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Spend a Night on Umbra (Custom Set Heavy Rework/Debut)
Hello, everyone! As some of you may know, back in 2018, I debuted Umbra, a set themed around Halloween and everything associated with it. Today, I am happy to bring a much-needed overhaul to the set, using both what I've learned about designing sets and the innovations and design principles that have emerged from official designs to improve the set in a variety of ways!
Embrace your fears.
Lore
Catching word of the plane from the recently-ignited Spirit planeswalker Grace—and just after a humiliating defeat at the hands of the ancient vampire planeswalker Sorin Markov—Tibalt, an Innistrad-native human-turned-devil moves to Umbra to investigate this for himself. Taking delight in the torment of sentient beings of all kind, he figured there must be some potential to the Accursed Eve and all the secrets the very nature of it must possess.
However, despite Tibalt's best effort to remain relatively unnoticed during his time on the plane, certain subtle aspects of his devilish form cause the Polymancer Eliot to become suspicious of him. While not entirely sure of the Devil's intent, Eliot knows that a Devil walking around Umbra during any day other than the Accursed Eve must have ulterior motives. It is up to them to gather the information and forces needed to put an end to Tibalt's scheme, whatever it is, before it can be put into motion.
Details
- Is a large, standalone set.
- Has 249 cards (101 commons, 80 uncommons, 53 rares, 15 mythic rares)
- Features the following mechanics:
Embrace your fears.
Lore
Umbra is a world of eternal summer, a utopia for all its citizens, mainly humans. However, one day a year the sun doesn't rise, humans are driven mad by dormant lycanthropy within them, the dead come back for the living, both spiritually and physically, and the very pumpkins farmed for food rise up to attack! This is the Accursed Eve, the only dreaded day in the year of Umbra.
The overarching story of the set takes place across a single Accursed Eve. In recent years, many humans have begun to study and wonder what makes the Accursed Eve occur each year at the same time of year. What was discovered was a surge of ethereal energy from an unknown source that makes the Eve possible, an energy that may even be able to be harnessed and controlled. Recent Accursed Eves have been the setting for all kinds of incredible and terrible experiments and feats by geniuses and alchemists.
However, despite Tibalt's best effort to remain relatively unnoticed during his time on the plane, certain subtle aspects of his devilish form cause the Polymancer Eliot to become suspicious of him. While not entirely sure of the Devil's intent, Eliot knows that a Devil walking around Umbra during any day other than the Accursed Eve must have ulterior motives. It is up to them to gather the information and forces needed to put an end to Tibalt's scheme, whatever it is, before it can be put into motion.
Details
- Is a large, standalone set.
- Has 249 cards (101 commons, 80 uncommons, 53 rares, 15 mythic rares)
- Features the following mechanics:
- Haunt (When this creature dies, exile it haunting target creature.)
- Mentor (Whenever this creature attacks, put a +1/+1 counter on target attacking creature with lesser power.)
- Lycanthropy — At the beginning of each upkeep, if the player whose turn it was last turn [cast no spells]/[cast two or more spells] during that turn, transform this creature.
- Amalgamate (At the beginning of your upkeep, you may move a counter from this creature onto another target creature you control.)
- Flashback [Cost] (You may cast this card from your graveyard for its flashback cost. Then exile it.)
- Changeling (This card is every creature type.)
Tribal spells (This card has creature types in addition to its other types.) - Keyword Counters
- Mechanically the set has a very heavy focus on creature types. Pick from many iconic horror-themed tribes and fight for victory.
- Rich Halloween flavor meant to invoke fear in the player.
- A variety of valuable and exciting reprints in-theme with the set and its world.
- Features story spotlight cards covering key moments in the set.
New Features and Changes
- A redone draft format, focusing fully on tribal archetypes and creature types.
- Better designed cards for limited, with a more structured distribution of generically good effects, archetype enablers, and archetype payoffs.
- Increased care to ensure an even distribution of relevant creature types.
- A snazzy new frame treatment to signal tribal cards.
- A slew of new designs focusing on a variety of famous tropes and horror movies.
- Overall refinement and tweaks to designs kept from the original version,
If you wish to view the set, please check it out here! http://www.planesculptors.net/set/umbra
If you're wondering why this takes you to a site other than MTGCS, that is because I actually used another custom card creator, Magic Set Editor, which allows for more customization options and flexibility as far as card design goes.
Happy Halloween, everyone! Here's to another great spooky season!
New Features and Changes
- A redone draft format, focusing fully on tribal archetypes and creature types.
- Better designed cards for limited, with a more structured distribution of generically good effects, archetype enablers, and archetype payoffs.
- Increased care to ensure an even distribution of relevant creature types.
- A snazzy new frame treatment to signal tribal cards.
- A slew of new designs focusing on a variety of famous tropes and horror movies.
- Overall refinement and tweaks to designs kept from the original version,
If you wish to view the set, please check it out here! http://www.planesculptors.net/set/umbra
If you're wondering why this takes you to a site other than MTGCS, that is because I actually used another custom card creator, Magic Set Editor, which allows for more customization options and flexibility as far as card design goes.
Happy Halloween, everyone! Here's to another great spooky season!