Hey, I was just curious as to if MtG Editor is used by some or even many people here to create their own cards. It's what I use at the moment and was just wondering, since I've been out of the game itself for three years, if the images it produces are of nice quality.
Yeah, a lot of people use MtG Editor. Problems are it can't create hybrids. Magic Set Editor (often referred to as MSE) is the alternative, does all card frames and has different types such as 3-, 4- and 5-way hybrids, however the fonts are awful.
People who really care about making their cards look good use Photoshop (or one of it's alternatives, such as Paint Shop). There's free trials you can download all over the 'Net, or you can ask for a card to be rendered at one of the many card rendering shops over in the Artwork forum.
Quote from romans »
hi, please , how many times can I post card? how many cards can I create ? limit? and please, link where can I send my cards,
round3 forum?
Well, in the Custom Sets & Cards forum, there's no limit, although its advised that you keep it to about 10 or 15 (per thread) so people don't have to read through pages and pages of cards. You can post a new thread really whenever you like, so long as it's not too often (once a day is a bit too much, but once every two days or less is fine). For single cards, you can create a single card thread, or you can post it on the Single Card thread.
Alternatively, you can go to the Custom Card Contests & Games forum to find a wide variety of games and contests involving card creation.
"Hello! I've come to serenade you. I can't play guitar. I can't play this accordion either, but I thought it'd be less obvious."
Dylan Moran, Black Books
It's touched on a little in some of the posts, but I added a bit to my post on the second page that explicitly lists every possible combination of colors and what order they appear in a mana cost. (Or activation cost, or when they are listed somewhere.)
"Hello! I've come to serenade you. I can't play guitar. I can't play this accordion either, but I thought it'd be less obvious."
Dylan Moran, Black Books
Templating your mechanic correctly can be a challenging aspect of card design. It is important because you want to make sure your mechanic functions correctly according to the rules and is clear and consistent. A card with a cool concept, appropriate cost, good balance, neat flavor, good mechanic, etc., all fall apart when templating is bad.
Here's a helpful excercise from King MaRo to get you started.
Rules, tips and common mistakes:
1. If the text on your card is smaller than you've ever seen on a printed Magic card, it's too small. Either cut some functionality of your card or reword it so it takes less space.
2. If your mechanic needs wordy, confusing or clunky templating in order to function the way you want, consider altering the mechanic. Simpler is often better.
3. (from Shadowfox) If a spell or ability grants an ability to a permanent:
- creatures "get" a power/toughness boost. ex: "Target creature gets +1/+1 until end of turn."
- a permanent "has" an ability. ex: "Enchanted creature has haste." "Enchanted artifact has "t: Untap target creature".
- permanents "gain" an ability until end of turn. ex: "Target creature gains haste until end of turn."
4. The cost of activated abilties are written in the following order:
ex: 2BB,t, Sacrifice a creature: Destroy target creature.
5. A card anywhere other than in play or on the stack is a "card". A card on the stack is a "spell". A card in play is its permanent type. Types and subtypes apply no matter where the card is.
ex: A Sengir Vampire in your hand, library, graveyard or removed from the game is a card, creature card, vampire creature card, black card, etc. On the stack, it is a spell, vampire creature spell, black spell, etc. In play it is a creature, vampire, black creature, black vampire, etc.
This is important for many reasons:
- You search for a card, not a spell. Diabolic Tutor
- You counter a spell, not a card. Remove Soul
- You play a spell, not a card. Alabaster Leech
- You retrieve a card from another zone. Burning Wish, Raise Dead
6. Spells "can't be countered". Not "cannot". Spells and abilities that do not target, such as Blurred Mongoose and Obliterate "can't be countered". Spells and abilities that target such as Last Word and [card=direct damage]Urza's Rage "can't be countered by spells and abilties".
This is because a targeted effect is considered "countered" if you remove the target. Without the "by spells and abilities" clause such situations would cause confusion. On spells that do not target, however, the clause is unnecessary.
