I had an idea for a new commander
Custom Cards forum
Posted on Jan. 5, 2020, 6:52 a.m. by twoshoestony
Looking for any suggestions to adjust the power level of this card. I'd like it to be on par with someone like Urza, Lord High Artificer .
3UU
3/5
Legendary Creature - Merfolk Artificer
Artifacts you control have Flow.
(Exile cards off the top of your library equal to the converted mana cost of the spell cast. You may put one of those cards into your hand and the rest on the bottom in any order.)
For each artifact revealed this way, add a torrent counter.
Remove a torrent counter, choose one:
-Untap Target artifact
-Tap Target artifact
-Draw a card
You may remove 3 torrent counters for each turn cycle.
Any and all suggestions welcome. Just looking to make something fun and interesting.
EDIT: -Removed green from cmc as I felt that the abilities of the card filled no criteria for it be in the color pie. -Removed Cascade and added in a custom keyword Flow. Not sure if something like this exists as I'm still fairly new to the game.
I think a big issue with this is that its really complicated in terms of the card and overtly powerful. The card does way to many things and there's a ton of potential triggers. First of all, when does flow trigger? Is it whenever you cast an artifact or when the commander enters the battlefield or is it an upkeep/endstep trigger?
Change 1: Define when the flow trigger happens.
The next thing I notice is that you have three abilities of differing power levels attached to a kind of meaningless counter. This complicates the card a lot and makes it a lot less abusable then if you had a counter like +1/+1 counters on it.
Change 2: Change Torrent counters to something else.
Flow seems like an interesting keyword, but its also really complicated in this context. It also becomes complicated with the trigger as described above. But the issue here is you dont reveal cards when you exile them that way.
Change 3: Change how the counters are put on your commander.
Also, referencing turn cycles also complicates the card as do the fact you have three separate abilities which should be costed at different rates. It causes further confusion. You should make sure all the abilities are the same power level and worth the same amount. The one im mainly talking about here is drawing a card.
Change 4: Change it to you may activate one of these abilities each turn.
Change 5: Change drawing a card to draw and discard, or remove it.
Finally, this card does so much that its insanely powerful on a 5 mana 3/5, even with the changes I suggested. You need to both raise the mana level and lower the power and toughness.
Change 6: make it cost and be a 3/4
I hope this helps! they're also just suggestions.
January 5, 2020 8:11 p.m.
I'm confused about flow as a mechanic. Is it an activated ability of artifacts on the battlefield or does the mechanic work that you discard/exile artifact cards from your hand to let you turn them into other artifacts? When creating mechanics like this, you need ot be very specific and straight forward about how they work. There should be no room for interpretation.
It's also worth noting that unless you're going to introduce a bunch of cards that give artifacts "flow" (or if the ability affects cards in hand), you really don't need to give it a keyword. Just have the ability as "Each artifact card in your hand has blah blah blah".
January 5, 2020 10:05 p.m.
Last_Laugh says... #5
I'm pretty sure this is how I read that ability...
Artifact Spells you control have Flow.
Flow: Whenever you cast an artifact spell, exile X cards from the top of your library where X is that spells cmc. You may put one of those cards into your hand and the rest on the bottom of your library in any order.
January 5, 2020 10:44 p.m. Edited.
If that's the case, adding a keyword just makes the card more confusing (without having other cards that provide the ability).
I will also point out that this card would be bonkers in card advantage. It basically makes every artifact spell you cast also cast Anticipate (or close enough to on average). In addition to this, you then can potentially draw even more cards off of your commander, since any deck that plays the commander would be super artifact heavy and so makes it super easy to get counters on it. I think that a commander that at worst reads, whenever you cast an artifact spell, draw a card with a potential, "draw an additional card per turn" is stupid good.
January 5, 2020 11:20 p.m.
Last_Laugh says... #7
We're on the same page... that thing is busted beyond repair... I just worded the ability better for the OP.
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Flow offers too much card selection and consistency... you could easily dig through your ENTIRE deck.
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Flow is on cast, not even etb so it can't really be prevented. Granted etb is gross too.
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Flow isn't limited in uses per turn.
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Torrent Counters accumulate waaay to fast.
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Torrent Counters payoff is waaay too good. Torrent can untap an artifact OR draw a card?!? Can't think of anything broken there /sarcasm
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Torrent is limited to 3 uses per turn... until you bounce this guy which mono can do all day (especially with artifact untap being built in)
As I stated in post#2... this guy needs to start from the drawing board and try again.
January 5, 2020 11:38 p.m. Edited.
twoshoestony says... #8
I appreciate all the feedback guys. I'm gonna head back to the drawing board and redesign the card. Flow is how Last_Laugh describes. I wanted it to be an ability like Cascade, but with a more blue take on the ability. Probably not necessary but worth trying. In my original idea of the card I had one of the abilities as being able to bounce target artifact but I realized all too quickly that it would be a braindead infinite with something like Ornithopter . I also would like to keep torrent counters on the card in some way. In my head they fit the lore idea of the card because I particularly wanted the creature to be a Merfolk Artificer which is something we haven't seen before (or at the very least something I couldn't find). I'm going to look at this from some different angles and If anyone would like to help or suggest here are my key goals stepping into the future:
-5cmc or less to cast
-offers great artifact synergy
-theme that matches creature types
-adjust the power level of Flow, but retain it's blue identity.
January 6, 2020 12:48 a.m.
So recently the card Emry, Lurker of the Loch was printed, which is a solid mono-blue artifact commander. There's also the new Dalakos, Crafter of Wonders which is being printed in Theros Beyond Death.
As far as card design goes as a whole, I would recommend that moving forward in designing card to focus on one ability/effect and make it sold, rather than trying to do too many things. This is a huge trap for fan made cards. Remember, this is not legaue of legends - most cards only have one or two abilities and the ones that have more than that are generally very simple abilities.
The other thing is, if you're trying to design a keyword ability (not just a once off ability on a card) then have a think about how you would implement said ability on uncommon and common cards too - if they only way you can make the ability balanced is to scale its cost to the point where it's unplayable then you have fundamental issues with the ability.
Last_Laugh says... #2
That thing is busted. If you don't infinitely (via bounce) use his artifact untap ability and dig through your entire deck... you failed.
It's like having an engine that'd normally take 2 to 3 cards but instead it's on 1 card that you always have access to.
Also, all that text wouldn't even fit on a magic card...
Try again sir and use something like Cardsmith to make sure it'll actually fit on a card.
January 5, 2020 7:50 p.m.