Shortwing Griffin - Decreased activated ability cost by 1.
Lithomancer's Resolve - One of the common trends I've heard in people's experiences of feeling "villainous" in magic is using cards in unorthodox ways. With that in mind, I suppose opening it up to saving an opponent's/teammate's creature couldn't hurt.
Kor Swordsman - Agreed. One of my recurring weaknesses is designing interesting rares. Changed to "As long as rw01 Kor Swordsman is equipped, prevent all damage that would be dealt to it."
Penitence - Changed to the slightly less abusive "Whenever one or more creatures deals damage to you, exile one of those creatures until Penitence leaves the battlefield."
Only Metal Remains - Changed placeholder name to "All is Rust".
Resurrection Trap - Nice! Renamed to Sunbreak Trap, using Second Sunrise for permanents as the spell effect. Still musing on what the trap condition should change to.
Nahiri - Discard is very far out of white's color pie, but as a 'walker ultimate I'm okay with having a color break to reference an iconic card.
A complete draft of the set is up on Planesculptors here! If anyone is interested in providing feedback it'd be very appreciated. A good way to get a bite-sized chunk of cards to review is to generate a sealed pool using the site's "Host event" functionality. You've all been very helpful so far, and I hope to get a chance to play with the set soon.
The concept doesn't have strong appeal to me as a player, but I appreciate that it probably does to a lot of others.
I think the best implementation is uncommon/rare only, game-changing cards that start in the command zone that have a difficult condition to meet to be put either into hand or top N cards of library (choose one implementation during development). Optionally other cards can cheat them into your library. I'd start trying it at three from the top and go from there. Maybe each card sets it's own depth. Forbidden super type seems necessary.
Personally I'd need the mechanic to be a *perfect* flavor fit to justify actually implementing it. MAYBE in a Viking set where Ragnarok is impending, but it's still not a home run to me. Of course testing could easily change my mind.
Example:
Time Jaunt1U
Forbidden Sorcery (R) (Forbidden cards can't start the game in your deck. You may start the game with up to five Forbidden cards in your command zone.)
Whenever you take an extra turn, put Time Jaunt into your library second from the top.
Take an extra turn after this one.
I have a Spell Queller and a Ulamog's Nullifier on the battlefield. There is a spell eg Tireless Tracker exiled by the Spell Queller. My opponent casts a spell eg Torrential Gearhulk, and I respond by casting Displace targeting my Spell Queller and my Ulamog's Nullifer. When they enter the battlefield, assuming my opponent has another card exiled, will I have an opportunity to "process" the Tireless Tracker with the Nullifer's ETB ability before the Spell Queller's delayed trigger allows the Tracker to be cast?
Updated the planesculptors file with some new uncommon and rare additions and would love feedback if anyone feels so inclined. So far I haven't made the change to single-face walkers official yet, but I'm still hammering out the details on what they'll look like.
They haven't had an episode in several months now, and talking with both of them it seems like they don't have the time to focus on it in a reliable way. However, they've expressed interest in being guests.
I have a format in mind, but I'm asking moreso to gauge what the audience wants. If I'm way off-base on what listeners want to hear, I'd rather know right away.
That format I have in mind by the way: Each episode is around an hour in length. The first half of the episode is an interview/showcase for the guest designer; the second half we have a discussion about a topic the guest designer is passionate about. This allows listeners to have an hour-long podcast if they want, but also provides a good way for listeners to break each episode into two mini-podcasts if they so desire.
If a custom magic podcast existed again, what would you want to see out of it? What kinds of topics, format, length, etc would appeal to you as a listener? Would you be interested in having guests as a regular thing, or as more of a special feature? Are you the type of designer that would want to be a guest on a custom magic podcast?
Feel free to post here or private message me if you're a lurker/not comfortable posting in the main thread. I'm also asking in several other custom magic arenas, so you can send me a message on reddit or discord if those are more your speed. My username is Piar in all those locations.
