MTGNexus

Here we see a nearly typical Shade showing us that rare mono-Black Haste, which could make for a nuttier version of the Golgari Death Swarm trick question. Historically, Shades have been overcosted because of their ability to scale with later mana access, unlike the vast majority of creatures, and they have one of the deepest mechanical ties of any creature type. Throughout the game's history, there have been 32 Shades, of which only four have not had an until-end-of-turn pump ability, two of which are a matter of getting counters instead of until-end-of-turn, and one of those two simply eats the Swamp to keep the P/T boost.

There are precisely three Shades who return less than one P/T per mana, which would be Thirsting Shade, a 1/1 Lifelinker for that'd trivially get obnoxious, Nightwing Shade, which is a Flyer that produces some obnoxious value, and Zof Shade, draft-chaff from the same set as Nirkana Revenant where big mana was the default.

For my own "take" on the rarely-touched sticks-around version of the boost seen seemingly solely in Mire Shade, as well as getting a little Morphling logic in:

Devouring Shades 2b
Creature - Shade
2b or sacrifice a creature: Devouring Shades gains +1/+1 and your choice of Deathtouch, Lifelink, Menace, or Vigilance until end of turn. If a creature with the chosen ability was sacrificed, put a +1/+1 counter and a counter of the chosen type on Devouring Shades instead.
1/1

Somewhat wordy for such a short list, but that list is relatively specific to keep the valid pool down. Creature tokens for these EXIST, but Flying crops up in actual set mechanic tokens. And note the plural, the wonky bit of picking up duplicate keyword counters is known and intentional. Put it in a set with Blue-Black counter shenanigans as the draft strategy for more The Ozolith fun.

The MTGNexus Custom Card Creation Random Card of the Day for 11/1/22 is Kamber, the Plunderer.

He's a vamp, when opposing creatures die he steals their blood. Makes sense.

Kamber is one of the Partner-withs that I wish just had Partner. I don't think that the effect is strong enough to break, but it is really rather weak when only available to be paired with Laurine, the Diversion.
But mostly, I wish there were more partners for building a commander draft cube, a lot of the ones in Commander Legends were too focused on specific archetypes that I had no interest in including, especially the specific tribal builds, and these weaker Partner-withs could just have been partners to fill that role.
Yes, I can declare "Partner-with is just partner for the cube" but I'd rather avoid applying custom rules like that, if possible.

Bit of a rant. Kamber/Laurine is a rather underwhelming commander pair, not bad, just underwhelming. Which is sadly emblematic of many of the Commander precons recently, aside from the ones with premium sticker prices.

The MTGNexus Custom Card Creation Random Card of the Day for 11/2/22 is Prescient Chimera.

I do like Chimerae.

As a common, that's quite solid for limited. Decent evasive body with an upside.
I feel like Chimerae lack a cohesive design space. They are hampered in this by being locked to Theros in the modern era of design. As a result, they seem to fill the role of generic flyers with minor effects, taking spots that would be Drakes in other planes.

The MTGNexus Custom Card Creation Random Card of the Day for 11/4/22 is Lazotep Behemoth.

UUUUUUGH. One of the primary ways a vanilla creature can be compelling is the flavor. And this one has Joss-Whedon-Marvel-film tier dialogue writing. Hate it hate it hate it.

This thing is so distasteful to me that my eyes gloss over it every time I peruse the image gallery for War of the Spark.

The MTGNexus Custom Card Creation Random Card of the Day for 11/5/22 is Knight of Valor.

A VERY early iteration of the "triggers an additional time" concept if you think about it.

The MTGNexus Custom Card Creation Random Card of the Day for 11/7/22 is Rhox Maulers.

A good example of an evergreen keyword and a set keyword working together.

Low-key don't like renown (or monstrous), since they create a new "tag" for cards, but not actually tied to a marker. For example, if I remove the two counters from Rhox Maulers, I can't re-renown it.

Would enjoy more, too, if it did something else when renowned; essentially this is just mucle.

The MTGNexus Custom Card Creation Random Card of the Day for 11/9/22 is Ravenous Vampire.

