Eislinda and Vernalia
Custom Cards forum
Posted on Oct. 7, 2023, 7:24 p.m. by DemonDragonJ
I have designed my own character inspired by the Snow Queen from Hans Christian Anderson’s fairy tale of the same name, a rival for her, as well as several cards associated with each of them. I assure the users here that my posting of an ice queen shortly after WotC revealed theirs is pure coincidence, as I had this idea in my head for some time, but simply never had sufficient free time to post it, before now, so here is what I have produced.
Eislinda, the Ice Queen Show
Eislinda represents calm logic and deliberate, methodical action, as evidenced by how her ability is an activated ability, and her name contains the word "eis," which is German for "ice."
Eislinda's Disdain Show
This card is a smaller version of Punish Ignorance in the same way that Countersquall is a smaller version of Undermine.
Icy Rebuke Show
I modeled this card after non-blue counterspells, such as Dawn Charm and Rebuff the Wicked, because I found those spells to be too limited but I do not believe that this spell is too powerful or a color pie break, since it still is fairly limited in what it can do.
Eisheim, the Frozen Palace Show
Most utility lands do not produce colored mana, so I wished to make one that did, and I ensured that it also had an ability for each color of mana that it could produce. I hope that this land is not too powerful, but, if it is, I certainly would appreciate feedback on how to better balance it.
Now that I have displayed Eislinda and cards associated with her, I shall introduce her rival.
Vernalia, Herald of Spring Show
Vernalia is the opposite of Eislinda; she represents growth, rebirth, and passion, while Eislinda represent death, darkness, and apathy, but she also represents instinct, intuition, and unconscious action, as demonstrated by her abilities being triggered abilities, while Eislinda's abilities are activated abilities. Her name contains the word "vernal," which is Latin for "of, or relating to, Spring."
Vernalia's Grasp Show
I am very surprised that WotC has not yet printed a card that combines Artifact Mutation and Aura Mutation, so I have made such a card, and I feel that it is perfectly balanced at costing 3 mana, while the other two cards have a combined mana value of 4.
Grunwald, Cradle of Spring Show
I had contemplated having the green ability put a +1/+1 counter on a creature, but that would require that there be a creature on the battlefield, so I changed it to always be useful. "Grunwald" is German for "green forest," which, I suppose, is somewhat redundant, in the context of this game.
What does everyone else say about these cards? I spend a great amount of time and effort designing them, so I welcome any feedback that anyone has to offer!
Overall, these are very well designed.
As is, these two can never directly interact with each other, thanks to their protections. Is that where you want these to be?
Would Vernalia's Grasp would be overpowered if it created twice the mana value's worth of tokens? Three different colored mana for a Naturalize variation needs a worthwhile payoff. If playlisting shows that this would be too much, then stick with what's here. Just floating my first reaction.
At the other end of the spectrum, Grunwald is probably too efficient in its destruction. Having an off-color, all but uncounterable Naturalize on demand that can also fill the board, at the additional cost of tapping a land, can threaten to take over a game by itself. Boseiju, Who Endures is a multi-format staple, and this is that, minus the land destruction, plus repeatability, plus token creation, plus a Jungle Shrine, with no offsetting land search. If you want to keep those abilities, I would push the cost up to / or even /. Vitu-Ghazi, the City-Tree and Castle Ardenvale are less format-defining, but they're useful reference points for land-based token creation, so the Saproling ability might need to be tweaked up, too.
October 8, 2023 2:20 a.m.
Apologies for the double post, but Eisheim's draw ability is also probably too cheap. My reference points here are Geier Reach Sanitarium and Mikokoro, Center of the Sea. While those don't have color requirements, they're also quite a bit less than "target player draws a card" and aren't stapled to an Arcane Sanctum. The life gain and loss are probably okay; you can even probably cut the life gain cost to just .
The lands will need the deepest testing and review. Color production plus utility is probably unusual because it represents a high level of productivity from a source that's difficult to interact with. Everything else, the creatures and spells, look solid.
October 8, 2023 2:31 a.m.
DemonDragonJ says... #5
legendofa, those are all excellent suggestions, and I currently do not have time to post revised versions of the cards, but I shall certainly do so when I next have time to do so.
TypicalTimmy says... #2
Nice. Love all of these. Very flavorful.
October 8, 2023 1:28 a.m.