#it does however die to a 1/1 deathtouch

[dravidious]

I think you're quite cool y'know

I have this maybe-not-exactly-fear of really big stuff. Like, the thought of a colossal Thing looming over me is like. idk. makes me uneasy? I don't know the feeling exactly but whatever it inspired a magic card. I sure hope tumblr doesn't make the image way bigger than it needs to be!

[loreholdlesbian]

Two cards

The first:

Raboniel, Lady of Wishes 2BB

Legendary Creature- Crab Spirit Artificer [rare]

Deathtouch

When Raboniel, Lady of Wishes enters the battlefield, create Antilight, an artifact token with "If a creature would die, exile it instead."

Tap an untapped artifact you control, Pay 1 life: Add B.

3/4

The second: the same card as above, except it costs 3B, it’s uncommon, it does not have “Tap an untapped artifact you control, Pay 1 life: Add B.”, and it has flavor text that reads “No more rebirths. No more Returns.”

End transcription

Art found here: https://stormlightarchive.fandom.com/wiki/Raboniel

Here are two versions of Raboniel. Raboniel is a character from the fourth book of the Stormlight Archive by Brandon Sanderson, part of the Cosmere universe. She is an immortal being that is part of a war that has no end in sight because the forces of both sides are immortal and keep getting reborn over and over again. Her primary motivation was to find a way to make death permanent so that the war could finally end.

The ability I came up with that made a lot of flavorful sense for Raboniel was exiling creatures as they died, so I gave her that ability. That alone (well, that + deathtouch) felt... kinda boring though. So I came up with the rare version you see above since she’s an engineer and works a lot with stormlight’s version of mana. I’m quite happy with that version. However, I realized that shunting the ability to a token she makes on ETB rather than having it herself makes her feel a lot less boring, at least to me. So I made the uncommon version because if this were part of an actual cosmere set (which, theoretically, it’s meant to be) rare slots are a lot easier to fill up than uncommon slots and there’s a lot of characters to represent, and because of that if a card can be uncommon, it should be. But I wanted to share both versions.

[inventors-fair]

Brushwagg Commentary part 2

Okay I’ve calmed down now

There were a lot of themes this week. I noticed a lot of deathtouch, which is understandable considering the flavor of the brushwagg. One thing y’all gotta watch out for is repeatable deathtouch tokens. It makes limited games absolutely grueling when any attacker on the ground can be kileed by paying a couple mana or tapping a creature. And these would show up in limited, because boy you guys really like making uncommons! I know one of the winners was going to be a lower rarity card, but I think only about 6 or 8 people even bothered making rares. What’s up with that? Lastly, all of your guys’s homemade art was glorious. I was not expecting any new art, and while I don’t usually let it impact my judging (since this is about card design, and I don’t want to give artists an advantage), I was delighted at every piece.

@aethernalstars​ - Nyxthorn Brushwagg

Is that a pun? Because most enchantment creatures are called something like “nyxborn” which rhymes with “nyxthorn?” Because if so, shame on you. Anyway, a bestow brushwagg! I really like the idea of this, because putting the icnonic brushwagg coat on another creature just seems fun and cool. On his own, this guy makes your guys a little harder to kill in combat but also makes them worse at killing. The “may” here is really nice, though. Reminds me of Gustcloak Soldier in a way, which means that the bestow cost is right on the money. The fact that you can put this on a big guy to keep everyone safe is nice, and the idea that if you put it on just the right creature you can survive the fight AND kill the guy will feel great when it happens. I do worry that the effect is too niche and weak to see much play outside of Doran style decks (in which case dear lord), and I also don’t know how I feel about the bestow not granting +1/+1 like every other bestow creature. Regardless, the card seems fine, just a little hard to play, but great for those who want it.

@demimonde-semigoddess​ - Porringer Brushwagg

A porringer is a small dish used for soups, stews, and other dishes. Anyway, here’s a brushwagg. So first off, a 2/3 with persist for that mana cost is good! It’s the right cost I feel. The bad news: that ability is way off color. Only blue and red really do that, and with this being a hybrid card, both mono black and mono green need to be able to do it, but neither really do outside of the 5 color “-ling” cycle. It also seems a little bit pricey considering it already comes with a downside, but maybe that’s fine. I do like the idea of the card, it’s just a bit too hard of a color bend for me. Oh, and the art and flavor of this card are really good, I like how it tells a story.

NOTE: After writing this I found out porringer is a place in Lorwyn. That seems fair, then. Good name.

@deafeningsandwichpeach​ - Unstable Brushwagg

Second card with this name, but a completely different take. For one, our only artifact entry! So it’s a one mana 0/3 that acts as a one-time mini-boros reckoner, but only to creatures or planeswalkers. But it also has to survive the hit. Seems kind of narrow? Your opponent would have to attack into it, or knowingly block it just t let their stuff die anyway. But as soon as they get 3/X creatures all that’s out the window unless you hold up 3 mana each turn, which is not as easy as it sounds. I think if you reverse the phrasing on the first ability, something like “you may have it deal damage... if you do, sacrifice it,” you can get it to send the damage back even if it died from it. I think I’m making this guy sound worse than he is. Colorless pumping isn’t the worst, and an 0/3 for 1 with text will often see play for any number of random reasons. I think this card is perfectly fine, but nothing spectacular. It does feel adequately brushwaggy, even without some of the standard brushwagg stuff, just because of it’s self-pumping and vengefulness.

@deg99 - Apex Brushwagg

Our only silver-border brushwagg, surprisingly. Thoughhonestly? It could stand to be a little more silvery. That activated ability was a prime spot to put something silly for X. But hey, the last ability is definitely silver-border, and feels very on theme for such a prickly guy. The two keyword abilities are a scary mix, making sure that if this thing dies, it’ll die in combat, and when it does, it’ll take something down with it. Still, it’s weak enough that it can get hit by pyroclasms and the like if you tap out, so it’s not game-breaking. All in all this guy is fine, he’s just got a little too much pulling him in different directions to really work for me. Though the fact that you found brushwagg fanart is impressive all on its own.

@gollumni​ - Brushwagg Elder

Not with that creature type he’s not! I jest. This guy is pretty neat! The idea of an “activated ability matters” theme is neat in concept, and the fact that a lot of activated abilities require mana or to sacrifice something means the ability wouldn’t be so easy to trigger as you might think. I could even see this thing seeing play in older formats where no-mana abilities are easier to come by, like an arbor elf tap. On the other hand, in standard right now most creatures are played for ETBs, aman abilities, or just their bodies, so finding easily repeatable activated abilities is tough enough to not make this 1 mana 5/5 too easy. I still might either drop the P/T by 1 each or raise the cmc by 1, but I might be pvercompensating because this guy is hard to judge. Still, I really like this card and this concept, either as a draft archetype or possibly an overarching tribal theme.

