/ccg/ Custom Card General /cct/

Squadron Shock
2R
Instant
Squadron Shock deals 2 damage to target creature or player. When you cast Squadron Shock, you may search your library for up to three cards named Squadron Shock, reveal them, put them into your hand, then shuffle your library.

"I hate birds."

More powerful than you think it is.

Really? Because I think it's pretty powerful. I just wanted to make a joke.

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Since spoked-wheel user in the last thread wanted a Nether Void reprint. Not sure why I picked this flavor text, just the first thing that came to mind. Looking for better, more eldirtch-y art.

Always liked this one.

>targets a [...] permanent card.
I don't even know if this works. I doubt it.

Not really interesting. I get it's a common, but still.

???

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>Is there a need for a gold aura at common in your set?
Yeah, and one that contributes to the "going tall" UG subtheme.

Anyone ever made a card that eerily resembled a card later printed by Wizards?

Alternatively, ever accidentally made a card that was already made?

No but a few times I've stolen card designs from here for my job at Wizards.

Oh shit wait...

>targets a [...] permanent card.
It works, and would mostly hate on spells messing with the graveyard.

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Eh, not really. The closest I came to the first was making a Spider legend, then they made Ishkanah, but that wasn't much of a surprise. As for the latter, this, which another user pointed out is just a more specific Abundance.

I don't get ut

Whenever enchanted creature becomes blocked, draw a card. You may plan additional land this turn.

Explore, the pants. Makes it easier to ramp into big things/sneaks in stupid damage and punishes chumping when you have a big thing.

>Not really interesting. I get it's a common, but still.
Yup, I think the best I can hope for with this one is boring but functional. Think I could bump the spell tax up to {2}?

I like it, but repeatable explore doesn't feel common.

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Maybe a 1/4 is a bit much. I'd make it more vulnerable.

Thanks. It does work. And yeah, mostly graveyards. Kind of the only zone where cards are targeted.

Alright. Then try it out. It is completely acceptable.

All the time. Very frustrating.

I get that it isn't actually a ritual unless you are running red creatures, but it seems a bit much. Maybe have it add any combination of {R} and {G}?

>"Life total becomes" edition!

I have an old card that fits that pretty well.

I would totally run that card in my Phage EDH deck!

Does anyone have anything to say on this? I don't know what to do with it, and I'm just kinda frustrated because out of the three Monitor cards I have, this is the last one I need to do. I realize it's probably shit, I'm sorry, but this is why I'm asking for help. Theme is exiling as removal.

Yeah, that's pretty much why I can never make an actual set. Having to plug away at the commons and uncommons makes me want to kill myself. For the tax, go for it.

Interesting.

Does Delve really justify that massive cost? Set Adrift is the same cost, but a lot more flexible. Or is this showing how Wizards stepped on your toes?

>Magus
OK. What do you think, 3/2 or something? Should it be in Shock range, or Bolt range?

>Kind of the only zone where cards are targeted.
Exile.

Nice. I want to cast this after swinging with Worldslayer.

Does this even work? And was the ending to Eldritch Moon as anti-climactic and disappointing as we all knew it was going to be?

This is a common and it's repeatable rampant growth, which is similar to explore. Still, your set, your choices, but it does enable the whole "get out huge dudes" thing.

Peddled Away was designed before Gatecrash had even come out. So, yeah, it was WOTC spying on me (jokes).

3/2 is probably good. Four mana shock after all.

And I fucking love commons. They are my favorite things to design, because I am a boring fuck.

As for Monitor, it is just kind of boring. If you are hitting for 13 because they have literally no blockers, the exiling a permanent is the definition of win more. Look at similarly costed threats and try to assess it. It may be better off as a 9 mana card with less useless P/T.

I mean, it works but is wordy and eh. It also is a bit over the top compared to Blood Feud, as it can be a huge 2-for-1 depending on the sizes of the creatures/walkers.

I'm fine with EMoon. No big deal.

3/2 on the Magus, OK.

Monitor does suck, I know. I'll probably take a look at Eldrazi and some big beaters before coming back. For reference, these are the other Monitors. Yes, they all play with exile a bit, and they're the only ones I plan on doing this sort of stuff with. They're a species of beings defined by living outside the known multiverse, so it kinda makes sense. Well, that and "outside the game" effects are something I've never been a huge fan of.

Yeah, mostly a flavor thing, really. Wanted it to be just walkers, but that's nearly useless. Completely forgot about Blood Feud though.

>Skygazer
I don't quite see the flavor exactly, but it still looks good. Hey, why haven't you updated your frames?

