Card of the Day - Sands of Uncertainty

Everyone loves modal spells!  This card is usable at any mana cost.  For 3, you can just kill a creature that's been bugging you, and for 8, you get 5 1/1s. 

Card of the Day - Stoic Krumar

Sometimes a vanilla creature with reasonable stats does good work. Abzan players would not scoff at this guy.

Card of the Day - Wailing Arynx

Simple uncommon.  Good for blocking, good for attacking.

Card of the Day - Alcazar, Dread Captain

 I've been thinking about the Commander 2017 set, which has decks based around creature types. The Dragon deck has been partially spoiled, but I think what we really need is a Grixis colored Pirate deck.  A good captain knows that his crew is what keeps the ship moving.

Card of the Day - Slime Spawner/Expelling Jelly/Gelatinous Cube

I was inspired to make these cards after playing someone's mono-green Ooze deck. Although the deck was super fun, it could really use a couple of cards like this.

Card of the Day - Turn into Newt

I noticed today that blue and green share the ability to change power and toughness on creatures.  This is a mix of Lignify and Illusory Wrappings. I think it's okay. 

Card of the Day - Gix, Yawgmoth Praetor

If you're not familiar with Gix, he was one of the original Phyrexian baddies. You can learn a bit more about him here.

Card of the Day - Tull, Desert City

If you don't know by now, I'm very excited for the Dark Tower movie to show up at my local theater in July.  Tull is the first inhabited place visited by the Gunslinger in the first book of the Dark Tower series.

Card of the Day - Exchange Favors

So Hollee said to me tonight, "Are there any bargain cards? Like a card that can let you trade a card in your hand with a card in an opponent's hand?" 

I thought for a minute and couldn't think of one, so I made it.

I had to rejigger the wording to make it mutual exile instead of just trading cards in hands, but if it makes you feel better, you can put that card in your hand if you like.  I give you my permission.

Card of the Day - Strength of Solidarity

This is a play on all those white team pump enchantments.  White really wants to have a bunch of dudes to swing with, and Strength of Solidarity plays into that.

This card has a lot of knobs to turn to make it correct, developmentally speaking. The mana cost, the number of creatures required, the size of the buff, and any keyword abilities can all be changed to make this card correct for the format it belongs in.

I plugged it in the uncommon slot because it has a tiny bit of build-aroundness attached.  Not every white deck will want it, but most will. It gives incentive to get smaller white creatures, of which most sets have many.

In retrospect, I think +1/+2 and vigilance is too big of a boost for uncommon, especially for all creatures at once, but I made the card that way, and I'm sticking to it.

Card of the Day - Shipwreck Coast

I don't often make cards from the art I see, but this one popped up /r/imaginarylandscapes and I was blown away.  The card itself is pretty strong, especially in a Pirate deck.  Or a Human deck, for that matter. Or a blue deck. Just any blue deck, probably.

Card of the Day - Jagged Prism

Okay so I missed a few days.  I've been really into this new format I've been developing. I call it SmashCube.

The rules are as follows:

Each player gets four (4) premade "packs", which they shuffle together and play a regular game of magic.  The packs can be picked in various ways, but I find that drafting is the most fun way to choose.

The packs have 15 cards, all of which are from the same set. Example:

I have 22 of these packs completed, and another 100 or so in various stages of completion.

One thing I've noticed when playing a deck that can be anywhere for 1 to 5 colors is that mana fixing is necessary. When I first started the format, I made a rule that anyone can spend two generic mana to get one mana of any color.  This idea expanded into making an emblem with that ability on it.

After playing a few games with that emblem, I found that it was rarely used. I did, however, like having the option of using it.  The idea expanded into making several different emblems with various abilities.

Now when I play, before we pick our packs, we get a random emblem or two from the pile of emblems that we put into our command zones before the beginning of the game. This is a totally arbitrary rule, but I think it's fun to make up some emblems and play with them.

The ones I've made so far would cost about a mana and be very tiny effects that will usually be minorly helpful. I made a few that were too strong, and I've changed them since.
 

Let me know what you think.  I'm also accepting pitches for emblems.  If I like your emblem, I will credit you on the card.  Thanks!

Card of the Day - Summoned to the Throne Room

In the second Story Spotlight of Frostmere, King Micah summons his most powerful friends to the throne room.

The Planeswalker Otto and the city's champion Karos arrive at the castle...

Continued from last Saturday.

When Otto arrives at the palace, Barlo Stanvik is waiting for him.

"I'm glad you could you come on such short notice," he says. "His Majesty will be so glad to see you after all this time."