@kytheon4-4 - Tumblewagg

Well, they are just tumbleweed monsters I suppose. So I’ve kind of got a big issue with this guy. Green does get indestructible and supertrample, and red gets “attacks each turn if able” and firebreathing, but together they make this card a color pie break. The only difference between supertrample and unblockable is that the blocking creature can still kill the attacking creature. But that’s not the case here. An opponent blocking here accomplishes nothing unless they have wither or something. So this just becomes an attacker that can’t be blocked and can pump for extra damage. That’s not particularly red green, and it’s not going to be fun to play against, and probably not great to play with, either. Not a fan.

@misterstingyjack​ - Flatlands Brushwagg

Wow does this guy have a lot going on. He’s got an ability counter, a dinosaur ability word, a flavor text referencing something that I can’t suite recall if its canon or not, and it’s a brushwagg! So a 3/2 with defender is pretty rough. Green is getting 3/2′s for two with upside nowadays, but the fact that this is common makes it a little more reasonable. The enrage ability is very weird here. 2 toughness means he has to somehow be dealt exactly 1 damage, and I doubt any opponent is going to attack with a one 1/x into it. So this guy needs a little help, either a ping from something or a defensive pump spell. And then you get a 4/3! That’s pretty good! I like it. I do worry about the wording on the enrage ability. It is phrased so that it gets the +1/+1 counter even if it has already lost it’s defender counter, but some new players might not realize that. At common, you better makes rue there’s nothing to trick new players. In general, I think this card is pretty good, but it’s just a little clunky here and there.

@naban-dean-of-irritation​ - Progenitor Brushwagg

I was expecting “protection from everything” with a name like that, but this is fine. It costs one more mana than the almighty ‘wagg and loses trample, but in return it pops open like a spider mama from that vine. Seems a little strong at uncommon, as any sort of pump, aura, or god forbid anthem makes this guy pretty ludicrous. We’ve seen sprouting thrinax do something similar but at a locked number in 3 colors, but myriad construct and thopter foundry have been artifacts at rare with the ability. So I think the power is not quite right. But the ability itself seems fine. I could see it being a pain to fight against, since you don’t really want to attack into it, but you don’t really want to kill it, and if you do then you have to deal with its babies, but I don’t think it’s a bad enough situation to make the card bad. I’d just say it needs some limiters, perhaps a more expensive activation cost, or a once per turn limitation.

@scavenger98​ - Possessed Brushwagg

I want to slap the roof of this guy and say he can fit so many tokens in him, but then I’d hurt my hand. So this guy is sort of afterlife 2, but also kind of just unblockable. Blocking this guy is just so much work and can go so poorly. Blocking with more than two creatures also seems unlikely, so I think it’s be safe to just say 2 instead of X for this card. It also seems really strong: it’s an evasive attacker with a big body and leaves behind flyers when it dies. That’s kind of comparable to the mythic Seraph of the scales. However, this still dies to removal much easier and doesn’t do anything in that case, but I could say that about any creature. I guess this is fine as a 3 color uncommon in most sets, but I think the power level of it is a little screwey, and the design itself is a little unnecessarily extravagant.

@walker-of-the-yellow-path​ - Tasty Brushwagg

I’m glad someone finally managed to do it. I like how this card tells a little story. I like how there’s an ability that wants you to let it die and an ability that stops it from doing it to create some tension. I don’t like the unlimited (as in not once a turn) pumping in green. Almighty Brushwagg had it, but that was a bit of a stretch already, and this guy can do it for way cheaper. It’s stepping into shade territory. I also think the power level on this common is a little high. A bear with one amazing upside and one pretty good one probably deserves to be at least an uncommon. So yeah, a little bit of power concern at common, and a bit of color pie bending.

[commandertheory]

M20 Commander Set Review

For each new set, I write an article discussing the new legendary creatures and the nonlegendary cards that I think will be relevant in Commander. 

The Commanders of Core Set 2020

There are a lot of cheap multicolor creatures that generate value (Harmonic Sliver, Knight of Autumn, Qasali Pridemage, Renegade Rallier) in these colors, as well as a ton of strong sac outlets like Evolutionary Leap, Birthing Pod, and Greater Good. Basically, you’ve got everything you need to make a sweet recursion engine, plus you can use all the sac outlets you’re already running to enable sac fodder combos like Karmic Guide/Reveillark, Karmic Guide/Saffi, Reveillark/Saffi, Sun Titan/Saffi, Sun Titan/Gift of Immortality, Boonweaver Giant/Gift of Immortality, Renegade Rallier/Saffi, etc etc etc.

Sample list: Rienne, Angel of Rebirth

I’m really not a fan of ETB commanders since they all run the same cards (blink engines, sacrifice+reanimation engines) and if you don’t draw your engines they don’t do anything. Say what you will about the original Kaalia, but at least she fixed the weaknesses of her tribe; this Kaalia just gives you a handful of cards you can’t cast.

She is, however, quite good in the maindeck of a Kaalia 1.0 deck.

Self-mill is super important in this deck. The more you mill, the more likely it is you’ll have some fodder to exile, so I’d run Mesmeric Orb, Hermit Druid, Deadbridge Chant, Life from the Loam, Undercity Informer, and Altar of Dementia, for sure. 

Legendary lands are great in this deck, and there are a ton of cheap legends in these colors that interact with the graveyard, like Storrev, Teshar, and Meren. There are also some great sac outlets on legendary creatures, like Yawgmoth, Krav, the Unredeemed, Sidisi, Undead Vizier, God-Eternal Bontu, and Izoni, Thousand-Eyed. Finally, there are just a ton of value commanders in these colors like Azusa, Captain Sisay, Reki, Tymna, The Gitrog Monster, as well as a ton of powerful planeswalkers like Elspeth 3.0, Ugin 1.0, Liliana Dreadhorde General, etc.

Sample list: Kethis, the Hidden Hand

Cheap red cantrips and looting spells are very good here, since they’re card neutral and usually mana-neutral. Other cards that trigger when you cast noncreatures, like Monastery Mentor, Saheeli Sublime Artificer, and Young Pyromancer are also solid. I really like Bident of Thassa, Coastal Piracy, and Kindred Discovery in a deck with so many evasive tokens, and Cathars’ Crusade, Coat of Arms, and Shared Animosity will help you kill people really quickly.

