The path is long and arduous to your destination. The motivation may be different for each character, but such travels are a constant among many lives. You have the choice of traveling the vast and unforgiving deserts, or going the more direct but much more dangerous route through the haunted wilderness.
Days are sweltering and the nights are frozen. There are few surprises here-- only hardship. Your character must be able to survive three consecutive Deserts. At long last, the desert begins to fade to grasslands, and you reach the great river, recovering your fortitude (and your damage). But your long journey isn't over yet.
Across the river lie Leonin lands. They aren't fond of non-catfolk, and you've heard of traps along the roads. You'll have to either sneak through the hinterlands (with evasion) or you'll have to find a way to either endure, predict, disarm, or avoid two Leonin Bladetraps (for example, vigilance could allow you to avoid them-- because you are vigilant). Perhaps after recovering from the desert you might be able to survive such an onslaught, but any creature too large will attract unwanted attention. Any character with power or toughness 5 or greater will also be attacked by a Blade of the Sixth Pride unless they have evasion that stops such a card from blocking them. Anyone with power or toughness 8 or higher, and anyone with flying will also be attacked by two Leonin Skyhunters.
You are a fool to take such a dangerous path. You will instantly encounter a Skittering Heartstopper with deathtouch unless you are vigilant enough to notice it, or can avoid it another way. One sting is enough to end most adventures. If you survive that, you are constantly plagued by Swamp Mosquitos, even if you have flying. Unless you can avoid them somehow, you gain poison counters equal to your toughness (permanently).
At one point you come to a bridge, and are stopped by a pair of Trestle Trolls. They say they will attack you unless you are clever enough to answer their riddle (scry or draw one or more cards in anyway). They are also jealous, so if you give something to one of them (a positive effect) they'll both become distracted, but if you try to sneak past one, the other will spot you, follow you, and attack you even if you have evasion. If you are able to incapacitate only one (tapping, bouncing, destroying or some such), the other will again attack you.
Finally if you made it this far, you will be observed by a Vampire Nighthawk. He doesn't attack, but he watches you. You feel that you may meet him again, and the thought fills you with dread.
Not everyone is cut out for such long and dangerous journeys. If you fear for your survival, perhaps you are not ready yet to travel such dire roads. Perhaps you must instead take the path of patience. There is less glory in this, but the path of glory is not always the wisest.
Rather than going on an adventure and learning new skills, you can work either in the forge, study in the library, or remain with your family and friends. If you work in the forge, you will forge for yourself a piece of equipment made to serve you loyally. If you study in the library with the great enchanters, you will weave an aura to make yourself more powerful. If you spend your time among friends and loved ones, you will gain no glory and no respect among the rich and powerful, but you will gain a lifelong companion.
The end result of all three is mostly the same. You must design a card (an equipment, an aura, or a creature) to pair with your own card. You will also add an ability to your card that cares specifically about that card in any way. (like Nazahn, Revered Bladesmith and Hammer of Nazahn, Arachnus Spinner and Arachnus Web, or Brothers Yamazaki) This bonus card will be considered as part of your overall design at the end of the game, just like Nissa's Chosen is part of Nissa Revane's design.
If your character is strong enough to get through one of the challenges without any adjustments, you should still make some modification to your character that makes sense with the path you chose.
Note: Smiles the Skeleton is the only nonliving character, and therefore naturally avoids some of the hazards: the deserts, the Heartstopper, and the mosquitoes won't harm Smiles. Edit: Moppe is an artifact, so is also immune to the Heartstopper and the mosquitoes, but not the deserts. Sand is bad for gears.
Note #2: I didn't specify what was at the end of your journey through the wilderness/ desert because you all clearly have entirely different motivations. The demon avatar doesn't want the same things as the artifact gnome, the monks, or the skeleton. If you want to specify character motivation overall, or just the reason for this journey, be my guest. It's not required though.
The site is not closing. Somebody bought it. mtgnexus exists too now.
And Seb McKinnon saved MTG art from a world of singular mediocrity. That's a bit of an exaggeration, but the sentiment is true. Every time one of his images comes out, it is stunning. There is nobody else like that in Magic right now (which is more the fault of the art direction than anything).