"It's no problem, Barlo.  I'm glad to be here.  It's been way too long since we could catch up."

"I'm afraid there won't be much time for that.  I assume you know what's going on in Tersh. It's..."

"Yeah, yeah.  It's terrible.  On the other hand, it could be a lot worse. At least the deadies aren't attacking people, though."

Barlo frowned. "Please don't use the term 'deadies,' Otto.  It's uncouth."

"ppft." The planeswalker waves away the suggestion, "Where's Micah?"

"In the throne room. Karos is already here."

"Karos, huh?  I wonder why Micah would need us both."

"You can find out presently, sir.  Follow me."

------

In the throne room, King Micah sits deep in thought.  He is staring at a small piece of parchment in his hands.

"My Lord, Otto is here." said Barlo from the doorway.

Micah looks up, frowning.  "Thank you for coming, dear friend. I assume you know Karos?"

A man with short black hair and a long scar on the right side of his face nods to Otto. "We've met."

"Good.  I need you two to do something for me." He holds up the parchment. "I've received... interesting news. A man claims that he can help us relieve the curse that has befallen us, but he insists that we come to him." He frowns.

"Well, why aren't we on the road already?" Otto folds his arms.

"It's not that simple. This man, Tibalt, says he needs an item from our treasury to complete the spell. A very special item. Not one that I would give to just anyone."

"Ah, I see." Karos speaks up. "That's why we are here. You need your best to guard the item on its journey."

"Precisely. Marek's Keystone could be very dangerous in the wrong hands. It's up to you to make sure it is kept safe. Your destination is the Gargut Glacier. You leave at first light."

"How do we know this guy isn't up to something nefarious?" Otto raised an eyebrow.

"If he is, you will stop him. Our kingdom won't last if the dead keep on coming back. We have no other choice."

Card of the Day - Eternal Unrest

It's been a while since I did any real work on Frostmere, but now that Saturdays are full of flavor, I thought I would show off the Story Spotlight cards from that set.  Here is the beginning of the story of Frostmere:

In the secluded, frozen, peaceful plane of Frostmere, something has gone wrong. Those who have passed on just won't stay dead. Two days ago, the shambling forms of the previously living started coming home. They aren't bloodthirsty, but they are confused and easily angered. The dead who no longer have bodies wander through the streets of Tersh, the Crown City. Their wails are heard throughout the night, longing for the rest of their tortured souls.

King Micah looks out from his balcony, frowning. A day full of planning has left him weary. Half of the kingdom's soldiers needed to be deployed to Artoa, helping the people of the borderlands defend against the attacks of the wildlife. In such a small kingdom, half of the soldiers is only twenty men.

Suddenly, the King's advisor, Barlo speaks. He is standing in the doorway, hands folded.

"My Lord," he says, "a pigeon has arrived." 

Card of the Day - Druid's Respite

I was thinking about Espionage.  I was thinking about what green could do to protect itself against the mechanic in draft. This card is not very powerful, in general, but if you are about to lose from drawing a card, it can really save your bacon. I wanted the cards to be randomly ordered so you can't set up draws for three turns. It might change in playtesting, if it ever gets playtested.

Card of the Day - Disrupting Cube

I started with this being a Blue/Red enchantment, but I realized that both of these effects are available at colorless.  I switched it colorless, but felt that a colorless enchantment is just weird, so I made it an artifact.

As I am writing this, I realize that this takes the best part of Mightstone and Weakstone and mixes them together elegantly.

Card of the Day - Rebel Provisionist

This card really goes in line with what red and white soldiers might want to do.

Card of the Day - Obelisk of Solidarity

Tuesday Relic!  I will post an artifact or the like every Tuesday.  This one is inspired by the art of Amonkhet.

Card of the Day - Eldritch Whispers

I'm going to be doing a few things differently on the blog.  I will be publishing one card per day, every day, for the rest of the year.  Each day of the week will have a theme. You can see the theme in the keywords.  Today's is Monday Mana.  Every Monday, I will make a card that produces mana.  I will be posting the blog at precisely 7pm Pacific time (yesterday was a fluke.)

You can follow my twitter to get the notification everyday, or you can chat on Facebook here. 

Today's card is a colorless enabler.  I was toying with making it a 1G that gives CC, but I thought it enabled storm a bit too much in that iteration.

Card of the Day - Grand Entrance

It's been a while since I've been posting cards, and for that I apologize.  Here is my re-entry into the world of custom card design.  Let's see where this goes.

-O