NEXUS FLAMINGO ☆ Exclusively For Custom Card Connoisseurs and Gnomes

[Mergatroid_Jones]

The Heatmook Massacre XBB
Enchanment
When The Heatmook Masssacre enters the battlefield, each creature gets -X/-X until end of turn.
When a nontoken creature dies, create a 2/2 black Zombie creature token with decayed. This ability triggers only once per turn.

IIW: A card that is an anagram of another card (note the original).

[Cythare]

Midnight Massacre 3BB
Sorcery (M)
Destroy all creatures. Each player loses life equal to the number of creatures they control destroyed this way.
Whenever day becomes night, you may pay 3 life. If you do, return Midnight Massacre from your graveyard to your hand.

IIW: Casualty, conspire, or other spell copying mechanics

[lookingupanddown]

Serial Killer 2B
Creature - Human Assassin (M)
Deathtouch
Whenever a creature you don't control dies, you gain 1 life and untap Serial Killer. If that creature was dealt damage by Serial Killer this turn, put a bloodlust counter on Serial Killer.
XBBB, , Remove X bloodlust counters on Serial Killer: Creatures get -X/-X until end of turn. You gain 1 life for each creature you don't control that dies this way.
2/3

Next: ally-color partners (regular partner, not partner with)

[void_nothing]

@chetoos Judge time soon?

[chetoos]

@chetoos Judge time soon?

You are correct! I was actually planning to judge earlier, but then time got away from me.

Ahem... Did you know that more than 50% of standard decks are playing Meathook, according to Untapped.gg? Seems like it's a good time to readjust the card, right?

Serial Killer 2B
Creature - Human Assassin (M)
Deathtouch
Whenever a creature you don't control dies, you gain 1 life and untap Serial Killer. If that creature was dealt damage by Serial Killer this turn, put a bloodlust counter on Serial Killer.
XBBB, , Remove X bloodlust counters on Serial Killer: Creatures get -X/-X until end of turn. You gain 1 life for each creature you don't control that dies this way.
2/3

Next: ally-color partners (regular partner, not partner with)

Interesting design here, hard to build up the counters, I'd be glad to play against this variant in standard.

Midnight Massacre 3BB
Sorcery (M)
Destroy all creatures. Each player loses life equal to the number of creatures they control destroyed this way.
Whenever day becomes night, you may pay 3 life. If you do, return Midnight Massacre from your graveyard to your hand.

IIW: Casualty, conspire, or other spell copying mechanics

This spell should start the day/night cycle if it's not started, though I suppose that Moonrager's Slash doesn't do the day/night cycle...

The Heatmook Massacre XBB
Enchanment
When The Heatmook Masssacre enters the battlefield, each creature gets -X/-X until end of turn.
When a nontoken creature dies, create a 2/2 black Zombie creature token with decayed. This ability triggers only once per turn.

IIW: A card that is an anagram of another card (note the original).

This is much better than the current one, though the second ability should say "one or more", keep the templating consistent.

The Meathook Massacre BB
Enchantment (M)
X: Creatures get -X/-X until end of turn. Any player may activate this ability only as a sorcery.
When there are no creatures on the battlefield, sacrifice ~.

IIW: Severed Lineage

A Pestilence variant, I like it

Mangledmass XBB
Creature - Horror (M)
Menace
When Mangledmass enters the battlefield, other creatures get -X/-X until end of turn.
If a creature would die with 0 or less toughness, put a +1/+1 counter on Mangledmass.
1/1

While I appreciate the creature variants here, I will say that Wotc, if they wanted to redesign this card, would likely want to keep it as a non-creature spell, just how they do things.

In another 2021, Praetors of the Coast is designing the new Innistrad sets. The Meathook Massacre is sent back from Casual Play Design with only "MORE" scrawled in red ink, written in Delissa MelToro's handwriting. A forensic investigation later conducted by a third party revealed the "ink" was in fact the blood of the Competitive Play Design team lead.