6.a. Always use contractions: don't, can't, isn't, etc., are correct. "Do not", "cannot", "is not", etc., are not.
7. The use of counters that alter power and toughness other than +1/+1 and -1/-1 is discouraged. Consider using a different kind of counter and add an ability that alters the power and toughness based on the number of those counters.
8. Don't use more than one type of counter on the same card. Don't use a single counter to keep track of a multiple number. ex: Ice Cauldron
9. Keyworded abilities are not capitalized when they appear in the card text. ex: "Target creature gains vigilance". A reference to a specific card is capitalized. The name of a counter is not capitalized. Ex: Darksteel Reactor
9.a. Supertypes are never capitalized in rules text. e.g. "Search your library for a basic land card..." Subtypes are always capitalized. e.g. "Search your library for a Forest or Treefolk card..."
10. Token creatures are designated in the following order:
ex: "Put a 1/1 blue Spirit creature token with flying into play." "Put a legendary 2/2 green and white Wolf creature token named Voja into play."
11. Cards that reference or affect themselves use the full card name in the ability. ex: Gruul Scrapper "This card" is only ever used in reminder text. If a legendary creature has a comma in the name and its ability references its name more than once, after the first use you may drop the text after the comma. Ex: Arashi, the Sky Asunder
11.a. Cards that create tokens that have abilities that reference themselves use "this" if the token has no name. ex: Sengir Nosferatu. If the token has a name, it uses the name. ex: Cloudseeder
If anyone has any suggestions or corrections, PM me and I'll add them to the list.
Also, this thread has a lot of great information but I think most people tend to ignore it because everything is so spread out. A linked index in the first post to various topics would be really helpful.
Kraj, thanks for this bit on templating. The rest of this thread I find generally helpful, but what you posted is stuff that tends to trip me up -- for example, when do I use 'three' and when do I use '3'? Very useful considering I'm trying to design my own block, with Flamebuster (I think he posts here..). Hopefully we can get this sorted out. The fun part about it is breaking colour-pie rules. Yes, I know they're there for a reason, but it would be fun to see a black card to handle enchantments that did it in a black way..
www.magiccards.info is your friend. When do you use "three"? When the official cards use "three". When do you use "3"? When the official cards use "3". When do you use "3"? When the official cards use "3".
Rule of ThreeWWW
Sorcery
If there are exactly three creatures with converted mana cost 3 or less in play, for each of those creatures, remove it from the game unless its controller pays 3.
You gain 3 life. "Well, it was only what Morte told me..." -The Nameless One
Basically, use proper English for most numbers unless it is a magical number or a converted mana cost. Mana costs (not converted ones) and pure mana are still represented by symbols. When counting mana, use English.
Lotus of ThreeW
Enchantment 3, Tap an untapped creature you control with converted mana cost 3: If that creature's power is 3 or more, add three white mana to your mana pool. If that creature's toughness is 3 or more, add another three white mana to your mana pool. Then, a player may pay or have you gain 3 life. If no one does, search your library for up to three cards named Lotus of Three and remove them from the game, then shuffle your library. Perfectly useless except to teach new students about how annoying Lotuses are.
Google for the Gimp (open source I think), "download" from torrents, use trial versions of PS, etc.
Imho to make cards in a SET, MSE2 works fine. To fix up art and such, Irfanview works for me. When I want transparencies and layers and uber effects I turn to PS, but that's rare.
To render individual cards you'd need PS and skills to make it believable, but for purposes of this forum MSE2 will probably suit your needs.
MtgEditor has a lesser quality renderer I believe. Plus it's unsupported now.
The forum that this thread is in is the place to post your ideas. A single thread for your project is best. As far as where to begin, well that's up to you. My suggestion is to start by deciding what you want your set to be and then go from there. Every set needs a concept to build around, even if it's as loose as "miscellaneous cool cards". If you need inspiration, just browse other people's projects and see what's out there.
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The Golden Rule of forums: If you're going to be rude, be right. If you might be wrong, be polite.
