Generals of Dareth
A custom MtG block for constructed and limited play
One of the Generals of Dareth
Set Name:Generals of Dareth
Block: Set 1 of 3 in the Dareth Block
Number of Cards: 249
Estimated Release: April, 2015 (Beta)
Three Letter Code: GEN
Theme: Tactical Creature Combat
New Mechanics: Vanguard, Reverberate, Unity, Dominance
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Last Update: March, 2015
Project Status: In Development (All 249 cards have been through the initial design phase. Are now being balanced and tweaked in preparation for the playtesting phase)
Block Information
This block is a 'bottom up' design, as compared to the 'top-down' designs that MtG has been putting out these past several years. As a bottom-up block, I currently have no flavor, story, art, card names, or anything else for this block as of yet - it's being built from the ground up based solely on the mechanics of the cards and their interactions with eachother. Flavor, names, art, etc. will all be added later on.
This block will eventually be part of my own 'Custom Standard', in which my first custom block and my custom core set will be combined with this block to provide a cohesive constructed environment.
New Mechanics
Generals of Dareth introduces three new mechanics - vanguard, unity, and reverberate.
Vanguard(Attacking creatures with vanguard must be blocked, if able, before attacking creatures without vanguard can be blocked.)
First of all, I would remiss if I did not credit MTGS user Lord of Atlantis with this mechanic. I had been toying with several combat-centric keywords for awhile when he posted a mechanic called Vanguard that functioned very similarly to this, and I fell in love with it. I spoke with him via PMs at that time and received his blessing to use this mechanic in a future set - this one!
Vanguard needs some rules clarifications. The current rules entry for vanguard is:
509.1x If at least one attacking creature has vanguard as the declare blockers step begins, the only creatures that assign as blockers in that step are those assigned to block attacking creatures with vanguard. After that step, instead of proceeding to the combat damage step, the phase gets a second declare blockers step. The only creatures that assign as blockers in that step are the remaining creatures not assigned to block attacking creatures with vanguard as the first declare blockers step began, and creatures can only block during that step if all attacking creatures with vanguard that could be blocked were blocked during the first declare blockers step. After the second declare blockers step, the phase proceeds to the combat damage step.
Unity(When this creature enters the battlefield, you may activate an ability of a creature that shares a creature type with it without paying that ability's activation cost)
Unity is a mechanic that I used in my now cancelled custom cube. While I couldn't get the cube itself to work right due to some major missteps with multi-color themes, I still am quite fond of some of the mechanics from the cube, unity more than any other. This mechanic has high potential for abuse when mixed with actual MtG cards (the invoke cycle from RoE comes to mind) but for the purposes of play within this set, as well as play within my 'custom standard', this mechanic should be fun and balanced.
Reverberate(Whenever you cast a spell with the same converted mana cost as this card, you may cast this card from your graveyard without paying its mana cost.)
This is the final new mechanic for this set. Another mechanic that could surely be abused in eternal formats, I think this mechanic will work well within the block and within my 'custom standard'. This mechanic should make combat even more interesting, being able to combo Reverberate cards off of your combat tricks (of which there are many)
Dominance(Whenever a creature attacks and isn't blocked, [EFFECT])
Dominance is a late addition to the set, in a way. Many cards had the trigger 'when this attacks and isn't blocked...', enough so that it made sense to make that an ability word. The addition of this mechanic leads to very little functionality change.
Feedback and Development Help Wanted
I am looking for any and all feedback that can be offered by the MtGS community. Good, bad, indifferent - I want to hear it all.
First off, I get that you want to further your design skills or whatever, but doing a bottom up block is a bad iidea especially for you. The thing that drew me in on Caeia aside from the fact that I kinda know you IRL, is that it was very intriguing flavor. The art you found for the cards, your overall presentation, the fact that among all those mono-color cards there was one random Eldrazi there just to say "hey guys, guess what's coming next?" all made it a very cool block. These cards have none of that - there's nothing interesting about these cards except for their mechanical interactions, which I understand is the whole point but that doesn't make it less boring. And your ideas are good - just find some art, some real names, etc. to where there is more of a presentation for people to be excited about.
Review of the cards to follow when I get a bit of time.
First off, I get that you want to further your design skills or whatever, but doing a bottom up block is a bad iidea especially for you. The thing that drew me in on Caeia aside from the fact that I kinda know you IRL, is that it was very intriguing flavor. The art you found for the cards, your overall presentation, the fact that among all those mono-color cards there was one random Eldrazi there just to say "hey guys, guess what's coming next?" all made it a very cool block. These cards have none of that - there's nothing interesting about these cards except for their mechanical interactions, which I understand is the whole point but that doesn't make it less boring. And your ideas are good - just find some art, some real names, etc. to where there is more of a presentation for people to be excited about.
Review of the cards to follow when I get a bit of time.
Still waiting on that feedback...
I'm sorry this isn't an interesting set for you - you may enjoy it more once it has had flavor added in, but this is the way I want to design because it's an area where I could grow as a designer - hopefully some on this forum are interested in providing feedback or even contributing to the design process, but if not I have no problem working on this on my own and waiting to post cards until flavor is added in.
I'm a big fan of the blog, lots of interesting ideas. The idea of a very combat based set certainly looks solid though the decision to not have removal at common could really hurt your limited enviroment. Avacyn Restored had very weak removal at common to help push the soulbond mechanic but this lead to some very clunky games full of board stalls and situations where dealing with an opponents creature was near impossible.
Keep up the good work, I'll make some card reviews when I get time.
I'm a big fan of the blog, lots of interesting ideas. The idea of a very combat based set certainly looks solid though the decision to not have removal at common could really hurt your limited enviroment. Avacyn Restored had very weak removal at common to help push the soulbond mechanic but this lead to some very clunky games full of board stalls and situations where dealing with an opponents creature was near impossible.
Keep up the good work, I'll make some card reviews when I get time.
I'm glad someone is interested! I've got a lot more done on the set and will post some more soon, but please do provide whatever feedback you can to what's posted already!
As to the lack of removal at common - it's a risk, and playtesting may show it doesn't work, but the idea is that hopefully it'll be more interactive. Many common creature spells are, for all intents and purposes, removal - the difference being that they are still creatures and promote that creature combat interaction.
So, work has stalled on this project as the past 6 months or so have been a whirlwind of ups and downs in my career and family life. (and with a promotion and potentially another baby on the way, this isn't likely to change any time soon). I've really been missing custom card design and have been wanting to put some more work into this project, so I'm going to try to ignore the craziness of the real world for a little bit and give this project some much needed attention.
Today I want to talk about the Planeswalkers that will exist within the set. Planeswalkers are always tricky, and approaching them from a bottom-up perspective makes them more so, since Planeswalkers are by nature a top-down design. That said, I think I've got some solid ideas that can work well within the environment.
Planeswalker
Planeswalker1RW
Planeswalker - [NAME] (M)
+1: Up to one target creature gains double strike until end of turn.
-1: Until your next turn, damage is not removed from creatures during the cleanup step.
-7: CARDNAME deals damage to each creature that has been damaged this turn equal to that creature's toughness. You gain that much life.
Starting Loyalty: 3
One of two planeswalkers that will be included in the set, this concept for a planeswalker is one that I've had in the wings for awhile. I love the idea of persistent damage on creature, much like wither/infect but without the power debuff. This probably goes back to how much I loved WotC's Star Wars TCG.
I've tried to create an aggressively costed offensive planeswalker with unique abilities and a devastating ultimate. It doesn't naturally protect itself, which is intentional given its aggressive nature and low cost. I'm hoping that people find the -1 ability as interesting as I do. I worry that the ultimate isn't worded appropriately, but that can always be fixed.
Planeswalker
Planeswalker3BG
Planeswalker - [NAME] (M)
+2: Target creature must be blocked this turn if able.
0: Put a 2/2 green and black Pygmy creature token with deathtouch onto the battlefield.
-1: Regenerate any number of target creatures.
-8: You get an emblem with "Whenever a creature you control attacks and isn't blocked, destroy target creature."
Starting Loyalty: 3
This guy is a toolbox of useful/fun green and black things to do. I am pretty sold on having 4 loyalty abilities, but the creature token will probably need to go down to 1/1 (or maybe 2/1 - I want them to be threatening offensively, so that the decision to block or not block is a tough one.)
Ultimately I think those two walkers will function pretty well in the combat-heavy environment that I have in mind here. Curious to know the community's thoughts on these
I'll hopefully be posting a round of cards for another color (I should do blue next but blue is annoyingly difficult) soon. If anyone finds this project interesting and wants to contribute some thoughts here, please be my guest. And if anyone finds it really interesting and want to come aboard as a contributing designer to the entire project, PM me
RW: As I've commented earlier, I don't believe the minus ability will be all that useful by itself. What does it actually accomplish on an ordinary board state? It's completely fine to just add "~ deals 1 damage to target creature or player" to the ability. The +1 is potentially very powerful, but I'm fine with it and would test it first. The ultimate, again, does nothing by itself. That is unacceptable for an ultimate. I suggest the following (combat-oriented) ultimate: "You get an emblem with "Whenever a permanent you control is dealt damage, it deals that much damage to target creature or player.'"
BG: Is this the guy from Crucible? I liked that guy, this one needs a bit more work. I suggest:
+1: Put a 1/1 black Pygmy creature token with deathtouch onto the battlefield.
-1: Regenerate target creature. It must be blocked this turn if able.
+Stuff
Again, your version has the problem that some of the abilities don't do anything on their own. The -1 is just a very bad version of Venser's -1, and the +2 is negligible.
RW: As I've commented earlier, I don't believe the minus ability will be all that useful by itself. What does it actually accomplish on an ordinary board state? It's completely fine to just add "~ deals 1 damage to target creature or player" to the ability. The +1 is potentially very powerful, but I'm fine with it and would test it first. The ultimate, again, does nothing by itself. That is unacceptable for an ultimate. I suggest the following (combat-oriented) ultimate: "You get an emblem with "Whenever a permanent you control is dealt damage, it deals that much damage to target creature or player.'"
I love that ultimate for this card, I think I'll use that.
As for the -1... I really want to play with it. It may turn out to be terrible and useless, but it's something I want to at least try.
BG: Is this the guy from Crucible? I liked that guy, this one needs a bit more work. I suggest:
+1: Put a 1/1 black Pygmy creature token with deathtouch onto the battlefield.
-1: Regenerate target creature. It must be blocked this turn if able.
+Stuff
Again, your version has the problem that some of the abilities don't do anything on their own. The -1 is just a very bad version of Venser's -1, and the +2 is negligible.
On this guy, the -1 is one of those things that's only gonna be useful every once in awhile, but I intend for one of the things green and black do in this set is play with regeneration, so this should play well into that.
As for the +2 being negligible, I disagree. First off, it's adding 2 loyalty counters instead of 1, which is underrate. Second, it's pseudo-protecting the walker by taunting what would otherwise be a threat, and if you're playing the walker you probably already have a deathtouch creature on the field either from it's token, or from the fact that you're playing B/G.
It may take years, but eventually I'm going to finish this project, mainly because it's one that I'd really like to play with as a finished product. So, although I haven't had a whole lot of time to put into custom design, I thought I'd share what I've got.
Again, these are initial designs and are certainly not perfect, much like the white cards (which, btw, thanks for the feedback ultimoron - I'll keep all that in mind when I come back around to white during my first development pass). Names are obviously placeholders (LOL Delver). Additionally, I have no designs for blue rares or mythics yet - blue is very hard to design for me. Anyone who feels like contributing designs is more than welcome to do so.
CU01 — Unblockable Reverberate Trick1U
Sorcery (C)
Target creature can’t be blocked this turn.
Reverberate (Whenever you cast a spell with the same converted mana cost as this card, you may cast this card from your graveyard without paying its mana cost. Then exile it.)
