Got a bone to pick?
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Posted on Nov. 4, 2022, 4:18 p.m. by Stardragon
Skeleton support!!! i meant to put this out during halloween with my Jack O' set but didn't get it done before work life happens
This includes 6 legendary creatures in different color to you as your commander (one of which i showed before)
A undead Swarmyard land, A bunch of equipment, an enchantment and a sorcery not much but more than wizards does
legendofa let me what you think of these bag of bones and what one is your favorite?
Creatures
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The OG Skellymannder I made i already made a disscustion on this one but in here so all the bony boys are together
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A hyper aggressive commander that keeps coming back with help and burns everything
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A Necromancer that wishs to rot all the living away and make more walking Got Milk Ad campaigns
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A undead noble knight like most nobility he was corrupt and greedy
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A once noble and wise king all he wish as peace and prosparity for his people but now is twisted and cursed into believing that all should giving the gift of undeath
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The embodiment of Undeath some say that this was the being that first gave secrets of undeath to the multiverse
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Equipment -
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Other -
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Stardragon says... #3
FormOverFunction I did try regenerate is was the calling card for skeletons till Wizard retired the mechanic no modern skeletons don't have a binding mechanic so I brought back regenerate and tried to put some new spins on it to make more than just bring back creature, skellys more interesting
November 5, 2022 12:06 a.m. Edited.
Starting with the Other section:
I love Boneyard.
For Reassemble, I think the "If the sacrificed creature was a Skeleton" clause is a little strong, especially with the other cards in this list. Maybe specify non-legendary, or would that weaken it too much? I can imagine using a Reassembling Skeleton to pop out Agamemnon and whatever the strongest available dead creature is, for .
Cursed Graveyard is powerful, but I think it works for its niche. Elements of Swarmyard, but the "enters tapped" rider works well.
More reviews to come.
November 5, 2022 1:55 p.m.
Stardragon says... #5
yes i agree that that Reassemble my be a bit too powerful but skeletons dont have a lot of support so i thought it needed to be more powerful plus skeletons are in a spot where the most of them are underwhelming an the good ones are few and far so being able to search the good ones would be essential but i suppose there are other tutors for that so i did add the non-legendary clause
November 5, 2022 2:37 p.m.
For the equipment, Bone Greatsword and Femur Machete are pretty well balanced commons, and Jawbone Hooks is a reasonable uncommon.
Spinal Whip has a lot going on. That's one that I'd like to see in action to really get a feel for, but it looks pretty good on the surface. What's the intent behind having flash?
For Skull Hammer, is it supposed to have regenerate itself, or does it grant regenerate? If it has regenerate itself, that could probably be changed to ": The next time Skull Hammer would be destroyed, instead it isn't." Or more likely, ": Skull Hammer gains indestructible until end of turn." I assume it's supposed to interact with the "Whenever a Skeleton regenerates" mechanics, but the only card that could care about a non-creature Skeleton regenerating also grants regeneration to all Skeletons. Also, for clarity, does it make opponent's discard one card or two cards?
Bone Plate has a bit too much going on. I'd almost split this into two cards, one that grants evasion and attacking benefits, and one that grants hexproof and recursion. It's a little bit "does everything" right now.
Also, technically, all of the equipment should have Tribal to get the Skeleton creature type, but that's a detail.
On to the creatures! First thought is that if you get all of them out at the same time, you get an army that's basically impossible to get rid of in about one turn. Lots of synergy between them.
I already gave my thoughts on King of Marrow. Still beautiful.
Smoldering Bones is Ball Lightning XXL. The regeneration ability could use a little cleaning--is the Pay 3 life part of the cost to regenerate, or is it part of the token creation triggered ability?
Calc is cute. Between good stats, wither, ward, and regenerate, this one's going to be very hard to kill. Honestly, it could just about be a 1/1 and still survive anything. I'd consider dropping the stats to maybe 3/3 for a touch more balance. Also, it looks like the top of his head got cropped off in the art. Nitpicky, but this guy needs to be seen in full glory.
Lord of Hallowed Graves could probably turn that in the mana cost to straight . It wouldn't affect color identity, and it would make the card a touch more balanced. This is one that's going to dominate every combat step. I'm going to suggest making it a 2/4 instead of a 4/2. This slightly reduces the value of the lifelink and regenerate, but holding back is a pretty high cost anyway. This guy just has a lot of self-synergy, and I'm wondering if it's too much.
Agamemnon looks like a lot of fun. It's close to being my new favorite, but I'm still going to poke at it. The Zombie token ability needs the word nontoken. Without it, it goes infinite with basically every sacrifice outlet, and that's just the start. The Spirit ability is too restrictive; it shouldn't need a mana payment plus discard on every spell cast to avoid the token. Either the opponent chooses which payment to make, make the token a more basic 1/1 flier, or have it trigger only on certain spells e.g. artifacts and enchantments. The Skeleton one is generally fine, but is maybe too good with also granting all your creatures undying. This is another ability I'd like to see in action.
