Design a Card

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Asthanius
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Re: Design a Card

Postby Asthanius » 11 May 2015, 16:47

Just wondering what people think of my cycle of dual lands. I wanted to make duals that acted differently than the ones everyone else makes, where they just come in tapped unless X requirement is met.
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Mara Kalat
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Re: Design a Card

Postby Mara Kalat » 11 May 2015, 19:25

Asthanius wrote:Just wondering what people think of my cycle of dual lands. I wanted to make duals that acted differently than the ones everyone else makes, where they just come in tapped unless X requirement is met.


I absolutely LOVE the Level Up mechanic, so I'm all over these.
They need two mana before they even start generating mana themselves though, which seems a bit slow considering stuff like, say, Coastal Tower, starts generating mana on the second turn.

Maybe tweak the levels a bit? Making it 1-3 and 4+ for the double?

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Re: Design a Card

Postby steric hindrance » 11 May 2015, 19:43

Perhaps have them have "Add {1} to your mana pool" for levels 0-1? That way you don't have to wait to draw other lands to be able to use them.

I also appreciate that you can use the lands as a mana sink if you aren't doing anything in the early game, like the storage lands (but less broken).
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Re: Design a Card

Postby AdmiralMemo » 11 May 2015, 19:47

Yeah, Colorless at first seems fine, and colored after leveling up. It's pretty good for fixing, as if you have the one color, you can level up to get the other. :) And once it's gotten to Level 2, it can start using its own mana to level itself up.
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Asthanius
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Re: Design a Card

Postby Asthanius » 11 May 2015, 19:47

I tried 1-3 and 4+, but I felt that it ramped you too quickly.

I'll try the colorless mana idea and see how the templating looks.

Edit: Here are the new versions.
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Re: Design a Card

Postby AdmiralMemo » 12 May 2015, 04:14

Looks good to me, mechanically. :)
Regarding the names, I like them, except for "Fissured Lowland" and "Shallow Marsh"

For the UB one, I think the flavor should be something more like "Brackish Marsh"
For the RW one, I don't know what to suggest in its place, but "Fissured Lowland" just seems a bit off to my Vorthos sense for some reason

Of course, you can take or leave this advice, as these are your cards. :)
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Asthanius
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Re: Design a Card

Postby Asthanius » 12 May 2015, 07:55

The UB one definitely works.

As for the RW one, I can go with Fissured Prairie, if that works better.

Edit: Like this.
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Re: Design a Card

Postby AdmiralMemo » 12 May 2015, 08:41

It's not the "Lowland" that's actually bothering me. It's the "Fissured" part.

See, I'm looking at all the lands I've seen that generate red mana that are not on specialized planes (like Ravnica, Theros, etc.) have either mountains or lava in their name/art. A "Fissured" thing would have neither, despite being tectonic action. But then I saw cards like "Rugged Prarie" and "Scabland" and thought maybe it's less universal than I thought. So I guess "Fissured" kind of works. So, I guess ignore my second suggestion?
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Asthanius
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Re: Design a Card

Postby Asthanius » 12 May 2015, 09:06

To be honest, I wasn't sure of the Lowland part, anyway. It sounded odd to me. But yeah, from what I've read (from official sources), colored mana doesn't necessarily come from any place that has a mountain or swamp or whatever, but instead comes from places where someone or something has given it a meaning that matches up with that color.

To elaborate, I remember reading something in Uncharted Realms about a mage and his teacher in a jail, with their mana sources cut off from them, so they couldn't cast spells. The mage found a loose brick or something, and saw a skull behind it, which let him use black mana, since it has an associated meaning of death.

So basically, that's why lands like City of Brass can exist. They have associated meanings.
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Re: Design a Card

Postby WP&P » 12 May 2015, 17:25

I like the fixed lands better, but I still think that they might be too cumbersome to be useful. One minor suggestion would be to let the Level Up cost be colorless mana, instead of hybrid mana. Then, these lands become useful for color fixing, for which you might want to spend a turn or two sink mana into them. With the hybrid cost, though, it makes it seem like you've got to have your mana colors fixed (at least partially) with other lands.

As for the name thing, I like "fissured" as a red indicator. However, combined with "lowlands" it doesn't seem to make sense, because the lowlands is where all the eroded soil washes down to and collects. Fissures here would collect silt and fill up. What about "Fissured Escarpment"? That would imply a higher piece of land, where the fissures would drain and stay open.
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Re: Design a Card

Postby Asthanius » 12 May 2015, 17:44

I actually just decided to go with Fissured Prairie, but thanks!

