Fantasy cards by Ginuqu

[Ginuqu]

Just needed a space to post designs of my own!

Inspired is an ability name that vanished really quickly. I like the idea of people living in the ruins of a more advanced civilization and feeling compelled to construct their own things in its image. If you give Inspired creatures tap abilities of their own you create an industrious creature to which you can match lore that has nothing to do with attacking.

[spacemonaut]

Are you looking for feedback as well? If so, any particular areas? I could point to templating updates to make, for example.

[Ginuqu]

That'd be very welcome, thank you!

I don't really mind if people say "this isn't feasible in green or at that cost" type of things either, respond to the cards how you like.

[Mookie]

This card looks sweet. Wellwisher / Oracle of Nectars + Selesnya Evangel? Or something like that. Definitely in color pie. I would caution that this card may need to be a rare though - at uncommon, it can be somewhat oppressive. Gaining 4+ life per turn can be pretty difficult to race, and spitting out chump blockers also makes it hard to force damage through.

Making artifact tokens on a green creature is a little odd, but can make sense on some planes (ex: Servos on Kaladesh). I don't know that I love an elf making a gnome token, but I suppose all existing gnomes are already artifacts. Hmmm...

Re: text, I will call out 'you may pay 3 life and create...' → 'you may pay 3 life. If you do, create...'.

[Ginuqu]

Thanks for the comment. I've always liked all five colours having equal access to artifacts. Not artifact searching, because that's usually blue, welding's often red and retrieval is often white, but being able to make artifacts seems arguably available to everyone. I suppose it's a feature that's unused by black and green until you're talking about Treasure and Food. A lot of the cards I'll design will be colourless or involve artifacts, I'm such a Shandalar nerd that I think artifacts should be stuffed in at all rarities, as often as possible.

The Forager should definitely be rare, that's a good point! And thanks for the advice on wording.

Been working on a cycle;

Steps of Gemmjot
Land (R)
: Add .
, Tap two untapped creatures you control: Put a lore counter on Steps of Gemmjot.
Play this ability only any time you could play a sorcery.
As long as Steps of Gemmjot has at least two lore counters on it, it is a 3/3 Cat
artifact creature with first strike and vigilance in addition to its other types.

Wavynwen Watercourse
Land (R)
: Add .
Inspired - Whenever Wavynwen Watercourse becomes untapped, you may pay .
If you do, put a lore counter on it.
As long as Wavynwen Watercourse has at least three lore counters on it, it is a 2/2 Squid
artifact creature that's unblockable in addition to its other types.

Wells of Choyorra
Land (R)
: Add .
xb: Put a lore counter on Wells of Choyorra. X is the number of cards in your hand.
Play this ability only any time you could play a sorcery.
As long as Wells of Choyorra has at least four lore counters on it, it is a 4/1 Insect
artifact creature that's indestructible in addition to its other types.

Baxosh Trilithon
Land (R)
: Add .
Whenever a spell or ability an opponent controls targets a permanent you control, you may pay
and 2 life. If you do, put a lore counter on Baxosh Trilithon.
As long as Baxosh Trilithon has a lore counter on it, it is a 0/5 Goat artifact creature with
defender in addition to its other types.

Ladders of Nepth
Land (R)
: Add .
Whenever you gain life, you may pay . If you do, put that many lore counters on Ladders of Nepth.
As long as Ladders of Nepth has at least twelve lore counters on it, it is a 3/5 Spider artifact
creature with reach and lifelink in addition to its other types.

Rammqusian Beachhead
Land (U)
: Add .
, : Put a lore counter on target permanent.

The place-names are from an old custom set I made over a decade ago on those blank, gold-bordered cards from World Champ demo decks, I collected 145 of them and I miss them all.

[spacemonaut]

Deploying templating feedback!

Forager of Nepth's exact templating would be:

XG, T: Gain X life. Spend only mana produced by Forests to activate this ability.

