Soul Strength (Uncommon) 2BG
Enchantment
Pay 2 life: Target creature you control gets +2/+2 until end of turn. Activate this ability only once per creature each turn.
Psionic Horror1BG
Creature - Horror (U)
Trample
When attacks, it gets +1/+1 for each card in your hand and gets -1/-1 for each card in defending player's hand. Take care that your mind does not rot, lest it cause your flesh to rot as well.
3/3
I quite appreciated the discussion about how to maximize the value of playtesting with a large group. Knowing the right questions to ask helps greatly, both for Magic testing and for other pet projects.
I just found this podcast from the Reddit link. This is awesome, I plan to check out some of the earlier episodes later.
For now, one black/green theme I've actually been interested in for a long time is the notion of something being the strongest and that only the strongest survive. Essentially, Darwinism. Usually this is something we associate with red - that red/green only cares about brute strength and as a result its creatures are the most efficient of all the colors in terms of power/toughness. So, while it's true that red/green is most adept with the tangible and will usually focus itself towards the physical side of things, the desire to be the best/strongest in the group is not actually a red/green desire, it's a black/green desire. Black's quest for power meets green's understanding of natural limits and adjusts it's goal from omnipotence to maximizing it's own potential as then it will be able to rule over others of similar potential and it can easily crush those with lesser genetics than itself. This form of green/black was touched on in the Lorwyn elves.
So, first I'm creating a definition that makes my idea a little friendlier on the eyes, and the definition is this:
A creature is "Alpha" if it is the creature you control with greatest toughness or tied for the greatest toughness.
And it presents itself on cards like this:
CREATURE NAME has EFFECT as long as it is alpha. (A creature is "Alpha" if it is the creature you control with greatest toughness or tied for greatest toughness.)
So, here's a common guy.
Aspiring Brushwalker - 1 Creature - Orc Scout [C]
Aspiring Brushwalker gets +2/+1 as long as it is alpha.
1/2
(I think I kind of like orcs in black/green instead of black/red, they feel more primal to me than goblins)
and here's the uncommon build-around
Bayou Kingmaker - 3BG Creature - Hag Shaman [U]
Other creatures you control are indestructible as long as they are the creature with greatest toughness among creatures you control or tied for greatest.
: Target creature gets +1/+1 or -1/-1 until end of turn. Activate this ability no more than twice each turn.
2/4
I think this effect is really interesting because it really gives a lot of focus to green and black's combat tricks that are usually worth nothing. Alpha allows them to have significantly change the board, or use them in ways you wouldn't usually expect. Bayou Kingmaker, for example, will frequently be using its anti-rootwalla effect on itself in response to removal. She also, of course, rewards you for playing in a way that your creatures all have the same toughness, which I don't think is a play style that has ever been emphasized before. The only problem about the effect I can think of is some confusing things can happen with static effects that shrink creatures, so things like, "this gets +2/-2 as long as its alpha" will never appear, at least not below mythic rare.
The hypothetical set this goes in will also contain instant speed flowstone effects in blue and red. White will have Great Defender as a reprint. Black will have finally received it's member of the Morphling cycle:
Morgueling - 3BB Creature - Shapeshifter [MR]
: Morgueling gains Swampwalk until end of turn.
: Target land becomes a Swamp until end of turn.
: Sacrifice Morgueling, then return Morgueling to the battlefield under its owner's control tapped. 1: Morgueling gets +1/-1 until end of turn. 1: Morgueling gets -1/+1 until end of turn.
Mixed Blessings 1UB
Enchantment (U)
At the beginning of your draw step, you may discard a card. If you do, draw an additional card.
Not terribly build-around-me, but a cool enchantment nontheless so I thought I'd share.
Tentacled Agent 1UB
Creature - Cephalid Rogue (U)
Whenever a creature you control becomes tapped, you may pay 2. If you do, choose one: Target player draws a card; or target player discards a card.
2/3
More to theme, works well as a build-around-me for an aggro blue-black archetype. All archetypes, be they Limited or Constructed, are going to be aggro, control, combo, or midrange and one of the best ways to make a format feel different is to change the typical strategy of a given colour combination (such as blue-black aggro or red-green control). This card in particular also plays into the tap/untapped space Dreamscape is exploring but in a different way that works well at uncommon.
EDIT: HA! Green looks a lot like blue...
