This is just to give Grixis, Esper and Naya X spells in the same vein as Wargate and Lavalanche.
Undead Swarm (R)
Mana Cost: XUBR
Sorcery
Put up to X target creature cards from the graveyards onto the battlefield under your control. Those creatures gains haste. Exile them at the beginning of the next end step.
Metallic Reclamation (R)
Mana Cost: XWUB
Sorcery
Choose up to X target artifact cards in your graveyard. Return one of those cards to the battlefield and the rest to your hand.
Natural Presence (R)
Mana Cost: XRGW
Sorcery
Reveal the top X cards of your library. You may put a creature card and/or a land card from among them onto the battlefield. Put the rest on the bottom of your library in a random order.
This is just to give Grixis, Esper and Naya X spells in the same vein as Wargate and Lavalanche.
Man, those were elegant.
Undead Swarm (R)
Mana Cost: XUBR
Sorcery
Exile up to X target creature cards from the graveyards. For each card exiled this way, create a token that's a copy of that card, except it's a black Zombie in addition to its other colors and types. The token gains haste. Exile all tokens created this way at the beginning of the next end step.
Why bother with tokens. You exile the cards and then create copies of them that you also exile... why not just return the cards to the battlefield and then exile those creatures?
Metallic Reclamation (R)
Mana Cost: XWUB
Sorcery
Return up to X target artifact cards with total converted mana cost X or less from your graveyard to the battlefield.
So you really don't like this to combo with Ornithopter andd co.?
Garguantan Call (R)
Mana Cost: XRGW
Sorcery
Reveal the top X cards of your library. You may put a creature card with power 5 or greater from among them onto the battlefield. Put the rest on the bottom of your library in a random order. You gain X life.
As I mentioned in the beginning the cards you base these on were incredibly elegant and felt like a singular effect. This on the other hand just feels like two effects stacked together. Can be fine, but I'd aim for something more monolithic.
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Planar Chaos was not a mistake neither was it random. You might want to look at it again.
[thread=239793][Game] Level Up - Creature[/thread]
How about...
XWGR
Sorcery/Instant
Creatures you control get +X/+X until end of turn.
This is one of those designs that you look at and you're shocked doesn't already exist. It also seems perfectly costed as it doesn't give trample. Definitely sorcery, because all the effects these are based on are sorceries and also instant speed overruns just aren't fun to play against.
Perfect.
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Check out the thread for my cube if you have the time, and tell me how terrible it is.
Generals meant to be drafted first in a single pack of 6 cards.
And here is the actual cube, meant to be drafted in 4 regular sized packs. (60 card decks)
I dunno, I feel like simple is the goal with these sorts of things, as SI pointed out. These sorts of designs thrive on that Elegance.
Mutual Madness XUBR Sorcery (R)
Draw X cards, then each player discards X cards. A mind is a wonderful thing to waste.
(My other design was "Target player draws X cards. Target player discards X cards." Which is a stronger effect and arguably simpler, but this works it down to one effect, has more direct synergy with Grixis, reads less stilted/just feels smoother, and is better in multiplayer. Also the other effect is definitely too strong. Both of those designs also fall into the same "I'm shocked this hasn't been on a card before" column that I love. It turned out to be one of those designs that you just feel so amazing about.)
Unyeilding Roar XRGW Sorcery (R)
Creatures you control get +X/+X and gain trample. As she shouted she let loose what trappings of civilization remained within her, and when the pack answered her call she found a new home.
(I walked back on my feelings on trample. This doesn't quite do enough without it. Still dead simple elegant.)
Cryptic Ploy XWUB Sorcery (R)
Exile X target permanents. Return those cards to the battlefield tapped under their owners' control at the beginning of the next upkeep. "Did you really think I'd leave anything to chance?"
-Silas Renn to Tezzeret
(This is my millionth take on this. Still not sure. )
I dunno, I feel like simple is the goal with these sorts of things, as SI pointed out. These sorts of designs thrive on that Elegance.
Mutual Madness XUBR Sorcery (R)
Draw X cards, then each player discards X cards. A mind is a wonderful thing to waste.
(My other design was "Target player draws X cards. Target player discards X cards." Which is a stronger effect and arguably simpler, but this works it down to one effect, has more direct synergy with Grixis, reads less stilted/just feels smoother, and is better in multiplayer. Also the other effect is definitely too strong. Both of those designs also fall into the same "I'm shocked this hasn't been on a card before" column that I love. It turned out to be one of those designs that you just feel so amazing about.)
Unyeilding Roar XRGW Sorcery (R)
Creatures you control get +X/+X and gain trample. As she shouted she let loose what trappings of civilization remained within her, and when the pack answered her call she found a new home.