Inspired — Whenever Forager of Nepth becomes untapped, you may pay 3 life. If you do, create a 1/1 colorless Gnome artifact creature token.

Subtypes get capitalised in rules text—like Gnome, but also Forest. (As you've noticed, card types don't get capitalised, and neither do supertypes.) Events that can occur multiple times during an object's lifetime get a "whenever" rather than a "when". Also, that "if you do" thing. I've also taken the liberty of guessing at the Gnome's color, which was missing.

---

Steps of Gemmjot
Land (R)
: Add .
, Tap two untapped creatures you control: Put a lore counter on Steps of Gemmjot.
Play this ability only any time you could play a sorcery.
As long as Steps of Gemmjot has at least two lore counters on it, it is a 3/3 Cat
artifact creature with first strike and vigilance in addition to its other types.

For the sake of legibility, I suggest not word wrapping abilities with line breaks like this on this forum. After all, line breaks on cards are semantically meaningful. Putting "Play this ability ..." on its own line, separate from the ability, is left unclear as to whether you're just doing some word wrapping (fine) or literally separating it on its own rules text line (which would be an error). Instead I suggest letting the line just run as long as it needs to.

Anyway, templating! Abilities get activated and spells get cast, not played*. Also, the second line could/should read like this: "As long as Steps of Gemmjot has at least two lore counters on it, it's a 3/3 white Cat artifact creature with first strike and vigilance. It's still a land."

See e.g. Celestial Colonnade. Technically "It's still a land" means the exact same thing as "in addition to its other types" (see CR 205.1b) but "it's still a land" is more idiomatic, and lets us avoid the technically clear but aesthetically not-ideal wording of "... first strike and vigilance in addition to its other types".

* Currently the game only uses "play" or "played" on these 153 cards, which are all about playing with the top card revealed, or about playing additional lands, or granting permission to play cards (which will include playing lands).

So end result:

Steps of Gemmjot
Land (R)
: Add .
, Tap two untapped creatures you control: Put a lore counter on Steps of Gemmjot. Activate this ability only any time you could cast a sorcery.
As long as Steps of Gemmjot has at least two lore counters on it, it is a 3/3 white Cat
artifact creature with first strike and vigilance. It's still a land.

(I added a color here again.)

Card feedback!!: This is a really neat take on a creatureland. Also, very good with access to proliferate. Would play alongside Atraxa, Praetors' Voice or Grateful Apparition to activate this off of just one initial activation.

I'd consider adding as a cost on the middle ability, so that you choose whether to use it for mana or to work on it, but it might be just fine as is.

---

Some of the feedback from Steps of Gemmjot also applies to the other cards, but I'll avoid repeating myself on the specifics and just trust you'll see the spots where it applies.

Wavynwen Watercourse: Also love this take.

Wells of Choyorra: This is in a precarious balance situation that's generally preferable to avoid: the cost is high but so is the payoff, and it's unplayable in most decks but it's busted in the right one. Rakdos is going to be fine with going into topdeck mode and overall sinking spare mana over 2-3 turns to possibly get a 4/1 indestructible creature for BBBB. I suggest tone down both the cost and the payoff to make it a bit more even compared with the other lands in this cycle.

Baxosh Trilithon: The nature of this is pretty cool. I think it might be overdoing it for a land though: 0/5 is a lot, and a cost of 2 life is negligible when you get a 0/5 blocker in exchange. It might also not be red—red sometimes has a defender theme in limited (like in Conspiracy) but this is a Rare land, not Uncommon. I'd be interested in seeing this be on an artifact with a colored cost. White would be appropriate.

Ladders of Nepth: This is also doing a lot. I might only be paying 2 or 3 mana for this spider. If I had a 3/5 spider with reach and lifelink for just GGG in a lifegain-matters deck, that would be a very good rate. Utility lands should be charging extra. I suggest reel this one in too—reduce the stats and make it easier to acquire.

