Trapdoor Spider Goliath

Creature - Spider

When ~ enters, you may have it fight up to one target creature you don't control.

: Sacrifice Trapdoor Spider Goliath, prevent all combat damage that would be dealt this turn.

3/5

"The entire charging army just... disappeared in a cloud of dust. They came back a few days later, filthy and haunted, refusing to talk about where they had been."

Chonshuro, Deadeye Warden

Legendary Creature - Snake Archer

Deathtouch, Ward

As long as it is not your turn, creatures you control have deathtouch.

: Chonshuro, Deadeye Warden fights target creature an opponent controls.

2/7

"Once word got around of Kamigawa's new forest warden, many companies decided to test the boundaries of their logging operations. They quickly learned that those sent in never returned."

Create a card of one of your favorite mtg creatures having gone through a omenpath to Bloomburrow. Only caveat is they can't be a humanoid.

That should read

whenever one or more creatures you control attack

Swords to Plowshares the Dominaria Remastered art specifically.

Renault, Steward of the Farm

Legendary Creature - Farmer

Whenever a creature you controls attacks, create a 2/2 ox creature token tapped and attacking. Then, target attacking creature gains your choice of first strike or flying until end of turn.

2/2

Repeat!

So I guess I am thinking I can:

1. Edit Eda to cost less mana, remove the populate ability, and maybe upgrade the lifegain ability. This would make casting single copies easier and more rewarding while removing the ability for the commander to copy tokens outside of paying Offspring.

2. Just try and play the deck and commander as is even though they feel like they're at odds with each other

3. Go back to the drawing board...

Cast your votes now!

So originally I wanted to do a go wide and buff theme with cards like Angel of Invention, Thunderfoot Baloth, Harmonious Archon, so on and so forth but then it started to feel a little too similar to my Brenard deck so I swapped it up to be more about making token copies of great creatures like Vaultborn Tyrant, Cloudblazer, Aether Channeler, Bronzebeak Foragers, and the like. After building the entire deck around this idea (because it is the sole of what I want the custom commander to facilitate) I realized this.... doesn't work great with Eda's lifegain that wants things that make extra bodies when they enter so... It feels a bit of a mess but I can't look at it any longer lol. I'm thinking I might need to switch up Eda's wording or go back to the drawing board but I may be overthinking it.

Eda, (Clawthorne) Mother of the Wayward

I am building a custom commander who uses Offspring in Bant colors - some things I am waiting to hear the rulings later today on how they'd interact with the offspring mechanic (Kicker, X spells, evoke, etc.)

Some ideas that come to mind right away are clones like griffstick mentioned. I'm partial to Vizier of Many Faces because the Embalm ability is especially useful if you plan on doing any token synergy or token doubling which brings me to my next suggestions - Anointed Procession and Mondrak, Glory Dominus. Both are mono white and will double all of your offspring tokens.

The rest is up to you, you could go wide and deal auto ETB damage with the likes of Purphoros, God of the Forge, Impact Tremors etc. Or many many other directions. If you need any suggestions or input let me know

Octomancer is my new favorite card! What a fun design space exploration, Oprah Octopuses! The Bant subcommander looks like an interesting take on group hug as well.

While I am all for answers to Treaure tokens considering how ubiquitous they have become Bloodroot Apothecary feels like... way too much.

Instant

Counter target spell, then choose one:

• Gain X E where X is that spell's mana value.

• Draw half X cards from the top or bottom of your library.

"Reef and Rift are both populated by centuries old creatures, ensuring old feuds can never end."

Create a card for the Bant faction of this set which focuses on Energy counters, Landfall, and animating lands.

Priest of the Drowned

Creature - Human Cleric

Creatures in your hand have "Dash - Pay 2 life in addition to this creature's mana cost"

Creatures you control with Dash cost or less to cast.

2/2

"The spirits demands we return home, and each drowned continues the litany. What are they trying to tell us?"

Continue the challenge, Aka make a card for a faction that shows something about them

Black white: Dash, historic, piece tokens

Bant: Elementals, Energy, landfall, animate lands

Jund: Big Scary horrors and/or krakens, maybe a new mechanic to deal with blocking, goad?

Izzet: Bottom of library, Exile from library/library manipulation

Boulderstar, Barrier of the Reef

Legendary Creature - Elemental Druid

Each player may play an additional land per turn.

Whenever a land enters, you gain 1 E.

Pay 3 E: Untap target land you control. It becomes a 4/4 Coral Elemental creature with haste, trample, and indestructible in addition to its other types.

4/5

"Boulderstar represents the reef in more ways than one, powerful, harmonious, and unyielding to friend and foe alike."

Bant is focused in landfall, animating lands, and energy. E = Energy symbol (didn't see the option).

Create a card that represents the mechanic of the underwater faction for this set

Eluge and the "floodmoon" merfolk from MH3 are exciting for merfolk EDH cause I really love the idea of playing to the strength of islandwalk - but most old flood counters forcibly change the land to only an island (which doesn't feel great) this new direction for flood counters makes it fun to have island payoffs without shutting down people's mana.

