Tamper with the Exile Zone
Custom Cards forum
Posted on March 5, 2015, 7:33 a.m. by 6tennis
Hello everyone!
I while ago, in AVR, there was a card called Misthollow Griffin. My meta had so many of them, and you just couldn't KILL THEM. It was annoying. That being said, the card I'm going to share here is a bit similar. Lavin, Retriever of Life. Any suggestions? Reply with your own ideas of how to tamper with the exile zone. Have fun!
The exile zone ought to remain relatively untouched because they're is often a good reason for cards to end up in exile anyways. Not a big fan of effects that allow you to interact with the zone. There's also the problem of how your 2nd ability is worded. Currently, if you end up targeting a non-instant, you can't cast it at all since the ability doesn't specify until the end of turn.
March 5, 2015 8:05 a.m.
TheDevicer Pull from Eternity was a great card. That being said, what you said is absolutely true.
As for that ability, good eye! I'll make it main phase instead.
March 5, 2015 8:14 a.m.
JohnnyBaggins says... #5
Would word it "exiled with manaweave", then I'd be great.
March 5, 2015 8:19 a.m.
CaptainWoosh Good point, but when I built this card, I had imagined it as sort of a build-around-me card. Hence, there would be a lot of exiling going on in a deck with Lavin. That's still a good idea though. I'll consider it.
March 5, 2015 8:22 a.m.
I think scry effects would be crazy... Maybe make the creature a 1/3, and add something along the lines of 'You can't look scry, or look at the top X cards of your library, where X = <10'... I'm not sure how you would word that, though.
March 5, 2015 8:53 a.m.
rorofat Yeah, good point.
HERE ARE THE CHANGES MADE SO FAR:
First ability should exile from bottom of library.
First ability should cost nothing and make
. It should only be able to activate 3 times each turn.Second ability should trigger on the main phase.
Another ability on the card should read "You can't look at cards in your library."
.
Does this make it less ridiculous?
March 5, 2015 8:59 a.m.
That actually makes it pretty balanced... I'd play it as a commander :)
March 5, 2015 9:03 a.m.
Kind of makes it more ridiculous. By default, you cannot look at cards in your library, no need to put that on the card. Having the first ability activate 3 times makes it a bit too powerful and is clunky and generally not used in magic lingo. Bottom of the library is just about as exclusive as the exile zone in terms of tampering. Main phase is better than upkeep. I still dislike the second ability. I propose something like this:
At the beggining of your upkeep, exile the bottom card of library and put a storage counter on Lavin.
At the beginning of your precombat main phase add X mana in any combination of 
or 
to your mana pool, where X is the number of storage counters on Lavin, then select a card at random from the exiled cards that you own. You may cast that card without card without paying its manacost if it has converted mana cost less than X.
Incredibly wordy, but a scaled effect seems very good and green/black cares about counters.
March 5, 2015 9:18 a.m.
Boza I like your idea a lot, actually. Manaweave was a bit weird to design (it was for a competition). However, I think your version of the card ramps WAY too quickly. Maybe something like:
At the beginning of your upkeep, exile the bottom card of your library and put a storage counter on Lavin.
At the beginning of your precombat main phase, choose a card in exile that you own at random. You may cast that card without paying its mana cost if its converted mana cost is less than the amount of storage counters on Lavin.
Remove all storage counters from Lavin: Add X mana in any combination of or to your mana pool.
That's a bit too wordy though. Hmm...what to do...
March 5, 2015 9:28 a.m.
That does sound better, if still pretty wordy. Maybe he can put +1/+1 counters on himself and then cast cards from exile with CMC equal to or less than his power? It would be like ghave and grenzo had a child.
March 5, 2015 9:43 a.m.
Boza that sounds good, but then I think he should go down to base P/T 1/2. let me go make a new card image.
March 5, 2015 9:49 a.m.
I had to make it italicized so that everything would fit. Also, updated the artwork to not be a kitten.
March 5, 2015 10 a.m.
Also, here's my deck that I made:
Testing a Custom Card Playtest
Casual
SCORE: 0 | 0 COMMENTS | 0 VIEWSMarch 5, 2015 10:02 a.m.
julianjmoss says... #17
Also I feel as if this card just doesn't work on the color pie, it probably wants blue due to all the cards that interact wth exile
March 5, 2015 11:56 a.m.
julianjmoss Green doesn't really interact with exile, but black does a lot, and yeah blue would work better. What if this guy was Dimir? Nah wait. The guy is a "retriever of life". so having him be UB doesn't make sense. Still, good point. I have a contest on mtgcardsmith.com, and other people are making exile-themed cards. When I have a winner, I will post it here.
March 5, 2015 12:17 p.m.
julianjmoss says... #19
You could have him be UBG, really it isn't too important in the end, it was just a suggestion
March 5, 2015 2:48 p.m.
julianjmoss Yeah, like UB for the exile, and G for the mana. That's a good idea.
6tennis says... #2
Oh, forgot to mention I made a new mechanic. That could use some feedback too.
March 5, 2015 7:34 a.m.