There are a couple of Spirit token generators that are worth running because they’re so efficient that they are either mana neutral or mana negative, like Midnight Haunting and Promise of Bunrei. Tectonic Reformation is good for dumping excess lands and helping you find more gas.

Jeskai Ascendancy does literally everything.

Sample list: Kykar, Wind’s Fury

These rewards are not good enough to incentivize committing to Elementals. Shooting something once and a Retreat to Kazandu will not make you feel smart for forsaking the other 300 creature types in Magic.

It doesn’t help that the most powerful part of the card has nothing to do with Elementals, as the smart way to build this guy seems to be Tatyova + Red. It’s also a little weird that the best reason for adding Red to this deck’s color identity is Omnath, Locus of Rage; if you really want to make 5/5s, why not run that Omnath as your commander?

I think this is a combo commander masquerading as a value commander. You can spin your wheels for a while by controlling the board with Reclamation Sage and Shriekmaw, but eventually you’re going to draw some combination of Peregrine Drake/Great Whale/Aluren/Cloud of Faeries and Shrieking Drake/Cavern Harpy/Dream Stalker/Cloudstone Curio/Deadeye Navigator and get infinite mana and bounces for your other ETB creatures. Or you can just draw Palinchron.

Sample list: Yarok, the Desecrated

There are some solid flying token generators in monowhite (although probably not as many as you’d expect), as well as hate bear flyers like Hushwing Gryff, Linvala 1.0, Aven Mindcensor, Remorseful Cleric, Selfless Spirit, flyers that generate value like Pilgrim’s Eye, Bygone Bishop, Skyscanner, and anthem flyers like Archangel of Thune, Celestial Crusader, and Angel of Jubilation.

Because Sephara has 7 power, you also have the option to try to go for a Voltron win using haste granters and cards that grant double strike.

The 6 CMC, 5 toughness, 4 power, 3-cost activation, draw 2, discard 1 is super cute. I think this deck is mostly counterspells, cheap cantrips to sculpt your hand, mana acceleration, and ways to grant him haste, and I don’t think it’s that hard to fix the list so that the proportions of different mana costs make it easy to find Exodia without gumming up your development.

Black has 15 ways to pay life without restriction (i.e., without requiring you to pay mana, tap the card, or do anything else), most of which you could justify playing in this deck.

You don’t even have to worry about protecting this guy, as once he resolves and turned your life outlet into a Yawgmoth’s Bargain, he’s done his job and you will probably win that turn.

Sample list: Vilis, Broker of Blood

Like Sephara, the 7 power pushes me towards a Voltron strategy, and Red has waaay more haste granters than White does. The free board control is a nice way to help your deck interact with your opponents even as you devote most of your resources to the Voltron plan.

The combination of 17 life per swing and the ability to kill anything with Drakuseth’s flame breath makes Basilisk Collar an attractive addition to this deck, but I’m not sure I’d run equipment that only granted deathtouch or only granted lifelink.

Most Green hydras become playable when they cost four less, so it’s not hard to fill out the tribal theme. The rest of the deck is ramp to help you get Gargos down early and effects that target your creatures to enable Gargos’s trigger. Effects that grant Gargos hexproof or indestructible are great because they protect him from spot removal while also getting you a fight trigger, and cards like Hunter’s Insight, Hunter’s Prowess, and Soul’s Majesty, while normally great when you have an 8-power commander, get even better when they also let you eat an opponent’s creature.

Sample list: Gargos, Vicious Watcher

This guy is useful if there’s a specific land you want access to every game. Imo, the best lands to build a deck around are Volrath’s Stronghold, Academy Ruins, and Hall of Heliod’s Generosity, but the one people seem to be most interested in is Maze’s End. 

In addition to helping you get to the End every game, Golos can help you hit 10 gates pretty quickly if you run a bunch of blink effects (in this case, I think I would run the instant-speed ones, rather than build around repeatable blink engines). Note that although there is a danger of hitting multiple Gates if you activate his ability, potentially preventing you from winning with Maze’s End, you do get to be unlucky once, thanks to the 11th Gate, Gateway Plaza. You can also reduce the danger by running additional land drop effects or by waiting to activate him until you’ve blinked him, activated the Maze, or otherwise thinned your deck of Gates to reduce your odds of a bad flop.

I’m not sure what the rest of the deck will look like once you fill out the blink spells and extra land drop effects. Bog standard 5C control with a little bit of land recursion?

The Maindeck Cards of Core Set 2020

In this set review, I’ll be using two five-point rating scales to evaluate the nonlegendary cards, one that measures how many decks a card is playable in (we’ll call that “spread”), and one that measures how powerful it is in those decks (”power”). Here’s a brief rundown of what each rank on the two scales means:

Spread

1: This card is effective in one or two decks, but no more (ex: The Gitrog Monster).

2: This card is effective in one deck archetype (ex: self-mill decks).

3: A lot of decks will be able to use this card effectively (ex: decks with graveyard interactions).

4: This card is effective in most decks in this color.

5: Every deck in this color is able to use this card effectively.

Power

1: This card is always going to be on the chopping block.

2: This card is unlikely to consistently perform well.

3: This card provides good utility but is not a powerhouse.

4: This card is good enough to push you ahead of your opponents.

5: This card has a huge impact on the game.

Spread: 2

Power: 3

The 0 ability will not be that hard to pull off in Karlov or Kambal or Oloro, but even in those decks, it’s not that much better than a Tragic Arrogance or an Hour of Revelation, and those cards will always work.

Spread: 1

Power: 2

At first, I was ready to dismiss this guy, but then I realized that he’s joining the ranks of a very strange sort of combo enabler. Most things that produce tokens when things die say “nontoken”, but Bishop is one of a handful of cards that specify a creature type (the others being Rotlung Reanimator, Xathrid Necromancer, and Requiem Angel). This means that if you can overwrite the type of the token (via Conspiracy, Xenograft, Arcane Adaptation, or by editing the token maker’s text with Artificial Evolution), you get infinite sac fodder (note that xenograft and arcane adaptation don’t work with Requiem Angel). It’s also worth noting that Divine Visitation serves as an additional overwrite effect for both Bishop of Wings and Requiem Angel, although it doesn’t combo with the Reanimator or Necromancer.

Unfortunately, we don’t currently have a critical mass of this type of creature converter, nor do we have a critical mass of the creature overwriters, but both categories are worth paying attention to because they bring this creature sacrifice combo deck closer to viability. 

Spread: 2

Power: 3

This isn’t worth it if you are just holding up two white to save some guys in case someone wraths, but it could be good if your deck has easy access to a sac outlet. G/W decks can combine it with Eternal Witness for a recursive loop, while W/U decks can use Archaeomancer.

