I did a run of five vehicles, one for each color. The only stipulation I gave myself was that the casting cost had to be three and two of the chosen color. Looking for notes on power level, rarity and such. Please and thank you. I don't play with vehicles, so any advice would be appreciated.
This is an interesting concept for a card, kind of balancing out the playing field a bit for everyone. Some pointers:
On the first step of the saga, the wording could be more clear. For example, they create a snail for each creature target opponent controls, or all opponents.
Based off of the idea for the card (And I might be getting this wrong), it feels as though you want to create a showdown between the hedgehogs and the snails. However, with the current wording, the person who creates the hedgehog also gets snails on their battlefield. Perhaps make it so that you create the hedgehog for each opponent you have, instead of getting snails?
For the last step of the saga, putting +1/+1 counters on all of the snails doesn't accomplish much, because every snail will be getting them. From my view, it just helps accelerate the fall of the hedgehog, because he doesn't get them, and there is only one of him. Maybe instead add a clause that the creatures destroyed in this way can't be regenerated, to more effectively ensure the hedgehog vs. snail showdown.
Meanwhile, I have been working on this card, which fits into my favorite theme-Planeswalkers. I realized she was a little strong recently, and nerfed her slightly, so I am interested in hearing opinions:
@V0id Aselth seems to swing between underwhelming and busted, with no in-between state. Her +1 and -X are both weak for five mana, especially considering how vulnerable her 3 starting loyalty is. However, if a player has any way to speed things along like Vorinclex, Monstrous Raider, getting her emblem the turn she comes out rapidly spirals out of control, particularly if they recur Aselth or play additional copies. Perhaps consider dropping her cost to 2GG and/or adjusting the +1 to +2 and -5 to -7. (This way the token has a better chance to be relevant, her loyalty is more resilient, and the ultimate isn't in doubling range.)
I'd appreciate feedback on this card:
Took another stab at an old custom mechanic of mine a little while ago, but I'm wondering if Eclipse Crusader is overbalanced.
This seems like an interesting way for the card to go! It being a 2/3 in exchange for menace is a good touch, and 3 mana seems about right for it. Then we get into the ability itself, which from the outset seems pretty strong, but it has some heavy restrictions on it, and requires mana to be spent, so I think this would overall be a very balanced card. It might start to get a little broken in token decks, especially if the deck has multiple cards with the same mechanic, which would be even more worrisome if they all fit into the type you're hoping to draw for the deck, but that is more of a problem for the mechanic itself than the individual card. All in all, the card is fine, but I feel the mechanic could be done better somehow, just from the sheer lifegain it offers from multiple sources.
Meanwhile, I have been chugging along on more cards, because the planeswalkers won't make themselves, so here we have this one: My pride on this one is admittedly its flavor text, but does the mechanic itself seem to work?
I think the mechanic only works for planeswalker abilities that add loyalty. If we were to take an ability that decreases loyalty points, then trying to add and subtract both factors would be a little confusing.
Overall the card is cool and unique and maybe just changing the text to something that makes it a little less confusing will help. i myself cant seem to think of an alternative wording, but I'm sure you can! other than that I really like this card, and yes the flavour text is really good.
The card seems like a very nice concept! 3/3 is a good balance for its abilities, but I think the problem here would be the mana cost. When you cast this spell, you essentially get 2 mana refunded on the cast, along with 2 clue tokens. I would think adjusting it to 5 mana would get you to where this card should be.
Also, the wording on my previous card was actually the one WOTC came up with, but without a fancy symbol: Carth the Lion. It essentially means that all of the planeswalkers loyalty abilities costs gain that +X, meaning that if we had +2 and an ult that cost 8, we could use it at 6, and the +1 loyalty ability turns to +3, and so on.
Anyway, I have another fun card to show, once again in the planeswalker theme. Also the first card I had ever made that got 6 favorites (What the heck happened?).
@LHunter Chromatisis seems like a fairly balanced card:The people who get caught up in the war for control of it would eventually spend their turns doing nothing else, and the people who don't actually play their turn, but without chromatisis on their side. 6 mana also seems fair for it as an 8/8, considering the abilities it has.
