#Custom Magic Cards

[gregor-never-leaves-the-house]

I have, including double-sided cards and tokens, illustrated 206 cards for my cube with custom Magic cards. I printed them, cut them, and put them in sleeves. There are 14 cards shown here, illustrated by other people that I covered. Some were illustrated by my niece and nephew and one by my own child.

Putting them next to one another really let it sink in why this took a year of work.

It feels so strange, this. It's not world changing, I would go so far as to say it's not even that important. I did this to have a fun day of magic with my friends and to try out if I can come up with working mechanics that are fun and don't break anything.

I am proud of myself. But after this, I feel kind of hollow. I have squeezed so much of myself into this. Into a project that will probably entertain 8 people for an afternoon. Afterward, it will probably fade into the background.

Strange how the time a creative process takes is in no way related to the time it takes to consume it.

[niuttuc]

Start your engines! Now that Aetherdrift has been out for a bit I thought it would be fun to ask around and see what sort of vehicle or mount Dancing-Hands, Arega, Jaspar, Ranek, Jibea and Madaya would have piloted if they have theoretically participated on the race?

Alright, that's a lot of people. So in addition to some descriptions and the card designs, I'll also have a rating for how close to reality this is, ranging from 0 (no part of this exists and it's pulled from some alternate reality), to 1 (the vehicle/mount exists, but they haven't heard of or wouldn't participate in any Ghirapur Grand Prix races), to 2 (they might actually have considered participating with that mount/vehicle). So, in the same order as in the ask...

Dancing-Hands

Reality Rating: 0 (this Vehicle doesn't exist, AND Dancing-Hands likely wouldn't participate in the race)

Dancing-Hands isn't exactly a racing type. The most likely way to get him there would be as part of efforts to support the Amonkhetu effort. But even there he'd likely not want to undermine their endeavor to show their own skills and abilities. This vehicle, the Psicycle, is one that would likely be born of Kamigawan tech, harnessing Dancing-Hands' powerful short-range telekinesis to power the entire vehicle. As a result, he'd likely be riding it fully laying down in a small cabin to have the engine as close to him as possible.

Arega

Reality Rating: 1 (the ?vehicle? exists, though I don't know if they were even aware of the Grand Prix)

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? Yes... And also a tree?

Arega recently designed and cultivated for themselves a bioship to travel the Space-y plane of Sicarius at their leisure. Of course, they're Simic, so the "ship" is a living organism, though not one that's typically independently aware. Arega doesn't quite ride or pilot it in conventional ways, since they can just inhabit it as their own body, just like they can most of their creations. But it is a ship since it was made to be able to transport their main body as they inhabit the ship... And potentially passengers! There are technically two nested organisms in the full ship, a personal craft that can only carry Arega (or one cramped passenger for a short time) depicted on the card here, and a much larger one that has actual room for up to two passengers as well as living amenities, production of fruit to feed them, and some manual controls.

Built to drift on aether currents or propel itself with wings that power it via photosynthesis, it's unclear how well it would fare in a race, and if it could keep up in speed. But Arega's inhabiting of it as a body would make it much more reactive and intuitive than any Vehicle or Mount/Rider combo.

Jaspar

Reality Rating: 1 (Jaspar can and does occasionally summon echoes as mounts, but wouldn't be interested in a race, nor would these echoes be very suited to one)

Jaspar can bring forth echoes of animals from parts of them, and he's been known to use antlers in the past. While those echoes are temporary until the life left in them is consumed by the magic, they can be pretty versatile, and it's not difficult to imagine Jaspar switching to a few different echoes along the length of the race. That is, if he cared any about all that. Or if they were fast enough to compete, they're mostly as fast as the animals they're summoned from the echoes of. Though they are tireless as long as they last.

Ranek

Reality Rating: 2 (I'm sure Ranek has built an extension to the Stormplate for speed at some point over the last couple centuries. And if he's not, he might if he heard of the race, could get there and thought it a fitting test. He did not actually participate in the race.)

Ranek already has his Stormplate, which is closer to a mech suit than a typical suit of armor. Given his tendency to create magical wonders, the Stormframe Sprinter is an extension to it built for speed and maneuverability. Likely able to shift the bipedal gait to a more effective quadrupedal one for bursts of acceleration. It would be a fearsome contestant in any race it entered, leaping to speeds on par with wheeled vehicles on the road but able of much more agility in rough terrain.

Ranek, who is fond of occasions to prove himself, might even have joined the Grand Prix... But he's currently desparked, mostly retired, and living back home on Kaldheim. He might not have heard of the race, or not in time, or maybe he simply didn't have a ready Omenpath to join it, or lacked a team... Whatever the reasons, he didn't show up for the event.

Jibea

Reality Rating: 0 (Any tech Jibea might have to help their gravity magic would be wearable, not a vehicle, this tech doesn't exist on their home plane anyway, and they'd be unlikely to want to participate in the Grand Prix, even if they might watch it)

A Gravity Slider is designed to help you maneuver while in freefall, and survive any collision or landing. Maximize and minimize terminal velocity both depending on what you want at any given moment. The idea is to redirect gravity into whatever direction you want to go and simply fall towards your objective. Different parts are also designed to minimize or maximize contact friction with any object that passes by (typically the ground). Using the mass of a plane and gravity as its propellant, no fuel is required besides the magic that shifts those forces, that usually comes from the pilot. Something Jibea would very much be able to do, along with using their magic to mess with nearby contestants (or their weaponry) that are NOT made to handle shifting gravity fields.

