gather 'round cardsmiths and let me tell you the story of Soros the tar dragon mutant thing long ago, a necromancer and a dragon were doing battle above a swamp in the end, the necromancer was victorious, and the dead dragon's body fell into the tar below after some time, the necromantic energy that had killed him rebuilt the body of the dragon using the tar from the swamp and thus, Soros was created this strange turn of events also cause Soros's spark to ignite, although he did not know it at the time Sorors traveled around his homeplane, and almost always he was met with fear and hate for his monstrous form, even though his personality was pretty much that of a normal human. these reactions persisted for years, and thus Soros developed a bitter hatred for humans and humanlike species. While Soros was living his life, Nicol Bolas was looking for members for his Hornguard, and he had noticed Soros and was monitoring him. once, Soros was resting in a swamp, and Bolas appeared to him. Bolas told Soros that there were worlds beyond his own, and that Soros had the power to travel to them. Bolas offered Soros membership in Hornguard, telling him that he could get revenge for all the times he had been hated and shunned. Soros accepted.
fighting attributes/abilities: claws, teeth, very strong body Soros has several long tentacles extending from his body, and he uses them in combat to grasp and strangle enemies
Soros is about 50% larger than the average adult male human
Well, yes, the Oath cards should relate to planeswalkers.
Anyways, we have five members of the Hornguard now, so I'll wait one day if anyone else wants to join and then we will begin with the weekly challenges. I will also grant you points for your entry submissions and give some feedback if you want to.
[edit:] Because I'm using an existing character from MTG lore, I'll add his established backstory first:
Malfegor was a rare hybrid beast, a dragon with a demonic soul. He was on Grixis during the Alara block. Malfegor would kidnap fledgling planeswalkers, and torture them in the hopes that they would be forced to planeswalk to avoid death. Nicol Bolas contacted Malfegor and persuaded him to prepare an army to invade the other shards after the coming Conflux. He committed an almost total genocide of the sphinxes of Alara, but during his siege of Bant, Malfegor was (supposedly?) killed by the combined forces of Rafiq and Elspeth Tirel.
In my own retcon for the purposes of the Oath of the Hornguard, I'm saying that Malfegor's "experiments" on planeswalkers was driving him mad because he could never identify how to ignite his own spark. When he was killed by Rafiq and Elspeth Tirel, his mind literally shattered into madness before dying, and that insanity ignited his spark and whisked him away to freedom just before he actually died.
His reason for joining the Hornguard is simple: he is a minion. An incredibly powerful minion, but ultimately a minion nonetheless. Malfegor demands loyalty and respect from from anyone below him (which is everyone but Nicol Bolas), and in return, he swears loyalty to Bolas's supremacy. If Bolas demands something, Malfegor complies, and he expects nothing less from everyone else.
Rakdos is great. My favorite personal decks is a red-black dragon resurrection deck, and Malfegor is actually one of the good removal tools in the deck. Really powerful stuff.
yea, I think its fine. Its really versatile as well. I also like the sac ability helps with defending Soros. The ult takes a good time to charge as well.
Dear Hornguard. Here is the current leaderboard and a bit of feedback:
1. - 2. @TerryTags with Malfegor (16) Great idea to bring an existing character back as a planeswalker! The passive of your pw card is also quite original and it creates a fun dilema for your opponents about dealing damage to him. I'm not a fan of the backgroundless art, but at least its really Malfegor. The Oath is quite cool as well, I like the flavortext especially, however I'm a bit unsure about the first ability. 1. - 2. @WarriorCatInAhat with Soros (16) Soros is just a solid card, although the first ability might be a bit too pushed. I'm still not over the black frame, but I'll believe you that the gold one looks worse. I would also word the last ability differently: "Each creature you control gets +X/+0, where X is its power, and gains trample until end of turn." The Oath on the Other hand shines. It looks pretty, has the proper design and mechanics of an Oath card and is overal pretty neat. I also like your favortext. 3. @AboveAndAbout with Colossus (15) The idea of a sorcery planeswalker is confusing but pretty neat at the same time and I think that you've managed to make the card look and function really good. The effects are all quite original, so I like that. I am super confused about the Oath card though. It does not have the typical design of an Oath, and I think that making it an aura land just makes things too somplicated. The card probably works fine, but its unnecessarily complex in my oppinion. It could also do with a flavortext. 4. @Yonkers11 with Kogi (14) Again, just a pretty solid planeswalker card. Nothing too crazy going on, but quite functional. I don't think the card is particularly strong, but it looks fine. The Oath could do with a different art, I really don't like backgroundless art on Magic cards, but apart from that, it's a bit broken. Getting something back from the graveyard, pumping it and giving it haste for two mana is too powerful. I like the second ability, that one is just neat. And the flavortext confuses me. I get it, he's a dog, but only sapient life forms can become planeswalkers, so I am pretty sure he should be able to speak. 5. @pstmdrn with Nystax (13) To be fair, I quite like Nystax when I first saw him, but there's a lot of wording issues with both your cards. Design-wise the planeswalker is pretty solid, and the Oath is fine too, only thing is that it should say "nonland permanent". The flavortext is really cool. But you could have chosen a different art. 6. @Tonysparks (12) Again, nothing inherently wrong with Nefti's design, just a lot of wording issues. And I am extremely confused on what the emblem actually does. When reffering to a number of cards, it should be written out with a word, not by a number (so "Target player draws two cards, the loses 1 life and discards a card"). The Oath is fine, but might be very overpowered in the wrong deck.
