Haven't played standard competitively since scars rotated, this is what i was able to come up with for a jumping off point after lurking around here and r/spikes for a while.
Not sure about how good this is (been out of standard since scars rotated) but Rescue from the Underworld plus a couple of Gray Merchant seems pretty nuts
Favorite Playstyle: Control/Midrange/Reanimator
How Competitive: Fun/Local Tournaments
Favorite Cards/Colors: Black and white
Budget: Nothing in the range of Goyfs or thoughtseizes, anything else is within reason
I love control above all other archtypes, with reanimator being a close second. I've been looking for a good Rock/Pox/Reanimator list in Junk colors but I havent followed the scene since Scars rotated.
Yeah, I was thinking it could be: 1UR: counter target spell unless it's controller pays 3, deal 3 damage to target creature or play.
So let me get this straight... you took twocards that have been deemed too good for standard, stapled them together to make a third card that is, wait for it, too good for standard.
I've been playing this on MTGO for a while now with fairly decent results. Some explanation on a couple of the card choices: Tectonic Edge- Nowhere near as good as Mutavault but as a poor college student I can't afford a set of them right now. Tec Edge still does manage to put in some work though. Sitched Drake- I'm testing this one-of almost exclusively because it's a pet card (no idea why I like it, I just do). That being said I have rode it to victory more than a few times.
Bog-Soaked Corpse- I like this because I'm trying to push "swampwalk matters" with the BUG wedge. Half because it really fits the flavor and half because I wanted to see if I could make it work.
Endu Healer- I like this because it's a simple card that illustrates the defensive nature of the Treefolk.
Voshnian Brawler- I'm pretty sure this is too good for common. I've yet to decide on whether or not to make it a 2/2 or push it up to uncommon. Even so it shows the raw power I want to capture in the RUG shard.
Xanadu Provocateur- I wanted to capture the lightning in a bottle that was Courtly Provocateur and expand upon its power level. On a side note the flavor text was something my history teacher used to describe iron fist rulers when I was in 10th grade and I liked it alot
Zealous Witch- I really like ritual effects and thought I'd try and lightly weave them into the dark nature of the WBR church.
You could easily cut RUG's ability (and go for straight tribal elemental effects, no keywords).
Famine is excellent, perhaps a bit overpowered, even. Perhaps change it to "loses one life for each permanent with a famine counter on it".
Tax is overpowered. You're either drawing 5 cards a turn or your opponents have no mana. This mechanic could be cut (in favor of some effects like Zedruu's, shifting control of permanents and such, but nothing keyworded), or shifted WAY down in powerlevel.
Cut GWB's ability. It doesn't seem flavorful. Go with toughness-heavy treefolk and elves to support them, and some lifegain. This is where your token effects should be, with your elves and treefolk.
RWB... I don't know what to say. I love the flavor, but I think your mechanic leaves something to be desired. Reprint Haunt, or just have a couple of cards that create 1/1 white spirits when they die (and an enchantment that does it for all creatures). Sacrificing things is good, and I don't think you need a mechanic if you have ways to make sacrifices beneficial (like a few creatures that die and make tokens, but small ones, thus more sacrifice fodder).
First off, thank you for taking the time to respond, your comments were greatly appreciated. I do feel like five keywords could be rather imposing but at the same time I wanted each wedge to have something that could be easily identified as part of that wedge, and keywords seemed an easy way of accomplishing that task. I could see cutting a few of them as a few were rather forced (I just made them for the sake of each wedge having a word).
I like the idea of cutting the WBG and WBR keywords entirely, but I want RWU and BUG to each have their own (they are the main figures in the first set). I want to keep the RUG mechanic in because I like that it makes aggro strong, while not pushing control completely away. That said if it needed to be cut from the set in place of a mechanic that could fit across the map I wouldn't be opposed.
To quote MaRo: "If your theme is not at common its not your theme."
As such, when designing card ideas or reading others, I ask myself what does a 2 mana 2/2 with ability X play like.
Tax: I can see a WU 2/2 Tax:1 creature being printed. Check.
