I love the idea of a spider commander, but I'm not the biggest fan of your design. It just does to much. It isn't cohesive. Here is what I would go with if I were you. The name is placeholder.
Spawing Spider (V2) 2GB
Legendary Creature - Spider
Reach
At the beginning of your upkeep, put a 0/2 green Egg creature token onto the battlefield. It has "At the beginning of your upkeep, you may sacrifice this creature. If you do, search your library for a Spider creature and put it onto the battlefield. Shuffle your library."
1/4
[name] (V1) 2GB
Legendary Creature - Spider
Reach
At the beginning of your upkeep, put a 0/2 green Egg creature token onto the battlefield. It has "When this creature dies, if it didn't enter the battlefield this turn, search your library for a Spider creature and put it onto the battlefield."
1/4
Every time I read a comment about "Well if this card had card draw/trample/haste/indestructible/hexproof/life gain...", I think "You're missing the point." They're armchair developer comments that fail to take into account the card's role in the greater Limited and Standard environment. No, it may not be as good as whatever card you're comparing it to. There's a reason for that. Not every burn spell is Lightning Bolt, nor does it need to be or should be.
- Manite
Would love a spider commander. But your design is a Sliver Legion, Sliver Overlord AND a Sliver Queen. And this is stapled onto a 5/4 with hexproof and reach for 4 mana? Seems a tad excessive don't you think? I mean, the card does everything.
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Rules Advisor
Seems like a legendary Spider should have at least a little bit a surprise built into it. For example, probably not balanced:
Araksa, Web of Death2BG Legendary Creature - Spider (M)
Flash
Reach
Other Spider creatures you control get +1/+1.
When CARDNAME enters the field, untap all Spiders you control. G, Discard a land card: Put a 1/2 green Spider creature token with reach onto the field.
3/4
Seems like a legendary Spider should have at least a little bit a surprise built into it. For example, probably not balanced:
Depends on the flavor you're going for. Off the top of my head, hear are a few archetypal legend worthy spider roles...
1. Egg Layer - Makes a bunch of spiders somehow.
2. Web Maker - Does webbing flavored stuff. lots of possible interpretations.
3. Giant Spider - Aggressive type spider. Imagine Giant Jumping Tarantulas. Probably best designed as a Vultron General
4. Ambush Spider - Imagine Trapdoor Spiders. Lots of possible interpretations. Should allow casting/playing it at instant speed somehow.
...If I were designing a spidey Legend, I would pick an archetype, design something mechanically sweet, then figure out how it fits flavor-fully into the world of whatever set I was making.
EDIT: Discussing your design specifically. I don't like the token making ability. I don't understand why discarding lands should produce spiders, and I don't think it fits well with the other abilities. You have basically designed a hybrid Ambush/Egg layer spider. If you pick a single archetype, I think you will end up with a cleaner design that feels better. For example. What if the token production was flavored as part of the ambush...
Araksa, Death's Doorkeeper 3BG
Legendary Creature - Spider (M)
Flash,
Reach, Deathtouch
Other Spider creatures you control get +1/+1.
When ~ enters the field, put two 0/1 green Spider creature tokens with Reach and Deathtouch onto the battlefield.
1/2
Every time I read a comment about "Well if this card had card draw/trample/haste/indestructible/hexproof/life gain...", I think "You're missing the point." They're armchair developer comments that fail to take into account the card's role in the greater Limited and Standard environment. No, it may not be as good as whatever card you're comparing it to. There's a reason for that. Not every burn spell is Lightning Bolt, nor does it need to be or should be.
- Manite
Akrasa, Big Spider4BG
Legendary Creature — Spider (M)
Reach
Wither (This deals damage to creatures in the form of -1/-1 counters.)
Whenever a creature an opponent controls with a -1/-1 counter on it dies, put a 1/2 green Spider creature token with reach onto the battlefield for each -1/-1 counter on that creature.
4/8
EDIT: Discussing your design specifically. I don't like the token making ability. I don't understand why discarding lands should produce spiders, and I don't think it fits well with the other abilities.
Think about how it plays more generally. There is an initial fright as your opponent stumbles into a large Spider, and then a lingering dread as he wonders whether more Spiders will fall on him.
The land restriction is not flavorfully important. Any sort of restriction would do really, as long as your opponent can't be certain whether or not you can actually pay the cost. You may have cards in hand, but how many sudden blockers can you actually make? Using land cards is good mechanically (in formats without something like kicker or landfall) because you are reasonably going to have extra lands that you can be willing to discard.
Akrasa, Big Spider4BG
Legendary Creature — Spider (M)
Reach
Wither (This deals damage to creatures in the form of -1/-1 counters.)
Whenever a creature an opponent controls with a -1/-1 counter on it dies, put a 1/2 green Spider creature token with reach onto the battlefield for each -1/-1 counter on that creature.
4/8
Just wanted to say this design is adorable. Not like cute but like clever. I kinda wish it could hit creatures to use the wither and get tokens, like tap to hit a flyer, but besides that it's so fun. Love the -1/-1 counters representing spider eggs and them bursting out when the creature dies. So grodey but so clever.
