Remastering Bad Commanders - Lockdown Project

Mimicvat
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Post by Mimicvat » 3 years ago

Hi all, New Zealand has just been put into a second lockdown and that means I'm stuck at home for two weeks with little to do. To help get me off my butt walking and exercising, I've created a project. Each day I will be doing some form of exercise. While I'm exercising, I will be looking at old, bad commanders and trying to redesign them as something appealing for modern day commander. Gets my mind of the tedium as well as soreness of my legs etc. Any input or critique of what I come up with is appreciated! Likewise if I miss a day, feel free to post in here calling me a lazy arse.

The parameters of the project;
  • Can only design cards while exercising, though can make small tweaks while entering them on this site.
  • Will go off of Scryfall's list of Commanders, sorted from least popular to most popular
  • Will ignore silver bordered and banned commanders
  • The aim is to create appealing commanders. This means commanders that do something interesting or cool compared to existing commanders or to other, stronger colour combinations. Some extremely weak designs in weak mono-colours might be substantially pushed.
  • The target power level is at the higher end of what can be achieved without consistent combo, stax, top-tier commanders, multiple tutors etc.
  • Where possible, improvements will be made through "least effort". If lowering their cost or increasing a number will fix a commander, that will be the solution I go for.
  • The utility of this card in the 99, or in other formats, is not considered.
Today's entries;

Pang Tong, "Young Phoenix"

Here we are, starting strong with the "rank 961" of 961 legendary creatures legal in commander (though not all as commanders), we have this gem from Portal 3k. You'll see a bit of a theme with these early entries, in that many come from that set. He has pretty cool art, the OG sword and shield stats and the iconic P3K "tap only before attackers are declared" rules text to boot.

So what are his problems? Well he's very small, his ability is extremely weak both in concept (increasing toughness) and execution (on one creature by tapping at fixed time opportunities), and he is mono-white, meaning you need a really good reason to be running him.

So how to go about fixing him as a commander? I want to keep "increasing toughness" and tie into his flavour text about the boat-bridge. Any commander with that iconic pre-combat tap restriction has to keep it. The three kingdoms period ties well into white weenie and soldiers too. However, due to his extremely poor design for EDH he will need a shift in some alternative directions to make him viable at all - we can't just lower his cost and scale up the toughness shift and call it a day.
Pang Tong, "Young Phoenix" W
Legendary Creature - Human Advisor
: Creatures you control get islandwalk and +0/+2 until end of turn. Activate this ability only during your turn, before attackers are declared.

When a creature you control deals combat damage to an opponent, reveal the top X cards of your library where X is that creature's toughness. You may put a human or soldier card with toughness X or less from among them onto the battlefield. Put the rest onto the bottom of your library in a random order.
1/2
This guy needed an almost total rewrite. I decided to broaden the toughness change to all creatures, and add a conditional form of evasion. Then I made him 1 mana, which is barely cheap enough. Finally, I figured he would make for a solid tribal option and gave him a form of card advantage that rewarded you for going in on some form of going wide strategy. Thankfully the other entries on the list can be 'fixed' with less of a total change like this, but this guy was a pretty extreme case!

Daughter of Autumn

I reckon a cost balance shift could make this commander kind of interesting.
Daughter of Autumn GW
Legendary Creature - Avatar
Protection from Black.
Damage dealt to other white creatures you control is dealt to ~ instead.
Whenever damage is prevented, look at the top X cards of your library, where X is the damage ~ recieved. Put one on top of your library and the rest on the bottom in any order.
2/8
Took away the cost from her ability. Made her cheaper, and gave her enormous toughness to help make her ability viable. If you are thinking "8 toughness for 2 mana, what the heck!?", then we have very different opinions on the value of power and especially toughness in this format. Then I added two things to make her damage redirection more interesting. Firstly, protection from black, lets her potentially tank infinite damage from some types of creatures. Secondly, I added a form of card filtering based on general damage prevention, either from her ability or from weird things like Circle of Protection. If this deck had red that could get really crazy, but as is, she rewards you for swinging into or blocking black creatures and for running niche forms of removal and control. Really like the out come of this design.

Zhang Liao, Hero of Hefei

Another P3K stinker, but a much easier fix than Pan Tong.
Zhang Liao, Hero of Hefei BB
Legendary Creature - Human Soldier
When ~ deals combat damage to an opponent, that player reveals their hand. You choose a nonland card from it. That player discards that card.
Whenever a player discards a card, put a +1/+1 counter on ~.
3/3
Made him cheaper (this is a recurring theme you'll find), changed the discard to a thoughtseize effect. Made him get bigger from discard so he has something to do when he quickly becomes irrelevant. I refrained from making the discard scale as that would be something the 'target audience' as described at the start of the post wouldn't really like.

Xun Yu, Wei Advisor

Seems to be all about increasing the power of one creature, both in rules and in flavor text. Easy fix;
Xun Yu, Wei Advisor 1BB
Legendary Creature - Human Soldier
, Sacrifice a black creature: Target black creature you control gets +X/+0 until end of turn, where X is it's power.
2/2
Minor stat shift (I'm not a fan of 1/x or x/1 on any commander without good reason), made him into a sort of bad mono-black Xenagos. I wanted that power boost to matter, but also to be worse and feel Black as opposed to Red/Green. So no toughness boost, slow (turn after playing), easily removed, and with a cost. Forces you to play both targets for the boost and fodder to feed it. I like the end result more than most black commander options at the moment.

Rashida Scalebane

Yikes, these old white commanders are total garbage. But I think this can be salvaged with only a modest adjustment
Rashida Scalebane v2.1 WW
Legendary Creature - Human Soldier
Protection from Dragons, Reach
: Destroy target attacking or blocking creature with flying. It can't be regenerated.
Whenever a creature with flying an opponent controls dies, if it was dealt damage or targeted by a Human you control this turn, you gain X life and scry X, where X is that creature's power.
3/4
Changed the name to reflect beasts of all types. Lowered the cost, but kept the power and toughness - a 3/4 on turn two does not matter in this format! Made it pick a creature type to beat up, not just dragons. Added a scry effect to the lifegain effect and also made it broader, lending the trigger to your other Humans for a cool tribal theme. The weird double non-Human wording is to prevent you targeting say, a human wizard, by choosing wizard.

Update: Altered to creatures with flying due to backstory. Added Pro-dragon and reach to keep the dragon flavour. Thanks Krishnath!

Pavel Maliki

This is a weird one. A Red/Black... mage? Wandering around doing random acts of kindness for the weak and downtrodden. But is he secretly atoning for something? Must be with the black magic element.
Pavel Maliki RB
Legendary Creature - Human Warlock
RB: ~ gets +3/-1 until end of turn.
5/3
Lowered the cost, to get you a whopping 5/3 for two mana. Terrifying, right? When I saw the terrible firebreathing, I decided to make it a different take on firebreathing instead of a strictly worse one. Firebreathing can be used to spend random excess mana for small perks, or to go all in to make a creature scarier. I decided since this firebreathing costs more, it can't be used for the former use so I would focus on the latter. It would give a bigger boost than normal, but because it requires black I decided to make it hurt him too. This also ties into the idea of Pavel atoning or sacrificing himself.

Without broken mana, the scariest he gets is a 5/3 on T2, hitting for 8 on T3, then for 11 on T4, and then a kill on T5. No evasion, no protection. Stopped by pretty much any blocker and most removal in the game. Then you lose to the other players. With broken mana, well, you're probably not in the target audience, probably not running custom cards, and he is highly colour dependent meaning crypt and ring etc aren't going to cut it,

Hivis of the Scale

A strong effect, but too expensive, and he is far too situational to be your commander.
Hivis of the Scale 1RR
Legendary Creature - Viashino Shaman
Dragon, Shaman and Viashino spells you cast cost 1 less to cast.
Tap a Shaman or Viashino you control: Gain control of target dragon until end of turn. Untap that dragon. It gains haste and +X/+0 until end of turn, where X is the tapped creatures power.
2/3
Brought his cost down, and shifted his stats down too. Not totally certain how to word the ability. But when I saw "type-viashino shaman" I knew I had to design it as a sort of hybrid tribal. Now you can hose other dragon decks, but also benefit your own deck, using Viashino/Shamans to give haste, boost multiple dragons or even go ham on making one dragon very large. Because of the mass-hosing and to simplify the ability, I made it strictly until end of turn, no permanent capture without tapping multiple creatures over multiple turns. If I felt there would be room on the card, I would give dragons a tap ability to boost their viashino/shaman buddies too.

Thats it for today. I expect other posts to be smaller, kind of went nuts here. Super keen on any critique and feedback as I could be down to actually play one of these sometime in the future!
Last edited by Mimicvat 3 years ago, edited 2 times in total.
Currently building: ww Bruna, the Fading Light (card advantage tribal / reanimator)
Main decks;
r Neheb, Big Red Champion g Yeva's Mono Green Control, b Ayara's Aristocrats rb Greven, Predator Captain the One Punch Man, ugw Derevri, Empirical Tactician Aggro,rwbu Tymna & Kraum's Saboteurs, wbg Kondo & Tymna's Hatebears wugTuvasa's Silver Bullets, urBrudiclad does Brudiclad thingsgubSidisi, Brood Tyrant (lantern control)

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Krishnath
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Post by Krishnath » 3 years ago

Pavel is undercosted, Severely undercosted. Indeed, all your card suggestions are severely undercosted, I mean a 2/8 for only two mana? WHAT? The only one with anything close to a balanced CC is your version of Hivis-

For Rashida to be true to the character, it needs to only be anti-dragon, they were not anti-non human, just anti-dragon. Character got along just fine with other races. The reason for the dragon hate that the character had was that their family were killed by dragons. I'd change it so it hit any flying creature instead if you want it to be less focused on dragons, but give them protection from dragons to retain the flavor.

OG Hivis isn't weak by any means, but has a very narrow focus. I like your take on it. The others are way, way, way to strong for their costs.
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Mimicvat
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Post by Mimicvat » 3 years ago

The others are way, way, way to strong for their costs.
You seem to be referring mostly to power and toughness. If not, could you be more specific? IE "Xun Yu, giving you a conditional xenagos effect for 3 mana is absurdly powerful because X"

Regarding Power and Toughness stats, we'll have to agree to disagree. I mentioned in that post "If you are thinking "8 toughness for 2 mana, what the heck!?", then we have very different opinions on the value of power and especially toughness in this format." and I stick by that.

Power and toughness particularly are priced for 1v1, 20 life formats. In EDH they are frequently just a tax - just look at how many low cost, low stat commanders are prevalent and compare that to high cost, high stat commanders. Would the low stat commanders be better or worse with bigger numbers and a higher cost? Across the board they would be worse.

The only one I can slightly concur on is Pavel, as I took a bit of a risk in that one because he's just a dumb beatstick. But honestly, I still think he's fine - without any evasion or protection he dies to any removal or random blocker you've got. If you spend turn 1-3 ramping and don't have a blocker, take 8 my friend. If all your commander does is have power and toughness, it needs to be damn good at it to be viable compared to all the card draw and cool abilities on other options. This goes double in particular for all the crappy mono-white commanders I keep running into lol.

Rashida is a fair call. Most of those commanders were designed based on what I could see on the card, not on backstory from the wiki. Will make that change. I also added reach, I didn't love that change but I would like it to be able to actually use it's protection from Dragons more

Hivis is weak imo. You have to incorporate his narrowness into his overall strength. For example, if he could take any creature, he would be fine for 5 mana. But since he can only take dragons, honestly, as is he would need to be way cheaper and could IMO never be a viable commander without the ability to turn things into dragons for him.

Todays entries coming a little later, it takes ages to type them up!
Currently building: ww Bruna, the Fading Light (card advantage tribal / reanimator)
Main decks;
r Neheb, Big Red Champion g Yeva's Mono Green Control, b Ayara's Aristocrats rb Greven, Predator Captain the One Punch Man, ugw Derevri, Empirical Tactician Aggro,rwbu Tymna & Kraum's Saboteurs, wbg Kondo & Tymna's Hatebears wugTuvasa's Silver Bullets, urBrudiclad does Brudiclad thingsgubSidisi, Brood Tyrant (lantern control)

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toctheyounger
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Post by toctheyounger » 3 years ago

Mimicvat wrote:
3 years ago
Hi all, New Zealand has just been put into a second lockdown and that means I'm stuck at home for two weeks with little to do.
Another New Zealander? That makes 2 others I know of here on Nexus. Enjoy your relative inactivity, I'm working fulltime through Alert level 3 with a 3 month old child :anxious:
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Krishnath
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Post by Krishnath » 3 years ago

Mimicvat wrote:
3 years ago
The others are way, way, way to strong for their costs.
You seem to be referring mostly to power and toughness. If not, could you be more specific? IE "Xun Yu, giving you a conditional xenagos effect for 3 mana is absurdly powerful because X"

Regarding Power and Toughness stats, we'll have to agree to disagree. I mentioned in that post "If you are thinking "8 toughness for 2 mana, what the heck!?", then we have very different opinions on the value of power and especially toughness in this format." and I stick by that.

Power and toughness particularly are priced for 1v1, 20 life formats. In EDH they are frequently just a tax - just look at how many low cost, low stat commanders are prevalent and compare that to high cost, high stat commanders. Would the low stat commanders be better or worse with bigger numbers and a higher cost? Across the board they would be worse.

The only one I can slightly concur on is Pavel, as I took a bit of a risk in that one because he's just a dumb beatstick. But honestly, I still think he's fine - without any evasion or protection he dies to any removal or random blocker you've got. If you spend turn 1-3 ramping and don't have a blocker, take 8 my friend. If all your commander does is have power and toughness, it needs to be damn good at it to be viable compared to all the card draw and cool abilities on other options. This goes double in particular for all the crappy mono-white commanders I keep running into lol.

Rashida is a fair call. Most of those commanders were designed based on what I could see on the card, not on backstory from the wiki. Will make that change. I also added reach, I didn't love that change but I would like it to be able to actually use it's protection from Dragons more

Hivis is weak imo. You have to incorporate his narrowness into his overall strength. For example, if he could take any creature, he would be fine for 5 mana. But since he can only take dragons, honestly, as is he would need to be way cheaper and could IMO never be a viable commander without the ability to turn things into dragons for him.

Todays entries coming a little later, it takes ages to type them up!
No, 10 total combined power and toughness is to friggin strong for ANY format, at most WotC has gone 7 combined on a three mana creature *without* a severe drawback. If you can drop a 5 power creature without drawback on turn 2 something is very, very wrong with your design. But if you want specific notes, here are a few:

Pang Tong: First ability is out of color, White cannot grant landwalk abilities, it never could. Second ability is incredibly overpowered for the cards cost, it is basically a creature tutor *for each creature you attack and connect with*. To be balanced the card needs to cost at least five mana and add a second color.