With that said, as was mentioned in the Reality Rating, this kind of tech doesn't exist on Jibea's home plane, and they certainly didn't have it custom made elsewhere either. They're not really a racer, and there isn't much of a point to participate in those races for them, so it remains very much in AU territory. They do value the display of it and of all these different techniques and technologies and have followed the Grand Prix when possible. They were keeping an eye on the Endriders in particular, sharing some of their plights.

Madaya

Reality Rating: 1 (The Mirage Machine may have existed, though it wasn't a racing Vehicle, and would have likely been sold off at some point. And Madaya isn't a racer)

Back in the days where she was a magician (as in, a stage magician), Madaya may have bought or commissioned the mirage machine from one of the many ambitious inventors on Avishkar. Both something to store her equipment and something capable of projecting room-spanning illusions for her to integrate into some of her more involved spectacles. Sadly, times became rough, she might have had to live off of her mirage machine for a bit, then when the situation became untenable, she likely had to sell it off years ago, before she hit rock bottom and sparked.

But, as an Avishkari girl, she of course is aware of the Ghirapur Grand Prix. Not a contestant herself though. One can imagine that while an illusion van is not really a racing vehicle, she'd be able to wreak quite the havoc on the road by making other racers veer off-course, crash into terrain or each other, or worse.

[talenlee]

Custom Magic: The Everythingamajig

Hey, have you heard me call a card an Everythingamajig? Yeah, this is about that. Here, lemme explain.

Warning: Wizards employees, this post contains unsolicited designs of custom magic cards.

The term while broad, is a way I refer to a particular kind of custom Magic card where the designer has made a card that will never not be useful. I don’t want to show you a specific example someone made because that seems like I’m trying to address a person rather than addressing a design pattern. Here then is an example probably inspired by someone but trying to not just replicate another person’s work:

This card protects itself, it supplies itself with more cards, and it makes those cards castable. For a knight deck, it’s an obvious inclusion since it both helps you cast them and draw them and it’s also a knight that enables the other knights you can cast. This isn’t to say this card is overpowered — after all, it’s just a 2/2 that attacks and blocks.

What I want to complain about here is that Syr Everythingamajig is a card that does everything on its own. It presents a question for what to put in the deck with it and then it answers that immediately: It wants knights. It obviously wants knights. It wants knights and then you want to attack with those knights and that’s all the card is for. It might have some interactions with other knights but by default, just putting knights on the field is what this card wants.

This isn’t even a pushed example! I’ve seen stuff like this that’s better.

Everythingamajigs aren’t overpowered. They aren’t a design sin, per se. What they are is, in my opinion, boring. A good way to consider a card an everythingamajig is if it does all three of the following:

Converts resources from one thing to another (colloquially called ‘engine’ cards)

Protects itself (ward, hexproof, and, if the card has an on-hit trigger, evasion abilities)

Accumulates more resources (such as drawing cards or creating tokens)

There are cards, real cards, that live in this space somewhat. It’s not quite like the Pack Rat problem as I describe it, where the card represents a first-order strategy that supplants almost all everything else you could be doing. It’s that no matter what you’re doing, an everythingamajig shows up and does something for every choice you could make after its arrival.

Modern Horizons is a space where Wizards are happy to print cards that are if not actual Everythingamajigs, certainly closer to it than I like. Cards like Ocelot Pride and Psychic Frog get close — the Pride enables you gaining life, it is made to be challenging to block, and it enables and improves the arrival of tokens. Psychic Frog is similar in that it both benefits from cards in the yard, can put cards in the yard, and protect itself in the process.

Now, note that none of these are themselves that Everythingamajiggy. These are cards where the designers of Magic: The Gathering have pushed the cards for competitive play, and that means they pack a lot of value in, but they don’t quite do everything. There are angles to attack these cards, because, again, an everythingamajig is not a broken card. It is not inherent to the form of the card that an everythingamajig is going to be overpowered or even polarising around itself when you play with it or around it. In some cases, an everythingamajig can be pretty innoccuous — the card Astral Slide was capable of behaving like an everythingamajig (once you built the whole deck around it), and it’s hardly a card that seems overwhelming now.

Alright, that’s the problem, how to fix it?

One thing that helps to fix everythingamajigs is to be mindful of space on the card. It’s easy to get lost in the sauce and keep adding to a card while you have free space to do so — but when you remember that keeping a font a legible size is important, you can focus on instead making it so each card does something interesting rather than needing it to do several different interesting things. This particular idea is, yes, building on a previous thing I’m habitually pointing out (the single most retyped sentence I have in my history on Reddit is, I’m sure, the phrase ‘the normal maximum number of lines of text on a card is nine’), but it doesn’t stop it from being true. If you focus on making a card that’s got a specific purpose and aim, then it’ll help you to stop making cards that try to make themselves desireable before they’re interesting.

This is something Wizards are really good at, by the way. There are a lot of cards at the mythic rarity that present a kind of high power, high prestige, oo-you-want-it kind of desireability (like look at all three versions of Trostani) but in the process the cards aren’t the kinds of cards that distort the game around them. If you have a deck which wants anthems, tokens, and doesn’t like theft, Trostani Discordant is some seashells-on-the-seashores really really want ’em, but it isn’t a card that goes into every deck that does one of all three of them.