Tips on making cards:
FLAVOR TEXT! Flavor text is so important to Magic cards! It adds a level of depth beyond the name and the ability. Always add flavor text if you think there is room to on the text box. But don't strain yourself; if the abilities are too wordy, then you don't have to shrink the font down. The only thing worse than no flavor text on a card is flavor text that is so small it looks like window dressing.
I'm curious about something in the Magic Set Editor.
If I make a mechanic that has a number parameter, can I set the reminder text to use that number without having to edit the individual cards?
The idea is a series of Electric-based creatures with the Jolt mechanic, smaller ones would have Jolt 1, and I think the largest would be either Jolt 3 or Jolt 4. The mechanic currently works like this:
Jolt 2 - Whenever -Cardname- attacks, it deals 2 damage to target creature or player.
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Retrodrome, your one stop site for everything nostalgic.
So I'm not sure if this is the place to ask, but whatever. Where do I enter for the card of the month?
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Teroza Veg'Ra, Druidic Archmage :4mana::symg::symu::symug:
Planeswalker- Teroza
{+2}: Reveal the top card of your Library. If a Land card is revealed this way put it into the Battlefield. Otherwise put it into your hand.
{-3}: Put a 1/1 Blue-Green Frog token into the Battlefield for each card in your Hand.
{-11}: For each opponent choose a creature that player controls. Put three +1/+1 counters on and gain control of each creature choosen this way.
{7}
At the end of each month there will be a thread posted in the Custom Cards Contests and Games sub-forum of this forum titled: "<MONTH> Player Sign-ups!". Sign up in this thread, then wait until the beginning of the month for a thread entitled: "<Month> Round 1>".
I have a question about the making of Custom Cards
Do you have to give credit to Wizards of the Coast anywhere, or do you leave it blank.
I'm just noteing that in the tutorial posted on the front page, the links to the PSD files were removed because of WOTC suing. I don't want to get sued.
It wouldn't hurt to put WotC's copyright notice in the line, but you should be fine without it. Distributing templates for Magic's cards is the kind of thing the company gets p.o.'d about; posting your own custom creations generally is not.
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The Golden Rule of forums: If you're going to be rude, be right. If you might be wrong, be polite.
I want to recommend that people not use WotC plot characters and turn them into cards.... not for any legal issues (although you might face some never know these days) but for the simple fact that most people misinterpret a character and really mess with who the character is. Not only that but also its sort of disrespectful in my opinion to the original creators of said character..
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Yeah, a lot of people use MtG Editor. Problems are it can't create hybrids. Magic Set Editor (often referred to as MSE) is the alternative, does all card frames and has different types such as 3-, 4- and 5-way hybrids, however the fonts are awful.
People who really care about making their cards look good use Photoshop (or one of it's alternatives, such as Paint Shop). There's free trials you can download all over the 'Net, or you can ask for a card to be rendered at one of the many card rendering shops over in the Artwork forum.
Well, in the Custom Sets & Cards forum, there's no limit, although its advised that you keep it to about 10 or 15 (per thread) so people don't have to read through pages and pages of cards. You can post a new thread really whenever you like, so long as it's not too often (once a day is a bit too much, but once every two days or less is fine). For single cards, you can create a single card thread, or you can post it on the Single Card thread.
Alternatively, you can go to the Custom Card Contests & Games forum to find a wide variety of games and contests involving card creation.
spanglegluppet dot com
"Hello! I've come to serenade you. I can't play guitar. I can't play this accordion either, but I thought it'd be less obvious."
Dylan Moran, Black Books
A lot of people don't know how to do mana costs. There are rules to it.
The order, you know. Like how GU is GU and never UG.
Awesome avatar provided by Krashbot @ [Epic Graphics].
spanglegluppet dot com
"Hello! I've come to serenade you. I can't play guitar. I can't play this accordion either, but I thought it'd be less obvious."