The Abattoir Killings XBB
Legendary Enchantment (M)
When The Abattoir Killings enters the battlefield, each creature gets -X/-X until end of turn.
Creatures you control have "2, T, Sacrifice this permanent: You gain 3 life."
Whenever a creature dies, each player loses 1 life

alt. meme version

The Wormfield Massacre 3BB
Legendary Enchantment (M)
When The Wormfield Massacre enters the battlefield, creatures your opponents control get -2/-2 until end of turn.
Whenever a creature an opponent controls dies, that player loses 2 life.

IIW: Your favourite recent mechanic

A ticking clock on the game I like, but the food aspect does feel awkward to me, working against that. I like massacre wurm reference too.

Scene of Slaughter
2{B}{B}
Enchantment (R)
When Scene of Slaughter enters the battlefield, each creature gets -1/-1 until end of turn.
Whenever a creature you control dies, each opponent loses 1 life.
Whenever a creature an opponent controls dies, its controller loses 1 life.


IIW: Extinct animals

A very fixed version, but we want it to stay rare.

The Havengull Massacre XBB
Sorcery (M)
Each creature gets -X/-X until end of turn.
If you have seven or more cards in your graveyard, each player sacrifices an artifact with mana value X or less.
If you have four or more card types among cards in your graveyard, each player sacrifices an enchantment with mana value X or less.
If you have no cards in hand, each player sacrifices a planeswalker with mana value X or less.

IIW: Damage in the form of

All the 3 different forms of zone completion (hellbent, threshold, and delirium) combine to make a very interesting card.

Echoes of Death 3BB
Enchantment
When Echoes of Death enters the battlefield, each player sacrifices each creature they control, then exile each card that was put into a graveyard this way.
3BB: Echoes of Death becomes a 3/3 creature and gains all the abilities of creature cards exiled by it. Then sacrifice Echoes of Death.

IIW: from the pages of the economicon

Wait, what's the point of sacrificing the echoes of death? Is it just to get death triggers? That seems odd.

Butcher of Estwald 3BB
Legendary Creature — Human Rogue (MR)
Deathtouch
When Butcher of Estwald enters the battlefield, each other creature gets -3/-3 until end of turn.
Whenever Butcher of Estwald or another creature dies, exile it and its controller loses 1 life.
No bone left unturned, no tendon left unstripped.
4/4

trying to eliminate the play pattern of building a zombie army to burn the opponent with at X=2


IIW: dark souls and bloodborne

I really like this variant. While I like playing the "sac all my things to kill you" deck, I also understand that the card is just oppressive, and the decks that play it attack on too many axes to be fought easily. This eliminates multiple issues with the card in one redesign, although again, making it a creature is awkward with how Wotc does changes to the card file.

Winner: Spacemonaut
Next: Dark Souls and Bloodborne (other souls-likes? sekiro? elden ring?)

[void_nothing]

Next: Dark Souls and Bloodborne (other souls-likes? sekiro? elden ring?)

is vampire survivors a soulslike

[chetoos]

Next: Dark Souls and Bloodborne (other souls-likes? sekiro? elden ring?)

is vampire survivors a soulslike

At least my other ideas are actually fromsoft games.

[void_nothing]

is final fantasy tactics a soulslike

[spacemonaut]

You can also pick from among Sekiro and Elden Ring if you want, but not other Soulslikes. Not Demon Souls either, sorry.

This is partly to create a good scope limitation and partly because I want to limit it to a few games I've played—so that if you make a reference to something I'll be likely to get what you're going for.

I suggest focusing on Dark Souls and Bloodborne because I might pick out Elden Ring or Sekiro specifically later as an IIW, but maybe you have a resonant design in mind or know those games much better than Dark Souls or Bloodborne.

So: Dark Souls and Bloodborne. If you'd like, Elden Ring or Sekiro. Not other games or soulslikes — this isn't a general Soulslike prompt so much as a "these specific games" prompt.

