The Legendary Land Cycle - Advice needed
Custom Cards forum
Posted on March 10, 2015, 4:29 p.m. by FAMOUSWATERMELON
Seems like everybody is posting cycles these last few days, so time to join the party! I decided to make some lands with interesting abilities, tell me what you think!!
Silva is first on our list, and shows the basic principles of this cycle. All the lands are legendary, all have a basic land type, all come in tapped, all have some interesting ability, and all have some recursion method, and all the names are inspired from Latin (don't ask why).
But anyways, Silva probably has the most standard ability. She (It?) prevents combat damage, obviously more expensive than Fog, and doesn't untap. She CAN untap at the price of four life (too little) and can be used for ramp and all.
Montris is the only land in this cycle that I only made one draft for, because it seems pretty fine. His ability is in love with Koth, and not overall too bad or too good, since you have to sacrifice it and it deals damage to you too. You can get it back at a pretty heavy price.
Oh, and I think that the art here is amazing.
"Power for Knowledge" describes Insulis pretty well. There is some regular card draw here (part of this cycle is amassing a legendary land deck - you'll see more later) depending on your land base. It can go for one card or for possibly 4 or 5, suiting it great for a control deck. The untap part works too, but your opponent can draw as well as an extra price. Nekuzar would probably like this.
Palus was definitely the most difficult land to design. It has a quirky ability that I feel would work well in Pox decks (I really don't know because I don't play them, so you tell me). You get your OPPONENT'S creature for yourself, at the price of sacrificing Palus and only if you have 10 or less life. His recursion ability works well with his other ability.
Aequoris was also hard to design. I wanted something powerful, but not to the extreme. So Aequoris clears the board (including itself and all of your other legendary lands) for a turn or two. You might think "Well a repeatable exile is pretty OP" which it obviously is, but since it comes in tapped, and since your opponent gets his stuff back first... I don't really know.
"What, it's not done yet?" Well no. This cycle had to have something to top it off, so here it is. First of all, let me say that that art is fantastic. Second, Somniantis is pretty powerful. "Five mana for a 3/3"??? You're forgetting one word in there. Infect. Otherwise, it wouldn't be playable at all. But I think that this is a good way to top the cycle off.
Alright, so what do you guys think?? I spent a bunch of work and research to make these cards, so I want to make sure that they are as good as can be!!
Thanks for Looking!!
FAMOUSWATERMELON says... #3
PhyrexianScience I would love too, but unfortunately my PC has some problems when it comes to downloading programs, so I have to content myself with online sites.
March 10, 2015 4:58 p.m.
asasinater13 says... #4
insulis's ability should be more like
untap ~: Each opponent (may) draw a card
March 10, 2015 5:22 p.m.
happyman379 says... #5
They should at least tap for a colourless in addition to there abilities.
March 10, 2015 5:27 p.m.
asasinater13 says... #6
they all tap for their colored mana, having the type "forest" adds T: add G to your mana pool without stating it. see Murmuring Bosk
March 10, 2015 5:29 p.m.
FAMOUSWATERMELON says... #7
happyman379 Exactly what asasinater13 said.
asasinater13 Yeah, should probably be may. Though who would not draw a card (Nekuzar put aside)?
What do you think of the other cards?
March 10, 2015 6:14 p.m.
jandrobard says... #8
one formatting thing - Montris should say "each player" instead of "you and each opponent". Also I think Insulis's untap should be "
: If Insulis is tapped, untap it. Each opponent may draw a card".
March 10, 2015 8:49 p.m.
FAMOUSWATERMELON says... #9
jandrobard Haha I'm terrible at formatting, thanks for pointing that out. Any advice on the cards themselves?
March 10, 2015 8:55 p.m.
jandrobard says... #10
FAMOUSWATERMELON Silva's ability could cost one more green, and Somniantis should probably have double strike instead of infect.
March 10, 2015 9:12 p.m.
asasinater13 says... #11
I would just use the untap symbol (though it dosn't see print by wizards anymore, it exists) to use insulis. Either work, but the one with the untap symbol is just less clunky by a lot.
