Reworking my Magic - Hypnotic Stare

On November 28th, I posted this card.  Today, I'm going to rework it so it feels better in Gatecrash.  When I created Hypnotic Stare, no one know about Cipher.  Now we do.

Presenting the new and improved Hypnotic Stare:

Let me know if you're interested in seeing more of this type of thing.  I won't be doing these a lot, but sometimes an old design can be improved with a new mechanic.

Card of the Day - Memory Wipe/Sense Motive

I wanted to make a card where you get to choose whether forcing a discard or milling would be the better play.  I came up with a skeleton for a card, but I couldn't quite get the wording right.  I tried a few more variations and got this:

Instead of choosing which effect to do, it does both.  Sprinkle in some panache (the bit about mana cost), and you got yourself a nice Dimir card.


Bonus!  After going back to the original idea, I finally made the wording fit.  Here's that card.

Card of the Day - Spike Blaster

I haven't seen a spike in a while, so I made one!  This is the first spike that is multi-colored, and only the second one that isn't mono-green.   He has all the usual spike-y stuff, but I gave him a red ability to make him special.  I think I'll try to make one for each green color combination.

Card of the Day - Dragon Saddle

Just watched How to Train Your Dragon for the first time.  I made a card similar to this a while back, but this is one that works under the current rules.  You just have to pretend that there's a Dragon under the saddle you're putting on your guy.

Card of the Day - Armored Battlepriest

I wanted to give this card the feel of a huge cleric running into battle, healing his friends as he destroys his enemies.

Edit: upped the mana cost as per suggestion.

Card of the Day - Keela, Sainted Healer

This card is interesting to me because there are exactly four white faeries in the game, and two of them require other colors to cast.  This card started out as a Human Soldier named Keela, Combat Medic (without flying, of course), but I changed the flavor after I found this beautiful artwork to go with it.

It seems to me that Keela is unique in the world of Faeries, as she has no other agenda but to help out the unfortunate.  She is a good leader as well, since she can recruit other creatures to help her with healing duties.  All in all, I feel like this is a successful design.

Card of the Day - Sporespewer Krasis

I had to finagle the wording so it didn't go infinite with two copies in play.  Seems like this can be useful in a lot of different decks.  In other news, I'm looking for playtesters in the Fargo, ND area to see how my cards play in actual games.  Let me know if you're interested.

Card of the Day - Orzhov Influence

Now that I know the guild mechanics in Gatecrash, I'm going to be designing cards using those mechanics.  Here's the simplest possible version of Extort.  Powerful in multiples, even though it does nothing by itself.  This is my favorite mechanic of the set, and I think I'll be playing it for a long time.

Card of the Day - Ahern Druid/Frigid Priest

Two guys, one piece of art.  They play well together, too.  In other news, I've been posting on this blog for a year now.  Yay!

Card of the Day - Feedback Elemental

Today, I'm going to do something a little different in that I'm going to show the evolution on an idea that made a final card.

My lady and I were watching The King's Speech when I came up for the idea for this card.  I thought, "What if a wizard had a stammer?  It would probably make casting spells a bit harder."

I made this card out of the idea.

After thinking about it, I decided that putting this ability on a creature would be more interesting, so I made it into a Demon.

I gave it flying, a decent P/T and a fun piece of flavor text.  But it didn't feel quite right.

After looking at it again, I realized that this ability is generally a white ability, as evidenced by Aura of Silence and Grand Arbiter Augustin IV.  The Grand Arbiter's version could be said to be blue, as well, but taxing is widely regarded as a white ability.   I changed the card once again to reflect this.

I left the flavor text, but I changed the mana cost, power, and keyword to something more white.  I could have left flying, but I went for vigilance instead.  I also added a bit of artwork and cleaned up the wording.

I'd like your feedback input on this, guys!  Let me know what you think the next evolution of this card should be. 

Card of the Day - Knock Down

One of the secondary mechanics of Frostmere besides all the snow stuff is Mount.  I posted a lot of cards that deal with this ability last year, and I am expanding on the idea again this year.  This is a powerful common direct damage spell that can take care of an opposing mounted creature that would be a nuisance otherwise.

Card of the Day - Crackling Fire

Here's a good reason to play non-snow in Frostmere.  I made it uncommon so it shows up a bit more in draft.  In this set, you can feasibly draft a really good snow deck, non-snow deck, or a mix of both.  There are cards that support whatever strategy you choose.

