This is my first thread. Yay. I've been dabbling in custom sets in magicmultiverse.net for a while, but in light of another person posting here, I think I wanna try my hand in this forum. Without further ado... (Also I may be taking formatting from various sources.)
Al-Weh'jed
Set Name: Al-Weh'jed, 1st of the Al-Weh'jed block Theme: Top-down design with Egyptian and Classical Islamic World mythos Subtheme: Cycles, Djinn, Shabti Mechanics: Excavate, Transfigure, Cycling, Etch Size: 115 commons, 62 uncommons, 55 rares and 16 mythics, 248 cards in total
Primer:
Do you believe in Order? In the plane of Al-Weh'jed, every aspect of life is a battle between the forces of Order and Chaos. "Ma'at" and "Isfet", as the Al-Weh'jedeen call them. Yet it has been aeons, and some of the people of Weh'jed are tired of the same traditions. "Ma'at", they thought, was becoming just a word for Oppression instead of Order. True Isfet, is freedom. From chains of slavers, from doctrination of the Sanctum and from the endless cycle of Ma'at.
Yet for all that these troubling elements are making, chaos was just another aspect of "Change" that is Isfet, just another aspect of Ma'at. No, the Sanctum is not worried of these troublemakers. Cleokhara, the de-facto high priestess of the Sanctum foresee bigger trouble brewing in the horizon, and it comes to her in one unrelenting Word: Nu'un.
Step into the world of Al-Weh'jed, where life revolves around upholding the Cosmic Order of everything there was, is and ever will be. Discover the cyclical forces that hold the plane in place and each and every institution that makes it possible. Join in the struggle between the Forces of Ma'at and the Forces of Isfet. Between order or oppression, and chaos and freedom.
Which side will you choose?
Hwet's Herald2W {U}
Artifact Creature — Shabti
At the beginning of your upkeep, put a 1/1 white Shabti Soldier artifact creature token onto the battlefield.
Cycling 4W(4W, Discard this card: Draw a card.)
When you cycle Hwet’s Herald, put two 1/1 white Shabti Soldier artifact creature tokens into play. “Behold Hwet, he who oversees Providence.”
0/1
Cycling makes a come-back in this cyclical plane. Notice the creature type: Shabti. Endemic to this plane are animated clay figurines that help the citizens of Al-Weh'jed. They are considered to have no wills of their own, and most wear metal chains as a symbol of their servitude to the people of Weh'jed. They serve as mentors, soldiers, even scribes and entertainers. Mechanically, they are 0/1 artifact creatures that have abilities that augment OTHER you or other creatures.
Syah's Faithful2UU {U}
Enchantment Creature — Djinn Wizard
Flying, indestructible
Whenever a spell or ability an opponent controls targets Syah's Faithful, return it to its owner’s hand. 2UU, Exile the top three cards of your library: Counter target triggered ability you control.
2/2
Whoa! A flying indestructible dude in blue? This is too good to be true! What's the downside? Turns out, quite a lot. When someone else other than you targets it, this poor Djinn gets forcefully whisked back to your hand. On one hand, it makes removal AND combat extremely difficult when it comes to dealing with these creatures, on the other hand, you run into the risk of the opponent playing a Gideon's Lawkeeper. It's all about the tempo, and.
Let's talk about the second ability: the countering of your own triggered ability. This works out so you can keep your Djinn, but as you can see, it comes at a very high price. 4 mana, two of which is blue AND two cards of your library. Finally, enchantment creatures! Like therosian enchantment creatures, all of these Djinns have abilities akin to Enchantments, and well, Djinns are creatures of enchantment, so...
Sanctum Seer3B {C}
Creature — Human Cleric
When Sanctum Seer enters or leaves the battlefield, you draw a card and lose 1 life.
Transfigure 2BB(2BB, Sacrifice this creature: Search your library for a creature card with the same converted mana cost and put it into play, then shuffle your library. Activate only as a sorcery) "Do not tempt the Forces with your hubris, child. Only disaster will come when you toy with the Cosmic Order."
2/2
Last time we saw Transfigure was a card in Future Sight: the lovely Fleshwrither. By paying mana, you turn a creature into lions and tigers and bears! Oh my! This plays well within the mythos of my black-oriented Force: the Force of illusion, deception and reality. What great creature Sanctum Seer is! Yet at the whims of Heka (you will be acquainted with her very soon), that creature can very well be, well, a Desecration Demon... or a Restoration Angel. The possibilities are endless. Just remember to activate this on your turn and at sorcery speed, or you'll be cheating!
