Nefti has always been good at striking contracts with patrons and it has always served her well. She has attained eternal youth, power, riches and much more all without ever having to give away her soul. Aside from her original patron, she prefers striking deals with demons, particularly demon lords and elder demons but she isn't to picky when it comes to getting what she wants, for her one true loyalty lies in her original Patron god.
*Should be "draw two cards" please don't chew me out for that little mistake* *Should also say shuffle your library after but it should be the standard for all searches anyway*
When Nefti isn't causing chaos or signing contracts, she resides in her torture chambers where she delights in torturing her victims to the brink of death but never letting them quite die as she will need their souls for later. The only way her victims escape her chambers is in death and even then that rarely is let to happen. She derives pleasure, more so than Tibalt or Ob-nixilis in causing suffering to such a degree that she goes out of her way to cause it. She avoids doing so in public areas as she likes to hear her victims scream and writhe in pain. Not exactly an important moment per say but it just she really hasn't had much conflict with all the skulking she does.
Nefti was always a cunning ritualist. She always hid in the underdarks of her forgotten patron's cavern, who delighted in the torture she caused in his name. It was under this guise that she would summon demon lords and sign contracts with. She would offer sacrifices of her unfortunate victims, and would never trade her soul. She instead deceived the demons and after they offered her what she wanted, she would use soul magic to bait the soul of a random captive she had and would banish the demon from her alter.
But alas, her greed and ambition got the best of her and she summoned one of the powerfulest demons yet Belzenlok. She offered him a deal but the demon lord was disinterested. Displeased with his answer, she attempted to seize Belzenlok's power for herself but it was an ill fated effort as Belzenlok began syphoning her soul, along with the powers she had gathered in the centuries she had been alive. For the first time in a while she felt real agony as her soul was rended and her flesh was seared, she called out to her patron god but her calls fell on deaf ears. Even her Patron had forsaken her. It was at this moment that her spark ignited sending her spiraling into the scorching deserts of amonkhet.
Since Malfegor has an actually established lore already, I admit that my entries are influenced by the true history of Malfegor, Elspeth, and Rafiq from the real story line of Alara and the Conflux.
This first card references how Malfegor was trying to learn how to become a planeswalker by torturing people who had planeswalker sparks, until they ascended, so that he could learn how to do it himself. His first success in this regard was with Sifa Grent.
This card references Malfegor's attack on Bant. He was ordered by Nicol Bolas to lead an army from Grixis to the Giltspire Castle on Bant where the Sundering originally occurred.
In the Alara story line, Malfegor was killed by Rafiq and Elspeth in the battle of Giltspire Castle, but for THIS Oath of the Hornguard thread, I'm alleging that there was an evil leyline below the castle which gave Malfegor the mana necessary to ignite his own spark. Just before dying, he realized that he could use the torturous fear of imminent death to ignite his spark like he'd done to Sifa. So, unbeknownst to the victorious army, Malfegor actually planeswalked out of Alara and is NOT as dead as everyone presumes.
I believe so. As long as you complete the previous requirements. Also you get a penalty for joining late if I'm correct. If you wanna wait for the host just to be safe that'll be fine too.
@KorandAngels Yup, @Tonysparks is very much right, you can enter late if you complete all previous challenges and you also get a little penalty, but nothing serious.
@ThePhantomJoker , you had mentioned before that you were unsure about the Oath of Malfegor's first ability "When Oath of Malfegor enters the battlefield, discard a card and add {b} or {r} to your mana pool." Since the rest of the cards in his cycle for this contest are going to be heavily related to discarding cards and madness effects, that first ability gives you a red or black mana to use in case the card you discard has a madness cost, essentially letting you freecast a madness card that you discard when the Oath ETB's (if the madness cost has a mana cost of {b} or {r} of course).