>Bait with Meat
I guess the sac justifies two 2/2's, but I'm not 100% sure. I do think it'd kinda funny how you can just sac the first Wolf though. Probably wouldn't be hard to see with double-token effects.

Eh. Given how symmetrical it is and how it essentially just puts all that back in libraries, I don't have much of a problem with them.

The fact that the cards are ultra nonbos together isn't great either.

Everyone forgot about Blood Feud, but I fucking love it. Great art and flavor.

I am not a flavor guy. Skygazer doesn't really have much flavor, other than apparently whatever it was you traded (discarded) allowed her to fulfill her dream (flying). People like the card a lot, which is nice.

As for Bait with meat, I kind of liked how you can use it as a Morbid enabler. Not that Morbid is in the set, but you know, Grave Pact, etc. Exploit had a lot of similar cards, now that I think about it, but eh, WOTC better be taking notes.

Oh, as for the frames, I have been trying to update my MSE today, but fucking hell, the thing literally gave me every M15 variant frame but not a single fucking normal M15 frame.

So, yeah.

...

Look through the archive of frames on the MSE site. I was able to find it and you should be able to as well.

I like it. Very strong though. Be aware.

I found it. Though now I have to install Beleren. Does it bother you that much?

Anyway, I'll fix it sooner or later.

Desert-user here, I redid the deserts, added a set symbol, and decided on a colorless focus for my set. I'm not sure how powerful these cards are. Would you mind giving your opinions on them?

You said that you were trying to install it, implying that you wanted to use it.

Awww, it's cute!
I really like delve as not just a BUG mechanic, too.

I originally envisioned Delve as Grixis, but as I developed my set, I decided it made most sense as a 5 color mechanic like Landfall or Cycling.

True! I do want to. I'll get Beleren soon. Honestly though, with my set, I probably am gonna have to start from scratch anyway. The whole thing will feel remarkably derivative given how much new stuff has come out since I originally made most of this.

Hard to evaluate. Weird how the R and B ones hate on themselves. White seems strongest as it is easy to recur something like Wasteland every turn. Like, stupid powerful, I didn't even notice it put it on the battlefield.

I am afraid that's about as useful as I can get. Designing a set based around lands is hard.

Do you think the white one should add it to hand instead, or should I just change the ability?

>I am afraid that's about as useful as I can get. Designing a set based around lands is hard.
Yeah, that's why I was really unsure about the power levels. Thanks for your help.

Well, Nix and Mandrakk aren't really meant to be used together, they're opposing forces. But yeah, it's literally just Mobius I need to finish now. And unfortunately for me, his character in the DCU can be literally summed up as "Like Doomsday, but for the entire multiverse."

I do like Blood Feud, and I can't believe I forgot it. I actually really like seeing Wizards do Fight variants, and I'd really like to see more. I thought Ezuri's Predation was brilliant. Oh yeah, and that new one, the one that makes blocking creatures Fight each other, that one's really cool too.

>I am not a flavor guy.
That has its positives and its negatives. For me, sometimes it's a nightmare to come up with an idea for a card because I can't see past the flavor. I think some of my best cards are ones like this, where I just come up with the concept in just a few minutes. Really, I happened to notice the art, and though it was cool enough to make a card for and that was it.

I did notice death triggers for Bait. And yeah, Wizards had a bunch of "When this dies" triggers to help out Exploit. As well as that one that could recur itself forever. River Trawler? Something like that.

I think you could make this 3B actually, maybe even less, though it does have Cycling. Wizards always puts a discount on cards that make you play with an opponent's cards, probably because it's a lot harder to really exploit. Imagine using this on the guy playing turbofog or owling mine. Ouch.

Oh, speaking of ouch. Seriously, same cost and cast window as Tribute to Hunger, but a cantrip and you lose life? Not a fan. Really, one of the problems with edicts is that the opponent chooses the creature, so they still lose something, but they'll try to mitigate the disadvantage. And with this, this just lets your opponent have their way with you. I really don't want to lose 5 life just because the guy has a wall or something. It'd be much better if it destroyed, like Vendetta.

I don't know much about these guys. My DC Knowledge comes from nonsense trivia and Batman: The Brave and the Bold. You have an Ambush Bug or Metal Men card yet?

Suit Up may be narrow, but it may be a bit much to let you get an Aura AND a Equipment attached to each creature. Maybe OR?

Cadaver commerce was originally 4 mana, actually. I figured Ashen Powder could use a boost in power level. But people kept telling me how much I undervalue Cycling and that the drawback "oh my opponent's yard is empty" is hardly relevant when you can just cycle that shit away.

