Commander: Pool of Card Concepts
Custom Cards forum
Posted on March 5, 2015, 12:03 a.m. by KalvinHobbez
Haven't posted in a bit, but unsure if anyone even missed me :3 So I'll just post a few ideas I've had recently.
I made a cycle of demons based on the concept of making a pact with them for their immense power. So thus they are cheap yet have big drawbacks with their power. Even though I made one for each color, I feel like this one is one of the better ones. It's a bit drastic to balance, but an interesting idea at least. Art is by David Raposa, but forgot to put his name there.
I've always enjoyed Hamletback Goliath for being such a fun little Timmy card. Just one of those abilities that gets wide eyes when someone reads it. Thus I made a little babby version that can fight other creatures!
I like the concept of Izzet artifacts that started rising in Magic 2015 and with that 2015 red Commander deck, so I felt like making a commander. IT may be kind of odd, but I feel like I embodied the colors decently. Also stuff like Mycosynth Wellspring would have a lot of fun with this effect. Copy it, sac it. Also the artist of the art I'm not sure of because I got that picture a while back when I first started making cards and I was doing an Android styled set. I nicknamed the two in that art Luya and Jaha after the programming languages LUA and Java because they were robots.
Now here's a weird one. I had an idea of a commander that enters...and never leaves. Of course that'd be OP, so I'd need the deck built around them to give them their power, not the power in the card itself. Due to being basically an untouchable rock that can untap for mana, you could probably have stuff like Glorious Anthem to give field buffs over time. Immune to pretty much all board wipes as well, it's a true "last standing" commander.
This guy got lost in my very first thread but I felt like reposting him. Being he's quad colors, he'd be a weird one to make. But splitting him into two guild colors, I noticed a funny combo he can do. Utilizing the known combo of taking someone's stuff then flickering it to keep it, I made a commander based around doing just that!
I'm also conceptualizing a possible set based on enemy dual colors if anyone may have been interested. I mean I'm sorta known here for my commander cards but if you guys want to hear more I could maybe start a new thread about it.
scopesightzx says... #3
Just a couple of improvements I noticed (nothing actually changing the way the cards play, just better rule wordings)
Blade-Licker Demon: Change "During your upkeep" to "At the beginning of your upkeep". These two are very similar in meaning but cards with upkeep effects normally happen at the beginning of the upkeep.
Destructavore: Not sure if this was your intention, but he can fight creatures you control. May be better if it said "target creature you don't control". It makes it safer against combos like Mindslaver locks.
Primordial Statue: Change "cannot be the target of spells or abilities" to Shroud (not as many words, you could add the reminder text if you feel like it.) Also, you could change the "Untap Primordial Statue" cost to the untap symbal (like Umbral Mantle for example). This one is entirely your call, as the untap symbol was only used in Shadowmoor/Eventide, and there aren't many other instances of untapping as a cost of an ability
March 5, 2015 12:16 a.m.
KalvinHobbez says... #4
Luya and Jaha's ability so more like how Delve works, but probably that would work out better.
I seem to type "During' instead of "Beginning" pretty often, but I guess with wording issues aside, he's an alright card?
Destructovore has another just wording issue, I forget little things like that I guess. I mean it would be funny to fight your own stuff, but probably not the best idea.
I didn't want to use the untap symbol or shroud because I assumed they were older mechanics of cards and thus are archaic to even use. I wanted to have the ability be an untap due to urging you to attack with the statue rather than just leaving for blocks constantly.
March 5, 2015 12:22 a.m.
scopesightzx says... #5
The idea of a mechanic being archaic only applies to standard really. Take Arcane Lighthouse for example. Shroud has been out of print since m12, but this card refers to shroud because it still exists on older cards. Granted, this is a reactive design considering that shroud was a thing that needed to be addressed, but it is still fair game.
In regards to Blade-Licker Demon, it's not bad the way it is now. My only complaint is that if you were to run this as a commander, you could easily have it out and hasted on turn 3, then start blowing up lands without any drawback. I think that you could go a few ways from here.
A: Make him only able to destroy creatures, works better with the life loss draw back
B: Make the life loss count permanents, to help balanace the fact he can destroy lands early on
C: Make him destroy everything but lands, and make the life loss count nonland permanents
March 5, 2015 1:48 a.m.
Hjaltrohir says... #6
The Primodrial statue is pretty useless as you cannot ever really untap her for 
as she has shroud, maybe with Hexproof she would be better?
March 5, 2015 1:59 a.m.
awesomeguy37 it's a creature so it can attack, so you can untap it.
Basically that just means you get 1/1 attacker or indestructible blocker for . I might be wrong but I think that would be the first artifact that doesn't have a colorless mana symbol in it at all.
