@Jadefire thanks for the feedback. I'll change the creature type to Plant Beast and give it the archaic "first strike when attacking" at some point today.
~~~
@Archergirl2000 even if you see someone else leave feedback before you, please leave your own as well before requesting feedback on card(s). That said, here are my thoughts on Catoblepas:
Since TheKeefMan has left a smattering of comments above, I'll keep my advice on formatting brief: Use sites like Scryfall or Gatherer to find references for what your card should look like and how it should be worded. I'll be using this approximation for the purpose of analysis:
Catoblepas is similar to Orca, Siege Demon. While it starts a little bit larger and exiles the creatures it eats, you have to pay life for its ability, and you get nothing when it dies, making it significantly weaker than Orca. Reanimation is also strong in BG, so the exile could be seen as a major downside here. To adjust for this, assuming you don't want to add more text, I'd suggest dropping the cost to around {2}{b/g}{b/g}, the power and toughness to 4/4, and the rarity to uncommon. It also seems odd that Catoblepas can eat itself, so I'd also suggest changing the trigger to "Whenever another creature dies, ..."
~~~
@TheKeefMan the first ability doesn't fit in GWU; paying life instead of mana is generally a black effect. Since Oakar has no blue ability, I'd suggest making it WBG. That said, this ability is definitely broken. Channel is already absurd (banned in all formats except Vintage, where it's restricted), and Oakar gives you that effect for as long as its around, along with additional upside for using it to cast creatures (though you likely won't need to when resolving Oakar can easily win you the game on the spot). I'd suggest cutting the Channel ability for something else, but if you insist on keeping it, I'd suggest making Oakar cost at least 7~8 mana (putting it in the same ballpark as cards like Nyxbloom Ancient).
@cadstar369 Its a nice concept and design, a slow burner involving self-damage and card draw, and at the end, resulting in efficient passive damage. Really well designed. Though I am tempted to say its too slow, but that's just me. Personally I would cap him at 5 soul counters and make him {b}{b}{b}. But don't listen to me im an idiot
@cadstar369 Nice design. First the obvious thing, "counter" should pluralized on the third line. Now the thing I'm not sure about, if Dark Knight of Suji starts with zero soul counters on it, it's impossible to get the ball rolling unless you kill an Ornithopter or use -X/-X effects in your deck. Was it intended that it be that difficulty to start the accumulation of soul counters?
For consistency's sake, it might be good to reorder the last part of the ability so that it reads more similarly to when the Knight has fewer than seven soul counters: Otherwise, you draw a card and each opponent loses 3 life.
EDIT: I missed that it doesn't say "or equal to." Killing an Ornithopter won't even get the ball rolling, you need to get that first creature's power or toughness into the negatives to get a soul counter.
@TheKeefMan this card is a gift for @TheDarkKnight1234567, so I gotta keep the seven here. Regardless, I don't think it's such a powerful effect that it has to be triple black (double black is hard enough to splash).
@Jadefire fixed those two typos and reworded the end of the ability. Apparently Wizards is inconsistent about how they word that; I was using Lochthwain Lancer as reference, but forgot Slitherwisp existed.
Pushing the player toward -X/-X effects is indeed intentional. Black easily gets up to single target -4/-4 at 2 mana and has multiple -X/-X board wipes at 3 and 4, so Black Knight of Suji should be fairly easy to use while still meaningfully impacting the player's deckbuilding.
@cadstar369 Nice find with Slitherwisp, I wasn't even trying to reference an existing card with my comment, I just have an affinity for symmetry in wording parallel abilities, lol.
Is it just me or were you trying to include every number from 1 to 7 into the card as a nod to TheDarkKnight's name? If you were, it was a valiant effort to get as many in as you did.
@cadstar369 Counting up to seven encapsulates all of the numbers, so that was a good way to go about it. I was doing some Google searching to see if you were being whimsical with "Suji," but it wouldn't have worked out since five and six were missing. For context, I read somwhere that "su" and "chi" both mean four in different languages, so Wizards literally took a 4/4 and named it four-four.
Would be easier if the Dark Knight of Suji entered game with 1 soul counter on it. As it is now you have to kill enemy creatures with 0 power to get another counter which aint that easy unless you have instants that reduce enemy power while they are fighting the Dark Knight.