Spread: 4

Power: 3

Love seeing White getting ways to remove things that aren’t just more O Ring variants. I’ll happily play this for the ETB trigger in many White decks, but it’s especially good if you have a way to blink or reanimate it; it’s especially good in B/W with Animate Dead, Dance of the Dead, and Necromancy. When Cavalier dies, get back your reanimate enchantment from graveyard, use that to bring this guy back, get his ETB trigger again, rinse and repeat. With a sac outlet, it’s 1B: Beast Within.

In monowhite, it also works pretty well with Gift of Immortality and a sac outlet, since you can keep sacrificing it and returning it with the Gift to Beast Within a ton of permanents and recur a bunch of artifacts/enchantments. Then if your opponents ever kill it for real before the Gift returns itself, you can get back the Gift to use on another creature.

Spread: 1

Power: 1

Kynaios and Tiro of Meletis have huge asses relative to their mana cost, and might be interested in trying for big butt voltron. They’re also on color for Assault Formation, High Alert, uncommon Huatli, Treefolk Umbra, and Arcades, the Strategist.

Spread: 4

Power: 2

If you’re running enough steal effects to reliably get the end step trigger, you can go ahead and run this guy (Thada Adel seems especially good, since stealing Sol Rings helps you cover this guy’s huge mana cost). He also works really well with blink/reanimation engines. However, if you’re not running any engines and he’s one of your only steal effects, then I dislike him because he compares so poorly to Gilded Drake.

Spread: 4

Power: 2

The fact that Blue has other cards that do the same thing without preventing sac outlet recursion makes me low on this card. Also, unlike the other Cavaliers, abusing its ETB trigger doesn’t do much unless you also have access to some shuffle effects, since you’re going to be seeing a lot of the same cards over and over. 

However, this is decent in Yennett, since it can set up the top of your library and is itself an odd card.

Spread: 2

Power: 1

I’d probably run this in Naban, might run it in Azami, wouldn’t run it in Inalla.

Spread: 4

Power: 3

This card seems pretty sweet. Getting to drop the first card after a board wipe is a huge upside, and although it’s no Cyclonic Rift, it seems like a decent way to reset the board while putting you a little ahead of everyone else.

Spread: 2

Power: 2

The first option is terrible, but the second could be useful. March of the Machines is a liability on your opponents’ turns because it opens them up to board wipes, but this card offers a one-shot March by turning all your mana rocks and crappy tokens into copies of your biggest artifact creature. Also, if your Urza deck is having trouble winning the game, you could use this to make all your 0-mana artifacts into Karnstructs and kill everyone.

Spread: 2

Power: 2

Crystal Shard/Erratic Portal redundancy for bounce combos (e.g., Archaeomancer variant and Time Warp variant).

Spread: 2

Power: 1

The main purpose of running an Archaeomancer variant is so you can combo off with Time Warp effects; adding extra value and P/T for extra mana does not make the card better; it makes it significantly worse because the cost of operating a bounce engine loop goes up significantly.

However, this can itself be the engine if you have a cheap blink spell like Essence Flux. Rasputin Dreamweaver and Lavinia of the Tenth sometimes run these types of cards and it’s not a huge burden to run extra turn effect, so there may be a pretty low-cost way to set this combo up.

Spread: 1

Power: 2

A cheap, evasive Pirate works well in both Edric and Beckett Brass.

Spread: 2

Power: 2

Although this can always hit commanders, I still think this is a bit too situational to be worth running in most decks. However, if your commander needs Stifle effects really badly (Lord of Tresserhorn, for example), it’s nice that there’s extra utility stapled to this one.

Spread: 2

Power: 2

It’s not a very interesting card, but the rate is good; I’d run this if I had a cheap blue commander with flying.

Spread: 4

Power: 3

So the base case is really good, as there is lots of sac fodder (and ETB floaters) in black, as well as some powerful creatures with CMC 3 or less (such as Fleshbag/Merciless Executioner/Plaguecrafter).

If you’re in Blue/Black, there’s also combo potential with Phantasmal Image or Mirror Image, since these creatures can enter the battlefield as the Cavalier, get sacrificed to a sac outlet, then bring themselves back with their own death trigger. Repeat for infinite of whatever your sac outlet generates (as well as infinite free Bone Splinters).

Spread: 2

Power: 3

If this were just swampfall - draw a card it would be quite playable, but the ability to control the board really pushes this over the top. I would happily run this in any monoblack deck.

Spread: 1

Power: 1

I’ve considered running Necromancer’s Assistant in Hogaak as a way to get delve fodder while providing a body for convoke; this is a solid upgrade for that role.

Spread: 1

Power: 4

Sorcery speed all but guarantees your opponent is going to draw the card they tutored for before you get the thing you wanted, which is a nightmare scenario.

Fortunately, reader stormcrowlegend pointed out that this card is awesome in my Circu Citadel Combo list, since top-of-library tutors are actually better than tutors that put cards into your hand if you’re in the middle of comboing off with Bolas’s Citadel. Plus, you can use Circu to mill your opponent’s top card once they stack it with Scheming Symmetry.

Spread: 1

Power: 2

I’m a little skeptical that this is going to be good in Edgar because that deck favors a low curve and this is one of the most expensive Vampire lords, but it could push out a worse 4-drop.

Spread: 1

Power: 2

I don’t like this in Horde of Notions or Omnath, Locus of Rage, since they have better options for ramp and their elementals are big enough that they don’t care that much about the anthem. Marath is better at going wide with elementals, but I’m still skeptical that you would play this card when your deck has access to all the great anthems in Naya colors.

However, I think this card could make sense in Valduk, since he doesn’t have access to green, and he ideally makes a bunch of elementals each turn, so the buff could go pretty wide.

Spread: 1

Power: 2

There aren’t that many elemental token generators out there, and this card is cheap, makes elementals every turn, and kills them off. I think Omnath, Locus of Rage might play her just for the double Bolt action, and the -2 won’t be totally dead in a deck that favors land ramp spells over permanent-based ramp.

Spread: 1

Power: 2

Six mana is a lot, and although the -3 is nice, the -X is not very relevant and the emblems are more annoying than powerful in a 40-life format. I think she’ll create a lot of ill will among your opponents without being strong enough to adequately protect you from them.

Spread: 3

Power: 3

This card rips. It sculpts your hand on the way in so you can avoid flood and dump reanimation targets, grants itself and the rest of your team haste if you’ve got extra mana lying around, casually hoses planeswalkers, and burns the heck out of your opponents. This card is going to be best in decks that can abuse both the ETB and dies trigger (Feldon of the Third Path being the deck it is most suited to), but I think I’d happily run this card for the ETB and activated ability in most monored and Red/White lists.

