@joemamajoe - Even if the design is good, a card is hard to find visually appealing if it has a low quality artwork that covers almost 50% of the card. If people here did not put any effort on artworks of their cards and only focus on the costs, types, effects, and flavors of their cards, this site might as well be named Textsmith.
@FourEyesIsAFish The card idea is awesome! But it still has a few problems. The rarity icon covers "shapeshifter". I know you didn't have room, so I'd remove the " enchantment" from the creature. The flavor text should probably be lowered to the bottom. Again, lovely card.
@FourEyesIsAFish In the MTG world selkies are very real. I do see how it could ruin the flavor though. Eh, the card is good without the last "er" as well.
@FourEyesIsAFish The flavor I wanted to push is that it kills or destroys something. And it does it every day. Once you look at the clues and find things about it though. You can easily defeat it
I think this design is very creative, so well done. However there are a few problems.
1. The wording: the correct wording would be "At the beginning (slight typo) of your upkeep, exile the top card of each player's library.For each card exiled this way, announce one of its colors, its converted mana cost, its power, and its toughness." Also, the commas after "card" and "then" should be periods.
2. The card in-game: I'm not sure this card would actually work in practice. For one thing, you could just lie about what the cmc/color/p/t of the card is, since you don't have to reveal the card. For another, the whole guessing thing needs to have some kind of cost. Nothing in magic happens whenever. Or if you don't want a cost, then you need to say "At the beginning of each upkeep" or something like that, so that it is a triggered ability or an activated ability.
3. The balance: This card is way too underpowered for a mythic, in my opinion. It's a 6 mana 10/10 that doesn't really do anything, and if your opponent's know anything about the deck then it will die pretty much instantly. It at least needs trample, or less cmc, to be at all playable.
Anyway, while I think your card needs a bit of editing, I think it is a really good idea. Something I'm always trying to think about is different kinds of ways to balance cards, like additional costs or creative drawbacks.
Here's my card It uses Counter strike by Faiths_Guide:
Counter strike (Whenever this creature is dealt less combat damage than its base toughness, it deals the source damage equal to the difference.)
@jicklemania2 , counter strike is clunky, and even though it isn't your mechanic I still feel a need to critique it. (Base Toughness doesn't synergise with toughness boost, it fights for space with First Strike, Flying and Double Strike as synergistic white keywords, first strike pretty much does its job better and less confusingly, the wording ""allows it"" to deal damage to non-creature permanents which is weird.)
As for the card itself, it certainly is cardboard. As already stated, the +0/+3 buff doesn't actually synergize with counter strike, as +0/+3 does not modify the base toughness. For an uncommon, the combat trick side could be two mana, and I'd recommend making the creature side into a 3 mana 3/2 with Exalted to better emphasize a turn-1 creature into turn-2 trick into turn-3 creature.
Also, the flavor is all over the place. If he's a lone traveller, why would he be offering assistance to other creatures by buffing them? Not to mention that Exalted means "(of a person or their rank or status) at a high or powerful level." , which has nothing to do with the card. A lone traveler wouldn't have a rank, he's lonesome!
Also, Wikicreatures isn't an artist. It's a twitter account that reposts and retweets art.
The primary thing I'd have to note would be the interaction between the toughness boost of the adventure and the way counter strike works, as counter strike only considers base toughness in determining whether or not it gets triggered, so the boost wouldn't help in having it trigger. If that was the way you intended it to work, awesome! (If it wasn't, perhaps lowering the adventure cost would be called for, but i also do not know exactly how strong counter strike is on its own.)
I think if the flavor text was more related to the adventure it would help telling the story this card wants to tell, perhaps something more in the line of "I have nothing to fear with my sword by my side/in my hand." (But this really is a minor flavor point and mostly, simply my preference.)
Outside of that, the card seems decent to me, so I'll drop a fave as well. (Or to the new one should you choose to remake it.)
So, without further ado, here are my cards for this time around:
So, please give a useful comment and/or leave a favorite on either and/or both of the above cards before posting up to two of your own.
@Potato13 Ok, I hear what you are saying about the mechanic and the flavor. (By the way, I know what Exalted means. I suppose I could have simply written out the mechanic and not keyworded it, but it was my instinct to use the keyword. Also, I don't necessarily see anything on the card that definitely contradicts flavor-wise that the Lone Traveler could have high rank, but I agree it isn't exactly a flavor win.) I will say that again I disagree with you about the power level. Obviously it depends on the limited format, but in my experience this card would be playable in most set limiteds. Adventure, by definition, is card advantage. A 4-mana creature that attacks as a 3/5 (and makes your other creatures bigger when they attack alone) with a combat trick tacked on is probably always going to be a playable card. However, I didn't realize what you (and @IronCrusher ) pointed out, which is that the mechanic doesn't synergize with a toughness boost. Since the Mechanix Challenge does allow slight modifications to the mechanics, I will change counter strike on this card to be toughness, not base toughness.