As for Eliminate, yeah, I was being a bit fun there. I liked the dynamic that your opponent would be tempted to sacrifice a good creature just to get you to lose life. How many walls have 5 power anyway? Maybe I should try 2 mana, since I made it an uncommon.

>I don't know much about these guys.
I don't expect most people to. Especially guys like the Monitors, they're way beyond what most people are reading, or will see on TV or in theaters. And I do some non-DC, non-Marvel cards. Unfortunately I haven't done Ambush Bug or the Metal Men yet though. I guess for the Metal Men, I'll make them colored artifact creatures with something fitting for the color. Ambush Bug... I don't even know what to do with him.

And yeah, I'll change Suit Up to either or. I'd been waffling back and forth about that in my head for a bit anyway.

>Cadaver Commerce
Well, 4 is pretty much the base amount of mana allowed for reanimation, though Wizards likes keeping it at 5 or more (kinda like LD at 4 or more). I was thinking the drawback of having to use your opponent's cards would get it back down to 4, but I guess Cycling can put it back to 5, IDK.

>How many walls have 5 power anyway?
Oh fuck, I kept thinking toughness. Yeah, that is a more interesting design then. Still, it is a drawback, so I think the cost could go down.

>Organ Trade
I feel like Delve should go first since it modifies cost, but that's just me. Seems solid overall.

>Having to plug away at the commons and uncommons makes me want to kill myself.
I actually really enjoy it (I'd have to be some kind of masochist otherwise, considering how many I've made). Finding the right flavor to convey simple concepts is a fun design challenge in and of itself, especially on the boring-but-functional cards like my UG aura (which I really like the flavor of, despite the simple mechanical nature of the card itself).
>Mobius
Maybe have him get extra abilities from cards being exiled, Warden of the Beyond style? Or maybe some kind of cost reduction ability, equivalent to affinity for cards in exile or something? You could pair either with a targeted exiling ability, too.

Any help with this ability? I'm not sure which version is better, or how to cost it, and I'm not even sure what colors it should go in. I'd probably prefer it in every color and I like the first one better, but I'm not sure how it should be distributed between card types. I was thinking from least to most: Lands, Artifacts, Instants, Sorceries, Enchantments, Creatures if I go with the first one.

Would run with Duneblast. I know you're probably building that to be a self-contained set, or a draft set, but I feel like pointing out my bad combo.

Actually, probably Lands < Instants = Sorceries

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Thoughts on these?

Seems like a really weird/complicated chain lightning, that encourages only using it for burn. If I had to choose between this only hitting creatures or players, I'd choose players.
This is probably fine, but it's worded a bit wrong. Should be "Exile target spell. Return that card to its owners hand at end of turn."

I know you didn't design it as one, but this feels like what I'd imagine a white counterspell to be.

I meant that I'd choose creatures not players. Players is the opposite of what I want.

Copies aren't cast, so you have to get really weird wording on this. Also, damage needs a source. I feel like this needs to be stated in big bold letters every time this mistake happens.
>~ deals 3 damage to target player. That player may pay 1 life and X, where X is the number of times spells named ~ have resolved this turn. If they do, he or she may copy this spell and choose new targets for the copy.
As for power level, I dunno. It's a weird card.

Magic doesn't use the singular They, which is annoying, but that's the style they use. So it's always "his or her" or "that player" when there's no confusion, or "that opponent" when there's the possibility of confusion.

Spells only exist on the stack.
>Exile target spell. At the beginning of the next end step, return the exiled card to its owner's hand.

Yeah, it is power because the idea is, well, if you are gonna get hit by that creature anyway, you may as well only get "hit" once. I dunno I'm messing around with it. It would be very bad with toughness, for sure.

I guess Ambush Bug would have to be an un card. Also, haha, Prez. Fucking hilarious.

I don't know how to judge it. Regrowths are very powerful. I would stick to the transmute variant one as it is more restrictive in some ways, but it makes for an odd draft environment, especially in 5 color. It scans as green to me, for obvious reasons.

Eh. You know the copies don't add to the count, right? It needs a wording overhaul.

Neat. Probably fair, but yeah, the wording is off. A Remand variant, I can tell.

I can certainly enjoy making commons and uncommons, it's just forcing myself to go through with it even when I have no ideas. Making something that's just a functional reprint or strictly worse... it hurts. This is pretty much why whenever I notice a design looking too much like an already-existing card, I tend to just ditch that design and come up with something new.