Famine: A GB 2/2 with famine actually seems like a good card. The problem with famine though is that it doesn't work well with good creatures. A 3 mana 2/2 unblockable famine creature is the same as a 3 mana 2/2 unblockable creature. a 6 mana 6/6 famine creature is the same as a 6 mana 6/6. so Maybe.
Afterlife: A WB 2/2 with afterlife:1 is actually not all that powerful. I could potentially even envision a WB 2/2 with afterlife:2. The ability is scaleable, and thosely individual cards can be scaled appropriately. The only issue is the oddness of the timing. Haunt was a similarly good ability, with an odd timing, and subsequently fell by the wayside. Good ability, but I might suggest that the token be made immediately upon death. Check.
Powersurge: a RG 2/2 with powersurge: 1 or maybe even 2 seems printable. The ability is strong with all the flickering as of late. Lastly, having tribal specific keywords is fine (Prowl, Kinship). Check.
Seed: A WG 2/2 with seed is a printable card, just not in the same set as afterlife. They are way to similar. Also, Seed doesn't scale. I think the concept of treefolk again (especially if you bring Doran back) could be fun, and seed is a great name of a treefolk keyword, but this ability needs to be scrapped.
Have you tried actually making any cards?
Hopefully this was helpful
I like that MaRo quote, I do my best to keep it in mind when designing. As was mentioned above the Seed and Afterlife abilities need some reworking, but I like the names and the way Afterlife works; however I have no real attachment to the way Seed works. I figure I'll shelve them for now and revisit them later in the block.
I'm rather set in the flavor of each wedge but with that being said I'm willing to bend a bit. So here's a quick and dirty fact set: RWU
This wedge plays by controlling the game through taxing the opponent, and then reaping the rewards of pulling ahead. The wedge is themed around a political community consisting of Minotaurs and Humans, the Minotaurs ranging from brutal enforcers to Zedruu the Greathearted (who I've reprinted for this wedge in her original form). The wedge's ability is Tax X (At the beginning of your upkeep, each opponent may pay X, for each opponent that doesn’t, draw a card). This, in conjunction with traditional taxing effects is how the wedge pulls ahead of its opposition. My vision for the wedge is a controlling theme that utilizes taxing effects to put the opponent so far behind that it becomes nearly impossible to come back.
BUG
The BUG wedge takes aggressive and suicidal tendencies from black, card draw/ information gathering and light permission from blue, and raw power from green. From there it takes on a somewhat midrange personality but still carries some presence in the late game. The general theme here is necromancy and zombies, swamps, bogs and things of that ilk. Their ability is Famine (When this creature deals combat damage to a creature, put a famine counter on it. At the beginning of each player’s upkeep, that player loses 1 life for each famine counter among permanents they control). While I like the flavor and idea of Famine I'm worried it may be somewhat underpowered. My vision for the wedge is a midrange strategy that can maintain just enough pressure to put a game away.
WBR
I have chosen to take this wedge in a religious oriented, with its central point being a church. All of its units in some way work around the idea of this church (such as cathars, priests, worshipers etc.). A central play mechanic I found myself leaning towards was the idea of sacrifice, and how it could lead to greater power, as such a great deal of the cards I have come up with so far involve sacrificing small creatures (such as humans) for much stronger ones (such as angels or demons). The wedge specific I came up with is called Afterlife X (The turn after this creature dies put a X/X colorless Spirit creature token with flying onto the battlefield). My vision for the wedge is a kind of B/W tokens feel with the ability to chain into larger creatures and red's natural blazing fast aggression.
RUG
For the RUG shard I went with a tribal Elemental theme, that didn't try to deviate from killing its opponent in the shortest time possible. Taking the sheer power of red and green and mixing in blue's ability to clear the path just long enough to get some damage in, I believe I have the wedge's theme how I like it. The ability I gave to this wedge is Powersurge X (Whenever another Elemental enters the battlefield under your control, this creature gets +X/+X until end of turn). My vision for the wedge is a simple killing machine that revolves around raw power more than anything else.