You start out as nothing, but along your journey, you'll learn the skills of a true legend, worthy to compete in the Arena of the Ancients with the Sword of the Chosen. Will your deeds become legend in this fabled Hall, or will you be relegated to the sidelines of history?
In phase 1, you create a base character to serve throughout the game. This character will have a name, creature types, a mana cost, power, toughness and (if you want) flavor text. In phase 1, this card will be vanilla (or french vanilla), but it will gain abilities in phase 2, 3, and 4 to overcome the challenge of each phase. The goal is to have a well balanced card at the end without ever being able to change your card's mana cost.
The fifth and final phase will be judgement of the final card's design and balance. If the card has become overpowered, they will be stripped of their legendary status, and given a mana cost more befitting their abilities. If they are deemed balanced and of worthy design, they will be extolled as true legends, and immortalized in the Legendary Hall.
Phase One Character3G
Creature- Centaur Warrior
3/2
Phase 2 challenge: As you travel, you are attacked by a fearsome 3/3 horror, and you must defend yourself.
Phase Two Character3G
Creature- Centaur Warrior
When ~ blocks or becomes blocked, it gets +1/+2 until end of turn.
3/2
You can also alter an ability instead of adding one. For example, I could have just made it a 3/4. Additionally I could change it in a later phase so that now I get +2/+2 and trample instead of just +1/+2. If it makes flavor sense, you can tweak your creature type, card name, and flavor text in any phase.
For the first phase all you need to do is make a card with the following limitations:
- It must be a legendary creature.
- It must be vanilla or french vanilla. You may have ONE simple keyword ability to start
- It should have plenty of room to gain abilities without becoming broken. Somewhere around the power level of Ancient Carp or Gray Ogre seems about right.
- Your card must be able to survive the encounter it had with an angry 1/1 rat.
I see a rather murderous Goldilocks in there. Also... Kasmina is/was a knight?
The known Planeswalker is Rowan (and presumably Will) Kenrith, from Battlebond.
Compare this piece of Eldraine art:
To her existing card art (pay particular attention to her sword):
That could be Rowan, but both she and the woman in the new art are pretty generic looking, so that's not really confirmation.
Scratch that: the swords are the same, which means that it is almost certainly her.
Poisonberry Pie3
Artifact (U)
Poisonberry Pie enters the battlefield with four -1/-1 counters on it.
When a creature deals combat damage to you, move a -1/-1 counter from Poisonberry Pie onto that creature.
When Poisonberry Pie has no -1/-1 counters on it, sacrifice it. "Boysenberry! My favorite!"
Flour0
Artifact- Food
Cycling 1
Sugar0
Artifact- Food (C)
Cycling 2
Sacrifice Sugar: Gain 2 life.
Sacrifice Sugar and Flour: Gain 7 life.
MeatG
Artifact- Food (C)
Cycling 1G
Sacrifice Meat: Put a +1/+1 counter on target creature. That creature gains trample until end of turn.
Sacrifice Meat and Flour: Put 2 +1/+1 counters on target creature. That creature gains trample and haste until end of turn.
BreadW
Artifact- Food (C)
Cycling W
Sacrifice Bread: target creature gets +0/+2 and vigilance until end of turn. Untap that creature.
Sacrifice Flour: Return Bread from your graveyard to your hand.
Pie2R
Artifact- Food (C)
Cycling 1R R: Sacrifice Pie: Creatures you control get +2/+0 until end of turn.
Sacrifice Flour and Sugar: Return Pie from your graveyard to your hand.
PoisonB
Artifact- Food (C)
Cycling 2B
Flash
When a player discards or sacrifices another Food card, that player loses 2 life. 3B, Sacrifice Poisoin: Target creature gets -2/-2 until end of turn.
Fish1U
Artifact Creature- Fish Food (C)
Cycling 2
Sacrifice Fish: Add C and scry 1.
Sacrifice Fish and Flour: Add CC and scry 2.
2/1
Jovial Chef2W
Creature- Human (C)
Cycling 2W
When you sacrifice a Food card, put a +1/+1 counter on Jovial Chef.
2/3
Corpulent Courier4G
Creature- Orc (C)
Cycling 1G
When you discard a Food card, put a +1/+1 counter on Corpulent Courier. "My mum always told me to get a job by the food. My mum never told me wrong."
