As a disclaimer, I'm aware that this content has a large focus on card creation and could very well be misplaced in the forums. I felt that the intended audience was in this sub-forum and would imagine that it would serve best here, but if it needs to be moved that is understandable.
I wanted to see if there was interest in maintaining a growing list of custom commanders, created and honed by us as a community to fill the gaps we seem to desire. I feel like we have enough seasoned players here that know the card-base well enough to look at a custom card, evaluate it, and help temper it into something fair for use.
I believe this process should be as focused as possible. Toward that, in presenting a card, it would be nice to know the audience of the card. Is it intended for a highly competitive meta, or is it aimed more at a 75% scene? There is always some slight uproar that we don't have this commander or that, and in the spirit of EDH I think we could take the problem into our own hands.
I would not expect this to be another thread in which we discuss whether it's okay to use a custom commander. I would say it's established here that we accept the use of custom commanders, and are instead invested in making sure those commanders aren't obscenely powered or egregiously ill-designed.
For now, I'll leave a list (to be grown) of commanders I feel like we could create:
- A satisfying werewolf
- A Boros commander that doesn't care about combat
- A Simic commander that doesn't just feel like combo or goodstuff
- An Izzet artifact legend
- Four color-legends
- An interesting Mardu legend
- A redesign of the original Elder Dragons
I'll also leave a commander I could see being interested in, with hopes that it doesn't wind up misplacing this thread. I have wanted to try out a group-hug build for a while, and I think Simic fits the bill well, but I'm not satisfied with the current legends available (likely a recurring issue for several of us).
Eraya, Sirewood Elder1GU Legendary Creature - Treefolk Wizard
At the beginning of your upkeep, each player reveals the top card of their library. Each player that revealed a land card puts it onto the battlefield. Each player that didn't draws a card.
1/4
@arrogantAxolotl
A long, long time ago I tried collaborating with local players in order to design and develop custom commander decks. It never worked out. Perhaps I was too ambitious, but the interest was never there either way. It would be really cool to do it all over again with a group that's so passionate about Commander though. I used to regularly frequent the card design subforum on Wizards of the Coast's official board and design cards there. That was a long time ago, and I miss those times. I briefly stepped into the card design subforum here at MTGS a while back, but I have to admit, I did not care for the atmosphere there. I agree with you that the audience here on the Commander side may be a preferable place for this thread. Anyway, if you're looking for some criticism, I'd be happy to offer up.
Eraya feels like a great starting point, but I have some qualms with the card. The first is that this card is just Rites of Flourishing: Commander Edition with a cantrip stapled onto it. That's fine, but if you were purposefully intending to design a Simic Commander, it isn't conveyed well here because Rites of Flourishing and Elvish Visionary are both mono green cards. You could make the argument that the Howling Mine part of the card is blue, but this justification mostly just seems to make Eraya multicolor for multicolor's sake.
For reasons unknown to me, you stapled "ETB, draw a card" onto Eraya as well. This doesn't belong here. My first inclination is that you chose to add this unnecessary effect because you wanted to make the card more powerful. Remember, Rites of Flourishing is a card that already exists. It's a fairly popular one too, and while turning it into a legendary creature isn't exactly making it strictly better, attaching a 1/4 body for "free" is already gravy. The Elvish Visionary effect is only pushing the card further for the sake of being more powerful.
Eraya, Sirewood Elder2G Legendary Creature - Treefolk Wizard
At the beginning of each player's draw step, that player draws an additional card.
Each player may play an additional land on each of his or her turns. 1/4
This iteration is literally just Rites of Flourishing on a creature. Fine, but not particularly innovative design. Note that Howling Mine effects tend to trigger on each player's draw step rather than on the upkeep.
My second inclination regarding your original design is that you chose to add the cantripping line on Eraya because you wanted to ensure that the caster got value out of it before their opponents did. While this is already somewhat true due to the Exploration part of the card, the card could easily be redesigned to accommodate this.
Eraya, Sirewood Elder2G Legendary Creature - Treefolk Wizard
At the beginning of each player's end step, that player draws a card.
Players may play an additional land on each of their turns. 1/4
Drawing cards at the beginning of the end step would ensure that the caster would be the first person to draw cards off of Eraya, but this design loses points for possibly putting a fresh land into the player's hand where they might have been able to put it onto the battlefield due to Eraya's Exploration ability.
Eraya, Sirewood Elder2G Legendary Creature - Treefolk Wizard
Whenever a player plays a land, that player draws a card.
Players may play an additional land on each of their turns. 1/4
This particular iteration is Horn of Greed + Exploration. As far as I'm aware, this design hasn't been done by Wizards before and is actually rather interesting. I'd even consider it low hanging fruit, ripe for picking. I imagine it would only be a matter of time before Wizards prints something like this eventually. I'm not too sure on the mana cost of this card though. It definitely still feels mono green, but is it still three mana? My guess is it's probably fine. It's nice how the Exploration part of the card plays well with the Horn of Greed part.
Eraya, Sirewood ElderGU Legendary Creature - Treefolk Wizard
At the beginning of your upkeep, each player reveals the top card of their library. Each player that revealed a land card puts it onto the battlefield. Each player that didn't draws a card. 1/4
This interpretation is a Coiling Oracle commander. I wrote the triggered ability so that each player would get their cards at the same time rather than one at a time. When players get to use Eraya's ability one at a time, whichever opponent is the active player is encouraged to kill Eraya so that their other opponents don't get a chance to use her after their turn. When each player gets the effect simultaneously, players are more likely to leave Eraya alone. Since the card triggers on your upkeep though, if you happen to get a land off of Eraya, you will be the first player to get to use the extra mana.
I shaved a colorless mana off of Eraya in this iteration because she reminded me a lot of Kami of the Crescent Moon. I think this particular version is my favorite.
I do really like your final iteration, it plays interestingly and would definitely have me building a deck around it (if I could curb my interest in breaking the symmetry!) I'll leave further iterations upon it to others, should they wish, but I'll make a note on my original design. It was very intentionally exactly Rites of Flourishing; there are several effects that appear only on a certain type of non-"Legendary Creature" permanent that I would love to have in the command zone as a form of redundancy. The ETB effect was simply to deflect the original critique of cards like Rites of Flourishing as they provide benefit to your opponent before you and thus could be taken advantage of more easily.
That being said, I do like your final design leagues more than my initial toss so I'll add it to my original post. My intent is to keep a log of commanders we design, in their most current and "fair" iteration, much akin to the other running posts that inhabit this sub-forum. In the mean time, I'll throw a few more up here that I've been interested in.
Fier, Gnashing Jaws3RG
Legendary Creature - Spirit Beast
When ~ attacks, until end of turn each creature you control has base power equal to the highest power among creatures you control.
When an attacking creature you control dies, put X +1/+1 counters on target creature, where X is the power of the creature that died.
4/2
The Pale Moon Council2
Legendary Creature - Knight
Your opponents cannot play nonbasic lands.
Discard a card: Exile ~. Return it to the battlefield under its owner's control at the end of turn. Any player may activate this ability.
4/4
I think this is justifiable in both white and red to the point that hybrid is acceptable.
Vella, Skipwing ArchmageUUU
Legendary Creature - Faerie Spellshaper
Flying U, Discard a card, T: Untap each other permanent you control. Activate this ability only during another player's turn.
1/3
Joragal, The Reaching Void10
Legendary Creature - Eldrazi
When you cast ~, each player chooses one card in their hand and exiles the rest.
Each player may pay 1 and 1 life instead of any one colored mana when casting a spell.
You may cast cards from any player's exile. If you do, you lose life equal to that spell's converted mana cost.
8/8
This was a lot to make it seem remotely fair, but I love the idea of the card so I'd like to maintain the framework if possible. Maybe it just exiles three cards from each on cast?
Ovirna, Mirror of Ages4UG
Legendary Creature - Human Wizard
Untap all lands and creatures you control during each other player's untap step.
Treat each upkeep as if it is also your upkeep. (Abilities you control that trigger during your upkeep trigger.)
3/3
This comes my not-so-secret passion and desire to build around Paradox Haze
Dexyl, the Great BountyBB
Legendary Creature - Demon
If a source you control would cause ~ to die, draw a card.
If a source an opponent controls would cause ~ to die, that source's controller draws two cards and loses 2 life.
3/2
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My buddie and i were talking about how Boros is so poor on the general front. One avenue we thought would be nice is taxation (white)/Punishment.
Here is our take.
Threatening Judge RW2
Legendary Adviser Berserker
T: Gain control of target non-land permanent until EOT. Untap it and it gains haste. Us this ability only if that permanents controller has more of that type than you do.
2/5
Bobo the Giant Jerk
Legendary Giant Jackass RW3
Menace
If an opponent plays a land/artifact and has more of those that you they take 2.
If an opponent plays a creature/enchantment and has more of those than you get a 1/1 flying Pegasus.
5/5
I like all the artifact tokens that have been kicking around. It would be fun to have an artifact general that just gives you a bunch of them. Here is what i got.
Mishra's Magpie
Legendary Bird UR2
1/3
Flying
When Magpie ETBs you get a Clue, Gold Token and a Thopter.
When Magpie connects with someone get clue, gold or thopter.
Green-Black Legendary Creature
Change the text of each other card you own by replacing all instances of, "Library," with, "Graveyard."
Change the text of each other card you own by replacing all instances of, "Graveyard," with, "Library."
I made some legendary nephilim a while back. (excuse the edits, I had them saved on my phone and had to format afterwards)
As a preface, many of these nephilim have 'bizarre' abilities simply because that's how the original nephilim were. Of the original five, only Dune-Brood and Witch-Maw had abilities which could be considered "normal", all the rest were mold-breaking at the time.
The flavor text is a reference to the flavor text theme of the originals ("When it awoke...")
---------- Whim-Feast Nephilim WBRG
Legendary Creature - Nephilim
~~~ 1, discard a card: Put a +1/+1 counter on Whim-Feast Nephilim, it gains your choice of first strike, deathtouch, trample, or indestructible until end of turn.
~~~
3/3
It will not rest until its hunger is sated.
---------- This is just a Morphling-style dude designed after Glint-Eye Nephilim. What can I say? I like morphlings.
---------- Prism-Fleece Nephilim WURG
Legendary Creature - Nephilim
~~~
Protection from black 2: Change the text of each spell and each permanent by replacing all instances of one color word with another until end of turn.
~~~
4/4
It will not rest, for it has banished the night.
---------- I like the idea of a repeatable "change colors until EoT" effect. All of the currently-existing color word change effects are instant/sorcery other than Swirl The Mists. I thought this could be fun. I like the potential for logic puzzles if you need to shift its protection multiple times in a turn but don't want to affect some other card you might have. It also has my favorite name of the ones I made.
---------- Slip-Realm Nephilim WUBG
Legendary Creature - Nephilim
~~~
If a nontoken creature without shadow would be destroyed, regenerate that creature and place a +1/+1 counter on it.
Each creature with a +1/+1 counter has shadow.
~~~
5/3
It will not rest, yet it is always dreaming.
---------- I'm pretty sure shadow is a deprecated keyword, but it was either that or phasing and phasing is disliked by many. The neat part for me is that the first ability is a replacement effect, so you can't go infinite like you can with Mikaeus, The Unhallowed and you can't use it to power sacrifices, since it only prevents destruction. Only one other card does this sort of thing: Clergy of the Holy Nimbus (read the oracle text). This card struggles a bit to express its green-ness, although shadow is firmly an esper keyword.
---------- Rift-Grasp Nephilim WUBR
Legendary Creature - Nephilim
~~~
At the beginning of your upkeep, choose a face-up nonland card at random from exile. Cast that card without paying its mana cost if able.
At the beginning of your end step, each player exiles the top card of his or her library.
~~~
3/3
It will not rest, and it will not let lie.
