Design a Card

[Spartan_N30]

Jorak seems really good for a two cost Planeswalker. Essentially on turn 3 you could have 6 mana at your disposal with a decent opening hand and potentially more if you have any 0 cost creatures. That's really potent I'd think.
The balance is that the 0 ability only produces colorless, but if you have all the colors of your mana base in your lands it probably doesn't matter.

I would probably cost it a bit higher maybe 1GW or 2GW, with 3 loyalty and have the 0 ability be a -1 ability instead. But it probably depends on the set. If this card is designed to have a higher costed set of cards that need the ramp it's probably fine. But this is just my opinion.

(I don't think I used probably enough, lol. )

Also, Essence mechanic is awesome!

Just to give a little "Designer notes" on jorak, I wanted him to be a throwback to the original Selesnia Guild from return to ravnica, So he is designed to play really nice with convoke, giving you a sudo scatter the seeds for cheep with the +1.

I actually wanted to word his 0 to give all your cards in hand convoke untill end of turn, but i ran into the problem of not knowing how to template it and it just being really good, so i decided to go with a templating that allowed creatures to help with casting still, but a little weaker.

His ultimate i didn't really think too much about, I just thought of what overlap green and white had and came up with "really efficient creatures" and had his ultimate turn all your creatures into efficient beaters.

(And i agree, essence is super cool for a mechanic.)

[TaiyouShinobi]

I see. I think that if that was more the case then I'd still cost it to 1GW, and change the 0 to something like: "Until the end of turn, Instant and Sorcery spells you cast have Convoke." (Based off of Chief Engineer)
I think that would be pretty balanced just limiting to Instants and Sorceries.
The reason being is there are lots of creatures with enter the battlefield effects that can be really crippling if you can get them out earlier than normal and have bodies attacked that really make a presence on the board.

If you wanted to extend it further you might make it a -1 and change it to: "Until the end of turn, spells you cast have Convoke." Something to consider I guess.

[Atifexe]

I suppose the issue I ran into was my design intentions changing as I put the card together. The original version didn't include the indestructibility and sacrificed at end of turn instead of end of combat. Part of the reason for the change was the concern that the defending player is no longer defending after combat is over. At any rate, here's how it looks with some adjustments, including a slight reduction in cost.

Meteoric Rise - (3)(R)(W)
Instant
Target attacking creature gets +1/+0 and gains flying until end of turn. When it loses flying this turn, its controller sacrifices it and it deals damage equal to its toughness to each creature defending player controls.
When sufficient altitude is gained, the impact from the resulting fall can level nations.

[Aarhg]

What do you guys think of this color-shifted (but not really) charm? It's got Dangerous Wager, Lava Spike, and Assault Strobe, but it's black!

[AdmiralMemo]

Had a card idea I came up with...

Each player exiles the top card of his or her library. Until end of turn, he or she may play that card.

I know it's got to be blue, and should probably be a sorcery, not an instant. What do you think the rarity and cost should be? I'm thinking maybe UU and uncommon? Also, what would be a good name for it?

It'd be one of those cards that sounds balanced at first, but then you realize really isn't, since you can play anything on your turn, but opponents can't play lands, sorceries, or non-flash creatures on your turn. (But it could also hose you, if they get a good instant or flash creature.)

[Mara Kalat]

Had a card idea I came up with...

Each player exiles the top card of his or her library. Until end of turn, he or she may play that card.

(...)

Definitely blue like you said, but I'd say UU is a bit cheap if you're not going to give opponents a better shot to play it.
By comparison, existing cards are costed like this:


I don't think the opponents exiling a card too will be more than a tiny exile mill in 80+% of the times you use it due to the casting restrictions.
The idea is fun though, I guess my suggestion would be to up the cost to 1UU (or UUU if you prefer), make it an instant and rephrase it to "Until end of turn, he or she may play that card as though it had flash."

Mara.

[steric hindrance]

Unfortunately, there's an unintuitive rules issue: lands with flash still can't be played on your opponent's turn (based on the rules for "playing" a land). Maybe format it as "Until your next turn, you and your opponents may play those exiled cards."

[square1]

I had a cute little idea:

Fickle Muse - Click to Expand

Art borrowed from here.

