Custom set help
Custom Cards forum
Posted on Sept. 25, 2025, 8:18 a.m. by Stardragon
Im making a tribal focus custom set full of creepy crawlies it a mix of wedge/shard colors main revolving around as the main colors and as the core color with abzan, jund and sultai as the black green and grixis (if your doing a dark plane theme you need grixis) as the real big bad and Mardu as the "Good" faction here what i have so far as far as themes and tribes.
Abzan: Pests- Aristocratic/Landfall
Sultai: Spider-Self-mill/swarm
Jund: Scorpion-Fight/Aggro
Mardu: Bats-Lifedrain/selfharm (paying life for effects)
Grixis: Control/Stomp? Group slug?
Im having trouble on the grixis tribe and theme, don't want to do snakes or insects as they have enough support and i want to keep with creepy/ disgusting crawly theme of planes so maybe worms or wurms or possibly oozes could be fun the problem is that all of have the core color of green, Any thoughts or ideas are welcome.
TheoryCrafter says... #3
Crabs, Homarids, Crayfish, Shrimp, Trilobites. IRL, some organisms have been found near vents that give off high amounts of heat at the bottom of the Ocean, so this can justify flavoring them with red. Have a bundling theme like Outlaw only call it Crustacean. And since all the other factions have swamps, it would make for awesome lore about fighting a forever war against an enemy that can get to you, but you can't get to the enemy.
Or replace Grixis with Esper(Vulture looking Aven with a Control/Stax strategy disguised as Group Hug) as the last faction and leave the big bad as a single legendary Grixis creature that can synergize well with spells from any of the other factions.
May you draw well!
September 25, 2025 4:40 p.m.
Are there any sentient creatures here? Or are they all animalistic?
I'm going to nominate Leech as the creature type with a Blood tokens + "the graveyard is a resource" theme. They kind of need to be pushed into red, but that's a good color for Blood tokens. I'm going to avoid madness/mayhem to separate them from Innistrad Vampires. can get self-recursion, and exiles cards from your graveyard. I'm pulling inspiration from cards like Tersa Lightshatter, Kessig Wolfrider, Advanced Stitchwing, and Stitchwing Skaab. For flavor, this can be done as "no matter how many you kill, there's always more." There doesn't have to be a ton of fire-lightning-anger-burn to the red part of them, but speed and aggression fit well. Similarly, any counterspells/tapping/other manipulation can be flavored as painful distractions.
I think there should also be a faction, for color parity if nothing else.
September 25, 2025 6:22 p.m.
If there's a singular big bad and it makes sense for the plane, consider undead, especially Zombies and especially especially Skeletons. Evil necromancer with dead guy army is a classic villain type that fits easily into , and anything biological could potentially be undead-ified.
September 25, 2025 6:30 p.m.
Stardragon says... #6
legendofa I like the bloody delving grixis leeches idea.
September 25, 2025 11:30 p.m.
Stardragon says... #7
legendofa I'm thinking of esper slugs with a -1/-1 theme/ slime counter death trigger theme basically Toxrill, the Corrosive as the tribe mechanic Hell with the omenpaths Toxrill could be the commander lol
September 26, 2025 9:09 a.m.
Stardragon says... #8
TheoryCrafter while I do like the overall idea esper vultures birds are a tribe with plenty of support that i like to give more unsupported types a chance with is why I'm also thinking of replacing bats with something eles they may not be super heavy supported but they did just a bunch of support from bloombarrow but maybe I'll keep them as for your crustaceans I'm think of adding to my next set taking place in a pure ocean plane
Crabs-Simic
Whales- Jeskai
Sharks- Grixis
Octopus- Dimir
Fish- Azorius
Jellyfish-Izzet
Sea Serpents- Sultai
Kraken- Esper
Leviathans- Temur
Turtles-Bant
September 26, 2025 9:23 a.m.
Stardragon says... #9
DreadKhan I don't think any of really fit the creepy crawly theme I'm going for (bats really don't either tbh I'm think of changing them to what idk yet).
And I've made alot of devil support over the years as it's one of my favorites tribes that had so much potential to be a fun chaotic tribe that they wasted on making them yet another aristocratic theme. But I do think imps need more love they're an even older tribe with no love and I already have a theme for them. A mix of Simulacrum and Imp's Mischief
DreadKhan says... #2
Maybe Devils, Quasits, or Imps? One of the more creepy/crawly sort of baddies? maybe more than one? Imps and Quasits IIRC can shapeshift into vermin in some editions of D&D.
September 25, 2025 2:14 p.m.