Jittery gatekeeper is going to need some work. Deal 3 damage to a creature that enters the battlefield seems like a nice effect, but it could probably be nerfed down to 2 instead. Also, once a creature enters the battlefield, you have lost any chance of countering it, so the 2nd ability isn't functional. It would have to be on cast instead of enter. Third, given that gatekeeper triggers off of any creature, you have an infinite combo the moment a creature enters with the 3rd ability.
Now, L, mysterious mission manager is broken beyond any and all hope. 4 mana for what it does is nowhere near enough. What I think could happen is we chunk it into 3 parts: Spells cost less, looking at and playing cards from library, graveyard, and exile, and finally the mana abilities. For the first ability, with it alone, having about a 6 mana cost is what it would be for balance. For the second section, being able to cast cards from almost anywhere is what it is essentially doing, so 7-8 is my suggestion for it. The final section has a lot of utility, but also requires tapping and mana to do so, so 4-5 would be the cost for that. Cumulatively, to keep everything and it still be balanced, We're looking at a 17-19 total mana cost. That is going to need some work.
For greatwyrm, I love the concept for it. However, usually the most 12 mana would get you is a 12/12 trample. Convoke is pushing this way off of the cliff of balance. The swamp and mountain effects are also fine, just minor additions there, but doubling mana pool, even in a 3 color deck, is a bit strong. Convoke on it, especially given the colors, would probably add about 5 mana. The swamp and mountain effects would probably add 1 mana each, while the forest effect would add about 2-3. Totals added up, about 22-23 mana. If you want to keep the original mana cost, consider getting rid of convoke and turning down the power/toughness.
For Rowan, unending loyalty, getting double triggers and an effect that benefits from it is going too far for 2 mana. I could sacrifice a 1/1 with it and make Rowan a 6/6 the turn I cast him. On turn 2. Not working out. To keep just the double trigger, I'd suggest a 4 mana cost. For just the sac trigger, especially in red, I'd say another 3-4 mana. Total, you have 7-8 mana.
Finally, for Xeniphis, Lost and Found, The concept is great, and the abilities are as well. but the +2/+2 and menace are a bit strong with the other effect for 1 mana cast, 4 equip, especially given no mana cost equip cards. For the abilities without the +2 and menace, this card is fine as is, same if we removed the abilities and kept the +2 and menace instead. For both, I'd reccommend a 4 cast cost and 4 equip, but I don't deal with equipment a lot so that could be totally off.
Thank you, @V0id. I like broken cards, obviously, and I make the cards of my followers broken also. I feel that Greatwyrm’s green ability is better than the others, but not broken, as it only applies to forests. L is me, so I purposely made it insane, but I probably wouldn’t play it, as I don’t like white, therefore, it is more showcase (I have been thinking about a more combat based, version that is playable and good but not broken.) Jittery gatekeeper has some issues, but I’m too lazy to fix them. I love Chromatisis, tho. He is one of my favorites I have ever made, and I hate that he only has 1 favorite. Rowan, I’m sorry, but he’s not changing. I love him the way he is. (Mostly because he would be broken in my existing deck.) Xeniphis, on the other hand, is completely balanced for a mythic equipment. Look up colossus hammer. It’s a couple cents, (1) to play, (10) to equip. It is also uncommon. It gives +10/+10. I like Xeniphis also because it would go very well with my Valduk deck. I love the feedback. I would love to give my thoughts on a couple of your cards.
I apologize if I don't know too much about mtg cards. I am the kind of person who is amazed that people can remember 20+ cards and their general effects from the top of their heads, and I am somewhat new to magic in general (Just about 1 year). I just give advice from an outsider's view on what the cards should be, based off of what I know about the game. These are just my personal views, so there's no need to take them too seriously. I like to think that's also what makes my card ideas creative, such as this one (What do you think about it, by the way?):
@V0id: Haha that’s ok I wasn’t taking it too seriously. They are concept cards, are they not? Your planeswalk is really super cool, and would work well with Jin-gitaxias, core auger or hand of vecna. It’s a really cool and versatile concept with a lot of uses I can’t even explain, although I would make it (3)(u)(u) instead, as cards like that, with many specificly colored mana are usually broken, think gigantosaurus or progenitus.
Also… please don’t get me wrong, but I absolutely LOVE your concept of the blind eternities. One problem, though. The blind eternities are associated with the eldrazi. It is a complete and total empty void, and the waste land type was made for the eldrazi because of this. So, I love the card, but lore wise (please don’t take this too seriously), the blind eternities are completely colorless.
