Custom Commander - The White Flame
Custom Cards forum
Posted on Dec. 6, 2015, 1:46 a.m. by 1empyrean
I don't usually spend time making custom cards, but I thought I would give it a shot and ask what you all think. Would you use this commander? Is it too strong?
The White Flame 
Legendary Creature - Elemental
If another nonland permanent would be leave the battlefield, exile it instead.
: Puts a +1/+1 counter on The White Flame. The owner of target card exiled card The White Flame puts a time counter it. If it doesn't have suspend, it gains suspend. (At the beginning of your upkeep, remove a time counter from that card. When the last is removed, cast it without paying its mana cost. If its a creature, it has haste.) Any player may activate this ability.
1/4
(version 3 fixed)
LiveForChaos - The idea behind pumping the power would be that making the suspend time longer turns it into a bigger threat, either for attacking or blocking. Having it be huge makes your field a target for removal, whereas leaving it small leaves you with resources to pump it on someone else's turn. My thoughts were that this would discourage recklessly increasing its power to attack, so the low cost wouldn't be a problem, and letting you have a large hexproof creature in exchange for longer suspend times is something your opponents might actually consider doing. The hexproof is mainly so that it wouldn't suspend itself for several turns whenever anyone has any kind of removal.
JWiley129 - In part, yes. However, it does have a built in weakness to sweeper effects, which a lot of blink decks use. I mostly wanted to make a symmetric and fun suspend commander because I don't like Jhoira of the Ghitu.
December 6, 2015 3:35 a.m.
I saw. I was just explaining that increasing toughness to increase suspend time didn't feel like much of a balance against just pumping mana into the ability before something left the battlefield.
If possible, I want to have the opponent's choice to use the ability have the cost of increasing The White Flame's threat to the opponent in some way, and it doesn't have to be power. I just happen to like that it could be a brutal but risky voltron commander.
How about making the ability something a player can't activate on their turn (only on an opponent's turn)? Would that be better?
December 6, 2015 4:20 a.m.
It's a great idea...but yeah, it's too powerful. One-turn suspend in place of all death or exile effects is hilarious, but broken. Also, hexproof doesn't fit the flavor of a creature with an ability anyone can activate.
I do kinda agree with LiveForChaos that toughness feels like a better option, but if you're set on power...make this guy a 3/4.
Or, possibly, something like this:
The White Flame 2WU
Any player may activate The White Flame's abilities.
Whenever a nonland permanent would leave the battlefield, it's owner suspends it instead with time counters equal to The White Flame's power.
2: Put a +1/+1 counter on The White Flame.
3: Remove a +1/+1 counter from The White Flame.
2/4
OK, so not necessarily better, but it may give you some ideas.
December 6, 2015 10:32 a.m.
Egann - Hexproof is strong, but I was going for an elemental that is a bit out of phase time-wise. I'll fiddle around with it.
what do you think of this version?
The White Flame
Legendary Creature - Elemental
If another nonland permanent would be leave the battlefield, its owner exiles it instead. If it doesnt have suspend, it gains suspend. (At the beginning of your upkeep, remove a time counter from that card. When the last is removed, cast it without paying its mana cost. If its a creature, it has haste.)
: Put a time counter on an exiled card with suspend and a +1/+1 counter on The White Flame. Any player may activate this ability.
1/4
Note that the exiled card wouldn't come back until after a player put a time counter on it. is this more fair?
Would you actually use this card as a commander?
December 6, 2015 12:56 p.m.
I'm pretty sure that's not how suspend works, because I don't remember suspend ever working with zero time counters on it. A safer potential may be to move "gain suspend" from the exile ability to when you put a counter on it. One other thing; with this version, there's no way you can use his own ability on himself.
Would I play this? No, probably not. This guy hurts most decks which like cards in their graveyard pretty badly. The battlefield is probably the easiest way to put cards into graveyards, and this guy blocks that completely. Additionally, decks running ETB ability creatures will go absolutely nuts because of the recursion. This commander will paint a target on your face if you don't play him carefully.
