@Sweda nice catch, especially since there’s cards like Necropotence among potential combo pieces. ? I’ll probably swap the retributive creature kill ability for “you can’t pay life to activate abilities,” similar to how Lier stops spells from being countered to reduce how broken her flashback granting ability could be. That way Kokunen still supports leaning into black’s plethora of “do X, lose some life,” effects (the initial inspiration for the card) without being an instant win condition.
@cadstar369 You could also make it each opponent loses life equal to the number of times a source an opponent controls caused you to lose life. Then you could still pay life, but it wouldn't be counted for the end step trigger.
@FireOfGolden 7 mana is still pretty cheap for a one sided board wipe, especially since it comes on a big 6/6 body. You could have a 6/6 that gives vigilance to your creatures for 7 and it would feel a little expensive, but not outrageous. Adding a destroy all your opponent's creatures effect really takes it to broken territory, especially because you can reanimate it for far less than the 7 mana it normal costs. I'd consider making it have a 4 or 5 mana kicker cost that destroys opponents creatures, or at least make it destroy all creatures except itself.
Also, do you mean "Figures you control have vigilance" and "Soldiers you control have vigilance" or do you really mean that only creatures that have both types are affected?
Here's a card I'd like some feedback on. It was from an idea I got from one of my MTG after school club students.
@FireOfGolden, I gotta agree with @StuffnSuch . Take for example Realm-Cloaked Giant, which you might have subconsciously or intentionally taken insperation from. To achive both those effects in your one card, it would require atleast an 11-12 mana white or black rare and I mean body wise and boardwipe wise. Adding the five mana kicker would help the card alot. Take this as a free review since im not posting anything right now.
Edit: Actually this card in general might need a heavier kicker cost considering the fact that it is a targeted board wipe meaning it doesn't have heavy implications on you upon casting and can actually make it a game finisher potentially. Another thing is, if you make the kicker too light or not have a kicker at all, people can actually cheat this from their library and essentially cripple their opponents mid-game for little to no value.
@StuffnSuch if I did that, Kokunen wouldn’t do what it was intended to do (as mentioned in my response to Sweda). It’d also be pretty boring to have to rely on your opponent to trigger it, because then you couldn’t build around it in any meaningful capacity.
@FireOfGolden consider adding an intervening “if you cast it” clause to Cannoniant’s enter the battlefield ability. This would put it somewhat in line with cards like Wakening Sun’s Avatar (an 8-mana board wipe on a 7/7 Dinosaur Avatar), prevent the majority of the issues the card currently has (including reanimation and repeated flickering), and also largely evade any potential need to alter the current mana cost.
@cadstar369 Even so, I think a cost alter is inevitable for Cannoniant considering Wakening Sun's Avatar, even for an 8 cmc mythic, in a color that specializes in board wipes, still has conditional destruction that is not even targeted, and has a potential to affect you as well. Unless you are running dinosaurs Wakening Sun's Avatar has the potential to hamper you at a mythic value. Cannoniant straight up targets an opponent with indiscriminate board wipe, which means that both the trigger conditions, general casting cost and rarity need to be modified.
All in all I would suggest some increase in
Cost (Maybe to a generous 9 if not 10 cmc)
Trigger condition (Add a reasonable trigger clause or kicker)
Rarity (Doesn't affect the overall card, but this is easily a mythic)
@Tonysparks upcosting the card so much would make it virtually useless, especially in a game with more than two players. It only targets one player (whereas most board wipes at this level affect each opponent), which leaves it open to a greater variety of disruptive effects. It also has to contend with White’s vast variety of board wipes, many of which will likely be cheaper in mana value and/or simply more effective than Cannoniant for any decks it might go in. The only thing making Cannoniant any sort of threat is the fact that it’s a big creature, which in and of itself hurts its ability to serve as a board wipe.
@cadstar369, I'd say 8-9 cmc would not be a bad change considering the fact that creatures are harder to counter, and the fact that large creatures can be made easier to cast by smaller creatures.
@FireOfGolden With our other two one sided board wipe on a big body examples, they're both very much tribal board wipes. I think Cannoniant, which already has a tribal ability, could just switch to a tribal board wipe rather than targeting an opponent specifically. This would probably be a much more easy card to swallow. It would still probably need a cost increase, power reduction, some sort of draw back, or the like, and still needs it to only trigger when cast, not if it's flickered or reanimated or something, but since it's already tribal, it certainly could go that direction. I also did a quick check, and the cheapest 6/6 with vigilance ever printed was 5 mana to cast. I remember when it came out and there was a lot of backlash over how under-costed it was. There's a lot more options at 6 and 7 mana, and even some at 8. The average card that says "destroy all creatures" is about 5 mana, though there are some at 4 and plenty at 6-9. You can use that information to help guide what a card you design should cost. If it's a 6 mana creature paired with a 5 mana ability, start at 11 mana and then make decisions about how to bring it down from there if you feel that's too much (which it probably is). But I thought I'd give some data to help explain why everyone seems to be thinking it's way too cheap.
@FireOfGolden I really dig the Stickman sets. I ended up going in and liking a couple with one of my accounts. I love it when other cardsmiths make sets that tell a story. I just want you to know that from the war to one man, it's some pretty good stuff. Bonus points since you are making your art. Awesome work.
@Tonysparks what on earth do you mean by “creatures are harder to counter”? Creatures are literally the easiest card type to counter or otherwise deal with for all colors, not to mention the existence of Torpor Orb and similar effects.