Dylan Moran, Black Books
(A work in progess)
Templating your mechanic correctly can be a challenging aspect of card design. It is important because you want to make sure your mechanic functions correctly according to the rules and is clear and consistent. A card with a cool concept, appropriate cost, good balance, neat flavor, good mechanic, etc., all fall apart when templating is bad.
Here's a helpful excercise from King MaRo to get you started.
Rules, tips and common mistakes:
1. If the text on your card is smaller than you've ever seen on a printed Magic card, it's too small. Either cut some functionality of your card or reword it so it takes less space.
2. If your mechanic needs wordy, confusing or clunky templating in order to function the way you want, consider altering the mechanic. Simpler is often better.
3. (from Shadowfox) If a spell or ability grants an ability to a permanent:
- creatures "get" a power/toughness boost. ex: "Target creature gets +1/+1 until end of turn."
- a permanent "has" an ability. ex: "Enchanted creature has haste." "Enchanted artifact has "t: Untap target creature".
- permanents "gain" an ability until end of turn. ex: "Target creature gains haste until end of turn."
4. The cost of activated abilties are written in the following order:
[Mana Cost][,][space][Tap Symbol][,][space][Additional Cost][:][Effect]
ex: 2BB,t, Sacrifice a creature: Destroy target creature.
5. A card anywhere other than in play or on the stack is a "card". A card on the stack is a "spell". A card in play is its permanent type. Types and subtypes apply no matter where the card is.
ex: A Sengir Vampire in your hand, library, graveyard or removed from the game is a card, creature card, vampire creature card, black card, etc. On the stack, it is a spell, vampire creature spell, black spell, etc. In play it is a creature, vampire, black creature, black vampire, etc.
This is important for many reasons:
- You search for a card, not a spell. Diabolic Tutor
- You counter a spell, not a card. Remove Soul
- You play a spell, not a card. Alabaster Leech
- You retrieve a card from another zone. Burning Wish, Raise Dead
6. Spells "can't be countered". Not "cannot". Spells and abilities that do not target, such as Blurred Mongoose and Obliterate "can't be countered". Spells and abilities that target such as Last Word and [card=direct damage]Urza's Rage "can't be countered by spells and abilties".
This is because a targeted effect is considered "countered" if you remove the target. Without the "by spells and abilities" clause such situations would cause confusion. On spells that do not target, however, the clause is unnecessary.
6.a. Always use contractions: don't, can't, isn't, etc., are correct. "Do not", "cannot", "is not", etc., are not.
7. The use of counters that alter power and toughness other than +1/+1 and -1/-1 is discouraged. Consider using a different kind of counter and add an ability that alters the power and toughness based on the number of those counters.
8. Don't use more than one type of counter on the same card. Don't use a single counter to keep track of a multiple number. ex: Ice Cauldron
9. Keyworded abilities are not capitalized when they appear in the card text. ex: "Target creature gains vigilance". A reference to a specific card is capitalized. The name of a counter is not capitalized. Ex: Darksteel Reactor
9.a. Supertypes are never capitalized in rules text. e.g. "Search your library for a basic land card..." Subtypes are always capitalized. e.g. "Search your library for a Forest or Treefolk card..."
10. Token creatures are designated in the following order:
(legendary) [P/T] [color] [Type] creature token (named [Legendary name]) (with [ability])
ex: "Put a 1/1 blue Spirit creature token with flying into play." "Put a legendary 2/2 green and white Wolf creature token named Voja into play."
11. Cards that reference or affect themselves use the full card name in the ability. ex: Gruul Scrapper "This card" is only ever used in reminder text. If a legendary creature has a comma in the name and its ability references its name more than once, after the first use you may drop the text after the comma. Ex: Arashi, the Sky Asunder
11.a. Cards that create tokens that have abilities that reference themselves use "this" if the token has no name. ex: Sengir Nosferatu. If the token has a name, it uses the name. ex: Cloudseeder
12. Mana costs, power, toughness, life and damage are referred to by a numeral in a card. Whenever you count a number of something, you write the number as a word.
If anyone has any suggestions or corrections, PM me and I'll add them to the list.