I know that the 3 is technically all there is to the cost, but from any opponent's perspective, it's 3 mana and a +1/+1 counter on the commander. It's an interesting tax, but 3 as the cost is way too high. 2 or 1, perhaps. 3 is a bit much. It's also still too fast because you can pay it at instant speed; "In response to your end phase, I pay 3 mana, put a single time counter on my creature, which I then remove during my own upkeep and play the card."
Fixes? I might remove the +1/+1 counter idea (I don't think it works if it's not tied to timing) and make it "3: put 3 time counters on a card in exile; it gains suspend. Any player may activate this ability." Interesting thought that you could use this guy to fish cards exiled with things like Oblivion Ring or Anger of the Gods if you phrased it that way.
December 6, 2015 9:20 p.m.
Raging_Squiggle says... #8
Let me Flash in an Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre on the end of my opponent's turn, giving it 1 time counter most likely. Allowing it to be cast with haste on my turn. It is a rather OP card. Moreso than Jhoira of the Ghitu which at least gave people 4 turns to think of something.
It is a very easily broken card in and of itself. Now, if you wanted something really interesting:
The White Flame 
Legendary Creature - Elemental Wizard
The White Flame is unblockable.
Whenever another nonland permanent leaves the battlefield, its owner exiles it. If he or she does, put time counters on it equal to the number of permanents on the battlefield that share a type with it. If it doesn't have suspend, it gains suspend. (At the beginning of your upkeep, remove a time counter from that card. When the last is removed, cast it without paying its mana cost. If its a creature, it has haste.)
: counter The White Flame's triggered ability. Any player may activate this ability.
"Your escape is only temporary. Your servitude will be eternal."
-The White Flame
3/2
This way, if someone were to counter the triggered ability, the affected card would then continue to go wherever it was heading after leaving the battlefield. Also, the new amount of time counters can be up for debate. It seemed interesting to me, but it could be broken, as could anything really. And the activated ability of countering it seemed like a better investment for players other than just adding time counters.
December 7, 2015 1:25 a.m.
Egann - In the second version, any player could add a counter to any exiled card with suspend. This means that players would start spending more and more mana as big threats are exiled. There is no way for a player to put a counter on something without allowing another player time to put another counter on it.
Concerning the +1/+1 counters, A temporary pump for less mana didn't seem like enough of a tax if opponents were going to use it on their turns. Cost was based on Feral Hydra, and I didn't increase the cost because Opponents received something in return.
Concerning suspend, a card is only suspended if it has suspend AND has time counters on it. No card currently does this, but I don't exactly see a problem with the way this works here. Having the ability give suspend to an exiled card would be terrible, as you could get any permanent back like you said (and exile isn't and never will be a second graveyard). Making it "a card exiled by The White Flame gains suspend" might be the way to go here. That way, if The White Flame dies, likely everyone will end up losing something for keeps.
Raging_Squiggle - (basing this on the second version of the card) Cheating out Ulamog, then sacrifice it to suspend it...followed by any opponent paying 3 mana to keep it suspended every turn. Broken...Jhoira of the Ghitu is way worse than this because you suspend a card that wipes the field, then suspend the huge creatures. There isn't all that much an opponent can do about it other than counter the suspended spells or make you lose. Well...Now we have eldrazi processors, so it isn't nearly as bad, but still...
Also, this isn't going to be a wizard, and your flavor text suits a W/B card, not a U/W. I am going for more of a living oblivion ring/detention sphere feel for this card than any sort of person or individual.
I'm going to make sure to keep the description of The White Flame matches any of the changes I've decided upon so as to avoid confusion.
December 7, 2015 4:35 a.m.
December 7, 2015 4:51 a.m.
woops, I messed it up the last time I edited it. It is fixed now.
I accidentally made it so that players could only put counters on their cards.
JWiley129 says... #2
So, this is a Blink hoser? Turns Momentary Blink and Brago, King Eternal essentially off?
December 6, 2015 3:07 a.m.