A part of all of this that I think helps the most is to when you’re designing a card, consider the card’s purpose. Know what the card is for and know why it matters that it serves that purpose. Do you want a card that is used for aggressive attacking, or defending on controlling decks? Do you want a card that meets a need for a particular play experience? Or do you want a card that represents the flavour of a particular creature or person? These purposes are a place to start, but they also let you underscore what the most important thing about that purpose is.

Wanna see a time I think Wizards completely botched that?

Umezawa's Jitte was made with a purpose of being a big, impressive rare equipment when Wizards hadn’t really dialled that in. It’s a publically stated fact that the Jitte’s design is a mistake and there was something wrong with the costing or the imagined triggers, and the result being an oppressive card that every deck with creatures wanted to run is one part of that. Note that part of the problem was also that the Jitte was itself so good that it meant you wanted to run creatures to have Jitte swinging going on and the best decks of that format were concentrated around optimally making the Jitte work.

That is, the Jitte, an everythingamajig, was so good that it made it so you wanted to be the best everythingamajig deck.

Check it out on PRESS.exe to see it with images and links!

[azureazaleas]

DAY TWO: Learn from the Beyond

This is a fun little piece I cooked up a while back when companions first were released. It has since gotten a lot better. It counts your commander (and their partner, best friend, or background), your companion, any emblems you have, any attractions in your junkyard, your current Dungeon, and The Ring™ reminder card.

I considered costing it at 1U, but it would be far too powerful with incidental ring tempting and dungeon venturing, even in non-commander eternal formats. In commander, it is obviously far more powerful, easily netting upwards of 3-4 cards. I'm pretty pleased with it at 3 mana, it does need to be built around, and even then, it will just be a divination or worse part of the time.

[oilyrotpile]

Another WIP round of the Rain World/Magic: The Gathering custom card project.

Fixed up artist credit and created a set symbol. It's not very good, but I got tired of trying to figure out how to make Karma 10 into a set symbol and just stuck with what I first created - next time I'll definitely be making any symbols much thicker with the black and white outline.

Still having some trouble aligning the back with the front. I used regular bright-white paper for this, but the finished product will be on card stock so hopefully the colors won't be so pale.

There are more cards than this, with a set of 35 (I deeply regret making the set so large...), but these are the ones I got printed in color first.

Next time I post about this they should be in their finished state.

[franticbindings]

Older Custom Cards

Been thinking about Magic design again, much of my previous work is on tiny forums so I'm putting what can be recovered here. There are, uh, way more than I thought. These are all from at least 10 years ago and I didn't bother to exclude the ones that have been actually made since then.

Devouring Rite XBB Sorcery Target opponent loses X life. Then if one or more opponents has 0 or less life draw X cards.

Break Will 3UU Enchantment - Aura Enchant creature or player. If Break Will enchants a creature, you control enchanted creature. If Break Will enchants a player, that player's maximum hand size is reduced by 4.

Thoughttaker 1BB Creature - Specter Flying When Thoughttaker deals combat damage to a player, that play gets an emblem with "Your maximum hand size is reduced by 2". 2/4

Embody Spirit 2B Sorcery Manifest target creature card in your graveyard.

Return to Thought U Instant Choose one: -Draw a card -Return any number of target face down creatures you control to their owner's hands.

Dreamgate 7 Artifact Whenever a player would draw a card, that player manifests the top card of their library instead.

Birth Nightmare B Sorcery Target player reveals his or her hand. You choose a non-land card from it. That player manifests that card.

Ursa Major 1GW Creature - Bear Soldier Trample Other Martial creatures you control get +1/+1 and have trample.(Soldiers, Knights, Warriors, Scouts and Archers are Martial) 3/3

Wounded Pride WB Enchantment - Aura Enchant Creature Enchanted creature gets -2/-2 and can only attack and block alone.

Hemosage BB Creature - Vampire Warlock Ward - Pay 3 life. Whenever an opponent pays life, you may draw a card. If you do, lose one life. 2/1

Weathered Guardian 4 Artifact Creature - Construct Vigilance Weathered Guardian enters the battlefield with a +1/+1 counter on it for each {C} spent to cast it. 2/2

Sleight of Void U Sorcery Look at the top two cards of your library. Exile one and then put the other into your hand.

Spirit's Wisdom 2U Instant Mourn - Draw three cards, then exile two cards from your hand unless you've exiled a card this turn.

Nether Jaunt 1U Instant Exile target creature, then return it to the battlefield. If you do, you may have it enter the battlefield tapped.

Lacuna Rift 2WW Enchantment When Lacuna Rift enters the battlefield, exile target artifact or creature until Lacuna Rift leaves the battlefield. Mourn - At the beginning of your end step, if you've exiled a card this turn create a tapped 1/1 white spirit creature token with flying.

Skateboard 1 Artifact - Equipment Equipped creature has haste. When Skateboard becomes unattached from a creature, sacrifice that creature. Equip - 0

Hector 2B Sorcery Target player discards two cards and reveals his or her hand.

Eternity 3WW Creature - Avatar Flying Damage that would reduce your life total to less than X reduces it to X instead, where X is your devotion to white. 3/3

Suspend Midair 1{W/U} Enchantment - Aura Enchant Creature Enchanted creature can't attack or block and has flying.

Creditor's Crusade 1WW Enchantment Creatures you control get +1/+1 and have Extort.

Soulless Sister B Creature - Human Cleric Whenever an opponent loses life, gain 1 life. 1/1

Unholy Tax Law 1WB Enchantment Extort At end of turn, draw a card if you gained life equal to the total life lost by opponents this turn.