Tarsoaked Agent 1BG
Creature - Elf Rogue (U)
Whenever a creature you control becomes tapped, you may pay 2. If you do, choose one: Put a 1/1 green Saproling creature token onto the battlefield; or you gain 2 life.
2/2
I've intentionally overstuffed these designs to give an idea of the power level I was aiming for. The trigger is very generic, so the multicolour nature of the card must come from the second part of the ability or the stats. I don't want stats to be the driving force of the card, as it is far more interesting when the ability is triggered off other creatures. The ability encourages attacking in a similar manner to how Dreamwalk encourages defensively attacking (so as to have blockers for Dreamwalk). Simple triggers like this are a good way at uncommon to guide players towards the prefered playstyle of a given archetype. On review Tarsoaked Agent could do with some edits to make it more black and to make the ability simpler:
Tarsoaked Agent 1BG
Creature - Elf Rogue (U)
Whenever a creature you control becomes tapped, you may pay 2. If the tapped creature was black, it gains deathtouch and reach until end of turn. If the tapped creature was green, put a 1/1 green Saproling creature token onto the battlefield.
2/2
Tying the ability is an obvious trick that has been used for years to make simple, but powerful effects. This second version of the card also encourages attacking with the right creature, rather than the worst creatures. Granting reach is a slight bit of trinket text which enables the use of the card as a defensive weapon when comboed with tap effects. I'm not sure how often Dreamwalk would be paired with Flying (The types of evasion are different enough that I'd expect at least a couple such cards). It also plays well with an ability I developed looking at alternate ways to design Dreamwalk:
Dreamstate - As long as this creature is tapped it can block and [effect]
The "and [effect]" isn't mandetory, showing up more at uncommon and rare. The advantage of Dreamstate paired with Dreamwalk is that it enables cards which can block both Dreamwalk and normal attackers, provided you have some means of tapping the creature. Have tou guys played a lot with tapping as additional costs? Perhaps something like Exploit or that-one-mechanic-from-shadowmoor-that-does-that-thing-I-described:
Assist (You may tap up to two creatures as an additional cost to cast this spell.)
Natural Progression 1BG
Enchantment {U}
Sacrifice a Creature: Look at the top five cards of your library. You may reveal a creature or land card from among them and put it into your hand. Put the rest in your graveyard. The cycle is life to death and death to life. Not rebirth. Rebirth is a perversion. You must die for new things to live. You are not important.
@ Piar: Your card is fine, but fails to be particularly build-around-me. Simply having more cards than your opponent is something you're going to want anyway. Kamaigawa showed there isn't much space in mechanics which encourage players to keep cards in their hand.
@ Alabran: First thing, you can't pair a mechanic that compares sizes to effects which change a creature's size (unless it's a one time thing). Secondly think about how a mechanic which cares about maximum size will play. Like Piar's card you are discouraging players from doing something they naturally want to do, play cards.
@ CommanderZ: This is an interesting ability. I really like the way this card encourages attacking with creatures you'd normally be using as blockers. Colour pie wise this card seems fine, but you're right we are really in the dark on "toughness matters" effects. My one complaint is that this card is probably too good and unique for uncommon, especially at 3.
@ SgtFailure: This is a fine card (probably too good at uncommon for most formats), but it's not build-around-me. The cause of the trigger and the effect are all contained on the one card. This sort of effect is also more the sort I'd expect in a multiplayer supplement, as it is quite easy to make seemingly symmetrical sac effects incredibly unfun (hello Stax).
@ Dice_Rifel: I like your card a lot. It's strong, but very symmetrical and random meaning there is a maximum value to be gained when using the ability. My one complaint is that black-green would pretty much always just dump those cards into the graveyard. As it stands your card could easily be mono-green.
Jaxck - FYI those cards never go into the graveyard - they go to the bottom of the library. You can't use the card to fill up your graveyard. Glad you like the card!!!
Cortex SowingBG
Enchantment (U)
Whenever a player discards a card, you may pay 1. If you do, put a 1/1 green Saproling creature token onto the battlefield. Fertile grounds take fertile thoughts.
Fear the Mighty1BG
Sorcery (U)
Creatures you control with a power 4 or greater gain trample until end of turn.
Creatures you control with a toughness 4 or greater gain deathtouch until end of turn.
Body Mangler2BG
Creature - Horror (U)
When Body Mangler attacks, you may discard any number of cards. Then for each creature card discarded this way, draw a card.