---------- Fun chaos-y commander inspired by Volatile Chimera that won't bog down the game. Its exile-casting is any card in exile, not just those it exiles itself. The split into two separate triggered abilities is kind of arbitrary and mostly for legibility
---------- Grief-Blossom Nephilim UBRG
Legendary Creature - Nephilim
~~~
If a creature you control would deal combat damage, each opponent loses that much life instead.
If you would draw a card, each opponent discards a card instead.
If you would gain life, Grief-Blossom Nephilim deals that much damage to target creature or planeswalker instead.
~~~
It will not rest, but you will rest in its stead.
---------- Angry replacement-effect-monster. This one is more defined by being not-white than it is by being any particular color. The flavor text is intended to sound similar to its other abilities if read aloud.
I like this idea very much, and was looking for an excuse to design some cards again. For everybody reading: keep in mind that the point here is to work together to improve upon eachother's cards for the purpose of producing commander designs the community clamoring for, not to show off cards we think are neat.
I'll start with some critiques. Deep_Woods and cannon, I think that out of the three Boros 'hatebear' commanders you've made, Bobo is the best, because I think that's how the color combination would approach the idea. White has many ways to mess with opponents, but red rarely does outside of damage. Red and White, when combined, exemplify the idea of enforcing justice. A Boros hatebear wouldn't prevent your opponents from doing things, but rather punish them with damage or a larger threat, such as Zo-Zu the Punisher or Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs. In that sense, a tweaked version of Bobo seems like the perfect fit.
Since nobody's tried a werewolf yet, I'll throw my hat in:
Raymond the Butcher1RG
Legendary Creature - Human Werewolf
Whenever a Werewolf you control transforms, put a +1/+1 counter on it.
~ Werewolf trigger ~
2/2
* Flip * The Mutilator of Gavony
(R/G) Legendary Creature - Werewolf
Prevent all combat damage that would be dealt to attacking Werewolves you control.
~ Werewolf trigger ~
4/4
This creates a neat subgame for your opponents, as counters don't go away when a permanent transforms. They'll want to keep your werewolves human, but then when they can't anymore, the threat will be that much greater. Huehuehue.
Mishra's Magpie
Legendary Bird UR2
1/3
Flying
When Magpie ETBs you get a Clue, Gold Token and a Thopter.
When Magpie connects with someone get clue, gold or thopter.
Neat idea for a card. It would probably only cost 1UR (and be something other than a legendary magpie, though I understand the desire for evasion on a relatively small blue creature with a "deals combat damage to an opponent" effect). Skulk is now an evergreen mechanic Oops, no it isn't! Either way, you've got clues on it already so that might be better.
Ralviet, Petty Thief
Legendary Creature - Artificer Rogue 1UR
1/3
Skulk
When Seville ETBs you get a Clue, Gold Token and a Thopter.
When Seville connects with someone get clue, gold or thopter.
Green-Black Legendary Creature
Change the text of each other card you own by replacing all instances of, "Library," with, "Graveyard."
Change the text of each other card you own by replacing all instances of, "Graveyard," with, "Library."
This wouldn't work. Cards in a library can't be targeted, which would create problems for Disentomb and many others. Similarly, there is no mechanical meaning for the phrase "search your graveyard".
This creates a neat subgame for your opponents, as counters don't go away when a permanent transforms. They'll want to keep your werewolves human, but then when they can't anymore, the threat will be that much greater. Huehuehue.
Isn't that already the idea behind werewolves: a subgame of not letting them transform, or they get bigger? Not that it's bad design or a bad ability the way it is, but if you want to create a dilemma then the first ability should read something like "At the beginning of your upkeep, put a +1/+1 counter on each human you control".
2/2
, sacrifice an artifact, : Draw cards equal to the cmc of the sacrificed artifact.
, sacrifice an artifact, : Deal X damage to target creature or player, where X equals the cmc of the sacrificed artifact.
For this commander, I tried to think of ways that you could gain power/knowledge from destroying an artifact for reverse engineering purposes. For the blue option, I contemplated letting the player tutor for an artifact of the same cmc as the sac'd artifact. For the red option, I also contemplated allowing the player to add any combination of and equal to the cmc of the sac'd artifact. I purposely made saccing the artifact as part of the ability cost so that the ability wouldnt fizzle if your only artifact was destroyed, or the artifact you wanted to sac got destroyed which forced you to sac something you didnt want to.
Mishra's Magpie
Legendary Bird UR2
1/3
Flying
When Magpie ETBs you get a Clue, Gold Token and a Thopter.
When Magpie connects with someone get clue, gold or thopter.
Neat idea for a card. It would probably only cost 1UR (and be something other than a legendary magpie, though I understand the desire for evasion on a relatively small blue creature with a "deals combat damage to an opponent" effect). Skulk is now an evergreen mechanic Oops, no it isn't! Either way, you've got clues on it already so that might be better.
Ralviet, Petty Thief
Legendary Creature - Artificer Rogue 1UR
1/3
Skulk
When Seville ETBs you get a Clue, Gold Token and a Thopter.
When Seville connects with someone get clue, gold or thopter.
something like that.
Yah skulk thief is a nice thematic fit for a card like this.
While theory-crafting a non-oppressive/tuned legendary is fun, one of the biggest expectations I have from development is the representation of actually relevant or historically notable characters from the mtg plot in their cards.
Deep_Wood's Mishra's Magpie card is a great example here. It is referring to a very important thing of magic's past. Think of how we got Titania, Feldon, Teferi, and so on. How many incredibly important characters are we still missing? The EDH pre-con's are realistically the only place we will see these pushed into a card form.
While theory-crafting a non-oppressive/tuned legendary is fun, one of the biggest expectations I have from development is the representation of actually relevant or historically notable characters from the mtg plot in their cards.
I threw down some nephilim (nephili?) earlier, but no one seemed to notice
Fier, Gnashing Jaws3RG
Legendary Creature - Spirit Beast
When ~ attacks, until end of turn each creature you control has base power equal to the highest power among creatures you control.
When an attacking creature you control dies, put X +1/+1 counters on target creature, where X is the power of the creature that died.
4/2
Feels like a bit of a trap to kill any of your attacking creatures with this guy out, but you could say the same for Omnath, Locus of Rage or Vigor
The Pale Moon Council2
Legendary Creature - Knight
Your opponents cannot play nonbasic lands.
Discard a card: Exile ~. Return it to the battlefield under its owner's control at the end of turn. Any player may activate this ability.
4/4
I think this is justifiable in both white and red to the point that hybrid is acceptable.
Very oppressive card, and the discard effect feels a bit off-color (maybe have them pay mana instead? that'd work better for white's 'tax' theme). I think it might just be better to punish them playing those lands than to prevent it outright (whenever an opponent plays a nonbasic land, you get a 2/2 white and red spirit creature token with flying). Also I would be disappointed that Stillmoon Cavalier couldn't be in the same deck, what with being a knight and the neat moon in the background
Vella, Skipwing ArchmageUUU
Legendary Creature - Faerie Spellshaper
Flying U, Discard a card, T: Untap each other permanent you control. Activate this ability only during another player's turn.
1/3
Seems fine for multiplayer, Probably too strong for 1v1. 1v1 commander has such a large banlist anyways that it'd probably be okay.
Joragal, The Reaching Void10
Legendary Creature - Eldrazi
When you cast ~, each player chooses one card in their hand and exiles the rest.
Each player may pay 1 and 1 life instead of any one colored mana when casting a spell.
You may cast cards from any player's exile. If you do, you lose life equal to that spell's converted mana cost.
8/8
This was a lot to make it seem remotely fair, but I love the idea of the card so I'd like to maintain the framework if possible. Maybe it just exiles three cards from each on cast?
This really feels more like a black card than an eldrazi. There are only three 'named' eldrazi canonically in the lore, and each one has a separate theme. Doing stuff from exile is Ulamog's thing; you could re-theme this as a one-of-a-kind 'legendary spawn' of Ulamog, but the paying life should probably go. The second ability is also worded strangely, you should probably just use the "as if it were mana of any color" clause on the third ability to keep things simple.
In addition to the on-cast ability (which should probably be nerfed to "target player"), the new design for eldrazi legends also all have a protective ability (indestructible, protection from instants, countering spells by discarding) and an attacking ability (exile a bunch of cards from your library, menace, trample). This should have those as well in order to feel like a legendary eldrazi.
Ovirna, Mirror of Ages4UG
Legendary Creature - Human Wizard
Untap all lands and creatures you control during each other player's untap step.
Treat each upkeep as if it is also your upkeep. (Abilities you control that trigger during your upkeep trigger.)
3/3
This comes my not-so-secret passion and desire to build around Paradox Haze
Seedborn Muse and Prophet of Kruphix are both very strong in EDH, this costs one more mana and would be always-available. Also gets confusing with "at the beginning of each player's upkeep" abilities: do those trigger twice per opponent's upkeep now? If it's also *your* upkeep, who gets priority to cast spells? Other "share a phase with an opponent" abilities never actually give you the phase, just the benefits of it, but this would. Does this also count as you having a 'turn' for effects that care? (Serra Avenger as one example). The intended answers to these questions are mostly obvious, but the mechanical meaning doesn't support them.
Dexyl, the Great BountyBB
Legendary Creature - Demon
If a source you control would cause ~ to die, draw a card.
If a source an opponent controls would cause ~ to die, that source's controller draws two cards and loses 2 life.
3/2
"Would cause" is a replacement effect, and all replacement effects end with "instead" in some way (even if indirectly, such as for Clergy of the Holy Nimbus). You definitely don't want to replace death, since that would lead to infinite sacrifices. You probably want "When a source you control causes ~ to die", but that will preclude gaining any benefit if you send him to the command zone since going to the command zone is a replacement effect (i.e. you don't draw cards if your commander is wearing a Skullclamp and you send him to the command zone. Thus, you would always just return this guy to the command zone if an opponent kills him to deny them the cards).
While theory-crafting a non-oppressive/tuned legendary is fun, one of the biggest expectations I have from development is the representation of actually relevant or historically notable characters from the mtg plot in their cards.
Deep_Wood's Mishra's Magpie card is a great example here. It is referring to a very important thing of magic's past. Think of how we got Titania, Feldon, Teferi, and so on. How many incredibly important characters are we still missing? The EDH pre-con's are realistically the only place we will see these pushed into a card form.
I would love to see some old legends get re-done to modern standards.
Captian Gerrard WW2
Legend
2/3
Pro Black
Gets +1+1 for each basic land type
2U: Team gets Hexproof EOT
2G: Team gets Trample EOT
2R: Team gets +1+0 EOT
2W: Team Vigilance EOT
Is this discussion in the context of these creatures as generals only? Because for example, Vella is pushing it as a general, but yet another blue auto-include in the 99.
A concept I'd like to see as a general would be; "At the beginning of the game, if ~ is in the command zone, each player loses 10 life". Some Command Zone way of reducing those crazy life buffers
EDH RRGrenzo plays your deck, GGYeva's mono green control, WW9-tails trys desperately for monowhite not to suck RWBUTymna and Kraum's saboteur tribal, UWG Kestia's Enchantress Aggro, RUB Jeleva casts big dumb spells, RGB Vaevictis' big critters can kill your critters hard
I threw down some nephilim (nephili?) earlier, but no one seemed to notice
I'll happily offer up my design insights to you, but I've been a bit busy with work since I first posted. You'll be the next person I get to when I have the time to write up something thorough.
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WUBRGMr. Bones' Wild RideGRBUW Trap your friends in an endless game with this 23-card combo!
I'll be working through others' designs and comments as well, as I have time; I'm glad to see this has gotten interest though and I'll happily echo the idea of bringing forgotten story characters to life. I haven't been heavily invested in magic lore in a while, but I love seeing these ideas come out.
