Tsaris Ni'vask, Shadowlord

Custom Cards forum

Posted on Feb. 11, 2019, 7:23 p.m. by lothshteth

This is the custom commander for my EDH deck, Animancy. It is based off one of the sub-bosses from my D&D campaign...

Tsaris Ni'vask, Shadowlord

{W}{W}{B}{B}

Flying

Whenever an opponent pays life, you gain that much life.

Creatures can't attack you or a planeswalker you control unless their controller pays 1 life for each of those creatures.

4/4

Thoughts on power level, costing, and language are much appreciated.

StopShot says... #2

The problem is, it makes your opponents creatures with 1 power useless as you would always gain 1 life and getting attacked by 1 power doesn't change anything except make the other player lose life instead. This can be detrimental against token decks in particular. I would suggest making the payment effect take place for whenever a non-token creature attacks you.

February 12, 2019 12:34 a.m.

lothshteth says... #3

An effect like "Creatures your opponents control get -1/0" would accomplish the same thing. Its not like I am forcing them to attack. Would you suggest a higher mana cost?

February 12, 2019 7:21 a.m.

Boza says... #4

Is this D&D campaign set in the Call of Chtulu universe? What is with those weird names?

I would lower the stats and/or remove flying, in addition to making some of the suggested changes.

February 12, 2019 8:30 a.m.

LittleBlueHero says... #5

Ok so I don't see anything particularly wrong with the paying life ability. It does specifically hose most token strategies but when you think about it, most token decks won't be swinging with 1/1 tokens they are usually much larger by the time the player is swinging.

That being said, a 4/4 flier for 4 is probably a little too good for the ability to be attached to. Generally when I build custom commanders if my commander is shutting something down I don't also make it an big offensive threat. If you keep the ability the way it is I would make it either a 3/2 flier or a 2/4 flier. That way commander damage isn't as much of a problem.

If you wanted to make it a more offensive commander you could rework it a bit:

Impossible to Pronounce Name

[W][W][B][B]

Flying

Whenever an opponent pays life you gain that much life.

Whenever [cardname] attacks the defending player may pay X life, where X is equal to [cardname]'s power. If they do put X +1/+1 counters on [cardname] and it deals no damage this turn.

3/3

~~~~~~~

This design would encourage you to be aggressive, would give the opponents a reason to pay the life, while at the same time making your commander a bigger threat the next time around. Eventually you would get them into a position where paying the life was too steep a cost ideally.

It also would be great for political nonense. "Ok player A If I attack you this turn and you pay the life, I promise not to attack you on my next turn." Etc.

I don't know just spitballing, but I love the concept you are working with!

February 12, 2019 10:27 a.m.

lothshteth says... #6

Boza, its a pretty straightforward end of the multiverse campaign. The only thing is the walls between dimensions have deteriorated. Which is why you get funky names, since this world has races from all different source materials.

Thanks, LittleBlueHero. I definitely want the pay life/gain life trigger. Everything else is open to suggestion.

These commanders are based off high level bosses, but in order to keep them tame, I decided to make their cards be younger versions of themselves. That way they don't have ridiculously wordy abilities and they can more align with the decks.

February 12, 2019 10:38 a.m.

What if you templated it like Archangel of Tithes , where your opponents only have to pay the life if he's untapped? That means you're at least having to choose between offense and defense. It also rewards you for building around him by including things to give him vigilance, or untappers, or the like. Perhaps you could include a buff when he attacks too, although I'd definitely up the mana cost to at least six if you choose to do that.

Also, creature type Sylvanesti? No. I get that that's supposed to be a bloodline (if I'm interpreting it right), but that's not a creature type. Reserve that kind of thing for flavor text, where you can do more with it anyway.

Also, consider giving him a job - creature types are usually templated as (Kind of creature)(Role that creature plays), like for example on Soulfire Grand Master , it's a human and a monk. The most common pairings with "Vampire" are Knight (23/227) and Soldier (21/227), followed not too far behind by Warrior (17) then Shaman (16) then Cleric (14), with Wizard chilling at a surprisingly low 10/227. That said, I was surprised to see how many vampires actually don't have jobs - 87 of 227 printed Vampires are unemployed. Apparently, vampires are leeches on society as well as... you know. People.

February 12, 2019 6:27 p.m. Edited.

shadow63 says... #8

Not sure if it's been suggested but it might be better off worded as

Whenever a creature attacks you or a walker you control its controller loses 1 life

February 12, 2019 8:08 p.m.

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