Reskinning WH40K
Custom Cards forum
Posted on Jan. 11, 2025, 11:53 a.m. by Tsukimi
Listen, I love the squad mechanic but I am not into warhammer. I know I know, I am kind of a stick in the mud but I just can't stand most UB cards. Casting "Ultra Space Marine Honor Guard" just hurts too bad in my fun lil fantasy game SO I am thinking of reskinning the cards to a more mtg flavored background. Now, (aside from Frogs my brain won't let go of the frogs) I am brainstorming a lot of ideas to reskin all of the WarHammer cards with the Squad ability for an upcoming deck.
Cards like Ultramarines Honour Guard, Sicarian Infiltrator, Vanguard Suppressor etc. Somewhat obnoxiously, squad cards have only been printed in UB sets.
So tell me what comes to mind when you think of reskinning these cards or the squad ability to a more mtg focused background? Ikorian Beast Bonders come to mind, maybe some friends from bloomburrow, maybe a kithkin squad from Lorywyn?
Let me know what you think and then when I make the reskin custom cards I'll post them here (:
Crow_Umbra says... #3
One of my cousins is getting into WH40K because of the Space Marine video game. We also play D&D together with some of his college friends, and I've floated out ideas of doing MtG setting campaigns. Honestly might show him the WH40K cards to help bridge the gap lol.
In regards to your actual question in terms of MtG themed re-skins, I could definitely see the following as fitting candidates:
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Boros Legion soldiers. Would be cool to see them get Squad on our next Return to Return to Return to Ravnica. By extension, militaristic factions around the multiverse would be at home with Squad.
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Definitely agree on Kithkin. I'm bummed we have to wait another year for Return to Lorwyn. Kithkin having Squads via Thoughweft communication makes sense.
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Allies? Maybe on Return to Zendikar 4, Allies could get a Squad mechanic. Would make them less parasitic than past Ally iterations.
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If Bloomburrow, I could see Rabbits having a Squad mechanic as an Offspring adjacent one.
January 11, 2025 2:26 p.m.
I just don't know enough about WH40K (took a look, got lost in the lore, real life got in the way), so does the Astartes creature type map to anything?
January 11, 2025 4:46 p.m.
Abaques As much as I love Final Fantasy with all my heart it saddens me to know that by the end of this year Spiderman and FF characters will be played in the same games with Doctor Who etc. I am very lucky to have a close knit playgroup of friends however, so I will look at it as a creative challenge for any cards I like just like what I'm aiming to do here.
legendofa Hmm I am realizing this is the only issue with the reskin - I had thought they were humans at first glance. I Astartes (from mtg art alone haha) seems to be cyborg people or people wearing mechanized armor. I'm thinking rather than try to match that I'm just going to leave the creature type and have them be something like Kithkin or Allies since I really like Crow_Umbra's suggestion.
January 11, 2025 5:46 p.m.
TheOfficialCreator says... #6
As someone who has been forced against my will by my girlfriend to watch W40K stuff, I'd say the Astartes can be most readily mapped to humans. They're basically bioengineered humans made for battle, that's it. So if you were to map them onto any creature type, Human Soldier or Human Warrior would fit the best, I feel.
January 11, 2025 9:28 p.m.
Tsukimi I love 40k, well, at least I love the lore. At first I was very conflicted with the pre-cons and started adding some of the cards from it to my decks. Some of the art really could fit in with MtG, but that never really felt right to me. Last year I decided that I was going to change the way I engage with Magic. I first started playing in the 90's, took a few breaks over time, but since Avacyn Returns I've been consistently into Magic, buying lots of singles and a fair amount of sealed product (mostly because I want to support my LGS). But with universes beyond and the design changes that make regular sets feel less like the Magic I know and love I've decided that I'm only going to engage with sets that fit within that aesthetic. So for this upcoming year that means the only non-masters set I'm going to touch is Tarkir Dragonstorm. I'm in the process of pulling the handful of 40k and LotR cards from my decks. I have all four 40k commander decks that I'm keeping as a battle box (they are really well designed and play great against each other), but my intention is to just play them against each other. Wizards is in the process of losing me as a paying customer.
Abaques says... #2
I'm with you on the UB stuff. As for MtG things that fit the squad mechanic, may I suggest the Boros Legion as maybe the best option, though that doesn't help with the blue cards (Azorius might make sense too). I like the idea of Kithkin as well flavor-wise. Knights and goblins (from almost any MtG plane) also might be good fits for squads.
January 11, 2025 2:16 p.m.