4/4
Great show as always! I'm glad to hear that your initial thoughts on the mechanics seem to be supported by gameplay. That segment of the show got me really excited to play some Dragons of Tarkir.
I agree on the Chandra's Wish. Getting to choose what you want seems too thought out for red. I did like the Dig through Time variant. Also this segment gave me this idea:
Devilish TutorRB
Instant
Search your library for a card and exile it. You may play that card this turn. Shuffle your library.
As for the challenge:
Slithering Dreams 1GB
Enchantment
Whenever one or more cards leave your library, put a 1/1 green and black Snake creature token with deathtouch onto the battlefield.
My thoughts here are that green and black both get things out of their library through tutoring (for creatures or lands in green's case). Green can also justify this as an anti-mill card. This should play well (perhaps even too well) in Noctus due to self-milling and premonition.
Also:
Pod Birthing BG
As an additional cost to cast ~, sacrifice a creature.
Reveal cards from the top of your library until you reveal a creature card with converted mana cost equal to 1 plus the sacrificed creature's converted mana cost. Put that card onto the battlefield and the rest into your graveyard.
So yeah, it's a one-shot Birthing Pod. It feels very black/green (survival of the fittest/the circle of life). I'm not sure if I'd call this a "build around" card though- it's a one-shot effect that, while good, is not as impactful as other one-shot build around cards (Polymorph, Warp World, Biorhythm, etc.) This could be cool in Noctus since it sell-mills you.
Into the Woods1BG
Enchantment (Uncommon) BG: Target creature you control gets +1/+1 until end of turn.
Whenever a creature you control deals combat damage to an opponent, reveal cards from the top of your library until you reveal a Forest or a Swamp card. Put that card into your hand and put the rest on the bottom of your library in a random order.
EDIT: It's possible that this becomes a better build-around card without the pump activation, which literally gives you all the tools you need except for creatures in your deck. Without that pump ability, players will want to draft creatures that pump so as to get full use of the extra lands, and creatures with intimidate and trample so as to get in there. It makes for a more stompy style of BG that requires you to also draft cards that care about hitting all your land drops (self-pumping creatures, big wurms, cards that care how many swamps or lands you have, X spells, etc.). Your deathtouch creatures can suddenly attack and force your opponent to either accept a trade or give you another card.
About Chandra's Wish: I'm quite concerned about the original version fitting the color pie, I like how simple and clean it is, but I really would like it to have some black mana somewhere. I can see this as a black/red gold card, and I personally would like it much better that way. And I absolutely love Dan's alternative version, it's a much better monored design in my opinion, and I wouldn't mind seeing it printed in a real set as is.
About exploit: unfortunately I've not been able to go to a Prerelease last weekend, so my first taste of DTK will be the online prerelease this weekend, but from looking at the cards I think a lot of the innovation value of exploit is not the sacrifice effect itself, but the fact that it's always tied to another ability caring about whether you exploited a creature. Cards like Fleshbag Marauder do the sacrifice part, but not the "caring if you did it or not" part.
About the challenge: what I learned from the last one is that there's no saying there's nothing more to be done. You wanted me to think more outside the box. So let's try this one! I didn't want to look at the cards already submitted because I think it might have been doing so what sort of blocked me last time. I hope my cards don't step on something already submitted, I will check only after posting this.
For the first submission, I have a doubt: does morbid count as using the graveyard? It just cares whether a creature died and doesn't mention the graveyard. If it counts, I thought of this:
Fertilizing Blood1BG
Enchantment (U) Morbid — At the beginning of your end step, if a creature died this turn, target opponent loses 1 life and you put a 1/1 green Saproling creature token onto the battlefield. A drop of blood is reborn from the earth.
Then I have this, to use maybe with a token strategy:
Dishonest Farming3BG
Sorcery (U)
Target opponent discards X cards and you draw X cards, where X is the number of creatures you control. Once upon a time, a dishonest farmer stole all fertilizers from other nearby farmers. Then, he sold them the fruits their own resources produced. To him, it was just another way to make money.
I'll also try to think of something really out-of-the-box as an exercise from last time and add it here later.
EDIT - Thinking about the recent shift of black towards creatures with higher toughness than power, I came up with the following card. Not sure if it should be rare, though.
Hard BarkBG
Enchantment — Aura (U)
Enchant creature you control
Each other creature you control has base toughness equal to enchanted creature’s toughness. Oaks are the strongest treefolk on Lorwyn. Their hard bark make them particularly suited for being warriors.