Card of the Day - Plaguesplosion

Yes.  It is called Plaguesplosion, and it is awesome.

Card of the Day - Dispersal Wave

Sorcery speed Evacuation.  Feels more like a WOG/DOJ and has a bonus of getting double use of your ETB creatures.

Card of the Day - Rapid Evolution

This is an updated version of Afiya Grove.  I like it because it sticks around for more than three turns, and you don't have to put a counter on an opponent's creature if you don't want to.

Edit:  cleaned up version that dosn't get around shroud (which is an obsolete mechanic anyway.)

Card of the Day - Curse of Amnesia

This is kind of like half of Jin-Gitaxis, but slightly different.  The art is from Memory Lapse.  In other news, this is my 400th post.  So... yay!

Card of the Day - Freeze

Brrr.

Edit: Cantrip'd!  The effect is small enough that a cantrip on this guy should have been there in the first place.

Card of the Day - Scarring Frostbite

It's that time of the year where the cold consumes all, especially in the lovely city of Fargo, ND.  (It's -9 outside.)

Card of the Day - Motivation

A simple buyback card. 

Card of the Day - Christmas Card

Happy Christmas!

Card of the Day - Pine Sol Ring

It's Christmas Eve! Christmas is cool, cause it's a two day event.  BTW, I'm aware that this card is stupid broken.  Have a nice day!

Card of the Day - Mercy

A simple white effect that hasn't been done yet.

Card of the Day - Wall of Steel

Big wall.

Card of the Day - End of Days

Get it!?

Card of the Day - Inspiring Implosion

The thing I like most about this is that there is a limit to the amount of cards you draw, and that limit is the cost of the artifact. 

Card of the Day - Return to Nature

I think this card just about sums up how I feel about blue.

Card of the Day - Impale

A black enchantment doing what black does best: killing stuff.

Card of the Day - Painful Insight

This is an old card design that I had originally called Thoughtflare.  But then good ol' WOTC used that name for a different Izzet card, so I used the art from that card as an homage. (I think it fits my design better...)

Card of the Day - Shambling Lichen

Did you know that lichen is the product of a symbiotic relationship between a plant and a fungus? 

Card of the Day - Unmaker Mage

The blue guy is a bit more powerful.

Card of the Day - Devout Aven

This one's pretty simple, and seems like it should've been made already.

Card of the Day - Null Recluse

Green guy who kills lots of stuff.

Card of the Day - Elgad the Gooey

Thought I'd make a 12/12 for 12 in honor of this special date.  Did you know that this is the last time we'll see a date that has all matching numbers until 2101?

Card of the Day - Orcish Arsonist

Here's the red entry into the cycle of "enters the battlefield or dies" guys. He likes to make things be on fire.

Card of the Day - Thought Robber

I like the trigger "When this enters the battlefield or dies."  I'm probably going to use that one a bit more in the future.

Card of the Day - Winged Spider

The good news is that if it loses flying, it can still block flying creatures.

Card of the Day - Spite Devil

A lil' guy with a couple of keywords that go well together.

Card of the Day - Malevolent Tutor

Nerfed version of Demonic Tutor.  Half of the time it's better than Diabolic Tutor.

Card of the Day - White Mage

This goes along with Black Mage, my card from a few days ago. 

Card of the Day - Abandonment

So... Alone...

Card of the Day - AEther Elemental

I've been playing a format with Hollee recently that forgoes mana costs.  You start with no hand (or sometimes with three, five, or seven cards), and you can play one spell a turn (or sometimes two or three.)  This card is designed for that format.  It would also be very good in a lot of other formats.  It's just a Confiscate tacked onto a big flier.

Card of the Day - Soultether Mantis

Me: Let's make a card together!
Hollee: OK!
Me: What's its power and toughness?
Hollee: 8/10!
Me: ok...  how bout it's mana cost?
Hollee: A green and a black.
Me: What kind of creature is it?
Hollee: A Mantis!  A Giant Mantis!
Me: Oh, you mean like this?
Hollee: My work is done.

Card of the Day - Black Mage

I really wanted to make Black Mage black, but he had to be red.  When he levels up he learns better versions of his blow stuff up spells.