/ccg/ Custom Card General /cct/

If you want to keep the "steal artifacts" thing without relying on actual artifacts, just give her the ability to peek at the hand then cast a card from there. No letting you spend mana as though it were mana of any type though; that incentivizes artifact theft without saying it. Also I wasn't saying you needed to remove the hand part; I was saying you need to reword the second ability. "You may put an artifact card from that player's hand or graveyard and put..."

May I ask you (and the entire thread) what's wrong with type-based cards? As long as they have refreshing abilities I don't see the problem with it.

I was thinking of every single card of this faction to have some kind of two edged sword effect.

I'm sorry, I'm kinda out of it right now due to a cold. I misread Hate before, now I realize what it does. Well, there are a few things wrong with this.

You can choose a card type that won't get played. For example, Scheme or Conspiracy, which would defeat the entire point of the keyword.

Wait, what is the point of the keyword? Just random downside mechanic?

Even if you choose to restrict the mechanic to card types that will get played, everyone would probably just choose planeswalker anyway, since that's the safe bet. Unless you alternate between making it a downside and an upside, which would be horribly confusing.

I think the issue here is that you like things that a lot of people around these threads don't like, so you're going to get a lot of clamor for change. Now, I think anyone making a serious attempt at designing cards has a say here, and deserves to post, because a few people might enjoy it, since it seems unlikely that you're the only person that likes that stuff. But it's not going to be easy to sell it to the rest of us.

Some will be right punishing.
Some will be a double edged sword (like that one).
Some will be rewarding.

But my goal is to create as more double edged swords as possible, so you will not cheat it out, because it will not be worth it, but will also will have some risk behind it.
Thanks for pointing out the Scheme/Conspiracy thing btw, I just took them for granted as a not valid choice.

I'm not obsessed with type related effects to be fair, it's just this set that happened to have this common theme.

To show it I will post this card here. I feel like it needs much tweeks in his mana cost, but I'm not completely sure because of its cast condition. By the way, thank you for your encouragement, I appreciate it.

>Thanks for pointing out the Scheme/Conspiracy thing btw, I just took them for granted as a not valid choice.
Here's a ruling for World Queller.
>7/1/2013: You may choose any card type. Choosing anything other than artifact, creature, enchantment, land, planeswalker, or tribal will result in no permanents being sacrificed, though, since these are the only types permanents can have.

Needs wording work. Can you only cast it when you have 2 or less life? Can you cast it without paying its mana cost at that time? I assume the former, but clarity is an issue. I kind of like what the card does, I just don't really care for how complex it is. Why not just make it more expensive and able to be cast at any time? Also if casting things when you have low life is going to be a theme, consider Fateful hour. If not, then don't worry about it. For the middle ability, try:

"When ~ enters the battlefield, until end of turn, each other creature gets -4/-4 and when another creature dies, you gain 2 life."

I think that should work.

Also I didn't say you were obsessed with type or tribal, just that using it heavily in a set is likely to be met by protest.

This can be fixed by changing Hate to read "Choose a type from among permanents target opponent controls" or something similar.

er, "whenever another creature dies", sorry about that.

As written, Hate makes you declare something like Instant or Artifact, not something like Spirit or Goyf.
I think you're overlooking this.

I was undecided as well as the additional casting rule, but I thought that in the end it was clear enough, thank you for pointing it out, already fixed it.
>Why not just make it more expensive and able to be cast at any time?
Because the idea was more about "This is where a desperate person goes when he/she doesn't know what to do and needs help when being in dire straits, and is able to flip is fate around". I quite liked Fateful Hour.

Yes, I was thinking about something like this:
Choose a card type from among permanents target opponent controls or from his/her graveyard (Because they may want to hate Sorceries and Instants)
I am undecided about Land Hating tho.

Some assorted removal and an allusion to voidslime / inspiration from Barnes mechanic in the game we do not name.

Forgot to mention that dispose is obviously strictly better than murder but I think that's fine. The issue is how much better is allowed. I feel like there should be an added clause such as "nonblack" to bring it down. Also, it should probably be rare like hero's downfall. Slag barrage should probably be uncommon or rare

>Barnes mechanic in the game we do not name.
???