CU02 — Reverberate Card Draw3U
Sorcery (C)
Draw two cards, then discard a card.
Reverberate (Whenever you cast a spell with the same converted mana cost as this card, you may cast this card from your graveyard without paying its mana cost. Then exile it.)
CU03 — Off Color (G)3UU
Creature (C) 1G: Target creature gains trample until end of turn. Activate this ability only once each combat.
3/3
CU04 — Off Color (R)1U
Creature (C) 2R: Switch target creature’s power and toughness until end of turn. Activate this ability only once each combat.
1/2
CU05 — LOL DelverU
Creature (C)
Flying
CU05 — LOL Delver can’t attack or block unless you discard an instant or sorcery card from your hand.
3/2
CU06 — Cycling Trick2U
Instant (C)
Creatures your opponents control get -3/-0 until end of turn.
Cycling 2(2, Discard this card: Draw a card.)
CU07 — Flight Trick (G)1U
Instant (C)
Target creature gains flying until end of turn. If you control a forest, that creature also gains deathtouch until end of turn.
CU08 — {Spell Pierce}U
Instant (C)
Counter target noncreature spell unless its controller pays 2.
CU09 — Unsummon (R)2U
Instant (C)
Return target creature you control to its owner’s hand. If you control a mountain, CU09 — Unsummon (R) deals damage equal to that creature’s power to target player.
CU10 — French Vanilla Biggie3UU
Creature (C)
Spells you cast that target CU10 — French Vanilla Biggie cost 1 less to cast.
4/3
CU11 — Flash Unity2U
Creature (C)
Flash (You may cast this spell any time you could cast an instant.)
Unity (When this creature enters the battlefield, you may activate an ability of a creature that shares a creature type with it without paying that ability’s activation cost.)
1/1
CU12 — Unity Hexproof3U
Creature (C)
Unity (When this creature enters the battlefield, you may activate an ability of a creature that shares a creature type with it without paying that ability’s activation cost.) 2U, T: Target creature gains hexproof until end of turn.
1/1
CU13 — Unblock2UU
Instant (C)
Remove target blocking creature from combat. Creatures it was blocking that hadn’t become blocked by another creature this combat become unblocked.
CU14 — Twiddle Variant1U
Instant (C)
Tap or untap target permanent.
Draw a card.
CU15 — French Vanilla2U
Creature (C)
Flying, hexproof
2/1
CU16 — Mill3U
Creature (C)
Whenever an opponent casts a spell, that player puts the top card of his or her library into his or her graveyard.
1/3
CU17 — {Hysterical Blindness}2U
Instant (C)
Creatures your opponents control get -4/-0 until end of turn.
UU02 — Recursive Unity3U
Creature (U)
Unity (When this creature enters the battlefield, you may activate an ability of a creature that shares a creature type with it without paying that ability’s activation cost.)
2UU, T: Return UU02 — Recursive Unity to your hand.
2/2
UU03 — Unblockable1U
Creature (U)
UU03 — Unblockable can’t be blocked.
Whenever UU03 — Unblockable deals combat damage to a player, you may draw a card. If you do, discard a card.
1/1
UU04 — Mind Control Variant3UU
Enchantment — Aura (U)
Enchant Creature
You control enchanted creature.
Enchanted creature must attack each turn if able.
UU05 — Flying Trick3U
Sorcery (U)
Creatures you control gain flying until end of turn.
Reverberate (Whenever you cast a spell with the same converted mana cost as this card, you may cast this card from your graveyard without paying its mana cost. Then exile it.)
UU06 — Friendly Fire Tutor2U
Instant (U)
Search your library for an instant or sorcery card, reveal it, and put it into your hand. Then shuffle your library.
UU06 — Friendly Fire Tutor costs 2 less to cast if an opponent has cast a black or white spell this turn.
UU07 — Counter (G)1UU
Instant (U)
Counter target spell.
If you control a forest, search your library for a basic land card and put it onto the battlefield tapped. Then shuffle your library.
UU08 — Defender (R)2U
Creature (U)
Defender
Prevent all combat damage that would be dealt to UU08 — Defender (R).
Whenever UU08 — Defender (R) blocks, you may pay R. If you do, put a 2/1 red Elemental creature token onto the battlefield.
0/2
A few things you'll notice - again, per the theme of the set, there is a lot of focus on creature combat, which is one of the reasons that there isn't a counter spell that can target creature spells at common. You'll also notice that blue doesn't get vanguard at all, but gets more reverberate, which is intentional (some colors will get a bit of both, but others will get a large amount of either one or the other). Finally, you'll see that there is still some cycling in there - again, cycling will likely be removed (although if it isn't, it will be expanded upon to where it doesn't feel random).
Let me know what you think - keep in mind these aren't anywhere near finished - and of course if you have any designs you'd like to contribute, feel free.
I remember we had a Cockatrice thing going a looong time ago but I forgot and I'm wondering if the software used to make custom cards be playtested has improved.
I remember we had a Cockatrice thing going a looong time ago but I forgot and I'm wondering if the software used to make custom cards be playtested has improved.
Anything happen to Caeia?
Eventually this set will be able to playtested through cockatrice. I'm actually designing it as the last block in my own custom standard format (which would include Caeia block and my own custom core set.)
As far as Cockatrice goes, there hasn't been much that's been improved on as far as I'm aware. I'm still uncertain on how to get a plugin to append the XML cards list, so any of the plugins I create are standalone and don't function with any other sets. That said, I do have cockatrice plugins for my own sets (Caeia Block and my custom core set) as well Apoquallyp's Iamur and Grim Tidings. I am working on plugins for his Esparand set, though that is going slow as I'm having difficulty finding the cockatrice exporter for MSE once again.
Caeia went through a few changes this past summer based on playtesting that Apoquallyp and I had done, but there's always room for improvement - if you ever want to fire it up some time, PM me. My schedule isn't the best but if I know to plan ahead for something I can usually make time to be available and I always love playing with these cards.
If I remember correctly, using the MagicHack, MSE to Cockatrice converter (FOUND HERE) will allow for a custom set to be added to the existing card pool rather than simply replacing them.
If I remember correctly, using the MagicHack, MSE to Cockatrice converter (FOUND HERE) will allow for a custom set to be added to the existing card pool rather than simply replacing them.
I played with that a bit early in its development - didn't realize it was in a working state yet. I'll play with it.
Once you're finished with this, lmk. I would like to keep a toe in Custom Card Creation and I had fond memories of working the set with you, milo hobo, and Apoquallyp.
EDIT: Wow, we worked on Caeia back in 2012, and I totally skipped over 2013. O_o didn't realize it was so long ago.
Once you're finished with this, lmk. I would like to keep a toe in Custom Card Creation and I had fond memories of working the set with you, milo hobo, and Apoquallyp.
EDIT: Wow, we worked on Caeia back in 2012, and I totally skipped over 2013. O_o didn't realize it was so long ago.
Not for nothing, but Caeia actually got start in April 2011. It's been a lot longer than it feels like.
I'll definitely let you know when this set has made it along - it's going a lot slower because I'm in a job now where I no longer have the opportunity to work on this stuff at work.
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Regarding this set, I've got the first design pass for blue done. As with all my initial design passes, this is far from complete, it's just a skeleton of the basic design for each card which will be revisited many times during development passes, each card being refined and developed (or occasionally completely scrapped and redesigned from the ground up). That said, here's what we've got:
CU01 — Unblockable Reverberate Trick1U
Sorcery (C)
Target creature can’t be blocked this turn.
Reverberate (Whenever you cast a spell with the same converted mana cost as this card, you may cast this card from your graveyard without paying its mana cost. Then exile it.)
CU02 — Reverberate Card Draw3U
Sorcery (C)
Draw two cards, then discard a card.
Reverberate (Whenever you cast a spell with the same converted mana cost as this card, you may cast this card from your graveyard without paying its mana cost. Then exile it.)
CU03 — Off Color (G)3UU
Creature (C) 1G: Target creature gains trample until end of turn. Activate this ability only once each combat.
3/3
CU04 — Off Color (R)1U
Creature (C) 2R: Switch target creature’s power and toughness until end of turn. Activate this ability only once each combat.
1/2
CU05 — LOL DelverU
Creature (C)
Flying
CU05 — LOL Delver can’t attack or block unless you discard an instant or sorcery card from your hand.
3/2
CU06 — Cycling Trick2U
Instant (C)
Creatures your opponents control get -3/-0 until end of turn.
Cycling 2(2, Discard this card: Draw a card.)
CU07 — Flight Trick (G)1U
Instant (C)
Target creature gains flying until end of turn. If you control a forest, that creature also gains deathtouch until end of turn.
CU08 — {Spell Pierce}U
Instant (C)
Counter target noncreature spell unless its controller pays 2.
CU09 — Unsummon (R)2U
Instant (C)
Return target creature you control to its owner’s hand. If you control a mountain, CU09 — Unsummon (R) deals damage equal to that creature’s power to target player.
CU10 — French Vanilla Biggie3UU
Creature (C)
Spells you cast that target CU10 — French Vanilla Biggie cost 1 less to cast.
4/3
CU11 — Flash Unity2U
Creature (C)
Flash (You may cast this spell any time you could cast an instant.)
Unity (When this creature enters the battlefield, you may activate an ability of a creature that shares a creature type with it without paying that ability’s activation cost.)
1/1
CU12 — Unity Hexproof3U
Creature (C)
Unity (When this creature enters the battlefield, you may activate an ability of a creature that shares a creature type with it without paying that ability’s activation cost.) 2U, T: Target creature gains hexproof until end of turn.
1/1
CU13 — Unblock2UU
Instant (C)
Remove target blocking creature from combat. Creatures it was blocking that hadn’t become blocked by another creature this combat become unblocked.
CU14 — Twiddle Variant1U
Instant (C)
Tap or untap target permanent.
Draw a card.
CU15 — French Vanilla2U
Creature (C)
Flying, hexproof
2/1
CU16 — Mill3U
Creature (C)
Whenever an opponent casts a spell, that player puts the top card of his or her library into his or her graveyard.
1/3
CU17 — {Hysterical Blindness}2U
Instant (C)
Creatures your opponents control get -4/-0 until end of turn.
MU01 — Mythic DragonUU
Legendary Creature — Dragon (M)
Flying, trample
Whenever MU01 — Mythic Dragon attacks and isn’t blocked, put a dominance counter on it.
As long as MU01 — Mythic Dragon has a dominance counter on it, it has indestructible and “Whenever MU01 — Mythic Dragon attacks and isn’t blocked, take an extra turn after this one. MU01 — Mythic Dragon can’t attack during extra turns.”
4/4
MU02 — Extra Turn Reverb5UU
Sorcery (M)
Take an extra turn after this one.
Reverberate (Whenever you cast a spell with the same converted mana cost as this card, you may cast this card from your graveyard without paying its mana cost. Then exile it.)
MU03 — Combat PumpUU
Creature (M)
Whenever you cast a spell during combat, MU03 — Combat Pump gets +3/+3 and gains hexproof until end of turn.
2/2
RU01 — {Illisionist’s Gambit}2UU
Instant (R)
Cast RU01 — {Illisionist’s Gambit}only during the declare blockers step on an opponent’s turn.
Remove all attacking creature from combat and untap them. After this phase, there is an additional combat phase. Each of those creatures attacks that combat if able. They can’t attack you or a planeswalker you control that combat.
RU02 — Defensive Combo Trick2U
Instant (R)
Draw a card for each attacking creature you don’t control. Instant spells you cast during combat cost 2 less to cast until end of turn.
Reverberate (Whenever you cast a spell with the same converted mana cost as this card, you may cast this card from your graveyard without paying its mana cost. Then exile it.)
RU03 — Mind Control Variant3UU
Enchantment — Aura (R)
Enchant Creature
You control enchanted creature.
Enchanted creature must attack each turn if able.