The flavor holds up, but if this were more efficient I could see it being printed today. Even an Aristocrats deck would struggle to find this appealing these days, however.

I think if we reduced its cost to a 3/3 for 1BB it might see play today

The MTGNexus Custom Card Creation Random Card of the Day for 11/22/22 is Soldevi Machinist.

Feels shockingly modern.

Could be reprinted at Common these days with how conditional that mana is, and it's narrow enough to "stick" through color pie concerns. Have a somewhat Vorthos spin:

Dagsson Initiates 1u
Creature - Human Artificer
: Add ccu to your mana pool. Spend this mana only on Artifact spells. If this mana is spent to cast a creature spell, that creature enters the battlefield with a Defender counter on it.
1/2
Among the oldest of Soldevi's remaining traditions, those keeping Dagsson's ideals alive keep far from beginning wars, but have since accepted means to survive them

The Double Masters Arcum Dagsson card is specifically non-creature, but with the advent of keyword tokens it's much easier to pacify in bulk without committing to full Pacifism or bloating card text, and there's more than enough effects on sticks and value in blockers to justify the in-universe tradition accepting Constructs and Golems provided appropriate restrictions.

The MTGNexus Custom Card Creation Random Card of the Day for 12/1/22 is Clickslither.

The fact that this card shares a set with Quick Sliver is just cruel in nomenclature terms.

I have always loved specific trigger conditions or costs for cards. Yes they don't always make for easy play but they feel so much more thematic and memorable cards.

Cabal Sacrificer 1BB
Creature - Human Cleric (U)
When Cabal Sacrificer enters the battlefield, each opponent sacrifices a creature or enchantment with mana value 2 or less.
Whenever a Soldier, Wizard, Goblin, or Elf permanent is put into a graveyard from the battlefield, put a +1/+1 counter on Cabal Sacrificer.
1/1

The MTGNexus Custom Card Creation Random Card of the Day for 12/2/22 is Commander's Authority.

Basically similar to Emblem of the Warmind, using the enchanted creature as a condition for keeping an enchantment around. Being an Aura is mostly a drawback in these cases obviously, but there are interactions like heroic, modified, and such.

The MTGNexus Custom Card Creation Random Card of the Day for 12/5/22 is Varina, Lich Queen.

Varina is obviously a self-contained engine meaning she's a popular commander. I'm fascinated by (part) white-aligned liches. The backstory we have on her is vague but it's interesting to think of her as a Yixlid.

The MTGNexus Custom Card Creation Random Card of the Day for 12/9/22 is Sandsteppe Outcast.

This card basically has the original, Limited-warping version of fabricate where it made Thopter tokens.

The MTGNexus Custom Card Creation Random Card of the Day for 12/14/22 is Pledge of Unity.

Not actually the GW proliferate draft signpost in WAR, but damn what a card for Limited anyhow.

I like cards like these for designing automatic opponents... like if you're playing horde, or you've got a weird format that can generate fake players and assign them a horde-style deck, this is the sort of thing they'd wanna cast cos it has no targets and, assuming they play all their stuff before they attack, no decisions at all, plus the snowballing goodstuff effect is powerful enough that it's worrying to the thinking players

void_nothing wrote: ↑

1 year ago

The MTGNexus Custom Card Creation Random Card of the Day for 12/14/22 is Pledge of Unity.

Not actually the GW proliferate draft signpost in WAR, but damn what a card for Limited anyhow.

I have fond memories of building a G/W deck with this in limited, alongside Nissa, Who Shakes the World, who may have been doing most of the heavy lifting.
If memory serves, most players had a strong dislike of WAR draft because it was incredibly swingy and full of bombs, but I loved for that exact reason, maybe because it was one of the earliest sets I drafted.

The MTGNexus Custom Card Creation Random Card of the Day for 12/15/22 is Blasting Station.

Ah yes, the notorious Stations! These cards are still one of my favorite groups of designs.

The MTGNexus Custom Card Creation Random Card of the Day for 12/19/22 is Hickory Woodlot.

This cycle is so nostalgic for me because these were the first lands I was ever aware of that could tap for more than one mana.