WBG
For the final wedge I wanted to do something that was unique and interesting, so I went with Treefolk. They already had a proven way to win in Doran, so I took that concept and expanded it as best I could. The ability I made for this wedge was Seed (Whenever this creature enters the battlefield or dies put a 0/2 green Treefolk creature token onto the battlefield). I am slightly concerned about this ability's power level as it fills the board very quickly. My vision for this wedge is a unique method of fighting (I created a new card with the Doran ability) that feels something akin to a Rock style deck.
Now then, what I am looking for is help with designing cards, feedback and power level tweaking for the keywords, and overall constructive criticism.
Thank you for reading, feedback and help in any form is always appreciated.
~N
That was my first thought. Works great with Hellbent, fits in with some of the newer red cards (Wild Guess), and has synergy with some black cards (Veilborn Ghoul). I think it'd be an interesting mechanic.
8CMC Griselbrand - Decent card, but only in a deck based on itself. It's not reliable enough for a win condition, but it's dead weight early on. Good as a side-strategy as a 7-card draw is excessive and most of which will be discard
Are you serious here? Let me start from the top; "decent card"? try insane, "deck based on itself"? What like one that likes the ability to draw 7 at instant speed?, "not reliable as a win condition"? How is a 7/7 evasive lifelinker not good enough for you?, "dead weight early on" much like many high cmc cards not being cheated into play this is true, "7 card draw is excessive" since when did players complain about getting a new hand at instant speed?, "most of which will be discarded" who cares when (if you're smart) you took the best seven.
Actually, I could see this happening. Nissa shows up seeking help to defeat the Eldrazi. Somehow a portal is created that allows the evacuation of refugees and in Gatecrash something gets through that's not supposed to.
Or Nissa could get eaten by Eldrazi. I'd prefer that.
1 Erebos, God of the Dead
2 Scavenging Ooze
3 Desecration Demon
3 Gray Merchant of Asphodel
3 Reaper of the Wilds
3 Lifebane Zombie
Planeswalker (1)
1 Vraska the Unseen
Enchantment (4)
1 Primeval Bounty
1 Bow of Nylea
2 Whip of Erebos
Instant (9)
1 Doom Blade
1 Golgari Charm
2 Abrupt Decay
2 Putrefy
3 Hero's Downfall
1 Gaze of Granite
2 Read the Bones
3 Thoughtseize
Land (25)
1 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
2 Mutavault
3 Golgari Guildgate
4 Overgrown Tomb
6 Forest
9 Swamp
1 Lifebane Zombie
1 Golgari Charm
1 Erebos, God of the Dead
1 Reaper of the Wilds
1 Vraska the Unseen
2 Duress
2 Pithing Needle
2 Devour Flesh
2 Underworld Connections
2 Mistcutter Hydra
How Competitive: Fun/Local Tournaments
Favorite Cards/Colors: Black and white
Budget: Nothing in the range of Goyfs or thoughtseizes, anything else is within reason
I love control above all other archtypes, with reanimator being a close second. I've been looking for a good Rock/Pox/Reanimator list in Junk colors but I havent followed the scene since Scars rotated.
So let me get this straight... you took two cards that have been deemed too good for standard, stapled them together to make a third card that is, wait for it, too good for standard.
I'll put my vote in for this. Definitely looks right to me.
4 Tectonic Edge
16 Island
Creature (25)
4 Cursecatcher
4 Silvergill Adept
4 Master of the Pearl Trident
4 Lord of Atlantis
4 Coralhelm Commander
4 Merrow Reejerey
1 Stitched Drake
2 Spreading Seas
Instant (9)
2 Dismember
4 Spell Pierce
3 Mana Leak
Artifact (4)
4 Æther Vial
3 Hurkyl's Recall
2 Phyrexian Revoker
3 Tormod's Crypt
2 Spreading Seas
2 Grafdigger's Cage
2 Phantasmal Image
1 Kira, Great Glass-Spinner
I've been playing this on MTGO for a while now with fairly decent results. Some explanation on a couple of the card choices:
Tectonic Edge- Nowhere near as good as Mutavault but as a poor college student I can't afford a set of them right now. Tec Edge still does manage to put in some work though.
