becomes'.
Also also, if you instead use Frogify's wording, which would be 'Equipped creature is a green Beast creature with base power and toughness 4/4.' (adding 'creature' after 'Beast'), the equipment won't fall off of animated noncreature permanents when the animation effect stops at end of turn. This might actually work somewhat more intuitively that Ichtysdospdmpsdoshsehsis.
Teferi, Timecrafter - I feel this should be called Time Crafter? Probably a matter of preference though.
Also, Teferi's second ability is incorrect, but I fear the text might get too small if you try to fix the current wording. Instead I propose you change the second ability to: 'Until the start of your next turn, spells your opponents cast cost more to cast, unless they are cast during their owner’s main phase.'
Kheru, Master Lich - The Z in Zombies in the first ability should be capitalized.
Blood Fury - I have no clue why Rhythm of the Wild says 'nontoken', but I just wanted to point out that your custom does not.
Also, there's a period missing at the end of the second sentence after 'turn'... and what looks like a possible double space?
Corrupt Captain - Another missing period, this time at the end of the first sentence.
The second ability should read 'Whenever an artifact you control is put into a graveyard from the battlefield, ...', see Marionette Master.
Stormwing Drake - Again, as the second keyword, ward should be with a lower case w.
Also, again, it should read 'instant and sorcery card', not 'instant or sorcery card'.
Verdant Divination - This doesn't specify what happens with the rest of the cards if you put a land onto the battlefield! I suggest changing it to the following: 'Look at the top three cards of your library. You may put a land card from among them onto the battlefield tapped. If you don't, put one of them into your hand. Put the rest into your graveyard.'
Durgob the Mad General - This definitely need a comma after Durgob if you want to follow WotC naming conventions.
Also, could use a Chop top 6.
Primal Crash - The last ability should read 'Each creature you control with a +1/+1 counter on it has haste.', see e.g. Abzan Falconer.
Rusty Golem - There's a period missing at the end of the reminder text, just before the closing bracket.
Gem of Simplicity - There's a period missing at the end of the reminder text, just before the closing bracket.
Retrofitter Engine - The second ability should read '... 1/1 colorless Servo ...'
Also, the third ability should read '... 1/1 colorless Thopter ...'
Also also, the fourth ability should read '... 3/3 colorless Golem ...'
Golden Borderpost - The first two abilities should be switched. First you tell them that the card etb's tapped, then you tell them to draw a card. See Spare Supplies.
Desolate Barrens - The second ability should read '... a colorless basic land token named Wastes with ": Add 
."' I know Generated Horizons exist, but tokens always specify which color they are (unless it's a token copy), and lands are colorless (see Song of the Dryads, for example). Furthermore, Wastes isn't a basic land type (see the card Wastes), so creating a Wastes token doesn't actually bestow any inherent ability to tap for colorless mana. Because you want to create, effectively, a Wastes, the best way to achieve that is spelling out that you're creating a token with a specific name. I opted to make it a basic land token, just so you can use actual Wastes as placesholders, and so other nonbasic land hate doesn't screw you over... again.
BAM! That's all folks!
Emberheart Kami - In the Netherlands we call this 'ant fucking', but it looks like you have a space after the long hyphen, just before 'Sacrifice'. That space shouldn't be there, see e.g. Street Wraith.
Get 'Em Boys - These two abilities should just be on one line. See e.g. Heroic Reinforcements, though you don't need to invert the "until end of turn" like on that card, because you are only giving your creatures haste. See e.g. Scampering Scorcher.
Flameshell Mystic - Chop bottom time!
Arsonist Packleader - In the second ability, menace should be written with a lower case m (so '... base power has menace.').
Lingering Goblins - This is a first!
Goblins in the 'Create two 1/1 red Goblin creature tokens.' should be with a capital G!Also, there should be a period at the end of that sentence.
Also also, there should be a period at the end of the flavor text.
War Charm - Holy shit is this pushed! Anyway, you've committed your favorite sin again!