(I walked back on my feelings on trample. This doesn't quite do enough without it. Still dead simple elegant.)
Cryptic Ploy XWUB Sorcery (R)
Exile X target permanents. Return those cards to the battlefield tapped under their owners' control at the beginning of the next upkeep. "Did you really think I'd leave anything to chance?"
-Silas Renn to Tezzeret
(This is my millionth take on this. Still not sure. )
So you want me to completely change mine, is what you're saying.
So you want me to completely change mine, is what you're saying.
You shouldn't take this personally. Each of the two of you made a post with a set of valid card designs. And one does not invalidate the other.
There is really no definite right answer between "alter your own designs to be more satisfactory" and "take advantage of a more satisfactory design by someone else" - regardless of where one stands on the question who created a more satisactory card for each slot.
There are clearly two different approaches at work here. You, Etherium Sage, clearly created your cards with the shard themes in mind, which is a great idea. SCDL went more for optimizing the aspect where each card individually feels like a singular effect in a vacuum.
I don't think there is any one 'bad' idea in here. Only options existing beside each other which satisfy different aesthetics.
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Planar Chaos was not a mistake neither was it random. You might want to look at it again.
[thread=239793][Game] Level Up - Creature[/thread]
I was just riffing on the theme; I didn't intend to say "This is what you should do". It was more personal musings than advice.
As for not fitting rigidly into shard themes, Wargate and Lavalache didn't directly do so either, so I didn't feel constrained to that. I get that if that's the aim only really one or two of my cards are a good fit.
I was just riffing on the theme; I didn't intend to say "This is what you should do". It was more personal musings than advice.
As for not fitting rigidly into shard themes, Wargate and Lavalache didn't directly do so either, so I didn't feel constrained to that. I get that if that's the aim only really one or two of my cards are a good fit.
It isn't the aim per-se. The aim was to complete the "cycle" (it officially wasn't), but I just preferred to make them more directly supportive of their respective shards' themes.
I'm not saying your cards wouldn't fit, but I did mistake it for advice.
I like the current versions of Undead Swarm and Metallic Reclamation, they're powerful and punchy, reminiscent of the original Lavalanche and Wargate.
Gargantuan Call bothers me because I'm not sure why or when I would play it. It has a strong chance of just whiffing, something that none of the others have the risk of doing. Further, the effect is really an inefficient version of Mayael the Anima's ability. I would usually expect the one-off spell version of an effect to be more powerful than the repeatable version. I know that you originally had lifegain on it too, but I agree with SecretInfiltrator that it was a flavor disconnect.
What if it gave you all the lands it reveals in addition to the one creature? Still would have a chance of missing entirely, but the payoff would be higher to compensate.
Another possibility would be to do something with the extra cards other than dump them to the bottom. Top in any order would be good, splitting between top and bottom as you choose would be very good, but might break the shard theme, I don't recall Naya being very scry-centric. Again, it would soften the risk of whiffing, which again is my big hangup with your design.
I agree with all of saneatali's points. I especially like Metallic Reclamation. It's cool that you can reanimate one big artifact, and then return a bunch of cheap eggs like Chromatic Star and Executioner's Capsule without feeling bad about putting them in your hand. I almost worry that Undead Swarm is a bit OP, being able to revive multiple huge fatties (or Mulldrifters) with not that much mana. But maybe it's fine.
For Gargantuan Call, maybe it should be like Metallic Reclamation and put one of the cards into play and the rest into your hand? Or you could extend the series of X spells from Conflux with a bonus if X is fiveorhigher, which are incidentally all in Naya colors, so maybe it could put them all in play if X is 5 or greater?
Undead Swarm (R)
Mana Cost: XUBR
Sorcery
Put up to X target creature cards from the graveyards onto the battlefield under your control. Those creatures gains haste. Exile them at the beginning of the next end step.
Metallic Reclamation (R)
Mana Cost: XWUB
Sorcery
Choose up to X target artifact cards in your graveyard. Return one of those cards to the battlefield and the rest to your hand.
Natural Presence (R)
Mana Cost: XRGW
Sorcery
Reveal the top X cards of your library. You may put a creature card and/or a land card from among them onto the battlefield. Put the rest on the bottom of your library in a random order.
Man, those were elegant.
Why bother with tokens. You exile the cards and then create copies of them that you also exile... why not just return the cards to the battlefield and then exile those creatures?
So you really don't like this to combo with Ornithopter andd co.?
As I mentioned in the beginning the cards you base these on were incredibly elegant and felt like a singular effect. This on the other hand just feels like two effects stacked together. Can be fine, but I'd aim for something more monolithic.
Finally a good white villain quote: "So, do I ever re-evaluate my life choices? Never, because I know what I'm doing is a righteous cause."