Chaotic Rout3R {R}
Instant
For each attacking creature, put a 2/1 red Shabti Avenger artifact creature token onto the battlefield tapped and attacking.
Etch (If you cast this card from your hand, exile it as it resolves. As long as this card is in exile, you may cast it.) As the troops scatter, Isfet reign supreme.
Now let's talk about chaos. Chaotic Rout might seem like a different Trumpet Blast, but this new mechanic Etch makes it so you get to cast it again if you have 3R lying around. But that's not the only reason why this card is at rare. Look at the time restrictions and the wording: an instant and it doesn't say "creatures you control"... Yup! You can play it on an opponent's turn. In that case, your opponent will have creatures attacking you AND you will have creatures attacking them. They better have untapped blockers to cover their backs from these "Avengers." or they might just lose out of nonwhere. Whew, chaotic indeed!
Etch itself is an alchemist mechanic, as you will see. The Alchemists of Al-Weh'jed is a major proponent of the "Isfet is freedom" faction. Exile is a great place for alchemy to happen, and these pesky alchemists have no qualms abusing this forbidden zone to their advantage(much to the Sanctum and the House's irk).
Stifling Hieroglyph1GG {U}
Artifact 1, t: Add GG to your mana pool. GG, Sacrifice Stifling Hieroglyph: Shuffle target noncreature permanent into its owner's library.
Excavate 3 (Exile three other cards from your graveyard: Return this card from your graveyard to your hand. Activate only as a sorcery.)
Other than the weird mana filter, will ya look at that. Deglamer with an upgrade. Not only that, if it ever gets lost, all you need to do is to go to your nearest excavation site and dust around three cards to find this gem of a hieroglyph. What a great thing to have. Excavate gives everyone a chance to channel their inner Indiana Jones, and gives those graveyard decks a chance to have some fun.
the whole point of the 10 guilds is that they balance each other out. So Dimir overtake will be the best because the structure is still there, just ruled by different people.
hmmm devil's play is more of a "finisher", in case your burst isn't enough. The most important though is that devil's play has a flashback. Meaning even if it's in epic experiment for 0 damage, you can cast it next turn for x-2 damage
Think about this way, you have 10 mana, you use epic experiment for 8 and you got a devil's play in there. The whole combo does 15 damage, but they still have 5 left. On your next turn, you can flashback devil's play for the last 5 damage (which they probably will not notice).
Reverberate effs up control decks and populate decks. It's a nivix guildmage 4mana activated ability for 2 that can copy enemy's spells. This card can help you stall and/or until you get to epic experiments, but I would say don't get a lot because it doesn't go well with Epic Experiment. Put 2 on the sideboard just in case.
Deck looks good. I would strongly suggest taking out summonings for more answers though. Or maybe snapcaster mage. I'd rather see a deck that doesn't need that card rather than a deck that needs that card. Basically saying if you need it and draw it then it's a lot harder for you. But if that were a card that just made your deck stronger then it's a +. Sucks top decking that also. Maybe make that the keyrune whenever gc comes?
Idk about your choice of big dude. Seems like grisle is better. His lifelink is probably more important than the draw. But your choice is just ok. Not quite big enough in my eyes though. Try him out though.
should I take out heartless summoning? heartless summoning is there not just because it accelerates my curve (which it does), but also because it's relevant for the whole game, as I'll be mostly flashing in creatures to be chump blockers (think of it as a hussar patrol) or attackers (or to use their abilities), no matter what their toughness is (unless it's 0) and then feeding it to grimgrin.This deck involves extensive creature casting, casting a creature or even two maybe every turn (even the opponent one). Say x is the amount of mana you have if you drop land every turn having x+1 mana from a keyrune will help. However, let's say a creature costs y mana, then it's definitely more advantageous to have x-2(y-2) mana than x+1-2y mana.
2 keyrunes is equivalent to 1 summoning, but keyrunes do have their advantage and I'll see if dimir keyrune is any good (and not bad like the izzet one)
but you're right, my mana curve would be **** without it and top deckin that will be a *****, that's why I put so much control in the early game and have the cycling cards to compensate for it. I think when gatecrash comes out heartless summoning can be moved to a more mid-game presence, where even not having it I have enough tricks to pull through (maybe havengul into 2 or 1 drops for their activated effects) and transitions smoothly until heartless comes out, then it can go to 2 summonings instead. If not, maybe I'll change my strategy a bit and make it a alternate win-con instead.