@StuffnSuch that method seems to fall apart fairly quickly. To provide some examples, Unesh, Cryosphinx Sovereign would have a “generous” baseline of 12+ mana (4+ for a blue 4/4 flier, ~3+ for the cost reduction, 4+ for the Fact or Fiction ETB, plus more to cover it being an anthem), Sporemound probably shouldn’t cost the same as Zendikar’s Roil, and what about Sanguine Bond costing more than Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose while having fewer effects? Instead, perhaps one is better off comparing creatures and noncreature spells with similar effects to get a general sense of how much adding a body should add/subtract from the cost. This should also help create a general sense of how powerful certain effects are via the types and sizes of creatures they’re put on.
With regards to Cemetery Caretaker, this is a really problematic effect. A card exiling itself upon resolution is the biggest drawback we have in Magic, and this negates that. Additionally, when combined with Solemnity or a similar effect, it equates exile to “slightly better destroy,” allows spells with flashback, escape, unearth, encore, etc. to be cast any number of times from graveyards, reduces all spells with delve to their colored mana for free so long as you have the requisite number of cards in your graveyard, and so on. Even if it only replaced cards being exiled from graveyards (that seems to be the flavor here), which avoids a large chunk of the aforementioned problems, it would still be insanely powerful for the interactions with escape, delve, Immortal Coil, Lich’s Mastery, Nefarious Lich, etc.
I’d appreciate feedback on Pillmaker Nigredo from my prior post, since he got skipped over during the feedback on Kokunen and Cannoniant.
@cadstar369 by counter I meant in the blue sense of the word. Not in the removal sense in which the aforementioned goal of board wiping would have been accomplished. I mean you can use cards like rhythm of the wilds and simar effects to make it unstoppable in a multi-color and or chromatic deck. You also have less concern, even in a mono-white deck when dealing with blue decks since most cheap counters target non-creature spells, making this a potential combo breaker.
As for Topor Orb, I would assume one would be an astute enough magic player, to not cast this if the ability is not going to trigger, unless as a chump blocker. Additionally like I said, this can be made a cast trigger making it bypass Topor Orb e.t.c. Your points are strong but there is no way around the cost increase imo. It should be a 1 or 2 cmc increase, but nothing outlandish.
@cadstar369 I think I'd be wise to add a clause that says "-1/-1 counters cannot be removed from Cemetery Caretaker" to eliminate a few combos, but I think saying "It's broken with Solemnity" just means it's a pretty normal Magic card. There are hundreds of cards that are broken with Solemnity and in worse ways than being able to flashback a spell several times. I'd also be willing to make it not trigger when a spell exiles itself as part of its own effect, but the wording on that one seems complicated, so I don't really want to think about it now.
As far as your awesome spellshaper, first off, the world needs more spellshapers, that's a great design space that gets neglected too often. I really like the effect, though I was a little unsure at first about it leaving your creature unable to untap on your next turn as well as your opponent's, but I realized it could be really easily built around and it seems a fair and reasonable drawback. I could absolutely see someone building a commander deck with a bunch of lure effects and a handful of big beaters and just have a blast with this guy as their commander.
@StuffnSuch fair point about Solemnity being a generally silly card. Adding the clause you suggested might cause some weird interactions with +1/+1 counters, since they normally annihilate with -1/-1 counters (you’d probably end up with lots of extraneous counters; not entirely sure). Perhaps you could use something along the lines of “If a spell or ability would exile one or more cards from a graveyard, put a -1/-1 counter on Cemetery Caretaker instead.” This way it avoids interacting with exiling for costs and spells that exile on resolution while still protecting your graveyard (restricting to the graveyard also prevents other weirdness like hosing suspend and impulse draw). I don’t think this version would protect you from effects like Rest In Peace’s static ability though if you’re concerned about that.
@cadstar369 I, honestly, have no specific role for my caretaker to play. I think it would be absolutely funny to turn off imprint and suspend and impulse draw while also enabling extra flashbacks and such. I also think it could be a great enabler for some whacky combos. I also think it could be a sideboard card to answer things like Rest in Peace. I wonder if we could make it work by just having a permanent p/t reduction? Regardless, the goal is for it to just turn off the next 5 exiles, and then die, but there are soooo many enablers for abuse that I'm sure no matter how I word it, there will be a way to break it. Sometimes Magic just needs a cool tool added to the toolbox for extremely complex, but totally busted ways to break the regular game rules, right?
@StuffnSuch if the goal was to hose exiling cards then can't you say put it at the bottom of the owner's library rather than graveyard, it's much harder to excess there than graveyard. Though I understand it doesn't fit with flavour of a gravekeeper anymore. Blanket all exile card going to the graveyard affects too many mechanics that is not in flavour of a gravekeeper mechanics like foretell, rebound, cipher, adventure to name a few it's more of a dimensional gatekeeper at that point.
This is going to be the Elesh Norn card for my final set I'll be making, being renamed to Rise of the Phyrexians. I know she is different from the standard design for the Praetors, but I want her to be unique. Also, Virulent is going to be my replacement for Infect (infect will still be present but not to the degree it was in New Phyrexia) and was used on my previous Sheoldred, Interplanar Horror card I made.