>or something similar
No, just couldn't be arsed to put more effort into the wording. It'd need to say "permanent type".

oh I dare not speak its name

In hearthstone there's a dude that creates a 1/1 copy of a random dude in your deck

Although it's less likely, there's the possibility that this 2-for-1's on its own, which should bump up the cost as well. It'd probably be at least 4, if not 5 mana in a token-heavy set.

Oh. Yeah, I don't pay much attention to Hearthstone, it's pretty boring to me. I really like Eternal, which is somewhat similar, but more complex and MTG-like.

Oops, forgot to give feedback on this. I don't really see an issue with it; it's simplistic but given a lot of your cards, that's refreshing in a way. If you were going to do a repeatable O-ring though, I'd model it after Banisher Priest, not O-ring, for the sake of preventing those weird niche cases that got the wording changed to begin with.

I mean, kolaghan's command is a guranteed 2 for 1. Sure it's an extra color but almost certainly killing a dude and making them discard is so universally good as to essentially just be what the card says. Whereas this is a sometimes 2 for 1 to help shore up against go wide strategies. So a 2 for 1 at instant speed is clearly acceptable, I'm just worried if a guarantee kill spell with 2for1 potential is okay or if it should be doomblade or something along those lines + the token clause.

I mean 2-for-1 in the sense that it removes two things from the board, not that the card itself does two things. And by itself, this kill card does not seem rare-worthy.
I'd also step away from Doom Blade and color-leaning as out-moded design.

>detain
How many mechanics are you going to put in this set? Also the notion that there are Angels and Monks co-existing is plain odd to me.

I also meant 2 for 1 as in dealing with 2 cards in exchange for 1 as kolaghan's command always does, was just a poorly worded example.

And really thinking about it, I just considered tokens are more like half a card of value so a 3 mana sometimes 1.5 for 1 seems totally okay.

What of the other cards?

>Phantom Lady
Cool, thanks.

Oh, when I say O-Ring, I'm usually referring to the wording used on Banisher Priest and Silkwrap rather than the older O-Ring text. I mean, I feel like O-Ring is just a popular way to refer to the effect quickly. What else would we call it? Banish? Temp-exile?

I like calling it "Banish" personally. But I don't because I don't see anyone else saying it. But I getcha.

Phantom Zone seems fine. 4WW seems to be the "removal with an upside" cost for most wipes these days.

Hm. I'd post a card but I'm out of ideas. I guess Pilgrim Keeper and Knight of Tranquility were all I had in me today.

What's a good cost for a slow, colorless tutor?

I have the custom card challenge chart if you want to give it a shot.

Eh, only one card got comment and I dunno if I feel like leaving it up to the dice. Not gonna stop you from posting it though, if you want to.

>Gargoyle
I don't really see a problem; it costs one more than a Diabolic Tutor and any color can use it. Sure, you get a bonus creature but you either have to have a sac engine to get your card or you have to wait on it to die. Seems fine to me.

I'm not thinking about putting this Angel into the set, despite it having the same set symbol, it's just because if I have any kind of idea I just use the main set, then in the end I will just export the various cards that aren't supposed to be there into another.
>Why don't you just make another set instead?
Because I may also think that the card may fit the set in the future, and just leave it there, in that case it's there already, so it's just more comfy.

>How many mechanics are you going to put in this set?
You see user, that's quite odd, I posted this card here on the July of two years ago without the Detain keyword, it was just: "That creature cannot attack and block" other anons just told me to use the keyword instead, even if it wasn't really in line with the flavor, and that's why it got detain. But to answer your question, I was thinking about two mechanics per faction.
>Angels and Monks co-existing
I still need to finish with the worldbuilding, but they may be there, they are my favourite creature type after all. Also, did you ever notice that some sets have creatures/cards in general that they look like they don't belong into that set because they just don't have any particular affiliation? It may be one of those cards. Also pic related.

Solaris. Absolutely giant creature with a giant effect. What else would you expect from a sun with a super-computer for a brain?

Eh, I'll save it for later then.

>Gargoyle
Cool, thanks.

