MTGNexus Custom Card Creation Random Card of the Day

[M00NSIDIAN]

Close enough, at least. Immortal Phoenix and maybe Skyfire Phoenix might have it beat? Either way, there's definitely a lot more complicated phoenix designs, but they're trying to do cleaner designs.

Segovian Phoenix R
Creature - Phoenix (R?)
Flying
Discard a card: Return ~ from your graveyard to your hand.
1/1

Yeah, clearly I just saw Segovian Angel again last night and it's stuck in my mind a bit, because it's kind of silly. I'm putting this at rare because of its cheap recursion (and because this is honestly kind of abusable with the right setup), but also, here's an even tinier and possibly even simpler phoenix design. 4/2 seems both small and big at the same time. I associate phoenixes in general as 2/2, but I was surprised by just how many X/3s there were when I checked.

[void_nothing]

The MTGNexus Custom Card Creation Random Card of the Day for 3/27/20 is Savage Summoning.

A lot of value for one mana!

[M00NSIDIAN]

Definitely not the only Quicken for creatures. I think I like Scout's Warning better. On the other hand, this is a good ability to have kicking around once in a while. I just can't add much to the design without making it clunkier.

Combo options are common enough, from simple designs like Nekrataal, to obvious-but-weird like basically making Mystic Snake minus flash. Here's something that would probably not see print in its current state, but would work nicely with Savage Summoning:

Sandblaster Mage 1R
Creature - Viashino Wizard (R)
When ~ enters the battlefield, it deals damage equal to its power to the active player and each creature that players controls.
1/4

I'm not 100% sure how this functions in 2HG and other team games, but I still kind of scratch my head a little about Maddening Imp and team games, so...

[void_nothing]

The MTGNexus Custom Card Creation Random Card of the Day for 4/4/20 is Boundless Realms.

An all-time piece of flavor text.

[Morpic_Tide]

This card has the same issue as Nyxbloom Ancient, where it costs so much that you should be already winning the game. In both cases, hyperramp and X-cost spam give them a niche, as does applicable discounts and storage of mana, but the underlying thing is that a ramp effect that costs more than 4 is going to be very niche because it's competing for deck space with cheaper ramp and is going to come out after you have your mana base established.

[SecretInfiltrator]

An all-time piece of flavor text.

On insights about planeswalking I'll go with Planar Void.

[user_938036]

An all-time piece of flavor text.

On insights about planeswalking I'll go with Planar Void.

As that one is said by a nonplaneswalker it is especially on point. The nonwalker has absolutely no control over what's

happening.

[void_nothing]

The MTGNexus Custom Card Creation Random Card of the Day for 4/5/20 is Magma Spray.

Cheap burn with graveyard/dies trigger hosing? VERY reprintable.

[SecretInfiltrator]

One benefit of using "When ~ dies, pay cost. If you do, return ~ to the battlefield." over regeneration is that this card already answers those cards without specialized "can't be regenerated" clause.

These two clauses and the "unpreventable damage" clause used to be quite common, but only one is left in common usage with neither regeneration nor protection evergreen anymore.

[void_nothing]

The MTGNexus Custom Card Creation Random Card of the Day for 4/7/20 is Disenchant.

Hard to argue with the classics, but white destroying artifacts always sort of struck me as skirting a line. It's hard to imagine, for example, a straight-up white Shatter. But Divine Offering is very much a thing.

[SecretInfiltrator]

Hard to argue with the classics, but white destroying artifacts always sort of struck me as skirting a line. It's hard to imagine, for example, a straight-up white Shatter. But Divine Offering is very much a thing.

I feel white gets so little pure artifact removal because white can just remove any kind of permanent and the more restrictive options just get something else tagged on. It's more about "keeping colors distinct" and "reserving design space for the more narrow color" which is why white artifact removal usually does something else that keeps it from taking a card away from red. Otherwise there's nothing preventing a white Melt IMO. Just nine out of ten times you'd give red the nod for pure artifact removal and change white around a little.

When you have an artifact theme though, Divine Offering gets printed. When you have a thematic card to represent some lore, you get Topple the Statue, but white needs that extra incentive to limit itself like that. But one out of ten happens eventually, too.

[void_nothing]

The MTGNexus Custom Card Creation Random Card of the Day for 4/8/20 is Ihsan's Shade.

Well it looks like we have a redesign challenge on our hands.

[M00NSIDIAN]

On the one hand: yes.

On the other: Homelands lore is a huge blind spot for me. My first instinct is to make an Ihsan, Serra Paladin front face that transforms into Ihsan's Shade when a condition is met (enchanted by a black aura?), but again, kind of unsure.

[SecretInfiltrator]

On the other: Homelands lore is a huge blind spot for me. My first instinct is to make an Ihsan, Serra Paladin front face that transforms into Ihsan's Shade when a condition is met (enchanted by a black aura?), but again, kind of unsure.