Daughter of Autumn: 10 combined power and toughness for two mana is overpowered alone, add protection, damage redirection, and a *MASSIVE* scry ability and the card is not only out of color (should be partially blue due to the variable scry effect), but severely undercosted, and you end up with a card that should be three color and cost at least five, possibly even six mana.

Zhang Liao: Card is undercosted for its abilities, should cost at least one, possibly two colorless more. A 3/3 for 2 with only upside is incredibly unbalanced.

Xun Yu: Outside of Hivis, the most balance of the lot, although the howl effect is no longer in black (having been moved to red some time ago), the sacrifice cost makes up for it. I would probably add A red mana to the activation cost (I.e. R, T, Sacrifice)

Rashida: Still severely undercosted, and the variable scry ability is out of color for white. Should cost at least five mana, and if it retains the scry ability, blue needs to be added.

Pavel Maliki: Extremely undercosted, 8 combined power and toughness with no drawback on turn 2 is overpowered. Should cost at least three mana, *with a drawback*, without it, it should cost four.

Hivis of the Scale: Most balanced card of the lot, there is literally nothing overtly wrong with it. It can get away with its low CC because it's Threaten ability is very narrow in scope. At most I'd add "play this ability as a sorcery.", as that is more in reds wheelhouse, but it can do fine without it.
Numquam evolutioni obstes. Solum conculceris.

Pascite draconem, evolvite aut morimini.

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Mimicvat
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Post by Mimicvat » 3 years ago

toctheyounger wrote:
3 years ago
Mimicvat wrote:
3 years ago
Hi all, New Zealand has just been put into a second lockdown and that means I'm stuck at home for two weeks with little to do.
Another New Zealander? That makes 2 others I know of here on Nexus. Enjoy your relative inactivity, I'm working fulltime through Alert level 3 with a 3 month old child :anxious:
Rough man. Would rather be at work than in this enforced 'holiday' stuck at home. Is your job one of those ones that is a real PITA to do digitally? One of my mates is in that situation, and between working, being inefficient and being stuck in a tiny Auckland flat he was going crazy during that last lockdown. Hopefully we don't go past next week but its not looking hopeful.
Krishnath wrote:
3 years ago
No, 10 total combined power and toughness is to friggin strong for ANY format, at most WotC has gone 7 combined on a three mana creature *without* a severe drawback. If you can drop a 5 power creature without drawback on turn 2 something is very, very wrong with your design. But if you want specific notes, here are a few:
Thanks for the input. Again, will have to agree to disagree on how valuable power and especially toughness is in this format. For any 1v1 format I would agree, but honestly, 8 toughness is practically irrelevant in this format outside of very specific decks (those wall attack decks) and those need bulk numbers of high toughness creatures to care.

In a format with 4 players and double life, power and toughness just dont have the same value. WotC is constrained in that whatever they print for commander is legal for legacy, and there a 5/5 for 2 would be nuts, but I am not. I don't see any goyfs or gigantosaurus or other cheap vanilla fatties doing meaningful time in this format and certainly they aren't breaking it. I would legitimately see something like a 5/5 trample for 2 to be the bare minimum of playable in the format, and unplayable if it were a commander.

Compounding that issue is that a decks commander is a key asset of the deck, if all your commander does is "have power and toughness", then you are choosing to trade out on very potent abilities on other commanders. When card advantage is king, this is a huge tradeoff to be making, meaning that if I am going to make a commander that is based on power and toughness only I am going to want to push it quite a lot.

Thanks a lot for the commander-specific input, this is just what I'm after.
Pang Tong: First ability is out of color, White cannot grant landwalk abilities, it never could. Second ability is incredibly overpowered for the cards cost, it is basically a creature tutor *for each creature you attack and connect with*. To be balanced the card needs to cost at least five mana and add a second color.
Do you have a better idea for representing his boat bridge aspect? Honestly, Pang Tong doesn't give much else to work with.

The second ability is strong. It puts the cards onto the battlefield so that it feels less like draw and more of a white weenie effect. I could see an argument for maybe putting those cards to hand?

From this and a few other replies here, it seems to be that you consider adding a second colour to be a cost for a commander? For normal creatures I agree, but for commanders another colour is pretty much just an asset, as opening up other cards to be played in the deck is often far more impactful than the penalty of the mana restriction in a format with a vintage card pool of strong cards and an equally deep pool of absurd mana fixing. I have to strongly disagree with you when you suggest adding the colour as a cost, though I am open to it when adding a colour because of where the card's abilities sit on a colour pie.
Daughter of Autumn: 10 combined power and toughness for two mana is overpowered alone, add protection, damage redirection, and a *MASSIVE* scry ability and the card is not only out of color (should be partially blue due to the variable scry effect), but severely undercosted, and you end up with a card that should be three color and cost at least five, possibly even six mana.
As mentioned we disagree on the power toughness thing, not really any point to discussing that part further. Likewise for colour as a cost, so I am bypassing those not to be rude but in order to not be redundant.

While 'scry' fits into a bluer area of the colour pie, generally green has plenty of ways to look at the top few cards of its deck. In this case I drew from Cream of the Crop which is one of my favourite green cards.

I think I agree on increasing the cost due to the power of the ability. I'm also thinking I should alter the scry effect. As is, this would be quite slow to resolve and you are correct in that it could potentially dig extraordinarily deep. It could exchange the scry X for either a smaller fixed scry amount (not interesting) or for something like rearranging the top cards instead (not sure if I like that, as Sensei Top type effects are often slow to resolve. Or have "at the beginning of your end step, look at the top X cards of your library, where X is the highest amount of damage prevented from a single source" - something along those lines. Thoughts?
Zhang Liao: Card is undercosted for its abilities, should cost at least one, possibly two colorless more. A 3/3 for 2 with only upside is incredibly unbalanced.
Bypassing the power and toughness thing. I don't believe his abilities are that impactful for EDH. He will only get meaningfully bigger with support from other discard effects, and then the payoff is just a vanilla fatty.
Xun Yu: Outside of Hivis, the most balance of the lot, although the howl effect is no longer in black (having been moved to red some time ago), the sacrifice cost makes up for it. I would probably add A red mana to the activation cost (I.e. R, T, Sacrifice)
I can see the logic here, not certain he needs it given the effect still existed when he was originally released and the card just kind of feels cooler in mono black than in black-red (which I say as a huge red fanboy). I'm going to leave him as is though that is more personal preference than a strong argument for changing the colour or not changing it.
Rashida: Still severely undercosted, and the variable scry ability is out of color for white. Should cost at least five mana, and if it retains the scry ability, blue needs to be added.
White has a number of abilities to look at the top however many cards. It does not have to be scry if you are convinced that scry is blue and not white. I mostly see scry as shorthand for 'an ability that lets you look at the top X cards of library and filter them'. White has a number of 'find small dudes in the top _ and put into hand" effects, could be some variation on that instead?
Pavel Maliki: Extremely undercosted, 8 combined power and toughness with no drawback on turn 2 is overpowered. Should cost at least three mana, *with a drawback*, without it, it should cost four.
If you are that set, I'll make him 3 CMC. But honestly he is looking weak to me at that stage.
Hivis of the Scale: Most balanced card of the lot, there is literally nothing overtly wrong with it. It can get away with its low CC because it's Threaten ability is very narrow in scope. At most I'd add "play this ability as a sorcery.", as that is more in reds wheelhouse, but it can do fine without it.
The sorcery restriction would make him considerably less fun to play, would be great as a possible alteration for if he was too strong.

- Today's Entries -

It's taking a *lot* longer to enter these than I am spending exercising lol, so might start doing slightly abridged versions though I consider it really important to spell out the thought process behind them.

Hazduhr the Abbot

Another old, bad white general. Needs a huge boost to make people even think of playing him. So lets look at the themes here; clerics, absorbs damage from others, elected by Serra, going to die soon, needs Serra to return to choose a successor, old frail and "spiritually bankrupt", largely reactive and unable to take initiative on things.

God I'd love to add black given the references to spiritual bankruptcy, but lets stay mono-white because it's Serra's order after all. I've seen Angels & Clerics be a thing and tying into angels could fulfill the "Serra returns" element of his backstory, so lets give a perk for dying with an angel on the field.
Hazduhr the Abbot 1WW
Legendary Creature - Human Cleric

Eminence- As long as ~ is in the command zone or on the battlefield, if you control no creatures with Abbot counters on them, creatures you control have -2/-0 and cannot attack. If you control a creature with an Abbot counter on it, creatures you control have +2/+0 and have lifelink.

Angels spells you cast cost X less to cast, where X is the number of clerics you control.
When ~ dies, if you control an angel, put an abbot counter on target cleric you control.
2/5
This is a little clunky, so open to suggestions. I like the idea of him weakening you until he dies and is succeeded by another cleric, then he strengthens you. He ties into clerics and angels by having the former make the latter cheaper, and needing both on the table to get the boost effect. Could be a little strong, but on the other hand, can be blown out pretty easily and he is also mono-white and has no card advantage built in, so needs to have a strong effect. Overall though, the idea is appealing so I feel I've met the core goal for his redesign.

Gosta Dirk

Good lord, what am I looking at here? 7 mana for a 4/4 first strike who denies islandwalk. Yay. Looking at his wiki page, I see he was a powerful warrior mage living on the Kusho islands, he was a tribal leader and could summon tidal waves and the like. He also has an alliance with Kasimir the Lone Wolf, another crappy vanilla legendary. Hmm, let's kill two birds with one stone. Looking at Kasimir he was an exiled member of the "Kentsu" army, he lost tons of fights and came back thanks to healing waters on that island.
Gosta Dirk 2UW
Legendary Creature - Human Warrior
Partner with Kasimir, the Lone Wolf

Whenever ~ attacks or blocks, return up to one target creature with toughness X or less to it's owners hand, where X is the number of islands you control.
4/4

Kasimir, the Lone Wolf 2UW
Legendary Creature - Human Warrior
Partner with Gosta Dirk
~ may block an additional creature each combat.
Whenever ~ would die from damage, regenerate it if you control more islands than the amount of damage ~ has received this turn.
4/4
A pair of warriors, one has the best analogy for tidal wave effects I could find on magic cards, the other is a punching bag that can block over and over again as per his fluff.

Zuo Ci, the Mocking Sage

I felt this design as is had nothing going for it at all, and nobody is interested in a more efficient hexproof commander. So I went with the 'mocking' theme and his art and decided that he would try to style on opponents.
Zuo Ci, the Mocking Sage 2GG
Legendary Creature - Human Advisor
Protection from players with Contempt counters (This creature can't be blocked, targeted, dealt damage, or enchanted by anything controlled by any player with a contempt counter)
When ~ deals combat damage to an opponent, put a Contempt counter on that player.
When ~ leaves the battlefield, remove all Contempt counters from players
2/2
Conditional True-Name Nemesis on a commander? Yeah it could be potentially quite bad, so open to input on this guy. But regardless he certainly draws more attention than the terribly dull original doesn't he - so the kinks can be ironed out later? Considering adding shroud or some such to help avoid the usual voltron path, but that seems redundant with his protection clause. Maybe reverse shroud...

Huang Zhong, Shu General

The bad white commanders are coming thick and fast. I'm going to take his blocking theme, invert it a little and apply it to all of his troops.
Huang Zhong, Shu General 2WW
Legendary Creature - Human Soldier
Creatures you control can block an additional creature each combat, and cannot be blocked by more than one creature.

Whenever a creature you control blocks or is blocked, scry 1 and put a +1/+1 counter on that creature.
2/3
Now he controls the combat phase, and gives you both a power and card reward for doing so. Still seems weak so open to ways to make him more potent.

Ur-Drago

At the point I looked ahead and saw that these terrible Gosta Dirk analogues exist in a cycle of sorts. Gross. This guy does pretty much nothing, so sticking to his original theme is not really an option. His flavour mentions that he is a hellish elemental that kills for sustenance, and which was created to dunk on a tribe of cat people. He also has a penchant for one on one duels. Thats something, right??
Ur-Drago 1UB
Legendary Creature - Elemental
Protection from cats.
Whenever a creature dies, if it was dealt damage by ~ this turn, put a +1/+1 counter on Ur-Drago
Whenever ~ attacks, you may have it deal damage equal to it's power to target creature defending player controls. If you do, that creature deals damage equal to it's power to ~.
2/2
I'm not satisfied with this one, but honestly there is just nothing to work with. Open to better ideas.

Tuknir Deathlock

Ok, a green/red wizard who travels to other mysterious realms and has a penchant for powering up other creatures. Here goes;
Tuknir Deathlock GR
Legendary Creature - Human Wizard
~'s power is equal to the highest power amongst creatures in exile.
: Target creature gets +X/+X until end of turn, where X is ~'s power.
*/2
A Green/Red exile shenanigans deck? It fits his flavour but does it fit mechanically? Likely we will never know. The payoff of a potential alternate take on Xenagos is pretty cool though and he could give some huge power increases by discarding and exiling from his own graveyard at least.

Bartel Runeaxe

Existing rules give us nothing to work with. Flavour and background say he is a formidable and strong giant warrior from Hammerheim. We can tie into the flavour text of charging downhill by tying his strength to lands or mountains. Hammerheim itself gives me nothing to go on except that giants live there. Giant tribal?
Bartel Runeaxe 1GRB
Legendary Creature - Giant Warrior
Giant spells you cast cost X less to cast, where X is the number of basic mountains you control.
Whenever ~ attacks, attacking giants you control get +X/+0 until end of turn, where X is the number of basic mountains you control.
4/3
Looking up RGB giants we are not exactly spoiled for choice for top tier creatures. I also wanted to tie into mountains-matter to give Hammerheim a nod, so used this as a benchmark for both a cost reduction and an attacking power increase. "Basic" mountains might be too harsh a restriction, but god knows there are enough mountain forests and mountain swamps to make it pretty much a land matters deck without some sort of additional limitation.

Lord Magnus

Gross, another expensive walk-denier. I looked into his fluff and found that he dwells deep in a forest, controlling the growth of the plants. So made that his theme. Always gotta work with what we have for these old school dominaria RPG characters!
Lord Magnus 2WG
Legendary Creature - Human Druid
At the beginning of your end step, put a growth counter on each untapped land you control.
At the beginning of your precombat main phase, remove all growth counters from lands you control. Add that much mana in any combination of green and white to your mana pool. Lord Magnus gets +X/+0 until end of turn, where X is the number of counters removed this way.
3/3
Brought the cost down a bit, to make him essentially a weird mid-costed ramp spell. Without additional cards to combo with, he just lets you store mana rather than actually adding any. He felt a bit weak still, so I made him temporarily get bigger as a side effect.

Hunding Gjornersen

Yikes, what a terrible card. Gives me little to go off of, so lets check his backstory... ok, he leads a bunch of 'mercenaries' that are essentially a mixture of pirates and random do-gooders. So, UW pirate tribal?
Hunding Gjornersen 2UW
Legendary Creature - Human Warrior
Attacking creatures you control have islandwalk.
Whenever a creature you control with power 2 or less deals combat damage to a player, you and the player or players with the lowest life each gain 1 life. Then, you and the player or players with the least cards in hand draw a card.
3/3
A piracy effect on a general is quite strong, so tied it into his help for the weak and downtrodden (hopefully thats not who you are attacking!) to balance it out. Maybe it needs a clause that you cannot be attacking that weakest player either - but its getting too wordy by then.