Let's now move into the first week! I am really interested in what your characters have to show.
Week One: Origins This is the only week where you have three challanges so this is the time to shine. All of the challanges will deal with your characters' backstory. Please submit all of your cards at once and write some description/story with them (doesn't have to be long). Now, the challanges:
1) Create a card that showcases the moment when your planeswalker's spark ignited 2) Create a card that captures some important moment or character from your character's past (other than your spark ignition; the character can be a close one, a parent, enemy... really whatever, I'm just interested in some backstories!) 3) Create a legendary creature card of your planeswalker before they became a planeswalker.
@ThePhantomJoker the emblem skips the draw phase, then let's you draw 2 cards which gives a +2 and you lose 1 life in the process. But to keep it from spiraling out of control the emblems are considered a draw phase of their own.
@Tonysparks I am still confused, mainly by the original wording. From what I undestand, it should be more like:
Target player gets an emblem with "You have no maximum hand size. Instead of drawing a card on your draw step, draw two cards instead and you lose 1 life."
I'm not sure if that is the best wording, but it might be what you were looking for.
@WarriorCatInAhat I think generally Cardmith planeswalkers don't look that good, so it's not much of a difference anyways. It probably should be gold, but it's okay
I was using cardsmith bc I couldn't get the art to work in mtg.design, but it works now, so I'm gonna make a new card in mtg.design that looks better ill keep the cardsmith ones though
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gather 'round cardsmiths
and let me tell you the story of Soros the tar dragon mutant thing
long ago, a necromancer and a dragon were doing battle above a swamp
in the end, the necromancer was victorious, and the dead dragon's body fell into the tar below
after some time, the necromantic energy that had killed him rebuilt the body of the dragon using the tar from the swamp
and thus, Soros was created
this strange turn of events also cause Soros's spark to ignite, although he did not know it at the time
Sorors traveled around his homeplane, and almost always he was met with fear and hate for his monstrous form, even though his personality was pretty much that of a normal human.
these reactions persisted for years, and thus Soros developed a bitter hatred for humans and humanlike species.
While Soros was living his life, Nicol Bolas was looking for members for his Hornguard, and he had noticed Soros and was monitoring him.
once, Soros was resting in a swamp, and Bolas appeared to him. Bolas told Soros that there were worlds beyond his own, and that Soros had the power to travel to them. Bolas offered Soros membership in Hornguard, telling him that he could get revenge for all the times he had been hated and shunned. Soros accepted.
fighting attributes/abilities: claws, teeth, very strong body
Soros has several long tentacles extending from his body, and he uses them in combat to grasp and strangle enemies
Soros is about 50% larger than the average adult male human
Anyways, we have five members of the Hornguard now, so I'll wait one day if anyone else wants to join and then we will begin with the weekly challenges. I will also grant you points for your entry submissions and give some feedback if you want to.
and
[edit:]
Because I'm using an existing character from MTG lore, I'll add his established backstory first:
Malfegor was a rare hybrid beast, a dragon with a demonic soul. He was on Grixis during the Alara block. Malfegor would kidnap fledgling planeswalkers, and torture them in the hopes that they would be forced to planeswalk to avoid death. Nicol Bolas contacted Malfegor and persuaded him to prepare an army to invade the other shards after the coming Conflux. He committed an almost total genocide of the sphinxes of Alara, but during his siege of Bant, Malfegor was (supposedly?) killed by the combined forces of Rafiq and Elspeth Tirel.