(also it looks like people have already commented upon the previous card posted so I'll not say anything unless it is necessary)
Lets air out a few dogs before I adress your card as a whole. One, I am not a big fan of reusing mtg art unless I have to so excuse me if I critisize the card a little harshly because of it. It does not reflect on your ability as a cardsmith, just on mine as an individual. Secondly, while I don't hold it harshly on you, whenever people reuse mtg art, the least I expect is for them to atleast be able to credit the artist (Magali Villeneuve - In this case). Third, but not important that much, try to post an image of the card to make reviewing easier. Now that we aired some laundry, lets dive into it.
Now, you may need a second opinion from another cardsmith because when it comes to phrexians, I hold a high bar. This card is of my favorite praetor so here we go. Body wise I would say that 4/5 for three falls in line with what I generally expect from Elesh. Elesh tends to be a bit more expensive, but in this case, the body works with the art and I assume they just used the planar portal so they would be a bit weak. When putting in the keywords you don't really need the comma, but again it's a mistake I made when I was starting out as a cardsmith as evident in my older cards in my account. I would say despite my presumption that virulent is linked to the virus counter mechanic, you should define how virulent puts the virus counter on said "creatures" the second ability targets. Does it do an enter the battlefield trigger, does it put on combat, or does it put on casting or death. Defining abilities in the comment section of the card if not the card definetely goes a long way in understanding the card. Additionally, while I would say I don't have a major problem with the second ability, it falls in line more with what sheoldred would be doing as a pose to Elesh. Elesh tends to focus on destroying opposition and shattering wills as a pose to resurrecting and corrupting. Here is a rough guide for all praetors from my perspective: (Gitaxias = Innovate & assimilate , Norn = Quell and subdue, Sheoldred = Corrupt and decay, Vorinclex = Consume and deny, Urabrask = Assault & overwhelm). Overall, I woun't lie I dont like the card, but as long as you like the card, that's all that matters. Atleast you didn't potentially spoil the actual card JaceBaby before release date . Happy cardsmithing mate.
I wanna break my entries into two since they are a full party set, so I will start this Sunday and make two more entries Monday. I will put both the base card and it's alt art next to each other.
@TheGamingBolasChannel the point of this thread is to give feedback on the previous card(s) before requesting feedback on one's own card(s), no? I don't see how someone else giving feedback on the same card(s) has anything to do with you and your desire for feedback. That said, my thoughts on Elesh Norn, Mother Machine are very similar to Tonysparks's, so this should be quick:
It's frustrating to have no references on hand for Virulent. Sheoldred, Interplanar Horror you mention is neither on the same account nor explains Virulent, so someone has to skim through up to ~1300 cards just to find what seems to be the one card that explains the mechanic (Julius, Death Spreader).
Elesh Norn, Mother Machine and Sheoldred, Interplanar Horror feel like they should just trade names and colors. Sheoldred, Interplanar Horror is basically Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite predicated on virus counters with creature recursion sprinkled on top, while Elesh Norn, Mother Machine's resurrection theft is very much a black ability instead of white (consider similar existing cards, particularly Necroskitter).
The type change from Archer to Artificer between the two versions has some pretty significant ramifications with regards to available synergies, especially outside of a party-based deck.
Paying RRR for 3 damage is a lot, especially for a legendary creature. Consider cards like Rockslide Sorcerer (which got buffed to cost 1 less on Arena), Smoldering Egg, and Mana Cannons. While 3 damage to any target is certainly substantial enough to warrant a cost, you could probably get away with making the trigger cost 1RR or even RR.
Jacar, the Bronze Arm / Jacar, the Helmbreaker
Feels like a weaker version of Kogla. It only destroys equipments aside from the ETB (and only if you pay for it), and also can't protect itself.
Paying 2G for trample feels pretty weak, especially for a mythic rare green legend, and crumple is very niche for requiring GGG. Considering you'll almost certainly have trample enablers lying around, you could probably afford to reduce the trigger cost to 1G, granting crumple on GG.
Crumple doesn't specify which equipped equipment you get to destroy. Do I correctly assume it's allowed to destroy only equipment equipped to creatures blocking the creature with crumple?
I'd appreciate feedback on these cards:
(Nigredo's back 'cause I want at least a couple more opinions on it.)
Thank you for the feedback. Innitially I did have Driz's cost to {2}{R} but ended up having it all {R} since I figured red mana is not really that hard to find. I probably will change it once I upgrade the account (or not because I keep sayign that). Overall, I don't think the type change affects Driz, since the only archer card that syrenegizes with archer Driz is Greatbow Doyen other than that, I see no tribal syrenergies in artificers or archers.
As for Jacar, I do agree that the cost should probably be a {1}{G} with {G}{G} but Initially I had the trample be static, but I wanted to include the crumple ability as a conditional trigger from the type of mana you use so I altered it. I agree with Jacar not being as protected as Kogla, but I don't think it's weak. It has an etb trigger that allows you to deal with threats immediately unlike Kogla and in addition to being a repetable version of Koglas trigger if you can attach a double strike equipment, which should be easy due to it's creature type (warrior). You can use cards like resolute strike to do so effortlessly. You can also attach various other equipment to increase its efficency such as ancestral katana and obsidian axe (which also adds flavor points). Additionally back to the creature types, "warrior" and "dragon" both have high tribal syrenergy compared to "ape" which until recently in Dom united had little to none. Overall, I think it is a decent card sace for the costing of it gaining trample/crumple.
To address your question about crumple, yes it only affects the equipment of the blocking creature/s. I wish I could specify that but the mechanic was getting a bit wordy.