RU04 — Mill Creature4U
Creature (R)
RU04 — Mill Creature can’t be blocked.
Whenever RU04 — Mill Creature deals combat damage to a player, you may prevent that damage. If you do, that player puts the top seven cards of his or her library into his or her graveyard.
3/5
RU05 — Offensive Clone3UU
Creature (R)
Whenever RU05 — Offensive Clone attacks, you may have if become a copy of target creature until end of turn.
0/3
RU06 — Combat Penalty Enchantment3U
Enchantment (R)
Whenever a creature attacks and isn’t blocked, put it on top of its controller’s library unless that player pay 3.
RU07 — Unity Shapeshifter2U
Creature (R)
As RU07 — Unity Shapeshifter enters the battlefield, choose a creature type.
RU07 — Unity Shapeshifter is the chosen type in addition to its other types.
Unity (When this creature enters the battlefield, you may activate an ability of a creature that shares a creature type with it without paying that ability’s activation cost.)
2/2
UU02 — Recursive Unity3U
Creature (U)
Unity (When this creature enters the battlefield, you may activate an ability of a creature that shares a creature type with it without paying that ability’s activation cost.) 2UU, T: Return UU02 — Recursive Unity to your hand.
2/2
UU03 — Unblockable1U
Creature (U)
UU03 — Unblockable can’t be blocked.
Whenever UU03 — Unblockable deals combat damage to a player, you may draw a card. If you do, discard a card.
1/1
UU04 — Hexproof Reverb1U
Instant (U)
Target creature gains hexproof until end of turn.
Draw a card.
Reverberate (Whenever you cast a spell with the same converted mana cost as this card, you may cast this card from your graveyard without paying its mana cost. Then exile it.)
UU05 — Flying Trick3U
Sorcery (U)
Creatures you control gain flying until end of turn.
Reverberate (Whenever you cast a spell with the same converted mana cost as this card, you may cast this card from your graveyard without paying its mana cost. Then exile it.)
UU06 — Friendly Fire Tutor2U
Instant (U)
Search your library for an instant or sorcery card, reveal it, and put it into your hand. Then shuffle your library.
UU06 — Friendly Fire Tutor costs 2 less to cast if an opponent has cast a black or white spell this turn.
UU07 — Counter (G)1UU
Instant (U)
Counter target spell.
If you control a forest, search your library for a basic land card and put it onto the battlefield tapped. Then shuffle your library.
UU08 — Defender (R)2U
Creature (U)
Defender
Prevent all combat damage that would be dealt to UU08 — Defender (R).
Whenever UU08 — Defender (R) blocks, you may pay R. If you do, put a 2/1 red Elemental creature token onto the battlefield.
0/2
A few things that I already see that will need to be addressed in the first development pass:
Unity is a fairly big theme within this set, however there aren't very many creatures with activated abilties to really make use of the mechanic. In devlopment, I'll need to try to change several of the cards here to be creatures with activated abilities.
Cycling doesn't fit here - there's already too much going on. All cards that have been designed up to this point with cycling will be redesigned, and no further cards will be designed with cycling.
It seems like there are a lot of similar mana costs - I'll need to change things up to create more variety in costs.
On this guy, the -1 is one of those things that's only gonna be useful every once in awhile, but I intend for one of the things green and black do in this set is play with regeneration, so this should play well into that.
I thought about this a bit and want to pick up on our last discussion again. You said that the ability works very well with the set's theme having to do with regeneration. But the very core of planeswalkers is that they transcend the limitation to one plane. A planeswalker can be based on a certain theme (because of his or her origins), or work well with the set's theme (for example Liliana of the Veil's +1), but should have use outside of that block. For example, if you have a Simic planeswalker, he might do something with +1/+1 counters, but wouldn't have an ability that affects only creatures with Evolve.
When someone looks at your BG-walker, his immediate thought is "That -1 is useless," and that's not something you want to happen. How about "Until your next turn, if a creature you control would be destroyed, regenerate it."?
Looking at your last batch of cards, I think that CU04 leads to too complicated board states to be a common. I think it's fine at uncommon, or if you want to have it stay at common, make it only affect itself or make it a trigger that triggers at the beginning of combat.
I really like Reverberate. I looked at MU02 and thought it was broken first, but realized "No, actually it isn't." That card might be sweet in Tron (if only I didn't hate that deck with fiery passion).
RU03 looks more UR to me. You could then also put haste on it, which would be sweet.
While I have been more or less absent from the internet for the past several months, I have continued working on this project. At this point, all but a few multi-colored cards have gone through their first design pass. Keep in mind this is all undeveloped, raw design and is being built from the bottom up, so has no flavor assigned.
Sharing the black cards now - green and red to come soon after.
CB01 — Off Color (W)1B
Creature (C) W: Target attacking creature gains first strike until end of turn. Activate this ability only each combat.
3/1
CB02 — Off Color (G)3B
Creature (C) G: Target blocking creature gains reach until end of turn. Activate this ability only once each combat.
3/4
CB03 — Vanguard First StrikeBB
Creature (C)
First strike, vanguard (Attacking creatures with vanguard must be blocked, if able, before attacking creatures without vanguard.)
3/1
CB04 — Anti combat life loss1B
Instant (C)
Target player loses 1 life for each attacking creature he or she controls.
Cycling B(B, Discard this card: Draw a card.)
CB05 — Vanguard Punisher4B
Creature (C)
Vanguard (Attacking creatures with vanguard must be blocked, if able, before attacking creatures without vanguard.)
Whenever CB05 — Vanguard Punisher becomes blocked, target player loses 2 life.
4/3
CB06 — Combat Mill2B
Instant (C)
Target player puts the top card of his or her library into his or her graveyard for each attacking or blocking creature you control.
Cycling 2(2, Discard this card: Draw a card.)
CB07 — Compost (W)BB
Sorcery (C)
As an additional cost to cast CB07 — Compost (W), sacrifice a creature.
Search your library for a basic swamp card and put it onto the battlefield tapped. Then shuffle your library.
If you control a plains, gain life equal to that creature’s toughness.
CB08 — Vanguard Creature (G)3B
Creature (C)
Vanguard (Attacking creatures with vanguard must be blocked, if able, before attacking creatures without vanguard.)
As long as you control a forest, CB08 — Vanguard Creature (G) has hexproof.
3/3
CB09 — Sign In Blood Variant2B
Sorcery (C)
Reverberate (Whenever you cast a spell with the same converted mana cost as this card, you may cast this card from your graveyard without paying its mana cost. Then exile it.)
Target player draws two cards and loses 2 life.
CB10 — Duress Reverberate1B
Sorcery (C)
Reverberate (Whenever you cast a spell with the same converted mana cost as this card, you may cast this card from your graveyard without paying its mana cost. Then exile it.)
Target opponent reveals his of her hand. You choose a noncreature, nonland card from it. That player discards that card.
CB11 — Reverb IntimidateB
Instant (C)
Reverberate (Whenever you cast a spell with the same converted mana cost as this card, you may cast this card from your graveyard without paying its mana cost. Then exile it.)
Target creature you control gains intimidate until end of turn.
CB12 — Rabid Rats VariantBB
Creature (C) T: Put a -1/-1 counter on target blocking creature.
1/1
CB13 — {Cloak of Confusion}1B
Enchantment — Aura (C)
Enchant creature
Whenever enchanted creature attacks and isn’t blocked, you may have it assign no combat damage this turn. If you do, defending player discards a card at random.
CB14 — Regen Bear3B
Creature (C)
CB14 — Regen Bear attacks each turn if able. 3B: Regenerate CB14 — Regen Bear (The next time this creature would be destroyed this turn, it isn’t. Instead tap it, remove all damage from it, and remove it from combat.)
2/2
CB15 — Pain GuyBB
Creature (C) T: Each opponent loses 1 life.
1/1
CB16 — Unearth Creature4B
Creature (C)
Whenever CB16 — Unearth Creature attacks, return target creature card from your graveyard to your hand.
4/3
CB17 — Punish Attackers2B
Instant (C)
Target player loses 1 life for each attacking creature he or she controls.
MB01 — Mythic Dragon4BB
Legendary Creature (M)
Flying, deathtouch
Whenever MB01 — Mythic Dragon attacks and isn’t blocked, put a dominance counter on it.
As long as MB01 — Mythic Dragon has a dominance counter on it, it has indestructible and “Whenever MB01 — Mythic Dragon attacks and isn’t blocked, put five -1/-1 counters on each creature you don’t control.”
4/4
MB02 — Necro Demon6BBB
Creature (M)
Haste
Whenever MB02 — Necro Demon attacks, you may return target creature card from your graveyard to the battlefield, tapped and attacking. That creature gains vanguard. (Creatures with vanguard must be blocked, if able, before creatures without vanguard)
6/6
MB03 — Combat Confidant1BB
Enchantment (M)
Whenever an opponent attacks, you may reveal the top card of your library and put that card into your hand. If you do, you lose life equal to its converted mana cost.
RB01 — Meat Wagon3B
Creature (R)
Whenever RB01 — Meat Wagon attacks or blocks, put two 2/2 black Zombie creature tokens onto the battlefield.
1/5
RB02 — Vanguard Rare2BB
Creature (R)
Vanguard (Attacking creatures with vanguard must be blocked, if able, before attacking creatures without vanguard.)
Whenever a player casts a spell that targets RB02 — Vanguard Rare, you may pay 2 life. If you do, change the target of that spell to a creature you control.
3/5
RB03 — Reverb Extraction2BB
Sorcery (R)
Reverberate (Whenever you cast a spell with the same converted mana cost as this card, you may cast this card from your graveyard without paying its mana cost. Then exile it.)
Name a nonland card. Search target player’s graveyard, hand, and library for all cards with that name and exile them. Then that player shuffles his of her library.
RB04 — Counter Removal3BB
Instant (R)
Remove all counters from all permanents. Target player loses 1 life for each counter removed this way.
RB05 — Zombie Token Guy1BB
Creature (R)
Remove a creature card from your graveyard, T: Put a 2/2 black Zombie creature token onto the battlefield.
Sacrifice a nontoken creature: Creatures you control get +1/+1 and gain deathtouch until end of turn.
0/3
RB06 — Reanimate Demon6BB
Creature (R)
Indestructible
When RB06 — Reanimate Demon enters the battlefield, exile it unless you sacrifice three creatures.
Whenever RB06 — Reanimate Demon attacks, return target creature card from your graveyard to the battlefield.
6/6
RB07 — Grave Effort2BB
Enchantment (R)
At the beginning of each upkeep, all creatures you control gain flying if a creature card in any graveyard has flying. The same is true for deathtouch, double strike, first strike, haste, hexproof, indestructible, intimidate, landwalk, lifelink, protection, reach, trample, and vigilance.
UB01 — Reverberate Reanimate2BB
Sorcery (U)
Reverberate (Whenever you cast a spell with the same converted mana cost as this card, you may cast this card from your graveyard without paying its mana cost. Then exile it.)
Return target creature card from your graveyard to the battlefield.
UB02 — Intimidate Trick2B
Instant (U)
Creatures you control gain intimidate until end of turn.
Cycling 1B(1B, Discard this card: Draw a card.)
UB04 — Pump Trick (W) XBB
Instant (U)
Target creature you control gets +X/-X until end of turn. If you control a Plains, that creature gains indestructible until end of turn.
UB05 — Friendly Fire Landkill2B
Enchantment — Aura (U)
Enchant land
When enchanted land becomes tapped, destroy it. Its owner loses 2 life.
Whenever enchanted land would be destroyed, if it is a Mountain or an Island you may return UB05 — Friendly Fire Landkill to your hand.
UB06 — Vanguard Creature3B
Creature (U)
Vanguard (Attacking creatures with vanguard must be blocked, if able, before attacking creatures without vanguard.)
Whenever UB06 — Vanguard Creature dies, target player loses 2 life.