Ah, a spin on Animate Dead. Well, let's try
>When ~ enters the battlefield, if it's on the battlefield, return target creature card from your graveyard to the battlefield. When ~ leaves the battlefield, that creature's controller sacrifices it.
Or change sacrifice to exile, up to you.

>Glain's Familiar
Seems pretty strong actually, though not sure how to cost it. With many creatures running ETB effects, the 1/1 doesn't make too much of a difference.

>Slag Barrage
I get what you're going for, but I don't think red should be outright destroying anything but artifacts.

>Immolating Imitation
Traitor's Roar is the most recent card like this, so looking at its cost, this card is too cheap as it's more than likely to kill its target too.

>Consume Mortals
Basically a wrath, nothing else to say.

>Kansai's Rejection
It seems alright, but 3 does seem like a lot, even for 6 mana.

Revamp of Nocturna. Let me know if I should ditch the discard part of it. I'd really like to keep it, but I will cut it if it's too much. Last card for tonight.

...

Should at least have 2 power. It's mostly just a bad fog.

meh

2/1? Hm. I actually had it at 2/2 before I posted it but I figured based on what you were using it for, that was pointless. Still, possibly killing more than one thing might make it better. I suppose it is just a "bad Fog" but a niche benefit is you can't voltron Fog. Giving it indestructible makes it pretty cool, I think, but I didn't want to actually give it that self-contained ability, so I made it require support. I was actually thinking "reverse Prized Unicorn" when I made it, to give you an idea.

It may only have 2 power, but Deathtouch + Trample is really powerful, so keep that in mind.

Hm. I like how it works, but I dunno about the costs. It's really a shame that the nature of your project makes it improbable that it'll be playtested.

doesn't feel mythic. There are certainly better ways at 4 mana to have either a threat on the board or ramp mana. trying to do both at once and have it balanced just makes me ask, "why?" in response to which I can come up with no answer.

>
I have no idea what kind of janky interactions this could entail. Looking for balance feedback

I listened to Maro's BFZ Lessons learned podcast and one thing that stood out to me is that he didn't feel he captured the hunger aspect of Ulamog very well. I agreed because Ingest was a very lame mechanic and as mentioned specifically in the podcast Processor had a very strangle flavor that didn't make any sense. That got me thinking, if that answer was the right one, what was? I have an idea for a mechanic that captures what I liked flavorfully about ingest/processors (exiling the library = the eldrazi feeding), but I'm interesting in knowing was there any article explaining why they had the processor mechanic to go along with ingest? I can make assumptions and I have an idea for why they had it, but I'm interested in seeing the signifance of having a second mechanic taking advantage of the exile.

Opponents will cast removal in response to the activated ability. Unless you have 6 mana, but then its unlikely that they have anything good in their hand.

Reposting, with some additions, in hope of more feedback. The possible beginnings of a set I'd wanna do.

This card doesn't make much sense. First you have a global ability, which is then completely ignored by the second.

A twist on Silence.. though not sure the reminder text is necessarily correct.

Couldnt this be "Target player gains/You gain hexproof until end of turn"? In that instance your reminder is wrong, and I believe that is what shroud/hexproof does.

That reminder text is actually lying. It would counter/fizzle stuff by the rules text.

Oh that makes more sense. Surprised I didn't think of that. Probably thinking too much about Silence instead of what the card actually did. Also solves the incorrect reminder text.

>Elite Seeker
Make it a may so you're not forced to blow up your own creatures.

>Regime
I dislike this because it can't be interacted with. Compare this to energy in Kaladesh, where you could build up resources and then use it on a payoff, whereas your cards just get better and better without needing to think about how much energy to spend on which effect etc.

>Chosen of the Deep
While rampant self-mill is usually a downside in limited, I feel like a 4/X vigilance indestructible for 3 is too much. If you want to keep it as is make sure there are answers to this card (-X/-X effects, O-ring effects, unpreventable damage, instant speed burn etc).

>Rebellion
Strictly better Threaten. Make it 1RR.

>Brainleech
I have no problem with the actual card but the name implies a small creature that has some "look at target player's hand" effect.