Edit: Updated with an untap clause when a player takes control of the creature per Mara Kalat's suggestion.

[WP&P]

Re: Fickle Muse - so your opponent would get her tapped, since you cast & haste attack to draw a card, leaving her tapped. Opponent untaps then draws, gaining control of a tapped creature. Assuming nothing else affects the board state, then opponent's turn ends, you untap then draw, and gain control of a tapped creature.

So unless one is running cantrips or instant-speed draw (or Kiora's Follower), the changing of ownership isn't likely to matter. Of course, with this in your deck you'd probably have a lot of cantrips to maintain control.

I'm just wondering if the "symmetry" of the effect requires that this have vigilance, which might mean a higher casting cost (add 1 colorless?).

[WP&P]

I have recently been listening to a podcast called "Re-Making Magic" that is all about card design, and they had a contest to develop a Legendary Phoenix card. I listened to the episodes too late to get my entry in, to be considered for judging, but I did develop an idea prior to listening to the submissions. Then, after listening, I made a few minor tweaks, to end up at this:



The transform mechanic is used to introduce a delay; when a phoenix dies, it doesn't respawn immediately, but rather it exists as ash for a while.

My overall concept for this is that THE legendary Phoenix would be sort of like the Platonic Form, of which all other Phoenix are Plato's shadows on cave walls. All other Phoenix are in essence manifestations of this Phoenix.

He is a type of Lord, making tribal a possibility, but he attains glory by having other Phoenix make it into your graveyard. In his ash state, he may help stoke his own flames by dumping more bodies in.

So what do you all think?

BTW, "ousia" is a real word... look it up...

[Mara Kalat]

Re: Fickle Muse - ...

I'm just wondering if the "symmetry" of the effect requires that this have vigilance, which might mean a higher casting cost (add 1 colorless?).

It doesn't need vigilance, it just needs an upkeep untap like Karona. Also, it's quite a fun card. I imagine it being especially good in a >2 player game.



Also, that looks like a fun phoenix! ...but if the idea behind the transformation is to delay it coming back I'd suggest it also comes into play tapped since Red is full of haste-giving effects which would then just mean it comes back and instantly pings for 2 and transforms.
I would personally also consider making it slightly bigger and/or increase its tribal effect, since it's right now on the weaker end of the Phoenix spectrum.

Mara.

[square1]

Re: Fickle Muse - ...

I'm just wondering if the "symmetry" of the effect requires that this have vigilance, which might mean a higher casting cost (add 1 colorless?).

It doesn't need vigilance, it just needs an upkeep untap like Karona. Also, it's quite a fun card. I imagine it being especially good in a >2 player game.

Mara.

Oh good catch! Thank you!

[WP&P]

Draw step happens after upkeep, so an upkeep trigger won't work; control will pass at draw step. You could maybe give it an "at the start of your main phase" kind of trigger to untap it, but Vigilance just seems easier.

Or, use the wording from Karona, along the lines of "untaps and gains control of CARDNAME", so that the untapping is triggered by the same card draw event.

[WP&P]

Regarding the Phoenix, I actually wondered whether it would be too slow as-is; the tap to transform means you spend a turn without using the Phoenix as an attacking firebird, because he's tapped that turn. The 2 damage is there to make up for this, giving a sort of pseudo-attack on the transform turn.

The tribal effect was initially +1/+1, but I like the though of a Phoenix being easier to kill, so that they cycle to and from graveyard often. As for raw stats, I was trying to get to the core concept of a Phoenix, but maybe there is room to elevate those stats slightly. I still would prefer for an average Phoenix to be smaller than an average Dragon.

[Re'ozul]

This is an idea I had, but I have no clue if it is even any good.

Military Academy (0)
Artifact
Multikicker 3W
Military Academy enters the battlefield with a Funding counter on it for each time it was kicked.
At the beginning of your end-step, put X 1/1 white soldier creature tokens with vigilance onto the battlefield, where X is the number of Funding counters on Military Academy.

[Mara Kalat]

This is an idea I had, but I have no clue if it is even any good.

