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I've been assigned the RG and WU archetypes to design. This page will present them and keep track of my progress.
Last updated on 7/17.
Status: assignment #2 done. See the notes at the end of each archetype.
R/G: Ramp/fight/Beast tribal with predator and ferocious.
This deck wants to spend the first few turns of the game developing the board with a little ramp and mana creatures. Then, in the mid game, it wants to cast big Beasts one or two turns earlier than it normally would, and use them to clear the way through fighting (which triggers predator, that makes them bigger, thus even better for fighting some more). Finally, when the way is clear enough, the same Beasts go for the opponent's head, while taking advantage of a few tribal interactions. The Beasts are also very good at turning on ferocious, which will be on some cards this archetype can use.
COMMONS
Anger of the Beast 4R
Instant (C)
Target creature you control on the battlefield deals damage equal to its power to target creature. If the first creature is a Beast, it also deals that much damage to the other creature’s controller.
Obviously inspired by Soul's Fire, it's meant to take advantage of the size that this deck's creatures will reach thanks to predator to dispose of opposing creatures and free the way in a way that's similar to fight. In fact, in the end it might just be better to use fight here instead, even if I'm using it already on more cards than normal (but as it's supposed to be a subtheme of the set it should be fine). The Beast bonus obviously plays into the Beast tribal synergy.
Instigator Pest 3R
Creature — Insect (U)
When Instigator Pest enters the battlefield, you may have target creature you control fight another target creature. (Each deals damage equal to its power to the other.)
A single sting is enough for a sleeping beast to suddenly wake up and fight.
2/2
I wanted to put fight on a creature and this is what I came up with. It doesn't fight itself because I meant the ideal gameplay to be: cast a predator, then cast this and have the predator (and not the pest) fight another creature, so that the predator will get the counter at end of turn even if it doesn't attack or block.
7/17: pushed to uncommon. This will be substituted by an additional common.
Kreksor Lion 1R
Creature — Cat (C)
First strike
Predator (At the beginning of each end step, if this creature dealt damage this turn, put a +1/+1 counter on it.)
It made its lair in those glowing tunnels reaching the Kreksor Mountains from below.
1/1
I wanted a red predator creature with high power and low toughness, and here it is. I thought the tension between predator, encouraging you to attack, and its low toughness, discouraging you instead, might be interesting.
7/17: changed completely, from 3/1 predator to 1/1 first strike predator. Hopefully this is fine at two mana, if not it can be pushed to three.
Tunnel Predator 3R
Creature — Beast (C)
Haste
Predator (At the beginning of each end step, if this creature dealt damage this turn, put a +1/+1 counter on it.)
Its diet based on glowing fungi gives it an unnatural energy.
2/2
Haste is another keyword that I thought to pair nicely with predator, so I made this.
7/11: changed cost from 1RR to 3R.
Underground Escape 1R
Sorcery (C)
Target creature can’t block this turn.
Ferocious — If you control a creature with power 4 or greater, instead creatures your opponents control can’t block this turn.
Creatures living in the Cindersprout Tunnels instinctively know that the most efficient way to escape predators is underneath.
This came up because I wanted a red card with ferocious (which I hadn't used yet in red), and the flavor of the tunnels made me think of this. I love the flavor here by the way: if you know the predator is waiting for you on the ground, just pass underneath!
Cindersprout Beast 2G
Creature — Beast (C)
Predator (At the beginning of each end step, if this creature dealt damage this turn, put a +1/+1 counter on it.)
The beasts living near the Tunnels enter them only for food. If they have a prey, they bring it there to eat it safely. If their hunt was unsuccessful, they can still eat some glowing fungi.
2/2
I wanted a generic French vanilla predator, and here it is. I would have liked to cost this as a bear, but the potential of growing turn after turn kept me from doing so.
Glowing Fungus G
Creature — Fungus (C)
T: Add R or G to your mana pool.
In the Cindersprout Tunnels, natural fungi can be found that are glowing because of all the mana and geothermal energy they absorb. All forms of life in the Tunnels have adapted to use them as their primary food source.
0/1
This is a must have flavorfully. Mechanically, it's halfway between Druid of the Anima and Elvish Mystic. It's one of the two ramp cards I included in the archetype.
Pack Beast 4G
Creature — Beast (C)
When Pack Beast enters the battlefield, if you control another Beast, put a +1/+1 counter on Pack Beast.
Predator (At the beginning of each end step, if this creature dealt damage this turn, put a +1/+1 counter on it.)