Zhou Yu, Chief Commander

This... this thing. He really pissed me off. This card has absolutely nothing to do with Zhou Yu, both in historical account nor in the romance of the three kingdoms. Instead of trying to fix him in his role of 'big dumb blue guy with a downside' I will try to play on something interesting I found on his wiki page.
Zhou Yu, Chief Commander UU
Legendary Creature - Human Soldier
At the beginning of your end step, remove a frustration counter from ~ if one or more opponents were dealt combat damage this turn. Otherwise, put a frustration counter on ~.
When ~ has three or more frustration counters on it, you lose the game.
Creatures you control get +X/+X, where X is twice the number of frustration counters on ~
3/2
In Romance of the Three kingdoms, Zhou tries to surpass his rival but is thwarted again and again. Eventually he is wounded, and continues to be confounded by his foe. On the third such time, he coughs up blood and dies from his wounds. I tied this idea into a blue army commander in the style of gigantic armies of historical china, and so made him into a go-wide commander that gives a variable strength bonus as he reaches or fails in his goals.

X being twice the number of counters might be too much, but I felt a base +X/+0 was not enough of a boost to merit the risks of this general.
Last edited by Mimicvat 3 years ago, edited 1 time in total.
Currently building: ww Bruna, the Fading Light (card advantage tribal / reanimator)
Main decks;
r Neheb, Big Red Champion g Yeva's Mono Green Control, b Ayara's Aristocrats rb Greven, Predator Captain the One Punch Man, ugw Derevri, Empirical Tactician Aggro,rwbu Tymna & Kraum's Saboteurs, wbg Kondo & Tymna's Hatebears wugTuvasa's Silver Bullets, urBrudiclad does Brudiclad thingsgubSidisi, Brood Tyrant (lantern control)

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toctheyounger
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Post by toctheyounger » 3 years ago

Mimicvat wrote:
3 years ago
Rough man. Would rather be at work than in this enforced 'holiday' stuck at home. Is your job one of those ones that is a real PITA to do digitally? One of my mates is in that situation, and between working, being inefficient and being stuck in a tiny Auckland flat he was going crazy during that last lockdown. Hopefully we don't go past next week but its not looking hopeful.
I doubt we're back to Level 1 right away tbh, and I work in health so I get a small heads up from my consultants. My educated guess is a slow descent to normality.

It's not easy working from home, but I'm just glad I'm still able to do my job, I know there's lots of people out there less fortunate. Last lockdown was tough for work, there were a lot of speed bumps and it drove me a bit nuts, but I'm doing ok this time.
Malazan Decks of the Fallen
| Shadowthrone/Lazav | Raest/Yidris | T'iam / The Ur-Dragon |

Mimicvat
Posts: 172
Joined: 4 years ago
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Location: Auckland, New Zealand

Post by Mimicvat » 3 years ago

Riven Turnbull

We're given very little to work with here. A revolutionary, who due to his colours must be exploiting the rebellion for his own ends. Rules wize, a very expensive 5/7 with a terrible mana generating ability. Ok, lets get to work merging those concepts (or at least the interesting bits)
Riven Turnbull 1UB
Legendary Creature - Human Advisor

When ~ enters the battlefield, create X 1/1 white Rebel creature tokens, where X is the number of creatures your opponents control.
Whenever a rebel you control dies, add B and each opponent loses 1 life.
2/2
I wanted to tie in exploiting the rebels with his mana generation, but do so in a way that isn't pure aristocrat. Could play as a sort of UB go-wide commander with aristocrat subthemes.

Yukora, the Prisoner

A bad Kamigawa legend, whose only lore is whats printed on the card. So, a demon locked away by a bunch of people, who is released when they die. When he arrives he lays waste to the world. I reckon I can do something with that
Yukora, the Prisoner 2BB
Legendary Creature - Demon Spirit

You cannot cast ~ unless each opponent controls at least one creature.
When you cast ~, each opponent puts a Seal counter on a creature they control. Then, exile ~. When there are no creatures with Seal counters on them, return it onto the battlefield under its owners control.
When ~ enters the battlefield, destroy all creatures your opponents control.
6/6
Its more lines of text then I would like, but tells a good story.

Lady Orca

A tar demon that lives in a mysterious cave. It can take the form of a bald woman, and dissolve into tar to reform and restore wounds. A little like those albino guys in the matrix.
Lady Orca 1RB
Legendary Creature - Demon

When you cast ~, if you control no lands with Lair counters on them, put a Lair counter on a land you control.
When ~ leaves the battlefield, if you control a land with a Lair counter on it, return it to the battlefield under its owners control at the beginning of the next end step.
6/1
A general that dies to land destruction, but not to regular removal. Would play well with various fling effects, warstorm surge etc. Seems pretty interesting and definitely feels black/red.

Livonya Silone

6 mana for a 4/4 first strike with legendary landwalk. The only lore we get is on the card - a mysterious warrior with 'rumors of unearthly stealth and unholy alliances'. I kind of like the legendary landwalk as a form of unearthly stealth, but we're not given much else. So I will try and design a RG Voltron Commander built around this landwalk ability as a form of evasion.
Livonya Silone 1GR
Legendary Creature - Human Warrior

Legendary Landwalk.
You may pay 1 life and 1GR instead of this card's normal casting cost.
~'s power is equal to the number of lands controlled by the player with the most lands in play.
*/3
Built in conditional evasion and gets bigger by itself, seems like a good base for a voltron general. To offset no in-built protection, I gave her the ability to cheat the commander tax. This is the 'unholy alliance' and also allows the deck to be played as a value engine built off of cards like Greater Good.
Currently building: ww Bruna, the Fading Light (card advantage tribal / reanimator)
Main decks;
r Neheb, Big Red Champion g Yeva's Mono Green Control, b Ayara's Aristocrats rb Greven, Predator Captain the One Punch Man, ugw Derevri, Empirical Tactician Aggro,rwbu Tymna & Kraum's Saboteurs, wbg Kondo & Tymna's Hatebears wugTuvasa's Silver Bullets, urBrudiclad does Brudiclad thingsgubSidisi, Brood Tyrant (lantern control)

Mimicvat
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Location: Auckland, New Zealand

Post by Mimicvat » 3 years ago

Another day, another batch of crap to filter through. Its still early but its looking rainy so thats probably it for exercise today.

Jedit Ojanen

I'm really starting to dislike the old dominaria storyline. Very hokey, very generic RPG stuff. This guy is the pinnacle of it all, seems to be a pretty generic heroic dude "but he's a tiger". Fights the bad guys who are bad. A lone out looking viewpoint in an insular and traditional tribe. He's one rainbow flag away from ticking all the modern hero tropes. Later on they meet an alternative reality version thats him but green mana and with nothing in common except name and appearance. There might be more to it, but I don't have access to the text of the various novels he is in (nor the desire to read them) just the synopsis. At the end of the day his profile seems as vanilla as his character so gonna stick with that.

His planar chaos variant plays with some neat mechanical themes, he's just wildly overcosted. Instead of making him cheaper I decided to expand the scope of the ability, making the partner pair of two cats playable as cat tribal.
Jedit Ojanen 1WU
Legendary Creature - Cat Warrior

Partner with Jedit Ojanen of Efrava
5/5

Jedit Ojanen of Efrava 3GGG
Legendary Creature - Cat Warrior

Partner with Jedit Ojanen
Forestwalk
Whenever a cat you control attacks or blocks, create a 2/2 green Cat Warrior creature token with forestwalk.
5/5
Telim'Tor

Ok, a supremely crappy flanking tribal creature for 5 mana and in a colour with only 5 bad flanking creatures (admittedly mostly with cool art). Building strictly on that design space is not going to work.

Looking at his backstory... oh god, Dominaria again. Ok, kingdom of sand people traders. Telim'Tor has no redeeming skills himself and is constantly overshadowed by handsome, wise etc etc brother who is killed in battle. Its like a violent Disney cartoon so far. He takes over the survivors of that army and pretty much meat grinders them to death to recover some random artifacts. Then he lies about why so many men were killed, takes over, and executes the men so they can't talk about his incompetence.

I mean come on, this guy has to have black mana in his identity. Just look at his flavour text - "The curious merely amass knowledge. the ambitious use it." Theres very little thats actually red about him.

Other parts of his lore say that he is fond of small artifacts. So lets tie that, his new colour identity and his old mechanical identity together and see what we get;
Telim'Tor 2BR
Legendary Creature - Human Knight

Creatures you control have flanking and menace.
Whenever a creature you control deals combat damage to an opponent or dies, that opponent reveals the top X cards of their library where X is the damage dealt this way. You may put an artifact with converted mana cost X or less from among them onto the battlefield under your control. If you do, exile the creature. Put the remaining cards on the bottom of their owners library in a random order.
3/2
Seems way more interesting, a weird Rx artifact deck or a weird take on BR aristocrats. The exile clause is clumsy but it's there to stop creatures hitting, triggering the ability, dying and then triggering it again - a weird interaction that I ultimately decided I did not want.

Rashka the Slayer

Honest to god I thought this was just the same character as Rashida Scalebane. Blah blah evil vampire killed my family, must train for years to kill them even though my ability doesn't even work on most vampires. Cut and paste Rashida's new profile but with Black instead of Flying. Next.
Rashka the Slayer WW
Legendary Creature - Human Soldier
Protection from Dragons, Reach
: Destroy target attacking or blocking black creature. It can't be regenerated.
Whenever a black creature an opponent controls dies, if it was dealt damage or targeted by a Human you control this turn, you gain X life and scry X, where X is that creature's power.
3/4
Princess Lucrezia

A generic villain for the same group of pirate mercenary do-gooders to handily defeat during their roleplaying sessions. Barely any lore and not even any damn flavour text. Apparantly she was a evil wizard that ruled some generic kingdom. It had elite marines in its navy, but they were no match for Jedit and friends, who defeated them and then never spoke of them again. The end.

Yikes, what the heck am I supposed to do with that? Go-wide islands matter thats what!
Princess Lucrezia 2UB
Legendary Creature - Human Warlock
Flying
Creatures you control without flying get +X/+0, where X is the number of islands you control.
Creatures you control without flying have "This creature can't attack unless defending player controls and island. When you control no islands, sacrifice this creature"
2/4
She has one hell of a navy now, and could end up kind of interesting using those cards that turn lands into islands. Nothing black in that colour identity but I just had nothing to work with.

Edit: Weather cleared, another big walk and a few more commander remasters.

Veldrane of Sengir

A character with some actual lore to work with? Shocking! Veldrane seems to be a scout, spy, poacher and kidnapper that works for Baron Sengir. He is not a vampire himself, so I guess he can assist by going out in the daytime etc (not sure how true to form old school MTG vampires are). He frequently invades the such and such forest for his lord, bringing back prisoners to be devoured. I can work with this.
Veldrane of Sengir 1BB
Legendary Creature - Human Rogue
Forestwalk
When ~ deals combat damage to a player, if you control a vampire, choose one. If that vampire is legendary, you may choose both;
  • Gain control of gain control of target creature of the defending player's choice that they control.. It becomes a black vampire in addition to its other colours and types
  • Defending player sacrifices a creature. Put a +1/+1 counter on each vampire you control.
2/2
Black vampire tribal, giving either a power buff or an interesting theft buff to running a vampire deck.

The Lady of the Mountain

This card has virtually no lore. Supposedly created by Fiers, the dominarian god of dwarves and red magic. Her lore refers to her silent vigil being ended by one of pure heart who speaks her name. Whether ending that vigil will cause her to come to their aid, go on a destructive rampage or just fade away is not specified. I choose the former. I
The Lady of the Mountain 2RR
Legendary Creature - Spirit Giant
Flash
You may cast ~ only if you control a mountain, a legendary red creature, and are being attacked.
Red creatures you control get +1/+1.
Whenever a Mountain you control is tapped for mana, add an additional R.
4/4
I see nothing green in her at all given any of this, so stripped the colour. I gave her a very specific set of conditions for summoning to cover that true name and silent vigil aspect. For the payoff, well, this thing is going to be very hard to get on the table if other players don't want her there, so it needs to be substantial. I don't want her to just be a big doofer. I decided to go with the text of gauntlet of might, a rather wild artifact from the good old days that really gets on well with mountains.

Sunastian Falconer

There is next to nothing for this card. The wiki seems to suggest that he has no relation to the Falconers, people who guard Serra's abbey and can talk to birds. So we have a rather vanilla dude, who can supposedly use both sword and magic but who also runs a fairly typical (for the time) dig against physical power in his flavor text. Yeah that stuff triggers me. His ability lets him generate mana. Thats about the extent of it and not much to go off of.

Shaman tribal, I guess. Really stretching here but its something to work with.
Sunastian Falconer 1RG
Legendary Creature - Human Shaman
Whenever a shaman you control becomes tapped, add R or G. Until end of turn, this mana does not leave your mana pool when phases end. Spend this mana only on instant or sorcery spells.
Whenever ~ attacks, until end of turn, Shamans you control gain: ": Deal 1 damage to any target."
3/4
I decided to tie the shaman theme into his exciting mana generation ability. By making it spell specific, it links to what it says about preferring sorcery to swordplay. One of the most interesting shaman abilities I found was pinging, which is also a personal favourite of mine. I tied this to an attack trigger for Sunastian to give his sorcery a combat based origin and to help tie into the primal element of shamans. As he is a 3/4 with no evasion it will quickly become difficult to get this trigger off.

Thats all for today folks. Hopefully the tide of flavourless vanilla creatures will wane soon, though we are about fifty away from the first "playable" legendary which is Lady Evangela. Maybe I'll get there by the end of this lockdown...
Currently building: ww Bruna, the Fading Light (card advantage tribal / reanimator)
Main decks;
r Neheb, Big Red Champion g Yeva's Mono Green Control, b Ayara's Aristocrats rb Greven, Predator Captain the One Punch Man, ugw Derevri, Empirical Tactician Aggro,rwbu Tymna & Kraum's Saboteurs, wbg Kondo & Tymna's Hatebears wugTuvasa's Silver Bullets, urBrudiclad does Brudiclad thingsgubSidisi, Brood Tyrant (lantern control)

Mimicvat
Posts: 172
Joined: 4 years ago
Pronoun: he / him
Location: Auckland, New Zealand

Post by Mimicvat » 3 years ago

Sima Yi, Wei Field Marshal

Terrible card, potentially interesting design when you look at the lore - which is pretty much summed up in his flavor text. Sima Yi will serve faithfully, while plotting behind the scenes to put his own family on the throne.
Sima Yi, Wei Field Marshal BB
Legendary Creature - Human Advisor

~ cannot be sacrificed.
At the beginning of your upkeep, draw a card and put a Subterfuge counter on ~.
When ~ has ten or more Subterfuge counters on it, you lose the game.
1/2
Simple and powerful, could see play in mono black control decks. Would necessitate ways to dispose of him outside of sacrifice, which ends up costing mana and some of the cards he gives you. Or go all in and try to win before your 12th turn.