In regards to the two punishment style Boros legends from @Deep_Woods; I love them, and if you don't mind I'll zhuzh them up a bit and add them to the original posting.
I like the idea of of where we ended with the legendary Magpie, but I hate the idea of having so many different types of tokens represented on one card since they came so flavorfully from different places. Gold seems pretty ubiquitous but Clues and Thopters feel centric to specific planes. I'm mostly put off by the flavor behind Clues here, it would make more sense to me if the creature generated some sort of Bauble or Chest to be unlocked. I'll put it in the OP but I'd like to continue making stabs at it.
For now, I'll throw down some commentary on the nephilim and I'll come back later for the rest:
Quote from Anachronity »
Whim-Feast NephilimWRGB
Legendary Creature - Nephilim 1, discard a card: Put a +1/+1 counter on Whim-Feast Nephilim, it gains your choice of first strike, deathtouch, trample, or indestructible until end of turn.
3/3
I find it interesting that you settled for a morphling-esque card in the quartet outside of blue. As it is, it feels boring since it's such a simple morphling. It's obviously not unfair as a result, but I'd like to think we can have weirder effects on Nephilim.
Glutton-Gut NephilimWRGB
Legendary Creature - Nephilim
3, Sacrifice a nonland permanent: Each opponent sacrifices a permanent that shares a type with the card you sacrificed. Put a +1/+1 counter on ~ for each permanent sacrificed this way.
4/4
Quote from Anachronity »
Prism-Fleece NephilimWURG
Legendary Creature - Nephilim
Protection from black
2: Change the text of each spell and each permanent by replacing all instances of one color word with another until end of turn.
4/4
I strongly dislike the protection from black here, until I see it's interaction with the second ability. I actually want to make this stronger and have an effect last until end of game (although I know memory issues will arise). Also, this does not really feel red or green.
Luster-Scale NephilimWURG
Legendary Creature - Nephilim
Protection from black 1, Discard a card, Put a +1/+1 counter on ~: Change the text of each spell and each permanent by replacing all instances of one color word with another. (This does not end at end of turn.)
3/3
It's still not very r/g but I love the idea of adding a counter as a cost, like loyalty on a planeswalker. It's still limited by cards in hand, but it feels very nasty.
Quote from Anachronity »
Slip-Realm NephilimWUBG
Legendary Creature - Nephilim
If a nontoken creature without shadow would be destroyed, regenerate that creature and place a +1/+1 counter on it.
Each creature with a +1/+1 counter has shadow.
5/3
This doesn't combo with things the same way Mikaeus does, and I like the symmetry of the latter effect given how prevalent +1/+1 counters can be, but overall Shadow feels very bland. I think I would honestly prefer something more asymmetric that really tilted the field.
Realm-Skipper NephilimWUBG
Legendary Creature - Nephilim
Creatures you control cannot be blocked and cannot block.
Whenever a creature deals combat damage to a player, put a +1/+1 counter on it.
Whenever a creature with a +1/+1 counter on it deals combat damage to an opponent, it's controller draws a card.
3/3
It's very different, but has a similar effect to the board state I believe. It makes you vulnerable, but the last ability, a la Edric, means that at some point cannons should be pointed away from you.
Quote from Anachronity »
Rift-Grasp NephilimWUBR
Legendary Creature - Nephilim
At the beginning of your upkeep, choose a face-up nonland card at random from exile. Cast that card without paying its mana cost if able.
At the beginning of your end step, each player exiles the top card of his or her library.
3/3
I love this design, but since you only get the benefit on your turn after passing, I could see upping the end of turn ability to two or even three cards a player. This doesn't particularly feel red aside from the random aspect, but I love the effect and would actually want to play this.
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Grief-Blossom NephilimUBRG
Legendary Creature - Nephilim
If a creature you control would deal combat damage, each opponent loses that much life instead.
If you would draw a card, each opponent discards a card instead.
I'm going to assume this to be a 4/4 because it doesn't feel overpowered given how obnoxious 4C creatures are. I think the more interesting effect is the latter of the two because it creates a difficult game-state for yourself. Honestly, very little of this feeds blue or red, and it's pushing it to call it green. I like the second effect so much though that I'm tempted to keep it and refocus a second ability to better reflect the r/u/g sides:
Grief-Bloom NephilimUBRG
Legendary Creature - Nephilim
If you would draw a card, each opponent discards a card.
Whenever an opponent discards a creature card, create a 1/1 green Saproling.
Whenever an opponent discards a land card, ~ deals 2 damage to them.
Whenever an opponent discards an instant or sorcery card, put the top card of your library into your hand.
3/3
Now it's super wordy, but I also have a huge crush on Waste Not, so I'm all for it.
Great work so far, I'll be back later
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Soulbond
When you cast ~, you may have target noncreature artifact become an artifact creature with power and toughness each equal to its converted mana cost.
As long as ~ is paired with another creature, Each of those creatures has “T: Untap target permanent.”
As long as ~ is paired with another artifact creature, each of those creatures has “UR: this creature gains flying and hexproof until end of turn.”
Rumor is that the notorious thief Igress Six-Fingers has never stolen a treasure, instead the treasure would follow him home.
Note: A versatile legend who is artifact-friendly, but doesn’t become useless even if there’s no artifact in play.
2) Reias, Witness of World Reborn UG
Legendary Creature - Elf Druid
2/2
UG: Target permanent you control loses all abilities and becomes a copy of target land. 3UG: Target land you control loses all abilities and becomes a copy of target nonland permanent.
Note: Land shenanigan legend.
3) Argus Merryhearth 2WR
Legendary Creature - Human Soldier
5/5
Defender
~ gets -1/-1 for each other creature you control. 2WR: Gain control of target creature with power less than ~.
Note: Not a combat Boros legend like too many before him, this one wins loyalty via big parties, until he can’t afford it. One could also “voltron” him to ensure he could control bigger creatures, and doesn’t die to his ability too quickly.
4) The Fulfilled Circle 2BG
Legendary Creature - Elf Shaman
0/5
When you cast ~, each other player puts a token that's a copy of ~ onto battlefield
Each player may play cards from each graveyard whose owner controls ~. If that card would be put into a graveyard this turn, exile it instead. 5: Destroy target creature named ~. Any player may activate this ability.
Note: A different take on Golgari, this legend forcefully completes the cycle of life via all players, also encourages the player to utilizes mana of other colors. The last ability provides a way for players to get out of the situation, but he/she would lose the ability to cast spells from graveyards because he/she “broke the circle.” The temptation is a double-edge sword. You can also destroy other people’s Fulfilled Circle to keep their dangerous cards being used by another opponent.
Flying
Each creature and enchantment spell you cast cost 2 less to cast
Each creature and enchantment you control has “At the beginning of your upkeep, you draw a card and you lose 2 life.”
Note: The card depicting a demon scholar who is obsessed with knowledge that he pays great price for them, but the more he learns, the more burdened he feels, and his craving only increases, much to its controller’s chagrin.
Awaken X, Awaken X
You cannot cast creature spells.
Land creatures you control gain first strike, trample, and vigilance. X2WG: Return target land card from a graveyard to the battlefield under your control. That land becomes a 0/0 Elemental creature with X +1/+1 counters on it.
Note: An odd take on Selesnya color. While this legend prevents you from casting creature spells, it can reanimate your lands indefinitely and make them powerful at the same time. The hefty activation cost is to discourage abuse of lands like Strip Mind.
2RG: Put a token onto the battlefield that is a copy of target artifact or enchantment, and put three bomb counter on it.
At the beginning of your upkeep, remove a bomb counter from each permanent with a bomb counter on it. If you do, destroy each permanent that had its last bomb counter removed and ~ deals 3 damage to you.
If only his skills live up to his ego.
Note: New take on Gruul without being outside of color identities. He can copy enchantments and artifacts, but also put 'bombs' into play when doing so, that would damage its owner.
8) Narkor, Feast on Madness 2BR
Legendary Creature - Human Wizard
3/4
Spells each player plays costs an additional X to cast, where X is the number of cards in that player's hand above 4.
Spells each player plays costs Y less to cast, where Y is the number of cards in that player's hand under 4.
Note: A group hug general (kinda) who manipulates spell costs depending on the number of cards in the player’s hand. However, due to his duality, the deck can be designed either way.
At the beginning of your upkeep, you may search target player's library and exile a card from it. If you do, that player may search your library for a card and exile it.
Flying, lifelink.
~ gets +1/+1 for each card in all players' exile zones.
Note: Another play on the exile zone, the neutrality of this legend is a testament to UB’s lack of true allegiance while benefit from all’s losses.
At the beginning of your upkeep, choose one:
> Player with the lowest life chooses a permanent another player controls, then gain control of it. You draw a card.
> Player with the highest life chooses a permanent he or she controls, then chooses another player, the second player gains control of it. You draw a card. 4WU: Exchange life totals with target opponent. Activate this ability only during your turn.
Note: WU enjoys laws and order, doesn’t mean they are entirely moral when doing it. A socialite like Zexa is more adept at favor-earning than any actual progress. The life exchanging ability, while useful to help you steal permanents, may also put you at risk.
Evaluating four-color designs is tough. The only four-color cards in existence are the quintet from Guildpact, and those cards were printed so long ago that they probably shouldn't be used as a reliable measure for what four-color cards look like. The Nephilim were treated pretty much the same way five-color cards were. Their abilities could have ended up on cards with fewer colors, but making them four-color helped exemplify their novelty. Until Wizards spoils material in the upcoming Commander product this November, we won't really know what four-color cards should look like. Intuition leads me to believe that four-color designs will likely personify the absence of a particular color rather than an amalgam of four. We'll just have to wait and see though.
Whim-Feast NephilimWBRG Legendary Creature — Nephilim 1, Discard a card: Put a +1/+1 counter on Whim-Feast Nephilim. It gains your choice of first strike, deathtouch, trample, or indestructible until end of turn. It will not rest until its hunger is sated. 3/3
There's no other way to put this: Whim-Feast Nephilim sucks. It is not powerful, and it is not interesting. Imagine using this card as a commander. How would someone build a deck around this card? The activated ability cost is steep, and the benefit players receive for using it is paltry. Generally speaking, discarding cards as an activated ability cost is miserable. Players never want to discard cards from their hand to pay for things because those cards are typically things they want to just be playing instead. Whim-Feast Nephilim is just a Hill Giant that's difficult to cast and is occasionally indestructible. Corner cases aside, why would anyone even want to give this card first strike when they could just make it indestructible anyway?
My advice would be to scrap this design completely.
Prism-Fleece NephilimWURG Legendary Creature — Nephilim
Protection from black 2: Change the text of each spell and each permanent by replacing all instances of one color word with another until end of turn. It will not rest, for it has banished the night. 4/4
Prism-Fleece Nephilim, on the other hand, is an absolutely phenomenal design. As far as I'm aware, Sleight of Mind effects have always been limited to blue, but I believe extending the ability to a four-colored Nephilim is a great design choice since players are naturally going to want to pair it with cards of other colors that use color words. I also love how you used protection on this card because it does two things. The first is that Prism-Fleece Nephilim teaches players one of the things they can do with it; they can change what colors cards are protected from. Teaching players this lesson is wonderful because the Swirl the Mists ability is something that's not immediately easy to understand why it's useful. Players will feel clever for realizing this. The second thing protection does for the Prism-Fleece is give players something to use its ability on. There isn't always going to naturally be something in play that uses a color word, let alone something that's useful to change. Prism-Fleece Nephilim offers players a way to profitably use its second ability regardless of what else is in play.
I don't think I can improve upon this card's design. The only thing I would look into is seeing which of the four non-blue colors references color words the least. I would make Prism-Fleece Nephilim's cost exclude that color. You might also consider boosting this card up to a 5/5. For a card with such a demanding casting cost, it could likely afford an aggressively costed stat line.