I had a showerthought this morning that Vehicles could provide a way for the Tribal card type to stand on its own (though I still firmly believe it should've been a supertype if anything).
Melvin the Giant1RR
Tribal - Giant (R) (This card has a frame similar to vehicles.)
Melvin the Giant is a creature as long as you control two or more other Giants. "Vorthos will not be happy about this."
5/5
Seems a pretty reasonable and good ability word for Rakdos. Pretty reminiscent of Bloodthirst which was originally Gruul - but was shifted into Rakdos when it came back in its core set. I think all the sample cards look good too. I'd like to see what more pushed (higher rarity) abilities could be done.
I'm seriously considering not having flipwalkers since they don't accurately fit the story the set is trying to tell. Story-driven design is rough! Some of the walkers are nice in that I can just keep their backsides fairly intact. Others I need to do more rework on. I'm not certain the flipwalkers are out, but I'd like to see some reactions to these alternatives.
Nahiri1WW
Planeswalker
[+1]: Create a colorless artifact Equipment token with "Equipped creature gets +1/+1." and "Equip 1".
[-2]: Search your library for an Equipment or Aura card, reveal it, and put it on top of your library. (Shuffle your library after it's searched.)
[-6]: Each player sacrifices lands until they control the same number of lands as the player who controls the fewest lands. Players discard cards and sacrifice creatures the same way.
[3]
Tezzeret2UU
Planeswalker
[+1]: Tap or untap target permanent. It is an artifact in addition to its other types. (This effect lasts indefinitely.)
[-2]: Draw three cards, then discard two cards unless you discard an artifact card.
[-8]: You get an emblem with "Tap an untapped artifact you control: Tap target permanent."
[5]
Ashiok2BB
Planeswalker
[+1]: Exile the top card of each player's library. You may play a card exiled by Ashiok.
[-1]: Each opponent reveals his or her hand. Exile a card revealed this way.
[-6]: You get an emblem with "Creatures you control have menace." and "Whenever a creature you control deals combat damage to an opponent, that player sacrifices a permanent."
[4]
TibaltRR
Planeswalker
[+1]: Tibalt deals 1 damage to each player.
[-1]: Untap target permanent an opponent controls at random. You gain control of it until end of turn. It gains haste until end of turn.
[-X]: Discard your hand, then draw X cards and add X R to your mana pool.
[2]
Garruk3GG
Planeswalker
[+1]: Untap up to one target creature. It must block this turn if able.
[-2]: Create a 4/4 green Beast creature token with trample.
[-9]: You get an emblem with "Whenever a creature dies, draw cards equal to its power and gain life equal to its toughness."
[6]
You make an excellent point SecretInfiltrator - the purpose of these story moments has to be different from what we saw in Origins. There the purpose was to show when the character's sparks triggered. Here it's more relevant when they crossed the line into villainhood. That's what these cards should represent.
Some of them are already in that space, but even if Nahiri sparks because of love, that isn't when she becomes a villain. That isn't the story I should be focused on telling. Thank you for reminding me of that.
The story moment behind Caught Red Handed is when Tibalt is still on Innistrad, when a group of Cathars barges into Tibalt's lab/lair, finding him torturing captives and devils cackling in the background. It's part of why the Tibalt card's flip condition is when he's blocked, too. I could definitely see changing things up though and using Caught Red Handed as a Lorado card and giving Tibalt's story moment a Tibalt name/effect.
Shortwing Griffin - Decreased activated ability cost by 1.
Lithomancer's Resolve - One of the common trends I've heard in people's experiences of feeling "villainous" in magic is using cards in unorthodox ways. With that in mind, I suppose opening it up to saving an opponent's/teammate's creature couldn't hurt.
Ozuawe Innocent - Cost changed to 1WW.
Emeria Flock - Cost changed to 3W. (Retreat to Emeria)
Kor Swordsman - Agreed. One of my recurring weaknesses is designing interesting rares. Changed to "As long as rw01 Kor Swordsman is equipped, prevent all damage that would be dealt to it."