4/4
Venerable Farmers3G
Creature- Human (U)
Cycling 1G 1G, Exile a Food card from your graveyard: Search your library for a basic land card, reveal it, and put it into your hand. Shuffle your library.
2/4
Stern MillerW
Creature- Human (U)
Cycling 1W W,T: Create an artifact Food token named Flour.
Sacrifice 3 Flour artifacts: Prevent all combat damage that would be dealt this turn. "We'll need more if we're to survive the winter."
1/1
Goblin ChefR
Creature- Goblin (R)
Cycling 2R R,T: Return target Food artifact from your graveyard to your hand. T, Discard or sacrifice a Food card: Goblin Chef deals 1 damage to any target.
1/1
Of course you could get Poisonberry Pie back by sacrificing Flour, Sugar, and Poison. That was the inspiration for this whole mess.
I hope all clamoring for a visit to a Viking world are prepared for Marvel's Thor: the Set that will result. I am all for it, personally. A new fairytale block is also to my tastes.
I hope you're wrong about that. The Marvel interpretation is fine, but it's a very specific interpretation that leaves a lot out.
I'd be happy if this turned out to be a fairytale block.
Why are people saying Lorwyn? Faeries are all over the multiverse, almost as much as elves and goblins.
I wanna see Kaldheim too, but it's definitely coming. We must only wait.
Seeing the name, I instantly thought it seemed Arthurian.
Actually, a proper high fantasy setting with all the classic European tropes hasn't been done in a while. I can't think of a plane that is just Western European fantasy (though most of them have some noticeable influence from there). Giving it a zoomed in focus to a single kingdom/city/political struggle could help to alleviate some of the generic-ness that comes as baggage with the territory.
Valley of Primodials
Land (R)
Valley of Primordials enters the battlefield tapped.
Land creatures get +1/+1. T: Add C. 5: Target land becomes a 0/0 creature until end of turn, or until Valley of Primordials leaves the battlefield. Life did not begin with animals, nor will it end that way.
IIW: Return to Khans of Tarkir (because Narset stepped out of the timeline and restored it to how it was supposed to be, or some equally convenient plot device).
Hello all. I've been pretty active on the main cube forum, and I'm now building a smaller peasant (or mostly peasant) cube that'll be more portable than my beloved monstrosity. (Design perimeters: I'm tentatively going for 540 cards, and I intend to build it from non-valuable cards that I already own extra copies of, with a few cheap but necessary exceptions.)
I want to make a graveyard subtheme of a similar size across all five colors. Most of the colors are easy, but white is a little harder. I instantly set aside Oketra's Attendant because I love that card, and I'm pretty sure I have an extra Resurrection and maybe even a Breath of Life laying around. Apostle of Purifying Light seems like a good idea, though I don't have one. What are some good white cards that love the graveyard?
Everyone: STOP TRYING TO WIN THE CULTURE WAR BY POSTING ON THE INTERNET!!!
No matter how smart and compelling your post/ article seems to you, it is not going to change hearts and minds. None of us had ever heard of either of these two people before this nonsense: it is just an excuse to rehash a bigger issue that will never be resolved by making posts and counter-posts on message boards. (Yes, I know saying that here is hypocritical.)
It's like people don't even know that Anointed Procession will be eight bucks in five years. How is it this kind of card always follows this pattern? It seems investors would have destroyed that easy plunder by over-exploiting it.
Not that I mind. I'm happy when cards are cheap, and easily available. Order now for your casual fun purposes, or you'll end up paying way more for the same card. In the mean time, almost every other card in the set will tank in value. Business as usual.
Across the river lie Leonin lands. They aren't fond of non-catfolk, and you've heard of traps along the roads. You'll have to either sneak through the hinterlands (with evasion) or you'll have to find a way to either endure, predict, disarm, or avoid two Leonin Bladetraps (for example, vigilance could allow you to avoid them-- because you are vigilant). Perhaps after recovering from the desert you might be able to survive such an onslaught, but any creature too large will attract unwanted attention. Any character with power or toughness 5 or greater will also be attacked by a Blade of the Sixth Pride unless they have evasion that stops such a card from blocking them. Anyone with power or toughness 8 or higher, and anyone with flying will also be attacked by two Leonin Skyhunters.