So Kogi and Kola were good dogs, but they got lost in the forest once. An enchantress who was in the forest found them, and she took them in. Her husband came home to find the dogs in the house. He started to take Kogi to his job, where he made weapons, while Kola and the enchantress stayed home, making delicious food. One day, however, a neighbor caught the enchantress practicing magic. They lived in a plane where magic was illegal. The town stormed the house, and found the enchantress and her dog, Kola. They burned both at the stake, and shortly after they started burning, Kogi and his owner were walking home, and heard the screams. They rushed over, and when the weaponsmith saw his wife burning, he stabbed himself with his newly made weapon, and left Kogi there to watch, helpless. This caused Kogi's spark to ignite.
finding artwork is hard, and actually finding the artist is even harder.
im glad i made a saga though. i have no mse, so I came up with a different method.
also, I tried to make Kogi and Kola synergistic. keyword tried.
@TerryTags Oh, I did not realise that! That's actually really flavorful and could work really well. I thought it was supposed to be a downside for the powerful second ability, but I didn't get the mana. Now it all makes sense!
Nystax was born on the plane of Vistaqa, a world of volatile elemental energies and harsh terrains. Two massive kingdoms, constantly at war, are ruled with an iron fist by efreeti twins that hate one another. Jadariss (WRB) is an industrial authoritarian state known for its explosive weapons of war. Its ruler is Surxim, a battle hungry warrior king with a fiery temper, would like nothing more than to crush his brother and rule the entire plane. Jamaz (URB) is an oppressive magocracy known for its violent magics and army of demons and djinns. Its ruler is Amanax, a cruel sorcerer king, who looks to enslave his brother and use war machines to drain the elemental energies of the plane for himself.
Though a native of Jamaz, Nystax had no allegiance to either kingdom. Showing a gift for magic as a child, he was enrolled in one of the many state sponsored magic schools always looking for new talent to exploit. When he realized his future was to be a pawn in Amanax’s schemes against his brother, he dropped out of school to pursue his own interests. He began putting his talent for illusion magics to smuggling contraband between kingdoms.
He was quite successful and this led him to Lateem, a djinn who was one of his best clients. After they had become trusted allies, Lateem revealed that he was planning a big heist and he would like Nystax to be involved. Nystax was excited for he had been itching to get into some larger action. They would be stealing a powerful elemental gem from Surxim’s armory to sell to Amanax for a small fortune. He was easily able to get the team past the Jadariss guards, but no one accounted for a traitor amongst the crew. In the ensuing battle, Nystax’s spark ignited. Hundreds of illusions filled the chamber. A planar portal tore open and he quickly threw Lateem into it before jumping in himself. When he arrived on a new world, Lateem was nowhere to be found…
So! Week two has ended and it's time to award points and announce the challanges for the next week. We are actually missing a few participants, @AboveAndAbout, @WarriorCatInAhat and @KorandAngels please submit your cards for week 1. Anyways, the current leaderborad looks a little like this:
1. @TerryTags with Malfegor (41) I found the leyline a little weaker than the other entries, though it still had a nice mechanical idea and a place in the story. Enlightened Insanity however, as your card from Malfegor's past, is just perfect! It's a bit situational but has a clear design and is really original, I love this card. Malfegor himself was then just the icing on the cake, nothing too special, just a very solid card. The ability to make Angels more expensive is pretty fun but situational and the untapping is also neat, but would probably not come up as often. 2. @Yonkers11 with Kogi (35) Dear gods, that is a hell of a dark backstory. But it's pretty enjoyable and the cards fit into it wuite well in my opinion. Kogi's Heartbreak is a nice saga showcasing the moment of his spark igniting, but I feel like it is absolutely in the wrong color. This card feels very much like a black card (destroying creatures and making opponents discard are black abilities). I aslo think it would have been interesting flavor-wise, since creature-Kogi is red/white, while planeswalker-Kogi is red/black - this card could have showcased that shift. Both the creature cards are quite neat, just a few suggestions: 1) you put the colors in the mana cost in the wrong order both times 2) the borders should be dual gold 3) Kola misses power and toughness. Other than that I liked the synergy, focus on Food and flavor, both mechanically and in the flavor texts. 