In the flavor text, 'bashing' should be with a lower case b, and 'looting' should be with a lower case l.Also, the distance between the lines seems really big here. It looks like you used enter instead of shift + enter to start a new line after the 'Choose one:'. Compare your custom to an actual charm, like Archmage's Charm, and you'll notice that the distance between the lines is much smaller on the real card. This can be achieved by using shift + enter.
Also also, it should read 'Choose one —', not 'Choose one:' (so with a space and a long hyphen after 'one' instead of a colon).
Deadwood Druid - Under the new Oracle wording, this should read: "When Deadwood Druid enters the battlefield, search your library or graveyard for a creature or land card, reveal it, then shuffle and put that card on top."
Experiment Two - That 'two' in 'with two counters' on the first line should be written out in full.
Also, the second ability should read '... onto another target creature.' as opposed to '... to another ...' See e.g. Combine Guildmage.
Also also, this is another good candidate for that Chop bottom 6 trick.
Primal Splicer - You got the order of P/T and color wrong. It should be '... a 3/3 colorless ...'
Harmony Charm - The distance between the lines seems really big here. It looks like you used enter instead of shift + enter to start a new line after the 'Choose one:'. Compare your custom to an actual charm, like Archmage's Charm, and you'll notice that the distance between the lines is much smaller on the real card. This can be achieved by using shift + enter.
Also, it should read 'Choose one —', not 'Choose one:' (so with a space and a long hyphen after 'one' instead of a colon).
Show Dominance - The distance between the lines seems really big here. It looks like you used enter instead of shift + enter to start a new line after the 'Choose one:'. Compare your custom to an actual charm, like Archmage's Charm, and you'll notice that the distance between the lines is much smaller on the real card. This can be achieved by using shift + enter.
Also, it should read 'Choose one —', not 'Choose one:' (so with a space and a long hyphen after 'one' instead of a colon).
Ancestor's Call - Wording update! This should now read 'Then shuffle.' as the final sentence
Also, any reason this isn't 'up to two creature cards'? See Jarad's Orders (which is hideously overpriced compared to this... or this is underpriced, probably).
Beastial Mask - According to Merriam-Webster, beastial is an obsolete variant of bestial, so I guess this should be called Bestial Mask?
Also, that second ability should read 'Equipped creature is a green Beast with base power and toughness 4/4.' (see Ichthyomorphosis), with a lower case g for 'green', and 'is' instead of 'becomes'.
Also also, if you instead use Frogify's wording, which would be 'Equipped creature is a green Beast creature with base power and toughness 4/4.' (adding 'creature' after 'Beast'), the equipment won't fall off of animated noncreature permanents when the animation effect stops at end of turn. This might actually work somewhat more intuitively that Ichtysdospdmpsdoshsehsis.
Teferi, Timecrafter - I feel this should be called Time Crafter? Probably a matter of preference though.
Also, Teferi's second ability is incorrect, but I fear the text might get too small if you try to fix the current wording. Instead I propose you change the second ability to: 'Until the start of your next turn, spells your opponents cast cost
more to cast, unless they are cast during their owner’s main phase.'Kheru, Master Lich - The Z in Zombies in the first ability should be capitalized.
Blood Fury - I have no clue why Rhythm of the Wild says 'nontoken', but I just wanted to point out that your custom does not.
Also, there's a period missing at the end of the second sentence after 'turn'... and what looks like a possible double space?
Corrupt Captain - Another missing period, this time at the end of the first sentence.
The second ability should read 'Whenever an artifact you control is put into a graveyard from the battlefield, ...', see Marionette Master.
Stormwing Drake - Again, as the second keyword, ward should be with a lower case w.
Also, again, it should read 'instant and sorcery card', not 'instant or sorcery card'.
Verdant Divination - This doesn't specify what happens with the rest of the cards if you put a land onto the battlefield! I suggest changing it to the following: 'Look at the top three cards of your library. You may put a land card from among them onto the battlefield tapped. If you don't, put one of them into your hand. Put the rest into your graveyard.'