I'll get around to the other three Nephilim later.
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WUBRGMr. Bones' Wild RideGRBUW Trap your friends in an endless game with this 23-card combo!
Whim-Feast NephilimWBRG Legendary Creature — Nephilim 1, Discard a card: Put a +1/+1 counter on Whim-Feast Nephilim. It gains your choice of first strike, deathtouch, trample, or indestructible until end of turn. It will not rest until its hunger is sated. 3/3
There's no other way to put this: Whim-Feast Nephilim sucks. It is not powerful, and it is not interesting. Imagine using this card as a commander. How would someone build a deck around this card? The activated ability cost is steep, and the benefit players receive for using it is paltry. Generally speaking, discarding cards as an activated ability cost is miserable. Players never want to discard cards from their hand to pay for things because those cards are typically things they want to just be playing instead. Whim-Feast Nephilim is just a Hill Giant that's difficult to cast and is occasionally indestructible. Corner cases aside, why would anyone even want to give this card first strike when they could just make it indestructible anyway?
My advice would be to scrap this design completely.
Definitely going to re-work this nephilim, since @cannon has said essentially the same. I will point out that discarding cards as a cost for an activated ability is quite powerful (Wild Mongrel, for example) because it strongly enables reanimator and other special graveyard cards (Anger, Genesis, Bridge from Below, etc.). That said, a simple changeling is a bit lazy, I'll admit.
Maybe something like...
Whim-Feast NephilimWBRG Legendary Creature — Nephilim 1, Discard a card: Put a +1/+1 counter on Whim-Feast Nephilim. Any player may activate this ability.
As long as Whim-Feast Nephilim's power is odd, it has indestructible and trample.
As long as Whim-Feast Nephilim's power is even, other creatures you control have hexproof and lifelink. It will not rest until its hunger is sated. 3/3
I'm not so confident about those specific odd/even effects, but I really like this overall design more. It fits the name better (as players fight over its mode, changing it on a whim, it feeds on their indecisiveness). Perhaps instead of keywords it should have restrictions? (Odd: player can't play instants, Evens: they can't play creatures?). That's the part I can't decide on.
Prism-Fleece NephilimWURG Legendary Creature — Nephilim
Protection from black 2: Change the text of each spell and each permanent by replacing all instances of one color word with another until end of turn. It will not rest, for it has banished the night. 4/4
Prism-Fleece Nephilim, on the other hand, is an absolutely phenomenal design. As far as I'm aware, Sleight of Mind effects have always been limited to blue, but I believe extending the ability to a four-colored Nephilim is a great design choice since players are naturally going to want to pair it with cards of other colors that use color words. I also love how you used protection on this card because it does two things. The first is that Prism-Fleece Nephilim teaches players one of the things they can do with it; they can change what colors cards are protected from. Teaching players this lesson is wonderful because the Swirl the Mists ability is something that's not immediately easy to understand why it's useful. Players will feel clever for realizing this. The second thing protection does for the Prism-Fleece is give players something to use its ability on. There isn't always going to naturally be something in play that uses a color word, let alone something that's useful to change. Prism-Fleece Nephilim offers players a way to profitably use its second ability regardless of what else is in play.
I don't think I can improve upon this card's design. The only thing I would look into is seeing which of the four non-blue colors references color words the least. I would make Prism-Fleece Nephilim's cost exclude that color. You might also consider boosting this card up to a 5/5. For a card with such a demanding casting cost, it could likely afford an aggressively costed stat line.
I strongly dislike the protection from black here, until I see it's interaction with the second ability. I actually want to make this stronger and have an effect last until end of game (although I know memory issues will arise). Also, this does not really feel red or green.
Luster-Scale NephilimWURG
Legendary Creature - Nephilim
Protection from black 1, Discard a card, Put a +1/+1 counter on ~: Change the text of each spell and each permanent by replacing all instances of one color word with another. (This does not end at end of turn.)
3/3
It's still not very r/g but I love the idea of adding a counter as a cost, like loyalty on a planeswalker. It's still limited by cards in hand, but it feels very nasty.
I will admit this to be my favorite nephilim. Text-changing effects are one of the more unique effects in magic, and it makes me sad that nothing like this currently exists as a legend. I will admit that the red/green aspect is communicated poorly, but green at least is associated with permanents that can change color.
@arrogantAxolotl: I will admit I'm fairly new to this age of creatures where neat abilities doesn't necessarily mean a reduction in P/T (see: Duskmantle Seer). As to which color has the least anti-color effects, I believe that is red (mostly because a lot of its cards, like Boil, target a land type rather than a color). One reason I chose the all-but-black set of colors is to avoid infinite combos with Teysa, Orzhov Scion. Also, something about this design just feels "non-black" to me (possibly due to the name: white is most associated with light-as-an-element). Black also has a bit of a subtheme of "black helps black" (Nirkhana Revenant vs. Keeper of Progenitus, the various "destroy target nonblack" cards, etc.) that, while it would be fun to tamper with, is a bit contrary to the 'spirit' of the card.
@cannon: Making a repeatable activated ability permanent like that, as you seem to be aware, is untenably difficult to keep track of. The discarding a card is a bit of an odd addition that only serves to make it feel more 'black', and I'm not such a fan of that either. Finally, (and I swear I'm not being petty here!) I like "Prism-Fleece" quite a bit more than "Luster-Scale" since I like the idea of a giant eldritch sheeple-monster. That's more a personal preferance than anything, though.
Slip-Realm NephilimWUBG
Legendary Creature - Nephilim
If a nontoken creature without shadow would be destroyed, regenerate that creature and place a +1/+1 counter on it.
Each creature with a +1/+1 counter has shadow.
5/3
This doesn't combo with things the same way Mikaeus does, and I like the symmetry of the latter effect given how prevalent +1/+1 counters can be, but overall Shadow feels very bland. I think I would honestly prefer something more asymmetric that really tilted the field.
Realm-Skipper NephilimWUBG
Legendary Creature - Nephilim
Creatures you control cannot be blocked and cannot block.
Whenever a creature deals combat damage to a player, put a +1/+1 counter on it.
Whenever a creature with a +1/+1 counter on it deals combat damage to an opponent, it's controller draws a card.
3/3
It's very different, but has a similar effect to the board state I believe. It makes you vulnerable, but the last ability, a la Edric, means that at some point cannons should be pointed away from you.
I actully feel quite to the contrary about shadow. It creates a very interesting new use for destruction effects to make your own creatures stronger and unblockable, and it 'fixes' one of the main problems of shadow (that it's so uncommon it might as well read "can't block and can't be blocked") by spreading it to all creatures, creating the divided battlefield of shadow and non-shadow creatures which was the original intent of the ability. It also fits the colors perfectly, with shadow being esper-color and the rest of the ability being fairly 'green', and forms a coherent theme with the name (it is pulling creatures into an ethereal 'other-realm' or 'dream-world').
Rift-Grasp NephilimWUBR
Legendary Creature - Nephilim
At the beginning of your upkeep, choose a face-up nonland card at random from exile. Cast that card without paying its mana cost if able.
At the beginning of your end step, each player exiles the top card of his or her library.
3/3
I love this design, but since you only get the benefit on your turn after passing, I could see upping the end of turn ability to two or even three cards a player. This doesn't particularly feel red aside from the random aspect, but I love the effect and would actually want to play this.
Honestly this feels pretty mono-red, though black and white at least have some exile. I feel like the 'cast-from-exile' part is very ill-defined color-wise, and could possibly be white, blue, or black (Gonti, Lord of Luxury, Pull from Eternity, Misthollow Griffin, [card]Praetor's Grasp[/grasp]). Perhaps if the "card at random from exile" bit is kept but the means of exiling the cards is more controlled it might feel more appropriate for the esper colors. Possibly this...
Rift-Grasp NephilimWUBR
Legendary Creature - Nephilim enters the battlefield, for each opponent, that player reveals his or her hand and you choose a nonland card from it. Exile the chosen cards.
At the beginning of your upkeep, choose a face-up nonland card at random from exile. Cast that card without paying its mana cost if able.
At the beginning of your end step, each player exiles two nonland cards from his or her graveyard.
3/3
EDIT: erk, that ETB ability would be overpowered with blinks. Also this is starting to look a lot like @cannon's eldrazi legend, so, uh... don't sue?
I don't want to have it search their libraries since that would be annoying for something as common as casting a commander, but taking cards from their hands feels too strong maybe. I'll go with graveyards instead. Each player gets to nominate some cards for the lottery, so it's not too abusable but it has some control.
Grief-Blossom NephilimUBRG
Legendary Creature - Nephilim
If a creature you control would deal combat damage, each opponent loses that much life instead.
If you would draw a card, each opponent discards a card instead.
I'm going to assume this to be a 4/4 because it doesn't feel overpowered given how obnoxious 4C creatures are. I think the more interesting effect is the latter of the two because it creates a difficult game-state for yourself. Honestly, very little of this feeds blue or red, and it's pushing it to call it green. I like the second effect so much though that I'm tempted to keep it and refocus a second ability to better reflect the r/u/g sides:
Grief-Bloom NephilimUBRG
Legendary Creature - Nephilim
If you would draw a card, each opponent discards a card.
Whenever an opponent discards a creature card, create a 1/1 green Saproling.
Whenever an opponent discards a land card, ~ deals 2 damage to them.
Whenever an opponent discards an instant or sorcery card, put the top card of your library into your hand.
3/3
Now it's super wordy, but I also have a huge crush on Waste Not, so I'm all for it.
I'll admit I'm not confident about the abilities I gave it. This is more of a top-down card: white is the color of 'hope', so I wanted to design a card that made the game 'hopeless' for as long as it's in play. I like "Grief-Blossom" or "Grief-Bloom" since it helps tie in green to this mess, makes it feel like more than a blob of abilities, and really helps express that the misery is growing: there's no hope, things are awful, and as long as this thing is in play, it's only going to get worse.
As far as abilities to express this, it would be easy to just have something like "whenever a player is dealt damage, that player loses 4 life.", "whenever a creature is dealt damage, put two -1/-1 counters on that creature", and so on, but I feel like that would lose a certain nephilim 'weirdness'. I like the repeated "if you would x", since by the second ability it has become clear to the reader that this guy just doesn't want you doing anything 'happy' or 'hopeful', and that the moment they read 'x', they know what it is they're not going to get to do now. It also ties easily into the flavor text. "X's can't Y" would also be effective, thematically ("players can't gain life", "players can't draw cards", "damage can't be prevented", etc.). As to what the X's and Y's should be, exactly, I'm not so sure. I agree that Waste Not is a fun card, but it doesn't strike the tone I'm looking for. Each line should make the player think "I can't what?!?" That said, that's a difficult thing to balance. That's why I prefer "if you would" instead of "can't", since it lets you offset the things you can't do with things you do instead and makes it fun and worthwhile to play despite the dreary theme.
For a Boros commander that is not about combat, I always felt Tamanoa was worthy of legendary status, but never understood the green part of it. so here's my take:
Orim of the Cho-Arrim1RW
Legendary Creature - Cleric Rebel
Spells and noncreature permanents you control have lifelink.
Prevent all damage dealt to creatures and planeswalkers you control by non-creature sources.
1/3
This is a general enabling mass damage effects while enabling you to build up right through it. I made the ability lifelink instead of using the Tamanoa wording to prevent stacking with lifelink. Otherwise, I feel she might be a little to oppressive. Her P/T is 1/3 as a nod to the original Orim (See below) and to hammer home the 'non-combatness' of this particular general. The second ability complements the first but also functions as protection for your army (as any healer would) so it does fit right into Boros decks that do care about combat. All in all, I think this makes her open-ended enough to not have every Orim deck play the same. The Rebel type is a nod to the Cho-Arrim being rebels, but also makes her a good trick to search at instant speed.