In conclusion, I wish there are more tutor cards in this set...
hmmm Griselbrand has lifelink? Damn that card value just went up. and I don't need snapcaster mages, I'll just steal the opponent's (also they're really expensive and I can't afford them) =)
Edit: this is the best answer I came up with, if there are better cards, you should let me know ^^''.
the guy above me is right, most of your mechanics involve detain and creature control. Meeting flash-control decks like blue/red/white would be hard because they never play on their turn, meaning you can't detain them (they wouldn't have the creature out before you play the creature). Meeting burn or red aggro would hurt because they go for early game damage and haste, when you won't have many detain enchantments, and late game burns, which by then your detain mechanic would be useless.
Until Dimir comes out, this deck will be incomplete and there will be many cards that are off-colour but works because of the nature of the deck.
This deck isn't only blue/black mostly because of Chromatic Lantern, and Dimir hasn't come out yet, but I named it this way because of the description of Chromatic lantern "Dimir mages put the lanterns to good use, creating shapeshifters and sleeper agents from mana foreign to them," and I firmly believe that Gatecrash Dimir will at least feature shapeshifters, but here it is.
Also I need a BIG creature to unburial rites it, any suggestions? (Griselbrand is meh)
The main wincon of this deck is to steal creatures from their graveyard or the battlefield via either Havengul Lich or Evil twin (or both). This will be made easier by Heartless Summoning. And Grimgrin will be there to catch the dead with +1/+1 to eat up everything, then help destroy enemy creature which I can then steal.
It starts off as blue/black control, then as the game goes on, Chromatic lanterns and transguild promenade makes me able to steal ANY creature in any colour.
If they have no creatures, side in desecration demons and zerg rush with bloodline keeper and co.
extra Essence Scatter and Sever the bloodline in case they're playing token decks or Predator ooze-like decks.
Syncopate, Negate and Undying evil in case they're control/izzet. Undying evil is the only solution I came up with against supreme verdict...
Ultimate Price and Vampire Nighthawk is for aggro decks, in which case I will probably go completely anti-creature with 3 vampire nighthawks replacing 2 havengul's and 1 heartless summoning, full Essence scatters and sever the bloodlines, and a bunch of removal spells.
Zealous conscript is just there for the lulz
I think this deck's advantage is how flexible it is. I can steal their wincon, may it be thragtusks or angels, and make it my own. The only problem though is that my creatures start at 4 mana cost unless I can get a heartless summoning out by turn 2-3. Oh, and plainswalkers... yeah, they're a problem, but nothing a cyclonic rift---> negate won't fix
This is the combo I'll be doing when I stabilize: Turn: sacrifice a creature, attack with grimgrin, tap create a vampire, etc end turn. Opponent turn: do whatever in counter phase, during attacking phase, flash in creature using havengul lich to block, then sacrifice the creatures to grimgrin. Rinse and repeat
Edit: I took out 1 heartless summoning and put in bloodline keeper, that card is a standalone wincon.
Set Name: Al-Weh'jed, 1st of the Al-Weh'jed block
Theme: Top-down design with Egyptian and Classical Islamic World mythos
Subtheme: Cycles, Djinn, Shabti
Mechanics: Excavate, Transfigure, Cycling, Etch
Size: 115 commons, 62 uncommons, 55 rares and 16 mythics, 248 cards in total
Primer:
Do you believe in Order? In the plane of Al-Weh'jed, every aspect of life is a battle between the forces of Order and Chaos. "Ma'at" and "Isfet", as the Al-Weh'jedeen call them. Yet it has been aeons, and some of the people of Weh'jed are tired of the same traditions. "Ma'at", they thought, was becoming just a word for Oppression instead of Order. True Isfet, is freedom. From chains of slavers, from doctrination of the Sanctum and from the endless cycle of Ma'at.
Yet for all that these troubling elements are making, chaos was just another aspect of "Change" that is Isfet, just another aspect of Ma'at. No, the Sanctum is not worried of these troublemakers. Cleokhara, the de-facto high priestess of the Sanctum foresee bigger trouble brewing in the horizon, and it comes to her in one unrelenting Word: Nu'un.
