My Magic: The Gathering creations

[Zom B]

I know we've had at least one Magic Set Editor (http://magicseteditor.sourceforge.net/) thread before, but thought I'd put some stuff up a friend and I are working on for our own uses.

Where possible, I have gone to great lengths to put the artist's name on the card, or their deviantart username if you want to track them down. Some art does come from other sources, such as sites that host thousands of wallpapers, which are terrible at telling you the artist name.

So here is the latest creation of mine, representing the feud between the pirate crews of the Blackwater and the Dawnrunner.


http://img401.imageshack.us/img401/2784/thedawnrunner.jpg
http://img21.imageshack.us/img21/5333/dawnrunnercaptain.jpg
http://img804.imageshack.us/img804/6958/dawnrunnermarauder.jpg
http://img811.imageshack.us/img811/1677/dawnrunnercorsairs.jpg
http://img713.imageshack.us/img713/3128/handsondeck.jpg
http://img42.imageshack.us/img42/1150/dawnrunnercrew.jpg

http://img705.imageshack.us/img705/1734/theblackwater.jpg
http://img440.imageshack.us/img440/8836/blackwatermistress.jpg
http://img191.imageshack.us/img191/6682/blackwaterboarder.jpg
http://img213.imageshack.us/img213/2453/blackwatercrew.jpg
http://img848.imageshack.us/img848/2559/blackwaterraid.jpg
http://img192.imageshack.us/img192/972/blackwaterraider.jpg


Next, I have two planeswalkers. I admit I have little experience using planeswalkers, so I'm probably off on them on several points. However, I think I got pretty close.


http://img823.imageshack.us/img823/2940/athgariodhstormrider.jpg
http://img100.imageshack.us/img100/8032/fenthetrickster.jpg


Then we have a smattering of other things:

http://img442.imageshack.us/img442/6579/vampotence.jpg
http://img62.imageshack.us/img62/8069/trickstersgambit.jpg
http://img259.imageshack.us/img259/3507/extrinsicscholar.jpg
http://img217.imageshack.us/img217/3767/uneasytruce.jpg
http://img825.imageshack.us/img825/3339/rockbreakercolossus.jpg
http://img805.imageshack.us/img805/1393/mercyarchangel.jpg
http://img688.imageshack.us/img688/9329/vasiliasthecryptlord.jpg
http://img26.imageshack.us/img26/5292/falkenrathbloodmagus.jpg
Elistra here is supposed to be a Mythic Rare, I forgot to change the rarity:
http://img839.imageshack.us/img839/2199/elistravampirearchmage.jpg


The next thing I was toying with was something I'd always wanted to do, and that was the creation of "superlands." They always seemed too powerful an idea to me, but seeing some lands nowadays, I think they're fine:

http://img715.imageshack.us/img715/2523/meadow.jpg
http://img201.imageshack.us/img201/7108/oceani.jpg
http://img600.imageshack.us/img600/8637/marshi.jpg
http://img152.imageshack.us/img152/2647/volcano.jpg
http://img696.imageshack.us/img696/2227/junglec.jpg


Next, I introduce expansions of the terms "Basic" and "Legendary":

http://img4.imageshack.us/img4/384/goblinhorde.jpg
http://img84.imageshack.us/img84/9128/guildmagi.jpg
http://img109.imageshack.us/img109/2608/devourerswarm.jpg
http://img440.imageshack.us/img440/1306/kithkinoutrider.jpg
Black doesn't have a basic creature because they already have Relentless Rats, btw.

Here are the Legendary cards. More are to come. Essentially, since they are cards representing one shot at doing something, they are better than the cards that they emulate.
http://img528.imageshack.us/img528/8610/noteoffinality.jpg
http://img42.imageshack.us/img42/3016/quell.jpg


Whew, so that's a lot of stuff to look over, and it's not all of it.

[The Extinguisher]

Just a couple things.

1. What's with all the Future Sight frames?
2. Piracy is a weird mechanic, too narrow, and probably not worth it.
3. You're two ships are too complicated. Just have them track one creature type, not two.
4. The Planeswalkers seem really good, at least the blue one does. Assuming you fix the first ability (there's not really a good way to play loyalty abilities as an instant), it's still the nuts. Like, better than Jace, the Mindsculptor. Brainstorm and Counterspell as a positive abilities. Too good.
5. You're general card design suffer from trying to do too much. Simplicity is a big thing when it comes to design.
6. Those lands are busted. Like, better than any other land ever busted. Those drawbacks are nothing.
7. Basic and Legendary doesn't need to extend to other types. Nonlands that aren't basic can be easily fixed with the Relentless Rats wording, and you don't want to many cards that do that, because the four of restriction is an important deck building tool, and most of those cards are bad when there's only one of them.
8. Also, having legendary instants and sorceries are too complicated. It's easy enough to do otherwise. Just put "you cannot cast this is a card with the same name in your graveyard" or whatever. As is, you're ability makes the game work weird when you cast it, and someone puts another copy in your graveyard while it's on the stack.

I mean, good ideas and all, but you need to cut back on the complexity. You're trying to do too much. Remember that the majority of magic sets are full of Gray Orges and Grizzly Bears.