Spread: 3

Power: 2

Only discarding mountains and red cards means that I would only be comfortable running this in monored decks, but I’d probably run it in every monored deck. It prevents you from flooding out, it’s a discard outlet for decks that care about it (such as Feldon of the Third Path), and it gets rid of worse rummaging effects that you’re probably running, like Tormenting Voice and its ilk or Throes of Chaos.

Spread: 3

Power: 2

This card seems generally good in monored lists, and specifically good in Neheb 3.0, where you can farm the discard trigger pretty easily. I’d also run this in both Beckett Brass and Neheb 1.0, since he’s one of the best Pirates and one of the best Minotaurs.

Spread: 1

Power: 2

It might be solid in Omnath 2.0 since it represents 3 lightning bolts in addition to the 1/1s. It could also be good in Zada, Purphoros, and other Red decks that just need a lot of bodies.

Spread: 1

Power: 2

There are only 10 guys that are really worth getting back in Horde of Notions, but Omnath 3.0 can easily grow this guy big enough that he can get back practically anything.

Spread: 4

Power: 2

A five-mana ramp spell is pretty far below the curve for Green, and I still don’t understand why it exiles itself for its Reclaim effect when the White and Black members of the cycle are way more combo-riffic but aren’t similarly nerfed. The self-mill is nice, but it’s not enough to bridge the gap between this card and the many more powerful Green value creatures at a similar price point.

Spread: 3

Power: 3

It’s no Weathered Wayfarer, but this card still kicks ass. If your deck has any lands that are important to its functioning (e.g., Gaea’s Cradle, Volrath’s Stronghold), this card is a must-have. It’s especially good in decks like Gitrog and Lord Windgrace that can recur lands from the graveyard or get value when they go there.

Spread: 1

Power: 2

I think I like this guy in Sidisi 1.0 and Tana, since he can help you get them down on turn three and then, conditions permitting, taps for two on turn four.

Spread: 1

Power: 2

Until Wizards atones for Ulrich, the only deck that will want this is Tolsimir, Friend to Wolves.

Spread: 2

Power: 2

Most token decks and elfball decks ought to be able to make use of the first ability. As for the second, Anthousa and Gargos explicitly reward you for targeting your creatures with spells, and Rhonas the Indomitable decks tend to run lots of fight/punch spells to make use of his deathtouch and indestructbility.

Spread: 2

Power: 3

This card is really useful for assembling combos, but the rate is not great. If you’re just trying to toolbox, I’d run one of the many more efficient green creature tutors instead.

Spread: 3

Power: 2

This may be a good option for monogreen decks that can’t easily deal with creatures, and of course you’ll run it in Gargos.

Spread: 1

Power: 2

Bird tribal is terrible and Spirit tribal doesn’t exist, so there’s not much room for this card. If we ever get an apology commander for Kangee, this card will probably make the cut.

Spread: 2

Power: 2

The format has gravitated away from 5-mana do-nothing enchantments over the years, but there are certainly a lot of BG decks that can farm its trigger.

Spread: 1

Power: 3

I think it may be good enough for the Everything Tribal deck I cooked up recently. It generates value by itself and the deck has a ton of other Elementals in the form of changelings.

Spread: 2

Power: 2

This could be sick nasty in commanders that can easily discard a ton of cards, like Neheb 3.0, Varina, Malfegor, Borborygmos 2.0, and Kozilek 2.0.

Spread: 2

Power: 2

Nahiri the Lithomancer, Balan, and Nazahn will probably run this because they can cheat it onto something. Sram might want this because it’s a cheap equipment, and he draws so many cards that eventually you’ll find your Puresteel Paladin or Sigarda’s Aid to cheat the equip cost.

Spread: 3

Power: 3

I’ve enjoyed using Voltaic Key as an additional mana rock in decks with lots of rocks that tap for two or more mana; this provides some redundancy and the second ability may be useful in decks built around the Kozileks and Ulamogs.

Spread: 2

Power: 3

Amazing in mono-brown lists, and rad in mono-white/red lists trying to fill in the gaps with artifacts. It also seems very good in Jhoira, Weatherlight Captain, since it drops your chance of whiffing down to almost zero.

Spread: 1

Power: 2

Combos with Teshar, a sacrifice outlet, and a 0-CMC artifact creature.

Spread: 4

Power: 3

I would find room for this in any monocolor deck and in select other decks that care about lands (such as the Gitrog Monster or Lord Windgrace).

Spread: 1

Power: 2

Monocolor decks are running too many basics to get 7 lands with different names, and the heavy multicolor decks that have lots of different lands are going to be unwilling to give up a land slot for something that only produces colorless. Monobrown decks, which run almost 100% utility lands and don’t care about colored mana, are in the best position to use this.

Spread: 2

Power: 3

Lotus Vale sees play in a surprising number of decks, including Titania; Hokori; Gitrog; Teferi, Temporal Archmage; Lord Windgrace; Muldrotha; and Derevi. Estrid the Masked can also get extra value out of her untap ability if she’s masked a land that taps for a bunch of mana,

This card is mostly an upgrade, so I imagine it’ll replace or complement Vale in those decks.

Wrapping Up

Please let me know if you think I missed any relevant cards or if you disagree with any of my ratings. Thanks for reading!

[scottynada]

Core Set 2021 Set Review - Black

Pick: 9+ Shortcut: D The only way to create a demon out of Archfiend's Vessel in M21 is Rise Again at common. The 1/1 lifelink creature is just not good enough on its own, but if you have three or more Rise Again I can see playing this as a speed bump to save you some life early by blocking.

Pick: 9+ Shortcut: D The only synergy of merit here is that Liliana's Steward can sacrifice itself for no mana to trigger your other cards that care about dying creatures. If this could always trade for an opponent's card, it wouldn't be the worst since you come out even on cards and only down one mana in that exchange. However, there will be times where you draw this later in the game and it doesn't do much.

Pick: 9+ Shortcut: D Thieves' Guild Enforcer is pretty bad on turn one. It doesn't really interact well in combat. You can do a bunch of work trading off creatures and spells with your opponent until they finally get eight cards in their library and then you get… an okay creature. Jumping through the hoops of waiting until the late game to turn this on just does not seem appealing.