Factions: Sleeping
Remnants: Valheim
Legendary Journey: Heroes & Planeswalkers
Saga: Shards of Rabiah
Legends: The Elder Dragons
Read up on Red Flags & NWO
XWGR
Sorcery/Instant
Creatures you control get +X/+X until end of turn.
• Recent Card Ideas • My Drawings at DeviantArt
This is one of those designs that you look at and you're shocked doesn't already exist. It also seems perfectly costed as it doesn't give trample. Definitely sorcery, because all the effects these are based on are sorceries and also instant speed overruns just aren't fun to play against.
Perfect.
Generals meant to be drafted first in a single pack of 6 cards.
And here is the actual cube, meant to be drafted in 4 regular sized packs. (60 card decks)
I made changes to them. What do you think?
Sorcery (R)
Draw X cards, then each player discards X cards.
A mind is a wonderful thing to waste.
(My other design was "Target player draws X cards. Target player discards X cards." Which is a stronger effect and arguably simpler, but this works it down to one effect, has more direct synergy with Grixis, reads less stilted/just feels smoother, and is better in multiplayer. Also the other effect is definitely too strong. Both of those designs also fall into the same "I'm shocked this hasn't been on a card before" column that I love. It turned out to be one of those designs that you just feel so amazing about.)
Sorcery (R)
Creatures you control get +X/+X and gain trample.
As she shouted she let loose what trappings of civilization remained within her, and when the pack answered her call she found a new home.
(I walked back on my feelings on trample. This doesn't quite do enough without it. Still dead simple elegant.)
Sorcery (R)
Exile X target permanents. Return those cards to the battlefield tapped under their owners' control at the beginning of the next upkeep.
"Did you really think I'd leave anything to chance?"
-Silas Renn to Tezzeret
(This is my millionth take on this. Still not sure. )
Generals meant to be drafted first in a single pack of 6 cards.
And here is the actual cube, meant to be drafted in 4 regular sized packs. (60 card decks)
So you want me to completely change mine, is what you're saying.
I think you applied the criticism and made cards that feel more elegant. So that's a big plus.
You shouldn't take this personally. Each of the two of you made a post with a set of valid card designs. And one does not invalidate the other.
There is really no definite right answer between "alter your own designs to be more satisfactory" and "take advantage of a more satisfactory design by someone else" - regardless of where one stands on the question who created a more satisactory card for each slot.
There are clearly two different approaches at work here. You, Etherium Sage, clearly created your cards with the shard themes in mind, which is a great idea. SCDL went more for optimizing the aspect where each card individually feels like a singular effect in a vacuum.
I don't think there is any one 'bad' idea in here. Only options existing beside each other which satisfy different aesthetics.
Finally a good white villain quote: "So, do I ever re-evaluate my life choices? Never, because I know what I'm doing is a righteous cause."
Factions: Sleeping
Remnants: Valheim
Legendary Journey: Heroes & Planeswalkers
Saga: Shards of Rabiah
Legends: The Elder Dragons
Read up on Red Flags & NWO
As for not fitting rigidly into shard themes, Wargate and Lavalache didn't directly do so either, so I didn't feel constrained to that. I get that if that's the aim only really one or two of my cards are a good fit.
Generals meant to be drafted first in a single pack of 6 cards.
And here is the actual cube, meant to be drafted in 4 regular sized packs. (60 card decks)
It isn't the aim per-se. The aim was to complete the "cycle" (it officially wasn't), but I just preferred to make them more directly supportive of their respective shards' themes.
I'm not saying your cards wouldn't fit, but I did mistake it for advice.
Gargantuan Call bothers me because I'm not sure why or when I would play it. It has a strong chance of just whiffing, something that none of the others have the risk of doing. Further, the effect is really an inefficient version of Mayael the Anima's ability. I would usually expect the one-off spell version of an effect to be more powerful than the repeatable version. I know that you originally had lifegain on it too, but I agree with SecretInfiltrator that it was a flavor disconnect.
What if it gave you all the lands it reveals in addition to the one creature? Still would have a chance of missing entirely, but the payoff would be higher to compensate.
Another possibility would be to do something with the extra cards other than dump them to the bottom. Top in any order would be good, splitting between top and bottom as you choose would be very good, but might break the shard theme, I don't recall Naya being very scry-centric. Again, it would soften the risk of whiffing, which again is my big hangup with your design.
For Gargantuan Call, maybe it should be like Metallic Reclamation and put one of the cards into play and the rest into your hand? Or you could extend the series of X spells from Conflux with a bonus if X is five or higher, which are incidentally all in Naya colors, so maybe it could put them all in play if X is 5 or greater?