Durgob the Mad General - This definitely need a comma after Durgob if you want to follow WotC naming conventions.
Also, could use a Chop top 6.
Primal Crash - The last ability should read 'Each creature you control with a +1/+1 counter on it has haste.', see e.g. Abzan Falconer.
Rusty Golem - There's a period missing at the end of the reminder text, just before the closing bracket.
Gem of Simplicity - There's a period missing at the end of the reminder text, just before the closing bracket.
Retrofitter Engine - The second ability should read '... 1/1 colorless Servo ...'
Also, the third ability should read '... 1/1 colorless Thopter ...'
Also also, the fourth ability should read '... 3/3 colorless Golem ...'
Golden Borderpost - The first two abilities should be switched. First you tell them that the card etb's tapped, then you tell them to draw a card. See Spare Supplies.
Desolate Barrens - The second ability should read '... a colorless basic land token named Wastes with "
: Add ."' I know Generated Horizons exist, but tokens always specify which color they are (unless it's a token copy), and lands are colorless (see Song of the Dryads, for example). Furthermore, Wastes isn't a basic land type (see the card Wastes), so creating a Wastes token doesn't actually bestow any inherent ability to tap for colorless mana. Because you want to create, effectively, a Wastes, the best way to achieve that is spelling out that you're creating a token with a specific name. I opted to make it a basic land token, just so you can use actual Wastes as placesholders, and so other nonbasic land hate doesn't screw you over... again.BAM! That's all folks!
Chris Taylor
Contributor
Magic has exposed me to some strange language but this takes it.
Chris Taylor
Contributor
Onderzeeboot
Ecstatic Orb
It's an expression that means something like "to excessively focus on minute details"
I thought the "Creatures you control gain haste until end of turn." was neat for playing it as the last card in a turn where you deploy other threats as well, but this works too, and it's correctly worded!
Chris Taylor
Contributor
It is and it turns out that's really powerful
Chris Taylor
Contributor
Yeah that is intentional, IDK why either, I assume it's a power level thing?
There is an extraneous space, but it's... part of the reminder text somehow?
Onderzeeboot
Ecstatic Orb
Oh, there should be a period after 'turn', maybe that fixes it?
Chris Taylor
Contributor
More art changes!
Card conjurer has the long sought after ability to make cards with smaller text boxes, so I can finally fit more gorgeous artwork (and make sure the text box doesn't look too blank)
Also posting a few misc "alters" I'd made in the meantime
Card conjurer has the long sought after ability to make cards with smaller text boxes, so I can finally fit more gorgeous artwork (and make sure the text box doesn't look too blank)
Also posting a few misc "alters" I'd made in the meantime
Chris Taylor
Contributor
We had the first draft of this cube since...probably March of 2020. I'd drafted this a few times online in the intervening time, but that's not really the same. Partially I'm just happy to see people again, and be dealing with the familiar problems of "I've edited this image badly" and not "the XML file on someone else's computer has an error somewhere in the 348 lines and I can't remote in to fix it"
I'll never know why I thought I'd be a good fit for I.T.
We had a pull pod of 8, which I always appreciate, and three people were fresh faces to my cube. I didn't get a ton of chances to sit down and ask people about their experience, but overall reactions felt positive.
Archetype wise we had
-3 separate base GB graveyard decks, one of which did much better than a deck containing Uro and Kroxa might imply
-2 prowess decks, which were the highlight of the night in power level and decision points
-An insane esper artifacts deck
-A more midrangely full jund aristocrats deck
-Me on GW counters, which continues to frustrate me.