3. @pstmdrn with Nystax (34) Really cool backstory! The focus on illusion magic is nicely showcased and the spark igniting moment was also pretty neat. I think you portrayed it well on the card - make a ton of illusions and confuse everybody. My only concern is that the two Xs could get a bit mixed up. Lateem on the other hand is completely broken. Returning things to hands is an annoying effect, especially if you can keep doing it repeatedly. The card looks and works well, I just find it too powerful. But Nystax himself is a great card. He makes an Illusion token when he comes down, obviously, and can't be blocked as long as you control an Illusion. That's just pure flavor right here, really nicely done. 4. @Tonysparks with Nefti (31) Neftis's story is pretty neat, although she feels like Tibalt and Liliana combined (but mostly like Tibalt). Rite of the Demonlord is a weird card, that Instant/Sorcery mechanic could have potential, although that's pretty much what addendum does. But I feel like there's no situation where you would want to play this at instant speed, it's just not worth it. I also don't find it too flavorful. Eternal Agony has a lot of flavor, but I think it's really not that useful. I'm not sure if there is a time you would want your opponent's creatures to stay on the board if you have the option to send them to the graveyard, so although it has a lot of flavor, there's not much use to it. Paying one to put a -1/-1 counter on something feels broken, Scorpion God does that for three. Nefti herself is nice. There's that flavor of seeking a patron (Demon, God or planeswalker), but the ability is maybe a bit too powerful, I'm not really sure. Currently unplaced. @KorandAngels with Lu-Tze (11) To be fair, I'm not a big fan of putting existing characters from other franchises into Magic and I'm also not sure if it even works for the lore of this challange, but sure. The planeswalker card feels pretty Teferi-like, I son't have much more to say about it. The Oath has a nice idea, although it could be very easily abused in a superfriends-proliferate deck. @AboveAndAbout and @WarriorCatInAhat are currently also unplaced in the leaderboard, but that will change if you guys submit your cards.
Week Two: Journey Begins Only two challanges this week, which will be the case further on into the challange. This week we finally learn how the Hornguar was created! 1) Create a card that showcases your initial meeting with Bolas (and your agreement to aid him as a part of the Hornguard if necessary) 2) Create your signature spell (for inspiration look up the signature spells in War of the spark) - it should be something simple, yet flavorful. What is the nature of your planeswalker's magic, what do they bring with them as they visit new planes of the Multiverse?
Again, I am always happy to receive critic and I'm glad you enjoyed the cards, but to answer a few questions/concerns:
The rite card did mimic some other rite cards but I did want it to be unique. The instant/sorcery was actually a flavor decision with the sorcery aspect being the reward for when Nefti was patient and the instant aspect being the reward for when she attempted to seize Belzenlok's power for herself. The mechanical aspect of the instant/sorcery was also for the instant to be utilizable in moments of desperation in but with a lesser effect. Another reason for the heavy restrictions for instant is not only because I (1) wanted to reward patience (2) Blue and green are the card draw colors and (3) Drawing three cards for black can be game changing.
As for Eternal Agony, there are lots of reasons to keep opponent's creatures on boards, such as death trigger effects and graveyard effects. Also with them staying there becoming more obsolete as they stay, it prevents graveyard revive spells such as rise of the dark realms and they cant be reshuffled during reshuffles because they are in the field. It also discourages token decks because the creatures don't leave the field when they die so a 1/1 becomes a -1/-1 with indestructible and the opponent loses 2 life, so if an opponent had a total of 7 tokens that would have died, that is a whooping 14 damage. Then in the next upkeep they become -3/-3s with indestructible and another 14 life is lost, so it is more broken than it seems. Finally it has the added benefit of preventing attacks because your opponent is essentially losing 2 life for each creature you would kill during the block. I also just realized how disruptive this card is to life gain decks.
I would like to conclude with thanking you for your opinion and I would like to note that every decision I make on my cards is a mix of flavorful and mechanic.