I concepted this as Orim, Samite Healer. In the story she had a relationship with Cho-Manno, Revolutionary and remained among the Cho-Arrim after the Weatherlight left Mercadia. If she had a second color, I figured it would be red (Due to Orim's Thunder). So this is basically angry Orim.
There are not that many legendary Sphinxes, so no story lore.
Angor, the Feral Sphinx3UG
Legendary creature - Sphinx
Flying, Trample, Flash.
When Angor enters a zone, put a +1/+1 counter on target creature and draw a card.
4/4
I think he's nice on curve, with 5 mana ramping you to 6+. With a 4/4 body and evasion, commander damage is an option. And his ability allows for shenanigans through discarding him for value for example by looting or by bouncing him to your hand as a cost for something else while the effect itself, while good, does nothing degenerate on his own. Note that through his ability he can also played as a 5/5 etd draw for 5 by himself.
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The secret to enjoyable Commander games is not winning first, but losing last.
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Vaevictis Asmadi2RRGGBB
Legendary creature - Elder Dragon
Flying, Trample, First Strike.
Whenever you add any amount of R, G, or B to your mana pool, Vaevictis Asmadi gets +X/+0 until end of turn, where X is the amount of mana added to your mana pool.
At the beginning of your upkeep, pay RGB or sacrifice Vaevictis Asmadi.
7/7
Kept the colors, P/T and upkeep but changed/added abilities to bring it up to current power level. The +x/+0 ability is unique in the sense that it does not use the mana added, just triggers off of it. It also synergizes somewhat with the upkeep trigger, since paying for the upkeep will give it +3/+0. Power increase in general is nice with First Strike.
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The secret to enjoyable Commander games is not winning first, but losing last.
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Ukir the Noixelfer UBRG
Legendary creature - Human wizard
As Ukir enters the battlefield sacrifice any number of creatures. For each creature sacrificed this way , create a token that's a copy of that creature.
2/2
I wanted to create a fun build around commander. The card combos with token-doubling/Etb effects and get's destroyed by mass bounce effects.
It's neat as a commander that interacts strangely with other cards in your deck, but it doesn't really do anything by itself.
The ability as-worded is broken. "As X enters the battlefield" is typically reserved for characteristic-changing abilities (Devour, for example, which I think you may have based the wording off of. It adds +1/+1 counters which might be important if the base creature is 0/0). The ability should be "When X enters the battlefield". The ability also allows Ukir to sacrifice him/herself, creating infinite ETBs and sacrifices. I recommend specifying nontoken, nonlegendary; the former to prevent too much weirdness, the latter to prevent self-sacrificing and infinite combos with Sakashima the Imposter.
Orim of the Cho-Arrim1RW
Legendary Creature - Cleric Rebel
Spells and noncreature permanents you control have lifelink.
Prevent all damage dealt to creatures and planeswalkers you control by non-creature sources.
1/3
I've always wanted Tamanoa or Soulfire Grandmaster as a general, but the damage prevention is pretty nasty. That said, I can't think of a better way to make him feel like a healer while maintaining a clear strategy. Maybe increase the mana cost to 4?
Angor, the Feral Sphinx3UG
Legendary creature - Sphinx
Flying, Trample, Flash.
When Angor enters a zone, put a +1/+1 counter on target creature and draw a card.
4/4
Interesting and very reasonably balanced if played as-intended. The problem is hidden zones (in-hand, in-library, or face-down in exile) which would cause some confusion. If you draw Angor from your library, what happens? The stack is also technically a zone, so casting Angor would draw you two cards, not one, as he(?) shifts from hand to stack to battlefield.
Vaevictis Asmadi2RRGGBB
Legendary creature - Elder Dragon
Flying, Trample, First Strike.
Whenever you add any amount of R, G, or B to your mana pool, Vaevictis Asmadi gets +X/+0 until end of turn, where X is the amount of mana added to your mana pool.
At the beginning of your upkeep, pay RGB or sacrifice Vaevictis Asmadi.
7/7
I think the upkeep cost really is excessive when taken with the already-high casting cost, even if it emphasizes the first ability. You might try adding an ability along the lines of "at the beginning of your upkeep you may pay RGB. If you do, X happens" to keep the reference to the old card's upkeep cost without unecessarily raising the price higher on an already-expensive creature. His creature type is also off: all creature types are one word; thus he is an elder and a dragon. I guess it wouldn't really hurt anything to make "elder" a creature type, since "all elder dragon creatures get X" would still function as expected (it would give X to all creatures which are both elders and dragons) and it would allow them to still count as dragons for things like Crucible of Fire. Still, it would be a bit odd.
EDIT:Oops! they already do this on the oracle'd elder dragons. Hurray for changeling elders tribal! Old Fogey really ought to be an elder dinosaur.
I'm wanting a commander that allows some combination of RWG to generate pseudo-card advantage in the form of tribal vanilla token creatures or keyword token creatures (lifelink etc)
~~~, Legion Commander RW1
Legendary Creature
At the beginning of the game, if ~~~ is in your commander zone, choose a creature type. ~~~ becomes that creature type.
Whenever you cast a creature of that type, if that creature has no abilities other than keyword abilities, return that card to your hand. Then place a token onto the battlefield that is a copy of that card.
2/2
Or perhaps,
~~~, Logistics Officer RW1
Legendary Creature, Human Officer x: Put a token into play that is a copy of a creature you control that has no abilities. Activate this ability only any time you could cast a sorcery.
2/2
Any suggestions?
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EDH RRGrenzo plays your deck, GGYeva's mono green control, WW9-tails trys desperately for monowhite not to suck RWBUTymna and Kraum's saboteur tribal, UWG Kestia's Enchantress Aggro, RUB Jeleva casts big dumb spells, RGB Vaevictis' big critters can kill your critters hard
I wanted to see if there was interest in maintaining a growing list of custom commanders, created and honed by us as a community to fill the gaps we seem to desire. I feel like we have enough seasoned players here that know the card-base well enough to look at a custom card, evaluate it, and help temper it into something fair for use.
I believe this process should be as focused as possible. Toward that, in presenting a card, it would be nice to know the audience of the card. Is it intended for a highly competitive meta, or is it aimed more at a 75% scene? There is always some slight uproar that we don't have this commander or that, and in the spirit of EDH I think we could take the problem into our own hands.
I would not expect this to be another thread in which we discuss whether it's okay to use a custom commander. I would say it's established here that we accept the use of custom commanders, and are instead invested in making sure those commanders aren't obscenely powered or egregiously ill-designed.
For now, I'll leave a list (to be grown) of commanders I feel like we could create:
- A satisfying werewolf
- A Boros commander that doesn't care about combat
- A Simic commander that doesn't just feel like combo or goodstuff
- An Izzet artifact legend
- Four color-legends
- An interesting Mardu legend
- A redesign of the original Elder Dragons
I'll also leave a commander I could see being interested in, with hopes that it doesn't wind up misplacing this thread. I have wanted to try out a group-hug build for a while, and I think Simic fits the bill well, but I'm not satisfied with the current legends available (likely a recurring issue for several of us).
Eraya, Sirewood Elder 1GU
Legendary Creature - Treefolk Wizard
At the beginning of your upkeep, each player reveals the top card of their library. Each player that revealed a land card puts it onto the battlefield. Each player that didn't draws a card.
1/4
@arrogantAxolotl
Eraya feels like a great starting point, but I have some qualms with the card. The first is that this card is just Rites of Flourishing: Commander Edition with a cantrip stapled onto it. That's fine, but if you were purposefully intending to design a Simic Commander, it isn't conveyed well here because Rites of Flourishing and Elvish Visionary are both mono green cards. You could make the argument that the Howling Mine part of the card is blue, but this justification mostly just seems to make Eraya multicolor for multicolor's sake.
For reasons unknown to me, you stapled "ETB, draw a card" onto Eraya as well. This doesn't belong here. My first inclination is that you chose to add this unnecessary effect because you wanted to make the card more powerful. Remember, Rites of Flourishing is a card that already exists. It's a fairly popular one too, and while turning it into a legendary creature isn't exactly making it strictly better, attaching a 1/4 body for "free" is already gravy. The Elvish Visionary effect is only pushing the card further for the sake of being more powerful.
Legendary Creature - Treefolk Wizard
At the beginning of each player's draw step, that player draws an additional card.
Each player may play an additional land on each of his or her turns.
1/4
This iteration is literally just Rites of Flourishing on a creature. Fine, but not particularly innovative design. Note that Howling Mine effects tend to trigger on each player's draw step rather than on the upkeep.
My second inclination regarding your original design is that you chose to add the cantripping line on Eraya because you wanted to ensure that the caster got value out of it before their opponents did. While this is already somewhat true due to the Exploration part of the card, the card could easily be redesigned to accommodate this.
Legendary Creature - Treefolk Wizard
At the beginning of each player's end step, that player draws a card.
Players may play an additional land on each of their turns.
1/4
Drawing cards at the beginning of the end step would ensure that the caster would be the first person to draw cards off of Eraya, but this design loses points for possibly putting a fresh land into the player's hand where they might have been able to put it onto the battlefield due to Eraya's Exploration ability.
Legendary Creature - Treefolk Wizard
Whenever a player plays a land, that player draws a card.
Players may play an additional land on each of their turns.
1/4
This particular iteration is Horn of Greed + Exploration. As far as I'm aware, this design hasn't been done by Wizards before and is actually rather interesting. I'd even consider it low hanging fruit, ripe for picking. I imagine it would only be a matter of time before Wizards prints something like this eventually. I'm not too sure on the mana cost of this card though. It definitely still feels mono green, but is it still three mana? My guess is it's probably fine. It's nice how the Exploration part of the card plays well with the Horn of Greed part.
Legendary Creature - Treefolk Wizard
At the beginning of your upkeep, each player reveals the top card of their library. Each player that revealed a land card puts it onto the battlefield. Each player that didn't draws a card.
1/4
This interpretation is a Coiling Oracle commander. I wrote the triggered ability so that each player would get their cards at the same time rather than one at a time. When players get to use Eraya's ability one at a time, whichever opponent is the active player is encouraged to kill Eraya so that their other opponents don't get a chance to use her after their turn. When each player gets the effect simultaneously, players are more likely to leave Eraya alone. Since the card triggers on your upkeep though, if you happen to get a land off of Eraya, you will be the first player to get to use the extra mana.
I shaved a colorless mana off of Eraya in this iteration because she reminded me a lot of Kami of the Crescent Moon. I think this particular version is my favorite.
Trap your friends in an endless game with this 23-card combo!
That being said, I do like your final design leagues more than my initial toss so I'll add it to my original post. My intent is to keep a log of commanders we design, in their most current and "fair" iteration, much akin to the other running posts that inhabit this sub-forum. In the mean time, I'll throw a few more up here that I've been interested in.
Fier, Gnashing Jaws 3RG
Legendary Creature - Spirit Beast
When ~ attacks, until end of turn each creature you control has base power equal to the highest power among creatures you control.
When an attacking creature you control dies, put X +1/+1 counters on target creature, where X is the power of the creature that died.
4/2
The Pale Moon Council 2
Legendary Creature - Knight
Your opponents cannot play nonbasic lands.
Discard a card: Exile ~. Return it to the battlefield under its owner's control at the end of turn. Any player may activate this ability.
4/4
I think this is justifiable in both white and red to the point that hybrid is acceptable.
Vella, Skipwing Archmage UUU
Legendary Creature - Faerie Spellshaper
Flying
U, Discard a card, T: Untap each other permanent you control. Activate this ability only during another player's turn.
1/3
Joragal, The Reaching Void 10
Legendary Creature - Eldrazi
When you cast ~, each player chooses one card in their hand and exiles the rest.
Each player may pay 1 and 1 life instead of any one colored mana when casting a spell.