Highlights:
This card is incredibly flexible in amazing ways. I'd initially wanted just a benevolent bodyguard which would work more broadly as a protection spell
-protection works fine against targeted removal, but does nothing for sweepers
-indestructible works against most sweepers (I run languish) but doesn't work against various random targeted removal
-hexproof works much the same as protection
-sliding the creature out works against everything but also resets all the work you've put into growing your creature
Phasing works against spot removal and sweepers, AND keeps the modifications of the creature, making it pretty perfect for my purposes here.
As well, it also works offensively like protection in a way that feels far less cheap than "give my creature pro red, you happen to have all red creatures in play, swing through"
What I didn't think of was phasing out my opponents Massacre Wurm in response to its ETB, stopping all the life loss and removing an important blocker! I love it when the power of a card comes from the sheer amount of things it does, rather than like...Swords to Plowshares doing one thing better than 10 other cards combined.
This card is just as insane as champion of the parish. I had more than one game where I played two of these and added a counter for the next 2-3 turns, leading to modern humans levels of pile up damage.
1 drops probably shouldn't grow to 3/3 at any reasonable speed, figure of destiny is probably closer to what I want from a 1 drop that grows late.
It's worth pointing out that even those busted modern openings can't beat a damnnation into doom blade by the way. Most of my matches I struggled to beat anyone who cast 3 removal spells, and in post board games where people borded up into even more went even worse. My particular version of this deck was far weaker to this than usual on account of three 1 drop mana dorks, which makes me question their need in the first place if the aggro deck would rather pull up than be faster, and the midrange decks want to play sweepers to catch up.
Hey you know how in standard a while back duress was a decent maindeck card because it hit a surprising number of cards out of the mono green stompy deck, the place where it would normally be at its worst? (Hits: Ranger Class, Esika's Chariot, Inscription of Abundance, Blizzard Brawl, Snakeskin Veil, Invoke the Ancients, etc)
I had that exact problem in reverse! This card searches for a creature or land, which was very frustrating when I wanted to search for:
Ajani, Adversary of Tyrants to try and snowball some advantage or recover
Shatterskull Smashing to interact (This one always played more like a land with kicker to me, so it felt wrong even though I know the rules)
Ranger's Class as mentioned above
It should have been fine, I had Gavony Township, Raging Ravine, Lion's Sash and Gemrazer to go find but it never worked out. This card is also quite individually weak, also not helping with the removal weakness.
If anyone was still wondering, every change from scavenging ooze to this card is a big deal. It's huge that it doesn't gain life (good imo), it's huge that it starts at a 1/1, it's huge that it can equip and "dodge" removal, and it's huge that it can grow of permanents instead of just creatures, especially in a fetch based environment like mine. Scooze was too much for my cube but I think this will be fine and interesting. Now if only they made a version with a good art and reminder text.
Man why is this card black? There's already so little reason to dip into other colors for the aristocrats deck. I'd been interested in a powered up golgari germination for a bit, and while I was figuring out what I wanted it to do they printed this.
At first blush, I'm not sure I want this anymore. Having your creature sacrifices turn into more creatures to sacrifice (even if it isn't an unbounded loop) feels wrong in my game design gut, just having the output lead so directly back to the input like that.
It's also very frustrating to play against because blocking whatever gravecrawler I've added this week only results in your opponent having MORE creatures in play, AND they're harder to block so (usually) your only option is to block in such a way that gives them more pests.
On top of all of that, there aren't a ton of nontoken bodies running around in colors that aren't black, so this won't work as well in a base green or base red aristocrats deck, for eg.
I'd been listening to LuckyPaperRadio a while back and Andy was talking about how he'd specifically only added Shocklands (rather than the more traditional mix of shocks and duals) to reduce player life totals overall, increase decision making, and buff aggro a bit.
This sounded like a solid idea, but seeing it in practice: I'm not having the same issues he is. The time to kill on my games is so short when undisrupted that you either have enough interaction or you don't. You're absolutely fine to play a tapland or two if your turn 4 is a sweeper, those are games you win at 10 life, not 4 or 6. Plus I like the increased variety, I'll take it where I can.