@LvB Your time-travelling mechanic is probably redundant, although I can't think of any real mechanic that could do the same thing, so maybe not. I would also give the guy a "race" subtype like Human. However, the card is balanced, and the flavour is suitable. This is the sort of card I could see getting printed in real sometime. Next up: https://mtgcardsmith.com/view/menileus-and-menula
@KorandAngels Really cool card, and I can only find one thing wrong with it, you forgot the legendary border on it! Otherwise I really can't see fault in this design, and I really dig it!
Also I was looking through my custom cards, and I found this one I made awhile ago. Tell me what you think of it, I think it's really solid but idk it could suck lol.
@TheKeefMan I really like Dragons as a whole, but I think that Blue doesn't exactly feel like a Food color. I believe it would be better if it would be mono-green, but other than this little nitpick I don't think this card has any issues: I'd play it solely because I love using goofy cards like this one!
Now, for my turn, I actually have two cards I need some feedback on. I hope I'm not breaking any rules by doing this, so here it goes: They are based on the four god pantheon of my irl D&D campaign, since I decided to try and make a card set revolving around it. There are supposed to be four gods (sun, moon, life and death) plus a fifth god which is actually an alliance of demons (so that's the red slot).
For the green slot, I wanted to create a goddess of Life that was ruthless: she creates monsters and cares about her creations, but only for the ones that live to be worthy, so that's why I decided to make her ping each of the user's creatures. This does go against her condition where she needs creatures to be counted as a creature, but the creatures that do survive get a Garruk boost. My one doubt is that with this idea in mind, wouldn't this card fit more in Green/Red colors? I'd like it to be mono-green, but I don't know how else to convey the same concept.
https://mtgcardsmith.com/view/flora-goddess-of-survival?list=user
For my second card, this one's meant to be the God of the Sun, but I didn't want to call it that because we got too many Heliods already. In my game, he's the god that created the first paladins and as such he favors warriors and knights. Hence why the "odd name", which I still accept suggestions for. As for the mechanics, I wanted him to convey the fact that, even if he's not a creature, his sheer cult of personality is enough to create more paladins (in the form of an all-rounder knight, an aggressive warrior and a defensive soldier).
https://mtgcardsmith.com/view/iperion-god-of-the-knights?list=user
I think that both cards are overpowered, but I have some tips to make them balanced.
For Flora, the +3/+1 is overpowered, because she also give trample. A +3/+0 or a +2/+0 and trample is more balanced. I recommend you to remove the toughness buff, just because if not the damage has no sense.
For Iperion, the activated ability is kinda OP. Just think that a 4-mana ability makes a vanilla 1/1 soldier, or sometimes it has an ability like lifelink. As Iperion is legendary and cost more mana, you could make him to create a 2/2 knight with vigilance for 5 mana. Or, if you want, it could create a 1/1 knight with vigilance and a 1/1 warrior with first strike.
Now for my card, I wanted to do a bright angel that transforms into a fallen one. The first ability keeps you alive and gives you time to gain some life if dying. On the other face, I have done a white ability that fits in red, and I think it’s not so OP. Remember that when the second face dies, it’s not exiled, so you can activate another time disturb (is a thing I wanted to do, but I think it’s not balanced now). The last thing I wanted to say is that that there is an error that makes one face uncommon and the other one mythic rare, don’t add that on your opinion.
@Mr_Orogar the card is good, but I will increase the mana cost of the activated ability. A card that is similar is the spectral sailor, and for {3}{u} just draws you 1, so I will make the card 1/1 and maybe increase the cost of the ability to {4}{u}.
Another DFC I want to know about. I know it is OP, so I want to know how to make it balanced.
@TheKeefMan It's very good card! But I think that he could have an ability like
{3}{t} and sacrifice one food token: Put two +1/+1 counters on this
creature.
Oh, and his mana cost is good. (Blue is before Green.)
For your cat, @Mr_Orogar, I think that there is no need to give other zombies or even to the cat persist, the deathtouch boost is already OP. The persist effect is less useful, thinking on mono black, that has the best reanimates.
My attempt to make a planeswalker creature, and my first time using Magic Set Editor. I dont know how to use Magic Editor.
I got this idea from the fact, we have artifact creatures, enchantment creatures, and heck, even land creatures, would it be absurd to have a planeswalker creature?