[Studoku]

Some interesting cards there. My 2 cents, becoming a dollar with interest:

1. Those lands are hideously broken. Lands should not provide ramp by themselves without a severe risk and/or downside which these lands don't have. The red, white and blue ones are barely noticable, the black one is potentially an advantage and the green one is only problematic because of targetting rules making it unusable if your opponent has no creatures.
2. You overuse the x/x mechanic. It's not really necessary on a lot of these cards and it adds more wordiness. Give the ships a flat p/t for example- they're useful enough as is.
3. Piracy is complex and often useless. There are better mechanics to use to represent stealing things (Thieving Magpie's is a good example).
4. Dawnrunner Corsairs is missing its p/t
5. Hands on deck and blackwater raid are a bit strong for 2 mana when you factor in the versitility of them (ie the buyback). Consider increasing the cost by 1 and maybe reducing the buyback by 1.
6. Fen doesn't work. The first ability, even with the instant speed clause can still only counter spells played during your turn. The brainstorm ability is a more overpowered version of the one that caused Jace the Mind Sculptor to be banned.

[Nate the Snake]

First off, some templating suggestions.

Dawnrunner Captain/Blackwater Mistress
Other Pirates you control get +1/+1 and have piracy 1.

Lords use "have" when granting keyword abilities. "Gain" is for granting the keyword temporarily (e.g., "gains intimidate until end of turn").


Hands on Deck
Put a 2/2 white and blue Human Pirate token with first strike named Dawnrunner Crew onto the battlefield.

Blackwater Raid
Put a 2/2 blue and black Zombie Pirate token named Blackwater Raider onto the battlefield with "(B): Regenerate this creature."

"Treat this token as" verbiage is out of date. Also, naming the tokens is unnecessary and just adds extra text.


Blackwater Boarder
(B): Regenerate Blackwater Boarder.

Blackwater Crew
(B): Regenerate Blackwater Crew.

Regeneration is transitive; it needs to specify what is being regenerated.


Athgariodh Stormrider
{-2}: Until end of turn, target creature gets +1/+0 for each Mountain you control and gets +0/+1 for each Forest you control.
OR
{-2}: Target creature gets +X/+X until end of turn, where X is the number of Mountains and/or Forests you control.

All values of X on a card must be the same, which may not be the case when you're counting Mountains and Forests separately. The second version is a different functionality, but it's more elegant.


Trickster's Gambit
You may skip your next turn rather than pay Trickster's Gambit's mana cost.
Counter target spell.

Alternate costs are written before (and separately from) the effects of cards.
(On an unrelated note, my inner Melvin wants to use this to counter a Time Warp. :smalltongue:)


Mercy, Archangel
Whenever a source would deal damage to you, prevent that damage. For each damage prevented this way, put a +1/+1 counter on Mercy, Archangel.

Change to a triggered ability for clarity.


Elistra, Vampire Archmage
Whenever a creature dealt damage by Elistra dies this turn, put two +1/+1 counters on Elistra, Vampire Archmage.

Elistra should use the same counters as Falkenrath Bloodmagus for their similar abilities, and +2/+2 counters are obsolete anyway.
Now, some comments on design/balance.
The Dawnrunner/The Blackwater
As mentioned, counting two different creature types is unnecessarily complex.
They also want to be Legendary, but that causes issues with space on the type line.

Dawnrunner Captain/Blackwater Mistress
Aside from the double tribal thing again, Blackwater Mistress shouldn't have/grant fear. Fear has been phased out and replaced with fear; having both side by side is weird and defeats the point of intimidate.

Fen, the Trickster
As mentioned, Counterspell and Brainstorm should not be positive loyalty abilities (and the former doesn't really work as a loyalty ability). On top of that, his ultimate is completely broken. Being able to cast all your spells for free is a BAD idea.

Vampotence
As a variant of Necropotence and Yawgmoth's Bargain, this does not inspire confidence as far as balance is concerned. Though maybe that's just because I immediately thought of breaking it in half with Morselhoarder (http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=159407).

Extrinsic Scholar
The ability should target the opponent. It should probably also lose the "until end of turn" clause, since that causes rules headaches. (Plus, mono-blue elf? :smallconfused:)

Falkenrath Bloodmagus
This should be black/red instead of blue/black. "Falkenrath" means its an Innistrad vampire, and Innistrad vampires are black/red. Plus, pinging is a red ability.

Elistra, Vampire Archmage
This should also be black/red. Pinging is out-of-color for black.

"Superlands"
Way too super. Nothing else to say, really.

"Basic" creatures
WotC actually considered giving Relentless Rats the basic supertype. Ultimately they decided that it wasn't worth the trouble. Nonlands don't need to be basic, the Relentless Rats text works fine.

Guild Magi
Too complex for a "basic" card, and blue doesn't get pinging anymore.

Devourer Swarm
Green doesn't get flying in general, and it especially shouldn't get flying on an unlimited creature. The land destruction effect is also questionable on a spammable card.

"Legendary" instants/sorceries
The legendary supertype doesn't really make sense on instants and sorceries, and it only applies to permanents as written. Redefining it would be a lot of trouble for little gain when the "legendary spell" effect can be accomplished with a different mechanic, something like "You can't cast spells named CARDNAME for the rest of the game."

Quell
Legendary supertype issues notwithstanding, this card breaks one of the cardinal rules of card design: counterspells require at least two blue mana. It's too strong even if it's only played once a game.
(Whew, that was a long reply...)

[Nightson]

Elistra is really, really weak for 8 mana, she should deal damage equal to her power when she taps imo