Rammqusian Beachhead: This is just fine. It might be more apprpriate as an artifact that costs 1, or 2 and adds one mana of any color.

[Mookie]

Feedback on the lands:

As a general rule, lands shouldn't be strictly better than basic lands. Either they enter tapped some percentage of the time, or they cost life, or have some other downside. As-is, these cards are an autoinclude in any deck of the appropriate colors.... and possibly some that don't too, because they are capable of paying their activation costs on their own.

As spacemonaut mentioned, you may want to add as a cost to some of the abilities as a balancing factor, since it may not be appropriate for these to be active immediately after being played. Also makes them harder to splash, since you need to activate them with other lands.

I'll also call out that being a creature persistently does have some downside - unlike normal creature-lands, it is significantly more vulnerable to removal, sorcery-speed or otherwise. You could do something like '0: ~ becomes a creature until end of turn. Activate only if it has 2+ lore counters on it' if you didn't want that downside to be present.

Other than that....

Steps of Gemmjot - tapping two untapped creatures feels like a pretty steep cost, especially at sorcery speed. This is a very hefty investment for a not particularly impressive payoff.

Wavynwen Watercourse - I like this one. Its ability may be a bit too easy to trigger, but you also need to actually have a time investment to make it active, unlike the others.

Wells of Choyorra - this one sort of concerns me - indestructible is a very strong ability. It does take a significant investment to get online, but you also need to balance it around the assumption that the ability only costs one mana to activate (because that will always be true for the decks that build around it).

Ladders of Nepth - green doesn't have access to lifelink. You could change it to vigilance, or some other green keyword. 12 life is a lot to gain, so I'm okay with a stronger payoff here.

Rammqusian Beachhead - this one looks totally reasonable. May be a bit too niche, but makes sense if your set has a heavy lore counter theme.

[Ginuqu]

Thank you both! You're right about the wording, I thought it was a little shaky as I was writing it. They look a lot neater now and you were right to add the colours for each!

I'm most confident in the blue and black lands in the cycle, really. blue cos it's a small, subtle effect that'd suit a deck willing to take a lot of turns before victory, black because it's so desperate and dramatic a strategy. The red one is the most shaky; I wanted one that only needed a single counter but couldn't let you win. Goat doesn't really fit but I love goats. I added sorcery speed to the white one because it made me think about Outlast. Green not having lifelink really snuck up on me; because it has cards like Feed the Clan and Life Goes On I think of it as the main colour for gaining life with.

Rammqusian Beachhead has its own explanation: I was intending to design some Sagas that didn't end, with a "i: do small thing, ii: do large thing, iii+: do miscellaneous thing" feel so that you could endlessly pile counters on them if you had the means, without them being particularly strong in their locked grooves. Thanks for reading, I'll post another card later.

[spacemonaut]

black because it's so desperate and dramatic a strategy

For the decks that play their hand down to nil, it's not all that desperate—it's just part of the plan. Remember we very recently had Hazoret the Fervent decks at the top of standard tournaments, and Hellbent is a whole mechanic.

It could be flavored as desperation though.

Ladders of Nepth - green doesn't have access to lifelink.

Green not having lifelink really snuck up on me; because it has cards like Feed the Clan and Life Goes On I think of it as the main colour for gaining life with.

Honestly same. I had to go and double check!

[Ginuqu]

They're constantly adding all these beautiful characters (especially Kaya!) to M:TG but it's a mystery how they dress up cos they hardly print any cards on the subject. here's four pretty things using common words I can't find results for on scryfall:

Beryl Earrings
Artifact
Beryl Earrings enters the battlefield tapped. When it does, choose a color.
: Until end of turn, spells you cast of the chosen color with converted mana cost 5 or greater cost less to cast.
(A weak card that could be more powerful than an original Mox in the right deck?)

