In the time so many of us have spent making cards we sometimes feel nostalgia for some of our earlier work or see how much we've grown in how much we've changed since then. What was your first 'custom card', how did you come up with it, and how has your perspective changed?
My first card was:
Flowstone Canyon
Land
~ enters the battlefield tapped. T: Add U to your mana pool. Put a Flowstone counter on Flowstone Canyon. T, Remove X Flowstone counter from Flowstone Canyon: Add X red mana to your mana pool where X is the number of Flowstone counters removed.
I designed this card way back in Tempest block and even went so far as to draw up a version on notebook paper and play it in casual games with my brother. I seldom played U/R, being more of a green beats player, but was intrigued by the concept of the Mana Batteries and Storage lands but wanted some more flavor. The feel was supposed to illustrate a canyon of soft flowstone that is being cut but a river. Each time you draw mana it makes the canyon deeper. When you finally draw the red mana, it is the walls collapsing down until the river cuts through again. I still really like the design and like that it seems balanced (if not a little overpowered) even with the perspective granted to me by many more years of experience.
I understand that it didn't match the function of Flowstone on creatures but did seem to, at least partially, relate to the function of Flowstone in the storyline (it was used to increase the size of the Plane of Rath until it merged with Dominaria <Mario Bros movie style [there's an obscure reference {how many levels deep of parenthesis am I going to go!?}]>)
My first card was:
Flowstone Canyon
Land
~ enters the battlefield tapped.
T: Add U to your mana pool. Put a Flowstone counter on Flowstone Canyon.
T, Remove X Flowstone counter from Flowstone Canyon: Add X red mana to your mana pool where X is the number of Flowstone counters removed.
I designed this card way back in Tempest block and even went so far as to draw up a version on notebook paper and play it in casual games with my brother. I seldom played U/R, being more of a green beats player, but was intrigued by the concept of the Mana Batteries and Storage lands but wanted some more flavor. The feel was supposed to illustrate a canyon of soft flowstone that is being cut but a river. Each time you draw mana it makes the canyon deeper. When you finally draw the red mana, it is the walls collapsing down until the river cuts through again. I still really like the design and like that it seems balanced (if not a little overpowered) even with the perspective granted to me by many more years of experience.
I understand that it didn't match the function of Flowstone on creatures but did seem to, at least partially, relate to the function of Flowstone in the storyline (it was used to increase the size of the Plane of Rath until it merged with Dominaria <Mario Bros movie style [there's an obscure reference {how many levels deep of parenthesis am I going to go!?}]>)
What's in your past?
[c=Black Lotus]Lotus[/c]=Lotus
[c=Black Lotus|Alpha]Lotus[/c]=Lotus
[mana]WUBRGS-TQ-1-2-12-XY[/mana]=WUBRGS-TQ----XY
[mana]{WU}{UB}{BR}{RG}{GW}{WB}{BG}{GU}{UR}{RW}{2W}{2U}{2B}{2R}{2G}[/mana]=(W/U)(U/B)(B/R)(R/G)(G/W)(W/B)(B/G)(G/U)(U/R)(R/W)(2/W)(2/U)(2/B)(2/R)(2/G)
Triggered Ability-Whenever/When/At ..., (effect)
Replacement Effect-If/As ..., (effect)