- Feedback
(Arrans, Cryptic Archivist)
Overall the card in general has a solid body for a 6cmc blue sphinx so body wise the card is solid. The ward feels sphinxy but im torn about weather it's adds to the protection value or if it makes the power unbalanced a bit but asthetically it fits. Now where I have a slight concern is the static ability, I have no problem with everything that the ability does since blue can do grave triggers, I just have a problem with the way it says "Spell" instead of an instant or sorcery which feels slightly op for a solid blue. I'm aware that blue does free casts, but they either tend to be cheap free casts for instants and sorcs, or they are enchantments that progressively walk you there or sell it to you for a large price Ie: As Foretold & Omniscience. I would change the ability to be an instant or sorcery trigger like Kefnet God Eternal, a card that is a leg or two below this with a similar effect.
(Pill Maker Nigerdo)
Body wise I will forgive the low power since alchemists which is what I assume Nigerdo is, have frail bodies like wizards (Nigerdo's Orc physic grants the extra 3 - 4 toughness) so we can let that slide. That being said, while I acknowledge the unique type of Spellshaper, I would make it a Shaman or Wizard since those classes both have tribal syrenergy and are alligned conventionally with what alchemists are. I also feel as if spell shaper should be a name reserved for izzety, simic, temur or glint casters since blue and red embody the chaotic shaping and destorting of magic with the green being the nature and stuff. I don't mind the regenerate ability and its cost, but I will echo what was said before about the second ability feeling more Bant. I would change the cost to Bant instead of Sultai but not change the overall and make this have a witchmaw commander instead. The casting cost can be sultai, but the second trigger cost should be bant, otherwise the commander just feels like a jumbled word pie color twister. If you did that the trigger would be similar while allowing you to maintain the discard ability of black through cost. ( discard a card = black (in some cases blue or white), Tap target creature = (blue/white), remove those = creatures from combat plus prevent damage = (green), and they don't untap = (blue).)
- The second part to my dragon born party set
(links embeded in cards yet again)
I know one of the critisisms will be about the change from snow mana, I had to do it because it was really difficult to find similar art to the original that involved ice powers. Most blue dragonborns have lightning powers which really didn't roll with the snow mana or colorless cost. I also figured that colorless mana is easier to attain than snow mana if you don't wanna run snow lands.
Firstly, there appear to be a number of misunderstandings at play here; allow me to elaborate: Jacar, the Bronze Arm / Jacar, the Helmbreaker
Calling Jacar a weaker Kogla does not imply that I find Jacar weak. I do think Jacar is relatively weak overall though and will explain that as well.
Kogla removes a creature on ETB, while Jacar only removes an artifact, with the additional restriction on the mana value of what Jacar can remove.
Further, if we assume each one gets to attack, Kogla can remove any artifact or enchantment, while Jacar can only remove Equipment, and only if you pay GGG when he attacks, and even then only from creatures that block Jacar and take sufficient excess damage.
Additionally, Kogla can both protect himself and setup additional ETB triggers from Humans you control. In comparison, Jacar functions only as a beatstick with some very niche removal attached to it that requires jumping through too many hoops to be worthwhile.
With respect to tribal synergies, Kogla cares about Humans rather than Apes, and there's plenty of Human ETBs that one might want to repeat even if the indestructible is unnecessary. On the other hand, the only thing Jacar brings to Dragons is a slowly growing threat, and it's an awkward fit at best for Warriors since their support tends to fit in Boros colors, with a few extra pieces when extended to Mardu.
In conclusion, for being a 6-mana (with triple colored pips!) mythic rare legend with a very niche set of abilities, Jacar is pretty weak.
A number of sphinxes allow the player to cheat out things other than instants or sorceries, including Yenett, Master of Predicaments, and Arbiter of the Ideal, so there's general tribal precedent as well.
Pillmaker Nigredo
Spellshaper is not a unique creature type (see these cards). Spellshapers collectively have the ability to turn one or more cards in your hand into an existing spell or similar effect via their activated abilities (e.g. Bog Witch casts Dark Ritual).
I struggle to understand your justification for the ability costing GWU. The discard is part of how Spellshapers work. The ability represents an effect similar to Spore Cloud. If one were to break down the components however, it could be justified easily as a mono-blue cost. Mass tapping of creatures is well established in blue, particularly when it involves not allowing them to untap during their controllers' next untap step (e.g. Sleep), whereas white tends to only tap the creature with no further ramifications (e.g. Bond of Discipline). Green also has some older cards with similar effects, such as the Kashi-Tribe creatures. Removal from combat is also in blue (e.g. Illusionist's Gambit and Stunning Strike), whereas white's form of these effects is more focused only on saving your own creatures from unfavorable positions (e.g. the Gustcloaks and Reconnaissance). Therefore the cost could easily be mono-blue or blue-green; the black is mostly for overall symmetry of the ability costs.
Regardless of the above, adding a fourth color to Nigredo in the way you two suggest seems excessively arbitrary in terms of overall card design. I'd think it would make more sense to argue toward replacing one of the existing colors (of which black would be the simplest to replace).
(Posting in two pieces because the total text is too long.)
As for the new party members: Tera, the Gold Finger / Tera, the Golden Blade
While the body is a touch underwhelming for the cost, the static life gain buff is very strong (considering Wizards doesn't seem willing to print more than a +1 to all life gain outside of reprinting a few old cards).
