Hi guys, as a fantasy geek, I have always been eager for MTG to have more "Biblical" angels, i.e. angels that look like Eldritch Abominations, rather than winged humanoids. I have used the MTG card smith and Angelarium arts to create 12 custom Zodiac-themed legendary Angel Avatar creature cards. They are designed with Commander in mind. Here is the first batch (I'm limited to five attachments per thread):
Hamaliel (Virgo) - I put her in Bant colors, because (1) untapping lands is, I think, usually a green thing, while (2) white and blue would love Hamaliel, who will enable her controller to counter/respond til kingdom come.
Ambriel (Gemini) - I put her in Esper colors, because copying is obviously a blue effect, and she benefits from having lots of small creatures, making her appropriate for white and black - the weenie colors.
Muriel (Cancer) - He has the Grixis colors, because searching opponent library for specific cards to remove is, tmk, firmly a black thing. Added the prowess-like condition to facilitate a playstyle where Muriel's controller controls no creature but Muriel, as Muriel slowly attacks and wears down the opponents.
Malahidael (Aries) - The Jund colors. Designed as a finisher for a faster-paced BRG deck.
Advachiel (Sagittarius) - Primarily designed to synergize with landfall. Due to the fact that it is meant to used with landfall, it needs to show up early, thus having a lower CMC than the others. Basically if you play Advachiel, you need to ramp, play some landfall creatures, play Advachiel, and then BOMB.
Barbiel (Scorpio) - Primarily designed to play with decks that are willing to kill their own creatures, i.e., it is RWB, the three colors with the most sacrifice/board swipes to benefit the player while sending the player's creatures to graveyard.
Barchiel (Pisces) - Being WBG, it is designed for a Commander decks with lots of graveyard tricks and affinity for creatures. So basically, play some small creatures, small creature dies, play Barchiel, play some white spells that return lots of small creatures from graveyards, and proceed to overwhelm the opponent and gain loads of life.
Zuriel (Libra) - The Jeskai colors. I have in mind a Commander deck that contains lots of obscenely high-cost creatures. This deck will start by using artifacts to ramp in early game, and then play Zuriel. While Zuriel is in play, whenever your opponent play creature spells (which is bound to happen in Commander), you can get those obscenely high-cost creatures you own onto the battlefield.
Cambiel (Aquarius) - Atraxa colors. Designed to a controlling deck that drags on the game. You gain most by playing one spell per turn, encouraging player to play spell on opponents' turn. He slowly helps you gain card advantage. It may be difficult to set up, but once Cambiel goes off, you will have a massive card advantage.
Hanael the Shepherd (Capricorn) - Not-white.
Verchiel the Ruler (Leo) - Not-black.
Asmodel (Taurus) - ... I am not sure. I think I just kind of ran out of ideas.
I don't think I'm a very good critique, but here are my thougts on them:
I think Hamaliel is busted. It may cost seven, but it's very close to a more abusable and indestructible paradox engine in the command zone (actually I'm even tempted to compare it with omniscience). It probably should only trigger when opponents cast spells, perhaps specify nonland permanents, or untap only 2 or 3 permanents.
I like Ambriel's ability. However, be aware that if you choose to have creatures you control become copies, then Ambriel will also become a copy of that creature (and will lose his previous abilities). I'm not sure I like double-strike in esper colors (well, that's not really offcolor since it includes white at least), but I admit it goes nicely with the illustration and the gemini zodiac sign.
Muriel makes me a bit wary as searching a library usually is a time-consuming process, in particular when it's an opponent's in a 99-cards highlander format.
Malahidael seems fine to me, I'm not really sure I understand why he's green, but why not.
I suspect Advachiel can generate way too much mana (compare for instance with grand warlord radha). Those tokens should probably go away once tapped for mana or something.
Barbiel is interesting, but I don't think he should be able to target lands. His ability is also very easy to abuse as you can trigger it yourself (unlike karmic justice), perhaps a bit too much.
Barchiel sounds fine, although I'm not sure I understand why he has flying. His ability is original, and I think you could build something around it, which is nice.
Zuriel is… nuts? Well, for starters, his ability triggers itself which probably isn't intended (you should probably say "casts a spell from his or her hand" or something).(I missed the "after paying its mana cost clause") Even fixed, this looks completely degenerate to me. I mean, with the amount of combos and other broken cards in EDH, I feel like 90% of the time, if that ability would trigger, the last non-active player will win.
Asmodel somewhat makes me think of saskia, except you'll want to attack the chosen player rather than the opposite. His ability seems fine, but a 6/5 haste trample indestructible is already quite strong (perhaps a bit too much for 6 mana), I'm not sure what to think of it.
Cambiel will probably combo out way too fast, same with Hanael. There's a reason why gifts ungiven is banned in commander, anything that can fetch multiple cards with very few restrictions is extremely suspicious.
Verchiel is interesting, quite reminiscent of charisma. If anything perhaps indestructible is too problematic on him though, but that might be one of the fairest cards.
I see that you gave each of them indestructible. While I understand you want them to be "divine" beings, I'm not sure this is a very good decision as they will all be quite hard to deal with (I mean, that's indestructible's point) while they all have extremely powerful abilities on top of that. I'm also a bit disappointed not to see complete color cycles, although 12 admittedly isn't a very convenient number for that.
Otherwise, I like that each of them have fairly simple and short rule text (that's something I often struggle with).
Yeah, I was thinking the same thing about Hamaliel (Virgo)...
As for Ambriel (Gemini), I'm sorry I haven't made it clearer. I meant to say "you may have all creatures you control other than Ambriel become copies".