Also, this thread has a lot of great information but I think most people tend to ignore it because everything is so spread out. A linked index in the first post to various topics would be really helpful.
Current New Favorite Person™: Mallory Archer
She knows why.
Thanks again!
Rule of Three WWW
Sorcery
If there are exactly three creatures with converted mana cost 3 or less in play, for each of those creatures, remove it from the game unless its controller pays 3.
You gain 3 life.
"Well, it was only what Morte told me..." -The Nameless One
Basically, use proper English for most numbers unless it is a magical number or a converted mana cost. Mana costs (not converted ones) and pure mana are still represented by symbols. When counting mana, use English.
Lotus of Three W
Enchantment
3, Tap an untapped creature you control with converted mana cost 3: If that creature's power is 3 or more, add three white mana to your mana pool. If that creature's toughness is 3 or more, add another three white mana to your mana pool. Then, a player may pay or have you gain 3 life. If no one does, search your library for up to three cards named Lotus of Three and remove them from the game, then shuffle your library.
Perfectly useless except to teach new students about how annoying Lotuses are.
Has anyone posted these so far? I found the links for MTG Editor and the like, but I can't seem to find a good Photoshop like program for download.
Current New Favorite Person™: Mallory Archer
She knows why.
Imho to make cards in a SET, MSE2 works fine. To fix up art and such, Irfanview works for me. When I want transparencies and layers and uber effects I turn to PS, but that's rare.
To render individual cards you'd need PS and skills to make it believable, but for purposes of this forum MSE2 will probably suit your needs.
MtgEditor has a lesser quality renderer I believe. Plus it's unsupported now.
Current New Favorite Person™: Mallory Archer
She knows why.
Current New Favorite Person™: Mallory Archer
She knows why.
Putting Your Eggs In Your Basket: Designing a Custom Set
Putting Your Eggs In Your Basket: A Followup
Tips on making cards:
FLAVOR TEXT! Flavor text is so important to Magic cards! It adds a level of depth beyond the name and the ability. Always add flavor text if you think there is room to on the text box. But don't strain yourself; if the abilities are too wordy, then you don't have to shrink the font down. The only thing worse than no flavor text on a card is flavor text that is so small it looks like window dressing.
Like freeform roleplaying? Try Darkness Befalls Us
Ryttare Kelasin Luna Orelinalei
Shame on me for not tooting it for you. An unacceptable faux pas on my part; it frankly just slipped my mind that those great resources were available
And your project sounds fun, LittleDragon. I'm sure you'll get plenty of suggestions if you ask for them.
Current New Favorite Person™: Mallory Archer
She knows why.
Current New Favorite Person™: Mallory Archer
She knows why.
If I make a mechanic that has a number parameter, can I set the reminder text to use that number without having to edit the individual cards?
The idea is a series of Electric-based creatures with the Jolt mechanic, smaller ones would have Jolt 1, and I think the largest would be either Jolt 3 or Jolt 4. The mechanic currently works like this:
Jolt 2 - Whenever -Cardname- attacks, it deals 2 damage to target creature or player.
Retrodrome, your one stop site for everything nostalgic.
Current New Favorite Person™: Mallory Archer
She knows why.
Planeswalker- Teroza
{+2}: Reveal the top card of your Library. If a Land card is revealed this way put it into the Battlefield. Otherwise put it into your hand.
{-3}: Put a 1/1 Blue-Green Frog token into the Battlefield for each card in your Hand.
{-11}: For each opponent choose a creature that player controls. Put three +1/+1 counters on and gain control of each creature choosen this way.
{7}
The contest will be in there.
Good luck!
Do you have to give credit to Wizards of the Coast anywhere, or do you leave it blank.
I'm just noteing that in the tutorial posted on the front page, the links to the PSD files were removed because of WOTC suing. I don't want to get sued.
Current New Favorite Person™: Mallory Archer
She knows why.
Standard
Extended
WUBSisters GrandeurWUB
Legacy
RBWElemental's Are FunRBW