Overall this could lead to some powerful draft decks, which is good, but I would guess that UR would be the best combination by far as its lategame spells are more or less comparable to the other colors at a fraction of the cost (7/3 for 1R and draw 5 for 2U seem plausible).
As a suggestion, you can easily include 4 mana wraths here (at rare obviously) since UR won't care much, BW plays the wrath, WR can recover quickly with some 3+ token producers at uncommon, UG can avoid overextending by playing 1 or 2 huge threats and BG gets delve fuel.

Wizards doesn't like having Deathtouch and Trample on the same card.

>explaining why they had the processor mechanic to go along with ingest?
Uh, user, are you seriously asking why the mechanic that needed to have cards your opponents own in exile was paired with the mechanic that exiles cards your opponents own?

Gaining Hexproof like this (which is pure White btw) would cause the game to counter al spells and abilities your opponents control that target only you. This is because by gaining Hexproof, those spells and abilities are now targeting something the game says they can't target. An illegal target, which makes the game counter those spells and abilities as stated before, even ones that would be uncounterable otherwise.

Pretty sure he's asking why specifically they included the processor mechanic instead of leaving ingest as a standalone. I mean even flavor-wise it makes little sense to somehow be throwing up stuff for benefit.

Dunno about flavor, but in terms of pure mechanics, I believe Wizards said it was an experiment in using exile as a resource.

Easily repeatable flicker at instant speed is a Very Broken Ability™. Not only do you get to re-use powerful ETB triggers, you also have the ability to negate attacking creatures. More than that, the template you've used (slow flicker) also allows you to effectively sweep the enemy board for an important attack.

Jace again. Not sure on the cost of the ult, but I really liked the idea of confiscating an opponent's deck.

Well, as I mentioned it's a twist on Mistmeadow Witch. So I guess the best way to go about fixing this is to increase the cost of the activation. 2WU good enough? More?

Wurms with only 2 Power? It's not really a Wurm, more like a Worm.
Temporal Mercadia's Mask, as a whitefag, I approve.
Hey, that's not bad, I like the flavor and mechanics, nothing much to say. But, why would he be vengeful about fallen instants/sorceries that you control?
>LIGHTNING BOLT?! NOOO NOT YOU!
>OH LIGHTNING BOLT, GIVE ME STRENGHT
>I WILL AVENGE MY FALLEN COMRADE, LIGHTNING BOLT! BY SUMMONING HIS CORPSE YOU WILL FEEL ITS PAIN
>But Dumot, your master was th-
>SILENCE, YOU FIEND! AND DIE

Guy experiments with bats, injects himself, turns into a werebat. He's basically Jeckyll and Hyde, except Hyde is a bat.

>Temporal Mercadia's Mask, as a whitefag, I approve.
I was wondering before if people were just unaware of Gilded Light, and this has me convinced. Also, I believe you meant to say "temporary" not "temporal".

Gilded Light gives Shroud, not Hexproof, also is more costly and has cycling, it's not the same.

Thanks about the correction.

I realize it's not the same, but I think it's a closer comparison than to Ivory Mask, the card I think you were referring to. Which also gives Shroud, so I'm not even sure why you brought that up.

Thanks a bunch for the in depth response.

>Elite Seeker
good catch

>Regime
See, after kaladesh came out, I also was like "this seems like energy but less interesting because instead of spending it you just keep amassing more." Personally I'm more a fan of Delve than Threshhold, for a comparison of the two. But several threads back I posted that idea and people talked me into experience still having merit. I am sorta excited to test it out and see whether it's actually busted or not.
The way I try and think of it more, is that it's an extension of my love for cards like Kindle or Rune Snag. Just instead of a specific named card it's a cluster of a few.

>Chosen of the Deep
Those effects will definitely exist. I might try upping the "regen" cost to 2 or 3.

>Rebellion
Eh, I was aware of this but thinking it might be comparable to something like Scroll Thief vs Scroll-Thief-With-Prowess that I don't remember the name of. But I could make it 1RR if not.

>Brainleech
I might change the name.

The theme(?) of the set is "escalation" and I do like how it is giving out so much power. You are the second person to be afraid of regime though so that might definitely need to get toned down. I would prefer to tone it down rather than scrap it though.
Some kind of Wrath will definitely make an appearance at rare.
Again, thank you very much for the responses.

