Acorn, Nature's Blessing
Custom Cards forum
Posted on March 13, 2022, 3:28 a.m. by TypicalTimmy
Probably two years ago or so now I created a Planeswalker concept named Acorn.
Acorn is a Red Squirrel, native to Kaladesh. The story is that when The Weatherlight was at port in Kaladesh, resupplying and trading magical instruments and technology, a squirrel boarded their ship, made its way into the hull and began to feed upon some of the various grains. Nobody realized the silly rascal had boarded, and upon departure to Zendikar, something catastrophic happened to the little girl.
The stress of intra-planar travel was immense, but she was protected by the ship's magics and technologies. Normally only living, sapient creatures can have sparks, but we have seen a few times now where this is an exception. For one, Karn was gifted a spark but this proves that non-living beings are capable of retaining one. Then, Calix, Destiny's Hand was created by the God Klothys, God of Destiny which proves non-living creatures can further have sparks. Finally, Ob Nixilis Reignited not only lost his spark, but reforged it which proves sparks can be recreated. Further still we see with The Royal Scions that a spark can be shared, as well as divided as seen with Ugin and Nicol Bolas. So, clearly sparks are not as concrete as we once believed. Just look at Grist, the Hunger Tide as another recent example.
And so, the stress of her little body being pulled in opposite directions caused the formation of a spark.
Acorn developed an almost Human-like intelligence, akin to a smart child. Her powers are basically all revolve around the idea of "foraging" - finding lands, food, Squirrel tokens, generating mana and even drawing from Kaladesh, when appropriate.
I updated her abilities. Image link for her photo broke so I'll fix it later when I'm not on the road.
TypicalTimmy says... #3
seshiro_of_the_orochi, yeah the +1 is very powerful. It realistically should be only a basic, and ETB tapped. Normally an ability like this should likely be a minus, so it should be restricted if it is a plus.
The -X likely should be two different abilities. Given the option, there is practically no real reason to ever pick Food tokens over 1/1 chump blockers. I'd just hope that in whatever set this little guy is printed, there is some sort of Food synergy involved where you can repurpose them. Because yes, sure being able to gain some life is fine and all, but being able to block the incoming damage to prevent the loss of life is even better - assuming you are against combat-focused decks. In that regards, if you are against a burn deck, Food tokens are better as they get you ahead of the game a bit. But, then you run into the issue of someone Shocking the poor little fella with his ability on the stack, so it becomes a tug-of-war of hypotheticals at this point. That's why they pay set designers to come up with game balance and not us, lol.
March 13, 2022 4:30 a.m.
seshiro_of_the_orochi says... #4
I designed this a couple of months ago:
Nastja would definitely make that -X pretty useful. They definitely seem like cards from the same set. Btw, with the wording I wrote down above, the -X would propably as modal as it could be without giving a MV3 PW four abilities.
March 13, 2022 6:10 a.m.
TypicalTimmy says... #5
seshiro_of_the_orochi, she's beautiful. T-T I know Epicurus would love these cards. :)
March 13, 2022 6:24 a.m.
seshiro_of_the_orochi says... #6
Thanks for the kudos :D
Squirrels definitely need more love. Hopefully, we'll get more squirrel designs in the future.
March 13, 2022 6:52 a.m.
TypicalTimmy says... #8
I updated for Acorn to be female. Honestly there's really no reason to, nor does it impact her story in any way. Honestly it just comes down to asthenics. I feel Acorn would naturally have a more motherly personality to her, is all. Perhaps male squirrels are the ones who forage while females den and raise their young; I don't really know.
I just liked the sweet, motherly vibe more.
March 13, 2022 9:13 a.m.
Female squirrels do pretty much all of the work. Male squirrels do basically nothing but lounge around outside of the burrow, chatter at each other, and get eaten. I'd post a link, but I don't have permissions to do that on this site.
seshiro_of_the_orochi says... #2
The -X needs a re-wording. How about this:
"Create X tokens in any combination of your choice from among food tokens and 1/1 green squirrel creature tokens."
Besides that...this is a master piece, if maybe too strong. The +1 is really powerful, and will accelerate games a lot. Maybe even restrict it to basic lands?
Then again, both the -X and the ultimate are a little weak, so maybe a powerful +1 is ok. Which is even on flavour, as Acorn would even forage loyalty counters.
March 13, 2022 4:19 a.m.