Tracery Tiara
Artifact - Equipment
Equipped creature has flying.
Whenever equipped creature becomes the target of a spell or ability an opponent controls, sacrifice Tracery Tiara, counter that spell or ability and create two Treasure tokens. (They're artifacts with Tap, sacrifice, blah blah blah)
Equip

Stockings and Suspenders
Enchant target creature you control.
You cannot gain or lose control of permanents.
Enchanted creature has ", : Tap target creature."
If enchanted creature blocks or becomes blocked, sacrifice Stockings and Suspenders.
This would definitely need the Future Sight border

Glitzy Hairband
Artifact
, Exile target card from your graveyard: Add one mana of any color.
, : Target player mills two cards.
(Turning Millstone into a fixer doesn't seem unreasonable; it's something you wait on til the end of the turn to use anyway, so a static ability makes it sexier.)

[Ginuqu]

Orcish Striker 2b
Creature - Orc Warrior (C)
First strike
Sabotage (When this permanent deals damage to an opponent, tapped Industrial permanents that player controls do not untap during their next untap phase.)
2/1

Rip the System
Instant (C)
Rip the System deals 2 damage to any target.
Sabotage (When this spell deals damage to an opponent, tapped Industrial permanents that player controls do not untap during their next untap phase.)

Blank the Blueprint 1uu
Instant (U)
Choose one: Counter target spell, or counter target Industrial spell and Blank the Blueprint deals one damage to that spell's controller.
Sabotage (When this spell deals damage to an opponent, tapped Industrial permanents that player controls do not untap during their next untap phase.)

Artificial Firefly
Artifact Creature - Insect (R)
Flying
Industrial
: Add one mana of any color.
0/1

Artificial Sun 2r
Artifact (R)
Artifical Sun enters the battlefield tapped.
Industrial
At the beginning of your upkeep, if Artifical Sun is tapped, each of your opponents gains three life.
: Add rrr.

Community Outcry 1w
Enchantment (R)
When Community Outcry enters the battlefield, scry 2.
Industrial permanents enter the battlefield tapped.

Overfarmed Savannah
Land - Forest Plains (R)
Industrial
(This land has ": Add " and ": Add .")

Models a resource and labor war, lets you create virtual reprints of the original dual lands. I'm aware this is one of those "parasitic" bits of rules text, like shadow or like splice, but that'd be part of the fun when you're the one worrying that your OP permanents are about to be tapped down forever by an opponent's luddite theme deck. What do you think?

[spacemonaut]

Models a resource and labor war, lets you create virtual reprints of the original dual lands. I'm aware this is one of those "parasitic" bits of rules text, like shadow or like splice, but that'd be part of the fun when you're the one worrying that your OP permanents are about to be tapped down forever by an opponent's luddite theme deck. What do you think?

Straightforwardly you've got a basic problem: "Industrial" is a drawback mechanic. From the cards you've listed, nobody benefits from their permanents being Industrial—it's just a mechanical avenue for hating on the permanent. Players don't tend to like playing drawback mechanics. Aaron Forsythe talks about some of them here, like Echo and Cumulative Upkeep. In Tarkir, Ferocious and Formidable were both very unpopular (Storm Scale: Khans of Tarkir Block), and speaking as someone who really loved Temur aesthetically, that their mechanics were so often presented as a downside ("here's this cool ability, but sorry, you can't use it yet!") made it hard to enjoy playing with those two keywords.

There's another more severe issue: the Industrial cards are extremely strong. They're OG dual lands, an extremely strong mana rock, and a new birds of paradise. You're using it as a check-and-balance, but it's too much check against too much power. In any game with Sabotage and Community Outcry, Industrial permanents are hosed and useless. In any game they're not hosed and useless, they're just brokenly powerful — they're plain dual lands, an extremely strong mana rock, and birds of paradise number 2.

That means Industrial cards are an answer check. "Are you hosing my industrial permanents?" — if you're not, I win. If you are, I lose because my permanents will never untap. That's not very fun. It'll also lead to an extremely one-sided but cyclical meta: people stop playing Industrial permanents because they're getting too hosed and can't win, so people stop hosing them, so Industrial decks come back and start winning every game, so people start hosing them again, repeat. That's not a healthy meta, and it will probably be format warping.

