Card creation for custom set

Custom Cards forum

Posted on Sept. 23, 2019, 1:35 a.m. by heckproof

Hey all!

I’ve been toying around with set design for a bit, and I’ve come up with a vague flavor+theme for a set based on Gobakhan, Teyo Verada’s homeplane.

The idea is that there are 3 factions:

-The Order of the Shieldmage is -aligned. They are the antagonists of the set, and their ability word is Retaliate. The playstyle is very pillow-forty, trying to blunt attacks by gumming up the board.

-The Snarl: A violent group of anarchists dedicated to toppling the Order’s oppressive rule. Based in the shard, the Snarl uses the Ferocious keyword, with man and beast alike attempting to make right with might.

-The Forsaken: An ancient race of nobles now reawakened, the Forsaken seek to reclaim what they see as theirs. Having transmuted themselves into stone, the Forsaken cannot be killed; they can only be made to Slumber. Their color pairing is .

There are two new mechanics that I crafted for this set. Here are the explanations behind them:

-Slumber n: If a creature with slumber would die and it had no dream counters, tap it instead and place n dream counters on it. At the beginning of your upkeep, remove a dream counter from the slumbering creature. Creatures with dream counters don’t untap during their controller’s untap step.

-Retaliate: If an opponent attacks you with one or more creatures, __.

I didn’t create Ferocious, which comes from Khans of Tarkir. Ferocious takes effect when you control a creature with power 4 or greater.

The challenge: Create a card for each of the three factions that fits in both mechanically and flavorfully.

Sorry if this is poorly worded at all; I thought it could be a cool challenge. Let me know if you have any questions!

EDIT: A special thanks to Caerwynfor helping me narrow down the concepts into something cohesive!

Caerwyn says... #2

Ten archetypes is a bit much for a single set - there is a reason Ravnica breaks things out into two. With ten, you start running into issues with mechanics not being widely distributed within that set and difficulties with the lands and mana fixing, both of which make for a poor limited environment.

Instead, I would focus on either Allied or Enemy colours, then be very careful to flavour the combinations in such a way as they do not overlap with Ravnica’s guilds. Your Slumber mechanic can work in either UB (though with UB, I might make it simply tapping the creature and having it not untap during the controller’s end step - Pacifism effects are White); UW, or WB, so you have options in both Allied or Enemy colours.

September 23, 2019 2:39 a.m.

dbpunk says... #3

When you say ferocious, do you mean the keyword from Tarkir?

September 23, 2019 6:22 a.m.

DarkHero says... #4

There is a reason we don't see very often. Putting Untap and Tap matters in the same set could be extremely broken.

Also, We would need to figure out how Teyo, the Shieldmage fits into the atmosphere if we assume he is a key player, as he is currently just

We could assume that in this iteration he is a 2 color Walker/Legendary creature, but then which archetype is he fitting into? Is he ,,, or ? Then we need to determine how his abilities/backstory make him fit in in that spot.

There is a lot of hoops to jump through to make this all make sense.

September 23, 2019 10:26 a.m.

heckproof says... #5

Caerwyn

Thanks so much for the feedback, dude. You hit the nail on the head; I’ve got too much going on here. I think when I posted this last night I was sleep-delirious and combined like 3 different sets I was working on. I’ll edit the original post to trim it down. Funny enough, the Slumber variant you came up with is an earlier version that I tested with. Kinda like it better than the current one.

Sorry for the confusion, guys!

September 23, 2019 12:37 p.m.

DarkHero says... #6

Imposing Statue

Artifact

: Add or to your mana pool.

Retaliate: Untap Imposing Statue

Your Defiance is noted...

The flavor is that it's supposed to be this big statue depicting the Shieldmages. Sort of an oppressive feel. Then we can say "Hey, we were attacked, untap the statue" Which feeds use a little more mana, allowing for an Instant retaliation in those colors something along the lines of Lightning Bolt or Lightning Helix .

September 24, 2019 8:35 a.m.

DarkHero says... #7

And I would just like to add that Boros Fury-Shield would fit perfectly into this theme. Lets do this...

Shieldmage's Rebuttle

Instant

Prevent all combat damage that would be dealt by target attacking or blocking creature this turn. Shieldmage's Rebuttle deals damage to that creature's controller equal to the creature's power.

September 24, 2019 8:43 a.m.

DarkHero says... #8

Validi, Ghostly Aristocrat

Legendary Creature: Spirit

Flying

Slumber 2: For as long as Validi, Ghostly Aristocrat is in Slumber, Validi gains indestructible and all spirits you control gain "when this creature dies, deal 1 damage to each opponent, you gain 1 life equal to the life lost this way.

3/4

The idea here is that we can send him into Slumber on purpose. If we are running a lot of spirit tokens, we can turn that into an Aristocrat type scheme with some boardwipes, which he will survive

September 25, 2019 8:59 a.m.

DarkHero says... #9

heckproof

For consistencies sake, why is the Snarl based in a 3 color shard, while the other two are just 2 color? Shouldn't they be either Gruul, Golgari, or Rakdos colors?

September 25, 2019 9:03 a.m.

Caerwyn says... #10

As a rules point, Retaliate, as currently styled, is an ability word, not a keyword.

I am not really a fan of the X modifier on Slumber - it makes the ability a bit clunky and adds another piece of information to keep track of. I think it should have some form of “dream counter” styled like Suspend to keep track of the time before it untaps.


