/ccg/ Custom Card General /cct/

It is admittedly, a bit. Probably because WotC doesn't do it.

Yeah, I would venture to try it but I'd never finish it. Anymore I am just an idea guy; I can't seem to get more than halfway through any sets I start on. Feels kinda shitty to burn out on something you spent months on too.

>forcing attack
Blue and red both get it, it seems; blue has Provocateur, Alluring Siren, and that commander Siren card that forced a creature to attack another player and had Morph.

Yeah, it's just not something they think really fits the UB identity it seems, which as I recall in my reading is something they want for all color pairs; an identity both mechanically and flavorfully stand-alone, and not just a product of the parent colors. Explains a whole lot about stuff like Extort, for example.

It's a good thing that color pairs aren't just the entire sum of their parent colors, gives them a bit of their own space.

I agree, but the other issue with that is that we as custom card makers have a harder time with what those combos can and can't do, since with monocolor it's easy to read design trends and extrapolate new things that might be possible, like all the venues that red's new artifact love and impulse draw can be used for. With color pairs it becomes harder because you're not sure what all the acceptable themes are till WotC does something for your play off of/with. Have to play follow the leader more than you normally would, which might chafe some people. Not me particularly, since I usually play nice with NWO and design trends and am not very creative with my cards, but we have a lot of envelope-pushers around here and it can cause trouble for them. I've seen it.

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I don't think making all your germ tokens into Emmys is fair.
This needs to be seriously toned down. I'd recommend only letting it imprint something in play.
Consider the "get all effects + a buff" thing to require an activation and only be UEoT.

Come on, you still haven't changed the Imprint text?

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Normally I don't do the LSH, but the idea just came to me so I had to.

Eh, not sure on this. Wizards tends to put no downside Reanimation at about 4-5 mana anyway.

Cool.

Yeah, is right, this thing is obscene.

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So, what do we think of the October FNM promo wording ?
For my part, I like it, it saves a lot of space

Is this now the official wording?

We don't know yet
For now, it is only on this promo
We'll see with Kaladesh (or Conspiracy ?)

Feels like a flavor thing for Kaladesh's sake. Similar to how "dies" was introduced right before Innistrad, "create" sounds good on paper with all the inevitable artifact tokens.

Eh... Not sure. I get that it makes it clearer that the token is being created rather than being pulled from some place, but I am kinda worried newbies might misunderstand it and think that the tokens don't enter the battlefield. I can already here people asking "How to they enter the battlefield if they were made there?" I also don't really like how this is going to sound with tapped and attacking effects.
>Create a tapped and attacking [...] creature token.
>Create a tapped [...] creature token attacking.
First is better, but I think they're both kinda bad.

I also predict we'll see some shitty custom cards that start going
>Create a [...] creature token in your graveyard.
Or something stupid like that.

The next set is indeed Conspiracy: [s]The Reign of Brago[/s], [s]The Empty Throne[/s], Take the Crown.

>[s][/s]
Well, fuck you too eHow.

Thinking about how "dies" paved the way for Morbid, there's probably going to be some sort of similar mechanic in Kaladesh that cares about "creating" artifacts.

id personally make it "other creatures" so she doesnt grow herself, a 3/3 flying hexproof is already hard enough to deal with.

>there's probably going to be some sort of similar mechanic in Kaladesh that cares about "creating" artifacts.
Huh, let me guess...

She's kind of fighting herself. She supports the Bant "single combat" ideology with her first ability, but then goes "fuck it, we'll all do combat" with her second. Maybe just make it so it's basically Exalted for each card exiled.

MaRo confirmed it wasn't contraptions, actually.

Anything else I should add? Does it need Protection, or is it fine where it is?

Yeah, kinda figured. Still, probably something similar.
>Whenever you create an artifact, [...]

Wait, didn't mean to say capital "P" protection like the keyword, just the generic meaning. Like Hexproof or the Frost Titan ability or something.

Just look at the space it saves.

Not him, but your argument kinda falls apart when you want something to trigger that counts not just tokens. Which is ALL ETB triggers.

I'm both and .