>Maybe have him get extra abilities from cards being exiled, Warden of the Beyond style?
I'm pretty much already doing that with Mandrakk Though instead of P/T, maybe something more like Soulflayer?

>Or maybe some kind of cost reduction ability, equivalent to affinity for cards in exile or something? You could pair either with a targeted exiling ability, too.
Hmm, those are good ideas. Yeah, I'm going to take it back to the drawing board for a while.

>Blade of the Masses
I'm certain you've heard this before, but I don't see much Red in this. Fine otherwise though, and you are making a multicolor set, so some of your cards will be like this.

Is this actually enough of a concern to add more restrictions? Goddamn, when I made this card, I didn't think the win-con would be easy to reach at all. But people just kept telling me it wasn't that hard at all.

Glad you like Prez. You know, in all seriousness, I do want all the cards to be good, even the cards for goofy or obscure characters. I have one for a guy called Space Cabby, not even shitting you, I'm going right now. And I need to do Animal-Vegetable-Mineral Man. Oh, have you seen my Bizarro? Because if you think Prez is hilarious, I think you'll like Bizarro.

So, this works? Also, never really thought about how everything that does damage has the source.

Yeah, I love counterspells with odd types of downfalls. What do you think of this one?

Yeah, power is better, since it actually means the opponent would have to give up something good in order to really hurt you. Probably.

>Disgruntled Giant
Meh, seems OK. Why mono-hybrid though? Not that it's a bad thing.

Periods between clauses here.
>Target player discards a card. If they do, you may draw a card. Otherwise, exile ~.

You have an extra line in there. Look over your wording again.

>card
This is a fun thread theme.

I think that's the worst way to do this card I've ever seen,

So a different and sorcery-speed Chain Lightning? Would still be great in Burn.

Not worded right. Should be "Target player discards a card. If that player discards a card this way you may draw a card. If you do not, exile Thought Drain." Don't see the point of the choice or the "ifs" to be honest. You'll only be casting it when they have a card and not drawing a card seems pointless.

Not gunna lie, I have never seen that card before.

Post Bizarro. And yes, Animal-Vegetable-Mineral Man may have relatively boring powers, but he makes up for it by having the world's dumbest name.

I must be missing something. If it hits something, it cantrips, if it doesn't, you get fuck all. You sure you don't want it the other way around? Sure, I guess the idea is that your opponent may empty his hand in response, but it is too niche.

It was an idea I had as a way to represent choices and options. The set's theme was way broad, but I liked the idea of monocolor hybrid a lot.

I made a cycle that uses enemy colors, an artifact creature cycle that could be cast entirely for colorless and a number of monocolor cards that can either be expensive but splashable or cheap and not.

Really? It was a $15, strictly worse bolt. Now it's only a few dollars.

Well, White has board-wipes and ways to give things indestructible for 7~8 mana; 6 if you're cheap about it. Throw in Black to his color identity and you've got a "I choose Prez, everything else dies, gg" spell at 7.

Even in a draft environment, I might push him to check for three times as many unless that's a flavor fail- it won't fix all the issues but it'll at least give players a little more of a chance if they're not going wide.

Okay in theory and changes "average" cost based on colors, but having both 2/R and R symbols feels a bit bad unless your set has a lot of 2/X costs.

Here. Inspired by a custom card (which is silver-bordered, for some reason) called Obtuse Butterfly, which is basically an in-color Green version of Storm Crow. As for AVMM, I imagine he'll end up something like Skinshifter. Though the whole shapeshifting thing has been a pain in my ass for quite a while. I suck at making clone effects unique, and I have close to no idea how I'm going to represent Beast Boy and Animal Man. Hey, how obvious is it that I'm a huge fan of DC and not so much of Marvel?

>Manic Cyclops
Huh... not really sure what to think of this one. I mean, efficient creatures has never really been in Red's wheelhouse, has it?

Fuuuuuck... Does getting rid of the token ability help at all? I guess I could change the number of creatures required, but... the main problem is board wipes and having Indestructible, right?

Some of my cards lost the card type somehow. Though MSE still has them as what they were. Wonder what happened.

Pic related. Also the "Beacons" are the promo cards of the set.

Yeah, I might have seen it. Though when I thought of that card I actually thought I had an original idea. I agree, my idea was just a shitty overly complicated version of that.

...

I feel as if drawing and discarding hints more at red than anything. Though I really like the "Stock or Stone" idea.

Draw, discard is blue. Discard, draw is red.