Also Jackdaw Savior is a slam dunk in Giada angels, and honestly makes me want to build a deck around it. Maybe Derevi bird typal? Time will tell.

Whoops that should say enchantment sorry

Vent Read Visions

You may look at the bottom card of your library.

You may play instants and enchantments from the bottom of your library.

"The vents are subthermal, treacherous, and a graveyard to the unprepared. If you survive, there is a future to find in the fire that lurks there."

Create a Jund card for the undersea set mentioned above. (Of four factions it is Bant, Orzhov, Izzet and Jund.)

Building the deck has been fun if not a bit overwhelming with the sheer amount of options but I'm realizing I'll have to wait for the rules announcement to see how X spells, Kicker, and Mutate all work with Offspring. If they work the way I hope, there are some really fun interactions I'll be able to play with.

Lol seeing all these wicked strong birds coming out from the set I'm almost like. . . Oh did I say frog?? xD

Elkhorn, Coral Forest Guardian

Creature - Coral Elemental Druid

Modified creatures you control have trample.

: Put two Coralskin counters on target land you control. (If a creature with 2 or more Coralskin counters would die, instead remove all Coralskin counters from that creature.) Untap that land, it becomes a 3/3 Coral Elemental in addition to its other types and gains haste.

3/3

"The Sentinels of the massive kelp and coral forests work in concert, coral above and kelp below."

So if this is inverted, those massive kelp forests that reach all the way to the surface would basically be like trees that are impossibly tall, and Coral would float in the sky almost like zendikar islands. Coral and kelp are synonymous with green, and if this was. Set I was making I was thinking something like Ixalan would be fun (each of the two sets has a mix of shards and 2 color factions) and the kelp and Coral Forest would be Bant with a centering in green. They are tight knit communities that thrive with life amidst the "wasteland" of so much of the big blue ocean. They are not very friendly to outsider and are stewards instead to the natural land and the many forms of life supported by the coral communities and kelp trees.

Funny thing about coral names is a lot of them sound like green mtg cards apparently. Elkhorn, Staghorn, Carnation, Boulder Star, all sounded like druids to me hence the card. Excellent prompt.

Challenge: Of four inverted undersea factions we'll say the two shards are Bant and Jund (primal and rich in nature deep sea theme) which means the 2 color factions can either be RW & BU - BW & UR. Make a card showing us what one of these 2 color factions or the Jund shard look like.

Tysm everyone, I am really loving this discussion and how thoughtful y'all are! Since the intent is to play it in my playgroup, I figured I would mention as a table we avoid infinite combos. People can run them if they want, but none of us really do - so I would most likely avoid Intruder Alarm in this deck like I do in most others.

What I have experienced playing many iterations of this Copy Token archetype (and that was starting way back when we only had Populate lol) the deck will rely pretty heavily on the commander providing Offspring to be able to create tokens, and without protection she will be a lightning rod for removal. legendofa is right on the money, I think the chance of getting to bigger cards will require having protection available for Eda first, meaning even with ramp I am unlikely to cast anything like Avenger of Zendikar until I have protection or can do something with the tokens aside from just gaining life. Often, I will have to rely on Eda as my commander and she costs 5 and has no protection so I'm guessing I'll have to focus more on protecting her and smaller pieces than ramping into these giant threats.

I really appreciate all the comments from both of you! This has been a huge help to think - how can I break this card? How often am I going to be able to do something like that?

More often Im guessing I will be lucky to pull off an Offspring cost on a 5 mana card and that's still a heavy investment at 7 mana. Usually I find the one round I need to start populating or going off is the round someone board wipes or nukes my commander, and then recasting her for 7 before paying another Offspring cost seem like a fairly prohibitive mana value. Ideally, I am wondering if she should cost one less and maybe the Populate should cost more or something- but I'm at a sweet spot with the fairness of this card as Crow and others have agreed. So I'm going to keep Eda as is for the first playtest.

I know I say thank you a lot but this is like my 4th iteration of a homebrew bant copy token commander and this is the first time I feel like I am onto something that isn't going to feel... bad to play. If anyone has any specific card suggestions or anything like that I am all ears since I'm going to start deckbuilding today!

DemonDragonJ wasn't trying to be rude or insinuate you don't play your decks, just meant when I want to make space for new cards in a deck I'll play a few rounds with friends and keep a note pad next to me. Write down any cards you draw in those rounds you don't like as much. You can even have the cards you want to add on a separate list ready to compare. Basically just trying to say I find that method to be an easier and more fun way to go about making cuts, but if it's not for you then it's not for you.

For edits I am always a big proponent of playing the deck for a few rounds before you make any changes. I used to always edit as I went as new sets came out and it started to make my decks and gameplay less fun. When you play a few rounds you get a feel for what is fun and good to play and in my experience the boring or less than great cards usually make themselves known in the round or two you play.