I don't have 4-5 good ideas for a given effect when I make a custom card, I've got one, MAYBE two if I'm lucky
I'm doubling and tripling up on a LOT of cards. I still think 4x consider is better than consider/ponder/preordain/portent (Or mental note, or whatever strikes your fancy) because consider both fills a graveyard and improves your draw rather than just replacing itself.
But ideally, I'd like 4 different cards that improve your graveyard AND fill the yard/use artifacts/flash back so you can decide which one matters to you more than other cards in the pack you need.
I'll never know why I thought I'd be a good fit for I.T.
We had a pull pod of 8, which I always appreciate, and three people were fresh faces to my cube. I didn't get a ton of chances to sit down and ask people about their experience, but overall reactions felt positive.
Archetype wise we had
-3 separate base GB graveyard decks, one of which did much better than a deck containing Uro and Kroxa might imply
-2 prowess decks, which were the highlight of the night in power level and decision points
-An insane esper artifacts deck
-A more midrangely full jund aristocrats deck
-Me on GW counters, which continues to frustrate me.
Highlights:
This card is incredibly flexible in amazing ways. I'd initially wanted just a benevolent bodyguard which would work more broadly as a protection spell
-protection works fine against targeted removal, but does nothing for sweepers
-indestructible works against most sweepers (I run languish) but doesn't work against various random targeted removal
-hexproof works much the same as protection
-sliding the creature out works against everything but also resets all the work you've put into growing your creature
Phasing works against spot removal and sweepers, AND keeps the modifications of the creature, making it pretty perfect for my purposes here.
As well, it also works offensively like protection in a way that feels far less cheap than "give my creature pro red, you happen to have all red creatures in play, swing through"
What I didn't think of was phasing out my opponents Massacre Wurm in response to its ETB, stopping all the life loss and removing an important blocker! I love it when the power of a card comes from the sheer amount of things it does, rather than like...Swords to Plowshares doing one thing better than 10 other cards combined.
This card is just as insane as champion of the parish. I had more than one game where I played two of these and added a counter for the next 2-3 turns, leading to modern humans levels of pile up damage.
1 drops probably shouldn't grow to 3/3 at any reasonable speed, figure of destiny is probably closer to what I want from a 1 drop that grows late.
It's worth pointing out that even those busted modern openings can't beat a damnnation into doom blade by the way. Most of my matches I struggled to beat anyone who cast 3 removal spells, and in post board games where people borded up into even more went even worse. My particular version of this deck was far weaker to this than usual on account of three 1 drop mana dorks, which makes me question their need in the first place if the aggro deck would rather pull up than be faster, and the midrange decks want to play sweepers to catch up.
Hey you know how in standard a while back duress was a decent maindeck card because it hit a surprising number of cards out of the mono green stompy deck, the place where it would normally be at its worst? (Hits: Ranger Class, Esika's Chariot, Inscription of Abundance, Blizzard Brawl, Snakeskin Veil, Invoke the Ancients, etc)
I had that exact problem in reverse! This card searches for a creature or land, which was very frustrating when I wanted to search for:
Ajani, Adversary of Tyrants to try and snowball some advantage or recover
Shatterskull Smashing to interact (This one always played more like a land with kicker to me, so it felt wrong even though I know the rules)
Ranger's Class as mentioned above
It should have been fine, I had Gavony Township, Raging Ravine, Lion's Sash and Gemrazer to go find but it never worked out. This card is also quite individually weak, also not helping with the removal weakness.
If anyone was still wondering, every change from scavenging ooze to this card is a big deal. It's huge that it doesn't gain life (good imo), it's huge that it starts at a 1/1, it's huge that it can equip and "dodge" removal, and it's huge that it can grow of permanents instead of just creatures, especially in a fetch based environment like mine. Scooze was too much for my cube but I think this will be fine and interesting. Now if only they made a version with a good art and reminder text.