Military Academy (0)
Artifact
Multikicker 3W
Military Academy enters the battlefield with a Funding counter on it for each time it was kicked.
At the beginning of your end-step, put X 1/1 white soldier creature tokens with vigilance onto the battlefield, where X is the number of Funding counters on Military Academy.

Kind of weird to have it be an artifact and not, say, an Enchantment or a Land or something.
But I like it! It's sort of a cross between Assemble the Legion and Orochi Hatchery.



Also, compared to Assemble the Legion it is kind of weak. Granted, Assemble the Legion is stupidly strong after a turn or two, but this means that you might be able to drop your Multikicker cost a bit without things getting too crazy.

[WP&P]

What if, instead of creating tokens that have vigilance, instead it gave a boost "Soldier creatures you control have vigilance"?

Then you could have a few different kinds of Academies, with others giving other abilities like first strike or lifelink. These would need to have a non-zero casting cost, though, as they would become playable without paying any kicker.

If zero cost is to be retained, then maybe use a token creature type that is unique to them. "Penguin creatures you control have renown 1" for instance. That way you don't create accidental uber-combos with existing creature types.

I agree that it should be an enchantment rather than artifact; maybe an enchant land since it has a locational flavor.

[Re'ozul]

Interesting Idea there: Trying for a more agressive costing

Military Education (1W)
Enchantment
Multikicker 1W
Military Education enters the battlefield with a Funding counter on it for each time it was kicked.
At the beginning of your upkeep, put X 1/1 white soldier creature tokens onto the battlefield, where X is the number of Founding counters on it.
Soldiers you control have vigilance.

Martial Education 2W
Multikicker 2W
Martial Education enters the battlefield with a Funding counter on it for each time it was kicked.
At the beginning of your upkeep, put X 1/1 white soldier creature tokens onto the battlefield, where X is the number of Founding counters on it.
Soldiers you control have Double Strike.

Other versions (only with their respective costs, multikicker is always the same as casting cost - and the thing they give) - also could be in other colors, though I have trouble coming up with names for those.

Group tactics (2W) - Flanking
Survival Training (2W) - Bushido 1
Psychologic Mastery (3W) - Intimidate
Medical Training (2W) - Lifelink

[chetoos]

I want to know everyone's opinion of this card:
3WRG, legendary creature (Don't have names or creature types yet, just trying to make a commander)
_____'s power and toughness are each equal to the number of creatures you control
WWRRGG, T: Choose up to 3 token creatures you control. For each of those creatures, put a token onto the battlefield that is a copy of that creature.
*/*

[Re'ozul]

It's an intriguing creature.

CMC 6 still seems a bit much even if you consider its possible power, 1WRG might suffice. The ability itself is okay, though feels a bit weird with needing 3 creatures to be fully good and 2 creatures to reach Trostani power level.

[Atifexe]

Otherworldly Abomination - 0
Creature - Eldrazi Horror
Cumulative Upkeep - Sacrifice a permanent. (At the beginning of your upkeep, put an age counter on this permanent, then sacrifice it unless you sacrifice a permanent for each age counter on it.)
Whenever a player sacrifices a permanent, put a +1/+1 counter on Otherworldly Abomination.
As long as Otherworldly Abomination has 4 or more +1/+1 counters on it, it has Annihilator X, where X is the number of age counters on it.
1/1

A little bit of a bookkeeping nightmare, what with having two types of counters on it. Also, probably undercosted. Thoughts?

[Re'ozul]

I can really only see that in a token deck, thematically in an eldrazi spawn deck. I wouldn't actually say its undercosted, in fact it might be way too costly.

[TaiyouShinobi]

So I don't really want to spam this board, so I want to ask what the acceptable time to wait before posting a new card here is.

That said, I think the Abomination is just that. All I care about is if I can produce food for it. And if I can add counters artificially, it seems bonkers. I think I might be pretty terrified of this late game.

[SixFootTurkey]

Giant wall of text, since I'm responding to basically all of the last page...

What do you guys think of this color-shifted (but not really) charm? It's got Dangerous Wager, Lava Spike, and Assault Strobe, but it's black!

To my knowledge, double strike has never appeared in black. When considering a black double strike card, I think I would make it a standalone card so you can have more text. (Maybe something like 'target creature gains double strike and "when this creature deals combat damage lose that much life and sacrifice it at end of combat" until end of turn'. Also, I would probably reword the damage to loss of life (more in black's flavor).