I suggest work on making this an upside mechanic.

[Ginuqu]

That's a little disheartening; I quite liked the idea of gambling with cards that are a little too powerful, but you're right that it's the wrong way to go about it. All the Industrial cards I made focused on mana generation because I was thinking about themes from games like FF7 where a big company takes all the power for themselves unless there's active resistance to their activities. I guess it literally feels too powerful.

I could try toning the cards down and making the ability itself something like this:

Industrial (Do the following whenever another permanent with Industrial enters the battlefield, if this permanent is untapped.)

ie Industrial -- Gain 1 life.
or Industrial -- Add .
and then
Sabotage X (When this permanent/spell deals damage to a player, tap X target permanents that player controls. As long as this effect is on the stack, that player cannot pay costs that tap permanents.)

...so that both abilities are more generalized and useful, but Sabotage still disrupts Industrial nonspecifically. To really make Sabotage work I'd want the pseudo-split second text on it - I know that's another divisive mechanic, but it's silly if you have an ability that wants to tap a mana artifact, and your opponent just taps it for mana in response.

and then Overfarmed Savannah could have a real drawback but would also be able to trigger other Industrial permanents that had bonuses on them.

Overfarmed Savannah
Land - Plains Forest
Industrial - Tap Overfarmed Savannah.
Mana generated by Overfarmed Savannah empties from your mana pool when another permanent with Industrial enters the battlefield.

...so the first Savannah is powerful but the second one actually slows development. It matches the name better that way, too? Does that sound more interesting??

[Ginuqu]

(Don't tell me if Trap is or isn't in ZNR, I'm avoiding spoilers! Thanks!)

Saboteur's Snare
Enchantment - Trap
When you cast a spell, sacrifice Saboteur's Snare.
While an opponent controls at least four artifacts, you may pay gr rather than pay the costs of instant spells and spells with flash.
At the end of each turn, you may return Saboteur's Snare to its owner's hand.

Weaver's Web
Enchantment - Trap
When you cast a spell, sacrifice Weaver's Web.
During any turn where a spell or ability you do not control has targetted at least one permanent you control, you may pay wg rather than pay the costs of instant spells and spells with flash.
At the end of each turn, you may return Weaver's Web to its owner's hand.

Trap in reverse, where your opponent knows what interactions you are looking for but not the nature of the card you'll be playing for cheap in response to it!

[user_938036]

Subtypes can't overlap so you can't have trap enchantments.

These cards are just really bad. You have to commit 1 to set up and determine that you don't want to cast any other spell unless the conditions are met and then it gives you what might be a discount on your spell. I say might because you didn't put these into the main spell colors of blue and red. These would function better if the first replaced green with blue and the second replaced white with blue.

Looking closer at the "trigger" condition. The first screams "I'm going to break your things" and the second one screams "I'll protect them". Yet for the first there aren't many options that do that and the second you don't actually get a discount for using it.

Considering you are both spending a card and telegraphing your play these need a much larger benefit that a small mana discount.

[Ginuqu]

^ You can cast spells of any colour with these; they replace the cost of whatever you play, no matter what colour it was originally. Also, the game's been going over 25 years, all the colours are "spell colours" now. I guarantee that everyone has access to relevant spells! Also you can cast huge spells for three mana with this set up and it doesn't necessarily have to be an answer; it could be Chromium, the Mutable at a huge discount, for example.

Thanks for the response, you're right about the subtype thing.

[spacemonaut]

Re the traps: I think these may not play the way you want. They're kind of busted also. You say this:

Trap in reverse, where your opponent knows what interactions you are looking for but not the nature of the card you'll be playing for cheap in response to it!