Honor's Fall B Instant Destroy target creature with first strike or vigilance.

Blightweaver BB Creature - Zombie Cleric Creature tokens enter the battlefield with an additional -1/-1 counter on them. 2/1

Predator's Instincts 1G Instant Target creature gets +2/+2 and gains "Whenever a creature dealt damage by this creature this turn dies, put a +1/+1 counter on this creature." until end of turn.

Diversification 3GU Instant Scry X, where X is the number of creature types among non-shapeshifters you control. Draw three cards.

Collateral Damage RR Instant Collateral Damage deals 3 damage to target creature, 2 damage to each creature blocking or blocked by that creature and 1 damage to that creature's controller.

Thought Experiment 1UU Sorcery Scry 3. Draw two cards, then discard a card.

Malevolence 1BB Sorcery You lose 3 life. Draw two cards. Target player discards a card.

Compel Obedience 1UU Sorcery Choose one - Gain control of target creature an opponent controls until end of turn. Untap that creature. It gains haste until end of turn. Put a control counter on it; or gain control of target creature with a control counter on it.(This effect lasts indefinitely)

Cold Read U Instant Look at target player's hand. You may put a control counter on target creature. Draw a card.

Mind Killer 3UB Instant Destroy target nonblue creature. Draw a card. Mind Killer costs 3 less to cast if it targets a creature with a control counter on it.

Aversion Empath 2UW Creature - Human Wizard When Aversion Empath enters the battlefield, you may put a control counter on target creature. Creatures with control counters on them can't attack you or planeswalkers you control. 2/2

Beguiling Empath UB Creature - Human Wizard When Beguiling Empath enters the battlefield, you may put a control counter on target creature. Beguiling Empath can't be blocked by creatures with control counters on them. 2/2

Enervating Empath 2W Creature - Human Wizard 1W,T:Tap target creature. Put a control counter on it. 1/2

Seedsown Shambler 2B Creature - Zombie When Seedsown Shambler dies, put a 1/1 green Saproling creature token onto the battlefield. Scavenge - 2GB 2/2

Rakdos Splinters 1B Sorcery As an additional cost to cast Rakdos Splinters, sacrifice a creature. Destroy target creature. It's controller loses 3 life if the sacrificed creature had a +1/+1 counter on it.

Rakdos Fling 1R Instant As an additional cost to cast Rakdos Fling, sacrifice a creature. Rakdos Fling deals damage equal to that creature's power to target creature or player. If the sacrificed creature had a +1/+1 counter on it, Rakdos Fling deals damage equal to half that creature's power, rounded down, to another target creature or player.

Tooth and Talon 3GW Sorcery Put a 2/2 green Wolf token onto the battlefield and a 1/1 white Bird token with flying onto the battlefield. Populate

Conclave Aspirant 1G Creature - Elf Warrior Conclave Aspirant gets +1/+1 and has vigilance as long as you control two or more creatures with the same name. 2/2

RecROOTment 2GG Sorcery Populate. Put a token onto the battlefield tapped that is a copy of target land you control.

To the Skies! 1UU Instant Until your next turn creatures you control have flying and creatures your opponents control without flying can't attack you or planeswalkers you control.

Mystic Delusion UU Instant Choose one - counter target instant spell; or counter target spell with flash.

Warmage's Barrage 2RR Instant Choose one or both - Warmage's Barrage deals 2 damage to target creature or player; and/or Warmage's Barrage deals 2 damage to each creature.

Tempering Flames 1WR Sorcery Creatures you control get +1/+1 until end of turn. Tempering Flames deals 2 damage to each creature.

Jolter 3 Artifact T:Tap target permanent without a charge counter on it. Put a charge counter on that permanent.

Buffeting Winds 1U Enchantment - Aura Enchant Creature Flash Enchanted creature loses flying. When Buffeting Winds enters the battlefield, tap enchanted creature. It doesn't untap during its controller's next untap step.

Incite Rebellion 2R Enchantment - Aura Enchant Creature Enchanted Creature is red and attacks each turn if able. When Incite Rebellion enters the battlefield, untap enchanted creature and gain control of it until end of turn. Enchanted creature gains haste until end of turn.

Serpent's Gaze 2B Enchantment - Aura Enchant Creature Enchanted Creature has deathtouch. When Serpent's Gaze enters the battlefield, target creature blocks this turn if able.

Primal Challenge 1G Enchantment - Aura 1G: Regenerate enchanted creature. When Primal Challenge enters the battlefield, enchanted creature fights target creature.

Chasten 1W Enchantment - Aura Enchant Creature Enchanted creature has defender. When Chasten enters the battlefield, enchanted creature can't block this turn.

Hungry Baloth 2GG Creature - Beast Whenever a creature dealt damage by Hungry Baloth this turn dies, Hungry Baloth doesn't untap during your next untap step. "Baloths have two moods - hungry and sleeping." -Kalonian Tracker 5/5

Sear from Memory 1BR Sorcery Sear from Memory deals 2 damage to each creature. Each opponent reveals his or her hand and discards a creature card with toughness 2 or less from it.

Arachnaphobia 2GB Enchantment - Aura Enchant Creature When Arachnaphobia enters the battlefield, put a 1/3 green spider token with reach onto the battlefield. Enchanted creature can't attack if defending player controls a spider. Enchanted creature can't block spiders.