I think somniatis is actually a bit... weak. you need significant legendary lands to make it do well, and significant color fixing to activate it. is it meant to be permanent or should it be until end of turn? and lastly, you could phrase the second ability removing "land of dreams" from referring to it to save space and make your text fit better. I think it should also be "~is all basic land types" but I'm not sure about that wording. I would also give it some base P/T like 1/1 or 2/2 + X/X where X is number of legendary lands you control. I would consider something like vigilance over deathtouch because deathtouch is kind of weird to have with infect in my opinion, and I agree on double strike over infect, unless there's the flavor of poison in whatever you're doing.
in 1v1, silva is super strong. I love it. (I'm not saying broken, I'm saying good), in multiplayer it's kind of cool (I'm mostly a commander player, so that's where I think about all these cards) there's plenty of ways to get around the not untapping ability. On its fog ability, it might be good to add "the next time ~ untaps, you lose 4 life" instead of giving it a way to untap itself. makes it more fair, prevents you from just casting something like Angel's Grace and going infinite mana, and stops combos with things like Prophet of Kruphix or Voyaging Satyr. I think costing GGG is fine though, that should be fine. alternatively you can have something like "G: Untap ~" and a clause that says "whenever ~ untaps, if it isn't during your untap step, you lose 4 life" all of this prevents people getting around the 4 life from it, but if you want it to be able to be work-around, that's completely fine. I think you have to jump through enough hoops to do that that it's fine
Auquoris is awesome. I think it's so cool the shenanigans it can do, and all the things that can be done to you if you're not careful (I would LOVE someone playing it against my zegana deck) maybe make it sorcery speed to make it more fair.
to make palus multi-format friendly it could be activate only if you have half or less than your starting life-total. (again, I mostly play commander, as it stands it's just bad)
montris can just say "X damage to each player" that does include you already.
All over I love these though. Seeing people make lands that are at a balanced power level is great. they're usually either beyond broken or just bad. I think these are all really cool without breaking any games.
March 10, 2015 11:33 p.m.
FAMOUSWATERMELON says... #12
asasinater13 Thanks for the (very) full review!! I don't have time to respond right now, but I definitely will later. Just wanted to make sure your comment did not go unseen.
March 11, 2015 7:44 a.m.
FAMOUSWATERMELON says... #13
The only reason that Somniantis has infect is because that's the only thing that makes it viable. If you have four legendary lands, your opponent will not be very scared of a 4/4. Add infect to that however, and your opponent will hastily block it or die. I agree that deathtouch does not make more sense though, so double strike instead of infect will probably work fine.
See, this is my problem with designing cards. I just about never play EDH, so I design these for 60-card play, where four life is a rather big sum to pay for untapping. Obviously, in EDH, it's nothing. So maybe something like "you lose four life AND all opponents gain 4 life"? Not too sure about that one.
God I didn't even think about sorcery vs instant speed with Aequoris. Definitely changing to sorcery, denying an opponent an attack is too evil.
Palus obviously is of no use in EDH, so half your life sounds good. And a quarter to untap it also.
Montris as well should have some wording revision.
Thanks a ton! I will make the new cards shortly.
March 11, 2015 3:43 p.m.
asasinater13 says... #14
nah losing four life is still fine for untapping, what I'm saying is there's plenty of ways to get around paying four life to untap early, and something like "when this untaps, if it isn't during your untap step you lose 4 life" stops you from getting around that. Four life to untap the land is still fine in commander, you'll need to untap more often to abuse it because multiplayer so it doesn't need to be raised at all. I was just trying to say that you can easily get around paying life to untap with plenty of creatures that untap lands (especially forests) Arbor Elf, Voyaging Satyr, Prophet of Kruphix, Seedborn Muse all do it for you, among others. if that's alright with you for how the land makes it's fine, easy enough for people to stop those creatures/abilities form untapping your land that it should be fine. just wanted to point out that it's an interaction that exists.
March 11, 2015 5:25 p.m.
asasinater13 says... #15
the problem with the power/toughness of somniatis is that you're not likely to have many legendary lands. these ones all want to be in mono-colored decks because of their heavy colored costs, so you'll need legendary lands in a 60-card deck you're intending it for, which aren't super prominent (unless whatever customs you also use make it more prominent) it's also a WUBRG cost to activate, so WUBRG for a 4/4 with some keywords isn't the best, look at Chromanticore. it's much better on a land, but the way its worded stops it from being a land. again, double strike over infect lets it synergize with everythign else going on. Infect is parasitic, you need other infect cards for it to be good, double strike goes well with a 5-color deck more often, and that's also why I thought some sort of base P/T with buffs per legendary land could make it more reliable a card.
PhyrexianScience says... #2
Hey man, just a little input on how the cards look overall, not about their design. Use Magic Set Editor to make the cards. It fills the entire text box to make the cards look more authentic. Plus, you can make your own set symbol!
March 10, 2015 4:56 p.m.