The amount of lifegain Tera provides gets out of hand very quickly. With just two effects like Soul Warden or Authority of the Consuls, your opponent suddenly has to overcome you gaining 6 life for each creature they put down. The +2 effectively tripling the average repeated lifegain effect is probably why Wizards won't print something like this anytime soon, if ever.
Due to the static ability's power, it almost seems like building around utilizing the triggered ability will hurt the player overall. While the protection and lifegain is perhaps nice in a generic equipment deck, it both only works on your turn and also requires the player to pay upfront, as opposed to something like Akiri, Fearless Voyager who can protect your equipped creatures at instant speed. Of course, there aren't particularly many effects like this, so Tera would certainly be a welcome addition if one needs to ensure safe attacks in an equipment deck. It's just that this ability will likely be completely overshadowed by the power of +2 lifegain.
Trabor, the Silver Ice / Trabor, the Silver Adept
Is there a particular reason Trabor does not require combat damage to trigger? I'm asking because it allows for shenanigans such as equipping Trabor with Viridian Longbow or Blazing Sunsteel.
Snow mana is not particularly hard to come by, since mana generated by any snow source is snow mana, not just snow lands. Regardless, Trabor, the Silver Adept simply doesn't function since you can't use CC to pay for the UU trigger cost.
I assume Trabor's last ability is meant to be worded like these cards, since otherwise there's no way to prove that Trabor was in your opening hand. Regardless, a UU 2/4 hexproof flier that provides loads of card advantage is ridiculously strong; almost certainly worth several aggressive mulligans just to start with it. Perhaps instead you could have Trabor do something minor during the opening turn, similar to the aforementioned cards.
@cadstar369 Valuable feedback as always. My reasoning for using {c}{c} in the alt version of Trabor instead of generic is because of how easily accessible generic mana is, the idea is for an opponent to use effects like Chromatic orrery's to cheat colorless mana in Trabor's alt trigger and balance the card a little bit. The damage instead of combat damage was intentional to encourage serenergies with other colors since blue doesn't have alot of direct damage and is relatively easy to block. Otherwise belive it or not, a 2/4 for five with flying and hexproof with a combat damage trigger kind of makes for a weak legendary.
Alternate form that relies completely on a single card to reach its full potential aside, I think Trabor definitely falls somewhere in the range of 'somewhat pushed' to 'broken', especially for control decks. Your summary appears to be a touch too reductive. The card advantage Trabor provides is the most important part of the card.
Note that blue is the color of unblockable, with a variety of Auras and Equipment available for 1~2 mana, thus combat damage is not difficult to ensure (Trabor also has flying, which makes it difficult to block in the first place). Consider Iymrith, Desert Doom relative to Trabor. For the exact same mana cost, Trabor is harder to remove and has the potential to come out much quicker, hence the stat reduction. Trabor also allows you to look at more cards per trigger, and can consistently draw more cards in a generic deck, but costs two mana each time, which further justifies the smaller body and perhaps justifies it being at Rare. The sheer amount of card selection and card advantage Trabor provides vastly outweighs how much damage it deals, especially when you're not in a rush to end the game. While we do have cards such as Arcanis the Omnipotent and Mercurial Chemister that don't have to attack to provide card advantage, those cards don't protect themselves as well as Trabor. Therefore I find Trabor makes for a potent control piece, with the cost reduction ability as icing pushing him toward, if not into, broken territory.
You made many compelling points. I must say that Trabor, Silver Adept doesnt rely on only a single card to get it's trigger, the more accurate term would be it relies on only two cards (which doesn't sound any better). Otherwise you are completely right it's not very easy to trigger
PS: Forgotten creatures has At beginning of your end step, put a -1/-1 counter on this Forgotten creature unless you discarded a or more cards this turn.
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@FireOfGolden 7 mana is still pretty cheap for a one sided board wipe, especially since it comes on a big 6/6 body. You could have a 6/6 that gives vigilance to your creatures for 7 and it would feel a little expensive, but not outrageous. Adding a destroy all your opponent's creatures effect really takes it to broken territory, especially because you can reanimate it for far less than the 7 mana it normal costs. I'd consider making it have a 4 or 5 mana kicker cost that destroys opponents creatures, or at least make it destroy all creatures except itself.
Also, do you mean "Figures you control have vigilance" and "Soldiers you control have vigilance" or do you really mean that only creatures that have both types are affected?
Here's a card I'd like some feedback on. It was from an idea I got from one of my MTG after school club students.
Edit: Actually this card in general might need a heavier kicker cost considering the fact that it is a targeted board wipe meaning it doesn't have heavy implications on you upon casting and can actually make it a game finisher potentially. Another thing is, if you make the kicker too light or not have a kicker at all, people can actually cheat this from their library and essentially cripple their opponents mid-game for little to no value.
All in all I would suggest some increase in
I also did a quick check, and the cheapest 6/6 with vigilance ever printed was 5 mana to cast. I remember when it came out and there was a lot of backlash over how under-costed it was. There's a lot more options at 6 and 7 mana, and even some at 8. The average card that says "destroy all creatures" is about 5 mana, though there are some at 4 and plenty at 6-9. You can use that information to help guide what a card you design should cost. If it's a 6 mana creature paired with a 5 mana ability, start at 11 mana and then make decisions about how to bring it down from there if you feel that's too much (which it probably is). But I thought I'd give some data to help explain why everyone seems to be thinking it's way too cheap.