Wrestland Land T: Add 1 to your mana pool. 4,T, Sacrifice Wrestland: Gain control of target non-basic land.

Bale Lightning BBB Creature - Elemental Menace, haste. At the beginning of the end step, sacrifice a creature. 6/1 Arcane Browser 2U Creature - Human Wizard T: Draw a card. You may discard a card. If you don't, Arcane Browser loses this ability. 1/1

Globetrotter 1G Creature - Human Scout You may play an additional land during your turn if that land is a basic land. 2/1

Gaea's Vigor GW Enchantment - Aura Enchant Creature or Land If enchanted permanent is a creature, it gets +2/+2 and Vigilance. Whenever enchanted permanent is tapped for mana, if it's a land its controller adds an additional mana of any color to his or her mana pool.

Capromancer RR Creature - Goblin Shaman Capromancer can't be blocked by goats. If an opponent would create a creature token, they create a 1/1 red Goat creature token instead. 2/2

Trickster Imp 2BR Creature - Devil Other Devils you control get +1/+1. Tap an untapped Devil you control: Tap target creature, Trickster Imp deals 1 damage to that creature's controller. 2/2

Languish Mage WW Creature - Human Wizard Activated abilities of permanents your opponents control cost an additional {T} to activate, up to a maximum of a single {T}.(An activated ability that costs 2 now costs 2,T. The cost to activate an ability that already has {T} in it's cost does not change.) 2/2

Arcane Phantasm 1U Creature - Illusion Horror Flying Whenever an opponent casts a spell, if Arcane Horror is tapped, Surveil 1. "Be glad it only lets whispers through, and not the whisperers." 1/1

Arcane Fiend 2UU Creature - Illusion Horror Flying Whenever an opponent casts a spell, if Arcane Fiend is tapped, put a +1/+1 counter on it. Only part of it slipped through... at first. 2/2

Stitched Cadaver 1U Creature - Zombie As an additional cost to cast Stitched Cadaver, exile a creature card from your graveyard. If that creature card was put into a graveyard from the battlefield this turn, Stitched Cadaver enters the battlefield with a +1/+1 counter on it. "Master always says fresh parts is best." -Garl 2/2 Unfortunate Henchman B Creature - Human Rogue Sacrifice Unfortunate Henchman: the next time a Zombie enters the battlefield under your control this turn, put a +1/+1 counter on it. "Tell me Garl; Where do you think we can find the freshest parts?" -Stitcher Geralf 1/1

The Dark Ones Hunger 2BBB Sorcery Each player sacrifices thirteen creatures.

Oathsworn Cathar W Creature - Human Soldier As long as you control another human, Stoic Cathar has vigilance. Oathsworn Cathar has first strike as long as a Human card is in your graveyard. "I swear to protect those who remain and avenge those who have fallen." 2/1

Witch's Wrath R Sorcery Choose one - Witch's Wrath deals 2 damage to target creature or player; or Witch's Wrath deals 4 damage to target enchanted creature or enchanted player.

Coven Watchdog 1R Creature - Wolf Menace As long as an opponent is enchanted, Coven Watchdog gets +1/+1. 2/2

Curse of Cowardice 1RR Enchantment - Aura Curse Enchant Player Creatures enchanted player controls can't attack or block alone.

Illicit Herbalist GB Creature - Human Shaman Deathtouch Creatures with deathtouch deal damage to creatures you control as though they did not have deathtouch. "Which do you think is more expensive, my poisons or their antidotes?" 1/2

Keeper of Primal Order GR Creature - Human Shaman Creatures can't leave the battlefield unless they die.(Effects that would cause a creature to be shuffled into a library, exiled or returned to a hand do nothing.) 2/2

Spare, from Evil 2BB Sorcery Destroy target non-black creature. Morbid - Destroy all creatures instead if a creature died this turn. Damnation is on strike.

Will Breaker 2 Artifact Creatures leaving the battlefield don't cause abilities to trigger. "Bequeath this."

Transmogrify 1UB Instant Transform target creature. If you cant, it gets +4/-4 instead. It is time for more...'experiments'... The pain will only be passing; you should survive the process...

Glamer Geist 1WU Creature - Spirit Hexproof Whenever a creature enters the battlefield under your control, for each aura attached to Glamer Geist put a token that is a copy of that aura onto the battlefield attached to that creature. 1/1

Never Was 1WW Sorcery Exile target artifact or creature. That permanent leaving the battlefield doesn't cause abilities to trigger.

Fight Club RR Enchantment Whenever a creature enters the battlefield under your control it has to fight with target creature. 2R:Target creature you control fights with target creature.

Overkill (If this spell would deal enough damage to a creature to destroy it, deal the remaining damage to that creature's controller.)

Ignite 1R Instant Overkill Ignite deals 4 damage to target creature.

Immolate X1R Instant Overkill Immolate deals X damage to target creature or player.

Set Ablaze 1RR Sorcery Overkill Set Ablaze deals 3 damage to each creature.

Cull 1B Instant Each player sacrifices a creature. Then, if each player sacrificed a creature this way draw a card.

Necromantic Rebirth 1BB Sorcery Each player sacrifices a creature, then put an X/X zombie token onto the battlefield where X is the number of creatures that died this turn.

Underworld Ritual 1BBB Instant Each player sacrifices two creatures. If three or more creatures are sacrificed this way, put a 5/5 black Demon token with flying onto the battlefield.