3/2
UB07 — Vanguard Creature1B
Creature (U)
Vanguard (Attacking creatures with vanguard must be blocked, if able, before attacking creatures without vanguard.)
UB07 — Vanguard Creature gets +1/+1 for each attacking creature you control.
1/1
UB08 — Vanguard2BB
Creature (U)
Sacrifice a creature, T: Target creature gains vanguard and gets +2/+2 until end of turn. (Attacking creatures with vanguard must be blocked, if able, before attacking creatures without vanguard.)
0/3
I have updated the OP and am going to be in the process of posting all of the cards in the set over the course of the next day or so.
The Design phase of the set is complete - all 249 cards have been initially designed, been named and been given art and basic flavor. (As this set was developed from the bottom-up, the flavor isn't super strong, and most cards still need flavor text.) At this point, the set is in the Development phase, meaning I'm going to be taking a look at each card in the set and making revisions to power, toughness, casting costing, templating, etc. for the purposes and balancing and just to generally make the set more interesting. Following the development phase will be the playtesting phase, in which I'll put out a cockatrice plugin and enlist the help of any who are interested in testing the set to actually do so.
I'm looking for MtGS users who are willing to give feedback - any and all feedback is appreciated.
----
As a starting point, I'm posting up renders of three of the five titular Generals (the other 2 are planeswalkers).
General Arx Tyrus 2WWBB
Legendary Creature - Human Advisor (R)
Whenever you cast a creature spell, you may put a -1/-1 counter on target creature.
Whenever a creature you control attacks and isn't blocked, put a -1/-1 counter on any number of target creatures.
4/6
The Sisters Ashwin 2UURR
Legendary Creature - Human Advisor (R)
Whenever you cast a creature spell, put a 1/1 red and blue Elemental creature token with "Instant and Sorcery spells you cast cost 1 less to cast."
Whenever a creature you control attacks and isn't blocked, you may search your library for an instant or sorcery card, reveal it, and put it into your hand. Then shuffle your library.
4/6
Sveya Jaegerinde 3GGUU
Legendary Creature - Elf Advisor (R)
Creature spells you cast have flash.
Whenever you cast a creature spell during your declare attackers step, it enters the battlefield tapped and attacking.
Whenever a creature you control attacks and isn't blocked, draw cards equal to the number of creatures target player controls.
4/6
I'm curious to know people's thoughts on this cycle. My own thoughts are that Sveya's last ability needs to be redesigned, and that all three of them could stand to be mythic.
I understand that this is a cycle, but does it have to be so damnably tight?
2CCDD mana costs and Advisor creature type, sure. "Attacks and isn't blocked" works flavorwise, because it's a war-themed set and they're supposed to be generals and all. But why do they all have the same (nonsquare!) p/t? Why does the UG one randomly have one extra ability (that works better on defense anyway)? Why does the spellslinger UR one reward you for putting lots of creature cards in your deck?
If the other two are planeswalkers, it makes even less sense for this to be a tight cycle. Using different triggers and p/t helps demonstrate the strengths and weaknesses of each two-color pairing 'army'.
Also, creatures are all declared blockers at the same time, so Vanguard would probably require some extensive rules-workarounds to cover annoying corner cases. In particular, an attacking vanguard plus other attacking creatures and/or blocking creatures with requirements attached gets complicated.
I understand that this is a cycle, but does it have to be so damnably tight?
2CCDD mana costs and Advisor creature type, sure. "Attacks and isn't blocked" works flavorwise, because it's a war-themed set and they're supposed to be generals and all. But why do they all have the same (nonsquare!) p/t? Why does the UG one randomly have one extra ability (that works better on defense anyway)? Why does the spellslinger UR one reward you for putting lots of creature cards in your deck?
If the other two are planeswalkers, it makes even less sense for this to be a tight cycle. Using different triggers and p/t helps demonstrate the strengths and weaknesses of each two-color pairing 'army'.
Point well taken. I agree there could be more to differentiate them - I'll be working to vary their mana cost, power and toughness, and abilities in the near future.
Also, creatures are all declared blockers at the same time, so Vanguard would probably require some extensive rules-workarounds to cover annoying corner cases. In particular, an attacking vanguard plus other attacking creatures and/or blocking creatures with requirements attached gets complicated.
I worried that Vanguard would need some rules changing and clarifications - I'll be sure before the set is done to have a rules section that will detail how this should work.
-------------------------
Also, I've updated the first two post with the 'complete' spoiler of the set. At this point, nothing has been developed upon. I expect that, upon a closer look, there'll be many cards that are fairly overpowered, several that are underpowered, many with redundant functions, and a lack of variety in mana costs. My hope is that, after the first development pass, these issues will begin to be taken care of and the set will approach a 'playable' state.
That said, I'm also posting the white cards here as a starting point for development.
Arbiter of Attrition5WW
Creature — Angel (R)
Flying, lifelink
Opponents can’t cast spells during combat. Needs flavor text
5/5
Blessing of Redemption2WW
Enchantment — Aura (R)
Enchant Creature
Whenever enchanted creature attacks and isn’t blocked, return target creature or planeswalker card from your graveyard to the battlefield.
Captain of the Lost Legion3WW
Creature — Human Soldier (R) 1W, T: Put a 1/1 white Soldier creature token onto the battlefield.
Creature tokens you control get +2/+2 and have vigilance. Needs flavor text.
2/4
Captain’s Call3W
Sorcery (C)
Put three 1/1 white Soldier creature tokens onto the battlefield. Needs flavor text
Chance for Glory1W
Instant (C)
Target creature you control gets +1/+1 for each blocked creature you control and gains lifelink until end of turn. Needs flavor text.
Cleansing Ritual1W
Instant (C)
Exile target enchantment. If you control a Mountain, you may also exile target artifact. Needs flavor text.
Darethan Stoutheart1W
Creature — Human Soldier (C)
Unity (When this creature enters the battlefield, you may activate an ability of a creature you control that shares a creature type with it without paying that ability’s activation cost.) Needs flavor text
1/1
Dwarf Guardsman1W
Creature — Dwarf Soldier (U)
Defender (This creature can’t attack.)
When Dwarf Guardsman blocks a creature, you may pay 1W. If you do, draw a card. Needs flavor text.
0/6
Dwarven Onslaught2W
Instant (U)
Creatures you control get +2/+0 until end of turn. If you control a Mountain, those creatures gain haste until end of turn. Needs flavor text.
Elite Reinforcements4WWW
Instant (R)
Put three 1/1 white Soldier creature tokens with unity onto the battlefield, tapped and attacking. (When a creature with unity enters the battlefield, you may activate an ability of a creature you control that shares a creature type with it without paying that ability’s activation cost.)
Fearless Foe-Slayer2WW
Creature — Dwarf Warrior (U) 1W, Sacrifice Fearless Foe-Slayer: Exile target attacking or blocking creature.
Whenever a player casts a blue or green spell, you may return Fearless Foe-Slayer from the graveyard to your hand.
1/3
Fearlessness2W
Enchantment — Aura (C)
Enchant creature
Enchanted creature gets +0/+4 and has vanguard. (Attacking creatures with vanguard must be blocked, if able, before attacking creatures without vanguard.) Needs flavor text.
Fiercebeard Warrior2W
Creature — Dwarf Warrior (C) 2R: Target attacking creature gains double strike until end of turn. Activate this ability only once each combat. Needs flavor text.
2/2
Frontline Infantry1W
Creature — Human Soldier (C)
Vanguard (Attacking creatures with vanguard must be blocked, if able, before attacking creatures without vanguard.) Needs flavor text.
2/1
Frontline Warbeast4WW
Creature — Beast (C)
Vanguard (Attacking creatures with vanguard must be blocked, if able, before attacking creatures without vanguard.)
When Frontline Warbeast becomes blocked, untap it.
3/5
Griffin Skyguard2W
Creature — Griffin Soldier (C)
Flying 1W, Exile Griffin Skyguard: Target unblocked attacking creature becomes blocked. (This ability works on creatures that can’t be blocked.) Needs flavor text.
2/1
Harrying Warpriest2W
Creature — Human Cleric (C)
Unity (When this creature enters the battlefield, you may activate an ability of a creature you control that shares a creature type with it without paying that ability’s activation cost.) 1W, T: Tap target creature.
1/1
Healer’s Insight1W
Instant (U)
Choose One — You gain 1 life for each attacking creature you control; or you gain 1 life for each blocking creature an opponent controls.
Cycling W(W, Discard this card: Draw a card.) A cleric in the camp can turn the tide of any battle.
Impeding Terrain1W
Instant (C)
Tap target creature. If you control a swamp, put a -1/-1 counter on it. Needs flavor text.
Imposing Paladin2W
Creature — Human Soldier (C)
As long as you control a swamp, Imposing Paladin has intimidate. (It can’t be blocked except by artifact creatures and/or creatures that share a color with it.)
3/2
Inspirational Valiant3W
Creature — Human Soldier (C)
Unity (When this creature enters the battlefield, you may activate an ability of a creature you control that shares a creature type with it without paying that ability’s activation cost.) 2W, T: Target creature gains vigilance until end of turn.
2/4
Lethal Templar2W
Creature — Human Knight (U)
Vanguard (Attacking creatures with vanguard must be blocked, if able, before attacking creatures without vanguard.) 3B: Lethal Templar gains deathtouch until end of turn.
2/2
Lost Legion Paragon2WW
Creature — Rhino Warrior (U)
Vanguard (Attacking creatures with vanguard must be blocked, if able, before attacking creatures without vanguard.)
Exile Lost Legion Paragon from your graveyard: Put two 1/1 white Soldier creature tokens onto the battlefield.
2/2
Martial Superiority3W
Enchantment (R)
Creatures you control have lifelink as long as you control two or more attacking creatures.
Creatures you control have first strike as long as you control three or more attacking creatures.
Creatures you control have double strike as long as you control four or more attacking creatures.
Merciless Cavalry3W
Creature — Human Soldier (C) 1B: Put a -1/-1 counter on target blocking creature. Activate this ability only once each combat. Needs flavor text.
1/3
Momentary RespiteW
Instant (C)
Exile target creature you control, then return it to the battlefield under its owner’s control.
Cycling W(W, Discard this card: Draw a card.) Only one heartless would find rest among the dead.
Niveus, the Golden Wind4WWW
Legendary Creature — Dragon (M)
Flying, lifelink
Whenever Niveus, the Golden Wind attacks and isn’t blocked, put a dominance counter on it.
As long as Niveus has a dominance counter on it, it has indestructible and “Whenever Niveus attacks and isn’t blocked, redistribute any number of players’ life totals.” (Each of those players gets one life total back.)
4/4
ParleyW
Instant (R)
Target player skips his or her combat step this turn. We wish to discuss terms.
Piety’s BoonW
Enchantment — Aura (C)
Enchant creature
Enchanted creature gets +2/+1 as long as you control it. Otherwise, it can’t use any activated abilities. Needs flavor text.
Radiant Seraph3WW
Creature — Angel (M)
If another player would gain life, you may gain that much life instead.
If you would gain life, you gain twice that much life instead. Needs flavor text.
1/4
Seasoned Warrior2W
Creature — Human Soldier (C)
Intimidate, first strike Needs flavor text.
2/1
Sudden BoldnessW
Instant (U)
Target creature gains vanguard until end of turn. (Attacking creatures with vanguard must be blocked, if able, before attacking creatures without vanguard.)
Throne of Tyrus2WW
Enchantment (U)
As Throne of Tyrus enters the battlefield, choose a creature type.
Creatures you control are the chosen type and have unity. (When a creature with unity enters the battlefield, you may activate an ability of a creature you control that shares a creature type with it without paying that ability’s activation cost.)
Vanguard Commandant1WW
Creature — Human Soldier (R)
Whenever Vanguard Commandant attacks, target creature gains vanguard until end of turn. (Attacking creatures with vanguard must be blocked, if able, before attacking creatures without vanguard.)