@StuffnSuch that method seems to fall apart fairly quickly. To provide some examples, Unesh, Cryosphinx Sovereign would have a “generous” baseline of 12+ mana (4+ for a blue 4/4 flier, ~3+ for the cost reduction, 4+ for the Fact or Fiction ETB, plus more to cover it being an anthem), Sporemound probably shouldn’t cost the same as Zendikar’s Roil, and what about Sanguine Bond costing more than Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose while having fewer effects? Instead, perhaps one is better off comparing creatures and noncreature spells with similar effects to get a general sense of how much adding a body should add/subtract from the cost. This should also help create a general sense of how powerful certain effects are via the types and sizes of creatures they’re put on.
With regards to Cemetery Caretaker, this is a really problematic effect. A card exiling itself upon resolution is the biggest drawback we have in Magic, and this negates that. Additionally, when combined with Solemnity or a similar effect, it equates exile to “slightly better destroy,” allows spells with flashback, escape, unearth, encore, etc. to be cast any number of times from graveyards, reduces all spells with delve to their colored mana for free so long as you have the requisite number of cards in your graveyard, and so on. Even if it only replaced cards being exiled from graveyards (that seems to be the flavor here), which avoids a large chunk of the aforementioned problems, it would still be insanely powerful for the interactions with escape, delve, Immortal Coil, Lich’s Mastery, Nefarious Lich, etc.
I’d appreciate feedback on Pillmaker Nigredo from my prior post, since he got skipped over during the feedback on Kokunen and Cannoniant.
As for Topor Orb, I would assume one would be an astute enough magic player, to not cast this if the ability is not going to trigger, unless as a chump blocker. Additionally like I said, this can be made a cast trigger making it bypass Topor Orb e.t.c. Your points are strong but there is no way around the cost increase imo. It should be a 1 or 2 cmc increase, but nothing outlandish.
As far as your awesome spellshaper, first off, the world needs more spellshapers, that's a great design space that gets neglected too often. I really like the effect, though I was a little unsure at first about it leaving your creature unable to untap on your next turn as well as your opponent's, but I realized it could be really easily built around and it seems a fair and reasonable drawback. I could absolutely see someone building a commander deck with a bunch of lure effects and a handful of big beaters and just have a blast with this guy as their commander.
This is going to be the Elesh Norn card for my final set I'll be making, being renamed to Rise of the Phyrexians. I know she is different from the standard design for the Praetors, but I want her to be unique. Also, Virulent is going to be my replacement for Infect (infect will still be present but not to the degree it was in New Phyrexia) and was used on my previous Sheoldred, Interplanar Horror card I made.
(also it looks like people have already commented upon the previous card posted so I'll not say anything unless it is necessary)
Lets air out a few dogs before I adress your card as a whole. One, I am not a big fan of reusing mtg art unless I have to so excuse me if I critisize the card a little harshly because of it. It does not reflect on your ability as a cardsmith, just on mine as an individual. Secondly, while I don't hold it harshly on you, whenever people reuse mtg art, the least I expect is for them to atleast be able to credit the artist (Magali Villeneuve - In this case). Third, but not important that much, try to post an image of the card to make reviewing easier. Now that we aired some laundry, lets dive into it.
Now, you may need a second opinion from another cardsmith because when it comes to phrexians, I hold a high bar. This card is of my favorite praetor so here we go. Body wise I would say that 4/5 for three falls in line with what I generally expect from Elesh. Elesh tends to be a bit more expensive, but in this case, the body works with the art and I assume they just used the planar portal so they would be a bit weak. When putting in the keywords you don't really need the comma, but again it's a mistake I made when I was starting out as a cardsmith as evident in my older cards in my account. I would say despite my presumption that virulent is linked to the virus counter mechanic, you should define how virulent puts the virus counter on said "creatures" the second ability targets. Does it do an enter the battlefield trigger, does it put on combat, or does it put on casting or death. Defining abilities in the comment section of the card if not the card definetely goes a long way in understanding the card. Additionally, while I would say I don't have a major problem with the second ability, it falls in line more with what sheoldred would be doing as a pose to Elesh. Elesh tends to focus on destroying opposition and shattering wills as a pose to resurrecting and corrupting. Here is a rough guide for all praetors from my perspective: (Gitaxias = Innovate & assimilate , Norn = Quell and subdue, Sheoldred = Corrupt and decay, Vorinclex = Consume and deny, Urabrask = Assault & overwhelm). Overall, I woun't lie I dont like the card, but as long as you like the card, that's all that matters. Atleast you didn't potentially spoil the actual card JaceBaby before release date
I wanna break my entries into two since they are a full party set, so I will start this Sunday and make two more entries Monday. I will put both the base card and it's alt art next to each other.
(Link's embeded in cards)
@Tonysparks
Driz, the Copper Flame / Driz, the Copper Cannon
- The type change from Archer to Artificer between the two versions has some pretty significant ramifications with regards to available synergies, especially outside of a party-based deck.
- Paying RRR for 3 damage is a lot, especially for a legendary creature. Consider cards like Rockslide Sorcerer (which got buffed to cost 1 less on Arena), Smoldering Egg, and Mana Cannons. While 3 damage to any target is certainly substantial enough to warrant a cost, you could probably get away with making the trigger cost 1RR or even RR.
Jacar, the Bronze Arm / Jacar, the Helmbreaker- Feels like a weaker version of Kogla. It only destroys equipments aside from the ETB (and only if you pay for it), and also can't protect itself.
