Velos, Traitor to Artifice

Custom Cards forum

Posted on May 2, 2020, 2:20 p.m. by TheCardPool

I don't know about anyone else, but I love artifacts and building decks around artifact-based commanders. However, I've noticed some of the best color combinations for artifacts like or are sometimes lacking in commander options. I've wanted a new Dimir artifact commander for a while, to for your consideration, here's one I thought might be cool:

Velos, Traitor to Artifice

Legendary Creature—Zombie Artificer

Deathtouch

As an additional cost to cast Velos, Traitor to Artifice, pay X life. Create an X/X colorless Construct artifact creature token.

When Velos enters the battlefield, choose target artifact you own and control. As long as that artifact remains on the battlefield, Velos has hexproof and indestructible.

Tap three untapped artifacts you control: Draw a card. Each opponent loses 1 life and you gain 1 life.

1/1

Too strong? Too weak? Cool synergy? Thoughts?

Dromar39 says... #2

I think x wouldn't be in the casting cost, just as additional cost. Unless your paying mana and life. I feel flavor wise he should sacrifice artifacts not tap them. Sac two artifacts you control: draw a card. Each opponent loses 1 life and you gain 1 life.

May 2, 2020 3 p.m.

TheCardPool says... #3

Ghosthunter39 I appreciate the thoughts! I do like the idea of him sacrificing artifacts instead of tapping them. Might enable even more shenanigans and maybe make the effect a little less potentially powerful.

I experimented with the idea of him having a static casting cost and just letting players pay X life, but in a game like commander that means people could just pay a ton of life for a giant token, which could spell all kinds of problems. Tying him to an X mana cost seemed less abusable. But what do you think?

May 2, 2020 3:11 p.m.

Dromar39 says... #4

What about . Add when ~ etb you may pay life, if you do put an X/X colorless Construct token into play. Could probably make him a 1/3.

May 2, 2020 5:39 p.m.

TheCardPool says... #5

TypicalTimmy ha, I had the exact same thought about Darksteel Relic! Definitely a fun combo. And you also followed my logic exactly with the X and casting ability: I wanted to make sure, because it could be a large investment, you get something out of it regardless of whether he’s countered or not (it’s also very Dimir in flavor). The double X is a bit pricey, and as per Ghosthunter39’s comments I considered making Velos a set cost and you just being able to pay whatever life you wanted to cast him. But I was worried that could potentially be VERY broken. Your thoughts on that?

The character idea I had here was a lich dude who tied his life force to a giant guardian Construct, which is what the X creates here. Flavor-wise you’re supposed to pair him with that, but he can go with any artifact for gameplay reasons.

I think there’s a few knobs we could try to turn here:

1. Should the X/X Construct he creates ALSO be indestructible? That could make it much scarier.

2. I like surveil, but I’d like to use a more generic card advantage mechanic here. Maybe scry X as well when you cast?

3. OR we could push it even further and do a dig through X top cards and pick one to add to your hand effect.

May 3, 2020 7:51 a.m.

Tzefick says... #6

My first impulse is to say that it seems weak. Next is to avoid the built in deathtouch + indestructible combo which just stales combat and it's on a Commander that enables it himself.

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I didn't read your last reply that states you wanted a lich type creature. My suggestions below are not considering that, sorry.

How would you feel about Velos himself being an artifact too?

Modular Velos Show

Velos

Legendary Artifact Creature - Zombie Artificer

When you cast Velos pay X life, where X is less than or equal to the amount of permanents you control.

When Velos enters the battlefield, create an 0/0 colorless Construct artifact token with Modular X. (This creature enters the battlefield with X +1/+1 counters on it. When it dies, you may put its +1/+1 counters on target artifact creature.)

: You may put a +1/+1 counter on target artifact and it gets Modular, if it is not a creature it becomes a creature in addition to its other card types. Then you may sacrifice an artifact. If you do draw a card, each opponent loses 2 life and you gain 2 life.

2/3

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This leans more into an animator type that stacks up. It can function in conjunction with Modular creatures from Mirrodin or any artifact creature with +1/+1 counters. It can straight up animate non-creature artifacts into small creatures and then sacrifice them to stack those counters on any other artifact creature you control.

You can animate and sacrifice the same target to effectively sacrifice that artifact to put a +1/+1 counter on another target artifact creature.

At first I wanted the sacrifice portion be a "Each opponent loses life equal to the sacrificed creature's power." But I figured that would ramp up in damage way too quickly with limited counter play as Modular secures that the counters keeps traveling, so I stuck with the static draw and syphon.

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And if we try our hand at cheating:

Cheating Velos Show

Velos

Legendary Artifact Creature - Zombie Artificer

When Velos enters the battlefield, create a 2/2 colorless Construct artifact token.

Tap an artifact you control: Each player mills two cards. Each opponent loses 1 life, you gain 1 life.

, return an artifact you control to its owner's hand: Return target artifact card with converted mana cost X or less from your graveyard to the battlefield, you lose life equal to its converted mana cost.