Also, the point of these lands is to basically be slower (but eventually better) versions of the filter lands from Lorwyn.

For example, compare Flooded Grove with Kelp Forest.

If they used colorless mana to Level Up, it'd lead to a deck that uses colorless ramp to play 5 colors, and I don't want that. I'm working on a custom set, and these are supposed to be the common land cycle.
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Re: Design a Card

Postby Re'ozul » 14 May 2015, 06:11

When trying to sleep last night the following popped into my head.
We have vial of dragonfire, but nothing really specific to the breath of each dragonlord.

Therefore I lay awake for another 30 minutes and thought up the following cards.
Each is an instant at rare, and has Strive (1) (It costs 1 more to cast for each target beyond the first.)

Dromoka's Breath (WG)
Permanents opponents control lose shroud and hexproof until the beginning of your next upkeep.
Any number of target creatures can not attack or block until the beginning of your next upkeep.

Silumgar's Breath (UB)
Put 2 -1/-1 counters on any number of target creatures.

Kolaghan's Breath (BR)
Deal 3 damage to any number of target creatures.

Ojutai's Breath (WU)
Tap any number of target creatures. They don't untap during their controller's next untap step.

Atarka's Breath (RG)
Deal an amount of damage equal to twice the total amount of mana spent to cast Atarka's breath divided as you choose among any number of target creatures.

Reasonings:
Dromoka: A form of revealing light and the oppressive rays stuck in my head. Likely still a bit weak.
Silumgar: Poison 'nuff said.
Kolaghan: Lightning bolt breath
Ojutai: Lord of winter
Atarka: guided Fireball
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Re: Design a Card

Postby Asthanius » 14 May 2015, 07:30

Dromoka's Breath doesn't work the way you want it to. As part of casting a spell, you need to choose targets. Therefore, the opponent's creature's won't lose shroud and hexproof until after targets have already been chosen.

Atarka's Breath is interesting, although the rules don't allow you to choose to deal 0 damage to a creature this way, so it seems a little too limited.
From the rules:
Rule 601.2d wrote:If the spell requires the player to divide or distribute an effect (such as damage or counters) among one or more targets, the player announces the division. Each of these targets must receive at least one of whatever is being divided.
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Re: Design a Card

Postby Re'ozul » 15 May 2015, 03:52

Asthanius wrote:Dromoka's Breath doesn't work the way you want it to. As part of casting a spell, you need to choose targets. Therefore, the opponent's creature's won't lose shroud and hexproof until after targets have already been chosen.

Atarka's Breath is interesting, although the rules don't allow you to choose to deal 0 damage to a creature this way, so it seems a little too limited.
From the rules:
Rule 601.2d wrote:If the spell requires the player to divide or distribute an effect (such as damage or counters) among one or more targets, the player announces the division. Each of these targets must receive at least one of whatever is being divided.


Right, crap. Those two are one big headache for interesting effects.
I guess I could just leave the first part and make the actual effect an "of your choice" one. (Though I don't like it.)

I also wasn't sure if that division rule exists. I think I could still leave it as is though. It still works as large removal (base 4 damage +1 for each strive).
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Re: Design a Card

Postby Asthanius » 15 May 2015, 08:25

Re'ozul wrote:I also wasn't sure if that division rule exists. I think I could still leave it as is though. It still works as large removal (base 4 damage +1 for each strive).


Look at it this way: The more mana you spend on Atarka's Breath, the less damage you can assign to each creature. Eventually, it gets to a point where most of the targeted creatures aren't being dealt much damage. The only amounts of mana that seem worthwhile (when not against tokens) are the original 2 mana cost (4 to one creature), and paying 3 mana (6 between two creatures).

What I would do is have the spell have the extra effect of making creatures dealt damage this way unable to block this turn, which makes higher costs viable.
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Re: Design a Card

Postby Aarhg » 31 May 2015, 17:21

Hey all, check this guy out. I designed him to be a commander for an enchantment deck. He might be a tad strong, but enchantments deserve the love.
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Re: Design a Card

Postby Mara Kalat » 31 May 2015, 19:46

Aarhg wrote:Hey all, check this guy out. I designed him to be a commander for an enchantment deck. He might be a tad strong, but enchantments deserve the love.

I quite like him, kind of reminds me of the Edgewalker. Nicely done!
And I don't think he's too strong, especially these days.

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Re'ozul
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Re: Design a Card

Postby Re'ozul » 02 Jun 2015, 03:32

I like Vinos, though he would only be the 6th Bird that doesn't have flying (i think).