[void_nothing]

In hindsight, the fact that you spelled out those titles should have made it obvious.

I've played neither.

[Megiddo]

what if i've never played any of these games

[void_nothing]

what if i've never played any of these games

then we relearn the lesson about why "make this media franchise i like into a card" challenges are ineffective

[spacemonaut]

what if i've never played any of these games

rethink your life choices

more seriously though, attempt something that matches what you think the vibes are, maybe, if you'd like. i'm not going to be scoring based on accuracy to the games but on whether it's a good card, and i'll take all good-faith attempts at the challenge.

Here's a bunch of concept art from Dark Souls and a bunch of concept art from Bloodborne and some more concept art from Bloodborne to help out. If you've got no idea what the art's actually of but you think you'd like to turn it into a card, I'd love to see it. Dark Souls is a dying high fantasy world and Bloodborne is like Victorian Era Cosmic Horror during the Purge.

[chetoos]

Seath the scaleless
(Ugin, corrupted spirit)
Legendary Planeswalker - Ugin
Compleated
+2 - Reveal the top card of your library, then put that card in your hand. If the card is colorless, create a 2/2 colorless spirit creature token.
-X - Ugin deals X damage to target creature or planeswalker. When that permanent dies this turn, create an X/X colorless spirit creature token, where X is that permanent's mana value.
-10 - You get an emblem with "Whenever you play a colorless card, each opponent loses 2 life." and "You may play an additional land each turn." Exile the top 7 cards of your library, you may play those cards until the end of your next turn
6

IIW: compleated planeswalkers.

[Megiddo]

what if i've never played any of these games

then we relearn the lesson about why "make this media franchise i like into a card" challenges are ineffective

what if i've never played any of these games

rethink your life choices

more seriously though, attempt something that matches what you think the vibes are, maybe, if you'd like. i'm not going to be scoring based on accuracy to the games but on whether it's a good card, and i'll take all good-faith attempts at the challenge.

I did actually watch somebody play through most of Dark Souls in college so I'll do my best.

[Juancu]

Curse of the Maidenless 2WB
Enchantment - Aura Curse (Alchemy)
Enchant player
If enchanted player would search, seek, conjure or draft a creature or planeswalker card, they find nothing instead.
When Curse of the Maidenless enters the battlefield, each player seeks a creature or planeswalker card.

IIW: from the pages of the economicon

[Mergatroid_Jones]

I've gotten some Dark Souls second hand from my sister.

Restful Bonfire 4
Artifact (U)
T: Tap target creature you control and remove it from combat. It gains hexproof and indestructible until end of turn.

IIW: They never stopped the two-set block system. Design design for the second set in Dominaria block, Eldraine block, Return to Theros Block, Ikoria block, Zendikar Rising block, Kamigawa Neon block, or New Capenna block.

[Cythare]

Rom, the Vacuous Spider 3GG
Legendary Creature — Spider Horror (R)
Reach, trample
When Rom, the Vacuous Spider enters the battlefield, create a 1/2 green Spider creature token with reach for each card type among cards in your graveyard.
If damage would be dealt to Rom, sacrifice a Spider you control instead.
4/7

IIW: Casualty, conspire, or other spell copying mechanics

[Sporegorger_Dragon]

The best part is all these Bloodborne/Souls/Elden Ring bosses already sound like legendary Magic cards.