>the main problem is board wipes and having Indestructible, right?
Well, no matter how hard you scale the requirement, you're going to have this issue.

But this is the Felidar Sovereign argument; if I let you build your win condition with a bunch of cards (Prez, indestructible granter, board wipe), don't run removal, and let it sit for a turn, then I sort of deserve to lose. "Oops, I had 40 life and you couldn't remove my Sovereign, I win!" didn't ruin the game, despite being a salty thing to do in EDH. I don't think this would either.

But yeah, I'd cut the token ability.

Another weird card. I attempted to make a card that reflected the idea of "Mana Burn". Wording is probably shit.

All you need is
>If unused mana would empty from a player's mana pool, that mana empties from that player's mana pool and they lose 1 life for each mana emptied this way.

Having a wierd problem where my MSE keeps crashing when I try and save my set. Good thing I exported these cards before I saved, I guess.

Huh. Thanks for that. I was getting really frustrated for a bit. I'll cut the token ability then. Should I maybe add a mana cost to the trigger? Have to say, was looking forward to using the Citizen type. Oh well, next time.

>Mugen
Like the custom fighting game? No wait, it's the word for infinite in Japanese, right? I remember because a character was named that in Samurai Champloo, and he signed his name with the infinity symbol. Not sure about the ability though. I mean, the only reason you're going to use it is to benefit yourself. I guess you'll just use it to cover your ass and build your hand for a few turns?

I feel like this card could just be called "Communism"

"Each player's life total becomes the average of all players' life totals, rounded down."
This requires a calculator in many instances, so I would stray away from it.

It's likely that MSE is having a problem with your templates. It's probably trying to call a template that it doesn't have data for, which leads to an error that kills the program. Double-check your templates folder. Have you updated them recently? Oh, and you could probably just go through the different cards, and if I'm right, the cards where it's not getting the right templates shouldn't even appear on the left. Just swap them with a new template and it should save as normal afterwards.

>Fairness
I think it would just be easiest to go after the median than the average. Just highest life total minus lowest life total. Er, maybe throw a clause in to disregard non-positive numbers? I know it's a weird case, but negative life totals will still work as negative numbers in the calculation.

This Lowest, rather than average, is the easiest solution and keeps the flavor.

Adding, subtracting, multiplying by powers of two, dividing by two, and rounding up or down are common operations in Magic. Aside from multiplayer formats, the most you're doing is adding and dividing by two, which I hope doesn't require a calculator for most people.

But yes, it does push the limits of Magic math.

Communism would most definitely be White in Magic, and not Red. :^) This is meant to be reflective of a long line of White's "equality" mentality, starting with Balance. I even found the perfect "Knight and Scales" art for it!

Yeah, it's the word for "infinite", as well as a name for a fightan' gaem. It's the pillowfortiest of pillowforty cards, hence the Cumulative Upkeep to keep it from being too silly.

>Adding, subtracting, multiplying by powers of two, dividing by two, and rounding up or down are common operations in Magic
Those are common because they're really simple. Taking an average can be time consuming during multiplayer, so I would again suggest you do something like or

Lowest already exists (Repay in Kind, at 5BB). Median would probably be fine, as its functionally the same outside of multiplayer games.

If you can jank yourself into having negative life and kill someone this way, I think you deserve the win. Angel's Grace, Ad Nauseum, Fairness would probably be the combo.

Yeah, you really did luck out with that art. And yes, please keep the math simple. We don't want Magic to turn into the Star Wars Cutomizable Card Game.

It's less killing people and more to do with keeping people from being confused and having to pull out the comp rules. But it is that user's card at the end of the day.

Thoughts on the beacons? Trying to make them all about the same in terms of power level.

...

Growth is probably the weakest ability because it requires you to have a creature already to target. I have to say though, I'm not a fan of these things at all. Why flicker? Why not just have it trigger on upkeep?

Fixed all the card arts.

It's always going to be hard to get abilities from one card onto another. I'd say put the enchantment onto the field, but it's a creature and it has X +1/+1 counters on it, where X is the creature card's power.

To make them harder to get rid of with mana intensive.

I would also note a non-aura/non-curse enchantment.

All curses are auras. They kinda have to be.

Eh, OK.

The (incredibly dumb) idea that comes to mind is making it a permanent, probably a creature like Mimeoplasm.
>As ~ enters the battlefield, you may exile a creature card and an enchantment card from your graveyard. If you do, it enters the battlefield as a copy of the creature card.
>~ has all abilities of all non-creature cards exiled with it.

Or something.

Yeah, that's basically what I was thinking of.