@V0id Eclipse Crusader's ability doesn't count tokens, so it doesn't work in token decks. Additionally, the Mentality mechanic both has nothing to do with lifegain and also is difficult to utilize without restricting one's deckbuilding decisions, so I'm not sure what you could possibly mean when you say "[you] feel the mechanic could be done better somehow".
Regarding your recent posts:
The Spark is fine given Carth the Lion exists, but its mana value is so high that it's practically unplayable, especially when proliferate is in every color. This could easily come down to 6 mana, and even then it's hard to justify unless you're playing neither blue nor green.
The Blind Eternities likely got many favorites because it effectively says "you win the game" on it. Negating the main counterplay to planeswalkers while also being difficult to remove itself and relatively easy to cast/cheat into play is incredibly strong. In general, this effect is something that should not be printed, at least not anytime soon. (If it were, it'd likely be on a small creature with no protection of its own, making it significantly more vulnerable than The Blind Eternities.)
Planeswalk is definitely busted. Many of the most powerful cards in Magic exile themselves on resolution so they can't be cast again, and Planeswalk allows you to recover those cards at instant speed and little expense. For example, you could take infinite turns while removing your opponent's board or making infinite tokens with Karn's Temporal Sundering or Alrund's Epiphany, prevent your opponent from ever having another combat step with Mandate of Peace, or keep them from having turns entirely with Discontinuity or Time Stop. There's also less flashy, yet equally powerful things you can do by looping recursion effects like these. Even supposing you weren't playing any of those cards, Planeswalk can be used to loop any card so long as you can get it into exile, which is trivial to accomplish. And all of this is without accounting for Planeswalk both being hard to remove and also refilling your hand every time it enters from anywhere, the latter of which opens up even more absurd lines of play in something like a blink deck.
By the way, why does Planeswalk need to give the player an emblem? Usually this effect would say "you have no maximum hand size for the rest of the game." (examples)
P.S. – @LHunter while the Eldrazi may exist in the Blind Eternities, according to this page your other assertions appear to be inaccurate.
@cadstar369: your card is really cool. I really love it and have no changes to it. It’s a little like my card Xeniphis, lost and found. Find it here: https://mtgcardsmith.com/view/xeniphis-lost-and-found-1?list=user. Although the page about the blind eternities is probably correct, I would assume the mana there would be colorless, as the eldrazi would have already feasted on it, as they suck the mana out of planes, and that is where waste mana comes from.
@cadstar369 Mentality is an interesting mechanic. It's used somewhat differently across the cards that have it, so I'll take a stab at coming up with a general description of what it does. From what I can tell, the elements of Mentality include: making the top card of your library known (with or without keeping it there during the time when that information will be used), looking for a match between the revealed card and something (on the board or defined by the Mentality ability), providing some effect for each match, and removing that card from the top of the library (not necessarily in that order). That's the best I can come up with because Mentality seems very nebulously defined and broadly used. Making Mentality an ability word was the right call, since cards with ability words only need to be loosely related to each other.
Eclipse Crusader seems like an alright card, if not a bit underpowered. The backbone of its benefits comes more from it being a 3 MV 2/3 with Menace than anything else. I'll ignore the use of the hybrid Orzhov frame instead of the gold frame and chalk that up to a deliberate design choice. In the case of the Crusader, the activated ability seems more like Mentality was shoehorned into what should be a Raid ability, but it's understandable if you want to allow repeated activations over multiple turns with the added cost of putting the Crusader into harm's way, so those activations aren't "free." The randomness of Mentality really hurts this card, given how low the payoff is. Firstly, you have to spend 1W and you could whiff entirely and get nothing if you reveal a land or a nonpermanent card. Unlike with other random top of the library effects like Clash and Explore, you can't even use Mentality for card filtering, you just lose the revealed card off the top of your library whether or not it's desirable. Even if you do hit a nonland permanent card on top of your library, tokens are disregarded, so any chance of gaining a reasonable amount of life off of Mentality is limited to being 1-for-1 with cards you were able to get onto the battlefield one at a time beforehand. Given how early the Crusader can come down, the high mana cost of activating its Mentality ability (thus giving up your chance to play more cards during the early turns), and how dependent its ability is on both luck and your board state, it's an extremely poor use of mana to activate it until you have a somewhat substantial board presence and/or you have nothing better to do with your mana. There's also the potential downside of giving up information about your deck in revealing a card you may never see another copy of that game. For what it does, Eclipse Crusader could easily be a common and the activation cost could be lowered to one mana.