MCC - Winner (6): Oct 2014, Apr Nov 2017, Jan 2018, Apr Jun 2019 || Host (15): Dec 2014, Apr Jul Aug Dec 2015, Mar Jul Aug Oct 2016, Feb Jul 2017, Jun Nov 2018, Feb Jul 2019 (last one here) || Judge (34): every month from Nov 2014 to Nov 2016 except Oct 2015, every month from Feb to Jul 2017 except Apr 2017, then Oct 2017, May Jun Nov 2018, Feb Jul 2019 (last one here) CCL - Winner (3): Jul 2016 (tied with Flatline), May 2017, Jul 2019 (last one here) || Host (5): Feb 2015, Mar Apr May Jun 2016 DCC - Winner (1): Mar 2015 (tied with Piar) || Host (3): May Oct 2015, Jan 2016
• The two public custom sets I've been part a part of the design team for: "Brotherhood of Ormos" - Blog post with all info - set thread - design skeleton / card list || "Extinctia: Homo Evanuit" - Blog post with all info - set thread - card list spreadsheet
• "The Lion's Lair", my article series about MTG and custom card design in particular. Latest article here. Here is the article index.Rather outdated by now, and based on the old MCC rubric, but I'm leaving this here for anybody that might be interested anyway.
• My only public attempt at being a writer: the story of my Leonin custom planeswalker Jeff Lionheart. (I have a very big one that I'm working on right now but that's private for now, and I don't know if I will ever actually publish it, and I also have ideas for multiple future ones, including one where I'm going to reprise Jeff.)
Lots of interesting submissions so far. This is going to be fun.
About exploit: unfortunately I've not been able to go to a Prerelease last weekend, so my first taste of DTK will be the online prerelease this weekend, but from looking at the cards I think a lot of the innovation value of exploit is not the sacrifice effect itself, but the fact that it's always tied to another ability caring about whether you exploited a creature. Cards like Fleshbag Marauder do the sacrifice part, but not the "caring if you did it or not" part.
I'd think that the fact that something happens when you exploit a creature is kind of implied in our design review. I don't think a mechanic that JUST gave you the option to sacrifice a creature and no effect would be meaningful.
Fleshbag Marauder however is very close to the reason Exploit works so well. It basically has two modes, 2B for making each opponent sacrifice a creature (because it can sacrifice itself to its own effect), or you can sacrifice a different creature to keep its 3/1 body around. Sounds familiar, doesn't it? The only thing making it different from exploit in function is that the sacrifice effect is mandatory, it isn't a "may" ability. Otherwise, it works precisely the same way. That's what we were talking about.
So many of the submissions here are involving graveyard, there's lots of sacrifice and discard. That's breaking the challenge (...doesn't use the graveyard)
My submission
World Weave ( )
Enchantment (U)
Enchanted creatures you control get +2/+2.
Whenever you cast an enchantment spell, each opponent loses 2 life and you gain 2 life.
I wouldn't say that sacrifice or discard inherently breaks the challenge. That's not really using the graveyard anymore than Gelectrode is (because when you kill creatures or cast instants/sorceries, they end up in the graveyard).
Gilt-Leaf Outcasts1BG
Creature - Elf Nomad (u)
At the beginning of your upkeep, put a -1/-1 counter on Gilt-Leaf Outcasts.
When Gilt-Leaf Outcasts dies, draw X cards, where X is it's power.
4/4
EDIT: The Podcast was really awsome, and the analysis for chandra's wish was perfect. Thank you very much.
I'm thinking about a slightly more aggressive strategy...
Blossoming BonesBG
Enchantment (U)
At the beginning of your end step, if a creature an opponent controlled died this turn, reveal cards from the top of your library until you reveal a basic land card. Put that card onto the battlefield and the rest on the bottom of your library in a random order.
Matsu Outcast3BG
Creature - Snake Warrior (Uncommon)
Matsu Outcast has trample and intimidate as long as it's the only creature you control.
Sacrifice a creature: Put a +1/+1 counter on Matsu Outcast. He killed his family out of promise of power. Now, he seeks the power to outlast the demons themselves.
3/3
I believe that the "Strong feed on the weak and sitting alone on the top of the chain" is exactly the black-green philosophy, and that philosophy can breed a lots of interesting cards. It is a design space that should be more explored.
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Reuben Covington
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Card Renders
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.
