New Legendary Lands

Custom Cards forum

Posted on May 25, 2016, 4:59 p.m. by DemonDragonJ

I have had some ideas for new legendary lands, so here are the results of my design and development:

Fire-Breathing Fortress Show

The idea of Fire-Breathing Fortress is that it is a castle built atop a dormant (but not extinct) volcano, as a shrine for those who worship dragons, elementals, or other beings associated with fire. Its towers are shaped like dragons' heads and can issue forth blasts of flame when directed to do so.

Pit of Despair Show

I do not believe that there has ever before been a land with this ability, so I decided to create one. Its name is a very literal interpretation of the well-known phrase "pit of despair."

Tower of Rubble Show

This land is inspired by, and modeled after, the dungeon of the same name from Final Fantasy VI, the final dungeon of the game. It produces only colorless mana to represent the devastation that the world of that game suffered, and its second ability represent Kefka using the light of judgment to destroy anyone who displeases or opposes him.

All of these lands enter the battlefield tapped, to prevent their abilities from being used immediately, since they are powerful abilities.

Zirconia, the Crystal Palace Show

Most lands that can produce mana of any color enter the battlefield tapped unconditionally, so I decided to create one that at least had the chance to enter untapped. Please note that its ability checks all lands that its controller controls, and cares about the number of types, not the number of lands. Therefore, a forest, a swamp, and a plains would satisfy its conditions, as would a forest and a Sacred Foundry or a sacred foundry and a Watery Grave. Its name is a reference to the gem of the same name, as it is a palace composed entirely of crystal, infused with pure raw mana.

What does everyone else have to say about this lands? How well did I do with them? Are their abilities fairly costed, I hope?

Pretty cool ideas for Legendary Lands in my opinion. I'd play them and collect'em if they were real. Especially the Swamp based land and the Mountain based land. R/B is my forte and what i play most. I like burn and discard abilities. Throw in the destroy target creature land w/ the R/B lands as a bonus and i'd be like HECK YEAH my deck rules, lol. A+ man, keep the card ideas flowing. Maybe Wizards/MTG will create them, that'd be cool.

d&g85

May 25, 2016 5:52 p.m.

Kala says... #3

Love the idea, but these are OP. Well, at least the red and colorless ones are. Ways to balance the colorless one, IMO: make it 5, sac instead of just 5, or make the effect conditional, as in only use if they have X or more permanents. The red one can be easily fixed by making it XXR or XRRR. The others seem pretty balanced to me, though.

May 25, 2016 6:14 p.m.

dude, Tower of Rubble is frickin BUSTED. Have you ever played EDH or tron? do you KNOW how much damage this can do?

Zirconia, the Crystal Palace is broken as hell in edh, and even in modern it would be just a really really amazing mana fixer.

May 25, 2016 6:52 p.m.

MindAblaze says... #5

For me the red one seems the most troublesome. X damage in the face every turn? Ouch.

The black one is comparable to Nephalia Drownyard, but obviously stronger late game.

The "blow stuff up" Colorless land...abusable for sure, I'd be wary with an effect that strong.

Finally, I think Zirconia is absolutely fair. It's a land that only taps for mana and sometimes comes in tapped. It wouldn't be complicated to fulfill its requirements to always come in untapped, but is Command Tower really that busted?

May 25, 2016 8:34 p.m.

Colorless and red are busted, there are already milling lands so it has been done before but it seems fine, and crystal one seems like it would be in every 2-3 color deck and make making mana bases really boring, since there is already a ton of really good color fixing lands.

May 25, 2016 8:37 p.m.

DemonDragonJ says... #7

MindAblaze, I completely forgot about Nephalia Drownyard, so perhaps my land with the same effect is redundant.

How can I balance the lands? Should I make the abilities of the first two have fixed values, rather than being variable? Should I increase the cost of the second ability of Tower of Rubble?

May 25, 2016 10:19 p.m.

MindAblaze says... #8

For the damage one, look at Stensia Bloodhall. That's a lot of mana for minimal damage. It wasn't good enough to see play anywhere. Kessig Wolf Run did though, so I don't think it's impossible, but KWR has the added requirement of needing a creature. Lavaclaw Reaches was a mana sink, but again failed to be useful based on the fact it had 2 toughness and no first strike of evasion.

I feel like every control deck ever will splash red for your land and Lightning Bolt...

May 25, 2016 11:13 p.m.

zandl says... #9

To chime in, yeah; these are pretty broken.

I'd suggest making the lands have the same abilities but requiring them to be sacrificed in the process. A Blaze would be cool on a land, but every turn would be broken.

Also, Black doesn't really mill players (for the sake of milling) without the help of Blue, so I'd change the color on that.

May 26, 2016 4:01 a.m.

PepsiAddicted says... #10

The red one will go into everything, love it ;)

May 26, 2016 4:02 a.m.

DemonDragonJ says... #11

I am not yet certain how I shall fix Tower of Rubble, but most users seem to believe that Fire-Breathing Fortress's ability is too powerful to be variable, so I may instead make it deal only a fixed amount of damage, as seen below:

Fire-Breathing Fortress, version 2 Show

How is that? Is 2 damage too little? Should I increase the damage to 3 and also increase the cost for activating the ability?

May 26, 2016 2:45 p.m.

zandl says... #12

Still broken. That land gives a player a Shock every turn for just 2 mana and no spell investment.

Compare to Blighted Gorge or Stensia Bloodhall.

"Legendary" isn't something necessarily attached to cards just because they're strong. Cards with the supertype usually have it because they have effects that would be too punishing to stack.

May 26, 2016 4:43 p.m. Edited.

Maybe for the fortress ability?

Also, thank god for the lack of italics. Those in comments really tilt me for no reason.

Can we make this into a cycle? Like blue could get to mill, black could be each player loses X life, green could be target creature gets +X/+0, and white could be blinking permanents? Maybe red would be more balanced if it was a Commune with Lava effect.

June 13, 2016 1:05 a.m.

This discussion has been closed