Rohgahh of Kher Keep

Surprisingly, as far as I could tell this guy has no lore whatsoever. The idea behind him is good, he's just way too expensive and crappy and as-is it will not work in EDH.
Rohgahh of Kher Keep RB
Legendary Creature - Kobold Noble
Your deck may contain any number of cards named "Kobolds of Kher Keep"
Other Kobolds you control get +2/+0 and mountainwalk.
Whenever you cast a Kobold creature spell, create a 0/1 red Kobold creature token.
At the beginning of each upkeep, any player may pay X, where X is the number of Kobolds on the battlefield. If they do, they gain control of all Kobolds. If no player does, return all Kobolds to their owners control and they gain Haste until end of turn.
2/2
A little clunky, but it fits on a card! Not sure how the first line of text would work - probably requires a rules adjustment (I'm all for individual commanders altering the deck composition rules). Open to alternative takes on him, but I do like the core ideas of infinite 0/1 kobolds either permitted in the deck or created by the general, and of the kobolds changing sides depending on who can pay them.

Jerrard of the Closed Fist

No background lore really for this guy except what it says in the flavor text. I like the idea of a RG Knight deck, where as the knights die Jerrard gets more powerful. There are only 43 RG knight cards and most are pretty bad, so going to get an incentive for taking them
Jerrard of the Closed Fist 1RG
Legendary Creature - Human Knight
Other Knights you control get +X/+X, where X is ~'s power.
Whenever a knight you control attacks or dies, put a +1/+1 counter on ~.
2/2
Scaling lord effect. Its strong, but knights are bad and RG knights are dreadful. I also did not give it any form of card advantage, instead this commander is going deep on avenging his lost order with big boys

Grandmother Sengir

This card is woefully inadequate to represent it's character. Briefly summed up, she was locked in a coffin during a world ending disaster while her connection to mana was destroyed, this went on for so long that she went crazy. She has ties to controlling animals (evil animals only), is bats**t loonie and can wilt and kill living things just by singing. She flays the flesh off beautiful women and drinks their juices to stay healthy and tutors the evil Sengir himself in dark magic. She knows dark magic that can corrupt and transform Serra Angels to serve her. One of the better dominaria characters I have to say.
Grandmother Sengir 3BB
Legendary Creature - Human Warlock
Deathtouch
Whenever a white or green creature an opponent controls dies, if ~ is still on the battlefield, return that creature to the battlefield under your control. It is a black zombie in addition to it's other colours and creature types. You lose life equal to it's converted mana cost.
2/3
Decided to go all in on the corrupting influence as that has the best range for gameplay mechanics. Kept it simple (cast reanimate on every white or green creature that dies), but included text to deny a simple boardwipe tribal. It's based off of Adarkar Valkyrie with the life loss included to make up for the wider range of her ability.

Thats it for today keeping it easy on the exercise front right now.
Currently building: ww Bruna, the Fading Light (card advantage tribal / reanimator)
Main decks;
r Neheb, Big Red Champion g Yeva's Mono Green Control, b Ayara's Aristocrats rb Greven, Predator Captain the One Punch Man, ugw Derevri, Empirical Tactician Aggro,rwbu Tymna & Kraum's Saboteurs, wbg Kondo & Tymna's Hatebears wugTuvasa's Silver Bullets, urBrudiclad does Brudiclad thingsgubSidisi, Brood Tyrant (lantern control)

Mimicvat
Posts: 172
Joined: 4 years ago
Pronoun: he / him
Location: Auckland, New Zealand

Post by Mimicvat » 3 years ago

Five more days unless we get an extension. Lets see how far through this pile of cardboard I can get!

Kei Takahashi

A cleric with natural talent in healing magic and can sense danger. Some weird story about getting an insect parasite that changed his mindset and made him aggressive. Sacrificed himself to heal someone important. Right. I'm going to take the simple approach and avoid the insect stuff. My sacrifice ideas are far too similar to Saffi Eriksdotter for my liking. So going to take a tested design and adapt it to be a commander.
Kei Takahashi GW
Legendary Creature - Human Cleric

: Another target creature you control gains hexproof. Prevent all damage that would be dealt to that creature this turn.
1/2
I kind of wanted Giver of Runes on a commander, but strict protection would give an evasive element which, while interesting, is not in line with the character.

Zhuge Jin, Wu Strategist

This card has enough mechanics that I don't need to delve into the Romance of Three Kingdoms for it. A commander who strategizes his way into unblockable troops. The problem is, he's too low impact for his cost when put in the command slot.
Zhuge Jin, Wu Strategist 1UU
Legendary Creature - Human Advisor

: Creatures you control with power equal or lower than ~'s cannot be blocked this turn. Activate this ability only during your turn, before attackers are declared.
2/3
I wanted a go-wide approach, as Thassa, God of the Sea already fills the one big boy niche. Also doesn't make sense for an army commander to be commanding a single big leviathan or some such.

Ma Chao, Western Warrior

He does nothing, so into the Romance we go. Hmmm, a western warlord who allies with other warlords to challenge the main power. Extravagant and a great warrior. In real life, known for his cruelty, and did pretty much none of the heroic stuff from the Romance. I definitely want to add black after what I read here. I wanted a horsemanship legend theme with this guy, but that's going to wait until Liu Bei. Going to try and make a theme of uniting with others against the enemy, then betraying them.
Ma Chao, Western Warrior 2RB
Legendary Creature - Human Warrior
Horsemanship
When ~ attacks, each opponent reveals the top X cards of their library, where X is the amount of commander damage they have recieved from ~ this game. You may put a legendary creature from among the revealed cards of each player into the battlefield under your control. It gains "this creature must attack each turn if able."
Whenever a creature you control but do not own dies, draw a card, lose 1 life and put a +1/+1 counter on ~.
2/3
May be too powerful for its cost, would need real world testing which will likely never happen. But I quite like the design!

Ishi-Ishi, Akki Crackshot

Terrible card but the design can be fixed. Throws stones at spirits that come near his mountain. Loves goats. Eventually burned to death by the spirits and never mentioned again. The spirit and arcane clause is worthless so needs an adjustment.
Ishi-Ishi, Akki Crackshot 1R
Legendary Creature - Goblin Warrior

Whenever a non-goat, non-goblin creature enters the battlefield, choose one;
  • ~ deals 2 damage to that creature
  • ~ deals 2 damage to that creature's controller.
2/2
After seeing a neat Zo-Zu the Punisher deck in action, I know an effect like this can be effective in EDH. Made it affect you as well if you run non-goat, non-goblin creatures in order to help justify 2 damage instead of 1.

Zhao Zilong, Tiger General

Piece of garbage, needing both a fix to make him playable as a card and a push to make people choose this mono-white general over practically anything else that doesn't appear in this thread. Going for a cavalry theme and tying it to his rescue flavor text;
Zhao Zilong, Tiger General WW
Legendary Creature - Human Warrior
Horsemanship
You may cast creatures with horsemanship without paying their mana cost.
When a creature you control with horsemanship attacks, put a Rescue counter on another target creature you control.
Remove a Rescue counter from a creature: return that creature to its owners hand.
2/2
That line about free spells is misleading - there are 6 mono white horse riders in magic, and they are all terrible. Worse case is someone dropping Zhao on turn 2 followed by a 4/4 horseman vigilance and a 3/5 horseman. That could happen, but more realistically you are trying to capitalize on bad french vanilla creatures and its likely there is one or none in your hand at that point. Remember, with certain mono-colors I am trying to push them a lot to make them an appealing option.

I imagine the deck would mostly be getting rescue counters off of the general and then either using them as bad flicker or as boardwipe resistance.

Marhault Elsdragon

A dominaria-era villain, this spock look-alike served Nicol Bolas (first time I've seen him mentioned) leading the japanese-theme army of evil. His flavor text seems largely at odds with his wiki lore - apparantly he is simultaneously ferocious and embodying chaos yet never lets any emotions cloud his judgement. Right. Possesses "various types of battle magic" which is not reflected in his card at all. Only green thing about him is being an elf, so I could easily cut that. Overall, very contradictory.
Marhault Elsdragon GWR
Legendary Creature - Elf Warrior
Attacking creatures you control have Rampage X, where X is the number of attacking creatures you control.
Whenever a creature you control is blocked, another target creature you control gets +1/+1 until end of turn.
3/3
Firstly, I changed his colors. He seems red at heart but needs white to control it. I left out black because rather than being evil, he seems to be 'lawful'. I retained green mostly for mechanics - the lure effects are so damn cool here. There is not enough lore provided to find grounds to make him black IMO. went for a strict aggro approach. I've seen boros aggro work in EDH, and this is the type of tool that can help make it work. Will work well alongside cards like Dolman Gate or cards that force blocking (Lure.

Reasonable chance of another expedition today so may add a few cards.
Currently building: ww Bruna, the Fading Light (card advantage tribal / reanimator)
Main decks;
r Neheb, Big Red Champion g Yeva's Mono Green Control, b Ayara's Aristocrats rb Greven, Predator Captain the One Punch Man, ugw Derevri, Empirical Tactician Aggro,rwbu Tymna & Kraum's Saboteurs, wbg Kondo & Tymna's Hatebears wugTuvasa's Silver Bullets, urBrudiclad does Brudiclad thingsgubSidisi, Brood Tyrant (lantern control)

Mimicvat
Posts: 172
Joined: 4 years ago
Pronoun: he / him
Location: Auckland, New Zealand

Post by Mimicvat » 3 years ago

Purraj of Urborg

Alright, so this character's lore is well represented by several other cards; Song of Blood, Blind Fury and Bone Mask. These cards include flavor text and/or depictions of the character that tell me that she needs an ability that is very different from her current one, and should probably include red. I've decided to draw from these cards to inspire her new iteration.
Purraj of Urborg 1RB
Legendary Creature - Cat Warrior
Whenever ~ attacks, goad each other creature.
Whenever a creature attacks or deals combat damage to a creature, put a +1/+1 counter on ~ and on it.
Remove a +1/+1 counter from ~: Change the targets of each spell that targets ~ to another target creature you control.
2/2
Went harder into the Song of Blood than the sacrifice others theme, and I tried to do something that wasn't as boring as "regenerate" - rather it is just protection from spells and abilities. Let Purraj handle herself in a fight.

Lu Su, Wu Advisor

Not much to go on here. In history he convinced some important lords to ally together, in romance of the three kingdoms he is a bit of a simpleton and easily cheated. In mechanics he's a backfield bureaucrat that generates card advantage. I reckon the alliance thing could be interesting.
Lu Su, Wu Advisor 1U
Legendary Creature - Human Advisor
Advisors you control have ": Choose an opponent that has not attacked you since their last turn. You and that opponent each draw a card. Activate this ability only during your turn, before attackers are declared."
1/2
By making the ability global, it ties into potentially running a Persistent Petitioners strategy. Usually I don't like overly easy card draw in blue but here it's quite strategic. Could be replaced with Humans, small creatures or blue creatures you control instead.

Jacques le Vert

Not a ton of backstory but enough themes to build a creature from. Essentially, Pendelhaven is a place filled with weak and timid animals. Jacques and his followers protect them. He wields the Sword of the Meek. So definitely a theme of supporting weak creatures.
Jacques le Vert 1GW
Legendary Creature - Human Warrior
Nonattacking creatures you control with 1 base power get +2/+2.
3/3
Simple and ties into themes of weakness and non-aggression. Could be interesting to see what kind of GW deck wants small tokens but also does not want it's creatures to attack! First thought is a deck taking advantage of Elemental Bond. One thing I am not sure of is wording - I would like this commander to boost creatures even if there is an anthem in play. IE a 1/1 becomes a 2/2, but its base power was 1 so it still gets his bonus.

Zhang He, Wei General

Simple concept, way too expensive. There is an easy minimum fix of simply reducing his cost and stats, but then he is not only unappealing but competes with Drana, Liberator of Malakir in the same niche. However, I don't have much to work with in terms of lore. He changed sides once, and in one battle he cut off water to the enemy to weaken them. Not particulaly unique during this period. He is noted for his use of geography in battle which gives me something at least.
Zhang He, Wei general 1BB
Legendary Creature - Human Warrior
Horsemanship
At the beginning of the game, choose a basic land type.
When ~ attacks, other creatures you control get +1/+0 and landwalk of the land type chosen.
3/2
He is now Drana, but with a tradeoff. Less of a power boost, but some evasion. Sill overall unhappy but there wasn't much of a concept to work with here. Jeez I certainly seem to need to hand out landwalk a lot.

Tobias Andrion

A do-nothing card with at least a little lore to work with. Essentially, an effective military general for a place called Sheoltun, that specialized in fighting pirates.
Tobias Andrion 1WU
Legendary Creature - Human Advisor
Creatures not attacking you have islandwalk.
3/2
A simple evasion-enabler with a political angle in that he potentially makes everyone able to hit everyone but you quite easily.

Yuan Shao, the Indecisive

I've actually seen this played with some effect, in an Iroas, God of Victory deck. So the ability has some legs. Problems are, high cost and mono-red. When I looked into his lore, that Indecisiveness is a thing, and is not represented on the card. So instead of the easy fix (reduce cost, add white) I decided to play up that side of him and increase his power.
Yuan Shao, the Indecisive 2RW
Legendary Creature - Human Warrior
Horsemanship
Each creature you control must attack each turn if able and has melee. (Whenever this creature attacks, it gets +1/+1 until end of turn for each opponent you attacked with a creature this combat.)
Whenever a creature you control attacks, flip a coin. If heads, that creature cannot be blocked by more than one creature this turn. If tails, this creature must be assigned to attack a different player or planeswalker if able. Otherwise, remove it from combat.
3/3
Not certain of wording, would want him to flip multiple times per creature - attack player A, flip tails, redirect to B, flip tails, redirect to A, flip heads. I also would not want melee to trigger for players that ultimately were not attacked. Yeesh in-depth rules are hard!