>Scroll-Thief-With-Prowess that I don't remember the name of
Jhessian Thief.

Not exactly sure where to go with this guy. Idea is complete assimilation. Just taking away everything your opponents have. I feel like Sen Triplets would work really well, but I don't want to just copy that card.

Exert exert.

I'd say "another target permanent", but otherwise it seems really cool.

Actually seems pretty broken. Repeating (delayed) flicker is very strong.

...

This seems a bit too powerful in how easily it can end games in a burn heavy deck.

The first card is beyond broken.
The second one may be ok as a Rare.

Eh, I was afraid of that. Thanks.

>Faithful Supplicant
Going by Falkenrath Gorger, I'd make it
>Each Angel creature card you own that isn't on the battlefield has miracle W.

Not a traditionally red ability, but I think it fits when used this way.

Yup, RW Nahiri's ult on a spell, minus searching for artifacts.

Eh, not really buying it. Could just be me though.

Bumping the thread with another old card.

See triton tactics. Sorry, but this card is blue through and through.

Artifacts! Common and uncommon at once to spice things up. A couple of reprints for the set, as well.
A creature tutor feels odd in RW, but I suppose it's kind of similar to Through the Breach. And white does get limited creature tutoring sometimes.
I feel like this would be a lot simpler if you just gained control of the creature but it couldn't attack or block. Something along those lines. Also, why split second?

...

Efreeti's Lamp is way too strong at common and colorless.

I can knock it down to 1 damage.

>Why split secon
Because I don't want players to use the ability of the permanent I'm targeting as a response to the card giving me the middle finger. (And that would happen like... Always)

Made it more realistic.
I love this guy, and he is so vengeance sworn he will flashback his spells on you. and seems very balanced with 3 power

This is a really good idea, i like your style

That is the converse though. This card punishes your opponent blocking, whereas triton punishes the opponent attacking.

Why?

>Regime
If you're set on trying it I won't try to stop you. Balancing it is going to be tough.
I recommend making the rest of the Regime cards cost more than the ones you already have so there are some decisions along the lines of "do I use my low-cost cards to power up my high-cost cards or do I try to hold them until they're undercosted bombs?"
I could of course be overestimating it so take this with a grain of salt.

>I might try upping the "regen" cost to 2 or 3.
2 sounds good.

>Rebellion
I wouldn't complain about a strictly better scaled wurn, but going from stealing 1 creature to stealing 2 is a significant upgrade.

>Aristocrat's Circlet
I think this would make more sense flavorwise if it cared about CMC rather than power.

>Dancing Scimitar
I could see this as an uncommon in a set with a lot of aggro decks, but yours seems to be somewhat durdly. Ayn particular reason (other than it originally being uncommon)?

Rest is fine. I like Efreeti Lamp the most and Aneketian Pyramid the least if that helps.

It's hard for me to say if this is okay or not. Probably not at common, either way. It seems to me in the right deck (cheap red haste) this coming down turn 2 means a hand dump of thinks like Spark Elementals en masse. Seems to me it could be problematic. Pretty sure that there are enough cheap hasty creatures to make that not a magical Christmas land scenario either.

I agree that the Circlet should deal with CMC; it's more thematic for your set. I feel like the Pyramid could probably add two mana of any color and be fine. Also not sure the draw needs life loss, honestly. You can get "T: Draw a card" for four mana on a creature, or "3U: Draw a card" for 1U on a creature, so 6 mana plus two per draw is probably fine, honestly. Slaver's Chains is cool. It'll be interesting to see how every color getting a harder to remove Banisher Priest works out.

If the idea is complete assimilation, why not give him theft on swing? I mean at 7 mana, you can start getting into Eldrazi levels of crazy, and they had Annihilator, so you can probably swipe a permanent since he has no protection from removal at all, and no evasion to ensure you get the steal every time. I dunno, I just feel like 7 mana in 3 colors means you can get away with a lot. Sen Triplets actually lets you do a lot more than this, I feel.

Hm. I dunno if I get the feel of his shtick from this, at least the part that makes him transform in the first place. What's his serum supposed to do? It could be you could emulate those effects with the tap ability, then if he targets himself, he transforms? I dunno. It's still a mechanically interesting card though. It might be that trying to convey that sort of thing through card flavor alone is a bit much to ask so I wouldn't worry about it.