Man why is this card black? There's already so little reason to dip into other colors for the aristocrats deck. I'd been interested in a powered up golgari germination for a bit, and while I was figuring out what I wanted it to do they printed this.
At first blush, I'm not sure I want this anymore. Having your creature sacrifices turn into more creatures to sacrifice (even if it isn't an unbounded loop) feels wrong in my game design gut, just having the output lead so directly back to the input like that.
It's also very frustrating to play against because blocking whatever gravecrawler I've added this week only results in your opponent having MORE creatures in play, AND they're harder to block so (usually) your only option is to block in such a way that gives them more pests.
On top of all of that, there aren't a ton of nontoken bodies running around in colors that aren't black, so this won't work as well in a base green or base red aristocrats deck, for eg.
I'd been listening to LuckyPaperRadio a while back and Andy was talking about how he'd specifically only added Shocklands (rather than the more traditional mix of shocks and duals) to reduce player life totals overall, increase decision making, and buff aggro a bit.
This sounded like a solid idea, but seeing it in practice: I'm not having the same issues he is. The time to kill on my games is so short when undisrupted that you either have enough interaction or you don't. You're absolutely fine to play a tapland or two if your turn 4 is a sweeper, those are games you win at 10 life, not 4 or 6. Plus I like the increased variety, I'll take it where I can.
I don't have 4-5 good ideas for a given effect when I make a custom card, I've got one, MAYBE two if I'm lucky
But ideally, I'd like 4 different cards that improve your graveyard AND fill the yard/use artifacts/flash back so you can decide which one matters to you more than other cards in the pack you need.
Chris Taylor
Contributor
Sidebar: Cardboard Asthetics
I mentioned that this was the first draft I'd had since COVID started, so I haven't actually been interacting with magic all that much. I don't play commander, or arena, and I'd been playing other video games rather than thinking about cube for the last two years. That's kinda why I hadn't posted in this thread: I felt like I had nothing to report. My cube's still got the same five broad archetypes it's had for ages, and I wasn't really sure if anything I'd added sparked enough in me to type more than 10 words about.
What I have been doing however, is polishing what I did have as much as I could:
CardConjurer has been instrumental in me actually caring about the resolution of the customs I have printed out. Magic Set Editor is still much better for maintaining a working file of cards, but specifically avoids being used for counterfeiting by only allowing low DPI exports (As far as I know anyways).
Seeing my old cards printed next to these new ones is night and day, the Card Conjurer versions are noticeably better.
So I'll probably need to move to Magic Set Editor as a repository, and Card Conjurer for when I want to add a card to my cube.
Wizards has discovered that they can monetize paid cosmetics for their players, leading to the explosion of frames and alternate versions of existing cards we've seen over the last few years. This of course comes with both upsides and downsides for the consumer, since they are a for profit company.
I LOVE that there's more options for which version of a card to run. The more versions of snapcaster mage exist, the better the game will be, and seeing your people in a game you love is an experience I wish everyone could have as easily as I've had my whole life.
Like, you seen this bearscape?
This is REAL GAY for a company as big as WotC, and yeah, I get that this only exists because they ran the numbers and making shit like this will generate more revenue from allies than it will lose with the bigot crowd. If the data went the other way, you can absolutely bet we'd be seeing Secret Lair: Make America Great Again.
This isn't because they agree with me. But it's nice anyways.
And to bring it back: I am frustrated that there's little niggling things wrong with the cosmetic versions of cards I like most. Basically all "premium" versions of cards are missing important reminder text, and there's many uncommons like abrade which would look amazing given these alternate frame treatments.
Lastly, every single one of these frames is a one time deal. If a card you want missed the cut, you aren't ever getting it.
But I never let that stop me anyways.
I think my favorite and default choice of these is the borderless frame (See consider or Young Pyromancer, above), but most art is made landscape, not portrait, so often you'll be zooming in further than you anticipated trying to get it to fit the frame.