Creatures with vanguard have first strike and lifelink.
2/2
I was hoping you'd show up here! And thanks for the warm welcome back!
Just a little note on Animate Magma:
The current version reads:
Target land becomes a 5/1 red elemental creature with haste until end of turn. It's still a land. Sacrifice it at the beginning of the next end step.
It should be either: Target land you control becomes a 5/1 red elemental creature with haste until the end of turn. It is still a land. Sacrifice it at the beginning of the next end step.
Or: Target land becomes a 5/1 red elemental creature with haste until the end of turn. It's still a land. Its controller sacrifices it at the beginning of the next end step.
Because the current version is a bit mixed up.
Also about Nimbo:
I don't know if this was intentional, but the mandatory clause on Nimbo's Emblem can be quite devastating for its owner, especially when facing a control deck. If the opponent has no creatures, you just can't attack him with that emblem down without losing creatures. I need an explanation here.
Point taken on both. These are all things that I overlooked on initial design, hoping to fix things like this during this development phase. I'll make Nimbo's effect optional, and I'll reword animate magma as suggested.
I'm almost through my first development pass on this - finding a few grammatical errors, a few continuity issues, and make many changes to casting costs, power, toughness, etc.
One thing I'm toying with is turning "Whenever this creatures attacks and isn't blocked, [EFFECT]" into an ability word called Dominance - this at the suggestion of MtGS user Apoquallyp. 15 cards in the set have this functionality, but since it wasn't an intentional 'featured mechanic', these cards aren't equally spread throughout the various color combinations. I'm wondering if that is a bad thing.
I'm also wondering if 4 new 'mechanics' is too much, even if adding the ability word doesn't change the current functionality at all.
I suggested that you'd make an ability word out of "Whenever you cast spell during combat." because that was featured on the blue mythic dude. But if there are 15 cards with "Whenever a creature you control attacks and isn't blocked", that should definitely be an ability word.
I suggested that you'd make an ability word out of "Whenever you cast spell during combat." because that was featured on the blue mythic dude. But if there are 15 cards with "Whenever a creature you control attacks and isn't blocked", that should definitely be an ability word.
And I second that four keywords are not too many.
Oohhhh... yeah I gotcha, I misunderstood what you were talking about on that one then. Still, sounds like I should probably keyword this so I will do that during this first development pass!
-----------------------
The first development pass is complete! This pass fixed some glaring grammatical errors, tweaked some effects, redesigned a few cards, added one new mechanic (Dominance), changed the wording on another mechanic (Vanguard) and tweaked power, toughness, casting costs, etc. across the board.
The spoiler list has been updated, and all cards should have links to their renders. Very interested in any feedback anyone can give!
A custom MtG block for constructed and limited play
One of the Generals of Dareth
Block: Set 1 of 3 in the Dareth Block
Number of Cards: 249
Estimated Release: April, 2015 (Beta)
Three Letter Code: GEN
Theme: Tactical Creature Combat
New Mechanics: Vanguard, Reverberate, Unity, Dominance
-----
Last Update: March, 2015
Project Status: In Development (All 249 cards have been through the initial design phase. Are now being balanced and tweaked in preparation for the playtesting phase)
Block Information
This block is a 'bottom up' design, as compared to the 'top-down' designs that MtG has been putting out these past several years. As a bottom-up block, I currently have no flavor, story, art, card names, or anything else for this block as of yet - it's being built from the ground up based solely on the mechanics of the cards and their interactions with eachother. Flavor, names, art, etc. will all be added later on.
This block will eventually be part of my own 'Custom Standard', in which my first custom block and my custom core set will be combined with this block to provide a cohesive constructed environment.
New Mechanics
Generals of Dareth introduces three new mechanics - vanguard, unity, and reverberate.
Vanguard (Attacking creatures with vanguard must be blocked, if able, before attacking creatures without vanguard can be blocked.)
Unity (When this creature enters the battlefield, you may activate an ability of a creature that shares a creature type with it without paying that ability's activation cost)
Reverberate (Whenever you cast a spell with the same converted mana cost as this card, you may cast this card from your graveyard without paying its mana cost.)
Dominance(Whenever a creature attacks and isn't blocked, [EFFECT])
Feedback and Development Help Wanted
I am looking for any and all feedback that can be offered by the MtGS community. Good, bad, indifferent - I want to hear it all.
My custom sets:
Caeia Block (Released - Beta)
Generals of Dareth (In Design)
My custom sets:
Caeia Block (Released - Beta)
Generals of Dareth (In Design)
Review of the cards to follow when I get a bit of time.
Still waiting on that feedback...
I'm sorry this isn't an interesting set for you - you may enjoy it more once it has had flavor added in, but this is the way I want to design because it's an area where I could grow as a designer - hopefully some on this forum are interested in providing feedback or even contributing to the design process, but if not I have no problem working on this on my own and waiting to post cards until flavor is added in.
My custom sets:
Caeia Block (Released - Beta)
Generals of Dareth (In Design)
Keep up the good work, I'll make some card reviews when I get time.
Are you designing commons? Check out my primer on NWO.
Interested in making a custom set? Check out my Set skeleton and archetype primer.
I also write articles about getting started with custom card creation.
Go and PLAYTEST your designs, you will learn more in a single playtests than a dozen discussions.
My custom sets:
Dreamscape
Coins of Mercalis [COMPLETE]
Exodus of Zendikar - ON HOLD
I'm glad someone is interested! I've got a lot more done on the set and will post some more soon, but please do provide whatever feedback you can to what's posted already!
As to the lack of removal at common - it's a risk, and playtesting may show it doesn't work, but the idea is that hopefully it'll be more interactive. Many common creature spells are, for all intents and purposes, removal - the difference being that they are still creatures and promote that creature combat interaction.
My custom sets:
Caeia Block (Released - Beta)
Generals of Dareth (In Design)
Today I want to talk about the Planeswalkers that will exist within the set. Planeswalkers are always tricky, and approaching them from a bottom-up perspective makes them more so, since Planeswalkers are by nature a top-down design. That said, I think I've got some solid ideas that can work well within the environment.
Planeswalker 1RW
Planeswalker - [NAME] (M)
+1: Up to one target creature gains double strike until end of turn.
-1: Until your next turn, damage is not removed from creatures during the cleanup step.
-7: CARDNAME deals damage to each creature that has been damaged this turn equal to that creature's toughness. You gain that much life.
Starting Loyalty: 3
One of two planeswalkers that will be included in the set, this concept for a planeswalker is one that I've had in the wings for awhile. I love the idea of persistent damage on creature, much like wither/infect but without the power debuff. This probably goes back to how much I loved WotC's Star Wars TCG.
I've tried to create an aggressively costed offensive planeswalker with unique abilities and a devastating ultimate. It doesn't naturally protect itself, which is intentional given its aggressive nature and low cost. I'm hoping that people find the -1 ability as interesting as I do. I worry that the ultimate isn't worded appropriately, but that can always be fixed.
Planeswalker 3BG
Planeswalker - [NAME] (M)
+2: Target creature must be blocked this turn if able.
0: Put a 2/2 green and black Pygmy creature token with deathtouch onto the battlefield.
-1: Regenerate any number of target creatures.
-8: You get an emblem with "Whenever a creature you control attacks and isn't blocked, destroy target creature."
Starting Loyalty: 3
This guy is a toolbox of useful/fun green and black things to do. I am pretty sold on having 4 loyalty abilities, but the creature token will probably need to go down to 1/1 (or maybe 2/1 - I want them to be threatening offensively, so that the decision to block or not block is a tough one.)
Ultimately I think those two walkers will function pretty well in the combat-heavy environment that I have in mind here. Curious to know the community's thoughts on these
I'll hopefully be posting a round of cards for another color (I should do blue next but blue is annoyingly difficult) soon. If anyone finds this project interesting and wants to contribute some thoughts here, please be my guest. And if anyone finds it really interesting and want to come aboard as a contributing designer to the entire project, PM me
My custom sets:
Caeia Block (Released - Beta)
Generals of Dareth (In Design)
BG: Is this the guy from Crucible? I liked that guy, this one needs a bit more work. I suggest:
+1: Put a 1/1 black Pygmy creature token with deathtouch onto the battlefield.
-1: Regenerate target creature. It must be blocked this turn if able.
+Stuff
Again, your version has the problem that some of the abilities don't do anything on their own. The -1 is just a very bad version of Venser's -1, and the +2 is negligible.
Completed sets:
Iamur — The Underwater Set
Overworld — Pirates vs. Octopuses
Esparand — The Sands of Time
Unfinished Sets:
Siege of Ravnica — Eldrazi in Ravnica
Shandalar — The Mana Set
Iamur Reimagined — Iamur v2
You can find more creative projects on my page Antaresdesigns!
I love that ultimate for this card, I think I'll use that.
As for the -1... I really want to play with it. It may turn out to be terrible and useless, but it's something I want to at least try.
On this guy, the -1 is one of those things that's only gonna be useful every once in awhile, but I intend for one of the things green and black do in this set is play with regeneration, so this should play well into that.
As for the +2 being negligible, I disagree. First off, it's adding 2 loyalty counters instead of 1, which is underrate. Second, it's pseudo-protecting the walker by taunting what would otherwise be a threat, and if you're playing the walker you probably already have a deathtouch creature on the field either from it's token, or from the fact that you're playing B/G.
My custom sets:
Caeia Block (Released - Beta)
Generals of Dareth (In Design)
Again, these are initial designs and are certainly not perfect, much like the white cards (which, btw, thanks for the feedback ultimoron - I'll keep all that in mind when I come back around to white during my first development pass). Names are obviously placeholders (LOL Delver). Additionally, I have no designs for blue rares or mythics yet - blue is very hard to design for me. Anyone who feels like contributing designs is more than welcome to do so.
CU01 — Unblockable Reverberate Trick 1U
Sorcery (C)
Target creature can’t be blocked this turn.
Reverberate (Whenever you cast a spell with the same converted mana cost as this card, you may cast this card from your graveyard without paying its mana cost. Then exile it.)
CU02 — Reverberate Card Draw 3U
Sorcery (C)
Draw two cards, then discard a card.
Reverberate (Whenever you cast a spell with the same converted mana cost as this card, you may cast this card from your graveyard without paying its mana cost. Then exile it.)
CU03 — Off Color (G) 3UU
Creature (C)
1G: Target creature gains trample until end of turn. Activate this ability only once each combat.
3/3
CU04 — Off Color (R) 1U
Creature (C)
2R: Switch target creature’s power and toughness until end of turn. Activate this ability only once each combat.
1/2
CU05 — LOL Delver U
Creature (C)
Flying
CU05 — LOL Delver can’t attack or block unless you discard an instant or sorcery card from your hand.
3/2
CU06 — Cycling Trick 2U
Instant (C)
Creatures your opponents control get -3/-0 until end of turn.
Cycling 2 (2, Discard this card: Draw a card.)
CU07 — Flight Trick (G) 1U
Instant (C)
Target creature gains flying until end of turn. If you control a forest, that creature also gains deathtouch until end of turn.
CU08 — {Spell Pierce} U
Instant (C)
Counter target noncreature spell unless its controller pays 2.
CU09 — Unsummon (R) 2U
Instant (C)
Return target creature you control to its owner’s hand. If you control a mountain, CU09 — Unsummon (R) deals damage equal to that creature’s power to target player.
CU10 — French Vanilla Biggie 3UU
Creature (C)
Spells you cast that target CU10 — French Vanilla Biggie cost 1 less to cast.
4/3
CU11 — Flash Unity 2U
Creature (C)
Flash (You may cast this spell any time you could cast an instant.)
Unity (When this creature enters the battlefield, you may activate an ability of a creature that shares a creature type with it without paying that ability’s activation cost.)