I'd probably do a graveyard-matters design to have synergy with some good spider stuff like Nyx Weaver or Spider Spawning. I think the most fun design for me on top of that would be one that made me want to curve out with spiders. But I suppose that would just be a plain old +x/+x lord effect, maybe going with OP's +X/+0 where X is the toughness.
I don't really have any design off the to of my head, but if it's in Jund, I really like the flavor of a spider with a threaten ability based on toughness to represent a spider using its web to capture the opponent's creatures. From there, BG can have a big sacrifice theme which itself isn't too far removed from graveyard matters theme. Could also tie it flavorfully with a typical trope of some sort of spider woman attracting others to their side then sacrificing them profit.
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They didn't care that he was the savior of Fort Keff, the great hunter of Ondu, the champion of Kabira. To them, he was just another piece of flesh, a thing with life to be drained away.
now i'm using Doran for my general.
I wonder why wotc still didn't print any legendnary spider or tribal spell to support this tribe.
so this is my design
Spawing Spider (V2) 2GB
Legendary Creature - Spider
Reach
At the beginning of your upkeep, put a 0/2 green Egg creature token onto the battlefield. It has "At the beginning of your upkeep, you may sacrifice this creature. If you do, search your library for a Spider creature and put it onto the battlefield. Shuffle your library."
1/4
[name] (V1) 2GB
Legendary Creature - Spider
Reach
At the beginning of your upkeep, put a 0/2 green Egg creature token onto the battlefield. It has "When this creature dies, if it didn't enter the battlefield this turn, search your library for a Spider creature and put it onto the battlefield."
1/4
- Manite
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Any new cool Daretti cards printed in the latest set? Tell me about it!
Rules Advisor
Thank you for your comment.
Araksa, Web of Death 2BG
Legendary Creature - Spider (M)
Flash
Reach
Other Spider creatures you control get +1/+1.
When CARDNAME enters the field, untap all Spiders you control.
G, Discard a land card: Put a 1/2 green Spider creature token with reach onto the field.
3/4
1. Egg Layer - Makes a bunch of spiders somehow.
2. Web Maker - Does webbing flavored stuff. lots of possible interpretations.
3. Giant Spider - Aggressive type spider. Imagine Giant Jumping Tarantulas. Probably best designed as a Vultron General
4. Ambush Spider - Imagine Trapdoor Spiders. Lots of possible interpretations. Should allow casting/playing it at instant speed somehow.
...If I were designing a spidey Legend, I would pick an archetype, design something mechanically sweet, then figure out how it fits flavor-fully into the world of whatever set I was making.
EDIT: Discussing your design specifically. I don't like the token making ability. I don't understand why discarding lands should produce spiders, and I don't think it fits well with the other abilities. You have basically designed a hybrid Ambush/Egg layer spider. If you pick a single archetype, I think you will end up with a cleaner design that feels better. For example. What if the token production was flavored as part of the ambush...
Araksa, Death's Doorkeeper 3BG
Legendary Creature - Spider (M)
Flash,
Reach, Deathtouch
Other Spider creatures you control get +1/+1.
When ~ enters the field, put two 0/1 green Spider creature tokens with Reach and Deathtouch onto the battlefield.
1/2
- Manite
Akrasa, Big Spider 4BG
Legendary Creature — Spider (M)
Reach
Wither (This deals damage to creatures in the form of -1/-1 counters.)
Whenever a creature an opponent controls with a -1/-1 counter on it dies, put a 1/2 green Spider creature token with reach onto the battlefield for each -1/-1 counter on that creature.
4/8
Think about how it plays more generally. There is an initial fright as your opponent stumbles into a large Spider, and then a lingering dread as he wonders whether more Spiders will fall on him.
The land restriction is not flavorfully important. Any sort of restriction would do really, as long as your opponent can't be certain whether or not you can actually pay the cost. You may have cards in hand, but how many sudden blockers can you actually make? Using land cards is good mechanically (in formats without something like kicker or landfall) because you are reasonably going to have extra lands that you can be willing to discard.
Just wanted to say this design is adorable. Not like cute but like clever. I kinda wish it could hit creatures to use the wither and get tokens, like tap to hit a flyer, but besides that it's so fun. Love the -1/-1 counters representing spider eggs and them bursting out when the creature dies. So grodey but so clever.
I'd probably do a graveyard-matters design to have synergy with some good spider stuff like Nyx Weaver or Spider Spawning. I think the most fun design for me on top of that would be one that made me want to curve out with spiders. But I suppose that would just be a plain old +x/+x lord effect, maybe going with OP's +X/+0 where X is the toughness.
I don't really have any design off the to of my head, but if it's in Jund, I really like the flavor of a spider with a threaten ability based on toughness to represent a spider using its web to capture the opponent's creatures. From there, BG can have a big sacrifice theme which itself isn't too far removed from graveyard matters theme. Could also tie it flavorfully with a typical trope of some sort of spider woman attracting others to their side then sacrificing them profit.
But the people behind the barrier knew.
I didn't expect this so many idea about Spider commander
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