I'm still a fan of the "Extended Art" frame (Used on Augur of Skulls, above) where most people think it looks worse than the default magic frame. I appreciate that there's some dodgy bleed work done on the edges where the art and text box meet, but I don't really notice it, and this frame allows for expanded art, smaller text boxes (which helps keep my overdesigning in check) and still uses the traditional aspect ratio (landscape) of "normal magic art".
Planeswalkers use vertical art due to slight transparency on their text box, so they've been a perfect fit, but you won't always be able to find art that works and is up to your quality standards.
One less obvious problem with this frame: in eliminating so much of the base frame, you can lose out on some signifiers. Like, can you tell this is an artifact?
Other than the typeline, no. All the places where the artifact frame would have overlapped with the green frame are art now.
I mentioned that this was the first draft I'd had since COVID started, so I haven't actually been interacting with magic all that much. I don't play commander, or arena, and I'd been playing other video games rather than thinking about cube for the last two years. That's kinda why I hadn't posted in this thread: I felt like I had nothing to report. My cube's still got the same five broad archetypes it's had for ages, and I wasn't really sure if anything I'd added sparked enough in me to type more than 10 words about.
What I have been doing however, is polishing what I did have as much as I could:
CardConjurer has been instrumental in me actually caring about the resolution of the customs I have printed out. Magic Set Editor is still much better for maintaining a working file of cards, but specifically avoids being used for counterfeiting by only allowing low DPI exports (As far as I know anyways).
Seeing my old cards printed next to these new ones is night and day, the Card Conjurer versions are noticeably better.
So I'll probably need to move to Magic Set Editor as a repository, and Card Conjurer for when I want to add a card to my cube.
Wizards has discovered that they can monetize paid cosmetics for their players, leading to the explosion of frames and alternate versions of existing cards we've seen over the last few years. This of course comes with both upsides and downsides for the consumer, since they are a for profit company.
I LOVE that there's more options for which version of a card to run. The more versions of snapcaster mage exist, the better the game will be, and seeing your people in a game you love is an experience I wish everyone could have as easily as I've had my whole life.
Like, you seen this bearscape?
This is REAL GAY for a company as big as WotC, and yeah, I get that this only exists because they ran the numbers and making shit like this will generate more revenue from allies than it will lose with the bigot crowd. If the data went the other way, you can absolutely bet we'd be seeing Secret Lair: Make America Great Again.
This isn't because they agree with me. But it's nice anyways.
And to bring it back: I am frustrated that there's little niggling things wrong with the cosmetic versions of cards I like most. Basically all "premium" versions of cards are missing important reminder text, and there's many uncommons like abrade which would look amazing given these alternate frame treatments.
Lastly, every single one of these frames is a one time deal. If a card you want missed the cut, you aren't ever getting it.
But I never let that stop me anyways.
I think my favorite and default choice of these is the borderless frame (See consider or Young Pyromancer, above), but most art is made landscape, not portrait, so often you'll be zooming in further than you anticipated trying to get it to fit the frame.
I'm still a fan of the "Extended Art" frame (Used on Augur of Skulls, above) where most people think it looks worse than the default magic frame. I appreciate that there's some dodgy bleed work done on the edges where the art and text box meet, but I don't really notice it, and this frame allows for expanded art, smaller text boxes (which helps keep my overdesigning in check) and still uses the traditional aspect ratio (landscape) of "normal magic art".
Planeswalkers use vertical art due to slight transparency on their text box, so they've been a perfect fit, but you won't always be able to find art that works and is up to your quality standards.
One less obvious problem with this frame: in eliminating so much of the base frame, you can lose out on some signifiers. Like, can you tell this is an artifact?
Other than the typeline, no. All the places where the artifact frame would have overlapped with the green frame are art now.
i love your work! glad you’re also having a good experience with Conjurer. you and your cube were a big influence on me when i started making customs.
Chris Taylor
Contributor
Glad to know I've done something even when I feel like I haven't done something recently
Chris Taylor
Contributor
More Stuff:
big fan of brass scout