I see your point about searching library being broken. I will be more careful with tutoring effects in my future attempts to design cards. I guess Zuriel should only let players play from hands and not libraries.
As for Malahidael (Aries), maybe I should've added trample?
I gave Barchiel flying because he looks like he's high in air in that art, and I remember how Mark Rosewater mentioned that they always make sure to give a creature flying if the art shows it flying.
Yeah, I was also worried that these may be overpowered with indestructible. I guess next time when I design powerful cards like these, I will give them at best conditional indestructibility.
Anyway, thanks for the detailed advice.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
Hamaliel (Virgo) - I put her in Bant colors, because (1) untapping lands is, I think, usually a green thing, while (2) white and blue would love Hamaliel, who will enable her controller to counter/respond til kingdom come.
Ambriel (Gemini) - I put her in Esper colors, because copying is obviously a blue effect, and she benefits from having lots of small creatures, making her appropriate for white and black - the weenie colors.
Muriel (Cancer) - He has the Grixis colors, because searching opponent library for specific cards to remove is, tmk, firmly a black thing. Added the prowess-like condition to facilitate a playstyle where Muriel's controller controls no creature but Muriel, as Muriel slowly attacks and wears down the opponents.
Malahidael (Aries) - The Jund colors. Designed as a finisher for a faster-paced BRG deck.
Barbiel (Scorpio) - Primarily designed to play with decks that are willing to kill their own creatures, i.e., it is RWB, the three colors with the most sacrifice/board swipes to benefit the player while sending the player's creatures to graveyard.
Barchiel (Pisces) - Being WBG, it is designed for a Commander decks with lots of graveyard tricks and affinity for creatures. So basically, play some small creatures, small creature dies, play Barchiel, play some white spells that return lots of small creatures from graveyards, and proceed to overwhelm the opponent and gain loads of life.
Zuriel (Libra) - The Jeskai colors. I have in mind a Commander deck that contains lots of obscenely high-cost creatures. This deck will start by using artifacts to ramp in early game, and then play Zuriel. While Zuriel is in play, whenever your opponent play creature spells (which is bound to happen in Commander), you can get those obscenely high-cost creatures you own onto the battlefield.
Hanael the Shepherd (Capricorn) - Not-white.
Verchiel the Ruler (Leo) - Not-black.
Asmodel (Taurus) - ... I am not sure. I think I just kind of ran out of ideas.
I think Hamaliel is busted. It may cost seven, but it's very close to a more abusable and indestructible paradox engine in the command zone (actually I'm even tempted to compare it with omniscience). It probably should only trigger when opponents cast spells, perhaps specify nonland permanents, or untap only 2 or 3 permanents.
I like Ambriel's ability. However, be aware that if you choose to have creatures you control become copies, then Ambriel will also become a copy of that creature (and will lose his previous abilities). I'm not sure I like double-strike in esper colors (well, that's not really offcolor since it includes white at least), but I admit it goes nicely with the illustration and the gemini zodiac sign.
Muriel makes me a bit wary as searching a library usually is a time-consuming process, in particular when it's an opponent's in a 99-cards highlander format.
Malahidael seems fine to me, I'm not really sure I understand why he's green, but why not.
I suspect Advachiel can generate way too much mana (compare for instance with grand warlord radha). Those tokens should probably go away once tapped for mana or something.
Barbiel is interesting, but I don't think he should be able to target lands. His ability is also very easy to abuse as you can trigger it yourself (unlike karmic justice), perhaps a bit too much.
Barchiel sounds fine, although I'm not sure I understand why he has flying. His ability is original, and I think you could build something around it, which is nice.
Zuriel is… nuts?
Well, for starters, his ability triggers itself which probably isn't intended (you should probably say "casts a spell from his or her hand" or something).(I missed the "after paying its mana cost clause") Even fixed, this looks completely degenerate to me. I mean, with the amount of combos and other broken cards in EDH, I feel like 90% of the time, if that ability would trigger, the last non-active player will win.Asmodel somewhat makes me think of saskia, except you'll want to attack the chosen player rather than the opposite. His ability seems fine, but a 6/5 haste trample indestructible is already quite strong (perhaps a bit too much for 6 mana), I'm not sure what to think of it.
Cambiel will probably combo out way too fast, same with Hanael. There's a reason why gifts ungiven is banned in commander, anything that can fetch multiple cards with very few restrictions is extremely suspicious.
Verchiel is interesting, quite reminiscent of charisma. If anything perhaps indestructible is too problematic on him though, but that might be one of the fairest cards.
I see that you gave each of them indestructible. While I understand you want them to be "divine" beings, I'm not sure this is a very good decision as they will all be quite hard to deal with (I mean, that's indestructible's point) while they all have extremely powerful abilities on top of that. I'm also a bit disappointed not to see complete color cycles, although 12 admittedly isn't a very convenient number for that.
Otherwise, I like that each of them have fairly simple and short rule text (that's something I often struggle with).
Yeah, I was thinking the same thing about Hamaliel (Virgo)...
As for Ambriel (Gemini), I'm sorry I haven't made it clearer. I meant to say "you may have all creatures you control other than Ambriel become copies".
I see your point about searching library being broken. I will be more careful with tutoring effects in my future attempts to design cards. I guess Zuriel should only let players play from hands and not libraries.
As for Malahidael (Aries), maybe I should've added trample?
I gave Barchiel flying because he looks like he's high in air in that art, and I remember how Mark Rosewater mentioned that they always make sure to give a creature flying if the art shows it flying.
Yeah, I was also worried that these may be overpowered with indestructible. I guess next time when I design powerful cards like these, I will give them at best conditional indestructibility.
Anyway, thanks for the detailed advice.