Step into the world of Al-Weh'jed, where life revolves around upholding the Cosmic Order of everything there was, is and ever will be. Discover the cyclical forces that hold the plane in place and each and every institution that makes it possible. Join in the struggle between the Forces of Ma'at and the Forces of Isfet. Between order or oppression, and chaos and freedom.
Which side will you choose?
Cycling makes a come-back in this cyclical plane. Notice the creature type: Shabti. Endemic to this plane are animated clay figurines that help the citizens of Al-Weh'jed. They are considered to have no wills of their own, and most wear metal chains as a symbol of their servitude to the people of Weh'jed. They serve as mentors, soldiers, even scribes and entertainers. Mechanically, they are 0/1 artifact creatures that have abilities that augment OTHER you or other creatures.
Whoa! A flying indestructible dude in blue? This is too good to be true! What's the downside? Turns out, quite a lot. When someone else other than you targets it, this poor Djinn gets forcefully whisked back to your hand. On one hand, it makes removal AND combat extremely difficult when it comes to dealing with these creatures, on the other hand, you run into the risk of the opponent playing a Gideon's Lawkeeper. It's all about the tempo, and.
Let's talk about the second ability: the countering of your own triggered ability. This works out so you can keep your Djinn, but as you can see, it comes at a very high price. 4 mana, two of which is blue AND two cards of your library. Finally, enchantment creatures! Like therosian enchantment creatures, all of these Djinns have abilities akin to Enchantments, and well, Djinns are creatures of enchantment, so...
Last time we saw Transfigure was a card in Future Sight: the lovely Fleshwrither. By paying mana, you turn a creature into lions and tigers and bears! Oh my! This plays well within the mythos of my black-oriented Force: the Force of illusion, deception and reality. What great creature Sanctum Seer is! Yet at the whims of Heka (you will be acquainted with her very soon), that creature can very well be, well, a Desecration Demon... or a Restoration Angel. The possibilities are endless. Just remember to activate this on your turn and at sorcery speed, or you'll be cheating!
Now let's talk about chaos. Chaotic Rout might seem like a different Trumpet Blast, but this new mechanic Etch makes it so you get to cast it again if you have 3R lying around. But that's not the only reason why this card is at rare. Look at the time restrictions and the wording: an instant and it doesn't say "creatures you control"... Yup! You can play it on an opponent's turn. In that case, your opponent will have creatures attacking you AND you will have creatures attacking them. They better have untapped blockers to cover their backs from these "Avengers." or they might just lose out of nonwhere. Whew, chaotic indeed!
Etch itself is an alchemist mechanic, as you will see. The Alchemists of Al-Weh'jed is a major proponent of the "Isfet is freedom" faction. Exile is a great place for alchemy to happen, and these pesky alchemists have no qualms abusing this forbidden zone to their advantage(much to the Sanctum and the House's irk).
Other than the weird mana filter, will ya look at that. Deglamer with an upgrade. Not only that, if it ever gets lost, all you need to do is to go to your nearest excavation site and dust around three cards to find this gem of a hieroglyph. What a great thing to have. Excavate gives everyone a chance to channel their inner Indiana Jones, and gives those graveyard decks a chance to have some fun.
Full card spoiler link: http://www.magicmultiverse.net/cardsets/869/visualspoiler
(I'll get around with the text links and other stuff when I understand how to do it)
I bet Phenax is 5 mana.
Think about this way, you have 10 mana, you use epic experiment for 8 and you got a devil's play in there. The whole combo does 15 damage, but they still have 5 left. On your next turn, you can flashback devil's play for the last 5 damage (which they probably will not notice).
Reverberate effs up control decks and populate decks. It's a nivix guildmage 4mana activated ability for 2 that can copy enemy's spells. This card can help you stall and/or until you get to epic experiments, but I would say don't get a lot because it doesn't go well with Epic Experiment. Put 2 on the sideboard just in case.
should I take out heartless summoning? heartless summoning is there not just because it accelerates my curve (which it does), but also because it's relevant for the whole game, as I'll be mostly flashing in creatures to be chump blockers (think of it as a hussar patrol) or attackers (or to use their abilities), no matter what their toughness is (unless it's 0) and then feeding it to grimgrin.This deck involves extensive creature casting, casting a creature or even two maybe every turn (even the opponent one). Say x is the amount of mana you have if you drop land every turn having x+1 mana from a keyrune will help. However, let's say a creature costs y mana, then it's definitely more advantageous to have x-2(y-2) mana than x+1-2y mana.
