Custom Ability Word: Apex
Custom Cards forum
Posted on May 5, 2023, 8:05 a.m. by seshiro_of_the_orochi
In the card creation challenge, there was a challenge to create a shard ability for a new Alara set.
I came up with the following idea for a new Naya ability:
Apex - As long as you control no other creature with power greater than this creature, (...)
Here's what I wrote about the ability in the card creation challenge:
This feels like it would be a fine Naya ability. Also, it's in line with og Naya having no actual keyword ability, but simply wanting creatures with power 5 or greater. I like it because it's very open design-wise. Turning it into a harsh downside on a massively undercosted chonk works just as well as putting it on a champion beast who wants to lead your pack.
To further my thoughts on the mechanic: I do realize it'd play a little weird in that you'd lose access to the abilities of any other creature than your actual Apex creature on the board. But that does some interesting things to a deck including cards with Apex:
1: You want to choose the Apex creatures in your deck carefully. If you just mash all hypothetical Apex cards into a pile and shuffle in some lands, you'd hardly get anything good from the mechanic. So you either handpick your Apex cards perfectly for your strategy or you want to play very few of them. And you really want to monitor the size of your creature suite pretty exactly so you don't accidentally turn of your apex card/s.
2: That's a huge restraint Apex puts on your deckbuilding, so they can be a little more pushed than they'd normally be.
3: The right play at the proper time can be very impactful. Even something as simple as a Giant Growth can shift your board from really aggressive to gaining tons of life by shifting the Apex position for a turn (more about that can be seen in my designs below).
I really like the idea and created some cards with it.
Another design with regards to sean360:
Following this line, I'll add more designs:
Here are cards that would get a (functional?) reprint in the set:
I'd love to have feedback on the mechanic. I'm seeing a little problem in designing commons and uncommons with the mechanic. So far, I'd rather simply have the lower rarities give abilities to your Apex instead of actually giving them an Apex ability. What do you think about this?
Thanks in advance!
seshiro_of_the_orochi says... #3
sean360: Thank you for the kind words. Always a pleasure to fulfill your challenges :D
These ideas for smaller cards are great. Would you be fine with me using them?
Regarding Ravager: I really like the idea of that unfit or evil pack leader that does more bad than good in that role. What would you change to make it less op?
May 5, 2023 10:48 a.m.
seshiro_of_the_orochi Yea of course, that's why I posted em!
For the packleader, a 6/4 with menace for 3 is just too strong, even with a drawback. Maybe take the power and toughness down one, and give it trample instead, if any keyword. Even a 5/3 for 3 is strong, and the idea is that often they'll have to block, and menace means they'll have to kill two blockers to deal with your one three mana creature which is a lot, and with four toughness it won't always die. Removing menace should be the first step, then raising the cost or lowering the P/T. A 5/3 trample for three still sounds plenty strong to me
May 5, 2023 11:40 a.m.
seshiro_of_the_orochi says... #7
sean360: As you can see, I made the mana dork already. I made the changes to Ravager, as well, they just need to reach t/o. That's great input again, thanks!
May 5, 2023 11:52 a.m.
FormOverFunction says... #8
I love how this would give cards like Shrink and Agoraphobia a whole other realm to operate in. It always feels to me like those cards are getting undeservedly-limited play...
May 5, 2023 11:52 a.m.
seshiro_of_the_orochi says... #9
FormOverFunction: Oooh, that's great. I always felt like you'd need more use for those.
May 5, 2023 12:02 p.m.
FormOverFunction says... #10
It’s weird and niche, but I feel like that’s an EXTREMELY unexplored space in M:tG. They’ve obviously got the damage mitigation angle, and there’s some utility with things like Meekstone and the coven/witches thing from innestrad (three or more different powers) but otherwise I’m hard pressed to think of reasons to use them. I’m almost 100% certain I’ve never seen anyone else use one of those enchantments; just me and my stupid flavor-focused ones lol. Now that I think about it, I’m primarily thinking of blue enchantments... it’s a LOT of them, but I don’t know if that’ll be close enough to critical mass for people to do something about it.
May 5, 2023 4:44 p.m.
seshiro_of_the_orochi says... #11
FormOverFunction: I mean, you could definitely find ways to play them. I'm currently shaping a commander build around Eutropia the Twice-Favored. I propably won't include So Tiny or similar cards in here, but I could see a build playing some or many versions of that effect.
May 6, 2023 5:35 a.m.
FormOverFunction says... #13
I keep going back and thinking about all the different weird things you could do with Apex. Orcish Oriflamme could bump up an aggro/combat creature to the apex, but then afterwards the “apex position” would potentially drop back to a more defense-oriented creature. Same for combat tricks and whatnot. Super fun.
May 6, 2023 7:51 p.m.
seshiro_of_the_orochi says... #14
FormOverFunction: Guess we're really onto something, huh? :D
The way I worded Apex, you can have multiple Apex creatures if they have the same power. I like that as a payoff for good deck building, but it's a little off flavour-wise. So with effects such as Oriflame, you could not just switch the Apex around, you could even add additional Apexes. That's pretty great.
May 7, 2023 2:22 a.m.
I could see Chandra's Ignition being added to a set with this mechanic.
May 7, 2023 9:36 a.m.
seshiro_of_the_orochi says... #16
KongMing: Good call! I'll also consider Fell the Mighty.
Tsukimi says... #2
I'm always happy when one of my prompts evokes this kind of response (: I love what you've done with this mechanic, and how versatile it is. The flavor text on Taunting Invader is especially chef's kiss
My first though is, even with the drawback, I think malicious Ravager is a bit too strong for 3 mana.
Meandering Bloomtusk is a really well balanced card for this mechanic.
Naya is all about smaller species worshiping gargantuans, so maybe the smaller commons and uncommons act as mana dorks and in similar roles to help you summon creatures. Something like:
Apex Mana Dork
: Add one mana of any color.
Apex- ~ taps for two mana of any color instead.
2/2
Or some drawbacks for having bigger creatures at lower costs:
Apex Pack Beast
Haste
Apex - As long as you control no other creatures with power greater than this creature, return it to you hand at the beginning of the next end step.
4/4
Just some thoughts, love what you've done with it (:
May 5, 2023 9:25 a.m.