NEXUS FLAMINGO ☆ Exclusively For Custom Card Connoisseurs and Gnomes

[Megiddo]

what does an atraxa deck do?

[chetoos]

Atraxa, Praetors' Voice

[void_nothing]

what does an atraxa deck do?

annoy me at the commander table

[chetoos]

Oil Spreader 2WU
Creature - Phyrexian Elemental
At the beginning of your endstep, if another creature you control has flying, put a flying counter on Oil Spreader. Then repeat this process for (Keyword soup).
1wu, : move any number of different counters from Oil Spreader to target creature.
0/5

Oilflux reservoir 4
Artifact
Whenever you put one or more counters on an opponent or a permanent an opponent controls, you get .
Remove 50 counters from among yourself and permanents you control: Oilflux reservoir deals 50 damage to any target.
The oil spread so quickly through the aether networks. While Ghirapur didn't fall immediately after the network was conquered, it didn't last too long after.

IIW: Universes Beyond Star Trek (bonus points for DS9)

[Ulka]

Atraxa's Command WUBG
Instant
Choose Two —
• Put a +1/+1 Counter on each creature you control.
• Proliferate then proliferate again.
• Each opponent gets two poison counters.
• Draw two cards.

IIW: four color command spells

[OneAndOnly]

Island Fish Jasconius

but it also plays with being a land creature. Hard to make a free 8/8 be balanced.

[Mergatroid_Jones]

Multi-Jace XUU
Legendary Planeswalker- Jace (M)
When Multi-Jace enters the battlefield, create X token copies of it. The copies aren't legendary and enter the battlefield with 1 loyalty counter.
+1: Target creature gets -1/-0 until the beginning of your next turn.
-2: Draw a card.
{{2}}

IIW: Space entity.

[OneAndOnly]

Atraxa's Lackey -- (G/W)(W/U)(U/B)
Creature - Phyrexian Minion
When Atraxa's Lackey enters the battlefield, put a flying counter on target creature, a vigilance counter on another target creature, a deathtouch on a third target creature, and a lifelink counter on a fourth target creature.
2/2
.
Atraxa's Seigneur -- GWB
Creature - Phyrexian Vampire
Whenever you proliferate, gain life equal to the number of counters put on permanents this way.
1/3
.
Atraxa's Maidservant -- GWUB
Creature - Phyrexian Horror
Flying, vigilance, deathtouch, lifelink
Whenever Atraxa's Maidservant blocks a creature with flying, that creature loses flying. The same is true for vigilance, deathtouch, and lifelink. (This effect doesn't end at end of turn.)
4/4
.
Next: Cards that shouldn't be made

[Juancu]

Biomassharmonicon 2GU
Legendary Artifact (M)
Once each turn, if you would put a counter on a creature you control, you may put that kind of counter on another creature you control as well.
Creatures have +2/+2 for each useless counter they have on them (a counter is useless if it's granting an ability that doesn't stack, and isn't required to grant that ability.)

IIW: dastardly

[Sporegorger_Dragon]

Jungle Ambush Troops
2{B}{G}{U}
Creature - Naga Soldier Army (R)
Menace
Whenever Jungle Ambush Troops enters the battlefield or dies, amass 3.
3/3
If the first ambush fails, there is always the second one.


IIW: Jace's untimely death

EDIT:

Island Fish Jasconius

but it also plays with being a land creature. Hard to make a free 8/8 be balanced.

I understand that it's a reference to Jasconius. What I didn't get were the insertion of variations of WHHAAAT and whether they were a reference to an MTG joke or something. But looking back on it now, I suppose the joke is that the interjections are reactions of the player reading the card.

[spacemonaut]

Judging in a couple of hours after I wrap up study for the day, you're all on the right track.