3/3
This plays the double role of a predator and a useful card in Beast tribal. This being a 3/3 is purely intentional: if you have another Beast you immediately turn on Ferocious, but otherwise you'll have to wait until the first counter from predator. This difference is the main reason this card exists.
Spiked Baloth 3G
Creature — Beast (C)
Trample
Its spikes are glowing as the fungi it eats, and they inadvertently warn its preys when it gets closer to them.
4/2
I wanted at least one reprint and I found it in this (from M13): simple, generic flavor that works on Extinctia, turns on ferocious, it's a Beast. What can I ask more? The flavor text is new and it's mine.
Territory Marking 1G
Sorcery (C)
Search your library for a basic land card and put that card onto the battlefield tapped. Then shuffle your library.
Ferocious — If you control a creature with power 4 or greater, untap that land.
Here is the second ramp card. I had yet to use ferocious on a green card, and so I looked on Gatherer searching for effects ferocious didn't have in KTK block. I found that no ramp card with ferocious exists, and I wanted another one to go with the Fungus. Add ferocious + ramp and you've got this. This is a card that has slightly different uses in the early and late game. In the early game, it's just a Rampant Growth. In the late game, you can take advantage of one additional mana.
I don't think I have anything particularly overpowered here, but if there is there should be nothing that can't be solved adjusting the costs. In fact, I decided to change the cost of the haste/predator creature from 1RR to 3R because of this.
MSE renders here. (old versions)
Further notes
7/17: need to come up with a new red common to make up for the Pest and an additional card for the second assignment. EDIT: done.
In substitution of the Pest
In Ryder's recap, I see that tokens are completely missing both in red and green. Might this card fill that niche, while also giving Beast tribal a new toy to play with?
Beast’s Hideout 3R
Sorcery (C)
Put a green 3/3 Beast creature token with haste onto the battlefield.
Beasts are rarely the prey, but when they are, the rocks of the Cindersprout Tunnels give them a perfect place to hide.
For the second assignment
For RG, I realized that bumping the Pest up to uncommon means I no longer have any fight effects at common. Thus I propose this variation on Hunt the Weak and Savage Punch as my additional card:
Feral Hunt 2G
Sorcery (C)
Target creature you control gets +1/+1 until end of turn. Then that creature fights target creature you don’t control. (Each deals damage equal to its power to the other.)
Raw — If only green mana was spent to cast Feral Hunt, the creature you control also gains indestructible until end of turn before it fights.
W/U: Control with flying and Big Butt Combo. Flying aggro as secondary archetype.
This deck wants to use creatures with high toughness to stabilize the board, then win with some kind of build-around-me enchantment that takes advantage of that high toughness (my current idea is using an ability similar to Doran, the Siege Tower's one: creatures you control assign combat damage equal to their toughness rather than their power). Some of those high toughness creatures will be fliers, so that when the Doran-like enchantment kicks in they can transform into very good evasive finishers. Some of the fliers will be smaller though, and those should be able to play a double role: help stabilize the board in the early game for the control archetype while also enabling a possible aggro variant for when you don't open the Doran-like enchantment or enough high toughness creatures to take advantage of it.
COMMONS
Mutating Bird 2W
Creature — Bird Mutant (C)
Adaptive 1 (At the beginning of your upkeep, if this creature has no +1/+1 counters on it, you may put a +1/+1 counters on it. Otherwise, you may remove all +1/+1 counters from it.)
Mutating Bird has flying as long as it has no +1/+1 counters on it.
2/2
I just liked this enough from my mechanics page, and I thought that it might work here. I think it will be the only card with adaptive I'm going to use, and I figured that it shouldn't be a problem, also because this card will overlap with the GW archetype, by chance based right on adaptive.
7/12: Added the Mutant subtype.
7/17: Looks like I can keep this and the Variable Drake gets changed. Either way is fine to me. For now this stands.
Sun Pegasus 1W
Creature — Pegasus (C)
Flying
2W: Sun Pegasus gains vigilance until end of turn.
The sun can’t even melt the ice of the Frostflat Ice Sheets, but it still sends its envoys nonetheless.
2/1
7/17: Too much lifegain, so this changed from a 2/1 flying etb, gain 1 life to 2/1 flying 2W: this gains vigilance uet.
Vaporkin 1U
Creature — Elemental (C)
Flying
Vaporkin can block only creatures with flying.
The cold in the Frostflat Ice Sheets is so intense that the vapor from the waterfalls condenses immediately, forming elementals capable of reaching the highest skies with their vapor arms.