Avatar of Living Death is almost there. The casting cost might be too flexible. Alongside Agamemnon, it gives your creatures persist and undying, making them virtually unkillable. The +1/+1 counter would be better for digital, since it would be hard to track in paper. I think Arena uses "perpetually" to track this kind of effect, and this would be a good place for it. The last ability is good in intent, but the wording has some vagueness. How many times would Blood for Bones trigger it? Would Zombify trigger it twice, once for leaving graveyard and once for returning to the battlefield? Is it supposed to interact with Cloudshift and other blink effects?
I like where you're going with these, and they have some great ideas. Have you used any of them in live play?
November 6, 2022 5:02 p.m.
Stardragon says... #7
Ok let's unpack your thoughts
Glad you like the less rare equipments. As for whip there is no real reason for it to have flash it could be cut. As for hammer yes it itself has regenerate in case someone tries to Shatter it, and it make opponents discard 2 cards.
As for bone plate it was meant to be skeleton equipment will fix that, and yeah it does do a lot but I wanted to a great almost finisher equipment to justify its mythic rare status.
As for your comment on have an Undying army if you have all of them on the field that's the point but the only way your going to be able do that is to run a 5 color deck
For Smoldering bone the pay 3 life is intended as part of the regenerate cost
For Calc yeah Mtg.design crop the pic will find another. His stats can change to make him more balance will probably go for a 2/3
For Lord I can change the hybrid mana to white mana and switch his P/T around but also his second effect doesn't hit him only other skeletons will make it non-token. The reason his regen cost is higher to balance him as he is a almost a combination of Atheros and Smothering Tithe
For Agamemnon thxs for noticing the zombie problem will fix that. For the spirits I'll make them a 1/1 for and keep the discard effect and lose the pay 1. As for giving creatures Undying, I wanted to have Unearth, Undying and Persist have more cards so this way skeletons have all the reanimated abilities without actually using reanimate cards
The whole Undying and Persist syergy was on purpose. And the whole keeping the counters was ripped whole from SkullBriar which existed before alchemy was even a thought.
As for his last effect hmm as it stands now with no tinkering Blood for Bones would trigger twice as would as would Zombify, and yes I fully expected it Flicker a bunch if the brewer so chooses.
As for his mana cost I could make higher or different will think on that
As for live test not at the moment need to balance them before it happens and you pointed out many things for me to fix so I'm glad I didn't print them yet
November 6, 2022 11:02 p.m. Edited.
Skullbriar, the Walking Grave isn't really intended to be exiled or go to the graveyard, just shuttle between battlefield and command zone, and it's only one card, as opposed to the stacks of Gravecrawler and Reassembling Skeleton and all I would put into an Avatar of Living Death deck. Don't get me wrong, I think it's a really cool idea. It just might be a challenge to track properly.
Outside of that, I appreciate the responses to my comments. If you get into testing them, don't take my comments as absolutes--keep working them until they feel right, and some of them will probably end up closer to your original cards than my suggestion revisions. I would happily volunteer to help playtest, but I don't have any sort of group to test with right now...
Keep this up! Your work is great, and if I'm picking it to bits, it's only to make it as clean as possible. I do have a tendency to go underpowered instead of overpowered, so if I end up underbalancing a card, I apologize.
November 7, 2022 12:38 a.m.
Stardragon says... #9
Ik Skullbriar, the Walking Grave isn't ment to be to go anywhere except field and command zone but it's Wizards fault for wording the ability the way it is I may tinker with it a bit for balance and ease of tracking sake (may because of that ability creatures can only have 1 +1/+1 counter at a time?) Hmmm. But have you ever had to fight a -1/-1 counter deck while playing a +1/+1 counter copy deck with another player playing a token deck gods that that game was insane to keep track of.
A couple are probably a bit OP will tinker with them when I have time
November 7, 2022 2:24 a.m.
Stardragon says... #10
legendofa Made some changes to the cards and made a new card
Smoldering Bones- Made the Regen cost more clear
Lord- Switched his P/T around
Skull Hammer- Made the Regen thing more clear and gave a powerful boost (Skelly need this power till wizards gives support to them (and other less popular tribes))
Calc- Made it a 2/3 and found a different pic thats not cropped
Agamemnon- Fixed the non-token problem and made tweaked his entire kit to make him a hybrid of token swarm/control (Discard, tax and graveyard hate)
Living Death- cut out the Avatar of part of his name, Took off Ward 4 as he's a chunky boy to begin with and gave him menace instead, Weakened his lord effect to just give undead creatures Persist and not menace. And reworked his Skullbriar, the Walking Grave esk effect to make more manageable (hopefully)
Added a Skelly in case some one Bojuka Bog's your graveyard make them regret that
FormOverFunction says... #2
I really like the idea of giving something hexproof until EoT when it regenerates. That seems like a fun way to strengthen/modify regeneration. That’s a cool mechanic idea; merging two existing things in a very new way.
November 4, 2022 6:32 p.m.