[Mergatroid_Jones]

Monovus 1
Artifact Creature- Construct (U)
Monovus enters the battlefield with a +1/+1 counter on it.
Sacrifice a Monovite: If it had any +1/+1 counters on it, put that many +1/+1 counters on Monovus.
1: Create a 0/0 colorless artifact Monovite creature token with flying. Move a +1/+1 counter from Monovus onto that creature as it enters the battlefield. Activate this ability no more than once each turn.
0/0

IIW: Random mechanical callbacks

[Megiddo]

Atraxa's Stronghold
Land {R}
Atraxa's Stronghold enters the battlefield with two storage counters on it.
T: Add C.
1, T: Remove X storage counters from Atraxa's Stronghold: Add X mana in any combination of colors.

IIW: Relaxation

[spacemonaut]

This challenge was to make cards for an Atraxa, Praetors' Voice deck. Atraxa does all the things I like, and I really enjoyed piloting her C16 deck, and I lament that she's a victim of her own success in terms of archenemy reputation.

Oil Spreader 2WU
Creature - Phyrexian Elemental
At the beginning of your endstep, if another creature you control has flying, put a flying counter on Oil Spreader. Then repeat this process for (Keyword soup).
1wu, : move any number of different counters from Oil Spreader to target creature.
0/5

Oilflux reservoir 4
Artifact
Whenever you put one or more counters on an opponent or a permanent an opponent controls, you get .
Remove 50 counters from among yourself and permanents you control: Oilflux reservoir deals 50 damage to any target.
The oil spread so quickly through the aether networks. While Ghirapur didn't fall immediately after the network was conquered, it didn't last too long after.

IIW: Universes Beyond Star Trek (bonus points for DS9)

Yesssss. I was genuinely wondering if folks would find novel takes on what would go in an Atraxa deck and they showed up among the first takes!

Oil Spreader remembers that Atraxa's got four keyword counters and does something fun with them, giving you a continuous supply of abilities to move around, among others that are going to show up on other creatures you've got thanks to the outlast mentors you're probably playing.

Oilflux Reservoir gives an interesting wincon that's going to blow someone out of the game. I'm a little worried that on one end it's a bit win-more, and on the other end it might be a bit too straightforward of an invitation to cheese: for example what this into a Black Sun's Zenith for X=1 followed by proliferating might do in a decently established board — you might get the nuke off inside the space of one turn!

Atraxa's Command WUBG
Instant
Choose Two —
• Put a +1/+1 Counter on each creature you control.
• Proliferate then proliferate again.
• Each opponent gets two poison counters.
• Draw two cards.

IIW: four color command spells

Yep, that's definitely every single thing Atraxa would want in a command.

I'm terrified by the poison counter mode but I note you being careful to put that after the proliferate option.

That said, one of the castings of the card is being able to put +3/+3 in counters on all your stuff (and possibly proliferating more than that).

This is honestly giving me some mental exercises to consider which pairing of the options is the most dangerous. Debate, go.

Multi-Jace XUU
Legendary Planeswalker- Jace (M)
When Multi-Jace enters the battlefield, create X token copies of it. The copies aren't legendary and enter the battlefield with 1 loyalty counter.
+1: Target creature gets -1/-0 until the beginning of your next turn.
-2: Draw a card.
{{2}}

IIW: Space entity.

I feel like Jace deserves to have this. Yeah, this is cool.

Atraxa's Lackey -- (G/W)(W/U)(U/B)
Creature - Phyrexian Minion
When Atraxa's Lackey enters the battlefield, put a flying counter on target creature, a vigilance counter on another target creature, a deathtouch on a third target creature, and a lifelink counter on a fourth target creature.
2/2
.
Atraxa's Seigneur -- GWB
Creature - Phyrexian Vampire
Whenever you proliferate, gain life equal to the number of counters put on permanents this way.
1/3
.
Atraxa's Maidservant -- GWUB
Creature - Phyrexian Horror
Flying, vigilance, deathtouch, lifelink
Whenever Atraxa's Maidservant blocks a creature with flying, that creature loses flying. The same is true for vigilance, deathtouch, and lifelink. (This effect doesn't end at end of turn.)
4/4
.
Next: Cards that shouldn't be made

You're lucky I like reading Atraxa cards, because otherwise I was tempted to scale this down to just reviewing one!!!

