miscellaneous card design discussion thread

[folding_music]

I think it'd be a lot of fun to compile an entire set from submissions to the CC forum, everyone contributing silly art towards the cause! Make it like a Modern Horizons-ish or Future Sight-ish set, where the commons can still be pushed and moderately wordy, and set no limit on the number of mechanics or counters or creature types or the like; less of a "try and make a set that'd look like a standard expansion WOTC made" angle and more of a "let's put all the community's coolest ideas in one place" deal!

If you think about there being multiple irregular games running alongside at least two daily competition threads, there's an amazing amount of custom cards being submitted every day, already a huge pool of resources and I don't just mean the cards that win!

[Pygyzy]

Sounds fun. I've been planting my Urban Horror cards in my designs whenever I get the chance. I could rework some of the more oddball ones to be more "core-friendly".

One thing I always thought were cool but I'm surprised have never shown up in a core are the Seals. Anything that can be used as a rattlesnake has always been fun to me. Plus I'm happy that WOTC has started putting color hosers back in core. Take those two together.

Glyph of the Dawn W
Enchantment — Aura
Enchant creature
Enchanted creature has protection from black.
Sacrifice Glyph of the Dawn: Exile target Vampire, Zombie or Demon.

I'm sure there's a lot of design space there.

Another mechanic I liked that never got another chance is the Auras that care about other Auras. The magemarks. Those always seemed core friendly.

[folding_music]

yes! Enchantments really get mistreated in core sets.

i had kinda been thinking on a variant of Seals which'd basically be Curses you could sacrifice, ie:

Gaea's Curse 2gg
Enchantment - Aura
Enchant player
Enchanted player's artifact spells cost more to play.
Sacrifice Gaea's Curse: Destroy up to two target artifacts enchanted player controls.

[Pygyzy]

Oh ya that's great. Very rattlesnakey. And ya core set enchantments are always meh. Stuff like Colossification is normally all we get. I'm not complaining. I put colossification on an Auratouched Mage with a Pollenbright Wings and went to town. But the <<previously printed enchantment subtype in C21>> is the first time I've really been happy with enchantments in a core that I can remember

[user_938036]

Folding_music, how could you make "Gaea's Curse" not a curse?

That said it's a cool. But I'm fairly certain that your activated ability doesn't quite work. Because you are sacrificing the enchantment the targeting of enchanted player's artifacts fails.

[folding_music]

heeee, oops, I meant to write Curse on it! well spotted!

I think the Last Known Information clause allows you to word a card in this manner? pretty sure I remember a ruling to that effect

[chochky]

The sacrifice ability on folding_music's card should work, as cards like Coils of the Medusa and Briar Shield still work as originally intended (more or less).

[folding_music]

https://scryfall.com/search?q=fo%3A%22w ... ou+scry%22

giggle. two cards that notice when you scry. an ability which has been with us since... Fifth Dawn? How would you incorporate "Whenever you scry" into a card, would you give it to a particular creature type or colour? so far it seems very red lol

[spacemonaut]

Blackglass Sphinx 2UR
Creature — Sphinx Advisor
Trample
If you would scry one or more cards, instead scry that many cards plus one.
Whenever you scry, Blackglass Sphinx gets +X/+0 until end of turn, where X is the number of cards you scried.
0/4

[Legend]

About two years ago, at Salvation, someone (I forget who) designed some nice cards for a scry matters theme in Simic. It works well in Izzet and Temur, too. I'm using scry matters in my set, in which all colors scry a bit. The payoff cards are green and blue, with an uncommon Simic signpost and a mythic Temur card.

[BOVINE]

About two years ago, at Salvation, someone (I forget who) designed some nice cards for a scry matters theme in Simic. It works well in Izzet and Temur, too. I'm using scry matters in my set, in which all colors scry a bit. The payoff cards are green and blue, with an uncommon Simic signpost and a mythic Temur card.

Do you have any novel payoffs or uses in mind already? Scry is wonderful

Edit adding: Top of deck peeking or casting, explore, manifest, reveal top card for effect, are a few noteworthy mechanics
Edit again: incorporating scry with some sort of clash mechanic may be neat.

[Legend]

Do you have any novel payoffs or uses in mind already? Scry is wonderful

"Novel"? No. Haha! Just typical stuff like "whenever you scry, something special happens.":
Gain life
+X/+X
Tap
Untap
Mill
Draw

I'll miss a direct damage effect that red could provide. Maybe I can squeeze it onto the Temur mythic.

[folding_music]

Circulatory Chant 1w
Instant
Promise - Gain 2 life (You may exile this card from your hand or graveyard as an instant. While this card is in exile, whenever you cast a spell with the same name as it, gain 2 life, then put this card on the bottom of your library.)
Create a 1/1 white Spirit creature token with flying.

Is there a more efficient way to word this ability? I'm excited about what it does and don't want to change it mechanically very much.
Acts like Kindle et al but with a forced restock and more resilient to haphazard gravekill, and harder to cheat too. But it takes up most of a card's textbox by itself...

and is the phrase "if you own it" already implicit on exiled card triggers?

[silver_skeleton]

I would replace the first sentence with an activated ability:

Promise - Gain 2 life (0: Exile this card from your hand or graveyard. As long as it's exiled, the next time you cast a spell with its name, gain 2 life, then put this card on the bottom of your library.)

In reminder text you can take some liberties like shortening "the same name" to its name. Not a lot shorter, but at least it's something.

If you repeat the effect in the reminder, then length will vary more.

I think the owner doesn't need to be referenced, because the ability is refering to the player who played it, so it wouldn't trigger for other players.

But you should consider leaving it exiled and triggering multiple times. Just don't provide too good effects.