MTGNexus Custom Card Creation Random Card of the Day

[void_nothing]

The MTGNexus Custom Card Creation Random Card of the Day for 9/1/2022 is Voldaren Epicure.

I like vocabulary word cards lol, and I also like that this is a red colorshift of life drain, "syphoning" the damage into Blood tokens instead of lifegain.

[Ulka]

I love this design honestly and I wish we got a 1/1 for R with the set's mechanic every set. I think 90% of set mechanics in red translate well to this and I wish this was just a standard design trend going forward.

Yavimaya Mob Leader R
Creature - Elf Warrior (C)
Enlist
1/1

Bloodbeard Dwarf R
Creature - Dwarf Berserker (C)
Bloodthirst 1
1/1

Goblin Motivator R
Creature - Goblin Ally (C)
Rally - Whenever Goblin Motivator or another Ally enters the battlefield under your control, target creature you control gets +1/+0 and gains haste until the end of turn.
1/1

[void_nothing]

As much as I like that policy, you know I'm never going to forget this, right? "Ulka wants to put the flagship mechanic on a red 1-drop" is going to be a thing.

[void_nothing]

The MTGNexus Custom Card Creation Random Card of the Day for 9/2/22 is Lord of Shatterskull Pass.

Pretty sure this was the first level up card previewed in ROE!

[Ulka]

Calf of Shatterskull Pass R
Creature - Minotaur
Level Up 1R (1R: Put a level counter on this. Level up only as a sorcery.) 1/1
Level 1-3: 2/2
Level 4+: Whenever Calf of Shatterskull Pass attacks, it deals 2 damage to each other creature. 4/3

[spacemonaut]

Level up is such a near miss mechanic for just one reason: you start at level 0!

Magic's flying mechanic is a poster child for leveraging existing expectations. You explain to a first-timer that flying things can only be blocked by other flying things and they immediately get it, of course that's how flying works.

Another way to look at this is you're designing to fit a convention. Existing convention is why people understand combat & fighting: things fight, something dies, that's how fighting conventionally works so people understand, it matches their existing understanding of the world. Existing conventions are also why level up is understandable: of course things have to work to level up and of course they get stronger for levelling up, that's just how it works. (Imagine explaining this to someone from the 1700s who'd never played an RPG and they might be very confused and might need us to first explain this whole "level up" concept.)

However, level up broke convention in one way: almost always in games that have you level up, you start at level 1. Cards didn't specify what level you start at. Catch my group being extremely confused when in our first Commander 2013 game we played Echo Mage|C13 and then Hada Spy Patrol|C13. We thought Echo Mage started at level 1 (of course it would, right?), but then we didn't know how that worked with Hada Spy Patrol (if things started at level 1, wouldn't part of the card be redundant?). Even once we understood you're supposed to start at level 0, we were still confused because it just made no sense; we struggled to reconcile it with our existing understanding of how levelling up is supposed to work.

This is something they got right later with Classes, and I want to see them bring the same knowledge back to levelling creatures one day, but they basically broke level up as a keyword so we'll more likely see them bring the Class tech to creatures instead. Here's how this minotaur would work with that tech:

Lord of Shatterskull Pass 3R
Creature — Minotaur Shaman
(3/3)
Level 2: 1R
(6/6)
Level 3: 5RRRRR
Whenever Lord of Shatterskull Pass attacks, it deals 6 damage to each creature defending player controls.
(6/6)

(You can't just do little bits of mana sink here and there like this though, so probably level 3 would cost less.)

[Lorn Asbord Schutta]