Atraxa's Lackey: the trouble with hybrid costs like this is that, strictly speaking, the card needs to work with every combination of costs, and WWU wouldn't be allowed to grant a deathtouch counter.
Here's my computational theory for safely designing with multicolor hybrid mana: each component of the card should correspond to a specific mana symbol, where both halves of that mana symbol could do that thing. For example, flying here could be considered to correspond to the symbol, and no matter which color you paid for that symbol, that symbol has justified that feature. Likewise, lifelink corresponds to and vigilance corresponds to (or, you know, either of the other two, but we're trying to make feel included).
The issue is this isn't true for deathtouch: it doesn't come under either symbol of , and only comes under one half of and one half of , meaning there's theoretically a way to cast this and do something the colors shouldn't be allowed. This would need a symbol in the cost to justify deathtouch being included since no other color pair would be able to justify it. {B/G}{G/W}{W/U} safely affords all the options in this design, although with the aesthtic complication we're mixing enemy and ally pair symbols and that's above my pay grade to sort out.
Anyway, conceptually: neat!!!! This does require four targets but that just means your opponents might get toys to play with if you don't have enough of your own creatures to hand them to, which is cute.

Atraxa's Seigneur: That's a lot of life!! It's a neat payoff though.

Atraxa's Maidservant seems gorgeous and inviting and also a must-kill.

Biomassharmonicon 2GU
Legendary Artifact (M)
Once each turn, if you would put a counter on a creature you control, you may put that kind of counter on another creature you control as well.
Creatures have +2/+2 for each useless counter they have on them (a counter is useless if it's granting an ability that doesn't stack, and isn't required to grant that ability.)

IIW: dastardly

The bookkeeping requirement to start tracking redundant ability counters is daunting, but boy would I want to play this beside chetoos's Oil Spreader. Yeah, this is a neat way to capitalise on redundant ability counters. I might reduce the +2/+2 to a +1/+1 though, just on account of how proliferate will proliferate every ability counter.

Jungle Ambush Troops
2{B}{G}{U}
Creature - Naga Soldier Army (R)
Menace
Whenever Jungle Ambush Troops enters the battlefield or dies, amass 3.
3/3
If the first ambush fails, there is always the second one.


IIW: Jace's untimely death

Oh yeah, amass! And you can amass this army! And then make another army when it dies! Nice! Atraxa like this.

Monovus 1
Artifact Creature- Construct (U)
Monovus enters the battlefield with a +1/+1 counter on it.
Sacrifice a Monovite: If it had any +1/+1 counters on it, put that many +1/+1 counters on monovite.
1: Create a 0/0 colorless artifact Monovite creature token with flying. Move a +1/+1 counter from Monovus onto that creature as it enters the battlefield. Activate this ability no more than once each turn.
0/0

IIW: Random mechanical callbacks

Ok, this is really cute: that's a nice game to disassemble proliferate and and reassemble the monovites.

Atraxa's Stronghold
Land {R}
Atraxa's Stronghold enters the battlefield with two storage counters on it.
T: Add C.
1, T: Remove X storage counters from Atraxa's Stronghold: Add X mana in any combination of colors.

IIW: Relaxation

Okay, yummy, yes. I like Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx and Astral Cornucopia, and I already like the other storage lands, and this is inviting me to do some fun shenanigans.



Everyone did a pretty great job. The ones I picked apart basically just had one thing I wanted to write a lot about, but I liked them still.

Winner: @Sporegorger_Dragon
Next: Jace's untimely death

[chetoos]

Oilflux Reservoir gives an interesting wincon that's going to blow someone out of the game. I'm a little worried that on one end it's a bit win-more, and on the other end it might be a bit too straightforward of an invitation to cheese: for example what this into a Black Sun's Zenith for X=1 followed by proliferating might do in a decently established board — you might get the nuke off inside the space of one turn!