Ludwig, the Accursed
3BBB
Legendary Creature - Horse Horror Beast (M)
Menace, trample
When Ludwig, the Accursed enters the battlefield, destroy up to one target creature or planeswalker with mana value 3 or less. You may search your library and/or graveyard for a card named Holy Moonlight Sword, reveal it, and put it into your hand. If you search your library this way, shuffle.
(Melds with Holy Moonlight Sword.)
4/6


Holy Moonlight Sword
2ww
Legendary Artifact - Equipment (M)
Equipped creature gets +2/+2 and has first strike, vigilance, and ward 2.
At the beginning of your upkeep or end step, if you both own and control Holy Moonlight Sword and a creature named Ludwig, the Accursed, and your life total is less than or equal to half your starting life total, exile them, then meld them into Ludwig, the Holy Blade.
Equip 3


Ludwig, the Holy Blade
Legendary Creature - Centaur Horror Beast ()
Double strike, menace, reach, vigilance, trample
Ward 4, Pay 4 life
Ludwig, the Holy Blade can't have Equipment attached to it.
8/12
"Aah, you were at my side, all along.
My true mentor...
My guiding moonlight..."


Garden of Eyes
2u
Creature - Insect Human Horror (U)
Whenever Garden of Eyes deals combat damage to a player or planeswalker, you gain two insight counters. (At the beginning of your upkeep, mill a card for each insight counter you have, draw a card, discard a card, then you lose an insight counter.)
1u, Q: Garden of Eyes gains flying until end of turn.
2/3


Cosmic Distortion
1{U}{U}
Instant (U)
Counter target spell. If you have four or more insight counters, instead exile that spell, then draw a card.


IIW: Extinct animals

[Ulka]

Sisyphean Madness UR
Enchantment - Aura
Enchant Creature or Planeswalker
If the enchanted permanent is a creature, it must attack each turn if able. If the enchanted permanent has activated abilities, choose one at random. As long as it is enchanted, you may only activate that activated ability on the permanent.
"maybe if I try again it will work."

IIW: Cards from the hit new plane of Muraganda.

[spacemonaut]

I'll be judging in the morning, so ~10 hours

[NinjaCaterpie]

Sunlight Seeker 1WW
Creature - Human Knight (R)
Vigilance
When Sunlight Seeker enters the battlefield, if it's day, it becomes night.
As long as it's day, Sunlight Seeker gets +2/+2 and has lifelink.
2/2

IIW: Your favourite recent mechanic

[TacticalCelebrant]

Did my best to elegantly represent the flavor, and then the mechanics.

Decaying Dragon 1bbb
Creature - Dragon (M)
Defender Deathtouch Trample
At the beginning of your upkeep, put a -1/-1 counter on each creature you control.
As long as Decaying Dragon has three or more -1/-1 counters on it, it can attack as though it didn't have defender.
"Can't you instead try to convey the deep sorrow of a magnificent beast doomed to a slow and possibly endless descent into ruin?"-Hidetaka Miyazaki
9/9


Hero of Soulsborne 2WB
Legendary Creature - Zombie Knight (U)
First Strike, Persist
Whenever a creature dealt damage by Soulsborne Hero dies, put a +1/+1 counter on Hero of Soulsborne.
3/4


IIW: An instant or sorcery that can make a token

[spacemonaut]

Seath the scaleless
(Ugin, corrupted spirit)
Legendary Planeswalker - Ugin
Compleated
+2 - Reveal the top card of your library, then put that card in your hand. If the card is colorless, create a 2/2 colorless spirit creature token.
-X - Ugin deals X damage to target creature or planeswalker. When that permanent dies this turn, create an X/X colorless spirit creature token, where X is that permanent's mana value.
-10 - You get an emblem with "Whenever you play a colorless card, each opponent loses 2 life." and "You may play an additional land each turn." Exile the top 7 cards of your library, you may play those cards until the end of your next turn
6

IIW: compleated planeswalkers.

I'm reading this as {6}{1/P}, so you pay for a 6-loyalty Seath or and 2 life for a 4-loyalty Seath. Either way, the ultimate is the same number of turns away, the choice is just whether you want to pay 2 life to get to activate his +2 a turn sooner or not. Neat! Given this is a reflavor card, these two characters were a good choice to put together. They work well thematically and aesthetically.