2 keyrunes is equivalent to 1 summoning, but keyrunes do have their advantage and I'll see if dimir keyrune is any good (and not bad like the izzet one)
but you're right, my mana curve would be **** without it and top deckin that will be a *****, that's why I put so much control in the early game and have the cycling cards to compensate for it. I think when gatecrash comes out heartless summoning can be moved to a more mid-game presence, where even not having it I have enough tricks to pull through (maybe havengul into 2 or 1 drops for their activated effects) and transitions smoothly until heartless comes out, then it can go to 2 summonings instead. If not, maybe I'll change my strategy a bit and make it a alternate win-con instead.
In conclusion, I wish there are more tutor cards in this set...
hmmm Griselbrand has lifelink? Damn that card value just went up. and I don't need snapcaster mages, I'll just steal the opponent's (also they're really expensive and I can't afford them) =)
Edit: this is the best answer I came up with, if there are better cards, you should let me know ^^''.
the guy above me is right, most of your mechanics involve detain and creature control. Meeting flash-control decks like blue/red/white would be hard because they never play on their turn, meaning you can't detain them (they wouldn't have the creature out before you play the creature). Meeting burn or red aggro would hurt because they go for early game damage and haste, when you won't have many detain enchantments, and late game burns, which by then your detain mechanic would be useless.
This deck isn't only blue/black mostly because of Chromatic Lantern, and Dimir hasn't come out yet, but I named it this way because of the description of Chromatic lantern "Dimir mages put the lanterns to good use, creating shapeshifters and sleeper agents from mana foreign to them," and I firmly believe that Gatecrash Dimir will at least feature shapeshifters, but here it is.
Also I need a BIG creature to unburial rites it, any suggestions? (Griselbrand is meh)
3x Bloodline Keeper
4x Evil Twin
2x Grimgrin, Corpse-Born
3x Havengul Lich
2x Nefarox, Overlord of Grixis
Lands:
4x Drowned Catacomb
2x Nephalia Drownyard
7x Island
8x Swamp
3x Transguild Promenade
Planeswalkers:
1x Jace, Memory Adept
1x Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker
4x Cyclonic Rift
2x Forbidden Alchemy
1x Essence Scatter
2x Negate
1x Sever the Bloodline
1x Think Twice
1x Tragic Slip
1x Ultimate Price
2x Unburial Rites
Others:
3x Chromatic Lantern
2x Heartless Summoning
2x Desecration Demon
2x Essence Scatter
1x Negate
1x Sever the Bloodline
2x Syncopate
1x Ultimate Price
3x Vampire Nighthawk
1x Zealous Conscript
2x Undying Evil
The main wincon of this deck is to steal creatures from their graveyard or the battlefield via either Havengul Lich or Evil twin (or both). This will be made easier by Heartless Summoning. And Grimgrin will be there to catch the dead with +1/+1 to eat up everything, then help destroy enemy creature which I can then steal.
It starts off as blue/black control, then as the game goes on, Chromatic lanterns and transguild promenade makes me able to steal ANY creature in any colour.
If they have no creatures, side in desecration demons and zerg rush with bloodline keeper and co.
extra Essence Scatter and Sever the bloodline in case they're playing token decks or Predator ooze-like decks.
Syncopate, Negate and Undying evil in case they're control/izzet. Undying evil is the only solution I came up with against supreme verdict...
Ultimate Price and Vampire Nighthawk is for aggro decks, in which case I will probably go completely anti-creature with 3 vampire nighthawks replacing 2 havengul's and 1 heartless summoning, full Essence scatters and sever the bloodlines, and a bunch of removal spells.
Zealous conscript is just there for the lulz
I think this deck's advantage is how flexible it is. I can steal their wincon, may it be thragtusks or angels, and make it my own. The only problem though is that my creatures start at 4 mana cost unless I can get a heartless summoning out by turn 2-3. Oh, and plainswalkers... yeah, they're a problem, but nothing a cyclonic rift---> negate won't fix
This is the combo I'll be doing when I stabilize: Turn: sacrifice a creature, attack with grimgrin, tap create a vampire, etc end turn. Opponent turn: do whatever in counter phase, during attacking phase, flash in creature using havengul lich to block, then sacrifice the creatures to grimgrin. Rinse and repeat
Edit: I took out 1 heartless summoning and put in bloodline keeper, that card is a standalone wincon.
Diregraf captain would be interesting