- Paying 2G for trample feels pretty weak, especially for a mythic rare green legend, and crumple is very niche for requiring GGG. Considering you'll almost certainly have trample enablers lying around, you could probably afford to reduce the trigger cost to 1G, granting crumple on GG.
- Crumple doesn't specify which equipped equipment you get to destroy. Do I correctly assume it's allowed to destroy only equipment equipped to creatures blocking the creature with crumple?
I'd appreciate feedback on these cards:(Nigredo's back 'cause I want at least a couple more opinions on it.)
Thank you for the feedback. Innitially I did have Driz's cost to {2}{R} but ended up having it all {R} since I figured red mana is not really that hard to find. I probably will change it once I upgrade the account (or not because I keep sayign that). Overall, I don't think the type change affects Driz, since the only archer card that syrenegizes with archer Driz is Greatbow Doyen other than that, I see no tribal syrenergies in artificers or archers.
As for Jacar, I do agree that the cost should probably be a {1}{G} with {G}{G} but Initially I had the trample be static, but I wanted to include the crumple ability as a conditional trigger from the type of mana you use so I altered it. I agree with Jacar not being as protected as Kogla, but I don't think it's weak. It has an etb trigger that allows you to deal with threats immediately unlike Kogla and in addition to being a repetable version of Koglas trigger if you can attach a double strike equipment, which should be easy due to it's creature type (warrior). You can use cards like resolute strike to do so effortlessly. You can also attach various other equipment to increase its efficency such as ancestral katana and obsidian axe (which also adds flavor points). Additionally back to the creature types, "warrior" and "dragon" both have high tribal syrenergy compared to "ape" which until recently in Dom united had little to none. Overall, I think it is a decent card sace for the costing of it gaining trample/crumple.
To address your question about crumple, yes it only affects the equipment of the blocking creature/s. I wish I could specify that but the mechanic was getting a bit wordy.
- Feedback
(Arrans, Cryptic Archivist)
Overall the card in general has a solid body for a 6cmc blue sphinx so body wise the card is solid. The ward feels sphinxy but im torn about weather it's adds to the protection value or if it makes the power unbalanced a bit but asthetically it fits. Now where I have a slight concern is the static ability, I have no problem with everything that the ability does since blue can do grave triggers, I just have a problem with the way it says "Spell" instead of an instant or sorcery which feels slightly op for a solid blue. I'm aware that blue does free casts, but they either tend to be cheap free casts for instants and sorcs, or they are enchantments that progressively walk you there or sell it to you for a large price Ie: As Foretold & Omniscience. I would change the ability to be an instant or sorcery trigger like Kefnet God Eternal, a card that is a leg or two below this with a similar effect.
(Pill Maker Nigerdo)
Body wise I will forgive the low power since alchemists which is what I assume Nigerdo is, have frail bodies like wizards (Nigerdo's Orc physic grants the extra 3 - 4 toughness) so we can let that slide. That being said, while I acknowledge the unique type of Spellshaper, I would make it a Shaman or Wizard since those classes both have tribal syrenergy and are alligned conventionally with what alchemists are. I also feel as if spell shaper should be a name reserved for izzety, simic, temur or glint casters since blue and red embody the chaotic shaping and destorting of magic with the green being the nature and stuff. I don't mind the regenerate ability and its cost, but I will echo what was said before about the second ability feeling more Bant. I would change the cost to Bant instead of Sultai but not change the overall and make this have a witchmaw commander instead. The casting cost can be sultai, but the second trigger cost should be bant, otherwise the commander just feels like a jumbled word pie color twister. If you did that the trigger would be similar while allowing you to maintain the discard ability of black through cost. ( discard a card = black (in some cases blue or white), Tap target creature = (blue/white), remove those = creatures from combat plus prevent damage = (green), and they don't untap = (blue).)
- The second part to my dragon born party set
(links embeded in cards yet again)
I know one of the critisisms will be about the change from snow mana, I had to do it because it was really difficult to find similar art to the original that involved ice powers. Most blue dragonborns have lightning powers which really didn't roll with the snow mana or colorless cost. I also figured that colorless mana is easier to attain than snow mana if you don't wanna run snow lands.
Firstly, there appear to be a number of misunderstandings at play here; allow me to elaborate:
Jacar, the Bronze Arm / Jacar, the Helmbreaker
- Calling Jacar a weaker Kogla does not imply that I find Jacar weak. I do think Jacar is relatively weak overall though and will explain that as well.
- Kogla removes a creature on ETB, while Jacar only removes an artifact, with the additional restriction on the mana value of what Jacar can remove.
- Further, if we assume each one gets to attack, Kogla can remove any artifact or enchantment, while Jacar can only remove Equipment, and only if you pay GGG when he attacks, and even then only from creatures that block Jacar and take sufficient excess damage.
- Additionally, Kogla can both protect himself and setup additional ETB triggers from Humans you control. In comparison, Jacar functions only as a beatstick with some very niche removal attached to it that requires jumping through too many hoops to be worthwhile.
- With respect to tribal synergies, Kogla cares about Humans rather than Apes, and there's plenty of Human ETBs that one might want to repeat even if the indestructible is unnecessary. On the other hand, the only thing Jacar brings to Dragons is a slowly growing threat, and it's an awkward fit at best for Warriors since their support tends to fit in Boros colors, with a few extra pieces when extended to Mardu.
