Charms to boost commanders

chochky
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Post by chochky » 4 years ago

There are some older legendary creatures that, while charming, I think are kind of outclassed nowadays. I wanted to make some charms to synergize with and breathe new life into these older commanders. Why charms? Well... I quite like charms.

Sivitri's Charm
3UB
Instant
Choose one. If you control a creature called Sivitri Scarzam, you may choose both.
  • Create a legendary 4/4 blue and black Dragon creature token with flying named Scarzam's Dragon.
  • Return target nonland permanent to its owner's hand. That player discards two cards.
Tor Wauki's Charm
1BR
Instant
Choose one. If you control a creature called Tor Wauki, you may choose both.
  • Destroy target creature dealt damage this turn. It's controller loses 5 life.
  • Until end of turn, Archers you control gain haste and "When this creature dies, you may return it to your hand."
Xira's Charm
BRG
Instant
Choose one. If you control a creature called Xira Arien, you may choose both.
  • If you're the monarch, each opponent sacrifices a permanent at random, then draws a card. Otherwise, you become the monarch.
  • Create X black and green Insect creature tokens, where X is the greatest number of cards in an opponent's hand.


I think here's plenty more legendaries that could benefit from cards like this. Feel free to post some of your own!

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Post by folding_music » 4 years ago

Reveka's Charm,
Instant
Choose one. If you control a creature named Reveka, Wizard Savant, you may choose both.
- Tapped creatures you control gain shroud until end of turn.
- The next time you play an activated ability this turn, ignore any tap symbols in that ability's cost.

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SecretInfiltrator
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Post by SecretInfiltrator » 4 years ago

Okay, I'll always prefer charms to have three modes, but the general sentiment here is interesting. I make a lot of signature spelLs and appreciate what you are doing with the individual modes working from the creative of the characters.

As these spells basically have an "entwine" option, it would be neat to have the two modes connected in such a way that each "etwined" spell was greater than the sum of its parts.

It's cool and thematic to have a monarch-themed mode for Xira Arien, but that mode itself already feels like multiple modes, so it seems not like the best choice for this particular card.

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Post by void_nothing » 4 years ago

I'm with SecretInfiltrator in that I like these but would prefer if they weren't called "charms", because that to me always means three modes and only being able to choose one.
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chochky
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Post by chochky » 4 years ago

SecretInfiltrator wrote:
4 years ago
Okay, I'll always prefer charms to have three modes, but the general sentiment here is interesting. I make a lot of signature spelLs and appreciate what you are doing with the individual modes working from the creative of the characters.

As these spells basically have an "entwine" option, it would be neat to have the two modes connected in such a way that each "etwined" spell was greater than the sum of its parts.

It's cool and thematic to have a monarch-themed mode for Xira Arien, but that mode itself already feels like multiple modes, so it seems not like the best choice for this particular card.
void_nothing wrote:
4 years ago
I'm with SecretInfiltrator in that I like these but would prefer if they weren't called "charms", because that to me always means three modes and only being able to choose one.
Good points. Maybe if I called them "talents" or "masteries"? A separate style of multimode spell.
To be honest the ones I posted already felt kind of hard to design, mostly due to how much space the "choose both if you control this legendary" line takes.

On another note, I thought that perhaps a casting discount might be good for the costlier legendaries:

Marhault's Mastery
3RG
Instant
This spell costs 3 less to cast if you control a creature called Marhault Elsdragon.
Target creature you control gains menace, first strike and hexproof until end of turn. It also gets +1/+1 until end of turn for each point of rampage it has.

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Post by Henlock » 4 years ago

Veey interestin. This allows for, depending on your commander's intentions, "choose both" benefits to be combinable...

Brion's Mastery 2wr
Instant (r)
Choose one. If you control a creature named Beion Stoutarm, choose both.
- Search your library for an Equipment card and put it into the battlwfield.
- Attach any number of Equipment cards to target creature you control.


Or incremental...

Tuvasa's Mastery 3wug
Instant (r)
Choose one. If you control a creature named Tuvasa the Sunlit, choose both.
-Draw a card for each enchantment you control.
-Draw a card foe each Merfolk you control.

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Post by Legend » 4 years ago

Junk like Angrath's Fury is a waste of cardboard. This sort of effect would be infinitely more attractive if it instead said "black or red planeswalker card". Perhaps these could be (much) less narrow and just check for your commander instead of a named card?

Brion's Mastery (Rare)
2{R/W}
Instant
Choose one -
  • Search your library for an Equipment card and put it into the battlefield. Then shuffle your library.
  • Attach any number of Equipment you control to target creature you control.
If you control your commander, choose both.
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Post by Morpic_Tide » 4 years ago

Perhaps use it for lower-value Commanders who tend to have structural issues and require the Commander be exactly on-color for the Charm, so that it's only really useful with Commanders that are interchangable with the intended one?

To use Brion's Mastery again (and change the mana cost to Charm "standards"):

Brion's Masteryrw
Instant
Choose one:
[*]Search your library for an Equipment and put it onto the battlefield. Then shuffle your library
[*]Attach any number of Equipment you control to target creature you control

If your Commander's color identity is Red, White and no other colors, and is on the battlefield, choose both.

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Post by barbecube » 4 years ago

I think the core idea of "make cards that explicitly benefit when your commander is a specific creature" is good, but to boost bad commanders, I think it's better to simply make good cards for the same characters instead of requiring people to run a bad card as commander.
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Post by chochky » 4 years ago

Yea, there's a lot of good criticism. I kind of just came up with the idea on a whim because I wanted to build a Xira Arien EDH deck, lol. That then got me thinking about cards that could reference specific commanders.

Regarding the Xira Arien example, there's ways of building her so the deck doesn't suck, but it's more about the broader question of making older, unplayable cards playable again through specific new cards. We get it organically through surprising synergies that sometimes crop up between old and new cards, but having stuff clearly spelled out can be more helpful to newer players while being more novel and cute.

My initial proposal probably wasn't the best form of the idea, at least in a way that would be actually printable. Legend's suggestion of having the cards just care about your commander is more general, less on-the-nose, and probably a lot more useful from a deck building perspective. These cards could be designed to be particularly synergistic with specific commanders. The issue of course is how to boost those old vanilla commanders that have almost no redeeming qualities other than the colors they allow you to play (and maybe their creature types, sometimes).

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Post by SecretInfiltrator » 4 years ago

If you look at "Partner with <foo>" you get the same level of linearity, but it is exciting because it has an interaction with commander rules. I could imagine a mechanic similar to what exists in the Oathbreaker format, where legendaries receive signature spells to ellevate them to a playable level.

Kasimir's Wolf {W}{U}
Creature — Wolf Spirit (R)
Peculiar to Kasimir the Lone Wolf (A card peculiar to your commander may start in and be cast from your command zone.)
Your commander costs {3} less to cast and you may cast your commander as though it had flash.
2/4

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