@Tonysparks Actually, indestructible only prevents the creature from dying to "destroy" effects and damage. If its power would be decreased to 0 or less, it still dies. For example, if you have a 4/4 with indestructible and your opponent gives it -4/-4 until end of turn, it still dies. The same is true for -1/-1 counters, so what you are saying about the tokens would not work. If a 1/1 comes down and would die, with Eternal Agony it gets two -1/-1 counters instead and becomes indestructible, however, its toughness is bellow zero, therefore it dies. That is a state-based action. That life loss might actually be what makes this card good, because then you can essentially get two triggers from a 3/3 creature for example, which is pretty powerful. Then again, then there are creatures that you just don't want to have on the battlefield, no matter how small they are (Grand Arbiter Augustin for example, he would only die after the second time, which is very much not beneficial for the controler of Eternal Agony).
MTG Cardsmith Community Forums
Comments
I don't know how
Nefti has always been good at striking contracts with patrons and it has always served her well. She has attained eternal youth, power, riches and much more all without ever having to give away her soul. Aside from her original patron, she prefers striking deals with demons, particularly demon lords and elder demons but she isn't to picky when it comes to getting what she wants, for her one true loyalty lies in her original Patron god.
*Should be "draw two cards" please don't chew me out for that little mistake*
*Should also say shuffle your library after but it should be the standard for all searches anyway*
When Nefti isn't causing chaos or signing contracts, she resides in her torture chambers where she delights in torturing her victims to the brink of death but never letting them quite die as she will need their souls for later. The only way her victims escape her chambers is in death and even then that rarely is let to happen. She derives pleasure, more so than Tibalt or Ob-nixilis in causing suffering to such a degree that she goes out of her way to cause it. She avoids doing so in public areas as she likes to hear her victims scream and writhe in pain. Not exactly an important moment per say but it just she really hasn't had much conflict with all the skulking she does.
Nefti was always a cunning ritualist. She always hid in the underdarks of her forgotten patron's cavern, who delighted in the torture she caused in his name. It was under this guise that she would summon demon lords and sign contracts with. She would offer sacrifices of her unfortunate victims, and would never trade her soul. She instead deceived the demons and after they offered her what she wanted, she would use soul magic to bait the soul of a random captive she had and would banish the demon from her alter.
But alas, her greed and ambition got the best of her and she summoned one of the powerfulest demons yet Belzenlok. She offered him a deal but the demon lord was disinterested. Displeased with his answer, she attempted to seize Belzenlok's power for herself but it was an ill fated effort as Belzenlok began syphoning her soul, along with the powers she had gathered in the centuries she had been alive. For the first time in a while she felt real agony as her soul was rended and her flesh was seared, she called out to her patron god but her calls fell on deaf ears. Even her Patron had forsaken her. It was at this moment that her spark ignited sending her spiraling into the scorching deserts of amonkhet.
This card references Malfegor's attack on Bant. He was ordered by Nicol Bolas to lead an army from Grixis to the Giltspire Castle on Bant where the Sundering originally occurred.
In the Alara story line, Malfegor was killed by Rafiq and Elspeth in the battle of Giltspire Castle, but for THIS Oath of the Hornguard thread, I'm alleging that there was an evil leyline below the castle which gave Malfegor the mana necessary to ignite his own spark. Just before dying, he realized that he could use the torturous fear of imminent death to ignite his spark like he'd done to Sifa. So, unbeknownst to the victorious army, Malfegor actually planeswalked out of Alara and is NOT as dead as everyone presumes.
-_-
hang on a few minutes.
or like an hour its lunch time soon.