Cliffs of Insanity Land Cliffs of Insanity enters the battlefield tapped. T:Add 1 to your mana pool. 2UB,T: Target creature an opponent controls attacks you this turn if able.

Maddening Fugue 1BB Sorcery Destroy target tapped creature. It's controller discards a card at random.

Song's Rapture 1UU Enchantment - Aura Enchant creature an opponent controls. Whenever enchanted creature becomes tapped, you draw a card. Prevent all combat damage that would be dealt to and dealt by enchanted creature.

The Choir of Madness 2UB Legendary Creature - Siren Islandwalk, Vigilance T:Target creature an opponent controls must attack you this turn if able. It gains "Whenever this creature deals combat damage, discard that many cards." 3/5

Twisted Shoreline 1U Creature - Wall Defender Twisted Shoreline has deathtouch as long as you control a Siren. 1/3

Entrancing Siren 2U Creature - Siren T: Add U to your mana pool. 2U,T:Target creature an opponent controls attacks you this turn if able. 0/3

Peace's Pall 2WW Enchantment - Aura Enchant Creature Enchanted creature has "Other creatures you control can't attack or block."

Run Ragged 1RR Sorcery Kicker - 1W Gain control of target creature an opponent controls until end of turn. Untap that creature. It gains haste until end of turn. If you paid the kicker cost, that creature doesn't untap during it's controller's next untap step.

Phyrexian Blade-Priest 1{P/W}{P/W} Creature - Cleric {P/W},{T}: Put a 0/0 black germ creature token onto the battlefield and attach target equipment you control to it. 2/2

Phyrexian Battlemaster 2RR Creature - Barbarian When Phyrexian Battlemaster enters the battlefield, look at the top five cards of your library. You may reveal an equipment card from among them and put it into your hand. Then put the rest on the bottom of your library in any order. Whenever a non-token creature you control is put into a graveyard from the battlefield, if it was equipped put a 0/0 black germ token onto the battlefield. Then attach target equipment you control to it. 3/3

Neurok Burglar 1UB Creature - Human Wizard Rogue Flash When Neurok Burglar enters the battlefield, choose target equipment an opponent controls. If that equipment is not attached to a creature, gain control of it. 2/1

(There was a cycle of elemental servants; fire, water, etc. in an old core set) Surprise Servant 1UR Creature - Elemental Flash, Flying Face down creature spells cost you 1 less to play. Whenever you cast a spell during an opponent's turn, turn a creature face up or flip a coin put a +1/+1 counter on Surprise Servant. 1/1

Rebuttal UW Instant Counter target non-creature spell. If it's your turn, draw a card. Avenge Ambition UU Instant You can't cast Avenge Ambition during your opponent's first, second or third turns. Counter target spell. Keeper of Autumn G Creature - Elf Druid Up to G doesn't empty from your mana pool when steps and phases end. 1/1

Guardian of Autumn GG Creature - Elf Warrior Guardian of Autumn gets +1/+1 and trample as long as you have G in your mana pool. 2/2 Revin's Dreamwalkers UG Creature - Elf Wizard Scout Whenever a spell or ability an opponent controls would have that player look at the top cards of his or her library, he or she reveals those cards instead. 2/2

Wayfinder Elite G Creature - Elf Scout Whenever a player reveals a land card, you may put a +1/+1 counter on Wayfinder Elite. 1/1

Fireheart Brigade 1WRR Creature - Elemental Knight Trample, Haste When Fireheart Brigade is put into a graveyard from the battlefield, if it dealt combat damage to a creature and a player this turn, return it to it's owners hand. 4/3 Collateral Damage 1BR Instant Destroy target creature controlled by target opponent. Each other opponent sacrifices a creature. Tenacious Guy W Creature - Human Soldier Whenever ~ is dealt damage, it becomes indestructible. More powerful than you can possibly imagine. 1/1

[pikagatogirltits]

Custom Magic Cards: Tamiyo's Scrolls

One of the coolest things we got in Duskmourn was this:

This particular Saga represents the memory ghost version of Tamiyo that was contained in the third of Tamiyo's three iron bound scrolls, the one that activated upon her death.

But you know what I realized? Even though we know what the other two scrolls were, we've never gotten Sagas for them. So I decided to make some cards for those two myself.

The first iron bound scroll is the story of the collapse of Serra's Realm. We never got to see this story properly unleashed, but it was this scroll that was implied to be the one Emrakul modified to seal herself away. For my design, I went with the unmodified version of the spell:

Chapter I represents the injured Urza going to Serra's Realm to heal and learn, the first link in the chain of events that led to its destruction. I was limited on what effects I could use because of the second chapter, and life gain seemed the obvious effect for Urza healing but it felt a tad bit underwhelming on its own. I decided card draw would make sense for Urza spending his time there studying the nature of artificial planes, but because this is a monowhite card I added the "opponent draws too" downside. I let your opponent also gain life for shorter templating reasons. Chapter II is the collapse of Serra's Realm itself. I felt like the destruction of an entire plane was obviously a board wipe and I went with hitting all nonlands to represent the sheer devastation the loss of an entire world could bring. (Honestly could have hit lands too, but that's a tad bit unfun.) Chapter III represents Urza then condensing the collapsed plane into the powerstone that he used to power the Weatherlight's plane shifting engine. I thought giving you a powerstone was a cute little extra effect to tag onto what's basically a slightly slow board wipe that helped sell the story.