>stuff about spirit of festivities
Are you talking about constructed or limited? Rarity is irrelevant for constructed and I don't think it's crazy in limited. You can't get the kind of consistency with a draft deck you'd need for the deck you're alluding to. And speaking of limited, this seems like a card you want multiples of or none at all so it's common or bust.

>Courtesan
Shouldn't that be two separate abilities? Would at least read nicer. In fact I'd just go
>1: You may look at the top card of target player's library if that player owns a card exiled with ~.
Requires mana but it's also a little more flexible and easier to read.

>card
Going for a playable 4cmc LD spell.

...

Updated the circlet to consider cmc.
>Dancing Scimitar
I've actually included quite a few efficient, aggressive cards spread throughout red, white, and black. Aggressive creatures, efficient token spells, good removal, fast mana, ways to refuel. It is hard to balance when the theme of the block is geared more towards the late game, though; I don't want aggro decks to close games too quickly, but I also don't want them to struggle through every game. Dancing Scimitar felt like a blocker good enough to give slower limited decks a chance against more aggressive opponents without shutting those opponents down. Additionally, the colorless cost makes it easily available even to the most multicolor of decks. Plus, I just love it thematically.
>Efreeti Lamp
It's a callback to a card from the last set. Pic related.
>Aneketian Pyramid
It's a callback to Pyramids, with some Book of Rass thrown in there.
>Spirit of Festivities
I feel like nontoken might be a necessary specification here, as this is absolutely crazy with token spells. Especially in multiples which, for 1R at common, is entirely possible.
>Circlet
Updated now, thanks.
>Pyramid
I was concerned that no additional cost might make it too good of a late game draw engine with all of the mana available. I'll consider your points, though.
>Slaver's Chains
Yeah, I've made sure artifact removal is available throughout various rarities and colors, so hopefully that mitigates it without invalidating it. I'm thinking purely from a limited-format perspective, though, which is what I focus on when designing. I haven't put too much thought into constructed considerations.
>Alabaster Courtesan
I feel like separating the two abilities might be cleaner. Something like "At the beginning of your upkeep, if a card is exiled with ~, you may look at the top card of the exiled card's owner's library." Maybe phrased less clunkily, but you get the idea.

>Brainiac
True, I'll just try that then.

>Man-Bat
>What's his serum supposed to do?
It turns people into werebats basically. Turning that into an ability would be something like
>Until end of turn, target creature gets +N/+N, gains flying, and becomes a Bat in addition to its other types.
Might go with that actually.

Also, I've made these. I'm ready to move onto rares and mythics now; after that, the block will be finished.

I figured being a target that dies to everything when the opp doesn't want to use removal on tokens anyway was a big enough downside, but maybe not. I really want to keep the token synergy though so I'll try to think of another way to nerf it. Maybe a berserker clause? That would fit the flavour.

>card
I know green doesn't get polymorphs but this feels appropriate since it's a creature buff. Not sure about the cost.

These seem cool. Dunno about balance though, sorry. And Spiritual Realm seems really odd in comparison with the others, in terms of flavor.
>Outpost
>Jungle
>Pulpit
>Palace
>SUDDENLY, IN ANOTHER DIMENSION!

It's where spirits like the djinn and efreet reside in my setting.

Seems pretty overcosted. I think even just getting rid of the 2 generic would work.

Slow thread. I guess I picked a bad time to be productive! Well, here's the first full draft of multicolored uncommons for the set. Let me know what you think.
I think you need to separate the abilities. Something like "Creatures you control have base power X and base toughness Y, where..." Slashes aren't used very often in rules text; in fact, I think I've only seen them in and/or situations. I also think it's probably undercosted.
It's costed similarly to Voidwalk, which is a bit more expensive than it should be because of cipher, I suppose. I could knock it down to 1 generic.

Another go at Man-Bat.

>It's costed similarly to Voidwalk, which is a bit more expensive than it should be because of cipher, I suppose. I could knock it down to 1 generic.
Or you could just do more with it. Make it more flexible or add more targets.

>cards
Pretty sure I've commented on all these before.