Tarox Bladewing

Not much lore here, but the flavor text works well and grandeur can be adapted.
YTarox Bladewing 2RRR
Legendary Creature - Dragon
Flying, Haste
Discard a Dragon card from your hand: ~ gets +X/+X until end of turn, where X is it's power
4/3
Torn between 5 and 4 mana for him, so in the end kept his original mana cost. This would actually be a very cool commander but I'm a sucker for surprise voltron.
Currently building: ww Bruna, the Fading Light (card advantage tribal / reanimator)
Main decks;
r Neheb, Big Red Champion g Yeva's Mono Green Control, b Ayara's Aristocrats rb Greven, Predator Captain the One Punch Man, ugw Derevri, Empirical Tactician Aggro,rwbu Tymna & Kraum's Saboteurs, wbg Kondo & Tymna's Hatebears wugTuvasa's Silver Bullets, urBrudiclad does Brudiclad thingsgubSidisi, Brood Tyrant (lantern control)

Mimicvat
Posts: 172
Joined: 4 years ago
Pronoun: he / him
Location: Auckland, New Zealand

Post by Mimicvat » 3 years ago

Sir Shandlar of Eberyn

No fluff to work on, just a generic GW knight. Obvious best buddies with another generic GW knight named Torsten Von Ursus. Time for another take on Knight Tribal. I really like the Knights & Legends theme I've seen in some recent cards so will build off of that.
Sir Shandlar of Eberyn2GW
Legendary Creature - Human Knight
Partners with Torsten Von Ursus
Knight creatures and Legendary creatures you control have Banding
3/3

-

Sir Shandlar of Eberyn2GW
Legendary Creature - Human Knight
Partners with Sir Shandlar of Eberyn
Knight creatures you control get +1/+1 for each legendary permanent you control.
3/3
Been looking for an excuse to add banding for a card, and Sir Shandlar's rules text seems like a good enough reason!

Tor Wauki

Little to go off of here. There are two Tor Waukis, one is a random archer in one part of the dominaria storyline. The other one worked with Tetsuo Umezawa, learned some red magic and used it to help kill a shapeshifter. So with little of interest to go on, I'm going to try and do a minimum effort fix for this commander.
Tor WaukiRB
Legendary Creature - Human Archer
: ~ deals 1 damage to target creature.
Whenever an activated ability you control would do damage to a creature or player, it deals one additional damage.
2/2
A commander for pinger tribal. Removed attacking/blocking as while that is seen in reference to archery in the game, its also a distinctively white ability.

Cao Ren, Wei Commander

Couldn't find any notable attributes in the Romance for this character, so just going to draw off of other (better) black creatures with a downside and make him a beater.
Cao Ren, Wei Commander2BB
Legendary Creature - Human Soldier Warrior
Horsemanship
If ~ is your commander, if a card you cast would cost more than its normal mana cost, you may pay 1 life instead of each additional mana required to cast that card.
When ~ enters the battlefield, lose 6 life.
6/6
Dumb but evasive beater, with a big life cost and a way to cheat the commander tax via paying even more life.

Liu Bei, Lord of Shu

This guy is totally going to lead the Tiger Generals, color identity and balance be damned!
Liu Bei, Lord of Shu3WWR
Legendary Creature - Human Soldier
Horsemanship
When ~ enters the battlefield, search your library, graveyard and hand for any number of legendary creatures you control named "Guan Yu, Sainted Warrior", "Zhao Zilong, Tiger General", "Ma Chao, Western Warrior", "Zhang Fei, Fierce Warrior" and "Huang Zhong, Shu General" and put them onto the battlefield. Then shuffle your library.
2/4
It's 17 power for 6 mana, at the cost of running some godawful cards in your deck and for playing RW.

Morinfen & Gallowbraid

Two pretty useless creatures that hurt you. They have somewhat interesting lore - they drove a character mad. Can also tie it into a sort of mono-black horror theme.
Morinfen2BB
Legendary Creature - Horror
Partner with Gallowbraid
Flying
Cumulative Upkeep - pay 1 life.
Whenever a horror you control attacks, defending player or planeswalker's controller puts a -1/-1 counter on a creature they control.
3/4

-

Gallowbraid1BB
Legendary Creature - Horror
Partner with Morinfen
Cumulative Upkeep - pay 1 life.
Creatures with -1/-1 counters on them attack each turn if able.
Whenever a creature with a -1/-1 counter on it attacks, put a -1/-1 counter on it and a +1/+1 counter on a horror you control.
5/4
[/quote]

I'd prefer these to any of the current mono-black options.

Lady Caleria

Literally a "Elf leader who hunts". So many token players with a card, yikes. This one can at least do the archer thing properly due to possessing white in it's identity
Lady Calderia, Hunter-QueenWG
Legendary Creature - Elf Archer
Elves you control have : Deal 1 damage to target attacking or blocking creature, or 2 damage to target creature with flying"
2/2
Gives you some utility for your elves if they are not tapping for mana or attacking, and can play the politics game to influence other players attacks. Actually not that bad of a card IMO.

Commander Greven il-Vec

He was already re-released with an excellent card Greven, Predator Captain which is one of my favourite decks. Any commander in this situation that I am aware of will not get a remaster, unless the new card is also trash lol

Barktooth Warbeard

No flavor aside from whats on the card. I reckon he's an angry warrior that taunts his foes.
Barktooth Warbeard1RB
Legendary Creature - Human Soldier
All creatures have haste.
Creatures your opponents control attack each turn if able.
3/3
The haste element is there to give him a bit more of an interesting identity, it sort of represents the rush and chaos of fighting. Haste enablers are good in the command zone, but to keep him from outclassing some that already exist he grants it to the enemy too.

Irini Sengir

This character is pretty nuts. A dwarf that was made into a vampire, she eventually went crazy. She specializes in unwinding the magic of enchantments. Luckily black now has some enchantment removal in its identity so will build her along those lines.
Irini Sengir2BB
Legendary Creature - Vampire Dwarf
Whenever a creature you controls dies, target opponent sacrifices a dwarf and an enchantment they control. You lose life equal to the converted mana cost of enchantments sacrificed this way. Return dwarves sacrificed this way to the battlefield under your control, they become black zombies in addition to their other colors and types.
2/2
Built it around an aristocrats trigger to make it a more directed deck than a simple piece of enchantment removal in the command zone. She also hates dwarves so altered the ability to hose any random dwarves around.
Currently building: ww Bruna, the Fading Light (card advantage tribal / reanimator)
Main decks;
r Neheb, Big Red Champion g Yeva's Mono Green Control, b Ayara's Aristocrats rb Greven, Predator Captain the One Punch Man, ugw Derevri, Empirical Tactician Aggro,rwbu Tymna & Kraum's Saboteurs, wbg Kondo & Tymna's Hatebears wugTuvasa's Silver Bullets, urBrudiclad does Brudiclad thingsgubSidisi, Brood Tyrant (lantern control)

Mimicvat
Posts: 172
Joined: 4 years ago
Pronoun: he / him
Location: Auckland, New Zealand

Post by Mimicvat » 3 years ago

Ayesha Tanaka

This card gives me plenty to go with. An armourer who is born with natural affinity for artifacts and enchantments, she once animated the armour of an army to trap its wearers.
Ayesha Tanaka2WW
Legendary Creature - Human Wizard
Equipment spells you cast and equip abilities you control cost 1 less.
You may activate the equip abilities of any equipment on the field. When you activate an equip ability, it may target any creature.
: Target artifact becomes an equipment with "Equip: 3" and "this creature gets +X/+X, where X is the number of equipment attached to this creature". It loses all other abilities.
: Target equipment gains "equipped creature cannot attack or block" and loses all other abilities.
2/3
I maybe got a bit carried away with this one, but this seems to be a very interesting equipment theme commander with some control features against artifacts and creatures built in. I stripped a color (blue of all things) and felt comfortable giving a mono-white commander this many abilities. Thats certainly what it takes to make me consider that color at the moment sadly.



Sivitri Scarzam
Sivitri is a mysterious planes hopper who brings a horde of dragons to attack some part of dominaria. Eventually a cleric mixes a poison for the dragons from some kind of plant and they get wiped out. Not much more than that.
Sivitri Scarzam3UB
Legendary Creature - Human
Whenever you cast a dragon spell, create a token that is a copy of that dragon. It loses all abilities aside from flying.
Whenever a dragon you control is dealt damage from a white source, destroy it.
3/4
I feel weird using "human" here, but thats what they went for on the card. Decided that some vanilla dragon tokens is actually a pretty cool payoff for going all in on UB dragons. The color thing is likely not an issue, not many white pingers run in the game and if your free dragons trade with small white fliers then too bad I guess.



Lu Meng, Wu General

More islandwalk? Not if I can help it. He becomes possessed in the Romance and dies horribly, so lets go with that.
Lu Meng, Wu General2U
Legendary Creature - Human Soldier
Horsemanship
Whenever another creature you control dies, sacrifice ~.
4/4
Pure voltron, being a cheap and evasive beater with the downside of not really playing nicely with other creatures.



Dong Zhou, the Tyrant

Ok, a portal general with something to work with? He was a terrible and cruel leader, who is eventually betrayed. In the Romance, the betrayal is really talked up and intertwined with some love triangle stuff. I quite like the idea that Dong drives people to kill their leaders.
Dong Zhou, the Tyrant1RR
Legendary Creature - Human Soldier
At the beginning of each combat step, each player chooses a creature they control. That creature deals damage equal to its power to that player.
2/2
I love group slug decks and reckon this could be a good deck in the same design space as Zo-Zu the Punisher.



Autumn Willow

Forest spirit incarnation thing, at one with the land and animals etc. Didn't find her all that interesting but I did like two parts of her lore. Firstly, she can only be harmed by harming the land. Secondly, she needs a champion - if she does not find one she must kill everything in the forest to save the world.
Autumn Willow2GG
Enchantment - Aura
Shroud
Enchant Creature. Enchanted creature gets +X/+X, where X is the number of lands on the battlefield.
Whenever a land you control is put into the graveyard from the battlefield, sacrifice the creature ~ is attached to.
~ can be your commander
Edit: Reread this and did not like it, far too wordy. Took out the mass destruction element and made it a boost aura only.
Currently building: ww Bruna, the Fading Light (card advantage tribal / reanimator)
Main decks;
r Neheb, Big Red Champion g Yeva's Mono Green Control, b Ayara's Aristocrats rb Greven, Predator Captain the One Punch Man, ugw Derevri, Empirical Tactician Aggro,rwbu Tymna & Kraum's Saboteurs, wbg Kondo & Tymna's Hatebears wugTuvasa's Silver Bullets, urBrudiclad does Brudiclad thingsgubSidisi, Brood Tyrant (lantern control)

Mimicvat
Posts: 172
Joined: 4 years ago
Pronoun: he / him
Location: Auckland, New Zealand

Post by Mimicvat » 3 years ago

Urgh, accidentally closed without posting and wiped it all. Going to do the abridged version.

Eron the Relentless
Eron the Relentless 1RR
Legendary Creature - Human Rogue
When ~ dies, return it to the battlefield under its owners control at the beginning of the next end step.
2/1
May seem like a better Squee, but with how most Squee decks work I doubt it would play that way.



Lady Sun

Transforms into;
Lady Sun 1UU
Legendary Creature - Human Advisor
: Return target creature you control and a target creature an opponent controls of that opponent's choice to their owner's hands. Activate this ability only on your turn, before attackers are declared
Decided to widen the ability rather than reduce the cost. Plays into ETB shenanigans though inefficiently due to needing to recast. Let opponent choose the creature to reduce the power level and because I find that a really interesting mechanic.



Lady Zhurong, Warrior Queen & Meng Huo, Barbarian King

The lore was essentially rebels that got captured and released over and over again until they surrendered.
Lady Zhurong, Warrior Queen 2GG
Legendary Creature - Human Warrior Soldier
Partner with Meng Huo, Barbarian King
When ~ dies, if you control a creature named "Meng Huo, Barbarian King" then return it to the battlefield under its owners control.
: Deal 2 damage to target creature with flying. Activate this ability only on your turn, before attackers are declared.
3/3
-
Meng Huo, Barbarian King 2GG
Legendary Creature - Human Warrior Soldier
Partner with Lady Zhurong, Warrior Queen
When ~ dies, if you control a creature named "Lady Zhurong, Warrior Queen" then return it to the battlefield under its owners control.
Other green creatures you control get +1/+1
4/4



Axelrod Gunnarson

Known only by the cryptic phrase, "a legendary giant", this creature is pretty bad but has some limited design space to work with.
Axelrod Gunnarsong 2RB
Trample
Whenever a creature dies, if it was dealt damage by a creature you control this turn, you gain 1 life and ~ deals 1 damage to any target.
4/3
Ping is a really cool mechanic in EDH, needs more sources and more effective sources of it.



Zhang Fei, Fierce Warrior

Yet another card that suggests islandwalk in the flavor. Romance yields nothing to go on, he's pretty much "some dude" or another generic white general card. Running out of ideas for those so lets go for a simple anthem option;
Zhang Fei, Fierce Warrior 2WW
Legendary Creature - Human Soldier
Horsemanship
Other creatures you control get +1/+1 and have vigilance.
When ~ enters the battlefield, draw a card.
4/4
Pretty dull, but the cantrip effect sets him apart and helps him be card-efficient enough for a white weenie deck.



General Jarkeld

Another "white strategist", at least this one has a cool ability to build off of. Problem his, he's a crappy Odric, Master Tactician, and even Odric is a hard sell as a commander at this point in time. His ability doesn't actually need changing, just adding to, as it is already a cool variant on what Odric is doing.
General Jarkeld 1WW
Legendary Creature - Human Soldier
Whenever one or more creatures you control block or are blocked, you may return one of those creatures to it's owners hand.
: Choose two target blocked creatures, and exchange the creatures that are blocking them.
2/4
His oracle errata is extremely wordy, so I cut it down - as a result, the legality of blockers after reassignment is no longer checked. So you could block a flier with a flier, then swap it so a non-flier is blocking it. I find that a feature rather than a bug. The return to hand clause is a weak form of value generation if you build him the right way, and at least a form of card retention if you build him in a more typically aggressive fashion. Between this and the fact that he can mess with other peoples attacks too and you have a cool concept for a white commander.



Boris Devilboon

A poor soothsayer who could conjur "little friends" out of fire. He is killed by his master Ramses Overdark (always wanted to make that commander, too bad he's so expensive now!) and reanimated as a zombie, who is now better at future-telling and who can create disgusting friends out of offal and muck.
Boris Devilboon 2RB
Legendary Creature - Human Wizard
1r: Create a 1/1 red elemental named "Little Friend".
Whenever an elemental enters the battlefield under your control, it deals 1 damage to any target.
When ~ dies, return it to the battlefield transformed
3/2
-
Dead Boris
Legendary Creature - Zombie Wizard
1b: Create a 1/1 black elemental named "Little Friend".
Whenever an elemental enters the battlefield under your control, scry 1.
Elementals you control have deathtouch.
2/3
If you sacrifice him at the right time, one or more little friends entering play can deal deathtouch damage. Otherwise he is a source of blockers, scry, some weak removal or sacrifice fodder. Two mana to create the token is cheap, but I feel that this is an appropriate cost in this format - in standard it would need to be a little more.
Currently building: ww Bruna, the Fading Light (card advantage tribal / reanimator)
Main decks;
r Neheb, Big Red Champion g Yeva's Mono Green Control, b Ayara's Aristocrats rb Greven, Predator Captain the One Punch Man, ugw Derevri, Empirical Tactician Aggro,rwbu Tymna & Kraum's Saboteurs, wbg Kondo & Tymna's Hatebears wugTuvasa's Silver Bullets, urBrudiclad does Brudiclad thingsgubSidisi, Brood Tyrant (lantern control)

Mimicvat
Posts: 172
Joined: 4 years ago
Pronoun: he / him
Location: Auckland, New Zealand

Post by Mimicvat » 3 years ago

Sun Ce, Young Conquerer

Little to go on for this guy. He did strike out and conquer lands, as suggested in his title. So gonna add a bit to that.
Sun Ce, Young Conquerer 2UU
Legendary Creature
When ~ deals combat damage to a player, gain control of target land that player controls of that players choice.
2/2
A little bit gross, but my answer for strong effects is to simply remove them. If imbalanced, returning him to 5 CMC would be more than enough.