- In conclusion, for being a 6-mana (with triple colored pips!) mythic rare legend with a very niche set of abilities, Jacar is pretty weak.
Arrans, Cryptic Archivist- Referencing effects As Foretold seems to be reasonable justification for Arrans' ability, since both require an escalating amount of effort for an escalating reward. Without too much digging, one might also consider cards such as Djinn of Wishes, Jacob Hauken, Inspector // Hauken's Insight, and Urza, Lord High Artificer.
- A number of sphinxes allow the player to cheat out things other than instants or sorceries, including Yenett, Master of Predicaments, and Arbiter of the Ideal, so there's general tribal precedent as well.
Pillmaker Nigredo- Spellshaper is not a unique creature type (see these cards). Spellshapers collectively have the ability to turn one or more cards in your hand into an existing spell or similar effect via their activated abilities (e.g. Bog Witch casts Dark Ritual).
- I struggle to understand your justification for the ability costing GWU. The discard is part of how Spellshapers work. The ability represents an effect similar to Spore Cloud. If one were to break down the components however, it could be justified easily as a mono-blue cost. Mass tapping of creatures is well established in blue, particularly when it involves not allowing them to untap during their controllers' next untap step (e.g. Sleep), whereas white tends to only tap the creature with no further ramifications (e.g. Bond of Discipline). Green also has some older cards with similar effects, such as the Kashi-Tribe creatures. Removal from combat is also in blue (e.g. Illusionist's Gambit and Stunning Strike), whereas white's form of these effects is more focused only on saving your own creatures from unfavorable positions (e.g. the Gustcloaks and Reconnaissance). Therefore the cost could easily be mono-blue or blue-green; the black is mostly for overall symmetry of the ability costs.
- Regardless of the above, adding a fourth color to Nigredo in the way you two suggest seems excessively arbitrary in terms of overall card design. I'd think it would make more sense to argue toward replacing one of the existing colors (of which black would be the simplest to replace).
(Posting in two pieces because the total text is too long.)Tera, the Gold Finger / Tera, the Golden Blade
- While the body is a touch underwhelming for the cost, the static life gain buff is very strong (considering Wizards doesn't seem willing to print more than a +1 to all life gain outside of reprinting a few old cards).
- The amount of lifegain Tera provides gets out of hand very quickly. With just two effects like Soul Warden or Authority of the Consuls, your opponent suddenly has to overcome you gaining 6 life for each creature they put down. The +2 effectively tripling the average repeated lifegain effect is probably why Wizards won't print something like this anytime soon, if ever.
- Due to the static ability's power, it almost seems like building around utilizing the triggered ability will hurt the player overall. While the protection and lifegain is perhaps nice in a generic equipment deck, it both only works on your turn and also requires the player to pay upfront, as opposed to something like Akiri, Fearless Voyager who can protect your equipped creatures at instant speed. Of course, there aren't particularly many effects like this, so Tera would certainly be a welcome addition if one needs to ensure safe attacks in an equipment deck. It's just that this ability will likely be completely overshadowed by the power of +2 lifegain.
Trabor, the Silver Ice / Trabor, the Silver AdeptI'd appreciate additional feedback on these two:
Valuable feedback as always. My reasoning for using {c}{c} in the alt version of Trabor instead of generic is because of how easily accessible generic mana is, the idea is for an opponent to use effects like Chromatic orrery's to cheat colorless mana in Trabor's alt trigger and balance the card a little bit. The damage instead of combat damage was intentional to encourage serenergies with other colors since blue doesn't have alot of direct damage and is relatively easy to block. Otherwise belive it or not, a 2/4 for five with flying and hexproof with a combat damage trigger kind of makes for a weak legendary.
Alternate form that relies completely on a single card to reach its full potential aside, I think Trabor definitely falls somewhere in the range of 'somewhat pushed' to 'broken', especially for control decks. Your summary appears to be a touch too reductive. The card advantage Trabor provides is the most important part of the card.
Note that blue is the color of unblockable, with a variety of Auras and Equipment available for 1~2 mana, thus combat damage is not difficult to ensure (Trabor also has flying, which makes it difficult to block in the first place). Consider Iymrith, Desert Doom relative to Trabor. For the exact same mana cost, Trabor is harder to remove and has the potential to come out much quicker, hence the stat reduction. Trabor also allows you to look at more cards per trigger, and can consistently draw more cards in a generic deck, but costs two mana each time, which further justifies the smaller body and perhaps justifies it being at Rare. The sheer amount of card selection and card advantage Trabor provides vastly outweighs how much damage it deals, especially when you're not in a rush to end the game. While we do have cards such as Arcanis the Omnipotent and Mercurial Chemister that don't have to attack to provide card advantage, those cards don't protect themselves as well as Trabor. Therefore I find Trabor makes for a potent control piece, with the cost reduction ability as icing pushing him toward, if not into, broken territory.
You made many compelling points. I must say that Trabor, Silver Adept doesnt rely on only a single card to get it's trigger, the more accurate term would be it relies on only two cards (which doesn't sound any better). Otherwise you are completely right it's not very easy to trigger
- Myxosynth Latice
I just felt that my condolences were not enough to honour HRM Queen Elizabeth II who passed away today.
Ngl, its nice card, but it must be rare though
I need a feedback to see if it works well, if a commander is only completely black
Perished Soul by FireOfGolden | MTG Cardsmith