Edgewalker is fine as well.
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Re: Design a Card

Postby Mara Kalat » 02 Jun 2015, 04:05

Oh, the Edgewalker was actually a card from Scourge, I just linked it because Vinos reminded me of it.

I quite like the run of Breath cards you came up with Re'ozul, although some of the effects seem stronger than the others (e.g. 2 -1/-1 counters vs. 3 damage) but it's always fun to see cycles of cards.

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Re'ozul
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Re: Design a Card

Postby Re'ozul » 10 Jun 2015, 08:54

How would you price this?

Unchanging Loyalty - Enchantment
Whenever you would remove loyalty counters from a planeswalker you control to activate one of its abilities, you may instead pay an amount of mana equal to twice that number to activate that ability.
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Re: Design a Card

Postby Mara Kalat » 10 Jun 2015, 10:26

Hmmm, an interesting concept. Planeswalkers are all over the colour pie as are alternate costs... but colourless enchantments would look weird. I guess I would perhaps see it more in Blue/White/Black than Red/Green, so perhaps something along the lines of a Blue, a hybrid White-Black and two to three colourless?
Just a thought though, interested to hear what other people think of it.

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Re: Design a Card

Postby Aarhg » 10 Jun 2015, 10:44

Re'ozul wrote:How would you price this?

Unchanging Loyalty - Enchantment
Whenever you would remove loyalty counters from a planeswalker you control to activate one of its abilities, you may instead pay an amount of mana equal to twice that number to activate that ability.

That's a tough one. 4WW maybe? The fact that you can pay any color of mana on any planeswalker seems a little weird to me though.

What if you made it an aura with "enchant planeswalker you control"? I'm not entirely sure how it would be worded, but I think it would at least be a little easier to balance for a single walker.
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Re: Design a Card

Postby WP&P » 10 Jun 2015, 17:05

What if you tie the activation cost to the planeswalker's casting cost? I.e. "When you remove a loyalty counter from a planeswalker you control, you may pay that planeswalker's full casting cost (including color of mana in that cost) and then add one loyalty counter to that planeswalker."

That would make the stronger planswalkers harder to abuse - Liliana would love it, esp. when black has creatures that can double the mana output of swamps! But the generally high activation cost would mean that the enchantment itself can be cheaper, maybe 4 total.

Color-wise I think this is very white-flavored, a sense of duty and dedication to the cause.
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Re: Design a Card

Postby TaiyouShinobi » 10 Jun 2015, 22:49

So, I've been kicking this idea around for a while and I'm wondering what people think. I have really no idea how to word it so I'm just going to throw out the concept as best as I can.

Grasp the Unreal [or something like that] (3)
Enchantment
Spells on the stack may be targeted as if they were creatures, with power and toughness equal to its converted mana cost. If a spell would be destroyed, exiled or have it's toughness reduced below 0, it is countered instead and placed in the graveyard.

//Special rule for this one:
If the enchantment itself (Grasp the Unreal), would be destroyed before a spell on the stack targeting another spell further down on the stack resolves, the spell will still continue to treat the targeted spell as a valid target and the P/T of the spell remains until they have resolved.

More or less this would give all colors (mostly... green may be an exception here) access to counter-magic and blue a bit more to work with. Additionally, this effect is for all players so you have to be careful when using this so it doesn't get used against you as well (thus the low casting cost).

Right now, this is a colorless enchantment as I think it would be strange to give something that benefits all colors an individual color. I'm also debating giving it flash, but I'm okay if it doesn't get that.

So, is this a reasonable card? Should it be changed or reworded? And would it be something that you might play, if so, how do you see it being used? I'm also looking for a rarity for it, but right now I'm thinking Rare should be good. Let me know.
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Mara Kalat
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Re: Design a Card

Postby Mara Kalat » 10 Jun 2015, 23:58

TaiyouShinobi wrote:Grasp the Unreal [or something like that] (3)
Enchantment
Spells on the stack may be targeted as if they were creatures, with power and toughness equal to its converted mana cost. If a spell would be destroyed, exiled or have it's toughness reduced below 0, it is countered instead and placed in the graveyard.

//Special rule for this one:
If the enchantment itself (Grasp the Unreal), would be destroyed before a spell on the stack targeting another spell further down on the stack resolves, the spell will still continue to treat the targeted spell as a valid target and the P/T of the spell remains until they have resolved.


That is definitely a rare, and an interesting concept...
It is very convoluted though, and I'm not sure if it would really help all the colours evenly. Direct creature destruction or burn spells are very much the domain of black and red. Being able to target spells as if they were creatures doesn't really do much for green or white...

An easier way to achieve the same effect would be something like...
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