Cabal Patriarch

Simply needs a price adjustment, especially since Yawgmoth, Thran Physician is a thing and exists in a similar design space. I don't expect all of my designs here to be at that level of power but I want to keep them in mind when creating cards.
Cabal Patriarch 2BB
Legendary Creature - Wizard
1B, Sacrifice a creature: Target creature gets -2/-2 until end of turn
B, Exile a creature card in your graveyard: Target creature gets -2/-2 until end of turn.
3/4
Subtracted one from the sacrifice ability and two from the graveyard exile version. Plays into some form of aristocrats or simple control now.



Jasmine Boreal

Her lore is pretty vague, but she does like to use various trinkets in her magic. Thats enough of an excuse for me to create her as a GW artifact based deck
Jasmine Boreal 2GW
Legendary Creature - Human Cleric
, sacrifice an artifact: Choose one.
  • Gain 2 life.
  • Reveal the top 2 cards of your library, put all lands and artifacts from among them into your hand.
  • Put 2 +1/+1 counters on target creature.
    2/2
I know eggs style decks can be potentially a problem, but could be a cool take on them. Kept a flat reward for the ability to promote small artifacts, the original involved the artifact's CMC but that built the wrong design for her.



Gabriel Angelfire

Simple fix. A cost decrease, power increase, make the chosen abilities permanent, and make one ability a 'dump stat' for choosing after all others have been taken but with stacking effect
Gabriel Angelfire 1GW
Legendary Creature - Angel
At the beginning of your upkeep, put a rampage 1 counter on ~. Then choose flying, first strike, trample, or +1/+1. Put a counter of that type onto Gabriel.
(Multiple instances of rampage stack)
3/3
Starts small, very slowly builds up into a voltron monster. Still probably bad but now worth a look instead of instantly rejected.
Edit: Changed to ability counters. Swapped the automatic +1/+1 to automatic rampage and made +1/+1 an option, as putting a "rampage 2" counter seems pretty clunky.



Chandler & Joven

Master thief, likes to steal magical objects, and particularly he can manipulate artifact creatures. Buddies with Joven, another thief who has a bunch of tools for bypassing defenses.
Chandler 2R
Legendary Creature - Human Rogue
Partner with Joven
Protection from artifacts
When ~ deals combat damage to a player, gain control of target artifact that player controls.
: Gain control of target artifact creature until ~ leaves the battlefield.
2/2
-
Joven 2R
Legendary Chandler
Partner with Chandler
When ~ deals combat damage to a player, gain control of target artifact that player controls.
2R: Target creature with power 2 or less cannot be blocked this turn.
2/2
A pair of thieves who need to get past defenses and blockers to steal your mana rocks. Chandler can take artifact creatures with impunity. Joven's tools give you the means to get them past a stronger defense. If you are running a ton of artifacts and see these partners opposite you, don't despair - just kill them.



Guan Yu, Sainted Warrior

Ok, he has *something* but its not great. If we powered that up a little he might now be appealing.
Guan Yu, Sainted Warrior 2W
Legendary Creature - Human Soldier Warrior
Horsemanship
When ~ leaves the battlefield, return it to your hand.
2/2
Filling similar design space to Isamaru, Hound of Konda, he trades being a 1 drop for a cheat on the commander tax and built in evasion.
Last edited by Mimicvat 3 years ago, edited 1 time in total.
Currently building: ww Bruna, the Fading Light (card advantage tribal / reanimator)
Main decks;
r Neheb, Big Red Champion g Yeva's Mono Green Control, b Ayara's Aristocrats rb Greven, Predator Captain the One Punch Man, ugw Derevri, Empirical Tactician Aggro,rwbu Tymna & Kraum's Saboteurs, wbg Kondo & Tymna's Hatebears wugTuvasa's Silver Bullets, urBrudiclad does Brudiclad thingsgubSidisi, Brood Tyrant (lantern control)

Dragonlover
Posts: 546
Joined: 4 years ago
Pronoun: he / him

Post by Dragonlover » 3 years ago

Some cool ideas here, I love the format of starting at the bottom and working your way up as well.

You should probably do Gabriel Angelfire with ability counters, otherwise that's some gnarly memory issues. I'd make the rampage 2 ability just always there if you do that though.

Dragonlover
All my decks are here

Mimicvat
Posts: 172
Joined: 4 years ago
Pronoun: he / him
Location: Auckland, New Zealand

Post by Mimicvat » 3 years ago

Thanks! I will change Gabriel to incorporate ability counters as that is easier to track. I think with this method I might be running out of proper 'remasters' soon, and will get into simple balance tweaks. I'm already up the first 'passable commander' which is Lady Evangela. Speaking of which;

Lady Evangela

Her lore has zero mention of anything black at all, all peace and rainbows. My first thought was to just strip black from both costs, making her 2 CMC and the ability 1 CMC. But thats still not compelling, so I improved the ability a little.
Lady Evangela UW
Legendary Creature - Human Cleric
W: Prevent all damage that would be dealt by target creature this turn. You gain life equal to the damage prevented this way.
1/2
Turning the prevention into lifegain opens up synergies with various lifegain matters effects, or lets a control deck stabilize better than just stopping the damage could.



Ragnar

I wanted to play this guy back in the day, but he is too expensive. Both in dollars and in mana cost.
Ragnar GW
Legendary Creature - Human Cleric
G: Regenerate target creature.
2/2
I went a similar direction to Lady Evangela, seeing a color and cost reduction as the main fix. His lore is that he is essentially "some random healer" but he uses "raw green mana healing". Don't see the need for blue or for more than just one green in the ability.



Lu Bu, Master-at-Arms

"...during the Three Kingdoms period, Lü Bu is portrayed as a nearly invincible warrior but an incapable leader who is further marred by character flaws."

I actually really like this. But how do we make the player any more incapable than they already are?
Lu Bu, Master-at-Arms 1RW
Legendary Creature - Human Soldier Warrior
Horsemanship, Indestructible
At the beginning of your upkeep, exile the top card of your library. You may not cast spells until this card has been played, or until the beginning of your next turn.
3/2
Card advantage, a solid if somewhat small creature, but a restriction forcing you to play cards in a certain way. Not certain if I have worded it right.



Zuberi, Golden Feather

Griffin tribal, let's take a look... oh good god, most of the highest rated griffins are random commons. There are a few blue griffins but mostly white. Seems terrible.
Zuberi, Golden Feather 1UW
Legendary Creature - Griffin
Flying.
Other griffins you control get +1/+1.
Whenever a griffin you control enters the battlefield or attacks, draw a card.
2/2
Kindred Discovery is a stupid card. But griffins are terrible, so so terrible. If you can get enough of them out, maybe not so bad. Nah, who am I kidding!



Sidar Jabari

Another day, another white strategist. This one ties into knights and soldiers, flanking and that tap ability.
Sidar Jabari 1W
Legendary Creature - Human Knight
2W: Create a 1/1 white Knight creature token with flanking.
Nontoken creatures you control with power 2 or less have flanking and "when this creature attacks, tap target creature defending player controls"
Whenever a creature with flanking you control blocks or is blocked, target attacking or blocking creature gets -1/-1 until end of turn.
2/2
The -1/-1 effect isn't white, but it is similar to flanking, so it gets a pass from me. This guy is a master of combat in a similar vein to Odric. Like Odric, he can control blocking, and he can use the -1/-1 effect to destroy creatures. Instead of direct card advantage that I find myself tacking onto most white commanders, he can create an army of weakling tokens. Its still more rules text than I would like so open to suggestions here.



Hakim, Loreweaver

I've seen this as a successful commander deck, so strictly speaking he doesn't need anything. But he is very rare and definitely on the weaker side, so could do with a tweak.
Hakim, Loreweaver 2UU
Legendary Creature - Human Wizard
Flying
UU: Return target Aura card from your graveyard to the battlefield attached to Hakim, Loreweaver. Activate this ability only during your turn and only if Hakim isn't enchanted.
UU: Destroy all Auras attached to Hakim.
2/2
I subtracted one from the mana cost, and crucially took away the clumsy upkeep timing and made it "your turn". Would play much nicer this way.



Linessa, Zephyr Mage

A fine concept, just a bit crap for EDH. Nothing in the remaster will be a departure from the themes already depicted here;
Linessa, Zephyr Mage 1UU
Legendary Creature - Human Wizard
XU: Return target creatures with converted mana cost X to their owner's hand.
Whenever ~ deals combat damage to an opponent, return it to your hand. Then defending player returns a creature he or she controls to its owner's hand, then repeats this process for an artifact, an enchantment, and a land.
2/2
Reduced cost of card and first ability. Exchanged Grandeur for a combat damage trigger - figure that might be a little hard to pull off, but it is a strong effect. Added a self-bounce to that trigger to make it harder to repeat.



Ramses Overdark

The man himself. I have read of this dastardly villain much while researching these swashbuckling and intriguing heroes, so lets see what he's been up to.

Hmm, ok. Is an evil dude. Does evil dude things. Schemes for power. Sends evil villains to be defeated by the party. Summons a efreet. Dies.

%$#%$#% it! He's as unremarkable as anyone else from that saga. And his current ability is both bad and seems to have little to do with his lore. But, there is one thing I can latch onto in his lore - that efreet. He summoned an efreet named Zalgadib, with a contract saying that after 300 years Zalgadib could eat him. So lets roll with that theme.
Ramses Overdark 2UB
Legendary Creature - Human Wizard
2: Put a creature card from your hand onto the battlefield. It gains X Contract counters, where X is it's converted mana cost, and "When this creature has no Contract counters on it, you lose the game. At the beginning of your upkeep, remove a Contract counter from this creature. This creature cannot be sacrificed."
2/4
There are a number of ways to play this guy. Firstly, the basic way: cheating out fatties. It's not too explosive as Ramses himself doesn't come out until 4 mana. You then need to kill the table or find a way to remove these fatties before they kill you.
The second way, is to play a little like UB draw-go. Hold your mana up, dump a threat on the end step. Repeat the final step of the first strategy.
You can run him as an ETB matter deck. Flash out creatures, farm the effect, then have a way to bounce them all to your hand and go again.
Or you can run him as a gotcha deck. Flash in something cheap and donate it to an opponent - let them expend resources removing it or die to its trigger.

The no-sacrifice clause seems clunky, but essential to me to keep this guy in check. Don't know if he would be balanced, so interested in feedback for his design.

Thats all for today, unfortunately I've sprained my ankle or something which makes getting bulk exercise a little harder. We'll see how far I can get before the lockdown opens up on Monday!
Currently building: ww Bruna, the Fading Light (card advantage tribal / reanimator)
Main decks;
r Neheb, Big Red Champion g Yeva's Mono Green Control, b Ayara's Aristocrats rb Greven, Predator Captain the One Punch Man, ugw Derevri, Empirical Tactician Aggro,rwbu Tymna & Kraum's Saboteurs, wbg Kondo & Tymna's Hatebears wugTuvasa's Silver Bullets, urBrudiclad does Brudiclad thingsgubSidisi, Brood Tyrant (lantern control)

Mimicvat
Posts: 172
Joined: 4 years ago
Pronoun: he / him
Location: Auckland, New Zealand

Post by Mimicvat » 3 years ago

Phew, long day helping with moving, but I haven't missed an entry yet!

Maraxus of Keld

Meant to be "keld personified", and keld is essentially the nation of mono-red. So he's gonna encourage creatures swinging and give burn as a payoff for it;
Maraxus of Keld2RR
Legendary Creature - Human Warrior
Haste
Whenever a creature you control attacks, it deals X damage to defending player, where X is it's power.
Whenever a creature you control deals combat damage to a player, it deals X damage to target creature that player controls, where X is it's power.
3/2
Pushed a little, but mono-red is not that great in EDH so needs incentives in the command zone.



Halfdane

Shapeshifter general. Lore is pretty much just that, though he is a bit crazy and "refuses to be the 'half' of anything".
Halfdane1UB
Legendary Creature - Shapeshifter
~ enters as a copy of any creature an opponent controls, except its name is still ~, and it's legendary in addition to its other types. Whenever a creature dies, you may have ~ become a copy of that creature and removal all Shift counters.

At the beginning of your upkeep, put a Shift counter on ~. Then, if it has three Shift counters on it, sacrifice it.
0/0
Halfdane starts as a low cost clone that can become legendaries without issue. So I tacked on a time limit - Halfdane seems to need to change identities often - and limited it to your opponents creatures only. Finally, compared to the original, it loses the white that it has for some reason. Nothing about crazy shapeshifting murderer screams white to me to be honest.



Shimatsu the Bloodcloaked

Now this is what I've been waiting for. I love the Kamagawa block, and it is full of trash legends with cool backstories. So much better than the OG dominaria stuff I've been working with for the most part. Lets see what this guy has for us... ok, its not much going by the lore pages. There is probably a book with Shimatsu in it but that goes beyond the scope of the research I am willing to do!

Oni are evil spirits of destruction. Rather than being black mana like on other planes, they are red on Kamigawa. People can get "the mark of the Oni" (a third eye) to obtain their dark power. The oni have some sort of relationship with the o-bakemono (Ogres) on kamigawa who pretty much just want to watch the world burn.

Definitely after a Ogre/something hybrid tribal like the Hivis remaster. Many Kamigawa Ogres mention "demons" in some way, so looks like we are going for that. I know that Demons are generally an ok creature type, but Ogres... Ogres are bad. This is gonna be tricky to balance....
Shimatsu the Bloodcloaked1RR
Legendary Creature - Demon Spirit
Whenever an Ogre you control attacks, add B to your mana pool. Then, put a +1/+1 counter on it if you control a Demon. Use this mana only to cast Demon spells. Until end of turn, you don't lose this mana as steps and phases end.
If you control a Demon, Ogres spells you cast cost X less to cast where X is the life lost by your opponents this turn.
4/3
Ogres summon demons, Demons summon Ogres, Ogres attack and get bigger. Still probably hot garbage but man it feels cool. I'm pretty sure the black mana symbol in the ability gives him Rakdos colour ID, otherwise he needs a change in the mana cost to do it. I made it double red or single black as a nod to Kamigawa and an incentive to run some of the red demons (they are mostly pretty bad) rather than just the best demons.