2/1
These are meant to be played mostly by the more aggro version. The Pegasus is strictly better than Stormfront Pegasus, but I don't think that it's a problem. If it is, the cost can change to WW. The point of it is being a two-mana 2/1 that has a little use in the control version too (it can block and gain you a little life there). Welkin Tern was included because I was accidentally redesigning it. Thinking about what kind of ability could make sense for an aggro two-mana 2/1 in blue, I thought of high flying and I wrote it, but then I thought "Didn't I already see this somewhere?", I went to check Gatherer and I found this, so I included it. This was originally Welkin Tern, but now it's Vaporkin to avoid having too many Birds when such a tribal interaction is not supposed to be there.
Flight Companion 2W
Creature — Bird (C)
Flight Companion has flying as long as you control another creature with flying.
The Frostflat Ice Sheets are so cold that it never flies alone. It just needs the warmth of another body near its own to survive.
2/3
Sky-Watching Dolphin 2U
Creature — Fish (C)
Sky-Watching Dolphin enters the battlefield with a +1/+1 counter on it if you control a creature with flying.
Its dream has always been to fly like a bird. Each time it sees birds migrating through the Frostflat sky, it tries to join them by jumping out of the water as high as it can.
2/1
These are meant to be halfway between the aggro and control versions. Something both could play. The former should be easy enough to play in the aggro version (you should already have a flying creature when you cast this there) and the fact that it has a higher toughness than power should appeal to the control version more. The same goes for the latter in the aggro version, while the control version can still use it to block something and gain time to arrive to the following.
Majestic Eagle 3W
Creature — Bird (C)
Flying
Its resilience to predators and the cold environment makes it the undisputed king of the Frostflat sky.
1/5
Frostflat Drake 4U
Creature — Drake (C)
Flying
When Frostflat Drake enters the battlefield, draw a card.
The trajectories of drakes and other fliers in the Frostflat sky are highlighted by the dancing mana trails they leave behind themselves.
1/4
These are meant to be played by the control version and to interact heavily with the uncommon Doran-like enchantment (which I think I will cost at 4W). The Eagle is a functional reprint of Tormented Angel, because the Angel creature type doesn't really make sense on Extinctia.
Blinded by the Sun 1W
Enchantment — Aura (C)
Enchant creature
Enchanted creature can’t attack or block.
When Blinded by the Sun enters the battlefield, if you control a creature with flying, you gain 1 life.
Birds are the first to catch the sun rays, which is a blessing and a curse at the same time.
The control version will need some removal, and that's why this is in. This is a Pacifism variant with a trigger that plays in the archetype's theme. The lifegain is very small and also conditional, so I think it still can cost 1W. As with the Pegasus, if being strictly better than Pacifism proves a problem, we can make this cost WW or 2W (even though there are already other two white cards at common costing 2W here).
7/17: Urge to Graze is getting changed, so I'll keep this.
Counterflight 1U
Instant (C)
Counter target spell if you control a creature with flying.
The Frostflat Ice Sheets are a quite inhospitable environment, both because of the very low temperature and of its highly territorial birds, that never let strangers pass through their territory unpunished.
Spell Freezing 2U
Instant (C)
Counter target spell unless its controller pays 2.
Raw — If only blue mana was spent to cast Spell Freezing, counter that spell instead.
The summoned bird was hit by a freezing ray even before it was completely formed.
This are just two counterspells I thought of, as a control deck will need them. In the first one I was trying to make a conditional counterspell with a restriction connected specifically to this archetype, in the second one I had the idea of making a Mana Leak that turned into a Cancel with raw. It sounded an interesting idea to me, so I made it. I costed it three mana because I didn't want it to be Counterspell if cast with raw.
7/17: United this and the Blast in a single card. The Blast should leave now.
I don't think I have anything particularly overpowered here, but if there is there should be nothing that can't be solved adjusting the costs.
MSE renders here. (old versions)
Further notes
7/17: need to come up with a new additional card for the second assignment. EDIT: done.
For WU, I noticed we're pretty covered in blue, while we're missing quite some things in white, so I wanted to make a white card trying to hit something we haven't already done. Then I thought we're very light on combat tricks, if we have any. So I thought to make a combat trick that could interact with my WU archetype based on flying, and here it is. Inspired by Seize the Initiative and Aerial Maneuver.
Enlarging Claws 1W
Instant (C)
Target creature gets +1/+1 and gains first strike until end of turn. If that creature has flying, it gets an additional +1/+1 until end of turn.
When you're dealing with Frostflat birds of prey, you realize that claws alone can hurt, but claws and beaks hurt more.
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