So Kogi and Kola were good dogs, but they got lost in the forest once. An enchantress who was in the forest found them, and she took them in. Her husband came home to find the dogs in the house. He started to take Kogi to his job, where he made weapons, while Kola and the enchantress stayed home, making delicious food. One day, however, a neighbor caught the enchantress practicing magic. They lived in a plane where magic was illegal. The town stormed the house, and found the enchantress and her dog, Kola. They burned both at the stake, and shortly after they started burning, Kogi and his owner were walking home, and heard the screams. They rushed over, and when the weaponsmith saw his wife burning, he stabbed himself with his newly made weapon, and left Kogi there to watch, helpless. This caused Kogi's spark to ignite.
finding artwork is hard, and actually finding the artist is even harder.
im glad i made a saga though. i have no mse, so I came up with a different method.
also, I tried to make Kogi and Kola synergistic. keyword tried.
Nystax was born on the plane of Vistaqa, a world of volatile elemental energies and harsh terrains. Two massive kingdoms, constantly at war, are ruled with an iron fist by efreeti twins that hate one another. Jadariss (WRB) is an industrial authoritarian state known for its explosive weapons of war. Its ruler is Surxim, a battle hungry warrior king with a fiery temper, would like nothing more than to crush his brother and rule the entire plane. Jamaz (URB) is an oppressive magocracy known for its violent magics and army of demons and djinns. Its ruler is Amanax, a cruel sorcerer king, who looks to enslave his brother and use war machines to drain the elemental energies of the plane for himself.
Though a native of Jamaz, Nystax had no allegiance to either kingdom. Showing a gift for magic as a child, he was enrolled in one of the many state sponsored magic schools always looking for new talent to exploit. When he realized his future was to be a pawn in Amanax’s schemes against his brother, he dropped out of school to pursue his own interests. He began putting his talent for illusion magics to smuggling contraband between kingdoms.
He was quite successful and this led him to Lateem, a djinn who was one of his best clients. After they had become trusted allies, Lateem revealed that he was planning a big heist and he would like Nystax to be involved. Nystax was excited for he had been itching to get into some larger action. They would be stealing a powerful elemental gem from Surxim’s armory to sell to Amanax for a small fortune. He was easily able to get the team past the Jadariss guards, but no one accounted for a traitor amongst the crew. In the ensuing battle, Nystax’s spark ignited. Hundreds of illusions filled the chamber. A planar portal tore open and he quickly threw Lateem into it before jumping in himself. When he arrived on a new world, Lateem was nowhere to be found…
https://mtgcardsmith.com/view/nystax-rogue-illusionist
https://mtgcardsmith.com/view/swarm-of-illusions
https://mtgcardsmith.com/view/lu-tze-the-sweeper-2
https://mtgcardsmith.com/view/oath-of-the-sweeper
I did not actually invent this character, he is from Discworld.
1. @TerryTags with Malfegor (41)
I found the leyline a little weaker than the other entries, though it still had a nice mechanical idea and a place in the story. Enlightened Insanity however, as your card from Malfegor's past, is just perfect! It's a bit situational but has a clear design and is really original, I love this card. Malfegor himself was then just the icing on the cake, nothing too special, just a very solid card. The ability to make Angels more expensive is pretty fun but situational and the untapping is also neat, but would probably not come up as often.
2. @Yonkers11 with Kogi (35)
Dear gods, that is a hell of a dark backstory. But it's pretty enjoyable and the cards fit into it wuite well in my opinion. Kogi's Heartbreak is a nice saga showcasing the moment of his spark igniting, but I feel like it is absolutely in the wrong color. This card feels very much like a black card (destroying creatures and making opponents discard are black abilities). I aslo think it would have been interesting flavor-wise, since creature-Kogi is red/white, while planeswalker-Kogi is red/black - this card could have showcased that shift. Both the creature cards are quite neat, just a few suggestions: 1) you put the colors in the mana cost in the wrong order both times 2) the borders should be dual gold 3) Kola misses power and toughness. Other than that I liked the synergy, focus on Food and flavor, both mechanically and in the flavor texts.