What you call a one turn nuke, I call rewarding good deck construction.

[Mergatroid_Jones]

I'm calling it: Gideon's Sacrifice is part of a cycle.

Jace's Sacrifice U
Instant (C)
As an additional cost to cast Jace's Sacrifice, sacrifice a creature or planeswalker. X equals that creature's power, or the number of loyalty counters on that planeswalker.
Counter target spell unless its controller pays X.

IIW: Fire or lightning outside of red

[OneAndOnly]

Jace's Pretense -- 1U
Instant {U}
Counter target spell unless its controller pays 1, plus 1 for every loyalty counter on Jace planeswalkers you control.
"It doesn't meet the criteria," said Imbraham, "But then, very little does these days."
.
Next: Cards that should not be made

[Cythare]

Free from the Machine WB
Sorcery (U)
Exile target nonland permanent. If it has in its mana cost, its controller sacrifices a permanent.
Kaya held back tears as she watched the light go out in Jace's eyes. She was safe for now, but the loss to Ravnica would be mourned for a long time to come.

[lookingupanddown]

Psychic Explosion XXUUU
Sorcery
As an additional cost to cast this spell, remove any number of loyalty counters among planeswalkers you control.
Each opponent mills cards equal to X plus the number of loyalty counters removed as you cast this spell, then each player draws that many cards.
As Jace's mind collapsed from obliterating Elesh Norn's, one last thought remained whole: the realization of why Gideon did what he did.

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

[chetoos]

Last minute memory 2uu
Enchantment
Flash
When this permanent enters the battlefield, exile at least half the cards in your hand rounded up until this permanent leaves the battlefield. When those cards are put back in your hand, draw that many cards.
With seconds until he was consumed by oil, Jace did what he could to prevent his secrets from falling into phyrexia's clutches.

Jace, dripping with oil
Legendary Planeswalker - Jace
Compleated
+1 - Until your next turn, target creature an opponent controls loses all abilities and can't attack.
-2 - Look at the top three cards of your library, then put them back in any order. You may shuffle. Draw a card.
-8 - Exile your hand, then search your library for seven cards and put them into your hand, then shuffle.
5


Iiw: universes beyond star trek (bonus points for ds9)

[Juancu]

Temporal Death Loop XUU
Enchantment (R)
When Temporal Death Loop enters the battlefield, reveal X jace cards you own from outside the game with different names, and exile them attached to Temporal Death Loop.
At the beginning of your combat step, choose a random jace card attached to Temporal Death Loop and put that card into your graveyard. Then choose one of its abilities with cost \-2/ or higher, and activate it.

IIW: one word, but modular

[Mergatroid_Jones]

An Interplanar Hero Dies a Mundane Death 3B
Instant (U)
All permanents lose hexproof, shroud, ward, and indestructible until end of turn. Permanents can't gain those abilities this turn.
Destroy target creature or planeswalker.
The living guildpact: not the first
to die when his appendix burst.

IIW: A non-green plant or treefolk.

[Megiddo]

Jace's Final Illusion 1UU
Planeswalker - Jace {M}
[+1]: Surveil 1. If you leave an instant or sorcery card on top of your library this way, that card perpetually gains "This spell costs 1 less to cast."
[-2]: Seek an instant or sorcery card that costs two mana or less to cast.
[-6]: Draft a card from Jace's Final Illusion's spellbook and put it onto the battlefield. You may activate the loyalty abilities of Jace planeswalkers you control twice this turn rather than once.
{3}

card notes

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1. The spellbook is every other Jace planeswalker card, including Jace, Vryn's Prodigy // Jace, Telepath Unbound and Space Beleren. Imagine that by the time this card iss printed there will be 15 cards of that description--we currently have 13.
1a. The flavor, of course, being that Jace faked his own death here and will come back if things are truly dire.
2. The intention with the second ability is that if you reduce a card's cost with the first ability you will be able to seek it with the second. Not sure what the wording for that would be but that's why it doesn't say "mana value." X still equals 0.
3. I did leave "Legendary" off intentionally, but that's not critical; it could be legendary.
4. I wanted to make the ult "three times" but I think that goes infinite with Jace, Cunning Castaway.

