This is another EDH deck that could use some retuning. This one has Raksha Golden Cub as the general. If you don't remember it in "Decks that I once loved (I and II)" it's because it was properly put away, not cluttering up my desk. It's mono white. Let's go over what's already in it, this time sorted by mana cost.
Lands: 38
That's a bit low; I don't have the artifact acceleration like in my Progenitus deck, and this one still curves up to nine mana spells. If I recall correctly, the main complaint I had with the deck before shelving it was that I never actually got to cast Akroma. The fact that I was running a mana light deck might explain all that.
Darksteel Citadel: Perfectly fine in a monocolored deck. There are a lot of board sweepers played in EDH, a few of which will also kill off the occasional land. Being indestructible means I still have one mana after the meltdown. Nice, even if it doesn't matter that much.
Windbrisk Heights: Let's see, the engine that powered a standard deck for two years? Good if I've got a way to attack with three creatures. I have? Excellent.
Terrain Generator: I like this card in a deck with mostly basics.
Urza's Factory: For T,7 I can make a 2/2 token. Yeah, it was an important 1 of in the Teachings matchup in Time Spiral Block Constructed, but it is a slow kill condition.
Forbidding watchtower: And here's one that's even slower.
New Benalia: I guess scry 1 is nice?
Secluded Steppes, Drifting Meadows: Cycling is good. I like lands that cycle.
30 Plains: More interesting than your standard plains, actually. Contained within this stack of lands is one of the decks we prototyped for a playtest of one of our Awesome Games. So a number of these sleeves contain a basic plains as well as a bit of paper with other rules text on it:
Blue Card
Look Ma, I'm on TV! An appearance on a friendly news show does wonders for your organization.
Gain 3 media.
When it became apparent that I didn't have enough sleeves on hand to have both a playtest game and an EDH deck I went with both. Anyways, back to the matter at hand.
1 drops:
Skullclamp: What can I say about skullclamp that hasn't been said already? Quite a bit, actually. Skullclamp is good because it trades one sort of resource for another. It trades creatures in play for cards in hand. Cards like that are dangerous because you have to be very accurate with the rate. If you don't make the rate punishing enough then the card is broken and bad things happen. If you make it too punishing then nobody plays with it. Clamp was printed too much on the broken side of things. So if it's broken enough to be unfun, why am I playing it?
Two reasons: First off, this sort of card is extremely skilltesting. Yeah, you can get by off of power alone, but if you're really good you'll do a lot better with it than you would as a mediocre player. Randy Buehler famously said that Necropotence made him good; learning exactly how much life to trade for cards made Buehler the powerhouse that he was. The second reason was that I wasn't playing when the clamp was legal. Insanely broken card? Let me in on the action!
Viridian Longbow: Aside from the clamp this deck runs an equipment theme. Viridian Longbow is one of the weaker members. If I want to kill creatures I've got wrath effecs. If I want to kill players I'm usually better off attacking. (Yeah, those two excuses don't go together that well, I know.)
Bonesplitter: Equipment theme. You read the text box on Raksha Golden Cub? Vigilance, As long as Raksha is equipped, cats you control get +2/+2 and gain doublestrike. I want equipment around to stick on her so my other cats get huge. Not that I have many other cats in here as of this update.
Soul Warden: Classic Multiplayer one drop. Gains a lot of life. Expecially if you put it in a deck like this, which has a strong token theme. (This deck has a strong token theme).
Weathered Wayfarer: This guy is good; great at getting you more lands. He even gets nonbasics. Y'know, when I really need that Forbidding Watchtower. Anyways, I'm still leery about putting in too many search effects. This is one.
2 drops:
Jotun Grunt: hoses the occasional graveyard. Not nearly as effective as I'd like.
Cloak and Dagger: +2/0 and Shroud. No rogues though.
Knight of the White Orchid: Another good land search. That's two.
Auriok Steelshaper: Makes things cheaper to equip, pumps knights and soldiers of which there are plenty. (All three of my two drop creatures, for example.)
Veteran's Armaments: Gives a massive pump to one creature in a swarm. Also equips free to soldiers, like that steelshaper.
Lightning Greaves: A prince among equipment. More than once I had this and Armaments in play come turn seven. Play Raksha, Equip armaments for free, then equip Lightning greaves. Swing in with a 6/7 doublestrike vigilance shroud haste creature. That deals general damage. Good times.
Planar Collapse: A wrath effect for two mana? Sure I have to wait a turn and sure there have to be enough targets for it, but a deal is a deal!