Both primary abilities are pretty great and the ultimate's a good finisher for Ugin. The capacity to use the -X as an after-combat pinger, paying -2 to get perhaps a 7/7 spirit, is notable but I mean, this is turn 6 or 7 of the game and it's at least a vanilla spirit and you're doing that instead of ticking toward the ultimate on a 7-mana permanent.

Anyway: planeswalkers are hard to design and you did a good job.

Trivia: there's irony here that Ugin being alive is the only reason Tarkir has dragons, but Seath being alive is the only reason Lordran no longer has dragons. There's even a near miss: one of the "better" timelines of Tarkir would've been to have dragons, FRF, khans, meaning we had a near miss on that Ugin being alive also would've been the reason Tarkir no longer had dragons.

Curse of the Maidenless 2WB
Enchantment - Aura Curse (Alchemy)
Enchant player
If enchanted player would search, seek, conjure or draft a creature or planeswalker card, they find nothing instead.
When Curse of the Maidenless enters the battlefield, each player seeks a creature or planeswalker card.

IIW: from the pages of the economicon

lol

I don't like the alchemy mechanics but this is a great way to use them.

I've gotten some Dark Souls second hand from my sister.

Restful Bonfire 4
Artifact (U)
T: Tap target creature you control and remove it from combat. It gains hexproof and indestructible until end of turn.

IIW: They never stopped the two-set block system. Design design for the second set in Dominaria block, Eldraine block, Return to Theros Block, Ikoria block, Zendikar Rising block, Kamigawa Neon block, or New Capenna block.

Yeah this rocks. This is exactly what a bonfire should be doing and it's a great card. I appreciate that you remove the creature from combat so it doesn't also get to trade damage while being indestructible, it's fully a gustcloak ability. A+.

Rom, the Vacuous Spider 3GG
Legendary Creature — Spider Horror (R)
Reach, trample
When Rom, the Vacuous Spider enters the battlefield, create a 1/2 green Spider creature token with reach for each card type among cards in your graveyard.
If damage would be dealt to Rom, sacrifice a Spider you control instead.
4/7

IIW: Casualty, conspire, or other spell copying mechanics

Rom! Excellent spider legend and excellent take on Rom. I like the specific way you're using the graveyard here, which enables a bunch of spiders to be made but at the same time doesn't get too out of hand. As a bonus there's even a soft callback to delirium.

Trivia: It took me months before I learned his name, cool as it sounds, means "Rom the Idiot".

The best part is all these Bloodborne/Souls/Elden Ring bosses already sound like legendary Magic cards.

You're right!

Ludwig, the Accursed
3BBB
Legendary Creature - Horse Horror Beast (M)
Menace, trample
When Ludwig, the Accursed enters the battlefield, destroy up to one target creature or planeswalker with mana value 3 or less. You may search your library and/or graveyard for a card named Holy Moonlight Sword, reveal it, and put it into your hand. If you search your library this way, shuffle.
(Melds with Holy Moonlight Sword.)
4/6


Holy Moonlight Sword
2ww
Legendary Artifact - Equipment (M)
Equipped creature gets +2/+2 and has first strike, vigilance, and ward 2.
At the beginning of your upkeep or end step, if you both own and control Holy Moonlight Sword and a creature named Ludwig, the Accursed, and your life total is less than or equal to half your starting life total, exile them, then meld them into Ludwig, the Holy Blade.
Equip 3


Ludwig, the Holy Blade
Legendary Creature - Centaur Horror Beast ()
Double strike, menace, reach, vigilance, trample
Ward 4, Pay 4 life
Ludwig, the Holy Blade can't have Equipment attached to it.
8/12
"Aah, you were at my side, all along.
My true mentor...
My guiding moonlight..."