DarkHero factions do not have to all have the same number of colours. Ixalan gave us Naya dinosaurs, Grixis pirates, and Orzhov vampires.


To suggest a card:

Shield of Brotherhood

Cast Shield of Brotherhood only during the declare blockers step.

Creatures you control gain banding until end of turn. If you control three or more creatures that share a creature type, creatures you control gain indestructible until end of turn.

”Let the Snarl come, bearing all their might; they cannot break that we have assembled here.” - Captain Desya, the Adamant Bulwark.

I know, banding. But there is a good reason - Banding is the only current ability which can 100% stop Trample damage, making it rather fitting for a fairly defensive faction.

September 25, 2019 9:58 a.m. Edited.

heckproof says... #11

Caerwyn

That’s a pretty sweet idea for Slumber. Makes it feel less clunky, plus with physical counters you can do a lot more.

September 25, 2019 12:37 p.m.

heckproof says... #12

Here are some Forsaken cards with the new syntax, just for reference.

Taltros, Solemn Awakener

Legendary Creature - Spirit Golem Wizard

When Taltros enters the battlefield, remove all counters from target permanent or player.

Slumber 6

Sacrifice another creature: Remove a dream counter from Taltros.

2/4

“Awaken, brother of stone. // To reclaim what is our own.”

————————————————-

Forsaken Wander-Captain

Creature- Golem Spirit Knight

Slumber 3

At the beginning of your upkeep, scry x and gain x life, where x is the number of creatures you control with dream counters on them.

1/1

September 25, 2019 2:35 p.m.

Caerwyn says... #13

Funkydiscogod - you would have to re-write that to make it a static ability; ~ gets +0/+X where X is the total power of all creature it is blocking.

If it is a triggered ability, they can simply cast a pump-spell post resolution of the triggered ability. You also need to reference the total power of all creatures to cover the odd situation where you might have cast Act of Heroism or something similar.

For this specific Instant, however, that was not the goal. The design was to allow your creatures to hold off the assault, but be killed in the process if you did not have a shieldwall-like situation. A secondary consideration was to make your creatures be able to hold off the assault even against pump spells. That means you have to give your creatures a static ability which can adjust on the fly, taking into account all the myriad nuances of the Combat Phase. It can be done, but the only feasible way to accomplish that task is to either use Banding or Banding's rules text:

Until end of turn, you assign how each attacking creature's combat damage is assigned. If you control three or more creatures that share a creature type, creatures you control gain indestructible until end of turn.

Banding's a great ability deserving of love though; it seems silly not to use an excuse to use it!


All that brings me to another point, cards like Act of Heroism or creatures who can receive additional blocks would also be flavorful for what the shieldmages are trying to do. I like the idea of an activated ability like that on Coastline Chimera that allows you to dump a bunch of mana into the creature and block a whole host of bad guys.

September 25, 2019 3:10 p.m. Edited.

Caerwyn says... #14

Funkydiscogod - we can disagree on whether the design is good or not. Personally, I think it is a fun and flavourful way to do a pseudo- Fog effect, but I can see why other's might not enjoy the somewhat strange design.


Moving on, one thing this set needs a a viable cEDH Boros commander. Boros is often treated by Wizards as the aggressive set of colours, which is one of the reasons its commanders are not cEDH viable. By exploring a different side of RW, there's a solid opportunity to make a non-aggro Boros Legendary.

The other problems with Boros are a lack of card draw, ramp, and viable tutors. So, let's have our hypothetical legendary attack two of those; after all, if you can't beat them, you can stax them down to your level.

So, for one such example:

Almaz, Suppression Mage

Legendary Creature - Human Wizard

Whenever an artifact is tapped for mana, destroy it.

: The next time an opponent would search a library this turn, that player searches the top four cards of that library instead.

"Silly dreamer, did you forget? Not all shields are physical." - Almaz, Suppression Mage

0/4

The first ability is inspired by Stony Silence , if Stony Silence was a Red ability. On one hand, it provides your opponents the opportunity to still use their ramp; on the other, it creates a long-term punishment that lingers even after removal.

Requiring a tap on Aven Mindcensor 's ability limits its effectiveness some, since you can't stop all tutors all the time. In effect, this means you'll probably save the ability for Demonic Tutor and such, so you are not hindering your opponents' use of fetch lands. The "next time" language also leaves open the option for your opponents to hold onto a fetch land, and use its ability as a means to get their own Demonic Tutor to still go through.

September 25, 2019 11:13 p.m. Edited.

heckproof says... #15

Funkydiscogod

I’m not sure if you’d need to give the creature Slumber as long as you’re putting dream counters on it, because dream counters do have almost a separate ruling. Slumber just has a degree of reusability with how it uses dream counters

September 26, 2019 8:10 p.m.

Caerwyn says... #16

Funkydiscogod - I think your card should probably be mono blue (the effect, in a vacuum, doesn’t really touch on black). Otherwise, I think it’s fine. At the low end, it’s a Take into Custody for two mana; at the higher end, it’s pumping a whole lot of mana just to get Spectral Prison (albeit one with flash).

Overall, I think it’s a solid design, and makes for a good uncommon removal spell for limited.

September 26, 2019 8:56 p.m.

Caerwyn says... #17

Addendum to my above - I had forgotten Slumber was a replacement effect that was implicated on death. would be fine.

September 26, 2019 9:14 p.m. Edited.

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