Had a card idea I came up with...
Each player exiles the top card of his or her library. Until end of turn, he or she may play that card.

That could be changed to 'until your next upkeep' to allow your opponent the chance to play non-instant/flash cards. The other issue is that often the opponent doesn't have mana left up to cast an instant speed card even if they do draw one.

Or you might have an enchantment with 'at the beginning of each player's upkeep, that player exiles the top card of their library, they may play that card until the end of their turn...'

Uncommon makes sense for the one-time sorcery, an enchantment version might encroach on rare territory, or the mythic uncommon slot.

I'd definitely go with red though, as they've given some of blue's more conditional card draw over to red. (Rummaging and the exile-play mechanic here.)

I had a cute little idea: [Fickle Muse]

I definitely like the idea, but it's complex enough to require additional thought before I say too much about it. I will say that one must consider card draw spells (or just cantrips) that would allow you to take it back from your opponent before they get a chance to attack with it. That, and any means of making all players skip their draw steps would make this thing kind of silly. (I don't think they have more than one or two, but there are a few 'target player skips their next draw step' cards, and it would limit future design space.)

Another way of wording this for similar effect could be: "Whenever Fickle Muse deals combat damage to a player, draw a card, then defending player gains control of Fickle Muse and untaps it." This would get around a few edge cases, and is probably cleaner unless you want instant speed change of control to be relevant.

I have recently been listening to a podcast called "Re-Making Magic" that is all about card design, and they had a contest to develop a Legendary Phoenix card. I listened to the episodes too late to get my entry in, to be considered for judging, but I did develop an idea prior to listening to the submissions. Then, after listening, I made a few minor tweaks, to end up at this:

The transform mechanic is used to introduce a delay; when a phoenix dies, it doesn't respawn immediately, but rather it exists as ash for a while.

My overall concept for this is that THE legendary Phoenix would be sort of like the Platonic Form, of which all other Phoenix are Plato's shadows on cave walls. All other Phoenix are in essence manifestations of this Phoenix.

He is a type of Lord, making tribal a possibility, but he attains glory by having other Phoenix make it into your graveyard. In his ash state, he may help stoke his own flames by dumping more bodies in.

Having the Bulwark not also be Legendary is... a bit odd, as it would allow you to have multiple of the same card on the table, making another Phoenix the same turn the previous one 'died' (and became a Bulwark). It looks like you did so to save space to have multiple subtypes, but I think it can just stay as 'Legendary Creature - Phoenix' in that state. (Or if you must, just 'Incarnation' or another subtype.) This also means you can get back multiple Bulwarks whenever a single Phoenix dies (even another Ousia Phoenix), which seems to me that this card removes a lot of the drawback of being a legendary creature.

Minor, but Bulwark's upkeep should probably be reworded to "At the beginning of your upkeep, reveal the top card of your library. If it's a Phoenix card, put it into your graveyard, otherwise exile it." (This is mostly to make it cleaner, but it also makes it so you don't have weird interactions with exiling a card from the top of your library if it matters.) Alternatively you could do something with exiling non Phoenix cards that enter your graveyard, and just have it mill you for one.

I kind of like the idea of having Bulwark's tap ability deal damage to all players, not just a target player. This may be more befitting the bonfire like rebirth.

Ousia may be a real word, but it's a doozy...

It feels like semantics, but it's not really a 'lord', as those typically boost other creatures of their type; this is more of a 'Phoenix's matter' card.

This card... seems to have a lot of parts to it, even for a legendary creature. It has a three total keywords, two unique conditional transformations, two different graveyard matters mechanics, something to do during your upkeep, and the ability to ping a player...

I don't have a lot of suggestions atm, but it's a rather complex card so I'm going to mull it over for the time being.

Oh, one other note on the +1/+0; in the non-lord iteration (where it's just a self-buff), it's akin to fire breathing which feels very apt.

This is an idea I had, but I have no clue if it is even any good.