As to the Epicure, I am not exactly a fan. I have a minor nitpick with the card itself - it deals damage to each opponent, to make it more relevant for multiplayer, but makes only one token. Like void said, it is a red's play on draining and I like when those effects are scaleable, like in extort.
The bigger issue I have is with the blood tokens itself. They are fine in the vampire context - sacrifice represents consuming the blood, and the rummaging is the stimulation of senses/rush of vitality a bloodsucker experiences. Since they are called blood tokens, one might do flavourful things around them, like Arterial Alchemy, Bloodvial Purveyor or something like:
Vampire Flea Marketeer
Creature - Vampire Citizen (C)
Sacrifice a token: You gain 1 life. If the sacrificed token was Blood or Human, you gain 3 life instead.
2/1
However, get rid of the vampire context and let the blood be a standalone token. For instance a plane, where blood-magic is widespread around all colors, that has little to no vampires, since they were considered anathema by every other inhabitant of the plane. Or a plane with an alchemy focus, in which usage of blood might be uncommon, but not rare occurance. In both cases trying to not use Blood tokens, when they exist, would be understandably a strange decision, if not an excersise in reinventing the wheel. But at the same time the rummaging does not invoke "blood" by any metric, once you alienate blood from the vampire flavour.
The other pre-defined artifact tokens are more cohesive between their flavour and effect. Thanks to this they are much easier to use as a card type for non-token artifact. For instance, I can make such cycle:
Gemstone Golem
Artifact Creature - Golem Treasure (U)
, Sacrifice this artifact: Add one mana of any color.
1/1
Cryptic Golem
Artifact Creature - Golem Clue (U)
, Sacrifice this artifact: Draw a card.
1/1
Meat Golem
Artifact Creature - Golem Food (U)
, , Sacrifice this artifact: You gain 3 life.
1/1
Blood Golem
Artifact Creature - Golem Blood (U)
, , Discard a card, Sacrifice this artifact: Draw a card.
1/1
and I think most would agree that the last one is the only one that doesn't make sense in terms of flavour without some flavour text gymnastics.
I am not sure what effect I would prefer instead - the most obvious one, draining (, Sacrifice this artifact: Target opponent loses 1 life and you gain 1 life) is actually not that better - we are still bound by the vampire flavour, only now it is more explicit. Maybe straight up lifegain, to represent transfusion? It would tread to much on the grounds Food covered. Producing mana that can be spent only on spells/abilities targeting opponent's permanents? This would tie into hexing aspect that usually goes hand-in-hand with blood magic, but it still contrived.
To be honest, I would prefer them to not exist actually, since Blood as an artifact type with a distinct, mechanical aspect, is - in my opinion - just not representable in Magic.

As for the Lord of Shatterskull Pass, while maybe not most exactly thrilling design - you have to invest a lot for the power you are actually interested, unlike more gradual increase like Echo Mage or Enclave Cryptologist - it still nice tool for control shells looking for a long game and a limited bomb.
The whole level up mechanic is a throughly limited design - it gives you a way to fuel your excess mana, while at the same time - due to sorcery speed - it asks to be in environment where instant speed removal is not widespread.
I personally would not bother to design singular cards with level up, but I would certainly considered the mechanic in custom set design.

[OneAndOnly]

One simple solution for Level Up is to have the creatures enter the battlefield with a counter; that puts them at Level One from the beginning, which mirrors Sagas. It pushes the text into microfont territory, though. But it's like the difference between fading and vanishing, or fear and intimidate; one is just a little bit more intuitive.

Also, FWIW, I don't consider "Golem Clue" very flavorful (what is it, the Maltese Falcon?) or "Golem Food," because yuck, gross.

[Lorn Asbord Schutta]

But it's like the difference between [...] fear and intimidate; one is just a little bit more intuitive.

Which of those two you find more intuitive? Because I think fear is the one that is actually more intuitive. While it is certainly arbitrary choice to say "only and all machines and black creatures are unbothered by the sight of horrific enemies", but since the effect is static, it makes combat math much easier, for both attacker and blocker. Disregarding all the color-changing effects, if a player controls two creatures with an intimidate that have different colors, you have the exact same ability working different for each of those creatures; if both would have fear, then it would be faster to determine if there are any possible blockers.
I find menace superior to both, though, so I am glad with the things as they are now.

EDIT: Maybe Golem Clue is not very flavourful in itself - and I fully agree. However I can think of some flavour text that would make the package ring better, while I cannot say the same for Golem Blood. And this is my gripe.

[void_nothing]

The MTGNexus Custom Card Creation Random Card of the Day for 9/6/22 is Yoshimaru, Ever Faithful.

Good shibe

[OneAndOnly]

Awwww, puppers!

SPOILER

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I find menace to be one of the ... odder ... keyworded abilities. Red often wants to get face-to-face (first strike, double strike, firebreathing, etc.), which doesn't work so well with evasion abilities. I usually find I make the same choices menace forces (letting a weenie through, double-blocking a bigger creature) so it's not really doing a lot of work there. Every once in a while it manages to be meaningful in the end game (ie, I have two creatures to block, and my opponent plays removal on one, letting a killing blow get through) which is ... eh, what the game's supposed to be about?