Also, I'm not sure about the wording. What if you play second Primordial Statue? Legendary ruling would kick in but the card ruling contradicts it.
March 5, 2015 2:24 a.m.
KalvinHobbez says... #8
Well if you were able to have the free reign to buff up your own hexproof beyond indestructible creature, it might be a bit god damn crazy. I'll probably just change up the second ability to be something else and let her keep the shroud. But yeah I'll probably change her to have Shroud instead.
Blade-Licker Demon I actually meant to have him only kill creatures but got lazy when I already made the card picture and it had already said permanents, but yeah I meant for it to destroy creatures.
As for Primordial Statue being kind of useless, I mean there are a lot of commanders that are much more useless. This statue is unique for being able to survive any board wipe, being the true last standing creature of anything. Maybe I could give her protection from all colors but artifacts can target her? So equipment and such.
March 5, 2015 2:27 a.m.
KalvinHobbez says... #9
Oh didn't see your post. I never actually thought of the Legend rule kicking in...I mean it standard decks it seems alright to run four of the statue. I'd want to keep it Legendary just because it messes with the rules like that. Also I do have another form of Primordial Statue that is hybrid one mana Black and White and taps for colorless instead.
March 5, 2015 2:28 a.m.
TheRedMage says... #10
There are a few interesting ideas here.
I would probably template the Blade-licker demon to care about permanents going to the graveyard instead of being destroyed because having to track whether something that dies was destroyed or not seems painful, and also a lot of layers are not terribly aware of counts as "destroying" and what doesn't.
Is there any way to template Destructovore so it's some sort of star/star and change its type (either that or changing its name)? Creatures named "somethingvore" in the past have, more often than not, been lhurgoyfs (Magnivore Cognivore Terravore Cantivore Mortivore Detritivore...), and it would be cool if you card played into that.
March 5, 2015 3:22 a.m.
lemmingllama says... #11
Blade-Licker Demon can kill itself, which makes this a very safe card to play. You can just feed it to itself so you never take lethal damage. It might be better if it says "Destroy another X target creatures" just to reduce it's power level and make it more dangerous.
Destructovore is pretty great, I like it. Might be better to say "fight target creature you don't control"
Luya and Jaha could honestly cost 
and it would still play nicely. If you think about it, Phyrexian Metamorph is about the same effect and it can come down on turn 3. Not being able to use them until turn 6 is a little slow for a single copy.
Primordial Statue is cool, but it's also a rules nightmare. It might be better to give it indestructible, shroud, cannot be exiled or sacrificed, and if it's toughness would be drop to 0, it becomes 1 instead. This way we can have the same basic premise but without the whole "I clone it, now what?" issues about state based actions vs card rules.
Also now that I look at it, Cryon's first ability should maybe be sorcery speed. It could be a little overpowered to do it in 1 vs 1 on your opponent's turn, they'll never have creatures.
March 5, 2015 7:50 a.m.
KalvinHobbez says... #12
Hm Blade-Licker Demon probably could be messed around in wording a bit more. I was a bit hasty with how his second ability worked after all. Possibly he can just destroy a target creature? I mean a bit bland, but I guess it'd balance out a bit better.
Destrutovore I primarily named that just for how that name came to mind. A destructive carnivore basically. But yeah I forgot that they had the ___vores in he past. Would be interesting to have a / creature that got +1/+1 counters when a creature enters the battlefield...but would be hard to keep track of. What if his power and toughness equal to the total power of all creatures you control minus the power of all creatures your opponents control? Kinda sucks for Commander though... Ya think I could maybe just have him have power and toughness equal to the biggest creature you have and then have the Hamletback Goliath effect on top?
Oh right I probably did overcost Luya and Jaha. I feel so hesitant on making artifact based things cheap anyways, I always hear about the brutal combos they can get... Maybe I could have her cost four and her ability be one hybrid mana?
I like to try and make cards just short and simple, but I guess for Primordial Statue it would be a bit odd. Maybe I could just change it to "~ can not be the target of spells or abilities and can not leave the battlefield unless there is another creature named ~ on the battlefield." Unless there are other rules that become a bit odd for it?
Cryon also I probably should have made him have sorcery speed on that...forgot that he could just take your stuff constantly. I mean for a commander that did just that it'd be kind of interesting but he's got too much versatility if he stayed that way. Probably gonna restrict him to only your turn.
Arvail says... #2
Luya and Jaha ability ought to say "Sacrifice an artifact: Add
to your mana pool. Spend this mana only to cast artifact spells."
March 5, 2015 12:16 a.m.