Penitence - Changed to the slightly less abusive "Whenever one or more creatures deals damage to you, exile one of those creatures until Penitence leaves the battlefield."
Only Metal Remains - Changed placeholder name to "All is Rust".
Resurrection Trap - Nice! Renamed to Sunbreak Trap, using Second Sunrise for permanents as the spell effect. Still musing on what the trap condition should change to.
Nahiri - Discard is very far out of white's color pie, but as a 'walker ultimate I'm okay with having a color break to reference an iconic card.
I think the best implementation is uncommon/rare only, game-changing cards that start in the command zone that have a difficult condition to meet to be put either into hand or top N cards of library (choose one implementation during development). Optionally other cards can cheat them into your library. I'd start trying it at three from the top and go from there. Maybe each card sets it's own depth. Forbidden super type seems necessary.
Personally I'd need the mechanic to be a *perfect* flavor fit to justify actually implementing it. MAYBE in a Viking set where Ragnarok is impending, but it's still not a home run to me. Of course testing could easily change my mind.
Example:
Time Jaunt 1U
Forbidden Sorcery (R)
(Forbidden cards can't start the game in your deck. You may start the game with up to five Forbidden cards in your command zone.)
Whenever you take an extra turn, put Time Jaunt into your library second from the top.
Take an extra turn after this one.
That format I have in mind by the way: Each episode is around an hour in length. The first half of the episode is an interview/showcase for the guest designer; the second half we have a discussion about a topic the guest designer is passionate about. This allows listeners to have an hour-long podcast if they want, but also provides a good way for listeners to break each episode into two mini-podcasts if they so desire.
Feel free to post here or private message me if you're a lurker/not comfortable posting in the main thread. I'm also asking in several other custom magic arenas, so you can send me a message on reddit or discord if those are more your speed. My username is Piar in all those locations.
Melvin the Giant 1RR
Tribal - Giant (R)
(This card has a frame similar to vehicles.)
Melvin the Giant is a creature as long as you control two or more other Giants.
"Vorthos will not be happy about this."
5/5
Nahiri 1WW
Planeswalker
[+1]: Create a colorless artifact Equipment token with "Equipped creature gets +1/+1." and "Equip 1".
[-2]: Search your library for an Equipment or Aura card, reveal it, and put it on top of your library. (Shuffle your library after it's searched.)
[-6]: Each player sacrifices lands until they control the same number of lands as the player who controls the fewest lands. Players discard cards and sacrifice creatures the same way.
[3]
Tezzeret 2UU
Planeswalker
[+1]: Tap or untap target permanent. It is an artifact in addition to its other types. (This effect lasts indefinitely.)
[-2]: Draw three cards, then discard two cards unless you discard an artifact card.
[-8]: You get an emblem with "Tap an untapped artifact you control: Tap target permanent."
[5]
Ashiok 2BB
Planeswalker
[+1]: Exile the top card of each player's library. You may play a card exiled by Ashiok.
[-1]: Each opponent reveals his or her hand. Exile a card revealed this way.
[-6]: You get an emblem with "Creatures you control have menace." and "Whenever a creature you control deals combat damage to an opponent, that player sacrifices a permanent."
[4]
Tibalt RR
Planeswalker
[+1]: Tibalt deals 1 damage to each player.
[-1]: Untap target permanent an opponent controls at random. You gain control of it until end of turn. It gains haste until end of turn.
[-X]: Discard your hand, then draw X cards and add X R to your mana pool.
[2]
Garruk 3GG
Planeswalker
[+1]: Untap up to one target creature. It must block this turn if able.
[-2]: Create a 4/4 green Beast creature token with trample.
[-9]: You get an emblem with "Whenever a creature dies, draw cards equal to its power and gain life equal to its toughness."
[6]
Some of them are already in that space, but even if Nahiri sparks because of love, that isn't when she becomes a villain. That isn't the story I should be focused on telling. Thank you for reminding me of that.