I like the versatility of Silent Grace and how it grants protection along two different axes. It's very flavourful and in line with its two colours. While the white side can fog a single opposing attacker, it can also be used to save your creature from nontargeted damage effects. On the blue side, I was initially wondering why Shroud was chosen instead of Hexproof, as you can't use it to save a creature and allow your own spells and abilities to resolve in the event that you target your creature with something and your opponent tries to kill it in response. However, I can see now that you can use Shroud to fizzle your opponent's spells and abilities in case they try to buff their own creature (the best of both worlds can be achieved with the Vines of Vastwood wording, but that may seem more green than blue). Three mana may be a bit onerous to leave up every turn to keep this spell online, which, as a common, would be fine. As an uncommon, the cost of Silent Grace could probably be lowered to two mana.
That doomed Soldiers ability to deal 5 damage is a bit broken cause it can be used as many times per turn as you want as long as you have enough mana. Get an Infinite Mana Combo, play it, win.
Ooh, he looks cute. If you equip/enchant him with something that can tap him, you get an infinity combo after a while if you create enough treasure tokens.
Concerning Bob, (btw he does look pretty cute) I think @LvB is right with the infinite combo. Honestly its a cool concept and idea but paired with the right cards can result in a pretty devastating and broken win combo if were making mana, life gain and +1/+1 counters.
An idea to fix that little issue and make it a bit more un-broken is to maybe implement something such as "You can only activate this a certain amount of times per turn" or say that "The Bob cannot be untapped", just to make it a more decent and not rage quit card for your opponent to deal with.
It doesnt have the "Equip" ability so it will stay on the first creature you attach it to. If that creature dies, Ancient Sword becomes useless unless another card allows you to re-equip the sword to another creature.
And an Equip with +X/+X can get out of hand very fast with double strikers or creatures you can sacrifice to deal damage equal to their power. Maybe increase its casting cost to prevent early turn kills.
I made a series of Warrior Spirits that died defending a mountain. But that doesnt stop them from defending it.
MTG Cardsmith Community Forums
Comments
And will the snail tale in the forum continue ? Who knows ...
This is an interesting concept for a card, kind of balancing out the playing field a bit for everyone. Some pointers:
Meanwhile, I have been working on this card, which fits into my favorite theme-Planeswalkers. I realized she was a little strong recently, and nerfed her slightly, so I am interested in hearing opinions:
I'd appreciate feedback on this card:
Took another stab at an old custom mechanic of mine a little while ago, but I'm wondering if Eclipse Crusader is overbalanced.
This seems like an interesting way for the card to go! It being a 2/3 in exchange for menace is a good touch, and 3 mana seems about right for it. Then we get into the ability itself, which from the outset seems pretty strong, but it has some heavy restrictions on it, and requires mana to be spent, so I think this would overall be a very balanced card. It might start to get a little broken in token decks, especially if the deck has multiple cards with the same mechanic, which would be even more worrisome if they all fit into the type you're hoping to draw for the deck, but that is more of a problem for the mechanic itself than the individual card. All in all, the card is fine, but I feel the mechanic could be done better somehow, just from the sheer lifegain it offers from multiple sources.
Meanwhile, I have been chugging along on more cards, because the planeswalkers won't make themselves, so here we have this one:
My pride on this one is admittedly its flavor text, but does the mechanic itself seem to work?
I think the mechanic only works for planeswalker abilities that add loyalty. If we were to take an ability that decreases loyalty points, then trying to add and subtract both factors would be a little confusing.
Overall the card is cool and unique and maybe just changing the text to something that makes it a little less confusing will help. i myself cant seem to think of an alternative wording, but I'm sure you can! other than that I really like this card, and yes the flavour text is really good.
Here's my card:
The card seems like a very nice concept! 3/3 is a good balance for its abilities, but I think the problem here would be the mana cost. When you cast this spell, you essentially get 2 mana refunded on the cast, along with 2 clue tokens. I would think adjusting it to 5 mana would get you to where this card should be.