IIW: preview card for any of the sets we know the names of.

[spacemonaut]

Impressive Backfire UUB
Instant
Counter target activated or triggered ability from a creature or planeswalker source. If that ability is countered this way, destroy that creature or planeswalker.
"Was that supposed to do that?"
"I can never tell with these people."



IIW: Big monster plane (but not Ikoria)

[Sporegorger_Dragon]

Now, when I submitted the prompt, what I had in mind was funny and unexpected completely non-heroic demises, less plot related and more "Oops, a dinosaur stepped on Beleren."

But a lot sought to give him a fitting end, more or less. So let's a-go!

SPOILER

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I'm calling it: Gideon's Sacrifice is part of a cycle.

Jace's Sacrifice U
Instant (C)
As an additional cost to cast Jace's Sacrifice, sacrifice a creature or planeswalker. X equals that creature's power, or the number of loyalty counters on that planeswalker.
Counter target spell unless its controller pays X.

IIW: Fire or lightning outside of red

We already know what Chandra's looks like. Interesting scaling on this, and it's also hilarious that Jace sacrifices himself to counter a spell.

Jace's Pretense -- 1U
Instant {U}
Counter target spell unless its controller pays 1, plus 1 for every loyalty counter on Jace planeswalkers you control.
"It doesn't meet the criteria," said Imbraham, "But then, very little does these days."
.
Next: Cards that should not be made

Another interesting counterspell. Terrible without a Jace, but not completely useless. But, w-what does Dean Imbraham do if you fail to meet the criteria?

Free from the Machine WB
Sorcery (U)
Exile target nonland permanent. If it has in its mana cost, its controller sacrifices a permanent.
Kaya held back tears as she watched the light go out in Jace's eyes. She was safe for now, but the loss to Ravnica would be mourned for a long time to come.

Hmm, I can't help but feel this is a bit too powerful, with the ability to answer any nonland permanent for two mana, albeit at sorcery speed, and with an upside to boot against Phyrexian mana.

Kaya might be overestimating Ravnica's fondness for their former living guildpact.

Psychic Explosion XXUUU
Sorcery
As an additional cost to cast this spell, remove any number of loyalty counters among planeswalkers you control.
Each opponent mills cards equal to X plus the number of loyalty counters removed as you cast this spell, then each player draws that many cards.
As Jace's mind collapsed from obliterating Elesh Norn's, one last thought remained whole: the realization of why Gideon did what he did.

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

Interesting contrast with Gideon, who sacrificed his life while his soul and mind remained intact, while here Jace sacrifices his mind, in a way that tragically mirrors the demise of Alhammarret at Jace's own hands.

I think Jace would want to go out this way. Killing Alhammarret clearly traumatized him, and perhaps he though he could atone in some small measure this way.

Last minute memory 2uu
Enchantment
Flash
When this permanent enters the battlefield, exile at least half the cards in your hand rounded up until this permanent leaves the battlefield. When those cards are put back in your hand, draw that many cards.
With seconds until he was consumed by oil, Jace did what he could to prevent his secrets from falling into phyrexia's clutches.

Jace, dripping with oil
Legendary Planeswalker - Jace
Compleated
+1 - Until your next turn, target creature an opponent controls loses all abilities and can't attack.
-2 - Look at the top three cards of your library, then put them back in any order. You may shuffle. Draw a card.
-8 - Exile your hand, then search your library for seven cards and put them into your hand, then shuffle.
5


Iiw: universes beyond star trek (bonus points for ds9)

Interesting! Arguably a fate worse than death. Jace Dripping With Oil has a rather interesting set of abilities. That ultimate harkens back to when some planeswalkers had an ultimate that wins the game.