3/3

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This takes a few notes out of Master Transmuter's book. The token doesn't scale but it can function as a catalyst for the other two abilities or become a chump blocker. Stacking artifacts can quickly ramp up the milling which has synergy with other Dimir strategies, while it also provides more targets for the second ability. The life loss itself can be your win condition so it plays on both horses.

I didn't make the reanimation require a sacrifice as it would be more of a red thing to trade one from field for one in the graveyard, ala Goblin Welder. Also it would be card parity and not card advantage. Master Transmuter reforms one artifact into another form (taking one from field for one from hand). This dude goes a step further and reconstructs an artifact from the mana that summoned the artifact on the battlefield - effectively making a clone - at the expense of some life.

It could be spiced even further by allowing you to reanimate from any graveyard. But I think we'll start here.

June 16, 2020 11 a.m.

Tzefick says... #7

My last reply was made in a bit of a hurry, so I completely forgot to mention it's an interesting design and it would be cool with an artifact themed Commander. Like TypicalTimmy also points to, I like the functional part of himself creating a target for him to plant a phylactery into (the object the lich binds their soul to, to achieve immortality). It's a neat little packaged deal. In many fictional works, destroying the phylactery destroys the lich as it acts as the lich's actual mortal body (like seen on Phylactery Lich), so this is actually an even better lich - I like it.

If I were to suggest something for the lich style you want; I would still ditch the deathtouch + indestructible combo by removing the natural deathtouch, again just because it's a nasty combination that doesn't really take anything to achieve. I assume you still want the creature to be immortal so indestructible from having the phylactery cannot be the keyword to go.

From an interaction perspective I would not have the phylactery grant him hexproof too. That's just way too many defensive measures and a lack of interaction makes for an annoying/unpleasant experience. That's especially true for a Commander which can come back again and again.

I'm not sure what role you want the Construct to fulfill. Are you supposed to lean into it, make it big and use it as a giant beater? Are you supposed to just use it as an artifact for other purposes like sacrifice it or use it with Velos' ability? Is it somewhere in between? Right now I feel like you'll never want to make the Construct more than a 1/1 artifact you use to sacrifice or tap for the ability because of how costly it is for just a token. I wouldn't really do much to improve the quality of the token by granting it keywords but you could make the cost of making it bigger, less exhausting to pay.

A little flavorwise bewilderment; why is he a traitor to artifice? It looks like he creates artifacts and use them to keep himself alive while zapping others for life. He could be a traitor to whomever trained him or whatever organization he served.

Here's my take on your lich Show

Velos, Traitor to Artifice

Legendary Creature - Zombie Artificer

When you cast Velos, pay X life, where X is equal to or less than the amount of permanents you control. Create an X/X colorless Construct artifact creature token.

When Velos enters the battlefield, choose target artifact you control. Velos has indestructible as long as that artifact remains on the battlefield.

Tap two untapped artifacts you control: Draw a card, each opponent loses 1 life, you gain 1 life.

4/1

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I feel like paying mana for the token is not particularly rewarding, so I would suggest to only have the life payment. I think the X/X token is to prefer over a flat payment and flat statline token. However as you said, there's the troubles in Commander that players will just pay an absurd amount of life for a really big creature and either use it to whack faces or abuse it with say Disciple of Bolas. There needs to be a limit put on it. I thought to put the limit equal to your permanent count as that makes a more natural hard-cap on how large you can make it at certain points in the game. This hard-cap makes it pretty lackluster later in the game after a board wipe, but that's just how the cookie crumbles. If you find a better limit feel free to use that instead.

As for the immortality and lich aspect I made the statline way better but also fixed. This means you can keep some of the smaller creatures from attacking you but larger ones shall not be afraid to attack into an indestructible deathtoucher. The higher power also means you can actually use him offensively, taking full advantage of his immortality. It opens you up for being attacked but that's the trade-off. As it was with a 1/1 indestructible deathtouch, there was no motivation whatsoever for ever having Velos on the offense.

I kept his toughness on 1 mainly for eternal formats, as I figure a 3 CMC 4/2+ indestructible with a 3+/3+ artifact companion would be a bit much for constructed. Since there's no hexproof you can still deal with Velos in those formats with any amount of -X/-X (Dismember or even Fume Spitter) or exile effects. But for Commander, the artifact companion is more cute as an early play and the 4/1 can be chump blocked or you can afford to take the hit in the face a total of 5 times before Commander damage becomes a problem. In addition he's a 3 CMC Commander, so you can afford (and actually want?) to cast him a few times during a match.

The activated ability is lowered to tapping 2 artifacts from 3, as most artifacts you want to cast for anything other than specifically tapping this way, would mostly be mana rocks or other artifacts with a better tap ability. Tapping 3 artifacts for a draw plus a lifeswing of 2 between you and each individual opponent, seems inefficient without relying on token artifact generators. If you happen to be able to make a ton of artifact tokens I think it's fair that you're rewarded with Velos, same as you are with Urza, Lord High Artificer.

June 17, 2020 9:29 a.m.