You may cast cards from any player's exile. If you do, you lose life equal to that spell's converted mana cost.
8/8
This was a lot to make it seem remotely fair, but I love the idea of the card so I'd like to maintain the framework if possible. Maybe it just exiles three cards from each on cast?
Ovirna, Mirror of Ages 4UG
Legendary Creature - Human Wizard
Untap all lands and creatures you control during each other player's untap step.
Treat each upkeep as if it is also your upkeep. (Abilities you control that trigger during your upkeep trigger.)
3/3
This comes my not-so-secret passion and desire to build around Paradox Haze
Dexyl, the Great Bounty BB
Legendary Creature - Demon
If a source you control would cause ~ to die, draw a card.
If a source an opponent controls would cause ~ to die, that source's controller draws two cards and loses 2 life.
3/2
Here is our take.
Threatening Judge
RW2
Legendary Adviser Berserker
T: Gain control of target non-land permanent until EOT. Untap it and it gains haste. Us this ability only if that permanents controller has more of that type than you do.
2/5
Bobo the Giant Jerk
Legendary Giant Jackass
RW3
Menace
If an opponent plays a land/artifact and has more of those that you they take 2.
If an opponent plays a creature/enchantment and has more of those than you get a 1/1 flying Pegasus.
5/5
In Progress
GBIshkanah, Grafwidow ~ BWGRTymna the Weaver & Tana, the Bloodsower ~ UGRashmi, Eternities Crafter ~ RGAtarka, World Render
Mishra's Magpie
Legendary Bird
UR2
1/3
Flying
When Magpie ETBs you get a Clue, Gold Token and a Thopter.
When Magpie connects with someone get clue, gold or thopter.
In Progress
GBIshkanah, Grafwidow ~ BWGRTymna the Weaver & Tana, the Bloodsower ~ UGRashmi, Eternities Crafter ~ RGAtarka, World Render
Change the text of each other card you own by replacing all instances of, "Library," with, "Graveyard."
Change the text of each other card you own by replacing all instances of, "Graveyard," with, "Library."
As a preface, many of these nephilim have 'bizarre' abilities simply because that's how the original nephilim were. Of the original five, only Dune-Brood and Witch-Maw had abilities which could be considered "normal", all the rest were mold-breaking at the time.
The flavor text is a reference to the flavor text theme of the originals ("When it awoke...")
----------
Whim-Feast Nephilim
WBRG
Legendary Creature - Nephilim
~~~
1, discard a card: Put a +1/+1 counter on Whim-Feast Nephilim, it gains your choice of first strike, deathtouch, trample, or indestructible until end of turn.
~~~
3/3
It will not rest until its hunger is sated.
----------
This is just a Morphling-style dude designed after Glint-Eye Nephilim. What can I say? I like morphlings.
----------
Prism-Fleece Nephilim
WURG
Legendary Creature - Nephilim
~~~
Protection from black
2: Change the text of each spell and each permanent by replacing all instances of one color word with another until end of turn.
~~~
4/4
It will not rest, for it has banished the night.
----------
I like the idea of a repeatable "change colors until EoT" effect. All of the currently-existing color word change effects are instant/sorcery other than Swirl The Mists. I thought this could be fun. I like the potential for logic puzzles if you need to shift its protection multiple times in a turn but don't want to affect some other card you might have. It also has my favorite name of the ones I made.
----------
Slip-Realm Nephilim
WUBG
Legendary Creature - Nephilim
~~~
If a nontoken creature without shadow would be destroyed, regenerate that creature and place a +1/+1 counter on it.
Each creature with a +1/+1 counter has shadow.
~~~
5/3
It will not rest, yet it is always dreaming.
----------
I'm pretty sure shadow is a deprecated keyword, but it was either that or phasing and phasing is disliked by many. The neat part for me is that the first ability is a replacement effect, so you can't go infinite like you can with Mikaeus, The Unhallowed and you can't use it to power sacrifices, since it only prevents destruction. Only one other card does this sort of thing: Clergy of the Holy Nimbus (read the oracle text). This card struggles a bit to express its green-ness, although shadow is firmly an esper keyword.
----------
Rift-Grasp Nephilim
WUBR
Legendary Creature - Nephilim
~~~
At the beginning of your upkeep, choose a face-up nonland card at random from exile. Cast that card without paying its mana cost if able.
At the beginning of your end step, each player exiles the top card of his or her library.
~~~
3/3
It will not rest, and it will not let lie.
----------
Fun chaos-y commander inspired by Volatile Chimera that won't bog down the game. Its exile-casting is any card in exile, not just those it exiles itself. The split into two separate triggered abilities is kind of arbitrary and mostly for legibility
----------
Grief-Blossom Nephilim
UBRG
Legendary Creature - Nephilim
~~~
If a creature you control would deal combat damage, each opponent loses that much life instead.
If you would draw a card, each opponent discards a card instead.
If you would gain life, Grief-Blossom Nephilim deals that much damage to target creature or planeswalker instead.
~~~
It will not rest, but you will rest in its stead.
----------
Angry replacement-effect-monster. This one is more defined by being not-white than it is by being any particular color. The flavor text is intended to sound similar to its other abilities if read aloud.
- Rabid Wombat
I'll start with some critiques. Deep_Woods and cannon, I think that out of the three Boros 'hatebear' commanders you've made, Bobo is the best, because I think that's how the color combination would approach the idea. White has many ways to mess with opponents, but red rarely does outside of damage. Red and White, when combined, exemplify the idea of enforcing justice. A Boros hatebear wouldn't prevent your opponents from doing things, but rather punish them with damage or a larger threat, such as Zo-Zu the Punisher or Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs. In that sense, a tweaked version of Bobo seems like the perfect fit.
Since nobody's tried a werewolf yet, I'll throw my hat in:
Raymond the Butcher 1RG
Legendary Creature - Human Werewolf
Whenever a Werewolf you control transforms, put a +1/+1 counter on it.
~ Werewolf trigger ~
2/2
* Flip *
The Mutilator of Gavony
(R/G) Legendary Creature - Werewolf
Prevent all combat damage that would be dealt to attacking Werewolves you control.
~ Werewolf trigger ~
4/4
This creates a neat subgame for your opponents, as counters don't go away when a permanent transforms. They'll want to keep your werewolves human, but then when they can't anymore, the threat will be that much greater. Huehuehue.
Neat idea for a card. It would probably only cost 1UR (and be something other than a legendary magpie, though I understand the desire for evasion on a relatively small blue creature with a "deals combat damage to an opponent" effect).
Skulk is now an evergreen mechanicOops, no it isn't! Either way, you've got clues on it already so that might be better.Ralviet, Petty Thief
Legendary Creature - Artificer Rogue
1UR
1/3
Skulk
When Seville ETBs you get a Clue, Gold Token and a Thopter.
When Seville connects with someone get clue, gold or thopter.
something like that.
This wouldn't work. Cards in a library can't be targeted, which would create problems for Disentomb and many others. Similarly, there is no mechanical meaning for the phrase "search your graveyard".
Isn't that already the idea behind werewolves: a subgame of not letting them transform, or they get bigger? Not that it's bad design or a bad ability the way it is, but if you want to create a dilemma then the first ability should read something like "At the beginning of your upkeep, put a +1/+1 counter on each human you control".
- Rabid Wombat
Legendary Creature - Goblin Artificer
2/2
, sacrifice an artifact, : Draw cards equal to the cmc of the sacrificed artifact.
, sacrifice an artifact, : Deal X damage to target creature or player, where X equals the cmc of the sacrificed artifact.
For this commander, I tried to think of ways that you could gain power/knowledge from destroying an artifact for reverse engineering purposes. For the blue option, I contemplated letting the player tutor for an artifact of the same cmc as the sac'd artifact. For the red option, I also contemplated allowing the player to add any combination of and equal to the cmc of the sac'd artifact. I purposely made saccing the artifact as part of the ability cost so that the ability wouldnt fizzle if your only artifact was destroyed, or the artifact you wanted to sac got destroyed which forced you to sac something you didnt want to.
The Mimeoplasm || Karador, Ghost Chieftain
Prossh, Skyraider of Kher || Vial Smasher/Tymna Group Slug
Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief || Talrand, Sky Summoner
Yidris - Unblockable Saboteurs || Kiki-Jiki, ETB breaker
Kess, Dissident Mage
Yah skulk thief is a nice thematic fit for a card like this.
In Progress
GBIshkanah, Grafwidow ~ BWGRTymna the Weaver & Tana, the Bloodsower ~ UGRashmi, Eternities Crafter ~ RGAtarka, World Render
Deep_Wood's Mishra's Magpie card is a great example here. It is referring to a very important thing of magic's past. Think of how we got Titania, Feldon, Teferi, and so on. How many incredibly important characters are we still missing? The EDH pre-con's are realistically the only place we will see these pushed into a card form.
I would love to compile a card-pool of characters that people would like to see as a legendary. I would kill for a legendary Gix, Praetor of Yawgmoth, Eliza of the Keep, Lord Windgrace, and even a Massacre Girl.
Links to my most current deck lists;
Primary EDH; Rakka Mar Token Perfection, Crosis Mnemonic Betrayal, Cromat Villainous, Judith Gravestorm, Rakdos Empty Storm, Exava Artifacts, Bant Trash, & Fumiko Voltron!
EDH kept at home; Ruzzian Isset & Rakdos LoR!
EDH (nostalgic/pimp/retired) in storage;
Latulla Burns, Akroma Smash, Jeska Voltron, Rakdos Storm, Bladewing Darghans, Lyzolda Worldgorger, Xantcha Steals your Heart, Jori Storm, Wydwen Permission, Gwendlyn Paradox, Jeleva Warps, & Sigarda Brick!
Legacy Showanimator and High Tide!
I threw down some nephilim (nephili?) earlier, but no one seemed to notice
As for some of the OP's suggestions...
Feels like a bit of a trap to kill any of your attacking creatures with this guy out, but you could say the same for Omnath, Locus of Rage or Vigor
Very oppressive card, and the discard effect feels a bit off-color (maybe have them pay mana instead? that'd work better for white's 'tax' theme). I think it might just be better to punish them playing those lands than to prevent it outright (whenever an opponent plays a nonbasic land, you get a 2/2 white and red spirit creature token with flying). Also I would be disappointed that Stillmoon Cavalier couldn't be in the same deck, what with being a knight and the neat moon in the background
Seems fine for multiplayer, Probably too strong for 1v1. 1v1 commander has such a large banlist anyways that it'd probably be okay.
This really feels more like a black card than an eldrazi. There are only three 'named' eldrazi canonically in the lore, and each one has a separate theme. Doing stuff from exile is Ulamog's thing; you could re-theme this as a one-of-a-kind 'legendary spawn' of Ulamog, but the paying life should probably go. The second ability is also worded strangely, you should probably just use the "as if it were mana of any color" clause on the third ability to keep things simple.
In addition to the on-cast ability (which should probably be nerfed to "target player"), the new design for eldrazi legends also all have a protective ability (indestructible, protection from instants, countering spells by discarding) and an attacking ability (exile a bunch of cards from your library, menace, trample). This should have those as well in order to feel like a legendary eldrazi.
Seedborn Muse and Prophet of Kruphix are both very strong in EDH, this costs one more mana and would be always-available. Also gets confusing with "at the beginning of each player's upkeep" abilities: do those trigger twice per opponent's upkeep now? If it's also *your* upkeep, who gets priority to cast spells? Other "share a phase with an opponent" abilities never actually give you the phase, just the benefits of it, but this would. Does this also count as you having a 'turn' for effects that care? (Serra Avenger as one example). The intended answers to these questions are mostly obvious, but the mechanical meaning doesn't support them.
