New mana rock!
Custom Cards forum
Posted on Oct. 15, 2021, 2:58 p.m. by Omniscience_is_life
Luna Ring
Artifact
If it's neither day nor night as Luna Ring enters the battlefield, it becomes day.
: add . Activate this ability only of it's night.
Sol Ring is such a good card--I don't think anything even close to it should be printed again. This is my attempt at a balanced mana rock.
Omniscience_is_life says... #3
Grubbernaut I feel the same as you: that would honestly still be one the most playable mana rocks in all of EDH.
I'm fine with underpowered as well, I think most cards should be ;)
October 15, 2021 4:05 p.m.
TypicalTimmy says... #4
So 1/2 the time it does nothing and you must work around it to make it do something?
Maybe if it's night you add and if it's day you add one of any color of your commanders identity?
October 16, 2021 2:52 p.m.
Omniscience_is_life says... #5
TypicalTimmy that would be the best card in the format buddy don't think I'ma change it to that -_-'
As I mentioned above, I'm fine with the card being underpowered. I really think half the fun of designing cards is making all the ones that fill the common/uncommon slots that make up most of Magic.
October 16, 2021 3:05 p.m.
Given the premise of day becoming night is that a player casts no spells during their turn, this is close to a ritual type mana rock that works early in the game, where there's likely some player not able to cast a spell during their turn 1 or turn 2. However it becomes near impossible to turn night later in the game unless you trigger the day-night cycle by doing nothing.
If it had a semi-costly transform between day and night that happens at the beginning of the next turn (to avoid mid-turn transformation shenanigans), it would be more applicable in decks that actually do care about day and night cycles. For other decks it just resets the requirement for a player to cast two spells during their own turn to disable your mana rock. Otherwise, I think the downside is WAY too vast compared to the possible upside of it being a 1 mana Fractured Powerstone until someone casts two spells during their turn.
Thinking something like:
, : If it is day, it becomes night at the beginning of the next turn's upkeep.
Similar to The Celestus which is a Manalith with a more flexible variant of that ability and a day-night cycle triggered upside.
Another way entirely could be to raise the cost of the artifact to , maybe have the colored mana requirement and change the mana ability to Fractured Powerstone during the day and Manalith during the night.
Lunar Ring
Artifact
Spend only colored mana to cast this spell.
If it’s neither day nor night, it becomes day as Lunar Ring enters the battlefield.
Lunar Ring enters the battlefield tapped.
: Add if it's day or add one mana of any color if it's night.
This still makes it a pretty good mana rock but cannot be accelerated out by a turn 1 Sol Ring nor is accessible to colorless decks.
Or do you want to play heavy on the high risk high reward kinda deal and keep the risk that you can't use the rock for mana in any given case?
October 17, 2021 2:09 p.m.
Omniscience_is_life says... #7
Tzefick I honestly don't want the card to be something that would be an auto-include. Keeping custom cards near uncommon/common rarity power level is an underused art IMO.
As to your ideas--the thing with the rock losing power as the game is it follows the idea of the moon setting once more, and also it'll likely be less needed than it would in the developing stages of the game.
October 17, 2021 3:28 p.m.
Omniscience_is_life That's fine, I'm not here to tell you how to make your custom cards, I merely provide my feedback. Not every card needs to be powerful. However it's rarely the filler cards that interest or makes people excited - unless they are really flavorful or bring about interesting concepts. IMO this is more filler than flavor.
Also Sensei's Divining Top was originally uncommon, and Counterspell was common. Rarity doesn't really have much of a say when it comes to power - only when it comes to how much a card can do. And WotC have used it to create chase rares to sell packs.
I always look at custom cards through the lens that they seeks to excite and/or interest people. That is commonly achieved through gameplay impact/power. That's why my feedback will mostly attempt to pull suggestions towards a (casual competitive) powerful state that potentially could see print.
I could suggest a 5 mana green 2/7 that can't attack or block unless it has been dealt damage this turn. And "whenever a creature enters the battlefield, you may have it deal damage equal to its power to this creature." That doesn't exist in Magic history yet, but I doubt it will cause many players' excitement nor get much attention. Therefore I wont.
October 17, 2021 4:33 p.m.
Omniscience_is_life says... #9
Tzefick you're not wrong--power gravitates players because they could imagine playing the card to massive effect. That being said, almost every card has a use, even if it's intended as "filler". Take Skitter of Lizards as an example: it wouldn't draw much attention in the Custom Cards forums for most, but a fellow Hallar, the Firefletcher player would recognize its usefulness.
With Luna Ring, I am aiming to show three things...
A. how busted Sol Ring is, in that even the most diluted and underpowered version of it would still see play somewhere
B. how one might balance a 1 CMC rock (something I view to be a difficult prospect)
C. more interesting ways to utilize Day/Night.
October 17, 2021 5:44 p.m.
Grubbernaut says... #10
Maybe a drawback stapled on. "You may only cast one spell each turn" or only during your turn, etc.
I don't like day/night because it's terrible to keep track of, but I can respect the idea.
Grubbernaut says... #2
It would be limited/standard playable, but not sure about commander/etc.
Maybe something like...
(name) - 1
Spend only colored mana to cast (name).
(name) enters the battlefield tapped.
Tap: add 1.
Honestly, probably still too good.
October 15, 2021 4:03 p.m.