1/1
CU12 — Unity Hexproof 3U
Creature (C)
Unity (When this creature enters the battlefield, you may activate an ability of a creature that shares a creature type with it without paying that ability’s activation cost.)
2U, T: Target creature gains hexproof until end of turn.
1/1
CU13 — Unblock 2UU
Instant (C)
Remove target blocking creature from combat. Creatures it was blocking that hadn’t become blocked by another creature this combat become unblocked.
CU14 — Twiddle Variant 1U
Instant (C)
Tap or untap target permanent.
Draw a card.
CU15 — French Vanilla 2U
Creature (C)
Flying, hexproof
2/1
CU16 — Mill 3U
Creature (C)
Whenever an opponent casts a spell, that player puts the top card of his or her library into his or her graveyard.
1/3
CU17 — {Hysterical Blindness} 2U
Instant (C)
Creatures your opponents control get -4/-0 until end of turn.
UU01 — Noncreature counterspell 1U
Instant (U)
Counter target noncreature spell or activated ability.
UU02 — Recursive Unity 3U
Creature (U)
Unity (When this creature enters the battlefield, you may activate an ability of a creature that shares a creature type with it without paying that ability’s activation cost.)
2UU, T: Return UU02 — Recursive Unity to your hand.
2/2
UU03 — Unblockable 1U
Creature (U)
UU03 — Unblockable can’t be blocked.
Whenever UU03 — Unblockable deals combat damage to a player, you may draw a card. If you do, discard a card.
1/1
UU04 — Mind Control Variant 3UU
Enchantment — Aura (U)
Enchant Creature
You control enchanted creature.
Enchanted creature must attack each turn if able.
UU05 — Flying Trick 3U
Sorcery (U)
Creatures you control gain flying until end of turn.
Reverberate (Whenever you cast a spell with the same converted mana cost as this card, you may cast this card from your graveyard without paying its mana cost. Then exile it.)
UU06 — Friendly Fire Tutor 2U
Instant (U)
Search your library for an instant or sorcery card, reveal it, and put it into your hand. Then shuffle your library.
UU06 — Friendly Fire Tutor costs 2 less to cast if an opponent has cast a black or white spell this turn.
UU07 — Counter (G) 1UU
Instant (U)
Counter target spell.
If you control a forest, search your library for a basic land card and put it onto the battlefield tapped. Then shuffle your library.
UU08 — Defender (R) 2U
Creature (U)
Defender
Prevent all combat damage that would be dealt to UU08 — Defender (R).
Whenever UU08 — Defender (R) blocks, you may pay R. If you do, put a 2/1 red Elemental creature token onto the battlefield.
0/2
A few things you'll notice - again, per the theme of the set, there is a lot of focus on creature combat, which is one of the reasons that there isn't a counter spell that can target creature spells at common. You'll also notice that blue doesn't get vanguard at all, but gets more reverberate, which is intentional (some colors will get a bit of both, but others will get a large amount of either one or the other). Finally, you'll see that there is still some cycling in there - again, cycling will likely be removed (although if it isn't, it will be expanded upon to where it doesn't feel random).
Let me know what you think - keep in mind these aren't anywhere near finished - and of course if you have any designs you'd like to contribute, feel free.
My custom sets:
Caeia Block (Released - Beta)
Generals of Dareth (In Design)
I remember we had a Cockatrice thing going a looong time ago but I forgot and I'm wondering if the software used to make custom cards be playtested has improved.
Anything happen to Caeia?
Eventually this set will be able to playtested through cockatrice. I'm actually designing it as the last block in my own custom standard format (which would include Caeia block and my own custom core set.)
As far as Cockatrice goes, there hasn't been much that's been improved on as far as I'm aware. I'm still uncertain on how to get a plugin to append the XML cards list, so any of the plugins I create are standalone and don't function with any other sets. That said, I do have cockatrice plugins for my own sets (Caeia Block and my custom core set) as well Apoquallyp's Iamur and Grim Tidings. I am working on plugins for his Esparand set, though that is going slow as I'm having difficulty finding the cockatrice exporter for MSE once again.
Caeia went through a few changes this past summer based on playtesting that Apoquallyp and I had done, but there's always room for improvement - if you ever want to fire it up some time, PM me. My schedule isn't the best but if I know to plan ahead for something I can usually make time to be available and I always love playing with these cards.
My custom sets:
Caeia Block (Released - Beta)
Generals of Dareth (In Design)
Are you designing commons? Check out my primer on NWO.
Interested in making a custom set? Check out my Set skeleton and archetype primer.
I also write articles about getting started with custom card creation.
Go and PLAYTEST your designs, you will learn more in a single playtests than a dozen discussions.
My custom sets:
Dreamscape
Coins of Mercalis [COMPLETE]
Exodus of Zendikar - ON HOLD
I played with that a bit early in its development - didn't realize it was in a working state yet. I'll play with it.
My custom sets:
Caeia Block (Released - Beta)
Generals of Dareth (In Design)
EDIT: Wow, we worked on Caeia back in 2012, and I totally skipped over 2013. O_o didn't realize it was so long ago.
Not for nothing, but Caeia actually got start in April 2011. It's been a lot longer than it feels like.
I'll definitely let you know when this set has made it along - it's going a lot slower because I'm in a job now where I no longer have the opportunity to work on this stuff at work.
Regarding this set, I've got the first design pass for blue done. As with all my initial design passes, this is far from complete, it's just a skeleton of the basic design for each card which will be revisited many times during development passes, each card being refined and developed (or occasionally completely scrapped and redesigned from the ground up). That said, here's what we've got:
Sorcery (C)
Target creature can’t be blocked this turn.
Reverberate (Whenever you cast a spell with the same converted mana cost as this card, you may cast this card from your graveyard without paying its mana cost. Then exile it.)
CU02 — Reverberate Card Draw 3U
Sorcery (C)
Draw two cards, then discard a card.
Reverberate (Whenever you cast a spell with the same converted mana cost as this card, you may cast this card from your graveyard without paying its mana cost. Then exile it.)
CU03 — Off Color (G) 3UU
Creature (C)
1G: Target creature gains trample until end of turn. Activate this ability only once each combat.
3/3
CU04 — Off Color (R) 1U
Creature (C)
2R: Switch target creature’s power and toughness until end of turn. Activate this ability only once each combat.
1/2
CU05 — LOL Delver U
Creature (C)
Flying
CU05 — LOL Delver can’t attack or block unless you discard an instant or sorcery card from your hand.
3/2
CU06 — Cycling Trick 2U
Instant (C)
Creatures your opponents control get -3/-0 until end of turn.
Cycling 2 (2, Discard this card: Draw a card.)
CU07 — Flight Trick (G) 1U
Instant (C)
Target creature gains flying until end of turn. If you control a forest, that creature also gains deathtouch until end of turn.
CU08 — {Spell Pierce} U
Instant (C)
Counter target noncreature spell unless its controller pays 2.
CU09 — Unsummon (R) 2U
Instant (C)
Return target creature you control to its owner’s hand. If you control a mountain, CU09 — Unsummon (R) deals damage equal to that creature’s power to target player.
CU10 — French Vanilla Biggie 3UU
Creature (C)
Spells you cast that target CU10 — French Vanilla Biggie cost 1 less to cast.
4/3
CU11 — Flash Unity 2U
Creature (C)
Flash (You may cast this spell any time you could cast an instant.)
Unity (When this creature enters the battlefield, you may activate an ability of a creature that shares a creature type with it without paying that ability’s activation cost.)
1/1
CU12 — Unity Hexproof 3U
Creature (C)
Unity (When this creature enters the battlefield, you may activate an ability of a creature that shares a creature type with it without paying that ability’s activation cost.)
2U, T: Target creature gains hexproof until end of turn.
1/1
CU13 — Unblock 2UU
Instant (C)
Remove target blocking creature from combat. Creatures it was blocking that hadn’t become blocked by another creature this combat become unblocked.
CU14 — Twiddle Variant 1U
Instant (C)
Tap or untap target permanent.
Draw a card.
CU15 — French Vanilla 2U
Creature (C)
Flying, hexproof
2/1
CU16 — Mill 3U
Creature (C)
Whenever an opponent casts a spell, that player puts the top card of his or her library into his or her graveyard.
1/3
CU17 — {Hysterical Blindness} 2U
Instant (C)
Creatures your opponents control get -4/-0 until end of turn.
MU01 — Mythic Dragon UU
Legendary Creature — Dragon (M)
Flying, trample
Whenever MU01 — Mythic Dragon attacks and isn’t blocked, put a dominance counter on it.
As long as MU01 — Mythic Dragon has a dominance counter on it, it has indestructible and “Whenever MU01 — Mythic Dragon attacks and isn’t blocked, take an extra turn after this one. MU01 — Mythic Dragon can’t attack during extra turns.”
4/4
MU02 — Extra Turn Reverb 5UU
Sorcery (M)
Take an extra turn after this one.
Reverberate (Whenever you cast a spell with the same converted mana cost as this card, you may cast this card from your graveyard without paying its mana cost. Then exile it.)
MU03 — Combat Pump UU
Creature (M)
Whenever you cast a spell during combat, MU03 — Combat Pump gets +3/+3 and gains hexproof until end of turn.
2/2
RU01 — {Illisionist’s Gambit} 2UU
Instant (R)
Cast RU01 — {Illisionist’s Gambit}only during the declare blockers step on an opponent’s turn.
Remove all attacking creature from combat and untap them. After this phase, there is an additional combat phase. Each of those creatures attacks that combat if able. They can’t attack you or a planeswalker you control that combat.
RU02 — Defensive Combo Trick 2U
Instant (R)
Draw a card for each attacking creature you don’t control. Instant spells you cast during combat cost 2 less to cast until end of turn.
Reverberate (Whenever you cast a spell with the same converted mana cost as this card, you may cast this card from your graveyard without paying its mana cost. Then exile it.)
RU03 — Mind Control Variant 3UU
Enchantment — Aura (R)
Enchant Creature
You control enchanted creature.
Enchanted creature must attack each turn if able.
RU04 — Mill Creature 4U
Creature (R)
RU04 — Mill Creature can’t be blocked.
Whenever RU04 — Mill Creature deals combat damage to a player, you may prevent that damage. If you do, that player puts the top seven cards of his or her library into his or her graveyard.
3/5
RU05 — Offensive Clone 3UU
Creature (R)
Whenever RU05 — Offensive Clone attacks, you may have if become a copy of target creature until end of turn.
0/3
RU06 — Combat Penalty Enchantment 3U
Enchantment (R)
Whenever a creature attacks and isn’t blocked, put it on top of its controller’s library unless that player pay 3.
RU07 — Unity Shapeshifter 2U
Creature (R)
As RU07 — Unity Shapeshifter enters the battlefield, choose a creature type.
RU07 — Unity Shapeshifter is the chosen type in addition to its other types.
Unity (When this creature enters the battlefield, you may activate an ability of a creature that shares a creature type with it without paying that ability’s activation cost.)
2/2
UU01 — Noncreature counterspell 1U
Instant (U)
Counter target noncreature spell or activated ability.
UU02 — Recursive Unity 3U
Creature (U)
Unity (When this creature enters the battlefield, you may activate an ability of a creature that shares a creature type with it without paying that ability’s activation cost.)
2UU, T: Return UU02 — Recursive Unity to your hand.
2/2
UU03 — Unblockable 1U
Creature (U)
UU03 — Unblockable can’t be blocked.
Whenever UU03 — Unblockable deals combat damage to a player, you may draw a card. If you do, discard a card.
1/1
UU04 — Hexproof Reverb 1U
Instant (U)
Target creature gains hexproof until end of turn.
Draw a card.
Reverberate (Whenever you cast a spell with the same converted mana cost as this card, you may cast this card from your graveyard without paying its mana cost. Then exile it.)