Garden of Eyes
2u
Creature - Insect Human Horror (U)
Whenever Garden of Eyes deals combat damage to a player or planeswalker, you gain two insight counters. (At the beginning of your upkeep, mill a card for each insight counter you have, draw a card, discard a card, then you lose an insight counter.)
1u, Q: Garden of Eyes gains flying until end of turn.
2/3

Cosmic Distortion
1{U}{U}
Instant (U)
Counter target spell. If you have four or more insight counters, instead exile that spell, then draw a card.


IIW: Extinct animals

Ludwig and his sword: a big cost with a big payoff. Each individual part is good, worthwhile, and nice and strong. Ludwig the Accursed might actually be somewhat weak on the face of it, but that's in exchange for tutoring you up a strong equipment and getting to transform the next turn into a heck of a monster.

Garden of Eyes: I'm reading the reminder text as having an "if you have insight counters" condition in there. This is a great jumping creature. It looks like Insight asks you to be careful about the amount you have, and wants to work in a deck that wants very much to work with self-mill, and it'd fit right in thematically and mechanically as a blue+black mechanic. For the reason you want to be careful about how much you have, the flying being optional (so eventually you can stop sending it in as a flier, but also the opponent could choose to give you more insight) is a compelling move.

Cosmic Distortion: Good counterspell with the set's mechanic and helps show me the kind of insight payoff you want to see.

Thes make me want to see a card that says "Target opponent gains [some number of] insight."

Sisyphean Madness UR
Enchantment - Aura
Enchant Creature or Planeswalker
If the enchanted permanent is a creature, it must attack each turn if able. If the enchanted permanent has activated abilities, choose one at random. As long as it is enchanted, you may only activate that activated ability on the permanent.
"maybe if I try again it will work."

IIW: Cards from the hit new plane of Muraganda.

lol, that's pretty good actually

Might need a wording update to something like "only that ability may be activated", because you'd be enchanting the opponent's creature, and "you" can't activate any of those abilities to begin with.

Great blue-red enchantment.

Sunlight Seeker 1WW
Creature - Human Knight (R)
Vigilance
When Sunlight Seeker enters the battlefield, if it's day, it becomes night.
As long as it's day, Sunlight Seeker gets +2/+2 and has lifelink.
2/2

IIW: Your favourite recent mechanic

I guess it wouldn't get to be a seeker if it's already day. ;_;

I like the ability and it's a nice payoff for getting to have sunlight again. Nice and thematic, would play in a dark souls knight deck.

We may want to start the day/night clock regardless of whether it's started already, and thus make the ETB an unconditional "When ~ enters, it becomes night."

Did my best to elegantly represent the flavor, and then the mechanics.

Decaying Dragon 1bbb
Creature - Dragon (M)
Defender Deathtouch Trample
At the beginning of your upkeep, put a -1/-1 counter on each creature you control.
As long as Decaying Dragon has three or more -1/-1 counters on it, it can attack as though it didn't have defender.
"Can't you instead try to convey the deep sorrow of a magnificent beast doomed to a slow and possibly endless descent into ruin?"-Hidetaka Miyazaki
9/9


Hero of Soulsborne 2WB
Legendary Creature - Zombie Knight (U)
First Strike, Persist
Whenever a creature dealt damage by Soulsborne Hero dies, put a +1/+1 counter on Hero of Soulsborne.
3/4


IIW: An instant or sorcery that can make a token

Decaying Dragon is a great take on big, cheap monsters that require a steep alternative cost to access, and the -1/-1 counters might even be a significant upside for some decks if they can manage those counters.

Hero of Soulsborne is spot on. It's a great card and the mechanics are pretty excellent. It's going to be kind of frightening, but it being a 2/3 when it comes back gives you a lot of opportunities to kill it off again, even with the first strike.

---

HM: Mergatroid Jones for making me long for a Restful Bonfire.
Winner: TacticalCelebrant for Hero of Soulsborne.


Next: An instant or sorcery that can make a token

[Cythare]

Break Ground 2RG
Sorcery (U)
Destroy target land. Create a token that's a copy of it.

IIW: Casualty, conspire, or other spell copying mechanics