At one point you come to a bridge, and are stopped by a pair of Trestle Trolls. They say they will attack you unless you are clever enough to answer their riddle (scry or draw one or more cards in anyway). They are also jealous, so if you give something to one of them (a positive effect) they'll both become distracted, but if you try to sneak past one, the other will spot you, follow you, and attack you even if you have evasion. If you are able to incapacitate only one (tapping, bouncing, destroying or some such), the other will again attack you.
Finally if you made it this far, you will be observed by a Vampire Nighthawk. He doesn't attack, but he watches you. You feel that you may meet him again, and the thought fills you with dread.
Rather than going on an adventure and learning new skills, you can work either in the forge, study in the library, or remain with your family and friends. If you work in the forge, you will forge for yourself a piece of equipment made to serve you loyally. If you study in the library with the great enchanters, you will weave an aura to make yourself more powerful. If you spend your time among friends and loved ones, you will gain no glory and no respect among the rich and powerful, but you will gain a lifelong companion.
The end result of all three is mostly the same. You must design a card (an equipment, an aura, or a creature) to pair with your own card. You will also add an ability to your card that cares specifically about that card in any way. (like Nazahn, Revered Bladesmith and Hammer of Nazahn, Arachnus Spinner and Arachnus Web, or Brothers Yamazaki) This bonus card will be considered as part of your overall design at the end of the game, just like Nissa's Chosen is part of Nissa Revane's design.
If your character is strong enough to get through one of the challenges without any adjustments, you should still make some modification to your character that makes sense with the path you chose.
Note: Smiles the Skeleton is the only nonliving character, and therefore naturally avoids some of the hazards: the deserts, the Heartstopper, and the mosquitoes won't harm Smiles. Edit: Moppe is an artifact, so is also immune to the Heartstopper and the mosquitoes, but not the deserts. Sand is bad for gears.
Note #2: I didn't specify what was at the end of your journey through the wilderness/ desert because you all clearly have entirely different motivations. The demon avatar doesn't want the same things as the artifact gnome, the monks, or the skeleton. If you want to specify character motivation overall, or just the reason for this journey, be my guest. It's not required though.
The site is not closing. Somebody bought it. mtgnexus exists too now.
And Seb McKinnon saved MTG art from a world of singular mediocrity. That's a bit of an exaggeration, but the sentiment is true. Every time one of his images comes out, it is stunning. There is nobody else like that in Magic right now (which is more the fault of the art direction than anything).
Looks like people are rehashing the same dumb argument again. Good job guys. Never gets old. Anytime I see the letters SJW, I just scroll on by.
The fifth and final phase will be judgement of the final card's design and balance. If the card has become overpowered, they will be stripped of their legendary status, and given a mana cost more befitting their abilities. If they are deemed balanced and of worthy design, they will be extolled as true legends, and immortalized in the Legendary Hall.
Phase One Character 3G
Creature- Centaur Warrior
3/2
Phase 2 challenge: As you travel, you are attacked by a fearsome 3/3 horror, and you must defend yourself.
Phase Two Character 3G
Creature- Centaur Warrior
When ~ blocks or becomes blocked, it gets +1/+2 until end of turn.
3/2
You can also alter an ability instead of adding one. For example, I could have just made it a 3/4. Additionally I could change it in a later phase so that now I get +2/+2 and trample instead of just +1/+2. If it makes flavor sense, you can tweak your creature type, card name, and flavor text in any phase.
For the first phase all you need to do is make a card with the following limitations:
- It must be a legendary creature.
- It must be vanilla or french vanilla. You may have ONE simple keyword ability to start
- It should have plenty of room to gain abilities without becoming broken. Somewhere around the power level of Ancient Carp or Gray Ogre seems about right.
- Your card must be able to survive the encounter it had with an angry 1/1 rat.
That could be Rowan, but both she and the woman in the new art are pretty generic looking, so that's not really confirmation.Scratch that: the swords are the same, which means that it is almost certainly her.
Artifact (U)
Poisonberry Pie enters the battlefield with four -1/-1 counters on it.
When a creature deals combat damage to you, move a -1/-1 counter from Poisonberry Pie onto that creature.