In my own retcon for the purposes of the Oath of the Hornguard, I'm saying that Malfegor's "experiments" on planeswalkers was driving him mad because he could never identify how to ignite his own spark. When he was killed by Rafiq and Elspeth Tirel, his mind literally shattered into madness before dying, and that insanity ignited his spark and whisked him away to freedom just before he actually died.
His reason for joining the Hornguard is simple: he is a minion. An incredibly powerful minion, but ultimately a minion nonetheless. Malfegor demands loyalty and respect from from anyone below him (which is everyone but Nicol Bolas), and in return, he swears loyalty to Bolas's supremacy. If Bolas demands something, Malfegor complies, and he expects nothing less from everyone else.
honestly i had to look up what rakdos does cause i play green/red... and thats about it. pure damage.
1. - 2. @TerryTags with Malfegor (16)
Great idea to bring an existing character back as a planeswalker! The passive of your pw card is also quite original and it creates a fun dilema for your opponents about dealing damage to him. I'm not a fan of the backgroundless art, but at least its really Malfegor. The Oath is quite cool as well, I like the flavortext especially, however I'm a bit unsure about the first ability.
1. - 2. @WarriorCatInAhat with Soros (16)
Soros is just a solid card, although the first ability might be a bit too pushed. I'm still not over the black frame, but I'll believe you that the gold one looks worse. I would also word the last ability differently: "Each creature you control gets +X/+0, where X is its power, and gains trample until end of turn."
The Oath on the Other hand shines. It looks pretty, has the proper design and mechanics of an Oath card and is overal pretty neat. I also like your favortext.
3. @AboveAndAbout with Colossus (15)
The idea of a sorcery planeswalker is confusing but pretty neat at the same time and I think that you've managed to make the card look and function really good. The effects are all quite original, so I like that. I am super confused about the Oath card though. It does not have the typical design of an Oath, and I think that making it an aura land just makes things too somplicated. The card probably works fine, but its unnecessarily complex in my oppinion. It could also do with a flavortext.
4. @Yonkers11 with Kogi (14)
Again, just a pretty solid planeswalker card. Nothing too crazy going on, but quite functional. I don't think the card is particularly strong, but it looks fine.
The Oath could do with a different art, I really don't like backgroundless art on Magic cards, but apart from that, it's a bit broken. Getting something back from the graveyard, pumping it and giving it haste for two mana is too powerful. I like the second ability, that one is just neat. And the flavortext confuses me. I get it, he's a dog, but only sapient life forms can become planeswalkers, so I am pretty sure he should be able to speak.
5. @pstmdrn with Nystax (13)
To be fair, I quite like Nystax when I first saw him, but there's a lot of wording issues with both your cards. Design-wise the planeswalker is pretty solid, and the Oath is fine too, only thing is that it should say "nonland permanent". The flavortext is really cool. But you could have chosen a different art.
6. @Tonysparks (12)
Again, nothing inherently wrong with Nefti's design, just a lot of wording issues. And I am extremely confused on what the emblem actually does.
When reffering to a number of cards, it should be written out with a word, not by a number (so "Target player draws two cards, the loses 1 life and discards a card"). The Oath is fine, but might be very overpowered in the wrong deck.
Let's now move into the first week! I am really interested in what your characters have to show.
This is the only week where you have three challanges so this is the time to shine. All of the challanges will deal with your characters' backstory.
Please submit all of your cards at once and write some description/story with them (doesn't have to be long). Now, the challanges:
1) Create a card that showcases the moment when your planeswalker's spark ignited
2) Create a card that captures some important moment or character from your character's past (other than your spark ignition; the character can be a close one, a parent, enemy... really whatever, I'm just interested in some backstories!)
3) Create a legendary creature card of your planeswalker before they became a planeswalker.
Target player gets an emblem with "You have no maximum hand size. Instead of drawing a card on your draw step, draw two cards instead and you lose 1 life."
I'm not sure if that is the best wording, but it might be what you were looking for.
Ill show you the card with the gold frame instead and you can see for yourself
black frame:
gold frame:
ill keep the cardsmith ones though