Thanks for pointing that out about wikicreatures. This card was also made for the Art of the Cards challenge. I'll let ChoyBoi know that they didn't credit the artist correctly.
@IronCrusher Thanks for the favorite! As I said above, I didn't intend counter strike to work that way. I'll edit the mechanic slightly so that it does synergize with the toughness boost.
I really like this design, and I think it is balanced and flavorful, so great job.
Maeya, the Compassionate:
I also really like this extension of the level mechanic. I think it's a too strong for standard, and it maybe should be a mythic. I suspect that you intended this for EDH though, and in that case I think you did a great job. It would be a good commander, but not obnoxiously good (god, remember Leovold). Also, the "Whenever you lose life" seems like a black thing, and a little out of place on a W/G card, though the flavor is great. And that's just a small thing—I'll give this a fav, too.
@jicklemania2 A little weak for a rare. Opt is a 1 mana, scry 1 and draw a card. It is also common. Then, you have one black mana, and scry 2. The last ability is just weak. Only if you have the crypt's blessing, and is you lose the flip, you lose 4 life. At normal, it is a bad card, at the medium, it is a slightly better, but still bad card, and at its best it is a good card. I would suggest making it uncommon. Here's my card, made for CassZero:
I looked on gatherer for Specter cards and I noticed this card that didn't survive the Beta testing in R&D. So, I decided to revamp it and make the effects modernized for commander and draft play.
@BlackMage740 Xyru Specter is a very cool card. I like the idea of challenging, as the card game Coup is probably my favorite game besides Magic. I think it probably doesn’t need to be three colors though, 1UB should work totally fine, and if you still think it needs to be harder to cast, maybe make it UBB. Other than that, awesome card! Also, if you want to post cards on this thread, you have to comment on/favorite the card of the person who posted their card last. Just a heads up.
@RandomFandom I like the concept of the card, but the wording is a bit off. "the next time you have 10 or more cards in your hand this turn" sound like a instant/sorcery it could be maybe something like: at the beginning of your end step if you have 10 or more cards in your hand create a number of 0/1 colorless constructs for each card in your hand.
I also think it should be uncommon, due to it's dependence on the amount of players, and if an opponent even exiles a card with an activated ability at all. But that's just what I think.
@The-DM Sounds good to me, I'm not really sure what there is to criticize from where I stand, Rarity looks good, ability isn't over or under-costed, sounds fair to me, at least, maybe make it a 3/3? Idk, You'd have to ask someone else about that because I don't understand the balancing of power/toughness plus abilities enough to make that call, especially when the abilities have their own costs.
For those that still remember or those that don't, this is another card from my chamber showcase which is all about a subtype of lands with funky abilities. This is probably another chamber of mine that should enter the battlefield tapped, but yeah, any other criticism is appreciated.
Firstly some formatting notes. It's a good idea to put in a space between the different abilities so that the text isn't all bunched up at the top with a big gap at the bottom of the text box. Also, there should be a comma between mana symbols and the tap sign for activated abilities.
For the card itself, this is far too powerful at the moment. I'd advise looking at Castle Ardenvale for comparison:
There are two main points to note here. First, common lands should never be better than the basic lands. Humble Home is just strictly better, in most respects, than a Plains because it does everything a Plains can do and then some. A common way of reining in a land like this, as you suggested, is making it enter the battlefield tapped or, like Ardenvale, conditionally tapped.
Second, compare the mana cost for just creating a Human token with yours that creates a Doomed Traveler. Castle Ardenvale can be a real powerhouse in creatureless control decks - in fact it's often a win-con. You can't underestimate the ability to create a dude at instant speed, so a dude with a soul is going to be extremely powerful. It's the sort of thing where the mana cost would need to be so prohibitively high that the ability probably shouldn't exist. I would suggest simply creating a 1/1 token and using Castle Ardenvale as a guide for the mana cost.
Hope this was helpful!
My card:
I'm having a tough time settling on the mana cost for this, partly because I don't know if it's meant for a format with Cauldron's Familiar or not. The original intention was "Hardened Scales for Food" as a one-drop. Would it be okay as just {g}? Thanks!
@Animist , the card would be okay as a 1-drop. The card itself doesn't seem that good even with a format with Cauldron Familiar in it; your opponent will generally attempt to kill the Familiar on an end step, which makes it a decently large dud in a portion of games.
MTG Cardsmith Community Forums
Comments
https://mtgcardsmith.com/view/young-selkie-1?list=set&set=56543
The rarity icon covers "shapeshifter". I know you didn't have room, so I'd remove the " enchantment" from the creature.
The flavor text should probably be lowered to the bottom.
Again, lovely card.
My card:
Also, I can't wrap my head around the theming for Thing in the Mist. I mean, it fits, but I have no idea what the effect would look like.
I think this design is very creative, so well done. However there are a few problems.