"Would cause" is a replacement effect, and all replacement effects end with "instead" in some way (even if indirectly, such as for Clergy of the Holy Nimbus). You definitely don't want to replace death, since that would lead to infinite sacrifices. You probably want "When a source you control causes ~ to die", but that will preclude gaining any benefit if you send him to the command zone since going to the command zone is a replacement effect (i.e. you don't draw cards if your commander is wearing a Skullclamp and you send him to the command zone. Thus, you would always just return this guy to the command zone if an opponent kills him to deny them the cards).
- Rabid Wombat
Thanks!
I would love to see some old legends get re-done to modern standards.
Captian Gerrard
WW2
Legend
2/3
Pro Black
Gets +1+1 for each basic land type
2U: Team gets Hexproof EOT
2G: Team gets Trample EOT
2R: Team gets +1+0 EOT
2W: Team Vigilance EOT
edited to make more team friendly.
In Progress
GBIshkanah, Grafwidow ~ BWGRTymna the Weaver & Tana, the Bloodsower ~ UGRashmi, Eternities Crafter ~ RGAtarka, World Render
A concept I'd like to see as a general would be; "At the beginning of the game, if ~ is in the command zone, each player loses 10 life". Some Command Zone way of reducing those crazy life buffers
RRGrenzo plays your deck, GGYeva's mono green control, WW9-tails trys desperately for monowhite not to suck
RWBUTymna and Kraum's saboteur tribal, UWG Kestia's Enchantress Aggro, RUB Jeleva casts big dumb spells, RGB Vaevictis' big critters can kill your critters hard
Arena Standard
UUUU Tempo, since before it was cool
Various Wx decks running Fountain of Renewal and Day of Glory
Anything I can cram Chaos Wand in to
I'll happily offer up my design insights to you, but I've been a bit busy with work since I first posted. You'll be the next person I get to when I have the time to write up something thorough.
Trap your friends in an endless game with this 23-card combo!
In regards to the two punishment style Boros legends from @Deep_Woods; I love them, and if you don't mind I'll zhuzh them up a bit and add them to the original posting.
I like the idea of of where we ended with the legendary Magpie, but I hate the idea of having so many different types of tokens represented on one card since they came so flavorfully from different places. Gold seems pretty ubiquitous but Clues and Thopters feel centric to specific planes. I'm mostly put off by the flavor behind Clues here, it would make more sense to me if the creature generated some sort of Bauble or Chest to be unlocked. I'll put it in the OP but I'd like to continue making stabs at it.
For now, I'll throw down some commentary on the nephilim and I'll come back later for the rest:
I find it interesting that you settled for a morphling-esque card in the quartet outside of blue. As it is, it feels boring since it's such a simple morphling. It's obviously not unfair as a result, but I'd like to think we can have weirder effects on Nephilim.
Glutton-Gut Nephilim WRGB
Legendary Creature - Nephilim
3, Sacrifice a nonland permanent: Each opponent sacrifices a permanent that shares a type with the card you sacrificed. Put a +1/+1 counter on ~ for each permanent sacrificed this way.
4/4
I strongly dislike the protection from black here, until I see it's interaction with the second ability. I actually want to make this stronger and have an effect last until end of game (although I know memory issues will arise). Also, this does not really feel red or green.
Luster-Scale Nephilim WURG
Legendary Creature - Nephilim
Protection from black
1, Discard a card, Put a +1/+1 counter on ~: Change the text of each spell and each permanent by replacing all instances of one color word with another. (This does not end at end of turn.)
3/3
It's still not very r/g but I love the idea of adding a counter as a cost, like loyalty on a planeswalker. It's still limited by cards in hand, but it feels very nasty.
This doesn't combo with things the same way Mikaeus does, and I like the symmetry of the latter effect given how prevalent +1/+1 counters can be, but overall Shadow feels very bland. I think I would honestly prefer something more asymmetric that really tilted the field.
Realm-Skipper Nephilim WUBG
Legendary Creature - Nephilim
Creatures you control cannot be blocked and cannot block.
Whenever a creature deals combat damage to a player, put a +1/+1 counter on it.
Whenever a creature with a +1/+1 counter on it deals combat damage to an opponent, it's controller draws a card.
3/3
It's very different, but has a similar effect to the board state I believe. It makes you vulnerable, but the last ability, a la Edric, means that at some point cannons should be pointed away from you.
I love this design, but since you only get the benefit on your turn after passing, I could see upping the end of turn ability to two or even three cards a player. This doesn't particularly feel red aside from the random aspect, but I love the effect and would actually want to play this.
I'm going to assume this to be a 4/4 because it doesn't feel overpowered given how obnoxious 4C creatures are. I think the more interesting effect is the latter of the two because it creates a difficult game-state for yourself. Honestly, very little of this feeds blue or red, and it's pushing it to call it green. I like the second effect so much though that I'm tempted to keep it and refocus a second ability to better reflect the r/u/g sides:
Grief-Bloom Nephilim UBRG
Legendary Creature - Nephilim
If you would draw a card, each opponent discards a card.
Whenever an opponent discards a creature card, create a 1/1 green Saproling.
Whenever an opponent discards a land card, ~ deals 2 damage to them.
Whenever an opponent discards an instant or sorcery card, put the top card of your library into your hand.
3/3
Now it's super wordy, but I also have a huge crush on Waste Not, so I'm all for it.
Great work so far, I'll be back later
1)
Igress Six-Fingers
1UR
Legendary Creature - Vedalken Rogue
1/3
Soulbond
When you cast ~, you may have target noncreature artifact become an artifact creature with power and toughness each equal to its converted mana cost.
As long as ~ is paired with another creature, Each of those creatures has “T: Untap target permanent.”
As long as ~ is paired with another artifact creature, each of those creatures has “UR: this creature gains flying and hexproof until end of turn.”
Rumor is that the notorious thief Igress Six-Fingers has never stolen a treasure, instead the treasure would follow him home.
Note: A versatile legend who is artifact-friendly, but doesn’t become useless even if there’s no artifact in play.
2)
Reias, Witness of World Reborn
UG
Legendary Creature - Elf Druid
2/2
UG: Target permanent you control loses all abilities and becomes a copy of target land.
3UG: Target land you control loses all abilities and becomes a copy of target nonland permanent.
Note: Land shenanigan legend.
3)
Argus Merryhearth
2WR
Legendary Creature - Human Soldier
5/5
Defender
~ gets -1/-1 for each other creature you control.
2WR: Gain control of target creature with power less than ~.
Note: Not a combat Boros legend like too many before him, this one wins loyalty via big parties, until he can’t afford it. One could also “voltron” him to ensure he could control bigger creatures, and doesn’t die to his ability too quickly.
4)
The Fulfilled Circle
2BG
Legendary Creature - Elf Shaman
0/5
When you cast ~, each other player puts a token that's a copy of ~ onto battlefield
Each player may play cards from each graveyard whose owner controls ~. If that card would be put into a graveyard this turn, exile it instead.
5: Destroy target creature named ~. Any player may activate this ability.
Note: A different take on Golgari, this legend forcefully completes the cycle of life via all players, also encourages the player to utilizes mana of other colors. The last ability provides a way for players to get out of the situation, but he/she would lose the ability to cast spells from graveyards because he/she “broke the circle.” The temptation is a double-edge sword. You can also destroy other people’s Fulfilled Circle to keep their dangerous cards being used by another opponent.
5)
Malrion the Scholar
2WB
Legendary Creature - Demon Advisor
5/5
Flying
Each creature and enchantment spell you cast cost 2 less to cast
Each creature and enchantment you control has “At the beginning of your upkeep, you draw a card and you lose 2 life.”
Note: The card depicting a demon scholar who is obsessed with knowledge that he pays great price for them, but the more he learns, the more burdened he feels, and his craving only increases, much to its controller’s chagrin.
6)
Dhalia, the Winter Bloom
XXWG
Legendary Creature - Elf Druid
2/2
Awaken X, Awaken X
You cannot cast creature spells.
Land creatures you control gain first strike, trample, and vigilance.
X2WG: Return target land card from a graveyard to the battlefield under your control. That land becomes a 0/0 Elemental creature with X +1/+1 counters on it.
Note: An odd take on Selesnya color. While this legend prevents you from casting creature spells, it can reanimate your lands indefinitely and make them powerful at the same time. The hefty activation cost is to discourage abuse of lands like Strip Mind.
7)
Riggly, Fraud Master
1RG
Legendary Creature - Goblin Artificer
2/2
2RG: Put a token onto the battlefield that is a copy of target artifact or enchantment, and put three bomb counter on it.
At the beginning of your upkeep, remove a bomb counter from each permanent with a bomb counter on it. If you do, destroy each permanent that had its last bomb counter removed and ~ deals 3 damage to you.
If only his skills live up to his ego.
Note: New take on Gruul without being outside of color identities. He can copy enchantments and artifacts, but also put 'bombs' into play when doing so, that would damage its owner.
8)
Narkor, Feast on Madness
2BR
Legendary Creature - Human Wizard
3/4
Spells each player plays costs an additional X to cast, where X is the number of cards in that player's hand above 4.
Spells each player plays costs Y less to cast, where Y is the number of cards in that player's hand under 4.
Note: A group hug general (kinda) who manipulates spell costs depending on the number of cards in the player’s hand. However, due to his duality, the deck can be designed either way.
9)
Oxiron, Nightmare Fuel
1UB
Legendary Creature - Nightmare
2/2
At the beginning of your upkeep, you may search target player's library and exile a card from it. If you do, that player may search your library for a card and exile it.
Flying, lifelink.
~ gets +1/+1 for each card in all players' exile zones.
Note: Another play on the exile zone, the neutrality of this legend is a testament to UB’s lack of true allegiance while benefit from all’s losses.
10)
Zexa, Elite Socialite
3WU
Legendary Creature - Human Advisor
4/4
At the beginning of your upkeep, choose one:
> Player with the lowest life chooses a permanent another player controls, then gain control of it. You draw a card.
> Player with the highest life chooses a permanent he or she controls, then chooses another player, the second player gains control of it. You draw a card.
4WU: Exchange life totals with target opponent. Activate this ability only during your turn.
Note: WU enjoys laws and order, doesn’t mean they are entirely moral when doing it. A socialite like Zexa is more adept at favor-earning than any actual progress. The life exchanging ability, while useful to help you steal permanents, may also put you at risk.
Shu Yun, the Silent Tempest WUR Voltron Control
Temmet, Vizier of Naktamun WU Unblockable Mirror Trickery
Ra's al Ghul (Sidar Kondo) and Face-Down Ninjas
Brudiclad, Token Engineer
Vaevictis (VV2) the Dire Lantern
Rona, Disciple of Gix
Tiana the Auror
Hallar
Ulrich the Politician
Zur the Rebel
Scorpion, Locust, Scarab, Egyptian Gods
O-Kagachi, Mathas, Mairsil
"Non-Tribal" Tribal Generals, Eggs
There's no other way to put this: Whim-Feast Nephilim sucks. It is not powerful, and it is not interesting. Imagine using this card as a commander. How would someone build a deck around this card? The activated ability cost is steep, and the benefit players receive for using it is paltry. Generally speaking, discarding cards as an activated ability cost is miserable. Players never want to discard cards from their hand to pay for things because those cards are typically things they want to just be playing instead. Whim-Feast Nephilim is just a Hill Giant that's difficult to cast and is occasionally indestructible. Corner cases aside, why would anyone even want to give this card first strike when they could just make it indestructible anyway?
My advice would be to scrap this design completely.
Prism-Fleece Nephilim, on the other hand, is an absolutely phenomenal design. As far as I'm aware, Sleight of Mind effects have always been limited to blue, but I believe extending the ability to a four-colored Nephilim is a great design choice since players are naturally going to want to pair it with cards of other colors that use color words. I also love how you used protection on this card because it does two things. The first is that Prism-Fleece Nephilim teaches players one of the things they can do with it; they can change what colors cards are protected from. Teaching players this lesson is wonderful because the Swirl the Mists ability is something that's not immediately easy to understand why it's useful. Players will feel clever for realizing this. The second thing protection does for the Prism-Fleece is give players something to use its ability on. There isn't always going to naturally be something in play that uses a color word, let alone something that's useful to change. Prism-Fleece Nephilim offers players a way to profitably use its second ability regardless of what else is in play.