UU05 — Flying Trick 3U
Sorcery (U)
Creatures you control gain flying until end of turn.
Reverberate (Whenever you cast a spell with the same converted mana cost as this card, you may cast this card from your graveyard without paying its mana cost. Then exile it.)
UU06 — Friendly Fire Tutor 2U
Instant (U)
Search your library for an instant or sorcery card, reveal it, and put it into your hand. Then shuffle your library.
UU06 — Friendly Fire Tutor costs 2 less to cast if an opponent has cast a black or white spell this turn.
UU07 — Counter (G) 1UU
Instant (U)
Counter target spell.
If you control a forest, search your library for a basic land card and put it onto the battlefield tapped. Then shuffle your library.
UU08 — Defender (R) 2U
Creature (U)
Defender
Prevent all combat damage that would be dealt to UU08 — Defender (R).
Whenever UU08 — Defender (R) blocks, you may pay R. If you do, put a 2/1 red Elemental creature token onto the battlefield.
0/2
A few things that I already see that will need to be addressed in the first development pass:
Any feedback?
My custom sets:
Caeia Block (Released - Beta)
Generals of Dareth (In Design)
I thought about this a bit and want to pick up on our last discussion again. You said that the ability works very well with the set's theme having to do with regeneration. But the very core of planeswalkers is that they transcend the limitation to one plane. A planeswalker can be based on a certain theme (because of his or her origins), or work well with the set's theme (for example Liliana of the Veil's +1), but should have use outside of that block. For example, if you have a Simic planeswalker, he might do something with +1/+1 counters, but wouldn't have an ability that affects only creatures with Evolve.
When someone looks at your BG-walker, his immediate thought is "That -1 is useless," and that's not something you want to happen. How about "Until your next turn, if a creature you control would be destroyed, regenerate it."?
Looking at your last batch of cards, I think that CU04 leads to too complicated board states to be a common. I think it's fine at uncommon, or if you want to have it stay at common, make it only affect itself or make it a trigger that triggers at the beginning of combat.
I really like Reverberate. I looked at MU02 and thought it was broken first, but realized "No, actually it isn't." That card might be sweet in Tron (if only I didn't hate that deck with fiery passion).
RU03 looks more UR to me. You could then also put haste on it, which would be sweet.
Completed sets:
Iamur — The Underwater Set
Overworld — Pirates vs. Octopuses
Esparand — The Sands of Time
Unfinished Sets:
Siege of Ravnica — Eldrazi in Ravnica
Shandalar — The Mana Set
Iamur Reimagined — Iamur v2
You can find more creative projects on my page Antaresdesigns!
While I have been more or less absent from the internet for the past several months, I have continued working on this project. At this point, all but a few multi-colored cards have gone through their first design pass. Keep in mind this is all undeveloped, raw design and is being built from the bottom up, so has no flavor assigned.
Sharing the black cards now - green and red to come soon after.
Creature (C)
W: Target attacking creature gains first strike until end of turn. Activate this ability only each combat.
3/1
CB02 — Off Color (G) 3B
Creature (C)
G: Target blocking creature gains reach until end of turn. Activate this ability only once each combat.
3/4
CB03 — Vanguard First Strike BB
Creature (C)
First strike, vanguard (Attacking creatures with vanguard must be blocked, if able, before attacking creatures without vanguard.)
3/1
CB04 — Anti combat life loss 1B
Instant (C)
Target player loses 1 life for each attacking creature he or she controls.
Cycling B (B, Discard this card: Draw a card.)
CB05 — Vanguard Punisher 4B
Creature (C)
Vanguard (Attacking creatures with vanguard must be blocked, if able, before attacking creatures without vanguard.)
Whenever CB05 — Vanguard Punisher becomes blocked, target player loses 2 life.
4/3
CB06 — Combat Mill 2B
Instant (C)
Target player puts the top card of his or her library into his or her graveyard for each attacking or blocking creature you control.
Cycling 2 (2, Discard this card: Draw a card.)
CB07 — Compost (W) BB
Sorcery (C)
As an additional cost to cast CB07 — Compost (W), sacrifice a creature.
Search your library for a basic swamp card and put it onto the battlefield tapped. Then shuffle your library.
If you control a plains, gain life equal to that creature’s toughness.
CB08 — Vanguard Creature (G) 3B
Creature (C)
Vanguard (Attacking creatures with vanguard must be blocked, if able, before attacking creatures without vanguard.)
As long as you control a forest, CB08 — Vanguard Creature (G) has hexproof.
3/3
CB09 — Sign In Blood Variant 2B
Sorcery (C)
Reverberate (Whenever you cast a spell with the same converted mana cost as this card, you may cast this card from your graveyard without paying its mana cost. Then exile it.)
Target player draws two cards and loses 2 life.
CB10 — Duress Reverberate 1B
Sorcery (C)
Reverberate (Whenever you cast a spell with the same converted mana cost as this card, you may cast this card from your graveyard without paying its mana cost. Then exile it.)
Target opponent reveals his of her hand. You choose a noncreature, nonland card from it. That player discards that card.
CB11 — Reverb Intimidate B
Instant (C)
Reverberate (Whenever you cast a spell with the same converted mana cost as this card, you may cast this card from your graveyard without paying its mana cost. Then exile it.)
Target creature you control gains intimidate until end of turn.
CB12 — Rabid Rats Variant BB
Creature (C)
T: Put a -1/-1 counter on target blocking creature.
1/1
CB13 — {Cloak of Confusion} 1B
Enchantment — Aura (C)
Enchant creature
Whenever enchanted creature attacks and isn’t blocked, you may have it assign no combat damage this turn. If you do, defending player discards a card at random.
CB14 — Regen Bear 3B
Creature (C)
CB14 — Regen Bear attacks each turn if able.
3B: Regenerate CB14 — Regen Bear (The next time this creature would be destroyed this turn, it isn’t. Instead tap it, remove all damage from it, and remove it from combat.)
2/2
CB15 — Pain Guy BB
Creature (C)
T: Each opponent loses 1 life.
1/1
CB16 — Unearth Creature 4B
Creature (C)
Whenever CB16 — Unearth Creature attacks, return target creature card from your graveyard to your hand.
4/3
CB17 — Punish Attackers 2B
Instant (C)
Target player loses 1 life for each attacking creature he or she controls.
MB01 — Mythic Dragon 4BB
Legendary Creature (M)
Flying, deathtouch
Whenever MB01 — Mythic Dragon attacks and isn’t blocked, put a dominance counter on it.
As long as MB01 — Mythic Dragon has a dominance counter on it, it has indestructible and “Whenever MB01 — Mythic Dragon attacks and isn’t blocked, put five -1/-1 counters on each creature you don’t control.”
4/4
MB02 — Necro Demon 6BBB
Creature (M)
Haste
Whenever MB02 — Necro Demon attacks, you may return target creature card from your graveyard to the battlefield, tapped and attacking. That creature gains vanguard. (Creatures with vanguard must be blocked, if able, before creatures without vanguard)
6/6
MB03 — Combat Confidant 1BB
Enchantment (M)
Whenever an opponent attacks, you may reveal the top card of your library and put that card into your hand. If you do, you lose life equal to its converted mana cost.
RB01 — Meat Wagon 3B
Creature (R)
Whenever RB01 — Meat Wagon attacks or blocks, put two 2/2 black Zombie creature tokens onto the battlefield.
1/5
RB02 — Vanguard Rare 2BB
Creature (R)
Vanguard (Attacking creatures with vanguard must be blocked, if able, before attacking creatures without vanguard.)
Whenever a player casts a spell that targets RB02 — Vanguard Rare, you may pay 2 life. If you do, change the target of that spell to a creature you control.
3/5
RB03 — Reverb Extraction 2BB
Sorcery (R)
Reverberate (Whenever you cast a spell with the same converted mana cost as this card, you may cast this card from your graveyard without paying its mana cost. Then exile it.)
Name a nonland card. Search target player’s graveyard, hand, and library for all cards with that name and exile them. Then that player shuffles his of her library.
RB04 — Counter Removal 3BB
Instant (R)
Remove all counters from all permanents. Target player loses 1 life for each counter removed this way.
RB05 — Zombie Token Guy 1BB
Creature (R)
Remove a creature card from your graveyard, T: Put a 2/2 black Zombie creature token onto the battlefield.
Sacrifice a nontoken creature: Creatures you control get +1/+1 and gain deathtouch until end of turn.
0/3
RB06 — Reanimate Demon 6BB
Creature (R)
Indestructible
When RB06 — Reanimate Demon enters the battlefield, exile it unless you sacrifice three creatures.
Whenever RB06 — Reanimate Demon attacks, return target creature card from your graveyard to the battlefield.
6/6
RB07 — Grave Effort 2BB
Enchantment (R)
At the beginning of each upkeep, all creatures you control gain flying if a creature card in any graveyard has flying. The same is true for deathtouch, double strike, first strike, haste, hexproof, indestructible, intimidate, landwalk, lifelink, protection, reach, trample, and vigilance.
UB01 — Reverberate Reanimate 2BB
Sorcery (U)
Reverberate (Whenever you cast a spell with the same converted mana cost as this card, you may cast this card from your graveyard without paying its mana cost. Then exile it.)
Return target creature card from your graveyard to the battlefield.
UB02 — Intimidate Trick 2B
Instant (U)
Creatures you control gain intimidate until end of turn.
Cycling 1B (1B, Discard this card: Draw a card.)
UB03 — Deathtouch Fight (G) 5B
Creature (U)
Deathtouch
3GGG: UB03 — Deathtouch Fight (G) fights target creature.
2/4
UB04 — Pump Trick (W) XBB
Instant (U)
Target creature you control gets +X/-X until end of turn. If you control a Plains, that creature gains indestructible until end of turn.
UB05 — Friendly Fire Landkill 2B
Enchantment — Aura (U)
Enchant land
When enchanted land becomes tapped, destroy it. Its owner loses 2 life.
Whenever enchanted land would be destroyed, if it is a Mountain or an Island you may return UB05 — Friendly Fire Landkill to your hand.
UB06 — Vanguard Creature 3B
Creature (U)
Vanguard (Attacking creatures with vanguard must be blocked, if able, before attacking creatures without vanguard.)
Whenever UB06 — Vanguard Creature dies, target player loses 2 life.
3/2
UB07 — Vanguard Creature 1B
Creature (U)
Vanguard (Attacking creatures with vanguard must be blocked, if able, before attacking creatures without vanguard.)
UB07 — Vanguard Creature gets +1/+1 for each attacking creature you control.
1/1
UB08 — Vanguard 2BB
Creature (U)
Sacrifice a creature, T: Target creature gains vanguard and gets +2/+2 until end of turn. (Attacking creatures with vanguard must be blocked, if able, before attacking creatures without vanguard.)
0/3
My custom sets:
Caeia Block (Released - Beta)
Generals of Dareth (In Design)
The Design phase of the set is complete - all 249 cards have been initially designed, been named and been given art and basic flavor. (As this set was developed from the bottom-up, the flavor isn't super strong, and most cards still need flavor text.) At this point, the set is in the Development phase, meaning I'm going to be taking a look at each card in the set and making revisions to power, toughness, casting costing, templating, etc. for the purposes and balancing and just to generally make the set more interesting. Following the development phase will be the playtesting phase, in which I'll put out a cockatrice plugin and enlist the help of any who are interested in testing the set to actually do so.
I'm looking for MtGS users who are willing to give feedback - any and all feedback is appreciated.
----
As a starting point, I'm posting up renders of three of the five titular Generals (the other 2 are planeswalkers).
General Arx Tyrus 2WWBB
Legendary Creature - Human Advisor (R)
Whenever you cast a creature spell, you may put a -1/-1 counter on target creature.
Whenever a creature you control attacks and isn't blocked, put a -1/-1 counter on any number of target creatures.