3. @pstmdrn with Nystax (34)
Really cool backstory! The focus on illusion magic is nicely showcased and the spark igniting moment was also pretty neat. I think you portrayed it well on the card - make a ton of illusions and confuse everybody. My only concern is that the two Xs could get a bit mixed up. Lateem on the other hand is completely broken. Returning things to hands is an annoying effect, especially if you can keep doing it repeatedly. The card looks and works well, I just find it too powerful. But Nystax himself is a great card. He makes an Illusion token when he comes down, obviously, and can't be blocked as long as you control an Illusion. That's just pure flavor right here, really nicely done.
4. @Tonysparks with Nefti (31)
Neftis's story is pretty neat, although she feels like Tibalt and Liliana combined (but mostly like Tibalt). Rite of the Demonlord is a weird card, that Instant/Sorcery mechanic could have potential, although that's pretty much what addendum does. But I feel like there's no situation where you would want to play this at instant speed, it's just not worth it. I also don't find it too flavorful. Eternal Agony has a lot of flavor, but I think it's really not that useful. I'm not sure if there is a time you would want your opponent's creatures to stay on the board if you have the option to send them to the graveyard, so although it has a lot of flavor, there's not much use to it. Paying one to put a -1/-1 counter on something feels broken, Scorpion God does that for three. Nefti herself is nice. There's that flavor of seeking a patron (Demon, God or planeswalker), but the ability is maybe a bit too powerful, I'm not really sure.
Currently unplaced. @KorandAngels with Lu-Tze (11)
To be fair, I'm not a big fan of putting existing characters from other franchises into Magic and I'm also not sure if it even works for the lore of this challange, but sure. The planeswalker card feels pretty Teferi-like, I son't have much more to say about it. The Oath has a nice idea, although it could be very easily abused in a superfriends-proliferate deck.
@AboveAndAbout and @WarriorCatInAhat are currently also unplaced in the leaderboard, but that will change if you guys submit your cards.
I've got like 1.5 of the cards done
Only two challanges this week, which will be the case further on into the challange. This week we finally learn how the Hornguar was created!
1) Create a card that showcases your initial meeting with Bolas (and your agreement to aid him as a part of the Hornguard if necessary)
2) Create your signature spell (for inspiration look up the signature spells in War of the spark) - it should be something simple, yet flavorful. What is the nature of your planeswalker's magic, what do they bring with them as they visit new planes of the Multiverse?
The rite card did mimic some other rite cards but I did want it to be unique. The instant/sorcery was actually a flavor decision with the sorcery aspect being the reward for when Nefti was patient and the instant aspect being the reward for when she attempted to seize Belzenlok's power for herself. The mechanical aspect of the instant/sorcery was also for the instant to be utilizable in moments of desperation in but with a lesser effect. Another reason for the heavy restrictions for instant is not only because I (1) wanted to reward patience (2) Blue and green are the card draw colors and (3) Drawing three cards for black can be game changing.
As for Eternal Agony, there are lots of reasons to keep opponent's creatures on boards, such as death trigger effects and graveyard effects. Also with them staying there becoming more obsolete as they stay, it prevents graveyard revive spells such as rise of the dark realms and they cant be reshuffled during reshuffles because they are in the field. It also discourages token decks because the creatures don't leave the field when they die so a 1/1 becomes a -1/-1 with indestructible and the opponent loses 2 life, so if an opponent had a total of 7 tokens that would have died, that is a whooping 14 damage. Then in the next upkeep they become -3/-3s with indestructible and another 14 life is lost, so it is more broken than it seems. Finally it has the added benefit of preventing attacks because your opponent is essentially losing 2 life for each creature you would kill during the block. I also just realized how disruptive this card is to life gain decks.
I would like to conclude with thanking you for your opinion and I would like to note that every decision I make on my cards is a mix of flavorful and mechanic.
That life loss might actually be what makes this card good, because then you can essentially get two triggers from a 3/3 creature for example, which is pretty powerful. Then again, then there are creatures that you just don't want to have on the battlefield, no matter how small they are (Grand Arbiter Augustin for example, he would only die after the second time, which is very much not beneficial for the controler of Eternal Agony).