Armillary Sphere. That's three search effects
Empyrial Plate: Another good equipment. Good if I've got a full hand, so I guess it just combos well with skullclamp. Like there's anything that doesn't.
Leonin Sun Standard: Multi pump effect for armies of creatures. Going to get to those armies of creatures sooner or later, I promise.
3 drops
Oblivion Ring: I could go either way on this card. On the one hand it's still just a 1 for 1, and people can kill it to get their offending permanent back. On the other hand, it answers most everything.
Devout Witness: Spellshapes Disenchant. (T,1W, Discard a card: Destroy target artifact or enchantment). Useful ability, especially when it repeats.
Order of Whiteclay: Gets creatures back from my yard, as a repeatable effect. Maybe he's why Viridian Longbow is in here.
Story Circle: Just hoses some decks. I remember one game where I had this keeping off a host of dragons from Dragon Roost. I lost that game when he got more dragons than I had mana to keep them away. Might cut this card, it can really annoy people.
Mirror Entity: What's that? Did I hear there was a token theme to this deck? Well you're in luck Mr. Douglas.
Prison Term: Targeted removal, but you can switch it to better and better creatures.
Aura of Silence. Talked about this card in my Reaper King articles. From now on it's officially Aura of Science!.
Mobilization: Finally a token horde producer. A very, very slow one. Still combos with skullclamp.
Nuisance Engine: Also produces tokens. Pest tokens. tokens that chump one by one while I'm waiting to find...
Loxodon Warhammer: +3/0, trample and lifelink? Also an excellent equipment.
Whispersilk Cloak: Shroud and unblockable. Neat.
Fireshrieker: Equipped creature has double strike. Great with the big creatures that are also in this deck.
Sculpting Steel: Copies clamp. also anything else that might be around. Will usually end up as an equipment of some sort.
4 drops:
Sigil of the new dawn: Repeatable Raise Dead if you have mana up at the right times. Not as good as I've hoped.
Auriok Windwalker: 2/3 flyer that shifts equipment around. Made it a wizard, in the same set as Raksha and two sets after Steelshaper. Really? Really? out of three relevant creature types you had to make it a wizard?
Breath of life: 4 mana to reanimate something. On the one hand, four mana. On the other hand, there are targets for it.
Kithkin rabble: Theoretically gets huge if you've got a token horde. But if you've got a token horde, what do you need a huge guy for? Better because it also counts whatever enchantments I might have, but it still encourages me to overextend into an opposing wrath effect.
Springjack Shepherd: Chroma goats. You know, so far the token producers I've gotten have been sub par.
Cradle of vitality: Makes creatures better if I've got the mad lifegain going on. Do I have lifegain, and in what condition is it's sanity? Soul warden (repeatable, but in 1 life chunks) and the warhammer so far. More coming up, like...
Faiths Fetters: An excellent control card. Kills somehting, stops it from activating it's abilities and even gets you +4 life when it enters play. Neat!
Nevinyrral's Disk: I've been talking and talkinga bout how this is a token deck with equipment in it, so it makes sense I've got a card in here that kills all of both. Probably gets shipped to a deck where I need answers more.
Ajani Goldmane: Supports tokens, supports Cradle of vitality and draws hate away from me. Planeswalkers are like that.
Galepowder mage: Negates blockers and reuses comes into play effects. Like springjack shepherd.
Endless Horizons: Number four in our shuffling series, but this one I don't mind since whenever it hits play, inevitably it's going to thin the deck down to where it's easy to shuffle. But Endless horizons is interesting for other reasons. If it works, it's a free card every turn, and all the mana you'll ever need. And it means you're drawing spells from here on out. But it's when it doesn't work that's the problem. I can see that jerk grinning from here, you know the one, the guy who just can't vindicate it fast enough because he knows you'll never play Akroma now. Still, I really like this card, even if I might only want to play it with seven or eight lands in play.
Taj-Nar Swordsmith: Kicker X, gets you equipment costing X or less. Probably should put him in the 5 mana colum since we all know he's getting clamp. Also a cat. Shuffle #5
5 drops:
Archon of Justice: He's big, he flies and he makes people really regret messing with my stuff. He's in.
Battlegrace Angel: Also big, also flies and works with cradle.
Boon Reflection: Also works with cradle. Still don't know that I have enough life gain effects to make either worthwhile.
Scourglass: Like Disk, only it leaves my equipment around.
Death or Glory: Half of a living death. The worse half. Haven't gotten a chance to play with it, it might be fun.
Knight Captain of Eos: Three guys for the price of one. Not as good as...
Cloudgoat Ranger: Even more guys for the price of one. Finally something that looks like token production.
Stonehewer Giant: Searches up equipment, and sticks it on something. Yeah, he's good in this deck. Search #6
Six drops:
Crovax, Ascendant Hero: Pumps tokens, shrinks opposing creatures, takes out the occasional Birds of Paradise and is even hard to kill.
Adarkar Valkyrie: Another angel, this one that raises things from the dead. Again, how can I say no? It's easier when I remember how many times exactly that didn't do a thing for me.
Austere Command: Customizeable board sweeping. Generally the deck has stuff that fits into all four categories on this card though.
Spirit of the Hearth: Another 4 power flyer. Was it two for one tuesday in the rare bin? Anyways, giving me shroud is neat, and he brings our cat count up to two.
Purity: 6/6 flyer for six, has the chance to give me life if someone's playing burn. Nobody's playing burn in multiplayer. Except this one deck... nevermind.
Jareth, Leonine Titan: Blocks anything, even most eldrazi. Hard to kill. Also our third and final cat.
Higher:
Mass Calcify: For seven mana it destroys all nonwhite creatures. Wipes a number of creatures while leaving mine intact. Hopefully nobody else is playing mono white.
Sigil of Distinction: Ok, technically this is an X mana artifact, but it gets better the more land I've got in play so I've got it over in the X spells. Doesn't work well with the searchers since they both put it into play, but it can be huge.
Benalish Commander: Also an X spell don't be fooled by the 3W mana cost. Basically works like Kithkin Rabble once he hits play, but he has the advantage of giving you a soldier for every turn before that. Not the best guy in the cycle but servicable.
Myojin of Cleansing Fire: 4/6 creature, hard to kill until he kills everything else. Neat. Eight mana though. Eight mana buys you a lot, for example...
Akroma, Angel of Wrath: You know what? Let me just quote it's text box: Flying, First Strike, Trample, Haste, Vigilance, Protection from Black, Protection from Red. No rest, no mercy, no matter what. Akroma is just awesome.
Evangelize (With Buyback): It steals creatures and it's a repeatable effect! How awesome is that? Too awesome; it can really make people want to quit playing, which is exactly what I don't want them to do.
And, of course, Raksha, the Golden Cub. The cat lord who has all of three cats to buff. Whoo
Ok, that's the composition. Let's see what all we've got: 38 lands, 27 creatures (Plenty of soldiers, knights, not many cats. More wizards than I would like. Bunch of angels, spirits, avatars. Possibly enough clerics to support some tribal effects. Definetly enough to support steelshaper's buff.), 17 artifacts (11 equipment, 5 non, and Steelshaper's Gift which can be either), 11 enchantments, 6 sorceries and 1 planeswalker.
So the question is, what do I want to do with this deck? As I see it there are three directions I could take it. One is to go more in the way of soldiers and token production, building a massive army and attempting to swarm people. The second is to make it more of an angel theme deck; hopefully more midrangey. The third is to take out a lot of the worse creatures and try to make it a control deck. I've got more wrath effects that I can put in.
Currently, I've rebuilt it into more of an aggro deck. I've cut some of the worse, higher casting cost cards and replaced them with lower casting cost cards that are still bad. Err, anyway. It's doing better as an aggro deck, but could still stand some tweaking. I'll talk about that in a future post.
Short version: Needs more spectral procession.
Showing posts with label Elder Dragon Highlander. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Elder Dragon Highlander. Show all posts
Friday, July 2, 2010
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Building your own Magic Card
Today I'm going to design my own magic card. Y'see, my brother is participating in a Elder Dragon Highlander tournament at his local store. First prize lets you design a magic card that'll be legal in EDH games at that store. Neat, huh? Actually, the tournament went down on Saturday, but I haven't yet heard the results.
First thing I said was "I suggest Stingscourger". To which he assigned new flavor text: Already Perfect. Mostly I suggested that because I really like Stingscourger, but really that's not the best suggestion. I mean, if you want more stingscourger effects there are several out there (Man of War, Sedraxis Alchemist). An opportunity like that isn't something you should squander doing something that you can already do.
So, assuming my brother takes my suggestion (and wins. I also suggest that.), what exactly will I be suggesting?
Let's take a look at previous invitational cards. The Magic Invitational was a tournament associated with the Magic World Championships where the main prize was getting to design your own magic card. Let's take a look at winners of ages past:
Meddling Mage
Dark Confidant
Ranger of Eos
Those are all significant tournament cards. And they've all got interesting, unique powerful abilities. I mean, there are plenty of things that let you tutor up creatures, but two to your hand? But what can you do with one mana creatures? Quite a lot, apparently.
Anyway, I'm going to be designing the card for Elder Dragon Highlander. That means I should be taking into account the various ways the format warps the game. The card should be designed fully cognizant of the fact that players start out with 40 life, and all that implies.
Take a look at Dark Confidant. You get a card every turn, but you pay it's mana cost in life. Great if you've got a land on the top (converted mana cost zero), but terrible if you turn up, say, Time Stretch. The thing is, the card was designed with a 20 point life total in mind, not 40. So the ability is roughly twice as good in EDH.
On the other hand, since I'm designing the card for a small group, not to be printed generally I can ignore some of the usual constraints on Magic design. Purple mana here I come! More seriously, I said "some" not "all" of the constraints. Specifically, I don't have to worry at all that this card is playable in limited, and I can use mechanics and flavor that would make it in another Unglued set, but not into the black bordered world we're used to.
So let's design some cards, alright?
Blatant rip off Mage [1WUB]
ART!
Creature--Human Wizard
When CARDNAME enters the battlefield, name a card. The named card can't be played.
At the beginning of your upkeep, you may reveal the top card of your library. If you do, lose life equal to it's converted mana cost and put it into your hand.
Siamese Mages, their powers combined... Bob Maher was willing to pay the cost, Christ Pikula wasn't so sure.
[4/3]
I bet you can guess where I got that inspiration from. I mean, Meddling Mage (Chris Pikula's invitational card) and Dark Confidant (Bob Maher's) are good, so why wouldn't they be better together? Well, the card is pretty obviously powerful. I mean, it's a 4/3 for 4 with two good abilities. And yet... putting it in three colors makes the card pretty restrictive as to the sorts of decks that can play it. Since EDH decks can't splash past their general's colors, this guy would only go in WUB or 5-color decks. Seems a shame to make a card that'll see that little play. Also, the simple rip-off idea doesn't appeal to me much. Moving along...
You know what else is an advantage of making a card for one single store? You get to make fun of people: Behold!
Margret's Call [BBBBB]
ART!
Sorcery
Remove Target Player from the Game
Sorry guys, I gotta go
See that? That's a dig at my brother who is happily married. To a wonderful woman, I hasten to add. Thing is though, if he's at the magic store and he gets the call, well, he wouldn't win that game. Might as well spread the effect to his friends. Of course, the problem with this card is that it's, well, unbalanced at any mana cost. Turn one Gilt-leaf palace. Turn two Overgrown Tomb. Turn three Bayou, Dark Ritual, you lose. Turn four Eternal witness sets you up for a turn 5 replay. At a small multiplayer table you could clear the table this way. Also, things don't get removed from the game anymore, they get "exiled". Hmmm....
M10? What M10? [3]
ART!
Artifact
Damage goes on the frikken stack again.
Come back, Mogg Fanatic! We still love you!
Man, wouldn't that feel great to print? When wizards introduces changes I'm usually cautiously optimistic, but this one still rankles. I get it that it was a complication of the rules. I get it that the "tricks" aren't so clever. You're still reducing the power of a lot of my favorite cards, and I don't feel obligated to be happy over that. Ok, ok, less ranting. Anyway, I could see printing this card, but it's hard to tell how much play it'd see. I mean, even if you're building a deck with a lot of potential damage-on tricks, is it worth having a card to access them? How often would this actually make the final cut? Also, no idea if [3] is the right cost at all for this sort of effect.
What about cards that address the EDH metagame? I mean, there've got to be some good things to print there. Now, I don't play the format nearly as much as my brother, so I don't have the greatest idea of what the metagame is, or needs. But I have heard him ranting.
Elephant of the Now [1GG]
ART!
Creature--Elephant
Players can't take extra turns
Hitler keeps one of these around to foil temporal assassins
[3/3]
So why an elephant? Well, it's a hate card, and you want to be able to let people deal with hate cards. Putting it on a creature means that everybody's got some option to deal with it. So once it's on a creature, why an elephant? Did you honestly think I was going to put it on yet another freaking elf? I did want to give it to green because 1) enemy color of blue and 2) green could use some more good cards. Hmm...
Futility [2GG]
ART!
Instant
Creatures you control become indestructible until end of turn.
The blastwave subsided. The fires burned low. The pyromancer stared at the devastation he had utterly failed to cause.
In a duel this wouldn't be that great. If they wrath the board, odds are they only have one or zero creatures out, so you don't get the benefit of clearing their board, only saving your own. Still it might make it on being an answer to their sweepers alone. (Extended zoo: turn one Wild Nacatl. Turn two Tarmogoyf. Turn three Knight of the reliquary. Turn four sit back on four mana and wait.) But that's beside the point. In a multiplayer game this is great. You can save your guys when they're just wiping the board to deal with the sliver kid two chairs over. Still, it's four mana, and you don't even get a creature out of it. Again with the "Hmm...".
Surprise Moose! [2GG]
ART!
Creature--Moose
Flash
When Surprise Moose! comes into play, creatures you control become indestructible until end of turn.
[3/3]
The elves he was expecting. The bear he could handle. The moose was a different story.
Why a Moose? Why do you ask me stupid questions? Anyway, in addition to all that from the last card, this also functions as a combat trick; surprise blocker or a one sided fog, allows you to get some natural two for ones, which is always a good time. Moving along.
You know what I really hate about EDH? Fixing my mana. Don't get me wrong, I'm as much a fan of acceleration as anybody, but it gets really annoying trying to make sure you tapped your mana right every single turn. Naturally I aggravate the problem with the sorts of decks I play. I'm flipping through my Reaper King deck, and the mana costs aren't exactly friendly. Two different Ultimatums, the full on five part Nephilimbo, Dominus of Fealty, Memory Plunder, Godsire, to say nothing of the stuff that's merely WUBRG to play. Anyway, despite the fact that I'm playing all sorts of great color fixing, I still have to pay attention to what lands I'm tapping for what every single turn of the game. Let's change that.
Scepter of Get on with it already [3]
ART!
Artifact
Indestructible
T: Add one mana of any color to your mana pool
Lands you control are every basic land type in addition to their other types
Look, what if I just trust that you have all the right colors?
See that? I don't worry about tapping my dual land for the wrong color because they all make every color. Ok, I'm jamming Prismatic Omen onto Darksteel Ingot, without even upping the mana cost. In the end though, neither effect is that powerful. I mean, when's the last time you were seriously menaced by a domain deck? While I'm at it, let me throw this one out:
Barry's Land
ART!
Basic Land--Space
T: Add 1 to your mana pool.
Why space? Because I can think of at least two jokes based off of that. (It's the final frontier.) Why Barry's Land? Cause that's what they call it in Wizard's R&D. They tried to print this the last two times Domain was a mechanic, but the rules never worked. I suppose I could put on here "All previous domain cards except Last Stand are errataed to work with this card" and "The rules work damnit" but really, why bother? Anyway. If you don't get the purpose of this card, it's because of the domain mechanic, which works better the more different basic land types in play. Normally the maximum you can get up to is five, but if you could print this card you could make it six, which would be a real power boost to the domain cards. But really I'm digressing at this point.
Ok, what else do we know about EDH? Shuffling too much sucks. You see all those cards? Not a one of them searches your library. Too much of that already. Hmm...
Megalomania [UBB]
ART!
Enchantment
Indestructible, Shroud
No player may search their library.
When someone buys you a soda, sacrifice this enchantment.
Some lines are meant to be crossed, some madness is meant to be embraced.
That card would be real popular with the proprietor of the joint if it actually drove up soda sales. It'd be unpopular with everybody else, so I'm going to move on to something else. I haven't designed a general yet, let's see what I can do with that.
Krakthus, Power of War [B{W/U}{G/R}]
ART!
Creature--Demon Incarnation
Haste, Flying
All creatures attack each turn if able.
[4/4]
"Does it notice the lives it takes? Does a thunderstorm ask the water droplets if they would like to fall?" -Agra-zid, War Prophet
Do you follow that mana cost? It's B with two hybrid symbols, so you get a five color creature for converted mana cost three. A four four, evasive, hasting creature for three. In the 20 point world that'd be over the curve, but I've got different power level concerns with this guy. The "all creatures attack" line is to speed up multiplayer games, which in my experience tend to involve a lot of circling and probing for weakness before anyone actually does anything. I'm not saying I dislike multiplayer, or even jockeying for position like that, but it can get boring after a while. Not sure if I should also add the line "Whenever a creature uses an activated ability, it's controller sacrifices that creature."
It seems to me that generals usually come in three flavors: Guys who let me play the colors I want to play (basically anything from legends), guys who work as combo pieces (Zur the Enchanter, Arcum Dagsson, etc), and guys that you wouldn't mind hitting someone with. Trouble is, most of the cards that end up in the third category aren't really that great of cards. Sure, they're big, but they tend be hard to cast and die quickly, which makes them not the greatest aggro creatures. Let me try another general:
We who are Many [{W/G}{W/G}{G/R}{G/R}]
ART!
Legendary Creature--Human Insect
Shroud, Nonbasic Landwalk
When CARDNAME attacks, it attacks each opponent and planeswalker as if it were attacking that player or planeswalker alone.
4/4
"It's the old mirror image illusion. Only one can actually hurt you." -Hamsa the warrior, last words
I think I'm gonna have to clarify a bit here. When this guy attacks, it acts as if it's attacking everybody. Each person would take the four damage, it wouldn't be split. If someone blocked it, only that particular instance would be blocked, nobody else would be protected. Also, I have no idea what "Human Insect" implies, but it sounds awesome. Again, gives you the option of playing three colors while still being relatively easy to cast. Shroud is there to deflect the occasional swords to plowshares, and Nonbasic Landwalk is to make it really hard to block. Also to punish those jerks with a more expensive manabase. Hm...
Ok, ok, last card.
Forty Acres 1GB
ART!
Sorcery
Destroy target permanent that costs more than $10. Search your library for a basic land and put it into play, then shuffle your library.
You'll have to get your own mule.
Hating on the expensive? Yeah, I'd play it. Hating on the expensive while playing it in an enemy color deck that'll require you to run expensive enemy dual lands so you can actually play it on turn three? Well actually there's a lot of good mana fixing available for not too... A search and shuffle effect after complaining about it just above? Fine. the card's new name is Hypocrisy. Are you happy? Good. Cause I'm done here.
Write your own new flavor text.
First thing I said was "I suggest Stingscourger". To which he assigned new flavor text: Already Perfect. Mostly I suggested that because I really like Stingscourger, but really that's not the best suggestion. I mean, if you want more stingscourger effects there are several out there (Man of War, Sedraxis Alchemist). An opportunity like that isn't something you should squander doing something that you can already do.
So, assuming my brother takes my suggestion (and wins. I also suggest that.), what exactly will I be suggesting?
Let's take a look at previous invitational cards. The Magic Invitational was a tournament associated with the Magic World Championships where the main prize was getting to design your own magic card. Let's take a look at winners of ages past:
Meddling Mage
Dark Confidant
Ranger of Eos
Those are all significant tournament cards. And they've all got interesting, unique powerful abilities. I mean, there are plenty of things that let you tutor up creatures, but two to your hand? But what can you do with one mana creatures? Quite a lot, apparently.
Anyway, I'm going to be designing the card for Elder Dragon Highlander. That means I should be taking into account the various ways the format warps the game. The card should be designed fully cognizant of the fact that players start out with 40 life, and all that implies.
Take a look at Dark Confidant. You get a card every turn, but you pay it's mana cost in life. Great if you've got a land on the top (converted mana cost zero), but terrible if you turn up, say, Time Stretch. The thing is, the card was designed with a 20 point life total in mind, not 40. So the ability is roughly twice as good in EDH.
On the other hand, since I'm designing the card for a small group, not to be printed generally I can ignore some of the usual constraints on Magic design. Purple mana here I come! More seriously, I said "some" not "all" of the constraints. Specifically, I don't have to worry at all that this card is playable in limited, and I can use mechanics and flavor that would make it in another Unglued set, but not into the black bordered world we're used to.
So let's design some cards, alright?
Blatant rip off Mage [1WUB]
ART!
Creature--Human Wizard
When CARDNAME enters the battlefield, name a card. The named card can't be played.
At the beginning of your upkeep, you may reveal the top card of your library. If you do, lose life equal to it's converted mana cost and put it into your hand.
Siamese Mages, their powers combined... Bob Maher was willing to pay the cost, Christ Pikula wasn't so sure.
[4/3]
I bet you can guess where I got that inspiration from. I mean, Meddling Mage (Chris Pikula's invitational card) and Dark Confidant (Bob Maher's) are good, so why wouldn't they be better together? Well, the card is pretty obviously powerful. I mean, it's a 4/3 for 4 with two good abilities. And yet... putting it in three colors makes the card pretty restrictive as to the sorts of decks that can play it. Since EDH decks can't splash past their general's colors, this guy would only go in WUB or 5-color decks. Seems a shame to make a card that'll see that little play. Also, the simple rip-off idea doesn't appeal to me much. Moving along...
You know what else is an advantage of making a card for one single store? You get to make fun of people: Behold!
Margret's Call [BBBBB]
ART!
Sorcery
Remove Target Player from the Game
Sorry guys, I gotta go
See that? That's a dig at my brother who is happily married. To a wonderful woman, I hasten to add. Thing is though, if he's at the magic store and he gets the call, well, he wouldn't win that game. Might as well spread the effect to his friends. Of course, the problem with this card is that it's, well, unbalanced at any mana cost. Turn one Gilt-leaf palace. Turn two Overgrown Tomb. Turn three Bayou, Dark Ritual, you lose. Turn four Eternal witness sets you up for a turn 5 replay. At a small multiplayer table you could clear the table this way. Also, things don't get removed from the game anymore, they get "exiled". Hmmm....
M10? What M10? [3]
ART!
Artifact
Damage goes on the frikken stack again.
Come back, Mogg Fanatic! We still love you!
Man, wouldn't that feel great to print? When wizards introduces changes I'm usually cautiously optimistic, but this one still rankles. I get it that it was a complication of the rules. I get it that the "tricks" aren't so clever. You're still reducing the power of a lot of my favorite cards, and I don't feel obligated to be happy over that. Ok, ok, less ranting. Anyway, I could see printing this card, but it's hard to tell how much play it'd see. I mean, even if you're building a deck with a lot of potential damage-on tricks, is it worth having a card to access them? How often would this actually make the final cut? Also, no idea if [3] is the right cost at all for this sort of effect.
What about cards that address the EDH metagame? I mean, there've got to be some good things to print there. Now, I don't play the format nearly as much as my brother, so I don't have the greatest idea of what the metagame is, or needs. But I have heard him ranting.
Elephant of the Now [1GG]
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Creature--Elephant
Players can't take extra turns
Hitler keeps one of these around to foil temporal assassins
[3/3]
So why an elephant? Well, it's a hate card, and you want to be able to let people deal with hate cards. Putting it on a creature means that everybody's got some option to deal with it. So once it's on a creature, why an elephant? Did you honestly think I was going to put it on yet another freaking elf? I did want to give it to green because 1) enemy color of blue and 2) green could use some more good cards. Hmm...
Futility [2GG]
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Instant
Creatures you control become indestructible until end of turn.
The blastwave subsided. The fires burned low. The pyromancer stared at the devastation he had utterly failed to cause.
In a duel this wouldn't be that great. If they wrath the board, odds are they only have one or zero creatures out, so you don't get the benefit of clearing their board, only saving your own. Still it might make it on being an answer to their sweepers alone. (Extended zoo: turn one Wild Nacatl. Turn two Tarmogoyf. Turn three Knight of the reliquary. Turn four sit back on four mana and wait.) But that's beside the point. In a multiplayer game this is great. You can save your guys when they're just wiping the board to deal with the sliver kid two chairs over. Still, it's four mana, and you don't even get a creature out of it. Again with the "Hmm...".
Surprise Moose! [2GG]
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Creature--Moose
Flash
When Surprise Moose! comes into play, creatures you control become indestructible until end of turn.
[3/3]
The elves he was expecting. The bear he could handle. The moose was a different story.
Why a Moose? Why do you ask me stupid questions? Anyway, in addition to all that from the last card, this also functions as a combat trick; surprise blocker or a one sided fog, allows you to get some natural two for ones, which is always a good time. Moving along.
You know what I really hate about EDH? Fixing my mana. Don't get me wrong, I'm as much a fan of acceleration as anybody, but it gets really annoying trying to make sure you tapped your mana right every single turn. Naturally I aggravate the problem with the sorts of decks I play. I'm flipping through my Reaper King deck, and the mana costs aren't exactly friendly. Two different Ultimatums, the full on five part Nephilimbo, Dominus of Fealty, Memory Plunder, Godsire, to say nothing of the stuff that's merely WUBRG to play. Anyway, despite the fact that I'm playing all sorts of great color fixing, I still have to pay attention to what lands I'm tapping for what every single turn of the game. Let's change that.
Scepter of Get on with it already [3]
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Artifact
Indestructible
T: Add one mana of any color to your mana pool
Lands you control are every basic land type in addition to their other types
Look, what if I just trust that you have all the right colors?
See that? I don't worry about tapping my dual land for the wrong color because they all make every color. Ok, I'm jamming Prismatic Omen onto Darksteel Ingot, without even upping the mana cost. In the end though, neither effect is that powerful. I mean, when's the last time you were seriously menaced by a domain deck? While I'm at it, let me throw this one out:
Barry's Land
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Basic Land--Space
T: Add 1 to your mana pool.
Why space? Because I can think of at least two jokes based off of that. (It's the final frontier.) Why Barry's Land? Cause that's what they call it in Wizard's R&D. They tried to print this the last two times Domain was a mechanic, but the rules never worked. I suppose I could put on here "All previous domain cards except Last Stand are errataed to work with this card" and "The rules work damnit" but really, why bother? Anyway. If you don't get the purpose of this card, it's because of the domain mechanic, which works better the more different basic land types in play. Normally the maximum you can get up to is five, but if you could print this card you could make it six, which would be a real power boost to the domain cards. But really I'm digressing at this point.
Ok, what else do we know about EDH? Shuffling too much sucks. You see all those cards? Not a one of them searches your library. Too much of that already. Hmm...
Megalomania [UBB]
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Enchantment
Indestructible, Shroud
No player may search their library.
When someone buys you a soda, sacrifice this enchantment.
Some lines are meant to be crossed, some madness is meant to be embraced.
That card would be real popular with the proprietor of the joint if it actually drove up soda sales. It'd be unpopular with everybody else, so I'm going to move on to something else. I haven't designed a general yet, let's see what I can do with that.
Krakthus, Power of War [B{W/U}{G/R}]
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Creature--Demon Incarnation
Haste, Flying
All creatures attack each turn if able.
[4/4]
"Does it notice the lives it takes? Does a thunderstorm ask the water droplets if they would like to fall?" -Agra-zid, War Prophet
Do you follow that mana cost? It's B with two hybrid symbols, so you get a five color creature for converted mana cost three. A four four, evasive, hasting creature for three. In the 20 point world that'd be over the curve, but I've got different power level concerns with this guy. The "all creatures attack" line is to speed up multiplayer games, which in my experience tend to involve a lot of circling and probing for weakness before anyone actually does anything. I'm not saying I dislike multiplayer, or even jockeying for position like that, but it can get boring after a while. Not sure if I should also add the line "Whenever a creature uses an activated ability, it's controller sacrifices that creature."
It seems to me that generals usually come in three flavors: Guys who let me play the colors I want to play (basically anything from legends), guys who work as combo pieces (Zur the Enchanter, Arcum Dagsson, etc), and guys that you wouldn't mind hitting someone with. Trouble is, most of the cards that end up in the third category aren't really that great of cards. Sure, they're big, but they tend be hard to cast and die quickly, which makes them not the greatest aggro creatures. Let me try another general:
We who are Many [{W/G}{W/G}{G/R}{G/R}]
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Legendary Creature--Human Insect
Shroud, Nonbasic Landwalk
When CARDNAME attacks, it attacks each opponent and planeswalker as if it were attacking that player or planeswalker alone.
4/4
"It's the old mirror image illusion. Only one can actually hurt you." -Hamsa the warrior, last words
I think I'm gonna have to clarify a bit here. When this guy attacks, it acts as if it's attacking everybody. Each person would take the four damage, it wouldn't be split. If someone blocked it, only that particular instance would be blocked, nobody else would be protected. Also, I have no idea what "Human Insect" implies, but it sounds awesome. Again, gives you the option of playing three colors while still being relatively easy to cast. Shroud is there to deflect the occasional swords to plowshares, and Nonbasic Landwalk is to make it really hard to block. Also to punish those jerks with a more expensive manabase. Hm...
Ok, ok, last card.
Forty Acres 1GB
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Sorcery
Destroy target permanent that costs more than $10. Search your library for a basic land and put it into play, then shuffle your library.
You'll have to get your own mule.
Hating on the expensive? Yeah, I'd play it. Hating on the expensive while playing it in an enemy color deck that'll require you to run expensive enemy dual lands so you can actually play it on turn three? Well actually there's a lot of good mana fixing available for not too... A search and shuffle effect after complaining about it just above? Fine. the card's new name is Hypocrisy. Are you happy? Good. Cause I'm done here.
Write your own new flavor text.
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