Temporal Death Loop XUU
Enchantment (R)
When Temporal Death Loop enters the battlefield, reveal X jace cards you own from outside the game with different names, and exile them attached to Temporal Death Loop.
At the beginning of your combat step, choose a random jace card attached to Temporal Death Loop and put that card into your graveyard. Then choose one of its abilities with cost \-2/ or higher, and activate it.

IIW: one word, but modular

Another fate worse than death, and an interesting play on the phrase "untimely demise".

One note: That last ability should probably include "without paying its costs".

An Interplanar Hero Dies a Mundane Death 3B
Instant (U)
All permanents lose hexproof, shroud, ward, and indestructible until end of turn. Permanents can't gain those abilities this turn.
Destroy target creature or planeswalker.
The living guildpact: not the first
to die when his appendix burst.

IIW: A non-green plant or treefolk.

This is exactly what I intended with the prompt. Might need reminder text to emphasize it can't target a permanent with hexproof/shroud, and the tricky interaction with ward.

Here we see an alternate Jace that passed away despite the Simic being experts in biology and surgery, although perhaps understandable given that there is always a chance you'll wake up with crab legs and several new digestive systems.

Jace's Final Illusion 1UU
Planeswalker - Jace {M}
[+1]: Surveil 1. If you leave an instant or sorcery card on top of your library this way, that card perpetually gains "This spell costs 1 less to cast."
[-2]: Seek an instant or sorcery card that costs two mana or less to cast.
[-6]: Draft a card from Jace's Final Illusion's spellbook and put it onto the battlefield. You may activate the loyalty abilities of Jace planeswalkers you control twice this turn rather than once.
{3}

card notes

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1. The spellbook is every other Jace planeswalker card, including Jace, Vryn's Prodigy // Jace, Telepath Unbound and Space Beleren. Imagine that by the time this card iss printed there will be 15 cards of that description--we currently have 13.
1a. The flavor, of course, being that Jace faked his own death here and will come back if things are truly dire.
2. The intention with the second ability is that if you reduce a card's cost with the first ability you will be able to seek it with the second. Not sure what the wording for that would be but that's why it doesn't say "mana value." X still equals 0.
3. I did leave "Legendary" off intentionally, but that's not critical; it could be legendary.
4. I wanted to make the ult "three times" but I think that goes infinite with Jace, Cunning Castaway.

IIW: preview card for any of the sets we know the names of.

Interesting shenanigans with planeswalkers! Always appreciate that. Also, this is probably how his "demise" will really play out, seeing as Wizard's been borrowing Marvel's cheat sheets.

Not sure about the wording either, but looks about right to me.

Good catch on the Cunning Castaway; that card's going to be a caveat to card designers indefinitely. As worded, doesn't that ult also apply to the Final Illusion itself?

Impressive Backfire UUB
Instant
Counter target activated or triggered ability from a creature or planeswalker source. If that ability is countered this way, destroy that creature or planeswalker.
"Was that supposed to do that?"
"I can never tell with these people."


IIW: Big monster plane (but not Ikoria)

Potent! Borrowing the YGO playbook I see. I'm seeing this more as anti-planeswalker hate with bonus creature removal. Seems prett good.

Good take on the prompt; Jace simply blowing himself because he mixed up "there" and "their" in the chant is hilarious.

Now let's be honest, Jace should have perished on Ixalan, dead from explosive diarrhea because he failed to properly wash a mango.

Anyway, on to the winners;

SPOILER

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HM to lookingupanddown for a surprisingly poignant demise, and to Megiddo for the Final Illusion.

But I gotta give the win to Mergatroid_Jones, for adhering most closely to the prompt.

Next:

SPOILER

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A non-green plant or treefolk.