1. The wording: the correct wording would be "At the beginning (slight typo) of your upkeep, exile the top card of each player's library. For each card exiled this way, announce one of its colors, its converted mana cost, its power, and its toughness." Also, the commas after "card" and "then" should be periods.
2. The card in-game: I'm not sure this card would actually work in practice. For one thing, you could just lie about what the cmc/color/p/t of the card is, since you don't have to reveal the card. For another, the whole guessing thing needs to have some kind of cost. Nothing in magic happens whenever. Or if you don't want a cost, then you need to say "At the beginning of each upkeep" or something like that, so that it is a triggered ability or an activated ability.
3. The balance: This card is way too underpowered for a mythic, in my opinion. It's a 6 mana 10/10 that doesn't really do anything, and if your opponent's know anything about the deck then it will die pretty much instantly. It at least needs trample, or less cmc, to be at all playable.
Anyway, while I think your card needs a bit of editing, I think it is a really good idea. Something I'm always trying to think about is different kinds of ways to balance cards, like additional costs or creative drawbacks.
Here's my card It uses Counter strike by Faiths_Guide:
Counter strike (Whenever this creature is dealt less combat damage than its base toughness, it deals the source damage equal to the difference.)
As for the card itself, it certainly is cardboard. As already stated, the +0/+3 buff doesn't actually synergize with counter strike, as +0/+3 does not modify the base toughness. For an uncommon, the combat trick side could be two mana, and I'd recommend making the creature side into a 3 mana 3/2 with Exalted to better emphasize a turn-1 creature into turn-2 trick into turn-3 creature.
Also, the flavor is all over the place. If he's a lone traveller, why would he be offering assistance to other creatures by buffing them? Not to mention that Exalted means "(of a person or their rank or status) at a high or powerful level." , which has nothing to do with the card. A lone traveler wouldn't have a rank, he's lonesome!
Also, Wikicreatures isn't an artist. It's a twitter account that reposts and retweets art.
The primary thing I'd have to note would be the interaction between the toughness boost of the adventure and the way counter strike works, as counter strike only considers base toughness in determining whether or not it gets triggered, so the boost wouldn't help in having it trigger. If that was the way you intended it to work, awesome! (If it wasn't, perhaps lowering the adventure cost would be called for, but i also do not know exactly how strong counter strike is on its own.)
I think if the flavor text was more related to the adventure it would help telling the story this card wants to tell, perhaps something more in the line of "I have nothing to fear with my sword by my side/in my hand." (But this really is a minor flavor point and mostly, simply my preference.)
Outside of that, the card seems decent to me, so I'll drop a fave as well. (Or to the new one should you choose to remake it.)
So, without further ado, here are my cards for this time around:
So, please give a useful comment and/or leave a favorite on either and/or both of the above cards before posting up to two of your own.
Thanks for pointing that out about wikicreatures. This card was also made for the Art of the Cards challenge. I'll let ChoyBoi know that they didn't credit the artist correctly.
@IronCrusher Thanks for the favorite! As I said above, I didn't intend counter strike to work that way. I'll edit the mechanic slightly so that it does synergize with the toughness boost.
Ruin-Cursed:
I really like this design, and I think it is balanced and flavorful, so great job.
Maeya, the Compassionate:
I also really like this extension of the level mechanic. I think it's a too strong for standard, and it maybe should be a mythic. I suspect that you intended this for EDH though, and in that case I think you did a great job. It would be a good commander, but not obnoxiously good (god, remember Leovold). Also, the "Whenever you lose life" seems like a black thing, and a little out of place on a W/G card, though the flavor is great. And that's just a small thing—I'll give this a fav, too.
Here's my card, using Descend by Corwinnn.
Here’s my card, Armillary of Inspiration.
my card
https://mtgcardsmith.com/view/lurker-of-lost-hopes
Lurker of Lost hopes looks pretty fun to play, and I agree with @MemoryHead . (He commented on your card.)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I will word it.
Flying
When Lurker of Lost Hopes enters the battlefield, each player reveals their hand and exiles a permanent card from their hand at random.
Lurker of Lost Hopes has all activated abilities of cards exiled with it. -(Including land abilities? Just want some clarification here.)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I also think it should be uncommon, due to it's dependence on the amount of players, and if an opponent even exiles a card with an activated ability at all. But that's just what I think.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
My card:
https://mtgcardsmith.com/view/lucia-vess?list=set&set=56412
Indeed, but they choose the exiled card, meaning they can choose a card without an activated ability.
Oh, whoops. Missed that. But still, there is a chance that the player doesn't pull one, and a chance they don't have any at all.
My card:
https://mtgcardsmith.com/view/humble-home-1?list=user
For those that still remember or those that don't, this is another card from my chamber showcase which is all about a subtype of lands with funky abilities. This is probably another chamber of mine that should enter the battlefield tapped, but yeah, any other criticism is appreciated.