Military Academy (0)
Artifact
Multikicker 3W
Military Academy enters the battlefield with a Funding counter on it for each time it was kicked.
At the beginning of your end-step, put X 1/1 white soldier creature tokens with vigilance onto the battlefield, where X is the number of Funding counters on Military Academy.

On someone else mentioning Assemble the Legion, I want to point out the difference between EoT and upkeep; this will immediately produce a chump blocker if nothing else.

I think it's more in flavor with current mtg to have it as an enchantment, but I'd love to hear others' thoughts on that. A land wouldn't make sense with kicker, but it would work as 'Muster Field' with a [cost] to add counters or make tokens...

Are you set on multikicker? It's an old mechanic that hasn't been seen in a bit, and I know some people like designing cards that 'could be made'.

A few general thoughts on where a card like this could go (though some of them might be better on a different card):
- Add counters when non-token soldiers etb, having soldiers deal combat damage to an opponent, or some other reason; pay and remove counters to generate tokens.
- Tap to add a counter; tap to add soldiers equal to counters. (Can add payment to either condition or both.)
- If enchantment, add a base cost to provide color with a slightly reduced kicker cost.

(After writing this I saw your redo; I'll reread those in a bit.)

I want to know everyone's opinion of this card:
3WRG, legendary creature (Don't have names or creature types yet, just trying to make a commander)
_____'s power and toughness are each equal to the number of creatures you control
WWRRGG, T: Choose up to 3 token creatures you control. For each of those creatures, put a token onto the battlefield that is a copy of that creature.
*/*

I keep thinking it would be interesting instead of having the WWRRGG cost, is to have:
WW: Put a copy of target white creature token you control otb.
RR: Put a copy of target red creature token you control otb.
GG: Put a copy of target green creature token you control otb.

The not tapping and more versaitilty might justify the initial CMC.

Otherworldly Abomination - 0
Creature - Eldrazi Horror
Cumulative Upkeep - Sacrifice a permanent. (At the beginning of your upkeep, put an age counter on this permanent, then sacrifice it unless you sacrifice a permanent for each age counter on it.)
Whenever a player sacrifices a permanent, put a +1/+1 counter on Otherworldly Abomination.
As long as Otherworldly Abomination has 4 or more +1/+1 counters on it, it has Annihilator X, where X is the number of age counters on it.
1/1

A little bit of a bookkeeping nightmare, what with having two types of counters on it. Also, probably undercosted. Thoughts?

I'm trying to think of a way to make it so you can tie both counters into one (sacrificing based on number of +1/+1 counters for instance), but the upkeep cost seems to grow out of hand rather quickly every time... maybe allowing multiple menas of 'paying' the upkeep cost? (Sacrifice a permanent, discard a card, or lose a life for each counter.)

As to someone mentioning adding counters artificially, at the very least you can proliferate it...

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Aaaand, that's the last page... This seems like a good time to end the post. (I'm not going to look up and see how long it is... <.<)

[Re'ozul]

On someone else mentioning Assemble the Legion, I want to point out the difference between EoT and upkeep; this will immediately produce a chump blocker if nothing else.

I think it's more in flavor with current mtg to have it as an enchantment, but I'd love to hear others' thoughts on that. A land wouldn't make sense with kicker, but it would work as 'Muster Field' with a [cost] to add counters or make tokens...

Are you set on multikicker? It's an old mechanic that hasn't been seen in a bit, and I know some people like designing cards that 'could be made'.

A few general thoughts on where a card like this could go (though some of them might be better on a different card):
- Add counters when non-token soldiers etb, having soldiers deal combat damage to an opponent, or some other reason; pay and remove counters to generate tokens.
- Tap to add a counter; tap to add soldiers equal to counters. (Can add payment to either condition or both.)
- If enchantment, add a base cost to provide color with a slightly reduced kicker cost.

(After writing this I saw your redo; I'll reread those in a bit.)

I'm not dead set on Multikicker, it was just the easiest thing that sprang to my mind.
My remakes went back to the upkeep being important and I didn't like that completely, I just did it due to the cheaper cost.
They could just be enchantments for their cost with "(cost),tap: put a counter on it, only as a sorcery." and then have the tokens come in at your EoT.

The conditional counters you suggest are functional but not thematic. I wanted the feel of having to invest directly into the education to get more things out of it.