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Dreamscape
Coins of Mercalis [COMPLETE]
Exodus of Zendikar - ON HOLD
2BG
Enchantment
Pay 2 life: Target creature you control gets +2/+2 until end of turn. Activate this ability only once per creature each turn.
Creature - Horror (U)
Trample
When attacks, it gets +1/+1 for each card in your hand and gets -1/-1 for each card in defending player's hand.
Take care that your mind does not rot, lest it cause your flesh to rot as well.
3/3
For now, one black/green theme I've actually been interested in for a long time is the notion of something being the strongest and that only the strongest survive. Essentially, Darwinism. Usually this is something we associate with red - that red/green only cares about brute strength and as a result its creatures are the most efficient of all the colors in terms of power/toughness. So, while it's true that red/green is most adept with the tangible and will usually focus itself towards the physical side of things, the desire to be the best/strongest in the group is not actually a red/green desire, it's a black/green desire. Black's quest for power meets green's understanding of natural limits and adjusts it's goal from omnipotence to maximizing it's own potential as then it will be able to rule over others of similar potential and it can easily crush those with lesser genetics than itself. This form of green/black was touched on in the Lorwyn elves.
So, first I'm creating a definition that makes my idea a little friendlier on the eyes, and the definition is this:
A creature is "Alpha" if it is the creature you control with greatest toughness or tied for the greatest toughness.
And it presents itself on cards like this:
CREATURE NAME has EFFECT as long as it is alpha. (A creature is "Alpha" if it is the creature you control with greatest toughness or tied for greatest toughness.)
So, here's a common guy.
Aspiring Brushwalker - 1
Creature - Orc Scout [C]
Aspiring Brushwalker gets +2/+1 as long as it is alpha.
1/2
(I think I kind of like orcs in black/green instead of black/red, they feel more primal to me than goblins)
and here's the uncommon build-around
Bayou Kingmaker - 3BG
Creature - Hag Shaman [U]
Other creatures you control are indestructible as long as they are the creature with greatest toughness among creatures you control or tied for greatest.
: Target creature gets +1/+1 or -1/-1 until end of turn. Activate this ability no more than twice each turn.
2/4
I think this effect is really interesting because it really gives a lot of focus to green and black's combat tricks that are usually worth nothing. Alpha allows them to have significantly change the board, or use them in ways you wouldn't usually expect. Bayou Kingmaker, for example, will frequently be using its anti-rootwalla effect on itself in response to removal. She also, of course, rewards you for playing in a way that your creatures all have the same toughness, which I don't think is a play style that has ever been emphasized before. The only problem about the effect I can think of is some confusing things can happen with static effects that shrink creatures, so things like, "this gets +2/-2 as long as its alpha" will never appear, at least not below mythic rare.
The hypothetical set this goes in will also contain instant speed flowstone effects in blue and red. White will have Great Defender as a reprint. Black will have finally received it's member of the Morphling cycle:
Morgueling - 3BB
Creature - Shapeshifter [MR]
: Morgueling gains Swampwalk until end of turn.
: Target land becomes a Swamp until end of turn.
: Sacrifice Morgueling, then return Morgueling to the battlefield under its owner's control tapped.
1: Morgueling gets +1/-1 until end of turn.
1: Morgueling gets -1/+1 until end of turn.
3/3
Enchantment (U)
At the beginning of your draw step, you may discard a card. If you do, draw an additional card.
Not terribly build-around-me, but a cool enchantment nontheless so I thought I'd share.
Tentacled Agent 1UB
Creature - Cephalid Rogue (U)
Whenever a creature you control becomes tapped, you may pay 2. If you do, choose one: Target player draws a card; or target player discards a card.
2/3
More to theme, works well as a build-around-me for an aggro blue-black archetype. All archetypes, be they Limited or Constructed, are going to be aggro, control, combo, or midrange and one of the best ways to make a format feel different is to change the typical strategy of a given colour combination (such as blue-black aggro or red-green control). This card in particular also plays into the tap/untapped space Dreamscape is exploring but in a different way that works well at uncommon.
EDIT: HA! Green looks a lot like blue...
Tarsoaked Agent 1BG
Creature - Elf Rogue (U)
Whenever a creature you control becomes tapped, you may pay 2. If you do, choose one: Put a 1/1 green Saproling creature token onto the battlefield; or you gain 2 life.