@smax765 Agnor's Call // Agnor's Commandment is pretty nuts. While that's mostly due to the back side, there are plenty of decks that would play the front side just to gain 1 life every turn for one mana.
Let's break Agnor's Commandment into two parts: the static abilities and the token generation. The three cards with similar static abilities are each 6 mana, and Agnor's Commandment also grants lifelink. Effects similar to the second part (like these) tend to cost 3~5 mana, but let's cut that down a little since Agnor's Commandment only triggers once each turn. Even then, the backside is providing what would probably be 7~8+ mana worth of power, with only two small hurdles to get there. (Your wording is funky here, so I'm assuming it's intended to work similarly to the Sanctuary cycle.) Having two colors among your permanents (Agnor's Call fulfills the white requirement) is not difficult, and having three nontoken Spirits is also fairly simple, considering that Spirits tend to be cheap, powerful, and often have flash. It wouldn't be difficult to consistently flip Agnor's Call on turn 4, occasionally turn 3 even.
On a separate note, why is this card Arcane? Splice onto Arcane doesn't work with permanents, and there's only a handful of effects that care about Arcane cards for other reasons.
~~~
@TheKeefMan please remember to give feedback before posting. That said, Gideon and such already exist in this space, as do the flip-walkers in a sense, both of which are significantly less convoluted than Steadfast Cloudchaser.
Regarding Steadfast Cloudchaser, the -5 is exceedingly strong considering white normally gets +1/+1 and vigilance for that approximate cost (generally up to +2/+2 when not on a creature). On the other hand, the +2 is rather lackluster for a mythic 6-drop, especially since you have to tap it. Additionally, "its toughness acts as its loyalty" doesn't work, since planeswalker abilities (and related effects) use loyalty counters, not a numerical value on the card. Even if it did, having that relationship be one-way means you could -5 as much as you wanted since its loyalty would temporarily go up 3 instead of going down.
I'd appreciate feedback on this card:
For context, this card was made for the following challenge: Create a card that would make a Flagbearer tribal deck closer to being a reality (using Changelings, if necessary).
MTG Cardsmith Community Forums
Comments
https://forums.mtgcardsmith.com/discussion/6071/keefs-guide-to-making-great-cards-on-mtgcardsmith-jadefire-wisdom
https://mtgcardsmith.com/view/oakar-ancient-lifecaster
~~~
@Archergirl2000 even if you see someone else leave feedback before you, please leave your own as well before requesting feedback on card(s). That said, here are my thoughts on Catoblepas:
Since TheKeefMan has left a smattering of comments above, I'll keep my advice on formatting brief: Use sites like Scryfall or Gatherer to find references for what your card should look like and how it should be worded. I'll be using this approximation for the purpose of analysis:
Catoblepas is similar to Orca, Siege Demon. While it starts a little bit larger and exiles the creatures it eats, you have to pay life for its ability, and you get nothing when it dies, making it significantly weaker than Orca. Reanimation is also strong in BG, so the exile could be seen as a major downside here. To adjust for this, assuming you don't want to add more text, I'd suggest dropping the cost to around {2}{b/g}{b/g}, the power and toughness to 4/4, and the rarity to uncommon. It also seems odd that Catoblepas can eat itself, so I'd also suggest changing the trigger to "Whenever another creature dies, ..."
~~~
@TheKeefMan the first ability doesn't fit in GWU; paying life instead of mana is generally a black effect. Since Oakar has no blue ability, I'd suggest making it WBG. That said, this ability is definitely broken. Channel is already absurd (banned in all formats except Vintage, where it's restricted), and Oakar gives you that effect for as long as its around, along with additional upside for using it to cast creatures (though you likely won't need to when resolving Oakar can easily win you the game on the spot). I'd suggest cutting the Channel ability for something else, but if you insist on keeping it, I'd suggest making Oakar cost at least 7~8 mana (putting it in the same ballpark as cards like Nyxbloom Ancient).
~~~
I'd appreciate feedback on this card:
Edit: Fixed some typos Jadefire pointed out.
For consistency's sake, it might be good to reorder the last part of the ability so that it reads more similarly to when the Knight has fewer than seven soul counters: Otherwise, you draw a card and each opponent loses 3 life.