Tetsuo Umezawa

The hero of old Dominaria. Has enough mechanical oomph that I feel he just needs a cost change and minor shift to fix him up.
Tetsuo Umezawa1UBR
Legendary Creature - Human Archer
While ~ is untapped, it has Shroud.

: Destroy targeted tapped creature.
4/3
Royal Assassin on a commander. The shroud replaces his terrible aura thing, I know they are not printing shroud any more (boo!) but I feel that even with the workaround he won't turn into some voltron boogieman.



Ormos, Archive Keeper

Most likely no decks because it's new, this thing is actually pretty cool and considering making it, so it doesn't need a change.



Sorry its a bit of a short one as I'm doing this late. The next entry is Crovax the Cursed and good god, there is backstory and like multiple commander cards of this guy so don't have time for it tonight. Will do some extra tomorrow to make up for it!
Currently building: ww Bruna, the Fading Light (card advantage tribal / reanimator)
Main decks;
r Neheb, Big Red Champion g Yeva's Mono Green Control, b Ayara's Aristocrats rb Greven, Predator Captain the One Punch Man, ugw Derevri, Empirical Tactician Aggro,rwbu Tymna & Kraum's Saboteurs, wbg Kondo & Tymna's Hatebears wugTuvasa's Silver Bullets, urBrudiclad does Brudiclad thingsgubSidisi, Brood Tyrant (lantern control)

Mimicvat
Posts: 172
Joined: 4 years ago
Pronoun: he / him
Location: Auckland, New Zealand

Post by Mimicvat » 3 years ago

Ok, big entry today. I have 'credit' stored up from a whole day of moving furniture yesterday that I'm kind of cheating with. It's also the final day of lockdown!

Crovax the Cursed / Crovax, Ascendant Hero / Ascendant Evincar / Selenia, Dark Angel

Ok, lot to digest with this guy. He's a generic warrior dude on the Weatherlight. He eventually has to return home and finds its been messed up by Phyrexian horrors and his family is dead. He is obsessed with the angel Selenia who serves as his families guardian due to an object they own. He shatters the object as he believes it is preventing her from loving him - she just flies away. Later she attacks the weatherlight (why? I don't know, some lore text and the later events suggest she became phyrexian at some point) and that drives him crazy. He gets crazier and crazier, kills some people from the weatherlight, eventually fights Selenia and she lets him kill her - shattering her into shards that pierce him and corrupt him further. He is taken by Phyrexians, compleated, and becomes a hideous monster lord. Then he murders various other phyrexians including Volrath to become stronger and stronger. Something something dies to the hero at the end. Very abridged, and actually one of the few stories I've encountered so far that could be cool in a novel or short story rather than random background lore. Don't know if such a thing exists.

One note - Ascendant Hero is an alternative timeline Crovax. I dislike alternative universes and such and so rather than delve into that, I will use him as inspiration for the original uncorrupted Crovax.
Crovax, Ascendant Hero 2WW
Legendary Creature - Human Noble
Partner with Selenia, Dark Angel

As long as Crovax is not attacking, white creatures you control with converted mana cost five or greater get +X/+X, where X is Crovax's power.
When an angel you control dies, transform Crovax.
: Add WW to your mana pool. Use this mana only to cast a white creature spell with converted mana cost five or higher.
2/3

[Flip]

Crovax the Cursed (Black colour identity)
Legendary Creature - Vampire Noble

Whenever Crovax attacks, black creatures you control with converted mana cost five or greater get +X/+0, where X is Crovax's power.
Whenever a creature with converted mana cost five or greater you control attacks, all nonwhite creatures get -1/-1
3/2

-

Selenia, Dark Angel 3BW
Legendary Creature - Angel Horror
Partner with Crovax, Ascendant Hero

You may cast ~ only if you control a creature named "Crovax, Ascendant Hero"
Protection from White
When ~ dies, put two +1/+1 counters on target creature you control. It gains Protection from White, and it becomes a black horror in addition to it's other colors and types.

3/4
A lot to take in there. He's a flip creature with a partner - possibly the most complex commander I've design and more so than any others that exist. But complex is not necessarily good! The way he is built allows for variations on "big dudes tribal" - either white dudes like angels with his first form, black dudes like demons with his flip state, or both if you go for creatures that are both white and black.



Palladia-Mors

Was remastered recently with Palladia-Mors, the Ruiner. I'm not looking to remaster cards that have already had a facelift, unless the different versions of the card offer something mechanically interesting to work with - which this one certainly does not. That card is also bad, but will look at remastering that rather than this.



Tivadar of Thorn

This is the first non-portal Legendary I had genuinely never noticed. Lets take a look at him.... ok, he's garbage. He hates goblins, and leads the knights of thorn who also hate goblins. Following the link to those knights simply links back to Tivadar again. If associated cards are a goblin wrath, a crappy charge, and the knights themselves.
Tivadar of Thorn 1W
Legendary Creature - Human Noble
You may have any number of cards named "Knights of Thorn" in your deck.
Whenever you cast a creature spell, you may search your library for another creature card with the same name and put it into your hand.
Creature spells you control named "Knights of Thorn" cost 2 less to cast, and creatures you control named "Knights of Thorn" get +1/+1 for each creature you control with the name "Knights of Thorn"

2/2
You heard it here first - reread those banding rules and invest now before those knights spike in price



Hikari, Twilight Guardian

The design path for this card is clear as day, plus it doesn't really have any lore, so I instead focused on refining it's mechanics.
Hikari, Twilight Guardian 2WW
Legendary Creature - Spirit
If ~ is your commander, choose a color before the game begins. ~ is that color in addition to it's other colors.
Flying
Whenever you cast a spirit or arcane spell, you may exile target creature you control. if you do, return it to the battlefield under it's owner's control at the beginning of the next end step.

4/4
Wx spirit tribal or a flicker deck running spirits (or even arcane!), I quite like the design space that The Prismatic Piper has opened up, particularly for tribal decks.



Brothers Yamazaki

Now we're talking. Two twin brothers, they abscond from Lord Konda's army to protect their home village from kami. They fight a kami there and one of the brothers kills it. But, plot twist, it was somehow their father. Now the brothers never speak, but at least the village was saved.

Other than the obvious Partner mechanic, they still need something to make them less crap.
Brothers Yamazaki 1R
Legendary Creature - Human Samurai
Partner with Brothers Yamazaki
Bushido X (X is the number of creatures on the battlefield named "Brothers Yamazaki"
The legend rule does not apply to creatures named "Brothers Yamazaki"
Each other creature named "Brothers Yamazaki" gets +2/+2 and has haste.
2R: Put ~ onto the battlefield from the Command Zone
2/1
Broadened their legend rule exemption, so that Flameshadow Conjuring and friends can make more copies without issue. Lowered the cost, because they are still terrible. Added Derevi's rules text, so they can cheat the commander text and gain flash. Thats not really tied to their lore, but its a good way to add value but not strict card advantage to them. Having infinitely recurrable hitters could lead to a surprisingly good deck IMO. Changed Bushido mostly for the memes, but it does play into their role of reliable beatdown.



Ramirez DePietro

Pirate commander, no lore of note that I can find. So pretty much just going to go with that.
Ramirez DePietro 2U
Legendary Creature - Human Pirate
If ~ is your commander, choose a color before the game begins. ~ is that color in addition to it's other colors.
Islandwalk

Whenever a pirate you control deals combat damage to an opponent, create a colorless Treasure artifact token with "[sym=tap: Sacrifice this artifact: Add one mana of any color to your mana pool"

Whenever you sacrifice a treasure, add one mana of any color to your mana pool. Use this mana only to cast a Pirate spell.

2/2
The existing pirate commander is UBR, gives +1/+1 and a theft effect if you hit with three or more pirates. A common theme I see amongst other pirates is treasure, so decided to go with that. In order to differentiate this card more and allow more of a push, ran with the "choose a color" mechanic as opposed to giving access to all three pirate colors. I really, really like that mechanic for tribal decks and you are likely to see it on many tribal options I make here in the future. The treasure effect seemed a bit weak by itself so gave the last effect as a sort of cost reduction for pirates, because pirates like treasure and all that.



Latulla, Keldon Overseer

Weird, bad red commander with cool art. Looked into her lore. Keldon = mono red. She has an affinity for artifacts (particularly, for stealing war machines) and one of her namesake cards lets creatures kill artifacts when dealing damage. She is also in the lore for Keldon Firebombers and Citadel of Pain, two red cards I absolutely love, so she is definitely getting a cool card.
Latulla, Keldon Overseer 2R
Legendary Creature - Human Soldier
Whenever a creature you control deals combat damage to a player, choose one;
-That player puts a pillage counter on target artifact they control.
-That player puts a Blaze counter on target land they control without a blaze counter on it. For as long as that land has a blaze counter on it, it has "At the beginning of your upkeep, this land deals 1 damage to you." (The land continues to burn after ~ has left the battlefield.)

You control all permanents with two or more pillage counters on them.
2/2
Latulla went through several iterations. I originally wanted her to loot lands too, but that would likely lead to dogpile situations where you hammer one person totally out of the game in an unenjoyable fashion. My relationship to land destruction is complicated, essentially if I could target ramped lands only the ability would stay on the card. Then she got an obligatory card advantage ability because of being in a low draw color. But then I remembered the fantastic card Obsidian Fireheart and Latulla's sweet as flavor text on Keldon Arsonist and one of my favorite designs from this thread was born!



Johan

Big bad from Dominaria. "A powerful but evil mage", but who saw himself as benevolent and acting in the interests of his chosen peoples. A "master of red mana in all its destructive forms" but who could also cast protection and illusion spells, making himself nigh-invulnerable and able to fight on the front lines. Possesses many magical spellbooks and artifacts. He also has the ability to turn spells against their owners and a tendency to rip people to pieces with his bare hands. Yikes.
Johan, Tyrant of Tirras 2RWG
Legendary Creature - Human Wizard
Flash, Vigilance
When ~ enters the battlefield, change the targets of target spell.
When Johan attacks, until end of turn, it gains indestructible and artifacts you control have ": Add one mana of any color to your mana pool, use this mana only to cast an instant or sorcery spell"
6/4
First up, he needed a name change, because just a flat "Johan" sounds abrupt and kind of stupid. I may start doing this for other name-only legends.

I decided to keep his RGW color identity. Partially because of his self-styled "fighting for a cause", partially because of his magic style (protection), and partially because its more interesting than making every villain Bx. I quite like him as a finisher for a RGW control deck. Given his love for magical items I tied his strength in instants and sorceries to them. Flash and his redirect make him a form of control card as well as a finisher and along with his attacking indestructibility cover his protection, and the Vigilance is there as a nod to the terrible original design.



And with that, my last full entry as Lockdown breaks tonight at midnight. However, I think I will continue this project. It will be reduced in scale because I have work and stuff, so either a few cards a day or more cards every few days. Thanks to everyone who has been perusing this thread and as always, keen on any feedback for these cards!
Currently building: ww Bruna, the Fading Light (card advantage tribal / reanimator)
Main decks;
r Neheb, Big Red Champion g Yeva's Mono Green Control, b Ayara's Aristocrats rb Greven, Predator Captain the One Punch Man, ugw Derevri, Empirical Tactician Aggro,rwbu Tymna & Kraum's Saboteurs, wbg Kondo & Tymna's Hatebears wugTuvasa's Silver Bullets, urBrudiclad does Brudiclad thingsgubSidisi, Brood Tyrant (lantern control)

Mimicvat
Posts: 172
Joined: 4 years ago
Pronoun: he / him
Location: Auckland, New Zealand

Post by Mimicvat » 3 years ago

Garza Zol, Plague Queen

Ok, random vampire, overcosted as hell, has no meaningful lore so going to work with her mechanics.
Garza Zol, Plague Queen 3UBR
Legendary Creature - Vampire
Flying, Haste
Whenever a vampire you control deals combat damage to a creature, put a +1/+1 counter on it (it must survive the damage to receive the +1/+1 counter)
Whenever a vampire you control deals combat damage to a player, draw a card.
5/5
Reduced cost to 6 CMC, and made the +1/+1 and draw effects global for vampires. Now she is better (ie, the same but a reasonable price) and works either with random vampires or a dedicated vampire deck.



Orim, Samite Healer

Healer for the weatherlight crew. Named or quoted in a number of cards to do with damage prevention and regeneration. Cured the phyrexian plague. Founded the samite tradition of healing. Has an ok design but its too weak.
Orim, Samite Healer 2W
Legendary Creature - Human Cleric
Clerics you control have ": Prevent the next 3 damage that would be dealt to target creature or player this turn.
Whenever damage is prevented, return target creature with converted mana cost X or less from your graveyard that was put there this turn, where X is the damage prevented.
1/2
Would love it if I found some reference to turning the damage back, Comeuppance style, but alas I needed an obligatory mono-white card advantage ability instead. So I went with the concept of healing fatally wounded warriors and returning them to the fight (hence, died this turn), though in practice would quite possibly be some sort of mono-white aristocrat deck which would be pretty sick.



Reveka, Wizard Savant

I really do not like this card. Firstly the card itself sucks. Secondly, the lore makes her out to be such a Mary-Sue. And worst of all, the damn lore and the damn ability don't overlap at all!

Instead of making a character that reflects that lore, I'm going to make her into a ping tribal general, because honestly ping is one hell of a drug.
Reveka, Wizard Savant 2UU
Legendary Creature - Human Cleric
Whenever a creature you control becomes tapped, if it is not being declared as an attacker, that creature does 1 damage to any target.

"Red mages consider themselves the master of the ping? Hold my beer"
-Reveka, the amazingly talented and beautiful

1/2
Blue pingers ping twice, and random tap creatures also become pingers. And best of all are the salty red player tears when they realize the greatest pinger general of all time has no red in it.



Chromium

Was remade with Chromium, the Mutable, will remaster that card if/when it comes up rather than this one.



Oriss, Samite Guardian

Are you kidding, pretty much a clone of Orim just with less lore. I've already done cleric tribal. I guess it has a silence/orim's chant sub-theme, but nobody would want to play against a recurring silence and hyperfog commander, myself included!

Since she has no lore, this can be the home of the Comeuppance ability I was wishing for earlier.
Oriss, Samite Guardian 2W
Legendary Creature - Human Cleric
Clerics you control have ": Prevent all damage that would be dealt to target creature this turn.
Whenever damage is prevented, If damage from a creature source is prevented this way, ~ deals that much damage to that creature. If damage from a noncreature source is prevented this way, ~ deals that much damage to the source's controller.
1/2
The clerics prevent all damage rather than 3 damage, but can only protect creatures. Oriss is the source of the retaliation, as it gets wordy and confusing to have each cleric bounce it's own prevented damage. The flip side of this is some sick life gain or removal if you stick lifelink or deathtouch on her.