2/2
I've intentionally overstuffed these designs to give an idea of the power level I was aiming for. The trigger is very generic, so the multicolour nature of the card must come from the second part of the ability or the stats. I don't want stats to be the driving force of the card, as it is far more interesting when the ability is triggered off other creatures. The ability encourages attacking in a similar manner to how Dreamwalk encourages defensively attacking (so as to have blockers for Dreamwalk). Simple triggers like this are a good way at uncommon to guide players towards the prefered playstyle of a given archetype. On review Tarsoaked Agent could do with some edits to make it more black and to make the ability simpler:
Tarsoaked Agent 1BG
Creature - Elf Rogue (U)
Whenever a creature you control becomes tapped, you may pay 2. If the tapped creature was black, it gains deathtouch and reach until end of turn. If the tapped creature was green, put a 1/1 green Saproling creature token onto the battlefield.
2/2
Tying the ability is an obvious trick that has been used for years to make simple, but powerful effects. This second version of the card also encourages attacking with the right creature, rather than the worst creatures. Granting reach is a slight bit of trinket text which enables the use of the card as a defensive weapon when comboed with tap effects. I'm not sure how often Dreamwalk would be paired with Flying (The types of evasion are different enough that I'd expect at least a couple such cards). It also plays well with an ability I developed looking at alternate ways to design Dreamwalk:
Dreamstate - As long as this creature is tapped it can block and [effect]
The "and [effect]" isn't mandetory, showing up more at uncommon and rare. The advantage of Dreamstate paired with Dreamwalk is that it enables cards which can block both Dreamwalk and normal attackers, provided you have some means of tapping the creature. Have tou guys played a lot with tapping as additional costs? Perhaps something like Exploit or that-one-mechanic-from-shadowmoor-that-does-that-thing-I-described:
Assist (You may tap up to two creatures as an additional cost to cast this spell.)
GWU Rafiq
RWB Zurgo
WBG Ghave
WUB Oloro
WBR Kaalia (Archived)
My Blog, currently working on series about my custom set Cazia.
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Skullcliff Recluse 1BG
Creature - Zombie Spider
Reach
Sacrifice another creature: Target creature gains deathtouch until end of turn.
1/4
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!
Enchantment {U}
Sacrifice a Creature: Look at the top five cards of your library. You may reveal a creature or land card from among them and put it into your hand. Put the rest in your graveyard.
The cycle is life to death and death to life. Not rebirth. Rebirth is a perversion. You must die for new things to live. You are not important.
@ Alabran: First thing, you can't pair a mechanic that compares sizes to effects which change a creature's size (unless it's a one time thing). Secondly think about how a mechanic which cares about maximum size will play. Like Piar's card you are discouraging players from doing something they naturally want to do, play cards.
@ CommanderZ: This is an interesting ability. I really like the way this card encourages attacking with creatures you'd normally be using as blockers. Colour pie wise this card seems fine, but you're right we are really in the dark on "toughness matters" effects. My one complaint is that this card is probably too good and unique for uncommon, especially at 3.
@ SgtFailure: This is a fine card (probably too good at uncommon for most formats), but it's not build-around-me. The cause of the trigger and the effect are all contained on the one card. This sort of effect is also more the sort I'd expect in a multiplayer supplement, as it is quite easy to make seemingly symmetrical sac effects incredibly unfun (hello Stax).
@ Dice_Rifel: I like your card a lot. It's strong, but very symmetrical and random meaning there is a maximum value to be gained when using the ability. My one complaint is that black-green would pretty much always just dump those cards into the graveyard. As it stands your card could easily be mono-green.
GWU Rafiq
RWB Zurgo
WBG Ghave
WUB Oloro
WBR Kaalia (Archived)
My Blog, currently working on series about my custom set Cazia.
Steam Trades - I play Dota 2, CS:GO, TF2, and trade cards heavily. Add me if you like.
GWU Rafiq
RWB Zurgo
WBG Ghave
WUB Oloro
WBR Kaalia (Archived)
My Blog, currently working on series about my custom set Cazia.
Steam Trades - I play Dota 2, CS:GO, TF2, and trade cards heavily. Add me if you like.
Cortex Sowing BG
Enchantment (U)
Whenever a player discards a card, you may pay 1. If you do, put a 1/1 green Saproling creature token onto the battlefield.
Fertile grounds take fertile thoughts.
Fear the Mighty 1BG
Sorcery (U)
Creatures you control with a power 4 or greater gain trample until end of turn.
Creatures you control with a toughness 4 or greater gain deathtouch until end of turn.