Also, the wording on my previous card was actually the one WOTC came up with, but without a fancy symbol: Carth the Lion. It essentially means that all of the planeswalkers loyalty abilities costs gain that +X, meaning that if we had +2 and an ult that cost 8, we could use it at 6, and the +1 loyalty ability turns to +3, and so on.
Anyway, I have another fun card to show, once again in the planeswalker theme. Also the first card I had ever made that got 6 favorites (What the heck happened?).
Chromatisis seems like a fairly balanced card:The people who get caught up in the war for control of it would eventually spend their turns doing nothing else, and the people who don't actually play their turn, but without chromatisis on their side. 6 mana also seems fair for it as an 8/8, considering the abilities it has.
Jittery gatekeeper is going to need some work. Deal 3 damage to a creature that enters the battlefield seems like a nice effect, but it could probably be nerfed down to 2 instead. Also, once a creature enters the battlefield, you have lost any chance of countering it, so the 2nd ability isn't functional. It would have to be on cast instead of enter. Third, given that gatekeeper triggers off of any creature, you have an infinite combo the moment a creature enters with the 3rd ability.
Now, L, mysterious mission manager is broken beyond any and all hope. 4 mana for what it does is nowhere near enough. What I think could happen is we chunk it into 3 parts: Spells cost less, looking at and playing cards from library, graveyard, and exile, and finally the mana abilities. For the first ability, with it alone, having about a 6 mana cost is what it would be for balance. For the second section, being able to cast cards from almost anywhere is what it is essentially doing, so 7-8 is my suggestion for it. The final section has a lot of utility, but also requires tapping and mana to do so, so 4-5 would be the cost for that. Cumulatively, to keep everything and it still be balanced, We're looking at a 17-19 total mana cost. That is going to need some work.
For greatwyrm, I love the concept for it. However, usually the most 12 mana would get you is a 12/12 trample. Convoke is pushing this way off of the cliff of balance. The swamp and mountain effects are also fine, just minor additions there, but doubling mana pool, even in a 3 color deck, is a bit strong. Convoke on it, especially given the colors, would probably add about 5 mana. The swamp and mountain effects would probably add 1 mana each, while the forest effect would add about 2-3. Totals added up, about 22-23 mana. If you want to keep the original mana cost, consider getting rid of convoke and turning down the power/toughness.
For Rowan, unending loyalty, getting double triggers and an effect that benefits from it is going too far for 2 mana. I could sacrifice a 1/1 with it and make Rowan a 6/6 the turn I cast him. On turn 2. Not working out. To keep just the double trigger, I'd suggest a 4 mana cost. For just the sac trigger, especially in red, I'd say another 3-4 mana. Total, you have 7-8 mana.
Finally, for Xeniphis, Lost and Found, The concept is great, and the abilities are as well. but the +2/+2 and menace are a bit strong with the other effect for 1 mana cast, 4 equip, especially given no mana cost equip cards. For the abilities without the +2 and menace, this card is fine as is, same if we removed the abilities and kept the +2 and menace instead. For both, I'd reccommend a 4 cast cost and 4 equip, but I don't deal with equipment a lot so that could be totally off.
I apologize if I don't know too much about mtg cards. I am the kind of person who is amazed that people can remember 20+ cards and their general effects from the top of their heads, and I am somewhat new to magic in general (Just about 1 year). I just give advice from an outsider's view on what the cards should be, based off of what I know about the game. These are just my personal views, so there's no need to take them too seriously. I like to think that's also what makes my card ideas creative, such as this one (What do you think about it, by the way?):
Also… please don’t get me wrong, but I absolutely LOVE your concept of the blind eternities. One problem, though. The blind eternities are associated with the eldrazi. It is a complete and total empty void, and the waste land type was made for the eldrazi because of this. So, I love the card, but lore wise (please don’t take this too seriously), the blind eternities are completely colorless.
Regarding your recent posts:
The Spark is fine given Carth the Lion exists, but its mana value is so high that it's practically unplayable, especially when proliferate is in every color. This could easily come down to 6 mana, and even then it's hard to justify unless you're playing neither blue nor green.