Sitched Drake- I'm testing this one-of almost exclusively because it's a pet card (no idea why I like it, I just do). That being said I have rode it to victory more than a few times.
Bog-Soaked Corpse- I like this because I'm trying to push "swampwalk matters" with the BUG wedge. Half because it really fits the flavor and half because I wanted to see if I could make it work.
Endu Healer- I like this because it's a simple card that illustrates the defensive nature of the Treefolk.
Voshnian Brawler- I'm pretty sure this is too good for common. I've yet to decide on whether or not to make it a 2/2 or push it up to uncommon. Even so it shows the raw power I want to capture in the RUG shard.
Xanadu Provocateur- I wanted to capture the lightning in a bottle that was Courtly Provocateur and expand upon its power level. On a side note the flavor text was something my history teacher used to describe iron fist rulers when I was in 10th grade and I liked it alot
Zealous Witch- I really like ritual effects and thought I'd try and lightly weave them into the dark nature of the WBR church.
First off, thank you for taking the time to respond, your comments were greatly appreciated. I do feel like five keywords could be rather imposing but at the same time I wanted each wedge to have something that could be easily identified as part of that wedge, and keywords seemed an easy way of accomplishing that task. I could see cutting a few of them as a few were rather forced (I just made them for the sake of each wedge having a word).
I like the idea of cutting the WBG and WBR keywords entirely, but I want RWU and BUG to each have their own (they are the main figures in the first set). I want to keep the RUG mechanic in because I like that it makes aggro strong, while not pushing control completely away. That said if it needed to be cut from the set in place of a mechanic that could fit across the map I wouldn't be opposed.
I like that MaRo quote, I do my best to keep it in mind when designing. As was mentioned above the Seed and Afterlife abilities need some reworking, but I like the names and the way Afterlife works; however I have no real attachment to the way Seed works. I figure I'll shelve them for now and revisit them later in the block.
RWU
This wedge plays by controlling the game through taxing the opponent, and then reaping the rewards of pulling ahead. The wedge is themed around a political community consisting of Minotaurs and Humans, the Minotaurs ranging from brutal enforcers to Zedruu the Greathearted (who I've reprinted for this wedge in her original form). The wedge's ability is Tax X (At the beginning of your upkeep, each opponent may pay X, for each opponent that doesn’t, draw a card). This, in conjunction with traditional taxing effects is how the wedge pulls ahead of its opposition. My vision for the wedge is a controlling theme that utilizes taxing effects to put the opponent so far behind that it becomes nearly impossible to come back.
The BUG wedge takes aggressive and suicidal tendencies from black, card draw/ information gathering and light permission from blue, and raw power from green. From there it takes on a somewhat midrange personality but still carries some presence in the late game. The general theme here is necromancy and zombies, swamps, bogs and things of that ilk. Their ability is Famine (When this creature deals combat damage to a creature, put a famine counter on it. At the beginning of each player’s upkeep, that player loses 1 life for each famine counter among permanents they control). While I like the flavor and idea of Famine I'm worried it may be somewhat underpowered. My vision for the wedge is a midrange strategy that can maintain just enough pressure to put a game away.
Thank you for reading, feedback and help in any form is always appreciated.
~N
I think you mean Gravecrawler, nobody plays Veilborn Ghoul.
1. Why is manalith in this list?
2. Why are there 4 dual lands in this three color deck (allied three colors at that)?
I'll let someone else take care of the rest
Are you serious here? Let me start from the top; "decent card"? try insane, "deck based on itself"? What like one that likes the ability to draw 7 at instant speed?, "not reliable as a win condition"? How is a 7/7 evasive lifelinker not good enough for you?, "dead weight early on" much like many high cmc cards not being cheated into play this is true, "7 card draw is excessive" since when did players complain about getting a new hand at instant speed?, "most of which will be discarded" who cares when (if you're smart) you took the best seven.
Or Nissa could get eaten by Eldrazi. I'd prefer that.