When Poisonberry Pie has no -1/-1 counters on it, sacrifice it.
"Boysenberry! My favorite!"
Flour 0
Artifact- Food
Cycling 1
Sugar 0
Artifact- Food (C)
Cycling 2
Sacrifice Sugar: Gain 2 life.
Sacrifice Sugar and Flour: Gain 7 life.
Meat G
Artifact- Food (C)
Cycling 1G
Sacrifice Meat: Put a +1/+1 counter on target creature. That creature gains trample until end of turn.
Sacrifice Meat and Flour: Put 2 +1/+1 counters on target creature. That creature gains trample and haste until end of turn.
Bread W
Artifact- Food (C)
Cycling W
Sacrifice Bread: target creature gets +0/+2 and vigilance until end of turn. Untap that creature.
Sacrifice Flour: Return Bread from your graveyard to your hand.
Pie 2R
Artifact- Food (C)
Cycling 1R
R: Sacrifice Pie: Creatures you control get +2/+0 until end of turn.
Sacrifice Flour and Sugar: Return Pie from your graveyard to your hand.
Poison B
Artifact- Food (C)
Cycling 2B
Flash
When a player discards or sacrifices another Food card, that player loses 2 life.
3B, Sacrifice Poisoin: Target creature gets -2/-2 until end of turn.
Fish 1U
Artifact Creature- Fish Food (C)
Cycling 2
Sacrifice Fish: Add C and scry 1.
Sacrifice Fish and Flour: Add CC and scry 2.
2/1
Jovial Chef 2W
Creature- Human (C)
Cycling 2W
When you sacrifice a Food card, put a +1/+1 counter on Jovial Chef.
2/3
Corpulent Courier 4G
Creature- Orc (C)
Cycling 1G
When you discard a Food card, put a +1/+1 counter on Corpulent Courier.
"My mum always told me to get a job by the food. My mum never told me wrong."
4/4
Venerable Farmers 3G
Creature- Human (U)
Cycling 1G
1G, Exile a Food card from your graveyard: Search your library for a basic land card, reveal it, and put it into your hand. Shuffle your library.
2/4
Stern Miller W
Creature- Human (U)
Cycling 1W
W,T: Create an artifact Food token named Flour.
Sacrifice 3 Flour artifacts: Prevent all combat damage that would be dealt this turn.
"We'll need more if we're to survive the winter."
1/1
Goblin Chef R
Creature- Goblin (R)
Cycling 2R
R,T: Return target Food artifact from your graveyard to your hand.
T, Discard or sacrifice a Food card: Goblin Chef deals 1 damage to any target.
1/1
Of course you could get Poisonberry Pie back by sacrificing Flour, Sugar, and Poison. That was the inspiration for this whole mess.
IIW: Nonblack Horrors, Nightmares, or Demons
I hope you're wrong about that. The Marvel interpretation is fine, but it's a very specific interpretation that leaves a lot out.
I'd be happy if this turned out to be a fairytale block.
I wanna see Kaldheim too, but it's definitely coming. We must only wait.
Seeing the name, I instantly thought it seemed Arthurian.
Actually, a proper high fantasy setting with all the classic European tropes hasn't been done in a while. I can't think of a plane that is just Western European fantasy (though most of them have some noticeable influence from there). Giving it a zoomed in focus to a single kingdom/city/political struggle could help to alleviate some of the generic-ness that comes as baggage with the territory.
Land (R)
Valley of Primordials enters the battlefield tapped.
Land creatures get +1/+1.
T: Add C.
5: Target land becomes a 0/0 creature until end of turn, or until Valley of Primordials leaves the battlefield.
Life did not begin with animals, nor will it end that way.
IIW: Return to Khans of Tarkir (because Narset stepped out of the timeline and restored it to how it was supposed to be, or some equally convenient plot device).
I want to make a graveyard subtheme of a similar size across all five colors. Most of the colors are easy, but white is a little harder. I instantly set aside Oketra's Attendant because I love that card, and I'm pretty sure I have an extra Resurrection and maybe even a Breath of Life laying around. Apostle of Purifying Light seems like a good idea, though I don't have one. What are some good white cards that love the graveyard?
Plentiful Harvest2GG
Sorcery
Add GG
Draw a card.
Gain 3