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Designer's Gauntlet [Week 4] - Arting is Such Sweet Sorrow
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This is designed as a portion of a cycle for a commander release set, with a connecting concept between them all. Can you guess what that thread is?
https://mtgcardsmith.com/view/korto-the-cursehunter
https://mtgcardsmith.com/view/curse-of-stars-karma
https://mtgcardsmith.com/view/bounty-bagger
https://mtgcardsmith.com/view/defying-odds
My four submissions for this contest, designed for a commander precon.
@KorandAngels The '3-color rule' is to broaden your design range. For clarity, the Commander option isn't specifically limited to your cards being in the same deck, you can do cards from what would be different precons - the idea is that we have a better idea of the power level you're going for. Does that make sense?
My Samurai Tribal Commander Precon... Also, who says Goblins can't be samurai too?
These are all standard-limited focused designs. I tried to hone in on Theros Beyond Death for the most part.
*Note: Some of the cards, especially Memory Vortex, are still being reworked. This post is likely to change a little bit. I'll still add their explanations though.
**Note: I used the new mill keyword to make my cards, not what was used in THB because that's how WotC is making those types of cards now.
Death Wielder: To start, the art looked to me like it was using some sort of death magic, so I created this. Death Wielder is meant to support three of the archetypes in Theros Beyond Death. It is meant to help push the BG escape archetype, BR sacrifice, and helps with the WB reanimator archetype too. I was initially conflicted with this being a common or an uncommon, but I felt like its wordiness pushed it to be uncommon.
Blessed Resistance: This art looked like the two characters were fighting back against huge enemies, so I decided to create something related to devotion. This card serves two purposes. The first one is to help with the card disadvantage problem with auras (this card only helps white cards), especially because the play a huge role in Theros Beyond Death (it has a GW auras archetype). The second function pf this card is to help push the RW go-wide theme in Theros Beyond Death as well.
Divine Reclamation: This art looked to me like some sort of nature spell/call, so I instantly gravitated to a theme that had to do with enchantments and played into green. This card is also meant to help with three archetypes. It helps you fill your graveyard with escape cards for BG escape and help return enchantments to your hand for the GW auras archtype and GU enchantments.
Memory Vortex: This art reminded me of memories, so I decided to create a mill/self mill card! This is meant to be a huge enabler and payoff for mill/self-mill decks. This is like that bomb rare that makes the UB self mill archetype in THB become really awesome. This could also work in the Mill archetype for throne of eldraine too, but it was mainly made to help in THB.
I hope you like these! I'll also post exactly what I edit each time I edit something.
Edit: Changed the description for Memory Vortex a little bit and added another note.
Edit 2: Changed explanations a little bit.
Sorry
Everyone uses the same art here!
With this picture, two things stood out: 1) it was a vertical picture, which made it harder to fit on a normal frame, and 2) the name was Sleeping Giant, and when you look closer, you can actually see the eye of the Giant in the picture. Because of the color scheme and general sylvan imagery, I decided to go with a green card, and made it a Saga in part to optimize the use of the picture. I promise @LyndonF this was not intentional - I came up with this design some while ago (on the 6th to be specific). With that in mind, I decided to make the saga stick out by having a static ability that occurs for as long as it's on the battlefield - this lets you have an Oracle of Mul Daya effect for a few turns (something relished in commander) and then replaces it with the Giant in the picture, a fearsome elemental. The caring about differently named lands was just a minor touch that I thought would be nice.
Also, I did make an MTGC version - you can access it by clicking the picture - and the reason the saga looks a bit off is a) I barely use MSE (so, for example, I don't have everything with Beleren) and b) the only saga frame I could find was a I-II-III version, so the wonders of photoshop had to be used.
With this card, the list of abilities hopefully catch most of the picture: the haste comes from the goblin being on a horse, while the "deals 1 damage to target attacking creature" comes from the combination of flaming arrows & the minor thing that he appears to be at least partially running away. The goad ability isn't completely fit into the picture, but I figured it made sense because it does have a connection to goblins, WOTC seems to enjoy using it in precons, and it synergizes with the damage dealing. The name is a pun on how he both instigates fights and has flaming arrows, and although that's something I usually try to avoid, the card being a goblin justified it for me.
For the faerie, my main concern was how to make what suggested a primarily green creature into a card that could also have flying without severely bending the color pie. Looking at the picture more though, I realized adding in hexproof (due to her appearance of camouflage) and making it a Green/Blue card made perfect sense. Since I had already designed one card that would fit in a land matters precon and this one also had indications of caring about lands, that seemed a good place to go. I decided upon this enter trigger because I didn't want something too powerful, but still something that hasn't been done a lot and makes sense to the card.
For the final card, I knew I needed a card type other than creature or enchantment, and upon looking at all the possibilities, this one, as an instant or sorcery, made the most sense. My personal favorite thing about EDH is the prevalence of boardwipes that keep all players in check, and this is just one of those - you can either use it as a revenge tactic if someone kills a lot of your board, or in an aristocrats-style deck just sacrifice the creatures yourself and laugh as your opponents' boards go away.
Wow - this time I managed to get this in much earlier - good luck to everyone!