I'm saying they probably wanted to make a mechanic that cared about creating tokens, but noticed while writing cards that it took up too much space on average.

Your argument kind of falls apart when you assume the argument was ever about something that counts all ETB triggers.

I looked at ETB triggers because your example uses ETB triggers. What else do you call an ability that works when something enters the battlefield?

That's not the point.

Let's take another shot at this.
>Not him, but your argument kinda falls apart when you want something to trigger that counts not just tokens. Which is ALL ETB triggers.

>when you want something to trigger that counts not just tokens

See, that part is the issue here. This is a conversation about a mechanic that does want to count just tokens.

>This is a conversation about a mechanic that does want to count just tokens.
Yes, true. But the odds for such an ability aren't that great. Cards with such an ability would be nearly unplayable outside their block. Seriously, can you give me a single example of an official Magic card that cares exclusively about tokens ETB? I'm genuinely curious, because I couldn't find any.

>Cards with such an ability would be nearly unplayable outside their block.

Depends how specific they make it. If it's artifact creature tokens, they would be a little hard to actually use, but if it's just tokens, then just run it alongside Bitterblossom or Lingering Souls and you're probably good to go. If they limited it to artifact tokens, then hey, Investigate plays right into it and they've already said Investigate is versatile enough flavor to print it on nearly any plane.

Considering populate exists as a mechanic, it doesn't seem particularly farfetched.

>eHow
kek

Is there an eHow for creating custom magic cards?

>Depends how specific they make it.
Making it care only about tokens already makes it pretty specific. By the way, did you find me that example I asked for? No? Oh, what a shocker. I'll try to contain my surprise.

>populate
Hey, isn't that the mechanic nobody liked? Yeah, what about it?

It was the first link I saw, sue me.

>By the way, did you find me that example I asked for? No? Oh, what a shocker.

I decided I'd take your word for it. After all, it's irrelevant to the topic at hand.

>Hey, isn't that the mechanic nobody liked?

No, you're thinking of Megamorph.

>sue me
Alright, see you in court.

There are many mechanics that people didn't like. MaRo actually wrote articles about how much people liked or disliked keywords from both Ravnica blocks as well as Khans block. They're actually really informative.

>MaRo actually wrote articles about how much people liked or disliked keywords from both Ravnica blocks as well as Khans block. They're actually really informative.

And anyone who says Populate was disliked didn't read them.

>magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/making-magic/storm-scale-ravnica-and-return-ravnica-2016-05-02

>Populate
>Popularity: Popular

>This was one of the most popular of all the guild mechanics.

All I've ever heard is people bitching about it. Then again, all I ever seem to hear is people bitching about Magic. I can't tell you how many times I've seen someone saying the newest block is the worst ever. From Theros to now.

And I didn't say that populate was unpopular.

Somebody did

>Hey, isn't that the mechanic nobody liked? Yeah, what about it?

>6 popular mechanics
>Only one rating below 5.
I'm surprised this hasn't been used against Maro. Not that I have an opinion about what he's saying one way or the other.

The popularity of a mechanic isn't the only thing being taken into consideration with the Storm Scale. People loved Storm, but like fuck is it ever coming back.

>Only one below 5
There are six below 5
Detain (3)
Convoke (3)
Bloodthirst (3)
Unleash (4)
Scavenge (4)
Battalion (4)

Of the 6 popular ones, there is only one below 5, Detain.

>Scavenge
I think it's kinda weird how he said that mechanic was liked, but only by a small number of people. I mean, shouldn't this be based on aggregate?

"Liked" means it was the bottom half, but not bottom 25%

They do market research, so presumably there's something like:
>Strongly Liked
>Liked
>Neutral
>Disliked
>Strongly Disliked

If not outright 1-10. If there were a relatively small number of high scores surrounded by largely neutral responses, it could probably be counted as "liked" because it has a sort of "appeals to THIS audience" thing.

Ah, got what you mean. The scavenge thing is that it was "liked," which means that it wasn't popular but also wasn't unpopular, putting it in the top half of the bottom half.

What if I offer a BBB3 demon?

The difference in mana costs would be 0, so you cast it for free obviously.