Sure. Why not?

Just make sure the Shade face gets "{B}: ~ gets +1/+1 until end of turn." or a variant there-of. Maybe the white face, too.

Reading up on the Ihsan-lore there is more than I was previously aware of, apparently Ihsan as a Shade still is mentally a Serra paladin and enemy of Baron Sengir, just not in control of his own actions.

That seems like a challenge to capture in mechanics. The current design is just so... utilitarian.

[M00NSIDIAN]

More or less. Story integration in the olden days could be really funky. It got noticeably better starting from Weatherlight, but even that was subpar compared to where we're at today. Getting around to properly building, say, "Homelands 2.0" will take a while for me for a wide variety of reasons, but getting a better handle on the lore (of which there seems to be a decent chunk) is a big one.

So until then, I'm going with this:

Ihsan, Serra Paladin 2WW
Legendary Creature - Human Knight
First strike
W: ~ gets +1/+1 until end of turn.
When ~ becomes enchanted by a black aura, transform ~.
2/2
//
Ihsan's Shade
(Color indicator: B) Legendary Creature - Shade Knight
Protection from white
B: ~ gets +1/+1 until end of turn.
5/5

Might warrant some retouching but the basics are there. Shade pump on both sides since white used to have some access to it (see Blessing) even outside of Shade of Trokair. This design reminds me a lot of Righteous War, for some reason (mostly in positioning white and black in conflict with each other on a card with a color identity of W/B).

[void_nothing]

So Ihsan's pretty cool. I think there are multiple ways to capture him.

Ihsan the Despised 2BB
Legendary Creature - Shade Knight (M)
Protection from white
When Ihsan the Despised enters the battlefield, each opponent creates three 2/2 white Knight creature tokens with vigilance.
Whenever Ihsan the Despised attacks, for each opponent, destroy up to one target Knight that player controls. Ihsan deals damage to that player equal to that Knight's power.
7/7

Ihsan, Servant of the Ring BBB
Legendary Creature - Shade Knight (M)
Haste
When Ihsan, Servant of the Ring enters the battlefield, create Dark Signet Ring, a legendary black artifact token. It has "T, Put a charge counter on this artifact: You lose 1 life and add B for each charge counter on this artifact" and "Whenever a player has a higher life total than any other, that player gains control of this artifact."
Whenever a player gains control of an artifact named Dark Signet Ring, that player gains control of Ihsan.
4/4

[Pygyzy]

Really like Servant of the ring. I feel like it could be a little less wordy. My suggestion would be something like, "Create a legendary black artifact token named Cursed Ring. It has, "T: Sacrifice a creature other than Ishan: Add BBBB and lose 4 life. An opponent gains control of this and Ishan."

It's different than what you probably wanted but I was trying to make it a little less fiddly.

Feel like the despised should have something to do with Serfs. Giving each opponent 6 power could be dangerous (3 opponents - 18 power!) but I love hunted creatures. Not a fan of the last ability tho, feels like trinket text to me. I get why it's there, just doesn't feel mythic. (Kill 3 2/2s deal 2 damage to each opponent. Feels underwhelming.)

Love the designs! Hope my suggestions are helpful. I was judging these for commander since that's what I typically play. Despised is much stronger 1v1.

[void_nothing]

The MTGNexus Custom Card Creation Random Card of the Day for 4/17/20 is Nighthowler.

Succinct text.

[SecretInfiltrator]

One of the long-term benefits of adopting +X/+X wording (over "power and toughness are each equal") even on cards that don't require it themselves functionally is that they are now also working better with mutate.

[void_nothing]

The MTGNexus Custom Card Creation Random Card of the Day for 4/19/20 is Desolation Twin.

One of my favorite Eldrazi because of its simplicity and for being a numerically pleasing total 20/20 for {10}.

[Morpic_Tide]

It's on-cast, as well, so it doesn't generate more when you Flicker it like mad or cheat it into play, and goes off even if it gets countered, making it a perfect feature of a "Battlecruiser" set.

[void_nothing]

The MTGNexus Custom Card Creation Random Card of the Day for 4/28/20 is Gauntlet of Might.

How many homages to this card exist already?

[Pygyzy]

Still in Un-territory sorry

Gauntlet of I Might 3R
Artifact
Mountains you control get +1/+1.
Red creatures you control have, "T: Roll a six-sided die. If the result is even, add R.
"Our greatest warriors went up that mountain and never came back. Some say you can still see them to this day. Oh look, you can! HEY! HEY GUYS!" — Torgo, Goblin Ophthalmologist

[void_nothing]

The Mountain pump there amuses me to no end.

[void_nothing]

The MTGNexus Custom Card Creation Random Card of the Day for 5/5/20 is Island Sanctuary.

Flavorful - maybe too flavorful for its own good.