EDIT: I missed that it doesn't say "or equal to." Killing an Ornithopter won't even get the ball rolling, you need to get that first creature's power or toughness into the negatives to get a soul counter.
@Jadefire fixed those two typos and reworded the end of the ability. Apparently Wizards is inconsistent about how they word that; I was using Lochthwain Lancer as reference, but forgot Slitherwisp existed.
Thank you both for the feedback.
Is it just me or were you trying to include every number from 1 to 7 into the card as a nod to TheDarkKnight's name? If you were, it was a valiant effort to get as many in as you did.
Next up:
https://mtgcardsmith.com/view/menileus-and-menula
https://mtgcardsmith.com/view/gumdrop-dragon-1
Now, for my turn, I actually have two cards I need some feedback on. I hope I'm not breaking any rules by doing this, so here it goes:
They are based on the four god pantheon of my irl D&D campaign, since I decided to try and make a card set revolving around it. There are supposed to be four gods (sun, moon, life and death) plus a fifth god which is actually an alliance of demons (so that's the red slot).
For the green slot, I wanted to create a goddess of Life that was ruthless: she creates monsters and cares about her creations, but only for the ones that live to be worthy, so that's why I decided to make her ping each of the user's creatures. This does go against her condition where she needs creatures to be counted as a creature, but the creatures that do survive get a Garruk boost. My one doubt is that with this idea in mind, wouldn't this card fit more in Green/Red colors? I'd like it to be mono-green, but I don't know how else to convey the same concept.
https://mtgcardsmith.com/view/flora-goddess-of-survival?list=user
For my second card, this one's meant to be the God of the Sun, but I didn't want to call it that because we got too many Heliods already. In my game, he's the god that created the first paladins and as such he favors warriors and knights. Hence why the "odd name", which I still accept suggestions for. As for the mechanics, I wanted him to convey the fact that, even if he's not a creature, his sheer cult of personality is enough to create more paladins (in the form of an all-rounder knight, an aggressive warrior and a defensive soldier). https://mtgcardsmith.com/view/iperion-god-of-the-knights?list=user
For Flora, the +3/+1 is overpowered, because she also give trample. A +3/+0 or a +2/+0 and trample is more balanced. I recommend you to remove the toughness buff, just because if not the damage has no sense.
I got this idea from the fact, we have artifact creatures, enchantment creatures, and heck, even land creatures, would it be absurd to have a planeswalker creature?
Let's break Agnor's Commandment into two parts: the static abilities and the token generation. The three cards with similar static abilities are each 6 mana, and Agnor's Commandment also grants lifelink. Effects similar to the second part (like these) tend to cost 3~5 mana, but let's cut that down a little since Agnor's Commandment only triggers once each turn. Even then, the backside is providing what would probably be 7~8+ mana worth of power, with only two small hurdles to get there. (Your wording is funky here, so I'm assuming it's intended to work similarly to the Sanctuary cycle.) Having two colors among your permanents (Agnor's Call fulfills the white requirement) is not difficult, and having three nontoken Spirits is also fairly simple, considering that Spirits tend to be cheap, powerful, and often have flash. It wouldn't be difficult to consistently flip Agnor's Call on turn 4, occasionally turn 3 even.
On a separate note, why is this card Arcane? Splice onto Arcane doesn't work with permanents, and there's only a handful of effects that care about Arcane cards for other reasons.
~~~
@TheKeefMan please remember to give feedback before posting. That said, Gideon and such already exist in this space, as do the flip-walkers in a sense, both of which are significantly less convoluted than Steadfast Cloudchaser.
Regarding Steadfast Cloudchaser, the -5 is exceedingly strong considering white normally gets +1/+1 and vigilance for that approximate cost (generally up to +2/+2 when not on a creature). On the other hand, the +2 is rather lackluster for a mythic 6-drop, especially since you have to tap it. Additionally, "its toughness acts as its loyalty" doesn't work, since planeswalker abilities (and related effects) use loyalty counters, not a numerical value on the card. Even if it did, having that relationship be one-way means you could -5 as much as you wanted since its loyalty would temporarily go up 3 instead of going down.
I'd appreciate feedback on this card:
For context, this card was made for the following challenge: Create a card that would make a Flagbearer tribal deck closer to being a reality (using Changelings, if necessary).