Pick: 6+ Shortcut: C Fetid Imp will do enough just by attacking in for a number of turns in the early game, then being able to switch quickly to defense if the race goes poorly for you. Deathtouch is always a powerful ability on cheap creatures since it means that you will be often trading for a creature that your opponent had to spend more mana on than you spent on this. Your opponents can't even fly over this.

Pick: 2-3 Shortcut: B Kitesail Freebooter won't provide a huge clock on its own, but it does an extremely good job of disrupting your opponent's draw and giving you information about potential tricks that your opponent has in hand. If your opponent wants their card back, they will have to spend a real removal spell to kill this, which is way more than you can ask for for a typical two mana creature.

Pick: 7+ Shortcut: C- Two mana creatures that scale well into the late game are important to pick up in Draft. That being said, Masked Blackguard doesn't scale incredibly well, but it's still better than nothing. Having one toughness normally also hurts when it comes down to early game blocks or some effects that punish one toughness creatures. I don't see Flash as a huge bonus since this will basically never just win in combat, but sometimes you'll be able to surprise your opponent and make a better than average trade.

Pick: 9+ Shortcut: D Is Tavern Swindler the lifegain enabler that we have been waiting for?! Sadly not. It is a repeatable source of life gain for zero mana, but being unreliable is a pretty big blow when you are trying to plan your game around being able to trigger certain abilities. All the life gain payoffs in M21 also trigger on your end step, so to use this as a life gain source would mean tapping it on your main phase, which is just plain awkward since the best part about this card is that it's a two mana 2/2.

Pick: 9+ Shortcut: D Brrrrrrrrrrrr …

Pick: 7+ Shortcut: C- I think Caged Zombie will play out a lot better than it looks. A ⅔ body for three mana isn't exciting, but in the late game this will be a serious threat to your opponent's life total. If you ever chump block, you get to deal damage with this. If you have expendable creatures, you can attack and pretty much guarantee damage even if they block.

Pick: 3-5 Shortcut: C+ Deathbloom Thallid is a great three drop. It plays its role in basically every color combination and archetype well. The 1/1 Saproling that it leaves behind doesn't seem like much, but it always finds some place to be useful. It can provide a second death trigger for Green/Black effects. It can be sacrificed in Red/Black decks. It can find a way to save you a good chunk of life if you are on the defensive. I'd want a good number of these in all my Black decks.

Pick: 2-3 Shortcut: B Hooded Blightfang as a ¼ Deathtouch creature is already pretty solid. It's relatively cheap and there is basically no creature lower on the curve that wins against it in combat. Attacking for two damage isn't too shabby either, considering you will also gain a little extra life before trading this with a larger threat from your opponent. Remember when playing with Fetid Imp, you need to activate the Deathtouch ability before declaring attackers to get that life drain effect.

Pick: 1-3 Shortcut: B Creatures dying is just a normal occurrence in Magic. Liliana's Devotee will trigger and make a 3/2 Zombie every time something dies on your turn. You really don't need to go out of your way with sacrifice effects to make this good. The ability even triggers when that Zombie token dies so you can make another Zombie token.

Pick: 1-3 Shortcut: B You don't need to go out of your way with sacrifice synergies to make Liliana's Standard Bearer good. Just cast this after you've traded off a creature or two in combat and draw some cards. Even drawing one card off this is a great deal for three mana.

Pick: 1-3 Shortcut: B Silversmote Ghoul looks like the most impressive lifegain payoff and a reason to draft differently after you pick it up. Note that this only triggers on your end step, so you have to get more aggressive with your Lifelink creatures or maybe use abilities that gain you life on your turn even if they are Instant speed. If you have extra mana and are gaining life on a turn, don't forget to sacrifice this to draw a card since you'll be getting the Ghoul back for free at the end of turn anyway.

Pick: 1 Shortcut: A Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose seems like a lifegain card, but it's really not. You don't need to go out of your way to play mediocre lifegain spells when you can just play creatures. The lifelink ability is a huge threat and your opponent must answer this or they will die very quickly. They can't even try to race you back since you will just be gaining so much life per attack.

Pick: 3-4 Shortcut: C+ Carrion Grub is actually a lot of stats for just four mana. It works best in a deck with a nice top end of creatures so you can sometimes luck out on turn four with the mill, but even milling a two or three power creature will probably leave you with the biggest creature on the battlefield. This also is a pretty nice curve into Rise Again, but I guess it's kind of awkward that reanimating a creature probably also shrinks the Grub.

Pick: 7+ Shortcut: C- Crypt Lurker seems like a card that bridges archetypes, but is sort of mediocre at its job. If you have outclassed creatures on the field, you can draw off them. If you have an expensive creature in hand that you want to bring back later, you can just discard it. Overall, this is unexciting, but if you are looking for a little extra synergy you can pick this up later in the draft.

Pick: 2-4 Shortcut: B The symmetrical ability on Kaervek, the Spiteful seems unappealing, but you have two major advantages over your opponent when drafting this card. You get to build your deck with this card in mind. After you pick up Kaervek, one toughness creatures seem a little less appealing. Don't go so far as to just avoid all one toughness creatures, but it does tip the scales a little against them. The second advantage is that you get to choose when to even cast this card. If you have some creatures that this would kill on the field, just make it a priority to trade them off before casting this. Certain White aggressive decks won't even be able to handle this.

Pick: 4-6 Shortcut: C+ Skeleton Archer is an important card to keep in mind in M21 because of the way it impacts combat and how the board can swing on turn four. Each Skeleton Archer that your opponent has drastically changes the value of your one toughness creatures. If your opponent makes an odd attack on turn four, just remember they can cast Skeleton Archer after combat to potentially finish off a creature. Also don't forget that Skeleton Archer can hit a player.

Pick: 7+ Shortcut: C- Blood Glutton is kind of a nightmare for opponents trying to race you. The stats on it aren't very impressive, but Lifelink is a super strong ability. If you get this a little help with Equipment or Auras it can run away with the game pretty easily. On its own, expect it to trade inefficiently with cheaper creatures, but maybe buy you an extra turn of life versus an aggressive draw. This is also a pretty good way to trigger your lifegain payoffs when it attacks, but this is still a pretty replaceable five drop.

Pick: 1-3 Shortcut: B At first I was concerned about the castability of Goremand. I still think it's going to be a bigger cost than people are expecting on certain boards, but you should also be able to play your game with this in mind - perhaps not taking a decent trade to keep some sacrifice fodder on the field. This creature is just massive and will kill your opponent very quickly once resolved. It's also not trivial to kill, dodging a lot of the common removal spells. Also note that this is a prime target to reanimate with Rise Again since you only have to pay the additional sacrifice cost when casting it normally.