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No the difference would be B1

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Neat. I think you could make it an activated ability to clean up the last ability.

Reduce his starting power.

I don't agree that it's working against itself. Bant exalted wants to attack with just one creature, but still has a host of blockers.

I do agree that she shouldn't pump herself. Flying/hexproof is already hard to kill.

I believe it's mostly a consequence of set design. Multicolor cards aren't often designed in isolation but to support a set's archetype. And the desire is to differentiate similar archetypes. WU control is pillowfort using lifegain to stall, while UB control wants power at any price. WG aggro tries to be stable; BR is suicidal. And so on.

It's fine as black, but it can also work in white instead. Trying to kill creatures is very expensive, and it's mostly going to have creatures bounce off each other and you gaining some life.

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Decided to give a flip-walker a try.

Hopefully he captures that assholish Bolas-y feel.

>Whenever ~ attacks, he deals 1 damage to defending player. That player discards a card, then sacrifices a permanent.
>At end of combat, if @ attacked this combat, exile him, then return him to the battlefield transformed under his owner's control.

>Draw three cards, then discard two cards. You lose 1 life.
>Target opponent chooses a creature he or she controls, then sacrifices the rest.
>Target opponent gets an emblem with "Whenever you draw a card, discard two cards."

Doesn't really seem red. And it should be "...copy target triggered ability. You may choose new targets for the copy."

Oh it's Bolas-y all right. That -3 is really damn good though, since you can do a onesided wipe and the -9 doesn't seem like it would be a Bolas ability, he's more of an obliterator than a denial engine.

Thanks, I always miss the details.

One thing though, the -3 is meant to be Bolas's controller selecting the one creature the opponent gets to keep. The way you worded it isn't quite the same.

It's sort of a limited one-sided wipe. You have to leave them with at least one creature, although the idea is that you pick, like, a Spellskite or something. But if the opponent just has a Delver sitting out there, it's meant to be not so great.

I think you're probably right about the -9. I wanted it to be a game-ended that tapped into his theme of manipulating his enemies and turning their plans to ruin, but it does just feel kind of generically Black instead of uniquely his.

>Target creature's controller sacrifices each other creature he or she controls.

>Reduce his starting power.
Make him 2/2?

Been playing a lot of MonHun lately. Felt like making a bunch of creatures for it, although there are some weird flavor/mechanic grinds, like non-flying, non-red Dragons like Rathian, things that aren't technically Dragons in MH being Dragons here (and vice versa), and the fact that they all ended up being legendary because I hated how just "Lagiacrus" or just "Rathalos" looked.

As usual, probably imbalanced as shit, with Narga probably being a little bit boring, if anything.

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Oh cool, you even incorporated an approximation of Chains of Waytoomuchtext.

Both seem equally narrow, but maybe not quite narrow enough.

Those are neat. I'd love to build a Glavenus + Seregios equipment deck.

I like the one on the left. Feels like a friendly Proliferate.

I'm working on a red counter-reveal mechanic. Creatures like Loxodon Smiter and Obstinate Baloth reject being discarded, I'm trying to create one that rejects being revealed - maybe it's shy.
How do you feel about the wording on this card. That's the part I always get stuck on.

>Those are neat. I'd love to build a Glavenus + Seregios equipment deck.
Thanks. I'm not sure what sort of mechanic would fit Seregios. There's his Bleed to work on, or maybe his speed giving his Firstest strike. Unsure.

As to your wording, you don't need to give it psuedo-flash if you're casting it as part of an ability's resolution.
>Whenever you reveal ~, you may cast it.

Not sure how to word the second half. "It gains haste." is probably technically valid, because it effects the card that becomes the spell that becomes the creature, but it still doesn't sound right.

I'd prefer if Ceadeus was formatted like the other monocolored ones.
>Ceadeus, Emperor of the Sea

Also maybe Lagiacrus can be Roar of the Storm instead. And where's the Tyrant of Shadow or Czar of Night or General of Death or whatever?

I think Rathian could easily just have Wither, Poisonous or Infect. Having both Wither and poisonous is a bit strange.

I think Wither alone might be the best. It lets it wither things by fighting them.