Body Mangler 2BG
Creature - Horror (U)
When Body Mangler attacks, you may discard any number of cards. Then for each creature card discarded this way, draw a card.
4/4
I agree on the Chandra's Wish. Getting to choose what you want seems too thought out for red. I did like the Dig through Time variant. Also this segment gave me this idea:
Devilish Tutor RB
Instant
Search your library for a card and exile it. You may play that card this turn. Shuffle your library.
As for the challenge:
Slithering Dreams
1GB
Enchantment
Whenever one or more cards leave your library, put a 1/1 green and black Snake creature token with deathtouch onto the battlefield.
My thoughts here are that green and black both get things out of their library through tutoring (for creatures or lands in green's case). Green can also justify this as an anti-mill card. This should play well (perhaps even too well) in Noctus due to self-milling and premonition.
Also:
Pod Birthing
BG
As an additional cost to cast ~, sacrifice a creature.
Reveal cards from the top of your library until you reveal a creature card with converted mana cost equal to 1 plus the sacrificed creature's converted mana cost. Put that card onto the battlefield and the rest into your graveyard.
So yeah, it's a one-shot Birthing Pod. It feels very black/green (survival of the fittest/the circle of life). I'm not sure if I'd call this a "build around" card though- it's a one-shot effect that, while good, is not as impactful as other one-shot build around cards (Polymorph, Warp World, Biorhythm, etc.) This could be cool in Noctus since it sell-mills you.
Enchantment (Uncommon)
BG: Target creature you control gets +1/+1 until end of turn.Whenever a creature you control deals combat damage to an opponent, reveal cards from the top of your library until you reveal a Forest or a Swamp card. Put that card into your hand and put the rest on the bottom of your library in a random order.
EDIT: It's possible that this becomes a better build-around card without the pump activation, which literally gives you all the tools you need except for creatures in your deck. Without that pump ability, players will want to draft creatures that pump so as to get full use of the extra lands, and creatures with intimidate and trample so as to get in there. It makes for a more stompy style of BG that requires you to also draft cards that care about hitting all your land drops (self-pumping creatures, big wurms, cards that care how many swamps or lands you have, X spells, etc.). Your deathtouch creatures can suddenly attack and force your opponent to either accept a trade or give you another card.
About exploit: unfortunately I've not been able to go to a Prerelease last weekend, so my first taste of DTK will be the online prerelease this weekend, but from looking at the cards I think a lot of the innovation value of exploit is not the sacrifice effect itself, but the fact that it's always tied to another ability caring about whether you exploited a creature. Cards like Fleshbag Marauder do the sacrifice part, but not the "caring if you did it or not" part.
About the challenge: what I learned from the last one is that there's no saying there's nothing more to be done. You wanted me to think more outside the box. So let's try this one! I didn't want to look at the cards already submitted because I think it might have been doing so what sort of blocked me last time. I hope my cards don't step on something already submitted, I will check only after posting this.
For the first submission, I have a doubt: does morbid count as using the graveyard? It just cares whether a creature died and doesn't mention the graveyard. If it counts, I thought of this:
Fertilizing Blood 1BG
Enchantment (U)
Morbid — At the beginning of your end step, if a creature died this turn, target opponent loses 1 life and you put a 1/1 green Saproling creature token onto the battlefield.
A drop of blood is reborn from the earth.
Then I have this, to use maybe with a token strategy:
Dishonest Farming 3BG
Sorcery (U)
Target opponent discards X cards and you draw X cards, where X is the number of creatures you control.
Once upon a time, a dishonest farmer stole all fertilizers from other nearby farmers. Then, he sold them the fruits their own resources produced. To him, it was just another way to make money.
I'll also try to think of something really out-of-the-box as an exercise from last time and add it here later.
EDIT - Thinking about the recent shift of black towards creatures with higher toughness than power, I came up with the following card. Not sure if it should be rare, though.
Hard Bark BG
Enchantment — Aura (U)
Enchant creature you control
Each other creature you control has base toughness equal to enchanted creature’s toughness.
Oaks are the strongest treefolk on Lorwyn. Their hard bark make them particularly suited for being warriors.