The Blind Eternities likely got many favorites because it effectively says "you win the game" on it. Negating the main counterplay to planeswalkers while also being difficult to remove itself and relatively easy to cast/cheat into play is incredibly strong. In general, this effect is something that should not be printed, at least not anytime soon. (If it were, it'd likely be on a small creature with no protection of its own, making it significantly more vulnerable than The Blind Eternities.)
Planeswalk is definitely busted. Many of the most powerful cards in Magic exile themselves on resolution so they can't be cast again, and Planeswalk allows you to recover those cards at instant speed and little expense. For example, you could take infinite turns while removing your opponent's board or making infinite tokens with Karn's Temporal Sundering or Alrund's Epiphany, prevent your opponent from ever having another combat step with Mandate of Peace, or keep them from having turns entirely with Discontinuity or Time Stop. There's also less flashy, yet equally powerful things you can do by looping recursion effects like these. Even supposing you weren't playing any of those cards, Planeswalk can be used to loop any card so long as you can get it into exile, which is trivial to accomplish. And all of this is without accounting for Planeswalk both being hard to remove and also refilling your hand every time it enters from anywhere, the latter of which opens up even more absurd lines of play in something like a blink deck.
By the way, why does Planeswalk need to give the player an emblem? Usually this effect would say "you have no maximum hand size for the rest of the game." (examples)
P.S. – @LHunter while the Eldrazi may exist in the Blind Eternities, according to this page your other assertions appear to be inaccurate.
~~~
I'd appreciate feedback on this card:
Eclipse Crusader seems like an alright card, if not a bit underpowered. The backbone of its benefits comes more from it being a 3 MV 2/3 with Menace than anything else. I'll ignore the use of the hybrid Orzhov frame instead of the gold frame and chalk that up to a deliberate design choice. In the case of the Crusader, the activated ability seems more like Mentality was shoehorned into what should be a Raid ability, but it's understandable if you want to allow repeated activations over multiple turns with the added cost of putting the Crusader into harm's way, so those activations aren't "free." The randomness of Mentality really hurts this card, given how low the payoff is. Firstly, you have to spend 1W and you could whiff entirely and get nothing if you reveal a land or a nonpermanent card. Unlike with other random top of the library effects like Clash and Explore, you can't even use Mentality for card filtering, you just lose the revealed card off the top of your library whether or not it's desirable. Even if you do hit a nonland permanent card on top of your library, tokens are disregarded, so any chance of gaining a reasonable amount of life off of Mentality is limited to being 1-for-1 with cards you were able to get onto the battlefield one at a time beforehand. Given how early the Crusader can come down, the high mana cost of activating its Mentality ability (thus giving up your chance to play more cards during the early turns), and how dependent its ability is on both luck and your board state, it's an extremely poor use of mana to activate it until you have a somewhat substantial board presence and/or you have nothing better to do with your mana. There's also the potential downside of giving up information about your deck in revealing a card you may never see another copy of that game. For what it does, Eclipse Crusader could easily be a common and the activation cost could be lowered to one mana.
I like the versatility of Silent Grace and how it grants protection along two different axes. It's very flavourful and in line with its two colours. While the white side can fog a single opposing attacker, it can also be used to save your creature from nontargeted damage effects. On the blue side, I was initially wondering why Shroud was chosen instead of Hexproof, as you can't use it to save a creature and allow your own spells and abilities to resolve in the event that you target your creature with something and your opponent tries to kill it in response. However, I can see now that you can use Shroud to fizzle your opponent's spells and abilities in case they try to buff their own creature (the best of both worlds can be achieved with the Vines of Vastwood wording, but that may seem more green than blue). Three mana may be a bit onerous to leave up every turn to keep this spell online, which, as a common, would be fine. As an uncommon, the cost of Silent Grace could probably be lowered to two mana.
my humor is broken. Triumphant is a cool card. Imagine that in a Hamza deck.
Concerning Bob, (btw he does look pretty cute) I think @LvB is right with the infinite combo. Honestly its a cool concept and idea but paired with the right cards can result in a pretty devastating and broken win combo if were making mana, life gain and +1/+1 counters.
An idea to fix that little issue and make it a bit more un-broken is to maybe implement something such as "You can only activate this a certain amount of times per turn" or say that "The Bob cannot be untapped", just to make it a more decent and not rage quit card for your opponent to deal with.
Heres my card: