Commander Fanatic Showing Stupid Commanders
Custom Cards forum
Posted on Feb. 23, 2015, 10:01 a.m. by KalvinHobbez
I've been into Magic for maybe three years or so and have enjoyed making funny cards here and there, but would like to see if any of my legit ones could possibly be balanced. I'll post my three favorite cards I've made for now and if you guys want more you can ask.
So here is one that was just a random little idea for a bit until I grew to liking the idea. Her concept is to modify your hand until you get a hand that you'd be comfortable keeping and repeating whats in it over and over again. Usually she will give a win condition from this. Consume Spirit + Dark Ritual is a pretty simple one. Of course with the right cards its easy to tutor every last thing you need, but I feel like she's an easy target once she hits the board anyways.
I feel like I embodied the three colors of this enemy wedge pretty well with Fakala. White tokens, black sacrifice, red damage and burn. The way he's balanced intrigues me as well. He gives everyone tokens, but gives a drawback from this. You yourself have a way to deal with the drawback, but because he can only deal with creatures you will make it easier for an opponent due to less creatures dealing damage to them.
Originally a joke for the pun, I wanted to try and make a legit 0 mana commander. This was the original concept as I feel like it's decently balanced. Another concept is just 0 mana 0/0 flier that gets +1/+1 for every artifact you control, but I found that a bit boring.
So you guys let me know whats stupid and whats maybe kind of cool, I have some other odd and crazy commanders but wanted to show off plausible ones first.
lemmingllama says... #3
Wilky would only ever be used for disgusting combo decks and nothing else. Cool concept, but would also be banned in an instant. A single Time Walk card and you never lose.
Fakala is super cool. Very balanced, you could probably drop his cost to 
if you wanted. However, it might be better for people to take damage only on their endstep rather than on each endstep, otherwise it will likely get out of hand too quickly.
Deathopter is hilarious. I would personally never play him, but he's also very cool.
February 23, 2015 10:29 a.m.
KalvinHobbez says... #4
I guess I'm not 100% careful when making cards so specific grammar problems might arise, and also the thing about EVERY endstep...heh, I meant only their endstep. But with the Time Walk thing, I think if you have to bring in a restricted card like that I don't know if that would be viable to call something else overpowered.
Wilky originally didnt even have that countspell evasion either, and the cost for it is the exiling of cards. Because playing these cards never make them just disappear, exiling is a drawback in that situation. I even buffed her mana cost further and further here and there to balance her because I just enjoy the concept, but I feel like I'm just appeasing to assholes who play cruel control Grixis... But yeah you can have a hand at modifying her, I'd like to see if she could become something.
Fakala I can tell needs more specific details on the text but like I said I don't sit down and 100% focus on details every time, I make cards pretty casually and play Magic casually. You can mess around with his concept if you like as well, I'm open to any suggestions and modifications. As long as you don't take my idea or somethin <:3
Deathopter was always an odd one for me, but I feel like I maybe made him too weak for a 0 mana legendary creature then. I thought if I gave it a token every upkeep it'd just be broken as well for 0 mana, but I guess 0/2 tokens wouldn't be as brutal. One concept for Deathopter had it make tokens every turn and you can sacrifice a number of thopters to do a big effect, like a board wipe or something. But yeah this is another funny one to mess with.
Thanks for the feedback guys. I probably should try to be more careful with my wording, but if you guys want rules nightmares for commanders oh boy do I have you covered if you want to check it out. I love to mess with rules and screw with the game, so I have really odd cards like one that becomes its own player and one that has a Enter the Dungeon effect.
February 23, 2015 10:43 a.m.
lemmingllama says... #5
With Time Walk type effects, I meant a Time Warp, Time Stretch, etc. Just cards that give you extra turns. Panoptic Mirror was banned from EDH since it did the extra turns thing too well, and Wilky does that as well.
Ok, I'll take a shot at wording them correctly. Wilky's big issue is that she can't draw cards when she is in play, but she draws cards when she enters the battlefield. We just need to reword her slightly to get around that.
Wilky
"When Wilky enters the battlefield, exile the top five cards of your deck face down. You may put them into your hand. If you do, exile your library and graveyard. (I made it a may so you could cast her without fear of someone just killing her and forcing you to lose the game)
If you would draw a card, instead skip that draw.
Whenever a card is put into your graveyard from anywhere, return it to your hand.
Exile two cards from your hand: Counter target non-creature spell."
Fakala
"During your upkeep, each player puts X 1/1 red Devil tokens onto the battlefield, where X is the number of players. (I like it this way more, if you wanted it the original way then it would read "During the beginning of each player's upkeep, each player puts a 1/1 red Devil token onto the battlefield.")
At the beginning of each player's end step, each creature controlled by that player deals 1 damage to it's controller.
Sacrifice a creature: Deal 1 damage to target creature."
Probably still not perfect, but reworded a little closer to the standards.
February 23, 2015 11:08 a.m.
buildingadeck says... #6
Personally, I think Fakala would be the most playable. I do think that his sacrifice ability could be edited out since I feel like you should be taking damage, too, if you want him to have a demon feel. Besides, there is plenty of sacrifice available in RWB as is.
February 23, 2015 11:10 a.m.
KalvinHobbez says... #7
Ah about the extra turn stuff I think I've seen infinite turn combos in easier settings that Wilky, but probably the ability to reuse them is the main issue. Maybe when you cast a spell they have a buyback feature that is their spell cost again? Like maybe:
Whenever you cast a spell you may pay X where X is that spell's converted mana cost. If you do, return that card back to your hand after it resolves.
Could possibly give better balance for stupid combos she can access, and I do like the may to her big effect, but I feel like it was primarily a drawback in the first place. She enters and leaves you with nothing but your hand, interesting flavor to it.
Fakala I feel should keep his sacrifice thing just because of the flavor of him throwing these tokens at other creatures. I do admit that Mardu has other ways to do it, but I like having him utilize it. Primarily for him to have his black embodiment in the first place. I don't really like having "number of players" stuff too much for some reason, so I have a biased opinion on making him make tokens equal to it. Another idea for the creature damage, being that it was mentioned earlier that token decks get stomped, is that maybe the controller can pay 1 mana or so to ignore that effect? Like:
At the beginning of each player's end step, each creature controlled by that player deals 1 damage to their controller unless their controller pays 1
A bit odd and not exactly nerfing against token decks, but at least you have ways to kind of prevent it from being a total dick.
February 23, 2015 11:23 a.m.
KalvinHobbez says... #9
Like how Propaganda works. Pays one colorless mana maybe. Just an idea.
February 23, 2015 11:40 a.m.
MagicalHacker says... #10
Okay sweet, for Wilky, since you want a way to recur spells in grixis, here's what I think could be done:
Wilky, Wisp of Sacrifice 
Legendary Creature - Spirit
Whenever a card is put into your graveyard from anywhere, you may exile the bottom five cards of your library. If you do, return that card from your graveyard to your hand.
3/3
This gives you all the recurring you could ever want, but not forever, and with no evasion. But at least she's only four mana, so there's that. Also incarnation means something that becomes flesh although it wasn't before, so if she's an incarnation, she's no longer a spirit, and if she's a spirit, she isn't an incarnation. It's an oxymoron so I made her just a spirit.
Next, I don't think there is much that needs to be done on Fakala, but here's my try at him (spoiler alert - I actually changed him a lot):
Fakala the War Pact Drafter 
Legendary Creature - Demon Advisor
Flying
Whenever a player casts a spell, it's controller puts a 1/1 black and red Demon creature token onto the battlefield.
Whenever a Demon enters the battlefield, it's controller deals X damage to target non-Demon creature or opponent, where X is the number of Demons he or she controls.
3/3
Dude I messed around with this card so much cause ITS SO MUCH FUN lol. But yeah this card is group hug, group slug, demon tribal, deathtouch silliness, control, and a ton of other things. As for the creature type/name, those were for flavor. I hope you like it :)
Lastly, I'm just going to write out what I said would be good for your last design with some small changes:
The Deathopter 
Legendary Artifact Creature - Thopter
Flying
: Put a 0/2 colorless Thopter artifact creature token named "Ornithopter" with flying into the battlefield.
The Deathopter gets +1/+0 for each creature named "Ornithopter" you control.
0/2
Tapping it makes more sense flavor wise, and it's not bad I think. I'll have to actually look up how it should be worded but some other time I guess.
February 23, 2015 11:57 a.m.
KalvinHobbez says... #11
Ah yeah that works for the spell recurrence for Wilky but I guess I also enjoyed the whole concept of her leaving you nothing but your hand after entering. You sacrifice everything else you have to utilize her, that was her flavor :3
Fakala would be pretty interesting in this style but it seems a bit odd to have a nearly Demon tribal styled card in Mardu I guess. Maybe he makes Devil tokens or a specifically odd token style so that only his creations can cause the triggers? He doesn't have the fun sacrifice burn either and I kinda liked that D:
Deathopter probably could be simple and just create Ornithopters like that. Would be funny playing him non-Commander and just running Ornithopters. Why not let him get +1/+0 for every thopter you control?
February 23, 2015 12:11 p.m.
MagicalHacker says... #12
Oh okay those all make sense. Now then, I can make changes to them:
Wilky, Wisp of Sacrifice
Legendary Creature - Spirit
When ~ enters the battlefield, exile your graveyard and your library face-down until ~ leaves the battlefield.
You can play cards in your graveyard.
You can't draw cards.
3/3
Fakala the War Pact Drafter
Legendary Creature - Demon Advisor
Flying, lifelink
Whenever a player casts a spell, it's controller puts a 1/1 red Devil creature token with "When this creature enters the battlefield, target player loses X life, where X is the number of creatures you control" onto the battlefield.
Sacrifice a creature: ~ deals 1 damage to target creature.
3/3
The Deathopter
Legendary Artifact Creature - Thopter
Flying
: Put a 0/2 colorless Thopter artifact creature token with flying into the battlefield.
The Deathopter gets +1/+0 for each other Thopter you control.