4/6
The Sisters Ashwin 2UURR Legendary Creature - Human Advisor (R)
Whenever you cast a creature spell, put a 1/1 red and blue Elemental creature token with "Instant and Sorcery spells you cast cost 1 less to cast."
Whenever a creature you control attacks and isn't blocked, you may search your library for an instant or sorcery card, reveal it, and put it into your hand. Then shuffle your library.
4/6
Sveya Jaegerinde 3GGUU
Legendary Creature - Elf Advisor (R)
Creature spells you cast have flash.
Whenever you cast a creature spell during your declare attackers step, it enters the battlefield tapped and attacking.
Whenever a creature you control attacks and isn't blocked, draw cards equal to the number of creatures target player controls.
4/6
I'm curious to know people's thoughts on this cycle. My own thoughts are that Sveya's last ability needs to be redesigned, and that all three of them could stand to be mythic.
My custom sets:
Caeia Block (Released - Beta)
Generals of Dareth (In Design)
2CCDD mana costs and Advisor creature type, sure. "Attacks and isn't blocked" works flavorwise, because it's a war-themed set and they're supposed to be generals and all. But why do they all have the same (nonsquare!) p/t? Why does the UG one randomly have one extra ability (that works better on defense anyway)? Why does the spellslinger UR one reward you for putting lots of creature cards in your deck?
If the other two are planeswalkers, it makes even less sense for this to be a tight cycle. Using different triggers and p/t helps demonstrate the strengths and weaknesses of each two-color pairing 'army'.
Also, creatures are all declared blockers at the same time, so Vanguard would probably require some extensive rules-workarounds to cover annoying corner cases. In particular, an attacking vanguard plus other attacking creatures and/or blocking creatures with requirements attached gets complicated.
Avatar by Numotflame96 of Maelstrom Graphics
Sig banner thanks to DarkNightCavalier of Heroes of the Plane Studios!
Point well taken. I agree there could be more to differentiate them - I'll be working to vary their mana cost, power and toughness, and abilities in the near future.
I worried that Vanguard would need some rules changing and clarifications - I'll be sure before the set is done to have a rules section that will detail how this should work.
Also, I've updated the first two post with the 'complete' spoiler of the set. At this point, nothing has been developed upon. I expect that, upon a closer look, there'll be many cards that are fairly overpowered, several that are underpowered, many with redundant functions, and a lack of variety in mana costs. My hope is that, after the first development pass, these issues will begin to be taken care of and the set will approach a 'playable' state.
That said, I'm also posting the white cards here as a starting point for development.
Creature — Angel (R)
Flying, lifelink
Opponents can’t cast spells during combat.
Needs flavor text
5/5
Blessing of Redemption 2WW
Enchantment — Aura (R)
Enchant Creature
Whenever enchanted creature attacks and isn’t blocked, return target creature or planeswalker card from your graveyard to the battlefield.
Captain of the Lost Legion 3WW
Creature — Human Soldier (R)
1W, T: Put a 1/1 white Soldier creature token onto the battlefield.
Creature tokens you control get +2/+2 and have vigilance.
Needs flavor text.
2/4
Captain’s Call 3W
Sorcery (C)
Put three 1/1 white Soldier creature tokens onto the battlefield.
Needs flavor text
Chance for Glory 1W
Instant (C)
Target creature you control gets +1/+1 for each blocked creature you control and gains lifelink until end of turn.
Needs flavor text.
Cleansing Ritual 1W
Instant (C)
Exile target enchantment. If you control a Mountain, you may also exile target artifact.
Needs flavor text.
Darethan Stoutheart 1W
Creature — Human Soldier (C)
Unity (When this creature enters the battlefield, you may activate an ability of a creature you control that shares a creature type with it without paying that ability’s activation cost.)
Needs flavor text
1/1
Dwarf Guardsman 1W
Creature — Dwarf Soldier (U)
Defender (This creature can’t attack.)
When Dwarf Guardsman blocks a creature, you may pay 1W. If you do, draw a card.
Needs flavor text.
0/6
Dwarven Onslaught 2W
Instant (U)
Creatures you control get +2/+0 until end of turn. If you control a Mountain, those creatures gain haste until end of turn.
Needs flavor text.
Elite Reinforcements 4WWW
Instant (R)
Put three 1/1 white Soldier creature tokens with unity onto the battlefield, tapped and attacking. (When a creature with unity enters the battlefield, you may activate an ability of a creature you control that shares a creature type with it without paying that ability’s activation cost.)
Fearless Foe-Slayer 2WW
Creature — Dwarf Warrior (U)
1W, Sacrifice Fearless Foe-Slayer: Exile target attacking or blocking creature.
Whenever a player casts a blue or green spell, you may return Fearless Foe-Slayer from the graveyard to your hand.
1/3
Fearlessness 2W
Enchantment — Aura (C)
Enchant creature
Enchanted creature gets +0/+4 and has vanguard. (Attacking creatures with vanguard must be blocked, if able, before attacking creatures without vanguard.)
Needs flavor text.
Fiercebeard Warrior 2W
Creature — Dwarf Warrior (C)
2R: Target attacking creature gains double strike until end of turn. Activate this ability only once each combat.
Needs flavor text.
2/2
Frontline Infantry 1W
Creature — Human Soldier (C)
Vanguard (Attacking creatures with vanguard must be blocked, if able, before attacking creatures without vanguard.)
Needs flavor text.
2/1
Frontline Warbeast 4WW
Creature — Beast (C)
Vanguard (Attacking creatures with vanguard must be blocked, if able, before attacking creatures without vanguard.)
When Frontline Warbeast becomes blocked, untap it.
3/5
Griffin Skyguard 2W
Creature — Griffin Soldier (C)
Flying
1W, Exile Griffin Skyguard: Target unblocked attacking creature becomes blocked. (This ability works on creatures that can’t be blocked.)
Needs flavor text.
2/1
Harrying Warpriest 2W
Creature — Human Cleric (C)
Unity (When this creature enters the battlefield, you may activate an ability of a creature you control that shares a creature type with it without paying that ability’s activation cost.)
1W, T: Tap target creature.
1/1
Healer’s Insight 1W
Instant (U)
Choose One — You gain 1 life for each attacking creature you control; or you gain 1 life for each blocking creature an opponent controls.
Cycling W (W, Discard this card: Draw a card.)
A cleric in the camp can turn the tide of any battle.
Impeding Terrain 1W
Instant (C)
Tap target creature. If you control a swamp, put a -1/-1 counter on it.
Needs flavor text.
Imposing Paladin 2W
Creature — Human Soldier (C)
As long as you control a swamp, Imposing Paladin has intimidate. (It can’t be blocked except by artifact creatures and/or creatures that share a color with it.)
3/2
Inspirational Valiant 3W
Creature — Human Soldier (C)
Unity (When this creature enters the battlefield, you may activate an ability of a creature you control that shares a creature type with it without paying that ability’s activation cost.)
2W, T: Target creature gains vigilance until end of turn.
2/4
Lethal Templar 2W
Creature — Human Knight (U)
Vanguard (Attacking creatures with vanguard must be blocked, if able, before attacking creatures without vanguard.)
3B: Lethal Templar gains deathtouch until end of turn.
2/2
Lost Legion Paragon 2WW
Creature — Rhino Warrior (U)
Vanguard (Attacking creatures with vanguard must be blocked, if able, before attacking creatures without vanguard.)
Exile Lost Legion Paragon from your graveyard: Put two 1/1 white Soldier creature tokens onto the battlefield.
2/2
Martial Superiority 3W
Enchantment (R)
Creatures you control have lifelink as long as you control two or more attacking creatures.
Creatures you control have first strike as long as you control three or more attacking creatures.
Creatures you control have double strike as long as you control four or more attacking creatures.
Merciless Cavalry 3W
Creature — Human Soldier (C)
1B: Put a -1/-1 counter on target blocking creature. Activate this ability only once each combat.
Needs flavor text.
1/3
Momentary Respite W
Instant (C)
Exile target creature you control, then return it to the battlefield under its owner’s control.
Cycling W (W, Discard this card: Draw a card.)
Only one heartless would find rest among the dead.
Niveus, the Golden Wind 4WWW
Legendary Creature — Dragon (M)
Flying, lifelink
Whenever Niveus, the Golden Wind attacks and isn’t blocked, put a dominance counter on it.
As long as Niveus has a dominance counter on it, it has indestructible and “Whenever Niveus attacks and isn’t blocked, redistribute any number of players’ life totals.” (Each of those players gets one life total back.)
4/4
Parley W
Instant (R)
Target player skips his or her combat step this turn.
We wish to discuss terms.
Piety’s Boon W
Enchantment — Aura (C)
Enchant creature
Enchanted creature gets +2/+1 as long as you control it. Otherwise, it can’t use any activated abilities.
Needs flavor text.
Radiant Seraph 3WW
Creature — Angel (M)
If another player would gain life, you may gain that much life instead.
If you would gain life, you gain twice that much life instead.
Needs flavor text.
1/4
Seasoned Warrior 2W
Creature — Human Soldier (C)
Intimidate, first strike
Needs flavor text.
2/1
Sudden Boldness W
Instant (U)
Target creature gains vanguard until end of turn. (Attacking creatures with vanguard must be blocked, if able, before attacking creatures without vanguard.)
Throne of Tyrus 2WW
Enchantment (U)
As Throne of Tyrus enters the battlefield, choose a creature type.
Creatures you control are the chosen type and have unity. (When a creature with unity enters the battlefield, you may activate an ability of a creature you control that shares a creature type with it without paying that ability’s activation cost.)
Vanguard Commandant 1WW
Creature — Human Soldier (R)
Whenever Vanguard Commandant attacks, target creature gains vanguard until end of turn. (Attacking creatures with vanguard must be blocked, if able, before attacking creatures without vanguard.)
Creatures with vanguard have first strike and lifelink.
2/2
Wrath of the Persecuted 4WWW
Instant (M)
Exile all attacking creatures.
Needs flavor text.
My custom sets:
Caeia Block (Released - Beta)
Generals of Dareth (In Design)
I was hoping you'd show up here! And thanks for the warm welcome back!
Point taken on both. These are all things that I overlooked on initial design, hoping to fix things like this during this development phase. I'll make Nimbo's effect optional, and I'll reword animate magma as suggested.
My custom sets:
Caeia Block (Released - Beta)
Generals of Dareth (In Design)
One thing I'm toying with is turning "Whenever this creatures attacks and isn't blocked, [EFFECT]" into an ability word called Dominance - this at the suggestion of MtGS user Apoquallyp. 15 cards in the set have this functionality, but since it wasn't an intentional 'featured mechanic', these cards aren't equally spread throughout the various color combinations. I'm wondering if that is a bad thing.
I'm also wondering if 4 new 'mechanics' is too much, even if adding the ability word doesn't change the current functionality at all.
Anyone have any thoughts on this?
My custom sets:
Caeia Block (Released - Beta)
Generals of Dareth (In Design)
And I second that four keywords are not too many.
Completed sets:
Iamur — The Underwater Set
Overworld — Pirates vs. Octopuses
Esparand — The Sands of Time
Unfinished Sets:
Siege of Ravnica — Eldrazi in Ravnica
Shandalar — The Mana Set
Iamur Reimagined — Iamur v2
You can find more creative projects on my page Antaresdesigns!
Oohhhh... yeah I gotcha, I misunderstood what you were talking about on that one then. Still, sounds like I should probably keyword this so I will do that during this first development pass!
The first development pass is complete! This pass fixed some glaring grammatical errors, tweaked some effects, redesigned a few cards, added one new mechanic (Dominance), changed the wording on another mechanic (Vanguard) and tweaked power, toughness, casting costs, etc. across the board.
The spoiler list has been updated, and all cards should have links to their renders. Very interested in any feedback anyone can give!
My custom sets:
Caeia Block (Released - Beta)
Generals of Dareth (In Design)