The second iron bound scroll is the history of Mirrodin, including its eventual corruption into New Phyrexia. This is the scroll used to pour massive amounts of Glistening Oil on Boseiju during the Invasion. While the scroll begins with Urza's creation of Karn, I decided for my Saga that I would start with the actual creation of the plane. I felt that the creation of an entire world should be a five color card:

Of course for maximum deep cut nerd points I used Karn's original name for the plane in the name of the Saga. Chapter I is Karn creating Argentum. I figured for 5 mana of different colors being able to search for nonbasics should be fine, but felt like ramping you by five lands was a bit much. An earlier version just stuck them into your hand, but I decided it was more rewarding to let you drop at least one land from your hand. Chapter II is Memnarch using the soul traps to draw living creatures onto the plane, turning it from Karn's perfect vision of Argentum into Mirrodin. Cheating creatures out of your library onto the battlefield did a good job of representing that, plus it helps set you up for the next chapter. Chapter III is the plane's eventual corruption into the hellhole that is New Phyrexia. All your creatures are made into Phyrexians (permanently rather than until end of turn, it should be noted) and are given the ability to deal damage as poison counters (this part is only until end of turn.) Hopefully you hit some good creatures with chapter 2 to set up your alpha strike.

But yup, those are my ideas for Tamiyo's first and second iron bound scrolls if they were Magic cards.

[gay-little-izzet]

AAAAHHHH OMG YESSSS

I’ve actually been brainstorming what her card would look like and counters of some sort was one of my ideas, so glad you thought of that too!!! ☺️

Drawing my simic microbiologist oc again ☺️

I love her a lot? They’re my scrimblo now I think. Scrimblo from my Simic combine.

(Also I bloomburrowified her because. Why not.)

[lmigi]

Oathkeeper and Oblivion [Kingdom Hearts - Party Time]

Artist Credit: Kagachi_118 & Shiyu-artpainting

My friends and I prefer to play Commander using pre-con decks, as that way the less invested of us don't have to contend with those of us that have enough time in our days and motivation to spend crafting bonkers decks.

My personal favorite pre-con is entitled "Party Time", centering around the idea of having a "full party" on your team. As my favorite pre-con, I decided to customize the entire deck by making proxies of each card as a Kingdom Hearts themed deck. I was surprised to have found so many perfect matches for KH characters/ideas and the cards in this deck.

First up, we have the Commander, "Roxas, the Key" as a proxy of "Nalia de'Arnise". Admittedly, this proxy probably had the least association with its base card, but his presence as Nalia will make sense with further posts of these cards.

Second up is "Sora, Chosen by the Keyblade", a proxy of "Jazal Goldmane", which is a very clever reference to Sora's concept art as a sort of lion-boy. His ability to buff all creatures based on how many are attacking with him really exemplifies his "my friends are my power" mantra throughout the games.

Note: you'll notice that for this deck I opted to not use the "Legend Crown" frame around the names of Legendary creatures, this was intentional so as to maintain a cohesive aesthetic between all creatures, legendary and non-legendary alike, as even the non-legendary creatures will be represented with singular KH characters.

[whiteweddingparttwo]

@punkitt-is-here said they were playing Magic The Gathering, and that inspired me to make this custom token for the Witness Protection card!

[cephalodon]

Im jaking it Im jaking it ahh so good

[gregor-never-leaves-the-house]

I have this cube I designed magic cards for, and I think these turned out pretty good.

[niuttuc]

Have some product of inspiration. A bit cramped and not super elegant, but still.

What god cards would you like to see (either from the lore or new ones, like concepts ie. a god of creativity in avishkar)

I'll start with an easy one: Before we got the Universes Within card for it, I thought it'd be a great occasion to make Mind Flayer's Stranger Things card into a card for Cacophony, the Theran god Ashiok created briefly. Alas, they went a different direction with all those cards getting versions on Innistrad.

As far as ones from the lore, I think a look at Kaldheim's Einir (before they were turned into trees) would be interesting. We have Lathril, but we could get at least six more, since we have seven Jasper trees now.

The BOOSTGOD and its opponent would be neat.

As far as concepts not yet defined, it'd be funny to see what the church of Orzhova might create if a god were to manifest as a result of their greed and ambition. Now that Zhalfir is a plane by itself, it could be neat to see Night and Day, as they appear in the Love Song of Night and Day. Could also appear on Dominaria, I believe it's wider Jamuraan, but more occasion now. Innistrad lost Bruna and Gisela and Avacyn, we'll see if anything shows up to fill those holes.

[talenlee]

Custom Magic: Whybrid

Time to time, we will see in the custom MTG community, a card that is hybrid, pulling together effects that are out of type for one of the two colours in the cost. This is a real tricky challenge to explain conveniently because at its heart, it’s an idea that once you get it, is very obvious, but before you get it, it’s opaque. What makes it okay for some cards to be hybrid when they seem the push the colour pie for one of their colours?

The TL;DR

Okay, here’s the simple rule, to reference up front: Hybrid Mana costs should only be used to pay for an effect that all the colours in that cost can do. It should not be used for any effect that the two colours can do together, but only something they can do apart.

Right?

If you’re doing hybrid A/B, it needs to be a card you could cast for just A, and a card you could cast for just B. That’s all you need to know.