Not many "black" monsters in the game, although Gore Magala is definitely the first that comes to mind. Was originally going to be a DFC that flips when any creature has 3 or more -1/-1 counters, but I think completing a monocolored bunch is fun too.

Yeah, I agree in that it might be a bit odd. And Poisonous is ancient as hell, but I was worried about the dangers of trampling infect creatures.

By following Panglacial Wurm, we can approximate the wording.

>Whenever you reveal ~, you may cast it.
is probably right, if not you can try a narrower wording:
>Whenever a spell or ability causes you to reveal ~, you may cast it.

The second half would probably be something like:
>If you cast ~ this way, it gains haste until end of turn.

I'd say to just stick with Wither then. Maybe give it the 'can only be blocked by flying and reach' thing that Green sometimes gets.

Azban (colored) demon. It started out as a BG Prized Unicorn + Deathtouch stupid pet trick and became this monstrosity instead when I decided she had all of the snakes so why not let her do something with them? Again, mostly for EDH. I am having a lot of fun making demons outside monoblack and BR. It's a neat little exercise.

This dude is really cool, but man, he's a bomb. I almost want to say he should maybe be 4BB or something given everything he does, and how he feeds himself so easily.

Left is more set-specific, right is more "core set" since it can fit anywhere and requires no build around set theme to thrive. It depends where you want to put it/how you want to use it.

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The typing is... Well, why a snake and not a gorgon? Or a naga?

Snake Demon seemed to fit better for what it does than Naga/Naga Demon, since it's not really magical per se. Plus, pairing Demon with an animal type feels more "right" to me. Gorgon fits if it were just BG maybe but the "allure" part kinda falls short with Gorgons. I mean they are hot in the art and all but they have an obvious rep. Demons are more subtle. You don't know how they will screw you till it's too late, so I had hoped that flavor would make a bit of sense with the blocking tricks coupled with the deathtouch. Plus it's the thread edition and I like using them as design exercises.

tl;dr - It could be a Gorgon with some fiddling or as it is now, but I think Naga or Naga Demon would want it to be more "magical" in flavor. Plus, thread edition.

Pretty neat idea. I'd call it "Forceful Reawakening" myself but that's just me. Choosing a source comes off strangely, but I assume you designed it around some precedent or another, and its not like it convollutes the card. I would have had it just say "the next time a source yadda yadda" to save space myself.

You can't have it target, as the target is chosen as the spell resolves, not as damage is prevented.

>Choosing a source comes off strangely, but I assume you designed it around some precedent or another

Yeah, it was lifted from Deflecting Palm. I'll take your advice on the name though.

Good point.

I like the touch of adding a colorless requirement to the casting cost to make it more artifact related despite being a sorcery. The mana cost is a bit low for the effect, though I think it could be okay

You're right to think it's too cheap; colorless is pretty easy to get with the generic mana production retcon so this isn't as hard to cast as it looks. I'd make it CCR myself. It might be able to be an instant at that cost, but I'm not too sure.

Left I'd like to see enter with a counter itself, so multiple copies could at least enable themselves.

>generic mana production retcon

It's technically not a retcon, but a clarification. It was always producing colorless mana, they just never had a reason to care before.

That's true.

Not him, but I'm still never going to understand their reasoning for that. Like, "Oh, now people can see that colorless and generic are different!" so fucking what? That was a complete non-issue before you introduced colorless costs. I mean, it's circular reasoning. You "solved" a problem that the "solution" created.

I think it's better as Sorcery. Midnight Haunting and Lingering Souls are both in the same ballpark in terms of effect there, though this is either 1 cmc lower and sorcery, or 1 lower and lacking flashback. While 1 colorless isn't too hard to get, I could see it as being just enough to get it lower.

1R would be the safest costing, though also not very nice to look at. Perhaps if it also put them into play tapped so they couldn't be used as blockers right away?

I'm pretty sure the reason they introduced it in the first place was to open up more design space, which it does quite nicely. It allows card that use Colorless mana to be costed more aggressively over generic mana.

I'll be amazed if we ever see colorless costs again. It seems like a one-off thing to make a set unique. Like snow mana.