Pick: 1 Shortcut: A I don't think Massacre Wurm is very fun. At least the game usually ends right after you cast this.

Pick: 9+ Shortcut: D Gloom Sower is expensive and mediocre. That being said, it still is seven mana worth of creature. If you draw this off the top of your deck with seven lands, it will feel pretty good. If your opponent multi blocks this, it will drain for two for each blocker. I would never prioritize this since there are so many better options for expensive finishers, but if you are scrounging for this type of effect, this will be fine.

Pick: 9+ Shortcut: D If you are battling large Green creatures, the Deathtouch mode on Alchemist's Gift can be used. If you are battling a smaller aggressive deck, Lifelink is pretty good. Overall, I don't think Alchemist's Gift is quite good enough at either to be a strong card. Giving something +1/+1 is usually not enough to win combat consistently, meaning you'll probably be trading this and your creature for your opponent's stuff.

Pick: 9+ Shortcut: D Duress is usually pretty poor. Even if your opponent has powerful spells, draft decks are usually way too creature heavy to reliably hit something. You may miss if you cast this early in the game and you will almost for sure miss if you draw this later. The only thing keeping this from actual unplayability is that the Blue/Red decks in this format are extremely spell dense. Maybe it can find a home there, but I still think a vanilla creature would be mostly better.

Pick: 7+ Shortcut: C- I think Village Rites is an interesting case of an extremely powerful card being in a format that isn't exactly the best for it. The sacrifice decks don't really come together consistently on synergy in M21 so Village Rites is left a little out in the cold. That being said, this is still a perfectly fine card. In a normal game, you'll find your early creatures being outclassed later and you'll be happy to cash them in for extra cards. This is cheap enough to leave up on your opponent's turn and be able to draw cards in response to removal spells easily.

Pick: 9+ Shortcut: D Witch's Cauldron is a pretty big question mark for me in the format right now. I don't really see a great place for this considering Village Rites is a common and also a card not a lot of other decks want. You need to be activating this a fair number of times on low value creatures to really feel like this is worth a card in your hand. I'm pretty sure most decks won't end up like that, so I wouldn't pick this early in the draft and would take a hard look at my deck before drafting it later on.

Pick: 3-5 Shortcut: C+ Don't get Eliminated confused with "hard" removal spells. The purpose of "hard" removal is to be able to trade with your opponent's best threats when your creatures cannot. Eliminate plays out more like a really effective way to trade off in the early game with an added bonus of potentially getting a 2-for-1 at Instant speed. It's still quite a good card, but make sure you understand what it is and isn't when checking the balance of your deck.

Pick: 1-3 Shortcut: B Grasp of Darkness is efficient and removes almost any threat while probably netting you some mana. Holding this up to outmaneuver a combat trick is pretty easy, and even if you can't kill a creature directly, you can use this as a trick to shrink your opponent's stuff in combat. The double black cost means that less decks will attempt to splash this, meaning more Grasps for the Black players!

Pick: 9+ Shortcut: D Not getting the card immediately is a big downside to Infernal Scarring. Your opponent has the most control over when you get the card, and may even be able to prevent it entirely with Enchantment removal or bounce spells. I don't really see a place where you would be happy running this card, so try to do so only when desperate for extra spells.

Pick: 1-2 Shortcut: B Malefic Scythe is tricky to read, but once it hits the battlefield, you will feel how threatening it is. The initial impact isn't huge, but after a single additional soul gets added, this becomes a huge and cheap threat. The difference between +1/+1 and +2/+2 on an equipment is very large. This card even has the potential to keep growing from there. Even without sacrifice synergies, this card would be great just off of normal trades and creature combat. If this isn't answered, it will turn all of your late game draws into massive threats.

Pick: 4-6 Shortcut: C+ I'm going to say it. I love Shrines. I really do, but they really don't deliver in M21. This is a 1/1 unblockable, lifelink creature that can't block itself. If you pick up another Shrine in your color, fine, but I think going around splashing Shrines is a recipe for disaster unless your deck is very well equiped for it.

Pick: 1 Shortcut: B A big part of draft is knowing that your early game creatures will do their job, but then become mostly irrelevant in the late game. This card singlehanded turns that in its head and means even your no ability 2/2 is going to be a massive, evasive threat. This also just never goes away. I don't expect the three life loss to be too punishing since you are serving that damage right back at the opponent.

Pick: Grim & Evil Shortcut: F It's easy to see Grim Tutor as having two copies of your best card, but would that card still be as great if it cost an additional three mana and three life? Most of the time not, even for the strongest Mythics in the set. You can't overestimate how strong your bombs are and think that you want to play this over a card that can help you in other parts of the game.

Pick: 9+ Shortcut: D It's not hard to see Mind Rot as a straightforward 2-for-1, but there are going to be times where you draw this later when your opponent has no cards in hand where a traditional draw two spell would be very welcome. This is playable, but don't lump this in the same card advantage category when building your deck.

Pick: RIP Shortcut: F If my opponent had Ugin in their deck, I would not bring in Necromentia. Don't fall into the trap of playing a card that is so bad for you because of fear of a card your opponent might not even draw. Even if you expect your opponent to see a good chunk of their deck in the matchup, it's always going to be a better plan to just stick with executing what your deck is already trying to do. This card is three mana wasted that sometimes will even add to your opponent's board.

Pick: 6+ Shortcut: C Cards like Pestilent Haze are very polarized in how good they are from match to match. I always want access to one of these in my controlling Black decks and would even sideboard this in as an aggressive deck on the draw versus aggro.

Pick: 1 Shortcut: B Power level aside, I kind of like this card since it breaks the mold of Planeswalkers just being busted when you play them on curve. Liliana, Waker of the Dead needs cards in your graveyard to fuel its -2 ability and sometimes discarding cards when you cast this on curve is just awkward. That being said, it's still a Planeswalker that demands an answer and will just be back breaking if you have a decent curve to protect it or is just cast later with a full graveyard and kills the opponent's best creature.

Pick: 7+ Shortcut: C- If your deck needs a form of late game advantage, you can do worse than Sanguine Indulgence. Buying back two of your best creatures in the graveyard is a pretty powerful effect, but it won't help you at all in the early stages of the game. This effect is legitimately very strong if you can trigger its mana discount consistently. The best way to get the discount is probably through trading Lifelink creatures. Even if your deck is well suited for this, I still wouldn't want too many of this type of effect since they really only work after the game has developed a bit.

Pick: 2-4 Shortcut: B Finishing Blow isn't flashy, but it gets the job done. This is a nice emergency button to have when facing opposing bomb creatures. Its weakness is that you can't rely on this to save you if you fall too far behind versus a cheap, aggressive draw. Trading five mana for cheap creatures isn't a great way to come back in the game.

