Subnautica Custom Set
Custom Cards forum
Posted on Aug. 14, 2021, 3:40 p.m. by TheOfficialCreator
Here's a link to the full set. This will only work if you have an mtg.design account.
Hey everyone, I made a custom set revolving around the video game Subnautica. I'd like your thoughts on it, but first let me introduce the basic premise of the set.
I'm a big fan of deconstructing sets into archetypes, abilities, and synergies. I'm not a huge fan of meta-analysis, either. In any case, my love for seeing abilities work well together helps me to create custom sets where, especially in draft/cube formats, it flows better. In my Subnautica set, I've chosen to focus on a lot of decently well-known abilities, as well as some more obscure ones.
The Counter Game The Subnautica set has a lot of abilities that deal heavily in counters, including but not limited to infect, explore, proliferation, and spore counters.
Overall, the counters part of the set is something that I've admittedly having trouble balancing; part of the way I've managed to help balance it out so far is by introducing a great many Plants into the set, which normally have great amounts of toughness. More on that later.
Stompy Every set is going to get a little stompy. I suppose that counter play and proliferation could potentially fall under stompy, but I view it as more of an overlap. What I'm talking about in the Subnautica set are big leviathans, the types that prowl the oceans, hunting for intrepid adventurers who wander a bit too far from the lifepod.
I didn't give these the subtype leviathan partially because in the lore of Subnautica, "leviathan" refers to any lifeform above a sufficient size (probably about 30 meters, extrapolated from the Sea Treader Leviathan's length) and not a group of creatures who are related. None of the creatures in Subnautica (with perhaps the exception of the Reaper Leviathan) match what MTG considers a Leviathan, so I didn't include the creature type.
To make up for this (and to introduce a beastie tribal in the set), I brought back Ferocious-type abilities.
Thoughtlink
Thoughtlink is a keyword I introduced to this set. It means that whenever the creature deals combat damage to an opponent, you draw a card. It's usually balanced out by making the creature one or two more mana than normal.
Tribal
Fish and Plant are the main tribals in the Subnautica set. Fish are usually small creatures with lower-end abilities, while Plants are usually small but tough creatures with defender and some kind of unique ability.
Again, I greatly enjoyed making this set, and I hope you enjoy the cards in it! If you want to use them in your decks, just take the images from mtg.design or use Untap.in to put them directly into your deck. (The set code is SUB).
Awesome job TheOfficialCreator! Everything is very thematic and balanced.
I haven’t played the game myself, but one of my best friends is obsessed and he’s shown me a lot of videos.
August 14, 2021 5:31 p.m.
TheOfficialCreator says... #5
TypicalTimmy yes, how dare you not put the 40 or so game hours and 2 or 3 pairs of underwear into playing through Subnautica. Truly heinous.
August 14, 2021 5:51 p.m.
TypicalTimmy says... #6
TheOfficialCreator, like and subscribe for more underware
August 14, 2021 5:53 p.m.
seshiro_of_the_orochi says... #7
The set looks very good, but for my personal taste, you wwnt a little too hard on tutor reprints.
One thing: I assume Alien Expanse was intended to say Creature spells with power 4 or greater you cast cost {2} less to cast. Otherwise, this would be ridiculously OP at any rarity.
August 15, 2021 1:02 a.m.
TheOfficialCreator says... #8
seshiro_of_the_orochi I did not see that, thank you.
As far as tutor reprints go, maybe I did go a little too hard; I was planning on doing the RWU tutors now and the black and green tutors in a different set in the future.
August 15, 2021 8:52 a.m.
seshiro_of_the_orochi says... #9
You're welcome :)
I like the red ferocious tutor, that's surprisingly ok balance-wise, but the "old" tutors seem too strong for a hypothetically standard-legal set (custom or not). Sure, it works, but it seems less convincing in regards to being an actual set.
Oh, btw, that blue wincon saga is awesome. I considered it broken at first sight, but then again, its 11 mana and needs something else to get to chapter 3. That seems perfectly fair considering what other CMC11 spells can do. I mean, this is Enter the Infinite territory that we're talking about. Great design!
August 15, 2021 9:47 a.m.
TheOfficialCreator says... #10
seshiro_of_the_orochi thanks!!! I considered replacing mystical and enlightened with other specific tutors, but I ultimately decided against it for reasons unknown.
August 15, 2021 9:50 a.m.
seshiro_of_the_orochi says... #11
Reasons unknown are always great reasons ;) I've never played Subnautica, but I imagine that surprise attacks from sea creatures are a common thing there. You could include a mash-up between Arachnogenesis and Kindred Summons as a substitute for one of the tutors.
Pescogenesis
Instant
Reveal cards from the top of your library until you reveal X fish creature cards, where X is the number of creatures attacking you and/or planeswalkers you control. Put the revealed fish creatures onto the battlefield, then shuffle the rest into your library.
August 15, 2021 10:05 a.m.
TheOfficialCreator says... #12
seshiro_of_the_orochi yes, and YES! I LOVE IT!!!
August 15, 2021 10:12 a.m.
DemMeowsephs says... #13
Wow, that's awesome! I haven't finished the original sub yet but I'm working through it
TypicalTimmy says... #2
I've never played the game, but have watched several Let's Play channels on YouTube.
These look amazing!
August 14, 2021 5:23 p.m. Edited.