I don't think I can improve upon this card's design. The only thing I would look into is seeing which of the four non-blue colors references color words the least. I would make Prism-Fleece Nephilim's cost exclude that color. You might also consider boosting this card up to a 5/5. For a card with such a demanding casting cost, it could likely afford an aggressively costed stat line.
I'll get around to the other three Nephilim later.
Trap your friends in an endless game with this 23-card combo!
Definitely going to re-work this nephilim, since @cannon has said essentially the same. I will point out that discarding cards as a cost for an activated ability is quite powerful (Wild Mongrel, for example) because it strongly enables reanimator and other special graveyard cards (Anger, Genesis, Bridge from Below, etc.). That said, a simple changeling is a bit lazy, I'll admit.
Maybe something like...
Whim-Feast Nephilim WBRG
Legendary Creature — Nephilim
1, Discard a card: Put a +1/+1 counter on Whim-Feast Nephilim. Any player may activate this ability.
As long as Whim-Feast Nephilim's power is odd, it has indestructible and trample.
As long as Whim-Feast Nephilim's power is even, other creatures you control have hexproof and lifelink.
It will not rest until its hunger is sated.
3/3
I'm not so confident about those specific odd/even effects, but I really like this overall design more. It fits the name better (as players fight over its mode, changing it on a whim, it feeds on their indecisiveness). Perhaps instead of keywords it should have restrictions? (Odd: player can't play instants, Evens: they can't play creatures?). That's the part I can't decide on.
I will admit this to be my favorite nephilim. Text-changing effects are one of the more unique effects in magic, and it makes me sad that nothing like this currently exists as a legend. I will admit that the red/green aspect is communicated poorly, but green at least is associated with permanents that can change color.
@arrogantAxolotl: I will admit I'm fairly new to this age of creatures where neat abilities doesn't necessarily mean a reduction in P/T (see: Duskmantle Seer). As to which color has the least anti-color effects, I believe that is red (mostly because a lot of its cards, like Boil, target a land type rather than a color). One reason I chose the all-but-black set of colors is to avoid infinite combos with Teysa, Orzhov Scion. Also, something about this design just feels "non-black" to me (possibly due to the name: white is most associated with light-as-an-element). Black also has a bit of a subtheme of "black helps black" (Nirkhana Revenant vs. Keeper of Progenitus, the various "destroy target nonblack" cards, etc.) that, while it would be fun to tamper with, is a bit contrary to the 'spirit' of the card.
@cannon: Making a repeatable activated ability permanent like that, as you seem to be aware, is untenably difficult to keep track of. The discarding a card is a bit of an odd addition that only serves to make it feel more 'black', and I'm not such a fan of that either. Finally, (and I swear I'm not being petty here!) I like "Prism-Fleece" quite a bit more than "Luster-Scale" since I like the idea of a giant eldritch sheeple-monster. That's more a personal preferance than anything, though.
I actully feel quite to the contrary about shadow. It creates a very interesting new use for destruction effects to make your own creatures stronger and unblockable, and it 'fixes' one of the main problems of shadow (that it's so uncommon it might as well read "can't block and can't be blocked") by spreading it to all creatures, creating the divided battlefield of shadow and non-shadow creatures which was the original intent of the ability. It also fits the colors perfectly, with shadow being esper-color and the rest of the ability being fairly 'green', and forms a coherent theme with the name (it is pulling creatures into an ethereal 'other-realm' or 'dream-world').
Honestly this feels pretty mono-red, though black and white at least have some exile. I feel like the 'cast-from-exile' part is very ill-defined color-wise, and could possibly be white, blue, or black (Gonti, Lord of Luxury, Pull from Eternity, Misthollow Griffin, [card]Praetor's Grasp[/grasp]). Perhaps if the "card at random from exile" bit is kept but the means of exiling the cards is more controlled it might feel more appropriate for the esper colors. Possibly this...
Rift-Grasp Nephilim WUBR
Legendary Creature - Nephilim
enters the battlefield, for each opponent, that player reveals his or her hand and you choose a nonland card from it. Exile the chosen cards.At the beginning of your upkeep, choose a face-up nonland card at random from exile. Cast that card without paying its mana cost if able.
At the beginning of your end step, each player exiles two nonland cards from his or her graveyard.
3/3
EDIT: erk, that ETB ability would be overpowered with blinks. Also this is starting to look a lot like @cannon's eldrazi legend, so, uh... don't sue?
I don't want to have it search their libraries since that would be annoying for something as common as casting a commander, but taking cards from their hands feels too strong maybe. I'll go with graveyards instead. Each player gets to nominate some cards for the lottery, so it's not too abusable but it has some control.
I'll admit I'm not confident about the abilities I gave it. This is more of a top-down card: white is the color of 'hope', so I wanted to design a card that made the game 'hopeless' for as long as it's in play. I like "Grief-Blossom" or "Grief-Bloom" since it helps tie in green to this mess, makes it feel like more than a blob of abilities, and really helps express that the misery is growing: there's no hope, things are awful, and as long as this thing is in play, it's only going to get worse.
As far as abilities to express this, it would be easy to just have something like "whenever a player is dealt damage, that player loses 4 life.", "whenever a creature is dealt damage, put two -1/-1 counters on that creature", and so on, but I feel like that would lose a certain nephilim 'weirdness'. I like the repeated "if you would x", since by the second ability it has become clear to the reader that this guy just doesn't want you doing anything 'happy' or 'hopeful', and that the moment they read 'x', they know what it is they're not going to get to do now. It also ties easily into the flavor text. "X's can't Y" would also be effective, thematically ("players can't gain life", "players can't draw cards", "damage can't be prevented", etc.). As to what the X's and Y's should be, exactly, I'm not so sure. I agree that Waste Not is a fun card, but it doesn't strike the tone I'm looking for. Each line should make the player think "I can't what?!?" That said, that's a difficult thing to balance. That's why I prefer "if you would" instead of "can't", since it lets you offset the things you can't do with things you do instead and makes it fun and worthwhile to play despite the dreary theme.
- Rabid Wombat
Orim of the Cho-Arrim 1RW
Legendary Creature - Cleric Rebel
Spells and noncreature permanents you control have lifelink.
Prevent all damage dealt to creatures and planeswalkers you control by non-creature sources.
1/3
This is a general enabling mass damage effects while enabling you to build up right through it. I made the ability lifelink instead of using the Tamanoa wording to prevent stacking with lifelink. Otherwise, I feel she might be a little to oppressive. Her P/T is 1/3 as a nod to the original Orim (See below) and to hammer home the 'non-combatness' of this particular general. The second ability complements the first but also functions as protection for your army (as any healer would) so it does fit right into Boros decks that do care about combat. All in all, I think this makes her open-ended enough to not have every Orim deck play the same. The Rebel type is a nod to the Cho-Arrim being rebels, but also makes her a good trick to search at instant speed.
I concepted this as Orim, Samite Healer. In the story she had a relationship with Cho-Manno, Revolutionary and remained among the Cho-Arrim after the Weatherlight left Mercadia. If she had a second color, I figured it would be red (Due to Orim's Thunder). So this is basically angry Orim.
If my post has no tags, then i posted from my phone.
There are not that many legendary Sphinxes, so no story lore.
Angor, the Feral Sphinx 3UG
Legendary creature - Sphinx
Flying, Trample, Flash.
When Angor enters a zone, put a +1/+1 counter on target creature and draw a card.
4/4
I think he's nice on curve, with 5 mana ramping you to 6+. With a 4/4 body and evasion, commander damage is an option. And his ability allows for shenanigans through discarding him for value for example by looting or by bouncing him to your hand as a cost for something else while the effect itself, while good, does nothing degenerate on his own. Note that through his ability he can also played as a 5/5 etd draw for 5 by himself.
If my post has no tags, then i posted from my phone.
Vaevictis Asmadi 2RRGGBB
Legendary creature - Elder Dragon
Flying, Trample, First Strike.
Whenever you add any amount of R, G, or B to your mana pool, Vaevictis Asmadi gets +X/+0 until end of turn, where X is the amount of mana added to your mana pool.
At the beginning of your upkeep, pay RGB or sacrifice Vaevictis Asmadi.
7/7
Kept the colors, P/T and upkeep but changed/added abilities to bring it up to current power level. The +x/+0 ability is unique in the sense that it does not use the mana added, just triggers off of it. It also synergizes somewhat with the upkeep trigger, since paying for the upkeep will give it +3/+0. Power increase in general is nice with First Strike.
If my post has no tags, then i posted from my phone.
It's neat as a commander that interacts strangely with other cards in your deck, but it doesn't really do anything by itself.
The ability as-worded is broken. "As X enters the battlefield" is typically reserved for characteristic-changing abilities (Devour, for example, which I think you may have based the wording off of. It adds +1/+1 counters which might be important if the base creature is 0/0). The ability should be "When X enters the battlefield". The ability also allows Ukir to sacrifice him/herself, creating infinite ETBs and sacrifices. I recommend specifying nontoken, nonlegendary; the former to prevent too much weirdness, the latter to prevent self-sacrificing and infinite combos with Sakashima the Imposter.
I've always wanted Tamanoa or Soulfire Grandmaster as a general, but the damage prevention is pretty nasty. That said, I can't think of a better way to make him feel like a healer while maintaining a clear strategy. Maybe increase the mana cost to 4?
Interesting and very reasonably balanced if played as-intended. The problem is hidden zones (in-hand, in-library, or face-down in exile) which would cause some confusion. If you draw Angor from your library, what happens? The stack is also technically a zone, so casting Angor would draw you two cards, not one, as he(?) shifts from hand to stack to battlefield.
I think the upkeep cost really is excessive when taken with the already-high casting cost, even if it emphasizes the first ability. You might try adding an ability along the lines of "at the beginning of your upkeep you may pay RGB. If you do, X happens" to keep the reference to the old card's upkeep cost without unecessarily raising the price higher on an already-expensive creature.
His creature type is also off: all creature types are one word; thus he is an elder and a dragon. I guess it wouldn't really hurt anything to make "elder" a creature type, since "all elder dragon creatures get X" would still function as expected (it would give X to all creatures which are both elders and dragons) and it would allow them to still count as dragons for things like Crucible of Fire. Still, it would be a bit odd.EDIT:Oops! they already do this on the oracle'd elder dragons. Hurray for changeling elders tribal! Old Fogey really ought to be an elder dinosaur.
- Rabid Wombat
~~~, Legion Commander RW1
Legendary Creature
At the beginning of the game, if ~~~ is in your commander zone, choose a creature type. ~~~ becomes that creature type.
Whenever you cast a creature of that type, if that creature has no abilities other than keyword abilities, return that card to your hand. Then place a token onto the battlefield that is a copy of that card.
2/2
Or perhaps,
~~~, Logistics Officer RW1
Legendary Creature, Human Officer
x: Put a token into play that is a copy of a creature you control that has no abilities. Activate this ability only any time you could cast a sorcery.
2/2
Any suggestions?
RRGrenzo plays your deck, GGYeva's mono green control, WW9-tails trys desperately for monowhite not to suck
RWBUTymna and Kraum's saboteur tribal, UWG Kestia's Enchantress Aggro, RUB Jeleva casts big dumb spells, RGB Vaevictis' big critters can kill your critters hard
Arena Standard
UUUU Tempo, since before it was cool
Various Wx decks running Fountain of Renewal and Day of Glory
Anything I can cram Chaos Wand in to