Pick: 6+ Shortcut: C Rise Again is the centerpiece common for the Blue/Black "reanimator" style deck in M21. There are a surplus of large creatures in the format and some decent ways to get them in the graveyard. If you are looking to be in a deck that can fill your graveyard through mill or discard, make sure to prioritize these at some point in the draft. Bringing back a seven drop on turn five is legitimately powerful and demands a pretty quick answer from the opponent.

Pick: 9+ Shortcut: D This is legitimately a big swing in card advantage. If you are battling a deck that has no great way of pressuring your life total, I would bring this out of the sideboard for sure.

Pick: NSFW Shortcut: F There are enough ways to gain card advantage without needing to rely on hitting seven mana and bringing yourself half to death for this. The idea of using this on your opponent to kill or mill them also seems way too fanciful to play.

[aotpheroscapeproject]

Update & Potentially resuming soon(?)

I recently got a new replacement Rise of the Valkyrie master set, which means that I can now start playtesting the units I’ve converted thus far. However, I also had an idea as of recent. A local game shop I frequent has had a MTG Creature Forge gravity feed for sale for $70 for quite some time. Since it’s sealed and full, it should have a large majority of the 28 different figures. If nothing else, it’ll be a great start, and converting these shouldn’t be too difficult.

My plan is to use these figures to make Common creatures for AOP. The rulebooks mention Commons, but they were never implemented. Since all the Uniques were based on Creature Spells, I figured it’d make sense to base the Commons on Creature Tokens. Since these figures are also relatively easy to buy online, it should open up plenty of extra fun for AOP players everywhere.

I’ll list any plans I have after the list below the fold. There are 28 different figures, so here’s a rundown for anyone interested:

6 white creatures:

4/4 Angel flying

1/1 Bird flying

5/5 Horse

1/1 Pegasus flying

1/1 Soldier

1/1 Spirit flying

1 blue creature:

2/2 Drake flying

5 black creatures:

5/5 Demon flying

1/1 Faerie Rogue flying

2/2 Pirate menace

1/1 Rat deathtouch

2/2 Zombie

2 red creatures:

5/5 Dragon flying

1/1 Goblin

10 green creatures:

2/2 Bear

3/3 Beast

3/3 Dinosaur trample

*/* Ooze

0/1 Plant

1/1 Saproling

1/1 Snake

1/2 Spider reach

2/2 Wolf

5/5 Wurm

1 gold (mixed) creature:

1/1 red/blue Insect flying, haste

3 colorless figures:

3/3 Golem (Artifact Creature)

1/1 Sliver (Creature)

Treasure (Artifact)

I’m planning to make a majority (if not all) Common Creatures have only 1 life, but I may instead opt for this to only apply to Common Squad Creatures to balance out their numbers. I want to avoid the need for too many damage markers with just how many commons you could potentially stuff onto a field.

As for Power/Toughness, I want to carry those over directly, but I’m not sure how well that’s going to go. I’ll probably have to see what the average number of figures/gravity feed is for each Token. This will influence my decision for the figures/card. Right now, I’m thinking common = 3-figure squad, uncommon = 2-figure squad, and rare = hero creature (based on their rarity, not their uniqueness). This will also help determine cost and PPF cost. Movement and Range will likely be the most difficult. Height is the easiest, since it’s based on the physical height of the figure (height # = levels of terrain tile figure occupies).

For menace, I’ll have to look at what the ability does to translate it into AOP. As for reach, I think the most sensible thing is to allow reach to ignore flying when making opportunity attacks, meaning that figures with flying will still have to disengage if they’re adjacent to a figure with reach. This should allow the most logical transition from the the TCG to AOP, and with the fact that 2 of the 3 options for green Planeswalkers are dual-color, this allows red and blue to also have access through Kiora and Arlinn. Since a lot of flying is with white and black, this should balance well.

With deathtouch, I’m thinking it would work best as an ability that gives the target -1 Toughness when attacked by a creature with deathtouch. I’ll have to play around with it and see if allowing this to stack is too overpowered, as I dread bringing about the next “Zergling rush” meta. More than likely it will not stack, since many of these Tokens only have 1 Toughness to begin with.

As for the Ooze and its “*/*” P/T, if I go with the figures/card method above, they’d be 2 Oozes per army card. This works well with my idea, where their P/T is equal to the number of ally Oozes adjacent to it. Thematically, this means they all are merging into a really big Ooze that can split apart freely. Of course, anything in the center of a horde can’t really attack, but can give bonuses to all surrounding Oozes. This works well with green’s focus on growth and pack tactics, and still offers plenty of limitations. Only 2 Oozes can be activated in a turn, since they’d be 2 per army card. This means that moving a large congregation of Oozes would be slow and impractical. They’d mostly serve as a zone-of-control hazard, and they become weaker as more of them die, making them only as strong as they can stay whole.

Finally, for the Treasure artifact, it would have either an army card or, much like the cryptoliths, a section for their rules as an object. I think giving them a card is the easiest thing to do, but they could still have special rules as “objectives” for custom scenarios. My thought is for the Treasure to let you replenish 1 spell card from your graveyard upon using it. It could also have a d20 roll feature where rolling a 1 causes you to take damage (trapped), and rolling a 20 lets you get 2 spells back rather than 1 (rich treasure).

The rest of these tokens are either plain or have abilities that have already been converted to AOP officially (flying, trample, and haste). Thus, they don’t need anything particularly special beyond basic stat tweaks. I’ll also be using the same card templates I made before in order to make proper army cards for these. I’ll also scan the artwork for the token card (I believe they come with one in each corresponding pack) and use that for the army cards’ art, thus keeping them consistent and looking right at home with the rest of your AOP collection.

Thankfully, this will add some much needed variety to both green and black. Red and especially blue won’t get much, but red doesn’t need further variety than the dragon and goblin, and blue is so focused on control that rush tactics aren’t very helpful. The drakes will offer more of an “emergency button” by being decent fliers who can zip around and aid an important figure who’s being chased, forcing the pursuer to disengage in order to avoid being attacked in their efforts. White will have a few options, which is good with its focus on armies and defense. The only issue I foresee is that - and this sounds weird - the Pegasus and the Bird are exactly the same. Uncommon white 1/1 with flying. I think I’ll mix this up by giving the Bird only 1 Life/figure with much more Movement, while making the Pegasus slower but healthier. I’ll do the same for the Wolf and Bear respectively. There will be plenty to do, but I’m excited to see how this goes.