If you want a longer explanation, well here we go:

The Longer Explanation

For example, let’s look at an example of a hybrid card with a nice, clear effect:

White can exile a creature for around 3 mana. Sometimes there’s a targeting restriction, like Quicksand Whirlspool and sometimes there’s a way to reclaim the creature, like Journey to Nowhere. Sometimes there’s a perk to it, like how Crib Swap can get you a small, cheap creature if you use it on your own and it triggers all your typal advantages.

Black is the best card for creature kill. Black can get a common exile for 4B, and a common exile at 2BB, and that suggests that BBB is easily a simple black removal spell. One of them is a good for one colour, white, and a little weak for the other, black.

This is a perfect example of a hybrid card. Mono-white can have it, mono-black can have it.

Now let’s look at a different example, Pillory of the Sleepless:

This card is a white effect, like pacifism and a black effect, like soul bleed. But white doesn’t have effects like Soul Bleed and black doesn’t have Pacifism. You can make the case that Pacifism probably works in black (and they experimented with that, to be fair) because it is a type of creature removal, but the way it circumvvents dying makes it less of black’s space in the colour pie.

See the contrast? One is A or B, the other is A and B.

Now here’s where it gets muddied: Tons of gold cards could be hybrid cards.

Sometimes the nature of a gold card is in the access to costs. If a card is gold, it sometimes gets to do something a bit cheaper than it could if it was only one colour, because, ostensibly, two colours are harder to manage than one colour in your mana base. Just as some examples, check out Call of the Conclave and call to the feast, which both make a number or size of token that’s more or bigger than you’d expect at their costs. But, say, a card like Centaur Peacemaker or Elemental Masterpiece could just be hybrid. Red can make a pair of huge ground-pounder elementals, blue can make a pair of huge ground-pounder elementals.

This shows up more at common, too; there are cards who need to be pretty good, common effects in multicolour sets that serve to pull you towards the colour combinations those pairs represent. In this case, these cards being hybrid would make them more desireable for more people and increase complexity for the drafters.

That means there are some cards that can be gold, because, well, they’re probably representing effects that every colour can have, and they’re not blazing new ground or representing new complex mechanics. These will often show up at common, they will often do their job efficiently and effectively, without pushing any limits. Like, Owlin Shieldmage could probably just be a black card, and Spiteful Squad, well, it could be a mono-green card. But it’s not, it’s a black-white card, because it wants to fit into the draft archetype it was part of.

That can answer a lot of questions of ‘why are these cards this way?’ There’s a lot of room for gold and hybrid cards that aren’t meaningfully pushing the colours they’re in! But misunderstanding this principle, and honestly, the fact the hybrid colour frame just looks better, builds the incentive for custom designers to treat the designs of gold and hybrid interchangeably, leading to what I call whybrid designs. As in, ‘this is hybrid, but why?’

Using Hybrid

Hybrid costs have some applications though. You shouldn’t feel like Hybrid design is a bad place to play around.

Hybrid costs can expand the colour identity of a legendary card for potential commander designs. Check out Shu Yun here. He can be a mono-blue commander, though quite weak; he can be a blue-white commander, and he can be a blue-red commander, and he can be a blue-red-white commander. This presents a lot of options in spaces where people can’t just start their designs with all the fetches and duals!

Hybrid also lets you do something with extremely cheap, niche effects. Check out cards like Beckon Apparition or Bioshift. These effects that, for lack of a better word, probably aren’t worth a ‘whole mana’ – like, exiling a single card from a graveyard or moving some counters around is maybe worth .7 of an effect. Something you might otherwise snap a scry onto to make it worth a card. Red and green can both get 2/1s with drawbacks, so a Tattermunge Maniac isn’t pushing any boundaries.

A thing you can use Hybrid for is to fill out basic, french vanilla effects. In a multicolour set, some hybrid effects can make a bunch of cards more accessible – look at the disguise cards from Murders at Karlov Manor, or the commons from sets like Shadowmoor, Zealous Guardian or Safehold Elite. Each vanilla card serves its duty in multiple colours of deck, and it’s not very complicated. Simple effects on simple bodies are a great place for hybrid effects — because a 2/2 Wither may cost 2.5 for one colour or 2.9 for another, but they’re not giving anything access to something it can’t have.

There’s also the room for some things where a hybrid body can bring colour-specific effects – things that are easier to cast to get them on the battlefield, but later on can use both costs together to make the late-game version of the card better, like Spiteflame Witch, or Rakdos Guildmage. We stan a Rakdos Guildmage in these parts. You don’t want, say, a black-red hybrid creature with a mono-red activated ability.

That’s basically it! To avoid ‘whybrid,’ make sure you have answers to the questions:

Is this something each colour can do?

Is there a reason to make this harder for people to cast?

Do both kinds of decks this can go in want what this card offers?

Check it out on PRESS.exe to see it with images and links!

[azureazaleas]

Alright, this is my last for today. This card is both exploring how far 1-cost exile can be pushed, while reminiscing on an old moment from Magic's past. I honestly think it might even be underpowered for how restrictive it is.

[oilyrotpile]

Really, really scuffed WIP of Rain World/Magic: The Gathering card crossover project I'm working on-

More editing needs to go into them, especially with getting artist/game company credit and fixing the number sets. It's just a personal little project using one of those card maker sites and editing ingame art, though most of the abilities are a little too much for me personally, and are vaguely based on the fact that I used to use mainly Ice Age/Visions/Mirage/The Dark when I was a kid, so I suppose these would be rendered obsolete with the newer modern cards of today?

Either way, it's cool to think them up. I was sort of doing Don't Starve Together ones as well, might go back and finish those,,