Thats it for today. Looks like I am building up a few cards a day and posting as a lot, since my exercise regime is way down post lockdown.
Currently building: ww Bruna, the Fading Light (card advantage tribal / reanimator)
Main decks;
r Neheb, Big Red Champion g Yeva's Mono Green Control, b Ayara's Aristocrats rb Greven, Predator Captain the One Punch Man, ugw Derevri, Empirical Tactician Aggro,rwbu Tymna & Kraum's Saboteurs, wbg Kondo & Tymna's Hatebears wugTuvasa's Silver Bullets, urBrudiclad does Brudiclad thingsgubSidisi, Brood Tyrant (lantern control)

Mimicvat
Posts: 172
Joined: 4 years ago
Pronoun: he / him
Location: Auckland, New Zealand

Post by Mimicvat » 3 years ago

Balthor the Stout & Balthor the Defiled

A dwarf barbarian, expelled from his home he joined up with barbarians including Kamahl and was involved in Kamahl's storyline. He sacrificed himself at one point and was resurrected as a zombie, but he retained much of his personality and kind of went rogue. Then he begged Kamahl to kill him.

Obviously, going to transform when he dies - two birds with one stone this way. But what will the two sides of him do? The red side is related to barbarians but not strongly, and they are terrible as a tribe. It does say he was a prominent member of the tribe and a mentor to Kamahl and Jeska, so lets literally use the mentor mechanic here. The black side has nothing at all to do with his lore as far as I can tell, he's more gone rogue and out for revenge rather than randomly resurrecting things.
Balthor the Stout 1R
Legendary Creature - Dwarf Barbarian
Mentor (Whenever this creature attacks, put a +1/+1 counter on target attacking creature with lesser power.)
Whenever a red creature you control with a +1/+1 counter on it deals combat damage to a player, choose one;
- Add R to your mana pool at the beginning of the next main phase
- Deal 1 damage to any target
- Put a +1/+1 counter on another target red creature you control
2/2
When ~ dies, return him to the battlefield transformed.

-

Balthor the Defiled [Black color identity]
Legendary Creature - Dwarf Zombie
Menace
Whenever ~ deals combat damage to a player, destroy target creature that player controls.
2/2
When ~ dies, return him to the battlefield tapped and transformed.
Starts off as a sort of leader, and gives a reward for attacking with certain types of creatures as opposed to forcing a very, very bad tribe. When he dies he goes full assassin which is pretty close to the lore.



Kaervek, the Spiteful

Too new to warrant being on this list, but he seems a bit expensive for what he does so I personally would knock 1 generic off of the mana cost.



Gwendlyn Di Corci

The card does not reflect the lore, limited as that is. If I was to leave the card mostly unchanged I would remove the your turn restriction and one black mana from the cost. But instead, lets go with something that reflects her lore as well as the lore printed on the card Kismet
Gwendyln Di Corsi 1UBR
Legendary Creature - Human Rogue
: Target creature attacks this turn if able. If that creature attacks you this turn, destroy it at the beginning of the next end step.
2/2
Was a little liberal with it, making her force attacks rather than attacks on you, but punishing attacks on you, and also acting as a rattlesnake effect.



Vaevictis Asmadi

Was recently remade as Vaevictis Asmadi, the Dire which is a perfectly fine card, no remaster here.



Stangg

Lore-wise, he is a leader of those same 'mercenaries' that graced Hunding's lore, but nothing else. No explanation as for why he gets a twin either.
Stangg 3RG
Legendary Creature - Human Warrior
The Legend Rule does not apply to legendary creatures you control

Whenever a nontoken creature enters the battlefield, create a token copy of that creature.
Whenever a creature leaves the battlefield, if it was a token, it's controller sacrifices a nontoken creature with the same name. If it was not a token, it's controller sacrifices a token creature with the same name.
4/4
Since we have absolutely no basis for deciding how his ability works, I decided to make it more powerful and global, with an asymmetrical effect built in regarding legendary creatures (which allows you to have the all-important token Stangg too)



Arcades Sabboth

Remade with the perfectly fine card, Arcades, the Strategist. No remaster.



Ihsan's Shade [/card]

Interesting lore. A white paladin who swore to kill Baron Sengir. He gave himself to the Baron to become a vampire in order to have the power to defeat him. But the Baron saw through his plan, drank all his blood and turned him into a shade that must obey whoever controls his ring. It's hard to capture Ishan's folly in one card but this is my attempt;
Ihsan's Shade 1BB
Legendary Creature - Shade Knight
Indestructible, Shroud
~ attacks each turn if able.
When ~ enters the battlefield, put a Binding counter on target artifact you control. When you control no permanents with Binding counters on them, sacrifice ~
B: ~ gets +1/+1 until end of turn. Any player may activate this ability.
4/4
Instead of telling Ihsan's entire story, I wanted to focus on the shade. It's a pretty basic card for all of it's rules text. It has the quintessential boost ability of shades, and phylactery lich's rules text to tie him to an artifact. Attacking each turn if able represents his madness and the depraved acts he must perform for his master on a regular basis.

In game terms, he's a big dumb voltron general, who cannot get bigger through the usual means and relies mostly on his pump. He lacks evasion and struggles to get it, so will need removal to help him connect, and the global aspect of his pump ability can make him political too.



Nebuchadnezzar

Someone's RPG character, he roams the land doling out his own brand of strict and personal justice. So he needs to be white, and his ability needs to change to reflect him better.
Nebuchadnezzar 2WB
Legendary Creature - Human Wizard
Whenever a creature attacks you, put a +1/+1 counter on ~ and a -1/-1 counter on that creature.
: Name a card other than a basic land card. Target opponent reveals X cards from their hand at random, where X is ~'s power, and discards all cards with that name. For each card discarded this way, you draw a card and lose 1 life.
1/4
As people break his laws, he gets stronger and hands out punishment in the form of -1/-1 counters. And as he gets stronger, he has a greater ability to forbid the casting of certain cards (ie, by discard).



Mannichi, the Fevered Dream

Not much lore, beyond being the Kami of fevers and hallucinations. So rather than it's random and rather useless ability, let's focus on some sweet red hallucination action.
Mannichi, the Fevered Dream 2R
Legendary Creature - Spirit
Whenever a nontoken creature enters the battlefield, choose target player other than that creature's controller. That player creates a token copy of that creature, except that it is an illusion instead of its other colors and creature types, it's power and toughness are switched, and it has "This creature can only block creatures with the same name as this creature".

At the beginning of each player's end step, that player sacrifices all illusions they control.
2/2
Feels like quite the fever dream, all sorts of random tokens flying about the place. I really like the idea that they are the same, but different due to the colors and inverted stats. By forcing the illusion to come under a different player's control, the design prevents some goodstuffy ETB deck, and lends itself either towards a kind of political or chaos deck, or to a deck that plays bad creatures and forces other people to have them too.



Sol'kanar the Swamp King

Supposedly a Force of Nature who was corrupted by some evil planeswalker when she corrupted his forest into swampland, then sort of went and did his own thing. He demanded slaves and food and later spellcasters as tribute from several kingdoms, and had the ability to corrupt land to turn it into swamps. He wanted to summon Scarzam's dragons to serve him. All and all a kind of random character I think.
Sol'kanar the Swamp King 2BBBB
Legendary Creature - Elemental
Swampwalk
At the beginning of your upkeep, each opponent may pay 4. If they do not, draw a card, lose 1 life, target land that player controls becomes a basic swamp.
8/8
Seems pretty bad, but also kind of funny. I've tried to transform the Force of Nature into something that opponents have to pay for instead, and which ties into his ability to swampify land.

Thats it for this week, see you when I do another post!
Currently building: ww Bruna, the Fading Light (card advantage tribal / reanimator)
Main decks;
r Neheb, Big Red Champion g Yeva's Mono Green Control, b Ayara's Aristocrats rb Greven, Predator Captain the One Punch Man, ugw Derevri, Empirical Tactician Aggro,rwbu Tymna & Kraum's Saboteurs, wbg Kondo & Tymna's Hatebears wugTuvasa's Silver Bullets, urBrudiclad does Brudiclad thingsgubSidisi, Brood Tyrant (lantern control)

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Sporegorger_Dragon
Posts: 1954
Joined: 3 years ago
Pronoun: he / him

Post by Sporegorger_Dragon » 3 years ago

I enjoyed reading this a lot.

Your version Liu Bei, Lord of Shu is absolutely amazing, and hey, if Form of the Dragon is allowed to bend the rules a little, so can he.

It's unlikely any of those pseudo-vanilla multicolored dudes will get the Weatherlight treatment ala Gerrard and co, but then again if you told me a year ago that Magic would feature Godzilla I would just laughed you off.

I must say I am surprised that Garza Zol is so low on the EDH popularity; at the very least least she does more than four-fifths of the original Elder Dragons, and can swing on the turn she enters play.

Mimicvat
Posts: 172
Joined: 4 years ago
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Location: Auckland, New Zealand

Post by Mimicvat » 2 years ago

NZ did pretty well for itself, but now we are back in lockdown and I am back to this project.

The leaderboard for unplayed, bad old commanders is probably different now, but I'm just going to start from the legend after Sol'kenar and anyone who gets missed... well, sucks for them! Also, anything extremely new will be passed over, as many new commanders have not had a chance to be built and so may not need any remastering.

At approxmiately rank #1187 of 1219 legendary creatures, Asmira, Holy Avenger is a real turd. A simple re-costing would not cut it for this guy, so lets see if he can be adapted to fit better into a typical GW line of play to make him a little more useful
Asmira, Holy Avenger 1GW
Legendary Creature - Human Cleric
Flying
At the beginning of each end step, put a +1/+1 counter on each creature you control for each creature put into your graveyard from the battlefield this turn.
Remove X +1/+1 counters ~: Return target creature card from your graveyard with mana value X or less from your graveyard to the battlefield. Activate this ability only as a sorcery and only once per turn.
1/2
I spread his power boost effect to the whole team, which makes him actually fit the strategy he seems to go for. I reduced his stats and his cost. But this still felt pretty weak, so I gave him a limited reanimation power that ties into his other abilities. He can get back targets of opportunity, specific combo piece cards, or even fodder to run some sort of GW aristocrat deck. I limited it to once per turn and sorcery speed to reduce the combo capability of the ability, and now I'm pretty happy with him.



Cloudhoof Kirin has a neat premise, but is straight up unplayable as is. I think a mana cost reduction and a little more broad application of the mill ability and it's fine.
Cloudhoof Kirin 1UU
Legendary Creature - Kirin Spirit
Flying
Whenever you cast a spirit or arcane spell, or a spirit you control deals combat damage to a player, target player mills X where X is that card's mana value.
2/2
There might be some broken combo shenanigans here which would require a rework, but I think the basic idea is playable. Mono blue spirits with a mill focus, just like the original card envisioned. You can also go spirit aggro and direct the mill to hit one player while your spirits hit another. Is it good? Probably not. Is it worth looking at now? In my opinion, yes.



Pianna, Nomad Captain is a simple white weenie lord commander. The idea is pretty rough in commander and Pianna's implementation is definitely not strong enough for the format. I originally thought of just scaling the effect but this would overlap too much with Jazal Goldmane. So instead I went for a simple resource generation effect that works in white and works with the lord effect.
Pianna, Nomad Captain 1WW
Legendary Creature - Human Nomad
Other creatures you control get +1/+1.
Whenever a creature you control attacks, create a 1/1 white Nomad tapped and attacking.
2/2
A little like Krenko, in that tokens produce tokens over time, and with a few other small creatures to start it off can snowball into enough combat power to matter in EDH. Could be interesting resource generation with skullclamp (though one of the reasons I made the lord effect unconditional is to make that one harder) and various sacrifice outlets.



Iwamori of the Open Fist

This guy is sweet, and can be fixed easily to fit well into the format.
Iwamori of the Open Fist G
Legendary Creature - Human Monk

Trample

Rather than pay 2 for each previous time you've cast this spell from the command zone this game, each opponent reveals the top card of their library instead. If you do, they put it into their hand if it is a creature card and on the bottom of their library if it is not.
When Iwamori of the Open Fist enters the battlefield, each opponent may put a legendary creature card from their hand onto the battlefield.
5/5
Simple fix is make him cost one mana. But to make it a little more interesting, I opted to make him give your opponents potential challengers for him as he is recast. I toyed with a fight effect on the card to go with his fight club theme, but he got too wordy so I kept it streamlined.



Akuta, Born of Ash doesn't really do anything. He is a crappy recursive black aggro(ish) threat, scaled for a very weak standard a long time ago. So how do we make him relevant? Like many cards, the answer is to attach resource generation (or in this case, denial) to the card.
Akuta, Born of Ash B
Legendary Creature - Spirit
When ~ deals combat damage to a player, you may sacrifice it. If you do, each opponent discards a card.
Sacrifice a swamp: Return ~ to the battlefield from the graveyard. Activate this ability only any time you could cast a sorcery and only once per turn.
3/2
Has some game as an aggro general, a stax or resource denial piece, a recursion commander for an aristocrat themed deck, or even some sort of annoying voltron build.



Adun Oakenshield is a simple commander with a simple, cost related fix. I feel he is this low down because he is a little pricy on his effect, and a lot pricy on your wallet!
Adun Oakenshield BGR
Legendary Creature - Human Knight
Haste
B: Return target creature card from your graveyard to your hand. You lose 2 life.
1/2
I lowered the cost of his ability in terms of mana, but added a life cost to it. The haste is there because he doesn't do anything remotely red and that annoys me.



Taniwha would be a great card in a Donate deck, but a commander? Not a chance as is. But I think the solution is pretty simple.
Taniwha3U
Legendary Creature - Serpent

Phasing, Trample
Islands you control tap for an additional U
At the beginning of your upkeep, all lands you control phase out.
7/7
Make the lands tap for more on the turns you have him. Reduce cost a little. Nice and simple. If that isn't enough, the next step would be to add text similar to Teferi's Protection to him for those phased turns - essentially remove you from the game every other round. Dunno how fun that would be though.



Thats all for today, I'll be back tomorrow and for at least the next few days depending on how this latest lockdown goes. Input and critique welcome!
Currently building: ww Bruna, the Fading Light (card advantage tribal / reanimator)
Main decks;
r Neheb, Big Red Champion g Yeva's Mono Green Control, b Ayara's Aristocrats rb Greven, Predator Captain the One Punch Man, ugw Derevri, Empirical Tactician Aggro,rwbu Tymna & Kraum's Saboteurs, wbg Kondo & Tymna's Hatebears wugTuvasa's Silver Bullets, urBrudiclad does Brudiclad thingsgubSidisi, Brood Tyrant (lantern control)

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Sporegorger_Dragon
Posts: 1954
Joined: 3 years ago
Pronoun: he / him

Post by Sporegorger_Dragon » 2 years ago

Glad to see this starting up again!

Hope the lockdown isn't affecting you too badly.
"What's with you and pitcher plants?" -NinjaCaterpie, 27-9-2021

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