Regarding intimidate versus fear, fear runs into lot of fluff issues; It's not the creature with fear that's fearful, but the creature with fear it's blocking ... except Fearless Halberdier and half a dozen other cards with similar names can't block something with fear ... nevermind things like Wall of Swords or Wall of Stone having any sort of emotion whatsoever. Easier to imagine that it something inimical to do with the magical energies inherent in one's being -- y'know, mana cost or color identity -- at which point it no longer has anything to do with being black, but being m a g i c a l.

Does intimdate work differently on different creatures? Yes, but also no. "I can't be blocked except by things like me" makes a certain amount of pattern-matching sense. It does get really awful in sets that are heavier into multicolor than sets that lean more monocolored. But once it shows up on the board, I think most players start going, all right, I can block that creature with this guy but not that guy ... eh, I suppose there are some decks that take advantage of making combat math difficult to figure out.

The one area I think it gets really wasteful -- disadvantageous toward the game as a game -- is mixing and matching all these mechanics together. Intimidate + menace + trample + ... + more on a creature just ends up being goofy.

[void_nothing]

The MTGNexus Custom Card Creation Random Card of the Day for 9/7/22 is Darksteel Pendant.

Oddly enough, this card comes from the block that introduced scry but only has an ability that can scry in its Oracle text.

[void_nothing]

The MTGNexus Custom Card Creation Random Card of the Day for 9/8/22 is Downsize.

Always liked overload and this is a pretty good one-word card name.

[Ulka]

Overload is a mechanic I find is over-performing in cards or underwhelming. I think that while its cool the balance is hard to find.

Gaea's Wrath G
Sorcery
Target land you control becomes a 3/3 creature with Trample and indestructible. It is still a land.
Overload 2GG

Also must make the single R creature card with the Red set mechanic.

Goblin Bloodrager R
Creature - Goblin Berserker
Whenever Goblin Bloodrager enters the battlefield, it deals 1 damage to target creature.
Goblin Bloodrager must attack each turn if able.
Overload R
2/2

[void_nothing]

The MTGNexus Custom Card Creation Random Card of the Day for 9/9/22 is Watchful Giant.

Ravnica sets love having a big white creature that makes a small token or the reverse.

[Ulka]

The MTGNexus Custom Card Creation Random Card of the Day for 9/9/22 is Watchful Giant.

Ravnica sets love having a big white creature that makes a small token or the reverse.

Truer words have never been said

[void_nothing]

The MTGNexus Custom Card Creation Random Card of the Day for 9/14/22 is Searing Blood.

Burn spells that set up delayed death triggers on creatures (or planeswalkers, even) is great design space.

[SecretInfiltrator]

How are these loitering people stepped on if that Giant is as watchful as the name implies? I smell intent to harm.

[void_nothing]

How are these loitering people stepped on if that Giant is as watchful as the name implies? I smell intent to harm.

Spoken like a true Lyev.

[Sporegorger_Dragon]

That particular Giant happens to be watchful. Other giants are not so considerate (which is why this one is distinctive for being Watchful).

Inconsiderate Giant
5{R}
Creature - Giant Warrior (C)
When Inconsiderate Giant enters the battlefield, it deals 1 damage to target creature without flying.
5/4
Giants on Ravnica often have to be attentive as to where they step. Some are not.

[void_nothing]

Fiery Inquisition 1UBR
Instant (U)
Fiery Inquisition deals 2 damage to each of up to two target creatures and/or planeswalkers. Whenever one of those permanents dies this turn, draw a card.

[spacemonaut]

Corpse Explosion feels like it's in comparable space for me, even though it's got nothing in common. (I'm so happy that when they made that card, they made it like that.)

Anyway, yes! Rewards for killing a thing attached to burn spells is pretty great.

Psychic Barrage 1BR
Instant
Psychic Barrage deals 3 damage to target creature. Its controller discards cards equal to the excess damage.

[void_nothing]

The MTGNexus Custom Card Creation Random Card of the Day for 9/17/22 is Terrifying Presence.

Great include for heroic or similar themes and I like the partial Fogs green gets of late.

[void_nothing]

The MTGNexus Custom Card Creation Random Card of the Day for 9/18/22 is Battering Sliver.

If you're going to have Slivers, some of them have to be common, which means some of them have to be Limited fodder only.

[SecretInfiltrator]

I feel, this would still be Limited Fodder at {1} or {2} less.