0/2
What are your thoughts?
February 23, 2015 2:26 p.m.
KalvinHobbez says... #13
Wilky seems more plausible now, but Fakala seems a bit crazy for five mana and allows anyone to have that burn capability...but I guess because he gives that to anyone it can make sense. Probably make the X damage be to target creature instead? Games would end real real fast if its life loss o~o Deathopter probably is straightforward and simple enough to work like that as well.
February 23, 2015 2:48 p.m.
buildingadeck says... #14
Why not, "When this creature enters the battlefield, its controller..."?
February 23, 2015 3:36 p.m.
MagicalHacker says... #15
KalvinHobbez, Well, it was the only way I could comprise the token making ability with the damage ability and I think it came out quite nicely. Flavor wise, he is set out to make people enemies of each other, so making the Devils deal damage to creatures wouldn't make sense anymore. Not to mention that he would most likely be the first target everytime. Also, I disagree when it comes to how fast the games would be. I think it would be fast for anyone that the whole table doesn't like, so it's good to be political, which this card is all about really.
buildingadeck, It made more sense for this demon to reward or be pleased with someone who has lots of creatures rather than some who plays defensively. For that reason, this ability is better for a creature based deck than a control one.
February 23, 2015 8:55 p.m.
KalvinHobbez says... #16
I guess I just felt like creature oriented burn made sense because of the way you can get advantages and disadvantages at the same time. Would token and storm decks basically win just because of a deck an opponent is playing? Turn with Fakala out you maybe play Shock then Lightning Bolt and maybe Ornithopter before casting Grapeshot. With four spells cast you get four of the Devils. Deal 1 damage, then 2, then 3, then 4. Then Grapeshot will be copied three times giving you four more devils for 5 damage, then 6 damage, then 7 and then 8. Yeah it's still incremental but I just feel like certain decks would benefit on Fakala more than Fakala would himself, the poor guy would get so abused and used D:
Anyways, to keep the conversation going I'll post another little commander concept of mine.
Now this guy is going to be pretty controversial and odd, being he's quad colored, but I feel like I may have did a bit of justice to the concept. When doing four color cards I try to embody what they colors they do not have. This is Anti-Green, so thus it has protection from creatures which green is known for. I knew I'd need some control as thats a counteract to green as well, but noticed the nice little guild combo you can do. Eight mana combo to permanently gain control of an opponent's field if I understand Magic rules correctly that if you flicker something it becomes yours after an Act of Treason. I hope I'm not horribly wrong...
February 24, 2015 1:30 a.m.
Also interesting that Cryon can't attack with the creatures he steals (unless of course an Anger is in your graveyard), which, to me, is fun. One concern is that it's a very abusable boardwipe with Ashnod's Altar etc, but it works for me.
February 24, 2015 12:27 p.m.
KalvinHobbez says... #18
When it comes to any card its difficult to not have some card in all of Magic history break it. Though an impossible task to do, I still try :3 I admit that four mana to steal everything someone has is a bit much, but I factor in that he's quad colored for casting, legendary, and mythic and then the casting is to tap him and utilize two colors at once. With all this at once, I feel like it's in an alright position. I do admit that sacrifice combos would be silly with him, but I don't remember there being too many "I'm taking your creatures, ok?" commanders.
MagicalHacker says... #2
I like some of the ideas, but for the first two, I think it would be better to lower the mana cost so that nerfing their abilities would be fine. The reason I say that is because if you add anything to synergize with them, it becomes redundant overkill. (Like that sentence.)
Specifically though, the problem with Wilky is that a player probably wouldn't play a commander that costs seven that has no evasion that dies if someone gets rid of it. The exiling cards ability could count as evasion, but at what cost? Also, Tamiyo, the Moon Sage's emblem on a creature is kinda broke. If it's okay with you, I'd like to try my hand at this design, but first I need to know what is the main ability/focus of this commander? (Also, the wording needs to be fixed to follow magic grammar.)
As for Fakala, I really like his group hug-ness, and I'm a sucker for any cards that can synergize with Forbidden Orchard and its ilk! That said, the deviation from magic grammar makes some of the abilities a bit unclear. I can infer that the first ability makes a creature token, but that's something you'd have to write out. As for the second ability, does each creature do one damage to its controller at each end step? That seems to take a crap on any deck that runs lots of creatures, which already have the short end of the stick compared to control in EDH. Lastly, the third ability needs to specify what the source of the damage is. Is is the sacrificed creature? Is it Fakala? I don't think it can be a player, but I'm not sure. Could I take a stab at this design too?
Finally, deathopter. Most importantly, the name needs to change to reflect the fact that it's legendary. Even "The Deathopter" would work. Next, it seems kind of sad that neither it nor the tokens it makes are 0/2 fliers, as per Ornithopter. My opinion is that you could change both to those stats and then give it another ability. If it makes Ornithopter tokens in the "At the beginning of your upkeep" ability, you could say it gets +1/+0 for each creature you control named Ornithopter. Oh, and magic grammar issues in this design as well.
February 23, 2015 10:28 a.m.