MCC - Winner (6): Oct 2014, Apr Nov 2017, Jan 2018, Apr Jun 2019 || Host (15): Dec 2014, Apr Jul Aug Dec 2015, Mar Jul Aug Oct 2016, Feb Jul 2017, Jun Nov 2018, Feb Jul 2019 (last one here) || Judge (34): every month from Nov 2014 to Nov 2016 except Oct 2015, every month from Feb to Jul 2017 except Apr 2017, then Oct 2017, May Jun Nov 2018, Feb Jul 2019 (last one here)
CCL - Winner (3): Jul 2016 (tied with Flatline), May 2017, Jul 2019 (last one here) || Host (5): Feb 2015, Mar Apr May Jun 2016
DCC - Winner (1): Mar 2015 (tied with Piar) || Host (3): May Oct 2015, Jan 2016
• The two public custom sets I've been part a part of the design team for:
"Brotherhood of Ormos" - Blog post with all info - set thread - design skeleton / card list || "Extinctia: Homo Evanuit" - Blog post with all info - set thread - card list spreadsheet
• "The Lion's Lair", my article series about MTG and custom card design in particular. Latest article here. Here is the article index. Rather outdated by now, and based on the old MCC rubric, but I'm leaving this here for anybody that might be interested anyway.
• My only public attempt at being a writer: the story of my Leonin custom planeswalker Jeff Lionheart. (I have a very big one that I'm working on right now but that's private for now, and I don't know if I will ever actually publish it, and I also have ideas for multiple future ones, including one where I'm going to reprise Jeff.)
I'd think that the fact that something happens when you exploit a creature is kind of implied in our design review. I don't think a mechanic that JUST gave you the option to sacrifice a creature and no effect would be meaningful.
Fleshbag Marauder however is very close to the reason Exploit works so well. It basically has two modes, 2B for making each opponent sacrifice a creature (because it can sacrifice itself to its own effect), or you can sacrifice a different creature to keep its 3/1 body around. Sounds familiar, doesn't it? The only thing making it different from exploit in function is that the sacrifice effect is mandatory, it isn't a "may" ability. Otherwise, it works precisely the same way. That's what we were talking about.
Remaking Magic - A Podcast for those that love MTG and Game Design
The Dungeon Master's Guide - A Podcast for those that love RPGs and Game Design
Sig-Heroes of the Plane
Creature - Troll
Whenever a player discards a card, put a +1/+1 counter on ~.
1G: ~ gains hexproof until end of turn.
2/3
discard and +1/+1 counters are surprisingly hard to find together.
........................
My submission
World Weave ( )
Enchantment (U)
Enchanted creatures you control get +2/+2.
Whenever you cast an enchantment spell, each opponent loses 2 life and you gain 2 life.
RUNIN: Norse mythology set (awaiting further playtesting)
FATE of ALARA: Multicolour factions (currently on hiatus)
Contibutor to the Pyrulea community set
I'm here to tell you that all your set mechanics are bad
#Defundthepolice
Remaking Magic - A Podcast for those that love MTG and Game Design
The Dungeon Master's Guide - A Podcast for those that love RPGs and Game Design
Sig-Heroes of the Plane
RUNIN: Norse mythology set (awaiting further playtesting)
FATE of ALARA: Multicolour factions (currently on hiatus)
Contibutor to the Pyrulea community set
I'm here to tell you that all your set mechanics are bad
#Defundthepolice
Creature - Elf Nomad (u)
At the beginning of your upkeep, put a -1/-1 counter on Gilt-Leaf Outcasts.
When Gilt-Leaf Outcasts dies, draw X cards, where X is it's power.
4/4
EDIT: The Podcast was really awsome, and the analysis for chandra's wish was perfect. Thank you very much.
Blossoming Bones BG
Enchantment (U)
At the beginning of your end step, if a creature an opponent controlled died this turn, reveal cards from the top of your library until you reveal a basic land card. Put that card onto the battlefield and the rest on the bottom of your library in a random order.
Matsu Outcast 3BG
Creature - Snake Warrior (Uncommon)
Matsu Outcast has trample and intimidate as long as it's the only creature you control.
Sacrifice a creature: Put a +1/+1 counter on Matsu Outcast.
He killed his family out of promise of power. Now, he seeks the power to outlast the demons themselves.
3/3
Remaking Magic - A Podcast for those that love MTG and Game Design
The Dungeon Master's Guide - A Podcast for those that love RPGs and Game Design
Sig-Heroes of the Plane
I believe that the "Strong feed on the weak and sitting alone on the top of the chain" is exactly the black-green philosophy, and that philosophy can breed a lots of interesting cards. It is a design space that should be more explored.