I'm never actually going to use these this way. The card tells me not to: once I cast this I can't play any other spells or I waste it. That's such an enormous drawback. Sure, my opponent doesn't make it past three artifacts, but since I haven't cast a spell for several turns they probably win anyway. Basically, I'm never going to put these down in advance because they're just wasted mana—I need to be able to cast spells or I won't ever win.

So the intended way to play this is unplayable. But the playable way to use these enchantments breaks them a bit: I don't actually have to put these down in advance. Instead, I'll wait until the turn these conditions are already met, and then play them, and they'll work. For example, wait until my opponent controls four artifacts, then play the Saboteur's Snare from my hand, then cast Searing Wind or Bogardan Hellkite or Nexus of Fate or Bounty of Might for a total of 1RG and sacrificing an artifact, all at sorcery speed which is fine considering what I'm getting. Or, my opponent played a removal spell on my attacker, time to do the same with Weaver's Web and 1GW. (This is all kind of broken. The fact it's limited to Instants and not Sorceries is a blessing here.)

I suggest you revise them thus: remove the "sacrifice this whenever you cast a spell" ability since it makes them unplayable, and soften the effect to maybe discount a spell by rather than making it cost only 2 total. Or explore other small effects, like a red-white artifact that says whenever an opponent attacks you with two or more creatures, sacrifice this artifact and deal some damage among them.

[Ginuqu]

Mmm, that's true. The trigger text on Saboteur's Snare should be more like "If a player who controls at least three artifacts has put an artifact onto the battlefield this turn" - I didn't think about that and my intention was to make the pretext avoidable.

The place my mind went was to a deck with high permanent activity; just like Standstill, you can have a Snare in play and do things like attack with manlands, activate scrying artifacts and prodigal sorcerors and what have you. Not a common play pattern but one that appeals to me, hence the design!

[Ginuqu]

Ramp seems like it's the biggest strategy in a lot of formats right now, with EDH being full of land tutoring, modern Uro being ridiculous, standard Omnath dominating that recent SCG tour etc. I've always vaguely felt it broke an important rule of the game and by itself made some colours worse than others. I also think Knight of the Reliquary is super overpowered even though, at least innocently, it doesn't "ramp" you. Thing can fetch broken Saga lands or Cloudposts so I'm not fooled one bit!

Severlink Swallow
Artifact Creature - Bird
Flying
When Severlink Swallow enters the battlefield, each player who controls at least two more lands than you returns a land they control to its owner's hand. If no lands leave play this way, return a land you control to its owner's hand.
2/1

I'd love to see the return of tempo-ish cards like this which can decelerate an opponent's roll. Added a punishment clause so you can't just auto run four of them in everything aggressive; it's better on the draw.

Or:

Jigsaw Coastline
Land
: Add .
, : Gain control of target land which entered the battlefield this turn and was not played from a player's hand.

From a controllish angle, a way to partially dispel things like Harrow and Beanstalk Giant // Fertile Footsteps. Has no effect on Summer Bloom effects, cos I'm biased and prefer those to land tutors which are starting to feel way too flexible for the health of the game.

just my opinion!

[Ginuqu]

Service Guarantees Citizenship rw
Enchantment
Whenever a creature attacks, put a medal counter on it.
Creatures without medal counters on them have no abilities.
"Catchy quote meant to sound inspiring which actually sounds like evil propaganda." - Gideon

[Ginuqu]

Homesick Alien rg
Creature - Mutant
When Homesick Alien enters the battlefield, reveal your hand and discard each land card. Draw a card if you discarded any this way.
Whenever you play a land, sacrifice Homesick Alien and it deals 2 damage to each other creature.
2/1

[Ginuqu]

Pudding, Rooftop Runaway

just having fun! Trying to describe an almost impossible to catch animal

[OneAndOnly]

You could probably streamline the the triggered ability into "... if no spells were cast last turn, you may search your library for a basic land card and put it onto the battlefield tapped, then shuffle >cardname> into your library. It changes the functionality slightly.